ISLAMABADMaSooD ReHMaN

THE Supreme Court issued acontempt of court notice toPrime Minister Yousaf RazaGilani on Monday for failingto implement the National

Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdictand directed him to personally appear incourt on January 19 and explain whycontempt of court proceedings shouldnot be initiated against him for notobeying court orders.

A seven-member special benchheaded by Justice Nasirul Mulk issued thecontempt notice after Attorney GeneralMaulvi Anwarul Haq told it that he hadnot received any instructions from thegovernment so far about implementationof the NRO verdict. The bench was formedto decide six options suggested earlier bya five-member bench on January 10 thatthe court could take in the case. At the out-set of the hearing, the court was told thatthe attorney general was not present as hewas appearing before the judicial commis-sion probing the memo case at the Islam-abad High Court. The court thenadjourned the proceedings for some timeand summoned the attorney general.When the attorney general finally arrived,he told the court that he had conveyed theJanuary 10 order containing six options tothe president, prime minister and all otherauthorities concerned.

To a court query, he said he was notgiven any instructions from the governmentin the matter. The court then gave him some

time to seek the government’s in-structions, however, he failed to getany instructions during that time.Justice Nasirul Mulk then observedthat when one does not turn up, it isconsidered that one has nothing tosay. When the court enquired aboutwriting of a letter to Swiss authori-ties to reopen money launderingcases against President Asif AliZardari, the attorney general saidhe had not received any instruc-tions from the government to thiseffect either. He said option six ofthe court’s order was very clear.The court then asked him to givearguments on the six optionsand noted that if anyone wantedto defend themselves, theyshould appear in court.

The attorney general told thecourt that he wanted to give ar-guments on implementation ofthe NRO verdict. He said theNRO verdict could be enforcedthrough the high courts, thus itshould be referred to the highcourts. However, to a court query, he saidunder Article 187 of the constitution, issuanceof any order was the discretion of the apexcourt. Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan noted that thetime had not come to enforce the NRO verdictthrough the high courts. During the hearing,Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa noted that theoffice of the prime minister was very re-spectable. He said the impression that thecourt had given six options to the governmentwas wrong, as he said these options were forthe court’s own consideration. He also

pointed out that it was wrong to suggest thatthe court declared the prime minister dishon-est. He said the court had written in its orderthat the failure or refusal of the prime minis-ter to completely obey and execute the direc-tions issued in the NRO case reflected that, atleast prima facie, he may not be an “honest”person on account of his not being honest tothe oath of his office. Meanwhile, the courtissued a show-cause notice to the primeminister to argue why contempt of courtproceedings should not be initiated against

him under the contempt law and personallysummoned him on January 19. The courtnoted that the contempt notice should beconsidered and read in the backdrop of theJanuary 10 order containing the six options.

Legal experts say the prime ministercan lose his parliamentary seat if he isfound in contempt of court. Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) Information SecretaryQamar Zaman Kaira told AFP that Gilaniwould appear in court. “God willing, hewill,” said Kaira.

SC FINDSGILANI IN CONTEMPTg Issues show-cause notice to Gilani tellinghim to appear in court on 19th and explainwhy he should not be held in contempt

ISLAMABADSHaIQ HUSSaIN

As the political crisis facing the govern-ment grew worse on Monday with theSupreme Court issuing a contempt ofcourt notice to Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani for failing to implement theNational Reconciliation Ordinance(NRO) verdict, Joint Chiefs of Staff Com-mittee (JCSC) Chairman General KhalidShameem Wyne called on President AsifAli Zardari with a word of advice to optfor cooperation with the judiciary. Gen-eral Wyne, in his meeting with the pres-ident here at the Presidency, observedthat the army wanted the resolution ofthe memo scandal in the Supreme Courtand was not in favour of any undemoc-ratic or unconstitutional act, according toa source privy to the discussion.

The military leadership was worriedabout the worsening political situationin the country and wanted the resolu-tion of all issues between the state insti-tutions within the ambit of theconstitution and in accordance with thelaw, he said. He said the JCSC chairmansaid every other institution should also

opt for restraint and not confrontationas the country was facing serious chal-lenges that could be overcome with har-mony between the organs of state.

“It’s time to follow the constitu-tion and take every step in accordancewith the law,” the source quoted Gen-eral Wyne as saying. He said Presi-dent Zardari told General Wyne thatthe government would never resort toany unlawful action and would fullyabide by the constitution. “The presi-dent said he and his party wereagainst clashing with any institutionand wanted a good working relation-

ship with all of them,” the source said.Chief of Army Staff General AshfaqParvez Kayani had also had a meetingwith the president on Saturday anddiscussed with him the political situ-ation in the country. Political ob-servers here attach great significanceto these meetings against the back-drop of the government’s confronta-tion with the army and judiciary. Tothem, the purpose of these meetingswas to convey to the political leader-ship the prevailing worry and concernamong the military ranks over thegrave political crisis.

It’s better to cooperate withjudges, Wyne advises Zardari

tuesday, 17 January, 2012 safar 22, 1433pakistantoday.com.pkrs15.00 Vol ii no 201 22 pages karachi edition

If govt goes, sodoes everyoneelse, says PM

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

In a clear show of defiance and determinationagainst unknown pressures, Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani on Monday made it clearto all and sundry that if the democraticgovernment was sent packing, all (politicalparties and media) would have to go along.Throughout the National Assembly session,Gilani was actively involved in hectic lobbyingto get the Awami National Party (ANP)-backed resolution passed unanimously.However, when talks between the PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and thePakistan People’s Party (PPP) broke down,Gilani directed the party leaders to get theresolution passed separately. In a bid to clearthe air about perceptions that thegovernment-backed resolution was aimedagainst a state institution, the prime ministersaid the resolution was not aimed against thearmy or the judiciary. He also said theSupreme Court and army had to protectdemocracy and they would not derail or packup the system. “The judiciary or the army mayhave differences of opinion with thegovernment but if there is no democracy,nothing would survive and all would have togo. Nobody will go in separate boxes. If thedemocratic system is packed up, all of uswould have to go home. No one would goalone and rather all would go in the samebox,” Gilani warned while making apassionate speech on the floor of the House.Feeling the heat from the apex court’scontempt notice, the visibly perturbed primeminister reminded the judiciary andparliamentarians about his contributions tothe restoration of the deposed judges. “Thecourt has issued a notice to me and I willappear before the court on January 19 to showmy utmost respect for the institution. Evenbefore taking oath as prime minister, in myfirst speech made on the floor of the House, Iordered the release of the judges. Even thenyou say that I am not loyal? I don’t need acertificate for this,” he said. Congratulating thecoalition partners on the passage of thegovernment-moved resolution in support ofthe parliament by the National Assembly,Gilani termed the passage “a definingmoment” in the history of the country and thebest day for democracy. Gilani said restoringthe deposed judges was “like showing a redrag to the bull” as General Pervez Musharraf,who was president of the country at the time,would not have liked it. He said he was beatenwith sticks, suffered tear gas and was evenjailed and faced anti-terrorism cases for takingpart in the campaign to restore the judges.“What more could I have done to show mysincerity,” he said, adding that his party hadalso suffered for the cause of the judiciary. Heurged the judiciary to protect the “species” ofpoliticians like him who he said “are committedto their parties and ideologies”. The primeminister said the resolution would strengthendemocracy, democratic institutions and wouldshow the sovereignty of parliament. Hethanked all the coalition partners for backingthe resolution and the mover of the resolution,ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan. “We didnot come to the assembly under threat and weare not against any institution. We did notcome here to protect ourselves,” he said. Gilanisaid Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhuttohad laid down their lives for democracy andcredit was due to this parliament that it hadrestored the 1973 Constitution to its originalform. Referring to the National ReconciliationOrdinance (NRO), the prime minister said itwould be discriminatory to hold thegovernment responsible for the controversiallaw as the creator of the law was free and thePPP was facing the wrath of the judiciary. “Wedid not make the NRO. The one who made thislaw is roaming free and all others are facing themusic,” he said. He added that the PML-N didnot have the intention to support the resolutionfrom the very beginning. The resolution wasnot presented earlier because the oppositionwas asking that it should be presented onJanuary 16, he said.

NA adopts pro-democracy resolution

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

Rejecting amendments introduced by thePakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N),the National Assembly on Monday adoptedthe pro-democracy resolution moved byAwami National Party (ANP) chiefAsfandyar Wali Khan with majority vote,while the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, oneof the opposition parties, also supportedthe resolution. The PML-N memberswalked out of the session to protest againstthe passage of the resolution. However, thetreasury benches introduced anamendment in paragraph four of theoriginal text of the resolution on the adviceof the PML-N with the modification that‘the House reiterates that sovereignty lieswith Almighty Allah and to be exercised bythe people of Pakistan and parliament isthe repository of the collective wisdom ofthe people”. Earlier, Asfandyar Wali’sresolution stated: “This House reiteratesthat sovereignty lies with the people ofPakistan and the parliament is therepository of the collective wisdom of thepeople.” Taking part in the debate on theresolution, Opposition Leader Chaudhry

Continued on page 02president asks pm to stand tall | page 22

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02Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

News

Today’s

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NEwS

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forEigN NEwS

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Govt sabotaging courts to hide corruption: Imran at least 19 killed in Beirut building collapse

Sc to take up haqqani’sreview plea today

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

A nine-member special bench of the Supreme Courtheaded by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhrywill today (Tuesday) hear the review plea of former am-bassador to the US Husain Haqqani against the court’sDecember 30, 2011 order in the memo case.In his review petition, Haqqani had pleaded the courtto stay the proceedings of the judicial commissionprobing into the memo case until the petition was dis-posed of.The review petition was filed by Asma Jahangir,Haqqani’s counsel, under Article 187 of the constitutionread with Order XXXIII Rules 6 of the Supreme CourtRules 1980, for the suspension of the December 30 ver-dict.“Pending disposal of the civil review petition, proceed-ings of the commission formed under the SupremeCourt order may graciously be stayed,” the petitionsaid, adding that, “The applicant will suffer irreparableharm if the commission reaches a conclusion while thepetition is pending.”Haqqani said in the petition that the court had heardpetitions on the question of maintainability, whereasDecember 30, 2011, order exhausted the entire reliefsought by the petitioners in every respect.

President summons

Senate session todayISLAMABAD

app

President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday summoned theSenate session today (Tuesday) at 4pm.The president summoned the session in exercise ofpowers conferred on him by Clause (1) of Article 54 ofthe constitution. It will be the 77th session of the Sen-ate, which was expected to discuss vital national issues.

another missing Baloch found dead

QUETTASHaHZaDa ZULfIQaR

Another decomposed body of a Baloch missing per-son was found in Lasbela district, some 700 kilome-tres southwest of Quetta, on Monday.Levies Forces said their personnel were informedby locals that a corpse was lying near Lyari CoastalHighway, some 20km from the town of Uthal. Thepersonnel rushed to the site and moved the body toUthal District Headquarters Hospital for autopsy.The victim was identified as Wazir Khan Marri, aresident of Gott Lal Muhammad Marri, Karachi. Officials said the identity of the victim was estab-lished from a paper found in his pocket, bearing hisname and added that the victim had bullet woundsin his head and torture marks on various parts ofhis body. They said it appeared that the victim wastortured before being killed by shots to the head. Later, the body was moved to the hospital’smorgue.

Is the presidentnext in line?

ISLAMABAD IRfaN BUKHaRI

BY serving a contemptnotice on Prime Min-ister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani in the National

Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)implementation case, the largerbench of the Supreme Court onMonday took the first of the sixoptions proposed by the five-member bench on January 10while legal experts claim thatPresident Asif Ali Zardari mayalso be issued such a notice ifthe government kept on defyingthe orders of the SC in the com-ing days due to the president’scontention in an interview thatthe government will never writeletter to Swiss authorities.

Apart from proposing to ini-tiate the contempt of court pro-ceedings against the chiefexecutive and the law secretaryfor not implementing the NROverdict, the five member benchon January 10 had also pro-posed the larger bench that ac-tion may be taken against thepresident for violating the con-stitution.

President Asif Ali Zardari, asthe co-chairman of the PPP inan interview, said the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) had de-cided not to write a letter toSwiss authorities. As the presi-dent making a public statementthat the PPP had decided not towrite a letter to the Swiss au-thorities, the constitutional ex-perts opined that his statementamounted to contempt of courtwhich was also not covered bythe constitutional provision giv-ing immunity to him.

Talking to Pakistan Today,Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmedsaid by saying that the PPP haddecided not to write a letter tothe Swiss authorities, the presi-dent had committed contempt ofcourt. He said the president wasnot supposed to write a letter asthe chief executive, the primeminister, was answerable to thecourt but his remarks of defi-ance were tantamount to con-tempt of court.

Justice (r) Wajihuddin

Ahmed said President Zardari’srefusal to implement theSupreme Court’s verdict was re-flective of the government’s in-tention of confronting thejudiciary.

“President Zardari hascommitted a contempt of court.A contempt of court case isalso not covered under Article248 of the constitution whichgives immunity to the Presi-dent,” he said.

Justice (r) Saeeduz ZamanSiddique said PresidentZardari’s refusal to implementthe Supreme Court orderamounted to contempt of courtthough he had not been directedby the SC to write a letter.

Senator SM Zafar said it wasa wrong decision by the govern-ment to not comply with theSupreme Court’s orders. “ThePPP government must review itsdecision as it can ultimatelytrigger a clash between the insti-tutions,” Zafar said.

He said if the governmentkept on defying Supreme Courtorders in the NRO implementa-tion case, the larger bench in fu-ture might act on other optionsproposed to it by five-memberbench, including the one inwhich action had been recom-mended against PresidentZardari for violating the consti-tution.

Senator Wasim Sajjad saidhe was unable to comment on ahypothesis. “The Supreme Courthas not served contempt noticeon President Zardari yet and Icannot comment on court’s fu-ture possible actions,” he said.

Another legal expert, BabarSattar said contempt of courtproceedings could be initiatedagainst President Zardari for hisremarks that the governmentwould not write letter to Swissauthorities.

“He just said that it was thedecision of his party (PPP). Hegave this statement in the capac-ity of PPP’s co-chairperson. TheSupreme Court can take actionagainst him for misconduct andbreach of oath but he can be re-moved only through impeach-ment,” Sattar said.

g Experts claim Zardari may be served contempt

notice if government keeps on defying Sc orders

SoUtH WaZIRIStaN: Members of

Mehsud tribe hold a jirga on Monday. INP

Nisar Ali Khan said there was nothreat to democracy and the govern-ment was finding itself in a blind alleydue to its own follies. “It is time forsoul searching and dispassionate selfassessment … the real PPP stalwartshave been sidelined and unwise advis-ers have brought the government tothis stage,” he said. Defending thePML-N’s amendments, Nisar said howcould a democratic government andparliament oppose a demand for obey-ing Supreme Court orders?

“An independent parliament can-not be established without an inde-pendent judiciary and independentjudiciary is impossible without an in-dependent parliament,” he said, ask-ing the treasury benches toincorporate the PML-N’s amendmentin the resolution. He said if the peopleand the solution of their problems wasnot part of the resolution, it would lacksupport of the masses and would beweightless. He said the governmentwas on a confrontational path with theinstitutions to save one man’s skin.Nisar said the opposition would notoffer its shoulders to anyone for unde-mocratic change in the country.

“If we succeed winning majority inthe House, we will bring a no-confi-dence motion against the prime minis-ter,” he said, asking the PPP allies topart ways with the government.He saidthere was complete mess in the countryand the attorney general had rebuttedthe prime minister’s statement vis-à-visarmy chief and ISI DG’s replies to theapex court in the memo case. Withoutnaming Babar Awan, Nisar said formeroffice-bearers of Ziaul Haq Foundationwere now calling the shots in the PPP.

PML-N MNA Sardar Ayaz Sadiqmoved his party’s amendments in the

resolution. The Pakistan People’sParty and its allies rejected the amend-ments in which it had asked the gov-ernment to fully implement all apexcourt decisions “in letter and spirit”and take immediate steps to resolvethe issues being faced by the people atthe grassroots level through “corrup-tion-free services”. The PML-N hadalso proposed an amendment in theparagraph No 3 of the government’sresolution and asked the governmentto substitute the words, “and all stateinstitutions must strictly functionwithin the limits imposed on them bythe constitution”, with the following:“and in this regard calls upon the gov-ernment to immediately implement,in letter and spirit, all previous resolu-tions of parliament and all decisions ofthe superior judiciary.”

The resolution passed by the Housesays: “This House believes that the pres-ent democratic dispensation‚ which isabout to complete four years‚ came in tobeing as a result of great sacrifices ren-dered by the people of Pakistan. ThisHouse reiterates the belief of the demo-cratic forces that the future of Pakistanand well being of its people lies in thecontinuation and strengthening of dem-ocratic institutions and constitutional-ism for the resolution of national issues‚strengthening of the federation and em-powering the people of Pakistan. ThisHouse believes that for the furtheranceof democracy and democratic institu-tions the basic constitutional principleof trichotomy of powers must be fullyrespected and adhered to and all stateinstitutions must strictly functionwithin the limits imposed on them bythe constitution. This House endorsesand supports the efforts made by thepolitical leadership for strengtheningdemocracy and reposes full confidenceand trust in them.”

Na adopts pro-democracy resolutionContinued from page 1

Karachi

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Gallblader cancer cases increasing in Karachi for past two decades

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03Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

NewscoMMENTCrisis still unresolved

articles on Page 12-13

SC and PPP still at it.

this League and thatPML(N) can’t seem to make up its mind.

Dr faisal Bari says:Wasting water: It’s all going down the drain.

Rabia ahmed says:Why this army?: The saviours we neither need nor deserve.

Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi says:The jig is up?: Tweety birds say things not looking good for PPP.

arTS & ENTErTaiNMENTali Zafar’s ‘London paris New York’ ready for release

Story on Page 14

SPorTSMisbah looks to spin out england

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“After a fiery speech by the president,Senior Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahicautioned against adopting a strongstance against the judiciary or againstthe armed forces. He told the coalitionpartners that the army was not againstthe democratic process and all fearsabout the army backing the judiciarywere false,” the source added.

The source said following Elahi’sspeech, the MQM’s Dr Farooq Sattaralso toed the same line and advised thecoalition partners not to take a strongstance against any state institution inpublic, whether it was the army or thejudiciary. The leaders of the coalitionpartners also decided that the primeminister should appear in the SupremeCourt. President Zardari said there wasno clash between the institutions andthe Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) al-ways gave respect and honour to all theinstitutions, especially the courts. How-ever, he said some conspirators wanted

a collision between the state institutionswhich would not be allowed. He advisedthe prime minister to appear in courtand that the allies should accompanyhim. He also said relations were normal-ising with the armed forces.

“We have faced courts in the pastand are ready to do the same again. Di-alogue is the way forward for us and wehave sent home dictators through dia-logue,” the president added. He saidparliament was supreme and his partywas fighting for its sake.

Prime Minister Gilani told the meet-ing the government respected and hon-oured all institutions, including theSupreme Court. He said the governmentdid not want confrontation with any in-stitution, including the judiciary.

Presenting the parliamentary his-tory on this occasion, the prime ministersaid that in the past, prime ministerswere imposed on parliament but now it

had become independent to elect its ownleader of the House.

The present democratic system hadbeen strengthening its roots and provingthat it was strong enough, and underthis system problems of the people werebeing resolved, he added.

He said the government initiated apolicy of reconciliation and taking alongall the political forces on all the issues,whether related to security or politicalactivities. Gilani said the governmenthad full respect and honour for thecourts and always accepted their deci-sions. He said the PPP respected the in-stitutions and believed in theindependence of the judiciary.

The Prime Minister said the affairsof government were being run smoothlyin collaboration with the allied partiesthrough mutual consultation.

Asfandyar Wali assured his full sup-port and strength to the prime minister

in dealing with all the matters, espe-cially the issue of the contempt notice.

The meeting was attended byChaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Asfandyar WaliKhan, Dr Farooq Sattar, Munir KhanOrakzai, Mir Israrullah Zehri and otherleaders of the political parties in thecoalition.

Later, a meeting of the PPP CoreCommittee also met later to discuss theissue at the Presidency, which wasjointly chaired by President Zardari andPrime Minister Gilani. Briefing re-porters about the meeting, PresidentialSpokesman Farhatullah Babar said themeeting reviewed in depth the currentsituation and discussed ways and meansto overcome the challenges faced by theparty and the government.The meetingsaid the party would stand behind theprime minister in adopting a stance thatwas correct, respectful and constitu-tional. The meeting also appreciated thesupport extended to the leaders of thegovernment and the party by all coali-tion partners and thanked them for it.

father kills son

over mother’s

funeral expensesLAHORE

Staff RepoRt

Imtiaz Gulzar, 29, resident of YousafPark, Sherakot, was gunned down by hisfather Gulzar over monetary issues inthe Sherakot Police Area on Monday. Sherakot Police arrested Gulzar and re-covered the murder weapon from hispossession. Police said Imtiaz was livingwith brother Iqbal. Two other brotherswere living with father Gulzar in sepa-rate houses located few yards away fromeach other. About 5 months ago, Im-tiaz’s mother died naturally and Imtiaz’stwo brothers, who were living with hisfather, bore all funeral expenses. While Imtiaz and his brother Iqbal wantto share funeral expenses, the other twobrothers refused to take money and ascuffle started. On Monday, Imtiaz ex-changed harsh words with his fatherGulzar over the same issue after whichGulzar brought out a 12-bore shotgunand shot Imtiaz in the head. Imtiaz diedinstantly. Locals informed police uponhearing the gunshots, who removed thebody to Mayo Hospital morgue for au-topsy. Police arrested Gulzar and seizedthe murder weapon. Police registered acase against Gulzar on the complaint ofthe deceased’s brother and started in-vestigations. Gulzar confessed the mur-der to police and claimed Imtiaz used toabuse him over non-issues and that wasthe reason he killed him. man killS wife: Separately, Zakaullah, resident of Mohra Sharif in Sher-akot, shot dead his wife, Shumaila,over domestic issues in the Sherakotpolice area. Shumaila had married hercousin, Zaka, three years ago whileShumaila’s brother married Zaka’s sis-ter. Zaka was used to fight with his wiferegularly. Shumaila went to see her fa-ther on the day of incident, who wassick and admitted in a local hospital.When she returned to home, Zakaasked her to change and get ready to gosomewhere with their two daughters.When Shumaila refused, a fight began,and a brief exchange of harsh words,Zaka brought his gun and shot Shu-maila, who died instantly. Zaka man-aged to escape. Locals informed policewho removed her body to the morgueand began investigations.

ISLAMABAD MIaN aBRaR

FOLLOWING the issuance ofcontempt notice to PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilaniby the apex court, legal ex-

perts on Monday said there were lim-ited options left for the PM, includingappearing before the court and sub-mitting an unconditional apology andassuring the court to write a letter toSwiss authorities to reopen casesagainst President Asif Ali Zardari,calling early polls, seeking advicefrom the federal cabinet members orcalling it a day.

Otherwise, Gilani might be con-victed under the contempt law, and insuch a case, he would be disqualifiedto hold any public office for life.

Talking to Pakistan Today, BabarSattar said the PM would have to ap-pear before the court himself andwould have to satisfy the court that hedid not intend contempt of court.

He said former prime ministerNawaz Sharif had also been issuedcontempt notice on his media state-ment that criticised the court verdictin late 1990s.

However, Nawaz had appearedbefore the court and offered uncondi-tional apology and said that he did notmade contempt of the court.

“In this specific case, Gilani maysubmit apology and assure the courtthat he would direct the governmentto write a letter to Swiss authorities toreopen cases against President AsifAli Zardari,” he said.

However, Babar Sattar said if thePM tried to justify his conduct of notwriting the letter, the court would notshow flexibility and he might be con-victed under the contempt law.

However, he said contempt pro-ceedings could not be initiated againstthe president on his interview tomedia as he did not have executive

authority. “He was speaking in the interview

as co-chairman of the party and healso did not criticise any court order,”he said.

Sattar opined that the court mighthold an opinion that the presidenthad breached his oath as a presidentand under the same finding, impeach-ment could be initiated against himfor misconduct and breach of oath.

Senior lawyer Iftikhar Gilani saidit was prerogative of the court to issuecontempt notice to anyone it found fitin contempt of court.

“Whosoever could be issued con-tempt notice who ridicules the court.A person who is convicted under thecontempt law can no longer remain amember of the Majlis-e-Shoora (par-liament). If a convict cannot be anMNA, he also cannot remain theprime minister,” he asserted.

Asked whether or not contemptproceedings could be initiated againstPresident Zardari on his defiance ofcourt in his media interview, Gilaniresponded in affirmative, saying theindemnity claimed by the presidentdid not fall under the contempt law.

He said if disqualified by thecourt, the president would be sentpacking.

Senator Wasim Sajjad said thecontempt notice to prime ministerhad legal and political implicationsfor the PPP regime and the PM him-self.

“Yes, the prime minister could bepunished under the contempt law. Insuch a case, he would be shown thedoor,” he added. Asked what optionsthe prime minister had in view of thecontempt notice, Wasim Sajjad saidGilani had limited options in view ofthe contempt notice.

