lahore edition pakistantoday.com.pk thursday, 9 February, 2012 rabi-ul-awal 16, 1433rs15.00 Vol ii no 223 22 pages

Nawaz Sharif links 20thAmendment consensusto early elections

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Rescue work nears conclusion, 7 still missing

LAHORE | PAGE 7 PAGE 17

Three families massacred in Syria’sHoms

ISLAMABAD TAHIR NIAZ

The senators on Wednesdaycautiously pointed the fingertowards the intelligence agen-cies of the country as they con-demned the murder of the wifeand daughter of Mir BakhtiarDomki as brutal, inhumane and

contrary to Baloch traditions, with two ofthem arguing whether the debate in the USCongress committee on the Balochistanissue was justified under the prevailing cir-cumstances in the restive province.

Senator haji Adeel linked the Balochis-tan situation to that in Palestine and Kash-mir and justified the debate in the USCongress Committee on the Balochistanissue under the prevailing circumstances inthe province, saying if the world discussedPalestine, Kashmir, Iraq and Syria, whyshould it not discuss the Balochistan issuewhen the province was plagued by humanrights violations. he said the establishmenthad taken the same path that had led to thecreation of Bangladesh.

however, Senator haroon Akhtar said:“how dare they (US) have a meeting on theBalochistan issue and talk about an inde-pendent Balochistan?” he said some foreignpowers were active in Balochistan and

added that no intelligence agency or individ-ual could commit this inhumane and shock-ing crime. he suggested that as the US wasreportedly on the brink of disintegration,the Foreign Relations Committee of parlia-ment should hold a meeting and discuss thepossible US disintegration.

It was Senator Shahid Bughti who firstput the ‘facts’ before the house as he heardfrom the sole survivor of the incident, the15-year-old maid, and rejected the ‘conclu-sion’ that deaths were the result of an en-mity. Senator Shahid Bugti demanded thatPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani clear hisposition: either the gruesome incident tookplace on his wish or he was unable to pre-vent such incidents. he said some govern-ment officials tried to twist the facts andlabelled the incident an outcome of an en-mity. The killers, he said, had used silencedguns. “It is totally wrong that the killingswere the outcome of an enmity… killing ofwomen in even the worst kind of Baloch en-mity is out of the question, as society givesrespect to the females of the rivals,” he said.

Without mentioning names, Bugti saidsame elements were involved in the killingof the Domki family members which werealso involved in kidnappings in Balochistan.

Senators suspectagencies’ role inDomki murders

g Argue over validity of US Congress hearingon Balochistan unrest

ISLAMABADIRFAN BUKHARI

The fate of 28 legislators continuesto hang in the balance as talksbetween the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) and the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) on the20th Constitutional AmendmentBill remained inconclusive onWednesday, with both sidesclaiming that the deadlock had beenbroken but insiders telling PakistanToday that the make-or-breakround of talks would be held onThursday (today). “Both sides madesome progress on the appointmentof a caretaker setup but PPP leadersKhurshid Shah, Naveed Qamar andRaza Rabbani sought some timefrom the PML-N to take the nod ofPresident Asif Ali Zardari andPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani,”said a source in the PML-N, adding

that the PPP leaders had agreed toamend the existing constitutionalmechanism of the appointment of acaretaker setup on the PML-N’sdemand but needed the consent ofthe party’s top command.

The source said further that bothsides also agreed to apply the sameprocedure for the appointment ofcaretaker setups in the provinces asthe one adopted by the Centre. “ThePML-N told the PPP leaders thatwithout amending the constitutionalprocedure of appointing a caretakersetup, they would never support the20th Constitutional Amendment,”the source said, adding that thePML-N had not budged from itsstance of substituting the words “inconsultation with the leader of theopposition” with “in consensus withthe leader of the opposition”

SC to hear intra-courtappeal against PM’sindictment today

ISLAMABADMASOOD REHMAN

An eight-member Supreme Court largerbench, headed by Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry, will take up anintra-court appeal today to decide the fateof Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in thecontempt of court case. Aitzaz Ahsen,counsel for the prime minister, onWednesday filed the appeal against thedecision of a seven-member bench thatsummoned his client on February 13 toindict him on charges of committingcontempt by not implementing courtorders in the National ReconciliationOrdinance (NRO) case. Ahsen, who will forthe first time since the restoration of thejudges appear before a bench headed bythe chief justice, requested the court toaccept and allow the appeal, set aside the

28 MPs hang in the balance as20th Amend talks near end

QUETTA: Locals gather at the site of a bomb explosion at Liaqat Bazaar. A 10-kilogramme bomb exploded in the area late on

Tuesday, injuring one person. online

baloChistan unrest eChoes again in na | page 04

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News

Today’s

lookQuick

KARAChI

Story on Page 07

NewS

Story on Page 05

CARTOON

Page 13

Want judges? Here’s a list of our blue-eyed boys Pakistan blasts US drone attacks

JUI-Ideological leader shot dead in ChamanQUETTA: A central leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam(JUI)-Ideological was shot dead in an armed attack in theborder town of Chaman on Wednesday. According toLevies sources, unidentified gunmen intercepted JUI-Ide-ological leader Abdul Ghani in the outskirts of Chamantown and shot at him, injuring him badly. Ghani wastaken to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.The attackers fled from the scene. After getting the news,a large number of party workers rushed to the hospitaland protested against the killing. So far no one hasclaimed responsibility for the murder. The Levies haveregistered a case against unidentified men and startedsearching for the killers. STAFF REPORT

Traffic cop, bank employee murderedKARACHI: A traffic policeman was shot dead by twomen near the Finance and Trade Centre at Shahrah-e-Faisal, police said on Wednesday. The Ferozabad ShOsaid ASI Abdul Jabbar signalled two men coming from thewrong side of the road, but they opened fire on him.A po-lice team reached the spot and chased down and arrestedthe two men Junaid and Atif Khan. The police official saidthat the two men are robbers and they confessed to killingthe ASI. The victim was working at the Saddar Town traf-fic police section. Separately, a bank employee was killedby unidentified assailants near the Abdullah Collegewithin the jurisdiction of the Shahrah-e-Noor Jehan po-lice station. The police said Sakhi Sardar, 40, was on hisway to a private bank branch in D’ Silva Town in NorthNazimabad when two men on a motorcycle interceptedhim and sprayed him with bullets. In another incident, aman was shot dead by unidentified attackers near theMewashah Graveyard in Pak Colony. The Pak Colony ShOsaid the victim, 32-year-old Asif, was tortured and thenmurdered. he said the victim was a resident of Agra TajColony in Lyari. STAFF REPORT

The Day of Russia’s DiplomacyKARACHI: Since 2002, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ofthe Russian Federation celebrates the date of the l0th ofFebruary as the Day of Russia’s Diplomacy. On that day in1802 by the Decree of Alexander I, emperor of Russia, theMinistry of Foreign Affairs was established in that country.Russians consider this day as a professional occasion of allthose involved in the activities related to the foreign policyof Russia. The world economy remains in the state of a per-manent crisis. Numerous international issues are being set-tled based on the threats of use of force or on the direct useof force. States where the situation in the field of humanrights is far from being ideal interfere into internal affairsof other states. The pretext of safeguarding human rightsand freedoms is being used to unable the removal of theregimes which are not of much liking for certain capitals.Under these circumstances, the foreign policy of Russiahas to settle lots of problems that become even more com-plicated every day and it does it quite successfully. Russiadid its best for maintenance of international stability forsearching just solutions for conflicts emerging in presentday world almost every day. The foreign policy of Russiahas become more modern, has become the one contribut-ing the goal of modernisation of the country, the one con-tributing national security of Russia establishing andmaintenance of relations of partnership with other statesin the interests of the citizens Russia in the interests ofpromoting social and economic conditions in the country.Russia will continue to do everything possible to reinforceits prestige and influence as one of the main centres ofstrength in the new multi-polar world. PRESS RELEASE

KARACHI: A large number of people gathered at the fish harbour on Wednesday to look at the whale shark that washed ashore the day before. online

Pilot killed as

PAF’s Chinese jet

crashes in Pishin ISLAMABAD

STAFF REPORT

An F-7PG fighter aircraft of the Pak-istan Air Force (PAF) crashed 24nautical miles north of Quetta whileon a routine training mission onWednesday. “The pilot embraced martyrdom. Noloss to civilian life or property onground has been reported. A boardof enquiry has been ordered to de-termine the cause of accident,” aPAF statement said.“It was a Chinese-made F-7PG train-ing aircraft,” Air Commodore AnisMirza said. The plane crashed inPishin district during a “routine”training mission, he said, addingthat the pilot “embraced martyr-dom”.The cause of the crash was not im-mediately known, he said. An inves-tigation is under way.It was the fourth air force jet tocrash in training in over threemonths. Two pilots were killed inthe other incidents and a helicoptercrash last June killed four militarypersonnel.

MOSCOWAPP

PAKISTAN and Russia onWednesday agreed topromote and enhancebilateral relations in di-

verse fields, including trade, energyand people-to-people contacts.

Addressing a joint press con-ference along with her Russiancounterpart, Foreign Ministerhina Rabbani Khar said there hadbeen a scope for cooperation be-tween the two countries in variousareas and all aspects for improvingcooperation had been discussedduring the meeting of the two for-eign ministers. Foreign Ministerhina Rabbani Khar is visiting theRussian Federation at the invita-tion of her Russian counterpartSergey Viktorovich Lavrov, fromFebruary 7 to 10.

She held in-depth talks with

her Russian counterpart on ex-panding and diversifying Pakistan-Russia relations. The two foreignministers exchanged views on re-gional and global issues of mutualinterest besides increasing cooper-ation in energy, infrastructure de-velopment, agriculture, scienceand technology.

To a question on Afghanistan,hina Rabbani Khar said Pakistanhad clear policy that it would ex-tend full help and cooperation toany Afghan-led, Afghan-ownedand Afghan-driven peace initiative,as it was the only long lasting solu-tion to the problem. She said Pak-istan had repeatedly said that thereshould be a political solution to theAfghan problem for durable peacein the region. The foreign ministersaid TAPI and KASA 1000 energyprojects were also discussed duringthe meeting, adding that Pakistangot an encouraging response from

Russia for more investment in Pak-istan Steel Mills.

The foreign minister said nextquadrilateral summit being held inPakistan was also discussed duringthe meeting with her Russiancounterpart.

Addressing the joint press con-ference, Russian Foreign MinisterSergey Lavrov said both the coun-tries also agreed to cooperate infighting terrorism and drug crimes.

he said, “We have a good fu-ture in implementation of majortransnational energy projects at theborder between the Central Asianand South Asian regions.”

Lavrov said, “In our interna-tional cooperation we pay specialattention to the issues of terrorismand drug crimes.”

he said soon, federal servicerepresentative of Russia on controlof drug substances would startworking in Islamabad.

g Foreign Minister Khar says both countries to work for

enhancement of trade, energy and people-to-people relations

Pakistan, Russia agree to promote bilateral ties

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NewsCOMMeNTSigns of a thaw:

Articles on Page 12-13

Good omens about Pak-US relations.

Hard times: An understatement given our (and the global) economy’s state.

Nazir Naji says:

Imran Husain says:

FOReIgN NewS

Story on Page 17

ARTS & eNTeRTAINMeNT

Story on Page 15

SPORTSPakistan prepare for Afghanistan ODI

Story on Page 18

Gandhi election test in most populous Indian state Oops... Dippy did it again

The fear factor: First it was just India. Now it’s everyone.

Bravo Team Pakistan! The Greenwash of the Poms.

Umair Javed says:Apolitical coalitions: Is the middleclass apathetic or antipathetic towards politics?

ISLAMABADSALMAN ABBAS

ReJeCTING the plea of formerdefence secretary Lt General(r) Naeem Khalid Lodhi seekinginterim relief by cancellation of

the notification of Nargis Sethi’s appointmentas acting defence secretary and to restore himto his position, the Islamabad high Court(IhC) on Wednesday directed the presidentand establishment secretary not to appoint

any other officer to the post currently as-signed to Sethi. The court maintained the sta-tus quo of the defence secretary’s post untilthe final decision on the writ petition filed byLt Gen (r) Lodhi against his dismissal. Issuingthe order, the court disposed of the civil mis-cellaneous application filed by Lodhi and ad-journed the hearing of his writ petition.

Lt Gen (r) Lodhi was removed from thepost of defence secretary by Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani in January, after whichhe moved the IhC against his dismissal and

filed two petitions seeking to reverse the or-ders. A single member bench, comprisingJustice Azim Khan Afridi, was hearing histwo petitions filed through his counsel FKButt citing President Asif Ali Zardari, PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani, the cabinetsecretary, establishment secretary and act-ing defence secretary as respondents.

In the civil miscellaneous application, thecourt ordered that on the basis of the notifi-cation dated 11/1/2012, the petitioner hadbeen relieved of the charge of defence secre-

tary and the post had already been assignedto Nargi Sethi in an acting capacity, so the pe-titioner’s plea for reinstatement on thestrength of an interim order could not be ac-cepted. Lt Gen (r) Lodhi’s counsel submittedthat his client was terminated by the primeminister without any prior notice and re-quested the court to cancel the terminationorders. he also requested the court to cancelthe notification of the appointment of Sethi asacting defence secretary. however, DeputyAttorney General Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri

contended that Lt Gen (r) Lodhi was workingon a two-year contract and according to therules for contractual employees, the govern-ment could terminate them whenever itwanted by paying them a month’s salary inadvance. The counsel for Lt Gen (r) Lodhicontended that the premier terminated hisclient with a view to clear the way for furtherillegal steps to arbitrarily remove the armychief and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) di-rector general (DG) for the fulfilment of hispolitical agenda “to ruin this country”.

nawaz links 20th amendmentconsensus to early polls

BAHAWALPURONLINE

Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N)President Nawaz Sharif linked an understand-ing with the government on the 20th Constitu-tional Amendment with early general electionson Wednesday, saying the deadlock on theamendment would continue if the governmentfailed to accept the opposition’s recommenda-tions regarding the election Commission ofPakistan (eCP).

he told reporters that the governmentwould be the only one responsible for Senateelection results if they were held in “this worstenvironment”. he said dialogue between theruling party and the opposition should bemeaningful regarding the 20th Amendmentand early elections being held in a transparentmanner. he alleged that the government hadmisused the term ‘consultation’ and had never

included the oppositions in its decisions. he said the PML-N supported the Supreme

Court verdict on the suspension of member-ships of provincial and National Assemblymembers elected on bogus voter lists during by-elections. he said the eCP was responsible forthe bogus lists. he also demanded the govern-ment make the eCP more independent, sayingthe country’s future depended on transparentand fair elections, which were possible onlywhen the eCP was independent.

“The credit for initiating the NRO andmemogate cases on the floor of the National As-sembly goes to the PML-N. If we had not initi-ated the NRO case in the National Assembly, itwould be have been legalised,” Nawaz said.

he also said he was in favour of the cre-ation of Bahawalpur province on an adminis-trative, not ethnic, basis. he said the people ofBahawalpur had the right to have a separateprovince.

law Ministry babus’ grammarcomes under fire in nA

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

With the Lower house of parliament passingtwo important bills on Wednesday, the babus ofthe Law Ministry came under strong criticismof PPP lawmaker Syed Zafar Ali Shah, whogrilled the bureaucrats for presenting bills filledwith errors, lacunae and drafting mistakes with-out even giving it a second reading to get rid oflegal and grammatical faults.

“There are so many drafting errors in thesebills and even commas and full stops have notbeen used appropriately. even ministers don’tcater to these mistakes and bills after bills arebeing passed with drafting errors. The law min-ister should summon those officials and shouldtake them to task,” said Zafar Ali Shah whilespeaking on a point of order. Referring to theState Bank of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill 2011,Shah also took to task the relevant ministers andlegislators who did not point out mistakes in thebill earlier, as the same had earlier been passedby both houses of parliament. “Under the law,if this bill is not passed now, the governmentwould have to summon joint session of parlia-ment to pass this bill,” he asserted.

Minister of State for Oroduction KhwajaSheraz Mehmood admitted drafting mistakes inthe bill and assured the house that such a mistakewould not be repeated. Deputy speaker FaisalKarim Kundi, who was chairing the session, di-rected Law Minister Maula Bux Chandio to takeaction against the officials who were involved inmaking these mistakes. The minister assured ac-tion against the concerned officials and pledgedthat such mistakes would not be repeated.

Later the State Bank of Pakistan (Amend-ment) Bill 2011 was passed unanimously as op-

position did not oppose. The bill was aimed atamending the State Bank of Pakistan act, 1956,being an old law which would benefit frombeing updated to bring it closer to the currentfunctions of a modern central bank and to betterconfirm to best international practice.

The house also passed the Private and In-frastructure Board Bill, 2011 unanimously. Min-ister for Water and Power Naveed Qamarpresented the bill. The PPIB was created per the1994 power policy to act as “one window” oper-ation for attracting and facilitating private in-vestment in power generation and alliedinfrastructure projects. “It is expected that thedraft stature will inspire private sector and pub-lic sector confident in the authority, credibility,efficiency and permanence,” the bill says.

There is also a shift in emphasis from ther-mal to hydel and coal-based power generation,and private investors are already showing inter-est in undertaking such projects. Therefore,PPIB would be required to play a more proac-tive role in the power sector which is beingtransformed into a competitive power market inPakistan. PPP MNA Zafar Ali Shah once againraised serious concern about the drafting lacu-nae in the bill, claiming that the bill was also fullof errors. he raised questions about the com-mitment of the government regarding provin-cial control on natural and mineral resources itowned. “I want a particular statement and con-stitutional guarantee from the minister aboutThar Coal’s control. he also should tell whenwould Thar coal project be initiated and whowill control it? There should be clarity in com-position,” he argued.

however, Naveed Qamar made it clear thatper the 18th Amendment, the mineral and nat-ural resources were a provincial subject.

Govt can’t appoint defence secy until verdict

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04Thursday, 9 February, 2012

News

impugned order passed by theseven-member bench, withdrawthe show-cause notice forthwith inthe interest of justice and suspendthe proceedings before the seven-member bench until a decision onthe appeal. In the seven-page ap-peal, Ahsen has raised 54 legalpoints and sought relief on thegrounds that the order of theseven-member bench was devoidof any reasons as evident from itsbare perusal, as it merely reflectedthe conclusion reached that thecourt was satisfied that it was inthe interest of justice that furtherproceedings should take place inthe matter. “No grounds, explana-tion or reason has been given insupport of this conclusion. There isno discussion as to the basis onwhich the satisfaction of the courtwas achieved, nor is there any elu-cidation of how the interest of jus-tice would be served by proceedingfurther. None of the arguments ad-vanced by the counsel for the ap-pellant is recorded in theimpugned order. The justificationsput forward by the appellant insupport of his plea that the show-cause notice should be dischargedare not even alluded to. It is mani-fest that the impugned order hasbeen mechanically passed,” hestated in the appeal.

“Just to cover up, they arenow giving another colourto the incident and declar-ing it the result of an en-mity,” he added. he saidthe incident was a messageto specific people.

As Bugti announced awalkout from the houseagainst the killings, thetreasury and oppositionmembers joined him butthe Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) members were in astate of ‘to be or not to be’when Senate Chairman Fa-rooq Naek sensibly ad-journed the proceedingsfor prayers.

Senator Abdul Ghafoorhaideri said if some powershad already decided to sepa-rate Balochistan and Khy-ber-Pakhtunkhwa from the

rest of the country, theymust let (the other people)know and take them intoconfidence about their plan.“Is there any law inBalochistan? Are these peo-ple above the law? Are theyout of the judiciary’s reach?”he asked the government.

Senator Abdul NabiBangash said such acts of‘adventurism’ would leadto further hatred (againstthe State) amongst Balochpeople. “The people whoare acting as a state-within-a-state are notfriends of the country, theyare enemies. The regulararmy lost half of the coun-try, Kashmir, Siachen andKargil. These people aresnakes in the grass but dis-

guised as defenders of thecountry,” he said.

Senator Abdul RahimMandokhel demanded thegovernment rein in all thoseinvolved in such incidents.Senator hasil Bazinjo saidthe point to ponder was thatwhat message had been sentthrough this incident. Shewas not only the wife ofBakhtiar Domki but also thesister of Brahamdagh Bugti.

Senator Prof Ibrahimsaid the US should not beallowed to exploit theBalochistan issue as a polit-ical tool. About the killing,he said that there was noteven a slight difference inthe unrest in Balochistanunder a democraticallyelected from former presi-

dent Pervez Musharraf’sregime. Senator Zahid Khansaid east Pakistan sepa-rated because of neglect andabuse on the part of WestPakistan and the currentsituation in Balochistan wasnot too different.

Senator MushahidullahKhan said elements of ‘re-venge’ seemed to be domi-nating the incident. heasked the government to ex-tend its reconciliation policyto Balochistan just like it didto other political parties toextend its rule.

Leader of the houseSyed Nayyar Bukhari con-demned the incident andsaid the ParliamentaryCommittee on National Se-curity should examine theincident and discuss theforces that wanted to desta-bilise the country.

ANP ignores Begum

Naseem wali while

announcing Senate

candidates PESHAWARSAJJAD ALI

The Awami National Party (ANP) hasannounced tickets to its members forSenate elections on the 12 seats ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, while denyingcandidature to Begum Naseem WaliKhan, wife of former party chief WaliKhan. A party spokesman said thatSenator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour willenjoy another term on the technocratseat, while former federal ministerAzam Khan hoti, ANP Sindh Presi-dent Shahi Syed and former provin-cial minister Baz Muhammad Khanwould be the party’s nominees ongeneral seats. Zahida Khan wouldcontest election on the special seatfor women, and Amarjeet would beANP’s candidate from the minorities.The spokesman said a meeting of theANP Parliamentary Board heldunder Senator Afrasiab Khattak dis-cussed and appreciated the servicesof all the applicants. however, thespokesman avoided to explain whyBegum Naseem Wali Khan was ig-nored while awarding Senate elec-tion tickets. Sources told PakistanToday that Begum Naseem Wali’s re-quest for election ticket was turneddown due to her age and health.

in the existing constitu-tional procedure of theprime minister installingthe caretaker setup. Religious Affairs MinisterKhursheed Shah told re-porters after the meetingthat they had made“enough and meaningfulprogress” in the dialogueprocess. he said, however,that final shape would begiven to the processwithin a day or two. Shahalso said it was decided inthe meeting that the twosides would consult theirleaderships before finalconsensus on all the is-sues. he said Prime Min-ister Gilani still needed tobe briefed about the pro-ceedings.National Assembly Oppo-sition Leader ChaudhryNisar Ali Khan told re-porters that there was nomore deadlock in the talksbut added that it was pre-mature to predict a finalbreakthrough. he said hisparty suggested that likethe Centre, the procedureof the formation of care-taker governments shouldalso be extended to theprovinces.“Tomorrow’s meetingwould be a make-or-breaksession for the talks, as wewill not hold more dia-logue in case consensus isnot reached,” said Nisar. he also demanded that ac-tion be taken against thechief election commis-sioner for holding by-elec-tions without thecompletion of the electionCommission of Pakistan,which had resulted in thesuspension of 28 membersof parliament and provin-cial assemblies. he saidthe government and thechief election commis-sioner were both responsi-ble for the suspension ofthe 28 members. he said further thatJamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Fazlur Rehmanhad given him a completemandate to negotiate withthe government on the20th Amendment.

SenATorS SUSpeCT

SC to hear intra-courtappeal

28 MPs hang

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ISLAMABADMIAN ABRAR

The US involvement inBalochistan unrestonce again echoed inthe National Assemblyon Wednesday with

two treasury members expressingconcerns over the government’sapathy towards the gravity of theissue and sought response fromInterior Minister Rehman Malikabout questions raised by noneother than the brother of Balochis-tan chief minister, Senator MirLashkari Raisani.

however, rather than feelingthe gravity of the situation, themembers took no interest in theproceedings and remained in-volved in group discussions andexchange of pleasantries seemingreluctant to the points raised bytheir colleagues. “SenatorLashkari Raisani has claimed thatRehman Malik had contacted himand urged to stage a drama thatsome (Baloch) militants had comeback from hills to participate innegotiations with the governmentbecause the army did not wantreconciliation with the militants.Malik has tried to create a wedge

between the Baloch and the army.I want Malik to respond to this al-legation which is of very seriousnature,” claimed humayon AzizKurd, who also hails fromBalochistan, on a point of order.

he said the minister should in-form the house why the army did notwant reconciliation with the insur-gents while there were reports thatthe US intelligence agency CIA wasinvolved in Balochistan violence.earlier, the PML-Q’s Nausheen Saeedset the tone about the US involvementinto Balochistan, and said direct USinvolvement into the internal affairs ofPakistan was unacceptable.

