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Top Afghan peacenegotiator shot deadin Kabul: official

Musharraf accorded fullprotocol at Pakistan’sembassy in Beijing

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karachi edition Monday, 14 May, 2012 Jamadi-ul-sani 22, 1433rs 15.00 Vol ii No 317 22 pages

Haqqani disassociateshimself from MemoCommission

ISLAMABADstAff RePoRt

AS the ongoing bilateral talks between Islam-abad and Washington over the reopening ofNATO supplies show progress and signs of abreakthrough, senior military commandersfrom the ISAF, Pakistan and Afghanistan on

Sunday resolved to work together and fully cooperate in theglobal war against terrorism.The 35th meeting of the ‘Tripartite Commission’ of the threecountries was held at GHQ, in which Pakistan Army’s delega-tion was led by army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, while In-ternational Security Assistance Force (ISAF) CommanderGeneral John Allen and Afghan National Army Chief of Gen-eral Staff General Sher Muhammad Karimi headed the USand American delegations, respectively. According to theISPR, the talks were focused on border control measures andmechanisms put in place to avoid untoward incidents on bothsides of the Pak-Afghan border. Military commanders fromthe three sides also decided to keep an eye on the movementalong the border while coordinating activities.This was the first meeting of the tripartite commission after thePakistani parliament submitted its recommendations on the re-opening of NATO supply lines and drone attacks on the futureties with the US States. In a significant development, the govern-ment also convened a crucial meeting of the Defense Committeeof the Cabinet (DCC) on Tuesday, which is likely to finalize a de-cision on restoration of the stalled NATO supplies. The restora-tion of NATO supplies by Islamabad would also pave the way forPakistan’s participation in the vital NATO Summit on future ofAfghanistan to be held in Chicago on May 20-21.“The meeting on Saturday between the ISAF commander andGeneral Kayani helped ease the prevailing tensions between Pak-istan and the US and it is very likely that decision on NATO sup-plies would be made this week by Pakistan after the DCCmeeting,” said a Pakistani official, seeking anonymity. He said thematter of NATO supplies also came under discussion in the tri-partite commission meeting on Sunday, with all three sides ex-pressing satisfaction over the ongoing talks on the important issuebetween the NATO team and Pakistani authorities in Islamabad. The NATO supplies were suspended by Islamabad after theUS/NATO helicopters attacked the Pakistani border posts inNovember last year and killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.“Pakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF authorities also resolved tostrengthen the anti-terrorism cooperation and once again en-gaged in full collaboration against the global menace at thetripartite commission meeting,” the official said. Gen Allenlater said he had been “very encouraged” by the talks.“There was agreement these meetings are important toachieving continued progress toward... a peacefulAfghanistan so that Afghanistan can no longer be a safehaven for terrorists,” Allen said, an ISAF statement said.

KARACHIstAff RePoRt

A noted cleric of a local madrassa and his twoguards were gunned down in Karachi, whileunidentified assailants shot dead a leading reli-gious figure and provincial executive committeemember of the JUI-F in Lakki Marwat early onSunday morning.

Maulana Aslam Sheikhupuri and his two guardswere gunned down by unidentified assailants in adrive-by shooting in Karachi’s Bahadurabad area,raising the death toll in the city to nine in 24 hoursof violence, officials said. Police said the incidenttook place near Rangoonwala Hall in Dhuraji areawithin the remits of Bahadurabad police station.

Officials said four men on two motorbikes inter-cepted a car carrying Sheikhupuri and his four guards,and opened indiscriminate fire at it from both sides.

“All of them sustained bullet injuries and were imme-diately shifted to Jinnah hospital where MaulanaAslam and two of his guards succumbed to their in-juries, while another wounded man is being givenmedical treatment,” a police officer told reporters.

In the other incident in Khyber Agency,Maulana Mohsin Shah, a leading religious figureand provincial executive committee member of theJUI-F was shot dead by unidentified men inside amadrassa he used to run in Pezu area of Lakki Mar-wat. JUI-F Provincial Information Secretary AbdulJalil Jan said the assailants opened fire on Shahwhen he was preparing for early morning prayers.

On the other hand in Karachi, at least six morepeople were shot dead in acts of violence in variousparts of the city, officials said.

According to police, two people were shot deadin Landhi area after abduction. Police said the agesof the victims are between 32 and 35 years. One of

the deceased was identified as Shah Faisal whilethe identity of the other was not yet known.

In another incident of violence, an activist of apolitical party was shot dead and two others werewounded in Korangi Sector D. The dead were iden-tified as Sultan. In Joharabad area, three peoplewere injured in firing by some unidentified men.

In Liaquatabad area, a man who was abductedthree days ago was found dead. In yet another in-cident of violence, a man was shot dead at RashidMinhas Road. According to police the deceasedwas 60 years old and his identity is not yet known.

Meanwhile, Rangers launched a targeted op-eration in Mangupir area and arrested several sus-pects. Rangers launched the targeted operation inMangupir area on the revelations by Tehrik-e-Tal-iban activists who were arrested two days ago fromBaldia Town. The sources claimed that the arrestedsuspects also belong to Tehrik-e-Taliban.

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABADinP

The Americans have started punishingPakistan after Foreign Minister Hina Rab-bani Khar indicated to them that the apol-ogy should be delayed despite advice to thecontrary from Pakistan AmbassadorSherry Rahman, who indicated to Kharthat the circumstances kept changing veryfast in the region, therefore, the apologyshould be accepted.

Highly placed sources in Washingtonand Islamabad said the American stancewas now changing due to pressure fromIndia and other NATO countries and all thehome work and advice by AmbassadorSherry Rehman had been wasted due to theinexperience of the foreign minister, espe-cially in the field of international diplomacy.

American sources said AmbassadorGrossman also felt that FM Khar was inex-perienced and not the right person for sucha demanding job. He informed his govern-ment that Khar gave mixed signals andmade it difficult to work with her, as therewas no guarantee of Pakistan’s positionwhen she was dealing with contentious is-sues. The sources said the Americans hadplanned a multi-level apology in responseto Ambassador Sherry Rahman’s skillfuland constant diplomacy and were shockedthat the Foreign Office, with a transition atforeign secretary level, let this apology slipbetween the cracks.

American officials say they waited manydays for Islamabad’s response and it seemedthe foreign minister overruled the apology,saying Pakistan wanted it only after the par-liamentary resolutions. This was a grave

error from Islamabad, they say, becausesoon after, Washington started loosing in-terest in what Pakistan had to offer.

It is also said that the inordinately longwait for the parliamentary resolutions costPakistan dearly. Even to get those finalized,Pakistani ambassador had to come downto Islamabad to get the parliamentaryprocess moving with the president’s help,as others were insisting and talking thereon holding out for imaginary opportunities.

This immature politics at the highestlevels in the Foreign Office has created abacklash in American quarters, wherethere is little tolerance for time delays andindecisions. Confusion was further createdwhen the foreign minister reportedly fol-lowed the prime minister’s line in tellingGrossman that the government was not ask-ing for an apology but only the parliament

was asking for it. This itself made the Amer-icans question the focus Islamabad put onthe apology and they retracted even furtherwhen the April attacks in Kabul wereblamed on the Haqqanis.

Now the situation has changed com-pletely, as the NATO supply lines remainblocked from Pakistan and America goesforward with sourcing alternate routes forits cargo to and from Afghanistan.

Cameron Munter is leaving in frustra-tion at Islamabad’s confusion and naiveté.He could not persuade Washington to ac-cept Islamabad’s views in order to createany confidence with Foreign MinisterKhar, who seemed more interested incatering to the galleries than dealing diplo-matically with the super power.

US punishing Pakistan for indecisiveness over terms of re-engagement

RAWALPinDi: Army chief general Ashfaq Parvez Kayani (c) stands for photographs along with Us Marines general John

Allen (3L), the top Us commander in Afghanistan, and Afghan army chief general sher Muhammad Karimi (3R) and

other delegates on sunday. AFP/ISPR

CONTiNued ON pAge 04

Successful tripartite talks hintat easing Pak-US impasse g ISAF Commander Gen Allen sayshe was ‘very encouraged’ by talks

PML-Q againthreatens toquit govt overpower crisis

RAWALPINDIAgencies

PML-Q leader and Senior Federal MinisterChaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Sunday askedthe PPP government to solve the powercrisis, threatening that otherwise his partywould part ways with the government.Speaking to party workers in Rawalpindi,Elahi also criticised the PML-N, saying thatthe party was raising the power crisis issuefor their own gain.The PML-Q leader claimed that if theformula put forward by party presidentShujaat Hussain was implemented thanthe power crisis would be solved.He said during the tenure of the PML-Qgovernment there were four projects forpower generation while during the tenureof the PML-N government in Punjab therehad been none. Elahi said there was not just badgovernance but “mad-governance” inPunjab, adding that the “loud-talking”chief minister was responsible for theelectricity load shedding in the province.He said the rulers of Punjab shouldcompare their performance with thedevelopment works done by hisgovernment during its tenure.

Two clerics shot dead in Karachi, Lakki Marwatg At least nine more killed in Karachi in last 24 hours

g Ambassador

Grossman found FM

Khar inexperienced,

difficult to work withg Americans were

offering apology over

Salala attack, but

Hina Khar wanted it

to come only after

parliamentary

resolution

NATO MOrTAr shells lANd iNside pAkisTAN | pAge 04

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Today’s

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lAhore

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shahbaz again promises people-friendly budget Afghans to take more military control in new transition: Karzai

Mother’s Dayobserved inPakistan

ISLAMABADnni

People across the globe includingPakistan celebrated Mother’s Day onSunday to share their sentiments andexpress profound love for their mothers.Public and private organisations as wellas educational institutions organisedcolourful programmes on the occasion.On the day, people across the worldexpress gratitude for the hardships amother bears in bringing up a child.Like every year, the day was marked withthe same spirit and enthusiasm andpublic and private organisations as wellas schools arrange colourful programmesin connection with Mother’s Daycelebrations.The mother’s week celebrations startedfrom Monday and private channelstelecasted special transmission in thisconnection since then, while they presentdifferent plays and shows to highlightthe importance of the day and recognisethe amazing role of mothers.Several other countries celebrateMother’s Day on different datesdepending upon what they have decidedabout the specific day.People send their mothers cakes, cards,flowers, small fruit or gift baskets,sweets, candies and chocolates. In therecent years, the most dedicated gifts forthe Mother’s Day have been flowers,perfumes, cakes and special sweets.In a message on the occasion‚ PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani said motherhad a vital status in the universe and thecradle of the mother was the firsteducational institution of a human being.

PESHAWARstAff RePoRt

At least seven people were injured whena police checkpost was blown up on Pe-shawar Ring Road in Chamkani policeprecincts on Sunday.

Sources said the explosive devicewas planted in a pressure cooker nearthe checkpost set up near Afridi Garhi,which was detonated with a remote con-trol. Soon after the blast, a heavy contin-

gent of police rushed to the site and cor-doned off the area, while rescue andEdhi volunteers began rescue opera-tions. All those injured were shifted toLady Reading Hospital in Peshawar.

An official of the Bomb DisposalSquad told reporters that around sixto seven kilograms of explosives wasused in the attack.

The checkpost was completely de-stroyed but all four constables guard-ing the post escaped unhurt.

Talking to reporters, InspectorGeneral of Police Akbar Khan Hotisaid the Peshawar Police were onceagain the target of militants, but thebrave police never faltered in theirmission and would fight to the lastbreath. He directed police personnelto keep watch over miscreants and foiltheir evil designs. Hoti also appealedto the masses to cooperate with policeand timely inform police regarding thepresence of any suspects.

PTI will make corrupt politicians cough

up looted money: ImranISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khanon Sunday vowed to bring back all the public’s money looted bycorrupt politicians and stashed away in foreign accounts.Addressing a programme on the occasion of Mother’s Day, hesaid, “I promise that the PTI will bring back the money plunderedby corrupt politicians.” He said the days of the political mafia werenow over as they were heading towards final doom. Khan said thecurrent setup would have to depart as it could not withstand thePTI’s “tsunami” anymore. He also announced that under a PTIgovernment, women would get their due share in property. “ThePTI will make sure that no one takes away women’s rights,” he

said. The PTI chairman said his party would stand by the weak and provide justice to all.“The law of the country will help women, who would be provided with legal assistance by thegovernment,” he said. Paying glowing tributes to the country’s mothers on Mother’s Day, hesaid the gathering was recognition of all mothers’ role in the society. inP

Seven injured inPeshawar bomb blast

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NewscoMMenTnato routes:

Articles on Page 12-13

Expect a complete resumption.

the art of the possible: Still not enough for the League, though.

Kuldip nayar says;

Muneeb farooq says;

ForeIGn newS

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ArTS & enTerTAInMenT

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SPorTS

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Mladic to stand trial on Bosnian war crimes Adele prefers making music to stardom

BJP’s downfall: Babri Masjid and Gujrat carnage.

A zero-sum game: A continuance of loss.

sajjad shaukat says;Changing paths: Hillary’s enigmatic approach.

Malaysia beat Pakistan to become Jr Asia hockey champ

ISLAMABADonLine

PAKISTAN has failedto achieve major policyobjectives to reduce fis-cal deficit at or below 3.5percent of the GDP and

improving tax-to-GDP ratio to 12.7percent by 2012-13, a World Bankmid-term progress report said.

The World Bank in its mid-termprogress report said the fiscal deficittarget had now been set at 5.5 per-cent for 2013-14, down from 6.6 per-cent of the GDP in 2010-11. The fiscaldeficit was above six percent of theGDP during the last two years andabove the target of 5.1 percent of theGDP in baseline fiscal year 2009-10.

The fiscal situation has deterio-rated, while the current account hadimproved, but fiscal space for prioritypublic investment in key sectors re-mained constrained, it said.

Instead of gradually moving downto four percent, fiscal deficit had risento 6.3 percent of GDP due to lowereconomic activity, less than expectedrevenue mobilization and continueduntargeted subsidies particularly inthe power sector and other loss mak-ing entities. The World Bank said themajor policy objective to reduce fiscaldeficit at or below 3.5 percent of theGDP and improving tax-to-GDP ratioto 12.7 percent by 2012-13 could notbe achieved. Therefore, the lendingprogramme would need to be ex-tended from three to four years —from 2013 to 2014. The World Banksaid improvements in governance hadalso not materialized.

“A range of governance, corrup-tion and business environment indi-cators suggest that these areas remaina challenge,” the report said. The tar-geted tax-to-GDP ratio had beenmissed. However, the bank noted thatthe broad based VAT was dropped

(and instead the government intro-duced the reformed general sales tax(RGST) bill to the parliament) due toa lack of political consensus. OnlySindh province had introduced RGSTon services, the bank said.

“No strategy for restructuring orprivatization of public sector enter-prises could be developed. But $800million are expected in fiscal year2012 budget as receipts from Etisalat,the buyer of Pakistan Telecomshares. Also, no closure on restruc-turing of any corporate entity is ex-pected by end of 2014,” it said. TheWorld Bank has revised its policy ob-jective under the $5.5 billion four-year Country Partnership Strategy,saying that macroeconomic, politicaland implementation risks had all in-creased in the recent years. It was notsure if the revised policy adjustmentswould turn into reality.

It said the country partnershipstrategy period would be extended to

include fiscal year 2014 to better coor-dinate it both with the national politi-cal cycle and the internationaldevelopment assistance cycle, to allowtime to move the agreed strategy for-ward following the adjustments.

“The government took some ef-fective counter-terrorism measuresbut violence still persists. In addition,political uncertainties and the risk ofa surge in social tension resultingfrom a precarious economy remainsignificant. The devolution has posedinstitutional and capacity challengesat the provincial levels, dispersal ofsome retained functions at the fed-eral level and the requisite expendi-ture rationalizing given the tightfiscal space,” the bank said. “As a re-sult, the real GDP growth rate in2010-11 was 2.4 percent and inflationremained in double digits for thefourth year in a row. Translated toper-capita terms, the GDP growthrate was close to nil.”

GWADARshAhzADA zULfiqAR

The federal government has assured the Balochistangovernment of full support for bringing improvementin Gwadar Port and completion of the related road net-work, advising the province to review its feasibility re-port for its future plan and make it economically viable.

This was said on Sunday by Dr Nadeem ul Haq,deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, who leda three-member team to Gwadar to review the futureprospects for port operations with the consultation ofthe Balochistan government.

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani,Senior Minister Maulana Abdul Wasey, ministers MirAsim Gaillu, Zahoor Buledi, Mir Hamal Kalmati, SyedEhsan Shah, Mir Asghar Rind and Chief SecretaryFatah Mohammad Babar Yaqub also attended themeeting. Haq advised the provincial government tostudy the feasibility report of Gwadar Port and look intothe prospective for its future development by keepingin view the progress and prosperity of neighbouringcountries’ port cities like Iran’s Chabahar and UAE’sJabal-e-Ali. He said the provincial government shouldput its recommendations before the federal govern-ment for making the Gwadar Port operational in thenear future.

He said these recommendations would be re-viewed by the joint meeting of chief minister andprovincial ministers with the prime minister, to be heldat Islamabad in the near future. Haq said the federalgovernment was firm in its resolution to make the portfully operational, but was reviewing its economic as-

pects.He also asked the provincial government to study

the port’s economic prospective so that it could be a vi-able project instead of making ambitious proposals ashappened in the past.

He regretted raising hopes in feasibility report onthe basis of fake proposals. Haq said the federal gov-ernment would also issue directions to the NationalHighway Authority (NHA) for an early completion ofGwadar-Turbat-Rato Dero Highway that would linkthe port city with Indus Highway. The deputy chairmanasked officials of Gwadar Port Authority to explain whySingapore Port Authority, which was awarded a con-tract for port operation by the Musharraf government,was not working at the port. The meeting was informedthat 80 percent of the construction on Gwadar-RatoDero Highway had been completed with an expendi-ture of Rs 15 billion and the rest would be hopefullycompleted within a few months.

Mohammad Musa, NHA representative, said dueto security issues, the contractor and laborers were hes-itant to re-start abandoned work.

Chief Secretary Fatah Yaqoob told the meeting thathe had met with all security agencies who assured thegovernment of their full cooperation and support. ChiefMinister Aslam Raisani said foolproof arrangementswould be made for providing security to contractorsand their laborers involved in the construction of high-ways. Raisani complained over the non-implementa-tion of the Balochistan package, pointing out that thenotification regarding the Balochistan chief ministerbeing made the chairman of Gwadar Port Authoritywas still pending.

Four Thar coal wells to

produce gas next week

ISLAMABADinP

Chairman of the Governing Board of Thar Coal Project, DrSamar Mubarakmand, on Sunday said four more coal wells hadbeen set on fire and as a result gas production from these wouldbegin from next week. Talking to a private TV channel, he said aflame would be lit from gas as emission began from these wellstowards the end of this month. Dr Samar said throughunderground gasification technology, electricity could begenerated at Rs 3 to Rs 4 per unit while diesel could beproduced at $40 per barrel. The average rate of powerproduction through furnace oil came to Rs 20 per megawatt, headded. He said as much as 50,000MW of electricity a day couldbe generated through Thar Coal reserves. Mubarakmand said anumber of foreign companies, including those of China, hadexpressed interest to invest in Thar Coal Project.

centre assures Balochistan of fullsupport for improving Gwadar Port

Pakistan failed to achievemajor policy objectives: WBg Mid-term report says fiscal situation deteriorated, current account improved slightly

Musharraf accorded full protocol at Pakistan’s embassy in BeijingISLAMABAD: The Pakistani embassy in Beijing accorded warm welcome and full protocol to former president General (r) PervezMusharraf. Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khan also hosted lunch in his honour. Reliable sources told Online thatalthough Interior Minister Rehman Malik had announced to contact Interpol for Musharraf’s arrest in Benazir Bhutto’s murder case,but on the contrary he was given full official protocol during his visit to the Pakistani Embassy in Beijing. Several notable Pakistanissettled in China were also invited in the reception on the occasion. The sources said that during his speech, Musharraf harshlycriticised President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, as well as Nawaz Sharif, chief of the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N). He also asked the people to support his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), and assured them that aftercoming into power, he would pull the country out of crises. The former president, besides meetings with high-ranking Chineseofficials, also delivered lectures on Pakistan -China relations and war against terrorism during his weeklong stay in China. onLine

Shujaat to file

reference

against PMl-lM ISLAMABAD

onLine

PML-Q PresidentChaudhry ShujaatHussain hasdecided to file areference againstPML-Likeminded’scollaboration withthe PML-N. TheLikeminded grouphad contactedPML-N PresidentNawaz Sharif onSaturday wherein they had made a formalannouncement of joining the ranks of thePML-N. The PML-Q leadership maintainsthat since general elections were around thecorner, the reference would be futile in suchcircumstances. When contacted, PML-QMPA Chaudhry Zaheeruddin said areference against Likeminded group in thePunjab Assembly was already under review;so there was no need for any furtherreferences. PML-Q spokesman Kamil AliAgha said since no leader of the PML-LM,excluding Kashmala Tariq, had made theirposition clear, it would be an exercise infutility to send a reference of illegibilityagainst just Kashmala.

Islamabad: a woman

carries her son as she walks

on a street in the federal

capital on mother’s day.

Pakistan celebrated mother’s

day on sunday to share their

sentiments and express love

for their mothers. AFP

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04Monday, 14 May, 2012

News

PeshAWAR: Police and rescue teams inspect the site of a bomb blast at chamkani police check post at Ring Road on sunday. INP

NEW DELHI/NEW YORKAgencies

MORE than ayear after itwas envis-aged, Indiaand Pak-

istan will get a hot line soonwhich will enable real-timeinformation sharing be-tween the two countries, au-thorities said on Sunday.