“He may consult his cabinet col-leagues and may seek their advice.Moreover, he also may opt to resignrather than being held by the court re-

sponsible for contempt,” he added.Khalid Ranjha said the prime

minister had only one political optionleft with him.

“He can only go for early polls,” hesaid. Asked whether the prime minis-ter had any legal option left with him,Ranjha said the legal option was verymuch open and was vialble as well.

“He may appear before the courtand submit that he was ready to writea letter to Swiss authorities. In such acase, he may write a weak letter toSwiss authorities regarding reopeningthe cases against President Zardari,”he asserted.

Citing the precedence of contemptnotice issued to former prime minis-ter Nawaz Sharif, Ranjha said he hadnot submitted apology in the court.

“Nawaz Sharif had verbally toldthe court that he did not ridicule thecourt and had said that he felt sorryfor what happened. He was not askedby the court to submit an apology,” hesaid, adding that PM Gilani could alsofollow the same suite.

Justice (r) Saeed uz Zaman Sid-diqui said the attorney general couldnot appear in the court on behalf ofthe PM in contempt of court case. Noone could stay in the office once theoffence was proven, nor any one wasexempted from contempt of courtcase, he added.

Justice (r) Wajihud Din said no-tice was also issued to Zulfiqar AliBhutto and he had apologised to thecourt saying he did not say any thingagainst the court deliberately whichsmelt of contempt of court.

Qazi Muhammad Anwar, formerSCBA president, said the SC had de-layed issuing the contempt of courtnotice to the PM.

“The court decision has not beenimplemented even after the passageof two years,” he added. “The PMcommitted contempt upon contemptcourt.”

g Legal experts say PM will have to satisfy Sc he did not intend contempt

g gilani may have to write letter to Swiss authorities in case he apologises

President asks PM

Prime minister leftwith limited options

Sc seeks last

three months’ intel

on BalochistanISLAMABAD

Staff RepoRt

Rejecting a report on the worseninglaw and order in Balochistan, theSupreme Court on Monday directedthe Balochistan advocate general tosubmit the last three months’ reportsof the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Crimi-nal Investigation Department (CID)and Daily Secret Reports (DSRs) of thespecial branch. A three-member benchof Chief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussainand Justice Tariq Parvez was hearing apetition filed by Hadi Shakeel, presi-dent of Balochistan High Court BarAssociation, against the deterioratinglaw and order in the province.While rejecting the report submitted bythe provincial government, the chief jus-tice directed the Balochistan AG Amnau-ulah Kunrani to submit the last threemonths’ reports of the IB, CID and DSRs,as they were under his government.“If we then think appropriate, we wouldget the reports from the ISI also,” the chiefjustice added. Kunrani submitted beforethe court that situation in Quetta was notas bad as Karachi and all the incidents thatoccurred in Quetta were individual andthe city had never been closed due to suchincidents. Justice Khilji Arif Hussain ob-served that Karachi was a cosmopolitancity having a population of over 20 mil-lion and people living in Karachi couldmove around easily, while in Quetta noone could move around alone. He ob-served that people residing in Quettawere scared and no one was taking careof the issue. “Balochistan is the soul ofPakistan and no one can live without itssoul,” Justice Khilji Arif Hussain added.SC reSumeS hearing of ZaBreferenCe todayAn 11-member Supreme Court (SC)larger bench headed by CJP IftikharChaudhry will resume hearing of the Zul-fikar Ali Bhutto reference today (Tues-day). Senator Dr Babar Awan will appearas the federation’s counsel. Ahmed RazaKasuri, on whose complaint a murdercase was registered against Bhutto, willalso appear on notice. The notice was is-sued to Kasuri with Awan’s and amicuscuriae’s consent. Kasuri had already sub-mitted his reply asking the court not torevisit the case.

Continued from page 22

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04Tuesday, 17 January, 2011

News

Nothing famous

about Babri Masjid

demolition: indian Sc

new delhi: The BabriMasjid demolition is justan incident and there isnothing famous about it,the Indian Supreme Courton Monday said, while lis-tening to CBI’s plea tolevel criminal conspiracycharges against senior BJPleader L K Advani, ShivSena Chief Bal Thackerayand 18 others. “What is fa-mous about it? It was anincident which happenedand the parties are beforeus. It is not famous or in-famous,” a bench of Jus-tices H L Dattu and C KPrasad said when the Ad-ditional Solicitor Generalsaid, at the beginning ofthe proceeding that thematter is related to the“famous” Babri Masjiddemolition case, PTI re-ported. aGeNCIeS

ISLAMABADRaNa QaISaR

THE government is on the col-lision course – the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) does notseem budging from its posi-tion on writing a letter to the

Swiss authorities, come what may. And,the message Prime Minister Yousaf RazaGilani, who seems to stand up against allprobabilities, conveyed to all withoutmincing his words was that he would notgo alone as after the game the king andthe pawn together went in the same box.

The day, starting with the SupremeCourt summoning Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani on January 19 (Thursday) inperson for listening to him before possi-bly initiating contempt of court proceed-ings against him for not implementingthe decision on the National Reconcilia-

tion Ordinance (NRO), saw a flurry of po-litical activity and hectic consultationswith the government’s allies assuring it tosolidly standing with it. While the num-ber-strong government rejected the Pak-istan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N)-proposed amendments to thepro-democracy resolution, not taking intoaccount the opposition’s demands of im-plementing all parliamentary resolutionsand the Supreme Court’s orders besidesensuring corruption-free governance, thePrime Minister visibly appeared in a defi-ant mood, albeit he once again said thathe did not want confrontation with thearmy and the judiciary.

The bottom-line of his speech in theNational Assembly was that the army andthe judiciary must support democracy.His warning to the opposition parties,particularly the PML-N, was that in casehis government fell no one would get a

chance to replace him. He referred to “thesacrifices” of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Be-nazir Bhutto to make a point that he toowould not hesitate to follow them for thecause of democracy. This suggested thathe was ready to face any eventuality.

Following the government’s contin-ued unwillingness to implement the deci-sion on the National ReconciliationOrdinance (NRO), particularly after Pres-ident Asif Ali Zardari’s statement that thePPP would not seek reopening of thecases in Switzerland, the Supreme Courton Monday finally issued a contempt no-tice to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.It was expected. This drove the primeminister into a session with some oppo-sition leaders for consultation to see whatpolitical solution the political parties,other than the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), suggest to avoid a clashbetween the executive and the judiciary.

While he listened to them, he also spokehis heart out and questioned Inter-Ser-vices Intelligence (ISI) Director GeneralLt General Ahmad Shuja Pasha’s secretvisit to London without his information.

Aftab Sherpao, Qazi Hussain Ahmadand Mahmood Khan Achakzai were re-quested for a meeting and they obliged theprime minister. During the meeting, all thethree seasoned politicians advised him toavoid confrontation with the judiciary andthe army besides asking him to write a let-ter to the Swiss authorities and appear be-fore the Supreme Court. Though the primeminister, a source said, did not commit toact on their suggestions, he, however, ex-pressed his willingness to discuss themwith his party and coalition partners.

As hectic consultations followed thismeeting at the PM’s House with the jointparliamentary party (of all coalition part-ners) meeting was called there and Presi-

dent Asif Ali Zardari also joined the con-gress of the allies to discuss the situationand evaluate all possible scenarios in caseof the prime minister’s facing the contemptof court. The president and the prime min-ister also remained in session for a one-on-one meeting which triggered a spate ofspeculations, later denied by the presidency,that the latter had offered to resign.

The coalition partners fully reposedconfidence in the Prime Minister and de-cided that before the Supreme Court. Pres-ident Zardari, however, told the meetingthat there was no clash between the insti-tutions and the PPP always respected allthe institutions, especially the courts.However, a source said his tone was bitterwhen he recounted the events that led tothe impasse with the army and the judici-ary. But the intention of the governmentwill be clear when the Prime Minister ap-pears before the Supreme Court.

Gilani ready for any eventuality

In view of the statement made bySheikh in which he stated that hisclient would be available for crossexamination, the commission - withthe consent of Bukhari - disposed ofthe application. The commissionsaid Ijaz could leave whenever hewanted and he would be summonedagain if needed. Bukhari contendedthat as stated by Sheikh, his clientdid not choose to come to Pakistanbecause of the precarious politicalsituation in the country and re-quested to simply close the enquiryas improving the political situationwas beyond the commission’s powerand might take years.

However, Sheikh told the com-mission that his client would appearbefore it on January 24 and addedthat if Ijaz failed to appear this time,he would no longer represent him.He also requested the commissionthat his client did not want to sharehis itinerary with the media for secu-rity reasons. Subsequently, the com-mission directed the government notto disclose Ijaz’s schedule of arrivaland departure. Earlier, Sheikh saidIjaz was ready to come to Pakistanbut he and his family had been re-ceiving threats since the last pro-ceedings of the case. He also referredto a statement of Interior MinisterRehman Malik on Sunday, in whichhe stated that the departments con-cerned had been directed to collectevidence on with whose connivanceIjaz had conspired to topple the gov-

ernment of slain former premier Be-nazir Bhutto and added that a casewould be registered against himunder Article 6 of the constitution.However, the Attorney General re-futed the statement and reaffirmedhis undertaking that no case wouldbe registered against Ijaz. Bukharitermed Sheikh’s statement a mereexcuse to delay the proceedings. Hesaid Ijaz had still not even appliedfor a visa to Pakistan. To a question,the attorney general told the com-mission that Deputy Chief of Pak-istan’s Mission in Washington, IffatImran Gardezi, had told him theBlackberry handsets of HusainHaqqani were found neither at theresidence of the former ambassadornor at his office. When asked,Bukhari said it was not a legal re-quirement that Haqqani waive hisprivacy rights with RIM or RIM berequested for the same. He said hisclient was not legally bound to do so.

The commission then said it wasappropriate to give an opportunity toHaqqani to submit an affidavit to thecommission in which he must an-swer three questions: to whom didthe BlackBerry phones that were inhis possession and use belong; whendid he last use these phones, andwhere did he leave them last. Thecommission asked Haqqani furtherto state in the affidavit whether hewas prepared to waive his privacyrights with RIM.

Sheikh held that as the phoneswere the property of the governmentof Pakistan, it might well waive theprivacy rights. The attorney general,however, said the participants of theconversation were required to givetheir consent to RIM to obtain thedata. Bukhari submitted to the com-mission the email addresses andtelephone numbers of Haqqani, butadded that his client did not remem-ber his PIN. Declining to submit atentative list of witnesses, Bukharitold to the commission that the ac-cuser should first bring the wit-nesses forward in support of theallegations and then he would seewho he could present as witnesses.

The commission dismissed anapplication filed by a PPP activistKhalid Javed through his lawyerRaja Israr Abbasi seeking to reviewthe commission’s order restrainingthe authorities concerned from reg-istering any first information reports(FIRs) against Ijaz. The applicantsaid the US national had written ar-ticles against state institutions andtried to pitch them against eachother, andthat he wasliable to betried underArticle 6 ofthe consti-tution. Ab-basi saidthat, inter

alia, the commission order had givenimmunity to Ijaz.

After hearing the applicant andhis lawyer, the commission termedthe application an “attempt to seekpublicity at the cost of others” andsaid it was an attempt to prolong thework of the commission. “If accord-ing to you, we have committed an il-legality, approach the SupremeCourt,” Justice Isa said. He askedthe applicant whether the ‘offence’was committed against the state orhim. He observed that the applicantwas hindering the work of the com-mission and warned that the com-mission may consider hisprosecution. Bukhari also supportedthe application. However, the attor-ney general stated that the applica-tion was not maintainable. Sheikhalso opposed the application.

The attorney general told thecommission that he had yet to send acopy of the application to RIMthrough the Canadian embassy inPakistan to retrieve communicationdata. He said the commission shouldawait RIM’s response in an earlierapplication for data retrieval. He saidthe company had so far conveyedthat as soon as research was com-plete, the record would be compiled.

Haqqani’s lawyer Waseem Sajjad, lawyer forformer attorney generalMalik Qayyum, told the courtthat his client had nothing todo with the NRO case. Hesaid he had written the letterin compliance with the “exec-utive order”. Sajjad said thecourt had softened its stanceagainst his client in the NROreview case. Justice AsifSaeed Khan Khosa noted thatin the NRO review case, therelief given to Qayyum wasthat “the proceedings may beinitiated against him withouttaking effect of the observa-tion”. Sajjad said there was nomandatory order of theSupreme Court in the NROverdict against his client, butNAB had issued his arrest no-tice, adding that he was verysick and hospitalised. JusticeNasirul Mulk said nobodywould arrest him. JusticeMulk asked Sajjad to waituntil Thursday for the reportof NAB chairman in this re-gard. He said an appropriateorder would be issued afterreceipt of NAB chairman’s re-port. Lawyer for Ahmad RiazSheikh told the court that hisclient had completed the sen-tence, thus his name may beremoved from the cause-listof the Supreme Court.

NaB chief apologises Continued from page 22

Continued from page 22

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05Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

News

peSHaWaR: people light candles to pay homage to arfa Karim on Monday. sTaff PHoTo

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

PAKISTANI-AMERICAN busi-nessman Mansoor Ijaz, the cen-tral character of the memoscandal, is being prevented by thegovernment from coming to Pak-

istan, his counsel Akram Sheikh saidhere on Monday.

“My client will come to Pakistan afterInterior Minister Rehman Malik allowshim to speak the truth in the memo case.He will come if the interior minister stopstalking about registration of a caseagainst him on charges of treason and

other ministers also stop threateninghim,” Sheikh told reporters at the Islam-abad High Court, where his client wassupposed to appear before the three-member commission probing the mem-ogate controversy.

Ijaz’s absence at the court on Mon-day, however, brought some solace to thePakistan People’s Party (PPP) workersand affiliated lawyers who had turned upin large groups to witness the commis-sion’s proceeding.

To many observers, Ijaz is key to thememo affair and now that he seems tohave decided to keep himself away fromthe commission’s proceedings, it will

weaken the case against the PPP govern-ment to a great extent.

On the other hand, Ijaz’s lawyer wasvisibly angry, perhaps by the absence ofhis client and also by the repeated queriesby inquisitive reporters, who were inter-ested in nothing other than when Ijazwould come to Pakistan.

“He (Ijaz) will come to expose allfacts related to the memo case and that isfor sure, but let me also tell you that thegovernment is threatening him,” saidSheikh. He once again said owing to se-curity threats, the schedule of Ijaz’s visitto Islamabad could not be divulged orshared with the media.

Monday was a tough day for AttorneyGeneral Maulvi Anwarul Haq, who had toshuttle between the Islamabad HighCourt and the Supreme Court as the fed-eral government’s representative in thememo case and the National Reconcilia-tion Ordinance (NRO) implementationcase. He had requested the SupremeCourt for time readjustment owing to hismandatory appearance before the memocommission, but despite that it was a la-borious day for the attorney general andat one point, he was seen almost runningwhile being chased by reporters.

Zahid Bokhari, the lawyer of formerambassador Husain Haqqani, told re-

porters that his request to the commis-sion would be to not allow Ijaz to appearbefore it anymore as he had earlier saidhe would do so on January 16.

“Ijaz will not come to Pakistan and heis setting all sorts of unnecessary condi-tions for his visit. The fact is that he hasalready been assured by the commissionthat he would be given full protection butdespite that, Ijaz is not coming and onlywasting everyone’s time,” Bokhari said.

“We also want him to be given all pos-sible security so that he can come here totestify before the commission. We willwelcome him but we will welcome himwith reservations,” he added.

ioBM to representPakistan in hK

KARACHIpReSS ReLeaSe

Institute of Business Management (IoBM)has won the 2011-2012 CFA localcompetition by securing the top position,followed by Lahore School of Economicswith 2nd position and Fast School ofBusiness 3rd Position. In the last twocompetitions IoBM teams were runnersup. The competition was held at AvariHotel recently in which the participatingteams made presentations on their equityvaluation reports before a panel of judgesand later answered questions from thepanel members. The company assigned forthe competition was Engro Foods.According to IoBM Public Affairs Section,IoBM, the winning of the national CFAcompetition, will now proceed to HongKong for participation in the regionalcompetition and winners of the regionalcompetitions will compete in the globalfinals in New York in April, 2012. Thefollowing 10 teams registered for thecompetition: Institute of Businessadministration (IBA), Shaheed Zulfiqar AliBhutto Institute of Science andTechnology (SZABIST), GreenwichUniversity, Iqra University, Institute ofBusiness Management (IoBM), PAF KIET,BIZTEK, National University of Scienceand Technology (NUST), Lahore School ofEconomics, FAST school of businessFAST-NUCES. However, eight teamsactually participated, as IQRA andBIZTEK teams were not present. IoBM’steam comprised Ahmed Mushtaq - MBAFRM 1st Semester, Ali Raza - MBAFinance Last Semester, Roma Ramani -BBA Hons 7th Semester, Sana Shaikh -MBA (Finance & Risk Management) LastSemester Fawad Khan, CFA and ResearchAnalyst at KASB Securities was IndustryMentor of IoBM while Shazia Farooq andJamal Zubairi acted as faculty advisers.

Law and order in KP

improved: KausarPeShawar: The law and ordersituation in the province and FATA hasimproved compared to almost four yearsago, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) GovernorBarrister Masood Kausar said on Monday.Addressing the Kohat District BarAssociation oath administering ceremonyfor the newly elected cabinet as chief guestat its premises, Kausar said the role andcontribution of lawyers’ community due toits involvement in dispensing justice,protecting basic and democratic rights ofthe people and ensuring rule of law was ofvital importance. He said lawyers haveremained at the forefront of struggles toprotect the rights of people and credit fordemocracy existing in the country also fellupon lawyers Kausar said the devolutionof administrative, financial and politicalpowers under relevant laws from thecentre to provinces has strengthenedfederating units. He said the KohatDivision contributes a significant share tonational natural gas production and oilproduction had crossed the requiredvolume daily to establish an oil refinery,which was the next priority. He said KohatMedical Institute has been affiliated withKhyber Medical University while steps toaffiliate Kohat Institute of Science andTechnology with University ofEngineering and Technology, Peshawarwere underway for the benefit of bothinstitutions. Staff RepoRt

Tribal lawyers slam

government for failing to

implement FCR reformsPESHAWAR

Staff RepoRt

Tribal lawyers expressed grave concern over the gov-ernment’s failure to implement the Frontier CrimesRegulation (FCR) reforms for the tribal areas onMonday, saying the chairman and two members ofthe FCR Tribunal would not be acceptable to thembecause they did not hail from the Federally Admin-istered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The establishment of the FCR Tribunal was partof amended reforms and according to these reforms,two retired bureaucrats and one who was eligible tobe a high court judge were also included in the tri-bunal, FATA Lawyers Forum (FLF) President IjazMohmand told reporters at a press conference.

He said the FCR Tribunal had been establishedfor the people of FATA but the members of the tri-bunal were appointed from other areas, which hewas an injustice to tribesmen.

He demanded the government appoint compe-tent lawyers from FATA to the tribunal, not retiredbureaucrats. “Those who don’t hail from the tribalareas, how will they issue decisions in accordancewith the customs and traditions of the tribal peo-

ple?” he questioned. Flanked by FLF General Secre-tary Samiullah Afridi, Abdul Karim Mehsoon, TajMehal Afridi and others, Mohmand said the powersdelegated to the tribunal were insufficient to providejustice to the oppressed tribesmen. He demandedfull powers for the tribunal in accordance with Arti-cle 199 of the constitution.

He said political agents (PA) and assistant polit-ical agents (APA) also worked as courts and caseswere heard in their courts, but they never allowedany accused to have a lawyer to represent them.

The PA and APA, he said, had their own prose-cutors and the accused or their prosecutors were notgiven documents of the cases, which he said was a vi-olation of the constitution and law. “This attitude ofthe PA and APA has to be corrected,” Mohmand said.

He said the FLF, therefore, demanded the fed-eral government implement the amended reformsin FCR according to the demands of the lawyersand tribesmen within 10 days, failing which theywould be compelled to launch protests and besiegeParliament House. He also demanded that tribalfamilies displaced as a result of the ongoing mili-tary operation in FATA be declared InternationallyDisplaced Persons.

Govt not letting Mansoor come to Pakistan: counsel

indian army chief movesSc over DoB issue

NEW DELHIINp

In an unprecedented move, Indian army chief GeneralVK Singh on Monday moved the Supreme Courtagainst the government’s rejection of his claim on hisdate of birth. In writ petition, he is believed to havequestioned the government’s decision to treat his dateof birth as May 10, 1950 instead of May 10, 1951 asclaimed by him on the basis of his matriculationcertificate and other documents. This is the first timethat any service chief has dragged the government tothe court of law. The petition has been filed andsenior advocate UU Lalit will represent General Singhin the SC. In his petition, Gen Singh has said thematter was related to his “honour and integrity” as heheaded a force of “13 lakh personnel”. He questionedwhy the government had chosen to “change” his dateof birth after he had spent 36 years in service andbeen promoted throughout the career. Gen Singh’saction caps months of tussle between him and theMinistry of Defence during which he made twostatutory representations to the ministry. DefenceMinister AK Antony had recently rejected hisstatutory representation which ended all the internalappeal options on the subject for the general. By thisdecision of the government, Gen Singh will have toretire on May 31. He has been contending that May10, 1951 should be treated as his actual date of birthas it was mentioned in his matriculation certificatebut the Defence Ministry has rejected it as May 10,1950 is the date entered in his UPSC entrance formfor National Defence Academy (NDA).

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06Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

News

MURRee: Children playing with snow after the city received heavy snowfall on the weekend. oNLINE

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

Pakistan Electronic Media RegulatoryAuthority (PEMRA) on Monday served afinal warning to all cable TV operatorsasking them to stop distributing illegalor proscribed TV channels.

A PEMRA press release said no chan-nel other than those licensed by PEMRAwill be allowed to be distributed on cableTV networks and any operator found de-fying the orders will face serious conse-quences. If implemented, distributionnetworks will only be able to showPEMRA licensed channels, unlike nowwhen most operaters run unauthorisedforeign channels and leaving no space forlicensed channels. PEMRA also issued alist of eligible channels containing 87Pakistani origin channels and 26 foreignchannels registered with the authority.

Cable operators have the liberty tochoose channels amongst the eligible listaccording to subscriber choice but canshow no other channel.Cable operatorsare also bound to relay national broad-caster (PTV) channels, which are manda-

tory under PEMRA law. PEMRA enforce-ment teams have recently raided a num-ber of cable TV operators across thecountry and impounded equipment beingused to distribute illegal/ proscribedchannels. PEMRA said it will continue

these actions till “sanity creeps into elec-tronic media.” It said that “PEMRA be-lieves in freedom of information andchoice but it must be coupled with socialresponsibility, ethics, and accepted stan-dards of decency and morality.”

Strike against

electricity, gas load

sheddingPESHAWAR

Staff RepoRt

The residents of Tapa Momand andTapa Koee Damaan in Peshawar’s PK-10-11 have decided to go on a strikeagainst excessive electricity and gas loadshedding in the area.Addressing a press conference onMonday, Arshad Advocate said it hadbeen four months since the people of thearea were receiving an hour of electricitysupply everyday. He said agricultural lands in the areawere going to waste and businesses werebeing adversely affected owing to theconstant suspension of electricity.He said students were worried abouttheir future, as they could not studybecause of the load shedding.He said the people of the area had metofficials of the PESCO, KhyberPakhtunkhwa Assembly Deputy SpeakerKhushdil Khan and the districtcoordination officer for redressal oftheir issues but none of them heededtheir issues. Arshad said PESCO told theresidents of the constituency that powertransformers were needed in the gridstations of Matani, Badh Ber and SheikhMuhammadi and it was possible if theelected representatives concerned paidfor them from their allocateddevelopmental fund. He said the electedrepresentatives were least bothered insolving the problems of their respectedconstituencies. To a query aboutelectricity theft in the areas, he saidpeople paid their bills and it was theemployees of PESCO who were corrupt.Regarding their announced protest, hesaid thousands of residents from allvillages would gather in Badh Ber andblock the main Kohat Road for all kindsof traffic and demonstrators walktowards the provincial assembly and theGovernor’s House. He said thegovernment would be responsible forany mishap during the strike.

another bombrecovered in Khanpur

RAHIM YAR KHANoNLINe

A bomb was found in the vicinity of anImambargah in Khanpur on Monday, aspeople offered collective funeral prayerfor the victims of Sunday’s bombing.The bomb was recovered from Darbar-e-Hussainia Imambargah; close to thesight of Sunday bombing.Security forces cordoned off the areaaround the site for search for otherexplosive devices. A powerful suicideexplosion had rocked Khanpur, killingat least 21 people and injuring over 40people. Punjab Chief Minister ShahbazSharif also arrived in the city to attendthe funeral.

SUKKURNNI

PAKISTAN Tehreek-e-InsaafChairman Imran Khan has saidthe government is using everytactic to hide the theft of cor-rupt people.

Talking to reporters on Monday,the PTI chief said, “The government isusing all means to conceal its corrup-tion,” he said, adding that the govern-ment “should have resigned” after theSupreme Court (SC) declared the Na-tional Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)illegal. Khan said only the constitutionwas supreme and not parliament. “Ifparliament starts providing justice,then the courts should be shut down…Parliament has its own responsibilities,the courts have their own,” he said.

