e-paper pakistantoday 15th march, 2012

Bugti was not killed, hecommitted suicide, says Pervez Musharraf

PAGE | 03

Pakistan needs 22MAFof water to counterIndian aggression

PAGE | 04

Pakistan won’t allowdrones in its airspace,Sherry tells US

islamabad — peshawar edition thursday, 15 March, 2012 Rabi-ul-Sani 21, 1433Rs15.00 Vol ii no 257 22 pages

PAGE |22

ISLAMABADAgeNcieS

THE Supreme Court on Wednesday expressedannoyance over the working of intelligenceagencies, terming their activities “beyond givenmandate”. Chief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry remarked that the secret agencies were

not working as per their mandate, saying, “We cannotcompromise on the interests of the state.”The apex court resumed the hearing of the Mehrangatescandal by warning Younis Habib – the central figure of thescandal – against scandalising the court, and asked him tosubmit documents and applications in accordance with therules of the apex court. Younis, former chief of the defunctMehran Bank, has recently written a letter directly addressedto the chief justice. Younis then sought an unconditionalapology from the Supreme Court in this regard. Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Asad Durranisaid he had acted in personal capacity, and that the ISI wasnot involved in the distribution of funds to certain politicians.The CJP asked Durrani if he was accepting that he haddistributed the money among politicians. “You and AslamBeg were generals when this happened, and we don’t knowthe consequences of this act,” he said.“How did you, being a government employee, function inyour personal capacity? You may take a lawyer if you wishso,” Justice Khilji Arif Hussain asked the former ISI head.Durrani replied, “I kept the ISI out of it all. I will prefer tohire the services of a lawyer.”The chief justice asked Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haqto read out a news story published in an English daily aboutthe role of secret agencies. After reading the relevantparagraphs, the attorney general told the bench that he couldnot verify the authenticity of the said news item. The benchissued notices to the newspaper’s reporter to appear andassist the court by providing classified documents that he hadmentioned in his story. The attorney general told the courtthat the government had no objection if the secret statementsof Asad Durrani and Naseerullah Babar were made public. Hesaid that he had gone through the relevant record of AsgharKhan’s case with the cooperation of the Registrar’s Office andcould not find anything classified, as the said material hadalready been known to the public and the media. “A writtenorder will be passed to make the report public during the nexthearing of the case,” the CJP remarked.

WASHINGTONoNliNe

Senior US officials say they havebeen informed by Pakistani au-thorities that a high-level meet-ing in Islamabad on Wednesdayagreed in principle to restore sup-plies for NATO forces inAfghanistan and to revive normalrelationship.

President Asif Ali Zardaripresided over the meeting thatwas attended by Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani, Foreign Min-ister Hina Rabbani Khar, Chief ofArmy Staff (COAS) General Ash-faq Kayani Air Chief MarshalQamar Suleman and ISI DG LtGen Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

The meeting of the country’stop civilian and military leader-ship as well as key allies wascalled just days ahead of the jointsession of parliament that willmark the new parliamentary yearbut will mainly focus on the de-bate on the future relationshipwith the US and NATO allies. Al-though the government spokes-men told the media that the

meeting reiterated the govern-ment’s earlier stance that parlia-ment will take the decision on theNATO supply and relationshipwith the US, the leaders agreed torestore land route for NATO andrevive normal ties with the US.

Senior US officials in Wash-ington said they had been con-veyed about the decisions after theIslamabad meeting. In return theUS will also allow the equipmentsdelivery to Pakistan which hadbeen blocked after Islamabadblocked NATO supply line in No-vember. The meeting also decidedto receive the top US visitorswhenever they wanted to visitPakistan and they agreed with theproposed visit of the US CENT-COM chief General Mathis, who islikely to visit later this month.

General Mathis told re-porters in Washington last weekthat he will discus, besides otherimportant issues, the plan ofusing Pakistan land route for theAmerican troops at the time ofwithdrawal from Afghanistan.“This has also been conveyed tothe U.S. authorities in Washing-

ton,” the US sources said. The USplans to withdraw several thou-sands troops this year as part ofits Afghan exit strategy. Thesummoning of long-awaited jointsession of the parliament to meeton March 17 is also in line withthe understanding reached inWednesday’s meeting, sourcestold Online in Islamabad.

The Parliamentary Commit-tee on National Security had beentasked with giving recommenda-tions to reevaluate ties with theUS/NATO and ISAF followingNATO, which had already sub-mitted its recommendations.

Participants of the meetingwere of the view that the coali-tion will have no problem indominating the join session ofparliament during the debate onthe US ties as they were now incomplete command of bothhouses of parliament, officialsources in Islamabad said.

The army chief told the meet-ing that the military will fully re-spect the decision by theparliament and civilian leader-ship, sources in Islamabad said.

ISLAMABADStAff RepoRt

Tacitly registering his concern overthe debate in the media on the role ofthe army and the Inter-Services In-telligence (ISI), Chief of Army Staff(COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani onWednesday said “the national insti-tutions should not be undermined”.

“The debate (on TV channels)does not support national institutionsas it works to de-motivate soldiersperforming their duties in 20˚Celsiusbelow the freezing point. We need tomotivate our soldiers instead of de-moralising them by such debates,”the COAS said while informally talk-ing to a group of editors at thefarewell dinner hosted by Prime Min-

ister Yousaf Raza Gilani for the out-going Air Chief Rao Qamar Suleman.

Though he did not specificallypoint out any particular talk show, hedid say that the debate “in theevening” was not contributing posi-tively. He referred to other countries,including Israel, and said they nevertalked about their intelligence agen-cies the way the ISI was discussed inPakistan. “Even in countries like theUnited States, the role of agencies isnot discussed publicly,” he said.

He admitted that mistakes didtake place but it did not mean that theinstitutions should be undermined. “Ittakes very long to build institutions,”the COAS observed. About the role ofthe army in politics, Gen Kayani saidhe had taken a “conscious decision” to

keep his institution out of politics. Butwhen referred to the Mehran Bankscam, he said it had happened 20years earlier and discussing it now wasfighting history. “We should learnfrom the past, live in the present witha focus on the future,” he said. He rub-bished reports that the army or the ISIwas supporting PTI chief Imran Khan.“If anyone has any proof of this, itshould be brought to the fore and it isalso for Imran Khan to take notice ofthis allegation,” Gen Kayani said. OnBalochistan, he said he had many atime said that there was no militaryoperation going on in the province andthere was no plan to set up new can-tonments there.

Multiple sourcesavailable for Ip gaspipeline funding: fM


Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar onWednesday said the Chinese bank’s decisionto pull out from the Iran-Pakistan gaspipeline would not have any impact onPakistan’s plan to proceed with the multi-billion dollars project as there were“multiple sources” available for its funding.Addressing a joint news conference at theForeign Office with her Swedish counterpartCarl Bildt, the foreign minister said, “Thereare multiple sources available for Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and this is fairly a veryviable project. We hope we will not see anyproblem in finding ways to ensure funds forthe project.” She said the impression thatthe Chinese bank’s decision would affectPakistan’s plan to import gas from Iran wasnot true and it would proceed with theproject of gas pipeline. The foreign ministerwas responding to a question that aconsortium led by the Industrial andCommercial Bank of China (ICBC) has runaway from providing financial advisoryservices for the Iran-Pakistan gas pipelineproject. To another question on theparliamentary review of ties with the UnitedStates, she said that the government’s

Kayani takes exception to public discussion on agencies

pakistan agrees to restoreNaTO supplies, revive ties

SANAA: Anti-government female protesters wearing pink caps protest against immunity from prosecution to Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh on Wednesday. afp

Continued on page 04


SC chides spyagencies forcrossing the lineg Durrani says ISI not involvedas he acted in personal capacity


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02Thursday, 15 March, 2012

News

Today’s

LookQuick

ISlAMABAd

Story on Page 08 Story on 2

ProFIT CArTooN

Page 13

‘paper one’ art show opens at Khaas gallery 350 marble factories shutting down in protest

Caller threatens to kill

Mansoor Ijaz’s daughterLONDON: An unknown caller has allegedly threatened tokidnap and kill the daughter of the key character of“memogate”, Mansoor Ijaz. According to reports, Mansoor’sson received the threatening call on his cell phone. ScotlandYard has initiated investigation to trace down the suspectthrough phone call records. Moreover, heavy security has alsobeen deployed at the house of Ijaz. NNi

PM’s son signs roll in NA; writes

`brother of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’ISLAMABAD: Member National Assembly Syed Ali MusaGilani when signing the roll at the National Assembly aftertaking oath on Wednesday, wrote, “Syed Musa Gilani, brotherof Bilawal Bhutto Zardari”. It may be recalled that whenPrime Minister Gilani signed the roll after taking oath, hewrote, “Yusuf Raza Gilani, brother of Benazir Bhutto.” App

Minor girl killed, 7 FC troops injuredin Mattani checkpost attackPESHAWAR: A minor girl was killed, while her sisteralong-with six soldiers of Frontier Constabulary (FC) wereinjured in cross firing ensued following militants’ attack ona security checkpoint in Mattani area, in FR Peshawar onWednesday, an official source said. Ambrina (5), daughterof Noor Muhammad died in the crossfire, while her sisterSabrina (6) sustained wounds after militants attacked JaniGarh security check post, close to their house. Six soldiersof FC also received bullets wounds during the battle thatcontinued for over two hours. The terrorists managed toflee the scene after the attack. Police have launched asearch operation in the area following the attack and havearrested more than 20 suspects. The injured were shiftedto Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, where their conditionwas stated to be stable. App

Anwar Saifullah defends IshaqISLAMABAD: Amidst media uproar on the MehrangateScandal, PPP MPA Anwar Saifullah on Wednesday choseto defend the alleged mastermind of the scandal, formerpresident Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who allegedly hadordered to provide heavy funding to different politiciansto steal the PPP election win in the 1990 elections. Thiswould be a unique occasion that the party’s legislator hasdecided to defend the former president. Anwar, who isalso a son-in-law of the former president, said that itwas common knowledge amongst people at large thatIshaq had served the country “honestly, with honor anda quiet dignity, and not even his opponents everquestioned his integrity.” In a statement, Anwar saidthat it was beyond understanding that the case was nottaken up during Ishaq’s life and now it had been takenup six years after his demise. “It is highly regrettablethat the case was not heard during the lifetime of theformer president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who remainedalive for thirteen years after leaving the Presidency.During this long period, Khan lived a quiet life inPeshawar, where he was accessible to all those whosought to meet him,” the MPA said. “Our cultural andreligious norms also demand respect for the dead, whoare unable to speak out from their graves in theirdefence,” he said. StAff RepoRt

ISLAMABAD StAff RepoRt

The National Assembly on Wednesday unani-mously adopted a resolution moved by the PML-N seeking early recovery of missing persons.

The resolution says, “This House is deeplydisturbed over the plight of the families of per-sons who have been missing for long periodswithout any intimation as to their whereaboutsand who remain untraced to date. This Housenotes, with great concern, that in this regardgrave allegations of acts and omissions, complic-ity and concealment are being raised againststate agencies, which are tarnishing their imageand reputation at home and abroad notwith-standing their immense contribution andtremendous sacrifices in the defence and securityof Pakistan.”

“This House calls upon the government toensure prevalence of the rule of law and to im-plement, without further delay, observations ofthe Supreme Court of Pakistan and recommen-dations of the Commission of Enquiry on En-forced Disappearances for enactment ofnecessary legislation to resolve the problem ofmissing persons and also recommendations ofthe Commission of Inquiry concerning the mur-der of Saleem Shahzad for a comprehensiveframework law to regulate the role and function-

ing of the intelligence and security agencies,” theresolution adds.

The resolution further says, “This House au-thorises the speaker to constitute, in consultationwith the prime minister and the leader of the op-position, an eight member special committeewith equal representation from both sides of theHouse, to monitor progress in this regard. Thespecial committee shall also, after meetings withrepresentatives of the families of missing personsand victims of terrorism and briefings by the con-cerned intelligence and security agencies, submitits recommendations to the House within twomonths as to additional measures required.”

Opposition leader Nisar Ali Khan com-mended the passage of resolution and said aquarter of job had been done in the missing per-sons’ case through this resolution. “This resolu-tion should neither be construed as against anyinstitution nor it is meant for political point scor-ing”, Nisar declared and held the view that if any-one was involved in anti-state activities, heshould be prosecuted in the court of law insteadof disappearing him. Nisar lashed out at InteriorMinister Rehman Malik on the missing persons’issue when Malik spoke and told the House thatthere were only 43 missing persons in the coun-try. Nisar verbally attacked the interior minister.Nisar said Malik was responsible and asked thechair to teach him the rules of the House, when

he tried to speak interrupting Nisar’s speech.Speaking on a point of order, Manwer Lal,

MQM MNA on minorities’ seat said a Hinduwoman had been forced to convert in interiorSindh. He alleged that it was done on the behestof one PPP parliamentarian. On it, the MQM andthe ANP parliamentarian staged a token walkoutfrom the House.

The National Assembly unanimously passed“The Industrial Relations Bill, 2012. The bill pro-vides to consolidate and rationalize the law relat-ing to formation of trade unions, andimprovement of relations between employersand workmen in the Islamabad Capital Territoryand trans-provincial establishments and indus-try. The bill has been earlier passed by the Sen-ate. Meanwhile, Minister for Water and PowerNaveed Qamar on Wednesday informed theLower House that the government of Pakistanhad raised objections on the designs of some fourhydroelectric plant projects, which India in-tended to undertake recently on Indus river wa-ters. Through his written reply, the water andpower minister informed the House that Indiahad officially expressed its intention to undertakeconstruction of four projects including DumkharMicro Hydel Project (0.5MW), Marpachoo Hy-droelectric Plant (0.75MW), Dah Small Hydro-electric Plant (6MW) and Hanu SmallHydroelectric Plant (5MW).

Indian guru wants

Taliban to de-stressBANI GALA

Afp

An Indian Hindu guru may be the lastemissary the Taliban expect, but Sri RaviShankar would love to teach inner peace tothe world’s most notorious insurgents.Visiting Pakistan for the first time in eightyears, he basks in the diplomaticrapprochement that made the trip possiblebut his dreams of harmony couldn’t be furtherremoved from the suffering of millionsworldwide. Spry for a man in his mid-50s,dressed in pristine white robes and his hairstill ebony, he began the second leg of histhree-city Pakistan tour by tossing rose petalsinto the air cheered on by some ofIslamabad’s most elegant women. Nominatedfor the Nobel peace prize and described byForbes magazine in 2009 as the fifth mostpowerful person in India, Shankar establishedthe Art of Living Foundation in 1981. Itestimates it has 300 million followers. Hetravels widely and in 2007 took his messageof peace and meditation to Iraq, where heurged Shias, Sunnis and Kurds to give peace achance and was invited to introduce his Art ofLiving rehabilitation programme in prisons.His centres teach breathing practices andtechniques to help people from all religiousbackgrounds overcome the stresses, jealousiesand insecurities of modern life to becomemore focused, happier and healthier.

Na passes pML-N’s resolution seeking early

recovery of missing persons

MULTAN: A donkey-cart driver rides past a mural of

a handgun in downtown city on Wednesday. afp

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NewsArTS & eNTerTAINMeNT CoMMeNT

the ip snag:

Articles on Page 12-13

A financier backs out.

the ongoing malice: The mess that is the Pakistan Steel Mills.

Nazir Naji says:

Kuldip Nayar says:Congress in trouble?: India votes for decentralisation.

ForeIgN NewS

Story on Page 18 Story on Page 15

SPorTSpakistan aim to extend winning run

Story on Page 18

Sharmeen obaid-chinoy: people treat me like a man!Ahmadinejad defends record before iran parliament

Dreams dashed: They hoped democracy wouldn’t live to see another day. But it did.

talimand Khan says:The politicians and the military: Deconstructing black-and-white narratives.

KARACHIStAff RepoRt

PAKISTAN Tehreek-e-In-saaf (PTI) Chairman ImranKhan has cancelled his par-ticipation as a keynotespeaker in the India Today

Conclave being held in New Delhi.The cricketer-turned politician took

the decision soon after he came to knowthat Salman Rushdie was also partici-pating in the event, said a PTI state-ment issued on Wednesday.

Khan, it said, expressed his regretsto the organisers.

“He could not even think of partic-ipating in any program that includedSalman Rushdie who has caused im-measurable hurt to Muslims across theglobe,” the statement quoted the PTIchief as saying.

Khan only received and saw the fullprogramme of the Conclave last

evening and took action early thismorning to cancel his participation, thestatement said.

Rushdie is believed to have hurt thereligious sentiments of the Muslimsacross the globe by the publication ofhis book “Satanic Verses”.

The organiser of the India TodayConclave said he “deeply regrets thatImran Khan will not address the IndiaToday Conclave because of SalmanRushdie’s participation. The IndiaToday Conclave is a platform for freeand frank exchange of ideas. We do notendorse the views of any of our speak-ers but we do stand for the freedom ofexpression in all that we do; it’s an es-sential principle of a free nation andfree media”.

He said the conclave, “now in its11th year has established itself as an in-dependent and credible forum forthinkers and leaders from around theworld not all agreeable to everyone. We

wish that Imran had used this opportu-nity to express his views at the Con-clave with all the force and lucidity thathe possesses. We can all agree to dis-agree but we must present our argu-ment”.KASHMIR ISSuE MuSt BE

REcOgNISED AS POLItIcAL

ISSuE: Meanwhile, talking to IndianHigh Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal,Khan said that Kashmir must be recog-nised as a political issue to be resolvedat the dialogue table.

“What is needed is two strong lead-ers who can carry their people withthem. We need a bold leadership to ex-plain to people the gains from develop-ing the full potential of thesubcontinent. We have to sell the ideaof dividends of peace and to get out ofthe past.” Khan referred him to DrMazari’s bold idea of civil nuclear coop-eration between Pakistan and Indiawhich was further explained by her.

Kasuri reaffirmed his support forKhan’s vision and referred to the needfor a “peace with honour” on Kashmir.

The high commissioner talked ofhow Mumbai was a major setback forrelations between the two countries.But he said commercial relations wereon track and on Jammu and Kashmir,he referred to the movement on traveland trade across the LoC. Presently, ac-cording to Sabharwal, trade across theLoC was now four days a week. He saidthe Indians were also looking at makingan easier visa regime.

Khan pointed out that the problemin moving forward in relations was theweak and corrupt government in Pak-istan “which cannot carry the peoplewith it”.

He felt Pakistan was poised to takeoff but the country needed to get out ofthe debilitating war on terror. He citedthe EU example as a means of improv-ing the lot of the people.

g India Today Conclave organisers say PTI chief should have used this opportunity to express his views

Imran refuses to sit next to Rushdie

ISLAMABADNNi

Former president of Pakistan andchief of All Pakistan Muslim League(APML) Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf hasclaimed that Baloch leader NawabAkbar Bugti was not killed but he hadcommitted suicide.

Talking about Balochistan, the for-mer president said the Balochistan issuewas not difficult as it was being depicted.There are a few people destroying thepeace of the province and they should bedealt with strictly, he said. He further

claimed that India was playing a role indestabilising peace in the country. “Thecountry was on the verge of disaster andthen I introduced ‘real democracy’,” aprivate television channel quoted him assaying. The APML chief said that hewould return to the country before thenext general elections and the exact dateof his arrival would be decided in consul-tation with his party’s leadership. Mean-while, Baloch nationalist leader HarbiyarMarri disregarded Musharraf’s claimand said Musharraf now wanted to es-cape after committing atrocities for 10years against the Baloch people.

Bugti was not killed, he committed

suicide, says pervez Musharraf

Six killed in

Bajaur bombingPESHAWAR: At least six peoplewere killed and several othersinjured as a result of a high-intensity bomb explosion in aguesthouse in Bajaur Agency onWednesday. Officials at Khar,headquarters of Bajaur, said that ahigh-intensity explosion occurred ina hujra in Gatkai village when anumber of people were presentinside. The officials said six peoplewere killed on the spot, whileseveral others were shifted tohospital in critical condition. Noone has claimed responsibility forthe explosion so far and officialssaid the anti-militant people of thearea were the target. StAff RepoRt

Ishaq notified as

Senate opp leader


The JUI-F on Wednesday surrendered theslot of Senate opposition leader in favour ofthe PML-N on which Senate Chairman SyedNayyar Hussain Bokhari notified Ishaq Daras the opposition leader even before expiry ofthe seven-day deadline given to independentcandidates to formally join either thetreasury or opposition. Former Senatechairman Farooq H Naek on Monday askedindependent senators to inform in-writing tothe Senate Secretariat if they wanted to jointhe treasury or opposition so as to helpascertain support for the opposition leadercandidate. According to the SenateSecretariat, Dar has support of 14 PML-Nsenators, 7 JUI-F and 2 independentmembers, one each from Punjab andBalochistan, making it 23 in favour of Dar.There were 12 independent candidates in theHouse. Dar was re-elected unopposed on atechnocrat seat from Punjab in the recentlyheld Senate elections. Former Senateopposition leader Maulana Abdul GhafoorHaideri belonged to the JUI-F and wasdeclared opposition leader against Ishaq byNaek due to which both the JUI-F and PML-N had started a tug of war.

ISLAMABADiNp

The Supreme Court on Wednes-day scolded Election Commis-sion of Pakistan (ECP) SecretaryIshtiak Ahmed Khan for at-tempting to malign the judiciaryby writing a letter to the chiefelection commissioner (CEC).

Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry, whilereferring to the contents of thesecretary’s letter addressed tothe CEC, expressed his annoy-ance, saying, “Everyone has gotthe liberty to express thoughtswithin certain limits.” “Castingaspersions on institutions isvery bad. For the last 64 years,the tussle in the country hasbeen over rule of constitution orultra constitutionlism, but at

the end, everyone wants rule ofconstitution,” he added. Thesecretary defended his positionby saying that he had writtenthe letter to CEC to seek retire-ment, and did not mean to ma-lign the apex court. Athree-member bench headed bythe chief justice resumed hear-ing a constitutional plea movedby Pakistan Tehreek-e-InsafChairman Imran Khan seekingerror free electoral lists,clubbed together with a pendingplea of late Benazir Bhutto, for-mer chairperson of the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP). The secre-tary said whatever he had men-tioned in his letter carried bynewspapers was in line with theopinions expressed by elec-tronic and print media for free-dom of thought and expression.

SC takes ECpsecretary to task formaligning judiciary

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News

ISLAMABADAmeR SiAl

PA K I S T A Nneeds to develop22 million acrefeet (MAF) ofwater storage on

war footing as India has cun-ningly acquired the ability tostore 38MAF of live storageon three western rivers allo-cated to Pakistan, equalingthe full requirement of thecountry’s Rabi crop.

A letter addressed to thepresident and prime minis-ter, written by former chair-man of Indus River SystemAuthority (IRSA) EngineerFateh Ullah Khan, haswarned that Pakistan was indeep crisis due to shortageof irrigation water and hy-dropower for lack of multi-purpose dams that alsocontrolled floods and siltingof reservoirs.

“Floods like 2010 canravage again and again dur-ing the climate change anytime and many time. Indiahas prepared itself for waterwar in silence. As a result

Rabi water supplies wouldcompletely cut off, andfamine would appear, peoplewould die of hunger. Pleasewake up from slumber evennow though late,” it said.

A copy of the letter avail-able with Pakistan Todaystresses immediate action todevelop new reservoirs asIndia has built 32 dams andhas acquired ability to stop38MAF of Rabi water re-quirements.

It was revealed by Sena-tor John Kerry before USCongress. India was alsoplanning 12 dams on KabulRiver to dry Pakistan’s Rabisupplies. The letter said thegovernment had not reactedagainst the Indian aggres-sion of silently using wateras weapon of mass destruc-tion.

