e-paper pakistantoday 29th January, 2013

Monday, 28 January, 2013 Rabiul awal 15, 1434Rs 17.00 Vol iii no 211 19 pages Lahore edition

PAGE |19PAGE |09

Pml-n to restoreBahawalpur provinceat all costs: shahbaz

citing threats to life,Hussain Haqqani

refuses to return home

How it Happened:literature to call our own!

PAGE 14

ISLAMABADSHaIQ HUSSaIN

Afghanistan on Monday sought an early re-lease of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, thedeputy to Afghan Taliban leader MullahOmar, besides other Taliban leaders andactivists currently in Pakistani custody.

The crucial issue of Baradar’s release,who has been in Pakistani custody since2010, was taken up in discussions duringtalks between an Afghan delegation anda team of senior Pakistani army officialsled by Chief of Army Staff General AshfaqKayani at the General Headquarters inRawalpindi on Monday.

The Afghan delegation is headed byDefence Minister General Bismillah KhanMuhammadi. General Khan also calledon President Asif Ali Zardari and dis-

cussed with him bilateral ties and the re-gional situation. The Afghan defenceminister raised the issue of release ofBaradar and other Taliban leaders withPresident Zardari as well, sources privy tothe parleys said. Pakistan has already re-leased around 26 Taliban prisoners in thelast couple of months, including formerTaliban justice minister Mullah noorud-din Turabi. Around 80 to 90 other Tal-iban leaders and activists are still inPakistani jails and the most importantamong them is Mullah Baradar.

Pakistan has announced that it wouldset free all Taliban prisoners in phases inmonths to come. “The Afghan delegationpraised Pakistan’s efforts for peace inAfghanistan, especially the release of Tal-iban leaders to persuade the insurgentleadership to join the reconciliation

process. However, they (Afghan officials)also requested that Mullah Baradar andother Taliban leaders be released soon aswell,” a source said on condition ofanonymity. He said Pakistani officials re-iterated Islamabad’s position on the issuethat all Taliban prisoners would be freed.General Kayani told the Afghan militaryleadership that Pakistan would take allpossible steps for facilitating the Afghanreconciliation process. “Both sides agreedthat terrorism was a common threat anda joint fight against the menace wouldcontinue,” the source said. The Pakistaniofficials also sought effective measures byAfghan security forces to prevent terroristattacks on Pakistani border posts in Dir,Bajaur and Chitral from the Afghan side.

ISLAMABADKaSHIf aBBaSI

The national Accountability Bureau (nAB)on Monday expressed its lack of confidencein the two-member bench of SupremeCourt that has been taking up the Kam ranFaisal death case.On Monday, the bench of Justice Jawwad SKhawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussainresumed hearing in the case in presence ofnAB Chairman Admiral (r) FasihBokhari.During the course of hearing, nABProsecutor General Karim Khan Aghaobjected to the constitution of the benchand said he was not satisfied with the benchformed to hear the case. Justice Jawwad SKhwaja directed the prosecutor that if hehad any issue of confidence andconstitution of the bench, he should submita complaint in writing, and if nAB’sreservations were tenable, they might beconsidered. Justice Khwaja noted that comewhat may, rule of law and constitution wasimportant for the court.On the other hand, Attorney General IrfanQadir also appeared before the court andrequested it to stall hearing, pleading that ajudicial commission constituted by theInterior Ministry was already probing intothe death of the nAB investigator. To this,the court observed that both the

government and court wanted to ensurerule of law and probe into the mysteriousdeath. The AG said if the SC announced ajudgment in this case, the work of thejudicial commission would be of noconsequence. In response to court orders,KK Agha also presented before the bench acopy of the notification of the judicialcommission. After seeing the copy, the courtreturned it to the prosecutor with objectionthat the notification did not contain officialnumbers. The bench directed him to submita proper copy of the notification on the nexthearing. The nAB prosecutor requested forsome time, after which the court adjournedthe hearing until February 1. During theproceedings, the court also designatedAdvocate Anwar Kamal as amicus curiae inthe case, to which the nAB prosecutor alsoraised objections. Kamal is also appearingbefore a three-member bench hearing theRental Power Project (RPPs) case, asamicus curiae. Kamran Faisal, who wasprobing into the Rental Power Projectscam involving Prime Minister RajaPervaiz Ashraf and 15 others, was foundhanging from a ceiling fan in his officialresidence on January 18. His death camethree days after the SC ordered nAB toarrest PM and others in connection withthe scam. The SC took a suo motu notice ofFaisal’s death last week.

Stop SC or I’ll reSIgn!

naB chief writes letter toPresident Zardari complaining of‘judiciary’s pressure’ on him toact against senior govt officials

says sc’s role should not exceedits constitutional position asappellate court

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

In an apparent bid to buildpressure on the SupremeCourt (SC) in order tosuspend proceedingsagainst Prime Minister

Raja Pervez Ashraf and other co-accused in the high-profile RentalPower Projects (RPPs) corruptioncase, national AccountabilityBureau (nAB) Chairman Admiral(r) Fasih Bokhari on Mondaysubmitted a letter to President AsifAli Zardari, accusing the judiciaryof “pressurising” him to take actionagainst “some senior governmentofficials” while threatening toresign if “these issues are notaddressed expeditiously”.However, when confronted byjournalists at the SC building,Bokhari neither confirmed norcontradicted the rumours of his

resignation. When asked if he hadtendered his resignation or writtenany letter to the president, Bokhariresponded that he wanted to enjoythe “pleasant weather”. When thereporters asked if he was refutingthe reports about his resignation,the nAB chief replied that he wasneither confirming nor denyingany such news. In his letter, a copy of which isavailable with Pakistan Today,Bokhari alleged that the SC’sposition over this issue remainsclouded by actions bearingheavily on its mandate to strictlyabide by the nationalAccountability Ordinance (nAO)in both letter and spirit, as thetime for elections approaches. He also accused a section of themedia of vilifying him in KamranFaisal’s death case due to which“there is a revolt within nAB”. Healso alleged that that very section

of the media appeared to beacting as an “intelligence unit”,influencing the public, andpossibly influencing “certainmembers of the judiciary”. “The clear line between therecognized authority of the SupremeCourt to monitor nABinvestigations to the limited extentof ensuring fair investigation, anditself becoming involved in guidinginvestigations, appears to bebecoming breached as a norm as theelections near. Contempt notices,verbal orders that differ fromwritten orders, and insufficient timeto prepare numerous progressreports, are placing extremepressure on nAB personnel whoappear before the HonorableJudges,” the nAB chief wrote.

Afghans ask for Baradar’s early release

Kamran Faisal case

NAB has no trustin SC benchg NAB prosecutor objects to constitution of bench g AG wants SC

to stall hearing and let judicial commission investigate the death

Continued on page 048


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02News

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clashes continue in egypt for fifth consecutive day google sued over apple browsing privacy

Tuesday, 29 January, 2013

eight killed after toxic gas fills coalmine QUETTA: At least eight labourers were killed when toxic gasfilled a coalmine in Dakki area of Loralai in Balochistan. Perdetails, as many as nine workers hailing from Swat were workingin a coalmine when poisonous gas filled the area. Locals rushed tothe spot and shifted the dead to a nearby hospital. The bodies willbe transported to their native areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.Balochistan’s chief mine inspector has ordered a probe into thetragic incident. oNLINe

malik hints at seeking spy agencies’help over Karachi unrest

ISLAMABAD: FederalInterior Minister RehmanMalik on Monday said thatintelligence agencies might becontacted to help ease law andorder situation in Karachi.Speaking to mediarepresentatives, he said that hewould write a letter to spyagencies seeking their help torestore peace in the violence-ridden metropolis. Theminister said that all stateinstitutions were working to

curb lawlessness in the country, adding that improving law andorder situation requires collective efforts. Malik said the agencieswould take actions along with providing sensitive intelligence. PML-N wILL NEIThEr STAgE SIT-IN Nor hoLD LoNgMArch: Commenting on the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz(PML-n)’s proposed sit-in outside Parliament House, Malik said thePML-n would hold a peaceful walk from Parliament to the office ofElection Commission of Pakistan (ECP). ageNcIeS

Justice (r) Javed iqbal likely to beappointed federal ombudsman

ISLAMABAD: Justice (r)Javed Iqbal is likely to beappointed federalombudsman and a summaryin this regard has beenforwarded to the Presidency.After consultations withconstitutional and legalexperts, President Asif AliZardari would make the finaldecision in this regard. Thegovernment had earlierappointed Suleman Farooqias the ombudsman for two

months and now his tenure had expired. The government is nowmulling to appoint Justice (r) Javed Iqbal who had beenchairman of the Abbottabad Commission, while he also had anactive role in the commission formed for recovery of missingpersons. oNLINe

22 militants killed in airstrikesorAKZAI AgENcY/KhYBEr AgENcY: At least 22 militantswere killed on Monday in separate operations when fighter planesbombed their hideouts in Upper Orakzai and Khyber Agency onMonday. According to details, twelve militants were killed whenfighter planes targeted hideouts of the miscreants in Upper OrakzaiAgency. Four hideouts of the militants were also destroyed duringthe operation. Furthermore, 10 militants were killed and eightinjured when security forces targeted their hideouts in the TakhtaKatti area of Khyber Agency. oNLINe

LAHOREUMaIR aZIZ

PAKISTAn Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khanon Monday reiterated the objections raised by Dr TahirulQadri about the members of the Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP), while expressing “severe reservations”on the candidacy of Asma Jehangir for the office of care-

taker prime minister. In a press conference a day after a government delegation met Dr

Qadri to decide matters regarding the Islamabad Declaration, Imransaid, “We have complete faith in the Chief Election Commissioner butwe are not satisfied with other members of the commission. Therefore,we think it needs to be reconstituted.” Reiterating Dr Qadri’s messageto the government team, Imran said, “We have no objection to the ap-pointment of ECP chief Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, but the nominationof the four members is illegal because the committee didn’t hear allthe 12 nominees whose names had been sent by the provinces.”

He defended the PTI’s decision to not join Dr Qadri’s long march,as he praised two “positive” outcomes – first, that all political partieswill be consulted on the name for caretaker PM; second, that all thosesuggested would be scrutinised for a month.

Regarding the caretaker prime minister, the PTI chief gave the “es-sential” criteria, including complete neutrality, impeccable personal in-tegrity, respect for national institutions (particularly the judiciary), acommitment not to fundamentally change the contours of national pol-icy and basic management ability to hold elections and run the govern-ment. On grounds of its criteria, Imran said the PTI “disagrees withAsma Jahangir’s nomination” for the caretaker premier. “She has a his-tory of opposing the PTI and has given statements against it. She isclosely aligned with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). She has showncontinuous disrespect for the judiciary. We therefore do not think that

she fits the criteria,” Imran said. He declared her nomination as an“agreed game” between the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz(PML-n). “Jahangir’s nomination is tantamount to the fact that the gov-ernment is not sincere in holding free and fair elections and if govern-ment elevates her, PTI would hold the biggest protestin the country’s history over nomination of animpartial person,” Imran stated.

Later, Imran reiterated his de-mand for President Zardari’s res-ignation, alleging that he was notfit to hold a fair and free election,a prerequisite for bringing in anelected government with the peo-ple’s mandate.

He also presented the “ingredi-ents for free and fair elections”, in-cluding an election commissionthat is not only fair but has therequisite power to ensure thatall electoral laws were strictlyobserved; a caretaker gov-ernment that is neutral andseen by all to be as such;and a president who istruly a symbol of thestate and neutral amongall political stakehold-ers. Elections that arenot free and fair canthreaten the in-tegrity of the na-tion, Khan added.

imran rejects asma Jehangir’s name for caretaker Pm

ISLaMaBaD: president asif

Zardari talks to an afghan

delegation led by Defence

Minister Bismellah Khan

on Monday.


03NewseditoriAltie up the loose ends

CommeNt

Articles on Page 10-11

And announce the election schedule

Luavut Zahid says;Pakistan: the land of irony: All Pakistanis are equal, but some Pakistanisare more equal than others, especially if they’re Muslims

Rabia ahmed says;Captain Harry and the Xbox: Should we concentrate on the symptomsor the disease?Javeria a Khan says;Lahore cries: Of dengue, road constructions and Shahbaz Sharif

ArtS & eNtertAiNmeNt

Story on Page 18

BuSiNeSS

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SPortS

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Hc dismisses petition against amitabh Bachchan pakistan-Nigeria Joint commission on bilateral trade to be established pakistan ladies to be housed at Barabati Stadium


LAHOREaSHeR JoHN/aIMa KHoSa

In a rare decision by a local court,Barkat Masih, a 56-year-oldChristian accused of blasphemywas acquitted on Monday, Pak-istan Today has learnt.

According to details, Masih, aChristian convert from Hinduism, hadbeen accused of blasphemy in hishometown Khairpur in 2011.

A sweeper by profession, he hadbeen accused of blasphemy when herefused to hand over duplicate keys ofa shrine where he used to work toMuhammad Saleem and MuhammadShoaib. They threatened him of “direconsequences” and on October 1, 2011filed an FIR against Masih under Sec-tion 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Consequently, Masih was arrestedand taken to Bahawalpur Central Jailwhere he was under trial for blasphemyover the last one year. Blasphemy in Pak-istan is punishable by death. Masih wasacquitted by Additional Sessions JudgeChaudhry Jamil Ahmad on Monday.

Talking to Pakistan Today, Masih’scounsel Lazar Allah Rakha said, “Today,a great justice has been served. Masih wasinnocent and everyone knew. An inno-cent man was saved from a terrible fate.”

Lazar said, “There was a lot of pres-sure from the opposing counsel JavedPirzada and his associates about thiscase. He kept threatening me for sup-porting a man who had committed blas-phemy.” Furthermore, he said that nosecurity had been provided to him andMasih during the trial, adding that onthe day the judgment was due, the courthad been completely barricaded and noone was allowed in or outside the courtwithout proper checking.

Moreover, he said that while he hadso far faced no threats from Muslimmobs, he had been under a lot of pres-sure from the local lawyers communitywhich had been vocal against him for

defending Masih’s case. He further saidthat Masih was still in prison and wasdue to be released today (Tuesday).

Talking to Pakistan Today, WorldVision in Progress Director FarrukhHarrison said, “I am very grateful tothe police for their support. Everyoneknew that Masih was innocent andfindings by the police also played avery strong role in his acquittal.” Har-rison’s Christian rights outfit was pro-viding legal support to the accused.

Commenting on the security impli-cations for Masih after his release,Harrison said, “The courts can onlyprovide justice, they cannot guaranteesecurity. The police can only ensuresafety of the citizens for so long. Masihand his family will have to relocate andstart over afresh because his life isunder threat at his current hometown.”

napolean Qayyum of the PakistanPeople’s Party Minorities Wing told Pak-istan Today that the ruling was a rareone indeed. “This case again warrants areview of the application of the blas-phemy laws which are misused by peopleto settle personal scores and vendettas.Even though minorities are suffering be-cause of the laws’ misuse, many Muslimsare also languishing in jails on false blas-phemy charges,” he said.

Qayyum said that the case of Rimsha

Masih, a 14-year-old Christian girl fromIslamabad, was also an eye-opener of theblatant misuse of the blasphemy laws.“However, it is encouraging that thecourts have now found the courage to an-alyze such cases on merit,” he added.

Talking to Pakistan Today, peaceand human-rights advocate, IA Rehmansaid, “This is a clear example of how theblasphemy laws are misused to settlepersonal scores and economic disputes.It is now the responsibility of the stateto ensure that the man lives safely withhis family without any more persecu-tion.” Furthermore, he said that it wasnot just the responsibility of the statebut also the society to take correctivemeasures to ensure the safety and secu-rity of Pakistan’s minorities. Masih’s ac-quittal is a unique case in Pakistan’scontroversial blasphemy laws.

Currently, Aasia Bibi, a woman fromnankana Sahib, is on death row after shewas found guilty of blasphemy. Manyhuman rights activists, notable politiciansand local and international nGOs havebeen demanding the law to be revoked.According to a recent survey, at least 647people had been charged with blasphemyover the last two decades. Fifty percent ofthe people charged were non-Muslim.Twenty of those charged were murderedsoon after the charge was laid.

christian falsely accused ofblasphemy walks free

nawaz opposes creationof new provinces on ethnic basis

LAhorE: Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz(PML-n) chief nawaz Sharif said newprovinces should be formed on administrativebasis and not on ethnic basis. Talking to ameeting of the party’s parliamentarycommittee on Monday, he said division ofPunjab based on hatred is notacceptable.Sharif demanded division ofPunjab according to the resolution passed bythe Punjab Assembly. He reaffirmed hisresolve to restore order in Karachi and servethe masses by providing them basic amenitiesat their doorstep. oNLINe

Conspiracy being hatchedto install unconstitutionalsetup: Rabbani

ISLAMABADStaff RepoRt

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader RazaRabbani on Monday alleged that a “third force”was trying to hatch conspiracy to install anunconstitutional setup in the country. Talking tojournalists at the Parliament House, Senator RazaRabbani said that that any step taken to dissolvethe Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) wouldbe unconstitutional. Furthermore, he said thatapplying Article 209 of the constitution was theonly way to remove or replace any member of theECP or chief election commissioner. “Anti-democratic elements are trying to derail and delaythe election process,” Rabbani added. He said thata sword was hanging over the democratic systemin the country, adding that such expeditions bythe undemocratic forces would remain unless anew leader was elected. To a question, he said thatan unconstitutional setup would be installed andmaintained for two to three years.

KARACHIaaMIR MaJeeD

The family of 15-year-old Christian girlAsma, who was kidnapped and laterforcibly married to an employee ofSindh Minister for Local GovernmentAgha Siraj Durani after alleged forcedconversion to Islam, is being forced tomigrate from Karachi after threatsfrom the politically-backed abductors.

The desperate family decided toturn silent seeing inaction by police

over the issue to avoid further damage.On January 21, a judicial magis-

trate issued non-bailable arrest war-rants and ordered police to arrest thecouple within 24 hours, but the policedid not arrest them due to the allegedinfluence of local political leaders.

The investigation officer (IO) whowas tasked with arresting the coupleclaimed that the couple surrenderedbefore the Sindh High Court (SHC)and filed a petition against the girl’sfamily and police for alleged harass-

ment. “I went to the police station andcourt for justice but justice was servednowhere,” Asma’s desperate mother,Khursheed Bibi, told Pakistan Today.

“I spent a large amount on the caseand have not a single penny left withme to pay the lawyer to pursue the case.It is better to turn silent against thekidnapping and forced marriage of myteenage girl,” she said. “A few days ago,Ghaji Khan called me and threatened towithdraw the case and leave the cityforever, otherwise he would kidnap myother daughters as well,” she said,adding that Khan advised her to sellher house to avoid further damage.

“The IO of the case, Sub-InspectorAbdul Ghaffar also said he would nei-ther get my daughter nor the lootedmoney and the jewelry back,” Khur-sheed said. Ghaffar also advised her towithdraw the case as Khan was influen-tial and beyond the reach of police and

courts. “The IO claimed that the SHChad accepted the petition of Ghaji Khanand they could not be arrested until or-ders of the superior court,” she said.

“I am exhausted and have left the mat-ter to the mercy of God,” she said. SI AbdulGhaffar said the couple had surrenderedto the SHC and filed a petition against thegirl’s family and police for harassment.“The SHC accepted the petition and thematter is pending before the court,” headded. He denied Khursheed’s accusationsof supporting Ghaji Khan during the in-vestigation, saying he never asked the girl’smother to stop pursuing the case.

Asma was kidnapped by an employeeof Durani on January 9 and was latermarried after she was converted to Islam.A judicial magistrate on January 21 is-sued non-bailable arrest warrants of thecouple on interim charge-sheet and or-dered police to produce them before courtafter arresting them within 24 hours.