“The hot line will be setup between the home secre-taries of the two countries.The two top officials will beable to share real-time in-formation on terror and ter-rorists using this hot linethe sources said.

However, the final dateis yet to be fixed.

“On our part, we areready. We are waiting forPakistan’s response. Oncewe get the consent, the hotline will be set up,” thesources said.

The next home secre-tary-level talks betweenIndia and Pakistan areslated on May 24-25.

Meanwhile, sharing the

stage at Mastercard’s globalheadquarters in New York,the envoys to the UnitedNations from India andPakistan lauded effortsbeing made by their nationsto normalize trade rela-tions.

India’s Permanent Rep-resentative to the UN Hard-eep Singh Puri termed thedevelopment a “gamechanger” while his Pakistancounterpart, Abdullah Hus-sain Haroon said the twocountries should not “burnthe energies in hate”.

They spoke on the po-tential of such trade ties forthe two countries and theSouth Asian region.

Mastercard Worldwide’sIndia-born President andCEO Ajay Banga introducedthe two ambassadors. Purisaid effectively implement-ing the Most Favored Nation(MFN) clause would enabletrade and commerce to takeplace openly and freely. Ifproperly managed, it couldreally be a “game-changer”,he added.

Puri said the current bi-

lateral trade level of 2.6 bil-lion dollars is a “drop in theocean”, adding that it “doesnot make any sense” thatIndia’s trade with Pakistanis at such a low level whenthat with its other neigh-bors Bangladesh and SriLanka is much more.

Pakistan is a “very im-portant country, importantneighbor”, with which tradecan be increased in areaslike petroleum products,cotton seeds, electricity andIT sector, Puri said. The po-litical leadership in Indiaand the Pakistani govern-ments had now “resolved”to improve trade ties by dis-cussing ways to increasepeople-to-people contact,the MFN, Foreign Direct In-vestment and opening moretrade routes on the border,Puri said.

He, however, cautionedthe two countries have tobe “careful” as “there areentities and forces whichare not entirely on thesame page when it comesto normalisation of traderelations”.

India, Pakistan tohave hot line soon

ISLAMABADonLine

The government and Defiance Commit-tee of the cabinet are likely to decide infavor of the restoring NATO supply, asthe case is being seriously discussednowadays.

“The focus of the discussion is notwhether to restore NATO supply, but itis being assessed how it could be madefinancially bifacial as it costs Pakistanin terms of damaged infrastructure andother costs,” sources in the FinanceMinistry said.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilanihas already called a meeting of the DCCthis week. The meeting will also includediscussions on how to repair relationswith the US, ahead of NATO summit inChicago, diplomatic sources said.

In the Tri-Partite commissionmeeting among the military leadership

of Pakistan, ISAF and Afghanistan, dis-cussions on restoration of the supply toNATO in Afghanistan was also held.

The sources said Pakistan could notafford damaged relations with the sig-nificant part of the world and wantedto have effective say in the future andpeace of Afghanistan.

“So now the decision on restorationof the supply is near.”

However, the restoration wouldnever mean that problems come to anend, as Pakistan has to work hard forprotecting its national interest and sov-ereignty at the same time, a seniordiplomat said on condition ofanonymity.

Nevertheless, another senior offi-cial said nothing could be said conclu-sively about restoration of the NATOsupply.

Pakistan had blocked the supplyafter ISAF/NATO airstrikes on Salala

post killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on No-vember 26, causing a lull in Pakistani-US relations.

Islamabad decided to hand over re-viewing the ties with the US to parlia-ment, which submitted itsrecommendations demanding Wash-ington seek an unconditional apologyover the Salala incident.

After the DCC meeting, the cabinetwould announce the decision after ameeting on discussion on the issue,sources said.

Certain diplomats believe that theresolution of the issue before the NATOsummit on Afghanistan in Chicago onMay 21-22 would be desirable, as theNATO secretary general had made itclear that if the supply was not restoredbefore the meeting, Pakistan wouldlose an important opportunity to par-ticipate in the discussion on the futureof Afghanistan.

Decision on NATO supplieslikely in DCC meeting

And I remember the daywhen acid was thrown in theface of young girls going toschool and to see thatchange is really quite won-derful. Forty percent of thestudents in school inAfghanistan today are girls.And I think that is justgreat,” she said.THReATS: Talking aboutal Qaeda in the ArabianPeninsula, she said it wasthe top security threat to theUS and the bomb makerthought to have created atleast two non-metallic ex-plosive devices must bekilled to safeguard US na-tional security.

“I am hopeful that wewill be able to, candidly, kill

this bomb maker and killsome of these other associ-ates, because there is a dan-gerous process in play at thepresent time,” Feinsteinsaid.

The bombs, intended tobe smuggled aboard an air-craft undetected and thendetonated, bear the forensicsignature of suspected alQaeda bomb maker IbrahimHassan al-Asiri, who is be-lieved to be hiding inYemen, officials have said.

They said a bomb ob-tained in a recent intelli-gence operation appeared tobe an upgraded version ofthe so-called “underwearbomb” that failed to bringdown a passenger jet overDetroit on Christmas Day

2009.A bomber from the al

Qaeda affiliate in Yemensent to blow up a US-boundairliner last month was ac-tually a double agent whoinfiltrated the group andvolunteered for the suicidemission, intelligence agencyofficials have confirmed.

Saudi Arabia’s intelli-gence agency, working withBritish intelligence and theCIA, placed the operative in-side al Qaeda in the ArabianPeninsula, or AQAP, withthe goal of convincing hishandlers to give him a newtype of non-metallic bombfor the mission, officialssaid.

Western intelligenceagencies have identified

AQAP as among the mostdangerous and determinedal Qaeda affiliates in theworld, dedicated in part toattacks on the West.

The double agentarranged instead to deliverthe device to US and otherintelligence authoritieswaiting outside Yemen, theofficials said.

The main charge was ahigh-grade military explo-sive that “undoubtedlywould have brought downan aircraft”, the New YorkTimes reported, citing asenior US official.

Feinstein said a leakearly last week on the oper-ation to the AssociatedPress “is very serious”. “Theleak did endanger sourcesand methods, and the leak Ithink has to be prosecuted.”

“ ... It gives a tip off to

AQAP to be more carefulabout who they use as theircouriers, as their bombers.... Criminal charges will goto the Department of Jus-tice.”

Represenatative PeterKing, chairman of theHouse of RepresentativesHomeland Security Com-mittee, told CNN’s “State ofthe Union” the prematureleak of the operation to theAP was criminal and damag-ing.

“The FBI has to do a fulland complete investigationbecause this really is crimi-nal in the literal sense of theword to leak out this type ofsensitive, classified infor-mation on really almost un-paralleled penetration of theenemy,” King said.

“This was more secretthan any operation I’m fa-

miliar with, even more se-cret than (the assassinationof Osama) bin Laden.” Yet“the Associated Press appar-ently had the entire story.”

The leak put lives at riskand the operation had to becut short, King said. “Itsends a signal to countrieswilling to work with us thatwe can’t be trusted to keep asecret if in fact we are theones who leaked it out.”

“I think there was a bitof premature chest-thump-ing in this whole thing,”Representative MikeRogers, chairman of theHouse Intelligence Commit-tee, told CBS’s “Face the Na-tion.”

“No national securityoperation ever should beused for a headline underany circumstances,” sug-gesting someone with ties to

the intelligence communityhad sought political gainfrom the operation.

Feinstein was asked ifcurrent screening technol-ogy would necessarily iden-tify this kind of bomb on anairline passenger. “For thisparticular material,” shesaid, “candidly, no.”

“I think Americans haveto understand that this par-ticular kind of explosive,non-metallic, is not easilydetectable.”

Consequently the flyingpublic is going to have totolerate more invasivesearches, she said. “TheAmerican public has notbeen terribly sympathetic”to this, she said, but “it’svery important that TSA(the Transportation SecurityAdministration) keeps up itsefforts.”

Action against haqqanisCONTiNued frOM pAge 22

Islamabad’s unstable poli-tics is also creating hurdlesfor any sincere effort andwill not allow for solutions.

On the other hand, for-mer ambassador to the USHussain Haqqani is con-stantly giving impressionto the American establish-ment that he was still beingsupported by PresidentZardari and his words andsuggestions would be seri-ously considered by Islam-abad.

Sources close to thepresident confirmed thatHaqqani had no supportfrom the Presidency at all.

In a recent interviewwith CNN’s Farid Zakariya,Haqqani openly stated thatthe world should push Pak-istan more.

The repercussions ofthe delays and the wrongdecisions have started com-ing out into the open.

The NATO secretarygeneral has stated a coupleof days back that if the

NATO supplies were not al-lowed, Pakistan would notbe invited to the Chicagoconference, while a Houseof Representatives panelmoved on Wednesday tocut $800 million that wasrequested by the ObamaAdministration for a spe-cial fund for training andequipping Pakistan’s mili-tary in counterinsurgencytactics. The move appearsto be a reflection of weari-ness on the part of lawmak-ers toward the policymakers at the Foreign Of-fice. The other day, Con-

gressman DanaRohrabacher also intro-duced “Pakistan TerrorismAccountability Act of 2012”in Congress, proposing todeduct $50 million fromthe US aid to Islamabadevery time an Americanwas killed as a result of aterrorist act. The sourcesemphasized that if Pakistanneeded a real progress inre-engagement talks withthe US, it would have tomake adjustments at theForeign Office because in-decisiveness was costingPakistan heavily.

US punishing PakistanCONTiNued frOM pAge 1

eight mortar shells fired bynATo land inside PakistanMIRANSHAH: Eight mortar shells fired fromAfghanistan on Sunday reportedly landed in NorthWaziristan Agency. The mortar shells were fired by theNATO forces in Khost but landed in Ghulam Khanborder area adjacent to North Waziristan. According tosources, Pakistani security forces retaliated. However,no casualty was reported. The incident took place at atime when a tripartite commission comprisingPakistan, Afghanistan and ISAF high militarycommanders met over border security issues. inP

LAHOREAgencies

Pakistan Muslim LeagueLikeminded Punjab PresidentAta Muhammad Manikawithdrew his resignationfrom the post on Sunday.

Manika had resignedfrom his post on Saturdayover a dispute with the partyleadership on making elec-toral alliance with the PML-

N. PML Likeminded GeneralSecretary Humayun Akhtarmet Manika to resolve thematter. Taking to reporters,Manika said the party did notconsult him regarding elec-toral alliance. A party state-ment said Manika wouldcontinue to hold the office ofparty’s Punjab president.Praising his services Akhtarsaid leaders like him were anasset for the party.

Likeminded’s Manika

withdraws resignation

Gilani concludes

5-day UK visit

LONDONAgencies

Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani on Sundayleft for Pakistan afterconcluding his five-dayofficial visit to the UnitedKingdom. The primeminister was seen off bysenior officials of theBritish government at theHeathrow Airport. HighCommissioner to the UKWajid Shamsul Hassanand his counterpart inIslamabad AdamThomson were alsopresent. Gilani during hisstay in London heldenhanced strategicdialogue with his Britishcounterpart and attendedthe state opening of theBritish parliament by theQueen.He met the members ofthe British Cabinet andthe foreign minister,besides interacting withPakistani community inthe UK.

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05Monday, 14 May, 2012

News

KARAchi: Activists of Jafria students set on fire the flags of United states and israel during a protest outside Press club on the eve of nakba Day (Arabic: Yawm-an-nakbah,

meaning ‘day of the catastrophe’). the nakba Day is commemorated on May 15 that marks israel’s independence day (Yom ha'atzmaut). for the Palestinians it is an annual

day of commemoration of the displacement that followed the israeli Declaration of independence in 1948. INP

SIALKOTstAff RePoRt

THE Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) onSunday organised a rally at-tended by thousands of peo-ple to protest against the

power outages in the country. The rallystarted from the PML-N’s central office atParis Road and ended at the congestedAllama Iqbal Chowk after passingthrough all the main inter-city roads ofSialkot. PML-N leader and member of theNational Assembly (MNA) KhawajaMuhammad Asif led the rally, which wasattended by all the MNAs and MPAs be-

longing to the opposition party fromSialkot district. They reached the venuewith their special convoys of buses andvans, carrying party workers to partici-pate in the anti-government and anti-load shedding rally.

Reportedly, more than 12,000 peo-ple attended the rally. They chanted slo-gans such as “Go Zardari Go” and “GoGilani Go”. The traffic remained blockedfor about two hours on various inter-cityroads, as protesters burnt tyres on sev-eral points. The protesters, wearingblack armbands and carrying placards,also staged peaceful sit-in demonstra-tion at Allama Iqbal Chowk Sialkot, andstrongly condemned 20 hours of power

outages in Sialkot. Addressing the rally participants,

MNA Khawaja Muhammad Asif con-demned the government for failing torein in the worst energy crisis, which hadmarred the industry in the export-ori-ented city. He said the prolonged poweroutages had badly affected the industrialproduction, due to which thousands of fe-male industrial workers were becomingjobless. Most of the factories in Sialkothave already closed two out of total threeproduction and working shifts. The re-maining third shift has also been badlyaffected by the daily 20 to 22 hours of un-scheduled power and gas load sheddingin the city.

2 tribesmen killed,

four injured in Tirah

Valley clashes BARA

inP

Two militants were killed and four wereinjured when two rival banned militantgroups opened fire at each other in KhyberAgency’s Tirah Valley on Sunday. Officialssaid two rival banned groups in Tirah gotinto a fierce gun battle, resulting in thekilling of two militants and injuries to fourothers. The Lashkar-e-Islam led byMangal Bagh and Ansar-ul-Islam are twomajor rival outfits in the area and bothgroups have been intermittently killingeach other’s members on variousoccasions. A few days ago, two bodies ofyouths were recovered in Bara tehsil ofKhyber who had been kidnapped earlier. Aletter attached to the bodies warned localsthat whoever extended help to theLashkar-e-Islam would face the same fate.Meanwhile, the Lashkar-e-Islam alsoannounced to avenge the killing andblamed Ansar-ul-Islam for the incident.On the other hand, tribesmen havebecome fed up with the prevailinguncertainty in the region and havemigrated to other settled areas of Pakistan.

JSQM holds sit-in

protest at BabarlouSUKKUR

nni

The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM)staged a sit-in protest at Babarlou on Sundayagainst the “vague” post-mortem report oftheir deceased party chairman BashirAhmed Qureshi. The party workers alongwith their leader Niaz Kalani protested at theNational Highway, suspending traffic toPunjab and Balochistan from Karachi. Theprotesters chanted slogans against thegovernment and burnt tyres. Thousands ofprotesters attended the demonstrationdespite the intense heat of the day. TheJSQM demanded fair investigation into itschairman’s demise.

MANSEHRAinP

Three passengers were killed and 20 others injuredwhen a passenger bus fell into a ravine in Gandhianarea of Mansehra on Sunday.

Police said the passenger bus was on way fromLahore to Batagram when it had an accident nearGandhian on Shahrah-e-Karakoram.

The driver lost control of the bus while negoti-ating a sharp turn, forcing the bus into a ravine.

Resultantly, three passengers were killed and20 were wounded. A large number of residents ofthe valley reached the scene and helped in rescueoperation. The injured were shifted to King Abdul-lah Hospital in Mansehra, whereas those in criticalcondition were shifted to Ayub Medical ComplexHospital, Abbottabad.

Sources said the bus had dropped off most pas-sengers at an earlier stop, bringing the count onboard to 24 passengers. Doctors said none of the in-jured was in a critical condition.

PESHAWAR stAff RePoRt

The Awami National Party (ANP)strengthened its position in Hazaradivision when influential relatives oflate parliamentarian Ayub Khan ofAlayee Batagram announced joiningthe party on Sunday.

Akbar Namoos Khan and ZubairKhan, on behalf of the influentialfeudal and political family fromBatagram, announced joining theANP in a public meeting.

Akbar is the son of late parlia-mentarian Ayub Khan and brotherof MNA Prince Mohammad NawazKhan of Alayee while Zubair is theson of Fateh Mohammad Khan whowas member of the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Assembly in 1985,

1988, 1990, 1993 and 1997. Prince Nawaz represents people

of Batagram in the National Assem-bly. So far Prince Nawaz has not an-nounced joining the ANP as he isticket holder of the PML-Q but he islikely to endorse the family’s deci-sion on expiry of his parliamentaryterm.

Earlier, the ANP made its routesto Hazara division when another in-fluential family headed by formerprovincial minister Haji Moham-mad Yousaf Khan Tarand joinedhands with its leader. Tarand is rep-resenting the electorate in provin-cial assembly. Similarly, two of thethree Kohistan MPAs and two fromHaripur are also occupying treasuryseats as they announced joining theANP soon after February 2008 gen-

eral elections. One of Kohistan MPAeven elected on ANP ticket to theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

Chief Minister Amir HaiderKhan Hoti also addressed the publicmeeting in which he announced Rs460 million development packagefor Batagram district. He said with-out any discrimination, he believedin equal distribution of develop-ment funds and determined to re-store peaceful atmosphere andensure due progress and prosperityopportunity to people from all 24districts of the province.

Welcoming the influential fam-ily into the ANP, Hoti recalled thatthe ANP came to power in theprovince after a struggle of 64 years.

Since independence, ANP be-come second coalition partner in

couple of democratic governmentbut its leaders were not in positionto enforce their party agenda. Thistime, the ANP after coming intopower has not only declared a waron terror but even its leaders havesecured the name for provincial,provincial rights and succeeded inimplementation of its agenda re-garding reforms.

Hoti said in connection with ef-forts for return of peace, the ANPrendered sacrifices of its more than450 workers including active lead-ers and parliamentarians. He saidthey were firm on their offers of di-alogues. In this respect, he urged allmilitants to review their policiesand come on table for resolving ofthe issues as gun’s and bullets com-plicate issues instead of resolving.

PML-N takes to Sialkotstreets against power outages

Batagaram influentials join ANP

3 killed, 20 injured in Mansehra bus crash

PML-N to rid Sindh of dacoitsand terrorists: Nawaz

THATTA: Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) PresidentNawaz Sharif said on Sunday thathis party would rid Sindh of dacoitsand terrorists after coming intopower. In a telephonic address to aPML-N rally at Thatta, Nawaz saidthat “protests will continue as longas a convicted person holds the of-fice of prime minister.” He under-scored that policies of the presentrulers had led to a surge in poverty,inflation and unemployment. Theformer two-time prime ministersaid that Sindh would prosper if thePML-N came into power. ThePML-N chief said that “Daku Raj”(dacoits’ rule) would be rooted outin Sindh and the province would becleansed of terrorists. inP

haqqani disassociates

himself from Memo

commission

WASHINGTONonLine

Former ambassador to theUS Hussain Haqqani hasannounced immediatedisassociation from theMemo Commission. Duringan interview with a privateTV channel on Sunday, hesaid he had announced hisdecision in view that theconstitution did not cater toany such commission Heblamed former ISI DG ShujaPasha for being discriminatory regarding floating a wrongimpression of a major investigation mission, which hadproved that statements of Mansoor Ejaz were true. “Pashahimself confessed that he had conducted no (advance)investigations, and verdicts are certainly not based on mereassumptions,” he protested. He said he was alsodisassociating himself from the commission’s investigations,because the forensic investigations ordered by commissionon the scheduled date of March 19 were delayed. “TheMemo Commission secretary and my lawyers were presentat the time, while the secretary commission departed forPakistan, rather stealthily,” he complained “hence what’s theneed for any forensic tests now”? he implored. He alsohighlighted the exposure of a fraudster like Mansoor Ejaz,who had failed to present any proofs of his claims.

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06Monday, 14 May, 2012

News

PeshAWAR: A man performs a stunt during the annual Urs celebrations of hazarat nosho Pak at Yakatoot on sunday. ONLINE

DALOIPARAAfP

Bangladesh can justly claim to be a nationborn of language, but its status as a cradleof linguistic diversity is under threat fromnationalist pride and economic growth.

Of the more than 30 recognised lan-guages spoken in Bangladesh, experts say20 are now on the verge of extinction.

Many like the Laleng language spo-ken by the 2,000-strong Patra tribe in thecountry's far northeast are inherently vul-nerable, having no script and relying in-stead on a rich but fragile oral traditionof folk songs and story telling.

The current head of the tribe, Lax-man Lal Patra, smiles as he talks of aLaleng lullaby his mother used to singwhen he was a child but then frowns as hetries to recall the actual words, eventuallymanaging just a single verse.

"Our fairy-tales, poems and songs aregone as we don't have a written script topreserve them. Even my daughter-in-lawthese days hums Bangla lullabies to mygrandson," the 70-year-old said.

Bangla, or Bengali, is the undisputedheavyweight in Bangladesh's linguisticarena, spoken by 95 percent of the popu-lation and the sole passport to a decent

education and career.National pride in the Bangla language

runs deep and is cemented with the bloodof the "language martyrs" -- students shotdead by police on February 21, 1952,when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan.

The students were protesting thePakistani government's Urdu-only policyand demanding that Bangla be recog-nised as an official language.

The deaths triggered the start of a na-tionalist struggle that finally ended withthe creation of Bangladesh after victoryin the 1971 independence war with Pak-istan. February 21 is feted as a heroic na-tional holiday in Bangladesh and isdesignated by UNESCO as InternationalMother Language Day to highlight theethno-linguistic rights of people aroundthe world. But now Bangla's dominancein schools, the workplace and cultural lifein general is threatening those rights inBangladesh itself.

