e-paper pakistantoday 19th march, 2012

Cabinet reshuffle

Joachim Gauckelected newGerman president

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Karachi’s futuredoctors at high risk ofeating disorders

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Karachi edition Monday, 19 March, 2012 Rabi-ul-Sani 25, 1433Rs15.00 Vol ii no 261 22 pages

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Pakistan bowlers cave in to Virat Kohli

ISLAMABAD stAff RepoRt

As Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is set toreshuffle his cabinet, some important PPPstalwarts including Qamar Zaman Kaira andNazar Gondal are likely to be inducted whilesome PmL-Q ministers including Riaz Hus-sain Pirzada and Amir muqam are going to bedeprived of their portfolios.

“in the cabinet reshuffle which is likely tobe made in a day or two, PPP information Sec-retary Kaira is going to replace informationminister Firdous Ashiq Awan while Gondalwill be given the portfolio of the ministry ofWater and Power,” said a reliable source in thegovernment. He said there were chances thatRaja Pervaiz Ashraf would also be inducted in

the federal cabinet.The source said in the forthcoming cabinet

reshuffle, Defence minister Ahmed mukhtarwould be likely given the portfolio of the inte-rior ministry while interior minister Rehmanmalik would take charge of the Defence min-istry. “Despite repeated requests being madeby the prime minister, former Senate chair-man Farooq Naik and Senator Raza Rabbanihave declined his offers of becoming membersof his cabinet,” the source said.

The source said Gilani had decided to sackthree PmL-Q ministers, including muqam,minister for Professional and Technical Train-ing Riaz Hussain Pirzada and minister of Statefor Housing and Works Raza Hayat Hiraj.

LAHOREAgencies

PRime minister YousafRaza Gilani on Sundaysaid Pakistan was notlooking for an apologyfrom the US on the Salala

checkpost incident but was seeking newdirections in relations with Washingtonon key issues.

Talking to reporters on Sunday, Gi-lani said, “We want the full support ofparliament on this issue which will alsodeal with Pakistan’s ties with NATOand iSAF as these two organisationscombine a total of 48 countries,” hesaid. He said Pakistan was a matureand responsible nuclear power thatwanted good and friendly ties with therest of the world. On the grant of themost-favoured-nation status to india,Gilani said Pakistan had shown no dis-crimination and there were a number ofcountries to whom “this country has ex-tended a similar status”.

The prime minister said the inter-Services intelligence (iSi) was one ofthe country’s most important institu-tions and it should not be controversial.

He said parliament had granted im-munity to President Asif Ali Zardariand he could not do away with it him-

self. Gilani said the Supreme Courtshould refer the president’s immunityissue to parliament for reconsideration.

He said he was ready to quit ifthings could become better with his res-ignation from office. Asked whether hewas contemplating resigning from theoffice in case he was held in contemptby the Supreme Court for his failure towrite a letter to the Swiss authorities,the prime minister responded by sayingthe matter would not still go away asthe new person would have to deal with

the issue as well. The prime ministersaid the Pakistan muslim League-Nawaz (PmL-N) did not want the for-mation of a new province. He said theforeign policy including the Pakistan-US relations would be discussed in thejoint session of parliament.

On Balochistan, he said the mainissue facing the mineral-rich southwestern province was law and order. Hesaid he would hold a discussion with theBalochistan leadership on the progressof Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan pack-age and how far the various resolutionspassed by the provincial assembly hadbeen implemented.

Gilani stressed on bringing law andorder under control and taking the po-litical leadership of the province onboard before dealing with various majorissues in a comprehensive manner. Gi-lani noted that the 19th Amendmentwas passed by parliament to facilitatethe appointment of judges of the supe-rior judiciary and in accordance withthe views of the Supreme Court.

The prime minister also spoke onthe success of politics of consensus pur-sued by his government and said thiswas a good example of the political ma-turity of the PPP leadership.

Kaira, Gondal likelyto be inductedg Ahmed Mukhtar likely to be given portfolio of InteriorMinistry, Rehman Malik to take charge of Defence Ministry

Pakistan didn’t seek US apology onSalala attacks: PMg Gilani says ISI should not be controversial

Dozens of bullet-ridden bodies found BARA

Agencies

Villagers found 14 bullet-ridden bodies scattered around the Bara area of Khyber Agency onSunday, as security forces step up military offensives against militants. Sunday’s discovery wasmade two days after 12 more bodies, also bearing signs of torture and numerous bullet-wounds,were discovered in the same area. “They were taken into custody by the paramilitary FrontierCorps a few days back from Sepah area after unidentified people attacked the FC post and killedfour soldiers,” a tribesman told Reuters, requesting anonymity because he feared for his safety.Another witness, Torab Ali, said all the bodies had had acid thrown on their faces, making iden-tification difficult. “We don’t have any medical expertise but we think they were killed two orthree days ago,” he added. No one has acknowledged any connection with the deaths.

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02Monday, 19 March, 2012

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for us to watch the match, many had to sleep hungry sA pakistanis enormously contributing to country’s economy

President approves remission

in prisoners’ sentencesISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari, on advice of the Primeminister, approved granting of special remission in sentences onoccasion of the Pakistan Day on 23rd march 2012, an officialstatement said on Sunday. Special remission of 90 days had beengranted to the prisoners convicted for life imprisonment exceptthose convicted for heinous crimes including murder, espionage andanti-state activities. Special remission of 45 days was granted to allother convicts except the condemned prisoners. Total remission wasgranted to the female prisoners who were 60 years of age or aboveand to male prisoners of 65 or above who had undergone at least onethird of sentence of imprisonment. Special remission of one year hadbeen allowed to female prisoners carrying children with them. Totalremission had also been allowed to juvenile convicts (under 18 yearsof age) who had served 1/3rd of their substantive sentence, thestatement said. onLine

Zardari approves conferment of

Sitara-e-Imtaiz upon Qavi KhanISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari approved conferment of Sitara-e-imtaiz upon renowned actor muhammad Qavi Khan, on Sunday, inrecognition of his services in the field of performing arts. mohammadQavi Khan is among the few artists who have earned great fame in all thefields of performing arts. Starting his career in 1952 from Radio Pakistan,he was the first hero of TV drama when Pakistan Television was started in1964. He has also earned the Life-Time Achievement Award. nni

Shahbaz asks PM to write

letter to Swiss govtPESHAWAR: Punjab Cm Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday said that afterpassing the loyalty test of his party, Prime minister Syed Yousaf RazaGilani should now show his loyalty to the nation and write the letter tothe Swiss govt on directives of the Supreme Court. Talking to journalists,Shahbaz said that the prime minister was pushing the country towardslawlessness and destroying the state while working with looters. He saidthat a bargain market for mPAs was set in Punjab after imposinggovernor’s rule and a few iB officers had also benefited from it. nni

5 Pakistanis convicted for

money laundering in HollandAMSTERDAM: A district court in Dutch capital, Amsterdam,convicted five citizens of Pakistani origin in a money laundering case.As per details, the five convicts were facing charges for laundering 15million euros in the Netherlands. The convicts were awarded jailterms ranging form seven days to two and a half years. inp

Wynne leaves for Sri LankaISLAMABAD: Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman GeneralKhalid Shamim Wynne on Sunday left for a four-day official visit to SriLanka. “During the visit, the chairman will meet Sri Lankan Presidentmahinda Rajapaksa, secretary defence and the senior militaryhierarchy of Sri Lankan Tri-Services,” an iSPR statement said. “Thevisit of the chairman will further strengthen the already existing bondsof friendship and brotherhood between the two countries. Seniormilitary officers of Joint Staff Headquarters were present at the airportto see off the chairman,” the statement said. stAff RepoRt

ISLAMABADshAiq hussAin

AS the United States and Pakistaninch closer to the resumption offull-fledged counter-terrorism co-operation in the aftermath of ajoint session of the parliament

being held on Tuesday (tomorrow) to review re-lations with the US, the Obama administrationis urging islamabad to use its “good offices” forthe revival of stalled peace dialogue with theTaliban in Qatar.

The talks between the US and Taliban,which were preliminary in nature and focusedon exchange of prisoners, broke down in Qatarfew days ago when the Obama administrationrefused to accept the Taliban’s demand for therelease of their five important leaders detainedat Guantanamo Bay prison.

The Taliban’s decision to suspend talkswith the US has badly impacted the Obama ad-ministration’s plans for a safe exit fromAfghanistan. With no chances of a military winover the Taliban insurgents, Washington is to-tally relying on a political settlement of the

Afghanistan issue, and peace talks with the Tal-iban are the most important component of itsstrategy.

The demand for the release of five detaineesin return for the freedom for a US soldier heldby the Taliban was also a key condition by themullah Omar-led militants to hold talks onmore contentious issues like the future govern-ment in Kabul and the share of Taliban.

The US, which is already being helped andassisted by Germany and Qatar in the resump-tion of talks with the Taliban, has now startedurging islamabad as well to help Washington torestore stalled talks with the militants.

“The US has requested Pakistan throughdiplomatic channels to help it in reviving bro-ken talks with the Taliban, and islamabad iscurrently looking into that request,” said a Pak-istani diplomat on Sunday, seeking anonymity.He, however, said that any development onPakistan’s possible role in the resumption ofUS-Taliban talks was possible only after the im-portant joint session of the parliament on Tues-day. Pakistan is holding this joint session toapprove the recommendations formulated bythe Parliamentary Committee on National Se-

curity (PCNS) on new terms of engagementwith the US vis-à-vis counter-terrorism cooper-ation. The session will hold debate on NATOsupplies suspended last year in November byislamabad in a strong reaction to NATO attackon Pakistani border posts, drone strikes andother conflicting matters.

A Pakistani security official, who alsosought anonymity, said that full-fledgedcounter-terrorism cooperation with the US in-cluding the restoration of blocked NATO sup-plies was most likely after the parliament’s jointsession.

However, he said that any decision whetherPakistan would use its “good offices” for the re-sumption of stalled Washington-Taliban talksdepended on the outcome of upcoming talksbetween the senior US military and civilian of-ficials and Pakistani authorities here in thewake of joint parliamentary session.

He said that US CeNTCOm chief GeneralJames mattis and American Special envoy forAfghanistan and Pakistan marc Grossmanwould visit islamabad for talks on future coop-eration with Pakistan soon after the joint ses-sion of the parliament.

US asking Pakistan to helpresume stalled talks with Taliban

Zardari, Gilanihave failed,says Nawaz

LONDONinp

Pakistan muslim League-Nawaz PresidentNawaz Sharif has said President Asif AliZardari and Prime minister Yousaf RazaGilani have failed to put the country on thepath to development. Addressing a pressconference on Sunday, Nawaz demanded thatelections be held immediately to get thecountry out of crises. He said democracy wasthe solution to the country’s problems and hisparty would not allow any deviation from it.He said the agencies had tried to misguide thePmL-N with promises and commitments but“we never compromised on our principles”.He said he and Punjab Chief minister ShahbazSharif had been disqualified but they did notsurrender to the pressure. Nawaz said “we arebeing dubbed as anti-establishment nowbecause we do not follow their line”. He saidhis party and partners would not be trappedby any greed or seduction. The PmL-Npresident said his party joined thegovernment with sincerity of purpose butZardari did not fulfill his promises and hisparty was left with no option but to leave. Hesaid the PmL-N committed mistakes in thepast but had learnt its lessons.



NewsARtS & eNteRtAINMeNt coMMeNt

Looking at relations:

Articles on Page 12-13

Some perspective is in order.

herding cats: Not easy, coalition politics.

Waqqas Mir says:

Arif Ansar says:To fight or to talk: Decisions, decisions in Afghanistan.

foReIGN NeWS

Story on Page 17 Story on Page 15

SPoRtSAfridi completes 7000 runs in oDis

Story on Page 18

Aamir Khan wants to work with Vidya BalanLibya, france, icc want to try gaddafi spy chief

All hail Sachin: His batting is a taste of heaven.

umair Javed says:The academic epidemic: Cheating rampant in Pakistani academia.

ISLAMABADonLine

On march 20, the parliament isscheduled to begin a debate on thelong-awaited review of future rela-tionship with the United States.

The National Assembly andSenate will meet jointly for threedays and will also discuss terms ofengagement with the US and itsNATO allies in Afghanistan.

Air raid on two border posts bythe American fighter jets and heli-copters in mohmand tribal region inNovember and killing of 24 soldierspromoted the parliamentary review.Pakistani civilian and military lead-ership was quick to halt supplies forNATO forces in Afghanistan via

country’s land route and vacated akey air base from the US army inBalochistan.

The government had beenunder mounting pressure to reeval-uate relationship with the US afterthe air strike as the Americans hadrefused to apologize for the actionand even equated Pakistani forcesfor the strike on the Pakistani posts.

The Parliamentary Committeeon National Security had beentasked to float recommendations toreassess ties with the US/NATO andintelligence Service of the ArmedForces. The committee had alreadysubmitted its recommendations forthe parliament debate. The parlia-ment will also debate and decide therestoration of supplies for NATO

troops, which has been suspendedfor four months. The country’s topcivilian and military leadership aswell as key allies met at a rare meet-ing last week to discuss the upcom-ing parliamentary review of futurerelationship with the US.

President Asif Ali Zardari hadpresided over the meeting in islam-abad and discussed strategy for theparliament meeting. The meetingwas attended by Prime ministerYousaf Raza Gilani, Foreign ministerHina Rabbani Khar, Chief of ArmyStaff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani,Air Chief marshal Qamar Sulemanand former intelligence chief, Lt GenAhmed Shuja Pasha.

Pakistan has already allowedNATO supply through its airspace,

which also indicates a positive signalfor restoration of land NATO supplyroute. Defense minister ChaudhryAhmad mukhtar had hinted restora-tion of NATO land supply route withcertain conditions, including levyingof tax on NATO trucks and oiltankers. in return the US will alsoallow resumption of the equipmentdelivery to Pakistan which had beenblocked after islamabad closed theNATO supply line in November, thesources said. US Central CommandChief General James mathis, who islikely to visit later this month, toldreporters in Washington that hewould discuss the plan of using thePakistan land routes for the Ameri-can troops at the time of withdrawalfrom Afghanistan.

Parliament set to reappraisePakistan-US ties

ISLAMABADnni

irked by the controversial claims byPakistani-American businessman man-soor ijaz, JKLF Chairman Yasin malikhas asked the chief justice of Pakistanfor permission to depose before thecommission probing “memogate”.

A letter was sent to Chief Justiceiftikhar muhammad Chaudhry throughAdvocate Zafar Shah, and if approvedmalik would be coming to Pakistan todepose voluntarily before the commis-sion.

“A request was filed that he wouldalso like to depose before the commis-sion (looking into the memo contro-versy),” malik’s counsel Shah toldKashmir Times.

Yasin’s wife, mushaal malik alsoapproached the memo commissionthrough an application to become aparty in the case.

She stated that an allegation lev-elled by ijaz that he had arranged ameeting between her husband and CDSahay, a former indian intelligence(RAW) chief, had damaged his reputa-tion.

ijaz, the key figure in the contro-versy, recently, claimed to have intro-duced Yasin to then deputy chief ofindia’s intelligence agency, RAW.

Yasin has refuted the allegations.And in response to a story carried byTehelka—a magazine—he even offeredto retire from public life if the allega-tions were proven.

“Therefore, i challenge, if anybody

proves, i have ever met any RAW chief,i would retire from public life,” he hadwritten to Tehelka. The response waspublished by the magazine.

The letter terms ijaz’s accusation a“cleverly calculated mischief” at-tempted at showing malik in “poorlight”.

“…having come to know about thesaid statement, my client was pained.He feels cleverly calculated mischief inthe statement of ijaz mansoor,” readsthe letter, a copy of which is with thisnewspaper.

“…i have been briefed to state,” theletter states further, “that my clientsholds relevant information and wishesto depose before the commission inorder to assist the commission in arriv-ing at the truth. Apart from the facts, to

be revealed during the course of depo-sition before the commission my clientconsiders it appropriate to state thatpreviously also an attempt was made bythe said person to show my client inpoor light.” The counsel said the chiefjustice and the commission would lookinto the request.

“We will get to know about their re-sponse on monday. if they approve therequest malik will have to go to Pak-istan to depose before the commission,”he said.

earlier, the memo commission wasapproached by the wife of Kashmirileader who submitted an application tobecome a party in the case.

in her petition, Yasin’s wife re-quested the commission to provide herhusband an opportunity to explain his

position. She said since Yasin was atpresent in Srinagar, he could appearbefore the commission next month.

At this point, ijaz’s counsel, con-trary to the stance taken by him earlierin the day, suggested to the commissionto delete the portion of the testimonyrelated to Yasin from the record.

He said acceptance of the applica-tion would open a new Pandora’s Boxbecause the commission would have tosummon the former indian intelligencechief and a reporter of a foreign news-paper as well.

Advocate Bokhari requested thecommission to accept the plea. “Sincemalik claims having some evidenceagainst ijaz, he will be useful for the in-quiry.” The commission deferred thematter until Sunday.

Yasin Malik seeks deposition before Memo Commission

ANP, MQM-H joinhands to makeKarachi arms-free

ISLAMABADinp

The ANP and mQm-H on Sundayannounced to rid Karachi of the menace ofweapons by taking all political and religiousparties on board. The decision was takenduring a meeting of mQm-H ChairmanAfaq Ahmed, ANP information SecretarySenator Zahid Khan and ANP SindhPresident Senator Shahi Syed at the KhyberPakhtunkhwa House. The law and order inKarachi and activities of a party, which hadtaken the city hostage, were discussed. itwas decided that confidence of investorscould only be restored if Karachi was madefree from all kinds of weapons. Shahidispelled reports of any rift among Urduspeakers and Pakhtuns and said that theywere fighting against a particular mafiagroup and denounced those creatinglinguistic divide. The mQm was heading thesame mafia, which had also threatenedjournalists for bringing forth facts of thesituation, he said. The ANP leaderdemanded military cooperation forpreparation of census and electoral lists.

QuEttAshAhzADA zuLfiqAR

Two people were killed and another injuredin separate incidents of firing in differenttowns of Balochistan on Sunday while atruck driver was kidnapped in Gandawa ofJhal magsi.

According to details, unidentified armedmen fired at Sardar munir mengal Roadnear Sariab killing Bismillah Khilji on thespot. The motive behind the killing was yetto be ascertained. The victim was a memberof the local bus association. A large numberof relatives of the deceased reached hospitaland staged a protest demanding immediatearrest of culprits. The protesters also burntold tyres at manan Chowk and caused a mas-sive traffic jam.

in another incident, a man was killed bybandits in Usta muhammad area of Jaf-farabad. Khalid was passing from Hajwanigraveyard when was intercepted by armedmen who tried to snatch his motorcycle. Onresisting, the bandits killed Khalid and fled

with the motorcycle. Police said that it was acase of motorcycle snatching and a case wasregistered against unidentified people.

in another firing incident, Syed Abdullahwas injured when unidentified men fired athim in Washuk. The injured was rushed tonearby hospital and later to Quetta.

Unidentified men kidnapped truckdriver muhammad Anwar from Gandawaarea of Jhal magsi. Levies Force sources saidthat it could be a case of kidnapping for ran-som and search had been started in the areato trace the kidnappers.

Separately, unidentified armed menkilled a man along with his son while a de-composed dead body was found from Nasir-abad. According to police, Yaqoob Shah andhis son Naveed were sitting in a shop inKilli Shabo area of Quetta when armed menfired at them killing them on the spot. Po-lice said that the incident could have beena sectarian killing. Levies Force recoveredan unidentified decomposed body from PatFeeder area of Nasirabad and moved it tonearby hospital for autopsy.

Militants on school bombing spreePESHAWAR: After intensifying attacks against civilians andsecurity personnel, militants have also increased destroying schoolsin far-flung areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. in the last five days, atleast seven schools were destroyed by militants in various parts ofthe province while destruction of schools in the Tribal Areas hadbecome the order of the day. Schools located in Taliban controlledareas throughout Waziristan, Orakzai, Khyber and other tribal zoneswere converted into compounds and torture cells. in Lakki marwat,the Taliban destroyed another government boys school, increasingthe number of school destroyed to three during five days. The schoolwas destroyed with 20 kilogrammes explosive. earlier, militants hadalso blown up Government Primary School, Dhoda Village andGovernment middle School, Zarih Jano area. militants also blew upGovernment middle School Samnat Village in Shabqadar,Charssada. Shabqadar had been directly targeted by militants for thelast several years. militants also blew up Government PrimarySchool in WAPDA Colony, Taru Jabba, Nowshehra on march 14,Government High School in Kaddi Swabi on march 16 andGovernment Primary School in Kotani marchan village Kohat onmarch 16. Frequent destruction of government schools had createdunrest amongst students and teachers. The provincial educationdepartment had confirmed a sharp decline in attendance of bothstudents and teachers throughout the province. stAff RepoRt

Two killed in firingincidents in Balochistan

isLAMABAD: cattle graze around a pakistani flag made using

stones found on the dry riverbed of soan River. onLIne



News

WASHINGtONAfp

Deadly setbacks, an Afghanleader at the “end of the rope”and pressure from a publicweary of sacrifice are threaten-ing to upend US PresidentBarack Obama’s endgame forAmerica’s longest war.

The central premise of USwar policy – leaving behind astable nation that Afghans cansecure and thwart an al Qaedarenaissance – appears in ques-tion.

Relations with AfghanPresident Hamid Karzai areplumbing new lows after anAmerican soldier launched arampage against civilians, thenwas airlifted out of the countryto face US military justice.

Deadly riots that followedthe burning of the Holy Quranby Americans, a spate of inci-dents in which Afghan soldiersturned their guns on NATO tu-tors and regular combat deathshave posed the question: is the

war still worth it?US-backed reconciliation

talks with the Taliban mean-while have collapsed, dampen-ing hopes of a politicalsettlement to guarantee stabil-ity after NATO-led forces leavein 2014.

A furious Karzai this weekcalled for a withdrawal of USforces from villages after themassacre of 16 civilians and de-manded an accelerated transferof security control.

His outbursts have deep-ened the feeling among some inWashington that Karzai, onceseen as a hero, is an unreliableally unworthy of US sacrifices.

Obama was forced to callKarzai twice in a week, as theAfghan leader admitted that hewas at “the end of the rope”with US missteps.

moeed Yusuf of the US in-stitute for Peace warned thatsuch incidents could under-mine efforts to keep Obamaand Karzai “on the same page”.

“if this continues, i don’t

see how one can hold on to thestrategy, which is in large partsdependent on having the good-will of the average Afghan.”

US ambassador to KabulRyan Crocker, however, hintedthat Washington believedKarzai was venting for domes-tic political reasons, telling“PBS Newshour” he was rightto be “pretty upset” over themassacre. But the latest set-backs, as NATO plans to scaledown to a support role in 2013,focused attention on the com-promised nation foreign troopswill leave behind.

“What we hand off, whenwe hand off, at best is going tobe a stalemate,” said StephenBiddle of the Council on For-eign Relations. “i don’t person-ally think there’s anyreasonable expectation theAfghan National SecurityForces are going to be able tosubstantially expand the zoneof control that they receivefrom us.” Given such a pes-simistic outlook, some analysts

say it may be time to limit theexposure of NATO trainers.

Charles Dunlap of DukeUniversity Law School sug-gested Afghan soldiers mightbe given intensive training out-side the country, to contain theaggravation posed by a largeforeign force.

“What i am suggesting is amuch smaller footprint withAfghans in the lead. We aremoving that way, but i think weneed to accelerate it.”

