Appreciable addition tonational grid................................................RAW’s involvement, whatnext?................................................Jirga system is not that bad

See Page 04

Continued on Page 7

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—KSE 100 Indexseems to have overcome the cor-rection with a return to bullishmood helping the index to gain305 points to close in green at33, 839 levels here Wednesday.

Earlier the largely mutedresponse of equity market dur-ing last two trading session wasmore reflective of concerns as-sociated with likely new mea-sures to be announced in theupcoming budget.

Meanwhile amid a market volume of214.62 million shares the Pak Electron scripwas the volume leader of the day with 23.57

KSE-100 index bouncesback, gains 305 points

million shares to their credit, while Byco andK-Electric were the second and third volume

leaders with 15.21 million and 13.95 millionshares respectively.

NEW DELHI—The United Stateshanded over Pakistan on Wednesday 14combat aircraft, 59 military trainer jetsand 374 armoured personnel carrierswhich were earlier used in Afghanistanand Iran. “As the US withdraws its forcesfrom neighbouring Afghanistan, the ma-jor defence articles have been transferredto Pakistan under its ‘Excessive DefenceArticle’ category, an internal Congres-

US hands over 14 fighter,59 trainer jets to Pakistan

Continued on Page 7

sional report said, according to the Eco-nomic Times.

India in the past has opposed to thetransfer of such arms to Pakistan as itbelieves Islamabad would eventually usethe fighter jets against it. Pakistan haseither made full payment or will makepayments from its national funds towardsthe purchase of 18 new F-16C/D Block52 Fighting FalconBSE -4.69 % combat

aircraft worth $1.43 billion, according tothe internal report prepared by Congres-sional Research Service (CRS), an inde-pendent research wing of the Congress.

This includes F-16 armaments in-cluding 500 AMRAAM air-to-air mis-siles, 1,450 2,000-pound bombs, 500JDAM Tail Kits for gravity bombs and1,600 Enhanced Paveway laser-guided

KASWAR KLASRA

ISLAMABAD—Country’s armedforces receive pat on the theirback on Wednesday as ForeignMinister of Australia, like otherdignitaries who visitedIslamabad during lost couple ofyears, appreciated their effortsand sacrifices to uproot mili-tancy and terrorism from Paki-stan.

“The sacrifices rendered byPakistan in the war on terror areimpressive. We, appreciate it.”Said Julie Bishop, Foreign Min-ister of Australia. She reachedIslamabad on Wednesday on atwo-days visit.

Before her, world’s leadersincluding Presidents of China,Sri Lanka, United States andothers have already acknowledged Pakistan’ssacrifices in war against terrorism.

Australian FM laudsPak mily’s sacrificesAnnounces $19m aid for Pakistan

According to official documents (a copyavailable with Pakistan Observer) Pakistan suf-

fered losses of $80 billion dollars and 50,000

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on NationalSecurity & Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Australian For-eign Minister Ms Julie Bishop addressing a joint press con-ference at Foreign Office.—APP photo

PAKISTAN’S democratichistory has seen manyhighs and as many if not

more lows. The current demo-cratic patch which began on ahigh note following the 2008general elections was caught upeven before the elected govern-ment completed its first year ina whirlwind of lacklustre gov-ernance and widespread cor-ruption stories. Things have notimproved a bit since. In factthey have only deteriorated.The ruling party that governedthe country until 2013 appearsto have lost its democratic cre-dentials and political validity.It appears to be on its death-bed waiting for the final call.And the party which is in the

Relationsbetween theelected govt,state agencies

Continued on Page 7

SituationerM Ziauddin

Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7

Terror strikesat school inKurram agencySuicide attackleaves two dead

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Terroristsattack on a school during afootball match in LowerKurram agency Wednesdaylate afternoon left at leastfour people including twoterrorists dead and eightothers wounded. The attackcould have wreaked havochad the local tribals and thePara-military forces not cameinto action promptly andintercepted the suicidebombers who were sneakinginto the ground where besidesplayers, hundreds ofspectators including school

Qazi replacesTasnim as FOspokespersonSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—AdditionalSecretary Qazi Khalilullahhas been appointed newForeign Office spokesperson,replacing Tasnim Aslam,officials said on Wednesday.

Khalilullah, who iscurrently looking after theMiddle East desk at theforeign ministry, will replaceTasnim Aslam who has beenserving as FO spokespersonsince December 2013.

Aslam is also theadditional secretary UnitedNations, and sources close toher said she herself stood downfrom the post due to the“burden of dual responsibility.”

The formal announcementfor the appointment of hersuccessor will soon be made.

Younus, Azharscore tons asPak post 323DHAKA—Younis Khan andAzhar Ali hit centuries asPakistan capitalised on

Bangladesh’s misfortuneto post a commanding323 for three on theopening day of thesecond and final Test onWednesday. Younismade 148 and Azharwas unbeaten on 127,

the pair having shared a third-wicket stand of 250 to rescuethe tourists from 58-2 afterBangladesh captain MushfiqurRahim won the toss and electedto field in Dhaka.—AP

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information, Broadcast-ing and National Heritage Senator Pervaiz Rashid and Fed-eral Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Prof.Ahsan Iqbal addressing a press conference.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—Days after anelection tribunal ordered re-polling in Lahore’s NA-125constituency, PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf chief ImranKhan said NADRA will releasea report on rigging in NA-122within a week.

After meeting NADRAchairman in Islamabad onWednesday, Imran read outpoints from the “pre-scan” re-port issued by the authority.

“While voter list has dis-

NA-122 election

NADRA to release reportexposing ‘rigging’: Imran

Agency chief denies handing report to PTI chiefappeared from 24 polling sta-tions, there were duplicate se-rial numbers in 30 of them,” hesaid, adding prescribed serial

number booklets were notfound in 50 polling stations.

Imran added that the judgewill give his verdict onceNADRA provides the reportafter fingerprint verification ofvotes cast in NA-122.

“There will be no democ-racy in the country if we don’t

hold free and fair elections,” hesaid.

The PTI chief added thathis party will “initiate criminalproceedings against returningofficers who let ‘rigging’ hap-pen in front of them, and did

not do anything”.When asked if he was

pressurising NADRA, he said,if he was doing so, it was onlyso that justice will be served inthe country.

On December 8 an election

Continued on Page 7

SARWAR AWAN

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz onWednesday decided to chal-lenge the decision of an Elec-tion Tribunal in the SupremeCourt which ordered re-elec-tion for Lahore’s NA-125 con-stituency.

This was stated by FederalMinister Senator PervaizRashid and Chaudhry AhsanIqbal along with Member Na-tional Assembly PML-NChaudhry Danial Aziz and le-gal expert Ishtar Ausaf Ali ad-dressing a press conferencehere on Wednesday. They saidthat the decision was taken byprime minister after consultingpolitical leaders and legal ex-perts.

It may be mentioned herethat the Election Tribunal’s ver-dict had earlier vacated NA-125 seat for re-election afterremoving the winning candi-date Saad Rafique over electionirregularities.

PML-N to challengeNA-125 verdict in SCDecision taken after consulting political leaders,legal experts Saad wants people’s fresh mandate

Federal Minister for Infor-mation and BroadcastingPervaiz Rashid said that PML-N leaders met Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif in a high levelmeeting and briefed him in de-

tail about the NA-125 verdictadding that the Prime Ministerheard the opinion of political

associates and legal experts onwhether or not to challenge thedecision in the Supreme Court.

He further said that SaadRafique wanted to compete PTIin a political battle, but PML-

N has now decided to move theSupreme Court against the ver-

Continued on Page 7

LHC largerbench to hearcase against

Nawaz SharifMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Lahore HighCourt (LHC) Chief JusticeManzoor Ahmad Malik hasconstituted a five-judge largerbench to hear a petition filedin 1991 that sought disquali-fication of the then premierNawaz Sharif on grounds thathe does not comply with Ar-ticles 62 and 63 of the Consti-tution.

The larger bench com-prises of Justice MuhammadFarrukh Irfan Khan, JusticeAyesha A. Malik, JusticeMuhammad Qasim Khan, Jus-tice Faisal Zaman Khan andJustice Mirza Waqas Rauf andwill hear petition on May 8.

The case had been pend-

Continued on Page 7

GAUHAR ZAHID MALIK

IS L A M A B A D —Pres iden tMamnoon Hussain held ameeting with his Maldiviancounterpart Abdullah YameenAbdul Gayoom here onWednesday and said Pakistanaccords much importance to itsrelations with Maldives.

The President said both thecountries played active role inmaking SAARC organizationas a regional model group. Heexpressed the hope that visit ofMaldivian President will provea milestone for furtherstrengthening the bilateral re-lations.

On his arrival at Aiwan-e-Sadr, Maldivian President waswarmly welcomed by PresidentMemnoon Hussian.

Pakistan accords highimportance to ties withMaldives: Mamnoon

He also hosted a banquetin honour of the visiting digni-tary.

Earlier, President ofMaldives Abdullah YameenAbdul Gayoom was given awarm welcome on his arrivalat Nur Khan Airbase on a two-day visit to Pakistan. He wasgreeted by Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif and members ofhis cabinet. A 21-gun salutewas given to the distinguishedguests when he alighted fromhis aircraft.

President Abdulla YameenAbdul Gayoom will hold talkswith Prime Minister NawazSharif whereas PresidentMamnoon Hussain will hold astate banquet in the honour ofvisiting dignitary.

JC proceedingsEx- CS Punjabshows ignoranceover extra ballotprintingSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD: Former ChiefSecretary Punjab, Javed Iqbalon Wednesday appearedbefore the Judicial Commis-sion (JC), which is investigat-ing into the alleged pollrigging, and recorded hisstatement.

The JC met here underthe chair of Chief Justice ofPakistan, Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk. The arguments overthe statement of the firstwitness were completed inWednesday’s proceedings asJaved Iqbal showed hisignorance over the extrapublication of ballot papers.

In his statement, Iqbal

Continued on Page 7

Picture on Back Page

HYDERABAD: Activists of Pakistan WAPDA Hydro Electric Central Labour Union holding a protest demonstration against privatisation ofPEPCO in front of HPC.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—A high levelmeeting regardingstrengthening of KhyberPakhtunkhwa Public Ser-vice Commission (KPPSC)was held here Wednesdaywith senior Minister LocalGovt Inayatullah Khan inthe chair. The meeting dis-cussed the recruitmentprocess under KPPSC andexpressed dismay overdelay in recruitment pro-cess by the commissiondue to different complica-t ions.

The meeting decidedto improve the capacity ofthe commission for expe-ditious recruitment in gov-ernment departments.Apart from this a Sub-Committee was formed toreview the legal and de-partmental problems thatcause delay in the recruit-ment process and submita draft proposal to removethose issues.

The Sub-Committeewould be headed by Pro-vincial Minister for Fi-nance and Secretary Estab-lishment, Health, Law and

Expeditious recruitmentby KP PSC discussed

ST&IT would be its mem-bers. Speaking on the oc-casion, the provincial min-ister for informationMushtaq Ghani said thatthe KP government has fulltrust in the commission, itscapabilities, role and trans-parency; however, it in-tends to make the recruit-ment process speedy sothat the educated youthcould be inducted in gov-ernment departments forbetter output.

The Minister for LocalGovernment InayatullahKhan observed that due tocertain problems the re-cruitment process by theKPPSC was subjected tocontinual delay. He saidthe government wants tomake the legal process easefor expeditious recruitmentprocess and ensure recruit-ments within months in-stead of years or year.

Inayatullah Khan saidthat the KP governmentwas taking pragmatic mea-sures to improve the per-formance of the govern-ment departments fortransparent and fair sys-tem in the province.

KHALID BUTT

BAHAWALPUR has always remained important in my mindwhere I virtually began my pro-

fessional journalistic career over halfa century ago. I had arrived as theBureau Chief of APP, sent by the late

Manag-i n gTrusteea n dFounder,M a l i kTajuddin,to re-place avery se-

nior colleague, soon after Bahawalpurhad been merged into one Unit andstill retained some of its old glamour,sights and sounds of what has beenthe glorious era of former largestprincely state of Pakistan, under theworthy and benign role of late NawabSadiq Muhammad Abbasi.

Fortunately, not only the old in-frastructure and its traditions werestill intact, some highly reputed andexperienced officials like Syed HashimRaza had helped to bring a smoothtransformation to the new order. Butwhat happened over the later yearsis another story. With all thesethoughts in my mind, when I landedin Bahawalpur on Tuesday and visit-ing Cholistan on my second visit Iwas soon in utter and pleasant sur-prise. The alternate route via the newHasilpur Road to the heart ofCholistan, opened my eyes to new

Emerging pre-eminence of Bahawalpur,stellar political role of Shahbaz

realities.The new road by the side of

Bahawal Canal, with provision of wa-ter and all other facilities spoke vol-umes of a complete transformationwhich has taken place quite recentlyunder the current and dynamic ruleof Punjab Chief Minister, ShahbazSharif. Despite allthe unforeseenhurdles and prob-lems, the requiredinfrastructures wascompleted ahead ofthe inauguration ofPakistan’s first So-lar Power Park,about 15 kilometersfrom the city, allready for the bigevent. When Iasked a senior official, a former localCommissioner sitting next to me, howfar is Cholistan he remarked “we aresitting right in the heart of Cholistan”.I had earlier visited Cholistan yearsago by the longer and original routevia Yazman. This was amazing. Itbrought about a sudden realizationof what lies ahead.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, thentalked about his” Road Map” and strat-egy to eradicate energy crisis strivinghard to rid the country of terrorism andarmed militias. He mentioned a seriesof projects in the power sector whichare underway all over the country andwill help overcome power outages fromthe country by 2017-18.

Terming the Chinese investmentof 46 billion dollars in Pakistan, as

unprecedented the Prime Minister,said all the projects with the Chinesecooperation will be completed ontime. He said Pakistan and Chinawill establish a special committee, inorder to ensure fast track comple-tion of these projects. He particu-larly mentioned the dedicated efforts

of Punjab Chief Minister forhis all out efforts to com-plete the projects and up-lift schemes and played hisrole with his exemplary lead-ership.

Punjab Chief Minister,Shahbaz Sharif especiallytalked about a rare andnoteworthy example of Chi-nese providing Rs. 2 billion(2 crore US dollars) conces-sion on a project which was

truly a rare and remarkable exampleof Chinese spirit of friendship withPakistan.

Another most important and note-worthy factor was the decision byChief Minister and warmly supportedby Prime Minister, to set up an In-dustrial Estate in the Quaid-e-AzamSolar Park, Bahawalpur as well as insome other areas with the nowexpectedly available of power sup-ply and other necessary facilities.

This in other words spoke of re-emergence of Bahawalpur and South,in the national pre eminence onceagain. This new reality made me smileto return to Lahore a much happierperson as someone who has alwaysretained such close bonds withBahawalpur and many friends there.

