Sachin Tendulkarreaches 100th century at last

PAGE | 18

President takes notice of rampant extortion in Karachi

PAGE | 04

PM Gilani repeatshis ‘won’t writeSwiss letter’ mantra

PAGE |22

islamabad — Peshawar edition saturday, 17 March, 2012 rabi-ul-sani 23, 1433rs15.00 Vol ii no 259 22 Pages

LaHoRe: a rickshaw driver sits on an electricity pylon in protest against the traffic police for excessive fines on friday. MurtaZa aLi | Story oN Page 07

PML-N will drag Zardari in thestreets when in power: Shahbaz

WAZIRABADStaff RepoRt

the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-n) will drag President Asif AliZardari in the streets of Larkana, Karachi and Lahore if it comes intopower, Punjab Chief Minister shahbaz sharif said on Friday. Addressing apublic meeting at Government Maulana Zafar Ali Khan degree College, thePunjab chief minister said ‘Ali Baba and forty thieves’ in islamabad werebusy plundering the national exchequer. He said each and every penny ofthe people’s hard-earned money would be recovered from the plunderers.“Whenever the prime minister is directed by the supreme Court of Pakistanto write a letter to bring the plundered money back from abroad, he repliesthe trial of Benazir’s grave is being held. it is not understood why the primeminister is trying to save the robbers and looters. He is protecting ‘AliBaba’, but does not care about the 180 million people of Pakistan.

BD rout India despite100-ton Tendulkar

DHAKAafp

Bangladesh posted an upset five-wicketvictory over india in the Asia Cup one-daytournament in dhaka on Friday, despitesachin tendulkar’s 100th internationalcentury. Bangladesh achieved the stiff 290-run target with four balls to spare in theday-night match to keep alive their hopes ofreaching the final. tamim iqbal (70), nasirHossain (54), Jahurul islam (53), shakib AlHasan (49) and skipper Mushfiqur rahim(46 not out) were Bangladesh’s battingstars, while indian paceman PraveenKumar took three wickets.

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

President Asif Ali Zardari willmake history today (saturday)by addressing the parliament forthe fifth time – a rare achieve-ment by a civilian head of state.

the president’s address to the parliamentmarks the beginning of a new parliamentaryyear. the head of the state, who is also theco-chairman of the ruling Pakistan People’sParty (PPP), will give an overview of the gov-ernment’s achievements and performance,besides giving guidelines to the executive forfurther improvements.

this time the president will address theparliament amidst serious problems facingthe PPP government and the country. Polit-ically, the presidential address is taking placeat a time when Prime Minister Yousaf razaGilani has already been given a charge-sheetfor committing contempt of court by notwriting a letter to swiss authorities for re-opening corruption cases against Zardari.the adamant prime minister is willing to gobehind bars, rather than obeying apexcourt’s orders and showing disloyalty to-wards his party’s co-chief.

Although the rift between the govern-ment and the military has narrowed, theprobe into the memo scandal continues with

the potential to bring the country’s civilianand military leaderships to a face-off.Against this backdrop, the president’s ad-dress will focus on the government’s four-year performance, and he is expected todiscuss the government’s achievements indetail to respond to his opponents’ criticismof rampant corruption, economic instability,deteriorating law and order situation and theexecutive’s inability to provide relief to thecommon man. the president will also touchupon the country’s foreign policy in the cur-rent geo-strategic environment, particularlythe relations with the United states and theneighbouring countries, including india,Afghanistan and iran.

While the opposition parties, particu-larly the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz(PML-n), had cooperated with the govern-ment in the past, and listened to the presi-dential address without resorting tobench-thumping and creating rowdy scenes,it may give the president a tough time today.

the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Fri-day announced that it would boycott thejoint sitting of the parliament, but the deci-sion was withdrawn later in the night afterPresident Zardari telephoned MQM chiefAltaf Hussain in London and assured himstern action against criminals and extortion-ists holding the provincial capital of sindhhostage at gunpoint. ContinueD on Page 04DetaileD story | Page 22

Zardari makes historic 5th addressto parliament todayg MQM boycotts the president’s address to thejoint session of parliament to mark the fifth year

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‘High tension’ as rickshaw drivers create pandemonium Shahbaz meets amir Muqam secretly

SC issues notices on plea

against jirga systemISLAMABAD: Accepting a petition for regular hearing against thejirga system in the country, the supreme Court on Friday issuednotices to chief secretaries of all provinces, interior secretary and theattorney general for Pakistan and adjourned the hearing for anindefinite period. A two-member bench comprising Chief Justiceiftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice tariq Parvez heard thepetition filed by national Commission on the status of Women(nCsW) Chairperson Anis Haroon for declaring the prevalent jirgasystem in the country “illegal, unlawful and against the canons of law,which must be prohibited and stopped immediately”. the petitionerappearing in person before the bench revealed that 87 cases of jirgaswere reported in sindh. she also requested the court that all suchactions taken, proceedings conducted and orders passed by any jirga,panchayat or similar bodies be declared null and void and appropriateactions be directed against all such culprits who had participated,aided, abetted in such illegal activities. she pleaded that respondentsbe directed to frame, amend and implement constitutional provisionsand penal laws relating to illegal practices of jirga, panchayats. thepetitioner contended that jirga/panchayats were against Article 8,which provided, “Any law, or any custom or usage having force of law,in so far as it is inconsistent with the rights conferred by this chapter,shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void.” Staff RepoRt

‘Gilani deserves deterrent

punishment for contempt’LAHORE: Ameer Jamaat e islami, syed Munawar Hasan onFriday impressed upon the supreme Court of Pakistan to orderPM Gilani’s arrest over contempt charges and award him apunishment so that no body could dare ridicule the constitutionand the judiciary in future. talking to media after inauguratingthe newly built Masjid e Qartaba at Gt road in Gujrat, he saidthat Prime Minister’s contemptuous remarks against the apexcourt deserved more than simple imprisonment sentence.talking at the occasion, Prof. Khurshid Ahmad, naib Amir of Ji,also expressed his grief and shock on the statement of PM Gilani,in which he said that he was being treated as a ‘Peon’ and not a‘PM’, thus openly insulting the supreme Court. He reminded thePM that a ‘Peon’ and ‘PM’ were equal before the law, as providedin the Article 4 of the Constitution. INp

Father kills 2 minor daughtersNOWSHERA: A man strangled his two minor daughters todeath on Friday in Bara Banda area of nowshehra because ofpoverty. According to police, Zaib Alam killed his daughters,sobia (8) and sania (5), after he failed to make ends meet. Policesources said the Alam’s wife had already died during pregnancybecause he could not arrange for her treatment. oNLINe

Sweden opposes IP gas pipeline ISLAMABAD: sweden has opposed the iran-Pakistan (iP) gaspipeline project on Friday, asking islamabad to go for analternative project with turkmenistan. sources said that swedenhad opposed Pakistan’s cooperation with iran in the face of theinternational community’s concerns over the latter’s nuclearprogramme. earlier, the industrial and Commercial Bank ofChina (iCBC) backed off from providing financial assistance,worth $ 1.5 billion, for the completion of this 800-kilometer-longgas pipeline project. Foreign Minister Hina rabbani Khar hadsaid earlier this week that funding was not an issue for iP asthere were other sources available to finance the project.According to the agreement signed in 2009, iran would supply750 million cubic feet of gas per day to Pakistan. oNLINe

ISLAMABAD taHIR NIaZ

A high drama prevailed in the islam-abad High Court on Friday as ZahidBukhari, the counsel for HusainHaqqani, continued putting ‘irrele-vant’ questions to the Us nationalMansoor ijaz during his cross-exam-ination that led to flaring of tempers,followed by his announcement towithdraw the power of attorney.

As the memo commission chair-man Justice Qazi Faez isa discardeda number of questions put forward byBukhari to ijaz as irrelevant, the latterstarted challenging the procedure ofcross-examination adding that hewas against forming the commission.

Bukhari continued with thequestions as definition of the memo,whether it was written on a pre-scribed letterhead, did it contain anysignatures of Haqqani to which Jus-

tice isa observed that this all we knowas it is a matter of record. Upon thisBukhari said in a louder voice that itwas difficult for him to continue withthe cross-examination adding thecommission was objecting each andevery thing.

Justice isa observed, “You(Bukhari) always raise your voice.Please control yourself.” Bukharireplied, “You don’t allow me to get theanswer uninterrupted.”

An exchange of hot words tookplace between the counsel and thechairman of the commission.Bukhari again interrupted Justice isawhen he tried to get the answer cor-rectly recorded upon which Justiceisa said, “it is a basic courtesy of thehuman behaviour that when onespeaks the other listens.” He askedBukhari to ‘conduct’ the proceedingsif he had to interrupt on each andevery occasion.

An irritated Bukhari said he didnot go under such an admonishmentduring his 44-year practice as lawyer.“i cannot work with a judge of hightemper and having a particular mind-set… i have summoned my client as ihave decided to desist from the pro-ceedings,” he told the commission.He said it was not simply possible forhim to continue as Haqqani’s lawyer.

Justice isa told Bukhari that thecommission needed clarity in bothquestion and the answer. “We arecognizant of your rights. You did notput a single question that remotelyrelated to the probe in hand,” headded. in the meantime, Haqqanireached the Pakistan High Commis-sion and said his counsel felt that hewas not given the opportunity to ex-pose the credentials of the witness.Bukhari said he was not being facili-tated as the commission was inter-rupting him. He announced to

withdraw his power of attorney andleft the Pakistan High Commissionbuilding reportedly to address apress conference outside. After adeadlock, the commission adjournedthe proceedings for half an hour onthe request of Akram shaikh, thecounsel of Mansoor ijaz. When thecommission resumed its proceed-ings, chairman of the commissionJustice isa addressed Bukhari, “sinceyour ire is towards me, i offer youthat another member of the commis-sion may conduct the proceedings”.However, the offer did not work andBukhari insisted that he was with-drawing his power of attorney. ButJustice isa declined the request andadded that he could not do so withoutpermission of the commission. Hemade it clear that there would be noadjournments and the commissionwould proceed further with his associ-ates and Haqqani himself.

Memo commission, Haqqani’s counsel lock

horns on cross-examination procedure

Qaeda’s Zawahiri urges

Pakistanis to revoltDUBAI: Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri hascalled on Pakistanis to revolt against theirgovernment and military in a video posted on theinternet on Friday, Us monitors said. in a 10-minute speech uploaded to jihadist forums,Zawahiri argued that the Pakistani authorities onlyrepresented Us interests, according to a statementfrom site intelligence Group. Zawahiri, shownstanding in front of a green curtain, urgedPakistanis to follow the example of the Arab springas the military could not be expected to turn againstAmerica despite a deadly Us strike on Pakistanitroops in november. “O our brothers in Pakistan! Oour people in Pakistan! this treacherous army andbribe-taking government have plundered yourwealth,” he said in the video. “they have ruinedyour economy and destroyed your world as well asyour hereafter. What then are you waiting for? takea lead from your brothers in tunisia, egypt, Libya,Yemen and syria who are standing up againstoppression and oppressors with their bare chestsexposed and offering sacrifices so that victory maybe ordained for them,” he said in the message.Zawahiri also said that unless its demands weremet, al Qaeda would not release an elderlyAmerican development expert who was captured inPakistan last August. “By the grace of Allah, we, onour part, have captured the American Jew WarrenWeinstein. He will not return to his family, by thewill of Allah, until our demands are met, whichinclude the release of Aafia siddiqui, sheikh OmarAbdul rahman, the family of shaikh Osama binLaden, and every single person arrested onallegations of links with al Qaeda and taliban.”Long al Qaeda’s number two, Zawahiri took overthe helm of the group after Bin Laden was killed inMay 2011 in a Us special forces night raid deep inPakistan. the video is the latest of a number inwhich the militant chief has attempted to exploitthe Arab uprisings. afp

KARACHI: MQM members of the Sindh Assembly

protest against the increase in crime and extortion

mafia during the session on Friday. oNLiNe

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NewsarTS & enTerTaInMenT CoMMenT

the die is cast

articles on Page 12-13

The decision will be appreciated by the PPP.

politics of ultimatumsThe belated realisation requires the MQM to help the PPP.

arif Nizami says:

aziz-ud-Din ahmad says:Musharraf’s U-turn: Musharraf exhibited signs of murderous tendencies at numerous occasions.

ForeIGn newS

Story on Page 16 Story on Page 15

SPorTSSouth africa in control of New Zealand test

Story on Page 18

Johnny Depp named fashion icon of the yearLone rocket hits Israel as Gaza truce firms up

Our security dilemma: Washington is not sure how to initiate peace talks with the Talban.

Raoof Hasan says:Monkey business: For over two years, the PM refused to obey the SC directive.

ISLAMABAD

FOreiGn Minister Hinarabbani Khar on Friday in-formed the national Assem-bly that 13 missions of thecountry were being headed

by non-career diplomats abroad.in a written reply, the foreign minis-

ter said there were a total of 87 Pakistanimissions abroad at the level of ambassa-dors/high commissioners.

she said Prime Minister Yousaf razaGilani was the competent authority to ap-point ambassadors/high commissionersat missions abroad and the appointmentswere made keeping in view their serviceto the cause of promotion of Pakistan,their qualification and experience.

the national Assembly was informedthat nine non-career ambassadors in Bs-22 were appointed, including sherryrehman (Washington), Wajid shamsulHasan (London), Abdullah Hussain Ha-roon (new York, Un), Jamil Ahmed Khan(Abu dhabi), Lt Gen(r) Muhammad Ma-sood Aslam (Mexico), shahid Malik (newdelhi), shafkat saeed (Paris), MasoodKhan (Beijing), Fauzia Abbas (Copen-hagen), nawabzada Aminullah Khanraisani (Muscat), Maj Gen (r) Muham-mad siddique (Port Louis), Maj Gen, (r)Ahmad nawaz saleem Mela (Kyiv) and

Maj Gen (r) Khalid Amir Jaffery (sara-jevo).

Khar said a total of 1,132 indian pris-oners and fishermen were released since2008 until date. she said india also re-leased 651 Pakistani prisoners and fisher-men during that period.

Giving the breakup, Khar said 54indian civilians and 1,078 fishermenwere set free while india released 346Pakistani civilian and 305 fishermensince 2008 to date.

Meanwhile, Minister for interProvincial Coordination Mir Hazar KhanBijarani told the House that there was noproposal under consideration to importcars of specified engine capacities form ei-ther China or india. replying to varioussupplementary questions in the QuestionHour, he said the government had al-lowed import of used cars only. He saidtrade deficit of the country on March2008 was $20.50 million and varioussteps were taken to reduce it.

He said incentives had been given toboost exports such as concessionary fi-nancing, duty-free import of raw materialunder temporary importation schemes,duty drawback scheme, concessions induty/taxes on import of machinery andraw material of priority export sectors.

the minister said Pakistan was in theprocess of moving from positive to nega-

tive list of items for trade with india. thecabinet accorded approval to a negativelist of 1,209 tariff lines at eight digit Hscode for india which includes 49 tarifflines of pharmaceutical. tariff lines otherthan the said 49 would be importablefrom india, he added.

Bijarani said that the commerce min-istry would notify the negative list of itemsfor trade with india after completion of re-quired procedural formalities.

earlier, railways Minister Haji Ghu-lam Ahmad Bilour informed that no trainwas privatised by the Pakistan railwaysuntil date and only commercial manage-ment and passengers facilitation of twotrains Business express and shalimar ex-press had been outsourced to private par-ties to generate maximum revenue.

to a question, he said according tothe agreement, the private parties wouldpay money of 88 percent tickets to rail-ways. He said the fare of trains except thetwo trains were enhanced due to increasein petroleum products’ prices.

He said Pr was going for public-pri-vate partnership instead of privatising anytrain in future. the Pr has invited bids toenter into such kind of cooperation forcommercial management and passengerfacilities for shaheen express, subukraftar subk Khram, Farid express andsuper express.o

13 non-career diplomatsposted in missions abroadg no plan to import cars from China, India, na told

Court gives

life-term to SHo

for blasphemingKASUR

Staff RepoRt

A court on Friday awarded life-imprisonment to Police station HouseOfficer (sHO) Manzarul Haq shah Jahanfor uttering blasphemous remarks againstthe Holy Prophet (PBUH). Additional district and sessions’ JudgeChaudhry Umar Hayat handout out theverdict on a case registered at thecomplaint of Muhammad Younis. thecomplainant had alleged that the thensHO of raja Jung Police station haduttered blasphemy in a conversation withhim and two other men, Javed iqbal andHafiz shahid, on street crime. Younis hadalleged that the sHO called Hafiz a“Maulvi” and used blasphemous wordsagainst the Holy Prophet (PBUH). thecomplainant had added that he was gettingthe case (no 20/2009) registered at thepolice station under section 295-C afterdiscussing the incident with 65 membersof a mosque. A fatwa was also issued by religiousscholars of prominent seminaries likedarul Aloom and Jamia naeemia, Lahore,against the sHO. in his judgement, thejudge observed that the offence ofblasphemy had been fully proven againstthe accused, and that he had been foundguilty. the judge awarded lifeimprisonment and a fine of rs 200,000 inthe case, adding that the accused wouldhave to undergo further two years ofimprisonment if he failed to pay the fine.

Constable killed

by robbers LAHORE

Staff RepoRt

A constable of the Lahore Police was shotdead during a robbery bid in the Barkypolice precincts late on Friday. Constabletahir rehman, a resident of Minhala villagewas heading his home along with hisyounger brother irfan when unidentifiedmotorcyclists intercepted them near sangatvillage and tried to rob them on gun point.tahir and his brother resisted, causing therobbers to open fire on them. tahir died onthe spot while irfan survived. Police startedinvestigating the matter after removingtahir’s body to the morgue for autopsy.

13 arrested in PIC

deaths caseLAHORE

Staff RepoRt

investigators probing the deaths of about 150Punjab institute of Cardiology (PiC) patientsarrested 13 men on Friday. sources in investi-gation Wing of the Lahore Police said around13 men had been arrested by the investiga-tors under various charges. they said thesuspects included two PiC employees, twoemployees of the supplying company (Umartrading) and nine employees of FerozeChemicals. the sources said the men werearrested from various parts of the city duringa successful raid, adding that the men weretaken to an undisclosed location.

NEWS DESK

it’s been 15 years since dolly thesheep emerged as the first clone tograze the earth. since then, we’veseen snuppy the dog in south Korea,CC the cat in texas and samrupa, theword’s first cloned buffalo in india.now, the twinning trend has takenhold in the region of Kashmir as away to bolster the Himalayan cash-mere industry, according to a reportin tiMe magazine.

sales from luxurious, expensiveshawls and scarves made from thepashmina’s soft wool bring in $80million a year for the mountainousregion, but slowly decreasing goatpopulations pose a problem for thearea. numbers have dropped off inrecent years, and the remainingherds are too few to keep up with de-mand, forcing Kashmir to importcashmere from China.

Kashmir’s scientists took mattersinto their own hands, literally. Usinga “handmade” cloning procedure, drriaz Ahmad shah, a veterinarian inthe animal biotechnology center ofthe sher-e-Kashmir University, andsix other scientists brought the firstpashmina goat clone, noori, into theworld on March 9.

shah said, “this is the cheapest,easier and less time-consuming”method of cloning, compared withthe high-tech machinery that main-

stream methods entail. though nooriis the first pashmina goat to becloned using the handmade tech-nique, shah has also cloned a buffaloin the past. it could be another sixmonths before the region delivers an-other clone, but scientists are excitedabout the possibility of expanding theprogram across the Himalayas.

if it’s successful, why stop atgoats? in the future, shah says he

hopes to focus on endangered ani-mals such as the last remaining Asianred deer, the Kashmir stag. Like it ornot, cloned animals started makingtheir way into the mainstream in thenext few years. According to theHuffington Post, word has it thatzoos of the future could feature ex-tinct species such as dodo birds ortasmanian wolves. didn’t JurassicPark teach us anything?

Meet noori, the world’s firstcloned pashmina goat

SC directs spyagencies to keepseven detaineesnear Peshawar

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

While hearing a case of 11 prisoners at AdialaJail, rawalpindi, who were picked up by spyagencies after their release and four of themdied during detention, the supreme Court onFriday directed the secret agencies to keepthe remaining seven prisoners at a detentioncentre near Peshawar, and provide them thebest health facilities. A two-member benchcomprising Chief Justice iftikharMuhammad Chaudhry and Justice tariqParvez was hearing a petition filed by late Msrohaifa against the federation of Pakistanand others. tariq Asad, counsel for thepetitioner, Attorney General (AG) MaulviAnwarul Haq, Asadullah Chamkani and theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) advocate generalappeared on court’s notice. Commander MHussain represented the Ministry of defence,while raja Muhammad irshad appeared onbehalf of the inter-services intelligence(isi) and the Military intelligence (Mi). Atthe onset of the hearing, the KP AGsubmitted the provincial government’sreport before the bench, according to whichthree detainees Abdul Majid, Abdul Basitand dr niaz would be kept for furthermedical treatment at the hospital, whereasother four detainees, including MazharulHaq, Muhammad shafeeq, shafeequrrehman and Gul roz, were in considerablybetter health and were recommended to beshifted to a detention facility.

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News

ISLAMABADaGeNcIeS

Pr e s i d e n tAsif Ali Zardarihas taken seri-ous notice ofcomplaints of

extortion and poor law andorder in Karachi.

spokesman to the Presi-dent Farhatullah Babar saidthe president directed theprovincial government andinterior Minister rehmanMalik on Friday to take ac-tion against the criminal el-ements.

Zardari also directed theinterior minister to proceedto Karachi and coordinatewith the provincial govern-

ment in redressing the griev-ances of the public andtraders in particular againstextortion.

He said MQM chief AltafHussain had brought to theattention of the presidentthe complaints of extortionin Karachi. “the PPP re-spects its coalition partnersand will redress the concernsof the MQM,” Babar quotedthe president as saying.

Meanwhile, the interiorminister said they wouldcleanse Karachi of extortion-ists within five days as 400additional security and lawenforcement personnelwould be utilised during thecrackdown.

talking to reporters

after chairing a meeting inthe national database andregistration Authority,Malik said extortion was achronic issue of Karachi, andthey were having a completecoordination with MQMchief Altaf Hussain regard-ing the issue.

He said directives hadalso been issued to thenAdrA chairman to dealwith illegal siM modules ofcell phones during the oper-ation.

to a question, he saideven the sindh iG was con-tacted over the issue, whohad informed that six extor-tionists had been recentlyarrested, while five otherswere identified.

President takesnotice of rampantextortion in Karachig Malik says Karachi will be cleansed of extortionists within 5 days

KABULafp

Afghan President HamidKarzai accused the Unitedstates on Friday of failing tocooperate over a massacre of16 Afghans blamed on anAmerican sergeant, raisingpublic tensions between thetwo countries.

His comments under-scored deep Afghan anger overthe shootings, one day after hesaid international forces shouldleave villages, potentially jeop-ardising nAtO operations twoyears before combat troops aredue to leave Afghanistan.

“the Afghan government

didn’t receive cooperation fromthe Us regarding the surrenderof the Us soldiers to the Afghangovernment. this (civilian ca-sualties) has been going on fortoo long,” Karzai told reporters.

“this is by all means theend of the rope here,” addedKarzai, who has long called foran end to Us raids on Afghanhomes and who came underpressure Friday from relativesto take corrective action.

“this behavior can’t betolerated. We have not askedfor money. We ask for justicerather than compensation,”he added. Afghan leaders de-manded that the suspect facea public trial in Afghanistan

over the killings – mainly ofwomen and children – in thesouthern province of Kanda-har as villagers slept beforedawn on sunday. But the 38-

year-old decorated soldierwas instead flown to Kuwaitthis week, a first step towardsbeing charged and put ontrial abroad.

they were not even ready tolisten to deputy speakerFaisal Karim Kundi, who re-peatedly asked them tomaintain the House’s deco-rum.

the PPP chief whip re-marked that he found it be-yond understanding that theMQM was chanting slogansagainst a government ofwhich they were a part.

PML-n MnA sheikh ro-hail Asghar demanded toconstitute a House commit-tee to probe and expose theparties involved in extortion,adding that the partiesfound involved in the prac-tice should lose the right topoliticking.