KARACHIaftaB cHaNNa

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has registered a caseagainst an Italian diplomat Ubaldo Ciaviglioli for his allegedinvolvement in human trafficking, Pakistan Todayhas learnt.

According to sources, case no C 06/2013 has beenregistered against the diplomat under section 5 PA-of-fences punishable under the Foreign Exchange Regu-lation Act 1947. It is expected that the FIA willinterrogate the diplomat for his involvement in traf-ficking people to Europe. Sources said investigationswere being carried out to check the involvement of afew blue-eyed travel agents, from the federal capitaland Punjab, in trafficking people to Europe duringwhich the diplomat’s involvement became apparent.

According to the FIR, the agency had received re-

ports on illegal travel agents operating in Lahorewhose arrest was critical in indicting Ciaviglioli.

FIA had recently apprehended travel agents Maliknaseer Ahmed and Tariq Mehmood from Lahore, bothof whom confessed during interrogation that Italian Em-bassy’s visa officer Ubaldo Ciaviglioli was helping themin issuing Schengen visas and visit visas at a price of 300euros and also helped people in seeking asylum visas.

Furthermore, sources said the Ministry of ForeignAffairs has been approached to allow investigators toarrest the diplomat or ask him to leave the country.

When contacted, a senior official at the Italian Em-bassy in Islamabad told Pakistan Today that they hadreceived a copy of the FIR that included the name of visaofficer Ubaldo Ciaviglioli. The diplomat was interrogatedby Italian authorities and he might leave the country iffound involved in any illegal activity, the official said.

g Barkat Masih was charged under Section 295-C for refusing to hand over duplicate keys of a shrine to complainants

Justice deniedMother of Christian girl abducted by employee

of influential minister being forced to abandon

case, leave the city

fiA books italian diplomat for human trafficking


04 Tuesday, 29 January, 2013

ISLAMABADapp

Attorney General IrfanQadir on Monday told theSupreme Court that the al-leged missing prisoners ofAdiala Jail had been kept indetention in Landi KotalJail under the Action in Aidof Civil Power (AACP),2007, regulation 10.

The revelation camewhen a three-judge bench ofChief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry, Jus-tice Gulzar Ahmed and Jus-tice Sheikh Azmat Saeedresumed hearing in the caseon Monday.

The attorney generalfurther elaborated that theAACP gave power to certainlaw enforcing authorities to

detain a person if there wassome suspicion against him.

He said if a person feltaggrieved, the said act gavehim the right to file an ap-plication after which the au-thorities would decide onthe issue.

Qadir said he wasbound by law and could notgo beyond it and the consti-tution.

Tariq Asad, counsel forthe mother of an accused,said a total five FIRs werelodged in Rawalpindi andAttock police stationsagainst the 11 accused.

Asad informed the courtthat the DCO passed anorder on April 8, 2010 forthe detention of the saidmen for 30 days, which waslater extended to 90 days.

He said after the judg-ment by the Lahore HighCourt on May 26, 2010 re-garding the acquittal ofthese 11 people, their con-finement was illegal andstrictly against the law.

The counsel said as thepeople were released fromAdiala Jail, they were againtaken into custody andshifted to Landi Kotal Jail.

The CJ said there weremany things that neededclarification and asked thepetitioner to carry out hisarguments as the apex courtcould not pass a judgmentin haste.

Later, the court ad-journed the hearing untilFebruary 4 upon a requestby Tariq Asad for gatheringsome essential documents.

LAHOREapp

THE Lahore HighCourt Monday al-lowed nationalElectric Power Reg-ulatory Authority

(nEPRA), Water and PowerDevelopment Authority(WAPDA) and others to re-cover fuel adjustment chargesfrom industrial units as per no-tification.

However, the court ex-empted domestic consumersusing up to 350 units of elec-tricity from fuel adjustmentcharges.

Furthermore, the courtruled that the domestic con-sumers using over 350 unitswould have to pay fuel adjust-ment charges.

The court ordered respon-dents to refund money if it was

received from domestic con-sumers using up to 350 units.

The court also remitted thematter to nEPRA for consider-ation.

Justice MuhammadKhalid Mehmood Khan passedthe orders while allowing hun-dreds of identical petitionsfiled in 2011 against the recov-ery of fuel adjustment charges.

The petitions were filed byGulshan Spinning Mills, Ru-pali Polyester, various domes-tic consumers and othersagainst WAPDA, nEPRA andothers. The petitioners’through their counsels saidthat electricity was one of thebiggest single componentwhich alone constituted 50percent of their total cost ofend product.

Minor fluctuation in theelectricity price affected thecost of production, they added.

Furthermore, the petition-ers said that they had paidelectricity bills for the month ofApril, May, June but the re-spondents had added 20 per-cent amount as fueladjustment charges formonths of April, May to the billof October. They said that theelectricity companies took theaction on basis of two notifica-tions issued by the federal gov-ernment on August 23, 2011under added provisions 31(4)of the Regulation, Generation,transmission, Distribution ofElectric Power Act of 1997.

They submitted that thesaid provision had been addedas it was not provided in theoriginal Act. They contendedthat as per law no notificationhaving an adverse financial im-pact could be issued.

The petitioners contendedthat the bills for the months of

April, May had been paid,adding that it was a closedtransaction and respondentswere not authorised to receivefuel adjustment charges forsaid months.

They asked the court to setaside fuel adjustment chargesand notification issued in thisregard besides restraining re-spondents from taking any ad-verse action against them.

However, the respondentsargued that the notification is-sued for the recovery ofcharges was legal and pleadedthe court to dismiss the peti-tions.

The court, after having re-served judgement, announcedthe verdict in open court. Thecourt had already stayed therecovery of fuel adjustmentcharges from domestic con-sumers who use electricity upto 350 units.

LHC orders recovery of fueladjustment charges fromindustrial units g domestic consumers consuming up to 350 units exempted

“At least five to 10 percentof the verified rolls wouldbe randomly re-verified inareas pinpointed by politi-cal parties,” the sourcesaid.

An army officer at theECP office said his side was“chalking out” an effectiveplan (possibly with the ECPand political stakeholders)to ascertain what factuallyneeded to be done.

The ECP, however,seemed not upbeat aboutthe materialisation of thepolitical parties’ demandwho, Mehboob Anwar said,wanted each ECP verifieraccompanied by army per-sonnel.

The total number ofstaffers verifying voter lists

in the city is 13,224. Thenumber of army men de-ployed in city, however,could not be ascertained.

However, an army offi-cer said the military had noplan to increase the num-ber of personnel deployedin the port city.

Talking to PakistanToday, Awami Tehreek VicePresident Mazahar Rahujasaid the CEC, who had noblemish on his record, hadfirst vowed to delimit thecity’s constituencies andthen withdrew his state-ment.

“If a respectable personlike Fakhruddin G Ebrahimstarts turning back on hiswords, then only God canprotect our country,”Rahuja said.

Adiala missing prisoners detained under AACP, says AG

ECP to re-verify checked

voter rolls randomlyContinued fRoM page 19

He said that there waseven the danger that nABpersonnel could lose theirindependence and becomeunable to carry out their in-vestigations in an independ-ent manner due to the“pressure being exerted onthem by the HonorableSupreme Court to proceedalong lines which seem to bedesired by the SC”.

“In relieving this pres-sure, to safeguard their jobs,and so as not to displeasethe Honorable Court, thereis danger of unfair investiga-tion being resorted to. Thisphenomenon is observablein the investigation of very

senior politicians of the gov-ernment where orders, toeven arrest them, have beenissued on investigation re-ports of regional investiga-tors that had yet to reach theExecutive Board Meeting atnAB Headquarters that ischaired by me,” he added.

The nAB chief furthersaid that this could be con-strued as a clear violation ofthe powers of the ChairmannAB and to some degree cir-cumventing the nAO, whichhe was required by law to fol-low. “The nAO in my view asit remains law passed by Par-liament represents the will ofthe people and as such I ambound to follow it. The nAO

mandates that no referencecan be filed until I have beenallowed to exercise my mind,and decide that a clear caseof criminality has been madeout. I would be failing in mystatutory duty if I shirk fromupholding the law that I ammandated to protect,” headded.

Bokhari assured thepresident that he would notflinch from prosecutingwhosoever might be identi-fied as having committed acriminal act under the nAO,as all were equal before thelaw and the nation expectedthat there be no sacred cows,nor raging bulls. “I am con-strained to also bring to yournotice the revolt withinnAB, clearly abetted by acertain section of the media

that used the sad demise ofMr Kamran Faisal to vilifyme and some senior nAB of-ficers. This section of themedia appears to be actingas an intelligence unit influ-encing the public, and possi-bly influencing certainmembers of the judiciary,”he said.

The nAB chief that thelong standing “slay” on taxesto be paid by that mediahouse appeared to be rele-vant. He said that the mediacampaign, in which the roleof the Honorable SupremeCourt appeared evident, wasplacing great pressure onhim to please the court inwhat could be seen as pre-poll rigging, and hurried un-lawful action on his part.

“I fear that in the current

direction that the HonorableSupreme Court appears tobe taking, I will not be ableto perform my independentstatutory role. This situationneeds to be addressed firmlyin line with the aspirationsof the people, and the clearmandatory provisions of theLaw and the Constitution,”he added. “The need to allowthe Honorable SC to be di-verted from its prime rolesas the final Appellate andConstitutional Court mayneed to be addressed sinceability to take Suo Motu no-tice of human rights casescould become an ‘open li-cense to undermine govern-ment’, and may be takingtime away from addressingthe issues of judicial man-agement of the current huge

pendency of cases in ourcourts.”

“The essence of law is toprovide a moral benchmarkto society. That benchmarkis sadly being lost by a judi-ciary that may be fast losingits own moral authority byrelying on the contempt law,media, street power oflawyers, and unchecked vio-lations of the Supreme Courtjudges’ code of conduct,” headded. “For the well-being ofour people, justice must beensured, while protectingthem from those who wouldcallously allow ‘the heavensto fall’. Should these issuesnot be addressed expedi-tiously I will regretfully beforced to tender my resigna-tion,” the nAB chief con-cluded.

Stop SC or I’ll resign!Continued fRoM page 01

Afghans ask

Another source, who alsosought anonymity, saidPakistani officials also asked foran early conclusion of proposed‘Strategic PartnershipAgreement’ with Afghanistan,which would help cementbilateral ties and boost bilateraldefence cooperation. He saidPakistan had already handedover a draft of the StrategicPartnership Agreement toAfghan authorities, but theKarzai administration had yetto come up with a formalresponse to that importantPakistani initiative. The sourcesaid Pakistan also wanted toimpart military training toAfghan national Army (AnA)and that offer was renewed byPakistani officials during talkson Monday. The Afghandelegation told the Pakistaniofficials that it would conveyIslamabad’s desire to the topAfghan leadership. In past, theAfghan government had shownreluctance to accept the offer oftraining by Pakistani Armydue to alleged support that itbelieved Islamabad had beenextending to the Taliban.However, Pakistan rejectedthe allegations, saying it hadno favourites in Afghanistanand wanted durable peaceand stability in theneighbouring country.

Continued fRoM page 01

‘President maysend referenceto SJC on NABchief’s letter’

ISLAMABADoNLINe

President Asif Ali Zardarimay send a reference to theSupreme Judicial Council(SJC) on reservationsexpressed by nationalAccountability Bureau(nAB) Chairman Admiral(r) Fasih Bokhari in a letteraddressed to him, somelegal experts have opined.The nAB chief hasexpressed reservationsabout the superiorjudiciary, particularly ChiefJustice of Pakistan (CJP)Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, in a letter sent toPresident Asif Ali Zardariwhile submitting hisresignation. In this context,the president may refer thematter to the SJC to reviewif the judges of the superiorjudiciary are interferingunjustly in the affairs ofnational institutions, legalexperts have said. Whencontacted, the legal expertssaid that two former nABchiefs, including naveedAhsan and Justice (r)Dildar Shah, fell victims totwo conflicts earlier, andnow Bokhari, the presentchief, has sent hisresignation to the presidentexpressing his concernsover judicial procedure.Bokhari has complained tothe president that the courtwas “not allowing nAB towork” and “unnecessaryinterference” was beingmade in its matters. He hasalso raised the matter of hisrepeated summons by theSC and the rejection ofenquiry reports. nABlawyers have also arguedthat the SC was an appellatecourt and not aninvestigation agency, sayingthe apex court should keepitself restricted to thehearing of appeals. “SC hasbeen declared an appellatecourt as is enshrined in theconstitution.

News

ISLAMABADoNLINe

The commission on the pro-posed new province finalisedits recommendations onMonday.

The recommendationswere signed by majority of themembers and will be presentto the president and the na-tional Assembly speaker.During the meeting, Dr Fa-rooq Sattar of MuttahidaQuami Movement (MQM)said that new provincesshould be formed in the coun-try on administrativegrounds. The only oppositionparty in the commission,Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) said that Dera Ghazi Khanshould be included inBalochistan since it had beena part of that province in thepast. Furthermore, the JUI-Fsaid that Bahalwapur shouldbe made a separate province.During the meeting hotwords were exchanged be-tween Awami national Party(AnP) and Pakistan Muslim

League-Quaid (PML-Q)members on the issue of aHazara province.

Commission on newprovince completes work

tehrik Hazara to sit-inbefore parliament ISLAMABAD: Tehrik SubaHazara on Mondayannounced that it would holda sit-in in front of ParliamentHouse on January 30(Wednesday). According todetails, Chairman of TehrikSuba Hazara Baba HaiderZaman asked the governmentto form a commission for aHazara province withoutfurther delay. “If thegovernment turns a deaf earto this genuine demand, thencountrywide civildisobedience movementwould be started”, Baba said.He said that a referendummight be conducted inHazara, which would provethat 99 percent people of theregion wanted their ownprovince. oNLINe

ISLaMaBaD: a view of a long queue of vehicles waiting to get cNg from a filling station on Monday. INP


LAHOREWaLeeD MaLHI

The employees of the Turkishcompany managing the park-ing lots in the metropolitanhave been allegedly causinga loss to the government ex-

chequer, forcing the authorities con-cerned to involve other internationalfirms in the bidding process, Pak-istan Today has learnt.

Lahore Parking Company (Le-Park) is going to bid the parking areasof metropolitan in a joint venture withother international companies apartfrom the Turks.

The company prefers to hand overthe parking contract with the joint ven-ture. Mainly, the companies from Ger-many, Austria and Saudi Arab are interested for theparking area of Lahore. The companies will managethe working with the local contracts that have the in-ternational license. Sources on good authority revealed

that the revenue collection of a major site, LibertyMarket, dropped suddenly since the Turks took over.

The Turkish company may also be replaced, the

sources said, adding that the Turks had failedto provide appropriate service at parkingstands of the Liberty.

“The company does not have enough ca-pacity or size to handle a place like Liberty,”the source said, adding that “The machinesat Liberty are all worn out and some of themare not even working.

The company is still using the old systemto issue parking tickets. The Turkish com-pany is using tickets printed in Turkey,which are in Turkish, instead of using theones printed by the City District Govern-ment Lahore (CDGL).

Taking to Pakistan Today the Officials ofLe-Park said, “The companies of west are moreprofessional and more competent and theTurks aren’t really doing a good job,” addingthat many companies were showing interest in

the parking stands of Lahore. “Our options are open and for future ventures we

might consider other companies. We will learn fromour experiences with the Turkish companies and thatwill help us improve our service,” they added.


nSources say govt mulling parking stand ventures with anyone but the Turks who have failed to generate enough revenue,manage stands properly n Old machines, tickets printed in Turkish being used at Liberty Market and other parking stands

Only vaccinated children to be allowedadmission to schools

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Punjab Health Department decided onMonday that children who had not beenvaccinated for measles, polio, hepatitisand TB would not be issued their birthcertificates, nor will they be admitted toschools. The decision was made in ameeting chaired by Lahore DCO followingcountless deaths due to measles, polio,hepatitis and TB. It was decided thatschools across the city would also be in-formed that children without proper vac-cinations should not be admitted underany circumstances. Over 1, 000 cases ofmeasles had been reported in Punjab, amajority coming from Lahore.

LAHOREINp

Defa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC)Chairman Maulana Samiul Haqsaid on Monday that the DPC wasan alliance of parties which hadpublic representation and there-fore, it must be taken into confi-dence during the nomination of thecare taker prime minister and theinterim set up.

Talking to journalists in Man-soora after the summit meeting ofthe DPC parties, he said the nomi-nation of anyone, who opposed thetwo nation theory and the ideologyof Pakistan, as the prime ministerwould be strongly resisted.

“The DPC wanted peace all overthe country, including Karachi, andwe have held an All Parties Confer-ence in Karachi for the restorationof peace. But the MQM leader AltafHusain used abusive languageagainst the DPC leaders; perhapsbecause the DPC’s efforts for peacewere in conflict with Altaf Hus-sain’s agenda,” he said.

He said Karachi could not beleft at the will of any individual andthe DPC would hold another peacemarch in Karachi on March 3.

He invited Altaf Husain to sup-port the DPC for the restoration ofpeace in Karachi and for nationalstability. He urged the nation to ob-serve February 5 as Solidarity Daywith their Kashmiri brethren. Hesaid the DPC would hold solidaritymarch in Muzaffarabad on Febru-ary 4 and a public meeting in La-hore on February 5, in this regard.

“India is an enemy of Pakistan,and expecting any good from Indiawas very naïve on part of our rulersin Islamabad. The spinelessness ofthe rulers has emboldened the In-dian ruling junta which is nowthreatening to attack our borders.The DPC had tried time and againto portray India’s real face to therulers but to no avail,” he said.

He said India’s foreign and in-ternal minister and its foreignsecretary had revealed that therewere extremist Hindu groups onthe Indian soil but still Pakistani

rulers were inclined to declareIndia as our Most Favoured na-tion. He said the DPC stronglycondemned the move.

“As many as sixty PakistaniMuslims had been burnt alive inthe Samjotha train fire. Yet, thePakistani foreign minister said thiswas India’s internal issue,” he said.

Haq said if the US reallywanted peace in the region, itshould immediately pull out itstroops and stop the drone attacks.He said the US had abandoned itswar policy in the rest of the worldbut US President Obama an-nounced continuation of drone at-tacks in Pakistan.

“US presence in the region wasthe main cause of terrorism andlawlessness in the area,” he said.

Those who attended the meet-ing include Jamaat-e-Islami AmeerSyed Munawar Hasan, JamatudDawa chief Hafiz MuhammadSaeed, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaatchief Allama Muhammad AhmedLudhyanvi, Lt Gen Hamid Gul, andSardar Attique Ahmed Khan.

LAhorE: Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary GeneralLiaqat Baloch said on Monday the PPP and itsallies were trying to befool the masses by initi-ating a debate regarding the formation of newprovinces to hide their failures during their fiveyear rule. He said the creation of new adminis-trative units were a public demand which wasnot given due consideration at the time of the18th and the 20th constitutional amendments.“The issue required extensive consultationamong the political parties, besides evolvingconsensus in the national and provincial assem-blies, which was the responsibility of the federal

and provincial governments,” the statementsaid. The JI leader said the country was at thethreshold of elections and the rulers had to an-swer to the electorate for their five year perform-ance. “The rulers know that during their fiveyear rule, the masses had suffered badly due tolawlessness, corruption, price hike, unemploy-ment and the energy crisis had crippled thecountry’s economy and agriculture,” he said.

Baloch said instead of addressing these is-sues, the rulers were trying to make a demandfor new provinces which was gravely impracti-cable. Staff RepoRt

DPc demands consultation on interim setup

‘Govt covering up failures through new provinces’

CAA’s radars stop functioning!

LAHORE Staff RepoRt

The radars of Civil Aviation Authority atAllama Iqbal International Airport La-hore malfunctioned for about 20 minutesdue to technical fault. Meanwhile the radars of Pakistan AirForce and Air Defence Command pro-vided assistance for flights coordinationand radar pictures to CAA.The help from Armed Forces enabledsmooth flight operation of airliner trafficin Pakistan airspace. The CAA radar re-sumed normal operations after the tech-nical fault was fixed.


