LAHORE: Makeshift slum home of nomadic people along River Ravi submerged in the flood water.

Afghanistan blamesforeign spies for insider attacks

KABUL—Even as the Af-ghan government says thatit would take new measuresto counter a wave of deadlyinsider killings of Westerntroops by Afghan securityforces, President HamidKarzai’s office asserted forthe first time that foreignspy agencies were behindmost of the attacks, puttingi t d i rec t ly a t odds wi thNATO’s assessment of thecrisis. After a special meet-ing of the president’s secu-

rity advisers, Mr. Karzai’sspokesman, Aimal Faizi, saidAfghan authori t ies werestudying every known insiderattack, also known as green-on-blue attacks.

He said that based on in-terrogations of attackers whohad been detained, and otherevidence l ike let ters andrecords of phone calls, thegovernment had concludedthat the main culprits in thekillings had been put in placeby intelligence services from

neighboring countries. He didnot name them, but the gov-ernment frequently accusesPakistan and Iran of med-dling, the New York Timessaid.

“The investigation doneso far shows there is infiltra-tion by foreign spy agencies,”Mr. Faizi said. “There is nodoubt there is infiltration.”

Many Western officialshere, and American officialsat the Pentagon, were sur-prised by the government’s

Pak protests againstdrone strikes

Senior US diplomat summoned to FOSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Foreign Officeon Thursday summoned a seniorAmerican diplomat to protestagainst US drone strikes in thecountry’s tribal areas borderingAfghanistan.

According to a statement is-sued by the Foreign Officespokes-man, the US Embassy inPakistan was “démarched onrecent drone strikes in NorthWaziristan.”

Pakistani officials told thediplomat, who was not identi-

fied, that the attacks were unac-ceptable, unlawful and a viola-tion of the country’s sovereignty.

“A senior US diplomat wascalled to the Ministry of ForeignAffairs and informed that thedrone strikes were unlawful,against international law and aviolation of Pakistan’s sover-eignty,” said an official state-ment. “It was emphaticallystated that such attacks were un-acceptable.”

The latest drone attack inNorth Waziristan came Tuesdaywhen an unmanned American

PPP, MQMbodies meet

‘LG systembill to be

finalised soon’STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Core Commit-tee of Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) and Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) met at ChiefMinister House here on Thurs-day to discuss the draft on Lo-cal Government (LG) system.

According to ProvincialMinister for Local Government,Agha Siraj Durrani said that thebill on local government systemwould soon be finalised.

Peer Mazhar-ul-Haq andAgha Siraj Durrani from PPP at-tended the meeting while Dr.Farooq Sattar, Kanwar NavedJamil and Wassay Jalil repre-sented MQM.

Karzaitelephones RajaISLAMABAD—President ofAfghanistan, Mr. Hamid Karzaitelephoned Prime Minister RajaPervez Ashraf today andextended Eid greetings to him.

Prime Minister Raja PervezAshraf thanked the AfghanPresident for his call andextended Eid greeting to him aswell. During the telephonicconversation both the leadersreiterated their resolve to workfor peace and stability in theregion. While talking to Mr.Hmid Karzai, the PrimeMinister said that hisgovernment was firmlycommitted to a peaceful,stable and prosperousAfghanistan.

Emphasizing that interac-tion between the two countriesshould continue to furtherimprove the existing brotherlyrelations, the Prime Ministersaid he was looking forward tomeeting him in the nearfuture.—NNI

Three NewZealandsoldiers bodiesreach homeWELLINGTON—The bodiesof the three New Zealandsoldiers killed in Afghanistanhave been brought home.

Corporal Luke Tamatea,Lance Corporal Jacinda Bakerand Private Richard Harrisarrived in New Zealand SouthIsland city of Christchurch onThursday afternoon for anemotional and sombre militaryceremony.

Military chiefs, comradesand family members watchedon from the tarmac as thecaskets were covered in theNew Zealand ensign.

Members of the threegrieving families were the firstallowed on to the aircraft.

The soldiers, all membersof the Second First Battalion,were killed instantly in aroadside bomb blast inAfghanistan five days ago.

The army paid theirrespects as pallbearers carriedthe bodies out in a sombreramp ceremony.—NNI

assertions, and some pri-vately sought to discount thespokesman’s remarks.

“We don’t have indica-tions that foreign entities arethe locus of sponsorship forinsider-attack threats,” saida senior Pentagon official,who spoke on condition ofanonymity to avoid publiclydiffering with the Afghanpresident. The Afghan gov-ernment allowed that someof the attacks were also mo-

Altaf wantsstern SIMcards lawsSTAFF REPORTER

LONDON—Founder and leaderof Muttahida Quami Movement(MQM) Altaf Hussain has askedthe federal government and thepeople at the helm of affairs tomake stern laws for the use ofmobile phone SIM cards as themobile phones were being usedin terrorism, bomb blasts,kidnappings for ransom and de-mand for extortion money.

He said that it was necessaryfor checking heinous crimes andincidents and terrorism.

He said this while talking toFederal Interior MinisterRehman Malik on the telephone.

Malik told Hussain that thegovernment had suspendedmobile services on the occa-sion of the Eid in view of thethreats for terrorism, and it wasvery helpful in controlling ter-rorism.

Continued on Page 7

aircraft fired missiles at a ve-hicle near the tribal agency’sShnakhura village, killing fivesuspected militants and injuringtwo. The recent spike in droneaction has threatens to add ten-sions to relations between thetwo allies, just as they appearedto be improving. The covertCIA drone program has drawnstrong criticism in Pakistan.Pakistani officials charge suchstrikes violate their country’ssovereignty. Many Pakistaniscomplain that the strikes kill in-nocent civilians.

Heavy rains wreakhavoc, 14 dead

Major rivers in medium floodSTAFF REPORTERS

LAHORE—At least 14 peoplewere killed as monsoon rainswreaked havoc in northern areasand eastern Punjab.

The Disaster Management(DM) authorities Thursday saidthat more than thirty people havebeen reportedly killed since rainsstarted early this week, dozenswounded, and more than a hun-dred have been rendered home-less in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwaprovince and Kashmir.

The Metrological Depart-ment (MD) has forecast moreheavy rains in Kashmir, Punjab,Islamabad, and KP.

Earlier, a warning of flashfloods was issued. The rains willcontinue for two more days, saidthe MD in its weather forecastreport. Meanwhile, media re-

ported that several villages wereinundated in Punjab and KP dis-tricts. Hundreds of poor peoplewere forced to spend days inopen fields as their homes hadbeen destroyed in floods.

The recent wave of rainfallresulted in increase in the flowof water in certain rivers. Accord-ing to details, floods have beenobserved at Marala on RiverChenab and at Baloki on RiverRavi.

In River Chenab at Marala,the inflow of water was 126,860cusec. The total inflow of waterin River Ravi was 54,450 cusec.

IRSA sources said the inflowof water at Tarbela in River Induswas 2,56,000 cusec while theoutflow of water was 1,40,000cusec.

In River Jhelum, inflow ofwater in River Jhelum at Mangla

was 62,980 cusec while the out-flow was 13000 cusec.

Inflow of water in RiverSutluj at Sulemanki was 16,487cusec.

In Lahore, the Federal FloodCommission (FFC) Thursdaysaid preventive measures must betaken in order to avoid losses asflash flooding is expected in vari-ous areas of the country.

A spokesman of FFC saidfrom medium to high flash flood-ing is expected in Kabul‚Kurram‚ Gambila‚ Swat riversand their tributaries due to mod-erate and heavy rains.

Chairman National DisasterManagement Authority directedprovincial disaster managementauthorities to be ready to copewith any eventuality. Accordingto Met office‚ seasonal low lies

Continued on Page 7

ISLAMABAD—Interior MinisterRehman Malik has revealed thatthere would have been manyacts of terrorism if cellular ser-vice was not suspended in fourcities of the country on the oc-casion of Eid.

In a Radio Programme en-titled ‘Naey Ufaq Programme’,the Interior Minister said theGovernment had definite infor-mation about a conspiracy todestabilize the country and de-signs of the enemies were foiledthrough effective coordinationamong intelligence and law en-forcing agencies.

Replying to a question heclarified that the Governmenthas no intention of blocking allunregistered SIMs immediatelyas it would cause inconvenience

to users besides negatively im-pacting upon the revenue.

He said a meeting of allstakeholders would be convenedto firm up strategy on how todeal with the issue of SIMs is-sued against fake identity cardsor in the name of someone else.

The Minister proposed thatSIMs should be verifiedagainst thumb impression ofthe applicants throughNADRA database.

He said the issue of SIMswould be resolved keeping inview the foreign investment andinterests of cellular operators.

He‚ however‚ vowed that amechanism would be devised toensure that mobile phones arenot used as tool for terrorist ac-

No immediate blocking of allunregistered SIMs: Malik

Continued on Page 7

SC declaresIslamabad Safe

City Projectnull and void

ISLAMABAD—Supreme Courthas declared the contract ofIslamabad Safe City Projectnull and void and has orderedNational Accountability Bureauto conduct investigations.

According to the SupremeCourt, the contract is non-trans-parent and against the rules, sotenders for the contract shouldbe demanded again.

According to media reports,the Pakistani government signeda contract worth $ 125 million,that is Islamabad Safe CityProject, with Chinese officials,according to which the machinesfor checking explosive materi-als at the entrance and exit pointsof Islamabad were bought butthis contract fell a prey to cor-ruption.—Online

CJ annoyed overBalochistan situation

QUETTA—Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhryhas said that protection to pub-lic lives and properties shouldbe ensured at all costs and in-discriminate action must betaken against criminals inBalochistan.

Chief Justice gave these re-marks while reviewing the pro-ceedings on cases of kidnap-ping for ransom in his chamberat SC’s Quetta registry here onThursday.

He directed for launchingsearch operations and crack-downs against the criminals in-volved in sabotaging peace ofthe province and killing inno-cent citizens and destroyingtheir properties.

CJ Iftikhar MuhammadChuadhry expressed dissatis-faction over the non recoveryof the abducted Dr GhulamRasool and said that writ of thegovernment would be estab-lished when the kidnapped per-sons were recovered safely andwithout payment of ransom.

The Home Secretarybriefed the Chief Justice onthe measures being taken bythe provincial government tomaintain law and order situ-ation.

He said that ongoing lawand order si tuation inBalochistan was adequateand there doesn’t seem writof the government in theprovince.—INP

Nawaz callsNisar for

consultationsSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE—Paki-stan Muslim League (Nawaz)President Nawaz Sharif hassummoned leader of the oppo-sition in the National AssemblyCh Nisar Ali Khan on Friday forimportant consultations on po-litical situation in the countrybefore general elections, ap-pointment of caretaker primeminister, creation of two newprovinces in Punjab and onSardar Zulfikar Khosa issue.

Mian Nawaz Sharif willreach Lahore today . NawazSharif telephoned Nisar AliKhan from Hajaz to reachLahore on Friday.

QUETTA: Relatives of missing persons on token hunger strike as they demand recovery of their loved ones at aprotest camp outside Press Club.

KHAIRPUR: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah unveiling the plaque to inaugu-rate the construction work of SOS Village in Mumtaz Colony.

8 0

HYDERABAD: Residents of Kotri protesting in favour of their demands outside Press Club.

ISLAMABAD/GILGIT—Paki-stan Muslim League-N hasheld Ministers for KashmirAffairs, Interior and ChiefMinister Gilgit-Baltistan re-sponsible for killing of inno-cent people and sectariantension in Gilgit-Baltistan.Addressing a press confer-ence here on Thursday,PML-N’s Chief Coordinatorfor Gilgit-Baltistan and AzadKashmir MohammadSiddiqul Farooq said if imme-diate remedial measures hadbeen taken after the Lolo Sirtop incident, additionallosses and sectarian tensioncould have been avoided.

He accused the KashmirAffairs Minister and ChiefMinister, Gilgit-Baltistan fornot taking steps for imple-mentation of the MosqueRegulation Act adopted bythe Legislative Assembly on24th May, 2012. He said thePML-N President Nawaz

Sharif was seriously con-cerned over the deterioratingsituation in the area and hasissued special directon to GBPresident of the Party HafizHafeezur Rehman. He pointedout that on the direction ofMian Nawaz Sharif, the PML-N has played special role forsectarian harmony in Gilgit-Baltistan. However he criti-cized the government for cre-ating hurdles in the attemptsof the PML-N to bring peaceand order.

In reply to a question,Siddiqul Farooq said he hasbeen continuously drawingattention of the Ministry andthe GB government for deal-ing with terrorism and sectar-ian tension. However due toits inefficiency or to divertattention of the people fromits failures, the Federal andGB governments have notbeen paying attention to-wards their moral and consti-

tutional obligations. SiddiqulFarooq said so far 200 inno-cent people have lost theirlives in sectarian tension butthe local leadership was moreinterested in saving the gov-ernment rather than the livesof the poor masses.

He said all the religio-po-litical and social society musttake notice of the criminal at-titude of the provincial gov-ernment. He hoped that theprint and electronic mediawould show greater respon-sibility in reporting theevents in Gilgit-Baltistan. Toanother question, the ChiefCoordinator said the PML-Nconsiders GB as collectivehome of Sunni, Shias,Ismailis, Noor Bakhshi andAhle-e-Hadith and it was butnatural that there must beharmony among them. Hepointed out that all schoolsof thought played their col-lective role for independence

from Dogra Raj. He saidpeople of Gilgit-Baltistan be-lieve that there was need forunity among them for eco-nomic and social develop-ment of the area.

In reply to yet anotherquestion, the Chief Coordi-nator said a handful of antisocial elements have madeGilgit-Baltistan a “ no goarea” and due to its vestedinterests, the provincial gov-ernment was not taking stepsto eliminate these no go ar-eas. He said there is a heavydeployment of army, FC, po-lice and intelligence agenciesdue to strategic location ofthe area but regretted that themenace of terrorism was notbeing rooted out in a fewkilometres area. Meanwhile,it is reported that a high levelmeeting here has taken sev-eral important decisions toensure security of passen-gers on Karakoram highway.

KKH passengers’ security tightened

PML-N holds Interior Minister, CMGB responsible for sectarian tension

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) indicated chances ofscattered rain and thunder-shower in Islamabad andRawalpindi divisions duringnext 24 hours. The areas in-cluding Bahawalpur, DeraGhazi Khan, Multan, Sahiwal,Lahore, Faisalabad,Sargodha and Gujranwalawill also receive scattered rainand thundershower.

According to meteoro-logical analysis, seasonal lowlies over north Balochistan.Strong Monsoon currentsare still continuously pen-etrating in southern parts ofthe country especially Sindhand South Punjab. While ashallow trough of westerlywave is present over north-ern area. In KhyberPakhtunkhwa, isolated rainand thundershower is ex-pected in D.I.Khan, Kohat,Peshawar and Hazara divi-sions during next 24 hours.

However in Sindh, wide-spread rain and thunder-shower with heavy falls attimes is expected especiallyin Hyderabad and MirpurKhas divisions during 24hours. In Balochistan, scat-tered rain/thundershowerwith isolated heavy falls isexpected in eastern

Met Office indicateschances of more rains

Balochistan especially inSibbi, Nasirabad and Kalatdivisions during next 24hours. Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan will also receivescattered rain/thunder-shower during next 24 hours. Under its influence, strongmonsoon currents are pen-etrating in upper parts of thecountry.

Scattered rain-thunder-shower with isolated heavy

falls expected over Kashmir,Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar,Kohat, Islamabad/Rawalpindi,Lahore, Gujranwala, Sargodha,Faisalabad, Sahiwal divisionswhile hot and humid weatheris likely elsewhere in the coun-try during next 24 hours. Theweather of Peshawar, Kohat,Parachinar and Kohat districtwill remain partly cloudy withchance of rain/thundershow-ers in the same period. In next48 hours, scattered rain-thun-dershower with isolatedheavy falls expected overKashmir.—APP

OUR CORRESPONDENT

QUETTA—Banned BalochRepublican Army (BRA) hasaccepted the responsibility ofvarious targets killing attacksin the province. Spokesmanof Banned outfit SarbazBaloch told through SatellitePhone from some unknownplace that the BRA blew upsecurity forces vehicles byremote control bomb on 2ndday of Eid in the area of Saryabroad as a result 9 security per-sonnel were killed while 15

BRA owns Balochistan target killingssustained severe injuries andtwo vehicles also destroyedin this attack.

Sarbaz further claimedthat in the area of Dera BugtiBaloch Sarmacharo the outfitattacked on security forcestorture cell and destroyed onepart of the cell while severalpersonnel were killed and in-jured. On the other side theFrontier corps spokespersonexpressing his ignorance overthe incident claimed that noincident occurred and no tor-ture cell is found in Dera

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Speech pat-terns can reveal the sever-ity of depression as well asa patient’s response totreatment, suggests a newstudy. The study, the larg-est of its kind in the world,found that improvement inpatients diagnosed withdepression and undergo-ing treatment can be moni-tored over the phone bylooking at changes in theirspeech.

Adam Vogel, who headsthe Speech NeuroscienceUnit at Australia’s Univer-si ty of Melbourne, saidspeech was a strong markerof brain health, andchanges in how we soundreflected how well ourbrain was working, thejournal Biological Psychia-try reports. “The speech ofpeople with depressionchanges when they re-spond to treatment, becom-ing faster and with shorterpauses. Those with moresevere depression producelonger pauses and haveslower speaking rates,”Vogel said, according to a

Melbourne statement.The randomised controlledtrial of 105 patients lookedat vocal acoustic propertiessuch as timing, pitch andintonation to see if theycould provide rel iablebiomarkers to depressionseverity and responses totreatment. Patients were re-quired to call an automatedtelephone system andleave samples of theirspeech, such as sayinghow they fel t , reading apassage of text and recit-ing the alphabet.

“This offers greatertreatment flexibility as wecan now check on our pa-tients remotely, looking attheir speech patterns evenfrom remote or rural areas,”said James Mundt, seniorresearch scientist at theCentre for PsychologicalConsultat ion in Wiscon-sin, US, who collaboratedwith Vogel. “We know thatdepressed patients havediff icult ies expressingthemselves, so if we can im-prove how we assess de-pression, then we can im-prove how we treat i t ,”added Mundt.

Speech patterns revealdepression levels

Bugti. The militant’s pledgesare wrong and want to get at-tention of media only, he said.

Meanwhile the partici-pants of the Peace Conferencestressed upon the need forjoint efforts on the part of ci-vilian and military leadership,civil society and politicians torestore peace in Balochistan.

The event was organisedby a non-governmentalorganisation, Bardasht.Balochistan Assembly SpeakerMuhammad Aslam Bhootanisaid, “Balochistan has experi-

Citizens enjoyEid festival

OUR CORRESPONDENT

HY D E R A B A D—Thousandsof fun seekers includingwomen and childrenthronged the parks ofHyderabad on Wednesdayto celebrate Eid ul Fitr’s thirdday. Having spent the firstday of Eid on ritual exerciseof greeting relatives, friends,the citizens were seen flock-ing to numerous parks likeRani Bagh, New City Park andothers spots. Girls were seenriding swings while childrenwere screaming on merry-go-rounds and the adults wereexuberant to see smiles onthe faces of their children.

However, the peoplewere complaining about lackof facilities at the parks andhigh rates of edible items atcanteens and cafeteria aswell. They were of the viewthat the government shouldmake entry to all the parkswith parking facilities freeand the prices of all items atcanteens should be checkedand controlled by the au-thorities concerned, so thatthe people could enjoy more.The people also demanded ofthe government to make newgardens and allocate placesfor small parks at housinglocalities so that the peopleshould not cover long dis-tances, which also createtransportation problems forthem.

The families visiting theparks of the city complainedthat overcharging, sale ofsubstandard food items andnon-availability of qualityproducts are main causes ofconcern. The vendor took fullbenefit to the situation as theconcerned authorities failedto control the quality.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Chief Minister,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, AmeerHaider Khan Hoti has ex-pressed gratitude to ChiefMinister Punjab, ShahbazSharif for sending reliefgoods for the flood affecteesof district Nowshera. Thechief minister KhyberPakhtunkhwa has appreci-ated the spirit of the brother-hood of chief minister Punjaband said that the people ofthe province look this spiritwill honour.

It has a worth to mentionhere that Chief Minister

Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif hasannounced the dispatchingof 20 trucks loaded of reliefgoods for the flood affecteesof District Nowshera. Reliefactivities here Thursdaykicked off momentum aspeople were seen busy in re-moving standing water andmud from their houses atworst flood affected villagesof Azakhel, Pirpai andNowshera Kalan.

The district administra-tion and WAPDA has alsostarted relief operation inAzakhel and Pirpai and ad-joining villages and restoredelectricity. DCO Nowshera,

Ayaz Mandokhel is person-ally supervising the reliefoperation. Foods, rice, clothsand relief goods were distrib-uted among the floodaffectees of villages KhatKalay, Azakhel, NowsheraKalan and Khesgi Payan.

It may be recalled thatthree people drowned indrains after heavy rains hadlashed Azakhel and Pirpai ofNowsehra district onWednesday. The residentshave urged the governmentand philonthropists to comeand support the flood vic-tims of Nowshera in this hourof need.

Hoti expresses gratitudeto Shahbaz for relief

SUKKUR—Federal Ministerfor Power and WaterKhursheed Ahmed Shah hassaid that the Supreme Courtwas taking suo moto noticeon every issue, appealingthat it should also take suo

Minister seeks SC action over energy crisismoto action on energy crisis.

Talking to media repre-sentatives in Circuit HouseSukkur on Thursday, Shahsaid that the apex shouldbring the responsible of theenergy crisis before public.

He said that appearing be-fore the court was not a newissue for Pakistan People’sParty. Shah said that PPP al-ways respected judiciary,but it’s members were con-sidered guilty. He alleged

that PML-N spent worth bil-lion of rupees in Tanoor andLaptop schemes. He saidthat PPP formed a neutralElection Commission anddisposed of eight millionbogus votes.—INP

CHAKWAL—A runawaycouple belonging to Chakwalwas murdered and their bod-ies were later hanged on atree, reports said on Thurs-day. Afzal Pathan, belongingto the Maswal area that

Couple’s bodies hanged on tree after killingcomes under the jurisdictionof Dhadial Police Station, hadmarried Malik MazharHussain’s daughter Salma.The couple had eloped toMardan. A kidnapping casewas registered in the Dhadial

Police Station. On the occa-sion of Eid, Akhtar’s familycontacted the couple overthe phone and assured themthat they will be forgiven ifthey come back.

A day before Eid, the

couple came back to the vil-lage, after which they wereshot at and killed. Their bod-ies were hanged on a tree.The police shifted the bod-ies to a nearby hospital andinitiated investigation.—INP

enced multi-dimensional prob-lems over the last few yearswhich had left peopletraumatised and devastated.”He said that starting from earth-quake, terrorism, health issuesand catastrophes and other is-sues, one after another hadbrought the morale of inhabit-ants down. “All in the nameof peace, we are not at warbut there is no peace and it isuniversally acknowledgedfact that we are playing battle-ground in the name of bring-ing peace to us,” he added.

CondolesSher Gondal

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Punjab ChiefMinister Shabaz Sharif visited LakhaKadhar Garbi, a village in QadirabadPolice Station of Phalia Tehsil and con-doled with the heirs of Dilawar Advo-cate and his friends Abdur Rehman whowere gunned down over an old enmitythe other day. The Chief Minister gavecherubs of Rs o.5 million to heirs of eachvictim. He also directed RPO Gujranwalaand DPO Mandi Bahauddin to arrest the

accused at the earliest add terrorism clauses in the FIR. Itmay be mentioned that police have arrested three accusedout of four nominated in the FIR and efforts in progress forthe remaining one accused. Social circles have expressedgrave concern over the lackluster of the police. They saidinefficiency of police has reached a point where head ofprovincial government has to visit the places of occur-rence to ensure justice to people. Meanwhile Ex-service-men of Union Council Jano Chak in Phalia Tehsil havedemanded opening a post office branch in their unionCouncil. President Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society UnionCouncil Jano Chak said that the union council compriseJano Chak Klan, Jano Chak Khurd, Basi Klan, Basi khurdand Jano Chak Nai Abadi villages/ localities having overforty thousands residents. He said about six hundred ex-servicemen reside in area of the council. For this largeportion of population there is no post office and peoplehave to visit Phalia or Pahrianwali for posting/ receivingmail. Beside retirees including ex soldiers have to go toPhalia for drawing their pension every month. He urgedGeneral Postmaster of Pakistan to open a post office branchin their union council for convenience of general publicand ex-servicemen. Meanwhile Shahid Ranjha, a socialworker and local leader of PTI held the other day an EidMilan party here at Subhanallah Marriage Hall.

FATA peaceStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—The Governor KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Barrister MasoodKausar said, “We want peace in FATAand would do everything possible inthis regard”. This he has said in a meet-ing with a delegation from BajaurAgency, led by MNA Akhoon ZadaChattan which called on him atGovernor’s House Peshawar, on Thurs-day. The Governor further said that thetribes are the peace loving people and

their co-operation with government would ensure progressand prosperity in the area. Meanwhile, the Governor wasbriefed about the law & order situation and pace ofprogress on the ongoing developmental projects in thearea. The MNA Mr. Akhoon Zada said that due to the bestsecurity arrangements, no tragic incidence occurred onEid- ul- Fiter in the agency like elsewhere in the country.Meanwhile, earlier the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor,Barrister Masood Kausar visited Lady Reading Hospitaland enquired after the health of the injured of the bombblast occurred at Sadda Kurram Agency.He especially wentto the children ward of the hospital and later on inspectedwomen ward of the Central Prison, Peshawar.During hisvisit to the children ward of LRH while enquiring after thehealth of the patients also exchanged eid greetings andpresented sweets and toys to them as eid gifts.BarristerMasood Kausar wished early recovery of the patients andassured to ensure provision of best ever treatment facilityto the victims.The Governor also presented sweets andeid gifts to the injured of the bomb blast at Lady ReadingHospital and women prisoners at the Central prison.

HurdlesStaff Reporter

ISLAMABAD—Deputy Speaker of theNational Assembly Faisal Karim Kundion Thursday said that the PakistanMuslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) wascreating hurdles in the creation of newprovinces in Punjab and using delay-ing tactics. Talking to reporters in theParliament House here, Kundi said thatChaudhry Nisar’s allegations againstthe formation of commission were base-less. He said that the Commission was

constituted in pursuance of the President’s message andauthorization by the National Assembly on July 11. Hesaid that PML-N’s Ishaq Dar, who is Leader of Oppositionin Senate, nominated two Senators - Malik Rafique Rajwanaof PML-N and Abdul Ghafoor Haidri of JUI-F- whileChaudhry Nisar had nominated none despite repeated re-quests. The Speaker had to nominate MNAS, TahminaDaultana and Chaudhry Saud Majeed, to represent theopposition on the commission. Chaudhry himslf did nottake interest and now he was speaking in media regardingthe nominations. He should rather talk in the Parliamentabout the issue, he added. He said that all parties would betaken on board for the constitutional amendment regard-ing the new provinces and it was not a dispute betweenthe two parties. He said that the first meeting of the com-mission would be held on August 28 to elect the chairman.He said that the Speaker Punjab Assembly had not nomi-nated the two members for the commission despite re-peated reminders. The Deputy Speaker said that the com-mission would look into the issues relating to the fair dis-tribution of economic and financial resources, geographi-cal demarcation, allocation / re-adjustment of seats in theNational Assembly, Senate and the provincial assembliesconcerned, including seats of minorities and women.

UpliftStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Min-ister for Finance, Eng. MuhammadHumayun Khan has said that the presentprovincial government was firmly deter-mined to bring the far-flung and back-ward areas at par with developed one forwhich, he added all available resourceswere fully being utilized. This he saidwhile talking to the people who came tohis residence at Jolagram from variousareas of District Malakand. Eng:

Humayun Khan said that PPP was party of the downtrod-den people. He said its foundation was laid down by itsfounder chairman Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for the rightsof poor, peasants and labourers against the landlords,waderas and mill-owners. He said Shaheed Benazir Bhutto,party bearers, and workers also sacrificed their lives for thisnoble cause by suffering lashes and prisons but neverstepped back from path of truth. Humayun Khan vowedthat being followers of these martyrs, they would also fol-low their footprints and never compromised on principles.The provincial minister said that the government during itspresent tenure so far has completed countless developmentalschemes casting billion of rupees and their people werenow being benefited of it; adding that these include com-munication, health, education, public health engineering andagriculture sectors. He said funds more than Rs 1510.3 mil-lion have been spent in Batkhela, Rs 1470.50 million in UnionCouncil Khar, Rs 166.04 million in Union Council DheriJolagram and Rs 199.830 million in Union Council Dheri AlaDhand have been spent on various developmental schemes.

KHALID BUTT

LAHORE—Pakistan Interna-tional Airlines (PIA) has re-markably managed to makethis year’s Umrah operationquite a success in spite ofan increase of some 6 to 7thousand pilgrims amount-ing to around 40 thousandin total against the lastyear’s 32 thousand Umra pil-grims. Sources informed thatthis year the national flagcarrier operated approxi-mately 76 special Umrahflights during the period of1.5 months from the stationsof Karachi, Lahore, andIslamabad besides regulardaily flights to the kingdomof Saudi Arabia.

To the pleasant surpriseof every one in the aviationcircle including Jeddah air-port authority, only 4 flightsout of 76 were delayed dur-

ing this Umrah operation.Two flights were delayed dueto weather, one on technicalreason, and one by dint of theaircraft taxing back to termi-nal to offload a sick passen-ger,’ said sources. Consider-ing the situation, sources add,when Jeddah Airport authori-ties issued stern warnings ofimposing heavy fines on PIAover delays in flight opera-tions only few months backearly this year, it is a greatachievement for the nationalairline to have managed sucha crucial operation with thishigh punctuality and regular-ity ratio.

He said ‘it is a huge sighof relief for the national air-line. The new managementdid a remarkable job by tak-ing notice of the warningsfrom Jeddah Airport Author-ity and increased technicalmanpower in engineering

and ground handling depart-ments on ground in Jeddahand saved the country fromusual embarrassment. He in-formed that in April this yearSaudi aviation authoritieswere perturbed that PIA’sdelayed flights quite muchdisturbed the schedules ofother airlines at the busy air-ports of Jeddah and Riyadhdue to frequent slot change.

This was a matter of con-cern for the new managementas in the first three monthsof this year almost 400 flightsto/from Jeddah got delayedout of more than 500 flights.During the same period,around 50 flights to/fromMedina also got delayed outof above 60 flights. Sourcesclose to the new ChairmanPIA Rao Qamar Suleman dis-closed that after assumingoffice of Chairman PIAC thefirst thing he did was to take

notice of warnings fromJeddah. Considering the des-tinations in Saudi Arabia theones most lucrative for PIA’sbusiness, he took some strictand stringent measures toaugment technical capabili-ties on ground in Jeddah air-port while ensuring availabil-ity of funds for spares re-quired to keep the wide bodyfleet in operations.

The previous manage-ments have always been indif-ferent to this important aspectwhereas a top official whenasked about huge mismanage-ment and delays in Hajj opera-tion remarked “Hajjis shouldbe thankful to Almighty as pre-viously people use to go forhajj on camels”. This is the rea-son why PIA was heavilyfined during Hajj operation ofthe year 2011 over incessantdelays, and also its regularflights were diverted from main

Jeddah Airport to the Hajj ter-minal, which caused hardshipsto the PIA passengers butthere hue and cry had fallenon deaf ears,’ he elaborated.

Prior to this, he adds, Di-rector General of PrinceMuhammad Bin Abdul AzizInternational Airport im-posed a fine of 10,000 Saudiriyals on PIA over delayedflight operations on MedinaAirport, the authorities wereclose to deny landing rightsPIA’s flights because of de-layed operations of 32 flightsout of 40 flights scheduledto Jeddah in just 20 days ofFebruary (from 1st to 20th).‘But, this successful Umrahoperation is a proof that thenew chairman of the nationalairline is firm in bringing backall the PIA resources in op-erations and streamline theflight operations,’ he added.

Also, he adds, the PIA

management fully ensuredslot compliance in Umrahoperation 2012 with the helpof all concerned departmentsand stations and maintainedthe scheduled departure tim-ings by putting extra efforts.Considering the poor trackrecord of PIA in the MiddleEast owing to the previousmanagement’s ill planningand lack of vision, it is indeeda pleasant surprise that thenew management of PIA isdifferent from the previouslot, sources said.

It is pertinent to mentionthat last year’s Hajj operationhas been considered theworst in PIA’s history as thenational airline managed only15% punctuality with 212 de-layed flights. And the cancel-lation of around 1200 flightsbetween August and Novem-ber last year made PIA to in-cur a loss of around Rs410m.

PIA Umrah operation a great success

MARDAN: KP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti giving land allotment docu-ments to elders of Khazana Dheri.

HYDERABAD: A girl purchasing toys from a local market.BAJAUR AGENCY: Commandant Bajaur Scouts Colonel Shakeel Janjua distributingEidi among children on Thursday.

3 abductedfrom Bolan

QUETTA—Unknown menhave kidnapped three peoplefrom Bolan area. Police saidthat armed men took awaythree persons includingAbdul Malik, Lal Muhammadand Abdul Qadir on gun-point from Dhadar area ofBolan district. Police haveregistered a case and startedefforts to trace the where-abouts of the kidnappers.Further probe was in process.Police found body of aneight-year-old girl fromKarani road area of the pro-vincial capital.

Police said that it re-ceived information about thebody of a little girl in a gar-den on Karani road. The po-lice took the body into cus-tody and shifted it to hospi-tal morgue for identification.Further investigation wasunderway.—INP

Humayun grievedSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Minister forFinance, Engr. MuhammadHumayun Khan visited theresidence of Haji Kaki atJolagram Banda and ex-pressed his profound griefand sorrow over the demiseof his wife. The deceasedwas also the mother of BeramKhan and Hussain andmother-in-law of Qari NoorMuhammad.

The Minister also offered“Fateha” on the demise offather of Ziarat Gul atJolagram and father of Taimur(Retd) Subedar at Matkani.

TANDO ADAM—Policeclaimed to have arrestedseven accused involved inthe lynching of a man inTando Adam. Reportedly,the local residents ofJoharabad area of TandoAdam here attacked a houseafter they suspected that il-licit activities were takingplace there. Allegedly theneighbours turned violentafter finding out the threemen had brought a womanof easy virtue into thehouse. They put a lock onthe main gate and daredthem to come out and facethem. Seeing the people in

Seven held over TandoAdam lynching incident

such an angry state, the be-sieged occupants of thehouse called their friends toget them out of there.

