E-paper PakistanToday 3rd March, 2012

islamabad — peshawar edition Saturday, 3 March, 2012 Rabi-ul-Sani 8, 1433Rs15.00 Vol ii no 245 22 pages

Circular debt issue resolved, claims

Yousaf Raza GilaniPAGE | 05

Vladimir Putin declinesto back Syria’s Bashar al-Assad

PAGE | 17

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/KARACHI/PESHAWAR/QUETTAmIAN AbRAR/NAumAN TASleem/ISmAIl dIlAwAR/SHAmIm

SHAHId/SHAHzAdA zulFIqAR

THE Pakistan People’s Party-led ruling coalition ob-tained two-thirds majority in the Senate on Fridayafter winning 41 out of the 54 seats put up for contest,ending with the support of 74 members in the 104-member Upper House of parliament.

Per unofficial results, the PPP won 19 seats of the UpperHouse to emerge as the single largest party in the Senate –for the first time after 1970s, taking its total tally to 41.Previously, the ruling party had 27 seats, but five of itsmembers had to retire on March 12 and would have reducedthe party’s strength to 22. With this victory, the coalitiongovernment has now majority in both houses of parliament. According to unofficial results, the ruling party grabbed 19,the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz won eight, the PML-Quaid, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) four each, the Awami NationalParty (ANP) seven, Balochistan National Party-Awami twoand five independents, including four from FATA and onefrom Punjab, made it to the Senate.

The win of Mohsin Khan Leghari of the PML-Q proved to bethe biggest upset of the elections from Punjab, as the rulingparty’s nominee Aslam Gill was defeated by four votes. ANP’s Daud Khan also surprised many by winning fromBalochistan, but his win was result of a deal between the PPP andANP which had only three members in the Balochistan Assemblyand the PPP arranged at least seven more votes for him.The PML-N’s Nisar Khan Malakand also won a seat fromKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, though his party did not have therequired strength in the assembly.

The PML-Q was the biggest loser in the Senate elections as itwas reduced from a majority party to a minority party with 21of its members of the total 22 scheduled to retire.However, the Q league also managed to grab another fourseats in the Senate polls and took its number from one to five– thanks to the PPP, which accommodated its isolated ally.

The MQM won four new seats. Its earlier strength was sixsenators, but three of its Senate members were due to retire.

The Awami National Party (ANP) won seven seats, taking itstotal number to 12. It had six seats in the Upper House andSenator Alyas Bilour was the only ANP member to retire.However, Bilour was re-elected as technocrat.

The PML-Functional also managed to win a seat as formerSindh chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Shah was elected to theUpper House. This would be his first election to the Senate. ThePML-F has regained its lone senator due to retire on March 12.

The BNP-Awami won another two seats to take its totalnumber to four. Its president, Mir Israrullah Zehri, had toretire on March 12, but he was re-elected.CoalItIon government’s strength:The Senate election results showed that 74 senators,including 41 from the PPP, five from the PML-Q, seven fromthe MQM, 12 of the ANP, one from PML-F, four of BNP-Aand four from FATA, were siding with the coalitiongovernment. Mohsin Leghari, the independent candidateelected from Punjab, has yet to decide about his future.opposItIon musCle: The opposition got only 12 seats, with eight candidateswinning from the PML-N and four from the JUI-F.

The PML-N won eight seats in the Senate polls. It had sevensenators and only Senator Ishaq Dar was to retire on March12. However, Dar was elected unopposed and the PML-N nowhas a total 14 members in the Senate. The surprise win ofNisar Khan Malakand from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)

PESHAWARSHAmIm SHAHId

A suicide bombing carried out byPakistani Taliban against anothermilitant outfit killed 23 peopleand injured 30 others, while 10soldiers and around 50 militantswere reported dead in clashes be-tween security forces and extrem-ists in Khyber and Orakzaiagencies on Friday.

A suicide bomber targetedLashkar-e-Islam (LI) militantswhile they were coming out of amosque after offering Fridayprayers, killing 23 people and in-juring 30 others. The incident oc-curred in the Nakai Mehrbaan areaof Tirah Valley, Khyber Agency.Tribal sources said almost all thevictims belonged to the LI militant

group headed by Mangal Bagh.Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)Dera Adamkhel chapter claimedresponsibility of the attack. Threeother blasts also rattled the area,but so far no human casualties orproperty losses have been reported.

Earlier, dozens of militantsambushed a contingent of securityforces advancing through theLakar Baba area of Bazaar Za-khakhel, which is considered thegateway to Tirah Valley. The areais dominated by Zawdeen clan ofthe Zakhakhel Afridi tribe. Thesurprise and powerful attackclaimed the lives of 10 soldiersand injured three others, sourcessaid. The retaliatory offensiveagainst the militants continuedfor a couple of hours, and securityforces claimed to have killed 23

militants besides injuring severalothers. An important commanderof Lashkar-e-Islam was also re-portedly killed in the operation.

Separately, 23 militants werekilled and 12 were injured inUpper Orakzai Agency when secu-rity forces pounded militant hide-outs with the help of bomber jets,a military official said.

It is relevant to mention thata high-level meeting held recentlyat Governor’s House, Peshawardecided to intensify military ac-tion against militants in KhyberAgency. Although high rankingauthorities claimed that the TTPand LI had agreed on a truce, thetwo militant groups remain hos-tile to each other in KhyberPakhtunkhwa and the adjoiningtribal belt.

ISLAMABAD TAHIR NIAz

The memo commission on Friday dideverything possible to block all ‘escaperoutes’ so far available to HusainHaqqani in the memo scandal by put-ting him on notice to be available inPakistan, directing him to submitcopies of the bills of his private and of-ficial mobile phones and the PIN of his‘missing’ Blackberry sets, with a warn-ing that otherwise the commissionwould summon his wife, family mem-

bers and the foreign secretary, withwhom he must have had contactthrough his Blackberry, in an attemptto trace the his handset’s PIN.

As the commission is nearing thecompletion of its task with more evi-dence pouring in against Haqqani dur-ing the cross-examination of Ijaz, itseems in no mood to hear more ex-cuses from Haqqani about the missingBlackberry sets, submission of Black-berry PIN, mobile phone bills and hisavailability before the commission.“We want to get down to the truth but

there is no primary evidence comingfrom your side,” Justice Qazi Faez Isa,the chairman of the commission, toldHaqqani’s counsel. The commissiondirected the former ambassador to theUS to either admit or deny the chargesas ‘simple denial’ of everything onrecord against him would no longerwork. “He (Haqqani) should take a clearposition on the charges leveled by Man-soor Ijaz against him and subsequentlyinform the commission in writing withinthe next nine days.

g Coalition govt gets two-thirdsmajority in 104-member UpperHouse with 74 seats

g PPP becomes single largestparty in Senate with 41 seats

g Mohsin leghari stages upset in Punjab with PMl-n’s support

PPP, allies sweep Senate polls

U P S ET S

PA K I S TA N M U S L I M L E A G U E - Q U A I D

M U T TA H I D A Q A U M I M O V E M E N T

AW A M I N AT I O N A L PA R T Y

PA K I S TA N M U S L I M L E A G U E - F U N C T I O N A L

B A LO C H I S TA N N AT I O N A L PA R T Y - AW A M I

PA K I S TA N M U S L I M L E A G U E - N AW A Z

10 troops, 50 militantskilled in Khyber, orakzaig Taliban suicide bomber kills 23 li militants coming outof a mosque after Friday prayers

All ‘escape routes’ for Haqqani blocked

Iran gas pIpelIne

Think again, USwarns Pakistan

WASHINGTONINP

The United States has asked Pakistan to“think twice” on its plans to go aheadwith the construction of a gas pipelinefrom Iran, cautioning Islamabad thatTehran is an “unreliable” partner. TheAmerican statement came a day afterForeign Minister Hina Rabbani Kharrefused to tow the US line on the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and said thatIslamabad would go ahead with theproject. In fact, the two countries appearto be headed towards confrontation onthis contentious issue. On Wednesday,US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton saidthere would be “dangerous implications”for Pakistan if it went ahead with the gaspipeline project, which in Islamabad wasseen as nothing but a strong warningcoming from the Obama administration.“I don’t think what the secretary said wasappreciably different than what we’vebeen saying for weeks and weeks publicly,privately, if not months on this subject.

KARACHI: Supporters of Pakistan People’s Party candidate Saeed Ghani lift him on their shoulders at the Punjab Assembly after his victory was announced

by the provincial election commission on Friday. online

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Whatmore arrives totake charge as Pakistan cricket coach

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02Saturday 3 march 2012

News

Today’s

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ISlAmAbAD

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cArtOOn

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CdA, govt reluctant to name road after Shahbaz bhatti ‘osama’ filming in India disrupted by VHP activists

Saudi Arabia holds Pakistanis,

Iranians over drugs bustrIYaDh: Saudi Arabia has arrested 11 Pakistanis and Iraniansallegedly involved in smuggling hashish from Iran into the kingdom, theInterior Ministry said on Friday, a charge that carries the deathsentence. Saudi security services “foiled an attempt to smuggle half atonne (1,102 pounds) of hashish through the kingdom’s eastern coasts”,the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. “Thenarcotic was seized and 11 people involved in its smuggling werearrested — six Pakistanis and five Iranians.” “Preliminary investigationshave shown that those arrested are part of a criminal network involvedin drug trafficking from Iranian territories into the kingdom and GulfCooperation Council states,” it added. The group was arrested while theywere “handing over the drugs” in Saudi Arabia’s territorial waters, itsaid. Earlier on Friday, a Saudi national was reportedly beheaded afterbeing convicted of smuggling over one million “banned narcotic pills”into the country. AFP

Dr Afridi being treated

per local law: FOIslamaBaD: The Foreign Office on Friday said that Dr Shakil Afridi,a Pakistani doctor detained for allegedly assisting CIA to spy on al Qaedachief Osama bin Laden before he was killed in a secret US raid, wasbeing dealt with in accordance with the law and that Pakistan expectedother countries to respect its legal process. “He is being dealt with inaccordance with our law. We expect all to respect our legal process, andrefrain from making groundless insinuations and drawing prematureconclusions,” said Foreign Office Spokesperson Abdul Basit in a briefstatement. STAFF RePoRT

24 held for torturing, shaving

woman’s head in SialkotsIalKot: Police arrested 24 people allegedly involved in shaving thehead of a woman and forcing her out of the village for refusing to enterinto wedlock. According to details, armed men attacked the house ofNoor Fatima, daughter of Allah Ditta, in Kot Mithrah village of Sambrialtehsil after her family rejected the marriage proposal of a local family.The attackers subjected the woman to torture and shaved her head,forcing her to roam the streets and later expelled her from the village.The victim took shelter with her relatives in Gujranwala and informedthe police, which responded to the complaint and arrested 24 accused. Acase has been registered and investigations are underway. INP

KARACHIISmAIl dIlAwAR

VOWING to go for the nextgeneral elections with the pre-vailing reconciliation spirit,the PPP and the MQM law-makers in the Sindh Assembly

slammed the self-exiled leader of PMLLikeminded Sindh Dr Arbab GhulamRahim for wasting the province’s time andresources by contesting the Senate electionwith “small dots”.

While the PPP lawmakers were criticalof expenditures incurred by the provincialgovernment at the hands of only oppositionparty, the PML Likeminded, Sindh ElectionCommissioner Sono Khan Baloch said theSenate polls had not cost the provincemore than a few thousand.

Friday saw Speaker Nisar Khuhro call-ing the provincial assembly to order at11:15am and calling it a day within 30 min-utes. No business was kept on the Order ofthe Day except the Question Hour whichwas deferred until Monday 10am.

Earlier, the speaker termed the day“historic for Pakistan where the sacrificesof his party leadership had brought democ-racy back on track”.

“The democratic government we hadformed is passing through a peaceful tran-sition,” Khuhro told the lawmakers, whowere hardly in number required for a com-plete quorum.

Law Minister Ayaz Soomro said all de-mocrats were present in the House to usetheir right of self determination.

Without naming anyone, he blastedArbab, the former chief minister of Sindh,saying those hatching conspiracies againstdemocracy in Pakistan had come into beingfrom the “cradle of a dictator”.

Local Government Minister Agha SirajDurrani was the next to criticise the PMLLikeminded for wasting the time and re-sources of the provincial government togain media publicity. “I felicitate all here aswe have won (today’s) elections against thesmall dots they are using against us,” hetold a desk-thumping House.

Attributing his side’s victory to the rec-onciliation-driven policies of the PPP-ledcoalition government, the local govern-ment minister said the coalition partnerswould also contest the general elections,which he said would be held on its due timenext year, with the same spirit.

The speaker looked disturbed when hesaw Rafique Engineer taking the floor andlots of hand raised to follow him sayingeverybody seemed having intended tospeak on the polling day while the time wasshort.Engineer, congratulating the Balochpeople on the Culture Day, flayed the op-

position for even not having polling agentsfor the election. “Those who brought us to-gether today are not coming for thepolling,” he referred to Arbab, living inexile foe last four years.

Khalid Ahmed of the MQM toed thesame line and said even continued conspir-acies could not been able to affect the pre-vailing reconciliatory climate. “Today wesee the show of this reconciliation,” headded. Later in a post-session media talk,Information Minister Shazia Marri madethe Likeminded for making the resource-constrained Sindh government incurringextra expenditures on Friday’s Senate elec-tions without having a wining vote bank inthe electoral college.

Baloch did not share her concern say-ing the expenditure was “in thousands”.“The printing of ballet papers would havecost us Rs 2,000 and the stationery notmore than Rs 2,000 to 3,000,” he said.

PPP Sindh MPs blast Oppfor election expenditureg Sindh election commissioner differs, says Senate polls did not cost province morethan few thousand

ISLAMABADGNI

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani onFriday advised the president to approvethe de-notification of the appointmentof Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as adviser tothe PM with the status of federal min-ister in terms of Article 93 of the con-stitution read with Serial no10 ofSchedule V-B to the Rules of Business,1973.

The passage of the 20th Constitu-tional Amendment Act validated the

election process of the members of Sen-ate/National Assembly which wereelected after April 19, 2010 and they areto be restored to their actual positions.Dr Hafeez Shaikh has also been re-elected as senator.

In the same process, the prime min-ister advised the president to discon-tinue the appointment of Dr AbdulHafeez Shaikh as adviser to the PM ashe had been restored as the minister offinance, revenue, planning and devel-opment, economic affairs and statisticson February 28, 2012, the date on

which the 20th Amendment came intoforce. The prime minister also restoredDr Asim Hussain to the status of fed-eral minister by approving the de-noti-fication of his appointment as specialassistant to the prime minister with thestatus of federal minister

“The passage of the 20th Constitu-tional Amendment Act validated theelection process of the members of Sen-ate/National Assembly which wereelected after April 19, 2010 and they areto be restored to their actual positions,”an official statement said.

Hafeez Shaikh, Asim Hussain made ministers again

KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister Shazia Marri and Raza Rabbani arrive at

the Sindh Assembly to participate in the Senate election. online


03Saturday 3 march 2012

NewscOmmentPakistan’s options

Articles on Page 12-13

Our options are ours to decide.

The rot withinArmy as an institution needs better scrutiny.

Arif Nizami says:

white lies:Last week Islamabad witnessed a mega wedding where the Supreme CourtCJ’s son tied the knot with the daughter of a marriage hall proprietor. Thefive star hotel was packed with no less than 1500 people, some claim it wasmore like 2000 guests.

FOreIGn newS

Story on Page 17

ArtS & entertAInment

Story on Page 14

SPOrtSSri lanka win thriller to reach finals

Story on Page 18

Cameron admits riding horse in police-tabloid row lady Gaga lends star wattage to youth empowerment

Resetting roles: Time to clear roles of the agencies.

PA votesfor Senateelections

LAHORESTAFF RePoT

The Punjab Assembly remained the centreof action as a large number of seniorpoliticians visited the PA on Friday togain support for their candidates.The politicians, including ChaudhryPervaiz Elahi, Qamar Zaman Kaira andRaja Pervaiz Ashraf came to the assemblyand talked to the media outside itsbuilding. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain saidPML-Q’s candidate Mohsin Leghari hadviolated the party discipline byparticipating in the Senate elections.“Kamil Ali Agha had been nominated asour candidate for the Senate,” he said. Inreply to a question, federal ministerChaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said PML-N’ssupport for Leghari was an assault onPML-Q’s mandate. He added that thealliance with the PPP was going in theright direction. Aitzaz Ahsan said it wasup to the people to choose the party theywant to see in power. Babar Awan said the Senate elections hadproved the PPPs status as the country’sbiggest party. He stated that PPP’s allieshad played pivotal role in the democraticprocess. He added that the people wouldbe provided relief through the upcomingbudget. Federal Information MinisterFirdous Ashaq Awan said the governmenthad opted for reconciliation and that thefederal government had sacrificed a lotfor the provinces. Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif also talked to the mediaand said he never talked about ousting thegovernment, but wanted to rid the systemof the corrupt officials. The Punjab Assembly session continuedfor ten minutes, before it was adjournedby Punjab Assembly Speaker RanaMuhammad Iqbal till Monday eveningdue to the Senate elections. 368 voteswere cast in total, while three membersdid not exercise their right to vote. MPAsTahir Ali Javed and Babar Malik wereabroad and could not vote. Dr AsadMoazam joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaafand therefore did not participate in thepolls. The polls took a dramatic turnwhen PML-N candidate Yasin Sohl wasasked by Rana Sana Ullah to show hisballet paper. Sohl, who was irked by theincident, handed in his resignation.

LAHORENAumAN TASleem

The defeat of PPP candidate Aslam Gillin Senate election in Punjab was a re-sult of miscalculation, over-expectationand PPP’s loyalty with the PML-Q, asseveral members did not put Gill on thesecond priority and that resulted in adefeat for Gill.

At least six members of the PPPvoted against Aslam Gill, which forcedhim to burst out against them.

Insiders said two of the candidatescould not come to vote and ditched thePPP.

Kamil Ali Agha got 46 votes,Mohsin Leghari secured 46.3 andAslam Gill managed 42 votes, falling

short of at least four votes.PPP member Babar Hussain was

abroad, costing Gill one vote, whileAsad Moazam, who joined the PTI, didnot come to vote as well.

“The PPP proved that it honours al-lied parties by giving ten votes toAgha,” said a senior leader of the PPP,adding that if the PPP had not voted forAgha, he would have certainly lost theelection. “At least ten votes were givento Kamil Ali Agha only to please thePML-Q,” he added. He also admittedthat Gill was not even put on secondpriority, because had it done so, Gillwould have won the election.

Gill was seen furious after the deci-sion and attributed his defeat to some“traitors” within the party.

NEW YORKAFP

Relatives of people killed in the Sep-tember 11, 2001 attacks on the UnitedStates Friday welcomed moves by twoformer senators to link Saudi Arabiato the events as part of a huge lawsuit.

Ex-Florida senator Bob Grahamand former Nebraska senator BobKerrey said in sworn affidavits to aNew York court they were certain ofthe links between the Saudi govern-ment and the attacks.

“I am convinced that there was adirect line between at least some ofthe terrorists who carried out the Sep-tember 11th attacks and the govern-ment of Saudi Arabia,” said Graham.

Graham led a joint 2002 congres-

sional inquiry into the attacks inwhich Al-Qaeda militants hijackedfour planes and crashed them into theWorld Trade Center in New York, thePentagon in Washington and a Penn-sylvania field. Almost 3,000 peoplewere killed in the worst ever attack onAmerican soil.

Kerrey, who served on a separate9/11 inquiry, said in his own swornstatement last week that “significantquestions remain unanswered aboutthe role of Saudi institutions.”

“Evidence relating to the plausi-ble involvement of possible Saudigovernment agents in the Septem-ber 11th attacks has never been fullypursued.”

Families of the victims said Fri-day they welcomed the comments

“strongly disagreeing with papersfiled by the Kingdom of Saudi Ara-bia and the Saudi High Commissionclaiming that they had been ‘exon-erated’ of any connection to the 9/11terrorist attacks.”

Saudi Arabia, now a key re-gional US ally in the fight againstterrorism, has said the 9/11 com-mission’s final report “found no ev-idence that the Saudi government asan institution of senior Saudi indi-viduals funded” Al-Qaeda, the NewYork Times said.

But in a statement Thursday thegroup, the 9/11 Families United toBankrupt Terrorism, “applauded”the statements by Graham and Ker-rey which are part of a multi-billiondollar lawsuit before the court.

Gill’s loss result of PPP’s loyalty towards Pml-Q

lahore: After Aslam Gill’s defeat, PPP workers demonstrated againstBabar Awan and Raja Riaz Ahmed on Friday. They chanted slogansagainst Awan and Raja over the defeat of Aslam Gill and said that thosetwo leaders were responsible for the defeat of a diehard worker of PPP.PPP Women Wing Lahore President Faiza Malik also came to calm downthe angry protestors but no one paid any heed and the protestors toreapart the posters of Babar Awan. They also chanted slogans against BabarAwan and Rana Riaz. Early in the morning supporters of Aslam Gillgathered in front of Punjab Assembly and were chanting slogans in favourof Gill. They were expecting Gill to win the Senate seat but his lossaggrieved them and they started protests. STAFF RePoRT

Gill’s defeat instigatesscornful chants

lAHoRe: Pakistan People’s Party activists celebrate the victory of their party in the Senate election on Friday. STAFF PHoTo

money used in

Senate election,

says nisar

ISLAMABADINP

Opposition leader in the National AssemblyChaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Friday saidseats in the Senate elections were being“publicly auctioned”.Speaking to reporters outside the NationalAssembly on Friday, Nisar expressed hisdismay at the use of money to influence theongoing Senate elections, suggesting the“bad fish” not only be expelled fromparliament, but also thrown out of politicscompletely. He said selling and buying ofvotes was a shameful act.“We should be choosing our leaders insteadof electing merchants,” he added.The PML-N leader demanded the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) take noticeof the matter.He expressed the resolve that he wouldraise the voice against use of money duringthe election in the National Assembly.“What is left when even the parliament canbe purchased,” he said.

US ex-senators link Saudigovernment to 9/11 attacks


04Saturday, 3 march, 2012

News

ATToCK: Three American citizens Jonathan, daniel Rayan and James Richard and two Pakistani women, Saba and Sameera, sit

in police custody on Friday. online

reflected good homework,while the upset in Punjab,where the PML-N covertlybacked Mohsin Leghari,gives an impression thatthere was some backchannelused between the Khosasand Legharis – the archrivalgroups – to defeat PPP’sAslam Gill. JuI-F: The JUI-F won fourseats. Previously, the partyhad 10 senators, but seven ofits members were to retireon March 12, reducing theparty’s strength to three.With the four wins, the totalstrength of the party wouldrise to seven. InDepenDents: Fourindependents made it to theSenate from FATA and theyare supporting the govern-ment. However, there is noword yet from MohsinLeghari, who won as an in-dependent candidate fromPunjab.FeDeral CapItal:From the federal capital,Mushahid Hussain of thePML-Q was elected unop-posed on the technocratseat, while Usman Saifullahfrom the PPP was elected tothe general seat.Fata: Hidayatullah, Naja-mul Hassan and Saleh Shah

won elections with clear ma-jority from FATA. However,since Akhundzada Chattanand Maulana Abdul Malikdid not cast their votes, Hi-lalur Rehman, Abdul Wa-heed Khan, HameedullahJan Afridi and Abdul MalikQadri entered into a tie as allfour got four votes each. Fi-nally, Hilalur Rehman waselected after a draw.Sahibzada Abdus Salam Shi-rani and Malik AbdurRehman could not get anyvote while Munir Aurakzaigot one vote. sInDh: In Sindh, NasreenJalil, Mustafa Kamal andTahir Mashhadi from theMQM and Seher Kamranfrom the PPP were elected tothe women Senate seats.Hari Ram Kishori Lal waselected to the minority Sen-ate seat. While from thePPP, Mian Raza Rabbani,Saeed Ghani, Aijaz Dhamraand Dr Karim Khawaja re-mained successful. MuzzafarHussain Shah from thePML-F was also elected tothe Senate. Dr Abdul HafeezSheikh and Barrister FaroghNaseem have already beenelected unopposed on thetechnocrat seats in Sindh.