"Most of us can still talk in Laleng.But we're learning Bangla fast, replacingeven the most essential Laleng words,"said Patra. "Young boys pick up Banglaexpressions from schools and Bengalineighbours and never forget."

An expanding economy, which hasbrought roads, electricity and television

sets to all but the remotest villages, hashelped smother the life out of indigenouslanguages that were already strugglingfor survival.

Dhaka University Linguistics profes-sor Shourav Sikder, whose 2011 book "In-digenous Languages of Bangladesh"highlights the seriousness of the situa-tion, reels off a long list of languages thatare now dead or dying. "No one talks inMahali, Malto, Razoar and Rajbangshithese days," he said, laying the blamesquarely on the overriding state patron-age and promotion of Bangla. Accordingto Shikder, only two tribal languages canclaim to be secure, largely thanks to thefact that they have written scripts.

Mesbah Kamal, whose Research andDevelopment Collective charity workswith indigenous people, believes the lossof tribal languages verges on "culturalgenocide" given the loss of identity thatinevitably follows. "And if the indigenouspeople lose their language, it's not onlytheir loss," Kamal said.

"We are also losing diversity and plu-rality in our cultural life, and that willcreate intolerance.

"Our students fought for the rights oftheir mother language, thanks to whichwe've got an independent Bangladesh.

Yet it's a shame that on the same landother languages are dying out fast,"Kamal said. The government rejects accu-sations of neglect, with Cultural AffairsSecretary Suraiya Begum insisting thattribal groups "have scope to practice theirlanguage and culture" through a varietyof state-run bodies.

Begum particularly pointed to the In-ternational Mother Language Institute

set up in 2001 to preserve and study theethnic languages spoken in Bangladeshand across the world. But critics say suchinstitutions are mere window dressing,and totally ignore the ground realities ofBangla's steamroller dominance. "Mybeautiful language is dying," said Patra."Our young people have turned theirbacks on it. To them jobs and educationare everything."

APcA demands to

be accepted: federal

finance secy

ISLAMABADstAff RePoRt

A delegation of All Pakistan ClerksAssociation, led by its centralpresident Ch Muhammad Afzal, held ameeting with Federal FinanceSecretary Abdul Wajid Rana and histeam members, including JointSecretary Muhammad Hanif, DeputySecretary Wajahat Zamir, AccountsOfficer Syed Shahid Akhtar andSection Officer Arshad Javed, anddiscussed with them APCA’s charter ofdemands. APCA Central SecretarySyed Fida Asghar, Central ChairmanCh Ghulam Rasul Warraich, APCABalochistan President Munir AhmedBaloch, Sindh President Rasul BakhshBarohi and Central Additional GeneralSecretary Muhammd SultanMujadadee were among those whoattended the meeting. The federalsecretary told the APCA delegationthat all the genuine demands of thelow-paid employees would be givendue considerations. He added that asummary for the restoration ofselection grade and time-scalepromotions was being forwarded tothe federal cabinet for approval. Healso assured the delegation thatrecommendations in this regard hadalso been sought from theEstablishment Division.

Targeted killings

ended in Karachi,

claims Malik

KARACHIonLine

Interior Minister Rehman Malik andSindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim AliShah held a telephonic conversation onSunday and discussed the overallsecurity situation in Karachi and Sindh.During the conversation, Malik claimedthat there were no more targetedkillings in the city after the arrest ofserial killers.Malik directed Shah to ensure lives ofthe people of Lyari, where recently 25people, including policemen, had beenkilled, and 69 others were injuredduring the weeklong operation launchedby the police and Frontier Corps (FC).A considerable number of peoplemanaged to evacuate the area during thedeadly operation.

KABULinP

AFGHAN President HamidKarzai on Sunday an-nounced a new transfer ofsecurity control fromNATO that will see local

forces take responsibility for 75 percentof Afghanistan’s population.

Kapisa province, where Frenchtroops are based, will be among 11provinces to come under Afghan control,a statement from the president’s officesaid. It is the third phase of the transi-tion of military control in the war-torncountry and another step towards thewithdrawal of 130,000 US-led NATOtroops by the end of 2014.

NATO Secretary General AndersFogh Rasmussen welcomed the move.

“The completion of transition at theend of 2014 will mark the end of NATO’s

combat role, but not the end of our en-gagement,” he said in a statement.“NATO is committed to an enduringpartnership with Afghanistan, and toproviding the training which the Afghanforces will still need, beyond 2014.”

The commander of NATO’s Interna-tional Security Assistance Force (ISAF),US General John Allen, also voiced sup-port for the latest stage of the five-phasetransition process.

“President Karzai’s announcement ofthe third group of areas to enter transi-tion is a testament to the capacity and ca-pability of the Afghan National SecurityForce (ANSF),” he said. “Afghanistancontinues to move forward in securingthe sovereign future of their country andthe security of its borders, and this is an-other step in bringing the hope of greaterprosperity to the Afghan people.”

ISAF noted that the completeprocess of transition in an area can take

12-18 months. Government officials saidthe third phase would start immediately.

The list of areas intended for thethird tranche covers 122 districts, bring-ing the total number of districts to 260in all 34 provinces. Every capital of everyprovince is now in a designated area oftransition, ISAF said.

“In today’s national security councilmeeting it was decided 11 provinces willbe transitioned in the handover, includ-ing Kapisa, Uruzgan and Parwan,” pres-idential spokesman Aimal Faizi told anews conference.

Australian forces currently have thelead in Uruzgan province.

“Seventy-five percent of the popula-tion will come under local security con-trol,” by the end of the phase, said Faizi.

The first two tranches -- the first inJuly last year -- have already put 50 per-cent of the population under Afghancontrol.

Bangladesh tribals fear linguistic 'genocide'

Afghans to take more military control in new transition: Karzai

A Patra tribal villager walks past a traditional home at Daliopara some 220kms fromDhaka. Many like the Laleng language spoken by the 2,000-strong Patra tribe in thecountry's far northeast are inherently vulnerable, having no script and relying insteadon a rich but fragile oral tradition of folk songs and story telling. AFP

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Monday, 14 May, 2012

Jinnah road: national ArmsExCERPT FROM ‘INSTANT CITy’

07

KARACHIonLine/APP

MASJID-E-TAWWABEENkhateeb Maulana AslamSheikhupuri and two of hisguards were gunned downby unidentified assailants

in a drive-by in Bahadurabad policeprecincts, bringing the death toll of the dayto nine on Sunday.

Police said that the incident took placenear the Rangoonwala Hall in the Dhorajiarea. They said that four men on two mo-torcycles intercepted the car carryingSheikhupuri and four of his guards. Theculprits opened fire on both sides of the ve-hicle, they added.

Everyone in the car suffered bulletwounds and they were immediately takento the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre,where Sheikhupuri and two of his guardssuccumbed to their injuries, said a policeofficer.

Sheikhupuri’s aide Maulana Sahibud-din Azam said that Sheikhupuri was also afaculty member of Jamia Binoria andJamiatur Rasheed.

Moreover, he was a visiting teacher toseveral institutions, including Al QuranCourses Centre in Bahadurabad where hedelivered Dars-e-Quran to ladies everySunday. He is survived by two widows, fivesons and a daughter.

Besides Sheikhupuri, at least four peo-ple were gunned down in separate areas ofthe metropolitan. Police said that two menwere shot dead in Landhi after abduction.

They said that the ages of the victimswere between 32 and 35 years. One of thedeceased was identified as Shah Faisal, theyadded.

Separately, a member of a politicalparty was shot dead and two others injuredin Korangi Sector D. The deceased wasidentified as Sultan.

In another incident, a man was shotdead on the Rashid Minhas Road. More-over, in the Jauharabad area, three peoplewere wounded in an incident of firing byunidentified culprits.BODY FOUND: In the Liaquatabad area,a man who was abducted three days agowas found dead on Sunday. Police said thatthe deceased was around 60 years old,whereas his identity is not yet known.ARReSTS: Personnel of the PakistanRangers-Sindh launched a targeted opera-tion in the Manghopir area and arrestedseveral suspects.

The paramilitary force launched the op-eration on the information provided byTehreek-e-Taliban militants arrested twodays ago from Baldia Town. Sourcesclaimed that those detained on Sunday alsobelong to the same terrorist outfit.

SEVEN MORE TARGETED IN METRO

Mosque khateeb, two guards fall

victim to drive-by

KARACHIPRess ReLeAse

PERVEZ Musharraf destroyedpeace in Balochistan, said Fed-eral Science & Technology Min-ister Mir Changez Khan Jamaliat the 2nd Corporate Ambassa-

dor Awards 2012, where the minister wasthe chief guest.

He said that Musharraf is responsiblefor the situation that the nation is cur-rently witnessing in Balochistan.

“There was no need to make our ownpeople our enemies. We know the motivesof the external forces that want to desta-bilise Pakistan and we should not supportthese evil forces,” he added.

Jamali said that Balochistan is the fu-

ture of Pakistan and that the province hasan enormous potential of growth and in-vestment.

He said that Balochistan could turninto a Manchester or a Dubai in the fu-ture, if things return to normal there.

“I belong to Balochistan, and myheart bleeds when I see disturbance andthe critical law and order situation there.We have inherited filth of the past,” headded.

The minister said that the govern-ment is making its utmost efforts to bringthe situation of Balochistan back to nor-malcy.

He also said that he has demandedfunds of over Rs 100 billion from the gov-ernment in the coming budget to magnifydevelopment in the science and technol-

ogy field.“A few days ago, I held a meeting with

the deputy chairman of the PlanningCommission and asked him to earmark atleast one percent of the gross domesticproduct – a little over Rs 100 billion – forthe development of science and technol-ogy in Pakistan,” he added.

He said that adequate funds must beallocated in the new budget to promotedevelopment of science and technology inthe country.

He further said that by December2011, the number of people using the In-ternet increased to 2.1 billion and 44 per-cent of them are Asians.

About 555 million websites are avail-able online, whereas in 2011 alone, 300million new websites were created all over

the world, he added.In other words, he continued, more

than 50 percent of the global websiteswere created in 2011, which shows a ro-bust growth just in one field of the mod-ern technology.

Former Karachi Chamber of Commerce& Industry president Majyd Aziz said thatthe government must make serious effortsto promote technology in Pakistan.

He said that there is enormous poten-tial of growth and investment in the fieldof science and technology in the country.

He urged the science & technologyminister to use his influence to motivatethe government to support developmentof technology and exports.

Later, the minister gave awards toSilkbank, EFU General Insurance, Majyd

Aziz, showbiz icon Roomi Syed, perform-ing arts expert Faisal Malik, National Cen-tre for Maritime Policy Research DirectorGeneral Pervaiz Asghar, and senior diplo-matic affairs journalist Zahid Karani.

Other dignitaries and organisationsthat received awards or shields includedPower Group Director Muhammad AshrafShaheen, senior business journalist ErumZaidi, Citi Bank Security Chief Col (retd)Sabahuddin Chaudhry, the Pakistan Na-tional Accreditation Council, the PakistanStandards & Quality Control Authority,the Pakistan Council for Scientific & In-dustrial Research, Corporate AmbassadorAssociate Editor Muttahir A Khan (whowas also the host of the function), and co-host Samreen Hameed.

PictURe on PAge 10

Musharraf destroyed peace in Balochistan

No more targetedkillings in city: Malik

KARACHIonLine

Interior Minister RehmanMalik and Sindh Chief Minis-ter Syed Qaim Ali Shah had atelephonic conversation re-garding the overall situation ofSindh, especially Karachi.Malik claimed that there wereno longer targeted killings inthe province’s capital after thearrest of several murderers. Hedirected Shah to ensure protec-tion of the lives of the people ofLyari, where at least 25 people,including policemen, were re-cently killed and 69 others in-jured in the week-longoperation launched by law en-forcers.

JUI-F chief condemns

Sheikhupuri’s murderKARACHI

APP

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (FazlurRehman) chief Maulana FazlurRehman has condemned the as-sassination of Maulana AslamSheikhupuri and urged the gov-ernment to arrest his murderers.In a statement issued on Sun-day, Rehman said that the mur-der of Sheikhupuri in broaddaylight would create a sense ofinsecurity among ulema andother religious leaders. He saidthat brilliant people likeSheikhupuri are born indecades. Rehman urged hisparty members to remain calmand not take the law into theirown hands.

officials inspect the car in which Maulana Aslam

Sheikhupuri was shot dead on Sunday. ONLINE

KHI 14-05-2012_Layout 1 5/14/2012 1:59 AM Page 7

karachi08PakistaN today

Monday, 14 May, 2012

WE have only begun to recount themultiple events of December 28, butthe Ashura bombing alone demandssome explanation.

Authorities made their first efforts to assign somemeaning to the blast well before the day reached itsdisastrous conclusion.

Early media reports quoted government officialswho blamed a “suicide bomber”. Pakistan’s interiorminister Rehman Malik said that the bomber hadlinks to two militant groups, including Pakistan’s ver-sion of the Taliban.

The Taliban soon claimed responsibility, also de-scribing it as a suicide attack. Evidence, however,began pointing in another direction.

Federal investigators studied steel nuts that werestrewn on the road – the same ones Faisal Edhi hadnoticed – and the nuts made them doubt that a sui-cide bomber was responsible.

Hundreds of nuts were too heavy to carry asshrapnel. When choosing a final wardrobe, investiga-tors believed, the discriminating suicide bomberwould prefer lightweight ball bearings.

Karachi police gained more analysis in the daysthat followed when a businessman came to see them.He brought along a computer scientist, a Fulbrightscholar back from getting his doctorate in the UnitedStates, where he had studied the computer recon-struction of suicide bombings.

After the police took the scholar to study the cor-ner by the banyan tree, the young man said that the“casualty pattern” didn’t fit with a suicide attack.

Even more proof came in the form of torn metalfragments. They originated from the box of Quranicscripture. Video images from before the blast showedan Edhi ambulance parked beside the box.

Images taken afterward showed the ambulancecrumpled like an aluminium can, but still parked inplace. The box was gone, blown apart, with piecesflung outward in all directions.

The explosion could only have come from insideit, likely detonated by remote control. A dead boy whohad been mistakenly described as a suicide bomberwas identified as a Boy Scout.

Police eventually dismissed the Taliban as sus-pects, instead linking the attack to a little-known Pak-istani militant group with ties to al Qaeda.

We will see as our story unfolds that this militantgroup was originally organised to punish Pakistan’sgovernment for cooperating with the United States inhunting down militants.

So if the police were correct, we can read the at-tack as one bloody episode in al Qaeda’s long war withthe West.

But on another level, the Ashura bombing had lit-tle to do with the West. No Americans were targeted.The bombers did not even directly strike America’s al-lies in the Pakistani government, instead wiping outcommon citizens on the street.

People in the United States barely noticed the at-tack, which received only brief coverage in the midstof the American holiday season. (Americans were farmore concerned about the so-called underwearbomber who’d been caught with explosives in hispants on a US-bound plane that Christmas.)

The Ashura bombing was instead an atrocitystaged for a local audience, in which attackers and vic-tims alike were Muslims.

We may better understand it as part of a long bat-tle within Islam, as well as a struggle for power inPakistan. The details of the attack – the targeting of avulnerable minority, the state’s failure to provide ef-fective security, and explosives placed with awfulsymbolism in a box of damaged Qurans – reflecteddisturbing trends through much of the modern Mus-lim world.

They also reflected Pakistan’s own peculiar prob-lems. In this expressly Islamic state, well over 90 per-cent of the populace shares the same basic faith, yetthroughout Pakistan’s history, as we will see, that sur-face unity has masked great diversity and deep divi-sions.

The divisions are especially evident in Karachi,which, after receiving migrants from many places, isPakistan’s most diverse city.

Karachi also faces a diversity of conflicts, whichcame into play after the Ashura bombing. A secondevent extended the day’s destruction, and revealedmore of the competing pressures that shape the in-stant city.

Rival politicians, businessmen, soldiers, andthugs jostle for power and land. Religion, while ofteninvoked, is just one of several social divides; peopleare at least as likely to be split by their class, the loca-tion of their ancestral village, or the language theyspeak at home.

Few people trust the government to mediate theirdifferences. All these conflicts combine and intensifyone another, like pouring chemicals on a buildingthat’s already on fire, creating unpredictable confla-grations that define life and death in Karachi.

A conflagration on December 28 left scars thatwere visible for months afterward along Jinnah Road.When I moved along that road from the banyan treein 2010, one of the first buildings I came to was the

old city hall.At the curb behind it, I discovered a line of pickup

trucks belonging to the city fumigation service. Eachtruck bed carried insecticide-spraying machinery.

The windows of each truck’s cab were broken, andthe insides blackened by fire. “Eighteen,” a securityguard said when he noticed me counting trucks.“There are eighteen of them.”

Farther down Jinnah Road, I found long stonebuildings, three and four stories high. This was awholesale district. Anything from clothes and chairsto appliances and balloons was sold in hundreds ofshops along Jinnah Road.

But I saw gaps in the otherwise crowded land-scape. Daylight showed through the archways on thefaçades of a row of stone buildings.

Through the doorways, I saw a field of rubble. Thebuildings behind the façades were gone. Next to therubble was a piece of corner real estate that I knewhad held a market not long ago.

Now it was a parking area covered with motorcy-cles. I turned onto a narrow side street, which led intoan even narrower street, where the buildings offeredshade and shelter from the brutality of the sun.

Here I encountered a shopkeeper named KhalidRashid. He wore the Pakistani clothing known as ashalwar kameez, a long loose shirt over baggy pants,with white fabric as sweat-stained as my own shirt.

Rashid had bags under his steady dark eyes. Hismoustache curved upward in a smile. Though we’dnever met, he sent someone running for a cold drinkand welcomed me into his plastics shop.

He sold simple items like stools; we spoke whilesitting on two of them. But he had very little inventorythat day.

Rashid was just beginning to repair the place,where he’d done business from 1971 until December28, 2009, when the shop burned during a massiveepisode of arson.

The fires spread along the route we have justtraced, beginning at the banyan tree. Minutes afterthe Ashura blast, people began breaking into theclosed stores in the Lighthouse Bazaar.

They pried open the corrugated metal gate to astore selling bolts of cloth and shiny men’s suits. Theshop reached far back into the building; the men setit all on fire.

Other shops were torched the same way. Somepeople crossed the street from the bazaar to the oldcity hall. They smashed the windows of the city fumi-gation trucks parked by the building and torchedthem one after another.

Soon the flames reached a portion of the buildingitself. Fire trucks began arriving within minutes, butthe crews were quickly driven away by the enragedsurvivors.

“There was fire all around,” remembered FaisalEdhi of the ambulance service. “I was there about oneand a half hours. We were asking the fire brigade tofight against the fire, but they were not present there;they were afraid to come.” They only came later, and“the markets were burned by that time.”

The thousands of police and paramilitary troopsalong the route made little effort to control the situa-tion, choosing instead to make a tactical retreat.

In the video room at the Civic Centre, BobbyMemon and the police officials saw the chaos unfold-ing and made no effective response.

In Memon’s view, it was a simple lack of coordi-nation. “We always talk about that in a city likeKarachi, there should be a central command system;they should have a camera working; and that shouldbe linked to the barricade – should be linked to theambulances – linked to the hospitals. And that’s onlywhere you can respond to a crisis situation,” he said.

Any police officer watching those screens “wasjust in there watching. If something happened, whatwere they going to do?”

Other accounts suggested that the chain of com-mand worked only too well – and that it restrainedthe police from acting.

A Pakistani newspaper, The News International,reported that police requested permission to shootthe arsonists and were refused.

Officials feared that if they responded to the vio-lence with force, the situation would escalate and thewhole city would explode.

During that first hour after the blast, two dozenor more men appeared on Jinnah Road. Many wereabout a mile ahead of where the parade had stopped– on the far side of the old city hall.

Here they stood between long grand buildings ofyellow stone – Gizri stone, it was called, after the lo-cation of the quarry that produced it.

This was the wholesale district, known as BoltonMarket. The men broke into National Arms, a storethat had sold weapons on this spot since 1948, andmade off with Chinese- and Turkish-made handguns.

They broke into a second gun store. Some menhad torches. Soon entire buildings were in flames.Television crews broadcast much of this live, whichwas how the shopkeeper Khalid Rashid learned of thedestruction of his property.

Rashid began the Ashura holiday at home. Therehe saw video images of the fires, and told me that “theRangers and police were there, but were saying they

couldn’t do anything.”

Like other shopkeepers, he rushed to JinnahRoad, but was blocked by the police who had cor-doned off the area. Behind the police cordon, the fireswere spreading.

“We said if you are unable to do something, giveyour weapons to us and we will defend our stores,”Rashid recalled. “We tried to come, but the policeturned us aside. Not until 10 o’clock in the eveningdid we get here and see what happened with ourshops.”

Rashid’s shop was destroyed and smoking; acrossthe narrow street, a five-storey building was burning.He told me how he watched as the fire worked its waydownward from the top.

“Five floors! Then it burned the fourth, then thethird, step by step down to the ground.” The buildingwas full of plastic goods that burned uncontrollably.

Once the fire crews felt secure enough to operate,they moved from one burning building to another, yetthe fires did not die.

Mustafa Kamal, the young mayor of Karachi,moved among the fire-fighters, offering exhortationsand encouragement.

It was much too late. The fires burned all nightand for several days afterward. Hundreds of shopswere destroyed. More than a dozen people were killedin the chaos on the streets.

“Who do you think did all the burning?” I askedRashid, the plastic seller. “I just don’t understand,”he replied.

