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Today’s issue of PakistanObserver carries a 2-PageSpecial Report on ‘Pak-France Relations’ on Pages10 and 11.

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Rs344b KP tax-free budgetRecord allocation for education; Gov, CM house,

secretariat expenditures to be slashed by 50%TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Promising a“changed” prosperous and ex-ploitation free society based onjustice, the Khyber Pukhtunkhwabalanced tax free budget to thetune of Rs.344 billion for the fis-cal 2013-2014 was presented inthe KP assembly here on Mon-day afternoon.

The budget shows 13.5 per-cent increase over the revenue re-ceipts of the outgoing fiscal andan ambitious Rs.118 billion an-nual development program.Record allocation has been madefor the education sector in the

new budget. It was the first bud-get of the coalition KP govern-

ment led by the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) which is

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Siraj for nationalpolicy to enddrone strikesOBSERVER REPORT

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Senior MinisterSiraj ul Haq on Monday de-manded of the federal govern-ment to constitute a national

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Opp to supportgovt againstterrorism:Khurshid

IS L A M A B A D—Opposit ionLeader in National AssemblySyed Khurshid Shah on Mondayassured the government for fullcooperation from the oppositionbenches to eliminate terrorismfrom the country.

Speaking on a Point of Or-der in National Assembly hesaid, “We will not politicize theissue and extend full cooperationto eliminate terrorism but it isthe responsibility of the interiorminister not to conceal anythingand share whole informationwith the House.”

He said Quetta and Ziaratincidents were not due to incom-petence of the government whileit was the continuity of the ter-rorist incidents taking place in thepast. Khurshid Shah said that thePPP-led government had madeefforts to remove sense of depri-vation of the people ofBalochistan and present govt wasalso doing the same. He said itwas the desire of the whole na-tion to restore peace inBalochistan. Chief ofPakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party

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Referendum onMQM joiningSindh govt: AltafSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement chief, Altaf Hussain,Monday asked his party’sCoordination Committee tohold a nationwide referendumwhether they join the Sindhgovernment or settle onmanning the oppositionbenches. During a telephonicaddress to party workers,Hussain asked MQM parlia-mentarians and leaders if theywanted to be part of theprovincial government oropposition. Responding to theirleader’s question they preferred

Govt not towithdraw 1pcGST: DarSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—FederalMinister for Finance andRevenue Ishaq Dar has saidthat one percent increase insales tax would not bewithdrawn.

He told the Senate’sStanding Committee onFinance on Monday that theincrease would be applicable

Ch Nisar questions performance of agencies

Joint investigation teamto probe terror attacks

SHARAFAT KAZMI

ISLAMABAD—Interior MinisterChaudhry Nisar Ali Khan hascriticised performance of the lawenforcement and spy agencieswhich failed in checking risingtrend of extremism and terrorism.He was addressing the NationalAssembly Monday.

He said a joint investigationteam has been constituted toprobe into attacks on the resi-dence of Quaid-i-Azam in Ziaratand Quetta that had shocked andgrieved the entire nation. Theteam will be headed by DIG andcomprise of personnel from theintelligence agencies.

He said the governmentwould leave no stone unturned

and it would thoroughly investi-gate the incidents of Bolan Medi-

cal College, Quetta and Quaid-iAzam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’sresidency, Ziarat so that the re-

sponsible of the terrorist activi-ties are taken to task.

The Interior Minister saidtwo security guards have been

detained for investigation, add-ing that findings of the report

Kerry calls PM, assures cooperation with new govt

Nawaz for ties with US onbasis of mutual trust, respect

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—US Secretary ofState John Kerry on Mondaycalled Prime Minister NawazSharif assuring him of America’scontinued cooperation with Pa-kistan and with the new govern-ment in the country. He also dis-cussed issues of mutual interest.

Kerry congratulated theprime minister on taking the of-fice and the two discussed mat-ters of regional significance.

Kerry praised Pakistan’s rolein efforts to establish peace in theregion, whereas Prime MinisterSharif laid emphasis on strength-ening the strategic dialogue be-tween the two countries.

According to Foreign officeduring the call, Secretary Kerry

reaffirmed the importance of Pa-kistan in US bilateral relations forenduring peace and stability inthe region. Secretary Kerry reas-sured that the US Administrationremained steadfast in supporting

the new democratic governmentin Pakistan.

The Prime Minister thankedSecretary Kerry for the felicita-tions and reiterated his

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Achakzai demandsestablishment rectification

ISLAMABAD—Getting angry over the “establishment” andasking of its correction in two to three years, MahmoodKhan Achakzai says if establishment was not rectified thenfor him assembly and its salary could “go to hell”.

“Our agencies could find a needle even in muddy water!how couldn’t they overcome problems”, he said while speak-ing in an emotional and shaky voice over Balochistan incidentleaving 25 dead on Saturday.

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SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Finance Min-ister Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman Monday presented theprovincial budget for the year2013-14 with a total outlay ofover 897 billions of rupees.

Terming the budget welfareoriented and business friendly,Finance Minister in his budgetspeech said that Rs 20.43 billionhave been allocated for the en-ergy sector while the overall ex-penditure for the Chief Minister’shouse has been cut by 30-percent. The minister said that theminimum wages for laborers are

Rs 897b Punjab budget unveiledRs 20b for energy sector; CM house expenditures cut by30pc; Labourers minimum monthly wages set at Rs10000

to be set at Rs.10,000. The fi-nance minister said that metro

bus service would be launched inMultan, Faisalabad andRawalpindi. He said that Rs93billion were allocated in the bud-get for South Punjab region. Hereiterated that Patwari systemwould be changed by 2014. ThePunjab ministers, he announced,would not be allowed to hoistparty flags at official vehicles.

Budget proposals also in-clude establishment of PunjabHigher Education Commission(PHEC) while laptop schemeswould continue while Rs3 billionwould be allocated to build moreDanish Schools in the province. Rs6.17t deficit Sindh budget

Govt employees salary up from 10 to 15 pcIRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Chief Minis-ter (CM) Syed Qaim Ali Shahpresented annual budget for thefiscal year 2013-14 in Sindh as-sembly Monday. The total vol-ume of the budget was Rs6.17trillion with a deficit of Rs 21.21billion. No new tax was leviedin the budget while salaries of

public servants increased by 15percent. Police department wouldget the lion’s share from the bud-get as the provincial governmenthad allocated Rs48.63 billion.

In his budget speech, the CMsaid that the maintenance of lawand order was the top priority ofthe government while the provin-cial government would investmore money in the public health

sector. The aims and objectivesof the budget were to attain thetargets for the development insocial and economic sectors.

Giving a brief account ofexpected revenue from differentsources, the CM said that theprovince would get its share fromthe federal government from thedivisible pool, which would

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Extremist activitieswithin Pakistan are not “jihad”says Hafiz Saeed, chief of thebanned group Jamaat-ud-Dawasaid on Monday, Press Trust of

India reported. In his “fatwa”against the attacks, Saeed saidmilitants should not carry out at-tacks in the country.

“Militant activities in Paki-stan do not fall in the category ofjihad. I appeal to all jihadi

organisations not to carry out at-tacks inside Pakistan as it is notjihad (holy war). America andIndia are taking benefit from theiractivities.” Hafiz Saeed issuedthe statement in response to the

Attacks in Pakistan are nojihad: Hafiz Saeed

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SALAHUDDIN HAIDER

THE Russian consulgeneral in KarachiAndrey Demidov has

said that “ our present po-litical rela-tions withPakistan aree x c e l l e n tand addedthat “we inRussian rec-ognize thei m p o r t a n trole of Paki-stan in the modern world” Hemade these remarks while cel-ebrating the nation day ofthe Russian Federation acouple of days ago. He saidthat Pakistan is “one of theleading states in the Islamic

world and the only Muslimcountry possessing nuclearweapons”. “Pakistan playsvital role in the Non-Align-ment Movement, in the orga-nization of Islamic coopera-tion, SAARC and others.

We do not underestimatethe role of Pakistan in ensur-ing regional stability and se-curity in the world”. “We areabsolutely sure that the de-velopment of the friendly tiesbetween the Russian Federa-tion and the Islamic Repub-lic of Pakistan will contributeto the well being of our twopeoples, the well being of thepeoples of the region and ofthe world” Emphasisingstrongly that Russia believedin pursuing an active foreignpolicy, free of stereotypes , a

policy that settlements of in-ternational problems, apolicy that favours the ex-pansion of beneficial coop-eration in all regions of theworld” he reminded hisguestshis country’s policywas of peace, , and that not asingle Russian soldier wasnow fighting outside na-tional frontiers of his coun-try.

Saying that this foreignpolicy was based on interna-tional law and morality”, hestressed that “we are sup-porters of strenghteningthelegal and moral basis of in-ternational relations. “In ourview violation of nationalsovereignty, disrespect ofhuman lives, disrespect of amoral nature of human being,

that is a spiritual foundationof the world civilization,could have catastrophic con-sequences”. Turning to an-other point, he said that “inour view dialogue with Is-lamic civilizations should bea crucial component of inter-religious dialogue. The rea-son for that are quite obvi-ous—the Islamic faith is sec-ond largest and second fromthe point of view of influenceI n Russia”.

Talking of economic prob-lems, he said that Russianhas tremendous tasks aheadbut emphasized that “our re-lations with Asian countriesare of a friendly nature, Rus-sia, first and foremost is anAsian nation—two thirds ofour territory is Asia.” From

the last several years, posi-tions taken by Russia in thesouth Asian region have be-come even stronger.Goodprospects for cooperationwith countries of the regionare seen now. We think thatthe possibilities that are nowopening for us and our part-ners, have to be effectivelyutilized. The chief guest,Sindh minister Nisar Khuhrospoke highly of the ties be-tween the two countries, de-scribed the outgoing consulgeneral as one of the finestfriends, and a wonderfulman. He hoped that bilateralties will continue to grow.The function was largely at-tended by diplomats, lead-ing journalists, business-men and elite of the city.

Russian CG says ties with Pakistan excellent

OBSERVER REPORT

I S L A M A B A D — F u r q a nQureshi, PTCL Senior Execu-tive Vice President (SEVP)commercial has reaffirmed thatPTCL stands committed in

bringing the benefits of Infor-mation CommunicationsTechnology (ICT) to all seg-ments of the country. He ex-pressed these views whilespeaking at a telecom confer-ence, themed ‘Next Wave in

Telecommunications – TheDigitized Society/Consumer’.

The conference is an an-nual platform that gatherstelecom and IT experts fromthe industry, the academiaand the government to holddialogues and provide rec-ommendations on key is-sues facing the IT andtelecom sector. The confer-ence focused on the oppor-tunities telecommunicationsoffers, through the collec-tive wisdom and fresh per-spectives for adopting best-practices.

Furqan Qureshi, PTCLSenior Executive Vice Presi-dent (SEVP) Commercial,while sharing his views at theoccasion said that “Suchthought provoking platformsenable industry and busi-ness leaders to join handswith policy makers to map outa charter to undertake the in-creasing development chal-lenges faced by Pakistan.

PTCL strongly believes inbringing convenience andintroducing innovative qual-ity solutions with a focus toadd value for our customers.

PTCL committed toserving the best in ICT

ISLAMABAD: Furqan Qureshi, PTCL Senior ExecutiveVice President Commercial, speaking at the 6th edition ofTelecom 2013.

IS L A M A B A D—ProvincialGovernment of KPK directsProvincial Disaster Man-agement Authority (PDMA)to take quick rehabilitationmeasures in flood-hit areas.The provincial governmentalso directed PDMA anddistrict administrations tocarry out detailed survey toassess the losses of livesand property, reported PTV.District Coordination Of-ficer (DCO) Peshawar hasestablished flood warningcell after floods and dam-ages were assessed in dif-ferent areas of Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).Flood cell would issue

the warning to alert thepeople before flood to facili-tate the affected people. Thecell has already vacated theschool building for emer-gency and alert the all floodrelated departments such ashospitals and paramilitaryforces. High level floods werealso recorded in the Kabulriver at Worsak andNowshera areas and highalert was called for the peoplelived on the river banks.

Raging waters in KhyberPakhtunkhwa rivers left

scores of homes and roadsflooded and destroyed cropson hundreds of acres. Aboutfour hundred houses wereinundated by flood on Fridayin Jala Bela, Bela Niko Khan,Mian Gujar and IslamabadKorona villages in Peshawardistrict. Standing crops in thearea also damaged due toflood in Shah Alam andNaguman rivers. The KPKDisaster Management Au-thority has directed local au-thorities to immediatelyevacuate the people living atthe river banks.

Peshawar: The Flood

Forecasting Cell (FFC) of theIrrigation Department hereMonday reported mediumflood in rivers Kabul atNowshera and Warsak wherewater flow was recorded at1,09,300 and 61,620 cusecsrespectively. The spokesmanof the Cell told APP that me-dium flood was also reportedin River Punjkora at Dir wheredischarge of water remained20679 cusec respectively.

In river Khayali atCharsadda Road and RiverSwat at Khawzakhela, lowflood has been reported thismorning where total water

flow recorded as 24173 and19671 cusecs respectively.The others rivers of the prov-ince are flowing normal. Therecent rains and melting ofsnow in northern Pakistanhave caused floods in Riv-ers Kabul and Swat, he said.He urged people to pay at-tention on flood rumoursand contact Deputy Com-missioner Offices, Provin-cial Disaster ManagementAuthority (PDMA), MetOffice and Flood Forecast-ing Cell of Irrigation Depart-ment for any information re-garding floods.—APP

Rivers Kabul, Punkgora in low flood: FFC

PDMA directed to speed up flood-hit areas rehab

ISLAMABAD—Minister forReligious Affairs and Inter-faith Harmony, SardarMuhammad Yousaf Mondaysaid that the 20 per cent cut inHajj quota will be equally dis-tributed among the pilgrims ofgovernment and privateschemes. Talking to a 12-member delegation of HajjOrganizers Association ofPakistan (HOAP), he said ob-jective of the government andHOAP is same to provide fa-cilities to the pilgrims and bothshould join hands to facilitateHujjaj. The delegation inti-mated the minister about theproblems and issues beingconfronted by them.

He sought cooperationand coordination fromHOAP to provide maximumfacilities to the intending pil-grims. It is pertinent to men-tion here that as many as144000 Pakistanis would per-form Hajj this year due to 20percent cut in Pakistan Hajj

quota by Saudi government.And the government has al-ready completed the bookingof 89,605 intending govern-ment scheme pilgrims. Thesame number of intending

pilgrims is being booked bythe Hajj Group Organisers(HGOs).

The minister said the Hajjquota cut would be equallydistributed among the pilgrimsof government and private

scheme. The minister directedthe Hajj Group Organizers(HGOs) to submit the bookingdetails by Tuesday so that theexact number of booked pil-grims could be ascertained.Sargodha: Regional PassportOfficer Fawad Tariq Cheemahas said that a separatecounter has been setup hereat the passport office to facili-tate Hajj applicants.

Sialkot: Director GeneralImmigration and Passports,Zulfiqar Ahmed Cheema, onMonday said corrupt and in-efficient officials would besent behind bars and effec-tive measures were beingtaken to eliminate bribery,corruption and the agentsmafia.

Talking to applicants andofficials during his visit tothe regional passport office,he announced that the back-log of pending passports atthe regional passport officewould end on June 19.—APP

Hajj quota cut to be shared equallyby govt, private scheme pilgrims

QUETTA—The Balochistangovernment has formed a six-member committee to conductinvestigation into the inci-dents of attacks on SardarBahadur Khan Women Uni-versity and Bolan MedicalCollege hospital. Officialsources told APP, here onMonday that SuperintendentPolice (Investigation) QuaidAbad Muhammad Tariq willhead the committee that in-clude Deputy SuperintendentPolice (Investigation) PSSadar and four other officialsof Police Investigation De-partment.

The Committee was madebound to complete and fur-nish its report to Capital CityPolice Officer Quetta MirZubair Mehmood within a

Committee to probe BMC,Women Varsity attacks

week. Meanwhile, officialsources said that the reportof the committee would alsobe dispatched to Federal In-terior Minister ChaudharyNisar Ali Khan. It was earlierreported that the NationalAssembly on Sundaystrongly condemned the at-tack on the Ziarat Residencyand bomb blast in Quetta, inwhich 23 people had beenmartyred by the terrorists.

Speaker National Assem-bly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq regret-ted the gory incident in which23 people had been martyredin an attack on Bolan Medi-cal Complex in Quetta lastday. In Ziarat Residency Fa-ther of the Nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnahspent his last days.—APP

Nursing associationoffers fateha for

blast victimsPESHAWAR—The DistrictNursing Association ofPeshawar here Monday of-fered Fateha for departedsouls of victims of blast andfiring incidents at BolanMedical College and SardarBahadur Khan Women Uni-versity. The Fateha and Duawhich was held here at LadyReading Hospital, was at-tended by nurses of LadyReading Hospital, HayatabadMedical Complex, KhyberMedical Teaching Hospital,Sarhad Hospital for Psychi-atric Peshawar.

They also offeredFateha for departed souls offour nurses killed in bomband firing attacks in BolanMedical College. Speakingon the occasion, PresidentDistrict Nursing Associa-tion Peshawar, Farukh Jalilsaid nursing was sacredprofession providing ser-vices to ailing humanity andtheir killing in Bolan hospi-tal was highly condemnableact.

She said all the nurses ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa andPeshawar in particular wassaddened over the brutal kill-ing of their colleagues inQuetta. She said they equallyshared the grief with familiesof the victims and prayed tothe Allah Almighty to rest thedeparted souls in eternalpeace and granted courageto members of the bereavedfamilies to bear this loss. Shedemanded immediate arrestof the culprits. —APP

Pakistan tofinance 3 new

Turkey schoolsIS L A M A B A D—Three newschools will be built with 5million Turkish Liras (TRY)grant of the Pakistani gov-ernment following the earth-quakes occurred in 2011 inVan, east of Turkey. The Pa-kistani government pro-vided financial assistanceworth of 5 million TRY in thescope of building brandnew schools in Turkey’seastern province of Van,where hundreds of houseswere destroyed extensivelyin the earthquakes that tookplace between October 23and November 9, 2011,Anadolu news agency re-ported.

The Vali Mithatbeyneighbourhood of the citywhere one of the schools willbe built. Speaking at the cer-emony, Munir Karaloglu,governor of Van, said thatPakistan and Turkey weretwo sister countries andadded, Pakistan was one ofthose countries who alwayshelped Turkey during ex-traordinary situations or di-sasters at first place.

Karaloglu reminded theaid assistance of Pakistanjust after the earthquakes andsaid, they were very happyto be at the groundbreakingceremony of a high schoolwhich was supported fromPakistan. GovernorKaraloglu noted, three of thePakistani schools wereplanned to be completed inOctober 2013 and they wouldlike to host Pakistani PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif at theopening of the educationyear of 2013-2014.—APP

One dies in roadmishap, 1 killed

over enmitySARGODHA—A man wasgunned down while anothersustained bullet injures inTarkhanawala police limits onMonday. Police sources saidthat two brothers Ali Nawaz andSarfraz s/o RiazAhmed,residents of Farooqatown,Tehsil Sahiwal, had oldenmity with Asif,Saif and Aamerover litigation. This morningAli Nawaz and Sarfraz were atFarooqa bust stand when ac-cused Asif,Saif and Aamer ofBalochan Sahiban turned up atthe site on their bikes and at-tacked them with gun fires.

Fatehjang: A motorcyclistwas killed while his compan-ion sustained injuries whenhis two wheeler hit with a carnear Kasran bus stop onMonday, some 20 kilometersaway from here. According toPolice sources, the deceasedwas identified as Tamour, in-jured as Arshad, who shiftedto the hospital. The Policehave registered a case againstthe accused. Earlier a girl waskilled while her sister receivedserious injuries when roof oftheir room caved in after rainat Kot Sarwar Hafizabad nearhere.—APP

HEC directsvarsities to adoptproper security

measuresISLAMABAD—Higher Educa-tion Commission (HEC) hasdirected all universities of thecountry to adopt extra precau-tionary measures in terms ofsecurity and protection of stu-dents, faculty and staff in wakeof recent blast at a universityin Quetta. Talking to APP hereon Monday, Chairman HEC DrJavaid R. Laghari said he wrotea letter to the vice chancellorsof all the universities to takeproper security measures forthe protection of students, fac-ulty and staff from any unto-ward incident.

The chairman said thatHEC would extend all pos-sible support in this regard.The chairman condemnedthe recent bomb blast in theSardar Bahadur KhanWomen University, Quetta,causing death of so manyinnocent female students.He, in a meeting with ViceChancellor of Sardar BahadurKhan Women University Sul-tana Baloch, termed the blastas plot to derail peace andeducation process in theprovince.—APP

B K TAHIR

BAHAWALPUR—The StateMinister for Education andTechnical Training, MianBaleegh-ur-Rehman has an-nounced that the RegionalOffice of the HEC is beingset-up at Islamia University,Bahawalpur to promote edu-cation in the South Punjab.

This office will help a lotto the youth of theBahawalpur, Multan and D.G.Khan divisions to avail thehigher education facilitieseasily. He disclosed it here ata ceremony to distribute pro-motion letters to the employ-ees of the Islamia University,Bahawalpur at Baghdad-ul-Jadid Campus.