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tHe lASt StANd 04:00, 08-15 PmdABANGG 2 06:00 PmmAtru ki BiJli kA mANdolA 10:15 Pm

Lahore Tuesday, 19 January, 201306

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif onMonday appreciatedthe renewed US focuson enhancing economic

cooperation with Pakistan andpointed out that this policy was inline with the PML-n’s long-stand-ing preference for building eco-nomic ties with friendly countries.

At a luncheon with the US Am-bassador Richard Olson, the ChiefMinister gave a comprehensivebriefing to the US Ambassador andhis colleagues on the initiativestaken by him and the far-reachingreforms introduced by the provin-cial government in various fields.

Sharif said his primary focushad always been the economic andsocial sectors, as he consideredthese essential for bringing about ameaningful improvement in thepoorer sections of society.

He said his government tookmeasures to ensure the availabil-ity of education and health facili-ties, even in the remote areas ofthe province.

“Punjab government appreci-ates the laudatory comments madeby international organisations re-garding the performance of thePunjab government. These com-ments have motivated us to workharder, in an efficient and a merit-based environment,” the CM said.

“We have successfully formeda government that is completelyclean of corruption and nepotism.

The way we have appointmentthousands of teachers and healthworkers, the Punjab governmenthas received praise from many in-ternational nGOs,” Sharif said.

“There are no short cuts todemocracy; it takes a lot of timeand effort to nourish this plant.History has convinced our partythat only by strengtheningdemocratic institutions anddelivering honest and cor-ruption-free administra-tion can people’s faith inthis system sustain,” hesaid.

Appreciating the chiefminister for his detailedbriefing on the Punjab gov-ernment’s economic and socialprograms, US AmbassadorRichard Olson emphasised onthe Obama administration’scommitment to build a strong,cordial and cooperative relation-ship with Pakistan.

“There is greatgoodwill in the USfor Pakistan andwe admire thehuge sacrificesrendered bythe people ofthis countryin thecourse ofc o n -f r o n t i n gextremismand terror-ism. I as-sure thechief min-

ister that the US would enhanceand expand its cooperation withPakistan, especially in the eco-nomic and social sectors,” he said.

Olson said the US realised thata strong, peaceful and democraticPakistan could play a vital role inthe region and beyond.

CM lauds renewed Pak-US economic cooperation

PPP, coalition partiesplanning to rig generalelections: Dr AQ Khan

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) andits coalition parties were planningto rig the upcoming general elec-tions, Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz Pakistanleader Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan saidon Monday.While talking to Dr Danish Balochand other leaders of the party viatelephone, Khan urged people tostruggle along with other politicalparties for a free and fair election.He said corruption and the wrongpolicies of politicians had hollowedthe foundations of Pakistan. “I do not want any authority formyself and I am only fighting forthe rights of the people. Pakistan israpidly moving towards destructionbut the rulers are not paying anyheed to this but are concentratingon saving their own governments.The PPP and its allies have set newrecords of looting and plunder inthe country in the name of democ-racy and conciliation,” he said, He said the PPP was trying to getre-elected in the upcoming generalelections and was making plans torig the polls to achieve this goal.He said the people of Pakistanshould not trust the incumbentpoliticians anymore and shouldelect honest leaders this time.“The upcoming general electionsare the people’s last chance to re-ject corrupt politicians,” he said.

Young doctors’ strikeenters day 13

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

Young doctors, under the banner ofYoung Doctors Association (YDA)Punjab, continued their strike inOut Patients Departments (OPDs)for the 13th consecutive day onMonday.The YDA Punjab continued itsstrike at all OPDs of all hospitals inPunjab, including Lahore, to exertpressure on the government to re-consider their demands regardingtheir service structure, release oftheir colleagues and to end ‘victim-ization of the young doctors’. Although the young doctors con-tinued treatment of patients atmakeshift OPD camps set upoutside hospitals, the patientssuffered heavily. Senior doctors,on the other hand, were busyproviding treatment to patientsat OPD wards of their respectivehospitals.The relatives of patients demandedthe government to take strict actionagainst all doctors on strike as theyvery denying timely treatment tothe patients at OPDs.

LAhorE: A gynaecologytraining workshop was heldat Lahore General Hospital toguide women on how to pre-vent cancer during pregnancyand provision of all facilities

for mother and child healthunits. Professor Dr AnjumHabib Vohra said that thereshould be a gynaecology andchild health specialists inevery village. Staff RepoRt

Gynaecological workshop in lGH

ReaSoN WHY StIcHINg pRIceS HaVe goNe Up: abdul Hamid, a tailor, says this petrol generator made him raise

prices for his services. MurTAzA ALI


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dRAWINg CONCLUSIONSLAHORE CHANdIgARH By WILLIA ...

SuNdAy, JANuAry 27tH, 2013, 8:00 PmveNue : louNGe ACt

JANuAry 22Nd to 29tH, 2013 veNue : AlHAmrA ArtS CouNCil - tHe mAll

MM PRESENTS SIBTI & THE RETROSEXUALS - LIVE

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CHief miNiSter’S HouSe 99203226

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BomB diSPoSAl 99212111

mCl ComPlAiNtS 99211022-29

lAHore wASte diSPoSAl 1139

Tuesday, 19 January, 2013 Lahore 07

Hello People! lounge Act is an awesome new musicvenue, you might recognize it as the place where NescafeBasement was recently recorded. it is now part of themusic machine network as we continue progressingtowards our aim of establishing a live music circuit inlahore. this will be our second show here, and performingfor your pleasure will be Sibti & the retroSexuals, alongwith zahid umar and Hamza Shahbaz.

you are cordially invited to ´drawing Conclusions´ a threeperson show displaying drawings by-Ali mansurAnushka rustomjizara Asghervenue: Gallery 1, Alhamra Art Centre.opening: 22nd January 2013/tuesday- 4:00pm to 7:00pmthe show continues till the 29th of January 2013.Gallery timings: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm

JANuAry 22Nd to 31St, 2013 veNue : AlHAmrA ArtS CouNCil - tHe mAll

the exhibition is an investigation into the power of imagesas precursors of narrative. the idea of the two Panjabicities merging into one place within the imagination of theviewer appeals to me and i see the collection as oneplace without a border: a new Panjabi locationtranscending political and religious borders.'100 images from each Panjabi city of lahore andChandigarh, presented together as is one location.

NEWS DESK

As much as half of all the pro-duced in the world – equiva-lent to 2 billion tonnes – endsup as every year, engineerswarned in t. The UK’s Institu-

tion of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)blames the “staggering” new figures in itsanalysis on unnecessarily strict sell-bydates, buy-one-get-one free and Westernconsumer demand for cosmetically perfectfood, along with “poor engineering andagricultural practices”, inadequate infra-structure and poor storage facilities.

In the face of United nations predic-tions that there could be about an extra 3billion people to feed by the end of the cen-tury and growing pressure on the resourcesneeded to produce food, including land,water and energy, the IMechE is calling forurgent action to tackle this waste.

Their report, Global Food; Waste not,Want not, found that between 30 percentand 50 percent or 1.2-2bn tonnes of foodproduced around the world never makes iton to a plate.

In the UK as much as 30 percent ofvegetable crops are not harvested due totheir failure to meet retailers’ exactingstandards on physical appearance, itsays, while up to half of the food that isbought in Europe and the US is thrownaway by consumers.

And about 550bn cubic metres of water

is wasted globally in growing crops thatnever reach the consumer. Carnivorousdiets add extra pressure as it takes 20-50times the amount of water to produce 1kilogramme of meat than 1kg of vegetables;the demand for water in food productioncould reach 10–13 trillion cubic metres ayear by 2050.

This is 2.5 to 3.5 times greater thanthe total human use of fresh water todayand could lead to more dangerous watershortages around the world, the IMechEsays, claiming that there is the potentialto provide 60-100 percent more food byeliminating losses and waste while at thesame time freeing up land, energy andwater resources.

Tim Fox, head of energy and environ-ment at the IMechE, said: “The amount offood wasted and lost around the world isstaggering. This is food that could be usedto feed the world’s growing population –as well as those in hunger today. It is alsoan unnecessary waste of the land, waterand energy resources that were used inthe production, processing and distribu-tion of this food.”

In order to prevent further waste, gov-ernments, development agencies and or-ganisation like the Un “must work togetherto help change people’s mindsets on wasteand discourage wasteful practices by farm-ers, food producers, supermarkets and con-sumers,” the IMechE said.

A 2011 study by the Swedish Institute

for Food and Biotechnology (SIK) on behalfof Food and Agriculture Organisation ofthe United nations (FAO), Global FoodLosses and Food Waste, distinguishes be-tween “food loss” and “food waste”, andprovides figures for both:

Food loss measures the decrease inedible food mass (excluding inedibleparts and seed) “throughout the part ofthe supply chain that specifically leads toedible food for human consumption”,that is, loss at the production, posthar-vest and processing stages. This defini-tion of loss includes biomass originallymeant for human consumption but even-tually used for some other purpose, suchas fuel or animal feed.

Food waste is food loss occurring dur-ing the retail and final consumption stagesdue to the behaviour of retailers and con-sumers that is, the throwing away of food.

One way of dealing with food waste isto reduce its creation. This attitude hasbeen promoted by campaigns from advi-sory and environmental groups,[45] andby concentrated media attention on thesubject.

Consumers can reduce their food wasteoutput at points-of-purchase and in theirhomes by adopting some simple measures;planning when shopping for food is impor-tant, and spontaneous purchases are shownas often the most wasteful. Proper knowl-edge of food storage reduces foods becom-ing inedible and thrown away.

Through initiatives such as Cambioverde, farmers can provide surplus produce(produce they would otherwise discard dueto too low prices/kg) to people that provideglass, and other waste.

Half of the world’s foodgoing waste: reportn Figures from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers showas much as 2bn tonnes of food never makes it on to a plate


Tuesday, 29 January, 2013News08

CAIROageNcIeS

POLICE have fired tear-gas at protesters indowntown Cairo, justhours after PresidentMohamed Morsi de-

clared a state of emegency and a cur-few in three Suez Canal cities.

Monday was the fifth consecu-tive day of street violence in Egypt.There were reports that one personwas killed; he was not taking part inthe protests, but was hit by a straygunshot. Protests began last week tomark the second anniversary of therevolution that toppled longtimepresident Hosni Mubarak; nearly 50people have been killed so far.

The cabinet, meanwhile, ap-proved a draft law which would allowMorsi to deploy the army on thestreets to "participate with the policein preserving security and protectingvital establishments." The law stillmust be ratified by the upper houseof parliament; it would last untilafter the next legislative elections,tentatively scheduled for April.

Morsi delivered a televised ad-dress on Sunday night and announcedthe emergency measures in Port Said,Ismailia and Suez. A curfew will takeeffect on Monday from 9:00pm localtime (19:00 GMT) to 6:00am (04:00GMT); he warned that more actionwould be taken to stem the violence.

"I have said I am against any

emergency measures but I have saidthat if I must stop bloodshed andprotect the people then I will act," hesaid. He also called for dialogue withleading politicians starting on Mon-day to resolve the situation.

Several hundred people protestedin Ismailia, Suez and Port Said afterthe announcement. Activists in thethree cities pledged to defy the curfewin protest at the decision. On Sundaynight, Morsi’s office issued a state-ment inviting political supporters andopponents for a national dialogue on

Monday at 6:00pm (16:00 GMT) atthe presidential palace in Cairo.

The spokesman for Egypt's mainopposition coalition said after Morsi'sspeech that the move was "expected"and said he wanted more detailsabout an invitation for dialogue withtop politicians. "Of course we feel thepresident is missing the real problemon the ground which is his own poli-cies," Dawoud told the Reuters newsagency. "His call to implement emer-gency law was an expected movegiven what is going on, namely thug-

gery and criminal actions."Hamdeen Sabbahi, a leftist politi-

cian and opposition leader, said thathe would not attend any negotiations"unless the bloodshed stops and thepeople's demands are met". Mo-hamed ElBaradei, a leader of the nSF,said in a statement on Twitter that thedialogue was "a waste of time". HebaMorayef of Human Rights Watch inCairo said a state of emergency rein-troduced laws that gave police sweep-ing powers of arrest "purely because[people] look suspicious".

clashes continue in egypt for fifth consecutive day

russia says Assad’s chances fadingMoScow: Russia's prime minister has said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had made a "grave," and possibly "fatal" mistake by delayingpolitical reforms and not speaking to members of the country's oppositonsooner. "[Assad] should have done everything much faster, attracting partof the moderate opposition, which was ready to sit at the table with him,to his side," Dmitry Medvedev said according to the transcript of an

interview with Cnn released by his office on Sunday. "Thiswas his grave mistake, and possibly a fatal one," Medvedevsaid. Medvedev’s comments are some of the harshest fromSyria’s most important ally during the last two years of acivil war that began as an uprising against Assad’s rule.Medvedev also said that Assad is losing his grip on poweras the war, which has already cost more than 60,000lives, continues. "I think that with every day, every week

and every month the chances of his preservation aregetting smaller and smaller," Medvedev was quoted as

saying. "But I repeat, again, this must be decided bythe Syrian people. not Russia, not the United States,not any other country.” ageNcIeS

Berlusconi defends

'good' mussoliniroME: Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s formerprime minister, has triggered outrage withcomments defending fascist wartime leaderBenito Mussolini at a ceremonycommemorating victims of the naziHolocaust. Speaking at the margins of theevent in Milan on Sunday, Berlusconi saidMussolini had been wrong to follow naziGermany's lead in passing anti-Jewish lawsbut that he had in other respects been a goodleader. "It's difficult now to put yourself in theshoes of people who were making decisions atthat time," said Berlusconi, who iscampaigning for next month's election at thehead of a coalition that includes far-rightpoliticians whose roots go back to Italy's oldfascist party. ageNcIeS

French-led troops

seize northern

timbuktu TIMBUKTU: Ground forces backed by Frenchparatroopers and helicopters have taken control ofthe airport and roads leading into the desert town ofTimbuktu, according to a French military official.Colonel Thierry Burkhard said on Monday that theairport was taken without firing a shot. "There was anoperation on Timbuktu last night that allowed us tocontrol access to the town," he said. "It's up to Malianforces to retake the town." About 200 paratrooperslanded north of Timbuktu and took control of theroutes there. The French military found more than90kg of explosives in the airport's air traffic controltower, an official said. A reconnaissance team hasalready reached the edge of Timbuktu, a seniorMalian officer said, adding that French and Maliansoldiers were approaching the city "without meetingany resistance". France's defence ministry said one ofits armoured battalions and Malian troops wereheaded toward the ancient trading post and centre ofIslamic learning, where 333 revered Muslim saintsare believed to be buried. The advance comes afterFrench and Malian soldiers on Saturday seized thetown of Gao, east of Timbuktu - the biggest victory sofar in their 17-day operation against the rebels, whohave controlled the north for 10 months. The Frenchdefence ministry said in a statement that it hadcarried out about 20 air strikes Saturday and Sundayin the Gao and Timbuktu regions. "Air operationscarried out since [Saturday] are providing directsupport to operations in Gao and along the westernaxis," it said. "Operations conducted deep in enemyterritory are continuing, notably with thereinforcement of our position in Gao, in particular byan armoured battalion [...] and by the Malian armedforces and several African units, including from nigerand Chad." Malian forces "established a foothold" inGao and "several terrorist groups were destroyed orchased to the north" in the battle for the city, theministry added. A French military official denied anearlier report by a Malian security source that airstrikes had destroyed the home of Iyad Ag Ghaly, theleader of armed rebel group Ansar Dine [Defenders ofthe Faith]. "Iyad Ag Ghaly's house is still standing,"the French source said. "There have not been anystrikes in Kidal region", which is the rebel-held areain the extreme northeast where Ag Ghaly's home islocated. Gao is the biggest of six towns seized byFrench and Malian troops since they launched theiroffensive on January 11 to wrest the vast desert northfrom the rebels. ageNcIeS

Cairo: a protester

prepares to throw a rock

while surrounded by a

cloud of tear gas during

clashes with security forces

near Tahrir Square. AgENCIES


09NewsTuesday, 29 January, 2013

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

FORMER Pakistani envoy tothe US, Husain Haqqanihas said that while hewished to return to Pak-istan to participate in the

Supreme Court proceedings involvinghim, he could not do so because of im-minent threats to his life.

In a letter to the Interior Ministry,drafted on December 27,2012, Haqqanimentioned that although it was his ut-most desire to adhere to the demands ofthe Supreme Court, there was no lawthat forces an individual to put his life injeopardy just because of “media noise”.He added that he would not and couldnot trust his safety in the hand of statemachinery that routinely fails to protectPakistani citizens.

The Supreme Court has insistedthat Haqqani return to Pakistan to ap-

pear before the court in the memo case. Haqqani has refused to come, say-

ing he faces threats to his life. He saysthat he has not been legally charged,tried or convicted of any crime. How-ever, the memo commission has con-victed him of authoring thecontroversial memo and showing dis-loyalty to Pakistan.

“Which law enforcement agency orsecurity organisation can guarantee thattheir personnel will not be affected bythis negative propaganda against me inan environment wherein people arebeing killed for their religious beliefsand even children administering thepolio vaccine to infants as volunteers arenot safe from ideologically-driven ma-niacs?” he asked, adding, “I cannot ig-nore several recent incidents in thecountry of mobs lynching individualsmerely on accusations and the completeimpotence of the state machinery indealing with these incidents.”

It is pertinent to mention that it isdifficult to secure Haqqani’s extraditionfrom the US, since there is no legalcharge or conviction. The memo issuearoused national sentiment among cer-tain quarters in Pakistan.

Haqqani was relieved of his dutiesas ambassador to the US in view of hisopinions about US-Pakistan relationsand the mosque-military alliance in no-vember 2011. Since then, Haqqani hasbeen called all sorts of names in the Pak-istani media and ultra-right wing ele-ments consider him a traitor toPakistan. The Supreme Court cancharge Haqqani with contempt or evenorder the registration of an FIR againsthim for treason based on the memocommission’s report. But in both cases,there is minimal chance that authoritiesoutside Pakistan, especially in theUnited States where the former ambas-sador is now a professor, will carry outthe court’s order.

Citing threats to life, Haqqanirefuses to return home

Clashes in Tirah Valleycontinue on fourthconsecutive day PEShAwAr: Clashes between rival militantgroups continued on the fourth consecutive day onMonday as the number of casualties reached 80.Though the rival groups are making conflictingclaims regarding inflicting human and logisticlosses to each other, there are no authenticatedreports as the media had no access in the area.Different tribal sources told Pakistan Today onMonday that the clashes erupted between thebanned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Darra AdamKhel chapter and the banned Ansarul Islam onFriday. The TTP is making attempts to occupyimportant positions and hilltops in the area.According to tribal sources, fierce fighting wasgoing on at Doha Patyee Maidan. So far 10militants from both sides had been killed in thelatest round of fighting. Reports from the far-flungand snow-covered Tirah Valley reveal that localtribesmen belonging to various clans of the Afriditribe were supporting Ansarul Islam in its waragainst the TTP. Ansarul Islam chief QaziMehboob had also approached his rival MangalBagh of the banned Lashkar-e-Islam. However,there was no information about what MangalBagh’s response was. The tribesmen said due tothe clashes in the area, a large number oftribesmen were abandoning their houses andshifting to other areas. Majority of the tribesmenfrom these particular mountainous regions havealready shifted to Peshawar and its surroundingareas. Meanwhile, security forces targeted thehideouts of militants in Masoozai area in UpperOrakzai on Monday. Officials said 10 militants hadbeen killed and several dins had been destroyed.Staff RepoRt

MPA disqualifiedover fake degree LAhorE: The Lahore High Court on Mondaydeclared Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q)MPA, Khalid Mahmood Sargana disqualified fromhis post due to his fake degree. The disqualifiedcandidate was elected from Jhang’s PP-78constituency, and petitioners Anwar Khan andZafar had filed a petition in this regard at theLahore High Court (LHC). The petitioners allegedthat Khalid Mahmood Sargana had managed toobtain a fake degree from the Punjab Universityfor winning his constituency and hence should bedeclared as disqualified. The LHC judge KhalidMahmood Khan was shown proof the PunjabUniversity degree. After hearing arguments fromboth sides, the judge declared Sarganadisqualified from his post as MPA. oNLINe

ISLAMABADoNLINe

Supreme Court (SC) Registrar Dr Faqir Hussainhas reaped benefits to the tune of over Rs7,207,000 in the purchase and sale deals ofplots in Bahria Town (BT).