As expected, all threecandidates of the PML-Like-

minded could not succeed inmaking a “political upset” astheir vote bank, apparently,remained confined to theirparty fellows, numberingfour only.

In total 164 members ofthe provincial assembly casttheir votes in the 168-mem-ber electoral college for Sen-ate from Sindh. Dr GhulamArbab Rahim of the PML-Likeminded and WaheedaShah, Rashida Akhtar Pan-hwar and Ruqia KhanumSoomro of the PPP did notcast their votes, as the for-mer chief minister wasabroad, while the by-poll re-sult notification of WaheedaShah has been withheld.Panhwar could not partici-pate in the voting because ofher mother’s demise whileSoomro is sick.

The Provincial ElectionCommission (PEC) declaredfive votes invalid, three forminorities and two forwomen seats.K h Y B e rpaKhtunKhwa: Ru-bina Khalid of the PPP andZahida Khan of the ANPwere elected to the women’sseats, while Amarjeet Mal-hotra of the ANP was electedto the minorities’ seat. IlyasBilour of the ANP and

Farhatullah Babar of thePPP were elected to the tech-nocrat seats.

Shahi Syed and BazMuhammad Khan and AzamHoti of the ANP have beenelected to the general seats,while Talha Mahmood of theJUI-F was also elected.

Saifullah Bangash,Ahmed Hasan Khan, Sham-roz Khan Jadoon from thePPP were also elected. NisarMuhammad Khan of thePML-N also won a Senateseat from the province. punJaB: In Punjab, thePML-N overshadowed its ri-vals – the PPP and PML-Q –as its seven candidates wereelected to the total 12 seatsfrom the province. More-over, the PML-N was suc-cessful in giving the PPP ajolt, as Aslam Gill of the PPPwas defeated by MohsinLeghari of the PML-Q, an in-dependent candidate beingcovertly supported by thePML-N.

Gill bagged 42 voteswhile Leghari, whose per-formance had been excep-tional against the PML-N asa vocal opposition legislator,bagged 46 votes.

PML-N leaders SardarZulfiqar Khosa, Rafique Ri-jwana, Zafarullah Dhandla

and Muhammad Hamzawere elected besides PPPcandidate Babar Awan.Kamil Ali Agha of the PML-Q was also elected. PML-NMNA Nuzhat Sadiq and PPPnominee Khalida Parveenwere elected on reservedseats for women.

On the technocrat seats,Aitzaz Ahsan from the PPPand Ishaq Dar of the PML-Nwere already elected unop-posed. On the minority seat,Kamran Michael of thePML-N got elected unop-posed.

During the polling,PML-N MPA Yasin Sohailtendered his resignation inprotest against the insis-tence of Punjab Law Minis-ter Rana Sanaullah, whoreportedly asked him toshow his vote before casting.However, after interventionby the chief minister, Sohailwithdrew his resignation.

Talking to reporters, So-hail said Sanaullah askedhim to show his vote inorder to check if he was fol-lowing party policy. He saidhe had submitted his resig-nation to Chief Minister’sPrincipal Secretary TauqeerShah.

Later, Rana Sanaullahpersuaded him to withdraw

his resignation. The Punjablaw minister said Sohail hadsubmitted his resignation tohim and not to the PunjabAssembly speaker after get-ting a little emotional.BaloChIstan: InBalochistan, Saifullah Magsiand Sardar Fateh Moham-mad Mohammad Hasni ofthe PPP, Hafiz Hamdullah ofthe JUI-F, Saeedul HassanMandokhel of the PML-Q,Mir Israrullah Zehri of theBNP-Awami made it to theSenate.

Interestingly, DaudKhan of the ANP also wonelection despite the ANPhaving only three MPAs inthe Balochistan Assemblyand where it needed at leastnine votes to win a seat tothe Senate.

Those elected to the gen-eral Senate seats inBalochistan include Mir Is-rarullah Zehri of BNP-Awami, NawabzadaSaifullah Magsi, Muham-mad Yousuf Baloch and Sar-dar Fateh MuhammadHasni of the PPP. Rozi KhanKakar was also successful.

Syedul Hassan Man-dokhel and Rubina Irfan ofthe PML-Q, besides Ham-dullah Saboor and MuftiAbdul Sattar Shahwani of

the JUI-F also got elected.Naseema Ehsan of the

BNP-Awami remained suc-cessful on the women seatfrom Balochistan, while theminority seat was won byAman Das of the JUI-F.results wIthhelD:Late on Friday night, theBalochistan Election Com-mission withheld the resultsfor seven general Senateseats after objections werefiled by losing PML-N candi-date Syed Nawab Shah.

A recount would be heldin Islamabad by the ECP, itwas announced. BalochistanElection CommissionerAbdul Jabbar Jamali con-firmed that a recount ofvotes for all seven generalseats from Balochistanwould be held in Islamabad.He said there were some ob-jections raised by the PML-N nominee over therejection of the vote cast bySardar Sanaullah Zehri andagainst the announcementby provincial election com-mission that declared ANP’snominee Daud Achkazaielected. He said the officialresult of all the seven gen-eral seats would be an-nounced on March 5, afterrecounting in the presenceof both candidates.

PPP and allies sweepContinued fRoM page 1

He may either fully or partiallyagree or deny the evidence,statement and testimony ofMansoor Ijaz,” Justice Isa toldHaqqani’s lawyer, Sajid Tanoliwho is assisting Zahid Bukhariin the case.

Justice Isa said, “We(commission) are not power-less… If Haqqani says hedidn’t remember the PIN, wehave got other ways to do it.We will summon his wife andother family members, theforeign affairs secretary toknow the PIN of Haqqani’shandset if he did not submit itvoluntarily”.

To Haqqani’s lawyer hesaid, “The commission did notwant to trick or trap anybodyand is telling you in advance.”

On request of Haqqani’scounsel, the commission de-cided that the copies ofmonth-specific phone bills tobe provided by Haqqaniwould not be made public dueto privacy reasons.

The commission directedthe government to give in

writing the ownership detailsof the missing Blackberry setswhich were in Haqqani’s useduring May 2011 to November4, 2011 and also providecopies of the bills paid by thegovernment of Pakistan in theUS.

It said if the bills werelost, the government must askthe service provider to send aPDF version of the bill directlyto the commission.

Haqqani had told thecommission during previoushearings that his Blackberrysets were missing since he leftLondon. He also had declinedto submit PIN of the sets.

Mustafa Ramday, cur-rently present in London forIjaz’s cross-examination, in-formed the commission abouttwo forensic companies – LGCForensics and Systems Tech-nologies Consultants Limited– for verification and authen-ticity of the communicationdata stored in the handset ofIjaz.

The commission secre-tary, who is already in Lon-

don, was directed to checkwith the forensic companiesabout their expertise on theissue. The commission also di-rected other counsels to sug-gest forensic companies tochose one of them for the pur-pose.

During the cross-exami-nation, Ijaz said he remainedin contact with ISI DG AhmadShuja Pasha even after Octo-ber 22 through emails andtelephone but his security wasthe sole subject of the commu-nication.

Asked whether PresidentAsif Ali Zardari had priorknowledge of the US raid inAbbottabad, Ijaz said hewould not like to answer thequestion due to sensitivity ofthe matter.

He said he had also in-formed Haqqani through hisfamily phone number aboutthe broader content of the in-telligence transcript that he, aday earlier, had submitted be-fore the commission. He alsoprovided a copy of the bill ofhis private phone number tothe commission to support hisclaim.

Attorney General MaulviAnwarul Haq and Haqqani’slawyer Sajid Tanoli continuedto object throughout the pro-ceedings over the evidenceprovided by Ijaz, saying thewitness could not exhibit fur-ther evidence during thecross-examination.

Ijaz said shortly afterHaqqani resigned as ambas-sador to the US, he was in-formed by some seniorintelligence official, not fromPakistan, that there would bean attempt to delete data fromhis handset.

To a question, Ijaz said hecontacted a US governmentagency for verification of theintegrity of software in hishandset but the agency re-fused to do so under the pres-sure of the US government.

The commission will meetagain on March 15 whenHaqqani’s counsel ZahidBukhari will start cross-exam-ining Ijaz. Justice Isa made itclear to Bukhari’s associatethat Bukhari must be presenton March 15, adding that noadjournment requests wouldbe entertained.

All ‘escape routes’Continued fRoM page 1

You know, this is somethingthat we don’t think is a goodidea. And the secretary madethat absolutely clear,” StateDepartment spokespersonVictoria Nuland told re-porters when asked aboutthe exchange of statementsbetween the leaders of thetwo countries Thursday. “Wewould also note that, youknow, Iran is making allkinds of offers to all kinds ofcountries, and they oftendon’t live up to their prom-ises. And we know that Pak-istan has energy needs, andwe are working with Pak-istan on those energy needs.And we would just encour-

age them to think twiceabout aligning themselveswith an unreliable partner,”Nuland said.

Echoing Clinton, the USofficial said that given the in-ternational sanctions againstIran, Pakistan would face theburnt of it, if it decided to goahead with the Iran-Pakistangas pipeline project.

“You know that we havea variety of sanctions on thebooks that we would notwant to see kick in, in this in-stance, which is, you know,among the reasons why wethink this is a bad idea andhope it doesn’t go forward,”Nuland said in response to aquestion.

LAHOREAPP

FEDERAL Min-ister for Infor-mation andBroadcasting DrFirdous Ashiq

Awan on Friday said a codeof conduct for the mediawould be finalised after con-sultation.

Talking to editors of var-ious newspapers at a localhotel, she said the mediawas an effective tool to servefor accountability of everysegment of society, addingthat how was it possible thatthe media itself did not fol-low any code of conduct.

Appreciating the mediafor its role to strengthendemocracy in the country,she said that code of con-duct, made in 2002 formedia, needed several im-provements as there was noelectronic media at that timeand now the situation had

changed.She said the Pakistan

People’s Party(PPP) led gov-ernment had activated thePress Council and a chair-man had been appointed sothe issues of print mediaworkers could be resolved,adding the chairman was di-rected to visit all provincesand resolve the issues ofprint media workers as

“cross media orientation”had crushed the workers.

The minister questionedhow could a democratic gov-ernment solve issues in fouryears that took 64 years tocreate.

She said the Senate elec-tions were a step towards astrong democracy, as all as-semblies participated in theprocess.

Commenting onBalochistan issue, she saidparliamentarians ofBalochistan had strenght-ened the federation by exer-cising their right to vote inthe Senate elections againstthe negative propaganda bysome non-political actors.

Firdous said some peo-ple were raising slogans ofrevolution in their publicmeetings, but they did notparticipate in the by-pollswhich exposed their realface, adding that vote wasthe only way for revolutionin democratic system.

Code of conductfor media afterconsultation: Firdous

Think againContinued fRoM page 1

Karzai for deeperPak-Afghancollaboration IslamaBaD: AfghanPresident HamidKarzai stressedequitable and deepercollaboration betweenPakistan andAfghanistan to sustainbrotherly and closeties. Karzai, in a letterto Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani,mentioned the ThirdAfghan-Iran-PakistanTrilateral Summit inIslamabad that offeredyet another opportunityto pursue bilateraldialogue between thetwo countries. APP



News

ISLAMABADGNI

PRIME Minister Yousaf RazaGilani on Friday said thegovernment had addressedthe circular debt issue to alarge extent and the resolu-

tion would lead to maximum thermalgeneration of electricity and a consid-erable improvement the supply.

The prime minister said this whilechairing a meeting regarding the accessto European markets that was attendedby Minister for Commerce MakhdoomAmin Fahim, Adviser on Finance DrAbudl Hafeez Shaikh, senior officials ofthe ministries of commerce, textiles,foreign affairs and representatives ofprivate sector.

The commerce secretary informedthe meeting that the WTO had ap-proved European Package of 75 itemson February14. He said after the ap-

proval of the EU parliament theseitems would be exported to EuropeanMarkets without any duty from Janu-ary 1, 2013.

The secretary said over and aboveimpact on Pakistan’s export would bearound $450 million to the EuropeanUnion. He further said in the GSP Plus,the European Union changed criteriato the advantage of Pakistan that couldbe attributed to the hectic efforts of thegovernment’s functionaries under theguidance of the prime minister.

It was decided in the meeting thatthe prime minister would preside overthe meeting of Envoy’s Conference be-longing to European Union during hisforthcoming visit to UK to appreciatethe support of EU.

The secretary also informed themeeting that EFTA, countries out ofEuropean Union, like Iceland, Norway,Lichtenstein, Monaco and Switzerland,had also indicated their willingness to

initiate dialogue on the trade agree-ment with Pakistan. The dialogue is ex-pected to be held in April this year andif concluded it will further boost Pak-istan’s exports in these countries, thesecretary maintained.

Representatives of the private sec-tor called upon the government to takeimmediate action for the uninterruptedsupply of energy to the export industryin order to fully capitalise the expectedtariff concessions from the EU andEFTA countries.

The prime minister said he had al-ready held a meeting with the repre-sentatives of APTMA today whosuggested some out of box solutions toovercome energy shortage in the coun-try.

He said that the UK secretary ofstate for international development,Andrew Mitchell, had also appreciatedthe normalisation of trade links be-tween Pakistan and India.

Circular debt issueresolved, says PM

CHANDIGARHINP

The shooting of Kathryn Bigelow’s film onOsama bin Laden that would depict the killingof the former al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad wasstalled on Friday by activists of Vishwa HinduParishad (VHP), who objected to hoisting ofPakistani flags.

The crew was forced to cancel the shoot andmove the cameras away after protests in Mani-majra town on the outskirts of the city.

VHP activists led by Vijay Singh Bhardwajforcefully disrupted the shooting and removedthe sign boards put in Urdu on a few shops, acrew members said, adding that the cameramenwere also allegedly pushed and abused. Theyraised slogans against Pakistan and removed itsflags put in place to recreate the actual spot inAbbottabad where US commandos killed thedreaded al Qaeda leader in a helicopter raid onMay 2, 2011. “They (the movie crew) are showingChandigarh as Pakistan, this is not acceptable inany terms. Why should any place in India beconverted to look like Pakistan? We will neverallow Pakistan’s flags flying at places in the citywhere the shooting is taking place,” Bhardwajsaid. After the melee, the VHP activists went topolice to register a formal complaint against thefilm’s director.

Bigelow later said no Pakistani flag will beput in place at the shooting areas.

Station House Officer (SHO) Rajesh Shuklaassured VHP activists that Pakistani flags willnot be permitted at the shooting locales afterwhich they dispersed. No case has been regis-tered, he said. “Our objection is to hoisting ofPakistani flags,” Bhardwaj said. The film’s crewhas been shooting in prominent markets at thePunjab Engineering College and at Patiala withshop boards in Urdu, auto-rickshaws with La-hore number plates, burqa-clad women andmen in salwar-kameez, chappals and skullcaps.

The title of the film is being kept as a closelyguarded secret but for now it is being talkedabout as ‘Zero Dark 30’.

ISLAMABADSTAFF RePoRT

A three-member Supreme Court (SC) benchon Friday accepted for regular hearing a pe-tition seeking disqualification of the parlia-mentarians holding dual nationality, andissued notices to respondents as well as theattorney general.

The bench, comprising Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, JusticeKhilji Arif Hussain and Justice TariqParvez, directed respondents to furnishtheir reply by March 12. The petition wasfiled by United Human Rights CommissionVice Chairman Mahmood Akhtar under Ar-ticle 184(3) of the constitution, making thefederation and all provincial governmentsand the Election Commission of Pakistan

(ECP) respondents.The petitioner requested the court to

direct the ECP to obtain complete record ofparliamentarians who held dual nationality.He further pleaded the court to disqualifysuch parliamentarians and restrain themfrom contesting the next general elections.

The petitioner contended that overseasPakistanis could not become members of theparliament under Article 62 of the constitu-tion. Likewise, he stated that according toSection 14 of the Pakistan Citizen Act, 1951,“If anyone was holding another country’s na-tionality, his nationality in Pakistan will besuspended.” The petition stated that accord-ing to media reports more than 35 legislatorswere holding dual nationals in violation ofthe constitution, which bars such individualsto become members of the assemblies.

SC issues notices on plea against

lawmakers with dual nationality

‘osama’ filming in indiadisrupted by VHP activists

Ib inspector shot dead while taking son to schoolpeshawar: Intelligence Bureau (IB) Inspector Bashir Khan was killed and hisson was injured on Friday when unidentified attackers shot at them on WarsakRoad. Sources said Bashir was going to drop his son at school when armedmotorcyclists fired multiple bullets at him, injuring him and his minor son, AimalKhan. Both were taken to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, but the fathersuccumbed to his injuries. Bashir was in charge of the IB’s control room, andregarded as a very committed member of the IB staff. In December last year, IBassistant director Sirajuddin had been killed by unidentified persons when he wasgoing home in the jurisdiction of Yakatoot Police Station. STAFF RePoRT

LAHOREoNlINe

The leader of Jamhoori Watan Party(JWP), Shahzain Bugti met Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N) PresidentNawaz Sharif in Raiwand on Friday.

According to a handout, both leadersdiscussed the current situation inBalochistan.

The meeting comes at a time when thePPP-led government wants a solution to

the Balochistan issue and trying to call anall-parties conference to form a consen-sus.

Earlier last week, Bugti visited JamiaNaeemia where he said Pakistan’s intelli-gence agencies and not India were toblame for the killings and kidnappings inthe province.

He had said the government shouldbring forward proof against the Indianconnection before “reiterating India’s in-volvement again and again like a parrot”.

Shahzain calls on nawaz to

discuss Balochistan issue



News

PeSHAwAR: Rescue personnel inspect the site after a gas cylinder blast at a local hospital on Friday. STAFF PHoTo

WASHINGTONoNlINe

CLAIMING that the US andPakistan have opposing goalsfor Afghanistan, an Americanexpert on South Asia hasasked President Barack

Obama to look beyond Islamabad and to-wards other like-minded partners in theregion to stem terrorism and help stabilisethe war-torn nation.

“Unless Pakistan demonstrates a will-ingness to actively squeeze Taliban insur-gents on its soil and use its leverage tobring them to compromise with the US andAfghan authorities, the US should consideralternative policy options to stem terrorismin the region,” Lisa Curtis of the HeritageFoundation, said.

In her latest article, Curtis said the USand NATO partners can look beyond Pak-istan and toward other like-minded part-ners in the region to help stabiliseAfghanistan. “While it is in America’s in-terest to encourage stability in Pakistan, itis also vital to US national security that in-ternational terrorists are rooted out of bothAfghanistan and Pakistan,” she said.

“Washington and Islamabad have op-posing goals for Afghanistan that can nolonger be brushed under the carpet,” Curtis

said adding that Pakistani officials oftenclaim to their US counterparts that theylack capacity to take on terrorist sanctuar-ies within their borders, but these claimsare questionable and need to be tested.

The Obama administration, she said,has sought to include Pakistan in its effortsto reconcile with the Taliban, even thoughPakistan continues to serve as a sanctuaryfor Taliban and Haqqani network militantsfighting coalition forces in Afghanistan.

“Islamabad views the sanctuaries as abargaining chip to force its way into the ne-gotiations process. Washington needs tomake clear that Islamabad’s role in thetalks depends on its willingness to use itsleverage with Taliban insurgents to bringthem to compromise,” she said.

Curtis said the US should also commu-nicate that while it is open to engaging theTaliban, it is not desperate to do so and hasother options it can pursue.

“Political reconciliation is desirable butonly if it contributes to the goal of ensuringthat Afghanistan never again serves as asafe haven for global terrorists,” she said.

“But if Pakistan is unwilling to use itsleverage to help bring genuine peace toAfghanistan, there are other policies –aside from pursuing reconciliation withthe Taliban – that the US can pursue,”she added.

Reduce dependenceon Pakistan, think-tank asks Obama

KABULAFP

Afghanistan’s top religious council onFriday demanded that those responsiblefor the burning of copies of holy Quranat a US military base should be put onpublic trial, a statement from the presi-dent’s office said.

The Ulema Council “insists that sucha devilish act is not forgivable by apolo-gies, and that the perpetrators of thiscrime should soon be publicly tried andpunished”, the statement said.

“The council strongly condemns theheinous, inhumane, barbaric act of dis-respecting the Koran and other religious

books by American forces in Bagrambase.”

The council is funded by the govern-ment and issued the statement after ameeting with President Hamid Karzai.

The council reiterated the presi-dent’s calls for the handover of the US-run prison at Bagram to Afghan controland an end to night raids, saying “theforeigners have so far not positively re-sponded to these righteous demands”.

The Qurans sent to an incinerator pitat the Bagram base north of Kabul hadreportedly been seized from prisoners —in what is known as Afghanistan’s Guan-tanamo Bay — who were suspected ofusing them to pass messages.

Afghan clerics demand public

trial Quran burners

PO killed inencounter withDaska police

SIALKOTSTAFF RePoRT

A proclaimed offender, Jameelalias Jeela, was killed in anencounter with Daska police nearJessarwala village late onThursday. Sialkot District PoliceOfficer (DPO) Syed Ali Mohsintold newsmen that the Daska CityPolice was taking Jameel to Sialkotfor identification of some lootedvaluables late last night when fivearmed motorcyclists, including anaccused Haseeb alias Haseeba,attacked the police party nearJessarwala and got Jamil freed andfled. The fleeing accused tookshelter in nearby fields and openedfire on the chasing policemen. Thepolice retaliated and managed tokill Jameel, while his accomplicesmanaged to escape. The DPO saidthe deceased was the leader of hiswell-organised Jeela Gang. Hesaid the accused was wanted bySialkot, Daska, Motra, Kotwali,Hajipura, Civil Line and Uggokipolice in as many as 50 cases ofdacoity, robbery and otherheinous crimes. Daska policehanded over the body to the familyin Fatehgarh tehsil of Sialkot.

SWAT HARooN SIRAJ

The Pakistan Army began transferring the ad-ministrative powers to the Swat civil adminis-tration and the security responsibilities to thepolice on Saturday.

In its first stage, the army handed over theadministrative and security powers of Bahrainto the relevant local authorities. The decisionwas announced on February 2 by GOC, Ghu-lam Qamar during a meeting. He expressedsatisfaction over the current peace and securitysituation in Swat. Adding, he said times wereripe for the civil administration and the policeto assume the overall responsibilities of thedistrict. The formal power shifting processstarted in Bahrain tehsil on March 1.