Khursheed shah agreed

with the proposal and re-quested the Chair to imme-diately form a committeewith equal representationfrom treasury and opposi-tion benches.

Awami national PartyMnA Pervaiz Khan said thatno party had the right tosabotage the House’s pro-ceedings and alleged theMQM of using exploitativetactics. He condemned ex-tortion, but added that theMQM could not make thepeople of Karachi hostage.“every Pakistani has a rightto live in Karachi. the partyenjoying power in sindh isalso responsible for peace inKarachi,” he said. PPP MnAnoor Alam Khan said hisparty always hated extor-

tionists and asked the MQMto name the extortionists in-stead of clamouring in theHouse. “We are here to re-solve masses problems. donot make this House a fishmarket,” he said.

PML-n’s deputy Oppo-sition Leader in the HouseMahtab Khan Abbasi regret-ted the MQM’s attitude, say-ing that every party wasagainst extortion. He re-minded the PPP and itscoalition partner MQM oftheir responsibilities, sayingthat it was time for action.

PML-n leader Khawajasaad rafiq also demandedaction against extortionists,and complained that thegovernment delayed deci-sions on maintenance of

peace. PML-Quaid’s sheikh

Waqas Akram justifiedMQM’s concern, but ques-tioned against whom theywere protesting as they werepart of the government. Hesaid the government and theMQM had a history of recon-ciliations. “if the MQM againreconciles with the govern-ment without ensuring ac-tion against extortionists, weshall think that their protestwas just another move to getbenefits from the govern-ment,” he said. earlier, thedeputy speaker announcedthe schedule of the presi-dent’s address to the jointsession of the parliament,adding that the time of thespeech had been changed.

MQM protestsContinueD froM Page 28

PML-n willdrag Zardari

if the prime minister is withthe people of Pakistan, heshould write the letter to theswiss courts,” shahbaz said.He said the people wereaware of the corruption ofthe rulers and would notvote for them in the cominggeneral election. the chiefminister himself led slogansof “Go Zardari Go” andassured the people ofWazirabad of bringing thelooted money back. Withoutnaming anyone, the chiefminister said a new leadertalked about revolution, buthe had allowed most of theturncoats to join his party.shahbaz said the leadercould not bring about anyrevolution, adding it wasnawaz sharif who couldameliorate the lot of thepeople. He announcedsetting up an institute ofcardiology in Wazirabad andsaid the institute wouldserve six districts ofGujranwala division.

ContinueD froM Page 1Karzai slams US after shooting suspect flown abroad

SEATTLEafp

the Us soldier accused ofkilling 16 Afghan villagers wasupset by a serious injury sus-tained by an army comrade theday before the massacre, butheld no animosity toward Mus-lims, his lawyer has said.

the 38-year-old army ser-geant, being held in Kuwait,was also unhappy about beingsent to Afghanistan, having ear-lier been told he would not beredeployed after three tours iniraq, according to his seattle-based civilian attorney. the sol-dier, a married father-of-two isnot being named, and his fam-ily has moved to a military basesouth of seattle because of se-curity fears and concerns aboutpossible retaliation for the at-tack. A decorated veteran, thesuspect is alleged to have lefthis base in southern Kandaharprovince before dawn sunday

and then proceeded to kill theAfghans, many of them chil-dren, in two neighboring vil-lages. “We have been informedthat at this small base that hewas at, somebody was gravelyinjured the day before the al-leged incident, which affects allof the soldiers there,” attorneyJohn Henry Browne said inseattle on thursday. He de-clined to give more details to re-porters, but a report said afriend and fellow Us soldier hadhis leg blown off while next tothe rampage suspect. the newYork times said the suspect, acareer soldier originally fromthe Midwest, had been drinkingat the time of the shootings, wasstressed over his fourth deploy-ment and had been experienc-ing tensions with his wife.“When it all comes out, it will bea combination of stress, alcoholand domestic issues — he justsnapped,” an unnamed officialtold the times.

As Ali continued to insist oncross-examination, nikamsaid indian CrPC providedfor adherence to what hadbeen agreed upon by the twocountries while making suchan arrangement.

Chief Metropolitan Mag-istrate ss shinde finally dis-allowed the commissionfrom cross-examining the

witnesses, acceptingnikam’s plea that both thecountries had mutuallyagreed in October 2010 thatonly their statements wouldbe recorded. Moreover,nikam argued that since theappeal of Kasab against hisconviction and death penaltywas pending in the supremeCourt, legal proceedings inindia would be hampered if

witnesses were allowed to becross-examined at this stage.Following permission fromshinde, the panel beganrecording the statement ofmagistrate rV sawantWaghule, who had recordedthe confession of Kasab soonafter his arrest following theattacks. it took over an hourto record the statement ofWaghule, sources said.

Pakistani commissionContinueD froM Page 28

QUETTA Staff RepoRt

the Balochistan governmenthas decided to withdraw atleast 28 cases against self-exiled separatist Balochleader Brahamdagh Bugtiwho currently lives inswitzerland.

the decision was takenfollowing the announcementof the PPP government towithdraw all cases registered

against Baloch leaders topersuade them to hold nego-tiations with the govern-ment.

the cases include target-ing government installationslike gas pipelines, power py-lons, attacking securityforces and murder.

the district administra-tion submitted a report tothe provincial Home depart-ment about 28 cases againstBrahamdagh in dera Bugti.

Balochistan government

to withdraw 28 cases

against Brahamdagh

uS soldier upset by

comrade’s injury

before afghan rampage

attack at afghanbase targetedtop general: USABOARD A US MILITARYAIRCRAFT:the Us militaryon Friday said an attack at anAtO base in Afghanistan thisweek targeted a top Americancommander, just as Usdefence secretary Leon Panettaflew in for a visit. After havinginitially downplayed theincident, officials threw newlight on Wednesday’s attack atBritish-run Camp Bastion inHelmand province that showedit was much more serious thaninitial accounts suggested.afp

KaBUL: Security personnel stand near the wreckage of a turkish helicopter after it crashed in the afghan capital, killing 12

turkish soldiers on board. aFP

12 turkish soldiers killed

in Kabul helicopter crashANKARA

afp

twelve turkish soldierswere killed in a helicoptercrash in the Afghan capitalof Kabul on Friday, in whatis believed to be turkey’sdeadliest incident inAfghanistan, the military an-nounced.

the sikorsky helicopter

belonged to the turkisharmed forces and was serv-ing under the Kabul regionalcommand as part of the in-ternational security Assis-tance Force (isAF) mission,the military said in a state-ment posted on its website.

the cause of the crash wasnot immediately known, butForeign Minister Ahmet davu-toglu said it appears to have oc-

curred during an emergencylanding due to technical prob-lems according to preliminaryfindings. “it is a grave acci-dent... We have tremendouspain,” davutoglu told re-porters. the crash occurred at10:25am local time, accordingto the military. the death toll isbelieved to be the heaviest thusfar encountered by the turkisharmy in war-torn Afghanistan.

SC seeks ITnereport on wageBoard awardISLAMABAD: Hearing aCivil MiscellaneousApplication (CMA) filedby the All Pakistannewspaper employeesConfederation (APneC),the supreme Court onFriday sought a reportfrom the implementationtribunal for newspaperemployees (itne) aboutthe compliance of theapex court’s decision onthe 7th Wage BoardAward. Staff RepoRt

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05Saturday, 17 March, 2012

News

ISLAMABADaGeNcIeS

Ajoint session of parlia-ment tasked with review-ing and formally resettingtroubled relations withthe United states could

start as early as Monday, an officialsaid.

“i think that this particular sub-ject will be considered by the parlia-ment starting from the 19th of thismonth,” Foreign Ministry spokesmanAbdul Basit told reporters, askedwhen parliament will conduct the re-view.

the process is considered key togetting Pakistani-Us diplomatic rela-tions onto a more solid footing after

Us air strikes last november killed24 Pakistani soldiers and brought therelationship to its lowest point inyears.

the review is seen as a precursorto Pakistan reopening its Afghan landborder to nAtO convoys, which havebeen sealed since november 26, anda resumption of high-level Americandiplomatic visits. the november 26strikes capped a disastrous year foran alliance already seriously compro-mised by the covert raid to killOsama bin Laden on May 2 and thedetention of a CiA contractor whokilled two Pakistanis in January2011.

islamabad closed its Afghan bor-der and ordered Us personnel toleave the shamsi airbase, reportedly

a hub for covert American dronestrikes against the taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal belt.

the foreign ministry spokesmansaid that a decision would be takenon reopening nAtO supply linesafter the parliamentary process iscomplete.

Pakistan is expected to tax con-voys carrying nAtO supplies from itsport in Karachi and to the borderwith landlocked Afghanistan. expertsbelieve it may be able to earn $1 mil-lion a day from the arrangement.

the Washington Post newspaperwrote recently that Pakistan and theUnited states were working out amore pragmatic framework, whichcould involve fewer Us drone strikeson militants. the strikes are publicly

condemned by the islamabad govern-ment.

Commenting on Us dronesstrikes on Pakistan, Basit said that alloptions, including United nations,would be considered to stop the Usdrones attacks.

He said that the drone strikeswere sheer violation of Pakistan’sterritorial integrity. “Pakistan hasbeen using all diplomatic channels tobring an end to the strikes that aredamaging our efforts against mili-tancy and terrorism. Voices are alsobeing raised in the West againstthese illegal drone strike,” he said.

He said Pakistan was taking theissue forcefully with the Unitedstates and hoped that the Us will re-visit its policy towards that end.

Long-awaited US reviewlikely next weekg Fo says Pakistan could go to Un against drone attacks

UNITED NATIONSapp

tobacco use is responsible for fivemillion or 12 per cent of all deaths ofadults above the age of 30 globallyeach year, according to a new Unitednations report unveiled on Friday.

the new report by the Un WorldHealth Organisation (WHO), entitled‘Mortality Attributable to tobacco,’provides – for the first time – esti-mated mortality rates attributable totobacco for 2004, the year before theinternational treaty on tobacco cameinto force.

the Framework Convention ontobacco Control (FCtC) that cameinto force in 2005 requires parties torestrict tobacco advertising, sponsor-

ship and promotion, set new labelingand clean indoor air controls andstrengthen laws against tobaccosmuggling.

the report shows that five percentof all deaths from communicable dis-eases worldwide and 14 percent ofdeaths resulting from non -communi-cable illnesses among adults aged 30and above were attributable to to-bacco use.

Although many people associatetobacco with non-communicable dis-eases such as cancers, heart and res-piratory diseases, tobacco is also amajor cause of communicable dis-eases, tuberculosis being a case inpoint where the disease is at times inlatent or dormant state until acti-vated by tobacco use, said Ala Alwan,

the WHO Assistant director-Generalin charge of non-communicable dis-eases and Mental Health, in a forwardto the report.

the regions with the highest num-ber of deaths related to the use of to-bacco are the Americas and europewhere tobacco use has been in uselonger, according to the report. Glob-ally, deaths from tobacco-related car-diovascular diseases were more likelyto occur among younger adults.

thirty-eight per cent of deaths ofadults resulting from ischemic heartdisease in the 30-44 age group wereattributable to tobacco, while 71 per-cent of all lung cancer deaths werelinked to the use of tobacco.

the five million deaths translateto an incredible statistic, one death

every six seconds, said dr Alwan. Un-less strong actions are taken to haltthe tobacco epidemic, one billion peo-ple are projected to die this century,we cannot let this happen, he added,urging all countries to implement theconvention on tobacco control.

the report contains country-spe-cific estimates including death ratesattributable to tobacco. it is intendedto help countries assess the mortalityof tobacco use and measure the suc-cess of efforts to discourage the use ofthe substance.

it follows the 2008 WHO reporton the issue, which prompted someMember states to request the agencyto consider generating estimates togive them an indication of theirprogress in combating tobacco use.

tobacco use kills 5m people

worldwide annually: uN

osama ‘ordered alQaeda to killobama, Petraeus’

NEWS DESK

According to a document retrieved fromthe compound where Osama bin Ladenwas shot dead by Us navy seals last May,the al Qaeda leader also told his deputyAtiyah Abd al-rahman to focus attackswith the Us rather than Muslim nations.Bin Laden told rahman that withoutObama, the Us would be thrown into“crisis” because Vice President Joe Bidenwas “unprepared” for the job, theWashington Post reported. He alsoshowed regard for Petraeus. “the reasonfor concentrating on them,” bin Ladenwrote in the 48-page document, “is thatObama is the head of infidelity and killinghim automatically will make (VicePresident Joe) Biden take over thepresidency. … Biden is totally unpreparedfor that post, which will lead the Us into acrisis. As for Petraeus, he is the man ofthe hour … and killing him would alterthe war’s path” in Afghanistan. Bin Ladeninstructed rahman to use Pakistanimilitant ilyas Kashmiri for the attack.Kashmri was reportedly killed in a Usdrone strike in south Waziristan on June2, 2011. “Please ask brother ilyas to sendme the steps he has taken into that work,”he wrote. Bin Laden stated that “everyeffort” should be spent on planning andexecuting attacks within America. Heinstructed rahman to “ask the brothers inall regions if they have a brother … whocan operate in the Us [He should be ableto] live there, or it should be easy for himto travel there.” Us officials stated theplot was not seen as a serious threat.

Militants blow

up 2 schools

in Swabi, KohatPESHAWAR

oNLINe

Unidentified militants Friday blew uptwo government schools in KhyberPakhtunkhwa, police sources said. noone was hurt as the schools were closedat the time of blasts, police said. thefirst school building consisting of 15rooms was destroyed early on Friday inZaida area of swabi district. All theofficial records and computer labs weredamaged. Police said that explosivedevices were placed into the rooms andcompound of the building. sHO Zaida,nazir Khan said that a search operationwas launched throughout the districtagainst unknown perpetrators. Another school was blown up in Kohatdistrict.

PM’s statementshould not be madean issue: FirdousISLAMABAD: Federal Minister forinformation and Broadcasting drFirdous Ashiq Awan said on Fridaythat statement of Prime MinisterYousaf raza Gilani should not bemade an issue as the PPP governmentcould never think of violating theconstitution of the country. talkingto reporters outside the ParliamentHouse, she said that those whowanted to create conflict betweenstate institutions would again bedisappointed. she said that PM spokein the voice of people during publicgathering in Bahawalpur whichshould not be made an issue, addingthat first the PM was a citizen of thecountry and then the prime minister.she said that the PM was a petitionerbefore the supreme Court and shehoped that the sC would providejustice, adding that the governmentdid not want conflict with anyinstitution of the country. INp

KaRacHI: funeral prayers being offered for Shia leader akmal Rizvi who was killed in firing by unidentified assailants at patel para on friday. oNLiNe

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06Saturday, 17 March, 2012

News

ISLAMABADaMeR SIaL

An important meeting ofthe technical committee ofthe indus river system Au-thority (irsA) on Fridayfailed to estimate water

supply during the upcoming Kharif sea-son, starting from April 1, as the com-mittee was informed that due tounexpected fluctuation in water inflowsduring the February-March period, theestimated inflows could not be workedout.

the meeting of the committee waschaired by irsA Chief engineer Yasminihsan and attended by provincial repre-sentatives.

it decided that another meeting ofthe committee would be held afterMarch 20 to assess the situation, as itwas informed by relevant officials thatthey could not give any estimate ofwater inflows for the Kharif season dueto continuation of cold spell in northernareas.

An official source said the nextmeeting of the technical committee wasexpected to be held on March 26. He

said the officials were confident that bythat time the position would be quiteclear as currently the water inflows onsome days were normal but decreasedsignificantly due to change in weather.

However, he said the committee es-timated that there were would be an un-precedented water shortage of 15 to 25percent during the early Kharif season,from April 1 to June 10. this will signif-icantly impact the sowing of importantKharif crops of cotton, maize and sugar-cane. the committee assessed that over-all the water shortage during the seasonwould be between 5 to 10 percent.

After finalisation of the estimates bythe technical committee, the irsA ad-viser committee will be drawing up theirrigation plan in consultation with theprovinces for the Kharif season.

the experts have already warnedthat the depletion of water level in thetwo main reservoirs of tarbela andMangla would push the sowing seasonby at least two weeks in sindh. sowingof crops in sindh starts earlier than inPunjab, any delay will create provincialdiscord as both provinces would be de-manding their share of water in themonth of May.

IRSA technical committee fails to

assess water shortage for Kharif

ISLAMABADINp

the supreme Court, expressing its sur-prise and annoyance over working ofpolice and law-enforcement agencies,on Friday observed they were harassinginnocent citizens, but criminals weregoing unpunished.

A two-member bench comprising

Chief Justice iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry and Justice tariq Parvez washearing a suo motu case of harassmentagainst Gujranwala police. the apexcourt said that such attitude of the po-lice created a situation in which thecourts were left with no option but to ac-quit the accused. the bench directed theinspector general of police Punjab totake this case as a test case for the pur-

pose of ascertaining facts and fixing re-sponsibility on the police officers/offi-cials responsible for harassment. Hewas further directed to file a detailed re-port on the number of the accusedbooked along with the rate of acquittalor conviction. the bench observed whenan accused was acquitted by a court, itwas the duty of the police concerned tofile appeals at higher judicial forums.

the bench was apprised by Addi-tional Advocate General razzaq A Mirzathat the Fir registered against Hafizshahid Munir, a journalist, by the Gu-jranwala police, had resulted in his ac-quittal for lack of prosecution evidence.the bench questioned the additional ad-vocate general if there was no evidence,why the accused was challaned. Furtherhearing was adjourned to March 22.

QUetta: a man shows to reporters the ‘wrong operation’ of his daughter carried out by doctors of a private hospital on friday. oNLiNe

Police, law-enforcing agencies harassing citizens: SC

KASUR Staff RepoRt

A couple of hundred people, includinglocal farmers, lawyers and politicians,took out a tractor-trolley rally against theWater and Power development Authority(WAPdA) for overcharging them in elec-tricity bills.

residents of surrounding villages, in-cluding Bedian Kalan, sandha, Burg Kalanand Hussain Khanwala, came out on trac-tor-trolleys and tried to reach the localWAPdA office. A police contingentstopped the tractors’ rally at KuchehryChowk, where they kept the main Fer-

ozepur road blocked for over two hours. Farmers’ Association President

Muzaffar, Kasur Bar President sharif,and Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz(PML-n) leaders Mubashar nawaz andChaudhry imtaz addressed the partici-pants of the rally.

they said the Lahore electric supplyCompany (LesCO) had been sending ex-cessive electricity bills to local farms. theysaid the bills carried additional readingfor the next two years due to the negli-gence of meter readers, and the involve-ment of some LesCO officials in powerpilferages. they showed the copies of elec-tricity bills that charged a payable amount

of rs 394,771 and rs 394,196 on tubewellconnections of load 5.

the Kasur Bar secretary complainedabout the behaviour of Kasur Police andits reluctance to register a case againstLesCO officials for thrashing the farmerswho visited LesCO office to get their elec-tricity bills corrected. district Police Offi-cer (dPO) Khurrram Ali shah assured theprotesters of disposing of a case registeredagainst farmers and a lawyer. He alsoasked them to hold a meeting with theXen and the sdO – both senior WAPdAofficials – and get the issue of over billingresolved. the tractor-trolley rally dis-persed peaceful afterwards.

LHC seeks reply from

GHQ over disappearance

of Brigadier aliRAWALPINDI

INp

the Lahore High Court rawalpindi Benchon Friday sought written reply from theGeneral Headquarters (GHQ) regardingdisappearance issue of Brigadier Ali Khanfrom a hospital, who is currently tried in amilitary court for his alleged role in staginga coup. the single-judge bench of JusticeMazhar iqbal sandhu issued directive afterhearing a case regarding disappearance ofBrig Ali Khan from hospital. dr ColonelWaqar and Colonel tahir, on part ofrespondent, submitted a reply in which itwas apprised that Brig Ali was under thedetention of 111 Brigade where his courtmartial proceedings were underway.Colonel (r) inamur raheem, counsel forAli, contended that initiation of courtmartial proceedings without priorinformation was against the settledprinciples of law. the bench adjournedfurther hearing until March 19.

rushdie to speak

in Delhi despite

Muslim angerNEW DELHI

afp

British author salman rushdie will speakat a conference in india on saturday,organisers have confirmed, two monthsafter protests by islamic activists forcedhim to cancel a trip to the country.rushdie, who vowed to return to indiawhen he pulled out of a book festival inJanuary, will appear at the india todayConclave in new delhi despite continuinganger among Muslims over his 1988 novel“the satanic Verses”. “sir salmanrushdie will be the gala night speakertomorrow night,” Aroon Purie, chairmanof the india today media group, tolddelegates on Friday. rushdie’s speech,originally scheduled for Friday, wasmoved after the event’s gala speaker,Pakistani cricketer-turned-politicianimran Khan, withdrew from theconference due to rushdie’s booking.Mumbai-born rushdie, a regular visitorto india for decades, withdrew from theJaipur Literature Festival after islamichardliners threatened to disrupt thegathering and police told him thatassassins were plotting to kill him. Heattacked the Muslim clerics behind theprotests and also indian politicians forfailing to stand up to them. “i will cometo india many times... and i will notallow these religious gangsters and theircronies in the government to preventme,” rushdie said in a televisioninterview from London during the bookfestival. the 64-year-old writer spent adecade in hiding after iranian spiritualleader Ayatollah ruhollah Khomeiniissued a fatwa in 1989 calling for hisdeath over “the satanic Verses”. indianislamic groups have repeated theiropposition to rushdie visiting india, butdeclined to say whether they planned toprotest at the luxury hotel where theconference is being held.

Shahbaz meets amir Muqam secretlyLAHORE: PunjabChief Ministershahbaz shairf hasheld a secretmeeting with PML-Q KhyberPakhtunkhwaPresident AmirMuqam, sourcesrevealed on Friday.According to thesources, the issue ofAmir Muqam’sjoining PML-n wasdiscussed during the meeting. it is learnt that nawaz sharif, afterhis return to Pakistan, would give final approval of Amir Muqam’sjoining PML-n. the meeting between shahbaz sharif and AmirMuqam continued for about an hour. the role of Amir Muqam in thePML-n after his joining the party was the main point of discussion,the sources said. INp

Farmers come out on tractor-trolleysagainst WaPDa for overbilling

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Saturday, 17 March, 2012

Students follow illustrious footsteps at 75th Kc convocation PaGe 08

Minorities have equal rights: Kamran

LAHOREapp

senator Kamran Michael has said that minorities have equalrights in the country and the government is also mobilising allthe available resources for their socio-economic development.He expressed these views while chairing a meeting of ProvincialCommittee for Protection of Properties of Minorities here onFriday. Kamran Michael assured the meeting that all the issuesregarding protection of minorities’ properties would be resolved.the next meeting of the committee would be held on March 22.

Conspiracies left, right and centre

LAHORE app

Punjab Law Minister ranasanaullah Khan said on Friday conspiracies werebeing hatched to malignthe PML-n leadership butworkers were fully pre-pared to thwart them. talking to this scribe onphone, he said Musharrafcronies were bent upon tar-nishing the image of theparty leadership by level-ling baseless allegations.“if they think we will re-main silent, they are mis-taken,” he added. He saidpeople who had been re-jected by the nation werebeing presented as massi-has but people fully recog-nised them. He claimed the PML-n hadbecome a popular party ofthe country and would pro-duce stunning results inthe next general elections. to a question, the ministersaid, law and order wasunder full control in theprovince. “it was possiblewith better and effectiveplanning,” he added.

LAHORESHafIQ SHaRIf

tHe Lahorities were allwound up yesterday andflaunted their distress withinterest, at Bund road nearBabu sabu interchange

when poor rickshaw drivers took tostreets against the harsh behaviour oftraffic wardens and later against non-re-sponsive behaviour of Punjab Govern-ment. A real glimpse of civil disobediencewas witnessed during a clash betweenrickshaw drivers and Lahore Police fol-lowing the issuance of fine ticket by atraffic warden to a rickshaw driver for theviolation of traffic rules on Friday afterJuma Prayer. Bund road near Babu sabuinterchange became a battle field when atraffic warden namely ehtesham (beltnumber 1437) slapped the face of a rick-shaw driver namely Muhammad Mazhar,who was on his way on Band road, be-sides issuing him a fine ticket allegedlywithout any reason. the rickshaw driverwas furious, and called his co-drivers ofrickshaw Union, and staged a protestdemonstration against City traffic Policeby blocking Band road.

in the meantime, the victim Mazharturned further furious and climbed up anelectric pole to commit suicide. FollowingMazhar, around 10 other drivers alsoclimbed up the electric poles to supporthim. However, the LesCO officials sus-pend electricity supply to three grid sta-tions to save the lives of rickshaw drivers.

