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DAMASCUS—Syria has askedthe United Nations to prevent“any aggression” against Syriafollowing a call over the week-end by U.S. President BarackObama for punitive strikesagainst the Syrian military forlast month’s chemical weaponsattack.

Washington says more than1,400 people, many of themchildren, were killed in theworld’s worst use of chemicalarms since Iraq’s Saddam

Syria asks UN for aggression preventionRussia not convinced of US evidence

Continued on Page 6

Taliban attack US basenear Pakistan border

KABUL—Militants have at-tacked a US base in Afghanistan,near the border with Pakistan,leading to multiple explosions, agunfight and the closure of a keyroad used by NATO supplytrucks, officials said.

Several vehicles belonging toUS-led forces were torched orotherwise damaged, and threealleged attackers were killed, butthe main section of the base wasnot breached.

The Taliban claimed respon-sibility for the strike in theTorkham area, the latest in asurge of attacks in Afghanistanas US-led foreign troops reducetheir presence en route to a full

withdrawal by the end of nextyear. Militants frequently targetNato’s supply lines in both Af-ghanistan and Pakistan.

In a brief statement, Natoconfirmed “a series of explo-sions” in the area but said none

of its personnel were killed. Nomembers of the Afghan securityforces or civilians were killed orwounded, according to Esa KhanZwak, chief administrator inMohmandara district, in whichthe base is located.

Ahmad Zia Abdulzai,spokesman for the governor of

Nangarhar province, said severalmilitants wearing suicide vestsand carrying other weaponsstaged the attack, and that Afghanand US forces exchanged gunfirewith the insurgents. Nato heli-copters joined the fight, he added.

The encounter began ataround 6.30am local time andlasted three and a half hours, saidMasoum Khan Hashimi, deputyprovincial police chief inNangarhar province.

Afghan security forces tryingto clear the area were still in theprocess of defusing a bomb in acar. At least one car bomb wasalso successfully detonated in the

MUHAMMAD AFZAL BAJWA

ISLAMABAD—Before travellingto troubled Karachi, Prime Min-ister Nawaz Sharif on Mondaychaired a high-profile meeting totake army and premier intelli-gence apparatus on-board regard-ing new security strategy ofPML-N government.

“All resources to be utilizedto ensure security,” a handoutquoted the Prime Minister as say-ing during the meeting. “Secu-rity is the top most priority of thegovernment,” he added.

While meeting the militaryleadership, the PM also calledupon all political forces that theymust rise to the occasion so thatnational consensus is evolved to

New security strategy

PM takes Army on-boardSpecial Cabinet meeting tomorrow

address the problems faced by thecountry. Premier Sharif is facedwith heightened security threats

both on internal and of late ex-ternal threats even more than

what he inherited from stigmaticPPP led by outgoing PresidentAsif Ali Zardari in May. Inter-nally, Karachi capital of Sindhwhere PPP managed to sustain itsrule through May elections hasbecome top security challenge forthe five months’ old PML-N gov-ernment. On external front, at thesame, India has fuelled tensionsacross line of control (LOC) indisputed valley of Kashmir,country to the Prime Minister’sdeep desire to have peace evenwith the traditionally hostileneighbour.

Thus the security-hauntedgovernment has evolved as itclaimed a ‘new’ security strategyencompassing upfront challengeof Karachi, nonetheless law and

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Sartaj Aziz urges D-8 countriesto remove trade barriersProposes cooperation in energy sector

ISLAMABAD—The 33rd Ses-sion of the Commissioners ofDeveloping-8 Organizationcommenced in Islamabad onMonday.

Addressing the inaugural ses-sion of the meeting, Mr. SartajAziz, Adviser to the Prime Min-ister on National Security & For-eign Affairs urged the organiza-tion to initiate the phase of sub-stantive cooperation byoperationalising the agreementsrelated to removing barriers intrade and business, particularly thePreferential Trade Agreement.

Highlighting economic re-vival as a high priority of thegovernment, the adviser saidthat this was the reason that thedecision to join the D-8 wastaken by Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif over

15 years ago who attended thefirst historical summit of the or-

ganization in Istanbul in June

Joint move against terror

Pak-China strategiccooperation must for stability

OBSERVER REPORT

BEIJING—Chinese and Paki-stani senior strategists andpolicy-makers stressed that theregional security, peace and sta-bility can best be achievedthrough expanded regional andstrategic cooperation betweenBeijing and Islamabad.

Speaking at a two-day meet-ing of China-Pakistan Think-tank

here in Beijing held at TsinghuaUniversity, Chinese and Paki-stani intellectuals, legislatorscalled for cementing recentagreement for a Gwadar-to-Kashghar Economic Corridor.Senator Syed Mushahid Hussainwho is also the Chairman of Pa-kistan-China Institute underlinedthe need to expand people topeople contact while former dip-lomats urged for more economic Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD—A case was reg-istered in the Islamabad HighCourt (IHC) against formerpresident Pervez Musharraf forthe murder of Abdul Rashid andhis mother during the LalMasjid operation, on Monday.

Earlier, the IHC stoppedStation House Officer (SHO)Aabpara Police Station, QasimNiazi from leaving the court-room, saying that he would notbe allowed to leave until a casewas registered againstMusharraf. After registration ofthe case he was allowed to leave

Musharraf booked for Lal Masjid murderthe court room. HC JusticeNoorul Haq Qureshi said that notregistering a case despite thecourt’s orders falls under con-tempt of court.

On Friday the IHC sum-moned the SHO over non-com-pliance with the court’s orders tolook into whether a case can beregistered. The IHC Justice di-rected the SHO to appear beforethe court on September 2 in re-sponse to a contempt applicationfiled by Haroonur Rashid Ghazi.the son of slain Lal Masjid clericAbdul Rasheed Ghazi, against

the police for non-compliancewith court orders and soughtcriminal proceedings against thepolice official.

On July 12, 2013, the samebench had ordered the police tobook the former president, and ifthe Lal Masjid operation was acognisable offence, a case be reg-istered against Musharraf for thedeath of Ghazi and others duringthe operation.

However, the police had re-fused to register an FIR, sayingthat it would do so after consult-ing their legal branch. Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD—Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudharyhas taken notice on the murderof two lawyers in Ferozewala andVehari and ordered Punjab policeto present report within 10 daysin the court regarding these inci-dents.

The three member benchstarted the hearing of the case onMonday. CJP in his remarks said

CJ takes action on lawyers’ killingthat the government is talkingabout providing protection to thecommon man, but the series ofthe killing of the lawyers is notgoing to stop.

He said that giving protectionof property and lives of thepeople is the responsibility of thegovernment and all the peopleespecially the legal fraternityshould be provided safety. The

SC also ordered KP governmentto hold an inquiry through highranked police officers on themurder of another lawyer Anwar-ul-Haq Advocate who was killednear Khanpur Dam.

Advocate Taufeeq Asif toldthe court almost 45 days ago,lawyers was kidnapped, but noaction was taken by the police so

Continued on Page 6

Hussein gassed thousands ofKurds in 1988.

U.S. military action will beput to a vote in Congress, whichends its summer recess on Sep-tember 9, giving PresidentBashar al-Assad time to preparethe ground for any assault and tryto rally international supportagainst the use of force.

In a letter to U.N. chief BanKi-moon and President of theSecurity Council Maria CristinaPerceval, Syrian U.N. envoy

Ambassador Bashar Ja’afaricalled on “the U.N. SecretaryGeneral to shoulder his respon-sibilities for preventing any ag-gression on Syria and pushingforward reaching a political so-lution to the crisis in Syria”, statenews agency SANA said onMonday.

He called on the SecurityCouncil to “maintain its role as asafety valve to prevent the absurduse of force out of the frame ofinternational legitimacy”.

Ja’afari said the UnitedStates should “play its role, asa peace sponsor and as a part-ner to Russia in the preparationfor the international conferenceon Syria and not as a state thatuses force against whoever op-poses its policies”.

Syria denies using chemi-cal weapons and accuses rebelgroups, who have been fightingfor more than two years totopple Assad, of using the

Croatiahijacker of USplane commitssuicideZAGREB—A Croatiannationalist convicted in the USfor the 1976 hijacking of anairliner and who only returnedhome five years ago after beingparoled has committed suicide,police said Monday.

Zvonko Busic, 67, shothimself at his family home inRovanjska, near the centralcoastal town of Zadar onSunday, a police spokesmantold AFP.

He added that it was stillunclear why Busic, whoreturned to Croatia in 2008after serving 32 years of a lifesentence in the United States,had taken his own life. Busichad been sentenced in 1977 for

Brazil summons USambassador overspying allegationsBRASILIA—The Americanambassador to Brazil wassummoned by authoritiesMonday over new allegationsthat the US National SecurityAgency spied on PresidentDilma Rousseff, an officialsaid.

US journalist GlennGreenwald, a Guardiannewspaper columnist whoobtained secret files from NSAleaker Edward Snowden, toldGlobo television that theagency snooped on thecommunications of Rousseffand Mexican President EnriquePena Nieto.

A Brazilian foreignministry spokesman said USAmbassador Thomas Shannon“was called to explain” theclaims made by Greenwald,

207 dead, 1,122injured in floods :NDMAISLAMABAD—A total of 207people have so far been deadand 1,122 sustained injuries inrecent flash floods in thecountry says the latest dataissued by the National DisasterManagement Authority(NDMA).

According to the data, asmany as 23,602 tents have beendistributed in Punjab, 3,440 inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP),10,185 in Sindh, 5,080 inBalochistan, and 177 in AzadJammu Kashmir.

A total of 57,484 tentshave been distributed amongflood hit people by the NationalDisaster ManagementAuthority and the ProvincialDisaster ManagementAuthorities so far.

As many as 124,900 foodpacks have also been distributedamong marooned people, includ-ing 106,100 in Punjab, 12,650 inKP, 1,500 in Sindh and 4,500 inBalochistan. Some 16,887 blan-kets have so far been distributed

Continued on Page 6

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Tariq Asad, the counsel forthe petitioner, had said that theyapproached the concerned po-lice station after the court’s de-cision but both the SHO andSSP refused to register the case.Earlier, Haroon had filed a writ-ten statement with the Aabparapolice in which he said theformer president had madethreatening statements on twooccasions before the militaryoperation on the mosque waslaunched in July 2007. The LalMasjid operation was a 2007

SAFDAR KLASRA

ISLAMABAD—Much to the realsurprise of many, the reports sofar submitted by the governmentinstitutions to the Services andGeneral Administration Depart-ment stated that no bureaucrat inPunjab, the biggest province ofPakistan, held dual nationality,the sources told Pakistan Ob-server here on Monday.

The sources in Punjab Ser-vices and General AdministrationDepartment confided to this cor-respondent that all of the reports

they have received so far byheads of the government institu-tions and entities showed that nobureaucrat in Punjab holds dualnationality, which is apparentlynot the truth.

“We have an impression thatheads of the government institu-tions and entities are not takingthe issue of dual nationality seri-ously and they are only follow-ing the official procedure.

It is next to impossible tocheck the nationality status oflawmakers or bureaucrats unlessthey come forward to declare

their dual nationality them-selves,” the sources said.

The official record showedthat the Establishment Divisionsent a letter to chief secretariesof all provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan in November 2012 di-recting them to prepare list ofthose officials who hold dual na-tionality.

It was also asked in the letterthat those who hold dual nation-ality should show when they gotnationality and how many visitsthey have paid so far to those

No Punjab bureaucratreveals dual nationality

Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD: Advisor to the Prime Minister on NationalSecurity and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz shaking hands withSyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi, Secretary General of the D-8,at Foreign Office.

order is a provincial subject, tocritical task of initiating peacetalks with militants.

Before taking this new strat-egy to the Cabinet meeting thatis being convened in Karachi to-morrow, with one point agendaof security, the Prime Ministertook the military top brass intoconfidence over the next line ofaction.

“ The use of force againstextremists and criminals inKarachi or else where in thecountry, must be backed by apolitical process, a sourcequoted the PM as saying.

“The use of force must bebacked by a political processaimed at curbing the extremists

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) again sub-mitted on Monday a requisitionof convening the Sindh assem-bly session over the issue of lawand order in Karachi in particu-lar and in the entire province ingeneral.

The acting Sindh AssemblySpeaker (Deputy Speaker SindhAssembly) Shehla Raza receivedthe requisition from the MQMlawmakers.

Sources said that the Sindhgovernment would again analysethe MQM requisition weighingit with the constitutional provi-sioning and the would decidewhether the House should be in

session or to reject the requisi-tion again if technical flawsfound.

The MQM had on Aug 28filed its first requisition for all set-up to debate on the burning lawand order issues in the port city,which majority of public man-date is enjoyed by the MQM.

However, the Speaker SindgAssembly Agha Siraj KhanDurrani had rejected MQM’srequisition on the basis of tech-nical flaws, which he had ex-plained saying that the signaturesof some MQM lawmakers onthat previous requisition did notmatch to those in assemblyrecord. The rejection of the req-uisition had irked the MQM and

MQM re-submitsrequisition for PA session

ISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt of Pakistan has set a thirtydays deadline for the auction of3G Telecommunication li-censes.

A three member benchheaded by Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry heard the3G licence auction and appoint-

SC orders 3G licences auction in 30 daysment of Pakistan Telecommuni-cations Authority (PTA) chair-man case on Monday.

During proceedings, theChief Justice remarked that thePTA chairman and members beappointed within the next fifteendays and 3G licences should beauctioned fifteen days after the

appointments. The chief justicefurther said that in the absenceof the PTA, grey trafficking hadbecome a billion rupee businessas there was no authority tocheck it. He added that thismight be the reason why thePTA was being stopped from be-coming a regulator.

Judge whoescaped murderattempt elevated

to CJ of SHCSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Having survivedan assassination attempt, whichsaw nine people being killed in

June, JusticeBaqar Maqboolof the SindhHigh Court hasbeen elevated tobe the ChiefJustice of thesame court.

J u s t i c eMaqbool will

replace the incumbent SHCChief Justice Musheer Alam whohas inturn been elevated to theSupreme Court of Pakistan.

Continued on Page 6

India againresorts tofiring in

Nakial SectorKOTLI—Indian troops againresorted to unprovoked firing atNakial sector along the Line ofControl in Azad Kashmir creat-ing panic among the locals onMonday.

Firing from across the bor-der continued to target Nakialsector in Kotli with PakistanArmy also responding to the fir-ing from time to time.

According to reports, thepeople have locked themselvesinside their houses while schoolshave announced holidays afterthe firing from Indian BorderForces along the border in Kotlidistrict. However, no loss ofhuman life was reported yet,though unprovoked firing hasbeen irking the locals.

The continuous violation ofceasefire agreement hasterrorised locals. The two coun-tries agreed to a ceasefire alongthe LoC in November 2003, butskirmishes have flared acrossthe heavily-militarised Line ofControl (LoC), the de facto bor-der in Kashmir, in recent weeks,with both sides blaming eachother for having violated theagreement.—INP

and business as well as privatesector relationship.

The scholars advocated thatthe China’s principal stance toprotect regional countries fromthreats of terrorism and separat-ism should be strongly backed bythe two countries.

Pakistan’s top envoy inBeijing Ambassador MasoodKhalid while appreciating the

Continued on Page 6

Picture on Back Page

Hangu newlyelected MPA

joins PTIPESHAWAR—Newly electedMember Provincial AssemblyKhyber Pakhtunkhwa fromHangu, Shah Faisal Khan, whocontested elections as inde-pendent candidate, Mondayformally joined Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf. He made an announce-ment to this effect in a meetingwith Chief Minister KhyberPakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattakhere at his office. A forty-mem-bers delegation of the elites ofHangu also accompanied theMPA. It is worth mentioninghere that Shah Faisal is thebrother of Ex-MPA from HanguFarid Khan who was martyredin an incident of firing soon af-ter being elected MPA is the lastgeneral elections.

Expressing his views on theoccasion MPA Shah FaisalKhan said that he has joinedPTI to carry forward the mis-sion of his late brother and toserve the down trodden seg-ment of the society. He reposedfull confidence in the leadershipof Pervez Khattak and ImranKhan, and assured the ChiefMinister that he would extendfull support to the provincialgovernment in the implemen-tation of its agenda.—APP

PCRWR to establishwater-testing labs

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nCouncil of Research in Wa-ter Resources (PCRWR) willestablish as many as 19 morewell-equipped water testinglaboratories across Pakistanfor proviosion of safe drink-ing water to the people.PCRWR has already estab-lished a well-equipped watertesting laboratory at Sialkotwith total cost of Rs. 14 mil-lion for providing the ad-vanced water testing facili-ties to local people at locallevel.

Chairman PCRWR Dr.Muhammad Aslam Tahir saidthat 25 to 30% deaths in Paki-stan are caused by diarrhea.He said that now Pakistan hasalso been included in those17 countries, which had beensuffering from shortage ofwater. He said that as manyas 40 percent of the total pa-tients admitted at the govern-ment hospitals across Paki-stan had been suffering fromthe Water Born Diseases(WBDs).—APP

ISLAMABAD—Minister forPlanning, Development andReforms Ahsan Iqbal said onMonday that over half a mil-lion school age children wouldbe enrolled in schools duringa three-day special nation-wide enrollment campaignfrom September 9 to 11 to cel-ebrate International LiteracyDay. “The government willfight illiteracy on emergencybasis. Without producingworld class human resourcewe have no chance of survivalin today’s competitive world”,the minister said in a state-ment here.

He said, “Pakistan lagsbehind all the South Asiancountries. We are living inknowledge revolution era andour development journeymust start with education andend with education”. The

number of children out ofschool in the country arenearly 25 million, while theaverage number of years ofschooling completed is 4.9years here, slightly ahead ofAngola and Bangladesh,Ahsan Iqbal added. He saidthere were only 13 countriesin the world with a lower adultliteracy rate than Pakistan, ac-cording to data compiled bythe United Nations.

Dera Ghazi Khan: Dis-trict Coordination Officer(DCO) Ali Bahadur Qaziclaimed that 90,558 childrenof five to nine years had beenenroled during the emer-gency enrolment campaign ofthe Punjab government. Hewas addressing a meeting toreview the emergency enrol-ment campaign in the districthere on Monday.—APP

IRFAN ALIGI

K A R A C H I — D e n g u eHaemorrhagic Fever (DHF)knows no boundaries to makethe citizens sick becausethose assigned the responsi-bilities to eliminated the nurs-eries of the mosquitoes andensure the citizens stay safeand healthy had either notworked honestly or had noscientific idea as how to dealwith the cumbersome situa-tion. The only solution thatthe authorities of Sindh healthdepartment had discoveredso far was to continue withthe fumigation spray cam-paigns, not knowing that theuse of the chemical for manyyears had helped the mosqui-toes to acquire resistance

against that chemical.Till date, 890 cases of den-

gue had been reported at ma-jor public hospitals and thenew patients arrival at thepublic and private hospitalswas being continued. The fu-migation spray campaign hadinvolved hefty public moneywhile it had failed to attain anyresults. Last week, the SindhDengue Surveillance Cell in-charge Dr Shakil Malik hadwritten a letter to Punjab gov-ernment asking for help ineradicating the dengue. Hehad approached Punjab gov-ernment under directives ofhis superior but was later heldanswerable for his step.

Medical experts had toldPakistan Observer that the fu-migation was part of medical

field of anthropology and en-tomology and it was impera-tive that it should be carriedout under the supervision of aqualified anthropologist, whocould also guide on differentfumigation plans. Use of a spe-cific chemical repeatedlywould sure enable mosquitoesto develop resistance againstthat chemical and only the ex-perts could guide through useof other effective chemicals.

Karachi University Pro ViceChancellor for Academic Af-fairs, Prof. of Microbiology DrShahana Urooj Kazmi told Pa-kistan Observer that carryingout fumigation campaigns wasnot effective because of certainreasons and that the use ofchemical should be restrictedonly to areas wherefrom cases

of dengue had reported. Ran-domized spray of chemical wasa serious hazard to the lives ofpeople as they are repeatedlyexposed to the chemical.Thechemical used in fumigationwas being absorbed in veg-etables, poultry, grains, beef,veal, mutton and milk that re-mained opened and were notcovered and intake and con-sumption of such productswas creating direct health con-cern to the consumers.

The repeat of unscientificfumigation campaign thatwent throughout the year inthe city was compelling thepeople to inhale the toxicityof chemicals and creating re-sistance in mosquitoesagainst the chemical. Whilerejecting the information that

FAISALABAD—A man shot hiswife dead over suspicion inLundianwala police limits onMonday. According to police,Mian Waris of Chak No 652-GB suspected his wife GullShehzadi (25) had illicit relationswith a youth. He shot her deadand managed flee. Islamabad:At least four people died in aroad accident as speedy truck,car and a rickshaw collided hereon City Bypass on Monday.

According to rescuesources, the accident tookplace after midnight when atruck, rickshaw and car col-lided, leaving four people, in-cluding uncle and nephew,dead, private news channelreported. The victims wereidentified as Tahir, Amanullah,Abdul Qadeer (12) and a rick-shaw driver Ubedullah. Thebodies were shifted to the CivilHospital for medico-legal fami-lies, the sources added.

Sargodha: A man and awoman were axed to deathhere in Saddar police limits.Police said here on Mondaythat Muhammad Feroz, resi-dent of chak 34 NB axed todeath his daughter in law,Mumtaz bibi, mother of two

children, on Sunday night.He suspected her illicit rela-tions with a young man. Theaccused also killed a youngman Amanullah of chak 98NB who had come to meetMumtaz Bibi earlier thatnight. The bodies werehanded over to the familiesafter post-mortem. The policearrested the accused and reg-istered case against him.

Khanewa: A boy was hitto death by a speeding caron Monday. According toRescue 1122, MuhammadImran of Railway Colony wasgoing to Peoples Colonywhen a motorcycle hit himnear College Stop as he wascrossing the road. In themeantime, a speeding car hithim as he was trying to getup. He was shifted to NishtarHospital Multan but died. Hewas a student of class 4.

Faisalabad: A motorcy-clist was crushed to deathand his brother injured in aroad accident in Jhang Bazarpolice limits on Monday. Ac-cording to police, QamarSaleem (28) along with hisbrother Shahid Saleem (31),of Chak No 82-JB.—APP

ANF recovers662 kg hashish,

1.1 kg heroinISLAMABAD—Anti NarcoticsForce (ANF) has recovered662 kilograms hashish atSukkar, arresting one person.According to ANF press re-lease, spot-check team wasdeployed at Shikarpur road,near Physical Education Col-lege Sukkar. Meanwhile, aMazda truck registered No.TKR-831 came to the site andafter detailed checking re-sulted in recovery of 662 kgshashish, concealed in secretcavities of the vehicle. A per-son namely Mumtaz Ali resi-dent of Shikarpur has beenarrested. Cases have beenregistered at ANF police sta-tions.