According to sources thefriends of the men trapped inthe house came to rescuethem and fired shots in the airto disperse the angry vigilan-tes. In the height of panic theirfiring injured a young boy,which maddened the mob toan extent that they draggedthe men inside the house outand subjected them to themost savage of torture killinga man Ghulam Muhammad,50, and seriously injuring hisaccomplices. —DNA

BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD/MUZAFFARGAH—Over a dozen katcha housesand hutments were destroyedin village Burj Bhain nearQadirabad Headworks due toerosion and Chenab waterwhich inundated the said vil-lage and Kot Saleem, Peer Kot,Kot Kameer etc. However noloss of life was reported as yet.Meanwhile, the DCOMuhammad Asif and alongwithAsad Ullah Arrain MPA visitedthe partly affected villages, toapprise themselves of the situ-ation. According to Q.B.Headworks officials the riverwas discharging 1,32,849cusecs today and apparentlythere is no danger to the vil-

lages situated in the river beltarea.

However the district ad-ministration has made allpossible precautionarymeasures to meet any even-tuality in case of high floodin the river Chenab. Accord-ing to official source theHealth and Livestocks de-partments have establishedspecial camps near affectedvillages to assists the vil-lagers.

Muzaffargah: Two morebodies of drowned victimswere retrieved Thursdaymorning from Chenab River.At least eleven people werefeared drowned and six res-cued on Tuesday eveningwhen a boat sank in Chenab

River at Head Punjnad pointin Muzaffargarh. Two bodieshave been retrieved Thurs-day morning, media reportssaid.

According to locals, theroad traffic was jam at HeadPunjnad since morning dueto Eid rush. Therefore, 17people who wanted to reachthe other side of the riverboarded a dilapidated boat,which split in two pieces dueto overloading. Rescue teamreached the spot and pulledout six people alive from thewater while the rest of elevenwere feared drowned. Therescue team had to postponesearch operation tillWednesday morning due todarkness.

Relief centres for villages atChenab river belt set up

TANDO ADAM—An elderlyman died and two otherswere injured due to tortureby dwellers of the area oversuspicion of their involve-ment in immoral activitieshere on Thursday. Police ar-rested seven persons. Ac-cording to details, three per-sons with a teenager girlentered a vacant house lo-cated in Joharabad area ofTando Adam. The dwellersover suspicion of immoralactivity cordoned off thehouse and asked the peoplepresent in the house tocome out and clarify their

One dies, two injured overimmoral activities suspicion

identity.The people through

telephone called their ac-complices who reached thescene and started firing toterrify the people gatheredat the scene during whicha child was injured.

The enraged peopleclimbed into the house andbrutally tortured the peoplepresent there. An elderlyperson died of the torturewhile two were crit icallyinjured.

The police getting the in-formation reached the sceneand arrested seven people

involved in firing and tortureand started the investiga-tions.

Chakwal: A young couplewho married out of love wasmurdered here by the girl’sbrother. Over a month agoAlmas Khan had eloped withShamim Khan which had an-gered the family of the girl.The girl’s brother Kabir shotand killed the couple whenhe found the appropriatemoment. Kabir has been ar-rested by the police and thedeceased were shifted to thedistrict headquarters hospi-tal.—DNA

Hunza roadmishaps death

toll mounts to 8OUR CORRESPONDENT

HUNZA—Death toll in Hunzaroad accident has mountedto eight as three more injuredpersons succumbed to theirwounds in hospital onThursday. It should be men-tioned that that five personswere killed and 10 others in-jured when a bus carryingparticipants of weddingplunged into deep ravinewhile negotiating a sharp turnin Hussaini area of Gojal,Hunza on Wednesday.

The people, rescue teamsin assistance with localpeople rushed the injured toHunza hospital where threemore people succumbed totheir wounds on Thursdaymorning raising the death tollto eight.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Despite short-age of power generation andloadshedding, electricity thefthas become a normal practicein different areas of the prov-ince in general and inPeshawar district in particu-lar. According to details, hun-dreds of electricity consum-ers in various areas ofPeshawar including Badhber,Ahmedkhel, Landi Arbab,Matni, Bazeedkhel,Pushtakhara, Regi, Mithra,Palosi and Kochian lack elec-tricity meters and they haveacquired direct electricity con-

nections from the power linespassing nearby their homes.

Chief Executive PeshawarElectric Supply Company(PESCO) Brigadier (Retd)Tariq Sadozai claimed thatKhyber Pakhtunkhawa is ontop in electricity theft cases.He said that besidesPeshawar district surge inelectricity theft cases hasalso been reported inCharsadda, Bannu and otherdistricts of KP.

Tariq Sadozai claimedthat different provincial de-partments were defaulter ofRs120 billion of PESCO dueto which it had to face diffi-

culties. He said that due tofailure in recovery and over-coming line losses the bur-den was shifted to electricityconsumers in the form of ex-cess bills and surcharges.

Meanwhile, InformationMinister KP Mian IftikharHussain has hailed thePESCO CEO’s statement butquestioned that when thereis acute shortage of electric-ity in the province, how itcould be stolen. The KP in-formation minister said thatelectricity is stolen in indus-tries and factories. KP hasleast number of industrialunits as compared to other

provinces.Meanwhile, KP govern-

ment taking the notice ofPESCO CEO statement hasdecided to establish specialPolice Stations (PSs) inPeshawar, Charsadda andBannu aimed at stopping elec-tricity theft incidents. Mean-while Despite shortage ofpower generation andloadshedding, electricity thefthas become a normal practicein different areas of the prov-ince in general and in Peshawardistrict in particular. Accordingto details, hundreds of electric-ity consumers in various areasof Peshawar including

PEPCO CEO concerned over electricty theft surge

Special PSs in Peshawar, Bannu &Charsadda soon to stop pilferage

Badhber, Ahmedkhel, LandiArbab, Matni, Bazeedkhel,Pushtakhara, Regi, Mithra,Palosi and Kochian lack elec-tricity meters and they haveacquired direct electricity con-nections from the power linespassing nearby their homes.

Chief Executive PeshawarElectric Supply Company(PESCO) Brigadier (Retd) TariqSadozai claimed that KhyberPakhtunkhawa is on top inelectricity theft cases. He saidthat besides Peshawar districtsurge in electricity theft caseshas also been reported inCharsadda, Bannu and otherdistricts of KP.

Post-budget raisesin POL prices

THE decision of the Government not to increase prices of POL products on the occasion of Eid, which was announced with much fanfare to gain political mileage, turned out to be yet another mirage

as on the last day of Eid holidays the prices were jacked up hugely just inone go. Petrol has become dearer by Rs 4.85, Kerosene Rs 3.52 andLight Diesel Rs 3.19 per litre while price of CNG has been increased byRs 3.21 per kilogram.

In good old days, rates of utility services and price of oil used to beadjusted just once in a year on the occasion of presentation of nationalbudget. However, this sanctity of the budget has been trampled in thename of so-called deregulation of pricing mechanism, which is mostly tothe disadvantage of the consumer. The irony of the whole process is thatin principle the prices are re-adjusted as per fluctuation in the price of oilin the international market and an independent regulator called OGRA issupposed to determine the price in the light of these changes but in prac-tice things are manipulated by the authorities concerned. On many occa-sions in the past, the entire benefit of the price reduction in internationalmarket was not passed on to the domestic consumer. Similarly, on sev-eral occasions, OGRA recommended either no change or more relief butthe Government acted otherwise, making mockery of the entire system.We have also been emphasizing in these columns that revision of pricesafter short intervals must not be practiced in Pakistan where there isweak governance and exploitative business environment. It is becauseof this that prices of almost all goods and services including transportfares are increased when prices of oil or electricity are revised upwardbut there is no precedent of providing relief to the people when theirprices go down. The Government has allowed blood sucking of massesby resorting to weekly review of POL prices and has not even listenedto the advice of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Petro-leum and Natural Resources that has rejected weekly review and calledfor monthly review. We hope representatives of the people would raisetheir voice to safeguard rights of the consumer.

Khurshid’s unacceptablelogic on LB polls

SENIOR leader of the ruling PPP and Federal Minister Khurshid Shahhas come out with a strange logic to justify inaction of the Govern-

ment over Supreme Court/High Courts directions for immediate holdingof local bodies elections. He has maintained that local bodies’ polls couldnot be held before the general elections as Pakistan could not afford thetwo and as it would not be a financially viable option.

It is quite obvious that all the five governments (Federal plus provin-cial) are defying the court orders just for the sake of political expedien-cies. As none of the political parties was hundred percent sure aboutoutcome of the forthcoming general elections, they are reluctant to go forlocal bodies’ polls before them fearing that they could have to face hos-tile local governments afterwards. Apart from Syed Khurshid Shah, Sindhand KPK Governments have already categorically stated that they wouldnot hold LB polls before general elections. One would ask them if theseelections were not possible in 2012 or beginning of 2013 due to generalelections then what prevented them to hold them in 2011 or even earlier.The fact of the matter is that the system devised meticulously that servedthe people effectively, empowered them at grassroots level and resolvedtheir problems at the doorsteps, was discarded by the present Govern-ment unilaterally like the Kalabagh dam. The system could have beenimproved if there were any flaws but to throw it to dustbin at the whimsof MPAs and MNAs who considered it encroachment in their domainwas not just. Democracy doesn’t mean 446 members sitting in the parlia-ment but real democracy lies in empowerment of the people, which theLG system is meant for. It was in this perspective that a strong advocateof the system Daniyal Aziz had recently announced launching of themovement for restoration of the system and we hope he would get neces-sary support in view of the benefits that would accrue from it.

Possible impact ofIndian banks in PakistanAFTER the Indian government decided to allow two Pakistani com

mercial banks to open branches, it was understood that soon thiswould be reciprocated by Pakistan. Now the State Bank Governor hascome out with the announcement that Pakistan has also allowed two In-dian banks to operate in the country and it would take a few months toapprove licences.

It would be seen in due course of time how far major Pakistani bankswould be able to compete with their Indian counterparts but it is under-stood that the Indian industry including banking sector is robust and natu-rally they would give a tough time because huge financial resources backat their headquarters would support them. Foreign bank entry is frequentlyassociated with spill over effects for local banks and increasing competi-tion in the local banking market. However we believe that foreign com-petition compels domestic banks to be more efficient, to focus on opera-tions due to increased risk and to become less dependent on relationship-based banking practices. Estimation results suggest that an increased pres-ence of foreign banks is associated with a reduction in profitability andmargins for domestic banks. As long as domestic banks continue to lendto more opaque but profitable customers, there should be no welfare lossand foreign bank entry may simply result in a welfare-improving seg-mentation of the market. On the other hand, if foreign bank entry forcesdomestic banks out of the market, then more opaque firms may becomecredit constrained, aggregate credit may decline, and profitable invest-ment opportunities may be lost. The opening of branches would certainlyboost trade relations. Therefore we would impress upon the Pakistanicommercial banks to fine tune their operations and come out with attrac-tive packages to have a competitive edge over their Indian counterparts.

Especially during the 1950s,itwas India led by JawaharlalNehru that incessantly lec-

tured other countries about howthey should behave.The then PMof the world’s most populous de-mocracy fancied himself to be ex-pert on global issues,the reasonwhy he retained the External Af-fairs Ministry till the last day ofhis life in 1964. Sadly,the glowingtestimonials to Nehru by his nu-merous acolytes cannot disguisethe fact that by that year,India hadbeen comprehensively isolated.

With the exception ofBhutan,no country backed Delhiin the 1962 war with Beijing,evenColombo and Kathmandu,whichhave long been close to India.Even after Nehru imposed acease-fire in Kashmir and took thedispute to the UN,more countriesbacked Pakistan than India,a listthat included the US. Of course,itneeds to be remembered that theadministrative elite in the UKcould still not bring itself to “for-give” India for the effrontery ofbelieving that freedom was pref-erable to bondage under the Union

Conduct Assange trial in neutral venue

The ubiquitous drone attacks

Under capitalism wehave a state in the propersense of the word, that is,a special machine for thesuppression of one classby another.

Drone attacks, which wereonly sporadic in the era ofGeorge W. Bush, gained

momentum when PresidentObama took the reins of the Com-mander-in-Chief of the US ArmedForces. The reign of terrorlaunched by the ubiquitous droneshas wreaked havoc on the peopleresiding in the tribal belt of Paki-stan. Not only are the attacks ille-gal and a breach of Pakistan’s sov-ereignty but a clear violation ofhuman rights. Nobel laureate forpeace President Obama has in facttaken on the role of Ares, the Greekgod of war, who brought bane,ruin, curse and imprecation on thepeople.

Thousands of innocent civil-ians have been killed as collateraldamage through drone attacks inPakistan, which commenced in2004. In October 2006, 83Madrassah students between theages of 9 and 15 were callouslytargeted and killed. It was not tillJanuary 2012 that PresidentObama admitted to the use ofdrones in Pakistan to kill the al-leged militants. To underscore thecollateral damage and perhaps sat-isfy the conscience of its people,the US government has changedthe definition of a militant namingany able bodied male as a militant.This is the most callous and grue-some way of justifying killing in-nocent civilians by labeling themas “militants”.

Muzzlingmenace

The 1991 Dangerous Dogs Actis often cited as a classic example of knee-jerk legisla-

tion, a law made in haste and re-pented at leisure. But this is a cari-cature of what was a genuine, if ill-starred, attempt by the then Con-servative government to respond togrowing public concern over a spateof dog attacks. A media campaignfor Something To Be Done culmi-nated in an emergency measure thatsought to eradicate several breedsrenowned for their fighting prow-ess, notably the pit bull terrier. Thegovernment also introduced atougher criminal offence topenalise dog-owners, of whateverthe breed, who failed to keep theiranimals safely under control inpublic, as well as a power to al-low a court to specify the controlof a particular dog of any type.That could include muzzling.

The idea behind the Act wasthat the neutering of all the pit bulltype dogs would see them die out.Yet 20 years on, it has clearly failedto achieve this goal. More angry-looking young men than ever canbe seen out on the streets with whatseem suspiciously like pit bullfighting dogs. They have become amust-have accessory in some inner-city communities. The number ofdog attacks continues to rise. Yes-terday, tougher sentences came intoforce in an effort to deal with thismenace once and for all. Ownersof dogs that are dangerously out ofcontrol in a public place will faceup to 18 months in prison, and twoyears in exceptional cases. Courtswill also be encouraged to ban ir-responsible owners from keepingdogs, order dangerous dogs to beput down and arrange compensa-tion for victims. Arguably, some-one using a vicious dog as a weapondeliberately to maim another per-son deserves longer than two yearsin jail. But at least this is the rightapproach: in the end, it is not thedog that is the problem, but theowner. — The Telegraph

*****

War-ravagedSyria

It’s been less than a week sincethe new Arab League-UnitedNations envoy to Syria, Lakhdar

Brahimi, officially began his mis-sion. And if there was ever a signneeded that he has the toughest jobon the planet, look no further thanthe warnings issued from Washing-ton on Monday. In his sternest andloudest caution yet to the Syrianregime, United States PresidentBarack Obama had this to say: “Ared line for us is [if] we see a wholebunch of chemical weapons mov-ing around, or being utilised. Thatwould change my calculus.” Andhe added: “It doesn’t just includeSyria. It would concern allies in theregion, including Israel, and itwould concern us.”

Damascus is largely recognisedas having the world’s fourth-larg-est stockpile of chemical and bio-logical weapons. Last month, theSyrian Foreign Ministry hinted thatthe weapons would never be de-ployed inside Syria, though thereare unsubstantiated reports thatsome stockpiles have been moved.It is also worth noting that Obamaremains silent about weapons ofmass destruction stockpiled by Is-rael. Clearly, this is an escalationwhich underlines the need for anend to the violence as quickly aspossible. Brahimi said last Mondayhe wasn’t yet sure if Syrian Presi-dent Bashar Al Assad “should go”.It’s hard to see the Syrian opposi-tion forces agreeing to any end tohostilities as long as Al Assad staysin power — or indeed his support-ers internal and external agreeingto him going. The UN says morethan 18,000 people have been killedin the conflict, 170,000 have fledSyria and 2.5 million need aidwithin the country. Brahimi needsto work on bringing humanitarianrelief to those suffering as a resultof the conflict — either through aidcorridors or having all sides tem-porarily suspend the violence to al-low assistance reach those in direneed. That would be a good firststep in a situation that goes frombad to worse. What those sufferingon the ground in Aleppo, Homs orDaraa don’t need are threats of es-calation from Damascus, Washing-ton or elsewhere. — Gulf News

J a c k . O f f i c i a l ssuch as PhilipN o e l - B a k e rworked tirelesslyat the UN to en-sure that opinionswung against In-dia, a situation thatcontinued till thedawn of the 21st

century, when 9/11 resulted in asharp decline forbacking within theUS and the EU tothose favouring

the breaking away of territoriesfrom India.

Nehru’s constant preachinessensured that critics of India re-mained so. In particular,his sharp-tongued favourite, VengalilKumaran Krishna Menon,spewedvitriol on former colonial powersand their newfound champion,theUS,while he led the Indian delega-tion to the UN. In contrast,Pakistan’s delegates acted in a verydeferential manner towards repre-sentatives of the Great Powers,thereby making certain that Nehru’sgamble (of taking the Kashmir is-sue to the UN) failed to generate anypositive effects for India,although itmust be said that the move wasgreatly appreciated by Edwina andLouis Mountbatten,who suggestedthe reference to the UN to Nehru inthe first place.

Although Indira Gandhi and to alesser extent son Rajiv sought to con-tinue to preach international moral-ity to countries that not so secretlylooked down on India because of thecountry’s poverty, by the 1990s,thistendency had changed into one ofquiet acceptance of geopolitical re-

alities. Since that time,Nehru’s cloakof International Moralist has beenworn by the senior members of theNATO bloc,principally the US,France and the UK. These three pow-ers never cease to remind the worldof their own presumed morality,andof the low standards of the rest of theinternational community Whenemails purportedly from AsmaAssad,the First Lady ofSyria,surfaced in NATO media,thosewho procured them were presumablyrewarded. However,when BradleyManning,an idealistic soldier in theUS military,shone daylight on a troveof emails from the State Department,or exposed the heinous murder of in-nocents by criminals piloting UScombat aircraft,he was arrested andis now immured in a windowless cell.

The whistle-blower who ex-posed the targetted killing of un-armed civilians from the skies oughtto have been given a reward ratherthan prison,except that NATO’scommitment to free speech extendsonly to that which suits its strategicobjectives. And while Manning is inprison,the man who gave him a plat-form to reveal his secrets,JulianAssange,remains in what is effec-tively a prison,a room at the Ecua-dorian embassy in London,in dailyfear lest British police breach diplo-matic protocol and apprehend himThat the sexual charges broughtagainst Assange are serious is with-out a doubt.Unless the founder ofWikileaks faces a court and con-vinces it of his innocence,the stainwill continue to cast a shadow notsimply on him but on the acewhistle-blower that he helped tocreate,Wikileaks. However,giventhe fate of Bradley Manning andcountless others judged to be less

MEDIA WATCH

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Rubbing saltin the wound,P r e s i d e n tO b a m a ’ scounter-terror-ism adviser, JohnO. Brennan, lastmonth character-ized civilian ca-sualties fromdrone strikes as

“exceedingly rare.” US State De-partment legal advisor Harold Kohstated that the drone strikes werelegal because of the right to self-de-fense. According to Koh, the US isinvolved in an armed conflict withal-Qaida, the Taliban, and their af-filiates and therefore may use forceconsistent with self-defense underinternational law. On the other hand,on June 7, 2012 after a four-day visitto Pakistan, UN High Commissionerfor Human Rights Navi Pillay calledfor a new investigation into USdrone strikes in Pakistan, repeatedlyreferring to the attacks as “indis-criminate,” and said that the attacksconstitute human rights violations.

In a report issued on 18 June2012, Christof Heyns, UN specialRapporteur on extrajudicial, sum-mary or arbitrary executions, calledon the US’ Obama administrationto justify its use of targeted assas-sinations rather than attempting tocapture al Qaeda or Taliban sus-pects. Earlier this week, BenEmmerson UN special Rapporteuron human rights has asked the USto hand over footage of dronestrikes or face UN inquiry, to urgeestablishing a mechanism to inves-tigate such killings. He stated thatit was time for the US to open it-self up to scrutiny as to the legalityof such attacks. While it remainsnigh on impossible for observers toestablish the truth on the ground inmany of areas, each strike is visu-ally recorded and videos could be

passed to independent assessors, heexplained.

Dennis Halliday, former Assis-tant to the UN Secretary General,has opined that in the case of Paki-stan, the drone attacks are a total vio-lation of the sovereignty of Pakistanby the United States. It is a viola-tion of the UN charter and the pro-vision of the charter which prohib-its nation states attacking each otherin this sort of violence and thirdly, itis a violation of the Geneva Conven-tions protocols which very specifi-cally preclude the killing of civilians.

It is ironic that the US Constitu-tion itself advises against the killingof innocent civilians. An inscriptionon a bronze plaque on the Statute ofLiberty says: “Give me your tired,your poor, your huddled massesyearning to breathe free”. Here theUnited States government, instead ofbelieving in the policy of live andlet live, is killing, maiming and mak-ing homeless thousands of innocentcivilians including children, womenand old men in Pakistan.

It is the people of the UnitedStates, who remain oblivious of theatrocities carried out by its adminis-tration in the name of war on terror,and need to be brought on board toexert pressure on their governmentto cease this endless killing of inno-cent civilians. Some US politiciansand academics have condemned thedrone strikes. US CongressmanDennis Kucinich asserted that theUnited States was violating interna-tional law by carrying out strikesagainst a country that never attackedthe United States. Georgetown Uni-versity professor Gary D. Solis as-serts that since the drone operatorsat the CIA are civilians directly en-gaged in armed conflict, this makesthem “unlawful combatants” andpossibly subject to prosecution.Shahzad Akbar, a Pakistani lawyerhas sued the CIA for its actions of

killing innocent civilians throughdrone strikes. He has also sued thePakistan government for failing toprotect its own citizens from strikesby the United States in Pakistan.

Pakistani journalist KarimKhan has sued the CIA for 500 mil-lion dollars in Pakistan’s domesticHigh Court. Khan has petitionedthe Peshawar High Court for hiscase, challenging both the US pro-gram and Pakistan’s complicitywith the program. His brother andnephew, who became victims of adrone attack, are claimed to be in-nocent civilians. Jonathan Banks(perhaps a cover name) of the thenCIA chief in Pakistan, who wasnamed in the lawsuit along withRobert Gates the then Defence Sec-retary and Leon Panetta, then CIADirector was withdrawn from Pa-kistan.

It’s ironic that the number ofdrone operators in the US today, faroutnumbers its fighter pilots. Astark reminder that the Obama ad-ministration is relying more andmore on the unmanned aerial ve-hicles, which offer little or no dan-ger to the US, even if shot downand have become a cost effectivemethod of dealing with the enemiesof the US. The sad part is that thecollateral damage, which is esti-mated to be more than seventy per-cent per strike, continues to beswept under the carpet as if the livesof the innocent civilians have novalue. On the other hand, the rela-tives of the drone attack victims areoften approached by the terroristsand promised redress for the livesof their relatives if they join theranks of the miscreants; thus caus-ing more harm than good.—The author, a retired PAFGroup Captain, served as Air &Naval attaché at Riyadh and iscurrently a columnist, analyst andTV talk show host.

than helpful to the war aims ofNATO, it would be foolhardly toexpect fair treatment in Sweden,acountry closely connected with sev-eral NATO member-states,andwhich fully backs the EU in its ef-forts at retaining in the 21st centurythe primacy the continent enjoyedin the 19th century. Clearly,justicewill only be assured if the trial ofJulian Assange takes place in acountry where the long shadow ofNATO does not fall. Given that In-dia has become an auxiliary of thealliance since 1998, clearly thiscountry would not be a fit venue.

Far better would be Brazil orArgentina, countries that have dem-onstrated a feisty independence ofpower blocs. Just as alleged inter-national human rights violatershave been tried in Europe despitecoming from Africa,on the (oftenspecious) ground that justice is notpossible in Africa, it is clear thatJulian Assange ought to face hisaccusers in a neutral venueHopefully,either Assange himselfor Ecuador will make the sugges-tion to the international community,to conduct the trial of the Wikileakshero in a venue that is independentof NATO influence.An alliance thatis blind to its own transgressionswhile constantly hectoring othersabout (what it considers to be)theirs is hardly the unbiased bodythat is needed if a trial is to be fair.Julian Assange ought to agree toface a trial,one in which hopefullyhis name will be cleared,providedthat it take place in a neutral venue.—The writer is Vice-Chair,Manipal Advanced ResearchGroup, UNESCO Peace Chair &Professor of Geopolitics, ManipalUniversity, Haryana State, India.

—LeninRussain leader

M D NalapatEmail: mgnalapat@gmail.com

GeopoliticalGeopoliticalGeopoliticalGeopoliticalGeopoliticalnotes from Indianotes from Indianotes from Indianotes from Indianotes from India

Sultan M HaliEmail: sm_hali@yahoo.com

Voice of the People

Jewish vote in US politics

Sixty-eight years ago, the Republican National Conventionadopted a plank that would

shape the future of US-Israel relationsand redefine the role of Jewish vot-ers in American politics. This surpris-ing turn of events was the result ofefforts by an unlikely trio: a formerpresident, a maverick journalist-turned-congresswoman and the fatherof Israel’s current prime minister.Luce, a former editor of Vanity Fairand war correspondent for Life, wasone of the GOP’s rising young stars.The charming and charismatic Lucehad a knack for turning a clever po-litical phrase. Her description of post-war liberal visions of a universalworld order as “globaloney” instantlybecame part of the political lexicon.Former President Herbert Hooverhailed Luce as “the Symbol of theNew Generation.”

The other major surprise of theconvention was the party’s decisionto actively seek the support of Jew-

ish voters. In the presidential elec-tions of 1936 and 1940, 85% ofAmerican Jews had supportedFranklin D Roosevelt. But by thespring of 1944, many Jews weredeeply frustrated by the Rooseveltadministration’s failure to aid Eu-ropean Jews fleeing the Nazis, andFDR’s refusal to press the Britishto open Palestine to Jewish refu-gees. Even the fervently pro-FDRAmerican Jewish Congress chal-lenged the president.

The growing bitterness in theJewish community opened the doorto Benzion Netanyahu, a young Zi-onist activist from Jerusalem who hadcome to the US to mobilize publicsupport for creation of a Jewish state.(Netanyahu, whose son, Benjamin, isIsrael’s current prime minister, passedaway this year at the age of 102.) Ata time when most mainstream Jew-ish leaders backed Roosevelt and ig-nored the Republicans, Netanyahucultivated ties to Hoover, Luce, Sen.Robert Taft of Ohio and other seniorGOP figures. He urged them to in-clude a pro-Zionist plank in their1944 platform. So did Cleveland

rabbi and Zionist leader Abba HillelSilver, who was close to Taft.

In an interview some years ago,Netanyahu told me that on the eve ofthe convention, Luce called him tosay, “I’m going now, to do your workat the convention.” Luce was a mem-ber of the convention’s resolutionscommittee, and Taft was its chairman.With Hoover’s encouragement, thecommittee adopted a resolution urg-ing the Allies to “give refuge to mil-lions of distressed Jewish men,women and children driven from theirhomes by tyranny,” by opening Brit-ish-controlled Palestine to “unre-stricted immigration” and then estab-lishing a Jewish state.

Prominent Jewish supporters ofFDR and the Democrats, especiallyRep. Emanuel Celler of New Yorkand Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, fearedthe GOP plank might break theDemocrats’ lock on the Jewish vote.At the Democratic Convention inChicago the following month, Wisewarned a Roosevelt administrationofficial that their failure to adopt apro-Zionist plank to match the Re-publicans “will lose the president

Myth of population crisis

Immediate polls or removal of thegovernment the real magic wandsthat we need to get out of the cru-

cible of precipice which we havelanded into due to the cumulative ef-fect of bad governance over the lastsix decades? The answer unfortu-nately is in the negative. We have seenrepeated elections during nineties andeven earlier that only led to the changeof faces rather than any improvementin governance. The reason being thatsince our independence the politicalsystem in the country has encouragedand promoted politics of graft and en-titlement— an off-shoot of feudal-ism—— which is the mother of allthe ills afflicting our body politic, in-cluding rampant corruption.

Therefore, the pre-mature changein the government and elections un-der the same decadent system will notchange any thing. Nawaz Sharif him-self has been the Prime Minister twiceand corruption was cited as the mainreason for the removal of his govern-

Elections or systemic reformsments. Early or new elections with-out effecting systemic changes willbring back the same old faces, maybe with changed loyalties as has beenthe case in the past. Further, with theholding of elections, oil and gas wellsare not going to sprout out of the soilover night; power stations will not de-scend from heavens; economy willnot suddenly leap onto the upwardcurve and budget deficit will notevaporate with the swearing in of thewinner. These problems need time tobe fixed, may be at least five yearsand huge resources which are notavailable with us.

Similarly terrorism and religiousextremism will not go away even in adecade; corruption which is now anall permeating social phenomenon willnot disappear in a generation’s time.So why then go for fresh polls if theseproblems cannot be fixed immedi-ately? Our political leaders need to behonest. They must stop acting like car-pet beggars craving to clinch powerby any means instead of striving toput in place a system of governancethat ushers in an era of a healthychange in the political and economicprofile of the country, geared to serve

Securityfor Rimsha

DR ALFRED CHARLES

Regardless of further details aboutRimsha’s case and her alleged in-volvement in Blasphemy . Now itis much more important to provideher security in jail.While produc-ing her in open courts any mishapmay occur. The govt. should pro-vide her foolproof security.

After her 14 days remand pe-riod she should not be produced inopen Courts. Her case should beheard in jail premises. Localmagistrate’s attention and order ismuch more required in this sce-nario. Her parents are also facingsame kind of life threats so theyshould be also provided security.—Karachi

Airing of IndianTV channelsMUBASHIR MAHMOOD

During the Ramadan it was verygood to see that all the Pakistanichannels were airing Azaan for fivetimes. In Ramadan Indian channelswere also banned and vulgar adver-tisements were also not transmit-ted. But now Indian channels areonce again available on TV. CableTV operators must follow the or-ders of PEMRA and should stopairing these channels.

If Indian channels want to showtheir transmission in Pakistan thenthey must pay TV license fees andall those scene from the Indiandrama should be deleted which pro-mote Indian culture. It is also myrequest to all the Pakistani chan-nels to transmit Azaan duringAzaan time and not to air any songsduring Azaan time.—Karachi

Award forAsif Shaheed

MOEED ALI SHAH

Sepy Muhammad Asif Shaheedwho saved the Kamra Airbase fromterrorists deserves gallantry award.The sensitivity of Kamra Airbaseand its possessions is very highthat’s why the base has been tar-geted again and again. MuhammadAsif Shaheed not only killed threeof the terrorists but got them en-gaged until SSG Force had arrived.Thus he saved a big loss. PresidentAsif Ali Zardari has bestowedPresidential Awards to people whohave been good for nothing, whynot award for the proud son of na-tion?—Hyderabad

Contradictionsin politics

MALIK T ALI

President Zardari has called uponMuslim ummah at OIC meeting totake a unified stand against themenace of suicide bombing andkillings which have resulted indeaths of thousands in Pakistan andother troubled parts of the Islamicworld. What he has forgotten is thatwhile these suicide killings consti-tute an act of terrorism and areagainst teachings of Quran, so arethe target killings, corruption, andcrimes of kidnapping for ransomand extortion that plague Pakistan.In fact over 7,400 people have beenkilled in target killings during past27 months in Karachi and parts ofBalochistan as compared to about1000 in suicide attacks. While thePPP never tires of claiming to be ademocratic liberal party, it func-tions as a cult, where party leader-ship has become a family inherit-ance, as if this is a monarchy or afief, where power is transferred onhereditary basis only.

May I ask in what capacity didBilawal Zardari etc attend the OICsession?. They could have travelledwith President as members of firstfamily, but have no right to partici-pate in cabinet meetings or take partin parleys with other nations or im-portant sessions such as OIC meet-ing, because they do not hold anyconstitutional public office, nor arethey sworn to oath of secrecy. Canthe democratically elected Presidentquote one incident where a scion ofan established democratic country’selected constitutional office holderattended a cabinet meeting, or tookpart in international forums whereonly public office holders who havetaken an oath, take part. This is un-heard of in USA, UK, France,Canada, Iran or even in India.

We live in a country where thegreat grand son of the Quaid, 17year old Sinkander Ali Jinnah, wasmurdered in Karachi on 9th Janu-ary 1998 and no FIR was lodgeduntil 2000. No individual or fam-ily has rendered more service to Pa-

kistan than the Quaid e Azam, andif they are not entitled to get justice,nobody else can claim any prefer-ential treatment on hereditarygrounds. Why should it be the fateof this country to be ruled andabused by men like Bilawal, Hamza,Monnis, Musa Gillani, AfzandyarWali Junior etc, just because of ac-cident of birth, unless each of themearn this privilege.—Lahore

Demise ofrenowned journalistMOHAMMAD KHAN SIAL

Late Shamimur Rehman was one ofthe senior journalists who expired onthe next day of Eidul Fiter (August21) after his brief illness at Karachi.All those who personally knew himin addition to general readers of anEnglish daily where he was work-ing as senior reporter for years, musthave been grieved to receive sadnews of his demise as they have lostan honest, able, responsible anddedicated person who, no doubt wasloyal to his job. I had an opportu-nity to work with him in PTV News,Karachi centre as News Translatorwhere he was working as News Pro-ducer in 1975 – 76. He was alsoknown as “Papoo” there. Later, Ijoined as PRO, PIA from where Ifinally retired a few years back butMr Rehman who joined an Englishdaily was still working there as se-nior reporter but our cordial relationscontinue as before.