At About 3 pm, the real dramastarted when Chief traffic Officer sarfrazFalki and ssP Operations sajjad Munj

reached the scene and tried to talk withthe representatives of rickshaw driversUnion but they refused to talk with po-licemen despite the fact that the CtO as-sured rickshaw drivers for issuance offine ticket worth rs 100 only if any rick-shaw driver caught violating traffic rules.the police officers then called heavy con-tingent of police from 20 police stationsincluding their sHOs to disperse the pro-testors. the police force reached thescene and resorted to lathi charge onprotesting drivers. the protestors retali-ated by pelting stones on policemen andby beating few cops.

Protest intensified when a cop whileretaliating to a stone thrown on him by aprotestor, opened aerial firing that in-jured a protesting rickshaw drivernamely Attique. Violent protestors fur-ther attack cops, which entered into a‘dera’ owned by one former nazim ofPakistan Muslim League (Q) Habib UllahBhatti. Protestors followed the cops andallegedly attack the said place as well.

two security guards of former nazim inorder to protect his son opened aerial fir-ing. due to the firing of security guards,a cameraman of a local television sus-tained minor bullet injuries. Babu sabuinterchange presented a look of battlefield for over five hours as police had alsofailed to disperse the violent protestors.

MPA Khawja imran nazir was calledto soothe the anger of rickshaw driversand he after reaching the scene held talkswith the office bearers of rickshaw Unionincluding Wali shah, who presented a de-mand of giving taxi to all rickshaw driversfrom the scheme of Punjab Governmentand also to relax criteria of challaning. thetalks proved successful as MPA imrannazir assured them to meet their all de-mands so that such incident may not hap-pen again. After successful talks, theprotestors dispersed and Mazhar and hissupporters came down from the electricpoles. the main victim told that trafficwarden had consecutively issued 6 chal-lans to him on ‘no reason’ and later closed

his rickshaw in the police station. Headded that traffic wardens never care ofpoverty of the traffic wardens and issuechallans just to show performance to theirbosses. Azra, wife of Muhammad Mazar,who reached to Babu sabu interchangealong with her mother in law after sheheard that her husband has climbed uponto a poll, while talking to media saidthat since four to five days, Mazhar wascoming home without any money. shewhile describing the reason claimed thattraffic wardens only daily basis issues hima fine ticket. she said that they were quitedependent on the earning of Mazhar andhis four children daily awaits for their fa-ther to return with money. ssP Opera-tions sajjad Munj said that no one wasinjured due to firing. He said that if the ac-cused persons were found, Fir would beregistered against them. However, he saidno legal action is so far being taken againstviolent protestors. the CtO said that hehas suspended accused traffic warden andfurther justice would be done.

‘High tension’ as rickshaw drivers create pandemonium

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Low

High

150CSUnDaY MonDaY TUeSDaY30°C I 16°C 33°C I 17°C 31°C I 13°C

PraYer TIMInGSFajr Sunrise Zuhr asr Maghrib Isha

04:50 06:11 12:12 15:37 18:12 19:33

CITY DIreCTorY

reSCUe 1122

eDHI ConTroL 115

MoTorwaY PoLICe 130

PoLICe 15

GoVernor’S HoUSe 99200081-7

CHIeF MInISTer’S HoUSe 99203226

FIre BrIGaDe 16

BoMB DISPoSaL 99212111

MCL CoMPLaInTS 99211022-29

LaHore waSTe DISPoSaL 1139

eMerGenCY HeLP

HoSPITaLS

BLooD BanK

FaTMID 35210834-8

ISLaMIC aLLIanCe 37588649/37535435

CoMPLaInT

waPDa 111-000-118

SUI GaS 1199

raILwaYS

CITY STaTIon (enQUIrY) 117

reSerVaTIon 99201772

raILwaY PoLICe 1333

aIrPorT

FLIGHT enQUIrY 114

PIa reSerVaTIon 111-786-786

CoLLeGeS / UnIVerSITIeS

PUnJaB UnIVerSITY 99231257KInnaIrD CoLLeGe 99203781-4QUeen MarY CoLLeGe 36362942GoVT. CoLLeGe UnIVerSITY 111-000-010UMT 35212801-10LUMS 35608000UeT 36288666LCwU 99203072SUPerIor CoLLeGe 111-000-078

MID CITY 37573382-3

SerVICeS 99203402-11

MaYo 99211100-9

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SHeIKH ZaID 35865731

SIr GanGa raM 99200572

UCH 35763573-5

ITTeFaQ 35881981-85

CMH 366996168-72

SHoUKaT KHanUM 35945100

JInnaH 111-809-809

aDIL (DeFenCe) 36667275

CHILDren’S 99230901-3

DeFenCe naTIonaL HoSPITaL 111-17-18-19

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Lahore

ArAbic cAlligrAphy

CaLLIGraPHY CLaSSeS are on-going, interestedstudents can enroll throughout the year. Theduration of one module is three months. There arefour modules of learning calligraphyt: primary,secondary, advanced and higher. The course includestraditional pen and traditional paper making.

DaTe anD TIMe: JUne 1, 2012, 4PM To 6PMVenUe: HaST-o-neeST CenTer

ajoka Theatre in collaboration with the Lahore artsCouncil presents the Basant Bahar Theatre FestivalMarch 2012, BULLHa based on the life & times ofBaba Bulleh Shah, written by Shahid nadeem,directed by Madeeha Gauhar on 16th March

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

tHe 75th Convocation of KinnairdCollege for Women was held onFriday, at Perin Boga Amphithe-atre at Kinnaird College forWomen, Lahore. Prime Minister

syed Yousaf raza Gillani was the Chief Gueston the occasion. the ceremony was presidedover by the Chairman of the Board of Gover-nors Kinnaird College for Women, the honor-able Bishop of Lahore, dr Alexander JohnMalik. dr Alexander John Malik declared theconvocation open and congratulated the outgo-ing students. He said that he was sure that thevalues injected in the students by Kinnaird Col-lege would help them not only in their profes-sional and practical lives but also at theirpersonal ends.

Principal Kinnaird College for Women dr.rukhsana david also congratulated the outgo-ing graduates and said that the college is veryproud of them as most of them have joined the

workforce or are studying abroad for furtherPhds. she said that Kinnaird College hasbagged 10 top positions in the intermediate ex-aminations 2011 of which four are over all toppositions. Kinnaird College is successfully run-ning 10 M.Phil and 3 Masters Programs. Allthese programs are of high standard and arevery popular. in the next academic session col-lege plans to introduce Phd program in englishLiterature and environmental sciences, andM.Phil in Food sciences and Human nutritionand a Bachelors program in law.

Kinnaird College is also ensuring faculty de-velopment by arranging workshops and train-ing sessions in teaching methodologies, microteaching, QeC workshops etc. A number of fac-ulty members also presented their papers at in-ternational Conferences. Ms Manal talat(Accounting and Finance) read a paper inMiami, UsA in August 2011. Ms. Amna Ashraf(Media studies) in istanbul, turkey in July2011 and shazia saeed (Media studies) will bepresenting her paper in international Confer-ence on Communication, Media technology and

design in istanbul in May 2012. Over all twentynine papers both by faculty and students werepublished or have been accepted for publicationin the last academic session 2011-12. the ChiefGuest awarded degrees to 221 students of postgraduation and 280 students of graduation. Outof these 36 are on the Principal’s Honour andMerit lists with a CGPA of 3.80 and above.

Mira Phailbus Gold medal was awarded totehreem Arslan Aurakzai of english literature.isakhel Gold medal was awarded to HafizaMaria Aftab of environmental sciences.Boswell Gold Medal was awarded to Zara razaof Zoology. Lily najmuddin dramatics Goldmedal was awarded to Jahan Leena Masood ofMedia studies, Asma Jamil debates GoldMedal to Osheen Fatima Fsc ii, Anwar ul Haqpure sciences Gold Medal to Ayesha Munir ofChemistry, Angoori Humanities Gold Medal toneha Zariq of english Literature, s.M.Zafar so-cial sciences Gold Medal to summeya sauleh ofPolitical science and professor Qazi Moham-mad Fareed professional studies Gold medal toMirha Masood of Business studies.

Students follow illustrious footsteps at 75th KC convocation

oVeR-BRIDGe: construction work at full throttle on ferozepur Road NaDeeM iJaZ

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09Saturday, 17 March, 2012

Lahore

CIneMa FILM TIMeCIne STar HUGo 01:00 PMPH: 35157462 aGneePaTH 03:15 PM

Man on a LeDGe 06:30 PMaGneePaTH 8:15 PMaGneePaTH 11:30 aM

CIne GoLD Don 2 3:00 PMPH: 35340000 MISSIon IMPoSSIBaL 4 6:00 PM

PLaYerS 9:00 PMDon 2 12:00 aM

SoZo worLD aGneePaTH 12:00 PMPH: 36674271 aGneePaTH 03:30 PM

aGneePaTH 07:00 PMaGneePaTH 10:30 PM

SoZo GoLD MISSIon IMPoSSIBLe 4 12:30 PMPH: 36674271 Don 2 03:00 PM

HUGo 05: 30 PMMISSIon IMPoSSIBLe 4 08: 30 PMDon 2 11: 00 PM

ePD squad gives

workshops, tyre

warehouse a not-

so-pleasant surpriseLAHORE

Staff RepoRt

A special squad of environment Protec-tion department (ePd) under the su-pervision of secretary edP sajjadsaleem Hotiana conducted surprise visitin sabzazar truck Adda and sealed twoworkshops and one tyre warehouse hereon Friday. the environment Protectiondepartment squad inspected variousworkshops and warehouses in sabzazartruck Add situated in UC-90 and foundpile tyres and other scrap filled withwater at the rooftops of these work-shops.the squad took all these tyres andother scrap into their custody andsealed the workshops including Amirriaz Workshop, Ahmed nawaz HeavyMachinery Workshop and M Bashirtyre Warehouse after issuing them no-tices.interestingly, the town Municipal Offi-cer (tMO) samanabad imtiaz Awanhad to inspect all these areas but whenhe came to know about the presence ofePd squad, he reached there withtrucks and started to clear the piletyres present in M. Bashir tyre ware-house.Later, secretary environment Protec-tion department sajjad saleem Ho-tiana held a public hearing in truckAdda sabazazar and informed thelabourers and workers regarding thepreventive measures from denguevirus. taking to the workers, he urgedthem to adopt all the safety measureswhich could be saved them fromdengue mosquito.director ePA nasim ur rehman shah,

ddO environment Muhammas Younasand tMO samanabad imtiaz Awan werealso present on this occasion.

LAHORE Staff RepoRt

Annual sports festival of PostGraduate Medial institute andLahore General Hospital isgoing to be held today March17 at Punjab stadium whichwill be participated by doc-tors, nurses, student nursesand their families. the eventincluded chati race, three legrace, back race, musical chair,band march and gol gappayeating completion etc. willcontinue from 2.00pm to8.00pm at night. special As-sistant to chief Minister onHealth MPA Khawaja salmanrafique will distribute prizesamong the position holders atthe end of the event.

this was told by Proftariq salah ud din, PrincipalPGMi and LGH while presid-

ing over a review meetingabout the arrangements ofthe event. He said that morethan 200 employees of PGMiand LGH have registeredtheir names for participationin the event. He further toldthat PGMi and LGH couldnot offer proper opportunitiesof recreation to its employeeseven after 53 years of theircreation. this area is nowbeing focused which will def-initely refresh the energies ofdoctors and nurses who re-main under stress and strainconstantly due to very natureof their profession, he added.Prof. tariq said that he is try-ing his best to set positive andhealthy traditions in the insti-tution and he is hopeful thatthe sports festival would be-come a permanent annualfeature during coming years.

Increase flour pricesat your own risk

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

special Assistant to the Punjab Chief Minis-ter, Mansha Ullah Butt has claimed that flourprices are stable in the province and flourmillers are selling flour bags on governmentannounced rates. He warned that unilateralincrease in flour prices would not be toler-ated and strict action would be taken againstthose found increasing flour prices. Address-ing a press conference here on Friday he saidthat the government representative had ameeting with the flour mills association inthis regard and office-bearers of the associa-tion had assured the government of their fullsupport in keeping the prices of flour stablein the province. Butt said that wheat re-serves are in abundance in the province and‘wheat procurement policy’ for the currentseason would be announced soon. Giving de-tails of his meeting with the representativesof the flour millers association, CM’s specialAssistant said that the millers’ delegation hasassured him of not increasing the prices offlour despite increase in transportationcharges, electricity tariff and increased loadshedding. He alleged that the federal gov-ernment by allowing Pakistan Agriculturalstorage and services Corporation (PAssCO)to sell wheat in the province had violated themandate of the Corporation. He said that theprovincial government had taken up thisissue with the federal government. replyinga query regarding distribution of gunny bagsto small growers, Butt said that the system ofgunny bags distribution would be improvedto facilitate small growers and buying theirproduce maximum. He said that under thepolicy any grower would be issued gunnybags again after 15 days of first issuance ofthe gunny bags.

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

PUnJAB Chief Ministershahbaz sharif has saidunder the new transportpolicy of the government abus will be available to the

passengers after every minute on the 32-km long route from shahdra to Kahna.

He was presiding over a meeting toreview the pace of progress of the proj-ects of bus rapid transit system and in-telligent transport system, here onFriday. Chairman Lahore transportCompany Khawaja Ahmad Hasaan,Member Provincial Assembly Mehrishtiaq Ahmad, Chairman Planning &development, secretaries of transportand Finance, dG LdA and representa-tives of nLC and nesPAK attended themeeting.

the meeting was informed that de-velopment work is speedily in progresson the bus rapid transit system fromKahna to Kalma Chowk while planninghas been made for the construction of11-km long track from shahdra toKalma Chowk in the next phase. theChief Minsiter also issued instructionsfor setting up a sub-committee fortimely completion of the project. thecommittee will take measures for re-moving the hurdles in the execution ofthis public-welfare project.

the Chief Minister said that publicwelfare projects are the best form of in-vestment as they provide relief to thecommon man. He said that bus rapidtransit system which is fast and eco-nomical has been designed with an eye

on the transport needs of the future. Hesaid that this bus service will not resultin traffic jams and also save the time ofthe citizens. He directed that besidesbus rapid transit system, parkingplazas should also be constructed atsuitable places for the convenience ofthe people and business community.He said that intelligent transport sys-tem has been devised to meet the trans-port needs of the 21st century.

He said that this state-of-the-artcomputerized system will help stream-line traffic in the provincial metropolisas well as provision of timely assistancein case of any accident or emer-gency. He directed that besthuman resource should be devel-oped for operating this traffic con-trol system.

earlier, a three-member dele-gation led by head of Pakistan in-stitute of Legislative development

and transparency (PiLdAt) AhmadBilal Mehboob met Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhammad shahbaz sharif.Provincial Law Minister ranasanaullah Khan, Member national As-sembly Anusha rehman, ChairmanLahore transport Company Kh.Ahmad Hasaan, Chairman Planning &development, secretary Law and sec-retary Finance were also present onthe occasion. Various proposals andsuggestions for enhancing the role ofstanding committees of provincial as-sembly in budget making were consid-ered in detail.

Rest assured you’ll geta bus every minute!g Punjab CM’s promise to passengers on the 32-km route from Shahdara to Kahna

Doctors gear up to showcasetheir athletic sides

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Saturday, 17 March, 2012

10 LahoreFormer UK minister visitshistoric book fair at PULAHORE: Former United Kingdom Min-ister shahid Munir on Friday visited Pak-istan’s largest book fair being organisedby Punjab University administration atier, new Campus. Vice Chancellor Profdr Mujahid Kamran and faculty memberswelcomed the delegate and visited thebook fair. the UK minister lauded PU VCand administration for organizing knowl-edge-friendly activity. Mr Munir said thatsuch activities could help promote educa-tion in the society and provision of bookson extra-ordinary discounted rates spokethe volume of interest of PU administra-tion for enhancing habit of book readingin the society. the UK minister also pur-chased some books from different stalls.renowned journalists, columnists, poets,bureaucrats, doctors, lawyers, business-men and people from other walks of lifevisited book fair and purchased books oftheir choice. Books upto 50 percent dis-count rates really urged people to con-tinue their “looting spree”. According todeputy Chief Librarian Muhammad Ha-roon Usmani, over 10000 books were soldon the first day of the book fair. the stu-dents showed their keen interest in co-curricular and extra-curricular books.People were of the view that the book fairwas very important to promote study cul-ture in the society. Staff RepoRt

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Adivision bench of thesupreme Court directing thestrict implementation of the2009 amended laws in re-gard of kite flying disposed of

a suo motu notice here on Friday. thebench comprising Justice tassaduq Hus-sain Jillani and Justice Mian saqib nisarwas hearing the matter at the supremeCourt Lahore registry. earlier, the benchwas informed on behalf of the Punjab gov-ernment that the law on kite flying hadbeen amended and use of iron and chemi-cal twine were banned. the court was fur-ther told that medical facilities wereprovided to a citizen, Fahim, who was in-jured badly after his throat was slashed bytwine, and now he was healthy. the benchafter hearing the arguments disposed ofthe suo motu and directed to strictly imple-ment the amended law. the sC took noticeof kite flying in 2005.SARABJEET SINGH CASE: the La-hore High Court (LHC) on thursday ad-journed the petition seeking release of anindian prisoner sarabjeet singh till 19April and directed the government to com-plete the required procedure of his release

immediately. At the directions of JusticeManzoor Ahmad Malik of LHC, the in-spector General Punjab (Prison) submit-ted his report that stated that sarbjeetsingh completed his sentence. After sub-mission of this report the court issued no-tice to interior ministry to submit itsreport in this regard. the court observedthat according to constitution and islamicethics, after completion of sentence, noone could be kept in detention. AdvocateAwais sheikh of the petitioner said thesingh`s sentence expired on Oct 30, 2010.sarbajit, who had been arrested in 1990,was accused of carrying out bomb blasts inLahore, Kasur and Faisalabad.CHECK DISEASE SPREAD: A two-member bench of the supreme Court di-rected on Friday the Punjab government toimplement recommendations made in a re-port by medical experts to check spread ofvarious diseases at the result of drug reac-tions in patients of Punjab Cardiology pa-tients within 15 day. the apex courtadjourned the hearing of suo motu noticeagainst PiC deaths till April 9. the benchcomprising Justice tassaduq Hussain Jil-lani and Justice Mian saqib nisar was hear-ing the matter at supreme Court Lahoreregistry. As the proceedings started, a jointreport prepared by five medical experts was

presented to the bench. the report statedthat hepatitis was spreading due to use ofsub-standard and used syringes. therefore,companies involved in manufacturing sy-ringes be registered and only syringes ofregistered companies be allowed for use, thereport added. to a court query regardingdrug testing Laboratory, Advocate GeneralPunjab Aushtar Ausaf submitted that a highstandard drug testing laboratory had beenset up in the province and efforts were inprogress to link it with world Health Organ-ization. Provincial secretary health submit-ted that the process to ensure supply ofstandard medicines at medical store hadbeen started. However, the bench directedto maintain the status quo and sought a de-tailed report from the federal governmentin this regard. the court adjourned the fur-ther hearing of suo motu till April 9 and di-rected to forward the report made bymedical experts to the Punjab governmentfor implementation within 15 days. Mean-while in another petition, the bench alsoheard arguments on plea against transfer ofshaikh Zayed Hospital to the Punjab govt.SAPNA KHAN CASE: Justice najam ulHassan of the Lahore High Court on Fridaydisposing of petitions for recovery of sapnaKhan ordered police to execute orders ofsession court and investigate the matter as

per law. Justice sh najam ul Hasan washearing different petitions filed by sapnaKhan’s father, Missal Khan, and ex-hus-band, former CM sardar dost Muhammadkhan Khosa. As proceedings started, thecourt asked concerned sHO and dsP re-garding non registration of case in the mat-ter. the police officials told that the caseswere not registered due to lack of solid ev-idence. However, the Missal Khan’s coun-sel alleged that the police was delaying thematter to destroy evidence. the counselcontended that sapna Khan had beenkilled but police failed to take action. thecourt after hearing arguments disposed ofthe petitions and directed to implement or-ders of sessions court. Missal Khanthrough a petition pleaded the court toissue directions for implementation of ses-sions court’s order on his application forregistration of a kidnap-cum-murder caseagainst former chief minister Punjab sar-dar dost Muhammad Khosa for allegedlykidnapping and killing sapna. the sessionscourt ordered police to proceed as per lawin the matter and register case, if a criminaloffence was made out. dost MuhammadKhosa had also filed a petition for imple-mentation of sessions court’s order on hisapplication for recovery of his ex-wifesapna Khan from her father, Missal Khan.

LAHOREMUZaffaR aLI

A panorama of city scenes from oldareas of Lahore and various worth-seeing landscapes became cyno-sure of the visitors in a paintingexhibition held at royaat Galleryhere on Friday. A painting exhibi-tion “A nature’s Palette” by shehlaFarooq hailed to realistic schoolthat showed the skill of the painterover capturing the interplay oflight and color amidst the sceneryof Punjab.

talking to Pakistan today,shehla Farooq said she focused oncityscapes, moving towards miner-alization by incorporating pigeons.she said that she explored life inthe old city, a location that was for-gotten, through her paintings.

“to paint on location while ex-periencing the environment is aunique experience incomparable tostudio painting,” adding she saidshe painted all natural sceneries

often on location. she said that she was painting

traditional landscapes for the pastthree decades. she said her secondmotif was of pigeons nestledwithin the old city and these won-derful paintings evoke the nostal-gia of Lahore’s old nooks andcrannies.

these paintings, both sumptu-ous and delicate, capture wonder-ful movement through definedbrush strokes. the landscapes de-pict the misty, wind-swept plainsthat are transformed by nature’sfirst green.

these regenerated arbors al-most seem to dance in the sun, cel-ebrating the vibrant color ofnature’s spring palette. talking toPakistan today, Mrs Faryal ArifLatif said royaat Gallery is com-mitted to raising awareness of La-hore’s cultural legacy. she saidthey encouraged new artists to ex-hibit their works in their artgallery.

Mirani Dam floodvictims demonstratewith vigourLAHORE: the victims of Mirani damfloods staged a sit-in in front of WAPdAHouse to get the compensations for thelands, crops and houses destroyed due to“flawed” design of the dam. they an-nounced to set up the sit-in camp for anindefinite period till their demands werefulfilled. the affectees, who had traveledfrom turbat, Balochistan to Lahore saidthey were being denying the compensa-tion for the damages caused by backflowof water higher than predictions ofWAPdA. they accused the WAPdA engi-neers for not taking their concerns seri-ously which they had told to them beforeconstruction of the dam. According to af-fectees’ statement WAPdA had claimedthat only 1100 people would be affectedbecause of dam. However contrary toclaims of WAPdA, when first flood cameon June 26, 2007, all the houses of UnionCouncils nasir Abad and nodiz were de-stroyed. Moreover the backflow water lev-els reached to 271.4 feet which WAPdAhad claimed would remain at 244 feet.the affectees said the provincial govern-ment’s survey also approved the compen-sation for the crops, gardens, houses andland destroyed in floods of 271.4 feet level. the Commissioner Mekran had assessedthe damages to be rs 684,214,440/- forhouses destroyed from 264 feet above sealevel and 271.4 feet above sea level and rs3,390,580,800/- for destroyed fruit gar-dens. However, they said, WAPdA wasnot compensating to their damages. Anumber of rights groups and activists an-nounced supporting the affectees in theirstruggle and a protest demonstration isalso announced to support them. One ofsuch demonstration, announced on Face-book, would happen at Chairing Cross onsaturday (today) at 4pm. When the Mi-rani dam was opened in 2006, it facedgreat local resistance due to fears aboutits backflows, which became the cause forthe great damage suffered during the2007 floods. Staff RepoRt

a Nature’s Palette: a mélangeof colours, thoughts and skill

MNa Marghoob ahmad Yusi giving instructions to coordinator Malik

Zeeshan with regards to development work on 84, al-azeeza Road

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Punjab education Minister Main Mu-jhtaba shuja-ur-rahman said that Punjabgovernment was doing a lot for the pro-motion of education and government willdo its best to provide infrastructure facil-ities to the government MAO College La-hore as it is an historic college.

education Minister was addressing atthe annual sports days’ ceremony wherecollege Principle dr Farhan Abadat yarkhan, Former MAO college principal drsayed tahir Yousaf Bukhari, seniorteacher and educationist Muhammad Arif

and a large number of students were alsopresent.

education Minister said that CMlaunched laptop scheme to upgrade thetalent of the students and purpose was en-rich the youth regarding the global infor-mation. He said that it was thecommitment of the government of thePunjab that they will develop the educa-tion standard of the province and for thispurpose they set of it labs at the collegesand schools and doing their best in the ed-ucation sector. He said that studentsshould participate in the sports activities.He said that government of Punjab willprovide vehicles to the MAO College and

will do best for the students and faculty ofthe college. education minister said thatfour year Bs honors was a good step of thegovernment and they are trying to removethe flaws in the programs. He said that hewill hold meetig witht college teachersabout the continuing of the Master pro-grams at the college.dr Farhan Abadat inhis address briefed the education Minis-ter about the developments and issues atthe MAO College and said that collegeteachers and administration is renderingtheir services for the development of MaoCollege. earlier education Minister alsodistributed the medals among the shiningstudents of the college.