Obama said Wednesday heplanned no “sudden” changesto a plan that will complete thepullout of 33,000 surge forcesthis summer, though a largerdrawdown is almost certainnext year.

But could increasing thepace of departures squandergains made in the blood of3,000 dead coalition troops?

“it gives hope to our ene-mies, which might be one rea-son why we see the Talibanannouncing they are walkingaway from the early stages of

peace talks,” said max Boot,also of the Council on ForeignRelations.

“Why should they negoti-ate when they know our time,our commitment is waning andour presence is time limited?”

But to stay on longer wouldrequire leaders to explain whythey are leaving young men todie in Afghanistan whenprogress seems so incremental.

With Osama bin Ladendead and Al-Qaeda dismantledin Afghanistan, publics inNATO nations may wonderwhether two more years of sac-rifice is worth it.

Obama took on that ques-tion head on as he appearedwith top war ally British Primeminister David Cameron onWednesday.

“This is a hard slog... (but)we’re now in a position where,given our starting point, we’remaking progress. And i believethat we’re going to be able toachieve our objectives in 2014.”

Obama faces a political

dilemma: he wants to tell vot-ers in November he got troopshome from iraq and will soonexit Afghanistan.

But an over-hasty with-drawal could risk igniting moretrouble late in his election cam-paign, or so weaken Afghanstrategy that a deeper crisiscould detonate in his hoped-forsecond term.

The public is weary of war:60 percent in a recent ABCNews poll said it was not worthfighting — but is not so sourthat Obama’s hopes of reelec-tion are threatened.

Fifty-seven percent said ina Pew poll that troops shouldbe home as soon as possible —hardly figures likely to sway anelection turning on the econ-omy.

And mitt Romney,Obama’s most likely Republi-can opponent, warns againstprecipitated withdrawals, leav-ing the president on the pub-lic’s side of the politicalequation.

Turmoil threatens obama’s afghan endgame

An FC official said he knewnothing about the bodiesand that the men werenever in the custody of theFC.

“it is possible they havebeen killed earlier duringthe military operation andtheir bodies recoverednow,” the official said, whoasked for anonymity. “TheFC has been conducting

military operations againstthe terrorists in Bara andother areas of Khybertribal region.”

Another security offi-cial who requestedanonymity said the opera-tions – conducted sincemonday against thebanned militant organisa-tion Lashkar-e-islam (Lei)– had killed 25 militantsand four troops. Twelvesoldiers have been injured.

He said no one had beenkilled in custody and “anysuch report is baseless anddevoid of facts”.

Fighting in Bara has in-creased markedly in thepast week, with securityforces conducting a searchand cordon operation. Acurfew was imposed, butsecurity forces’ checkpostsand convoys were stillbeing attacked by mili-tants. Local witnesses said

30 to 35 people had beenkilled since the operationbegan. it was not known ifthat number includedthose found dead in thelast few days. “We are in-vestigating the incident,”said Khyber Agency Assis-tant Political AgentBakhtiar mohmand. “A fewpeople had gone missingthe first few days of the op-eration, we cannot confirmtheir identities yet.”

Dozens of bullet-ridden bodies foundContinued fRoM page 1

“The prime minister hastaken this decision after con-sulting the Chaudhrys,” thesource said. muqam is fed-eral minister without anyportfolio and had resignedfrom his position days aftertaking oath as federal minis-ter in may last year as he wasunhappy with the portfolioof the ministry of Productionbut his resignation has so farnot been accepted by thePrime minister.

Hiraj had also resignedafter developing differenceswith minister for Housingand Works Faisal SalehHayat many months ago buthis resignation too has so farnot been accepted by theprime minister.

The source said the seatsbeing vacated by the PmL-Qmembers would be filled bythe same party’s parliamen-tarians and most likely PmL-Q mNA from Sahiwal,Nauman Langrial would beinducted in the federal cabi-net.

“Newly-elected mQmSenator, mustafa Kamal isalso being inducted in thefederal cabinet. The recentepisode of protest demon-stration by the muttahida inthe National and Sindh as-semblies against PPP gov-ernment over extortion issuewas meant to secure ministe-rial berth for Senatormustafa Kamal by exertingpressure on the PPP,” thesource added.

Kaira, GondalContinued fRoM page 1

DHAKAAfp

A Bangladesh court chargedthe eldest son of a former pre-mier, on Sunday, over a 2004grenade attack that killed atleast 20 people and injured thecurrent Pm, Sheikh Hasina.

The tribunal threw out anappeal by Tareque Rahman,46, who now lives in Britain,

against pursuing the chargesfiled in connection with one ofthe country’s worst incidents ofpolitical violence in decades.

Tareque Rahman, the sonand heir-apparent of two-timesex-premier Khaleda Zia, wouldbe tried in absentia, state pros-ecutor Syed Rezaur Rahmansaid, adding the court wouldstart the trial on march 28.

The charges carried the

death penalty, Rahman said.Defence lawyer moham-

mad Sanaullah told AFP hewould challenge the chargesagainst Tareque Rahman in ahigher court. Hasina was ad-dressing a rally in theBangladesh capital, Dhaka, onAugust 21, 2004, when thegrenades exploded, leaving atleast 20 people dead includingthe wife of the current president.

Pakistan didn’t seek

US apology on

Salala attacks: PM

“People think the PPP has theability of deliver and theytrust the party.”Referring to the energy issues,he said his government hadtaken a number of initiativesadding that the governmenthad completed the manglaDam raising, the constructionof Basha Dam and was alsoconcentrating on alternateenergy such as nuclear solar,hydel and wind while manyother projects are in thepipeline.He said the iranian gaspipeline project was alsounderway while Pakistan wasgetting 1000 megawatts ofelectricity from iran.Gilani said his governmenthad resolved more than halfthe issue of circular debtthrough the existingcapacity of electricity and ifthe rest could be sorted outin the coming nationalbudget, they could settlemany more issues.

Continued fRoM page 1

WASHINGtON Afp

Acrisis in Wash-ington’s rela-tions withAfghan Presi-dent Hamid

Karzai sparked attacks Sun-day on President BarackObama, as Republican presi-dential candidates heapedblame on him for the trou-bles in the US exit strategy.

Former massachusettsgovernor mitt Romney andex-senator Rick Santorum as-sailed the president on sepa-rate television talks shows ascreating an untenable situa-tion by setting a hard-and-fast2014 timetable for a US with-drawal. “if the game plan iswe’re leaving irrespective ofwhether we’re going to suc-ceed or not, then why are westill there?” asked Santorumon ABC’s “This Week.” “Let’seither commit to winning, orlet’s get out.”

The attacks from the rightcame as the administrationwas struggling to contain thefallout from a massacre of 16villagers, many of themwomen and children, by a USsoldier who allegedly went ona rampage march 11 in south-ern Afghanistan.

The White House saidObama and the Afghan leaderreaffirmed their commitmentto the 2014 withdrawal plan

in a phone call Friday. ButKarzai’s warning that he was“at the end of the rope” andpublic demands for an earlierpullback of US troops to theirbases underscored the yawn-ing divide between the alliesat a time of sharply decliningpublic support for the 10-year-old war in the UnitedStates.

Afghanistan’s ambassa-dor to the United States, eklilHakimi, said Karzai was re-flecting what Afghans are say-ing in the wake of a tragicevent, but still attaches greatimportance to the relation-ship with the United States.

But while the UnitedStates and Afghanistan areworking on defining a newstrategic relationship,Hakimi acknowledged, “it isa bumpy road.”

Republicans seized on theissue to accuse Obama of fail-ing to heed his commandersdemands for more troops, forwithdrawing a surge force toosoon and failing to demon-strate US commitment to asuccessful outcome. “i think itis plain to see that the condi-tions there are not going verywell,” said Romney on FoxNews Sunday. “And i lay partof the blame for that on thelack of leadership on the partof our president, both interms of his interactions withKarzai and with leaders thereas well as his relative detach-

ment from our military com-manders there.”

“This does have the indi-cations of a similarly failedwithdrawal or a failed com-pletion effort on the part ofthis president, just like we sawin iraq. He likewise failed inthe way we left iraq,” he said.

But neither he nor Santo-rum, who are vying to runagainst Obama in November,were clear about what theywould do if they were in thepresident’s place.

Santorum said he agreedin some respects with formerHouse speaker Newt Gin-grich, a rival for the Republi-can nomination who said lastweek it was likely the US mis-sion in Afghanistan was “notdoable.”

Romney said the currenttimetable should remain in ef-fect “unless of course thereare changes in conditions thatsuggest a faster withdrawal.”

Advocates of an extendedUS presence in Afghanistan,meanwhile, argued that thedecline in US public supportfor the war reflected a loss ofconfidence in the US strategy.

“Do we know what weare doing when these inci-dents happen and PresidentKarzai makes the statementsthat he has done?” askedZalmay Khalilzad, a formerUS ambassador to Kabulunder president George W.Bush, on CNN.

Republicans heapblame on Obamafor Afghan crisis

It’s a baby girl

for Karzai

KABuLinp

Afghan President HamidKarzai became father of a girlon Sunday. indian Primeminister Dr manmohan Singhsent a congratulatory messageto Karzai on the birth of hisdaughter. manmohan calledup Karzai to convey his goodwishes for the health andfuture well being of themother and the child, the PmOffice said in a statement.Karzai, 55, is married to DrZinat Karzai since 1998 andthis is their first child.

ex-Bangladesh pM son facestrial for deadly attack

Stolen NAto military

equipment being

sold in PakistanLONDON: Stockpiles ofmilitary equipmentintended for use againstthe Taliban are being soldin the Pakistani blackmarket, according to areport by the Sundayexpress. Stolen militaryknives, Kevlar bullet-proof vests, tool kits,flares, first aid sets andeven official stationeryare on sale in Pakistan.At Karkhano in Peshawar,merchants display massesof camouflage clothingand military-grade insectrepellents at knock-downprices. inp

pARis: supporters of front de gauche candidate for the 2012 french presidential election Jean-Luc Melenchon carry a mask depicting

french president nicolas sarkozy in a gathering at the Bastille square on sunday. Melenchon, who has shaken up france’s election

campaign with a surprise jump in the polls, represents a coalition of leftist parties including the communists. afp



News

LAHOREonLine

JAmAAT-e-iSLAmi chiefmunawar Hasan has de-scribed Osama bin Laden asthe greatest martyr and Pres-ident Asif Ali Zardari as the

biggest traitor. Addressing a public meeting at a

Chakwal village on Sunday, Hasan saidbin Laden had refused to obey the Satanupon which the US was so much upsetand ashamed that it could not releaseany photograph or video of his after his“martyrdom”.

Hasan said Prime minister YousafRaza Gilani, who had challenged theSupreme Court’s dignity should havebeen handcuffed and chained becausenot only had he violated his oath but

had also committed contempt by refus-ing to write to the Swiss Banks only tosave Zardari.

He impressed upon the chief justiceto not be impressed by the holders of thehighest offices and treat all equally.“Whosoever challenged the dignity ofthe court should be handed down deter-rent punishment,” he said, adding thathad people like Babar Awan andRehman malik been jailed for contempt,the prime minister could not have thecourage to disobey the court orders.

Hasan said the nation was in thegrip of “beasts” as a gang of exploiterswas ruling the country under the garb ofdemocracy while the common man wasunable to make both ends meet. He saidthe nation should realise that the cor-rupt could not control corruption andthe masses would have to rise against

the oppressive political system.The Ji chief said Zardari had show-

ered praises on Gilani whose onlyachievement was to hide Zardari’s cor-ruption.

He said parliament that was keen torestore NATO supplies to facilitate theenemy in the killing of innocent Pakista-nis was not the representative of this na-tion.

Despite parliament’s decision, therulers had continued NATO supplies bylying to the nation.

Hasan accused the rulers of follow-ing US policy on Balochistan, and said ifBalochistan was to be retained as a partof the country, the Baloch should not bepushed to the wall.

He said the PPP leadership wouldalso have to account for the mQm’scrimes.

Osama biggest martyr, Zardaribiggest traitor, says JI chief

hYDeRABAD: A troupe of indonesian artists dances at the indonesia-pakistan Joint cultural performance organised by the sindh culture Department on sunday. Inp

LAHOREnni

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan(HRCP) has voiced alarm over the continueddeterioration of human rights across thecountry and emphasised the need for all ac-tors and institutions to urgently addresspressing concerns as well as respect andstrengthen the political process.

A statement approved by the HRCP’sannual general meeting on Sundays said thecountry was passing through a critical phasewhere the democratic experiment is on trialand it is imperative that the political processis respected and reinforced.

“The Human Rights Commission ofPakistan considers it important that theprocess of improving the constitution con-tinues until all accretions of dictatorship arethrown out and the chapter on fundamentalrights is further reinforced.”

in HRCP’s view, a four-year term forparliament may also be considered so as toenable the people to exercise their demo-cratic rights more frequently and to hold thegovernment accountable. it will also createspace for the emergence of fresh leadership.

“Now is the time to improve vigilance inguarding against any form of extra-democ-ratic intervention in the forthcoming generalelections, by the military, by extremists, orthrough any special judicial process. Thepeople’s anxieties on that count must be

given due weight and urgently addressed.”“The HRCP is acutely concerned over es-

calations in religious and sectarian violenceand demands that the government launchand sustain a robust effort by civilian andmilitary authorities to adequately respond tothe growing menace, especially the oppres-sion of the Ahmedis, the killing of the Shias,and the kidnapping for ransom and forcedconversion of the Hindus. At least part of thefocus must be on stemming intolerance insociety.”

it said it was hard to find a silver liningin Balochistan where victims of enforced dis-appearance remain missing or their deadbodies are increasingly discovered. At least173 bodies were found in 2011.

“Unless political means are used to ad-dress an essentially political problem, thingsare bound to get worse. impunity for the se-curity agencies must be ended, law and orderimproved and the explosion in the incidentsof kidnapping for ransom brought undercontrol. in the final analysis the people ofBalochistan must have a decisive say in theiraffairs.”

The HRCP demanded the governmentpay immediate attention to early warningsigns of serious problems and unrest inGilgit-Baltistan and urged action to addresspeople’s political and socio-economic con-cerns and put an end to sectarian violence.

“There has been no improvement in thesituation in Karachi and nothing has been

done to prevent the regular cycles of vio-lence. A new wave of targeting political ac-tivists in Sindh through abduction andmurder has added to the alarm of the peo-ple.”

The government must immediately ac-knowledge all such detentions, release thepeople and put in place means to ensure thatdisappearances become a thing of the past.it is high time to introduce a compensationregime for victims of crime by the state.

A considerable number of people areknown to be in military detention followingthe security forces’ operations against themilitants. Due process must be ensured forthese people too. The consensus on the needto introduce legislation to regulate the work-ing of the intelligence agencies must be re-spected.

Threats to human rights defenders havecontinued unchallenged and three HRCP ac-tivists have been killed in 2011 alone. Thestate must ensure protection for those de-fending others’ rights and provide an envi-ronment conducive for them to work withoutthreats to their lives.

The HRCP general body condemns thedegree of freedom allowed to certain groupsto circulate malicious material against indi-viduals including Asma Jahangir. Such actsmust be investigated seriously and the per-petrators brought to justice.

The troubles of the internally displacedpersons (iDPs) do not appear to be a priority

for the government any more. That is unfor-tunate as the challenges of the displaced per-sons and HRCP’s concerns at their problemshave grown in recent months.

The shelter and livelihood concerns ofthose who have returned after displacementhave not been adequately addressed andthere is substantial room for improvement inconsultation with the affected people. Thehealth and education needs of the displacedchildren must be given much more prioritythan they have received so far.

The number of the Pakistanis, many ofthem irregular migrants, who are detainedabroad runs into thousands. Their plight hasgone unnoticed for long and deserves atten-tion. efforts must be made to ensure theirright to due process and to return home.

The people are gravely concerned overthe epidemic of kidnappings for ransom anda general breakdown of law and order allover Pakistan. Crime has grown in cities andrural areas alike and socio-economic rea-sons, including financial deprivation, havealso played a role. increased militant activityin the last few months has also added tothese concerns.

The people feel vulnerable and at themercy of criminals and militants. Weaponi-sation of society, violence in educational in-stitutions of higher learning and murders inthe name of honour continue. The HRCPgeneral body reminds the government of itsresponsibility to protect the rights of the peo-

ple beginning with their right to life.HRCP notes with disappointment that

the recent amendments to the FrontierCrimes Regulation (FCR) have brought vir-tually no change to the system of governance.Urgent changes must be made to the law toensure proper reform and due process. Col-lective punishment, punitive demolition ofhouses and all forms of arbitrary detentionmust be made illegal. The vacuum that existsin the enforcement of human rights in theFederally Administered Tribal Areas is inde-fensible and the creation of a mechanism forenforcement of human rights in the regioncannot be delayed.

The HRCP expressed its grave concernover challenges to freedom of expression andthe reported plans to censor the media andthe internet. it said the media, civil societyand the people in general must be consultedbefore any changes are considered in the law.

“it is a scandal that the misuse of blas-phemy laws and the official apathy and ap-peasement of extremists have continued.The government must abide by its promisesto protect the people from vigilantes claim-ing to act under the banner of religion.”

“The HRCP welcomes the recentlyadopted pro-women rights laws and willkeenly monitor how they are implemented.it also welcomes the SmS service providedby the election Commission for verificationof voters’ details and hopes that this wouldhelp ensure error-free electoral rolls.”

Human rights, political process must be respected, reinforced: HRCP

thai princess to visit

Pakistan from 19th

ISLAMABADstAff RepoRt

On invitation of President Asif Ali Zardari,Thai Princess maha Chakri Sirindhorn willvisit Pakistan from march 19, a ForeignOffice statement said on Sunday. “The visitcarries forward the long-standing tradition ofroyal visits from Thailand to Pakistan,” itsaid. “Pakistan and Thailand enjoy close andcooperative relations. The visit of Princessmaha Chakri Sirindhorn will reinforce thesetraditionally cordial ties between Pakistanand Thailand,” the statement said.

Zardari a completedemocraticpresident: firdous

SIALKOtstAff RepoRt

President Asif Ali Zardari has become acomplete democratic president after his fifthaddress to parliament and the PPP hassuccessfully eliminated all politicalconspiracies against Zardari, Federalinformation minister Dr Firdous AashiqAwan said on Sunday. She was addressing abig public gathering at Ludhar-Sialkot. Theminister said that the PPP had successfullystrengthened democracy and democraticinstitutions, being the guardian of theconstitution. Firdous said that the PPPwould never let others to derail democracy,adding that the PPP had also closed allbackdoors for others. She said that thepresident’s fifth address to parliament hadput democracy into its fifth consecutive yearby writing political history of nationalpolitics. The minister made it clear that noone would be allowed to conduct a trial ofBenazir Bhutto’s grave.


06 Monday, 19 March, 2012

News

LAHOREYAsiR hABiB

Pakistanis living in South Africa are fast be-coming part and parcel of its society be-cause of their enormous contribution in thebusiness development, trade growth, na-tional integration, cultural enrichment andinter-faith harmony of the country.

All credit goes to inkatha FreedomParty (iFP), an important opposition partyin South Africa, led by Prince mangosuthuButhelezi who helped a lot of Pakistanis tomerge into its social strata by introducingfriendly policies.

During his tenure in the government ashead of the ministry of Home Affairs, Pak-istani businessmen and qualified skilledpeople were vouchsafed with SA nationalityin recognition of their rigorous and merito-rious services for reshaping South Africainto rising star.

in an exclusive interview with iFPPresident Prince mangosuthu Buthelezi,an anti-apartheid icon like Nelson man-dela told Pakistan Today that Pakistanwas amongst the countries that lent agreat help to people of South Africaagainst the apartheid regime. “We cannotforget Pakistan’s overwhelming supportfor freedom movement and SA will al-ways commemorate it as friend in need isa friend indeed,” he said.

To a question, he criticised the rulingparty African National Congress (ANC)for not deepening relations with Pakistanas compared to india, Brazil, Canada,China and other countries. The iFP pres-ident proposed robust exchange of dele-gations comprising statesmen, politicians,traders and other section of society be-tween South Africa and Pakistan to fosterbilateral ties, saying the SA governmentshould never overlook mutual relationswith Pakistan as later was becoming aforce to be reckoned as game-changer innear future due to its geo-political andsocio-economic position in Asia.

“i will also speak about improving re-lations with Pakistan in parliament ses-sion,” he said, adding that if invited, itwould be an honour for him to visit Pak-istan to bring closer both countries.

To a query, he got aggrieved and ex-pressed his anxiety on widespread anti-for-eign riots in which Pakistani communitywas targeted by setting ablaze their shops

and even residences.“South Africans, angry at squalid living

conditions, resorted to violence and sub-jected Pakistani expatriates and other for-eigners to torture, a reminder of the socialproblems that persisted 20 years after therelease of Nelson mandela. Local media re-ported that the ethiopian, Pakistani andindian shopkeepers whose premises werelooted had to take refuge vacating theirhouses. innumerable people were killed ina wave of anti-foreigner riots that sweptacross the country in 2008. Johannesburgbecame a flashpoint during widespreaddemonstrations against poor public serv-ices in Africa’s biggest economy. many poorblack South Africans complained that theirlives did not improve since ANC swept to

power in 1994, promising to provide jobs,housing and medical care for all. Despite adecade of strong economic growth up to2009, official unemployment remainedhigher millions of blacks still live in tin-shack shanty towns with little access torunning water, sanitation or electricity andother civic amenities,” he said.

He blamed the ANC for all predica-ments of the foreigners as well as SA na-tionals due to its false promises,ill-conceived policies and vested interests.“Since the day the ANC seized power, can-cer of corruption that infused into thenorms, values and practices had startedspilling-over into broader society. TheANC is on the loose to abuse public officefor private gain.”

He said, “Public officials bend therules to channel patronage to relatives,friends and cronies, or accept bribes; aswell when private agents bribe public offi-cials to give them exclusive advantages orrights. Secondly, there is the ‘quiet’ cor-ruption, which occurs when ANC publicservants deliberately neglect their dutiesto provide public services or goods,” headded. He said corruption underminedthe credibility of the democratic system –it also undermined ordinary peoples’ trustin the government, and undermined therule of law. Now people believed that thegovernment was not pursuing the reformsin the widest public interest, but only toline the pockets of a few leaders.

Asked about the topic of single mothers,he said that this was because of more regen-eration corrupting the society in all itsforms. Shedding a light on the burningissue, he held the view that South Africa waspredominantly a patriarchal society andchildren had consequently suffered greatlydue to absent fathers. “men not facing theirpatriarchal responsibility have a profoundeffect on the collective consciousness of nextgenerations of South Africans,” he added.

“more concretely, effects of divorce onSouth African children include the increas-ing possibility for child exploitation. The in-crease of single parenthood in South Africaresulted to more orphans and street chil-dren as single parents opt to abandon theirchildren because of extreme poverty. Singlewomen parents feel the stigma of beingpoor and unmarried, widowed or divorcedand are under extreme pressure from thesociety. Single mothers who are looking forways to support their children and who arevery much willing to take huge risks to putsome bread on the table are very vulnerableto prostitution and trafficking,” PrinceButhelezi explained.

Showing his disquiet on the fast-de-pleting middleclass in South Africa, he saidthe poor were becoming poorer and richwere becoming richer. His excellency camehard on the proposed nationalisation policyand termed it a bad move, saying if it wasmaterialised, SA would go backwards andnot forward.