Reiterating his party’s support forthe judiciary, he said the PTI wasstanding with the chief justice and the

Supreme Court.He said the prime minister was

supporting an individual to hide histheft, adding that he should insteadsupport the judiciary in the best inter-est of the country.

To a query, he said the N-leagueshould display its seriousness by re-

signing from the assemblies andpaving the way for early election.

He said he did not know what theSC order would be but he was sure thepeople were standing by it.

He said the masses had restoredthe judiciary but the prime ministerhad given statements that he was an-swerable to parliament not any indi-vidual. Khan said the government wastrying to destroy democracy instead ofresolving problems facing the people.

To another query regarding thePTI’s possible alliance with formerpresident Pervez Musharraf, he said hewas not going to make an alliance withMusharraf. “We are not ready for anyalliances,” he said.

To another question, he said thepeople of Pakistan had dismissed mar-tial law in the country.

The PTI chairman said the onlyway to bring the country out of criseswas by holding early elections.

‘Pakistan seeks

afghan talks

over Taliban’KABUL

afp

Pakistan has made overtures toAfghanistan to resume talks with Talibanwhich broke down following theassassination of Kabul’s chief peaceenvoy, an official said on Sunday. “AfterPakistan expressed readiness, the Afghangovernment has also agreed to resumethe talks with Pakistan over the Taliban,”Esmael Qasimyar, a senior member ofthe Afghan government-appointed HighPeace Council, told AFP. Karzai accusedPakistan of responsibility for the murderof peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani inSeptember and last month the Afghanpresident said Pakistan was sabotagingall negotiations with the Taliban. Agovernment official who spoke oncondition of anonymity said Pakistan hadrecently sent a message through theAfghan ambassador to Islamabad sayingthat “Pakistan is willing to resumecontacts and talks with Afghanistan”. Hesaid Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilaniwas also planning to visit Afghanistan,but no dates had been set.

4 die, 25 injured in

Swat road accident MINGORA

IBRaHIM KHaNKHeL

Four people were killed and 25 injured ina road accident in Kabal tehsil of Swat onMonday. According to police sources, theKarachi-bound bus got out of control nearDadhara village and overturned, causingfour passengers including a child and awoman to die on the spot. The names ofthose killed are Zeb Jehan, her child,Zahid Iqbal and Luqman Hakim. Theinjured were admitted to Saidu SharifHospital. They were identified asNizamuddin, Muhammad Amin, Gul SherAli Khan, Muhammad Afzal, Mian Said,Muhammad Rawan, Khaisa Mir, Hayat,Abdullah, Sana, Laiba, Hasan ShahHalima, Wahid Rana and Bacha Beguminjured Meanwhile, a couple Ajab Khanand his wife Azra, suffocated to death inBalogram village, five kilometres fromMingora city. The deaths were causedaccumulation of gas in the room from anunattended heater.

ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Monday said there was aneed to teach courses on cyber crime, anti-terrorism andmoney laundering to law enforcement personnel. Malik was chairing a meeting of the National Police Academy(NPA) Board of Governors. NPA Commandant set themeeting agenda. NPA provides training to ASPs and otherlaw enforcement officials. MAlik directed the National PoliceBureau to allocate 25 percent foreign courses to NPA officers.He assured Board Members he will ensure the pay package of

NPA employees be implemented as approved by the PrimeMinister. The meeting approved the Job Task Analysis ofDistrict Police Officer/District Superintendent of Police anddecided to prepare curriculum on JTA findings. The BoardChairman said that the proposed curriculum should includesubjects like anti-terrorism and other modern day crimes. AModule on Interviewing women, children, victims of violencewas approved. The Board recommended that the moduleshould be translated into Urdu. The Board appreciated NPA’sefforts in formulating the National Training Policy 2012 andapproved it in principle. The proposed re-organization of theMPA into different specialized sub-units was also approved.

PEMRA issues last warning to cable operators g only PEMra authorised

channels to be allowedOffer cyber crime, anti-terrorism courses,

Malik tells National Police Academy

Govt sabotaging courts

to hide corruption: Imran

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:36 AM Page 6

Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

‘controlled change in current

socio-political system not the way’

arif hasan delivers a lecture

09

at a demonstration organised by the Majlis-e-wahdat-e-Muslimeen on Monday, people protest the bomb blast at a chehlum

procession in Khanpur a day earlier. ImraN aLI

KARACHIIMDaD SooMRo

After the refusal of Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) to support AwamiNational Party (ANP) on getting itsSindh president Shahi Syed electedas a senator from Sindh in the up-coming senate elections, the ANPhas decided to put up Syed – aclose relative of party’s chief As-fandyar Wali – from the KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

In the 2008 senate elections,the ANP Sindh president was eagerto contest as a candidate from thethen North Western Frontier

Province, but his party preferred aDubai-based multibillionaire busi-nessman, Abdul Nabi Bangash,and Syed was dropped. Bangashwas later elected as a senator.

A close ally in the PPP-led fed-eral and Sindh government, theANP had requested the rulingparty to elect Syed as a senatorfrom Sindh. However, the PPPhigh-ups refused, reckoning thatthe party is already under pressurefrom Sindhi nationalists, intellec-tuals and the civil society on theissue of electing five non-Sindhis– Faisal Raza Abidi, ShaukatTareen, Rehman Malik, Dr Asim

and Farooq H Naek – as senatorsfrom the votes of Sindh Assembly’sSindhi-speaking members.

Although the ANP has decidedto elect Syed from KP, it is ex-pected to create a problematic sit-uation for the Pakhtun-majorityparty.

In 2002, when a coalition ofreligious parties, Muttahida Ma-jlis-e-Amal (MMA), elected Pro-fessor Khurshid Ahmed – aresident of Karachi, Sindh – as asenator from the KP, ANP SenatorBashir Bilour not only opposed themove but also complained in writ-ten in the Senate that a person

from another province shall not beallowed to contest Senate electionsin a separate province.

There are a total of 100 senateseats and elections are held everythree years for one-half of the sen-ate with each senator having aterm of six years. In March, 54current senators, including 11from Sindh, will retire after com-pleting their six-year term. Elec-tions on the vacant 50 percentseats will be held on March 2, asper the Election Commission ofPakistan’s announcement.

All provincial assemblies haveto elect 14 senators while four

seats are reserved for women andfour for technocrats. Moreover,eight general seats in the senateare reserved for Federally Admin-istered Tribal Areas and two forthe Federal Capital, Islamabad,which also has one dedicatedwomen and technocrat seat.

Currently, the PPP has 27seats in the senate, followed by thePakistan Muslim League-Quaid(PML-Q) with 21 senators. Theright-wing Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam(Fazl group) and Jamaat-e-Islami(JI) have 10 and three seats, re-spectively, while the PakistanMuslim League-Functional and

Jamhoori Watan Party have onesenator each.

After the retirement of 54 sen-ators in March, the representationof JI, with three members, andPPP (Sherpao group), with onemember, will end in the upper leg-islative house.

The PML-Q will have to bearthe greatest loss as its 20 out of 21senators will be retired. The majorbeneficiary in the upcoming senateelections could be the PPP be-cause, according to its presentnumber of seats in the provincialassemblies, it would be in majorityin the upper house.

aNP’s got a ‘shahi syed dilemma’ on its hands■ after PPP refuses to support aNP Sindh president’s election as senator from Sindh, aNP decides to field him from Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa but that too may create a problematic situation

‘Sports experience notrequired for headingKU’s sports body’■ Most members of KU’s 2012 Sports committee

fail to show up at first meeting over a lecturer’s

appointment as convenor

Backed by jiyalas andpolice, Amn Committeestrikes Gulshan-e-Iqbal■ rise in criminal activities in the area attributed to activists of banned outfit

KARACHIaftaB CHaNNa

W ITH the support of the po-lice and the jiyalas of theruling Pakistan People’sParty (PPP), the armed ac-tivists of the banned Peo-

ple’s Amn Committee (PAC) have resurfacedin Gulshan-e-Iqbal after their ouster fromthe Baloch-dominated Dalmia area.

The Aziz Bhatti police and a few PPPjiyalas in the town are allegedly providing fullsupport to the armed activists of PAC, whoare committing crimes in broad daylight,making the lives of the people living in blocks10, 18 and 19 of Gulshan-e-Iqbal miserable.

The residents of Dalmia, Shanti Nagar,Sindhi Mohalla, Kachi Mohalla, MajeedMohalla and Mujahid Colony had borne thebrunt of criminal activities of the PACmembers and snatching on gun point inci-dents had become the order of the day, ascitizens coming or returning to these areaswere routinely deprived of cash, cell phonesand other valuables by the armed activists.

On November 22, 2011, the situation

took an ugly turn when a PAC activist namedShann, along with his accomplices, kid-napped two youngsters – Ayaz and SultanBanglani – on their way home from work.

The kidnappers demanded a ransom ofRs 2 million from Qaiser Bangalni, anelder of the Bangalni clan, but the demandwas turned down and the Bangalnis put upstrong resistance, forcing Shann and hisgroup to flee the Dalmia area.

The citizens took a sigh of relief after thedismissal of the PAC activists from the area,but after a gap of four weeks, the armed men– from Lyari – have now made an entry inthe posh areas of Gulshan-e-Iqbal and witheach passing day, incidents of looting, ha-rassment of women and sale of narcoticsamong other crimes are increasing.

Talking with Pakistan Today, residentsof a compound, Rupali Residency, com-plained of the rising crimes in the area.

“Armed and drunk, activists of PACoften enter the Rupali residency andsnatch valuables from people as well asmisbehave with the families,” they said.“However, the police seem reluctant totake any action against them.”

Blaming the PPP jiyalas, includingAkram Baloch, Irfan Baloch, Ali Pathanand police constable Zubair, of supportingthe anti-social elements, the citizens saidthat the Aziz Bhatti police are also provid-ing full protection to the PAC ringleaders,including Shann, Fauji, Gaggan, Kajal andBhoro Pathan.

“A couple of days ago, a PPP activistwith his friends kidnapped a female house-maid in the morning and released her aftergang rape,” one resident, seekinganonymity, said. “However, the incidentremained unregistered as the girl’s familyfeared for their lives,” he added.

Qaiser Banglani told Pakistan Todaythat he had put up a strong resistanceagainst PAC in the recent past, compellingthe armed activists to leave the area.“However, their re-emergence in Gulshan-e-Iqbal is a cause of concern for thedwellers in the area,” he said.

Claiming that there are no criminal el-ements in his area, Aziz Bhatti SHO Ken-son Dean told Pakistan Today that he hadno information about operations of anyPAC members in his jurisdiction.

KARACHIaaMIR MaJeeD

While the University of Karachi (KU)has a director of Physical Education, thevarsity has appointed a lecturer withoutany link to sports to convene the 2012Sports Committee, which grants admis-sions to candidates on the sports quota.

This move has sounded alarm bellsabout possible favouritism with regardto admissions on sports quota this year.

Moreover, there is a possibility of non-cooperation by KU’s Directorate of PhysicalEducation over the Admissions director’sdecision to select a man with no sports ex-perience for the sports committee.

Admissions Director Prof Dr KhalidIraqi has constituted committees to fi-nalise the list of candidates who wouldbe granted admissions on quota bases.

The most important among thesecommittees was the 2012 Sports Com-mittee, in which the candidates whocould not get admissions on merit basiscould try their luck on the basis of theirsports experience.

The committee scrutinises applica-tions of those candidates who wish toenrol in the varsity on the basis of theirsports history.

It is the responsibility of the sportscommittee to evaluate the candidates dur-ing interviews to find out whether an ap-plicant is a real sportsperson or justsomeone with a sports certificate, and ifnecessary, the committee is also autho-rised to conduct trials to assess their skills.

KU has appointed Prof Dr ShakilAhmed Khan of the Microbiology De-partment for the post of the 2012 SportsCommittee Convenor.

Committee members compriseBotany Department Chairman Prof DrMuhammad Javed Zaki, Physical Educa-tion Director Mrs Anjum Aziz, PoliticalScience Department Chairperson Dr Nus-rat Idrees and Health & Physical Educa-tion Department Chairman Basit Ansari.

After his appointment, Dr Khan con-vened a meeting of the committee onMonday to discuss matters related to ad-missions on seats reserved forsportspersons, but the meeting couldnot be conducted, because two of thecommittee members boycotted themeeting over Khan’s appointment.

Khan said he did not know whyPhysical Education Director Mrs Azizand Health & Physical Education De-partment Chairman Ansari did not at-

tend the meeting. However, he added,Political Science Department Chairper-son Dr Idrees had informed him that shewas feeling unwell to attend the meet-ing, and only Botany Department Chair-man Dr Zaki had turned up.

Responding to a question, Khan said,“If you take a look at KU’s history, youwill come to realise that only a fewsportspersons have ever been appointedas the convenor of the sports committee.”

When Aziz was approached for com-ments, she said she has a busy scheduleand the convenor had informed herabout the meeting at the eleventh hour;therefore, it was impossible for her todisturb her schedule.

Regarding Khan’s appointment, shesaid, “I’m a sportsperson. If I’m asked todeliver a lecture, how would it be possi-ble for me to perform my assigned taskefficiently?”

She said when she was the 2011Sports Committee convener, she hadconducted trials to assess the skills ofthe candidates who had applied on thesports quota.

“I don’t know if that would be thecriterion of admission on sports quotathis year as well,” she added.

Admissions Director Dr Iraqi said itis not necessary for the convenor of thesports committee to be a sportsperson.

Iraqi said admissions on sportsquota are awarded on rules that werepassed by KU’s Academic Council andthe condition of trials is not a part ofthese rules.

He said the council has set five condi-tions for admissions on sports quota: theapplicant should be (1) a member of a win-ning or runner-up team in a nationalchampionship; (2) a member of an educa-tional board’s team; (3) a member of awinning or runner-up team in an inter-provincial championship; (4) a member ofa senior or junior team; (5) a member of awinning or runner-up team of an inter-university or intermediate board’s team.

“I formed committees for grantingadmissions on quota bases some 15 daysago and asked the convenor of all thecommittees to submit the final list of se-lected candidates as early as possible,”he added.

When asked regarding two mem-bers’ boycott of the sports committee’sfirst meeting over Khan’s appointment,Iraqi said he was unaware of the issueand would call Khan on Tuesday to dis-cuss the matter with him.

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:36 AM Page 7

karachi08PakistaN today

Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

KARACHIaMaR GURIRo

FINALLY taking notice of mediareports and fisherfolk’s com-plaints about garbage dump-ing at the city’s beaches, aSindh Environmental Protec-

tion Agency (SEPA) team visited theseashore along coastal villages ofIbrahim Hyderi and Rehri, where the de-funct City District Government Karachiand private contactors have been dispos-ing of tonnes of garbage for several years.

Talking to the fisherfolk, the mem-bers of the SEPA team including theagency’s assistant director Abdul Raufand environmental inspector MohsinKhan announced that the environmentalwatchdog would soon register cases withthe Environmental Tribunal againstthose involved in converting beaches into

garbage dumping sites.The team members further observed

that some influential people of theseareas are deliberately having wastedumped at marked points for reclama-tion of coastal land.

The beaches are spread over a vastarea and pollution has emerged as amajor problem for the city’s historicalfisherfolk settlements including IbrahimHyderi, Lat Basti and Rehri Goth.

Huge piles of the garbage includingplastic and polyethylene bags, rottenfood, domestic garbage, syringes, urinebags and other hospital waste and animaloffal can be seen at the beaches. Harmfultoxic chemicals from factories are alsodisposed of in the sea.

Garbage from several towns of thecity is dumped on the coast on a regu-lar basis.

For the residents of around seven

historical coastal villages in the citythat have a population of more than300,000, garbage dumping for recla-mation of land has emerged as anissue of life and death.

The media has highlighted the issueseveral times and the fisherfolk havelodged several complaints, but the au-thorities have taken no action.

“We have filed our complaint severaltimes and requested the authorities totake steps for stopping the influentialpeople of the area and others fromthrowing garbage on the beaches, but no-body took notice. Now, we hope thatSEPA officials will do something to pro-tect the beaches,” said spokesperson forthe Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF). “Alarge number of trucks arrive at thebeaches daily, offload the waste and burnit, polluting the coastal areas,” thespokesperson added.

Garbage dumping at

city’s beaches: SEPA

finally steps in

KARACHIStaff RepoRt

The Sindh High Court (SHC) postponed apetition on Monday that sought disqualifi-cation of the members of the parliamentpossessing dual citizenship.

The court also directed the petitionerto bring the record of the members havingdual nationality from the Election Com-mission of Pakistan.

Human Right Commission South Asia’srepresentative Iqbal Kazmi, in his constitu-tional petition, had submitted that peoplewho possess dual citizenship cannot qualifyas elected representatives in the nationaland provincial assemblies under Article 62of the constitution as well as under the gen-

eral election laws.During the proceeding, the head of the

two-member divisional bench of the court,Justice Maqbool Baqar,remarked that thecountry is alreadyfacing a crisis andthe petition mightfurther aggravatethe situation.

The petitionerreplied that incom-petent parliamen-tarians areresponsiblefor the crisisand not thejudiciary.

sindh High Court defers

‘crisis-making’ petition

KARACHIStaff RepoRt

The Sindh Assembly session on Mon-day also adjourned on a condolencenote shortly after it was called toorder by the chair.

This was the second consecutivesitting that was put to adjournment onan obituary note, this time due to thedemise of Pakistan People’s Party law-maker, MPA Mohsin Shah Bukhari,who died on January 13.

The provincial legislators offeredfateha for Bukhari, who hailed fromTando Muhammad Khan-cum-Hy-derabad.

Born in April 1951, Bukhari was amember of the Standing Committeeon Agriculture, Livestock and Fish-eries. He remained a member of theSindh Assembly in 1988, 1990, 1993and 1997 and also served as theprovincial food minister.

“This is to inform with extremegrief that Mohsin Shah Bukhari, a sit-ting member of the Provincial Assem-bly of Sindh, has expired,” read anobituary note issued by Sindh Assem-bly Secretary Hadi Bux Buriro.

Besides recitation of the holyQuran and Naat, the orders of the dayincluded a one-hour question and an-swer session on the Relief Department,

a privilege motion submitted by Mut-tahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Za-reen Majeed, an adjournment motionmoved by MPA Imran Zafar Leghari,debate on the Government Bill No 28and the Sindh Service Tribunals(Amendment) Bill and presentation ofthe respective standing committees’ re-ports on irrigation and power and theBoard of Revenue.

The Government Bill No 22 - theSindh Shaheed Benazir Bhutto DewanUniversity Bill, 2011 - due to be consid-ered on January 13sitting, was re-moved from the orders of the day. TheHouse would meet again on Tuesday(today) at 10am.

Lawmakers keep the assemblyshort for another day

MQM postponesSukkur convention

KARACHIStaff RepoRt

Keeping in view the current political situation, theMuttahida Quami Movement (MQM) has post-poned its upcoming convention, “ProsperousSindh, Strong Pakistan”, which was scheduled tobe held at the Jinnah Municipal Stadium in Sukkuron January 20.The decision was made at a joint meeting of the party’s’Rabita Committee. The new date for the convention willbe announced later.

wheelchairs for disabled at zoo

KARACHIStaff RepoRt

Disabled people would be provided with wheelchairs at thezoo, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Administra-tor Muhammad Hussain Syed said on Monday. While meet-ing with disabled children from various schools at the zoo,the administrator also said the KMC has decided to inviteleprosy patients to the zoo on the eve of the World LeprosyDay. “Besides, wild life experts will provide guidance tothe zoo visitors so that people, especially children, can availthe opportunity of getting useful information about animalsand birds,” he added.

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:36 AM Page 8

karachi 09PakistaN today

Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

KARACHI aMaR GURIRo

CONTROLLED change in thepresent socio-political sys-tem is creating problems,pushing the country back-wards in terms of develop-

ment, maintaining law and order andpeace, renowned urban planner, archi-tect and social scientist Arif Hasansaid on Monday.

Delivering a lecture on “Feudalismand the Process of Change in Pakistan”,organised by the Hamdam Foundation athotel, Hasan said the rural people mi-grating to urban centres in search of bet-ter livelihood and peace are facingproblems because certain forces do notwant to accept this change.

Academia, civil society activists, stu-dents of engineering institutes and fe-male entrepreneurs attended the lecture,which covered wide areas of change witha broader perspective.

Hasan, who is the author of severalbooks on planning and development,shared his observations from the time hewas working on different developmentschemes and visited almost every part ofthe country, particularly the remote areasof Sindh.

“In 1968, when I visited Moenjodaroin Larkana, I saw bull carts and herds ofcamels and horses for the first time. Butnow they have disappeared and replacedby faster modes of transportation,” hesaid.

“At that time the influx of population,migrating from rural areas to urban cen-tres, was quite uncommon and citieswere not overcrowded like they aretoday,” he added.

Tracing history, he said the changehad started before 1980 that challengedfeudalism. “Feudalism was not heredi-tary. The British government had allottedlands to their well-wishers and peasantfamilies, who used to cultivate them in-dependently, becoming share croppers.There was an understanding behind thatchange,” he noted.

“The system tried to promote casteand tribes. Landlords used to enjoy thebacking of the local administration andpolice to continue their traditional rule.Goldsmiths had an important role to playas the lending system was associated withgold. But when the change started, the re-lationship between landlords and bu-reaucracy weakened. Traditional artisans

including blacksmiths, potters, carpen-ters, shoemakers and barbers pushed tofind an alternative for their survival.”.

Hasan said now the industrially pro-duced goods need a market mechanism;hence the credit system has also beenchanged. The raw material being pro-duced for industries in villages or ruralareas have generated opportunities forurban traders, who are directly contact-ing the skilled people instead of land-holders or chieftains.

“People do not need potters as theyhave plastic items available in market.They do not need shoemakers for buyinghandmade shoes as readymade shoes areavailable. Similarly, rural people have a

wider market to deal with. Now tradershave made their bodies to promote andsafeguard their businesses in small townsand these are the signs of change that weshould feel.”

The social scientist pointed out thatthere are different opinions regarding thestatus of feudalism in Pakistan, especiallyin Sindh. Many MPAs and MNAs, beinglandlords, have their traditional back-grounds. That is why land is considereda symbol of power and these social prac-tices have a long history. Unfortunately,peasants are being exploited by themighty landlords. Farmers are being de-prived of their right to live peacefully.Honour killings are increasing in areaswhere feudal lords rule and the change isbeing forcefully stopped. Farmers do nothave right to get leased their houses andin result whenever landlords decide theycan forcefully displace them. Many argue

that the politicians elected from ruralareas are mostly feudal lords; hence theyhave absolute control over their con-stituents. This argument is based on theiroutdated understanding about what has

happened in the rural society of Sindh.”However, hardly a small number of

people follow the tribal judiciary (jir-gas) now while the majority of themchallenge this system. It is change,

which is being stopped by creating a lawand order situation and patronisingcriminals,” Hasan said.

“The presently rural population ismoving to urban centres because theywant to live with dignity and are keen toeducate their children. In this regard, wecan see caste-based traditions and valuesdeclining. The majority of marriages arebeing held through courts, as couples donot rely on traditions. The governmentshould realise the fact and take steps pos-itively instead of controlling the changethrough illegal means. This will causefurther uncertainty,” he warned.

Quoting government figures, Hasansaid eight million hectares have been al-located for promoting the corporate sec-tor in the country. “But irony is thatnobody from us knows the areas and dis-tricts where the land exists for the pur-pose,” he added.

He said universities in Pakistan aremerely producing degree-holders insteadof skilled people. “There is no visible con-tribution of educational institutes to pro-mote trade. Apart from this, wrongforeign policies have placed Pakistanbackward in comparison with Iran,Bangladesh, Thailand and other coun-tries,” he added.

“For a change, we need new values.Now, small traders deal with the worldmarket for their products through the In-ternet, for which the people of Pakistanshould come ahead with skill for an opencompetition. In globalisation, moneytravels round the world and we have torealise this now.”

‘Controlled change in current

socio-political system not the way’■ Urban planner, architect and social scientist arif hasan says rural people

migrating to urban centres in search of better livelihood and peace facing

problems because certain forces do not want to accept this change

KARACHIStaff RepoRt

The Karachi Water and SewerageBoard (KWSB) has not paid its elec-tricity bills for the current, therebyviolating its undertaking in a meet-ing at the Governor's House on No-vember 26 last year, the KarachiElectric Supply Company (KESC)said on Monday.

“Also, the commitment of di-

rect or indirect payment or adjust-ment of the water board’s long-standing arrears that have nowswelled to over Rs 16 billion wasnot realised either,” the power util-ity said in a press statement.

Refuting KWSB’s claims in re-spect of “settlement” of dues, theKESC said that despite the nonpay-ment of the current bills, it has onlycut off power supply to the board’soffices and its officials’ residences,

but it has not been suspended towater pumping stations in the largerinterest of the city’s population.

The KESC also clarified that thesettlement to adjust the waterboard's dues towards its

public sector customers wasmeant for the previous arrears of thepower utility.

However, at the same time, thegovernment had directed the boardin every meeting held at the Gover-

nor’s House to regularly pay its billsbut that directive has not been fol-lowed yet.