He said that a sum of Rs.3billion had been allocated forthe Prime Minister’s YouthTraining Programme to pro-vide educated people appro-priate training and chancesfor better career. Under thisprogramme around 50,000graduates would be giveninternship for 3 months in

HEC Islamia varsitycampus to promoteS Punjab education

different organizations andthe internees would be givenRs.10,000/- per month as sti-pend.

He said that the PML (N)government had given prefer-ence to improve the literacy rateas well as provide morechances for higher educationand the grant of the HEC hadbeen increased up to Rs.60 bil-lion to fulfill our dream for thepromotion of education in thecountry on better lines. Hepointed out that the PML (N)government has decided toprovide free education to thechildren and youth ofBalochistan and FATA and thisfacility would be started fromSouth Punjab which would alsobenefit the students of this areatoo and more over we haddoubled the annual budget ofbasic education.

Earlier, he inauguratedthe building of the Sir SadiqMuhammad Khan KhamisAbbasi Post-Graduate Medi-cal College, Bahawalpur atIslamia University,Bahawalpur.

CHAMAN: A health worker administering polio drops to Afghan children during anti-polio campaign.

TRARKHEL: Former Azad Kashmir Prime Minister, Sardar Atique Ahmed Khan addressing Urs at Narrian Sharif.

Inefficient workers to be shown doorRAWALPINDI—Expressing resolve toimprove functioning of Pakistan Rail-ways and make it a profit-earning en-tity, Federal Minister for RailwaysKhawaja Saad Rafiq Monday said therewould be no room for inefficient andcorrupt officers in the organization.“Corrupt elements will not be toleratedand the officers showing good perfor-mance will only stay here,” he said whiletalking to media here at the Railway Sta-

tion where he reached after traveling along with his familyfrom Lahore on the Margallah Express. He said the prin-ciple of merit and rule of law would be upheld adding thatrailways would be transformed into a vibrant mode of trans-portation. The minister said an effective strategy was be-ing evolved to get railways’ encroached land vacated fromillegal occupants, adding “not a single inch of railway landwill be left with encroachers.” Khawaja Saad Rafiq said allworkers should work like a team so that a national institu-tion could be saved and its lost glory could be regained bystreaming its passenger as well as freight services. Heurged the parliamentarians and high officials to prefer totravel on railway trains as it would not only encourageother passengers but also restore their confidence in thenational fleet. Division Superintendent RailwaysRawalpindi Syed Munawar Shah, union representativesand Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) supporterswelcomed the minister on his arrival at the railway station.Pakistan Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique here onMonday said that the train service will be improved soon.Talking to the media on his visit to the railway station hesaid freight trains would be restored soon, however, nonew passenger train would be launched, adding that allavailable resources would be utilised for rehabilitation ofthe department.—APP

Govt to address tribesmen problemsPESHAWA R—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor, EngineerShaukatullah has said that effectivemeasures are under way to help thepeople of FATA in getting their prob-lems of immediate nature resolved to apossible extent and make rapid normal-ization possible. He was talking to adelegation of elders hailing from cer-tain areas of Khyber Agency whichcalled on him at Governor’s House,

Peshawar. The Jirga led by Ex-MNA Haji MuhammadShah Afridi also comprised Haji Said Marjan, Haji SahibShah, Haji Yousaf, Haji Wali Mohammad Khan and HajiAhmad. Responding to various demands put forward bythe delegates the Governor said that he has been person-ally taking keen interest in ensuring well being of IDPs aswell as to ensure their early repatriation and has also metmany a times with the representatives of those hailingfrom Tehsil Bara in particular. Most of the IDPs havealmost been returned to their home places and efforts arealso underway to ensure early return of the remaining aswell, he added. Referring to another demand, the Gover-nor assured the elders to give serious consideration totheir demands for repairing and rehabilitation of Bara ca-nal; de-siltation of Sparay Dam and remove staff defi-ciency in Bara Tehsil Hospital. Similarly, he added it isalso his utmost effort to re-open Bara Bazar and rehabili-tate economic activities in the area. However he also re-alized the elders that maintenance of peace and law andorder is the foremost requirement and expressed the hopethat they would continue their support to the govern-ment in making this possible in future too.—APP

Steps to eradicate measlesFAISALABAD—All possible steps arebeing taken on the direction of ChiefMinister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif to eradi-cate measles. This was stated by Pro-vincial Minister for Human Rights, Mi-nority Affairs and Health Khalil TahirSindhu while visiting measles ward atAllied Hospital here. The minister alsoinquired about the health of measles pa-tients and said anti measles campaignwould be started from June 24. He also

directed the hospital administration to provide prompt treat-ment to measles patients and no negligence would be toler-ated at all. On the otherside, it is also reported that the Prin-cipal of Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) and LahoreGeneral Hospital (LGH) Prof Anjum Habib Vohra has saidthat doctors should inform citizens about the complicationsand consequences of treatment given by quacks and self-made doctors practicing in city. Talking to media here onSunday, he told that as much as 1,000 children sufferingfrom measles were referred to LGH during last 5 months,among whom around 600 children were admitted in the hos-pital. They all have gone back to their homes after recovery.He said that according to PMA statistics over 600,000 quackshad been working in country. He urged the doctors thatthey should also aware the people about seasonal diseasesand measures for safety against them. Prof Anjum HabibVohra said that on the directions of Punjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif teaching hospitals in the prov-ince were providing all diagnostic and medical treatmentfree of cost from the level of Rural Health Centers to theEmergency wards. Citizens should utilize these facilities in-stead of going to quacks. He said that people could avoidso many diseases by only adopting hygienic life style, clean-liness and neat environment.—APP

Cacrifices for inalienable rightISLAMABAD—Senior leader of the All Par-ties Hurriyet Conference, Shabbir AhmadShah, has said that the Kashmiris havebeen rendering unparalleled sacrifices tosecure their internationally- recognisedinalienable right to self-determination.According to Kashmir Media Service,Shabbir Ahmed Shah in a statement inSrinagar said that the Kashmir disputewas the main hurdle in the way of perma-nent peace in South Asia and cordial re-

lations between Pakistan and India. He appealed to the worldcommunity to impress upon New Delhi to stop its troopsfrom committing human rights abuses in the territory. Hurriyetleaders, Syed Ali Gilani and Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, in ajoint statement issued in Srinagar deplored that India waskeeping innocent Kashmiri youth behind the bars by impli-cating them in false cases. They said that such tactics couldnot suppress the Kashmiris’ freedom sentiment. APHCleader, Zafar Akbar Butt addressing condolence meetingsin different areas of Srinagar and Budgam said that the sac-rifices of Kashmiri martyrs would not be allowed to go waste.On the other hand, an eight-member team of Delhi-basedCentre for Policy Analysis addressing a press conference inSrinagar demanded complete withdrawal of Indian troops,repeal of draconian laws from occupied Kashmir and re-lease of Kashmiri political prisoners. It said that the probeshould be conducted into the cases involving rapes anddeaths at the hands of Indian troops and police personnelin the territory. The team was led by noted journalist andcivil society activist, Seema Mustafa, and comprisedMuhammad Saleem, John Dayal, E N Rammohan, DrBalachandra Kango, Harsh Mander, Sehba Farooqi and Pro-fessor Kamal Chenoy.—APP

PESHAWAR—In its maidenbudget for the upcoming fis-cal year the provincial gov-ernment of KhyberPakhtunkhwa, led by thePakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf(PTI), has declared ‘Educa-tional Emergency’ in theprovince besides terming il-literacy as the biggest en-emy. “The governmentelected on the promise ofbringing change in societywill leave no stone unturnedfor eradication of illiteracyfrom the province,” claimdprovincial minister for Fi-nance, Siraj-ul-Haq whiledelivering the budgetspeech in provincial assem-bly here on Monday.

The government has setan ambition that ‘EducatedKhyber Pakhtunkhwa willmove Forward’ and for attain-ment of this goal Educationalemergency has been de-clared in the province, Sirajadded. Unveiling the reformprogramme for educationalsector, Siraj-ul-Haq said aplan has been chalked out forcomprehensive mapping ofschools with the objective ofproviding facilities to the ex-isting schools besidesimprovining the school in-dex.

The government will en-sure that all the facilities in-cluding boundary wall, elec-tricity, water supply, concrete

ceilings, additional roomsand toilets are available in allthe existing schools. A mod-ern monitoring system con-sisting of 500 impartial moni-tors will be formed to checkthe functioning of educa-tional institutions. For thispurpose an amount of Rs. 500million has been earmarked.

Similarly, a third partymonitoring system will alsobe introduced for which anamount of Rs. 100 million willbe earmarked. Finance Min-ister said an EducationalCommission will be set upalongwith a Joint EducationAdvisory Commission forprovision of uniform educa-tion syllabus in the whole

province and for making ex-ams system more transpar-ent. The government has de-cided to enhance the numberof students from top 10 totop 20 in Board of Intermedi-ate and Secondary Educationand Board of Technical Edu-cation Matric who will getmonthly scholarship of Rs.10 to 15 thousands.

In order to raise girls edu-cation ratio, the governmentwill introduce payment of astipend of Rs. 200 to each girlstudents in those districtswhere female literacy ratio isvery low. The government hasproposed to form Chief Min-ister Endowment Fund forimprovement of educational

standard with a seed moneyof Rs. 500 million, Siraj added.

He said the system ofpayment of fees to privateschools for educating stu-dents in those areas whereno government school existwill be extended to more ar-eas of the province and forthis purpose an amount ofRs. 800 million has been re-served. A new programme inthe name of ‘Iqra EducationPromotion scheme will belaunched for providing op-portunity to the children ofpoor laborers, brick kiln work-ers, daily wagers, widow etc.Finance Minister said apartfrom these schemes, about 97new projects have been in-

cluded in annual ADP.An amount of Rs. 13.83

billion has been reserved forexecution of these projects.Giving details of the ADPschemes for education, Sirajsaid these include, setting upof 100 new primary schools,upgradation of 50 primaryschools to middle and 50middle to high level. 25 Highschools will be upgrade toHigher Secondary level. 500new class rooms will be con-structed in existing schoolsbesides providing basic fa-cilities in all the schools.Work on Cadet College SwatPhase II and Col Sher KhanShaheed College Swabi willbe started.—APP

Edu emergency declared in KP, illiteracy termed as biggest enemy

IS L A M A B A D —In-ChargeMinister for Communication,Barrister Usman AbrahimMonday said that the con-struction work on Mandra-Chakwal and Sohawa-Chakwal National Highwayswould be started after thedecision of the IslamabadHigh Court. Responding toa Calling Attention noticemoved by Maj Tahir Iqbaland Malik Shakir Bashir re-garding non-completion ofconstruction work onMandra-Chakwal andSohawa-Chakwal NationalHighways, the minister in-formed the House theproject was initiated by the

past government; however itcould not be completedwithin stipulated period.

He said Rs 5.97 billionwas earmarked for both theprojects and the contractwas awarded to PakistanWorks Department. Givingthe breakup, he said thatRs2.67 billion was allocatedfor Mandra-Chakwal andRs3.3 billion for Sohawa-Chakwal. Usman Abrahimapprised the House thatlater on the special ordersof former Prime Minister thecontract was awarded tothe National Highways Au-thority (NHA) and PWDwas asked to pay back the

amount.He said that the PWD

contractor approached theIslamabad High Court andpleaded before the court thatthey could not return theamount to NHA. However,the DG NHA managed totransfer the amount despitethe court order and later hewas terminated on charges ofcontempt of court. NHA wasclaiming that the authorityhad spent almost Rs.400 mil-lion on the project, he said.

He said that the govern-ment has allocated Rs 530million for the project in nextfiscal year. Meanwhile, it isalso reported that the Na-

tional Highway Authority(NHA) has planned to speedup work on slow moving on-going projects inBalochistan province espe-cially Gwadar linkages in thecoming fiscal year. In thePSDP-2013-14 Rs 63147.884million allocated for NationalHighway Authority and theNHA would attach top pri-ority to completion of thoseprojects which are over 70per cent finished and ongo-ing projects in Balochistanwould be especially in thefocus,said an NHA officialMonday.

He said as per budgetarydocuments Rs 599.118 mil-

lion had been earmarked for132 km Qila Saifullah-Waigum Rud section of N-70which lies in Balochistan.Similarly Rs 524.700 millionwill be spent on 124 kmD.I.Khan-Mughal Kot sec-tion of N-50 during the com-ing fiscal year. Rs 5000 mil-lion have been allocated forwidening and improvementof Hoshab-Nag-Basima-Surab highway (N-85) in thecoming budget. He said theNHA would spend Rs 3433million allocated for 200 kmsection of Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab section of Gwadar-Rattodero Motorway (M-8).

Rs 50 million have been

allocated for improvement of43 km Nutal-Sibi-Dhadar sec-tion of N-85.Moreover Rs 500million will be spent on 247km section of Kalat-Quetta-Chaman section of N-25. Hesaid that Rs 300.000 millionhad been earmarked forMakran Coastal Highway (N-10),Liari-Gwadar section (531km) and Gwadar-Gabd sec-tion ( 122 km). Rs 4659.616million have been allocatedfor National Highway Devel-opment Sector Programme(Sukkar-Jacobabad N-85),Rs3433.000 million have beenearmarked for Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab section of M-8.—APP

National Highways Authority plans to speed up work on Balochistan road projects

Govt earmarks sufficient road funds

BMWT forprimary level eduto needy students

I S L A M A B A D — B e g u mMehmooda Welfare Trust(BMWT) has enrolled morethan 100 students of primarylevel belonging to Barakahu,asuburb area of federalCapital,for academic year 2013-14. Realizing that education isthe right of everyone, theTrust has deposited school feeof these children for a completeacademic period. Besides,these needy children are alsoprovided with school uni-forms, course books, notebooks and stationery items.

“With the help of thiseducation package, parentsof these children will not haveto pay any extra charges tocontinue quality educationof their children in the privateschools of the area, said ChiefExecutive.—APP

STAFF REPORTERS

TALAGANG/DERA GHAZI

KHAN—Two students and ateacher of a private collegewere drowned at Jhatla Absharnear Talagang while they werebathing, on Monday afternoon. Three dead bodies wererecovered. According to re-ports the group of youngpeople went for picnic but thisunfortunate incident hap-pened to them.

According to detailstwenty two years old AsadMehmood, and two teenag-ers Basit Shehzad andWaheed Aslam weredrowned while they slippedin into deep water duringbathing on the corner ofAbshar. Locals and rest of

the group rushed to them butthey couldn’t get hold ofthem. Reportedly the depthof this Abshar is still un-known. Local Administration,police and fire brigadeTalagang rushed to the loca-tion to rescue but theycouldn’t make it. The newsbroke in the village and inTalagang like any thing andwhole area is still in deepshock.

Meanwhile three per-sons were killed over old landdispute here on Monday inDera Ghazi Khan. In the sub-urb area of Dari Dhole, twogroups of famous commu-nity namely Hotani had oldenmity over chunk of landfrom several years. On Mon-day one of infuriated group

started abusing and startedunprovoked firing on othergroup resultantly two realbrothers Ghulam Akbar andGhulam Hussain died on thespot. While one more per-sons namely Ejaz Hussainalso sustained severe injuriesin dispute.

Upon receiving informa-tion, Police reached on thespot and removed an injuredperson to hospital for medi-cal aid but he also succumbedto injuries on the way to hos-pital. Police shifted the deadbodies to District headquar-ter hospital for autopsy. Aftercompleting legal formalitiesthey were handed over to theirheirs. Police registered thecase and started thorough in-vestigation.

Old land dispute claims three lives

Teacher, two students drownRAFIULLAH MANDOKHAIL

ZHOB—Water shortagecoupled with excessivepower outages has hit sev-eral areas in Zhob-the secondlargest city of the province.Water shortage amid sizzlingheat, causing immense in-convenience and multipliedthe woes of the people mani-fold. The situation is aggra-vating with each passing daythat water is not availableeven a single drop to drink,as water consumption in siz-zling summer increased mani-fold. Anger and frustrationover the issue force peopleto take to the streets and pro-test. But the authorities con-cerned are least interested toresolve the problem.

Water shortage in manycity areas has increasedalarmingly as the people arereceiving insufficient or nosupply at all, giving a boost

Water scarcity amid scorchingheat hits several areas

to the sale of water tankers.Tankers mafia makes heywhile the sun shines. Theresidents told this corre-spondent that water has notbeen supplied to their areasfor the last three weeks butthe authorities concernedbadly failed to ensure thedemand of water supply.

“The Public Health Engi-neering department officialsare mum over the situation.Several complaints havebeen lodged but they seemedto be insensitive to theirgrievances adding that theydo not respond to their hard-ships and the situation couldnot be improved so for”, theyadded. They also complainedthat the main holes were ly-ing opened and filth gushescoming out from them. “Wehave no option except todrink filthy and contaminatedwater that posing seriousthreats to our health”.

ISLAMABAD—The ongoingpre-monsoon spell, startedfrom Wednesday last week,would end in Punjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Kashmir, GilgitBaltistan and other parts ofthe country on Tuesday.However it would continue invarious parts of Sindh tillWednesday, an official of Pa-kistan Meteorological Depart-ment (PMD) said on Monday.A westerly wave is affectingupper parts of the country andlikely to move northeastwardin next 24 hours. Seasonal lowlies over Balochistan and ad-joining areas.

The hot and dry spellwould continue for four tofive days and there are fewchances of rain during theweekend, he said. The maxi-mum temperatures recorded

Pre-monsoon rainspell ends

during the last 24 hoursIslamabad 33C, Lahore 31C,Karachi 39C, Peshawar 34C,Quetta 32C, Skardu 20C,

Murree 22C, Muzzafarabad34C, Gilgit 27C, Faisalabad32C, Multan 34C andHyderabad 38C. The Metro-logical Station here on Mon-day forecasted scattered rain-thundershower associatedwith gusty winds in UpperKhyber Pakhtunkhwa duringnext 24 hours that will bringtemperature down.—APP

QUETTA: Leader of ‘Voice for Baloch Missing Persons’ Mariz Qadder addressing apress conference at a protest camp.

SHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Busi-ness community has termed2013-14 budget as balancedbudget with a hope that itwould stabilize nationaleconomy and benefit all seg-ments of the society. Labor-ers leaders however showedreservation. Jan MuhammadMuslim Sheikh who is leaderof brick kiln labor criticized thebudget for not increasing dailywages of labor class. He saidinflation had already made liv-ing of labor class difficult andincrease in GST will furtherburden them. Farmers how-ever did not express their re-

Labourers demandRs 15,000 per month salary

action against the budget.May be they do not under-stand the impact which thebudget would pass on to themafter implementation.

Pensioners appreciatedthe budget for increasing theirpension 10pc Subedar MajorBashir who is local leader ofex-servicemen when com-menting on the increase in thepension said that governmentwhile making this paltry in-crease did not consider widegap in pension of old and newpensioners and treated themwith the same scale. He saidpension of old pensionersshould have been increasedabout 35pc to bring parity in

the pension.District Secretary Awami

Workers Party Nusrat Gondalrejected the budget sayingthat it was meant to promoteinterest of the rich at the costof the poor. He demandedthat pay of laborers includ-ing security guards em-ployed by private companiesbe fixed not less than Rs15,000 per month as an-nounced by the PML-N govtin their manifesto. Teachersand clerks showed their an-ger over not increasing sal-ary of government employ-ees and turned to strike andprotest for demanding in-crease in their pay.

HYDERABAD:Residents of Chenal Mori Mirpor Khas road hold a protest demo to press for their demands.

Nisar echoes nation’sdetermination

THE latest incidents of terrorism in Quetta, taking heavy toll ofprecious lives, have raised alarm bells among people of Pakistanwith demands for taking stern and sustained action against trouble-

makers of all sorts in the province. It was in this backdrop that InteriorMinister Ch Nisar Ali Khan and Minister for Information and Broadcast-ing Senator Pervez Rashid dashed to the provincial capital on Sundayignoring security warnings and had extensive consultations with the pro-vincial leadership on the way forward.

Both the Federal and Balochistan Governments have been relayingreconciliatory signals to disgruntled elements in the province with fo-cus on dialogue and discussion to resolve the issues involved but theseovertures have not gone well with miscreants. There are so-called lib-eration armies that are challenging writ of the state and also sectarianmonsters threatening religious harmony and killing innocent people. Itis, however, encouraging that the present leadership is taking the issuevery seriously as was demonstrated by instant telephone call by PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif to Chief Minister Dr. Abdul Malik after Quettacarnage and subsequent decision of the two most relevant ministers tovisit the provincial headquarters. This showed determination and thewill of the leaders to address the menace of terrorism and declarationsmade by the Interior Minister after consultations with the Chief Minis-ter and other allies reflected this amply. Though the measures agreedupon by them were not made public as these have yet to be cleared bythe Prime Minister but announcement of Ch. Nisar not to hold talkswith those who are bent upon carrying out terrorism and that they wouldbe responded to in the same coin is indicative of the things in store.People of Pakistan want to make a new beginning towards progressand prosperity after general elections but some forces, acting on behalfof our enemies, are trying to derail the process. Those playing with thelives of the people and challenging writ of the state deserve no sympa-thy and must be dealt with iron hand. However, we would urge theGovernment to boost confidence of all segments of the provincial popu-lation who presently feel insecure so that they lend a helping hand inrealizing the cherished objective of restoration of peace and security.