Referring to media reports of acongressional committee meetingabout Balochistan unrest and theparticipation of some Baloch politi-cians in the US, Nausheen said thereport had quoted a US officialclaiming that if Balochistan was lib-erated, it could facilitate the US inNATO supplies to Afghanistan.

“The report has said not onlythe NATO supplies could be re-stored through Balochistan butGwadar Port could prove to be anasset for NATO supplies. The re-port also said the US could alsolaunch direct attacks into Waziris-tan through Balochistan,” she said.

NA echoes with queries on USinvolvement in Balochistan

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MOnItORIng DESK

PA K I S T A N ’ S high Com-missioner to Britain WajidShamsul hasan onWednesday warned Britainto help stop the US “Drone

Wars” that were slaughtering hun-dreds of Pakistan’s innocent civilians.

In an interview to The Sun, hasansaid Pakistan “has the means” to retal-iate unless the carnage ceases.

But he urged British Prime Minis-ter David Cameron to condemn USdrone attacks on al Qaeda and Talibantraining camps in the north west–dubbing them as “war crimes” and “lit-tle more than state executions”.

hasan, who the British papercalled tough-talking, also declaredPakistan would have no choice but tosupport Iran if “aggressive” Israel at-tacks it.

But his immediate concern was thedrones known to have killed 535 civil-ians, including 60 children, in threeyears.

The high commissioner said, “Ithink time is running out until thePakistan government can take a stand.They will have to at some stage takepunitive actions to stop them. Theyhave got means to take such actions todefend their own frontier and territo-ries. “

he said, “But that will inflame thesituation and stop the war on terrorand that is not what we want.”

The US military claim drones have“decimated” the al Qaeda leadershipsince 2008 with no reported civiliancasualties.

But hasan said, “We know thedamage — destroyed schools, commu-nities, hospitals. They are civilians —children, women, families. Our losses

are enormous.“Generally people think that

deaths caused by drone attacks shouldbe treated as war crimes.”

“There is so much animosity thatperhaps the Americans are the mosthated people in the minds of the peo-ple in Pakistan.”

On Iran, hasan was quoted as say-ing, “We would not like Israel to attackany country, irrespective of whetherit’s Iran or any nuclear country. Wewouldn’t like to be seen as part of Is-rael’s campaign against any country. IfIsrael attacks Iran, it will have an im-pact on Pakistan as well.”

“We will have to safeguard our owninterests. We also have a Shia popula-tion in Pakistan who will not take itlying down.”

he warned that India and Gulfcountries could also get involved inany conflict, the report said.

ISLAMABADREUTERS

Tears tracing lines of dirt on his face, six-year-old Nabeel Mukhtar cries while crouch-ing on a pavement to scrub motorbikes, hisjob for nine hours a day, six days a week.

he is one of millions of children driveninto labour by poverty in a country wherethe unpopular government is seen as toocorrupt and ineffective to care for its citi-zens, even the young and helpless.

“I want to study and become a doctorbut we don’t have any money,” saidMukhtar, who helps his family make endsmeet.

Rising food and fuel prices and a strug-gling economy have forced many families tosend their children to search for work in-stead of going to the classroom.

Frequent political crises in Pakistanmean the nation’s leaders are unlikely to endchild labour, or a host of other problemsfrom a Taliban insurgency to power cuts,any time soon.

“From the bottom of my heart, I want tosend my son to school but we have so manyexpenses ... We struggle to put food on ourtable,” said Mukhtar’s mother, Shazia, whoalso has a four-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter.

her husband, Mohammed, a street bar-ber, earns only Rs 7,500 ($83) a month, notenough to support the family.

“he’s learning to work and he also earnsaround 300-400 rupees. So what’s wrong inthat? We are poor,” Mohammed said of theboy.

Pakistan needs to take immediate meas-ures to stabilise growing budget pressuresand to raise interest rates to contain risinginflation, the International Monetary Fund(IMF) warned on Monday.

economic pressures are forcing youngPakistanis, like teenager Noor Shah and histhree brothers, to leave home in search ofwork. They now live in a tiny room above agrimy tea shop where they toil all day in Pak-istan’s biggest city and commercial hub ofKarachi. “I have so many dishes to wash.When I get tired the men serving tea becomevery angry with me. They swear and shout,”said Shah, who is from Balochistan.

Others, like 11-year-old labourer Kashif,are subjected to harsher treatment. “If hemakes a mistake I’ll hit him,” said his 19-year-old supervisor, Tanveer Shehzad, whosaid he had endured the same hardship as achild labourer.Do moRE: Up to 10 million children areestimated to be working in Pakistan, saysMannan Rana, child and adolescent protec-tion specialist at the United Nations Chil-dren’s Fund (UNICeF).

The latest government figures, showingthree million child labourers, date back to1996, underscoring how scant attention hasbeen paid to documenting the problem,

which is likely to get worse given themakeup of the fast-growing population.

The plight of child labourers in Pakistancame under international scrutiny when itwas discovered that children were hand-stitching soccer balls in the town of Sialkot.Foreign sports equipment companies arewary of any hint of association with child ex-ploitation. One stopped orders in 2006 froma Pakistan-based supplier of hand-stitchedsoccer balls, saying the factory had failed tocorrect labour compliance violations.

But the outcry has not helped much.“The problem is that the whole industry hasmoved into private homes, which has madeit a bit difficult to monitor if child labour isbeing used,” said hussain Naqi, the nationalcoordinator of the human Rights Commis-sion of Pakistan. “This is not just an issue inSialkot, child labour is occurring all acrossPakistan in very dangerous sectors like glassbangle manufacturing, cleaning of oiltankers, poultry farms, motor workshops,brick kilns and small hotels.”

On Monday, the collapse of a three-storey factory in Lahore after a gas explosionhighlighted dangers faced by child labour-ers. “I was inside the building when the blasthappened. Two other boys were with meand they started running,” said eight-year-old Asad, a labourer in the veterinary prod-uct facility. “I don’t know where they wentor if they are alive.” his sobbing mother saidcrushing poverty had left her no choice but

to send her son to work in such conditions.“The problem is there and we are not in

a state of denial,” said Shahnaz Wazir Ali,social sector special assistant to the primeminister, adding that about 45 percent ofPakistan’s population of almost 180 millionis below the age of 22.

“It is all very damaging for a child’s psy-chology,” said Salma Jafar, executive direc-tor at Social Innovations, a human rightsadvocacy group. “Once you are abused, yougrow up with that abuse.”

Twelve-year-old Mohammed Naeem,the eldest of three orphans, ran away fromhis first boss. he could not take the verbaland physical abuse. But his new work, scrap-ing rust all day for Rs 25 at a mechanic’sshop to feed his sisters, is still gruelling. “Idon’t see any other life for myself. What canI do. I’m helpless. The government is doingnothing for us,” said the boy, wearing soiledclothing and open, oversized sandals. “All Iask of them is to assist me in my helplessstate. To take it away.”

Millions pushed into child labour in pakistan

g Pakistan’s high commissioner to Britain says Islamabad ‘has the means’ to retaliate unless carnageceases g Says Pakistan would have no choice but to support Iran if Israel attacks

Pakistan blasts US drone attacksNews

All four governors,

two CMs call on

presidentISLAMABAD

APP

All four provincial governors, includingPunjab Governor Latif Khosa, SindhGovernor Ishratul ebad, KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor BarristerMasood Kausar and BalochistanGovernor Zulfiqar Magsi called onPresident Asif Ali Zardari at thePresidency on Wednesday. Sindh ChiefMinister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and KhyberPakhtunkhwa CM Ameer haider Khanhoti were also present during themeeting. The law and order in theprovinces and the overall politicalsituation were discussed in the meeting.Afterwards, Federal Religious AffairsMinister Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shahand PPP leader Senator Dr Babar Awanalso joined the meeting.

PPP ready to talk to

those believing in

state’s writ: FirdousKARACHI

NNI

Information Minister Firdous AshiqAwan on Wednesday said the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) leadership wasready to talk to those who believed in thecountry’s constitution and abided by itswrit and ideology. “We are ready to talkto them and ready to win back the heartsof estranged people and are willing toengage them at every level of dialogueand cooperation,” she said while speakingat the launching of 100 kilowatt highpower transmitter at Radio Pakistan’sTurbat Station, from Karachi studios.however, she said those who desecratedand burnt national flags and conspiredagainst the country’s existence would notenjoy a soft corner or a place in the heartsof people. The minister could not fly toTurbat due to technical fault in PIA’saircraft which landed back soon aftertaking off from Karachi airport.Addressing Senator Ismail Buledi,Senator Dr Abdul Malik and othernotables and officials, who were presentat Turbat Radio Station, she said, “Weneed to be united to face suchconspiracies. I appreciate your efforts forstrengthening Pakistan and making it aprogressive and prosperous country.” Theminister said the PPP was taking timelyinitiatives with regards to the rights ofthe people of Balochistan. ISLAMABAD: President Asif Zardari during a meeting with provincial governors and the chief ministers of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the Presidency on Wednesday. online

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06Thursday, 9 February, 2012

PESHAWARSHAMIM SHAHID

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barris-ter Masud Kausar has said only Pakistanand Afghanistan could ensure better so-lution to the long-standing Afghan con-flict, which was essential for return ofpeace, stability and an end to militancyand terrorism throughout the region.

“Unless both Pakistan andAfghanistan are taken on board in con-nection with ongoing parleys betweenUS and Taliban, there can be no amica-ble solution,” Kausar said while talkingto Pakistan Today at Governor’s house,Peshawar.

he said Pakistan and Afghanistanwere not only facing similar situationbut were also the main stakeholders inongoing war on terror.

Referring to US-Taliban parleys,Kausar said Pakistan was not on board

in this respect. he observed that with-out Pakistan and Afghanistan, such at-tempts on the part of US could furthercomplicate the issues. “We are reallyharmed with such acts on the part ofUS,” he said and urged the US to reviewits policies.

To a question, Kausar said, “Dia-logue with the Taliban doesn’t matter toPakistan, but we always kept in mindthe interests of international commu-nity while dealing with the Taliban.”

elaborating his point of view, theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa governor saidsince beginning of the war on terror,Pakistan had not only backed the inter-national community but renderedtremendous sacrifices in this respect.

“But like in the late 1980s, Pakistanis being isolated, which is harmful,” hepointed out, adding that “instead ofkeeping in mind Pakistan’s concernsand interests, US has not only intensi-

fied drone attacks but also initiatedground attacks against security forces.”

“On such grounds, Pakistan is leftwith no option other than halting sup-plies for NATO troops,” he said.

To a question, the governor said,“Though I am unaware about the detailsof US-Taliban dialogue, the Foreign Of-fice may know better.”

he said Pakistan favoured cordialand friendly terms with the US and theAmerican authorities must realise Pak-istan’s compulsions.

he said that it was time to go for re-vival of relations with the US keeping inview internal needs and interests andexpectations of the people.

About the policies on Afghanistan,Kausar said both countries were linkedin historical blood, cultural and tradi-tional relations and Pakistan had alwayssupported its people at critical times.

he recalled that Pakistan became a

frontline state in the war against formerSoviet Union and similar was its posi-tion in the ongoing war on terror.

“But unfortunately, the interna-tional community failed in fulfilling ofits responsibilities, thus not only disap-pointed the people but keeping themaway from each other. Such crisis can-not be created by the people of the twocountries, but can be considered theoutcome of the international commu-nity’s wrong policies,” he said,

Kausar expressed satisfaction withthe existing situation of the TribalAreas, saying, “Compare to the previouscouple of years, militancy was on the de-cline in almost the entire tribal belt.”

he made it clear that administrativestatus of Federally AdministrativeTribal Areas (FATA) will be decided inaccording with the wishes of the peopleand the government had no intention toimpose its own choice.

Only Afghanistan, Pakistan can resolve Afghan quagmire: KP governorg Masud Kausar says Islamabad, Kabul main stakeholders in ongoing war on terror

KABULAFP

FLeeING NATO bombardmentand Taliban intimidation, thou-sands of Afghans in refugeecamps in the capital Kabul facea new enemy: an unusually bit-

ter winter that is killing their children.Del Agha, a farmer from the southern

province of Kandahar, the heartland of theTaliban insurgency, left his home and or-chards four years ago after a NATO airstrike that he says killed several villagers.Last week he lost one of his two children,a three year-old girl, to the freezing tem-peratures. “It was very cold that night.When I woke up my baby daughter wasdead,” he said. his second child, also a girland only a few months old, is coughingand he says he fears for her life at theCharahi Qambar refugee camp, one ofseveral settlements for displaced people inand around Kabul. “Life is very hard andI’m worried for my other child,” he toldAFP at his camp home — a hole in theground with mud walls about a metrehigh covered with filthy cloth and torn

pieces of old tents. Despite the billions ofdollars in aid that have flowed intoAfghanistan since the fall of the Taliban,it remains one of the poorest countries inthe world. Khair Mohammad, 12, and hisfamily are also from the south and cameto the camp, on the southwestern out-skirts of Kabul, from helmand province.They fled after the Taliban killed his uncleby hanging him from a tree and running asharp knife from side to side across hischest and belly, accusing him of spying forforeign forces.

Now heavy snowstorms blow throughthe family’s huts. “It’s very cold,” Moham-mad told AFP, while describing how theTaliban executed his uncle in Sangin dis-trict, the scene of some of the heaviest bat-tles between NATO-led forces and theIslamist rebels in 2009 and 2010. “Atnights it gets even colder. Since the coldstarted, so many children have died. Webury them over there,” he said, pointingtowards a nearby hillside.

According to official figures at least 15children have lost their lives in three ofabout 40 such camps in Kabul from coldover the past month. Residents say the toll

is twice as high. “In our records we have15 people, almost all of them children,dead over the past one month. They diedof cold,” Ghulam Sakhi Kargar Noorughli,a public health ministry spokesman toldAFP. More than half of the deaths oc-curred in Charahi Qambar camp, headded. The decade-long war — an insur-gency led by remnants of the Taliban —and crushing poverty have pushed wavesof internal refugees towards the capital.

The UN refugee agency, UNhCR,says about 447,000 Afghans have beenforced to abandon their homes due to war,poverty and economic difficulties sincethe Taliban were ousted from power in aUS-led invasion in late 2001.

Last year alone, 185,000 people hadto leave their villages — a 45 percent in-crease over the previous year, NaderFarhad, a UNhCR spokesman told AFP.Most of the displaced remain in thesouth, where the Taliban and other in-surgents remain strong, making it diffi-cult for relief groups to deliver aid.“Limited access (to displaced communi-ties) impacts data collection and deliver-ing assistance,” Farhad said.

Protest against fuel

price hike heldPESHAWAR

STAFF REPORT

Representatives of variousorganisations of traders, transporters,NGOs and lawyers on Wednesday helda protest against ever-increasinginflation, including fuel price hike,and demanded the government toreverse prices of all essentialcommodities to the 2007 level. Theyalso launched a mobile protestcampaign to motivate the massesagainst the government for increasingprices of daily use commodities andindulging in corruption. The campaignwas led by Khalid Ayub and others.Passing through various markets inthe city and delivering speeches, theprotesters said that the governmentwas least bothered to address theproblems being faced by the peopleand if the government forgot themiseries of the people then the masseswill come out on roads. They said thatextra tax on petroleum productsshould be withdrawn and thegovernment should provide relief tothe poor. “A labourer earns maximumRs 250 on daily wages and hisexpenditures are minimum Rs 500 perday so how he will manage to makeboth ends meet,” the protesters said.

Sri Lankan presidentto start Pakistantour from Friday

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksawill pay a three-day state visit to Pakistanstarting from February 10, 2012. “Pakistanand Sri Lanka enjoy friendly and closecooperative relations. The visit of the SriLankan president will contribute to furtherstrengthening of the special bonds ofaffinity that characterise the relationsbetween the two countries,” said a ForeignOffice statement on Wednesday. Duringhis visit, President Rajapaksha will meetPresident Asif Ali Zardari and PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani. A number ofbilateral agreements are also expected to besigned between the two sides. Pakistan isthe second largest trading partner of SriLanka in South Asia. Sri Lanka was the firstcountry to sign a Free Trade Agreement(FTA) with Pakistan to reduce tradebarriers. Sri Lanka and Pakistan have alsoagreed to offer preferential market access toeach others’ exports by granting tariffconcessions. Sri Lanka enjoys duty freemarket access on 206 products in Pakistan,while Pakistan has duty free access on 102products in the Sri Lankan market. The SriLankan delegation will include ForeignMinister Prof GL Peiris, Sri Lankanparliament member Sajin de VassGunawardena, President’s Secretary LalithWeeratunga, Foreign SecretaryKarunatillake Amunugama, and President’sSpokesman and International MediaAdviser Bandula Jayasekara.

14 candidates to battle

it out in NA-9 by-pollsMARDAn

STAFF REPORT

Around 14 candidates, including sevenindependents, have submitted theirnomination papers for the NA-9 Mar-dan-I bye-election in which 250,469voters will exercise their right to electtheir representative. The seat fell va-cant following resignation of formerfederal minister Khawaja Muhammadhoti, who joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) after quitting the rulingAwami National Party (ANP). Accord-ing to the list, former Mardan nazimhimayatullah Mayar will be the ANP’scandidate while Litaf Gul will be hiscovering candidate. Former MNA Shu-jaul Malik will represent the JUI-Fwhile former MPA Israrul haq will behis covering candidate. Despite theANP’s efforts to woo the JUI-F for sup-port, the religious party had started itscampaign while the JI was also likely tosupport it. The ruling PPP had an-nounced its support for the ANP. TheJUI-P had fielded Zulqarnain while in-dependents, including Inayat ShahBacha, Abid Khan, Sarfraz Khan, YasirAli, Sajjad Khan, Muhammad Nawab,Said Umair and Asia Naz Awan werealso in the battlefield.

News

Harsh winter leaves no escapefor Afghan children fleeing war

DOHA: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani meets children at the Pakistan Education Centre on Wednesday. nni

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:20 AM Page 6

Thursday, 9 February, 2012

Clicking for

heaven on earth

Up close with Malcolm hutcheson

08

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

The All Pakistan Muslim League(APML) adherents of former presi-dent General (retd) Pervez Musharrafhave turned their backs on the self-exiled leader and decided to call ageneral meeting of the party workersto select their new leader.

Addressing a press conference atthe Karachi Press Club (KPC) onWednesday, the party’s central officebearers said that Musharraf is not theAPML chairman

but Bar-r i s t e r

Muhammad Ali Saif, according to theelection Commission of Pakistan(eCP) records, and the decision re-garding the new party chairman willbe made in a general workers session.

APML Central Vice President DrGholam Mujtaba along with Ayaz Fa-rooq, Agha Ali Mosvi, Begum AliMosvi, Major hashim among otherAPML leaders were present on theoccasion.

Speaking at the press briefing,Mujtaba said he has filed a petition inthe Sindh high Court against the ille-gal and unconstitutional approach ofthe party.

“When the APMLwas registered with

the eCP during2010, its party

chairman was Saif, president MushirAlam and Mulazim hussain the gen-eral secretary,” he said. “[however],the party workers were not informedabout this and any member whoraised his voice was fired.”

The APML central vice presidentadded: “If anyone fires me from theparty, the general workers sessionwill be called and those persons willbe expelled from the party. The partyworkers will decide who will leadthem.”

Mujtaba claimed he had re-ceived the “classified eCP in-formation” during therecent days, but he didnot disclose his sources.

he said that over15,000 activists of the

APML will attend the general work-ers session and decide on the futureleader of the party.

“No agency is supporting me. Iam struggling for the Pakistan [as en-visioned by] Quaid-e-Azam and Al-lama Iqbal,” he said.

Replying to a question, Mujtabaclaimed that Musharraf had an-nounced returning to the countryduring January but could not returnbecause the bureaucracy and the peo-

ple of the country are now notwith him. “he must have

come to the country andfaced the casesagainst him like abrave man.”

Talking aboutthe public meetingof APML in Karachi,

he said the gatheringwas a picnic partyrather than a politicalmeeting.

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

The Sindh high Court (ShC) restrained the provincial healthsecretary hashim Raza Zaidi on Wednesday from leaving thecountry in a contempt petition. The court also directed thehealth secretary to appear before it on February 15. TheShC’s Sukkur Branch division bench, comprising JusticeShahid Anwar Bajwa and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar,was conducted a hearing on a contempt petition filed by theSindh Doctors Welfare Association in a case regarding time-scale and other demands. Additional prosecutor Liaquat AliShar appeared before the bench and stated that Zaidi is notfeeling well and that is why he wasunable to appear before the court.Zaidi is also scheduled to leave for theUS on Thursday (today), he added.Annoyed over Zaidi’s absence, thebench ordered that the health secre-tary will not leave the country until heappears before the court. The benchhad ordered on June 1, 2011 thattime-scale be granted to doctors andthe four-tier promotion formula en-forced. however, the order was notcomplied with.

KARACHIIMDAD SOOMRO

JUDGeS appointed underthe Provisional Constitu-tional Order (PCO) of 2007,leaders of the People’sLawyers Form (PLF) and

relatives and friends of Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) leaders have beenrecommended for appointment asSindh high Court (ShC) judges bythe provincial government, PakistanToday has learnt.

At the province’s upper judicialforum, 28 seats of judges out of thereserved 40 seats are lying vacant.Three separate constitutional peti-tions are also being heard in the ShCregarding the matter.

A summary containing the namesof 27 lawyers belonging to the differ-ent districts of Sindh was sent to theShC chief justice through the SindhLaw Department with the consentand approval of Sindh Chief MinisterQaim Ali Shah.

Sources in the law departmenttold Pakistan Today that the recom-mendation list also has the names ofGhulam Dastgir Shahani, SafdarBhutto, Ismail Bhutto and IqbalMahar, four former ShC judges whowere appointed when Justice Abdulhamid Dogar was working as theChief Justice of Pakistan under thePCO.

The four judges had been sentpacking when the Supreme Court ofPakistan on July 31, 2009, in a his-torical judgment, sacked 102 incum-bent judges on a constitutionalpetition of Sindh high Court Bar As-sociation, pleaded by its then presi-

dent Justice (retd) Rashid A Rizvi.The other “notable” names in the

list are Additional Advocate GeneralMiran Muhammad Shah, brother ofFederal Water and Power MinisterSyed Naveed Qamar; Additional Ad-vocate General Liaquat Shar, who isalso a PLF leader; PLF-hyderabadleader Fazal Qadir Memon; Larkanahigh Court Bar Association PresidentInayatullah Morio, also a member ofPLF Larkana; and Pakistan BarCouncil member Salahuddin Pan-hwar, also PLF Mirpurkhas leader.

Also on the list for potential can-didates for ShC judges are SathiIshaq, Abdul Majid Bhurgri, GulabRai Jisrani, Mushtaq Ahmed Korejo,Imtiaz Soomro, Ahmed Ali Shahani,Rizat Sahar, Munir Khawar,Muhammd Ali Shaikh, NisarDuarani, Suleman Dahiry and ShafiChandio.

Meanwhile, a nationalist partystaged a protest on the shortage ofjudges in the provincial high court.

With only 12 incumbentjudges in theShC, re-p o r t -e d l ym o r et h a n7 0 , 0 0 0cases ofdifferentn a t u r e

are pending before the province’supper judicial forum, where at least300 appeals, constitutional petitions,civil suits among other cases are putbefore the single, divisional, appel-late, special benches and other spe-cial tribunals on daily basis.

however, despite the passage ofmany months, the 28 positions re-main vacant, resulting in immensedifficulties for the litigants, wit-nesses, defence lawyers and otherrelevant persons.