The KESC asked the waterboard to immediately start payingits monthly bills as per the agree-ment at the Governor’s Housewithout further delay.

The KESC expressed concernover the irresponsible attitude of thewater board, which has become thelargest defaulter of power bills.

KWsB’s gone back on itsword, not paying bills: KEsC

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:36 AM Page 9

karachiPakistaN today

wEaThEr UPDaTES

Low

26°cclear skieshigh

15°c 26%humidity

wEDNESDay ThUrSDay friDay26°c i 15°c 25°c i 13°c 25°c i 13°c

PrayEr TiMiNgS

Starting time in Karachi

fajr Sunrise Zuhr asr Maghrib isha

5:59 7:18 12:42 3:45 6:06 7:26

ciTy DirEcTory

PoLicE 15

BoMB DiSPoSaL 15, 99212667

firE BrigaDE 16, 99215007, 99215008

EDhi 115, 32310066-2310077

KhiDMaT-E-KhaLQ foUNDaTioN 36333811

rED crEScENT 35833973

govErNor’S hoUSE 136

chiEf MiNiSTEr’S hoUSE 99202051

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aBBaSi ShahEED 99260400-09

civiL 99215749, 99215960

JiNNah 99201300-39

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faTiMiD 32225284, 32258656

Pwa 99215740, 32735214

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KESc 118

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raiLwayS

iNQUiry 117, 99213565-6

ciTy STaTioN 99213538

caNTT STaTioN 99201118

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fLighT iNQUiry 114

Pia rESErvaTioN 111786786

coLLEgES / UNivErSiTiES

Karachi UNivErSiTy 99261300-06

NED UNivErSiTy 99261261-8

fUUaST 99244141-9

DUhS 99215754-7

SMic 99217501-3

faST-NU 111128128, 34100541-7

SZaBiST 111922478

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iBa 111422422

ivS 35861039-40

10 Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

GALLBLADDER carci-noma (GC) was first de-scribed by MaximilianStoll in 1777, and morethan 200 years later, it

is still considered to be a highly ma-lignant disease with a poor survivalrate. The clinical presentation of GCis nonspecific. It is often recognisedlate, with the diagnosis being estab-lished during advanced stages of thedisease. Survival is less than fiveyears in 90 percent of the cases.

The incidence of GC in any pop-ulation varies widely among variousgeographic regions and ethnicgroups ranging from one to 23 per100,000. There have been reports ofrising incidences of GC from North-ern India and Southern Pakistanover the past two decades. GC is thesecond commonest malignancy ofgastrointestinal origin in Pakistaniwomen. It is the most common causeof gastrointestinal cancer relatedmortality in females in the region.

While the etiology of GC re-mains obscure, it seems that morethan one factor plays a role in thepathogenesis. A strong association isobserved between gallstones andGC, suggesting that it is the most im-portant risk factor. In addition, ge-netic factors, diet, parity, obesity,bacterial infection, poverty, benignneoplasm of gallbladder, congenitalabnormalities and porcelain gall-bladder are also postulated to thepathogenesis of GC.

The aim of this case-controlstudy was to identify the risk factorsof GC, comparing patients withcholelithiasis and gallbladder cancerpatients to patients with cholelithia-sis but no cancer on histopathology.

methodS: It was a retrospectivecase-control study conducted at theAga Khan University Hospital. Inthis review, we included patientswith cholelithiasis and gallbladdercancer and patients with cholelithi-asis without gallbladder cancer overa period of 19 years – 1988 to 2007.

All the patients with cholelithia-sis and histologically proven gall-bladder cancer were retrievedthrough the hospital’s electronicdatabase system using ICD-9 codingsystem. There were 60 patients inthis group and were selected as casesfor the study (Group A). For thesecases, controls were selected ofthose patients who have gallstoneswithout gallbladder cancer on histol-ogy (Group B). A total of 120 pa-tients were selected as controls inGroup B (case-control – 1:2). GroupB controls were selected throughcomputer generated software, whichhad randomly selected seven pa-tients from every year (from 1988 to2007), who underwent cholecystec-tomy for cholelithiasis (a total of 133

patients for 19 years). After review-ing these 133 patients’ records, 13were excluded from the study due toselected exclusion criteria, so 120patients were included in the studyas controls.

In Group A, all adult patients ofage 18-75 years with gallbladder can-cer with gallstones were included inthe study. Patients with gallbladdercancer without gallstones, missingand/or incomplete records and pa-tients with other concomitant malig-nancy were excluded from the study.

In Group B, all adult patients(18-75 years), who underwent la-paroscopic cholecystectomy for gall-stone disease, were included in thestudy. Patients who underwent la-paroscopic cholecystectomy withoutgallstones (polyp, biliary dyskine-

sia), any history of previous malig-nancy and those with incompleteand/or missing record were ex-cluded from the study.

After selecting cases and controlgroups, patients’ medical recordswere reviewed retrospectively andinformation was recorded on a pre-defined Performa. This Performa in-cluded all basic demographic details,clinical spectrum and informationregarding documented risk factorsfor gallbladder cancer (parity, bodymass index [BMI], alcohol, smoking,family history, oral contraceptivepill use, typhoid carrier state, stonenumber and size, etc).

As this was a retrospective reviewof medical records without any inter-vention, approval of the hospital’sethical review board was not taken.

Both the groups were comparedfor the following risk factors: age ofdiagnosis (age more than 55 being arisk factor), BMI (BMI of more than23kg/m2 being a risk factor), parity(multiparity being a risk factor),number of stones (solitary stonesbeing a risk factor) and size of stones(size more than 1cm being a risk fac-

tor). The number and size of stoneswere recorded from the initial ultra-sound report. As in our institution,stone numbers are being reported aseither single or multiple, so the actualnumber of stones was not available tocalculate the mean or median num-ber of stones. For stone size, the sizeof the largest stone documented onpreoperative ultrasound was used.

Data was entered and analysedusing SPSS version 14. Age was cal-culated in means and medians. Fre-quency tables were used to comparebasic demographic, clinical andother desired characteristics. Com-parison of characteristics betweentwo groups was done using the chisquare test. Factors which came outto be different with statistical signif-icance, multivariate regression

analysis was used to calculate oddratio (OR), confidence interval andp values. CI of 95 percent and pvalue of less than 0.05 was consid-ered statistically significant.

reSultS: There were 60 patientsin Group A and 120 patients inGroup B. The mean age of diagnosisin Group A patients was 57±2.4years, whereas the mean age of diag-nosis in Group B patients was48±1.35 years. Sixty seven percent ofthe cancer group patients were fe-male as compared to 78 percent fe-males in the non-cancer group. InGroup A, 69 percent of the femalepatients were multiparous (parity ofmore than five), whereas 43 percentof the Group B patients were multi-parous. For BMI, both groups werenot very different in our study pop-ulation, that is around 78 percentpatients in each group has BMI ofmore than 23kg/m2. Other docu-mented risk factors of gallbladdercancer like typhoid carrier state, oralcontraceptive pill use, smoking, al-cohol, family history were also triedto be analysed, but for these risk fac-

tors, data was either insufficient ordifference between the two groupswas too small.

Preoperative ultrasound find-ings were used to collect informationregarding stone characteristics, thatis the number and size of the stones.In Group A, 37 percent (n=22) havesolitary stones as compared to15percent (n=18) in Group B. Simi-larly, Group A patients have largerstone size as compared to Group B,that is 59 percent (n=36) patients inGroup A have stones of more than1cm when compared to 35 percent(n=41) patients in Group B. Themean stone size in Group A patientswas 2.2cm as compared to Group Bpatients, in which the mean stonesize was 0.8cm.

After comparing both groups forbasic demographic characteristicsand risk factors for gallbladder can-cer, the differences between the twogroups were calculated using the chisquare test. After the initial compar-ison, age, BMI, parity, stone size andnumber of stones showed significantand/or marginal insignificant val-ues. So, these variables were in-cluded in the multivariate regressionanalysis.

After using the multivariate re-gression analysis, age more than 55years (OR: 7.27, p value <0.0001),solitary stone (OR: 3.33, p value:0.002) and stone of more than 1cm(OR: 2.73, p value: 0.004) were foundto be independent risk factors for de-velopment of gallbladder cancer.

ConCluSion: This study foundstatistically significant positive cor-relation of gallbladder carcinomawith large sized and solitary gall-stones. Multiparity and increasedage seem to play an important rolein causation of GC. Based on the re-sults of the present study, a casecould be made for prophylacticcholecystectomy as a preventivestrategy in a high-risk group of pa-tients with asymptomatic gallstones.Early elective cholecystectomy forsymptomatic gallstones might re-duce the chances of gallbladder car-cinoma in countries where highincidence of GC is reported, includ-ing Southern Pakistan (Karachi).However, a population based studyis required to calculate the true inci-dence of GC in Karachi and a multi-centre study is needed to producestrong evidence for screening andprophylactic cholecystectomy inhigh-risk patients.

Extracted from A Rehman Alvi,Nadeem Ahmed Siddiqui andHasnain Zafar’s research paper‘Risk factors of gallbladder cancerin Karachi: a case-control study’published in the World Journal ofSurgical Oncology.

RoaD aCCIDeNtS

Aamir Hussain’s ‘Road Accidents:Analysis of Research Data’ at theUrban Resource Centre. Call34559317 for more information.

FORUMON JANUARY 18 AT 05:00 PMVENUE: URC KARACHI

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Ahmed Anver’s art exhibition fromJanuary 17 to 24 at the Citi ArtGallery. Call 35822755 for more in-formation.

ART EXHIBITIONSTARTS JANUARY 17 AT 05:30 PMVENUE: CITI ART GALLERY

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‘Entrepreneurs Roundtable Pak-istan’ at 7:00 pm on January 17at The 2nd Floor. Call 35389033for more information.

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Gallbladder cancer casesincreasing in Karachi for past two decades

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:36 AM Page 10

Editor’s mail 11Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

riP, dear arfaMiss Arfa Karim Randhawa of

Pakistan was the youngest (at the age of9 years 9 months 11days) MicrosoftCertified Professional of the world. Shedied the other day at the age of 16.

With the passing away of Allah’sgreat gift to Pakistan, the country hasnever been so poor as it is today. Shebrought laurels for the country. MayAllah rest her soul in peace! Amen.

Sab kahan kuch lala-o-gul meinnumayan ho gaein

Khak mein kaya soortain hoon gi kepinhan ho gaein

SYED NAYYAR UDDIN AHMADLahore

imran Khan’s islamMany critics are arguing about Mr

Imran Khan’s self projection of Islam byoffering prayers on stage during hisrallies. I would like to explain a fewthings to these critics. They should betalking about things logically and withsome substance. A man of intellectualbackground should not be concentratingor focusing on personal lives of anindividual. Religion is a matter betweenAllah and a man. People should not comein between Allah and His men.

Mr Imran Khan as an individual isnot a man who believes in projectinghimself and pretending to do thingswhich is not in his nature. He is what heis in front of the whole wide world. Hispersonal and professional life is an opensecret to everyone. Therefore, he doesn’tneed any tools of self projection. He isnot a hypocrite as we have seen so manytimes in his execution of his projects.Whenever he says something you can feelit that he is saying from the core of hisheart and there is no element oftreachery in it.

Other political leaders only speak butdo not deliver, Mr Imran Khan not onlyspeaks but delivers as we have seenseveral times in the past. He has provedhis worth to the people of Pakistan byexecuting his projects diligently.

Praying on stage does not signify selfprojection but if you are a true followerof Islam you will appreciate this actwhich all of us should follow without anyhesitation. He has given a very strongmessage to the world that this is how allMuslims should do.

ASMA AHSANIslamabad

The Khan phenomenon“The growing popularity of Imran

Khan’s PTI brought the PML(N) closer toPPP,” so disclosed Irfan Bukhari.

One of the main reasons for thepopularity appears to be Imran lookingsincere in his commitments which hetold to the masses. It is too early to saywhether the other major political parties’neglect and flaws proved to be blessing-in-disguise for the PTI.

PPP: (a) Price-hike becoming a retailbusiness, (b) Striving for success withouthard work like harvesting when you havenot planted, and (c) the shortages andsheddings of the power sector, thebackbone of the economy, becoming arule instead of an exception as in the pastof a few years.

PML(N): The main oppositionparty’s main slogan against thegovernment ‘was’ fighting thecorruption, giving the nation hopeagainst hope for four years, (a) insteadmasses started suffering from monotony,(b) instead corruption freely shaped itselfas a fatal beast, (c) instead it could notpull the carpet from under the feet of theparty, becoming talks of the town.

Jamat-e-Islami: Despite their efforts,it is dead silence at all fronts.

These and other parties’ best effortsgoing to drain is one of the causes whythe Imran Khan phenomenon is gettingso strong.

Z A KAZMIKarachi

chain of commandApropos to your news item (14 Jan)

that states that the former defencesecretary will challenge his sacking. It isso strange that when the defenceminister sought an explanation from thedefence secretary he submitted that hewas new to the job and was ignorant ofthe rules. The officer retired as LtGeneral and he should be clear thatanything that goes to higher authoritieshas to be routed through proper channel.

No officer can approach directly tothe COAS or for that matter any seniorcommander without observing normalchain of command and if any one doesthat, he violates the provisions of the lawand is punished accordingly. Thegeneral’s reply to defence ministercarries no weight in matter andsubstance. In any case, his plea is notmaintainable.

The fact of the matter is that armyhas ruled this country for a decade andwhen not ruling indirectly yielded itspressure on the civilian government andtherefore it will take time to reconcilewith civilian supremacy. This on-goingwar must come to end soon; otherwise, itwill shake the foundation of the state andmay cause damage beyond repair.

MUKHTAR AHMEDKarachi

Pakistan politicsWhy can’t we have political sanity

in Pakistan, where those elected stopbehaving like emperors and considerthemselves accountable for all theiracts and be seen following constitutionin letter and spirit? May I ask the PMor President what benefit has theirtenure done to better the daily lives ofthose who voted for them?

It is only when they exercise theirdemocratic obligations to serve peoplehonestly and with responsibility thatthey can expect other institutions tohonour or respect them. They did notvote for expensive rental power plantsto be installed which failed to supply

electricity and shut down our industryrendering hundreds of thousandsunemployed, while the country isdeprived of revenues, nor did they votefor the state rail, road and airtransportation system to be in chaoticturmoil, neither for our Hajis to havetheir pilgrimage become an ordeal.

What purpose is served byburdening already overstaffed statecorporations with more employees whoare neither qualified nor required?People expect an elected governmentnot to be seen wasting taxpayers’money living like kings, spending onuseless expensive foreign junkets which

yield nothing in terms of trade benefits,or not having transfer of technology tomake this country self-reliable.

The men in uniform need tounderstand that they are paid to defendthis country and make lives of citizensmore secure, instead of runningindustrial cartels or commercialresidential societies and indulge inpolitics. Similarly, civil bureaucracyshould start behaving and living likepublic servants instead of the privilegedclass living in exclusive residentialcolonies, enjoying perks which thiscountry can ill afford. Ourparliamentarians should be seen to

legislate and not to violate, or abusetheir official powers, nor indulge inprivate business involving any conflictof interest.

What the people of Pakistan havebeen seeing is that rulers, be theymilitary dictators or elected civilians,consider this country to be theirfiefdoms, where they or their familiesand cronies are above laws. Democracyis about the rule of law. Whenindividuals assume powers without anyresponsibility or accountability, theyact like dictators whom the people hate.

MALIK TARIQ ALIIllinois, USA

ppp in choppy watersThe PPP government is right now cornered from all three

fronts. While some of the flak it is receiving may be some of itsown doing but it cannot be denied that many actors are usingthis situation to grind their own axes and unconstitutionalagendas. The PPP has just helped matters by adopting a defiantstand. It cannot be denied that the SC orders in the NRO caseand its issuance of contempt notices to the prime are followingthe letter of the law to the tee. Even if the SC’s priorities are said

to be ‘mixed up’ (it has indeed not taken up the Asghar Khancase and why out of all the NRO cases does it specifically wantthe Zardari one opened?), it does not take away from the factthat its decision follows the law and must be respected. The PPPwould do well not to drill holes in its own sinking ship and com-ply with the SC.

KAMIL HASSAANLahore

campus in chaosAs the unrest in the once peaceful

Sindh University (SU) in Jamshorocontinues, the parents, teachers,educators and Sindhi intelligentsia haveexpressed utter displeasure anddespondency about the situation.

Previously, the students weredemanding the resignation of theincumbent Vice Chancellor andslamming his anti-merit policy. But nowin the wake of the brutal murder of ProfBashir Ahmad Channer who was killedright under the nose of law enforcementagencies in broad daylight on Monday bytwo unknown pillion riders, animmediate resignation of the Vice

Chancellor has emerged as one of thedemands of the teachers communityalso.

Indeed, unrest and violence on thecampus reflect the complete moral andintellectual failure of the entire varsityadministration. However, the situationcalls for immediate reflection and actionso that the tension may be diffused andbrewing clashes may be averted at theearliest.

In this scenario, the varsityadministration must think outside thebox and outside their luxurious offices.As much as possible, the universityadministration must try to make thecampus experiences fruitful for thestudents and not painful.

In this regard, I vividly remember thewords of one of my mentors, former ViceChancellor of my alma mater MehranUniversity, Dr S M Qureshi who used tosay that “the most effective educatorsand varsity administrators bring theirentire selves to the job.

They celebrate student successes,and show compassion for students,among others. It is only character,contribution and compassion which canbring and maintain enviable environ onthe campus and nothing else.” The SUadministration must reflect on thesegolden words and bring normalcy back tothe campus.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

Send your letters to:Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistanfax: +92-42-36298302e-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters may be edited for length and clarity.It would be appreciated if letters were ad-dressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

God helps those who helpthemselves. Prime MinisterSyed Yousaf Raza Gilani

has strictly followed this principlewhile advising his fellow parlia-mentarians to protect themselves.“You should protect yourself. Youshould protect the parliament”.

Sanest advice indeed! If thelargest repository of public confi-dence and mandate, the parlia-ment, can’t protect itself, it wouldamount to a breach of trust withthe masses who are the sovereignpower of any land and to whomevery institution of the country is– and should be – answerable.This is what is meant by democ-racy and nothing else.

Democracy has no meaningother than the supremacy of thepeople of a country. Those who saythat the parliament is supreme or

the constitution is supreme, mustkeep in mind that the parliamentis founded on people’s popular willand the constitution is the sumtotal of people’s aspirations andmutually agreed principles of so-cial, economic and political inter-action. As for the edge enjoyed bythe parliament, all over the demo-cratic world, it only owes to onefact that it is the supreme repre-sentative body of the will of themasses. Therefore, protection ofthe parliament is, by all means,protection of democracy.

And here is where we need tomake the right and timely choices,as declared by the prime ministeron the floor of the house. Cer-tainly, the time has now come forthe nation – and even the nationalinstitutions – to decide whetherthey stand for democracy or dicta-torship. Why are we trying to moveback to square one by pushing thecountry into a political quagmire,glorifying intervention by unde-

mocratic forces or by the quartersthat aren’t allowed to do so by theconstitution.

Any self-aggrandising movesaimed at disturbing the equilib-rium of trichotomy of powers willonly have a regressive effect. Is itjust for the sake of grabbingpower prior to the completion ofmandated period from the electedrepresentatives? If that is the mo-tive, then why not move anamendment for reducing thetenure of a parliament from fiveyears to four, as suggested by theprime minister?

Why can’t the parliamentari-ans, even if they be staunch oppo-nents of President Zardari, PMGilani and PPP, take to a constitu-tional course, as they have givenan oath of allegiance to the peopleof Pakistan with whom they areconnected through a democraticsystem? Even if these politiciansfrom the PML(N) and its allies areso restless about coming into

power, they should not glorify anymoves which will weaken the par-liament. They will have to be dis-creet in their actions andstatements. Any hasty move,backed by undemocratic, uncon-stitutional means, to remove thepresident and/or the prime minis-ter would serve their personal mo-tives but would cause colossaldamage to democracy and, thus, tothe country.

It must be noted that emphasisis being given placed on constitu-tional means at this juncture. Forsure, taking recourse to unconsti-tutional means would spell disas-ter for the country which hasalready experienced many uglythings in the form of undemocraticrule for decades, ‘judicial murder’(as declared by hundreds of emi-nent jurists of the world) of a pop-ularly elected prime minister andforced ousters and dismissals ofgovernments through legal doc-trines and legal framework machi-

nations in the midst of their man-dated tenures. All members of theparliament must heed the PM’sadvice and rise above personallikes and dislikes to save the sys-tem and maintain the balance. Ifthe government goes in an uncer-emonious manner that defies theconstitution, it will not be the fallof PPP, Zardari or Gilani but it willbe the fall of the parliament whichstrictly implies the fall of democ-racy.

There is not an iota of doubt inGilani’s statement that he is seek-ing the support of his fellow parlia-mentarians only for protecting theparliament which means their own(i.e. the parliamentarians’ and theelectorate’s) protection.

‘If, however, some catastrophebefell, we won’t go begging (for oursurvival) and bowing before any-one. We’ll, in that case, prefer to goto the masses’. Now these words ofthe PM on the floor of the houseconvey a highly assuring message

to the masses who have been ‘mal-treated’ by a number of wiseacresamong some political and mediasegments in the shape of unfair in-terpretations and disinformation.Now is the time to say goodbye tothe undemocratic and unconstitu-tional attitudes that have contin-ued to haunt us.

The parliament (meaningthereby the majority of parliamen-tarians) should lend full support tothe resolution tabled in the Na-tional Assembly by ANP leader,Asfandyar Wali Khan, because atno point, the resolution questionsthe role and powers of any na-tional institution, what to talk ofchallenging the authority of any ofthese institutions. And, moreover,the resolution is only a move toprotect and strengthen the parlia-ment which means strengtheningof the entire democratic system.And by the system is meant the en-tire network of all the pillars of thestate.

By S Rahman

saving the system

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:36 AM Page 11

comment12Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

confusion all around

This League and that

Will the real PML(N) please stand up? This isgetting rather troublesome. Is it the Leagueof post-exile Nawaz Sharif, who seems tohave been tutored in the structure and

dynamics of constitutional, Westminster-styledemocracies? Or is it the League of the Nawaz Sharif whosubmits a petition on the basis of a non-paper written by adubious US national, all in the ruse of protecting thenational army?

Is it the League of Punjab Chief Minister ShahbazSharif, whose visits to the lair in Rawalpindi get tongueswagging? Or is it the League of Sialkot MNA Khwaja Asif,who applauds the prime minister’s decision not toapologise to the military over the latter’s statement to aChinese daily about the army chief and his spymaster?

Such confusion is but natural. The League never couldplace itself and these are the growing pains of a party inadolescence. The country’s anti-establishment niche has,traditionally, been the domain of the centre-left partieslike the PPP, ANP and the smattering of Balochnationalists. The creation of an anti-establishment partyon the other side of the divide would have been a cause tocelebrate were it not for the League’s equivocality on theissue.

One would have thought the party would have had agreater axe to grind here. Their prime minister was bootedout of office, all but gagged and bound. And, as opposed tothe earlier martial laws where there had been tumult,bloodshed or the prospect of bloodshed, there was nothingof the sort here, no fig leaf of an excuse for the military tostep in.

As noted lawyer Asma Jehangir, after resigning ascounsel for former ambassador Hussain Haqqani said,this is a petition that is going to come back and bite thosewho filed it. These are words to the wise. A shortsightedapproach to the role of the military in civilian matters isgoing to be to no one’s benefit. It would do well for theparties currently groomed by the powers that be to realisethat even they would have outlived their utility themoment they acquire grassroots support.

Something’s got to give

crisis still unresolved

President Zardari’s directive to Gilani to appearbefore the court would not resolve the crisisunless either Mr Zardari succeeds in gettingimmunity from the SC in matters of litigation or

the government writes to the Swiss authorities to open thecases against the President. Two reasons, one legal andthe other political, were given by the PPP led governmentto explain its failure to comply with the apex court’s order.The legal argument centering around presidentialimmunity was rejected by the SC which held that to seekimmunity Mr Zardari was required to present his casebefore the apex court. The political reason advanced wasthat as PPP fondly cherished the memory of its slainleader Benazir Bhutto, it was unthinkable for the party toconduct what it called the ‘trial of BB’s grave.’ In a TVinterview on January 8, President Zardari maintained thatfor the PPP this was a point of principle ‘come what may’.

The party has up to Thursday to decide whether it iswilling to carry out the court’s order. The party leadershiphas developed a perception that it is being discriminatedagainst and conspiracies are afoot to overthrow itsgovernment. It has asked why out of thousands of NABcases, which involve around three dozen politicians, onlyMr Zardari’s case has been taken up. It has alsoquestioned the criteria employed by the SC to determinethe priority of the cases to be taken up by it. It has askedwhy Asghar Khan’s petition against ISI’s funding of anumber of non-PPP politicians has not been taken updespite its importance. The matter is likely to be debatedby the historians in days to come, particularly if thestandoff between the two pillars of the state leads to acollapse of the system.