According to the official sources, the secu-rity responsibilities of Kalam, Madyan and allother areas of Tehsil Bahrian were handedover to the police before the army receded to

their units. Swat DCO Kamran Rahman con-firmed the army’s move of the power shiftingprocess. “The police, now being capable of cop-ing with the security situations, have alreadyreplaced the army personnel at security checkposts in Bahrain,” DSP Bahrain, Naveed Khanconfirmed.ptI FormallY InvItes ameermuqam to JoIn partY: The PTI sent ajirga of party stalwarts to formally inviteAmeer Muqam to join Pakistan’s fast-growingpolitical party. The jirga, consisting of ProfSher Afgan Khan Kaka, PTI divisional organ-iser, Jamal Nasar Khan, former district nazim,Fazal Hakeem, PTI district general secretary,and some 200 party members arrived at theresidence of Ameer Muqam at Sangota wherethey formally invited him and his party work-ers to join the PTI. “Ameer Muqam being aconscientious leader and his constitutionknowing no compromise, the PTI is mosteager seek the support of such leaders.

Army begins transferring administrative

powers to Swat civil administration


Saturday, 3 march, 2012


FEAR of extremism and re-sentment by some religiouscircles has not allowed theCapital Development Au-thority (CDA) to name the

road and street of Sector I/8 after for-mer minority minister ShahbazBhatti. However, the Christian com-munity on Friday announced toprotest to press the civic body toname the road after Shahbaz Bhatti.

While addressing the gathering,All Pakistan Minority Alliance (APMA)Deputy Convener Javed Bachan saidthe rally had been organised in con-nection with death anniversary ofShahbaz Bhatti. It was a longstandingdemand of the Christian community toname the road, street and a park afterBhatti in sector I/8, he said, adding itwas beyond thinking that why the au-thorities concerned were reluctant infulfilling their demand.

He said Shahbaz Bhatti sacrificedhis life just to defend rights of inno-cent people and he (Shahbaz) wasalso a member of federal governmentbut it was regrettable that the govern-ment had not taken any step to re-member his sacrifices. “Neither thegovernment has arrested the killersof Shahbaz nor has they made his re-

membrance at any place,” he said.Last year on March 2, some

unidentified gunmen shot at andkilled minister for religious minori-ties Shahbaz Bhatti when he was onhis way to work in Islamabad. Thereason behind his death was his oppo-sition to the blasphemy law.

The issue to name the road andstreet of sector I/8 after Bahtti was dis-cussed in the CDA board meeting cou-ple of days ago. CDA SpokesmanRamzan Sajid had told Pakistan Todaythat naming any road or street aftersomeone was not in the domain of civicbody and the government had to giveits recommendation in this regard.

Sources told there was no hurdle inthe said process but the only thing

which did not allow the CDA and thegovernment to move ahead with theissue of naming road in Sector was fearof strong resentment, most probablyfrom those forces which were behindthe killing of former minister.

They said that many a Muslimleaders belonging to different sectswere also murdered in the capital citybut no road or place was name afterthem so it might be difficult for thegovernment to name the road afterBhatti. It is pertinent to mention herethat death anniversary of ShahbazBhatti was observed on Friday andthe rally was also organised by theChristian community and civil societyin this regard.

A large number of people belong-ing to the Christian community gath-ered near the place where Bhatti wasmurdered last year.

They staged a protest rally fromthe residence of Bhatti and moved to-wards the place of his assassination.

The protestors chanted slogansagainst the government for its fail-ure to apprehend the killers of Shah-baz Bhatti.

A separate vigil was also stagedby the civil society here in front ofSuper Market in which a large num-ber of human rights activists includ-ing Tahira Abdulah, Rehana Hashmiand Farzana Bari participated.

CDA, govt reluctant to nameroad after Shahbaz Bhattig christians announce protest to press civic body to name

the road after slain minority minister

IHc cJ constitutesnine benches fornext week

ISLAMABADAPP

Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Jus-tice has constituted six single benchesand three division benches to hear anumber of cases for next week startingfrom March 5. Six single benches includeChief Justice Iqbal Hameed-Ur-Rehman,Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan, JusticeMuhammad Anwar Khan Kasi ,JusticeNoorul Haq N Qureshi, Justice ShaukatAziz Sidqui and Justice Muhammad AzimKhan Afridi. The first division bench(DB) comprises of Chief Justice IqbalHameed-Ur-Rehman and Justice NoorulHaq N Qureshi, second bench JusticeRiaz Ahmed Khan, Justice MuhammadAzim Khan Afridi while the third benchincludes Justice Muhammad AnwarKhan Kasi and Justice Shaukat AzizSidqui. All the benches will resume hear-ing over 300 cases during the next week.

Five injured in firing

over land disputeISLAMABAD

STAFF RePoRT

As many as five people, including twowomen, were injured in firing at BharaHahu, a suburb of the federal capital,over a land dispute on Friday.According to the police, Mumtaz Khanson of Lal Khan had developed a landdispute with Tanveer Khan. On theday of the incident, they opened firedon each other with sophisticatedweapons in Dhoke Choan, leaving fivepersons wounded. Those injured included Mumtaz Khan,his brother Altaf Khan, Nabila Bibi andMuhammad Altaf. They were shifted toPoly Clinic. Bhara Kahu police have reg-istered a case and started investigation.

Geyser blastcreates panic in G/6


A powerful boiler explosion on Fridaypartially jolted a sub sector of SectorG/6, but no injuries were reported.The geyser blast occurred in House No10 in Sector G/6/3. The echo of the blastwas heard in all the sub-sector of G/6,creating panic among the locals. A heavy contingent of Islamabad policeand a bomb disposal squad rushed to thescene. The blast caused a heavy damageto the house. The furniture lying in thehouse was greatly damaged and its win-dowpanes broke. Inspector General of Is-lamabad Police Bani Amin and othersenior police officials rushed to the scene.Talking to reporters at the blast site, hethe IGP said that it was not a bomb;rather it was a geyser blast.

Parkinson’s drug

may help treat brain

injuries: report ISLAMABAD

oNlINe

Daily doses of a drug used to treatParkinson’s disease significantly im-proved function in brain-injured peoplethought to be beyond treatment, scien-tists have reported, providing the firstrigorous evidence to date that any ther-apy reliably helps such patients. The im-provements were modest, experts said,and hardly amounted to a cure, or a quickmeans of “waking up” someone who haslong been unresponsive. But the progresswas meaningful, experts said, and, ifreplicated, would give rehabilitation doc-tors something they have never had: astandard treatment for injuries that arenot at all standard or predictable in theways they affect the brain. Some 50,000to 100,000 Americans live in states ofpartial consciousness, and perhaps15,000 in an unresponsive “vegetative”condition. According to the Departmentof Defense, more than 6,000 veteranshave had severe brain injuries since 2000and would potentially benefit from thistherapy. The new report, appearing inThe New England Journal of Medicine,gives doctors a solid basis to address suchinjuries, if not yet a predictable outcome.“This study puts the traumatic brain in-jury field on the first step of the ladder todeveloping scientific treatments. We’vebeen trying to get there for a long time,”said Dr. Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, director ofclinical research at the Center for Neuro-science and Regenerative Medicine at theUniformed Services University of theHealth Sciences in Rockville, Md., whowas not involved in the research.

ISLAMABADoNlINe

Older women who eat high amount ofthe kind of fat found in fried foods andbaked goods face a greater risk of strokethan women who eat lower fat diets, aUS study suggests.

However, aspirin use could cut thoserisks, said the researchers from Univer-sity of North Carolina whose findings arepublished in the Annals of Neurology.

The data came from the largest studyto date of post-menopausal women andtheir eating habits, and included 87,025women between the ages 50 and 79 who

were generally in good health at the timeof enrollment. Women who reported eat-ing diets high in trans-fatty acids, or 6.1grams a day, showed a 39 percentgreater incidence of stroke due to ablocked artery than women who ate 2.2grams per day of such fats.

The researchers did not find any sig-nificant links between stroke risk andhow much total fat the women consumed,or their level of dietary cholesterol.

But aspirin use was shown to slim

down the link between trans fat intakeand stroke, which affects nearly 800,000people in the United States per year andis the fourth leading cause of US death.

“Our findings confirm that post-menopausal women with higher trans fatintake had an elevated risk of ischemicstroke, but aspirin use may reduce the ad-verse effects,” said lead author Ka He ofthe UNC School of Public Health.

“We recommend following a diet lowin trans fat and adding an aspirin regi-

men to help women reduce their risk ofstroke, specifically following the onsetof menopause.”

Trans fat is on the decline in theUnited States due to a public health andlegislation campaign which has bannedits use in many fast food restaurants andin food preparation.

“Trans fats are rare in living nature,but can commonly occur in foods as a re-sult of food processing called partial hy-drogenation when a liquid vegetable oil is

turned into a solid fat,” said Nancy Cop-perman, director of public health initia-tives at North Shore-Long Island JewishHealth System in New York.

Copperman, who was not involvedin the study, added that the behaviors ofwomen who ate lots of trans fat werealso unhealthy, including decreasedphysical activity, smoking, and higherlevels of diabetes.

“Encouraging and supporting womenconsume a balanced diet avoiding transfat and including healthy oils and dailyphysical activity can be a major step inpreventing stroke and other lifestyle re-lated diseases,” she said.

Fried food raises stroke risk in older women

ISlAmAbAd: Shops at melody Food Park seen closed due to strike against Assistant Commissioner muhammad Ali on Friday. online


08 Saturday, 3 march, 2012

Islamabad

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monster truck in Islamabad

DrUmminG CirClE

DAte AnD tIme: 05:00 Pm, weeKly eVentVenue: tHe centre FOr ArtS AnD culture

Our drumming circle is a (free!) ongoingevent and is held every Friday from 5 to 6p.m.we are having a great time, and want toshare the good time with you! Ourdrumming circle has children ...

PArtly clOuDy

weAtHer uPDAteS

21°c

PAinTinG ExHibiTion

tanzara Gallery takes pleasure in presenting thework of internationally acclaimed artist Jamal Ahmed.long established as one of bangladesh’s leadingpainters, he is in a class of artists now recognizedworldwide. extensively exhibited in bangladesh andabroad, Jamal’s work has a distinct flair which setshim apart from the work of his contemporaries.

DAte: Feb 24 - mAr 03, 2012Venue: tAnzArA Art GAllery, ISlAmAbAD

DAte: mAr 20 - APr 21, 2012 Venue: F-9 PArK, ISlAmAbAD

13°c

ISLAMABADAPP

PRESIDENT Asif Ali Zardari Fridayaccorded assent to Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University Act which pertainsto establishment of the university inhealth and other sciences. The bill for

the university was passed by the National Assemblyon January 16 and by the Senate on February 10.

The Islamabad-based university is envisagedto be a non-profit institution set up in the privatesector. The chancellor of the university would beelected by the Chancellor Election Council fromamongst its members comprising all members ofthe board of governors of the Shifa Foundationand Tameer-e-Millat Foundation.

The president, while giving assent to the act,expressed the hope that the university would alsofocus on teachers’ training programs and theircapacity building. He said in view of the criticalrole of teachers in building human capital, therewas a dire need to focus on teachers’ training.IrI to CeleBrate FounDatIon DaYon 10th: Islamic Research Institute ofInternational Islamic University (IIU) willcelebrate its 52nd Foundation Day on March 10.

It was decided at a meeting of academiciansand administrative officers of the institute,which was presided over by Director General DrKhalid Masud.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Masud saidthat the institute had rendered tremendousservices for Islamic teachings and knowledgeduring the last 52 years.

He said IRI was established to guidelegislators and policy makers in Islamisation

process of laws and society. The Institute haspublished hundreds of leading books on Islam-related topics in various languages.

Dr Khalid Masud said the leading scholars,including former heads of the institute, wereinvited to speak on the foundation day to spreadawareness about the institute among the generalpublic. An exhibition of IRI books will also bepart of the foundation day ceremony. ChIlDhooD DepressIon CreatesphYsICal proBlems: Children whoexperience abuse or other adversities and developmental health disorders are at greater risk ofchronic physical problems when they are adults.

Child maltreatment has been associated withincreased risk of adverse physical healthoutcomes. In a prior research that examined theinfluence of early psychosocial environment onlater physical health, the potentially biasingpresence of current mental disorders hasgenerally been ignored, BBC reported.

Researchers from Melbourne University,Australia examined data from people in 10countries included in the World HealthOrganisation World Mental Health Surveysinitiative.

The team looked at anxiety disorders anddepression in children and at the followingchildhood adversities: abuse, neglect, loss ofparents through death or other causes, divorce,parental substance abuse, parental criminalbehavior, family violence and being poor.

Both anxiety and depression in childhoodwere associated with three chronic painconditions in adulthood: osteoarthritis, chronicspinal pain (back or neck), and frequent orsevere headache.

Physical abuse in childhood was associatedwith a number of chronic diseases in adulthood:heart disease, asthma, diabetes, osteoarthritis,chronic spinal pain and headache, it was found.

The greater the number of childhoodadversities, the higher the risk of physical healthproblems in adulthood. These results areconsistent with the hypothesis that childhoodadversities and early-onset mental disordershave independent, broad-spectrum effects thatincrease the risk of diverse chronic physicalconditions in later life.pmI to holD traInIng CourseFrom 5th: Pakistan Manpower Institute(PMI) would hold a training course on” Trainingand developing human resources” here fromMarch 5 to 9.

Talking to APP here on Friday, the officialsource from PMI said that the main objective ofthe course is to acquaint the participants withthe tools and techniques of socializing, orientingand developing employees.

The participants will be exposed to a processof helping employees to adopt their neworganization, their responsibilities and learn theorganization’s culture, he added.

In addition to this, the course would alsodeal with the employees training anddevelopment methods, so that the participantsmay be able to groom employees throughtraining and development programmes in theirrespective organizations, he informed.

Director General PMI, Muhammad Azamwill inaugurate the event in the premises of theorganization and around 30 executive officersfrom the public and private sector wouldparticipate in the course.

President approves Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University Act

ISlAmAbAD: ISO activists protest against the killing of Shias in Kohistan. STAFF PHoTo



Islamabad

ISlAmAbAD: Folk artists perform during the baloch cultural show at lok Virsa. STAFF PHoTo

RAWALPINDIoNlINe

sEVERAL students of Matriculation ex-pressed grave concern over issuance ofroll number slips full of errors by theBoard of Intermediate and SecondaryEducation, Rawalpindi.

Only 24 hours have left in commencement ofthe examination but we still stand deprived of rollnumber slips, said a group of candidates.

“My son has been issued roll number slippasted with the photograph of some other student.How can he sit in the examination starting fromSaturday?, asked Muhammad Akmal, father of astudent. “My subjects in which I want to appearhave not been recorded correct in my roll numberslip, said a student. “My name and father’s namehas been recorded incorrect in my roll number slip,said another candidate.

Candidates and their parents demanded thaterror free roll number slips be issued saying thatif they fail due to the incorrect roll number slips theentire responsibility will rest with the board admin-istration and they will approach the court of law onthis count. CItIzens DemanD CleanlIness atBara marKet: Citizens protested against lackof cleanliness arrangements particularly non-avail-ability of latrine facility in the crowded and oldesthistorical Bara market at Liaqat Road.

The market was set up in 1974 but its problemsare still in tact and no step has been taken to ad-dress the woes of citizens.

“We are paying about 120 million rupees taxannually to the government but the market lacks allcivic facilities, said a group of traders.

“Encroachments are galore; live electricity ca-bles are found hanging every where and even drink-ing water is not available what to speak ofcleanliness arrangements, said Muhammad Ali atrader. “Thing like latrine is nowhere built in thisthickly crowned market. Male can use any place toease them but where we should go when the needarises, said female visitors. The citizens demandedimmediate construction of latrines separately formen and women in the market. munICIpal aDmInIstratIon to BuIlDservICe roaD: The municipal administrationhas decided to reconstruct a service road from Faiz-abad to Shams Abad.

The step has been taken in connection with re-habilitation of this road besides freeing it from il-legal occupants. TMA Rawal town will spend about9 million rupees to complete the project of recon-struction of the service road on the left side of Faiz-abad to Shams Abad. Footpaths built alongside

service road would also be made workable duringthe course of reconstruction.

The service road is no where seen in this areasbeing encroached up by the traders, furniture shopsand plazas owners. Show rooms owners park theirvehicles on this road and create problems for notonly pedestrians but also for the vehicular traffic. 35 stuDents hospItalIseD Due toFooD poIsonIng: As many as 35 students ofBenzir Nursing College were taken to hospital afterhaving substandard food, officials said on Friday.

Medical officer Dr Aisf Qadir told media thatthe students were in stable condition.

According to officials the students had theirmeal at a function held in the college last night thatcaused medical disorder. They were shifted to alocal hospital for treatment. Most of the studentshailed from Lahore.resIDents protest agaInst laCK oFeleCtrICItY poles: Residents of D and EBlocks and Commercial Market have protestedagainst lack of electricity poles in Satellite Town’sstreets. They said that electric cables were hangingat low level around every house causing potentialthreat of electric shock and concerned authoritiesfailed to erect new electric poles in the area. Theysaid that incident of short-circuiting occurred dailydue to the hanging wires. Residents have appealedthe government to install electric poles in the areato avoid any untoward incident.revenue Department starts one-wInDow operatIon: The RevenueDepartment Rawalpindi has started one-windowoperation to address to public grievances.

DCO Rawalpindi, Saqib Zafar had directed theRevenue Department to facilitate the people withone-window operation.

According to the operation, residents will nowsubmit applications for registration, sale, purchaseand transfer in the office of Assistant Commis-sioner. According the Revenue Department, the‘patwaris’ receive thousands of rupees bribe toissue relevant documents.raIlwaY launChes operatIonagaInst enCroaChments” Pakistan Rail-way Rawalpindi division has launched operationagainst its encroachers who have occupied railwayland. The operation was launched from MareerBridge to Gawal Mandi and all the area was clearedfrom the encroachers. The administration also de-molished the illegal construction on the Railwayland and took the area back into their control. TheRailway department said that the encroachers oc-cupied the land for long time and it was inevitablefor the department to take strong operation againstthem as they were also doing illegal construction onthe government land.

Incorrect roll numberslips irk matriculationcandidates

rawalpindi board

makes arrangements

for SSc examsRAWALPINDI

oNlINe

The Rawalpindi Board has made afoolproof plan for the Secondary SchoolCertificate (SSC) exams starting acrossPunjab on Saturday.The inspections teams have beenappointed to monitor the examinationcenters to check cheating and any otherillegal methods. The section 144 has alsobeen imposed so that the irrelevantpersons should not reach the examinationcenters. The board has also put up a ban ongadgets, mobiles calculators so that thecheating could be avoided. Chairmaneducation board said that more than 17 lacstudents are taking examination whilemore than 344 examination centers havebeen established in which theexaminations will be conducted. Therewould be up to 146 deputy superintendentsand the staff of 300 examiners has alsobeen appointed. All of the eight SecondaryBoards, Board of Intermediate andSecondary Education (BISE) Lahore, DeraGhazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad,Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Sargodhaalong with Board of Intermediate andSecondary Education Multan will holdthe Matric examinations. Roll numberslips have already been issued to allregular and private candidates, all theeight boards said.

Preston universityholds mehfil-e-milad

ISLAMABADAPP

Preston University on Friday organiseda Mehfil-e-Milad to commemorate thebirth anniversary of Holy ProphetMuhammad (PBUH). A huge congregation of students, facultymembers and staff of the universitygathered at the university auditorium tocelebrate the birth anniversary of theHoly Prophet (PBUH), said a pressrelease issued here. On the occasion, scholars highlightedlife and teachings of the Holy Prophet(PBUH). They also emphasised thatfollowing the teachings of the HolyProphet (PBUH) was need of the hour.They said we could overcome all thepredicaments that confront us bysteadfastly following the teachings of theHoly Quran and the Holy Prophet(PBUH).

Female drug smugglers held; 14kg hashish seized

ISLAMABADKASHIF AbbASI

Tarnol police on Friday arrested female drug smugglers andrecovered 14kg hashish from them during checking atShaheenabad, a police spokesman said. According todetails, a police team, headed by the Tarnol SHO and SIGhulam Shabbir stopped two women and a man, comingfrom Peshawar, to search their luggage near Shaheenabad.The police team recovered a pistol along with rounds and14kg hashish from a man and two women, identified asHamid Ali, Nazish and Maryam. Investigation is underway.

Solo show by Jamal Ahmed concludes

ISLAMABADAPP

The solo exhibition on contemporary art withimpressionistic style paintings by renowned artist JamalAhmed will conclude here today at Tanzara art gallery.The artist is internationally recognised for hisinnovative skills of portraying various themes incontemporary art form. Jamal extensively exhibited hiswork at Bangladesh and abroad, and established himselfas one of Bangladesh’s leading painters. He approachesthe subjects with great empathy and passion andimmortalises them in his impressionistic style paintings.He paints with great skill and dexterity, said NoshiQadir curator of the gallery. His artistic developmentduring the last few decades completely transcends otherBangladeshi artists with his verve or paints with theunique human warmth he portrays. Jamal’s outlook isadventurous as he is a master of many techniques ofdrawing and painting that includes human figure,bearded Fakirs, magnificent riverscapes and a cluster ofpigeons that not only portray natural beauty but alsohighlight cultural heritage.


WorkSHoP on bioTECHnoloGy


Islamabad

ISlAmAbAD: Fouzia Siddiqui and Amina masood Janjua cut a cake on the 40 birthday of Dr Aafia Siddiqui at Parade Avenue. STAFF PHoTo

roots studentswin awards atcar art contest


The Roots students participated in theToyota dream car art contest in January2012 wherein young dreamers receivedawards here in the city on Friday. The competition was organised in threecategories - under 10 years old, 10-12years old and 13-15 years old. The goal ofToyota dream car art contest is to createopportunities for children to feel fun andunderstand the importance of havingdreams through drawing a “Dream Car”using their creative imaginations. Thepurpose of this contest was to bring outcreativity and originality and showcasethe immense talent of Pakistani childrento the world.Students from Roots School Systemparticipated in this art contest withpassion to show their skills and talents.Students also visited Toyota RawalMotors Sawan Camp. The Toyota teamalso showed their spare parts, sales andservices departments to the students. Asa token of appreciation, the studentswere given KFC coupons to enjoy freemeals. Out of 3,000 entries from theNorth of Pakistan, 75 most creativedrawings were selected by the jury ofIndus Motor Company and renownedArtists Jamal Shah and Leila Zuberi forthe national round. In the first categoryunder 10 years, Muzamil Ahmed, studentof Roots Westridge Branch won the firstprize followed by another RootsiansManahil Adnan, student of Roots CapitalCampus Islamabad, who won the secondprize in this category. In the secondcategory under 12, Maham Afzal, studentof Roots School System, 38 NDRIslamabad, won the first prize. In the third category under 16 years, AbuBakr Tiwana, student of Roots SchoolSystem DHA I, won the third prize. Thusthe Rootsians clinched maximum awardsin all the three categories. The ceremonyconcluded with a thrill in the air as thestudents and the parents were sharingtheir delightful moments with thedifferent media channels expressing theirdreams and thoughts on the concept oftheir dream car. A very lively magic showwas held to entertain the guests.