It has also been reportedthat Anti Narcotics Force(ANF) has recovered 1.1 kilo-grams heroin at Peshawar Air-port on Monday. Accordingto Press release, ANF has re-covered 1.1 kgs heroin from apassenger Iqbal resident ofTehsil Tangi, DistrictCharsadda at Peshawar Air-port. The heroin was con-cealed in improvised cavitiesinside two cricket bats.—APP

KARACHI: Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq paying homage to the founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-AzamMuhammad Ali Jinnah at Mazar-e-Quaid.

ISLAMABAD—British HighCommissioner to PakistanAdam Thomson, Monday,said that British universitiesbenefit from having Paki-

stani top professionalsstudy with them. He furthersaid that UK was committedto working in partnershipwith Pakistan at all levels of

education, from primarylevel to university.

While speaking at alaunching the Cheveningscholarship programme in Pa-kistan for the 2014/15 aca-demic year Adam Thomsonsaid that Chevening schol-arships offer talented Paki-stani nationals the opportu-nity to study for a post-graduate qualification in theUK. Students who came tothe UK benefit not only fromour world class universitiesbut also from our dynamic,vibrant and multicultural so-ciety. Our universities alsobenefit from having such topprofessionals study withthem.

“Over the past 30 years theChevening scholarshipprogramme in Pakistan has en-abled more than 1200 Pakistanisto study in the UK. These stu-dents came from across Paki-stan and from many sectors,including local and central gov-ernment, business and indus-try, civil society and the media.We are proud of PakistaniChevening alumni and the im-portant contribution they aremaking towards Pakistan’s de-velopment.—Online

ISLAMABAD—First few or-ders of Election Tribunals toverify the thumb impres-sions of voters in subjectconstituencies have startedpouring in NADRA and weare poised to do an honest,transparent and fair job, saidTariq Malik, ChairmanNADRA while rolling outCode of Conduct for em-ployees who will performthe task. He was addressingthe highly skilled and ac-countable workforce work-ing on this sensitive project.“Honesty, integrity, and fairpractice create a solid foun-dation that earns the

public’s trust. NADRA’scode of conduct is the ex-pression of this solid foun-dation” said Tariq Malik. Hefurther emphasized strictcompliance by all concernedto these guidelines for trans-parent results.

NADRA has preparedthis code of conduct for itsown employees, public rep-resentatives, petitioners andrespondents, he added.These guidelines aim at en-suring and maintaining politi-cal impartiality across theboard and to avoid conflictof interest while performingtasks of national importance

in a totally non-political, pro-fessional and honest man-ner, said Tariq Malik. Theemployees of NADRA in-volved in Thumb verificationproject had to sign undertak-ing on oath for impartialitybefore they were put to job.

The objective of Code ofConduct is to make persons,involved in performing thesetasks, accountable of their ac-tions. While highlighting thedetails he said that NADRAemployees will not indulge inany activity deemed as con-flict of interest. All employeeswill show high sense of re-sponsibility in their working

and will perform tasks sin-cerely and dedicatedly aboveany political affiliation with-out any fear or favor. It wasalso said in the code of con-duct that no employee en-gaged in verification processwill directly or indirectly con-tact petitioner or respondentsin the cases where petitionhas been filed in election tri-bunal. Special chains of cus-tody procedure along withstandard operating proce-dures are developed togetherwith Election Tribunals to se-cure sensitive record.

Moreover, all NADRAemployees will ensure that

evidence being forwardedfrom Election Tribunal willbe handled with utmostcare. Any alteration or ma-nipulation in the evidencewill be liable of punitiveaction as described in rel-evant laws. In addition tothis all verification reportswhen completed will besubmitted to election tribu-nal only and no one elsewill have the access of thereports.

NADRA has beefed itsown security and has soughtadditional help of Ministry ofInterior to get Islamabad Po-lice on board.—INP

Chemical used in dengue fumigation affect humans life

FAISALABAD: A large numbers of applicant’s bike parked outside civil line to collectthe application from for the post of police constable.

NADRA implements Conduct Code to helpelection tribunals for votes verification

UK HC launchesChevening scholarships Man kills wife over suspicion

8 die in road accidents

HAMEED SHAHEEN

ISLAMABAD—The JammuKashmir Democratic Free-dom Party (JKDFP) renew-ing its basic belief in the on-going struggle of Kashmirisfor right to self-determina-tion has expressed graveconcern that continued un-settlement of this disputecan lead to a nuclear catas-trophe. The whole of the re-gion has gone highly vola-tile warranting global role “tosave the region from anynukes eventuality”.

In a written by-name ap-peal to the Editor-in-Chief ofDaily Pakistan Observer MrZahid Malik, who is also theChairman of the Nazriya-e-Pa-kistan Council (Trust), theVice-President of JKDFP Mr

Mehmood Ahmed Sagharurged him ‘to use your goodoffices to seek a just,honourable and equitable so-lution of this dispute to bringan immediate end to the suf-ferings of the people of Kash-mir”.

Recounting the hellishconditions in Hindustan-oc-cupied parts of J&K the ap-peal says: “Hundreds ofthousands of innocentKashmiris have been killed,millions injured and publicproperties worth billionshave been razed to theground in the entire Valley,which was known once asparadise on earth”. The longpending dispute in the Hima-layan region has been thebasic cause of immense suf-ferings of the Kashmiris.

Pakistan’s unflinching faithand commitment towards apeaceful settlement of thedispute is appreciable; Indiamust also reciprocate so thatthis running sore could besolved on the basis of uni-versal principle of right toself-determination promisedto Kashmiris. The recent skir-mishes on the Line of Con-trol and tension escalationbetween Pakistan and Indiacarry the potential of “ an-other devastating war”.

Given the prevalent grav-ity of the situation, the ap-peal text reads, “it is impera-tive that peace-loving peopleacross the globe should playtheir much needed role tosave the region (South Asia)from any eventuality ofnuclear catastrophe”.

Zahid Malik appealed to helpresolve Kashmir dispute

Nationwide child enrolmentcampaign from Sept 9

the health department au-thorities had so far sharedwith the people through pam-phlets, on Radio and Televi-sion said that it was unscien-tific to claim that the denguecausing mosquito bred onlyin fresh water. It was also sci-entifically wrong that the den-gue causing mosquito bitonly at Dawn and at sunset.

As far as the fresh waterconcept is concerned, oursclean water was alreadyloaded with much contamina-tion. The health authoritiesshould only ensure implemen-tation of recommendations bya qualified entomologists, whohad the scientific knowledgeabout the entire process offight against the mosquitoesand use of chemical.

Three BHCAdditional

Judges sworn inQUETTA—Newly-appointedAdditional Judges of theBalochistan High Court (BHC)were sworn in during a cer-emony held at the auditoriumof the BHC here Monday. ChiefJustice of BHC, Justice Qazi EsaFaez administered oath to theadditional judges includingMohammad KamranMulakhail, Mohammad EjazShah Swati and Shakeel AhmedBaloch. Judges of the BHC,prominent lawyers were alsopresent. Addressing the cer-emony, CJ BHC Qazi Faez saidthat with the appointment ofthree Additional Judges theBHC has attained its prescribedstrength of 10 judges.—APP

Karachi peacevital for nationaleconomy: Ayaz

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Peace in Karachiis vital for the nationaleconomy as the disorder inthe commercial hub means itsfall out effects on rest of thecountry. This was stated bySardar Ayaz Sadiq Speaker ofthe National Assembly whiletalking to the Press at theMazar of the father of thenation here today.

Monday that restorationof peace in the commercialhub of the country wouldimpact the entire economy.Hewas talking to media personsat the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.All the political parties desireto mould the country in ac-cordance to the vision ofQuaid-i-Azam MuhammadAli Jinnah.Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.

The Speaker of the Na-tional assembly is in Karachiwhere a cabinet meetingheaded by Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif is expected to-morrow. The Speaker was con-fident that the governmentwould take every effort to re-solving the problems faced bythe country including law andorder situation in Karachi.

Concern over fuel price hikeMULTAN—TI Vice Chairman ShahMahmood Qureshi has expressed concernover a hike in fuel prices. In a statement onMonday, he said the increase would badlyaffect people, traders and growers. He saidafter the increase in petroleum prices, wheatrates would also increase in upcoming daysand claimed people were once again look-ing at the PTI for relief. Opposition in thePunjab assembly on Monday walked outthe Punjab Assembly session in protest

against disallowing to table anti-price hike resolution in theHouse. Led by opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rashid,members left the house and later returned to their seats afterfifteen minutes protest. Mehmoodur Rashid wanted to seekchair’s nod to present the said resolution but the speaker RanaMohammed Iqbal did not entertain him, saying that he did notreceive copy of the resolution. It is pertinent to mention thattoday the house was commenced with a two hours delay. Ear-lier, Economist Dr Saboor Ghayur has termed criticism of in-crease in petroleum products prices as unjustified becauseprice increase in petroleum products is linked to internationalmarket. Talking to Radio Pakistan, he added that government istrying to restore investors’ confidence to improve country’seconomy. He maintained that government is also working toresolve energy crisis. He lauded government’s efforts to buildPak-China economic corridor and develop Gwadar port. Hemaintained that government has no other option except toincrease petroleum prices. He added that government couldnot afford subsidy in every sector due to current economicsituation and that revival of economy is its top priority.—APP

Corruption eliminationFAISALABAD—Minister of State forWater and Power Chaudhary Abid SherAli has said the government is commit-ted to eliminate corruption and theft inpower sector. Addressing a gatheringin Faisalabad‚ he said‚ no one would bespared if found involved in misappro-priation‚ abuse of powers and causinglosses to the national kitty. The Minis-ter said the government would not tol-erate stealing of electricity and wher-

ever such a case is detected‚ the concerned Executive En-gineer and Sub-Divisional Officer would be taken to task.He said all distribution companies have been asked to placecomplaint boxes in front of the offices of SDOs‚ XENs‚and other functionaries so that consumers could lodgetheir complaints freely. The Minister said he would per-sonally monitor the follow-up action on such complaints.Earlier Federal Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit-BaltistanAffairs Chaudhary Bargees Tahir has said that the gov-ernment is making all-out efforts to eradicate dengue. Heexpressed these views while speaking at a seminar held atKhankah Dogran, Sheikhupura, regarding eradication ofdengue virus. The Federal Minister appreciated the Punjabgovernment for taking measures in this regard. He saidthat the country could not make progress until theupgradation education and health sectors. He said thatteams of Health department were busy in providing reliefin the flood-hit areas. Bargees Tahir said that the govern-ment was taking measures on emergency basis to controldengue virus in flooded areas. He announced Rs 2,000cash prize for finding dengue mosquito or dengue patientin Khankah Dogran. MPA Rana Muhammad Arshad alsospoke on the occasion and applauded the efforts of thegovernment for the eradication of dengue virus. The offi-cials of Health department besides PML-N office bearerswere also present on the occasion.—APP

DHQ, MO suspendedStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—Khybe Pakhtunkhwa Min-ister for Health Shaukat Ali Yousafazi, hassuspended the services of MO Orthope-dic District Headquarters Hospital,Nowshera Dr. Syed Badshah and issueddirectives to the higher authorities to im-mediately transfer the existing SurgeonOrthopedic Dr. Asif from the same hospi-tal. These directives were issued by theminister health on public complaints dur-ing his visit to the District Headquarters

Hospital, Nowshera where he was inspecting laboratories,casualty and different wards and listening to the grievancesof the patients and their attendants. The minister health wasbriefed on the defective X-Ray machines in the hospital labson which he approved an X-Ray machine and Blood Screen-ing Machine for hepatitis B and C (PCR) for the hospital.Talking to the people Shoukat Ali Yousafzai disclosed that inall the hospitals of the province emergency services wouldbe made free of cost inauguration of which would be made bythe PTI Chairman Imran Khan on September 4 at Peshawar.He said Rs. 30 million and Rs. 50 million respectively would begiven to every BHU and teaching hospital in their budgets.He said in the past only injectable drugs were to be providedto the patients in the hospitals free of cost but now tabletsand capsules would also be provided free of cost and theservice would get its start from September 4 positively. Theminister also directed the concerned authorities to providethe required facilities in the hospital wards as identified bythe patients during his visit. Later, talking to the media people,the minister health said that the PTI government had withintwo months recruited 500 doctors and 550 nurses and estab-lished management councils comprising credible people whowould supervise purchase of medicines and equipments forthe hospitals which would extirpate corruption and purchaseof substandard drugs in the hospitals. He said within the endof this month all the vacant posts of technicians and labassistants would be filled that would end the shortage ofdoctors and paramedics.

Unity counters conspiraciesISLAMABAD—Speakers at a function inoccupied Kashmir have said that anti-freedom elements are running from pil-lar to post to sow the seeds of hatredthrough igniting communal and sectar-ian differences in the territory. The Chair-man of All Parties Hurriyet Conference,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq addressing theprogramme organized by AnjumanSharie Shian in Srinagar said that Kash-mir had a splendid history of religious

and communal harmony, KMS reported. Despite repeatedefforts by anti-social and anti-movement elements, theyfailed to accomplish their nefarious designs because oftimely intervention by the prudent religious and freedomleadership. The Mirwaiz, however, cautioned that forcesat international were active to proliferate the menace ofcommunalism and sectarianism in the entire Muslim worldincluding Egypt, Syria an Iraq. He said that only 10 per-cent differences among different sects of Islam were beinghyped to widen the gap, which, he said, could be coun-tered through unity. Addressing on the occasion, seniorAPHC leader, Maulana Abbas Ansari urged the Muslimsto ignore tertiary differences and get united on the basisof agreed upon principals of Islam. The Jamaat-e-Iislamileader, Zahid Ali Advocate said that unity was the mostpowerful weapon of the Muslims at this crucial juncture ofthe history. The function was chaired by senior APHCleader, Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi.—APP

MINGORA—Dengue virushas been confirmed in 82 morepatients in district Swat rais-ing the total number of af-fected patients to 1682, saidsources in health departmenthere Monday. According tosources in Saidu Sharif Hos-pital 930 patients have beendischarged after recovery.However, during last 24-hourdengue virus has been con-firmed in 82 more patients,which have been admitted tothe medical wards of the facil-ity. So far 984 patients havebeen admitted to Saidu SharifHospital while over 100 in-

cluding 25 women are still un-der treatment in the hospital.

According to an estimatemore than 2,000 tests are be-ing conducted in the medicallaboratory of Saidu SharifHospital. The total numberof the dengue virus affectedpatients in the district is 1,682while hundreds of patients areunder treatment in privatehospitals and in other areas.It has also been reported thatthe Khyber PakhtunkhwaGovernment has released Rs5 million for equipments tocontrol dengue virus in Swatvalley, said Provincial Health

Minister Shaukat Yousafzai.The Minister expressed

these views during his sur-prise visit to Swat valley toappraise himself about latestsituation regarding denguevirus situation and reformsthat are being introduced forbetterment of health deliverysystem. Speaking on the oc-casion, the Minister said RsFive million have been releasedfor purchase of equipments tocontrol dengue virus on emer-gency basis in Swat. He saidRs 50 mln have been releasedfor each tertiary institutions,Rs 40 mln for divisional head-

quarters hospitals and Rs 20.5mln for district headquartershospitals to facilitate achanged health delivery sys-tem to effectively deal healthrelated problems of the hap-less people throughout theprovince.This is an addition tothe already released additionalone billion rupees to healthsector, he added.

The minister assured thepatients that there will be freetests in the government labsincluding NS1 free of cost,adding no negligence on thepart of the doctors would betolerated.—APP

P E S H AWA R — P r o v i n c i a lMinister for Zakat and UshrHaji Habib ur Rehman Mon-day said provincial govern-ment pay great respect toteachers’ community andcommitted in resolving theirissues including revisingtheir basic scales. Talking toa delegation of teacher’s as-sociation of KhyberPakhtunkhwa here, he saidthe government would uti-lize all available resources togive basic scale 17 to seniorteacher, and scale 18 to head-masters and headmistresses.

In addition to these, hesaid that government wouldalso fix time scale for teach-ers of all cadres and wouldgive one seat promotion tothose teachers who were de-prived of their right of pro-motion. He further added thatefforts would be made to en-sure 25 per cent appoint-ments of primary teachers atunion councils’ level. He saidin the context of current sce-nario it is very important toensure maximum literacy ratein the country to wipe outterrorism and extremism fromthe country.

The delegation thanked

the minister for taking inter-est in their issues and assuredtheir full cooperation to pro-vincial government. Schools,colleges reopen after summerholidays: As summer holi-days conclude on August31st the public and privateschools, colleges and univer-sities have reopened in theprovince including provincialcapital on Monday. Theclasses have started formallyin all educational institutes ofthe province as studentsthronged bus stops and roadsleading to their respectiveeducational institutes in themorning.

With the opening of edu-cational institutes the routinehustle and bustle have re-turned to the capital city aslong queues of traffic werewitnessed on roads and stu-dents carrying bags andbooks were rushing to theirdestinations. It is notewor-thy that many privateschools and colleges haveincreased their tuition andtransportation fees at theonset of the new academicyear that has added to thewoes of parents already over-stretched financially.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The provinceshave been asked to ensure100% coverage during na-tional anti-polio drives to vac-cinate every child to protectfrom this crippling disease.According to official sources,district health managers havebeen directed to properlymanage the immunizationdrives, following the strategy.They have been asked to ef-fectively run awareness cam-paigns to educate parents toadminister anti-polio drops totheir children during every na-tional drive.

They added direction hasbeen issued after receivingcomplaints from the citizensthat district health teamsmissed the children duringanti-polio drives. They saiddue to law and order situa-tion health teams could notcontinue anti-polio drive inSwat that has increased thenumber of polio cases in thearea. However, after improve-ment in the situation, poliodrops were being adminis-tered to children in Swat, theyadded. They said over 33 mil-lion children under the ageof five years were adminis-tered anti-polio drops to pro-

tect them from the cripplingdisease during last three-dayimmunization campaign.

They said the campaignactivities were monitored bymore than 91,000 vaccinationteams while 15,400 area super-visors and 2730 zonal super-visors also participated in thecampaign. Sources said themain focus of the campaignwas administering anti poliodrops to children living in highrisk areas. They said poliovaccine used in the countryis safe and effective and isproduced internationallywhile WHO has approved itsquality. They said the vaccineis the same vaccine that hasbeen used in most of the worldto eradicate polio includingSaudi Arabia and Indonesia.

They said UN agencies,partners, donor govern-ments, the private sector andfoundations have extendedall possible support to en-sure that the necessary re-sources are available to en-sure making the country po-lio free. They said despitechallenges, considerableprogress has been made thisyear under the EmergencyAction Plan for Polio.—APP

D-virus confirmed in 82 more patients

Govt releases Rs 5m to control Swat dengue

Govt to revise teacherspay scale: Minister

Provinces asked toensure 100pc polio

immunization

MULTAN: Traffic warden briefs visitors at a stall during Trade Fair and Mega Exhibition organized by USAID, NPOand Multan Chamber of Commerce at Sports Ground.

QUETTA—Forum for DignityInitiative (FDI) has calledupon provincial governmentsto ensure representation ofthe transgender in their up-coming Local Government(LG) 2013 setup by allocatingspecial seats for them. In astatement issued here onMonday, FDI Executive Di-rector, Uzma Yaqoob said thatnecessary legislation was be-ing carried by the provincialgovernments for the conductof the LG 2013 elections.

“There are huge numberof transgender communitymembers living across thecountry,” she said adding onaccount of complete denialto their representation in thelegislative assemblies andlocal bodies setup, they arehelpless to fight for theirrights. “Akin to women andminority community, there

Representation oftransgender communityin LG 2013 set-up urged

must be special seats for thetransgender in Local Govern-ment,” FDI chief stressed.

Expressing her concernover the discrimination withthe transgender, she de-plored that government aswell as Non-government or-ganizations equally did notraised voice for the most de-prived segment of the soci-ety. Miss Uzma said thattransgender community isyet to get benefit of the reliefactivities carried out by thegovernment aligned depart-ments and non-governmentorganizations in the country.

“The eunuchs could notintermingle with the local com-munity on account of their dif-ferent way of living,” FDI headcontended adding therefore,they could not voice for theirrights compared to the othercommunity.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) on Monday forecastrain-thundershower for iso-lated places of Punjab,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kash-mir and Gilgit-Baltistan dur-ing the next 24 hours. Ac-cording to the synoptic situ-ation, seasonal low was ly-ing over North Balochistanand adjoining areas.

Rain with thundershoweris likely in Islamabad,Rawalpindi, Gujranwala,Lahore, Sargodha, Malakand,Hazara, Peshawar divisions,Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistanduring the next 24 hours. Hotand humid weather is ex-pected in most parts of the

Rain likely across countrycountry especially in Sindand Balochistan during thenext 24 hours.

The Karachi Met Office

on Monday forecast a partlycloudy weather with chancesof drizzle in the metropolisduring the next 24 hours. Themaximum temperature will re-main in the range of 31 to 33degrees celsius during thenext 24 hours.—APP

Establish Government’swrit in Karachi

IT was yet another worst day of lawlessness as Karachi witnessedindiscriminate firing and killings on Sunday while the law enforcement agencies continued operations in the troubled areas and appre-

hended around 100 accused involved in different crimes. The mega cityhas virtually started crumbling down in terms of law and order and thegrave situation demands urgent remedial measures with use of force andsetting aside all political considerations.

Though the incidents of lawlessness and terrorism are taking placeall around the country as nine soldiers were martyred in North WaziristanAgency through an IED blast and the terrorists fired at the residence ofBNP (Mengal) President Sardar Akhtar Mengal in Quetta to give him awarning against joining the political system in Balochistan, yet people inKarachi are desperately waiting for an across the board grand operationto cleanse the city of mafias of all sorts, deweaponization and award ofearly punishment to the law breakers. While the Government is still inter-ested to take all the political parties on board, we are of the consideredopinion that time for APC has passed and the Government should put itsfoot down to establish its writ firmly. There are elected governments at theCentre and in Sindh enjoying mandate of the people. We say so because itis an admitted fact that most of the political parties have militant wings thatneed to be crushed and no political pressure should be accepted becausethey have made Karachi hostage where every citizen is feeling insecure.As the Prime Minister will be chairing a special Cabinet meeting onKarachi situation, he will be briefed by heads of Police, Rangers andintelligence agencies about strongholds established by different politicalparties and groups. The Interior Minister has already given complete brief-ing to the Prime Minister on the situation. We are confident that MianNawaz Sharif would approve the security policy and give a go ahead forjoint operation to bring back much needed peace and stability in Karachi.