Education minister’s promise to MAO College

Kite fliers, beware of the LHC hammer!

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Editor’s mail 11Saturday, 17 March, 2012

Gender biasAccording to a quotation, there is

always a woman behind the success of aman but unfortunately in most of Pak-istan a woman is not admired and re-spected at all. in fact, they arepunished for being a woman and takenas an inferior race. Pakistani society isindeed a completely male dominatedsociety.

Here the daughter of eve is ruth-lessly treated, brutally beaten, killed forthe cause of one's self-esteem, acid iswidely used on women. she is beingraped and killed just for the reason thatthey gave birth to a baby girl. Povertyforces them to red light areas.

We are blessed with an islamic statebut what a pity on us that it is not islamicat all, not at least for the women. Our re-ligion gives a highly respected status towomen. she is a mother, sister, wife ordaughter.

i am grieved at the fact that in oursociety mother is disrespected because ofwife, wife is being killed for giving birthto a daughter, daughters and sisters arebeing killed in the name of one's self-es-teem and honour.

But it is not the case all around. Wehave people who know the true place ofwoman. Building a nation is not possiblewithout help from women. One day,women will be able to work shoulder toshoulder with men and make Pakistanbetter. All we need is awareness.

AREEBA HUSSAINKarachi

Pro price-hike authorities‘railway fares up by 15-20 percent;

eCC likely to impose Gst on hy-dropower.’ Has not islamabad become apro price-hike city?

Z A KAZMIKarachi

From rags to richesthe latest case with the supreme

Court is about the distribution of rs 1.48billion to various politicians/politicalparties by the former isi Chief throughMr Younis Habib, the ex-chief of MehranBank (hearing the petition filed by AirMarshal (retd) Ashgar Khan). in varioustalk shows on the tV, the common ques-tion is how did a clerk of a bank who onlyhad an intermediate degree rose to thehighest post of the president of MehranBank?

it is definitely a big credit for an in-termediate pass person to rise to the topposition through his sheer hard work(may not be a professional effort). Wehave many more such examples in ourbeloved country where, merit or nomerit, people have risen to top and onmost lucrative appointments like minis-ters, ambassadors, Mds, Chairpersonsetc. But the billion dollar question re-mains how these unqualified people afterreaching the top made properties worthbillions of rupees and huge bank bal-ances both in Pakistan and in foreigncountries.

in the recent history, we see a personwho was recruited as clerk in our FiAand now holding the appointment of in-terior minister. similarly we had the in-famous dG Hajj Affairs with dubiousbackground, perhaps manager of a nightclub.

Our all main institutions like rail-ways, PiA, Pakistan steel Mills andWAPdA are running in loss for the onlyreason that we have incompetent and po-litical appointees at top levels. How canwe expect progress in this country wherewe find square pegs in round holes everywhere? the competent and able peopleare either leaving the country or are onjob hunting with their high profile CVs.

MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJALahore

our watergateHistory tends to repeat itself. it ap-

pears it is our turn now to face a Water-gate of ours as reported in a section ofnational english press on 13 March 2012that india plans to divert Chenab river’sflow into Beas which is a tributary of sut-lej river. this would deprive Pakistan ofits normal water supply as per indusBasin treaty of western rivers belongingto Pakistan.

the time magazine of 14 december2009 had issued a satellite photograph ofHimalayan glaciers showing the riverswherein the river Chenab and Bias origi-nated from the same source. it appearsthe diversion of water from Chenab toBias would be very likely due to theirclose vicinity.

However, our water experts ought totake a timely notice of the above reportedwater aggression by india before ourrivers are sucked dry and our water ex-perts are found sleeping on the issue.this is a real sOs message for the nationto take heed of.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

Balochistan and the fear factorthe clime of fear in Balochistan be-

comes more and more dense with eachpassing day as very little is actuallydone to reinstate law and order into thechaotic province.

People are under a continuous fearthat their loved ones may disappear forno apparent reason and that the fre-quency with which bullet ridden bodiesadorn dark alleys and roadsides com-pels them to mute their voices againstthis oppression lest they become thevictim to such horrible fate.

Public fear further increases in in-tensity as the deteriorating securityconditions deprive the public of thehuman need for harmony. there has

never been any kind trust between thepeople and the law enforcers as it is noton the priority list of the security appa-ratus. this is one big reason why thepeople too in return take no time inthrusting all blame upon them.

Fear of the uncontrolled operationof terrorist groups provides very little tofeel happy about. the various cases ofmurders and target killings, burningand closures of schools in the Balochis-tan province blatantly owned by suchmilitant groups aims to perpetuate anenvironment of continuous fear so thatthe separatist agenda be taken to thenext phase.

teachers and professors are exiting

the province for an ever looming fear oftheir lives. this mass exodus of educa-tors does not impact the education sys-tem at this point in time only bydepriving the younger generation fromtheir basic right to education, but willsurely have grave delayed consequencesand repercussions. it wouldn’t be wrongif the students and parents fear for thefuture of their younger ones in thisbackdrop.

due to the prevalence of a very closeand claustrophobic tribal system, thepeople live their lives in fear of thewrath of their superiors and sardars.Atrocities and violence are seldom re-ported whereas victimisation of the op-

pressed continues unchecked and un-abated. Where killing of women is asign of bravery and to sell them be-comes an accepted custom, can fear as adominant emotion be taken out of thefemale existence?

Fear is used as a tool of manipula-tion by the sardars for maintaining theirhegemony and to crush any sort of re-bellion against them. For this severepunishments are devised and used uponthe poor people. With a myriad of fearfactors looming upon the people howcan we expect any improvement in thesituation in Balochistan?

AYAANA MALIKIslamabad

Begging and borrowing

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

Building confidence in South asia

though india-Pakistan rela-tions are going through arelatively calm phase,

things can change quickly. Wemust therefore take advantage ofthe present atmosphere to lock-in beneficial patterns of behav-iour.

One area where we believe thatprogress can be made is on thequestion of military confidencebuilding measures (CBMs). theidea behind CBMs is well-tested;military establishments agree toavoid actions which are threaten-ing to the other side as a means tohelp avoid unintended conflicts. Ofcourse, CBMs are not a panacea; ifpeople want to have a conflictCBMs will not prevent it. ButCBMs do provide a mechanismwhereby states which want toavoid a conflict through accidentor misperception can develop waysto help do so.

india and Pakistan have devel-oped extensive CBMs over the

years. Often, they have been devel-oped in response to specific prob-lems. there is nothing wrong withthis. But we believe that it is timeto develop a framework of suchmeasures which can help to moresystematically address some of thekey issues the two sides face.

that is why we have been par-ticipating in a series of meetingsinvolving senior, retired officersfrom both sides, which are review-ing existing CBMs and suggestingnew ones. the process is being or-ganised by the University of Ot-tawa and the Atlantic Council. Wehave met twice so far, in dubai andBangkok.

Over the course of our meet-ings, we agreed that most existingCBMs are sound and useful, butwe noted a tendency for them tofall into disuse over time. More-over, some existing CBMs have be-come dated because of newtechnologies and doctrines.thought must be given to ways inwhich these CBMs can be updatedand we have made suggestions tothe two governments.

Beyond the existing CBMs,

however, there is a pressing needto re-conceptualise the way thetwo sides approach this topic. inparticular, the ad hoc manner inwhich CBMs have been negotiatedto address particular issues mustgive way to frameworks of CBMs.

the key issue is crisis stability.india and Pakistan have deployedweapons which dramatically re-duce the time available for diplo-macy in a crisis. Where sobersecond thought is essential, hair-trigger alerts brought about bylethal weapons close to the borderswhich can be launched quickly willbecome the norm in future crises.doctrines are evolving in wayswhich compress the time availablefor diplomacy and the all-perva-sive media reality of south Asiacould also push the two sides to-wards an early resort to force in afuture crisis.

this is a profoundly dangeroussituation. it was therefore agreedat our Bangkok meeting that a use-ful area for CBMs is the elabora-tion of a framework for crisismanagement to provide the twosides with agreed steps that can be

taken to prevent a crisis from spin-ning out of control. there was con-sensus that an interlockingnetwork of CBMs should be devel-oped which, in the event of a crisis,would:• require a political commitment

that the two sides’ diplomatsand officials come together atthe outset of the crisis for dis-cussions on how to resolve it(all too often in south Asia,when a crisis erupts we respondby suspending diplomatic con-tacts – we should be doing ex-actly the reverse);

• require that, in times of crisis,both sides should take no mili-tary actions which could beconstrued as preparations foran offensive, and adhere to ex-isting CBMs; and

• discussions should begin onnew CBMs relevant in these cir-cumstances.Beyond crisis management, it

was agreed by consensus inBangkok that a CBM should beagreed whereby both sides, includ-ing their respective military estab-lishments, should regularly meet

to discuss their respective conceptsand doctrines with a view to elab-orating measures to build confi-dence in the nuclear andconventional fields.

Also in Bangkok, we discussedintensively the disputes over thesiachen Glacier and the sir Creekboundary. We will be further dis-cussing these at our next meeting.

Finally, we discussed the ques-tion of terror and its impact on sta-bility. though terror is not amilitary issue per se, we do believethat intelligence-sharing is a keyissue. some suggested developinga list of terror groups which bothsides wish to see stopped leadingto the sharing of information onthese groups and cooperation oninvestigations. Other suggestionsincluded:• revival of an effective joint

anti-terror mechanism at ahigher level;

• Hotlines between the interiorministries on terror issues;

• An effort to revive the sAArCmandated integrated regionaldatabase on terror;

• discussions between respective

officials on national experi-ences on such matters as legalframeworks to deal with terror;

• Greater maritime cooperationon terror at sea; and

• exchanges of views betweenthe immigration, border serv-ices and customs authorities.All of these steps will not end

the difficult situation which existsbetween india and Pakistan. Muchlarger questions will have to be ad-dressed for that. But these steps, iftaken in a good spirit and dili-gently implemented, have the po-tential to help transform theatmosphere between the twocountries and also to prevent fu-ture crises from spinning out ofcontrol. in our region, this wouldbe a significant contribution in-deed.

General (retd) Jehangir Kara-mat is the former Chief of Staff ofthe Pakistan Army and formerAmbassador of Pakistan to theUnited States. Air Chief Marshal(retd) Shashi Tyagi is the formerChief of Staff of the Indian AirForce.

Imran’s actionsOrganisers of the India Today Con-

clave say, “We wish that imran Khan hadused this opportunity to express hisviews at the Conclave with all the forceand lucidity that he possesses.” in myopinion, imran Khan has actually ex-pressed his views using the opportunityin the best possible manner. One needscommon sense to understand his views.

Organisers of Conclave also say, “Wedo not endorse the views of any of ourspeakers but we do stand for the freedomof expression in all that we do; it’s an es-sential principle of a free nation and freemedia.” My question to them is: Wouldyou be ready to offer Ajmal Kasab thesame platform to express his views in the

name of freedom of expression followingthe essential principle of a free nationand free media?

FARHAN TAHIRKarachi

I pity my nationi can only pity my nation whose

multi-millionaire senators, lawyers,politician, businessmen, political oppor-tunists plead the cases of one of thebiggest corrupt ruler on earth who hasruined his country and poor. Yet such ad-vocate has no qualm of conscience tohave mercy on his nation whom he ex-ploited to lead in deception one judicialmovement to win favour of his party seatand entry into senate.

Why does not sC proceed againstsuch people who advocate liars, cheats,bathakhors, target killers and want toprove them innocent? the sC has beentoo soft on president’s political-partisan,extra-unconstitutional role despite LHCdelayed judgement which made presi-dent conduct of business as virtualdespotic king brining country all sectorsof national life to brink of disaster.

One pertinent question aboutHaqqani’s lost Blackberry is: did he fileany report with the police in UsA on itsloss? He does not remember its pincodes. What a funny situation! Could youtrust national policy affairs to such anambassador?

I RAHEEMRawalpindi

Our government was continously begging from differentdonors from abroad and after unaccomplished mission of beg-ging, our government is borrowing money from the state Bankof Pakistan. instead of adopting austerity measures, we can wit-ness government expanditures go uncontrolable because of a

huge cabinet and perks and privileges of parliamentarians forno reason. every borrowing has caused huge burden on thepoor masses but who cares.

A PAKISTANILahore

By Jehangir Karamat & Shashi Tyagi

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Comment12Saturday, 17 March, 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

not a good sign

Politics of ultimatums

the MQM seems to have revived the politics ofultimatums by threatening to boycott the jointsitting of parliament to be addressed byPresident Zardari today if the government does

not take appropriate measures to stop the incidents ofextortion and target killing in Karachi. the issue wasraised by party’s deputy parliamentary leader HaiderAbbas rizvi who latter staged a walkout along with hiscolleagues from the national Assembly on thursday.

Meanwhile, the MQM’s Coordination Committeewhich met simultaneously in Karachi and Londonsought permission from Party Chief Altaf Hussain totackle the landlords and feudals extending patronage tothe bhatta mafia. the committee examined the reportsgenerated from the crime data showing that extortionsmade from different markets across the city werecompelling the business community to shift theirbusinesses elsewhere.

the warning, however, shook the law enforcementagencies out of their complacency as they launched amassive operation against extortionists following anannouncement of a province-wide strike by traders onsaturday. But at the same time the PPP and the MQMleaders started accusing each other of their failure tocurb the rising crime wave in the megapolis, reminiscentof the confrontation seen during Zulfikar Mirza’s stint asHome Minister.

Unfortunately, the menace shows no sign of abatingdespite repeated warnings to the sindh Police by thesuperior judiciary which had taken suo motu cognizanceof rapid growth in the incidents of extortion and killing.no serious effort seems to have been made by thegovernment to purge the police force of appointmentsmade on political basis which remain the main cause forthe breakdown of law and order in the province.

What is significant is that for the first time Mr rizvihas conceded his party’s inability to curb the incidentsof extortions despite being part of the ruling coalition.the belated realisation requires the MQM to help thePPP find a political solution to the issue rather thansetting deadlines or threatening to boycott thepresidential address to the joint session.

But PM Gilani is still adamant

The die is cast

Prime Minister Gilani has announced that he is inno case going to write to the swiss authorities toreopen the cases against President Zardari.Keeping in view the twists and turns the party

leadership has taken on the issue so far, it seems thedecision had been taken long ago and what Gilani wastrying to do in fact was to delay confronting thesupreme Court till at least the senate elections wereover. now that the goal has been achieved the PPPthinks it can take any risk, including the sacrifice of itsprime minister.

the issue has two aspects, political and legal. AsGilani put it on Friday, he would have quit politicsrather than betray his party. though he referred tofacing two different legal punishments by choosingeither of the courses available to him, and maintainedthat he was naturally opting for the option entailingminimum punishment, this was seen by many as moreof a light hearted observation than anything else. thedecision will be appreciated by the PPP as anunparalleled act of fidelity to the party. Contrarily, thestand would be condemned by its opponents as a glaringexample of disregard for judiciary. such is the pull ofpersonal and political loyalties in Pakistani society that aprime minister of any other mainstream party wouldhave most likely acted much the same way. it is hard tobelieve that shabaz sharif would have behaveddifferently if ordered to write a similar letter againstparty chairman nawaz sharif.

the decision has legal and social ramificationsthough. the interpretation of the constitution lies underthe purview of the sC. if the sC orders the PM to writethe letter, he is required under the constitution to do soeven if he considers it a bad verdict. the apex court iscurrently hearing cases against other powerfulinstitutions also. the refusal by the Chief executive toabide by court’s decision would set a bad example.

our security dilemmaa divided approach would work no more

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Khan Hotihas listed out development plans and projects that are beingexecuted throughout the province. But he conceded that un-

less peace and stability returned, it was almost possible to couldget rid of issues like poverty. in this respect, he reaffirmed that re-turn of peace was still at the top of priority list.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony of Khyber Union ofJournalists and Peshawar Press Club, the CM said that war on ter-ror was yielding positive outcomes and the militants had been iso-lated. He said that militants had been cordoned off from all sides.that is the reason why they were targetting high ranking policeauthorities. He, however, was sure about winning the war andurged the people to extend due support to the law enforcementagencies at this crucial stage. the CM reminded that the present

government had made tremendous success regarding provincialrights. share of the province was enhanced in the federal receipts,enabling the government to increase the volume of annual devel-opment programme. the development process, he said, was inprogress throughout the province, which could help them in ad-dressing long standing demands of the people.

He said that hydel potential was being exploited which couldhelp in increasing electricity generation on one hand and its re-ceipts on the other. the country is in dire need of political stabilityas it is essential to move ahead to strengthen the democraticprocess and superiority of the constitution. it is on these issues,the CM believes, that all of them need to avoid confrontation witheach other as only through upholding the rule of law and main-taining the superiority of the constitution the terrorism can behandled properly.

– Translated from the original Pashtu by Shamim Shahid

Uplift plans in Khyber PakhtunkhwaDaily Wahdat

Regional press

the oft-delayed joint session of theparliament to review the wholeambit of our fractured relationswith the Us is finally taking placeat a very critical time. the de-

plorable incident of burning of copies of theHoly Quran by Us troops, followed by sun-day’s horrific shooting of Afghan civilians incold blood by a manic Us soldier, has forcedPresident Obama to take a good look at hisexit strategy from Afghanistan.

How bad things are for the Us and its al-lies in Afghanistan can be gauged from theincident in which an Afghan truck driver am-ateurishly attacked the Us defence secretaryLeon Panetta on his arrival at a heavilyguarded air base. in an unprecedented secu-rity precaution in the aftermath of the inci-dent, the Us soldiers whom the secretary ofdefence was to address were divested oftheir weapons.

it is obvious that the much touted coun-terinsurgency strategy coined by Generaldavid Petraeus, even before he was shiftedfrom iraq to the Afghan arena, has com-pletely collapsed. Coupled with frayed rela-tions with Pakistan it is a recipe of disasterfor Washington.

President Obama has put a brave faceagainst heavy odds by claiming that thewithdrawal timetable of Us forces fromAfghanistan will remain unchanged. Butground realities are too grim for the Us notto fast track its exit.

the Pentagon perhaps feels that with theconsistent and aggressive use of technologycoupled with logistic support, major portionof responsibilities to police Afghanistan canbe handed over to the Afghans. All this is yetto be fleshed out at the forthcoming nAtOsummit in Chicago this May.

Before the Us considers an improvisedcut-and-run policy effectively leaving behinda quagmire, it has to mend its fences with is-

lamabad. According to officialsources, Washington had de-cided in principal to apologisefor the salala incident in which24 Pakistani soldiers werekilled last november. But thematter has been put on indefi-nite hold in the aftermath of theburning of copies of the HolyQuran incident.

the CentCOM Chief Gen-eral James Mattis and specialAmerican envoy forAfghanistan and Pakistan MarcGrossman are due in islamabadsoon after the joint session ofthe parliament. the much-de-layed apology has to be prof-fered in order for the visit totake place.

Pakistan-Us relations havebeen on the skids for the pastone-year. But the downwardspiral was accelerated in the af-termath of the Us navy seALsattack on the now demolishedOsama bin Laden’s compoundlast May. there is a widely heldperception in Washington, bothamongst the administrationand the Congress, that Pakistanis part of the problem ratherthan the solution.

Conveniently, Washington

and its surrogate Hamid Karzai for setbacksin Afghanistan blame islamabad. it is feltthat the Pakistani military, by providing safehavens to the taliban, is jeopardising the Usinterests in Afghanistan. Hence islamabad issomewhat unfairly blamed for the resur-gence.

despite the urgency, Washington is notsure how to initiate peace talks with the tal-ban. By allowing them to open a liaison of-fice in Qatar halfhearted attempts weremade to bypass the isi to have direct talkswith the willing ‘good taliban’.

But the improvised strategy has come tonaught. the taliban have imposed toughconditions for talks. in the context of the re-cent incidents involving Us troops inAfghanistan, backdoor negotiations havecompletely stalled.

the Us has been officially informed thatPakistan has agreed in principle to restoresupplies for nAtO forces in Afghanistan.the joint session of the parliament, however,is expected to impose tough conditions onthe Us to restore the inexorably frayed rela-tionship.

However, unlike the joint session thattook place in the post Abbottabad raid, theforthcoming session is taking place at a timewhen tense civilian-military relations aresomewhat on the mend. the consensus onrestoring nAtO supplies was taken at ameeting of top civilian and military leader-ship. this is a decision based on realism. Ac-cording to some estimates, nAtO hasalready diverted 60 percent of its suppliesfrom the north.

the trust deficit between Washingtonand islamabad is so huge that it has becomevirtually impossible to bridge any time soon.Bruce reidel, who also advised former Pres-ident Bill Clinton, led a policy review in 2009for the Obama administration on Pakistanand Afghanistan. He has prepared a cam-paign 2012 brief on “maximising chances forsuccess in Afghanistan and Pakistan” for theUs president.

According to reidel, whether Obama isre-elected or replaced by a republican chal-lenger, America needs a new policy for deal-ing with Pakistan – a policy recognising that“the two countries’ strategic interests are

more in conflict than in harmony, and willremain so for as long as Pakistan’s army con-trols its strategic policy making.”

the paper recommends that the policyof engagement towards Pakistan needs re-shaping. it opines that, “the generals whorun Pakistan have not abandoned their ob-session with challenging india. they tolerateterrorists at home, seek a taliban victory inAfghanistan and are building the world’sfastest growing nuclear arsenal.”

reidel counsels to contain the “Pakistaniaggression” by holding the army and its in-telligence apparatus accountable. Moretrade and less aid, especially military aid,while strengthening the civilian governmentis his recipe for dealing with islamabad.

Hopefully, the Us administration willnot take such a single dimensional hardlineapproach towards Pakistan. Already belea-guered in Afghanistan, it simply cannot af-ford to.

However, islamabad while resetting itsrelations with Washington will also need totake a hard look at its priorities. it has inter-nal and external vulnerabilities, which sim-ply cannot be ignored. Hardliners in the Usadministration, the defence establishmentand the Congress are showing impatienceand frustration with Pakistan’s preferredstrategic priorities. For the Pakistan army tomove against the militants safe havens innorth Waziristan has become a chorus inWashington. to carve out a role for newdelhi in Afghanistan peace efforts is also onthe cards.

All these are challenges cut out for Pak-istan, the military as well as the civilians. theperception that the generals and the intelli-gence apparatus are omnipotent in dealingwith security issues needs to be corrected.

the newly appointed isi Chief Lt GenZaheer islam has his job cut out for him. Hehas not only to restore the image of hisagency so badly undermined in the past yearor so. He has also to deal with thorny inter-nal and external issues relating not only toAfghanistan, the Us and india, but also thereal or perceived role of the isi in Balochis-tan.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan today

By Arif Nizami

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Comment 13Saturday, 17 March, 2012

Musharraf, the former‘fearless’ commando,abandoned the party

he had created and left thecountry to save his skin. He isnow evading summons sent bycourts ordering him to appear.despite the braggadocio thatcharacterises the man he doesnot have the guts to face thecases. He hasn’t responded tosummons by the supremeCourt in Benazir’s murder casewhere he is wanted as a suspectand a witness and the warrantsissued by a Balochistan courtwhere he has been nominatedfor ordering the killing ofnawab Akbar Bugti.