During my professional duties asPRO and personal relations withhim, I always found Mr Rehmanvery honest, cooperative, energetic,responsible, hardworking and dedi-cated to his job. He was one of thesenior journalists who can be placed,profession-wise at high esteem. Healso enjoyed good relations with ourtop political national leaders. I per-sonally knew that when ShaheedBenazir Bhutto, ex-Prime Ministerwas holding any gathering atKarachi, she personally was tryingto ensure that Mr Rehman shouldattend the gathering. It was only thathe was impartial, responsible andhonest reporter who was above anypolitical affiliation as well as his pro-fessional duties were concerned. MrRehman use to work in very diffi-cult conditions dedicatedly for years.As per press reports, his name wasincluded in the list of 30 senior jour-nalists of Karachi who were threat-ened of lives by a terrorist wing ofan ethnic group of Karachi. This alsodid not alter his determination forworking honestly and impartially. Inbrief, people like ShamimurRehman, late Sabihuddin Ghousiand many others who set good ex-amples for new entrants and othersalready working in journalism,would be remembered by all for de-cades to come. Let us pray AlmightyAllah may rest his soul in eternalpeace and give courage to his be-reaved family members to bear thisirreparable loss with fortitude.—Karachi

Load-sheddingAGHA SHAHEEN KHAN

Pakistan has been facing the worstsituation in load shedding and thedisappointing thing is that nobody isserious to resolve this critical issue.Load shedding occurs daily for 12hours and more out of 24 hours. Ithas not only destroyed our economybut has also conveyed not a goodmessage to the world. People facemany difficulties due to over loadshedding with no time table. Due toload shedding people face problemslike water deficiency, interruption ineducation system, many industries areaffected due to over load sheddingwhich increases the unemploymentand many electronic devices are af-fected due to interruption in powersupply which causes loss to financialposition of citizens.

In villages load shedding hascreated the extreme stress situationfor the people living there. Many vil-lagers are migrating to cities in or-der to get rid of those difficultiesthey suffer there. The main cause ofload shedding is the stealth electric-ity. In cities it has been seen that theratio of stealth energy has increased

Our manufacturing faultSYED SAYEF HUSSAIN

In 1962, President Mr Ayub Khan’s government gave a constitutionto Pakistan. This was probably a disputed document, but this is notmy point here. While he left the power in 1969, he himself disre-garded his own constitution and did not handover power accordingto the provision the constitution. It shows that, something is funda-mentally wrong with us Pakistanis. We have some serious manufac-turing fault. We do not respect written words, covenants and rulesand regulations etc. More than four decades have passed since thedemise of Ayub Khan’s constitution. But nothing has changed; noimprovements have come in our national psyche of bypassing thelaws, and rules-regulations etc. Rather, the things have gone fromworse to worst. How can you claim to be democracy loving people, ifyou fail to show respect to documents, words and covenants? Anyanswer?—Karachi

When a hippopotamus gavebirth recently, the “worldfamous” San Diego Zoo

in California celebrated the arrivalfor weeks. At the zoo, it is alwaysa joyous occasion at the birth of apanda, a kangaroo, an elephant, orwhat have you. You are assured thateach arrival has enriched the world!Now contrast this with the birth ofa child in any LDC (Less Deserv-ing Country?). An unbelievable as-sortment of “experts” would imme-diately tell you that it is a momentof great sorrow. That the world issomehow impoverished by the birthof each child.

It is a strange world in whichthe arrival of a hippo is a blessingbut that of a human child is a bur-den. But it is even stranger that theargument given is economic. Ahippo needs 100 pounds of foodeveryday, compared with a fewpounds for human beings. Furtherit does not produce any of the foodit consumes. No animal ever does.Only human beings produce theirown food. Yet an extremely pow-erful propaganda machinery hasbeen busy for more than a centuryin spreading the nonsense that theworld faces a human “overpopula-tion problem.” It was ReverendThomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) who forcefully presented theidea that the human population

would always exceed our ability toproduce food by some natural law.Malthus based his theory on verylimited observations in Americancolonies and even more limiting as-sumptions about the progress of ag-riculture technology.The result is a theorythat is totally contra-dicted by facts.World populationhas more thandoubled since 1950,but food supplieshave more thantripled. Further, ex-perts believe that iftechnology contin-ues to improve attoday’s rate, it willbe possible to feedten billion people onroughly the sameamount of land currently devotedto agriculture.

While as a work of scienceMalthus’s theory was worthless, itwas received enthusiastically forpolitical reasons. The industrialrevolution and capitalism that ac-companied it, did not deliver whatthey had promised. It was expectedthat as it became easier and cheaperto produce goods, everyone wouldshare in the resulting prosperity; therising tide would lift all boats. It didnot. Capitalism produced a small

class of very rich people and a largemass at barely subsisting levels.This made many people to startquestioning the system. Malthuswas a priest in the service of theEast India Company and taught

generations of itsstaffers who wouldthen go out andplunder the colonieswith the satisfactionthat the plight oftheir victims was theresult of “naturallaws.”

After World WarII, when Europeanpowers found it dif-ficult to maintain di-rect control of theircolonies, they wereconcerned that thenewly liberated

colonies would develop and be-come economically independentand politically powerful if left togrow on their own. The currentpopulation control mafia is born ofthese concerns. While Malthus’soriginal theory remains discredited,the neo-Malthusians have tried toresuscitate it with “concerns for theenvironment.” Add to it the UNcharlatans who are never short offancy phrases like “reproductiverights.” And you get the PopulationControl Bomb that has been devas-

Views From Abroad

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

the teeming millions. The nation canno more afford political gimmickry.The country is fast moving towardsthe tipping point and people are los-ing their faith in democracy in itspresent form. Before the forces inimi-cal to democracy——taking cue fromthe exhortations of some pseudo-in-tellectuals and arm-chair gladiators towrap up the system— make theirmove and render the politicians irrel-evant to the emerging realities, it isimperative for them to read the writ-ing on the wall and get their act to-gether. If they are really wedded tothe cause of democracy and goodgovernance in the country, whichthey cry hoarse from every conve-nient roof-top, then they will haveto prove their credentials throughtheir deeds. No body in his rightmind could think even for a moment, no matter how bad the things are,that our salvation and progress liesin any arrangement other than en-visioned by the creator of Pakistan;a progressive democratic polity.

Before the next elections are heldin the country it is imperative to ef-fect systemic reforms, particularly theway we election our parliamentarians

and government. In my humbleopinion— morphed as a result ofminute study of the political systemsof the world in the context of theirrelevance to their social and culturalvalues——Proportional representa-tion provides the best solution toundo the shackles of feudalism. Thissystem evolved in Europe duringnineteen century, is prevalent inRussia, South Africa, Newzealand,Norway, Germany and a number ofother countries with some variationssuiting their own social milieus.

Another reform that needs to beintroduced is that the voting in theelections should be made manda-tory. This will enhance the stake ofthe people in the political affairs ofthe country and also help in gaug-ing the real support of political en-tities among the masses. Thesechanges would require someamendments in the constitution andmay necessitate the same unityamong the political parties as wit-nessed during the passage of Eigh-teenth Amendment and the NFCAward. The onus for initiating theproposed changes however restswith the ruling party.

400,000 or 500,000 votes.” Wisewas referring to the large Jewishpopulation in New York state. Withits 47 electoral votes — the largestin the nation at the time — NewYork would be crucial to FDR’s1944 re-election bid. The fact thatNew York’s governor was the Re-publican nominee meant it mightbecome a battleground state. Theparty leadership heeded the warn-ings from Celler and Wise.

This was the beginning of the“Jewish vote” as a factor in USpresidential politics. For the firsttime, both parties recognized thatJewish votes might be up for grabs,and that Jewish concerns neededto be addressed to attract the sup-port of Jewish voters. The two1944 planks also represented thebirth of bipartisan support for aJewish state. With both parties inagreement, the path was clear forAmerica-Israel friendship to be-come a permanent part of Ameri-can political culture. The writer isdirector of the David S. WymanInstitute for Holocaust Studies. — Courtesy: Los Angeles Times

Rafael Medoff

much and nobody prohibits themfrom doing so. The best solution forthis is that WAPDA should maketeams for all areas of the differentcities, whose work should be tocheck the streets daily and one whodoes this crime should be chargedhuge amount so that nobody canplay with the basic needs of thepeople who pay the bills. I requestthe ministry of Water and Power tosupport the concerned authorities indoing so.—Ghotki

50,000 childrendie of hunger

CLEMENTE FERRER

The Sahel region in Africa is facinga severe food crisis. The droughtsof 2005, 2010 and 2012, along withincreased insecurity, are drivingmany families into chaos. More thanone million children have no accessto food, medicines, safe drinkingwater, sanitation or education. Theimage of childhood is the image ofour moral condition as adults. A civi-lization that fights against childrenis a planet with no hope. Havingchildren live in poverty, abused,beaten and sacrificed is a crimeagainst humanity that will soon bejudged by our future generations.

According to the World HealthOrganization, about 50 million new-borns are not registered. It is esti-mated that 100 million abortions areconducted annually throughout theworld. More than 120 million chil-dren lack basic nutrition. About50,000 children die of hunger perday. Also, one of every four childrenunder 5 years of age will experiencethe effects of depletion, anemia, dis-ability, physical or mental defects.Moreover, child mortality rates varyby region: in affluent countries therate consists of 6 children per every1,000 births; in Latin America therate is 31 per 1,000; in South Asia itis 89 per 1,000; and in sub-SaharanAfrica it reaches up to 169 per 1,000.

Almost 25 million who are under18 years of age live in refugee areas.They are recruited from the scourgesof war. About 16 million children areorphans; a quarter of them due to thevirus of death, i.e. HIV/AIDS. About80% of them live in Africa. It is alsoestimated that 400 million children areslaves for the despotism of exploita-tion. These include children chainedto hard labor due to the indigent con-ditions within which their parents sur-vive in. They are forced into agricul-ture, deposits, mines, industries and asslaves to landowners. There are nowabout 500,000 child soldiers. Nearlytwo million kids are forced into beingsex objects.

Finally, FAO’s annual reportwas published under the title: “TheState of Food Insecurity in theWorld”. The report asserts that eat-ing is a basic right of humanity andthat hunger is an insult to humandignity. (Translated by Gianna A.Sanchez Moretti).—Via email

A matterof shame

MOEED ALI SHAH

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashrafhad promised the nation that therewould be no load-shedding duringEid days but ironically the powershut down situation got worst sinceChand Raat.

Earlier he had guaranteed noload shedding during Sehri and Iftarbut what happened was contrary tohis vow. Either he has failed to getrid of his habit of lying to the nationabout load-shedding or the con-cerned authorities of WAPDA payno heed to what he says. Both waysit is very shameful for him.—HyderabadWill be leaving for an air-

force base in a day or twoto join my cousin a high-

ranking air force officer. I knowthere will be much talk over thereabout planes and wars and stuff likethat which brings me today to an-other tale: Charles Plumb was a USNavy jet pilot in Vietnam.

After 75 combat missions, hisplane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected andparachuted into enemy hands. Hewas captured and spent 6 years in a

communist Vietnamese prison. Hesurvived the ordeal and now lectureson lessons learned from that experi-ence. One day, when Plumb and hiswife were sitting in a restaurant, aman at another table came up andsaid, “You’re Chuck Plumb.

“How in the world did you knowthat?” asked Plumb. “I packed yourparachute,” the man replied. Plumbgasped in surprise and gratitude. Theman pumped his hand and said, “Iguess it worked” Plumb assured him,“It sure did.

If your chute hadn’t worked, Iwouldn’t be here today.” Plumbcouldn’t sleep that night, thinkingabout that man. Plumb says, “I keptwondering what he had looked likein a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bibin the back; and bell-bottom trousers.

I wonder how many times I mighthave seen him and not even said‘Good morning, how are you?’ oranything because, you see, I was afighter pilot and he was just a sailor.”Plumb thought of the many hours thesailor had spent at a long woodentable in the bowels of the ship, care-fully weaving the shrouds and fold-ing the silks of each chute, holdingin his hands each time the fate ofsomeone he didn’t know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience,“Who’s packing your parachute?”Everyone has someone who provideswhat they need to make it through theday. He also points out that he neededmany kinds of parachutes when hisplane was shot down over enemy ter-ritory —he needed his physical para-chute, his mental parachute, his emo-

Plane talk..!tional parachute, and his spiritualparachute. He called on all thesesupports before reaching safety.Sometimes in the daily challengesthat life gives us, we miss what isreally important. We may fail to sayhello, please, or thank you, con-gratulate someone on somethingwonderful that has happened tothem, give a compliment, or just dosomething nice for no reason.

Who are those who pack yourparachute, and equip you each dayto overcome life’s challenges? Is ityour mother, father, brother or afriend, a husband or your wife youhave to thank for the care they haveput into your life to see you are hav-ing safe landings? If so thank yourparachute packer right now..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

tating the world. It did not have tobe like this. The clear Qur’anicteachings destroy the basic assump-tions of Population Control cam-paign. “And the earth We havespread out (like a carpet); setthereon mountains firm and im-movable; and produced therein allkinds of things in due balance. AndWe have provided therein means ofsubsistence, for you and for thosefor whose sustenance you are notresponsible.” [Hijr 15:19-20] “Andthere is not a thing but its (sourcesand) treasures (inexhaustible) arewith Us; but We only send downthereof in due and ascertainablemeasures.” [Hijr 15:21] “There is nomoving creature on earth but its sus-tenance depends on Allah: He knowsthe time and place of its definiteabode and its temporary deposit: allis in a clear Record.” [Hud 11:6]

These verses clearly demolishany basis for use of birth control asa tool of economic policy. Our jobis to use the resources wisely anddistribute them justly. And Allahwill provide for all human beingsas He has promised and as only Hecan provide. Muslims are bound bytheir faith to work to dismantle theobscene birth control establishmentin their lands and devote their en-ergies to solving the problemscaused by capitalism, imperialism,and neo-colonialism.

Malik M AshrafEmail: ashpak10@gmail.com

The Spirit Of Islam

Khalid Baig

JOSH ROGIN

THE Obama administration decided Tuesday to allow Americans to send hundredsof thousands of dollars in cash to Iran to help with

earthquake relief in a rare relief of tight financial sanc-tions imposed on the country in response to its contro-versial nuclear program. The Treasury Department issueda 45-day general license to allow officially registered NGOsto send up to $300,000 to Iran for humanitarian relief andreconstruction activities related to two Aug. 11 earth-quakes that struck northern Iran and killed more than 250people. Food and medicine aid is already exempted fromsanctions against Iran. The George W. Bush administra-tion took a similar action in 2003.

Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonoughexplained on the White House blog that the Iranian gov-ernment had refused to accept offers of official help forearthquake victims from the U.S. government, so the ad-ministration decided this was the best way to facilitateaid to the disaster area.“In a disappointing decision, thegovernment of Iran has chosen not to accept our offer ofhumanitarian assistance,” he wrote. “This step allows theAmerican people to support organizations providing hu-manitarian relief activities, including the distribution ofemergency medical and shelter supplies, as well as thosepursuing broader efforts to rebuild affected areas.”

McDonough emphasized that the move was a tempo-rary one and does not alter the administration’s approachto sanctioning Iran writ large. “We remain committed to rig-

orously implementing the measures and sanctions in place toincrease the pressure on the Iranian regime, and to continueincreasing the costs of Iran’s non-compliance with its interna-

tional obligations related to its nuclear program,” he said. Iranwatchers have noted the delay in issuing the license, which

came 10 days after the earthquake. When the Bush adminis-tration took a similar action, it did so just 4 days after the 2003Bam disaster. Sources close to the administration told The

Cable that there was significantdebate about whether or not toissue the license. State Depart-ment officials argued in favor ofgranting the license, while theWhite House resisted the move,worried about how even a tem-porary and limited relief of sanc-tions against Iran would play inthe media so close to the presi-dential election. Eventually, withthe support of top State Depart-ment officials, the White Housewas persuaded to agree to themove, these sources said.

The National IranianAmerican Council, a group rep-resenting Iranian-Americans,was also heavily involved inpushing for the issuance of thelicense. NIAC founder andpresident Trita Parsi told TheCable that his organization mo-bilized parts of the Iranian-American community, which

sent more than 3,000 letters to the White House asking offi-cials to allow more earthquake relief. “Last time Bush did it,

Obama administration allows earthquake relief money for Iran

A plea to Gen. Wes Clark: Please get offthe TV before you do even more damage

HUNTER

I’m embarrassed to admit, I recently watcheda long portion of the second episode of the new“reality” TV show Stars Earn Stripes. Thepremise of the show is that eight D-list “celebri-ties” — predominately reality TV returnees,washed up actors, and athletes — train withformer U.S. military servicemembers and firstresponders and take part in “missions” to dem-onstrate their prowess and nominallylearn/appreciate something about mili-tary life. There’s also a Survivor ele-ment to the “contest” where a non-performing team is dismissed each epi-sode. The “stripes” the remainingteams earn equate to $10,000 donationsto service-oriented charities like theWounded Warrior Project and their ilk.NBC claims the show will “pay hom-age to the men and women who servein the U.S. armed forces.”

I found the program lame andsomewhat sad. Anyone with militaryexperience would laugh at the cannedexplosions — M203 rounds do notblow up like that, especially when theblue training round lands under ratherthan in the target. ( I’m looking at you,Picabo Street.) The “tasks” that the“celebs” were charged to execute werelaughable. Indeed, the marksmanshipdemonstrated (even by the militaryprofessionals) wasn’t that impressivegiven the high powered rifle sights,supported firing positions, and short distancesto the target.

But the real kickers were the unconvinc-ing hostess Samantha Harris — who previouslyco-hosted Dancing with the Stars, wearing sexycombat chic clothing that would make the ScudStud blush, and General (Retired) Wesley Clark— the opportunist flag officer and onetime presi-dential candidate everyone loves to hate. Thetwo co-hosts, respectively, bat their eyes andlook grim and try to sell the concept as a creditto the troops, but the show devolves “combat”down to a series of Darby Queen obstacles withembedded squibs and targets that don’t shootback.

How sad to see General Clark leering overa fake TV screen (badly overlaid on a circulartable) in a fake command post, giving ordersand commentary with fake gravitas. But Clark iswell known for narcissism and never finding acamera he didn’t love. The late David Hackworthonce called Wes Clark a Perfumed Prince — andlater retracted his comment — but this made-for-TV endeavor seems to validate the moniker.

What’s most worrisome about this showis that it is a show, sold as entertainment. A

squad of Nobel laureates has already criticizedthe program calling Stars Earn Stripes a “sanita-tion of war ... likening it to an athletic competi-tion.” They called for the show’s cancellationstating: “It is our belief that this program payshomage to no one anywhere and continues andexpands on an inglorious tradition of glorifyingwar and armed violence. Real war is down in thedirt deadly. People — military and civilians —die in ways that are anything but entertaining.”

I have to agree with their sentiment, espe-cially given the ham-handed nature of the exer-cises. There’s no real danger, and no real con-sequences. I’m sure the celebs retire to theirHollywood mansions after each camera shoot,

JOHN KAMPFNER

IN horror movies, the scariest momentsusually come from the monster youcan’t see. So the same goes for real

life, or at least online life. Over the pastfew years, largely out of sight, govern-ments have been clawing back freedomson the internet, turning an invention thatwas designed to emancipate the individualinto a tool for surveillance and control. Inthe next few months, this process is setto be enshrined internationally, amid plansto put cyberspace under the authority ofa largely secretive and obscure UNagency.

If this succeeds, this will be an impor-tant boost to states’ plans to censor theweb and to use it to monitor citizens. Vir-tually all governments are at it. Some aremuch worse than others. The introduc-tion last month of a law in Russia creat-ing a blacklist of websites that contain“extremist” content was merely the latestexample of an alarming trend. Authoritar-ian states have long seen cyberspace asthe ultimate threat to their source ofpower.

They are given succour by self-styleddemocracies who seek to introduce legis-lation enhancing the rights of authoritiesand security agencies to snoop. The Brit-ish government’s current draft communi-cations bill would produce a system ofblanket collection and retention of allonline data. As the group Privacy Inter-national pointed out in its submission toparliament: “The technology that will beused is only currently deployed inKazakhstan, China and Iran … subject-ing citizens to the near certainty of ongo-ing and unremitting interference in theirprivate lives.”

All governments, whatever their hue,cite similar threats: terrorism and

organised crime, child pornography andintellectual property are the ones mostcommonly used. Unsurprisingly these,and local variants, are used by dictator-ships, who need merely to point to prece-dents set in the west to counter any criti-cism with the charge of hypocrisy.

The internet, as originally envisaged,was borderless.

In theory, anyone could – if they hadaccess to the bandwidth – find out infor-mation anywhere and communicate withanyone.

The demarcation between free expres-sion and data and identify privacy onthe one hand, and the state’s right to se-curity on the other, is continually de-bated and recalibrated, part ly due totechnological advances.

One of the most vigorous places fordebate has been the Internet GovernanceForum, which since its founding in 2005has brought together governments, pri-vate sector firms large and small, aca-demics and members of civil society.

This year ’s meeting in Novembertakes place incongruously and intrigu-ingly in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, acountry with a particularly poor recordon free expression and suppression ofdissent .

What matters, as the lines are drawn,is transparency and inclusivity.

If the internet is to be governed morecohesively, and on a less ad hoc basisthan now, then it should not be left togovernments alone.

There has never been a central au-thority, and the internet has flourishedin spite of (or perhaps because of) itsdecentralised governance model.

The reverse is now in prospect. In December in Dubai, a body that

has existed for 150 years but few out-side narrow industry circles have heardof, is seeking to take control of theinternet. The International Telecommu-nications Union (ITU), a UNorganisation that counts 193 countriesas its members, aims to add the internetto its existing regulatory roles.

Its strongest supporters include re-gimes such as China, Russia, Tajikistanand Uzbekistan, who submitted a pro-posal last September to the UN generalassembly for an “international code ofconduct for information security”. Itsgoal is to establish government-led “in-ternational norms and rulesstandardising the behaviour of countriesconcerning information andcyberspace”.

These countries, and others of theirilk, have three main goals for the Dubaisummit and beyond: an assertion of na-tional sovereignty over cyber commu-nication; a clampdown on anonymityand encryption; and a change in globalgovernance. Not that many readerswould know as much. Official prepara-tions for the ITU are clouded in secrecy,as is the organisation’s standard prac-tice, but information has been comingout via WCITleaks.org, a website cre-ated by two techies to publish leakeddocuments for the meeting.

The ITU describes itself as a “multi-stakeholder” organisation, but the claim

is spurious. All the big decisions aretaken in meetings in which only gov-ernments can take part.

Lobbying (from all sides) has beentaking place for months, but almost com-pletely behind the scenes. Netizenshave been shut out from this process.

Other cultural and political messagesare in play too. Some developing na-t ions and emerging powers aregalvanised by the prospect of prisingjurisdiction away from the US.

This is the most seductive part oftheir message. Since its inception, theinternet has been dominated by the US,both government, corporations, civil so-ciety groups and users.

This is changing fast . Access tohigh-speed internet via mobile will trans-form access to information in develop-ing countries in coming years.

The internationalisat ion of theinternet is inevitable, and good. Thequestion is not which countries are incharge, but where the power resideswithin countries. Control is always thefirst instinct of the state.

The ITU summit in December marksjust the start of the battle between thosewho wish to keep the internet (rela-tively) free and those who will do ev-erything in their power to reverse theprocess. :—Courtesy - The Guardian

The fight for control of theinternet has become critical

whereas, somewhere in Afghanistan, PFC“Snuffy” finishes his real “shoot” and retires tohis tent built for 6-8 of his closest squadmates.Surprising no one, I hope, there’s no reality inthis reality TV. Even if this show was a well-mean-ing effort to bridge an increasing civil-military di-vide (as Clark claims), it is so poorly executedthat it marginalizes the efforts of U.S. troops inthe field. That’s what makes Clark’s involvementall the more worrisome. The public doesn’t knowthat Clark is not overly respected within the ranks,

and likely accepts his involve-ment as a military stamp of ap-proval.

The Army Profes-sion campaign has spent al-most two years trying to dis-cern the impact of a decade ofwar on the profession. One ofthe ideas the campaign mem-bers have been considering isthe concept of a “non-actingprofessional.” In this case,they have been trying to ana-lyze the role of the military re-tiree (p. 24) within the profes-sion. This need arose as manygeneral officers (e.g. Clark andHonore) took to the papers andthe airwaves commenting onmilitary operations and politics(e.g. Newbold, Batiste) fromthe safety of their retirement.The ongoing concern remainsallowing for the proper bal-

ance of dissent, First Amendment rights and therole of former government servants — who, itshould be remembered, remain subject to recall toactive service. This is a continuing discussionthat will not be resolved anytime soon.

Clark’s latest TV endeavor is more embar-rassing than harmful, and likely grazes but doesnot fall within the area of concern which the ArmyCampaign is exploring. But I do think Stars EarnsStripes undermines the hard work of ourservicemembers around the globe, by turningcombat-lite into a game show. The fact that theshow is giving money to veterans groups doesn’tredeem it in the least.:—Courtesy - FP. [ The re-viewer is best TV Reviewer].

BIDUSHI DHUNGEL

AN unpublished report has again broughtthe development community underscrutiny. It’s strange that it has been

given so much publicity, considering the arrayof other similar reports out there, carrying asimilar message. Apparently, the developmentcommunity has buckled under the pressure of“elite” groups.

The report, funded by DFID, the WorldBank and the Asian Development Bank, wascompleted last year and shelved. It is a follow-up to another World Bank and DFID reportreleased in 2006, which has since been a Biblefor development practitioners in Nepal. Thecontroversy is over why the donors haveshelved the second report, considering thatthey funded it, and happily published a similarone in 2006.

Having gone through the first report, “Un-equal Citizens: Gender, Caste and Ethnic Ex-clusion in Nepal” one can gather that the fol-low-up declares, most unsurprisingly, thatpost-2006 changes haven’t empowered orbrought change to excluded communities, leav-ing the Bahun and Chettri communities stillwith greater representation in government andbureaucracy, and other spheres of public andsocial life. All this was supposed to havechanged after the 2006 Jana Andolan.

But it didn’t. So there came a follow-up re-port on what exactly hasn’t changed and why:“Forging Equal Citizenship in a MulticulturalNepal,” which has been shelved by the do-nors who funded it.The aid regime It wasn’tonly the post-2006 politics that failed the in-clusion agenda. The donor community failedit too. Donor money indeed makes up 60 per-cent of the development budget, but aside fromdilly-dallying with small-scale inclusion exer-cises and development activities, changinghiring patterns to accommodate the elites ofmarginalised communities, and publishing re-port after report, there’s very little to show forprogress they’ve made on the inclusion front.Quick to point out exclusionary practices inNepali society, they seem largely oblivious tothe discrimination between Nepalis and non-Nepalis within their own organisations.

They argue for equality in a fine way, butnotions of “equal work, equal pay” don’t seemto apply to their own organisations, even asthey preach equality to the rest.Historically,

donors have created other problems too. Thepost-modern anthropologist Talal Asad de-scribed in 1991 the colonial baggage carriedby his discipline: “there is nothing startlingtoday in the suggestion that anthropologicalknowledge was part of the expansion ofEurope’s power”. Donor communities seem tohave also played a similar role in a post-colo-nial, imperialist world. The good intentions ofaid work (ers) are not being questioned here.

Anthropology as a discipline becamehighly critical of itself in the 20th century. Butaside from a few rogue academics, economistsand practitioners, who have written disturb-ing accounts of their time in the developmentworld, development agencies are reluctant tocriticise themselves, telling themselves — orat least their subjects — that their sole interestis improving lives. But development doesn’texist in a bubble outside of economic, socialand foreign policy interests. And neither dothe reports published by developmentorganisations.

That’s why when a report like “ForgingEqual Citizenship in a Multicultural Nepal” isshelved, there’s no reason to fret. The reportwasn’t going to tell any more of a truth thanwe already know. These reports deserve scru-tiny, equal to, if not more than the amount ofscrutiny the government or bureaucracy getsover every little thing. The Nepali governmentmay work for a variety of interests, but it worksmore in the interest of Nepal than any INGO everwill.

“Structural adjustment”, “democratisation”and “liberalisation” are terms the developmentagencies were often used to describe how theyintended to promote the interests of the devel-oping world. But we know whose interests thoseserved. Countries in the global South have beenleft desolate and war-ravaged after the utter fail-ure of these policies to bring “progress” in thedecades just gone.

In fact, donor interest in promoting the “in-digenous” cause came in the aftermath of oppo-sition from groups around the world claiming thatthe lives of indigenous and tribal populations inmuch of the underdeveloped and developingworld had been ravaged as a result of flawedpolicies promoted by the Bretton Woods institu-tions. Nepal’s development agencies do not func-tion in isolation from such realities. The limits ofthe development agencies should be understoodas such. If a report is being put on hold, the rea-

On the shelf

the U.S. won a tremendous amount of goodwill. And everytime humanity trumps politics, the entity that takes the initia-tive wins a lot of soft power and political capital,” Parsi said.The obstacles facing NGOs who want to send cash to Iran aredaunting, Parsi cautioned. He said that NIAC contacted 15banks about wiring the money into Iran and 14 of them re-sisted the idea because working with Iranian banks is toorisky, even when dealing with transactions that are exemptedby sanctions. From their perspective, it’s not worth the risk,”he said. “We hope the banks will take note of this and startdoing things that are permissible, because otherwise this gen-eral license may have no effect at all.”

There is also some concern, including on Capitol Hill, asto whether the money sent to Iran might somehow find itsway into the wrong hands. “While all Americans support theIranian people in this time of distress, we need to make sureassistance sent to Iran is not diverted or misused by the Ira-nian government,” a senior Senate aide said. “When you al-low cash transfers rather than monetizing aid, that’s a recipefor disaster.” Parsi said the best way to prevent themoney from getting into Iranian government hands is to workthrough respected NGOs that are based in the United Statesand have a presence in Iran. There are some checks on the aid,Treasury officials say.“ The license specifically forbidsany dealings with entities on the OFAC SDN list such as theIRGC,” Treasury Department spokesman John Sullivan toldThe Cable, referring to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.“There is also a mandated report to the Treasury and StateDepartments so we can make sure the money does not endup in the wrong hands.” :—Courtesy - FP

son is not as simple as “donors were bullied intoshelving it”.

Who’s bullying whom?When a group, the Joint Struggle Committee

for National Sovereignty and Ethnic Harmony (com-prising of Bahuns, Chettris and Dashnami activ-ists), sat down with some heads of donor agenciesand asked the donors to work for the underprivi-leged in all caste/ethnicities, the meet was seen bysome as a form of “bullying” of donors by thedominant caste groups.

But it is highly unlikely that the donor commu-nity, representing some of the richest and mostpowerful countries in the world, has been bulliedby a group of Nepali activists.

At a time when our Prime Minister has out-rightly proclaimed that he has no power to decidethe fate of the country (he said we’re pawns, incase you missed it!), it is far-fetched to suggestthat a few Bahun activists could “bully” the donorcommunity into shelving a report the donors haveinvested in.

Indeed, the DFID, World Bank and ADB-fundedreport should be published. But blaming an entirecaste groups’ alleged desire to remain dominant,for the report being shelved is unnecessary. Nowis the time to convince the conservative forces ofinclusion and federalism, not further isolate them,and drag large chunks of the population into thedebate. Opinion makers should take into accountthe nuances of history and that there’s plenty ofgrey area there, not just the black and white ofoppressers and the oppressed. However, inthe press and internet, the beliefs of the StruggleCommittee for National Sovereignty and EthnicHarmony mutated into the demands of all Bahunsand Chettris, the “hill elites” and simply just“elites”. One’s ethnic identity does not determineone’s politics, and those pushing such an argu-ment are equally to blame as the extreme-conser-vative forces for a polarised society. As a Janajatiis not inherently linked to the political movementfor identity, a Bahun or Chhetri is not necessarilyagainst it. No caste group has monopoly on be-ing the “elite”.

As for the unpublished report, despite the factthat anything new or productive is unlikely tocome from it, the matter has been unnecessarilypoliticised.

The “bullying” allegations are grave. Delay-ing the report further can do no good for anyoneexcept those who’d like to see a further-polarisedsociety and drumbeats towards that end. —Cour-tesy - Kathmandu Post

LAHORE: Makeshift homes of nomad families seen at the bank of the Ravi River which can cause a mishap due to risingof water level.

India warns Twitter over ethnicviolence rumours against MuslimsNEW DELHI—India has threat-ened to take strict action againstTwitter, saying the content on thewebsite is provoking ethnic ten-sions against migrants from thenortheast. Internet posts, SMSsand fake video clips are blamedfor spreading rumours that Mus-lims would attack students andworkers from India’s north-east-ern region living in Bangaloreand other southern cities.

India demanded that Twit-ter and other social networkwebsites remove the “inflamma-tory and harmful” material.

“If Twitter fails to respondto our request, we will take ap-propriate action,” senior homeministry official R.K. Singh wasquoted as saying in the Timesof India newspaper. “We haveasked the information technol-ogy ministry to serve them anotice.” The paper added that thegovernment had set a deadlineof Thursday for the websites torespond. Information Technol-ogy Minister Kapil Sibal onWednesday expressed frustra-tion at the delay and difficultyin getting responses from US

‘74 Indian defence personnelin Pak jails since 1971’

NEW DELHI—As many as 74Indian defence personnel, in-cluding 54 prisoners of wars, arebelieved to be in Pakistani jailssince 1971 but the neighbouringcountry has not acknowledgedit so far, the government said.

Besides this, another 314Indians are also in jails in Paki-stan.

This was disclosed by Min-ister of State for External AffairsE Ahamed in the Rajya Sabha,reported PTI.

“As on August 16, 2012, asmany as 233 Indian civilian pris-oners, 81 Indian fishermen and74 missing defence personnel,including 54 PoWs, are believedto be in Pakistani jails,” Ahamedsaid.

He said government has re-

peatedly taken up the matterwith Pakistan through diplo-matic channels and during high-level contacts for the release ofIndian PoWs believed to be inthat country.

However, Ahamed said, Pa-kistan does not acknowledge thepresence of any Indian PoWs inits custody.

In January 2007, Pakistanwas persuaded to receive a del-egation of relatives of missingdefence personnel to permitthem to visit prisons there wherethey are believed to incarcer-ated. The delegation visited 10jails from June 1 to 14 in 2007but “could not conclusively con-firm the presence of physicalpresence of the Indian PoWs”,he said.

The matter of missing de-fence personnel have been raisedwith Pakistan during the homesecretary level meeting in Maythis year and foreign secretarylevel talks last month, Ahamedsaid.

To a query, he said Pakistanis awaiting internal approvals tosign the bilateral visa agreementwith India which streamlinesprocedure to procure the docu-ment.

Both the countries haveagreed to sign the visa agree-ment at an early date, Ahamedsaid, adding, “The Pakistan sideinformed that some internal ap-provals were under process andthe agreement will be signedonce they are in place.”—Online

US plans new Asiamissile defencesNames N-Korea as main threat

WASHINGTON—The US isplanning a major expansion ofmissile defences in Asia, amove American officials say isdesigned to contain threatsfrom North Korea, but one thatcould also be used to counterChina’s military.