Moreover, more than 100,000cases are also pending in the 437 dis-trict courts in the 27districts of theprovince that arew o r k i n gunder thed i r e c ta d -m i n -

istrative supervision of the ShC.It is worth mentioning that the

ShC’s principle bench at Karachi isthe only high court of the countrywhere matters of civil nature over thetune of Rs 3 million proceed, due toKarachi being a port city. In the re-maining part of the province and thecountry, all civil matters whatevertheir valuation proceed in the courtsof senior civil judges.

Want judges? Here’s a list of

our blue-eyed boys■ Sindh government recommends names of PCO judges, PLF leaders and PPP leaders’

acquaintances for appointment to ShC

Commando ditched by his own■ APML Central Vice President Dr gholam Mujtaba says Musharraf not party chairman

heading west?

Not so fast■ ShC restrains provincial health

secretary from leaving country

‘Pir Mazhar notrunning housecommittee as per ToR’

KARACHIISMAIL DILAWAR

Senior Sindh education & Literacy Minister Pir Mazharulhaq, who is chairing a special committee formed by theSindh Assembly to look into the legality of a National Peo-ple’s Party (NPP)-backed anti-20th amendment resolution,is allegedly violating the privilege of the provincial legisla-ture. The allegation was raised by the NPP which believesthat the education minister is not running the proceedings ofthe special committee’s meetings according to the definedterms of reference (ToR). “Instead of looking into the legalityof the resolution, the chairman is questioning the legitimacyof the committee which was formed by the august house,”said NPP leader Arif Mustafa Jatoi. Raising such doubts, hesaid, was tantamount to violating the privilege of the 168-member provincial assembly which had unanimously votedin favour of the house committee. “The chairman has put theball in the court of the speaker [Nisar Khuhro],” he added.The NPP leader said he believed that as a party policy, thePakistan People’s Party (PPP) is not in a mood to refer theresolution – which demands the deletion of a certain clausein the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-backed 20th amend-ment that calls for the deletion of Article 239(4) – back tothe provincial legislature for voting. he made it clear out-right, however, that his party and its supporters from theAwami National Party, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-Quaid, the PML-Functional and the PML-Likeminded wouldnever compromise on Article 239(4). “Article 239(4) is notnegotiable,” Jatoi said. The NPP leader, who is a member ofthe committee, said the meeting of the house body onWednesday lasted over four hours, with the committeechairman avoiding to come on the agenda. “The participantsof the meeting, which started at 9:45 am and ended at 2:00pm, could not even hold a discussion as per the agenda,” heclaimed. “The chairman is raising questions about the legal-ity of the committee formed by the house as well as its au-thority to make decisions,” he added. Throughout themeeting’s proceedings, Jatoi said, he and other likemindedmembers of the body kept urging the chairman to talk aboutthe agenda, but in vain. “I understand that the PPP wouldnot bring this resolu-tion in its current form,but we would resisttooth and nail any at-tempt to abrogate Ar-ticle 239(4),” theNPP leadervowed. Thecommitteewould meetagain at10:30 am onMonday atthe Sindh As-sembly Secre-tariat.

AnTi-20TH AMenD reSolUTion

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:20 AM Page 7

karachi08PakistaN today

Thursday, 9 February, 2011

KARACHIAAMER DHAMANI

HEAvEn on EARTH. It is this uni-versal idea that inspires the photog-rapher Malcolm hutcheson. “Takingphotographs is incredibly rewarding,and I feel very happy after a day’s

work when I start to examine the negatives and seethe compositions,” hutcheson told me in an inter-view. however, he does not like the fact that few peo-ple get his photography. It feels like failure, he said,“but if everyone got it, it would be the worst kind offailure.”

he makes photographs that tell stories about thelives of others. “The stories I tell are only significantbecause most of the media refuses to represent them– my subjects – as individuals. The history of ourlives has to contain personal documentation by in-dividuals, as well as the history of grand events,characterised by institutions and corporations, oth-erwise our humanity is undermined.”

When asked what drives him to continue makingphotographs, he quoted the popular adage ‘Necessityis the mother of invention’. Regarding the impor-tance of his work, he said, “On a scale of one to ten,what’s the smallest division of zero?”

On the subject of art, the sometimes cryptic andsometimes forthright photographer said, it is basi-cally education or brain exercise. “From an early age,we find joy in learning new experiences. It is pleas-urable to make connections within our brain be-tween parts that were formerly unconnected. Oursenses are extremely subtle as there’s connectionand interpretation within the brain structure. exam-ining and exercising this stimulates reserves of emo-tion and intellect. Art provides a direct way ofexperiencing this process, but it is dependent on thedesire to experience something new. Many peoplefind that process destabilising and wish for ortho-doxy, which comforts by encouraging certainties.”

On the other hand, hutcheson’s work is notabout art. “To my way of thinking, there’s nothing

less interesting than artfor art’s sake. It is

fetishistic to admireor be overly con-cerned with the de-sign and workingsof a car and spend

no thought onwhere you mightgo in that car. Acar is an efficient

means of trans-port and its de-

sign isi m p o r -

t a n t ,

but its purpose is not to define what a car is. Its pur-pose is to help you get somewhere. Similarly, art’spurpose is not to be art; it is to allow the viewer toexperience something; and it is that ‘something’ thatis the journey, the transformation, the bridge to an-other way of being.”

he does his work for many reasons, but none ofthose reasons includes the idea of making art.Whether or not his work is art is “for others to de-cide”. he believes that the production of art is bothself-interested and altruistic. however, nothingabout being an artist attracts him. “I hope, in theend, it may be more useful than baking bread, butthere is no guarantee of that.”

The day he realised that his skills are in produc-tion and not distribution was the day he realised thathe wanted to take up photography. And when he fin-ished his first work, he felt like he had earned hisfood for the day.

hutcheson is currently trying to make photo-graphs that show that we are all equal and, therefore,the suffering of one is the suffering of all. “To put itanother way, I am trying to show that inequalitysucks.”

When asked if others’ works influence his own,he said no man is an island, quoting John Donne.“There is a complex structure of influences that sup-ports all work.” And what his and others’ works havehelped him learn about himself is that “how imper-fect I am.”

his profound response to stating which part ofmaking art – inspiration, producing art, the tools, orthe finished work – is most important was “flour,water, salt, or the oven – which is more important inmaking bread?”

he appreciates that some people have bought hiswork, “which means they are prepared to look at itoften, and also, since I need the money, that allowsme to continue my work; and that is important tome.” however, “what people say to an artist abouttheir work is never the truth or should never betaken for the truth.”

Talking about the worst reaction or comment hehas received from someone on his work, he said peo-ple often ask him why he insists on showing the uglyside of life. he doesn’t take criticism well. “I try. Ithink it’s a fault, but there’s something in me that isvery determined.” Nevertheless, “understandingwho I am is more significant than what my work is.In that way, analysis – not criticism – is important.”

When asked if it’s important that people under-stand his work, he said he does spend time trying toexplain it, but “no, people essentially have freewilland they can decide what is important to them to un-derstand and to enjoy. Some of my friends under-

stand what I do, some don’t and some are too politeto say. I had a fan of my work once and I made workjust for that one person, but that did not end well;so, I now try to work because it is work and must bedone.”

his work gives him a way of affording food andrent “without having to sell something to someonewho does not need it to make someone else rich.”And while his work does not fulfil him, “it is morefulfilling than being an employee – but less thanbeing in love and being loved.”

All his work has been affected by his life experi-ences, and he puts everything he owns, is, possessesand hopes to have in his work. his family has alwayssupported him, “even though they have seen howhard the process of being a photographer has beenand how little chance of having a satisfying life Ihave through doing it. I think that sort of love is veryrare.”

hutcheson isn’t the only artist in the family,though. “My grandfather worked hard six days aweek, and on the seventh day, he either slept orpainted. he died shortly after he retired, and I neverhad a chance to meet him. his paintings were occa-sionally beautiful.”

When asked about the difference between hisfinished work and his initial idea of it, he said, “Sincemy finished work is a series of images that comesfrom editing a lot of images down to a few over a pe-riod of months or years, it is a process. It also reliesheavily on the cooperation of others. There is no onepiece to visualise and then complete.”

In his photographs, one may find the frequentdepiction of “man as mortal, things as changeableand generally degrading, and being or consciousnessas pure.” The recurring message that he tries to ex-press through his work is that “compassion is themost important dynamic on which human activityshould evolve.”

When asked if politics or current affairs play arole in his work, he said, “The individual politics ofseven billion minds changing is of more concern tome than the ideology of those who seek to controlour lives and play the games of self-interest and du-plicity.” As for religion’s role, he said, “everything inlife is spiritual. Religion, however, is a means to anend. That end, like a lot of religious teachings, ishotly debated.” Regarding the role of travelling, hesaid, “To know yourself, leave home, travel far, liveamongst strangers, and die having learnt some-thing.”

hutcheson teaches at the Beaconhouse NationalUniversity in Lahore and hopes that one of his stu-dents might be the best work of his life. Regardingthe most important thing a potential artist should

make sure they never forget, he said, “You get outwhat you put in.” he said art can be taught to any-one, but “is that the best use of resources? Betterteach us something about who we are first.”

he said the government should fund education,but “it does not appear to want to do that. If the gov-ernment does not fund education, then the peoplehave to educate themselves. The first thing that theyneed to educate themselves in is how to get rid of agovernment that does not believe in education, andinstall one that does. Art education is a lot less im-portant than learning to read.”

Regarding the importance of artists, he said theyare about “as important as fishermen, less importantthan policemen, and more important than crick-eters.” he said being an artist in today’s world is “en-tirely dependent on your wealth – hard if you arepoor, easy if you are rich. But it is also extremely dif-ficult to do something that has significance, regard-less where you are from.”

Among the deceased, he admires the works ofThomas Annan, W eugene Smith and AndreiTarkovsky the most; whereas among the living, hiscurrent favourites are Boris Mikhailov, Don Mc-Cullin and Anselm Kiefer. his most favourite workis W eugene Smith’s ‘Tomoko Uemura in her Bath’.

With reference to art being taboo in the Pak-istani society, hutcheson said, “Is the Pakistani so-ciety the one that values money over knowledge,power over compassion? If it is, then it would not bealone in this. It may undervalue art, and, to some ex-tent, fear it; therefore, making it taboo.”

Regarding the purpose of art, he said it’s “thesame in all eras. Art, on occasion, gets stuck tryingto define itself and its role. Such discussions are ofacademic interest to only a few. The joy, the knowl-edge, the experience of art is vast and enabling. Letit continue to be so.”

Regarding artists producing controversial artonly because controversy sells, he said, “Why wouldthe artists of the world be any less corrupt than, say,the doctors? If you try to understand, you can useyour knowledge to guard against being misled, butit does happen.”

When asked if artists use their work just to makemoney, he said, “Do doctors heal people becausethey want to make money? Do they do it because itis a good thing to do? Go see how many free clinicsthere are compared to how many plastic surgeons. Iassume there is the same spread amongst theartists.”

On the supposition that today’s art enthusiastsare mostly fake, he said, “Someone once said thatsomeone is ignorant if they don’t know what you justlearnt. If you think other people are being preten-tious, you are probably thinking a lot of superficialthoughts yourself. Let people like what they like.”

he believes no artwork is ever perfect. “Perfec-tion, as a concept, is both illusory and boring. Butwhy not hope that the work of art can create a senseof wonder? That may well be achievable. And would-n’t that be a worthwhile ending?”

* art for art’s sake

Pictures provided by Malcolm Hutcheson

photographer Malcolm Hutcheson says there’s nothing less interesting than l’art pour l’art*

A car is an efficient means of transport and its design is

important, but its purpose is not to define what a car is. Its

purpose is to help you get somewhere. Similarly, art’s purpose

is not to be art; it is to allow the viewer to experience

something; and it is that ‘something’ that is the journey, the

transformation, the bridge to another way of being.

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:20 AM Page 8

karachi 09PakistaN today

Thursday, 9 February, 2012

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

The Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM)announced onWednesday that it islaunching a country-

wide membership campaign fromThursday (today).

Addressing a press conferenceat the Khursheed Begum Secre-tariat, the deputy convener of theparty’s Rabita Committee, AnisAhmed Qaimkhani said the deci-sion to start the membership cam-paign has been made keeping inview of the people’s increasing in-terest in the MQM and the politicalphilosophy of its founder and leaderAltaf hussain.

“Camps would be set upthroughout the country in order tofacilitate people and to inform themabout the MQM and the politicalphilosophy and ideology of Altafhussain,” he said.

“elected representatives, office-bearers and activists of the MQM willbe present at the camps to assist peo-ple,” he added.

Qaimkhani appealed to the

masses to strengthen hussain’shands for bringing a real change inthe country. he asked people to comeforward and play

their role in finding the solutions tothe problems faced by the poor andmiddle-class people in the country.

“every form of high-handednesswas used against the MQM in the

past. Conspiracies were hatched tokeep the people away from theMQM, which is the only politicalparty in the country having

its roots in the poor andmiddle-class of the society,” he said.

“Although everything was doneto impede the progress of the MQMand its appeal to the public, yet its

message was gaining wide accept-ance among the masses not only inSindh but other parts of the coun-

try as well,” he added.Qaimkhani said people across

the country have realised that theMQM is the only political party inthe country that truly representsthe poor and middle-class peopleas there are no feudal lords orbig industrialists in it.

“They [people] have also un-derstood that there is no dynas-tic political culture in the MQM.”

he said the MQM has en-abled honest, educated and ablepeople from the poor and mid-dle-class of the society to sit inthe parliament.

“The MQM believes thatthese people, whose hands arenot tainted by the corruptionpervading in the political systemof the country, can bring a realchange in the country.”

Qaimkhani said the enlight-ened leadership of the party

chief, the undying sacrifices ren-dered by the party’s martyrs and thecommitted struggle of its activists arethe main reasons for the soaring pop-ularity of the MQM.

If you are an MQM fan, the

time to join it has come■ Party’s country-wide membership campaign starts today

Administrator orders drains’cleaning beforemonsoon season

KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) AdministratorMuhammad hussain Syed directed on Wednesdaythat the city’s drains be cleaned before the next mon-soon rains.he was chairing a meeting attended by TechnicalServices Director General Altaf G Memon, healthServices Director Dr Shoukat Zaman and chief engi-neers of all city zones.The administrator said that the Pitcher Drain’s PC-I isready and its reconstruction will begin soon.All the boundary walls, roofs and culverts of drains willbe repaired and maintained before the monsoon rains.The Korangi Crossing Road, the 8,000 Road, the 12,000Road, the Shahrah-e-Altaf, the hub River Road, theMosamyat Road and other roads will be linked to drainsbefore the monsoon season.he also directed that a complete survey be conducted atthe MA Jinnah Road nullah, the Akbar Road nullah, theSoldier Bazaar nullah, the Lucky Star nullah and theCoast Guard nullah in the next three days and start workon it so that they can be renovated before rains.

Three ‘targetkillers’ held

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

Three target killers were arrested and illegal weaponsrecovered from their possession during a search op-eration in Safoora Goth, the Special InvestigationUnit (SIU) said on Wednesday.The arrested men were identified as Muhammad Arif,Sajid and Aamir. SIU chief Shahjehan told PakistanToday that the arrested men confessed to killing twopeople in a car in remits of Gulshan-e-Iqbal policestation on July 7, 2011.Separately, the Crime Investigation Department said itarrested two drug peddlers during a raid in Shah FaisalColony. A CID team under the supervision of SSP FayyazKhan arrested two men Anwar Bux and Shahid. They alsorecovered 19 kilogrammes of heroin from their posses-sion worth $2 million dollars in the international market.

Progress of Domkis’murder probe reviewed

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) MushtaqAhmed Shah reviewed the progress of the probe intothe murder of MPA Balochistan Bakhtiar Domki’swife and daughter on Wednesday.At a meeting at the Central Police Office, the IGP lookedinto reports prepared by the Gizri police station, the in-vestigation team and the Sindh Forensic Division and theevidence collected from scene of the crime and witnesses’statements. The IGP requested the home Department toannounce a reward of Rs 2.5 million for information thatcan help arrest the killers.

KARACHISTAFF REPORT

The Karachi electric Supply Company(KeSC) asked members of its defunctlabour union on Wednesday to stop drag-ging their families into their “theatricaland blackmailing media stunts”, referringto a recent demonstration staged by chil-dren of the utility’s terminated employees.

In a press statement issued by theKeSC, the power utility expressed disap-pointment over this “unethical exploita-tion” and advised the defunct union’soffice-bearers to refrain from resorting tonegative tactics, which could affect themental health of their coming genera-

tions.The KeSC said that now that the

union has failed to build any valid legal oreconomic case against the power utility’sVoluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) andlost on legal, social and moral grounds, ithas started playing emotional tricks togarner support for their flailing cause.

First they had staged a false self-im-molation demonstration where a pro-tester set his jacket on fire and itimmediately pulled off by others, whowere on standby.

Not only was this recent demonstra-tion at KeSC’s head office in violation ofthe Section 144 imposed by the governingadministration, but in fact the law en-

forcers themselves had lodged FIR No38/2012 at the Gizri police station as a vi-olation of the Section 324/24, against thetwo theatrical protestors, who staged the‘self-immolation’.

The KeSC pointed out that a hugeamount of Rs 4.5 billion had already beendisbursed among over 3,200 non-coreemployees who had accepted the VSS.These beneficiaries have been able tomove on with their lives in a positive di-rection after pocketing an average of Rs1,500,000 as the parting payout.

All former employees have expressedsatisfaction over the arrangement andthey were starting a new life, with this ad-ditional windfall which has gone to their

benefit and that of their families, espe-cially since these non-core workers arebeing given a sum equivalent to their fiveyears’ salary on an average.

The KeSC said most of the protesters’leaders have been offered a handsomeVSS payout package commensurate withtheir service at the KeSC: Mohd AkhlaqKhan Rs 3,600,000, Abdul Wahid KazmiRs 4,300,000, Ghulam Asgher Shah Rs3,800,000, Riaz Ahmed Rs 3,400,000,KM Idris Rs 3,400,000, Juma Chandio,Nazir Gul, Matin Sakrani, Samand Khanand Amir Muhammad Rs 3,000,000 eachand Matin Sakrani and Usman Baloch Rs2,900,000 each.

The KeSC said on humanitarian

grounds, the KeSC has also been dispens-ing a “relief package” to all these remain-ing non-core employees as a gesture ofgoodwill till their economic sanity takesover and they accept the VSS.

even those who had been taking partin subversion and disruption campaign ofthe union have been receiving the reliefpackage, yet they have been appearing be-fore the media and falsely claiming hard-ships due to lack of income.

The KeSC invited the remaining non-core employees to accept the VVS and fileapplications till the last date, February 10,2012, after which no applications wouldbe entertained and this windfall benefitwill have its curtains drawn.

10th last date for VSS, take it or leave it: KeSC■ Power utility asks defunct union’s members to stop dragging their families into blackmailing stunts

KARACHI AMAR GURIRO

Cleansing a newborn’s umbilicalcord with an antiseptic can reducethe risk of infection and death, re-vealed a study carried out by the AgaKhan University (AKU)’s Division ofWomen and Child health. The re-search, just published in the leadingglobal medical journal The Lancet,was conducted in 1,300 villages ofDadu district.

With 53 deaths per 10,000 livebirths, Pakistan has one of thehighest newborn mortality rates inthe world and up to a third are be-cause of infections. Infection riskis greatest in countries where mostdeliveries take place at home, oftenattended by unskilled traditionalbirth attendants (dais) with poordelivery practices. Unsafe conven-tions, such as cutting the birth cordwith unsterilised instruments, and

the application of substances suchas ash, surma (lead-based concoc-tions), oil and even cow dung arepractised in many rural areas ofPakistan, and often associated withan increased risk of cord infectionand death.

enrolling around 10,000 new-borns between January 2008 andJune 2009, the study looked at theeffectiveness of three interventions.One consisted of birth kits contain-ing 4 per centchlorhexidine (ChX),to be applied to the cord at birth bydais and once daily by family mem-bers for up to 14 days, along withsoap and educational messages pro-moting hand washing, the secondwas ChX alone and the third, handwashing only. The fourth group wasadvised to practice standard drycord care recommended by theWorld health Organisation.

The study showed that cordcleansing with ChX reduced the risk

of infection in children by 42 percent and deaths by 38 per cent.hand washing promotion alone ap-peared to have no effect on infectionor mortality risk.

“Given the large number ofnewborn deaths that occur due tosevere infection in home settings,our study not only provides the ev-idence that a simple low-cost solu-tion like chlorhexidine can savelives, but also shows that a deliverystrategy through packaging in birthkits works,” said Dr Professor Zul-fiqar A. Bhutta, head of the Divi-sion of Women and Child health atthe AKU, and principal investigatorof the study. “It could be used toscale up coverage of these interven-tions at birth in both communitysettings and public sector facilities.These findings also have substan-tial implications for public healthin south Asia, where many areasshare similar cultural, social, and

economic characteristics.”The researchers propose that

this intervention be considered forpossible inclusion in the range ofinterventions available to Leadyhealth Workers of the NationalProgramme for Family Planningand Primary Care of the Pakistanigovernment.

The trial was carried out inDadu, a resource-poor rural districtin Sindh, with a population of about1 million, and an infant mortalityrate of 90 per 1,000 live births. Morethan 80 percent deliveries in the dis-trict are done at home by dais andalmost 90 per cent of householdsfollowed the traditional practices ofapplying surma and other sub-stances on the cord.

The study was funded by thePakistan Initiative for Mothers andNewborns, and John Snow Inc via agrant by the US Agency for Interna-tional Development.

Umbilical cord antiseptic carecan save newborns’ lives■ Opportunity to reduce Pakistan’s high newborn death rate

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:20 AM Page 9

karachiPakistaN today

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CITy DIReCTORy

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Drinking groundwater?

The TDS may be too high

for your liking

10Thursday, 9 February, 2012

10TH EMERGING TALENT 2012

Art exhibition ‘10th emergingTalent 2012’ until February 11 atthe VM Art Gallery. Call 34940411for more information.

ARt EXHIBItIOnUntIL FEBRUARY 11VEnUE: VM ARt gALLERY

BIJLI, PYAAR AUR ABBA JAAN

‘Bijli, Pyaar aur Abba Jaan’ at12:00 pm on February 12 at theKarachi Banquet hall. Call32255093 for more information.

tHEAtRE PLAYOn FEBRUARY 12 At 12:00 PMVEnUE: KBH

LAYERS

Marium Agha and Madihahyder’s ‘Layers’ from February 10to 17 at The 2nd Floor. Call35389033 for more information.

ARt EXHIBItIOnStARtS FEBRUARY 10 At 05:00 PMVEnUE: t2F 2.0

STORM water infiltration isa cause of concern in urbanareas. It mobilises, mi-grates, and accumulates ingroundwater as a result of

infiltration. A study was carried outto identify and quantify possiblepathways of trace elements in thehydrological system and their distri-bution pattern.

Samples collected prior to andafter the monsoon period wereanalysed to find out the impact ofstorm water infiltration on ground-water pollution.

In recent years, attention on theincreasing ionic concentration oftraces metals in groundwater as a re-sult of storm water infiltration hasbeen studied by various researchers.This has been attributed to humaninterference, proliferation of indus-tries, and recent agriculture prac-tices in urban areas, where stormwater flow recharges the aquifer.

It has become necessary to as-sess, quantify, and monitor the qual-ity of groundwater influenced bynon-point source pollution as a re-sult of storm water infiltration in theurban environment of Karachi.

Infiltration experiments wereundertaken to establish the suit-ability of soils type in terms of in-filtration rates among the varioussoils and to investigate the poten-tial effects of the infiltration mediaon the water quality by the stormwater runoff.

The city has a large number ofindustrial units of different sectors,such as textile, pharmaceutical, en-gineering, paint, paper, chemical,detergents, vegetable oils, bever-ages, food products, etc.