He reminded me that the fires in the Bolton Mar-ket only seemed to have spread to one side of JinnahRoad. “You will see that all the shops on the right sideare affected. Not a single shop on the left side wasburnt. Not a single shutter was broken.”

That was one of many observations that shop-keepers made to each other as they speculated thatcertain buildings or blocks might have been deliber-ately targeted.

A question began forming in their minds – aquestion without any firm foundation, but one shop-keeper after another was asking it. Was someone try-ing to clear off certain properties for later use? Theirquestion was spreading like the fires.

Flames and smoke still rose over Bolton Market,visible for miles through Karachi’s haze, as policebegan to investigate.

Agents from Pakistan’s equivalent of the FBI ar-rived up the street at the Lighthouse Centre; we havealready glimpsed them, peering at steel nuts and deadbodies.

They were joined by the special investigationsunit of the Karachi police, which handles terrorismcases. The anti-terrorism specialists who focused onthe bombing case did not examine the fires at all, clas-sifying them as, essentially, unrelated crimes.

“There are two different things,” said Raja UmerKhattab, a senior superintendent of police, when wetalked about the case.

“One is the blast, and the second is after theblast.” He told me that separate investigators were as-signed to the fires, and their examination producedonly the arrests of a few Shia Muslims, in line with thepolice theory of the case – the fires were set by peoplein the procession who were enraged by the bombing.

This explanation appeared to satisfy almost no-body outside the police force. Abbas Kumeli, the ShiaMuslim leader, argued that the theory made no sense.

Granted, the Shia marchers were standing thereat the Lighthouse Centre, where some of the fires tookplace, but the marchers were nowhere near the BoltonMarket.

Why had the worst fires been set there? Why

would angry Shia marchers walk past a mile of build-

ings and leave them all untouched, then start lightingfires again? In the absence of a convincing official ex-planation, people were already supplying their own.

In search of more information, I visited the localoffice of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.To get there, I had to climb a set of concrete stairs toan open-air walkway, overlooking a courtyard.

Off to my right stood the half-demolished stonefaçade of some 19th-century building from Britishcolonial times. To my left was an apartment building,darkened by pollution, but full of life.

Half a dozen girls crowded onto one of the bal-conies, giggling as they taught each other how to puton makeup. Their laughter reverberated across thecourtyard, which had been turned into a parking lot,blocked by a red-and-white gate and watched by rifle-men who provided an illusion of security.

In the commission’s offices, the electricity hadgone out and the temperature was around 40.5 de-grees Celsius. The man I had come to see led the wayto a conference table in the breeze near an open win-dow.

His name was Abdul Hai. In the days after thefires, he was part of a Human Rights Commissionteam that conducted its own interviews with shop-keepers and others.

Their report, released on January 9, 2010, in-cluded this provocative paragraph – After interview-ing and listening [to] the sufferers’ point of view, theteam was of the opinion that the burning and lootingwas pre-planned and was done by 25 to 30 personswho were fully trained and were possessing steel cut-ters, tools, fire arms and chemicals. It is very impor-tant to note that [the] procession of mourners afterthe bomb blast passed away and there was none ofthem at burning and looting sites.

An operation that was pre-planned? It was astrong statement in an otherwise carefully worded re-port. A covering note minimised its key finding.

“This report is a mere compilation of the views ofpeople affected directly by the attack.” Not, in otherwords, any sort of official conclusion.

Abdul Hai made a copy of his report on theAshura bombing and gave me a chance to look it over.He emphasised again that the report simply passedon the claims of shopkeepers.

“I have no opinion,” he said, gradually becomingmore vague and evasive, or so it seemed to me. Ipressed him politely.

He was a professional; he knew Karachi; he hadtalked with victims, some of whom may have wit-nessed the fires; he had even issued this report.

What did he think might have happened? Whowas responsible for burning several blocks of the city?Some kind of mafia, he said. And who might that be?“Ah,” he said, in a tone that suggested, ‘Now there’sthe hard part.’

“Everybody knows, but nobody will tell you,” hesaid. “These mafias are all under the shelter of the po-lice.” As I moved across the city asking questions, itsometimes seemed that Abdul Hai had it right –everybody knew, but nobody would tell.

Usually, however, it seemed to be the other wayaround. People across the city opened their lives andtheir hearts to me.

Many were eager to tell me what happened thatday. I just wasn’t sure if anybody knew. Pakistan is aland that embraces conspiracy theories.

Of course, the people of any nation, includingAmerica, can display a paranoid streak, and Pakista-nis seem especially susceptible given their nationalhistory of repeated coups and covert wars.

After the Ashura fires, everybody seemed to have

JiNNAh RoAd: NATioNAL ARMs

Bolton Market area. STEVE INSKEEP

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Editor’s mail 9Monday, 14 May, 2012

cell phone towersResearch is now rapidly surfacing all

over the world that the High FrequencyMirowave radiations emitted by cellphones and cell phone towers is damag-ing to human health, causes a very vastarray of health problems like sleepless-ness, fatigue , muscle and joint pains,anxiety, depression, headaches, High orlow blood pressure, heart palpitations,behavioural problems and can possiblyin the long run, significantly increase theincidence of various cancers such asleukemia and brain tumours. So, useyour mobile phone very sparingly andmake sure there is no mobile tower nearyour house.

There is a new menace in this regardas well. Cancer Cluster; a large numbersof cancers occurring to the people livingin close proximity to cell phone base tow-ers, are now being reported from someparts of the world, especially from coun-tries where teledensity is high. If yourhouse or office is located very near a cellphone tower, please beware. You are atserious risk of developing various healthproblems.

Use your mobile phone with greatcaution, very sparingly, preferablymainly for texting. Keep it away fromyour head. Most calls should be less thanone minute duration. Long calls can pos-sibly cause neuron damage in the brain.Keep the mobile phone at least 15 mmaway from your head. Preferably use thespeaker phone option. Do not have Wi-Fiin your house. Use fixed network cables.You can do your own research on variousharmful aspects of these phones.

SYEDA ZEhRAKarachi

no real leaderPresently, it seems that the masses

are totally disgusted with the increasingpower shortages, worst form ofgovernance and a very apathetic attitudeof the rulers towards the masses. Thereseems to be no visible solution; onlyshort term solution is provided that tooonly after the destructive activities invarious cities (as was seen recentlyagainst loadshedding). The govt feelssatisfied when the people seemingly cooldown for a short period. But,unfortunately there is no planning andno determination to provide relief to theruled. The concerned authorities not onlylack good governance to solve theproblems but also do not have the will todo it. They appear to just pass awayanother one year, having good time,making foreign trips and enjoying theperks, etc.

We do not have any “real leader” inthis country; mere rhetoric on the printand electronic media but for how long?Already people are fed up watching “fish-market type debates” on various TVchannels with zero output. The channelowners are perhaps happy that morethan disgusting debates are beingwatched by the millions.

RAShID MAQSOODLahore

Public buses and hygieneA few days ago, I was travelling in a

public bus to my respective destinationand I couldn’t help but notice its lack ofhygiene. It was downright disgusting. Asmany citizens travel by these busesregularly, isn’t their health an importantmatter? To be sure, it is these people whoare working hard and striving for thedevelopment of our country and in myopinion they deserve more. They deservehealthy environment to stay fit.

The government should look into thismatter and raise awareness about thisissue.

RIZWAN KAREEMKarachi

Karachi crimesPolitical wheeling and dealing may

have helped cool down tempers to someextent but Karachi continues to simmer.Targeted killings have declined due tothe exigencies of power but street crimescontinue to rise. Many have beenmugged at gunpoint or know of lovedones who have met with similar fates.Anyone who has had a gun pointed at hisor her head will testify that there are fewmoments in life that are more terrifying.But still it goes on and the law-enforcement authorities are usuallynowhere to be seen. Traffic jams, by nowroutine in many parts of Karachi, havebecome an easy hunting ground forarmed criminals. Resistance in cases ofsuch hold-ups is futile – either one handsover one’s valuables or risks being shot.

As reported in newspapers, buses areboarded by criminals who rob, even killpassengers. Yet this is seen by some asan aspect of daily life that we have toaccept. Do we deserve to live constantlyin fear of the unknown with criminalmentalities? The answer is a resoundingno. It is the responsibility of the state toprotect the lives and properties of itscitizens. The Supreme Court has set up abench to monitor progress on actiontaken against political, religious andethnic violence in the city.

Perhaps, a similar notice should betaken of the street-crime graph anddirections given to the police to curb itsrise. True, poverty and deprivation havea conspicuous role in street crime and itis the government’s responsibility to takeremedial measures to reverse the trendover the long term. However, in themeantime, the law-enforcementapparatus, which is well aware of thecity’s layout and its sensitive spots,should be more visible, especially duringrush hour, to give a sense of security tocommuters.

MAIMUNA RAZAKarachi

The menace of briberyBribery is widely and shamelessly

rampant in our country. There seems noperiod vacant from the evil in the historyof the country. In the present era, the evilof bribery is more evidently present inthe developing countries. However,bribery has appeared not from any void,but it takes its roots from the societyconcerned. Bribery is the result of red-tapeism, meager salaries, lustfulactivities, materialistic inclinations, evergrowing desires and finally lackcontentment and lack of deep sense ofreligious injunctions.

The solution lies in the soleimplementation of Islamic laws in truespirit, besides simplifying the officeprocedures. All complaints regardingbribery should be brought to light andcases must be decided within seven days.If the concerned authorities take propermeasures in this regard, this social evilwill decrease definitely.

IBAD AhMEDKarachi

Victims of acid attacksEvery year in Pakistan around 150

women become victims of acid attacks,horrific incidents where liquid acid isthrown on their face, leaving thempermanently scared and disfigured.Many are left without access to propermedical care, while those that do haveaccess often require up to 20 surgeries toproperly treat the damage.

In truth, the number of victims islikely much higher than those reportedas many attacks are typically carried outby someone close to them, such as adisgruntled husband or suitor looking forrevenge.

Acid throwing is a form of violentassault. Perpetrators of these attacksthrow acid at their victims (usually attheir faces), burning them, anddamaging skin tissue, often exposing andsometimes dissolving the bones. Theconsequences of these attacks includeblindness and permanent scarring of theface and body. These attacks are mostcommon in Pakistan and other nearbycountries. Almost 80 percent of victimsof these acid attacks are females andalmost 70 percent are under 18 years ofage.

SALWA NOORKarachi

A great decisionThe Planning Commission has de-

clared the gasification of Thar coal projectof nuclear scientist Dr MubarakSamarkand as ‘unfeasible’ and hasstopped its funding. This project was anon-starter from day one and coal expertswere amazed at the manner in which thisproject was initiated and scarce resourcesmade available to the scientist. It is al-leged that the reason this project wasgiven extensive publicity, with the scien-

tist going from one forum to another try-ing to convince everyone that Pakistan’senergy shortages would be solved in notime, was actually to thwart all efforts toutilise Thar coal for Pakistan’s future. Hewould announce a new date for the suc-cess of his project religiously everymonth. Where’s the beef? One may ask.

In one of my Letters to Editor, I hadtermed the project as a Quixotic misad-venture where Rs 10 billion were ear-

marked by the government. A pragmaticdecision has finally been taken by thePlanning Commission to shelve this proj-ect. I would further advise the Sindh gov-ernment to seriously ensure that meresigning of MOUs with foreign investorsdoes not translate into reality. Pakistanishave been taken for a joyride by these so-called investors for a long time. I do notdiscount strenuous efforts made by theSindh Board of Investment but many,

like me, are still taking the “progress” ofthe Thar coal project with a pinch of salt.It is time the media takes strong interestin the activities going on in the Thar coal-fields and orient the viewers and readerswith what is really going on there. Mean-while, compliments to Planning Commis-sion for saving the country from anotherfinancial and economic disaster. Kudos!

MAJYD AZIZKarachi

Learning from historyOne of my favourite sayings is: “The more you can look into

the past, the further you will be able to see the future.”Knowledge and information is power. Thus the history of

the world can help us predict the future. And from what I knowof the history I can predict at least a couple of things.

Any country that brings war to its borders suffers, evenwhen they win the war, but if a country commits war on theborders and areas of other countries then their economies canbenefit from the war. For example, the USA has beensuccessfully campaigning wars around the world for decadesand they have been prospering because the wars are not ontheir borders but on the borders of other nations. On the otherhand, countries like Russia, India, Pakistan, Turkey and the EUare suffering for waging wars on their own territories. Suchfighting hampers economic growth and trust for which theireconomies suffer for decades after a war ends.

Considering these details I can predict that in the future thegovernments around the world will try to focus on morecooperation and avoid any wars with their neighbours, whichwould mean that the biggest threat to a country’s sovereigntywould be a long range attacks via planes, UAVs, missiles andother long range weapons.

Countries, especially the ones vying for the ‘superpower’status, should therefore invest in countering such long rangeattacks and should therefore equip and train their forcesaccordingly. They should create their own long range attacks totake the war to the borders of their aggressors. Also everycountry should avoid wars with their neighbouring countriesand instead push for more economic cooperation amongneighbours who can become their closest customers and majorincome source for their economies. It would also reduce globalinflation as the goods will come in cheaper due to low freightcharges.

India and Pakistan should also use this strategy and stopthe tit-for-tat war among themselves. Western countries havebecome rich because of this secret war between Pakistan andIndia. First, they woe Pakistan for weapons, then they go toIndia to sell more weapons to counter Pakistan’s increase inarms, then they come back to Pakistan and sell them more tocounter the Indian increase in arms. This cycle is repeated anumber of times to gain maximum profits from both countries.

When will our two countries learn from our own history?ShAhRYAR KhAN BASEER

Peshawar

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

A convicted PM?It is so unfortunate seeing a convicted

PM proud and taking honour on his con-viction. It has been more than two weeksthat Pakistan's PM was declared convictedby the apex court on charge of Contemptof court. Mr Gilani however seems relaxand is enjoying being the world's only act-ing convicted prime minister hence mak-ing him Crime Minister. Rather thanbeing ashamed he is on his UK tour. Theopposition parties have decided not to ac-cept Mr Gilani as PM and have called forprotests and rallies against the Gilani govt.

PML(N) is one such party who hashit the roads for supremacy of law and isgathering large support for it .Theregathering in Lahore and Gujranwala is aclear proof that people now want change.One should try to understand that therule of law is important for survival ofdemocracy. Imran Khan’s politics is get-ting tougher day by day and has becomehard to understand. Nawaz Sharif hadasked Imran Khan to join hands againstGilani but Imran Khan turned down theoffer demanding PML(N) to resign fromassemblies before they could sit on thetable. But the PML(N)'s resignationsfrom parliament will only do good to PPPas they might conduct by-elections andthen appoint an interim government oftheir own choice and pass constitutionalamendments to safeguard their Crime

Minister and President.PPP's failure to realise that Gilani

will remain convicted until his appealturns in his favour has exposed theirleaders legal understanding. If it was formorals and principles Gilani himselfshould have resigned.

MAJID TAMOORLahore

Karachi is burningLaw enforcement agencies seem to

have become mere spectators as peopleare becoming victims of relentless firingincidents in Karachi. Firing incidentshave taken place at different areas of thecity, especially Malir, Nazimabad, Gizri,Khadda Market, Lyari and Liaqatabad.Frightened shopkeepers have to closedown their shops and other businessactivities, due to which the city is goingthrough a great economical loss. Manypeople have been abducted and killedduring the last few years.

Recently, on Sunday May 13, five peo-ple including one political activist weretarget killed and there was violence in dif-ferent areas of the city. The target killingis deeply entrenched in an ill-conceivedpolicy of “strategic depth” which is ulti-mately turning into the “strategic death”of this unfortunate nation. Instead offinding faults with some foreign hand, weneed to do some soul searching within the

fabric of our society and also within ourso called national security institutions.Karachi is burning! How long these targetkillings would haunt the Karachiites?Someone should answer it, and soon.

NIMRAh AMJADKarachi

reckless drivingA lot of accidents are being caused in

the DHA due to racing cars and rashdriving among youths. This is anextremely serious issue as it has resultedin three fatalities, 19 injuries and 45wrecked cars during the past six monthsin DHA Phase VIII alone.

An unusually high rate of automobileaccidents points to the fact that there hasbeen a major oversight at the town plan-ning stage of Phase VIII. Most accidentshave occurred on a two-km stretch on thenew portion of Khayaban-i-Shaheen fromKhayaban-i-Ittehad up to Creek Vista.

The DHA Cantonment Board shouldtake action against it because it is puttinginnocent people’s lives in danger. Parentsshould not allow their children to drivecarelessly. There should be traffic policeofficers to strictly control such activities.

The situation can certainly berectified as soon as possible withoutcausing much hassle to anyone.

S SARAhKarachi

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comment10Monday, 14 May, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

still not enough for the League, though

The art of the possible

There are twenty thousand leagues under the sea andthese are only two. But still, a feud that took twodecades for the two sides to bury the hatchet. NawazSharif and the PML(J)’s Hamid Nasir Chatta are now

friends. The N League and the PML (Like-Minded) also signedan agreement regarding an arrangement in the upcomingnational polls.

The N League is the biggest of the Leagues and, on its own,is the second largest political force in the country. But it stillcan’t cut it on its own in the next elections. This agreementwith the Like-Minded group also won’t do the required trick.

The PML(N) has seen better days. The surprise of the 2008elections was the rather spectacular performance of the League.It caught everyone off guard. This led to an impression that, inthe yin-yang of politics, the next government was the League’s.That might not be true and the Raiwind brothers know this.

There are several reasons for this. Since the League runsthe government in the province, an incumbency factor runsagainst them as well. It really doesn’t have its act together inother provinces so there is little or no capitalising on theincumbency factors of the respective governments there.Secondly, an often overlooked stellar performance is that of thePML(Q). Despite the Musharraf baggage, the party managed toemerge as the third largest parliamentary presence in thenational assembly. This time round, they are to pack quite apunch. Many will leave their party, yes, but many will stay. Ifthese candidates, proven by a Darwinian process to beheavyweights in their respective constituencies, eke out analliance with the PPP, there could be trouble.

Outside the province, the League is desperately trying towoo partners for it is too late in the day to try to go for organicgrowth. It has, however, managed to absorb the whole of theSindh National Front, for whatever it is worth. In KP, it mightfinally strike a deal to get itself some seats from the Pushtunbelt for the first time in over a decade but they will still be asmattering in the larger battle between the ANP-PPP allianceand the religious parties and newcomers like Imran Khan.

Perhaps if the Sharifs hadn’t taken such an intransigentstance towards their former party members, the League wouldhave been in a far better position now. Holding grudges inpolitics can hold you back.

expect a complete resumption

nato routes

They blocked the routes and they can very well go andblock them. This is set to be the government’s line onthe Nato supply routes. Some tough love, now that theopposition isn’t ready to play ball. Oddly, however,

this newer line of reasoning is exactly what some within theopposition were saying in the first place: you blocked themunilaterally, why did you have to pass over the decision tounblock to the parliament?

First of all, any decision as generally unpopular as thatwould have required the backing of all the major politicalpowers in the country. That would have been the only way tocontrol (minimise) the backlash. Secondly, it is, after all, aninclusive approach to governance.

The government’s probable decision to reopen the routesemerges from signs that the Americans are finding our delaysrather troublesome and tiring. There is a feeling, stateside, thatthey have humoured us for more than they should. They havemade all that explicitly clear by not inviting us for the moot inChicago.

An interesting pattern has emerged on that front. Toppingthe list of those outraged at being slighted vis a vis Chicago, isthe camp that had made emphatic cases for not going to theBonn conference. How these two views – a disengagementfrom the west and an indignation when we are not catered to –are held at the same time must be a mentally tiring exercise.

The fact of the matter is that we are on thin ice here.Pakistan hasn’t made many actual friends over the course of itshistory and the reasons for this can be debated endlessly. True,we constantly point out the west’s ungratefulness regarding thesacrifices that we have given but we also have much to explainover the course of our history. Though the links of the deepstate with militant networks are an open secret around here,more serious cases like the presence of Osama Bin Laden in thecountry, is indicative of the thin ice we are on. We scoff at theUS Secretary of State’s assertions about Ayman Al Zawahiribeing in the country just the way we did at similar claimsinvolving Osama Bin Laden.

BJP’s downfallBabri Masjid and gujrat carnage

The demolition of the BabriMasjid, which did the greatestharm to India’s secular ethos,has suddenly come to the foreafter nearly 20 years. It indi-

cates the intrinsic strength of the systemwhich otherwise has been beaten be-cause of indelible corrupt deals and theweak, faltering governance. It was sucha deliberate defiance of law and moralitythat the destruction could not have beenin oblivion for a long time.

Top BJP leaders like L K Advani andMurli Manohar Joshi, linked with thedemolition, have been accused of con-spiracy. The Central Bureau of Investiga-tion (CBI) has done a meticulous job tocharge them with plotting and executingthe demolition. True, the CBI has doubt-ful credentials and its control in thehands of government makes it still moresuspect. Yet its work in ferreting out thetruth in certain cases cannot be min-imised or rubbished.

The Babri Masjid’s demolition wasnot a hush-hush job. It was shown live ontelevision networks across the countrywith hoary details of vandalism insti-gated by the Hindu crowd; the laddersand ropes used to bring down themasjid’s domes and the joy of BJP lead-ers over the removal of the last brick arestill etched in the memory of people.Uma Bharti jumped into the laps ofJoshi, celebrating the destruction of themosque which had become over the yearsa structure that stood as a testimony tothe country’s pluralistic philosophy.