IIuI two-day

conference from 6thISLAMABAD

STAFF RePoRT

The Iqbal International Institute forResearch and Dialogue (IRD) of theInternational Islamic University Islamabad(IIUI) is going to organize a conference incollaboration with the American Councilfor the Study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS)and the South Asian Muslim StudiesAssociation (SAMSA) in Faisal MosqueCampus of the IIUI on March 6-7. Thebroad theme of the conference is ‘Pakistan,South Asia and Muslim Societies’. Thescholars participating in the conferencewould talk about the issues related toIslam, culture, politics, economy andsociety in the context of Pakistan, SouthAsia and other Muslim societies. Inaddition, the conference will highlight thesignificance of the South Asian region andits neighbours with Muslim societies in therecent years.

ISLAMABADoNlINe

The Islamabad Model Colleges WelfareAssociation warned the authorities onFriday that the entire Federal Direc-torate of Education (FDE) institutionswould be closed until issuance of notifi-cation for regularisation of daily-wageemployees.

The president of the association,Aftab Abbasi, said they had given a callfor strike on Monday to press for theirdemands. The employees distributed

pamphlets in all model educational insti-tutions regarding closure of the institu-tions from next week. He added that agrand rally would be held to record theirprotest. He said that Capital Administra-tion and Development Division (CADD)Deputy Secretary Fazl-e-Subhan verifiedthe list of daily wagers and regardedtheir demands lawful. “But after verifi-cation, a total of 221 teachers of grade-16 and 17 were regularised while otheremployees/non-teaching staff were neg-lected”.

He stated that FDE Atif Mehmood

Kiani met the association’s representa-tives a day earlier and asked for relax-ation of twenty days as there were noregular posts to compensate the dailywages employees. Kiani assured themthat new posts would be created to regu-larise at least 425 daily-wage employees.He said that the employees would con-tinue protest demonstration until is-suance of regularisation orders.

Meanwhile, the employees of thefederal educational institutions includ-ing men and women continued demohere at Parade Avenue on 12th consecu-

tive day. The protesters with placardsand banners chanted slogans in favor oftheir demands.

A protester said Muhammad toldOnline that he has been working as secu-rity guard on daily wages since 1992. Heapplied for regularization time and againbut failed. He said that presently he isreceiving Rs. 5000 per month with noholidays. He said that number of em-ployees including women have beenworking on very low wages, which was abig question mark on national and inter-national labor laws.


INTERNATIONAL biotechnol-ogy experts have stressed thatdevelopment of agriculturesector is important for food,social and economic security

of developing countries while the op-tions of using biotech crops can createa useful impact on farmers’ life whomay achieve both the objectives of foodsecurity and economic development fortheir country.

International Services for the ac-quisition of agri-biotech applications(ISAAA) experts Dr Mariechel JNavarro and Rhodora R Aldemita wereaddressing an international workshopon “International perspective about thefuture of biotech crops” here on Friday.The workshop was organised by Agri-culture Journalists Association Lahoreto explain the needs and importance ofbiotechnology. The members of theagriculture journalists association be-longing to Lahore and Islamabad at-tended the event.

ISAAA’s biotech expert Rhodora RAldemita shared the history, needs andgrowth of biotec crops. She told the au-

dience that due to mega influx inhuman population, use of new technol-ogy had become need of the hour andonly technological development canprevent the world especially developingcountries from food insecurity.

While talking about the applicationof biotech crops, she mentioned that 29countries were currently using biotechcrops and getting sustainable growth intheir agriculture sector. She high-lighted Brazil as the most successful de-veloping country using biotech cropswhere 83 percent of soya and 65 per-cent of maize were being producedthrough biotechnology. She describedthe myths and realities of geneticallymodified crops as well and revealed thefacts regarding food ingestion, horizon-tal gene flow, gene transfer to humancausing diseases, gene flow to weeds,cross pollination, effect on non-targetorganism, loss of biodiversity andsafety of water soil and air.

Dr Mariechel J Navarro, anotherISAAA representative from Philippine,presented the test case of biotech crops’adoption in her own country and ex-plained the role of media in the promo-tion of new technology. She talkedabout the role of Philippine’s media re-

garding biotech crops and termed it aneffective communication tool in capac-ity building.

To meet the challenges being facedby today’s agriculture in developingcountries like Philippine and Pakistan,biotech crops offer a sustainable solu-tion and there is dire need of commer-cialising the crops to counter foodinsecurity.

While responding to different ques-tions, the ISAAA experts explained thatbiotech crops could bring huge deduc-tion in the expenses and farmers couldachieve healthy production by usingless labour than organic crops. Theysaid farmers should be the decisive au-thority to go for best option for sustain-able production but they should beeducated enough to take such deci-sions.

Earlier, Agriculture Journalists As-sociation Lahore President MunawarHassan welcomed the guests and par-ticipants. In his inaugural address, hestressed that journalists and opinionmakers should develop their buildingcapacity. He termed new technologieslike biotech crops as life line for devel-oping countries to cope with theirgrowing needs.

Action against

quacks: three

clinics sealedISLAMABAD

STAFF RePoRT

The Islamabad capital territory (ICT)administration has launched avigorous drive against quacks andillegal medical practitioners in therural areas of the capital and sealedthree private clinics.Assistant Commissioner (Secretariat)Nouman Yousuf along with DistrictHealth Officer Dr M Azhar and DrugInspector Sardar Shabbir Ahmedconducted surprise checking ofprivate clinics and medical centres inBhara Kahu and sealed three medicalcenters and clinics, Seemi MedicalCentre, Al-Falaha Clinic and RobertClinic under the PMDC Ordinance1982 for running illegal medicalpractice. One illegal laboratory,Khalsa Laboratory, was also closeddown for running it in contraventionof the Drug Act 1976 and the PMDCOrdinance 1982. District HealthOfficer Dr M.Azhar said that a total of19 private clinics and medical centreswere checked, out of which threebeing run by illegal practitioners incontravention of the PMDCOrdinance 1982 were sealed andchallaned on the spot. He added thatsamples of medicines were also sentto the laboratory for test. AssistantCommissioner Nouman Yousafwarned that the drive launchedagainst the quacks from Bhara Kahuwould continue and stern actionwould be taken against illegal medical practitioners. He said teamswould also be sent to carry outinspection of private clinics in otherrural areas shortly.The chief commissioner and thedeputy commissioner have directedthe DHO and the drug inspector tocarry out checking of private clinicsand medical centres to ensure strictimplementation of Drug Act 1976 andPMDC Ordinance 1982 and take sternaction against illegal medicalpractitioners.

Farmers must opt forbiotech crops: speakers

FDE daily-wagers warn of offices’ closure


Editor’s mail 11Saturday, 3 march, 2012

American bullyingUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

warned Pakistan that Iran-Pakistan gaspipeline project if implemented Pakistanwould face American economic sanc-tions.

Uncle Sam should know that its pol-icy of bullying the nations by economicsanctions create hatred against America.The people consider America is theirenemy due to the hardships they face.America wants to keep its hegemony overthe world and control the natural re-sources of the world, which is creatingbad feeling about the sole superpower.Although the majority of Americans arecompassionate and want peace, prosper-ity, freedom and liberty for others.

Pakistan who helped America be-come the sole superpower by defeatingSoviet Union has been paying a very highprice, by fighting against mujahideen,who were created by the USA to fightagainst Soviet Union in Afghanistan. TheAmerican policy of dictating and deter-mining what is good for Pakistan, has en-couraged extremisms in Pakistan.

Due to Uncle Sam’s arrogant mind-set, the US is not prepared to learn anylesson from history, that the use of lethalforce against other countries and killinginnocent people cannot create goodwillfor America. Why does the US not wantPakistan to solve its energy crisis by hav-ing natural gas from its neighbour coun-try Iran?

Why it suggests that Pakistan shouldhave gas from Turkmenstan, which willpass through Afghanistan and Pakistanwill have to pay Afghanistan for using itsland, which Pakistan can have from Indiaif the original project concept of Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline is imple-mented.

Iran is a permanent neighbour ofPakistan and both countries’ peopleshare common heritage and their historyis thousands of years old. Can Uncle Samchange its neighbour country Canada?Pakistan should learn from America togive priority to its national interest whichis the well-being of every Pakistani.Therefore, it should not accept America’sbullying.

S T HUSSAINLahore

A test of nerves…In cricket, Team Pakistan has always

been considered as one of the most un-predictable opponent of all times. Rea-son of this unpredictability is that theteam consists of highly talented playersin the field of bowling as well as batting.

However, despite this extraordinarytalent and hard work our players fail tohold their nerves at the crux. Be it T20World Cup final in 2007 against India orthe recent series against England, afterpresenting a remarkable display of pro-fessional cricket, Team Pakistan fails tomaintain the temperament of tacklingpressure situation like any other teamwith similar talent.

So a team like Pakistan, which by nomean lacks talent in any area of the gameof cricket, should learn to hold theirnerves in pressure situation not only tomake most of their talent and abilitiesbut also to bring pride to this cricketfreak nation of Pakistan.

MUHAMMAD FARRUKH KAZILUMS, Lahore

Shahbaz Sharif and SindhShahbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of

Punjab, during his recent statement inSukkur has strangely claimed that Pun-jab has sacrificed for Sindh more than Rs10 billions in the last NFC Award. Ear-lier, I have also seen Shahbaz Sharif’sstatement on a private TV channel usinghighly furious language claiming whathas been done with Punjab so far, if hewere to tell that, there would be chaos inthe country.

First of all, I would advise Sharifbrothers to immediately stop false claimsas this unjustified trend resulted in a lossof more than half the country in the pastdue to unjustified policies of Punjab-backed establishment.

It was fact, when East Pakistan waswith us, Punjab was against the distribu-tion of NFC Award on population-base assole criteria but when East Pakistan sep-arated, Punjab turned the table and be-came champion of sole criteria ofpopulation based NFC Award for years.In the last Award, only five percentweightage was given to the revenue gen-eration, thus Award was a farce as far asSindh was concerned. Sindh contributesabout 70 percent into Divisible RevenuePool and in return gets meagre amount.

However, Punjab got included an ar-ticle in the 18th amendment that saysthat the income from any province in theNFC Award cannot be reduced in future.I advise Mr Shahbaz Sharif to visit BBCwebsite that says Punjab’s claim for lossin NFC is totally wrong. It was only thefederal government that surrendered its10 percent share. Therefore, ShahbazSharif’s claim is highly exaggerated.

Further, I may remind Mr Shahbazthat when Nawaz Sharif was prime min-ister twice (a total period of six years), hedid not launch/complete any mega de-velopment programme in Sindh. Instead,he abolished two mega developmentprojects, Keti Bunder Project and TharCoal launched by Benazir Bhutto.

MOHAMMAD KHAN SIALKarach

Fuel price hikeThe government of Pakistan has once

again raised the prices of petroleumproducts. It was only a few months agowhen the prices were raised and nowagain they have done it. The price ofpetrol has been increased by Rs2.75 perlitre to Rs97.66. The rate of light dieselhas been raised up by Rs3.08 per litre;kerosene oil by Rs4.38 to Rs96.40 a litreand; the price of HOBC raised by Rs8.67to Rs126.87 a litre. The rate of CNG hasbeen ratcheted up by Rs1.77 a kilogram.

Why the government is suppressingthe citizens with these increased rateswhen the citizens are already hit hard byinflation. Recently, it was said that aradio tax will be charge on mobile cards,have they not got any other way tocharge the people? Sooner or later, wewill also have to pay tax for walking onthe road and that will also be not surpris-ing for anyone. Electricity bills are al-ready enough to make people worriedbut this new electricity tariff that hasbeen announced is going to make theirlives more unrelenting. The governmentis silent as citizens are burdened withtax. We will soon hear the petrol to reacha century and then again nothing willhappen.

MAHRUKH JAVEDKarachi

Theatre has always provided me witha vehicle to convey a powerful message:even the monologue of my life.

(In this One Act play, the protago-nist’s recurring and troublesomethoughts are being narrated backstagewhile he stands on a ledge.)

My mind wandered, flitting back andforth, as I crept to the end of the ledge. Iwas ready to jump. There was an eerie si-lence that consumed me as if the worldwere holding its breath. Then there wasthe sound of the blood rushing to my earsas my heart scurried to match the pace ofmy thoughts. Were they watching? Ibegan to take the final step…but thenstarted to have second thoughts.

What had driven me, quite literally,to the edge? This is a story of the per-sonal consequences of the uneasy mar-riage between noble intentions and harshrealities in a misunderstood country.

I was coming back from school andwas observing the beggars supplicatingfor alms on the side of the streets, thecorrupt traffic policeman biding his timein the scorching summer heat and thecart-masters mercilessly beating theirdonkeys. Quite suddenly my attentionwas diverted to a man (the owner of aBMW) callously and brutally thrashing apoor thirteen-year-old boy. The teenagerwas being flogged for a traffic violationwhich was actually the aggressor’s ownfault. Punch after punch. The boy was onthe ground now. His cries turned intoscreams, his teardrops into drops ofblood. I wanted to stop my car to end thebeating. I wanted to say,” Aap rehamkarein!” (Have mercy, man!) THREEwords and I could have stopped a horrificthrashing, but I chose not to interfere. Ilet the unfortunate boy suffer for a crimeof which he was both oblivious and inno-

cent.(Monologue continues.)Ever since the incident, I have begun

to contemplate Pakistan’s prospects andmy role in it. Coming from a politicalfamily, did I not have any obligations? Ihad lived in a world of theatre. Actinghad taught me how to walk in another’sshoes, and to feel what others felt. Mycomplacency had created a void in mewhich continually increased as I under-stood the source of my guilt; I had failedto be simply human.

Soon after, I began an internship atSan Jog an international NGO whichhelps sexually abused children/prison-ers; it helped turn my complacency intoassertiveness and action. I rememberedthis ten year-old juvenile delinquent whohad been wrongly convicted of rape. Istared into his helpless eyes. My few kindwords of sympathy and promise of assis-

tance brought a faint smile to his sadface. A box of my old clothes brought joyto his eyes. The void felt less empty, andmy conditioned callousness softened.

From the ledge, I looked down below.That boy who had been unfairly beatenand the one who had been wrongly ac-cused were amongst thousands goingthrough oppression and injustice in mycountry. I needed to help mend theirplights and stop their pain.

Three words could have saved him!Three!

It was time now. I plunged to my ap-parent “doom” and hit the mattress witha soft thud.

(The lights turn off and the audienceapplauds.)

As I take my final bow, I finally knowwhat I’m meant to do.

SAIHAAM AHMED KHANLahore

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

A country’s population if well edu-cated, trained and skilled, constitutes avaluable asset. On the contrary, largelyuneducated and unskilled overpopula-tion is an unbearable liability, as is thecase in Pakistan. It falls far beyond its ca-pacity to sustain it. Government as usualappears to be least concerned. However,its growing crippling impact on daily lifeof the people has been highlighted bysome demography experts.

Rich-poor disparity may be but aminor contributory factor but not thesole cause. Nor removal of this disparity,though much needed, could be a pre-con-dition for stabilising population. It maytake generations to fill rich-poor gap.Population growth is not a trivial matterfor Pakistan and the government “musttackle it urgently.” Pakistan is a develop-ing country without sizable mineral de-posits. Its population sustainabilityprimarily depends upon its arable landand water resources. Land is not a limit-

ing factor (yet). But its water resourcesare already far short of demand for irri-gation to grow food and fibre.

Prior to introduction of year roundirrigation, famines often used to devas-tate parts of Punjab and Sindh killingthousands of people and more animals.Perennial irrigation began with the open-ing of Bari Canal passing through the cityof Lahore in 1859. By the advent of 21stcentury Indus Irrigation System evolvedinto the world’s largest. It comprised60,000 kms of canals irrigating 44 mil-lion acres of crop land. The region wasbread basket of the country. Alas nomore! The basket is empty and themouths to feed aplenty. Why?

Pakistan lost its three rivers viz Sut-lej, Beas and the Ravi to India under theIndus Waters Treaty 1960. River flowsdeclined due to siltation of Mangla andTarbela reservoirs. No large storage damwas built since Tarbela 36 years ago. Onthe other hand, water demand arose due

to fast growing population. Water avail-ability fell 30-40 percent short of de-mand. Future outlook was but bleak.

By the time Pakistan celebrates itsfirst centenary, it would be rich in peoplebut extremely poor in water, food andpower resources. What to speak of theyear 2050 even water scenario in 2025looks extremely disconcerting. Pakistan’swater kitty may not hold enough to caterto full requirements of projected 221 mil-lion people, their children, grand chil-dren and off-springs by the year 2025and beyond. Stated otherwise with dwin-dling river supplies, if fast growing over-population rise was not stemmed watershedding may be inevitable. It might re-sult in severe food shedding. It maythreaten the very survival of Pakistan. AMalthusian spectacle, maybe.

Stabilisation of population is not acut and carve activity with instant re-sults. It calls for top priority measures fordemand management commensurate

with resources by effective populationcontrol and maximum conservation ofsurplus water and its optimum produc-tive utilisation. It is a long-term processto change human attitudes conditionedby socio-religious orientation and tradi-tions of a mostly illiterate and largelyrural populace. Nonetheless, people needto be made aware of the looming debili-tating impact of water, food, and powercrisis.

A national campaign for effectivepopulation control would need to be ur-gently launched with active participationof the people, particularly religious elite.It is to be pursued on a war footing. Un-less and until growing surge of overpopu-lation is not stemmed, water sheddingand food shedding would be inevitable. Ared signal for the rulers to wake up andsave the country from being drowned bythe surging flood of overpopulation.

BASHIR AHMED MALIKLahore

Overpopulation: deadly for our existence

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned Pakistanthat the Iran gas pipeline project is inexplicable and could in-voke US sanctions that would further undermine Pakistan’s al-ready shaky economy. This is the worst example for violatingthe international law. This is another attack on the sovereigntyof Pakistan by the US. The US should know that Pakistan is fac-ing energy crisis. Our economy is not improving due to energycrisis. Pakistan and Iran are two brotherly countries. If Iran

wants to help Pakistan for resolving energy crisis, it is good forboth the countries. A common man in Pakistan asks what thejustification is for the US to warn Pakistan.

I advise to the government to go ahead with gas pipelinewithout taking US pressure. I also advise the US authorities forrespecting the sovereignty of two independent countries.

TARIQ HUSAIN KHANKarachi

Sanctions for you, too if ...

Against acid attacksEvery Pakistani who believes in

equality of gender is proud of SharmeenObaid Chinoy’s Oscar victory.

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy is the firstPakistani women film director who hashonoured the nation, although it is amatter of shame for the nation that theOscar winning documentary “SavingFace” is based on the subject which isone of the evils still existing in a male-dominated society of Pakistan.

Recently, the government has en-acted a law against the acid attackerswith 14 years to life imprisonment and

one million rupees fine. Even after thepassage of this law, a number of acid at-tack incidents have happened. It will be atest for the government and the law en-forcement agencies as to how strictlythey can implement the law for womenprotection.

According to the reports of HumanRights Commission of Pakistan and otherNGOs, there are about two hundred inci-dents of acid attacks every year. The gov-ernment should takes steps to controland register the sales of acid in the coun-try, which is now freely available, tomake it difficult for the individual to pur-chase it, and those who sell the acid to

the attackers should be accounted as aparty to this horrendous crime.

It is heartening to know thatSharmeen Obaid Chinoy has launched acampaign against acid attacks. One mustalso acknowledge the dedication ofBritish-Pakistani plastic surgeonMuhammad Jawad who helps to restorethe victim’s faces.

The other Pakistani plastic surgeonsin Pakistan should also follows DrJawad’s footsteps to contribute in savingthe faces of helpless victims of acid at-tacks.

LT-COL (Retd) JAVAID ANWARRalwapindi

the awakening


Comment12Saturday, 3 march, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

must be in line with our national interests

Pakistan’s options

Governments in Pakistan have often takendecisions that in the long term benefitted othersthan the country itself. The consequences of Zia’sagreement to jump into the US proxy war in

Afghanistan suited him personally while it also helpedWashington avenge the defeat in Vietnam. The highlynegative consequences of the decision however continue tohaunt Pakistan even after more than three decades in theform of extremism, militancy, and the resulting humansuffering. It is heartening, therefore, to hear from Gilanithat Pakistan being a sovereign country the governmentwould do whatever suits us, and from Khar that we do notmake our bilateral relations contingent on views andpolicies of any third country.

The statements have been made in the context ofIslamabad’s deal with Iran on the Pak-Iran gas pipeline.Alongside the gas, Iran has agreed to export 1,000megawatt electricity to Pakistan to help overcome thecountry’s energy crisis that has crippled the industry andhas harmed the trade. Pakistan hopes to export wheat,fertiliser, cement and fruit to Iran. A proposal concerningimport of gas in return for wheat is also reportedly underdiscussion. Bilateral trade between the two countries isprojected to rise to $5 billion target. The snag lies,however, in the US opposition to the gas deal with Iran.Hints have been thrown about taking recourse to thedisincentives available to Washington if Pakistan was todisregard the US sanctions on Iran. That argument thatIslamabad is bound to implement only internationalsanctions is correct in principle but then the countryreceives US aid which can be stopped if Washington thinksit does not serve its national interests.

There is a need under the circumstances to give adispassionate consideration to all the related aspects of thematter. Hard questions have to be asked. These includewhether Islamabad is ready to forgo US aid, live withoutthe military hardware supplied by the US and fight theterrorists on its own. The issues require a thorough debatein Parliament leading to the formulation of a policyregarding the US at the earliest. This will help us takedecisions which are in line with our national requirement.

looking inside

the rot within

All military coups in the country have beenbloodless, more or less. All coups staged by thearmy chief have been successful and, despite theinitial “shell shock” that grips almost the entire

corps commanders’ coterie, they have all been effortless.But these coups take away attention from the ones thathaven’t been successful. The ones that were not staged bythe army chief but someone lower down the line. Thesewere all unsuccessful. Consider the supposedly leftist ‘Pindiconspiracy case’. Consider the failed Islamist coup of 1995.

Another one of those might have taken place but it wasnipped in the bud, before it had even begun to beattempted. The Brigadier Ali Khan case, where several ofhis cohorts have also been arrested. The group had linkswith the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, the organisation particularlyinterested in grooming, culturing and mentoring mid tosenior level officers in the armies of Muslim countries totake over their respective organisations. The Hizb, itappears, knows where the buck stops, especially in Muslimcountries. Why bother with political Islam or evenrenegade militancy when you have at your disposal themost organised body of force in the country?

It appears that the Brigadier planned to take over theGHQ and hatched a conspiracy along with a PAF fighterpilot who would attack the army headquarters when aCorps Commanders’ Conference would be taking place.

The army prides itself on its professionalism and stronginternal accountability. Perhaps if its energies weren’tdiverted towards cracking down on the political class orjournalists, it would be mindful of the spreading rot withinits own ranks. Brigadier Khan was working in theregulations directorate at the GHQ, specifically the bodythat would check on stuff of the sort.

The need for screening HR at armed forces, not justwithin Pakistan but the Muslim world as a whole cannot beoverstated. Many of these states, with Pakistan at the top,feed its armed cadres a diet of retrogressive, anti-democracy drivel to “inspire” them. Problems arise whentoo good a job has been done of that.

Resetting roles

Better late than never. The intel-ligence agencies have been fi-nally put in the dock. TheSupreme Court has finallytaken up the missing persons

case in which many of those wanted fordifferent acts of terrorism were picked upand later found dead in mysterious cir-cumstances.

The other case that the apex court hasfinally showed the courage to take up forhearing is the Asghar Khan’s plea gather-ing dust in SC since 1996. The now octo-genarian politician had alleged in hispetition that politicians were bribed by theISI to form an anti PPP alliance in 1990.