These industrial units generateapproximately 1.3 million litres ofeffluent per day. Most of them dis-charged their effluent directly to thehydrological system thus causing animbalance to the environment.There are three major waterwayspassing through the mega city,namely the hub, Lyari, and Malirrivers, which have confluence withthe Arabian Sea. These waterwaysserve an important function of car-rying away storm water, particularlyduring the monsoon period.

In all, from 33 shallow wells, 132groundwater samples were collectedduring the monitoring period, start-ing from February 2007 to Novem-ber 2007.

The samples cover the catch-ments of the hub, Lyari, and Malirrivers and were collected at consid-erable distances from each other inorder to find the impact of pollu-tants on hydrological system.

The results showed that deter-minants such as cadmium, copperand total dissolved solids (TDS) ex-ceed the limits established by theWhO (1993) for drinking water.however, other trace metals, such asarsenic, are almost negligible, whilelead, iron, and zinc are well within

the permissible limits prescribed bythe WhO.

Certain locations close to indus-trial area are still unaffected due hy-drological gradients, topographyand local geological structure suchas porosity, permeability, joints andphysiochemical process in the soil.

The migration and distributionpatterns of determinants such ascopper, iron, cadmium, lead, andzinc with groundwater down streamis quite significant as it increasespossibility of accumulation of pollu-tants in the Arabian Sea.

The study showed that the de-gree of pollution in the groundwaterof Karachi is not the results of stormwater infiltration. This also is in con-formity with another study in whichit was disclosed that the groundwa-ter of Karachi is not significantly af-fected by total dissolved solid andtrace metal.

Extract from the research paper ‘ToxicTrace Element Pollution in StormWater of Karachi: A GraphicalApproach’ authored by A Zubair, MAFarooq and HN Abbasi.

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:20 AM Page 10

Editor’s mail 11Thursday, 9 February, 2012

CSS exam and agehow long will the CSS aspirants, the

upper age limit affectees, keep sufferingand no one at the helm of the govern-ment will respond to them? Appeals tothe president, prime minister and chair-man FPSC through the print media haveyielded no positive result whatsoever.Many CSS aspirants having Masters andhigher degrees in possession are unableto take the CSS examination and havebeen suffering from the worst depressionbecause they are witnessing their talent,time and dream all going down the draindue to the oppressive policy of the FPSCwith respect to age.

Time and again it was elaborated bymany that enhancing the age limit in theCSS exam will have an exceedingly posi-tive impact once the age bracket iswidened for the contenders. On onehand, the prevailing sense of despair inthe graduates and post-graduates will beallayed and on the other hand education-ally better and academically competentpeople will get a chance to come forwardto serve their country.

The cloud of despair is hanging solarge and dark over the educated youthin Pakistan that they have begun to looktowards foreign countries for job securityand financial prosperity because in theirown country they are abandoned and re-jected despite their abilities and potentialto play pivotal roles in their country's fu-ture.

I request the authorities concernedto take notice, to show some compassiontowards the disillusioned CSS aspirantsbattling their fates by relaxing the CSSage limit up to 35 years so that their fail-ing hopes could find a destiny and theirfalling spirits could be restored back inshape.

ALI AKBARPeshawar

Ban on music concertsPunjab Assembly had unanimously

decided to ban objectionable music con-certs in schools. This was a very right de-cision as such objectionable music isknown to have resulted in havoc in vari-ous countries by religious people, whoconsider such music to lead some youngpeople to commit heinous crimes againstwomen and even small children, endingin their killing to avoid being exposed.

Indeed such heinous crimes haverisen considerably in Pakistan in recenttimes, primarily due to such objection-able music and obscene TV shows in-cluding prolonged ads, invariablyshowing beautiful girls with scanty dressin utter violation of the divine dress codeof all holy scriptures, especially that ofthe holy Quran.

It is therefore not understood whythis decision was reversed, under the hueand cry of some, so-called freethinkers,who are trying to encourage such free lifeof the West in Pakistan. Needless to re-mind that suicide bombings are mostlikely to occur, if such tendency contin-ues, in clear violation of religious injunc-tions, especially the divine dress codes,thus inviting such people to react.

In view of the above, it is advisable toavoid such violation of divine injunctionsand to appoint strict censure on TV pro-grammes and TV ads. Apart from this, inview of the shortage of electricity, TVtransmissions and cable operationsshould be curtailed within reasonableday and night time, preferably from 6AMto 10PM with break between 1PM to5PM. Such measures will save sufficientpower consumption.

S M H RIZVIKarachi

PowerlessnessMy term finals are approaching, and

I really have loads of workload. Projects,presentations, vivas and God knowswhat. Apparently, we students, as themasons of the future, need to work reallyhard and even if we are determined to doso, we have one friend that makes surethat we do not stress up and rest at regu-lar intervals.

For me and those of us who still workon a PC and need electricity for doingtheir projects, whenever they plan theirwork they have to do so keeping in mindloadshedding schedule.

We are not workaholics anymore, wetake proper time out to sleep, to eat, totalk to our friends and etc. And wheneverwe are working, our efficiency gets multi-plied by a hundred. I swear never ever inmy life have I been more eager to workand still manage other tasks of life simul-taneously.

Irony apart, this is one hell of a full-time crisis situation going on. have youever seen this much loadshedding inwinters ever before when there are nofans, no ACs and the power usage is ap-proximately 60 percent as compared tosummers? Then why all this? I mean whyare we going back into the stone ages?how is the industry going to survive likethis and how long? how long will ourUPS work? how many people can affordgenerators? What will be the scenariothis summer?

It seems like we will have electricityfor two hours with the "elaan": "Ladiesand gentlemen! So we are having elec-tricity now, kindly wind up all your tasksthat cannot be accomplished otherwise."Candle-light dinners, use of steam, writ-ing your work in hand, no industry withheavy power requirements: Is this whatwe dream of making our beloved coun-try?

We are continuously being pushedinto the Stone Age, slowly but surely. Iappeal to those in power to please havepity on us and kindly let us feel being apart of the 21st century. Do not slash thethroats of progress and lighten up ourlife again.

RABBIA NASIRLahore

england whitewashedFor the first time in Pakistan’s cricket

history, Pakistan has whitewashed eng-land by winning the third Test match in afabulous fashion after a tottering start.hats off to Pakistan for comprehensivelybeating england. Browbeating the worldNo 1 team is awesome. Pakistan domi-nated batting, bowling and fielding. Savea few drop catches in fourth innings,Pakistan displayed excellent batting andbowling skills.

Younis Khan and Azhar Ali’s splen-did batting brought superb win for Pak-istan. Congratulations to Pakistan cricketteam for making a big show abroad aftera long time. Winning a Test series afterseven long years is very ecstatic.

This was the second time in the last100 years that a team has won a Testafter being bowled out for less than 100.Winning is a good habit and it is hopedPakistan will be conservative in thishabit.

IFTIKHAR MIRZAIslamabad

Raja Riaz in dockThe leader of opposition in Punjab

Assembly has been accused by anSNGPL engineer based in Faisalabad forharassment leading to his arrest after hehad filed charges against illegal connec-tion and non-payment of bills to a fac-tory owned by gentleman.

Gas shortages are a reality and yetthere is large scale theft by CNGpumps and factory owners, while fed-eral government continues to grantwaivers for more CNG stations acrossthe country.

A high level judicial enquiry needs tobe conducted to investigate charges filedby this SNGPL engineer, which cannotoccur as long as this corporation isheaded by cronies. It is important thatthese charges be investigated thor-oughly; otherwise, no employee workingin state corporations in the energy sectorwill dare to investigate against suchthefts.

SYED JAWAID HUSSAINMultan

Child domestic slaveryThis is the reference of the case of

Shan Ali, 11, a child domestic servant al-legedly killed by his employers. The FIR(07/2012) has been lodged at Golra Po-lice Station, Islamabad, under Section302/34 of the PPC and accused employ-ers have been arrested.

As observed/monitored in other suchcases, the parents of Shan Ali will getmonetary compensation of the murder oftheir son outside of the court if they areinfluential. There are various reasons inthis regard but the most serious one wehave noted is parents’ no interest to pur-sue the case. Shan’s parents will not pur-sue the case as they had no interest in thebest interests of Shan, therefore, he was

sent to work in slavery and he lost hislife.

In this case both parties have com-promised with each other, where is thegovernment? Why the government didn'ttake any initiative in this case? Don’t theythink that they should take initiative forthat child or should investigate on this?

In the field of child labour, child do-mestic labour is completely ignored, neg-lected and overlooked segment withreference to law and administrativemeasures. At the same time, there is nopublic awareness about this contempo-rary form of slavery which deprives chil-dren from education, health and the bestfuture.

These salve children work insidehomes without or with nominal wage,handle deadly tools and machinery, carryheavy loads and work more than 12 hoursa day, without leave and stay far awayfrom their parents.

In Pakistan, since January 2010,more than two dozen death/murder/tor-ture cases have been reported in thenewspapers. There are hundreds of suchcases of tortures, abuse and exploitationsbut not reported and known to anyone. Itis being observed that every fourth housein Islamabad employs a child as domesticservitude.

All over the world and also by the In-ternational Labour Organisation (ILO)

child domestic labour is declared worstform of child labour and known as con-temporary form of slavery but sadly inPakistan the plight and slavery of childdomestic labourers have not been recog-nised and realised, therefore, child do-mestic labour has not been banned inthe schedule of banned occupations inthe employment of Children Act (eCA)1991.

It is responsibility of the state and itsdepartments to protect children from ex-ploitation, abuse, slavery and worst formof child labour under Article 11 of theConstitution of Pakistan.

ANAM HAYATIslamabad

The judiciary and the governmentThe Supreme Court of Pakistan has suspended member-

ship of some 28 parliamentarians on the basis of by-electionsbeing illegal since the election Commission was not complete.The question is why do the government keeps doing such acts?Why do they focus on illegal acts while they can easily followthe law?

There is a solution and very simple solution. Follow therule of law. We have to change the way we look at the things,

we have to change approach towards life, follow the moral andethical codes and be more responsible. We need lot of hardwork, devotion, sincerity on part of the all the people. We don'thave to protect near and dear ones in the Prime Minister orPresident house. everyone should take a stand against any il-legal act without fear of any danger.

ALI MUKHTARLahore

we criticise, why?Why do we always criticise? Why are

we always ready to pour scorn on others,ridicule or insult others? Because we loveit, (simple) otherwise it would be ardu-ous for us to start our day without pass-ing few negative remarks about anythingor for that matter about everything. Thisis how we are, sad but true.

I have observed that it is very diffi-cult for us to say a simple word “good”for others. We cannot praise or appreci-ate any good work done by anyone. Weas a society consider it our moral duty tocriticise.

To me these social media forums arelike criticising tools where one has thefreedom to bash anyone, even on per-sonal grounds, and interestingly withoutconcrete reasons. Moreover, we takepride in saying “I insulted him/her”.Constructive criticism, difference ofopinion and valuing the differences pro-vides nourishment to the mind and en-hance thought process, but unfortunatelywe criticise just for the heck of it. We dis-agree to show our importance, knowl-edge, or power. Moreover, we try toimpose our views on others.

To further, clarify my stance, very re-cently, the laptop provision initiativetaken by CM Punjab was badly misinter-preted ie, he is doing all this for politicalmileage. In the age of technology, no onecan make you fool so be rational aboutthings. People criticise him even forlaunching “Danish school system”. Comeon, give him a break. If you cannot ap-preciate it, then please do not discouragehim. Just think for a while who will bene-fit from all this? We, our country, ourpeople, who else?

In addition, I am waiting for the timewhen people will start criticising CMPunjab for widening the Canal Road inLahore. however, everyone can visiblywitness the smooth flow of traffic afterthe reconstruction of the road. Neverthe-less, we dare not appreciate because we

are not programmed to appreciate or ac-knowledge the good efforts. We are readyto challenge good intentions of others butwho are we to question the intentions?Who gave us this right to doubt the in-tentions? We must try to learn how to ap-preciate the good in others.

MARIAM KHANLahore

Anti-terror lawsIt’s a common impression that out-

laws are usually at large in Pakistan. Tar-get killings, suicide bombings are aroutine matter here. The terrorists, aftercommitting the crime, easily make theirway. The law enforcement agencies, civiland military both, have to face the wrathof people and media for not capturing theculprits or not taking preventive meas-ures.

But, the reality is different. The agen-cies do their part of work. They take pre-emptive measures, conduct searchoperations and even hunt down manyterrorists but all their efforts go in vain,once the case is sent for legal proceed-ings. In most cases, the terrorists havebeen acquitted on the pretext of lack ofevidence.

The prolonged and complicated legalprocedures can also be blamed for releas-ing of such lethal terrorists who havebeen wreaking havoc in Pakistan. In thesituation of lawlessness and chaos suchincidents have further created sense ofinsecurity among the people.

As far as complicated legal proce-dures are concerned, no one has eventried to bring reforms in it, at least in ter-rorism cases. Since, most of terroristshave been acquitted on absence of evi-dence, incidents of illegal detentions bylaw enforcement agencies has also been acommon practice which created a state ofconfrontation among some state institu-tions.

The recapturing of Adiala Jail prison-ers highlights such a state of affairs.

These suspects, according to law enforce-ment agencies, were involved in planningand facilitating suicide attacks on GhQ,hamza Camp and Kamra Air Base be-sides twin suicide attacks on securityforces.

These suspects were apprehendedfrom different locations and produced inthe court of law. however, due to lack ofevidence they were acquitted. Accordingto some reports, the suspects had notonly been threatening SuperintendentAdiala Jail and the judges but also totheir families, if they were punished.

The tug of war between the state in-stitutions has been capitalised by terror-ists. There is need to realise the fact thatPakistan has been entangled in terror-ism, the release of such terrorists hintstowards some loopholes in our judicialsystem which needs to be amended prop-erly in order to eradicate terrorism. Be-sides bringing reforms in anti-terrorlaws, there is need to implement them inletter and spirit.

ANWAR MAHMOODRawalpindi

A mirror has may facesForegoing a recent news regarding

meeting of a media s analyst with USCounsel General refers. The reports re-gard US involvement in domestic mediaon the rise. The leading media personali-ties are known to be in closecontact/touch with the US officials. Re-portedly on 7 Feb Counsel General in La-hore had a meeting/briefing session withthis media person who is a prominentanalyst in the electronic media.

Coincidently, his programme on thatparticular night was a blatant outcry ofhis pro-US views especially vis-à-vis Pak-Iran gas pipe line. Well, it may be afriendly call or some deep rooted love,but it certainly raises few questions anddoubts.

RAHIM ULLAHSwabi

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:20 AM Page 11

comment12Thursday, 9 February, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Another bleak report

hard times

“highly vulnerable” is how the IMF hascategorised the Pakistani economy in arecent statement. It would have bee amiracle if it were anything but. After all,

the economy has seen not one but two devastating floods,the likes of which the country has never seen in itshistory; about a million people were displaced from theirhomes as a result. Couple this with the ongoing carnageemanating as a result of the war against terror, which hasled to casualties whose conservative estimates would bemore than 35,000. Add to this, strained relations with theUS, especially in the aftermath of the Abbottabadoperation and then unequivocal accusations of complicitywith certain terror networks by key American officials.The US has been a principal donor to Pakistan, theresulting fiscal space being critical to many projections.Further aggravating the crises is the political instabilitythe Gilani administration faces within the country.

And, if all this wasn’t bad enough, there is the generalstate of the world economy, with oil shocks affecting thestrongest of global economies and an accompanying foodcrisis also hitting the world. A general recession, also,follows in the aftermath of the financial capital marketscrisis in the US.

The Pakistani government had made a GDP growthprojection of 3.5 percent. Though we are set to miss thisalready diminutive projection, it merits mention that thereal goalpost is a growth of about 7 percent if we are toabsorb the 2 million new entrants to the local labourmarket each year.

The solutions that the IMF prescribes are going to bedifficult, politically, to pull across. There needs to be arationalisation of tariffs, elimination of subsidies andbuildup of the tax base. Then, the government must fightits impulse of bridging its considerable fiscal deficit byborrowing from the central bank. All of these are the stuffstill political waters can facilitate, not the tumult we areseeing at the moment.

About time too

Signs of a thaw

The over two month long tension betweenPakistan and the US seems to be easing now.Domestic and American media reports indicatethat while a parliamentary committee is to

decide the contours of Pakistan’s US policy, enough work,leading to concrete proposals, has been done behind thescene. A number of statements indicate thatunderstanding has already been reached on certain basicpoints between Pakistan military leadership and the USand NATO officials. It is no more a secret that there is anagreement on the resumption of NATO supply lines withthe condition that every container will be taxed. Anunnamed security official has spelt out some of the tacitagreements reached which are to be finalised at a meetingbetween Centom chief General Mattis and COAS Kayaninext week. The Parliamentary Committee on Security issupposed to formulate its recommendations and get themapproved from the Parliament before Mattis’ arrival.

The resumption of cooperation between the US andPakistan is needed to eliminate the extremists who pose athreat to mankind in general and the US, Pakistan andAfghanistan in particular. Islamabad has, however, toensure that Pakistan’s interests are in no way jeopardisedduring the talks. The US has to be told that Pakistancannot forgo the import of gas and power from Iran.Further, that the war on terror has to be fought withmutual consultation so that Pakistan is not left in thelurch after the US has withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Any move to improve relations with the US is boundto be challenged by the extremist fringe in Pakistanrepresented by organisations like the Defence of PakistanCouncil. To meet the challenge, the government and themilitary leadership have to be seen to be on the samepage. The extremists have vowed never to allow the Natotankers to pass through Pakistan. They are also opposedto drone attacks, the latest taking place on Wednesday.even when the strikes are selective and limited andcarried out after clearance from the right quarters, theyare going to be projected as evidence that the governmentis a sell-out. So will be the presence of the US militarytrainers and CIA operatives even if it is infinitesimal.There is a need on the part of the government and thearmy to jointly own whatever decisions are finalised.

The fear factorWill we ever be rid of our demons?

Inever remember a time in our 64 years ofindependence when we have had com-plete faith in our future. We have alwayslived in the shadow of fear. First, we wereafraid that India was bent on destroying

us. With regards to east Pakistan, there was aconstant fear gnawing at our insides that Indiawas scheming in our eastern wing. That it wasspreading its dharm and entrenching its cultureover there. What a majority of hindus couldn’tdo in thousand years in a united India (as Mus-lim culture and religion remained intact), wenow lived in fear in our own country that thehindu minority could do in the newly-createdPakistan.

As long as east Pakistan remained with us,we lived in a state of fear. And the sum of ourfears came true one day. But the reason wasn’tIndia. It was our own cravenness. First, we livedin apprehension of the hindu. Then in appre-hension of the majority of east Pakistan (whichwas also a fear of the hindu minority in eastPakistan as we had the deep-seated worry thatthey were misguiding the Muslims there and thata rule by the majority in east Pakistan would defacto be a rule of the hindu minority there).

To allay these trepidations, first we didn’tgive the east Pakistanis their deserved right toforming a government in the centre. Wheneverthere was a PM from east Pakistan, we got rid ofhim by hook or crook. Then we used the OneUnit Scheme to neutralise their majority. Weconvinced them that 52 percent and 48 percentwere in fact equal and that the constituent as-sembly should have equal seats for both wingsdue to this parity. Despite doing this, we werestill fearful that east Pakistan might gain a ma-

jority by taking some members from the erst-while smaller provinces into its fold.

To deal with this dread, we formed a militarygovernment. east Pakistanis waged a constantstruggle against military dictatorship and werefinally able to get their right as a majority ac-cepted. When elections took place in 1970, Mu-jeeb-ur-Rehman’s Awami League got a decisivemajority in the national assembly. We were thenafraid that this would mean the end of militaryinterference in politics. Thus, power was nottransferred to him. We thought that we could es-tablish control over the unarmed Bengalisthrough military might. But it was not so. Wecleared the road for the Indian army due to ourcowardliness and our fears eventually culmi-nated in us losing east Pakistan to the Indianarmy.

We still lived in perpetual panic in what wasleft of Pakistan after that. Because slogans fordealing with the remnant Pakistan had begun tobe chanted in India. But Bhutto picked up thepieces and worked to stabilise Pakistan. When hegot our annexed territory and POWs back fromIndia, he became the embodiment of our fears.We made a united oppositional front againsthim. Some quarters called on the army to get ridof him. General Zia-ul-haq came forward to dothe job. But even though he had put the man injail, the dictator still lived in apprehension of theman. The ruling elites decided that the best wayto deal with this was to hang him. But Zia-ul-haq’s fears didn’t die with Bhutto even thoughhis vice-like grip on power tightened. he wasnow afraid that the PPP would win elections sothey were held under the condition that electionswould not be party based. In this non-party as-sembly, the dictator formed a government underhis own supervision. he gave the prime ministe-rial slot to a man he thought was harmless. Butas soon as Muhammad Khan Junejo started toget his powers, the generals also began to befearful of him and that led them to dissolving theassemblies.

Internally, we had been afraid of Bhutto andthen his ghost for the longest time. But our ex-ternal fears too never went away. India was theever-present bogeyman. But now there was theadditional terror of the Soviet armies inAfghanistan. So terrorised were we that we will-ingly became America’s proxy and asked for allkinds of help. They gave us arms, money and‘Islam’. We used these three key ingredients totrain warriors and send them to Afghanistan.

After a long drawn out war, the Soviet armies leftAfghanistan but America also deserted the re-gion. We were now afraid about what would hap-pen to us without their patronage. In throes ofthis fear, we made the nuclear bomb.

We thought that the bomb would be the endof our fears but it wasn’t. To deal with these, westarted the Kargil mission. The mujahideen wesent to Kargil were encircled by the Indian army.There were airstrikes against our armed forces.This Indian aggression put the fear back in ourthen COAS. he went to the prime minister to getthe US to intervene and get us our men back.India made that promise and we thought wecould finally have some peace and be rid of ourdemons. But, no. The generals who were the ar-chitects of the Kargil misadventure and henceour defeat at the hands of India were now afraidthat they would be dismissed. On the other hand,the civilian prime minister was afraid that thearmy might oust him. The PM’s fears turned outto be true and the scared generals did indeedconduct a coup.

Thus began General Musharraf’s reign. Dur-ing his tenure, terrorist attacks on America tookplace. Then the American statement ‘with us, oragainst us’ scared us and we became their allies.For ten years as an American ally, we have beenagainst the very mujahideen we ourselvestrained. The beginning of our alliance was thebeginning of a new fear: that of the backlash thatwould emanate from the militants. It came in-deed and it came with an untold fury. The TTPwas conducting (and continues to conduct) at-tacks on our army and people. The Taliban wereunhappy that we were helping the US and the USfurious that we were aiding the Taliban. Betweena rock and a hard place, we were frightened ofboth. We were now also fearful about the verybomb that we made to deal with our deepestdarkest fears. Fearful that the US would take itaway.

The situation is that now we are afraid of theTaliban. And the US. And the conditions in thetribal regions. We are also afraid of trade withIndia. At the time of independence, the source ofour fear was just India. Now, it is virtually every-one, everything and everywhere. We have beenindependent for 64 years but never independentfrom our fears. I wonder how many generationswill continue to live like this…

The writer is one of Pakistan’s most widelyread columnists.

By nazir naji

Hot air all around

Dealing with iran

If we are to believe what we arehearing and reading from avariety of confirmed and

unconfirmed sources, in Israel andthe US, some day in the next fewmonths we may wake up to thenews that Israel has bombed Iran'snuclear facilities. Or maybe not.

The Israelis appear to bedeeply divided on the issue,sending mixed signals, almostdaily, about their intentions, theircapacity to execute such a mission,and even whether or not Iran'sreputed program poses animminent danger.

The US is tied up in knots of itsown making. Being in the throes ofan election, no one wants to appearcritical of Israel. And so whileconcerned with the consequencesof a unilateral Israeli strike,statements from officialWashington or from presidentialaspirants range from hand-wringing and feignedpowerlessness to full-throated

support for any action Israel maytake.