Musharraf exhibited signsof murderous tendencies at nu-merous occasions. He once ex-pressed the desire tostrangulate Abdullah Mehsudwith his own hands. Monthsbefore the orders to kill nawabAkbar Bugti were issued, hesaid the rebels that he claimedwere led by Bugti, “will notknow what hit them”.

suddenly, early this weekMusharraf claimed that AkbarBugti was not murdered buthad committed suicide. the af-terthought is an indication thatthe fugitive from justice is hav-ing cold feet. this is a standMusharraf never took duringhis tenure or in later years. in-stead he repeatedly maintainedthat he did not regret the ac-tion and would take it again “ifforced by the situation”.

three other governmentleaders who were named in theFir against Bugti’s murderhave never claimed that theBaloch leader committed sui-cide. All have distanced them-selves from the gory incidentthat took place during the two-day military operation.

in his statement submittedbefore the court former Prime

Minister shaukat Aziz took thestand that he was “used as atool” by the then PresidentMusharraf and had nothing todo with the Bugti murder case.Former interior Minister sher-pao and former GovernorBalochistan Owais AhmadGhani told Balochistan HighCourt in their statements thatsince they were part of thecivilian set-up, and the opera-tion was launched by the army,they had nothing to do withBugti’s killing.

the tragic event had putthe PML(Q) leaders who sup-ported Musharraf on the de-fensive. Ch shujaat who hadled the team to hold negotia-tions with Bugti had alreadycomplained that his sugges-tions were ignored in favour ofthose of the agencies. none ofthe PML(Q) members eversuggested that Bugti had com-mitted suicide.

Musharraf had a deepseated grudge against AkbarBugti who had declined to co-operate in the suppression ofthe Marri tribesmen. Howcould this old man guarded bya few hundred Baloch youthwith outdated weapons dare torefuse the COAs-cum-Presi-dent who considered himselfthe master of all that he sur-veyed?

What riled Musharraf fur-ther was another event. in2005, an army captain was ac-cused of raping a lady doctor insui. the incident, taking placeright inside Bugti heartland,was seen by the tribe as abreach of their code of honour.they attacked the gas field withrockets, mortars and AK-47rounds. Musharraf sent an un-compromising response: tanks,helicopters and an extra 4,500soldiers to guard the installa-tion. Bugti refused to holdtalks. dr shazia's rape comesfirst, he maintained. “As longas the perpetrators of thisheinous crime are not dealtwith, there can be no talks,” hesaid.

While afraid to face thecourts, Musharraf retains thehubris while talking about theBaloch. in a recent article “Un-derstanding Balochistan”which appeared on thursday,he reminds the Baloch of the

favours he has done to them asPresident. He expects them tokiss his hands and remain for-ever grateful to him. Like acolonial official angry at the in-gratitude shown by ‘bloody’ in-dians seeking independencefrom the British rule, he listssome of the wonders that heperformed to raise the Balochfrom their primitive conditionof life.

it is travesty of history thata man who pushed an other-wise peaceful Balochistan intoinsurrection should claim to bethe province’s benefactor. Be-fore Musharraf’s arrival therewere no attacks on outsiderswhich began only after desper-ation caused by Bugti’s killing.nationalist leaders were seek-ing their rights through theballot rather than bullet. BothBugti and Akhtar Mengal wereelecetd the chief ministers ofthe province.

it was during the Mushar-raf era that “forced disappear-ances” – a euphemism forkidnapping and keeping theBaloch nationalists incognitofor months and in cases foryears – became a commonpractice. this was a thoroughviolation of the constitutionand the law. Hundreds of polit-ical activists were forciblytaken away by the securityagencies and tortured. the af-fected families went on hungerstrikes, there were protestmarches and shutter downstrikes. the courts failed tocome to the rescue of the plain-tiffs. Parliament turned out tobe ineffective to redress thegrievances. the practice con-tinued year after year and leftthe Baloch thoroughly alien-ated.

the fateful killing of Bugtichanged everything. With amajor supporter of the federa-tion eliminated, the slogan ofan independent Balochistanhas gained widespread popu-larity. Musharraf thinks he isstill popular in Balochistan. Allthat he needs to do to prove theclaim is to take a bicycle ride inany Baloch city, say Gwadar,where he prides over setting upa deep sea port.

The writer is a former ac-ademic and a political analyst.

the prime minister’s latest statement regardingthe nrO implementation case has introduced anew dimension to what is generally perceived as

intellectual dishonesty. in a recent address at a publicgathering, he stated that if he does not write thedreaded letter to the swiss authorities, he could beheld for contempt of court and interned for sixmonths, but if he does, he could be tried for treasonand hanged. elsewhere, he has also stated that if hewere to write the letter, he would have done so a longtime ago.

Measure this public posturing against the stancetaken by the prime minister in the supreme Court videhis learned attorney, now a senator, that he had notwritten the letter because he had followed the rules ofbusiness which he was supposed to do. this promptedthe court to issue a fresh adjudication advising theprime minister to write the letter irrespective of anyadvice. Which of the two diametrically opposite posi-tions – his public posturing or his stand before the sC– would the prime minister want us to go with?

Let’s take another case – that of the nrO. Whenthe ordinance had outlived its stipulated period, thesC asked the government to put it before the assemblyand turn it into law. the government tried desperatelyto do just that, but was unable to win over its allies tosupport it in a vote in the lower house. thereafter, thegovernment informed the sC that it did not want todefend the black law upon which the apex court, afterfollowing due process, declared it void ab initio andordered that all cases withdrawn as a consequence ofits promulgation should be re-instituted as they stood

on the day the ordinance was firstunveiled including the swiss casesagainst Mr. Zardari.

For over two years, the primeminister refused to obey the sC di-rective. it is then that the court fi-nally started asserting its authorityand summoned the prime ministerin contempt. Look at the dishon-esty factor inherent in the govern-ment stance: what is it that theprime minister would want us tobelieve? His initial submission be-fore the court that the nrO was ablack law and all that transpired asa consequence of its introductionshould be reversed? Or, whetherall gains should be reversed exceptthose of Mr Zardari? How crudecan it really get?

Another recent scandal re-volves around a certain memo. thestar witness Mansoor ijaz claimsthat a conspiracy was conceivedand a memo written to the Us au-thorities by the former ambassa-dor to the Us Husain Haqqaniseeking their intervention on theside of the political government inexchange for critical structural andpersonnel changes to be madewithin the national security infra-structure to help the cause of theAmericans including their boots

on ground within Pakistan’s borders. the scandal hasalready claimed the scalp of the former ambassadorunderstandably on the basis of incriminating evidencesecured through the intervention of the premier intel-ligence agency.

Mansoor ijaz has willingly given his side of thestory together with supporting documents and recordof telephone calls and messages exchanged with theformer ambassador, but Mr Haqqani remains gener-ally ambivalent, interspersing his submissions withbouts of hostility, but almost always unwilling to co-operate with the investigating commission set up bythe sC. He refuses to provide the record of his inter-actions with Mansoor ijaz as he has ‘misplaced’ hisphone sets and ‘forgotten’ his pin codes, he is unwill-ing to forego his privacy status and is generally hostileto the idea of being interrogated by the commission forhis conduct in the matter of the memo. Why? is he notaccountable before law? should he not be questionedfor his actions particularly when they can fall withinthe broad realm of treason? is there no mechanism inthe country whereby he, and others like him, could ac-tually be forced to bow before the dictate of law? Or,is it that there would always be one law for the rulingelite and another for the ruled and that we have to livewith this inherent dichotomy and demeaning discrim-ination?

Let’s take yet another case: that of Mehrangatewhen a bank was robbed and millions distributedamong the political elite with the intention of topplinga government and subsequently rigging the electionsto bar a certain party from coming into power. Mem-bers of a political party who are generally accustomedto playing their game from a high moral ground areaccused for having accepted sizeable gratifications andalso becoming the ultimate beneficiaries of the scam.in spite of volumes of evidence available to prove thecase, a massive disinformation stratagem has been un-leashed to divert public attention. in the event itworks, they will reclaim innocence, and if it doesn’t,they will put this across as a vile act of their opponents.no accountability – yet again! the case would, in allprobability, rest there and be forgotten in due course!

the government’s, nay the entire ruling politicalmafia’s stance is rooted in the premise of the infalli-bility of their power, negation of the rule of law and re-fusal to accepting any responsibility for virtualabdication of governance under one pretext or theother. there is a general unison and much cama-raderie across bitter divides among all political lead-erships representing the corrupt status quo when itcomes to confronting a challenge to their perceived su-premacy. there are no principles involved. it is simplya question of perpetuating a degenerate system andeliminating any prospect of improvement in the gov-ernance standards through introduction of a measureof accountability. this measure of accountability, if atall, is meant only for the plebeians while the rulersshould remain beyond the reach of law. in spite of thisdemeaning aberration, we ardently believe that we areon the right track and should continue this monkeybusiness.

The writer is a political analyst and a member ofthe Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can be reached atraoofhasan@hotmail.com

paradoxes galore, a virtual script for destructionSpeaking from the dustbin of history

Musharraf’s u-turn Monkey business

candid cornerBy Raoof Hasan

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

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MUMBaI: actor aamir Khanturned another year older onlyrecently, and while he spentsome time with the media,aamir said that his birthdaysare usually spent with thefamily. The actor, whoconstantly expressed howblessed he was, especiallywith the new entrant - sonazad - in the house, the actorcleverly fielded all questionsposed of his son, and didn'tdivulge too much. aamir Khan,who is proving to be quite thefamily man, is happy playingthe protective father all overagain. The man is too busywith his movies and nowtelevision show, but theperfectionist that he is, aamir,we hear is all set to give familyequal importance in thisequation. Though the actor didconfirm that the release of‘Talaash’ was pushed to a laterdate, aamir also said that hewasn't mentally prepared for‘Dhoom 3’, and that the sequelto ‘Delhi Belly’ will happen ifthe script justifies it. aGeNcIeS

Aamir Khan gets secretive

LOS ANGELESReUteRS

POP star rihanna called herrecent musical collaborationwith ex-boyfriend ChrisBrown "innocent," after crit-ics and fans split on the duoworking together three yearsafter Brown assaulted the

pop star."We did two records, one for myfans and one for his fans, and that way ourfans can come together. there shouldn'tbe a divide, you know, it's music and it'sinnocent," rihanna told ryan seacrest onhis show. rihanna provided vocals on aremix of Brown's new dance song ‘turnUp the Music’ while Brown lent his voiceto rihanna's sexually-charged ‘BirthdayCake.’ Both tracks were released lastmonth after the Grammy awards on Feb-ruary 12."i reached out to him about doing‘Birthday Cake’ because that's the onlyperson that really it made sense to do therecord, just as a musician, despite every-thing else, that was going to be the per-son," rihanna told seacrest."i thoughtabout rappers and i've done that so manytimes, and the hottest r&B artist out rightnow is Chris Brown, so i wanted him onthe track," she added.Brown nearly de-railed his career three years ago on thenight before the Grammys, after he was

arrested for beating up his then-girlfriend,rihanna. since that time he has tried torehabilitate himself in the eyes of fanswith mixed results.the musical reunion ofrihanna and Brown had social networksabuzz as fans split on the pair working to-gether with some making cynical com-ments, others calling it a publicity stuntand many embracing the new songs.

14 Saturday, 17 March, 2012

NEWS DESK

Actor Manzar sehbai is thankful to Allahfor the opportunity given to act at his age."i feel there's no age for taking up any art.i feel i'm lucky to be given any offers at myage," says Manzar who was seen in thePakistani film ‘Bol’ last year and will nowbe seen in Hasnain Hyderabad directed‘Ya rab’. the film which was shot in Luc-know extensively talks about fighting su-perstitions in a traditional Muslim family.

starring Vikram singh and Flora saini,the film has Manzar playing an importantpart in the film, the character of a neuro-surgeon who's just not a doctor but also asocial crusader.talking about his charac-ter in the film sehbai says, "i'm not play-ing the role of just a doctor. i am also partof society and advice the characters in thefilm," says sehbai. Waiting for the shoot-ing of another film to start in Lahore soon,Manzar will be giving company to actornaseeruddin shah on screen, in the film.“We are all waiting for naseer saab tocome to Lahore and then we'll beginshooting for this Pakistani film,” saysManzar who lives in Germany other-wise.Manzar, who says he's not an actor,has been quite active on the German the-atre scene. in his free time he also dabbleswith writing which makes us wonder ifhe'll ever take up direction. “no, i don'tthink so,” says he. it's too much for me toact and it's not possible for me to do somany things. direction is somethingwhich has to be given a lot of time andplanning and i can’t do either.

Manzar Sehbai to share screen space with Naseeruddin Shah in Pakistani film

MUMBaI: Director Zoya akhtar is happy with theappreciation coming from all quarters for her film'Zindagi na Milegi Dobara' but she insists that asequel to the film is not happening immediately."as of now we don't have any plans to do a sequelto ZnMD. I don't think it is would be correct to doit right now. we will give it a couple years andcatch the characters when they are five-year-old,"Zoya said. The road-trip movie, starring Hrithikroshan, Farhan akhtar, abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif

and Kalki Koechlin, was a runway hitand bagged several awards in variouscategories.'Zindagi na Milegi Dobara'was in news since its inception forvarious reasons, be it the rivalry amongthe co-stars or the much-hyped kissingscene between Hrithik and Katrina.also, there was speculation that themovie was on similar lines of 'DilChahta Hai'.However, it managed to getgood reviews and accolades. Therefore,later it was reported that both Zoyaand Farhan are thinking of making asequel to it but the director has put allthose rumours to rest for a while.askher if she is thinking of making atravelogue with Katrina Kaif in the leadas reported and and Zoya says, "no, Iam not planning a travelogue withKatrina." But she is definitely thinkingof directing another film but nothing ison cards as yet. "I am doing a shortfilm and then I would start writing formy next film," Zoya said. aGeNcIeS

MUMBaI: It seems the makers havefound an ideal replacement forKatrina Kaif for the‘Partner’sequel.Zareen Khan's new slim lookseems to be taking her to places.The actress who was criticised forbeing overweight has lost oodles ofweight. and if the buzz if to bebelieved, she is being considered asKatrina Kaif's replacement in thesequel of ‘Partner’.apparently DavidDhawan's‘Partner 2’ is supposed togo on floors nextyear. Zareen neverliked the fact thatshe was tagged as aKatrina Kaif look-alike. However, herresemblance to theactress seems to beworking in herfavour now. It mightjust give her anotherchance to revive hercareer.Zareen ispresently makingnews for her sizzlinghot avatar in SajidKhan's ‘Housefull 2’.The actress islooking forward todoing good filmsrather than itemnumbers. aGeNcIeS

in limelight

No sequel of 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' as yet: Zoya

HoLLYwooD: actress Mariann Gavelo, Gina rodriguez, David Spade and will Ferrell arrive for the premiere of the film ‘Casa de mi Padre’. aFP

LonDon: an employee walks amid an installation of clay flowers by

London-based Chilean artist Fernando Casasempere entitled 'out of Sync'. aFP

HoLLYwooD: actors Jon Hamm, January Jones and Jennifer

westfeldt arrive at the Premiere of ‘Mad Men’ Season 5. aFP

KIeV: a modeldisplays a creationby popular fashiondesigner tatunaNiikolaishvili duringUkrainian fashionWeek. AFp

PDF E-Paper LHR_Layout 1 3/17/2012 3:11 AM Page 14

NeW DeLHI: actress Kareena Kapoor, who isbusy shooting for Madhur Bhandarkar’s‘Heroine’, says she will get married to beauSaif ali Khan by the end of the year. reportssuggested that the Bollywood couple wasplanning to tie the knot after therelease of Saif`s home production‘agent Vinod’ this March butKareena says they are in norush. "I will get marriedhopefully by the end of thisyear... because I am busydoing `Heroine` and I have tofinish the film first. we arenot yet going toannounce the date. weare in no such rush butit will happen this year,"said Kareena. The 31-year-old, who has beendating Saif since 2007,says she does notconsider herself as a "star"but just "a simple girl inlove"."I am actually just asimple girl in love whose

dreams have come true. ever since I was nine,I would see Karisma (sister) rehearse and Iwould go backstage and repeat the samethings. I always wanted to act and I knownothing other than acting. I have no degree

and so I hope to act forever," she said.Kareena has done a variety of role in

her career spanning over a decade.She has given hits like ‘Jab we Met’,

‘3 Idiots’, ‘omkara’, ‘Bodyguard’and ‘ra.one’. Talking about herfilm ‘Heroine’ with Bhandarkar,Kareena said, "It`s turning outpretty well... It`s an exciting

journey of an actress, sheis slightly schizophrenicand she has got thesedifferent mood swingsit`s very difficult for meto do...But I am gladthere is a role like this. Itis fun not to standbehind Shahrukh andSalman in a movie butprove yourself as anactor." aGeNcIeS

15

LOS ANGELEScBS

FAsHiOn's versionof the Oscars, theCouncil of Fash-ion designers ofAmerica awards,

have decided to honor actorJohnny depp and his quirkysense of style, awarding himthe fashion icon award at itsannual gala in June. CFdApresident diane von Fursten-berg and CeO steven Kolb an-nounced details of the awardsceremony.the nominees forwomen’swear designer of theyear, the biggest prize, areAshley and Mary-Kate Olsenfor the row, Jack McColloughand Lazaro Hernandez forProenzaschouler, and Marc

Jacobs.top contenders inmenswear are Billy reid, Pa-trikervell and simon spurr,and for the best in accessorydesign they are AlexanderWang, reed Krakoff and Mc-Collough and Hernandez.tommy Hilfiger is to receive alifetime achievement award.

lady gaga interview Overload: Singer to quit talks with press

LONDONaGeNcIeS

As part of her rapid rise to super-stardom, Lady Gaga has alwayschatted with media outlets, di-vulging secrets from her past andspeaking candidly to the pressabout her personal life. But now,'the Fame Monster' has had itwith the 'Paparazzi,' announcingplans to go into self-imposedexile following the airing of herspecial tV interview on 'Oprah'snext Chapter.' Apparently, theoverexposed star is desperate toregain some privacy. in a pre-view of her chat with Oprah --which takes place in Gaga'schildhood home and includesmother Cynthia Ger-manotta -- MotherMonster insistsher Little Mon-sters won’tbe seeing orhearing muchfrom herwhen it comes

to interviews."Other than this in-terview, Oprah, i do not intend tospeak to anyone for a very longtime," the singer told the mediamogul. "no press, no television,if my mom calls and says, 'didyou hear about ..i shut it all off. idon't read a damn thing."Gagahas in the past openly shared herpast struggles with bullying, bu-limia, drugs and bad boyfriendswith the public. the one aspect ofher personal life she remainstight-lipped about is her currentromantic relationship with actortaylor Kinney, and perhaps it'sthat romance that she hopes toprotect by stepping out of thepublic eye.But Gaga's indefinitebreak from speaking with media

outlets doesn't mean thepop star will disap-

pear from thescene completely.

the performer is setto kick off herBorn this

Way Ball worldtour in April.

eva Longoria celebrates37th birthday

LOS ANGELESaGeNcIeS

eva Longoriacelebratedher 37thbirthday at Cutrestaurant in BeverlyHillswithclose palswho cameout tohonourher.Longoriahas just splitfromboyfriendeduardo Cruz, but that didn't keep herfrom enjoying a night with friends forthe dinner party."she had a littlecelebratory birthday dinner," Peoplemagazine quoted a source assaying.Her birthday dinner was aseven person event included BFFMario Lopez and his fiancée CourtneyMazza, along with KevinConnolly."she had a great time andwas really enjoying herself," the sourceadded.As for her breakup, the insidersays she is "doing okay"."the split issomething that happened, and she'smoving on and focusing on her workright now," the source said.

Johnny Depp named

fashion iconof the year

Russell Brand bailed after being arrested

NEW ORLEANSSaGeNcIeS

russell Brandwas arrestedfor criminaldamage afterpolice in theUs issued awarrant forhim.thecomedian andactor wasdetained "without incident" in newOrleans and released shortlyafterwards after posting bail.Policeissued a warrant on a charge ofcriminal damage to property valued at$700. A photographer has accused the36-year-old of grabbing hissmartphone and throwing it through awindow. Brand is in new Orleansworking on a film.the star split fromhis wife Katy Perry last year after 14months of marriage. russell Brandwas also arrested at an airport in LosAngeles in 2010 over an alleged attackon a photographer. Last year he wasdeported from Japan while travellingwith Katy Perry on the Asian leg of herCalifornia dreams tour.

Zareen Khan to replace Katrina Kaif in‘Partner 2’

LoS aNGeLeS: Jennifer Lopez may have moved onquickly after her split from Marc anthony and starteddating Casper Smart, but her manager wants thesuperstar to take things more slowly. Benny Medinawishes she had given herself more time beforegetting into a new relationship."The thing that Ialways sort of wished is that she would give herselftime to just naturally meet someone, instead ofhaving obsessive guys pursue her," People magazinequoted him as telling Vogue."The ease which thatobsession becomes a relationship I think sometimesworks against her ability to have a real meaningfulrelationship," he added.Lopezdemonstrated in a JanuaryTweet that she isn't affectedby the 18-year gap betweenher and Smart, 24."we talkedabout it and she was like, 'It'snot even the age, Benny, It'sactually that I just came out ofa relationship where I felt like Iwas kind of not getting what Ineeded. and I'm open!'" Medinasaid.even though Medinawishes Lopez would go aboutgetting into relationshipsdifferently, he believes thatSmart isn't just some short-term rebound romance.“Jennifer never half doesanything.when she commits toanything in her work, her lifeor her relationships, she is init," the manager said. aGeNcIeS

JLo's manager wishes she would get into relationships slowly

i will get marriedby the end of this year: Kareena Kapoor

LOS ANGELESaBc

Mirror, mirror on the wall,who’s the fairest of them all?to millions of moviegoers, it’sJulia roberts. the ‘PrettyWoman’ actress who also cap-tivated viewers in her Oscar-winning role as erinBrockovich is consideredAmerica’s sweetheart, but inher new role, she’s far fromsweet.roberts is playing theevil queen in ‘Mirror, Mirror,’an all-new version of the clas-sic snow White fairy tale. in aninterview, roberts told allabout her new role.“My ver-sion of the evil queen is just alunatic, which is fun,” shesaid.Lilly Collins plays snowWhite, and Armie Hammerportrays Prince Charming, inthe film directed by tarsemsingh.roberts said Hammer istruly charming.“i think hebrought a lot of great humor tothat part,” she said. Off screen,roberts is a devoted mother ofthree, and wife to cinematog-rapher danny Moder.the cou-ple will celebrate their 10th

wedding anniversary thisyear.“it’s so good,” she said ofthe milestone.roberts has herreal-life love affair with Moder,but she now has a bit of a girlcrush on singing sensationAdele, adding, “my oldest sonhas a crush on her too.”“shebrings people in,” roberts saidof the singer. “it’s like hersharing is so open and genuineand seems to come from thisreally beautiful place that at-tracts us all to her.”

‘the Wolf of Wall Street’: DiCaprio, Scorseseteam up for fifth time

LOS ANGELESaGeNcIeS

Martin scorsese may be chal-lenging dwayne ‘the rock’Johnson's title for Busiest Manin Hollywood. According todeadline.com, scorsese is setto team up with his currentmale muse, Leonardo di-Caprio, on ‘the Wolf of Wallstreet.’ the film is based on thememoir by Jordan Belfort, aformer stock broker who wroteabout his successes, hard par-tying and eventual convictionfor security fraud and moneylaundering. ‘Wolf’ will be thefifth collaboration for Martyand Leo, who previously

worked together on ‘shutter is-land,’‘the departed,’‘Gangs ofnew York’ and ‘the Aviator.’For those keeping count, thisfilm is the fourth project scors-ese has in the works. in addi-tion to ‘Wolf,’ Marty is set todirect crime drama ‘the snow-man,’ based on the Jo nesbobook; the period piece ‘si-lence,’ starring daniel-dayLewis; and a Frank sinatrabiopic.Martin scorsese is cur-rently coming off a Best direc-tor Golden Globe for his workon 2011's ‘Hugo.’‘the Wolf ofWall street,’ written by ‘Board-walk empire’ and ‘soprano’veteran terrence Winter, cur-rently has no release date.