He proposed buildingunique 35MAF multipur-pose Katzarah Dam inSkardu to store 6 times thestorage of Bhasha Dam. Itwill help generate10,000MW of hydropower,control super floods in IndusRiver and work as watershed

management dam to preventsilt in the Indus water.

It will also increase lifeof Basha from 85 years to800 years. A study con-ducted by World Bankshowed Skardu valley wasthe source of silt. If Katzarahdam is built, it will help irri-gate about three to four mil-lion acres of the Kachi plainin Balochistan fromChashma Barrage.

Another water storageproject Khan proposed wasthe 8.5MAF multipurposeGuroh Dop Dam on Pun-jkora River to store 3MAF ofits runoff. It will help divert4MAF of floodwater inGuroh Dop Reservoir fromChitral River through a22km tunnel by buildingMikhani Dam and powergeneration of 1,400MW.This will control floods inKabul River.

In a unique substitutefor Kalabagh Dam, he pro-poses building 100 feet lowdam cum 60 feet barrageover it. The site is threemiles upstream of KBD intothe Indus valley. This will

help store 3.4MAF of waterrepeatedly to be filled as theflow at this site is 93MAF.The aggregate storage couldbe between six to 9MAF. Theproject would serve as bal-ancing reservoir to producemore power at Tarbela andstore released water at thedam-cum-barrage reservoir.It will produce 2,000 to6,000MW of hydropower onrun-of-river with powerhouses located on both theriver banks.

The royalty would beshared between KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Punjab.The project will have indefi-nite life span and requiresno land acquisition, no landcompensation and no popu-lation displacement.

Stressing upon IRSA toinform the governmentabout the chronic issues ofwater shortage, flood havoc,and rapid silting of reser-voirs, all relating to water inview of the Water Accord.

He says Water andPower Development Author-ity’s (WAPDA) policy of in-sistence on “Kalabagh Dam

or no dam” for last 37 yearshas resulted in devastatingfloods of 2010 and cripplingload shedding that has de-stroyed the national econ-omy.

Kalabagh Dam andAkhori Dam are bad exam-ples as these were rejected bytheir project consultants. Hepoints out that Bunji andDassu were power dams onthe Indus and there is nodam site on Kabul, Jehlumand Chenab Rivers in Pak-istan. “How would the coun-try face this critical situation?It’s a matter of great concernand the president and primeminister need to be informedof the critical situation,”Khan said.

To mitigate Indian ag-gression, he proposes carry-ing out IntegratedComprehensive Water Man-agement of the 165 years oldcanal irrigation system thatwastes about 50MAF ofwater, which was incompat-ible with crop water require-ments and was obsolete.

The canal system’s mod-ernization will help in saving

water. He also proposes con-trolling salinity in the Indusbasin and reclaiming landsby building surface and sub-surface tile drainage to evac-uate injurious salts out ofthe area and maintain saltand water balance.

“Pakistan is dangerouslyexposed to future devastat-ing floods any times andmany times like of 2010 andcrippling load shedding forno dams built for the last 47years after Tarbela. The ex-isting reservoirs have rap-idly silted by 6.5 MAF due tosilting for lack of watershedmanagement, and due towrong planning of storagedams ignoring their capacityinflow ratio for long life.Saline lands have beenwrongly handled by ill-con-ceived Salinity Control andReclamation Projects(SCARPs) and NationalDrainage Programme(NDP), both failed andabandoned. Irrigation sys-tem is without drainage, andthere is no means to evacu-ate injurious salts,” the letterstates.

Pakistan needs 22MAF of water tocounter Indian aggressiong Former IrSA chief asks president, prime minister to wake up from slumber

Kayani takes

exception

“The Sui cantonment hasalready been converted intoa military college. Similarly,a medical college has beenset up in Quetta and it hasbecome operational,” hesaid, accepting that the onlyrole the army had playedwas to resolve the disputesbetween the tribes as it washampering developmentwork in the province. Aboutthe missing persons, theCOAS referred to a reportalready submitted with theSupreme Court and saidthere were only 47 missingpersons in Pakistan ascompared to 350 in Indiaand 11,000 in Sri Lanka.However, he refrained fromgoing into details, sayingthe matter was sub-judice.He said parliament wassupreme and the issue ofNATO supplies andrelations with the UnitedStates would be inaccordance with thedecision of parliamentwhich would meet on March19. He said he had askedthe US military officials notto visit Pakistan before thejoint session of parliamentwhich would draw freshguidelines for relations withthe United States andPakistan’s role in the waron terror. Gen Kayani,however, confirmed that USCENTCOM commanderGeneral James Mattiswould visit Pakistan by theend of March after the jointsession of parliamentframed new rules ofengagement withWashington after the Salalaincident.

SC chides spy

The bench questioned theattorney general about theunavailability of the enquirycommission’s report onMehran Bank. The attorneygeneral replied that theinterior secretary was out ofcountry and he would apprisethe bench about the status ofreports after contacting him.The Supreme Court thenadjourned the hearing untilMarch 30. On March 9,Durrani testified before theapex court that he hadreceived instructions fromthe then chief of army staffMirza Aslam Beg to makearrangements fordisbursement of Rs 140million among certaincandidates to influence the1990 general elections.

Multiple sources

available

decision to rewrite termsof engagement with theUS, NATO and ISAFwould expandcooperation with globalplayers. She said, “Wehope that the world willrespect the new terms ofengagement. She said thatPakistan wanted to assistthe US led foreign troopsdeployed in Afghanistanwith a smooth exit fromthe war-ravagedneighboring state.”She said Pakistan andwestern countries hadconvergence of views onAfghan problem but thearea of difference was thetools being used toachieve the ending goal.Foreign Minister Kharalso condemned thekilling of 16 Afghancivilians includingchildren by a US soliderin Afghanistan. She said,“We condemn this act inthe strongest possibleterms and we want thatthe person responsible forthis must be brought tojustice.”Speaking on the occasion,the Swedish foreignminister, whose countryis also part of the ISAFforces, also expressed hisregrets over the incidentof killing of Afghancitizens. He said, “Wehope this will not affectthe overall policy inAfghanistan.”In her opening statement,Foreign Minister Kharsaid Pakistan and Swedenhad decided to double theexisting volume ofbilateral trade from $450million to $900 millionby 2014.The Swedish foreignminister said his countryendorsed Pakistan’sposition that trade, notaid, was the solution tothe problem.

Continued fRoM page 1


KABul: uS Secretary of Defense leon panetta leaves after visiting troops from the 31st BN light infantry of the georgian Army on Wednesday. afp


First it was PM, now men in

uniform will appear in SC: CJPISLAMABAD

iNp

Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhryon Wednesday said thedemocratic system wasthriving in the countryand no one could think ofany adventurism. Hesaid the elected chiefexecutive of the countryappeared twice beforethe Supreme Court andnow it was the turn of themen in uniform.

Addressing an oath taking ceremony of various barassociations of Rawalpindi division, he said passage of the19th and 20th amendments was made possible due todirections of the Supreme Court. “The amendments areadopted by an elected parliament and not by the one whichhad taken oath under the PCO,” he added.

US soldier behind civilian killings

flown out of AfghanistanWASHINgtON: The US staff sergeant who killedover a dozen Afghan villagers this week has beenflown out of Afghanistan, the Pentagon said onWednesday. The commander of US and Afghan forcesin Afghanistan, General John Allen, made the decisionto fly the soldier, whose name has not been released,out of Afghanistan based on a legal recommendation,a US official said. ReuteRS

Hoti allots 100 percent oil,

gas royalty to KarakKARAK: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister AmeerHaider Khan Hoti on Wednesday enhanced 100 percentoil and gas royalty to the district, approved 17 kilometersshingle road to Kurd Sharif coalmines with Rs 280million, Rs 250 million for acquisition of 100 kanals forconstruction of Karak University and establishment of

Banda Daud Shah and Latember Girls Degree College. Hewas addressing a big public gathering at Karak Township.The CM conceded that the people of Karak have theforemost right over natural resources explored on the soilof Karak and announced an increase of 10 percent in theoil and gas royalty to Karak instead of 5 percent. Heinformed that next year Karak would get Rs 1.20 billion asoil and gas royalty and said that the provincialgovernment was going to establish its own oil and gascompany with the name of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil andGas Company Limited to explore oil and gas in theprovince to increase the income of the province. Hoticlaimed that the provincial government had gotten Rs 1.10billion in net hydel profit from the federal governmentand resolved that extra resources would be utilised on thewelfare of the masses. The CM said that provincialgovernment would launch electricity producing projects inthe province with income of the net hydel amount andadded that a project of 2000MWs would be inaugurated inApril in Madain, Swat. He added that with producingelectricity on one side the people would get rid of thecurse of load shedding and on the other side the provincewould get income. Hoti informed that Bacha Khan PovertyAlleviation was functioning in six union councils of Karakand hinted that from the next budget it would be extendedto the entire district to resolve drinking water and otherproblems of the masses on their doorsteps. StAff RepoRt

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News


FREE and fair elections inBalochistan can set thecourse for improving thescenario there, agreedpanelist and participants

of a forum on Balochistan.The forum was organised by PIL-

DAT. “If the government and agenciescan resolve the issue of missing per-sons and bullet-ridden bodies, thingscan improve,” Senator Hasil Bizenjosaid, adding that it was a pre-condi-tion for dialogue. He said that youthin Balochistan can still be taken onboard, adding that the mindset in restof Pakistan that Baloch is still a tribalsociety of the 1960s is deeply flawed.The “talk-down” syndrome of the cen-tre and establishment towardsBalochistan is the main cause of is-

sues, he said.Daily Pakistan Editor Mujibur

Rehman Shami, former Sindh gover-nor Lieutenant General (r) Moinud-din Haider, defence analyst IkramSehgal, Senator Humayun Mandokheland PPP MNA Qamar Zaman Kairaalso spoke on the occasion. Kaira ap-preciated the initiative of PILDAT andsaid that such a structured conversa-tion, bringing together different MPsand schools of thought that PILDATholds is not even generally accom-plished by political parties and parlia-ment. He said that media was up inarms even if the government suggeststhere should be a media-led Code ofConduct.

PILDAT Executive DirectorAhmed Bilal Mehboob said that de-spite the 18th Amendment, the 7thNFC Award and the Aghaz-e-HaqooqBalochistan Package, which granted

unprecedented financial, politicaland administrative autonomy toBalochistan in line with the demandsof the nationalist parties and forces,unrest and insurgency in Balochistanis continuing. Shami said that thedominant discourse on Balochistanthese days is blaming Pakistan’s mil-itary and security agencies for com-pounding the scenario in theprovince. Moinuddin said that theprovincial government and the as-sembly were not taking responsibilityfor resolving the issues of Balochis-tan. Mandokhel said that populationbreak-up in Balochistan is at 45 per-cent Baloch and 45 percent Pakhtunbut the province is almost entirelyrun by Baloch at the moment. “Sehgalsaid that feudalism and democracycould not go hand in hand and feu-dalist mindset in Balochistan is itskey problem.

CAMP LEATHERNECKAfp

The US defence chief held talks in Afghanistan onWednesday, acknowledging that a series of “deeplytroubling” incidents had challenged the US war ef-fort but vowing that nothing would derail the mis-sion to defeat Al-Qaeda and reverse a Talibaninsurgency.

Leon Panetta held a series of meetings in south-ern Afghanistan just days after an American soldierwent on a murderous rampage, shooting dead 16Afghan civilians — most of them women and chil-dren — in the worst single such incident since the2001 US-led invasion. His spokesman described ameeting with leaders in Helmand as “excellent” buthis talks were overshadowed by a bomb attack else-where in the southern province that killed eightcivilians, a stark reminder of the cost of the conflict.

Addressing US, NATO and Afghan troops atCamp Leatherneck, Panetta conceded that theburning of Qurans on a US base last month, Sun-

day’s killings and attacks on coalition troops byAfghan soldiers had posed difficult challenges.“Each of these incidents is deeply troubling,” hesaid. “We will not allow individual incidents to un-dermine our resolve. “We will be tested, we will bechallenged by the enemy, by ourselves and by thehell of war itself.” But he added that “thanks to yourefforts, our strategy is working”.

In a sign that nerves are on edge, a group of USMarines waiting to hear Panetta speak inside a hallwere asked to leave their rifles outside. Americantroops typically have their rifles in hand when theUS defence secretary addresses them.

A defence official told reporters there was noheightened security threat but the US troops hadbeen ordered to leave their weapons at the door tobe “consistent”, as the Afghans in the hall were un-armed. The eight civilians who died on Wednesdaywere killed when a minibus ran over a roadsidebomb in Marja district — the focus of a major US-led military offensive designed to clear out the Tal-iban in early 2010.

Afghanistan demandsbody of ex-Talibanminister

PESHAWARStAff RepoRt

The Afghan government has asked Pakistan to handover the body of former Afghan minister and Talibanleader Mullah Obaid Ullah. Around a month ago,Pakistani authorities had confirmed that formerdefence minister Mullah Obaid Ullah died as a resultof illness inside a prison house. Afghanistan’sAmbassador to Pakistan Mohammad Omar Daudzaion Wednesday called on Jalil Abbass Jillani,minister of state for external affairs. During themeeting, they discussed in depth matters pertainingto bilateral issues. According to the Afghan embassy,Pakistan’s minister of state and Afghan ambassadordiscussed in depth matters regarding RegionalEconomic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan(RECCA). The Afghan embassy also said that duringthe meeting, Ambassador Daudzai asked Pakistan’sminister of state for handing over the dead body ofAfghanistan’s ex-defence minister Mullah ObaidUllah Akhund to his relatives. In this respect, theAfghan government has already placed a request toPakistan.

Hopes fade for

missing western

climbersISLAMABAD

Afp

Pakistan was forced again to call off asearch party for Westerners missingnearly a week in the KarakoramMountains as hopes faded for theirsafe recovery, officials said onWednesday.“We were on standby the whole daytoday, but the weather is very bad andhelicopters had to abandon themission,” Colonel Manzoor Ahmed,President of the Pakistan Alpine Club,told AFP. The members of aninternational winter expedition toGasherbrum-1 peak, team leaderGerfried Goschl of Austria, Swissclimber Cedric Hahlen and a Pakistanihigh altitude porter Nisar Hussain,have been missing since Friday. It isthe highest peak in the Karakoramrange on the Pakistan-China border,also known as “Hidden Peak”. “It hasbeen a long time now. They were lastspotted around 450 metres short ofthe summit on Friday. Somethingwent wrong after that. They had twoThuraya sets (satellite phones) andthey would have called us soon afterscaling the peak,” Ahmed said. “But Ithink they had some accident andcould not reach the summit. Theymight have been hit by an avalancheor strong wind.”Ahmed said army helicopters wouldmake another attempt at the 8,048metre peak on Thursday when theweather is expected to improve.Colonel Sher Khan, a mountaineeringexpert, confirmed there were “goodchances” that the helicopters will takeoff on Thursday. Khan, who scaledMount Everest in 1997, also said theymay have been blown away by strongwind. But he said three Poles,suffering badly from frost bite andstranded at a 5,100-metre base campafter scaling the peak last week, wouldbe evacuated as soon as the weatherallowed. No comment was availablefrom Adventure Pakistan thatfacilitated the tour. The missingclimbers had taken a new route fromthe southwestern ridge, while thegroup from Poland had succeeded viathe normal northern route.

Pakistani investigators

arrives in India for

Mumbai carnage probeNEW DELHI

Afp

Pakistani investigators and lawyersarrived in India on Wednesday to obtainevidence for prosecuting seven Pakistanisuspects linked to the 2008 Mumbaiattacks in which 166 people died.The visit is the first of its kind, and comesafter Pakistan indicted seven allegedconspirators in 2009. Islamabad hassince said it needs to gather moreevidence in India before proceedingfurther against the seven.“The members of the Pakistani judicialcommission are in New Delhi. They willleave for Mumbai on Thursday,” India’sHome Ministry Spokeswoman Ira Joshitold AFP. The nine-member commissionof prosecutors, defence lawyers and acourt official will take statements fromwitnesses and cross-examine them.“Their mandate is to record statements ofthose who investigated the 2008 case,”said Joshi.

iSlAmABAD: Swedish foreign minister carl Bildt called on president Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Wednesday. INp

‘Free and fair election in

Balochistan the way forward’

Panetta acknowledges troubling

events in Afghanistang US Marines waiting to hear Panetta speak inside a hall asked to

leave their rifles outside

ISB 15-03-2012_Layout 1 3/15/2012 2:01 AM

06 Thursday, 15 March, 2012

News

iSlAmABAD: foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Swedish foreign minister carl Bildt address a joint press conference at the foreign office on Wednesday. INp


As the 13th National As-sembly is completing itsfourth parliamentary yearon Friday (tomorrow),women legislators contin-

ued to perform impressively, assertingthemselves in their lawmaking andoversight roles.

The 40th and last session of the 4thparliamentary year which started onWednesday will continue until March16. President Asif Ali Zardari will ad-dress the joint session of the parliamenton March 17, with which the LowerHouse would enter into the fifth parlia-mentary year. Women constitute lessthan one-quarter (23 percent) of the Na-tional Assembly’s current members – 60

elected on reserved seats and 17 throughpopular vote. However, they were effec-tive voices of constituents as comparedto their male counterparts in the LowerHouse, which is headed by the country’sfirst woman speaker.

Overall, women parliamentarianshave been active in introducing legisla-tion – single female members authoring20 of the 53 Private Members’ bills thatappeared on the Orders of the Day in thefourth parliamentary year. Of the Pri-vate Members’ Bills moved by womenparliamentarians, 14 were introduced inthe House, five not taken up while twowere passed, said a Free and Fair Elec-tion Network (FAFEN) report.

It said the female parliamentarianscontributed exceptionally to oversight ofexecutive by putting up questions. Of2,365 questions raised during the fourth

parliamentary year, more than half(1,196 or 51 percent) were put forwardby female members. On average, 16questions were submitted by each fe-male MNA, almost four times more thantheir male counterparts who raised1,169 questions.

Women legislators were part of 75 ofthe total 97 Calling Attention Notices ei-ther individually or jointly with theirmale and female colleagues. A closerlook at the Calling Attention Noticesshows that women parliamentarians arebringing to the floor of the House issuesdirectly affecting the lives of the people.They raised such critical issues as the en-ergy crisis, increase in power tariff, di-lapidated condition of nationalhighways, violence against women, draftelectoral list, disaster management andincrease in prices of petroleum products.

Of the 1,764 Points of Order raisedin the House, the women parliamentar-ians’ share was 252 or 14 percent. Thefemale legislators representing PPPraised almost half (121) Points of Or-ders, followed by PML-N and ANP (44each), PML-Q (24), MQM (13) andMMA (six). Female representativesmoved 42 resolutions, either independ-ently or jointly with other female ormale colleagues, while their male coun-terparts sponsored 19.

Twenty-five of the resolutions weremoved by single female members, threewere sponsored by multiple femalemembers and 14 jointly sponsored bymale and female members. Eighteenresolutions were raised by single malemembers while one was sponsored bymore than one male member, said thereport.

Women legislators performimpressively in NA last year

Two new poliocases surface inKhyber Agency

PESHAWARiNp

Increase in polio virus among the childrenof FATA added to the worries of the healthauthorities as two new polio cases surfacedin Khyber Agency on Wednesday.According to officials of IPI FATA, twochildren, Farmanullah, 06, and Nailahailing from Qaziabad and Tapu Mazakhelareas of tehsil Bara of Khyber Agency werefound affected with polio virus. The FATAofficials said that polio vaccination teamscould not reach the far flung areas of thetribal agencies due to security risks whichresulted in surge of polio cases among thelocal children.

Supporting Musharrafwas a political blunder: Marvi

KARACHI,iNp

Terming her support for former presidentGeneral (r) Pervez Musharraf as a politicalblunder, PML-N leader Marvi Memon saidon Wednesday that she would contest thenext general elections. Marvi was once avery close supporter of Musharraf and evenused his posters to run the PML-Q’selection campaign in the Gilgit-Baltistanelections 2009 due to which she wasscolded by her party high-ups. Addressingthe Karachi Bar Association, Marvi saidthat she would not return to the presentNational Assembly. She said that allpolitical leaderships, including old andnew, had been nurtured underdictatorship. “Had it been for power, Iwould not have resigned from parliament,”she added. Marvi said that the efforts oflawyers aimed at establishing justice andrule of law in Pakistan.

Pentagon looks forward to workingwith new ISI chief

WASHINGTONoNliNe

The US is looking forward to working withthe new head of the Inter-ServicesIntelligence of Pakistan, Pentagon said onWednesday, noting the US-Pakrelationship was critical for the region andAfghanistan. “We look forward to workingwith the new chief,” the Pentagonspokesman, Navy Captain John Kirby, saidin interview, when asked aboutannouncement of the new ISI chief. OnMarch 18, Lieutenant Gen Zaheerul Islamwould replace Lieutenant Gen AhmedShuja Pasha as the new ISI chief. UnderPasha, the US relationship with the ISI hadhit a new low. “We look forward to having agood partnership with Pakistan movingforward. That’s what our focus is on. Webelieve it is critical for the region and forthe mission in Afghanistan,” Kirby said.However, he said the US had nothing to sayon the appointment and the decision. “Thisis the decision that the civilian leadershipof the nation of Pakistan get to make. It isnot for us to make the comment one way orthe other their appointments to highoffice,” said the Pentagon spokesman.

President approvesjudges of PHC, SHC

ISLAMABADApp

President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesdayapproved confirmation of two additionaljudges of the Peshawar High Court andappointment of another two additionaljudges of the Sindh High Court. Those whohave been confirmed as additional judges ofthe Peshawar High Court are Justice SyedSajjad Hussain Shah and Justice YahyaAfridi. Judges, who have been appointed asadditional judges of the Sindh High Courtare Nadeem Akhtar and Shafi Siddique.

ISLAMABADiNp

CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry on Wednesdayfurther extended re-employment pe-riod of Supreme Court (SC) RegistrarDr Faqir Hussain (BPS-22) for twoyears on usual terms and conditions.

The registrar was already work-ing on contract basis and it was an-other extension, which was justifiedby an order of the CJP on basis of hisability and non-availability of hissubstitute. His previous extensionwas not seen by many among thelegal fraternity as healthy exerciseand they have expressed their opin-ions openly. The fraternity membersalso voiced their concerns over vari-ous occasions citing that the SC hadbound the Establishment Division inTariq Azizuddin’s case not to hiresecretaries in BPS-21 and BPS-22 onad hoc or contract basis, so the sameprecedent could be set in the apex

court as well.Former SCBA president Asma Ja-

hangir was more vocal and said thatall judicial posts should not be filledon ad hoc or contract basis. Thestatement from the SC said that theCJP had consulted four senior mostSC judges over the issue and theywere also shared the opinion thatFaqir might be re-employed. He alsodiscussed with the senior mostjudges the fact that in the absence ofany eligible officer of the SC to bepromoted to BPS-22, they might hirethe services of an officer from thegovernment department on transferor deputation basis, but this optioncould not be exercised in view of thefact that any new officer would taketime to get acquainted with the com-plex working of the apex court.

The SC registrar was also ex-offi-cio secretary of the Judicial Commis-sion of Pakistan, besides working assecretary of the Supreme Judicial

Council. Justifying the decision thestatement said, “No right of promo-tion of any officer of the SupremeCourt is being affected because cur-rently there is no officer in BPS-21 inSupreme Court Establishment. Theextension in period of re-employ-ment of Dr. Faqir Hussain is in linewith the relevant Government Rulesand judgment of this Court in PLD2011 SC 277. Therefore, the Hon’bleChief Justice of Pakistan ordered thefurther re-employment for two yearsof Dr. Faqir Hussain as RegistrarSupreme Court of Pakistan in BPS-22 w.e.f. 25.03.2012,” a press state-ment said.