For their part, the Iranians,apparently loving the attentionthey are receiving, have engaged inprovocative actions of their ownand their fair share of rhetoricalexcess. Lost in this deadly game area number of serious issues thatshould be considered – but, in allprobability will not be.

In the first place, the matter ofwhether or not Iran is on atrajectory to build a bomb is not anincidental one. The last IAeAreport, despite efforts tomischaracterise its findings, wasnot conclusive. At best, it hedged.

Next to consider is the exactnature of the threat posed by anuclear Iran. While Israel projectsitself as facing an "existential"challenge from Iran, this ishyperbolic nonsense. An Iranianattack on Israel would amount toIran signing its own death warrant.It is a horror even to image, but thereality is that a nuclear attackanywhere in Israel, would murdertens of thousands of innocents,Jews and Arabs, with radiationfallout spreading death anddeformity over a wide radius thatwould infect hundreds ofthousands more in theneighbourhood. In other words, inthe aftermath of any attack, notonly would Iran be destroyed, butits fate would be sealed forever inthe Arab and Muslim world—aconsideration that could not be loston the regime’s leadership. Thebottom line: there is no "first use".

Iran's real intention is thedangerous game of bragging rights.And their target audience is acrossthe Gulf. Their recent effort torecast the “Arab Spring" as an"Islamic Awakening" being led bythe Islamic Republic provided acase in point. The Iranians stillseek to prey on Arab anger at theWest projecting themselves asbeing in the vanguard of Arabrevulsion at the excesses ofimperialism and Zionism.

If this is the game, then Israelisaber-rattling and Americanoutrage play right into Iran's hand.By exaggerating the threat posedby this regime, by pretending thatit is a menace equal to NaziGermany, the West succeeds onlyin giving the Iranians what theywant most: an inflated sense thatthey are a real power to be feared.

My concern is that theescalating rhetoric by all sidesposes a danger, in itself. The regionis a tinderbox, and it is as ifeveryone is too busy playing withmatches to think of theconsequences of their behaviour.

Better than threats, which onlyserve to embolden Iran, I wouldsuggest a combination of directengagement (which has been triedtoo little) and continued targetedsanctions (which are having a realimpact). What, one might ask theleaders of Iran, will they do withtheir nuclear programme? Can itfeed their people, rebuild theirneglected and decayedinfrastructure, give hope to theirunemployed young, or secure their

role in the community of nations?Look at the region, as it is. Asdemocracy movements advance inNorth Africa, and as the Gulf Statesmake significant progress,providing a model for developmentand growth, Iran remains trappedin an archaic system which feedsoff of fear and anger, and goesnowhere.

There are lessons to be learnedin order to avoid a confrontationfrom which no one will emerge awinner. Those in the US who pointto Israel’s 1981 strike against Iraq,conveniently ignore the fact thatSaddam emerged undeterred. Thenext two decades witnessed Iraqand Iran engaging in an orgy ofblood-letting, in part leading toIraq’s fatal occupation of Kuwaitand all that followed. Then therewere Israel’s repeated invasions,occupations and bombardments ofLebanon which only devastatedthat country, leading to theemergence and empowering ofhizbollah.

The point is that it would bewise to call a halt to the escalatingrhetoric for an attack on Iran;recognise the real danger posed byIran to its own people and to itsneighbours; stop enabling theIsraeli and Iranian game of“chicken” with each other, whenthe unintended consequences oftheir continued dance with deathwill be felt not only by themselves,but by so many others.

The writer is President of theArab-American Institute.

Washington WatchBy Dr James J Zogby

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comment 13Thursday, 9 February, 2012

The army and the middleclass

Apolitical coalitionsV

ictory in Dubai over the world’s high-est ranked team is a tribute to tem-perament, courage and

determination. Coming together in the faceof extreme adversity in the preceding twelvemonths, Misbah’s side, a mixture of youthand experience excelled in these three de-partments, even more than in the game it-self. It is this very aspect previous Pakistanteams have lacked and they have chokedwith victory in sight. Today, we can all standtall and bow before this new and improvedteam.

The hallmark of this series is the mentalsupremacy of the Pakistan team over a toughand successful england team. At no point,even when bowled out for under hundred onday one of this last test, did we see shouldersslump, heads hang or tantrums. In fact, notonce in the series was this visible. Close ob-servers of the team’s previous performanceswill tell you that they had envisioned eng-land putting on 350 to 400 runs and routingPakistan in defensive mode in the second in-nings. This didn’t happen. Because Pak-istan’s resolve did not allow it to.

It will be fair to say Pakistan very nearlyoutplayed england in all departments of thegame. Very nearly, because there are areasstill requiring major attention. More aboutthis later. england were psychologically out-

played. They looked down andout. Mesmerised I believe notby just the spin bowling but bythe attitude and newly discov-ered resolve of this Pakistanside. Gone was the gusto andbravado that is characteristic ofenglish cricket. They struggledmentally to come to grips withthis. even in the wake of oppor-tunities, and there were plenty,they could not rise to the occa-sion and close it out.

Bowling dominated the se-ries throughout and the onlytime batting worked was reallyin the last Pakistan inningsduring which the only two hun-dreds of the series were scored.england’s bowling had greaterdepth. Their quickies are wellahead of ours. Anderson andBroad bowled their hearts out.There were some really accu-rate spells. Their spin was notfar behind. Monty struck formand bowled beautifully Ithought. Swann is an experi-enced campaigner of high qual-ity.

Pakistan’s spinners cameof age and bowled exquisitelywith unrelenting pressure.Loose balls were few and lineand length immaculate. Theygot the ball to fizz and turn and

bounce. Their variety appeared unlimitedmuch to the chagrin of england’s batting.One cannot say enough about them. Theywere simply the best.

england didn’t bat well throughout theseries. And it was not just against spin.Umar Gul’s 4 for 61 is evidence that theydidn’t bat well full stop. That is the crux ofit. Critics have been harsh on them, callingthem “clueless” and the performance “laugh-able”. But yes it was the spin and the firsttest that set the tone for the series. OncePakistan believed it could be done they wentout and got the job done. And did it bril-liantly.

Despite the relatively low scoringmatches, one must compliment the wicketsprepared for the three matches. There wasno hidden devil in the wicket unlike the onesIndia prepares for visiting teams. They weresporting wickets giving both batting andbowling equal opportunities and withstoodthe continuous cricket, looking good even onthe last day of the three tests.

Pakistan’s batting came good when it re-ally mattered. A week after I wrote Younusshould be saying goodbye, he came throughwith a brilliant century. Not only that, he en-sured young Azhar at the other end workedhis way beyond the multiple fifties and con-verted into his second test hundred. Onedoes not realise that this is a big thing incricket; a senior partner building the confi-dence of his younger partner and seeing himthrough a crisis. But it cannot be a ‘one-off’.Younus will still have to prove that he can beconsistent.

Pakistan misses a serious all-rounder.The last four batsmen were neither able toadd many runs, nor were they able to standand consume time when it was required.They played some inappropriate and un-called for shots. And once the main battingline-up succumbs, the opposition canquickly wrap up the tail. hafeez has beenbearing the brunt as the fifth bowler butthere will be times when a third quickie is re-quired and it would be a shame to drop thespin duo, now that we have one, to accom-modate him. We need to find someone in themould of Imran, Waseem or Razzaq. Andthe fielding continues to need real attention.The number of dropped catches in this lastengland innings was atrocious.

Once you get results like this, a serieswhitewash, in what I will term a neutral ter-ritory, the benchmark rises and so do the ex-pectations. Pakistan’s cricket fans like therest of the country hold their emotions in thepalm of their hand. One moment there is eu-phoria, the next dejection. having set thiswinning trend and making history, Misbah’steam cannot stop here. They have to take itall the way.

The writer may be contacted via e-mailat imranmhusain@gmail.com

Let’s keep the winning ways

Bravo Team pakistan

Random Thoughts

By Imran Husain

historically speaking, aca-demics have always beeninterested in understanding

our civil-military calculus at thelevel of the state, but have never re-ally paid much attention to the waythat the army reproduces its imagein society. Preferring to choose thedomain of ‘high’ politics, (as op-posed to local or ‘everyday’ politics),people like hamza Alavi (TheOverdeveloped State, New Left Re-view, March 1972), and AyeshaJalal (State of Martial Rule), haveproduced somewhat cross-cuttingexplanations state-based explana-tions for the military’s dominancein politics.

Alavi sees the army as a con-stituent portion of the unrepresen-tative state, which formssubordinate relationships with do-mestic political actors, bureaucrats,and the capitalists, while recognis-ing some foreign power (the US,and to a lesser extent, China) as itspatron. Within the state, Alaviposits that the military has gainedsupremacy over the bureaucracyand the judiciary over time becauseof greater public outreach, its con-trol over the coercive apparatus,and its economic strength.

Jalal, on the other hand, tracesthe rise of the military to a set of en-gagements that took place in thedomain of high-politics in the pe-riod following independence. herthesis is that in 1947, the army wasnothing more than a hollow shell,and was eventually strengthened bythe migrant bureaucracy, schemingpoliticians, and the geo-political in-terests of the US. The securityframework which Pakistan adoptedupon partition provided the prem-ise for this strengthening to takeplace.

Both explanations are plausibleand perfectly viable in their ownway. Yet the problem with a top-down lens is that it assumes thestate (and its internal interplay) to

be dynamic, and society to be recep-tive and static. The army steps intopower, receives judicial cover,forms a faction of the MuslimLeague, and society celebrates thedemise of corrupt politicians. Thislinear narrative needs to be prob-lematised further to actually under-stand how the civil-militaryequation obtained its current shape.

In an article published muchlater on in his career, Alavi repro-duced the words of a retired major,from a letter he wrote to the Presi-dent of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-haq. he wrote that the army’spopularity, and hence its ability tostep into power, is a direct result ofits insulation from the rest of soci-ety, and that the currentCOAS/President was under-cuttingthis by stuffing armed forces per-sonnel in every civilian nook andcranny. Many other retired officers,like this gentleman, were quite con-cerned about ‘over-exposure’.

The interesting thing is that, onpaper, the army major was proba-bly right. Increased society-armyinteraction could’ve resulted in theunpopularity of the latter – a con-sequence mitigated, previously, bythe insulated nature of canton-ments and garrisons. Yet in reality,the army, specifically in Punjab andKarachi, maintained some mannerof social legitimacy during the 80s,and enhanced its social capital dur-ing the 90s because of some veryworthwhile investments it madeunder Ayub, but more so under Zia.

One such investment is thearmy’s relationship with theurban/peri-urban, educated mid-dle-class, and more specifically,with middle-class institutions. De-spite forming a tiny minority in theoverall demographic make-up ofthe country, the urban, educatedclass has wielded a fair amount ofinfluence in the overall trajectory ofthe country. Contrary to the self-perceived narrative of marginalisa-tion that many members of thisclass imbibe and regurgitate, mem-bers of the middle class have heldimportant positions at the level ofthe state (through their presence inthe post-Bhutto bureaucracy andarmed forces), and, with the resultof their societal counterparts, havehelped shape the dynamic of power,and its rhetoric in the country.

The willing collaborators, at thesocietal level, are most often founddominating two particular institu-

tions: higher education and media.This is helped by the fact that thedemographic make-up of 5 institu-tions (judiciary, bureaucracy,armed forces, higher education, andmedia) is quite similar. All arewhite-collar professions that re-quire some form of tertiary level ed-ucation. All 5 offer, to varyingdegrees, the middle-class require-ment of stability and perpetuity ofemployment. And all 5 envision, onpaper anyway, an apolitical, non-partisan role in society.

This last particular characteris-tic, i.e. a sense of pride in being apo-litical, offers the most convenientcatalyst for coalition buildingamongst middle-class institutions.The recognition of the self as a de-fined, separate entity in relation tothe ‘political class’, (politicians andtheir clients), creates a fracture thatvery easily outsteps democraticboundaries.

A century ago, Weber predictedthe creation of an ‘Iron Cage’ – ametaphor for a post-industrial,urban society completely bound bythe restrictive limits of a legal-ratio-nal order. Rules will be followed atall costs, human beings will behavelike automatons, and the act of ex-ercising political choice will becomea procedural activity, devoid of allsubstance.

Thankfully though, Pakistan’scurrent socio-economic make-upputs it quite far away from this Or-wellian nightmare. Large parts ofsociety, to this day, are extensivelypartial and extremely political. Theyidentify their politics through a col-lection of lenses (class, party, caste,tribe, sect), and undercut an op-pressive legal order through acts ofeveryday resistance (bribery, pa-tronage, sifarish).

As the footprint of middle classinstitution grows with urbanisation,our political domain faces an inter-esting, and increasingly relevantquestion: Will our middle-class, asit continues to evolve, reconcilewith the notion of democratic par-ticipation and universal franchise,or will it continue to exercisestrongly authoritarian, deeply frac-turing tendencies?

Guess we’ll just have to waitand find out.

The writer blogs at http://recy-cled-thought.blogspot.com. Email himat umairjaved87@gmail.com or senda tweet @umairjav

By Umair Javed

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:20 AM Page 13

14 Thursday, 9 February, 2012

IN LIMELIGHT

LONDON: Prince

Charles, Prince of

wales and his wife

Camilla, Duchess of

Cornwall attend a

ceremony to mark

the bicentenary of

the birth of author

Charles Dickens.

BeVeRLy hILLS: Meryl Streep

and Martin Scorsese at the

AARP Magazine’s 11th Annual

Movies for grownups Awards.

Scarlett Johansson:

Fashion will help

Obama get reelected

WASHIngtOnAGENCIES

everyone knows it’s in style to bepolitically active. We’ve moved pastDiddy’s infamous ‘Vote or Die’campaign, but celebrities are still usingfashion as a platform to express theirpolitical views. The stars came out inNew York City for the launch of‘Runway to Win’, a collaborative effortby American designers to supportPresident Barack Obama’s reelectioncampaign. Actress Scarlett Johansson,who co-hosted the fete alongsideVogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour,explained just why selling super-cuteT’s and totes can help give someObama job security when the 2012election rolls around. “I think the mostimportant thing is that the fashionworld has an international spotlightshown on it,” she told reporters. “To beable to use that spotlight on a causelike this is incredible.” The 27-year-old‘We Bought a Zoo’ star said she doesn’t“ask people to go in and vote forObama,” but rather, she just asks themto vote. “You have to voice youropinion,” she explained. So just whohas better style, Barack or MichelleObama? “I think they’re just a verystylish couple in general,” Johanssonlaughed. “They both have a casual coolabout them.” Fair enough. They haveboth done their part to add someswagger to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

nEWS DESK

After many Pakistani celebrities entering theIndian cinema, Omer Shareef and ShafqatCheema have also received offers to come andwork in Bollywood. Pakistan’s legendary co-median and actor Omer Shareef and the tal-ented film star Shafqat Cheema have beenapproached by Bollywood and have acceptedthe offers as well. Indian director and pro-ducer Karan Johar has offered a major sup-

porting role to Pakistani king of comedyOmer Shareef for his upcoming film for whichOmer Shareef will also write at least part ofthe script. The cast of the film also includesShah Rukh Khan, Boman Irani, Lara Duttaand Priyanka Chopra. Meanwhile, ShafqatCheema has also been approached by YashRaj Films who have sent him the script of anupcoming movie. Omer Shareef and ShafqatCheema have accepted the projects and bothare scheduled to go to India in March.

Omer Shareef and ShafqatCheema get tickets to Bollywood

Chris Brownreturns toGrammys;rihanna alsoto perform

LOS AngELES REUTERS

Chris Brown will perform at this Sunday’sGrammy Awards for the first time since beat-ing his then girlfriend Rihanna in 2009 onthe eve of the music industry’s biggest night,which threatened to derail his music career.Rihanna, who has four nominations includ-ing album of the year for ‘Loud’, also isamong the stars performing live at the event,and rumours have flown among fans andcelebrity watchers in recent weeks that thepair may be secretly dating again-speculationBrown’s representatives have dismissed.Grammy organisers said Brown, who hasthree nominations including best R&B singerfor his album ‘F.A.M.e.’, had been added tothe line-up for the February 12 awards showin Los Angeles. They said Brown will join FooFighters, Lil Wayne, David Guetta and Dead-mau 5 for a performance highlighting danceand electronica music for the first time onthe Grammy Awards show stage. Brown, 22,has skipped the Grammys since launching aviolent attack on Rihanna in 2009, leavingher battered and bruised and Brown in thecustody of police. Brown publicly apolo-gised, admitted to criminal assault in court.A judge sentenced him to five years proba-tion, six months community service andanger management counseling. But hisclean-cut image took a major blow. Ri-hanna’s career on the other hand soared, andshe scored hits with songs like ‘Man Down’and ‘Love the Way You Lie’, which dealt withviolence against women. The pair appearedto have gone their separate ways but in re-cent months, speculation buzzed that theyhad reunited after they were spotted at thesame Los Angeles nightclub and put out a se-ries of cryptic messages on Twitter.

Kareena to get steamy withArjun Rampal

MUMBAI: She has been the original choice for many Madhur Bhandarkar

films, but it is for the first time Kareena would be starring in one. Portray-

ing the role of a successful film actress Mahi Khanna, Kareena Kapoor

would star opposite Arjun Rampal. Kareena Kapoor had decided to

not get intimate with co-stars on screen. But the lady has report-

edly made an exception for Madhur Bhandarkar. The actor has

agreed to shoot a lovemaking scene with co-star Arjun Ram-

pal in ‘heroine’. “A suburban five-star will be booked for the

sequence, in which, Kareena starts off with smoking and

drinking and ends up in bed with Rampal,” a source close

to the film informed Mumbai Mirror. “All I can say is that

Kareena is an extremely professional and committed

actress,” Madhur Bhandarkar told the tabloid. “To

make the actress comfortable, Bhandarkar has en-

sured that there are very few people in the room

when the scene is shot. There will be only three

people assisting him that day. They have also been

asked to sign a ‘Confidentiality Contract’,” reports

the tabloid. The Kareena-Arjun starrer is slated for

14 September release. Kareena Kapoor had report-

edly asked Madhur Bhadarkar to omit intimate

scenes with her co-stars in ‘heroine’ in the past.

Last year, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan decided

that they will not shoot for intimate scenes with

their co-stars till they get married to avoid misun-

derstandings. The actors had apparently also in-

formed their directors about the same. AGENCIES

Vidya Balanto tie the knot MUMBAI: with Riteish Deshmukh and genelia D’Souza tying the knot last week,

many of the other celebs seem to be toiling with the idea of marriage. Latest

buzz in the industry is that ‘The Dirty Picture’ star Vidya Balan is planning to

get hitched to her beau, UTV’s head honcho, Siddharth Roy Kapoor. If ru-

mours are to be believed, the actress is planning to tie the knot post the

release of her upcoming flick ‘Kahani’ which is scheduled to release in

March. Speaking to DNA, a source said, “Vidya has had an amazing year

with ‘The Dirty Picture’ and ‘No One Killed Jessica’. This year her first

release is ‘Kahaani’ and Vidya is super-excited about it as she plays a

pregnant woman in the film. Post its release, Vidya will start prepar-

ing for her wedding. She is in a very good space as far as her career

is concerned and her family feels that it is time that she now set-

tles down in her personal life too. And being an obedient daughter,

Vidya wants to fulfill her parents wish by tying the knot with Sid-

dharth at the earliest.” Although, the duo has never confirmed its

relationship, the two have been spotted often at various places to-

gether. “Both Vidya and Siddharth are very fond of each other. One

also hears of Vidya accompanying Kapoor on a few family functions,

pretty much putting an official stamp on them as a couple. An April-

May wedding is on the cards for sure,” added the source. Last year in

August news had it that Vidya had already tied the knot with Sidhharth

secretly and the couple was staying in a new flat in Bandra. Putting all

the false rumours to rest, Vidya had then clarified that she would never

do such a thing. with the news of her marriage spilling out again, will

Vidya confirm the news this time round? AGENCIES

MUMBAI : Karan Johar’s ‘ek Main Aur ekk Tu’ has

yet to hit the screens but the filmmaker has

already recovered Rs.21 crore which he had

invested in producing the romantic comedy

starring Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor. The

production budget of the film was Rs.21 crore

and the maker spent another Rs.8 crore on

print, advertising and publicity etc. The news is

that ‘ek Main Aur ekk Tu’ has recovered Rs.15

‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’

gets cashregisters ringing

BANgALORe:

Anoushka

Shankar

performs

during the

‘Premaanjali

Festival 2012’.

New yORK: Model/heiress Nicky hilton, actor/comedian Nick

Cannon, Lisalla Montenegro and Josh groban attend a benefit for

the United way of New york City and the Shawn Carter Foundation.

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:21 AM Page 14

15

Ashton Kutcher’sbirthday surpriseLOS ANGELES: while Demi Moore spent

Ashton Kutcher’s 34th birthday in rehab, he

celebrated it in a big way, with a giant cake

in his likeness. To get the party started,

Kutcher’s ‘Two and a half Men’ co-workers

gifted him with a sheet cake featuring a

promo image of the actor alongside series

co-stars Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones. “I

love my co-workers,” Us weekly quoted

Kutcher as tweeting. Kutcher, who appears

on the primetime comedy as walden

Schmidt, appears to be fitting in just fine in

the five months since his September

debut. “he jokes with the crew, has no

tantrums, he comes in well studied in his

lines - it’s such a nice change,” a crew

member said. “So far there have been no

issues and everyone is really happy with

how it’’s working out. Nobody is missing

Charlie right now,” the crew member

added. The comedy star posted a video

earlier today to Causes.com and told fans

that he was donating his birthday to fight

the exploitation of children by matching

all donations-dollar for dollar-to his and

Moore’s DNA Foundation. AGENCIES

LOS AngELES CBS

SIMON Cowell is talking about the majorshake-up that happened last week on his re-ality talent series ‘The X Factor.’ JudgesPaula Abdul, Nicole Scherzinger and hostSteve Jones are not returning for the show’s

next season. Cowell told ‘extra’ that he and Fox exec-utives began discussing changes “at the beginning ofthe year - and we were told it had to happen straightaway.” Of Abdul, Cowell revealed: “I would’ve liked tohave kept her. She was very gracious and I said thatto her. She understands it’s business; it’s never per-sonal.” he added that he didn’t think Scherzinger wasangry about her ouster: “I think she’s disappointed.”That leaves Cowell and L.A. Reid as the only remain-ing members of the original ‘X Factor’ team. KeepingReid was important, Cowell said, because, “There’snot a record executive out there who is as good as himfor the job.” When asked why certain things didn’twork out, Cowell replied, “It’s only because I openedmy big mouth and said we were going to get 20 million (viewers). If I hadn’t said that, everybodywould be saying the show was a huge success.” As for who will fill the three vacant spots, thejudge shot down rumours that Beyonce was under consideration. he added that he would “love”to have Mariah Carey, but “you can’t expect someone who’s just had two kids to make the kindof commitment you would need on this show.” he also said that Madonna would be “great” butwould also be “expensive,” while Katy Perry “would be fun - and she’s feisty.”

elton John, Paul

McCartney to

headline queen’s

concert

LonDon: Former Beatle Paul Mc-Cartney will star in a musical tribute toBritain’s queen to mark her DiamondJubilee. The pop superstar will headlinethe concert to be held in front of Buck-ingham Palace. The concert will honourthe monarch’s 60 years on the throne.event organiser Gary Barlow-the star of‘Take That’-says the event will tran-scend multiple decades of music. Otherperformers include elton John, TomJones, Shirley Bassey, Annie Lennox,Cliff Richard, Jessie J, boy band JLSand singer songwriter ed Sheeran. Bar-low says the Princes William and Princeharry had both requested artists to per-form in front of an audience of morethan 10,000, including the queen, theDuke of edinburgh and other membersof the royal family. AGENCIES

Jennifer Aniston onfeuding with Angelina

LOS AngELES AGENCIES

Jennifer Aniston and AngelinaJolie are not enemies. That’s theword from the former ‘Friends’ starat least, who in an interview in In-Style’s March issue, lets it be knownonce and for all that she doesn’t re-sent the Oscar winner for couplingup with her ex-hubby Brad Pitt andshe’s perfectly content with currentboyfriend Justin Theroux. “The triangle with my ex-husband-and that there’s a feud there. It’s constant. It’s a story headlinethat won’t go away, but it’s a money thing,” Aniston tells themagazine when asked about the constant tabloid headlinesclaiming enmity between the two. As for hooking up with Th-eroux-an experience she described as one of the most “idyllic”shoots she’s ever had-the thesp reveals that she’s at a “joyfuland peaceful” place right now. But don’t go thinking the girlwho became a fashion icon for giving the world the bouncy‘Rachel’ ‘do would ever rip off her beau’s fashion sense. “Firstof all, he has great style-it’s very specific, and it has been hisstyle forever,” admits Aniston. “has it influenced mine? No,but I know people say it has. ‘Oh, look, you’re dressing alike.’And I think, No I’m not. I’ve had this jacket for three years.”