About South Africa’s future, he saidSouth Africa was an extraordinary countryendowed with extraordinary people and awealth of resources. “if South Africa isgoing to be the twenty-first century success

story that we all know it can be, boldchange is needed now,” he claimed. He saidSouth Africa needed to win the wars againstHiV/AiDS, unemployment, crime, povertyand corruption and prevent the consolida-tion of a one-party state.

Talking about the iFP’s manifesto, hesaid the iFP ensuring capable leadership ingovernment, would care resources and pro-tect highest ethical and moral standards.iFP will propel a golden cycle of acceleratedeconomic growth, which in turn wouldbeget jobs and reduce the spiralling levelsof poverty and crime. in parliament the iFPwill continue to champion federalism anddecentralisation of power between thethree spheres of government: national,provincial and local. The iFP has a two-pronged approach in dealing with theHiV/AiDS pandemic, namely preventionand caring for those infected.

“The iFP’s vision for South Africa is asa high wage/high skill economy. We willtransform South Africa’s economy by de-veloping our skills base. We will offer a reg-ulatory and fiscal environment that isattractive to foreign investment. We willmake investments to develop our long-termindustrial basis,” he added.

The iFP recognises that women have avery important role to fulfill in the transfor-mation of South Africa toward social stabil-ity and economic prosperity. in ademocracy, the participation of every indi-vidual is equally important and the iFP be-lieves that success requires that womentake up their position as contributors at alllevels of decision making. “The govern-ment’s centralist policies do not allow forthe full participation of all South Africansand results in large segments of our com-munities being bulldozed into acceptingpolicies which are unsuited to their uniqueneeds. The iFP wishes to rectify this situa-tion through the devolution of powers tothe lowest levels possible. The iFP presi-dent said the youth policy of the iFP en-couraged strong families and communities,positive role models, individual and com-munal self-reliance and the promotion ofsocial justice. An iFP led government willencourage and promote healthy lifestylesand high moral values among the youth,and focus on the immediate and long-termdangers of alcoholism, unwanted pregnan-cies, HiV/AiDS, prostitution, drug andother substance abuses, he concluded.

South African Pakistanis enormously contributing to country’s economyg country’s opp says it has helped Pakistanis to merge into SA’s social strata by introducing friendly policiesg Says Pakistani businessmen, qualified skilled people helped shape South Africa become a rising star

hYDeRABAD: Muttahida qaumi Movement (MqM) workers dance during a public meeting held on sunday to celebrate the party’s 28th foundation Day at Bagh-e-Mustafa ground, Latifabad. Inp

Give provinces

their rights,

demands Altaf

HYDERABADonLine

mQm chief Altaf Hussain on Sunday calledupon the scholars of Sindh to work towardselimination of distinction of new and oldSindhis. Addressing a large number of partyworkers via telephone at Bagh-e-mustafaGround on occasion of 28th founding day ofmQm, Altaf said that he had been living inexile for all these years because hecommitted just one sin of bringing poorpeople among rich industrialists. He saidthat he was the only politician who refusedto accept money from intelligence agencies,as former mehran Bank chairman YounisHabib said that Altaf had rejected moneyfrom intelligence agencies. He said thatprimitive feudal system did not exist in anyother part of the world except Pakistan.“People of Pakistan also want an end toslavery and poor peasants should also beconsidered as human beings,” he added. ThemQm chief said that it was only throughunity that Sindh could be put on the path toprogress. Altaf announced a special fund ofRs 1.5 million for journalists of Hyderabad.


Monday, 19 March, 2012

Don’t vote for the ‘filthy rich’,Altaf urges masses

MQM’s 28th foundation Day

07

KARACHIqAzi Asif

POiNTiNG out thatSindh’s resources havebeen “plundered” on amassive scale and its peo-ple stripped of their “dig-

nity”, Jeay Sindh Tehreek (JST)chief Dr Safdar Sarki demanded onSunday that a referendum be held onthe independence of the province.

“The future of our Urdu-speak-ing Sindhi brethren does not lie withthe muttahida Qaumi movement(mQm), and it is the JST that willprovide them with complete protec-tion and fight for their rights,” hesaid.

“There is no tussle between theUrdu-speaking Sindhis and the fol-lowers of Gm Syed.”

Addressing a JST rally near

Tibet Centre on mA Jinnah Road,Sarki said Sindh has been robbednumerous times throughout its his-tory.

“People of other nationalitieshave settled in Sindh. it was a bigconspiracy against the people of theprovince,” he added.

The JST chief said the people of

Sindh and Balochistan are headedtowards their independence at a fastpace.

“We will not accept the slaveryof Punjab. The one-unit system wasimposed in 1958 and Sindh wasturned into Lahore’s slave,” he re-marked.

He said Punjab should accept

the freedom movements in Sindhand Balochistan and behave like a“good neighbour”.

“The so-called constitutionalamendments are not the solution tothe problems of Sindh’s people,” headded.

The JST rally was supposed to bea “million march”, but the party wasunable to attract the number of par-ticipants it was expecting, with onlyaround 5,000 turning up at thevenue.

The JST rally was guarded by theparty’s own gun-trotting men, whoviolated the provincial government’sban on display of weapons with im-punity.

The mA Jinnah Road and its ad-joining roads were blocked and alarge number of law enforcementagencies’ personnel were deployedin the area.

‘We’ve hadenough of bad

neighbourPunjab’

■ Jeay Sindh tehreek chief Dr Safdar Sarki demands

referendum on independence of Sindh

■ Says future of Urdu-speaking Sindhis does not lie with

the MQM; his party will provide them with protectionno, thAt is DefiniteLY not going to heLp YouR cAuse: one of the gun-trotting men that were guarding the

JSt rally. phoToS BY aSIM rehManI

ReADY foR Action: Holding axes, a few participants of the rally salute as

they listen to the national anthem of the “independent Sindh”.

KARACHIAftAB chAnnA

Tossing aside claims of the Sindh irriga-tion Department officials of completelydraining out floodwater from the dis-tricts affected by monsoon rains lastyear, the provincial Relief and Rehabili-tation Department – after a detailed sur-vey of the on-ground situation in theflood-affected districts – has disclosed inits report that more than 25 percent ofthe flood-hit areas are still inundated.

Well-placed sources told PakistanToday that the officials of the Sindh Re-lief and Rehabilitation Department haveforwarded a report to the provincial chiefminister pointing out that the people liv-ing in the flood-affected districts arepassing through very difficult times dueto the negligence of the irrigation staff indraining out floodwater.

The districts visited by the relief de-partment included Badin, Sanghar, mir-purkhas, Umerkot, Tharparkar, TandoAllahyar, Benazirabad, Tando moham-mad Khan, Khairpur mirs, Nosheroferozand Dadu.

The sources said that while the irri-gation department officials claim thatfloodwater in at least 98 percent of theaffected areas have been flushed out,

more than 25 percent of the areas are stillunderwater and there is a desperate needto drain the accumulated water to re-sume routine works.

The sources also claimed that thefloodwater from the lands owned by in-fluential landlords has been drained outbut the lands belonging to the commonpeople are still submerged. “Thefavourite people of government officerswere given assistance in provision ofWatan Cards and distribution of urea butthe general public had to face all types ofdifficulties,” they said.

Quoting from the report, the sourcessaid there is an urgent need to take nec-essary steps to improve the image of thegovernment.

The report included a village-wisesituation of accumulated floodwater inthe districts, stating that in Dighri, mir-purkhas there are many large pockets ofstagnant rainwater in union councils(UC) of Kingrio and Soofan Shah and inDeh 170, while around 50 percent of thePubban area is also submerged.

There are also large pockets of flood-water in various areas of Jhuddo includ-ing UCs of Jhuddo, Roshanabad, Ahoriand in the Syed Noor Ali Shah village andaround its vicinity where all houses col-lapsed during the natural calamity.

in Naukot also, there is an urgentneed of dewatering through coordinationof HeSCO and SeeDA while the DhoroPurano, which was meant for drainage offloodwater has been encroached, whilethere are breaches in the drainage whichrequire immediate filling and restructur-ing.KOT GHuLAM MOHAMMAD:Dudho Goth, Diyal Goth, Deh 269, 299,300, 268 and 268-A in Sikiryari are stillunder rainwater up to almost two feet.SINDHRI: UCs Hingorno, ismail JoGoth, Phulahdiyun, Garhore Sharif andother areas of Sindhri are under thefloodwater.

in mithi and Kaloi areas ofTharparkar, people are compelled to livein relief tents due to rainwater.

Umerkot: floodwater still standingin areas of Atta Pali, Ali Bux manglani.DHORO NARO: most areas of DhoroNaro under water.KuNRI: rainwater still standing in var-ious areas of Kunri including UCs SherKhan Chandio, Bhustta, Padhuro Formand Chajrro and Tali, Nabi Sar.SAMARO: large ponds of rainwater invarious areas of Samaro, like Pir Colony,City Colony, meghwar Colony, DehKharoro, UC Padrio and other areas.SANGHAR: There are 54 UCs inSanghar district and rainwater in 34UCs like wise UC-1, UC-2, UC-mayani, UC-Kandiari and UC-SetharPeer UC- Chhutiaran, UC- Kahorarand Goth Dalail Shar, and Lal Hus-sain mari Goth.

Kutchi leader, twoothers murdered■ Violence breaks out in Lyari after

attack; police and Rangers deployedto maintain law and order

KARACHIstAff RepoRt

A senior leader of Kutchi RabitaCommittee (KRC), his securityguard and a policeman werekilled and three others injuredon Sunday when unidentifiedassailants opened fire at them inAgra Taj Colony on Sundaynight.

The deputy inspector gen-eral South told Pakistan Todaythat the KRC leader, RasheedKutchi, a builder by profession,went to inspect an under-con-struction building in Agra TajColony when eight attackers,riding motorcycles, opened fireon him.

Kutchi and his securityguard Zubair died on the spotwhile a policeman Khalil, alsowounded in the attack, suc-cumbed to his injuries duringtreatment at the Civil HospitalKarachi (CHK). Three others ac-companying Kutchi were alsoinjured.

The police official said aheavy contingent of police andRangers has been deployed inLyari to maintain law and order.

He said Kutchi was also aformer employee of the SindhHigh Court. He was running aconstruction company after hisretirement.

Violence broke out in LyariTown after the murder of theKRC leader. Unidentified peoplefired gunshots in different partsof the town.

A large number of KRCmembers reached the CHK andtook their late colleague’s bodyto his home after autopsy.

Dawood Kutchi, anothersenior leader of the KRC, toldPakistan Today that the com-mittee has announced a day ofmourning on monday (today)and requested traders to ob-serve a shutter-down strike toprotest the killing.

He said the KRC will decideits future course of action afterthe leader’s burial.

25 percent of Sindh’s flood-hitdistricts still inundated

Dr safdar sarki


karachi08PakistaN today


KARACHI teXt AnD photos BY AMAR guRiRo

even though the winter season in Sindhthis year has lasted more than it usuallydoes, the scorching rays of sun could befelt at the date palm orchards of Khair-pur mirs.

For those interested in politics,Khairpur is the native district of Sindhchief minister Qaim Ali Shah. For his-torians, it was a state ruled by Talpurmirs (ameers) of the Talpur dynastyand was included in Pakistan in 1955.

For heritage lovers, Khairpur hashistorical sites including the Faizmahal and Kot Diji Fort. environmen-talists think that the district has greatimportance due to the presence of thewildlife sanctuary of mehrano, knownfor its black buck and hog deer, both ofthem now rare in Sindh.

Khairpur is also famous for its datepalm orchards and the Aseel dates.Simple dates, dry dates, sweets made ofdates and even date pickles; they areavailable in various varieties in the dis-trict.

According to the official records ofthe Pakistan Agricultural and ResearchCouncil, the total annual production ofdates in Pakistan is about 0.54 milliontonnes with the contribution of Sindhcoming to 0.28 million tonnes,

Balochistan 0.175 million tonnes, Khy-ber Pakhtunkhwa 0.05 million tonnesand Punjab 0.039 million tones.

Around 85 percent of these datesare dried and turned into chuhara, themajority of which is exported to india,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The presence of these vast scattereddate palm orchards in northern Sindh

makes livelihood possible for hundredsof families.

According to the owners of or-chards, if government makes specialarrangements, they can expand theseorchards that will not only providelivelihood for hundreds other labour-ers, but the country can fetch more for-eign money through exports.

Date palm trees are spread over98,000 hectares across Pakistan mak-ing it the fifth largest date producer inthe world at 0.7million metric tonnes,with most orchards found in Balochis-tan. However, Sindh leads in produc-tion.

markhand, an orchard owner, saysthe date palm tree is one of the most re-

silient plants and a rise in temperatureor climate change will not be able tohave any adverse affect on it for “an-other 200 years at least”.

“But dates grow best where thetemperatures are hot so that ripeningperiod is short. The date palm tree be-comes fully fertile in nine years andbears fruit for over 80 years,” he adds.

don’t vote for the ‘filthy rich’, altaf urges masses■ Asks intellectuals, journalists and writers of Sindh to work on removing differences and divisions between ‘new’ and ‘old’ Sindhis

KARACHIstAff RepoRt

mUTTAHiDA Qaumimovement (mQm) chiefAltaf Hussain requestedthe masses on Sundaynot to vote for feudal

lords, chieftains or the “filthy rich”, whohave amassed wealth through corrup-tion.

According to a press statement, healso asked intellectuals, journalists andwriters of Sindh to work on removing dif-ferences and divisions between “new”and “old” Sindhis.

“if Pakistan is to become prosperousand strong, the legitimate rights of theSindh would have to be granted, Hussainsaid while addressing a large gathering atal mustafa Ground in Hyderabad on theoccasion of the mQm’s 28th FoundationDay.

Hussain said he is living in exile forover 20 years because he refused to takemoney from government agencies andsell his conscience.

He said he had sent able and edu-cated people from the poor and middleclasses to the assemblies and broughtthem on equal footing with feudal lords.

Hussain said the medieval feudal sys-tem has been scrapped throughout theworld, but unfortunately, it is still pre-vailing in Pakistan.

“The mQm wants to liberate poorpeasants and farmers from the oppres-sive subjugation of feudal lords andchieftains who look upon poor people astheir slaves. The feudalistic system hasweakened the entire society, and the pol-itics of the country has become the fief-dom of a few “filthy rich” families,” henoted.

Hussain said the present-day Pak-istan does not belong to the commonPakistanis. “The mQm will build a Pak-istan of the poor and middle classes inthe true sense of the words,” he added.

Hussain stressed upon parliamentar-ians to work on giving the peasants andfarmers of the country the status of in-dustrial labourers.

“The mQm is neither socialist norcommunist. The mQm is not against pri-vate industries, but it opposes uncon-trolled capitalism,” he maintained.

Hussain said the mQm is the onlypolitical party that has raised the issue ofthe extortion mafia operating in Karachi.“No other political party has cared toraise this issue that is plaguing the busi-ness community in Karachi,” he added.

Hussain congratulated PresidentAsif Ali Zardari on addressing the jointsitting of the parliament for the fifth

consecutive time.Hussain appealed to the people of

Sindh not to be misled by the “so-callednationalist elements” in the province.

He exhorted them to join the mQmas it wants to emancipate poor peoplefrom the oppression and injustices offeudal lords.

“The mQm was the only politicalparty in the country that is against thespread of sectarianism. it wants sectar-ian harmony. it is because of the earnestdesire of the mQm to promote interfaithharmony that people from different reli-gious backgrounds are joining the partyin large numbers,” he said.

Hussain said if the mQm comes intopower, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs andfollowers of all other faiths would haveequal rights. “There will be no minoritiesin the country as everyone would be-come equal citizens of Pakistan,” headded.

Speaking about the problems beingfaced by the people of Hyderabad, Hus-sain stressed upon the government to

take immediate steps to give relief to thepeople.

“There is no university in Hyder-abad. Governor Dr ishratul ebad hadannounced the establishment of a uni-versity in the city, but the Sindh Assem-bly has not passed the bill for thispurpose. That bill should be passed ur-gently,” he said.

Hussain said the sewerage system inLatifabad is dilapidated and overflowingsewage is causing immense problems forthe people. “Additional funds should beallocated for improving the seweragesystem in Latifabad,” he added.

The mQm chief said bangle manu-facturing is an important industry of Hy-derabad. “The government shouldsupport the people affiliated with thebangle industry and help in its revival,”he demanded.

Hussain also noted that there is nocardiovascular hospital in Hyderabadand asked the government to set up ahospital in Hyderabad for heart diseasepatients.

He also called for building an informa-tion technology college in Hyderabad andasked mQm parliamentarians to utilisetheir development funds for this purpose.

Speaking on the occasion, mQm Ra-bita Committee Deputy Convener andFederal minister for Overseas Pakistanis

Dr Farooq Sattar warned the “so-callednationalist elements” not to breach theunity of the people of Sindh.

Sattar said the mQm opposes the ge-ographical division of Sindh, but itequally opposes creating divisionsamong its people.

The date palm orchards of Khairpur


karachi 09PakistaN today


Newly appointed SHc addl judgesto take oath tomorrow

anti-extortion cells to be setup in five districts of city

KARACHIApp

Anti-extortion cells will be establishedin five districts of Karachi, it was de-cided at a meeting chaired by Sindh in-spector General of Police (iGP)mushtaq Ahmed Shah.

According to a statement issued onSunday, the participants of the meetingreviewed the performance of the anti-extortion cell at the SiU and it was de-cided that such cells will also be set up

in five districts of the city.They will remain in contact with one

another as well as that functioning atthe SiU.

The iGP directed that the system ofreceipt of intelligence reports in this re-gard should be improved further.

He instructed that the deployment,patrolling, surveillance, picketing andsnap checking at commercial centres,industrial area, public places etc shouldbe further beefed up for the protectionof the lives and property of the people.

Shah also stressed that the policingsystem be made more effective andthere should be coordination in the ad-ministrative affairs.

He said that a suggestion is beingconsidered for enhancing the policedivisions from three to five in a dis-trict so that action can be ensuredagainst those involved in extortionand other crimes.

The iGP directed that a workingpaper should be prepared and submit-ted for necessary action in this regard.

KARACHIApp

A three-day series of semi-nars in memory of ArfaKarim Randhawa will starton monday (today) at the De-

partment of mathematics,University of Karachi.

A documentary film re-lated to life and achieve-ments of Arfa will also beshowed during the event, itwas stated in a statement is-

sued on Sunday. Arfa Karim Randhawa

became the youngest mi-crosoft Certified Professionalat the age of nine years in2004. She died at the age of16 at a hospital in Lahore.

KARACHIApp

The oath-taking ceremony ofthe newly appointed addi-tional judges of the Sindh

High Court (SHC) will beheld on Tuesday (tomorrow).

According to an an-nouncement issued by theSHC registrar on Saturday

evening, SHC Chief Justicemushir Alam will administeroath to the newly appointedjudges - Nadeem Akhtar andmohammad Shafi Siddiqui.

Seminars in memory of Arfa Karim start today

eATiNG disorders refer to a groupof conditions characterised byabnormal eating habits. They in-volve either insufficient or exces-sive food intake that is

detrimental to an individual’s physical andemotional health.

Binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosaand anorexia nervosa are considered to bethe most common forms of eating disorders.

They are among the potentially lethalpsychiatric illnesses, and are predominatelyrepresented by a mental effect of preoccupa-tion with body weight, shape and diet.

in addition, eating disorders frequentlyoccur with other psychiatric disorders suchas depression, substance abuse, and anxietydisorders.

People with anorexia have an extremefear of gaining weight, which propels themto maintain a weight far less than normal.

Bulimia is characterised by a cycle ofbinge eating, followed by attempts to removeunwanted calories.

People with binge eating disorders ofteneat an uncontrollable, large amount of foodduring the binges.

The exact cause of eating disorders isunknown; however, it is believed to be dueto a combination of biological, psychologicaland/or environmental abnormalities.

A common phrase in such conditions isthat “genetics loads the gun, environmentpulls the trigger”.

Various studies have reported preva-lence of eating disorders. in Western coun-tries, the population-based andclinical-based assessments have reportedprevalence of anorexia nervosa to rangefrom 0.1 percent to 5.7 percent, while bu-limia nervosa ranged from 0.3 percent to 7.3percent in female subjects.

A study conducted on college studentsreported 3.8 percent prevalence of bulimianervosa in females and 0.2 percent in males.

Another study diagnosed 4.7 percent offemale college students with eating disor-ders.

medical students are associated withhigh levels of stress that stands as a criticallyimportant causative factor of eating disor-ders.

Thus, it is quite important to analyse allsuch instabilities in medical students whoare an asset for the future of this country.

Studies have been conducted in theWestern scenario to assess eating disordersin medical students.

A study from the US showed that 15 per-cent of the female medical students had ahistory of eating disorders.

in Pakistan, a study conducted in La-hore among 369 school girls and anotherstudy conducted in mirpur among 271school girls revealed one case of bulimia andno cases of anorexia.

Although, five girls from Lahore alsosuffered from partial syndrome bulimia ner-vosa.

Another survey from Lahore among 111volunteers showed an occurrence of twocases of bulimia nervosa and another twocases of eating disorders not otherwise spec-ified.

While eating disorders are characterisedas a mental health condition, they have thepotential to lead to other serious physicalhealth problems.

Keeping such ominous medical conse-quences in view, it is naturally alarming thatthe future physicians of Karachi, prone tosuch stressful conditions, might be at signif-icantly high risk of contracting eating disor-ders that would hamper the availability ofdependable medical services in the future.

The earlier these disorders are diag-nosed and assessed, the better the chancesare for enhanced treatment and better re-covery.

Therefore, we intend to undertake a de-scriptive study to assess the incidence ofhigh-risk of eating disorders among medicalstudents of Karachi.METHODS: This was a descriptive crosssectional study conducted in three renownedmedical colleges of Karachi, namely Dowmedical College, Sindh medical College andAga Khan University, between January 1 andJune 30, 2011.

The study included 495 undergraduatemedical students. Random samplingmethod was acquired.

Participants from first to final year ofmedical school were approached directlywithin the college timings.

The ethical Review Board of Dow Uni-versity of Health and Sciences approved thestudy.

All participants completed a self reportscreening package that included the eatingattitude test (eAT-26) and SCOFF question-naire.

english versions of both the question-naires were used. No translated versionswere adopted.

Written consent was also obtained fromall participants. Body mass index (Bmi) wascalculated based on self reported height andweight.

eAT-26 is a validated self-administeredquestionnaire widely used to measure eatingdisorders.

it comprises 26 questions, for whichscoring is done on a six-point scale from al-ways to never. Total sum of eAT-26 scoresrange from 0 to 78.

SCOFF is another highly accurate self-administered questionnaire widely used as ascreening tool for eating disorders.

it comprises five questions, for whichscoring is done on a two-point scale, namely‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

The data was entered and analysedusing the Statistical Package for the SocialSciences (SPSS) version 16.

Relevant frequency and percentageswere calculated for qualitative variables,whereas means ± standard deviations werecalculated for quantitative variables.

P-values were also obtained by PearsonChi Square Test to determine the signifi-cance of the results.FINDINGS: Out of 495 individuals, 435 re-turned the complete questionnaires giving aresponse rate of 87.8 percent. Out of 435 in-dividuals, 342 were female, while 93 weremale.

The mean age of the population was20.5 years ± 1.67 years, while mean Bmiratio was 20.1 years ± 3.3 years.

mean age of male participants was20.24 years ± 1.89 years, while it was foundto be 20.65 years ± 1.60 years in females.

The average Bmi, eAT-26 score andSCOFF score was 21.57 kg/ m2, 11.86/78and 1.18/5 in male participants, with stan-dard deviation of 4.01, 1.18 and 1.19, respec-tively.

mean (SD) was 19.80 (3.08), 13.55(9.71) and 1.29 (1.22) in females, respec-tively.