The BJP leaders’ defence is not on thedemolition of the masjid but on the tim-ing of the CBI report. The agency may beplaying politics at the instance of someruling party members. Yet, how does thislessen the crime of those who demolishedthe mosque or those who enthusiasticallywatched the spectacle? Whether the con-spiracy of Advani and seven of his partycolleagues is proved in a law court ornot—the Liberhan Commission saidsomething like that in its report threeyears ago—is not what matters at present.The issue today is that who are the cul-prits? The biggest relief is that thosewhose hands are soiled have not got awaywith it. The real worry of the nation hasbeen that the whole matter would be ef-

faced because of the Herculean efforts bythe BJP and its ally, the Shiv Sena.

Even if the conspiracy to pull downthe mosque is not proved, the fact ofdemolition cannot be denied, nor theglee of the BJP leaders that the camerashave recorded. It is well known that be-fore the masjid’s demolition, Advani un-dertook a rath yatra in northern India toprepare the ground and he, indeed,drove a wedge between the two commu-nities, Hindus and Muslims. The killingof Muslims in the wake of demolitionconfirms the polarisation.

In fact, the Muslims who after the par-tition were gradually joining the main-stream began standing back andwondering whether their entity was safe.The Babri Masjid’s destruction was a wa-tershed in the relations between Hindusand Muslims and it made many Muslimshark back on the division and think thatPakistan was not such a mistake as severalamong them had considered. One topMuslims leader said after the demolition:I felt for the first time that I was a Muslim.

The BJP may have built its vote bankin the Hindu community or may have re-furbished the image of Hindutva. Andthe party’s success at the polls in UPshows that. But what the party demol-ished for a few seats was Muslims’ im-plicit trust in India’s secular polity. Thecommon man realises, if not the BJP, theharm it caused to the country’s integrity.

Were the guilty to be punished, theloss of faith can be restored to a large ex-tent. But the CBI’s report may well beonly a storm in a tea cup. The Manmo-han Singh government has neither thewill nor the strength to take on the BJPwhich may get away with the murder ofIndia’s secularism.

After all, Gujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi, who was behind thehappenings in the state in 2002, mayalso be getting away with all that he did.The Supreme Court appointed SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) has exoneratedhim completely. What made the SIT giveModi a clean chit may come out one dayas the complicity of Advani and other

BJP leaders has in the case of the BabriMasjid demolition. It would be too lateby then, but what one can do when polit-ical considerations have scrambled theentire system.

In the case of Modi, amicus curieRaju Ramachandran strongly disagreedwith a key conclusion of the SIT that IPSofficer Sanjiv Bhatt was not present at alate-night meeting of top Gujarat copsheld at the chief minister’s residence inthe wake of the February 27, 2002 God-hara carnage. It has been Bhatt’s claim—made in an affidavit before the apexcourt and in statements to the SIT andthe amicus—that he was present at themeeting where Modi said Hindus mustbe allowed to carry out retaliatory vio-lence against Muslims.

Raju Ramachandran has suggestedthat there is sufficient material to “pro-ceed further against the Gujarat chief min-ister.” Ramachandran too was appointedby the Supreme Court and there is no rea-son why the case against Modi be closed.Ramachandran concedes that “there is noproof that Modi’s diktat was implementedby ministers or police officers who partic-ipated in the meeting. But making thestatement was in itself an offence.”

It is true that Ramachandran did notinvestigate and relied on the documentsprepared by the SIT. But this is the jobwhich was entrusted to him by theSupreme Court. So how can it be arguedthat the amicus curie’s statement does nothave any locus standi? They may takelong because there will be day to day hear-ing in the lower court, but the details ofGujarat riots will be in the public domain.

The BJP should realise that the twoblemishes, one about the demolition of theBabri Masjid and the other about the car-nage in Gujarat, will not go away until ac-tion against the culprits is taken. Quotaswill not give confidence to Muslims butwhat they want to be assured of is thatthey will get justice. A pluralistic societycan do this at least to prove its credentials.

The writer is a senior Indianjournalist.

Border crossingsBy Kuldip Nayar

Where does security end and absurdity begin? It is verydifficult to quantify one from the other. The offload-ing of a Middle Eastern family from a US flight on

grounds that the 18-month-old baby was on the ‘no fly’ list is asterling example of the system working only too well.

Although the human factor is the cause of several errors ofjudgment, its being sidelined so totally as a component in theequation also induces the death of logic. When humans on dutybecome automatons and seek the sanctuary of rules and pro-cedures with no capability to exercise common sense the situ-ation only worsens dramatically and enters the realm of Alice’snonsense.

Was there nobody on duty who was empowered to make asensible on-the-spot decision on the matter that an 18-month-old child could not, on its own, be on any ‘no fly’ list?

It is the difference between treating a passenger travellingin grief and another travelling to a sunkissed island on vaca-tion. Should not a service have the flexibility to give preference

to one over the other?Similarly, between the crew, the pilot, the staff of the air-

line, the security at the airport and the bumbling foolishnessof the hi-tech systems, could there not have been a call takenthat reflected the better side of human nature along with obvi-ous logic and still maintained the parameters of security.

That the mother was wearing a hijab has to have had abearing and it is naïve to pretend that the stereotype in today’sworld does not have to pay a price. The same unit, replaced bya WASP equivalent with a baby on a ‘no fly’ list would havebeen accorded a different protocol and given a benefit of doubtthat was refused this couple.

The unfortunate part is that the people who failed to exer-cise sensible discretion can be placed under any sort of inquirybut they will not be penalised because they will find enoughprotection under the law and the wide scope of the HomelandSecurity Act. How can you find them wrong under these lawswhen they acted according to the very same laws? That is whywhenever such an incident occurs and people are offloaded be-cause of a sixth sense or a hunch or what is a prejudice there isno consequence.

no fly, why?Khaleej Times

foreign Press

KHI 14-05-2012_Layout 1 5/14/2012 1:59 AM Page 10

comment 11Monday, 14 May, 2012

While the politics ando p p o r t u n i s mpounds, the country

slips into disarray. The coun-try’s Prime Minister gets con-victed and refuses to step downon moral grounds. The leadingopposition party starts cam-paigning against the incum-bent and wants him to be out.To set the scores right, the PPPhas started to hold the rallies,using government’s exchequer,to show solidarity with its con-victed PM and the PML(N) toois using government’s machin-ery in Punjab to bash the in-cumbent and to woo theHonourable Supreme Court.Mian sb jumped the gun bycalling for the resignation ofthe PM and the explanationwhich he and his confidantsgive is far from being reason-able.

Mian sb fears that his vot-ers would turn against him ifhe doesn’t take on the PM andto top it all off it’s the paranoiathat Imran Khan would scorethe points before him. Firstly, Iagree to the extent that the PMshould have stepped down onmoral grounds. But if he hasdecided to relegate the moralsthen no one has the right to de-prive him of his legal right tofile an appeal against the con-stitutional process of disquali-fication. Secondly, PML(N)’svoter did not leave the party forthe principled positions takenby Mian Nawaz Sharif in thepast four years, the one that ex-posed him to the criticism ofbeing a friendly opposition.

The PML(N) was hailed forits pro democracy stance ittook so far. In my humbleopinion, Mian Nawaz Sharif isbeing ill-advised over the issueof PM’s disqualification. Mian

Nawaz Sharif is a veteranpolitician and knows morethan I that morality has verylittle or, at times, no role toplay in power politics. I thinkMian sb very conveniently for-got that embracing PML(Q)’sunification block had no legaland moral justification at all.Taking Musharaff’s old aideAmeer Muqam had no moraljustification. Making SabaSadiq, an MPA, defect fromPML(Q) to PML(N) had nolegal and moral justification.Signing a historic electoral al-liance with PML(Like Minded),which has no legal status, hadno legal or moral justification.

All of this has no moral jus-tification but it is politicallyjustified. Mian Nawaz Sharif,being a national Leader, shouldrealise that we are plaguedwith the issues of governance,energy, foreign policy, poverty,illiteracy and the rest of all. Theenergies should be spent onaddressing these issues ratherthan on rallies and jalsas.Moreover, there is no need toside with the Superior Judici-ary as it gives the impressionthat PML(N) cannot do politicswithout having a nexus withany of the institutions. Mian sbshould be mindful of the factthat earlier it was GHQ andthat it should not be theSupreme Court this time.

Truth be told, it’s not onlythese political parties who aredoing the damage but it’s peo-ple amongst us, who havesomehow become the bastionsof righteousness in this coun-try. I am referring to thelearned and prudent commen-tators who have developedtheir writing and analyticalskills over decades but whohave miserably failed to learnto extricate emotions fromfacts and facts from wishes.Immediately after the shortorder against the PM and whenthe detailed verdict was re-leased by the HonourableSupreme Court, these com-mentators were writing theiropinion pieces as if they hadthe best jurisprudential knowl-edge to understand the opera-tive part of the short order andthe detailed verdict. As the

order was announced, thesepundits started saying in theirorgasmic mono tones that thePM stood disqualified hence hecould not retain the office. I amno apologist for the PM andneither do I defend him for hisgovernment’s dismal perform-ance on many issues but whatputs me at rage is as to how canwe have a right to form or ma-nipulate people’s opinion whenwe can’t narrate a simple andunambiguous fact.

I was categorically told thatyour opinion on this matter isutterly wrong and ill founded.I sniggered in my heart everytime because those who saidthis to me had never spent aday in a law school. I so wishedthat somehow God Almightyvindicates me on this princi-pled position I had taken as astudent of law and at the veryformative stage of career as aTV journalist. I can say it withhumility that I stand vindi-cated on this issue so far. In areply to a petition filed for MrGilani’s disqualification at Is-lamabad High Court, JusticeShaukat Aziz Siddiqui ob-served that the HonourableSupreme Court has not dis-qualified Mr Gilani in the con-tempt of court case. It wasfurther added that the matterhas been referred by theSupreme Court to other consti-tutional forums. This observa-tion has left many hawksdisappointed who oncescreamed over the rooftopsthat the PM was disqualified. Ihumbly suggest that theyshouldn’t turn their guns blaz-ing without having the right in-formation as to who to shootat. I urge the commentators tofilter wishes from the facts. Iurge the political leaders not toconfuse power politics withlegal and constitutional propo-sitions. I urge them not tobring morality into politics as ithas some really tough prereq-uisites to fulfill. I urge everyonenot to make it a zero-sum gamefor all.

The writer hosts a primetime talk show. he can be con-tacted at muneebfa-rooqraja@gmail.com

A continuance of loss

A zero-sum game

By Muneeb Farooq

hillary’s enigmatic approach

Changing paths

During her visit to India, US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton allegedly said on May 7 thisyear that Pakistan had not taken enough action

against Hafiz Saeed, the Chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)who was blamed for masterminding the 2008 Mumbaiattacks. She accused that top Al-Qaeda commander,Ayman al-Zawahiri “is somewhere in Pakistan.” MsClinton pressed Pakistan “to do more to ensure its ter-ritory is not used as launching pad by terror groups.”

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar refuted theallegations that Al-Zawahiri was hiding in Pakistan,urging the US “to share information if any, instead ofissuing speculative statements.”

It is notable that in order to pamper India, lastmonth, the United States offered a $10 million rewardfor information leading to the conviction of Hafiz Saeed.

However, in this respect, Hillary Clinton showscontroversial statements by ignoring the facts. Pak-istan’s Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit alreadyrevealed on April 7 this year that India had not given“any solid and significant evidence” against HafizSaeed, and “action can only be taken on the basis ofsolid evidence.”

While fully cooperating with New Delhi, Pakistan’sinterior ministery not only lodged FIR against somesuspected persons, but also detained many individualsfor investigation in connecion with the Mumbai catas-trophe. But Pakistan’s Lahore High Court had releasedHafiz Saeed on bail, saying that there was no evidenceagianst him.

Notably, on November 10, 2011, during the meet-ing of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani with his In-dian counterpart Manmohan Singh in Maldives,Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said thatAjmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the 26/11 terror-in-cident, was a “non-state actor…should be hanged, soshould perpetrators of the Samjhauta Express blast.”Recently, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan visitedIndia to get credible evidence so as to prosecute the ac-cused of the 26/11, but it could not succeed in collectingany evidence due to non-cooperation of the Indian con-cerned officials.

The true story of the Mumbai carnage proved lastyear, when a day after the Indian media exposed thename of a terrorist, Wazhul Qamar Khan, who was in-cluded in a list of 50 alleged terrorists, given to Pak-istan in March 2011.While Wazhur Qamar “is living inthe suburbs of Mumbai with his family” and “is regu-larly reporting to a court that gave him bail” as re-ported by The Times of India. On the other side,Pakistan’s security and intelligence agencies were des-perately looking for Wazhul Khan.

Nevertheless, India has failed in supplying solidproof to Pakistan in relation to Mumbai tragedy exceptproviding a self-fabricated story, created by Indian se-cret agency, RAW.

In the past, Indian Gujrat Chief Minister NarendraSingh Modi had revealed that the Mumbai terror at-tacks could not have been carried out without internalhelp, while the Mumbai police Chief Hassan Ghafoorhad also admitted that two Indians who were arrested

by the Indian police had been involved in the Mumbaimayhem. Their comments were in sharp contrast to theclaims of other Indian high officials and Ms Clintonwho hold Pakistan solely responsible for the carnage.

Ms Hillary’s paradoxical approach could also bejudged from her various statements. In the recentyears, some US top officials, including Hillary Clintonand US Admiral Mike Mullen, had allegedly insistedupon Pakistan to break its links with the Haqqani net-work, based in North Waziristan, which is waging a‘proxy war’ in Afghanistan with the assistance of Pak-istan’s Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI). Mullen also ac-cused that the Haqqani network “acts as a veritablearm” of ISI, blaming for the bombing on the US em-bassy in Kabul on September 13, 2011.

But during her visit to Islamabad in October, lastyear, Ms Clinton requested for Pakistan’s help to “en-courage Taliban to enter negotiations in good faith” in-cluding the Haqqani militants. Replying to a questionthat the ISI was involved in attacks on the US embassyin Kabul, she categorically pointed out, “We have noevidence of that.” She also agreed with Pakistan’sstance, saying, “Now US is realising that launching newmilitary operation in North Waziristan does not suitPakistan’s situation.” Contrarily, on October 27, 2011,before Congress, Ms Clinton disclosed that she deliv-ered a frank message to Islamabad that it was urgentto act against the extremist Haqqani network, whichwas behind anti-US attacks in Afghanistan.

Last year, when heavily-armed insurgents fromAfghanistan’s side entered Pakistan’s region intermit-tently, targeting the security check posts and other in-frastructure, Hillary Clinton had also warnedKarzai-led regime to take action against the safe-havens of terrorists in Afghanistan.

Besides, Hillary Clinton has been encouragingQatar-based US talks with the Afghan Taliban whileshe is discouraging Pakistan’s peace dialogue with themilitants.

It is noteworthy that in 2009, when the heavy-armed Taliban entered Buner, Ms Clinton had statedthat Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could fall into thehands of terrorists, endangering the security of theWest. Surprisingly, when Pakistan’s armed forcesejected the Taliban insurgents out of Swat, Dir andBuner, she started admiring the Pakistan Army.

Confused in her goals, sometimes US Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton praises Pakistan’s sacrifices re-garding war on terror, while sometimes admits thatstability cannot be achieved in Afghanistan without thehelp of Pakistan after the withdrawal of foreign troopsin 2014. Still sometimes, she states that stability of Pak-istan and the region directly impacts the security ofAmerica, and sometimes realises that the US wants tocontinue to work to put its relationship with Pakistanon a stronger footing, but at the same time she blamesIslamabad in not eliminating safe havens of militantsin Pakistan.

These contradictory statements clearly indicate MsClinton’s enigmatic approach towards Pakistan.

The writer is foreign affairs analyst and isauthor of the book “US vs Islamic Militants, InvisibleBalance of Power”. he can be contacted at:sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

By Sajjad Shaukat

KHI 14-05-2012_Layout 1 5/14/2012 1:59 AM Page 11

12in limelight

Monday, 14 May, 2012

ToKYo: Tim Burton speaks during a newsconference for his film ‘Dark Shadows’. REUTERS

loS AnGeleS: Jeremy renner watches the losAngeles lakers play the Denver nuggets. REUTERS

loS AnGeleS: Zacefronwatches the los Angeleslakers play the Denver

nuggets during Game 7 oftheir nBA western

conference basketball playoffseries. REUTERS

VAlleTTA: A model presents acreation by Mexican designerGianfranco reni at the MaltaFashion Awards 2012. REUTERS

LOS ANGELESAgencies

‘THE Avengers’ keepsmaking box-office his-tory.The Marvel team-upmovie will gross $103.2million from Friday to

Sunday, its studio estimated, becoming thefirst film to reach nine digits in its secondweekend in the USA and pushing it pastthe $1 billion mark worldwide.JohnnyDepp's ‘Dark Shadows’, meanwhile,could've used the help of a superhero—orthree.The gothic vampire tale, made for a

reputed $150 million, was toothless in itsdebut, managing only about $29 million,per BoxOffice.com.If the estimate holds,the gross will mark a come-down not justfrom Depp's last collaboration with TimBurton, the blockbuster ‘Alice in Wonder-land’, but from the actor and director's lastlive-action horror tribute, ‘Sleepy Hollow’,which bowed with a far stronger $30 mil-lion more than a decade ago.The horror-comedy, which finds Johnny Depp playinga vampire let loose on 1972 America pulledin roughly one-third of what ‘The Avengers’earned. Burton's ‘Dark Shadows’ is basedon a cult soap opera.

‘The Avengers’

overshadow Johnny

depp's ‘dark shadows’

Sana to make Bollywood debutNEWS DESK

After Meera, Veena Malik andAli Zafar stepping in Bolly-wood, Pakistani filmstar SanaNawaz Khan has also signedher first Bollywood film ‘Dil-PardesiHogya’.Sana has flownto India for her Bollywooddebut film ‘DilPardesiHogya’in which she will be starringagainst famous Punjabi singerInderjitNikku in lead rolewith special appearance byAkshay Kumar and SanjayDutt. ‘DilPardesiHogya’ is anIndian Punjabi movie di-rected by Thakur Tapasvi. Theother cast of the film includesShakti Kapoor, DaljitKaur,and RazaMurad.

Nargis Fakhritakes a break

MUMBAi: Post ‘rockstar’,

nargis Fakhri has been

working hard in these last

few months. Apart from

brand launches and fashion

shows, she has also signed

her second film, ‘Khiladi

786’, that she is preparing

for. A source close to her

says, "nargis has not only

been tied up with her

commercial work, but she's

also been spending time

training in Kathak,

Bollywood dance and hindi

diction. now she has given

herself a breather by

taking a short trip to

Thailand. She and some

friends have taken a week

off and dashed away to

chill out in Bangkok. She

has literally been working

non-stop since returning

from new York, and has

had no time for herself.

This break will give her

time to unwind and

rejuvenate." Interestingly,

there's no mention of

acting classes there as

part of her 'busy' schedule.

we're hoping that's part of

her much-needed

repacking, eh? Agencies

Karan Johar deniestaking a dig atKatrinaMUMBAi: After lambasting Katrina Kaif for her predictable and

boring poses, Karan Johar made a volte face on Twitter saying he

never mentioned anything about Kat. he wrote, “Absolutely crazy

media report suggesting i have said something about katrina!!! I

hAVe noT!!! It’s totally baseless and a lie!!! Katrina is not only a

dear friend but also a supremely talented and hardworking

megastar!!! And all this reportage is ridiculous!!!” Apparently, at a

recent party KJo was overheard talking about Katrina`s posing

skills. According to sources, Karan spoke about Katrina`s magazine

cover looks and said that they are very monotonous. “whatever be

the magazine or background, Katrina`s look is the same”, Karan

was reportedly heard saying. But, now, KJo has denied all such

alleged remarks clarifying any controversy cooking around Kat.

well, besides the murmur in the town, even experts feel that Kat

looks pretty comfortable settling for monotony. Kat, you got to

change your moves gal…its high time! Agencies

MUMBAi: Superstar Amitabh Bachchan

came to the rescue of 90 farmers in

Maharashtra`s wardha district as they

were given cheques to repay their

debt.cheques would be delivered at the

homes of 24 other needy farmers.The

farmers were selected from over 20

villages of the district by members of

the rotary club of Gandhi city

wardha and rotary club of Mumbai.

The cheques total around rs.30 lakh,

all of which was donated by

Bachchan. A total of 300 farmers

were found to be in debt, out of

which Amitabh Bachchan paid the

debts of 144. Agencies

AmitabhBachchanpays farmers`debt

KHI 14-05-2012_Layout 1 5/14/2012 2:00 AM Page 12

13

ToKYo: JohnnyDepp arrives for anews conferencefor the film ‘DarkShadows’. REUTERS

cARson: Adam levine ofMaroon 5 performs at the 2012wango Tango concert. REUTERS

LONDONAgencies

AFTER bagging six Grammyawards this year, Adele's ‘21’has now become the fifthbiggest-selling album of alltime in the UK by outselling

even Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. Adelehas revealed that she would rather justmake music than crave for fame as acelebrity. The eight-time Grammy Awardwinning artist insisted that she’d behappy rather singing and that she hasmanaged to stay out of public eye. “Idon’t want to be a celebrity . . .I don’twant to be in people’s faces,” Contactmu-sic quoted her as saying on NBC special.The shy vocalist who prefers keeping a

low profile revealed that she had beenlucky enough to escape recognition inher hometown of London.“I’ve managedto stay out of the public eye,’’ she re-vealed.“The other day I walked throughTrafalgar Square on a Sunday afternoon,a tourist haven. I was a bit worried. I wasin my pajamas as well because I had beenworking the day before, but nobodyrecognised me.A couple of people lookedround, but . . . like, what would she bedoing walking through Trafalgar Squarein pajamas?” the singer stated.Whenasked whether she’d still like to be spo-ken about in ten years, she said she onlywanted to sing.“I just want to makemusic. I mean, I still hope I have a littlebit of clout in ten years. But all I’ve everwanted to do was sing,” Adele added.