It further said, “His re-employ-ment due to non-availability of suit-ably qualified/experienced, staff doesnot infringe upon the promotionalprospects and rights of the other offi-cers i.e. Additional Registrar and theDeputy Registrars of the SupremeCourt Establishment.”

SC registrar gets another two-year extension

More phones than

toilets in Indian

homes: censusNEW DELHI

iNp

Indian census data has revealed that morehomes in the country of 1.2 billion peoplehave a telephone than a toilet. The figures,collected during the 2011 census, shed alight on how India’s rapid communicationrevolution has spread through society butthat basic sanitation is still scarce. Dataunveiled on Tuesday said 47 percent of thecountry’s 330 million households have toiletfacilities, but that 63 percent of homes havetelephone connections — mostly mobiles.“Open defecation continues to be a bigconcern for the country as almost half of thepopulation do it,” Census Commissioner CChandramouli told reporters. The censusalso said that 30 percent of homes have noelectricity, 36 percent have no waterconnection with people having to fetch theirown, and only three percent havecomputers with Internet. Some 63 percentof people use wood to cook, and televisionis the most popular mode of entertainmentwith 47 percent of homes owning a set, thecensus reported.

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Thursday, 15 March, 2012

PAge 07‘paper one’ art show opens at Khaas gallery

ISLAMABADKASHif ABBASi

DESPITE Islamabad police’stall claims of controllingcar theft in the city, thecrime is increasing day-by-

day as 92 people have lost their vehi-cles in the federal capital during thefirst two months of 2012, however, thepolice have succeeded to recover only11 of them, it has been learnt.

Out of total 92 vehicles, 13 weresnatched at gunpoint from the city. Ac-cording to the information collected byPakistan Today, 50 vehicles, mostlycars, were stolen from various areas ofthe city during the month of Januarywhile 42 vehicles were stolen in Febru-ary. Car lifters operate in every corner ofthe city as they snatched and lifted vehi-cles almost from all areas of the capital.

During the month of February,Margalla Police Station topped the listwith eight car-lifting cases followed byKohsar Police Station where seven ve-hicles were stolen. Some six vehicleswere stolen in February from the juris-diction of Koral Police Station.

According to documents availablewith Pakistan Today, car-theft caseswere reported in every 14 police stationof the city. While talking to senior policeofficers, Pakistan Today observed thatcar-lifting and other crimes could not becontrolled until the Station House Offi-cers were not appointed on merit.

A senior police officer wishing notto be named said there was a group ofinfluential police inspectors, who dur-ing the last three years managed to get

SHO-ship at their desired police sta-tions. He said Inspector Qasim Niazi,Gulam Muhammad Baqir, RukhsarMehdi, Fayaz Tanoli, Fazl-ur-Rehman,Hussain Lasi and Inspector Mehboobare considered to be close to influentialpeople. By using their ‘connections’,they had been enjoying SHO-ship invarious police station of the city for thelast three years, he added.

Interestingly, notwithstandingpresence of dozens of competent in-spectors in the department, two influ-ential Sub-Inspectors includingFazl-ur-Rehaman and Sheikh Naeemhad also managed to get SHO-ship, thesource said. SI Fazl-ur-Rehman is en-

joying SHO-ship of Tarnol Police Sta-tion while Shiekh Naeem is posted atShahzad Town Police Station.

It is relevant to mention here thatformer Islamabad IGP Wajid Durraniintroduced a system for appointingSHOs after the candidates took writtentests and interviews, but the mecha-nism also fell victim topolitical influence. Thesources said there were30 eligible officers wait-ing to be appointed asSHO, but since theycould not exert any po-litical influence, theyhad been over-looked.

iSlAmABAD: Activists of custom Agents Association demonstrate in favour of their demands. STaff phOTO

Police helpless against car thievesg 92 vehicles stolen in first two months of 2012

10kg hashish, 14 winebottles seizedISLAMABAD: The city police onWednesday arrested 10 outlaws from vari-ous areas of the city and recovered 10.805gram hashish, three pistol, 14 wine bottlesand looted items from their possession.According to a spokesman of Islamabadpolice, Sihala police stopped a car (LEE-9740) at Bhinder stop for checking and re-covered 10 kilogram hashish from it whilein another strike they also recovered 530gram hashish from an accused Ishtiaq.Aabpara police nabbed two accused SalahUddin and Nabeel in possession of twowine bottles while ASI Sohail Akram fromKohsar police station arrested a bootleggerNasir Masih for having 12 wine bottles.ASI Imran Haider and Mumtaz Baig fromMargallah police apprehended GhulamQadir and Kamran for possessing two 30bore pistols. Sub-Inspector Nusrat Ali andASI Khalid Javed from Golra police nabbedImran and Sadiq for possessing two 12bore rifles and 175 gram hashish. ASI Man-zoor Hussain from Koral police arrestedQamar Mukhtar for possessing 30 borepistol while Sub-Inspector Muhammad Alifrom CIA police nabbed an accused Khalidbesides recovering a looted lap top fromhim. StAff RepoRt

Timely completion of Imam

Bari Complex ordered

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Deputy Com-missioner Amer Ali Ahmed has directedthe CDA project director and contractorto ensure the expeditious completion ofthe on-going construction work on theproject of Hazrat Bari Imam ShrineComplex. He was presiding over a meet-ing held here on Wednesday to reviewthe progress of the project of Hazrat BariImam Shrine Complex. The meeting wasattended by the Director, Develop-ment/Finance, ICT, Rana Akbar Hayat,Project Director, CDA, Ayaz Khan, con-tractor and officials of the Auqaf Depart-ment, Islamabad, says a press releaseissued here on Wednesday by the chiefcommissioner office. StAff RepoRt

encroachments

on the rise in

federal capitalISLAMABAD

App

Vendors continue to carry out theirbusiness activities on footpaths in thefederal capital causing problems forthe pedestrians and motorists.Various markets, including Aabpara,Faizabad, Melody, Blue Area, KarachiCompany and other parts of the cityare rife with encroachments. The growing encroachments have notonly marred the beauty of the city, butalso damaged the roads, causing prob-lems for pedestrians and commutersalike.In a sight becoming increasingly com-mon sight in almost all the markets ofthe city, shopkeepers encroach on thepavements in front of their shopswhile vendors set up stalls on roads,forcing pedestrians to walk in the mid-dle of the roads, besides disruptingtraffic flow. A customer at the Peshawar Moremarket said it had become almost im-possible to walk freely in the marketbecause of the encroachments. When contacted, a Capital Develop-ment Authority (CDA) EnforcementDepartment official said the authoritylaunched anti-encroachment campaigndrives to keep the roads and footpathsclear. He added that the CDA had alsowarned the shopkeepers and vendorsthat strict action would be takenagainst the encroachers.

New police station to be set up in G-13

ISLAMABADApp

Keeping in view the increasing population of the federal capital, the police de-partment has decided to set up police station at G-13 Markaz. The Islamabaddevelopment party had already secured conditional approval of the proposal ona summary moved by the department, a police source said. He said the new po-lice station along with the existing 16 police stations would help combat crimeeffectively in the city. The source said that security-related development proj-ects were subject to clearance from the planning and development division. Thenew police station project involves construction of station’s building at an esti-mated cost of Rs 37.221 million, barracks at an estimated cost of Rs 58.335 mil-lion and of six police posts in Sector G-13/1, 2, 3 and 4 costing approximatelyRs 51.115 million. The source said the Islamabad police were also working on aplan to ensure comprehensive security arrangements and install a state-of-the-art video surveillance system for prevention and detection of crimes and terror-ist activities. To curb car theft incidents, he said that cameras would be installedat all entry and exit points of the capital as well as police pickets.

ISB 15-03-2012_Layout 1 3/15/2012 2:01 AM


Islamabad

low

High

FrIdAy SATUrdAy SUNdAy22°C I 10°C 23°C I 13°C 25°C I 13°C

PrAyer TIMINgSFajr Sunrise Zuhr Asr Maghrib Isha

06:00 07:02 13:30 16:00 on sunset 19:00

CITy dIreCTory

PolICe eMergeNCy 15

AMBUlANCe 115

reSCUe 1122

HIlAl-e-AHMer 9250488

edHI FoUNdATIoN 2827844

BoMB dISPoSAl 9270698

FIre BrIgAde CeNTre 16

CIVIl deFeNCe 9262830

eMergeNCy HelP

HoSPITAlS

Blood BANK

PIMS Blood BANK 9261272

Poly ClINIC Blood BANK 9209123

CoMPlAINT

wAPdA 111-000-118

SUI gAS 1199

rAIlwAyS

CITy STATIoN (eNqUIry) 117

reSerVATIoN 9273614

rAIlwAy PolICe 1333

AIrPorT

FlIgHT eNqUIry 114

PIA reSerVATIoN 111-786-786

CollegeS / UNIVerSITIeS

INTerNATIoNAl ISlAMIC UNIVerSITy 9260765

BAHrIA UNIVerSITy 9260002

NUMl 9257677

qUAId-e-AZAM UNIVerSITy 90642098

ArId AgrICUlTUre UNIVerSITy 9290151

FJwU 9273235

rIPHA INTerNATIoNAl UNIVerSITy 111510510

NCA rAwAlPINdI 5770423

PUNJAB lAw College 4421347

MAHrooF INT 2222920

PIMS 9261170

Poly ClINIC 9218300

CdA 9221334

SHIFA INTerNATIoNAl 4603666

AlI 4444435

dISTrICT HqS 5556311-14

UlTrASoNIC ClINIC 2824862

Holy FAMIly 9290319

mONsTEr TruCk IN IslmAbAD

Monster truck in Islamabad.

DrummING CIrClE

dATe ANd TIMe: 05:00 PM, weeKly eVeNTVeNUe: THe CeNTre For ArTS & CUlTUre

our drumming circle is a (free!) ongoing eventand is held every Friday from 5 to 6 p.m.we are having a great time, and want to sharethe good time with you! our drumming circle haschildren ...

CloUdy

weATHer UPdATeS

21°C

INCEPTION OF AN ECHO

repercussions of social injustice, economic inequalityand suppression of marginalized segments of societyare subtly initiating a dialogue with the artists’ soulsand with their surroundings. Faiza Khan’s expressionson canvas question the intellectual suppression andinjustices that confine a person. Ata Turab’s poetryprobes to the value of human life and emotions.

dATe: MAr 14, 2012 AT 04:00PMVeNUe: HUNerKAdA ArT gAllery & CollegeoF VISUAl ANd PerForMINg ArTS 217-BMArgAllA roAd NorTH F-10/3, ISlAMABAd.

dATe: MAr 20 - APr 21, 2012 VeNUe: F-9 PArK, ISlAMABAd

12°C


Adelicately beautiful contemporaryart show titled ‘Paper One’ openedat Khaas Art Gallery which is an in-teresting and experimental en-deavour by four Lahore-based

artists that deal with the form and politics of thematerial ‘paper’ as a medium of expression.

The artists who are participating in the exhi-bition include Asad Hayee, Ghulam Hussain,Hassan Mujtaba and Sheraz Faisal.

Throughout history, the paper has featuredas a very basic, nonetheless important surfaceused by artists all over the world. The four par-ticipating artists approach the topic in a uniqueway, exploring the tactility of the paper andusing its simplicity to their advantage. They haveachieved this by using poetic hand-madeNepalese paper or by cutting and constructing orby combining layers to create wasli paper essen-tially used for miniature painting (layers of watercolour paper bound together by hand to create acard-like surface).

Each artist has explored the endless possibil-ities of using ‘paper’ in their own way and there-fore each artwork holds its own characteristiccharm.

This show is a combination of artists who in-vestigate the politics of a simple material -“Paper” - which has been a basic material usedby artists over centuries. Though the subjectmatter of all four artists is diverse, each one ofthem engages differently with surface and form.

Each explores the ‘meaning’ of paper in apersonal manner by cutting, constructing orcombining its layers to make ‘wasli’ (a traditionalsurface) or enjoys the poetry of handmade paperprepared by craftswomen in remote areas ofNepal.

Asad Hayee is a graduate in Fine Arts fromNational College of Arts in 2001, who has beeninterested in gender politics from the beginningof his career. His approach towards the medium

is simple yet made complex through the con-struction of the scheme.

His metaphorical approach is the soul ofwork, which generates a dialogue for the viewer.His use of ‘Tie’ and ‘Rose’ as metaphor, binds thenarrative of both genders collectively.

Ghulam Hussain graduated in fine arts fromNational College of Arts in 2010. He is a trained

miniaturist and opts to experiment with thegenre which has a hallowed history.

He combines his knowledge of weaving, thetraditional craft and take up the debate of minia-ture as ‘High Art’ or ‘Craft’. As a parallel the‘Used’ pages from school work books commenton the politics of power and social structures of‘Society’.

Hassan Mujtaba graduated in visual arts anddesign from Beaconhouse National University in2009. He challenges social status in a thoughtprovoking way.

His interpretation of the use of language indaily life looks at both ‘Urdu’ and ‘English’ as atool in society. Mujtaba, now scrutinises thehuman behaviour and has worked ‘origami’ tomake forms like boats, airplanes or by simplyshredding paper to show the role of power anddesire of control.

Sheraz Faisal has Masters degree in designfrom College of Art and Design, Punjab Univer-sity in 2008. His approach to current politicalturmoil is evident in his minimalistic works.

He has used cut outs of bullets, roofed withflowers and petals, with a strong sense of designon a similarly patterned wasli. The compositionsare camouflaged sensitively to create visual illu-sions. Though the visuals layers appear to beveiled and unveiled, yet create a room for dia-logue.

The exhibition will continue till March 25.

‘Paper One’ art showopens at Khaas Gallery

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IslamabadHeC trains 30 external evaluatorsof Teachers’ education Council


As many as 30 external evaluators ofNational Accreditation Council forTeachers’ Education (NACTE) re-ceived training at a three-day work-shop organised by the HigherEducation Commission (HEC). The training workshop was aimed atpreparing a selected group of exter-nal evaluators who may assist thecouncil as master/lead trainers forthe training of new external evalua-tors, conduct accreditation visits andprovide guidance for accreditationpreparation to the interested institu-tions.Dr Vivienne Baumfield, professor ofpedagogy, policy and innovation atthe School of Education, Universityof Glasgow, UK, was the resourceperson. She shared the quality assurancepractices in other countries. Thetraining also included discussions onnational accreditation standards, ac-creditation tools, documents andprocedures. Speaking at the opening session,Higher Education Commission Qual-ity Assurance Agency Director Gen-eral Fida Hussain emphasised theneed for quality assurance and foradding workforce to assist the qual-ity assurance activities. He appreciated the efforts of theNACTE to bring quality in teachers’education. “Quality of teachers’ edu-cation institutions will ensure qual-ity teaching in the country,” headded.NACTE Chairperson Dr MunawarMirza explained the background ofthe council’s establishment, its man-date and benefits of accreditation.

RAWALPINDIApp

PUNJAB government dis-tributed Rs 2.1 millionworth of cash prizes inall the seven tehsils ofthe Rawalpindi district

among the students who secured po-sitions in the speech, essay-writingand art competitions held duringNovember and December 2011.

Prize distribution ceremonieswere held in the Rawalpindi districttehsils.

The competitions were held onthe special instructions of PunjabChief Minister Muhammad ShahbazSharif.

The prize distribution ceremonyfor boys was held in the GovernmentHigh school DAV College Road. Forgirls, the ceremony was held in theGovernment Girls ElementarySchool, Khyaban-e-Sir Syed.

Provincial assembly member ZiaUllah Shah was the chief guest atboth the functions.

He distributed prizes among thewinning students.

Zia Ullah Shah while addressingthese ceremonies said the PunjabGovernment was paying special at-tention to promoting and improvingthe creative capabilities of studentsthrough co-curricular activities.

He added that education is thetop priority of the government andthat Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharifhad taken solid steps to improve theeducational facilities, raise the stan-dards of education and to make theexamination system transparentthrough implementing the Educa-tion Reforms Programme.

He said the Punjab governmentis handing out prizes to students toencourage them. He stated that thegovernment had provided higher ed-ucation scholarships to deservingstudents by establishing the PunjabEducation Endowment Fund.

Shah said the Punjab govern-ment’s mission to bring changethrough education was the catalystbehind the establishment of theDanish schools for the underprivi-leged children in Punjab.

He added that under the pro-gramme, high quality educational fa-cilities were provided in differentphases to the children.

He said co-curricular activitieslike speech, essay writing and artcompetitions, help in improving andpromoting self-confidence and cre-ative activities among students. SPRINg FEStIvAL IN NuML

ON MARcH 16: The National Uni-versity of Modern Languages(NUML) students will welcomespring by organising a festival onMarch 16.

The preparations for the festivalhave already been started by the uni-versity students.

The Jashan-e-Baharan festivalhas been celebrated, since the pastmany years, to welcome the spring.

Jashan-e-Baharan being a color-ful festival provides the opportunityto students to enjoy themselves out-side of their daily routines.

Holding celebrations in themonth of spring is the annual fea-ture of the university’s extra curric-ular activities. The festival will bearranged by different faculty mem-bers and students.

Different stalls will be set up, in-

cluding food outlets, seasonal fruitjuices and song dedication stalls.

The students would also fly kitesas a part of the festival.ScIENtIStS uRgED tO EN-

SuRE MANAgEMENt OF RE-

SEARcH KNOWLEDgE:

Pakistan Agricultural ResearchCouncil (PARC) Social Sciences Di-vision Member Dr MuhammadSharif stressed upon the scientists toplay their role for the managementof the knowledge generated fromdifferent research and developmentactivities.

According to press statement is-sued by the council, he was speakingat the Cereal Knowledge Bank (CKB)workshop at the PARC headquarters.

The CKB is the world’s leadingrepository of extension and trainingmaterials related to cereal and cerealproduction.

It was launched in January 2008and is managed by the InternationalRice Research Institute (IRRI) andthe International Maize and WheatImprovement Center (CIMMYT) as aservice to people working to improvethe well-being of cereal farmers andconsumers.

Sharif expressed the hope thatthe participants of the workshop willput forward recommendations forthe Pakistan Cereal Knowledge Bankand formulate a mechanism for itscreation and maintenance by differ-ent stake holders for increasing theproduction, storage and marketingof cereals and its products in Pak-istan.

Directorate of Scientific Infor-mation Director Shahnaz Zubari andIRRI consultant Dr David Shiresalso spoke on the occasion.

US researchers identifynew drug target forkidney disease

ISLAMABADApp

Researchers from Mount Sinai School ofMedicine have identified a regulatorprotein that plays a crucial role in kid-ney fibrosis, a condition that leads tokidney failure. They found that the regulator provides anew therapeutic target for millions ofAmericans affected by kidney failure.The research team studied threemouse models of kidney fibrosis: onegroup contained HIV viral proteins in-corporated into their genome; the sec-ond group was injected with a highdose of folic acid; in the third mousemodel, kidney filtration was blocked inone kidney.

CdA to organise tent pegging competition


The Capital Development Authority(CDA) will organise a three-day tentpegging competition here at Fatima Jin-nah (F-9) Park from tomorrow (Friday).According to a press release issued hereon Wednesday, the tent pegging compe-tition will be inaugurated by CDA Chair-man Engineer Farkhand Iqbal whilePrime Minister’s Task Force Chairmanon Islamabad Faisal Sakhi Butt will bethe chief guest.The event would be participated byprominent tent pegging clubs. Morethan 300 house riders from Punjab andKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) will takepart in the competition.On this occasion, different stalls of deli-cious foods will be established while dif-ferent traditional and cultural folkmusic, camel ride and pony ride will addmore colours to this mega entertain-ment event.

radio Pakistan to organise ‘Sham-e-ghazal’


Radio Pakistan will organise a specialmusic concert, ‘Sham-e-Ghazal’ on Sat-urday (March 17) at Bokhari Auditoriumof the National Broadcasting House,marking the advent of the spring.Renowned singers, Humera Channa,Nooran Lal, Ali Abbas, rubab playerGulab Khan and alghoza player AkbarKhamesoo Khan will perform live formusic fans.The concert will be in two phases – 6pmto 8pm and 9pm to 11p.m. All mediumwave and FM channels of Radio Pak-istan, including FM-101 and FM-93, willbroadcast the Sham-e-Ghazal live.Compered by prominent artist ShujaatHashmi, the concert will be attended bymembers of the parliament, journalistsfrom print and electronic media andpeople belonging to business commu-nity as well as other walks of life.The programme will also be live audioas well as video streamed on Radio Pak-istan’s website www.radio.gov.pk

Bahria Town ridingClub inaugurated


The inauguration ceremony of BahriaTown Riding Club was held here atBahria Paradise, Bahria Town, onWednesday. Bahria Town Chairman Malik Riaz Hus-sain was the chief guest on the occasion.Bahria Town Riding Club is a state-of-the-art club offering world class ridingfacilities, exclusively to distinguishedresidents, employees and students ofBahria Town. Bahria Town Vice ChiefExecutive Commodore retd) M Ilyas anda large number of guests were also pres-ent at the venue.


There is no substitute for books,especially for students, thoughthey are elementary source ofknowledge, wisdom, informa-tion, joy and entertainment.

This was stated by Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) ViceChancellor Dr Masoom Yasinzaiwhile inaugurating the NationalBook Foundation’s mobile li-brary, titled ‘Books on Wheels’at the university campus onWednesday.

The Travellers Book Club isbecoming a popular phenome-non in the city and the vehiclescan be seen parked outside col-leges, universities, public parksand markets.

People come to read and buybooks at the mobile reading fa-cility providing ‘books at theirdoorsteps.’

Prime Minister Yousuf RazaGilani had inaugurated theNBF’s Travellers Book Club ear-lier on February 27th.

The two mobile libraries, abus and a smaller vehicle, willprovide reading facilities to thestudents of the university onThursday and Friday.

Students, faculty membersand the general public can alsobuy books from the mobile facil-ity on a 15-20 percent discount,says a press release issued bythe NBF.

A large number of studentsof various university depart-ments visited the reading cluband picked up books of theirchoice.

Books on poetry, fiction, his-tory, philosophy, education, re-ligion, children and women areon display. The interior of thevehicles is carpeted and one canalso sit on the sofas inside thebus.

Appreciating the NBF’s en-deavors for the promotion of thereading culture in the society,Dr Yasinzai said everyoneshould support such book-friendly initiatives.

“I personally believe that byresorting to books, we can con-front the forces of ignorance, ex-tremism and obscurantism,”said the vice chancellor. “We aretrying our level best to promotebook reading culture at our uni-versity,” he said. Our central li-brary, Dr Raziuddin SiddiquiMemorial Library (DRSML) isalso well-equipped with around200,000 books.”

He hoped the NBF wouldkeep sending its “books onwheels” to the university.

Dean of Natural Sciences DrQaisar Mushtaq and Depart-ment of Economics chairpersonDr Aliya H Khan were also pres-ent on the occasion.

The NBF was represented bySales Deputy Director Murad AliMohmand.

bOOks ON WHEEls

NBF Travellers’Book Club presents mobile library

Punjab distributes Rs 2.1m among students

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Islamabad

iSlAmABAD: Woman watch decoration stuff at the fAtA and Khyber pakhtunkhwa Youth festival at a local hotel. STaff phOTO

Pollen allergy to hit capital in mid March

ISLAMABADApp

With the advent of the spring season inthe capital, the number of patients suffer-ing from pollen allergies has witnessed asharp increase at the city’s hospitals andclinics. Talking to a private news chan-nel, Dr Ayaz Saeed said pollen allergysymptoms include sneezing and a runnynose, itching and watery eyes, coughing,difficulty in breathing, wheezing andeventually attacks of asthma. In addition, there may be itching on theskin accompanied by gastro-intestinalproblems in some cases.He advised pollen allergy patients toavoid eating spicy food: “Do not use per-fumes, avoid walking in the garden, usewet cloths for dusting, avoid using car-pets, do not open car windows, use vac-uum cleaners, use sun glasses whenoutdoors and avoid using hot water.These are the measures which can controlit to a limited extent.” According to thePakistan Meteorological Department(PMD) the atmospheric concentration ofthe pollen of pines, grass and cannabis ishigh in the federal capital. The PMD ad-vised the individuals sensitive to pollen totake precautionary measures. “The trendin allergic pollen will change and the con-centration of paper mulberry pollen willalso increase and dominate the other al-lergic pollen after mid of March,” the MetOffice said.