India pushingPakistan to wall

AS Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Government are repeatedlyexpressing their determination to pursue the course of normalization

of relations with India, India seems to be adhering to a headstrong ap-proach by churning out hawkish statements almost every other day. Inline with this approach, Indian External Affairs Minister on Sunday, at-tached conditions for possible talks between the Prime Ministers of thetwo countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session laterthis month. According to him, India will take a decision after assessingthe steps Pakistan takes to address its concerns on recent ‘unacceptable’incidents.

It is rather shocking that India has started behaving like a minisuper power that has its own ways of working without any regard to theinter-state relations and ground realities. For quite some time, deci-sion-makers in New Delhi are trying to dictate terms to others espe-cially Pakistan on a host of issues and this attitude is at the heart of thecontinued bickering in bilateral relations. Pakistan has all along beenexpressing its desire to have good neighbourly relations and this is par-ticularly true with reference to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who startedconveying goodwill signals to India even before taking oath as chiefexecutive of the country but none of his gestures has so far been recip-rocated by New Delhi. Sunday’s remarks of Salman Khurshid havetwo connotations: that India is not willing to enter into dialogue withPakistan on the basis of sovereign equality and that Pakistan shouldaccept Indian interpretation of what is happening on the bilateral frontespecially the Line of Control. We believe that Nawaz Sharif’s questfor peace with India notwithstanding, there must not be any compro-mise on national prestige. Why should we beg for talks with India atany cost when there are continued provocations from other side and allthe gestures are spurned with utter contempt? Durable peace is not onlyin the interest of Pakistan but also India as it would allow them tospend their scarce resources on welfare of their people. It is also throughengagement and dialogue that India can carve out a bigger role foritself and not through coercion and bullying tactics.

HEC may get new impetusIN a welcome development, the Government has appointed Shams Qasim

Lakha, an educationist of world fame, as Chairman of the Higher Edu-cation Commission (HEC). The appointment of a high profile personal-ity enjoying immense respect and integrity would hopefully help the Com-mission regain its lost glory.

The HEC, successor to University Grants Commission, achievedprominence because of its vibrant role during tenure of President PervezMusharraf/Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, when not only it got a visionaryhead like Dr Attaur Rehman but also received the required resources togive the much-needed push to the higher education sector that remainedlong neglected by successive governments. The country has started reap-ing benefits of the initiatives of far-reaching importance introduced byDr. Atta and the situation would have been enviable if a number of projectslaunched by him like nine universities of science and engineering withthe collaboration of some friendly countries were not abandoned by thePPP Government. It is an undisputed fact that progress and developmentof a country is directly linked to education and especially higher educa-tion involving research and development. However, the PPP regime dideverything to destroy this institution — denying it of the required bud-getary resources, scrapping visionary projects and trying to annihilate italtogether under the garb of devolution. Anyhow, the PML-N Govern-ment has reversed this policy by appointing Mr Lakha as its Chairmanand we hope that the new Chairman would reactivate the Commissionand the Government would provide necessary resources for the purpose.

Military action against Syria delayed

Fools buildhouses, and wisemen buy them.

Climatechange:

Warm words,cool waters

LAST week’s report that thecurrent “pause” in globalwarming could be linked to

cyclic cooling in the Pacific will beinterpreted by climate sceptics asevidence that global warming isn’thappening, and by politicians as areason to forget about climatechange and carry on with businessas usual. Both responses would bedangerously wrong.

There is no serious argumentwithin climate science about thelink between carbon dioxide levelsand temperature. Between 1970and 1998 the planet warmed at anaverage of 0.17C per decade, andfrom 1998 to 2012 at 0.04C perdecade. Carbon dioxide levels inthe atmosphere, however,continued to rise and are nowhigher than at any time in the last800,000 years. Twelve of the 14warmest years on record haveoccurred since 2000; the last twoyears have been marked bycatastrophic floods in Australia andrecord-breaking temperatures in theUS; and the loss of north polar icehas accelerated at such a rate thatclimate modellers expect the ArcticOcean to be routinely ice-free inSeptember after 2040.

There is, however, a seriousdebate about why the observedtemperatures have not kept pacewith computer-modelledpredictions and where the heat thatshould have registered on the globalthermometer has hidden itself. Oneguess – supported by somesustained but still incompleteresearch – is that the deep oceansare warming: that is, the extra heatthat should be measurable in theatmosphere has been absorbed bythe sea. This is hardly good news:atmosphere and ocean play on eachother, and any stored heat is likelyto be returned to atmosphere sooneror later, in unpredictable ways. Thereal lesson from the latest findingis that there is a lot yet to beunderstood about how the planetworks, and precisely how oceanand atmosphere distribute warmthfrom the equator to the poles.

The other message is thatmore warming is on the way. Thisis because the planet has still toexperience the consequences ofgreenhouse gas emissions of 20years ago or more. Just as the gasflame under the kettle takes a fewminutes to warm the water, so theadditional energy put into theatmosphere takes a decade or twoto make itself felt. That is whyclimate modellers who have beenpuzzled by the lower-than-expected rise in temperatures havealso warned that extremes of heatwill increase in the next decade ortwo, whether or not governmentsstart to reduce emissions. But theyalso warn that if the world goeson burning coal, oil and gas atever-increasing rates then by thesecond half of the centurycontinents could move to a newclimate regime in which thecoldest summer months will besubstantially hotter than the hottestexperienced today. The news is notreassuring, and complacency isnot an option.—The Guardian

*****

Super,Sir David

AN opinion poll conductedin 1969 found that DavidFrost was the best-known

person in the country after theQueen and Harold Wilson, thenprime minister. In recent years hehad been less prominent on ourtelevision screens than he once was,but the legacy of his extraordinary50-year broadcasting careerremains with us.

Sir David, as he became, wasa pioneer of the confrontationalstyle of interview that he madepossible by puncturing thedeference behind which ourpolitical masters once took shelter.A prime minister could no longerexpect to be asked nothing morediscomfiting than whether he hada message for the nation. SirDavid’s great skill was to realisethat being pugnacious often got inthe way of the story and put hisguests on their guard. Instead, hecharmed them into a false sense ofsecurity – and found out more as aresult. — The Telegraph

MEDIA WATCH

—Proverb

AMERICAN public isinterested in its welfare andnot war because it entails

huge expenditures with the resultthat inadequate allocations aremade for health and other welfareschemes. Anti-war demonstrationsheld in front of White House arereflective of anti-war sentiment inAmerican public. It is in the wakeof public pressure that PresidentBarack Obama postponed the useof military force against Syria inresponse to the alleged chemicalweapons attacks near Damascusand decided to seek congressionalauthorization for such a strike.

But the Congress is in recessuntil Sept 9, and it is unlikely thatlawmakers would convene earlierfor an emergency vote. Only twodays ago, President Obama saidthat although his administrationbelieves it had obtained proof thatchemical weapons deployed bySyrian government, he had not yetreached a decision on how toproceed. It has to be mentionedthat team of UN inspectors, whichspent four days investigating lastweek’s alleged chemical attacks onsuburbs of Damascus, has yet tosubmit report.

Anyhow, President BarackObama put on hold military actionagainst the Damascus regime, butsaid he was confident USlawmakers would green-light astrike. Obama insisted that he

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reserves the right tostrike regardless ofCongress’s decision, anda White House officialsaid the pause would alsoallow him time to buildinternational support.France has expressed itsdetermination to goalong with the US. Arab

League and Saudi kingdom supportthe move as they favor the regimechange in Syria for obvious reasons.On the other hand, Britain’s PrimeMinister David Cameron seems tobe hamstrung by the majority inHouse of Commons against joiningmilitary operation against Syria, andwould not be a part of the coalition.Germany has also refused to join theventure, as it had done when the USattacked Libya. Russia has advisedPresident Obama to abandonwarpath, as he had been awarded theNobel Prize in view of his statementsto work for peace. Meanwhile, fiveUS warships armed with Tomahawkcruise missiles have converged onthe eastern Mediterranean ready tolaunch strikes on Syrian targets.

Even if there is evidence thatchemicals weapons were used, howit could be proved whether the rebelsused these weapons to frame Syrianregime or were used by the Syriangovernment. It has to be mentionedthat during Vietnam War the US hadused chemical weapons and gascalled Agent Orange, whichreportedly killed 400,000, deformed500,000 and sickened another 2million. Handicapped orphans/young children are fed by themedical staff at the Ba Vi orphanagerepresent the 3rd generation of AgentOrange victims more than 30 yearsafter the war in Vietnam, where abattle is still being fought to helppeople suffering from the effects of

deadly chemical. During Iraq-Iranwar, Iraq had used gas when Iraniforces were had made advances andwere on verge of victory, but US andWest and Arab world kept mum andwere all praise for Saddam Hussain— dictator.

If the US attacks Syria, therewould be serious repercussions, andit may lead to third world war.Russian President Vladimir Putinsaid: “Claims that the regime hadused chemical weapons were utternonsense and lacking proof”. Thereis every possibility that Russia wouldshoot down any resolution tabled inthe U.N. Security Council. In July2012, Russia and China had vetoed aSecurity Council resolution thatwould have threatened sanctionsagainst Syria’s leadership, which wasunder assault by armed rebels in thestreets of the capital Damascus. It wasthe third time that Russia and Chinahad vetoed a resolution intended topressure the regime of SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad to leavepower. The British-drafted resolution,co-sponsored by the US, France andGermany, would have given theSyrian government 10 days towithdraw its troops and heavyweapons from populated areas or facesanctions targeted at regime’s elite.

Anyhow, there are many caveats.Last month, Ayman al Zwahiri hadurged Syrians to unite to bring downPresident Bashar al-Assad, and at thesame time thwart, what he said, USplans to set up a client state in Syriato safeguard Israel’s security. Afterthe news that Al-Qaeda militants havejoined the rebels, Europe hadslammed embargo, but on 27th May2013 it dropped the embargo on armsdeliveries to rebels, which promptedRussia to supply missiles to Syria thatwould make a no-fly zone over Syriarather problematic. France has all

along been considering armingSyrian rebels with weapons thathave built-in tracking anddeactivation devices to ensure theydon’t fall into the wrong hands; but100 percent accuracy is just notpossible. America also seemed to benonplussed, as by supplying armsto rebels having affiliation with Al-Qaeda, it could be in trouble, asextremists rule roost in Libya.

As regards Syria, Arabcountries, the US, France andTurkey are arming the rebels, whoare reportedly being trained inTurkey in the military camps.President Obama initially washesitant in taking the decision formilitary action against Syria, butthe hawks convinced him that ifBashar al-Assad is not stopped itwill embolden him, and Syriawould be a threat to America andits interests. Anyhow, the US,western countries and Israel areusing every subterfuge for regimechange in Syria. Uncertaintieshowever abound; further spill-overof Syrian crisis might not bode wellfor regional as well as internationalplayers involved herein. Hezbollahof Lebanon and Iran would jumpinto the fray. To some extentHezbollah is already helping Syriain retrieving the territories from therebels, and successfully so.Anyhow to avert any majorcatastrophe, a UN brokered talksshould be initiated by non-partisanand non-aligned countries soonerrather than later to find a negotiatedsettlement. Russia should persuadethe Syrian regime to come to thenegotiating table, and the US andFrance should ask the rebels to holdtalks with the regime to averthuman disaster.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

It is water that matters!

AS one pens this down,hundreds of thousandpeople of this blessed land

have been badly hit by floods. Theirlands have been inundated, theirhomes washed away and they havebeen forced to move away into anuncertain future. What could beworse than this unmitigateddisaster? And yet one is forced tothink: could this catastrophe havebeen avoided?

According to media reports, theAsian Development Bank haswarned in a report that Pakistan ison the verge of being classified asa “water scarce” country. This hasan ominous connotation for thefuture well being of the country.That this land, that was once theenvy of others less endowed, shouldnow be near to be classified as“water scarce” in nothing short ofa tragedy. At the same time, it mustbe admitted that this state of affairsis hardly surprising for a countrythat has consistently failed to utilizethe past forty years in initiatingprojects for conservation, storage orutilization of water that a bountifulnature had showered on it.

A noted economist had onceopined that there are no ills in theeconomy of a country that cannotbe traced back to ‘water’ – eitherits scarcity or its surfeit. Pakistanhas been on the receiving end onboth these counts. In one season itis hit by floods, in another it suffers

from draught. Both couldhave been remedied had thecountry’s planners shownvision and made use of theirexpertise. Of course,keeping politicaldifferences apart fromtechnological planningwould have helped; but thatis another story.

Before delving into the whysand wherefores, it may perhaps bein order to have an over-the-shouldercursory glance at the history of thedispute over the apportionment ofIndus waters. The Indus WatersTreaty of 1960 looked –and stilllooks – good on paper, but, byhindsight, it is evident that it createdmore problems than it solved. Theidea of drawing water from the IndusRiver through a series of barragesand link canals – to compensate forthe flow of the three rivers allocatedto India - was technically flawed inthat it sought to interfere with thecourse of nature – never a desirablecourse to follow.

When the Treaty came intobeing, the IBRD (World Bank), asguarantors, took an inordinateinterest in making vital technicaldecision, often overriding therecommendations of local experts.A glaring example is the choice ofTarbela Dam over Kalabagh dam,merely because the former cost a bitless. Local engineers had pointed tothe shortfalls in feasibility of Tarbela— in particular, a) its short life spandue to surfeit of silt in catchmentareas, and b) lack of any feasibledownstream ancillary projects. Theirobjections were over-ruled and theresult is before us. One can onlyimagine the situation in region ifonly Kalabagh dam had been givenpreference over Tarbela dam in1960s as recommended by WAPDA

Indus Basin Project engineers.Over the years, India has continuedto play ducks and drakes with theprovisions of this Treaty. Pakistan,as the lower riparian, has ever beenon the receiving end.

Due mainly to delayed or flawedreaction from the Pakistani technicalexperts, India has managed to getaway with projects in IHK - as faitaccompli - to the detriment of

Pakistan’s short and long terminterests. It is not too late forPakistan, though, to make amends.The name of the game is toresolutely and determinedly engageIndia on this issue with a view todefine the red lines. Anyinfringement of Pakistan’s basic

rights as a lower riparian underrelevant provisions of InternationalLaw (and in terms of the IndusWaters Treaty) needs to be resistedforcefully and betimes.

And now, a word aboutmeasured responses (or lackthereof) to crises created year afteryear due to the surfeit of water inthe flood season helped no doubtby deliberate strategic releases ofwater from ostensibly hydro-electricprojects in Indian Held Kashmir.The ideal — and long-term —solution would be to constructreservoirs at strategic locations tolimit and regulate the flow of waterdownstream during flood season.This, however, is subject to obviouslimitations. Even if politicalsquabbles in way of construction ofreservoirs were to be surmounted,there is always the non-availabilityof financial resources as animpediment. Nevertheless, abeginning needs to be made.

Needless to add, water as ascarce resource is valuable. Thereis urgent need to conserve it and/or to divert it into constructivechannels. Already, conflicts on theapportionment of water resourcesare erupting in various regions ofthe world. It is time that this issuegets the attention it deserves in thisregion before matters degenerateinto a debilitating conflict. In thiscontext, it may be opportune toactivate SAARC to take on the taskof equitable apportionment ofwater in the South Asian region asa whole. Unless this RegionalOrganization wakes up to itsresponsibilities in the water andenergy sectors, it is in imminentdanger of being written off as aviable regional organization.—The writer is retiredAmbassador.

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Khalid SaleemEmail: binwakeel@yahoo.com

Friendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly Fire

Needless toadd, water as a

scarce resource isvaluable. There is

urgent need toconserve it and/or

to divert it intoconstructive

channels. Already,conflicts on the

apportionment ofwater resources areerupting in various

regions of theworld. It is time

that this issue getsthe attention itdeserves in thisregion before

matters degenerateinto a debilitating

conflict.

Voice of the People

Gardening isindeed a relaxation

ANAM KHALID

Earth without plants and trees isbeyond imagination. The survivalof the living beings on earth de-pends on the vegetation on theearth. Plants are the main source offood for animals and human beings.The growing and cultivation ofplants and trees are traced back totime immemorial. The origin ofplants has an earlier history than theorigin of other living things includ-ing human beings. Deep forestswere the first form of vegetation thatwas the main food source of livingthings. By the passage of time manfound different forms of cultivation.He began to grow and cultivateplants and trees for his benefit. Thetradition of gardening began whenman started cultivation of plants andtrees that gave him yield. The old-est form of gardening is the forestgardening. The history of forest gar-dens is traced back to the pre-his-toric times near river banks and foothills of monsoon regions.

People involved in gardeningnormally do ornamental gardeningin the courtyard or the front spaceof a house. Kitchen gardening isdone in more space and usually atthe backyard of a house whereplants that produce vegetables arecultivated and grown. Root veg-etables, fruits and leaf vegetablesconstitute a good kitchen garden.During the evolution of civilizationman began to grow and cultivatebeneficial species form the forestsand non-beneficial species were leftin the forest to grow as wild plantsand trees. Along with the growthof culture where the concept offamily was evolved, man begangardening within his living space.Gradually gardening began as aprocess of growing and cultivatingplants as a part of horticulture. Theflowers from the ornamental plantsare used for several occasions ofcelebrations. Gardening is done ac-cording to the taste and creativityof a person.

Ornamental gardening is a typi-cal residential gardening that isdone near a home. The place ofgardening has no hard and fastrules. It is done in the place accord-ing to the convenience of planting.Today many ornamental andkitchen gardening are done on theroof-tops, balconies, window box,atrium or vivarium. Other types ofgardening include indoor garden-ing, native plant gardening, watergardening, container gardening,community gardening and gardensharing. Indoor gardening is thegardening of house plants that isnormally done in a building, con-servatory or green house. This typeof gardening improves the nativefaunal interest. Water gardening isdone on pools and ponds. The wa-ter plants like water Lilly ad lotusare the most used water plants inwater gardening. Container garden-ing is another convenient mode ofgardening in containers or bags inthe indoors. Pots and hanging bas-kets are the other accessories usedfor container gardenin. Gardeningis a good option for people who arefond of plants and trees that givethem plenty of time and relaxation.—Via email

*****ANAM KHALID

Monsoon rains bring pleasantweather and together with itflooding. Flood caused by monsoondownpours have inundated manycities and, swept away homes in thenorthwestern province of KhyberPakhtunkhwa. Rajanpur is alsosuffering from the deadly flood and

Alas! Our beautiful roadsSAKHI SARWAR

Billions and trillions of rupees are spent in the construction of the state-of-the-art quality dualcarriageways and roads which decorate our metropolitan cities and bring them at par with the

roads of any city of the world. These multi-lane roads add to the beauty and environment of our citiesand fascinate the foreign visitors in the Federal and the Provincial capitals of Pakistan. However, veryunfortunately, we have blocked all these roads turning them into a single lane narrow path creatingtraffic jams and putting a scene unworthy of a dignified nation. Whatever be the reason – the terrorists’threats, the insurgency or transportation of deadly weapons into the cities – the incidence of over fortifyingthe cities and deployment of the police check-post here and there amounts to handling the matter in themost crude, unscientific, un-professional and thoughtless manner stupefying and humiliating the peopleof Pakistan on whose tax money these roads are built. There is a famous tradition of the holyProphet(PBUH) to remove obstacles from the roads and pathways and to create convenience for passé-bys – or for the commuters in the present day world. Let us not deprive the people of Pakistan theirConstitutional right of free movement and remove the obstacles and the Police check posts which in noway are serving any purpose of restraining the incoming of the arms and ammunition – the recentincident of the gunman Sikandar’s adventure in Islamabad telltales the futility of these check-posts.One cannot underestimate the gravity of the problem but it should be handled in a scientific mannerwithout humiliating the innocent commuters. The Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif is known forhis public welfare projects including the construction of world standard roads and motorways. Thebuilding of an excellent road-network infrastructure and denying the people right to use them is veryunfortunate. There are a number of roads which have been completely closed while the closing downone side of a dual road or the lanes of a single road is a common feature. The commuting citizens in thebusy office timing hours in mornings and afternoons are getting psychologically sick, stress-riddenand mentally abnormal – adding to the intolerance and extremist attributes in the society, what totalk of the wastage of prestigious time and useless burning of petrol and gasoline costing much to thenational exchequer, by these traffic blockades and jams. Will the Government give a positive thoughtto this issue to restore the dignity and honour of the people of Pakistan. Let me assure the Governmentthat creating a congenial and convenient environment for the people shall lessen their frustration andstress and the situation of law and order shall resultantly improve.—Via email

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

are requested to typetheir letters legibly withdouble spacing and only onone side of the paper.

—Editor

Cost of being world’s No 1 Uranium producer

IF you make a toxic mess underone of the most isolated parts ofthe planet, does it matter if you

don’t clean it up? Does it make adifference if that mess will be therefor thousands of years? Scientists areasking those questions as Kazakhstanhas steadily risen to become theworld’s No. 1 uranium producer,surpassing such nations as the UnitedStates, Canada, and Australia, whichrequire more cleanup. Rather thanemploying miners to haul rock up tothe surface, mine operators inKazakhstan have embraced a newer– and generally cleaner – process bywhich a chemical solution is injecteddown a pipe to dissolve theunderground uranium deposits andthen is sucked back up to the surface.

This in situ leach (ISL) methodavoids making a mess above ground,but leaves toxic levels of heavymetals in the ground water. In the US,companies using the method havetried for years and failed to returnground water to its pre-mining state.In Kazakhstan, a country that has seenthe disastrous effects of the SovietUnion’s use of nuclear testing andwaste disposal, officials with thestate-owned uranium company,Kazatomprom, express no concernabout the legacy of its rapidlyexpanding use of ISL mining. Theyargue that natural processes will cleanthe mine site. Scientists studying theeffects of ISL doubt how quicklymine sites can self-cleanse. Thisuncertainty appears to be little known

to both Kazakhstan’s nuclear industryand fledgling environmentalists.

In the near term, the stakes do notappear high: Kazakhstan’s uraniummines are mostly located in desertedareas of an already sparsely populatedcountry. But as the US learned in itsown uranium-rich Southwest,population patterns and land use canchange, potentially deferring anexpensive cleanup or rendering somewater resources unusable.“Kazakhstan is a growing countryand the pollution could persist for upto thousands of years, and you justdon’t know in the future if peoplemight live in the area,” says BrianReinsch, an environmental scientistresearching ISL remediation methodsin Kazakhstan. It could take naturalprocesses between tens to thousandsof years depending on the conditionsat each mine site, says Dr. Reinsch.Active remediation efforts canshorten the time substantially,removing the uncertainty that comeswith such longtime horizons.