The planned build up ispart of a defensive array thatcould cover large swaths ofAsia, with a new radar insouthern Japan and possiblyanother in Southeast Asia tiedto missile-defence ships andland-based interceptors.

It is part of the Obamaadministration’s new defencestrategy to shift resources to anAsian-Pacific region critical tothe US economy after a decadeof war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The expansion comes at atime when the US and its al-lies in the region voice grow-ing alarm about a North Ko-rean missile threat. They arealso increasingly worriedabout China’s aggressivestance in disputed waters suchthe South China Sea, whereAsian rivals are vying for con-trol of oil and mineral rights.

US defence planners areparticularly concerned aboutChina’s development ofantiship ballistic missiles thatcould threaten the Navy’s fleetof aircraft carriers, critical tothe US projection of power inAsia.

The focus of our rhetoricis North Korea,” said StevenHildreth, a missile-defence ex-pert with the CongressionalResearch Service, an advisoryarm of Congress. “The realityis that we’re also lookinglonger term at the elephant inthe room, which is China.”

A centerpiece of the neweffort would be deployment ofa powerful early-warning ra-dar, known as an X-Band, onan undisclosed southern Japa-nese island, said US defenceofficials.

The Pentagon is discussingthat prospect with Japan, oneof Washington’s closest re-gional allies. The radar couldbe installed within months ofJapan’s agreement, Americanofficials said, and wouldsupplement an X-Band the USpositioned in Aomori Prefec-ture in northern Japan in 2006.

Officials with the USmilitary’s Pacific Commandand Missile Defence Agencyhave also been evaluating sitesin Southeast Asia for a third X-Band radar to create an arc thatwould allow the US and its re-gional allies to more accu-rately track any ballistic mis-siles launched from North Ko-rea, as well as from parts ofChina.

Some US defence officialshave focused on the Philip-pines as the potential site forthe third X-Band, which ismanufactured by Raytheon Co.Pentagon officials said a loca-tion has yet to be determinedand that discussions are at anearly stage.

The beefed-up US pres-ence might raise tensions withthe Chinese, who have beensharp critics of US ballisticmissile defences in the past.Beijing fears such a system,similar to one the US is de-ploying in the Middle East andEurope to counter Iran, coulddiminish China’s strategic de-terrent. Beijing objected to theU.S.’s first X-Band deploy-

ment in Japan in 2006. Mos-cow has voiced similar con-cerns about the system in Eu-rope and the Middle East.

Without commenting onspecific plans, Pentagon PressSecretary George Little said:“North Korea is the immedi-ate threat that is driving ourmissile defence decision mak-ing.”

The Pentagon is particu-larly concerned about thegrowing imbalance of poweracross the Taiwan Strait. Chinahas been developing advancedballistic missiles and antishipballistic missiles that could tar-get US naval forces in the re-gion. “Physics is physics,” asenior US official said.“You’re either blocking NorthKorea and China or you’re notblocking either of them.”

US Defence SecretaryLeon Panetta said during avisit Wednesday to the USSJohn C. Stennis warship inWashington state that the USwould “focus and project ourforce into the Pacific.”

The US presence on theground in Asia, especially theMarine bases in Okinawa, hasbeen a source of constant ten-sion, and a more determinedpresence could spark similarproblems.

In addition to the new X-Band site in southern Japan,the US plans to increase thenumber of Marines in Okinawain the near term before relocat-ing them to Guam. As the Ma-rines are pulled out of Afghani-stan, going from 21,000 to lessthan 7,000, the number offorces on Okinawa will rise,from about 15,000 to 19,000,officials said.—INP

New book onOsama raidnext month

WASHINGTON—A US com-mando involved in the raid thatkilled Osama bin Laden lastyear has written an inside ac-count of the still-classified mis-sion that is scheduled to be re-leased next month, according tothe book’s publisher.

The author, who uses apseudonym, “was one of thefirst men through the door onthe third floor of the terroristleader’s hideout and waspresent at his death,” accordingto a statement from Dutton, theNew York-based publisher. Thehunt for Osama bin Laden: Foralmost a decade, US intelli-gence officials were stymied byOsama bin Laden. That is - un-til CIA analysts at Langleychanged their focus to the al-Qaeda leader’s secret couriernetwork.

The hunt for Osama binLaden: For almost a decade, USintelligence officials were sty-mied by Osama bin Laden. Thatis - until CIA analysts at Lan-gley changed their focus to theal-Qaeda leader’s secret couriernetwork.

If the description is true, thebook would shatter the secrecymaintained by members of theteam of Navy SEALs involvedin the raid on bin Laden’s com-pound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

It could also raise legal andpolitical issues for the Obamaadministration, which has car-ried out an aggressive crack-down on leaks even while ithas also been accused of offer-ing access to journalists andmoviemakers to exploit thesuccess of the bin Laden op-eration.

The raid was carried out bythe elite and secretive US JointSpecial Operations Commandunder the authority of the CIA.Pentagon and CIA officials ap-peared to be caught off-guardby Dutton’s announcement ofthe forthcoming book.

Officials indicated Wednes-day that neither the author northe publisher had cleared thebook’s contents with the De-fence Department or the CIA,a step ordinarily required byformer service members orspies seeking to write aboutclassified operations. “As far aswe can determine, this bookwas not submitted for pre-pub-lication review,” said CIAspokesman Preston Golson.Pentagon spokesman GeorgeLittle said he was “unaware thatanyone in the department hasreviewed it.”

The book is titled “No EasyDay: The Firsthand Account ofthe Mission that Killed Osamabin Laden.” The author’s nameis listed as Mark Owen, whichDutton acknowledges is apseudonym.

The news release quotesOwen saying the book would“set the record straight aboutone of the most important mis-sions in US military history.”It also says the author haspledged to donate “the major-ity of the proceeds” to charitiesthat support families of slainNavy SEALs.

The author led one of theassault teams on OperationNeptune Spear, as the binLaden mission was called, andwas involved in other missionsincluding a maritime rescue inthe Indian Ocean in 2009, ac-cording to the publisher.—INP

social networking groups.“When we tell these sites to

inquire about the identity (ofpeople posting material), thenthey say we are out of your juris-diction, our servers are outsideand we are not under the obliga-tion to disclose the identity,” hetold reporters. “So this means itis a platform where anyone cando anything,” he added. Thethreats against the migrants werelinked to weeks of clashes in thenorth-eastern state of Assam be-tween the Bodo tribal commu-nity.—INP

LAHORE: Students returning home from school as classes have started after summer vacations.

over Balochistan and its adjoin-ing areas with its trough extend-ing southeastwards. Under its in-fluence strong monsoon currentsare penetrating in upper parts ofthe country.

Nullah Daik overflowed inChawinda-Pasrur area of Sialkoton Thursday‚ due to which ricecrops in some villages includingChuur‚ Nawaaday and Jabbokaywere affected. There was lowflood at Nullah Aik and Baeen inSialkot District.

Flood Warning Division inLahore said river Chenab is inlow flood at Khanki & Qadirabadwith water level lowering at

Khanki and rising atQadirabad.Flood Cell Peshawarsays river Kabul at Warsak‚ riverPanjkora at Dir‚ river Khiali atCharsadda Road and river Indusat Tarbela are in low flood. Otherrivers in the province are flow-ing normally.Flood in Sialkot’s Nullah Daikand Wazirabad’s Nullah Palkhuinundated 50 villages.

Heavy rains in Sialkot andNarowal, which started on Tues-day night, caused flood in NullahDaik. The floodwater inundated50 villages and submerged stand-ing crop on hundreds of acres ofland.

Irrigation officials in Sialkotsaid, “5,000 cusecs of water ispassing through Nullah Daik.Traffic on Narowal-Pasrur Roadwas suspended.

Heavy rain in Wazirabad,which lasted for almost eighthours, caused flood in NullahPalkhu. Standing crops were sub-merged under floodwater. Resi-dents of nearby localities aremoving to safer places.

Meanwhile three peoplewere killed in Kotli Sattian nearRawalpindi when a wall col-lapsed due to heavy rain. The rainhas also damaged several housesin the area.—INP

Heavy rains wreakhavoc, 14 dead

From Page 1

tivities. About Naran tragedy‚ hesaid it was a terrorist act and notsectarian incident as those killedincluded both Shias and Sunnis.

Rehman Malik said hetalked to Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan on the tense situationin the area and he conveyed tohim three demands of the peoplewhich have been accepted.

They were provision of po-lice escort to passenger trafficfor Gilgit-Baltistan; compensa-tion to the heirs of all those whohad lost their lives and increasein number of PIA flights to theregion.

The Minister said he hasasked PIA to double the exist-ing number of flights. He saidGilgit airport would be upgradedto receive jet flights like Skardu.

Responding to a question hesaid there is evidence of pres-ence of Taliban in Karachi andaction is being taken againstthem.

About the decision to formInterfaith Council‚ he said itwould have seven members rep-resenting various schools ofthought and its Chairmanship

would rotate among them onquarterly basis. He said thiswould be a model initiative tobe replicated in the provinces.

He said a mega event ofConference on Interfaith Har-mony would be held on the 30thof this month to promote toler-ance and ensure sectarian har-mony and protect rights of mi-norities.

Regarding situation inBalochistan‚ the Interior Minis-ter said it has improved follow-ing his detailed briefing to theSenate and exposing of activi-ties of a neighbouring country.

Rehman Malik once againextended an offer to the es-tranged Baloch leaders to returnto the country and talk to per-sonalities of their choice. Hesaid they should leave their cosyabodes abroad and return toBalochistan if they are genu-inely interested in serving thepeople.

Asked to comment on re-ported statement of Talibanspokesman that they would re-taliate if operation was launched

No immediate blocking ofall unregistered SIMs: Malik

From Page 1 in North Waziristan‚ the Minis-ter said they do so at the instanceof some one else.

He said it is known thatMaulana Fazlullah and MaulviFaqir are operating from Kunarprovince of Afghanistan. Itwould not have been possible forthem to carry out attacks on thisside of the border‚ martyr ourpeople and take back their owninjured without active foreignsupport. He asked Taliban to sur-render arms otherwise the gov-ernment is determined to takethe campaign against terrorismto its logical conclusion.

When asked what he dis-cussed during his telephonicconversation with Indian HomeMinister‚ he said they talkedabout fast-tracking investiga-tions into Mumbai attacks andSMS controversy.

Rehman Malik said he toldhis Indian counterpart that Paki-stan is ready to take action if evi-dence was provided about in-volvement of anyone from Paki-stan. He said he also extended aninvitation to the Indian Ministerto visit Pakistan.— NNI

tivated by outrage over ac-tions by American troops, in-cluding the burning of Koransat an American base and thevideo images of Marines uri-nating on dead insurgents. ButAfghan officials said that theTaliban and other insurgentgroups were the ones mainlyresponsible, and that thesewere to a large extent directedby foreign countries’ intelli-gence agencies, though theydid not offer specific evi-dence.

A senior Pakistani secu-rity official reached by tele-phone called the insinuation“hogwash” and said that theAfghan government alwaystried to blame the Inter-Ser-vices Intelligence, Pakistan’sspy agency.

The idea that the PakistaniISI has directly supported at-tacks in Afghanistan againstAmerican targets is not new.Though the Afghan claims offoreign involvement in insiderattacks go beyond any evi-dence presented by coalitionofficials, some would not ruleit out entirely.

Col. David A. Lapan, aspokesman for the chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff,Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, saidthat General Dempsey spokewith Mr. Karzai by phone onTuesday morning while bothwere in Afghanistan and thatMr. Karzai committed toworking with the UnitedStates to examine potentialcauses for the attacks, includ-ing whether they might be thework of outside spy agencies.

“We certainly don’t seethis as the one” reason, Colo-nel Lapan said Wednesday.Nonetheless, he said, “wedon’t know what’s causingthem, and we’re looking ateverything.” —INP

AfghanistanblamesFrom Page 1

WASHINGTON—The risingnumber of attacks on U.S. troopsby Afghan police and soldiersmay be due in part to the stresson Afghan forces from fastingduring the just-concluded holymonth of Ramazan, the top U.S.commander in Afghanistan saidThursday.

Marine Gen. John R. Allen,speaking to reporters at the Pen-tagon from his headquarters inKabul, said the reasons behindthe attacks are not fully under-stood and likely can be attrib-uted to a variety of factors, in-cluding Taliban infiltration ofthe Afghan security forces.

He cited Ramadan and therequirement for Muslims to noteat or drink during daylighthours as another factor.

“It’s a very tough time forthese (Afghan) forces,” he said,particularly since they were fast-ing during the heat of the sum-mer and the peak of the fightingseason and have been facingcombat strains for many years.

“We believe that the combi-nation of many of these particu-lar factors may have come to-gether during the last severalweeks to generate the largernumbers” of attacks, he said.Already this month there havebeen at least 10 “insider” attacksby Afghans, killing 10 Ameri-

cans. The latest was Sundaywhen an Afghan police officeropened fire inside a police sta-tion in the southern district ofSpin Boldak, killing a 55-year-old U.S. Army soldier.

The general said thatroughly 25 percent of insiderattacks can be linked to theTaliban, who in some cases haveimpersonated members of theAfghan security forces and insome cases have co-opted themthrough threats.

Allen was asked about anassertion by the office of Presi-dent Hamid Karzai on Wednes-day that the insider attacks canbe blamed on the brainwashingof Afghan recruits by foreignintelligence agents.

“Coalition and Afghanforces have maintained unre-lenting pressure on the insur-gents, and we have denied anddisrupted their operations andhave largely pushed them outof the population centers,” hesaid.

“We’ve limited their free-dom of movement, and we’veinterdicted their logistics.We’ve taken scores of theirleaders and fighters off thebattlefield, and we’ve system-atically separated the insurgentsfrom more and more of the Af-ghan population.”—AP

‘Ramazan factor inAfghan insider attacks’

ISLAMABAD—Acting Ambas-sador of the United States MrRichard E Hoagland called onFederal Minister for InteriorSenator Rehman Malik here on

BJP-led oppositiondemand for

Manmohan’sresignation

NEW DELHI—BJP-led NDAopposition on Thursday stuckto its demand for the PrimeMinister’s resignation on thecoal block allocation issue at ameeting convened by RajyaSabha chairman to end the im-passe and boycotted a meetingcalled by Lok Sabha Speaker onthe matter.

The meeting called byHamid Ansari saw BJP andCongress members throwingbarbs at each other on the con-tinuing deadlock in Parliament.While all agreed with Ansari’s“bonafide” intentions of endingthe impasse, they did not budgefrom their stated positions.

Leader of the Opposition inRajya Sabha Arun Jaitley is un-derstood to have stated that Par-liament is also about account-ability and this role cannot bejettisoned by the government.

Congress leaders said Par-liamentary practices were go-ing downhill and put the blameon the opposition’s attitude.

BJP countered this by men-tioning that Congress hadstalled

Parliament for 20 dayswhen the Tehelka issue came upduring the NDA regime,sources said.

The Left parties alleged thatthe coal allocation issue had nowbecome a Congress versus BJPfight. They suggested that PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhshould call an all-party meetingto end the deadlock, the sourcessaid.—INP

Thursday.During the meeting, held in

a cordial atmosphere, the Act-ing US Ambassador discussedsome of the security issues and

Mr Hoagland offered Eid Greet-ings. The Acting Ambassadorthanked the Minister for enhanc-ing the security of diplomaticenclave.—INP

US Ambassador discusses securityissues with Interior Minister

NATIONAL BRIEFS

WASHINGTON—In hope ofgetting more co-operation fromPakistan, a top foreign policyaide to presidential hopeful MittRomney has said the Republi-can administration would treatIslamabad with “little bit morerespect”. He also expressedconcern over the rise of extrem-ism in Pakistan and security ofits nuclear weapons.

“On Pakistan, we all knowthat it is a very difficult chal-lenge. Internally they face manyproblems. Obviously we arevery concerned about the rise ofextremists combined with thesecurity of their nuclear weap-ons,” Mitchell B Reiss, a seniorforeign policy advisor to Rom-ney, told a group of foreign jour-nalists yesterday.

“They have a part to play instabilizing Afghanistan. So theyhave a seat at the table and Ithink, what we can do and theRomney Administration woulddo to treat them with little bit

more respect and hope that wecan get a little bit of more coop-eration and try and work to-gether to resolve Afghanistan,”said Reiss who has served un-der both the Bush Administra-tion.

Responding to questions onAfghanistan, Reiss refuted theperception that there was no dif-ference between the ObamaAdministration and the Romneycampaign.

I hear often from manypeople in the media that there islittle difference between thePresident’s policy on Afghani-stan and what Governor Rom-ney has said,” he said.

“All I can say that peoplereally are not paying a lot of at-tention; I think the President’spolicy really was flawed fromthe start. He questioned the elec-tion of Hamid Karzai initially,publicly embarrassed him andthen decided after all that we aregoing to live with the results -

really not the beginning of agood working relationship withPresident Karzai,” he noted.

“In December 2009, he putforward a policy for surge, butalso linked it with a time tablefor withdrawal; thereby givingthe Taliban absolutely no incen-tive to come to the negotiatingtable (not audible)....”

“This past June the Presi-dent disregarded the advice hegot from his top military advi-sors including General Petraeusand he announced the full with-drawal of the 30,000 surgeforces by September of this year;coincidentally right before theelection,” he said.

“The generals wanted thetroops to remain in the countryfor another fighting season. SoI think, there are some funda-mental differences in approachin terms of working with Paki-stan, in terms of taking closurecounsel of the voice given by thegenerals,” he said. —AP

‘Republicans to accordmore respect to Pakistan’

JEDDAH—Prominent Muslimorganizations and individualshave welcomed Custodian ofthe Two Holy Mosques KingAbdullah’s call to establish acentre in Riyadh to promotedialogue between various reli-gious sects and said the movewould strengthen Muslimunity.Several leaders and intel-lectuals across the world haveapplauded the king’s proposal,which he made while inaugu-rating the emergency IslamicSolidarity Summit in Makkahon Aug. 14, 2012.

Centre for inter sectarian dialogue

King Abdullah’s move tounite Ummah applauded

The proposal enjoys wideacceptance all over the Muslimworld. “King Abdullah’s call toestablish a centre for dialoguebetween different Islamic sectsis a major step toward realizingMuslim unity,” said Jordan’sCommunication and Informa-tion Minister Sameeh Al-Muaita.King Abdullah has pre-sented an effective solution toend the division and disruptionin the Islamic world. “In hisspeech at the Islamic summit,King Abdullah warned againstsedition, which has been the

main reason for blood-shed-ding in the Islamic world. Hesaid King Abdullah’s speechpresented a roadmap for Mus-lim unity. He hoped the Mus-lim Ummah would accelerateits efforts to implement theking’s proposal.

The chief justice of Jor-dan, Ahmed Halil, praisedKing Abdullah’s efforts tounite the Ummah, saying thatthe action plan presented bythe king reflected his sinceredesire to protect Muslimsfrom infighting. —AN

TheftQUETTA—Unidentified thievestook away a motorbike from ahouse in the Phanor sentryarea on Thursday. Police saidthat burglars barged into ahouse of one Hayat and tookaway motorbike parked in thepremises of a house. Policeregistered a case and startedinvestigation.— APP

KilledDERA MURAD JAMALI—Aman was gunned down inJaffarabad on Thursday,police said. Police said thatone Peeral Khan was killed inGoth Saifullah when armedmen opened fire at him. As aresult, he died on the spot.The assailants managed toescape. On being informed,police reached the site andshifted the body to the nearbyhospital. Police said an oldenmity was cause of thekilling.—APP

Forthcoming pollsLAHORE—Forthcoming pollswould provide an opportunityfor change and young men andwomen are certainly going toseize it under the dynamicleadership of Imran Khan.This was stated by PTI leaderand former minister MalikAbdul Qayyum at an EidMillan Party. He said, overthe past years, they haveachieved stunning results,overturn dictatorships insending waves of hope acrossregions and round the world.He added PTI recognizes thataspiration of youth extend farbeyond jobs; they want a seatat the table-a real voice inshaping the policies thatshape their lives We aremaking all efforts to includeyoung people in policies,programs and decision makingprocesses that benefit theirfuture and ours.—Online

Third forceISLAMABAD—Interior MinisterRehman Malik Thursday saidthat third force is hatchingconspiracy to turn different sectsagainst each other in order todestabilize and weaken thecountry. He was talking tomedia after meeting with adelegation of Ulema of variousschools of thought in Islamabadon Wednesday night. Referringto the incidents of terrorism onKarakoram Highway‚ he saidgovernment will make all outefforts to protect the lives andproperties of people. He said ithas been decided to providesecurity escorts to the passengervehicles travelling onKarakoram Highway. Malik saidIslamabad Police will escortthese vehicles upto KhyberPakhtunkhwa from where KPKpolice will take the responsibil-ity of their protection. —INP

NEW DELHI—Speaker IndianLok Sabha Ms Meira Kumarwho hosted the Pakistan del-egation visiting India as part ofthe 4th round of India-PakistanParliamentarians Dialogue hassaid, “our relationship goesback in history throughcivilisational bonds and be-yond.” She was addressing thePakistan delegation that called-on her on the sidelines of the4th round of India-PakistanParliamentarians Dialogue thatis taking place in New Delhi,August 23-24, 2012.

The Lok Sabha Speaker,while welcoming the delegationto the Parliament and in India,said that the Indian Parliamentwith 42 political parties repre-sented in it represents the na-tional consensus in India thatthe people of India want a

stronger and peaceful relation-ship with the people of Paki-stan. She appreciated thePILDAT initiative to bring MPsof both countries to the dia-logue table and said that Par-liamentary engagement is com-mitting the two countries topeacefully resolving all issuesof mutual concern and interest.

On Thursday, the 4th roundof India-Pakistan Parliamentar-ians Dialogue was formally in-augurated at the VigyanBhavan, New Delhi. SenatorSabir Ali Baloch, DeputyChairman, Senate of Pakistan(Balochistan, PPPP) and ManiShankar Aiyar, Member, RajyaSabha (Nominated, INC) initi-ated the proceedings of the 4thround of Parliamentarians Dia-logue with their welcome re-marks.

Pakistan Co-Chairs SenatorMuhammad Jehangir Bader,Leader of the House, Senate ofPakistan and Khurram DastgirKhan, MNA, Chairman, Na-tional Assembly StandingCommittee on Commerce alsospoke on the occasion.

The MPs from both sidesdiscussed the opportunities ofdeepening ties between the twocountries specifically focussingon the issues of Visa Regime,the Role of Media, Educationand Local Government. TheMPs also discussed the devel-opments in the official Pak-In-dia Dialogue.

Today, the MPs will discussopportunities of collaborationin the area of Health while alsodeveloping recommendationson the future scope of the MPsDialogue. —NNI

‘MPs dialogue toimprove Indo-Pak ties’

JEDDAH—Former prime minis-ter and President of PML-NMuhammad Nawaz Sharif hassaid that any notions about fur-ther coalition in forthcominggeneral elections will rather bepre-mature.

Addressing the PakistanJournalist Forum here Thursday,he recalled his bitter experiences(and expressed his) great disap-pointment at the earlier coalition(with PPP), expressing thatPML-N had all former electorssingly . Replying to anotherquestion regarding elections,the PML-N head expressed his

deep optimism regarding thetransparency of these elections,since “for the first time in his-tory of country, constitutionalamendments have been maderegarding the caretaker setup”,he opined. Outlining his topthree priorities as “3Es”,economy, energy, and education,he cited many projects of his ten-ure which had been discontin-ued. He also expressed hisdispleasure at vilification gamebetween politicians, asking anypoliticians lacking any credibleagenda to keep quite and ratherquit politics. —SANA

General elections

Nawaz terms assertionsof coalition premature

Warehouse fireQUETTA —Fire broke out atUN Ware House situated atAirport road was broughtunder control after sevenhours. A fire broke out at UNWare House near Killi GulMuhammad Airport roadhere this afternoon. Fire wasbrought under control afterseven-hour hectic efforts.Media reports said that tents,tarpaulin, medicines, clotheswere stored at the warehouseto be supplied to Afghanrefugees. Afghan TransitTrade trucks and containerswere also parked in thewarehouse. Fire also caughtanother godown in thevicinity. Fire tenders werecalled from all parts of cityto control he fire. —Online

Govt to consultall political forces

for polls: PMISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf has said thatgovernment would continue toconsult all political forces spe-cially its allies to create a con-ducive environment for holdingfree, fair and impartial electionsin the country which would beyet another achievement of thedemocratic dispensation.

The Prime Minister wastalking to Chaudhry ImtiazAhmed Ranjha, Special Assis-tant to the Prime Minister whocalled on him at PM’s House onThursday.—SANA

OKARA—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior vice chairmanMakhdoom Shah MehmoodQureshi has said that change incurrent political situation is vi-tal and we have to get rid of thecorrupt leadership to save thecountry and resolve the prob-lems faced by masses.

Talking to PTI leaders SyedAli Husnain Naqvi and formermember district council

PTI to ensure supremacy oflaw, constitution: Qureshi

Muhammad Anwar Pasha, hereon Thursday, Shah MehmoodQureshi said that his party tsu-nami would ensure the su-premacy of law and constitutionin the country.He said that allthose who looted national exche-quer and the elements who stoodat their back to give protectionto them were culprits in the eyesof law.The PTI vice chairmansaid that ruling leaders have

prospered in their tenure whilemasses were left at the mercy oftheir fate. In the current situa-tion the masses have attachedtheir all hopes with Imran Khanwho could help them in gettingrid of the looters, he said.

He said that Pakistan Mus-lim League (PML-N) talksabout timely elections so itshould resign from assem-blies.—INP

Tense situationprevails in GB:

Business centresreopened partiallyGILGIT—On direction of DeputyCommissioner of Gilgit-Balistan,partial business centres, shops,markets and offices reopened inpanic situation here on Thursdaywhile government and private edu-cational institutions were stillclosed due to tense situation pre-vailed in connection with targetkilling and LoloSir incidents.

According to details, tensesituation has gripped the regionfor last few days after Lolo Sirincident as the Gilgit-Balistangovernment imposed banned onmotorcycle riding for indefiniteperiod till normalcy of the situ-ation. The public transportswhich are travelling betweenRawalpindi and Skardu re-mained suspended on eighthday after the incident. largenumbers of people could not re-turn due to suspension of trans-portation system.

Deputy Commissioner toldthe media persons that strict se-curity was deployed at marketsand business centres so that buyand sell of goods in the shopscould be started without panicdespite the shopkeepers and localpeople were still feeling fears inthe region.—INP

SEOUL: Retired army men of South Korea protesting in front of Japan embassy.

JI urges masses to electhonest people in polls

LAHORE—Ameer Jamaat eIslami, Pakistan Syed MunawarHasan has said that the thingsin the country wont improve bycursing or abusing the rulers,and the masses would have tochange their attitude.Talking to delegations atMansoora on return fromKarachi on Thursday, he

warned that if the peopleelected the dacoits and plunder-ers in the next elections again,the situation would go worseand the national harmonywould be seriously affected.

He called upon the nationto accept the collective respon-sibility of the prevailing seri-ous situation.—Online

TREATING obese people with weightloss surgery dramatically delays orprevents the onset of type 2 diabe-

tes, according to a new study.“We saw a marked delay (in the devel-

opment of diabetes) over 15 years,” saidcoauthor Dr. Lars Sjostromof the University ofGothenburg in Sweden.“Some of those surgicalpatients will probably de-velop diabetes later. Butover a lifetime, there will bea large difference.”

Among the 1,658 vol-unteers who received sur-gery, mostly stomach sta-pling, the risk of develop-ing diabetes was aboutone in 150 per year. The1,771 people in the controlgroup who received stan-dard care had a risk fourtimes higher: one in 35 peryear.

“Most of the previousstudies on bariatric surgeryhave focused on the remission of diabe-tes. This study is more about preventingdiabetes,” Ted Adams of the University ofUtah, who was not connected with the re-search, told Reuters Health.

The improvement was seen eventhough the people who underwent surgeryinitially had a higher risk of developingdiabetes than those in the control group.

“If anything, the surgery group was abit heavier and had more risk factors thanthe control group at the start of the study,and still the outcome at 10 years and 15years was much more favorable in the sur-

gery group,” Sjostrom told ReutersHealth. “It’s favorable in spite of thesedifferences.”

The team, which reported its resultsin the New England Journal of Medicine,also found that a person’s starting body

mass index - a measure ofweight versus height - didnot predict whether patientswould develop type 2 dia-betes. Blood sugar levels atthe beginning of the study,before surgery, were betterindicators.

Sjostrom said a similareffect has been seen in ear-lier studies looking at theimpact of the surgery onrates of heart attack, stroke,cancer prevention and over-all mortality.

As a result, “it may betime to give less attentionto the degree of obesitywhen patients are selectedfor bariatric surgery,” hesaid.

About 285 million people worldwidehave type 2 diabetes and people withsevere obesity have the highest risk.More than one third of U.S. adults areobese. About 220,000 people had bariatricsurgery in 2009, according to the Ameri-can Society for Metabolic and BariatricSurgery (ASMBS). Surgery costs rangefrom about $11,500 to $26,000.In a Jour-nal editorial, Dr. Danny Jacobs of DukeUniversity School of Medicine inDurham, N.C., said, “it remains impracti-cal and unjustified to contemplate theperformance of bariatric surgery in themillions of eligible obese adults.”

Weight loss surgery helpsprevent diabetes: study

ISLAMABAD: A view of new building of shrine of Hazarat Bari Imam (RA) which is 80 per cent completed at a cost of Rs313 million. Rs325 millionmore are needed for the completion of remaining 20 per cent work.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

ISLAMABAD: Essa Abdullah Al Basha Al Noaimi, Ambassador of UAE called on For-eign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

ASHRAF ANSARI

AMBASSADOR andM r s . B u t a rLatuconsina of Indo-

nesia hosted a very warm andcordial reception inIslamabad to celebrate 67thAnniversary of theircountry’s independence. Itwas well attended reception.A large number of guestsgraced the occasion brim-ming with mirth and festivi-ties. There were diplomats,Pakistani officials, both civiland military and others be-longing to various walks oflife.

Ambassador of Indone-sia and the diplomats of theembassy welcomed theguests with smiling faces. Assoon as the Chief Guest Ad-visor to Prime Minister onNational Harmony, Dr. PaulJacob Bhatti came, nationalanthems of Pakistan and In-donesia were played. TheChief Guest and other guestsjoined the Indonesian am-bassador in cutting the cer-emonial cake amid loud ap-plause. The guest greatly rel-ished Indonesian cuisine.There were also Pakistanidelicacies which were attrac-tive to the guests. The Indo-nesians in their nationaldress looked very attractiveand smart. The children andwomen attired in colourfuloutfits added charm to thefestive ceremony.

Bhatti and AmbassadorIshak Latuconsina noted

with satisfaction that Indo-nesia and Pakistan are com-mitted to bolster cooperationin various venues to furtherexpand existing excellent bi-lateral relations. They under-lined the importance of closeties and enhancing people-to-people networks and en-

courage all-around coopera-tion to further strengthen thefraternal bond between thetwo nations.

Speaking to the media on

the occasion, Ambassador ofthe Republic of IndonesiaH.E. Mr. Ishak Latuconsinaexpressed his great satisfac-tion over the sound diplo-matic relations between thetwo countries. He said Indo-nesia has always remained astaunch supporter of

Pakistan’s efforts to becomea Full Dialogue Partner ofASEAN to develop meaning-ful partnerships with theASEAN. The Envoy said, the

friendship between the twocountries has now trans-formed into a multi-faceted,mutually rewarding partner-ship encompassing all fieldsof interests.

He elaborated that the sign-ing of the Indonesia-PakistanPreferential Trade Agreement

(PTA), on 3 February, 2012 inJakarta and the inauguration ofthe Pakistan-Indonesia Busi-ness Forum (PIBF) in October,2011 has opened a new chap-

ter in the bilateral commercialrelationship.

The Envoy also men-tioned the cooperation in thearea of bilateral defence co-operation and said that thetwo countries have signedthe Defence CooperationAgreement (DCA) on 21 July2010 to combat the emergingchallenges of security. More-over, the educational andsocio-cultural linkages andpeople to people to networkbetween the two countrieshave also been strengthenedconsiderably, he added.

Indonesian people arerightly proud oftheir long drawnstruggle for in-d e p e n d e n c e .Their strugglegained momen-tum during the world war IIwhen erstwhile colonial powerof the Netherland was engagedin the great conflict. By the endof the war the Indonesianswere in a position to declareindependence of their countryas they had succeeded in dis-lodging the colonial rulersfrom most areas of their coun-try. Dr. Abdurrahim Soekarnohad emerged as national herowho laid foundation for theRepublic of Indonesia. He wasacknowledged as one of onlya few Third World leaders. InPakistan he was a householdname and enjoyed great re-spect.

Pakistan government andpeople supported Indonesianpeople when their indepen-

Indonesia celebrates Independence Daydence was being challengedby the colonial power. Indo-nesian government andpeople have been grateful toPakistan for its timely sup-port. Pakistan and Indone-sia lost no time in buildingcordial and cooperative re-lations between them. Indo-nesia fully supported Paki-stan in 1965 when it got en-gaged in fighting the Indianaggression. Pakistan willnever forget the Indonesianexpression of solidarity. In-donesia has made spectacu-lar progress in socio-eco-nomic fields in recent years.

P a k i s t a n ipeople sharejoy of the Indo-nesian peopleand with themmore and more

success.Indonesia is largest

Muslim country and it hasbeen playing its due role inpromoting friendly relationsamong the Muslim coun-tries. Indonesia is makinguseful contribution to theactivities of Organistaion ofIslamic Cooperation andAssociation of South EastAsian Nations (ASEAN).Pakistan and Indonesia to-gether can make their markin promoting regional andworld peace. They can alsojoin hands in fighting twinscrouge of extremism andterrorism. They can makejoint efforts to present realmessage of Islam and faceof true Muslims.