Julia roberts talks new movie and marriage

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Saturday, 17 March, 2012

16 Foreign News

JERUSALEMafp

JUst one rocket was fired fromGaza into israel during the first12 hours of Friday, the militarysaid, as a fledgling truce in andaround the Palestinian territory

firmed up. “Only one rocket has been firedat israel since midnight (2200 GMt) onthursday, an army spokeswoman told AFPearly on Friday afternoon.

“it hit an uninhabited area of thenorthwestern negev” desert, she added.schools in several areas of southern israel,including the main negev city of Beershevaand the Mediterranean coastal towns ofAshdod and Ashkelon, remained close as aprecaution, however, public radio re-ported. On thursday, militants fired five

rockets from Gaza but none caused any ca-sualties. israeli assault helicopters openedfire on the northern Gaza strip in re-sponse, a Palestinian security source said,although there was no confirmation fromthe israeli military.

israel and the islamic Jihad group,which was responsible for much of the rocketfire during a major upsurge in cross-borderviolence though last weekend, agreed ontuesday to begin observing an egyptian-bro-kered truce. israeli army spokeswoman Avi-tal Leibovich told reporters on thursday thatsince the violence erupted last Friday, Pales-tinians had fired more than 310 rockets at is-rael of which “170 rockets or so” struck theJewish state. several fell short inside Gazaand 60 were destroyed by the iron domeanti-missile system. A chain of israeli airstrikes and Palestinian rocket salvoes started

when israel killed Zuhair al-Qaisi, head ofthe radical Gaza-based Popular resistanceCommittees, prompting other militantgroups to fire rockets over the border. the

army said Qaisi had planned a deadly attacklast August — when militants sneaked acrossthe border from the sinai Peninsula andkilled eight israelis — and accused him of

planning a repeat attack “in the comingdays.” israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ne-tanyahu has warned the truce will be short-lived if the rocket fire continues.

PARISafp

With just over a month to go Fridaybefore the first round of France’spresidential vote, right-wingincumbent nicolas sarkozy is closingthe gap with socialist frontrunnerFrancois Hollande.

As polls showed sarkozy cuttinghis rival’s lead after several weeks ofcampaigning and a swerve to the right,Hollande was also facing a new threaton his left flank from firebrand LeftFront candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.the campaign was to move into a newphase Friday with the deadline at 1700GMt for would-be candidates to handin the 500 signatures from localmayors and other elected officials thatthey need to be registered to run.

the key players were all expectedto reach the target but some fringecandidates, including conservativeformer prime minister dominique deVillepin, were facing the prospect offailing to make the cut. Keen to regainmomentum, Hollande made a three-hour appearance on France 2 public

television thursday night, in a movenewspaper Liberation described as“an attempt to give his campaign asecond wind”.

Hollande sought to cement hisleft-wing credentials, vowing to boosttaxes on the rich and not backing

down on his plan to introduce a 75-percent tax rate on incomes above onemillion euros ($1.3 million). in theface of calls from sarkozy for Franceto tighten immigration rules,Hollande said he would set up aspecial brigade to fight people-smugglers and hold annual debates inparliament to set the number ofimmigrants allowed in. Hollandeexpressed confidence in his campaigndespite his recent trouble in the polls.

“i have not strayed from the line iset since the beginning: coherence,consistency and confidence,” he said,denouncing his opponents for runningan “excessive” and “vulgar” campaign.sarkozy, an experienced andaggressive campaigner, has stepped uphis attacks and moved to consolidatehis hold on the right with vows to betough on immigration and threats topull France from europe’s visa-freezone. A poll this week for the first timeshowed sarkozy pulling slightly aheadof Hollande and the latest poll, a CsAstudy released Wednesday, showedthem equal with 28 percent support inthe first round to be held on April 22.

al-Qaeda suspects kidnap Swiss woman

ADENafp

suspected Al-Qaeda militants havekidnapped a swiss woman and are holdingher in the southeastern province of shabwa, aprovincial chief and a security official toldAFP on Friday. “A swiss woman wasabducted in Hodeida (on the red sea coast)by armed men who moved her to shabwaprovince,” the official told AFP on conditionof anonymity. “According to our information,Al-Qaeda is responsible for the abduction,”he added. According to the official, thekidnappers are “demanding the release oftwo Al-Qaeda militants detained in Hodeida.”He gave no further details. A security officialalso blamed Al-Qaeda for the abduction. “thekidnapping bears the hallmark of Al-Qaeda,”he told AFP. According to him, only a well-organised group like Al-Qaeda could haveundertaken such an operation, whichinvolved abducting the woman in Hodeidaand then moving her across three provincesto shabwa. shabwa is a stronghold ofloyalists of the jihadists’ local affiliate Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, whosemilitants fight under the banner of Partisansof sharia (islamic law). the swiss foreignministry confirmed that a swiss national wasabducted in Yemen, in a statement releasedon Friday. the identity of the victim was notrevealed but the swiss foreign ministry saidthey were informed of the abduction lateWednesday and immediately made contactwith competent authorities in Yemen. Lastyear, switzerland urged its citizens in Yemento leave the country.

indonesian 8-year-old to kicksmoking habit

JAKARTAafp

An eight-year-old indonesian boy whosmokes more than a pack of cigarettes a daywill undergo a month of therapy to kick hisfour-year habit, a child welfare official saidFriday. indonesia’s Child ProtectionCommission chairman Arist Merdeka siraitsaid the boy, ilham, who smokes around 25cigarettes a day, needed “emergency help”as his addiction had reached “alert level”,affecting his behaviour. “You can see adramatic change of behaviour when hedoesn’t have a cigarette for a while. Hebecomes emotionally aggressive anduncontrollable. He acts like he’s possessedby evil spirits,” sirait told AFP. the boy’sfather Agan Umar said his son wouldbecome enraged and “smash glass windowsor whatever’s around” if he is not constantlygiven cigarettes. “i hope the therapy worksso my son can go back to school and live anormal life like the other kids,” Umar said.the boy will leave his village in sukabumi inwestern Java on Monday to start receivingintensive specialist care in the capitalJakarta, sirait said.

KafR QaDDUM: Israeli soldiers wearing gas masks walk through black smoke rising from a rubber tyre during clashes with palestinian protesters at a demonstration

against the expropriation of palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kafr Qaddum, near Nablus on friday. aFP

Lone rocket hits Israel as Gaza truce firms up

Sarkozy closes gap as Franceelection campaign heats up

russians enragedafter film smearsprotest rallies

MOSCOWafp

Participants in russia’s protest movementagainst Vladimir Putin on Friday expressedfury at a film aired on a federal channel,claiming it used false evidence and smeareddemonstrators. the film, called “Anatomy ofa Protest” aired late thursday on the ntVchannel, one of russia’s popular networksbroadcast nationwide, claiming theopposition gave people money and biscuitsto attend rallies and waged wars on theinternet. Combining jerky secret-camerafootage, washed-out faces of some of thespeakers and an ominous narrative, the 36-minute film also claimed the opposition isafter a bloody revolution without popularsupport. “this film is not the first nor thelast,” said head of the liberal party Yablokosergei Mitrokhin. “it’s in the style of puresoviet propaganda, of totalitarianpropaganda.” ntV — nominally private butowned by the media arm of state gas giantGazprom — has previously made similarspecials about the opposition, claiming theywere foreign spies. “it will have an effect on acertain part of the population that has noother source of information,” Mitrokhin toldAFP, alleging that the film was made on“direct orders of the Kremlin.”

GAZA CITY: the Gaza-basedmilitant group islamic Jihadhas weapons that can reachtel Aviv, a member of thegroup’s armed wing the QudsBrigades has told AFP in aninterview. the Quds Brigadesfired most of the rockets thathit israel in the past week’sfour-day conflict between

Gaza militants and the Jewishstate. A member of the armedwing, who goes by the nom deguerre Abu ibrahim, said thegroup was ready to expand thereach of its rocket fire beyondthe israeli town of Ashdod,which lies some 35 kilometres(20 miles) outside Gaza. “ifthe occupation targets any

leader of any Palestiniangroup whatsoever or anycitizen, the Brigades willrespond with force andexpand the reach of theresponse beyond Ashdod,” hetold AFP. “the enemy is awareof the range that the Brigadesrockets can reach,” he said,adding that the Quds Brigades

possessed “many thousands”of rockets. islamic Jihad tookthe lead in attacking israelduring the recentconfrontation, which began onMarch 9 with israel’sassassination of thecommander of the Popularresistance Committeesmilitant group. aFP

islamic Jihad rockets can hit Tel Aviv: armed wing

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Foreign News 17Saturday, 17 March, 2012

DAMASCUSafp

Anti-reGiMe protesterscalled on Friday for foreignmilitary intervention insyria, as Un-Arab Leagueenvoy Kofi Annan prepared

to brief a divided Un security Council onhis peace efforts.

Ahead of Un participation in a syr-ian-led humanitarian mission to protestcities at the weekend, Annan was to givea videoconference briefing to the securityCouncil from Geneva at 1400 GMt on histalks with Assad in damascus. Gulf Arabstates, meanwhile, said they were follow-ing riyadh’s lead in closing their damas-cus embassies in protest at the violence,which monitors said thursday on the firstanniversary of its start has cost more than

9,100 lives. Activists called on their Face-book page, syrian revolution 2011, fornationwide protests after weekly Muslimprayers to demand “immediate militaryintervention by the Arabs and Muslims,followed by the rest of the world.”

“the people want military interven-tion, the Free syrian Army to be armed,and the fall of the regime,” several thou-sand demonstrators chanted in Aleppo innorthern syria, an activist at the scenetold AFP in Beirut by telephone. Otherprotests took place in the flashpointprovinces of Homs in central syria anddaraa, in the south. Huge rallies in sup-port of President Bashar al-Assad wereheld in damascus and other major citieson thursday to mark the anniversary. Butnumbers have fallen at anti-regimedemonstrations as security forces seizeprotest centres.

NEW DELHIafp

indian police said Friday that interpol“red corner” notices were being drawn upfor three men of iranian origin identifiedas suspects in an attack on an israelidiplomat in new delhi.

delhi police commissioner BrijeshKumar Gupta also revealed that investiga-tions had established a clear link betweenthe February 13 attack and a similar plottargeting israeli diplomats in Bangkok.Gupta said the red corner notices — tanta-mount to international arrest warrants —would be issued “in the next two days.” inthe attack last month, a hitman on a rented

motorbike attached a magnetic bomb tothe back of an israeli embassy car carryingthe 42-year-old diplomat as she went topick up her children from school.

the woman, also the wife of the de-fence attache at the embassy, was left ina critical condition with spinal injuriesand has since been flown to israel for fur-ther treatment. the three suspects werenamed as Houshang Ashfar irani, sayedAli sadr Mehdian and Abolghasemi Mo-hammad reza — all now believed to be iniran. Last week, a veteran indian free-lance journalist called syed MohammedKazmi who worked part-time for iran’snews agency irnA became the first per-son arrested in connection with the at-

tack. Gupta said interrogation of Kazmi,who denies involvement, had led to the“unravelling of the conspiracy.”

According to Gupta, Kazmi hadhelped the iranians come to new delhi tosecure information on the movement ofisraeli embassy officials and identify pos-sible routes where a bomb attack could becarried out. A scooter that police believewas used to scope out the israeli embassywas found at Kazmi’s house and Guptasaid foreign remittances of around$43,000, “for which there is no satisfac-tory explanation,” were uncovered in theaccounts of Kazmi and his wife. israel im-mediately accused iran of being behindthe delhi bombing which came on the

same day as another attempted attack onan israeli embassy car in Georgia. A daylater, thai police arrested two iranianmen in Bangkok who are suspected ofplanning a separate attack on israelidiplomats. One of them had his legsblown off as he attempted to hurl an ex-plosive device at police. A third iraniansuspect, Masoud sedaghatzadeh, was de-tained in Malaysia where authorities onthursday applied for a court order to ex-tradite him to thailand to face trial.Gupta said one of the three named for thedelhi attack, Houshang Ashfar irani, hadbeen in touch with sedaghatzadeh, “thusestablishing his links with the terrormodule in Bangkok.”

France huntscold-bloodedgunman whomurdered troops

MONTAUBANafp

French police were hunting Friday for ablack-clad gunman who calmly shot threesoldiers on a shopping street in broaddaylight, then turned one over and finishedhim off at close range. two of the victims —parachute sappers aged 26 and 24 — diedon the spot, in the southern garrison townof Montauban, and a third 28-year-oldfrom the same regiment was in criticalcondition following the attack. Askedwhether the shootings could have been anact of terrorism, defence Minister GerardLonguet said nothing had been ruled out,but the motive for the cold-bloodedmurders remained a complete mystery tostunned local officials. “Montauban doesnot understand. no one understands. theregiment does not understand. there’snever a valid explanation for murder, butwe’re dealing with a true killer,” said localmayor Brigitte Bareges. On thursday, ataround 2:10 pm (1310 GMt) threeuniformed soldiers from the 17thParachute engineering regiment, whichrecently served in Afghanistan, werestanding by a bank’s cash machine on amain street near their barracks. Most ofFrance’s elite airborne units are based inthe southwest region and have close tieswith their regimental towns. the soldierswere killed opposite their barracks, on astreet named after the renowned 1st shockBattalion. the killer, clad in a blackmotorcycle outfit and a helmet with a visor,got down from a powerful Yamaha t-Maxscooter and opened fire.

thai taxi driverreturns $410,000in gold to owner

BANGKOKafp

A thai taxi driver Friday returned 8.2 kilo-grams (18 pounds) of gold ornamentsworth around $410,000 to their ownerwho had left them in his car three days ago,police said. Bangkok cabbie saksri Ket-srikaew, 56, said he spent two days drivingaround Bangkok searching for the ownerbecause he had no contact number. He saidhe contacted community radio after helearned gold shop owner eakerat Kanok-wattana, 60, had filed a complaint with po-lice and the story of the missing gold hitlocal headlines. But police were not con-vinced he had a heart of gold. “His excusedoesn’t make sense if he intended to returnthe gold to its owner as he knew where theygot off,” case officer Lieutenant ColonelUdom sukprasert told AFP. “they arechecking and counting the gold now.” eak-erat, who owns a gold shop in the city ofUbon ratchathani, came to Bangkok withhis wife to do a gold trade in Chinatownand got a taxi on tuesday evening to thenorthern outskirts of Bangkok. But he laterrealised he had left his bag full of gold or-naments in the taxi and offered a rewardfor their return.

Nigeria and islamistgroup Boko Haramin indirect talks

KANOafp

nigeria’s government and islamist groupBoko Haram have been in indirect talks toend deadly violence blamed on theextremists, two sources familiar with thediscussions said Friday. “there have beenpreliminary talks between a Boko Haram-appointed intermediary,” a senior securityofficial told AFP on condition ofanonymity, adding that Boko Haram hasset out terms for a temporary ceasefire. Adiplomatic source said there have beencontacts between nigeria’s government andBoko Haram through intermediaries. thesecurity official said Boko Haram hasproposed a three-month truce if all of itsdetained members are released and if thegovernment halts any further arrests. Hesaid the government was looking at theproposal. Government officials eitherdeclined comment on the information orcould not be reached. Boko Haram hasbeen blamed for scores of shootings andbomb blasts, mostly in northern nigeria,which have killed more than 1,000 peoplesince 2009. it claimed responsibility for anAugust suicide attack at the Unheadquarters in the capital Abuja whichkilled 25 people and for coordinatedbombings and shootings in nigeria’ssecond city of Kano on January 20 whichleft 185 people dead — its deadliest assaultyet. the group had initially claimed to befighting for the creation of an islamic statein northern nigeria, but its aims andstructure have since become less clear,while its attacks have grown increasinglydeadly and sophisticated.

N Korea says itwill launch long-range rocket

SEOULafp

north Korea announced Friday it would launcha rocket carrying a satellite next month, just 16days after agreeing to suspend long-rangemissile tests in return for massive Us food aid.the United states, Japan and south Koreacondemned the plan and said it would breach aUnited nations ban imposed after previouslaunches. Blast-off will be between April 12 and16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth offounding leader Kim il-sung, the communiststate’s official news agency and state televisionsaid. the Us state department called theproposed launch “highly provocative” and athreat to regional security. it would also beinconsistent with the announced missile testmoratorium, spokeswoman Victoria nulandsaid in a statement. the surprise February 29deal, under which Pyongyang also promised tofreeze its uranium enrichment plant, had raisedhopes of eased tensions under the new regimeheaded by Kim Jong-Un. But one analyst saidFriday’s announcement effectively killed off theagreement, under which the Us was to give thehungry and impoverished nation 240,000tonnes of food over a year.

aNtaKYa: a Syrian refugee goes about his daily life at the Reyhanli refugee camp on friday. aFP

Syria protesters urge military intervention

BAGHDAD: Premier nuri al-Maliki in-sisted Friday that all items transportedthrough iraq to syria were humanitariangoods after a Us newspaper reported iranwas moving weapons to syria via iraqi airspace. “iraq does not allow its land or itsskies to be a passage for weapons in anydirection, and from any source,” Malikisaid in a statement released by his office.He said shipments going through iraqwere “only carrying humanitarian goods,not weapons.” Maliki said iraq was“pushing towards finding a political solu-tion to the syrian situation... (and) toavoid more bloodshed.” the Washingtontimes reported on thursday that iraq re-fused “several” Us requests to stop iran-

ian cargo flights bound for syria, citing anunnamed Us official. the newspaper saidiraq was made aware of intelligence ob-tained through intercepted air trafficcommunications that the planes weretransporting weapons, and added the Usrequested iraq either stop the flights orallow them to be inspected. the reportcomes just weeks before Baghdad is dueto host an Arab League summit on March29, with syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s bloody year-long crackdown ondomestic opponents expected to be highon the agenda. While iraq has largelyshied away from imposing punitive meas-ures against syria, Maliki has called for“change” and “free elections” there. aFP

iraq PM insists iran flights to Syria carrying aid

india seeks interpol warrants for iranians

PDF E-Paper LHR_Layout 1 3/17/2012 3:12 AM Page 17

DHAKAafp

indiAn batting superstar sachin tendulkar on Friday became the firstcricketer in history to score 100 international centuries, reachinga new record in his glittering two-decade career. ten-dulkar, who turns 39 next month, achieved the

feat with a century in a one-dayAsia Cup match againstBangladesh at the sher-e-Bangla stadium in dhaka,ending a nervous waitof more than a yearfor millions of fans.the Mumbai bats-man, who has com-piled more test andone-day runs than anyonein history, reached the mile-stone with a single and marked themoment with a modest glance to thesky while pointing to the indian flag on hishelmet. tendulkar, already a legend of themodern era and one of the greats of all time,made 114 off 147 balls with 12 fours and a six,before he was caught behind off seamerMashrafe Mortaza in the 47th over. "it has notsunk in yet, but i have definitely lost 50 kilograms,"he told the neo Cricket channel, who are broadcastingthe Asia Cup matches. "i was not thinking about the mile-stone. the media started all this. in the restaurant, room service, everyonewas talking about the 100th hundred." tendulkar is the most capped player in thehistory of the game with 188 test and 462 one-day appearances since making hisdebut as a teenager against Pakistan in Karachi in november, 1989. He has scored49 one-day hundreds and 51 centuries in test matches. the father-of two, knownvariously as the "Little Master" or "Bombay Blaster", is worshipped as a demi-godin his cricket-crazy country and has barely put a foot wrong since he burst on theworld stage in 1989, aged 16. "i join the nation in congratulating sachin tendulkaron his making history -- a hundred centuries. He has made india proud," indianPrime Minister Manmohan singh said as the country celebrated. He scored his99th ton during a World Cup match against south Africa in nagpur on March 12last year, but failed to add to the tally on subsequent tours of england and Aus-tralia and a home series against the West indies. tendulkar said the long wait forthe milestone was a difficult period for him. "this has been a tough phase for me,"he said. "i started off the season batting reasonably well, but i was luckless. itdoes not matter how many hundreds you have, you still have to grind it out. "thiswas difficult to understand because nobody talked about my 99 hundreds." Askedif he had any advice for youngsters, tendulkar said: "enjoy the game and chaseyour dreams. i waited for 22 years to realise a dream... that of winning the WorldCup." international Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat also laudedtendulkar's achievement alongside Bollywood stars, fellow professionals and mil-lions of indians. "On behalf of every cricket fan around the globe, i congratulatesachin on becoming the first person to score 100 centuries for his country,"Lorgat said in a statement. "this is indeed a magnificent feat and not likely tobe easily emulated." indian cricket chief narayanaswamy srinivasan said ten-dulkar "strode cricketing arenas the world over like a colossus" ever since hisdebut in 1989. "He has broken old records and set new benchmarks. He hasbeen an inspiration to billions, and an ornament to the sport," srinivasan said.

Words of praise pour in for sachin The cenTurion

Saturday, 17 March, 2012

Sharapova outlastsiron woman Kirilenko

Page 21

Tendulkar reaches 100th century at lastfactfILe

Factfile on India's Sachin Tendulkar who onFriday became the first batsman to score 100international centuries:Date of BIRtH: april 24, 1973 (age: 38 years)HeIGHt: 5 feet, 5 inches (165.1 centimetres)teSt DeBUt: v Pakistan, Karachi, nov 15, 1989oNe-DaY DeBUt: v Pakistan, Gujranwala, Dec 18, 1989t20 DeBUt: v Sa, Johannesburg, Dec 1, 2006

caReeRteStS: Matches 188, runs 15,470, Highest 248 notout, average 55.44, Centuries 51, Half-centuries 65

oNe-DaYeRS: Matches 462, runs 18,374, Highest 200not out, avg 44.92, Centuries 49, Half-centuries 95tWeNtY20: Match 1, runs 10, average 10.00

WoRLD RecoRDSn Most Test runs and centuriesn Most one-day runs and centuriesn Most world Cup runs (2,278)n Most appearances in Tests and oDIsn 1,000 or more Test runs in a calendar year

six times: 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2010n 1,000 or more one-day runs in a calendar

year seven times: 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998,2000, 2003 and 2007

Top century-makers in history afterSachin Tendulkar of India became thefirst batsman to score 100international hundreds on Friday.ceNtURY/NaMe/teStSoNe-DaYeRS tWeNtY20

Cen name T oD T20100 Tendulkar 51 49 -71 Ponting 41 30 -59 Kallis 42 17 -53 Brian Lara 34 19 -48 rahul Dravid 36 12 -45 Jayawardene 29 15 142 Jayasuriya 14 28 -41 Sangakkara 28 13 -40 Hayden 30 10 -39 Yousuf 24 15 -38 M waugh 20 18 -38 Ganguly 16 22 -

(Tendulkar, Ponting, Kallis,Jayawardene and Sangakkara are

the only ones in the list stillplaying international cricket.)

T endu l kar ’ s

5mosTmemora b l e

c e n T u r i e sSachin Tendulkar's five most memorablecenturies in chronological order after he becamethe first batsman to score 100 internationalhundreds on Friday:n 119 Not oUt, eNGLaND V INDIa teSt

MatcH, oLD tRaffoRD, aUGUSt 1990.Tendulkar himself regards his first Test century asone of his best.n 114, aUStRaLIa V INDIa teSt

MatcH, peRtH, feBRUaRY 1992.The 19-year-old Tendulkar mastered the fast Perthwicket to hit a brilliant 114 against an all-out paceattack of Craig McDermott, Merv Hughes, Paulreiffel and Mike whitney.n 155 Not oUt, INDIa V aUStRaLIa

teSt MatcH, cHeNNaI, MaRcH 1998.India, who trailed by 71 runs in the first innings,rode on Tendulkar's brilliant unbeaten 155 in thesecond knock to set australia a target of 348 runsand win the match by 179 runs. n 103 Not oUt INDIa V eNGLaND teSt

MatcH, cHeNNaI, DeceMBeR 2008.In one of the most emotional moments in Indiancricket, Tendulkar engineered a remarkable winover england two weeks after his home city ofMumbai was ravaged by the brutal november 26terrorist attack.Set 387 for victory on the fourth afternoon, Indiaachieved the highest run chase on home soil andthe fifth highest in history as Tendulkar ensuredthat Virender Sehwag's bright start of 83 off 68balls was not wasted.n 200 Not oUt, INDIa V SoUtH afRIca

oNe-DaYeR, GWaLIoR, feBRUaRY 24, 2010.The first and only double-century in the history ofmen's limited-overs international cricket fittinglycame from the most prolific batsman in the game.