ISL mining in many parts of theworld involves some treatment of thesolution that is left behind in the ore-bearing aquifers. If untreated, thesolution could contain arsenic andcadmium at levels thousands of timeshigher than drinking water standards,says Gavin Mudd, an environmentalengineer at Monash University inAustralia. Arsenic can also beabsorbed by plants, leaving the waterunusable for irrigating crops.

Over time, contaminated waterwill gradually spread laterally – oftenat paces as slow as a meter per year –beyond the mining site. ISL minesites are chosen in areas where there

Views From Abroad

Friend and foe distinction

PRESIDENTIAL election heldon July 30 kicked up lot of dustowing to PPP’s cranky

behavior. PML-N’s demand to seeka change of date was not with malafide intention. It was wrong on partof well-meaning but secular FakhruBhai not to understand thesignificance of 27th Ramadan whichfell on 6th August and that manyeither sit in Aitiqaf or performUmrah during last ten days ofRamadan. He should have owned hismistake and changed the date ratherthan showing his inability to do sowhen requested by PML-N. Hedisplayed weakness when he wasrequired to act firmly to stop pre-poll rigging and rigging on pollingday, but became rigid at a wrongtime. His advice to approachSupreme Court was again incorrect.

PPP’s attitude was debatableand it gave an impression as if RazaRabbani would win the contest ifheld on 6 August and not otherwise.Judging from the political strengthof each party and alliance of MQMand JUI-F with PML-N, victory ofMamnoon Hussain was a foregoneconclusion. Notwithstanding someundesirable reservations expressedabout Mamnoon, none will disagreewith me that anyone howsoevermediocre but clean would be betterthan tainted Zardari. Hence boycottof election by PPP and its twoworthless allies was in bad taste. PTIwisely decided to take part inelection and field its candidate,although Imran Khan has still not gotreconciled to general electionsresults and has landed himself inavoidable trouble.

Mamnoon won with anoverwhelming majority and willenter presidency as a ceremonialpresident in Sept, putting an end topalace intrigues pursued by hispredecessor. Presidential electionwas no issue; what concerns

Pakistanis are insecurity of lifeand property, energy crisis,faltering economy, decliningmorals and values, erosion ofnational sovereignty andhonor, media’s negativity andforeign interference. Blood is

oozing out of every pore of Pakistanfor the last many years withoutblood transfusion to replenish theloss as a result of which the state isgetting enfeebled with every passingday. The only preventive measuretaken is to barricade the country byputting string of barriers and checkposts and pitching security forcesagainst faceless enemy which iswell-trained, well-equipped andsupported by external powers. Whilelawless FATA has to some extentbeen secured because of heroics ofArmy and FC, settled areas ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) andurban centres where police is in theforefront remain in turmoil.Militants stab the chosen target withease and get away. No fool-proofsystem has been devised to nip theevil in the bud by preventingoccurrence through timelyintelligence.

This myth has also been brokenafter the DIK jail break about whichall concerned had been forewarnedwell in time. Police sluggishness,ineptness and collusion with themilitants were reasons behind theembarrassing outcome. It was inknowledge of all that the police areinvolved in high scale corruptionand in league with the criminalsparticularly in Balochistan and inSindh. Performance of KP policewas relatively better in facingmilitancy. Some say this downslideis owing to unclear policy of PTIgovernment regarding TTP. Whilethe effect of this demoralizing eventhad not faded away, the nation wassubjected to another embarrassmentin Islamabad on August 15 where alone gunman kept the capital citypolice in a spin for over five hours.But for Zamurrad’s bold act, thehigh drama would have continuedtill next morning. Having seen theconduct of Islamabad Police and itssenior officials on TV, it can be

safely concluded that it is unfit toconfront even minor challenges.

It is indeed mind boggling thatour security forces have beenfighting war on terror haphazardlyfor a decade without nationalsecurity and counter terrorismpolicies. This is despite the fact thatPakistan is the biggest victim ofterrorism. Reason behind thiscriminal neglect is that the eliteshave secured themselves within theconfines of Red and Green zones,bulletproof vehicles, and ring ofsecurity guards while leaving themasses to fend for themselves.

In hundreds of acts of terror, theunderprivileged class has sufferedthe most. This unfortunate class hadneither been taken into confidenceto participate in US imposed war noris in direct clash with the militants.It is caught between the crossfire ofsecurity forces, militants and foreignagents.The police which are thefrontline force to check crime andterrorism have been thoroughlycorrupted and politicized by theelites to serve their ends. Moralturpitude of all segments of societyhas nosedived and distinctionbetween good and bad blurred.Rather, dishonest officials arepatronized and rewarded while thehonest are seen as misfits. Thisdownslide started during GenMusharraf era which allowedcomplete liberty of action toWashington to neo-colonizePakistan and India given a free handto crush freedom movement inoccupied Kashmir. Five-yearinglorious rule of PPP-ANP-MQMcombine ruined Pakistan’s economy,social fabric and state institutions.

Till 2002, FATA was unofficiallyrecognized as Illaqa Ghair wheremurderers, absconders, car-lifters,abductors and criminals could findrefuge from hand of law. Now wholeof Pakistan has turned into IllaqaGhair since there is no rule of law,elites are biggest law breakers,accountability is absent, lawenforcers and lower courts arecorrupt. Terrorists having confessedcommitting over hundred murdersare set free; terrorists nabbed during

Ben Arnoldy

IT was a beautiful day, as the rainfell in gentle drops onto the waiting leaves that seemed to be

smiling as they raised their branchesheavenward and received theirwatery blessing. The birds sanghappily, and lazily flew from treeto tree enjoying the droplets andplaying a game with the lenientraindrops. She saw none of this asshe sat at the window crying! Hewalked to her. “Is there somethingamiss?” he asked. “My husband,”she cried and her tears fell larger

than the playful drops outside. “Is hesomewhere out in the rain?” he asked,worried. “He beat me,” she cried.

“I didn’t see him do that,” he saidlooking for cruel husband. “Not nowbut two years ago,” she said. Helooked beyond her tears and at thepicture like scenic beauty that wasbeing painted by nature. He heard thesoft pitter patter. He cocked a ear at asparrows cheep and a cuckoo’s trilland saw the lush green of garden bushand thick leaved tree. “Can you feelthe present?” he whispered. “Can yousee all the beauty and peace around?”

She shook her head and lookedat him bewildered. He smiled.“During the war in Kosova in 1999,”he said, “three soldiers were capturedand held hostage for more than amonth. They were ill treated and

tortured, but after intensenegotiations, a breakthrough occurredand the prisoners were allowed to gofree.” “One of them, ChristopherStone, would not leave.” “Why?” sheasked, “didn’t he want his freedom?”“Because he wanted his freedom, hedidn’t leave, Christopher said that hefirst wanted to meet the enemy soldierwho had served as his guard and whohad cruelly beaten him up everyday!”

“He wanted to beat him up?” sheasked puzzled. “Christopher went upto the guard, held his hand andprayed.” “What did he pray?” sheasked. “That God would give him thestrength to be able to forgive the manfor all the merciless beatings.” “Andwhy did he ever want to make such aprayer?” she asked. “So that he couldbe a free man,” he said, “so that he

Free to enjoy today..!would not spend the rest of his lifehating that enemy soldier, goingthrough every whip lash, every slapon face and fist on body.Christopher knew that to be free hehad to forgive. Where is yourhusband?” “He’s dead,” shewhispered. “Then pray for strengthto forgive him once and for all, soyou can be free to enjoy today.”

The rain fell in gentle dropsonto the waiting leaves that seemedto be smiling as they raised theirbranches heavenward and receivedtheir watery blessing. The birdssang happily and lazily flew fromtree to tree enjoying the droplets andplaying a game with the lenientraindrops. She sat at the windowsmiling..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

are barriers like clay above and belowore deposit to prevent water fromseeping vertically into new aquiferswith higher quality water. But the claylayer is not entirely continuous, noris it certain mining acid wouldn’tdissolve clay, according to Reinsch.Furthermore, the mining processtreats the ore-bearing aquifer like apincushion, drilling holes all over thearea. These are plugged up. But thereis uncertainty about the spread ofcontamination over the long haul.“Even if we were monitoring for fiveor 10 years, that’s nowhere nearenough. We need literally hundredsof years of data of watching thesesites to show yes, they are stable,”says Dr Mudd.

Kazatomprom officials say theydon’t share this doubt. “It’s the otherway around,” says senior managerKalilallo Baytasov, who notescompanies must set aside funds incase cleanup is needed. “We extract… uranium from the formation andsend it to atomic reactors, so we areactually purifying the subsoil fromheavy metals.” In 2012, Kazakhstanaccounted for 35 percent of globaluranium production, garnering $1.54billion in uranium sales forKazatomprom. China bought morethan half of it. The company claimsthat “it has been unambiguouslyproved” that southern areas ofKazakhstan have “a unique capabilityof self-restoration.” But Susan Hall,a geologist with the US GeologicalSurvey, says: “When I question themabout what kind of work they’ve doneto prove this concept, I don’t get aclear response.” Jerry Grandey, aformer mining executive,

experienced in international ISLprojects argues that activeremediation may not be requiredhere given the water quality.“Generally, the water in Kazakhstanis unsuitable for most uses includingdrinking water and agriculture,” hesays. Nevertheless, he says, thewater should be monitored. He adds,cleanup is more important in the US,where the surrounding water oftenhas agricultural and industrial uses.Some US wells have been cleanedenough for the water to be deemedfit for its pre-mining uses. But nosite in the US has been entirelyreturned to pre-mining conditions,says Dr. Hall. The difficulty has ledto some soul-searching amongregulators, she adds, who will ask:“Would natural processes just takecare of it? Is it a wasted effort?... Wedon’t have the data to know.”

Out in the Kazakh desert, theFrench uranium company AREVAis funding Reinsch to find a betterway. He is planning to send fooddown the mine pipes to more quicklygrow the population of naturalmicrobes that help clean the sites.Hall cautions that suchbioremediation sometimes onlyworks temporarily. But Reinsch isoptimistic, saying that if thetechnique works, Kazakhstan has anopportunity to show the world howit’s done: “If you ... can reduce therisk significantly, then why not? It’skind of like what your mother toldyou: Clean up after yourself.” Thewriter travelled to Kazakhstan on atrip organized by the InternationalReporting Project. — Courtesy: TheChristian Science Monitor

the flood affects it almost every year.Pakistan has suffered devastatingmonsoon floods for the last threeyears, including the worst in itshistory in 2010. When catastrophicinundations killed almost 1800people and affected 21 million.

Why our government issleeping? We are suffering for thelast three years but no specialmeasures from our government.Kindly wake up the water has eithergone to the sea or it has beeninundating Pakistan, its citizens andits assets.—Via email

Tinted glass —for all or for none

FATIMA HASAN ZAIDI

For many days, I have been seeingon roads of the Federal Capital that,wherever there is police check-post,a number of torn black papers arescattered on the road. On asking, Icame to know that traffic police tearsoff black sheets from the carwindows as it is not allowed to havetinted glass. But I really don’tunderstand that why it is just notallowed for the common public ofPakistan while it is allowed for theones who are in power, who runs acar with green number plate and whohave flags and stars on their cars?

Why it is not possible in ourcountry to live with equality? We alllive on a same land, the sun shinesand sets for all at a fixed time, weeat complete meals three times a day,we live a life given to us by the God,the omnipotent. Then why we do notfollow the rules. Being in powernever means to break the laws of theland. Everywhere in the world therules remain the same for all; whycan’t this happen in Pakistan?

Some people are trying to makeRoshan or Naya Pakistan; justimplement and obey the lawsindiscriminately, make the rightchoice and walk on right path,Pakistan will flourish. A thoughtshould be given that either the publicshould be permitted to have blacktinted glass windows or the leadersand people in power shouldvoluntarily remove these from theircars. Find equality and live well.—Rawalpindi

Droning throughPOL pricesIFTIKHAR MRIZA

A lot was expected from presentregime after May elections, but thehopes of ordinary man have dashedto ground immediately. Publicwhipped by lengthy load sheddings,was expecting some relief from thirdtime Prime Minister but he provedhimself no exception. Electricitytariff increased without giving anyrelief to load shedding strickenmasses. Not satisfied with this‘favour’, Government has increasedPOL prices to fulfill those promisesmade during election campaign.Increase in POL prices will shoot upprices of all daily use commoditiessignificantly.

It has already becomeimpossible for common man to keepflesh and bones together. A questionI would like to ask Mr. Ishaq Dar;with meager income of 8 to 10thousand per month, how can a manspend prudently? Already pushed towall and crushed by monster ofdearness, majority of populationcontinues to live below poverty line.For decades, governments, khakis ordemocratic, have failed to providebasic amenities of life and now weare being squeezed to last extent.This tantamounts to drone attack onhelpless public. Dear PrimeMinister! have mercy on us and let

close combat in war zones are givenbail; those in jail are freed byterrorists. Anti-terrorist courtsviolate mandatory timeframe andtake their time to decide high profilecases, and those sentenced to deathare not hanged. A stage had beenset to declare nuclear Pakistan afailed state, but God saved Pakistanfrom sinking by turning the victoryof USA in Afghanistan into defeatand thus checkmating its imperialistdesigns. Since ISAF cannot possiblypull itself out of the quagmirewithout the help of Pakistan, the USis grudgingly tolerating Pakistan.Issues on which the US has beenmaking hue and cry are being putup with and friendly gestures made.Its affable gesticulation is howevernot at the cost of annoying Indiawhich continues to remain in itsgood books. It is not putting anypressure on India to stop its hostileacts against Pakistan as is evidentfrom ongoing escalation of tensionsalong the LoC. TTP and BLA havenot been bridled by CIA.

It is heartening to note that thenew government has firmed up tostem the rot and to not only cleanthe mess but also improve theeconomy and living conditions ofthe downtrodden. Some positivesteps have already been taken andcurse of prolonged load sheddingmarginally controlled. Setting up ofRapid Response Force and JointIntelligence Secretariat to combatterrorism by the close of this monthis satisfying. But Police needs a bigoverhaul. After taking allstakeholders on-board, coherentnational security policy and counterterrorism policy must be finalizedat the earliest. In this, cleardistinction should be made betweenfriend and foe since enemies guisedas friends have caused more harmto Pakistan. MoUs signed with ourtime-tested friend China arewelcome. Policy of friendship withall immediate neighbors is soundbut it should not be one-sided andat the cost of honor and dignity.—The writer is a retired Brig,defence analyst, columnist andauthor of several books.

Asif Haroon RajaEmail: asifharoon7751@yahoo.com

us live our lives without committingsuicides.—Islamabad

Perpetual pledgefor Pakistan

WAQAR ABRO

On 14th of August 2013 everyPakistani celebrated the Day ofIndependence with full spirit andpassion. Celebrating independencewas a remarkable occasion butcomprehending the glorioussacrifices of our founding fatherscould not be seen from the eyes ofthe people. Wearing Pakistani T-shirts and displaying paper flags oncars and motorbikes does not meanthat one is a true and loyalPakistani. Loyalty comes withpractice not with one day show.Independence has become an eventnow. It’s losing its importance withevery passing year.

Loving Pakistan is not meantto wear Pakistani shirts but todedicate your head and heart tomake it a progressive andprosperous country. Inevitably,Pakistan is tapped with natural andhuman resources yet it is supposedto be the most misgovernedcountry. To lead Pakistan on thepath of eternal progress, it isnecessary to understand what itdemands. It demands sincerity,loyalty and honesty. It demandsrevival of the same spirit that waswith our founding fathers. Hence,it should be kept in our mind thatthe real celebration is intransforming the dreams of Jinnahand Iqbal into reality. However, weneed to make a solemn pledge withourselves that we will moveheaven and earth to free thiscountry from terrorism,extremism, and corruptiondiseases. And, make it aprogressive, prosperous andpeaceful country.—Karachi

Replica phonesMUHAMMAD RIZWAN AFTAB

The Chinese mobile phones (replica)are getting very common in peoplenowadays. Is there any good reasonfor this boom in the market?? Yes, itis only because of the growingincidents of mobile snatching inKarachi and other parts of thecountry, which has made the life ofthe people miserable. People don’tfeel safe while walking on the road,sitting in bus with their costly mobilephones. So the persons belonging tothe middle class have switched overto low-price copy phones instead oforiginals, the local mobilemanufacturing company havestarted manufacturing cheap phonesby the name of china phones.

In this year around 3040 mobilephones have been snatched, so it canbe one of the most important andbiggest factors for using copyphones, but this factor is destroyingthe market of original mobilephones. These phones, no doubt,provide relief to the people whobelong to middle class, but at thesame time it is harmful for originalphone industry. Why the people inauthority don’t pay any attention tothis factor.—Karachi

who is based in Rio de Janeiro.“If these facts prove to be

true, it would be unacceptableand could be called an attack onour country’s sovereignty,” Jus-tice Minister Jose EduardoCardozo said. A spokesman forPena Nieto declined to commentand said any reaction would bereleased in a statement.Greenwald told Globo on Sun-day that a document dated June2012 shows that Pena Nieto’semails were being accessed, onemonth before he was elected.

The NSA also interceptedsome of Pena Nieto’s voicemails.The communications includedmessages in which the futureleader discussed the names ofpotential cabinet members.

As for Rousseff, the NSAsaid in the document that it wastrying to better understand hermethods of communication andinterlocutors using a program toaccess all Internet content thepresident visited online.

Rousseff, who is due to makea state visit to Washington inOctober, held a working meetingto study the revelations in theGlobo report, the channel said.

The NSA programme alleg-edly allows agents to access theentire communications networkof the president and her staff,including telephone, Internetand social network ex-changes.—AFP

Brazil summonsFrom Page 1

and criminal elements be that inKarachi or elsewhere across thecountry,” a sources privy to thedevelopments confided to Paki-stan Observer on condition ofanonymity.

The source further stated thatthe meeting discussed issues per-taining to national security in-cluding the internal and externalthreats faced by the country.

According to the PM, abroad based national consensusamong all stakeholders wouldsurely enable us to find enduringsolutions to our problems.

Ch. Nisar Ali Khan Ministerfor Interior, Gen Ashfaq ParvezKayani COAS, Tariq FatemiSpecial Assistant to PM and Lt

PM takes Army on-boardFrom Page 1

contribution of Professor LiXiguang, Director Tsinghua Uni-versity Centre for Pakistan Cul-ture and Communication Studies,noted that without his tireless ef-forts success of the forum wouldnot have been possible. Ambas-sador Khalid also lauded thesplendid work being done at theFudan University in Shanghaiand the Sichuan University inChengdu for doing outstandingjob in promoting education andcultural exchanges between thetwo countries.

Ambassador Masood Khalidreiterated that close strategic co-operation with China on all bi-lateral and global issues has beenand will remain the cornerstoneof Pakistan’s foreign policy andurged for deeper understandingand strategic cooperation on allregional issues including Af-

OPEN AUCTION

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government crackdown on themosque in Islamabad, whichended in a bloody eight-day siegekilling at least 58 Pakistani troopsand seminary students. A num-ber of witnesses in their state-ments had alleged thatMusharraf, then president of Pa-kistan, was responsible for theaction.—INP

MusharrafFrom Page 1

Gen Muhammad Zaheer ul IslamDG ISI attended the meeting.

Mutttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) leader Dr FarooqSattar has also been invited toattend the Wednesday sessionfollowed by the directives ofPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Itis expected that the federal cabi-net will hear the stance of theMQM seeking the deployment ofarmy in Karachi.

It may be recalled that MQMhad demanded handing over theadministrative control of Karachito the army, which was rejectedby the government. Meanwhile,Police conducted raids in variousparts of the city on Monday aftermidnight, arresting over 100

people allegedly involved instreet crimes, robberies, drugbusiness and other crimes.

According to the police, 70suspects were rounded up inLandhi, and Korangi, nine inZaman Town and Chakra Goth,five in Awami Colony, two inMalir City and six in Saudabad,recovering drugs and heavyamount of cash from their posses-sion 10 people including threeAfghan nationals were held inSoldier Bazar. Seven suspectswere apprehended within the re-mits of Jamshed Quarter PoliceStation while were held inGadren. Cases have been lodgedagainst the accused under differ-ent sections.

Pak-China strategic cooperationFrom Page 1

ghanistan. The Pakistani side ofthe China-Pakistan think tank in-cluded: Senator MushahidHussain, Chairman of Pakistan-China Institute, former foreignsecretary of Pakistan Mr. RiazHussain Khokhar, former deputychairman/Federal Minister, plan-ning commission of Pakistan, Dr.M. Akram Sheikh, Lt. Gen (R)Muhammad Asghar, Rector-NUST University, renownededucationists Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, President, PakistanAcademy of Sciences (PAS); Mr.Amer Hashmi, advisor NUST,president.

Several other Pakistanis alsopresent at the seminar includedMr. Awais Ahmad Ghani, formergovernor of Balochistan KPK,Brig. (R) Mujahid Alam, visitingsenior advisor, UN peacekeepingdepartment, Pakistani

Aambassador to China Mr.Masood Khalid, Prof. TanvirJafri, director of China study cen-ter, CIIT, Mr. Shamshad Ahmad,former foreign secretary of Pa-kistan and Mr. Tariq OsmanHaider, former additional secre-tary (UN).

Many senior diplomats, pro-fessors and students of Interna-tional Affairs also attended theSeminar aimed at developingsuggestions to further re-strengthen Pakistan-China rela-tionship.

Most participants believedthat Pakistan-China EconomicCorridor would be the flagshipproject for a new phase in thegrowth of our relationship andstressed that as an engine for eco-nomic integration, the EconomicCorridor could act as a game-changer for the whole region.

attack, Mr Hashimi said. A wit-ness at scene saw three bodies ofsuspected attackers, apparentlyshot dead from Nato helicopters.The suspected insurgents did notmanage to enter main base area,but had tried to hide under a smallcanal bridge near it. The highwaybetween Jalalabad city andTorkham, an important route forNato supply trucks, was closed,Mr Abdulzai said.

Militants on both sides of theAfghan border have frequentlytargeted the supply line, leadingNato to shift much of its supplydelivery toward routes from Cen-tral Asian states instead ofthrough Pakistan.

Afghan officials said a carpark at the outpost was a stop-ping point for many types of ve-hicles used by US and other Natoforces. Mr Hashimi said four USvehicles there were burned out.In a statement, Taliban spokes-man Zabiullah Mujahid said in-surgent group was behind thismorning’s attack, and claimed ithad destroyed several tanks - anassertion Hashimi denied.—INP

Taliban attackFrom Page 1

countries. The dual nationalityholders were also required to giveinformation about their kids whowere studying in such countries.The Establishment Division alsosent a three-page proforma to thecivil servants working in the Dis-trict Management Group (DMG),a general management cadre ofthe civil services, as well as theSecretariat Group asking them tosubmit affidavits if they are dualnationals or not.