Based on the data, two new derivativeswere produced using the 75th percentile andnamed as the empirically derived cut-off.

Hence, the cut-off value for eAT-26 wasfound to be more than 18, while cut-off forSCOFF was found to be more than 2.

Thus, out of 435 individuals who werescreened through the two questionnaires,eAT-26 questionnaire detected 99 (22.75

percent) individuals with high risk of eatingdisorders, while SCOFF questionnaire de-tected 74 (17 percent) at high risk.EAT-26 FINDINGS: Out of the reported99 high-risk individuals, 87 (87.9 percent)were females and 12 (12.1 percent) weremales.

medical students of younger age groupwere found to be more susceptible. Sixty-five(65.65 percent) were from age group 18 to21, while only 34 (34.34 percent) were fromage group 22 to 25.

Bmi ratio of majority (n = 53, 53.5 per-cent) of the individuals screened by eAT-26to be at high-risk eating disorders fell intonormal category (18.5 to 25 kg/m2).

Out of the 99 high-risk individuals,76.76 percent (n = 76) were terrified of beingoverweight, while 68.68 percent (n = 68)were preoccupied with the desire to be thin-ner.

The number of those engaged in dietingbehaviour was 55 (55.56 percent); however,only 9 percent (n = 9) vomited after eating,while 73.7 percent (n = 73) displayed self-control around food.

All the questions of eAT-26 were di-vided into the three subscales, namely ‘diet-ing’, ‘bulimia and food preoccupation’, and‘oral control’.SCOFF FINDINGS: Out of the reported74 high-risk individuals, 58 (78.4 percent)were females and 16 (21.6 percent) weremales.

Fifty-three (71.6 percent) were from agegroup 18 to 21, while only 21 (28.4 percent)were from age group 22 to 25; thus, SCOFFreports younger age group to be more at risk.MODELS: To find the eating disorder usingeAT-26 questionnaire, we used binary logis-tic backward method.

in the first step, the covariate age playeda role insignificantly; therefore, it was elim-inated from the model, and the final modelis given as eAT-26 disorder (Yes) = -3.320 -1.077 (male) + 0.112 Bmi.

The model explain us that the odds of aperson with eating disorder was 0.341 inmale as compared to female, with 95 percentconfidence interval (0.676, 0.172), and a unitchange in Bmi will increase the odds for dis-order 0.112 time on average, with 95 percentconfidence interval (1.199, 1.043).

When the same method was performedfor the SCOFF questionnaire, we get thatonly Bmi played a significant role for eatingdisorder, and the computed model wasSCOFF eating disorder (Yes) = -4.657 +0.148 Bmi.

This explains us that the unit change inBmi will increase the odds for disorder0.148 times on average, with 95 percent con-fidence interval (1.247, 1.078).DISCuSSION: Our study reports that sig-nificant proportion of medical undergradu-ates are at high-risk of suffering from eatingdisorders, with 99 (22.75 percent) individu-als scoring above the threshold for eAT-26questionnaire, while 74 (17 percent) scoringabove the threshold for SCOFF question-naire.

This is higher than recently reportedeating disorder symptoms in 9.59 percentamong Latino college students in the US.

This strengthens the fact that eating dis-orders are a mounting concern in our regionin relation to other parts of the world.

We reported a significant majority of fe-males being at high-risk of eating disordersas compared to males.

A study reported a similar ratio betweenmale and female students wherein a highproportion of female subjects (anorexia = 1percent to 4.2 percent or bulimia = 6.5 per-cent to 18.6 percent) suffered from eating

disorders, while none of the male subjectswas reported positive.

Another study reported females (bingeeating, n = 49 percent; bulimia, n = 4 per-cent) at a greater risk to develop eating dis-orders.

As also seen in our study with universi-ties located in urbanised locations, femalesin such settings, as avid media followers, areparticularly more prone to developing eatingdisorders.

Various studies in different settingshave highlighted the role of media exposureand its psychological effect, particularly onfemales, with the resultant development ofbody dissatisfaction culminating in eatingdisorders.

in a setting like Pakistan, the increasingdrive of particularly females to emulate eu-ropean culture as viewed via media has ledto an unhealthy stringent dieting and exer-cising regime.

interestingly, our study showed that ofthe individuals with normal Bmi values,29.6 percent still suffered from eating disor-ders as diagnosed by eAT-26 (n = 53/179),while according to SCOFF, 23.5 percent(42/179) of normal individuals were suffer-ing from eating disorders.

Overweight individuals were found to bemore likely to have eating disorders in rela-tion to underweight individuals.

According to SCOFF, 21.2 percent(7/33) of the overweight and 12.2 percent(22/180) of the underweight individualsscored above the cut-off score; thus, theywere likely to have eating disorders.

Similarly, in accordance with eAT-26,18.2 percent (6/33) of the overweight indi-viduals and 15.6 percent (28/180) of the un-derweight individuals were likely to haveeating disorders.

The plausible explanation for our find-ing that underweight individuals are lesslikely to have eating disorders in relation tooverweight individuals can be provided byelucidating that eating disorders are mor-bidities with psychological basis. even indi-viduals with normal Bmi can have thelikelihood of these disorders.

Thus, it depends only in part on the ac-tual body mass. One debatable reason can bethe psychological satisfaction attained afterachieving the desired body shape.

Therefore, the causative factor that pro-pelled them to have eating disorders wasnow resolved.

Further studies must be carried out inthe future to find out if eating disorders re-

solve after a person achieves the desired leanbody image.

Other possible reasons for low-weightindividuals can be the genetic factors as wellas undernutrition. Another study has alsoreported a high rate of undernutrition in thePakistani population.

Also, for each particular class of Bmi,SCOFF diagnosed more than twice individ-uals as likely to have eating disorders ascompared to eAT-26. This can be seenclearly in normal, underweight and over-weight individuals.

eating disorders, particularly anorexianervosa, is reported to derange several sys-tems with resultant complications rangingfrom purpura, liver dysfunction, osteoporo-sis, diabetic complications to acrocyanosis.

Particularly, anorectic patients havebeen reported to die at a premature age pos-sibly from one of the above-stated medicalcomplications.

This disconcerting information shouldcome in the knowledge of such individualssuffering from the disorder or at a high riskof developing one, who involve grossly in un-healthy dieting or purging cycle, particularlyfemales.

The limitations of our study includesthat we have focused only on medical stu-dents in colleges from the urban set-up. Fur-ther studies should be carried out that checkthe pattern of eating disorders in the ruralset-up.

Furthermore, the most important limi-tation is the furtiveness and disagreementattributed to many of the subjects sufferingfrom eating disorders. This is common in al-most all the studies on eating disorders.

Further surveys need to be conductedthat will co-relate socio economic group,ethnicity and relationship status (divorced,married or single) with the development ofthe disorder, which in other studies havebeen reported to be highly associated withthe types of eating disorders.

early detection of such factors causingeating disorders is important as having a sig-nificant impact in treatment of such disor-ders at an early stage with resultant greaterefficiency of performance by future physi-cians.

Extracted from ‘Eating disorders in medicalstudents of Karachi, Pakistan: a cross-sec-tional study’ authored by Akhtar AminMemon, Syeda Ezz-e-Rukhshan Adil, EfazaUmar Siddiqui, Syed Saad Naeem, SyedAdnan Ali and Khalid Mehmood

Karachi’s future doctors at high risk of eating disorders


karachiPakistaN today

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goLDen coLLection ii

A group exhibition ‘The GoldenCollection ii’ from march 21 to 28 atthe Unicorn Gallery. Call 35831220for more information.

ARt EXHIBItIONStARtS MARCH 21VENuE: uNICORN GALLERY

KhusRo/AfshAn

Khusro Subzwari and AfshanKohari’s art exhibition until march24 at the Grandeur gallery. Call35435744 for more information.

ARt EXHIBItIONuNtIL MARCH 24VENuE: GRANDEuR

BARAKA siLsiLA-e-nisBAt

Farah mahbub’s ‘Baraka Silsila-e-Nisbat’ until march 24 at the VmArt Gallery. Call 34940411 formore information.

ARt EXHIBItIONuNtIL MARCH 24VENuE: VM ARt GALLERY


KARACHIApp

Measures to prevent anyoutbreak of dengue feverand malaria have been in-tensified in Karachi, CityCommissioner Roshan Ali

Sheikh said on Sunday.“Equal attention is being given to fu-

migation and removal of garbage dumpsas well as regular spray of insecticideson water puddles,” he added.

In a meeting with a delegation oftechnical experts from Turkey, the com-missioner said 858 confirmed cases ofdengue fever were registered in Karachiduring 2011 while during the currentyear, 29 cases have been reported atdifferent local hospitals so far with nomortality rate.

“These patients have been dis-charged after complete recovery,” headded.

Sheikh attributed the controlled sit-uation to a massive and well-chalkedout public awareness campaign focusedon prevention within the homes asdengue vector mosquitoes breed inclean water.

Expressing his gratitude for the Turk-ish delegation’s offer to help health andmunicipal departments in the preven-tion of dengue fever, he said it was theclose coordination among different de-partments, as well timely measures thathave averted the outbreak of the fataldisease.

The commissioner said the changingenvironmental conditions have turneddengue fever into a constant threat inurban areas and also rural settings, in-

cluding urban slums, vulnerable tomalaria.

“It is therefore necessary that peopleare actively involved to protect them-selves against mosquito- induced dis-eases that are also closely linked tohygiene conditions,” he noted.

Sheikh identified public awareness aswell as constant vigilance on part ofhealth workers as a crucial element toprotect people against dengue fever andsaid the disease’s intensity can signifi-cantly be reduced, instantly bringing adecline in the associated mortality aswell as morbidity rates.

Karachi Additional CommissionerAbdul Wahab Soomro, Dengue FeverControl Cell Focal person, Dr. Shakil AMullick and Health District Officer DrAslam Pervez were also present on theoccasion.

‘Karachi’s administration going the extra mile to prevent dengue outbreak’


Editor’s mail 11Monday, 19 March, 2012

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected]. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

‘Legitimate criticism’Your editorial “Legitimate criticism”

in the march 16 issue was certainly abalanced comment on the Chief ofArmy Staff, General Ashfaq ParvezKayani’s remarks in which he lamentedthat the army-bashing and allegationmongering in the mehrangate case wereweakening national institutions andlowering the morale of the armed forcesand it was time now to look to the fu-ture and stop fighting with history.

Certainly, it is two plus two “whenthe army does the job it is mandated todo, the country salutes it. When it dab-bles in areas outside its constitutionaldomain, it rightfully attracts criticism.”However, there is a minute differencebetween what should come out as a titfor tat or quid pro quo and the choice ofchoosing the hard-hitting way of turn-ing all guns towards one and join thecampaign that results in damaging theentire edifice of an institution that tooklong years of making it.

What i have got from the COASGeneral Kayani’s statement is his veryserious concern over giving the hype inthe breadth and width of country overthe media, in the drawing rooms and atthe coffee shops, that too making theold cases a point under the highlycritical situation facing the armedforces when they need the most theinsurmountable resolve of the nation attheir back.

The biggest asset is the one’s imagein the public eyes, if that is damaged,out of truth though, it takes anothersimilar years to recollect. The fact re-mains that the armed forces are theonly hope for the country.

They have delivered, be it war im-posed from outside or inside, be it natu-ral calamities or national call, and theirrole has been exemplary merit-based,with an effective in-house system of ac-countability, checks and balance, per-formance and professionalism.

FZ KHANIslamabad

Nato supplyThe daily Pakistan Today reported

the other day that "military agrees toresume cooperation with US onParliament's nod".

With slight modifications andchanges, it looks business as usual maybe returning again. However, it ishumbly suggested that Pakistan mustput a condition that before restorationof the land supplies, besides other termsand conditions, United States ofAmerica must pay all outstandingCoalition Support Fund (CSF) dues toPakistan, which is close to almost threebillion dollars.

SYED NAYYAR UDDIN AHMADLahore

Security situationThe law and order situation in the

provincial capital and other parts of theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) hasworsened over the last few weeks andthe police force is struggling to copewith the issue.

Apart from incidents of terrorism,people are being looted, kidnapped andkilled in the crowded localities of Pe-shawar and its outskirts. The policeforce, however, is mostly concentratingon security of the government installa-tions, offices and police stations leavingthe public at the mercy of the criminals.

isn’t it the job of police to provideall the citizens with the security of theirlives? What is the reason for thesedouble standards?

KHURRAM SALEEMIslamabad

Saving moneyevery time, the petroleum products’

prices are increased, the federal govern-ment comes out with a clichés-filledstatement that increase in petrol, diesel,CNG prices had become inevitable forreasons better known to the official quar-ters concerned.

Such an increase in POL productsprices is being affected as a ritual forquite sometime without giving any con-sideration to the problems which are re-sultantly created across the board forpeople from all walks of life with mo-torists paying more for petrol, diesel andCNG, commuters forced to pay morefares for travelling in buses, wagons andrickshaws and essential daily use articlesalso costing more due to higher trans-portation charges and greater lust forprofiteering by fleecing the needy buyers.

At the same time, such a situationalso increases the dire need for adoptionof fuel saving measures in order to offsetthe adverse impact of such frequent in-creases in POL prices on domestic budg-ets of those with modest earning.

These measures, in all fairness, couldbe reducing the travelling by cars or lookfor any other method for keeping the fuelconsumption on the low side compara-tively without compromising on distanceone has to travel in a vehicle for businessor other needs. it may not be possible formany to reduce their travelling for onereason or the other.

indeed, there is dire need for fuelsaving measures particularly for thosewho have to spend on petrol, diesel orCNG from their own pockets, irrespec-tive of how resourceful they are.

MOHSIN ABDUL HAQLahore

conspiracies?in continuation of my letter on 12

march, let me point out real conspiraciesbeing hatched by none other than yourown team, mr Prime minister. To beginwith, statements of Pervaiz Ashraf onloadshedding, followed by at least threemore cabinet members, are a conspiracyagainst the Pm and PPP in general. Therecent one in this regard is the most hor-rific: that of Naveed Qamar announcedthe ending of loadshedding. The load-shedding increased manifold after thisutterance. The duration went on to twohours per session. That is a conspiracy.

Bilour’s appearance on TV talk showsand being unable to answer even a singleallegation of corruption in Railways is aconspiracy against you, sir Gilani. i cango on counting such silly things end-lessly. The conspiracies are beinghatched right under your nose and byyour own people. Do we even need out-siders to do it?

All are under your command. That’sthe reason that no male is prepared to goto SC for your support. The ball has beenpushed in to your court. Now if you stilldisobey SC and refuse to write that pieceof paper called letter, as i can see fromyour intentions, you will be the one whowill be accused and made a scapegoat.All these people around you will accuseyou in person and by name. That will en-able them to stand and speak in ChakJhumra rally, when they will go to polls.Wake up, sir, and be vigilant.

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

Lack of facilitiesmajority of public schools lack basic

facilities, including clean drinking water.Like other past governments, the presentgovernment is also spending a largechunk of the budget on defence. Rs 442.2billion were allocated for defence in thefiscal year 2010-2011. The primary edu-cation sector must be the government’stop priority. The condition of the govern-ment primary schools in the city and thequality of education being imparted thereis going from bad to worse.

many government schools exist onpaper only. School buildings, mostly in

rural areas, have been converted to draw-ing rooms for local landowners or cattlesheds while the children are forced tostudy under trees or in the open.

An example of this is the Govern-ment Primary School, Hamaad Colony,which has no roof despite being situatedright in the heart of the provincial capi-tal. There are a lot other public schoolsthat lack infrastructure. many schoolshave no furniture in classrooms, and lacka teaching staff, toilets, clean drinkingwater and playground.

Clean drinking water has always been

a big issue for public schools. A numberof schools in the city have no water tanksand some that have them, don’t havedrinkable water. The water tanks are notclean and are infested with insects. Anumber of public school students get sickafter drinking water from these tanks.

As a result of these conditions, poorparents have found alternatives. Accord-ing to the World Bank, 1 percent studentsleave public schools to attend madras-sahs as they offer food and lodging in ad-dition to religious education. While,middle class people are urged to send

their children to private schools. Theseprivate schools receive huge fees fromparents, who have already been pressedunder the high inflation.

The government must concentrate onthe education sector and take revolution-ary steps to improve it. The primary edu-cation sector needs to be standardisedaccording to modern education systems.if the primary education syllabi and sys-tem is standardised according to modernneeds, it could help the country develop.

SANIA REHANKarachi

Whither national introspection?

change of guardThe appointment of Air marshal

Tahir Rafique Butt who is highly deco-rated and professional officer as a newAir chief is a welcome decision. Never be-fore has our armed forces been subjectedto such microscopic views and media tri-als as is being done today. Under suchconditions and circumstances any act bythe armed forces that follows proceduresand upholds merit will definitely con-tribute in raising the image of militaryinstitutions.

Today our air force lacks the abilityin machines to dominate the skies andprovide favourable air situation in case ofwar. indian air force continues to armitself to teeth while it talks of normalisingthe relations with Pakistan. Pakistan’sdefence needs have reached an alarmingstage. indian missile programme andgrowing military might has placed us toseek immediate help in this area. TheAmerican restrictions and threat ofsanctions and stoppage of military aid

stands where it was. Addition of fewmodified F-16s in the fleet is notsufficient to counter indian threat. Thedefence forces are like a jaw whose allteeth should be sharp enough to bite, fewweak teeth's in the jaw would leave thebite weak and meaningless. Our Primeminister must not deal the issue ofacquiring offensive capability assomething light. Pakistan must focus onbuilding up regional alliances and mustenter in to defence agreements with theimportant countries in the region.

All in all, the Air Chief has achallenging time ahead. What happenedon 2 may 2011 is a sad chapter of ourhistory when US helicopters violated ourair space and got away with it. The ex-AirChief admitted surveillance failure due toradars being inactive. This has been a bigblow to our custodians of air space. if welacked the capability to intercept in thepast, we must acquire it now as we are inwar like conditions and nation is not

prepared to accept action replay.maintaining an efficient and effective

air force today is an expensive businessfor any country, especially like ourswhich is under immense foreign anddomestic debt. maintaining an air forcewhich can match our adversary who isconstantly increasing their defencepotential and arming themselves withlethal technology of missiles capable ofdelivering conventional and nuclearwarheads is a threat which has to betaken seriously and countered effectively.The nation looks up to the new chief tomeet its aspirations of keeping our blueskies from any intrusion and ensure theflag of force flying high.

With the country undergoing an eco-nomic crisis forcing the defence budgetto take downward plunge, the new AirChief shall have to extract more fundsfrom the government to turn the air forceinto an excellent fighting force. moderni-sation of the fleet, having access to early

warning system technologies and quickresponse capabilities to effectivelycounter and deter any enemy moves inour space, and for that matter to launchcounter-offensives, are matters that war-rant the highest priority.

The time has come to seriously con-sider the requirements of our air force.New avenues should be explored for ac-quiring modern defence armament fromfriendly counties that can effectivelydeter foreign aggression and maintaindominance over our skies. We shouldstop relying any more on America alonewho has subjected the availability of sup-plies conditional to their conditions re-lated to our nuclear programme.

The nation is looking up to the newAir Chief who takes over on 18 march tolead the country's air force in these diffi-cult times. Hopefully, he will come up tothe expectations of the nation.

MUKHTAR AHMEDKarachi

Sheesha smokingSheesha is one of the sweet poisons

handed out to the unaware and easilyinfluenced youth of this country. Peoplemust know how dangerous it is forhealth.

it is a fact that one session ofsmoking sheesha results in carbonmonoxide levels at least four to fivetimes higher than the amount producedby one cigarette. it is clearly understoodthat it is more dangerous and injuriousto health than cigarette.

it's getting popular in our youththese days and so we see small sheeshabars and sheesha cafe in every area.Some people have this misconceptionthat it is 100 percent free from tobaccobut it's not true. Some people find it farbetter than cigarette by smoking itoccasionally.

People should be aware of its conse-

quences, especially the parents. They re-ally need to guide their children well toprevent them from doing such activitybecause they are easily influenced by it,especially teenagers which take it as asymbol of status unaware of its harms,and smoke it as a recreational activity.

The government should think ofsome strategies to overcome thisproblem and must take action againstsheesha cafes and bars. Children mustbe provided proper education about thisin educational institutes.

SEHAR ARSHADKarachi

Labour unions’ miseriesUndoubtedly, miseries of labour

unions are increasing with the passage oftime. There is no proper legislation inthis regard. inefficient salaries, healthmatters, bonuses, pension, and

regularisation are the basic problems oflabours in the country. it is a fact thatlabourers of the country are gettingminimum salaries which are less thanwhat is a minimum legitimate demand ofa normal life. This is a serious matter asto how a labourer getting 7000 salaryruns his six-member family in this timeof price-hikes?

i suggest that the government shouldmake a body in this regard in order toresolve the issues of labour unions. Thebody should the role of mediationbetween the unions and employer andprotect the rights of labourers. Theemployers are hiring the workforce oncontract basis and are firing without anynotice.

The government should implementthe policy on governmental departmentsas well as private sector.

TARIQ HUSAIN KHANKarachi

Pakistan as a country has a very bad track record for theway it treats its minority groups. it is ironic because the countryitself was founded on the basis of giving a minority groupprotection of its rights, both political and economic. But what ismore troubling than this dismal situation is that we as a nationshow no introspection about how we are treating our minorities.Our national conscience is slumbering if not dead and our self-perception doesn’t show us all that is wrong with us.

The national reaction to many recent incidents of minority

rights’ exploitation have laid bare the fissures in our society andthe cracks in our national mindset yet we are reluctant to take ahard long look at ourselves in the mirror and undertake rectifi-cation measures whether socially (through education andawareness) or politically (by legislating in parliament and polit-ical activism by the public and public representatives). it shouldbe apparent to us but the truth is the most difficult thing to face.

HAMMAD ALILahore


comment12Monday, 19 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: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Running government in a multiparty parliament

Herding cats

much has been said about the mQm’s latestpetulance. For the party - being what it is - tohave staged protests against the culture ofextortion in Karachi’s commercial centres is the

stuff satire pieces are made off. And satirists did, indeed,have a field day: “Because they don’t like competition,” etc.

But the event was interesting as far as illustrating anaspect of legislative exercise in the country is concerned. Nowthe mQm has a particular leverage that would be the caseregardless of what its strength in any chamber of legislature,federal or provincial, is concerned; something it shouldn’thave in an ideal, fairer world. But consider now only itsheadcount in the houses. And that of the ANP. And theJUi(F) as well as the Baloch nationalist parties.

Since it is now clear that Pakistan, much like india, hasmoved past the single-party governments of the past, theemergence of coalition politics makes the leverage - again,legislative leverage, not talking about what all the mQm inspecific has at its disposal - that smaller parties have, muchlarger.

The leverage that smaller parliamentary profiles now havecould be timed to meet, say, presidential addresses or attimes contentious and divisive bills are being passed.

The previous Congress-led government in india was onthe brink of collapse because the leftists threatened to pullout (no bluff; they did, eventually) of the coalition as protestagainst American cooperation in the nuclear field. A lot ofpoliticking was required to save the manmohan Singhgovernment. Only because the sliver of legislators belongingto the Left upset the applecart.

The American senate is also criticised for being toopowerful. most famously, legislators representing only 11percent of the population can, theoretically, effectively blockany piece of legislation.

This might seem anti-democratic but it would be a naturalbit of “affirmative action” to compensate for our centraliststate’s past. Leading a coalition, however, is going to becomefar trickier.