He is stated to have struck the purchase andsale deals of four properties with the BahriaTown’s management, including two Awami vil-las, one plot of two kanals and one eight-marladouble storey house.

The SC registrar started his contact moveswith the Bahria Town management from Sep-tember 2004, when he was working as secretaryat the Law and Justice Commission in the SCbuilding. Attracted by advertisement in a newspaper, he dispatched an application on officialletterhead to the Bahria Town management onSeptember, 18, 2004, requesting for allotmentof one kanal plot in the “Bureaucrats Enclave”.

He further requested that he, as a Phd de-gree holder and author of several books whohad carried out a good number of researchworks inside and outside the country and hav-ing discharged his obligations in terms of legaland judicial reforms, be allowed a 50 percentrebate in the allotment of the plot due to theservices rendered by him. Dr Faqir Hussain hadalso mentioned the services performed by himin the United nations to seek benefit.

He was informed by the Bahria Town man-agement that his request had been acceded to.At that time, he had relinquished the office ofthe Law and Justice commission and had beenappointed as the SC registrar.

On September 19, 2005, Dr Faqir Hussain

wrote a letter to the Bahria Town managementon SC’s letterhead that the said concession wasmeant for judges and the SC’s registrar there-fore, he was going to deposit a sum of Rs150,000 as first instalment.

Later, the Bahria Town management con-verted his 500-yard plot (one kanal) to 1000-yard plot (two kanals) and sent the informationin this regard to him on August 21, 2006. Thisplot was allotted in Club City, and a letter inthis respect was issued on January 10, 2008.

Following this development, Dr Faqir Hus-sain sent a letter to the Bahria Town manage-ment, seeking rescheduling of the payment ofremaining instalments on the plea that prop-erty crisis was brewing and he could not depositthe remaining amount in the prevailing situa-tion. He sought one year’s time to pay his in-stalments. He also requested the managementin the same letter that his plot bearing no 130Street no 1 be transferred to any other streetclose to a park, for example: plot no 137 or 153at street no 4.

The Bahria Town management informedhim on December 2, 2008, that his request hadbeen accepted in connection with the paymentof the remaining amount, asking him to makethis payment until December 30, 2009. Themanagement remitted the remaining six instal-ments when the SC and Bahria Town tensionstarted in July 2012, and 50 percent wavier wasallowed in writing on surcharge report.

As per Bahria Town management’s report,Dr Faqir Hussain was provided a benefit of Rs3,523,000 through conversion of his plot fromone kanal to two kanals.

Later, the SC registrar applied for allotment

of a plot in another housing scheme of BahriaTown called Awami Villas on April 5, 2006.

The Bahria Town administration informedhim through a letter on november 6, 2009 thatunder the directives of the Bahria Town chair-man, orders had been issued for allotment andhanding over of possession of two Awami villasbearing no AWR-05022 and AWR-12566 tohim. One was allotted under no 125 in street no53 and the second was allotted under no 170 instreet no 52.

The SC registrar sold out this villa to a mannamed Faisal Sarwar under a deal dated De-cember 21, 2009, while he had purchased thevilla from the Bahria Town at a cost of Rs508,100. The Bahria Town had launched thisscheme for quake affectees. He purchased thetwo plots from Bahria Town and later sold themback to Bahria Town, harvesting profits of Rs1,241,000 and Rs 1,242,000 respectively.

Likewise, he purchased a double-storeyeight-marla house in Bahria Town in 2007.Bahria Town had fixed its price at Rs 5,299,000but it received Rs 4,098,000, giving a benefitof Rs 1,210,000 to the SC registrar.

When contacted, Dr Faqir Hussain saidthat his counsel Gul Hassan Aurangzeb be ap-proached to ascertain his stance. His counselsaid that the reply in this regard had beenfiled in the court, adding that his client hadpurchased two plots which were not gifted tohim. He said that thousands of people had in-vested in Bahria Town, and the SC registrarwas no exception. He said the registrar hadpurchased the plots to make an investment,and that he would tell about the remainingthings in the court.

SC registrar made over Rs 7m from investments in Bahria Town: Online reportBangladeshishold violentprotests overwar crime trials

DHAKAINp

Thousands of student activists from Bangladesh’slargest Islamic party clashed with police on Monday,throwing petrol bombs and bricks to protest at the trialof their leaders for alleged war crimes. Police fired teargas and rubber bullets during the unrest involving3,000 people in Dhaka’s main commercial district. Atleast 25 police officers were injured and 20 peoplewere arrested, police officer Moktar Hossain said. Theviolence came just a week after an official from the op-position Jamaat-e-Islami party was sentenced to deathfor genocide by a court set up to try war crime suspectsfrom Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation conflict. “Jamaat ac-tivists attacked us with sticks and stones and hurledseveral small bombs. They smashed and torched atleast a dozen vehicles,” said Hossain. The war crimestribunal, which is accused by the opposition of holdingfalse and politically motivated trials, is expected to de-liver a verdict on Jamaat’s fourth-highest official laterthis week. Eight other Jamaat top figures including itsleader and deputy leader are also being tried by the tri-bunal. Rights groups have questioned the fairness ofthe hearings, saying the laws and procedures underwhich the opposition leaders are being tried fall shortof international standards.

aBBottaBaD: participants of the 4th commissioner Hazara Snow adventure Jeep Rally pass through a snow covered road in Balakot on Monday. ONLINE


Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

and announce the election schedule

tie up the loose ends

With elections due within months important stepsstill remain to be taken. These include theannouncement of the election schedule and aconsensus on a caretaker prime minister and fourchief ministers. What stands in the way is a delay

on the part of the federal government to take the initiative. Theopposition believes that the delay is caused by PPP’s desire to haveopposition leaders of its own choice in Sindh and Balochistanassemblies.

Kaira’s statement regarding the dissolution of the assemblies ina few days is welcome despite its somewhat guarded wording. Hehas declined to accept Qadri’s demand concerning the setting up ofa new Election Commission on the ground that there weredifferences of opinion over the matter. While an overwhelmingmajority of the jurists think that it was not possible after the 20thamendment to dissolve the commission, a minority maintains thatrelevant constitutional provisions were not strictly followed in theappointment of the CEC. At a press conference with Tahirul Qadri,Kaira has agreed to appoint the caretaker setup in consultationwith the TMQ leader. More important, however, is to hold talkswith the opposition leader in the nA which is a constitutionalrequirement.

Meanwhile, the PML-n has announced to hold a sit-in outsideParliament House to protest against, inter alia, delay in theappointment of leaders of opposition in Sindh and Balochistanassemblies. Any decision seen to be taken in violation of theconstitutional provisions could lead to widespread protests. ImranKhan has already threatened to lead a long march to Islamabad incase of any irregularities in the appointment of the caretaker setup.The opposition parties which rejected Qadri’s demands for agovernment change had authorised PML-n to call an APC again incase there was any violation of the constitution. While Imran Khanhas finally decided not to take part in the sit-in, a number ofreligious and nationalist parties have agreed to join the PML-nprotest. These include JUI-F and PML-F which have a significantpresence in the Parliament and JI, a faction of Sunni IttehadCouncil, Jamiate Ahle Hadis and Sindh United Front who arecapable of jointly putting up a significant street show.

Whatever the merits of the recently published IRI surveyregarding the popularity of the various political parties, it is boundto generate a controversy regarding its timing and genuineness.Only the election results will show which party really enjoyspeople’s trust. It is time for everyone to stop politicking and holdtalks as required under constitution to reach agreement on thecaretaker setup. There should be no delay in the announcement ofthe election schedule.

Captain Harry Wales, whenasked about his skills as anApache combat helicopter gun-

ner, quipped in a now famous remarkthat he acquired those skills playingPlayStation and Xbox games.

Should Harry, as a consequenceof his remarks, be prevented frommaking any statements in future, orshould he and others be helped tobetter understand the realities in-volved? The Taliban of course haveoffered to help with the latter.

Undoubtedly, computer and video

games do hone reflexes; therefore,they must help in a job such asHarry’s where the requirement is toidentify, aim and shoot.

They do not help however to un-derstand the tragedy that results

The best way to end violence andwar may be to remove the reasons fortheir existence: poverty, lack of edu-cation, intolerance and injustice.Kids will only stop playing computergames when pigs fly or hell freezesover, whichever comes first. After all,why should they stop? It is a humaninstinct for young people to emulateadults. Computer games depictingwar and violence exist because warand violence are indulged in andglamourised by adults.

At the age of twenty eight, andbeing who he is, Harry ought to haveknown better than to say what he did.Obviously his mentors, both personaland professional, neglected theirduty. Exactly as Britain’s shadowSecretary of Defence Jim Murphyshould have known better than to sayin an interview that he found nothingwrong with Harry’s statement, andthat Harry’s statements were ‘human,humorous and self aware’. Mr Mur-

phy went so far as to say that hisstatements showed Harry to be a‘young man of remarkable bravery’.

On the odd occasion one can sym-pathise with the Taliban, withoutagreeing with their methods.

As everyone knows, hundreds ofthousands of civilians in Afghanistan,Iraq and Pakistan have lost theirlives, and thousands have been in-jured as a result of the Allied’s ‘waron terror’. There is nothing humor-ous about this, and nothing braveabout a young man sitting high abovethe battle pressing buttons to destroylives down below. It is remarkableonly that Mr Murphy appears tothink so.

It is statements such as Mr Mur-phy’s more than Harry’s that aredeleterious both for Britain’s stand-ing in the international community ofnations, and a warning against MrMurphy ever attaining the positionhe is at present shadowing.

The lobby against violent com-puter games possesses extensive evi-dence against the tragic results ofexcessive exposure to violent games.Of course, an excessive exposure toanything is potentially dangerous,

and imposing a ban is no cure. Thereis such a thing as ‘dilutional hypona-tremia,’ in other words an overdoseof water, which results in an imbal-ance of electrolytes within the body,which can prove fatal. In almostevery case of death due to this causethe victim had been a normal healthyindividual who consumed too muchwater as a result of a water drinkingcompetition, or some other(over)consumption of water. Associ-ated with this is also a method of tor-ture where a person is forced to drinkhuge quantities of water, and dies asa result.

To ban water for the general pub-lic is not the best action in this case.

This argument brings us mostnaturally to the frequent shutdownsagainst YouTube and cell phone serv-ice in Pakistan, measures which thosein charge of security obviously feelreveal them at their best, workinghard to defend the lives and securityof the people they represent.

And of course now the All Pak-istan CD, DVD, Audio CassetteTraders and Manufacturers Associa-tion, rejoicing in the impressive ini-tials APCDACTM has decided to ban

two computer games in Pakistan, Callof Duty: Black Ops II, and Medal ofHonor: Warfighter.

Both Medal of Honor: Warfighterand Call of Duty: Black Ops II featurescenes that are set in Pakistan, por-traying the country as a hotbed forterrorist activity.

The APCDACTM has said thatthese games ‘have been developedagainst the country’s national unityand sanctity’, and that these gamesdepict Pakistan and the Inter Serv-ices Intelligence (ISI) as supportingterrorist and jihadist organisations.

Are the country’s national unityand sanctity so fragile as to be de-stroyed by a couple of computergames? Do Pakistan and the ISI sup-port terrorism and terrorist organisa-tions? Will banning these games doany good, if that is indeed the case?If that is not the case, then why arePakistan and the ISI so repeatedly ac-cused in this regard?

Should we concentrate on remov-ing the greater evils of terrorism andits causes, and on those who supportit instead of wasting our time and en-ergies on such trivial things as com-puter games, YouTube, et al?

Captain Harry and the Xbox

Literary folk would have a fieldday explaining the stuff that agood irony is made of, if theycould see the potential thatPakistan has as the poster child

for all that is ironical. The nation that wascreated to protect the rights of a minorityi.e., the Muslims in India, but has some ofthe worst statistical data to its name forcrimes against marginalised groups (spe-cialising in the persecution and demolitionof minority rights).

Adding to the pretty paradox that isPakistan, Hafiz Saeed (amongst others) hasnow offered Shahrukh Khan – not a mis-treated common man, but a Bollywoodgiant – refuge from his harsh life in India.He’s looked into the biggest and most com-fortable spots in his dust trodden and buginfested heart and opened his arms toKhan, promising comfort, security and re-spect. Hafiz is joined by a number of Pak-istanis chanting their alhamdullilahs andastagfirullahs in Khan’s favour. But beforeKhan can actually make a decision onwhether or not he wants to live in Pakistanhe will first have to figure out just whatkind of a Muslim he is. And while in Indiahis biggest problem is being a Muslim,within Pakistan he will have to declarewhat sect he’s from – being a Muslim inPakistan is no small affair. It would be in-teresting to see who protects him from peo-ple like Hafiz Saeed if he declares he’s Shiaor Ahmedi.

Minorities in Pakistan have been livinga scared life for a while now. It’s badenough if you’re in the wrong sect as a Mus-lim, it gets much worse if you’re not Mus-lim at all. From being passed over for welldeserved jobs to simply being burned alive– if you’re a Christian, Hindu, Parsi etc,you’re in for one brilliant ride of horror inPakistan. So, it’s great that Shahrukh Khanis being welcomed with open arms, butwhat of his extremely Hindu wife, and hisdaughter who is more inclined towards the

Hindu faith?Instead, why hasn’t anyone thought to

offer help to the dozens of families that mi-grate from Pakistan on an annual basis be-cause of persecution? Within 2012, it wasreported that on average over 8-10 Hindufamilies try to run away to India everymonth. And rich, well established familiesat that. And that’s just Hindu families,there aren’t any accurate numbers on theother minorities we manage to squash on adaily basis. If help was to be offered, werethere no persecuted Muslims on the otherside, just like the people we manage toalienate?

I’m sure Pakistani minorities can relateto Shahrukh’s plight, just as Hafiz did. Ithas to be hard to be that rich and comfort-able, to have the vast majority of a nationlove you endlessly. It isn’t everyday thatyou end up giving your children genericnames so they aren’t singled out because oftheir religious heritage. Here in Pakistan,we’re extremely against giving generic,pan-religious, or pan-ethnic names to chil-dren born to minorities. We are instead infavour of calling them by names which areoft painfully obvious as Muslim names.We’ve known many a Christian “Yousuf”and a couple of Hindu “Danish” boys in ourlives. And we don’t stop at names – we tryto purge minorities of any faith they havewhatsoever. There are numerous cases ofabducted people from minority groupsresurfacing to announce their “miraculous”conversions. Christian/Hindu, unfortunateone day – Muslim, bewildered and con-fused the next. We’ve even made a circusout of faith completely. In 2012, MayaKhan had a fantastically monstrous showwhere she documented the conversion of a

Hindu boy on live TV. Had a Muslim will-ingly converted to another faith, wewould’ve screamed bloody murder andchanted our regular “off with his head, herhead, every non-Muslim head” slogan.

This is the same country which, al-though created by a Shia leader, was able toignore more than a handful murdered Haz-ara Shiites and their protesting families,who sat in the dead cold for four days dec-orated with the 86 coffins of their dead. Butthe Hazara Shiites had it easy compared tothe Ahmedi population. It was only in 2012that over 300 of their graves were dese-crated for absolutely no productive reasonwhatsoever. Till death don’t us part – inPakistan even the dead have to answer toatrocity, it’s not enough that we punish theliving for being alive on our soil.

From the outside it seems almost asthough we hate any religious minoritiesthat walk the earth within our borders –how amusing that we’ve decided to extendhelp to wounded Muslim brethren withoutrealising where we’re going wrong. Withoutrealising that, forget non-Muslim minori-ties, we can’t even protect the marginalisedMuslims in this country. Without realisingthat we have to be forced to care aboutMuslim minorities in other countries (re-member Syria? Probably not). The countrywhich was created by a man from a perse-cuted minority, it cannot stop itself frompersecuting its minorities. And the peoplewho we believe most need our help are notthe persecuted Muslims and non-Muslimsin our country, but Shahrukh Khan.

The writer is a journalist based in Lahore. She tweets @luavut, and can beemailed at: [email protected]

Pakistan: the land of ironyall pakistanis are equal, but some pakistanis are more equal than others, especially if they’re Muslims

Should we concentrate on the symptoms or the disease?

By Luavut Zahid

By Rabia Ahmed

10 Tuesday, 29 January, 2013Comment


11Tuesday, 29 January, 2013 Comment

AN extravaganzaLet us not hold elections which ac-

cording to the constitution are due tobe held in May or June this year. It is asheer waste of billions of rupees andwasted use of already diminishing re-sources of the country. Let the presentgovernment continue for indefinite pe-riod of time since it is fighting a ‘war onterror’ which by all stretch of imagina-tion is bigger than WWII. Million of ru-pees are being dished out toparliamentarians and the rate is in-creasing on an hourly basis. Billions aregoing to go in elections in the shape oftenting, transport, ballot papers,posters, banners, pamphlets and eata-bles. The entire country will stop work-ing for 6-7 days. Even the little bit thatwe are working now will also cease.

Fuel prices are going to go sky rock-eting level. All shortages will multiplygeometrically. Election commissionpersonnel cost us lot of money. Armyand Rangers’ mobilisation will con-sume tons of fuel. I cannot write downall the details of other expenditures. Wecannot afford this extravaganza. Thecountry is already on the brink of bank-ruptcy; IMF and other loaning agencieshave already regretted. Is the luxury ofelections affordable under these cir-cumstances? And by the way, will elec-tions change things? Yes, we will have afew new faces here and there. But theysay one fool is as good as another; sowhy have new faces? new provinces aremade and I am sure with the abilities ofGilanis coming back, the administra-tion and governance will go 100 per-cent. With the talent of Canadian brainavailable to us 24/7, do we need any-thing else?

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

23rd march paradeI was born in Rawalpindi and since

my childhood, I have been regularlywitnessing the 23rd March parade ei-ther physically or on the TV. Inciden-tally, my date of commission is also23rd March, 1968. I have also had thehonour of performing security duties atthe parade venue at Race Course,Rawalpindi. What a morale boosting

event it used to be! I would also takemy children, like thousands others, towitness the fly past, the parade, theroar of tanks, the wish-wooshing heli-copters and the floats of all theprovinces binding us together in uni-son.

President General Pervez Mushar-raf, a commando, chickened out be-cause of threats on his life or otherflimsy pretexts and discontinued theholding of the parade. Gradually, wesaw the staff cars, trucks and buses ofthe armed forces losing their distinc-tion when they started displaying civilnumbers. The guardians started guard-ing themselves by manning routes fre-quented by senior officers, brandishingguns pointed at the civilian public mov-ing around with oblivion.

General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, thepublic expected of you to bring thearmy ‘’back to life and in full visibility’’of the general public rather than havinga false sense of security by carrying out‘’fortress defences’’ around offices andresidential accommodations through-out Pakistan. In spite of the day in andday out and very tiring and demoralis-ing security duties, your GHQ, Mehrannaval Base, Abbottabad raid, PAF Base,Kamra, and Peshawar airport/PAFBase, Peshawar got viciously attackedresulting in great loss of life and valu-able equipment.