Facebook use affects

mood differently to

stress, relaxationISLAMABAD

App

Researchers measured people’s physicaland psychological responses while theyused Facebook, performed a stressful task,or just relaxed, and found each of these ac-tivities appears to have a different effect onmood and arousal. Dr Maurizio Mauri of the Institute ofHuman, Language and Environmental Sci-ences at IULM University in Milan, Italy,and colleagues, write about their findingsin the peer-reviewed journal ‘Cyberpsy-chology, Behaviour, and Social Network-ing’. A press statement on the study wasreleased earlier this week, Xinhua re-ported. In their background information,the researchers explain that few studieshave tried to find out which aspects of thesocial networking experience makes siteslike Facebook so successful, although it isknown that their use can have both posi-tive and negative effects.For their study, they measured specificpsychophysiological patterns in 30 healthy volunteers aged 19 to 25 dur-ing a three-minute exposure to each ofthree conditions: while using Facebook(via their own personal accounts), whileobserving a slide show of natural land-scapes (a relaxation condition), or whilecompleting a Stroop test and mathematicaltask (a stress condition).The measures included skin conductance,blood volume pulse, brainwave patterns(using electroencephalograms), muscle ac-tivity (using electromyography), breathingactivity, and pupil dilation.

DTCE celebrates International Women’s DayISLAMABAD

StAff RepoRt

The Devolution Trust for CommunityEmpowerment (DTCE), in collaborationwith Aurat Foundation, celebrated theInternational Women’s Day, while inter-acting with girls, an inspiring future,being the theme of the day.

The programme was held in connec-tion with a campaign under the GenderEquity Programme (GEP) to highlightwomen’s issues in Pakistan. The GEP isa five-year programme implemented bythe Aurat Foundation (AF) in collabora-tion with The Asia Foundation (TAF)and with the support of American people

through United States Agency for Inter-national Development (USAID).

The GEP aims at bridging the gendergap in Pakistan by proactively support-ing the development of women. The pro-gramme seeks to facilitate behaviouralchange in the society by enabling womento access information, resources and in-stitutions, and improve societal attitudestowards women’s rights. The DTCE isthe national partner in this project.

The campaign is focusing on raisingawareness of gender-based violence,providing a forum for dialogue and in-formation sharing, lobbying with thepublic sector stakeholders regarding thenational and international commitments

on gender, expressing solidarity withsurvivors and victims of gender-basedviolence and celebrating the economic,political and social achievements of thewomen of Pakistan.

Underlining the day’s significance,Rafat Yasmin, Communication andMedia Officer of AF, said that the inter-national Women’s Day was being ob-served since 1911. She highlighted theachievements of courageous Pakistanigirls who made their marks in differentwalks of life.

Public service messages made by theGEP were also screened. The messageswere part of the GEP media campaignfeaturing successful Pakistani girls, in-

cluding cricketers, scuba divers, moun-taineers, carpenter, karate championsand peace activists.

Promoters of the talk shows basedon gender-based violence prevailing inPakistan were also shared with the par-ticipants. The talk shows are made underUSIAD-supported GEP.

DTEC Chief Operating Officer AzharBashir Malik said that it had given himimmense pleasure that they were cele-brating the International Women’s Dayand paying tribute to brave Pakistaniwomen. He said Pakistani womenshould continue to contribute to nationalprogress by accepting challenges andplaying their worthy role.

Three-day anti-poliocampaign concludes

ISLAMABADApp

A three-day national anti-polio vaccina-tion campaign to administer drops tochildren under five-year age concludedhere on Wednesday throughout thecountry. According to an official of Na-tional Polio Eradication Programme,20,104 supervisors and 1,830 medicalofficers were assigned to supervise vac-cination teams.He said 76,587 trained house-to-housevaccination teams, 5,184 trained transitteams and 9,723 fixed points trainedvaccination teams targeted approxi-mately 33.4 million children.He said the main focus of the campaignwas administering anti-polio drops tochildren living in high risk areas. Poliovaccine used in the country was safe andeffective and was produced internation-ally while the World Health Organisa-tion (WHO) has approved its quality, hesaid. He said the vaccine was the samethat had been used in most of the worldto eradicate polio, including Saudi Ara-bia and Indonesia.

Vitamins helpboost memory

ISLAMABADApp

Adults who take vitamin and mineralsupplements for almost a decade per-form better on one type of memory testthan those who do not take such supple-ments. Some people especially thosewho are deficient in vitamins and min-erals might get a memory benefit fromboosting the nutrients in their diet, BBCreported. It is possible that people whohave better thinking and memory skillsmight pay closer attention to what theyare eating. Researchers studied 4,447men and women in 1994, when thestudy participants were 45 to 60 yearsold, researchers split them randomlyinto two groups. Half of them took a daily supplement thatincluded vitamins C and E, selenium,zinc, and beta-carotene for eight years.The others took a nutrient-free placebopill each day. None of the participantsknew whether they were taking the vita-min or the sham pills. When the eightyears were up, researchers stopped givingparticipants their assigned pills, and theycould choose on their own whether or notto take vitamin supplements.

Poor children miss out

on playtime: report ISLAMABAD

App

CHILDREN in poor urbanneighborhoods need morechances for old-fashionedplaytime in their dailylives, says a new report

from the American Academy of Pedi-atrics (AAP). A number of experts haveraised concerns that children thesedays have little time for unstructuredplay which, they say, is important forkids’ physical and mental development,Health news reported.

The new report follows anotherfrom the AAP a few years ago, which ar-gued that US suburban children are“overscheduled” with formal classesand lessons, leaving them little time forsimple play. “That’s not the case forpoor children,” said Dr Regina M Mil-teer, lead author of the new study. “Butthey’re still not getting free, unstruc-tured playtime,” she told.

For poor children, in cities in par-ticular, the problems are a lack of safeplaces to play, parents who are busytrying to pay for housing and other ba-sics and schools that are cutting out re-cess and physical education to makemore time for academics.

Schools nationwide have been re-ducing time for recess and plays. But

those in poor areas, in particular, arefeeling pressure to narrow disparitiesin student performance. “In close toone-third of schools with the highestpoverty rates, recess has been com-pletely eliminated,” Milteer said.

The findings do not prove that re-cess, was the reason. But, Milteer said,it makes sense that kids, like adults, arebetter able to focus if they get a littlebreak time from their work.

That same study also found thatkids who lacked regular recess timewere more likely to be black, low-in-come and live in large cities, versus kidswho routinely had recess.

One way to help poor urban kids isto “encourage schools to keep recessand physical activity on the schedule,”Milteer said. Cities and neighborhoodorganisations should also provide more“safe spaces” for kids to play, Milteersaid. That could mean moves like keep-ing school playgrounds open in theevenings and weekends, with supervi-sion. Milteer said it’s also important forparents to remember that those expen-sive toys that they often cannot affordare not necessarily the best ones fortheir children’s development anyway.

Simple toys and games, and timeoutdoors with their parents, go a longway, Milteer said. “One thing that chil-dren always want is attention from

their parents.”vARIOuS StEPS tAKEN tO IM-

PLEMENt ANtI-NARcOtIcS

POLIcy: The Narcotics Control Min-istry has taken various steps for the im-plementation of the Anti-NarcoticsPolicy to address the prevailing drugsituation in the country. This wasstated by a Narcotics Ministry officialwhile talking to the APP. He said thekey element of the Anti-Narcotics Pol-icy is to reduce the demand by focusingon drug demand prevention and thetreatment of drug users.

He added that the policy seeks toenhance public participation in com-bating drug abuse, strengthening drugenforcement structures and boostingtreatment and rehabilitation services.

He stated that the policy also em-phasised on coordination and coopera-tion among the federal and provincialagencies and departments involved inanti-narcotics activities.

“The Anti-Narcotics Policy willreenergise the existing national DrugLaw Enforcement institutions, buildthe Anti Narcotics Force capacity, de-velop an effective coordination andcontrol mechanism and mobilise thepeople of the country - especially theyouth and institutions - to ensure theiractive participation in eradicatingdrugs,” he said.

ISB 15-03-2012_Layout 1 3/15/2012 2:01 AM

Editor’s mail 11Thursday, 15 March, 2012

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected]. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

Sharif Brothers’ denialSharif Brothers are denying that they

have not received any money fromYounas Habib of Mehran Bank, while heis claiming that he has paid personally Rs3.5 million to Nawaz Sharif at his homeand Rs 2.5million was transferred toShahbaz Sharif through TelegraphicTransfer on 27September 1993. FormerISI Chief Asad Durrani has admitted inthe Supreme Court that he distributedmoney to the politicians on the order ofCOAS General Aslam Beg for forming theIJI as a counter force to the PPP.

One fails to understand why theSharif Brothers are not apologising to thenation for this act. They should havemoral courage to accept their wrongdo-ing. Everybody knows that Nawaz Sharifwas very close to the army establishmentand it was General Zia-ul-Haq and Gen-eral Jilani, who adopted him as their po-litical heir, with a common factor of hateagainst the Pakistan Peoples Party.

The Sharif Brothers should appear inthe Supreme Court to clear themselvesfrom the charges of receiving taintedmoney, if they are not guilty. It is timefor Sharif Brothers to prove that they aremen of dignity. They have been fre-quently calling upon Zardari to returnthe looted US$ 60million, now in Swissbanks.

S T HUSSAINLahore

Smoking is dangerousWe all know smoking is hazardous

and it has harmful effects. But still theyouth is attracted towards a piece of to-bacco which just burns them from inside.Everybody is kind of aware of the disas-ters a cigarette can cause but the ques-tion is why do they still go towards it? Ifwe talk about the youth, to smoke is con-sidered to be "cool".

Smoking can obviously be not com-pletely banned in Pakistan but at least itcould be done for the people under-18. Itseems really not good when guys of not amature age smoke just because therefriends are doing so. Why is cigaretteavailable to students under-18? Can’tthere be any law for it? Cigarettes are nota big thing to get, drugs are also easilyavailable everywhere. The effects ofsmoking on human health are seriousand in many cases, deadly.

MAHRUKH JAVEDKarachi

Haqqani will speak moreHusain Haqqani was denying every-

thing because he was in Pakistan underthe danger of being arrested, but now heis out of the country, safe and sound, andis admitting that he had contacts withMansoor Ijaz.

It is likely that more disclosureswould come from his side and mostprobably it would be established that hewas the main linchpin in the Memogatescandal. It is also a possibility that hemay come out with more lethally cob-webbed conspiracies. On whose indica-tions he wrote a book against his owncountry and on whose go-ahead he engi-neered the Memogate is not a million-dollar question. May Allah guide him touse his genius for the benefit of his moth-erland!

BAZGHA AYUBIslamabad

Talks with TalibanThe increased hostility that the US

troops face in Afghanistan is apparentlybecause they have had enough of foreigncontrol over their territory. That manyAmerican soldiers have been killed bynone other than their counterparts in theAfghan security forces opens a windowinto the realm of reality.

The Americans may have triumphedin killing Osama bin Laden (OBL) anddislodging the Al-Qaeda network in theregion, but that is just a micro-battle inthe backdrop of the protracted and mas-sive scale counter-insurgency that rocksAfghanistan.

The change in the American warstrategy in Afghanistan also indicates therealization that what they had set out toachieve in Afghanistan would be impos-sible in the manner that the US hasadopted and continued for the past onedecade.

The military strategy needs to be re-placed by a political one thus the initia-tion of talks with the Qatar office of theTaliban. If any workable solution is to befound, it would surely start from thisprocess and would certainly end on ittoo. The journey that both the Talibanand America have embarked upon is along and tedious one as it is based upona precedence of unreliability and incon-sistency.

It isn’t impossible but surely a lot willdepend upon how the Americans dealwith the Taliban. The famous US pen-chant for unilateralism needs to be re-placed by a multilateral approach whereall stakeholders should be taken onboardthe reconciliation process. That talkingto the Taliban is surely important, butwho does the talking is more significanthere.

Can a solution be possible without ei-ther Afghanistan or Pakistan as activeparticipants? If yes, then let’s just waitwith our fingers crossed to see the out-come of this US-Taliban bilateral dia-logue.

PROFESSOR KABIL KHANPeshawar

The water AccordWhile the Water Accord of 1991 has

been claimed to be a landmark supposedto solve the issue of water apportionmentwith Punjab bending backwards to allowequal share to Sindh i.e., 37 percent forPunjab and Sindh each. This concessionwas apparently made to build Kalabaghdam as an incentive but Sindh has re-tracted from the plan as Kalabagh damwas never built and Sindh does not evenwant to share any water from Indus withPunjab.

It does not even want link canals ofChashma-Jhelem and Taunsa-Panjnadto be operated claiming entire water ofIndus for Sindh province. Even IRSA hastwo members from Sindh appointed bydictator Gen Musharraf to appease Sindhto the dismay of Punjab.

The authors of Water Accord of 1991have since capitulated by bargaining Kal-abagh dam for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KP) and removal of a ban on becoming aprime minister for the third time. Sowhere is the Water Accord since twodecades when Kalabagh dam is not to bebuilt as agreed by the movers and shak-ers of Water Accord thus sealing the fateof Pakistan forever?

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

Peace with IndiaHindu humanitarian Sri Ravi

Shankar, the so-called peace icon, cameto Pakistan on the 12 March for a three-day visit with an aim to urge the leader-ship of the two neighbouring nuclearpowers of South Asia to find peaceful so-lutions of all the outstanding issues bypromoting friendship and understandingand dialogue. Before embarking on suchmission, he should have identified themajor irritants between the two coun-tries.

He is not the first person who hascome from India on goodwill and friend-ship mission. I am in my 70s and remem-ber the umpteen number of such visitsfrom both sides since 1947 to promotefriendship and to ensure cordial relationsbetween these two nuclear charged coun-tries. Both countries have fought fourwars plus innumerable border skirmishessince independence without finding apermanent solution for peace. Such visits

can never bear fruit unless the major is-sues like Kashmir dispute and riverwater’s control are not resolved.

India is not prepared to talk on In-dian-held Kashmir as their constitutionshows the entire Kashmir as part of India(Atoot Ang). According to the India Inde-pendence Act of 1947, the division ofIndia has not been fair at the time of par-tition.

Kashmir was to come to Pakistanbeing Muslim majority area. However,since the ruler at the time of partitionwas a Hindu, he asked for military sup-port from India. India exploited his help-lessness and sent its troops after getting afake accession deed signed from him andgot the control of Jammu and Kashmir.It was a conspiracy which must be inves-tigated and the people of both the coun-tries should be told about the facts.

The UN resolution of 1949 has al-ready given a decision for free and fair

plebiscite in Kashmir to which both thecountries are signatories. But India isavoiding the implementation of this reso-lution on one pretext or the other.

Similarly, India after taking over thecontrol of three western rivers after wateraccord ie, Ravi, Sutlaj and Beas, they arenow diverting the water of three easternrivers ie, Indus, Jhelum and Chenabwhich were supposed be used by Pak-istan. India is violating all the water ac-cords and agreements and is bent uponmaking Pakistan a barren country. TheChenab river flow has been severely in-terrupted due to Indian's filling of Bagh-liar-1 reservoir.

Similarly, they have plans to divertthe waters of all the three western riversto irrigate Rajhisthan area. They are vio-lating the byelaws of International Com-mission for Irrigation and Drainage(ICID) by stopping flow of waters to Pak-istan for irrigation purposes. So what do

they expect from us in such peace mis-sions. It is preposterous to expect afriendly hand from Pakistan and I thinkit is a cruel joke on Pakistan to send sucha peace icon or a delegation withoutdoing something positive for Pakistan.

It is a pity that Pakistan has grantedIndia MFN (most favoured nation) statuswhere in India would draw maximumbenefits in trade. What favour India hasdone to Pakistan ever since the inde-pendence. The Indian government andRAW have left no stone unturned toharm Pakistan and perhaps have not rec-onciled with the creation of anothercountry (Pakistan) out of Akhand Bharat.They should come with two point agendaonly: One to resolve long outstandingKashmir issue and two, the control of wa-ters of rivers flowing into Pakistan, to en-sure peace in the region.

MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJALahore

lawless larkano

Salute to Pakistan ArmyIt looked impressive when the French

Army Chief Gen Bertrand Ract-Madouxlaid a floral wreath at the Yadgar-e-Shuhada outside the GHQ on March 13, agesture of recognition of the matchlesscontribution of Pakistan armed forces’jawans and officers, by a coalition part-ner, which the Americans and other Natomember countries should also follow.Gen Kayani, while speaking on the occa-sion, rightly said that the sacrifices madeby the Pakistan army were more thanthat that of the Nato forces inAfghanistan, “therefore it required ap-preciation and not the baseless accusa-tions.”

This leads us to draw a little compari-son between the Pakistan armed forcesand the contemporary armies of theworld. The most unforgettable and inKarzai’s words “unforgivable” act of bru-tality in Kandahar by the American

troops killing a number of unarmedAfghan civilians, and a number of similarincidents by the Americans, remind us ofthe pressure and frustration as they donot willingly accept their postings intothe war zones of Afghanistan or else-where in the combat areas. Recently, aMajor of American army, in its head-quarters in USA, opened fire on his col-leagues, killing four of them, just becausehe was opposed to his posting toAfghanistan.

One wonders why the Pakistan armytroops face a similar kind of pressure orfrustration while going into war. Whyeven a single incident of such kind hasnever occurred in the entire history ofPakistan military? There might havebeen at the beginning difference of opin-ion on whether or not the war on terrorwas the war for Pakistan, but later whenit started engulfing Pakistan and hitting

its security forces, the consensus andfocus led to not only motivation butsweeping actions by the forces in whichour troops’ individual resolve for valourand sacrifice was seen at the peak.

Not to mention that they have ren-dered over 3700 martyrdoms in this on-going war. But the great aspect which isnot highlighted is the height of patience,resoluteness and resilience demonstratedby our men and officers during thecourse of this asymmetrical warfare.They had to offer their life while notopening fire at the target hiding behindthe human shields; the terrorists madelocals their hostages and used them astheir shields. The troops could have fol-lowed the rule ‘everything is fair in loveand war’, but instead they paid the priceof such a patience and love for theircountrymen by giving their lives.

The inhuman attitude of US-Nato

troops like pissing on the dead bodiesand burning of the copies of Quran inAfghanistan shows the level of ethics andmorality the troops of the most civilisedworld adhere to. Same tactics we havebeen hearing of the Indian forces demon-strating in IHK and other troubled areas.Imagine what kind of a holocaust suchcivilised world’s individuals can createwhile in possession of nuclear weapons?

We Pakistanis have maintained sucha capability only for our survival. And ifthe French chief of army staff salutestheir martyred colleagues at Yadgar-e-Shuhads, it is the respect that is due fromall the world forces chiefs because theirsacrifices have prevented any other 9/11from happening in America, 7/7 in Lon-don and Madrid bombing in Spain. Theyare of no match, literally.

FAROOQ ADILIslamabad

My city, KarachiMy love for Karachi urged me to re-

flect my feelings regarding my belovedcity on paper and of course your brand isbest to write for as it is the bestseller andextensively read around the region. Cur-rent law and order situation of Karachi iscontrolled and peace is maintained. I re-ally wish from the deepest corner of myheart that this will lasts forever. Unfortu-nately, the peace here in Karachi in usu-ally not very long lasting. You neverknow when the situation turns worse.

Karachi, which was once known for

its ocean, is now known for the blood-streams running through the streets. Theunrest usually marked with the protestfor the member of any political party orcivil society being killed. Protests, whichat start seem to be calm, later turn hor-rendous. In the end, several other livescome to an end and obviously this is notlike there is "blood for blood" but "bloodfor the sake of blood".

Street crimes, like mobile snatchinghas become a serious issue for the city ofQuaid. People are afraid to visit Karachiwhich is the largest cosmopolitan city ofPakistan. This is not good at all for

Karachi and the tourism industry of Pak-istan. My eyes go wet, heart sinks and Ifind myself in great grief by writing thatthis is not actually the city of Quaid butthe city which was forcefully moulded forpersonal interests.

Allah makes it vivid in Quran thatman has to do something if he wants toachieve his desires. Karachi'ites are theonly one who can make this city peaceful.On behalf of every Karachi'ite I amthankful to those who have made peacepossible now. Lots of love for Karachi.

AREEBA HUSSAINKarachi

The constant state of lawlessness in Sindh, especially inShikarpur, Jacobabad, Kandh Kot, Kashmor and Jacobabad hasmade the life of natives miserable. These districts have pro-duced a high degree of lawlessness and banditry. People arebeing kidnapped; they are being killed in tribal clashes, they arebeing harassed and tortured both by the Pirs and police butthere is none to come to their rescue. The government is notvisible anywhere in these ill-fated districts. The government of-ficers are there only to mint money and enjoy the perks andprivileges.

Indeed, my home district Larkano (mistakenly written asLarkana) was never so lawless as it has been made nowadays.

Even during the draconian days of dictators who unleashedtheir tyranny upon the people of Sindh, this much lawlessnesswas not to be seen. The business community, lawyers, educa-tionists, doctors, peasants, labourers and all others are in thefear of utter lawlessness and terror. There is none to restore lawand order in this historic and culturally rich district of Sindhprovince.

I appeal to the president of Pakistan to take notice of law-lessness and direct strict action against those police officers andoutlaws who have made the life of people hellish in Larkano.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

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Comment12Thursday, 15 March, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Now that the SC has taken notice

The ongoing malice

That Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) suffers a hugeloss running into billions of rupees was all themore reason for the Supreme Court to put theSecretary Industries in the dock for not taking

action against those found guilty of financialmismanagement and corrupt practices.

A three-member bench headed by Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry sought explanation fromthe ministry on Tuesday why it had ignored the forensicaudit report which had identified cumulative losses ofRs 26.5 billion suffered by the PSM in a single year. Thereport kept gathering dust since it was submitted to theministry six months ago.

The court appeared dissatisfied with the SecretaryIndustries’ response that his ministry wascontemplating referring the matter to the NationalAccountability Bureau for initiating investigationagainst the persons who have already been charge-sheeted. Going through the voluminous report whichonly pertained to the financial year 2008-09 the courtexpressed shock that it was not known how much lossthe Mills had suffered till now.

PSM’s Counsel Fakhruddin G Ibrahim informed thebench that the present financial and operationalposition of the Steel Mills had been far from satisfactoryas the losses continued to mount due to over-staffing,non-availability of funds for the purchase of rawmaterial and inability to open letters of credit. He was ofthe opinion that there was a possibility of the recovery ofsome amount if the NAB investigated this matter withsincerity.

There’s no disputing the CJ’s assertion that it wasthe Supreme Court which had earlier saved the state-owned entity from privatisation. After that, it was theresponsibility of the government and the concernedministry to take appropriate measures to plug theloopholes causing huge losses to the Steel Mills andother public sector enterprises but unfortunately it wasnever done. Now that the apex court has taken suo motucognizance of the matter, it needs to be extended all thehelp it requires to get to the bottom of the problem.

No surprises there

The IP snag

It doesn’t require rocket science to decipher whythe Chinese Bank ICBC backed off from financingthe Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. Any bank inthe world doing business with the West would be

reluctant to face the economic consequences of defyingthe US sanctions imposed on Iran. However, thegovernment’s efforts to complete the project by theDecember 2014 deadline have hit a snag.