A little perspective, please

Looking at relations

Abicameral board is set to start its meetings onmonday to deliberate on a future course of actionregarding the US. Relations between the twocountries became more than strained recently,

after the Salala incident, which yielded the loss of 24Pakistani soldiers.

How Pakistan is to balance her desire to be treated withrespect with her desire to watch out for her self-interests isgoing to be the tough tight-rope walk set out for ourgovernment. Pakistan had responded immediately by closingdown the Nato supply routes through the country. There ismounting pressure to maintain that blockade. There is anequal, if not visible, amount of pressure on the government tonormalise relations and a resumption of the route would bethe only tangible step in this regard.

if one were to start looking around for windows ofopportunity, there are several that could be zeroed in on.Consider the recent statements of US military chief martinDempsey, who has said the Pakistani military actually has theTaliban on the run. Furthermore, he seems to be cognisant ofthe Pakistani military’s security paradigm, where india isperceived to be the central threat. The general might disagreewith this paradigm but can empathise more with hiscounterparts’ point of view.

On the other side, the Pakistani intelligence chief’sretirement - and this is one of the more publiclycontroversial spymasters that we have had in recent times -presents an opportunity of its own. The chance to start overafresh, with better ties with both the American military andtheir intelligence establishment, can be used effectively, ifwe want to.

There are many within the Pakistani public discourse thatare baying for blood, the Difa-e-Pakistan Council to name onesuch group. There is a stark need to realise here thatdiscretion is the better part of valour and that even in theinterests of Pakistan’s non-representative deep state, what tospeak of the teeming millions themselves, there is very littlespace for us to manoeuvre here.

all hail Sachingod himself loves to see him bat

it is a clear and breezy Lahoreevening, the year is 2005. Thesetting sun adds a dreamy hue tothe majestic flood lit green turf atthe Gaddafi stadium. i keep ris-

ing off my seat to see if the indian open-ers are about to emerge from thepavilion. Anticipation fills the air. it hasbeen 16 years since i last watched himplay live. in that time, i have grown upand his performances have made my lifeimmeasurably richer. my sister keepsteasing me, “Will you stand up when hewalks in?” She, like millions of otherPakistani girls and aunties, has devotedmore than a decade of prayers to hisearly dismissal each time he playsagainst us. Before i can answer her,someone screams, “Here they come!”And out walk the two indian openers.They are both great but Lahore’s eyes arefollowing one with a special love. Hewalks over the ropes and turns his headto the heavens in that characteristic fash-ion and jogs a little like an enthusiastic16 year old. i stand up to applaud and sodoes everyone around me, including mysister. it is impossible not to. We aren’tacknowledging a century. We are ac-knowledging supreme skill and devotionto one’s art. No one is sitting down.Sachin Tendulkar walks to the crease,with his modest yet assured manner andLahore breathes in his presence everyprecious second.

And then the show begins. Theworld’s fastest bowler hurls down deliv-eries at fierce pace and is humbled by theskill of a master craftsman. A clip off hislegs comes first, followed by a searingdrive with the ball racing along the turf,whispering intimate details about his tal-ents to the ground.

Sachin reminds all of us of who hisfiercest competitor is; it is Sachin him-self. every time he goes out, he strives toand in fact betters what he achieved be-fore. This is a man who played 55 days ina row as a 15 year old and fell asleep onthe dining table — only to wake up thenext morning at the crack of dawn withrenewed hunger. He represents what allof us strive to achieve in our line of work;a standard by which everyone in the fieldis judged.

i write today out of sheer love andawe for his talent. i disagree vehementlywith those who say he is not a match-winner — that argument confuses manyissues. if people do not think of Sachinas a “finisher” then of course he is no

michael Bevan — there was only one likeBevan and his skill was limited to oneday games. But Sachin has won a hugeamount of enormously importantmatches for india. His breathtakingmatch-winning knocks have comeagainst Australia (Sharjah), Pakistan(Centurion), england (Chennai) amongothers.

His phenomenal grit has also meantthat he has often scored runs when histeam crumbled. People comparing hishundreds and wins for india often forgetthat players like Lara, inzi and Pontingwere on teams with phenomenal bowlingattacks. Sachin decimated all of them atone point or another. He has never beenany bowler’s “bunny” like Lara became tomcGrath or Ponting to the in-dipperearly in his innings. The very fact thatSachin has racked up mountains of runs,many times in a losing cause, is a tributeto his genius and determination as aplayer. The fact that he has played somany Tests and ODis speaks of nothingelse but what Harsha Bhogle calls hispassion to perform.

His fitness and form have lastedlonger than other great batsmen. Hiscaptaincy was not the most memorablestint but that is no measure of greatness,for if that is your measure then SirGarfield Sobers did not have a captaincyrecord worthy of writing home about ei-ther.

Greatness is one thing and genius isquite another. Sachin has raised the barfor both. it is not just what he hasachieved but how he has achieved it thatboggles the mind and lifts the spirit. Hehas managed to remain disarminglyhumble, stay away from controversy andhas retained the passion of a 16 year old.To make it to the indian cricket team hasgot to be the most difficult job in india.The acceptance rate for a place on the

side is frighteningly low. To build a ca-reer spanning 2 decades and to be thefocus of the hopes of a country of over abillion people — the sheer pressure of it— would weigh most people down. Butall cricket fans thank God that Sachin de-fies expectations in the spell-binding waythat he does.

in 1989, when he first toured Pak-istan, the great spinner Qadir tauntedhim to take a chance on his bowling.Qadir was at his peak. The 16 year oldfrom mumbai looked at him quietly andwalked to his crease. in the next over, hehit Qadir for 4 sixes. Years later, theworld’s greatest leg-spinner, Warne,would confess to having nightmares inwhich Sachin was smashing him all overthe park.

His talent, along with his humility,and service to the game cannot be cele-brated enough. Sir Don Bradman oncecompared Sachin to himself. The worldtook it as a huge compliment — and itwas. Today, it would be a compliment toSir Bradman himself if we think of himon the same level as Sachin Tendulkar.Thank God that the young Sachin pickedup a bat and fell in love with it. i haveloved reading every sentence of the scriptthat he has written.

Regardless of how often we Pakista-nis prayed for his early dismissal againstus, God often did not answer that prayer.And i am grateful for that. We are allricher, along with our love of the game,thanks to this humble cricketing genius.i have a feeling that God himself hasloved watching Sachin bat.

The writer is a Barrister and anAdvocate of the High Courts. He iscurrently pursuing his LL.M in the US.He can be reached [email protected] or on Twitter@wordoflaw

By Waqqas Mir

Pakistan has once again asked the United States to stopthe drone attacks inside the Pakistani tribal belt whichare violating integrity and sovereignty of her state and it

seems will also once again fall on deaf ears.The foreign office spokesman on Friday again called on the

US government in a press briefing to immediately stop droneattacks as such a breach of sovereignty could not be toleratedby a sovereign nation. He said it was absolutely illegal and vi-olation of Pakistan’s territorial integrity.

He also warned the US to stop carrying out the dronestrikes immediately otherwise, the continuation of these at-tacks could have a severe backlash for the US as it was ad-versely affecting Pak-US ties and cooperation for the war onterror. He further stressed that drone attacks were damaging

Pakistan’s efforts against militancy and terrorism. Pakistan hasbeen using all diplomatic channels to get these drone attacksto end. if the US does not revisit its policy of drone attacks,Pakistan would be forced to move towards other friendly statesto raise this issue with them.

it is good sign that the government is now taking this issueseriously as opposed to before when it veered between non-committal silence and outright doublespeak. Now it is the timeto revise our terms of engagement with the US, cooperate withthem in the war on terror in a way that safeguards our nationalinterests and establish our foreign policy on more rational andself-serving grounds. The people do not trust the establishmentwhere these drone strikes are concerned and their assertivestance might restore some much-needed confidence in Pak-istan’s leadership.

– Translated from the original Pashto by Sajjad Ali

Saying No to drone strikesDaily Pakhtun Post

Regional press


comment 13Monday, 19 March, 2012

in the aftermath of Obamaand Netanyahu meeting inWashington, the tensions

over iran have receded a little,and the focus is shifting back toAfghanistan. From all indica-tions, the situation there is fastapproaching a turning point. Theevents since the Quran burningin Bagram clearly pose badomens for the American strategy.As a result of these develop-ments, the Taliban have sus-pended talks that had barelystarted in Qatar. The killing ofNATO personnel by Afghan secu-rity forces, and Afghan civiliansat the hands of coalition forces,both are alarmingly on the in-crease as the trust deficit widens.The question that will have to berevisited immediately is if theAfghan conflict primarily needs anegotiated settlement or a mili-tary one; both can no longer con-tinue at the same time.

At the time of the announce-ment of the new Afghan strategy,two critical decisions were made:to increase the troop levels andwithdraw by 2014. While therewas a recognition that a politicalsolution will ultimately beneeded, the military operationsagainst Taliban have continued.in addition, to promote a regionalapproach, the US also launched astrategic dialogue process withPakistan, Afghanistan and india.Since then, the Pakistan leg of theprocess has collapsed whileAfghanistan is moving painfullyslow. The recent US and eU sanc-tions on the import of oil fromiran have added a new dimensionto the US-india ties that had notexisted in the past.

As has happened in iraq,withdrawal from Afghanistanwas to follow by a large embassyand special operations forces

continuing the targeted fightagainst the extremists. However,to achieve this, a strategic dealwith Afghanistan is needed.While the contentious issue ofthe transfer of prisons to Afghanauthorities was recently re-solved, the matter of nightlyraids has remained.

There is a striking similaritybetween the night-time raids inAfghanistan and drone strikes inPakistan. Both cause civiliancausalities but the numbers haveremained controversial.Nonetheless, while the NATOforces claim these military tacticsto be highly useful, they produceequally damaging political conse-quences for the respective gov-ernments to manage. it was forthese reasons that the night-timeraids have become a showstopperin the way of a US-Afghan strate-gic deal. Similarly, the drone at-tacks are likely to remain astumbling block between US andPakistan, as the country unveilsits new terms of engagement withthe US. it is quite possible that asAmerican strategy falters inAfghanistan, the blame onceagain shifts towards Pakistan.

The dilemma for US strategyhas remained whether to focus onfighting or on talking at this stageof the conflict, as both have ap-peared indispensable. Part of thepredicament has resulted fromthe message of Obama adminis-tration to its public and the Con-gress. it has maintained that thesurge in troop has taken away theinitiative from the Taliban andhas created a space where Afghanauthorities can move in. more-over, the pace and quality oftraining being provided toAfghan security forces is ade-quate and there are no problemswith the forces’ ethnic composi-tion. This depiction, however,negates what has been unfoldingon the ground.

As US and the Taliban enterinto negotiations, it is not clearwho has the upper hand. This isfurther complicated by the fluid-ity of the situation on theground. Nonetheless, this alsoconfuses which party would haveto compromise, and on what.For example, why would Talibanwant to talk to and accept the au-thority of Karzai government, if

they retain the position ofstrength? On the other hand, ifthe military strategy is working,then why is there a need for ne-gotiations in the first place?

in addition to the above, theAmerican short and long terminterests in the region have alsocomplicated its strategy. is theUS goal in Afghanistan to defeatAl Qaeda and other brands of ex-tremists, including Taliban? Or,is it also to maintain a check onPakistan, iran and China afterwithdrawal? in the long run,none of the above objectives canbe accomplished by using ag-gressive military tactics thatalienates local populations.

There is also intellectual fail-ure to define what the successwould look like. For example, acase can be made that the elimi-nation of bin Laden and weaken-ing of Al-Qaeda’s leadership inthe AfPak region, represents asuccess. On the other hand, it isequally true that due to the mili-tary pressure in FATA andAfghanistan, extremists havemoved to Yemen and Somalia.As a result, in the next decade wecould see the situation deterio-rate in North Africa and the mid-dle east. The cross pollination ofthe migrated extremists with thedynamics of Arab Spring couldpotentially produce a perfectstorm. in other words, whatlooks like a short-term achieve-ment may be a long-term disas-ter in the making.

How success and challengesare being defined, appear moreto do with politics than theground reality. While the De-mocrats may claim a successand perhaps even win electionon the basis of short-termachievements, the military or‘follow the plan’ approach beingfavoured by the Republicans,may further hurt US long-termgoals. in any event, the groundreality is quickly approaching apoint that if a political approachis not fully adopted, the benefitsof even the short-term accom-plishments may be erased.

The writer is the chief analystfor PoliTact (www.PoliTact.comand http:twitter.com/politact)and can be reached [email protected]

Diplomacy vs tactical expediency in Afghanistan

To talk or to fight

politactBy Arif Ansar

Around 8 months ago, i had the misfortuneof meeting a lady who earns her living as anAssistant Professor of Politics and interna-

tional Relations at a major federal governmentuniversity. in my brief and mostly forgettable en-counter with her, i was subjected to a wide varietyof completely ludicrous statements on Pakistanisociety, politics, and international affairs, withsome of them being so mind-bogglingly inane thati couldn’t help but feel sorry for her students.

Starting off from how Pakistan’s ‘nationalcharacter’, (whatever that is), is unsuited todemocracy, she veered off from the inane to thedownright insane by claiming how western politi-cal science is worthless, how the world is still re-covering from the ‘debris’ of the Ottoman empire,and how there’s a need to understand politics inthe light of Quran and Sunnah. As i write thisdown, as it gets printed, and as you folks read it,more innocent students are being subjected to herbrand of ‘indie’ social science.

i was reminded of this encounter by a threadof emails between Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, Physicistpreviously associated with Quaid-e-Azam Univer-sity and now with LUmS, and Dr Javaid Leghari,the current head of the Higher education Com-mission. The subject matter relates to the Physicsdissertation of some student at Balochistan Uni-versity, which discusses the ‘science’ of chro-

motheraphy, i.e. healinghuman beings through col-ors. even to a completelynon-science student likemyself, the idea stinks ofquackery and, as Dr Hoodb-hoy puts it, crackpotism.What was more troubling -yes, more troubling than thefact that such things passfor intellectual discourse inthis country - was that thesupervisory board of thisdissertation consisted ofthe current Vice Chancellorof QAU – the number 1ranked university in Pak-istan. And more troublingthan even that was theHeC chairman’s reluctanceto put his foot down, de-spite being given proof ofacademic fraud and shod-diness by Dr Amer iqbal,Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, andnot one but two PhysicsNobel Laureates.

What’s worrying is thatthe prevalence of academicfraud, plagiarism, and sub-standard output is not iso-lated to one, two or tenevents. it is embedded intothe higher education systemin this country and it func-tions in constant perpetuity

thanks to the standards, or lack thereof, of our ex-isting academia. Between Hoodbhoy, Dr isa Daud-pota, and a few others, a number of such scams,frauds, and downright travesties have been un-earthed over the last few years.

Five months ago, one mr Zahir ebrahim wrotea mini-dissertation on the fraudulent practices ofDr ijaz Durrani, a physicist who published a bookin which 17 out of the 18 chapters were plagiarisedfrom a variety of sources. He was also guilty ofbootlegging some works of – and this really takesthe cake – max Planck. This fellow is currently as-sociated with the University of Gujrat, draws ahefty salary as an HeC National DistinguishedProfessor, and is probably busy teaching his stu-dents how to con their way to an academic career.

As a social science student, and as someonewho wishes to be a part of higher education teach-ing and research in the near future, the level of thisrot never ceases to amaze me. The incentive struc-ture created by some universities, duly abetted bythe HeC, i.e. giving money to professors for super-vising students and publishing articles with nocomplementing monitoring mechanism, leads tooutputs like the ones mentioned above.

more than that, thanks to the centralised na-ture of higher education, academia is treated asa defined career with incentivised rungs justwaiting to be climbed – very much like being acivil servant or an army officer. There is no im-pulse amongst careerist professors, hailing frommostly conservative middle class backgrounds,to undertake their work with diligence as long asthey’re getting their share from the higher edu-cation treasury. Little surprise then that the VCof our number one ranked university saw noth-ing wrong in approving a Physics dissertationthat had nothing to do with the subject as theworld understands it.

For a quick reality check, compare this to thecase of india, where public sector education isflourishing, where their version of QAU, theJawaharlal Nehru University, is constantlyranked as one of the greatest post-graduate in-stitutions in Asia, if not the world, and most ofall, where genuine, citable research is being pro-duced on a regular basis.

The problem with higher education is notlimited to just that particular sector. it has aspillover effect on the next generation of re-searchers, thinkers, and intellectuals; it has animpact on how we understand identity, history,politics, and our place in the modern world; andmost of all, it has an impact on our struggle witheconomic underdevelopment, poverty, and in-equality. The lady i mentioned at the startseemed very smug and proud at her assessment,and subsequent middle finger to the ideas ofwestern political science but what she’s clearlyunable to see is that the joke’s on her, her stu-dents, and consequently, on all of us.

The writer blogs at http://recycled-thought.blogspot.com. Email him at [email protected], or send a tweet @umairjava

pakistan’s higher education woes

The academic epidemic

By umair Javed


14 Monday, 19 March, 2012

in limelight

Hollywood: British actor MalcolmMcDowell listens as actor Gary oldmanspeaks before McDowell had his starunveiled on the Hollywood’s Walk of fame.

NeW yoRK: Actress Rosie Perez attends theBroadway opening night of ‘Death of A Salesman’.

LoS ANGeLeS: Actor James Denton arrivesat UNIcef Playlist With the A-List.

LAS VeGAS: Kiss singer/guitarist Paul Stanley, guitarist tommy thayer, singer/bassist GeneSimmons and drummer eric Singer arrive at the opening of the KISS amusement attraction.

LOS ANGELESAgencies

JeNNiFeR Lopez's longtimemanager Benny medina wishesshe'd stayed single a little longerafter splitting up with marc An-thony. He told Vogue if she'd let

her next relationship happen naturally,she might not be bogged down with "ob-sessive guys (pursuing her." And whilemedina said the ‘American idol’ judge is"not oblivious to her own reality rightnow," his comments did seem a bitderogatory towards J.Lo. So should Bennystart sending out his résumé? Nope,Jenny is okay with her outspoken pal. "iknow Benny and he's my best friend, mycreative soul mate. i know the way he saysthings, and i know he would never sayanything that would be hurtful to me inany way,” she told Access Hollywood."Things can be taken out of context. Youhave to be aware of what can be miscon-strued." But Benny needn't worry yet. De-spite a hacked tweet from Roberto Cavalliclaiming he was designing J.Lo's nextwedding dress, she and Casper are stilljust dating—for now.

Jennifer Lopezdefends comments about‘obsessive guys’ pursuing her

WAshington: Adele reportedly turned down a record deal to make

preparations for her birthday celebrations back when she was 18.

According to school friend Allan Rose, the ‘someone Like You’

singer wanted to celebrate her 18th birth anniversary with a bash

to remember and refused to let the offer of a contract get in

the way.Rose met Adele at the BRit school, which also counts

Jessie J, Amy Winehouse and Leona Lewis amongst its past

pupils.“it was clear she was going to be a star. some people

were that step above everyone else, and Adele was one of

them. she was just naturally musically gifted,” a

website has quoted him as telling a leading daily.

the ‘21’ singer had famously refused to play any

festivals in 2011 because she wanted to spend

the summer “drinking cider” and leading a

“normal” life with her friends.“You’ve got

to build up relationships. i’m at a point

where i’m making my friends for life. i

don’t want to forget how to be normal.

You’ve got to go out and have a laugh,”

she was quoted as telling a

magazine.Rose believes that Adele is

still the same person he once

knew.“she’s clearly stayed grounded. she

was bubbly, fun, outgoing and popular at school.

everyone is proud we spent time with this amazing

talent,” he said. Agencies

After Shirish slap-gate, it’stime for SRK’s film with

MuMBAi: We all know for a fact that Bollywood is a place where

friendship and enmity take shape overnight. Nothing is for good

in this world of glam and glitz. Not too long ago, once thick

friends Shah Rukh Khan and farah Khan had made headlines

over ShirishKunder’s (husband of farah Khan) slap-gate episode

that took the tinsel town by storm. Kunder had made

derogatory remarks about SRK’s ‘Ra.one’ that irked King Khan,

leading to an alleged fist fight and a hard slap on the filmmaker’s

face. As expected, the two Khans kissed and reconciled with

Kunder profusely apologising to the biggie for throwing his

weight around him.And if the latest buzz that is doing the rounds

is to be believed then the two Khans have teamed up for a film.

A source revealed, “After the fight SRK had with farah’s husband

ShirishKunder at Sanjay Dutt’s party in february, the duo patched

up. they even met a few times at home after that. It was during

one of farah`s visits to Mannat that they talked about working

together again. Before SRK left for a 40-day schedule to London

for his next film, farah narrated the script and he instantly said

yes. Apart from his wife Gauri, SRK`s close friends KaajalAnand

and Karan Johar have been instrumental in bringing the warring

duo back together. farah even went to London for two days

recently to seal the dates and complete other formalities. the

film is being touted as the baap of ‘Main HoonNaa’ and will be a

wholesome entertainer.” Agencies

Farah

MuMBAi: for ‘Khiladi’ Akshay Kumar, returning to the signature series

with the same title after more than a decade, is a deja vu

moment.the actor is returning to the Khiladi series through ‘Khiladi

786’, twelve years after he had played a con man in ‘Khiladi 420’ in

2000. “It (Khiladi) is a title for me. Wherever I go people call me

Khiladi. I have always been referred to as Khiladi," the actor

said.`Khiladi 786` is an upcoming action comedy film directed by

Ashish R Mohan starring Ileana D`cruz, Paresh Rawal and Himesh

Reshammiya."It has been 12 years that I haven`t done that kindof a

film.I think the role it was written for me. I am happy to be doing

action films again," Akshay said. the 44-year-old began his acting

career with action films but later took a break to dabble mainly in

comedy. the actor earned the nickname of `Khiladi` for his action-

romantic-comedy films like `Khiladi` (1992), `Main Khiladi tu Anari`

(1993), `Sabse Bada Khiladi` (1995), `Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi` (1996), `Mr

and Mrs Khiladi` (1997), `International Khiladi` (1999) and `Khiladi 420`

(2000). `Khiladi 786` is slated for release in Diwali. Agencies

Akshay comesfull circle as‘Khiladi 786’

MuMBAi: Salman Khan drew flak for

coming up with a song titled

‘character Dheela’ in his flick ‘Ready’

for the lyrics allegedly irked certain

section of the society. though most

of the actor’s films are mostly meant

for the entire family to watch, the

flamboyant star wants lyricists to

pen double meaning songs for him.

During the launch of music album

titled ‘Bittoo Boss’, Salman Khan

spoke about double-meaning songs

and their effect on children.Salman

said, “Songs with double meanings

will suit me more. ‘Bitto sab ki lega’

will be a strong contender to DK

Bose given its double meaning lyrics.”

However, the ‘Dabangg’ Khan knows

that such songs might cast negative

influence on children hence doesn’t

want them to be publicised

comprehensively. “Although it`s a fun

song, please don`t promote this song

too much, it`ll be a bad influence on

the kids,” Khan added. Agencies

Double-meaningsongs will suit memore: Salman


15

KIeV: Models presentcreations by Ukrainianfashion designer elenaBurenina during the

Ukrainian fashion Week.

LONDONAgencies

Rihanna has said that in order to deal with her “body inse-curities” she began to expose herself more and slowly gotcomfortable in her skin. The Barbadian beauty had a com-plex about her body, but conquered her fears about it. “Themore i got naked the more comfortable i felt. i just had to

face my fear. i just started being more daring,” the Sun quoted her assaying. While most women envy her body, the singer wants a fuller fig-ure and has even quit dieting. “it’s so annoying! i don’t really have ashape. i’m eating everything,” she added.