ShahzainelectedinterimJWP chiefQUETTA—Thecentral Organizing Commit-tee of the Jamhoori WatanParty (JWP) on Wednes-day elected NawabzadaShazain Bugti as party’sinterim president. After thedemise of JWP chief,Nawabzada Talal AkbarBugti, the top slot of theparty was lying vacant.Addressing a pressconference here at BugtiHouse, member of CentralOrganizing Committee,Noorud Din Bugti said thata meeting of CentralOrganizing Committee andDistrict organizers washeld on Tuesday.Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti,Spokesman of JWP NaveedAhmed, Women WingPresident Amna Mengal andother party leaders were alsopresent. “Meeting attendedby all 24 members of theOrganizing body.—APP

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad High Court (IHC) onWednesday delayed implementation of ShafqatHussain’s execution for two more days. He wasscheduled to be hanged on May 6. IHC JudgeAthar Minallah while hearing Shafqat Hussain’spetition directed his counsel Dr Tariq Hasan togive final arguments tomorrow (Friday) regard-ing maintainability of his petition.

Dr Hasan is representing Justice Project Pa-kistan (JPP) which calls for a judicial inquiry intothe age of the death row convict. The judge atthis point remarked only the court decisions inthe case had final authority. Formation of a com-mittee to determine Shafqat Hussain’s age bythe government was illegal, said the judge.On Tuesday, the IHC had delayed by one daythe execution of death row convict ShafqatHussain. After Supreme Court’s decision there

Two more days for Shafqat to liveCourt questions reopening of the case

was no need to constitute such a committee anddetermine the murder convict’s age, remarkedthe judge. He raised a number of pertinent ques-tions asking the counsel whether the case couldbe reopened by making the complainants (fam-ily of 7-year old Umar murdered by Shafqat in2004) a party in the case. Can President use hispowers to apply Qisas & Diyat in this case with-out the consent of the murdered boy’s family?Or can Executive take such a step?

How after a final verdict by the SupremeCourt of Pakistan a case can be reopened, thecourt asked. On this Dr Hasan said SupremeCourt has only turned down his application forverification of Shafqat Hussain. The judge ex-pressing his surprise said he himself has prayedin the petition to “set aside” Supreme Court’sdecision. The counsel said he was using theright granted by the Constitution of Paki-stan.The judge was of the view that Federation’s

move to constitute a body to determine ShafqatHussain’s age led to confusion.

On the occasion Additional Attorney Gen-eral Waqar Rana said the court should first de-cide whether the petition filed by Justice ProjectPakistan is maintainable or not. He said a num-ber of foreign missions had written to InteriorMinister to determine Hussain’s age there-forethe interior ministry assigned FIA the task toascertain Shafqat Hussain’s age.

He said President, Prime Minister and gov-ernors have constitutional indemnity yet theyhave been issued notices. Moreover FIA hadonly verified the birth certificate shown in mediaand did not conduct any inquiry into his birth.Justice Minallah asked if a case could be re-opened on the basis of a birth certificate. Laterthe court directing the counsel for ShafqatHussain to conclude his arguments by Fri-dayadjourned the hearing.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The Punjab gov-ernment has started distribu-tion of motorcycles to all thevaccinators and other EPIstaff in the province and asmany as 900 motorcycles arebeing delivered this week,Director General Health Ser-vices Punjab Dr. ZahidPervaiz said here today.

EPL staff given motorcyclesIn a bid to facilitate the

frontline workers and equipthem with adequate re-sources, the government isproviding motorcycles to allvaccinators in 3522 UnionCouncils of the province.“The vaccinators have totravel long distances andthe step will go a long wayin achieving at least 90 percent routine immunization

coverage in the province.The vaccinators have al-ready been provided withandroid-based smartphones that have tailor-made applications for datereporting,” the DG said.

“In the first phase, thetop performers on E-vaccsare being given motor-cycles. Gradually, all will getmotorcycles,” Dr. Zahid

said. He also expressedgratitude to Atlas Hondafor supporting the cause ofimmunization in the coun-try by providing another90 motorcycles. The healthdepartment had originallyplaced the order of 900 mo-torcycles. Atlas Honda an-nounced a reduction inprices of the motorcyclesafterwards.

Seminar on‘Freedom of

Expression andIslam in Europe”

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A comprehen-sive framework is needed forEuropeans and Muslim com-munities of Europe to under-stand each other’s concern re-garding the limits of what is,and what is not, acceptablespeech. This was urged byspeakers at a seminar titled“Freedom of Expression andIslam in Europe” organized byDepartment of Anthropology,QAU. Most of the speakerswere of the view that freedomof expression should not beconverted in to the right to of-fend the minorities. Dr.Muhammad Bilal, AssistantProfessor, FJWU said that inEurope freedom of expressionis also limited.

Quota forstreetchildrenPESHAWAR—Speaker,Khyber PakhtunkhwaAssembly, Asad Qaiser hasasked private educationalinstitutions to provide freeeducation to at least fivestreet and domesticworking children by eachschool. He extended therequest while talking to adelegation of PrivateSchools EducationNetwork here in SpeakerHouse Wednesday. Thedelegation comprised ofHafeez Niazi, MatloobKhan, Nasir Taj, AqeelRazaq, Khalid Naveed andRasheed Khan. TheSpeaker said that presentlynearly 25,000 privateeducational institutions areworking for the greatmission of the promotionof education and if eachinstitute adopt five streetand working children foreducation.—APP

Surpluselectricityin 2017PESHAWAR—Advisor toPrime Minister, Engr.Ameer Muqam Wednesdaysaid that 1000 mega wattelectricity would be addedin the system aftercompletion of ongoingwork on hydel powerprojects in KhyberPakhtunkhwa. Talking tomedia after a briefing atWAPDA House hereregarding ongoing hydropower projects in KP, hesaid that work on powergenerating projectsincluding Tarbaila IV and V,Golan Gol Hydro PowerProjects Chitral, Kial Khor,Kurram Tangi Dam andDasu Dam is in full swingadding the country wouldwitness surplus electricityin the year 2017.—APP

MOHAMAND AGENCY: Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan unveiling the plaque of the under construction FM Radio atGhalanai Monmand Agency.

BAJAUR AGENCY: A polio worker administering anti-polio drops to child during anti-polio campaign.

LARKANA: Regional Director NAB Muhammad Altaf Bhawani administering oath tonewly elected office-bearers of Character Building Society Program of SMMBMUduring a seminar on ‘Say no to Corruption’ in collaboration with NAB at ChandkaMedical College Auditorium Hall.

ZEESHAN JAVAID

ISLAMABAD—Federal Min-ister of National Health Ser-vices, Regulation and Coor-dination (NHSRC), SairaAfzal Tarar will leave forGeneva (Switzerland) onMay 17 to attend the sixtyeighth World Health Assem-bly (WHA).

The reliable sources in-formed this scribe that thepassport of federal ministerwas submitted at Embassyof Switzerland in Islamabadon May 05for applying theofficial visa to attend theupcoming internationalevent in Geneva, howeverthe traveling document onMay 06 was taken back fromEmbassy by her PersonalSecretary (PS) to apply thevisa for United Kingdom(UK) firstly at priority basis.

It was also learnt thatthe repeated attempts ofSwiss Embassy to approachthe concerned authority inthe ministry asking traveldocument for processing ofvisa, the passport was yetto be submitted till date offilling the story.

However it was con-firmed by ministry officialsthat the PS in haste emailedthe required visa and trav-eling documents detail toUK Embassy in Islamabadon the same day.

An official of federal

Saira to represent country in WHAminister on condition not tobe named expressed igno-rance about the probableLondon’s recreation visit ofMs Tarar; however he wasof the view that if federalminister planned for visit toLondon after attendingWHA meeting. Entire ex-penses of her personal visit

would be borne by herself.The Sixty-eighth ses-

sion of the World HealthAssembly (WHA) will takeplace in Geneva 18–26 May.The Health Assembly is thesupreme decision-makingbody of World Health Orga-nization (WHO) and at-tended by delegations fromall WHO Member States.

The WHA’s main func-tions are to determine thepolicies of organization, su-pervise financial policies, andreview and approve the pro-posed programme budget.

According to the agendaof WHA meeting, the Assem-bly would discuss the pro-

posed programme budgetfor year 2016 –2017 built onprogrammatic and manage-rial reforms that began witha consultation on the futureof financing for WHO heldin January 2010.

Since then, the changedapproach has maturedthrough successive bud-gets, with expectationsof WHO performance nowexpressed as cost outputsso that achievements canbe measured and the Or-ganization held accountablefor results and resources.

The proposedprogramme budget 2016–2017 has been amounted tonearly US$ 4400 million,which comprises the “base”programmes of categories 1to 6, plus polio, specialprogrammes (those for re-search and training in tropi-cal diseases and for re-search, development andresearch training in humanreproduction), and the event-driven component of Out-breaks and crisis response.

The “base” budget hasincreased by US$ 236.6 mil-lion for the biennium(equivalent to an 8% in-crease over the biennium2014–2015). It is based on arealistic and rigorous calcu-lation of funds needed tosupport the work that wehave been asked to do byour governing bodies.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Chairperson TEVTA Irfan QaiserShaikh said that priorities are being givento revise old curricula through special gapanalysis study. This exercise is being donein consultation with stakeholders especiallytaking into account the relevant industrythrough comprehensive survey by usingspecial Tool/Questionnaire, developed forthe purpose. He was addressing a meetingto review the progress of Academics De-partment. General Managers Engr. AzharIqbal Shad, Hamid Ghani Anjum, AbdulQayyum, and other officers were alsopresent on this occasion.

Irfan Qaiser Shaikh said that TEVTA hasrecently conducted Gap Analysis Seminarsfor Revision of Curricula of 3 Years DAEInstrumentation and Food Technology atGovt. College of Technology, Railway

Old curricula of technicaleducation to be revised soon

Road, Lahore and Govt. Technical TrainingInstitute Gulberg Lahore respectively. Re-search & Development Section of TEVTAinvited the relevant Academia and Indus-try experts to get their input. In these semi-nars, experts has recommended the changesin both DAE technologies which will be in-corporated after following the procedure torevise them.

Chairperson TEVTA further said that onthe recommendations of Industry, TEVTAhas also developed demand driven shortcourses which includes Handy Man, UPSRepair Mechanic, Confectionery, Bakery &Sweets, Call Center, Injection MouldingMachine Operator, Customers Sales Offic-ers, Customer Services Officers and Elec-tronically Controlled Engine Diagnostic &Tune-Up courses. These courses will helpTEVTA pass-outs to get jobs in local aswell as international market, he concluded.

Faisalabad-MultanMotorway to reduce

travel timeISLAMABAD—Constructionof Faisalabad-MultanMotorway (M-4) would notonly reduce travel distancebetween Faisalabad andMultan but would contrib-ute to national and regionaltrade corridor and this partof the national trade corri-dor would yield maximumdividends.

An official of NationalHighway Authority (NHA)informed APP Wednesdaythat M-4 consists of four sec-tions with the first one Gogra-Faisalabad section, secondGogra-Shorkot section,thirdShorkot-Khanewal sectionand fourth Khanewal-Multansection. The construction ofMotorway (M-4) Faisalabad-Multan could not be com-pleted due to delay in fundsfor land acquisition and strin-gent conditions of AsianDevelopment Bank regard-ing land acquisition and re-settlement.

The completion all sec-tions of the M-4 would notonly minimize the distanceof 150 kilometers betweenIslamabad and Multan butwould also save operationalcost of the vehicles as wellas time and fuel. To aquestion,he said that ADBhad approved financing of$170 million for the section-1 in 2008-09 but the con-struction work started in2011 owing to land acquisi-tion issues.

He said that 58 kmFaisalabad-Gojra has beencompleted and formally inau-gurated by Acting PunjabGovernor Rana MuhammadIqbal in March this year. Hesaid that 57 km Khanewal-Multan Section was underconstruction and will be com-pleted by December this year.

About 62 km Gojra-Shorkot Section,he said thatland acquisition process wasin advance stage and LandAcquisition and Resettle-ment Plan was in process ofapproval by ADP. The offi-cial said that contract for 64km Shorkot-Khanewal sec-tion was yet to beawarded.He said that its por-tion of Abdul Hakim-Khanewal Section overlapsthe planned Karachi-LahoreMotorway. The segmentfrom Abdul Hakim-Khanewalwill be constructed as partof KLM. Section-3 will bescaled down to Shorkot-Abdul Hakeem.—APP

STAFF REPERTER

PE S H AWA R —Three-DayDigital Youth Summit is be-ing started here Thursday,the event has been orga-nized under the auspices ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Infor-mation Technology Board(KP IT Board) in collabora-tion with World Bank andother stakeholders.

The objective of orga-nizing the summit is not onlythe provision of one plat-form to the IT sector relatedyouth of the country, butalso to those their creative

3-day Digital YouthSummit starts today

capabilities for generation ofemployment opportunitiesfor them, rather their betterutilization for facilitating thepeople and bringing im-provement in the perfor-mance of the public sectororganizations.

Besides, IT sector re-lated youth from Pakistan,IT experts from other coun-tries will also participate inthe conference at large. TheChief Minister, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, PervezKhattak is going to formallyinaugurate this conferenceon May 7.

562 of total1200 communitymidwives trained

in BalochistanQUETTA—A total of 562community midwives hadbeen trained under the Ma-ternal, Neonatal and ChildHealth (MNCH) Programmewho are serving in their re-spective union councilsacross Balochistan. The pro-vincial Health departmentsources told APP hereWednesday that a target oftraining 1200 midwives hadbeen set under MNCHprogramme from Balochistanwhich could not be achieveddue to poor flow of funds forthe programme by the previ-ous central and the provin-cial governments.

They, however said nowthe funds provision situa-tion has improved and thetarget of training of the pro-posed number of midwives.

Referring to alreadytrained midwives, they saidas many as 384 of total 562midwives had been awardedthe accreditation by the Pa-kistan Nursing Council(PNC). “189 trained Commu-nity Midwives have alreadybeen equipped with mid-wifery kits”, they said andattributed the financial con-straints as a major reason forfailure to equip all the trainedmidwives with the kits so thatthey could effectively con-tribute in achieving improvedmaternal neonatal and childhealth goal in the province.

They said efforts areafoot to get all the trainedmidwives accredited withPNC besides providing themwith quality midwifery kits.

“The provincial healthdepartment has setup Com-prehensive EMDNC facilityin the district headquartershospitals of the fourteen dis-tricts of the province wherethe neonatal.—APP

PESHAWAR—Khyber Pakhtunkhwaprovince has witnessed a sharpdecline, in the incidents of terror-ism as compared to correspondingperiod of last year. According to apolice handout issued here onWednesday, the current incidentswere lowest in the last four yearsperiod. During the current year, 85incidents took place as comparedto 183 in year 2014, 173 in year 2013and 134 in 2012.