The Hazara community was veryright in asking as to what, you as aChief of Army Staff, had given back tothe nation in spite of getting one fullextra tenure at ‘gun point’.

You, as an individual, and your con-descending generals, may be glorifyingthe fact that you, along with nawazSharif, managed the continuation ofdemocracy, but at what cost? Just askthe public. You, and the other serviceschiefs, opted to ‘accept’ and ‘salute’ themost corrupt and an utterly cowardsupreme commander of our armedforces who did not have the courage tovisit the headquarters of the three serv-ices, what to talk of the operationalareas.

This is your last year of service. Youmay have done a lot for the army as awhole but then you are answerable tothe nation as well which sustains theperks and privileges of the armed forcesthrough their taxes. It would not be outof place to expect of you to order theholding of the 23rd March parade thisyear. Would our coward, bunkeredsupreme commander have the guts totake the salute on an open dais at theparade venue? It is worthwhile to men-tion here that, as compared to the 23rdMarch parade, the holding of a non-participatory ‘Yaum-e-Shuhada’ carriesless sentimental value for the generalpublic other than for those familieswhose kith and kin got shaheed. It is

pertinent to point out here that it wasin your tenure that massive flood reliefactivities were ‘blacked out’ just be-cause the political government startedfeeling the heat due to their inaction.Lately, the burial of shuhada, who laidtheir lives in various operations is alsonot given due importance by the army.

In view of the above, it is ferventlyhoped that the lost dignity of the armyin particular and the remaining servicesin general, would be restored by youbefore you hand over your baton to thenext chief. Holding of 23rd March pa-rade is a national event and must beheld come what may.

MAJOR (retd) TALAAT KHURSHIDRawalpindi

Pakistan’s unique

politicsIt appears to be another gimmick of

the present govt to go to Dr Qadri inLahore so as to discuss his conditions.It seems very strange at this stage,when the elections are fast approach-ing, that the govt likes all to believe thatthey are serious in talks with a personof dual nationality who is not even amember of the parliament. Which is thepower forcing them to such negotia-tions which due the above fact may notbe acceptable to the masses? What’snext up the sleeve of PPP? On the otherhand, PML-n has announced a longmarch supported by JI, PML-F whilebut Imran Khan’s TI has withdrawn thesupport. Some people say that the“Kaptaan” is still not ready for supportas he wants to play only as Kaptaan. Ishe again going to miss the boat? Ac-cording to the latest PEW polls, he islosing the support and PML-n is fastgaining strength. Actually, Pakistan’spolitics is a very different ballgame.

RASHID MAQSOODLahore

the state of Pakistan

PostA letter, stamped UMS 30180870,

starting journey from GPO, Islamabad,on January 11 (Friday), took a week toreach its destination in Sector O-9, Is-lamabad, on 18th January (Friday).This is the state of UMS (Urgent MailService), which was introduced by Pak-istan Post for quick and safe delivery ofletters. What about ordinary mail serv-ice? This explains why people prefercomparatively costly private courierservices.

ASGHAR MAHMOODIslamabad

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-ShaareyFatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan

Fax: +92-42-32535230E-mail: [email protected]

Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

of dengue, road constructions and Shahbaz Sharif

Lahore cries

It was annoying for those who askedme who I was going to vote for in theupcoming elections as I told them I

would vote for Khan sb for the nationalAssembly, and for provincial, only andonly PML-n. “Why?” they would ask. Thereason is very simple. We, the people liv-ing in Punjab, can never get a better chiefminister than Shahbaz Sharif.

He is responsible neither for the infla-tion, the biggest problem we are facing,nor can we accuse him of the terrorism.However, he deserves due credit for whathe did for the wellbeing of Lahore. (Yes, Ilive in Lahore, and can think selfishly.)

I take Ring Road every day, and reachmy destination in twenty-five minutescompared to before-Ring Road time,which was forty-five minutes. ShahbazSharif has influenced my life directly as Imove about on beautiful roads, witness aclean Lahore. In the last couple of years,whenever I went to Karachi, the filthyroads even in Clifton and Defence re-minded me what a gem we have in thename of the CM.

He is blamed to be a workaholic, whorises before dawn and wants his cabinetto meet him at CM office sometimes asearly as 5 am. I love to visualise thembickering and muttering while fixing theirties. He also gives deadlines for projectsand refuses to take any kind of excuse.Punjab has sustained the pressure of cen-tre only because of him.

Lahoris have been subjected to theworst ever load shedding, 18 hours a dayin scorching heat. This guy shifted his sec-retariat in a camp in Minar-e-Pakistangrounds, claiming he wanted to associatewith the suffering people of Punjab, whoare a target of the centre. Drama or not,but it’s difficult to do so when you per-spire from head to toe for three consecu-tive summer months.

When used to hearing all kinds of ab-surd and careless statements by the lead-ers, these kinds of news brings somerelief. (Don’t care about what people saythat he should better have been a Mayor.)

Then came dengue. Everyone in thecity dreaded the thing. The faraway peo-ple, like those living in Karachi for exam-ple, did not believe the seriousness of thedisease. They thought it was propaganda.But the truth was that more than 3,000people were reported to have died of it,with many more unreported deaths.Everyone you met told about a close rela-tive succumbing to death after dengue

fever. People hunted Papaya trees as itsleaves’ juice improved blood cell count. Inevery family there were patients, if not ofdengue then of Chickanganya, anotherform of dengue type virus.

The mosquitoes had become immuneto the sprays and you had to spray themindividually to kill them. When a mos-quito was killed, my children inspected itwith magnifying glass to check whether ithad white spots.

In those times, no Lahori can forgetthe campaign of our CM. He used everymeans to eradicate dengue. Worked 24/7.We saw the fruition of his efforts last yearwhen there had been no deaths bydengue. So not voting for him seemedthanklessness to me.

He is known to have shortcomingsbut he does deliver on many fronts.

nothing had changed until I saw whatcould make the environmentalists’ eyesbleed, and could make Wordsworth com-mit suicide.

It was merely a chance that I had notvisited the other half of Lahore in the pastfew months. I used the canal route toreach my dentist and when I entered theFerozepur Road where there would havebeen a beautiful entrance to the GaddafiStadium, amidst the greenery of theneighbouring nurseries, there was thishorrible looking grill which blocked myview. I cannot say if I was more horrifiedor stupefied on what has been done to thisplace but I wonder how the people wholive in that very place feel.

How on earth can you do this to a cityand not feel bad? The place where the busservice would start in Qainchi, which wasalready a clutter, such things are not aproblem. But at such points, where youneed to be aesthetically correct, youshould have lowered the path of the busservice.

In his enthusiasm, he totally forgotthat he had just made Kalma Chowk again,had widened all connecting roads, and thatnawaz Sharif Park that ran all along Fer-ozepur Road will not be viewed anymore.

From the new IT Tower to the CanalChowk, what was pleasing to the eye hasbecome an eye-sore.

How can this lover of Lahore dump itlike this? And why is it so difficult for thepeople to admit they too can be wrong foronce? You can abandon the project, mod-ify it, or at least do so at certain areas.Why could he not think of Monorail, orSkytrain, whatever they call it? It couldcover the whole of Lahore, if used on thefour main parallel roads and the canalcrossing them.

Lahore bears an ugly scar. Lahore cries.

By Javeria A Khan


12Tuesday, 29 January, 2013

RANA HuSSAIN TAHIR KOSHAL

“ TH E Bandians of Bhakuraj,true to their ancestralheritage, married not forlove but because ithappened to be convenient.”

Shazaf Fatima Haider in her first novel, “How ithappened”, adds humour to a rather forbiddenarea in our culture: love marriages. At a timewhen the space for free thinking is increasinglyshrinking, a female writer’s novel has paved wayfor ideas on a taboo subject. An EnglishLiterature teacher at The Lyceum School,Haider is one of those few teachers who areconsidered to be mentors by their students.

Pakistan Today got in touch with the youngauthor and asked her what impelled her to writethis wonderfully captivating piece of literature,her favourite characters in the novel, her takeon arranged marriages and much more.

For oUr rEADErS, TELL USSoMEThINg ABoUT “how IThAPPENED”?

Well, it’s a story about a Shia family whichhas a very set idea about how things shouldbe done, how traditions should be followedand who should marry whom. Dadi is thematriarchal head of this family and she getsher way most of the time through scolding,blackmails and fake faints. She manages toget her grandson married off with relativeease, but her granddaughter is a tougher nutto crack: she wears sleeveless and doesn’t fallfor the ‘right’ man. The whole rigmarole oftradition, politics and disorder is explored inHow It Happened.

whIch SchooL DID YoU go To?

I did my O levels from St Joseph’s Convent, ALevels from Karachi Grammar School and myMasters in English Literature from the Universityof Karachi. I majored in English but my minorswere Philosophy and International Relations.

whAT IMPELLED YoU To wrITE “howIT hAPPENED”?

I think I was especially riled one day becausesomeone’s mother had come to our house andinspected me thoroughly and then said somethinginsensitive and rude – I forget what exactly. Andthen I called a friend to vent and she told me shehad just been asked by a prospective suitor’smother whether she had an American passport.We both were thoroughly ticked off and Idecided to write an article about arrangedmarriages. But instead, I found myself writingthe first three chapters of How It Happened.

IN YoUr oPINIoN, whAT roLE DoESrELIgIoN PLAY IN ArrANgED

MArrIAgES?

It’s the first on the list people tick offwhen considering a proposal. After

that, family background, age andsalary come to play. So it’s amake or break factor for manyfamilies. Of course, somefamilies don’t really care at allabout religion or anythingelse; they just want a coupleto be happy, but these are ina minority.

whIch chArAcTEr IN“how IT hAPPENED” ISYoUr FAvoUrITE?

Without a doubt, Dadi. She’s outrageous andhysterically funny – full of drama and love and aforce to be reckoned with. I never knew my owngrandmother who died in childbirth long before Iwas born. So in a way Dadi is my way of creatinga bond with a woman who exists on the pages of abook, but who is also very real to me. Dadi is thegrandmother I never met.

YoU ArE A TEAchEr. DID YoUrINTErAcTIoN wITh STUDENTS hELPYoU IN crEATINg ThE chArAcTErLIKE hArooN, ZEBA AND SALEhA?

no. In fact, I don’t think about writing at all whenI’m teaching and I don’t think about teaching whenI’m writing. They’re both passions for me but theyhave their separate compartments. They take updifferent energies entirely and I don’t thinkanything in this book has been inspired by mystudents or the people I meet at work.

whAT chANgE woULD YoU LIKE ToBrINg INTo oUr SocIETY BY wrITINg“how IT hAPPENED”?

I never wrote it with a message or change in mindbut what I hope is that readers see that tradition,while valuable, is not written in stone. Rules canchange and things have to evolve with time andthis is essential so that as a society we are moreembracing of difference.

whAT MESSAgE woULD YoU gIvE ToThE YoUNg gIrLS who go ThroUghThE ExPErIENcE oF ArrANgEMArrIAgES?

Hold tight, develop thick skin and a sense ofhumor. Without these, you’ll go mad.

hAvE YoU EvEr ATTENDED AwrITINg worKShoP? IF YES,howDID IT hELP YoU?

I did sit through a lecture by Kamila Shamsie atuniversity once. She made us do a few exercises. Iread out what I wrote and she rather liked it andasked me whether I wanted to be a writer. I said no,because I had no story to write. That was that. But Ithink I was fascinated by the way she talked aboutstory telling as this magical and mysterious processthat also involved a lot of hard work and discipline.And that must have stayed with me on some level,since I began a novel instead of the magazine articlethat I had originally intended to write.

who ArE YoUr BIggEST LITErArYINFLUENcES AND whY?

‘Influence’ is perhaps too strong a word, but I’ve

always enjoyed humor and I love PG Wodehouse’ssarcasm and Harper Lee’s simplicity and structure. Ialso really admire Charles Dickens for the caricatureshe paints. I suppose reading these authors affected, tosome extent, the story I eventually wrote but I neverhad the temerity to consciously model my writing ontheirs. They are inimitable.

DEScrIBE ThE PLAcE whErE YoUwrITE?

I usually am curled up on the edge of a sofa in myliving room, listening to the goings-on around me.At other times, I need a change of pace and go tomy favorite café with a laptop, order a cup of greentea and go at it on my laptop.

whIch BooKS ArE oNYoUr BUcKET LIST?

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by GregoryMacguire, Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie,The Mother by Maxim Gorky and a biography ofBette Davis.

whEN cAN rEADErS ExPEcT To FINDSoMEThINg ELSE oN ITS wAY, ANDwhAT cAN wE ExPEcT? ANoThErNovEL? A ShorT STorY coLLEcTIoN? APLAY, PErhAPS?

I’m working on another novel, but I think it’sgoing to be some time before it’s ready . Teachingand other commitments are a serious drain onwriting time. But I’m excited because writing anovel is one of the most satisfying things I’ve done.It’s also one of the most frustrating. But I lookforward to the journey.

LITERATURE TO CALL OUR OWN

NEWS DESK

The Allahabad High Court today dismissed a petition, which had accused Bol-

lywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan of having made a “derogatory” remark

“with malicious intention” about the Holy Quran in a more than a year-old

episode of game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. The petition filed by Jhansi

resident Mudassir Ullah Khan, who had taken exception to the use of the phrase

“racha gaya” (composed) in the context of the Holy Quran by Bachchan in the

episode aired on 28 September, 2011 was dismissed by Justice Manoj Misra. The

petitioner had contended that the Holy Quran was “neither written nor created

by anybody, rather it came into existence/revealed by Allah (God) Himself” and

hence the use of the phrase “racha gaya” was tantamount to “a serious offence”

as Bachchan was a “popular figure” and “words used by him affects all communi-

ties”. However, Justice Misra disagreed with his contention and said, “To say

‘racha gaya’ does not necessarily imply that the Quran was written by some per-

son. “The phrase can also imply that the Holy Book was composed by Allah

Himself, which is another way of saying that it is a revealed scripture,” Justice

Mishra said. Through the petition, Khan had also challenged orders of Chief

Judicial Magistrate and District and Sessions Judge of Jhansi whereby his

pleas for directing the police to register an FIR under sections of Indian

Penal Code dealing with hurt caused to religious sentiments were turned

down. He had submitted that while the CJM had dismissed his com-

plaint “illegally and without application of mind”, the District Judge

turned down his subsequent criminal revision terming it as “frivolous

and vexatious” besides submitting that no objection was raised by

any “school, institution or the Mohammadan community” nor was

there any “fatwa” issued against Bachchan.

HC dismisses petition againstAMITABH BACHCHAN

BraDley cooPerin talks to play Lance Armstrong

NEWS DESK

Actor Bradley Cooper has formally been approached by director J.J.Abrams to star in a biopic on cyclist Lance Armstrong’s rise and fallfrom grace. Cooper previously expressedhis desire to portray the disgraced cyclistafter he was stripped of his titlesbetween 1999 and 2005 when it wasrevealed that he had takenperformance-enhancing drugs. Abramsconfirmed that he is consideringCooper for the role after the latterreached out to him via e-mail. “Coopersent me an e-mail and we have beentalking,” contactmusic.com quotedAbrams as saying. Some time backCooper had expressed his keeness toplay the disgraced cyclist. “I wouldbe interested in playing Armstrong.I think he is fascinating. What afascinating character. I rememberMatt Damon was going to do hisautobiography at one point yearsago,” he had said in an interview.Abrams and his ParamountPictures partner Bryan Burkrecently snapped up the screenrights for “Cycle of Lies: The Fallof Lance Armstrong”, a newbook by new York Timessportswriter Juliet Macur,who has covered the drugscheat for over a decade.Damon and MatthewMcConaughey are alsocontenders to play theinfamous cyclist in the project.


13Tuesday, 29 January, 2013

Bollywood actor-

producer Aamir Khan, who

brought several social

issues to the fore through his

show “ Satyamev Jayate”, has

now lent support to the fight

against alcoholism amongst

women. He says women should

be forthcoming about admitting

their addiction. Addressing a

press conference by an NGo,

Aamir said the problem is more

complex in India as women never

come out and admit that they drink. “In India, the

problem is more complex. There are so many modernistic

issues involved with drinking that women would be afraid

to even admit openly that they are drinking. Its a very

difficult thing for them,” the 47-year-old said. “So, the fact

that you (female reporters) have come here, will give

them a lot of strength, lot of courage and with the media

reporting about it, the message that it is a disease will

come across. Even if you are a woman and if you are

suffering, you need to step out and there is help available

to you,” he added. NeWS DeSK

shakira released fromspanish clinic

ColombIAN singer

Shakira was released

Sunday from the clinic

in the northeastern Spanish

city of barcelona where she

gave birth last week to her

first child, milan Pique

mebarak, clinic spokesmen

told EFE. The singer, boyfriend

and F.C. barcelona player

Gerard Pique, and the child

left the clinic in the early

afternoon in an SUV with

tinted windows driven by one of Shakira’s brothers.

The singer did not stop to take questions from

reporters, heading straight for Pique’s residence in

Cabrils, a town some 25 km from barcelona, where

the couple will be living until construction is

completed on their new house in Ciudad Condal. No

photos of the baby’s face have been released, with

the only image made public being a photograph

posted by Pique on Twitter of the child’s legs. milan

Pique mebarak weighed almost 3 kg at his birth by

Caesarean section last Tuesday. NeWS DeSK

aamir supports fight againstalcoholism among women

noTaBle TWeeTs

mira HasHmi (Filmmaker)

Was listening to the song ‘sona roopa layo re’ today- amazing rhythms and melody by R.D. Burmanand scorching vocal by Asha Bhosle!

ralPH maccHio (Actor)

Screened films most of the day now at Daniel DayLewis tribute! Excited/eager to take in his insightson his work and life. Yeah. Big fan.

eric iDle (Actor and author)

I would tweet in Latin but the Pope’s doing that.Possibly better than the original German....

sHaZaF FaTima (Author)

Excited to announce my participation at the@KarachiLitFest 2013! See you there!

colin Quinn (Comedian)

People don’t seem to “get” that a comic is also agreat actor. You have to be funny even when you’rein a down mood and that’s acting!

takesoff

On Friday, Jan. 25, Ben Affleck was honored withthe Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s“Modern Master” award. On Saturday, Jan. 26,Affleck and “Argo” co-producer Grant Heslovaccepted the Darryl F. Zanuck Award forOutstanding Producer of Theatrical MotionPictures from the Producers Guild. (Fellow co-producer George Clooney was unable to attend theceremony.) On Sunday, Jan. 27, Affleck and his“Argo” cast mates won Outstanding Ensemble in aMotion Picture at the Screen Actors Guild awards,the SAG equivalent of Best Picture. “I’m sograteful when I feel like there’s a room full ofpeople that have seen the movie,” Affleck toldET.com at the national Board of Review Awardson Jan. 8, where the director was honored withthe “Special Achievement in Filmmaking” trophy.Affleck has been in a lot of rooms like that over thelast month. On Jan. 10, he won the Critics’ ChoiceAward for Best Director, while “Argo” won BestPicture. On Jan. 13, he won those same awards atthe Golden Globes. This is to say nothing of hisrecent whirlwind weekend, nor the upcomingDirectors Guild Awards (Feb. 2), BAFTA awards(Feb. 10) and Academy Awards (Feb. 24), allceremonies where “Argo” or Affleck arenominated. How many awards does one movieneed? Apparently, a lot. “Award shows are so

popular because they are the gladiatorial sport ofour day,” GoldDerby.com editor Tom O’neil toldThe Huffington Post. “Instead of big ugly lugsduelling to the death in the arena, we cast ourgorgeous pop culture icons, dressed in formalfinery, and let them hack away at each other forour amusement.” Beyond that, as O’neil noted,television networks and critics’ groups love awardsshows “because they get gads of star power forfree.” Indeed: It’s hard to imagine any otherscenario where big names like Affleck, AnneHathaway and Daniel Day-Lewis would minglewith members of the Broadcast Film CriticsAssociation or spend three hours showing theirfaces on nBC. There’s another reason awardsshows are so popular: the audience. This year’sGolden Globes ceremony on nBC was the highest-rated broadcast since 2007. The 2012 AcademyAwards ceremony was watched by 39.3 millionviewers, this despite the fact that only one film,“The Help,” grossed over $100 million at thenorth American box office. (Possible good newsfor ABC, the network that airs the Oscars: Of thenine films nominated for Best Picture in 2012, fiveare already over $100 million in ticket sales, with“Silver Linings Playbook” and “Zero Dark Thirty”closing in on that number.) Even the SAG awards,which aired simultaneously on TnT and TBS, saw

a ratings bump last year. It’s not just relegated tomovie awards, either: The 2012 telecasts of theGrammys and Emmys also saw audience totalsincrease from the year prior. That viewer interesthas translated to bottom-line success as well. “Wewere virtually sold out by Christmas, which speaksto the appeal of the Oscars,” Debbie Richman,senior VP-prime-time ad sales at ABC, toldAdvertising Age earlier this year. “We haven’t beenthis well sold, this early, in over a decade.” ABCwas selling 30-seconds ads for as much as $1.8million, an increase of over $100,000 from the2012 Academy Awards broadcast. It’s no wonderthat events like the SAG Awards, which didn’teven exist before 1995, get primetime placementin today’s landscape; the ceremony is anotherspoke in the Oscar-season wheel. The demand,facilitated by audiences, networks, advertisers,critics’ groups and guilds, has turned awardsshows into a year-round boon for Hollywood.need more proof? Look no further than Park City,Utah, where the indie film “Fruitvale” won boththe audience award and grand jury prize at the2013 Sundance Film Festival. “This will not be thelast time you guys walk to a podium,” Sundancejuror Tom Rothman said when announcing that“Fruitvale” won the grand jury prize. As Affleckcan probably attest, he’s not kidding. NeWS DeSK

WHy are THere so many aWarDs sHoWs DurinG oscar season?