According to an affidavit submitted bythe ISI, its former Director General Lt Gen(rtd) Asad Durrani distributed Rs 140 mil-lion among anti PPP politicians in 1996 onthe directions of the then Army Chief Gen-eral Aslam Beg. The list, which mentionsNawaz Sharif as the biggest recipient hav-ing received Rs 3.5 million, reads like whois who of politicians, some of them de-ceased now but many of them still active.

Of course, one can lament the role ofthe agencies in bribing politi-cians. But it is also a sad com-mentary on the selectivemorality that our politicospreach when accusing theirpeers of corruption but rarelypractise.

Mian Nawaz Sharif theother day, while informallytalking to a group of journal-ists, candidly admitted to hav-ing received ISI funds with thecaveat that he had not asked forthem but was simply given themoney. The question that begsan answer here is why in thefirst place did he accept thetainted money?

Perhaps, in this case theend justified the means: toforge an anti PPP alliance inthe form of Islami DemocraticAlliance (IJI), midwifed by theGHQ. The recipients of thefunds included luminaries likeMohammad Khan Junejo,Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Pir Pa-gara and even a number of ho-nourable right wing journalists.

The PPP, not without justi-fication, complains that theubiquitous Pakistani establish-ment has never reconciled toits role as the largest political

party of the country. It has indeed beendubbed as a security risk even by powerfulsections of the bureaucracy, the industrialelite and the media. Nevertheless, it hasmanaged to win elections four times sinceits inception.

Mian Nawaz Sharif, after not beingable to get along with any of the militarychiefs while in power, has perhaps belat-edly realised that the military establish-ment does not brook any powerfulcivilians who have the temerity to chal-lenge its suzerainty. The PML(N), beingno longer the favourite of the establish-ment, which created it, has openly accusedthe ISI of launching Imran Khan to cut itdown to size in its citadel.

Another petition seeking for the abo-lition of the “political wing” of the ISI hasbeen filed in the Supreme Court. It will beinteresting to note whether the spy agencywould even admit that such a cell has everexisted.

In the mid nineties, as editor of TheNation, the paper I had founded, I wassummoned by the then head of the ISIGeneral Nasim Rana to complain about aneditorial suggesting that the agencyshould close down its political cell. TheGeneral informed me with a straight facethat such a cell did not exist, so how couldit be closed down?

Anyone remotely familiar with theworking and mindset of the intelligenceagencies would vouch for their role in ma-nipulating and engineering politicalevents in the country. Whether the politi-cal wing formally exists or not, it is amplyevident now that everything has beenkosher for our intelligence agencies.

With the advent of a fiercely inde-pendent higher judiciary and an assertivemedia the role of the agencies is now beingopenly debated. Proportionately, the ca-pacity of the spy agencies to manipulategovernments of their liking is also dimin-ishing. With the formation of an inde-pendent election commission and aclear-cut course for formation of caretakergovernments to conduct free and fair elec-tion, this kind of manipulation hopefullywill become even more difficult.

The surprisingly bold remarks of theChief Justice of Pakistan, Justice IfthikharMohammad Chaudhry, made in the miss-ing persons case make interesting reading.The Chief Justice, who back in 2007 wastold by a bevy of generals headed by Gen-eral Musharraf, with Shaukat Aziz in tow,to resign, informed the counsel of the ISIand the Military Intelligence (MI) saying

that patriotism was not their monopoly.The role of the intelligence agencies in

the troubled province of Balochistan, al-ready being debated in the media, hascome under scrutiny in the missing per-sons case. The Chief Justice has rightly in-quired under which law and by whichagency are people being picked up withoutleaving a trace?

As usual “the supreme national inter-est” has been invoked by the agencies tojustify their intrusive role in the province.Their counsel claimed that, “only thosewho played into the hands of the enemiesof our dearest homeland, Pakistan, werebeing chased and hounded.”

Unsurprisingly, monopoly over patri-otism has been invoked to justify denyingbasic human rights to a large swath of thepeople of Balochistan, and for that matterthe rest of the country. Now that the roleof the intelligence agencies has comeunder scrutiny by the superior judiciaryand the commentariat, it is time to resetit.

The mandated role of these agenciescannot be denied. However, no one shouldbe allowed to get away with murder (liter-ally, in this case) in the name of a mis-placed definition of patriotism andnational interest. In the past, efforts tobring the ISI under some form of civiliancontrol have been fiercely resisted.

Already the judiciary and the mediaalbeit belatedly are proving to be somesort of check on the activities of the spyoutfits. However, it is still too little toolate. For example, report of the judicialcommission to inquire into the death ofjournalist Saleem Shehzad remained in-conclusive.

The judicial commission to determinethe circumstances which led to taking outof Osama bin Laden from his Abbottabadhideout last May is yet to finalise its find-ings. Balochistan remains a festeringwound despite the hue and cry about it.

Perhaps the formation of a bi-partisanparliamentary committee to determineand scrutinise the role of the intelligenceagencies is an idea whose time has come.There has been talk about giving anotherextension to the ISI Chief General ShujaPasha who is due to retire on March 18.According to some reports, he neitherwants one nor is he seeking it. Such exten-sions in service are not a good idea in anycase. His successor should be announcedasap.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today

Agencies have long held monopoly over patriotism

whitelIeSby ess Aich

For feedback, comments, suggestions and, most importantly, tips, contact us at [email protected]

We hear that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain isrepeatedly asked that if cousin andbrother-in-law Parvez Elahi is a candidate

for PM, should a stopgap arrangement be needed inthe near future. Political pundits also predict thatany replacement of you-know-who would have to befrom Punjab, given that the President and the NASpeaker are from Sindh and a Sindhi troika at elec-tion time could be disastrous for the ruling party. Notsurprisingly, Parvez Elahi’s name keeps cropping upin this context. However, Chaudhry Shujaat, whenrecently asked this popular question, was honestenough to reply, “I don’t think PPP will part with thispost in the year leading up to a general election.” Hewas also modest enough to add “However, if it didhappen, we could fix everything in the country in-stantly.” That is political wisdom and we may add, awhole lot of confidence for you.

By Arif Nizami

At the recent expo of Indian goods in La-hore, the Indian delegation was in for a

major surprise. Besides the efficiency of localpolice that caught a diamond thief in a stingoperation within hours, the visitors foundthat someone in the Governor House wasalso singing their song.

Apparently, Governor Khosa threw a re-ception for the Indian trade delegation andthe major attraction on the venue was, moveover Katrina Kaif and Vidya Balan, an itemnumber by guess who? The guv, just hoursearlier asked his ADC to get the full words ona Lata number. The ADC did manage the ur-gent task and our nightingale sang the num-ber with zest. Now this diplomacy and trade

rolled into a song.* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Last week Islamabad witnessed a megawedding where the Supreme Court CJ’s

son tied the knot with the daughter of a mar-riage hall proprietor. The five-star hotel waspacked with no less than 1500 people, someclaim it was more like 2000 guests. How-ever, more conspicuous were the guests thatwere absent. We hear that the father of thegroom had some tough decisions to make.President Zardari could not be invited be-cause of the ongoing NRO case, the PMcould not be on the guest list because of aContempt of Court hearing against him cur-rently being processed by the SC and there

was no way that Mian Nawaz Sharif could beinvited in the backdrop of the Asghar Khanpetition where the Sharif name also cropsup. In fact, the major political figures werenowhere to be seen, mainly because thereare ongoing criminal or civil legal proceed-ings against them. The two exceptions wereRana Sanaullah complete with moustachesbut we hear that he is family and you justcannot ignore your first cousin on your son’swedding. Nor can you blacklist a black coatthat has been your supporter and driver dur-ing the lawyers’ movement which explainsAitezaz Ahsan’s presence at the scene of thevalima. Completely understandable, ofcourse.


Comment 13Saturday, 3 march, 2012

The SC is fed up withunending transgres-sions on the part of

the agencies. On Thursday,the apex court referred tothe rising hue and cry overthe increasing incidents ofmissing persons inBalochistan. The CJ re-gretted that fingers werebeing pointed at the intel-ligence agencies. “If we donot follow the laws, war-lords would get benefit outof the situation so cre-ated,” the bench said,adding that the court couldnot be oblivious of theprotest camp of families ofthe missing persons.

Politicians, includingthose once patronised bythe ISI, refer to their pastconnections apologeticallywhile condemning theagency of continued inter-ference in politics. ChNisar Ali told a TV host thesame day that the PML(N)had broken off all ties withthe spy agency in 1992. Heaccused Gen Pasha of con-tinuing to meddle in poli-tics. Politicians from allmajor parties attending aseminar in Islamabadagreed to formulate newlaws to curb the “unlimitedand unchecked” powers ofspy agencies and recom-mended major amend-ments to the constitutionand relevant laws to tacklethe issue. Air Martial (rtd)Asghar Khan’s counsel inSC has called the distribu-tion of money to politi-cians by the ISI in 1990 ‘ asubversion of the demo-cratic system’.

Secular Baloch nation-alists and sympathisers ofreligious parties are all onthe same page in con-

demning the agencies’transgressions.

Those brainwashed,trained and pushed intojihad “in supreme nationalinterest” are fightingagainst the Pakistan armyin the tribal areas. Theyconsider the army and ISIpersonnel and installationsas their legitimate target.

The media is exposingthe excesses of the agen-cies as never before. TVtalk shows and stories andeditorials in newspapershave made the issue acommon subject in house-holds.

The agencies are beinglegitimately criticised ontwo scores. First, for actingin blatant violation of lawand constitution andtransgressing their scopeby indulging in politicalengineering. Second,grossly neglecting theirreal duties and thus beingresponsible for the biglosses to life and propertythat could have beenavoided through better in-telligence gathering. Attimes, their acts of com-mission or omission havecaused embarrassment tothe country.

Hundreds of unarmedcitizens have been pickedup in violation of law whoremain untraced inBalochistan and elsewhere.The agencies avoided thedifficult task of collectingthe necessary informationthat could lead to the pros-ecution of the suspects.They instead went for theeasy but cruel practice ofpicking up suspects andmaking them confessthrough torture. There is aperception that some ofthe missing died as a resultof torture and were subse-quently thrown on theroadside. Those who didthis are responsible forcreating hatred against thestate in Balochistan.

Equally reprehensibleis the agencies’ indulgencein politics by fundingpoliticians, creating splitsin parties and making andbreaking political al-

liances. This has hinderedthe natural growth of theinstitutions needed to sus-tain democracy

During the last threeyears, gross negligence onthe part of the ISI has ledto colossal intelligence fail-ures. This has causedavoidable disasters that in-clude the attack on theGHQ, Parade Lane AskriMosque tragedy, unno-ticed presence of OsamaBin Laden in Abbottabad,leading to the military op-eration by US.

Both types of blundersare interconnected. Theagencies waste energy andresources on missions thatdo not come under thepurview. When it comes todoing their real duties,they have little time ormanpower to meet thechallenge.

Civilian governmentsin the past have been tooweak to rein in the agen-cies even when they wereconvinced of the task’s ur-gency. Among other thingsthe agencies thrived on therivalry between the parties.If the government tried tocut them to their size, theopposition was sure toblame the administrationof weakening the countryand playing into the handsof India, seen by it as theeternal enemy.

There is a countrywiderealisation now that thefailures on the part of theagencies can cause irre-trievable losses to thecountry and could evenlead to a national tragedy.This is the right time totake important decisions.The agencies have to begiven a charter that pre-cisely defines the scopeand limitations of the secu-rity agencies and providesfor a civilian oversightneeded to keep check onthe unruly bodies. Manythink the Supreme Court isthe right forum to take thefirst step in the direction.

The writer is a formeracademic and a politicalanalyst.

There is no dearth of events happening in thecountry that would put the nation to collec-tive shame. One such occasion is the day

when an elected prime minister of the countrywas put in the dock and indicted for contempt ofcourt. But what is really demeaning is the mannerin which the party that he represents continues todefy the apex court’s judgement trying desper-ately to either survive in office or claim ‘political’martyrdom and en-cash it at the next elections.

What is the upshot that has brought the coun-try to this humiliating pass? A case for money-laundering was registered against Mr Zardari in aSwiss court. It was still pending when, claimingbenefit from the controversial National Reconcil-iation Ordinance (NRO), Mr Zardari had a letterwritten by the then attorney-general of Pakistanto the Swiss court to withdraw the case. When theNRO was declared void ab initio by the apexcourt, it sought of the government to re-open allcases against over 8,000 beneficiaries as theystood prior to the promulgation of the ordinance.It also asked the government to write a letter tothe Swiss court to re-open the case against MrZardari. The government defied the order takingthe plea that the president enjoyed immunityunder the constitution. After pleading for overtwo years, the apex court finally started imple-mentation proceedings leading to the indictmentof the prime minister.

The government’s stance is riddled with con-tradictions. On the one hand, it claims that there

is nothing in the Swiss case, yet refuses towrite the letter. It also claims total immunityfor the president under the constitution, yetis afraid to move the court for claiming it. Theprime minister’s defence attorney is on recordas having repeatedly said that the letter willhave to be written and that there was no harmin doing so, yet, with a senate seat under thebelt, he stands in the court defending hisclient for not having done so.

At the same time, there is no trace of theUS$ 60 million that were understandablylying in the Swiss banks and have been with-drawn after the letter by the then attorney-general was written to quash the case. In aclandestine operation supervised by Pak-istan’s High Commissioner in the UK, fullycaught on camera, reams of proofs in the mat-ter were retrieved from the concerned officesin Switzerland and whisked away in vans.Where is the money? Where are those reamsof evidence?

While the government does not tire oftrumpeting endlessly its respect of the consti-tution and the rule of law, it is obdurately un-bending in accepting the court’sconstitutional right to interpret the same. In-stead, it wants to manipulate this aspect ofthe constitution that rests exclusively with thejudiciary. The government may have suc-ceeded in delaying the sentencing – a convic-tion for the prime minister – but, by allindications, it cannot abort the inevitable.

At a stage when formal charges have been

framed against the prime minister, there is themoral question and, according to some a legal oneas well, whether he can and should continue tohold the coveted office? While there is little am-biguity as to the moral basis having eroded fully,some pundits may opt to wait for the final convic-tion before commenting on its legal sustainability.Also, we, as individuals and as a nation, havenever really been beholden to the moral preceptsand have repeatedly unmasked our degenerativeproclivities, at times with destructive and debili-tating manifestations. So, by all indications, MrGilani would continue to be the prime minister –even from behind the prison walls!

What utter depravity! Where do we standtoday as a nation? With an unrepentant primeminister having been indicted for defying the apexcourt of the country, the entire basis of gover-nance, moral and legal, stands obliterated. If theprime minister violates the judgement of thecourt, how can the government that he heads ex-pect the people not to replicate their ‘democratic’leader? Why should they also not defy the deci-sions of the courts and proclaim their innocencejust like their elected leader is doing?

While the government is always keen to pro-claim the parliament as supreme – an aberrationas supremacy rests with the constitution and notthe parliament – it is unwilling to recognise pow-ers granted to other state institutions, includingthe judiciary, by the constitution. It is this para-dox that has shaved the government of its much-needed legitimacy and relevance to remain inpower together with creating doubts as to the ef-ficacy of the constitution itself.

The country has virtually grinded to a halt.The economic plunge is unstoppable. The law andorder situation was never any worse. Relationswith our so-called allies, even traditional friends,had never sunk any lower than this. State institu-tions are tethering on the verge of collapse asrampant corruption digs its tentacles deeper. Thereview process of our relations with the US hasstretched endlessly as the air route for NATO sup-plies remains open, thus nullifying the impact ofthe decision that was taken in the wake of the at-tack on the Salala check-post. But the governmentcontinues to claim laurels – unashamedly!

The fast deteriorating economic situation inthe country, the law and order nightmare, thegovernment’s inability to fully comprehend andaddress the grave situation in Balochistan, theseemingly unstoppable radicalisation and frag-mentation of the society and the looming dangerson the horizon in its interactions at the interna-tional level pose a grave threat to the country. Tohelp retrieve the situation, the recipe is simple:stop protecting the errant individuals bent on de-fying law irrespective of their status and positionand start serving and promoting the cause of Pak-istan to the elimination of all irritants. The peoplefactor would be critical.

The writer is a political analyst and a mem-ber of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can bereached at [email protected]

The people factor is criticalTransgression should not go unchecked

iSi in the doghouse Collective shame

Candid CornerBy Raoof Hasan

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad


14 Saturday, 3 march, 2012

CAMBRIDGE

ReuTeRS

P OP diva Lady Gaga brought herstar power, her mom and someof her famous friends, includingOprah Winfrey, to HarvardUniversity to launch a new

foundation aimed at empowering youngpeople and stampingout bullying. “If youhave revolutionarypotential, you mustmake the world abetter place and useit,” Gaga said as sheofficially kicked off the‘Born this WayFoundation,’ namedafter her 2011 hitalbum and single, witha series of events at thetop US university. “Thisis about transformativechange in culture.” Thesinger has often given avoice for people she feelslack representation in themedia, and she formed the foundation toaddress issues like self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying and mentoring. “Ibelieve that human kind, as a whole, canchange the world,” said style-icon Gaga,who wore a long black, backless dress,black hat, gloves and platform shoes to

Harvard for what she termed “one of thebest days of my life.” “The goal is tochallenge meanness and cruelty byinspiring young people to create a supportsystem in their respective communities,”she said. In 2011 Gaga, 25, topped theForbes list of the most powerful people inthe entertainment business - ironically,

knocking talk show hostWinfrey from the numberone spot she had heldthree times in the pastseven years. Winfrey saidshe joined forces withGaga's foundationbecause it shared some ofher core beliefs,including kindness,compassion and care forothers. Gaga'sfoundation is expectedto include specificoutreach to gay youth.The singer/songwritersaid that releasing thesong further propelleda dialog that already

existed between her and herfans - Gaga has almost 20 millionfollowers on the social media site Twitter- and became a calling of sorts. “The morekids that I can get to come and eathamburgers and talk outside my shows. Ifeel that it will start small, but over timewill be very big,” Gaga said.

Anne Hathaway: Lindsay Lohan and Ihave more in common than people think

Lady Gaga lends star wattage to youth

empowermentIN LIMELIGHT

LOS ANGELESAGeNCIeS

Anne Hathaway, the beaming actress whohas come to be known as one ofAmerica’s sweet-hearts, said she wasmore like LindsayLohan “than peoplethink” and wasn’t al-ways the goody-two-shoes she appears tobe. The 29-year-old‘Dark Knight Rises’ star,made famous for play-ing the innocent outcastturned elegant royal inthe 2001 Disney film‘The Princess Diaries,’reflected on how hermother, also an actress,helped guide her over theyears. “Thanks to Mom, Inever sit in judgment.Lindsay Lohan and I have more in com-

mon than people think,” Hathaway said.“We’ve all done things we shouldn’t. It isjust that I did stuff at college when nobodyknew about it. I’m not a saint. I wasted

time doing self-destructivethings. I found out you canonly dance on so manytabletops,” she said. Hath-away’s quip comes on theforefront of Lohan’spreparing to make a freshstart in her career by host-ing ‘Saturday Night Live’this week. A SuperiorCourt judge in Los Ange-les told the 25-year-oldtroubled starlet on Febu-rary 22 that she seemedto be getting her life“back on track”. Lohanremains on informalprobation for taking a$2,500 gold necklace

from a Venice, California, jew-eller without permission in January 2011.

New delHI: Shirish Kunder,who was recently in news forhis tiff with Shah rukh Khan,has apparently angered AkshayKumar this time. the buzz hasit that Akki was very upsetwith the director afterwatching the rough cut of hisupcoming movie ‘Joker’. theKhiladi Kumar was unhappywith the way the film hadturned out, and demandedquite a few changes in it. the44-year-old actor wasreportedly so angry withKunder that he shouted at himand almost decided to walk outof the film at the last moment.However, the two later sortedout their differences. AGeNCIeS

HOllywOOD: Adam levine of maroon 5 performs at escape to total rewards. AFP

lOnDOn: Shahrukh Khan has his make-up checked between takes while filming on the Southbank. AFP

new yOrK: robert De niro attends

a screening of ‘being Flynn’. AFP

HOllywOOD:

tV show host

Jimmy Kimmel

attends escape

to total

rewards. AFP

new yOrK:

eddie Van

Halen of

Van Halen

performs

at madison

Square

Garden. AFP

mumbAI: trust Aamir Khan to crossall boundaries for concentrating on hisprojects. while, it is a known fact thatAamir Khan does only one project at atime, this time he has taken his'dedication' to the next level. Khan hasnever been keen on a cell phone. butnow, the actor has gone completelyoffline and decided not to access hisemails, either. He wants to ensurethat he's completely disconnectedfrom everyone. A source said, “It's aunique style of working but that's whywe call him the perfectionist Khan.Aamir wasn't very keen on having acell phone and considers it a banerather than a boon. He is amongst thefew who think that cell phones can bedone away with. For the major part ofthe last decade, Aamir did not buy acell phone and it was always verydifficult to get in touch with him.However, finally, he succumbed.However, now that he is working onhis ambitious television debut show‘Satyameva Jayate’, he wants to stayaway from cell phones and emails. Hedoes not want to get distracted fromanything else till his television show isready to go on air.” when contacted,Khan's official spokesperson,confirmed the news and said, “yes,Aamir wants to strictly focus on histV show and is keeping away fromeverything else as of now.” AGeNCIeS

mumbAI: Shahid Kapoor and ranbir Kapoorare said to be the next bFFs ofbollywood. In fact, Shahid wasreportedly happy to joinranbir in his world tourorganised by the moranibrothers, However, the truthis far from it. However, it waslearnt that Shahid is not keenon joining the global eventespecially since it’s beingpromoted as ranbir’sofficial world tour. Infact, Shahid, whowants to beprojected on anequal platform withranbir, has made itclear to theorganisers that hewon’t be available forthe tour. Shahid’sspokespersonconfirmed and said,“Shahid is definitely notgoing to be a part of theworld tour this year. He willbe concentrating on his film

assignments.” the story however, runs deeper.According to a source close to Shahid, theactor was not too happy being just an add-on

in what was being called the ranbir Kapoorworld tour. “Shahid’s representatives madeit very clear that if they wanted the actorto be a part of it, the show has to bepromoted as Shahid and ranbir’s world

tour. Shahid also has a big fanfollowing overseas. when two

stars are equal, it can’t be justone person’s show,” added thesource. but when the mediareports did not stop, Shahidhad to call the moranibrothers and inform themabout his inability to jointhe tour. According to thesource, Shahid has told the

organisers that he wouldbe available for theshow next year in April,

provided his conditionsare met. “Shahid holdsranbir in very high regardsbut is clear on what hewants from this tour,”added the source. AGeNCIeS

Won’t come free with Ranbir


LONDON ReuTeRS

Fifty years to the day after the RollingStones first took to the stage, the veteranrockers will publish aphotographic record oftheir rise to fame andlasting success. ‘TheRolling Stones: 50’ willhit the shelves on July12, the date in 1962when the band debutedat the Marquee Club inLondon’s OxfordStreet. The book is partof the 50th anniversarycelebrations for one ofrock and roll’s biggestacts. Questions remain about the relation-ship between lead singer Mick Jagger andguitarist Keith Richards. Ties were strainedafter Richards portrayed Jagger in an un-

flattering light in his 2010 memoir ‘Life’.The new book will feature 700 illustrations,300 of them in colour and many taken fromthe archive of the Daily Mirror tabloid,which contains the largest newspaper col-

lection of RollingStones photography.“This is our story of 50fantastic years,” Jag-ger, Richards, bassplayer Ronnie Woodand drummer CharlieWatts said in a jointstatement. “We startedout as a blues band andwe’ve had the kind ofshow that none of uscould have imagined allthose years ago.” The

photographic autobiography, which willalso feature words from the band, includesimages taken by Philip Townsend, the pho-tographer for the band’s first ever shoot.