Defying US pressures, Islamabad has given toppriority to the construction of the pipeline to overcomeits dire energy needs. Besides the IP gas pipeline,Pakistan has also gone for the 1,700 kilometre TAPI gaspipeline from Turkmenistan favoured by the US.Islamabad is now required to find new financiers at theearliest. Among the alternatives available is the routingof the Infrastructure Development Cess, recentlyimposed on gas consumers, to Pakistani banks whichshould then create a fund with the government. Initialestimates suggest that the cess will be sufficient to meetthe project’s funding requirements. It remains to beseen however if the local banking sector which is alreadyoverexposed in the power sector and is reluctant tofinance existing and new power projects would agree tothe proposal. Again would these banks be willing towithstand the US pressure as they are all are involved inbusiness abroad? Another alternative is to approach theChinese, Russian or Iranian governments for signing agovernment-to-government contract for theconstruction of the pipeline. This would however requirewaiving off the public procurement regulatory authorityrules to avoid competitive bidding which is demandedby these countries.

The reluctance by the ICBC is in no way a reflectionon the all-weather friendship between China andPakistan. It is quite normal for countries to give priorityto their own national needs and concerns. What must beborne in mind is that it is unrealistic to think that Chinaor any other country would sacrifice its core interests forPakistan. There is a need on the part of theestablishment, the political government and media toavoid creating unrealistic expectations among thepublic.

Dreams dashedthose of democracy’s detractors

The circumstances have changed ina matter of few days; it’s as ifsomebody has turned off a switchsuddenly or as if marionettes havehad their strings abruptly snapped

and they now lie lifeless centre-stage. Thememo scandal, which some ignoramuses intheir excitement branded Memogate, is aboutto reach its conclusion. Behind the recipe forMemogate is the same pernicious attitudewhich has been behind the many plans to oustMr Zardari from the presidency.

The ‘-gate’ actually comes from the Wa-tergate scandal. Watergate is actually thename of a complex of five buildings where thehead-office for the Democratic National Com-mittee. It was here the tapes that implicatedPresident Nixon were recorded. When thesetapes first surfaced, President Nixon deniedany knowledge of these recordings but inves-tigative reporting proved that not only didPresident Nixon know about the recordingbut had actually heard a portion of them aswell. After his fabrication was caught, his im-peachment became an inevitability. To saveface, the president instead chose to resign andthis was the drop scene of the Watergate scan-dal. After reading this brief background, you,dear reader, must be able to gauge that by at-taching the -gate suffix to memo (which didnot exist), it was attempted to implicate Pres-ident Zardari of involvement in the entiresaga and to hope for a similar outcome forhim as that befell President Nixon. While Wa-tergate was a scandal that actually caught thepresident red-handed, this so-called ‘Mem-ogate’ was based on a fictitious scrap of paper.

Other than the memo case, the point of

President Zardari’s health was also sensation-alised. This time the inventive fiction was thatthe president had left the country being afraidof the fallout from the memo case. Aijaz-ul-Haq even claimed with certainty that the pres-ident would directly go to London from Dubaiand not come back. But the hopes of his de-tractors were dashed when he came back aftera routine check-up. When I look at those days,I am amazed how such fabrications can becreated and then disseminated in this age ofcommunication where verification is one callor email away. More importantly, why aresuch fabrications created and spread? Did theprogenitors of these lies forget that they willbe called out in a matter of days when thepresident returned? Similarly, when thememo case reaches its conclusion, the manyanalysts who have held forth on it at length,how will they save face?

It was also said (or hoped against hope)by many of these writers and analysts that theSenate elections would not take place. Takingthe air out of these political Bocrateses, I saidthat the Senate elections had nothing to dowith the government’s survival and thus whywere these naysayers constructing the edificesof their hopes and dreams around the Senateelections? The elections have come and passand nothing much has changed, as it was saidthat it won’t.

But the Senate elections have afforded thePPP an opportunity to bring forward its loy-alists. Chairman Nayyar Bukhari is a PPP vet-eran and extremely loyal to the party. He hasbeen there for the party through thick andthin. The deputy chairman Sabir Baloch’sidentity is also inextricably linked with hisparty. He has also been with the party throughall kinds of times and has never been desirousof any influential posts especially while theparty is in power. I have known him for 25years and am pretty sure that he must nothave even expressed the desire for this post,let alone lobby for it. Actually, the PPP has putits best foot forward in the Senate elections bythe selecting the best possible roster.

Everybody was a little shocked and sad-dened by Aslam Gul’s defeat. But the partyworker’s reaction at his defeat was admirable.Instead of complaining, he thanked his partyfor the ticket and did not utter a bad wordabout those who abandoned him for the elec-tions. The party, though, did not abandon him

and made him minister of state and an advi-sor to the PM.

On the other hand, Farooq Naek’s exitwas an almost done deal. Many reports hadsurfaced about him that he had used his au-thority as Chairman Senate carelessly. But thereal reason for his departure was a moment ofweakness when he thought that he might getthe chance to be president if President Zardariwas ousted. President Zardari had trustedhim to the hilt and nobody would’ve thoughtthat he could even entertain this thought. Buthe was not able to honour this relationship oftrust.

In my opinion, the selection of candidatesfor the Senate elections has strengthened thePPP and bolstered the confidence of the work-ers in the leadership. It has shown that Pres-ident Zardari doesn’t operate on the basis ofnepotism and favouritism. With the Senateelections out of the way, it seems he will havesome smooth sailing ahead. His opponentshave no gameplan to speak of. By taking theChaudhry brothers on board, PresidentZardari has virtually checkmated his oppo-nents as this is a ploy for which they have noanswer. The experience and contacts of theChaudhry brothers proved to be an asset forthe president. The PPP has no access to thepolitical lobby that they are privy to. This hasgiven the PPP an assured votebank in areaswhere it previously had none. The effect ofthis alliance will be apparent come next elec-tions.

On the contrary, the tsunami seems to berunning out of steam. Its generator is now outof order and there seems to be no power re-placement (in a manner of speaking). And thefew people who jumped on to the bandwagondue to hopes attached with a certain quarterhave been sorely disappointed as the centre oftheir hopes is no more. A few days ago, theydreamt happy dreams of extensions and triedto count the minutes to when said extensionwould be granted. But that ship has nowsailed. Now they’re in all kinds of flurries.

It seems this democratic dispensation willcomplete five years and anti-people elementsare not happy about the fact that it seems likethe next five years will also be that of democ-racy. Hopefully indeed!

The writer is one of Pakistan’s mostwidely read columnists.

By Nazir Naji

With the start of strikes against Afghanistan in the nameof the war on terror, any chance and hope for peace inthe region were dashed. The US actions, one after the

other, backfired and contributed more to instability and violencein the war-torn region than contributing to peace and stability. Itis because the land of Afghanistan has proved to be area of defeatfor the allied forces.

The US was here in Afghanistan with an aim of seeking per-manent bases in the country but it seems that it will not be able tofulfil this aim as it is facing interminable losses on all fronts inAfghanistan and its ailing economy will be hard-pressed to sustainany kind of prolonged military presence in the country.

This is why they want to cut their losses and run now. Theproof is in the fact that the Americans are seeking talks with theTaliban for peace and have duly opened an office at Qatar for thesame purpose.

The question is whether the plan to have a military presencein Afghanistan by the US has yielded any result or has the US re-alised the mistake it committed in plunging into the region with-out thinking the entire thing through.

Pakistan should be praised for the role it has played in thelarger interest of the region. Not only has Pakistan hosted millionsof homeless Afghans for decades, it has also ceaselessly continuedwith its efforts for lasting peace in the region through cooperationwith regional and global stakeholders.

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

-Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur Rauf Khattak

with the Americans leaving…Daily Pashtun Post

Regional press

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Comment 13Thursday, 15 March, 2012

india votes for decentralisation

Congress in trouble?the former not as sinful as painted; the latter not as saintly

The politicians and the military

State elections may notpredict the shape of nextLok Sabha in 2014, but

they do reflect the mood of theelectorate. UP, Punjab, Uttrak-hand, Goa and Manipur whichwent to the polls indicate thatthe ruling Congress is declin-ing rapidly. The party isnowhere in UP despite the In-dira Gandhi’s family descend-ing on the state in fullstrength. Punjab and Uttrak-hand, which were expected togo to the Congress, haveslipped from its hands. Theparty has been routed in Goaand the only consolation prizeis Manipur where feuding fac-tions do not allow a govern-ment run for long.

In fact, the other nationalalternative, Bhartiya JanataParty (BJP) has done onlyslightly better. It is third in UP,slightly above the Congress,and neck and neck with theCongress in Uttrakhand. TheBJP can claim to be a winnerin Punjab but that is because itis riding the bandwagon of theAkali Dal. Otherwise, the BJPhas cone down from 19 to 12.

The obvious lesson tolearn from the verdicts is thatthe national parties are losingspace to those in the states,which represent local aspira-tions. The success of MulayamSingh Yadav’s SamajwadiParty in UP casts a shadow onthe prospects of both the Con-gress and the BJP. The Bahu-jan Samaj Party (BSP) of theoutgoing chief ministerMayawati looked at one timean avalanche of Dalits sweep-ing the rest. But the avaricehad the better of her and shehas ruined the chance of aDalit ever becoming PM.

The Shiromani Akali Dal’sreturn to power in Punjab

strengthens the belief that thework at the grassroots is whatcounts ultimately. However,the victory for the Akali Dal, asthat of Samajwadi Party, sendsa message to the Congress or,for that matter, to nationalparties that they can no longerignore or bypass the state par-ties. Their consultation is es-sential before framingeconomic and social policies.Apart from ignoring senti-ments prevailing on theground, the Congress had topay dearly at the polls for thescams and the price rise. Thestate parties have been able toconvince the electorate thatcorruption and high cost of liv-ing is not their doing but thatof those who rule at the centre.

It looks as if the states arewaking up to the clout theyhave because of the followingof their people. Odhisa chiefminister Naveen Patnaik hasalready raised the banner ofrevolt against the centre forpossessing too much power.He has been supported bymany chief ministers in his de-mand. Several chief ministers,including Mamata Banerjeefrom West Bengal, feel that thecentre must have the states inthe picture when it establishesorganisations which requirethe support of their law andorder machinery.

Recently, the anti-terror-ism setup the centre was plan-ning did not have priorconsent of chief ministers. StillHome Minister P Chi-dambaram convened a meet-ing of chief secretaries andDGs of Police. Belonging to theall-India services and con-trolled by the centre, bothservices are manageable. Thecentre has to realise that thereal state boss is the chief min-ister and he or she must bekept in the picture.

I recall the advice of GhousBux Bezenjo, a Pakistanileader, who warned me nearly40 years ago that India shouldlearn from Pakistan and trans-fer all subjects except defence,foreign affairs, communicationand currency to the states.This what the Anandpur Sahibresolution of the Akali Dal saidor was even once the demandof the CPI(M) when it ruled

over West Bengal. But theCongress haughtily rejected itwithout realising that there isno go from decentralisation.

The polity needs a consen-sus. It can be developedthrough humility, but not ar-rogance which has becomepart of the Congress culture.How can PM Singh handleparliament sessions in the nextfew days if he or his party doesnot understand that the stateelections have given the re-gional parties a new sense ofconfidence and they want toassert themselves? He has toreach out to them when im-portant bills, including thebudget, have to get the ap-proval of parliament.

The immediate problemthat the ruling Congress facesis the election of pesident duein the middle of this year.Then there is election of thevice-president. The Congresscannot impose its choice onthe parties and pick up non-entities for the top positions.Regional parties will need tobe wooed. In any case, a non-Congress person having abilityand eminence will ideally fillthe office of president. This re-quires all the tact and charmthat the Congress can exert.But the party is too muchhaunted by a mid-term polland looks pathetically cluelessand without any new idea.

Some fear that a weak cen-tre may encourage fissiparoustendencies. This is wrong be-cause the states are an integralpart of the country. They donot want to turn up to Delhifor every small concession.Today they have to do it andthey have resident commis-sioners to pursue their proj-ects.

Whichever party comes topower at the centre feels itmust rule like the governorgeneral of the British days. Thepeople are more conscious oftheir rights. They know thevalue of their vote and this ex-plains why almost 60 per centof the electorate, more womenthan men, went to polling sta-tions to exercise their fran-chise.

The writer is a seniorIndian journalist.

Border crossingsBy Kuldip Nayar

If one were to begin listing Pakistan’s structuralproblems – problems that have prevented thecountry from becoming a well governed state –

rule of law would feature right at the top. Much has been written about this issue, with the

popular narrative blaming the political elite for theirfailure to implement rule of law uniformly. The nar-rative paints them as corrupt, opportunistic, and de-fiant of rules and regulations.

Those who talk about fixing the problem – in-cluding the politicians – talk of accountability andtransparency, of anti-corruption measures, and of ex-emplary punishments. Imran Khan is the latest ex-ample of that.

There is little doubt that the political class hasfailed this country and must be held accountable. Butone fact is conveniently overlooked in this discourse:the political elite are only one part of the puzzle andhave never truly been in charge. It is the military es-tablishment that has not only escaped any talk of ac-countability throughout the country’s history but hasalso created and promoted specific narratives of in-competence and corruption against politicians atwill.

I do not wish to restrict this argument to corrup-tion alone. The point here is a broader one, i.e. unlessall pillars of the state operate at par, the status quopower institution – in this case the military – will re-tain a free hand to paint situations as it wishes. Andsince, like any organisation, it has its own vested in-terests to defend, we will always end up with the civil-ian sector looking much worse than the military (andthan it really is).

To be sure, I make this contention not as some-one pathologically opposed to our military establish-ment but as a citizen who is interested in seeing ruleof law being established across the board; who knowsthat mature democracy cannot come about until thecivil-military playing field is levelled; and who feelsconstantly entrapped between poorly performingpoliticians and an overbearing and self-interestedmilitary.

It has become amply clear over the years that itthe military that has been in the driving seat when itcomes to shaping the political environment.Throughout military dictatorships and in the 1990s,the military establishment tailored political partiesand actors to its liking and in turn used the failuresof these pseudo-leaders to point to civilian failures.

Can one truly blame all politicians, or better yet,democracy for these failures?

Perhaps the list of questions to ask should beslightly different then usual: is democracy reallyabout creating hand-picked political parties and lead-ers? Has the Pakistani public ever been given achance to let the democratic process mature so thatincompetent politicians are weeded out over time?Have the politicians been as corrupt as believed? Isthere no corruption in the military? Does the militaryestablishment submit itself to the law of the land anymore than the civilians? Are narratives targeting thecivilian elite really representative of the popular sen-timent or are these actively shaped by the powersthat be?

Just look at the events of the last year. The year has been full of allegations of civilian

corruption. The Supreme Court has been in over-drive, as have pundits on the media in pointing togross anomalies on the part of the political elite.

Fair enough. But are we to believe that there havebeen no incidences of corruption involving militaryofficials at any level? Of course, we don’t know asthese are never brought out. However, military offi-cers would themselves tell you, proudly, that whileincidences do happen (they would say these are ex-ceptions, not the norm), internal actions are taken topunish individuals involved. Here is my question:isn’t this defiance of the law of the land? Why arethese cases not brought out in the public domain;why are they not taken up by NAB and the SupremeCourt; why are internal mechanisms that essentiallyamount to cover ups allowed; and if this is the mosteffective way to do it, perhaps every ministry andgovernment department should start doing this aswell?

Examples of the power of the military in creatingnarratives as it wishes were on display throughoutlast year as well.

The Raymond Davis affair was quickly turnedinto an issue of the civilian government allowingvisas to unauthorised Americans. Then despite thefact that the ISI played a critical role in getting himreleased, the blame was laid on the politicians forbeing weak.

May 2, perhaps the most embarrassing episodefor the Pakistani nation in recent years, was quicklyturned into an issue of sovereignty instead of the in-competence of the military. The civilians were put onnotice to back the narrative in “national interest” or,as one politician of the ruling coalition told me, “riskbeing declared pro-American and unpatriotic”.

Drones have become the moniker of Pakistan’squest to re-establish sovereignty in 2011. The armychief has led the charge on this. One wondersthrough why he has not introspected on the reasonsthe military establishment agreed to the drones andcontinued to cooperate – notwithstanding their de-nial now – with the Americans on their use.

To their credit, the PPP government has tried tostand up to the rhetoric as was evident in some of thestatements by the prime minister over the pastmonth. The military’s power however was on displayonce again as it successfully diverted attention of thepeople to the memo issue, to the civilian governmentapparently reaching out to other countries to raiseconcerns of a potential coup – notwithstanding Gen.Pasha’s own infamous Gulf visit – and to the NROissue, among others.

I could go on but my point is fairly simple. Pak-istan desperately needs rule of law and the state’swrit to be pervasive. And while one does not seek todefend anyone unnecessarily, maligning politiciansalone to absolve the military from all wrongdoing isthe biggest impediment in achieving this.

For years, civilian governments have been forcedto operate within the limits set by the military estab-lishment. In such an environment, they will never beable to deliver on rule of law issues. And without ruleof law, hoping for mature democracies is absurd.

The writer is a research analyst at the Sustain-able Development Policy Institute, Islamabad

By Talimand Khan

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LAHORE: SABS Salon held its opening ceremony.

models walking the ramp during the show.

Sunita and AtharSamia and Tanzila

Shafe,Kiran,Sharzil Shehar Bano and Hissa

Roma and Yasmin

NEWS DESK

THE three-day Jahan-e-Khusrau festival, designed and directed by filmmaker andpainter Muzaffar Ali, and presented by Rumi Foundation hosted eminent artistesof the Sufi tradition from across the world, but it also served as a platform for emerg-ing singers and practitioners of classical and modern dance along with Sufianamusic. Celebrating a decade of humanism and peace through music, the 10th year

of the festival witnessed performances by singer Abida Parveen, singer-turned-actor Ali Zafar,Hans Raj Hans, Andrea Griminelli, Indira Naik, Vidhi Sharma, Rajesh Pandey, Vidhi Lal, Shiv-ani Varma, Zia Nath, Smitalaya and Murad Ali. The second day of the festival saw a spectacularperformance by Ali Zafar, who sang songs like ‘Husn Par Tere Fida Hoon’, ‘Daastan-e-Ishq’,‘Ni Mai Jaanaan’, and was accompanied by musicians Asad Ahmad and Kamran Zafar on theguitar, Ali Mustafa on the keyboard, and Baqar Abbas on the flute. The actor, who was in Indiawith his wife Ayesha, said, “In my opinion it is very important for an artiste to stay tuned to hisreal calling. Mine is very much related and inclined to our culture, art and the Sufi tradition. Ifeel closely knitted to the spiritual domain of this land and cannot dissociate from it. Therefore,any opportunity that provides an association with it is a pleasure. To be part of Jahan-e-Khus-rau provides me with just that.” Kamran shared his experience, “We were extremely delightedto see such a huge response. I was surprised to see the popularity of Sufi music slowly catchingup amongst the Indian masses. It was also interesting to watch the crowd groove to Sufi musicin Delhi clubs.” Asad, who played the guitar, added, “It was heartening to see that people inIndia love listening to Sufi music. I was taken aback when the crowd recognized us and peoplecame up to us for pictures and autographs.” The final day saw renowned Sufi singer AbidaParveen’s mesmerising performance. She described the festival as “a spiritual call by MuzaffarAli that we all share and join in each year to further the message of humanism and brotherhoodacross the world.” “In Sufism there are no barriers, mine or yours, old and new. It belongs toall and connects hearts and souls,” she added.

KARACHIpR

In keeping with SHEEP’s commitment to provide brandaccessibility, comfortable and convenient retail, the team atSHEEP announces the opening of their 3rd store in Karachi atDolmen Mall, 3rd floor on the 15th of March. The Tariq Roadoutlet opening follows soon after the launch of the SHEEPspace at Dolmen City Mall in January 2012. In addition totheir three Karachi stores, SHEEP also offers a ‘Shop fromHome’ service across Pakistan providing local shoppers withthe option to purchase SHEEP from the comfort of one’s homewith the pieces delivered to the local customers’ doorstepsthrough its Facebook page. The brand caters to the modernday woman with premium quality ready to wear clothes. Theidea is to create pieces that are uncomplicated, wearable andsmart fashion for the confident woman.

Ali Zafar, Abida Parveen mesmerise at Jahan-e-Khusrau Festival

SHeeP expands: opens thirdstore at dolmen Mall

mumBAi:

The perfectionist that he is, Aamir Khan has been making no bones about

the fact that he wants to concentrate solely and entirely on his debut

television show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ for the coming few months. The actor’s

eagerly awaited psychological thriller ‘Talaash’, written and directed by

reema Kagti, will also release six months later than scheduled.

Instead of a June 1 release the film will now hit theatres end

November or first week of december. reason is once again the

actor’s preoccupation with his upcoming show. A source close

to Aamir said, “with ‘Talaash’ having become one of the most

viewed trailers on the Internet in recent times, it was a

tough call for Aamir and those concerned with the film to

push it to November. However, Aamir sacrificed the date,

which was actually commercially very suitable for the TV

show.” According to a source close to the film, “The fire on

the sets of the TV show caused the delay. Aamir is

currently completely immersed in his show which will

leave him with hardly any time to get involved in matters

concerning ‘Talaash’.” Meanwhile, post production of ‘Talaash’

is progressing rapidly with Aamir having dubbed for almost all

his parts at the Khar recording studio. And as is common in B-

town, one film’s delay has been another film’s getting pushed

ahead. word is ‘rowdy rathore’ will now release on June 1

instead November 30 as was planned earlier.

Aamir Khan chooses TV over

Talaash mumBAi: ever since the news of

Aishwarya rai’s pregnancy was made

public by her Pa-in-law Amitabh

Bachchan, fans of this starry family of

B-Town had been discussing the

youngest member of the Bachchan

parivaar. Prior to her birth on

November 16, 2011, Aishwarya’s

daughter made headlines and post

birth, her name was hugely speculated.

After a long wait of four months,

Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan’s

first child, who was christened as Beti

B by the media has been given a name.

Beti B’s name was registered a couple

of days back. Big B’s granddaughter

has been named Aaradhya. As

expected the name is derived out of a

Sanskrit word which means one who is

worshipped. The Bachchan family is

known for being a patron of Indian

culture, hence such a name. Big B’s

daughter Shweta, who is married into

the Nanda family had named her

children Navya Naveli and Agastya. we

must say the Bachchans know how to

pick names. AgeNcieS

Beti B namedAaradhya

meets realdabangg?

SalmanKhanmumBAi: Here’s what happened when the reel

‘dabangg’ met the real dabanng. Salman Khan

was shooting for his forthcoming film at

Mehboob Studios when a man called Hanumant

rao Patil came barging in and stopped the

shoot. But contrary to Sallu bhai’s image in the

industry, where many would expected some

fireworks, the actor restrained and left the

location to cool his heels in his vanity van.

According to reports Patil works under FwICe

(Federation of western India Cine employees)

and is a self-styled mafia lord, who has been

stalling Bollywood shoots for the past few

months and tormenting filmmakers in the Hindi

cinema industry. while Salman remained

unavailable for comments, it is known that the

actor has had a word with the officials of

FwICe regarding the incident which left him

quite peeved. A senior member of the

association said that stopping Salman Khan’s

shoot is just not done. will Hanumant rao Patil

face the music for daring Salman Khan? only

time will tell. AgeNcieS

ISB 15-03-2012_Layout 1 3/15/2012 2:02 AM

15

Fatima and Fozia

Rifat and Sonia

LONDONAgeNcieS

Pop star Katy Perryhas reportedly beenoffered $ 2 million towrite a tell-all bookabout her marriageand split with RussellBrand. The formercouple split inDecember after just 14months of marriage,with Brand, 36, filingfor divorce citing“irreconcilabledifferences”,Femalefirst reported.“When everything wasgoing well, Katycouldn’t stop talkingabout him. Since thesplit neither of themhave said anything -keeping the price of adeal high,” a sourcesaid. Meanwhile,Perry, 27, is rumouredto have moved on with22-year-old Chanelmodel BaptisteGiabiconi, who she wasspotted “flirting” withat Paris Fashion Week.