The court and the government have taken strongpositions. Unless either of the two displays flexibility,there is little hope of the crisis being defused. That leadersof the allied parties would accompany the Prime Ministerto the court indicates that even if Mr Gilani is removed,the PPP has enough strength to get another loyalistelected Leader of the House. This will, however, onlyintensify the crisis by bringing the judiciary and executiveinto head-on clash. This would be recipe for theunravelling of the system, which needs to be avoided.

If Lahore has a population of about9 million, and if say 8 million ofthem have access to bathrooms,and if on average each person usesthe bathroom and flushes it 3 times

a day, which is a conservative estimate butso be it, and if each flush uses 3 litres ofwater, we are, on average and as an esti-mate, flushing a whopping 72 million litresof water everyday. Imagine the energy ittakes to pump this water to our homes inthe first place and then the energy neededto dispose of the waste.

But the issue I want to raise has to dowith whether this is all needed? Do weneed to use a three litre flush every timewe need to flush? Can we do, for someflushes, with a litre or 2-litre flush? If thatis the case, and even if one flush per per-son needs to be a one-litre flush, we wouldneed 16 million litres of water less thanwhat we are flushing currently. And thekey is that it is not an issue of science oreven technology. We have the science offlush systems already worked out, and wehave the technology to design variable useflush systems too, or smaller flush systemsetc., it is an issue of design and more thanthat, awareness of the need to conservewater and not waste it.

The above example shows that I amtalking of waste and efficiency issue andnot about changing consumer preferencesand reducing existing consumption. Theremight be an argument for that too, butthat is a separate argument. Here I am justtalking of cutting out waste and using ex-isting resources more efficiently.

Here is another example. Many peoplehave their cars and driveways washedevery day. Whether it is middleclass areaor a high-income area every morning ormid morning you see people getting theirdriveways washed clean. The water is theswept off the driveway and into the streetoutside. Apart from the wastage of water,it causes damage to roads as well. Waterstands on the road and when cars go overthe wet road it destroys the roads by cre-ating potholes. Why can’t people just getthe driveway swept and/or use a wet mopfor getting the driveway clean if simple drysweeping is not good enough.

How much water is wasted when wejust let water run while we wait for hotwater to reach from the geyser to the tap?

Is there a way of collecting that water andusing it for something? And why do peoplelet water run while they are brushing theirteeth or shaving? Why can we not use amug of hot water when shaving and use aglass of water when brushing our teeth in-stead of letting water run for the durationof the brushing? These are small things,but like the flushing example, a change inhow we go about doing them can have,over large number of people, a significantimpact on the environment, our energyneeds as well as the ground water levels inplaces where we live.

Water is becoming a scarce commod-ity by the day. Ground water levels arefalling in most big cities and the cost ofpumping water is going up. Dealing withwaste water, even in rivers and streams, ishaving large impacts on the environmentand this will, in turn, have consequencesfor all of us. But even though we are start-ing to see strains here and there, and wetalk of trying to ensure that India does notmake it difficult for us to get water bybuilding dams on the rivers that flow toPakistan from India, we are not doing any-thing for water management.

Interestingly we have not even startedto think of ground water management inany sensible way. In most cities, anyonecan easily drill a hole in the ground andstart pumping water. The same is true inmost rural areas as well, for tube-well bor-ing. Groundwater aquifers are clearly notthe property of any one person. In fact, itseems in Pakistan it is not clear who doesground water belong to? Should it be theproperty of landowners? But groundwateris spread under land that is usually ownedby many people and when one personpumps water the water table is affected inthe entire area and not just under the par-ticular person’s land.

The water should belong to all the peo-ple of an area. But that cannot be the casejust by default, it has to be a right that is

recognised in law. Only then can the com-munity decide what to do with the water.How much to pump and who should begiven the right to pump, and at whatprice? Currently, since the right is not evenestablished, people mine water accordingto their needs, and since the benefit ofmined water goes to the individual whilethe cost of less water is distributed overthe community, we have the classic prob-lem of the ‘tragedy of the commons’ wherethe result is over-mining. If the right wasestablished then the transactions that areright now going on by default and withouta regulatory framework or a marketframework could be brought under the re-quired frame. Should private companiesbe allowed to pump and bottle water, andat what price? Should water pumped inone city be allowed to be piped to anothercity, and under what conditions?

A lot of people have been arguing thatwater is going to be one of the main con-straints to our growth and wellbeing mov-ing forward. We are already seeingshortages develop in various areas andsectors: for electricity generation, for agri-cultural purposes, as well as for drinkingand other household chores. We are al-ready considered a semi-arid area. But atthe same time we have not even started tothink about developing the jurisprudencefor ground water, the regulatory mecha-nisms and /or market mechanisms, the di-alogue on water conservation and waysand means of doing that, and how to startpreparing the society to internalize betterwater management practices. Why shouldwe wait for this to become a full blown cri-sis before we decide to move on these is-sues?

The writer is an Associate Professorof Economics at LUMS (currently onleave) and a Senior Advisor at OpenSociety Foundation (OSF). He can bereached at fbari@sorosny.org

By Dr Faisal Bari

Wasting waterLike there is no tomorrow…

US national Mansoor Ijaz seems to be the pivotal per-son in the memo case underway in the SC. Nostranger to controversy, he has been involved in

many dubious activities in international diplomatic circles. The recent storm kicked up by Mansoor Ijaz has led to

much political turmoil and polarisation within Pakistan. Thisshady character was first heard of in Pakistan’s politicalscene of Pakistan when he initiated a drive against the gov-ernment of late prime minister Shaheed Benazir Bhutto in1995-96.

He did not lay low after that and has been part of manyself-orchestrated diplomatic hatchet jobs. He has also issuedstatements against Pakistan’s ISI and other institutions. Nowthat he has re-emerged in recent times by instigating theMemogate scandal and trying to destabilise the democraticsetup in Pakistan, one must analyse the context within whichhe is operating and what could be his possible motivations.

No one can deny that Pakistanis become united againstUnited States in the wake of NATO attack on Salala Checkpost at Mohmand Agency.

Due to the overwhelming public pressure which was onthe side of the government to stand up to the US, Pakistan

had forced the superpower to vacate the Shamsi Airbase. TheShamsi Airbase was gifted by Mian Nawaz Sharif to UAErulers but later Pervez Musharraf gifted it to the US.

Pervez Musharraf – without taking his cabinet and thenation into confidence – had made a U-Turn on the Afghanpolicy after getting a single telephonic call from Mr GeorgeW Bush whereas the present government, as per the consentof the nation, has not only banned the use of supply routesfor NATO but has also succeeded in getting Shamsi Airbasevacated. It is apparent that since Musharraf was dictator, heacted without any compunction of public will but the presentgovernment, being a democratically elected one, is bound bythe wishes of the public. Thus, this democratic setup couldbe a hindrance in the designs of many offstage players.

The Memogate scandal reveals that Mansoor Ijaz-like el-ements have no concern about the interests of Pakistan.Rather, he is amongst those who are bent upon the fuellingof crises in Pakistan. People have the right to ask the govern-ment to expose such elements. His non-assertions, eventhough they are coming from a non-credible source, aboutthe democratic government in Pakistan have thrown a span-ner into the works. Such foreign elements cannot be allowedto destabilise Pakistan.

-Translated from the original Pashto by Shamim Shahid

Quite the shady characterDaily Khabroona

Regional press

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:37 AM Page 12

Mehdi Hassan and NoorJehan’s songs held thepublic in thrall during the

war of 1965: Apni jaan nazar ka-roon; Aye watan kay sajilayjawanon; Meria dhol sipaiya. Nowif only the dhol sipaiya would re-member their raison d’etre, peoplewould still be peshing their wafasto the army today and they’d besomething more than just sajilay.

Many jawans lost their lives inPakistan’s several wars and skir-mishes against enemies within andwithout its borders. However thearmed forces cannot claim to bealone in their losses here.

According to figures producedby the South Asia Terrorism Portal(SATP), in 2003 140 civilians losttheir lives in Pakistan, as did 24members of the Security Forcesand 25 terrorists. These numberspeaked in 2009 with 2,307 civilian,1,011 Security Force and 8,267 ter-rorist deaths...a staggering 11,585deaths that single year alone.

In 2010 the figures were downto 1,796 civilian, 469 SF, and 384terrorist deaths, a total of 7,435 fa-talities. Data collected up to Febru-ary in 2011 indicated 226 civilian,98 SF, and 384 terrorist deaths...intwo months alone.

All in all, 9,620 civilians died inthe space of seven years and twomonths in this country, while 3,443SF personnel and 20,150 terroristslost their lives, a staggering total of33,213 lives all told.

Either the armed forces are nolonger effective, or unable to be so.

Mind you, the performanceelsewhere is as poor. Each succes-sive civilian government has beenmore inept than the one before, somuch so that our current presidenthas been WikiLeaked as a ‘numb-skull’ in a conversation between SirJock Stirrup and American diplo-mats, and as ‘highly corrupt’ to

quote other senior British officials.I found myself writing last

week about whether democracy isall that it is cracked up to be. Canthe same question be asked aboutthe armed forces? Dare I ask if anarmy is really necessary in thiscountry, at least in the shape, sizeand form it takes today?

Casting a slur (whether real orimagined), on two groups seems tocause the supporters of each to spitand foam incoherently at themouth. So much so that writingabout them has become for me anexercise in taking the Mickey out ofboth. Those two groups are the PTIand the army.

So let’s carry on with a fewmore facts.

According to an article by Kam-

ran Yousaf in a daily newspaper,Pakistan’s defence budget for theyear 2011-12 increased by almost 12percent from the previous year, andnow stands at over Rs 495 billion.This does not include a whoppingRs 73 billion set aside for militarypensions which sum is to be takenfrom the civilian budget, in addi-tion to other sums taken from thecivilian budget. The column goeson to say that according to BushraGohar of the ANP, the defencebudget of Pakistan has never beenproperly questioned in parliament.

Any organisation that finds it-self running out of jobs has to cre-ate them. The huge American armsindustry has been doing so foryears by supporting and creatingthe need for weapons around theworld. WikiLeaks have indicatedthat the Pakistani establishmenttoo is implicated in supporting ter-rorism in the entire South Asian re-

gion...and beyond. It also points to-wards the corruption of the variouscomponents of the Pakistani gov-ernment.

The ineptness/involvement ofthe Pakistan army in the Osama binLaden case, their ineffectiveness inthe Raymond Davis episode, Amer-ican drone attacks and regionalmilitant violence begs the questionwhy such huge amounts of fundsare being diverted from the crucialneeds of a poverty stricken nationinto military coffers.

To quote one single example,the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hos-pital in Lahore needs more thantwo billion rupees in donations thisyear to help patients who are oth-erwise unable to pay for them-selves.

And there are many, manyother examples. Two years ago theLayton Rahmatulla BenevolentTrust which runs a free eye hospitalin Lahore required Rs 423 millionto be able to continue treating cur-able blindness in Pakistan. Thisyear costs have risen as have theirrequirements.

Education needs money.Roads, power, industry…all beg forhelp, and we give money to a bunchof people who end up forming astate within a state and have be-come so much too big for theirboots? Let me spell that out: whatjustification does such huge and in-effective military spending havewhen our people have no food andin many places no drinking water?

Given such conditions, we mayall be better off overrun by foreignarmies anyway.

What excuse do we have forpandering so to our army?

comment 13Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

Heard it through the grapewynne

The jig is up?

January 16 is a date that will live ininfamy, or not. It will long be re-membered as the beginning ofthe end, or not. It will forever be

recalled as the date when a man in a wigordered the head of Pakistan’s vast gov-ernment to appear before him to ex-plain why he was being so cheeky. Ornot. It will be celebrated as the daywhen said head of government, ratherthan being snooty and aloof (unlike cer-tain erstwhile foreign ambassadors andtheir hyper-ventilating erstwhile coun-sels) actually assented to appear beforesaid individual to valiantly defend hispoint of view. Or not. This is the kind ofuncertainty most Pakistanis have to livewith. Especially the ones who watch TV.Or read newspapers. Or listen to theradio. All others have been blissfullyunaware, leading average, mundane,poverty-inflation-and-gas-shortage-stricken lives.

This dichotomy strikes at the veryheart of the purpose of our fair coun-try’s existence. For many years, the ven-erable Muhammad Ali Jinnah sweatedbullets just so the people (readMusalmaans) of India could lead life asit was meant to be: free from the yokeof imperialism and chained to the yokeof hegemonic, class-based social strati-fication. In Jinnah’s Pakistan, the aver-age man was free to go to his temple,

mosque, synagogue and gur-dwara, as long as he couldafford the cab fare. Thosewho could not had to takepublic transport and riskbeing hacked to death byracial/religious/ethnic su-premacists wielding scimi-tars and spears (ostensiblyto compensate for their pe-nile dysfunction).

That Pakistan is nomore. In its place, we haveZardari’s Pakistan. A landwhere opportunities areaplenty; roti, kapra andmakaan in all shapes andforms are readily availableand top quality education isprovided. To all those whocan afford to pay for it. Youmay think that this piece ofnews is a bit too big to beconcealed in the fine print,but you’d be wrong. It hasbeen kept hidden from themasses for all these years,thanks to the brilliant satiri-cal skills of useless writerssuch as Ibne Insha, AhmedShah Bukhari and SaadatHasan Manto. The perpetu-ation of money-over-man-

power has been a central motif in thedevelopment of our national character.And thanks to El Jefe, that character iscurrently quite dheela.

However, there is one constant thathas remained constant all throughoutour nation’s pockmarked history: theinvisible hand that has always wieldedthe bulk of the power in the subconti-nent. A force that from Messervy toIskander to Ayub to Yahya to Zia toMusharraf has been the force drivingthe country’s collective engine. A forcethat, in other countries, may be calledan army. In Pakistan, we call it thestate. Hence, anti-military conspiraciesbecome anti-state activities, all in theblink of an eye. For as long as I can re-member, the fragile railroad of democ-racy has been derailed by the sound ofarmy boots marching up to the door ofparliament. It is currently the year2012, the year the Mayans thought theworld would end. Ironically, this is alsothe year when little Tweety birds, alsoknown as unnamed sources, have beendropping hints and toting 2012 as theend of the world, for the ruling PPP.This essentially means the end of theworld as we know it, because while wemay hate the 10% milk we are being fedunder this atrocious rule, we know thatthings can be changed, come next elec-tions. However, with the boot firmly ondemocracy’s unkempt sandals, noamount of electoral reform can guaran-tee that an election will take place if andwhen a military ruler takes over thereins of government and declares him-self an ‘Obama’, i.e. Commander inChief of the (un)Armed Forces.

For weeks since the Memogatescandal broke, many have been specu-lating that the democratic jig is up.There have been multiple theories re-garding the big chief’s commitment todemocracy and how he is not the manAbu Hamza bin Musharraf was. Thereis also counterspeak that his closest(and next in line) generals do not quiteagree with the big cheese’s aloofnessand crave a greater role in nation build-ing. Granted that there is only a handfulof such wynning three-to-four-star-tot-ing generals, but in a country like ours,even one is enough. Enough to plunge anation of debaucherous sex-offendersinto a deeply religious state. Enough toplunge a nation of mullahs into hedo-nism. And enough to force both themullahs and the liberal fascists to standtall on the same platform, as their lack-eys service them, hand and foot.

Follow @mightyobvious on Twitterfor more incoherence in 140 charactersor less

Imagine all the money we could save

Why this army?

By Rabia Ahmed

education needs money. Roads, power,industry…all beg for help, and we givemoney to a bunch of people who endup forming a state within a state andhave become so much too big for theirboots? Let me spell that out: whatjustification does such huge andineffective military spending havewhen our people have no food and inmany places no drinking water?

Mighty obviousBy Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:37 AM Page 13

14 Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

THE 69TH ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS

comebackRanbir-Katrina stage aMUMBaI: The 18th annual Screenawards had a big shocker in storefor all Sallu fans. The 2011 ‘hitmachine’ Salman Khan was notnominated in any of thecategories, including that of the‘Best actor’ – a domain thatbelonged strictly to him in theyear gone by. amrita raoattending the event said:“Salman Khan is such a bigsuperstar, and he doesn’t need anomination to prove it.” Dia Mirzasaid, “People who get nominatedtreasure that nomination and itmeans a lot, having said that, iam sure there will be enoughaward shows who will nominatehim and he will win enough.”Bigg Boss 5 contestant SiddharthBhardwaj said, “i am one of thebiggest fans of Salman Khan andit’s disappointing that he has notbeen nominated, but i’m sure hadhe been nominated, he wouldhave won an award.” after giving2011 two of the biggestblockbuster in ‘ready’ and‘Bodyguard’, Salman Khan wasleft without any popular award.So much so that his name didn’teven feature in the nominationlist.call it the streak of bad luck,but for his diehard fans thedabangg Khan will always bemost ‘wanted’. ZeeNeWS

Ali Zafar’s

ready for releaseNEWS DESK

LONDON Paris NewYork is a film thatcaptures the angst ofthe twenties, themost dramatic pe-

riod of one's life - when you have tofind a career, you have your firstsignificant relationship andmost importantly form youridentity in this world. This isstory about Lalitha, a middleclass south Indian girl fromChembur (an eastern sub-urb in Mumbai) who is onher way to New York tostudy politics with full scholar-ship, and Nikhil, a Punjabi, richkid from Bandra (a posh west-ern suburb of Mumbai) who isgoing to study film making inLondon on 100 percent dad’s

money. They decide to hangout togetherone evening in London and find that

they are completely drawn to eachother even as their future lies onseparate continents. The film fol-lows their personal journey andtheir love story as they meet in Lon-

don, Paris and New York for anight each over eight years.

The film is in three chap-ters and each chapter isshot in a manner thatmirrors the mental stateof Nikhil and Lalitha.

Directed by Anu Menonand produced by Shrishti

Arya and Goldie Behl incollaboration with 20thCentury Fox, this romanticcomedy stars Ali Zafar andAditi Rao Hydari and re-leases on March 2, 2012 intheatres near you.

BBC

BBC asked its readers for their predictionsof life in 100 years time. Here are the toptwenty predictions:

1. Oceans will be extensively farmedand not just for fish

2. We will have the ability to commu-nicate through thought transmission

3. Thanks to DNA and roboticengineering, we will havecreated incredibly intelli-gent humans who are im-mortal

4. We will be able tocontrol the weather

5. Antarctica will be"open for business"

6. One single world-wide currency

7. We will all be wired tocomputers to make our brainswork faster

8. Nanorobots will flowaround our body fixing cells,and will be able to record ourmemories

9. We will have sussed nu-clear fusion

10. There will only be three languagesin the world - English, Spanish and Man-darin.

11. Eighty per cent of the world willhave gay marriage

12. California will lead the break-up ofthe US

13. Space elevators will make spacetravel cheap and easy

14. Women will be routinely im-pregnated by artificial inseminationrather than by a man

15. There will be museums foralmost every aspect of nature, as

so much of the world's naturalhabitat will have been de-stroyed

16. Deserts will becometropical forests

17. Marriage will be re-placed by an annual contract

18. Sovereign nationstates will cease to exist and

there will be one world gov-ernment

19. War by the West will befought totally be remote control

20. Britain will have had arevolution.

Twenty top predictions for life 100 years from now

MUMBaI: It looks like Nikhil advani’s untitled project starringarjun Rampal has hit the skids now as the director and thehero of the project can’t decide who the leading lady shouldbe. Rumour has it that Nikhil wanted amy Jackson whopreviously acted in the regional film ‘Madrasapattinam’ andwill be in seen in the prateik-starrer ‘ek Deewana tha,’ toromance super hottie arjun Rampal in his upcoming movie.arjun on the other hand, still basking in the appreciation hegot for SRK’s ‘Ra.one’ was particular that the ‘Rockstar’heroine Nargis fakhri should be paired opposite him. a sourcesaid that arjun’s demand seemed unreasonable becauseNargis’ debut performance in ‘Rockstar’ was panned by bothcritics and the audience. the source also added that casting

Nargis wasn’t a good idea as the actress had not signedon any films after ‘Rockstar’ which only proved that shewasn’t in demand. apparently, arjun put in a good wordabout the actress to UtV Motion pictures, the producersof the film. and no doubt, it is believed that arjun mayhave his way because he has had good relations withUtV in the past, working in films such as ‘Rajneeti’‘Heroine’ and ‘We are family.’ Now english model amyJackson may be the latest rage in t’town with twofilms already in her kitty but it looks like it takes awoman of South asian origin to impress the ‘Ra.one’arjun. aGeNCIeS

MUMBaI: you know that young, giddy-headedlovers have matured, when they start behavingcordially with each other after their high-profileparting. when ranbir and Katrina's split earlylast year, it was the former's much hyped worldTour that suffered the worst collateral damage.ranbir called off the tour, saying he had nostage songs. and with the two former loversrefusing to work together, Katrina was struck

off from the lineup, even though she hadnudged out Deepika Padukone and SonamKapoor from the tour. well, a lot of water hasflown under the bridge. and as a show ofmaturity both Katrina and ranbir have decidedto work together professionally again and willtopline the world Tour lineup. Katrina 's friendhas confirmed the developments, adding thatshe is indeed working out her dates toaccompany her former boyfriend to the UK, USand canada in august this year. as for ranbir, amember of the tour production team toldMumbai Mirror: “he has no issues aboutKatrina's inclusion. Katrina has given herconsent.” But will she be comfortable on stagewith ranbir? “Now that remains to be seen,”says her friend. “Besides, we do not know howthe performances are being planned, whetherranbir and Katrina will perform together ornot.” Katrina's decision to join ranbir- inwhatever capacity- is bound to raise eyebrows.Not too long ago the actress had opted out ofayan Mukerji's film starring ranbir. Thisrapprochement may have been a result ofranbir's recent moves to make peace with hisex-es and their current boyfriends. it took hima while to make amends with Deepika, but heis now doing a film with her, the same ayanproject which Katrina refused. he has evenspotted bonding with Deepika's current flameSidhartha Mallya. aGeNCIeS

Arjunchooses

Nargis over Amy

BEVERLY HILLS:

Octavia Spencer,

director Martin

Scorsese, Kate

Beckinsale, Callie

Thorne, Kate

Winslet, Salma

Hayek, Meryl

Streep, Emma

Stone, Andrea

Riseborough and

Madonna, Charlize

Theron, Matt

LeBlanc, Bradley

Cooper, Nicole

Kidman Angelina

Jolie and Brad

Pitt, Leonardo

DiCaprio and

Chris Colfer at the

69th annual

Golden Globe

Awards at the

Beverly Hilton

Hotel. AFP

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:38 AM Page 14

MUMBaI: They first met in 2005, and ever since,this is one love story that has never ceased tofuel speculation. Now Mumbai Mirror has learnt ofan impending wedding from a close friend of thecouple, “Zaheer Khan and isha Sharvani havedecided to tie the knot at the end of March. Thewedding is just two-and-a-half months away.”Soon after india won the world cup 2011 andZaheer emerged highest wicket taker of thetournament, his proud parents were insistent ongetting him married. and turned out, their wishwas his command. “recently, their families metand finalised the wedding details. a final decisionwill be taken when Zaheer returns from theongoing australian tour. if they don't marry inMarch, they will do so in october. But they arekeen on March,” their friend revealed, adding thatthe reception is slated to be a grand affair, withthe indian cricket team and quite a few B-townpersonalities on the guest list. in 2005, isha wasperforming when the touring australian teamwas leaving india, and that's when they met. itwasn't exactly love at first sight but they keptmeeting at social dos, till one day, Zaheerproposed. isha was totally smitten by thecricketer, and they got into a strong relationshipfor two years till they called it quits in 2007,after which it became an on-again, off-again

relationship. as their friend assures, "all theirfriction is a thing of the past. Every couple hastheir share of ups and downs and this one is noexception. anyway, its wedding bells for them inMarch." Despite repeated attempts, isha and Zaheerremained unavailable for comment. aGeNCIeS

15

Royal ignore to Salman Khan at to tie the knot

Zaheer Khan, Isha Sharvani

‘Artist’, ‘Descendants’ win big at Golden Globes

BeSt MotIoN pICtURe, DRaMa: ‘The Descendants’ BeSt MotIoN pICtURe - CoMeDY oR MUSICaL: ‘Theartist’BeSt DIReCtoR – MotIoN pICtURe: Martin Scorsese,‘hugo’ BeSt peRfoRMaNCe BY aN aCtReSS IN a MotIoNpICtURe – DRaMa: Meryl Streep, ‘The iron Lady’ BeSt peRfoRMaNCe BY aN aCtoR IN a MotIoNpICtURe, DRaMa: george clooney, ‘The Descendants’BeSt peRfoRMaNCe BY aN aCtoR IN a MotIoNpICtURe – CoMeDY oR MUSICaL: Jean Dujardin, ‘Theartist’ BeSt peRfoRMaNCe BY aN aCtReSS IN a SUppoRtINGRoLe IN a MotIoN pICtURe: octavia Spencer, ‘The help’ BeSt peRfoRMaNCe BY aN aCtoR IN a SUppoRtINGRoLe IN a MotIoN pICtURe: christopher Plummer,‘Beginners’ BeSt foReIGN LaNGUaGe fILM: ‘a Separation’ (iran) BeSt SCReeNpLaY – MotIoN pICtURe: ‘woody allen’,Midnight in Paris BeSt aNIMateD featURe fILM: ‘The adventures of Tintin’ BeSt peRfoRMaNCe BY aN aCtReSS IN a MotIoNpICtURe – CoMeDY oR MUSICaL: Michelle williams, ‘Myweek with Marilyn’ BeSt oRIGINaL SoNG – MotIoN pICtURe: ‘Masterpiece’— ‘w.E.’ Music and Lyrics by: Madonna, Julie frost, Jimmyharry BeSt oRIGINaL SCoRe – MotIoN pICtURe: LudovicBource, ‘The artist’.