The modus operandi analysisshowed that 37 incidents of IEDtook place during the year as com-pared to 97 in year 2014, 114 in theyear 2013 and 83 in 2012. Similarly,there is a decline in vehicle borneIED and suicidal incidents. Duringthe current year 2 incidents of sui-cide bombing s took place as com-pared to 6 in 2014 and 10 in 2013. Inhand grenade/Target killing inci-dents there was also a sharp de-

KP witnesses decline in terror incidentscrease. 13 incidents of hand gre-nades throwing and 33 incidents offiring in current year as comparedto 26 and 45 in year 2014.

Besides decrease in incidents,the casualties that took place dur-ing the current year were lowest inthe last 4-year period. During thecurrent year 60 persons were killedand 104 were injured as comparedto 194 and 511 in the year 2014. TheInspector General of Police, NasirKhan Durrani, appreciated the per-formance of Counter Terrorism De-partment in a meeting, specially thehead of Counter Terrorism Depart-ment KPK, Salahuddin.

The DIG CTD, briefed the In-spector General of Police about theprogress made by the CTD in thefirst few months of this year. Pres-ently, all incidents of terrorism arehandled by CTD (Counter Terror-ism Department) which was estab-

lished in KP last year. Now, the CTDnot only registered the cases butalso investigate and apprehend theculprits.

Presently 7 CTD police stationshave been established all over theprovince at all the regional head-quarters. The performance of theCTD during the current year hasbeen extremely well. Many promi-nent militants have been arrestedand also succeeded in tracing outsome very important cases of thepast. The CTD with the help of I.Balso arrested important culprits in-volved in suicide bombing inIslamabad courts.

During the current period KPpolice recovered 6649 arms and280.575 Kg explosives, Peshawarpolice also succeeded in unearth-ing a factory involved manufactur-ing of improvised explosive devicesrecovering 720 kg of explosives, 80

kgs of liquid explosives, 72 bundlesof detonating cords, 48 fuses and11packets of remote controls.

An attempt of suicide bombingwas made on Aftab Sherpao’s cav-alcade in Charsadda which wasfoiled by timely response of thepolice escort. In the incident thesuicide bomber also opened fire onthe vehicle of Sherpao but it waswell responded by the police teamdue to which the suicide bomberhad to retreat.

On this, one of the constablesjumped over the suicide bomberfor getting hold of the militant butthe bomber blew up himself.Resultantly Constable Ashraf Janembraced shahhdat on the spotand saved the life of Sherpao andhis fellow police officers. The actof bravery of the constable waswell appreciated by the public fig-ures.—APP

ABDUL KHALIQ QURESHI

A B B O T T A B A D —Abbottabad mainKarakorum High Way re-main blocked for three hoursby the angry PTI district of-fice bearers and supportersto show their resentment onthe award of tickets for thelocal bodies election as theyalleged that tickets were notdistributed on merit and theold and sincere party work-

PTI office-bearears block roaders were denied tickets.Among the protestors wereformer deputy speaker ofNational assembly SardarMuhammad Yauqoob, presi-dent and General Secretaryof PTI Abbottabad SardarSher Bahadar, JanMuhammad Qureshi, SabirAwan and many more.

Angry protestors burntthe tyers and they wereshouting slogans against PTIprovincial president Azam

Khan, provincial ministersMushtaq Ahmed Ghani,Qalandar Khan Lodhi andalso against chief ministerKPK. In their speeches, theyalleged that worst examplesof nepotisms being seen andloyal party workers were notgiven tickets and said that thiswill damage the party and willlose the seats and also willlose the confidence of thegeneral public who are de-manding the “Change” but

most of the tickets which weregiven to the peoples whowere members of other par-ties.

A long “ Q” of vehicleswere seen on the both sidesof the road and due to closerof the only road which linkscountry’s five districts,Mansehra, Battagram,Kohistan, Torgher, andAbbottabad ,Northern areasGilgit, Azad Kashmir remaincut off from entire countryand the most sufferer werethe school going kids asdozens of students werefainted in the vehicles dueto suffocation, at least sevenAmbulances were stuck upwith serious patients includ-ing one most serious pa-tient, the mother ofMuhammad Ali, resident ofSultan pur Havelian whowas being shifted to Al-Shafa for emergency treat-ment from Ayub MedicalComplex.

DC assuresresolution ofproblems ofemployees

THATTA—Deputy Commis-sioner Thatta Nadeem-ur-Rehman Memon saidWednesday that variousimportant issues of the em-ployees of Municipal Com-mittee Thatta be resolved onpriority so that those em-ployees could perform theirduties properly and contrib-ute to the city’s cleanliness.

The issues of municipalemployees include salaries,pensions and others. He saidthis during a meeting with adelegation of employees ofthe Municipal Committeewhich visited his office.

The DC assured them odearly solution of their impor-tant problems. On this oc-casion he directed the Mu-nicipal Engineer (ME) tohold meeting with the em-ployees of the MunicipalCommittee on daily basisand make efforts to resolvetheir problems.

He further directed theME to increase the pay ofdaily wage employees of theMunicipal Committee sothat they could get relief anddirected him to providedrinking water tanker ondaily basis to the ChristianColony Thatta.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Mainly hotand dry weather is likely toprevail in most parts of thecountry during the next 24hours. However, partlycloudy weather conditionwith isolated rain thunder-storm associated with gustywinds is expected inMalakand, Kalat, Makrandivisions and upper FATA.According to the synopticsituation, continental air isprevailing over most parts ofthe country. However, ashallow westerly wave is af-fecting most western partsof the country and expectedto affect other parts of thecountry during the week-end. The Multan local Metoffice has forecast partlycloudy (PC) weather withchances of dust raisingwinds (DRW) for the cityand its suburbs during thenext 24 hours.

On Wednesday, maxi-mum and minimum tem-peratures were recorded as44.5 C and 26.3 degree centi-

Mainly hot, dry weatherlikely to prevail

grade respectively. The hu-midity was recorded 42 percent at 8 am and 11 per centat 5 pm. Meanwhile, KarachiMeteorological DepartmentWednesday forecast a fair orpartly cloudy and windyweather for the metropolisduring the next 24 hours.According to the Met Officethe maximum temperature inthe city is expected to remain

between 33 and 35 degreescentigrade. Mainly hot/veryhot and dry weather is likelyto prevail in Sindh/Balochistan region. How-ever, partly cloudy/cloudyweather with chances ofthunderstorm/rain at isolatedplaces in Kalat and Quettadivisions of Balochistan isexpected. —APP

Appreciable additionto national grid

PEOPLE of Pakistan have been hearing since long plans andprogrammes by successive governments to exploit alternative energy resources but the credit goes to the present Government for

making concrete progress towards that end. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,on Tuesday, inaugurated first unit of 100 Megawatt of Quaid-e-AzamSolar Park in Bahawalpur, which is going to be the largest solar park ofthe world when it achieves the maximum generation capacity of 1,000MW in two years.

No doubt, total elimination of the menace of load-shedding is not insight in the immediate future but it is important to note that gradually projectsare coming on line and as per commitment of the Prime Minister the load-shedding would be thing of the past by the year 2017-18. One can restassured that the required megawatts would be added to the grid by that timeas majority of them are being established with the assistance of China,which has a track record of delivering projects in time. But more importantis the focus of the Government on wind and solar power, which is consid-ered to be energy of the future. Pakistan is rich in wind and solar energyresources and as per a study of USAID, the country can produce 150,000MW of electricity from these sources. The Government is developing windpower plants in Jhimpir, Gharo, Keti Bandar and Bin Qasim in Sindh whichwould not only reduce electricity shortages, but will also help ease the bur-den of oil imports. Experts also believe that if 0.25% of Balochistan wascovered with solar panels with an efficiency of 20%, enough electricitywould be generated to cover all of Pakistani demand. Solar energy makesmuch sense for Pakistan where 70% of the population lives in 50,000villages that are very far away from the national grid and connecting themto the grid would be very costly. Therefore, giving each house a solarpanel would be cost efficient and would empower people both economi-cally and socially. Apart from solar power plants, the Government needsto focus on local manufacturing of solar panels on commercial basis toreduce their cost, making them affordable to people. Pakistan has neces-sary talent and universities should be encouraged to launch researchprojects on different aspects of solar and wind power.

RAW’s involvement,what next?

IN one of the rare on-record references, the Corps Commanders, who meton Tuesday, took exception to Indian intelligence agency RAW’s involve-

ment in whipping up terrorists in Pakistan. Army Chief General RaheelSharif, who chaired the important moot, emphasized the need for continuedprecision targeting of terrorists squeezed in isolated protects in FATA anddirected law enforcement agencies to intensify intelligence based operationagainst criminals, terrorists, and their abettors in urban areas for enduringpeace in the country.

The Corps Commanders have, no doubt, made a bold assessment andmade it public as well but the question arises would it suffice to just pointout the malaise and take no action to address it. RAW is long known forsponsoring terrorism and subversion in Pakistan by way of training, armingand funding of terrorist and militant outfits. It has repeatedly been pointedout since long that India’s increasing role in Afghanistan under the garb ofreconstruction and rehabilitation projects is aimed at engineering troublein Balochistan and FATA as part of its agenda to destabilize Pakistan.There have also been reports that RAW is also fuelling trouble in Karachi,which is bleeding for years. We are sure that reference to RAW’s involve-ment in Pakistan and that too in black and white is not without any sub-stantial evidence. It is ironical that India has all along been whipping uppropaganda against Pakistan maligning it of sponsoring terrorism but itsown agency is sponsoring terrorist acts in Pakistan. In this backdrop, Pa-kistan should have exposed Indian designs at different regional and glo-bal forums but so far Islamabad has adopted a meek approach towards aproblem that is so crucial to peace and security in the country. Apart fromexposing Indian designs and presenting concrete evidence before media,there is also need to dismantle foreign funded terrorist networks and theirsupply routes through intelligence based operations.

Jirga system isnot that bad

PRESIDENT Mamnoon Hussain, who is otherwise known for mootingout thought-provoking ideas, on Tuesday, declared Jirga system as bad

for rural areas and added that people in those areas need to be told that Jirgawas not solution of their problems. Talking to a delegation of FederalOmbudsman’s National Committee on Children, he said Jirgas were illegaland have no locus standi to decide disputes.

The worthy President might have sound reasons to oppose and criticizeJirgas but we would point out that, exceptions notwithstanding, Jirga andPanchayat system in rural areas has been complementing the formal judi-cial system in dispute resolution. There can be no two opinions that theseJirgas and members of Panchayat have no powers at all to decide thingsover and above law of the land like Vani, Swara or Karo Kari. Jirgas shouldnot interfere where serious legal or criminal issues are involved but it hasbeen observed that their interventions have often resolved complicated is-sues. Normal judicial system takes years and sometimes decades in dispos-ing of cases and that is why many people do not prefer to knock at the doorof the judiciary. Jirga or Panchayat is sort of consultative process whereelders and wiser people meet to discuss societal issues and find their so-lution without lodging formal complaints with the judicial system of thestate. It is rightly said that where our judicial system has failed, the jirgasystem has been effectively resolving issues such as; murder, theft, rapeand land disputes. However, in some places it has understandably beenhijacked by extreme factions and exploited for their own vested interests.Jirgas are composed of local people who are definitely more knowledge-able about the disputes and issues involved and therefore, decide thingsas per ground realities. In view of the known advantages of Jirga andPanchayat, we have been stressing the need for giving them formal gov-ernmental cover, with, of course, some reforms in their working.

How public money is squandered?

An olivebranch to

Taiwan

CHINESE President XiJinping and Taiwan’s ruling Nationalist Party Chair-

man Eric Chu met for a tête-à-têtein Beijing, and underscored theneed for congenial relations. Thisis no less than a breakthrough, asfor the first time in six years theytook to the table for a dialoguebetween the Mainland and the in-dependent entity of Taiwan, whichBeijing ultimately wants under itssovereignty. Though not much hasbeen made public as to what werethe salient features that were dis-cussed, it goes without saying thatChina’s policy to harness cordialrelations with Taiwan enjoys wideranging support on both sides ofthe divide.

But as far as Taipei is con-cerned, it is quite an uphill task asnationalists oppose amalgamationwith Beijing, and that was evidentin the form of protests recently onthe breakaway province. Taiwan-ese are quite conscious of history,especially the civil war with thecommunists, which led them toflee from the Mainland. Moreover,they think that socio-economic co-operation will encroach upon theirunique status in the region andmake them dependent on Beijing.Thus, it is articulation and states-manship that is needed if the bitteraspect of history has to be over-come, before irritants between thetwo countries are addressed in aholistic manner. The bone of con-tention is Beijing’s ‘One China’policy, which Taipei resents. Chu,who has improved ties with Chinaduring his tenure, is also underpressure from the communist stateto stand for another term. That willsomehow help thwart the pro-in-dependence opposition party whooppose any kind of rapprochementwith China. In other words, Xi’shosting of the Kuomintang (KMT)leader is more of a political ges-ture than state-centric in essence.Whatever may be the case,Beijing’s problem is that it wantsto cultivate a soft constituency inTaiwan and Hong Kong, with thesingle-point agenda of keepingtheir respective governments awayfrom aligning with China’s foes.— Khaleej Times

*****

Uneasytimes inUkraine

AN increase in casualtiesduring separate offensivesin Ukraine could lend cre-

dence to the principle that theceasefire between Kiev and Mos-cow is in danger of fragmenting.The foundations of the painstak-ingly worked out truce in Febru-ary were unsteady from the start.It has been violated on numerousinstances. The recent death of sol-diers and civilians in Ukraine doesnot offer much hope for the fu-ture; fighting might break out ona larger scale.

It is all a question of which sideblinks first — the pro-Moscowmilitants or Ukrainian governmentforces. Both sides are pointing fin-gers at each other but this will notfoster a long-term and sustainablesolution to the problem at hand.International observers are unableto do much, except tighteningsanctions on Russia while theUkrainian economy also goes intofree fall. There is speculation thatfresh violence may break aroundMay 9, when Russia and Ukraineare set to commemorate the 70thanniversary of the Soviet Union’svictory over Nazi Germany.Should that happen, the signifi-cance of that day would not be loston anyone. With the US sendingin experts to train Ukrainiantroops, the move could also be seenas a potential fuse to spark off con-flict. This is why the internationalcommunity needs to exercise cau-tion and tact whilst encouragingdialogue and negotiations across abroader spectrum. The scale of thefighting may have ebbed but thereis a smouldering volatility that isjust as dangerous. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

IT was rather regretful and shameful to note that over all these years,trustees of public money have all

along been not only lacking in per-forming their duties efficiently , hon-estly and diligently but also miser-ably been failing in ensuring not asingle penny out of their custody wassquandered, drained out, embezzled,misused and misappropriated andstrict fiscal discipline and internalcontrol on all financial transactionswas maintained. Reports of the Au-ditor General of Pakistan on the ac-counts and working of the Federaland Provincial Governments Min-istries/ Divisions and Departmentsfrom time to time speak volume ofhow the trustees of the public moneywere mishandling the same withoutshowing any regard and consider-ation as such for rules and regula-tions, fiscal discipline, remainingwithin the limits of powers and allthat good which was expected froma public servants paid out of thepublic exchequer and tax-payershard-earned money.