Robert Downey Jr

welcomes a son

LOS AngELEDCBS

It’s a boy for Robert Downey Jr. andhis wife, producer Susan Downey. Thecouple welcomed son exton eliasDowney at 7:24 a.m. on Tuesday inLos Angeles, his rep confirmed toPeople. The baby boy weighed in at 7lbs. 5 oz., and is 20 inches long,according to the magazine. Downey,46, and his wife, 38, revealed inAugust that they were expecting. InDecember, the actor shared that theywere having a boy. exton is the firstchild for the couple. Downey also hasan 18-year-old son, Indio, from hismarriage to Deborah Falconer.

Models form rightsgroup ahead of Newyork Fashion week

nEW YORKCBS

Fashion models launched a rightsgroup seeking to improve standards intheir industry, just days before they hitthe catwalk at New York FashionWeek. The non-profit organisation isseeking workplace standards includingbackstage privacy to stop unauthorisednude photos and a programme toprovide confidential advice for dealingwith sexual harassment. The ModelAlliance was founded by Sara Ziff, 29,who has worked as a model since shewas 14. “Most models start their adultcareers as minors and they labor inan unregulated business knowingthat they are highly replaceable,” Ziffsaid in a statement. Designer Dianevon Furstenberg is reportedlyworking with the Model Allianceduring Fashion Week to implement arule that clears the backstage area atthe fashion shows of photographersand non-essential staff while modelsare changing clothes. New YorkFashion Week kicks off in New Yorkon Thursday and runs through Feb.15, followed by events in London,Paris and Milan.

Simon Cowell:Madonna ‘great’but ‘expensive’

LoS AnGELES: Ryan Gosling and Albert Brooks may not have voiced anypublic complaints to the Academy, but Daniel Radcliffe isn’t staying mumwhen it comes to ‘harry Potter and the Deathly hallows: Part 2.’ “I don’t thinkthe Oscars like commercial films, or kids’ films, unless they’re directed byMartin Scorsese,” Radcliffe told the Radio Times of the director, who has been

nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won one. “I waswatching hugo the other day and going, ‘Why was

this nominated and we’re not?’ I was slightlymiffed.” The ‘harry Potter’ franchise only scoredOscar nominations for 6 out of the 8 films, all intechnical or craft categories. “There’s a certainamount of snobbery,” Radcliffe continued. “It’skind of disheartening. I never thought I’d care.But it would’ve been nice to have some recogni-

tion, just for the hours put in.” Radcliffe’s angerwith the Academy’s ‘Deathly hallows’ snub couldhave been amplified by the ‘Potter’ star’s admi-

ration for Gosling, who was also overlooked forhis work in ‘Drive’ and ‘The Ides Of March.’

“This year I have a talent crush on RyanGosling,” Radcliffe told Attitude Maga-zine. “I think he’s fantastic. he seemssmart. If I was gay, I would go for asmart man.” AGENCIES

Daniel Radcliffe ‘miffed’ by

‘harry Potter’ Oscar Snub

crore by selling satellite rights and Rs.6

crore from music. An official spokesperson

of the film said: “All our primary costs have

been recovered. we are very confident of

our film and what it does at the box office

only adds to the kitty of earnings.” A

strong pre-release buzz has surrounded the

film and Karan feels this is because the

lead pair has added a zing to their

performance. “Very rarely do lead players

in a film get the opportunity to essay

characters that are so close to their real

life - Imran and Kareena are playing

themselves in ‘ek Main Aur ekk Tu’ and

that’s why they have been able to add

that extra zing to their performances. It’s

a slice of life film-a slice of their own

lives,” said Karan in a statement. The film

is releasing Friday coinciding with

Valentine’s Day. AGENCIES

Oops...MUMBAI: The second time in a row, the actress has taken over a project

that was initially offered to Katrina. Katrina Kaif was offered the role. But

finally, Deepika Padukone seems to have grabbed it. And we are not talk-

ing about Ayaan Mukerji’s upcoming Ranbir Kapoor starrer. history has re-

peated itself. And Deepika has emerged the winner. The actress will star

opposite superstar Rajinikanth in his daughter Soundarya R Ashwin’s debut

venture ‘Kochadaiyaan’, a role that had been offered to Kat earlier. when con-

tacted, Deepika confirmed the news. This is not the first time Deepika has had

the chance to work with the superstar. The actress was signed on for ‘Rana’, a

film that had to be put on the backburner due to Rajini’s health issues. “Deepika

had even shot for a few scenes in ‘Rana’. however, now that Rajini Sir is back, he is

rather excited about his post-illness comeback project. In fact, Kochadaiyaan is the

most talked about project in Chennai right now,” informed a source from the Tamil

cinema industry. According to industry watchers, Deepika’s sudden exit from Abbas-

Mustan’s ‘Race 2’ may have something to do with her inclusion in the Rajini starrer. “Ra-

jini Sir had complimented Deepika during the shoot of Rana. he had mentioned that she

was one of the most beautiful actresses in the industry today,” added our source. And

needless to say, the pretty girl had gone running when the superstar beckoned. Interestingly,

Katrina had been offered the role earlier. however, a close friend of the actress informed that

Kat is definitely not doing the film. “The shoot for ‘Kochadaiyaan’ involves a lot of hi-end techni-

cal work. Katrina has a packed schedule and her dates couldn’t be coordinated with that of the

global technicians,” explained the friend. ‘Kochadaiyaan’ is being written by KS Ravikumar and

music is composed by AR Rahman. AGENCIES

Dippy did it again

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:21 AM Page 15

Thursday, 9 February, 2012

16 Foreign News

MALEAFP

The new president of the Maldives, Mo-hamed Waheed, denied seizing powerWednesday, even as his predecessor ac-cused him of involvement in a coup plotand called on him to resign. Waheed, theformer vice president, was sworn in Tues-day hours after the dramatic resignationof Mohamed Nasheed following weeks ofanti-government protests and a policemutiny on the Indian Ocean holiday is-lands. Speaking at his first press confer-ence since taking office, Waheed rejectedsuggestions that Nasheed had been over-thrown in a takeover orchestrated by op-position leaders and the security forces.

“It is wrong to describe the events asa coup. We did not know this was goingto happen. I was unprepared,” he said.however, in an exclusive interview withAFP, Nasheed insisted that he had beenforced into resigning by a group of armed

rebel police and army officers who hadthreatened a bloodbath if he refused.“They told me if I didn’t resign theywould resort to use arms,” Nasheed toldAFP by telephone from a family propertyin the capital Male.

he added that he feared Waheed“was in on it” and had seized the chanceto take over. “I am afraid he’s always en-tertained an idea to become the presi-dent. he’s never been able to do that.When the opportunity was available tohim, he took it,” he said. The army hasdenied playing any coercive role in theformer president’s decision to leave of-fice. In a speech at a meeting laterWednesday with senior leaders of hisMaldivian Democratic Party, Nasheedformally called on Waheed “to step down”and urged the judiciary to bring the“coup” plotters to justice.

Thousands of supporters greetedNasheed as he arrived at the meeting,chanting his nickname “Long Live Anni!”.

They then rallied in an area outside thestate broadcasting headquarters, guardedby police in riot gear. In his press confer-ence, Waheed said he would appoint a“truly multi-party cabinet” in the next fewdays, and claimed he was in talks with allgroups including the MDP. The weeks ofprotests that led to Nasheed’s downfallhad erupted after he ordered the army toarrest Criminal Court Chief Justice Ab-dulla Mohamed on charges of misconductand favouring opposition figures. Oppo-sition parties accused him of tramplingover the constitution, and the demonstra-tions were swelled by religious conserva-tives who regarded his regime asun-Islamic. Waheed said Wednesday thatIslamic parties “will be represented” inhis new cabinet, adding that they are“part of our society and can’t be ignored”.Islam is the official religion of the Mal-dives and open practice of any other reli-gion is forbidden and liable toprosecution. Tuesday’s events marked a

spectacular fall for Nasheed.The 44-year-old rose to power from

grassroots opposition to the 30-year au-tocratic regime of former president Mau-moon Abdul Gayoom, who imprisonedhim on several occasions. his clear vic-tory over Gayoom in the country’s firstfree elections in 2008 was hailed asheralding a new era of democracy andprogressive politics. he used his mandateto build a reputation internationally as acommitted campaigner against climatechange and once held a cabinet meetingunderwater to highlight the dangers ofrising sea levels. But economic problemsand high inflation damaged his popularstanding, while Islamic activists attackedhim on religious issues, including flightsarriving with Israeli tourists and “im-proper” social conduct on island resorts.

Police said a mob had attacked theMaldives national museum on Tuesdayand smashed a large number of ancientBuddhist statues.

JERUSALEMAFP

Israel is pursuing a studied ambiguityon whether it will attack Iran, keepingits options open on how to rein inTehran’s alleged nuclear weaponsambitions, Israeli experts say.Speculation about an Israeli attack onIranian nuclear facilities has reachedfever pitch in recent weeks, driven bycomments from Israeli officials and aslew of articles in the internationalmedia. Israel, like much of theinternational community, accusesTehran of using its nuclear programmeto mask a weapons drive, a chargedenied by Iran. And the Jewish state,the sole, if undeclared, nuclear power inthe region, has made clear it sees anuclear-armed Iran as a threat that itwill prevent at all costs. But experts sayIsrael’s rhetoric about a military strike

could be seen as a strategy to obviate theneed for an attack by piling on thepressure on Iran and the internationalcommunity.Political science professorYehezkel Dror’s book “Israeli Statecraft”analyses various ways Israel couldconfront Iran’s alleged nuclearambitions and says that bellicoserumblings from the Jewish state serve arange of purposes. “Israel certainlywants other countries to prevent Iranfrom having nuclear weapons, and issurely using the possibility of an Israeliattack on Iran as one of the means toconvince them to do so,” he told AFP. Bybrandishing the threat of military action,Israel targets policy-makers both inTehran and the West, Dror says, using“a very accepted means of creatingdeterrence, as well as a motivatingforce.” Israel’s sabre-rattling appears tohave stepped up, with Strategic Affairs

Minister Moshe Yaalon warning that noIranian facility, however reinforced, isimmune to Israeli attack. But PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu is alsosaid to have asked officials to stop“blabbing” about such an attack,warning it could create the impressionan attack was imminent or be seen asundermining tough new europeansanctions against Tehran. For Israelimilitary and intelligence writer RonenBergman, the attack rhetoric is a goodway for the Jewish state to preemptivelyjustify an eventual military operation.“Israel is trying to tell the world: ‘Wetold you that if you wouldn’t act, wewould,’“ he said. “Part of theinternational legitimacy for thedecision-makers is to say: ‘We raised thealert, we did everything throughout theyears to get the world to imposesanctions to prevent an attack.

Video of Chineseboy crying in snowsparks uproar

BEIJIngAFP

A home video showing a four-year-oldChinese boy being forced by his parents torun almost naked through the snow in bitterlycold New York has sparked an online uproarin China. The father was trying to train hisson to be strong, his personal assistant toldAFP, but the footage has sparked debateabout the tough parenting style for whichChina became known after Amy Chua’s book“Tiger Mother”. In the video, the little boyruns towards his father, who is filming him, inthick snow with only his shoes andunderpants on, at times crying bitterly andpleading with his dad to take him in his arms.On several occasions, both parents tell theirson to lie down in the snow, which he doeseventually when his mother presses him. Thefilm was posted online by the boy’s father,who comes from the eastern city of Nanjing,and has been viewed by tens of thousands ofpeople on video-sharing websites includingwww.tudou.com/programs/view/geBPh4pIl3U/. “I don’t agree with this... We should givechildren a happy childhood, those terribleparents say they do this for their child’s owngood, but I think their purpose is just to beable to brag in the future,” one netizen said. “Ireally don’t support this, poor kid, does thekid’s mother let the father do whatever hewants to do?” another person said on Sina’spopular weibo microblogging service. Thefather, surnamed he, has been given thenickname of “eagle Dad” in reference toChua, who sparked controversy when shewrote a book extolling the benefits of toughparenting. his personal assistant, surnamedXin, told AFP he was on holiday with hisfamily in New York during the Lunar NewYear holiday last month, and decided to see inthe Year of the Dragon with this unusualmethod. “The child agreed and before therun, he did half an hour of slow running towarm up,” she said by phone. “This child hasreceived all sorts of forms of training since hewas small. When he was one, he startedswimming in water that was 21 degreesCelsius.” Xin said that the boy was bornprematurely with several health problemsincluding water in the brain that prompteddoctors to say he may have cerebral palsy.“But now he has no problems,” she said,attributing this to he’s intense educationmethod. Chinese parenting methods havecome under the spotlight recently, with manyof the country’s children forced to studyharder than their Western counterparts, oftenat the expense of sports and other leisureactivities. In her controversial book “Battlehymn of the Tiger Mother”, ChineseAmerican Chua, a Yale University lawprofessor, tells how she and her husbandelected to raise their two daughters the“Chinese” way. That meant heavy pressure fortop school marks, no sleep-overs or watchingtelevision, and mandatory piano or violinstudy. In one incident, she made one of herdaughters stand out in the cold for fallingshort on piano practice, while in another shetells guests at a dinner party how she oncecalled her daughter “garbage” — shocking theroom. An excerpt from the book waspublished in the Wall Street Journal last year,sparking vicious criticism and, Chua says,death threats via email.

new Maldives leader denies ‘coup’ charges

PARIS: Recently-freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is escorted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy as he leaves the presidential Elysee Palace after a meeting on Wednesday. Afp

Strike talk keeps Israel’sIran options open

iran Mps takeno action on eUoil embargo, go into recess

tEHRAnAFP

Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday wentinto a near month-long recess withouttaking any action on a threat to impose apre-emptive oil embargo on europeanUnion countries. In retaliation to aphased-in eU a ban on Iranian oil imports,Iranian lawmakers have been threateningfor more than a week to immediately haltoil exports to europe to destabilise thefragile economies of several eU states. Theinitiative was delayed in late January, soonafter being raised. In their last session onWednesday before parliamentary electionson March 2, the lawmakers did not presenta bill they were working on to stop oilshipments to europe. Instead they issued anon-binding statement saying they backedunspecified “retaliatory measures”prepared by the oil and trade ministries,and demanded that “Iran’s europeancustomers be replaced with customersfrom other countries.” The statement,signed by 200 of the 290 lawmakerssitting in the parliament, did not elaborateon what measures had been prepared.The parliament will hold its next sessionin just over three weeks’ time, on March4. Although Iranian officials andlawmakers say the eU ban will not affectIran’s oil exports or its economy, theyhave repeatedly expressed anger at thesanctions, which are designed to pressureTehran to halt its disputed nuclearactivities. Western countries allege Iran isseeking to develop a nuclear weaponscapability. Tehran denies that, insistingits atomic programme is for civilianpurposes only. On Friday, Iran’s supremeleader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who hasfinal say on all state matters, said Tehranwould respond to any sanctions againstits oil exports with its “own threats whichwill be implemented at the right time.”Iran is the second-biggest producer inOPeC, behind Saudi Arabia. It pumpssome 3.5 million barrels a day, of which2.5 million are exported. Nearly 20percent of the oil exports go to eUcountries, mainly Italy, Spain and Greece.Most of the rest goes to Asia, principallyChina, India, Japan and South Korea.

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:22 AM Page 16

Foreign News 17Thursday, 9 February, 2012

BEIRUtAFP

ThRee entire families,including women andchildren, were massa-cred overnight in theflashpoint city of homs

by the Syrian government’s securityforces and thugs, activists said onWednesday. The Syrian Observatoryfor human Rights said the 20 deadwere from the Ghantawi, Terkawiand Zamel families, who were allgunned down in their homes.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head ofthe Britain-based group, said one

family numbered five, including a15-year-old girl and two other chil-dren aged five and seven. Anotherfamily had seven members and thethird eight. Abdel Rahman said thethree families were shot dead afterthe regime forces and government-backed militiamen known asShabiha stormed their homesovernight in the homs neighbour-hoods of Karm el-Zeytoun andNaziheen.

hadi Abdullah, an activist inBaba Amr reached by satellitephone from Beirut, said the 20 vic-tims had their throats slit. The re-ports could not be independently

verified as the government has pre-vented most foreign journalistsfrom entering Syria to cover an un-precedented revolt against theregime of President Bashar al-Assad. The crackdown on the upris-ing has been concentrated in recentdays on homs, which has become amain centre of resistance. In Paris,the French foreign ministry said themassacre showed that Assad’sregime was not committed to stop-ping the violence. “Once again,Bashar al-Assad is intensifying therepression while at the same timepromising to end it,” ministryspokesman Bernard Valero said.

Three families massacred in Syria’s Homs

greece faces hour

of decision on

austerity and rescueAtHEnS

AFP

Greece reached the hour of decision onWednesday over more budget cutsdemanded by the eU and IMF and a debtdeal to obtain a second rescue and close akey chapter in the eurozone crisis. A finalframework hammered out with theeuropean Union and InternationalMonetary Fund is now in the hands ofpartners in the governing coalition, aconservative party source said. heads ofthe socialist, conservative and far-rightparties are expected to approve the 50-page text later in the day, the NewDemocracy (ND) source said. Anagreement, just the day after a generalstrike against the new round of budgetmeasures, would clear the way for a secondrescue worth 130 billion euros ($173billion) from the eU, european CentralBank (eCB) and IMF. The new funding isvital if Greece is to avert a debt default inMarch. On the eurozone bond marketwhere tension has eased markedly sincethe beginning of the year, interest rateswere subdued. If a deal emerges, it will bepresented by Finance Minister evangelosVenizelos to eurozone finance ministers onThursday and be tabled in parliament onFriday for approval by Sunday, the semi-state Athens News Agency reported. Thetext was drawn up during a night ofmarathon talks between Prime MinisterLucas Papademos and representativesfrom the “troika” aimed at setting up asecond rescue for Athens following aninitial bailout worth 110 billion euros.

Lavrov saysSyrians shoulddecide Assad’s fate

MOSCOWAFP

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,back from talks with Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad, pointedly declined to sayWednesday whether Moscow asked theembattled leader to go, stressing thatSyrians themselves should decide his fate.“Any outcome of national dialogue shouldbe the result of agreement between theSyrians themselves and should beacceptable to all Syrians,” Lavrov toldreporters. he sidestepped a direct questionfrom a reporter who asked Russia’s topdiplomat whether he urged Assad to stepdown during their talks in DamascusTuesday. “Trying in advance to decide theresult of national dialogue is basically notthe job of the international community,”Lavrov said, adding that both thegovernment and all the opposition forcesshould sit down for talks. All those whohave influence over the Syrian oppositionforces should urge them to startnegotiations with Assad’s government, headded. Lavrov, who was given a hero’swelcome by Assad’s supporters inDamascus, also said that recalling envoysfrom Damascus would not help the ArabLeague’s plan. “I do not think that recallingambassadors helps create conditions thatwould be favourable to the realisation ofthe Arab League’s plan, he said. A day afterthe United States closed its Damascusembassy, France, Italy, the Netherlandsand Spain joined Britain and Belgium onTuesday in recalling their ambassadors toSyria for consultations. The six Arab statesof the Persian Gulf said that they haddecided to expel Syria’s envoys andwithdraw their own from Damascus inprotest over the “mass slaughter” ofcivilians.

hundreds of raids

against London

gang suspectsLOnDOn

AFP

More than 120 people were arrested inpolice raids across London on Wednesdayby a new unit set up to combat gang violencefollowing riots which rocked england lastsummer. The suspects were picked up inmore than 300 raids across the capital sincedawn as hundreds of Metropolitan Policeofficers took to the streets to track down andarrest suspected gang members. The arrestsconcerned suspected assault, robbery andthe supply of drugs, with police seizing“significant amounts of crack cocaine,heroin and cash”, according to the police.The 1,000-strong Trident Gang CrimeCommand has been created to monitor gangactivity and work with London boroughs.The unit, thought to be the largest in thecountry, has 19 dedicated gang crime taskforces. The Met, or the MPS, said in astatement: “As part of the MPS crackdownon gang crime, 109 warrants have beenexecuted so far, resulting in 121 arrests fora variety of offences including, the supplyand possession of drugs and gang relatedviolence.

LA LIBERTAD: Primitivo Magalso sits on his destroyed house as he waits for news of his missing children on the slope of a mountain which collapsed at the height of the powerful earthquake in thevillage of Songgon on Wednesday. Afp

BARABAnKIAFP

India’s most populous statewent to the polls Wednes-day in a contest pitting thescion of the Gandhi politi-cal dynasty against the rul-ing party of local low-casteleader Mayawati.

Rahul Gandhi, whosefamily has dominated post-independence Indian poli-tics, has led campaigning forthe Congress party in politi-cally vital Uttar Pradesh(UP) in a key test of his abil-ity to become a nationalleader. The 41-year-old iswidely seen as a prime min-ister-in-waiting, but he facesa tough task reviving the for-tunes of Congress in a statewhere the party has been outof power for 22 years andwas trounced in the lastelections in 2007.

Arrayed against him isthe formidable and mercu-rial figure of Chief MinisterMayawati, a low-caste pop-ulist who inspires a devotedfollowing from those at thebottom of India’s strict so-cial order. She trumpets herefforts to fight discrimina-

tion and improve the livesof the poor and margin-alised, but her administra-tion also stands accused bycritics of rampant corrup-tion and wasting publicfunds on vast urban land-scaping projects. She hasbuilt statues of low-casteicons — including herself —in huge parks in the statecapital, with total expendi-ture estimated officially atmore than a billion dollars.

Uttar Pradesh has a pop-ulation of about 200 million.If it were a country it would bethe world’s fifth-most popu-lous, larger than Brazil, and inplaces it has poverty as bad asin sub-Saharan Africa. “I getangry when I see UP laggingbehind the rest of the coun-try,” declared Gandhi lastweek. Seventeen million peo-ple are expected to vote onWednesday for a new stateassembly in the first phase ofthe local elections that will beheld in seven stages untilMarch 3. Results will be an-nounced on March 6.

No accurate polling dataexists, but the main contest isbetween Mayawati’s BahujanSamaj Party (BSP), another

regional caste-based groupthe Samajwadi Party (SP),Congress and the hindu na-tionalist Bharatiya JanataParty. In Barabanki, about 35kilometres (20 miles) fromthe state capital Lucknow,morning rain put off earlyvoters but their numbers hadswelled by the afternoon. Thestate will send 80 members tothe 552-seat parliament in thenext national elections due in

2014 and a poor performanceby Congress would damageGandhi, as well as under-firePrime Minister ManmohanSingh. Congress is the head ofa ruling coalition that hasbeen beset by corruptionproblems over the last 18months, including from thebungled sale of telecom li-cences in 2008 and the scan-dal-hit 2010 DelhiCommonwealth Games.

Gandhi election test in mostpopulous indian state

gEnEVAAFP

UN rights chief Navi Pillaycalled Wednesday for urgentinternational action to protectcivilians in Syria, as troopscontinued to shell the city ofhoms, a centre of protest in thecountry. “I am appalled by theSyrian government’s wilfulassault on homs, and its use ofartillery and other heavyweaponry in what appear to be

indiscriminate attacks oncivilian areas in the city,” said astatement from Pillay. “Thefailure of the Security Councilto agree on firm collectiveaction appears to have fuelledthe Syrian government’sreadiness to massacre its ownpeople in an effort to crushdissent,” it added. Pillay, theUnited Nation’s highCommissioner for humanRights, stressed the “extremeurgency for the international

community to cut through thepolitics and take effectiveaction to protect the Syrianpopulation.” “In addition tothe continuing widespreadhuman rights abuses, I fear thehumanitarian situation hassignificantly deteriorated inmany parts of the country inrecent months, and especiallyin homs, where parts of thecity have been largely cut off orencircled for long periods,”Pillay said.