The document also askedthe civil servants to testify as towhether they have ever appliedfor any nationality other than Pa-kistani. They were directed towrite their name, designation,and date of joining the civil ser-vice along with formally sign-ing the affidavit before submit-ting it to the Establishment Di-vision.

It is pertinent to mention herethat Nadra chairman MohammadTariq Malik and six other offic-ers in the authority hold dual na-tionality it came to light duringthe term of the previous govern-ment that any discriminationagainst dual citizens for appoint-ment in Nadra was not permis-sible under Article 25 of the Con-stitution, which provided equaltreatment to all the citizens.

No Punjabbureaucrat

From Page 1

1997. The Adviser proposed tothe member countries to evolvea mechanism of cooperation inthe energy sector, as the energycrisis is becoming a dauntingchallenge.

He informed that Pakistanwas in the process of organiz-ing the first meeting of D-8 En-ergy Forum in Islamabad. Hesuggested that the membercountries can take initiatives incooperation in capacity build-ing, transfer of technology,transfer of capital & labour, en-ergy and food security, Islamic

Sartaj Aziz urges D-8 countriesFrom Page 1

banking, and halal sector devel-opment. Later in a meeting withthe D-8 Secretary-General Dr.Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi,the Adviser to the Prime Minis-ter proposed ways to fast trackthe implementation of trade andvisa agreements.

He expressed the hope thatthe D-8 Preferential TradeAgreement will be implementedsoon.

The D-8 Secretary-Generalthanked the Adviser for organiz-ing the Commission Meetingand appreciated Pakistan’s ac-

tive role in the D-8 activities.He assured support of his or-

ganization in expediting theimplementation of D-8 agree-ments which envisage currentintra-D-8 trade of US$ 150 bil-lion to increase to US$ 500 bil-lion by 2018.

The D-8 Commissionersfrom member countries -Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia,Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Paki-stan and Turkey- and D-8 Sec-retary-General Dr. Mousavi areattending the two-day meet-ing.—INP

far. The additional attorneygeneral Shah Khawar said thathe has submitted the reply fromIG Islamabad as well as IGPunjab in the court. He said thatas far as the murder of ZaheerGondal is concerned, law en-forcement agencies have notshown any development aboutthe case, but with connection ofmurder of Chaudhry Zulfiqar, aaccused named Abdullah wasarrested.

He said that Anwar-ul-Haqadvocate was murdered inGolra, a suburb town of federalcapital Islamabad but his carwas recovered from the bank ofKhanpur dam so KhyberPakhtunkhwa govt has nothingto do with case. The CJP or-dered to gather all the applica-tions in this regard and may betreated as one case. —Online

CJ takes actionon lawyers’

From Page 1

The decision was announceddur-ing a meeting of the JudicialCommission held under the chairof Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry atthe Supreme Court IslamabadRegistry on Monday.

The meeting also approvedthe regularisation of six Addi-tional Judges of Lahore HighCourt.

The confirmed judges in-cluding Justice Abdul SamiKhan, Justice Ibaad Ul RehmanLodhi, Justice Shujat Ali Khan,Justice Ayesha A Malik, JusticeShahid Waheed and Justice AliBaqir Najfi.

JudgeFrom Page 1

one of its lawmaker, KhawajaIzhar Ul Hassan had outspokenlyregretted the rejection and saidthat the Speaker could have sum-moned those whose signaturesdid not tally to the preservedrecord of lawmakers’ signatures.He had said that the MQM wouldfile the requisition again and ithad done the same on Monday.

It looked as if the Sindh gov-ernment did not want to convenethe assembly session at that stageas many legal and political de-velopments were being made inthe province and in the centre asthe supreme Court of Pakistanhad resumed its hearing at theKarachi Registry on a Suo Motton Karachi Lawlessness casewhile the Premier of the country,Mina Muhammad Nawaz Sharifhad also fixed a schedule for aspecial meeting on the volatilelaw and order situation in themetropolis.

The situation had become athreat to the peace and economicprogress for the country as thecriminals gangs ruled the citywith guns and the law enforce-ment agencies and the Sindh pro-vincial government had made nosignificant progress for ensuringthe criminals gangs were busted

and the people’s lives and prop-erty was protected.

The trade and economic ac-tivities in the city that contributedaround 70 percent of the total rev-enue generated in the countrywas at stake and the traders hadvociferously voiced their con-cerns.

The submission of the MQMrequisition would now be tanta-mount to bring down the Sindhprovincial government in hotwaters, whether the Sindh pro-vincial government okayed therequisition and fixed a schedulefor the house to be in sessionwithin 14 days or rejected againon some technical reasons.

Sources said that the situa-tion could also spark a new con-frontational situation between theMQM and the ruling PakistanPeople’s party Parliamentarian(PPPP) and Sindh provincialgovernment as the later was al-ready under tremendous pressurefrom all corners.

The sources said that in or-der to pacify the foresighted con-frontational situation between the

two major political parties of theprovince having their selectivemandate in urban and rural no-menclature, Sindh provincialgovernment should convene thesession or at least conduct a be-hind the curtain diplomaticmaneouvour to seek MQM’s sup-port under some give-and-takeformula. In this regard, the Sindhgovernment could hint at mak-ing salient changes in the localgovernment system especiallyfor the urban Sindh where theMQM had the biggest mandate.

On the other hand, the MQMlawmakers including Dr SagheerAhmed, Azeem Farooqui,Muhammad Kamran and RehanZafar had perspicaciously filedan adjournment motion over theissue of insertion of names ofMQM lawmakers in the list ofcriminals wanted to police forcrimes. The list had carriednames of Dr Farooq Sattar, Par-liamentary Leader of the MQMin the national assembly andSyed Faisal Sabzwari, leader ofopposition in Sindh provincialassembly and others.

MQM re-submits requisitionFrom Page 1

air piracy. He led a group offive who hijacked a TWA planeand also planted a bomb in alocker at New York’s Grand Cen-tral railway station.

The plane was flying fromNew York to Chicago with 76passengers onboard. The grouphoped to draw attention to whatthey saw as the Yugoslavian com-munist regime’s repression ofpro-independence Croatians.

They forced the pilots first tofly the plane to Montreal, thenLondon and Paris, where policeeventually persuaded them tosurrender.

However, back in New York,a policeman was killed as he triedto defuse the bomb at Grand Cen-tral.

Four other convicts, includ-ing his wife, were released afterserving their sentences. As a con-dition of his parole Busic wasbarred from ever entering the USagain.—FP

CroatiaFrom Page 1

among the flood victims, includ-ing 16,400 in KP, 420 inBalochistan, and 67 in AJK.

Similarly 28,950 mosquitonets have been distributed inflood hit areas, including 8,000in Punjab, 6,100 in Sindh and6,850 in Balochistan.

A total of 386 relief campshave been providing basic ameni-ties of life to 30,861 maroonedpeople of flood hit areas of thecountry.

Moreover, 4,812 cattle headshave been perished in flood hitareas of the country including 9in Punjab, 95 in KP, 88 in Sindh,4,555 in Balochistan and 65 cattleheads have been perished in AJK.

In Punjab, 71 people havebeen reported dead and 1,010sustained injuries, 24 expired and26 injured in Khyber

Pakhtunkhaw (KP), 47 peoplehave died and 43 injured inSindh, 18 dead and 17 injured inBalochistan, 15 dead and 11 in-jured in FATA and 32 people havedied and 15 sustained injuries inflash flooding in Azad Jammuand Kashmir (AJK).

As many as 13,33,066people have been affected incountry due to flooding includ-ing 762,913 in Punjab, 584 inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, 505,299in Sindh and 64,270 have beenaffected by floods in Balochistan.

Standing crops at12,48,644.25 acres have been af-fected in the country including937,869 acres at Punjab, 535 acrescrops of KP, 246,195 acre crops inSindh, 63,969 acre crops inBalochistan, 76.25 acre crops havebeen affected in FATA.—APP

207 dead, 1,122From Page 1

PIA ex-staffers demandbasic incentives

KHALID BUTT

LAHORE—President PakistanInternational Airlines’ RetiredEmployees Association (Piarea)Syed Tahir Hassan has demandedthat the payment of commutedamount and Matured Group In-surance should be given to theretired employees at the time oftheir retirement.

He said the PIA managementshould immediately resolve theissues of its retired employeesthat include refund on commutedpension amount, increase of pen-sion in the light of PIA Circularnumber 21/2003 dated 21 July2003, and issuance of emergencytickets on domestic routes.

In PIA, he adds, the groupinsurance amount is paid to thefamily of an employee upon hisdeath during his service up to theage of 60 years. This was ex-tended after retirement but re-stricted up to the age of 65 years.‘This means that if the employeewant their own amount back,they should either die or heirsshould arrange their death before65 years of age,’ added Tahir.

This is not just, he adds,therefore, Piarea strongly de-mands that the payment of groupinsurance be paid at the time ofretirement or upon death at anyage. ‘Similarly, the commutedpension must be refunded to aretired employee after attainingthe age of 70/75 years or to hisheirs as in practice in all gov-ernment departments because itis part of pensionable amountmortgaged/sold to the employerby the employee for a period of10 to 15 years,’ demanded Tahir.

He further said that thisamount should never be snatchedfrom the retired employees orfrom their heirs because it is likea deposit with the employer foran agreed/stipulated period. ‘Theground reality is that almost ev-ery year there is plausible in-crease in the pensions of federaland provincial government em-ployees at the time of budgets.This is why pension of the retiredemployees of PIA should also beincreased because their pensionis already very low as compareto other government depart-ments,’ he reasoned.

Syria asks UNFrom Page 1

banned weapons. At least100,000 people have been killedin the conflict, which started inMarch 2011 with protests againstfour decades of Assad familyrule. U.S. Secretary of State JohnKerry said on Sunday that testsshowed sarin nerve gas was firedon rebel-held areas on August 21.Ja’afari said Kerry had “adopted

old stories fabricated by terror-ists” based on fake photos fromthe Internet.

Moscow: The informationthe U.S. showed Moscow tryingto prove that the Syrian regimewas behind an alleged chemicalweapons attack is “absolutelyunconvincing,” Russia’s foreignminister said Monday.—Reuters

Syria warnsFrom Back Page

come what may, out of its com-mitment to the moral, legal, po-litical and human considerations,and reaffirms that the only ben-eficiary of using chemical weap-ons is the armed terrorist groups,including Al Qaeda Organizationand their supporters.”

Syria, warned that aggres-sion against her will be strikeagainst the UN, its charter, itsauthenticity and its role in main-taining global peace and security.

LONDON: A first-half goal by Olivier Giroud earned Arsenal a 1-0 win over big-spending local rivals TottenhamHotspur in the Premier League.

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

M U M B A I — H a n i fMohammed, one of fourbrothers to have played forPakistan, has delayed hisreturn to Pakistan after un-dergoing cancer surgery inEngkand a few weeks ago.This was revealed by hisyounger son Shahzeb.

Speaking exclusivelyover his mobile from Lon-don on Monday, he said,“My father has been ad-vised to undergo chemo-therapy. Dr RobertHutchins (liver surgeon)and Professor Justin

Hanif’s return to Pakistandelayed: advised chemotherapyto avoid recurrence of cancer

Stebbing (oncologist at Lon-don Oncology Clinic HarleyStreet) both think thatfather’s cancer is completelyremoved”.

“However, like any can-cer there is a certain prob-ability that it can reoccur . Toprevent this ProfessorStebbing recommended adju-vant chemotherapy”, headded.

“The chemotherapy willlast for six cycles. In eachcycle on day one ( 8 hourswith two drugs) and day 8(one drug one hour)Three weeks gap betweeneach cycle”.

“My daddy will have hisfirst two cycles in UK. He is

overwhelmed with the re-sponse from family, friends,fans from all over the world.And would like to thank ev-eryone and request all to re-member him in their prayers”.

“The Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) also contactedhim and wished him speedyrecovery and assured himfor complete support in ev-ery way”.

Officially no officialfrom the Pakistan Govern-ment has so far not con-tacted him.

Hanif Mohammad wasregarded as the first LittleMaster. The 78-year-oldHanif Mohammad played55 Tests for his country.

K A R A C H I — Z i m b a b w epulled out of playing Testcricket in January 2006 andsince its return to the Testarena in August 2011 after agap of five years, it has beenunranked, having not playedthe requisite eight qualifyingTests to be part of therankings table.

But at the end of the two-Test series against fourth-ranked Pakistan, scheduledto start in Harare on Tues-day, Zimbabwe will return tothe table ahead ofBangladesh in ninth posi-tion, irrespective of how theseries pans out, accordingto statement released by In-ternational Cricket Council(ICC).

Apart from the incentiveof returning to the Test TeamRankings table, Zimbabwehas an opportunity to collecta few points to help it narrowthe gap with eighth-rankedNew Zealand.

Zimbabwe can returnwith as many as 47 points,but, to achieve this, the sidewill have to win the series 2-0. A 1-0 series victory will putZimbabwe on 43 ratingspoints, while, in the case of a0-0 or a 1-1 result, Zimbabwewill re-enter with 34 ratingspoints.

For fourth-ranked Paki-stan, the series offers an op-portunity to gain two ratingspoints if it wins both

matches. In this scenario,Pakistan would move to 104ratings points, 12 behindthird-ranked India and threeahead of fifth-ranked Austra-lia.

A 1-0 score line will notsee any gain for Pakistan, butwill help it retain its pre-se-ries rank of fourth.

Meanwhile, Pakistan willenter the two-match serieswith as many as four bats-men inside the top 20 of theICC Player Rankings for TestBatsmen.

Younis Khan, in eighthposition, is the highest-ranked batsman, while AzharAli is in 12th spot, captainMisbah-ul-Haq is occupying

16th position and AsadShafiq is in 19th place - a po-sition he shares with SriLanka’s MahelaJayawardene. Meanwhile,Pakistan vice captain

Mohammad Hafeez’s partici-pation in the first Test againstZimbabwe starting Tuesday,is uncertain due to injury.According to TV channel,Hafeez will undergo an MRI,Monday evening after whicha decision on his inclusionin the final line-up will betaken.

M.Hafeez had pulled hishamstring during the 3rd ODIand had to retire hurt duringthe innings only to come inwith couple of overs remain-

ing. Although he did take thefield and send down 9overspicking up 2-40.

Zimbabwe captainBrendan Taylor is the high-est-ranked batsman from hisside, in 38th place.

The ICC Player Rankingsfor Test Batsmen is headedby Hashim Amla with WestIndies’ ShivnarineChanderpaul in second placeand South Africa batsmanAB de Villiers in third posi-tion.

Pakistan’s off-spinnerSaeed Ajmal is the highest-ranked bowler on either sidein fourth place on the ICCPlayer Rankings for TestBowlers.

The ICC Rankings forTest Bowlers is still headedby South Africa’s Dale Steyn,with Vernon Philander in sec-ond place and Sri Lanka spin-ner Rangana Herath in thirdplace. ICC Test Rankings (ason September 2)—APPRankTeam ................Points1. ..... South Africa ......... 1352. ..... England ................ 1163. ..... India ...................... 1164. ..... Pakistan ................ 1025. ..... Australia ............... 1016. ..... West Indies ............ 997. ..... Sri Lanka ................. 888. ..... New Zealand .......... 799. ..... Bangladesh ............ 10Zimbabwe is currentlyunranked, as it has playedinsufficient matches. It has183 points and a rating of 23.

NEW YORK: Li Na of China reacts after winning a game against Jelena Jankovic ofSerbia during a fourth round match at the US Open tennis tournament.

LONDON—Arsenal strikerOlivier Giroud gaveTottenham a worryingglimpse of life without GarethBale as his first half strikeclinched a 1-0 win in the northLondon derby on Sunday.

Giroud netted his fourthgoal of the season midwaythrough the opening periodat the Emirates Stadium tomaintain Arsenal’s revivalsince their dismal opening daydefeat at home to Aston Villa.

That loss had triggered abarrage of abuse from fansfrustrated by the club’s eight-year trophy drought and bossArsene Wenger’s failure tomake any marquee signingssince the end of last season.

But four successive vic-tories, including two overFenerbahce in the ChampionsLeague qualifying round,have at least temporarily si-lenced Wenger’s critics.

Even the more vociferous

Arsenal beat Spurs 1-0to win London derby

of the anti-Wenger factioncould have few complaints asArsenal took the north Lon-don bragging rights with adominant display that lefttheir bitter rivals nursing con-cerns that Bale’s imminentdeparture may be a fatal blowto their hopes of a top-fourfinish.

With Bale’s world recordmove to Real Madrid set tobe concluded before Mondayevening’s transfer deadline,Spurs have embarked on afrenzied spending spree.

Villas-Boas has splashedout over 100 million poundson seven players and four ofthose new arrivals, RobertoSoldado, Paulinho, EtienneCapoue and Nacer Chadli,were in the starting line-up atthe Emirates.

But, with little time to gel,Tottenham lacked cohesionand unity in their first serioustest of the post-Bale era.

Spurs were under duressfrom the start and SantiCazorla’s free-kick brought afine save from Hugh Lloriswith just two minutes gone.

The Gunners were play-ing with an intuitive under-standing their rivals badlymissed and they took the leadin the 23rd minute with thekind of immaculately con-structed goal that makesWenger’s teams such a joy towatch when they hit top gear.

An Aaron Ramsey passlocated Tomas Rosicky inspace on the right of midfieldand the Czech veteranquickly shifted possessiononto Walcott, who surgedinto the penalty area andwhipped over a low crossthat French striker Giroud,fatally granted too muchspace by Michael Dawson,met with a superb flicked fin-ish past Lloris from close-range.—AFP

Hafeez’s inclusion in 1st Test uncertain

4th ranked Pakistan face Zimbabweset to return to Test Team Rankings

NEW YORK—Li Na notchedanother pay-back victory atthe U.S. Open, beatingformer world number oneJelena Jankovic 6-3 6-0 toadvance to the quarter-finalson Sunday.

The f if th-seeded Chi-nese, who overturned lastyear ’s defeat by LauraRobson by beating theBriton in the third round,snapped a four-match los-ing streak to the Serbiandating back to Paris in2009.

Former French Openchampion Li cracked 20 win-ners and conceded only 12unforced errors in a dazzlingdisplay, converting all herseven break points in a 57-

Li Na dumps Jankovic onway to US Open quarters

minute master class.“The last time in Rome I

lost in two sets straight away.She plays pretty good de-fense, but who knows, maybeI played the best match of mywhole life,” Li said with achuckle in her on-court inter-view.

“I still remember last timeI played her in Rome. I wasfeeling I played pretty good,but still lost the match,” shetold reporters. “So I was sosad after the match.”

Li said her coach CarlosRodriguez used that defeatto motivate her.

“Before this match,Carlos didn’t tell me any-thing. Just said, ‘rememberhow you felt after that

match.’The victory put 31-year-

old Li, Asia’s first grand slamsingles champion, into theU.S. Open quarter-finals forthe second time followingher trip to the last eight in2009.

A two-time AustralianOpen finalist, Li next facesRussian 24th seed EkaterinaMakarova, who upset thirdseed Agnieszka Radwanska6-4 6-4.

“Tonight she played re-ally well, at a very high level,”Jankovic said of Li. “I did notcontrol the points. I let herdo all the talk on the court.

“If she continues to playlike this I think she can winthe tournament.”—AFP

Asif, Majidmakes losing

start in 6-RedsWorld SnookerKARACHI—Pakistan duo ofMuhammad Asif andMuhammad Majid Ali madelosing start on the openingday of 6-Reds WorldSnooker Championship inBangkok (Thailand) on Mon-day.

Reigning IBSF WorldAmateur Snooker ChampionMuhammad Asif went down5-4 to Thailand’s RatchapolPu-Ob-Orm 5-4 after a thrill-ing contest.

Asif despite losing theopening two frames cameback strongly to take 2-3 and4-3 lead.

But Ratchapol in intrigu-ing play, snatched the lastframes to secure 50-0, 43-11,5-59, 18-29, 0-47, 37-10, 25-33,32-212, 31-18 victory in Bhatsix million prize money event.

Asian Junior Champion-ship runner-up Majid Ali alsogave Alex Borg of Malta test-ing time before losing 5-3.

Youthful Majid makinghis debut in the showpieceevent, grabbed three framesagainst veteran professionalAlex Borg before losing 44-0, 64-0, 14-55, 42-0, 0-45, 42-18, 10-49 and 45-17.—APP

R O M E — B r a z i l i a nmidfielder Kaka has com-

pleted a return to AC Milanon a two-year contract af-

Kaka completes AC Milan returnter the Serie A side agreeda deal with Real Madrid,the Italian club confirmedMonday.

“Done deal”, MilanCEO Adriano Galliani an-nounced on the club’swebsite, adding that dis-cussions ran until “around0235-0240 CET” Mondaymorning before the movewas completed.

According to the Ital-ian press, Real allowed the31-year-old to return to hisformer club on a free trans-fer, having paid 65 millioneuros to bring Kaka toMadrid in 2009.

“I’m going home”, theplayer told journalists at aMadrid airport before

boarding a flight to Milan,where he landed shortly af-ter Monday lunchtime.

The Brazilian was saidto have taken a significantpay cut to faci l i tate hismove to the San Siro, ac-cepting an annual salary offour million euros plus bo-nuses, a considerable re-duction from the 10 millioneuros a year he received inMadrid.

“I’m very happy, thetalks took a long t ime.Money was never one ofmy priorities.”

Kaka told Milan Chan-nel, the Italian club’s TVstation, upon his arrival atthe Milan-Linate airport.—AFP

Former hockeygreats to meetIPC minister

ISLAMABAD—A group offormer Olympians, who arepushing for changes in Paki-stan Hockey Federation(PHF) management will callon Minister for Inter-provin-cial Coordination (IPC) RiazHussain Pirzada on Tuesdayat Pakistan Sports Board’s(PSB) office Karachi.

Former OlympianShahnaz Sheikh told APP onMonday that minister hadinformed them on phone thathe would be available to meetthem (former internationalhockey players) in PSB officeKarachi and discuss the cur-rent state of affairs of hockeyin the country.

He said the dismal perfor-mance of national hockeyteam in the recently con-cluded Asian Hockey Cup inIpoh, Malaysia had provedthat they had rightly beencriticizing the PHF manage-ment.

The former players hadasked the minister to givethem time and hear their com-plaints.

A meeting in this regardwhich was scheduled to beheld in June, this year waspostponed due to the hecticschedule of the minister atthat time.

“We will bring into thenotice of the minister thatdespite massive fundsgranted to the Federationby the government, Paki-stan remained unable evento make the cut for WorldCup 2014.”—APP

Jr Ranking Tennis

Top seed playersadvance intoquarterfinals

ISLAMABAD—MuhammadMudasir, Zaid Mujahid, SyedNofil Kaleem, Talha Bin Asif,Hamza Bin Asif, Saad Zafarand Arham Atiq on Mondayadvanced into thequarterfinals by winningmatches in the National Jun-ior Ranking Tennis Champi-onship.