KaracHiFasHionWeeK

KaracHiFasHionWeeK


16-member mexicanband feared dead

MEMBERS of a Colombian-style band whodisappeared after a gig in northernMexico last week have become the latest

musicians to be kidnapped and murdered by druggangs, authorities fear. The 16-man KomboKolombia band and four of their roadies werereported missing early Friday and investigatorshave now discovered at least eight bodies dumpedin a well in the area, the AP reports.The band members were Mexican but playedColombian-style vallenato music, which is notnormally associated with drug gangs, theInternational Business Times reports. After theband played a private show in a bar north ofMonterrey last Thursday night, people reportedhearing gunshots and vehicles speeding away. Theband members' empty vehicles were found outsidethe bar. NeWS DeSK

Tuesday, 29 January, 2013 Infotainment 14

lengthy aspirin usetied to blindness

TAKInG aspirin on a regular basis for yearsmay be a factor in macular degeneration, astudy suggests. According to the research,

those with a long-term aspirin regime face twicethe risk of "wet" age-related macular degeneration,or wet AMD. The illness causes blindness in thecenter of one's field of vision. But use of the drugcan lower the risk of stroke and heart attack—andthere's not enough information yet to suggestregular takers should stop, researchers say.he study reviewed 2,389 people whose average age

was in the mid-60s; a tenth of them were takingaspirin at least once weekly, the BBC reports.Participants had their eyes tested every five yearsfor 15 years. By the study's end, some 9.3% ofregular aspirin users suffered wet AMD, while 3.7%of those who didn't take it regularly developed thedisease. Still, "for patients at risk of cardiovasculardisease, the health risks of stopping or notprescribing aspirin are much higher than those ofdeveloping wet AMD," researchers said. NeWS DeSK

Google sued over applebrowsing privacy

gOOGLE is facing legal action in the UKover claims it breached the privacy ofpeople browsing the internet on Apple

computers and mobile devices. Twelve people areseeking damages from the company for allegedlytracking their use of the web without theirknowledge. The claimants say Google designed acode to secretly install cookies - small tracking files -on the Safari internet browser. Cookies can be usedto target advertising based on the type of websitessomeone looks at. Olswang, the law firm handling thecase, gives the example of a person searching forengagement rings could find that their partner, usingthe same computer, later sees adverts for rings. Theclaimants say they thought cookies were beingblocked on the devices because of assurances givenby Google and Safari's only default privacy settings. Itis estimated that around 10 million people could havegrounds to bring a claim given the number of Appleusers at the time in question - summer 2011 to spring2012. There is no suggestion that Apple is in any wayat fault in the case. Campaigners have also set up aFacebook "information" group called Safari UsersAgainst Google's Secret Tracking. Dan Tench, apartner at Olswang, said Google had a "responsibilityto consumers and should be accountable". He added:"We hope that they will take this opportunity to giveSafari users a proper explanation about whathappened, to apologise and, where appropriate,

compensate the victims oftheir intrusion."

gaISSacH: competitors take

to the air during the

traditional Schnablerrennen

sledge race in Bavaria. AgENCIES

BREAKInG news in the world ofcrazy backwards regimes that wantto prove they’re capable of some-thing more than just killing theirown citizens: Iran has put a monkey

in to space. Exact details about the mission arelimited at the moment, but the monkey must bemale because it travelled unaccompanied.

The news comes from the Al-Alam newsnetwork by way of Russian media. We don’tknow if the launch was a success yet but Iran hasbeen threatening to hurtle a chimp in to thestratosphere for some time now. According tothe Voice of Russia, it has previously sent up“mice, turtles and worms” and Deputy ScienceMinister Mohammad Mehdinejad-nouri saysthat putting animals in to space is “strategic, anda priority.” Presumably it’s all part of developingthe country’s long term nuclear capability, help-ing it to strike every corner of the earth with itsrighteous radioactive fury. Of course, I could bebeing ungenerous. It’s just as possible that theIslamic republic wants to build a giant pettingzoo on the moon.

It increasingly feels like the only countriesthat are still participating in the space race areones that have no cause to be up there. Why isn’tIran, say, spending the money on feeding its ownpeople? Its economy is in a mess and the cause isman made; undemocratic states tend to have farless balanced patterns of development than dem-ocratic ones. Even outgoing President MahmoudAhmadinejad has finally turned on the Revolu-

tionary Guard, asking why it is exempt from tax.The Guard owns large amounts of wealthy landthat, if sold off, could account a substantial por-tion of the state budget. But while Ahmadinejaddeserves plaudits for finally taking on his coun-try’s establishment, the attempt to breed a newgeneration of astro-monkeys suggests that hisown priorities are messed up.

The engagement of authoritarian regimes inthe space race is purely about justifying their iron-like grip on their own countries and intimidatingthe rest of the world – crying, "Look at us, we'restill here! We still matter!" There’s probably lessdanger from the military potential of their exper-iments than there is from them going wrong.What if the Iranian monkey gets distracted bysomething shiny and ploughs that rocket in to thenorth Korean satellite – itself piloted by a ham-ster on speed? One can imagine them plummetingback down to Earth and wrecking a green housein Milton Keynes. A few days later, Mrs Butterfieldof 54 Hillingdon Rise gets an grovelling phone callfrom the Iranian Embassy: “Can we have ourmonkey back please…?” NeWS DeSK

iran sends monkey into space

Scientists identify crocodile ancestoramong fossils discovered a century ago

acreature resembling a hybrid dolphin and crocodile has beenidentified by scientists examining fossil remains discovered morethan a century ago. The new species, named Tyrannoneustes

lythrodectikos, was a marine "super-predator" that lived 163m years ago.It belonged to a group of ancient crocodiles with dolphin-like features. Anamateur fossil hunter found the reptile's partial skeleton in a clay pit nearPeterborough in the early 1900s. Experts have only now been able toconfirm the identity of the remains, housed at the Hunterian museum atthe University of Glasgow. The animal had pointed, serrated teeth and alarge gaping jaw suited to feeding on large-bodied prey. It represents atransitional form between marine crocodiles that fed on small prey andtheir supersized relatives. dr mark young, from the University ofEdinburgh, said: "It is satisfying to be able to classify a specimen that hasbeen unexamined for more than100 years, and doubly so tofind that this discoveryimproves ourunderstanding of theevolution of marine reptiles." dr NeilClark, palaeontology curator at theHunterian, said: "little research has been done on thisspecimen since it was first listed in 1919. It is comforting toknow that new species can still be found in museums as new research iscarried out on old collections. "It is not just the new species that areimportant, but an increase in our understanding of how life evolved andthe variety of life forms that existed 163m years ago in the warm Jurassicseas around what is now britain." NeWS DeSK

6-SECOND VIDEOSTwitter rolled out an interesting new iOSapp today that's sort of like a cross betweenInstagram, YouTube, and, well, Twitter.Dubbed "Vine," the new app allows you tocreate and watch 6-second looping videos,in a Twitter-esque feed. While the resultantvideos will instantly remind you of GIFs,they're actually MP4 files, meaning theycan include sound—the app will instantlyswitch sound feeds to the next video as youscroll through your feed. While you can

cross-post your Vine videos to Twitter (andother social media for that matter), Vine iscurrently a separate app thatisn't fully integrated into thesite—though Gizmodo predictsthat it will be eventually. It's alsonot available on Android or anyother platform yet, butTwitter'sofficial blog announcementpromises that they're working onthat. NeWS DeSK


WOMEN WORLd CUP


CuTTACKageNcIeS

hOST India prepares totake on rising star WestIndies at CCI in one ofthe 10 matches to be cov-ered in HD by Star

SportsDefending champion England will

start as favourites to qualify for the SuperSix stage of this week’s ICC Women’sWorld Cup 2013 from Group A which alsoincludes host India and qualifiers WestIndies and Sri Lanka.

The second and third place will be ahard fought contest, with the West Indiesa vastly improved side from four years agoand host India and qualifier Sri Lanka allvying for Super Six placing and the sub-continent sides perhaps more confidentdue the event being hosted in Mumbai.

England, winner of the tournament in1973, 1993 and most recently in 2009, willbegin it latest campaign against Sri Lankaon the second day of the tournament inMumbai. A day later in the feature matchof the group, Charlotte Edwards, featur-ing in her fifth successive ICC Women’sWorld Cup, will lead England against2009 third-place finishers India beforeconcluding the group stage matchesagainst West Indies on 6 February.

England’s matches against Sri Lankaand India will be played at the CCI andwill be covered in High Definition by theICC’s official broadcast partner StarSports.

On the opening day of the tourna-ment, host India will take on the risingstars of the women’s game, West Indies,in another broadcast match at theCricket Club of India. Sri Lanka will meetthe West Indies side on 4 February atMIG, while on 6 February ShashikalaSiriwardena’s side will face the host atCCI with the match also being broadcastlive.

If recent form is anything to go bywith Group A, then it will probably be SriLanka that will be the team that does notprogress through to the Super Six stage,which starts on 8 February.

Sri Lanka won the right to compete inthe tournament when it finished in thetop four of the ICC Women’s World CupQualifier (ICC WWCQ) in Dhaka,Bangladesh in november 2011. The sidebeat South Africa in the third/fourth play-off to occupy the fourth spot in Group Awhile West Indies qualified for third spotin the group after completing the tourna-ment undefeated.

At the ICC Women’s World Twenty20in Sri Lanka, West Indies, finished in thetop four of the tournament after a tightsemi-final against Australia in the eventlast October. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka man-aged just one win throughout the wholeevent, ironically against the West Indies,in Galle.

The England squad for the ICCWomen’s World Cup features familiarfaces for followers of the game, includingcaptain Edwards, while there are eight

players from the original winning squadof 2009 including the in-form ICCWomen’s Twenty20 Player of the Year2012, Sarah Taylor, who will once againlead the sides batting line-up.

Edwards requires a mere 61 more ODIruns to usurp Belinda Clark of Australiato become the most successful run-scorerin women’s cricket, Clark’s record of4,844 ODI runs has stood since 2005.

The bowling attack features the num-ber one ODI bowler in the Reliance ICCWomen’s ODI Player Rankings, KatherineBrunt, who currently has 76 ODI scalps toher name, along with the talented slowleft-armer Holly Colvin, who happened toalso hit the winning runs for Englandback in 2009 when it defeated Australiain the final of the event.

India’s women are to be led by MithaliRaj, the number one batter in the Re-liance ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankingswhile former captain Jhulan Goswami,also features again in the side. Faces towatch out for include the diminutive bat-ter Punam Raut and her compatriot wick-etkeeper-batter Sulakshana naik plusbowlers Gouher Sultana and nagarajanniranjana.

West Indies’ side features a mixture ofyouth and experience, including the onlytwins in the event, Kycia and KyshonaKnight of Barbados. The side is led byTrinidadian Merissa Aguilleira while ICCWomen’s ODI Player of the Year 2012,Stafanie Taylor, is her deputy.

In-form spinner Anisa Mohammedwill be one to watch, the 24-year-oldclaimed 7-14 in the final of the ICCWomen’s World Cup Qualifier 2011against Pakistan and will hoping the sub-continent conditions will suit her style ofplay.

Finally, Sri Lanka’s side will be hop-ing for a positive tournament under theleadership of Siriwardena. The side isonce again coached by Harsha de Silva,while players to watch out for include thelikes of wicketkeeper-batter Dilani Man-odara and top-order batter YasodaMendis.

When it comes to the bowling attack,Siriwardena will be key for the side in thesub-continent conditions with her off-spin as will medium-pacer Sripali Weer-akoddy who has represented the side in 37ODIs.

Group A squadsEnGLAnD – Charlotte Edwards (cap-

tain), Jenny Gunn (vice-captain), TammyBeaumont, Arran Brindle, KatherineBrunt, Holly Colvin, Georgia Elwiss, LydiaGreenway, Danielle Hazell, Amy Jones,Heather Knight, Laura Marsh, AnyaShrubsole, Sarah Taylor, Danielle Wyatt.

InDIA – Mithali Raj (captain), Har-manpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Ekta Bisht,Amita Dass, Jhulan Goswami, KarunaJain, Reema Malhotra, Mona Meshram,Thirushkamini Murugesan, Sulakshananaik, niranjan nagarajan, Rasnara Par-win, Punam Raut, Shubh LakshmiSharma, Gouher Sultana.

WEST InDIES - Merissa Aguilleira(captain), Stafanie Taylor (vice-captain),

Shemaine Campbelle, Shanel Daley, De-andra Dottin, Kycia Knight, KyshonaKnight, natasha Mclean, Anisa Mo-hammed, Subrina Munroe, Juliana nero,June Ogle, Shaquana Quintyne, ShakeraSelman, Tremayne Smartt.

SRI LAnKA – Shashikala Siriwardena(captain), Sandamali Dolawatta (vice-captain), Chamari Attapaththu, EshaniLokusooriya, Lasanthi Madushani, DilaniManodara, Yasoda Mendis, Udeshika Pra-bodani, Oshadi Ranasinghe, InokaRanaweera, Deepika Rasangika, SherinaRavikumar, Chamani Senevirathne,Prasadini Weerakkody, Sripali Weer-akkody.

Group A fixtures (all venues in Mum-bai):

Thurs 31 Jan – India v West Indies,Cricket Club of India

Fri 1 Feb – England v Sri Lanka,Cricket Club of India

Sun 3 Feb – England v India, CricketClub of India; Sri Lanka v West Indies,MIG

Wed 6 Feb – India v Sri Lanka,Cricket Club of India; England v West In-dies, BKC

England readies to take on Sri Lanka

GAuTAM BHATTACHARyyA

As the players’ auction for the sixth edi-tion of Indian Premier League (IPL) isround the corner, the showpiece is grad-ually beginning to creep into the psycheof cricket fans again. The IPL has by nowbecome like an addictive habit — youmay blame it for all the ills afflicting In-dian cricket but you can’t really chuck itout of your system.

What may have escaped the notice ofcricket fans is the U-turn of Indiancricket board on the issue of allowingPakistani players to take part in the IPL

after a gap of four years.It was in the last week of December

that the IPL governing council quietly is-sued a diktat to all the franchises not togo for players from Pakistan — despiteearlier verbal assurances from the IPLchairman and positive vibes in the wakeof the BCCI allowing Sialkot Stallionsfrom that country to take part in theChampions League T-20.

While the general perception seemsto be that the decision had come in thewake of the emergency situation in theborder, this was not the case in reality.

The border crisis flared up only in

the first week of January, leading to thesending back of the five Pakistan playersfrom the Hockey India League (HIL)and the deliberation over safety of thePakistan women’s team taking part inthe Women’s World Cup in India.

However, the decision to snub thePakistan players filtered as early as De-cember 23, even as the Pakistan teamhad just set foot on the Indian soil for aresumption of bi-lateral series afternearly five years. no official reason wasavailable on that occasion, while the In-dian government said they had no rolebehind such a decision.

It has hence turned out to be a win-ter of discontent for the Pakistan playersas the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) hasnow barred the 26 players initiallycleared to take part in the ongoingBangladesh Premier League (BPL).

It’s been PCB’s way of getting backat the Bangladesh board, who declinedto tour Pakistan at the eleventh hour dueto security concerns, but the real loserswill be the likes of Mohammad Hafeez,Shahid Afridi and Omar Gul.

It’s a pity that several of Pakistan’scricketers, who are real crowdpullers inthis form of cricket, continue to live in

the lurch even as a rash of mediocreplayers receive fat cheques and bask inall the attention in the IPL and now theBangladesh league.

The other day, the PCB chairmanZaka Ashraf went on record as sayingthat a possible tour of Pakistan by theIndian team was a bright possibility tillthe LoC crisis had put paid to theirdreams.

One has to take him on face value,but questions are now being asked if thePakistan board may have been short-changed by their counterparts in termsof future commitments!

PAKISTAN’S CRICKETERS SUFFER DOUBLE BLOW

CuTTACKageNcIeS

Rattled by vehement protests against thestate hosting the Pakistani team for theWomen’s Cricket World Cup to be playedout here from February 1, the governmenthas arranged accommodation for the playersright inside the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.

“The Pakistani players would have facedtrouble while travelling from Bhubaneswar toCuttack for the matches. So we have arrangedfor their accommodation on the Barabati Sta-dium premises,” said Odisha Cricket Associ-ation (OCA) secretary Asirbad Behera.

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) and Bajrang Dal had warned hote-liers in Bhubaneswar against offering hospi-tality to the Pakistani players, followingwhich posh hotels in Bhubaneswar and Cut-tack showed reluctance in providing accom-modation to the Pak players, forcing the

decision to house the players on the stadiumpremises. Political parties like Kalinga Senaand Utkal Bharat have also been threateningto disrupt the matches of the Pakistani team.“The accommodation of the Pakistan teamhad turned out to be a headache for us, butfinally we have managed to solve the prob-lem,” said an OCA official.

Five star hotel facilities will be providedto the Pak players at the Club House in thestadium where the players are to stay, saidBehera. “The Club House is equipped with aworld class gymnasium and swimming pool.Other arrangements have also been made toprovide the best facilities to the Pakistaniplayers,” he said. Security in and aroundBarabati Stadium has been beefed up aheadof the matches. At least 500 security person-nel have been deployed and 55 CCTV cam-eras have been installed at the stadium toensure security to the players.

Director general of police (DGP)Prakash Mishra visited the stadium on Sun-day to review the security set-up and helddiscussions with OCA officials about thearrangements. “Matches involving the Pak-istan team will be played at Barabati andelaborate arrangements have been made toensure foolproof security to the players,” theDGP said after reviewing the arrangements.

The OCA has also decided to restrict theentry of visitors to the stadium for matchesinvolving Pakistani players. “Only gallerynumber 1 and 2 will be opened for visitors.Visitors will be allowed to enter the stadiumafter a thorough scanning by security per-sonnel. We have also appealed to visitors notto bring any water bottles and food packetsalong,” said Behera.