Adele prefersmaking musicto stardom

Beyonce faces $100mlawsuit from videogame developer

LOS ANGELESAgencies

A Manhattan judge says a lawsuit by avideo game developer against thesinger Beyonce can go to trial. JusticeCharles Ramos has give the company,Gate Five, the go-ahead to pursue a$100 million lawsuit. Gate Five claimsthe superstar backed out of a $20million deal for a game called‘Starpower: Beyonce’. The GrammyAward-winning singer's lawyerscontend they were within their rightsto opt out of the deal because GateFive didn't have its financing in place.But Gate Five says Beyonce knew itwas ready to sign a contract with itsfinancier on Dec. 6, 2010, when shepulled out three days earlier. As aresult, the game was scuttled and thecompany let go 70 employees.According to the New York Post, thejudge said Beyonce should have giventhe company notice.

Brad Pitt in talks to playPaddy Doherty in new movie

LOS ANGELESAgencies

Brad Pitt is tipped toplay Paddy Doherty in amovie based on the lifeof the bare-knucklefighter. Doherty, whowon 'Celebrity BigBrother' has justreleased hisautobiography, 'HardKnocks And Soft Spots',and talks are underwayto turn it into a movie.Hollywood heart-throbPitt, 48, who played prize-fighting gypsy Mickey O'Neilin the 2000 Guy Ritchie film 'Snatch', is said to be intalks to play the role. "It's a fascinating story and willtranslate really well into a film," the Daily Star quoted asource as saying. "Paddy knows that Brad Pitt isinterested after playing a traveller in ‘Snatch’. Paddywould love Brad to play him in a Hollywood film. Itcould well catapult him into a global superstar," thesource added. In the book the 53-year-old winner of theChannel 5 reality show writes: "I've cheated death manytimes." Doherty, who had an ear bitten off in a streetfight with rival gypsies, goes into stomach-churningdetail. "Blood would flow freely and bones would getbroken," he wrote.

robert Pattinson

turns 26LOS ANGeLeS:If Robert Pattinsonwas in the midst ofa quarter-lifecrisis, we surecouldn't tell.The’Twilight’thesp,who celebrates his26th birthdaytoday, kind ofruled when it cameto the youngHollywood scene during the last year,scooping up People's Choice Awards andheating up things off-screen with co-starKristen Stewart to boot.And let's just sayPattinson didn't kick off the year leadingup to his big 2-6 as one of TimeMagazine's most influential people fornothing.Pattinsonis geared up for a post-‘Twilight’ transformation, moving onfrom the hypnotizing heartthrob role thatmade him famous, to darker characterslike a billionaire who nearly loseseverything (along with his sanity) in oneday in ‘Cosmopolis’ (set to be released thisyear). Agencies

emma Stone gets

addicted to the

internet LOSANGeLeS:Actress EmmaStone hasrevealed that sheis a potentialinternet addict."I get addictedto the internet. Ihave a Twitteraccount. I lookat it a lot, but Idon't tweet. I'dbe terrified thatI'd saysomething andnever be able to live it down," she said.She also said she loves her hair colourand wants to be a redhead in everymovie."I love being a redhead. My momis a redhead. I just really prefer the redand that's the way I would stay if Icould," showbizspy.com quoted Stoneas saying."I'm actually a naturalblonde. I'm blonde at the roots but redat heart," she said.The actress alsorevealed she is addicted to readingabout herself in newspapers andmagazines."I'm not one of these peoplethat must disassociate themselves fromit or has to cut it off. Other than I getaddicted to it, so I have to do it inmoderation," she said. Agencies

'Rowdy Rathore' is theperfect comeback:Akshay KumarMUMBAi: ‘rowdy rathore’ will be Akshay

Kumar's comeback film into the realm of

action and he feels that this might be

the perfect opportunity."I think this the

perfect comeback. what is better than

the guy who wanted such a good action

film, is not directing ‘rowdy rathore’.

Prabhu has action and more action. his

mind is full of action and he

choreographs action," he said, referring

to the film's director Prabhu Deva.Both

Akshay Kumar and his co-star Sonakshi

Sinha said that they would love to ride

auto- rickshaws on the streets of

Mumbai.At a promotional event, the

stars were made to travel in a vehicle

next to an auto rickshaw race organised

by the team. "I was asked to stand in

the jeep. whatever has been told to me

I will do. when I was sitting in the jeep I

said many times that give me also the

auto rickshaw to ride. Maybe the reason

was that I don't even have a license to

drive an auto. You have to follow the

rules," Akshay Kumar said. Agencies

MUMBAi: After the success of

‘Shaitaan’, director Bejoy nambiar is

in no mood to relax, it seems. while

still working on his second

directorial venture ‘David’, he has

already roped in Shahid Kapoor for

his next untitled project. “Yes,

Shahid and I are working on

something. we will start working on

the film once I am done with

'David'," Bejoy said. The director was

reluctant to reveal the theme of his

film and said: "I am nowhere close

to the project right now. I am only

focusing on 'David'. I can't reveal the

genre of the film. nothing has been

decided yet." ‘David’ features neil

nitin Mukesh, Vikram, Vinay Virmani,

Tabu, Monica Dogra and Isha

Sharvani.when asked Shahid about

the project, he confirmed it saying,

"Yes I am doing Bejoy's film. The film

will go on floors by the end of this

year." Agencies

Shahid signsBejoy nambiar'snext film

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Monday, 14 May, 2012

14 Foreign News

DAMASCUSAfP

REGIME forces battledrebels and carried outraids across Syria Sundayin a surge of violence thatkilled 23 people, monitors

and activists said, as a tenuous UN-backed truce entered its second month.

The fresh wave of bloodletting cameas the UN mission in Syria said it now has189 military observers on the ground,nearly two-thirds of its planned strengthof 300. The observers are tasked withshoring up the ceasefire brokered by UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan thatwas supposed to take effect on April 12but which has been broken daily.

“There are now 189 monitors on the

ground,” Hassan Siklawi, a representativeof the UN mission in Syria, told AFP onSunday. The deployment of extra moni-tors came as the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights reported at least 23 peoplekilled on Sunday, including five soldierswho died in gunfights with armed rebelsin the southern province of Daraa.

Two civilians were killed in the cross-fire, it added. In central Hama province,five people were killed by gunfire, includ-ing a woman, when regime forces raidedthe village of Al-Tamanaa Al-Ghab, theBritain-based watchdog said, adding that18 people were wounded and severalhouses set on fire.

A man and his son were killed and 10other people wounded when they wereshot by regime forces in the town of Qusayrin central Homs province, where armed

rebel groups have strongholds, the watch-dog added. Also in Homs, a civilian waskilled by sniper fire in the town of Rastan.

Three civilians were killed by regimeforces near Damascus, two in Idlibprovince and one in Aleppo province,while two army deserters were killed,one in Douma, the other in the easternprovince of Deir Ezzor, the watchdogsaid. And in neighbouring Lebanon, sec-tarian clashes in the northern city ofTripoli between factions supporting andopposed to the Syrian revolt left oneperson dead on Sunday, a securitysource said.

The violence in Syria has escalatedover the past week, despite the arrival ofmore ceasefire observers, with twin sui-cide bombings in Damascus on Thursdaykilling 55 people and wounding 372.

The attacks have raised fears that ex-tremist elements are taking advantage ofthe deadlock in Syria to stoke the unrest.

Al-Nusra Front, an Islamist groupunknown before the Syrian revolt, re-leased a video on Saturday claiming re-sponsibility for the Damascus attacks asrevenge for regime bombing of residen-tial areas in several parts of the country.Claims by the group, including for pastbombings, have been difficult to verify.

The head of the dissident Free SyrianArmy in remarks published on Sundaycharged that Al-Qaeda has links with thepowerful airforce intelligence of theregime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“If Al-Qaeda militants have indeedentered the country, it happened with thecooperation of that agency,” FSA chief,Colonel Riyadh al-Asaad, told Kuwait’s

Al-Rai newspaper. Asaad denied claimsby Damascus that jihadist and Salafigroups were active in Syria, and blamedthe Syrian regime for Thursday’s devas-tating bomb blasts in the capital, callingfor an international investigation.

State media has accused the Westand its regional allies of opening thedoor to Al-Qaeda through its backing ofthe opposition. A Turkish journalist heldprisoner in Syria for two months said onSunday that he and a Turkish camera-man feared they would die, and spent 55days isolated in cramped cells wherethey slept on the floor.

The two Turkish journalists, who werearrested by a pro-regime militia in Marchand handed over to Syrian intelligence,returned to Istanbul this weekend afterbeing freed thanks to Iranian mediation.

THE HAGUEAfP

Ratko Mladic, wartime chief of the Bosn-ian Serb army, goes on trial Wednesdayaccused of carrying out a brutal campaignof ethnic cleansing and the massacre ofMuslims at Srebrenica, Europe’s worstatrocity since Nazi rule.

Mladic, now 70, has been indicted on11 counts of genocide, war crimes andcrimes against humanity for his role in theBalkan country’s 1992-95 war which left100,000 dead and 2.2 million homeless.Former Bosnian Serb political leaderRadovan Karadzic is already on trial beforeThe Hague-based International CriminalTribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Bothmen are believed to be the main players in

a joint criminal plan to rid multi-ethnicBosnia of Croats and Muslims.

Dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia”,Mladic is accused over the tragedy at Sre-brenica where almost 8,000 Muslim menand boys were systematically murderedin July 1995. Prosecutors also hold himresponsible for the 44-month siege ofSarajevo where his forces waged a “terrorcampaign” of sniping and shelling thatleft 10,000 civilians dead.

It was in pursuit of a “Greater Serbia”that Mladic allegedly ordered his troopsto “cleanse” Bosnian towns, driving outCroats, Muslims and other non-Serb res-idents. After the war, Mladic continuedhis military career but went into hiding in2000 after then Serbian president Slobo-dan Milosevic’s government fell.

An indicted war criminal, he spent 16years on the run until May 2011 when hewas found and arrested at a relative’shouse in Lazarevo, northeastern Serbiaand flown to a prison in The Hague a fewdays later. Better known from media im-ages as a blustery commander in militaryfatigues, last June a sickly and haggard-looking Mladic made his first court ap-pearance, opening proceedings by saying:“I am general Ratko Mladic... I defendedmy country and my people.”

Mladic proceeded by pleading notguilty to the charges against him. “He(Mladic) feels the same as he felt before,which is he has nothing to do with thecrimes”, he is accused of, his lawyer BrankoLukic told AFP. “He’s confident he will notbe found guilty in the end,” Lukic said.

Mladic has said little during the dozenor so hearings to prepare him for trial,apart from complaining about his healthand asking presiding Dutch JudgeAlphons Orie if he could wear his militaryuniform. “It is obvious he is a sick man andI am not sure that he will be able to followthe trial five days a week,” Lukic said.

The ex-general suffered three strokesin 1996, 2008 and 2011 and was partlyparalysed on his right side, his lawyersaid. “He is still feeling better than whenhe was brought to the tribunal, but he hasnot fully recovered,” added Lukic. Mean-while, the defence is seeking to have pre-siding judge Orie removed and the trialdelayed, arguing that he cannot be impar-tial since he has already condemned sev-eral former subordinates of Mladic.

Merkel’s partybraces for defeat inmajor German state

BERLINAfP

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s partyfaced a drubbing in Germany’smost populous state Sunday asvoters cast ballots in a snap electionthat could provide impetus to hermain rivals in the countdown to2013 national polls. A week aftervoters in Greece and France clearlyplumped for anti-austerity policies,the citizens of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) could alsopunish conservative champions ofbelt-tightening. Some 13.2 millionvoters — more than a fifth ofGermany’s electorate — werechoosing a new regional parliamentin the bellwether western statewhich hosts a major industrialbase. Voter turnout in NRW wasabout 29 percent at midday,officials said. The regionhistorically plays a big role infederal politics — in 2005, a lostvote in NRW prompted thenchancellor Gerhard Schroeder tocall a snap federal election whichsaw Merkel wrest power from him.Merkel’s conservative ChristianDemocratic Union (CDU) isfighting to capture the powerhousestate from a coalition made up ofthe centre-left Social DemocraticParty (SPD) and ecologist Greens.

netanyahu letter on

peace a non-starter:

PalestiniansRAMALLAH

ReUteRs

The formal response of Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu toPalestinian grievances over frozen peacenegotiations contains nothing that couldrevive the talks, Palestinian officials said onSunday. Netanyahu’s reply on Saturday to aletter he received last month fromMahmoud Abbas rejected the Palestinianpresident’s demand to halt Jewishsettlement building in occupied territoriesand repeated a call for an unconditionalreturn to talks that collapsed in 2010,according to the officials. “The content of(Netanyahu’s) letter did not representgrounds for returning to negotiations,”Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the ExecutiveCommittee of the Palestine LiberationOrganization which reviewed the document,told Reuters. Israel did not release details ofNetanyahu’s letter, which a senior aidecarried to Abbas in the West Bank city ofRamallah. But Israeli officials said last weekthey did not expect Netanyahu to agree toAbbas’s demand to stop settlementconstruction before reopening any talks.After the right-wing Israeli premier’s letterwas delivered, his office issued a jointstatement with the Palestinians saying bothsides were “committed to achieving peace”. BROAD COALITION: Netanyahustunned the political establishment on May8 by hooking up with the main oppositiongroup, the centrist Kadima party, to formone of the biggest coalitions in Israelihistory. The head of Kadima, Shaul Mofaz,has long blamed Netanyahu for the failureof the peace talks and told reporters lastweek that entering new negotiations “wasan iron condition for forming the unitygovernment”. Yasser Abed Rabbo, who alsobelongs to the Palestinian ExecutiveCommittee, said the Israeli letter “did notinclude clear answers about the centralissues which are undermining theresumption of the peace process”. AbedRabbo cited the issues of settlements andIsrael’s refusal to accept Palestiniandemands for the creation of a Palestinianstate, with minor territorial swaps, alongthe lines that existed before it captured theWest Bank in a 1967 war.

TRIPOLIAfP

Libya on Sunday extended the deadline for voter registrationby a week in a bid to broaden participation in the first nationalpoll since the fall of slain leader Moamer Kadhafi’s regime.

“We have decided to extend the period of registration forvoters by a week, until May 21,” said Nuri Abbar, head of theHigh National Electoral Commission, adding that the deci-sion would not affect the timing of the vote. The ruling Na-tional Transitional Council has pledged to hold elections fora 200-seat constituent assembly by June 19.

A total of 120 seats in the assembly are reserved for in-dependent candidates, while the remaining 80 are open to

political parties. When elected, the assembly will appoint anew prime minister and cabinet. It will also appoint a com-mittee of experts to write a draft constitution which will thenbe submitted to a national referendum.

More than 1.5 million Libyans have registered to vote inthe June elections for the General National Congress, Abbartold journalists in the capital. But grievances over the elec-toral process have emerged in Tripoli and the eastern city ofBenghazi, where federalism backers urged a boycott of thevote. “This (boycott) call has had no impact on voter regis-tration and the electoral process,” said Abbar.

Meanwhile, activists in the capital issued a statementurging a series of amendments to the electoral process andthreatened to boycott the poll if their demands are not met.

UN observer mission boosted as another 23 die in Syria

Mladic to stand trial on Bosnian war crimes

Libya extends voter registration by a week

AMRitsAR: An indian hindu devotee walks with a trident rod piercing in her tongue known as trishula during a procession to honour the hindu goddess Maha

Mariamman on sunday. AFP

KHI 14-05-2012_Layout 1 5/14/2012 2:00 AM Page 14

Foreign News 15Monday, 14 May, 2012

Saudi and Bahrain expectedto seek union: minister

DUBAI/RIYADHReUteRs

SAUDI Arabia and Bahrainare expected to announcecloser political union at ameeting of Gulf Arab lead-ers on Monday, a Bahraini

minister said, in a move dismissed bythe opposition as a ruse to avoid politi-cal reform.

The decision is part of efforts to in-crease integration within the Gulf Coop-eration Council (GCC), as theorganisation’s six nations worry aboutIran’s power in the region and the pres-ence of al Qaeda after the Arab uprisings.Saudi Arabia and Bahrain might initiallyseek closer union, local media have said,as both share a concern about discontentamong Shia Muslims against their rulingSunni dynasties, and accuse Shia Iran offomenting it - a charge it denies.

Saudi security forces enteredBahrain in March 2011 before a crack-down on pro-democracy protests ledmainly by majority Shia Muslimsagainst the Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy,a U.S. ally. “I expect there will be an an-nouncement of two or three countries.We can’t be sure but I have a strong ex-pectation,” Samira Rajab, Bahrain’sminister of state for information af-

fairs, told Reuters on Sunday. Two ofthe countries mentioned were SaudiArabia and Bahrain; Rajab did notname the third.

“Sovereignty will remain with eachof the countries and they would remainas U.N. members but they would unitein decisions regarding foreign relations,security, military and economy.”

Despite appearances of unity, thereare deep divisions within the GCC,which also includes Kuwait, Qatar, theUnited Arab Emirates and Oman, as itsofficials meet in Riyadh on Monday forday-long talks. Riyadh fears thatBahrain’s pro-democracy movement hasthe potential to spill over into Saudi Ara-bia’s Shia-populated Eastern Provinceregion, home to major oilfields.DISPUTeD ISLANDS: MeanwhileIranian President Mahmoud Ah-madinejad made a surprise visit to anisland claimed by the UAE last month,raising latent fear among Gulf rulers ofIranian power since the 2003 invasionof Iraq brought Iran’s allies and fellowShias to power.

The United States, with its Fifth Fleetin Manama, sees the Al Khalifa family askey allies in stemming Iranian influencein the Gulf, though Washington has notsaid it believes that Iran is behind the un-rest and has called for dialogue. Wash-

ington said last week it would resumearms sales to Manama, drawing fire frominternational rights groups.

Bahrain’s leading opposition partyWefaq said the Saudi interventionsaimed to stop democratic change.

“The issues facing Bahrain are local,not regional. There is little the Saudiscan do: they sent troops but failed be-cause the crisis is still going on, andthat’s because it requires a political so-lution,” said senior Wefaq official JasimHusain. “Any agreement must get thepeople’s approval, not least in SaudiArabia. I suspect this supposed union isjust rhetoric.”

Pro-democracy protesters burnedtyres and clashed with police in Bahrainon Saturday to demand the release ofopposition leaders and rights activists,one of whom has been on a three-monthhunger strike. Bahrain said last week itwould step up efforts to crush unautho-rised protests, which it terms “rioting”,after 15 policemen were injured by im-provised bombs.

Opposition activists say the deathtoll in the unrest has risen from 35when martial law ended last June to 81,as police make heavy use of teargas andbirdshot pellet. The government saysmany of the deaths were caused by theprotesters’ or bystanders’ pre-existing

poor health.‘GReAT DReAM’: Bahrain’s hardlineprime minister, seen as opposed to con-cessions to the Shia opposition, backedthe idea of a union.

“The great dream of the peoples ofthe region is to see the day when bor-ders disappear with a union that cre-ates one Gulf,” the official BahrainNews Agency quoted him as saying onSunday. Justin Gengler, a researcherbased in Qatar, said hardliners includ-ing the prime minister, army chief androyal court minister see a union as away of stopping the empowerment ofShias and preserving the privileges ofthe ruling family.

“Even a dramatic announcement to-morrow of some grandiose plan for GCCunion must be taken with a grain ofsalt,” he said. A monetary union projecthas faltered, and other differences arealso deep. Qatar and Oman maintaingood ties with Iran. Saudi Arabia hasobjected to a bridge project betweenBahrain and Qatar, and Bahrain has notbeen able to buy gas from Qatar.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are sus-picious of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood,while Brotherhood affiliates operateopenly in Kuwait and Bahrain, andQatar promotes the group via its AlJazeera satellite television channel.

37 dismembered

bodies dumped on

Mexico highwayMEXICO CITY

ReUteRs

Authorities found the dismembered bodiesof 37 people stuffed into bags and dumpedon a highway near the northern industrialcity of Monterrey in what appeared to bepart of a string of brutal drug gang killings,local media reported. The bodies werefound in the early hours of Sunday on ahighway, sparking a large deployment oflocal, state and military officials to thescene, daily Excelsior reported on itswebsite. Other national newspapers alsoreported 37 dead. The report follows astring of atrocities, including 18 peoplewho were found decapitated anddismembered near Mexico’s second-largestcity, Guadalajara, on Wednesday.

new York police

frisk more people

despite criticismNEW YORK

ReUteRs

New York police conducted more than200,000 frisk searches in the first threemonths of this year, a 10 percent increasefrom the same period last year, even ascritics say the practice often is racialprofiling. New York City Mayor MichaelBloomberg and Police Commissioner RayKelly have long defended the program asone that saves lives and has helped bringviolent crime down to historic lows,making New York one of the safest bigcities in America. But the New York CivilLiberties Union and other groups say thatblack and Latino New Yorkers arestopped with alarming frequency, eventhough in the great majority of cases theyare found to have done nothing wrong.