Audit Report of the accounts ofthe Punjab Government for audit year2013-14 presented rather very disap-pointing, shocking and dismayingpicture of how various administrativedepartments officials had been mis-using, abusing and throwing away thepublic money which runs into billionsof rupees during the period under re-port. Nobody seemed to be con-cerned, worried and obliged to en-sure that fiscal discipline was en-

Diversionary tactic backfires

PRODUCING two hooded terror suspects before the media.Tahir Alias “Lamba” and

“Mama” Junaid, purportedly fromthe Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM), SSP Malir Rao Anwarclaimed that they were trained inIndia by Indian spy agency RAW(Research and Analysis Wing). ThatRAW has been engaged in terroristattacks in Pakistan is not new nornews, neither is the fact that thosedoing their dirty work belong to anyone political party. Some elite of themedia (and some in corporatecircles) are in this upto their necks,relying on “freedom of expression”to escape accountability. A fail-safeline must separate risking freedomof the country at the altar of “free-dom of expression.”

It was unusual that a middleranking police officer could have theaudacity to damn the MQM for“spreading terror in the guise of apolitical party, all the senior leadersof MQM including its chief, AltafHussain, are involved in spreadingterror in the country,”, unquote.Alleging funding of terrorist activi-ties from London, the SSP Malirdemanded “MQM should be bannedthe way the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pa-kistan (TTP) and other militant out-fits were because of their terroristactivities.” Anwar was immediatelytransferred from Malir on the in-structions of Chief Minister QaimAli Shah taking “serious notice ofhis press conference leveling seri-ous allegations against the MQM.”What hypocrisy, and we are sup-posed to swallow such a canard?

Known within and outside po-lice circles as an “encounter special-ist” and an Asif Zardari favorite, Rao

Anwar does not enjoy a verysavoury reputation. A recentpetition before the judiciaryclaims he has killed over 50persons in the last six monthsalone. Five attackers, theiridentities still unknown,

were killed attacking his convoytwo days after his media show. Thepolicemen protecting Anwar all mi-raculously escaped unhurt, anotherstaged “encounter”?

Instead of targetting Anwar, theSindh Govt and/or the PPP the MQMChief went off at a tangent disparag-ing the Army, ISI and the MI. TheArmy reacted swiftly and unambigu-ously, Maj Gen Asim Bajwa’s em-phatic tweet, “Altaf Hussain’s speechon TV tonight containing remarksabout the Army and its leadership wasuncalled for and disgusting”, “won’tbe tolerated” was followed by “thematter will be pursued legally.” Theimmediate political reaction was alsouniversally adverse for MQM, sym-bolized by Balochistan Assembly’sunanimous resolution that “AltafHussain used hateful languageagainst national institutions, such lan-guage against the Pakistan Armywould not be tolerated, MQM hasmade the entire Karachi city hostageand that such language against Paki-stan military comes in the treason cat-egory.” unquote. The KPK Assem-bly followed suit in more or less thesame tone and tenor, the Punjab As-sembly is soon expected to. No sur-prise that the Sindh Assembly, withthe PPP in majority, is dithering.Sensing the direction of the politicalwind, the PM chipped in. Aware thathe had crossed a fail-safe line, AltafHussain contrite apology may nothave mollified many, at least it was astep in the right direction.

Almost every political party usesmilitant muscle in Pakistan as a self-defence mechanism to fend off itsopponents. Harbouring of militantsfor enforcing their own version of lawis illegal but that is how feudals stay

in power. While MQM, PPP andANP are the normal “suspects” forhaving militant wings in Karachi, didGullo Butt of Model Town fame ap-pear out of thin air? As a weapon ofoffense and/or of subjugation to keepparty recalcitrants in line, it crossesthe fail-safe line into criminality.Such criminals depend upon theirpolitical bosses to keep them out ofjail, and even if they are incarcerated,to provide them with five-star com-fort. Potentially they are a Sword ofDamocles over the heads of their po-litical bosses if they turn State wit-ness, e.g. Saulat Mirza, ZulfikarMirza and the rumoured 1500 pagestatement given by Uzair Baloch tothe Dubai Police. A mountain of evi-dence is not good enough to con-vince the judiciary about anyone’sguilt under the present tenets of theEvidence Act (even modified by theQanoon-i-Shahadat 1984). Withmost witnesses fearing for their livesand for their families, the judiciaryis either legally straitjacketed obey-ing the wording of the “rule of law”and/or intimidated.

Rao Anwar’s performance out ofthe blue ostensibly had “nothing of-ficial about it”, on whose motivationand for what purpose? No one reallycensured him for “misusing of author-ity”. Being very close to Zardari, his“punishment” being transfer to Badinfor “misusing his authority” gave itall away, who else but Zardari’s “mosttrusted” policeman to target hisformer friend and present tormentorZulfikar Ali Mirza? A PPP insiderMirza has ad nauseam been onprimetime TV denouncing Zardariand political aides for unimaginablecrimes. No surprise that Mirza is pres-ently under police siege in his farm-house in Badin. To quote Henry theSecond in “Becket”, “Who will ridme of this meddlesome priest?”Fahmida Mirza former Speaker of theNational Assembly , raised seriousconcerns about the safety and secu-rity of her husband.

forced quite ruthlessly . Here are somevery glaring examples of irregularitiesmentioned in the Audit Report. Dur-ing audit of Law and ParliamentaryAffairs Department for the period2012-13, it was observed that an ex-penditure of Rs 3,006,040 was in-curred on entertainment charges dur-ing media briefings of the ProvincialLaw Minister. The expenditure washeld irregular on the ground that lunchand dinner was served to the partici-pants instead of tea with biscuits asrequired under Austerity MeasuresPolicy of the Provincial Govt datedJuly 23, 2011 and that no advertise-ment was floated as required under therules in this regard. The irregularitywas pointed out in February 2013 butthe management did not furnish antreply. The matter was further reportedto the administrative department. Nei-ther any reply was received nor De-partmental Committee meeting wasconvened till the finalization of thereport despite reminder issued on De-cember 10, 2013. Audit has recom-mended that responsibility be fixedand the expenditure may be got regu-larized from the competent authority.

During audit of Agriculture De-partment, it was observed that fundsamounting to Rs 527.27 millions werereleased to various Project Managersand Executive Engineers ProvincialBuilding Division by the Drawing andDisbursing Officer (DDO) but thevouched account was not provided toaudit for scrutiny . Due to non-pro-duction of record of funds released toPunjab Agricultural Research BoardLahore, Director General Rice Re-search Institute Kala Shah Kaku anDirector General Ayub AgricultureResearch Institute Faisalabad during

2009-12 and 2011-13, audit could notascertain authenticity of accounts.

In another case of irregular ap-pointments in universities, the audit re-port pointed that under the Chaptertitled “Fundamental Rights” of theConstitution of Pakistan, equality ofcitizens and safeguard against dis-crimination in services has been guar-anteed. Article 25 of the Constitutionprovides that all citizens are equal be-fore law and are entitled to equal pro-tection of law while Article 27 pro-vides that no citizen shall be discrimi-nated against. Supreme Court of Pa-kistan in its judgment dated 19-01-1993 in Human Rights Case no 104of 1992 had stated that recruitments,both ad hoc and regular, without pub-licity and properly advertising the va-cancies, is a violation of fundamentalrights. As such no post could be filledin without proper advertisement, evenon ad hoc or regular basis.

Audit of the Agriculture Depart-ment had pointed out that the contractemployees, Research Officer/Re-search Assistants and contingent paidstaff were appointed by the Vice-Chan-cellors of University of AgricultureFaisalabad and University of AridAgriculture Rawalpindi on contract/ad-hoc basis without advertisement ofthese vacancies in press. As such, thepayment amounting to Rs 17.06 mil-lions to them as pay and allowanceswas irregular. The management ofboth these universities had not both-ered to respond when these irregulari-ties were pointed out by the auditwhich had recommended that the de-partment should adhere to the rules andregulations, fix responsibility for non-adherence to rules and seek regular-ization of the matter from the compe-

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Weekly Magazine

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Mao Tse-Tung—Chinese leader

Letting a hundredflowers blossomand a hundredschools of thoughtcontend is thepolicy for promotingthe progress of thearts and thesciences.

The PPP cannot wish away thePeoples’ Amn Committee (PAC). Asthe man overseeing the PAC asSindh’s Home Minister, where didMirza’s orders emanate from? He hasnot been “born again”, he may sim-ply be stalking the TV channels tobecome a possible “Approver”. ThePPP apprehend they may be next tofeel the Army-generated heat. Inter-rogation has uncovered a wealth ofinformation implicating many acrossthe political hierarchy (and country’selite) from all the political divide.Defaming the Army was simplymeant to politicize the criminality,desperate times require desperatemeasures. One suspects complicitywith anti-Pakistani elements attempt-ing this set-piece diversionary tactic.

Addressing the Corps Com-manders Conference last Tuesday,the COAS Gen Raheel Shareefcalled the surge in operations againstterrorists and criminals apolitical,across the board and focussed onachieving peace in the country. Hetook serious notice of RAW whip-ping up terrorism in Pakistan, vow-ing taking all measures to eradicatethis scourge, to quote, “we will takethe war to its logical conclusion.”One word of advice, Raheel, getyour people to study the nature ofthe “hybrid warfare” being con-ducted against Pakistan from withinPakistan, how influence, connec-tions and corporate money is usedto attack the uniform.

Zardari’s diversionary ploy hasevoked vociferous popular supportfor the Army across the countryacross the board, bringing focus oncriminality under the garb of democ-racy. While the gameplan to createpolitical confusion could not havebeen planned by RAW any better,the backlash across the country wasnot reckoned with. — The diver-sionary tactic has backfired!— The writer, retired army officer,is a leading defence and securityanalyst.

tent authority. The audit in all theseand other cases mentioned abovehad pointed out irregularities, fla-grant violations of rules and regula-tions and misuse and abuse of pow-ers, weak internal financial controlsand discipline to the administrativedepartments most of which had alsonot produced the relevant record forverification of expenditures so oc-curred but despite reminders, therewas no compliance from the depart-ments concerned.

There was still lot more to bementioned here but this sad, shock-ing and deplorable as well as regret-table tale of how public money wassquandered, rules flagrantly violatedand funds utilized as per sweet whimshas been shortened to the maximumextent possible. Audit Report on theaccounts of the Punjab Governmentfor audit year 2013-14 was finalizedby the office of the Auditor Generalof Pakistan and signed by AuditorGeneral of Pakistan MuhammadAkhtar Buland Rana on March 6,2014 and the same was submitted tothe Punjab Governor in pursuance ofArticle 171 of the Constitution forcausing it to be laid before the Pro-vincial Assembly. The audit reportwas laid in the Provincial Assemblyalong with some other reports onlyin March 2015 . It was accordinglyreferred to the Public AccountsCommittee for report in one year.Who was responsible for this inor-dinate delay and could not this pro-cess be speeded up to serve the pur-pose of audit and accountability asmuch as possible?— The writer is a freelancejournalist & columnist based inLahore.

Ikram SehgalEmail:ikram.sehgal@smswppl.com

M Zahid RifatEmail: zahidriffat@gmail.com

ET

Voice of the People

A plea to thePrime Minister

WAQAR RASUL

I am a father of 22 months old girlUrwa who has been diagnosed withkidney failure. I have visited all hos-pitals in Islamabad / Rawalpindi forher treatment; the only hospital whichis offering the service of dialysis forthis age group is Shifa International.She is under treatment there for al-most last 1.5 month but by now theaffordability of treatment here is get-ting tougher and tougher for me.

It is not needed to mention howexpensive Shifa International is butwe don’t have any other place to go.She is in ICU for 4th time in this shortperiod of 1.5 month and the hospitalcharges go in lakhs every time. I havebeen spent on treatment, whatever thesavings and resources I had. I re-quested the doctors twice for mak-ing concession but they totally re-fused. I have left with no option butto request the Prime Minister tokindly take the responsibility oftreatment of my innocent daughterand save her life. The registrationnumber of the patient at Shifa in-ternational is 00026695. Contact#03215259985—Via email

Freedomof speech

ALIZA ANEES

The live hate speech of a politicalleader on 10th April, has caused agi-tation in general public and the gov-ernment alike. Approximately 14TV channels were noticed byPEMRA who telecasted live thatspeech and assured the governmentthat due action shall be taken undersection 27 of the PEMRA law.

I am in favour of this actionsince a hate speech is not what thepress call the ‘freedom of speech’.It is a bunch of derisive remarksmeant solely to instil restlessness inthe public and to incite prejudicialbehaviour, even violence! Politi-cians are our leaders and their job isto promote harmony in the nation,not what these ‘exemplary’ leadersare doing these days. Instead of theongoing debate over who won theelections fairly, it would do us allgreat good if they, for once, stopbickering over their personal ben-efits and unite for a mutual purposeto serve their people sincerely.—Karachi

Book festivals &reading culture

SUMAILA NAEEM

‘Books and peace go together’ wasthe theme of the ‘Book Festival’ cel-ebrated under the auspices of theNational Book Foundation, in theFederal capital in the last week of thelast month. The five-day book festi-val was aimed at promoting the bookreading culture and motivating theyouth towards positive pursuits, con-structive engagements, foster har-mony and affection in the social fab-ric and promote healthy traditions forthe posterity. One of the inspirationalaspects of the festival was to pay trib-utes and accolades and extend respectand honours to the renowned nationaland overseas writers, poets and leg-endary literary figures. The academi-cians, writers, poets and intellectu-als called upon the national leader-ship on the occasion to provide sub-sidy on books and note books to pro-mote reading habits in the society.They also advised the students toadopt reading habits.