ISLAMABAD: Chief guest, Advisor to Prime Minister on National Harmony, Dr Paul Bhatti,Ambassador of Indonesia Ishaq Latuconsina, High Commissioner of Malaysia Dr HasrulSani Mujtabar, Chairman Pakistan Bait-ul-Mall Zamarud Khan, Ambassador of Viet-nam Nguyen Viet Hung and Ambassador of Thailand Marwin Tanattanawin cutting thecake on the occasion of 67th Independence Day celebrations of Republic of Indonesia ata local hotel.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

ISLAMABAD—Foreign Min-ister Hina Rabbani Khar hassaid that Pakistan and UnitedArab Emirates UAE enjoyexcellent relations and shelooks forward to meetingwith Sheikh Abdullah on the

Pak, UAE enjoy excellent relations: Kharsidelines of the forthcomingNon Alignment Movement(NAM) Summit in Tehran.

She was talking to the UAEAmbassador, Essa Abdullah AlBasha Al Noaimi who called onher at the Foreign Office on

Thursday to discuss bilateralmatters and regional issues ofmutual interest.The Ambassa-dor also handed over a letterfrom Foreign Minister of UAESheikh Abdullah bin Zayed AlNahyan.—Online

Matric formssubmission last day

RAWALPINDI—Today (Fri-day) is the last day for sub-mitting forms for matriculationsupplementary exams to beheld under Rawalpindi Boardof Intermediate and Second-ary Education (RBISE).

According to Board,RBISE has extended the dateof admission form one weekmore due to Eid Holidays nowonly one day is left for sub-mission of forms.—Online

CDA startsquality bus

serviceISLAMABAD—Capital Devel-opment Authority will startinternational level bus ser-vice to provide quality trans-portation to the capital citi-zen during this year.

Applications are beingdemanded for pre qualifica-tion.

Companies of Turkeyand Germany have showntheir interest about this busservice.According to de-tails, CDA will commence in-ternational level bus servicein Federal Capital city whosefeasibility report has beenprepared. The bus will plyon routes from F-11 to F-10,Blue area to Pak Secretariat,Rawalpindi to Pak SecretariatFaisal mosque to F-8 markazand others important routeswill be included.

Farkhand Iqbal Chairmanof CDA has shown his inter-est and he said due to thisbus service rush of trafficcould be controlled andpeople can travel in thesebuses instead of their owncars.—Online

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Policehave arrested 15 outlaws fromvarious areas of the city includ-ing five dacoits and recoveredsix pistols and looted items fromtheir possession, a policespokesman said onThursday.According to details,ASI Muhammad Iqbal fromRamana police arrested threestreet criminals Shehzad resi-dent of Lahore, Shakeel residentof Pindi Bhattian, Imran residentof Attock and recovered weap-ons as well as looted cash fromtheir possession.

ASI Waheed Ahmed fromTarnol police arrested twodacoits Ghulam Hussain andZabi Ullah while Sub-Inspec-tor Ajmal Khan nabbed three

Gang of dacoits busted;weapons, stolen items recovered

thieves identified as FaizanAhmed, Naeem Sajjad andAsad Mehmud.

S u b - I n s p e c t o rMuhammad Riaz from Indus-trial area succeeded to busta gang of dacoits and recov-ered two pistols and looteditems from them. The nabbeddacoits were identified asShaaban Iqbal, Sajid andRizwan Iqbal.

Sub-Inspector MansoorAhmed from Bani Gala po-lice arrested Shamas urRehman and Minhaz Hussainfor having two 30 bore pis-tols. ASI Javed Iqbal fromShehzad town police ar-rested an accused Waseemfor possessing 30 bore pis-

tol while another accusedFazal ur Rehman was arrestedby ASI Saleem Raza fromShalimar police station forhaving 30 bore pistol too.

ASI Ghulam Rasool fromLoi Bher police arrestedIsmail and recovered stolenitems from him. Cases havebeen registered against thesenabbed persons and furtherinvestigation is underwayfrom them.

SSP Islamabad YaseenFarooq has appreciated thisoverall performance and di-rected all police officials tointensify vigilance and pa-trolling in their respective ar-eas to curb activities of anti-social elements.—NNI

RAWALPINDI—Benazir BhuttoInternational Airport,Rawalpindi became a centre offuss on Eid days.One reason forcommotion was heavy rainfalldue to which the airport got in-

BB Airport becomes centre of commotionundated. Poor system of sew-erage intensified the problem.

Second, there was no po-lice for regulating the trafficinside the airport. There oc-curred a traffic jam on the VIP

Road leading to an hours longtraffic jam. To add to the prob-lems, water seeped through theroofs of the airport building.This affected the offices andmachinery thereon.—Online

RAWALPINDI: A worker busy in giving final touches to the stones into grindingtools.

ISLAMABAD: Acting Ambassador USA, Richard E Hoagland called on Federal Minis-ter for Interior Rehman Malik.

RAWALPINDI: MNAs of Pakistan Muslim League (N) Haneef Abbasi, Shakeel Awan, Tahira Aurganzeb, SenatorNajma Hameed, Marvi Memon and others seen at Commissioner Office while dispatching trucks of relief goodsarranged by CM Punjab for affectees of recent floods in Nowshera.

ISLAMABAD: Shopkeeper displaying bouquets to attract customers at F-7 Flowers Market.

Slum dwellers withoutcivic facilities in Capital

Two boysdrowned

RAWALPINDI—Two boysdrowned in Korang Nullahnear Rewat on Thursday,Rescue 1122 reported.

The boys identified asZeeshan,20, and Waqas, 19,drowned in the Nullah. Theirbodies were recovered by theRescue 1122 divers.—APP

Marvi for enhancedcoordination

between, FFC, PMDR A W A L P I N D I — P M L - Nleader and former MNAMarvi Memon on Thursdayunderlined the need for en-suring more coordinationbetween the Federal FloodCommission (FFC) and Paki-stan Meteorological Depart-ment (PMD) aimed at makingpreventive measures duringmonsoon season.

Talking to reporters afterattending a ceremony heldto dispatch relief goods torain-affected people ofNowshera, she said the co-ordination among the con-cerned departments wouldalso help provinces to timelyshift the people living inlow-lying areas to saferplaces, in case of flash-flooding caused by heavyrains.

Marvi Memon said prov-inces suffered significantloss due to heavy rains dur-ing last few years just be-cause of lack of coordinationamong the concerned quar-ters.

“Accurate weather fore-cast and issuing timely warn-ing for low-lying areas ismust to protect life and prop-erty of the people,” sheadded.—APP

CITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—The Emer-gency Service Rescue 1122Rawalpindi responded 151emergencies and rescued162 victims during Eid holi-days.

Out of total emergencycalls during Eid days, 94were of road traffic accidents,three fire incidents, two crimeincidents, one drowningcase and 51 medical emer-gencies. All emergency callswere responded with aver-age response time of lessthen five minute in the dis-trict.

More than 400 rescuestaff remained on special du-ties in district control room,emergency rescue stations,with 13 fully equipped emer-gency ambulances, 11 firevehicles, four special rescuevehicles, one water rescuevan and two water bowzers.Special mobile posts hadalso been established for ef-

fectively providing medicalcover to the public gather-ings.

The Director General,Punjab Emergency Service(Rescue 1122), Dr. RizwanNaseer appreciated rescuerson emergency preparednessand emergency arrange-ments during Eid days in alldistricts of Punjab.

In this regard emergencyvehicles were deputed at allimportant Eid prayers sitesand sensitive areas alongwith trained emergency staffto provide immediate pre-hospital emergency cover.Emergency Officers includ-ing trained doctors super-vised the arrangements dur-ing Eid days.

The leaves of the rescu-ers had been restricted andthey were assigned specialemergency duties to effec-tively cover large Eid prayergatherings and to provide theemergency medical, rescueand fire fighting services to

the citizens during Eid holi-days.

In Rawalpindi, the emer-gency vehicles were deputedat Eidgah Shareef, JamiaMasjid (Chungi Number 04),Rawal Chowk, Nawaz SharifPark, Col Maqbool ImamBargah, Zikriya Masjid,Chohr Chowk and Police LineCivil Lines on Eid day for pro-viding medical cover toEidgahs. Four key points hadbeen established at AyubPark, Jinnah Park, NawazSharif Park and Chohr Chowkduring Eid days.

The Director GeneralRescue 1122 appreciating theservices of the rescuers saidthey sacrificed their Eid holi-days for the safety of thecommunity. He further re-quested public to dial emer-gency number 1122 withmoral responsibility. Onlytimely call can ensure timelyresponse and rescue in caseof any emergency of disas-ter, he added.

1122 rescue 162 victimsduring Eid holidays

Mehergarh to hold‘Sufi Singing

Contest for Youth’IS L A M A B A D —MehergarhCenter for Learning, will holda ‘Sufi Singing Cultural Con-test’ here on September 2 toexplore the talent of youthand highlight the traditionsof Sufi culture.

The moot is being orga-nized in collaboration withLok Virsa and PTV to providea platform for the young sing-ers and educate the massesabout the traditions ofSufism.

The competition will befollowed by the launch of aWeb-Based Resource Centeron Sufism and Launch of adocumentary on SpiritualHeritage of Pakistan.

After the results by theJury comprising renownedsingers Areib Azhar, JavedNiazi and Ustad MehfoozKhokhar, awards will begiven to the winning contes-tants.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The Inter Uni-versity Consortium for Promo-tion of Social Sciences, Artsand Humanities Pakistan(IUCPSS) and the AmericanInstitute of Pakistan Studies(AIPS) will sign an agreementto extend cooperation and un-dertake collaborative efforts forpromotion of Social Sciences,Arts and Humanities and Busi-ness Education in Pakistan.

The MoU will signed onAugust 24 (Friday) at Univer-sity of Gujrat with the focus onpromoting cooperation be-tween Pakistani universitiesand US academia, improvingthe state of social sciences and

Inter University Consortium, AIPS to sign MoUhumanities related disciplinesby enhancing collaborative re-search and scholarship andsharing information and use ofresources more efficiently.

The MoU will help pro-vide increased services toPakistani universities andsocial science research com-munity at US and Pakistaniacademic institutions.

According to the details,though this agreement, theAIPS in collaboration with HECand IUCPSS (Pakistan‘s firstever inter university allianceformed by 9 leading highereducation institutions HEIs)will organize doctoral disserta-

tion writing workshops in forPakistani students.

The AIPS will supportand facilitate the missionof IUCPSS to form a Na-tional Social Science Re-search Council in Pakistanand will assist IUCPSS withthe process and program-ming of it.

The AIPS will use its USinstitutional membership (con-sortium of 32 affiliated univer-sities) to encourage and moti-vate junior and senior re-search scholars and facultymembers to conduct academicresearch in affiliation withIUCPSS.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Slumdwellers (katchi abadis) infederal capital, mostly inhab-ited by sanitary workers, arewithout basic civic facilities.

These abadis are clustersof mud houses having nopotable water, no properdrainage system, dilapidatedstreets and poor sanitation.

These slums are locatedin sectors F-6/1, F-6/2, F-7/4,G-7/1, G-7/2, G-7/3, I-9, G-8/4and I-10/3. Most of thesekatchi abadies are located onthe banks of streams in thecity.

Talking to APP, the slumdwellers said solid wastedumped into the stream anddead trees not only pollutedthe water but also blocked itsflow creating problems for

them, especially in monsoon. They said the streams

were full of solid waste as alarge number of illegal sew-erage connections ended init. The slum dwellers saidstinking smell emanating fromwater of streams turned intosewerage nullahs had madetheir life miserable, as thepolluted water was a breed-ing ground for a number ofinsects spreading deadly dis-eases. A slum dweller saidthe resident of katchi abadiswere facing various problemsdue to negligence of CDA.

Sahbaz Masih, a sanitaryworker, said he earned a mea-ger amount, which was notsufficient to feed even a smallfamily. “I want to send mykids to school but it’s un-thinkable for me,” he said,adding, I have no option ex-

cept to live in the slum areato make both ends meet.

When contacted CDA,an official said senior plan-ners and representatives ofthe alliance would be heldand finalise plans to moveforward for regularisation ofthe katchi abadis.

“The residents must joinhands with the CDA to makecapital a cleaner city.”

“No municipality of theworld can succeed to keepthe city clean without thecooperation of the residents.Therefore, the residents ofthe capital should joinhands to make it an exem-plary city. He also stated thatour focus is on removing gar-bage heaps, constructionmaterial and other eyesores,which are ruining thecapital’s beauty.

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf directedthe Establishment Secretaryto ensure that appointments,transfers and postings ofgovernment servants weremade on merit and on the prin-cipal “right man for rightjob”.

This direction was givenby the Prime Minister whenthe Establishment Secretary,Mr. Taimur Azmat Osmancalled on him at the PM’sHouse Thursday.

The Prime Minister ex-

Raja directs appointments‚ transfers,postings of civil servants on merit

pressed the hope that gov-ernment servants especiallythose associated with pub-lic dealing and in the deliv-ery chain would utilize theirexperience and capabilitiesto address the grievancesand facilitation of thepeople.

The Prime Minister alsodirected the EstablishmentDivision to ensure propercareer planning of the offic-ers.

Prime Minister RajaPervez Ashraf said that

timely promotion of officersis critical to maintain the mo-rale of bureaucracy, motivatethem and improve their effi-ciency. In this connection, hedirected the EstablishmentDivision to ensure that pro-motions of deserving offic-ers in all grades are held ontime.

The Prime Minister di-rected that all administrativeand legal requirementsshould be fulfilled so thatpromotion cases were pro-cessed expeditiously.—NNI

ISLAMABAD—On the persis-tent complaints of parentsand students, Federal Boardof Intermediate & SecondaryEducation, Islamabad hasdecided to give anotherchance of the students ofChemistry Paper Part-I to im-prove their position.

According to the parentsand students, several ques-tions in the Paper were outof course and thus they weredenied to get more marks.

The decision was takenat a meeting of the BISE Com-mittee constituted by the

FBISC allows Interstudents to appear in

Chemistry Part-I paperChairperson of the FederalBoard on Thursday. TheCommittee considered differ-ent options and finallyagreed that under the exist-ing improvement law, the stu-dents of Chemistry Paper-one be given another chanceto improve their position byappearing in the supplemen-tary examination 2012..

An announcement by theBoard said all the studentswho are interested to im-prove their position in Inter-mediate Party-I can benefitfrom this opportunity.—INP

CM Punjab toaddress Pindi rally

on Sept 2RAWALPINDI—Chief Minis-ter of Punjab Mian ShahbazSharif will address a rally inRawalpindi on September 2.

To mark the occasion, hewill inaugurate developmentprojects costing Rs 8 billionfor the constituency NA 56.

The projects ShahbazSharif will inaugurate includeCardiology Institute andShahbaz Sharif Sports Com-plex.

The political circles areattaching much importanceto the visit of Shahbaz Sharifto the constituency after theannouncement of ChandniChowk flyover. The reasonfor this is that Hanif Abbasiis expected to contest thegeneral elections with a rep-resentative of PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf.—Online

ISLAMABAD—The growingtrend of fast or junk food out-lets is a big source of incomein the twin cities of Islamabadand Rawalpindi but at the costof the citizens’ health.

The increasing numberof fast food outlets in everynook and corner of the twincities clearly indicates howthe youth have turned to-wards the unhealthy trend.Although unhealthy, the de-mand for the junk foos is onthe rise with outlets mush-rooming across the city. Re-tailers say that youngstersand office workers are theirmain customers.

Bilquees Kuaser, ahousewife, while talking toAPP, complained, “My 18-year-old son Ali wastes a lotof money on junk food dailyas he doesn’t like vegetablesand grains cooked at home. Ican’t always cook meat as weneed a balanced diet for a

Junk food outlets source ofbig income in twin cities

healthy life.” According to the per-

turbed mother, since her sonstudied in a college she couldnot keep a check on him, butshe tried her best to motivatehim towards healthy andhome-cooked food.

She said the ingredientspresent in the junk food wereconsidered unhealthy whenregularly eaten, and her son gotill whenever there was a sud-den change in weather as hisimmunity system was weak.

However, Athar Abbas,a student who was having azinger burger at a fast foodoutlet in the Super Market,was of the view that the junkfood was delicious and defi-nitely irresistible.

The great taste of burgerand chicken roll paratha in-fluences thousands of othergirls and boys like him whoopt for junk food. “It’s notonly me who is addicted to

this sort of food but my fam-ily members also cannot re-sist eating the food at vari-ous cafes,” he said with awatery mouth.

Shahzad Khan, a salesboy at a fast food chain inMelody Food Park, opinedthat a large number of cos-tumers, with a majority ofyoungsters, visited the placefrom offices and educationalinstitutions on lunch time. Hesaid there were five to sixother outlets as well and allof them were doing goodbusiness, “We clean all uten-sils properly and use goodoil while preparing food,” heclaimed but refused to namethe oil they use.

According to various re-searches, processed andpre-prepared food, which canbe cooked fast and handedover to customers within notime, are eliminate hungerand taste great, but do not

provide essential nutrientsand eventually results inweakness and fatigue.

The extravagant junkmeal rich in oil also makesone start feeling drowsy andfails to concentrate. It isbulked out with pasta,breadcrumbs, corn flour, pro-cessed potato, processedegg and milk products as wellas hydrogenated vegetableoil, saturated fats, gums andsugar substitutes, and thenmade to taste good by theaddition of herbs and spices,salt, monosodium glutamateand sugars.

It also contains artificialcolours and preservatives aswell as some artificialflavouring just to completethe unhealthy package.

Dr Baig at Polyclinic toldAPP that constant use ofjunk food resulted in a dropin blood circulation due to fataccumulation.—APP

‘Son of former DSPkills a youth after

sexual abuse’ISLAMABAD—Son of formerDSP and his two accomplicesallegedly kidnapped andkilled son of ASI after sexualabuse.

According to details, sonof retired DSP DSP ChaudhryTaj and his two friends kid-napped Kashif s/o of an ASIserving in Islamabad police.

The kidnappers sexuallyabused the abductee andlater killed him to hide thecrime.

The police recovered thebody and arrested the ac-cused who during interroga-tion admitted the crime.—INP

Nationalcultural showon August 28

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nNational Council of the Arts(PNCA) in collaboration withMinistry of National Heritageand Integration has scheduleda “National Cultural Show” inconnection with IndependenceDay Celebrations here onAugust 28. The colorful showwill mesmerize the audience oftwincities with folk and nationalsongs, regional dances andstage plays.

Local and known singerswill present national songs tohighlight the Freedom move-ment and the struggle of free-dom fighters in a melodiousway. While the segment of re-gional dances will highlightthe vibrant cultural heritageof the country and rich tradi-tions through bright cos-tumes and conventionaljewellery.

“The show has beenplanned with the theme ofhighlighting freedom move-ment, heroes of Pakistanmovement and portrayingthe rich culture and tradi-tions of Pakistan throughperforming art,” an official ofPNCA said, while talking toAPP.

These programmes are aregular feature of PNCA tocelebrate the national daysby presenting a variety ofcultural and entertainmentactivities to promote tangibleand intangible cultural heri-tage of Pakistan.

Besides depicting theculture and traditions of thecountry, such shows alsoeducate the youth regardingthe struggle of freedomfighters through soft ex-pressions of art, he said.

Such events highlightthe memories of heroes ofPakistan Movement andtheir sacrifices which led tothe creation of a separatehomeland for the Muslims ofSub-continent.—APP

05:0001:3005:15

08:45

Zohr

August 24

QUAID-I-AZAM Univer-sity will remain closedfrom August 20 (Monday)to August 24 (Friday) onaccount of Eid-ul-Fitr holi-days. However, for thepurpose of admissions,the office of the admis-sions will function withskeleton staff on August23 and 24.

DR GHULAM NABI FAI

THE fiftieth session of“the United NationsCommission on Social

Development” (CSocD) heldin New York in 2012 unani-mously approved its prioritytheme of ‘Poverty Eradica-tion.’ I agree with the themeand I think that the issue ofglobal social development isthe issue of the century.Never before have so manysuffered amidst liberty andluxury for the few. The wealthof single individuals exceedsthe wealth of many nations.In highly developed coun-

tries, the number of personsliving past 80 years is soar-ing. In deprived and con-vulsed countries, the averagelongevity is but half that age.While citizens of some Afri-can countries are starving, therich countries are beset withobesity. Discrepancies ofthese types are morally dis-turbing. The United Nationsis ideally suited to endingthese shocking inequalitiesbecause it hosts all the nationsof the world and endows eachwith identical voting power inthe General Assembly. Thepoorest and the weakest areequal to the richest and thestrongest. Therefore, the

most urgent approach to pro-moting the global social de-velopment agenda should bethe elimination of poverty andthe securing for every man,woman, and child a right toflourishing health, a clean en-vironment, comfortable hous-ing, and nutritious food. Thegoal is not a choice but a moralobligation. There is no moralexcuse for regimes in poornations to forfeit the rich self-help opportunities for eco-nomic growth. As HongKong, Singapore, and Japanteach, economic prosperityturns more on human capitaland the rule of law than on theflukes of natural resources.

Think of some oil rich nationsmired in misery and destitu-tion. The second urgent ap-proach to promoting globalsocial development is the end-ing of warfare. War, whetherintramural or international,wreaks havoc on the elementsnecessary for health, housing,education, employment, theenvironment, and happinessgenerally. War is enor-mously expensive, for ex-ample, India & Pakistan in thedisputed territory of Kashmir.It diverts resources fromschools, hospitals, roads, andtelecommunications to AK-47s, Kalashnikovs, missiles,bombs, and artillery shells.

War also arrests eco-nomic development. Foreigninvestment withers. Infrastruc-ture is destroyed. Lawlessnesshikes the risks of any busi-ness enterprise. The conse-quence is widespread pov-erty. I admit that denunciationof warfare is easier than pre-vention. But if mankind canassemble knowledge to sendmen to the moon and LandRovers to Mars, the knowl-edge necessary to end warscannot be far behind.

Accordingly, the UnitedNations should summon allNobel Peace Prize winners or‘Elders’ to devise principles ofinternational law and conduct

that will abolish the scourgeof war from the face of theplanet. The third urgent glo-bal social development objec-tive should be universal lit-eracy and education. AsSocrates explained, theunexamined life is not worthliving. This observation ismade not to deride or degradethe uneducated, but to under-score the criticality of educa-tion to making life morallymeaningful and purposeful.

Education is also humancapital that fuels economicgrowth. A worker’s productiv-ity and compensation gener-ally rise commensurate witheducational achievement. In

addition, education corre-lates with a worker’s abilityto shift jobs and master newskills in an ever-changingglobal economy.

The United Nationsshould thus develop educa-tional yardsticks that a na-tion must satisfy to receiveeconomic or military aid fromthird parties, including theWorld Bank and the Interna-tional Monetary Fund. Theyardsticks should be incor-porated in a treaty to be rati-fied by all United Nationsmembers. A fourth globalsocial development shouldbe the eradication of AIDS.—KMS

United Nations and global social development

Justice Alvireturns to

MuzaffarabadHAMEED SHAHEEN

MUZAFFARABAD—Mr Jus-tice Muhammad Aftab Alvi,Judge of High Court of AzadJammu and Kashmir, has re-turned last night here afteroffering his Eid Al Fitrprayers in his Bagh home-town, advising in a brief chatwith the faithfuls completepractice and adherence toIslamic fraternal tenets as away of societal life.

A large number of seniorlawyers also called on MrJustice Ali and offered Eidgreetings to him during hishometown stay.

Indian troopercommits suicide

in IHKSRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, an Indian troopercommitted suicide by shoot-ing himself in Jammu district.

The trooper of 16 CorpsOperating Signal Unit, iden-tified as Signalman RaviShankar Kumar, committedsuicide by shooting himselfwith his service rifle atKhanpur, Nagrota in the dis-trict. This raised the numberof such deaths among Indiantroops and police personnelto 249 since January 2007.

Meanwhile, two IndianBorder Security Force bun-kers, 24 structures and eightresidential houses wereswept away and five BSFpersonnel were injured whileone trooper is missing in acloudburst near Tulail inGurez area of Bandipora dis-trict, the police officials said.

The cloudburst trig-gered a landslide but therewas no report of any civiliancasualty, the officialsadded.—KMS

Resolve K-issue asper Kashmiris

aspirations : ZaffarSRINAGAR—Hurriyat (M)leader and Chairman ofJammu and Kashmir Salva-tion Movement, Zaffar AkbarBhat said that the permanentpeace in South Asia and cor-dial relations between Paki-stan and India could not beestablished without settlingthe Kashmir dispute in ac-cordance with the Kashmiris’aspirations.

Zaffar Akbar Bhat ad-dressing a public meetingin Beerwah area said: “Theunresolved Kashmir is amain reason of tension inSouth Asia and it should beresolved without any fur-ther delay in accordancewith the Kashmiris’ aspira-tions.”— NNI

Plan to changedemography will be

resisted: GeelaniSRINAGAR—The veteranKashmiri Hurriyet leader,Syed Ali Geelani has warnedthat India is continuouslyworking on its plan to settlenon-Kashmiris in occupiedKashmir in order to changethe demographic composi-tion of the territory.

Syed Ali Geelani in astatement issued in Srinagarsaid that such efforts wouldbe strongly resisted. Hemaintained that India hadfailed to suppress the Kash-mir movement through bruteforce and was resorting toother tactics to accomplishits nefarious designs.

The Jammu and KashmirLiberation Front Chairman,Muhammad Yasin Malik talk-ing to media men in Srinagarsaid that the people of Kash-mir would launch a massiveagitation if India tried to re-habilitate non-Kashmiris inthe territory.Senior APHCleader, Agha Syed HassanAl-Moosvi in a statement inSrinagar urged India to makeconducive atmosphere forpeaceful resolution of theKashmir dispute. He saidthat the sacrifices ofKashmiris would not be al-lowed to go waste.

An Indian troopercommitted suicide by shoot-ing himself with his servicerifle at Khanpur, Nagrotta inJammu. This raised the num-ber of such deaths amongIndian troops and police per-sonnel to 249 since January2007.—KMS

Missingcivilian founddead in Doda

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, a civilian wasfound dead under mysteri-ous circumstances in Dodadistrict. The body of themissing’ man identified asMushtaq Ali was found nearBarsi Dhar area, police offi-cial said.

“We are investigatingthe matter as the cause ofdeath is yet to be ascer-tained,” Arif Rishu, SeniorSuperintendent of Police(SSP), Doda said. Rishu said‘it is not confirmed whetherthe man was kidnapped,missing or himself left thehouse last night,’ adding,“the matter is under investi-gations while the case will beregistered accordingly.”

On the other hand, twopersons died and 28 otherswere injured in different roadaccidents in the Valley.

Meanwhile, Indiantroops of Border SecurityForce arrested two personsidentified as Naib SarpanchMohammad Sadiq and andShabir Hussain at Katuanullah in Poonch.—KMS

PM’s WorkingGroups on Kashmir:

Follow-up actiongoes missing

JAMMU—Going by absenceof follow-up action on theirrecommendations, the twomost significant WorkingGroups on Kashmir set up byPrime Minister ManmohanSingh appear to have van-ished into thin air.

One of the groups headedby Hamid Ansari, now Vice-President of India for the sec-ond time, had among otherthings recommended lifting ofArmed Forces (Jammu Kash-mir) Special Powers Act-1990.This demand in reality is a ta-boo in official circles fromSrinagar to New Delhi.

The second groupheaded by Justice (retd.) SyedSagheer Ahmed was taskedwith revisiting Jammu andKashmir constitution andcome up with recommenda-tions for addressing the Cen-tre-State power distributionafresh.

The half-truth about rec-ommendations was trum-peted by National Conference(NC)-led coalition governmentas its victory until actual con-tents of the legally flawed re-port became public. And dis-creet silence of both NewDelhi and the state com-pounded the confusion lend-ing credence to theory that itwas another non-serious ex-periment of New Delhi onKashmir, which miserablyfailed.

With New Delhi watchingsilently and state calling forRTI applications for gettingaccess to this much leakedreport, the recommendationsand ultimate fate of the sec-ond group needs not to bedetailed herein. ” —NNI

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, after the authoritiesclarified that they have noplans to construct a road toAmarnath cave, the Valley-based civil society groupsdecided to follow the devel-opments while expressingserious doubts over the au-thorities’ intentions.

The Convener of a civilsociety group, Kashmir Cen-tre for Social and Develop-ment Studies, HameedaNayeem, addressing a jointmeeting of civil societygroups said: “We are not yetsure whether the authoritiesare truthful while saying thatthey have no constructionplans.

GH Kango, an environ-

mentalist, said the number ofpilgrims visiting shrine hadalready crossed the thresh-old and any fresh interven-tion through the construc-tion of infrastructure wouldbe disastrous for the place’senvironment. “The infra-structure development en-route the cave would meltthe glaciers and disturb thesnow-water table. It will bethe biggest threat to the wa-ter sources of the Valley,”Kango said. He said the roadis unthinkable and anti-natu-ral seeing the type of areasaround the cave.

Prominent businessmenDr Mubeen Shah said theroute to Amarnath should besanitized by putting sophis-

‘Road to Amarnath cave willthreaten water sources’

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, APHC leader andChairman of Jammu andKashmir Salvation Move-ment, Zafar Akbar Butt hassaid that the permanentpeace in South Asia andcordial relations betweenPakistan and India cannotbe established without set-tling the Kashmir dispute inaccordance with theKashmiris’ aspirations ZafarAkbar Butt addressing apublic meeting in Beerwaharea said that the Indian au-thorities were resorting tolarge-scale arrests in Kash-mir, but such tactics couldnot suppress the Kashmiris’resolve to continue their lib-eration struggle. He saidthat permanent peace inSouth Asia and cordial rela-tions between Pakistan andIndia could not be estab-lished without settling theKashmir dispute in accor-dance with the Kashmiris’aspirations. The unre-

solved Kashmir is a mainreason of tension in SouthAsia and it should be re-solved without any furtherdelay in accordance with theKashmiris’ aspirations, headded.

He said that the armedforces under the black lawswere committing humanrights violations in Jammuand Kashmir. He said thatrevocation of black laws —Armed Forces Special Pow-ers Act (AFSPA), DisturbedAreas Act (DAA) and Pub-lic Safety Act (PSA) —could provide relief to thepeople till final settlement ofthe Kashmir dispute.

He urged the twoneighbouring countries tokeep the aspirations of thepeople of Kashmir for ac-complishing which theyhave been rendering sacri-fices for the last 66 year, inview while maintaining mu-tual friendly diplomatic andtrade relations.—KMS

JKSM demands Kashmirsettlement as per Kashmiris’ will

IHK authoritiesdenounced for not

releasingdetainees on Eid

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, the veteran KashmiriHurriyet leader, Syed Ali Gilanihas strongly denounced theauthorities for not releasing thepolitical prisoners on Eid andpreventing the Hurriyet lead-ers and activists from offeringtheir Eid prayers.

Syed Ali Gilani in a state-ment issued in Srinagar saidthat that the Indian state ter-rorism had crossed all limits. Hesaid that more than 850Kashmiris were still languish-ing in different jails of India andthe occupied territory but theywere not even released on Eid.

The veteran KashmiriHurriyet leader said that he washopeful that Dr MuhammadQasim Faktoo, who had com-pleted his life imprisonment,would be freed before Eid-ul-Fitr, but the puppet adminis-tration did not release him.—KMS

NEW DELHI—The Govern-ment of India (GoI) has re-vealed that 59,442 families ofKashmiri Pandits are livingoutside Kashmir.”As manyas 808 families are residingin Kashmir and 59,442 regis-tered migrant families con-tinue to reside outside theValley,” Minister of State forHome Affairs Jitendra Singhtold Rajya Sabha in a writtenreply.

He said 170 temples weredamaged in Kashmir aftermigration of Kashmiri

Pandits. “Of the total of 430temples which existed beforemigration, 260 of them areintact, 170 were damagedand 90 others renovated,” hesaid when an MP soughtdetails of Hindu temples inKashmir.

“In order to mitigate thehardships faced by theKashmiri Pandits, a cash re-lief of Rs 1,250 per person permonth subject to maximum ofRs 5,000 per family permonth is being provided toeligible families in Jammu and

Delhi,” he said. The minis-ter said return of migrant KPsto the Valley is voluntary andno roadmap is possible.

“To facilitate their return,a Rs 1618.40-crore packagehas been announced byPrime Minister ManmohanSingh which provides forassistance for repair or reno-vation of damaged houses,transit, accommodation,government jobs and finan-cial assistance for self em-ployment among others,” headded. —NNI

SRINAGAR—The JammuKashmir Liberation Front(JKLF) has strongly con-demned the house arrest ofChairman Yasin Malik on Eidday. This was mentioned ina statement issued by JKLF.

JKLF leaders while ad-dressing various Eid congre-gations condemned thehouse arrest of Yasin andvarious other separatist lead-ers and termed this policeaction as “un-democraticand straight interference inreligion.”

JKLF condemn housearrest of Malik

JKLF leaders includingMaster Mohammad Afzaladdressed people atTrehgam Kupwara, Siraj udDin Mir Dawood atTengmarg, Ghulam NabiKashmiri at Kulgam, BashirAhmad Rather at Ganderbal,Abdul Rashid Mugloo atHaigam sopore and Profes-sor Javed addressed peopleat Sonawari. It is worth tomention that Yasin wasscheduled to perform Eidprayers at TRC groundsSrinagar and he was sched-

uled to address a public gath-ering there, the statementadded. Meanwhile, Malik ex-pressed grief and sorrowover the sad demise of infantdaughter of renowned jour-nalist Javed Malik of GreaterKashmir. Yasin Malik andother JKLF leaders visitedJaved Malik’s house and ex-pressed heartfelt sympathieswith him and the bereavedfamily .Yasin Malik whilepraying for the infant alsoprayed for the patience of thebereaved family. —NNI

RAO ATIQ UL AMIN KHAN

MIRPUR—The day of August23rd, 1947 enjoys exceptionalimportance in Kashmir freedommovement as well as for theMuslim population of Jammu& Kashmir. On this historicday the Muslim population ofthe Jammu and Kashmir hadformally announced to launchthe freedom movement byraising mutiny against the ruleDogra imperialism under thedynamic leadership of a 23-year-old son of the soil –Sardar Muhammad AbdulQayyum. At the time of par-tition of the sub continent –when the emergence of Pa-kistan had become inevitable,it was principally decidedthat Muslim-majority areaswill accede to Pakistan andthe Hindu-dominated partswill enter into the Indian fold.

Under this determined prin-cipal, all then states in the subcontinent were given the right

Significance of Neelabut Day inKashmir Freedom Movement.

to accede to India or Pakistanaccording to their own will.

Soon after the announce-ment about the emergence ofPakistan as well as the revoltby the Jammu & KashmirMuslims, the Hindus, withthe connivance of British im-perialism, started conspira-cies to weaken Pakistan tothe larger extent. In thismean and cowardly game,Hindus had complete bless-ings and guidance of the Brit-ish Government GeneralLord Mountbatten.