40 die in chinese

hailstormBEIJING

AfP

Forty people were killed when a brief butviolent hailstorm and torrential rain sweptthrough a mountainous region ofnorthwest China, the local governmentsaid on Sunday. Eighteen others remainedmissing in Min county, a disaster-pronearea of Gansu province, while 87 had beensent to hospital, the county governmentsaid in a statement on its website. Officialssaid 29,300 people had been evacuatedafter rain and hail battered the county forjust 60 minutes late Thursday afternoon. Ithad “wreaked havoc” on all of the county’s18 townships and had affected more thantwo-thirds of its 450,000 residents, thestate-controlled Xinhua news agencyreported. “Roads were blocked, housescollapsed, farmland was destroyed, and thepower supply and telecommunicationsservices were disrupted by the extremeweather,” the agency said.

PARISAfP

Francois Hollande will be sworn in asleader of the proud French nation Tuesdayonly to face an immediate reminder of theextent to which its power is constrained byits ties to a debt-wracked Europe.

The Elysee Palace ceremony and as-sociated pomp — an open-topped ride ina classic Citroen DS up the Champs Ely-sees to the arch that celebrates France’sformer triumphs — will be followedwithin hours by a flight to Berlin.

There, in a cautious first encounter,France’s new Socialist leader will try tofind common ground with Germany’sconservative leader Angela Merkel, de-

spite their widely differing views on howto deal with eurozone deficits.

France is the world’s fifth greatpower, Europe’s second biggest economyand a nuclear-armed permanent memberof the UN Security Council. Its presidentwields enormous personal authority as defacto head of state and government.

But, as Hollande’s right-wing prede-cessor Nicolas Sarkozy found to his frus-tration, since its entry into the euro Parishas had to remain in lockstep with its EUallies, in particular economic powerhouseGermany. Hollande won over 51.6 per-cent of French voters who expressed apreference on May 6, but the seventhpresident of the Fifth Republic’s promiseto restart growth will depend largely on

his ability to work with allies abroad.First, however, the 57-year-old career

politician wants to begin with a sombrecelebration of his campaign themes: a re-turn to “normality” after Sarkozy’s fre-netic rule, the plight of youth and thecause of social justice. “His deepest wishis to be a normal president,” his formerpartner Segolene Royal, the mother of hisfour children and the Socialists’ defeated2007 candidate, said Sunday. The swear-ing-in ceremony will be held in the ele-gant Elysee Palace, but will be a relativelysimple affair, with no other heads of stateinvited and neither his children nor thoseof his partner Valerie Trierweiler present.

After his trip to the Arc de Triomphehe will pay tribute to 19th-century educa-

tional reformer Jules Ferry — father ofFrance’s free, secular education system —and to Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize-win-ning chemist. Then it will be down tobusiness, a crash course in high-wire eco-nomic diplomacy for a man who hasnever served in government, more usedto backroom Socialist Party infightingthan international summitry.

The first order of business will be tonominate a prime minister, probably thesafe choice of the Socialists’ leader in par-liament Jean-Marc Ayrault, althoughother names are circulating and Hollandehas let little slip. Whoever gets the job willbe faced with simultaneously building acabinet of ministers and starting theparty’s campaign to win a parliamentary

majority in June’s legislative election,while Hollande heads for Berlin. Hollandehas ordered an audit of the government’sfinances, but new EU forecasts suggest hewill struggle to meet his goal of cutting thedeficit to three percent of GDP by 2013and balance the books by 2017.

In France, his allies insist the short-fall is the fault of hidden weaknesses inSarkozy’s record, but it weakens Hol-lande as he implores the chancellor toease the EU’s austere fiscal straitjacket.

Hollande wants to re-negotiate thefiscal pact agreed by his predecessor inorder to give EU members more leewayto invest for growth, but Berlin insists re-covery will be secure only when deficitsare brought under control.

sYDneY: chandra Bahadur Dangi, the 72-year-old nepali crowned the ‘world's shortest man’ by guinness World Records is carried as he arrives at sydney international

Airport for a week of promotional engagements on sunday. Dangi stands just 54.6 centimetres (21.5 inches) tall. AFP

New French face, same old euro crisis as Hollande sworn in

g Saudi, Bahraini leaders tout Gulf union plan g Bahrain opposition: idea aims to avoid protesters’ demands

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Monday, 14 May, 2012

Page 19

Serena humbles Azarenkato win Madrid open title

LAHOREstAff RePoRt

MALAYSIA lifted the firsttitle of Junior Asia HockeyCup after defeating Pak-istan in a thrilling final on

Sunday. At the end of first half of thematch Malaysia dominated Pakistan withtwo goals, but in the second half Pakistanmanaged to throw the ball into net onetime. The title that came Malaysia hockeyway after 20 years was all due to the manunder the bar who stood there like a walland did not let the Pakistan forwards passthe ball though him, until MohammadIrfan found an open space in the 47thminute of the match. Although Malaysiais holding hockey events regularly butnone of their hockey teams won any titlein the past two decades.

Malaysia became the Junior AsiaHockey champion created history afterit led Pakistan 2-0 by the first half.Faizal Saari scored the opening goal in

the 2nd minute and was doubled by Mo-hammad Yusaf in the 17th minute. Thewin was a combination of the good workof the Malaysian forwards and their de-

fence which kept attacking Pakistandanger zone and on the other handmaintained solid guard at the back.

Earlier, India beat South Korea 2-1

courtesy a golden goal to win a bronzemedal in the seventh edition of the Jun-ior Cup at MBM Stadium on Sunday.

Tied 1-1 at the end of the finalhooter, Indian skipper AkashdeepSingh scored the golden goal to give theIndian team the medal.

India and South Korea both playeda defensive game, but Korea took thelead thanks to You Seungji in the 47thminute through a penalty corner. In anattempt to level the score, India startedpressing and made some good penetra-tions into the circle and seven minuteslater Lokesh Thimmana scored the lev-eller. It was Lokesh again who showeda clean pair of heels to the defenders intaking the ball into the circle in the sec-ond session of extra time to set up hiscaptain.

Indian defence and midfield wascompact with vice-Captain Amit Rohi-das, Sukhmanjit Singh, Pardeep Moreand Harjeet Singh all putting in a goodperformance.

Malaysia beat Pakistan tobecome Jr Asia hockey champ

LAHOREstAff RePoRt

Drag-flick specialist Sohail Abbas hasbeen named as captain of the Pakistanhockey team that will play in the AzlanShah Cup in Malaysia later this month.

Abbas will be assisted by WaqasSharif who as been named as vice cap-tain for the tournament.

Addressing a press conference inIslamabad, Pakistan Hockey Federa-tion (PHF) Chief Selector Hanif Khanand Manager Khawaja Junaid an-nounced the squad. Six players of thejunior team whowere inMalaysian toplay the Jun-ior Asia Cupwere also selected inthe team. Rizwan Junior,Kashif Sheikh Khalid, Bhuttaand Abdul Haseem Khan are the jun-ior team members who will for theSenior team in the Azlan Shah Cup.

The 21st Azlan Shah Hockey Tour-

nament will get under way inMalaysian city of IPOH on May 26.

Penalty corner specialist andworld record holder Sohail Abbas hasbeen handed the captaincy for the firsttime in his career.

The team will leave for KualaLumpur on May 18 from Lahore. Theseven-nation hockey tournament willbe played on league basis.

National hockey chief selectorHanif Khan supervised trials ofplayers for the tournament atNaseer Banda Hockey Stadium,Islamabad. Other players se-lected for the tournament are:Imran Shah, Farid Ahmed,Rashied Mehmood, Mo-

hammad Waqas,

M o h a m m a dZubair, Umer Bhutta,Imran Butt, Shafqat Rasool,Mohammad Irfan, MohammadRizwan Junior, Mohammad Taufeeq,

Shabbir Ahmed Khan, Ali Shah, KashifShah and Khalid Yahya.

LAHOREstAff RePoRt

Former players, including Sialkot Stal-lions captain Shoaib Malik, have wel-comed BCCI`s decision to allowPakistan to participate in the Champi-ons League T20 competition to be heldin India in October this year.

"It is a relief to hear that finally wewill get a chance to compete with thebest teams in the Champions League,"Malik was quoted by Zeenews.

The Malik-led Sialkot Stallions teamhas won the national T20 championshipand super eights titles this season.

The star-studded Sialkot side thatincludes Imran Nazir, Rana Naved, Sha-keel Ansar has been the national T20champions in Pakistan six times.

The BCCI on Saturday announcedthat Pakistan would be allowed to sendits national T20 team for the ChampionsLeague during its working committeemeeting in Chennai.

The governing board of the Champi-ons League that includes the SouthAfrican and Australian boards will have

to ratify the BCCI recommendation at itsmeeting later this month.

Although the Sialkot team was dueto take part in the first ChampionsLeague in 2008 and some of its playershad already reached India for this pur-pose, things didn`t work out when in thesame month in November that year theMumbai terror attacks took place.

The attacks led to India suspendingits bilateral cricket ties with Pakistanand since than Pakistani players haveneither been invited for the Indian Pre-mier League nor for the ChampionsLeague. The domestic T20 championsfrom Test playing nations compete inthe Champions League.

Malik said that he had been prayingand hoping for a break this year. "Theice has finally been broken and I am de-lighted that finally our team will get achance to play in the tournament inIndia," the former Pakistan captain said.

He said that Sialkot team would playlike the Pakistan team in India. "It is agood opportunity for us to convince theIndian people about the great talent inPakistan cricket," Malik said. Malik,

who is married to Indian tennis starSania Mirza, said for him India was likea second home since it was his in-lawsplace. "I have been there regularly sincemy marriage and even before that and Iknow the Indian people love and sup-port the Pakistani cricketers," he said.Malik admitted that there would be lot

of pressure on the Sialkot team playingafter such a long time in India.

"But our team is capable of handlingthe pressure and giving a good accountof themselves." Former Pakistan cap-tain Moin Khan said the decisions takenby the BCCI were very positive and astep in the right direction.

"Hopefully in the next IPL our play-ers will also be invited to be part of theT20 extravaganza," he said.

Moin, who has toured India with thePakistan team, said he knew that Pak-istani players enjoyed playing in India.

"The passion and knowledge for thesport is very high in India and our play-ers are very popular there. I just hopethat very soon the BCCI also resumes bi-lateral cricket ties," he said.

Former Test batsman, Basit Ali saidhe had been insisting all along that with-out Pakistani players the IPL was losingout on some quality players.

"It is good that the BCCI has decidedto start off with the Champions Leagueand now we can be hopeful the next stepwould be the IPL and then bilateralties," he added.

hameedstill hopefulof comeback

LAHOREstAff RePoRt

Batsman Yasir Hameed last played forPakistan in 2010 against England andhis last ODI was against India in 2007,but is still hopeful about making acomeback to the national squad.Hameed is hoping for an Internationalrecall, especially after newly appointedteam management said all playerswould be considered for selection onthe basis of recent performances, re-gardless of their past records.The selection committee duly deliveredon their promise, but Hameed's name,to his dismay, did not figure in anysquad, but he hasn't lost all hope yet."Whatever I am is due to my countryPakistan and it will be my honour toserve the nation as long as I can in mycapacity as a cricketer. I may have mademistakes but that's all in the past,"Hameed said during an interview withPakPassion.net."I continue to train and develop myskills and will be playing in the KarachiChampions League tournament which isorganized by Rashid Latif. I have notgiven up hope of an international recalland pray to the Almighty that I con-tinue to work hard and improve and getnoticed by the selectors not in one butall formats of the game," he added.

It’s performancethat mattersfor Dogar

LAHOREstAff RePoRt

Pakistan batsman Mohammad Ayub Dogar,who has been given a chance to prove hismettle at the international stage for the na-tional team at the age of 32, has said he is intop form. Dogar has played 93 first-classmatches and averages 44, but his perform-ances over the last four years have been par-ticularly impressive, scoring over 4000 runsin this period. Many have questioned Dogar'sselection at the age of 32, and are of the opin-ion that a youngster should have been given achance instead, but he believes he thoroughlydeserves to be in the team. "If it was aboutage, they should have given me the chancefour years ago! However, I did not have thematurity as a player back then, when I was 25or 26 and it's the batsmen over the age of 30who are performing in the modern game,"Dogar said during an interview with PakPas-sion.net. "Cricket is a game very much playedin the mind and there are some things youlearn only through experience. It gives aplayer the opportunity to analyse mistakes,analyse his shots but this experience comes inthe passage of time and doing the hard yardsand you mature accordingly," he added. "Ifeel that I'm at my peak as a batsman. In factI'm actually getting better which suggests Ihave a lot more to offer. I am very careful inmanaging my health and fitness. If you arefit, age doesn't matter," he said.

Jurgensennamed interimB’desh coach

DHAKAReUteRs

Bowling coach Shane Jurgensen was ap-pointed as interim head coach of Bangladesh on Saturday as the country'scricket board (BCB) continues its search toreplace Australian Stuart Law. TheBangladesh Cricket Board is facing a raceagainst time to appoint a new coach afterZimbabwe turned their bilateral Twenty20series against South Africa in June into a tri-series with Bangladesh being the third team.Englishman Richard Pybus held talks withthe BCB last week to replace Law, whostepped down last month. The BCB said ithas prepared a shortlist for a new coach,with Nottinghamshire director of cricketMick Newell and former New Zealand coachMark Greatbatch among the candidates.

Former captains, players hail BCCI’s decision

Sohail to lead Pakistan in AzlanShah Hockey tournament

KHI 14-05-2012_Layout 1 5/14/2012 2:00 AM Page 16

sports 17Monday, 14 May, 2012

chand Memorialclub downTauseef club

LAHOREstAff RePoRt

Chand Memorial Club outplayed TauseefClub by 83 runs in the 2nd phase matchof LCCA super cricket league played atModel Town ground the other day. scoRes: chand Memorial 303/9 in 50 overs. Jahan-zaib Abdullah 99, rana naveed 82, Bilal Arif 45, M Tan-veer 39. Sher Baz Khan 3/65, Awais Manzoor 2/69,Israr Baig 2/43, waqas Khan 1/56, Sheraz Baig 1/61. Tauseef club 220 all out in 42.5 overs. M Ahmed 61,waqas Khan 30, ISrar Baig 38, Ismaeel Mudassar 13,Junaid Mudassar 22, M Awais Manzoor 11, Mohsin AliAgha 22(no). Ali raza 5/40, Bilal Iqbal 4/29.

city beat PioneerLAHORE

stAff RePoRt

In the 13th Madree Millat Mohtarma Fa-timah Jinnah Memorial T20 best of threeSummer League Series round match atIqbal Park Ground no 2, City Gymkhanabeat Pioneer by 40 runs. Rab nawaz for-mer international umpire and presidentPioneer Cricket Club inaugurated thematch. City gym made 195 -8 in 20 overs.Osama Bilal 60, Mohd Hussain 30,Kaashif Ali 20. Hasan Azam took 3-23,Ameen Khan 3-42, Hamza Ayub 2-32. Pi-oneer CC 155-9-20 overs. Nadeem Butt55, Waleed Ch 35, Atiqur Rehman 20.Mohd Bilal 3-35, Khurram Mirza 3-35,Osama Bilal 3-28. Osama was named theman of the match.

WASHINGTONAfP

GOLDEN Boy Promotions hasasked boxing commissionersin Washington to turn Eng-lish fighter Amir Khan's loss

to Lamont Peterson into a no-contest re-sult, ESPN reported on Saturday. If theDistrict of Columbia Boxing Commis-sion overturns the controversial victoryby hometown hero Peterson last Decem-ber, Khan reclaims the World BoxingAssociation and International BoxingFederation world lightweight titles.

The move comes after a Khan-Peter-son rematch scheduled for next Saturdaywas called off in the wake of the Ameri-can failing a drug test last March. Khanhas called Peterson "a cheat" and de-manded his titles be returned. A dis-missal of Peterson's split-decision

triumph is by no means certain. Petersonhad not tested positive for any bannedsubstance before the victory and only didso under Olympic-style random testing

that he requested ahead of the rematch,three months after the original Khanfight. But upholding the validity of thevictory would not necessarily keep the ti-

tles from being vacated or returned toKhan in the wake of the positive dopingtest. The big controversy of the Decemberbout was referee Joe Cooper deductingtwo points from Khan for excessive push-ing. Without those deductions, the fightscoring would have resulted in a drawand Khan would have kept his titles.

A statement from Peterson's campnoted he had not failed a drug test "be-yond this isolated and explainable occur-rence. We still stand behind the fact thathe did nothing wrong and he was morethan ready to go through with the fight."Khan, however, said his family and campworried for his safety should he climb intothe ring with Peterson. "My parents andteam said to me 'Look, at the end of theday Amir, it could be a risk to your life,'"Khan said. "It's not going to be fair to stepinto the ring with someone who is going tobe on drugs and going to be cheating."

JAIPURcRicinfo

When Rahul Dravid of Rajasthan Roy-als was asked at the toss to name thechanges to his line-up, he paused for afew seconds before giving up trying torecollect the second spinner. AjitChandila ensured that his captain andthe rest of the world weren't going toforget his name. The little-known off-spinner from Haryana responded witha hat-trick in only his second game, re-ducing Pune Warriors to a train wreckearly in their chase of 171. Warriors ex-tended their losing streak to eight - theworst in IPL history - while Royalsstayed in the hunt for the playoffs.

It proved a masterstroke by Dravidtossing the new ball to Chandila. War-riors didn't know what to expect fromthe tall spinner, only two first-classmatches old. With a run-up of barely afew steps, and a languid action to boot,Chandila tossed it up at such an ago-nisingly slow pace that it took an eter-nity for the ball to land. Jesse Ryderopted to hammer him out of the attackbut ended up mis-hitting it to ShaneWatson pedaling back at mid-on.

Sourav Ganguly tried to nudge thenext delivery but the ball dribbled backtowards the wicketkeeper ShreevatsGoswami who broke the stumps beforeGanguly could ground his bat.Chandila struck with the first ball of hissecond over, drawing Robin Uthappaforward and beating him on the drive

before Goswami whipped off the bails. SCOReS: Rajasthan Royals 170 for4 (Rahane 61, Watson 58) beat PuneWarriors 125 for 9 (Smith 37,Chandila 4-13) by 45 runs.DOMINANT CHeNNAI TOPPLeTABLe-TOPPeRS: Chennai SuperKings kept their playoff hopes alivewith a ruthless performance that cutthe table-leaders Delhi Daredevils tosize. Super Kings shook Daredevils outof their comfort zone by letting themset a target, and they came a cropperon a lively pitch, plodding to 114.Virender Sehwag failed for the secondtime, and the absence of a strong top-order base exposed a weakness in thesame line-up that carried them to the

top of the table. Super Kings coastedhome courtesy an opening stand of 75,which helped them power back to No.4. Daredevils never recovered whenBen Hilfenhaus sent Sehwag's offstump for a tumble in the openingover. Sehwag was lost at sea with onethat straightened and the rest of thetop order were undone by arrogance.David Warner, who gave the Indianbowlers in Deccan Chargers a hidingin Hyderabad, was now confrontedwith the quality of Hilfenhaus, whohad him swatting tamely to mid-off.SCOReS: Chennai Super Kings 115for 1 (Vijay 48*, Hussey 38) beatDelhi Daredevils 114 for 5 (Nagar 43*,Hilfenhaus 3-27) by nine wickets.

england call upBairstow for firstwindies test

LONDONReUteRs

England have named uncapped wicket-keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow in the 13-man squad to face West Indies in the firstmatch of the three-test series starting atLord's on Thursday. Bairstow, 22, hasplayed six one-day internationals and anidentical number of Twenty20 matchesand replaces all-rounder Samit Patel fromthe squad that drew the away test seriesagainst Sri Lanka 1-1 in April. "JonnyBairstow has put in a number of impres-sive performances both for England Lionsand Yorkshire and has been working hardon the England Performance Programmeover the last couple of years," national se-lector Geoff Miller said in a statement onSunday. "He is an exciting young playerwho now has an opportunity to experi-ence the test environment."SqUAD: Andrew Strauss (captain),Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, KevinPietersen, Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow, MattPrior, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad,Graeme Swann, James Anderson, StevenFinn, Graham Onions.

Ton-up Powell leadswindies revivalagainst lions

LONDONAfP

Kieran Powell scored the first hundred ofthe West Indies tour of England as theyavoided an embarrassing defeat againstthe England Lions on Saturday ahead ofnext week's first Test at Lord's. West Indieswere facing the possibility of being beatenwith more than a day to spare in this four-day match at Northampton. At the start ofSaturday's third day, they resumed on 28for three in their second innings, still 166adrift of the 341 first innings score postedby the Lions, England's 'A' side. But Powell(108) shared successive century standswith Darren Bravo (57) and ShivnarineChanderpaul (77) and by stumps the WestIndies had advanced to 377 for eight -- alead of 183. West Indies' batting is con-sidered to be the most vulnerable aspectof their game and the way they folded to147 all out, albeit in seam-friendly condi-tions, in the first innings did not augurwell for Lord's. Nor did Friday's top-order collapse but Powell and Bravo,whose fifty was his second of the match,both cashed in after they each survived adifficult chance while still in the teens.

Amir loss become no contest

Chandila hat-trickkeeps Rajasthan in race

JAIPUr: rajasthan royals bowler Johan Botha (2l) celebrates the wicket of Pune warriorsbatsman callum Ferguson with teammates during the IPl Twenty20 match. AFP

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sports18Monday, 14 May, 2012

PonTe VeDrA BeAch: Kevin na of the US reacts after finishing his round on the 18th green during the third round of the Players championship PGA golf tournament. REUTERS

PONTE VEDRA BEACHReUteRs

KEVIN Na drained a 15-foot birdieputt on the last hole to snatch theoutright lead from Matt Kuchar

after the third round of the PlayersChampionship on Saturday as RickieFowler made his move with a six-underpar 66, the best round of the day.