LONDONAgencies

Her heart will go on? Not if Twitter has anything to say aboutit. The increasingly macabre social media site obviously has ataste for blood in the wake of its attempted massacring ofJustin Bieber earlier this week, and just yesterday set its sightson some more fresh meat: in particular, Céline Dion. Death byhashtag seems to be all the craze, and Twitter continued thetradition when "RiP Céline Dion" became a worldwide trendingtopic.So what was the weapon of choice this time? Rather thanthe old standby of a New Zealand cliff or freak on-set accident,the culprits were alternately a plane crash or a car accident.Needless to say, Céline is alive and well. Whether the same canbe said for her sense of humour in the wake of her untimelyfake death remains to be seen.

Aniston’s beautya costly affair

LONDONAgencies

Actress Jennifer Aniston spends a whopping 90,000 pounds ayear on beauty treatments. The ‘Friends’ star, who was recentlyvoted Hottest Woman Of All Time, spends about 250 poundsevery day on beauty treatments, reports thesun.co.uk. Awebsite called Shine has broken down the 43-year-old`sspending based on the products and services she admitsusing.The biggest weekly amount is 600 pounds for yogasessions with her own private trainer. But she also blows 380pounds on haircuts, with another 200 pounds for puttinghighlights on her tresses.

Rihanna getsnaked to deal with‘body insecurities’

Céline Dion not dead,just killed by Twitter

'Home Alone 5:Alone In the Dark:'fifth installmentin the works

LOS ANGELES: 'Home Alone 5: Alone inThe Dark:' Fifth installment Of Franchisein The Works. ‘Home Alone 5’ will air inlate 2012. macaulay Culkin may be past his‘Home Alone’ days, but the franchise liveson. The ABC Family has just announcedthat ‘Home Alone 5: Alone in The Dark’ isin the works. The fourth installment of‘Home Alone,’‘Home Alone 4: Taking Backthe House,’ was also made for television,premiering on ABC in November 2002,while the first three films -- two of whichstarred Culkin -- had theatrical debuts.The‘Home Alone 5’ will star Christian martynas Finn, an 8-year-old boy who moves fromCalifornia to a creepy house in maine,which he is convinced is haunted by a ghost.Determined to catch the ghost in action,Finn sets up a series of traps. But, in true‘Home Alone’ style, the traps are beneficialin an unexpected way. They end up catchinga group of thieves who try to break in whileFinn and his sister are left home alone withtheir parents trapped across town.Alsostarring malcolm macDowell, Debi mazar,edward esner, eddie Steeples, andJodelleFerland. Agencies

the dictator's dream:Gaddafi's son orderedcruise ship completewith shark tankLIBYA: Hannibal Gaddafi, the fourth son ofCol Gaddafi commissioned a vessel with itsown shark tank after becoming frustrated atbeing unable to charter cruise ships at shortnotice.The vessel – the Phoenicia, was tohave entertained up to 3,500 guests withelaborate gilt-edged architectural flourishes,a 120-tonne chamber filled with seawater fortwo sand tiger sharks, two white sharks andtwo blacktip reef sharks. Flanked withmarble pillars, gold-framed mirrors andgiant statues, the shark tank was to be aunique centrepiece for his guests.After the 36year-old fled to Algeria and the uprisingfelled the Gaddafi regime, the contract forthe playboy cruise liner was terminated andthe vessel was put on sale. Agencies

Aamir Khan wants towork withVidya BalanMuMBAi: Vidya Balan`s charm and enduring performance seems

to have impressed `perfectionist` Aamir Khan so much that he

has expressed his desire to work with the national award

winning actress. Vidya’s dream run began with R Balki`s

`Paa` (2009) alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Vishal

Bharadwaj`s `Ishqiya` (2010) opposite Nasseruddin

Shah, Raj Kumar Gupta`s `No one Killed Jessica`

(2011) alongside Rani Mukherjee, Milan Luthria`s

`the Dirty Picture` (2011) and the latest, Sujosh

Ghosh`s `Kahaani` (2012). With Vidya being

compared with Aamir for her perfectionist style, so

much so that she is dubbed by some in the

industry as a `female Aamir Khan`, the latter is

singing the paeans for her. "I think we must call Vidya

by her name only and who am I for her to be getting my

name? She is very talented and a wonderful actress. I would

love to work with her," Aamir said. though Aamir has not seen

Vidya`s recent movie, he is lavish in praise for the 34-year-old

actress. "I haven`t seen `Kahaani` yet but I have heard good

things about it, people have appreciated and liked the film a

lot. even about Vidyaji I have heard good things. People have

appreciated and liked her recent films and I congratulate

her," he said. Agencies

MuMBAi: Salman Khan drew flak for

coming up with a song titled

‘character Dheela’ in his flick ‘Ready’

for the lyrics allegedly irked certain

section of the society. though most

of the actor’s films are mostly meant

for the entire family to watch, the

flamboyant star wants lyricists to

pen double meaning songs for him.

During the launch of music album

titled ‘Bittoo Boss’, Salman Khan

spoke about double-meaning songs

and their effect on children.Salman

said, “Songs with double meanings

will suit me more. ‘Bitto sab ki lega’

will be a strong contender to DK

Bose given its double meaning lyrics.”

However, the ‘Dabangg’ Khan knows

that such songs might cast negative

influence on children hence doesn’t

want them to be publicised

comprehensively. “Although it`s a fun

song, please don`t promote this song

too much, it`ll be a bad influence on

the kids,” Khan added. Agencies

Asin deniesromancewith neil MuMBAi: A while back, industry was abuzz

with link-up reports of South Indian beauty

Asin with Neil NitinMukesh. Speculations

were rife about their blossoming romance,

but insiders recently confirmed that the

two have split.While Asin categorically

denied any romantic relationship with Neil,

grapevine has it that the two parted ways

as Asin’s father did not approve of

Neil.When contacted, Asin said, “these are

all baseless speculations. It does not

bother me, as these reports will die down

eventually. But yes, it definitely makes for a

good read.”Asin, as of now is busy

promoting Sajid Khan’s upcoming film

‘Housefull 2’, in which, she plays the female

lead opposite actor Akshay

Kumar.Meanwhile, Neil seems to have

moved on with the incident as the dishy

actor is often spotted hanging around with

dazzling beauties of B-town at social in

dos in the industry. Agencies



16 Foreign NewsUS man killed in yemen, Qaedaclaims responsibility

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Assailants riding a motorbike onSunday gunned down an Americanteacher in Yemen’s second city ofTaez, an official said, with an Al-Qaeda-linked group claiming it killedhim for preaching Christianity.The gunmen opened fire on the manwhile he was in his car in Senaneighbhourhood of the city 270kilometres (170 miles) southwest ofSanaa, the security official told AFPon condition of anonymity.The slain man was an American whohad been working in Taez as thedeputy director of a Swedish languagecentre, he added.Ansar al-Sharia, or Partisans of Sharia-- a group linked to Al-Qaeda --claimed responsibility for the attack.its fighters “killed an AmericanChristian missionary,” said astatement circulated by a mobilephone message and confirmed by asource close to the group. “The attackis in response to a Western campaignto preach Christianity amongmuslims,” it said. The statementconfirmed the suspicions of anothersecurity official that the attack was thework of Al-Qaeda.The shooting “carries the fingerprintsof Al-Qaeda, but investigations areongoing” to identify the culprits, saidan investigating officer who also askednot to be named. The US embassy inSanaa said it did not have anyinformation about the killing and thatit was investigating the report.Witnesses said however that theattackers were dressed in the uniformof the elite Republican Guard, led bythe son of former Yemeni presidentAli Abdullah Saleh, Ahmed.Opponents of Saleh have repeatedlycalled for the command of the militaryto be purged of relatives of the veteranleader, who was forced to step downlast month after year-long protestsinspired by the Arab Spring.in other violence on Sunday, missilesfired from the sea slammed into Al-Qaeda positions in the southern city ofZinjibar, killing at least 16 suspectedmilitants, a local official said.He said the heavy shelling beganovernight targeting the northeasternsuburbs of Zinjibar, which jihadistshave controlled since may followingfierce fighting with government troops.

Heavy shelling kills 16 al Qaedafighters in yemen

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missiles fired from the sea slammedinto Al-Qaeda positions in thesouthern Yemeni city of Zinjibar onSunday killing at least 16 suspectedmilitants, a local official said.He said the heavy shelling beganovernight targeting the northeasternsuburbs of Zinjibar, which jihadistshave controlled since may followingfierce fighting with governmenttroops. “many bases of Al-Qaeda weredestroyed,” and 16 jihadists werekilled, the official said on condition ofanonymity.The attacks were launched from thesea, he added. Witnesses in the nearbytown of Jaar said the bodies of 16gunmen were buried in a makeshiftgraveyard in an ammunition factory.The corpses were torn to pieces.Yemeni forces also launched air raidssouth of Jaar, another stronghold ofAl-Qaeda, the official said.Al-Qaeda militants have exploited theweakening central government inSanaa to strengthen their presence inthe country, especially across therestive south and southeast. Zinjibar is the capital of Abyanprovince, a stronghold of the jihadists’local affiliate Al-Qaeda in the ArabianPeninsula, or AQAP, whose militantsfight under the banner of Partisans ofSharia.

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SYRiA was hit by the thirdlethal car bombing of theweekend on Sunday as UNteams readied for a govern-ment-led humanitarian mis-

sion and to work to launch a monitoringoperation to end a year of bloodshed.

The Syrian Observatory for HumanRights, in a statement, said the latestblast targeted political security offices inthe northern city of Aleppo, killing threecivilians and wounding more than 25others. State media, which have saidthat such attacks aimed to sabotage ef-forts to find a political solution to Syria’scrisis, said it exploded near residentialbuildings and a post office.

The attack left dead and wounded,causing heavy damage to apartmentbuildings and cars, state television re-ported, without giving a precise casualtytoll. Activists in Aleppo, the target of carbombings on February 10 that killed 28people, told AFP in Beirut on Skype that

the blast rocked the city at 12:50 pm(1050 GmT).

On Saturday, twin car bombingskilled 27 people and wounded 140 oth-ers in the heart of Syria’s capital, mostlycivilians, the interior ministry said,blaming “terrorists” for the attacks nearpolice and air force headquarters.

The capital and Aleppo, Syria’s sec-ond largest city, are both seen as havinghigh levels of support for PresidentBashar al-Assad and been relatively un-scathed by the brutal crackdown onanti-regime protests.

“Yesterday’s explosions were carriedout by terrorists supported by foreignpowers which finance and arm them,”charged Al-Baath newspaper, mouth-piece of Assad’s ruling party of the samename. “The two attacks... aim to disruptAnnan’s mission and to foil internationalefforts to find a political solution to thecrisis,” it said, referring to UN-ArabLeague peace envoy Kofi Annan. A rallyand prayers were held on Sunday at thesite of the biggest explosion, in the Al-Qasaa district that is home to many

members of Syria’s Christian minority.State television, which said victims

were being buried Sunday, has repeat-edly broadcast how the Al-Qasaa blasthad totally gutted the facade of a multi-storey building, wrecked family homesand left behind blood-splattered pave-ments. Opposition activists accused theregime, as in past lethal bombings in thecapital and the northern city of Aleppo,of having stage-managed the attacks.

Ath-Thawra, another official daily,pointed the finger at Qatar and SaudiArabia which have called for rebelsfighting the Assad regime to be armed.

“The terrorism of Hamad and Saudis not a first. We know their blood-stained hatred, born of jealousy... Wehave heard their call, and their incite-ment,” it said, referring to the Saudi andQatari ruling families.

Technical experts from the UnitedNations and the Organisation of islamicCooperation, meanwhile, were to takepart in a mission to assess the humani-tarian impact of the crackdown on anti-regime protests since march 2011. UN

humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, whoheld talks in Damascus this month, saidthey would at the weekend join the as-sessment mission to Daraa, Homs,Hama, Tartus, Latakia, Aleppo, Deirezzor and rural zones around Damascus.

The United Nations estimates morethan 30,000 Syrians have fled to neigh-bouring states and another 200,000have been displaced within the countryby the past 12 months of deadly vio-lence. Activists say the year-long conflicthas cost more than 9,100 lives.

Former UN chief Annan, who metAssad in Damascus last weekend, hasordered a team of experts to Syria to dis-cuss a possible ceasefire and interna-tional monitoring mission, hisspokesman said. Annan’s team are tohead to Damascus from New York andGeneva on monday, his spokesman said.

On the ground, security forcesmounted operations Sunday in Aleppo,northwestern idlib, the east’s Deir ezzorregion and Daraa in the south, birth-place of the anti-Assad revolt, and Al-Raqqa, northeast, activists said.

Jordanian jailed forkilling sister overalleged adultery

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A 26-year-old Jordanian wassentenced to life in prison on Sundayfor killing his sister in 2010 after herhusband accused her of adultery, acourt official said. “The criminal courtinitially condemned the man to deathfor stabbing to death his 28-year-oldsister, but the sentence wasimmediately commuted to life in jailafter their family urged leniency,” hetold AFP.“The convict’s 17-year-old bother tookpart in the crime, but he was notcharged with anything because hesuffers from behavioural disorder.”The official said the crime took placein Sahab, in the south of Amman.“in 2008, the victim’s husband filed acomplaint against his wife, accusingher of adultery. This enraged herfamily, who threatened to kill her,” hesaid. “in July, 2010, the man sent hiswife to her family after a fight. Herbrother killed her immediately.”

Blasts hit Syria ahead of UN missionsg three civilians killed, more than 25 injured

BisHKeK: a sphynx cat wearing a wedding dress hisses during a cat exhibition. Cat owners from three

countries, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and uzbekistan gathered on sunday to show off their pets. afp

Cairo: Tens of thousands of egyptian Christian Copts flock to the the saint Mark's Coptic Cathedral on sunday to bid farewell to Pope shenuda

iii, the spiritual leader of the Middle east's largest Christian minority. Pope shenuda died at the age of 88 after a long battle with illness. afp


BERLINAfp

ACTiViST pastorJoachim Gauckwas elected Ger-man president byan overwhelming

majority on Sunday, markingthe first time a candidate fromthe former communist east willbe head of state.

Gauck, 72, claimed 991votes out of 1,232 from a spe-cial assembly of mPs and otherdignitaries, parliamentaryspeaker Norbert Lammert said,against prominent Nazi hunterBeate Klarsfeld, 73, who wasnominated as a protest candi-date by the far-left party DieLinke.

“What a beautiful Sunday,”Gauck said to enthusiastic ap-plause from the chamber of theglass-domed Reichstag parlia-ment building in central Berlinafter the vote.

it was the third presidentialelection in three years for Ger-many after the abrupt resigna-tions of Gauck’s twopredecessors.

Gauck helped drive thepeaceful revolution that

brought down communist eastGermany and later fought toensure that the public would begranted access to the vast stashof files left behind by the de-spised Stasi secret police afterreunification in 1990. He over-saw the archive for the nextdecade.

in a short acceptancespeech, he noted that his elec-tion fell on the 22nd anniver-sary of the first free elections ineast Germany after the fall ofthe Berlin Wall the previousNovember.

“After 26 years of dictator-ship we were finally able to be-come citizens,” he said. “i knewthen that i would never missanother election.”

Chancellor Angela merkel,who also grew up under com-munism, gave her backing tothe plain-spoken Lutheran pas-tor in February after then pres-ident Christian Wulff steppeddown amid a flurry of corrup-tion allegations dating from histime as a state premier.

A poll for ARD public tele-vision released on Saturday in-dicated that 80 percent ofrespondents consider him to betrustworthy.

The media and the publiccheered his candidacy as an op-portunity to remove some ofthe tarnish from the largelyceremonial office which servesas a kind of moral compass forthe nation.

expectations are outsizedfor Gauck, who has won a rep-utation across the country as aninspiring public speaker, albeit

with a touch of vanity.But as a staunch Protestant

like merkel, he is also keen toremind Germans that theirhard-won freedoms carryweighty responsibilities withthem -- a lifelong theme he hassaid he will take to the presi-dential palace.

“From Gauck we can learnthat democracy means thinking

and acting for one’s self ratherthan waiting for political re-deemers,” the influential newsweekly Die Zeit said in its cur-rent issue.

Gauck himself warnedscandal-weary Germans againstseeing him as a redeemer,telling reporters the night hewas nominated that they shouldnot expect “Superman”.

He said he would seek torelieve Germans of some oftheir angst as europe grappleswith its sovereign debt crisisand to reach out to immigrantgroups to foster integration.

Gauck looked set to bucktradition from the start, as hislongtime girlfriend DanielaSchadt said he had no plans todivorce his estranged wife ofmore than 50 years Gerhild andwed her.

“i see no reason to marryfor reasons of protocol,” the 52-year-old journalist who is nowGermany’s First Lady told theBild am Sonntag newspaper.

“Considering the fact thatnot only Jochen and i but thewhole family accepts ourarrangement, i think the rest ofsociety can live with it,” shesaid, using Gauck’s nickname.

Foreign News 17Monday, 19 March, 2012

East German rights activistGauck elected president

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Riot police detained dozens ofprotesters on Sunday who pick-eted moscow’s iconic televisiontower after footage purportingto show people being paid torally against Vladimir Putinwas aired nationally.

An AFP correspondent saworganisers Boris Nemtsov andSergei Udaltsov being led awaywith about 30 others sportingthe white protest ribbons of thenascent movement againstPutin’s 12-year domination ofRussia.

The crowd of about 500

chanted “Shame to NTV” and“Russia without Putin” asdozens of helmeted police pro-tected the doors of the coun-try’s main television centre andmade periodic arrests. moscowecho radio said the number ofthose bundled off to variousmoscow police stations hadreached 100 people as the un-sanctioned rally wound downunder a grey and drizzly sky.

The Ostankino towerprotest aims to cap a growingcampaign for Russians to boy-cott NTV television -- a onceproudly independent networknow run by the media arm ofthe state-run natural gas mo-

nopoly Gazprom. The station had aired a se-

ries of self-proclaimed docu-mentaries in the run-up toPutin’s march 4 election to athird term claiming to back uphis charges that the protestswere being funded by theWest. its latest report onThursday night showed peopleopenly accepting cash pay-ments for attending a smallanti-Putin demonstration inmoscow this winter.

But some of those who ap-peared at the rally told variousprivate media outlets thisweekend that they had shownup at the agreed location after

responding to an advertise-ment placed by NTV televisionitself.

“Now it is clear why theKremlin decided to decrimi-nalise defamation and make itinto a civil offence on the eve ofthe elections,” Gazprommedia’s former director AlfredKokh wrote in his blog. NTVfell under state control just ayear after Putin won his firstterm as president in 2000.

it had made its name bytaking an unflinching look atthe brutalities being committedduring the 1990s war in Chech-nya and by pillorying Russianleaders in weekly satirical pro-

grammes whose likes had notbeen seen in the country be-fore.

Tens of thousands hadgathered outside the same Os-tankino tower in the station’sdefence in 2001 in what tomany became a symbolicprotest against the onset of aSoviet-style domination of civilsociety by the state.

The Kremlin managed ex-tend its grip on almost allmajor TV networks by the timethe former KGB spy left officeand became prime ministerunder his hand-picked presi-dential successor Dmitrymedvedev in 2008.

anti-putin protest swarms iconic Moscow TV tower

New YorK: New York Police Department officers in cars watch as workers clean Zuccotti Park on sunday after occupy wall street

demonstrators were cleared from the park the previous night in New York City. a few hundred had gathered to mark the six-month

anniversary of the protests and were moved by police when some tried to set up tents. afp

Libya, france, Icc want to tryGaddafi spy chief

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France and the international CriminalCourt have filed formal requests withmauritania to extradite Libya’s ex-spychief Abdullah Senussi, a security sourcesaid Sunday as Tripoli insisted that itshould put him on trial.“For the time being two requests havebeen received by mauritania. One fromFrance arrived on Saturday and thesecond from the iCC on Sunday,” themauritanian source told AFP.A delegation from the Libya’s rulingNational Transitional Council is expectedto visit mauritania soon to discussSenussi’s handover.Libya is determined to try the fearedformer right-hand man of fallen leadermoamer Gaddafi who is wanted by TheHague-based iCC for crimes committedwhile trying to crush last year’s uprising.“Our courts are very good, even excellent,especially in Tripoli and we are able tocarry out his trial according tointernational standards,” Justice ministerAli Hmeida Ashur told AFP on Sunday.Amnesty international on Saturday saidthat Senussi should be tried by the iCC inthe absence of a functioning judiciary inLibya.However mauritanian legal expert BrahimOuld ebetty warned that the extraditionrequests would have to be examined by acourt and a final decision could “takesome time if rules and procedures arefollowed.”French President Nicolas Sarkozy onSaturday hailed the arrest and called forSenussi’s extradition to France, his officesaid.ebetty said France has “the best argumentto make” for extradition.Senussi faced an international arrestwarrant after a Paris court sentenced himin absentia to life imprisonment forinvolvement in the downing of a Frenchairliner in 1989.The airliner was brought down by a bombon September 19, 1989 over Niger. TheUTA flight was carrying 170 people fromBrazzaville to Paris via N’Djamena.That attack -- along with that a yearearlier against a PanAm jumbo jet overLockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 peoplewere killed -- led to a UN-mandated airblockade of Libya in 1992.Senussi was arrested late Friday night atNouakchott airport as he arrived on aregular flight from Casablanca in moroccocarrying a fake malian passport.

Maoists kidnaptwo Italiantourists in India

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maoist rebels have kidnapped two italiantourists in poverty-hit eastern india,police said Sunday, in what was believedto be the first abduction of foreigners bythe left-wing militants.Television reports said the kidnappersissued 13 demands for the release of theitalians, including asking police to releasean unspecified number of prisoners andend their drive to root out maoists fromthe region.The abduction occurred Wednesday in thescenic Kandhamal district in centralOrissa, police said, one of a string ofstates where armed maoist rebels havebeen waging a decades-long battle tooverthrow government authorities.“maoists have abducted two italiannationals from Daringbadi area ofKandhamal district,” regional policedeputy inspector general Radha KrishnaSharma told AFP.The italian foreign office in Romeidentified the kidnap victims as PaoloBosusco and Claudio Colangelo.Bosusco had been living in the city of Puriin Orissa for a decade and was running anadventure tourism company, police said.Sharma said the men asked policemonday to be allowed to travel aroundKandhamal, but authorities deniedpermission, citing risks of maoist violence.



Wind, rain nor Rafa canstop federer in desert

Page 21

LAHOREstAff RepoRt

IN the 6th Aquafina Royal PalmGolf Team Championship thatconcluded yesterday at theRoyal Palm Golf Course, success

was achieved by the Karachi Golf Clubteam as they managed to gain an ad-vantage over Royal Palm team by a onestroke margin.

All through the final day, the fightwas cut throat and not for a moment didone team look better than the other. ForRoyal Palm, mohammad Rehman ex-celled on every shot and by virtue of con-sistent pars ended the round with ascore of par 72, giving his side a lot ofhope and optimism. His teammate Sar-dar murad was effective too and playedwith ample maturity but somehow luckwas not in his favour and bogied the18th hole to tilt the result Karachi's way.A rather agonising end for him afterthree rounds of quality play that some-how did not conclude on a winning note.

That, however, should not take thecredit away from Karachi teams per-formance as their star player Ali Haiably led the effort and did not relent atany stage and as his three rounds scoresindicate he was outstanding in his con-tribution to Karachi Golf teams success.Scores of 72,73 and 72 are reflective of achampions touch.