Peter Facinelliand Jennie garthcall it quits

LOS ANGELEScBS

Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli are thelatest celebrity couple headed forsplitsville. Their reps confirmed thenews releasing a joint statement. Thecouple said they decided to end theirmarriage but share “the same deep loveand devotion to our children.” Garth andFacinelli said they remain “dedicated toraising our beautiful daughterstogether.” Facinelli and Garth met onthe set of 1996’s ‘An Unfinished Affair’and wed in January 2001. They havethree daughters: Luca, 14, Lola, 9, andFiona, 5. The 38-year-old Facinelli hashad a busy few years professionally,starring on the big screen in the‘Twilight’ movie installments.

Stephen Hawking toguest star on ‘TheBig Bang Theory’

LOS ANGELESAgeNcieS

It’s a dream come true for ‘The BigBang Theory:’ world renowned Britishphysicist and cosmologist StephenHawking will guest star on the sitcomearly next month. A press release saidHawking, 70, will “share his beautifulmind with his most ardent admirer,Sheldon Cooper”. “When peoplewould ask us who a ‘dream guest star’for the show would be, we wouldalways joke and say StephenHawking,” executive producer BillPrady said, “knowing that it was along shot of astronomicalproportions. In fact, we’re not exactlysure how we got him.”

PR

Following Ufone Uth Records2.0 third episode artist AffaqMushtaq the youth music plat-form is now set to introduce,XXI (21). The underground bandfeatures a versatile trio com-prises of Moheet-ul-Islam andMohammad Taimoor on guitarwith Yahya Farid on vocals.Ufone Uth Records 2.0 Episode Four featuring XXI (21) will air on all lead-ing channels and official social networks on Saturday 17th March. XXI (21)will be performing their original composition ‘Taare’ at Ufone Uth Records2.0 with musician Ahad Nayani featuring as a guest drummer on the track.According to the band, the song has been inspired by those who define andweigh love and relationships on material gains - the message of their songsuggests that feelings and emotions should be strong enough to break awayfrom material gains. In the near future, XXI (21) hope’s to see their music“making silence die with its noise.” Speaking about working with XXI (21),producer Louis J ‘Gumby’ Pinto said: “The band 21 is a perfect example ofthe outcome of a massive media boost about a decade ago. A huge influenceof the bands that emerged around that era is what you hear in these guys.The trio have a very pop rock, lively feel to their song and during their stayat the Uth house I learned that Taimur had just started playing guitar nottoo long ago, and I was amazed at how well he played on the track.”describing their experience at Ufone Uth records, members of XXI (21) said: “It was simply amazing, an experience

which we would not give up for the rest of our lives.”

directed by Zeeshan Parwez, Ufone Uth records 2.0 episode 2 will air on AAg, Aaj News, Apna Channel, Ary

Muzik, ATV, A plus, Channel g, CNBC, KTN, Kashish, Metro, News one, oxygen, Play TV, PTV Home, Style 360, TV

one, waseb and wateen Cable Network as well as across Ufone Uth records’ social media platforms.

embarrassesAdam on TwitterloS ANgeleS: Adam levine is learning this the

hard way, when his fellow ‘The Voice’ judge

Christina Aguilera took it upon herself to call

out his hypocrisy concerning his first foray

into the celebrity fragrance game with his

upcoming men’s and women’s fragrances

‘222.’ Christina Tweeted a link back to a

March 2011 Tweet of Adam’s, which

read, “I also would like to put an

official ban on celebrity fragrances.

Punishable by death from this point

forward.” “Haha @Adamlevine,”

Aguilera wrote in reply. “what a

difference a year makes.” She did

however, wish him the best of luck

with his new venture, writing,

“welcome to the celebrity fragrance

family!” Though her comments

seemed to be all in good fun, it

seems like she really dug deep to

embarrass Adam. After all — there’s

few things more embarrassing for a

band’s reputation than being accused

of selling out. Seems to me like

there really is a legitimate beef

behind these two’s on-screen

tension. AgeNcieS

Ufone Uth Records 2.0 introducesXXI (21) in episode 4

Katy Perry offered $2mfor russell Brand book

Sharmeen obaid-Chinoy:People treat me like a man!NewS deSK

documentary filmmaker Sharmeen obaid-Chinoy talks about her future plans, her family and

more, post the first oscar win for Pakistan. when asked about her future plans, she said: “you

can look forward to more storytelling. I am currently planning my next film whilst simultaneously

producing an animated children’s show geared towards local audiences. on her achievements in

a chauvinistic and politically turbulent society, Sharmeen said she never encountered any

gender-based hurdles whilst shooting in Pakistan. “during filming, I have found that most people

are eager to tell their stories and make their voices heard. Most of the time, people are so taken

aback with my forthrightness that they treat me like a man.” Sharmeen says her family has

played a pivotal role in her career. Her mother ensured that her daughters received the best

education and was supportive of her journalistic aspirations. She said: “My father continues to

serve as an inspiration for me, and I owe a formidable amount

of my success to his guidance. I have been blessed with a

very encouraging husband who has always pushed me to

work harder and produce the best work that I can. My

daughter, Amelia, is the reason why I make films; I

want the Pakistan that she inherits to be better

than the one that we currently live in.” Sharmeen,

when asked about the comparisons drawn

between her and Hina rabbani Khar as the poised,

intelligent and good-looking face of Pakistan, said

rather than making the men feel insecure, it

makes them recognise that the country is

producing strong enterprising women.

Sharmeen says the Academy Awards

highlighted the cause behind ‘Saving Face’.

“I also wanted to represent another

aspect of Pakistan; one that takes

ownership of its faults and

celebrates those who are fighting

for justice through a creative

medium,” she said.

‘Agent Vinod’perfect for sequels: Saif Ali Khan mumBAi: Actor Saif Ali Khan feels that his

upcoming action-thriller ‘Agent Vinod’ with

Kareena Kapoor has the potential to become a

successful franchise. Though the actor says it is

too early to talk about sequels, he admits that

the idea has crossed his mind. “I want to take

one step at a time. If the audience like the film

and they want more, we would go forward with

it. I think the film is perfect for a franchise but

it is too early to talk about it,” Saif said in an

interview. “The film has taken about three

years. I got lots of bumps and bruises along the

way but it was worth it because I felt it could

be something. If it becomes a franchise, it

would be a dream project,” he added. The

film’s song ‘Pungi’ is already on its way to

become one of the biggest hits of the year.

The actor says he contributed a lot to the

peppy dance number. “There is a sequence in

the film when Agent Vinod is being watched in

a close circuit camera. we wanted to show

the audience that Agent Vinod is capable of

humour. People may think that he is a copy of

James Bond but he is very Indian. ‘Pungi’ is a

lovely song. I made half of the steps myself. It

was good fun,” said Saif. AgeNcieS

Daniel Radcliffe says havinggirlfriend put end to‘gay rumours’loNDoN: daniel radcliffe says his relationship

with girlfriend rosie Coker changed his

reputation by putting to rest rumours that he’s

gay. The British actor has gone from ‘Harry

Potter’ to Hollywood heartthrob thanks to his

role in ‘The woman In Black’. “I had to smile

when stories emerged questioning whether I

was gay. obviously I knew I wasn’t but people

were curiously desperate to suggest I was,” the

daily express quoted him as saying. “The

papers used to say I had a gay face, whatever

that is, or a gay voice but it simply wasn’t true.

Now I have a girlfriend so I’m guessing

everyone finally believes me,” he said. radcliffe

met Coker, 22, a film production assistant, on

the ‘Harry Potter’ set in 2007 but their

relationship became widely known only last

year. “I decided a long time ago to be open

about everything in my life so when photos

appeared of me and rosie together I confirmed

we were dating and it put an end to the

rumours,” he added. AgeNcieS

ISB 15-03-2012_Layout 1 3/15/2012 2:02 AM

Thursday, 15 March, 2012

16 Foreign News

GAZA CITYAfp

ISRAELI warplanes conductedtwo air strikes in northern Gazaearly on Wednesday, severalhours after militants fired rocketsat southern Israel, the military

said, despite both sides agreeing a truce.The raids were launched after a

Palestinian rocket hit a town in southernIsrael, lightly injuring one person, anarmy spokesman said.

Palestinian security sources con-

firmed only one raid which struck awoodyard in northern Gaza City, settingthe structure alight but without causinginjuries. But a military statement said ithad targeted “two terror activity sites inthe northern Gaza Strip” in response torocket fire on southern Israel on Tuesday,which came just hours after Israel andGaza militant groups had agree to ob-serve a ceasefire.

“The targeting of these sites is in re-sponse to the rockets fired at Israel overthe past day,” it said. The spokesman saideight rockets had exploded in Israeli ter-

ritory throughout Tuesday.Under the terms of a truce agreement

which came into force early on Tuesday,both Israel and militants from IslamicJihad, who were responsible for most ofthe rocket attacks, had agreed to holdtheir fire. But there was no indicationthat either side saw the rocket fire, or thesubsequent raids, as putting an end to theEgyptian-brokered agreement.

The fighting erupted on Friday whenIsrael assassinated a militant leader,prompting armed groups to launch a bar-rage of rockets across the border.

Israel hit back with multiple airstrikes, leaving 25 people dead, most ofthem militants.

In a separate development, medicssaid a seven-year-old Baraka al-Mughrabi died on Wednesday from in-juries sustained in a shooting accident ata funeral of one of the people killed in theGaza confrontations.

Family members told AFP he hadbeen critically injured in the head duringfuneral in eastern Gaza City when therewas gunfire in the air.

Emergency services spokesman

Adham Abu Selmiya initially said he washurt in an Israeli air strike but later cor-rected his account, blaming it on “wronginformation” from the hospital.

The fighting erupted on Friday whenIsrael assassinated a militant leader,prompting armed groups to launch a bar-rage of rockets across the border, injuringsix people.

In response, Israel staged multiple airstrikes across Gaza, targeting weaponsstorage and manufacturing facilities, aswell as small groups of militants poisedto fire rockets over the border.

TEHRANAfp

Iranian President Mahmoud Ah-madinejad gave a defiant and at timesmocking defence of his economic andpolitical management on Wednesdayin an unprecedented interrogation bya largely hostile parliament.

“So far no major violation hasbeen proved against my government...If you rate us at less than 100 percent,it would be unfair and cowardice,”Ahmadinejad told lawmakers at theend of a near-hour long reply, whichwas broadcast on state radio.

It was the first time an Iranianpresident was summoned before par-liament to answer questions about hisrule since the founding of the Islamicrepublic in 1979. Ahmadinejad re-jected attempts to embarrass himwith questions focusing on Iran’seconomy, his perceived weakened loy-alty to supreme leader Ayatollah AliKhamenei, and his arguments toloosen up Islamic rules on dress forwomen and on gender relations.

The fact the interrogation tookplace, however, highlighted Ah-madinejad’s slipping fortunes as hesees out the end of his second andfinal mandate, which expires nextyear. Khamenei has over the past yearcurbed Ahmadinejad in his ambitionsto expand power and influence, over-ruling him when he tried to sack hisintelligence minister in 2011 andkeeping him on a tight leash on policy

decisions. The 290-member parlia-ment, which already has a majority in-tent on curtailing the president’sauthority, is to have an even smallerpro-Ahmadinejad minority when it isreconstituted at the end of May, fol-lowing elections early this month.

A total 79 MPs signed a petition inFebruary demanding Ahmadinejadappear for the grilling.

In the questioning, Ahmadinejadoften took a light-hearted tone.

When the MP pronouncing the listof questions overran his allotted 15minutes, the president said he, too,would extend his reply beyond his per-mitted time. Ahmadinejad at one pointmocked a new rule requiring newlyelected MPs to have a masters degreeor equivalent, saying he thought thequestions were drafted by “thosewho got a masters degree bypushing a button.” The questions“were not so difficult,” he scoffed,adding he could have come upwith better ones.

The president rejected impli-cations he mismanaged Iran’seconomy, which suf-fers inflation ofmore than 30percent, a cur-rency weakenedby Western sanc-tions, ands t a l l e dspending onbig infra-s t r u c -

ture projects such as Tehran’s metro(subway) network.

Economic growth was strong, heasserted, and higher prices “had noth-ing to do” with his 2010 decision toscrap subsidies for staples and fueland replace them with a monthly $35cash handout to Iranians, he said.

As for the weakened currency,“the games played in the foreign ex-change and gold market have otherreasons, which in due time I will ex-plain to the people,” he said.

Ahmadinejad shrugged off a highlypublicised incident last year, in whichhe stayed at home for 11 days afterKhamenei reinstated his sacked intelli-

gence minister. “Mostpeople tell me to

relax and takecare of myself,”he said,adding thebusiness ofgovernmenthad contin-ued unim-

peded.

China’s wen

calls for ‘urgent’

political reforms

BEIJINGAfp

China could see a repeat of theCultural Revolution’s deadly chaoswithout “urgent” political reform, WenJiabao warned Wednesday in adramatic parting shot at his final newsconference as premier. Wen is widelyconsidered the most progressive ofChina’s leaders, but analysts said thecomments, at the closing of the annualparliamentary session, were hisstrongest call yet for political reformin the one-party state. “We must pressahead with both economic structuralreform and political structural reform,in particular reform in the leadershipsystem of our party and country,” hetold reporters, adding it was an“urgent task”. “Without a successfulpolitical structural reform, it isimpossible for us to fully instituteeconomic structural reform and thegains we have made in this area maybe lost,” he said. “Such historicaltragedy as the Cultural Revolutionmay happen again.” The 1966-1976Cultural Revolution was a decade ofbrutal chaos launched byrevolutionary leader Mao Zedong tobring down what he perceived as“capitalist” forces.Untold numbers died in the turmoil asstudents turned on teachers andofficials were purged, and that periodstill haunts the older Chinesegeneration today.

Bangladesh

ferry accident

toll rises to 112KISHORI CHAR

Afp

Rescue workers and divers in Bangladeshon Wednesday pulled scores of bodiesfrom the wreckage of a ferry that sankafter being hit by an oil barge, as thedeath toll rose to 112. The packedShariatpur 1 vessel, carrying about 200passengers, capsized in the early hours ofTuesday morning after a collision withthe barge in the Meghna river, 40kilometres (25 miles) southeast of thecapital Dhaka. Rescue teams completedtheir search of the ferry after raising itfrom the river bed and pulling it to thebank, head of the operation navycommander Gulzar Hossain said. “Thedeath toll is now 112,” he told AFP.“Divers have combed through the cabins,decks and every place inside the wreckageand found many bodies.” “We’vecompleted our search and most of themissing have been accounted for. Ourteams are now scouring the riverdownstream to see whether any bodieshave been washed away.”

Suu Kyi calls for

‘freedom from fear’

in TV speechYANGON

Afp

Myanmar opposition leader Aung SanSuu Kyi called for “freedom from fear”and further moves towards democracy ina leaked video of her first televisedcampaign speech to be aired Wednesday.“Unless people get human rights withfreedom from fear, a democratic systemcannot be established and developed,” SuuKyi said in the video, echoing the title ofher well-known political essay “Freedomfrom fear.” “Only under the rule of law canpeople really feel the taste of freedom byreally getting protection of the law,” shesaid, ahead of April 1 by-elections in whichthe pro-democracy icon is standing forparliament for the first time. The speechwas censored by Myanmar’s authorities toremove criticism of the former junta, thedemocracy icon said earlier. Suu Kyi alsocalled for the abolition of laws which have“oppressed the people.” “We have to writeand enact laws that can protect thepeople,” she said. The video, which can beviewed athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3vv0DK_jw and on Facebook, will be aired onstate television Wednesday evening as partof her party broadcast for her NationalLeague for Democracy (NLD) party. Seatedin front of an NLD flag, the Nobel peaceprize winner also called for a ceasefire tobring an end to the country’s long-runningconflicts with ethnic minority guerrillaarmies. The appearance on nationaltelevision of Suu Kyi, who spent much ofthe past 22 years under house arrest,would have been unthinkable until recentlyand is a sign of how far the regime hasmoved with a surprising series of reformsfollowing the end of nearly five decades ofoutright military rule. Since a nominallycivilian government took power early lastyear, Suu Kyi has been welcomed back intothe political mainstream and her NLD iscontesting all 48 seats available in theupcoming by-elections.

HeRAt: An Afghan girl walks with an islamic flag on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday after a memorial ceremony. afp

Israel raids Gaza after rockets but shaky truce holds

Ahmadinejad defends record

before Iran parliament

ISB 15-03-2012_Layout 1 3/15/2012 2:02 AM

Foreign News 17Thursday, 15 March, 2012

SIERREAfp

Twenty-eight people were killed when acoach packed with schoolchildrencrashed in southern Switzerland as theyreturned to Belgium from a skiing holi-day, Swiss police said Wednesday.

Twenty-two children were killed inthe accident, which happened when thebus inexplicably swerved and hit a con-crete wall while travelling through a tun-nel. Another 24 children were reportedinjured in the crash, many seriously.

The impact of the crash was so violentthat the front of the bus was ripped off.

Most of those on the bus, from twoschools in Belgium, were aged around 12and were returning from a holiday at the

Val d’Anniviers ski resort.Belgium was plunged into mourning

following the news of the crash, and theSwiss parliament observed a minute’s si-lence for the victims.

“This is a tragic day for all of Bel-gium,” said Belgian Prime Minister ElioDi Rupo. Di Rupo and Swiss PresidentEveline Widmer-Schlumpf were to visitthe crash site later Wednesday.

Police and fire services sealed off thescene of the accident, closing the tunnel atboth ends, as a fleet of helicopters and am-bulances ferried the injured to four hospi-tals during the night. Fire crews workedfor hours to cut free some of the victimsfrom the tangled mass of wreckage.

The police commander in the south-ern Valais canton told reporters early

Wednesday that the tragedy was “un-precedented” and that even seasoned res-cuers had been traumatised.

Surgeon Jean-Pierre Deslarzes saidin one of the hospitals: “All the rescuerswere shocked by what they have experi-enced.” The coach, which was carrying 52passengers, was travelling towards theSwiss town of Sion on the A9 motorwaywhen the accident happened at 9:15 pmTuesday (2015 GMT).

In Brussels, the Belgian foreign min-istry said the coach was one of three hiredby a Christian group. The students camefrom two different schools: in Lommel innortheast Belgium and Heverlee in thecentre. “The magnitude of the accident isdifficult to digest ... for the moment I amconcentrating on the practical aspects,”

said Belgium’s ambassador in Switzer-land Jan Luykx who visited the accidentsite early Wednesday.

“The emotional side will come whenwe meet with the families,” he added.

Belgian authorities said were doingeverything they could to ensure that thefamilies of the victims were kept in-formed and treated with dignity, theprime minister’s office said.

Foreign Minister Didier Reynderstold RTBF radio two army aircraft wouldbe used to fly the relatives to Switzerland.“There are two planes ready to take off,”at the military airport in Melsbroek, nearBrussels, he said.

“The aim is to accompany the familieswho want to go to Switzerland,” saidReynders, who was speaking from Viet-

nam where he is on an official visit. Apsychological support team was also onhand, he added. “Our first thought wasthe distress of the families,” he said. PeterVanvelthoven, the mayor of Lommel innortheast Belgium, where some of theschoolchildren went to school, said theywere also trying to help the families. “Wehave arranged a reception at the school,first for the parents, for the children andfor the teachers, too,” he said. At Hever-lee, near Louvain, home to some of theother crash victims, the atmosphere wasfraught, RTBF reported -- all the more sobecause it was not yet known who haddied and who had survived. The familiesof the victims were gathered at the Sint-Lambertus School, while the studentshad been taken to another school.

28 die in school trip coach crash in Switzerland

Saudi executes

man who

strangled motherRIYADH

Afp

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday executed inthe kingdom’s east a man convicted ofstrangling his mother to death, theinterior ministry announced in astatement. Masallah al-Shemari, a Saudi,“strangled his mother to death beforebeheading her,” said the statement carriedby official news agency SPA. Shemari wasbeheaded by the sword in the easternSaudi port city of Jubail, it said. Hisbeheading bring to three the number ofpeople executed in Saudi Arabia this weekand to 14 the number since the beginningof the year, according to an AFP tallybased on official reports. Rights groupAmnesty International said the kingdomexecuted 79 people in 2011.

Suicide bomber

kills two at Somali

presidencyMOGADISHU

Afp

A suicide bomber blew himself upWednesday at the compound of SomaliPresident Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, killing atleast two people, in an attack claimed byAl-Qaeda affiliated Shebab rebels. Thebomber detonated an explosive vest at thehighly guarded compound, but it was notimmediately clear if Sharif, who was inEthiopia on Tuesday, was back at hisresidence. The Shebab said one of itsvolunteers had carried out the attack,claiming 16 people had been killed. “Themujahideen carried out a spectacularmartyrdom operation inside thepresidential palace of the apostate Somaliregime,” the group said in a Twitter post.Police spokesman Abdulahi Hasan Barisesaid that according to initial reports atleast three people had been killed,including the bomber, and that six othershad been injured.

Azerbaijan says arrests Iran-backedattack plotters

BAKUAfp

Azerbaijan has arrested 22 people onsuspicion of plotting attacks on the USand Israeli embassies in Baku on behalf ofneighbouring Iran, the national securityministry said Wednesday.“Twenty-two citizens of Azerbaijan havebeen arrested by the national securityministry for cooperating with the IranianSepah,” its statement said, referring tothe elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards.“On orders of the Sepah they were tocommit terrorist acts against the US,Israeli and other Western states’embassies and the embassies’ employees,”it said.

BEIRUTAfp

tHE main opposition coali-tion stood accused of hav-ing become an“accomplice” to the blood-shed in Syria as three

prominent figures announced their res-ignations on Wednesday.

A Syrian National Council official,contacted by AFP, said Haitham al-Maleh, Kamal al-Labwani and rights ac-tivist Catherine al-Telli had quit due totheir “disagreements” with the SNC.

Labwani, in the decisions an-nounced on their Facebook pages,launched a scathing attack on the coali-tion formed last August in Istanbul tofight a political battle against the rule ofPresident Bashar al-Assad.

He said they resigned because theydid not want to be “accomplices to themassacre of the Syrian people throughdelaying, cheating, lies, one-upmanshipand monopolisation of decision-mak-ing.” The SNC, he charged, was “linkedto foreign agendas which aim to prolongthe battle while waiting ... for the coun-try to be dragged into a civil war.”

Maleh said he was quitting after the

council’s executive had rejected his ef-forts to reform and unite oppositionranks, complaining its Paris-based headBurhan Ghalioun was “monopolisingopinion.” Lack of unity within the SNChas been one of the main arguments ofWestern countries to justify their reluc-tance to arm the rebel forces fighting theSyrian regime which has been faced bya year-long revolt.

Telli laid the blame for the SNC’s“inefficiency” on “certain personalitiesand political trends.”

The three figures who broke awayhad already last month announced theformation of a working group within theSNC to work for “the liberation ofSyria,” accusing the bloc of failing totake concrete action.

The coalition of Assad’s Islamist,liberal and nationalist opponents hasfaced criticism for lacking coordination,for delaying its backing for rebel fightersto be armed and over the influence of itsMuslim Brotherhood members.

Qatar, at the forefront of calls forAssad to stand down, has been urgingworld powers to recognise the SNC,which is made up of 230 members, al-most 100 of whom live inside Syria, asthe Syrian people’s “legitimate repre-

sentative.”SNC chief Ghalioun said on March 1

that his organisation wanted to organise

weapons deliveries to the rebels and wasuniting factions which have taken uparms against the regime.