Various colourful programmeswith more than forty segments werepart of the celebrations. Renownedpoets, writers and scholars includingAtta-ul-Haq Qasmi, Intezar Hussain,Anwar Masood and Amjad IslamAmjad, disagreed with the notion thebook reading habits are under declinein the society and that the computerand internet had adversely affectedthe book reading culture. They wereof the opinion that thousands ofpeople were keenly reading books inPakistan. The book festival also in-cluded a special programme ‘Live

Morality & advertisementsASMA HUSSAIN MORIO

Morality is at decline everywhere but when it comes to television advertisements it’s even worse.Advertisements are shown in such a manner and content that one becomes uncomfortable to

watch it with family members. The sole purpose of these advertisements is to convince audience to buya particular product. In order to get that purpose the limits of morality and social values are usuallytransgressed. In these advertisements female models are presented and projected in such way that oneis unable to understand whether the publicity is that of the product or the model herself? Femalemodels have become inevitable for advertisements even in those products which are specific to men -they are shown to be impressed by those men who use that specific product. Keeping in view thedrastic effects these advertisements have, it can be said that it is need of hour to introduce a legislativebill with strong deterrent to check these spurious advertisements. It is motto of PEMRA to improvethe standard of information, education and entertainment so advertisements of this kind should alsobe addressed. It has badly failed to implement the prescribed Code of Ethics on advertisements, dulysigned and agreed upon by the licensees of the electronic media outlets. It is the national and legalresponsibility of PEMRA to put a strong check on the spurious advertisements and make sure thatmorality and social values are give preference in these advertisements.—Larkana

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View From Abroad

New emerging realities in Saudi Arabia

IN the 30 years since Britain firstnegotiated the al-Yamamah armsdeal with Saudia Arabia, the gen-

eral assumption has been that thiscountry was by far the main benefi-ciary of the multi-billion-poundagreement. Once called “the biggestBritish sale ever of anything to any-one”, the complex negotiations origi-nally undertaken by the Thatcher gov-ernment in the mid-Eighties commit-ted Britain to equip the Royal SaudiAir Force (RSAF) with more than100 Tornado fighter aircraft, as wellas 50 Hawk trainers.

The scale of the deal, which alsoincluded specialised naval vessels,missile and radar systems, resulted inBAE Systems, the government’smain contractor, employing morethan 4,000 people in the kingdom ina deal that is estimated to have earnedthe company more than £40 billion.The trade has been so successful that,in 2005, the Saudis signed a furtheragreement with BAE worth an esti-mated £10 billion to buy 72Eurofighter Typhoons, as well asagreeing a separate £2.5 billion dealto upgrade the RSAF’s fleet of age-

ing Tornados. This British arms bo-nanza has not been without its mo-ments of high controversy, startingwith allegations that MargaretThatcher’s son Mark benefited finan-cially from the deal – allegations hehas always forcibly denied – to themore recent row over the Blairgovernment’s decision to abandon aSerious Fraud Office investigationinto corruption allegations.

Even so, successive British gov-ernments have acknowledged the vi-tal role the deal has played in pre-serving the nation’s defence industrialbase at a time of ever declining de-fence budgets. But now, thanks to therecent escalation in the conflict inneighbouring Yemen, the traditionalassumption that Saudi Arabia’s multi-billion-pound defence procurementprogramme was simply an expensiveinsurance policy to deter potentialaggressors, such as Iran, has beenturned on its head. During the pastmonth around 100 RSAF warplanes– the majority of them made in Brit-ain – have flown an estimated 2,200bombing sorties over Yemen;150,000 Saudi troops have massed onthe Yemeni border; and Saudi navalvessels have been deployed to pro-tect the vital shipping lanes throughthe Gulf of Aden.

The massive military operation,which was originally codenamedOperation Decisive Storm but hassince been redesignated OperationRestoring Hope, has been undertakento prevent Iranian-backed Houthirebels from seizing control ofneighbouring Yemen, where, for de-cades, successive Yemeni govern-ments have been close allies of theSaudi royal family. Moreover, thesheer scale of Saudi Arabia’s militaryintervention in Yemen, the largestever undertaken in the kingdom’s his-tory, represents the more assertivestance Riyadh has adopted since KingSalman was crowned in January.

For many years, the dominantfactor in Saudi Arabia’s foreignpolicy has been its close relationshipwith Washington. Its heavy relianceon America’s overwhelming militarysuperiority in the Gulf region meantthat Riyadh often took a back seat inconfrontations with its neighbours.During the First Gulf War to liberateKuwait in 1991, for example, Saudiwarplanes played a minimal role inthe US-led air campaign againstSaddam Hussein’s forces.

The fact that the Saudis are nowprepared to fight their own battlesis in no small measure due toRiyadh’s increasingly strained rela-

Con Coughlin

Keep going..!

PLAYERS win, players lose,players prepare, playerspractise, players get hurt but

players get up. No matter what theoutcome is, players play. Afteryears of hard work, Thomas Carlylfinished the manuscript of hisbook and gave it to a friend toread. The friend’s housekeepermistook the manuscript for trashand threw into the fire. When shegot the news, Carlyl’s wifecouldn’t hold back her tears. Hisfriend stood trembling, and Carlylhimself was speechless. Finally,

with a display of remarkable cour-age and restraint he said, “Accidentslike these happen.”

Although, outwardly Carlyl ap-peared courageous, he was devas-tated. He was unsure if he could con-tinue with the project. He couldn’tsleep all night. The next morning heresolved to start working on his bookagain. No matter what, he just couldnot give up. Two years later, he hadrecreated and finished his greatwork, ‘The French Revolution,’which remains to this day a livingtestimony to his indomitable spirit.Carlyle didn’t give up, he pursuedhis goal and won.

In my sitting room just right infront of where I sit and sip my morn-ing cuppa, I have hung this poem,which I read when my spirits sag:

When things go wrong, as theysometimes will, When the roadyou’re trudging seems all uphill,When the funds are low, and thedebts are high, And you want tosmile, but you have to sigh, Whencare is pressing you down a bit, Restif you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists andturns, As everyone of us sometimeslearns, And many a failure turnsabout, When he might have won hadhe stuck it out; Don’t give up thoughthe pace seems slow. You may suc-ceed with another blow. Success isfailure turned inside out, The silvertint of the clouds of doubt, And younever can tell how close you are, Itmay be near when it seems so far; Sostick to the fight when you’re hard-est hit, It’s when things seem worse,

That you must not quit.Close your eyes after you’ve

read this piece and imagine you’rethere when Carlyle hears hismanuscript’s been thrown into thefire. See the despair on his face,feel his deep depression, the almostgiving up look! And then see hisface as he holds in his hand thepublished book after two years.Feel his joy and sense the feelingof achievement.

Slowly take Carlyle away andplace yourself where he stands.Don’t quit my dear friend and thesame victory will be for you. Stickto the fight when you’re hardest hit,it’s when things seem worse thatyou must never ever quit. You justgotta keep going to win..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Freedom of expression or right to insult!

OUR society and social media including electronic media are debating over the hot

issue of Cyber Crime Bill 2015 butunfortunately we are blessed withshort-term memory and have badhabit of forgetting the core issues.Things are happening at an alarmingrate that one is over burdened withnews and breaking news. The flowof information is so quick that onefinds it difficult to grasp. ‘Everyonehas the right to freedom of opinionand expression’. However, much haschanged since 1948 and many ambi-guities exist when it comes to rightof free expression within borders ofa specific state. Whether it be Rus-sia or United States, North Korea orSouth Korea, Arab States, SouthAsia or the European Union, everynation has its own set of laws whichestablishes their own take on free-dom of expression.

For example, freedom of expres-sion in the United States is protectedby the First Amendment to the USConstitution, however there are somelimitations or restrictions that arerecognised by the Supreme Court ofUnited States. Signed shortly after the

tionship with the Obama adminis-tration, which is seen as being moreinterested in doing a deal with Iranover its nuclear programme thanprotecting the interests of long-standing allies such as the Saudis.As Nawaf Obaid, a former securityadviser to the Saudi government,points out, “With so many newthreats emerging in the Arab world,from the takeover of large areas ofSyria and Iraq by Islamic State (IS)to Iran’s attempt to establish a cli-ent state in Yemen, it has been vitalthat Saudi Arabia establish a newdefence policy.”

The Saudis also fear that the de-cline in Britain’s military strengthhas been accompanied by a signifi-cant reduction in Britain’s positionas a world power, with the result thatthe French are now regarded bymany Gulf leaders as being morereliable allies than the British. Butwith the Saudis planning to splashout £100 billion on new arms dealsaimed at strengthening their military,this damaging perception is one thenext government must reverse at theearliest opportunity. Otherwise Brit-ain is likely to find itself the big loserin any future multi-billion-poundSaudi arms deals. — Courtesy: The Telegraph

Legal framework for Pakistan

LAW is central to society andour daily lives in thisglobalised world. No society

can claim to have adequate civic edu-cation for building a civil society ifpeople don’t have enough legal framework. Law is not a self-containedsystem of legal rules immune frompolitical, economic and communityinfluences. Law and society both re-flect and shape each other. Law is notabstract and remote from everydaylife. Law affects you personally inways which might not seem imme-diate or obvious.

The legal structure of a countryis principal for socio-economic andpolitical development for the smoothfunctioning of the state’s organs.Human history dictates that whenthere was no system or set of laws,rule of jungle prevailed and the con-

cept of survival of the fittest applied.Inferior and the weaker were fed upfrom such unfairness and intolerance,and need fct that there should beproper set of rules which treat allpeople equally, evenly and uniformly.

Therefore, the laws, the rules andregulations, the process throughwhich they come into operation andthe institutions that apply them com-prise the legal framework of a coun-try. In many countries the uncertaintyin their application of law and itsweak enforcement lead to creation ofhindrance in their path towardsprogress, advancement and develop-ment. In the struggle against discrimi-nation and the protection of sociallyweak and in distributing opportuni-ties in the society, it is the law thatmakes an important contribution toan equitable and just society so a le-gal framework can prove to be veryhelpful in cementing the existing in-equalities through law.

So law should be responsibleenough to protect the rights of every

individual, no matter or regardless ofthe fact that one is an accused or vic-tim. For instance, a victim shouldhave a right to have his allegationsinvestigated and to be informed re-garding progress, protection fromaccused etc. similarly, on the otherside the accused should have a rightto apply for bail if he has been de-tained and arrested etc.

Therefore, laws were not onlymade but also implemented yet lawsbecame tools in the hands of power-ful and are now used by them, so thatthey may establish there hegemony,leadership and preponderant influ-ence forgetting that our religion Is-lam lays stress that “Everyone isequal and no one will get priority overanother on the basis of colour, caste,sex or socio-economic strata.”

Unfortunately, laws are made butare not observed they are confined tomere weapons which are used to bringthe weak under power and pressureand no means to bring justice in thesociety. Although, law is for everyone

yet the question arises in our mind isthat justice is for whom? Because inour country the traffic signals are red,yellow and green for general massesbut for higher official authorities theyare always green.

In our constitution of IslamicRepublic of Pakistan the rights arenot only guaranteed but also pro-tected as well. Also the law enforce-ment agencies should enforce thelaws properly and their systemshould be transparent and crystalclear, because if the rights of an in-dividual are protected then auto-matically it will result into automaticprotection of rights of society atlarge. There should be a fine bal-ance between protecting the rightsand values of society and ensuringthat individuals are not disadvantag-ing in the process. This is only pos-sible if there is proper implementa-tion of rule of law combined withintegrity of judiciary.— The writer is freelancecolumnist based in Lahore.

UN Human Rights Declaration, Ar-ticle 10 of the European Conventionon Human Rights (1950) states that‘everyone has the right to freedom ofexpression’, however it too lays outsome limitations which are ‘neces-sary in a democratic society, in theinterests of national security, territo-rial integrity or public safety, for theprevention of disorder of crime, forthe protection of health and morals,for the protection of the reputation orrights of others’ amongst other things.And then there is Article 22 of CairoDeclaration of Human Rights in Is-lam, which was signed by the mem-ber states of Organization of IslamicCooperation (OIC), which entitleseveryone the right to express their‘opinion freely in such manner aswould not be contrary to the prin-ciples of the Shari’ah’ or in ‘such away as may violate sanctities and thedignity of Holy Prophets’.

Having three of the most authen-tic declarations and many other statelaws, the debate about freedom of ex-pression is far from decided. Specially,when controversial events keep tak-ing place such as Charlie Hebdo, burn-ing of cross incidents in the UnitedStates, anti-Jewish chants at a footballgame in Netherlands, or simply insult-ing others by racist remarks, amongstmany others. The implications andconsequences of these incidents, and

the fact they do not just affect any oneparticular community, gives this de-bate an international dimension with-out restricting it to one community orregion. With such undecided elementsof the right to freedom of expression,this debate invites all the peoplearound the world to participate throughvotes and comments in order to voicetheir opinion and decide whether free-dom of expression gives one the rightto insult or not?

The National Assembly StandingCommittee on Information Technol-ogy has recently approved the Pre-vention of Electronics Crime Bill(PECB) 2015, which seem to be bi-ased as it places constraints on socialmedia, while allowing freedom ofexpression to print and electronicmedia. Some stakeholders are argu-ing that new cybercrime bill suppressthe civil liberties and freedom of ex-pression as it gives powers to lawenforcement agencies to arrest sus-pects without seeking proper permis-sion from the courts.

There are some serious concernsabout Section 18, which deals withoffenses related to dignity of a per-son. According to Section 18, who-ever “intentionally publically exhib-its or displays or transmits any falseintelligence, likely to harm or intimi-date reputation or privacy of a per-son shall be imprisoned for three

years and fined Rs500, 000.” thislaw restrains social media but al-lows television channels and printmedia to continue everything. How-ever, sharing videos of former In-terior Minister Rehman Malik be-ing off-loaded from an aircraft orthe Sharif family’s guards beatingup employees of a bakery will nowbe illegal. Strange are the laws ofthis land and law makers.

The State Minister for Informa-tion Technology Anusha Rehmansaid: “The bill protects the interestsof foreign investors and offers localbusinesses a bail out option. It doesnot hold them responsible for objec-tionable content placed on theInternet by an individual. It does notcriminalize an individual until intentis proven and the bill permits lawenforcement agencies to confiscatedata and equipment as evidence.”

We need to understand the dif-ference between Cyber Crimes andFreedom of Expression. Freedom ofexpression can not be banned at anycost, if the present regime does thatwe will be bound to appreciate Gen-eral Musharraf who gave us spaceto breath and speak on so many me-dia channels. The dictatorial attitudesare harming our society and thesehave trickle down effect on all of us.— The writer is freelance columnistbased in Islamabad.