15

NEWS DESK

S TEVE Coll writes forthe New Yorker thatit has been hard tofind much art inmainstream American

politics this winter or to findmuch politics in mainstreamAmerican art, at least in thefilmmaking category. TheOscars last Sunday celebratednostalgic, self-referential,wilfully irrelevant films such as‘The Artist’ and ‘Hugo.’ Therewere a few fleeting moments ofinspiration, though; they camefrom filmmakers from Pakistanand Iran-two countries thatbedevil, befuddle, provoke, andfrighten the United States-whoslipped in through the Academy’scarefully policed side doors fordocumentaries and internationalwriters and directors.

Asghar Farhadi, an Iraniandirector, won for Best ForeignLanguage Film for his intensedrama about family and justice,‘A Separation.’ SharmeenObaid-Chinoy and her co-direc-tor Daniel Junge won for ‘Sav-ing Face,’ a documentary abouta Pakistani surgeon who aidswomen who have been disfig-ured in acid attacks. It wasstriking to watch them comeonstage and deliver their ac-

ceptance speeches. In Americandiscourse, Pakistan and Iranoften appear as one-dimen-sional, cartoonish countries.Yet the space for independentfilmmaking, journalism, andsocial activism Pakistan isgrowing; in Iran, it is narrow-ing. Pakistan seems to beemerging from the heaviestshadows of its recent crises,while Iran seems to be slippingdown and down. In Pakistan,the space for speech and dissentis enlarging in bracing ways; inIran, it is shrinking. On Sundaynight, before the music swelledand the filmmakers exited thestage, they signalled these dif-ferences. Holding her Oscar,Obaid-Chinoy called out to her

country’s activists and exhortedthem: “Daniel and I want todedicate this award to all theheroes working on the groundin Pakistan. To all the women inPakistan who are working forchange: don’t give up on yourdreams. This is for you.”

‘A Separation’ is a terrificfilm—compelling from thestart, well acted, moving andchallenging. It is certainly a bet-ter movie than any of the Eng-lish-language finalists for themain Best Picture award thisyear. Yet ‘A Separation’ is, infact, limited by censorship,both explicit, and, perhaps,self-imposed. The story followsa middle-class couple torn bydisagreements over whether to

leave Iran; how to care for thehusband’s Alzheimer’s-bur-dened father; and, later, how tocope with an investigation by alocal judge into an allegedcrime in their household.

In Pakistan, where I wastravelling during the past twoweeks, the mood is different, asreflected in Obaid-Chinoy’swords at the Oscars. The coun-try’s proliferating satellite andcable television channels arealive with criticism of the gov-ernment and the military. It isonly to observe that the coun-try’s potential to identify andrespond to its crises throughuncensored politics, art, jour-nalism, and social activism isbecoming far greater than inIran, never mind in a Stalinistprison like North Korea. Obaid-Chinoy, who grew up in Karachiand was educated at Smith Col-lege and Stanford University,launched a campaign in herhometown on Monday to lever-age the publicity from her Oscarto eliminate acid attacks againstwomen and bring perpetratorsto justice. “The campaign ismainly aimed at making our so-ciety more humane and betterto live,” the director’s motherexplained. For that much, if lit-tle else this year, I’d like tothank the Academy.

Iran and Pakistan at the Oscars

Rolling Stones to issue 50th anniversary photo book

Demi Moore no longer in rehab, now on ‘vacation’

LOS ANGELESAGeNCIeS

News is that the‘Margin Call’ starhas checked outof rehab at theceleb-favouredtreatmentcentre. Moorewent to rehab inthe days

following her brief hospitalisation inLos Angeles after she suffered aseizure-like episode during a party ather Benedict Canyon-area home onJanuary 23. So, where is she now?Moore is now “on vacation” at anundisclosed location. “She's in no rushto get back to LA,” a source says.“She's on total lockdown and onlytalking to a small group of people.”Moore's camp never revealed whatprompted her to seek treatment, butour insider says she sought help forboth addiction issues and an eatingdisorder. The actress' family has beenhanging tough in the meantime.Rumer Willis, who lives nearby andwas at Moore's home when she hadher medical emergency, was seenvisiting her mom at the hospital beforeshe went to Utah. Middle daughterScout is attending Brown University inRhode Island, and 18-year-oldTallulah has been staying with dadBruce Willis.

Janet Jackson officially passes on ‘The X Factor’

LOS ANGELESAGeNCIeS

Jackson, who washeavily rumouredto be one of thetwo people fillingthe vacant spotson The X Factorjudging table,has confirmed

that she won't betaking the gig. The singer says in astatement that she is “very flatteredthat ‘X Factor’ let me know that I wasbeing considered for next season, but itjust wouldn't be possible.” Her rep saidthe singer's commitment to her‘Number Ones Up Close and PersonalTour’ and as well as a Tyler Perry movieis the reason behind her passing on theshow. But what's even more interestingis the fact that Janet's team claims theyhad “absolutely no meetings” with ‘TheX Factor’ in regards to a possiblejudging spot. Guess the rumours reallywere just rumours this time. Time totake to the phones again, Cowell. Mightwe suggest a Britney or Mariah?

Justin Bieber’s celebrates

18th birthdaywith a new single los angeles: Pop sensation JustinBieber turned 18, and he celebrated hisbig day with his manager, ScooterBraun,who had a special gift he wantedto give him. “We decided to get you acar that would make you stand out alittle on the road. It’s a Fisker Karma,”Braun said the car was a gift from himand Bieber’s mentor, Usher. The all-new 2012 Fisker Karma is the firstluxury all-electric car, valued at morethan $100,000. Bieber alsoannounced that his new single,‘Boyfriend,’ will be released onMarch 26. Justin talked about howgrowing up might affect his music.“People need to know I’m not a kidanymore,” he said. “I don’t wantpeople to just think of me as a teensensation. I want to transition, andbecome the greatest.” AGeNCIeS

mumbAI: david beckham has been a part of it.And so have Taylor Swift, emma Roberts and benStiller. And now, Imran Khan is soon going to jointhe league and get interviewed by the two cartooncharacters Phineas and Ferb. If all goes well, theactor will soon be a part of the show ‘Take Twowith Phineas and Ferb - The Asia Chapter’. ThoughImran refused to talk about it saying, “I don't havethe liberty to talk about this. we are trying towork this out,” his spokesperson confirmed thatthe makers of this uS based show have indeedapproached the actor. In fact, the actor, accordingto a source close to him, had been approached forthe show earlier as well. However, due to his choc-a-bloc calendar, Imran couldn't be a part of theshow at the time. Now, the actor has howeverdecided to give the offer a second thought. Sincethe makers of the show approached him again, hehas been trying to make time for it, revealed thesource. “Imran wants to do the show but is busywith Vishal's ‘matru Ki bijlee Ka mandola’. Theshooting for the film will go on for the next twomonths. but he is very keen on being on thePhineas and Ferb show. It has got him reallyexcited,” added the source. However, whetherImran will go to the uS to shoot for the show orthe makers will arrange for the show to be shot inIndia for the actor, is still undecided. AGeNCIeS

mumbAI: One would think that after anelaborate medical treatment in uSA, SalmanKhan’s dreaded nerve ailment would be gonefor good. but sources have stated thatSalman has of late been complaining ofa jaw pain. last year, in August, Salmanunderwent treatment for a rarenervous disorder. Post the treatment,Salman recuperated for a whilein the uSA before joiningKatrina Kaif and rest of thecrew in london to shoot forKabir Khan’s ‘ek tha tiger’.Salman had even assuredhis fans that he was doingwell. but last month whileshooting in cuba for thesame film, Salmanreportedly experiencedpain in his jaw.Speaking to a tabloid,a source said,“Salman is feeling aknot in his jaw.” lastyear, the pain had ledto Salman’s treatmentand subsequent surgery.the pain was so acute that

the star was unable to eat properly. eventhough the recent pains are less in intensity,

concern over the actor’s health has beenworrying his near and dear ones.

Some attribute the intense actionscenes on the sets of ett as themain cause of the pain. but asource from the unit said that

Salman never showed any sign ofdiscomfort while he was

shooting. A close friend ofthe actor said, “Salman ison medication for thesame. but he doesn’tworry about it much.People suffer from allkinds of conditions -blood pressure, diabetes,cholesterol. this too, isa physical condition.this doesn’t mean that itwill deter Salman from

living his life to thefullest”. Salman has been

suffering of this disorder forthe past seven years and

post surgery he was said to beabsolutely fine. AGeNCIeS

Salman’s nerve ailment makes a comeback

HOllywOOD: the

just-unveiled wax

figure of teenage

heartthrob Justin

bieber is unveiled

at madame

tussaud's. AFP

Aamir Khan goes

offline



16 Foreign News

WASHINGTONAFP

US President Barack Obamawarned a premature attackon Iran would allow it to playthe "victim" in the nuclearcrisis, in remarks published

Friday days before he meets Israeli leaderBenjamin Netanyahu.

In some of his toughest comments yeton Tehran's nuclear drive, Obama alsowarned Israel and Iran should take seri-ously possible US action against Iraniannuclear facilities if sanctions fail to stopthe country's atomic ambitions. "I thinkthat the Israeli government recognizesthat, as president of the United States, Idon't bluff," Obama told the AtlanticMonthly magazine. "I also don't, as amatter of sound policy, go around adver-tising exactly what our intentions are. ButI think both the Iranian and the Israeligovernments recognize that when the

United States says it is unacceptable forIran to have a nuclear weapon, we meanwhat we say."

Netanyahu arrived in Canada earlyFriday ahead of discussions Monday with

Obamaat the White House, and the Is-raeli leader this week said Iran's nuclearprogram will be "at the center of ourtalks." Netanyahu's government hasmaintained that all options remain on thetable with regard to action on Iran, butObama issued a blunt warning against anpremature strike. "At a time when thereis not a lot of sympathy for Iran and itsonly real ally (Syria) is on the ropes, dowe want a distraction in which suddenlyIran can portray itself as a victim?"Obama said. Even if Israel were not a spe-cific target of Iran's wrath, Obama said "itwould still be a profound national-secu-rity interest of the United States to pre-vent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon."

He also spoke of the "profound" risksof an Iranian nuclear weapon falling intoterrorists' hands, and warned of "theprospect of a nuclear arms race in themost volatile region in the world, one thatis rife with unstable governments andsectarian tensions.

LONDONAFP

Prime Minister David Cameron soughtFriday to calm a minor domestic stormby admitting he rode a horse lent byBritain's top police force to the formereditor of the now-closed News of theWorld.

Scotland Yard revealed this weekthat it had loaned a retired police horseto Rebekah Brooks, a former editor ofthe NOTW and The Sun and a one-timekey aide to the tabloids' owner, RupertMurdoch. The news was seen as confir-mation of the often cosy relationshipbetween the British media and the po-lice. Those links are being examined bya public inquiry set up into the phonehacking scandal which led to theNOTW's owners shutting down thetabloid in July. Cameron, an old Etonschool-friend of Brooks' racehorsetrainer husband, has been drawn intothe row, jokingly dubbed "horsegate"by the press. Speaking to reporters inBrussels following a European summit,the prime minister apologised for al-lowing a "confusing picture" to emerge

over recent days about his connectionwith the animal.

"I've known Charlie Brooks, thehusband of Rebekah Brooks, for over30 years. He's a good friend and he's aneighbour in the constituency we live a

few miles apart," Cameron told a pressconference. "I have not been ridingwith him since the election (in May2010). Before the election, yes, I did goriding with him. He has a number ofhorses and, yes, one of them was thisformer police horse Raisa, which I didride. "I am very sorry to hear that Raisais no longer with us and I think I shouldprobably conclude by saying I don'tthink I will be getting back into the sad-dle any time soon." The Brooks bor-rowed the horse between 2008 to 2010,when it was rehoused with a police of-ficer. The animal subsequently died ofnatural causes.

Murdoch has defended his formerprotege Brooks, who quit as chief ex-ecutive of News International, thepublisher of the NOTW and The Sun,shortly before being arrested over al-legations of hacking and policebribery last year. "Now they are com-plaining about R Brooks saving an oldhorse from the glue factory!" themedia mogul tweeted on Wednesday.Brooks has always denied wrongdo-ing, and has not been charged with acriminal offence.

Suicide bomberattacks nAToconvoy, 7 wounded

KANDAHARAFP

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle attackeda NATO convoy in the insurgency-hitsouthern province of Kandahar Friday,wounding seven people including foursoldiers, an official said. "A suicide attackerrammed his explosives-laden motorcycleinto a convoy of NATO troops in Danddistrict injuring four foreign soldiers, onepoliceman, one translator and onecivilian," provincial governor ToryalaiWeesa told AFP. A spokesman for NATO'SInternational Security Assistance Force(ISAF) confirmed the attack, but would notgive details of any wounded soldiers,saying only that none had been killed. Theattack bore the hallmarks of Talibaninsurgents, who on Monday targetedNATO troops in a suicide car bombing atan airport in eastern Afghanistan, killingnine people but no foreign soldiers. TheTaliban said that attack was in revenge forthe burning of Korans at a US military baseat Bagram north of Kabul, an incident thatignited days of violent anti-US protests.The only NATO soldiers reported killed inAfghanistan in the 10 days since thedemonstrations erupted have died at thehands of Afghan colleagues.

Egypt pressfurious overfreeing ofnGo suspects

CAIROAFP

Egyptian newspapers angrily accused theruling military on Friday of caving in to USpressure to allow foreign NGO workers,including a number of Americans, toescape trial on charges of illegal funding.One of them also accused the SupremeCouncil of the Armed Forces (SCAF) oftrashing the concept of an independentjudiciary, insinuating that it had strong-armed the courts into lifting a travel banon the suspects. Amid the growing furore,American and other foreign democracyactivists flew out of Cairo on Thursdaynight, airport officials said, a day after thejudiciary lifted the travel ban. Theytraveled to Cyprus, from which they wereexpected to head home, possibly on Friday.Their departure is expected to easetensions with Washington, which hadurged the SCAF to resolve the case.American officials and legislators hadsuggested the row could imperil $1.3billion in US aid to its key Middle Easternally. Independent daily Al-Tahrir summedup the general mood with its front-pageheadline: "Scandal. Under orders from themilitary, the judiciary freed the Americansand let them travel." "In only 24 hours, themilitary council proved to the world thatany talk of judicial independence in Egyptis no more than an illusion," the papersaid. It accused the SCAF of backing offunder "pressure, negotiations and visitsfrom American officials to Cairo." OnTuesday, US Secretary of State HillaryClinton had said there were "very intensivediscussions with the Egyptian government"and "I think we are moving toward aresolution." "But I don't want to discuss itin great detail because it's important thatthey know that we are continuing to pushthem but that we don't necessarily put itout into the public arena yet," she added.The activists working for four Americanand a German NGO are accused, alongwith a number of Egyptians, of receivingillicit foreign funds and operating withoutlicenses. The Americans include SamLaHood, the son of US TransportationSecretary Ray LaHood and head of theInternational Republican Institute (IRI) inEgypt. He and several other US citizenshad taken refuge inside their Cairoembassy. The trial began on Sunday, andthe defendants and their lawyers deniedthe charges, which they said were political.Two days later, the three judges handlingthe case recused themselves undermysterious circumstances. State newsagency MENA said chief judge MohammedShukry wrote to the head of the appealscourt, which designates trial judges, sayingthey could not continue the trial. It quotedthem as using a formulation that couldeither mean they felt unease at theproceedings or restrictions on their work.

KAbul: dogs fight during a traditional dog fighting competition on Friday. Thousands of people gather in a circle each week to watch large Afghan fighting dogs, known as

Kuchis, attack each other in 30-second contests. rEUTErS

Obama warns Iran would ‘play victim' if attacked

tehran: Iran opened legislativeelections on Friday, with the country's 48million voters being called out in what isseen as a test of how much supportPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hasamong ruling conservatives. Supremeleader Ali Khamenei cast his ballotmoments after polling began, statetelevision showed. "The more people comeand vote, the more beneficial it is for thefuture, prestige, security and immunity ofthe country," he said. He framed the poll aspart of Iran's showdown with the West,saying: "The arrogant powers, who havebeen defeated and have been delivered ablow to the mouth, are repeating the issueof sanctions and human rights." Theelections, to fill the 290 seats inparliament, are being boycotted by Iran'smain opposition and reformist groups, the

leaders of which have been under housearrest for a year. It is the first nationwidepoll since the disputed 2009 re-election ofAhmadinejad, which sparked widespreadprotests by opposition groups crying fraudand a bloody regime crackdown. Theelections are essentially a struggle betweenconservatives who back Ahmadinejad anda hardline current that despises him. Eachclaims stronger fealty than the other toKhamenei. No protests were expected.Iran's police chief, Ismail AhmadiMoghaddam, said security forces were"fully prepared" to counter any problems.There were no international observerspresent to watch over the vote. TheGuardian Council, which vetted the 3,400candidates allowed to run and will validatethe results, called the idea of observers "aninsult to the people" of Iran.

Cameron admits ridinghorse in police-tabloid row

iran votes in polls focused on nejad support


Foreign News 17Saturday, 3 march, 2012

MOSCOWAFP

Vladimir Putin made a show of confi-dence ahead of Sunday's poll that is set tosee him win back the Russian presidency,belittling the opposition as lacking in vi-sion and brushing off protests.

The premier said he has not yet de-cided whether he wants to stay in powerbeyond 2018 -- when the presidential man-date he is expected to win will expire -- butsaw nothing wrong in principle with suchlengthy political dominance. At a meetingwith editors of leading newspapers arounda table laden with white wine and snacksThursday evening, Putin said the protestsmade him happy and that the opposition'sleaders offered nothing substantive.

"I am very happy about this situation,because that means that the authorities...have to actively react to what is happen-ing in the country, to people's sentiments,and to meet expectations," he said. Tensof thousands of people have staged sev-eral rallies in Moscow over the past threemonths against unfair elections andPutin's monopoly on power, and manyplan to demonstrate next Monday, a dayafter the presidential poll. "I think this is

a very good experience for Russia," Putinsaid, adding that the protests are mostlydirected against his majority party UnitedRussia, rather than himself personally.

"You said the urban population isagainst. They are not against," Putin toldone of the editors, who said opinion pollsindicated the urban middle class is reject-ing Putin. "There are less of my support-ers (there), that is true. But all in all, mysupporters are in the majority, even inlarge cities." The latest opinion polls pre-dict a first-round victory for Putin in theelection with support of nearly 60 per-cent, and the runner-up Communistparty leader Gennady Zyuganov trailingwith only around 15 percent of votes.

Putin has not participated in politicaldebates with four other presidential candi-dates, instead sending his campaign repre-sentatives to talk shows while he kept animage of a busy prime minister travelling allover the country. And while talking abouthis own series of articles on domestic andforeign policy, Putin said his opponents lackvision and offer nothing but empty slogans."People in the opposition... have not offeredany interesting, weighed, and thought-outsteps to develop the country," he said,adding that "debates are not important" in

his position, rather "results of previouswork". Asked whether it is normal to be inpower for such a long time, Putin com-mented: "It's normal if everything is work-ing out, if people like it." Putin, who turns60 this year, can under the law serve aspresident for two more consecutive terms,which would prolong his rule until 2024,when he will turn 72.

BRUSSELSAFP

EUROPEAN Union leaderssigned Friday a treaty de-signed to force govern-ments to adopt balancedbudgets through a "golden

rule" or face fines.The Treaty for Stability, Co-ordina-

tion and Governance, the bedrock re-sponse to a two-year public debt crisisthat forced bailouts for Greece, Portu-gal and Ireland, was signed by 25 of thebloc's 27 leaders. It "helps prevent arepetition of the sovereign debt crisis,"said EU president Herman VanRompuy after the ceremonial signing inthe EU's Brussels headquarters.

The economic and monetary unionenvisaged when the euro currency wasintroduced in 1999 "is finally walkingon two legs," Van Rompuy said. It will

take effect once 12 of the 25 states haveratified the pact. Ireland has alreadyannounced plans for a referendum be-fore the treaty can apply there.

If states do not ratify the treaty,they will be blocked from bailout fund-ing from a related rescue firewall being

set up as of July this year. In the pact,states that fail to adequately implementthe sharpened rules in national law willbe dragged before the European Courtof Justice. The treaty updates the EU'sStability and Growth Pact, first agreedin the 1990s and last reformed in 2005.

15 shot dead

across Syria,

including 10 in

Baba AmrBEIRUT

AFP

Fifteen Syrians were killed on Friday,including 10 shot dead in Baba Amr afterregime forces overran the rebel district ofthe central city of Homs, a watchdog said.Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights, told AFPthat 10 Syrians were “shot dead” in BabaAmr, but added: “The circumstances of theirdeaths are not clear.” The Britain-basedwatchdog said that regime forces hadturned a Baba Amr shopping centre into adetention area and called on theInternational Committee of the Red Cross,which has a relief convoy poised to enter theneighbourhood, to inspect it. TheObservatory warned of summary executionsin Baba Amr after took control of it onThursday following the withdrawal of rebelfighters. In Idlib province in the northwest,security forces shot dead a young man at acheckpoint near Maaret al-Numan, theObservatory said. A couple and their driverwere also killed whern regime forces openedfire on their car at a bridge in the Idlib townof Saraqeb, it added. Another civilian wasshot dead by security forces in the easterncity of Deir Ezzor, the watchdog added. TheObservatory said 21 people were killed inHoms on Thursday, including 17 civilianscaught up in the battle for Baba AmrICrC ConvoY prepares toenter BaBa amr In sYrIa'shoms: Meanwhile, a convoy of seventrucks from the International Committee ofthe Red Cross and the Syrian Arab RedCrescent is preparing to enter the BabaAmr neighbourhood of Homs, an ICRCspokesman said. "We are preparing toenter the district of Baba Amr," deputyICRC spokesman Sebastien Carliez said."The convoy arrived in Homs a fewminutes ago."The trucks are carrying food,medicines, blankets, baby milk and otherequipment to the area, which was overrunby regime forces after a nearly four-weekpounding. The ICRC said Thursday it hadreceived "positive signals" from the Syrianauthorities over its request for a daily two-hour humanitarian truce. The UN SecurityCouncil also on Thursday asked the Syrianauthorities "to allow free access, full andimmediate humanitarian personnel to allpeople who need help".