Leading centurymakers

HAMILTONafp

new Zealand's batting woes againstsouth Africa continued as they slumpedto 65 for four at stumps on day two ofthe second test in Hamilton, squander-ing a fine effort with the ball.

the Black Caps, bowled out for 185 onthe opening day, looked to have clawedtheir way back into contention when a five-wicket haul from Mark Gillespie helped re-strict the Proteas' first innings lead to 68.

But new Zealand made a disastrousstart to the second innings, reduced toseven for three in the first five overs asopeners rob nicol (1) and Martin Guptill(1) failed again and Brendon McCullumwent for five. skipper ross taylor wasagain called on to launch a rescue missionmanaging a 57-run partnership with KaneWilliamson before falling lbw to dale steynfor 17 in the second last over of the day.

steyn took two for 10 and Vernon Phi-lander two for 21 as new Zealand endedthe day still three runs short of southAfrica's first innings total of 253, facing amammoth task to get back into the match.

Kane Williamson was unbeaten on41 for the Black Caps, alongside danielVettori, who was yet to score. southAfrica started the day at 27 for two andendured a torrid spell from Gillespie,struggling at 133 for six in the first hourbefore AB de Villiers and the lower order

steadied the innings. de Villiers' gritty83 and a valuable unbeaten 35-runcameo from Morne Morkel helped southAfrica overhaul new Zealand's total be-fore the tourists were bowled out for 253at tea. Gillespie, recalled into a re-vamped new Zealand attack after more

than three years in the test wilderness,finished the innings with five for 59.south Africa added 35 to their overnighttotal before he dismissed Hashim Amlafor 16, the batsman attempting to guidethe ball through backward point butsending a low catch to Williamson.

Cook strikes formin SL tour opener

COLOMBOafp

Alastair Cook hammered an unbeaten 163on the second day of england's three-daypractice match against sri Lanka Board Xiin Colombo on Friday. the left-handedopener defied the stifling heat and humid-ity for six hours to strike early form aheadof the two-test series against sri Lankastarting in Galle on March 26. the touristsended the day at 303-8, a lead of 134 overthe home team's first innings total of 169,giving themselves a good chance to forcean outright win on the last day. skipperAndrew strauss hit 40 in an opening standof 89 with Cook, while Kevin Pietersenmade a fluent 39 with five boundaries. Butthere was little joy for the other batsmenas Jonathan trott fell for 16 and raviBopara made 12, while ian Bell and MattPrior failed to score. the first test at theGalle international stadium will be fol-lowed by the second test at the P. saraOval in Colombo from April 3.BRIEF SCORES:SRI LANKA BOARD XI 1ST INNINGS:169 (Ashen silva 66, sachithra serasinghe31, James Anderson 4-19, Monty Panesar5-37, steven Finn 1-33).ENGLAND 1ST INNINGS: 303-8(Alastair Cook 163 not out, Andrewstrauss 40, Malinga Bandara 3-58).

South Africa in control of New Zealand Test

NeW ZeaLaND 1st innings 185 (B.Mccullum 61, R. taylor 44,

M. Gillespie 27; philander 4-70, Steyn 3-49)

SoUtH afRIca 1st innings (overnight 27 for two)

G. Smith c van Wyk b Martin 13

a. petersen lbw b Gillespie 29

D. Steyn c van Wyk b Martin 4

H. amla c Williamson b Gillespie 16

J. Kallis c van Wyk b Gillespie 6

aB de Villiers b Vettori 83

J. Rudolph c van Wyk b Gillespie 1

M. Boucher b Gillespie 24

V. philander b Bracewell 14

M. Morkel not out 35

I. tahir c Gillespie b Williamson 16

eXtRaS (b1, lb9, w1, nb1) 12

totaL (all out: 77.3 overs) 253

fall of wickets: 1-14 (Smith) 2-18 (Steyn) 3-63 (amla), 4-69

(Kallis), 5-84 (petersen), 6-88 (Rudolph), 7-151 (Boucher), 8-

185 (philander), 9-219 (de Villiers), 10-253 (tahir)

BoWLING: Martin 16-6-38-2, Bracewell 18-7-50-1, Gillespie 15-

2-59-5, Vettori 19-3-49-1, arnel 9-2-46-0, Williamson 0.3-0-1-1

NeW ZeaLaND 2nd innings

R. Nicol b philander 1

M. Guptill c amla b Steyn 1

B. Mccullum lbw b philander 5

R. taylor lbw b Steyn 17

K. Williamson not out 41

D. Vettori not out 0

eXtRaS 0

totaL (4 wickets; 31 overs) 65

fall of wickets: 1-1 (Nicol), 2-7 (Mccullum), 3-7 (Guptill), 4-64

(taylor)

BoWLING: Steyn 9-4-10-2, philander 7-1-21-2, Morkel 7-4-12-

0, tahir 8-2-22-0

toss: South africa

Series: the three-match series is level after a draw in the

first test

Umpires: Billy Doctrove (WIS), Richard Kettleborough (eNG)

tV umpire: aleem Dar (paK)

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)

ScoReBoaRD

HaMILTon: Dale Steyn of South africa celebrates a LBw decision on captain ross Taylorof new Zealand during day two of the second Test match at Seddon Park. aFP

PDF E-Paper LHR_Layout 1 3/17/2012 3:12 AM Page 18

Sports 19Saturday, 17 March, 2012

Colony Sugar,

Guard Group in

Challenge Polo final

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Colony sugar on Friday made its thirdfinal on trot when it beat Pessi in thelast league match of the Zong ChallengePolo Cup 2012 on Friday. Colony sugar, which won the PunjabCup and the national Polo Champi-onship, will now face Guard Group/Witribe in the main final on sunday hereat the Lahore Polo Club’s Aibak Ground.On the other hand Guard Group and Witribe thrashed Karachi Polo Club teamto try its luck in the final. saqib Khan Khakwani was the master ofColony sugar win with six of the 7-6 winwhile the seventh goal came from Hus-sain iftikhar. On their part, Pessi foughtquite well to start the match with adominant position and Ahmed Ali ti-wana and Ahmed nawaz tiwana gottheir team to early lead. But saqib tookcontrol of the game with four goals in-cluding a golden hit in the fifth chukker. in the second match of the day, GuardGroup taught polo lesson to KarachiClub 14-6½. Karachi managed just fourgoals in the field and have two and ahalf goal handicap.

WASHINGTONafp

British boxer Amir Khan, eager to avenge acontroversial loss to Lamont Peterson, isalready into the toughest training of his ca-reer for what he calls a must-win world titlerematch in May. the 25-year-old english-man will face Peterson on May 19 in LasVegas for the international Boxing Feder-ation and World Boxing Association light-welterweight titles after losing them to theAmerican last december in Washington.

"i believe i won the first fight. i wantthose titles back," Khan said. "this fightmeans so much to me. it's going to be ex-plosive." saying he is already into hislongest and most motivated training, Khanhas already started workouts in england,plans to conduct high-altitude training inthe Philippines and spend weeks at theHollywood gym of trainer Freddie roach."i like the attitude," roach said. "He hasbeen training for a month already in eng-land. Physically i think Lamont took morepunishment last time. that's why i thinkwe will have an easier time."

Once a homeless youth on the streetsof Washington, Peterson completed afairytale with a split decision triumph overKhan marred by referee Joe Cooper taking

a point from Khan in both the seventh and12th rounds for pushing. Peterson, 28,won 113-112 on two judges' scorecardswhile the other had Khan a 115-110 winner.Without the deductions, Khan would havekept the titles. "People still say i'm thechamp," Khan said. "At no time has he saidhe won the first fight. it's all about how you

come back from these fights and i alwayscome back stronger. "there aren't thatmany British world champions out thereand i'm going to be one again. i'm going tobe ready for everything he brings to thetable." Peterson, 30-1-1 with 15 knockouts,pondered other offers and was mentionedas a possible for for Filipino star Manny

Pacquiao but found fight fans wanted a re-match and that he still had something toprove against Khan. "We had other offersthat were interesting but everybodywanted to see a rematch," Peterson said."On the street, on twitter, comments iread, they really wanted that fight.

"i just want there to be no doubt i wonthat fight. i want to go out and prove i'mthe better fighter. i will definitely leave nodoubt come May 19." Khan, 26-2 with 18knockouts, wants to forget controversiesabout Cooper's calls and the handling of thescorecards during and after the first fight.

"i haven't gotten to the bottom of itand i don't want to. i want to put it all be-hind me," Khan said. "i just want to winthe next fight. i just want a fair fight and ipromise 100 percent that i will win." Khanhas other ideas than using his forearm andgoing to the ropes on how to deny Peter-son position inside. "His head kept com-ing in there. We're not going to be dealingwith that problem now because i'm goingto be hitting him," Khan said. "now iknow what to do and i'm not going tomake the same mistakes. When he comesinside, instead of pushing him away, i cantake a sidestep back. roach is working onstrategy adjustments after seeing more at-tacks than expected from Peterson.

Amir in toughest training for title rematch

DHAKAafp

BAnGLAdesH posted an upsetfive-wicket victory over indiain the Asia Cup one-day tour-nament in dhaka on Friday,

despite sachin tendulkar's 100th interna-tional century. Bangladesh achieved thestiff 290-run target with four balls tospare in the day-night match to keep alivetheir hopes of reaching the final.

tamim iqbal (70), nasir Hossain (54),Jahurul islam (53), shakib Al Hasan (49)and skipper Mushfiqur rahim (46 not out)were Bangladesh's batting stars, while in-dian paceman Praveen Kumar took threewickets. Pakistan have two wins in as manymatches, while india and Bangladesh haveone victory each after two games. sri Lankahave lost both of their matches.

earlier, tendulkar hammered a long-awaited 100th international century to liftindia to 289-5. the memorable momentcame in the 44th over when he turned left-arm spinner shakib Al Hasan to square-legfor a single to become the first batsman toscore a century of centuries. the celebra-

tions, however, were subdued as the mas-ter batsman removed his helmet, raised hisbat and looked at the sky, before being con-gratulated by non-striker suresh raina andBangladeshi fielders. tendulkar, who turns39 next month, already holds four majorbatting records -- maximum runs and cen-turies in both tests and one-day interna-tionals. timing and placement marked

tendulkar's 147-ball gem, studded withone six and 12 fours. He put on 148 for thesecond wicket with Virat Kohli (66) and 86for the third with raina (51). He was dis-missed in the 47th over, caught behindwhile attempting to drive pacemanMashrafe Mortaza and returned to thepavilion to a standing ovation from some20,000 fans at the sher-e-Bangla stadium.

Sachin’s 100th ton of no avail

LAHOREKHaWaJa peRVaIZ SaeeD

At the end of the first round of this three-day show, 6th Acquafina royal Palm na-tional Golf event at the character loadedpar 72 royal Palm Golf Course, the royalPalm team comprising sardar Murad,Omer salamat, shoaib Bokhari and Mo-hammed rehman demonstrated theiraggressive intent by managing to get ahold on the frontrunners position with animpressive team score of 230. thingswere made possible with some authorita-tive play by sardar Murad (gross 74),some ardent play by Mohammadrehman (gross 76) and a modest contri-bution of 80 by Omer salamat.

Another team that looks equally well-poised is Karachi Golf Club team who alsoaggregated a team score similar to thatachieved by royal Palm, made possible byan excellent 72 gross from Ali Hai, a gross77 by Asif Ahmed and Mansoor telis 81.the rawalpindi team comprising Ghaz-anfar Mehmood, idrees nisar tinkoo andKhalid Mehmood are placed at a teamscore of 241 followed by Gymkhana at242. Other teams are way behind.

Alongwith the team event is the com-petition for individual gross and in this sec-tion Ali Hai a leading amateur golf playerof Pakistan showed his class and played in-spired golf for a par round of 72, to becomelisted as the leader in gross section and, inparticular his regulation pars on 16 holesreflected streaks of brilliance. "i know", he

said, "i have to play well to remain ahead,there are other capable ones in the fieldand i have to show the edge that i have".two strokes behind Ali is sardar Muradwho was in tremendous form and attrib-uted success to continuous moral supportby his non playing captain AmirMehmood. Over the next two roundsthese two seasoned ones are likely to bechallenged by a talented youngster fromislamabad and Mohammed rehman ofroyal Palm. they are both placed at ascore of gross 76. Another competitor fromrawalpindi, Ghazanfar Mehmood is alsoat 76, with Asif Ahmed of Karachi at 77.

in the race for honors in the Chal-lenge shield event the talented one in theforefront is Hamid sharif of the host club.regarded as a hard working golferHamid managed to demonstrate his

skills with an impressive round of net 67thereby looking well placed in this event.He is likely to be challenged by sardarMurad who carded a net 69 and lies twostrokes behind Hamid. Other notablecontenders in the Challenge shield cate-gory are Babar Khokhar 70, Asif Ahmed71, danish Javed 71 and Omer Khokharnet 72. this event will conclude today.

in the challenge shield net eventwhich is due to conclude after tworounds today, the best one after the first18 holes is Omer Arshed (Multan) witha net score of 66 followed by saleemraza at net 67,Ahmed sarwar net 68,Mohammad Leghari net 68 and raheelikram net 69. the battle for honors inteam championship is very much fierceand the leading teams will put pressureon each other to stay as front runners.

royal Palm, Karachi frontrunnersin team trophy golf C’ship

Pak blind win2nd oDI to levelseries with India

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Pakistan won the second Odi in a thrillerand kept series alive by leveling it one-allagainst india at sPiC YMCA Chennai.Pakistan won the toss and asked india totake guard. Pakistan sent the half of indianbatting line to pavilion on just 90 runs butVenkatesh and Ajay reddy piled up 165runs partnership for the 6th wicket tookaway the initial advantage from Pakistan.india eventually posted a mammoth totalof 371 runs for 6 wickets in 40 overs.Venkatesh remained unbeaten on 121 runswhile Ajay reddy made 74 runs. idreessaleem took 3 wickets while Yasir took 1wicket. in reply, Pakistan started well butlost wickets in regular intervals. Muham-mad Jameel’s sparkling 120 runs on 64balls and Arslan Javed’s 52 runs kept Pak-istan’s hope alive. But they both fell inquick succession, leaving Pakistan 99 runsto win in less than 12 overs and only twowickets in hand. But Muhammad Fayyaz’selegant unbeaten 58 runs on 35 balls andZeeshan Abbasi’s supportive 32 runs en-abled Pakistan to win the match and tolevel the Odi series 1-1. they both added99 runs in the 9th wicket partnership.shekhar naik, Hitesh Patel and Ajayreddy took 2 wickets each. MuhammadJameel was named the Man of the match.the third and last Odi of the series will beplayed today (saturday) at the same venue.

Dharampura Sportsbeat Faran Sports

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

dharampura sports has moved inti the2nd round of 27th Mohammad YaseenAkhter Memorial event when they out-played Faran sports by 5 wickets playedat race Corse ground on Wednesday. ScoReS: Faran Sports 109. ahmed 27, Fawad 29.

Mohsin 3/15, Kashif 2/20, Haris 2/17, ashraf 1/10, Fa-

heem 1/4, alu din Butt 1/0. Dharampura Sports 110/5.

Kashif Shafi 39, M Imran 13, M Shareef 11, aLu din Butt

23(no). Ijaz 2/19, Fawad 2/17, Shabir 1/21.

Ju-Jitsu trialsKARACHI

Staff RepoRt

the Karachi City Ju-Jitsu Association(KCJJA) is holding open trials to selectthe Karachi Ju-Jitsu team for 15th sindhGame 2012 at Mirpurkhas.the KCJJA is holding trials on saturdayMarch 17 at Karachi Martial Arts CenterBlock # 14 F.B Area at 7pm and the se-lected Jujitsukas will undergo furthertraining at a camp start after the trials.

LonDon: US boxer Lamont Peterson (L) poses for photographs with British boxer amir Khanahead of their keenly-anticipated world title rematch. aFP

30 clubs of eastand north Zonemove to 2nd Phase

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

the 30 clubs of east and north Zone havemoved into the 2nd phase of LCCA CricketLeague. From east Zone 16 Clubs whilefrom north Zone 14 Clubs have marched. WINNeR teaMS: east Zone Clubs, Prince Club,

Tauseef Club, Mughalpura whites, Punjab club, Mus-

limabad Gym, Lahore Gym, Mughalpura Sports, aL-

hamra club, Fayaaz Memorial club, Shining club,

Mughalpura xI, Servis Club, Ghari Shaho Gym, rising

Star, Mughalpura Institute and aamir Memorial club.

north Zone clubs i.e, akhter abdul rehman Club, Chand

Memorial club, Muslim Gym, Mehboob Park gym, nayyar

Soch CLub, Ghulam Qadir Memorial club, ehsan Memo-

rial club, Shalimar Gym, Baqa Jillani club, ravi Gym, Vic-

torious Club, apallo club, Universal Club and Young

Muslim Gym. From west Zone matches are in progress.

INDIa:G. Gambhir b Shafiul 11S. tendulkar c Rahim b Mortaza 114V. Kohli b Razzak 66S. Raina c tamim b Mortaza 51MS Dhoni not out 21R. Sharma run out 4R. Jadeja not out 4eXtRaS (lb6, nb2, w10) 18totaL (for five wickets; 50 overs) 289fall of wickets: 1-25 (Gambhir), 2-173 (Kohli), 3-259 (Raina),4-259 (tendulkar), 5-267 (Sharma).BoWLING: Mortaza 10-1-44-2 (nb1, w1), Shafiul 5-0-24-1 (w1),Shahadat 10-0-81-0 (nb1, w2), Shakib 10-0-63-0 (w3), Razzak10-0-41-1 (w3), Mahmudullah 4-0-24-0, Nasir 1-0-6-0.BaNGLaDeSH:tamim Iqbal c Jadeja b Kumar 70Mohammad Nazimuddin c Sharma b Kumar 5Jahurul Islam c Sharma b Jadeja 53Nasir Hossain c Raina b Kumar 54Shakib al Hasan st Dhoni b ashwin 49Mushfiqur Rahim not out 46Mohammad Mahmudullah not out 4eXtRaS (lb7, nb2, w3) 12totaL (for five wickets; 49.2 overs) 293fall of wickets: 1-15 (Nazimuddin), 2-128 (Jahurul), 3-156(tamim), 4-224 (Shakib), 5-288 (Nasir).BoWLING: Kumar 10-0-56-3 (nb1), Irfan 9-0-61-0 (w1), Dinda5.2-1-38-0 (nb1), Raina 7-1-30-0, Sharma 2-0-13-0, ashwin 10-0-56-1 (w1), Jadeja 6-0-32-1 (w1).Result: Bangladesh win by five wicketsMan of the match: Shakib al Hasan (BaN), toss: BangladeshUmpires: Ian Gould (eNG) and paul Reiffel (aUS), tV umpire:Ruchira palliyaguruge (SRI), Match referee: David Boon (aUS)

ScoReBoaRD

DHaKa: Jahurul Islam bows after scoring a half century (50 runs) against India in the asia Cup. aFP

BANGLADESHHAMMER INDIA

PDF E-Paper LHR_Layout 1 3/17/2012 3:12 AM Page 19

Sports20Saturday, 17 March, 2012

IndIAn WellS: novakdjokovic of Serbia servesto nicolas Almagro ofSpain during their matchat the BnP Paribas Opentennis tournament. AFp

Sports FestivalCycle races today

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

the 22 kilometres and 66 km cycle races aspart of the concluding ceremony of thesports Board Punjab Festival will be held atthe ring road today with around 3000 cy-clists participation. the fun cycle race willstart at 10 AM while the main professionalrace of 66 km will be paddled off at 11 whilethe closing ceremony of the Punjab sportsFestival will be held at Hazoori Park at 5pm. Chief Minister Punjab Mian shahbazsharif will be the chief guest to distributecash prizes amounting millions among thewinners of all the final events. the chair-man sports festival Hamza shahbaz, chair-man organizing committee rana Mashoodand dG sports Punjab Usman Anwar alongwith other VViP's, MPA's and MnA's willattend the historical closing ceremony. thePunjab sports Festival started from Janu-ary 23 at union council level and continuedtill inter divisional level final phase. thedepartments, bar associations, press clubs,special persons and veterans matches in-cluding marathon and family fun race werealso the part of this mega sports event. thelast event of the festival, the cycling com-petitions will be held today (March 17)starting from Old ravi exchange and fin-ishing at the same point while a numberof audience will witness this event.

PIa, wapda easeto wins in oDI Cup

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

PiA and Wapda eased to wins against theirrivals in the fifth round matches of the na-tional One day Cup 2011-12 division-i onFriday. PiA got three wickets win over nBPat the Gaddafi stadium while Wapda de-feated ZtBL by two wickets at the LCCAground. in other matches of the Cup sialkot,islamabad and Faisalabad got to victories. ScoReS: Group a, national Bank 230-7 in 50 overs(Khurram Manzoor 121, 142 balls, 10 x4s, 1 x6s, Fawadalam 67, 88 balls, 3 x4s, najaf Shah 2-33, anwar ali 3-31)PIa 231-7 in 49.3 overs (Faraz ali 73, 99 balls, 7 x4s,Shoaib Malik 64, 82 balls, 3 x4s, anwar ali 29, Uzairul-lah 2-45, raza Hasan 3-48), result: PIa won by threewickets. Toss: PIa, Umpires: Ihtshamul Haq & ahmedShahab, referee: Khalid naizi. LCCa Ground: ZTBL 143in 32.4 overs (Sharjeel Khan 52, 50 balls, 7 x4s, 1 x6s,Shahid Yousuf 23, Haris Sohail 23*, 28 balls, ZulfiqarBaber 4-18, Imranullah 4-27), waPDa 145-8 in 354.1overs (riffatullah 69, 67 balls, 9 x4s, ahmed Said 23,64 balls, 1 x4s, Junaid nadir 2-42, Junaid Zia 2-50,Jawad Hameed 2-17), result: waPDa won by twowickets, Toss: ZTBL. Umpires: Tahir Shah & GhaffarKazmi. referee: Parvaiz akhtar. Iqbal Stadium, Faisal-abad. Habib Bank 310 in 47.4 overs (Imran Farhat 105,111 balls, 9 x4s, Hasan raza 41, 44 balls, 4 x4s, 1 x6s,Humayun Khan 100, 51 balls, 11 x4s, 6 x6s, Mohammadnaved 3-57, Kashif Siddiq 3-39), State Bank 292 in 49.1overs (Kashif Siddiqi 43, 26 balls, 8 x4s, Mohtasham ali54, 74 balls, 6 x4s, rameez aziz 107, 124 balls, 6 x4s, 3x6s, Jalat Khan 25, 21 balls, 1 x6s, Shahid nazir 2-69,aftab Khan 2-27, Danish Kaneria 3-57), result: HabibBank won by 18 runs. Toss: Habib Bank, Group B: Jin-nah Stadium, Sialkot: Karachi Dolphins 232 in 49 overs(Shahzad Hasan 72, 69 balls, 8 x4s, 2 x6s, Mirza asadBaig 80, 103 balls, 9 x4s, Yasir Murtaza 20, MohammadSami 21), Sialkot Stallions 233-4 in 39.3 overs (KamranYounis 77, 11 x4s, 2 x6s, Mohammad ayub 58, 71 balls,5 x4s, Shahzad Malik 35*), result: Sialkot Stallion wonby six wicketsToss: Karachi Stallions, Diamond Ground,Islamabad: rawalpindi 223 in 47.3 overs (Shoaibahmed 56, 66 balls, 6 x4s, Baber naeem 49, 34 balls, 7x4s, Yasim Murtaza 23, nasarullah 4-34, Shahzadazam 2-36), Islamabad 229-9 in 49.2 overs (ZeeshanMushtaq 100*, 126 balls, 7 x4s, 1 x6s, naeem anjum48, 47 balls, 5 x4s, 1 x6s, nasir Malik 2-45, Sadaf Hus-sain 2-21, Samiullah 2-24), result: Islamabad won byone wicket. Toss: rawalpindi, abbottabad Stadium: ab-bottabad 292 in 48.4 overs (ramiz ahmed 35, 42 balls,4 x4s, 1 x6s, Fawad Khan 39, 16 balls, 4 x4s, 3 x6s,ehsan adil 2-64, waqas Masood 3-63, aqeel ahmed 2-54), Faisalabad 293-8 in 49.1 overs (M. Zubair 45, 70balls, 5 x4s, Murtaza anees 51, 6 x4s, Zeeshan asif 48,50 balls, 3 x4s, 1 x6s, Hasan Mahmood 71, 56 balls, 9x4s, Khalid Usman 3-59, Shakeel Shah 2-48), result:Faisalabad won by two wickets. Toss: Faisalabad.