Urgent action needed in Syria: Un rights chief

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:22 AM Page 17

DUBAIASHER BUTT

AFGhANISTAN couldn'thave picked a worsetime to meet Pakistan inthe first ever one-dayinternational against a

Test-playing team on Friday. Pakistanis charged up and in high confidencecoming off an historic first whitewashof england in a Test series. This one-dayer is serving as a warm-up gamefor Pakistan before it takes on englandin four ODIs and three Twenty20s.

Pakistan coach Mohsin Khan be-lieves non-Test teams like Afghanistanare a threat in ODIs and Twenty20s."I've always been saying this, that youcan't take any opposition lightly inshorter formats of the game," Khansaid on Wednesday. "We have to playagainst them with full concentrationand we can't take them easy. I am veryhappy for them and it's good that theyare playing at a neutral venue and I

hope it will be a good game." Afghanistan is ranked ninth in

Twenty20s, and did well against SouthAfrica and India in the 2010 WorldTwenty20. Afghanistan have won 11and lost seven one-dayers against af-filiate and associate teams since it wasawarded ODI status in 2009.

In 2010, Afghanistan defeatedPakistan in the Twenty20 semifinals atthe Asian Games before winning thesilver medal at Guangzhou, China.Last year, Afghanistan became thefirst foreign team to tour Pakistansince 2009 when it played three one-dayers against Pakistan but was com-prehensively beaten 3-0. Afghanistanmanager Shafiqullah Stanikzai said histeam was not in good form then andwill do much better this time.

"It's a tough and exciting challengefor us and we are looking forward toplaying against the No. 1 form team inthe world," Stanikzai said. "They havejust whitewashed england and we willlearn a lot from it." In recent years,

Afghanistan had problems with its headcoaches, with former Pakistan captainRashid Latif and Kabir Khan both quit-ting. Kabir Khan was expected to rejoinAfghanistan this month before theWorld Twenty20 qualifiers start nextmonth in the United Arab emirates.

"With this opportunity we hope tobuild our team and next month we willfeature in the World Twenty20 quali-fiers and hope to win that again to playthe main tournament," said Stanikzaiof the World Twenty20 event to beheld in Sri Lanka in September-Octo-ber this year. Afghanistan's team willbe led by Nawroz Mangal and has ex-citing players in Karem Sadiq, Moham-mad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad andfast bowler hamid hassan.

Pakistan coach Mohsin Khan saidhis team will not take Afghanistanlightly. "Afghanistan's team is comingup very fast and we will take them veryseriously," said Khan, hoping his teamcarry on their good work from the 3-0Test series win over england.

Page 20

Thursday, 9 February, 2012

No pain, no gainfor Tiger woods

Pakistan preparefor Afghanistan ODI

ShARJAh: Afghanistan cricket captain Nawroz Mangal (2nd R) warms up with teammates during a practice session at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Afp

Finn seesredemption forengland in ODIs

DUBAIAFP

Young paceman Steven Finn said onWednesday he hoped a fresh and young eng-land squad will put the 3-0 Test series rout byPakistan behind them in the one-day serieswhich starts next week. The 21-year-oldwatched from the sidelines as Pakistan regis-tered a first-ever whitewash against englandwho perisisted with James Anderson andStuart Broad besides playing spinnersGraeme Swann and Monty Panesar. Frus-trated at not being picked in the Tests, Finnhoped the one-day series will provide himand the team with an opportunity to forgetthe Tests. "I think this one-day series is goingto be a great opportunity for us to put what'sgone on under the carpet. I hope, moving to-wards in this one-day series, I am going to getan opportunity to show what I can do," Finntold reporters. The last of Finn's 12 Test ap-pearances came against Sri Lanka in 2011. "Itis frustrating. I am getting very good at mix-ing drinks for the boys. I've sort of got used toit over the last 12 months. But it's not the sortof thing you enjoy," said Finn, the youngest tocomplete 50 Test wickets for england. Finnsaid last year's India tour where englandwere blanked 5-0 in the one-day series was alearning process. "After the India series, I'vegot confidence in the way I bowled - and Ihope I can bring that forward into this series.I think this one-day team is a very youthful,very exciting place to be," said Finn. Pakistanand england meet in the first of four one-daymatches in Abu Dhabi on February 13. Finnshowed confidence his experience of bowlingon the slow subcontinent pitches will helphim here. "I played a fair amount of cricket inthe sub-continent with the youth teams. Theskills you have to use out here, the guys obvi-

ously did very well in the Testmatches, and it's something Ican do well out here as well,"said Finn. Finn, 6ft seven

inch tall, has so far taken 15wickets in

11 one-day inter-nationals.

DUBAIASHER BUTT

International Cricket Council’s generalmanager Dave Richardson has made itclear that Pakistani off-spinner SaeedAjmal did not get any special favours.

“he has not been given any specialdispensation,” said Richardson andadded that his bowling action has "notbeen cleared for life".

he further stated that Ajmal hasbeing constantly monitored and, if hisaction changes, he can be reported.

Richardson said the bowler, whotook 24 wickets as Pakistan white-washed england 3-0 in the Test seriesin Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has a "per-fectly legal" action as long as his fore-arm does not straighten "beyond thelevels of tolerance".

Meanwhile, the PCB clarified thatAjmal's claim that he has permission tostraighten his arm more than otherbowlers. The ICC regulations state abowler may straighten his arm 15 de-grees.

But Ajmal, whose arm has an 8.5-degree bend at rest, says he is permittedto straighten his arm 23.5 degrees.

A PCB official said: "Saeed was re-ferring to the angle of the upper arm toforearm and not the degree of elbow ex-tension."

however, an ICC spokesman deniedthat Ajmal has a dispensation, saying:"Anything over 15 degrees is not al-lowed. At no stage have the ICC allowedany bowler to exceed the 15 degree

limit."In an attempt to quell the confusion,

Pakistan team manager Naved AkramCheema said: "The ICC's level of toler-ance of 15 degrees relates to the degree

of elbow extension that is permitted inthe bowling action, i.e. the amount bywhich the arm is straightening.

"Previous tests conducted on the ac-tion of Saeed Ajmal show that the de-gree of elbow extension is well withinICC's tolerance levels."

england team director Andy Flowerhad already called for the ICC to reviewAjmal's action.

"If that's the degree, then there's aproblem," he said. "That's ridiculous.That is an ICC issue, though.

"They are there to police the gameand make sure that it is played withinthe rules so they've got to scrutinise hisaction."

"Previous tests conducted on the ac-tion of Saeed Ajmal show that the de-gree of elbow extension is well withinICC's tolerance levels.

"Saeed Ajmal was referring to theangle of elbow abduction, ie. the angleof the upper arm to the forearm and notthe degree of elbow extension. Thisangle is approximately 23 degrees inSaeed's case."

Ajmal told BBC Sport: "Someone istelling me my action is bad, but the ICCallow me to bowl 23.5 degrees becausemy arm is not good, but that's my prob-lem. Apart from that, there is no prob-lem with my action, it has been clearedby the ICC."

Ajmal did not get any favours: ICC

Misbah receivesPadmore Medal

DUBAIASHER BUTT

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-haq wasawarded the Padmore Medal at the conclu-sion of the Pakistan – england Test series.The medal is awarded to the player who, inthe opinion of the team coaches, has con-tributed in a special and memorable waythat has been pivotal to his team’s success.Andy Flower and Mohsin Khan determinedthat the medal should go to Misbah to capoff a great day and a great series for thePakistan captain, who led the side to a first-ever clean sweep in the history of series be-tween the two countries, dating back to1954. The medal is named after Robert Pad-more, who passed away whilst supportingthe england cricket team on its tour of Pak-istan in 2005. A dedicated member of eng-land supporters group the Barmy Army,Robert was a regular follower of the eng-land team, having visited all the Test-play-ing countries, many more than once.Known by his many friends around theworld as “the ultimate cricket fan,” Robertwas also instrumental in re-establishing acricket team in his home village of Baston inLincolnshire. The medal was presented atthe Dubai International Cricket Stadium inDubai Sports City by Mr Padmore’s parents,Terry and Gwen Padmore. The first recipi-ent, in 2006, was Monty Panesar and in2010 it was awarded to eoin Morgan. ThePadmore family will also mark the presen-tation of the medal by making a donation toan appropriate cricket-related charity.

Cancer-hit yuvraj vowsto return stronger

nEW DELHIAFP

India's cancer-stricken World Cup heroYuvraj Singh has vowed to return"stronger than ever" to competitivecricket, saying he was responding wellto treatment in the United States. Theace all-rounder, named man of the tour-nament after India's World Cup win inApril last year, is currently undergoingchemotherapy for a rare condition, me-diastinal seminoma, a malignant tu-mour located between his lungs. "I haveimmense faith in the doctors here andby the grace of God I shall be back tomy best soon," Yuvraj said from hishospital in Boston in remarks publishedin the Times of India newspaper onWednesday. "I am on medication anddoctors have time and again told methat I am responding well and that Iwould be back playing cricket. I am afighter and I will return stronger thanever." A senior Delhi-based oncologistwho has been treating the 30-year-oldYuvraj, Nitesh Rohatgi also said Mon-day the cricketer would be able to startactive training by May. "Initially, I wasangry and confused. I was even repen-tant and kept thinking I could havedone some things in life differently,"said Yuvraj, an aggressive left-handedbatsman and effective spinner.

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:22 AM Page 18

sports 19Thursday, 9 February, 2012

ANDY Flower will not trust the play-ers to prepare themselves for a se-ries again and you can be sure

england will have a much more rigorousbuild up to the tour to India later this year.england have been caught out. If you lookat how the winter was set up, the mentalitywas that they needed to improve playingspin in one-day cricket.

The Lions have played only limited-overs matches in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh– not one four-day game was on the itiner-ary. england correctly identified they neededto improve in one-day cricket in the subcon-tinent, but I don’t think they realised thatthey had the same problem in Test cricket aswell. They can be under no illusions now. All

of their energies over the next eight monthsshould be geared to that tour of India andimproving techniques. In the shorter termthere should also be some very nervous peo-ple on the flight to Sri Lanka next month.

england are fortunate they will nothave to face Muttiah Muralitharan there,because another couple of failures on thattour by the batsmen and there would haveto be changes. You cannot go five Tests av-eraging 10 and stay in the team, so theplayers go to Sri Lanka with the mentalpressure of having to deal with peoplequestioning their places in the team.

When you get to be the No1 team in Testcricket and score runs against indifferentbowling attacks you do start to believe youperhaps are better than you are.

The team may have started to believetheir own press. It is fine in the dressingroom to make the big calls about what youare going to achieve, but in public play itdown. You are only setting yourselves up fora fall. This is clearly a very good englandteam but you do not get hammered 3-0 if youare on your way to greatness. Test cricket hasgiven the team a reminder that you can neverthink you have cracked it.

Sri Lanka will have been watching thisseries and will almost certainly be tellingtheir groundsmen to scrub the pitches and

make them low and slow. They will want totake the threat of James Anderson and Stu-art Broad out of the equation. They will backtheir batsmen to play Graeme Swann andMonty Panesar better than our batsmen willplay their spinners. Sri Lanka will make it an-other test of technique but also a mental bat-

tle. how is Ian Bell going to cope after ashocking series? What about Kevin Pietersenagainst their left-arm spinner?

eoin Morgan, who I thought played hismost convincing innings in the second in-nings of last Test, faces a big challenge atsuch an early stage of his career. Four, fiveand six in the team have to perform. Butthey are lucky because I don’t see a bats-man out there knocking on the door. Thereis no young Alastair Cook or Ian Bell de-manding to be picked.

Andrew Strauss showed encouragingsigns in the third Test. he was moving wellon the crease, appeared to have built a de-fence and was getting down the wicket tofind the ones and twos. But he was back inform without making the big score. You haveto make it count and I would be sat in myhotel room thinking: “Why haven’t I madethe big hundred?” The challenge facingStrauss now is that he will have anotherbreak. he has to then pick it up again whenengland arrive in Sri Lanka, and warm-upmatches there are the worst I ever played in.

Some of the cricket there was terrible,so it will all come down to the first Test inGalle, which starts on March 26. The pres-sure will be on straight away.

It is hard for the selectors because thesebatsmen, apart from Morgan, have years of

experience. The top five are all senior playersso if you drop one of them you are making abig call. At that stage of your career if you areleft out, it is pretty much the end. Bell hasbeen in and out of the team before. If youleave him out again that’s it, which is whyengland have to be consistent at the momentand give him a chance to put it right.

For the next eight months before India,Flower will be working on improving howthe players pick off ones and twos. A lot ofnet sessions will be geared so the lads canplay in the subcontinent. They have bound-ary options, but you have to be able to godown the wicket on these slow low wickets.

You cannot punch the ball off the backfoot as the old way of working the ball off alength for ones and twos is dangerous be-cause of the pace modern spinners bowl at –Abdur Rehman was bowling at 56mph.

During the one-day series it will befascinating to see which england bats-men can play low-risk shots against spin-ners for ones and twos. Batsmen in thetop five need to keep the scoreboard tick-ing in order to make the big hundreds.That means you do not use up too manyballs. Those players who can hit bound-aries but not rotate the strike will buildup dots. That then leads to pressure andit is panic stations. (Telegraph)

England’s last chance of redemption is in Sri LankaExPERT COMMENT

MIChAeL VAUghAN

BELgRADEAFP

TeNNIS world number oneNovak Djokovic said Wednes-day he was not certain hewould be able to play for Ser-

bia in 2012 Davis Cup due to his "packedagenda," Beta news agency reported.Djokovic has already said he would skipthe first round of the Davis Cup matchwith Sweden to be played in southern Ser-bian town Nis on 10-12 February in orderto get some rest from the busy season.

"I am sorry that I will not playagainst Sweden in Nis... I can not prom-ise that I will take part in this competitionthis year," Beta quoted Djokovic as say-

ing. Djokovic returned to Serbia, wherehe is considered a national hero, afterwinning the Australian Open in thelongest finals in the history of this tour-nament against Rafael Nadal.

he recently said his main focus thisyear would be on the Olympic Games andthe French Open, a Grand Slam win thatwould see him hold all four major titlesat once. Djokovic said his participation inthe Serbia Open tournament -- which hewon in 2011 -- this spring was not "defin-itive yet." "I am on the list (of the partic-ipants), but it will be difficult to organiseeverything. In order to take part in it, Iwould have to make radical changes inmy agenda," Djokovic said, adding thathe would consult with his team.

Djokovic not sure to playDavis Cup for Serbia

PARISAFP

Lyon's bid for a domestic cupdouble this season remains oncourse after they overcameBordeaux 3-1 following extratime on Wednesday to reachthe quarter-finals of theFrench Cup.

Seeking to end a four-yeartrophy drought, and havingalready qualified for theLeague Cup final, Lyon fellbehind in the 23rd minutewhen Yoan Gouffran releasedJussie to fire past hugo Llorisafter a mistake by BakaryKone.

The hosts equalised in the36th minute, with ederson's

header from Yoann Gourcuff'sintelligent lobbed pass par-ried by Cedric Carrasso intothe path of Alexandre La-cazette, who converted fromclose range.

Carrasso's goal was putunder heavy pressure in thesecond half but OL could notfind a way past him and thegame went to extra time infront of only 7,000 spectatorsat a chilly Stade Gerland.

Substitute BafetimbiGomis put Lyon in front aftersix minutes of the extra pe-riod when he pounced on amiscued volley by JimmyBriand, who sealed victorytwo minutes from full-time bysteering home a low cross

from Lisandro Lopez.holders Lille visit north-

ern neighbours Valencienneslater on Wednesday, whileMontpellier travel to second-tier Chateauroux.

Marseille's match atfourth-division Bourg-Peron-nas and Ligue 1 leaders ParisSaint-Germain's visit to Dijonhave both been postponeduntil next week due to the ex-tremely cold temperaturescurrently affecting France.

Rennes became the firstside to book a place in thequarter-finals on Tuesdaywhen they withstood a latefightback from top-flight ri-vals evian to win 3-2 at Stadede la Route de Lorient.

LyON: Lyon's French forward Bafetimbi gomis (L) shoots and scores duringthe French Cup football match. Afp

lyon outlast Bordeaux to reach cup quarter-finals

PERtH AGENCIES

Sunil Gavaskar, who blasted India's rota-tion policy on Tuesday, urged the Indianteam to ensure Sachin Tendulkar did notmiss any match in the tri-series. Specula-tion is rife that the Little Master might berested for India's next match against Aus-tralia at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

Tendulkar looked in good touch as hescored 48 before being bowled by AngeloMathews but it is still not clear whether thesenior batsman would play the next ODI ornot. The team management has opted fora rotation policy as Virender Sehwag wasrested in the first match against Australiaand Gautam Gambhir in Wednesday's

match. "I think Sachin should be playingin all the matches. If you want to use rota-tion policy then it should be used to rotateand field all the players. I believe that Ten-dulkar, Gambhir and Sehwag should playand may be one among Rohit Sharma orSuresh Raina has to sit out," Gavaskar said.

"When you are choosing a squad of16 and then you have to select the mostbalanced side. If someone is not per-forming then you should change him.But one needs to be upfront about it thatyou are dropping a player and not rest-ing him. If someone is not performinghe can be dropped and that's a fair call."Gavaskar praised Man-of-the-matchRavichandran Ashwin's temperament.The Chennai player took three wickets

and then came up with a crucial un-beaten 30-run cameo in India's chase.

"Ashwin looked to be back at his best.The bouncy strip at the Perth also helpedhis bowling. he looked to be back to aneasy action. I am glad that he is the Man ofthe Match as he showed a lot of courageduring batting and also ice-cool tempera-ment," Gavaskar was full of praise for theTamil Nadu all-rounder.

Gavaskar pointed out that Sri Lankalacked a " slow bowler", but he laudedVirat Kohli for his knock of 77. "Virat is aquick learner. Wednesday, he ran for anon-existent single but from the nexttime he would realise that if he haspushed the ball that hard, he wouldn't liketo take a risk," Gavaskar added.

Dominant Tseng still

trying to improve LOS AngELES

AFP

even after her dominant 2011 season, worldnumber one Yani Tseng found room for im-provement in her golf game that she hopeswill pay dividends in the 2012 LPGA season.The Taiwanese star won 12 titles worldwidelast year and seven US LPGA Tour victories.She is the defending champion at the Aus-tralian Women's Open this week at RoyalMelbourne where the US LPGA Tour 2012season officially begins. "hopefully it will bea good start for the year," Tseng said in Mel-bourne. "Last year is over. This is a newyear for me. I have been working real hardin the off season to change my swing a bit,to make it more consistent. I think I amready for this year." Tseng said the goal ofthe swing change was to maintain her dis-tance but cut down on the effort needed ineach swing. "I feel I am swinging easier andstriking the ball better," she said. "Now Ifeel that if I swing 70-80 percent, the ball isstill flying better than before. "I always tried to swing really hard. Now Idon't swing so hard but the ball still goesthat far. I am very happy about that...I canstill rip it."The prospect of a new and improved Tsengis daunting news for her would-be rivals onan LPGA Tour that this season features 27events worth $47 million in prize money.Four new North American tournaments areon the slate, along with the addition of thisweek's Australian Open to the tour's lineup.Twelve of the tournaments are outside theUnited States -- a reflection of the globalisa-tion of the women's game.Norway's Suzann Pettersen, currently sec-ond in the rankings, won twice last year andhad nine more top-10 finishes.South Korea maintains a strong presence atthe top of the rankings, with Na Yeon Choiranked third, and Sun Ju Ahn, Jiyai Shinand I.K. Kim at sixth, seventh and eighth.Japan's Ai Miyazato continues to be a con-sistent contender.

guard Filters,

Army/Nadra

advance LAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Guard Filters and Army/Nadra won theirmatches of the Nurpur Polo Cup here atthe Lahore Polo Club on Wednesday.Guard Filters defeated Diamond Paintsby seven and a half goals to four. Guardshammered six goals and their margin ofwin increased by their handicap whileDiamond Paints did not come up to ex-pectations despite having strong outfit.In the other match Army/Nadra beatNewage Cables by 10-7 margin. Newagehaving half-a-goal advantage failed tomeet the vibrant efforts of Army andNadra team.Umpires and referees for the matcheswere Simon Mclaren Tosh, Agha MurtazaAli Khan, James harper, Atif Yar Tiwanaand Saqib Khan Khakwani.

LAhORe: Riders in action in the NurpurPolo Cup. nADeeM iJAz

Gavaskar: Don’t rest Tendulkar

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:22 AM Page 19

sports20Thursday, 9 February, 2012

AL-SHAMAL: Cyclists compete in the

4th stage of the Tour of Qatar cycling

race between Al-Thakhira and Madinat

Al-Shamal (Al-Shamal city). AFP

Boonen shinesTour du qatarwith stage win

DOHAAFP

Belgium's Tom Boonen, riding for OmegaPharma-Quick Step, won the fourth stageof the Tour of Qatar on Wednesday, a147km ride from Al Thakira to MadinatAl Shamal, as he tightened his grip on therace leadership. Boonen won a sprint fin-ish to see off Dutchman Tom Veelers andSwiss Fabian Cancellara. Thursday's fifthand penultimate stage is a 160km ridefrom Camel Race Track to Al Khor.RESULTS: 1. Tom Boonen (BeL), 3hr 03min 14sec, 2. Tom Veelers(NeD) same time, 3. Fabian Cancellara (SUI) s.t., 4. JuanAntonio Flecha (eSP) s.t., 5. gert Steegmans (BeL) at4sec, 6. Nikolas Maes (BeL) 11, 7. yoann Offredo (FRA) 14,8. Bernhard eisel (AUT) s.t., 9. Tyler Farrar (USA) s.t., 10.Ian Stannard (gBR) 36OvERALL CLASSIFICATION:1. Tom Boonen (BeL) 9hr 50min 50sec, 2. Tyler Farrar(USA) at 31sec, 3. Juan Antonio Flecha (eSP) 34, 4. gertSteegmans (BeL) 36, 5. Bernhard eisel (AUT) 45, 6. TomVeelers (NeD) 1:00, 7. Fabian Cancellara (SUI) 1:06, 8. Ra-munas Navardauska (LTU) 1:09, 9. Aidis Kruopis (LTU)1:10, 10. Adam Blythe (gBR) 1:14.

guardiola urgesContador tofight doping ban

MADRIDAFP

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, whosuccessfully fought a doping case whilea player in Italy, has urged Spanish cy-clist Alberto Contador to fight his two-year doping ban "until the end of theworld". "In these situations, and I speaka bit from personal experience, there isonly one person who knows what hap-pened, that is him," Guardiola said incomments replayed in Spanish mediaWednesday. "And if he knows that hereally is innocent as he says publiclyand privately, he should defend himselfuntil the end of the world and for aslong as it takes. The truth always comesout in the end." Guardiola was speakingat a press conference on the eve ofBarcelona's King's Cup semi-final sec-ond leg against Valencia on Wednesdayand his comments were published insports dailies including Mundo De-portivo. The Catalan coach was bannedfor four months after he tested positivefor nandrolone in 2001 while playingfor Italy's Brescia but he was clearedby a criminal court on appeal in Octo-ber 2007. The Switzerland-based Courtof Arbitration for Sport banned Conta-dor on Monday for two years followinga positive test for the banned sub-stance clenbuterol. Contador on Tues-day said his lawyers were looking intoa possible appeal, which must belodged within 30 days. he argues he isthe victim of a contaminated steakeaten during the 2010 Tour de France.