The matches involving Pakistan teamwill be held exclusively at Barabati Stadium,while matches of other teams will be playedat the DRIEMS ground in Tangi.

Pakistan ladies to be housedat Barabati Stadium


New zealand long way off testpace: Hesson

WILLINGTONageNcIeS

The new Zealand coach, Mike Hesson, isunder no illusions how brittle his Testside remains but has been buoyed by theone-day series victory against SouthAfrica. new Zealand were humbled by aninnings in both Tests on the tour, whichincluded being bowled out for 45 in CapeTown, before turning their fortunesaround with one-day success and theycame within a whisker of a whitewashonly to lose the final ODI off the last ball.‘’In Test cricket, we’ve still got a long wayto go,” Hesson admitted on his return tonew Zealand. “We’re a long way off thepace in Test cricket, we have to acknowl-edge that, and we know we have a lot ofwork to do.”Achieving one-day silverware wentagainst recent form for new Zealand whohad slipped to ninth in the rankings, butthe form of experienced allroundersJames Franklin and Grant Elliott, a fan-tastic hundred from Kane Williamson,and the emergence of Mitchell McCle-naghan, the left-arm quick, were the cat-alysts for gritty performances.“We had a few new faces and a few olderones that came back and they were reallykeen to make an impact and they did,’’Hesson said. “When they came back,they lifted the whole vibe. We were a bitdown after the Test series, there was nodoubt about that. We were clearly out-played.“But the work we put in between thenand the end of the tour, mentally asmuch as anything, was pleasing. We at-tacked that first game with real aggres-sion and I think we stuck at thatthroughout the whole series.”

PCB level icoaching course

LAHOREStaff RepoRt

The Pakistan Cricket Board’s educationdepartment under its game developmentprogramme will organize two level Icoaching courses next month here at na-tional Cricket Academy.Both the useful activities aim at impart-ing latest knowledge of the game besideshelping the participants to take upcoaching as a profession, said aspokesman of PCB here on Monday.He said one level I course will be organ-ized for women and the other will be heldfor the benefit of former cricketers. Boththe courses will be held in the last weekof February under the supervision ofPCB’s experts in the field of coaching.He said twenty five candidates will beselected from all over the country toparticipate in each course which will beof five day duration. “ All the courseswill be on self financed basis and eachparticipants will have to pay a fee of Rs10000 “,he added.

Pakistan draw their warm-up matchSports 16Tuesday, 29 January, 2013

EAST LONDONageNcIeS

PAKISTAn drew theirwarm-up match againstthe South African Invita-tion XI at Buffalo Park inEast London on Monday

as bad light stopped play and stumpswere called more than an hour earlywith the hosts on 190 for five, 133 runsshort of a win.

The visitors were all out for 250early on the final morning after resum-ing the day on 240 for five with the tailfailing to emulate the heroics of UmarGul 49 (76) and Sarfaz Ahmed 93 (161)from the first innings.

The hosts were quite shaky in their

reply as dark clouds hovered above andthe ball kept low, assisting Pakistan’sbowlers quite significantly.

The South African Invitation XIlost two wickets before lunch with bothAndrew Puttick 7 (16) and Stiaan vanZyl 7 (6) being dismissed cheaply — Ju-naid Khan and Umar Gul picking up awicket apiece.

Davy Jacobs was dismissed shortlyafter lunch for 36 with 7ft1 pacemanMohammed Irfan picking up his firstwicket.

Cody Chetty followed after adding29, becoming Irfan’s second victim ofthe day.

Vaughn van Jaarsveld added 43 off55 before he was caught and bowled bySaeed Ajmal and the hosts were in a

spot of bother at 146 for five still 162runs away from a win.

Justin Ontong and Dane Vilas,however, combined before the breakand safely guided their side to tea.

After the break, Ontong managedto notch up 51 off 81 while Vilas graftedfor eight off 39 balls before bad lightintervened and stumps were calledwith the hosts still needing 133 runs towin.

Earlier in the day, Sarfraz Ahmedwas the first man out, trapped leg be-fore by Kyle Abbott and the wicket-keeper had to depart for 19.

Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq was thenext to go after contributing a gritty 55off 138 balls.

It was Abbott who did the damage

yet again, clean bowling the captain asthe visitors started to stutter just a lit-tle bit in overcast conditions.

Ajmal and Umar Gul followedshortly after, Gul clean bowled by Ab-bott and Ajmal dismissed by BeuranHendricks.

Abbott finished the innings withimpressive figures of 13.4-5-26-4 forthe hosts while Mohammed Hafeez 83(109), nasir Jamshed 51 (122) and Mis-bah-ul-Haq 55 (138) did the damagewith the bat for the visitors.

Scores: Pakistanis 329 (Sarfraz 93,Harmer 5-88) and 250 for 9 dec(Hafeez 83, Abbott 4-26) drew withSouth African Invitation XI 257 (vanJaarsveld 92, Ajmal 3-66) & 190 for 5(Ontong 51*, Irfan 2-26).

SyDNEyageNcIeS

Sri Lanka prevailed in a rain-hitthriller to clinch the second and finalTwenty20 international against Aus-tralia and seal the series 2-0 on Mon-day.

Glenn Maxwell hit two successive

boundaries to bring Australia agonis-ingly close to their target but could notmake contact with the last deliverysent down by Thisara Perera as SriLanka eked out a narrow victory viathe Duckworth-Lewis method.

Put into bat, Mahela Jayawardene(61 not out) featured in fifty-plus part-nerships with Jeevan Mendis (25) and

Perera (35 not out) to help Sri Lankaovercome a slow start and post 161-4at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Australia lost both their openerscheaply but captain George Bailey (45)and Shaun Marsh (47 not out) guidedthem to 60-2 in 10 overs before rainled to the loss of five overs’ play.

Australia were required to score122 runs from 15 overs under the re-vised target and 18 runs from the lastover from Perera, who removed Baileywith the second ball and followed itwith a waist-high full toss which wasadjudged a no-ball.

Marsh managed a single off thenext delivery and watched from theother end as Maxwell hit two straightboundaries to raise hopes of a memo-rable victory before failing to put batto the ball at the death.

JOHANNESBERGageNcIeS

The first day of the first Sunfoil test be-tween the Proteas and Pakistan on Fridayat the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium will bea historic occasion for South African testcaptain, Graeme Smith.

He will become the first player in thehistory of the sport to captain a team in100 tests, having led the Proteas in 98tests to date and also captained the WorldXI against Australia.

To celebrate this occasion, CricketSouth Africa with its sponsors has linedup a host of activities in honour of Smith.

Fans are also encouraged to be part ofthe celebrations.

On Tuesday, between noon and 1pm,fans can meet Smith and some of his Pro-teas teammates at the Adidas store inSandton City. There will also be an oppor-tunity to sign a massive Proteas replicajersey which will be handed over to Smithduring the test match.

On match day, a roving camera willcapture messages from fans which will beplayed on the big screen at the stadium aswell as on CSA’s social media platforms.

“This is a truly remarkable achieve-ment,” commented CSA Acting CEO,

Jacques Faul. “Graeme is a true SouthAfrican hero and we must celebrate thisachievement in style. He took over as cap-tain at a difficult time just after the 2003ICC World Cup and has been in this mostdemanding of jobs for almost a decade

now.“His leadership has been unwavering

and inspirational not just to his playersbut to the nation and he has been one ofthe few captains whose career statistics inthe demanding job of opening batsmanhave been unaffected by his leadership re-sponsibilities. “ I want to urge fans tocome to the stadium and be part of thisProudly South African Friday and supporta hero who leads a proud South Africanteam,” added Faul. Ticket prices for thefirst test range from R20 to R50. Ticketscan be purchased through www.ticket-pros.co.za, at the stadium ticket office orat Postnet outlets.

Smith will also be celebrating his32nd birthday on Friday. Fans can partic-ipate in the mass birthday song plannedfor the skipper during one of the breaks.

Fans can also get their messages ofsupport aired on the big screen and areencouraged to tweet all messages of sup-port and congratulations with the#biff100 hashtag.

ryder opts

for iPl over

england series

LONDONageNcIeS

new Zealand batsman Jesse Ryder willmiss the Black Caps’ home series againstEngland and instead make himself avail-able for the Indian Premier League, hismanager said on Monday.Ryder opted to take a self-imposed breakfrom cricket last March after a series ofdisciplinary lapses and a drop in formthat led to him consulting a psychologist.The talented batsman has been in goodtouch since returning to first-classcricket with Wellington late last year butmanager Aaron Klee said it was too earlyfor the 28-year-old to resume his inter-national career.“There’s nothing to be gained by rushinghim back,” Klee told the Dominion Postnewspaper.“There’s just downside risks, but if we’rea bit more patient and wait till every-thing is in place and Jesse’s ready, thenthere will be more upside risks.”Instead of playing in the England tourbeginning next month, Klee said Ryderwould put himself forward in the playerauction for the IPL, which runs fromApril 3 to May 26.“People are going to speculate about whyhe’s available for the IPL and not newZealand (but) it’s a domestic competitionand it’s a short-term contract, so it givesus the ability to reassess it.”“If you go back to international cricketyou can’t reassess tour after tour. It fits abit better into his goals and plans.”Ryder’s prowess will be sorely missed bythe Black Caps, who were badly exposedwith the bat in two test drubbings ontheir recent tour of South Africa.However, their batting stock againstEngland will be boosted by the return ofRoss Taylor, who sat out the SouthAfrica tour after being sacked as captainbut has made himself available for thethree-test series.

PROTEAS BACK SMITH

Sri Lanka clinch rain-marredthriller to sweep series 2-0

Sri Lanka:

t. Dilshan b faulkner 6

K. perera c Bailey b Maxwell 15

D. chandimal c Bailey b Laughlin 5

M. Jayawardene not out 61

J. Mendis c faulkner b Doherty 25

t. perera not out 35

extras (b-1, lb-8, w-5) 14

total (for 4 wickets in 20 overs) 161

Did not bat: a. Mathews, N. Kulasekara, a. Mendis, L.

Malinga, a. Dananjaya.

fall of wickets: 1-15 2-33 3-39 4-102.

Bowling: Maxwell 4-0-23-1(w-1), Starc 4-0-35-0(w-4),

faulkner 4-0-24-1, Laughlin 4-0-40-1, Doherty 4-0-30-1.

australia:

D. Warner c t. perera b Kulasekara 7

a. finch lbw b a. Mendis 7

S. Marsh not out 47

g. Bailey c K. perera b t. perera 45

g. Maxwell not out 8

extras (b-1, lb-2, w-1, nb-1) 5

total (for 3 wickets in 15 overs) 119

Did not bat: M. Wade, a. Voges, J. faulkner, M. Starc, X.

Doherty, B. Laughlin.

fall of wickets: 1-10 2-20 3-106.

Bowling: Dilshan 2-0-10-0, Kulasekara 3-0-18-1(w-1), a.

Mendis 3-0-25-1, Malinga 3-0-26-0, Dananjaya 1-0-12-0, t.

perera 3-0-25-1(nb-1).

Sri Lanka won by three runs under Duckworth-Lewis

method.

Sri Lanka clinched series 2-0.

ScoReBoaRD


Sports17 Tuesday, 29 January, 2013

Salamat wins royal Palm Golf LAhorE: The attention in the golf circles of Lahore re-mained focused on the final round of the Royal Palm AnnualGolf Championship at the fantastic looking Royal Palm GolfCourse, as champions like Sardar Murad, Amir Mehmood,Mohsen Zafar, Mir Maaz Mehmood and Omer Salamatfought out the contest in a battle of wits and expertise. All ofthem are powerful hitters of the ball and possess good shortgame but in the end it was Omer Salamat who displaced theother contenders in a quest for capturing the Royal PalmClub Championship title. Omer Salamat won with tworounds scores of 82 and 72 and a two rounds aggregate of154. The runners up Amir Mehmood lost to him by a solitarystroke and Sardar Murad and Mir Maaz Mehmood were be-hind by two strokes. In the final standings Omer Salamatended the championship at a gross aggregate of 154,followedby Amir Mehmood at 155,Sardar Murad at 156 and MirMaaz also at 156.And certainly the overnight leader Maazlooked heart broken at the conclusion of the championshipas a hareesa fill before the start of the final round did reflectin the lethargic flow of his golf swing. In the other eventsbeing run simultaneously, Abdul Islam nazir won the Cap-tains Prize based on net score and Hussain Hamid was run-ners up. The Champion of champions was Amir Mehmoodin gross section and Mohsen Zafar was champion in net. Atthe conclusion of the championship, Ramzan Sheikh distrib-uted prizes to all the performers. Staff RepoRt

PCf grants affiliation to HeC and fAtALAhorE: The Pakistan Cycling Federation (Idris HaiderGroup) has granted affiliation to Higher Education Com-mission and FATA. The affiliation was granted at a generalcouncil meeting of PCF held under the chairmanship of itsPresident, Ch nouriaz Shakoor, said a spokesman of PCFhere on Monday. He said the affiliation was granted afterboth the regions fulfilled the laid down criteria in the con-stitution of PCF. “The house approved the calendar of ac-tivities for the year 2013 and allocated national and juniornational and other cycling events to its affiliated units“,headded. He said PCF is taking measures for the further de-velopment of the game by mobilizing available resources.PCF spokesman said the house reposed confidence on thepresent set up of PCF and praised its efforts for the devel-opment of cycling at all levels. Staff RepoRt

office-bearers of ju-jitsu electedLAhorE: Khalil Ahmed Khan and Waqar Ilyas Khan werere-elected President and Secretary of Pakistan Ju-jitsu Federa-tion at a general council of the body which cancelled the mem-bership of one its affiliated unit for violating the constitution.“Election meeting was attended by all the affiliated membersof the PJJF, barring Pakistan Air Force”, said a spokesman ofPJJF here on Monday .Representatives of Pakistan OlympicAssociation and Pakistan Sports Board observed the electionmeeting. Following were elected, President, Khalil AhmedKhan, Vice Presidents, Syed Abid Ali, Shabeena Saeed and onerepresentative of Wapda, Secretary, Waqar Ilyas Khan, Associ-ate Secretary, Col retd G.M.Chengezi, Treasurer, Dr ShahzadImran,Director referee, Kazim Ali, Director Sports , Tariq Ali,Ameer Mukhtar, Liaqat Ali. Members of the executive com-mittee,Tehseen Ullah, Irfan Bhatti, Hafiza neelum Ishaq andHafiza Arooj Fatmia. Staff RepoRt

rowing federation elections heldLAhorE: Elections of Pakistan Rowing Federation wereheld on Monday and Rizwan ul Haq and Ayaz Ali Khan wereelected President and Secretary of the body at the generalcouncil meeting here . The meeting besides electing fresh of-fice bearers for a next term of four years took important deci-sion for the further uplift of the game ,said a spokesman ofPRF here . Out of the 25 affiliated units of PRF 23 attended themeeting.Tahir Saeed, Acting Director, Pakistan Sports Boardand Khalid Mahmood Secretary, Pakistan Olympic Associa-tion attended the proceedings as observers. Following wereelected, President, Rizwan ul Haq, Vice P esidents, MalikAbdul Rahim, Mian Muhammad Asif, Pervez Iqbal, SyedMehfooz ul Haq, Sumera Sattar, Secretary, Ayaz Sattar, Asso-ciate Secretaries, Shahid nazir, Atta Hussain Butt, ZubairIkhlaq, Usman Ahmed, Raza Ishaq, Treasurer, Arif Ikram.Members of the executive committee, Saeed Aslam Malik, ProfImtiaz Ahmed, Sibtal Haider Bukhari, Muhammad Shahid,Malik Muhammad Shamsher, Ali Akbar Sial, Wasif Mustafa,Javed Saleem, Haroon Rashid,Muhammad Abdullah Tarar,Irfan Sherazi, Ayesha Sheikh and Rasheel Khan. Representa-tive’s of Pakistan Sports Board and Pakistan Olympic Associa-tion congratulated the PRF House on electing the new officebearers in a most amicable manner. Staff RepoRt

New swimming official electedLAhorE: Major retd Majid Waseem and Mrs Veena Ma-sood were elected President and Secretary of the PakistanSwimming Federation here on Monday. The office bearersof PSF were elected at a general council meeting of the bodywhich was attended by all the affiliated units of PSF. Ob-servers from the Pakistan Olympic Association and the Pak-istan Sports Board were also present in the Meeting tooversee the Proceedings of the Elections, said a spokesmanof PSF. The outgoing President, Kamran Lashari was electedas Chairman and Patron in chief of the body to acknowledgehis services for the promotion of the game. Staff RepoRt

MELBOuRNE ageNcIeS

wITH the nor-man BrookesChallenge Cupsitting a fewc e n t i m e t r e s

away from his left hand, novakDjokovic was a contented man at hispost-match media conference.

The world number one had justbeaten Andy Murray in the AustralianOpen final to claim his fourth title atMelbourne Park, his third in succes-sion and the sixth grand slam title inhis career.

“It’s amazing. I’m just trying toembrace this moment and enjoy it asmuch as I can and see where tomorrowbrings me,” he told reporters after thefour-set victory. “I mean, 25 years oldand I won six grand slams and have alot of trophies. “I’m fortunate to havethis opportunity and to succeed.”

Djokovic’s success on Rod LaverArena is unprecedented in the profes-sional era, something the Serb waswell aware of given the tough nature ofprofessional sport.

“There are so many athletes, pro-fessional tennis players around theworld and it’s such a global sport, theywant to be the best in what they do,” headded. “They want to succeed. Many ofthem, they don’t succeed in the end.

“Generally I’m aware of the fact

that it’s an incredible trip for me, youknow, being a professional tennisplayer.” Long considered the ‘Djoker’on Tour, his natural frivolity wasreined in he tried to fulfil his promise.

The hilarious on-court imperson-ations disappeared, but since he brokethe Roger Federer-Rafa nadal duopolyin 2011 by winning three grand slam ti-tles, his exuberant character had reap-peared. At this year’s Australian Open,

he was caught on closed circuit televi-sion ‘Gangnam Style’ dancing with se-curity staff and teaching young playerssome break dance moves.

Just minutes after his semi-finalvictory over David Ferrer he also ap-peared on court with a doctor’s labcoat and stethoscope during a legendsdoubles match to provide ‘medical at-tention’ to Henri Leconte.

“I’m just trying to play this game

with 100 percent of devotion, love,passion, and fun also,” he added.

“I mean, what else can you do butto be happy and try to bring that joy tothe other people around, especially inthe tournaments?” Djokovic, whoposed for several photos with exuber-ant fans after the final as he made hisway to media commitments with thetrophy, also provided a surprise for theassembled reporters.

Contented Djokovic showsthe fun side of a sweet life


Woods in controlat Torrey Pines

watch it LiveESPNBarclays League: Arsenal v Liverpool12:30 PM

18Tuesday, 29 January, 2013 Sports

STAR SPORTSHockey League: Mumbai v Lucknow05:30 PM

mascherano

hails ‘out of this

world’ messiMADRIDageNcIeS

Messi’s four-goal salvo in Sunday’s 5-1win over Osasuna saw the 25-year-oldbecome the youngest player to pass200 goals in La Liga history, a featthat came in only 235 matches.It also took Messi’s league tally up toan incredible 33 already this season,and means he has now scored in 11successive matches in La Liga, which isalso a record.Mascherano said of his compatriot:“It’s surreal to talk about him becausewhat he does is from another world.”Barca assistant coach Jordi Roura ad-mits that with Messi seemingly break-ing records almost every time he setsfoot on the pitch these days, it doesnot always immediately sink in justwhat he is achieving.“When you’re with him every day therecomes a point when these things seemnormal. But when you stop and reflecton what has been done you simply putyour hands to your head. It seems likehe has no limits,” said Roura, whoagain sat on the bench while headcoach Tito Vilanova continues his re-covery from cancer surgery.next up for Messi and co is Wednes-day’s mouthwatering Copa del Reysemi-final first leg against arch rivalsReal Madrid at the Bernabeu. Rourabelieves Barca are going into thatmatch in good touch following theirwin over 10-man Osasuna, which cameafter the Catalan giants saw their un-beaten La Liga record ended by RealSociedad last weekend. “The best wayto approach this match was to winagainst Osasuna. I think we’re on theright track,” said Roura.