(L-R) Actress Missi Pyle, producer Thomas Langmann, actor Jean Dujardin, director Michel Hazanavicius,

actors Berenice Bejo, Penelope Ann Miller, composer Ludovic Bource, actors Ken Davitian, and James

Cromwell pose in the press room with the Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy award for ‘The Artist’. AFP

LOS ANGELES ReUteRS

SILENT-ERA film‘The Artist’ andfamily drama‘The Descen-dants’ were the

top film picks at the GoldenGlobe Awards on Sunday ina loose-lipped awards showthat even had host Ricky

Gervais walking onto thestage with a drink in hishand. ‘The Descendants’,starring George Clooney as aman steering his familythrough a tragic time whenhis wife is in a coma, wontwo Golden Globe trophies,including the top honor ofbest dramatic movie and an-other for Clooney as bestdramatic actor. ‘The Artist’,

a romantic tale about a fail-ing actor who finds love at atime when movies werechanging from silents totalkies, picked up threeawards including best musi-cal or comedy and bestactor in a musical orcomedy for its star,French actor JeanDujardin. Otherkey winners in-cluded MerylStreep for best ac-tress in a filmdrama with her por-trayal of formerBritish Prime Min-ister MargaretThatcher in ‘TheIron Lady’. Streep,who is typically reli-able with a funnyacceptance speechhad a difficult timereading hers thisyear when she for-got her glasses. Vet-eran ChristopherPlummer, 82, wonsupporting actorwith his portrayal ofan elderly man whocomes out as gay tohis family in ‘Be-ginners’, bring-ing bothpoignancy anda touch of hu-

mour to their lives. TheGolden Globe Awards aregiven out by the roughly 90members of the HollywoodForeign Press Association atwhat annually is among thekey events during Holly-

wood's awards sea-son because ofthe media expo-sure it brings.Many of themovies andstars that winhere also go on

to compete forOscars later thisyear, and "TheArtist," whichwas the most-

nominated filmcoming into theGolden Globeswith six nodsoverall, will cer-tainly become afrontrunner forthe world's topfilm honors, aswill ‘Descendants’and ‘The Help’.Oscar nomina-tions from theAcademy of Mo-

tion PictureArts and Sci-ences willgiven out onJanuary 24.

AND THE WINNERS ARE

Ricky Gervais’ 8 best zingersABC

English comedian Ricky Gervais was in biting formfor the Golden Globes, the awards show that has be-come the film and television industry’s most high pro-file roast. About halfway through the monologue,Gervais said event organisers had given him somerules and guidelines for the evening. among them: “I musn’t mention Mel Gibson thisyear. Not his private life, not his politics, not his re-cent films, and especially not Jodie Foster’s ‘Beaver.’I haven’t seen it myself” — at which point Foster gavea thumbs up. After a beat, he said: “I’ve spoken for alot of guys here, they haven’t seen it either. But thatdoesn’t mean it’s not any good.” Foster did not lookentirely pleased. Gervais had started off with one forNBC: “Tonight you get Britain’s biggest comedian,hosting the world’s second biggest awards show, onAmerica’s third biggest network… (beat) Sorry,fourth.” Later on in the monologue, he came to realityqueen Kim Kardashian: “The Golden Globes are tothe Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middle-ton. Bit louder, bit trashier, bit drunker. And moreeasily bought. Allegedly.” on to JuStin BieBer: “The only way that hecould have impregnated a girl is if he borrowed one ofMartha Stewart’s turkey basters.” Gervais, sharing thestage with Johnny Depp, had a question: “Have youseen ‘The Tourist’ yet?” “Uh … no,” Depp, star of themovie, mumbled in response. “There’s a pecking orderhere,” Gervais explained. “TV ’round the edge. Moviestars in the middle.” Then he introduced GeorgeClooney, a “rare” person who “managed to move all theway from the back, when he was on ‘ER,’ to right downthe front.” “What you don’t know about him is, is he’svery racist. Very. I mean, really, nasty stuff. Also, I’veseen him punch a little blind kitten. Please welcome theevil Colin Firth.” And with that, out came Colin Firth.

MUMBaI: Hrithik Roshan seems to be ina very appreciative mood. Interestinglythough he is only praising the bad guys inBollywood. Just recently Hrithik Roshancouldn't stop raving about the new-ageKancha Cheena played by Sanjay Dutt in‘agneepath’ and even compared him withthe likes of Gabbar Singh. Now he is inpraise of Vivek oberoi who plays thenegative lead of his ambitious home-production ‘Krrish 3’. Sources close to thefilm insist that the negative role of ‘Krrish3’ was so strongly written that HrithikRoshan wanted to keep it for himself. Butthen how could he? He is a hero... rathersuperhero. Hrithik was even willing to do adouble role to play the villain's part aswell. “He felt he could portray it thebest,” says a source. Until Vivek oberoistepped in. “When Hrithik saw Vivek'senergy and enthusiasm, he wasassured that the villain's role is inright hands,” says the source. Nowwe will get to see Hrithik and Vivekcontend in ‘Krrish 3’ rather thanHrithik fighting himself. aGeNCIeS

Hrithik Roshan in praise ofBollywood baddiesScreen

Awards

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:38 AM Page 15

Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

16 Foreign News

DAMASCUSafp

The political and military oppositionto Syrian President Bashar al-Assadannounced Monday they have set upa hotline to coordinate their action, asforeign and internal pressure mountson his regime.

A rights group, meanwhile, saidsecurity forces killed at least five civil-ians in the flashpoint central region ofHoms and carried out night-time ar-rests of students at Aleppo Universityin the north of the country. The SyrianNational Council, an umbrella group,said in a statement the decision wastaken in talks on Saturday night withthe Syrian Free Army (SFA), formedof deserters from the military.

A liaison office was set up and “ahotline to follow internal political de-velopments on the ground,” it said.The statement said further meetingswould be held involving military ex-perts “to strengthen the capacity ofthe SFA against regime forces and toprotect civilian regions which theregime wants to raid or pillage.”

The talks on Saturday also fo-cused on efforts to “restructure SFAunits and create a modern and flexible

structure ... to allow for rapid deploy-ment” and cope with the daily inflowof deserting officers and soldiers. TheFSA claims to have gathered some40,000 fighters under its commandsince an anti-regime revolt broke outin Syria in mid-March. A governmentcrackdown on dissent has since costmore than 5,000 lives, according to aUN estimate.

Dozens of people have died in FSAattacks on the regular army. A media ad-visor to a top Syrian army defector, Gen-eral Mostafa Ahmad al-Sheikh, said lastweek that a special council is being set upto oversee all military operations. Thecouncil will “help organise defectionswithin the army and will be in contactwith officers in the regular army to en-courage large-scale rather than individ-ual defections,” he said. In fresh violenceon Monday, five people including awoman were killed and nine otherswounded as armed members of theshabiha pro-regime militia shot up a bak-ery in Homs and burnt it down, the Syr-ian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It said security forces fired off mor-tars at Baliun village in Jabal al-Zawiyawhere hundreds of deserters had gath-ered. In Aleppo, security forces arrestednine students in a raid on the university

of Syria’s second largest city, said theBritain-based Observatory in state-ments received in Nicosia. As Damascusannounced a general amnesty which theopposition dismissed as a sham on Sun-day, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Assadto stop killing his own people. “Today, Isay again to President Assad of Syria:stop the violence. Stop killing your peo-ple. The path of repression is a deadend,” Ban said in a keynote address at aconference in Beirut on democracy inthe Arab world. Ban’s comments cameafter Assad announced the amnesty.“President Assad issued a decree stipu-lating a general amnesty for crimescommitted during the events betweenMarch 15, 2011 and January 15, 2012,”the official SANA news agency reported.It said the amnesty, the third of its kind,covered infringements of the law onpeaceful demonstrations, the posses-sion of unlawful weapons and armydesertion. But the opposition MuslimBrotherhood dismissed the amnestyas “neither serious nor credible.” “Theregime is trying to make its unrealisticplans for reconciliation and nationaldialogue credible, and it is in this con-text that it is making such announce-ments, for propaganda purposes,” thegroup said.

BEIRUTafp

aT least 19 people were killedwhen an old six-storey build-ing in the Lebanese capitalcollapsed, officials said Mon-day, adding that some 16

other victims were feared still trappedunder the rubble.

“Until now, 19 bodies have been re-covered and about 16 are still buriedunder the building that collapsed Sundayevening,” General Raymond Khattar,head of Lebanon’s civil defence, told AFP.Red Cross official Georges Kettaneh said12 people were also injured, none of themseriously. Khattar said the bodies recov-ered by rescuers who worked all through

the night include those of sevenLebanese, six Sudanese, two Filipinosand two Egyptians. The building housedsome 50 people, many of them labourersfrom Sudan and Egypt, he said, adding atleast eight were known to have escaped asthe building came down.

Among the dead was a 15-year-oldLebanese girl, while those hurt includedher grandmother as well as a 73-year-oldLebanese man, at least two Sudanese, anEgyptian and a Filipina. “It was like anearthquake,” one witness told the localMTV channel. One resident who escapedwith her mother said the building was ex-tremely run-down and the owner hadwarned tenants not to remain thereshortly before it disintegrated. She toldlocal television that she and her mother

managed to escape as the building cametumbling down but her father and threebrothers remained trapped. A Syrianlabourer employed at a building sitenearby said debris started falling from thebuilding in early evening before the entireblock came crashing down.

“We saw small pieces of stone fallingdown but no one paid any attention at thestart,” he told AFP. “Then large chunks ofstone started falling and people beganscreaming for everyone to get out.“Within minutes, the building was on thefloor.” Several anxious relatives of the vic-tims remained at the site Monday hopingfor news of their loved ones. Many weptand others said prayers as rescuerspainstakingly sifted through the rubble,aided by bulldozers.

“Where are all the political leaders?”shouted one woman. “They only show upwhen they want our vote.” PresidentMichel Sleiman rushed to the site Sundayevening as did Interior Minister MarwanCharbel and other officials. Charbel toldreporters the building’s owner was de-tained for questioning and a probe wasunderway. He added it was essential tocarry out a survey of similar buildingsthroughout the country, many of whichwere built illegally or had several storeysadded without proper permits. There wasspeculation that heavy rain may havecontributed to Sunday’s disaster, worsen-ing the condition of the building. Beirutmayor Bilal Hamad told reporters that acommittee would be set up to survey dan-gerous buildings in the capital.

Egypt presidential

race to open mid-aprilCAIRO

afp

Candidates for Egypt’s first presidentialelection since the ouster of veteran leaderHosni Mubarak can start registering fromApril 15, a member of the ruling militarycouncil said in the media on Monday. MajorGeneral Mohsen al-Fanjari of the SupremeCouncil of the Armed Forces said theregistration is part of a roadmap drawn upby the SCAF for the presidential election totake place in June. SCAF chief FieldMarshal Hussein Tantawi pledged inNovember that the military will hand overpower to civilian rule after the election.Frontrunners in the presidential raceinclude former Arab League chief AmrMussa, a veteran Egyptian diplomat whowas foreign minister under Mubarak, aswell as Abdel Moneim Abul Fotuh, a formermember of the Muslim Brotherhood. NobelPrize laureate and ex-head of the UN atomicwatchdog Mohamed ElBaradei decided lastweek to drop out of the race, complaining ofa lack of democracy in Egypt despiteMubarak’s ouster in a popular uprising lastyear. Other candidates include AhmadShafiq, the last prime minister to serveunder Mubarak, as well as Salafist leaderHazem Salah Abu Ismail, Nasserite headHamdeen Sabahi and Islamist independentfigure Salim al-Awwa. Egypt’s powerfulMuslim Brotherhood, whose Freedom andJustice Party scored a crushing victory inlegislative elections, have said they willannounce a consensus candidate for thepresidential race before the poll.

Zimbabwe opens

inquest into ex-army

boss’s deathHARARE

afp

Zimbabwe on Monday opened a courtinquest into the death of former army chiefSolomon Mujuru, who was killed last yearin a mysterious inferno, in a case that hasroiled President Robert Mugabe’s party. Hedied in August in a mysterious fire at hisfarmhouse in Beatrice, south of Harare,deepening the divide within Mugabe’sZANU-PF party where the general’s wife,Vice President Joice Mujuru leads a factionperceived as a more moderate wing ofZANU-PF. The inquest began by lookinginto speculation that Mujuru failed toescape the blaze because he was drunk,with a string of witnesses testifying that hesober. A barmaid at a Beatrice motel,where Mujuru was a regular patron, saidthe former leader of Zimbabwe’s liberationfighters had stopped in on his way homebut did not have a drink. “He was notdrunk,” barmaid Portia Kamvura told thepacked courtroom. “He left around 7:00pm saying he did not want to drink muchas he had a journey to make the followingmorning.” A fellow farmer in the Beatricefarming area Blessing Madzivire said therehad been a power outage on the dayMujuru died, and that the general wassober when Madzivire last saw him. VicePresident Joice Mujuru and two of herdaughters attended the hearing where 10witnesses are expected to testify, as well aslocal police and independent forensicexperts from neighbouring South Africa.Prosecutors said findings by local expertsshowed that no inflammable substance wasused to start the fire while South Africanforensic investigators said there was noevidence of explosives. Mujuru, also knownby his war name Rex Nhongo, was widelyseen as a kingmaker in Mugabe’s party.

‘iran violating arms

embargo with

shipments to Syria’ PARIS

afp

Iran has repeatedly violated a UN armsembargo with exports to protest-hit Syria,the French foreign ministry said onMonday, citing a UN group of experts. “TheUN panel of experts on Iran has identifiedand informed the Security Council ofseveral violations of the embargo on armsto or from Iran set up by... the UnitedNations Security Council,” said spokesmanRomain Nadal. “These arms deliveries areillegal and deeply shocking because theybenefit a regime that has chosen a kind ofrepression that the UN rights council hasrepeatedly said constitutes ‘crimes againsthumanity’,” he said. “We condemn theseviolations and call on Iran and Syria tocomply with Security Councilresolutions,” Nadal said in response to aquestion about a US accusation thatTehran was sending arms to Damascus.Senior US officials told AFP on Fridaythat Iran was supplying munitions to aidSyria’s bloody protest crackdown in aninitiative spearheaded by the head of theIranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ eliteQuds force, Qasem Soleimani.

Three die in afghan

helicopter crashKABUL

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Three people died when a civilianhelicopter contracted to NATO forcescrashed in flames in Afghanistan’ssouthern Helmand province on Monday,officials said. The aircraft had “gone downdue to mechanical problems,” said DaudAhmadi, a spokesman for the provincialgovernment. “Three people on board diedas a civilian helicopter crashed in flamesin Nad Ali district near Shora,” a securityofficial told AFP on condition ofanonymity. Afghan police had earlierreported that a “foreign troops’helicopter” had crashed, and Talibaninsurgents claimed they had shot it down.

At least 19 killed in Beirut building collapse

Assad’s political, militaryfoes step up pressure

GHaZNI: taliban fighters stand with their weapons after joining afghan government forces during a ceremony in Ghazni province on Monday. Some 20 taliban fighters, including a keycommander laid down arms and joined the peace process in Ghazni province. afP

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Foreign News 17Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

ADENafp

AL Qaeda militants swept intothe Yemen town of Radaovernight and overran itwithin hours, marking a sig-nificant advance by the ex-

tremists towards the capital Sanaa,officials said on Monday.

The takeover of Rada, 130 kilometres(80 miles) southeast of Sanaa, was the lat-est in a series of towns and cities — untilnow in the south and east — to fall as Al-Qaeda takes advantage of a weakened cen-tral government reeling from months ofprotests. Several sources in the town saidmore than 1,000 Al-Qaeda gunmen hadparticipated in the invasion of Rada, whichlies within striking distance of a strategichighway that connects Sanaa with Yemen’ssouthern and southwestern regions. “Al-Qaeda has taken over the town and is now

the de facto power there,” a local officialtold AFP on condition of anonymity.

“The government’s security forces haveretreated to their bases and militants arenow manning the checkpoints in and out ofthe town,” he added. The official, a seniormember of the local government, said themilitants had also seized the town’s centralprison and police headquarters. Accordingto a local tribal chief, more than 100 prison-ers were released, “including members of Al-Qaeda.” Two soldiers guarding the prisonwere killed, local officials said. Two otherpeople were killed later in the day during abrief exchange of fire between armed gun-men and Al-Qaeda militants in a centralmarket area, one official said. The takeoverbegan late Sunday and was completed bydawn on Monday without any significant re-sistance from local security forces stationedin the area, according to tribal officials.

“There were barely any clashes at all,”one local tribal leader told AFP. Tribesmen

have accused the government of compla-cency and said despite repeated warnings,the government had done little to preventRada’s fall. “We’ve been warning the author-ities about the Al-Qaeda threat for months.We told them that their actions and behav-iour pointed to their intentions to take over,”local tribal leader Sheikh Ammar Al-Teiritold AFP. “The government has absolutelyno role here anymore,” he added.

According to Teiri, local tribesmen de-cided to join forces and help protect the cityfrom an Al-Qaeda invasion, “but theyshowed up in such force it became clear thatin this town at least, they were stronger thanthe state,” he said. The takeover of Rada, lo-cated in Yemen’s al-Bayda province, was ac-companied by what appears to be the formalappointment of a local “emir,” or prince, togovern the newly seized territory, a postinggiven to the brother-in-law of slain US-borncleric Anwar al-Awlaqi. Tareq al-Dahab,who is married to Awlaqi’s sister, was

named to the post, tribal officials said.Anwar al-Awlaqi, the first US citizen to

be put on a US list of militants targeted forassassination, was killed on September 30in a suspected US drone strike in Yemen. Hewas believed to be the leader of overseas op-erations for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penin-sula (AQAP), the group’s deadliest globalbranch. In August, the 15-member UN Se-curity Council said it was “deeply concernedat the worsening security situation, includ-ing the threat from Al-Qaeda,” in Yemen.AQAP and its local affiliates, the Partisans ofSharia (Islamic law), have taken advantageof almost a full year of deadly protestsagainst President Ali Abdullah Saleh to bol-ster their presence in the southeasternShabwa province and nearby Marib. Abyanprovince of southern Yemen, however, hasbeen the main target of Al-Qaeda’s growingstrength, with militants taking control of theprovincial capital Zinjibar in May and cap-turing several other towns since.

Zinjibar’s chief tribal leader, SheikhTariq al-Fadl meanwhile called Mondayon the Yemeni authorities to find a “peace-ful, political solution” to the Al-Qaedathreat. “The fact is that Al-Qaeda is in con-trol of Abyan and Shabwa among otherareas and is implementing Islamic law inthese places,” he told AFP in a phone in-terview from Zinjibar. “A military solutionis no longer possible,” he said. Fadl ac-cused Saleh and his sons who controlYemen’s most powerful military units ofabandoning the south. “Where are thespecial forces...that Saleh and his sonscontrol? Why have they not come tocleanse Zinjibar” of militants, he asked.News of Al-Qaeda’s victory quickly spreadthrough Bayda province, prompting thou-sands from the provincial capital — alsonamed Bayda — to march in anti-govern-ment protests, demanding the provincialgovernor’s resignation and the ouster ofthe region’s security chiefs.

Al Qaeda overruns town near Yemeni capital

CoLoMBo: Indian external affairs Minister SM Krishana (R) with Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa (C) and first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa (3rdL) take part in a Hindu religious ceremony tomark thai pongal festival on Monday. the Indian minister travelled straight to Rajapakasa’s official residence to take part in the thai pongal ceremony unique for the island’s tamil minority. afP

PM says Greece

‘close to’ debt dealATHENS

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Greece is close to a critical debtwritedown with private creditors, itsprime minister said Monday, beforeadding that abandoning the euro was “notan option” for the crisis-hit eurozonemember. “The discussions which areongoing have I think helped us to reach apoint, which is close to an agreement, butsome further reflection is necessary onhow to put all the elements together,”Lucas Papademos told CNBC television.He spoke three days after a grouprepresenting creditor banks said it had“paused” in its debt talks with Athens.“There is a little pause in thesediscussions. But I’m confident that theywill continue and we will reach anagreement that is mutually acceptable intime,” Papademos said in his firstinterview since taking office in November.On Friday, the Institute of InternationalFinance said talks in Athens had failed toproduce a “constructive consolidatedresponse by all parties.” “Under thecircumstances, discussions with Greeceand the official sector are paused forreflection on the benefits of a voluntaryapproach,” the IIF said. Greek FinanceMinister Evangelos Venizelos later toldthe Financial Times that the talks would“probably” resume in Athens onWednesday. The proposed deal would seebanks agree to a 50 percent reduction, or“haircut” on their Greek debt, whichwould cut about 100 billion euros ($127billion) from Athens’ massive debt burdenthat currently exceeds 350 billion. Mediareports have said that private sectornegotiators want the new bonds to payinterest of around five percent, whereasGreek officials are only willing to agree toaround four percent. Failure to reachagreement on the debt writedown, whichis also a condition for new eurozone loansfor Greece, has raised the prospect of adisorderly default that would plunge the17-nation eurozone deeper into crisis.Athens is conducting a separatenegotiation with the EuropeanCommission, European Central Bank(ECB) and International Monetary Fund(IMF) on the details of a rescue packageworth 130 billion euros that was decidedin October. The country faces debtrepayments worth more than 14 billioneuros in March that it cannot meetwithout financial assistance. “The twoprocesses will have, this is the aim, to becompleted over the next two to threeweeks,” Papademos noted. The PM, aformer ECB vice president, said the crisis-hit eurozone nation stood a much betterchance of enacting tough reformsnecessary for its economic recovery underthe protection of the single currency. “Ithink it’s often discussed that leaving theeuro is an option for Greece. I think thisis really not an option,” Lucas Papademostold CNBC. Officials from the EUCommission, ECB and IMF, knowncollectively as the ‘troika’, are due back inAthens later this week to assess Greece’sefforts in reducing its deficit andlaunching structural reforms.

ROMEafp

The captain of a cruise liner that ranaground off the coast of Italy, leavingat least six dead, broke the rules in an“inexplicable” error, the head of thecompany that owns the vessel saidMonday.

But Pier Luigi Foschi, the chief ex-ecutive of Costa Crociere, also paidtribute to members of the Costa Con-cordia crew for their role in the rescueof the passengers, saying that they had“all behaved like heroes”. “They man-aged to evacuate more than 4,000 peo-ple in two hours,” Foschi toldjournalists at a press conference inGenoa, struggling to fight back tears.The ship’s captain, Francesco Schet-tino, and first officer Ciro Ambrosioand Italian prosecutors say they couldface charges of multiple homicide andabandoning ship before all the passen-gers were rescued. Italy’s Corrieredella Sera newspaper reported onMonday that Schettino had sailed theship close to the rocky shores of GiglioIsland to please the head waiter who

comes from there.Foschi said that the course that the

captain had decided to take was “hisown initiative, contrary to the writtenrules” of the company. “He carried outa manoeuvre which had not been ap-proved by us and we disassociate our-selves from such behaviour,” he added.

But he said that the human factorin such an episode was “inexplicable”.Foschi also called for prudence beforejudging the captain’s actions in the af-termath of the disaster, saying therewere “reliable witnesses” that hestayed on board “a very long time.”

Costa Crociere, Europe’s largestcruise operator, had said in a state-ment Sunday that it appeared Schet-tino had “made errors of judgementthat had serious consequences”. “Ifthere had been a technical problem,the alarm would have sounded,”Foschi said. “There was no problemwith safety on the ship. It has ultra-secure safety features.” He stressedthat inspectors had toured the vesselin December and carried out simu-lated evacuations without notinganything abnormal.

Replying to a journalist, Foschi an-grily denied the company, a subsidiaryof the US Carnival group, had madecuts in the safety budget for its vessels.“We have never, absolutely never,planned such cuts,” he added.

He predicted the company wouldgo through a difficult period as a re-sult of the disaster but its reputationwould be restored. “There are a mil-lion faithful customers who supportus,” he said, citing messages of soli-darity from former passengers. Esti-mating the immediate direct cost ofthe accident at 93 million dollars, hesaid the company had solid founda-tions financially, adding, “We have24,000 employees to protect.” “Thereis no question of changing either thename of the company or itsprospects,” he said, dismissing anylong term impact on the cruise indus-try. As for the Costa Concordia, Foschisaid he did not yet know if it would bea total write-off or if it could be sal-vaged and returned to service.” Warn-ing that salvage would be “verydifficult,” he said the company wouldknow by Sunday how to go about it.