To arm polio workers— ridiculous

ANTI-polio drive came to a standstill in Swabi, KP following gunning down of two anti-polio campaign volunteers by some unidenti-

fied miscreants in Pabeni area. This prompted the local administration toissue permits to both male and female vaccinators to carry weapons dur-ing polio campaign.

On the face of it, the decision seems to be legitimate and logical tosave lives of the vaccinators, who are under constant threat in the prov-ince, and to make the campaign a success but the issue has severalother dimensions that should also be kept in view. In the first place,provision of security to life and property of the citizens is the funda-mental responsibility of the Government and the decision showed theauthorities concerned have totally failed to ensure that and are leavingit to the people to defend themselves. Then there is already dangerousproliferation of weapons in the country with demands that steps shouldbe taken for de-weaponsiation as this is key to security. There are hun-dreds of thousands of polio vaccinators in the country and to arm themwould mean further proliferation of weapons, although in a differentcontext and purpose. Brandishing of weapons is a sour to eyes every-where in the country including the highly secured Federal Capital andthis is denting the overall psyche of people especially the young gen-eration. The decision being ridiculous needs to be reviewed and insteademphasis should be on creation of peaceful environment and counter-ing propaganda against polio vaccination.

Army should not getsucked in

CHIEF of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani hassaid that army in coordination with the Navy and PAF was fully

configured and prepared to thwart any military aggression against thecountry. Addressing the concluding session of Army War Games GeneralKayani reiterated the army’s resolve to meet all future challenges squarely.

There is no doubt that Pakistan army has the necessary capacity,professional training and resolve to defend the frontiers of the moth-erland. However in our view, the plans of the enemies are to createnew trouble spots so that the army is further spread to confront thedomestic crises. At present Army is deployed at the eastern and west-ern borders particularly to check incursions from across the DurandLine and to keep a vigilant eye on the LoC. The unabated target kill-ings in Karachi and the singling out of Balochistan by the enemieshave dual objectives to get the army sucked in to create misgivingsabout it in Balochistan. In our opinion the best possible solution ofthese problems at present is through political dialogue i.e. the electedgovernments at the Centre and in the provinces should handle theirlaw and order issues through their own ways. While they have ex-pressed their desire to hold dialogue with the estranged elements inBalochistan, police, levies and paramilitary forces needed to be fur-ther galvanized so that they have the necessary training and equip-ment to go after the enemy inside the country with full backing of thecivilian government. We are sure that if given necessary support anda free hand they can deal with the prevalent situation in due course oftime. The army should however keep a vigilant eye to prevent anytype of support for the miscreants from across the borders.

Nation shocked and grieved

Beauty is only skin-deep.

About climatechange

The International EnergyAgency (IEA) last weekwarned that global carbon di-

oxide emissions in 2012 were thehighest ever. Yet international cli-mate negotiations have floundered.Many Americans and their repre-sentatives in Congress still doubtclimate change is a problemworth addressing. And as the de-veloping world advances, itspeoples are polluting more to ob-tain higher standards of living.Forget for a moment the ideal orrational response; what’s the bareminimum global leaders coulddo? The IEA had some useful, ifmodest, suggestions.

An energy-gobbling worldemitted 31.6 gigatons of carbon di-oxide in 2012, the result of extract-ing and burning vast amounts ofcoal, oil and natural gas. Lastmonth, the world reached anothermilestone that scientists andpolicymakers said they wanted toavoid — CO2 concentrations in theatmosphere that exceeded 400 partsper million. Scientists reckon thatthe last time concentrations werethat high, the Earth was far warmer.Though the planet’s sensitivity tocarbon emissions is still a matterof intense study, the IEA figuresthat, under policies in place now,the planet could warm between 3.6and 5.3 degrees Celsius, mostlyover the next hundred years. Bycontrast, world leaders have com-mitted to limiting warming to nomore than 2 degrees Celsius, thepoint past which the consequencescould be very negative.

The IEA argues there are thingsthat governments can do betweennow and 2020, at no net economiccost, at least to try to “keep the dooropen” to 2 degrees Celsius. Retro-fitting buildings and constructingbetter ones could reduce emissions.More-efficient cars would help,too. These sorts of investmentswould also save consumers moneyover time. Phasing out the dirtiestcoal-burning power plants wouldcut greenhouse emissions and otherpollutants. So, too, would inexpen-sively reducing emissions of meth-ane — itself a greenhouse gas —during oil and natural gas produc-tion. And, of course, countriesshould stop encouraging fossil fueluse by artificially lowering pricesfor the stuff, a problem here that’smuch worse in other countries. TheEnvironmental Protection Agencyhas been using its powers under theClean Air Act to crack down on coalplants. Other federal regulations areaddressing methane emissions.Washington’s policymakers shouldimmediately follow through andpressure other nations to follow.Then they should think about do-ing more than just the bare mini-mum. — The Washington Post

*****

Moment oftruth for Syria

A negotiated settlement inSyria is looking increasingly less likely. Instead of

discussing the outcome of the so-called Geneva II talks, whichshould have taken place in the lasttwo days, the focus is now on send-ing arms to Syria, with the Obamaadministration’s announcement inthis regard. This is a dangerous es-calation of events and veers offcompletely from the diplomaticroute that’s needed for Syria.The fighting has somehow man-aged to become even more sectar-ian in nature thanks to foreign in-terference, most recently Hezbollahsending its fighters to Qusayr,which complicates further anychance of an immediate, peacefulresolution. US President BarackObama’s decision to begin provid-ing the rebels with a range of weap-ons, including small arms, ammu-nition, assault rifles and a varietyof anti-tank weaponry, is a directresponse to recent gains by the Syr-ian regime. But the US cannot af-ford to underplay the complicatednature of the Syrian conflict. More-over, this is the moment of truth forthe Syrian regime. It must shoul-der its responsibility and contem-plate realistically about its future.The regime has got to start think-ing of making concessions in or-der to reach a peaceful resolution;it cannot be entertain the illusionthat the smallest gains in Qusayrmean it has won the war. Syria’ssocial fabric must be protected andthere is an immediate need to ad-dress the country’s dire humanitar-ian situation.— Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

—Proverb

In the wee hours on Saturdaymorning, propelled grenade attacks by the militants destroyed

Quaid-e-Azam’s residency in Ziarat,where he spent the last days of hislife along with his sister FatimaJinnah before moving to Karachi. Apolice constable deployed outsidethe Quaid’s residency was also killedin the attack while another sustainedinjuries. All items used by the Quaidinside the residency including chairs,beds, and historic photographs of thefounder were burnt in the resultingfire. The Balochistan LiberationArmy has claimed the responsibil-ity for this heinous act. As if this wasnot enough for the shock and griefto the nation, at least 25 people in-cluding deputy commissioner ofQuetta and 14 female students ofwomen’s university were killed laterin the day when a bomb tore throughthe bus. It was followed by a sui-cide attack and a gun-battle in theBolan Medical college hospitalwhere injured students were takenfor treatment.

Banned outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvihas reportedly claimed responsibil-ity for the bomb blasts. Accordingto a report, after the female suicidebomber blew up herself in the bus,a second male bomber followed suitand struck inside the crowded BolanMedical Complex Hospital to wreakmaximum damage. President AsifAli Zardari, Prime Minister MianNawaz Sharif, Chief Justice of Pa-kistan Mian Iftikhar Muhammad

China: From hard to soft power

HURMAT GROUP OF PUBLICATIONSZahid Malik

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 2852027-8, Ext: 116Email: magazinesocialdiary@hotmail.com

Mysterious China has beenan important power bothin ancient period and

today’s world with global reach.Genesis of its mystery belongs toits great civilization and culturewhich was a model to copy byneighboring East Asian states inpast times, added by its inventionsof paper, gun powder and compass.The impact of Chinese culture; lan-guage, religion and architecture canbe felt on East Asian countries evenin modern era. Its power status de-clined with the dawn of coloniza-tion where UK, Portugal, Germanyand Japan colonized Hong Kong,Macau, Shandong, Nanjing andNorth-Eastern three provinces ofChina. Forced unequal treaties,demolition of sovereignty and mas-sacre of the colonial masters intro-duced China with hard politics. Thelong struggle of Mao Zedong forindependence and later on his strat-egies for stability and recovery ofChina’s past glory represent thehard power.

After achieving independencein the hey-days of the Cold War,Mao brought radical changes inChinese politics, economy and so-ciety. Those were the days whenCommunist China was at odds withthe most of the world, especially theWestern states where they wereagainst of her membership in theUnited Nations. So China signed analliance treaty with the SovietUnion in 1950 and entered physi-cally in the Korean War. For rapiddevelopment particularly in steeland agricultural sectors, Mao initi-ated the Great Leap Forward Pro-gram in 1958 which lasted until

Chaudhry have stronglycondemned the attack onthe residence of Quaid-i-Azam in Ziarat (Quetta)followed by blast inwomen university’s busand shootout at BolanMedical Complex wherethe injured students were

shifted for treatment. It has to bementioned that judiciary has hadmany hearings of missing persons’case to dispense justice. But insur-gents feel emboldened when they findsympathy in political parties, intelli-gentsia and judiciary.

In a talk show titled ‘apas ki bat’in a private channel, pseudo-journal-ist Hamid Mir and pseudo-intellectualKamran Shafi, instead of condemningthe heinous acts of the insurgents andterrorists, chose to malign the ISI andlaw enforcing agencies. They said thatmutilated bodies were found even af-ter the nationalist parties formed thegovernment. By doing so they are ad-vancing the cause of the separatists.In fact, scions of dissident sardars hadwarned those who participated inelections, and even now they are bentupon creating turmoil in Balochistan.By attacking the Quaid’s residencyin Ziarat, they have tried to strike atthe very foundation of Pakistan. Yet,some anchorpersons and analysts ac-cuse intelligence agencies of eitherarresting or killing nationalists.They are hiding the facts that manymissing persons are in FerrariCamps/Detention Centres being runby dissident Baloch Sardars and in-surgents. But a few anchorpersons,analysts and panelists are bent uponpainting the armed forces and agen-cies in poor light.

Hamid Mir, anchorperson andcolumnist of a large media group inhis column titled ‘Pachtaway’ (repen-tances), had apprised the audience

about details of ceremony held tohonor friends of Bangladesh on 24thMarch 2013. He had gone to Dhakato receive the award of his father LateProfessor Waris Mir, who stood forfreedom of speech and was againstmilitary action in former East Paki-stan. However, the posterity woulddecide whether he was friend ofBangladesh or traitor to Pakistan.Hamid Mir takes refuge behind judi-ciary by praising it profusely, whichof course it deserves; but at the sametime he denigrates armed forces. Heshould have noted what Chief Jus-tice of Pakistan Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, during hearing of a caseat Quetta Registry with regard to de-teriorating law and order situation inBalochistan, had remarked: “Nobodywould be allowed to malign judiciaryand armed forces of the country”.

In 2010, Hamid Mir was accusedof passing on some information toPunjabi Taliban on the basis of whichformer ISI official Khawaja Kahlidwas murdered. Usama Khalid son ofKhwaja Khalid had demanded of theSupreme Court to take suo motu no-tice of Mr. Hamid Mir’s tape in whichhe allegedly misled and provoked theTaliban militants against his fatherthat resulted in his murder. In the tape,Hamid Mir was reported to have per-suaded the Taliban spokesman thatKhalid Khwaja was a CIA agent andfront man of Mansoor Ijaz – an asso-ciate of international Qadiani net-work. Furthermore, he said thatKhwaja and his wife had played ig-nominious role during Lal Masjidstandoff. On many websites and blogsHamid Mir was criticized for, whatwas described, his act of watanfroshior subversive behaviour, and also forbeing instrumental in the murder ofKhalid Khwaja. Balochistan prov-ince, being strategically-located andrich in mineral wealth, attracts many

an alien’s eyes. India is reportedlypromoting terrorism in Balochistanthrough its information centres inAfghanistan. Some Baloch rebelsare ensconced in England, and oth-ers in America to organize theirmovement for greater Balochistan.The Baloch Society of NorthAmerica held international confer-ence on Balochistan to advance theiragenda of independent Balochistan.Dissidents are also active in the UK,Canada and elsewhere. After thecoalition government led by the na-tionalist parties is in place, the dis-sidents should have given the gov-ernment a chance to bring aboutpeace in Balochistan. In fact, theywant to keep the province in turmoilin order to prove that the only solu-tion to the problem is independenceof Balochistan.

The situation calls for extraor-dinary vigil, intelligent political ini-tiatives, imaginative administrativemoves and robust development ef-forts. Chief Minister Abdul Malikdoes have the vision to meet thesechallenges. Unfortunately, the pre-vious provincial government did notspend hundreds of billions allocatedfor the development of Balochistanduring the last five years. In the past,both the Islamabad and Quetta hier-archs had abdicated responsibilitiesto the army for the things they them-selves must be doing. And it was thearmy which was opening up schoolsand technical and vocational train-ing institutes, and establishing facili-ties for specialized education ofBaloch students in disciplines of par-ticular relevance to the province.That said, development ofBalochistan is the only way to winhearts and minds of the people, andto rid them of servitude of sardars.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

1961. Further was the Sino-IndianWar in 1962 where China was iso-lated by the United States’ helpingof India. The radical politics of Maotouched the apex by launching theGreat Proletarian Cultural Revolu-tion in 1966, ended with his death in1976. Border war with the USSR in1969 was another challenge and dis-turbing situation for China.

All these events deterioratedChina’s image domestically and in-ternationally. The Sino-Soviet splitweakened Communist movementsacross the globe where communistparties divided into two, each sup-porting by the Soviet Union andChina. The split not only worsenedChinese relations with CommunistVietnam but also paved way for theSoviet détente with the United States.Moreover the US backing of Viet-nam, South Korea and Japan in sur-roundings forced China to supportCommunist North Korea and Cam-bodia in Pol Pot Regime. Most of theCold War era for Beijing was a timeof confrontations with the West onone hand and the Soviet Union onthe other. Not only Chinese relationswith most of its neighboring stateswere not on the smooth track but alsoher entry in regional organizationswas restricted.

A change came in China’s inter-nal political line and external attitudewith the coming of new leadershipby Deng Xiaoping after the demiseof radical Chairman Mao whichtransformed its hard politics into softone. There is an ongoing hot debateon China’s soft power by the aca-demics, statesmen and policy mak-ers throughout the world because se-duction is always almost more effec-tive than coercion. Soft power ofChina started with Deng’s announc-ing the Open Door Policy and enact-ing the Four Modernization programof agriculture, industry, national de-

fense, science and technology in1978. Thus policy of Socialism withChinese Characteristics declaredwith establishing socialist marketeconomy in China.

Today China is no more a radi-cal, revolutionary and monolithicCommunist country which wasviewed in the Mao era but an eco-nomic giant, stable and more open.China has attracted the foreign di-rect investment (FDI) tremendouslyby providing friendly environmentto investors, becoming the secondlargest and fastest growing economyin the world. She is using all the toolsof soft power such as; investment,peacekeeping policy, humanitarianaid, exchange programs, diplomacyof good neighborliness and partici-pation in multilateral institutions toenhance its status.

Among the permanent membersof the UN Security Council, Beijinghas sent the biggest number of itspeacekeepers to various corners of theworld, after the France. China hasprovided aid to many flood, epidemicdiseases and earth-quick-hit coun-tries. In exchange programs, there aremore than 20,000 students studyingin Chinese institutions and about 500Confucius Institutes have beenopened by China in almost 100 coun-tries where Chinese language is be-ing taught and cultural events held.China Towns and China Centers havebeen built in various countries forpromotion of Chinese culture. More-over, China is now active player invarious international multilateral in-stitutions and regional organizationswhere she is a member in UNO, SCO,WTO and observer in SAARC. Chinahas good working relationship withthe EU and US while is engaged withSouth East Asian countries underwithin the ASEAN + 3 formula.

Under the good-neighborlinessdiplomacy, China has no war-like

situation with its neighbors. Despitethe US long-alliance with South Ko-rea, China has good economic termswith the later and a partner of bothin the Six Party Talks about theNorth Korean nuclear issue. Al-though there are some frictions withJapan but Sino-Japanese trade is alsomoving on. Despite the un-demar-cated Sino-Indian border which wasa result of their war, now their bilat-eral trade is increasing day by dayand more understanding has devel-oped. Same is the case with Russiawhere there is no tension and mu-tual suspicions but are good partnerswithin the framework of ShanghaiCooperation Organization.

An important element of inter-national politics is the traditionalbalance of power. It has been strat-egy of the European Powers in an-cient, medieval and even in theCold War eras that a balance ofpower had to be created for bal-ancing a rising state. A rising Ger-many under the Bismarck andHitler, France under the Napoleonand Italy under the Mussolini havefaced the balancing tactic from theneighboring and surroundingstates, but the case of China is dif-ferent. China has the biggest mili-tary, biggest and fastest growingeconomy and nuclear status in itsregion, but still there is no balanceof power by the neighboring coun-tries against her. A question arisesthat why balance of power notiondoesn’t work in China’s case?What matters here is the hierarchi-cal order in East Asia, opposite ofthe European anarchical order, cre-ated by China in light of its deep-rooted relations and understandingwith neighbors. The same practiceBeijing is applying to the world.This is “Soft Power”.—The writer is Assistant Professorat IIU Islamabad.

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Dr Manzoor Afridi Email: manzoor_s01@yahoo.com

Voice of the People

Escape from hellHAFIZ MUNAIR AHMED

I am from Swat, Pakistan. I am avictim of Taliban brutality and wantthe authorities to know how Talibansare terrorozing the innocent. I wasImam of a local Masjid Quba from2001 - 2005. I was well known formy qirat e quran. My education isequivalent to Masters, my dealingswith local residents and religiousknowledge made me beloved amongthe residents. Tehrik e Nifaz e shariate Muhammadi members were al-ways coming to the masjid and tell-ing me to join their party, claimingthey need people like me popularamong the locals who can influenceothers to join there party. I alwaysrefused their invitation thereforetheir invitations became threat to mylife. They made my life a living hell.

Finally I ended up secretly es-caping Swat to Karachi and then toAmerica. they started dropping let-ters at mosque threatening to kill meif I do not join their brand of Islamand TNSM even after I left themosque. Local media in Swat likeChand, and Hum Awam also Awaze Sheher, published my ordeal manytime. I want Pak govenment to pro-vide security to me and my familyso one day I can visit home, manypeople I know either left Pakistanafter same treatment by TNSM orgot killed. Please help.—Swat

Are we notindependent?

ALI ASHRAF KHAN

The 1931 law quoted by FinanceMinister Ishaq Dar that allows tocollect a tax that has been proposedin a budget proposal even before thatproposal is discussed and approvedby the parliament and thus made intoa law is obviously a relict left be-hind by our colonial rulers and ex-ploiters who did not have to fear amature and independent parliamen-tary discussion on the budget. Un-der British rule many things includ-ing the budget were not in the dis-cretion of the Indians but the colo-nial state retained this power for it-self in order to be able to keep ex-ploiting the people and economy oftheir crown colony. Two hundredyears of colonial exploitation of In-dia and other colonies have GreatBritain made the world power. Thecosts for industrialization, scientificrevolution in the 18th and 19th cen-turies have been recovered fromBritish colonies. This has been un-derstood and criticized by Indiannationalist Dadabhai Naoroji asearly as 1901 in his book ‘Povertyand Un- British rule of India’ wherehe proved that poverty in India wasa creation of British exploitation.

One major aim of the anti-colo-nial struggle for independence of thedifferent branches of the nationalmovement was to get rid of suchexploitation but surely not to sub-stitute British exploitation and co-lonialism with indigenous one. Thelaw makers of the newly foundedPakistan should have done awaywith the colonial legislation longago; the failure to do so has pro-longed exploitation now by thebrown sahibs sitting in governmentand promoted poverty after 1947 asit had done before that date. Keep-ing in place colonial laws has pre-vented real independence of Paki-stan. Collecting a tax that is part ofa budget proposal which might ormight not be passed by the parlia-ment amounts to contempt of par-liament. What if in the course of thebudget discussion the GST raise isrejected and substituted by someother measure? Will the customersbe returned the illegally collectedpart of the GST?