Entire Jammu & Kashmirstate was comprising 85 per-cent of the Muslim population.The Muslims of the Jammu &Kashmir smelled the nefariousconspiracies of Gandhi andother Hindus as soon as laterstarted trying to muster thesympathies and support of thethen Dogra ruler of the state –the Maharaja of Jammu &Kashmir – who himself was aHindu, in their (Hindu) favor.

Under the fold of All Jammu &Kashmir Muslim Conference,the main representative orga-nization, the Kashmiri Muslimsstarted seriously thinkingabout frustrating such nefari-ous conspiracies of Hindusagainst the fate of the Muslim-majority Jammu & Kashmirstate. Ultimately, the historicJuly 19 meeting of All Jammu& Kashmir Muslim Confer-ence decided to attach the fateof the Jammu & Kashmir statewith Pakistan by unanimouslypassing the historic Kashmir’saccession to Pakistan resolu-tion.

This is in deed — amatchless characteristic ofKashmiris, who observe theoccasion every year to reit-erate their earnest beliefabout their outlook, aus-terely in line with the historicresolution which wasadopted at a momentoussession of their popular po-litical party.

ticated waste managementsystem in place. “The civilsociety has a big role to fa-cilitate various facilities inmake-shift tents to the Yatrisfor their safe journey. Sothere is no need to constructbig infrastructure,” he said.

On August 13, the Su-preme Court asked the IHKauthorities to finish con-struction of roads and wid-ening of passage to theAmarnath shrine beforesnowfall. A bench of Jus-tices B S Chauhan andSwatanter Kumar passed theorder after taking suo motonote of media reports of pil-grims’ deaths due to lack ofproper facilities and medicalcare for them. —KMS

MUZAFFARABAD: Presidential Advisor Raja with Mufti Fazal Rasool and Mushtaq Mir.

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK President Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob listening to complaints of affectees of rains at ChehlaBandi on Thursday.

Over 59000 KP familiesliving outside Kashmir

MUZAFFARABAD: Prime Minister Ch. Abdul Majeed giving away cheque to widow ofpolice, martyred in Shaulned Gali .

“Experience tells youwhat to do; confi-

dence allows you todo it.”

— Stan Smith

SINGAPORE—Pakistan isseeking its largest monthlydiesel imports in a year andappetite in India is alsogrowing, with consumersturning to stand alonepower generators as shakypower grids come underincreased pressure fromweak monsoons.

Below-average rainshave curbed hydropowergeneration, particularly inPakistan, and haveboosted agricultural de-mand for diesel to powerirrigation systems.

Back up diesel genera-

Weak monsoon spurs diesel demand in Pakistantors are common through-out South Asia, with thelights staying on in a raft ofoffices and shops as dieselunits purred into actionwhen the north of India washit by massive power cutsin early August.

State-owned importerPakistan State Oil (PSO) isseeking an additional110,000 tonnes of gasoil af-ter last week tendering forup to 305,000 tonnes for thefirst time in three months,its largest requirement inmore than a year.

Pakistan needs to buy

gasoil due to the non-availibility of hydropowerand a gas shortage faced bypower plants, a Pakistan-based industry source said.

The country’s gasoildemand this time last yearwas quite low due to floods,so PSO has been forecast-ing higher rainfall and hadplanned imports accord-ingly. The delayed mon-soon has surprised every-one.

Floods killed over 300people and damaged or de-stroyed about 1.2 millionhouses in August last year.

Pakistan’s spot require-ments for gasoil are aboveits long term-contractualagreement with Kuwait Pe-troleum Corp, with whom itis set to buy around 3 mil-lion tonnes of gasoil thisyear.

In the same tender, PSOis also seeking 1 milliontonnes of fuel oil and gaso-line for delivery from Octo-ber to December.

Pakistan’s oil demandhas grown by a total ofabout 35,000 barrels per dayover the past five years toaround 400,000 bpd this

year, with the majority ofthat increase from fuel oil,which is used in oil-firedpower stations, said FaruqTaib, an analyst at FACTSGlobal Energy in Singapore.

The country is facing asevere gas shortage and thebulk of their power genera-tors are gas-fired . . . sothey’re moving towards oil,Taib said.

Gasoline demand hasalso increased due to thegas shortage as more car-users are switching topetrol from compressednatural gas (CNG), he

added.The country’s govern-

ment faces a circular debtproblem where state utilitieslose money from non-pay-ing consumers and low elec-tricity prices and cannotpay power-generating com-panies who in turn cannotpay gas suppliers.

Delayed monsoonshave also boosted demandfor diesel in India, with trad-ers saying the country’sstocks have fallen belowtheir normal average ofabout 15 days, though theexact volume could not be

verified.Demand from both retail

stations and the agriculturesector is very high so that’sdrawing down on stocks,said a trader based in thecountry. Earlier this month,India’s weather office re-vised its forecast for themonsoon season to defi-cient rains - a drought inlayman’s terms.

While India’s state-owned importers have notbeen seeking diesel aggres-sively in the internationalspot market, their uptakehas increased from India’s

private refiners Essar andReliance, with whom theyhave term contracts, trad-ers said.

Refinery maintenancebeginning in Septemberthat will shut up to 139,000bpd of capacity is also ex-pected to stoke some im-port demand from Indiancompanies, traders said.

Still , more expensiveinternational prices and aslowing global economycould curb Indian dieselimports, they added. Re-cent official import statis-tics are not available.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Agri Forum Paki-stan Chairman MuhammadIbrahim Mughal has saidthere is no dearth of electric-ity in the country but it doeslack good governance andpeople who could control theelectricity stealers and thosenot paying their bills afterconsuming power.

Controlling the transmis-sion and distribution lossesof just four distribution com-panies out of total nine com-panies including of PESCO(Peshawar), KESC, QESCOand HESCO can add 1300 to1500 mw in the system andsave a financial loss of Rs.130 billion per annum, saidMughal.

Agri Forum wants robustelectricity crisis tackling response

He stated that biggestopposition against construc-tion of new dams come fromPeshawar whose distributioncompany had the highesttransmission and distribu-tion loss (T&D) of around 37percent. Similarly from Sindh,KESC has T&D loss of 32.2percent and HESCO 35 per-cent while QESC has this lossaround 21 percent. In case ofsuch huge losses, those whoare paying the bills can neverhave full electricity supply.He said that the governmentshould immediately concen-trate on controlling theselosses to meet the wideninggap of generation and con-sumption gap of electricity inthe country.

Mughal claimed that

such a distribution companyset up in New Delhi by theIndian government had T&Dlosses around 60 percentwhen the governmentbrought private sector toplug these losses and nowthese had been broughtdown to 10 to 11 percent only.

He was also critical ofgiving free electricity toWapda employees and saidthat there are 141,500 employ-ees in Wapda getting freeelectricity units from 300 to700 per month. These em-ployees are using around Rs.30 billion’s electricity per an-num. While there are also100,000 retired employeeswho are enjoying similar fa-cility too. A time is not far

Chairman Mehran Group of Industries Senator Gul Muhammad Lot snapped with Sena-tor Haseeb Khan, Senator Shahi Syed, Rahim Janoo, Mian Zahid Hussain, Yahya Polani,Shakeel Dhingra, Sharmila Farooqi, Shehla Raza & others at Mehran Dabangg OfferLucky Draw held here on Thursday.—PO photo Javed Iqbal (Story on Page-14)

KHALID BUTT

LAHORE—In line withguidelines from State Bank ofPakistan, MCB Bank hadmade special arrangements toensure availability of qualitynotes from its 685 ATMsacross the country during Eiddays and provided Rs 2.4 bil-lion to ATM branches for thesame.

MCB undertook this ac-tivity so that the ATMnetwork’s availability is en-sured while facilitating thecustomers in ATM usage.

The efficient ATM net-work of MCB has been pro-viding services to public atlarge without any distinctionas to whether they are MCBcustomers or not. On Au-

MCB ATMs remainedoperational during Eid holidays

gust 16, 2012, out of total138,747 transactions on theMCB ATM network, 81,413transactions were carriedout by MCB account hold-ers whereas 57,334 transac-tion were carried out by otherbanks’ card holders. Itshows people’s confidenceover MCB’s efficient ATMsystems as majority ofpeople prefer to use MCBnetwork.

“We estimate that around175,000 customers per daywould be visiting our ATMsduring Eid holidays”, AamirAli Rizvi, a senior executiveof MCB Bank had predicted.

“MCB Bank has alwaysmade sure that ATMs pro-vide maximum convenienceto public at large, however,

acute power outages rendersthe ATM non functional attimes while law and ordersituation and security alertsrestrict the mobility of stafftowards ATMs for cash feed-ing or addressing any othertechnical issue in case ofneed,” he added.

Meanwhile, MCB alsoarranged Chand Raat activi-ties at selected ATMs allaround the country under‘Corporate Social Responsi-bility Program’. The idea isto decorate ATMs on ChandRaat; the respective BranchManagers and other teammembers will be there to wel-come the customers. Whileoffering small gifts for thefamilies of customers for be-ing a part of MCB family.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The NationalHighway Authority plans tospend Rs 8550.425 million onimprovement and wideningof Nowshehra- Chitral High-way (N-45).

“Improvement and wid-ening of Chakdara-Timergrah-Dir-Chitral (141km) section” is a new projectwhich will complete left oversections of the project “im-provement of N-45 fordualisation, rehabilitationand reconstruction, whichwas undertaken in 2006 at

NHA to spend Rs 8550.425mon widening of N-45

the cost of Rs 2399 million,”a source in the Ministry ofCommunications told mediaon Thursday.

Regarding the newproject global PC-I worth Rs9202.488 m was discussed byCentral Development Work-ing Party (CDWP) in Octo-ber 2011, which was recom-mended with revised scopeof work with rationalizedcost of Rs 8550.425 million,he said.

The Takhtbai f lyoverproject was also includedin the PC-I of the project,he added. However, the

commencement of work onthe project , he said, de-pended on the approval byECNEC and allocation offunds .

A durable and effectivecommunications infrastruc-ture is very important forthe promotion of trade,tourism, industry and agri-culture in Swat andMalakand areas, and theMinistry of Communica-tions is carrying out con-struction activity on prior-i ty basis in these areaswhere people have sufferedgreat hardships, he added.

PQ activityKARACHI—Three shipscarrying containers, wheatand furnace oil were allottedberths at Qasim InternationalContainers Terminal, FAPTerminal and FOTCOTerminal respectively onWednesday. Meanwhile twomore ships schedule to load/offload containers are alsoarrive at outer anchorage ofPort Qasim during last 24hours. Berth occupancy was65% at the Port Qasim onThursday where totalnumber of seven shipsnamely MV, OOCLSanfrancisco, MV. Heckor,Liberty Grace, GeniusMariner, Stolt Courage, MV.Lahore and Bung Alamandaare currently occupyingberths to load/offloadcontainers, wheat, cement,chemical, furnace oil andedible oil respectively duringlast 24 hours.—APP

Apple vs SamsungSAN JOSE—Between thehotshot designers andbrainy engineers Apple Incquestioned for three weeksin the company’s bitterlyfought patent battle againstSamsung Electronics Co Ltd,a marketing expert from MITtook Apple’s lawyers all ofthree minutes. But thetestimony from MITProfessor John Hauser cutsto a central dilemma in thesmartphone patent wars.What is a single nifty featureworth? Hauser’s answer:exactly $39 per phone for adevice that recognize asecond finger on thetouchscreen. If such featuresare deemed to be as valuableas Hauser suggests, averdict in Apple favor’smight represent more thanjust a big payout in damages.It could also prompt thejudge to award Apple a muchbigger prize: a sales ban onSamsung mobile products.Nine jurors began deliberat-ing Apple’s intellectualproperty claims againstSamsung on Wednesday in afederal court in San Jose,California.—APP

Net lossSYDNEY—Australian flagcarrier Qantas Airways onWednesday posted a full-year net loss of Aus$244million (US$256 million) dueto high fuel prices andindustrial disputes. Theresult in the 12 months toJune 30 was its first annualloss since it was privatisednearly two decades ago andcompared to a net profit ofAus$250 million (US$262million) in the previous year.Its underlying profit beforetax—the airline’s preferredmeasure of financial perfor-mance—was Aus$95 million,down from Aus$552 millionin the previous correspond-ing period. The dismal resultwas expected after warningsfrom the carrier that itsinternational arm wasstruggling due to a deteriora-tion in global operatingconditions driven by theEuropean economic crisisand high jet fuel bills.—APP

Pak cementexports to

Afghanistanplummet

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan cementexports to Afghanistan haveplummeted by 10 percent an-nually, owing to availabilityof cheaper Iranian cementthere.

The Pakistan cementmanufacturers claim that theenergy crisis and increasingprices of petroleum productshave made its productuncompetitive in Afghani-stan. Afghanistan has beenthe steadiest market for thePakistani cement industry,according to an ARI reportThursday.

The U.S. sanctions onIran had been an impedimentfor Iranian exports to pen-etrate in Afghanistan. Thisallowed Pakistan to benefitwith exports to the countrygrowing at a four-year CAGRof 14 percent.

The overall cement ex-ports plunged by 9.2 per-cent YoY to 0.76Mt. Totalcement sales in July 2012were registered at 2.81Mtcompared to 2.86Mt lastyear, depicting a decline of1.6 percent YoY.

The recent pledge ofUS$16bn at an internationaldonor conference as civilianaid for economic develop-ment of Afghanistan is likelyto bolster construction activ-ity in the country. Thisshould increase the demandfor Pakistani cement in thelong run.

Knitwearexports decline

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

KA R A C H I—Knitwear ex-ports posted a decline of 14percent or $31.689 millionin the f irst month of thenew fiscal year (2012-13)mainly because of persis-tent energy crisis, export-ers said.

The domestic knitwearexports fell to $197.281 mil-lion in June 2012 against thecommodity’s export of$228.689 million in June 2011,showing a decline of 13.84percent, according to Paki-stan Bureau of Statistics(PBS).

Exporters criticised thegovernment for not takingthe energy issue seriously,as the gas and power short-ages, especially at peak ex-port season, delayed ship-ments. They said delays inexport consignments re-sulted in cancellation of ex-port orders.

The country’s knitwearexport reduced to 10,064 tonsin June 2012 against exportsof 10,590 tons in June 2011,showing a decline of five per-cent or 526 tons, accordingto statistics compiled by thePBS.

However, Pakistan’sknitwear exports grew 9.22percent or $16.663 million inJuly this year against thecommodity’s exports of$180.619 million, the figuressuggest.

In terms of volume, thecountry’s knitwear exportssurged to 10,064 tons in July2012 against 9,444 tons inJune 2011, showing a rise of7 percent or $620 million, thestatistics indicated.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The world re-nowned Scandinavian homefurnishing company IKEAhas approved Royal LeatherLimited as its supplier of fin-ished leather from Pakistan.

IKEA produces 180 mil-lion catalogues and is oneof the biggest home furnish-ing companies in the worldwith an annual turnover of63 billion euros. It has 305stores in a number of coun-tries in Europe, NorthAmerica, Asia-Pacific andthe Caribbean and MiddleEast.

Marketing Director ofthe Royal Leather Limitedand former Central ChairmanPakistan Tanners Associa-tion Agha Saidain said thatthe Royal Leather would be

IKEA approves localleather supplier

first supplier of finishedleather in Pakistan,Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.India had only a single sup-plier which has been droppedby IKEA, following its deci-sion to increase its pur-chases from Italian suppliers.

IKEA granted the sup-plier status to Royal Leatherfor its environmental and so-cial compliance capacity.Now Royal Leather is theonly zero discharge companyin Pakistan, Sri Lanka andIndia, he claimed.

Talking about the state ofaffair sin the industry, AghaSaiddain said that leather in-dustry in Pakistan is facingever severe hardships mainlybecause of shortage of powerand gas. Due to unabatedexport of wet-blue, shortageof raw material badly has hit

the industry, besides beingaffected by constantly soar-ing prices of the raw mate-rial.

He said that the short-age of raw material was be-cause of exports of wet-blue, smuggling of live ani-mals to Afghanistan, mas-sive power cuts, domesticleather and leather productswere no more competitive inthe international market.

As a result, all kinds ofleather exports, includingcrust and finished leatherhave declined by 15 percentduring July 2011-May 2012period. The total quantityexported in this period re-mained at 22.388 millionsquare meters against26.207 million square metersin the corresponding periodlast year.

Continued on Page 14

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The FederalBoard of Revenue has pro-posed massive changes inthe customs bonded ware-houses system includingcontrol mechanism of ware-houses through automatedsystem to facilitate importsand exports.

The FBR’s Directorate ofTraining and Research hassubmitted a comprehensivereport to the FBR on the newsystem for the working of thecustoms bonded warehous-ing across the country. Thereport has suggested newrules and procedures for stor-

Radical changes in warehouseoperation proposed

age and clearance of goodsunder the existing bondedwarehouse system. The FBRhas considered the report toanalyze its viable sugges-tions for incorporating nec-essary changes in thebonded warehousing sys-tem.

The directorate has sug-gested that in the light of thefact that the external factorshave changed, the world hasbecome a global village,means of communication aregetting faster day by day,cost of banks lending hasdecreased, there is no logicin blocking up capital in in-ventory for a longer period

of time, as it does not makeeconomic sense. It is pro-posed that the Board maytake necessary steps:

Firstly, the controlmechanism of warehousesshould be automated. Cus-toms must be able to effec-tively monitor flow of goodsinto and out of the ware-houses. Online linkagesshould be created with theCustoms main computer. TheJuly 1, 2013 should be givenas deadline for all WarehouseLicenses who want their li-censes to be renewed to be-come fully computerised. Fail-ure to do so would render

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The govern-ment has planned to increasethe installed power generatingcapacity from existing 23,718mega watt(MW)to 24,822mega watt during on going fi-nancial year 2012-13, a minis-try of water and power officialsaid.

The official said the in-stalled power generating ca-pacity would be enhancedthrough addition of 1,104 MWin Pakistan Electric PowerCompany (PEPCO) System Inline with the Framework of

‘Installed power generatingcapacity to go up 2013’

Growth Strategy (FEG), theimplementation of power sec-tor reforms and restructuringplan will continue.

Allai Khwar Hydel PowerProject of 121 MW is plannedto begin generation form Oc-tober this year whereas, eightunits of Jinnah of compositegenerating capacity of 96 MWwill be completed in Decem-ber 2012. 33 KV TransmissionLine (T/L) from 132 KV G/SThana Bula Khan DistrictJamshoro HESCO to Dureji(Sub Station at Dureji), 132 KVPringhabad G/S with T/L, 132KV Pasinzai G/S with T/L 132

KV Karakh Grid Station withT/L, 132 KV Kan MehtherzalGrid Station with Allied T/L,and 1200 MW imported coalbased integrated jetty andpower plant project is beingProcessed by PPIB.

The official further saidGENCO-II TPS Guddu hasplanned for rehabilitation ofUnits 1 to 13 depending on theavailability of funds which willadd 405 MW to the nationalgrid and Genco-II Guddu is in-stalling additional 747 MWplant with the help of Chinawhich will be completed afterJune 2013.

LAHORE—Pakistan Indus-trial and Traders Associa-tions Front (PIAF) has criti-cized the government formaking massive increase inpetroleum prices in one-goand termed it a very bad newsfor the country’s economywhich was already facing anumber of challenges.

In a statement, the PIAFChairman Sohail Lashari,while strongly reacting onthis anti-industry and anti-masses decision, said thatgovernment did not bother to

Govt rapped for increase inpetroleum prices

pass on the benefit of de-crease of oil prices in inter-national market and earnedbillion rupees, which was asheer injustice and nowmade a huge raise in the pe-troleum prices.

He said that PIAF had forthe last many months beencalling on the concerned gov-ernment circles to take mea-sures for the promotion ofalternate fuels as trade defi-cit was fast widening due toheavy imports under thehead of petroleum products.

He said that the timelinefor the increase in the pricesof petroleum products wasalso raising questions. Hesaid that at a time when thewhole industry was sufferingdue to energy crisis and highcost of doing business, theraise in POL prices is boundto give a further blow to theindustry.

He demanded of the gov-ernment remove the carbontax right now otherwise in-dustry would be collapsedwithin no time.—NNI Continued on Page 14

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Continuing itslegacy to promote sports,ZONG – the fastest growingnetwork of the country hasdecided to support the 3 one-day and T20 matches seriesbetween Pakistan and Aus-tralia.

The telecom company isa co-sponsor of this enthral-ling event to be held in Dubai,Abu Dhabi and Sharjah dur-ing August and Septemberthis year. ZONG has a longassociation with sports andhas previously taken manyinitiatives to support sports’activities in Pakistan includ-ing their recent collaborationwith Manchester UnitedFootball club.

The company con-ducted trials in major citiesof Pakistan and selected 32outstanding players withinthe age bracket of 13-17

ZONG supports Pak,Australia cricket series

years for training at MU Soc-cer School, Abu Dhabi.Usman Ishaq, Executive Di-rector Commercial of ZONGsays, “Sports and ZONGhave a natural relationship,which is growing strongerday by day.

Through our strategicpartnership with ManchesterUnited, we are the leadingcorporate supporter of foot-ball in the country. As far ascricket is concerned, we havebeen sponsors of domesticT20 cricket in the past.

And now, starting withthis series, we are seriouslylooking at greatly enhanc-ing our support to thisgreat game.”

The Abu Dhabi one-daymatch, scheduled for Fri-day, August 31, is expectedto be watched by a capac-ity crowd as Abu Dhabi ishome to many Pakistani ex-patriates.

Usman Ishaq, Executive Director Commercial, ZONG ad-dressing a press conference at Pakistan Cricket Board,Lahore.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Chairman Busi-nessmen Group & formerPresident KCCI Siraj KassamTeli and President KarachiChamber of Commerce & In-dustry Mian Abrar Ahmadwelcomed and appreciated thedecision to stop cellular ser-vices by Interior MinisterRehman Malik in Karachi andother major cities during Eidto control/ eliminate chancesof terrorist/criminal activitiesusing cellular technology/mobile phones, it was indeeda timely decision and musthave saved lot of lives of Paki-stani citizens. The decision ofInterior Ministry to stop pre-paid cellular services in orderto ensure genuine identities ofsubscribers/ users to controlcrimes is also appreciated.

They said that it has been

Trade, industry demandblockage of unauthorized SIMs

proposed and demanded byKarachi Chamber of Com-merce & Industry to the In-terior Minister to block allthose SIMs being stolen/unauthenticated andwrongly issued; also blockimported mobile phones withsame IMEI number with im-mediate effect; ensure ser-vice providers to providedetails of all such phones toFIA; No SIM shall be acti-vated if mobile phone has noIMEI number or proper iden-tification of CNIC and newSIM will only be issuedthrough postal services andmechanism should be devel-oped to deliver new SIMthrough courier/ registeredpost at purchaser’s addressaccording to CNIC.

Finally, Interior Minis-ter real ized the genuine-ness of demands of KCCI

who at times had person-ally admitted and also de-clared root cause of ram-pant crimes in Karachi themobile phone sets havingidentical IMEI numbersand unauthenticated/ un-registered SIMs being usedby criminal elements. Inte-rior Minister Rehman Malikduring his visits to KCCIduring last two years gavecommitment to implementthe demands raised byKCCI for the larger interestof Pakistan and its citizens,they stated.

They said that mobilephone is used in more than80 percent of criminal activi-ties therefore, as per the de-mands of KCCI and commit-ment of Federal Interior Min-ister the demands must beeffectively implemented with-out any further delay.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Any move toforce the auto sector manu-facturers to artificially re-duce prices of their prod-ucts on against the prin-ciple of market forces andeconomy would badly af-fect the performance ofmulti-billion auto industry,experts said.

The auto sector expertswhile commenting on theupcoming meeting of Pub-lic Accounts Committee toreview the car prices, said,that the public listed com-panies cannot be grilled bythe PAC whereas theyshould have invited Min-istry of Commerce and En-gineering DevelopmentBoard but that too is ques-tionable as the govt hasfailed so far to providepeaceful three times meal to

Auto sector perturbed over forced measuresthe poors let alone providingthem cars at affordableprices.

They said that the pricesare governed by marketforces in the free marketeconomies and the role of thegovernment is limited to policyframework including tariff andnon tariff policy measures.

They added that the coun-tries like India with wiser poli-cies and economists strived toprotect local industry for yearsand are now in a positionwhere local cars are cheaperthan international brands;however this was possibleonly after decades of protec-tion. While comparing Paki-stani cars the experts said thatwhile there is no comparisonin size still our assembledToyota Altis and Honda Cityare cheaper than India.

On the contraryPakistan’s policy makers’ se-

riousness could be gaugedfrom the fact that Auto Indus-try Development Plan whichwas approved in 2007 underwhich import of used cars wasallowed up to age of threeyears was changed only 2years down the lane yet theyclaim that auto industry is overprotected for last 40 years.

He said that the legisla-tors failed to provide legalcover to the investors and letthem exposed to unfair com-petition with smuggling, un-der invoicing, mis declarationand violation of copyrightsand yet it was claimed that theindustry is over protected.

They said that the localauto industry is already fac-ing a number of issues. Thecost has increased due to thedepreciation of local currencyagainst US$ and Japanese Yen.Low volumes; higher fixedcost, relaxation in age limit for

import of used cars has furtherlowered the capacity utiliza-tion. High sales tax; upwardincrease in minimum wages;increase in utility charges andenergy issues were the majorcauses that forced the manu-facturers to increased prices oftheir products. “Despite allthese challenges the local autoindustry is not only meetingthe local demand, but also ex-porting some of its productsto earn more foreign exchangefor the country’, they said.

They said that the issueof price fixation in auto sec-tor once again would be dis-cussed at the meeting of thesub-committee of the PublicAccount Committee (PAC)scheduled for August 23,2012. In the previous meet-ing of the sub-committeesome baseless points wereraised against the auto sec-tor manufacturers due to lack

of information, they said.They said the ground re-

alities are very different asthe Pak Rupee has depreci-ated against US$ from Rs59.86 in 2005-06 to Rs 94.83in July 2012. In the same waythe local currency has de-preciated against Japaneseyen from Rs 0.52 in 2005-06to Rs 1.14 in July 2012. Simi-larly, utility charges, mini-mum wage, reducing pro-duction efficiency due toimport of used cars, powershortage issues, high inter-est rates and high inflationare some other issues whichare major causes of continu-ous increasing cost of do-ing business in the country,they said.

They said the parliamen-tarians should consider allthese issues which are affect-ing pricing of local automanufacturers products.

STAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D —IslamabadChamber of Commerce andIndustry (ICCI) rejected theincrease in POL prices up toRs.4.85 per litre and CNGRs.3.21 per kg and alsostrongly criticized the deci-sion of revising the prices ofpetroleum products onweekly basis.

Yassar Sakhi Butt, Presi-dent ICCI expressed his ap-prehension over massive hikein POL prices and said thatGovernment has again failedto honour its promise as Ad-viser to the Prime Minister onPetroleum and Natural Re-sources had announced tokeep POL prices unchangedfor the next 15 days.

He said that the implan-tation of the decision of re-

ICCI terms POL pricehike unjustified

vising the prices of petroleumproducts on weekly basiswould create multiple prob-lems for the trade and indus-try as business communitywould not be able to calcu-late return on investmentwhen the cost of doing busi-ness would be fluctuating onweekly basis.

ICCI President said thata comparison between theinternational oil prices andlocal prices is enough tomake the point that the localprices have registered mas-sive increase in the last twoyears in comparison with theglobal rates. Therefore, theGovernment has no justifica-tion to make any increase inPOL prices, he added.

Yassar Sakhi Butt saidthat the entire industrial sec-tor was already facing mul-

tiple internal and externalchallenges and this currentincrease in POL prices wouldfurther aggravate the eco-nomic situation.

He said that Pakistan isan agrarian country, there-fore hike in petroleum priceswould increase the input costof agriculture production ashigh speed diesel is beingused in tractors, tube-wells,harvesters, thrashers andother agriculture machinery.

ICCI President said that thetransportation cost of goodswould multiply as well as faresof public transport would alsoincrease manifold due to in-crease in POL and CNG prices.He stressed upon the Govern-ment to reduce POL and CNGrates immediately to facilitatetrade and industry as well asgeneral masses.

FPCCI delegation led by Tariq Sayeed, Chairman, Pakistan-Iran Business Council of FPCCI, met Abbas Ali Abdullahi,Iranian Consul General to pay their condolences on the recent earthquake in Iran. The delegation was consistingSultan Chawla, former President FPCCI, Zubair F Tufail, former Vice President FPCCI, Syed Abdul Waheed Shahand Mir Nasir Abbas.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The LahoreChamber of Commerce andIndustry (LCCI) Thursdayurged the government towithdraw recent hike in oilprices that is bound to jackup cost of doing business inPakistan.

The LCCI President IrfanQaiser Sheikh said that therewas no denying the fact thatoil prices were on the rise inthe international market butinstead of passing on thissurge to masses, the govern-ment should cut the numberof taxes on petroleum prod-ucts as the fuel is the engineof growth.

“If the fuel would beheavily taxed the entireeconomy would suffer andthe same happened in Paki-stan as the repeated in-creases in the POL prices hadruined the industrial and eco-nomic activities,” he added.

LCCI resents petroleumproducts prices hike

The LCCI President saidthat only because of highcost of doing business inPakistan, a large number ofindustrial units had alreadyshifted their operations toother countries and the re-cent decision would forcemore industrialists to shifttheir industrial units.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikh saidthat it is not the industrialsector alone buit thye agri-culture sector would alsobadly suffer. “Pakistan agri-culture sector is engine ofgrowth. The increase in pe-troleum prices would in-crease the input cost of agri-culture production as highspeed diesel is being used intractors, tube-wells, harvest-ers, thrashers and other agri-culture machinery,” headded. He said that the costof thermal generation by pri-vate sector to go up.

He said that Governmentis producing huge amount of

electricity through thermalmeans and after increase inpetroleum prices, prices of elec-tricity would touch new highs.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikh saidthat the Lahore Chamber ofCommerce and Industry hadfor the last many years beencalling on the concerned gov-ernment circles to take mea-sures for the promotion ofalternate fuels as trade defi-cit was fast widening due toheavy imports under thehead of petroleum products.

He was of the view thatthe timeline for the increasein the prices of petroleumproducts was also raisingquestions because at a timewhen the whole industry wassuffering due to energy cri-sis and high cost of doingbusiness, the raise in POLprices is bound to give adeath blow to the industry.“It seems that it is an attemptto create troubles for thegovernment”.

LARKANA: Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuro inaugurating a pumping station fordrainage system near Atta Turk Memorial Tower.

M M ALAM

KARACHI—Chairman MehranGroup of Industries Senator GulMuhammad Lot has said thatthe low cost of production, dueto diligent workforce here, madeit viable to competitively tradePakistani commodities in theglobal market. He was speak-ing to Pakistan Observer fol-lowing the first Lucky Draw of‘Mehran Dabangg Offer’, hereon Thursday.

Senator Gul MuhammadLot hastened to add that thequality of Mehran too, above& beyond the economicalmanufacturing, played vitalpart in capturing the marketoverseas. He told that MehranSpices, that were being ex-ported for 35 years, were in-troduced to the home consum-ers just one year ago & due to

Low production cost givesPak products leverage: Lot

its policy of gratifying the lo-cal palate Mehran Spices man-aged to get a sizeable sharehere. He said that earlier in or-der to enable more & moreconsumers try Mehran Spicesone pack was provided freewith each purchase. Then theyhad invited people to take part

in a lucky draw (through sub-mitting four wrappers ofMehran Spices) in which 41prizes - including a Toyota Co-rolla car - was offered.

“Thousands of entrieswere received from all over thecountry showing the level ofconfidence that the customersplace in Mehran Spices”, in-formed Chairman MehranGroup of Industries SenatorGul Muhammad Lot “& to

make it transparent we haverequested renowned busi-nessmen & politicians for thedraw”. Answering to a ques-tion Lot told that Mehran Spice& Food Industries was estab-lished in 1975 & owing to thecompany’s high efforts & dedi-cation the products got a verygood response from abroad &as a result the company hadbeen winning Export Award forthe last 27 years consecutively.

Amongst others SenatorHaseeb Khan, Senator ShahiSyed, Rahim Janoo, MianZahid Hussain, ShakeelDhingra (V.P. FPCCI), SharmilaFarooqi (Advisor CM Sindh),Shehla Raza (Deputy SpeakerSindh Assembly) picked thenames of first MehranDabangg Offer Lucky Draw.Second lucky draw is sched-uled to be held next September.

Sony to cut 15%mobile phone

workforceTOKYO—Sony said Thurs-day it would chop 15 percentof the workforce at its strug-gling mobile phone unit andmove its headquarters to To-kyo from Sweden as the Japa-nese consumer electronicsgiant slashes costs.

The move to cut 1,000jobs at Sony Mobile Commu-nications comes about sixmonths after Sony boughtSwedish telecom companyEricsson’s share in theirformer joint venture, calledSony Ericsson, set up in 2001.

The joint venture struggledto launch popular smartphonesamid stiff competition from ri-vals including Apple and SouthKorea’s Samsung Electronics.On Thursday, Sony said the jobcuts in Sweden, expected to becompleted by 2014, were partof a bid to “increase operationalefficiency, reduce costs anddrive profitable growth”. “Weare accelerating the integrationand convergence with the widerSony group to continue en-hancing our offerings,” SonyMobile chief Kunimasa Suzukisaid in a statement.

“A more focused and ef-ficient operational structurewill help to reduce SonyMobile’s costs... and bringthe business back to a placeof strength.”

Sony, which makesPlayStation game consolesand Bravia televisions, hasalready said it would cutabout 10,000 jobs world-wide.—AFP

Indonesian womenentrepreneurs keen

in Pakistanijewellery, garments

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Ms IrSharmila, Chairman of theInduk Koperasi WanitaPengusaha Indonesia (Indo-nesian Women Entrepre-neurs Parent Cooperative),accompanied by two womenentrepreneurs called on Pa-kistan Ambassador to Indo-nesia Sanaullah on Thursdayand discussed measures toimprove trade and commer-cial relations between Indo-nesia and Pakistan.

According to a messagereceived here from Jakarta(Indonesia), Ms. Sharmila,who is also an active mem-ber of Golkar Party, agreedwith the Ambassador’s sug-gestion to participate in thePakistan Expo 2012 beingheld in Karachi in the firstweek of October.