Tahir Iqbal JadoonEmail:tkjadoon111@gmail.com

with Legend’ where the legendary poetAnwar Masood was the chief guest.He enthralled the audience with his hu-morous poetry and his bilingual po-etic expressions on social issues, po-litical trends and human bonds. Hemesmerized the audience with his po-etry that portrayed the original andpure culture of Punjab. It was for thefirst time, that a separate segmentnamely, ‘Overseas Pakistani WritersCorner’ was organized in which theoverseas writers, currently in Pakistan,also read out excerpts from theirbooks. The National Book Foundationhad provided an opportunity and a plat-form to the Pakistani writers abroadto introduce their literary works in theirmotherland. Participation of a largenumber of book lovers along with re-nowned authors of books, famouswriters, intellectuals, renowned poets,showbiz stars and personalities fromdifferent walks of life transformed thefestival into faucet of amusement,knowledge, information and healthyengagements. The visitors lauded theNBF for its role in promoting bookculture and its Readers’ Club scheme,which is instrumental in provision ofbooks to the people at reduced rates.—Via email

Child labourIQRA SHAHZADI

Child labour is a social problem facedby individuals and societies around theworld. It is widespread in developingand poor countries. Seventy three mil-lions children ages ranging from ten-fourteen are working illegally in theworld today. It is a big issue now aday. Its rate is very high because ofthe poverty, low level of awareness,lack of education, poor education op-portunities, improper understanding ofthe parents and poverty.

Childhood is the gratified andmemorable period of every child andeveryone has right to enjoy it but scar-city of resources, forces a child tofulfil the needs of their families in-stead of living a cheerful and un-troubled life. Poor families are nor-mally very large and only single per-son cannot meet the needs of eachmember. In order to add the incomeof the family, the children get em-ployed in any kind of job. Most ofthe parents are illiterate and ignorant.They are under poverty and are un-able to afford their education ex-penses so that is why they involvetheir children to earn bread insteadof going to school.

Children are new flowers withgreat fragrance of any nation butpeople decline their power and de-stroy their future just for earningsmall money. It is very important toeducate the people about the bad ef-fects of child labour. Governmentshould apply effective rules and regu-lation to completely end its root for-ever. It can be brought to an end whenlarge scale social and economic re-forms take effect in the developingcountries. Education should be madecompulsory. Professional schools oftraining should be set up. The un-educated people should be providedsuitable jobs opportunities and edu-cation facilities for their children.With good and assured income, se-cured future and education facility,the parents will find it possible tokeep their children from labouringoutside and make their future bright.—Via email

OutsourcingCAA assetsMUKHTAR AHMED

As reported in a section of press, thestage is set to outsource Allama IqbalInternational Airport (AIIAP) Lahoreto a Turkish company. AIIP Lahoreroughly earns around Rs 12.25 bil-lion annually whereas its expenditureis around Rs 2 billion. The main earn-ing comes through aeronauticalcharges that are over Rs 11 billion;while rest of the money is generatedthrough other sources.

The major reason for outsourcingis always to reduce certain costs suchas peripheral or non core businessexpenses, high taxes, high energycosts, excessive government regula-tions, labour costs etc, but CAA isnot confronted with any such prob-lem. The other important major rea-son for outsourcing is the lack of

available resources locally that is alsonot the case here in this case. Beforeoutsourcing, an organization is re-sponsible for the action of their en-tire staff. When these people are trans-ferred to outsourcer, they may noteven change desks. But their legalstatus changes. They are no longerdirectly employed by the organiza-tion. This creates legal, security andcompliance issues because they arenot responsible to the organization.

Question arises what is the wis-dom in outsourcing airports when theyare generating billions of rupees an-nually. The purpose of new aviationpolicy was to focus on private sectorparticipation by outsourcing major air-ports, but nobody bothered to point outits complications. In the bargain weshall be deprived of billions of rupeesannually and it will go in the pocketsof Outsourcer Company in the formof foreign exchange for which there isno justification. How this will helpquick passage of passengers they willcontinue operating as usual. The solu-tion is in increasing the number ofdesks and putting experienced peopleon these desks.

It is totally devoid of any logicto outsource defence oriented stateorgan without realizing its far reach-ing consequences. How outsourcingwill generate more revenue? The onlymethod is to increase airport taxes andburden the passengers. It appears thatPrime Minister has been kept in thedark about its fall out as it will endup in bigger disaster than PTCL,where the buyers’ sole interest wasthe PTCL real estate that ran in to tril-lions of rupees grossly underesti-mated at the time of sell out.

The point to understand is thatCAA is generating revenue and isearning huge profit. Let us not sur-render our precious strategic assetsto others. Efficiency lies in quickhandling with modern facilities atairports for incoming and outgo-ing passengers and that can beachieved without disturbing thepresent arrangements.—Via email

State of oureducationHASSAM NOBLE

The world is a global village todayas science and technology haverevolutionised all the aspects of life.You sit in your room in any part ofthe world, you just tune to any infor-mation, and it is at your disposal. Thedeveloped countries have invested ineducation and we are investing innon-educational projects like recruit-ing people for law enforcement agen-cies and making metros and roads etc.

It is said that almost a century backGerman chancellor called upon ameeting and invited people from allthe fields and spheres. They all sug-gested that if we have to become agreat and developed nation, you shouldemphasis and invest in education.Then he asked the teachers about theirneeds. The teachers asked to makethem self-sufficient and financiallysound that they may dedicate them-selves fully for educating the children.It was then agreed and teachers werebeing offered salary equal to the chiefjustice of the time. Then what hap-pened is an interesting story. In fewdecades Germany was a developedcountry and the most progressive onein the world.

This shows that investment ineducation is the need of the day andonly by this way one can grow anddevelop and can be a prosperouscountry. But we have just 4% of ourbudget for education. Let us see it andthink it, otherwise we would be mak-ing a greatest mistake for which his-tory will never forgive us.—Via email

M Yasir KayaniEmail:yasirkayani1@gmail.com

President Obama plays host to a Cinco de Mayo reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington.

PIERRE MARTHINUS

CANBERRA really needs to contemplatewhether it has the sufficient intellectualand cultural competence to understand,

communicate and respectfully engage with In-donesian sensibilities and preferences on awide range of international issues. The issueis important because it carries significant im-plications for Australia’s future dealings withIndonesia in particular and Asia in general.

The Australian barrage of cringe-worthy dip-lomatic blunders concerning the latest round ofexecutions might not have happened had Aus-tralian intellectuals provided their politicians withsufficient context-rich and timely advice.

I have argued before that public intellec-tuals in the West consider themselves “liontamers armed with sturdy chairs and strongwhips”, but intellectuals in Asia are more con-vinced that “gently blowing the harmless fluteseems to be the preferred method in persuad-ing a deadly poisonous snake to dance to therhythm” (The Jakarta Post, July 15, 2010).

Western culture values debate as an im-passioned and whole-hearted form of discus-sion, while Indonesian culture views it as afailure to discuss matters in a civilized man-ner, a breach of politeness and a breakdown incommunications.

Australian experts debating the effective-ness of capital punishment or pointing out thatPresident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and his in-ner circle of advisors has “gotten the numbersall wrong” is writing from an Australian “de-bating” standpoint. Proving that someone iswrong does not necessarily mean that theyhave been persuaded to your point of view —it often results in the exact opposite.

Australia’s problem is not about the lackof intellectuals per se, but the lack of certain

ELISABETH BRAW

IT was going to be the advent of a new and cost-effectiveroute for global trade, one that would cut through the Arcticice, bypass the longer Suez Canal route, and conveniently

sail from China to Finland and onwards from there. And consid-ering that the vast majority of goods are transported by sea, andthat many of them are made in China for consumption in Eu-rope, the Northeast Passage—which stretches along Russia’snorthern coast, linking China with Europe and the AtlanticOcean—is indeed very conveniently located.

Six years ago, the German company Beluga Shipping sentone of its vessels on a journey along the passage to great fanfare.Though it wasn’t the first time a vessel had crossed the North-east Passage, the cargo ship’s journey was seen as the unofficialinauguration of the critical passage that follows Russia’s coast.

So what if the journey required an icebreaker? It was stillcloser and more convenient than having to sail around the Eur-asian continent. And in 2011, 41 vessels from countries includ-ing Norway, Spain, and Singapore made the journey along theArctic Ocean, delivering goods such as frozen fish and iron-oreat their destination. Two years later, 71 ships made the journey.

Last year, however, the number dropped to 53. Since theUkraine crisis resulted in an EU ban on Russian goods, therehave been fewer products to send to Europe, and the new super-cargo ships sometimes used by Chinese companies are at anyrate too large to fit into the travel path through the ice.

The Russian government usually takes a long view, so a de-cline from 71 to 53 passages isn’t going to cause alarm. Withsome 17,000 ships passing the Suez Canal each year, the North-east Passage has a lot of catching up to do anyway.

But will Russia be able to keep paying for this very quietpassage? Ships don’t just require water, they need law and orderas well. That’s one reason behind Russia’s reopening of militarybased in the Arctic, though there are, of course, less peacefulreasons as well.

As Arctic researcher Duncan Depledge of RUSI in Londonrecently told me, “All activities in the Arctic need some sort ofsecurity aspect. In much of the Arctic, the military is the onlyinstitution that can perform that constabulary function.” At oneship a week, the Northeast Passage becomes very expensive in-deed.

—Courtesy: WA

Prospects for theNortheast Passage

WASHINGTON—PresidentBarack Obama is expected tomake a renewed U.S. push nextweek to help Gulf allies createa region-wide defense systemto guard against Iranian mis-siles as he seeks to allay theiranxieties over any nuclear dealwith Tehran, according to U.S.sources.

The offer could be accom-panied by enhanced securitycommitments, new arms salesand more joint military exer-cises, U.S. officials say, asObama tries to reassure GulfArab countries that Washingtonis not abandoning them.

With little more than aweek to go before Obama hoststhe six-nation Gulf Coopera-tion Council at the WhiteHouse and then at Camp David,aides are discussing the optionsin pre-summit meetings withArab diplomats. Officials sayno final decisions on possibleU.S. proposals have beenmade.

Obama faces a formidablechallenge in deciding how farto go to sell skeptical Sunni-led allies on his top foreignpolicy priority, a final nucleardeal with Shi’ite Iran due bya June 30 deadline. Failure toplacate them could furtherstrain ties, though additionaldefense obligations wouldcarry the risk of the UnitedStates being drawn into new

Obama to push for Gulf missile defense system

in their own defense. Obama is likely topress Gulf allies to do more to integratetheir disparate militaries and work towarda long-delayed anti-missile shield againstan Iranian ballistic missile threat, thesources familiar with the discussions said.

This could take the form of a new high-level joint working group led by the Pen-tagon, one of the sources said. Gulf coun-tries have already bought U.S. missile de-fense systems such as the Patriot systembuilt by Raytheon Co and the Terminal

High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)system built by Lockheed Martin Corp.But the Obama administration is now ex-pected to press them to implement the ini-tiative touted in late 2013 by then-Secre-tary of Defense Chuck Hagel.—Reuters

KABUL—An Afghan court on Wednesdayconvicted and sentenced four men to deathfor their role in the brutal mob killing of awoman in Kabul in March — a slaying thatshocked the nation and spurred calls for au-thorities to ensure women’s rights to equal-ity and protection from violence.

The sentences were part of a trial of 49suspects, including 19 police officers, overthe March 19 killing of the 27-year-oldwoman named Farkhunda who was beatento death in a frenzied attack sparked by abogus accusation that she had burned a copyof the Quran.

The trial, which began Saturday, only in-volved two full days of court proceedings —an unusual swiftness in the slow-moving Af-ghan judicial system. It was broadcast live

ANA MARIA LUCA

HEZBOLLAH mourned last week the death of a teenagerkilled “on jihadist duty” in Syria. The party’s Al-Manartelevision reported last Tuesday that “Hezbollah bid fare-

well to the mujahid martyr Mashhur Fahd Shamseddine.” Nei-ther Hezbollah nor media outlets associated with the party madeany reference to the boy’s age. Hezbollah only announced thathe had died in a tragic accident while performing his jihadistduty. However, Arabic-language newspapers reportedShamseddine was only 15. Al-Araby al-Jadeed reported that theteenager was killed a week ago in an Israeli raid on Hezbollahpositions in the Qalamoun area.

Hezbollah did not explain what kind of jihadist duty the teen-ager was performing so close to a battlefield, but a close look athow the party recruits its young members is cause for seriousconcern, says political analyst Ali al-Amine. “Hezbollah doesnot think that low—they won’t bring a 15-year-old child soldierto the battlefield. They haven’t reached the stage of recruitingchild soldiers,” he said. “But sources of Hezbollah said that [theboy] died while he was receiving a military training. This raisesa question: why are you giving military training to children?”

Hezbollah’s military greenhouse: Getting into Hezbollah’smilitary ranks was not easy before the group got involved in theSyrian war. They recruit and start training at very young ages—typically at around 10-13 years old, when they join the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts, says 35-year-old Hussein, a former scout. Later,when the scouts are 16 or 17, they can join the party’s militaryranks or opt to continue their education.

The Imam al-Mahdi Scouts were founded in 1985 and areregistered with the Lebanese Ministry of Education. The organi-zation includes children from four to 17 years of age, split intoCubs, Scouts and Rangers. Besides outdoor activities and char-ity work, the Imam al-Mahdi Scouts also teach the young to begood Muslims, to volunteer at local mosques, and to defend Leba-non against Israel.

“This is no secret. I was a scout myself, but I did not join themilitary ranks,” Hussein told NOW. “It was the sheikh at the mosquewho chose the ones who were fit for the military [the scouts getintense religious training]. Not all are selected. The family can refuse,of course. But usually they don’t. On the contrary; some bribe thesheikh to pick their sons, because the family gets perks like jobs orfree education for the rest of the children.”

The connections: Hussein also said that Lebanese wasta [nepo-tism] is prevalent in Hezbollah. “Usually, the boys who have familymembers in Hezbollah have more chances to get picked for the mili-tary,” he says. Hussein’s uncle was a Hezbollah member and couldhave made it easy for him to be recruited, but his own father beggedthe uncle not to take the boy because his father was blind and Husseinwas the only one who could support his family.

It all depends how good the boys are in school. “If you havegood grades and a good family, you’re most likely to finish schooland go to university. But all boys go to military training untilthey’re 14 and get the brevet,” Hussein said. The boys are trainedin an annual summer camp located in a remote area. After theytake their brevet, boys with good grades continue school whilethe military recruits start real combat training. These rules donot apply to girls. Hezbollah encourages women to join the party,but they are also encouraged to study and to graduate universityso that they can later teach, Hussein explained.

“This is exactly what used to happen in the ‘80s and 90s,”Houssein said. “But the mentality has changed in the last 10years or so. Most people now concentrate on studying and optfor the teaching career. I guess that’s why maybe they have thisproblem with recruiting fighters now.”

Social class matters nowadays: Mahdi Magazine, the Imamal-Mahdi Scouts magazine for boys between 13 and 17, teachesscouts how to avoid becoming an extremist, among other things.It also features a story about a scout’s first military mission. Theboy is sent to scout an area and is not happy because it’s not areal fighting mission and, therefore, not manly enough. “Myfriend was joking with me. ‘When are you going to get mar-ried?’ he asked. ‘When I become a man.’ ‘And when would thatbe?’ ‘When I go on my first mission on the front.’ The boy isfinally sent to the front, gets shot, and is taken to the hospitalwhere he meets a nurse and falls in love with her.