NATIONAL DEAF CRICKET BEGINS WITH 8 MATCHESLAHORE

Staff RepoRt

The national deaf cricket championshipcommenced here on Monday and aheavy programme was gone through aseight matches were decided at differentvenues.

The event is being played in tworounds with 16 teams playing at Lahore.The Karachi round will commence fromJanuary 30 at Karachi with 16 team tak-ing part, said Zaheer ud Din Babar, man-ager, Pakistan deaf cricket association.He said the event is being sponsored byPakistan Cricket Board. He expressedhis thanks to Chairman, PCB, Muham-mad Zaka Asrhaf for paying attention to

deaf cricket by extending all possiblehelp and financial assistance.

“ One team each will qualify for finalfrom Lahore and Karachi and the finalwill be played at Karachi on February4”,he said.

Following are the results of thematches,

Islamabad v/s Gujranwala at ModelTown Cricket Club, Islamabad scored384/3 in 40 overs and Bilal Aslamscored 170 runs Gujranwala scored 75/all out. Adnan Ghani took 4 wickets andIslamabad won the match by 309 runs.

Gujarat v/s Swat at Albilal CricketGround Township. Gujrat won the tossand batted first scored 418 runs in 40overs. nadeem scored 92 runs and

Sawat were all out at 133. Jabar took 4wickets.Gujarat won the march by 280runs. Chakwal v/s Sargodha at ShahFisal Cricket Model Town. Sargodhawon the toss and scored 262. Chakwalchased the target in 38.5 overs for theloss of 6 wickets. Ibrahim scored 132 .Chakwal won the match by 4 wickets.

Sheikhpura v/s D.I. Khan at ModalTown Green Cricket Club. D-I- Khanwon the toss and scored 77. Sheikhpurachased the target in 19 over and won thematch by 7 wickets

Sialkot v/s Peshawar at Town ShipWhite. Sialkot won the toss and man-aged 137 in 35.5 overs. Peshawar chasedthe target in 31 over and scored 138 withthe loss of 6 wickets and won the match

by 4 wickets.Jhelum v/s Faisalabad at Township

Green. Faisalabad scored 262 in 40overs.. Kashif scored 94 runs. Jhelumlost their all wickets for 181 runs. Faisal-abad won the match by 39 runs.

Rawalpindi v/s narowal at RaceCourse Ground 1. Rawalpindei won thetoss and scored 99 all out in 27.2 overs .narowal chased the target in 20.3 oversand scored 103/3 and won the match by7 wickets.

Kohat vs Hafizabad at Race CourseGround 2. Kohat won the toss andscored 197 all out in 39.2 overs. Hafiz-abad chased the target in 30.5 overs andscored 201 and won the match by 7 wick-ets. Awan scored 108 not out.

winged foot to

host 2020 uS openNEW yORK ageNcIeS

The U.S. Open will be held at Winged Footfor the sixth time when the second majorgolf championship of the season is stagedat the new York course in 2020. “We’rethrilled to bring the U.S. Open back to thisoutstanding club,” said United States GolfAssociation vice president Thomas J. O’-Toole Jr in a news release on Monday.“Winged Foot offers a spectacular settingin a dynamic market and has justifiablyearned its reputation as one of the premierU.S. Open venues in the nation.” Thecourse, located 25 miles (40 kms) north ofnew York City in Westchester County, lasthosted the U.S. Open in 2006 when Aus-tralian Geoff Ogilvy won.

russian Grand Prix to be held in2014: Sochi mayor

MOSCOW ageNcIeS

The Russian Grand Prix - the country’sfirst Formula One race - will be held inSochi in november 2014 despite delays inconstructing the circuit, the city’s mayorsaid on Friday. “It will be held in novem-ber, after the (2014 Winter) Olympics,”Anatoly Pakhomov told reporters inMoscow. Last year local media reported,citing sources within the Russian Automo-bile Federation, that work on the $200-million project had been stopped.Pakhomov, however, dismissed any doubtsabout the construction being completed ontime. “The circuit’s construction is beingclosely monitored by the regional govern-ment. Everything is going according toplan,” he said. “If we had any problems wewould have asked for help from other re-gions.” In 2010, Russia signed a seven-yeardeal with Formula One supremo BernieEcclestone to stage a Grand Prix race in theBlack Sea resort from 2014 until 2020.

diaz victorious,Contador fourth

TODOSageNcIeS

The Argentinian, racing for the San LuisSomos Todos team, finished safely in thepeloton in the seventh and final stage tosecure victory by 33 seconds from Ameri-can Tejay van Garderen.Androni Giocattoli’s Mattia Gavazzi ofItaly won the 154.7km stage in a dramaticsprint finish. Former two-time Tour deFrance champion Alberto Contador fin-ished fourth in the overall standings.

TORREy PINESageNcIeS

THE American former worldnumber one completed histhird round in 69 to sit 14under par for the tourna-ment, four shots ahead of

Canada’s Brad Fritsch, who went round in70. The pair were due to start their finalrounds right away, and much of the fieldwere already under way with theirs, afterfog caused havoc at the Torrey Pinescourse Saturday.

Brandt Snedeker had joined Fritschon 10 under overall after going throughthe first six holes of his final round inthree under. England’s Ross Fisher wasthe highest-placed European in the fieldon six under. He finished his third roundin 73 and had yet to start his fourth.No MorE DoUBTS For wooDAFTEr BrEAKThroUgh vIc-TorY IN QATAr: Britain’s ChrisWood was beginning to wonder if hewould ever end his title drought before hefinally made the breakthrough in theQatar Masters at the weekend.

It was a case of third time lucky forthe 6-foot-5 (1.96-metre) Wood after hehad twice previously gone into the closingday of a European Tour event at the sum-mit of the leaderboard only to slip downthe field in the final round. The 25-year-old had also amassed 19 top-10 finisheswithout once entering the winner’s circle.“I was starting to have little doubts that Iwould ever win,” Wood told reportersafter climbing into the top 60 of the worldrankings from number 142.

“But I have a load of good people and

good friends around me - they see meplaying at home and know full well thatI’m good enough to win. Until you do itthough, the doubt is in the back of yourmind.” Wood, who finished in the top fiveat the British Open in 2008 and 2009, de-livered a majestic coup de grace on thelast hole in Doha on Saturday.

The Englishman needed an eaglethree to pip Spain’s Sergio Garcia andGeorge Coetzee of South Africa for thetitle and he produced a sumptuous six-iron from 202 yards before coaxing in hisputt from 12 feet. “I couldn’t really feel myhands at the time,” said the Qatar cham-pion, who shares the distinction withSwede Robert Karlsson of being the tallestplayers on the tour. “It was one chanceand I knew that was all I was going to get.

“Four years of frustration of not win-ning and it all came out a bit after theputt,” added Wood, referring to his emo-tional punch of the air as the ball disap-

peared into the cup. He said former worldnumber one Tiger Woods was the inspi-ration behind his six-iron approach.

“I remember watching Tiger hit ashot a few years ago on the 18th hole, aneight-iron to six feet,” Wood explainedafter picking up the first prize of 310,917euros ($419,000).

“His attitude was, ‘I’m going to winthis tournament whatever happens’. Thatis one of his massive strengths.

“I had that in the back of my mind, tojust let my swing go and no matter how itfeels, trust it, commit to it and I hit a reallygood shot,” said Wood. “I didn’t know thesituation before that and only looked atthe leaderboard for the first time beforethe putt at the last.” Wood now moves onto this week’s Dubai Classic, the finalevent of the tour’s three-tournament‘Desert Swing’ that will feature the firstcompetitive outing of the season fromworld number seven Lee Westwood.

MELBOuRNE ageNcIeS

novak Djokovic’s cheque for winningthe Australian Open on Sunday wasmore than the entire annual budget foranti-doping in tennis, a programmemany feel is woefully inadequate.

Djokovic and Andy Murray left Mel-bourne on Monday with a combined$3.8 million in their pockets for their ef-forts over the past fortnight.

The total funding for the 2013 anti-doping programme stands at $2 million,paid for by the four grand slams, the In-ternational Tennis Federation (ITF) andATP and WTA Tours. The cost includes$400,000 for the administration of theprogramme, paid for by the ITF.

Many players, including Djokovicand Murray, have called for more bloodtests to ensure there is no cheating.

Of the 2,150 tests carried out by theITF in 2011, the last set of figures avail-

able, 131 were blood tests and only 21were out of competition.

Blood tests accounted for betweenthree and six percent of all tests in tennisin 2011, compared to 35 percent in cy-cling and 17.6 percent in athletics.

“I would struggle to know if there isany other sport where their drug-testingprogramme has gone backwards in re-cent years,” said Darren Cahill, who

coached Lleyton Hewitt and AndreAgassi to the world number one spot.

Following Lance Armstrong’s con-fession that he took drugs in all seven ofhis Tour de France cycling wins, tennishas come in for greater scrutiny with re-gards to doping.

“You get blood tested at the slams,usually after you lose, but I’ve neverbeen blood tested out of competition,”said American Mike Bryan, who won arecord 13th grand slam title togetherwith twin brother Bob Bryan in themen’s doubles on Saturday.

Bryan told Reuters he is probablytested around 20 times a year, but out-of-competition, through the where-abouts programme, it has only ever beenurine tests.

Urine tests can detect many drugs,including EPO, one of several taken byArmstrong and other leading cyclists butonly blood tests can detect HGH, humangrowth hormone.

Drug testing woefully inadequate, say leading figures



LAHOREoNLINe

THE Pakistan MuslimLeague-nawaz (PML-n)on Monday pledged that itwould restore the previ-ous status of Bahawalpur

province “at any cost”. This was stated during a joint

press conference addressed by Pun-jab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharifand Opposition Leader in the na-tional Assembly Chaudhry nisar AliKhan.

The chief minister criticised thePakistan People’s Party (PPP)-ledcoalition government on the issue ofnew provinces, saying that Ba-hawalpur province would be createdat any cost. He said that Bahawalpurcity would be the capital of the newprovince.

Shahbaz said the issue of newprovinces was another trick by thePPP and the “Zardari gang” to post-pone the forthcoming elections. Hesaid the PPP was trying to put theissue of new provinces in doldrumsby misleading the people. Comment-

ing on the Parliamentary Commis-sion on new Provinces in Punjab, thechief minister said the body shouldlook into the administrative issues ofthe new provinces, instead of politicalones.

On the occasion, Chaudhry nisarsaid the creation of new provinceswas not only a joke but would alsodisintegrate the Punjab province. Hesaid the Parliamentary Commissionon new Provinces was given a man-date to form two provinces, and thisregard a resolution was also unani-mously passed in the Punjab Assem-bly.

He said the inclusion of Bhakkarand Mianwali cities in the South Pun-jab province was also unconstitu-tional. He strongly criticised the PPPgovernment and President Asif AliZaradri, saying the commission’schairman, Senator FarhatullahBabar, was a staff member of thepresident and therefore unaccept-able.

The opposition leader said thathis party was also committed to Haz-ara province, but added that thePML-n would consult with other par-

ties on this issue. He also announcedthat the PML-n would table its ownamendment bill for the creation ofBahawalpur and South Punjabprovinces in line with the resolutionspassed by the Punjab Assembly.

“no senior member of the PML-n belonging to Punjab was consulted

prior to the formation of the parlia-mentary commission, which was un-lawfully named by PresidentZardari,” he added. Commenting onthe PML-n’s sit-in, he said that thesit-in would be held on the issue ofKarachi violence and all oppositionparties participate in it.

PML-N to restore Bahawalpurprovince at all costs: Shahbaz, Nisar

Protests held in Mianwali, Bahawalpuragainst proposed province

MIANwALI: A shutter-down strike was observed in Mianwali and partsof Bahawalpur on Monday against the proposed Bahawalpur-SouthPunjab province. In Multan, Saraiki Party and Saraikistan Qaumi Ittehad(SQI) staged a protest at Chowk nawan Shehar against the proposedname. They also performed a symbolic hanging to record their protest.The protestors said that they would not accept this name, adding thattheir protest would continue unless the proposed province was namedSaraikistan. In Mianwali, traders observed a shutter-down strike againstthe proposal to include their division in the proposed Bahawalpur SouthPunjab province. They called for the exclusion of Mianwali from newprovince. In Ahmedpur tehsil of Bahawalpur, lawyers and tradersobserved a strike against the proposed bill. Addressing a pressconference, senior Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader HabibullahBhutta also demanded that Bahawalpur be reinstated as a separateprovince. The protestors said that they would not allow the new provinceto “grab” Mianwali’s resources. NNI

ISLAMABADapp

Hearing the Memogate case on Monday, ChiefJustice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said for-mer envoy to the United States Husain Haqqanishould be brought to court even if it requires theuse of force.

Pakistan’s former ambassador to US wasimplicated in the scandal where he allegedly hada memo delivered to Admiral Mike Mullenthrough Pakistani-American national MansoorIjaz. The memo had offered greater governmentcooperation in return for US backing against thepowerful military in the immediate aftermath ofthe May 2 raid. She informed the court thatHaqqani cannot appear before the court due tosecurity concerns. She said the former ambas-sador to the US has been receiving threats viasocial media and asked the concerned authori-ties to investigate the matter. Asma categoricallystated before the SC that she could not bring herclient back by applying physical force.

“If he has the phobia of not getting fair jus-tice, I can’t remove it. He was not given the rightto due process completely,” she told a nine-

member bench headed by Chief JusticeChaudhry. She told the court that it could dowhatever it liked, adding that she had written tothe interior secretary about her client’s reserva-tions regarding threats to his life, but had re-ceived no response.

She also read out a letter which was sent tothe interior secretary in which her client had al-luded to life threats emanating from religiousextremists and certain political clouts. Sheclaimed that her client had received threatsthrough emails and that it was up to the min-istries of interior and foreign affairs to ascertainthe levels of such intimidation. “He is not an ab-sconder and can’t risk his life,” she added.

The chief justice told her that the court wasconcerned with Haqqani’s appearance. “Thecourt cannot testify that there is danger to hislife. When orders of the courts are passed,everyone in the country is bound to obey them,”he observed. Asma said that she had also sentan application after July 12 last year, but it hadbeen objected upon by the SC Registrar’s Office,saying that they should first seek review of theorder. She also complained that she was notprovided a copy of the order despite her request.

Objecting to the formation of the commis-sion, Asma said that she had never seen an in-vestigative body formed in such issues. The CJreminded her that the formation of the commis-sion was not a new thing.

About a meeting held under the SupremeCourt’s order in December, she said that theyhad not been informed about it by the interiorsecretary. She also requested the bench to deferproceedings until next week, as she was leavingfor Geneva tomorrow in connection with her re-sponsibility assigned to her by the Un with re-gard to Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas.

The bench, accepting her request, adjournedthe hearing until February 12 and issued noticeto the interior secretary. The secretary was di-rected to appear on the next date of hearing andconfirm the receipt of her letter addressed to himon December 31, 2012, and explain as to whyHaqqani had not been informed about adequatesecurity arrangements. Other members of thebench included Justice nasirul Mulk, JusticeJawwad S Khawaja, Justice Anwar Zaheer Ja-mali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice TariqParvez, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice GulzarAhmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed.

Haqqani must appear beforeSC ‘no matter what’, says CJg former envoy’s counsel says can’t force him to return to Pakistan

ECP to re-verifychecked voterrolls randomlyKArAchI: The Election Commission of Pakistan(ECP) would re-verify the voter lists it has so farconsolidated in Karachi through random checks.The ECP has so far verified 45 percent of thevoters’ list in Karachi so far and has failed to give adeadline for verification of the remaining 55percent. A source that attended a meeting ofpolitical parties convened by Chief ElectionCommissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim at ECPSindh on Monday said the CEC had stated thatarmy officials would accompany the ECP verifiersfrom now onwards in their door-to-door visits.However, the process might not be completed inthe given time i.e. February 1, due to the poor lawand order in the city, ECP insiders said. In asignificant development on Monday, the army setup a control room at the office of the Sindhprovincial election commissioner. According to theinsiders, the Electoral Voter VerificationCoordination Cell (EVVCC) would work under acolonel-level officer at ECP Sindh who wouldcoordinate with the ECP staff and address thereservations of the political parties and the generalpublic. The ECP meeting was attended byrepresentatives of over eight politico-religiousparties that concluded their three-day sit-inoutside the ECP Sindh office on Monday. Theywarned of joining the PML-n’s sit-in outside theParliament House if their demands were not met.Those who attended the meeting included SaleemZia of the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz, SyedHafeezuddin of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf,Muhammad Hussain Mehanti, Raja Arif Sultan,Birjees Ahmed and Zahid Askari of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Mushtaque noorani of Jamiat UlemaIslam-Pakistan (JUI-P), Qari Usman of JamiatUlema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Ghulam MustafaFarooqui of Jamiat Ulema Islam-Sami (JUI-S),Mazhar Rahuja of Awami Tehreek (AT) and JalalMehmood Shah of Sindh United Party (SUP).Sindh Election Commissioner Mehboob Anwarand his predecessor Sono Khan Baloch were alsopresent. “The CEC assured us that the electorallists that have been verified so far would be re-verified,” a participant confided to Pakistan Todayafter the meeting. Earlier, Sindh ElectionCommissioner Mehboob Anwar said while 99percent of the house count had completed, only 45percent of the verification target had beenachieved so far. “The house count would concludetoday (Tuesday), while the completion date for theverification process would be extended beyondFebruary 1,” the provincial election commissionersaid. According to an ECP source, the uncertainlaw and order during recent weeks in the city haddelayed the verification task, the completion datefor which would now be decided later.


Trade, bus service betweenPakistan, India resumeISLAMABAD: Cross-border trade and bus service between India and Pakistanresumed at Chakandabagh checkpost in Poonch district on Monday. According tothe trade custodians on both sides of the border, the tension at the Line of Control(LoC) had now decreased. Accordingly, cross-border trade and travelling hadrestored from Monday onwards, Radio Pakistan reported. The trade and busservice had been suspended 17 days ago after deadly clashes at the LoC. Directorsgeneral of military operations on both sides had talked on telephone and discussedthe issue, agreeing to deescalate border tensions between the two countries.Talking to Radio Kashmir, Poonch-Rawalakot bus service provider and tradecustodian Lakshmana said they had received a report from cross border hotlineand the bus service and trade had been restored. Lakshmana said 217 passengers,including 109 from Indian-held Kashmir and 108 from Jammu and Kashmir hadcrossed the border. app

Two PAF officials amongthree gunned down in PasniQUETTA: Three people, including two personnel of Pakistan Air Force (PAF),were shot dead in the coastal town of Pasni in Gwadar district on Monday morning.Per reports, the PAF personnel were shopping from Zareen Market in main Pasnibazaar when unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire on them. As a result,both PAF personnel were killed while a shopkeeper also died. Police and law en-forcement agencies rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area. The deceasedPAF personnel were identified as Muhammad Ibrahim from Skardu and KhurramShahzad from Rawalpindi while the shopkeeper was named as Elahi Bukhsh, a res-ident of Mashkay. When contacted, Makran Division Commissioner Abdul FatahBhangar confirmed the killing of PAF personnel and said the assailants were on amotorbike. He said the security personnel had not informed the administrationabout their visit to Pasni. Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) spokesman GowaranBaloch contacted newspaper offices from an undisclosed location and claimed re-sponsibility for the attack. SHaHZaDa ZULfIQaR

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami

LaHoRe: punjab chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif addresses a press conference on Monday. pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senior leaders

chaudhry Nisar ali Khan and Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan are also seen in the picture. INP

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