Others who contributed to Karachi'swin are mansoor Teli and Asif Ahmed.And in this contest Karachi and RoyalPalm teams looked a bit too superior ascompared to the other teams and al-though Rawalpindi team came third;they lost to Royal Palm by a margin of22 strokes.

Team positions of six top teams andtheir scores: Karachi Golf Club, 1st with ascore of 685; Royal Palm, 2nd with ascore of 686; Rawalpindi, 3rd with a scoreof 708; Sargodah, 4th with a score of 721;Gymkhana, 6th with a score of 726.

The gross honors in individual cate-gory fell in the welcoming lap of Ali Hai,the top amateur golfer of the country.

Once again he was showed his abilityand the pars and birdies came in regularsuccession with bogies too infrequentwhich highlights his control over thecompetition.

Ali Hai ended up winning the firstgross with three rounds scores of 72, 73and 72, a total of 217, one over par. mo-hammed Rehman of Royal Palm camesecond with three rounds scores of 76,75 and 76 and an aggregate of 223, sevenover par.

Ghazanfar mehmood of Rawalpindicame third with scores of 76, 75 and 74and an aggregate of 225, nine over par.Other notable contenders who per-formed well are Sardar murad (RoyalPalm) 225, mansoor Teli (Karachi) 233,

Asif Ahmed (Karachi) 235, mohsenZafar (Royal Palm) 236, Omer Khokher(islamabad) 237, Robin Bagh (Sargo-dah) 238 and Omer Salamat (RoyalPalm) 238.

On this occasion the winning teamwas all praise for the match organistionby Col (r) Jamil Khalid and chief refereeiftikhar Taj mian.

in the ladies competition TehminaRashid was the best one in ladies netevent and grabbed the first net. Nush-miya Sukhera did hit the shots accu-rately enough but had to be content withthe second net prize. Another teenagegolfer maryamma Khan came third. inladies gross the winner was Ghazala Yas-min, Ami Qin second and Sameea Javed

Ali, third.As for the challenge shield the shield

winner was Hamid Sharif.Sardar muradwon the runners up prize and mo-hammed Hassan Saeed came third. Andin the invitational category the winnersin net were Omer malik, nearest to thepin, Longest drive, Sameer iftikhar,most accurate drive, Shahryar Ahmed,3rd net winner, Omer malik, 2nd netTariq Pervez, 1st net, Naseer Akhter, 3rdgross, Hamid Sharif, 2nd gross UsmanSaleem, 1st gross Sameer iftikhar.

At the conclusion of the champi-onship the prizes were awarded to thewinners by Omer malik, Franchise Di-rector, Pepsi co and Ramzan Sheikh theCeO of Royal Palm.

g 6th Aquafina Royal Palm Golf team championship

Karachi win by astroke over Royal Palm

LAHoRe: the winners Karachi Golf club team and the runners-up Royal Palm team with omer Malik, franchise Director, Pepsi co andRamzan Sheikh, ceo Royal Palm at the conclusion of the 6th Aquafina Royal Palm Golf championship. STaff phoTo

england lookto seal warm-upgames

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england's Graeme Swann said Sundaythe team was hoping to set the stage forthe upcoming Test series with a win atthe next warm-up game against SriLanka. england made a winning start totheir tour of Sri Lanka by defeating theBoard Xi by an innings and 15 runs onthe final day of the three-day match inColombo on Saturday. "it was a toughthree-day game, we were all battling theheat and humid conditions. i thought weplayed very well," said Swann who pickedup 3-33 during the second innings. "Theball feels great in the hand. i am enjoyingmyself," he told reporters in Colombo.The tourists will play another three-dayfixture at the Sinhalese sports club inColombo from march 20, before the twoback-to-back Tests in Galle andColombo. "We need to win the nextwarm-up game, so that we are geared towin the first Test," said Swann, who has166 wickets in 39 Tests. He said SriLanka remained a formidable side, de-spite the home team busy playing back-to-back one-day games against Australiaand now in Bangladesh for the Asia Cup."Sri Lanka and Pakistan are fairly similaranimals. Sri Lanka is more consistent,

particularly their top orderwith (Kumar) Sangakkaraand mahela (Jayawar-dene)." But he said SriLanka's bowling attack

was "not much of amystery any-

more" after theretirement ofthe world'sleadingwicket taker

muttiah mu-ralitharan last

April. SriLanka has notwon a Test seriessince muralitha-ran's retirementand the teamhave lost seriesto england, Aus-tralia, Pakistanand South Africa.

mohammed Hafeez and Nasir Jamshedset up a new record of the highest everstand in Asia Cup by adding 224 forthe first wicket in the fifth match of the11th Asia Cup against india at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, mirpur,Dhaka on Sunday (march 18).

The two Pakistani batsmen erasedthe previous best stand of 223 for thethird wicket between Shoaib malik andYounus Khan for Pakistan againstHong Kong at Colombo on July 18,2004.

Hafeez and Jameshed's 224-runstand was the second best openingstand for Pakistan in One-day interna-tionals after Hafeez and imran Farhat's

228-run undefeated stand against Zim-babwe at Harare Sports Club on Sep-tember 11, 2011.

The previous record of the bestopening stand in Asia Cup was held bySri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya andKumar Sangakkara. They put on 201runs for the opening wicket againstBangladesh at Karachi on June 30,2008.

Saaed Anwar and Aamer Sohail's144-run stand at Singapore on April 5,1996 was the previous best openingwicket stand for Pakistan againstindia.

Both Pakistan's openers, Hafeez(105) and Jamshed (112) made hun-dreds. it was sixth instance when bothPakistani opening batsmen scoredhundreds in same innings.

Highest ever opening wicket stand in Asia Cup

S.PERVEz QAISER

STATS CORNER

highest stAnDs in AsiA cupRuns WKt BAtsMen opponent Venue DAte

224 Ist M Hafeez/N Jamshed (Pak) India Dhaka 18-03-2012

223 3rd Shoaib Malik/younis Khan (Pakistan) Hong Kong colombo 18-07-2004

205 3rd Moin-ul-Atiq/Ijaz Ahmed (Pakistan) Bangladesh chittagong 29-10-1988

205 2nd Gautam Gambhir/Virat Kohli (India) Sri Lanka Dhaka 13-03-2012

201 Ist Sanath Jayasuriya/K Sangakkara (SL) Bangladesh Karachi 30-06-2008

Best opening stAnDs foR pAKistAnRuns BAtsMen opponent Venue DAte

228* Imran farhat/Mohammad Hafeez Zimbabwe Harare 11-09-2011

224 Mohammad Hafeez/Nasir Jamshed India Dhaka 18-03-2012

204 Rameez Raja/Saeed Anwar Sri Lanka Sharjah 04-02-1993

202 Rameez Raja/Saeed Anwar Sri Lanka Adelaide 17-02-1990

197 Imran farhat/yasir Hameed New Zealand Rawalpindi 07-12-2003

afridi completes 7000 runs in ODisLAHORE:Pakistan’s formercaptain ShahidAfridi on Sundaycompleted 7,000runs in One-dayinternationals(ODi) during thefifth ODi if AsiaCup 2012 againstindia at mirpur.The 31-year-oldall-rounderbecame the sixthPakistanibatsman and 30thin the world tohave achieved thisfeat. Afridicompleted his7,000th run offirfan Pathan inthe 44th over of the Asia Cup fifth ODi. indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkarleads the table with 18,374 runs in 462 matches. Here is a list of all Pakistanibatsmen who have scored 7,000 runs or more in ODis:

PLAYER M RuNS AvG HS SR 100S 50Sinzamam-ul-Haq 375 11701 39.53 137* 74.20 10 83mohammad Yousuf 281 9554 42.08 141* 74.91 15 62Saeed Anwar 247 8824 39.21 194 80.67 20 43Javed miandad 233 7381 41.70 119* 67.01 8 50Saleem malik 283 7170 32.88 102 76.41 5 47Shahid Afridi 337* 7000 23.64 124 113.89 6 33

life onstandstillduring match

LAHORE: The Asia Cup encounter be-tween Pakistan and india left the entirecountry to a standstill on Sunday. it wasnot Pakistan but al over the world wherePakistan and indian community is resid-ing tuned into television sets and radios,and logged on to websites to watch arch-rivals Pakistan and india take each othermirpur, Bangladesh. Streets in the countrywere deserted at popular trading hot spotsand people thronged corner tea shops orhotels haing big screens to watch the twoteams face each other, almost a year aftertheir face-off at the World Cup semi-finalin mohali, india. Pakistani huddled infront of television sets at home from noonto watch the qualifying match. As Primeminister announced of no load-sheddingduring the match, people were even readyto watch and some even watched thematch on their mobile phones. stAff RepoRt


sports 19Monday, 19 March, 2012

Pak players offto france forbowling event

LAHOREstAff RepoRt

mohamamd ijaz and Rashid have left onSunday for Brunswick euro Challenge2012 to represent Pakistan in euroBowling Challenge France. These play-ers will play among international play-ers from all over the world on march 22.it’s the first time that Pakistan team isparticipating in euro Bowling Chal-lenge, before it Pakistan team partici-pated in Qubica AmF World Cup 2009held in malaysia and Asian Games 2010held in Dubai, where they showed muchbetter performance and still hope thesame. Around 451 players from 38countries will be featuring in the nine-day competition.

Dharampura Sportsmove to 3rd round

LAHOREstAff RepoRt

Dharampura Sports has moved into the3rd round of 27th mohammad YaseenAkhter memorial event when they out-played mughalpura Gym by 46 runsplayed at Race Corse ground on Sunday. Scores: Dharampura Sports 213/9. malikAmanat 27, Akbar 45, Ashraf 38, mohsin24, KAshif 24. Ayaz 3/37, Tariq 3/29. mughalpura Gym 167. Zaheer 30, Atif 49,KAshif 20, Tariq 19. Allauddin But 5/20,Hameed Khan 3/16, HAris 2/18.

ZtBL ladies beatLahore by 9 wickets

LAHOREstAff RepoRt

ZTBL won the final round of the 7th Na-tional Women Cricket Championship-2012 at th National Ground islamabad.National player Sana mir played a lead-ing role in ZTBL’s win with her all-roundperformance. She first trapped four La-hore Region batswomen and later scoredunbeaten 65 runs ensure win. Put intobat, Lahore made110 for all and ZTBLreached the target in 24.5 overs. scoRes: Lahore Region 110 in 48.2 overs: (SabahatRasheed 23, 67 balls, 2x4s, farah Naeem 19, 75 balls,2x4s, Bakhtwar Iqbal 14, 21 balls, 2x4s, Sana Mir 4-19, Nida\dar 2-14, Sadia Rasheed 1-13)ZtBL 111-1 in 24.5 overs: (Sana Mir 65*, 74 balls, 9x4s,Rabia Shah 32, 42 balls, 6x4s, Javeria Khan 20*, 33 balls,3x4s, BAkhtawar Iqbal 1-25)Player of the match: Sana Mir (ZtBL)Result: ZtBL won by 9 wickets toss: ZtBL. Umpires: farooq Jan & Nuzhat Sultana. MatchReferee: Sohail Khan. official Scorer: Shakeel Ahmed.

LAHOREAsheR Butt

Colony Sugar on Sunday clinched itsthird polo title on trot when it lifted theZong Challenge Cup 2012 here at theLahore Polo Club’s Aibak ground.

maintaining its win run after it tookthe Punjab Cup and the National Cham-pionship title, Colony Sugar edged asideGuard Group/Wi Tribe in the closely-contested final 6-5.

it was the experienced Shah QubilaiAlam who played his part in ColonySugar’s win. Qublai not only scored twogoals by himself but also made his team-mates score on his passes. Qubai wasably supported by Naveed m Sheikhwho also scored the same number ofgoals and organized a couple of movesfor his colleagues to hit in. Hussainiftikhar and Sameer Habib Oberoishared one goal each for Colony Sugar

Raja Samiullah of Guard Group/WiTribe did his best to keep the winningteam on its toes with three goals whileRaja Temur Nadeem extended greatsupport with two goals. But the supportthese two players should have been ex-pecting from their other two team mem-bers Nafees Barry and Taimur Ali malik

was not there to take. Later Chief Guest Fan Yun Jun,

Chief executive Officer, CeO ZongCmPAK, presented the winning trophyto Colony Sugar quartet.

earlier in the day, Pessi made wuickwork of Karachi Polo Team, winning thsubsidiary final 8-4 ½

Ahmed Ali Tiwana and Atif Yar Ti-wana with four and three goals respec-

tively ensured win for Pessi with onegoal coming from Ahmad Nawaz Ti-wana.

Despite having a half a goal advan-tage, it was Hassan Ali Farrukh who

with two goals made his presence feltwhile one goal each came from FerozeGulzar and Shiraz Qureshi. But their ef-forts were not enough to halt Pessi’s winstride.

Colony Sugar clinch Zong Challenge Polo Cup

MIRPuRAgencies

viRAT Kohli starred in india'schase of mammoth 330-runtarget and win by 6 wicketsagainst Pakistan during their

high-voltage league match of the Asia Cupcricket tournament tonight. Pakistan in-nings Openers mohammed Hafeez andNasir Jamshed cracked sparkling centuriesas Pakistan piled up a mammoth 329 forsix against india.

Both Hafeez (105) and Jamshed (112)stitched a record 224-run opening partner-ship to lay the foundation as the indian at-tack wore a pedestrian look throughout theinnings while below par fielding in the ini-tial part only added to the woes.

The opening stand is Pakistan's highestagainst india eclipsing Saeed Anwar andAamer Sohail's opening stand of 144 in Sin-gapore, back in 1996. Pakistan skipper mis-bah-ul Haq won the toss and his decision tobat was vindicated by the openers who did-n't put a foot wrong during their partner-

ship. They never took any undue risks yet hitboundaries at will while keeping the scorersbusy with singles and twos. Hafeez was thefirst to get off the blocks with a square cutoff Praveen Kumar's bowling in the very firstover. Young Jamshed then took the cue andhit Praveen for three boundaries in the thirdover and Pakistan never looked back since

then. The 50 of the innings came in the 10thover and 100 in the 18th over as Dhoni'sbowlers looked clueless in the wake of theonslaught. While Praveen's lack of pace ona slow pitch became his undoing, irfan timeand again drifted on the pads as bothJamshed and Hafeez gleefully kept clippingthose deliveries at will.

Pakistan bowlers cave in to Kholi

LONDONAfp

Fernando Torres finally ended his five-month goal droughtas Chelsea cruised into the FA Cup semi-finals with a 5-2victory over Leicester at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Torreshas endured a miserable time since his British record £50million transfer from Liverpool in January 2011 but theSpain striker took advantage of Leicester's sloppy defendingto score twice and secure a much-needed boost to his fragileconfidence. Gary Cahill put Chelsea ahead early in the firsthalf of the quarter-final and Salomon Kalou added the sec-ond soon after. But it was Torres's increasingly rare appear-ance on the scoresheet that took the spotlight. Torres hadgone more than 24 hours of playing time without scoring --dating back to a double against Genk in October -- and therewas a huge sense of relief around the Bridge when hetucked away a simple chance midway through the sec-ond-half. When Torres scored again in the closingmoments, the roar was loud enough to suggestChelsea had actually won the Cup and the much-maligned star followed that by setting up Raulmeireles for Chelsea's fifth goal. Leicester got acouple of late goals from Jermaine Beckford andBen marshall but Nigel Pearson's Championshipside never threatened to spoil the feelgood factoraround the Bridge. Just two weeks ago, Chelsea'sseason was spiralling out of control after Andre Vil-las-Boas was sacked following a miserable eight-month spell in charge. But the Portuguesecoach's departure appears to have lifted spir-its to a remarkable extent and Chelseacan now look forward to an FA Cupsemi-final at Wembley next month,as well as a Champions Leaguequarter-final against Benfica.

Roberto Di matteo, who has won all four of his matches asinterim boss, deserves credit for restoring a sense of calmamong a squad previously at war with Villas-Boas, althoughthe cynics will suggest it is the club's senior players who arereally running the show. With a crucial clash at manchesterCity looming on Wednesday, Di matteo backed his reservesto see off Leicester. Only Petr Cech, Branislav ivanovic,Daniel Sturridge and Juan mata retained their places fromthe team that defeated Napoli in midweek, while captain JohnTerry wasn't even on the bench. Villas-Boas had tried thesame gamble in the previous round against Birmingham andsaw Chelsea held to an embarrassing draw but the sense ofoptimism around the Bridge since his departure ensured Dimatteo fared much better. When Beckford curled wide fromjust inside the penalty area after an incisive move, it seemed

the Foxes might be capable of springing a sur-prise. But sloppy defending in the 12th

minute proved their undoing, as Cahill wasallowed to rise above several Leicester de-fenders to meet mata's corner with aheader past Kasper Schmeichel at thefar post. england defender Cahill cele-brated his first Chelsea goal since hisJanuary transfer from Bolton by lifting

his shirt to display the message "Pray formuamba" -- a tribute to the plight of hisformer Wanderers team-mate Fabrice

muamba, who is critically ill after collaps-ing during his club's FA Cup tie at Totten-

ham on Saturday. Torres then sparked intolife as he sprinted clear down the left flank be-

fore clipping a pass to Kalou, who kept his coolto slot home in the 18th minute. That effectively

ended the tie and Di matteo took off mata athalf-time with the City match in mind but

Torres ensured he wasn't missed.

Torres ends goal droughtas Chelsea reach semis

Shenwari keepsAfghanistan oncourse for finals

DuBAIAfp

Afghanistan and Namibia extended theirunbeaten runs in the World Twenty20 qual-ifiers to five wins each on Sunday withAfghan all-rounder Samiullah Shenwari hit-ting a fifty and taking four wickets in thewin over Canada.Afghanistan defeated Canada by 41 runs tostay on top of Group A while Namibia de-feated Kenya by seven wickets to headGroup B.in other crucial matches, the Netherlandsmade short work of Papua New Guinea bynine wickets to record their fourth win andNepal beat Bermuda by 24 runs a third winin Group A.in Group B, ireland had the better of tradi-tional rivals Scotland by 17 runs which gaveWilliam Porterfield's side a fourth win whileitaly are back in contention thanks to a 13-run victory over Uganda.Shenwari's performance stood out as theall-rounder first scored 61 off 34 balls withsix fours and three sixes in his side's 174 foreight against Canada. He then returned figures of 4-0-14-4 asCanada was restricted to 133 for nine."i am grateful that i was given a chance tobat higher up the order. i am very happy totake four wickets and score 61 runs. We areall feeling very confident and i am hopingwe will have six wins from six and thenseven wins from seven," he said.

pAKistAn:Mohammad hafeez lbw b Dinda 105nasir Jamshed c irfan b Ashwin 112umar Akmal c gambhir b Kumar 28Younis Khan c Raina b Kumar 52shahid Afridi c Kohli b irfan 9hammad Azam c Kohli b Dinda 4Misbah-ul-haq not out 4umar gul not out 0eXtRAs (b1, lb3, nb1, w10) 15totAL (for six wickets; 50 overs) 329fall of wickets: 1-224 (Jamshed), 2-225 (hafeez), 3-273(Akmal), 4-313 (Afridi), 5-323 (Younis), 6-326 (Azam).BoWLing: p. Kumar 10-0-77-2 (w2), irfan 10-0-69-1 (nb1,w2), Dinda 8-0-47-2 (w3), Raina 2.2-0-15-0, sharma 3-0-19-0, Yusuf 5-0-30-0 (w1), Ashwin 10-0-56-1 (w2),tendulkar 1.4-0-12-0.inDiA:g. gambhir lbw b hafeez 0s. tendulkar c Younis b Ajmal 52V. Kohli c hafeez b gul 183R. sharma c Afridi b gul 68s. Raina not out 12Ms Dhoni not out 4eXtRAs (b5, lb1, nb1, w4) 11totAL (for four wickets; 47.5 overs) 330fall of wickets: 1-0 (gambhir), 2-133 (tendulkar), 3-305(sharma), 4-318 (Kohli).BoWLing: hafeez 9-0-42-1, gul 8.5-0-65-2 (w3), cheema 8-0-60-0, Ajmal 9-0-49-1, Afridi 9-0-58-0, Riaz 4-0-50-0 (nb1, w1).Result: india win by six wickets, Man of the match: ViratKohli (inD), toss: pakistan, umpires: steve Davis (Aus) andian gould (eng), tV umpire: sharfuddoula shahid (BAn),Match referee: David Boon (Aus).

scoReBoARDg India keep hopes alive

LAHoRe: colony Sugar and Guard Group players fight for the ball during the challenge Polo final while (r) colony Sugar players with chief guest fan yun Jun, ceo Zong. naDeeM Ijaz


sports20Monday, 19 March, 2012

INDIAN WELLSAfp

Hard-serving American John isner's remarkablerun continued as he stunned world No. 1 NovakDjokovic to book an indian Wells final showdownwith world No. 3 Roger Federer. World number 11isner fired his 20th ace of the match to topple de-fending champion and top seed Djokovic 7-6 (9/7),3-6, 7-6 (7/5) on Saturday. Federer then used anace on match point to seal a 6-3, 6-4 victory overworld number two Rafael Nadal as the two re-newed their epic rivalry with their first meeting atthe indian Wells masters.

isner's first victory over a world number oneensures he will move into the top 10 in the worldrankings for the first time. "Not many people cansay they've ever beaten the No. 1 player in theworld," said the 26-year-old American isner. "i'llalways be able to say that. "i'm just going to keepon riding this wave i'm on and see how far it can

take me." For Djokovic, 24, it marked a secondstraight semi-final defeat after he fell at the samestage in Dubai to Andy murray earlier this month.

Reigning Australian Open champ Djokovic isnow 14-2 on the season. "it's frustrating whensomebody serves over 70 percent of the first servesin and with that angle and with that speed and ac-curacy," Djokovic said. "But i played him before. iknew i had to stay patient and just wait for thechance. i had some chances. i didn't use them."

isner closed the two hour, 45 minute matchout with his 20th ace in front of a crowd of about15,000. Djokovic, who saved a match point in the12th game of the third set to force the tiebreakerand saved two match points on his own serve in thefinal tiebreaker before isner closed it out, finishedwith eight aces and two double faults.

"That's why i play this game, to be able toenjoy moments like that," isner said. "The stadiumwas packed, there wasn't an empty seat in thehouse, and everyone was on their feet. Cheering for

me, too. "it was very special when that last ballwent by him and i knew i had won the match.

"it was a weird feeling, a very nice feeling. it'ssomething that you don't experience every day. Soi was just trying to take it all in." One of the sport'sgreat rivalries was on display in the second semi-final between 16-time Grand Slam winner Federerand reigning French Open champ Nadal whichstarted three and a half hours late and was playedin difficult windy and rainy conditions.

"i had a good day. it was a great match intough conditions," Federer said. "it was so difficultbut man i couldn't be more happy. i played amaz-ing. "We both expected rain, and it did rain a fewtimes." Federer even had a few extra minutes tothink about what turned out to be his final ace afterofficials pulled the players off the court because ofrain just as he held match point leading 5-4 and40-30. He returned a few moments later and ham-mered the final nail in the coffin -- a 125 mph acethat ended the one hour, 31 minute match.

Isner powers into Indian Wells final

KINGStOWNAfp

Australia skipper Shane Watson salutedleft-arm spinner Xavier Doherty as a game-changing slow bowler after the tourists' 64-run win over the West indies in theiropening one-day international. Dohertytook four for 49 despite being clobberedfor three sixes by marlon Samuels in hisfirst over at Arnos Vale on Friday.