It’s with stories like this that teenagers in the best schools inDahieh and South Lebanon are enticed to join Hezbollah’s mili-tary ranks. A Hezbollah supporter who wished to remain anony-mous told NOW his children go to one of the best schools in thesouthern suburbs of Beirut and frequently go on trips to Hezbollahmuseums and camps. They watch presentations about weaponryand are told stories of heroes of the Resistance.

He says, though, that despite the indoctrination, it’s up to thefamily to decide a child’s future. “I encourage my children to bevery good in school so that they avoid a military career,” he said.He also says he’s committed to his support for Hezbollah be-cause he feels protected. “I was never asked to join the partydirectly. But I know that I get a lot in return for being a sup-porter. If I lost my job, I would get another one the next day.”

—Courtesy: NOW, Lebanon[Ana Maria Luca tweets @aml1609]

Hezbollah’s teenmilitary recruits

Australia lacks cultural competenceto understand Indonesia

types of intellectuals. Half-bred Indonesiangeneralists — those who have studied demo-cratic politics, human rights, Western politi-cal thoughts, European diplomacy, Americansecurity and other forms of the liberal craftprior to commenting on Indonesian politics —are a dime a dozen.

These half-bred Indonesian generaliststend to offer ready-made explanations of In-donesian misbehavior in generous quantity, buttend to judge Indonesia in a negative light asit is always falling short of their (unrealistic)expectations and ideals.

At the same time, they lack cultural cre-ativity and often suffer from a Tourette-likesyndrome of offering instant “microwaveable”liberal policy recommendations, such as im-posing economic sanctions, redirecting aidpolicies and dealing out human rights condem-nations — oft times without even looking intoand seriously considering the complexity ofthe problem being faced.

In contrast, full-bred Indonesianists —those who have studied, appreciated, lived andimmersed themselves in Indonesian history,culture, linguistics and society prior to com-menting on Indonesian politics — are nearlyextinct in the majority of Australian campusesand policy research centers.

In the very rare cases that they do exist,they are either too old to actively court a rap-idly changing public opinion or entirely un-able to produce any intellectual offspring totake on their mantle.

These full-bred Indonesianists tend to havea stronger apologetic bias towards Indonesianbehavior, but are also more capable of under-standing motivations, considerations, contextsand social meanings surrounding Indonesianactions — making them well-equipped in pre-dicting potential diplomatic and public re-

sponses from their Indonesian counterparts.If Australia cannot even understand and

interact with Indonesia in a respectful man-ner, it should not be daydreaming that it canengage meaningfully with Northeast Asia, aregion armed to the teeth and riddled with“courteous hostilities”, where a rising China,a nervous Taiwan, a “prepared” Japan, anuclear North Korea and a “unification-aspir-ing” South Korea are all still imposing capitalpunishment.

In Southeast Asia, eight of 10 ASEANmember states have the death penalty and willsecond Indonesia’s view that Australia’s breachof “non-intervention” — the most cherishedof all regional norms — had been distasteful,disrespectful and entirely uncalled for.

The fact that Filipina Mary Jane Veloso em-bodied the symbolic cultural representation ofyour everyday Indonesian maid trying to findwork abroad, being victimized, abused andcriminalized had contributed greatly in gainingher widespread sympathy throughout Indonesia.

However, in my opinion, it was FilipinoPresident Benigno Aquino’s tactful diplomacyand the Filipino public’s considerate pleas thatmanaged to gently guide Jokowi’s hand to pro-vide a temporary reprieve — and hopefullysoon clemency.

President Aquino skillfully chose theASEAN Summit as his venue for a requestconcerning “a certain ASEAN citizen” and didso in a discreet manner — in stark contrast toAustralia’s “shirtfronting” politics and mega-phone criticisms in the media. The request ofPresident Aquino and the Filipino public re-mained largely void of moral condemnationsagainst Indonesia and was not positioned as a“demand from above”, made from a superiormoral high ground — as opposed to Austra-lian tirades of “barbaric Indonesia”, “corrupt

Indonesian justice”, “ungrateful Indonesians”and “weak Jokowi leadership”.

Most importantly, the manner in whichAquino lobbied Indonesia was culturally sen-sitive and provided Jokowi the option of be-ing the hero — an opportunity denied whenAustralian efforts targeted Jokowi’s interna-tional image and forced him into a politicalcul-de-sac.

In the Middle East, Indonesia is indeedactively trying to rescue its migrant workersfrom the death penalty. However, in stark con-trast to Australian diplomacy, Indonesian ad-vocacy is done in a respectful manner, neithercondemning nor retaliating when executionshave to be carried out and, most importantly,Jakarta would never allow Saudi Arabia to loseface domestically as well as internationallyover the issue.

In 2014, the fact that Indonesia paid “bloodmoney” (diyat) to save Satinah binti JumadiAhmad supports the argument that Indonesiandiplomatic efforts are tailored to local culturalpractices, preferences and values instead oftrying to impose its own on the Saudis.

So-called Australian experts accusing In-donesia of being “hypocritical” failed to see —let alone understand — the subtle cultural di-mension of Asian diplomacy and values, be-cause they lack the most basic cultural senses,faculties and aptitude required to do so.

Again, Canberra needs to raise the ques-tion of whether it has the sufficient intellec-tual and cultural competence to understand,communicate and engage with the sensibili-ties and preferences of Indonesia as well asother regional powers in Asia on a wide rangeof international issues.

—Courtesy: JP[The writer is executive director for theMarthinus Academy in Jakarta]

BEIJING—The latest online poll shows that thefemale driver who was brutally beaten by a manfor lane changes has lost public support as 78percent of netizens believe that she should beheld accountable for her bitter experience.

Footage showing the woman, surnamed Lu,being violently beaten by a man in Chengdu,Sichuan province, has triggered outrage afterbeing uploaded on Sunday. The 35-second videofilmed on May 3 by another driver shows theman, surnamed Zhang, who drove a redVolkswagen, dragging the female motorist outof her red Hyundai sedan before throwing herto the ground and kicking her multiple times.

Lu suffered a concussion, bone fractures andsevere bruising and was sent to a hospital. Zhangalso was reported to have injured a taxi driver

Female driver blamed onlinefor abrupt lane shift

who tried to stop him from leaving the spot af-ter the violent act.

Later, the attacker told authorities that heassaulted the woman after she changed lanesabruptly and scared his child in the car. The mansoon met with overwhelming criticism fromInternet users, who described him as“lunatic”,”psycho” and “barbarous”.

“The man shouldn’t resort to violence nomatter what the woman did. All citizens shouldobey the law but not every one has the right toexecute the law, or our society will become amess,” Sina Weibo user @Wojiaomeidongguasaid. However, public opinion soon took a U-turn when footage from the dashboard cameraon Zhang’s car went viral on the Internet onTuesday.—CD

Bibi Hajira, the mother of a 27-year-old Afghan woman Farkhunda, who was beaten to deathby a mob speaks at a hearing at the Primary Court in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday.

4 sentenced to death in mobkilling of woman

on national television, reflecting huge pub-lic interest in the case.

Judge Safiullah Mojadedi handed downthe four death sentences at Afghanistan’s Pri-mary Court in Kabul on Wednesday.

He also sentenced eight of the defendantsto 16 years in prison and dropped chargesagainst 18.

The judge will rule on the remaining sus-pects — the 19 policemen — on Saturdayand their verdicts will be announced on Sun-day, Mojadedi said.

The defendants have the right to appeal.The charges included assault, murder and en-couraging others to participate in the assault.The police officers were charged with ne-glecting their duties and failing to preventthe attack.—AP

Middle East conflicts.Obama issued the invita-

tion to the GCC after Iran andsix world powers reached aframework agreement lastmonth that would give Tehransanctions relief for reining inits nuclear program.

Gulf Arab neighbors, in-cluding key U.S. ally SaudiArabia, worry that Iran will notbe deterred from a nuclearbomb and will be flush withcash from unfrozen assets tofund proxies and expand its in-fluence in countries such asSyria, Yemen and Lebanon.

U.S. officials with knowl-edge of the internal discussionsconcede that Obama is underpressure to calm Arab fears byoffering strengthened commit-ments. “It’s a time to see whatthings might be required to beformalized,” a senior U.S. of-ficial said.

Obama is all but certain tostop short of a full securitytreaty with Saudi Arabia orother Gulf nations as thatwould require approval by theRepublican-controlled Senateand risk stoking tensions withWashington’s main MiddleEast ally Israel.

A second U.S. official in-sisted the summit would be a“two-way street,” with Wash-ington pushing Gulf leaders toovercome internal rivalries andfind ways to collaborate better

JEDDAH—Consul General (CG) of Pakistan MrAftab A Khokher called on Governor MakkahRegion Prince Khalid Al Faisal here Wednes-day in his office. During the meeting ConsulGeneral was accompanied by Director General(Haj) Syed Ahmed Abbu Aakif and Consul(Press) Sohail Ali Khan.

During the meeting, Consul General dis-cussed matters pertaining to Pakistani Commu-

SHIJIAZHUANG—Police in a northern Chineseprovince have rescued and returned six Vietnam-ese women to Vietnam after breaking a human traf-ficking case involving 34 Vietnamese women.

The public security department of HebeiProvince said on Wednesday that the 34women were sold to several villages in Hebei,beginning in 2012. In May 2014, police res-

China returns 6 trafficked Vietnamese womencued a Vietnamese woman who was sold inHebei’s Xinle City and forced to marry a Chi-nese man, according to the department.

Following her clues, police arrested a mansurnamed Lv and his wife, who confessed tomaking 400,000 yuan (64,500 U.S. dollars)from trafficking 34 Vietnamese women.—Xinhua

Pak CG meets Governor Makkahnity Schools and release of Pakistani prisonersin jails of Makkah region. The Governor prom-ised to look into the matter positively.

The Governor assured his cooperation andalso praised the Pakistani community in MakkahMukarammah Region, and said that Pakistaniprofessionals’ commitment and dedication totheir professional duty was worthy of praise.Email.

driving seat currently has turned the democratic process on itshead and is ruling the country like a family fiefdom distributingall the important decision making positions among family mem-bers, ethnic Kashmiris and close Lahori friends. And the party thatcaptured the second largest number of votes in May 2013 elections,third largest number of seats in the National Assembly and one wholeprovincial government wasted its own and the time of the nation intrying to prove that the last polls were systematically rigged by theruling PMLN instead of using the parliamentary forum to suggestelectoral reforms so that the next elections are held in a relativelyfreer and fairer environment.

This pathetic performance of the mainstream political partieshas encouraged elements that have a vested interest in non-demo-cratic dispensations and, also those that sincerely believe that oursociety is not yet mature enough to practice democracy to start de-manding an upfront take over. And of course many within the agen-cies of the state losing patience with the antics of the politicians alsoseem to once again start toying with the idea of taking over. How-ever, saner elements within these agencies while feeling as impa-tient with what they consider to be the failure of the politicians togovern properly in a democratic dispensation instead of taking overupfront seem to have started thinking of providing leadership frombehind the scene.

But this is what is more dangerous than an upfront take overbecause instead of learning from their mistakes the politicians startpassing the buck to the state institutions ultimately creating condi-tions conducive for the upfront takeover and the agency which moreoften than not finds itself in this ‘unavoidable’ situation commits theblunder of walking into the ‘unknown’ having no training for thejob of governing a country.

A recent study prepared by the Pakistan Institute of LegislativeDevelopment and Transparency (Monitor on Civil-Military Rela-tions in Pakistan) on the subject has thrown some light on the emerg-ing situation and suggested some measures for avoiding the blun-ders committed by the state agencies in 1958, 1968, 1977, 1999.

Some of the points raised in the study are too glaring to ignore.1. Contrary to the perception that the legality of the Military

Courts was a done and dusted affair the Supreme Court ordered astay on the first batch of executions on April 16, 2015, ordered bythe Military Courts. PILDAT believes that certain aspects of thepetition filed against the military courts are worthy of consideration.These primarily deal with apprehensions regarding a lack of trans-parency and doubts about the Military Courts’ ability to safeguardprovision of basic rights, such as following the due process of law inthe course of its proceedings. PILDAT has already raised these con-cerns, heightened especially by the promulgation of Pakistan Army(Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, in its Monitor on Civil-MilitaryRelations in Pakistan for February 2015.13 The granting of the rightof one appeal to any terrorist convicted by the Military Courts, in

Relations between theelected govt, state agencies

From Page 1

front the Supreme Court of Pakistan might allay these concerns. -MILITARY RELATIONS IN PAKISTAN

2. Next, in order to provide security to Chinese workers, whoseinflux is expected following the recent Sino-Pak investment agree-ments one full Division is being raised for the purpose which wouldinclude: 1. A10, 000 strong force comprising of i. 9 battalions of thePakistan Army ii. 6 wings of Civil Armed Forces 2. Will be led by aMajor General of the Pakistan Army. PILDAT lauds and credits thecoordinated efforts by the civil-military leadership to this end. How-ever, it may be examined by the Federal Ministry for Law, Justiceand Parliamentary Affairs whether creation of such a special unitrequires a new legislation.

3. The Iranian Foreign Minister, Mr. Jawad Zareef’s visit tothe GHQ to meet with the COAS on April 09, 2015 affirmed thelatter’s growing international role, a regular feature for Pakistan’scivil-military relations, particularly since November 2014. In whathas become a pattern of sorts for visiting foreign dignitaries, Mr.Jawad Zareef held separate meetings with both the Prime Ministerand the COAS during his visit. PILDAT, while apprehensively not-ing this developing trend, recommends that apart from the presenceof the Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security and ForeignAffairs, or the Federal Minister for Defence during a foreign civil-ian dignitary’s interaction with the COAS, the practice of coordi-nated, rather than separate meetings should be established.

4. Another significant issue noted by Pildat concernsBalochistan which made headlines once again in the month of April2015 both in the context of the insurgency in Balochistan and thealleged role of the security agencies in muzzling what is being termedas curbing of the freedom of speech on Balochistan. Consider forinstance the case of cancellation of Seminar on Missing Personsorganized at the Lahore University of Management Sciences(LUMS). The organisers of the seminar, the Humanities and SocialSciences Department of LUMS, have whispered, though not fullyconfirmed, that the seminar titled Unsilencing Balochistan to beheld at the LUMS on April 9, was cancelled, ostensibly at the behestof officials of an Armed Forces’ intelligence agency.