She said that she wouldundertake a 20-member del-egation of women entrepre-neurs to Karachi and othercities of country.

The delegation willmainly focus on the garmentindustry as well as jewellery,she remarked. She requestedthat the embassy mightkindly arrange meetings forthe delegation with Pakistaniwomen entrepreneurs andgovernment officials respon-sible for exports from Paki-stan.

Ambassador Sanaullahre-assured them that duringtheir stay in Pakistan, theirmeetings with all the relevantbusiness women associa-tions and reliable exporterswould be arranged.

Picture on Page-13

BISPprogramme getsint’l admiration

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Provincial Min-ister for Revenue JamMehtab Hussain Dahar hassaid that leaders rejected bythe masses are misleadingthe people. Present demo-cratic government has initi-ated exemplary projects forthe development and welfareof the country.

This he said while talkingto various delegations herein his office on Thursday. Hesaid that those who declaredBenazir Income Support Pro-gram a failure, lived in fools’paradise. The effectivenessand importance of that pro-gram was not only appreci-ated by Pakistani media, butits importance was also ad-mitted by International me-dia.

He said, ‘ThroughBenazir Income SupportProgram lacs needy anddeserving women havebeen provided financial as-sistance that is a milestone in the history of Pa-kistan.’ He added that Pa-kistan Peoples party withi ts coali t ion partnerswould participate in generalelections and would comeout with great victory, be-cause PPP is the largestand most popular politicalparty of Pakistan.’

Provincial Minister said,‘Imran Khan and NawazSharif can not defeat PPP ifthey try together, becausethey have limited politicalapproach.’ He was of the opin-ion that the governmentwould over the come theproblem of load shedding.Government knew the prob-lems of the masses and stepswere being taken to redressthe crisis.

Fish, meatexports surge

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Despite de-cline in overall food trade, theexports of fish and fish prepa-rations increased by 23.83percent during the fist monthof the current fiscal year(2012-13) as compared to thesame month of last year.

However, as compared tothe exports of June 2012, theseafood Exports in July 2012witnessed negative growthof 5.20 percent, Pakistan Bu-reau of Statistics (PBS) re-ported.

The over all exports offish and fish preparationsduring the month under re-view were recorded at US$17.769 million against the ex-ports of US$14.350 million inJuly 2011 and US$18.742 mil-lion in June 2012.

Exports of meat and meatpreparations also increasedby 31.62 percent and 31.16percent during July 2012 ascompared to the exports ofJuly 2011 and June 2012.The exports of meat andmeat preparations reachedto US$22.632 million in July2012 as compared to the ex-ports of US$17.195 millionin July 2011 and US$17.255in June 2012, the data re-vealed.

The other food itemsthat witnessed increase inexports during July 2012 in-cluded spices, exports ofwhich increased by 2.70 per-cent as compared to the ex-ports of July 2011. However,as compared to the exportsof June 2011, the exports ofspices also declined by17.39 percent. Exports ofsugar increased by 100 per-cent and 51.55 percent inJuly 2012 as compared to theexports of July 2011 and June2012, respectively, the datarevealed.

these licenses useless.Secondly, the system of

audit should also be mademore effective. Targeting pa-rameters for each warehousemay be set, as a test case,sample auditing of 20 percentof bonds be conductedthrough an outsourced audit-ing firm.

Thirdly, the current bond-ing period for non perishablegoods is six months while forperishable goods, it is threemonths. Board may initially

reduce the bonding period tothree (3) months and onemonth for non-perishableand perishable goods re-spectively for public and pri-vate bonds and not for ex-porting schemes.

The directorate has alsostudied data obtained fromPakistan Revenue Automa-tion Limited (PRAL) whichhas given the details of ex-bonding from July 1, 2007 toApril 30, 2012.

The data suggests that

the items attracting zero to 10percent customs duty consti-tute about 77 percent of thetotal ex-bonding.

Hence, in order to deferthe lowest slab of customsduty, the businesses haveto add many additionalcosts related to warehous-ing including warehousingsurcharge, transportationcost, loading cost, off-load-ing cost, bank charges etc.in the cost of doing busi-ness .

Radical changesFrom Page-13

when our system will gener-ate electricity for usage ofthese people only, Mughalremarked.

Agri Forum Chairman alsohinted at reducing the unnec-essary manpower in distribu-tion companies. He said thatGujranwala Electricity SupplyCompany has 2.5 million con-sumers and 12000-13000 em-ployees while KESCO servinglesser consumers have over18,300 employees.

Talking about options ofgenerating power by Paki-stan, Mughal averred thatPakistan could produce346,000 mw of power throughwind energy. 175 kilometreslong border of Ketty Bandaralone can produce 50,000 mw,he added.

Agri ForumFrom Page-13

Meet againYANGON—Burmese opposition leaderAung San Suu Kyi and President TheinSein met again on Wednesday for pri-vate talks, the second meeting in lessthan two weeks. Burmese oppositionleader Aung San Suu Kyi and Presi-dent Thein Sein are shown in an earliermeeting, in a file photo. Photo: MRTVBurmese opposition leader Aung SanSuu Kyi and President Thein Sein areshown in an earlier meeting, in a file

photo. Photo: MRTV The director of the president’s of-fice, Col. Zaw Htay, confirmed Suu Kyi and Thein Seinmet, but he declined to provide details of the talks. Theyhave met on three previous occasions, most recently onAug. 12. No details of that meeting were released. SuuKyi is the defacto leader of the main opposition group inParliament, which is currently in session. On August 12,Mizzima reported that their third meeting together includedCabinet members, a first for Suu Kyi and Thein Sein, whohave forged an informal agreement to cooperate in ad-dressing the country’s many obstacles to peace and eco-nomic development. The recent meetings underscore thegovernment’s desire to use Suu Kyi to try to try to re-solve some of the decades-old issues that prevent na-tional reconciliation and hinder economic development.Among the recent high profile issues is the MuslimRohingya community in western Burma, where twomonths of community clashes with Rakhine nativesclaimed up to 88 dead and the destruction of more than5,000 homes and other property. Soe Thane, who leads agovernment panel conducting peace talks with ethnicgroups, also attended the third meeting in Naypyitaw,said government officials. Two weeks ago, Suu Kyi wasappointed to lead a parliamentary committee charged withensuring the country’s institutions conform to the rule oflaw, an issue that dominated her campaign for Parliamentin April. —MIZZIMA

WarningLONDON — British Prime Minister DavidCameron and US President Barack Obamawarned Wednesday they would beforced to consider a new course of ac-tion if Syria threatens to use chemicalweapons on rebel fighters. The two lead-ers agreed during a telephone call that“the use—or threat—of chemical weap-ons was completely unacceptable andwould force them to revisit their approachso far,” Cameron’s Downing Street of-

fice said. “Both said that they wanted to see a credible oppo-sition and hoped that the opposition would use their up-coming meeting in Cairo to show real unity of purpose andcoherence in working towards transition.” The White Housesaid Obama conveyed to Cameron his concern about the“increasingly dire” humanitarian situation in Syria, and calledfor more countries to contribute to humanitarian appealsfrom the United Nations. “The two leaders exchanged viewson ways the international community can assist those dis-placed by the conflict,” and “apply pressure” on PresidentBashar al-Assad’s regime, it added. On other matters, Obamaexpressed his “strong support for decisive action” on theeconomic crisis rattling Europe. Cameron, who has just re-turned to Westminster after the summer break, spoke sepa-rately to French President Francois Hollande in a bid to en-sure that Syria remained the focus of international attention.Syrian forces backed by helicopter gunships and tankslaunched a deadly assault on parts of Damascus earlier, ac-tivists said, as Assad’s regime battles to stamp out rebelresistance in the capital. At least 37 people were reportedkilled in Damascus alone, a day after a top minister hintedthat the embattled regime was ready to discuss Assad’s exitin any talks on ending the brutal 17-month conflict. —AFP

LeewayBERLIN —Angela Merkel and FrancoisHollande are expected to tell GreekPrime Minister Antonis Samaras thisweek that they can give him little lee-way on easing the terms of hiscountry’s bailout agreement. TheFrench and German leaders meet onThursday to fine-tune their joint mes-sage to Samaras, who is on a charm of-fensive seeking more time for Athensto meet its bailout commitments. Senior

German coalition leaders have signalled there is littlechance of that and Merkel herself poured cold water onfar-reaching concessions on Wednesday. “I am going intothese talks with the awareness that we have to achievethat every partner sticks to his commitments,” Merkel toldreporters during a trip to Moldova. The chancellor mayalso lean on France’s new Socialist leader to set an ex-ample to the euro zone by applying some austerity him-self in France’s 2013 budget debate next month. Merkelreceives Samaras on Friday and Hollande receives him onSaturday, at a moment of rare optimism on financial mar-kets that the European Union - especially the EuropeanCentral Bank - is poised for decisive action on the eurozone debt crisis. The ECB has attempted to dampen talkthat it could come to the aid of euro states like Spain andItaly by capping spreads on their bonds. On Greece, Sa-maras is hoping creditors will let him spread out painfuleconomic reforms over four years instead of two to softentheir impact on the population. “All we want is a bit of ‘airto breathe’ to get the economy running and to increasestate income. —AP

protestsTOKYO — Japan’s prime minister metfor the first time with leaders of weeklyantinuclear protests Wednesday butrejected their demand that two recentlyrestarted nuclear plants should be shutagain. Tens of thousands of peoplehave been gathering every Friday nightoutside Prime Minister YoshihikoNoda’s office compound to protestagainst nuclear power because ofsafety concerns set off by last year’s

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis. The 11 protest lead-ers were allowed into the complex for the first time sincethey started chanting antinuclear slogans outside thetightly guarded building in April. ‘‘When the majorityof the general public opposed the restart, you forced itby trampling down on us. It was ridiculous and outra-geous,’’ protester Misao Redwolf told Noda as she satacross from him during the 30-minute meeting. ‘‘Wewill continue our protests as long as you keep ignoringour voices.’’ The protesters said meeting the prime min-ister was not their goal and they would continue togather until their demands are met. Noda initially calledthe demonstrations outside his office complex ‘‘bignoise,’’ triggering criticism. He promised the protesterson Wednesday that he would listen to people’s views andreflect them in policy decisions. But Noda did not accepttheir demands that his government shut down two reac-tors that were restarted in July and keep the rest of thecountry’s 48 reactors shuttered. He has repeatedly insistedthat nuclear plants need to be restarted to avoid powershortages that would imperil Japan’s economy. The pro-tests started with dozens of people in April and havebecome mass demonstrations. —AP

AMMAN–The Syrian armyshelled southern Damascusand helicopters fired rocketsand machineguns during anassault meant to shore upPresident Bashar al-Assad’sgrip on the capital 17 monthsinto an uprising, oppositionactivists said.

The army has this weekused tanks and helicoptergunships in an offensivearound Damascus that coin-cided with the departure ofUN military observers, theirmission to stop the blood-shed and nudge Syria to-wards a peaceful transitiona failure.

The United Nations esti-mates that more than 18,000people have been killed inwhat has become a civil warafter the state’s violent re-sponse to peaceful streetprotests triggered an armedrebellion in the pivotal Arabcountry. Anti-Assad activ-ists said at least 47 peoplehad been killed in Damascus

in what they called the heavi-est bombardment thismonth. “The whole of Dam-ascus is shaking with thesound of shelling,” said awoman in Kfar Souseh, oneof several districts hit in themilitary offensive to root outrebel fighters. The UnitedNations said some of theweapons being used by gov-ernment forces appeared tohave been supplied by Iran,in violation of a UN resolutionthat banned such exports. UNSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon will raise the Syria crisiswith Iran at a summit of non-aligned developing nations inTehran next week, a UNspokesman said. As the armycontinued to shell southernDamascus, activists said atleast 22 people had been killedin Kfar Souseh and 25 in thenearby district of Nahr Eisha.One of the dead was namedas Mohammad Saeed al Odeh,a journalist employed at astate-run newspaper who was

sympathetic to the anti-Assadrevolt. Activists said he hadbeen executed in Nahr Eisha.“There are 22 tanks in KfarSouseh now and behind eachone there are at least 30 sol-diers. They are raiding housesand executing men,” an oppo-sition activist in Kfar Souseh,who gave his name only asBassam, told Reuters bySkype. More than 250 people,including 171 civilians, werekilled across Syria on Tues-day, mostly around Dam-ascus, Aleppo and the south-ern city of Deraa, accordingto the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights, a British-based opposition monitoringgroup.

Activists in the south-western Damascus suburb ofMouadamiya said Assad’sforces had killed 86 peoplethere since Monday, half ofthem by execution. It was notpossible to verify that report.There was no immediate gov-ernment account of the latest

fighting. But state televisionbroadcast footage of weap-ons it said had been seizedfrom rebels in Mouadamiya,one of the first districts to jointhe uprising. The conflict,which pits a mainly SunniMuslim opposition against aruling system dominated byAssad’s Alawite minority,threatens to destabiliseneighbours including Leba-non, where Sunni-Alawite vio-lence flared for a third day.

The death toll from thefighting in the northern Leba-nese city of Tripoli rose to atleast 10 with more than 100wounded, medical sourcessaid, in what residents saidwere some of the fiercestclashes there since Lebanon’s1975-90 civil war.

The Syria conflict has re-vived old tensions in Tripolibetween pro-Assad Alawitesin the hilltop district of JebelMohsen and their Sunnineighbours in Bab al-Tabbaneh below. —Reuters

Syrian army battersDamascus suburbs, 47 dead

DHAKA —Dhaka is the sec-ond most vulnerable city tocoastal flooding among ninecoastal cities built on riverdeltas, a study suggests.With climate change impact-ing in “various and diverseways”, Dhaka’s “social vul-nerability to floods willdouble by 2100”, says theCoastal City Flood Vulnerabil-ity Index (CCFVI).

CCFVI defines social vul-nerability considering the sta-tus of population (includingdisabled), shelters, aware-ness and preparedness asflood cultural

Dhaka 2nd ‘flood-prone’ citybehaviours.The Chinese cityShanghai has been ranked asthe most vulnerable accord-ing to the study developedby scientists from the UK andthe Netherlands.

Of the nine cities exam-ined, Dhaka is regularly im-pacted by tropical cyclonesand flooding and has verylittle resilience, underscoredCCFVI. The study looks atthe physical exposure of acity to rivers as well as “eco-nomic and social ones,”Nigel Wright, co-author ofthe study from the Universityof Leeds’ School of Civil En-

gineering told the BBC News.Such as how much attentionis given by local or nationalgovernments to protect citi-zens and citizens’ propertythrough investing in variousforms of resilience,” he said.The CCFVI is based on expo-sure, susceptibility and resil-ience to coastal flooding andused a range of data, consist-ing of 19 components. In terms of susceptibility,Dhaka stands second highlyvulnerable considering highnumber of people living incoastal flood-prone areaswith fewer shelters.—AP

WASHINGTON —The UnitedStates and Pakistan shouldstop pretending they are al-lies and amicably “divorce,”Pakistan’s former ambassadorto Washington said, citingunrealistic expectations inboth countries that includeUS hopes Islamabad willsever its links to extremists.

“If in 65 years, youhaven’t been able to find suf-ficient common ground to livetogether, and you had threeseparations and four reaffir-mations of marriage, thenmaybe the better way is tofind friendship outside of themarital bond,” HusainHaqqani said, addressing theCenter for the National Inter-est, a Washington think tank.Haqqani’s recommendationthat the United States andPakistan essentially down-grade their status was basedon the premise that it may be

the only way to break fromwhat has been a dysfunc-tional relationship. A post-al-liance future would allowboth countries to hold morerealistic expectations of eachother, cooperating wherepossible but perhaps withoutthe sense of betrayal, whichhas become acute in Paki-stan. He cited a survey bythe Pew Research Center re-leased in June showingroughly three-in-four Paki-stanis consider the UnitedStates an enemy, eventhough the United Statespours billions of dollars of aidinto the country. “If this wasan election campaign ... youwould advise the senatorwith these kinds offavorability ratings to pull outof the race, instead of spend-ing more money,” saidHaqqani, who plans to pub-lish a book entitled. —Reuters

US, Pak must ‘divorce’as allies: Haqqani

HAMEED SHAHEEN

ISLAMABAD—A crucial diplo-matic development at the in-ternational level has dilutedthe Western bid to IsolateIran, as the United NationsSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon “will visit Iran at the endof the month to take part inthe 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)”,a UN report says. The NAMsummit is being participatedby 120 wold leaders from Au-gust 26-31, 2012. An event ofthat highest profile of globalimpact will have direct bear-ing on Iran treatment by theWest at this critical time.

“The Secretary-Generallooks forward to the Summitas an opportunity to work withthe participating Heads ofState and Government, includ-ing the host country, towardssolutions on issues that arecentral to the global agendaincluding follow-up to theRio+20 Conference on sus-tainable development, disar-mament, conflict prevention,and support for countries inTransition,” his spokesper-son told reporters at UN Head-quarters in New York.

Taking place in the capi-tal, Tehran, and under thechairmanship of Iran, theNAM Summit will be held on26-31 August, and is expectedto draw representatives fromits 120 members, as well asfrom various associated ob-

server countries, reports adds.Over recent days, there

have been media reports ofcalls, from Israel and the US,for Mr. Ban to boycott themeeting.

Mr. Ban’s spokespersonsaid that the UN chief takes“seriously” his responsibilityand that of the United Nationsto pursue diplomatic engage-ment with all of the worldbody’s Member States, in theinterest of peacefully address-ing vital matters of peace andsecurity.

“With respect to the Is-lamic Republic of Iran, the Sec-retary-General will use the op-portunity to convey the clearconcerns and expectations ofthe international communityon the issues for which coop-eration and progress are ur-gent for both regional stabil-ity and the welfare of the Ira-nian people,” the spokesper-son said.

“These include Iran’snuclear programme, terrorism,human rights and the crisis inSyria, it further adds”

Over the past weekend,Mr. Ban’s spokesperson saidthe Secretary-General was“dismayed” by recent remarksthreatening Israel’s existence– attributed to Iranian Presi-dent Mahmoud Ahmadinejadand Supreme Leader Ayatol-lah Ali Khamenei – and con-demned the comments, whichhe described as “offensiveand inflammatory.”

UN SG to attendIran NAM Summit

CALIFORNIA—The US spaceagency’s (Nasa) Curiosityrover has finally begun to roll.The Mars robot, which landedon the Red Planet two weeksago, turned its six wheelsbriefly to satisfy engineersthat its locomotion system wasin full working order. Curios-ity is a sophisticated mobilescience laboratory. It has beenbuilt to drive at least 20kmacross the Martian landscapeto investigate whether theplanet ever had the conditionsnecessary for life.

Wednesday’s drive sawthe rover roll forward 4.5m,

Curiosity Mars rovertakes first drive

turn clockwise on the spot forabout 120 degrees, and thenreverse up 2.5m.

It took about five minutesto complete the manoeuvre.Another 10 minutes or so wasspent taking pictures of theoutcome, recording thevehicle’s historic first tracks inthe Martian soil. Looking atthose images, which havebeen stitched together to makethe mosaic featured on thispage, it is clear now thatCuriosity’s rear-right wheellanded on top of a rock esti-mated to be some 9cm tall.

The vehicle will cover a lot

of ground on this mission butthe significance of the first rollmanoeuvre could not be over-stated, said Curiosity projectmanager Pete Theisinger.

“It couldn’t be more im-portant. We built a rover andunless the rover roves, we re-ally haven’t accomplishedanything,” he told reporters.“And the fact that we com-pletely exercised it and every-thing was on track is a bigmoment.”

Nasa has made one otherkey announcement on whathas been the 16th day of thismission.”—BBC/Reuters.

DHAKA–Human RightsWatch (HRW) on Thursdayblasted the Bangladeshigovernment’s “cruel” re-strictions on humanitarianaid to Rohingya Muslimrefugees fleeing persecutionand violence inneighbouring Myanmar.

The South Asian nationlast month ordered three in-ternational charities — Doc-tors Without Borders, Ac-tion Against Hunger andMuslim Aid UK — to stopgiving aid to the Rohingyabecause it might encouragea fresh influx.

Bangladesh is alreadyhome to some 300,000Rohingya and thecountry’s border forceshave turned back scores ofboats carrying hundredsmore since sectarian vio-lence broke out inMyanmar, formerly Burma,in June. “The Bangladeshigovernment is trying tomake conditions forRohingya refugees alreadyliving in Bangladesh soawful that people fleeingbrutal abuses in neighbor-ing Burma will stay home,”

HRW blasts Bangladeshon Rohingyas restrictions

said HRW’s refugee policydirector Bill Frelick.

“This is a cruel and in-humane policy that shouldimmediately be reversed,”he said.

The New York-basedrights group said Dhakahad signed the Interna-tional Covenant on Eco-nomic, Social and CulturalRights, which prohibits thecountry from denyingthose within its borders,including refugees, accessto food and healthcare.

The three charities pro-vide water, healthcare, sani-tation and other basic aidto Rohingya refugees inBangladesh. Aid workershave said the conditions inthe makeshift camps forRohingya are among theworst in the world.

Speaking a Bengali dia-lect similar to one in south-east Bangladesh, theRohingya people are Mus-lims seen as illegal immi-grants by Buddhist-major-ity Myanmar and viewedby the UN as one of theworld’s most persecutedminorities.— AFP

US surprised byNavy SEAL’s binLaden raid book

WASHINGTON—The U.S.government was surprisedby the news that a NavySEAL who participated in theraid on Osama bin Laden’scompound in Pakistan haswritten a book about the op-eration in which the al Qaedaleader was killed, U.S. offi-cials said. “No Easy Day:The Firsthand Account ofthe Mission that KilledOsama Bin Laden” was writ-ten by a Navy SEAL underthe pseudonym Mark Owenwith co-author Kevin Maurerand is to be released nextmonth on the anniversary ofthe September 11 attacks.

It was not vetted by gov-ernment agencies to ensurethat no secrets were re-vealed. “The book wasvetted by a former specialoperations attorney. Hevetted it for tactical, techni-cal, and procedural informa-tion as well as informationthat could be considered clas-sified by compilation andfound it to be without risk tonational security,” ChristineBall, a spokeswoman for thepublisher, Dutton, toldReuters. The book will bepublished at a time whenWashington has been roiledby controversy over na-tional security leaks ahead ofthe November 6 presidentialelection.

Republicans havecharged that PresidentBarack Obama’s administra-tion has engaged in selectiveleaks to bolster theDemocrat’s national securitycredentials. The WhiteHouse denies those accusa-tions and says it takes leaksof classified information se-riously. In the wake of Con-gressional criticism, the ad-ministration assigned federalprosecutors in Baltimore andWashington to conductcriminal investigations intoleaks related to an under-cover counter-terrorism in-vestigation in Yemen and al-leged U.S. and Israeli cyber-warfare against Iran’snuclear program.

But the coming book onthe bin Laden raid appearedto catch officials off guard.

“We learned about thisbook today from press re-ports. We haven’t reviewedit and don’t know what itsays,” White House spokes-man Tommy Vietor said.—Reuters

NEW DELHI —At least 20people have been killed byheavy monsoon rains in thenorthern Indian state ofRajasthan.

The rains have dis-rupted normal life in the statecapital, Jaipur, since Tues-day and flooded many areas.About 20,000 people livingin the city have been forcedto flee their homes due toflooding.

Earlier this month, atleast 34 people died in north-ern Uttarakhand state aftertorrential rains triggeredlandslides and flash floods.Rajasthan’s meteorologicaldepartment said Jaipur was

20 dead in monsoon rainsexperiencing the heaviestrains since 1981, causingflooding in low lyingneighbourhoods and slumareas.

least 10 of the peoplekilled in the state died in thecity, some of them in housecollapses. Many peoplehave taken shelter on therooftops of homes, and res-cue workers from a localparamilitary force have beendeployed to evacuate them.In June, at least 27 peopledied and one million peoplewere forced to leave theirhomes by floods as rainslashed the north-easternstate of Assam. —BBC

DAMASCUS: Syrian protesting against killing in Homs.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM—Israel allowed “more than amillion” Palestiniansthrough its roadblocks topray at the mosques ofJerusalem and paddle in theMediterranean overRamadan, in what an Israeliofficial said was part of sev-eral measures aimed at re-building confidence be-tween the sides.

The new attempt towarm the atmosphere con-trasts with the freeze in peaceefforts since direct peacetalks between Israel and thePalestinians stalled in Sep-tember 2010 over an intrac-table dispute concerningsettlements.

Guy Inbar, spokesmanfor the defence ministry de-

One million Palestinians allowedEid prayers in Al-Aqsa

partment that deals with Pal-estinian civilian affairs in theWest Bank said there hadbeen an unprecedented eas-ing of entry restrictions overthe Muslim fasting month ofRamadan and the Eid al-Fitrholiday at its end.

“More than a million Pal-estinians entered Israel overRamadan and Eid al-Fitr forprayers, family visits and tripsaround Israel,” he said.

He could not say howmany of those limited theirvisit to Israeli-annexed eastJerusalem which the Jewishstate considers to be part ofits capital while the Palestin-ians, who make up most of itspopulation, claim it as thecapital of a future Palestinianstate.

The city is home to theAl-Aqsa mosque compound,and the relaxed restrictionsgave tens of thousands a rareopportunity to visit the Mus-lim holy site, the third-holiestin Islam.

West Bankers are usuallyonly allowed into the city orinside Israel with special per-mits. Palestinians alsoflocked to the sandy beachesof the Mediterranean whichmany inhabitants of the land-locked West Bank have neverseen.“I am so happy that mygrandchildren were able tosee the sea and now can un-derstand how beautiful ourcountry is,” Fawzya Fararjeh,55,” told an AFP correspon-dent while walking along a TelAviv beach.— AFP

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

SHARJAH—The NewZealand Cricket (NZC)board and the national di-rector of cricket, JohnBuchanan had expressedan interest in having sepa-rate coaches for separateformats of the game. Hemay not have given thisidea during his tenure ascoach in Australia.

It was also reported thatRixon was interested in tak-ing over the head coaching

job of the Australian cricketteam when John Buchananleft at the end of the 2006/07Ashes series.

Now Rixon is here coach-ing the Australian team forthe ODI component of theteam’s VB Tour of the UAEand the regular coach, MickyArthur has stayed back andis preparing for the remain-ing part of the series.

“I can’t recall coachingduties being split this waybefore the Argus Reportwhich, by coincidence, wastabled a year ago today”,Peter Young, Cricket

Australia’s General Man-ager said from Melbourne..

“That report recom-mended that the old na-tional coaching role be ex-panded to effectively be-come the head coach ofAustralian cricket – not justcoach of the Australianmen’s team”.

“As such, the Argus re-port recommended that thenational coach not coachevery single game as timewould require him to alsoattend to other dutiesacross Australian cricket”,he signed off.

Split coaches for differentformats was John Buchanan’s idea

SPORTS REPORTER

LAHORE—Chairman, Paki-stan Cricket Board, ChaudhryZaka Asrhaf said on Thurs-day that merit is the criteriafor the selection of the bowl-ing coach whose name willbe announced shortly to im-prove the performance of theteam. “We have only oneconsideration in our mindwhich is merit and the bowl-ing coach is being selectedunder a similar arrangement,”said the PCB Chief whilespeaking at the unveiling ofevent logo of Pak-Australiacricket series here at NationalCricket Academy. BankAlfalah presents Cool andCool Pak-Australia series inwhich three one dayinternationals and three T-20games will be played fromAugust 28 to September 10.

Also present on the oc-casion were, Subhan Ahmed,Chief Operating Officer, PCB,Owais Ashraf, COO,Cool and

Cool, Adnan Anwar Khan,Group Head, Retail, BankAlfalah, Usman Ishaq, Execu-tive Director Zong andNaureed Awan and Rao UmerHashim of trans media. ChZaka Ashraf said the bowl-ing coach is being selectedthrough a laid down proce-dure and a committee is thor-oughly monitoring the entireprocess to ensure that themost suitable professional beattached with the team man-agement to lift the pace bowl-ing department.

“We just cannot select acoach if a former player an-nounces his availability andwillingness and everyonewho so ever is has to gothrough a procedure in orderto meet all the requirements,”he answered when his atten-tion was drawn that ShoaibAkhtar is ready to serve Pakcricket in the role of a bowl-ing coach. PCB Chief said theperformance of Pak U19 teamin the World Jr Cricket Cup

will be ascertained after re-ceiving report from the teammanagement. “In the initialpart of the tournament ourteam’s performance wasquite good but then onwardits failed to show consis-tency and could not achievedesired results in the event,”he said.

He expressed the opti-mism that Pak team will showpremier performance againstAustralia by putting collec-tive efforts and hard work.“PCB is taking every measureto lift the overall performanceof our team and hiring a bowl-ing coach is also the part ofsimilar efforts,” he added. Heexpressed his gratitude to thesponsors for supplementingPCB’s efforts for the develop-ment of the cricket.”We ap-preciate the support that weare receiving from Pakistan’scorporate sector.”

Adnan Anwar of BankAlfalah said his organizationhas over a decade long as-

sociation with PCB andCricket and their prime objec-tive of extending sponsorshipis to patronage nationalcricket. “We will continue ourassociation with cricket inyears to come.” SubhanAhmed, while answering aquestion said wicket keeperZulqaranin Haider has beenserved a notice and to appearbefore PCB’s committee forhis recent out-burst on theselection committee and re-call of wicketkeeper KamranAkmal and selection ofAkmal brothers in the na-tional team.

“He (Zulqarnain) comesunder PCB code of conductnecessary proceedings arebeing initiated and he hasbeen asked to strengthen hisclaims with the provision ofevidences whatsoever hehas,” said PCB official say-ing. “The committee willprobe the matter before final-izing its recommendations,”he added.

Merit only criteria topick bowling coach: Zaka

LAHORE: Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board Zaka Ashraf and others clapping after launching ceremony of thePakistan-Australia series, presented by Bank Al Falah for the Cool and Cool Cup’s logo.

HYDERABAD, India—Cheteshwar Pujara celebratedhis comeback with a maidencentury to help India post 307-5 on opening day of the firstTest against New Zealand inHyderabad on Thursday.

The 24-year-old, whoplayed his last Test in January2011, cracked a solid 119 notout in India’s first match afterthe retirement of veteransRahul Dravid and VVSLaxman. India were under pres-sure at 125-3 after losing expe-rienced Virender Sehwag (47),Gautam Gambhir (22) andSachin Tendulkar (19), butPujara and Virat Kohli (58)propped up the innings with a125-run stand for the fourthwicket.

Skipper Mahendra SinghDhoni was unbeaten on 29 atstumps. Pujara, who replacedDravid at number three,looked comfortable againstboth pace and spin during his226-ball knock which con-tained one six and 15 fours. Heplayed some aggressive shotsafter completing his half-cen-tury, hitting left-arm pacemanTrent Boult for three fours in

an over and smashing part-time spinner Kane Williamsonover wide long-on for the firstsix of the match.

Pujara, playing only hisfourth Test, reached his hun-dred with a single to fine-legoff paceman James Franklin,much to the delight of nearly15,000 spectators. The 23-year-old Kohli, playing his ninthTest, cracked eight fours in hisfourth Test half-century beforefalling to a poor shot, caughtat second slip by Martin Guptillwhile trying to cut pacemanChris Martin.

He gave a chance on 46when he edged off-spinnerJeetan Patel, but lone-slip RossTaylor failed to hold on to it. Itwent for a four, helping theIndian to reach his half-cen-tury. India lost one more wicketwhen Suresh Raina, who re-placed Laxman in the middleorder, was caught behind offPatel after making three. Boulthad Gambhir caught behindand then got a big wicket whenhe bowled Tendulkar, who wasplaying his first Test after be-coming a member of parlia-ment.

Tendulkar could only addseven more runs to his lunchscore of 12 before he wassuprised by a Boult deliverythat came in sharply. He hit justtwo fours in his slow 62-ballinnings. The world’s leadingscorer in both Tests and one-dayers with an unprecedented100 international centuries, the39-year-old Tendulkar was inApril nominated to the upperhouse of parliament, the RajyaSabha, for his contribution tothe nation.

Fast bowler DougBracewell was the otherwicket-taker, having free-scor-ing opener Sehwag caught byGuptill at second slip. NewZealand earlier did not allowIndia to build a big partnershipon a good batting track, remov-ing both the openers in themorning and then dismissingTendulkar in the afternoon.India put on 49 for the open-ing wicket after winning thetoss when Boult dismissedGambhir in the 10th over. TheIndian opener hit four bound-aries in his 36-ball knock.

Sehwag cracked ninefours in his brisk 41-ball

knock before he fell to a looseshot, caught in the slips whileattempting to cut Bracewell.He was lucky to survive inBracewell’s previous overwhen his edge went betweenwicket-keeper Kruger vanWyk and first-slip Taylor fora four. He hit two moreboundaries in the sameover.—AFP

India 1st Innings:Gambhir b Boult ............. 22Sehwag b Bracewell ....... 47Pujara not out ............... 119Tendulkar b Boult .......... 19Kohli c Guptill b Martin 58Raina c van Wyk b Patel . 3Dhoni not out ................. 29Extras 1w 6b 3lb .............. 10Total: (for 5) .................. 307Bowling ............. O-M-R-WMartin ................... 18-260-1Boult ..................... 162-63-2Bracewell .......... 10.4-1-53-1Franklin ............. 11.2-0-33-0Patel ..................... 24-6-58-1Williamson ............ 7-0-31-0Fall of wicket: 1-49, 2-77, 3-125, 4-250, 5-260

India vs New Zealand, 1st Test

Pujara boostsIndia with comeback ton

HYDERABAD: Sachin Tendulkar was bowled for 19 during India vs New Zealand, 1stTest on Thursday.

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut—Four-time reigning champCaroline Wozniacki and sec-ond seed Petra Kvitova ad-vanced to the quarter-finalsof the WTA’s New HavenOpen on Wednesday withstraight-set victories.Kvitova, last year’sWimbledon runner-up, eas-ily defeated American NicoleGibbs, 6-2, 6-4, to advance toThursday’s quarters.

She will next face eighth-seeded Czech LucieSafarova, who crushedChina’s Zheng Jie, 6-4, 6-0.Former world number oneWozniacki, who is seededthird and seeking her fifthstraight title at the event, im-proved to 19-0 lifetime inNew Haven with a 7-6 (7/4),6-2 victory over Sweden’sSofia Arvidsson. Thehardcourt tournament, at theConnecticut Tennis Center atYale University, is serving asa tune-up event for nextweek’s US Open.