Na, frequently taking excessive prac-tice strokes and often backing away fromhis shot, otherwise struck the ballsweetly in carding a bogey free 68 toreach 12-under for the tournament.

The South Korean-born Americanmet with rules official Mark Russell afterhis round to discuss his slow play butsaid there were no problems.

"We were talking about the pace ofplay. We were on the clock quite a bit.Everything's okay," said Na who blamedhis problems due to a lack of comfort

with his balance."As ugly as it is and as painful as it

is, believe me, it is really tough for meand I am trying," he said.

Fellow American Kuchar had amixed day, combining seven birdies withfour bogeys, including one on the noto-riously difficult 'island green' 17th, for around of 69 to finish a shot behind Na.

"I knew it was going to be a trickyday, there were going to be a lot of bo-geys and dangers around every corner,"said Kuchar, who tied for third at lastmonth's Masters.

"It was a great day in terms of notletting the bad holes bother me. I thinkthat is one of my strong suits and todayit came in really helpful."

Kuchar and Na began the day in athree-way tie for the lead with ZachJohnson, the 2007 Masters champion.Johnson shot a one-over 73 to slip backinto equal fourth with Ben Curtis (70)at

seven-under.It was a sign of the difficulty of the

course that Na and Kuchar were the onlyplayers to post three rounds in the 60sand Na was one of only three players,along with Curtis and Carl Pettersson,that were bogey free on Saturday.

While Kuchar and Na jostled for theoutright lead, most of the buzz around asun-drenched TPC Sawgrass layout sur-rounded Fowler.

The 23-year-old Californian, whoclaimed his first PGA Tour win at QuailHollow last week, racked up sevenbirdies before spoiling his otherwiseflawless round with a bogey at the last,missing a putt from less than four feet.

He ended the day perfectly poised,two shots behind Fowler and one behindKuchar. For most of the round, Fowler,who would become the tournament'syoungest winner, was right on target,and even when he got in trouble, he re-

mained unflustered.On the fifth hole, he drove into a

bunker, 200 yards from the pin, butblasted out of the sand to just four feetand made birdie.

"I drove it well, put myself in posi-tion off the tee, which is the key here, nomatter what, especially with the windblowing today. I was able to play out ofthe short grass as much as possible,"said Fowler.

"Other than bogeying the last, I'dhave to say it was a fairly perfect round."

Tiger Woods made an even-par 72and was two-under for the tournament,tied for 34th place. Phil Mickelsonsigned for a 69 to climb 16 places to beequal 14th.

Spain's Sergio Garcia made a doublebogey on the par-five second hole totumble back to a tie for last place but re-ceovered to finish with a four-under 68leaving him level with Mickelson.

LAHOREstAff RePoRt

Amar Cables on Sunday created historyby winning the 14th National VeteranSenior Cricket Cup on Sunday.

It was Amar Cables fifth title on trotand their first National Veterans title.Amar Cables maintained its winning runon its debut in the National Veteran Sen-ior Cricket Cup, all thanks for Amer IlyasButt, COO of Amar Cables. In the finalthey beat Omer Associate Karachi by 7runs and won the trophy.

Playing at the LCCA Ground Lahore,Amar Cables batting first made 208/9after 30 overs. Dastgeer Butt 76, AmeerAkbar 49, Amer Ilyas Butt 13 & ShahidMansoor 15 runs. Omer AssociateKarachi bowling Jafar Qureshi 2/43,Irfan Ali 3/37, Ahmad Hayyat 2/32,Muhammad Yousaf 1/33 & Saifullah 1/37wickets. In reply Omer Associate Karachi201 all out after 30 overs. Jafar Qureshi71 & Irfan Ali 45 runs. Amar Cables bowl-ing Muhammad Arif 2/27, Rouf Wain

2/23, Tariq Hussain 1/27 & Dastgeer Butt1/18 wickets.

Ahsan Raza, Shozab Raza Umpire,Muhammad Kaleem reserve umpire,Qaisar Waheed TV umpire, MuhammadAnees match referee, Syed Najam-ul-syed& Qasim Shafiq was the scorer, JaveedAshraf was the coordinator.

At the end of the match, chief guestformer chairman PCB Khalid Mehmoodgae away the winner trophy and Rs150,000 to Amar Cables' Captain AmeerAkbar, Runner Up Trophy & Rs. 75,000/-Omer Associate Karachi's Captain JafarQureshi & Jointly man of the matchaward to Muhammad Arif & DastgeerButt.

Chairman Pakistan Veteran CricketAssociation Fawad Ejaz Khan, Chief Ex-ecutive PVCA Nawab Ashiq HussainQureshi, CEO Amar Cables Amer IlyasButt, SPM Chief Aizad Hussain Syed,Rizwan Nisar, Kernel Rafi Naseem, Fa-heem Malik, Former Olympian QamarIbrahim & large number of Sports Organ-izer & players on the occasion.

Pakistan U-22 teamoff to Palestine

LAHORE stAff RePoRt

The Pakistan National U-22 football teamhas left for Palestine on Sunday to take partin Al Nakba International Football Tourna-ment to be held there from May 13 to 24.Pakistan has sent their Under-22 team forthe competitions in order to prepare it forthe Asian Cup Qualifiers to be held in SaudiArabia from June 23 to July 3. Pakistanhave been placed in Group A with the hostsPalestine, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, accord-ing to the draws unveiled by the PalestineFootball Association (PFA) for the Al-Nakba International Football tournamentpenciled in for May 13-24 at different ven-ues in Palestine. Uzbekistan, Indonesia andIraq/Kurdistan have been adjusted inGroup B while Tunisia, Jordon and Mauri-tania have been bracketed in Group C. Theevent will be held under round robin systemand a leading team from each group and thebest third placed side from the three groupswill make it to the semifinals to be held onMay 21. The final will be played on May 23.This is the second time that the PFA is or-ganizing the event with the assistance ofPalestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.the teAM: Kaleemullah (captain), Faisal Iqbal (Vice cap-tain), Saddam hussain (Vice captain) Saqib hanif, Muzam-mil hussain, Tanvir Mumtaz, Manzoor Ahmad, naveedAhmad, Mohammad osman, Ahsanullah, Mohammad Aadil,Sheram Babar, Mehmood Khan, Sher Muhammad, JunaidQadir, Bilawal-ur-rehman, Imran Ali Khan, Usama haleem,Abdul Salam, Muhammad, Zakir lashari and Amir Siddiqui.the officiALs: Zavisha Milosavljevich (head coach),Syed nasir Ismail (Assistant coach), Muhammad AslamKhan (Goalkeeper coach), Dr. Kamran Mehdi (Physio)and Muhammad Saeed Khan (chief De Mission).

Krl opt for drawagainst Taiwan Power

LAHOREstAff RePoRt

Pakistan champions Khan Research Labo-ratories (KRL) Football Club failed toscore a single goal yet again in their GroupA campaign but still qualify for the finalsof the AFC President’s Cup after seeingout both of their matches goalless draw. Inthe last match of Group A played on Sat-urday night at the Punjab Stadium here,KRL managed a fighting goalless drawagainst defending champions TaiwanPower Company to sneak through the fi-nals with two points from as manymatches. In overall, KRL did not score anddid not concede in the two matches theywere involved as the group featured onlythree clubs with Bangladesh championsDhanmundi opted to withdraw from thetournament. Mongolian debutant ErchimFC, despite earning a point in their debutmatch at the President’s Cup are out ofthe competitions. Taiwan Power Com-pany and KRL qualified from Group Awhile Dordoi Dynamo of Kyrgyzstan andCambodia’s Phnom Penh Crown FC arequalified from Group B. Tajikistan’s Is-tiklol and Palestine debutant Al Amma’riYouth Club make up the six allotted berthfor the September finals from Group C.

lAhore: Former PcB chairman Khalid Mehmood gives the winner’s trophy to Amar cables's captain Ameer Akbar. Fawab ejaz khan,Ashiq husain Qureshi and Amer Ilyas Butt are also present on the occasion.

History-making Amar Cables beg National Senior Cup

Na snatches lead at the Players

KHI 14-05-2012_Layout 1 5/14/2012 2:00 AM Page 18

sports 19Monday, 14 May, 2012

wAtCH It LIve

GEO SUPERIPL-5: Royal Challengersv Mumbai Indians03:30PMKolkata Knight Ridersv Chennai Super Kings07:30PM

MADRIDReUteRs

Afired-up Serena Williamssent out a warning to theyoung pretenders ofwomen's tennis when she

powered to a crushing 6-1 6-3 victoryover world number one VictoriaAzarenka to win the Madrid Open onSunday.

The 30-year-old former numberone, seeded ninth at the premier clayevent in the Spanish capital, madethe most of Azarenka's nervous starton the blue dirt of the Manolo San-tana show court to race into a 4-0lead.

After breaking the Belarussian'sserve for a third time to clinch thefirst set, Williams turned the screwwith another break early in the sec-ond and clinched victory on her firstmatch point when Azarenka com-pletely missed an attempted return.

It was the American's second titleof the year after her success on theclay at Charleston last month and her41st singles crown overall, puttingher in joint 13th on the all-time listwith Belgian Kim Clijsters.

Azarenka, who flung her racket tothe floor in frustration on the way tobeing broken in the second game ofthe second set, had beaten Williamsjust once in seven previous meetingsand was bidding to improve on herrunners-up finish in 2011.

It was only her third defeat in ayear in which the 22-year-old wonher first grand slam singles title atthe Australian Open, which lifted herto the top of the rankings, and hasearned more than $4 million in prizemoney.

Williams clubbed 26 winners toAzarenka's six and smashed down 14aces, while her opponent did notmanage a single one and offered upsix double faults.

Serena humbles Azarenkato win Madrid Open title

MADrID: Serena williams of the US celebrates winning a point against Victoria Azarenkaduring the Madrid open final. REUTERS

Groth recordsfastest serve

LONDON ReUteRs

Little known Australian player Sam Grothhas fired down the fastest recorded serve inprofessional tennis, a 263kph rocket thatRoger Federer described as "an incrediblenumber". The ATP Tour said on Saturdaythat Groth, ranked 340 in the world, pro-duced the serve in a second-round matchagainst Belarusian Uladzimir Ignatik in aChallenger event in South Korea. His effortbeat the previous fastest-recorded serve of251kph sent down by Croatian Ivo Karlovicin a Davis Cup tie against Germany in Za-greb in March, 2011. Federer, speaking at anews conference after clinching a place inthe Madrid Open final on Saturday, said heexpected the record to be broken again.

MADRID ReUteRs

Roger Federer moved a step closer to a record-equalling 20th Masters title when he thumpedJanko Tipsarevic 6-2 6-3 at the Madrid Openon Saturday to set up a final showdown withTomas Berdych. The Swiss maestro, whose 19Masters titles put him one behind recordholder Rafa Nadal, stroked 25 winners on theblue clay of the Manolo Santana show court ashe chases a fourth title of the year that wouldlift him above Nadal to number two in theworld. In breezy conditions, seventh seed Tip-sarevic could not reproduce the form thathelped him to a shock quarter-final win againsttop seed and Serbian compatriot NovakDjokovic and has now lost all five of his meet-ings with Federer. Federer came into the tour-nament following a month-long rest and the30-year-old is looking in ominous form as theworld's top players prepare for the FrenchOpen starting in Paris later this month. The2009 Roland Garros and Madrid winner haswon titles this year in Rotterdam, Dubai andIndian Wells and has only lost three times sincefalling to Djokovic in the U.S. Open semi finalslast September. "I didn't even know actuallyabout the number two ranking," the 16-timesgrand slam singles champion, whose matchwas watched by Real Madrid forward CristianoRonaldo, told a news conference.

"I'm focused on what I am doing here thisweek, trying to play well and get on a bit of aroll and I have played better and better as thetournament went on," he added. Berdychreached a Masters final for only the third timewhen he edged out Juan Martin Del Potro 7-67-6 in a gripping claycourt slugfest earlier on

Saturday. The Czech sixth seed, who won theParis Masters in 2005 and was runner-up inMiami two years ago, produced when itcounted in the tiebreaks as the powerfully-builtpair, who are both just under two metres tall,sent the ball fizzing back and forth.

Del Potro, the 10th seed, looked to be strug-gling more than his opponent with the slipperysurface and also clashed with the umpire over acouple of line calls, refusing to shake his handat the end of the match. It was a desperatelyclose contest, in which both players won a totalof 79 points and broke each other's serve twice,but Berdych managed to club 41 winners to DelPotro's 30 and smashed down 15 aces to the Ar-gentine's six. Berdych has lost 10 of his 14 meet-ings with Federer, but ended his dream ofOlympic singles gold in Athens in 2004 and alsoknocked him out of Wimbledon in the quarter-finals two years ago. Federer won both theirmatches on clay, however, at the HamburgMasters in 2005 and the 2006 French Open."It's going to be a tough match, Berdych is play-ing well himself and it's quick conditions so hecan be a big threat," Federer said.

"I hope I can play a clean match on myserve and take it from there but he can reallyimpose his game and that makes him atough player to play against. "He got me intwo very big matches in my career and I re-member those losses vividly and I alwaysthink we match up pretty well against eachother because of the shot making." Djokovicand Nadal have slammed organisers overthe introduction of blue clay for this year'sMadrid tournament, which they say createsa dangerously slick surface, and both havethreatened not to return next year unlessthe traditional red dirt is reinstated.

Federer topplesTipsarevic to reachMadrid final

MADrID: roger Federer of Switzerland throws his head band to fans after his victory over JankoTipsarevic of Serbia at the end of their men's semi-final match at the Madrid open. REUTERS

KHI 14-05-2012_Layout 1 5/14/2012 2:00 AM Page 19

Monday, 14 May, 2012

20

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

heRAt: Afghan couples pose for a photograph during a mass wedding in herat province. twenty three Afghan couples married during the ceremony. AFP

KABULAfP

NATO took a step closer to getting outof the Afghan war on Sunday as theKabul government announced localforces would take over control of secu-rity in a large new slice of the country.

In the third phase of a five-tranchemilitary transition process, 122 moredistricts throughout Afghanistan willcome under local command, puttingAfghan forces in control of security for75 percent of the population.

Kapisa province, where Frenchtroops are based, is one of three provincesdesignated for a complete handover.French president-elect Francois Hollandepledged during his election campaign topull France’s 3,400 troops out this year.

NATO has a total of 130,000 sol-diers helping the government of Presi-dent Hamid Karzai fight an insurgencyby the Taliban militants, and they aredue to withdraw by the end of 2014when the transition process is complete.

But the conflict is increasingly un-

popular in the US and other contribut-ing nations, with opinion polls showinga desire to get out as soon as possible.

While NATO is quick to praise thegrowing skills of the 350,000-strongAfghan security forces it is training totake over, officers acknowledge the warwill not be won on the battlefield.

The US and Karzai have made movestowards peace talks with the Taliban butin a setback to the process a senior mem-ber of Karzai’s High Peace Council wasassassinated in a drive-by shooting inKabul in broad daylight on Sunday.

Arsala Rahmani, a former ministerin the Taliban regime, was killed justhours before the transition announce-ment. A key negotiator in the council,he “had recently established contactswith senior Taliban leaders”, a seniorsecurity official told AFP.

The insurgents had in March pulledout of preliminary talks with the US inQatar, saying Washington had not ful-filled confidence-building pledges suchas releasing five Taliban leaders from theUS military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

And they have steadfastly rejectedtalks with Karzai’s administration, de-scribing it as a puppet of the Americans.

Government officials said the han-dover’s third phase would start immedi-ately and could take as little as sixmonths, although according to NATO’sInternational Security Assistance Forcecomplete transition in an area can take12-18 months. NATO Secretary GeneralAnders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed thelatest announcement.

“The completion of transition at theend of 2014 will mark the end of NATO’scombat role, but not the end of our engage-ment,” he said in a statement. The com-mander of NATO’s International SecurityAssistance Force (ISAF), General JohnAllen, also hailed the move, calling it “atestament to the capacity and capability ofthe Afghan National Security Force”.

“Afghanistan continues to moveforward in securing the sovereign fu-ture of their country and the security ofits borders, and this is another step inbringing the hope of greater prosperityto the Afghan people,” said Allen.

KABULAfP

Asenior Afghan peace nego-tiator and close ally ofPresident Hamid Karzaiwas shot dead on Sunday,dealing a major blow to

Kabul’s efforts to broker peace with Tal-iban insurgents.

Arsala Rahmani, a former minister inthe Taliban regime, was a “key negotia-tor” in the High Peace Council (HPC) es-tablished by Karzai to hold talks with theinsurgents.

“Shortly after leaving home he was hitby a single bullet from a passing car” as hewas driving to work in Kabul, Rahmani’sgrandson Mohammad Waris told AFP.

The Taliban, who have waged adecade-long insurgency aimed at top-pling Karzai’s government, threatenedearlier this month to target members of

the HPC as part of their “spring offen-sive”.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Muja-hed, however, denied involvement inSunday’s killing. The rebels are known todeny high-profile assassinations and at-tacks with many civilian casualties.

Tributes to Rahmani and condemna-tion of his killing poured in from Presi-dent Hamid Karzai, neighbouringPakistan, the UN, the US embassy andNATO’s International Security AssistanceForce (ISAF).

“Enemies of the Afghan people onceagain proved that they fear peace inAfghanistan and resort to targeting thosewho seek dignity and prosperity forAfghanistan and are working to ensurepeace and welfare in their country,”Karzai said.

Pakistan offered condolences on theRahmani’s death, and condemned hiskilling. “The Government of Pakistan

conveys its deepest condolences to theGovernment and people of Afghanistanon this tragic incident. Our thoughts andprayers are with the family of MrRehmani,” said a Foreign Office state-ment. “Our two countries face the com-mon threat of terrorism, and Pakistan iscommitted to work closely withAfghanistan to eliminate this scourge,” itsaid. “Pakistan would continue to supportall efforts that contribute to an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and recon-ciliation process in Afghanistan,” thestatement added.

ISAF said: “Rahmani, a former Tal-iban member, chose to make a positivecontribution to his nation by turning hisback on an insurgent movement that con-tinues to be wholly detrimental to the fu-ture of Afghanistan.”

The HPC was established by Karzai in2010 to negotiate peace with the Talibanand other insurgents waging war against

his administration and some 130,000US-led NATO troops.

Rahmani “had recently establishedcontacts with senior Taliban leaders”, asenior security official told AFP, request-ing anonymity because he was not autho-rised to speak to the media.

Rahmani, who was the Taliban’shigher education minister during theirrule from 1996 to 2001, joined Karzai’sgovernment after the fall of Talibanregime following US invasion.

He was one of several former Talibanleaders who were removed from a UNsanctions list last July after lobbying byKarzai’s administration in a bid to helpthe peace process.

Rahmani was known to have main-tained ties with some Taliban leadersafter joining Karzai’s government. Beforejoining the HPC, the former Talibanleader was a member of the senate, ap-pointed by Karzai.

Action against

haqqanis key to Afghan

success: US senator

WASHINGTONsPeciAL coRResPonDent/Agencies

With the situation in Afghanistancontinuing to be on the downslide, a leadingAmerican senator on Sunday said Pakistaniaction against the Haqqani militants waskey to success in Islamabad’s insurgency-wracked neighbour, where Taliban areexpanding their activities.Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman ofthe Senate Select Committee onIntelligence, conceded that the Talibanwere expanding their activities inAfghanistan. She alleged that Islamabadwas doing nothing to eliminate the AfghanHaqqani group’s sanctuary on its side of theborder but expressed the hope for a ‘newsolidarity’ between Pakistan and the UnitedStates against safe havens.Her remarks came as army chief GeneralAshfaq Kayani and top American commanderin Afghanistan Gen John Allen discussedcounterterrorism cooperation along theAfghan border at a tripartite meeting alsoinvolving the Afghan military commander.“Militarily, I think that the Taliban are notgoing to beat us. But what the Taliban havedone is insinuate themselves in a shadowypresence, with shadow governors. Theycontrolled over a third of the land in whichpeople live. They expanded into the north,into the northeast,” Senator Feinstein said.Feinstein, who visited Afghanistan recently,told FOX News on Sunday that “while wewere there in one province, they (Taliban)closed 14 schools in 17 districts and thenthey killed five education officials andwounded others. And now, there’s this latestassassination of someone who’s been aleader in the Peace Council”.“But the question comes, can they comeback? They are taxing the poppy in thesouth to the tune of $125 million, which in2011 – this is the United Nations figure –went to support their operations. They havea safe harbor in Pakistan and the Pakistanisare doing nothing to abate that safe harbor.So, it’s a big problem and I think that the keyto Afghanistan is really action by Pakistanwith respect to the Haqqani, with respect tothe Taliban, and a new solidarity hopefullybetween our two countries to eliminate safehavens for terrorist,” Feinstein said. TheDemocratic senator from California said thetop US commander in Afghanistan GeneralAllen was doing a “great job”. “The firstwas, according to General Allen, 362,000mark of trained Afghan military will be met.He said they are doing very well. They arein the lead in many missions and they arecarrying it out with alacrity and with talent.So, that’s good. The second thing that I sawwere school girls in their white scarvescoming out of school, even one holding asmall sister by the hand, laughing, holdinghands, walking down the street.

Top Afghan peace negotiatorshot dead in Kabul: officialg Taliban spokesman denies involvement g Pakistan offers condolences to Afghan government, people

NATo a step closer to getting out of Afghan war

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