Once upon a time, not too many milesdown the memory lane; english clubswere easily the strongest contingentin europe. even though there haveonly been two Champions Leaguetriumphs for ePL sides since theturn of the millennium – Liver-pool (2005) and ManchesterUnited (2008) – but 2004onwards, they have beenthe ones making thebiggest impact onthe tournament –with most final andsemifinal finishescoming from eng-land, during thisepoch. this run re-cently culminated inManchester United’spurple patch between2007 and 2011, whichsaw them play threefinals in four years,including that tri-umph in 2008.However, this yearhas been akin to aGreek tragedy forenglish football –only with thrice asmuch melancholy.if anyone had put a wageron APOeL outdoing the twoManchesters in the UeFAChampions League – theywould now undoubtedlybe able to bail out Greecefrom its debt crisis singlehandedly. trying tofathom the abysmalshowing of one of thecurrent top two inengland – the minis-

cule gamut from which the ePL champi-ons would undoubtedly be traced – wouldhave been a Herculean task; but to seeboth of them giving maladroit buffoons arun for their money in europe is hard toexplain. not only did Athletic Bilbao’s all-

round demolition of current englishchampions in the europa league con-firm La Liga’s status as the topmostleague in europe, it also exposedUnited’s frailties when it comes tocompeting with a different brand of

football, with the current crop. Al-most invincible at home in eu-rope not so long ago, this yearUnited have come unstuckagainst the likes of Basel, Ben-fica and Bilbao – the three Bsthat bamboozled what was notso long ago the best defence

in europe. City would’vebeen morec o n s p i c u -

o u s l yunder the

s c r u t i n ygun, had their ‘quiet’ neigh-bours not done them a favourby outdoing their mediocrity.Whilst, a lot of the City brigadehave had UCL experience in thepast, the fact that they hadn’thad such an experience collec-tively can now be flaunted asan inkling of an excuse. HadUnited not gone down thesame lane, the red half of Man-

chester would never have tired ofpointing out their archenemy’s eu-ropean downfall. What the Man-

chester duo’s equally wretched run ineurope connotes is that the ePL title

race might just end up being one of themost exciting two-horse races ever

played out in england. With both sidesdumped out of all the other competi-tions, it’s just the 10 games in the league

to go for them; and with the added bo-

nanza of ‘that’ potential title-decider atthe etihad stadium – things do lookquite scrumptious indeed.

Arsenal might have given the Milanese aquasi cardiac arrest in the return leg at theemirates, but what hindered their progressin europe was that one-word phantom thatshould now possibly be encrypted at the endof that cannon on the club’s badge; “incon-sistency”. it was almost as if two differentclubs played out the games at san siro andat the emirates, and barring a serious rethinkfrom the think-tanks at the helm of Arsenalfootball club, the Gunners would consistentlyremain their inconsistent selves.

this leaves us with the only club in thequarters of europe’s premier competition,Chelsea; ironically a team that finds itselfoutside the top four in england. Chelseathemselves were staring down the barrelagainst napoli, but their staggering come-back showcased that drive and desire thathas been criminally missing from the teamfor the entirety of the season. if there wasa damning demonstration that it’s theplayer power that rules Chelsea F.C it wasagainst napoli at the stamford Bridge. the

players were up for it, and were fightinglike enraged warriors, giving their all forthe quest. if they had showcased one-hun-dredth of it for AVB, the Portuguese wouldstill be at the club, and Chelsea might stillbe in the title race in the league.

Chelsea have a favourable draw in thequarters now. Granted Benfica are norollovers, but they are no Barcelona either.Chelsea might have to overcome Barcelonain the semis though; and as ridiculous as itsounds to give the London club a chance ofcreating a convulsion in Catalonian hege-mony after a solitary display of mantle, ifthe same Chelsea side takes to the fieldagainst Barca, they have what it takes tooutdo them. it’s the only meaningful silver-ware missing from the trophy cabinet of thelikes of John terry, Frank Lampard, didierdrogba and Petr Cech, and they know thatwith time running out on their careers, thisyear might just be their final tilt. the trophyis also at the apex of roman Abramovich’swish list, and if Chelsea can conjure up theimpossible – it might go down as one of thegreatest triumphs for english clubs in eu-rope. it’s Benfica first though…

A forgettable year for the English clubs in Europe

LaHore: akeel Butt of Punjab Constabularylifts 240 kgs squat to win gold medal in the1st Inter-range Police Powerlifting.

g Chelsea are the last one standing in the Champions League, and could have a veritable tilt at the title as well

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

EPL CRYSTAL BALL

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INDIAN WELLSafp

three time Grand slam champion Mariasharapova rallied to defeat fellow russ-ian Maria Kirilenko 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reachthe indian Wells semi-finals thursday.sharapova needed three hours and fiveminutes to dispatch Kirilenko in theirfirst meeting since the opening round ofthe 2010 Australian Open, which Kir-ilenko won in three sets.

"i tried to keep my head up today eventhough i wasn't playing my best," saidsharapova, who won the indian Wells titlein 2006. "towards the end i started toplay better and move better."

sharapova will face another former in-dian Wells winner, Ana ivanovic, in thesemis after the serbian eased past a strickenMarion Bartoli 6-3, 6-4 in a rematch of theirquarter-final contest from last year. secondseed sharapova had cruised through herfirst three matches at the joint WtA andAtP event without dropping a set but shequickly ran into trouble thursday againstKirilenko -- who had won eight of her pre-

vious nine three-set matches this year. Kir-ilenko is getting a reputation as the WtAtour's iron woman. this was the thirdstraight three setter for Kirilenko and thesecond time in the tournament she has gonepast three hours in a match.

she became the first player in the tour-nament to take a set off sharapova, break-ing the former world no. 1 twice in winningthe opening frame in 43 minutes.

"she started very well, but it was also apoor start from my end," sharapova said. "ithink she controlled most of the points andi was on the defence a lot. that created somany opportunities for her and she gainedso much confidence after that."

sharapova held serve in a marathonfifth game of the second set to go up 3-2.she survived several break points includingone by hammering a 166 kph (103 mph) acedown the middle. it was one of six aces forsharapova in the match. sharapovadropped the first two games of the secondset, but then won four in a row to climb backinto the match. Kirilenko had to overcomea hindrance call to the win the 10th game ofthe second set and level the set at 5-5. Kir-

ilenko led 30-15 on her serve when chairumpire Marija Cicak of Croatia deducted apoint from her for tapping her racquet onthe ground three times in quick successionwhile sharapova was hitting a shot. Kir-ilenko went on to win the next point.

Asked if she heard the tapping, shara-pova said yes. "Unless you're deaf, ofcourse you notice it," sharapova said."the whole stadium was quiet. it's notsomething i've ever come across. Maybein the 12 and unders, but not very re-cently. "it's one thing if you do it once, buti think she did it three or four times. it'snot like a hockey puck or something. sheforgot, i think, the sport."

sharapova broke Kirilenko's serve towin the second set after Kirilenko had savedtwo set points, and in the third Kirilenkodouble faulted on sharapova's first matchpoint, her sixth double fault of the match.

ivanovic's victory over Bartoli wassomething of a grudge match. France'sBartoli reached the semi-finals in indianWells last year with a close 6-4, 7-6 (7/4)win over ivanovic. Bartoli went on to thefinal where she lost to Caroline Wozniacki.

Sports 21Saturday, 17 March, 2012

wATch iT LivE

ESPNSportcentre

07:30PM

INDIAN WELLSafp

TOP seed and defending champnovak djokovic stepped up hisbid for his third indian Wellstitle by easing past 12th seed

nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-4 on thursday.World number one djokovic has nowbeaten Almagro in all three career meet-ings and he has reached the indian Wellssemis for the third year in a row.

djokovic, who has won the last threeGrand slams, is coming off one of the bestyears in the history of tennis, as he startedoff 2011 with 41 consecutive match wins.He is now 14-1 in 2012. "i have had a lotof success here in the past and won ittwice," said djokovic. "Last year was in-credible. i may not be able to repeat whati did but i will try my best."

the serbian next faces American 11thseed John isner who defeated Gillessimon of France 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 in the otherquarter-final. djokovic hammered fiveaces and won 77 percent of his first servepoints in the 82 minute match thursday.

"What made me happy was myserve," he said. "i served well. i didn't losemany points on my service games in bothsets, and that's something that i havebeen working on. i have been trying to getmore free points on the first serves."

djokovic broke Almagro twice in tak-ing the opening set in 30 minutes but hada tougher time in the second as Almagrostarted to connect with his first serve. tied3-3 in the second set and serving, Alma-gro hit a backhand winner to reach gamepoint, which he closed out with an ace.

But djokovic won the next threegames, breaking Almagro's serve in theninth game and then served for the vic-tory. He clinched the match on his firstmatch point with a backhand winner.

"it was never going to be easy,"djokovic said. "nicolas is a top 15 player.even though he is a clay court specialisthe can play well on hardcourts." Almagro

is one of the busiest players on the AtPtour this year as this was his seventhtournament. He captured his 11th careersingles title in sao Paulo last month.

"today i had a very powerful ballstriker on the opposite side of the net,"djokovic said. "He's very solid with thegroundstrokes and has a powerful serve."But i knew that he's inconsistent withthat, so i just needed to hang in there."

isner, 26, has now won both careermeetings against simon, including a threehour, 39-minute battle in the fourthround of the 2011 Us Open. isner fired 11aces, had three double faults and won 69percent of his first-serve points.

"i am thankful to get through," hesaid. "tonight i didn't get too frus-trated. i made a lot of mistakes but hedoes that to a lot of players." djokovic

says it doesn't get easier from here on."As the tournament goes on you'regoing to play more difficult opponents,"he said. "it's gonna get tough out there."But i have played so many matches onthe tour and the big stage, majorevents, and i learned over the yearswhat i need to do in order to play mybest when it matters the most."

djokovic's win keeps alive theprospect that the game's big three --djokovic, roger Federer and rafael nadal-- could make it to the semi-finals.

Federer and nadal are both in quar-ter-final action Friday, against Argentini-ans. Federer faces ninth seed Juan Martindel Potro and nadal squares off againstunseeded david nalbandian. All threereached the semis five times in 2011 andalso at this year's Australian Open.

Djokovic reachesIndian Wells semis

Sharapova outlasts iron woman Kirilenko

INDIAN WELLSafp

Former champion Ana ivanovic ad-vanced to the indian Wells semi-fi-nals on thursday, easing past astricken Marion Bartoli 6-3, 6-4 in arematch of their quarter-final con-test from last year. "i am definitelyhappy to be through and get my re-venge from last year in the quar-ters," ivanovic said. "it was a toughmatch. i served well.

"We both started well but thateighth game of the second set was im-portant. i just tried to stay low andmake her run." France's Bartoli

reached the semi-finals in indianWells last year with a close 6-4, 7-6(7/4) win over the 24-year-old ser-bian. Bartoli went on to the finalwhere she lost to Caroline Wozniacki.

ivanovic advances to the semiswhere she will face either Mariasharapova or Maria Kirilenko.

Bartoli was trailing 1-2 in the sec-ond set when she asked for the doctorto come out onto the court. As thedoctor was taking her blood pressure,the television cameras caught her say-ing, "everything is spinning."

she was in discomfort for the re-mainder of the match, bending overand grabbing her stomach between

serves. the opening set started offwith consecutive service breaks be-fore ivanovic held serve in gamethree. ivanovic broke Bartoli in theeighth game of the opening set andthen served for the set, finishing it offwith an ace on the final point. in thefirst game of the second set, Bartolidouble faulted on game point to allowivanovic to go ahead 1-0.

ivanovic has now made it to atleast the indian Wells quarter-finalson five occasions, winning title fouryears ago. Bartoli's exit means thatboth last year's winner Wozniackiand runner-up are out of thewomen's draw.

ivanovic gets her revenge at indian Wells

Textile Tigers beatGulberg Gym inVeterans Cricket

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

textile tigers beat Gulberg Gymkhanaby 2 runs in the First Lahore VeteranCricket Champion trophy here at theat race Course Park Ground. ScoReS: Textile Tigers batting first 219/4 after 30overs. Test Cricketer ashraf ali played well 90 runsnot out, Muhammad riaz 67, romail Bashir 25 &rizwan nisar 13 runs. Gulberg gymkhana bowlingKhubaib Saeed 2/33, Javeed Hafeez 1/32 & TestCricketer Manzoor Ilahi 1/34 wickets. In reply GulbergGymkhana 217/8 after 30 overs. Test Cricketer Man-zoor Ilahi 41, afzal Munir 28, Khalid Mehmood 19,Javeed riaz 65 & Muhammad amir 29 runs. TextileTigers bowling romail Bashir 2/30, rehan rouf 2/54& Saleem Iqbal 1/29 wickets. Javeed ashraf Muham-mad Kaleem Umpire & Muhammad Kazim was thescorer. end of the match Chief Guest Shehzad Bhattigive away man of the match award to Test Cricketerashraf ali. rizwan nisar is also present.

PFF bans, finesPolice players

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

the Pakistan Football Federation has onFriday banned and fined Police team play-ers who were involved in disrupting theKrL Football Challenge Cup match atKarachi. the tournament disciplinarycommittee awarded KrL three goals winagainst Police Football team because ofphysical assault by their six police playersagainst the match referee and imposed afine of rs 20,000 and six match suspen-sion against each of the guilty Police teamplayers. in an unfortunate and unforeseenincident during the KrL and Police teammatch at Peoples Football stadium,Karachi, the PFF held discipline supremeand insisted on fair play. the tournamentdisciplinary committee took a serious viewof the violent behavior of the six players ofPolice team and fined them rs 20,000each and suspended them for six matchesunder section 1, Article 31 & 47 of PFFCode of Conduct and discipline. Mean-while, Army and PAF played a one-alldraw at the KPt Football stadium,Karachi. Army scorer was rashid (17Minute) and PAF scorer was captain irfanAli (92+2 minute). PPWd beat railway 2-1 at the Peoples stadium. PPWd got itsgoals from Muhammad Jan (78 Minute)and Aqeel (86 Minute) while scorer ofrailway was Amin (54 Minute). WAPdAbeat navy 3-0 and Muhammad Ahmed (2Goals 56 and 90+1 Minute) and AkramMasih (73 Minute) made the win easy.

InDIan weLLS: novak Djokovic of Serbia talks with nicolas almagro of Spain afterDjokovic defeated aLmagro in their match at the BnP Paribas open tennis tournament. aFP

InDIan weLLS: ana Ivanovic celebrates a point againstMarion Bartoli during the BnP Paribas open. aFP

InDIan weLLS: Maria Sharapova celebrates amatch point against Maria Kirilenko ofrussia during the BnP Paribas open. aFP

InDIan weLLS: Maria Kirilenko of russiaplays Maria Sharapova during the BnPParibas open. aFP

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Saturday, 17 March, 2012 22

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

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

rePeAtinG his refusal towrite a letter to swiss author-ities for reopening corruptioncases against President AsifAli Zardari, Prime Minister

Yousaf raza Gilani said on Friday that hewould not have entered the political arena ifhe was scared of tense situations.

While addressing the annual convoca-tion of Kinnaird College for Woman, Gilaniexpressed certainty that the Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) would become the onlyparty to have successfully completed itsfive-year tenure. He said the PPP govern-ment had given liberty to the media unlikeany past government. He said more free-doms would be given to journalists,adding, “When journalists criticise us, oursins are washed off, and the criticism takes

us to further heights.” He said President Zardari would make

history on saturday (today) by addressingthe parliament’s session for the fifth time.“He will give policy statement in his ad-dress, but i would like to reveal that we willgive relief to the people in the upcomingbudget,” the prime minister said, addingthat his government would become thefirst to announce the budget for the fifthtime in a single tenure. While commentingabout the tenure of Chief of Army staffGeneral Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, he said thearmy chief would complete his tenure in2013, along with the chief justice, presi-dent and the parliament.

He urged the female students to workhard in the modern world of competitions.He said Benazir Bhutto had “servedwomen throughout her life, as she was agreat advocate of women rights”. He saidhis government would provide 100,000

jobs for the youth in the upcoming federalbudget. “i have passed directions to theMinistry of Finance to create 100,000 jobsso that the educated youth could get em-ployment. the Ministry for informationtechnology is under the prime minister,and i am also initiating several it pro-grammes for the people,” Gilani said. Hesaid that women could bring a positivechange in the society, and that his govern-ment had taken several steps to empowerwomen. He said his government had intro-duced legislation on the harassment ofwomen. the PM also quoted Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah that no na-tion could progress without includingwomen in the mainstream, and that stepsmust be taken to empower women in everysector. the PM said that his governmentwas taking keen interest to resolve the is-sues of women and minorities, and that thestudents of Kinnaird College had the dis-

tinguished status in both educational andco-curricular activities.

the Prime Minister also announced agrant of rs 20 million for the constructionof it Block; rs 10 million as researchgrant; rs 10 million for endowment Fund;and rs 10 million for the purchase of vehi-cles for the college. separately inKhanewal, the prime minister visited theresidence of deceased MnA Major (r)Aftab Ahmad Khan daha, and condoledwith his family members. He also held ameeting with sardar Hamid Yar Haraj,PM’s adviser and chairman of the earth-quake reconstruction and rehabilitationAuthority (errA), at his residence. Hepromised to build a ladies’ park on therailways’ land in Khanewal. A delegationof Khanewal Press Club led by its presidenttahir naseem also met the prime minister.Gilani announced an annual grant of rs 1million for the press club.

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM),a partner in the ruling coalition, on Fridaythrew a spanner into the works of its ally,the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), by stag-ing a protest in the national Assembly ses-sion against criminals in Karachi who theysaid were making life hell for businessmenthrough “rampant extortions”.

despite assurances by PPP Chief Whipin national Assembly Khursheed Ahmedshah of an “indiscriminate action” againstextortionists, the MQM leaders did notstop and rather announced to boycott sat-urday’s joint session of the parliamentwhich is scheduled to be addressed byPresident Asif Ali Zardari. However, theMQM appeared to be in isolation, as theparliamentarians from the opposition andtreasury benches stood together on theissue. even members from the PakistanMuslim League-nawaz (PML-n) came torescue the treasury benches against theMQM’s slogans for prompt action againstextortionists.

Amidst uproar by MQM members,Khursheed shah said the governmentshared the desire to expose the individu-als involved in extortion. “We need to ex-pose them, and show the nation theirsupporters as well. support us, we shalltake across the board action,” he said. Healso agreed with the demand of opposi-tion parties to make Karachi weapons-free, and award exemplary punishmentto extortionists. He said the governmenthad never supported extortion, and thatit was ready to take action. “the Pak-

istani nation and the media know who isinvolved in extortion. if they (MQM) aresincere, let us move forward for an ac-tion. We can eliminate extortionists fromKarachi,” shah said.

the PPP leader further said that ifMQM was serious on the issue, the Houseshould constitute a committee with equalrepresentation from both the oppositionand treasury benches to prepare aroadmap for bringing normalcy to Karachiand expose the real faces of extortioniststo bring them to book. “We support takingaction against them. You should supportus. sit with the provincial administration,governor, chief minister and home minis-ter to dig out who was actually ruiningpeace in Karachi,” he said, adding, “Weare committed to keep peace in Karachi,but we need sincere support from allstakeholders.” After the MQM’s protest,the government and the opposition agreedto hold a joint probe and bring the crimi-nals to book.

“We want to cleanse Karachi of extor-tionists. Please support us. this menacehas made the masses insecure, and ruinedpeace in the port city,” said MQM MnAWaseem Ahmed while speaking on a pointof order. the MQM, being a coalition part-ner in the government and enjoying min-istries in the federal and sindh cabinet,warned to disrupt the proceedings of theparliament’s joint sitting on saturday ifthe government did not promise to takeaction against extortionists. Members ofMQM started chanting slogans after theQuestion-Answer Hour and continueduntil the House was prorogued.

india hikesdefencespending by 17 percent

NEW DELHIafp

india on Friday boostedmilitary spending by 17percent to $40 billion for thecoming year as it seeks tocounter China’s rapidmilitary build-up and itstraditional rival Pakistan.the government, engaged ina massive programme toupgrade the country’s ageingmilitary hardware, increaseddefence spending to rs 1.93trillion for the financial yearto March 31, 2013. “thisallocation is based onpresent needs and anyfurther requirement will bemet,” indian FinanceMinister Pranab Mukherjeetold lawmakers inannouncing the 2012-13budget in parliament. therise follows a 12 percentincrease in defence spendingin the previous year’sbudget. india’s military isacquiring a slew of newequipment from combataircraft to submarines andartillery. it is currentlyfinalising a deal withFrance’s dassault Aviation tobuy 126 rafale fighter jets ina contract worth anestimated $12 billion.

LAHORENaUMaN taSLeeM

delay of payments to oil suppliers and in-dependent power producers (iPPs) by thegovernment has caused long hours of loadshedding while power production hassharply dropped.

At the same time decline in hydel gener-ation has worsened the problem, sources toldPakistan Today on Friday. the power short-fall has also crossed 5,500MW due to thisreason. the recent wave of load sheddingstarted around 10 days ago and with everypassing day the outages are increasing. Con-sumers are facing at least eight to 12 hours ofoutages daily while PePCO has failed tomanage the situation. they said the Pakistan

electric Power Company (PePCO) is in deepcrisis, as it has failed to pay the iPPs and oilsupplier while at the same time hydel gener-ation has also reduced. Currently, PePCO isfacing more than 5,500MW of shortfall.Power production is around 6,500MW withhydel generation providing 3,700MW whileproduction from iPPs and GenCOs hasdropped to 2,800MW.

“the major problem is with payments toiPPs and this year electricity from hydel gen-eration has also dropped due to less water interbela and Mangla dams,” said an official ofthe Ministry of Power, adding that if paymentsto iPPs were made on time, there would be noproblem at all. the sources said if the govern-ment did not make payments in the comingdays then the problem would get severe.

MUMBAIoNLINe

Pakistani judicial commission on Fridaybegan recording the statements of keywitnesses in the 26/11 Mumbai attacksafter a metropolitan court dismissed itsplea for cross-examining them following awrangle over the mandate of the panel,indian media reported. the in-cameraproceedings at the esplanade Court saw adispute arise over the mandate of thepanel which insisted on cross-examinationof the witnesses, including the magistratewho had recorded the confessionalstatement of Ajmal Kasab, the lone

surviving perpetrator of the massacre of166 people, Pti reported. special PublicProsecutor Ujjwal nikam, who had led thetrial against Kasab, and was assisting thewitnesses, objected to the commission’splea and there was a “hot exchange ofwords” between him and the panelmembers, a source close to theproceedings said. When the head of thevisiting commission and Pakistan’s specialPublic Prosecutor Zulfiqar Ali contendedthat cross-examination was legallypermitted, nikam asked him to inform thecourt about the arrangement mutuallyagreed upon by the two countries.

Gilani repeats his ‘won’t write Swiss letter’ mantrag PM says hewould not haveentered politicalarena if he wasscared of crises

g Says PPP to makehistory in 2013 bycompleting 5-yearterm, presentingfifth budget

Delay of payment to iPPscauses excessive load shedding

pakistani commission recordsstatement of key 26/11 witness

ContinueD on Page 04

ContinueD on Page 04

aNaNtNaG: Kashmiri youth sit during a speech by an Indian army officer during a recruitment rally in anantnag, some

65kms south of Srinagar, on friday. aFP

MQM protests in NAagainst Karachi extortions

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