Anti-Assad front under fireas three break away

WARSAW: polish soldiers stand in court as they await the judgement on allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan by poland's top court on Wednesday. afp

russia rebukes Assad over ‘big reform delay’

MOSCOWAfp

Russia on Wednesday criticised President Bashar al-Assad for his “big delay” inimplementing reforms, saying Damascus risked escalating the Syria crisis byfailing to take Moscow’s advice. In a rare public rebuke from Moscow to theSyrian leader, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Assad of “inertia” and saidRussia’s hugely controversial policy on Syria was not aimed at defending hisregime. But he also offered little hint of an immediate shift in the policy of Russia,which has irritated the West with its insistence on equally blaming the violenceon Syrian opposition rebels as much as the government forces. “The side in theconflict in Syria on which we have influence is the government of Bashar al-Assad. Unfortunately, his actions, in practical terms, reflect our advice far fromalways and far from swiftly,” Lavrov said. In one of his most public displays offrustration with the Syrian leader, Lavrov said Assad’s stabs at reform like endingthe one party rule of the Baath party had been welcome but far too late. “Yes hehas adopted useful laws to renew the system -- to make it more pluralistic thanthe one-party system that existed there -- but with a big delay,” he told the lowerhouse parliament the State Duma. “The suggestion to start (national) dialogue isalso being made with a delay. Meanwhile the armed resistance is gaining its owndynamic and this inertia can end up engulfing everyone,” Lavrov warned.

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thursday, 15 march, 2012

Federer, Nadal advanceat Indian wells

Page 21

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

THE Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) is astonished by thenew stance of theBangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) president Mustafa

Kamal that Bangladesh would only tourPakistan if ICC and its government giveclearance. Although no senior official inthe PCB was willing to comment officiallyon Kamal's remarks made at a press con-ference in Dhaka, but insiders said thatchairman Zaka Ashraf and chief operat-ing officer Subhan Ahmad are both disap-pointed by the change in the BCB stance.

"As far as getting clearance from itsgovernment is concerned, that was acondition from the start and acceptableto the PCB, but this new condition ofonly touring if the ICC gave clearanceand appointed match officials for the se-ries has come out of the blue," an offi-cial, who did not want to be named,reported to have said. The official alsosaid that PCB was expecting a positiveresponse from BCB but the whole sce-nario seems to have changed.

"We were very hopeful thatBangladesh would get clearance for thePakistan tour as their security delega-tion went back satisfied with the securityarrangements and protocol for theirteam and even gave some suggestions toimprove the security net. "We were ex-pecting a positive response from theBCB this week but now it seems the

whole scenario has changed as far as theBCB is concerned and that is shockingto us," he said. Another senior officialpointed out that Kamal had said duringhis visit to Pakistan that BCB wanted tosee the revival of international cricket inPakistan and it would support PCB, butit appears as if the BCB now itself is set-ting tough conditions for the tour by in-sisting on ICC approval.

Kamal has said in Dhaka that if theICC wouldn't send its match officials forthe tour then there was no way the BCBwould take the risk of sending its playersto Pakistan. The ICC chief executivescommittee at its meeting recently hadintroduced a special dispensation for theseries that would allow "non-neutralmatch officials" for bilateral series in"exceptional circumstances", should itfind it unsafe to appoint its officials fora series. "We won't go if everythingdoesn't happen within the standard

practice, which is the allocation of matchreferees, umpires and all things by theICC," said Kamal in Dhaka.

"That (allowing officials from thecompeting teams) means we are notgoing there because ICC also has respon-sibility. If they don't take responsibility,then on what basis can I send my play-ers," he added. Sources in the PCB saidthat the Bangla Board is also unhappywith the ICC stance on the tour.

"The ICC had appointed a specialtask force to look at ways to revive inter-national cricket in Pakistan and also rec-ommend security protocol for futuretours. Now they themselves are sayingthey can't send their match officials sowhat purpose has this task force served.

"The ICC is not even willing to send ateam to inspect the security protocol weare putting in place for the Bangladesh se-ries. How does the ICC then expect inter-national teams to tour Pakistan?" a sourcesaid. A PCB official said they would waitand see the response from the BCB beforemaking any official comments. "Let ussee first what happens but yes thingsdon't look good for the planned seriesright now." Pakistan agreed to have justthree ODIs in the series and play it atKarachi and Lahore for security purposes.Interestingly, the PCB and BCB have nothad very cordial relations since 2009when the ICC moved the World Cupmatches from Pakistan and former PCBchairman Ijaz Butt clashed with Kamalover the refusal of Bangladesh to supportPakistan in the ICC meeting.

Bangladesh stancesurprises Pakistan

DHAKAAgeNcieS

Pakistan will be up against an injury hitSri Lanka in a crucial Asia Cup encounteron Thursday in Mirpur.

On current form, both Sri Lanka andPakistan holds promise a keenly-con-tested match. Both sides play an excitingbrand of cricket, have batsmen with equaldollops of flair and solidity, and bowlerscapable of winning matches on their own.

However, it is Pakistan who will be abit more confident of victory, and not justbecause they beat Bangladesh on Sunday.Pakistan have come up on top in the lastthree matches played against Sri Lanka -in fact they have won seven of ninematches going back to August 2009 - andthat will give them confidence of pullingone more over the opposition. But that isnot to say they don't have worries.

Pakistan under-performed with thebat in the tournament opener, but ralliedwith the ball and - with some help fromBangladesh's batsmen - won the match by21 runs. Their batting was problematic.After a 135-run opening stand, the nextfive batsmen contributed 45 runs andPakistan needed Umar Gul's 39 from 25balls to get them past 250 when once theylooked on course for 300. Against astronger bowling attack they cannot ex-pect to get away with such sloppy batting.The veterans Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq need to be counted for as well.

With the ball, Gul remains the spear-head in conditions where reverse-swingcan be attained with the semi-old ball.That, allied with the presence of ShahidAfridi and Saeed Ajmal, poses a big threatto a Sri Lankan side that struggled tocope with the likes of Irfan Pathan andVinay Kumar in the latter half of theirchase on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka, after a fine run in the re-cent CB Series, were also decidedly aver-age with the bat against India on Tuesdaydespite having a batting line-up that ex-tended to No. 9. Fifties to Mahela

Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkaraaside, there was little oomph in the bat-ting order and that was the deciding fac-tor in a 50-run defeat. The shot selectionwas questionable, with Jayawardene ad-mitting his attempted dab to third man,with Sri Lanka 124 for 1 in the 19th over,opened the gates for a collapse. SriLanka's fielding too was lacklustre; therewere two dropped catches and severalrun-out chances missed. The bowling alsofailed to put a check on the flow of runsin the death overs, where MS Dhoni andSuresh Raina looted 78 runs in 43 balls.

But for the sheer unpredictability ofPakistan, both the teams seem quite amatch for each other on paper. Even Pak-

istan has a long batting order to boast offand they have the destructive ShahidAfridi, who can snatch a game but, likehis team, is not consistent enough.

He can be the game-changer one daybut can also be a complete letdown thenext. But Pakistan can bank on his leg-break bowling which comes in handy al-most always. Their openers notched upgood scores against Bangladesh but theexperienced middle-order comprising thelikes of Younis Khan and Misbah-ul Haqfailed to fire.

The bowling too was unimpressiveagainst a side which is considered a min-now at the international level. Pacespearhead Umar Gul was expensive and

would have to get his act together quicklyas his form is crucial to the team'schances. Pakistan are unlikely to tinkerwith their XI for this match. These are theplayers who have scripted plenty of suc-cess over the past year and there really isno need to shake things up. But gettingruns from Umar Akmal (who has one fiftyin his last five innings), Asad Shafiq (onefifty in seven innings) and Afridi is nec-essary.

As for Sri Lanka, the news that theirallrounder and vice-captain AngeloMathews has been ruled out of the AsiaCup is a big blow. Mathews' calf injuryhas cut short his tournament before itcould even begin, and with the absence of

Thissara Perera the Sri Lankans arestruggling to find a capable player in themiddle order as well as a bowler.

This means that Chamara Kapuged-era, despite a first-ball duck againstIndia, should play. The team will alsowait eagerly to see if Lasith Malinga is fitto play. If Malinga he is, Suranga Lakmalwill likely sit out.

Their bowling attack, sans Malinga,came a cropper on a placid track and al-lowed the Indians to plunder runs in thelung-opener.

Malinga is expected to be back for thematch after being ironically left out onTuesday due to his tendency to concederuns against India.

On the batting front too, there areconcerns as the chase went haywire afterskipper Mahela Jayawardene's dismissal.The explosive Tillakaratne Dilshan wouldhold the key to a big score and the four-time champions would hope he fires aftera rather disappointing start to the tour-nament.

For a batting order that runs till num-ber nine, the effort against India was notgood enough.

"Three-hundred, I thought, was get-table on this wicket," Jayawardene saidafter the defeat last night.

"We batted really well but we madequite a few mistakes [too], and that hasprobably cost us the game."

What also hurt Sri Lanka was the ab-sence of their two attacking all-rounders-- Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera --both of whom are out injured.teAmS (fRom):

pAKiStAN: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Abdur rehman,

Aizaz Cheema, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Hammad

Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Saeed

Ajmal, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Shahid Afridi, Umar

Akmal, Umar gul, wahab riaz, younis Khan

SRi lANKA: Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Angelo Math-

ews, dinesh Chandimal, Tillakaratne dilshan, Nuwan

Kulasekara, Suranga lakmal, Farveez Maharoof, lasith

Malinga, Thisara Perera, Seekkuge Prasanna, Kumar

Sangakkara, Sachithra Senanayake, Upul Tharanga,

lahiru Thirimanne.

Pakistan aim to extend winning run

Sri lanka’sAngelo Mathewsout of Asia Cup

DHAKAAfp

Sri Lanka suffered a blow on Wednes-day when influential all-rounder AngeloMathews was ruled out for the rest ofthe Asia Cup due to a calf injury.The 24-year-old will return home toColombo to get fit in time for the two-Test series against England starting onMarch 26, captain Mahela Jayawardenesaid. "Angelo has not pulled throughfitness tests well, so we made a call tosend him back home," Jayawardenesaid ahead of Thursday's crucial matchagainst Pakistan."He will try to get ready for the Testmatches. The selectors back home willdecide and send a replacement for us."Mathews, a right-arm seamer and hard-hitting batsman lower down the order,had also missed the tri-series finals inAustralia earlier this month due to thesame problem.Jayawardene said it was unclear if pacespearhead Lasith Malinga will playagainst Pakistan after he missed Tues-day's opening match against India."Malinga played through injury in thefinal two matches of the tri-series inAustralia, so we decided to give him abreak against India," the skipper said."We will take a call on him after hebowls in the nets today."Sri Lanka, who lost to India by 50 runs,will need to beat both Pakistan andBangladesh in their remaining games tostay in contention for the final onMarch 22.

Clarke back forwindies Tests

SYDNEYAfp

Injured Australia captain Michael Clarkewill be fit to play the first Test againstthe West Indies, selectors said Wednes-day as they named a squad that saw thereturn of spinner Michael Beer.Clarke was ruled out of the one-day se-ries in the Caribbean that starts Fridayafter injuring his hamstring in a tri-se-ries clash against Sri Lanka earlier thismonth.But after intense treatment, he was in-cluded in the 16-strong Test squad."It is anticipated Michael Clarke will befully recovered and take his place as cap-tain for the first Test match in Barbadosbeginning on Saturday April 7," said na-tional selector John Inverarity.The skipper later tweeted: "Rehab goingreally well, should be over in the WestIndies in the coming weeks. Can't wait tosee the boys." Shane Watson and JamesPattinson were both given recalls aftertheir injury-marred Australian summers,but batsman Shaun Marsh remains outof favour after a run of poor form.The biggest surprise was the return ofBeer, who is yet to add to his one Testagainst England in January last year.Following on from the Barbados Test,Australia play a second Test at Port ofSpain in Trinidad and a third at Roseau,Dominica.Michael Clarke (capt), Shane Watson(vice-capt), Michael Beer, Ed Cowan,Peter Forrest, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris,Ben Hilfenhaus, Mike Hussey, NathanLyon, James Pattinson, Ricky Ponting,Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, MatthewWade, David Warner

AsIA CuP

ISB 15-03-2012_Layout 1 3/15/2012 2:02 AM

Sports 19Thursday, 15 March, 2012

Pakistan cricketersto get pay boost

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

Pakistan's contracted players are set toget a pay raise of around 25 to 35 percent when the new central contracts listis announced. "Intikhab Alam has beengiven the task of recommending an in-crease in pay scale keeping in mind play-ers' performances and also the Board'sfinancial position. He has tentatively rec-ommended an increase of 25 to 35 percent," said a senior PCB official. The good news for the players is that notonly will they get pay rise in their centralcontracts but also in their present matchfees paid out on slab system. "The pay rise will definitely be incorpo-rated in the central contracts but thereare 90 per cent chances of this happen-ing in the match fees as well," the officialreported to have said. He said Intikhabwould shortly send his recommendationsto the PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf, whowill give the final approval. "The matter has already been formallydiscussed in the governing council meet-ing where the feeling was that after threeyears, the players deserve a pay in-crease," the source added. Pakistaniplayers are paid out monthly salaries inrange of 250,000, 175,000 and 125,000in their central contracts awarded inthree categories while the senior-mostplayer earns around 350,000 and300,000 as Test match and ODI fees. The PCB also awards special win bonusesbeside cash awards for individual per-formances while also paying out monthlystipends to the 20 best players of eachregional association team in differentcategories for six months of the season.

wahdat eagletsdown Sanda gym

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

Wahdat Eaglets has defeated SandaGym by 83 runs in the match of LCCASuper cricket league played at Wahdatcolony ground on Wednesday. Fine cen-tury by Abdul Waheed and equally goodbowling by Imran Ali Shah were themain feature of the match. ScORES: Wahdat Eaglets 291 in 39overs. Abdul Waheed 120, M Atari 38,Zaheer Siddiq 32, M Asghar 29, HArisNAzar 24. Rehman Tariq 3/15, M Yousuf2/32, Zeeshan 1/56, Qadeer Khan 1/20.Sanda Gym 208 in 32.3 overs. TariqMehmood 70, Zeeshan Ahmed 33, MYunis 26, Rehman Tariq 15. Imran AliShah 5/46, Qaiser Ashraf 2/33, ZaheerSiddiq 2/39. Meanwhile, Aamir Memo-rial club has advanced when they outplayGhaziabad sports by 7 wickets in theLCCA Super cricket League match playedat Itefaq Hospital ground on Wednesday. Scores: Ghaziabad Sports 158 in 36.2overs. M Asif 52, Azam 29. Syed Waqas4/18, Hamza 2/19, Zohaib Akram 2/27.Aamir MEmorial club 159/3 in 21.2 overs.Irfan HAmeed 60, Bilal Haneef 28,Hamza 23*(no). Waseem Ashraf 2/24.

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

The cycling competitions will mark theconclusion of the Punjab Sports Festival2012 that would end in a colourful clos-ing ceremony at Hazori Bagh on theevening of March 17.

Addressing a press conference hereat the Sports Board Punjab academyhall, Rana Mashood, deputy speakerPunjab Assembly said that the day willstart with an ordinary cycle race of 22kilometres and will be followed by a 66-km professional cycle race while therewill be a separate race for the female cy-clists. Usman Anwar, director generalsports Punjab was also present on theoccasion to highlight the salient featuresof the final day and the closing cere-mony.

Rana Mashood informed thataround 2500 persons have registered forthe races and more than 300 females has

shown their desire to paddle off in thelast event of the festival.

DG sports informed that he had a de-tailed meeting with all the stakeholdersto check the preparations and foolproofsecurity systems at cycle race venue andclosing ceremony going to be held at Ha-zoori Park.

Rana Mashood chaired the meetingwhile Commissioner Jawad RafiqueMalik, DCO Rahat Cheema, SecretarySports Allah Bakhsh and DG SportsUsman Anwar finalized the arrange-ments.

Rana Mashod said that the safety,security and first aid, watering pointswere reassured during the meeting. “Ithas been decided that the over headsshould be used for the public and mediato view and cover the races. He appreci-ated the positive response of the mediatowards the Punjab Sports Festival 2012to make it popularise in the world.

"There will be two cycling events, or-

dinary cycling of 22 KM and professionalcycling of 66 KM both for male and fe-male separately", he said.

He showed his satisfaction andpleasure over the registered cyclistsabove 2500 males while 300 females forboth cycling events and still the bookingis going on.

He continued: "The winners of thefinals will be given the cash prizes byChief Minister Punjab Mian ShahbazSharif."

He added: "A competition for thewinners of all finals will be held later onto hunt the talent for international levelevents". He further informed that thewinner of the professional race will begiven Rs 200,000, Rs 150,000 and Rs100,000 while the ordinary race winnerswill be awarded Rs 50,000, Rs 35,000and Rs 30,000 for the first three posi-tion winners while some other prizes willbe given to top cyclists other than thewinners.

Sports Festival to conclude with 66km cycle race on 17th

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

FORMER ICC presidentEhsan Mani believes thatIndia will have to play a"significant" role infighting corruption in the

sport and has urged the cricketboards across the globe to work intandem with their governments toeradicate the menace.

Mani said while ICC's role waslimited on this issue, India can play amajor role by making betting legal inthe country. "They (ICC) don't havethe authority to set up the sting oper-ations in any country so the responsi-bility (should be) laid on theindividual boards to follow up. Theproblem is the illegal bookies in the

subcontinent - most of them are fromIndia and some are in Pakistan. Theywork in a grey area where there is nocontrol and monitoring," he said.

"These problems will never finishuntil the Indian government finds away to regulate illegal book-making.

"I have seen the ECB showingconcern, asking players to come andtell them what they know after West-field's sentencing. I think it's themember boards who have to step upto engage the law enforcement agen-cies to work with them to clean upcricket," Mani was quoted as sayingby a website.

Mani's statement came close onthe heels of a sting operation carriedout by a British newspaper on aDelhi-based bookie, who claimed In-dian bookmakers are fixing the re-

sults of England county games and in-ternational matches and they areusing a Bollywood actress as a honeytrap to recruit players.

The report also alleged thatIndia's semifinal match against Pak-istan in last year's World Cup wasalso rigged. Mani said the only way toget rid of the menace was to eradicateit from the grassroot level.

"Every time it is the cricketerswho are under the radar. The oneswho corrupt the players are somehownever punished.

"One was hoping that the convic-tion of three Pakistanis and one Eng-lish cricketer would send out a strongmessage and frighten players, but thisI think is not going to work. In thelong run, it is the root-cause that hasto be dealt with," the Pakistani said.

Mani sees ‘fixing’roots in India

DWAIPAYAN DATTA

Talk about a cricket coach who spe-cialises in the subcontinent and DavWhatmore immediately springs tomind.

He was the coach of Sri Lankawhen they won the World Cup in1996. He was guiding Bangladeshwhen they beat India to make thequarterfinals of the 2007 World Cup.

He played a crucial role in mould-ing the India U-19 team led by ViratKohli that won the U-19 World Cupin 2008, and now he is in charge of aPakistan team that is looking to findits feet yet again.

In between, there was an unsuc-cessful two-year tenure with KolkataKnight Riders, but all that is historynow.

In the here and now, Whatmoreis the first one to enter the Pakistannets at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadiumand after a gruelling three-hour ses-sion, will be the last one to leave.

"He is really a professional. Heknows what coaching is all about. Weare enjoying the stint under him,"former Pakistan captain ShahidAfridi told TOI after a practice ses-sion on Tuesday.

Whatmore has merely been aweek into the Pakistan job and Afridiis already feeling the difference. "Heis having some very productive ses-sions with us. I am sure he will beable to recreate the success that hehas done with other teams," Afridiadded.

The Australian himself is jollyand jovial, as usual. Not too manycoaches would have come to Pakistanin the present political situation, butWhatmore knows this is his play-ground. He knows how things workin the subcontinent and is ready tocomplete a rare circle in a coach's life

that started way back in the mid-90swhen he took over as Sri Lankacoach.

"It feels good. But now my teamis Pakistan and we have got some de-cent cricket brains in the team. Myobjective is to interact with them andpick the right combination which willmake us a competitive side," What-more had said ahead of the Asia Cup.

The 57-year-old Aussie hasworked with different teams and feels

this Pakistan side "has the rightblend of youth and experience that isessential to be successful".

"We have done well in Testsagainst England but things didn't gowell in ODIs. Here, our objective is towin," the coach added.

Even as he says "I don't look backtoo often, I look forward," the Aussieprobably has a special place in hisheart for Bangladesh, the venue forthe Asia Cup.

Whatmore back on familiar ground

PIA, wapda overthe top in odI Cup

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

PIA and Wapda had an identical wins in thefourth round of the One-day National Cup2011-2012 Division-I here on Wednesday. PIA won the National ODI Cup match bythree wickets against Habib Bank whileWAPDA got the similar margin victoryagainst NBP. In the other matches, State Bank won bytwo runs over ZTBL, Faisalabad Wolvesbeat Sargodha by five wickets, AbbottabadFalcons had a two-wicket win againstRawalpindi and Sialkot Stallions thrashedIslamabad by eight wickets. ScoReS: gRoup AAt gaddafi Stadium, lahore: Habib Bank 242-9 in 50overs (Taufiq Umar 28, 47 balls, 3 x4s, Ahmed Shahzad42, 4 x4s, 60 balls, Aftab Khan 28, 43 balls, Hasanraza 56, 59 balls, 6 x4s, Kamran Hussain 21, ShoaibMalik 2-42, Zia-ul-Haq 3-49)PIA 243-7 in 49.4 overs (Shoaib Malik 44, 61 balls, 3x4s, Faisal Iqbal 107*, 106 balls, 8 x4s, 2 x6s, Anwar Ali24*, Fahad Masood 2-45, Aftab Khan 2-18) result: PIA won by three wickets. Toss: PIA, Umpires:Ijaz Ahmed & qaiser waheed, referee: Aziz-ur-rehman. At Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad: State Bank 239 in 48.2overs (rameez raja 51, 25 balls, 4 x4s, 4 x6s, rameezAziz 67, 97 balls, 5 x4s, gulraiz Sadaf 56, 76 balls, 5x4s, Hasan Mahmood 18, Mohammad Khalil 2-30, Abdulrazzaq 5-30)ZTBl 237 in 50 overs (Abdul razzaq 55, 79 balls, 5x4s, Imran Nazir 49, 39 balls, 4 x4s, 2 x6s, Zohaib Khan41, 58 balls, 5 x4s, Hasan Mahmood 2-49, Adnan rasool3-26)result: State Bank won by two runs. Toss: State Bank,Umpires: Saleem Badar & Tahir Shah, referee: Musad-daq rasool. At lCCA ground, lahore: National Bank 156 in 44.3overs (Khurram Manzoor 16, Aqeel Anjum 17, FawadAlam 52, 75 balls, 4 x4s, rashid riaz 30, 38 balls, 1x4s, Mohammad Talha 13, Azharullah 2-16, Imran Khan2-35, Zulfiqar Baber 3-27)wAPdA 158-7 in 45.1 overs (riffatullah 47, 85 balls, 5x4s, Aamer Sajjad 25, Ali Azmat 41*, 84 balls, 4 x4s,Uzair-ul-Haq 2-37, qaiser Abbas 2-29) result: wAPdA won by three wickets. Toss: NationalBank, Umpires: Nadeem ghouri & ghaffar Kazmi, ref-eree: Saadat Ali. gRoup BAt Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot: Islamabad leopards 151 in45.3 overs (Faizan riaz 71, 116 balls, 7 x4s, 7 x4s, 1 x6s,Naeem Anjum 31, 46 balls, 4 x4s, Mohammad Imran 2-33, Atif Jabbar 3-33, Mohammad Azhar 2-30, Bilal Asif2-31)Sialkot Stallions 155-2 in 31.5 overs (Mohammad yasin84*, 96 balls, 10 x4s, Mansoor Amjad 41*, 56 balls, 3x4s, 1 x6s) result: Sialkot Stallions won by eight wickets. Toss:Sialkot Stallions, Umpires: riazuddin & KamalMarchant, referee: Muhammad Anees. At diamond ground, Islamabad: rawalpindi rams 267-8 in 50 overs (Shoaib Ahmed Minhas 34, 50 balls, 4x4s, Umer waheed 62, 89 balls, 3 x4s, Baber Naeem38, 3 x4s, 52 balls, yasim Murtaza 68, 59 balls, 6 x4s, 1x6s, Mohammad Zeeshan 2-50, Nabiullah 2-36, ShakeelShah 2-37)Abbottabad Falcons 271-8 in 49.4 overs (Hammad AliShah 31, ramiz Ahmed 46, 57 balls, 5 x4s, 2 x6s, AlmarAfridi 50, 73 balls, 2 x4s, raiz Kail 47, 55 bals, 3 x4s,Khalid Usman 50, 23 balls, 8 x4s, 1 x6s, Nasir Malik 2-58, Mohammad Nawaz 3-66) result: Abbottabad Falcons won by two wickets. Toss:rawalpindi rams, Umpires: Ihstham-ul-Haq & AhmedShahab, referee: Muhammad Javed. At Sports Stadium, Sargodha: Karachi dolphins 154 in41.4 overs (Khalid latif 79, 100 balls, 7 x4s, 1 x6s,Naseer Akram 3-27, waqas Masood 4-41, AqeelAhmed 2-19)Faisalabad wolves 154-5 in 39.3 overs (Hasan Mahmood54, 63 balls, 9 x4s, Asif Hussain 33, 56 balls, 4 x4s) result: Faisalabad wolves won by five wickets. Toss:Faisalabad wolves, Umpires: rasheed Bhatti & IqbalButt, referee: Arshad Parvaiz.

lAHore: rana Mashood, deputy speaker Punjab Assembly and Usman Anwar, directorgeneral Sports Board Punjab, during a press conference. STaff phOTO

dHAKA: Pakistan's coach dav whatmore talks to captain Misbah-ul-Haq during ateam training session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. afp

ISB 15-03-2012_Layout 1 3/15/2012 2:02 AM

Sports20Thursday, 15 March, 2012

INDIAN WELLS: Roger Federer

of Switzerland returns a shot to

Milos Raonic of Canada during

their singles third round match

at the BNP Paribas Open. AFP

COLOMBOAfp

England will look for a good work-outwhen they prepare for the two-Test se-ries against Sri Lanka with a practicematch against a local team in Colombofrom Thursday. The three-day matchwill be followed by another warm-upgame from March 20-22 before thefirst Test opens in Galle on March 26.The second Test will be played inColombo from April 3.