Top Seed MuhammadMudasir beat Barkatullah 6-1,6-1.

While second seedArham Atiq, who was in ex-cellent form eliminated HarisIrfan ul Haq of Sialkot with-out conceding a single gamein both sets.

Third Seed MuhammadMuzamil also showed excel-lent game and claimed vic-tory against Shoaib Khan ofPeshawar at a score of 6-0,6-0, in matches played at SyedDilawar Abbas PTF TennisComplex, Islamabad. 6thseed Syed Nofil Kaleem beatTalal Almas in three setmatch.

All the other seededplayers registered straightset wins against their oppo-nents. Mudasir will faceZaid Mujahid, Muzamil willtake on Syed Nofil Kaleem,Talha Bin Asif will meet hiselder brother Hamza BinAsif and Saad Zafar will playagainst Arham Atiq in thequarterfinals on Tues-day.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Ombudsman Punjab,Javed Mahmood, has ordered Sec-retary Local Government and Ru-ral Development Punjab for pay-ment of group insurance amountto the employees of erstwhileunion councils, town and munici-pal committees and municipalcorporations as it was their legiti-mate right.

After devolution set up, noserious attention was paid to pro-tect the rights of the employees oferstwhile local councils. Malad-ministration stood established inProvincial Local GovernmentDepartment, District Govern-ments in the Punjab, AccountantGeneral Punjab’s office, State LifeInsurance Corporation, DistrictAccounts Offices and ControllerGeneral of Accounts officeIslamabad at the cost of whichthe employees of erstwhile lo-cal councils had suffered finan-cial loss and mental agony, saidOmbudsman Punjab.

He ordered Secretary LocalGovernment to take the mattervigorously with all stake hold-ers, get a new General LedgerAccount opened by ControllerGeneral of Accounts and ensure

that the employees are not de-prived of their legitimate rightof Group Insurance coverage.

According to details, hus-band of Shafaqt Kausar, a PTCteacher of MC Primary SchoolSargodha, Muhammad Asharaf,a primary school teacher of MCPrimary School Pattokki and anumber of employees of erst-while local councils, lodged acomplaint to the OmbudsmanPunjab that they were under the

Punjab Ombudsman orderspayment to retired LG employees

group insurance cover and de-ductions in this regard were be-ing made from their salaries atsource which were discontinuedin 2002 with the promulgationof Punjab Local GovernmentAct. Ombudsman Punjab di-rected Advisor Accounts, WazirAhmad Qureshi to probe the is-sue who called AccountantGeneral Punjab, Local Govern-ment Department and State LifeInsurance Corporation for report.

EU ambassadormeets PresidentI S L A M A B A D — E u r o p e a nUnion‘s Ambassador to Pak Mr.Lars-Gunnar Wigemark calledon President Asif Ali Zardariat the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Mon-day. Matters pertaining toPak- EU relations were dis-cussed during the meeting. ThePresident also hosted lunch forthe EU ambassador.—NNI

Lady constableshot deadSWAT—A man killed his niece,lady police constable over do-mestic dispute here on Mondayand fled the scene. According topolice, accused identified asFazal Al Huda, hailing fromKharrari area of Mata, Swat washaving some dispute with hisniece lady police constableSadia over domestic issues. OnMonday morning the culprit ex-changed hot words with Sadiaafter which he gunned her downand fled away. The police regis-tered a case against the murdererand started search for him.—INP

292 Afghanshanded backISLAMABAD—Pakistani offi-cials have handed over 292 Af-ghan nationals to Afghanistanofficials at Pak-Afghan Borderin Chaman. Official sources saidthat these Afghan nationals werearrested for not having legal andtravelling documents.—NNI

Special police unitQUETTA—A special unit ofBalochistan police force willstart functioning soon under thenew security plan for Quetta.The special unit comprises aboutthree hundred personnel to com-bat terrorism. The new securityplan has been jointly preparedby Southern Command of Paki-stan Army‚ Frontier Corps. andPolice department to ensure sus-tainable peace in Quetta.—NNI

POL price hike

PPP, ANP submitmotions in SenateISLAMABAD—Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP) and Awami NationalParty (ANP) on Monday submit-ted separate adjournment mo-tions in the Senate against recenthike in prices of petroleum prod-ucts.

The adjournment motion byPPP was signed by RazaRabbani, Saeeda Iqbal, SaeedGhani, Maula Bux Chandi andSyeda Sughra Imam.

The ANP motion was signedby all party member of the Sen-ate. The motion stated that in-crease in petroleum products’prices will further enhance pricesof commodities.

Following the approval ofincrease in POL prices, differentopposition parties and religiousgroups rejected hike, declaringit an anti-people act of the PML-N government.—INP

BAGHDAD—A UN team visiteda camp housing Iranian exilesnorth of Baghdad on Monday asinvestigators tried to establishhow 52 members of the anti-Tehran group died over theweekend.

The deaths of the membersof the People’s MujahedeenOrganisation of Iran (PMOI),confirmed by a senior Iraqi se-curity officer, were met with in-ternational condemnation butthe UN and Western govern-ments have been careful not toassign blame amid wildly con-flicting narratives.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki set up an inquiry in theaftermath of the deaths, withfindings due in the coming days,and a UN team visited the campin Diyala province near the bor-der with Iran to try to establish

ISLAMABAD—Chairman PTI,Imran Khan has strongly con-demned US President Obama’sunilateral decision to attack Syriaon suspicion of use of chemicalweapons.

In a statement, Khan statedthat the issue is being investigatedby the UN’s inspectors and anyaction based on the report submit-ted by these inspectors must bepremised on and have sanction ofthe UNSC under Chapter VII ofthe Chapter. “Unilateral militaryaction against a sovereign mem-ber state of the UN is against theUN Charter and international lawand the powerful cannot be al-lowed to break these internationalnorms with impunity,” Khan de-clared. The Chairman PTI reit-erated that President Obama’s de-

cision to seek US Congressionalapproval for unilateral military ac-tion was an internal political is-sue and not a source of interna-tional legitimisation. “Even in thatcontext, Secretary of State Kerry’sdeclaration that Congressional ap-proval was not required was a re-flection of the militaristic policiesdisplayed by the Obama Admin-istration during its previous andpresent tenure in office.

Khan pointed out that Paki-stan has suffered from this UScavalier militaristic approach inthe illegal drone attacks againstits citizens. “It is time respect forinternational law and the collec-tive security system defined inChapter VII of the UN Charterwas reasserted by the interna-tional community.”—INP

Imran condemns Obamafor US stance on Syria

DIPLOMATIC

CORRESPONDENT

ISLAMABAD—A press release bythe Syrian embassy inIslamabad says: “ Since the veryinception of the crisis in Syriaand all along the past two andhalf years, the United States ofAmerica and its Western andregional allies, the Syrian rebels“(terrorists)” supported by theUS and its allies committedmassacres against Syrian citi-zens, both civilians and militaryand their supporting states pro-vided all types of political, ma-terial, military and logistic sup-port to these groups and over-

Syria warns US againstcommitting aggression

Denies using chemical weaponslooked their crimes, putting theonus of whatever going onagainst Syria and its people, onthe government of Syria.

The press release said: inorder to counter the steadfast-ness of our people and armedforces, and the resolve of theSyrian leadership to protect thecitizens and to fight terrorism,and due to the victoriesachieved, some Western coun-tries, and their Arab and regionalallies, resorted to floating theidea that the Syrian governmentmay have used chemical weap-ons against the Syrian people,since 2012.” “This prompted usto think that they have some in-

Smoke emitting from the vehicles after an attack by Taliban on a US military outpost in the eastern Afghan province ofNangarhar on Monday.

Plane hijackedTRIPOLI—An armed group hi-jacked a Royal Jordanian Airlinesplane in Libyan capital Tripoli onMonday.

According to foreign mediareports flight, scheduled to take offfor Amman, was hijacked.

.

UN, Iraq probe deathsof 52 Iran exiles at camp

what happened.“This morning, we entered

Ashraf and found 52 bodies inone place,” a senior police of-ficer who was part of the Iraqipremier’s investigating commit-tee told AFP.

The officer, who did notwant to be identified discussingthe inquiry, said investigatorsfound a “huge amount of TNTand explosive materiel insidecars, houses and heavy machin-ery.”

He said 42 members of thePMOI were still alive, but ac-cused them of not cooperatingwith investigators by refusing tohand over corpses and movingbodies from their original loca-tions.

The officer claimed thedeaths were probably caused byinfighting within Ashraf.—AP

formation about the intentions ofthe terrorists to actually use thisweapon and accuse the state forit. The Syrian government sentletters to UNSG and UnitedNations Security Council andwarning that some states whichare supporting the rebels havesupplied them with chemicalweapons to use them in Syriaand accuse the Syrian govern-ment of committing this crime.”

The press release said: Syr-ian government did not usechemical weapons and will notuse them even if it possessedthem, against its own people

India calls offIAF chief’s

visit to ChinaNEW DELHI—India has can-celled air force chief Air ChiefMarshal NAK Browne’s up-coming visit to China, signalingits reluctance to go into “diplo-matic overdrive” to engageBeijing in the wake of increasedChinese aggression along theline of actual control (LAC),Hindustan Times said in a reporton Monday.

New Delhi is trying a deli-cate balancing act to stabilisebilateral ties, plagued by terri-torial disputes in the northernand eastern sectors.

Browne’s visit may havebeen called off, but joint armyexercises with China are ontrack, scheduled to be held in theChengdu military region in No-vember after a gap of almost fiveyears. —INP

Continued on Page 6

Oppositionwalks outLAHORE—Opposition in thePunjab assembly on Mondaywalked out the Punjab Assemblysession in protest against disallow-ing to table anti-price hike resolu-tion in the House. Led by opposi-tion leader Mian MehmoodurRashid, members left the houseand later returned to their seats af-ter fifteen minutes protest.Mehmoodur Rashid wanted toseek chair’s nod to present the saidresolution but the speaker RanaMohammed Iqbal did not entertainhim, saying that he did not receivecopy of the resolution.—APP

Rs 15b womenwelfare projectsLAHORE—Punjab governmentwill accomplish women wel-fare projects with a heftyamount of Rs 15.4 billion dur-ing the current fiscal 2013-14.A number of mega projects havealready been started while doz-ens are in the pipeline, WomenDevelopment ministry sourcestold APP on Monday.—APP

Doctors get good & bad safetynews on diabetes drugs

ISLAMABAD: Experts of Ordnance Factory Wah briefing senior officers of Capital Police regarding latest arms.

DIABETES pills known as DPP-4 therapies got a mixed safety report on Monday as studies showed they did not raise

the risk of heart attacks but might be linked toheart failure, where the heart fails to pumpblood adequately. Reassuringly, the medicineswere not associated with increased rates of ei-ther inflammation of the pan-creas or cancer - somethingthat has been a worry in past.

However, in the case ofAstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s approveddrug Onglyza, there was asmall increase inhospitalisations for heart fail-ure. “It is a little bit concern-ing,” said Dr. ChristopherGrainger of Duke UniversityMedical Center, who was notinvolved in the research. “I’msure the FDA (US Food andDrug Administration) willwant to know more about it.”

Doctors and regulatorsare wary of the cardiovascu-lar safety profile of diabetesdrugs following past prob-lems, including with GlaxoSmithKline’sAvandia pill, since patients with diabetes areat increased risk of heart troubles. Researchersfrom Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Bos-ton, who studied Onglyza over two years in16,492 patients, said heart failure finding wasunexpected and deserved further investigation.

AstraZeneca and Bristol had already givenheadline results from the study in June show-ing that Onglyza did not increase heart attackrisk - although it did not reduce it either, as thecompanies had initially hoped. Detailed resultsof the Onglyza study were presented at theEuropean Society Cardiology (ESC) congress

in Amsterdam, alongside a 5,380-patient studyof Takeda’s Nesina, which showed no increasein overall cardiovascular risks.

Both studies were also published in theNew England Journal of Medicine. Dr. HeinzDrexel, a heart doctor at Feldkirch Hospitalin Austria and an ESC spokesman, said DPP-

4s offered several advantages,including a lack of weight gainseen with some otherantidiabetics, which would off-set the heart failure worries.

Dr. Anthony DeMaria,editor-in-chief of the Journal ofthe American College of Car-diology, said the absence ofsevere adverse events was re-assuring but it might be thatDPP-4s were best avoided forcertain patients at high risk ofheart failure. Drugs likeOnglyza and Nesina work byinhibiting dipeptidyl pepti-dase-4, or DPP-4, to enhancethe body’s ability to lower el-evated levels of blood sugar.

The DPP-4 market isdominated by Merck’s Januvia,

which has annual sales of around $5 billion,including a related combination treatmentcalled Janumet. But growth of the class hasslowed this year, partly on concerns over pan-creatic safety. Onglyza, which had sales of $709million in 2012, is a crucial product forAstraZeneca, which is banking on diabetes tohelp revive falling group sales due to patentexpiries on several of its biggest-selling drugs.Briggs Morrison, AstraZeneca’s head of glo-bal medicines development, said the overallresults of the latest trial were reassuring andsmall increase in heart failure hospitalisationsdid not change risk profile of drug.

ISLAMABAD: Twelve PINSAT-Preston University students selected by German Academic Ex-change Service Islamabad, for study visit to Germany, with Executive Director HEC Prof DrMukhtar Ahmad and Chancellor Preston University Dr Abdul Basit.—PO photo Sultan Bashir

ISLAMABAD: People visiting shrine of Bari Imam on Monday.—PO photo

ISLAMABAD—Higher Educa-tion Commission has conferredthe coveted Best UniversityTeachers’ Award 2011 on an aca-demician from the Research andPublication Cell of National Uni-versity of Modern Languages(NUML) Dr. Shaheena AyubBhatti.

Dr Shaheena Ayub Bhatti,Associate Professor, a veteranacademician in the field ofAmerican Indian Literature, didher Post Doctoral research fromUniversity of Arizona, Tucson,Arizona, USA.

She has the singular honourof being the only one in the fieldof English Literature and Hu-manities for the year 2011.

Dr Shaheena Ayub Bhattihas earned appreciation and re-

spect many times at different in-ternational forums as she has pre-sented numerous research papersand attended international confer-ences. Besides this, she has su-pervised several students for MA,MA TEFL, MPhil and PhD dis-sertations.

She has also been GeneralSecretary of Pak NationalFullbright Association Alumni(PAKNAFA) and member of na-tional and international associa-tions. Rector NUML Maj Gen(R) Masood Hasan, DirectorGeneral Brig Azam Jamal, ad-ministrative and academic staffof NUML felicitated DrShaheena Ayub Bhatti for herachievements and expressedpride at her earning respect andgood name for University.—APP

Academician receives BestUniversity Teacher Award 2011

ISLAMABAD—The dazzling‘Truck Art’ attracts a large num-ber of visitors besides present-ing many other fascinations atthe Heritage Museum of LokVirsa. The colorful and eye-catching art work done on manydecoration items displayed hereat museum can hardly be seenanywhere else in the world.

The colors used includeflaming orange, gleaming redand yellow, shocking pink, anintense emerald green, the mys-tical and blue, combined withall shades of spectrum.

Intricate mosaics of col-ored glass, mirror and bone col-ored plastic pieces, as well asfinely executed wood carvingsadorn the superstructure of the

cabins and cabin doors with flow-ers, leaves garlands and birdsdesigns composed of florescentcolored plastic tape. PakistanNational Museum of Ethnology,popularly known as HeritageMuseum, depicting living cul-tural traditions and lifestyles ofthe people of Pakistan not onlyfrom mainstream but also fromremotest regions of Pakistan.

The museum is regularlyvisited by VVIPs, VIP delegates,dignitaries and state guests apartfrom students, researchers, schol-ars and general public.

A visitor from Norway,Maleeha Khan who came to visitPakistan first time in her life, toldAPP, “I am very much impressedwith the cultural dioramas in the

Heritage Museum displayed inthe authentic and artistic way”.The display of “Truck Art” isamazing. She termed the art ofembellishing the trucks as “Arton Wheels”. Other family mem-bers accompanying her were alsoequally happy to see colorfulwork of art on the transport ve-hicle and other items.

Explaining about truck art,Executive Director, Lok Virsa,Khalid Javaid said, this art is notdone only on trucks and buses buton all kinds of vehicles like tank-ers, mini-buses, trucks, rick-shaws, tongas and even donkeycarts moving on road throughoutthe country. Surprisingly, artistsand artisans involved in this artare not graduated from art

schools or colleges, yet they carryout their incredible work skill-fully, in a naive style, using theirimagination and inspiration tocreate fantasies and dreams, col-ors and embellishments of whichare deeply rooted in Pakistan’srich folklore, he added.

In order to document andpreserve indigenous cultural tra-ditions, arts, crafts, folklore andother aspects of Pakistani cultureand to support and encourage ar-tisans, artists and musicians, LokVirsa undertook an initiative toestablish a network of commu-nity-based organizations and re-gional cultural bodies all overPakistan under on-going Pak-Norway cultural cooperationprogramme. Under this network,

a number of activities benefit-ing master artisans, folk artists,musicians and the revival ofdying traditional skills were un-dertaken, he stated. A group ofmaster artisans are being trainedhere at Lok Virsa in the field ofwood art, metal work, lacquerart, papier mache and truck artto keep alive traditions of dy-ing arts.

Besides training, the arti-sans belonging to remote re-gions also display and sell theirproducts to earn livelihood andmake products according tomarket needs, he added. Pref-erence was given to the peoplebelonging to poor andmarginalized classes of our so-ciety, he told.—APP

Dazzling ‘Truck Art’ at heritage museum attracts visitors

ISLAMABAD—Officers ofIslamabad police were givencomprehensive briefing aboutuse of modern weapons and howto tackle the challenge by usingthe sophisticated technology.

According to details, a teamfrom Wah factory visited PoliceLine Headquarters and gave de-tailed briefing to the officers re-garding use of modern and so-phisticated weapons, this train-ing session was organized to en-hance professional capabilities ofIslamabad Police.

DIG (Headquarters) KhalidKhattak, SSP IslamabadMuhammad Rizwan, SSP

(Headquarters) Sajid Kayani,SSP Traffic Dr Moeen Masood,SP I-Area Farrukh Rasheed SPInvestigation Muhammad Ilyas ,SP city Mustansar Farooz, SPSadder Jameel Ahmed Hasmi, SPRural Shabi Hussain, SP (Head-quarters) Gulfam Nasir werealso present on the occasion

Officers of Islamabad policealso questioned about the suc-cessful use of these weapons. Ademo was also presented on theoccasion.

The purpose of this wholeexercise is to increase profes-sional skills of Islamabad policeand to ensure protection to the

lives and property of citizens suc-cessfully. All the officers hopethat this training will be benefi-cial/helpful to secure capital ef-fectively.

New weapons would be pur-chased from Islamabad police infuture and training would begiven to them further for theirsuccessful handling.

This briefing was conductedon the directions of IGPIslamabad Sikandar Hayat and hehope that it will help Islamabadpolice for their capacity buildingand force will continue their pro-fessional service in effectivemanners.—INP

Islamabad Police get briefingabout use of modern weapons

Election tribunalto hear election

complaintsagainst Sheikh

ISLAMABAD—An Election Tri-bunal on Monday fixed Septem-ber 5 as hearing date to take upelection grievances againstAwami Muslim League (AML)chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed.

The tribunal, issuing noticesto respondents on an applicationof defeated PML-N candidateMalik Shakil Awan, asked himtoo to appear on September 5.

Awan argued that SheikhRasheed had spent excessively inMay 11 parliamentary elections.But he did not show the spend-ing in nomination papers.

The application further saidthat AML leader did not declarehis complete details of his as-sets. Therefore, he should be dis-qualified for un fulfilling therules. —INP

KSA to providescholarships

to IIUIISLAMABAD—Department ofAwqaf Saleh Abdel Aziz AlRajhi, Saudi Arabia and Interna-tional Islamic UniversityIslamabad (IIUI) have signed anagreement under which theformer will provide 100 scholar-ships of Rs 89 million to the IIUIstudents.

According to an IIUI pressrelease on Monday, the agree-ment was signed between the twoinstitutions during the recentvisist of IIUI President Dr.Ahmed Yousif Al-Draiweesh toSaudi Arabia.

A signing ceremony of theagreement was held at the officeof Pro- chancellor of IIUI andvice chancellor of ImamMuhammad Ibne Saud Univer-sity, Saudi Arabia.

Professor Dr. Sulaiman BinAbdullah Abalkhail, Dr. Al-Draiweesh and Abul Slam BinSaleh Al Rajhi signed on theagreement.—APP

CITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Goods forward-ing transporters have threatenedthe government to launch coun-trywide protest campaign againstthe hike in prices of petroleumproducts.

The office bearers of GoodsForwarding Transporters Asso-ciation Mian Fayaz Afzal, SardarTariq Mehmood, MuhammadYousaf Billa, Khalil Mughal,Shakil Qureshi, Malik Adeel,Malik Asad , Tariq Niazi andChaudhary Saeed said during apress conference that governmentafter increasing the price of petrol

and diesel twice in a month hasforced the transporters for sui-cide. The transporters demandedthe government to take back re-cent price-hike of POL or elsethey would go for wheel jamstrike from Karachi to Khyber.

They said that after the in-crease the cost of spares parts,tyres and other items used in thevehicle have also been swelledand the ever-increasing rates oftoll taxes have made impossiblefor the transporters to ply theirvehicles, trucks and buses onroad.

“We were expecting that thesituation of the business would

get improved after the new gov-ernment sworn in , but they brokeeven the records of the previousgovernments”, they added.

They said that now FinanceMinister should also tell the na-tion that how the common manwould survive

Mian Fayaz Afzal said on theoccasion that the transports havenot any security at all. When atrawler runs from Karachi , it hadto face several criminal elementsin the way. Many trucks arelooted but government does notoffer any compensation for theloss and all the transporters bearall the burden on their shoulders.

POL price hike, goods forwarderswarn govt of wheel-jam strike

Workshop forburnt victims

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — D e p i l e xSmileagain Foundation ar-ranged a two-day psycho-socialSupport Workshop for acid andkerosene oil burn survivors. Theworkshop was designed to pro-vide the participants with recre-ational tools of expression.

The workshop arranged byDSF in collaboration withMyPlace, a consultancy firmwith expertise in behavioral sci-ences, headed by Saddaf Sohail,Behavioral Consultant, who de-signed and executed the entireseminar. The workshop pro-vided the participants, an oppor-tunity to express their feelingsby drawing and painting andconvey their feelings, thoughtsand emotions with the use ofvarious colours.