Kazakh ruling party

wins landslide,

observers troubledASTANA

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The ruling party of Kazakh PresidentNursultan Nazarbayev Monday won alandslide victory with over 80 percent of thevote in parliamentary polls which observerssaid failed to meet democratic standards. Twonominally opposition groups won seats forthe first time in the Kazakh parliament afterSunday’s elections which veteran leaderNazarbayev hoped would breathe fresh lifeinto politics while maintaining stability. Butthe only clearly anti-government party — theAll-National Social Democratic Party (OSDP)which failed to make parliament —denounced the elections as among the dirtiestever in Kazakhstan and vowed street protests.Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan party won 80.74percent of the vote in the polls, the centralelection commission announced. “This is ourshared victory,” Nazarbayev told hissupporters after the results were announced.“This means that the people of Kazakhstanwill continue supporting our course ofstability and unity.” Nur Otan will be joinedin parliament by the pro-business Ak Zhol(Bright Path) party which garnered 7.46percent of the vote and the CommunistPeople’s Party of Kazakhstan — a largely pro-government group that won 7.2 percent.

Italian liner disaster captainbroke the rules: owner

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Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

Nadal, federer playdown open feud

DUBAIafp

rIVAL captains Misbah-ulHaq and Andrew Straussboth believe batsmen willbe under pressure to per-form as Pakistan take on

England in the first Test starting herefrom Tuesday. The pitch for the openingencounter of the three-Test series atDubai stadium is likely to help spinbowlers and although Pakistan were cer-tain to play with Saeed Ajmal and AdulRehman, Strauss gave little hints at Eng-land's combination.

"It will depend on the state of thewicket, you always pick your team whichyou think gives you the right balance towin a Test and if the wicket turns a hellof a lot then obviously two spinners be-come an option," he said.

England, who rose to the top of theworld Test rankings in August last year,last played two spinners in a Test inMarch 2010 when off-spinner JamesTredwell partnered Graeme Swann.

But they will be hard pressed to in-clude Monty Panesar, considering hiseight-wicket haul in their second tourgame win and the history of the pitchwhich helps spinners.

Pakistan won one of the two Testsplayed here so far, against Sri Lanka inOctober last year on the back of 13 wick-ets by the trio of Ajmal, Rehman andopener Mohammad Hafeez, who givesthem an extra option in spin.

Spinners also took 11 of the 25 wick-

ets that fell in the drawn Test betweenPakistan and South Africa in 2010.

England losing Tim Bresnan - whogives them a batting option - as soon asthe tour started, will push them to eitherplay with five batsmen and include athird seamer, but Strauss remainedphilosophical.

"I will say we are trying to put theright team to win a game of cricket.That's always our philosophy," saidStrauss, who showed confidence pace-man Stuart Broad will recover from aminor foot injury.

"Because the wickets here are rea-sonably flat it's a great challenge for ourbowlers who have done well, so its a log-ical next step to say 'right come on letsprove ourselves' and certainly you haveto play well against them," said Strauss.

Strauss said Panesar bowled welland it was nice to see him back in thepicture after playing the last of his 39Tests at Cardiff in the 2009 Ashes.

"Monty bowled exceptionally well (inthe side game) and it's fantastic to seehim back, but as I said you pick the sidewhich fits the conditions and allow youto win and that's all we will do tomor-row. "The first Test always sets the tonefor the rest of the series so the initialskirmishes are always important, Pak-istan have played lot more cricket outhere but the things are quite even in thisrespect as we have a good build up."

Misbah agreed batsmen will face areal test in Dubai.

"In Dubai whichever team bats good,gets an edge and its not only the game ofspinners, I think fast bowlers also play avery important role, if you look at thelast series (against Sri Lanka), the teamwhich batted well won," he said.

"The wicket looks much better thanthe last Test we played here, we have abalanced attack and the conditions herefavours us but at the same time its im-portant to play good cricket against Eng-land.

"They are the top side in the world sowe just can't rely on the fact that weknow the conditions well. We still haveto play good cricket to beat them."

The second Test will be played inAbu Dhabi (January 25-29) while thethird will be played in Dubai from Feb-ruary 3-7. The Tests will be followed byfour one-day and three Twenty20 inter-nationals.

Misbah looks to spin out England

DUBai: Pakistan pacer Junaid Khan in actionduring a practice session.

DUBai: Pakistan's captain Misbah ul-haq (L) and England's captain andrew Strauss (r) posefor photographers with the trophy. afP

DUBAI afp

Pakistan and England face each other onTuesday for the first time since the infa-mous 2010 spot fixing scandal whichended with three Pakistani players sentto prison.

Since they first clashed in interna-tional cricket in 1952, the two countrieshave been at the centre of number ofconflicts and controversies.

Here AFP Sport examines five flash-points:2010: SPot-fixing SCandal

- One of the biggest fixing contro-versies in the history of the game wasunearthed by the now defunct Britishtabloid the News of the World on Au-gust 28, 2010 when they revealed Pak-istani pacemen Mohammad Asif andMohammad Aamer contrived with cap-tain Salman Butt and agent Mazhar Ma-jeed to bowl deliberate no-balls duringthe Lord's Test.

The scandal rocked the game. Allfour accused were interrogated by Scot-land Yard before an anti-corruption tri-bunal of the International CricketCouncil (ICC) handed the three playerslengthy bans. A British court then sentMajeed to jail for 32 months, Butt for30 months, Asif for 12 months andAamer for six.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairmanIjaz Butt enraged the England team byalleging they'd been involved in fixing a

one-day game at The Oval during thesame series. Those allegations put thelast two matches in doubt as Englanddemanded an apology from Butt. He fi-nally retracted and apologised.2006: oval fiaSCo

- Australian umpire Darrell Hair andWest Indian colleague Billy Doctrovepenalised Pakistan five runs for ball-tampering on the fourth day of the fifthand final Test of the 2006 series againstEngland at The Oval. So incensed werePakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq andhis side they refused to take the fieldafter tea and were thus deemed to haveforfeited the match -- the first time thishad happened in Test cricket history.

After a hearing presided over by ICCchief match referee Ranjan Madugalle,Pakistan were cleared of ball-tamperingbut Inzamam was banned for four one-

day internationals for bringing the gameinto disrepute.

Under pressure, the ICC then de-clared the game a draw before revert-ing to their original decision of anEngland win.2005: afridi damageS PitCh

- Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridiwas caught on television scraping hisboots on the surface when play was heldup after a gas cylinder exploded duringthe Faisalabad Test of England's 2005tour.

Umpire Hair and England batsmanMarcus Trescothick noticed the differ-ence in the pitch and the suspicionswere confirmed by television footage.Afridi pleaded guilty to a level threebreach of the ICC code of conduct andwas handed a ban of one Test and twoone-day internationals.

1992: 'Ball-tamPering' Saga- Pakistan's fearsome pace duo of

Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis de-molished England with unprecedentedreverse swing but were labelled as"cheats" by the English media on the1992 tour. Pakistan won the five-matchTest series 2-1 with Waqar claiming 22wickets and Wasim 21. Finally the sagatook an ugly turn when the umpires hadto change the ball during the Lord's one-dayer, suspecting ball-tampering. Pak-istan team manager Khalid Mahmooddefended his bowlers but the allegationsreverberated during the tour and the re-lationship between the two teams con-tinued to remain bitter.1987: gatting-rana row

- Mike Gatting, England's captain onthe 1987 tour of Pakistan, had a finger-wagging row with Pakistani umpireShakoor Rana which made worldwideheadlines and almost led to the tourbeing called off.

After losing the first Test on a con-troversial note, Gatting got entangled ina row with Rana. The skipper was ac-cused of moving a fielder during thebowler's run-up. Rana stopped the gameand called Gatting a "cheat" to which theEngland skipper prodded his finger atthe Pakistani umpire. Rana refused tostand again until he received a formalapology. The entire third day was lostand the tour was nearly called off beforehigh-level government influence saw itcontinue.

DUBAIafp

England will win a $175,000 jackpot for topping the worldTest rankings if they win the series against Pakistan orlose by a single match, the International Cricket Council(ICC) announced Monday. The annual award is presentedto the side that finishes at the head of the ICC Test cham-pionship table on April 1. England, who rose to worldnumber one in ICC Test rankings by beating India 4-0 inAugust last year, face Pakistan in a three match series inDubai from Tuesday.

"England will have a chance to win the $175,000 jack-pot for topping the ICC Test championship table when it

goes head-to-head with Pakistan in a three-Test series,"the ICC said. They will only lose the jackpot if Pakistanbeat them either 2-0 or 3-0, with world number two sideSouth Africa poised to benefit. South Africa visit NewZealand for a three-Test series between March 7 to 27 andcan still snatch the jackpot from England should their ri-vals lose by more than one Test and they win on their tour.

"In case of a 1-0 or 2-1 series loss, England will finishon 120 ratings points, one ahead of South Africa (assum-ing it wins 3-0 against New Zealand)," the ICC explained."The side that finishes second in the Reliance ICC TestChampionship table on the 1 April cut-off date will receive$75,000." England captain Andrew Strauss said his teamhad not thought about the jackpot.

NZ name squadfor Zimbabwe Test

WELLINGTONafp

The New Zealand squad for the firstTest against Zimbabwe beginning inNapier on January 26:Ross Taylor (capt), Trent Boult, DougBracewell, Dean Brownlie, Martin Gup-till, Chris Martin, Brendon McCullum,Tim Southee, Daniel Vettori, Krugervan Wyk, B.J. Watling, KaneWilliamson.

Strauss urgesplayers to benefitfrom amnesty

DUBAIafp

Andrew Strauss on Monday urged play-ers to take advantage of the amnesty an-nounced by England and come forwardif they have any information followingbowler Mervyn Westfield pleading guiltyto spot-fixing. The England and WalesCricket Board (ECB) on Friday offeredan amnesty to players to report pastmatch-fixing approaches. Westfield, 23,the first player to admit to a corruptioncharge in a county match, entered aguilty plea to charges of accepting or ob-taining a corrupt payment to bowl in away that would allow the scoring ofruns. He received £6,000 ($9,199) tobowl so that 12 runs would be scored inthe first over of a match against Durhamin September 2009, although in factonly 10 were scored. Westfield will besentenced on February 10. Strauss saidthe incident should serve as an example."The ECB have provided an amnesty forplayers to come forward in the nextthree months and I’d urge them to dothat if they do have any information,"said Strauss on Monday, a day beforethe first Test against Pakistan here. Thebuild-up to the current three-Test serieswas also marred by the talk of the spot-fixing scandal involving three Pakistanplayers -- Salman Butt and pacemenMohammad Asif and MohammadAamer -- who were sentenced over thecharges of cheating and corruption. Thecharges related to deliberate no-ballsthe trio contrived during the Lord's Testin August 2010. Strauss said it was im-perative to deal with the menance. "If itis there we need to root it out. We needto get it dealt with and move on. If youwant world cricket to be in good orderthen you have to make sure your ownhouse is clean first," said Strauss.Strauss said he was taken by surprisewhen the allegations surfaced in May2010. Westfield and Pakistani spinnerDanish Kaneria were arrested on suspi-cions of involvement in spot-fixing.

Pakistan v England - conflict and controversy

England eye rankings jackpot

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sports 19Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

NEW DELHIafp

INDIA'S cricket chief gave a ro-bust defence of the nationalteam Monday after the humili-ating Test losses in Australia,saying players would soon set

the record straight on home soil. "Aus-tralia played better in their home con-ditions, it will be different when theycome to India," Narayanaswamy Srini-vasan, president of the under-fireBoard of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI), said.

"New Zealand is coming to Indianext and that will be followed by Eng-land and Australia. We will beat thesethree teams on our own soil. They can-not beat us here and we will feel veryhappy," he told the Press Trust of Indianews agency.

Australia smashed India by an in-nings and 37 runs inside three days inthe third Perth Test on Sunday to clinchthe four-match series, after winning inMelbourne by 122 runs and Sydney byan innings and 68 runs.

It was India's seventh successiveTest loss abroad, following their 4-0rout in England last year, in a dismalrun that has taken the shine off theirlimited-overs World Cup victory athome last April.

Srinivasan, who owns the ChennaiSuper Kings franchise in the IndianPremier League, cited the example ofIndia's 5-0 rout of England in a one-dayseries last October.

"England won in England, but theycame here within a month and lost 5-0," he said. "After our loss in England,I had said we will beat them when theyvisit India. That's what happened."

India are not due to play an over-seas Test series until the tour of SouthAfrica in late 2013 and the next homeseries against New Zealand in Septem-

ber is still eight months away.Former captain Kapil Dev had on

Sunday slammed the cash-rich BCCIfor its short-sighted policies, saying itsobsession with profits was ruining thegame in India.

"They (BCCI) are doing extremelywell when it comes to making moneyand controlling world cricket," Devsaid. "But what is the use if your teamfails to win matches abroad?"

India's chairman of selectors Krish-namachari Srikkanth said he was "to-tally devastated" by the defeats in both

England and Australia."The batting has failed to click,"

Srikkanth told reporters. "It is the sameproblem we had in England. In the lasttwo series, the batsmen have struggledto find form. This defeat is saddening."

Srikkanth parried questions on thefuture of its ageing batsmen, especiallyVenkatsai Laxman, who has managedjust 102 runs in six innings so far in theseries at an average of 17.

"Our next Test series is in Septem-ber. We do not know what will happenat that time," he said. "If Laxman de-

cides to retire, I cannot say anything.But we will take stock of the situationonly in September."

The fourth and final Test starts inAdelaide on January 24, which Indiancaptain Mahendra Singh Dhoni willmiss to serve a one-match ban due toslow over-rates in the previous Test.

Vice-captain Virender Sehwag willlead in Dhoni's absence.

The Test will be followed by twoTwenty20 matches against Australiaand a one-day tri-series also featuringSri Lanka.

India chief eyes home consolation

Perth: Suspended captain M.S.Dhoni has backed coach DuncanFletcher as the right man to turn aroundthe fortunes of the beleaguered Indiancricket team, despite a run of dismaloverseas tours. Down 3-0 after succes-sive innings defeats in Sydney andPerth, the Indians have already lost theseries but have one final chance to re-deem themselves in the fourth Test inAdelaide, starting on Tuesday. But an-other loss will condemn them to twoclean sweep 4-0 defeats in a row on for-eign soil after an embarrassing tour ofEngland. They will be without their skip-per for the last Test, following his onematch suspension by the InternationalCricket Council for his second slow overrate infraction in 12 months during thethird Test at the WACA Ground. Pres-sure is not only mounting on India'smisfiring and ageing top order, but alsoon the feisty Fletcher, who has seen histeam win just two of nine Tests duringthe early part of his two-year tenure.Both wins were at home against thelowly West Indies and are not enough togloss over seven straight overseas de-feats, four by an innings, since Fletcher

took over last year. India was the top-ranked Test side in the world whenFletcher took the reins, but will drop tothird when the official ICC rankings arenext released. His first series at the helmsaw the Indians lose all four Tests inEngland and Fletcher's record as a coachin Australia is even worse, with 12 lossesfrom 13 Tests including his time at thehelm of England. As Indian greats likeKapil Dev, Bishan Bedi and Sourav Gan-guly lined up to lambast India's insipidperformances, Dhoni said Fletcher was

the right man for the job. "He’s a greatguy to have," Dhoni said. "He’s one ofthe most experienced coaches around,the small technical things he knowsabout bowling and batting, it’s very cru-cial to have. "It’s not like he has becomethe coach and we have lost two seriesand he’s to be blamed for all the defeats,it's up to the 11 players to go out andperform." However, former AustralianTest batsman Marcus North wrote in aninternet column this week that the Indi-ans had gone backwards under Fletcher."Team India has been unravelling eversince the departure of Gary Kirsten who,to his credit, found a way to relate andbond this team of champion individualsinto a champion team," North wrote."Kirsten’s replacement, DuncanFletcher, on the other hand, has man-aged to undo all of Kirsten’s hard work."Team unity looks low and relationshipsare being tested." Both Bedi and Devsaid India's Test performances were suf-fering due to the Board of Control forCricket in India's obsession withTwenty20 cricket and its financial re-wards. Ganguly said the Indian Testteam needed a major overhaul. afp

Dhoni backs besieged coach Fletcher

Delhi’s rugby teamleaves for home

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The Delhi Lions Rugby Club on Mondayleft for their home country after playing anumber of matches here. During theirfive-day stay in the city, the Delhi teamplayed Friendly rugby opener, RugbySeven Tournament and the Lahore-DelhiCup. They were able to win the openerwhile stood third in the tournament. Theteam official before leaving said that theywere going back with lots of memories andlove. “We were here to win hearts and inreturn we are taking back lovely memoriesand hospitality,” said the Indian teammanager. “We came here for the first timebut now feel we should come to Lahoremore often,” he added. The team was seenoff by the Punjab Rugby Association offi-cials at the Lahore-Delhi Bus stand.

Mobilink backs Pakistanin England series

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Mobilink Jazz has partnered with the Pak-istan Cricket Board to organise the upcom-ing Pakistan - England cricket series,which has been titled the Mobilink JazzCup 2012. The Mobilink Jazz Cup 2012,being organized in the United Arab Emi-rates, comprises of three Tests, four oneday internationals, and three T20s. Jazzhas always been at the forefront of promot-ing cricket in Pakistan, having previouslycontributed towards strengthening Pak-istan's domestic infrastructure as well asdeveloping cricket stars for the futurethrough talent hunt activities in partner-ship with the PCB. Speaking about thetournament Moied Javeed, Director Brandsaid, “Mobilink Jazz's commitment to pro-viding healthy entertainment to the peopleof Pakistan, whilst continuing to satisfy thenation's passion for cricket. We would liketo wish all the best to the Pakistan team.”

KiPS glorious LAHORE

Staff RepoRt

KIPS College won 33 medals in a number ofevents in the recently concluded 4th PunjabInter School & College Games. They tooksecond and third place in the tug-of-war,third and fourth in cycling, third in karate,third in wushu and won gold in javelinthrow, silver in long jump. A special sou-venir was given to Prof. Faisal (interna-tional gymnast, project manager of PUCIT,DPE of KIPS) for his efforts. MeanwhileKIPS College on Monday took the winnersaward of the first International EducationalExpo & National Youth Essay Writing Com-petition held during the convention of re-laxed Pakistan–India visa regime at PunjabiComplex, Gaddafi Stadium, LahoreRehmatullah Javed (Former Secretary Gen-eral SAARC Chamber of Commerce),Maulana Tahir Ashrifi (Chairman PakistanUllema Council), Ms. Saeeda Diep (Chair-man IPSS), Ms. Sajida Mir (MPA PPP) &Ms. Arifa Khalid (MPA PML(N)) were ChiefGuests and distributed prizes among theposition holders. Sajid Siraj of KIPS Collegegot second position in National Youth EssayWriting Competition while Hamza Azmatgot third position. KIPS College won thirdposition in team contest. The KIPS teamcomprised Ibrahim, Hamza Qaiser, SalmanShoiab, Talha Zahid, Zeeshan Alam Khan,Hamza Azmat, Hasnain Ilyas, Wajahat Ab-bass, Umair Hashmat, Abdul Rehman Zia,Umer Mazhar, Uzair Khan, M. Talha. Thedebater and essay writers of KIPS Collegealso got third position in Student gala offirst international Educational Expo 2012 inPunjab University and marvelously scored4th position in UCP & FCC ParliamentaryDebating Competition. The member ofKIPS Dramatic Club are Yahya Haider,Shehzada Salman, Fahad Khan, HaiderLatif, Hassan Irshad, Sarfraz Khan,Hashir ali, Umer Arshad, Zeeshan Akhter,Shehrayar Akbar, Faizan Khawer, who gotfirst position in student gala of first Inter-national Educational Expo 2012 at PunjabUniversity. Suhair Khan of KIPS Collegegot first position in Urdu Essay Writing atdistrict and division level while got 4thposition at provincial level in CM Debate,Speech & Essay Writing Contest.

The new chairman Zaka Ashraf needsto be commended for bringing a posi-tive influence. He seems to be an en-

couraging leader and that seems tohave rubbed off on skipper Misbah-Ul-Haq too! The PCB seems to have placeda lot of faith in him, and the results arethere for everyone to see.

Unlike the past, where a few seniorplayers have always had issues eitherwith the Board or the team manage-ment, the current side looks well set-tled. It's good to see every playerbacking the other. The days of infight-ing and rifts seem to be over. MohsinKhan in his capacity as interim coachhas done well. It is not easy to handlea side, knowing well that you may notbe around for too long. I'd still believeit is 50-50. There is no clear favourite.

Yes, Pakistan will be hard to beat onthese dry wickets, but they can't takethings for granted. England are thenumber one Test side, who'd want toextend their run at the top.

For these conditions, Englandseem to have found an ideal foil forGraeme Swann, in the form of MontyPanesar who did well in the warm-ups.They bat till number 9 too, so it shouldbe a riveting series. I believe we've apace attack that can pose a seriouschallenge to strong line-ups like Eng-land and South Africa. Aizaz Cheemacan swing the ball, while Wahab Riazand Umar Gul are good exponents ofthe reverse swing. My eye will be on

Junaid Khan, who has been a revela-tion. It will be a tough call to drop oneof them.

He should stop talking about 'mys-tery' deliveries and just focus on hisbowling. The reason why we were goodat reverse swing is, we didn't talk aboutit and give a chance to the oppositionto study the subtle change in grip andball condition.

Umar Akmal is definitely an asset.The only problem is that he can get im-patient and times and look to slogevery ball, like in a T20 game. If helearns to stick around, this boy willmake plenty of runs for Pakistan. (Ex-cerpts from an interview)

England will face a different PakistanexpeRt CoMMeNt

waSiM aKraM

MADRIDafp

Barcelona squandered a two-goal lead before seeing off 10-man Real Betis 4-2 to cut Real Madrid's lead at the top of LaLiga back to five points on Sunday. Two goals from LionelMessi and a goal apiece from Xavi and Alexis Sanchez firedthem to the victory after Ruben Castro and Roque Santa Cruzhad levelled. Betis had Mario Vazquez sent off with the scoreat 2-2 with 20 minutes remaining and Barca never lookedback. Now the focus is turned to the Spanish Cup on Wednes-day when the two giants face each other in the first leg of aquarter-final tie. Real Madrid had came from behind on Sat-urday to win 2-1 at Mallorca with late goals from GonzaloHiguain and Jose Callejon. "The cup is a different competitionso we have to change our mentality. What we do know is wewill go all out to get through the tie," said Xavi.

"We have no doubts about our play, although we know wecan play better or worse than tonight. Our philosophy is al-ways the same, we go out to attack. We were eight points be-hind Madrid and Betis made it difficult for us because theywanted the ball." Barca coach Pep Guardiola added ofWednesday's game: "It's always good to go into a game on theback of a win, but we know who we are up against and we'lltry to play the best game we can."

Betis started the better team in the Camp Nou and testedVictor Valdes twice in the opening minutes. This only servedto wake up the home team when Xavi, playing his 400thleague game for the club, gave them the lead on 10 minutes,following up after a Cesc Fabregas shot had hit the post. Two

minutes later and Barca were two goals ahead when Messisteered the ball home after good work on the left fromSanchez. However Betis continued to attack Barcelona withcrisp passing and good movement off the ball.

Their reward arrived on 32 minutes when Castro was athand to finish a pass from Salva Sevilla at close range aftergood work from Jorge Molina had drawn Valdes out of posi-tion. It was the first league goal conceded by Barcelona athome all season. Buoyed by this success, it was no surprisewhen Santa Cruz got the equaliser on 52 minutes. With fluidpassing in tight angles Betis were playing the champions attheir own game and looked as likely a winner as the Catalans.However, when Barca gained a numerical advantage on 71minutes it was all the encouragement they needed to surgeforward in search of the win. Alexis got the third five minuteslater with a low shot from the edge of the area after a passfrom Xavi. Messi finished off Betis from the penalty spot withfour minutes remaining after Jose Dorado had handled in thearea. Athletic Bilbao beat Levante 3-0 to move within fourpoints of their fourth-placed opponents and edge closer to aChampions League berth. The result lifted them above Sevillaand Espanyol into fifth position. First-half goals from Fer-nando Amorebieta and Fernando Llorente, his seventh of theseason, and a last minute header by Mikel San Jose wereenough for Bilbao to see off Levante's challenge in a game thatBilbao dominated from start to finish.

Athletic have now only lost one game in the last eleven inall competitions since the beginning of December and canlook forward to an exciting 2012 with all to play for in La Liga,the Europa League and Spanish Cup.

ice, cameras, actionas open swelters

MELBOURNEafp

Players swathed themselves in ice packs,one felt ill and another complained shecouldn't breathe Monday as soaringheat made for a gruelling first day at theAustralian Open.As temperatures rose to a sweltering 34degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit),red-faced players sweated through after-noon matches at Melbourne Park andspectators dived for shade.One fan sitting in the hot sun collapsedduring Juan Martin del Potro's matchagainst Adrian Mannarino, althoughmedical workers blamed a pre-existingcondition. Play was halted while she wastaken away for treatment.Fernando Verdasco, a first-round loserto Australian teen Bernard Tomic, saidhe felt physically sick during their four-hour encounter. The Spaniard appearedunwell as he draped himself in a towelstuffed with ice. "I started feeling nau-seous on the court. I just think it was alot of heat," said Verdasco, a veteran of24 five-setters. "I've been in Perth andAuckland and not one day was this hot.So it was tough just to come here twodays ago and go on court and play inthese high temperatures."