Denmark’s Wozniacki de-feated Czech Petra Cetkovskain last year’s New Haven final.Her quarter-final opponent onThursday will be Slovakia’sDominika Cibulkova. Sixth-seeded Cibulkova won 6-4, 6-1 over German AndreaPetkovic, who has battled in-juries for most of the year.

This was Petkovic’s firsttournament in nearly fourmonths and only her fourthevent of the season. She en-tered 2012 ranked 10th in theworld. Petkovic says it is go-ing to take some time to gether match conditioning back.

“I’d play three or fourgood shots then miss horribleshots I’d never miss in ahundred years,” Petkovicsaid. “My strokes and move-ment are just fine, but youcan never simulate a matchin practice, so when thestress of a match comes I feellike it’s a totally new situa-tion. “And I’ve basically

been out for eight months, soreally the inconsistency inrallies and matches is theprice I’m paying.

“Five or six years ago itwas the same thing. I was outeight months for my ACLand when I came back, I’dplay a few good matches thenlose horrible ones. I just haveto stay positive. It’s going totake time to get back to mybest.” Cibulkova said shewas ready to face Wozniacki,who leads their head-to-

head series 7-3.“We know each other re-

ally well,” Cibulkova said.“She’s a year younger but we

travelled to all the same jun-ior tournaments and playedmany matches against eachother. “I know the way she’splaying, and she knows howI’m playing. It’s two differentstyles as well—she’s the de-fensive player and I’m theoffensive player going formy shots. It’s going to be areally good match.”—AFP

Tennis: Wozniacki, Kvitovaadvance in New Haven

NEW HAVEN, CT: Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic cel-ebrates winning the first set against Nicole Gibbs during theNew Haven Open at Yale at the Connecticut Tennis Centre.

Zulqarnainuploads videoof his injuries

LAHORE—Former Pakistanwicket keeper Zulqarnainhaider has uploaded a videoon social networking websitefacebook, which shows himbattered and bruised, GeoNews reported. It was learnedfrom Zulqarnain’s neighborsthat he had a fight with hisbrothers, which he reportedto the police.

They further added thatthe police had facilitated apatch-up. When contactedhis wife told Geo News thathe was not at home at themoment and would hold apress conference tomor-row.—Agencies

Sri Lanka squadnamed for

World Twenty20COLOMBO—Hosts Sri Lankaon Thursday named a 15-mansquad for the WorldTwenty20 starting on Sep-tember 18:MahelaJayawardene (captain),Angelo Mathews, KumarSangakkara, TillakaratneDilshan, Lahiru Thirimanne,Jeevan Mendis, DilshanMunaweera, Thisara Perera,Lasith Malinga, NuwanKulasekara, Rangana Herath,Ajantha Mendis, DineshChandimal, ShamindaEranga, AkhilaDhananjaya.—AFP

DUBAI—Australia are readyfor a trial by spin duringtheir tour of the United ArabEmirates, opening batsmanDavid Warner said onThursday. Warner’s reputa-tion, forged initially inTwenty20 cricket, is for blitz-krieg batting at the top ofthe order and he has astrike-rate in excess of 140runs per 100 balls in thatform of the game.

But in the UAE, in limited-over games against Afghani-stan and Pakistan and onpitches expected to help spinbowling, the left-hander ex-pects a completely differentchallenge. “Everyone sayswe struggle against spin andwe know they (Afghanistanand Pakistan) are going to

have a lot of spin bowling,”Warner told reporters.

“In Darwin on pre-tourtraining we had a fantasticset-up with (batting coach)Justin Langer who arrangedfor wickets to be turning andchallenging and our batterstook a lot out of that. “Theboys challenged themselvesand we got through it prettywell and now we’re lookingforward to that challenge.”

Australia will play sevenmatches in the UAE with aone-dayer against Afghani-stan in Sharjah on Saturdayfollowed by three ODIs andthree Twenty20s against Pa-kistan. Pakistan’s commit-ment to test Australia withspin is highlighted by theirselection of five slow bowlers

in a 15-man squad - ShahidAfridi, Saeed Ajmal, ShoaibMalik, Mohammed Hafeezand Abdur Rehman.

“I’m coming up againstthese bowlers and I haven’treally faced them (much) be-fore,” said Warner. “Ihaven’t faced them in turn-ing conditions and I’m look-ing forward to it. “The chal-lenge for me is to keep rotat-ing the strike. I can’t just go‘three dot balls and I’ve gotto hit a boundary’.

“If I do get boggeddown for three balls I can’tjust try to hit it out of thepark and get a soft dismissal.That would put us in a toughsituation and it says I’m notplaying for the team,” addedWarner.—AFP

Australia readyfor trial by spin: Warner

Boxing: UnbeatenGarcia to defendagainst Morales

NEW YORK—UnbeatenDanny Garcia will defend hislight-welterweight worldtitles in a rematch against ErikMorales on October 20 in thefirst major title fights inBrooklyn for more than halfa century.

Garcia, of the US, will de-fend the World Boxing Coun-cil crown he took fromMexico’s Morales by unani-mous decision in March andthe World Boxing Associationtitle he won last month fromEngland’s Amir Khan with afourth-round stoppage. Garcia,24-0 with 15 knockouts, foughtKhan on short notice after theBritish fighter’s bout againstLamont Peterson was wipedout when the American testedpositive for abnormally highlevels of testosterone.

Morales, 52-8 with 36knockouts, has not foughtsince losing to Garcia in Hous-ton. The card, at the newBarclay Center arena, will alsoinclude Brooklyn-born PaulieMalignaggi, who is 31-4 withseven knockouts, defendinghis WBA welterweight crownagainst Mexico’s Pablo CesarCano, 25-1-1 with 19 knock-outs.

Malignaggi, a former worldlight-welterweight champion,has won four fights in a rowsince losing the WBA light-welterweight crown to Khan in2010, most recently taking theWBA welterweight crownfrom previously unbeatenVyacheslav Senchenko lastApril in Ukraine before hisrival’s home-nation support-ers. Cano lost to Morales forthe WBC light-welterweighttitle last September in his onlyprior world title fight.—AFP

Abidi’s ton helpsPak women cricketteam beat Ireland

IS L A M A B A D —Pakis tan’swomen cricket team defeatedIreland by 73 runs in the Tri-Nation One Day series, a pri-vate news channel reportedon Thursday. Pakistan teammade 254 runs for the loss ofthree wickets. The main fea-

ture of Pakistan innings wasNain Abidi’s century.

Abidi became the firstwoman cricketer of the coun-try to score a century. In thereply, Ireland team made 181runs. Pakistan will play itssecond match withBangladesh.—APP

TREATING obese people with weight losssurgery dramatically delays or preventsthe onset of type 2 diabetes, according to

a new study.“We saw a marked delay (in the develop-

ment of diabetes) over 15 years,” said coau-thor Dr. Lars Sjostrom of theUniversity of Gothenburg inSweden. “Some of those sur-gical patients will probablydevelop diabetes later. Butover a lifetime, there will bea large difference.”

Among the 1,658 volun-teers who received surgery,mostly stomach stapling, therisk of developing diabeteswas about one in 150 per year.The 1,771 people in the con-trol group who received stan-dard care had a risk four timeshigher: one in 35 per year.

“Most of the previousstudies on bariatric surgeryhave focused on the remissionof diabetes. This study is moreabout preventing diabetes,”Ted Adams of the University of Utah, who wasnot connected with the research, told ReutersHealth.

The improvement was seen even though thepeople who underwent surgery initially had ahigher risk of developing diabetes than thosein the control group.

“If anything, the surgery group was a bit heavierand had more risk factors than the control group atthe start of the study, and still the outcome at 10years and 15 years was much more favorable in thesurgery group,” Sjostrom told Reuters Health. “It’sfavorable in spite of these differences.”

The team, which reported its results in the

Weight loss surgery helpsprevent diabetes: study

KARACHI: A view of massive traffic jam at old Nomaish M.A Jinnah Road on Thursday.

KARACHI: Chief Minister Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah called on President Asif Ali Zardariat Bilawal House.

New England Journal of Medicine, also foundthat a person’s starting body mass index - ameasure of weight versus height - did not pre-dict whether patients would develop type 2diabetes. Blood sugar levels at the beginningof the study, before surgery, were better indi-

cators.Sjostrom said a similar

effect has been seen in earlierstudies looking at the impactof the surgery on rates of heartattack, stroke, cancer preven-tion and overall mortality.

As a result, “it may betime to give less attention tothe degree of obesity whenpatients are selected forbariatric surgery,” he said.

About 285 million peopleworldwide have type 2 diabe-tes and people with severeobesity have the highest risk.More than one third of U.S.adults are obese. About220,000 people had bariatricsurgery in 2009, according tothe American Society for

Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS).Surgery costs range from about $11,500 to$26,000.

In a Journal editorial, Dr. Danny Jacobsof Duke University School of Medicine inDurham, N.C., said, “it remains impracticaland unjustified to contemplate the perfor-mance of bariatric surgery in the millions ofeligible obese adults.”

But the results may help doctors understandwhy the various types of surgery work and pickout the best candidates for the operation, he said.

Sjostrom said more studies are needed and acost analysis of the pros and cons of surgery, nowunderway, could be published in a year or so.

KARACHI: A view of PPP Core Committee and MQM meeting at CM House.

Free, fairelections isforemost

priority: CECKARACHI—Chief ElectionCommissioner Fakhruddin G.Ibrahim has urged the lawyersto ensure inclusion of the nameof every eligible voter in thevoter lists.

Addressing Sindh HighCourt Bar Association inKarachi he said holding of freeand fair polls is the foremostpriority of the Election Commis-sion. He said it is the last chancefor the nation to usher in achange in the country throughvote.

The Chief Election Com-missioner also held a meetingwith Chief Justice of Sindh HighCourt in Karachi.

He said he accepted the re-sponsibility of Chief ElectionCommissioner as a challenge.—NNI

Admissions inNED Universityfrom August 27KARACHI—Admissions toNED University of Engineeringand Technology Karachi for theacademic session 2012-13 willcommence from August 27.

This was announced by theRegistrar of the institution,Javed Aziz Khan, on Thursday.He said that with the addition of24 seats this year the total num-ber of seats in the available 23disciplines, have arisen to 1,952.

Admission forms will be avail-able from August 27 at the NEDUniversity branches of NationalBank and Metropolitan Bank onpayment of Rs. 1,800 per form.

The filled in admissionforms can be deposited fromSeptember 3 to October 3.

Entry test would be con-ducted on October 6 at 10 a.m.at the NED University Campus.

Javed Aziz Khan furtherstated that there will be nineTCS centres for the issuance andreceipt of admission forms in theinterior of Sindh.

These centres are located inSukkur (two), Hyderabad (two)and one each in Larkana,Khairpur, Mirpurkhas, Moroand Shaheed Benazirabad Dis-trict (Nawabshah).

A fee of Rs. 350 would becharged at these centres for thedispatch of the admission forms,it was further stated. APP

3 more killedin Karachiviolence

KARACHI— At least three per-sons were killed in different ar-eas of the city on Thursday. Ac-cording to police sources, a 25-year-old man named AnwarSattar was shot dead in AyubGoth, New Karachi.

His body was shifted toAbbasi Shaheed Hospital forlegal formalities.

A limb-tied body of a 30-year-old man was found near A-3 busstop, Suhrab Goth. Sources saidthat he was kidnapped and thenkilled. Identification of his deadbody could not be ascertainedyet.—INP

Red Zonesreopen

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Red zones, whichwere sealed through contain-ers, on Eid ul Fitar, have re-opened for transport on Thurs-day.

The red zones were sealedthrough containers in southernKarachi for four days due topossible terrorist attacks on theoccasion of Eid ul Fitar.

Due to security concerns,Governor house, ChiefMinster House, SupremeCourt, Sindh Assembly build-ing and offices of law and en-forcement agencies weresealed through containers be-fore one day of Eid in redzones of Karachi.

But now theses containershave been removed by lifterand Governor House FowaraChowk, Supreme Court andShaheen complex have beenopened for public.

KARACHI—Frequent spellsof loadshedding at KarachiWater & Sewerage Board(KWSB) Dhabeji pumpingstations on Thursday devel-oped mechanical problems atthe pumping stations, thus de-priving Karachi of 50.5 mil-lion gallons of water (MGD).

According to KWSBspokesman, the suspension ofpower supply at Dhabeji-l inked pumping stat ionscaused serious disruption inwater supply to major areas ofthree districts of Karachi –East, South and Central, par-ticularly in the areas of NorthNazimabad, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Mehmoodabad,Qurangi, Shah Faisal Colonyand Landhi.

The spokesman said thepumping stations of Gharo,Pipri and Dhabeji also suf-fered frequent load shedding

Power suspension at pumpingstations hits Karachi water supply

during the three days of Eid,and as a result 170 milliongallons water could not besupplied to the city duringthese three days.

He told DNA that majorpumping stations of Gharoand Pipri are badly hit due tounannounced loadshedding.

“KESC had announced be-fore Eid that no loadsheddingwill be carried out at KWSBpumping stations but it did nothonor its commitment and alsoignored the orders of the SindhHigh Court in this regard,”said the spokesman.

Managing Director KWSBMisbah Fariduddin has ap-pealed to top government offi-cials to constitute a high-levelteam to assess the damages in-curred to KWSB machineryowing to unrestrainedloadshedding of KESC duringlast six months.—DNA

President Zardaritakes serious

notice of TandoAdam incident

KARACHI—President Asif AliZardari has taken a serious noteof the incident occurred in a vil-lage at Tando Adam in Sindhand has directed for submissionof a report to him in this regard.

In the incident one persondied and two others injured in avillage Joharabad due to the vio-lence of the villagers on threepersons.

Case against twenty per-sons has been registered andso for eight have been arrestedMeanwhile‚ DIG MirpurKhas has submitted prelimi-nary inquiry report to SindhGovernment on Tando Adamincident.

The report says seventeenaccused involved in the incidenthave been arrested .

Meanwahile, Chief MinisterSindh Syed Qaim Ali Shahcalled on President Asif AliZardari at Bilawal HouseThursday and briefing him overthe law and order situation inSindh in general and Karachi inparticular.

Sources said the Presidentdirected the Chief Minister totake effective steps to controlincidents of target killings, kid-napping for ransom and extor-tion.

He said elements behindthese incidents must be appre-hended and awarded exemplarypunishment.

The President said thegovernment is committed toprovide security to the citi-zens and would take all pos-sible to measures for this pur-pose.—INP

KESC asks for17 paisa per

unit raiseSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi ElectricSupply Company (KESC) hasasked to raise the tariff of powerby 17 paisa per unit under fueladjustment.

According to the NEPRA,KESC had asked to raise thepower tar-iff by 17 paisa per unitunder monthly fuel adjustmentof June.

NEPRA will hear the KESC’srequest on August 31 in Karachi.

WomenWelfare Dept

following BB’svision

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Women Wel-fare Department is pursuingvarious projects in accordancewith the vision of ShaheedMohtarma Benazir Bhutto.

This was stated here onThursday by the Sindh Minis-ter for Women Development,Ms. Taqueer Fatima Bhutto.

The Minister attended aprogramme at the BilquisEdhi Centre, North Karachi,and exchanged Eid greetingswith the inmates there.

Sindh Minister for WomenDevelopment, Ms. TaqueerFatima Bhutto also asked theyoung girls there to acquire edu-cation and help bring about therequired change in the society.

Police arrestmore than 50

bikersKA R A C H I—Police onWednesday night arrestedmore than 50 bike riders inClifton, Sea view and De-fence area and shifted them toDarakhsha police station, me-dia reports said.

The police arrested themunder section 550 and confis-cated their vehicles.

They will be released af-ter court order. Police claimedthe bike riders were arrestedover charges of one wheeling,over speed and race.

Talking to private channel, the accused rejected all thecharges.—Online

KARACHI—The DefenceHousing Authority (DHA) istaking various measures to im-prove the living environment inthe area.

An official said here onThursday that the DHA has is-sued a communique to inform/update the residents aboutthese measures being taken bythe Housing Authority to im-prove the living environment inthe area. The communiqueenunciates the roles and func-tions of DHA and CBC, thetwo separate organizationsworking in tandem for theshared goal of providing bestcivic facilities for the welfareand well being of DHA resi-dents.

DHA is essentially a devel-opment authority (a body cor-porate) responsible for carry-ing out land usage planning andinfrastructure development,while CBC being a service pro-vider assures provision of mu-nicipal services and mainte-nance of civic infrastructure indeveloped phases of DHA.

However, presently DHAis performing most of thesefunctions in Phase-VIII as it isnot fully developed yet.

It was pointed out that forthe convenience of DHA resi-dents and members, some ofthe major functions of CBC in-clude distribution of water,maintenance of roads, streetlights, traffic signals, parks,sewerage system, commercial

DHA takes measures to improveliving environment in area

areas, plots and all mainte-nance related works.

Cleanliness of area includ-ing garbage collection/dis-posal, bush cutting etc also fallunder the jurisdiction of CBC.

Infrastructure develop-ment work in DHA Phase-VIIIhas gained momentum and isbeing completed on a fasttrack basis as per the timelinesset forth.

Two to three more sectorsof Phase-VIII will be openedfor construction of houses bythe next year whereas rest ofthe major infrastructure workswould be completed in 3-4years.

Comprehensive masterplanning of Phase-VII Exten-sion has also been completedand infrastructure work of thearea would commence soon toprovide all requisite civic fa-cilities to residents.

It was pointed out that theDHA is working concertedlyon early revival and rehabili-tation of the stalled CogenPlant in DHA to ensure avail-ability of additional water. Theprocess is complex and entailsdealing with numerous stake-holders.

However, lately the reha-bilitation process has startedrolling and positive results areexpected soon.

The preliminary develop-ment works on the site ofDHA’s new mega project‘DHA City Karachi’ have

commenced while Sector De-velopment Works in the areawould start in next fewmonths. Balloting of plots inDCK is being planned by theend of this year.

DHA made concerted ef-forts to revive the dormant wa-ter front development projectsfailing which DHA land wasrepossessed in most casesthrough the help of court.

DHA remains committedto the concerns of allotees/affectees, while handling theseprojects and is continuouslyinteracting with the develop-ers for early revival of suchprojects.

DHA has formulated a newsecurity plan to improve thesecurity in the area and hasalso planned electronic sur-veillance of the entire DHA inphases.

120 digital cameras at allentry/exit points have been in-stalled in DHA for surveil-lance/monitoring of the focalpoints while 260 more camerasare being added in Phase-II ofthe programme, furthering theaim to attain safe and secureenvironment in DHA.

Administrator DHA, BrigAamer Raza Qureshi, said thatcomfort and convenience ofresidents remains the top pri-ority of DHA and concerted ef-forts were being made to pro-vide the best housing and resi-dential facilities to resi-dents.—APP

KARACHI—A delegation com-prising of members of DawoodiBohra community called onPresident Asif Ali Zardari atBilawal House Thursday.

The delegation included Mr.Ibrahim Ezzum, Mr. TaikhoonMohi-ud-Din, Mr. Abdem AnafHakeem-ud-Din, Mr. KumailYounas, Mr. Hussain Kumail andMr. Mustansar Poonawalla.

Chairman PPP Bilawal

Delegation of Dawoodi Bohracommunity calls on Zardari

Bhutto Zardari, Mr. Saleem H.Manviwala, Chairman Board ofInvestment and Ms. NasreenHaq, Special Secretary to thePresident were also present dur-ing the meeting.

The delegation conveyedbest wishes of SyednaMohammed Burhanuddin,leader of Dawoodi Bohras com-munity, to the President and saidthat Syedna Burhanuddin would

visit Pakistan soon. The Presi-dent inquired about the health ofSyedna Burhanuddin and appre-ciated his services for the hu-manity and the people of Paki-stan.

It may be recalled that thePresident had a meeting withthe leader of Dawoodi Bohracommunity during his visit toUK and invited him to visitPakistan.—NNI

KARACHI—Chief MinisterSindh and President PPP SindhSyed Qaim Ali Shah on Thurs-day held a meeting with officebearers and workers of PPPKarachi Division at CM House.

The office bearers of PPPKarachi Division had came toextend Eid greeting to ChiefMinister Sindh, said a statement.

The workers of PPP Karachidivision expressed their full con-fidence in the leadership ofSindh PPP particularly the CMSindh and lauded his struggleand services for the strengthengthe programme of peoples party.

The members presentedproblems pertaining to minorityworkers, issues of Lyari, law and

Qaim holds meeting withPPP Div’s office bearers

order, excessive against partyworkers in Orangi, delimitationof constituencies for election,and other issues.

The workers of Lyari alsoproposed to establish footballAcademy in Lyari and commit-tee be formed to encourage, trainthe children of Lyari for promot-ing them in Football upto inter-national level.

The workers expressed theirfull confidence in President PPPSindh and CM Sindh Syed QaimAli Shah, who thanked theworkers of Karachi.

He stressed upon workers toremain united and extend theirservices for poor and needypeople.—APP

Cartoon stickers maysway kids’ food choices

LAHORE: Students returning home from school as classes have started after summervacations.

LAHORE: Makeshift homes of nomad families seen at the bank of the Ravi River which can cause a mishap due torising of water level.

LAHORE: Resident of Dipalpur, Shameem Bibi addressing a Press conference againstremoving of eyes and cutting of tongue of her husband Muhammad Yousaf, a barber, by alocal landlord.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague (PML-N) leader andadvisor to Chief MinisterPunjab, Zaheem Qadri hassaid that provincial govern-ment would bear the aca-demic expanses of the posi-tion holders talented stu-dents of Sindh and AzadJammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Talking to reporters hereon Thursday, Zaheem Qadrisaid that Chief MinisterMian Shahbaz Sharif has is-

sued special directives tomake all arrangements tobear the expanses of the tal-ented students of Sindh andAJK who despite poor fi-nancial position andunfavourable situationbagged top positions in re-spective academic boards.

It should be mentionedthat Amina Asif hailing froma poor family of Sindh ac-quired first position in BAannual exam while QiyanoosKhan, who gather scrape af-ter school time to support his

family and continue educa-tion bagged first position inAJK SSC exam. Both stu-dents in a private TV chan-nel program had requestedfor financial support from thegovernment so that theycould continue their educa-tion.

The Chief MinisterPunjab Shahbaz Sharif takingthe notice said his led pro-vincial government wouldbear all the expanses of thesaid students who were thefuture of the country.

Position holder students of Sindh, AJK

Punjab Govt to beareducation expenses

Non-defaulting touroperators to be

granted Hajj quotaLAHORE—Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Thursday di-rected the Ministry of Reli-gious Affairs that the Haj touroperators, who have paid theirtaxes, should be allotted theirrespective quotas. The LHCwas hearing the petitions filedby private tour operators.

The petitioners, Imranand Sohail, pleaded thecourt that despite the pay-ment of taxes they werelisted as defaulters and havenot been granted the quota.The petitioners appealed theHigh Court to provide themjustice.

The LHC directed theMinistry of Religious affair’sSecretary to grant quotas tothe tour operators who havepaid the taxes and remove thenames of the defaulters fromthe quota list. Earlier, thecourt had directed the minis-try to divide a quota of 3,000Haj pilgrims amongst the 100registered private Haj touroperators who pay timelytaxes.—INP

Punjab schools,offices reopen

LAHORE—Private and gov-ernment offices of acrossPunjab on Thursday re-opened after holidays of EidulFitr. Also private and govern-ment schools re-opened aftersummer vacations.

Punjab witnessed the endto the Eid holidays andschools’ summer vacations,as all private and governmenteducational institutions haveresumed their routine affairs;however, some private insti-tutions will begin academicsession from Monday.

According to health offi-cials, preventive measuresagainst the dengue have beentaken up at schools.—INP

Downpour floodsrivers partially

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The recent waveof rainfall has resulted in in-crease in the flow of water incertain rivers.

According to details, par-tial floods have been ob-served on the location ofMarala on River Chenab andat Baloki on River Ravi. InRiver Chenab on Marala, theinflow of water was 126,860cusec. The total inflow of wa-ter in River Ravi was 54,450cusec.

IRSA sources said the in-flow of water at Tarbela inRiver Sindh remained 2,56,000cusec while the outflow ofwater was 1,40,000 cusec. InRiver Jhelum, inflow of waterin River Jhelum on the loca-tion of Mangla was 62,980cusec while the outflow was13000 cusec.

Similarly, the inflow ofwater in River Sutluj atSulemanki was 16,487 cusec.

Trainingsession forvolunteersSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A one-day train-ing session for volunteerswas organized here on Thurs-day under the auspices ofSocial Welfare Department.

Addressing the trainingsession at Muhammadi Hos-pital, Director General SocialWelfare department MalikMuhammad Aslam said thatthe aim of organizing trainingfor volunteers was to createawareness among the massesto overcome dengue out-spread.

He urged the volunteersto help the social welfare offi-cials to sensitize the publicabout dengue virus after thecompletion of training.

About 100 volunteersattended the training ses-sion while district socialwelfare officer SheikhTanvir and other officialswere also present on theoccasion.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Government Col-lege University Lahore ViceChancellor Prof DrMuhammad KhaleequrRahman Thursday an-nounced that the universitywould not increase its feethis year despite all the finan-cial crunch and reduction ingovernment grants.

A notification in this re-gard has also been issuedafter the approval by theGCU Syndicate that “therewould no increase in the feestructure this year.” ProfKhaleequr Rahman last year

had slashed the GCU fee byrecord 23 percent and hos-tels’ dues by 50 percent tofacilitate students. This year,the decision would providefinancial relief to almost ninethousand students of the GCUniversity Lahore.

Talking about his deci-sion, Prof Dr KhaleequrRahman said “the ongoingeconomic crunch is affectingthe budgets of all public-sec-tor universities but it doesnot anyway mean that the fi-nancial deficit is coveredfrom the students.” He saidthat GCU is might be the onlyuniversity in Pakistan which

has decided not to increaseits fee this year. “Studentsare our top priority and wewould take all necessarysteps to facilitate them,” headded.

The Vice Chancellor saidGCU in 2011-12 first-timegave away scholarships of arecord amount of Rs 20.127million to its financially-chal-lenged students, and wouldalso continue its practice thisyear. Prof Khaleeq hoped thatthe government realized theimportance of higher educa-tion and would increase bud-get for the public sector uni-versities.

No fee raise in GCU this year

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The make-up ofImran Khan in which he ap-peared at Minar-e-Pakistanwore off till he reached LiaqatBagh. Tehrik-e-Insaaf is theonly party which has forgot-ten its promises with theworkers even before cominginto power. These views wereexpressed by Senator PervaizRashid while addressing apress conference on the oc-casion of joining of PakistanMuslim League-N by Con-vener Tehrik-e-Insaaf LahoreCantt, Rana MuhammadTanvir along with thousandsof his companions. MembersNational Assembly PervaizMalik, Khawaja SaadRafique, Rana Ishaq, NaseerBhutta, Members PunjabAssembly Mian Naseer and

Yasin Sohal were alsopresent on the occasion.

Senator Pervaiz Rashidsaid that whenever thepeople gave power to PML-N, it returned the same to themasses by strengtheningpolitical workers. On theother hand, Imran Khan putthe power of people in the lapof feudal who do not needsupport of Imran Khan asthey come into power on thetanks of armed corps. He saidthat it is usually seen thatpolitical parties forget thepeople after coming intopower but Tehrik-e-Insaaf isthe only party which haveforgotten its promises evenbefore coming into power.

Speaking on the occa-sion Khawaja Saad Rafiquesaid that the slogan ofchange by Tehrik-e-Insaaf

has become an illusion andthat is why Tehrike-e-Insaafof Imran Khan has reachedLal Haveli of SheikhRasheed. He said that thehorses trained by establish-ment cannot pave the way forprosperity for the people. Hesaid that as a result of saga-cious politics of PML-N, elec-tions would certainly be heldin next few months and thepeople of Pakistan will defeatthe corrupt and incapablegovernments and parties.

Convener Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf Lahore Cantt RanaMuhammad Tanvir while join-ing PML-N along with thou-sands of companions ex-pressed confidence in the lead-ership of Mian MuhammadNawaz Sharif and said that theleaders of Tehrik-e-Insaaf aredreaming of ministries.

PTI convener RanaTanvir joins PML-N

Suspected heldfrom LHCcourtroom

LAHORE—A suspected manwas arrested from courtroomof Lahore High Court (LHC)for his suspicious activitieshere on Thurs-day.

According to details,LHC Chief Justice Umar AttaBandiyal was hearing a casewhen a suspected man be-longing to Azad Kashmirsketched pic-ture of judges’photos which hanged at thewall in the courtroom and onsuspicious activities, theLHC security personnel ar-rested him.

Police registered a caseagainst him on charge of sus-picion activities.—INP

Health reliefreview

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab SecretaryHealth Arif Nadeem directedDirector General Health DrNisar Ahmed Cheema to con-duct physical verification ofhealth related relief arrange-ments made for flood highrisk districts, includingSialkot, Narowal, Gujranwala,Sheikhupura and Lahore.

He gave these instruc-tions while presiding over ameeting regarding reviewingarrangements to ensure pro-vision of quality medical careto people in flood high riskareas on Thursday.

The meeting took de-tailed review for provision ofmedical relief in the con-cerned districts.

22 arrestedSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Mujahid Squadclaimed to have arrested 22criminals involved in narcot-ics, possessing illegal weap-ons, aerial firing, hooliganismand registered 18 casesagainst them during Eiddays.

The force also recovered8 pistols, four rifles/pumpactions, 152 bottles of liquorand hundreds of rounds fromthe outlaws, Mujhaid Squadspokesman told APP onThursday.

SP Mujahid appreciatedthe performance of those of-ficials who were deputed at15 during Eid days.

LAHORE—Leaders of differ-ent political shades havethanked Prime Minister espe-cially the Water and PowerMinister for ensuring unin-terrupted electricity supplyto the people during Eid days.

In their separate state-ments, they said that it wasindeed a big relief for theheat-stricken people. Theyurged the government totake practical steps for theeradication of load sheddingin the country.

Opposition leader in thePunjab Assembly Raja Riazsaid the PPP government un-der the dynamic leadership ofPresident Asif Ali Zardari and

Prime Minister Raja PervaizAshraf was committed to re-solve people’s problems andin this regard it had initiated anumber of projects in energysector which when completedwould help overcome loadshedding. He advised ChiefMinister Punjab ShahbazSharif to end his tent office asit had become useless.

PML-Q parliamentaryparty leader in the Punjabassembly ChoudhryZaheerud Din said, the gov-ernment was inherited en-ergy crisis and soon it wouldbe able to ensure smoothsupply of electricity to thepeople and the industry as

well. He flayed the Punjabgovernment for not initiatingeven a single project inpower sector and said ChiefMinister’s tent office was adrama and a bid to divertpeoples attention from hisfailure in handling the affairsof the province.

Khaksar Tehrik leader DrSabiha Almashraqi hailed thecontinuous power supply onEid days and said, no doubtthe government deservesappreciations especiallywhen people were facing withhot and humid summer sea-son. She called for efficientsteps to end load sheddingin the country.—APP

Uninterrupted power supply hailed

FOR youngsters who turn up theirnoses at fruits and vegetables, slapping a cartoon face on a healthy snack

could make those choices more appealing,a new study suggests.

Researchers found that when elemen-tary school students wereoffered apples and cookieswith lunch, kids were morelikely to opt for an applewhen it was branded withan Elmo sticker.

One researcher not in-volved in the new studysaid parents and schooladministrators can take alesson from food compa-nies: Elmo, Dora the Ex-plorer and SpongeBob helpsell snacks, healthy or un-healthy.

“There are so manyfoods that are of poor nu-tritional quality and theyare being marketed to chil-dren,” said ChristinaRoberto, who studies foodchoices at the Harvard School of PublicHealth in Boston.

Kid-friendly characters used for mar-keting “aren’t popping up on the carrotsand apples as much as they are on a widerange of foods that aren’t so good forkids,” Roberto told Reuters Health.

Those cartoon characters and otherflashy advertising often don cookie andcandy packaging, said David Just, co-di-rector of the Cornell Center for BehavioralEconomics in Child Nutrition Programs inIthaca, New York.

For the new study, Just and his col-leagues did the apple and cookie experi-

ment with 208 eight- to 11-year-olds atsuburban and rural schools every day atlunch for a week. Kids were allowed tochoose an apple, a cookie or both snacksalong with their normal meal.

Some of those days, the snacks wereoffered without cartoonstickers or other branding.On other days, either thecookie or the apple wasbranded with a familiar kids’character.

When the snacksweren’t specially marked, 91percent of kids took a cookieand just under one-quartertook an apple.

Putting an Elmo stickeron the apples led 37 percentof kids to take fruit, the re-searchers reported thisweek in a letter to the Ar-chives of Pediatrics & Ado-lescent Medicine.

Stickers on cookiesdidn’t affect kids’ choice ofthe sweet snack - probably

because the youngsters already knewthey tasted good, according to Just.

Roberto said some experts wantbranding off of kids’ foods altogether,but others are willing to experiment withmarketing strategies to encourage kidsto make healthier choices.

Just advocated for the latter strategy.“If we’re trying to promote healthier

foods, we need to be as smart as the com-panies that are selling the less-healthyfoods,” he told Reuters Health. “Themessage should be: fight fire with fire.”

Fire, in this case, being Elmo and otherfriendly faces, of course.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Provincial DisasterManagement Authority(PDMA) Director GeneralMujhaid Sherdil has said thatdistrict administration is up-dating the people about thewater levels of rivers andnullah’s across the province.

He said that erosion in riv-ers due to monsoon is a matterof normal. Water entered in fewhouses of a Burj Battain vil-lage near Qadirabad due to

erosion in river and the admin-istration of the area took ac-tion on time and drained outwater from the houses, headded.

He said that people couldcontact at 99205371 for anyguidance.

The recent wave of rainfallhas resulted in increase in theflow of water in certain rivers.

According to details, par-tial floods have been observedon the location of Marala onRiver Chenab and at Baloki on

River Ravi. In River Chenab onMarala, the inflow of water was126,860 cusec. The total inflowof water in River Ravi was54,450 cusec.

IRSA sources said the in-flow of water at Tarbela in RiverSindh remained 2,56,000 cusecwhile the outflow of water was1,40,000 cusec.

In River Jhelum, inflow ofwater in River Jhelum on thelocation of Mangla was 62,980cusec while the outflow was13000 cusec.

PDMA updatingpeople over rivers situation