Another example for the harmcolonial laws have done to the fab-ric of Pakistan is the FCR that haskept the tribal areas of Pakistan un-der colonial rule of the brown sahibs.One could find more examples forthis. Thus, there is a dire need tochange all colonial laws and substi-tute them by new ones that reallycould contribute to our indepen-dence, promote justice and fightpoverty. Until the time this can be

Indus delta & mega damsMUHAMMAD YOUSUF

There have been press statements about the dry state of Sindh delta and below Kotri passage of littlewater which, according to an estimate, ought to be 10 MAF in a year. The correct estimate of the

need of water below Kotri for the health of Indus basin has been estimated to be 4.6 MAF yearly, whichis only possible if a mega dam upstream is built to store the floodwater to be released the year round.Unfortunately, the Water Accord of 1991 laid down shares of all the provinces with Sindh and Punjabgetting 37 per cent each and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan getting 14 per cent and 12 per cent,respectively. But this was contingent upon building of the Kalabagh Dam to store the floodwater, whichlasts only for 70 days in a year. The result of not building the Kalabagh Dam and no hope of buildinganother mega dam in the rear future, we are forced to share water shortages in the same ratio as wasintended for future water storages. The diehard opposition of Sindh only stands in the way of providingsufficient water and power for all the provinces, while the irrigated crop area of the provinces remain ata level of 73 per cent in Punjab, 15 per cent in Sindh, seven per cent in Balochistan and five per cent inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, which would remain so. We would not be able to reap the benefits of a megaproject like the Kalabagh dam without the water shares allowed by the Water Accord of 1991, whichcannot be assured. What is required is mega dams.—Lahore

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Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

Afghan women MPs face backlash

It takes a lot to rattle ShukriaBarakzai, a staunch defender ofwomen’s rights and one of more

than 20 very outspoken women mem-bers of parliament in Afghanistan.But even though she’s run two suc-cessful parliamentary campaigns andhas taken on conservative membersof Afghan society, she is shocked byhow easily some male members ofparliament are now publicly threat-ening their female counterparts in themiddle of parliamentary meetings. “Amale member of parliament stood upin our general meeting and said par-liament is not a place for women,your time is up here, you must notpursue this fight for women’s rights,”says Ms. Barakzai.

For many of the Afghan womenleaders, dealing with sexism and dis-crimination isn’t anything new. Butwomen’s rights activists say that maleparliamentarians have recently inten-sified a war of words inside parlia-ment. It’s a war that many Afghanwomen worry echoes a greater issuein society and could reverse publictolerance and support for women’srights. “I’ve noticed the rhetoric

around women’s issues has changed,and conservative members of societyand parliament are once again feelingsafe to verbally attack women pub-licly,” says Barakzai. “The Afghangovernment isn’t doing anything aboutthese kinds of public threats and at-tacks on women. It is almost as if theyagree with the conservatives.”

The actions of the male parlia-mentarians are just one of many re-minders to Barakzai and other womenhere that as the international securityforces, foreign diplomats, and advo-cacy organizations prepare to leavethe country in 2014, Afghan womenwill be left without a key source ofsupport. “I feel like Afghan womenare right at the gate of realizing theircivil and political rights but the inter-national community is too busy pack-ing up to notice that these rights arealready starting to erode,” says HoriaMosadiq, a Human Rights Re-searcher for Amnesty International.

High levels of domestic violenceagainst women and the targeting ofwomen leaders by the Taliban andother armed groups only compoundmatters. The Afghanistan Indepen-dent Human Rights Commissiondocumented more than 4,000 casesof violence against women fromMarch 21 to Oct. 21, 2012 – a rise of

28 percent compared with the sameperiod for 2011. Though some of theincrease in violence is attributed togrowing public awareness and betterreporting of violence against women,it is still concerning, say activists.

Several women leaders werealso killed in 2012, including two di-rectors of the Department ofWomen’s Affairs, a branch of theAfghan government, in the easternprovince of Laghman. Both womenwere strong advocates for the equaltreatment of women.

In mid-May, conservative mem-bers of the Afghan parliament lashedout against a 2009 presidential de-cree that was signed into law byPresident Hamid Karzai on theElimination of Violence AgainstWomen (EVAW). They claimed thatthe EVAW law does not representthe fundamental tenets of Islamiclaw and is being imposed on Afghanwomen by Western countries.

The law is widely considered tobe one of the country’s biggest ac-complishments for women in thepast decade: It criminalizes 22 actsof violence against women, includ-ing marital rape and child marriage.But recently some conservativegroups, including male members ofparliament, have publicly said that

Views From Abroad

if Afghan women push for toomuch freedom, it will divide soci-ety and intensify the conflict.

However, the Ministry ofWomen’s Affairs, which is chargedwith most of the responsibility forimplementing this plan, is allocatedonly 0.1 percent of Afghanistan’s$6.8 billion national budget. “Whatthe Afghan government allocates forthe ministry of women’s affairs andwomen’s issues across all of theAfghan ministries is not enough. Westill need countries who are contrib-uting to Afghanistan’s national bud-get to allocate at least 25 percent oftheir contribution strictly forwomen’s issues,” says Barakzai.

Two years ago when the talksabout a 2014 withdrawal from Af-ghanistan were picking up in Kabul,some Afghan women leaders andactivists believed that the protectionof women’s rights would be a toppriority and a nonnegotiable part ofthe transition. But some leaders ofwomen’s nonprofits in Afghanistanreport that since late 2011, fundingfor critical programs supportingwomen’s shelters, advocacy cam-paigns, and education initiatives forwomen and girls have dried up.— Courtesy: The ChristianScience Monitor

done the old and harmful coloniallaws should not be practiced. MianNawaz Sharif is always’s portrayedas patriotic Pakistani. Surprisingly hisfinance minister who keeps IMFclose to his heart because of profes-sional needs has tried to educate par-liamentarians that we still follow1931 Act and are not an Independentcountry.—Karachi

UET admissionschedule

TAHIR MAHMOOD NADEEM

This is with reference to the adver-tisement of the University of Engi-neering and Technology (UET), ap-pearing in a section of the press, re-garding admission to BSc Engineer-ing in 2013-17 session. It has beenstated in the advertisement that ap-plications will be accepted from themiddle of July and admissionsfinalised by mid-August. The UETmanagement has advanced its sched-ule by about four weeks, as comparedto the last year’s.

This is very critical and needsurgent review as the official resultsof A level will be declared by the endof August and such students also needequivalence certificate from theIBCC which requires another two tothree weeks. So how the UET admin-istration is going to process the ad-mission applications of such appli-cants? I could not understand thelogic of advancing of this schedule,particularly when many A level stu-dents from abroad have to apply intheir homeland. I request the vice-chancellor of the UET and chairmanof the admission committee to reviewthe admission schedule in the lightof the result schedule of FSc and Alevel examinations and provide fornecessary equivalence documenta-tion. I hope the authorities concernedwould take due notice of this situa-tion and revise the admission sched-ule accordingly so that all talentedstudents get equal opportunity ofhigher education.—Jubail, Saudi Arabia

School vacationKHURRAM J KHAN

School students, especially those liv-ing in Karachi, are so unfortunate thatfor them summer vacation is anotherperiod of imprisonment in theirhomes. After months of studying hardnonstop, it is a pupil’s right to enjoythese vacations. But there is a con-tinuous fear of an act of terrorismwhich swallows all the happiness.Summer camps in the economicrange of a normal person are diffi-cult to locate.

This creates boredom, tensionand agony for students and nothinglooks better than viewing 24-hournews channels with news full of sor-rows. I think our country craves forpeace because our students are satis-fied in the state of harmony only.—Karachi

Improvingeducation

Z H EFFENDI

Sindh has fallen far behind the worldin terms of quality education, as thedemand for better schools is grow-ing rapidly while the supply of qual-ity schools is just not keeping pace.Million of children have missed theboat of formal education for one rea-son or another but mostly due to lackof resources. The overall goal mustbe to select the most literate fromamong them, approximately 10 percent or 500,000, and train them invocational training via Hunar centres.

The schoolgoing children areabout 10 million, out of which abouthalf are registered in governmentschools while the rest in various trustand private schools. Quality educationis imparted to some 10 per cent ofthem, say one million students. Therest are just carrying paper degreeswith little or no knowledge. The Sindhgovernment has about 300,000 em-ployees, with approximately 150,000teachers and 150,000 other schoolstaff, and spends an average Rs20,000per employee per month. This comes

Balochistan needs all of us!

BLA militants destroyed thehistorical landmark “Quaid-i-Azam Residency” in Ziarat,

Quetta. Three rockets fired betweenthe Friday-Saturday night which leftthe two-storey National Heritagecompletely ruined. A policeman gotkilled in this attack. Saturday after-noon; according to media reports,“Four Frontier Constabulary (FC)personnel & Deputy CommissionerMansur Kakar were martyred as aresult of a terrorist siege at BolanMedical Complex. According to re-ports four nurses were also amongstthose killed in the attack. Earlier, atleast 14 female students were killedin a blast which targeted the bus of awomen’s only university in the city.The improvised explosive device wasplanted inside the bus.”

With media reports slowly pour-ing in; the nation was told 25 peoplewere killed in terrorist attacks at awomen’s university bus & BolanMedical Complex on Saturday. As thevictims were being shifted to theBolan Medical Complex, a secondblast struck the emergency ward andseveral terrorists stormed the com-plex laying siege to it. Four FC per-sonnel, city’s DC and four nurseswere lost lives in the attack. The

Medico Legal Officer of Bolan Medi-cal Complex who was seriouslywounded in this attack later suc-cumbed to his injuries.

Pakistanis across the country &abroad who saw the events on televi-sion unfold were dumbstruck, frus-trated and angry on this inhuman at-tack. The scenes looked like thosefrom a battlefield somewhere in theMiddle East or Afghanistan. Themessages given in these attacks werequite simple to understand, the na-tional heritage and women of thiscountry along with men have novalue to the enemy. A foe that is hellbent to destroy the morale of this na-tion, bit by bit.

Alot has been written onBalochistan, enough statements havebeen hurled on media by politicians.A vague policy on this province willnot do anymore. The newly electedprovincial Government needs backup in actions & not words, we arealready too late. The stakeholdersnamely; the democratically electedgovernment, the leading political par-ties, Army, the interior ministry, theresponsible citizens of this country,media persons etc should sit together& find a unilateral solution, bring allon board and resolve this menace ofterrorism which is taking lives of in-nocent people. It is beyond time now,serious accountability of the crimi-nals must take place, a transparencyof changed policies must happen

NOW. Undefined policies createmisperception and allow the foreignforces to exploit the situation toimplement their long-term agendaagainst the state of Pakistan.

Majority of the Baloch (Baloch& Pakhtuns) want to stay or be partof Pakistan. What they demand is todevelop the province, create jobs likeall the other provinces of in the coun-try. GOP (Government of Pakistan)MUST start to complete developmentprojects in Balochistan which shouldinclude Education, health, industryetc. Pakistan Army has done a com-mendable job in Balochistan and as aresult in the last two years almost12000 Baloch have joined Pakistanarmy. With the democracy now inplace a professional army to back ci-vilian administration, Balochistanwill see rapid & positive develop-ments in the next few months.

There never was & never will beany truth in Balochistan breakingaway from Pakistan. The handfulSardars who only hold three districtsout of thirty are using Baloch youthto keep the province lawless are be-ing heavily backed by foreign ac-counts to break off from Pakistan.Killing Baloch nationalists and youthis not the panacea. They are beingsupplied by ammunition whichshould now be exposed to the world.Enough of vagueness. If you look allthroughout history, stakeholders haveto learn to sink their egos, agendas &

histories, recognise the commonissues that unite them.

Pakistan Government must con-fidently put the trouble makers onthe spot by proposing a coherentplan saying: “This is what we want.This is how we’re going to get fromhere to there”. They must show whatthey stand for. One should analyse& understand who is the beneficiaryof missing persons or else killing ofthe Baloch masses.

A socio-economic activity &development of the provincewould play a major role in calm-ing the situation. There is a direneed that representatives of federal& provincial governments alongwith responsible bureaucracy mustvisit the province physically toknow the real problems & to ad-dress grievances on spot. Thesevisits should not be restricted toQuetta or to meet the political al-lies, but meant to reach over tothose aggrieved parties, irrespec-tive of political affiliation. Thesegroups should have a mandate todecide things on ground & later inconsultation with the respectivegovernment should initiate long-term projects. The Baloch youth,irrespective of their education orqualification should be given jobsto absorb them in the larger Paki-stani society. Its time for action, forowing your own people, for givingthem what they rightfully deserve.

We’d bought a small flat recently and decided to giveit out on rent, so I put an

ad in the local paper and gave mytelephone number; I wish I’d givenmy name also. The phone rang.Hello!” said the lady, “we are inter-ested in your flat! What’s your goodname?”

I have never thought of myname as anything other than a namegiven to me by my parents most

probably under pressure from theirparents to name their first son afterboth the grandfathers. Had neverthought of it as good or bad for me,but had meekly accepted the ratherhigh sounding title and according tostories from uncles and aunts hadslept through the ceremony whenpriest had poured cold water on myhead while giving me my life longlabel. “Thank you,” I said. “What?”asked the caller on the other side.“Thank you for calling my namegood!” I said. “Sir you have not givenyour good name yet!” I told her whatit was. “Rabbit? It is a very goodname, like Deer and Lion. We alsocall our children Lion and Tiger!”

“Not Rabbit!” I shouted. “You

are shouting like Lion, you cannot beRabbit?” “I am not Rabbit!” I said,“please don’t call me Rabbit!” “I amsorry sir, what is your second goodname?” “What do you mean?” Iasked, “you want to make fun of thatalso?” “No, no sir, you are taking of-fense very fast, so I can call you byyour second good name!” “Do youmean my surname?” I asked. “Youare a lord?” “I am not a lord!” I saidangrily. “Then why you insist on sirname?”

I was about to put down thephone when I realized my job was toget a tenant for the flat and not argueabout how I was being called.“Okay,” I said and told her my sur-name. “What?” “Idiot!” I shouted as

What’s your good name?the wife walked in. “Who you yell-ing at?” she asked surprised. “You’llscare away people if you talk likethat!” The phone rang again and mywife picked it up. “Ofcourse,” shesaid, “you may see the flat, I’ll showit to you and then come over andhave a cup of tea with us. You’ll findmy husband quite an interestingman!” “Who’s it?” I asked.

“Some lady who’s coming over.Said she rang and a rabbit yelled ather!” “No!” I said, “I don’t wantanyone staying in my flat who can’tpronounce Robert and calls me rab-bit!” “Your good name’s given youa bad name..!” smiled the wife asthe doorbell rang.—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Halima Kazem

to a staggering amount of approxi-mately Rs70 billion a year. Further, on50,000 government school repairs andmaintenance, the government spendsabout Rs50,000 per school per monthwhich also comes to a staggeringamount of Rs30 billion.

The combined spending is aboutRs100 billion. Although all this ispaid by local taxpayers, the result andquality, in return of this Rs100 bil-lion, is not up to the mark in mostgovernment schools. Clearly, theSindh government needs to bringgreat improvement in this very im-portant department if it honestlywishes to win back its voters. A fewimportant steps required to bring im-provement are follows: Have theHEC identify all fake degree holdersin the education department and re-place them with properly qualifiedteachers. This will remove all ghostteachers and replace all fake teach-ers from the education departmentand give an opportunity for properqualified teachers to be hired instead.

NESPAK should identify all ghostschools in the education departmentand remove them immediately fromthe maintained list of active schools,and consolidate remaining schoolswith one- school, one- campus model.This will bring down governmentschools to about 1,000 per districtmaximum, all must be in concentratedpopulated areas, and will total about25,000 maximum Sindh governmentschools, and utilise the funds savedfrom 25,000 ghost schools on properfacilities of the remaining 25,000schools. What the Sindh governmentdoes in the next 30 days will deter-mine if it is setting the course in theright direction. Hope the chief minis-ter brings in the best persons.—Karachi

Caretaker PMaccountable

SALMAN MUNIR

The Supreme Court did rightly sus-pend (June 5) all postings and trans-fers made by the caretaker primeminister. Based on the reports of theministries concerned, the SupremeCourt must decide future course ofaction and hold the caretaker primeminister accountable for his ultravire actions, notwithstanding that hewas one of the brethren. This step isnecessary to send a message to allthat they must remain within theirdomains of power and act accord-ing to the law.

Unless we start holding peopleaccountable and punishing them onbeing found guilty, we will never beable to bring the rule of law in Paki-stan. In my view such an action willset the ball rolling for corrective ac-tion in PIA, Pakistan Railways, Pa-kistan Steel Mills, etc.—Karachi

BD shunsnuisance

SYED GULZAR JAMSHED

During my recent visit to Bangladesh,I did not find a single instance of us-ing plastic bags to carry any pur-chases. Even in small towns in thecountryside, only paper bags are used.Often such paper bags have the nameand address of the relevant outletprinted on them. And, while on thesubject, I may also mention that nobeggar blocked my path raising hisright hand forefinger to the sky ei-ther in Dhaka or in the interior.

During my one-month stay at atown, the only beggar I saw was apermanent fixture at the gate of theJamia Masjid. What happened to theswarms of beggars, both healthy andmaimed, who filled the streets in the‘good old days (of East Pakistan) thatare no more?’—Karachi

Quest for good governance

It is good and encouraging thatMian Nawaz Sharif, the newlyelected Prime Minister of Paki-

stan, has expressed his desire/deter-mination to establish good gover-nance in the country which is mostneeded and long awaited. The 2ndPresident of America had describedit “A government of laws and not ofmen”. Therefore, the rule of law, se-curity to the citizens, law and order,elimination of corruption, to ensurelivelihood to the citizens, is the basicneed to establish good governance.

Statutory appointments are themain cause and source of corrup-tion. These are such appointmentswhich are provided in the Federalor Provincial states and are to be

made by the respective gov-ernment with the approval ofits Chief Executive. In somestatutes like the Federal Pub-lic Service Commission Ordi-nance, 1077, and the ServicesTribunal Act, 1973, some

qualifications and minimum crite-ria is fixed for the appointment ofHead of the Organization.

There are some other statutorycorporations where no criteria is fixedfor appointment and the power ofappointment is exploited by the ap-pointing authority and instead ofmaking merit based appointments,some favorites who do not possessrequired qualifications and experi-ence in the relevant field are appoint-ment against such posts for extrane-ous considerations and the state hasto suffer huge losses due to such ap-pointments.

The cases of such appointmentsin OGRA, OGDC, NICL, ETPB canbe cited which are now under judi-

cial review in superior courts. SyedAsif Hashmi was similarly appointedas Chairman, Evacuee Trust PropertyBoard, Government of Pakistan,through notification dated 07.12.2003and under paragraphs 2 of the notifi-cation, terms and conditions of hisappointment were to be issued sepa-rately. According to the informationand knowledge of the author, suchterms and conditions were not issuedfor over four years when he resignedfrom this appointment for contestingthe election.

During this long period of overfour years, Syed Asif Hashmi playeda havoc in the Organization and hashardly left any evacuee trust propertyunencumbered although it has beenheld by the superior courts that it isthe duty of the state and the courts toprotect the evacuee trust properties.The Evacuee Trust Property Boardwas established in 1960 and till 1994,its Chairmen were always appointedfrom regular services. In 1994, a

politician was appointed to this highslot and since then the system de-railed. Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani,one of our former Prime Ministers,who took oath in 2008, through aletter by the Cabinet Division to theAdministrative Secretaries of otherMinistries held the top bureaucracyresponsible for bad governance, asit appeared in the newspapers on12th April, 2011. It is astonishingthat a person who was responsiblefor such illegal and non-merit basedappointments came to know of re-sultant had governance after almostthree years although it is known tothe general public.

It is, therefore, suggested thatminimum qualifications must beprovided in the statute and the ap-pointments should preferably bemade from regular service and itmust be ensured that the appoint-ment is merit based.—The writer is Lahore-basedAdvocate.

Ch Bashir AhmadEmail:smzlaw@yahoo.com

Ayesha Zee Khan Email: ayeshazeekhan@live.com

debutant in the corridors ofpower but have some experi-enced players like Jamaat -e-Islami as its junior partners. Thebudget was presented by the se-nior minster Siraj ul Haq of JIwho has the credit to have effec-tively presented many budgetsduring the MMA government.

“The people of KPK havevoted for change in the May 11general elections. While thechange in KPK is a ray of hopefor the poor people of the prov-ince, at the same time it’s a bigthreat and a problem for thepeople who are corrupt and inef-ficient and they would definitelybe held accountable for their mis-deeds”. The senior minister, whoalso holds the portfolio of fi-nance, told the house at the out-set of his speech adding the rul-ing coalition in KP would utilizeall its energies to establish exploi-tation free society where justicewould be the order of the day.

Siraj ul Haq said today theywanted to give this message tothe whole world and people ofPakistan that our coalition gov-ernment in the province wouldfollow the footprints of Riyasate Madina.

The finance minister declaredin the house that no new tax wasimposed in the budget nor anyupward or downward adjustmenthas been made in the provincialtaxes, however to bring improve-ment in the taxation system, re-forms process would be startedwith the establishment of KhyberPukhtunkhwa Revenue Authority.

Both total revenue receipts aswell as the expenditures for2013-14 have been pitched atRs.344 billion. Giving breakupof the receipts to be obtained dur-ing the next fiscal, he said, theprovince expected to getRs.198.269 billion from the fed-eration under various taxationheads which is eight percentmore than the current fiscal. Theprovince is likely to secureRs.23.823 billion as expendituresincurred during unrest in waragainst terror and it is also eightpercent more than the 2012-13.

The province, finance min-ister said, will get 24 percent in-crease from the oil and gas roy-alty it generated in southern dis-tricts which comes to Rs.27.495billion. Rs. 6 billion will be gen-erated from services on generalsales tax while the province ownreceipts stood at Rs.10.925 bil-lion including Rs.2.361 billionfrom the hydel power stations.