"in the end Xavier Doherty got thebest of that middle order which was a bril-liant comeback after marlon Samuels tookhim down the first over," said Watson.

"There's no doubt Xavier's improved,he's just developed his cricket over the lastfive or six years and now he's got a numberof different gameplans that he can go todepending on the situation of the game.

"As a captain he really is a pleasure tocaptain because he really knows exactlywhat he's trying to do. if things don't goexactly right he's always got another wayto try and find a way to be successful likehe did today."

Australia maintained their six-yearunbeaten run against the West indieswhen they cantered to victory after thehome side suffered an embarrassing bat-ting collapse. Chasing a modest 205 target,West indies, who had lost 14 of their last15 one-dayers against the Australianscoming into the match, were well set at 97for three in the 24th over.

But they then lost their next six wick-ets for a paltry seven runs and despite afinal-wicket flourish from skipper DarrenSammy hitting 35, with five fours andthree sixes, the Windies were still leftlooking for a first win over Australia since

2006. "it's a great way to be able to startthe tour and show the guys who haven'tplayed much against the West indies thatif you're able to sustain a bit of pressurefor a period of time, we know we can getthe results we want," added Watson.

"The average score here was just over200 so we knew we had a decent enoughscore if we were able to bowl well. "Weknew if we were able to sustain a little bitof pressure for a time they always had thepotential to self-destruct a bit and they didthat." The second match in the five-gameseries takes place here on Sunday.

SAN REMOAfp

Australian national champion Simon Gerransclaimed the biggest one-day victory of his ca-reer by winning the 103rd edition of milan-Sanremo, the first major classic of the season,on Saturday. After 298 km, and nearly sevenhours in the saddle, the Greenedge ridercapped a determined display of riding to beatSwitzerland's Fabian Cancellera in a sprint forthe line, with italy's Vincenzo Nibali finishingthird. Gerrans succeeds teammate matt Gossas champion of the race known affectionatelyas 'La Primavera' (the Spring), thus becomingthe second successive Australian to triumph.

He admitted his main role had been tocover attacks by Goss's main rivals. Butafter managing the feat of staying on thewheel of Cancellara in a thrilling finale, Ger-rans took his chance with both hands byoutsprinting the Olympic time trial cham-pion. "i still haven't realised what we actu-ally did today," said Gerrans, a stage winnerin all three major three-week Tours.

Wapda, Navy in

challenge cup semisLAHORE

stAff RepoRt

Wapda and Navy have moved to the semi-final ofthe KPT National Football Challenge Cup-2012being played at Karachiin the first quarter-final on Sunday, WAPDAbeat PPWD 3-2 at the KPT Football Stadium. WAPDA’s forward and captain Arif mahmood hitin two goals in the 49 and 85 minute while man-zoor Ahmed scored in the 54 minute for the winwhile the losing side’s scorers were muhammadHussain 44 minute and muhammad Jan 90+3minute.in the second quarter-finals, Navy beat Army 4-3on penalty kicks after the teams failed to score inthe given timeScorer for Navy were Ramzan Ahmed, Nomimartin Gill, Shahid muneer and Abdul Haqwhile Army scorers were imran Hussain, ShabbirHussain and Akhter Hussain.

National Inter-deptKarate begins

LAHOREstAff RepoRt

The National inter-department Karate Champi-onship started here at PSB Coaching Centre. The teams from all the affiliated departments ofPakistan Karate Federation WAPDA, Army, Po-lice and Railways are participating in the cham-pionship. The championship is being held inindividual Kumite of 50, 55, 60, 67, 75 and 84kgs weight categories and Team KumiteThe PKF is also conducting Referee and JudgesCourse from march 17 to 19 and around 40 refer-ees and judges from all over Pakistan are partici-pating in the course. Nasim Qureshi, AsianQualified and Chief Referee of PKF Bashir Buttand Farman Ahmed are conducting the course.The prize distribution ceremony will be held onSunday at 4 pm at Government College for BoysGulberg Lahore (Opposite Hockey Stadium). SyedAmir Hamza Gilani, Director General, PakistanSports Board will be the chief guest of the finals.

Pakistan Int’l Squash

circuit startsLAHORE

stAff RepoRt

The first two round matches of the 2nd FmCPakistan international Squash Circuit-i, 2012started on Sunday.The qualification round matches will be playedon march 19 (monday). in the pre-qualificationround that started at 10 am Tariq F. Rana, Hon-orary Secretary PSA was the supervisor.

the ResuLts1st round: Khalid Atlas Khan beat Ammad fareed 11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 9-11, 13-11 (3-2) 65 Min; Safiullah Kakar beat Muhammad Mehdi 10-12,11-8, 11-9, 11-9 (3-1) 34 Min; Sadam Ul Haq beat Naqash Shahid 11-9,11-4, 11-9 (3-0) 30 Min; Asim Khan beat yasir Khan 11-5, 11-6, 11-3 (3-0) 33 Min; Ahmed Amin beat Zain Khan 11-6, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7 (3-1) 28Min; Muhammad Bilal beat Imam Sher Khan 11-5, 11-0, 11-7 (3-0) 20Min; Muhammad farhan beat Sheraz Saleem 11-2, 11-1, 11-6 (3-0) 21Min; Zahir Shah beat Mujahid Hussain 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 (3-0) 23 Min,2nd round: Khalid Atlas Khan beat Safiullah Kakar 11-3, 11-3, 11-5 (3-0) 16 Min; Sadam Ul Haq beat Asim Khan 11-6, 11-9, 11-7 (3-0) 30Min; Muhammad Bilal beat Ahmad Amin 11-7, 11-7, 11-2 (3-0) 28 Min;Zahir Shah beat Muhammad farhan 11-6, 11-2, 11-2 (3-0) 20 Min.

Yuvraj dischargedafter cancer treatment

NEW DELHIAfp

india's World Cup cricket hero Yuvraj Singhannounced Sunday that he has been dischargedfrom hospital after undergoing chemotherapyfor a cancerous tumour. "3rd chemo cyclesover, back from hospital n i am free.... Can'twait to be back home," the 30-year-old all-rounder said via Twitter from the UnitedStates, where he has been receiving treatment.Left-handed Yuvraj, named man of the tourna-ment after india's World Cup triumph at homelast April, was diagnosed with a rare condition, mediastinal semi-noma -- a malignant tumour between his lungs -- soon after theevent. Thousands of well-wishers, including US cycling great LanceArmstrong, have sent messages to the player, who is known for hisaggressive batting and disciplined spin bowling. Thanking fans fortheir support, Yuvraj also doffed his hat to indian cricketing superstarSachin Tendulkar for achieving the "unachievable" after becoming theonly player to score 100 international centuries on Friday. "Over-whelmed and full of emotions Tendulkar take a bow What he hasachieved is immeasurable and what he has done is unachievable," hesaid. Yuvraj, who scored 362 runs and bagged 15 wickets in nineWorld Cup matches, has not played competitive cricket since takingpart in two of the three home Tests against the West indies in No-vember. He has scored 8,051 runs in 274 one-dayers and 1,775 in 37Tests since making his international debut in 2000.

iNDiaN weLLs: John

isner of the us celebrates

with the crowd after

defeating Novak Djokovic

in the semi-final match at

the aTP Tennis. reuters

Watson hailsgame-changerXavier Doherty

Gerrans makes it two foraussies at Milan-Sanremo


sports 21Monday, 19 March, 2012

wAtCH it Live

ESPNSports Center

07:30PM

INDIAN WELLSAfp

THe forehand thundered, the backhandsizzled, the Swiss timing was back asRoger Federer steamrolled his waypast Rafael Nadal and into the indian

Wells final. Federer's blistering form this yearshows no sign of slowing down as he goes for histhird straight ATP title and the fourth of his ca-reer in the California desert in Sunday's finalagainst 11th seeded John isner. The 30-year-oldSwiss superstar renewed his rivalry with Spanishlefty Nadal on Saturday, hammering his sixth aceon the final point of the rain-disrupted match toclose out Nadal 6-3, 6-4.

"i guess i had a no-lose mentality," said Fed-erer, who said he has been battling a virus all week."i've not felt great this week. i didn't expect myselfto play so well tonight, and this is sometimes whenyou can pull off the biggest wins of your career."

One of the sport's great rivalries was on displaybetween 16-time Grand Slam winner Federer andreigning French Open champ Nadal. it is alwaysentertaining and full of surprises when the two ten-nis giants meet and this time was no different. Thestart of the match was delayed for three and a halfhours by rain, and there was a brief rain delay atmatch point. "Obviously conditions were toughtoday, and against one of my greatest rivals, it's al-ways nice if you come out on top," Federer said.

"i'm very happy with my game and happy thatmy body is holding up and mentally i'm still fresh,which is very surprising." Federer had a few extra

minutes to think about what turned out to be hisfinal ace after officials called the two off the courtas he served for the match. He returned a few mo-ments later and hammered the final nail in the cof-fin -- a 125 mph sizzler. This was not the first timeFederer has had to collect his thoughts during anunexpected delay in a match against Nadal.

"it just actually did happen against Rafa at theAustralian Open," Federer said of his four set semi-final loss to Nadal in melbourne. "There were fire-works and i came back and couldn't play anymore."it was like unbelievable. Fireworks and rain arenot the same thing, but it was an interruption, eventhough i didn't think of that too much.

"it was tough but at the end, once match pointwas over, everything was short-lived. "it was oneof those great moments that me and Rafa sharedagain after having already had so many greatmatches against each other." Despite the defeat,Nadal still has the career edge over Federer hav-ing won 18 times, including four of the last six.Federer has beaten Nadal 10 times.

"i tried. i fought until the last ball," Nadalsaid. "i lost against a player who played betterthan me this afternoon." On Sunday, Federer isfacing isner, who leads the tournament in aces.isner beat him last month in four sets in a DavisCup first round tie in Switzerland and also pushedFederer to four sets at the 2007 US Open.

"i know how difficult it's going to be tomor-row," Federer said. "John is playing great tennisat the moment. it's great and exciting for Ameri-can tennis, and i'm happy it's happening in the fi-nals, this rematch for me."

Wind, rain norRafa can stopFederer in desert

INDIAN WeLLS: federer returns a forehand to Nadal of Spain during the semi-final match at the AtP tennis. reuTerS

LAHOREAsheR Butt

The start of the spring and its ever alluringfragrance and colours marked the closingof nearly two-month long Punjab SportsFestival 2012. Under the shadow of historicBadshahi masjid and centuries old LahoreFort, the Sports Board Punjab arranged acolourful and cherishing ceremony to hon-our the players who won honours for theirrespective tehsils, districts, divisions,schools and colleges. All the winners of dif-ferent sports were assembled at HazooriBagh especially decorated to lure the youthof the province towards sports.

The mastermind behind the organiza-tion of this sports festival was none otherthan the son of Punjab Chief minister mianShahbaz Sharif, and their PmL (N) federalleader mian Hamza, who as chairman of theorganizing committee successfully heldsporting activity throughout the province.

The plus point of organizing this festivalturned out to be the sports facilities the Pun-jab government had been able acquire fromthe illegal occupants and lured in around500,000 people of different ages to sports.

Hamza with the guidance of UsmanAnwar, director general Sports Board Pun-jab and support of Rana mashood, deputy

speaker Punjab assembly, had been able toorganize a successful sports activity whichis being seen the biggest in Asia in terms ofparticipation and duration. “The loopholesthat have been identified during the inau-gural festival would surely be overcome nextyear,” said Usman Anwar.

Rana mashood said that there were sev-eral issues that came by but the enormity ofthe event should not be forgotten. “The prob-lems seen during this year’s events won’t berepeated next year and it would be more or-ganised and well-planned,” he added. “Or-ganising an event of such a capacity is not aneasy aspect and in a short span of time we

have been able to hold it quite feasibly,” hemaintained. The Sports Board to give glow-ing colours to the festival organized its closingceremony in a carnival style and Punjab Chiefminister mian Shahbaz Sharif presented thetop performers cash with prizes worth mil-lions. Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, who was thechairman organizing committee, Rana mas-hood, deputy speaker, Usman Anwar, DgSports Punjab, mPAs, mNAs, secretaries andgovernment officials joined the organizingcommittee during the mega historical event.

“The Punjab government provided theyouth of the province a platform to excel inthe field of sports. The youth is the real

strength of the country and whenever therewill be a revolution it would be the youth ofthe country that would bring positivechange,” said Hamza in his address duringthe closing ceremony of the festival.Around 1600 winner athletes attended theceremony and were awarded cash prizesand enjoyed the traditional festivity.

As on the last day, Awais Ali of Faisal-abad, Shafique of Kasur and Zahid iqbal ofLahore won the concluding 66 km cycle racesand Fizza of Lahore finished the fun cyclerace in 46:15 to be the winner while Sadaf ofFaisalabad stood second and malaika of Gu-jranwala got third position whereas two spe-

cial persons Anam and Asma achieved fourthand fifth positions to win the 22 Km cyclingrace. in the 22 km male cycling race, Tariqsecured first position covering the distancein 34:40, mohammed ibrahim got secondwhile mohamad Azeem and mohammadKashif were third and fourth.

The prizes amounting Rs 50,000 for firstposition holders in 22 Km fun cycling racewas awarded, Rs 40,000 for second, Rs35,000 for third positions were announcedfor the winners while first 31 positions in 22Km fun cycling and first 50 position holdersin professional cycling race will be awardedthe prizes amounting Rs 800,000.

LAHoRe: Mian Hamza Shahbaz Sharif with other officials watch the Sports festival closing ceremony. LAHoRe: Performaers sho traditional dance during the closing ceremony. MurTaza aLI

Colours of spring mark Punjab Sports Festival closing

India win blindseries againstPakistan

LAHOREstAff RepoRt

india won the blind ODi series when itbeat Pakistan blind cricket team in thethird and last match at Chennai. Playing at the SPiC YmCA Chennai,india won the toss and decided to field. Pakistan started well but couldn’t capi-talize and were bowled out on just 232runs in 32nd over. muhammad Akramand Arslan made 44 runs each whileWaqas, Jameel and Fayyaz made 30, 21and 18 runs respectively. Ketan Patel(Totally Blind) took five wickets andHitesh claimed 2 wickets. india in reply chased the small totalwith ease in 28th overs for the loss ofone wicket. Parkash remained unbeatenon 110 runs and Ajay Reddy made 37runs. india won by nine wickets andParkash was named the man of thematch. Pakistan has lost the first seriesafter winning the seven consecutive ODiseries. Pakistan team will return homeon march 19.

LahoreShaheen beatchaudhary Sports

LAHOREstAff RepoRt

Lahore Shaheen beat Chaudhary Sportsby 5 wickets in the 14th National Vet-eran Senior Cricket Cup to qualify thezonal quarter-final.Playing at the Race Course ParkGround, Chaudhary Sports made 194/9after 30 overs. Abid Sheikh 29, BabarButt 26, irfan munawar 45, Naeem Butt25 & muhammad Khan 25 runs.muhammad Javeed 3/31, Ghulam Hus-sain 2/48, muhammad Arif 1/25,Shaukat Ali Junior 1/26, muhammadAnees 1/26 & Shokat Ali Senior 1/23wickets. in reply Lahore Shaheen 196/5after 25.4 overs. muhammad Arshad 69,Rana Shahid 31, Shokat Ali Senior 30,Tepu Butt 24 & muhammad Javeed 15runs not out. muhammad Khan 2/42,Khubaib Saeed 1/27 & Shafqat Chaud-hary 1/27 wickets. masood Khan,muhammad Asif Umpire & Syed Najam-ul-saeed was the scorer.


Monday, 19 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

ISLAMABAD tAhiR niAz

THe star witness in thememo scandal, mansoorijaz, on the last day of hiscross-examination on Sun-day hit Husain Haqqani

even harder by saying that he wanted toreplace President Asif Ali Zardari. How-ever, before leaving the Pakistan HighCommission London, he said his ‘ex-friend’ was “a man of honour”.

The memo commission directedHaqqani to appear before it for cross-exam-ination on march 26 in islamabad after de-clining his request to be available at thePakistan High Commission London for thepurpose. in an earlier question, ijaz wasasked would he still categorise Haqqani asfriend and the answer was, “probably no”.But as he finished with his part of the job,he stood up and said, “it is with regret thati have to say this all. He (Haqqani) is a manof honour but no longer my friend. maybei could not see him again.” Haqqani wasalso sitting under the same roof.

To a question put by the commission,

ijaz said he had changed his opinion aboutHaqqani as a ‘power-thirsty man’, after hereceived a message from him when he wasconsidering quitting as ambassador, inwhich he asked him to tell the US top gov-ernment officials that he was their manand would get their problems resolved inPakistan. “i reached the conclusion thathe was thirsty for power… i know that histhirst for power included an up to the am-bition to replace Asif Zardari”, he added.

earlier, Haqqani requested the com-mission that he might be allowed to ap-pear before the Pakistan HighCommission London for cross-examina-tion but the commission declined it anddirected him to come to Pakistan on thenext date of hearing on march 26. Duringcross-examination, ijaz said he changedhis opinion about the iSi as an institutionafter meeting with Lt General Shuja Pashaadding it all depends on the head of theorganisation how he leads it. “After meet-ing Pasha, i came to the conclusion thathe is a man of integrity and in search oftruth (on the memorandum)”, he added.ijaz also termed Pasha a man of integrity.

On the question about integrity of

mike mullen who first denied existence ofthe memorandum and later confirmed it,ijaz said Haqqani and his people orches-trated the denial. “The denial was not is-sued with permission of mike mullenhimself rather some one from his staffmembers did it,” he said. ijaz said due toHaqqani’s ‘documented’ relations withZardari and Benazir Bhutto, he believedhis words in which he feared a possiblecoup in Pakistan. However, ijaz addedthat he no longer believed that Haqqaniwould still convey credible information.He said he never imagined that his articlein the Financial Times would blow up.

“Had there not been a cover up (de-nial on memo) from the (Pakistani) Pres-idency and the Foreign Office to hide thefacts on memo, i would not have come upwith the truth,” he said. ijaz said it was notpossible for him to know with any preci-sion whether the US had the capacity andability to know about the possible coup inPakistan after the events of may 2, 2011.

Asked what prompted the US to inter-vene in the matter, he said the “US govern-ment does things for self interest or mutualinterest” and added survival of democracy in

Pakistan might have been one of them. To aquestion by the commission, ijaz said he waschosen by Ambassador Haqqani to deliverthe memo to the US authorities so that it didnot have any ‘Pakistani fingerprints’ on it as,he added, Haqqani wanted if at all it comesto public no one in Pakistan could believethat it was from him to the US side.

The commission directed Haqqani’scounsel with a final warning to formally in-form it about admission or denial about theevidence record within three days as in casethere is some denial from Haqqani on theevidence, the commission could start foren-sic examination of ijaz’s Blackberry whichallegedly contained communication data.As the wife of Kashmiri Leader Yaseenmalik insisted that her husband did notwant deleted from record the portion whichcontains allegations against him by ijaz,Justice isa remarked, “Are you on a suicidemission”. He said the commission was of-fering her more than she actually asked forand trying to vindicate her husband’s hon-our by deleting from record a particularchunk and added if he is not agreeing uponit, he can file and application and deposebefore the commission any time.

ISLAMABADMAsooD RehMAn

Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani islikely to submit before the SupremeCourt today (monday) his writtenstance that he would prefer to go to jailinstead of writing a letter to the Swissauthorities for reopening of graft casesagainst President Asif Ali Zardari.

earlier on march 8, a seven-mem-ber special bench of the Supreme Courtcomprising Justice Nasirul mulk, Jus-tice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice SarmadJalal Osmany, Justice ejaz Afzal Khan,Justice ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, JusticeGulzar Ahmed and Justice Ather Saeed,had directed the prime minister to writea letter, without getting any advice andinfluence of the ongoing contempt pro-ceedings, to the Swiss authorities for re-opening of corruption cases againstZardari and submit compliance report

along with his written statement beforethe court on march 19 or personally ap-pear on march 21 to get his statementrecorded over the matter.

However, instead of writing the let-ter in compliance with the court’s or-ders, the prime minister publiclyrepeated his stance on march 16 sayingthat the constitution as well as rules ofbusiness did not allow him to write aletter against his own president, there-fore, he would not do so.

“if i write the letter, it will be a viola-tion of Article 6 of the constitution and ifi do not write one, it would be contemptof court,” he said, adding that the punish-ment for violation of Article 6 was death,whereas the sentence for contempt ofcourt was six months’ incarceration,therefore he would rather be incarcer-ated than be handed a death penalty.

On the last hearing, the court hadmade it clear to the prime minister to

implement para 178 of the NRO judge-ment passed by a 17-member bench onDecember 16, 2009, as it was his re-sponsibility. The court had also directedthe prime minister to submit his writtenstatement on march 19 or appear onmarch 21 to get his statement recorded.The court had asked Aitzaz Ahsan toconclude his arguments within oneweek after march 21.

The court had directed AttorneyGeneral maulvi Anwarul Haq to conveyits order to the prime minister, as Aitzazwas not appearing in the NRO imple-mentation case, rather he was defend-ing the premier in contempt case.

The court had observed that it didnot want to give its opinion instantly onthe stance adopted by the prime minis-ter over writing of letter to the Swiss au-thorities. Aitzaz had stated that hisclient wanted to submit a written state-ment in the matter.

PESHAWARstAff RepoRt

At least 40 militants and four soldiers

have been killed in clashes between

security forces and militants in

scattered areas of Khyber, Orakzai

and Kurram agencies over the past

week, an official said on Sunday.

Twelve soldiers were also injured in

the military action, which started on

march 12, against the militants from

the banned Lashkar-e-islam (Li) –

led by warlord mangal Bagh – in

Sepah area of Bara tehsil.

However, he said the action against

the terrorists in other parts of Bara

will continue.

He said 25 militants were killed in

action in Sepah and several militant

compounds were also destroyed.

The official said the security forces’

action was focused on those elements

who were involved in recent terrorist

acts including suicide attack on senior

police officer Kalam Khan, on a

funeral in Badhaber and an explosion

at a bus stand on Kohat Road in

Peshawar. more than 30 men,

including senior police officer, were

killed in these attacks.

As a result of the clashes and military

action, a large number of civilians

from various parts of Bara have

abandoned their houses and migrated

to peaceful parts of Peshawar and its

surrounding areas.

The upper parts of Bara are also

witnessing severe clashes between

rival militant groups and security

forces. The official also confirmed the

killings of 18 militants in jet fighters

strikes in scattered areas of

Upper Orakzai and Central

Kurram on Sunday.

The official said three dins of the

militants were also destroyed.

Some 18,000 people fled their homes

in Khyber in October last year amid

fears of a fresh outbreak of fighting

between the army and islamist

militants linked to the Pakistani

Taliban. The country’s seven tribal

districts near the Afghan border are

rife with insurgents and are

strongholds of Taliban and al Qaeda

operatives. militants have killed more

than 4,800 people across Pakistan

since government troops raided an

extremist mosque in islamabad in

July 2007.

LAhoRe: Deaf members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa carry the holy quran and flags during a protest on sunday over the burning of islam’s holy book by nAto troops in Afghanistan. afp

Ijaz punches Haqqani even harderon last day of cross-examinationg central character of memo scandal says former Pakistani envoy to US wanted to replace Zardari

PM likely to submit hisstance before SC today

letter tO swiss authOrities

At least 40

militants, 4 soldiers

killed in clashes in

the past week


Documents

e-paper pakistantoday 19th march, 2012