PEBBLE BEACHAFP

When Tiger Woods was starting out onthe PGA Tour he thought playing hurtwas just part of what it took to becomea successful golfer. "I think when weare younger we feel more bullet proof,or invulnerable, because we heal somuch faster," Woods said Tuesday. The36-year-old Woods says he now under-stands the difference between rehabil-itating an injury properly and rushingback to competition.

On top that he has had to learn tobalance his rehab with a strict trainingregimen that has helped propel him to14 major championships. "The more weage, the more time we need to heal,"Woods said. "I understand training waybetter now than I did before. Wearingmyself out for no reason at all -- whichwe all did when we were younger. I haveto train smarter, practice smarter.

"I have proven to myself I can playhurt as well as injured. But that is a dou-ble-edged sword because I can go outthere and play like I did at the 2008 (US)

Open and not feel my best and still win agolf tournament." "So where is the line ofdemarcation between injury and pain?That is what I have always struggled within the past because I don't know wherethe line is, because I can be successful ei-ther way." Woods makes his 2012 USPGA Tour debut starting Thursday at thePebble Beach National Pro-Am which isalso the same venue where he posted oneof his most dominant major champi-onship wins at the 2000 US Open. It isalso his first appearance at PebbleBeach since tying for 12th in 2002."My body's feeling explosive againand consequently I am hittingthe ball further," said Woods,who shared third place twoweeks ago in his only other start ofthe year in Abu Dhabi. "I haven'tplayed (Pebble Beach) and it hasbeen scheduling. This time it fits per-fectly into my schedule." Pebble Beachwas not only the site of his crushing15-stroke US Open victory butalso where rallied from aseven-shot deficit thatsame year to win the Pro-

Am tournament. Former world No. 1Woods has won once and finished thirdtwice in his last three tournaments as helooks to recapture the form that madehim the most dominant PGA Tour playerover the last 10 years. That was before a2009 sex scandal and injuries to his neckand knee that left his personal life andgolf game in shambles. his only victorysince came in December the post-seasonWorld Challenge event he hosts for the

benefit of his charitable foun-dation. Now he's looking to

build on that with a "W"in an official tour event.Woods says he contin-ues to improve andcement the swingchanges he hasworked to implement

with coach SeanFoley.

no pain, no gain for Tiger Woods Pacquiao swapsgloves for clubs

MAnILAAFP

Philippine superstar Manny Pacquiaoswapped his boxing gloves for golf clubsWednesday in a charity event that raisedfunds for storm victims in the country'ssouth. The 33-year-old, rated the world'stop pound-for-pound fighter, playedalongside Filipino golfing ace Frankie Mi-noza in the ICTSI Philippine Open pro-am, a prelude to the Asian Tour's$300,000 tournament. After hitting thegreens, the sports icon signed boxinggloves at the Wack Wack Golf and CountryClub in Manila which were then sold tofans, raising about 105,960 pesos (2,464dollars), organisers said. "I'm happy asthere are a lot of good people who arehelping the victims," Pacquiao said. "Thiswill be a big help." The funds raised wouldgo to victims of tropical storm Washi,which destroyed whole villages in thesouthern island of Mindanao in Decemberand left 300,000 people displaced andneeding urgent humanitarian help.

LOnDOnAFP

Substitute Liam Feeney struck in stoppagetime as Millwall knocked Championshippromotion-chasers Southampton out ofthe FA Cup with a 3-2 fourth round replayvictory on Tuesday. Feeney's late winnerproved the difference at the Saints' StMary's ground and left visitors Millwalllooking forward to a home tie with PremierLeague strugglers Bolton Wanderers.

Millwall made a fine start and openedthe scoring in the 17th minute when LiamTrotter struck from close range. Adam Lal-lana drew Southampton level 10 minutesbefore half-time with a superb solo effortand in the 77th minute substitute RickieLambert gave the south coast club the lead.

But, two minutes later, Dany N'Gues-san, once on loan at St Mary's, fired Mill-wall back into the lead. extra-time loomeduntil Feeney cut in from the left to curl ina superb winning goal. Tuesday's other FACup replay saw Blackpool beat Sheffield

Wednesday 3-0, a result that left theChampionship side to make the short tripto Lancashire top-flight rivals everton inthe fifth round. The Seasiders, who'dneeded a last minute penalty to earn a re-play against third tier Wednesday, wastedlittle time at the hillsborough home oftheir lower league rivals. Ian holloway'sside effectively sealed victory inside theopening quarter of an hour with a MattPhillips goal and a superb Lomana LuaLuacurler putting Blackpool 2-0 in front.early in the second half, Ludovic Sylvestreput the result beyond doubt with a shot hebent in from the edge of the area.REnnES SURvIvE LATE EvIAnComEbACK: Rennes sealed their placein the quarter-finals of the French Cupwith a 3-2 victory over Ligue 1 rivals evianon Tuesday. Goals from Jires Kemboekoko, Julien Feret and Yacine Brahimiput the Brittany-based side firmly in theascendancy, but the top-flight newcomersstaged a spirited comeback to force atense finish at the Stade de la Route de

Lorient. Kembo put Rennes in front on 21minutes when his free-kick on the rightfrom just outside the penalty area took awicked deflection off former France inter-national Sidney Govou and sailed into thefar corner, leaving goalkeeper StephanAndersen wrongfooted.

The hosts doubled their lead less than10 minutes after the interval as Feretcurled a precise effort low into the bottomleft corner from 25 yards following a neatbackheel from Jonathan Pitroipa.Brahimi then made it 3-0 with a fiercely-struck shot from distance that clipped theinside of the post on its way in, seeminglyputting the game out of reach. Pablo Cor-rea's side staged a furious fightback, how-ever, with Kevin Berigaud pulling a goalback from the penalty spot on 70 minutesafter Nicolas Farina was felled by Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik. And Govou ensured anuncomfortable last quarter of an hour forthe hosts when he further reduced thedeficit just four minutes later, slottinghome from Cedric Barbosa's cutback.

Millwall late show dumps Saints out of FA Cup

Southampton: Millwall's english midfielder Liam Feeney (out of shot) scores the winning goal duringtheir FA Cup fourth round replay football match against Southampton at St.Mary's Stadium. Afp

KHI 09-02-2012_Layout 1 2/9/2012 3:22 AM Page 20

Sania in womenand mixeddoubles quarters

MELBOURnE AGENCIES

Sania Mirza had a productive day at the Aus-tralian Open as the Indian ace reached thequarterfinals of both the women’s doublesand the mixed doubles events with elenaVesnina and Mahesh Bhupathi respectively.Sania and Bhupathi, the 2009 mixed dou-bles champions, came from behind to beatCzech Iveta Benesova and Austria’s JurgenMelzer 3-6 6-4 12-10 in the second-roundmatch. The sixth-seeded Indian team tookone hour and 11 minutes to dispatch theirfighting opponents. They will next take onAmerica’s Liezel huber and British ColinFleming. They are heading towards a poten-tial title clash with fourth seeds RohanBopanna and American Lisa Raymond, whogot the better of the Australian pair of CaseyDellacqua and Matthew ebden 6-4 6-2 intheir second round match. Bopanna andRaymond await the winner of other secondround clash between the pairs of Su-Weihsieh/Marcin Matkowski and Vesnina/Le-ander Paes. earlier, Sania and her Russianpartner Vesnina downed 12th seeds JarmilaGajdosova of Australia and Bethanie Mat-tek-Sands of the US 7-5 6-3 to make thewomen’s doubles quarterfinals. They nowhave a tough next round as they face the sec-ond seeded American pair of Liezel huberand Lisa Raymond. Meanwhile, in the juniorcompetition, India tasted its first victorywhen Rutuja Bhosale and Indonesia’s AldilaSutjiadi rallied to beat India’s Ratnika Batra

and Australia’s Georgiana Ruhrig 1-6 6-410-5 to advance to the girls’

doubles secondround.

sports 21Thursday, 9 February, 2012

WAtCh It LIvE

ESPNSportscenter

08:00PM

PERtHAFP

INDIA’S youngster Virat Kohlisteered his team to a four-wicket victory over Sri Lankain their tri-series one-day in-ternational in Perth Wednes-

day before losing his wicket in dramaticfashion. Although Sachin Tendulkaragain failed in his quest to score hislong-awaited 100th international cen-tury, Kohli's impressive 77 ensured theIndians notched a comfortable win.

Sri Lanka made 233-8 after winningthe toss and electing to bat, but Indiareplied with 234-6, reaching the victorytarget with 20 balls to spare. Kohli, theonly Indian centurion during thetourists' dismal 4-0 Test series loss toAustralia, again upstaged his more cele-brated team-mates, until he ran himselfout and seemed to suffer a hamstring in-jury in doing so.

The 23-year-old was run out by a di-rect hit from Lasith Malinga at mid-on.he had appeared to be suffering cramplate in his innings and had to be assistedfrom the ground after a despairing dive.he faced 94 balls, hitting eight bound-aries and one six, and Indian captainM.S. Dhoni said he was hopeful it wasn'ta hamstring strain. "he just got cramp,so I don't think it is very serious," saidDhoni, adding that he couldn't recallpreviously seeing a batsman have to behelped from the field after a dismissal.

"Maybe somebody got hit and fell onthe wickets, but I have never seen it." Itwas the first time India and Sri Lankahad met in a one-day international sincelast year's World Cup final, which Indiaagain won, that time by six wickets.

The Sri Lankan total never lookedquite enough on a perfect Perth battingwicket and in front of a small crowd of6,685 dominated by Indian fans.

They were desperate to see Ten-dulkar, the "Little Master", reach hislong-awaited milestone and he appearedto be cruising towards his half-century.But on 48 he dragged an Angelo Math-

ews delivery onto his stumps to make it27 Test and one-day innings since hislast century, last March at the WorldCup. India looked shaky at 181-6 whenKohli departed, but man-of-the-matchRavi Ashwin (30 not out) and RavindraJadeja (24 not out) guided them home.

Dhoni praised the all-round per-formance of Ashwin, who also picked upthree wickets in the Sri Lankan innings,as the difference between the sides. SriLankan captain Mahela Jayawardenesaid his batsmen simply didn't scoreenough runs. "Losing wickets after smallpartnerships held us back," he said.

"We were probably 30 or 40 runsshort of our target." Dinesh Chandimal'spolished knock of 64 from 81 balls wasthe mainstay of the Sri Lankan inningsand at least helped them post a compet-itive total. Several of the Sri Lankanbatsmen squandered promising starts,including opener Tillakaratne Dilshan(48) and veteran Kumar Sangakkara(26), but the 22-year-old Chandimal was

the only one to reach 50. however, hefell just as the Sri Lankans were trying toboost their run rate late in the innings,beaten in flight by the spin of Ashwinand comprehensively stumped by Dhoniin the 44th over. Dhoni and Ashwincombined twice for stumpings, also re-moving Thisara Perera. Ashwin,dropped from the Indian side for thethird Test at the same venue lastmonth, was the pick of the Indianbowlers with 3-32 from his 10 overs,while recalled paceman Zaheer Khanpicked up 2-44 from 10 overs. The losscontinued a dismal record for Sri Lankaat the WACA, with just two one-day in-ternational wins in 16 matches. Thenext match sees them face Australia atthe same venue on Friday.

PeRTh: India's Virat Kohli hits the ball offSri Lanka's Nuwan Kulasekara during theirone-day cricket match. reUTerS

Kohli inspires Indiato victory at WACA

SRI LANKA:

U. Tharanga c Tendulkar b Khan 4

T. Dilshan c Kohli b Jadeja 48

K. Sangakkara c Dhoni b Khan 26

D. Chandimal st Dhoni b Ashwin 64

M. Jayawardene c Sharma b Ashwin 23

T. Perera st Dhoni b Ashwin 7

A. Mathews not out 33

L. Thirimanne run out 7

N. Kulasekara c Sharma b vinay Kumar 7

L. Malinga not out 1

ExTRAS: (lb6, w7) 13

TOTAL: (eight wickets for; 50 overs) 233

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Tharanga), 2-74 (Sangakkara), 3-100

(Dilshan), 4-152 (Jayawardene), 5-172 (Perera), 6-189

(Chandimal), 7-204 (Thirimanne), 8-228 (Kulasekara).

BOWLING: Khan 10-1-44-2, Kumar 10-0-54-0 (2w), vinay

Kumar 10-1-56-1 (3w), Jadeja 10-0-41-1, Ashwin 10-1-32-3 (2w).

INDIA:

v. Sehwag c Kulasekera b Malinga 10

S. Tendulkar b Mathews 48

v. Kohli run out 77

R. Sharma c Dilshan b Perera 10

S. Raina c sub (Senanayake) b Mathews 24

M.S. Dhoni c Malinga b Prasad 4

R. Jadeja not out 24

R. Ashwin not out 30

ExTRAS: (lb5, w2) 7

TOTAL: (six wickets for; 46.4 overs) 234

Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Sehwag), 2-89 (Tendulkar), 3-122

(Sharma), 4-157 (Raina), 5-167 (Dhoni), 6-181 (Kohli).

BOWLING: Malinga 9-0-49-1 (1w), Kulasekara 8-0-38-0,

Prasad 10-0-47-1, Mathews 9.4-1-31-2, Perera 5-0-37-1

(1w), Dilshan 5-0-27-0.

Toss: Sri Lanka

India win by four wickets, Man of the match: R.

Ashwin (IND), Umpires: Nigel Llong (ENG), Paul Reiffel

(AUS), Tv umpire: Bruce Oxenford (AUS), Match

referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)

SCOREBOARD

tOKYOAFP

Japan will host the under-20 women's football WorldCup this summer, a yearafter grabbing the seniorwomen's title, officials saidWednesday.

The U-20 tournamentwas originally scheduled tobe staged by Uzbekistan butworld football's governingbody FIFA determined inDecember that the centralAsian country was notready in "logistical andtechnical" areas.

FIFA has asked Japanto host the event from Au-gust 18-September 8 oncondition that the Japanesegovernment guarantees it.

"The government for itspart wants to help organisea successful tournament es-pecially after we sawNadeshiko Japan's greatachievement," Tenzo Oku-

mura, vice minister of edu-cation, told reporters.

he was referring to theJapanese women's nationalteam, nicknamedNadeshiko after a frillypink flower seen in Japanas a symbol of feminine el-egance which belies theirtenacity. They became thefirst Asian country to winthe senior women's WorldCup title last year.

Japan has not hosted aFIFA-sanctioned women'sfootball event before butJapan Football Associationpresident Junji Ogura ear-lier expressed hope of stag-ing the senior World Cup inthe future.

Okumura said Tokyo'sNational Stadium would bethe main venue for the U-20 event but some of itsmatches may be staged inan area hit by a massiveearthquake and tsunamidisaster last March.

Japan to host U-20 women’s World Cup

PARIS: Australia's Jarmila gajdosova returns the ball to Romania's MonicaNiculescu during their first round tennis match. Afp

MADRIDAFP

Former Spanish tennis ace ArantxaSanchez Vicario blames her parents for los-ing the roughly 45 million euros ($60 mil-lion) she earned throughout her career, ina new book published this week.

The 40-year-old, who retired in 2002after winning four Grand Slam titles andonce holding the number one ranking, saidshe no longer speaks to her parents, whom

she accuses of mismanaging the money sheearned through endorsements and tourna-ment wins. "They left me with nothing," shewrote in the book of memoirs called "Let'sGo! Memories of a fight, a life and awoman" which hit bookstores in Spain onTueday. Sanchez Vicario said she owedSpanish tax authorities money and waspoorer than her older brother Javier eventhough "he won far fewer tournamentsthroughout his career." "Should I acceptthis abuse and shut up? I am not going to

do it," she wrote in the book.She also blamed her parents for being

slapped with a fine of 3.5 million euros forpaying her taxes in Andorra instead of inSpain. "This was very hard for me. Onceagain, it is a case of the people who man-aged my career making decisions withoutconsulting me," Sanchez Vicario wrote inthe book. her mother, Marisa VicarioRubio, denied profiting from her daughter'sgains and said she was saddened by the ac-cusations made in the book.

DURA: Italy's Lisa Alborghetti (R) challenges Palestinian Karoleen Sahajyan during a friendlyfootball match in Dura. Italy won the match 7-0. Afp

Sanchez Vicario blames parents for loss of winnings

Spanish tennisfederation tosue French TV mADRID: Spain's tennis federation saidWednesday it will sue French TV broad-caster Canal+ over a sketch which impliedthat Rafael Nadal and other Spanish ath-letes use performance-enhancing drugs.The sketch featured a likeness of worldnumber two Nadal being pulled over bypolice for speeding after he filled the gastank of his car from his own bladder. Atthe end of the sketch appeared the mes-sage: "Spanish athletes. They do not winby chance," along with the logos of the ten-nis federation and several other Spanishsports bodies. The advert was broadcast onMonday after the Court of Arbitration forSport banned Spanish cyclist Alberto Con-tador for two years following a positive testfor the banned substance clenbuterol dur-ing the 2010 Tour de France. AFP

PARIS: The picture dated June 5, 1994 showsArantxa Sanchez-Vicario (C) with her parentsafter winning the French Open final. Afp

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

Thursday, 9 February, 2012 22

PESHAWARSTAFF REPORT/AFP

At least 10 suspected local andforeign militants were killed and several others

were injured in a US drone attack in Tappivillage, near Spalga, North Waziristan, inthe early hours of Wednesday. Reports

from North Waziristan said two missiles fired by a

US drone hit a suspected militant compound some15 kilometres from Miranshah, the headquarters ofNorth Waziristan. The missiles destroyed portionsof the compound, killing 10 of its occupants andwounding several others. Soon after the strikes,militants closed off the site to outsiders and movedthe dead bodies and their injured comrades to anundisclosed location. Officials said the casualtiesincluded foreigners but their exact identity was yetto be determined. “The attack triggered a fire in thecompound and 10 militants were killed,” a militaryofficial in Peshawar told AFP on condition ofanonymity because he was not authorised to speakto the media. Some local residents in Tappicontacted by AFP said the militants announced overa mosque loudspeaker that funeral prayers for thedead would be held on Wednesday afternoon.

PESHAWAR/ISLAMABADSHAMIM SHAHID/SHAIQ HUSSAIN

The three main stakeholders in the war on terror helda tripartite meeting at the Border CoordinationCentre (BCC) in Torkham on Wednesday, after abreak of more than two months. The tripartitemeeting, held between the representatives of

Pakistani Army, US-led International Security AssistanceForce (ISAF) and Afghan National Army (ANA), signals athaw in relations between Pakistan and the UnitedStates. Border activities had been halted in the wake of aNATO attack on a checkpost of Pakistani security forcesat Salala, Mohmand Agency, on November 26 last year.At least 24 soldiers were killed in the attack and inresponse Pakistan had not only stopped supplies toNATO troops going through its territory but also calledback its representatives from two coordination centres.The tripartite meeting was held after recent reports thatUS authorities were willing to apologise for the NATOattack. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)confirmed the reports in a communiqué and said: “Themeeting is part of tripartite engagement to discuss andimprove various coordination measures on Pak-Afghanborder.” Though it is yet to be determined whorepresented the US and Afghanistan at the moot, ISPRconfirmed that Pakistan was represented by DirectorGeneral Military Operations (DGMO) Maj GeneralAshfaq Nadeem in the meeting. Officials in Torkhamtold Pakistan Today that the meeting was held acrossthe border at Sheeraz Fort.Details of the decisions taken in the meeting could not beascertained, but officials believe the agenda was focusedon multi-dimensional proposals and suggestions aimedat “cementing coordination amongst the stakeholders toensure a swift victory in the war on terror”.It seems that after the US apologises, the government islikely to ease sanctions and restrictions against theNATO troops camping across the border in Afghanistan. A security official, who asked not to be named, said themeeting was held to improve the coordination betweenthe three forces fighting terrorism on both sides of theAfghan border. he said the meeting of senior militaryofficials from Pakistan, ISAF and ANA was reflective of athaw in Pakistan-US relations and it showed thatIslamabad and Washington were getting back to whatwas highly important business, such as bordercoordination. “The complete restoration of Pakistan-USrelations, however, depends on the outcome of theongoing parliamentary review of Islamabad’s relationswith Washington,” he added.

Tripartite mootsignals thaw in Pak-US tiesg officials believe talks focused on suggestions

aimed at ‘cementing coordination’

DrOne KIllS 10 mIlItAntS In nWA

ISLAMABADIRFAN BUKHARI

Federal Law Minister MoulaBakhsh Chandio told the Na-tional Assembly on Wednes-day that corruption casesagainst 11 incumbent and for-mer parliamentarians, in-cluding hamza Shahbaz,Javed hashmi and AftabSherpao, were pending incourt while enquiries againstthree parliamentarians,namely Khawaja SaadRafique, Mian MuhammadAsif and Chaudhry Anwar AliCheema had been closed.

In a written reply, the lawminister said the casesagainst former and incum-bent parliamentarians RanaNazeer Ahmad, Tariq Anees,

Javed hashmi, Senator MalikSalahuddin Dogar, Zafar BaigBhithani, Senator GhulamAli, Aftab Sherpao, NawabYusuf Talpur, hamza Shah-baz, Ghulam Ali Nizamaniand Interior MinisterRehman Malik were pendingin the National Accountabil-ity Bureau (NAB) courts, highcourts and the SupremeCourt. Chandio said the en-quiries against Khawaja, Asifand Cheema had been closedduring January 2007 to Jan-uary 2011. he told the housethat no reference or case hadbeen related to these en-quiries in the courts.

Responding to a supple-mentary question, Adviser tothe Prime Minister onhuman Rights MustafaNawaz Khokar told the house

that the number of missingpeople in Balochistan had in-creased, as in 2010 some 102people were found to be miss-ing while in 2011, the totalnumber of missing peoplewas 206. he added that theSupreme Court was playing avital role in missing people’scases while the governmenthad also formed a commis-sion that had recovered al-most 40 people in the lastyear. In a written reply, De-fence Minister ChaudhryAhmed Mukhtar told thehouse that five employees ofthe Pakistan InternationalAirlines (PIA) were found tobe involved in smuggling in2010-11. Two of them tried tosmuggle heroin and weresubsequently fired and pros-ecuted.

KABULAFP

Washington’s chief envoy toAfghanistan met Talibanleaders in Qatar as part of USefforts to bring the insurgentsto the negotiating table, a sen-ior Afghan official said onWednesday. The talks be-tween the Taliban and MarcGrossman came in late Janu-ary, after he met Afghan Pres-ident hamid Karzai in Kabul,the official said, asking to re-main anonymous because ofthe sensitivity of the issue.Grossman, President BarackObama’s chief envoy for war-torn Afghanistan and Pak-istan, later briefed Karzaiabout his talks with Talibanrepresentatives during a visitby the Afghan leader to Italy.

“I can confirm that Gross-man met with the Talibanrepresentatives in Qatar.When the president (Karzai)was in Rome, he came over tohis residence and briefed himabout his meetings with theTaliban,” the official said.Karzai, rejected by the Talibanas a “puppet”, has said pub-licly that he supports the plan,but was widely reported to beconcerned that he would besidelined in the Taliban’s talks

with the US. Washington dis-patched Grossman to Kabullast month to assure theAfghan president of a leadingrole once the talks get underway. The official told AFP thatduring his visit to KabulGrossman met Karzai twiceand “a number of agreementswere made over a number ofissues concerning Talibantalks”. he refused to give de-tails but said, “Our stance isunchanged: the presidentwants the talks to be Afghan-led and Afghan owned.” A re-port in a major US newspaperon Tuesday said the Afghanleader was trying to thwartWashington’s efforts tolaunch negotiations with theTaliban — a charge stronglydenied by Karzai’sspokesman.

“The report is baseless.There’s no truth in it and Istrongly dismiss it,” AimalFaizi told AFP.

“President Karzai is not,and has never been, an obsta-cle to peace talks inAfghanistan. We have ourconcerns but we have neveropposed the peace process.”

Those concerns weresimply that any peaceprocess should be led byAfghans, he said.

Grossman met Talibanin Qatar: Afghan official

Graft cases pending againstHamza, Hashmi, 9 others

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gestures to his visiting Pakistani

counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar before their meeting on Wednesday. Afp | STory on pAGe 03

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