The Finance Minister saidthat Rs. 6 billion would be ob-tained as net hydel profit andRs.25 billion as arrears from thenet hydel profit during the year2013-14. The foreign aid com-ponent for the next year is con-sisted of Rs.35 billion andRs.720.70 million likely to begenerated from other miscella-neous resources.

He said the expenditures tobe incurred during the next fis-cal has also been estimated atRs.344 billion of which Rs.211billion have been allocated forcurrent revenue expenditureswhich are ten percent more thanthe outgoing fiscal.

Siraj ul Haq said that the to-tal outlay of the annual develop-ment plan is Rs.118 billion whichis 12 percent more than the cur-rent fiscal adding the new ADPconsisted of 983 projects includ-ing 609 ongoing and 374 new

Rs344b KP tax-free budgetFrom Page 1

schemes. We have allocated themaximum allocation for ongoingschemes in next year’s ADP sothat to provide its benefit to thepeople at the earliest and to re-duce the throw forward liability.

The foreign aid consisted ofRs.30.69 billion grants and onlyRs.4.30 billion loans on softterms and conditions, he told thehouse. “We are thankful to thefriendly countries and expecttheir cooperation in future too”,he added.

In order to ensure fiscal dis-cipline, the budget has been di-vided in three parts includingWelfare, Development and Ad-ministrative. The Welfare Bud-get comprises Rs.162.96 billionwhich is seven percent more thanthe current fiscal. Similarly de-velopment budget consisted ofRs.118 billion which is 17 per-cent higher than the outgoing fis-cal and administrative budgetconsisted of Rs.63.3 billionwhich is 14 percent more than thecurrent fiscal year.

The government, Siraj ulHaq said, despite limited re-sources of the province an-nounces to increase salaries andpension of the employees by 15percent from July 2013. Theminimum limit of the pension isbeing increased from Rs.3000 toRs.5000. The Government willbear additional burden of Rs.12billion due to increase in salariesand pension.

Similarly the minimum wageis being enhanced to Rs.10000from 2013-14 and givingmonthly wage below Rs.10000would be considered a punish-able offence. The governmentwould implement the reformsbeing introduced in minimumwages, he told the house.

While a record massive al-location has been made for edu-cation sector which is Rs.66.60billion, a sum of Rs.22.80 billionhave been allocated for healthsectors followed by Rs.23.78 bil-lion for police department,Rs.3.12 billion for Irrigation de-partment, Rs.1.97 billion for pro-motion of technical educationand manpower training, Rs.2.91billion for agriculture sector,Rs.1.27 billion for environment,Rs.4.93 billion for communica-tion and works sector, Rs.24 bil-lion for pension and Rs.2.50 bil-lion for subsidy on wheat andRs.11.16 billion for debt clear-ance.

Our coalition government,the finance minister said, got onlytwo weeks-time for budget mak-ing and we could not find timeto minutely review the state ofeconomic indicators. The laworder situation in previous gov-ernment was in shamble, the paceof industrial development, pro-cess of reconstruction and upliftwas slow resultantly the educatedlot had got less chances of em-ployment.

“Our region remain at theverge of destruction, he said add-ing we will end this war and an-nounce a new war against cor-ruption, unrest, poverty, and in-justice in the province”, he added.He said that we agree that stateof provincial economy was notacceptable and the provincialeconomy had become stagnant.If we want that our province toprogress then we have to ensureeconomic growth and assured thehouse that we will take growthrate to seven percent during next

three years. The elimination ofpoverty, provision of maximumfacilities to the poor segment ofthe society and development ofbackward districts are three ba-sic priority areas of the presentcoalition government of KPK.

The Finance Minister saidthat to achieve these goals, thegovernment would establishgood governance by evolvingcomprehensive polices in all thesectors and profit earning sectorslike services, energy, and indus-try etc. would be developed in amanner to play key role in theeconomic prosperity. He said thatwe will ensure to achieve themillennium development goalsby 2015.

Sirajul Haq said that admin-istrative matters would be madesubservient to principles of jus-tice and cost of business wouldbe considerably reduced. Thepoverty ratio would be broughtto half of the present ratio in nextthree years, he said adding, cit-ies would be made hub of devel-opment activities and an environ-ment conducive for investmentwould be created for the inves-tors so that they come here with-out any fear.

Through Finance bill,Khyber Pukhtunkhwa RevenueAuthority (KPRA) would besetup to ensure tax collection onscientific basis. Sales Tax on Ser-vices is being received through avague ordinance which gave noguarantee to the tax payer.Through Finance Act, the saidordinance invoked since 2000would be repealed through acomprehensive system whichwould be tax payer friendly.

The KPK Government on thebasis of fee back it received fromthe people has proposed infra-structure cess in the finance billfor 2013-14 to restore the roadinfrastructure damaged due to useof heavy vehicles for export andimport purposes. He also an-nounced giving five years moreexemption on the property tax tothe industrial units keeping inview the massive load shedding,unrest and decline in the indus-trial pace in the province.

The finance minister saidthat establishing simple style ofruling, elimination of luxuriousspending, reconstruction ofschools on war footings, revivalof damaged infrastructure, con-struction of new hydel power sta-tions to get rid of load shedding,protection of the rights of the la-borers, abolition of VIP culture,free treatment of poor patients inthe hospitals, protection to wor-ship places of minorities and pro-vision of funds of local bodieselections would be the main pri-orities of the KPK government.

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rahman chairing a briefing with national ICT R&D fund on the research regardingnext generation technology on Monday.

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Rs 871b Punjab budget for2013-14 unveiled

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will be made public and pre-sented before the house, assur-ing nothing will be hidden in it.The interior minister said thatcrime rate in Ziarat is very low.He said the people of the areaare very peaceful. He said dur-ing his visit to Ziarat, he ex-pressed the desire to replicatethe law and order situation ofZiarat in other parts of the coun-try.

The Minister, in responseto acknowledgement from oppo-sition benches, assured that eachand every development with re-gard to investigations would beshared and he would continuetaking guidance from the worthymembers.

Ch Nisar said with regard toformation of new interior policy,he has called a meeting of all at-tached departments and civilarmed forces here on June 20 andadded he would do utmost to fur-ther enhance honour of the par-liament.

He said all the resolutionspassed jointly by the parliamentwould be implemented as thegovernment of Pakistan MuslimLeague-N would become voiceof every Pakistani. About thedamage to Quaid’s residency inZiarat, the Minister said it wasalso accidentally damaged in2008 earthquake.

Its concrete structure is nowsafe but the wood structure gotdamaged due to recent fire. Hesaid experts have already reachedZiarat for repair of the residencywhich, he hoped, would be com-pleted within three or fourmonths.The Minister said the photo-graphs and other belongings ofQuaid-e-Azam kept in the Mu-

seum are also safe and sound.He said the Federal gov-

ernment wanted to take respon-sibilities of national monumentsand other cultural sites in thecountry and in this regard hewould soon visit provinces fortalks with provincial authoritiesfor the safety and preservation ofthese sites.

The Minister said the gov-ernment would ensure all supportto provinces and adopt measuresin consultation with provinces tothwart incidents like Ziarat in fu-ture.

Ch Nisar also called for en-hanced cooperation among Fed-eral government and provincesand added the new policy wouldmeet the set objectives positively.

Earlier, informing the Houseabout the initial probe, he said inZiarat the other watchmen arealso under investigation and theirconduct after the terrorist act hasbeen questioned. He said the ini-tial investigation report revealedthat the students van was not ex-ploded with remote controlbomb, rather it was the incidentof suicide bombing and suicidebomber was a female. Furtherprobe on this point is in progress.Ch. Nisar Ali Khan said the ba-sic objective of this regime is toestablish peace in Balochistanand other troubled areas of thecountry through dialogues andending deprivation of people andin this regard all necessary mea-sure are being adopted.

The Minister spoke highabout Deputy Commissionerwho was martyred in the Quettaincident and said he was dedi-cated and committed officerwhose services for the countrywould be acknowledged.

About Bolan medical com-plex attack, Nisar Ali Khan saidfour persons were involved in it.He said the suicide attack carriedout on University bus was report-edly carried out by a woman.

He said about twentyfour persons were martyred andthirty four injured in Quetta at-tacks. Four militants were killedand one was arrested. The Interior Minister said allarrangements will be made toprotect the lives and propertiesof the people in Balochistan andother parts of the country. He saidwe want to restore peace andcourse of dialogue will be pursedfor this purpose. The Interior Minister saidthat he will also visit Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh to talkwith the Chief Ministers andGovernors and Federal Govern-ment will ensure full support toprovinces in terms of intelligencesharing, police force, rangers andFC.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khantold the House that Prime Minis-ter Nawaz Sharif is planning toconvene a high level meeting totake input of all political leader-ship of the country on securityissues of the country.

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insafleader Shah Mehmood Qureshiassured his party’s full support togovernment in solving law andorder situation and demanded toensure action against all involvedin these incidents without dis-crimination.

Opposition leader KhurshidShah termed the recent terroristsactivities in Balochistan as fail-ure of intelligence agencies. Heassured his party’s full support tocombating law and order chal-lenges of the country.

Achakzai sought the with-drawal of the army from FATAand claimed that Pakistan was in-terfering in Afghanistan. ThePkMAP chief blamed the armedforces for allowing militants inFATA and said the policy of goodand bad Taliban needs to bestopped. “US is not mad in car-rying out millions worth in dronestrikes, it is true that we are in-terfering in Afghanistan-the timeis limited—entire world has be-come our enemy-the allegationsleveled against us have beenproved-Osama was caught fromnear the SSB Training Academy-we sold the nuclear bomb andneighbouring countries includingChina are not happy with us.”Achakzai added that he wouldquit the assembly, if the establish-ment was not reined in by 2/3years. Pakhtoonkhwa AwamiMilli Party leader was of the viewthat Col. Imam, former intelli-gence officer, had revealed giv-ing training to 95,000 people.

“Everyone in the world isagainst us, even China! UnitedStates is not a fool to use droneattacks in Pakistan”, he added.

“We need to keep US in con-fidence for talks with Taliban andit should be a part of the dia-logue,” Achakzai further said.

“As long as dialogue contin-ues, the drone attacks should re-mained terminated,” he stressed.

However, on a point of order,objected by a lawmaker, Achakzaitook back his words “go to hell”for assembly. Achakzai said thatUS should also be involved in thetalks with Taliban and during thetalks, the missile attacks should bestopped. He also demanded de-weaponization of the agencies’groups also.—INP

government’s resolve to furtherconsolidate and strengthen rela-tions with the US on the basis ofmutual trust and mutual respect.

The Prime Minister under-scored the need to strengthen theStrategic Dialogue between bothcountries. He also emphasizedupon the importance of regularhigh level exchanges between thetwo sides in order to build onmutual interests and shared goals.

The Prime Minister and Sec-retary Kerry discussed the re-gional situation. Secretary Kerryprovided an update on the recentdevelopments and expressed ap-preciation for Pakistan’s positiverole in advancing peace and sta-bility in the region.

Meanwhile, Secretary Generalof the Organization of Islamic Co-operation Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglufelicitated Prime Minister MianMuhammad Nawaz Sharif on as-sumption of the high office of thePrime Minister for the third timeand termed it a manifestation of thetrust, admiration and belief of thenation in his leadership. Accord-ing to Foreign Office, in his mes-sage, Ihsanoglu expressed confi-dence in the continued support ofPakistan to the OIC which will bea source of strength and inspira-tion to the Organization in its ef-forts to assist the member statesin overcoming the challengesfaced by the Muslim Ummah.

Ihsanoglu also conveyed hisbest wishes for progress andprosperity of Pakistan and itspeople under the leadership of thePrime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

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Anusha briefed onnext generation

technology researchISLAMABAD—Minister of Statefor Information Technology,Anusha Rahman here Mondaychaired a briefing session withthe National ICT R&D fund onthe research done in the next gen-eration technology.

According to a statementissued here, some already com-pleted projects were discussedfor operationalization and poten-tial commercialization. It wasdiscussed how government canfurther facilitate effective utili-zation of researched and devel-opment already conducted in IT& T sector by R&D funding.

The meeting was attended bysenior officials of the Ministryand ICT R&D fund.—APP

Mujtaba said that budget alsoincludes Rs 5 billion subsidy forthe coming month of Ramadan.He announced Rs 82 billion wereallocated for heatlh and Rs 210for education. He said three bil-lion rupees have been allocatedfor improving the transport sys-tem. He said the AashiyanaHousing Scheme will be ex-panded to other parts of province.

He said Punjab will receivean amount of 702 billion onehundred twenty million rupeesunder the divisible resources un-der the NFC Award. The budgetseeks a ten percent increase in thesalaries of government employ-ees and recommends that theminimum wage for labuorers beraised to Rs 10,000.

An amount of Rs 290 billionhas been allocated for develop-ment projects while Rs 169 bil-lion will be collected from pro-vincial taxes. The provincial gov-ernment has allocated Rs 210 bil-lion for education, Rs 82 billionfor health and Rs 13 billion foragriculture. Rs 93 billion havebeen allocated for law and orderand the police and Rs 110 billionfor general administration. Socialservices will receive Rs 90.78billion. Rs 93 billion have beenallocated for law and order andthe police and Rs 110 billion forgeneral administration. Socialservices will receive Rs 90.78billion and Rs 20.43 billion forthe energy sector

Provincial Finance Minister,Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman un-veiled the Rs 871 billion budgetfor fiscal year 2013-14 on Mon-day. The budget seeks a ten per-cent increase in the salaries ofgovernment employees and rec-ommends that the minimumwage for labuorers be raised toRs 10,000. The Punjab govern-ment has pitched the size of De-velopment Programme 2013-14at Rs. 290 billion which is 100billion higher than last year’s re-vised size of developmentprogramme 1012-13. The impor-tant features and new initiativesincluded in ADP 2013-14 are:1. Adequate funding for foreignaided and mega projects2. Allocation of Rs. 88 billion forsocial sectors investments withmajor focus on education (Rs.25.4 billion ) and health (Rs. 18.3

billion)3. Allocation of Rs. 20.5 billionfor investment in the energy sec-tor to overcome power shortagesin the province.4. Regional balance in allocationof resources with extra weight forless developed districts5. Continued focus on undertak-ing projects that can be com-pleted within one / two years incontrol throw forward.6. Continued strategic interven-tions in large cities to realize theirpotential as engines of growthand enabling medium and en-abling medium cities to share theurbanization pressure.7. Allocation of Rs. 25 billion forwomen empowerment initiatives8. Allocation of Rs. 13 billion forSouthern Punjab DevelopmentProgramme9. Allocation of Rs. 7.5 billionfor subsidy to farmers on SolarTube wells,10. Allocation of Rs. 5 billion forEstablishment of New IndustrialCity Economic Zone.

As per budget document, anamount of Rs 8692.302 millionwill be spent on On GoingSchemes while Rs 8307.698 mil-lion have been set aside for newschemes in 2013-14. The breakup of budgetary allocations forOn Going Schemes are: Rs793.375 million for preventiveand primary healthcare, Rs1635.113 million for acceleratedprogramme for healthcare, Rs4538.931 million for tertiary carehospitals, Rs 1405.369 millionfor medical education, Rs280.686 million for Research andDevelopment, Rs 38.828 millionfor devolved projects.

The details of budgetary al-locations for new schemes are:Rs 2050.000 million for preven-tive and primary healthcare, Rs142.000 million for acceleratedprogramme for healthcare, Rs641.26 million for tertiary carehospitals, Rs 18.429 million formedical education, Rs 30.000million for Research and Devel-opment, Rs 150.000 million forpopulation welfare and Rs5276.000 million under BlockAllocation. As per budget docu-ment, the Punjab governmentwill spend an amount of Rs97,374, 839 million on healthsector including the expenditure

to be incurred by the DistrictGovernments. Allocation of Rs7627.844 million has been madein Financial Year 2013-14 forprovision of free medicines inpublic sector hospitals.

An amount of Rs 44,629.627million has been allocated for thehealth department in the budget2013-14 as against Rs 35,656.545million in 2012-13 representing anincrease of 25% over the budgetestimates of current fiscal yearsupport to Punjab government inimplementation of health sectorstrategy through Punjab HealthSector Reform Programme. Inthe year 2013-14, three moremedical colleges are to be com-pleted in 2013-14. In order tomaintain quality of drugs and pu-rity of foods, drug and food test-ing labs are being set up atRawalpindi and Faisalabad apartfrom upgradation of drug testinglabs at Lahore and Multan.

The Punjab government hasactively embarked upon imple-mentation of the ADB-assistedRenewable Energy DevelopmentSector Investment Program(REDSIP) for construction offive hydropower projects atMarala (Sialkot), Chianwali(Gujranwala), Deg Out Fall(Sheikhupura), Pakpattan(Pakpattan), Okara (Okara) withcumulative installed potential of25MW and annual generation of140GWh.

Out of these execution con-tracts under International Con-tract Bidding (ICB) for Marala(7.64MW), Pakpattan(2.82MW), Dag Outfall(4.04MW), and Chianwali(5.38MW) have been awardedand the contracting joint ventureshave started detailed designing toundertake these turnkey projects. Further, feasibility appraisalsare completed for developmentof five additional hydropowersites at barrages and canal sys-tems (Khanki and Qadirabad bar-rages and LCC, UCC and QBLink Canals) to have total in-stalled capacity of 55MW withannual energy generation. Under a separate initiative, adetailed technical feasibilitystudy has also been planned toharness 120MW generation po-tential at the Tunsa barragethrough private sector.

come to Rs 322 billion; revenuefrom the indigenous resources ofthe province would come to Rs120 billion.

The CM said that the govern-ment had allocated Rs 315 bil-lion for meeting the non-devel-opment expenditures and Rs 229billion would be for developmentschemes.

The increase in salaries ofpublic servants would be 15 per-cent for the servants from grade1 to 15 while those falling ingrade 16 and above would beentitled for 10 percent increasein their monthly pay. The mini-mum pension limit was also in-creased to Rs 5000.

For the education sector, theprovincial government had allo-cated Rs 110 billion and Rs 13.56billion would be spent for theprevention of Malaria, Dengueand Hepatitis. Police would getRs 48.63 billion while 20,000 to40,000 cops would be recruited.Rs 1.4 billion, Rs 100.70 million,Rs 24 billion, Rs 950 million andRs 500 million had been allo-cated for information Technol-ogy, renovation of SindhGovernor’s House, Sindh ForestDepartment, Sindh Excise andTaxation Department and SindhFood Department respectively.

The pecuniary allocations forthe Thar Coal Project would beRs 32 billion for the current fis-cal year and Rs 11 billion hadbeen allocated for the distributioncompanies. Rs 2 billion would bespent on the deserving peopleunder the Benazir Income Sup-port Programme. Sindh govern-ment would establish low-costhousing schemes while the de-serving people living in urbanSindh would be given 50,000plots for homes free of cost.

Rs 185 billion had been al-located for annual developmentprogramme (ADP), which wasinclusive of Rs20 billion from thedistrict ADP. Thus the total vol-umes of funds for the ADP wereonly Rs 4 billion above the allo-cations of the previous fiscal year.

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Quetta that targeted a hospitaland the women’s universitySardar Bahadur Khan. France iscollaborating with this universitythrough a need-based fellowshipfor excellence program. “Franceshares the grief of the victims’loved ones and reiterates its fullsupport to the Pakistani popula-tion confronted with terrorism,”the spokesman added.

Mehmood Khan Achakzai askedthe government to announce jointstrategy to eliminate terrorismfrom the country.

He said the whole nationwanted to see country peaceful.Awami Muslim League leaderSheikh Rashid appreciated theefforts of the government forimproving law and order situa-tion in Balochistan.

“It looks that the govern-ment is serious to improve lawand order and it was welcom-ing steps that interior ministervisited Balochistan,” he added.However, he asked the govern-ment to devise a mechanism tohandle situation after withdrawalof US troops from Afghanistan.

MNA of Jamaat-e-IslamiZubaida Tariq said “we condemnterrorist acts in Balochistan andassure full support to the govern-ment to eradicate terrorism fromthe country.”—APP

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from July 1.The committee meeting was

presided over by its chairpersonSenator Nasreen Jalil. The par-ticipants of the meeting opposedthe increase in the sales tax aswell as 10 percent raise in thesalaries of government employ-ees. They said that the salary in-crement for the government em-ployees was not sufficient.

The minister told the meet-ing that the sales tax could bedecreased if the government wasable to manage taxes up to Rs60billion through taxes.

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opposition to the treasurybenches. A day earlier, a PakistanPeople’s Party delegation led byRehman Malik had visited theMQM headquarters Nine Zeroand invited the MQM to join theSindh government.

During his address the MQMchief claimed that not even asingle terrorist was killed duringthe operation at the Bolan Medi-cal Complex in Quetta.

“It seems as if either the ter-rorists escaped or were allowedto escape”, said he.

The MQM chief questioned:Why were LeJ, LeT and TTP ter-rorists roaming freely while hisparty was in the line of a state-sponsored fire. Altaf Hussain saidhe would file petitions with theUN and Chief Justice of Pakistanover the killing of MQM work-ers in Karachi.