While sharing her viewsSaddaf Sohail, workshop con-sultant said, “the main purposeof this workshop is to providethe participants with any easytool of expression so that theycan express their feelings andgain confidence.” She alsoadded, credit goes to DepilexSmileagain Foundation for rec-ognizing the need for such work-shops and donor Philip Morris(Pakistan) Limited (PMPKL)for supporting initiatives fight-ing domestic violence.

The DSF is registered with12 hospitals across Pakistan forOPDs, referrals and surgeries:Jinnah Hospital Lahore, GeneralHospital Lahore, Mayo Hospi-tal Lahore, National HospitalLahore, Patel Hospital Karachi,Indus Hospital Karachi, CivilHospital Karachi, CMHRawalpindi, PIMS Islamabad,Khyber Hospital Peshawar, Al-lied Hospital Faisalabad andBolan Hospital Quetta.

Judicial remandof Bhara Kahu

accused extendedISLAMABAD—The Anti-Terror-ism Court Islamabad has ex-tended judicial remand of fiveaccused in Bhara Kahu suicideattack case till sixth of thismonth. ATC judge AtiqurRehman directed police to sub-mit challan and produce the ac-cused on next hearing of thecase.—NNI

RAWALPINDI—The role of in-tellectuals, writers, poets andacademicians is pivotal in reviv-ing and promoting book readingculture in the society.

There used to be public li-braries in every street and local-ity of Pakistan though set up ina small room or shop fromwhere books, novels, fiction inUrdu or English could be ob-tained against a nominalamount. Most of these libraries

Revival of book reading imperativehave gradually disappeared.

This was observed byUSAID representative VirginiaMorgan at a brainstorming ses-sion of writers and intellectualsfor revival of book reading cul-ture in Pakistan arranged bySocial Development Foundation(SDF) on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion,Dr. Javed Kausar said that thepurpose of arranging the docu-mentary session was to highlight

and discuss the impediments dueto which the book reading cul-ture has dwindled. SohailChaudhry said, SDF was dedi-cated to reviving the culture ofreading books and fostering alove for reading in Pakistan.

Other speakers includingAnwar Fitrat, Naseer AhmedNasir and Parveen Tahir whileaddressing the session presentedtheir proposals to revive bookreading culture of ’70s.—Online

Briefs

“A leader is a personyou will follow to a

place you wouldn’t goby yourself.”

— Joel Barker

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Expo Pakistanbeing held on 26-29 Septem-ber 2013 is the biggest tradefair in Pakistan,showcasing thelargest collec-tion ofPakistan’s ex-port merchan-dise and ser-vices. Foreignexhibitors, fromneighbour ingcountries also use this platformto launch their products.

Malaysia External TradeDevelopment Corporation(Matrade) is the National tradePromotion Agency under theMinistry of International Tradeand Industry (MITI), Malay-sia. MATRADE has booked 33booths. 29 companies are par-

Expo Pakistanon Sept 26-29

ticipating from Malaysia.Malaysian companies will

comprise of various sectorsranging from furniture, table-ware, healthcare, food & bev-

erages, elec-tronic & elec-tronic prod-ucts, chemical& plast icproducts, au-tomotive parts& compo-nents, educa-tion services,and business

services.TDAP has assigned

Muhammad Tahir Shafi,Marketing Officer, TDAP, Karachias the focal person to facilitate B2Bbusiness meetings for theMalaysian companies with theinterested Pakistani companies. Hemay be reached attahir.shafi@tdap. gov.pk.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Pakistan AirlinePilots’ Association (PALPA)and the management of Paki-stan International Airlines(PIA) have decided to workjointly to steer the nationalasset out of current crisis sothat it can achieve its pastglory.

A meeting in this regardwas held recently between the

‘Pilots committed to bring the national airline out of crisis’PIA management and a delega-tion of PALPA which was alsoattended by Secretary Aviationand Acting Chairman, PIAMuhammad Ali Gardezi andAdditional Secretary AviationAmjad Toor.

PALPA President, CaptainSuhail Baloch informed themeeting that the FLY SMARTprogram suggested by PALPA isready for implementation whichwill help the national airline to

save Rs 19 billion annually.PALPA also offered its as-

sistance to set up a proper flightwatch for flight operations de-partment of the airline whichwould enhance the coordinationof PIA operations and throughwhich an expeditious and effec-tive flow of flights can be main-tained.

In other measures PALPAoffered its help to the manage-ment of the national airline,

assistance in co-branding; IFEup-gradation in order to haveextra revenues; to develop amobile application (App); andup-gradation of PIACwebsite.

The meeting was informedthat PALPA is already assistingthe PIA management regardingthe induction of efficient narrowbody aircrafts which could gen-erate potentially huge revenue inmillions on daily basis.

President Palpa appreciatedthe vision of Chairman PIA andhis team stating they are work-ing in the right direction. “Theguidance being provided by theSecretary Aviation is steeringthe airline on the right path andall ranks of employees supportthis endeavour which is badlyneeded to turn the airlinearound,” he said.

“Mr. Gardezi is not onlyproviding guidance to the na-

tional flag carrier’s manage-ment but has also initiated themuch awaited accountabilitydrive which will set the courseright, and will also help stop-ping the continuous bleedingof PIA revenue,” he added.

At the end of the meeting,the PIA management thankedthe delegation of the Palpa fortheir support and vowed towork jointly for the bettermentof the national airline.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—U MicrofinanceBank Limited has signed aMemorandum of Understand-ing (MoU) with the NationalBank of Pakistan (NBP) toprovide personal and corpo-rate solutions through branch-less banking services to thecustomers of NBP across Pa-kistan.

Accordingto the agree-ment, NBP cus-tomers will beable to availservices includ-ing but not limited to receiptsof pensions, salaries and inter-national remittances. Theywould also be able to pay loansthrough branchless bankingnetwork.

Under this arrangement,both the parties will introduce

different branchless bankingproducts and services to facili-tate the customers. Not only this,the NBP itself will also be ableto utilize the Branchless Bank-ing services of U Bank includ-ing salary disbursement to itsemployees.

The branchless bankingnetwork of UBank consists ofover 9,000 retail agents allover Pakistan. The UBank has

the cutt ingedge technol-ogy to dob r a n c h l e s sbanking trans-actions.

Speaking about the MoU,Dr. Asif A. Brohi, President ofNBP, said “We feel that throughpartnership between two estab-lished and reliable institutions,our customers will be able tofreely utilize this new innova-tion in the banking sector.”

NBP, UBank sign MoU toprovide branchless banking

COLOMBO—Federal Ministerfor Planning, Development, andReforms, Prof. Ahsan Iqbal hascalled for rebalancing macro-economic developments infavour of welfare impacts, think-ing beyond MDGs, and work-ing for a regional political sta-bility to divert more resourceson social development.

The Minister, currently vis-iting Sri Lanka was giving KeyNote Address at the inauguralsession of South Asia EconomicSummit (SAES) in Colombo onMonday. The 3 days long Sum-mit is organized by Sri Lanka’seconomic policy think tank, theInstitute of Policy Studies, un-der the theme of ‘Towards aStronger, Dynamic and Inclu-sive South Asia’.

Ahsan Iqbal said the com-mon challenges and trendsacross South Asia call for a re-newed resolve on part ofSAARC member states to get

Ahsan for regional stability,rebalancing economic initiatives

their own economies in order,while committing collectively toaddress regional issues for com-mon good.

There is need for a more ro-bust role of the SAARC Secre-tariat in order to strengthen ef-forts to address these challengesat the regional level. He hopedthat member states will take amore responsible and proactiveapproach towards regional co-operation that facilitates sustain-able and inclusive growth for thecommon good of the region atlarge.

He said today South Asiacollectively is looking for waysto revive and sustain economicgrowth, in a manner that is in-clusive, sustainable and has thepotential to remove inter coun-try and intra country economicdisparities. As a region, SouthAsia was able to buffer the im-mediate shocks of the global fi-nancial crises and became one

COLOMBO: Federal Minister for Planning Prof Ahsan Iqbaladdressing the inaugural session of the 6th South Asia Eco-nomic Summit (SAES).

of the fastest growing regionsover the last one decade. How-ever, there still remains im-mense poverty in the region,child undernourishment is high,conflict continues to be ripe, andthere has been slow progresstowards the achievement of Mil-lennium Development Goals(MDGs).

The Planning Minister saiddespite achieving increasinggrowth rates, South Asianeconomies continue to ignorethe basic norms of sustainableproduction and consumptionpatterns, thus leading to a Shin-ing South Asia and a sufferingSouth Asia.

He said South Asia seemsto have experienced enhancedindividual empowerment thathas largely resulted from a ris-ing middle-class, increased ac-cess to ICT, a vibrant civil so-ciety, and a relatively more in-dependent media. One can at-

tribute the anti-monarch move-ment in Nepal, the indepen-dence of judiciary in Pakistan,and the Anna Hazarey move-ment in India to this individualempowerment that has led topopular mass movements suchas these.

One also needs to take countof a reshuffling in the traditionalpower structures, such as expe-rienced in Bangladesh: theGrameen Bank, for one, influ-ences millions of lives across thecountry today. Similarly, in Pa-kistan the power centre hasmoved from military to parlia-ment, provincial governments,superior judiciary, and indepen-dent media. South Asia as awhole continues to be vulner-able to adverse climate changeeffects that increases sea level,erode cultivable land, suppressreturns for farmers and exacer-bate food insecurities in the re-gion.—INP

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

ISLAMABAD—The United King-dom is interested to support Paki-stan in education sector and con-tribute positively for its economicdevelopment, said Ms. YasminQureshi, Pakistani-origin Mem-ber, British Parliament. She wasaddressing members of the busi-ness community at a local hotel.

She said Pakistan should fo-cus on economic empowermentof women as women have thepotential to play a crucial role forthe development of its nationaleconomy. She said governmentshould encourage women towardsentrepreneurship and facilitate

UK supports Pakistan’seconomic development: Qureshi

them by providing loans for start-ing small businesses like cottageindustry etc. She said ending gen-der discrimination and enhancingwomen participation in the eco-nomic activities are the way for-ward for Pakistan to realize its fulleconomic potential.

Qureshi said no nation coulddevelop without equipping its hu-man resource with proper educa-tion and UK is quite serious tocooperate with Pakistan in educa-tion sector. She said as memberof British Parliament she wouldplay her role for grant of GSP Plusstatus by Europe to Pakistan sothat its products could get en-hanced access to European mar-

ket. She said she is proud to be aPakistani and would work for fur-ther strengthening Pak-UK bilat-eral trade and economic relations.

In his welcome address, ZafarBakhtawari, President, IslamabadChamber of Commerce & Indus-try lauded the services of YasminQureshi and said that she is thefirst Pakistani-born female Mus-lim who was elected as the mem-ber of British Parliament, whichis a great honor for whole Paki-stani nation. Before her, Ch.Muhammad Sarwar, the currentGovernor Punjab was the firstPakistani Muslim who waselected as Member of British Par-liament.

Huawei ASCENDP6 clinchesEISA AwardSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The European Im-aging and Sound Association(EISA) has chosen this year’sbest mobile devices for Europe.Amazingly, Huawei’s AscendP6 has won the “consumersmartphone of the year”, 2013-2014.

The EISA award is defi-nitely nothing trivial. It com-bines the merit of Europe’s larg-est association of appropriatejournals: 50 magazines from 20European countries are repre-sented under the banner andhave been choosing the best incategories since 1982.

At the EISA Awards, theAscend P6 has received greatreviews across the board andremarkably has been able to getthe attention it deserves in theWestern market. Notably, thephone has already got readilyacceptance in London marketbecause of its outstanding fea-tures.

HUAWEI ASCEND P6 isthe world’s slimmestSmartphone which features bothstyle and performance. It in-cludes brilliant features likesleek.

Petro ministrydefends recent

decisionOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—The spokesmanof the Ministry of Petroleum &Natural Resources has clarifiedthat the domestic sale prices ofpetroleum products are linkedwith actual international marketimport prices of petroleum prod-ucts imported by PSO during theimmediate preceding month. Incase of no imports, the domes-tic sale prices are worked out asper Import Parity Pricing for-mula based on monthly averageinternational market (Arab Gulf)prices of petroleum productspublished in Platts Oilgram.

The prices of petroleum prod-ucts are deregulated and Oil Mar-keting Companies (OMCs)/Re-fineries have been authorized tofix and notify prices in accordancewith the above GoP approved for-mula. OGRA monitor the pricesnotified by OMCs/Refineries toensure that prices are as per for-mula and there is no overcharg-ing. Ministry of Petroleum &Natural Resources notify the Pe-troleum Levy, if required, with theapproval of Finance Division.

During the precedingmonth of August, 2013, theprices of most of the petroleumproducts and crude oil in-creased due to Middle Eastsituation. Also Pak. Rupee de-preciated by 2.5% against US$ during the month. Both theabove factors impacted the im-port prices of petroleum prod-ucts and thus the domesticsales prices increased.

PIAF demands actionagainst SNGPL

officialsMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Pakistan Industrialand Traders Associations Front(PIAF) on Monday called for animmediate and strict actionagainst the black sheep in the SuiNorthern Gas Pipelines(SNGPL) who are defaming thegovernment over the issue of gaspilferage.

In a statement issued here,the PIAF Chairman Malik TahirJavaid said that the corrupt ele-ments in the SNGPL were tar-nishing the image of the entirebusiness community and paint-ing an unrealistic and wrong pic-ture that would cause unduedamage to the economy in theaftermath of industrial closuresand massive layoffs.

He said that some officialsof the SNGPL, in a bid to hidetheir past misdeeds, were insti-tuting cases against honest, re-puted and well respected busi-nessmen despite the fact thatthese functionaries knew wellabout the gas pilferers.

“It has already proved thatgas or electricity theft is impos-sible without the connivance ofthe officials of the concerned de-partment then at whose behest theentire business community isbeing labeled as wrong doers.”

The Private sector had al-ready assured a complete supportto the government in its driveagainst power and gas pilferageand always advocated exemplarypunishment to the people com-mitting this national crime but atthe same time it wants of the pun-ishment should only be awardedor his name be given to Press ifis caught red-handed or in caseof proven pilferage.

Karachi stockmarket crashes

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi StockExchange (KSE) on Mon-day, the first day of the weekwitnessed a huge crash onsome rumours with the ‘verygo’ of the trading on Mon-day morning.

The investors were seenselling in panic their over-bought shares, while thebuyers appeared reluctantand preferred to remain onthe sideline that soon sentthe market sagging.

The benchmark KSE-100 index on one occasionduring the trading was seendown by 403 points to pegat 21757 marks.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The ministry ofInformation Technology has ma-jor development over video shar-ing website ‘Youtube’, media quot-ing sources reported on Monday.

Pakistan I.T ministry hopefulto revive the banned ‘Youtube’ af-ter it claims to have acquired the‘missing filters’, according to anewspaper report These would beessential in blocking blasphemouscontent available on the video shar-ing website.

Even though, a green signalhas been given by IT ministry but

Youtube developmentno time frame is given by the gov-ernment for the actual unblockingof ‘YouTube’.

Anusha Rehman during abriefing on August 22 had statedthat Pakistan TelecommunicationCompany Limited (PTCL) hasensured to help in blockage of 4000websites containing blasphemouscontent by providing the filters.

While performing a test run,these filters were reported to havesuccessful results and within oneweek of the meeting with Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC),Youtube maybe available for ac-cess of information for all.

Consumer priceindicator increasedStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—Consumerprice index (CPI) has spiked toeleven months high andrecorded at 8.5 per cent ascompared to previous monthwhich was 8.3 per cent and 0.9per cent in August 2012.According to statistical data ofPakistan Bureau of Statisticson month on month basisinflation stood at 1.16 per centas against 2.02 per cent in July2013, while the averageinflation in 2MFY14 stood at8.41 per cent. Core inflationmeasured by non food nonenergy CPI increased by 8.5per cent in Aug 2013 ascompared to 8.2 per cent inJuly 2013 on year on yearbasis and by 10.8 per cent inAug 2012. Core NFNEinflation on month on monthbasis increased by 0.6 per centin Aug 2013 as compared to1.5 per cent a month earlierand 0.3 per cent in Aug 2012.Sensitive price indicator SPIon year on year basis increasedby 10.1 percent in Aug 2013 ascompared with 9.8 per cent amonth earlier and 8.2 per centin Aug 2012. on month onmonth basis it increased by 1.5per cent in Aug 2013 ascompared to an increase of 2.3per cent a month earlier and1.3 per cent in Aug 2012.

ISE index witnessedbearish trendStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—IslamabadStock Exchange witnessedbearish trend here on Mondayas the ISE-10 index increasedby 72.79 points and closed at4162.36 points. A total of40,500 shares were traded,which were down by 35,500shares when it compared withprevious day’s trading of76,000 shares. Out of 138companies, share prices of 16companies recorded increasewhile, the share prices of 122companies registered decreasewhere as no companyremained stable in today’strading. The share price ofGlamour Textile increased byRs. 10.34, while that ofSiemens Pakistan Engineeringdecreased by Rs. 30.00 pershare. Fauji Cement and Bankof Punjab remained the toptrading companies inMonday’s trading with 30,000and 10,500 shares respectively.

PQ shipping activityKARACHI—Four shipscarrying containers, generalcargo, chemical and furnace oilwere berthed at QasimInternational ContainersTerminal, Multi PurposeTerminals, Engro vopakTerminal and FOTCO Terminalon Sunday. Meanwhile, threemore ships carrying containers,wheat and general cargo alsoarrived at outer anchorage ofPort Qasim during last 24hours. Berth occupancy was55% at the Port on Mondaywhere a total six ships namelyMaersk Denver, Inlaco Brave,Jia Rum, Malakand, NorgasPetaluma and Iron Lady arecurrently occupying berths toload/offload containers,cement, general cargo, rapeseed, chemical and furnace oilrespectively during last 24hours.—APP

ISLAMABAD: Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI in a group photo with Ms Yasmin Qureshi,Member, British Parliament during a dinner hosted in her honour.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Traders of Karachihad prepared a 10-point agendaregarding elimination of law-lessness in Karachi especiallythe extortion, kidnappings forransom, target killings, bankheists and street crimes. The 10-point agenda was discussed andapproved a s epical meeting thetraders under the platform of AllKarachi Tajir Ittehad (AKTI)would shortly be submitted tothe federal government and theSupreme Court of Pakistan(SCP). AKTI Chairman AtiqMir chaired the meeting.

The meeting approved 10-points agenda that demanded thefederal government and the SCPthat Karachi city should be

Traders prepare10-point agenda for peace

Demand military courts in Karachicleansed from weapons and allNo Go Areas that had becomestronghold of the militants shouldbe eliminated. Special policeforce of 5000 cops and 1000Rangers personnel should be de-ployed at all leading trade cen-tres of the city and special lawsshould be introduced to curb themenace of extortion and deathsentence should be awarded tothe extortionists. Special com-plains cells about extortionshould be established at al lead-ing trade centers under the aegisof Police and Rangers and regis-tration of FIR and security to thewitnesses should be ensured.Black sheep from police depart-ments should be immediatelysacked and honest police offic-ers should be assigned duties in-

stead. At least 5 Military courtsshould be established in the cityunder Article 245 of the consti-tution and the arrested extortion-ists should be exposed on media.The Pakistan Rangers Sindh Di-rector General and InspectorGeneral of Police, Sindh shouldbe asked to review the progressreports of Rangers and police inlight of traders reports should bereviewed on weekly basis so asto ensure their efficiency.

The meeting also said that ei-ther the Pakistan Rangers Sindhshould improve its efficiency orthey should be removed from thecity. The traders of the city hadbeen sandwiched by the confron-tation of the political parties in pastbut they never migrated from thecity but during past 3 years.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid KhaqanAbbasi meeting with Mustafa Babur Hizlan, Ambassador of Turkey to Pakistan.

DIABETES pills known as DPP-4therapies got a mixed safety report onMonday as studies showed they did

not raise the risk of heart attacks but might belinked to heart failure, where the heart failsto pump blood adequately.Reassuringly, the medicineswere not associated with in-creased rates of either in-flammation of the pancreasor cancer - something thathas been a worry in the past.

However, in the case ofAstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s approveddrug Onglyza, there was asmall increase inhospitalisations for heartfailure. “It is a little bit con-cerning,” said Dr. Christo-pher Grainger of Duke Uni-versity Medical Center,who was not involved in theresearch. “I’m sure theFDA (US Food and DrugAdministration) will wantto know more about it.”

Doctors and regulators are wary of thecardiovascular safety profile of diabetesdrugs following past problems, includingwith GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia pill, sincepatients with diabetes are at increased riskof heart troubles.

Researchers from Brigham andWomen’s Hospital in Boston, who studiedOnglyza over two years in 16,492 patients,said the heart failure finding was unex-pected and deserved further investigation.

AstraZeneca and Bristol had alreadygiven headline results from the study inJune showing that Onglyza did not increase

heart attack risk - although it did not re-duce it either, as the companies had ini-tially hoped. Detailed results of theOnglyza study were presented at the Eu-ropean Society Cardiology (ESC) con-

gress in Amsterdam, along-side a 5,380-patient study ofTakeda’s Nesina, whichshowed no increase in over-all cardiovascular risks.

Both studies were alsopublished in the New EnglandJournal of Medicine. Dr.Heinz Drexel, a heart doctorat Feldkirch Hospital in Aus-tria and an ESC spokesman,said DPP-4s offered severaladvantages, including a lack ofweight gain seen with someother antidiabetics, whichwould offset the heart failureworries.

Dr. Anthony DeMaria,editor-in-chief of the Jour-nal of the American Collegeof Cardiology, said the ab-

sence of severe adverse events was reas-suring but it might be that DPP-4s werebest avoided for certain patients at highrisk of heart failure. Drugs like Onglyzaand Nesina work by inhibiting dipeptidylpeptidase-4, or DPP-4, to enhance thebody’s ability to lower elevated levels ofblood sugar.

The DPP-4 market is dominated byMerck’s Januvia, which has annual salesof around $5 billion, including a relatedcombination treatment called Janumet.

But growth of the class has slowed thisyear, partly on concerns over pancreaticsafety.

Doctors get good and bad safetynews on diabetes drugs

KARACHI: MQM Members of Sindh Assembly submitting Monday requisition for the session of Sindh Assembly.

KARACHI: German Consul General in Karachi, Dr Tilo Klinner called on President-electMamnoon Hussain at State Guest House.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI–The Anti-TerroristCourt (ATC) in Karachi had onceagain issued non-bailable arrestwarrants of the absconding allegedmurderers of slain Arshad PappuMonday. The arrest warrant wereissued for the arrest of People’sAmn Committee chieftain UzairJan Baloch, Baba Ladla and TajMuhammad alias Tajoo.