England, the top-ranked Test side,must adapt quickly to the stifling heat

and slow wickets if they are to avoid arepeat of the embarrassing 3-0 rout byPakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

Skipper Andrew Strauss said he ex-pected conditions to be tougher in SriLanka than in Dubai and Abu Dhabiwhere Pakistan's spinners repeatedlydestroyed his batting order. "The condi-tions here are very different to Dubai,"said the 35-year-old, who has not playeda Test match in Sri Lanka before.

"There's a lot more humidity andthe heat is much more of a factor outhere." "Hopefully once the Tests start,we'll be very much on top of it." The

left-handed opener is himself strug-gling for runs, having gone 14 Testswithout a century. Strauss has passed50 just once in his last seven innings.

"You always want to be in goodform, you always want to lead from thefront," the skipper said. "I was quite en-couraged by how I started to play to-wards the end of the Pakistan series.

"I need to build on that in the twoTests." Sri Lanka's Test wicket-keeperPrasanna Jayawardene will lead thehome team in the first practice match,while another international Thilina Kan-damby will captain in the other game.

england gear up for tough Sri lanka test PlTA appointsTayyab asassistant coach

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

The Punjab Lawn Tennis Associationappointed former Pakistan Davis Cupplayer Tayyab Iftikhar as assistantcoach at its coaching centre at Bagh-i-Jinnah to assist national coach RashidMalik for the development of the sportin the province. He will be working onthe game’s development with Malik atthe Punjab Coaching Center ComplexBagh-e-Jinnah. Tayyab, who is theuncle of Pakistan’s tennis ace AisamulHaq, is father of upcoming star andDavis Cupper Samir Iftikhar. A foreigncountry educated, Tayyab has a vast in-ternational experience in the game’scoaching. It was under his guidancethat his 19 years old son Samirprogress in the World Ranking at ITFJunior Circuit from 1300th to 250th inrecord eight months. Samir became thesecond Junior from Pakistan since1998 after Aisam to win four ITF Jun-ior World Ranking titles in 2010 andon domestic circuit the same year hecaused sensation by beating Pakistannumber one Aqeel Khan after 10 years. In 2011, Samir continued his winningspree and powered his way into Pak-istan Davis Cup team. Samir is cur-rently in USA on Tennis scholarship. PLTA secretary Ahmad Baksh said: “It isgreat to have the services of the Ex DavisCupper who is well-educated and hasstrong tennis background with interna-tional experience which will help PLTAto find talented youngsters from the on-going talent hunt competitions andgroom them to reach at internationallevels. Tayyab, however, thanked PLTAPresident Rao Iftikhar and AhmadBaksh for giving him the opportunity.

Tiger turns to Shaqto help sell newestvideo game

NEW YORKAfp

Tiger Woods, the injured golf star com-ing off record sales for his video gamelast year with help from the Masters,has enlisted ex-NBA star ShaquilleO'Neal's help in selling the newest ver-sion. Woods posted a Twitter link onTuesday to unveil a two-minute video ofhimself and the massive retired basket-ball star exchanging kung fu moves be-fore making shots in hyping 'TigerWoods PGA Tour 13 -- Duel of the Mas-ters'. "Watch me do battle with @Shaqusing the ancient method of Golf-Fu,"Woods posted on his Twitter website.Woods, a 14-time major champion chas-ing the all-time record of 18 major titleswon by Jack Nicklaus, and 'Shaq' usedthe Xbox 360 Kinect motion sensor tomake game swings after elaborate kungfu-style moves. The video game duel be-tween 'Crimson Cat' Woods and 'Swing-ing Giant' O'Neal is a nod to older kungfu movies and not unfamiliar to O'Neal,who had a 1990s video game called'Shaq-Fu'. Woods, whose new videogame for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360goes on sale on March 27, had thestrongest opening sales for any of hisvideo games last year when Augusta Na-tional Golf Club allowed its course to bemeasured and portrayed in a videogame -- an unprecedented move for thefamed pine-tree-laden lay-out.

Pessi register big winin Challenge Polo Cup

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

Pessi on Wednesday registered a big win inthe Zong Challenge Polo Cup 2012 matchhere at the Lahore Polo Club ground. TheTiwanas - Atif Yar and Ahmed Ali – werethe masterminds of their 8-5 win over Dia-mond Paints, which had its share of goalsthrough Shah Shamyl Alam (three goals)while Mir Shoaib Ahmad and Hassan AliFarrukh had one goals each. As of Tiwanasthey added four goals each in their lime-light on the day. Diamond Paints statedthe match on a positive note but Pessitook the charge just before the close ofthe first chukker and never allowed Dia-mond Paints take control of the match.

After beating Bangladesh in their open-ing match, Pakistan will take on SriLanka in the third match of the 11th AsiaCup at the Sher-e-Bangla National Sta-dium, Mirpur on Thursday (March 15).

This will be the 127th match betweenthe two teams in limited-overs interna-tional and 12th in Asia Cup.

Pakistan have a good record againstSri Lanka in previous ODIs played be-tween the two teams. They have won 75and lost 47 in 126 previous encounters.Four matches ended without a resultwhich includes one tied match. Even inBangladesh, Pakistan have a good recordagainst Sri Lanka with two wins and aloss.

Sri Lanka's overall record againstPakistan is not that good but they havegood record in Asia Cup. The Islandershave won eight and lost three in 11matches against Pakistan

It is hard to beat Pakistan in day andnight encounters for Sri Lanka. Pak-istani have won 26 and lost 18 in 46matches played against the Islanders

under lights. The remaining twomatches were abandoned which includea tie match.

In last 10 matches played betweenthe two teams, Pakistan have won sevenwhile Sri Lanka achived victory in threeencounters.

Pakistan achieved a three-wicketvictory over Sri Lanka when the twoteams met last time in a limited overs in-ternational match at Sheikh Zayed Sta-dium, Abu Dhabi on November 23, 2011.

HIgHESt INNINgS tOtALS: Pak-istan: 371-9 in 50 overs at Nairobi 04-10-1996; Sri Lanka : 349-9 in 50 overs atSingapore 02-04-1996LOWESt INNINgS tOtALS: Pak-istan : 75 in 22.5 overs at Lahore 24-01-2009; Sri Lanka : 78 in 16.5 overs atSharjah 17-04-2002HIgHESt MAtcH AggREgAtE:

664 runs for 19 wkts in 99.4 overs at Sin-gapore 02-04-1996LOWESt MAtcH AggREgAtE:

245 runs for 13 wkts in 71.5 overs atColombo 21-07-2004HIgHESt INDIvIDuAL ScORES:

Pakistan : 129 Moahmmed Yousuf atSharjah 17-04-2002; Sri Lanka : 137*Tillakaratne Dilshan at Lahore 24-01-2009BESt BOWLINg PERFORMANcES:

Pakistan : 6-26 Waqar Younis at Sharjah29-04-1990; Sri Lanka : 5-17 SanathJayasuriya at Lahore 16-10-2004BIggESt MARgINS OF vIctORy:

Pakistan: 217 runs at Sharjah 17-04-20029 wickets at Gujarnawala 29-09-19959 wickets at Colombo 03-08-19949 wickets at Nairobi 08-10-2000Sri Lanka: 234 at Lahore 24-01-20098 wickets at Sharjah 17-10-19958 wickets at Lahore 05-11-19978 wickets at Colombo 12-09-2002NARROWESt MARgINS OF vIctORy:

Pakistan : 6 runs at Lucknow 27-10-19892 wickets at Sharjah 02-11-1993Sir Lanka : 9 runs at Sharjah 12-04-20023 wickets at Perth 31-12-1989tIED MAtcH: Pakistan (196 in 49.1)-Sri Lanka (196 in 49.4) at Sharjah 15-10-1999.

Pakistan enjoy good record against Sri Lanka

S. PERvEZ QAISER

stats corner

SuMMARy OF ONE-DAy ENcOuNtERS:At PLAyED PAK WON S.L WON ABDN tIED

In England 3 3 - - -In India 7 4 3 - -In Emirates 40 25 14 - 1In Sri Lanka 28 13 13 2 -In Bangladesh 3 2 1 - -In Australia 5 4 1 - -In Singapore 3 1 1 1 -In Pakistan 28 16 12 - -In South Africa 5 4 1 - -In Kenya 2 2 - - -In Morocco 2 1 1 - -Total: 126 75 47 3 1Day/Night 46 26 18 1 1Last 10 matches 10 7 3 - -Asia Cup 11 3 8 - -

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Sports 21Thursday, 15 March, 2012

WAtch It LIve

PTVAsia Cup:Pakistan V Sri Lanka01:00PM

INDIAN WELLSAfp

RAFAEL Nadal breezed intothe fourth round at IndianWells on Tuesday where hewas joined by Roger Federer

who had to dig deep to fend off risingstar Milos Raonic in three sets. Whereworld number three Federer had tocome from behind to beat Canada'sRaonic 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 6-4, his Spanishrival cruised by Marcel Granollers 6-1, 6-4, to extend his winning run against hiscompatriots to 10 matches.

Nadal will face Alexandr Dolgopolovin the fourth round of the hardcourttournament in the California desert.

In the women's draw, defendingchampion Caroline Wozniacki saw herbid for back-to-back titles fail as she wasdumped out 6-3, 6-2 in the night matchby former world number one AnaIvanovic. Federer also appeared to befacing an early exit after losing the firstset to Raonic.

But the 30-year-old Swiss, who wonthree straight Indian Wells titles from2004-2006, came back to take the nexttwo sets and continue a strong run ofform that has seen him take consecutivewins in Rotterdam and Dubai.

Federer, who was facing the 21-year-old Raonic for the first time, said he hada difficult time adjusting early to whatthe hard-serving Canadian.

"It was a difficult match," Federersaid. "I have never played him before.He has probably seen me play a wholelot on TV which helps him out a bit."

Federer hammered 10 aces and won88 percent of his first-serve points in thetwo hour, seven minute match, and af-terwards expressed pride in the come-back. "I hung in there and played greatin the second set. The third set was closeand I am glad to be moving on in thistournament," he said.

Federer broke Raonic in the seventh

game of the third set to go up 4-3. WithRaonic serving at 30-30 Federer dug lowto snag a 219kmph (136mph) service re-turn, which Raonic then failed to getback over the net. The Swiss won thegame on the next point with a backhandpassing shot down the line.

Federer then took his first matchpoint when Raonic pounded a forehandinto the net in front of the 15,000-strongcrowd at the Indian Wells Tennis Gar-den. Raonic, who already has two titles

this season, showed why he is consid-ered one of the rising stars on the ATPTour, earning the praise of his opponent.

"He is going to be a future top 10player and a whole lot better. He didvery well tonight under pressure," Fed-erer said. Despite the loss, Raonic saidhe still enjoyed being on centre courtagainst the 16-time Grand Slam winner.

"I was there competing with whatpeople say was the greatest player of all-time," Raonic said.

Federer, Nadal movein Indian Wells Tennis

INDIAN WELLSAfp

Ana Ivanovic of

Serbia upset

defending

champion Caroline

Wozniacki 6-3, 6-

2 in the fourth

round of the

WTA/ATP Indian

Wells tournament

on Tuesday. The

15th seeded

Ivanovic advances

to the quarter-

finals where she

will face

Frenchwoman

Marion Bartoli,

who beat Lucie

Safarova 6-1, 6-4.

Ana Ivanovic beats Wozniacki at Indian Wells

INdIAN wellS: Ana Ivanovic of Serbia returns a shot during her match against Caroline wozniacki ofdenmark at the BNP Paribas open. afp

INdIAN wellS: Caroline wozniacki of denmark returns a shot during her match against Ana Ivanovic ofSerbia at the BNP Paribas open. afp

INDIAN WELLSAfp

Top seed Victoria Azarenka, who is riding aseason long 20-0 win streak, says she's notabout to take her foot off the acceleratoranytime soon. Despite her success, whichhas seen her rocket to the No 1 ranking inthe world this year for the first time in hercareer, Azarenka says there is no easing upand when she gets on the practice courts itis all about trying new things and gettingbetter every day. "If I relax my butt but a lit-tle bit, someone is going to come along andkick it," said Azarenka following her domi-nating 6-3, 6-1 win over Julia Goerges at theWTA Indian Wells tennis tournament on

Tuesday. Azarenka struggled in heropening match at Indian Wells,barely scraping past rising Ger-man star Mona Barthel but thenraised her game to another levelwith a straight-set victory overformer US Open champ Svet-lana Kuznetsova. She haswon 20 consecutivematches for the beststart to a WTA Tourseason in nine yearswhen Serena Williamswent on a 21-0 streak.Martina Hingis hasthe all-time Tourrecord of 37 straight

match wins. Asked if she has a chance ofstretching her win streak to 41matches like men's world numberone Novak Djokovic did last year,

Azarenka said, "I am defi-nitely going to try."Azarenka celebrated herwin over Goerges with anace on the final point of the69-minute match on centrecourt. Goerges was onlyable to hold serve twice inthe match and won just 33percent of her first servepoints. Azarenka said her

success this year is becauseshe is healthy and in better shape than

previous years. "The thing that stands outis my physical condition and I'm pleasedwith that," said Azarenka who started theyear by winning the Australian Open. "ButI feel like there is so much more room toimprove on that. I'm trying to keep push-ing and pushing myself." Azarenka ad-vances to the quarter-finals, where she willplay number five-seeded Agnieszka Rad-wanska, who won her match when JamieHampton retired with a cramping problemin the third set. Azarenka and Radwanskahave met 11 times previously and this willbe their fourth contest in 2012. Azarenkawon all three matches this year and hasan eight to three lead in career meetingsdating back to 2006 at Wimbledon.

practice makes perfect for top seed azarenka

Navy, Army, PAFshow supremacyin KPT Cup

KARACHIStAff RepoRt

Navy, Army and PAF showed their su-premacy in the KPT National FootballChallenge Cup-2012, Karachi onWednesday at Karachi. All the three service teams won theirmatches with full authority leavingtheir rivals trampled to defeats. Navy beat National Youth B 2-0 at thePST Ground of KPT Stadium, Karachiand the winning goals were scored byforward Asif Mahmood in the 20thminute while midfielder Abdul Haqscored in the 60th minute.Army routed PPWD by four goals inthe second ground of the Peoples Foot-ball Stadium. The starts for Army win were mid-fielder Akhter Hussain (39 minute),forward Imran Hussain (4th minute),forward Ansar Abbas (53 minute) andforward Muhammad Jameel (87thminute). PAF beat Railway by solitarygoals that came from defender Sher Aliin the 82nd minute.

Indian blindsoverpowerPakistan

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

India overpowered Pakistan by 5 wick-ets in the 1st ODI of the thee match se-ries being played at SPIC YMCAChennai. India won the toss and put Pakistaninto bat. Pakistan were bowled out onthe last ball of the stipulated 40th overposting 352 runs. Muhammad Fayazwas the top scorer with unbeaten 96runs while Muhammad Akram made 73runs. Shekhar and Ajay Reddy took twowickets each. In reply, India achieved the target in37th over for the loss of 5 wickets.Ganesh was the leading scorer withbrilliant 156 runs and well supportedby Ajay who scored 76 runs. ZeshanAbbasi took two wickets while Yasirand Jameel shared a wicket each.Ganesh was declared the Man of thematch. India with this win, gained 1-0 lead inthe three match ODI series. The secondODI of the series will be played onMarch 16 at the same venue.

INdIAN wellS: rafael Nadal of Spain hits a backhand as he defeats Marcel granollersof Spain at the Indian wells Tennis. afp

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Thursday, 15 March, 2012 22

Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami, Executive Editor: Sarmad Bashir, Resident Editor: Rana Qaisar

NEWSDESK

PAKISTAN onTuesday told theUnited States itwill no longerpermit drones to

use the country’s airspace toattack militants and collectintelligence on al Qaeda andother groups. PakistanAmbassador to WashingtonSherry Rehman met US VicePresident Joe Biden’sNational Security AdviserAntony Blinken on March 9and conveyed the decision. She told him that Pakistan’spolitical parties had agreed that the drone flights overPakistan must end, the Bloomberg news service said, citingunnamed US officials. “Pakistan’s sovereignty over its airspaceand the civilian casualties that have resulted from dronestrikes are emotional issues in Pakistan, where public opinionheavily favours terminating drone missions,” the report citedPakistani officials as saying. “The US will try to reach a pointwith Pakistani leaders,” two US officials said. “The onlychance for a compromise,” the Pakistani officials said, “may beif the US agrees to share intelligence and coordinate strikesfirst, a strategy Pakistan has long advocated.” The US hasresisted giving information to Pakistan in advance because offears that some in Pakistan’s security forces might warn thetargets of the impending strikes, the report said.

LAHOREStAff RepoRt

Punjab Chief Minister ShahbazSharif has categorically rejected allaccusations levelled against theSharifs by former Mehran Bankpresident Younas Habib and an-nounced suing him for taking hisparty’s leadership’s name in theMehrangate scandal.

“Everybody knows that a power-ful man sitting in Islamabad is be-hind the plot and Younis Habib isbeing used as an instrument,” Shah-baz said in a hurriedly-called pressconference at Model Town onWednesday. He said he was notspeaking as the Punjab chief minis-ter but on behalf of the PML-N andhis brother Nawaz Sharif. “We haveconstituted a panel of lawyers tolaunch legal action against YounisHabib to unmask the real conspira-tors behind the game,” he said,adding that after winning the case,compensation amount would be

doled out to charity.Shahbaz divulged that schemers

had stirred up fake allegations to in-timidate the PML-N for raising voiceagainst the government’s rampantcorruption and the NRO cases, but hewarned that they were mistaken asthe PML-N never felt threatened. “Wedon’t give importance to the state-ment of Younis Habib as he is notori-ous for such plots. Moreover, the listof his crimes is too long; that is whyhe can’t be trusted in any sense as hehas changed his statements fourtimes,” Shahbaz said. He termed theaccusations of Younis Habib as thebiggest lies of the century.

The Punjab CM said, “YounisHabib has said that he sent me theamount by TT. Then he changed hisstance and said he sent me themoney through Asif Jamshaid. How-ever, Younis is unable to produce anyevidence to prove his claim.” AboutAsif Jamshaid, Shahbaz said the per-son was sacked on Rs 8 million mis-appropriations, but the PPP

government awarded him the slot ofMD of the Bank of Punjab in 1994. “Iterminated him in 1997 and he fledthe country to ward off corruptioncases,” Shahbaz said. He said how itcould be possible that official ac-

count was opened when our govern-ment had been overthrown in 1993.The innumerable contradiction ex-posed the fact that there were nomore than lame accusations to vilifyparty leadership, he added.

Pakistan won’tallow drones inits airspace,Sherry tells US

Shahbaz has heard enough, will sue habib now!

ISLAMABAD: Former chairmanof the defunct Mehran Bank YounisHabib said on Wednesday he wasready to face any suit for damagesbrought against him by the Pak-istan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Earlier in the day, Habib filed apetition in the Supreme Court de-manding reimbursement of “hismoney, lavished on politicians”.During the hearing of the AsgharKhan case by a three-memberbench headed by Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,Habib submitted an affidavit basedon the statements of former gener-

als, Aslam Baig and Asad Durrani,in which he prayed that an amountwas paid to political parties in 1990to prevent the PPP’s way to power.The attorney general informed theSC that nothing was classified inwhat was earlier touted as “classi-fied statements” by generalsNaseerullah Babar, Mirza AslamBaig and Asad Durrani. TheSupreme Court also announced thatan appropriate order would bepassed regarding making these‘classified statements’ public at anappropriate time, during the nexthearing of the case. ONLINE

brING IT ON, sAys HAbIb


Reaffirming the Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP)-led govern-ment’s stance on immunity toPresident Asif Ali Zardari, Infor-mation Minister Firdous AshiqAwan on Wednesday said theparliament had granted immu-nity to the president and only ithad the power to revoke it.

She was briefing reporters atthe National Press Club aboutthe decisions taken during the

federal cabinet’s meeting heldunder Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani. “Until the time thepresidential immunity is part ofthe constitution, the prime min-ister will not violate this consti-tutional provision. The premierwould also appear before the(apex) court as per the court’s di-rection,” said Awan when askedif the prime minister would writea letter to Swiss authorities forreopening corruption casesagainst Zardari in accordancewith the court’s new order.

Commenting on the Mehran-gate case, the minister said the PPPwas waiting for the apex court’sverdict on the matter. “We wouldsee how those who had been hand-in-glove with corruption would beable to come clean out of this verycase. The history would decide thefate of those involved in theMehran Bank case,” she said,adding that the projects launchedby the Punjab government, such asSasti Roti, flyover bridges, and dis-tribution of laptops, reflected lackof transparency.

NAB closes corruption

cases against FarooqiISLAMABAD: The executive board meet-ing of the National Accountability Bureau(NAB) on Wednesday approved closure ofthree identical cases of alleged corruptioncases against Usman Farooqi, father ofSharmila Farooqi and brother of secretarygeneral to the president, Salman Farooqi.The meeting also authorised verification ofcomplaint against Yousaf Baig Mirza, man-aging director (MD) of Pakistan TelevisionCorporation (PTVC) and others in allegedcases of corruption and corrupt practicesand misuse of authority. STaff REpORT

‘Govt firm on presidential immunity’

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