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policy with the cooperation ofall four provincial governmentsand establishment to put an endto US drone attacks.

Pakistan has long been pub-licly opposing US drone strikesin its northwestern tribal regionnear Afghan border. Islamabadsays the strikes are counterpro-ductive and fuel extremism in thecountry which has been battlingmilitants for almost a decade.

However, the US continuesto hit Pakistan’s restive tribalbelt claiming that the militantshave safe havens in the region.

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attacks in Quetta. The attackskilled as many as 25 people wasclaimed by the banned militantgroup Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and theBalochistan Liberation Army.

On Saturday, Quaid-i-AzamMuhammad Ali Jinnah’s resi-dency in Ziarat was destroyed inan attack by the BLA. A police-man who was deployed at theresidency was killed. Hours later,a bus carrying girl university stu-dents was blown up and a subse-quent attack was carried out atthe hospital where the injuredpassengers were taken.

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LONDON: Andy Murray claimed his third title of the Queen’s Club grass court event ashe completed his preparation for Wimbledon with victory over Marin.

CARDIFF—England do notmake life easy for themselvesin knockout tournaments, butthey secured their passage tothe Champions Trophy semi-finals through a collectivelyimpressive performance fromthe bowlers which followed abrisk innings from AlastairCook after the weather hadthreatened to leave their hopesin Australia’s hands.

But even as England wereheaping pressure on NewZealand’s top order as theychased 170 in 24 overs, theweather still loomed. Rain,which had caused a five-hourdelay after the toss, was creep-ing over the Bristol Channeland although the chase wasbehind the rate, if the matchhad been abandoned before20 overs New Zealand wouldhave gone through and En-gland would have needed afavour from Australia on Mon-day.

The 20th over, sent downby the peerless James Ander-son, itself included more dramawhen Corey Anderson, whowas added to New Zealand’ssquad on the morning of thematch as a replacement forGrant Elliott, appeared to injurehis calf after aborting a run andspent several minutes receiv-ing treatment which did not im-press Ashley Giles and DavidSaker on the England balcony.

Still, even after Andersonhad completed the over therecould have been another twist.Tim Bresnan conceded 19 inthe next over as KaneWilliamson, who made a brave67 off 54 balls, and Andersontook their partnership to 73before Williamson skied tocover off Stuart Broad whoseheel was ruled, by the thirdumpire, to be fractionally be-hind the line. It was a mightytight call.

England’s new-ball bowl-ing had soon made the chaseappear far more daunting thansome envisaged after their lastseven wickets fell for 28 in 34balls. Anderson set the tonewith a three-over opening spell

Cook, bowlers see Englandthrough to semi-final

of testing pace and movementwhich accounted for the hap-less Luke Ronchi and MartinGuptill in the space of threeballs in the fourth over.

When Ross Taylor waspinned lbw by Bresnan - hisuse of DRS did not save him -New Zealand were 27 for 3 andtheir hopes rested on BrendonMcCullum. But none of thebatsmen could get hold ofEngland’s attack.

Ravi Bopara, proving al-most impossible to score off,was able to hustle through fiveovers for 26 and whenMcCullum pulled him to deepsquare-leg, where Joe Root helda brilliant low catch, NewZealand’s chances of winninghad taken an almost terminalhit. For a short while it appearedthey were playing for rain, andthe abandonment, with the

new batsmen not exactlyspeeding to the wicket untilWilliamson and Andersongave it one, final, forlorn effort.

New Zealand had ap-peared to claim a significantadvantage when they won thetoss, but the fact that thematch was completed to theadjusted length without fur-ther interruption, and thereforethe need for Duckworth-Lewiswas erased, meant England didnot suffer in the way that canbe the case when run chasesare reduced after further rain.

But it was still tricky to as-sess what a matchwinning to-tal would be batting first. ThatEngland had solid progress for18 overs was down to theircaptain. The one format Cookdoes not play for England isTwenty20, but that does notmean he doesn’t want to and

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan AirForce won the ‘All PakistanCDA Kabaddi Cup’organised by Capital Devel-opment Authority (CDA).

According to a statementissued here on Monday,Member AdministrationCDA, Munir AhmedChaudhry awarded cashprize of Rs 50,000/- andwinner’s trophy to the victo-rious of the final match. Paki-stan Army stood runner upin and received Rs.40,000/-cash prize and runner up tro-phy.

All Pakistan CDAKabaddi Cup was partici-pated by prominent teamsfrom all over the Pakistan andresidents spectated sensa-tional kabaddi matches.

Kabaddi tournament re-RECIFE—World championsSpain got their Confedera-tions Cup campaign off to awinning start with a 2-1 winover South American cham-pions Uruguay in the north-ern Brazilian city of Recife.

The Spaniards domi-nated throughout but afterPedro Rodriguez’s deflectedopener had cause to be grate-ful to Roberto Soldado’s32nd-minute clincher as LuisSuarez netted a late freekickfor the Uruguayans.

Although the Uruguay-ans came closer to pinchinga point than they deserved,Spain coach Vicente DelBosque was exultant after-wards as his side laid thefoundation for reaching thelast four from a group alsocontaining Uruguay and min-nows Tahiti. “These are threemagnificent points whichstand us in great stead whenit comes to reaching the semi-finals,” said Del Bosque. “Itwas a great match played outin conditions which sappedthe players’ strength,” headded, referring to the warm,humid weather. “We domi-nated almost the wholematch but the margin was aslim one in the event. At 2-0we thought we had it won

Spain down Uruguayin Confed Cup

already and we stepped offthe gas a little.”

Uruguay counterpart Os-car Tabarez said: “Spain weresuperior and they deservedto win - we lacked a bit of dis-cipline. In the second half itwas a little more balanced aswe dug deep to play for ourpride.”

Cesc Fabregas camewithin the width of a postfrom giving Spain the lead inthe 10th minute with a lowstrike before the favouritesmade the breakthrough afterjust 20 minutes — Lady Lucksmiling on them as DiegoLugano deflected homePedro’s shot to bamboozlekeeper Fernando Muslera.

As is their habit, Spainwere giving the Uruguayansalmost no chance to touchthe ball in the opening quar-ter and Xavi almost made ittwo when he sent a freekickwhizzing just off target after26 minutes.

Without the ball, Uru-guay grew frustrated and re-sorted to some strong-armtactics as first EdinsonCavani earned a booking forclattering into Sergio Ramosas they challenged for aheader.

Ramos responded by

shoving Gaston Ramirez be-fore Uruguayan CristianRodriguez caught Jordi Albawith his elbow.

Suarez, in the news for in-timating he would be partialto a move from Liverpool toReal Madrid, tried to rally theCeleste, who qualified for thisevent by winning the 2011Copa America in Argentina,finding Cavani with a freekick,but the latter’s header wastoo close to Iker Casillas.

Del Bosque elected tokeep faith with his veterankeeper despite Casillas miss-ing a chunk of the secondhalf of the season with a handinjury — once he had recov-ered the then Real coach JoseMourinho left him on thebench. After 32 minutes itwas 2-0 courtesy of beauti-ful vision from Fabregas,who shimmied away from twodefenders, then played inSoldado, who took one touchbefore drilling the ball intothe roof of the net.

Uruguay made a change atthe break with Ramirez givingway to Alvaro Gonzalez butSpain were still on fire as Xaviand Iniesta interlinked bril-liantly before Xavi’s flick fedPedro and his cross just eludedthe diving Soldado.—Online

WAH CANTT: Group of Squash players with Col (R) Inam Ullah Khan, Vice President POF Sports Control Board on the eveof inaugural ceremony of the Pakistan International Squash Circuit-II 2013 at POF Jahangir Khan Squash Complex.

LONDON—Andy Murray wascrowned king of Queen’s Clubfor the third time as the worldnumber two roared back todefeat defending championMarin Cilic 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 inSunday’s final.

Murray was pushed hardby the Croatian fifth seed, butthe US Open champion re-sponded to the challenge withthe kind of classy display thatbodes well with Wimbledonjust eight days away.

Murray is king of Queen’sfor third time

He picked up a cheque for£73,315 (86,300 euros) for hislatest triumph at the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event,but more importantly his domi-nant week’s work served as theperfect preparation ahead ofhis latest bid to end Britain’slong wait for a male winner ofthe singles’ title at the All En-gland Club.

The 26-year-old’s thirdsuccessful Queen’s campaignin five years, following previ-

ous victories in 2009 and 2011,took his career haul of ATPTour titles to 27 and ended hiswait for a first tournament winsince the Miami Masters inMarch.

However, Murray, whostarted the week concerned byhis fitness after a lower backinjury forced him to miss theFrench Open, will hope a firstset tumble that left him brieflyclutching his groin in painproves nothing serious.

“It’s been extremely wetand I just slipped. I was a bitsore in the groin area, thank-fully it wasn’t too bad,”Murray told the BBC.

“Marin’s one of the bestgrass-court players in theworld. We had a lot of closematches and I was lucky tocome through at the end be-cause he was playing suchgood tennis.”

Cilic added: “Andyshowed he’s a great fighter andcongratulations to him for hiswin here.

“It was an extremely goodweek for me. I hope I can con-tinue my good form and comeback next year.”

Murray has dominated ongrass over the last year, reach-ing his first Wimbledon finaland taking the gold medal inthe London Olympics at the AllEngland Club by thrashingRoger Federer.

He had also won eight ofhis previous nine meetingswith Cilic and looked unfazedby the rain delayed start whenplay finally got underway threehours later than scheduled.

Setting the tempo from thebaseline, Murray cleverlypushed the world number 12out of position as he drove ablistering forehand to break inthe second game.

However, the Scot wasn’table to make the most of hisearly momentum. Cilic was go-ing for the lines to good effectand he broke when a forehandfrom the Scot smashed into thenet on the third break point ofa pivotal game at 4-2.—AFP

ISLAMABAD: Member Administration CDA, Munir Ahmed Chaudhry awarded cash prize of Rs 50,000 and winner’strophy to captain of PAF team.

Air Force win ‘All PakistanCDA Kabaddi Cup’

CARDIFF: Alastair Cook sweeps to the leg side during England vs New Zealand Cham-pions Trophy Group A match.

mained continued for twodays.

PAF won the title of AllPakistan CDA Kabaddi Cupby scoring 49 points.

Irfan, Mansha, WaqasButt, Sajid and Mustafa ex-hibited marvelous game andcontributed to the victory oftheir team.

The Runner up team, Pa-kistan Army scored 31points. Muhammad Sajid,Matloob Ali, Rana Ali Shahidand Afzal Bajwa gave toughcompetition to the winningteam.

While addressing to theconcluding ceremony Mem-ber Admin CDA, MunirAhmed Chaudhry said thaton the directions of ChairmanCDA, Syed Tahir ShahbazSports and Culture Director-

ate of the Authority orga-nized this Kabaddi competi-tion in order to providehealthy entertainment to theresidents of the Federal Capi-tal.

He thanked the teams fortheir participation in CDAKabbadi Cup and appreci-ated the game and sportsmanspirit of the players. Hegreeted the winning team onits victory.

He said that CDA wasplanning to organize differ-ent cultural and sports ac-tivities to provide healthyrecreational opportunities toresidents.

Two days All PakistanCDA Kabaddi Cup was par-ticipated by Kabaddi teams ofPAF, Pakistan Army, Pakistannavy, and Islamabad.—APP

he showed what a completeall-round batsman he has be-come with 64 off 47 balls

Quite extraordinarily, hewas dropped three times andall three chances were shelledby Nathan McCullum. Therewere two misses at midwicketwhen Cook has 14 and 37 and,the simplest, at backwardpoint on 45. McCullum even-tually held a return catch offthe England captain whichheralded an upturned in hisfortunes. He ended the in-nings having held fourchances. For the first time inan ODI innings Cook hit morethan one six. But England couldnot finish with a flourish asKyle Mills, who became theleading wicket-taker in Cham-pions Trophy history, andMitchell McClenaghan sharedseven wickets.—AFP

Pakistan Int’lSquash Circuit-IIChairman POFTrophy startsSPORTS REPORTER

WAH CANTT—Pakistan In-ternational Squash Circuit-II2013 for Chairman POF Tro-phy has commenced at POFJahangir Khan Squash Com-plex.

The event to be concludedon June 23 that carries a cashprize of 10 thousand US dollarsis being held under the aus-pices of POF Sports ControlBoard.

Col (R) Inam Ullah Khan,Vice President POF Sports Con-trol Board inaugurated the pre-qualifying round of the tourna-ment.

International RefereeFaheem Gul, Secretary POFBoard Control Board AmanUllah Khan and a large numberof players and spectators wit-nessed the inaugural ceremonyof the tournament.

A spokesman of POF saidthat the event the internationallevel tournament had been or-ganized on the special instruc-tions of Chairman POF Boardin order to promote the soft im-age of Pakistan at Internationallevel.

Final of the Tournament willbe played on 23rd June atJahangir Khan Squash Com-plex, Wah Cantt.

Aqeel to faceunseeded Imran inTennis C’ship final

ISLAMABAD—Top seedAqeel Khan will faceunseeded Imran Shaukat forthe top honour in the men’ssingles final of MahfoozSafar National Ranking Ten-nis Championship 2013 onTuesday at PTF Tennis Com-plex, Islamabad.

Aqeel Khan was in excel-lent form and defeated thirdseed Muhammad Abid ofLahore in a well fought two-set match. Aqeel built up thewinning lead 4-1 by breakingfirst and third game of Abidin which the latter made fourdouble faults.

However, Abid foughtback and leveled the score fourall by breaking 6th and 8thgame of Aqeel. But Aqeel wonthe first set at 6-4 by breaking9th game of Abid.—APP

Power schedulefor VVIPsLAHORE—Lahore high courton Monday sought schedule ofloadshedding for VVIPs includ-ing PM and president housesexemption from powerloadshedding. The LHC heard apetition filed by Hafiz Saeedagainst VVIPs including primeminister and president housesexemption from powerloadshedding. The petitionertold the court that it was a vio-lation of fundamental rights bygiving exemption from powerloadshedding to VIPs.—INP

Women university,BMC closedQUETTA—Sardar BahadurKhan University has been closedfor an indefinite period follow-ing Saturday’s bomb attack onone of the university’s buses, kill-ing 14 female students and injur-ing 19 others. The university hadfirst announced three-days ofmourning. However, it will nowremain closed for an indefiniteperiod. The Provincial healthauthorities have also closed theBolan Medical Complex fortreatment of patients.—INP

50 ft breach incanalGHOTKI—A breach in canalinundated low lying populatedareas besides destroying cropson hundreds of acres of landhere on Monday. According toirrigation department sources, a50 feet breach emerged in NarliCanal of Ghokti due to whichthe gushing water spread in thearea, entered houses and ruinedcultivated lands. People wereforced to move to safer place dueto four to five feet of water inresidential areas.—INP

NAB charge sheetex-ministersPESHAWAR—National Ac-countability Bureau after initialinvestigations has prepared acharge sheet against former min-isters of Khiyber Pakhtunkhwagovernment on their corruptionand misuse of power. NABsources said that, applicationsagainst these ministers on cor-ruption and misuse of powerwere provided to NAB alongwith evidences. Details of hir-ing against merit in differentprovincial departments werealso given.—Online

Fire in ThermalPower HouseKASHMORE—Electricity sup-ply was suspended in severalareas of Sindh and Balochistanafter fire flared up in Gudu Ther-mal Power House (GTPH).Sources said that fire suddenlyerupted in the unit number 6 ofGTPH, due to which 13 otherunits of power plant were alsotripped. Resultantly power sup-ply was suspended in severalareas of Sindh and Balochistan.Fire broke out in unit number 6in midnight of Sunday and Mon-day due to over loading. Firebrigade was immediately calledafter the incident.—Online

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Muhammad Ishaq Dar called on Prime Minis-ter Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Monday.

Ishaq Dar callson PM, briefsabout budget

sessionSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minis-ter for Finance, Ishaq Dar,called on Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif andbriefed the Prime Ministerabout the budget session ofthe Parliament.

He also apprized thePrime Minister that a compre-hensive and constructive dis-cussion on the budgetary pro-posals was taking place inboth houses of the parliament.

The Prime Minister wasalso briefed about variousproposals and recommenda-tions put forward by membersof the Parliament during de-bate on the budget.

The Prime Minister appre-ciated the interest that thebudget document has evokedamong the members of parlia-ment in particular and amongpublic in general.

While talking to Mr. Dar,the Prime Minister said thatbudget was prepared with theobjective to give maximumrelief to the common man andto stabil ize the country’seconomy.

LONDON—A newspaper re-port that British eavesdroppingagency GCHQ repeatedlyhacked into foreign diplomats’phones and emails hasprompted an angry responsefrom traditional rival Russiaand provoked demands for aninvestigation from Turkey andSouth Africa.

Although spying on diplo-mats is as old as diplomacy it-self, the Guardian’s report laidout in explicit detail stepstaken by GCHQ to monitorforeign officials’ conversationsin real time, saying that Brit-ish spies had hacked emails,stolen passwords and gone sofar as to set up a buggedInternet cafe in an effort to getan edge in high-stakes nego-tiations.

The Guardian cited morethan half a dozen internal gov-

ernment documents provided byformer NSA contractor EdwardSnowden as the basis for its re-porting on GCHQ’s intelligenceoperations, which it says in-volved, among other things,hacking into the South Africanforeign ministry’s computer net-work, targeting the Turkish del-egation at the 2009 Group of 20summit in London and using thevast spying base at northernEngland’s Menwith Hill tomonitor the satellite communi-cations of Russian leader DmitryMedvedev. Russians respondedangrily:“It’s a scandal! The U.S.and British special servicestapped (then President Dmitry)Medvedev’s phone at the 2009G-20 summit. The U.S. deniesit, but we can’t trust them,”Alexei Pushkov, the Kremlin-connected chief of foreign af-fairs committee in the lowerhouse of Russian parliament,

wrote on his Twitter feed Mon-day. Turkey’s Ministry of For-eign Affairs called the reportalarming, saying in a statementthat if the story was true “thiswill evidently constitute a scan-dal.”

“Such (an) act by an alliedcountry would clearly bedeemed unacceptable,” thestatement went on. “Britishauthorities are expected topresent an official and satisfac-tory explanation on this issue.”

South African diplomatssaid in a statement that theywere concerned by the report,demanding that London “in-vestigate this matter fully.”

Experts say that while theexpressions of shock may bespurious — it’s widely knownthat all nearly all countries spyon one another Britain’s stand-ing could nevertheless sufferreal damage.—AP

UK spying claims outrage global community

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—The inhuman,heartless and merciless Saturdayevents in Quetta have united thenation and world at large inmourning and condemning kill-ings of innocent people includinggirl students, nurses and attackon Residency of Father of theNation.

The Senate, National Assem-bly, human rights bodies, politi-cians, civil society, mediamen,students, men of pen and man inthe street were united in condemn-ing the attacks with one voice. Thenation expressed its sentimentswith demonstrations and observ-ing strikes throughout the coun-try. Interior Minister Ch. Nisar Aliand Information Minister PervezRashid on the directive of PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif dashed toQuetta and Ziarat to assess thesituation.

Without wasting time, meet-ing of security agencies has beenconvened on June 21 to devise anew comprehensive security planto counter menace of terrorism.

Nation, world come aliveon Quetta incidents

New security plan to be devised on June 21This time, the events have joltedthe world also as sympathy mes-sages poured in from leadershipsof different countries and opinionleaders of civil societies for thevictims of Quetta terror incidents.They expressed solidarity with thepeople of Pakistan.

UN Secretary General Ban

Ki- moon in his message said “nocause can justify such violence.” A spokesman of Ministry of For-eign Affairs of France said onMonday said “France utterly con-demns the particularly heinousattacks of the 15th of June in

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nPeople’s Party’s Senator RazaRabbani on Monday declaredthe federal budget 2013-14 inopposition to provincial au-tonomy and therefore, in vio-lation of the EighteenthAmendment.

Speaking to mediapersonsat a press conference here,Senator Rabbani said that 25recommendations regarding thebudget had been presented toSenate’s Standing Committee

for Treasury. He was accompa-nied by several PPP leaders atthe press conference.

Rabbani said that anychange in the excise dutieswould be prevented.

Moreover, he called for thewithdrawal of the increase inthe general sales tax (GST). Healso declared the income sup-port levy to be unconstitutionaland called for its immediatewithdrawal.

He further said that the non-taxpayers had been exemptedfrom paying their taxes.

Furthermore, Rabbani saidthat allowing the Federal Bu-reau for Revenue (FBR) accessto the bank accounts of the Pa-kistani citizens was unconstitu-tional.

He further said that thewages of labourers must be in-creased to Rs 12,000 and in-crease salaries and pensions toup to 25 per cent.

Senator Rabbani also al-leged that Rs115bn had beensecretly reserved for PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif’s dis-cretionary funds.

Rabbani: Federal budgetviolates 18th Amendment

Imran to takeMNA oath on

June 19STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nTehreek-e-Insaf ChairmanImran Khan will take oath as amember of the National Assem-bly on June 19.