China deniesdam drying upriver in india

BEIJINGAFP

China denied Friday that a dam it wasbuilding on a major river in Tibet wasimpacting the lower reaches of thewaterway in India, despite complaints thatwater-levels there were plunging. TheBrahmaputra has its source in China'ssouthwestern Tibet region where it isknown as the Yarlung Tsangpo, and itenters India in the mountainous, remotenortheastern state of Arunachal Pradesh,where it it is called the Siang. The 1,800-mile (2,900 kilometre) river thendescends into the plains of adjoiningAssam state and ends in Bangladesh in theBay of Bengal, along the way supplyingwater to hundreds of millions of farmersand residents.Local Indian state lawmakerTako Dabi told AFP Thursday hesuspected China was diverting river waterresulting in an estimated 40 percent dropin the flow at the Indian town of Pasighat."Our projects have not affected the lowerstream regions, including those in India,"China's foreign ministry spokesman HongLei told reporters when asked of hisnation's water usage on the river. "Overall,the utilisation of the river by the Chineseside is very low." China pays attention tothe impact on the lower stream regionswhen developing its water resources,Hong said, adding that Chinese officialshave briefed India on its development ofthe Yarlung Tsangpo.

netanyahu quizzed

over lavish foreign tripsJERUSALEM

AFP

Israel's state comptroller has questionedPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuover lavish private trips abroad he madethat were financed by businessmen, theHaaretz newspaper reported on Friday.It said he was questioned in secret formore than two hours at the start of theweek, over an affair which broke outalmost a year ago after an investigationby a private television station, Channel10. According to Haaretz, thequestioning was the final phase of theinvestigation before Netanyahu ispresented with the comptroller's report"in a month or two." The disclosurecame as Netanyahu prepared to meet inWashington on Monday with USPresident Barack Obama. Last April,public radio said the prime minister wassuing Channel 10 over its allegation thatbusinessmen had paid for lavish trips forhim and his family at a time he was acabinet minister.

loS ANGeleS: Scarlett Stoever, 23, trains at Cirque School in Hollywood. Circus professionals train at the school, which also teaches recreational circus classes to the public. ReUTeRS

EU leaders sign new treatyfor budget discipline

Confident Putin brushes off Russia protests ahead of votePutin declines to

back Syria's AssadmosCow: Prime Minister VladimirPutin stopped short of backing Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian crisis, saying Russia hadno special relationship with his regime andrefusing to predict that the president wouldstay in power. With pressure mounting onMoscow to harden its line against Assad,Putin called on both the Damascus regimeand opposition rebels to agree a ceasefirebut also criticised the West for backing therebels in the conflict. "We have no specialrelationship with Syria," Putin told foreignnews executives late Thursday at a meetingat his suburban Moscow residence ahead ofSunday's presidential elections in Russia.Asked whether Assad had a chance tosurvive the crisis, he added: "I do not knowthis, I can give no kind of assessments." "It'sclear that there are very serious internalproblems. The reforms that they (theregime) have offered clearly should havebeen carried out long ago," said Putin incomments published on the governmentwebsite Friday. AFP

bRuSSelS: German Federal Chancellor Angela merkel, european Commission PresidentJose manuel barroso and Italy Prime minister mario monti speak before a workingsession during a two-day eu summit on Friday at the eu headquarters. ReUTeRS



Gayle remains in exilefor Aussies visit

Page 20

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

FORMER Australian bats-man Dav Whatmore hasreached the city on Fridayto formally take overcharge of the Pakistan

team as the chief coach. According to anofficial of the PCB he will be signing thecontract before being handed the coach-ing job. Whatmore, who guided SriLanka to World Cup title, will be form-ing his coaching team with the guidanceof the PCB officials.

The 57-year-old Whatmore, whoplayed seven Tests and one limitedovers international for Australia,coached Sri Lanka to the World Cuptitle in 1996 and also helped Bangladeshreach the second round in the 2007World Cup in the Caribbean.

Whatmore was chosen by a three-member coaching committee of thePakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after reg-ular coach Waqar Younis left the postciting health issues in September lastyear. Former Pakistan opener MohsinKhan was appointed interim coachunder whom Pakistan beat Sri Lanka

and Bangladesh and whitewashed Eng-land 3-0 in Tests before they went downtamely 4-0 in one-day series and 2-1 inthe Twenty20 internationals lastmonth. The head of the coaching com-mittee Intikhab Alam confirmed What-more will sign a contract.

"Whatmore and Julien Fountain(likely to take over as fielding coach)have arrived here and Whatmore willsign a contract as head coach of the Pak-istan team," Alam was quoted by a for-

eign news agency, refusing to give fur-ther details of the contract.

Whatmore's first assignment will beto help the team in the four-nation AsiaCup in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Defendingchampions India, Sri Lanka andBangladesh will also compete in theMarch 11-22 event.

Alam said Whatmore would assistthe newly-formed selection committeealong with captain Misbah-ul Haq topick the squad later Friday. Formerspinner Iqbal Qasim was appointedhead of the selection committee afterMohammad Ilyas resigned from thepost on Thursday.

Chief selector Iqbal Qasim said thesquad for the Asia Cup will be an-nounced on Saturday after consultationwith Whatmore. "We will consult with(new coach) Whatmore on the team andthen announce the squad on Saturday,"Qasim told reporters.

The PCB will also officially an-nounce Whatmore's appointment onSaturday. Whatmore will be Pakistan'sfourth foreign coach after RichardPybus (South Africa), Bob Woolmer(England and South Africa) and GeoffLawson served in the past.

Whatmore arrives totake charge as coach

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

The Asian Football Confederation has allottedthe Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) right tohost the group stage matches of the presti-gious AFC President’s Cup 2012 QualificationTournament. The Lahore’s Punjab FootballStadium will pay host to the tournament fromMay 8 to 13. According to Col Ahmed Yar, sec-retary PFF, four champion clubs (three foreigncountries and one Pakistan) will participate in thequalification round. “The award for holding thisevent shows the confidence reposed in the leader-ship of PFF professional competence,administrative skills and devotion forthe promotion and development offootball in Pakistan,” said the PFF of-

ficial. It will not be out of place to mention here that inthe year 2007, Pakistan had been honored to host the

similar event. The AFC President's Cup is an annual in-ternational association competition between do-mestic clubs’ sides run by the AFC. Qualificationto the competition is the clubs from AFC-affili-ated countries which fall into the AFC's 'emerg-ing nations' category as laid out in their 'VisionAsia' document. Countries which are 'mature'

and 'developing' nations are entered into theAFC Champions League and the AFC Cup, re-

spectively. For an 'emerging nation' to have a teamrepresenting it in the competition, however, thecountry must have an acceptable football league.

The team that represents a country inone season of the competition is thedefending champion of the top-level

leagues of participating countries.

AFC allots President’sCup qualifiers to lahore

MELBOURNEAFP

Sri Lanka held their nerve to end India's latebid for a tri one-day series finals spot with agripping nine-run win over hosts Australiaat the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.

The Sri Lankans dismissed DavidHussey with five balls to spare, clinchingtheir place in the best-of-three match finals

against the Australians, which starts in Bris-bane on Sunday. World Cup championsIndia, who narrowly failed to leap-frog SriLanka into the finals after a sensational run-chase in Hobart last Tuesday, will returnhome this weekend after a dismal tour ofAustralia. Sri Lanka triumphed in a thrillinggame which saw medium pacer Dan Chris-tian take a hat-trick for Australia, before thevisitors -- defending a low total -- bowled outthe Australians with five balls to go. Husseyhit a run-a-ball 74 and finished the group

stage of the tournament as the top runscoreramong the the three teams with 412 at an av-erage of 82.40. Lasith Malinga finished withfour for 49 as skipper Mahela Jayawardenechopped and changed his eight bowlers todefend Sri Lanka's below-par total.

It was Sri Lanka's third consecutivevictory over Australia in the series, makingthem favourites for the finals. "The boysshowed character (after the loss to India),"Jayawardene said. "It was fantastic sup-port, it's like playing in Sri Lanka. We liftedour game. I'm sure the crowd will follow usnow, the lift that we got (from them), itpushed us in the last few overs."

Although requiring just 4.7 runs anover after dismissing Sri Lanka for an lowtotal, the Australians, led by Shane Watsonin the absence of rested skipper MichaelClarke, struggled under pressure.

Watson scored 65 off 83 balls and MikeHussey 29 off 56, but it was David Hussey,who almost got Australia home with hisskilfull farming of the strike with the tailen-ders. "A brilliant game of cricket... younever knew who was going to win. DaveHussey batted beautifully, as he's shownthrough the summer so far," Watson said.

Allrounder Christian captured a hat-trick as Australia dismissed Sri Lanka for238 off the last ball in their innings afterJayawardene had won the toss.

sri lanka win thriller to reach finals

SRI lANKA:m. Jayawardene run out (d. Hussey) 5T. dilshan c wade b Pattinson 9K. Sangakkara c Forrest b Pattinson 64d. Chandimal c mcKay b Pattinson 75l. Thirimanne b Pattinson 51A. mathews c doherty b Christian 5T. Perera c m. Hussey b Christian 5S. Senanayake lbw b Christian 0N. Kulasekara lbw b Christian 0R. Herath not out 14l. malinga b Christian 2eXTRAS (b2, lb4, w2) 8ToTAl (all out; 50 overs) 238Fow: 1-10, 2-17, 3-140, 4-186, 5-195, 6-206, 7-206, 8-206, 9-235, 10-238 bowlING: Pattinson 10-0-51-4 (1w), Hilfenhaus 7-0-29-0,mcKay 8-0-39-0 (1w), d. Hussey 1-0-6-0, Christian 9-0-31-5,watson 7-0-28-0, doherty 8-0-48-0AuSTRAlIA:m. wade lbw b Kulasekara 9d. warner c Perera b malinga 6S. watson b malinga 65P. Forrest c Sangakkara b malinga 2m. Hussey c Sangakkara b Thirimanne 29d. Hussey c dilshan b Kulasekara 74d. Christian c and b Senanayake 3J. Pattinson c dilshan b Herath 12C. mcKay run out (dilshan) 6X. doherty c dilshan b malinga 7b. Hilfenhaus not out 0eXTRAS (w15, nb1) 16ToTAl (all out; 49.1 overs) 229Fow: 1-16, 2-18, 3-26, 4-113, 5-140, 6-151, 7-178, 8-187, 9-226, 10-229bowlING: malinga 10-0-49-4 (3w/7), Kulasekara 9.1-1-38-2(1w), mathews 4-0-8-0, Senanayake 10-0-50-1 (2w/3), Perera0.5-0-8-0, Thirimanne 4.1-0-25-1, Herath 10-0-43-1 (1nb, 2w),dilshan 1-0-8-0 (1w/2)Result: Sri lanka won by 9 runs, man-of-the-match: dinesh Chandimal(SRI), Toss: Sri lanka, umpires: Asad Rauf (PAK) and Rod Tucker (AuS),TV umpire: Simon Fry (AuS), match referee: Chris broad (eNG)

SCoReboARdg India out of tri-series race

melbOurne: nuwan Kulasekara (l) celebrates with teammate Dinesh chandimal (r) aftertaking the final Australian wicket to give Sri lanka victory. AFP

melbOurne: Australian bowler Dan christian (r)has Sri lankan batsman Sachithra Senanayake(l) trapped lbw on his way to hat-trick. AFP

STANdINGS (games, wins,

losses, tied, points):

australia 8, 4, 4, 0, 19

sri lanka 8, 4, 3, 1, 19

india 8, 3, 4, 1, 15

new zealanddrop troubledryder for test

WELLINGTONAFP

Troubled New Zealand cricket star JesseRyder was dropped Friday from the squadfor the first Test against South Africa but se-lectors said the move was due to form, andnot his latest drinking bout. The 13-mansquad includes Rob Nicol and Andrew Ellis,yet to make their Test debuts, and marks thereturn of captain Ross Taylor who has beensidelined for nearly six weeks by injury. TheTest starts in Dunedin next Wednesday.Ryder's exclusion was announced a fewhours after he and pace bowler DougBracewell were dropped from Saturday'sthird and final one-day international againstSouth Africa following a drink-fuelled bar in-cident. Team manager Mike Sandle said thepair broke team protocols by going outdrinking and had "verbally reacted to tauntsfrom the public" about New Zealand's six-wicket defeat in the second ODI in Napier.Bar patron Brendon Arkwright told the Ro-torua Daily Post he had asked Ryder why hewas "drinking like you've won the gamewhen you didn't score any runs. He and oneof his mates has taken offence to that andgone off on me." Ryder, 27, has a Test battingaverage of 40.93 and an ODI average of34.37 but his career has been marred by inci-dents involving alcohol. Officially Ryder willmiss the next ODI as punishment and thefirst Test because of form, but New Zealandcoach John Wright told reporters standardshad to be upheld. "He's a talented cricketerand it's up to him and certainly everyone hasthe opportunity to play if they perform andare fit and abide by some of the rules that gowith being in the team," he said. "There arecertain standards that have to be adhered toand there have to be consequences." Asked ifother players should be helping Ryder in so-cial situations, Wright said: "That can be dif-ficult. Most players at that time of night arein bed... the professional ones." Meanwhile,New Zealand selection manager Kim Little-john said rookies Nicol and Ellis had per-formed well in the ODI series against SouthAfrica and deserved their Test starts. "BothRob and Andrew have shown promiseagainst South Africa in limited overs cricketand we believe they can transfer their formacross to the Test matches. New Zealand:Ross Taylor (captain), Brent Arnel, TrentBoult, Doug Bracewell, Andrew Ellis, Mar-tin Guptill, Chris Martin, Brendon McCul-lum, Rob Nicol, Tim Southee, DanielVettori, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.

Aamir plans to wedhis lawyer Sajida

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Pakistan's banned pacer, MohammadAamir is head-over-heels in love withhis lawyer Sajida Malik and both plan toget married soon.Report quoting sources said that the fe-male lawyer who is a British citizen, hasaccompanied her client to Lahore sothat she could meet with his parents."Apparently Aamir fell in love with SajidaMalik when the spot-fixing scandal began in2010 and their friendship and love hasgrown in the last one year," reports added.Sajida who was born in the United King-dom but is said to be fluent in Punjabi andEnglish, was introduced on the legal teamby the Pakistan Cricket Board when thespot-fixing scandal first erupted in England.According to the report at one time whenformer PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt wasmeeting with the legal team in London inwhich Aamir and Sajida were also presentan interesting incident took place.The report says that Sajida took a fewsips from a glass of water and put it downwith her lipstick embossed on the glass.And minutes later Aamir surprised every-one when he picked up the glass anddrank the remaining water despite thelipstick marks on the glass, promptingButt to remark to one of his colleaguesthat it appeared the two were in love.The report claims that though the fe-male lawyer is a few years older thanAamir, they are in love and will get mar-ried with their families consent.Aamir, 19, returned home last weekafter serving three months in a youngoffenders institution in the United King-dom for his role in the spot-fixing scan-dal, but he is still under a five-year banfrom the International Cricket Council.


Sports 19Saturday, 3 march, 2012

DUBAIAFP

DUBAI'S status as an east-meets-west business hub isbeing rivalled in the world ofsport with cricket's state-of-

the-art academy, also a home from homefor Pakistan's international brigade. Setup by the International Cricket Council(ICC), in company with Dubai SportsCity (DSC) in 2010, the Global CricketAcademy (GCA) caters for players fromaround the world.

Tim Anderson, the ICC global devel-opment manager, said the academy isthe hub of the game's development. "TheICC's vision, together with DSC, was todevelop a world-class, multi-purpose fa-cility, and then provide a wide variety ofprogrammes that could see anybodyfrom the global and local cricket commu-nity use them," Anderson told AFP.Maqbool Dudhia, general manager ofDSC, said the academy is fulfilling thoseobjectives.

"The idea is to be a cricketing hub forthe world, something that suits it per-fectly given the UAE's geographical loca-tion in relation to the rest of thecricketing world, and we are delighted ithas not only fulfilled that objective butexceeded it," said Dudhia.

Since the academy opened, 24 of theICC's members -- including Australia,South Africa, Sri Lanka, England, theWest Indies, as well as a number of Eng-lish county teams -- have used the facili-ties for either camps, training ormatches.

The GCA and the adjoining DubaiStadium have also become home forthe Pakistan team which is forced toplay their international cricket in theUAE because of security fears back

home. In addition, over 1,500 childrenhave participated in the juniorprogammes, while the facilities havehosted several UAE club competitionsand a number of training courses forcoaches, officials and groundsmen.Former Australian wicket-keeper RodMarsh introduced a multi-dimensionalprogramme of education and coachingas the academy got off to a flying start.Since Marsh returned to Australia lastyear, former Pakistan opener Mudas-sar Nazar is in charge of the coaching,alongside former New Zealand pace-man Dayle Hadlee.

"I enjoy my role as it is an opportu-nity for me to pass on what I know aboutthe game," said Nazar. "The enthusiasmand the will to learn is in abundance andI hope the talent unearthed at the acad-emy will go places at international level."The facilities and the top-class coachinghave attracted children of expats fromnot only India, Pakistan and Sri Lankabut also from European countries.

"My son was wasting his time watch-ing television and playing computergames before I got to know about theGCA and now he is on cloud nine, learn-ing cricket," said Asif Kashodia, a Pak-istani businessman. To test skills there isHawkeye, allowing coaches to highlightweaknesses, not only in players but inthose who want to learn umpiring.

The ProBatter, which allows bats-men to simulate facing the world's lead-ing bowlers, is the main attraction.

Pitch Vision is a new plug-and-playcoaching aid that allows analysis ofplayers' techniques. There are varioustypes of bowling machines all of whichoffer different and varied challenges,as well as numerous types of surfaces,both in the indoor facility and the out-door practice and match pitches. There

are two full-sized cricket grounds,where warm-up matches and the first-ever cricket series between disabledteams of Pakistan and England wasplayed. And visiting school teams findthe GCA a delightful place. "Our ladsare learning heck of a lot. There are dif-

ferent pitches like WACA and Asianwickets where you can play differentlengths, and from cricket to cateringwe were taken well care of. We want tocome again and again," said David Fal-lows, director of Bromsgrove School inBirmingham.

Dubai celebrates academic excellence

DubAI: A boy bowls during a cricket training session at the Icc Global cricket Academy (Icc GcA) in Dubai Sports city. AFP

LAHORE STAFF RePoRT

Lahore continued to dominate the finalphase of the Punjab Sports Festival 2012which is in full swing at different venuesof the city. Lahore shone with eight goldmedals in the boys karate while nine gold

medals in girls karate competitions.In boys school , 48 kg, Saweel Fayyaz

of Lahore grabbed gold medal like wiseAli Mehmood of Lahore in 55 kg whileNoman Gondal of Lahore in + 55 kg wongold medals.

In boys college karate, Zafar Iqbal ofSahiwal won gold medal similarly in 55

kgs Mohammad Hafeez of Lahore and 55-plus kgs Waqar Wakeel of Lahoregrabbed gold medals.

In the male university karate, 48 kgsWaqas of Lahore, 55 kgs Aize of Lahoreand in 55-plus kgs Mohammad Shahid ofLahore won top psitions.

In the general public karate, Ali

Haider of Sahiwal won gold in 48 kgs,Baber Ali of Gujranwala in 55 kgs, AdeelAfzal of Lahore in 55-plus kgs won golds.

In the final girls karate, Sumra Ikramof Lahore won gold in 45 kgs, Mehak ofLahore in 50 kgs and Bakhtwar of Lahorein 50-plus kgs got to the top.

In the girls college, Afia of Lahore

won gold in 45 kgs, Memoona Qadeer ofLahore secured gold in 50 kgs whereasQuratul Ain of Lahore took gold in 50-plus kgs. In girls university karate,Madeeha of Lahore won in 45 kgs,Maryem of Lahore won gold in 50 kgswhile Anza of Lahore grabbed gold medalin 50-plus kgs. In Lahore, Inter-univer-sity Football, Faisalabad beat Gujranwala3-0 and Sargodha defeated Sahiwal 4-0.

In the basketball female colleges, La-hore won the final match beating Faisal-abad 41-14. In the cricket, Lahoredefeated Faisalabad by 1 run.

In the college hockey girls, Gujran-wala beat Rawalpindi 2-1, Lahorethrashed DG Khan 5-0, Multan overpow-ered Bahawalpur 3-0, Multan defeatedSargodha 5-0 while Faisalabad was giventhe walkover against Sahiwal.

In university girls hockey, Punjab andSargodha were given walkovers againstRawalpindi and Multan.

In the semi-final of college hockeymatches, Punjab College Sargodha de-feated Punjab College of Faisalabad 7-6on penalty shoot outs. The score wasequal by 3-3 till the second half.

Gujranwala College beat Punjab Col-lege Lahore 3-2. In the semi-final of gen-eral public, Faisalabad beat Bahawalpur2-1, Lahore beat Gujranwala 6-5 onpenalty shoots.

In the volleyball college girls final,Faisalabad beat Rawalpindi 3-0 whilePunjab University Lahore beat Govern-ment College University 3-1.

lAHOre: Punjab and DG Khan players in action during their Sports Festival Hockey match at the national Hockey Stadium. (r) Sargodha and Sahiwal players fight for the ball during thePunjab Sports Festival 2012 Inter university football match. PHoToS nAdeeM ijAz

lahore continue to dominate in punjab sports Festival

roddick avengesloss to Istomin

DELRAY BEACHAFP

Andy Roddick beat Denis Istomin instraight sets Thursday to reach the quar-ter-finals of the Delray Beach ATP tourna-ment, avenging his loss to the Uzbek afortnight earlier. Roddick, the fourth seed,converted all three of his break chances tobook his second quarter-final appearanceof the season with a 6-4, 7-5 victory. Is-tomin had beaten Roddick in the quartersen route to the final at San Jose, Califor-nia, in February, before falling to Cana-dian Milos Raonic in the title match.

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Chief selector Iqbal Qasim said thesquad for the Asia Cup will be an-nounced on Saturday after consulta-tion with new coach DaveWhatmore.

The likely chances are thatopener Imran Nazir would be givenanother chance to prove his skills.Imran Farhat after the resignationof Mohammad Ilyas as chief selectorwould surely be dropped from theteam while Wahaz Raiz would alsobe give a rest while injured JunaidKhan is to be nursing his knee in-

jury and miss the Asia Cup. Junaid sustained a knee injury

during the recently-concluded Eng-land series and will not be availablefor the Asia Cup and will be out ofaction for at least three weeks.

Qasim will be sitting in a metingof the selection committee to fi-nalise the team in consultation withcaptain Misbahul Haq and coachWhatmore.

Qasim said that he would opt fortalent rather than tried and testedplayers. “We are to develop the teaminto the best outfit in the world andtake to the heights to the top,” hemaintained.

love leads,mcIlroy lurks,woods well back

PALM BEACH GARDENSAFP

Davis Love matched the course recordwith a 64 on Thursday to seize a two-shotfirst-round lead at the Honda Classic overa group led by Northern Ireland's RoryMcIlroy. As 14-time major champion TigerWoods again found it tough to get putts todrop, Love avoided any putting problemcompletely at the 197-yard fifth hole,where he made a hole-in-one. The 47-year-old US Ryder Cup captain capped hisround with birdies at 17 and 18 as his six-under effort on the par-70 course put himin position to challenge for his first USPGA Tour title since Disney in 2008. Hebecame the 10th player to shoot 64 at PGANational, the first since Graeme McDowelllast year. "If I had not birdied the last twoholes, it still would have been a goodstart," Love said. "It's fun to tie the courserecord. And it's fun to shoot low scores."McIlroy, 22, arrived in Florida with achance to claim the world number oneranking with a victory. On Sunday he wasrunner-up at the elite World Golf Cham-pionships Match Play Championship inArizona. McIlroy, the reigning US Openchampion, teed off on 10 and birdied 14,17 and 18. He nabbed two more birdiescoming in, at the par-four second andpar-three seventh -- where his six-ironlanded 12 feet from the pin."It was pretty stress-free out there," McIl-roy said. "I hit quite a few fairways and alot of greens and gave myself a lot ofchances, and that's sort of what you needto do around this golf course." McIlroywas joined on 66 by England's JustinRose, Ryan Palmer, Dicky Pride, MartinFlores, Kevin Stadler, Noh Seung-yul ofSouth Korea and Harris English. ReigningPGA champion Keegan Bradley headed agroup of nine players on 67. McIlroy'sround included two tough par putts fromwithin six feet in his first three holes."That's been a huge improvement, espe-cially inside six feet," McIlroy said. "Themore you see the ball go in from there, themore confidence you get." Woods, playingat PGA National for the first time as a pro-fessional, would have liked to see moreputts go in but settled for a one-over par 71that included four bogeys and threebirdies. He drained a 19-foot birdie putt atthe first hole, but didn't make another puttfrom outside 10 feet. A 14-foot birdie at-tempt at 18 brushed the left edge but didn'tdrop. Woods, seeking his first tour-levelwin in more than two years, played inmore difficult afternoon conditions andsaid he was pleased with the way he hit theball, even if he didn't score well.