Barcelona battle to cutreal lead to five points

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:39 AM Page 19

sports20Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

The first Test of the three-match seriesbetween Pakistan and England will beplayed at Dubai International CricketStadium from Tuesday (January 17).

This will be the 72nd Test match be-tween the two teams and first in theUAE.

England have dominated Pakistanoverall in the head-to-head contests win-ning 22 matches to Pakistan’s 13. Mostof their success, however, has been inhome Tests where they lead 20-9. Be-tween 1980 and 1999, Pakistan held theedge with 8-3 record including three se-ries wins in England.

This dominance is clearly reflectedin the high average difference (differ-ence between batting and bowling aver-

ages) of 7.34. Since 2000, England havedrawn one home series (1-1) and won thelast two by comfortable margins. Eng-land won their first second away seriesin Pakistan (the first in 1962) in 2000-01 after winning the final Test in Karachiby six wickets. The defeat was inciden-tally one of only two losses for Pakistanat the venue.

Overall, the average difference inTests in Pakistan (2.21) is not high, buton their previous visit in 2005-06, Eng-land were soundly beaten. Consideringthe fact that they will encounter similarconditions in the upcoming series, Eng-land will face a stiff Test.

England's 22 wins also include 'anunusual win' at The Oval in 2006 whenthey were awarded the match when Pak-istan refused to play. Outraged at beingpunished for ball-tampering, the Pak-istan team refused to take the field after

tea and, in front of a full and volublehouse, Darrell Hair, the senior of the twoumpires, melodramatically removed thebails. The gesture brought a symbolicand actual end to the game, the first everforfeited in 2029 Tests and 134 years.

eNG- paK teSt eNCoUNteRS SUMMaRY of ReSULtS :

pLaYeD eNG WoN paK WoN DRaWNin England 47 20 9 18in Pakistan 24 2 4 18Total 71 22 13 36HIGHeSt INNINGS totaLS:Pakistan's 708 at The oval in 1987 is their highest evertotal against England. England's highest against Pak-istan is 558 for six declared at Nottingham in 1954. LoWeSt INNINGS totaLS:Pakistan were bowled out for just 72 runs at Birming-ham in 2010 which is their lowest ever total againstEngland. England's lowest against Pakistan is 130 whichwas made at The oval in 1954 and at Lahore in 1987-88.HIGHeSt MatCH aGGReGate:as many as 1553 runs were scored for the loss of 40

wickets at Leeds in 2006 which is the highestmatch aggregate between the two teams.LoWeSt MatCH aGGReGate:The lowest match aggregate between Pakistan andEngland was recorded at Nottingham in 1967 when509 runs were scored for the loss of 28 wickets.HIGHeSt INDIVIDUaL SCoReS:The highest individual score by a Pakistani batsmanin any Test against England is Zahir abbas's 274 atBirmingahm in 1971. Dennis compton's 278 at Not-tingham in 1954 is the highest individual score forEngland against Pakistan.BeSt BoWLING IN aN INNINGS:abdul Qadir's nine for 56 at Lahore in 1987-88 is thebest bowling performance in an innings for Pakistanagainst England. The record of best bowling per-formance for England is held by ian Botham whotook eight wickets for 34 runs at Lord's in 1978.BeSt BoWLING IN a MatCH:The distinction of recording the best bowling in amatch on either side is belong to Derek Under-wood who took 13 wickets for 71 runs at Lord's in1974. The best match aggregate by a Pakistanibowler against England is abdul Qadir's 13 for 101at Lahore in 1987-88.

Pakistan odds on favouritesS. PERVEZ QAISER

stats corner

DUBAIafp

England batsman Kevin Pietersenpromised there will not be any spot-fix-ing jibes aimed at Pakistan players whenthe two teams meet in the first Test inDubai on Tuesday. The three-Test seriesis the first between the two nations sincethe 2010 spot-fixing scandal, whichended in lengthy bans and jail terms forthen Pakistan captain Salman Butt andpacemen Mohammad Asif and Moham-mad Aamer. The trio, along with theiragent Mazhar Majeed, were found guiltyfor their roles in a plan to deliberatelybowl no-balls as part of a scam duringthe Lord's Test against England. The

lead-up to the current series has beendominated by discussion about thescandal, stirring anger in the Pakistancamp, led by captain Misbah-ulHaq, at the perceived distrac-tion from the cricket. ButPietersen, a notoriously com-bative player, said the scan-dal will be banished fromplayers' minds when thecricket starts and dispelledany suggestions that Eng-land could use theissue to sledge theiropponents. "Therewill not be an un-dercurrent aboutwhat happened

in 2010. Not with our players -- we'vespoken about it and it will not happen atall with us," Pietersen told reporters. "Ofcourse there will still be on-field chat

because we play our cricket veryhard. There's no way Jimmy An-derson, who is a grumpy bowler,won't be grumpy. But there will beno hangover from the past." Fastbowler Stuart Broad, however,

has admitted players in-volved in the 2010 se-

ries were still "alittle hurt" by thescandal whicho v e r s h a d o w e dEngland's Lord'sperformance.

Pietersen vows no spot-fixing jibes whatmore keen tocoach Pakistan team

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Former Australia cricketer Dav Whatmoremet Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chair-man and other officials on Monday to fi-nalise his terms and conditions of thecoaching job. PCB chairman Zaka Ashrafand other officials met with Whatmoreafter which it is expected that a decision onthe new coach will be made. Speaking tothe media Whatmore said the Pakistanteam had the potential to be a great sideand it would be a challenge coaching them.Other PCB officials including COO, Direc-tor Game Development and Director Coor-dination were also present in the meeting.However, Whatmore has expressed willing-ness to take over as the chief coach of theteam. “I am ready to coach the Pakistanteam but things have yet to take final shape.I am hopeful that all will be positive,” headded. “Pakistan is one of the strongestteams having great potential to beat anyopposition and coaching them would be apleasure for me. Pakistan team is one ofthe best sides of the world at the UAE andit will be very interesting and thrillingcompetition,” Whatmore added. He wasalso full of praise for Lahore and said thathe had a wonderful time in the city. What-more also hoped to see the Pakistan teamreach the number one spot and if he wasselected as the coach of the team his pri-ority would be to get the team to the top.

Pakistan blind teamselected for india tour

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The Pakistan Blind Cricket Council selecteda 15-member team to represent the countryin the upcoming tour of India. Pakistan istouring India to play a Series comprising 3T-20s and three one-day internationals fromFebruary 15 to 22. The team is led by AbdulRazzaq and his deputy will be Masood Jan.tHe teaM: Players: Partially blind (B2): abdul razzaq(captain), Masood Jan (v.c), Zeeshan abbasi, yasir an-dleeb, irfan Majeed, Totally blind (B1): M Shahbaz, Mwaqas, M Zafar, idrees Saleem, ch. M Mudassar. Par-tially sighted: anees Javed, M Jameel, M akram, Muham-mad fayaz, arslan Javeed. Manager Syed MustafainKazmi, asst. Manager Muhammad Shahzad, coachNafees ahmad, physical trainer Muhammad Jameel.

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:40 AM Page 20

sports 21Tuesday, 17 January, 2012

WatCh it LivE

ESPN Brisbane HeatV Sydeny Thunder 03:40AM

STAR SPORTS AustralianOpen Tennis05:30 AM

DUBAI: Pakistan’s captainMisbah-ul Haq (2nd R) warmsup game with teammatesduring a practice session. afP

MELBOURNEafp

rAFAEL Nadal and Roger Fed-erer eased into the AustralianOpen's second round Mondayas local teenager BernardTomic stole the show with an

epic five-set upset of Fernando Verdasco.Tomic, his country's top-ranked men'splayer at 38, dug deep as he came fromtwo sets down to oust the experiencedSpanish 22nd seed in a four hours-plusthriller on a sweltering Rod Laver Arena.

The 19-year-old produced the finestperformance of his fledgling professionalcareer to reel in Verdasco in only histhird five-setter. While Tomic was show-casing the future, the game's giantsNadal and Federer, with 26 grand slamsbetween them, cruised through instraight-sets victories. Nadal brushedaside America's Alex Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-1,6-1, despite revealing later that he fearedhis bid for another Australian title wasover before it started after suffering sear-ing knee pain ahead of his first match.

The Spanish world number two wasonly able to take to the court for hisearly evening match after intensivetreatment including physiotherapy andanti-inflammatory drugs. Federer spentjust 1hr 38min on Rod Laver Arena in

administering a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 win overthe 172-ranked Alexander Kudryavtsev.While Federer played in the evening,Tomic and Verdasco slugged out their

dramatic match in 34 Celsius (93Fahrenheit) temperatures. Tomic againshowcased his enormous potential afterhe became the youngest man in 25 yearsto reach the quarter-finals of last year'sWimbledon. "Anything's possible if youkeep trying," Tomic said. "Same thinghappened at Wimbledon when I was inthe second round. I was losing two setsto love down and made the quarters.

"Anything is possible. Can't alwaysgive up. You can learn about yourself, and,yeah, how in the future you can play."Verdasco looked on course to wipe Tomicin straight sets, powering through theopening two sets before the Australianbroke the Spaniard in the ninth game ofthe third set to sight a glimmer of hope.And Tomic grew stronger in the heat,while Verdasco showed more signs ofweariness and he took the match into afifth set. "Had I not done that fitness(training) the last two, three months,there's no way mentally you can be outthere in that heat and turn around in amatch like that and win," Tomic said.

"I think it was all fitness, the wayI've been preparing the last few months.It's all paid off." In a gripping final setVerdasco needed his big serving to fightoff Tomic before he was broken in the11th game, allowing the teenager toserve out for a courageous win.

MELBoUrNE: rafael Nadal celebrates his victory over alex Kuznetsov. (r) roger federer hits a return against alexander Kudryavtsev. afP

Federer, Nadal cruiseas Tomic wins epic

Nadal, Federer playdown Open feud

melBourne: Long-time rivalsRoger Federer and Rafael Nadalsought to play down a rare publicspat between them as both enjoyedcrushing round-one wins at the Aus-tralian Open on Monday. Federersaid he was "completely cool" de-spite Nadal accusing him of notpushing hard enough for better play-ers' rights, while the Spaniard re-gretted his comments made to mediaearlier. "Things are fine between us,you know. I have no hard feelings to-wards him," Federer said. "He'smentioned many times how he gets abit tired and frustrated through thewhole process, and I shared thatwith him. It's normal," he added."But for me, obviously nothingchanges in terms of our relationship.I'm completely cool and relaxedabout it. He seemed the same way --or at least I hope so." afp

MELBOURNEafp

Defending champion Kim Clijsters and world number oneCaroline Wozniacki stormed into round two of the Aus-tralian Open Monday as the women's favourites showedearly form. Third seed Victoria Azarenka and China's Li Na,the French Open champion and last year's runner-up, alsoboth passed their first tests on a day of searing heat at Mel-bourne Park. Clijsters saw off Portugese qualifier Maria JoaoKoehler 7-5, 6-1, soon after Li won a tough first round matchagainst Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-1.

And on a day when all the big guns came out firing,third seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka demolishedBritain's Heather Watson 6-1, 6-0, and 2010 French Openchampion Francesca Schiavone crushed Spaniard LauraPous-Tio 6-1, 6-3. In the last match on centre court, Woz-niacki withstood an early barrage from Rodionova beforeturning the screws and cruising to victory 6-2, 6-1. The topseeded Dane was at her counter-punching best, absorbingan early blitz of winners from Rodionova and preying onany mistakes to demoralise her opponent.

Wozniacki has been criticised for not having any 'killer'shots, but her superb court movement and ability to get ballsback into play were more than enough to defeat Rodionova,

who grew ragged as the match went on. Clijsters, who plansto retire this year, said recent injury problems were behindher as she returned to the scene of her 2011 triumph. Cli-jsters, who pulled out of this month's Brisbane Int’l with ahip problem, was forced to work hard in the early stages bythe unknown Koehler, who was playing her first ever maintour match outside Portugal.

Clijsters, Wozniacki romp into round two

MeLBoURNe: Kim clijsters of Belgium hits areturn against Maria Joao Koehler of Portugalin their first round women's singles match onday one of the open tennis tournament. afP

MeLBoURNe: caroline wozniacki of Denmark celebrates hervictory over anastasia rodionova of australia. afP

Beaten Mirzaeyes OlyMpic gOld

MELBOURNEafp

india's Sania Mirza Monday said a gold medal at the London olympicsis her primary focus for 2012 as she makes a comeback from yet an-other serious injury. Mirza did not play in 2011 following the US openafter sustaining a knee injury, only returning to the court in aucklandtwo weeks ago. it was just the latest in a string of injuries to haveplagued the 25-year-old, including a chronic wrist problem that sawher miss large parts of 2008, 2009 and 2010. The world number 106lost in qualifying in auckland and failed again in the first round of theaustralian open on Monday, going down 6-4, 6-2 to Bulgaria's Tsve-tana Pironkova. But Mirza, who was once ranked 27th in the world,was anything but downcast and said her main goal was the mixeddoubles in London in July. "it was my second singles match in thelast five months -- obviously i'm always coming back from a surgeryprocess, and i'm on that again and it's never easy," she said. "ofcourse i'm disappointed but i will try to take as many positives as ican." "Not a lot of people know but i have extra-lax joints and i amdouble-jointed, because of which i'm more prone to getting injured inmy joints, and hence that's what's happened," she added. "i've hadtwo knee surgeries and a wrist surgery -- it's not easy." Mirza saidshe would be focusing on mixed doubles at the olympics and wouldbe paired with either Mahesh Bhupathi, Leander Paes or rohanBopanna. "a medal's a medal at the olympics and it doesn't matterwhether you get it in singles, doubles or mixed," she said. "The factthat even though a lot of people say maybe it's not a top priority,people are still going to play and they're going to play to win amedal. "i'm in a great position to choose from three people are in thetop 12 in the world (in doubles) and obviously the best team will beput forward." Mirza said she would have no say in who her partnerwill be in London, although she hinted she would prefer Bhupathi,with whom she won the australian open in 2009.

MELBOURNEafp

China's French Open champion LiNa negotiated a tough first matchat the Australian Open Mondaywhile third seed Victoria Azarenkalaid down an early marker at theyear's first grand slam. In stiflingheat Li, last year's runner-up, re-covered from a slow start to downKsenia Pervak of Kazakhstan 6-3,6-1, after Azarenka had shown herintent with a 6-1, 6-0 demolition ofBritain's Heather Watson. Pervak,the world number 40, matched

fifth-seeded Li for much of the firstset as the two players traded a se-ries of booming groundstrokes.

However the Chinese star al-ways looked the more threateningand once she broke Pervak to opena 4-2 lead she never looked likelosing. "It's not easy (playing inthat heat)," she said. "I'm not usedto it. I came down from Sydney,but there it was only like 20 de-grees. "It was really tough today."Azarenka dominated Watson inthe first match on centre court asshe pressed her claims for amaiden grand slam win.

MeLBoURNe: victoria azarenka ofBelarus celebrates her victory overheather watson of Britain. afP

Li, azarenka make early running

Punjab, SSgcadvance in interacademy hockey

LAHORE Staff RepoRt

As many as four matches were played inthe 31st U-21 National Hockey Champi-onship which is in progress at NationalHockey Stadium.On Monday two matches were decidedand two ended in a draw.ReSULtS: Phf academy vs Punjab (w) 1-1 (full time)(draw), 0-0 (half time), Phf academy: awais-ur-rehman 41st minute (fg). Punjab (w): Jawad riaz 51stminute (PS). Punjab (c) beat railways 4-1 (full time),2-1 (half time). Punjab (c): M. Mushtaq (capt) 2 goals15th minute (PS) & 21st minute (Pc), Mozamil Bhatti51st minute (fg) & Shaheryar 56th minute (fg). rail-way: Daud Khalid 17th minute (fg). SSgc beat army3-1 (full time), 1-0 (half time). SSgc: Qayyum Dogar25th minute (Pc), Zahid 43rd minute (Pc) & arslanhaider 53rd minute (fg). arMy: abdul Jabbar 52ndminute (fg). NBP vs waPDa 2-2 (full time) (draw), 2-0 (half time). NBP: Khurram Shahzad 2 goals 24th &31st minutes (fg). waPDa: Sohaib 62nd minute (fg)& asad 65th minute (fg).

PcB to relaunch

spot-fixing inquiry LAHORE

Staff RepoRt

The Pakistan Cricket Board will soon setup an inquiry panel to probe into thespot-fixing scandal that last year led tothe ban and jail terms of three players --Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mo-hammad Amir.PCB chief Zaka Ashraf has made it clearthat the board had not given up on con-ducting its own inquiry into the spot-fix-ing scandal. "We will soon set up thepanel because we want to know ourselveswhat happened and why this scandal tookplace. We don't want a repeat of such ashameful episode again," he added.Ashraf maintained that the board wouldtake whatever measures necessary to notallow a repeat of the scandal."If that means taking very strong actionagainst anyone we will do it and even theplayers must not feel bad about it.Ashraf said that the board didn't want theplayers mixing with any shady or suspi-cious characters like Mazhar Majeed."We don't want another Mazhar Majeedclose to our team, that is why the secu-rity officer of the team has been givenspecific instructions to enforce the codeof conduct in the series against Englandin the UAE," he added.

KHI 17-01-2012_Layout 1 1/17/2012 3:40 AM Page 21

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

Tuesday, 17 January, 2012 22

ISLAMABAD MIaN aBRaR

PRESIDENT Asif Ali Zardariand Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani on Monday de-cided to face the contempt no-tice issued by the Supreme

Court with grace but with steadfastness andresolve that the government, with all re-spect to the court, would not move from itsstated stance on the immunity to the pres-ident under Article 248 of the constitution.

A source in the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) told Pakistan Today that the primeminister offered the president his resigna-tion during a meeting of coalition partners,which Zardari rejected. “The president toldthe premier that this was time to stand talland that resignation was not an option. Hetold Gilani to follow his predecessors aswas the case with former prime ministersof the PPP - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Be-

nazir Bhutto – who laid down their livesbut did not give in to tyrants,” the sourcesaid. The meeting decided that the primeminister would appear in court on January19 and heads of all the coalition partieswould accompany him to send a strongmessage to the judiciary that “politicalforces stood by the premier”.

Later, the heads of coalition parties alsodeliberated upon the strategy chalked outby the president and the prime minister,with Awami National Party (ANP) chief As-fandyar Wali Khan assuring full backing tothe PPP. President Zardari also arrived atthe meeting without due protocol and dis-cussed the present political situation withthe leaders of coalition partners. A sourcesaid the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid(PML-Q) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) voiced concerns against a head-oncollision with the army or the judiciary.

President asks PM to stand tall, face challengesg aNP fully backs PPP leadership’s strategy g PmL-Q, mQm caution against confrontational path

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

The Supreme Court on Monday accepted theunconditional apology of National Accounta-bility Bureau (NAB) Chairman Admiral (r)Fasih Bokhari over his defiant conduct beforethe court during the last hearing of the NROimplementation case.

Bokhari tendered an unconditional apol-ogy over his conduct and assured the courtthat he would ensure implementation of theNRO verdict in letter and spirit. A seven-judge special bench headed by Justice NasirulMulk accepted the written unconditionalapology while hearing the NRO implementa-tion case. Shaiq Usmani, counsel for NABchairman, told the court that his client wasnot aware of the court’s proceedings andother affairs, thus he committed somethingwrong, which fell in the definition of defiantconduct, for which his apology might kindlybe accepted. The court then directed the NABchairman to submit his unconditional apologyin written, which he did. Usmani told thecourt that NAB had stared taking steps to ini-tiate action against NRO beneficiaries, includ-ing Adnan A Khawaja, Ahmad Riaz Sheikh,Ismail Qureshi, Malik Qayyum and AhsanRaja. He said some necessary actions had al-ready been taken against the accused.

Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa directedthe NAB chairman to submit all record relat-ing to inquiries opened against Adnan AKhawaja, former managing director of theOGDCL, Ahmed Riaz Sheikh, former addi-tional director general of FIA, former attor-ney general Malik Qayyum and others byThursday. The court also directed the NABchairman to submit a report over the imple-mentation of the NRO verdict. Usmani saidarrest warrants had been obtained for the ar-rest of former attorney general MalikQayyum. He said since Qayyum was out thecountry, red warrants were being obtainedfor his arrest. The court then directed theNAB chairman to present an interim reporton the next hearing over the steps which hadbeen taken or were being taken. “Is any ac-tion being taken against those responsible forillegal appointments?” Justice Asif KhanKhosa asked. The court directed NAB to notonly take action against those appointed ille-gally, but also against those who illegally ap-pointed them. NAB Prosecutor General KKAgha told the court that it had also passedsome negative remarks against him. He alsotendered an apology, requesting the court toexpunge these remarks. The court told himthat it still respected him.

ISLaMaBaD: president asif ali Zardari and prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani chair a meeting of the government’s coalition partners on Monday. oNLINE

words ‘dishonest’,

‘corrupt’ for PM

misreported by

media: Justice KhosaISLAMABAD

app

Supreme Court Justice Asif Saeed KhanKhosa on Monday clarified that the benchnever used words “dishonest” and“corrupt” for the prime minister in thecontext highlighted by the media andcalled the notion a misconception. Hemade these remarks while hearing theNational Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)implementation case on Monday. JusticeKhosa was heading a five-member benchthat authored the order passed on January10 in which the bench gave six options forits consideration during futureproceedings of the case regarding theimplementation of the NRO judgment.Justice Khosa observed that amisconception was created about its orderdetailing six options which they had toexercise and these were not meant for thegovernment as highlighted by the media.He regretted that the electronic and printmedia commented without reading theorder, which was “unfortunate”. JusticeKhosa said the Prime Minister’s Office wasa respectful office for them.

10 Baloch separatists

gunned down in

chamalang operationQUETTA

SHaHZaDa ZULfIQaR

Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan killed10 Baloch separatists in a day-longoperation in the Chamalang area onMonday. According to a report fromChamalang, close to Loralai district andrestive Kohlu Marri district, theBalochistan FC launched a freshoperation against Baloch separatistsafter an increase in separatist attacks,particularly a raid which killed 15 FCpersonnel, including a major. Reportssaid 10 separatists were killed anddozens injured during clashes with FCtroops. Reports confirmed deaths andcasualties among FC Balochistan troopsbut security forces refused to confirm.An independent report claimed FCpersonnel were establishing a checkpostin the Bhalwal area of Musakhaildistrict, close to the restive Kohlu Marridistrict when Baloch separatistsattacked them. Reports on Mondaysuggested that multiple people had beenarrested during the operation andshifted to undisclosed locations forinterrogation. However, FC officialsrefused to comment on either aspect of the operation.

ISLAMABADtaHIR NIaZ

As the main character in the memoscandal, Pakistani-American busi-nessman Mansoor Ijaz, failed toappear before the judicial commis-sion probing the controversy onMonday under the pretext of a“precarious political situation” inPakistan, Zahid Bukhari, the coun-sel for former ambassador HusainHaqqani, continued with his at-tempts ostensibly aimed at stop-ping Ijaz from coming to Pakistanby asking the commission to barIjaz from leaving Pakistan until thecompletion of investigation andsupporting an application thatsought to register a case againstthe US national under Article 6 ofthe constitution for ‘high treason’.

Ijaz was supposed to appearbefore the commission on Mondaybut his counsel Akram Sheikh saidthere was political and institu-tional instability in the countryamidst rumours of change in armycommand, which forced his clientnot to come to Pakistan. He saidstatements regarding registrationof treason cases against Ijaz andthe sacking of the defence secre-tary were also causes of concernfor his client. “Our patience shouldnot be put to test… when will Man-soor Ijaz appear before the com-mission?” the commission’sChairman Justice Qazi Faez Isaasked. However, Sheikh soughtmore time and told the commis-

sion that his client would be avail-able before the commission on thenext date of hearing, January 24.

Bukhari continued throwing aspanner in the works by objectingto the scope and procedureadopted by the commission for in-vestigation and declining to waiveprivacy rights of his client with Re-search In Motion Limited, themanufacturer of BlackBerry smart-phones, coupled with the revela-tion made by the attorney generalthat the BlackBerry handsets ofHusain Haqqani were not found inthe US. Bukhari consumed a con-siderable time of the commissionon the question of the procedure tobe adopted for investigation.

One of the petitioners in thememo case, lawyer Tariq Asad, toldthe commission that Brig (r) Imtiazand Lt General (r) Javed Ashraf Qaziwould be the witnesses he wanted toproduce before the commission.Bukhari filed an application to thecommission pleading that Ijaz bebarred from leaving Pakistan until theinvestigation by the commission wascomplete, adding that the SupremeCourt had asked his client not to leavethe country as well. However, JusticeIsa said Haqqani was a governmentservant and a citizen of Pakistan, butIjaz was neither, so it would be unfairto stop him from leaving Pakistan. Hetold Bukhari that if Ijaz left Pakistanbefore the completion of the investi-gation, it would benefit Haqqani.

MeMOGAte COMMISSION

g Counsel says Ijaz will appear incourt on 24th

Haqqani’s lawyerdilly-dallies as Ijazfails to turn up

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NAB chief apologises,Supreme Court accepts

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