“I will be taking oath in NAon 19th and speaking on the bud-get the same day,” Imrantweeted on Monday.

He has also planned to laydown his policy on national is-sues particularly on budgetaryrelated matters before the Par-liament on the same day. “Myaddress to the Parliament willlay out PTI’s policy on crucialnational issues and how the K-PGovt will be a role model ofclean, efficient governance,” headded. Earlier, a special planewas chartered to take the chair-man to Benazir Bhutto Interna-tional Airport on June 13. Imranreached Islamabad after doctorsat Shaukat Khanum MemorialHospital cleared him for travel-ling. Imran was injured when hefell of a forklift during electioncampaigning in Lahore on May7. Imran who received injuriesto his head and back was dis-charged from the hospital onMay 22.

KABUL—An Afghan police chiefsurvived a suicide car bomb at-tack on his convoy that woundedthree officers early on Monday,officials said. It was the latest ap-parent attempt on a commander’slife in an intense Taliban assassi-nation campaign.

Broken glass and the charredremains of the bomber’s car werestrewn in a main road in the pro-vincial capital of Lashkar Gah af-ter the attack.Helmand provincial Police ChiefMohammad Nabi Elham sus-tained only minor injuries whenthe car bomber struck as he wason his way to his office at about 7am. The force of the blast tore offthe door of Elham’s vehicle. Threepolice officers travelling in theconvoy were wounded, provincialspokesman Ummar Zawaq said.

“Thanks be to God that it wasso early in the morning,” Elhamsaid later in an interview. “If it hadbeen 8 or 9 in the morning, therewould have been labourers herewho are building a road for amosque. Shopkeepers would have

Afghan police chiefsurvives bomb attackRaid on convoy kills 3 drivers

been here, and how many peoplemight have been killed?”

Meanwhile, insurgents firedrocket-propelled grenades andheavy machine guns into a con-voy carrying goods to the Afghancapital on Monday, killing threedrivers and wounding two others,an official said.

Two of the container truckscaught fire and burned from thegrenade blasts at about 2:30 a.m.on the main highway about 60kilometers east of Kabul, saidSarhadi Zwak, spokesman forLaghman province where the at-tack took place. It was unclear ifthe trucks were carrying suppliesfor the U.S.-led military coalitionor if they had commercial goods,Zwak said, but he added that nointernational troops or militaryvehicles were in the convoy. Hesaid the drivers were Afghan.

Attacks on supply truckscoming to Kabul are relativelycommon, as Taliban and othermilitants seek to disrupt both flowof the military goods and sow fearamong the population.—AP

Continued on Page 6

No clear link betweenweather, fibromyalgia

ISLAMABAD: Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Chairman Council of Islamic Ide-ology, with the participants of the workshop for Aima and Khutba of twin cities arrangedby Shariah Academy, International Islamic University.

ISLAMABAD: Dera Bugti Internally Displaced Persons make victory sign in their protest camp in front of Prime Minister House.

DESPITE common complaints that theweather can aggravate fibromyalgiasymptoms, a new study finds little

consistency in the type of weather condi-tions linked to worsening of the mysteriouspain syndrome. Further-more, “the few significantassociations that we found(between weather andfibromyalgia symptoms)were very small, too smallto affect daily functioning,”said Ercolie Bossema, a re-searcher at Utrecht Univer-sity in the Netherlands, inan email to Reuters Health.

Bossema added thatweather-related symp-toms may exist, but “per-haps these factors differfrom person to person.”Up to 92 percent offibromyalgia patients re-port that certain weatherconditions can exacerbatetheir symptoms - particu-larly, chronic pain and fatigue, Bossemaand her colleagues point out in their study,published in Arthritis Care & Research.Fibromyalgia is a poorly understood dis-order that includes joint pain and tender-ness, fatigue and depression and affectsan estimated 5.8 million Americans, accord-ing to the U.S. Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention. There is no knowncause of the disorder, and no surefire wayto cure it.

Bossema said that studies examiningthe influence of the weather on symptomshave not shown an obvious pattern. Herteam asked more than 300 women with

fibromyalgia to keep a daily record of theirsymptoms, sleep and activity for fourweeks. The women rated each measure,such as pain or quality of sleep, on a five-point scale, with five representing “very

much” and one “not at all.”The researchers then com-pared these diaries to eachday’s weather conditions,including temperature, sun-shine, precipitation, humid-ity and atmospheric pres-sure. Overall, the women re-ported a pain score of 3.35and a fatigue score of 3.77,which are considered mod-erate to high. Higher painscores were linked to dayswith less sunshine or higherhumidity, but the effectswere very small.

For instance, an extrahour of sunshine on a daywas tied to a 0.005 decreaseon the five-point pain scale.And a one percent increase

in relative humidity was linked with a 0.004point increase in pain. With regard to sun,the findings make sense, said Dr. StuartSilverman, a physician who specializesin fibromyalgia in Beverly Hills, Califor-nia.

“Everybody feels a lot better in thesun,” Silverman said. “When it’ssunny out you go out, and you aretempted to be more active, which re-duces your pain too,” he told ReutersHealth. For fatigue, symptoms wereslightly worse on warmer days and ondays with lower humidity, but thesechanges, again, were small.

ISLAMABAD: Participants of Montessori Materials & Methodology Workshop.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Roots NationalInstitute of Teacher Trainingand Education-RNITTE is thetraining institute that has beenproviding Professional Devel-opment Courses to the Teach-ers , Academic coordinators,Principals, Headmistress andthe Management Staff. Everyyear RNITTE offers aMontessori course not onlyto teachers but also to the ex-ternal candidates, this time af-ter successfully offeringMontessori course for past sixyears RNITTE has launcheda 10 days Montessori Materi-

als & Methodology-MMWWorkshop 2013.

This year 110 candidateshave registered for this course.The course would be con-ducted by the qualifiedMontessori Curriculum Leads,National Master Trainers & In-ternational Montessori spe-cialists and motivationalspeakers.

Montessori Material work-shop is designed for the pro-fessional development of par-ticipating delegates. Thiscourse integrates Dr. MariaMontessori Theory with Effec-tive Montessori Practiceswhich are successfully imple-

mented in Roots MillenniumSchools. This two week work-shop includes all the necessarytopics which are required for aprofessional MontessoriDirectress.

This course introduces newteaching techniques and toolswhich guide MontessoriDirectress to play effective rolein child’s early stage develop-ment. This workshop will opennew horizon for you all in theworld of education and will addto your profile and will lead youto the road of transformation.

From the beginning, the vi-sion of our training departmentis to bring teachers into direct

contact with the opportunitieswhich will have a great impacton their professional develop-ment. At Roots MillenniumSchools, we provide ourteachers great learning oppor-tunities to learn from leadingscholars, academia and edu-cational thinkers in a stimulat-ing environment, surroundedby learning and academic re-sources. RNITTE Teacher De-velopment Conferences andworkshops have offered a mix-ture of intellectual replenish-ment, ultimately the aim is tosupport and invigorate class-room teaching with the newideas and energy.

Two weeks Montessori Materials & Methodology workshop held

Rose & JasmineGarden deprived

of facilitiesISLAMABAD—The secondlargest park of the federalcapital ‘Rose and JasmineGarden’ deprives from ba-sic facilities including secu-rity issues and basic facili-ties for the people are keep-ing them away to visit theGarden.

With improvement inthe look of Rose and Jas-mine Garden and plantationof a variety of roses andother plants, the recre-ational spot attracts peopleto spent time close to natu-ral beauty but people feelinsecure as there is nowashrooms, water problem andno boundary wall aroundthe garden

A visitor Faisal Shahtalking to APP said that, alarge number of families andfemales visit the garden toenjoy their free time in parkson daily basis in summers,but the visitors due to lackof facilities prefer to go any-where else to spent theirtime.

When contacted, CapitalDevelopment Authority(CDA) official said, “Theauthority is fully aware ofthe situation and taking mea-sures to provide all the ba-sic facilities to the localitiesand the visitors”.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadTraffic Police have issuedtickets to 933 vehicles con-taining the uncertified gascylinders and 1238 heavyvehicles not keeping in thespecified lanes. The actionhas been taken under a cam-paign launched by theIslamabad Traffic Police todiscourage violations of traf-fic rules by the citizens.

In this campaign, the traf-fic personnel acted againstthe heavy vehicles movingoutside specified lanes, driv-ing car or bike without driv-ing license, use of cell phonewhile driving and bikers with-out helmet.

The education wing ofthe ITP has also been askedto create awareness amongthe residents about trafficrules and road safety to makethe traffic system of the fed-

eral capital smoother.In this campaign, the SSP

Traffic Police issued specialdirectives to the specialsquad of the traffic police, allDSPs and inspectors.

Following these direc-tives, the traffic police person-nel, issued tickets to 174 un-derage drivers, 1338 vehiclesfor not observing specifiedlane, 328 bikers without hel-met, 446 one- wheelers and 933vehicles having uncertifiedCNG cylinders.

Action has also beentaken against the drivers hav-ing no driving license, notfastening seat belts and us-ing cell phones while driving.Moreover, the educationwing educated thousands ofthe pedestrians regardinguse of footpaths and over-head bridges to avoid anyuntoward incident.—APP

ITP act against 933 vehicleswith uncertified gas cylinders

ISLAMABAD—The residentsof sector G-7 have demandedto the concern authority toimmediate repair of water fil-tration plant in the vicinity tocater the need of clean drink-ing water in their areas. Alarge number of residentswhile talking to APP said thatwater filtration plants in theirarea are not in sterile condi-tion.

People are also facingshortage of pure drinkingwater as most of the plantshave been shut down due tonon payment to the contrac-tors.

The residents claimedthat the issue has been re-ported several times to Capi-tal Development Authority(CDA) but due to its negli-

gence the authorities havedone nothing to provide un-interrupted pure water topeople.

Now-a-days a very fewpeople could be seen onthese water filtration plantsas either the water is unavail-able or water is impureenough to use.

These water plants havebecome problematic for resi-dents as they come to getwater but go empty handed.Filtration plants of G-7/1, G-7/3, G-7/4 are especially outof order as the sector G/10residents depend on theseplants, but they find noother place to take waterfrom. The residents havedemanded of the CDA torenovate the plants on ur-

gent basis.Residents of G-7/1 sec-

tor said that it was the fun-damental right of every citi-zen to have clean drinkingwater but sector G-7 werestill lacking this facility asthere was immidgiate needto installation of water filtra-tion plant.

An official of CDA toldthat filtration plants havebeen installed by the author-ity in different sectors to fa-cilitate the residents onequality basis for the provi-sion of pure drinking water.

He added that the civicbody would soon replace thefaulty filtration plants. Healso advised the residents toavoid misuse of clean drink-ing water.—APP

G-7 residents demandfiltration plants repair

SC moved forpreventing lawminister from

conducting functionI S L A M A B A D — S u p r e m eCourt (SC) has been movedthrough constitutional peti-tion for making new law min-ister Zahid Hamid respondentin Pervez Musharraf hightreason case and preventinghim from conducting hisfunction.

Petition was filed by pe-titioner Ahsan ud Din Sheikhin the court on Mondaymaking federal government,former president PervezMusharraf and new law min-ister Zahid Hamid respon-dents.

The petitioner took theplea in his petition that formerpresident Pervez Musharrafsabotaged the constitutionunder a conspiracy and initi-ated proceedings against thejudges.—Online

ISLAMABAD—Judge of Su-preme Court, Justice Ejaz AfzalKhan said Monday that pre-vailing sordid state of affairs inthe country was owing to theabsence of justice in the soci-ety that also begets chaos andcorruption in the society.

“However, justice is essen-tial to bring balance and elimi-nate evils from the society,” hesaid addressing the inauguralceremony of weeklong trainingcourse on “Gender sensitiza-tion with special focus on fam-ily laws and environment lawwith special reference to juris-diction and powers of greencourts etc.”

The training course hasbeen designed for the SeniorCivil Judges, Civil Judges,Judges of the Family Courtsfrom all over Pakistan includ-ing Azad Jammu and Kashmirand Gilgit -Baltistan being heldat the Federal Judicial Academyhere.

Enlightening the JudicialOfficers with the interpretation

of one verse from the glorious,he said, “when the parents be-come old and because of theirage when they lose their bal-ance, which is of course, natu-ral then, the children are underan obligation to look after themso that they maintain their bal-ance. Indeed, Justice is balanceand it is justice which inspiresthe balance in the family, in thesociety and also in the coun-try.”

“Although the administra-tion of court justice will be thetip of the iceberg but if we fo-cus on court justice, we can doa lot for,” Justice Ejaz observed.

Regarding the role of GreenCourts, he opined that their rolewas indispensable for protec-tion and preservation of envi-ronment and also to maintainbalance in our environment.

He also highlighted threeQuranic words such as “Adl”,“Qist”, “Ihsan” and “ Zulum”and enriched the knowledgeand widened the wisdom of thecourse participants.—APP

Absence of justicebreeds chaos, corruption

FGEHF directedto speed

up uplift workISLAMABAD—The FederalGovernment EmployeesHousing Federation (FGEHF)has been directed to speedup the development work inSector G-14 of the federalcapital. Minister of State forHousing and Works Barris-ter Usman Ibrahim issued thedirectives in response to thecomplaints of the allottees,who have been waiting forthe development of the sec-tor for last nine years.

The allottees are of the viewthat the uplift work in Sector G-14/2 and 3 is going on at a veryslow pace, spreading frustrationamong the allottees. They alsoexpressed concerns that sur-vey of the houses in Sector G-14/1 could not be started so far,after which uplift work is to bestarted. The allottees said thatmajority of them are retiredgovernment officers and em-ployees, who do not have theirown houses and are forced tolive in rented houses.—INP

Korean Embassyorganizes a quiz

competitionISLAMABAD—The Embassyof Republic of Korea Mon-day held a quiz competition‘Quiz on Korea 2013’ here inthe head office of OverseasEmployment Corporation(OEC).

Talking to this newsagency, Managing DirectorOEC informed that the Ko-rean government is organiz-ing such competitions in 30countries across the world.

The embassy is testingindividuals about the coun-try of Korea and its culture,the final qualifier of eachcountry will be invited toKorea during August 23 to30, 2013 to participate in a fi-nal round in Seoul.

The final qualifier will beprovided a round-trip airfareand accommodation for theduration of the filming periodin Korea during the finalround.—APP

CDA ‘Clean andGreen Islamabad’campaign in F-6

from todayISLAMABAD—The CapitalDevelopment Authority(CDA) would launch phase-wise “Clean and GreenIslamabad” campaign in Sec-tor F-6 of the Federal Capitalon June 18 (Tuesday).

According to a statementissued here, after successfulaccomplishment in Sectors I-10, G-10, G-11, G-9, I-9, G-7,G-8, I-8, F-10, F-11, F-8 andF-7. The campaign would re-main continue in sector F-6for three days.

Chairman CDA, SyedTahir Shahbaz along withschool children, traders,NGOs, residents of the sec-tor F-6 and officers of CDAwill inaugurate the campaignat Multi-purpose SportsCentre, opposite FlowerMarket, Markaz F-6, at 10:45A.M.—APP

June 19

NORWEGIAN Refugeecouncil (NRC) will hold aPhoto Exhibition on June19 (Wednesday) to high-light the lives of Afghanrefugees and returneesliving in Pakistan, Iranduring decades-long dis-placement and their re-turn back to Afghanistanat National Arts Gallery.The two-day exhibition,entitled “Perspectivesfrom the ground fromthree women in threecountries”, is being orga-nized in connection withWorld Refugee Day to beobserved every year onJune 20.

DESPITE common complaints that theweather can aggravate fibromyalgiasymptoms, a new study finds little

consistency in the type of weather conditionslinked to worsening of the mysterious pain syn-drome. Furthermore, “the fewsignificant associations thatwe found (between weatherand fibromyalgia symptoms)were very small, too small toaffect daily functioning,” saidErcolie Bossema, a researcherat Utrecht University in theNetherlands, in an email toReuters Health.

Bossema added thatweather-related symptomsmay exist, but “perhapsthese factors differ from per-son to person.” Up to 92percent of fibromyalgia pa-tients report that certainweather conditions can ex-acerbate their symptoms -particularly, chronic painand fatigue, Bossema andher colleagues point out in their study, pub-lished in Arthritis Care & Research.Fibromyalgia is a poorly understood disorderthat includes joint pain and tenderness, fatigueand depression and affects an estimated 5.8million Americans, according to the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.There is no known cause of the disorder, andno surefire way to cure it.

Bossema said that studies examining theinfluence of the weather on symptoms havenot shown an obvious pattern. Her team askedmore than 300 women with fibromyalgia tokeep a daily record of their symptoms, sleepand activity for four weeks. The women rated

each measure, such as pain or quality ofsleep, on a five-point scale, with five repre-senting “very much” and one “not at all.”

The researchers then compared thesediaries to each day’s weather conditions, in-

cluding temperature, sun-shine, precipitation, humidityand atmospheric pressure.Overall, the women reporteda pain score of 3.35 and a fa-tigue score of 3.77, which areconsidered moderate to high.

Higher pain scores werelinked to days with less sun-shine or higher humidity, butthe effects were very small.

For instance, an extrahour of sunshine on a day wastied to a 0.005 decrease on thefive-point pain scale.

And a one percent in-crease in relative humiditywas linked with a 0.004 pointincrease in pain. With regardto sun, the findings makesense, said Dr. Stuart

Silverman, a physician who specializes infibromyalgia in Beverly Hills, California.“Everybody feels a lot better in the sun,”Silverman said.

“When it’s sunny out you go out, andyou are tempted to be more active, whichreduces your pain too,” he told ReutersHealth. For fatigue, symptoms were slightlyworse on warmer days and on days withlower humidity, but these changes, again,were small.

Fatigue increased by 0.01 points for eachdegree Celsius increase in temperature andit dropped by 0.004 points for each one per-cent increase in humidity.

No clear link betweenweather and fibromyalgia

KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah presiding over cabinet meeting.

KARACHI: Artist Sarfaraz Musawir ex[laining his work during the exhibition at PakistanFine Art Gallery.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Welcoming the re-marks of Chaudhry Nisar thatthe Balochistan issue was amanifestation of lack of coordi-nation between the civil andmilitary authorities as a correctdiagnosis Senator FarhatullahBabar said that the civil-militarydisconnect indeed lay at the rootof the problem adding that theParliament will support the in-terior minister in efforts to ad-dress it. He was however skep-tical if proposed meeting of se-curity agencies convened by theinterior minister on June 20 todevise ‘new security paradigm’would succeed in achieving it.

He said that the issue of en-forced disappearances whichhad become the core issue inBalochistan had become compli-

KARACHI: Police using water cannon to disburse protestors of Teachers Action Committeein front of Sindh Assembly.—PO photo

KARACHI: Zubaida Mustafa presenting her book to renowned surgeon Dr. Adeeb ul HassanRizvi at launching ceremony.—PO photo

Legislation proposed tocontrol agencies

cated because of this historicaldisconnect between the civiland security establishment. Toaddress the issue of missing per-sons we need to bring the op-eration of state agencies underthe ambit of legislation, he said.

He said that the NationalAssembly, the Senate, the Par-liamentary Committee on Na-tional Security and the Commis-sion on Enforced Disappear-ances all had strongly urged leg-islative oversight of the agencies.The Supreme Court during hear-ings in the missing persons caseshad also observed that there wasneed for such legislation he said.

He said that the humanrights committee of the senatehad already done a great deal ofwork in this regard and assuredthe interior minister that the Par-liament will be happy will as-

sist him in any endeavor to bringup appropriate legislation thatgave legal powers to the stateagencies and balanced it with ameasure of oversight.

Earlier he also raised the is-sue of displaced persons fromDera Bugti who have beencamping in Islamabad for thepast six weeks demanding thatthey be allowed to return to theirhomes. He said that although anelected civilian government ofnationalist parties had been inplace in the province it was help-less in ensuring the return of dis-placed persons to their homes inDera Bugti.He said it only reinforced theperception that the civilian po-litical government was not em-powered and such decisionswere being taken somewhereelse.

Ban imposed onbathing at

Karachi beachesKARACHI—Sindh Chief Sec-retary, Muhammad AijazChaudhry, has imposed a ban onbathing at beaches, lakes andrivers.A statement here on Mon-day pointed out that the ban hasbeen imposed in the wake of in-cidents of drowning at thebeaches in Karachi, and lakes,rivers and canals in theprovince.It said that a ban hasbeen imposed on bathing takingnotice of such incidents and sec-tion 144 in this regard has beenenforced with immediate effect.

Chief Secretary said that inview of hot summer, the peoplehead for beaches, lakes and ca-nals etc and inspite of the factthat many do not know swim-ming, they try bathing whichresults in incidents of drowning.

Therefore, as a precaution-ary measure, the governmenthas imposed a ban on bathingunder section 144.

Commissioner Karachi,Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, has di-rected all deputy commission-ers to ensure implementation ofthe ban and that no derelictionin this regard would be toler-ated.—APP

PML(N),PML(F) flayloadshedding

KARACHI—A joint meeting ofprovincial parliamentary com-mittees of PML-F and PML-Non Sunday strongly condemnedthe prolonged and unscheduledload shedding in the metropolis.