Asian Cup team to be named today: Qasim


Sports20Saturday, 3 march, 2012

Former captain Chris Gayle was again overlooked by the West Indieswhen a 30-man training squad for the forthcoming one-day andTwenty20 series against Australia was announced on Thursday. Gaylehasn't played for the West Indies since last year's World Cup and has

been involved in a long-running dispute with the West Indies board.The WICB said that 17 contracted players, along with 13 others who are

under consideration for selection, will participate in a two-week training campin Barbados from March 1 to 12. The first one-dayer takes place at St Vincenton March 16. The 17 contracted players are: Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh, De-

vendra Bishoo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, FidelEdwards, Kirk Edwards, Shannon Gabriel, Nelon Pascal, Kieran Powell, Kemar

Roach, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Shane Shillingford andDevon Thomas. The 13 additional players under consideration: Samuel Badree,

Tino Best, Nkrumah Bonner, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, ShaneDowrich, Danza Hyatt, Garey Mathurin, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pol-

lard, Denesh Ramdin, Krishmar Santokie and Dwayne Smith.

Gayle remains in exilefor Australians visit

ST JOHN'SAFP

MORALZARZALAFP

Carlos Soria grew up wandering theSierra de Guadarrama mountains thatloom north of Madrid. Still climbing nowat 73, he is making his mark on the vastfreezing slopes of the Himalayas. OnMarch 5 the grey-haired Spaniard sets offfor Nepal, aiming to add a twelfth 8,000-metre (26,000-feet) peak to his list ofconquests -- a feat he says is already un-equalled for a climber of his age. "Theseare the mountains of my childhood, myyouth, my whole life, the ones I have seenthe most of," he says, gazing at the peaksthat loom over his home village ofMoralzarzal, his eyes sparkling, his facelined and faintly wrinkled.

Now his aim is Annapurna, a formida-ble peak of 8,091 metres in the Himalayasknown for its high risk of avalanches. "It's

a bit dangerous, but I'll just have to see...Above 7,000 metres, if something happensto you, no one can help," he says.

"I have permission to climb Dhaulagiriif I am doing well and feel like it," he says,naming another even higher Nepalese peaknear the first, standing 8,167 metres.

That would leave only one peak ofmore than 8,000 metres in the world leftto conquer for the muscular pensioner,who stands 1m 65 cm high (five foot fourinches) and weighs 59 kilos (130 pounds)."The last one left is Kanchenjunga," hesays -- the 14th peak on his list, also in theHimalayas. "That would be for nextspring." Soria says he has climbed more ofthe world's highest peaks than anyone ofhis age. "Nine 8,000-metre peaks afterturning 60 and more after turning 65," hesays. "There are people who have climbedsome mountains, but not like me."

Soria left school at 11 and worked as a

frame maker and then an upholsterer inMadrid, just south of where he lives now.But he heard constantly the call of themountains. "Whenever there was snow Iwould leave at noon with a little sandwichand a yoghurt to go cross-country skiing,"he recalls. "It was the post-war period.There was very little money and no infor-mation" published about the mountainroutes, he says, recalling his younger daysduring the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

So Soria discovered by himself therocks and trails of the Guadarrama range,where he met his wife Cristina andtrained, sometimes along with their fourdaughters. It served as a practice groundfor the world-class summits he went on toscale from the 1960s on -- in the Alps, theCaucasus, Alaska and then the Himalayas.There he passed the 8,000-metre mark forthe first time when he was 62, climbingEverest and then three years later, K2.

umt universitywin Inter-varsityrugby c’ship

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

UMT University won the UMT Inter-university Championship 2012 in stylebeating University of Central Punjab inthe final 25-0. Even though the scoreline shows one-sided game but still then tough andcompetitive games was witnessed. UMT captain Abdullah was the star ofthe tournament as he was not only thehighest scorer but also played greatgame throughout the competition.The competition was held at the UMTcampus which has a dedicated RugbyGround and was participated by a totalof eight teams included UMT, PU,DDC, GC Jallo, Garrison academy, UCPLahore Garrison University, lSE.To the surprise of all the third placewent to Lahore School of Economicswho beat Punjab University in athrilling match 19-10. Later chief guest President FawziKhawaja, who along with Rector UMTand university official and Tariq NiaziSports incharge DHA distributed prizesamong the winning team and players.

lahore lionsdefeat ubl innational ODI cup

LAHORESTAFF RePoRT

Lahore Lions grabbed a thrilling 15 runswin over United Banl in round thee of theOne-day National Cup 2011-12 Division–II here at the LCCA ground on Friday. It were Fahad-ul-Haq and Farhan Asgharwho with their batting and later WaqarAhmed, Abdul Ghaffar, Hafiz SaadNaseem and Ali Manzar with their to theline bowling guided Lions to win In the other matches of the tournament,Lahore Eagles won by seven wicketsagainst Multan Tigers, KRL had a 41 runswin over SNGPL and Quetta Bears gottwo wickets win against Hyderabad.

SCoReS

group aAt LCCA Ground, Lahore.Lahore Lions 220-8 in 50 overs (JunaidJan 35, 74 balls, 3 x4s, Fahad-ul-Haq 57,84 balls, 6 x4s, Farhan Asghar 64, 70balls, 8 x4s, Waqar Ahmed 18, ShabbirAhmed 3-41, Ruman Raees Ahmed 2-33,Kashif Bhatti 2-27)United Bank 205 in 44.1 overs (SaadSurkhail 37, 45 balls, 6 x4s, Itmad-ul-Haq46, 62 balls, 6 x4s, Muhammad Sami 36,mTahir Mughal 31, 39 balls, 2 x4s,1x 6s,Waqar Ahmed 2-25, Abdul Ghaffar 3-46,Hafiz Saad Naseem 2-41, Ali Manzar 2-46) Result: Lahore Lions won by 15 runs. Toss: United Bank Umpires: Kaukab Butt & Raweed Khan Referee: Saadat Ali At KRL, Ground, Rawalpindi.KRL 213 in 47.5 overs (Azhar Ali 37,Saeed Anwar Jr. 54, 77 balls, 5 x4s,1 x6s,Bazid Khan32, 32 balls, 3 x4s, Asad Ali 3-31, Imran Ali 2-34, Raza Ali Dar 2-46, Bi-lawal Bhatti 2-46)SNGPL 172 in 48.4 overs (KhurramShahzad 36, 89 balls, 2 x4s, Azhar Shafiq41, Yasir Arafat 2-22, Saeed Anwar 2-53,Noman Ali 3-29)Result: KRL won by 41 runs. Toss: SNGPL Umpires: Ahsan Raza & Shozab Raza Referee: Khateeb RizwanGroup BNiaz Stadium, Hyderabad.Hyderabad 124 in 30.5 overs (Zahid Khan25, 58 balls, 4 x4s, Ghulam Yasin 25, 32balls, Mohibullah 3-27, Shahzaib 2-22) Quetta Bears 128-8 in 41.4 overs (Bismil-lah Khan 17, Shahbaz Khan 33*, 78 balls,Gauhar Faiz 27, Mir Ali 2-47, Nasir Waris3-16, Rizwan Ahmed 2-23) Result: Quetta Bears won by two wickets Toss: Quetta Bears Umpires: Anisur Rehman & Islam Khan Referee: Ilyas Khan At National Stadium, Karachi.Multan Tigers 195 in 48.1 overs (NaveedYasin 54, 84 balls, 3 x4s, Abdul Rehman69, 89 balls, 9 x4s, Mohammad Waris 20,Emmad Ali 2-36, Asif Raza 2-33, WaqasAslam 2-32)Lahore Eagles 196-3 in 42.3 overs (SamiUllah 73, 99 balls, 10 x4s, MuhammadSaad 65*, 112 balls, 5 x4s) Result: Lahore Eagles won by seven wickets Toss: Lahore Eagles Umpires: Akbar Khan & Khalid Mah-mood sr. Referee: Naeem Ahmed.

lAHOre: umt university team after winningthe Inter-varsity rugby tournament.

spanish climber, 73, on Himalayan adventure


Sports 21Saturday, 3 march, 2012

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DubAI: british tennis player

Andy Murray celebrates his win

over Serbian world number one

Novak Djokovic during their

ATP Dubai Open semi-final. AFP

DUBAIAFP

aNDY Murray, the tripleGrand Slam finalist fromScotland, achieved ameasure of revenge overNovak Djokovic, the triple

Grand Slam titleholder from Serbia, whenhe ended Djokovic's three-year winningsequence in the Dubai Open on Friday.

Murray, who was narrowly beaten ina thriller of almost five hours by Djokovicin the semi-finals of last month's Aus-tralian Open, overcame his greatrival 6-2,7-5 in another semi-final.

It was an unpredictable match, withtwo or three surprising twists and turns,and with Djokovic attacking the net farmore than usual, but Murray the betterserver and more consistent player.

"It's obviously great any time you beatthe world number one," Murray said. "Ijust tried to do some of the same things Idid in Australia. "I was very close thereagainst one of the greatest players ever,and today I did what I needed to - eventhough it nearly got away from me at theend." He was helped when after a quarterof an hour Djokovic, who started boldly,suddenly and unexpectedly faltered.

He won the first ten points behind hisserve, and had just delivered two hurtlingaces down the middle, when four rela-tively unforced errors poured from thechampion's racket. They were all ground-stroking flaws, in the face of steady butnot time-denying drives from Murray,who found himself with a psychologicallyvaluable break of serve for 4-2.

It helped confirm the feeling thatthe Scot has recovered much betterfrom his Melbourne disappointmentthis year than the previous two years,and he capitalised eagerly. He consoli-dated to 5-2 with a good recovery from15-40 on his serve - one rally with a net

attack, the other with baseline contain-ment - and then broke Djokovic again.This time two of the points came ofMurray's own making. A backhand top-spin lurched wickedly at the in-rushingDjokovic's feet to get Murray to love-30,and then two blistering cross-courtbackhand drives earned him the set.

It was greeted with huge roars fromthe large number of British expatriatesin the 5,000 crowd, and Murray's con-

tinued progress continued to begreeted enthusiastically. Another indif-ferent service game from Djokovic atthe start of the second set enabledMurray to continue building the mo-mentum. This time, after Murray hadconsolidated the break to reach 3-0,Djokovic responded by increasing theratio of his net attacks but was soon 2-5 down. It was then that the matchtook two unpredictable final twists.

Murray downsDjokovic in Dubai

DubAI: Serbian world number one novak Djokovic reacts after losing to Andy murrayof britain during their AtP Dubai Open semi-final. AFP

With 12 games to go, and battles for all the league slotsseemingly going down to the wire, this weekend prom-ises to be a defining moment in the title race, and forthose vying for Champions League qualification.

bATTle FoR FouRTH

Both Liverpool and Arsenal are on the back of lu-crative weekends, as Arsenal came from two goalsdown to beat city rivals Spurs 5-2, while Liverpool van-quished their first piece of silverware since the FA Cuptriumph in 2006. Whilst cup glory has its fair share ofromanticism attached to it, what is indubitable is thefact that finishing fourth on the league table come Maywould be an a lot more meaningful accomplishment inthe long run than even a cup double that KennyDalglish’s team can still potentially conjure up.

Meanwhile, Arsenal managed to sermon a bolt outof the blue – and possibly the most astonishing one ofthe season at that – with their reversal against Spurs. Itis becoming increasingly visible that taking a two goallead in North London derbies is a bad omen of sorts,and maybe the next time the two archenemies lockhorns, they could be best advised to keep their cushionsto one, or find a third one swiftly. All the same, onedoesn’t feel that it is a matter of conjecture that even Ar-sene Wenger wouldn’t exactly have had been confidentof a comeback, considering his side’s recent capitula-tions. And this is exactly when Arsenal tend to mustertheir stagger – when it’s least expected of them.

Last weekend’s exploits for the two competitors intoday’s early kickoff might’ve been the highlights of theirseasons, but a loss today for either side could easily eraseall the euphoria. Liverpool currently find themselvesseven points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, with a gamein hand, and the equation is pretty simple for them: win,and they have the fourth place within touching distance;lose, and they can practically kiss Champions Leaguefootball goodbye for another season. What Dalglish andhis club must realise – as was highlighted in this spacelast week – that merely the Carling Cup triumph on itsown doesn’t exactly count as a defining accomplishment.The triumph should be used as the springboard to biggerand better things; and if the Anfield club can finishfourth this season, with a cup triumph to boot, it couldlay the platform for a title tilt within the next couple of

seasons. Au contraire, Carling Cup glory would meanvery little if Liverpool finish outside the top four.

Pretty much the same goes for Arsenal, forwhom the only realistic objective of the season isfinishing fourth – a position that they currently oc-cupy; and if that does not transpire one of the twodivorces should definitely take place – the Wenger-Arsenal divorce or the Frenchman’s breakup withhis platonic football philosophy.

CATCHING THe bIG FISH

Last weekend’s result might’ve been the curtain callon Spurs’ title ambitions which, if Harry Redknapp’sinterviews are anything to go by, was never really onthe club’s agenda in the first place. Even so, what was

undoubtedly the main season target was finishing inthe top four; and with the 5-2 trouncing the third placefinish – which was a given not too long ago – has comeunder scrutiny, with doubts creeping in over a top fourfinish as well. While knee-jerks and pundits share aprotracted bond, Spurs’ seven point lead over Arsenaldoesn’t look that secure now; and it could further nar-row down depending on results at Anfield and WhiteHart Lane this weekend. Another façade that surelymust be bothering the Spurs faithful is their lack of suc-cess against the real big boys – they haven’t beatenManchester United since 2000 – and would want tochange that on Sunday. Who knows a triumph mighteven put them back in the title hunt, even though Red-knapp would continue to downplay that.

United meanwhile, are on the back of an emblem-atic late-winner triumph, and know that victory onSunday would ensure that they would still have thetitle within their own hands. Plus with the Spurs fix-ture out of the way, only one of the last 11 fixtureswould see United take on a top eight side, and thatwould be the matchup at the Etihad Stadium in lateApril, which is already dubbed the ‘title decider.’ Withrelatively easier fixtures on paper to follow, and withCity very much in their sights, United might just edgeout City as the favourites for the league in the decisiverun-in. On the other hand, a defeat at White HartLane could leave the Champions five points behindManchester City and five points ahead of Tottenhamin an intriguing little sandwich at the top of the EPL.

liverpool need to build on cup gloryg It’s a massive weekend for Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Man Utd

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

EPL CRYSTAL BALL

top seed radwanskawithdraws in malaysia

KUALA LUMPURAFP

Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska pulled outof the BMW Malaysian Open on Friday dueto injury after a string of rain delays causeda schedule pile-up that forced her to facetwo opponents the day before. "I'm so sorryI can't continue. Had a great time inMalaysia and I hope to be back in future,"the Polish world number five told the cen-tre court crowd in conceding her quarter-final match-up with Taiwanese qualifierSu-Wei Hsieh. Radwanska did not explainwhy she withdrew, but Women's Tennis As-sociation tour supervisor Pam Whytcrosssaid the Pole had an elbow injury. "We werecalled into the training room at 2 p.m. andwere informed that she had a right elbowinjury," Whytcross said. Radwanska arrivedin Malaysia on the back of a win in Dubailast Saturday, a result which saw her rise toa career high in the WTA rankings. But herfirst-round match with Akgul Amanmu-radova -- originally scheduled for Tuesday -- was pushed back a day due to heavy rainat the Bukit Kiara Equestrian and CountryResort in the Malaysian capital KualaLumpur. The match was again halted byheavy showers on Wednesday with Rad-wanska leading 6-2, 3-3. It was only com-pleted early Thursday afternoon and givingRadwanska two hours before returning tocourt to defeat Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-4.


Saturday, 3 march, 2012 22

Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami, Executive Editor: Sarmad Bashir, Resident Editor: Rana Qaisar

ISlAmAbAd: Streetlights left powered on during the day in the federal capital on Friday mock the government’s claims that the country is suffering from energy shortfall. inP

ISLAMABAD KASHIF AbbASI

ELECTION Commission Sec-retary Ishtiaq Ahmad Khanresigned from his office onFriday owing to differenceswith Chief Election Commis-

sioner (CEC) Justice (r) Hamid Ali Mirzaover the Waheeda Shah episode.

Sources in the ECP told PakistanToday that the EC secretary wanted ex-emplary punishment for PPP’s WaheedaShah for slapping a female polling officer,Anita Turab at the polling station on Feb-ruary 25. However, the CEC had a softcorner for the PPP leader.

The sources said on February 27 theEC secretary announced withholdingelection results of PS-53 Tando Muham-mad Khan – was won, according to unof-ficial results, by Waheeda – without theCEC’s consent, They said Khan later gota press release issued stating that the ECPhad withheld the results for the by-elec-tion in PS-53. They said the CEC, whowas in Karachi that day, took notice of thesecretary’s action, saying Khan shouldhave consulted with him before taking

such a decision. Later, serious differencesemerged between the two over the issue,the sources added.

They said Khan remained in his officeuntil late night on Thursday and finallydispatched his resignation to the CEC Of-fice. Khan had also sent a resignation tothe prime minister last year over his re-ported differences with the CEC regard-ing provincial assembly by-polls inPK-69. However, the prime minister had

rejected the resignation and had directedhim to continue. Later, the prime minis-ter also approved a two-year extension inKhan’s contract.

The two also had differences overfake degree cases. It is reported that 21fake degree cases of parliamentarianswere still lying with the CEC’s Office. OnFriday, Khan appeared before theSupreme Court on notice in the WaheedaShah case. The court observed that the

ECP and police had failed in taking animmediate action on the illegal happen-ing. After attending court proceedings,the EC secretary said he had quit the of-fice a day ago (Thursday) and the act wassufficient proof for the media to not get achance to criticise him.

He said his post on contract was aburden on him and he had informed thegovernment regarding his decision. “Theextension in my contract was a burdenon me. Therefore, I have decided to re-sign,” he added. Referring to WaheedaShah’s act, Khan said misbehaving withpolling staff could lead to three monthsin prison, adding that Waheeda’s trialwould be held at the ECP Karachi Officetoday (Saturday). He said the officer onduty at the polling station committednegligence where the incident tookplace, adding that the police had failedin providing security to the polling staff.However, he added that the ECP hadearlier withheld the result of by-electionfor PS-53, and a case was registeredagainst Waheeda on the directives of thecommission. The sources said Khan’sresignation was not accepted until thefiling of this report.

ISLAMABADmASood ReHmAN

While hearing a petition on the man-handling of female election staff by aPakistan People’s Party (PPP) MPA-elect from Sindh, Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry observed on Fri-day that her action was more horriblethan the extra-judicial killing of an in-nocent boy, Sarfraz Shah, by theRangers in Karachi last year.

He was heading a three-memberbench, which included Justice KhiljiArif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez.The bench was hearing a suo motu caseinitiated on the application of AnitaTurab against PPP MPA WaheedaShah, who slapped the polling staff onFebruary 25 during by-election in PS-53Tando Muhammad Khan.

The court noted that the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) andSindh Police had failed to take timelyaction against Waheeda, and sought re-port from the authorities concerned onthe incident until March 12.

At the onset of hearing, the chief jus-tice observed that the Sindh inspectorgeneral of Police (IGP) should resign from

his post over the incident. Defendinghimself, Sindh IGP Syed Mushtaq Shahstated that there was no comparison be-tween the killing of Sarfraz Shah and theslap of Waheeda Shah. The chief justicereplied, “The incident is even more seri-ous than the extrajudicial killing, becauseit has brought shame to the country.”

He said that due to the negligenceof law enforcing agencies, such inci-dents were taking place. Appearing on

notice, Waheeda sought forgivenessfrom the aggrieved party and the court.

But the court made clear to her thatno injustice would be done either to heror anyone else, except that the law and theconstitution must be followed strictly be-cause in such situation when a public ser-vant, who is a servant of the State, is notprotected and secured against such vul-nerable action, there would be a break-down of good governance. The chiefjustice observed that if this incident couldtake place in the by-polls, then whatwould happen in the general elections.

Attorney General Maulvi AnwarulHaq informed the court that FIR in thematter was not registered under the rel-evant sections of the Pakistan PenalCode against Waheeda. He said the in-cident warranted Sections 353 and 189of the PPC to be applied. He said thatunder these sections, Ms Shah could bepenalised for a two-year term of impris-onment with a substantial amount offine. The Sindh IGP then submitted thatthe two sections, pointed out by the at-torney general, would be applied in theFIR, to which the chief justice remarkedthat it should have been done withoutthe intervention of the apex court.

Trial unlikely for US troops in Afghan Quran burning

WASHINGTONAFP

Five US soldiers took part in last week’sapparently accidental burning of copies ofthe holy Quran in Afghanistan, but they areunlikely to face public trial, theWashington Post reported on Friday.Citing US military officials, the Post said aninvestigation had established that thesoldiers removed the Qurans from a prisonat Bagram air base, north of Kabul, afterthey were found to contain extremistmessages. The books were placed in anoffice for safekeeping, only to be mistakenfor garbage and taken to a landfill whereAfghan employees identified them asKorans just as the pages caught fire,according to the investigation. The militaryofficials also said while the five soldierswould face reprimand, it was unlikely theirnames would be released or that theywould be put on public trial, the Postreported on its website. “For the soldiers, itwill be serious — they could lose rank. Butyou’re not going to see the kind of publictrial that some here seem to want,” one USmilitary official was quoted as saying.“What they did was careless, but there wasno ill will,” another added.

Baloch CM’sdrunken sonsbeat up cops

KARACHINNI

Two drunken sons of Balochistan ChiefMinister Nawab Aslam Raisani and theirfriends thrashed policemen in theKhyaban-e-Shaheen area of the DefenceHousing Authority (DHA), Karachi.Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) GhulamHussain and Head Constable Liaquat Alisaid that some drunken people werecreating law and order problem in the area.They said when a police party intervened, itwas subjected to torture. Policemen saidtwo of those were Yadgar Raisani and MirHassan Raisani, the sons of BalochistanCM Nawab Aslam Raisani. Policeregistered a case against 20 people at theDarakhshan Police Station. The torturedpolicemen belonged to Sindh ReservePolice and were posted in Karachi eightmonths ago on emergency duty.

EC secy resigns owing to differenceswith CEC over Waheeda Shah episode

Waheeda has shamed the nation: CJP


Documents

E-paper PakistanToday 3rd March, 2012