The arrest warrant were issuedduring the hearing of ArshadPappu murder case at the ATC.The police investigation officersought time form the ATC for pub-lishing the public notice for thearrest of the alleged abscondingmurders in newspapers.

The ATC allowed for the sameand had adjourned the hearing tillSep 12 this month.Police arrestscriminals, aliens: Meanwhile, po-lice had during crack-down against

ATC issues non-bailable arrestwarrant of Uzair, Ladla, Tajoo

criminals and aliens in differentareas of the city and had arrestedaround 100 and recovered illegalweapons and narcotics from theirpossession.

Eight criminals were nabbedfrom Korangi Industrial Area oncharges of robbery, dacoity andother crimes while 12 others wereheld from Zaman Town area ofKorangi. Ten criminals were heldfrom Patel Para area while NabiBux police had arrested 8 sus-pects. Thirteen including 3 alienswere arrested from Soldier Bazararea.One alien was arrested fromIbrahim Hyderi and was bookedin a case under foreigners act.Saudabad police had arrested 6gamblers while 3 were nabbedfrom Khokhrapar area. Two werearrested from Malir City areawhile 8 from Landhi and 5 fromAwami Colony areas were ar-rested respectively.

Police had claimed to had ar-rested a dacoit after police encoun-ter in Nazimabad area while twoof his accomplices had managedto flee from the encounter. Thearrested was identified as Asifwhile those accomplices fled wereclaimed to be Umair and Iqbal.

According to police, the ar-rested suspect was wanted to po-lice for bank heists in differentbanks amounting to millions ofrupees. The arrested suspect hadin past been jailed for his crimes.

On the other hand, CID po-lice had arrested 2 extortionist,who had attacked the residence ofa jeweler. The extortionist haddemanded the jeweler to pay Rs20 million in extortion and hadalso looted 11-kg gold that wasbound for Dubai.

Extortionists held: Policehad arrested a gang of extortion-ists from Sher Shah area. Those

arrested included gang leaderalong with his 4 accomplices.The arrested gangsters werewanted to police for cases ofextortion they had committedin different areas of old city ar-eas including New Town, PanMandi and other areas.Gold looted: Dacoits had looteda jeweler’s shop located in BohriBazar in Saddar. Around 8 gang-sters had looted gold from thegold shops worth Rs 15 million.

Violence: In incidents ofviolent crime, police guard ofthe Awami National Party Sindhchapter General Secretary,Basheer Jan sustained bulletsand thus was injured. He wasshifted to hospital for emergencymedical care. The incident hadtake place in Orangi Town No4 area. In other incidents of vio-lence, police recovered a body,tied with ropes.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI–Jamaat-e Islami(JI) Karachi Chief MuhammadHussain Mahenti while ex-pressing serious concern onthe kidnapping of one of JI’sworker Ammar Faizan de-manded of the Supreme Courtof Pakistan (SCP) and the gov-ernment to take immediate no-tice of the kidnapping of JIworker and ensure his early re-covery.

He made this demandwhile addressing a press con-ference at Idara-e-Noor Haqhere on Monday. The familymembers including the motherof Faizan, his elder brotherAazib Faizan and his unclewere also present on the occa-sion.

Mahenti said that the act ofkidnapping 28-year old cancerpatient, Faizan was a questionmark over the performance of

JI demands early recoveryof Ammar Faizan

the government and law en-forcing agencies (LEAs).

On one hand, the apexcourt had issued directives inorder to recover the missingpersons, while on the otherhand the kidnapping cases hadbeen raised with every passingday, which was tantamount toviolate the orders of SupremeCourt, he added.

He said that some uniden-tified persons in civvies en-tered in the residence ofAmmar Faizan on Aug 22, lo-cated in Gulshan-e Amin, Fed-eral B Area, Block No. 21 at11 am and took him along withthem. Mahenti informed themedia that after passing 11days, Faizan was still missingdespite the fact that an FIR hadalready been launched, addingthat he was suffering in deadlydisease cancer for last 4 yearsand also under treatment. Itwas a serious crime and viola-

tion of Constitution to kidnapanyone without any reason.

Mahenti said that the tar-get killers and extortionistswere roaming freely, while theinnocent people were beingkidnapped without any reason,which was a point to ponder,as the LEAs instead of arrest-ing the criminals just use itspower on the innocent peopleof the city.

JI Karachi Chief warnedthe officials concern that the JIhad reserve the right to stageprotest demonstrations againstthe non-recovery of JI worker.

Speaking at the occasion,mother of Faizan said that hisson was a cancer patient andneeded special care due to hisailment.She appealed to thegovernment and LEAs to re-cover his son on humanitariangrounds.JI Central AmeerFarooq Naimatullah also spokeon the occasion.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI–Special assistant toSindh Chief Minister ImtiazAhmed Mallah said that the CMHouse public complaint cell wasfunctioning in an organisedmanner regarding resolution orpeople’s problems and redressalof their grievances they comeacross at public departments.

While casting light of theefficacy of the CM House pub-lic complain cell being estab-lished at the CM House, Mallahsaid that a total of 1924 com-plaints were received at the celltill Aug 31 of which action on1426 complaints was immedi-ately taken and problems solved.

He said that there were 498complaints to be addressed as

CM cell resolves 1426complaints: Mallah

various departments againstwhich complaints were receivedand were pending were directedto take immediate action to re-solve people’s problems.

He urged the people to thepeople to lodge their complaintsany time round the clock, whichwould be resolved. The increasein complaints from the peoplewas a manifest of people’s truston government, which the gov-ernment would further improveso that people’s problems shouldbe resolved in more less time.

It is pertinent to mention thatmajority of complaints receivedat the CM House complaint cellpertained to police, gas, electric-ity, irrigation, health, education,transport and Karachi water andsewerage board.

AMUOBAdelegation meets

Mamnoon HussainKARACHI–Aligarh MuslimUniversity Old Boys’Association’s (AMUOBA) del-egation headed by Engr.Muhammad Adil Usman, Chan-cellor Sir Syed University ofEngineering & Technology(SSUET) accompanied by ex-ecutive members of the Associa-tion and others met electedPresident of Islamic Republic ofPakistan, Mamnoon Hussain atKarachi and discussed variousissues.

The delegation ofAMUOBA also brought to theknowledge of the President-electother problems and challengesbeing faced by the Associationand academic sector.ChancellorMuhammad Adil Usman, Presi-dent AMUOBA, on behalf of theAssociation presented best com-pliments and wishes to Mr.Mamnoon Hussain for his bril-liant success and commendableachievement.—NNI

KARACHI–Sindh Chief Secre-tary, Muhammad EjazChaudhry, chaired a high levelmeeting to review the law andorder situation in the province.

A statement here on Mon-day said that the meeting wasattended by Additional ChiefSecretary (Home), Mumtaz AliShah, IGP Sindh, ShahidNadeem Baloch, CommissionerKarachi, Shoaib AhmedSiddiqui, representative of Pa-kistan Rangers Sindh and othersecurity related organisations,and senior police officers.

It said that the meeting dis-cussed the issues and measuresconcerning the law and ordersituation.The CS emphasisedupon coordinated efforts amongall the departments and institu-tions to cope with the law and

Sindh CS chairs law& order meeting

order situation in the province.Participants unanimously

stressed the need to ensure re-cruitment of police transparently,meritoriously and free from allsorts of influences and politicalpressure.The meeting compara-tively reviewed the deploymentof police in metropolitan/cosmo-politan cities of world.

The meeting proposed cer-tain recommendations with thespecific reference to removingdifficulties being faced by thepolice. A line of action was con-sidered to be updated, aimed atgetting it authenticated in all re-spect and with all aspects.

Various ways were sug-gested by the participants toeradicate the menace of crimesand terrorism throughout theprovince adequately.—APP

KARACHI–The Burns Centre,Civil Hospital - Karachi plansto organise a Poster Contest forchildren with the motive to sen-sitize people in general aboutburns, a serious public healthproblem.

Organisers here on Mondayhas requested all school admin-istrator, including regular as wellas arts schools to despatch origi-nal work of their students basedon the theme of “Preventionfrom Burn Injuries”.

Students invited toparticipate in poster contest

The theme, said theorganisers were extremely rel-evant as an estimated 195,000deaths occur each year from fireburns alone, with more deathsfrom scalds, electrical burns,and other forms of burns.

Fire-related deaths alonerank among the 15 leadingcauses of death among childrenand young adults 5-29 years.Over 95% of fatal fire-relatedburns occur in countries likePakistan.—APP

Doctors get good and bad safetynews on diabetes drugs

LAHORE: Members of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly holding placards during protest against increase inpetroleum prices outside Assembly building.

DIABETES pills known as DPP-4therapies got a mixed safety reporton Monday as studies showed

they did not raise the risk of heart at-tacks but might be linked to heart failure,where the heart fails to pump blood ad-equately. Reassuringly,the medicines were notassociated with increasedrates of either inflamma-tion of the pancreas orcancer - something thathas been a worry in thepast.

However, in the caseof AstraZeneca andBristol-Myers Squibb’sapproved drug Onglyza,there was a small increasein hospitalisations forheart failure. “It is a littlebit concerning,” said Dr.Christopher Grainger ofDuke University MedicalCenter, who was not in-volved in the research.“I’m sure the FDA (USFood and Drug Administration) will wantto know more about it.”

Doctors and regulators are wary ofthe cardiovascular safety profile of dia-betes drugs following past problems, in-cluding with GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandiapill, since patients with diabetes are atincreased risk of heart troubles. Re-searchers from Brigham and Women’sHospital in Boston, who studied Onglyzaover two years in 16,492 patients, saidthe heart failure finding was unexpectedand deserved further investigation.

AstraZeneca and Bristol had alreadygiven headline results from the study in

June showing that Onglyza did not in-crease heart attack risk - although it didnot reduce it either, as the companieshad initially hoped. Detailed results ofthe Onglyza study were presented at theEuropean Society Cardiology (ESC)

congress in Amsterdam,alongside a 5,380-patientstudy of Takeda’s Nesina,which showed no increasein overall cardiovascularrisks.

Both studies werealso published in the NewEngland Journal of Medi-cine. Dr. Heinz Drexel, aheart doctor at FeldkirchHospital in Austria and anESC spokesman, said DPP-4s offered several advan-tages, including a lack ofweight gain seen withsome other antidiabetics,which would offset theheart failure worries.

Dr. AnthonyDeMaria, editor-in-chief of

the Journal of the American College ofCardiology, said the absence of severeadverse events was reassuring but itmight be that DPP-4s were best avoidedfor certain patients at high risk of heartfailure. Drugs like Onglyza and Nesinawork by inhibiting dipeptidyl peptidase-4, or DPP-4, to enhance the body’s abil-ity to lower elevated levels of bloodsugar.

The DPP-4 market is dominatedby Merck’s Januvia, which has an-nual sales of around $5 billion, includ-ing a related combination treatmentcalled Janumet.

LAHORE: Children playing as they climb on an old tree in Hadyara Area.

LAHORE: Labourers busy in spreading flowers on the road for drying in the provincialcapital.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Total 547 roadtraffic accidents were re-ported in Rescue 1122’s Pro-vincial Monitoring Cell in all36 Districts of Punjab duringthe last 24 hours in which 4lives were Lost and 447 seri-ous injured were shifted todifferent hospitals of rel-evant district. However,some 210 victims sustainingminor injuries were providedfirst aid on the spot.

According to the details,214 drivers, 16 underage driv-ers, 85 pedestrians and 362passengers were among thevictims of these road trafficaccidents. The statisticsshow 130 RTAs were re-ported in Lahore ControlRoom, which affected 154

persons placing the Provin-cial Capital at top of the listfollowed by 70 RTAs inFaisalabad with 82 victimsand Multan remained at thirdposition with 31 RTAs and 33victims.

The details further showthat total 661 in victims wereaffected by road traffic crashesincluding 501 males and 160females, while age group of thevictims show that 101 were un-der 18 year of age, 380 werebetween 18 and 40 year and restof the 180 victims were reportedabove 40 years. According tothe data, 438 motorbikes, 57auto rickshaws, 50 motorcars,22 vans, 04 passenger buses,13 trucks and 60 other types ofauto vehicles and slow mov-ing carts were involved inaforesaid road traffic accidents.

SALIM AHMED

L A H O R E — O m b u d s m a nPunjab, Javed Mahmood,has ordered Secretary LocalGovernment (LG) and RuralDevelopment Punjab forpayment of Group Insuranceamount to the employees oferstwhile Union Councils,Town & Municipal Commit-tees and Municipal Corpora-tions as its was their legiti-mate right.

There was not an iota ofdoubt that after devolutionset up, no serious attentionwas paid to protect the rightsof the employees of erstwhilelocal councils.

Maladministration stoodestablished in Provincial Lo-cal Government Department,District Governments in thePunjab, Accountant GeneralPunjab’s office, State Life In-surance Corporation, DistrictAccounts Offices and Con-troller General of Accountsoffice Islamabad at the costof which the employees oferstwhile local councils hadsuffered financial loss andmental agony, said Ombuds-

Secy LG directed to pay groupinsurance amount to employees

man Punjab.He has also ordered to

Secretary Local Governmentto take the matter vigorouslywith all stake holders, get anew General Ledger Accountopened by Controller Generalof Accounts and ensure thatthe employees are not de-prived of their legitimate rightof Group Insurance coverage.

According to details,husband of Shafaqt Kausar,a PTC teacher of MC PrimarySchool Sargodha,Muhammad Asharaf, a pri-mary school teacher of MCPrimary School Pattokki anda number of employees oferstwhile local councils,lodged a complaint to theOmbudsman Punjab thatthey were under the groupinsurance cover and deduc-tions in this regard were be-ing made from their salariesat source which were discon-tinued in 2002 with the pro-mulgation of Punjab LocalGovernment Act. Ombuds-man Punjab directed AdvisorAccounts, Wazir AhmadQureshi to probe the issuewho called Accountant Gen-

eral Punjab, Local Govern-ment Department and StateLife Insurance Corporationfor report. It was revealed inthe compliance report thatthe services of erstwhile lo-cal councils were abolishedfrom Tehsil/Town MunicipalAdministration and the samewere sanctioned in respectiveDistrict Government in 2002.

The salaries of these em-ployees were being paidthrough District AccountsOffice concerned and groupinsurance subscription ofsome of employees was alsodeducted but not accountedfor in particular head of ac-count. Infact, no classifiedinstructions were found inplace, issued by the LocalGovt. Department to the ef-fect that mechanism for de-duction of amount of pre-mium for group insurancefrom the salaries of such em-ployees at source by the AGPunjab and the DAOs in thePunjab was introduced.There was dire need to getopened a distinct General led-ger Account by ControllerGeneral of Accounts (CGA)

for accounting and accumu-lation of such deductions.

The State Life InsuranceCorporation (SLIC), in its re-port, has admitted that theSLIC keeps an amount of bil-lion of rupees of group insur-ance of the employees of erst-while local councils. Sinceformation of City DistrictGovernment and TMAs inPunjab, the SLIC has not re-ceived group insurance pre-mium which was approxi-mately Rs. 10600/ million peryear and the year wiseamount worked out to morethan RS. 100000/- million,says SLIC report.

Ombudsman Punjab or-dered to Secretary Local Gov-ernment to take the mattervigorously with all stakeholders, get a new GeneralLedger Account opened byController General of Ac-counts and ensure that theemployees of erstwhile localcouncils are not deprived oftheir legitimate right of GroupInsurance coverage. He hasalso ordered to submit com-pliance report within a periodof three months.

Qari Naveedearns honour

in QiratcompetitionSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Qari Naveed AliAshrafi stood first in theNon-Professional categoryof LCCI Qiraat Competitionwhile second and third posi-tions went to HafizMohammad Abu Bakar andMohammad Usman. In theProfessional category, firstposition went to M. AbuBakar while second and thirdprizes went to MohammadUmer Farooq andMuhammad NaumanMaqsood.

The first prize winners ofthe professional categorywere also awarded Umrahtickets.

The Prizes were given byMNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif.The LCCI Farooq Iftikhar andSenior Vice President IrfanIqbal Sheikh also spoke onthe occasion.

Former LCCI PresidentMian Anjum Nisar, former VicePresident Saeeda Nazar, Ex-ecutive Committee MembersNasir Saeed, Mian ZahidJavaid Ahmad, KhawajaShahzeb Akram, MudassorMasood Chaudhry and KashifAnwar also attended the Qiraatcompetition.

Hafiz Ajwad Obaid of JamiaAshrafia and HafizMohammad RafiqNaqshbandi of Jamia Naeemiawere the Chief Judges forLahore Shopping FestivalQiraat Competition. Speakingon the occasion, HamzaShahbaz Sharif paid rich trib-utes to the office-bearers of theLahore Chamber of Commerceand Industry (LCCI)for hold-ing the Qiraat Competition.

Oppositionwalks out

LAHORE—Opposition in thePunjab assembly on Mondaywalked out the Punjab As-sembly session in protestagainst disallowing to tableanti-price hike resolution inthe House.

Led by oppositionleader Mian MehmoodurRashid, members left thehouse and later returned totheir seats after fifteen min-utes protest.

Mehmoodur Rashidwanted to seek chair’s nodto present the said resolutionbut the speaker RanaMohammed Iqbal did notentertain him, saying that hedid not receive copy of theresolution.

It is pertinent to mentionthat today the house wascommenced with a two hoursdelay.—APP

More than 41000candidates to

appear in medicalentrance testSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The University ofHealth Sciences (UHS) hasstarted issuing admittancecards on Monday to candi-dates who have submittedapplication forms for medical/ dental colleges entrance test2013.

The admittance cards,bearing candidates’ roll num-bers and centres for exami-nation, will be issued till Sep-tember 07.

The candidates can gettheir admittance cards fromthe same centre where theysubmitted their applicationsby showing the receipt is-sued to them by the univer-sity.

More than 41000 candi-dates have applied for medi-cal and dental colleges en-trance test to be held on Sep-tember 22.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Lahore HighCourt Chief Justice UmarAta Bandial has directed dis-trict and sessions judge,Lahore, to order police tosend a report on the killingof a 9th class student to trialcourt within three days.

The chief justice alsosought a report from theD&SJ on the case. Accord-ing to news published in asection of the press, KashifMehmood, son of Feroz Dinof Yasin Town, Ghazi Road,went out and did not turn up.

LHC CJ orders earlytrial of murder case

His family got worried andstarted a search. When hewas not found, his elderbrother Shafaqat lodged acomplaint with Factory Areapolice. Next day, some peoplesaw a hanged body in anearby plaza and informedpolice. The family of Kashifidentified his body. Accord-ing to news reports, policesaid unidentified accusedhad kidnapped Kashif, killedhim after abuse and threwhis body in the plaza.

On cognizance of LHCComplaint Cell on administra-tive side, the D&SJ reported

that the postmortem reporthad ruled out abuse.

Samples have been dis-patched for further analysis.However, as per the DSJ re-port, the accused have notbeen traced and call data ofthe mobile phone of the vic-tim has been obtained.

The complaint cell hasdirected the D&SJ Lahore toimmediately comply with theorder of the chief justice re-garding submission of a po-lice report u/s 173 Crpc inthree days so that the provi-sion of justice could be en-sured.

4 dead in variousroad accidents

Illiteracy rootcause of all

ills: GovernorLAHORE—Punjab GovernorMuhammad Sarwar said thatilliteracy was the root-causeof all the ills and these couldbe overcome by strengthen-ing and reinforcing the edu-cation sector.

Addressing the partici-pants of First National Con-ference on Continuing Pro-fessional Development inLaw at a private law collegehere, he said it was a pity thatabout 7 million children weredeprived of basic educationand did not attend schoolevery year.

Punjab Governor saidthat Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment (CPD) in Lawis a mandatory requirementin several countries as theinitiative ensures not only thecontinuing development ofindividuals but also main-tains a high quality of ser-vices expected from a profes-sional fraternity, be it doctorsor lawyers.

He further stated that itwas interesting to learn thatthe current legal frameworkdoes not accommodate theCPD requirement and theneed for reform of this frame-work. He hopes that our lawsocieties and bar councilswill supports this initiative.—APP

LAHORE—A number ofpublic and private hospitalsand clinics functioning inthe city have yet to obtain aregular licence from thePunjab Healthcare Commis-sion (PHC) which becamefunctional in the province in2011.

Chief Operating OfficerPHC, Dr. Mohammad AjmalKhan said while talking toAPP here on Monday thatPHC had framed a strategyin which criminal caseswould be lodged againstquacks, besides fines uptoRs. 500,000.

“Every hospital and clinicwill have to meet a healthcarecriterion set by PHC as Mini-mum Service Delivery Stan-dard (MSDS).

This standard is impor-tant to get regular license forthe functioning of the clinicand hospital”, he said.

Hospitals to follow MSDSHe further said PHC re-

cently informed Punjab Sec-retary Health of the entiresituation and urged a com-prehensive drive as well asaction against quacks whoare playing with the lives ofinnocent people.

He added that over200,000 quacks are busy intheir ‘medical practice’ inPunjab and amongst theseover 40,000 are active in thecity.

Dr. Ajmal said there areover 5,143 hospitals and clin-ics, public and private in thecity. Amongst these 65 fall infirst category, 80 in secondand over 5,000 in third cat-egory.

The first category con-sisting of 51-bed to 2500-bedfacility, have only 53 provi-sional licenses for six monthsto improve their standard ofhealthcare.

While the second andthird categories, consistingof one person clinic to 50-bedhospitals, have neither anyprovisional nor regular li-cense from PHC.

However, the PunjabHealthcare Commission(PHC) taking notice of thesituation has stepped up itsefforts to expose quackeryand unlicensed healthcareunits, including the publicand private sectors hospitalsand clinics.

PHC fined a private hos-pital in Daska, Sialkot overgross “negligence” whichresulted in death of a personand ordered the DCO to sealthe hospital, Dr Ajmal said.

He informed that Mini-mum Standard of DeliveryServices (MSDS) set by thePHC has to be followed byall the hospitals and clin-ics.—APP

Rs 15b womenwelfare projects

LAHORE—Punjab govern-ment will accomplish womenwelfare projects with a heftyamount of Rs 15.4 billionduring the current fiscal2013-14.

A number of megaprojects have already beenstarted while dozens are inthe pipeline, Women Devel-opment ministry sources toldAPP on Monday.

The government, theysaid, believed that no soci-ety could make commend-able progress without partici-pation of women.

“Turkey and Malaysiaare successful examples ofwomen development”, asource said.

Special emphasis is beinglaid on enhancing literacyamong women living insouthern Punjab.—APP