According to a statement is-sued by Secretary General ofPakistan Muslim League- Func-tional Imtiaz Shaikh, the leadersof both the parties demanded ofthe government to end load shed-ding in Karachi, which they said,has made the life of the citizensmiserable. Concern was also ex-pressed over prolonged loadshedding in interior of Sindh formore than 14 hours which hasalso caused water shortage in thesizzling heat. The meeting ex-pressed concern over the law andorder situation in Karachi.

The meeting evolved a strat-egy over the Sindh Budget2013-14 to be presented in SindhAssembly on June 17. It was de-cided that the MPAs of both theparties will meet Speaker SindhAssembly Agha Siraj Durranibefore presentation of the bud-get and request him to allot op-position benches to them.

The meeting was chaired byImtiaz Shaikh and attended theMPAs of PML-F and PML-Nincluding Pir Rashid ShahRashidi, Haji Khuda Bux Rajar,Shahryar Khan Mahar, WaryamFaqir, Ms Mehtab Akbar Rashidi,Irfan Ullah Marwat, MasroorJatoi and Shafi Jamot.—APP

Sindh govtemployees hailraise in salariesKARACHI—The Sindh govern-ment employees have hailed the15% raise in the salaries of thosefalling in BPS one to 15 and 10%for BPS 16 to 22 employees un-der the provincial budget 2013-2014, announced here on Monday.

Talking to APP, they also ap-preciated 10% raise in the pensionof the employees, with minimumpension raised from Rs 3,000 permonth to Rs 5,000 per month.They said the much needed sup-port would be helpful in tacklingthe fast growing inflation rate andwill be of considerable relief forthem.“Most of us were, however,expecting a minimum 20% raisein our salaries,” said an officerassociated with provincial socialwelfare department.

The employees appealed tothe provincial government toadopt a strict attitude towardshoarders and profiteers so thatthey may not be able to fleece thepublic in general.—APP

24 arrested in24 hours

KARACHI—The Karachi po-lice in their drive against crimi-nals, arrested 43 accused fromdifferent areas of the metropo-lis during the past 24 hours.

A police statement on Mon-day said that those arrested in-clude absconders and pro-claimed offenders as well asthose allegedly involved in casesof murder, dacoity and othercrimes. It said that seven weap-ons of different calibres werealso recovered from those ar-rested. Action was initiatedagainst four persons for violat-ing ban on pillion riding. —APP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Dow University ofHealth Sciences (DUHS), Paki-stan Medical Association (PMA)Sindh and Young Doctors Asso-ciation (YDA) in a Protest Meet-ing held Monday at Dow Medi-cal College strongly condemnedthe attack on Quaid-e Azam’sZiarat Residency, explosion inWomen University bus killingover a dozen, suicide attack anda gun battle in the Bolan MedicalCollege hospital.

The Protest Meeting was at-tended by senior faculty mem-bers of Dow University, Mem-bers of PMA Sindh, YDA,Sindh Para-medical Staff Asso-ciation (SPMSA), Doctors, ParaMedical Staff, Nurses and stu-dents as well. Participants of theMeeting condemned the painfuland lamentable situation inQuetta saying that it was one ofthe darkest day of Pakistan his-tory.

DUHS, PMA, YDA condemnattack on Quaid’s Residency

The Speakers of the ProtestMeeting includes, Prof. JunaidAshraf, Principal, Dow MedicalCollege, Prof. M. Umer Farooq,Pro-Vice Chancellor, DUHS, DrSamrina Hashmi, PresidentPMA Sindh, Dr GhulamMujtaba Memon (YDA), DrAmjad Siraj Memon (DUHS),Dr Iklaq Ahmed Khan, NasreenGil, Dr Munib Ghilzai (JPMC)and Dr Amini Abdul Qayyum(YDA).

Participants of the Meetingsharing their views on the occa-sion said that the terrorist usedto attack on masjid,imambargahs. They did not sparethe hospitals this time. Even inthe wartimes, the hospitals werenot attacked but now it is hap-pening. They said that it was allso abhorrent that there were nowords to condemn. The enemiesof Pakistan had mounted thoseattacks on the very founding as-sets of the country and its his-tory.

DUHS and PMA Sindh con-soles with its colleagues, and feelvery sorry and helpless in thissituation. We can only pray forour health care workers who areworking in these situations andgiving their lives, and not leav-ing the hospital to save their ownlives.”

PMA announced that theyshould hold protest meeting in allthe universities of Karachi in or-der to condemn the brutal inci-dence of killing doctors and para-medical staff. Participants of theMeeting also demanded thatthere should be full proof secu-rity plan for Dow University ofhealth science and civil hospital,Karachi.

They also demanded to pro-vide security and protections ofdoctors, medical professional andhealthcare providers. He saidthat it is the responsibility of hos-pital organization to provide se-curity to the doctors both physi-cally and legally.

Scholars regret persistence ofpolio virus in country

Sindh govt to startits own version ofBenazir Income

Support ProgrammeKARACHI—Sindh governmentduring fiscal year 2013-14 willspend Rs 2.00 billion to start itsown version of Benazir IncomeSupport Programme and makedirect cash transfers to the poor-est of the poor women usingBISP database. In addition, dur-ing the next fiscal year anamount of Rs 1.00 billion willalso be used for establishmentof housing for the poor in Sindh.

The provincial governmenthas also allocated Rs 1.00 bil-lion to provide 50,000 plots of80 sq yds and 120 sq yds to poor-est of poor in major urban cen-tres of the province.—APP

KARACHI—Religious scholarsand ulema of the country haveexpressed their dismay over thepersistence of polio virus in cer-tain parts of the country.

They were equally con-cerned about sub-optimal qual-ity of the polio campaigns inthese areas coupled with politi-cal, cultural, social as well as se-curity related obstacles in thisregard.

Haji Hanif Tayyab in a pressconference, alongwith other re-ligious leaders on Monday, alsocondemned the fake campaignundertaken by Dr. ShakeelAfridi in Abbottabad couple ofyears back.

This, they said has caused,and in certain situations aggra-

vated, doubts and suspicionsamong the public about healthrelated activities.

“It, however, does not in anyway justify attacks on polioworkers which were stronglycondemned,” they said.

“We declare these attacks asinhuman and non-Islamic acts asattacks and killings are againstthe teachings of Islam and arenot acceptable at any cost,” saidthe scholars. The scholars saidit was the basic responsibility ofthe government to ensure peaceon permanent basis in the bor-dering areas (KPK/FATA).“This will smoothen the way forsocial welfare activities in theseareas, moreover, will also helpin conducting intensified polio

drives and eradicate the diseasefrom these areas,” they said.

The Ulema admired the factthat majority of Muslim coun-tries have eradicated poliothrough the same oral polio vac-cine (that is being used in Paki-stan).

The efforts made by thegovernments and public of thosecountries are commendable,they said. The scholars reiteratedthat all religious scholars, spiri-tual leaders, muftis and intellec-tuals have examined the matter(polio eradication) from aca-demic, jurisprudential (Islamic),medical and political perspec-tives and have thoroughlyanalysed the doubts and suspi-cions that were raised.—APP

No clear link betweenweather and fibromyalgia

LAHORE: MPA Shumaila Aslam awarding certificates to the participants at prizedistribution ceremony of Idara Farogh-e-Taleem. .

LAHORE: Provincial Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Law and Parliamentary Affairs RanaSanaullah Khan talking to media persons on the occasion of presentation of Punjab Budget 2013-14 at PunjabAssembly on Monday.

DESPITE common complaints thatthe weather can aggravatefibromyalgia symptoms, a new

study finds little consistency in the typeof weather conditions linked to worsen-ing of the mysterious pain syndrome.

Furthermore, “the fewsignificant associationsthat we found (betweenweather and fibromyalgiasymptoms) were verysmall, too small to affectdaily functioning,” saidErcolie Bossema, a re-searcher at Utrecht Uni-versity in the Nether-lands, in an email toReuters Health.

Bossema added thatweather-related symp-toms may exist, but “per-haps these factors differfrom person to person.”

Up to 92 percent offibromyalgia patients re-port that certain weatherconditions can exacerbatetheir symptoms - particu-larly, chronic pain and fatigue, Bossemaand her colleagues point out in theirstudy, published in Arthritis Care & Re-search.

Fibromyalgia is a poorly understooddisorder that includes joint pain and ten-derness, fatigue and depression and af-fects an estimated 5.8 million Americans,according to the U.S. Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention.

There is no known cause of the dis-order, and no surefire way to cure it.

Bossema said that studies examiningthe influence of the weather on symp-

toms have not shown an obvious pat-tern.

Her team asked more than 300women with fibromyalgia to keep a dailyrecord of their symptoms, sleep and ac-tivity for four weeks. The women rated

each measure, such as painor quality of sleep, on afive-point scale, with fiverepresenting “very much”and one “not at all.”

The researchers thencompared these diaries toeach day’s weather condi-tions, including tempera-ture, sunshine, precipita-tion, humidity and atmo-spheric pressure.

Overall, the women re-ported a pain score of 3.35and a fatigue score of 3.77,which are considered mod-erate to high.

Higher pain scoreswere linked to days withless sunshine or higherhumidity, but the effectswere very small.

For instance, an extra hour of sun-shine on a day was tied to a 0.005 de-crease on the five-point pain scale.

And a one percent increase in rela-tive humidity was linked with a 0.004 pointincrease in pain. With regard to sun, thefindings make sense, said Dr. StuartSilverman, a physician who specializesin fibromyalgia in Beverly Hills,California.“Everybody feels a lot betterin the sun,” Silverman said. “When it’ssunny out you go out, and you aretempted to be more active, which reducesyour pain too,” he told Reuters Health.

LAHORE: Paramedical workers of Gangaram Hospital Holding a demonstration insupport in support of their demands.

137 newmeasles cases

reportedLAHORE—With 137 newcases reported during thelast 24 hours, the number ofmeasles cases in Punjab inthe last six months hasreached 18,006.

According to health de-partment officials, at least158 deaths have been re-ported so far while mostdeaths occurred in Lahore,Gujranwala,

Rajanpur, Rahim YarKhan, Kasur and Sialkot.During the last 24 hours,around 137 cases of measleswere reported from Punjab,including 26 from city hos-pitals on Monday.

Doctors in Jinnah Hos-pital have complained ofshortage of measles vac-cines, and other medicinesat the emergency depart-ment.—APP

JI for APC todevise joint

strategy againstterrorism

LAHORE—Jamaat-e-IslamiAmeer Syed Munawar HasanMonday asked the FederalGovernment to immediatelyconvene an all parties con-ference (APC) with the coop-eration of the governmentsof Balochistan and KhyberPaktunkhwa to devise a jointstrategy against terrorism.

Talking to media personsafter addressing Jamaat-e-Islami office-bearers here, hesaid the Federal Governmentwould have to take up the is-sue of terrorist attacks at theQuaid’s Residency in Ziarat andin Quetta as well as in Karachi.

Munawar Hasan saidthe bomb blast at the ZiaratResidency, a historic build-ing associated with theQuaid, and the girls bus inQuetta were highly seriousmatters.—APP

Lawyersobserve strikeagainst Quetta,Ziarat incidents

LAHORE—The lawyers com-munity Monday observedstrike to register their protestagainst bloodshed in Quettaand attack on Ziarat resi-dency.

Responding to the call ofPunjab Bar Council, the law-yers boycotted court proceed-ings at the Lahore High Court,sessions courts, civil courtsand other courts in city.

However, the boycott af-fected litigants who had toreturn disappointed as theircases could not be heard.

Meanwhile, the LahoreHigh Court Bar Association(LHCBA) on Monday alsoheld a meeting of its generalhouse which was presidedover by the LHCBA PresidentAbid Saqi.

On this occasion, thespeakers condemned theQuetta and Ziarat incidents anddemanded the government toarrest the culprits.—APP

Massive trafficjam in city

LAHORE—Lahorites suf-fered traffic jams at Shahdrato Azadi chowk and someother link roads on Mondaydue to security checking atold Ravi toll plaza. Peopleand transporters had to faceimmense problems as bothsides of the Ravi Bridge re-mained blocked for morethan two hours and queuesof four wheelers were seenquite till Bhati chowk.

Regretting the situation,transporters and commuterssaid that security checking atentry of Lahore is major rea-son of traffic jam on bridges.Shahid, Umar, Zahid andsome other transporters saidthat proper security checkingshould be held but at side-lines of the roads and all thebarriers should be removedto ease out traffic.

They said that traffic po-lice should initiate measuresto regulate traffic on GTRoad, especially inter-pro-vincial arteries. According toan official of traffic police,steps were being taken toimprove the situation.He saidthat extra personnel would bedeployed to manage the traf-fic during rush hours.—APP

Pakistan throughartistic lens

LAHORE—A photographyexhibition organized by theTourism Development Cor-poration Punjab (TDCP) wasinaugurated by Punjab As-sembly Speaker Rana IqbalAhmad Khan at the AlhamraArt Gallery.

The Tourism DevelopmentCorporation had tasked quali-fied photographers from Na-tional College of Art (NCA),Ubaid and Naeem Jatoi, withcapturing Pakistan throughtheir lens from new and differ-ent aspects. The exhibition willcontinue till June 30. Talkingto APP, Rana Iqbal AhmadKhan encouraged the effort ofthe young photographers andappreciated TDCP for provid-ing a platform to them.

Photographer Ubaid saidthe project aimed at promot-ing tourism and expressingPakistan artistically throughphotography. —APP

LAHORE—The Punjab As-sembly on Mondayadopted an unanimousresolution against terroristattacks on women univer-si ty bus, Quid-e-Azam’sresidency in Ziarat and kill-ing of innocent people atBolan Medical Complex,Quetta.

Punjab Minister forLaw and Local GovernmentRana Sanaullah moved theresolution which was readout by Speaker Punjab As-sembly Rana MuhammadIqbal Khan in the chair.

The unanimous resolu-tion condemned the terror-ist attack on innocent girls tudents and the Quaid’sresidency in Ziarat besideskilling of security person-nel.

The resolution also ex-pressed its sorrow on the

PA adopts resolutionagainst Quetta incidents

kil l ing of Quetta DeputyCommissioner AbdulMansoor Khan.

The resolution also re-solved to take all regionaland mainstream poli t icalpart ies on board againstterrorists and their nefari-ous designs.

Later, the house offeredfateha for the victims of theQuetta attacks. The 4-daygeneral discussion onPunjab budget for the year2013-2014 will commencefrom June 20.

Secretary Punjab Assem-bly, Maqsood Ahmad Maliktold APP here on Mondaythat according to rule 138 ofthe procedure of Punjab as-sembly, at least two day mustelapse between the day ofbudget is presented and thefirst day allotted for generaldiscussion.

General discussion onbudget will last for not lessthan four days with no mo-tion will be moved at thatstage neither the budgetwil l be submitted to thevote of the assembly. Hesaid that Finance Ministeror a minister acting on hisbehalf will reply at the endof discussion.

Speaker, RanaMuhammad Iqbal , forsmooth conduct of housebusiness, may prescribe atime limit for speeches fromopposit ion and treasurybenches .

However, i t has beenparliamentary tradition ofthe Punjab Assembly, op-posit ion leader is alwaysinvited to open general dis-cussion on budget fol-lowed by other parliamen-tarians.—APP Chicken meat

price goes upin city

LAHORE—Citizens have ex-pressed concern over con-tinuously rising prices ofchicken meat in the city andurged the local administra-tion to take notice of the situ-ation.

A social activist, NaeemIqbal Naeem talking to APPexpressed reservation thatthe upward trend in prices ofchicken meat was registeredwithin the last few days. Headded that the prices ofchicken meat were stable forlast one year as it was avail-able at Rs 180/kg in the mar-ket.

He expressed concernthat meat was being sold atRs 260/kg in the city. SaadQureshi, an other citizen,stated that governmentshould take notice of the up-ward trend. A poultry retaileron condition of anonymitysaid that they were procur-ing live chicken bird at Rs190/kg.

Responding to query onprice hike,he said that poul-try dealers were interested insupplying chicken to megacity, Karachi due to highprices there—Rs. 350/kg.—APP

LAHORE—Pakistan Rail-ways Minister Khawaja SaadRafique here on Mondaysaid that the train service willbe improved soon.

Talking to the media onhis visit to the railway sta-tion he said freight trainswould be restored soon,however, no new passengertrain would be launched, add-ing that all available re-sources would be utilised forrehabilitation of the depart-ment.

He lauded the decision ofincrease in salaries by thegovernment and said thatemployees were pleased withit.

The minister directed thePR administration to removewelcoming banners from thestation.

He examined the rail-car

Train service to improvesoon: Saad

train and facilities to the pas-sengers. He also asked pas-sengers about facilities andsought suggestions fromthem for the betterment of theservice.

Later, the minister leftfor Rawalpindi by t ra inand travelled in economyclass instead of a specialsa loon.

Divisional Superinten-dent Lahore, Rana IbrarAnwar was also present.Minister for RailwaysKhawaja Saad Rafique Mon-day opted to travel smoothand hassle free economyclass of Rail Car from Lahoreto Rawalpindi.

While en route toRawalpindi, the Minister alsodisembarked at railway sta-tions of Gujranwala, LalaMousa and Jhelum and di-

rected the staff to providemaximum facilities and com-fort to passengers duringtheir travel, says a press re-lease.

The minister also metmechanical and technicalstaff of railway during thevisit. Talking on the occa-sion, he directed the staff tostrive hard for making Paki-stan Railways a profitableservice.

He pledged to resolve thegrievances of Railway com-muters on priority.

The minister was wel-comed by Division Superin-tendent Railways RawalpindiSyed Munawar Shah, unionrepresentatives and PakistanMuslim League Nawaz(PML-N) supporters on ar-rival at the railway station.—APP

LAHORE—The Federation ofPakistan Chambers of Com-merce and Industry (FPCCI)and SAARC Chamber of Com-merce and Industry on Mon-day termed the tax-free Punjabbudget for year 2013-2014 aspro-poor, balanced, develop-ment and growth-oriented.

Talking to APP here FPCCIPresident Zubair AhmadMalik and Vice President ofSAARC Chamber of Com-merce and Industry, Pakistanchapter and veteran tradeleader Iftikhar Ali Malik greetedChief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif for presentinga tax-free annual budget byfocusing on the promotion ofquality education and provi-

FPCCI terms Punjab budget pro-poor, growth-orientedsion of specialised medicaltreatment to poor strata of so-ciety besides special allocationof funds for rapid developmentin every sector of life.

They said existing indus-trial estates and Punjab SmallIndustrial Estates must bemade functional with the pro-vision of basic infrastructure.They said the period of taxholiday be extended to all in-dustrial estates for another 10years to attract more foreignand local investors.

They added the relief cush-ion would provide an impetusto industrial growth while es-tablishment of more new in-dustrial zones would help ac-celerate the pace of industrial-

ization across the provinces.Industrial estates will generateplenty of job opportunities forskilled and unskilled youthsand help alleviate poverty fromsociety.

Chairman FPCCI capitaloffice Hameed Akhtar Chaddaand all other FPCCI vice presi-dents fully endorsed the bud-get as the best in the prevail-ing situation worldwide.

They said in the budget anall-out effort had been madeto protect the interests of thebusiness community, import-ers, exporters,traders espe-cially small traders which headded always played a pivotalrole in the national economy.

They said that Chief Min-

ister has always been kind tothe business community andattached great importance tothe welfare of traders by safe-guarding their legitimate inter-ests.

Iftikhar Ali Malik said allchambers of commerce andindustries throughout theprovince had also termed thebudget balanced, friendly andgrowth-oriented.

He said that agricultureand industry were the back-bone of the national economywhich badly needed maximumrelief in taxation, minimum in-volvement of tax collectorsand other state functionariesfor boosting trade activities inall sectors.—APP

LAHORE—The Punjab gov-ernment has allocated asum of Rs 10.331 billion foradministration of justice inthe provincial budget 2013-14.

According to budgetdocuments, Rs 9.737 billionwill be spent on salaries ofemployees whereas remain-ing amount of Rs 593 mil-lion will be for non-salaryexpenditure.

An amount of Rs 2.161billion has been reservedfor High Court whereasSession Courts will receiveRs 2.035 billion.

An amount of Rs 5.196billion has also been allo-cated for Civil Courts whichis higher than last year.

Special Courts will getan amount of Rs 90 millionand Courts of Small Causeswill receive Rs 27 million.

A sum of Rs 58 millionhas been reserved for

Punjab allocates Rs10.331bfor justice administration

Punjab Judicial Academyand Solicitors Departmentwill get Rs 32 million.

Mufassil Establishmentwill get Rs 412 millionwhereas Advocate Generaloffice will also receive anamount of Rs 309 million.

Meanwhile, the Punjabgovernment has allocatedan amount of Rs 334 millionfor the development ofTourism for the fiscal year2013-14.

According to budgetdocuments, Rs 249 millionwill be spent on three newschemes while Rs 85 millionon seven ongoing schemes.

However, no foreign aidwould be obtained for theseschemes. New schemes in-clude construction ofBoundary Wall aroundTourist Resort at Jallo Park,rehabilitation of Ferry Ves-sel Indus Queen at KotMithan.—APP