5. Although the civil-military leadership, including the PrimeMinister and the COAS, interacted six times during the month ofApril 2015, which included five meetings on the Yemen crisis, nomeeting of the National Security Committee was convened againduring the month. This is a blatant disregard of the forum, originallycreated to institutionalize ‘key national security related decisions …through collective thinking to protect and promote the short, me-dium and long term strategic interests of the country in a rapidlychanging regional and global security environment’. Holding high-level civil-military huddles without utilizing the NSC means thatcollective consultations, in presence of the full membership of theCommittee, cannot take place. This also means that there is no for-malization of decisions as positions are developed in an informal,ad-hoc manner.

kits.These have cost Pakistan

$629 million. Pakistan hasalso paid $298 million for 100harpoon anti-ship missiles,500 sidewinder air-to-air mis-siles ($ 95 million) and sevenPhalanx Close-In WeaponsSystem naval guns ($80 mil-lion). Pakistan received 26Bell 412EP utility helicoptersalong with related parts andmaintenance, val valued at$235 million under the Coali-tion Support. Pakistan is alsoreceiving military equipmentwith a mix of its national fundsand America’s foreign military

US hands over 14 fightersFrom Page 1

funding. These include 60 Mid-

Life Update kits for F-16A/Bcombat aircraft. Pakistan haspurchased 45 such kits, withall upgrades completed todate.

This include 115 M-109self-propelled howitzers. Un-der Frontier Corps and Paki-stan Counterinsurgency Fundauthorities, US has providedfour Mi-17 multirole helicop-ters (another six were pro-vided temporarily at no cost),four King Air 350 surveillanceaircraft, and 450 vehicles.—INP

lives in the war on terror overthe last 10 years.

The official documentswere submitted in Parliamentlast year in December 2014which revealed at least 11, 285were killed in the last fiveyears. More than 28, 561people sustained injuries invarious blasts in the past fiveyears.

Keeping in view, the Aus-tralian Foreign Minister notonly acknowledged Pakistan’ssacrifices in war against terror-ism, but also announced a $19million aid package for Paki-stan that includes help for bor-der areas hit by conflict andnatural disasters.

Bishop made the pledgeduring a press briefing jointlyaddressed by her and Advisorto Prime Minister on ForeignAffairs Sartaj Aziz.

Bishop, however, stressedon the need to adopt strictpolicy to up root Daish and tocounter militancy from the re-gion. She especially talkedabout future of Afghanistan andthe reported rise of the IslamicState group in the region.

The aid package includes$8 million to help restore in-frastructure damaged by floodsand conflict in the restivenorthwest and southwest, andaround $8 million to support atrade initiative in partnershipwith the World Bank.

It has not yet been an-nounced where the remainingassistance will be spent.

Addressing the pressbrifing jointly, both Ms Bishopand Sartaj Aziz told reportersthat Pakistan and Australiaagreed to further strengthentheir relations in diverse fieldsincluding trade and economy.

Later addressing a jointnews conference along withAustralian counterpart, Advi-sor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj

Australian FM lauds Pak mily’sFrom Page 1

Aziz said Pakistan and Austra-lia enjoy excellent relations,which are based on mutual re-spect and shared interests.

He said the two sides haveagreed to further consolidatethe existing friendly people topeople contacts, underpinnedby the presence of eighty thou-sand strong Pakistani diasporaand around thirteen thousandPakistani students in Australia.

He said told reporters thattalks focused on the need forregular political exchanges be-tween the two countries includ-ing high level visits. We feelthat exchange of parliamentaryvisits is important. He saidPrime Minister Nawaz Sharifwill visit Australia this year orearly next year.

Appreciating Australiandevelopment cooperationprogramme for Pakistan, SartajAziz said Pakistan intends tostrengthen interaction withAustralia in agriculture, live-stock and water resource man-agement. We want both thecountries to focus more onsports and culture.

The Advisor said both thecountries share common per-ceptions in combating terror-ism. He said we have resolved

to continue our cooperation incountering terrorism andtransnational crimes.

Australian Foreign Minis-ter Julie Bishop said his coun-try attaches great importance toits bilateral relations with Pa-kistan. “We have long beenfriends and want to diversifycooperation in different fields.”She said her country has strongand long standing defense re-lations with Pakistan. “We havecommon interests in counteringtransnational crimes includingdrug and human smuggling.”When asked about Australian-India civil nuclear cooperation,the Australian Foreign Minis-ter pointed out that her coun-try is a power house and wantto export energy to the world.She said currently both Austra-lia and India are negotiating theN-deal.

She however said hercountry will extend the facil-ity to India under strictcontrols.When asked to com-ment on issue of Kashmir dis-pute, Julie Bishop admitted theissue needs to be resolved. Shesaid her country will encourageboth Pakistan and India to re-solve the dispute through ne-gotiations.

PML-N to challengeFrom Page 1

dict.Federal Minister for Plan-

ning and Development AhsanIqbal said that international rat-ing agencies are admitting eco-nomic development in Pakistanbut, he alleged, PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf chairmanImran Khan wants to fail it. Healleged that Imran Khan isworking against country’seconomy by ‘confusing’ inves-tors.

Ahsan Iqbal said PTI chiefhas realized that they won’t beable to defeat PML-N if waiteduntil the next election due in2018.

The legal experts advisedthat the decision should bechallenged in Supreme Courtof Pakistan for fixing the legalflaws in the decision of theelection tribunal. They said ifthey did not challenge the de-cision of tribunal then it wouldhave set wrong precedent in thecountry. He said that it was thestrong desire of KhawajaMuhammad Saad Rafiq to con-tact people of the constituencyfor obtaining fresh mandate butthe party did not accept desireof Saad Rafiq and decided tocontest the case in SupremeCourt of Pakistan.

“But after a party meetingchaired by Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif, we decided thissets a dangerous precedent,where anyone can record a fewirregularities to make the entireelection void,” said Ahsan Iqbal.

Iqbal said the party’s legalteam had advised pursuing thematter in the apex court. Heslammed Imran Khan for “cel-ebrating the tribunal’s decisionas a victory.”

“We have been saying fromday one that rules and proce-dures exist in Pakistan wherePTI’s grievances can be ad-

dressed. Today, they are cel-ebrating the tribunal’s decision;but the tribunal was there evenduring the dharna,” said thePML-N leader.

Ahsan Iqbal alleged that thePTI wanted to pose a threat toPML-N’s policies and efforts tostabilise Pakistan’s economy,which was why it was stagingmeaningless protests and hurl-ing allegations without evi-dence.

Ahsan Iqbql said, “The de-tailed judgment on NA-125does not indict us of organisingrigging or any other illegal mea-sures to make the process par-tial”.

He also said that the recentcantonment board elections hadproved PML-N’s popularityamong the masses, adding thatdespite tall claims, the PTI wasunable to defeat the PML-N.“PML-N has maintained itspopularity, while the PTI haslost seats in by-election afterwinning them during the 2013general election,” said Iqbal.

Ahsan Iqbal questionedhow his party managed to winthe by-polls if the 2013 Generalelections were rigged.

Ahsan Iqbal said the legalteam was of the view that thepoints on which the tribunal hasbased its verdict must be con-tested on legal and constitutionalbasis. They were of the view thatif the judgement was not chal-lenged then it would amount tosetting a wrong precedent.

The Minister said thePML-N believes in supremacyof law and the constitution andthe case would be contested onlegal and constitutional basis.

He said there were suffi-cient grounds to challenge theverdict as the tribunal clearlysaid there was no irregularity onthe part of Khawaja Saad Rafiq.

NADRA to releaseFrom Page 1

tribunal allowed the petition ofPTI chief Imran Khan andconstituted a commission toprobe into the alleged riggingin NA-122, the constituencyfrom where National Assem-bly Speaker Sardar AyazSadiq was elected.

Meanwhile, National Da-tabase and Registration Au-thority (NADRA) ChairmanUsman Mubeen on Wednes-day denied passing on any re-port or part thereof to Paki-stan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)chief Imran Khan in connec-tion with NA-122.

Addressing a press con-ference here, Usman Mubeensaid the PTI chief had showna document to the media,giving a false impression hewas in possession of an offi-cial report in connection withthe election in National As-sembly constituency NA-

122.He said the NADRA is

working independently with-out any pressure from thegovernment.“We cannotshare report of any constitu-ency with anyone”, Mubeensaid, adding he only had a10-minute long meeting withthe PTI chairman ImranKhan.He revealed that ImranKhan had only asked onequestion: Why the report inconnection with NA-122 wassuffering a delay?

The NADRA chairmanfurther said he had toldImran Khan that the reporthas been prepared and itwould be submitted to Elec-tion tribunal in a week.The current status is that thereport about NA-122 hasbeen forwarded to the Elec-tion Tribunal, Usman added.

LHC larger bench to hearFrom Page 1

ing for decades after which theLHC on April 27 ordered that alarger bench be formed to hearthe high-profile case, since ac-cording to law, cases involvinghigh-profile individuals such asthe prime minister require at leastfive or seven judges on thebench.Petition, filed by ImranAli, was pending for the past 24years due to on - availability ofthe required number of judges.

The petitioner in his petition

Ex-CS Punjabshows ignorance

From Page 1said, “I am unaware aboutextra ballot papers as thePunjab government haddispatched printing materialto constituencies under thesupervision of the Army.”

He said they had alsolodged a protest with the Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan(ECP) for delay in receivingpolling material at some con-stituencies. He further said hehad received a request from theECP for the services of 200printing workers throughformer Additional Chief Sec-retary Rao Iftikhar.

Iqbal went on to say thatProvincial Election Commis-sioner Anwar Mehboob hadsaid that services of these print-ing workers could easily beavailed from Urdu Bazaar.

However, the former CS saidhe could not say whether the re-quest was something normal ornot. He also showed his igno-rance about provision of servicesof these 200 printingworkers.During the proceedings,a video clip of a TV programmeaired in August 2013 about thestatement of Rao Iftikhar wasplayed. In this video, Rao hadaccepted that the services of 200people were granted.

There was also no evidence ofany nexus between the candi-date and the polling staff forsystematic rigging.

Ahsan Iqbal said PML-Nbelieves the judgment of the Tri-bunal is not fair as the verdictitself says there was no evidenceof rigging against the candidate.He said the tribunal ordered re-election in the constituency onthe basis of administrative ir-regularities and not because ofillegalities. Therefore, there wasno justification to disenfranchiseelectorate on the basis of admin-istrative irregularities.

Meanwhile, Ashtar Ausafsaid, “We also must not forgetthat Returning Officers wereDistrict Judges and chargesagainst them are aimed atspreading despondency.

He said the tribunal has ac-knowledged that there was noconspiracy or malice in the con-duct of elections in the constitu-ency.

To a question, the Informa-tion Minister said KhawajaHaris would contest the case inthe Supreme Court and the ap-peal is expected to be filed dur-ing the next few days.

Hamid Khan of the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf had challengedthe victory of the PML-N’sKhawaja Saad Rafique, claim-ing that the election in 2013 hadbeen rigged. Saad Rafique hadbagged 123,416 votes from theconstituency beating PTI’sHamid Khan who secured84,495 thousand votes.

Faisalabad Election tribunaljudge Javaid Rashid Mehboobihad declared null and void theresults of the 2013 general elec-tions on NA-125 and ordered are-election on Monday. The tri-bunal judge also ordered re-pollon the Punjab Assembly’s PP-155 constituency.

had said that Nawaz Sharif wasnot eligible to hold the post ofprime minister as he posses as-sets abroad.

children had also assembledto enjoy the sports in themilitancy ridden region.

Reports reaching hereand confirmed by the politi-cal administration of Kurramagency said, a group of ter-rorists including suicidebombers attempted to enterthe ground of a school inAlizai vi l lage of LowerKurram agency some 55 ki-lometers from agency head-quarters Parachinar around6.45 in the evening when afootball match between twolocal teams was in progress.

In order to make theirway to the center of theground believably to hit the

Terror strikes at school in Kurram agencyFrom Page 1

players, the terrorists openedindiscriminate firing thatwas retaliated by the leviesforce present for the securityof the match as well as localtribesman. Eye witness saidheaving found no way topenetrate into the ground,two suicide bombers blewthemselves up that also re-sulted in the martyrdom of acivil defense personal and anspectator. Some eight peoplewere also reported to havesustained injuries.

“Three suicide bombersentered into Alizai schoolground and started firingover the crowed as the foot-ball match between the

Sadda and Alizai teams atconcluding hours”. The po-litical authorities said addingresponding to the firing shotof the bombers the localtr ibesmen watching thematch as well as the mem-bers of the Para-militaryforces shot dead one of thebomber on the spot whileother exploded himself up.

Another official said atleast one person was killedand eight others injured asthree bombers stormed the fi-nal of a football match inAlizai high school in CentralKurram Agency on Wednes-day evening. Reports said thelocal tribesmen, also chased

Pakistan accordsFrom Page 1

During the visit, Pakistanand Maldives will review allimportant aspects of their bilat-eral relations.

A number of documents oncooperation in sports, health,education and illicit drugs andnarcotics trafficking, will alsobe signed.

the third terrorist who man-aged to slip from the sceneduring panic.

The victims were imme-diately rushed to the hospi-tal that was at a distance ofmore than 30 kilometers,where the doctors pro-nounced two persons dead.Three people owing to seri-ous nature of injuries wereadmitted for treatment whilefive others were dischargedafter providing first aid.

One of the dead wasidentified as Siraj, a medicaltechnician at a local hospital.

Authorities say a largenumber of people includingchildren were present to

view the match yet the localtribesmen and security forcesrushed to the area to fightwith terrorists that avertedmajor disaster.

The authori t ies alsoblocked the Kurram highway after the incident.

It may be recalled thatfollowing deadliest terroristsattack on the Army publicSchool Peshawar that had re-sulted in martyrdom ofaround 150 students andteachers in December last,the security of the schools allover the province and Tribalbelt was beefed up and ex-tra-ordinary security mea-sures were adopted.

The Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharifhas strongly condemned theterrorist attack on a footballground in lower KurramAgency Wednesday evening.

In a statement, the PrimeMinister said the entire na-tion was united against ter-rorism and such attacks can-not deter the nation’s resolveagainst terrorists. He said thefight against terrorism andmilitancy would continue tillthe elimination of terroristsand their abettors. He askedthe law enforcement agen-cies to further beef up secu-rity to avoid suchlike occur-rences.

APPEAL

Sabeen Mehmood, Direc-tor T2F; a very genuineand a good human being,was targeted at SunsetBoulevard at DHA Phase-2 (extension) around 9:30pm on Friday 24th April byunknown assailants. Shewas shifted to a hospitalby the help of people pass-ing-by.

Please contact Policehotline 021-99205670 &1or CPLC 021-35682222 ifyou are a witness, presentat the crime scene or bearany information about theattack or attackers. Anyinformation provided willbe kept strictly confiden-tial.

At times, seeminglymost trivial of informa-tion, becomes a major leadfor the investigation.Friends & members of

‘The Second Floor’****

Space donated byPakistan Observer

PEF shoulderingfree education of

1.6 millionneedy students

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The sustained re-forms initiated by the PunjabEducation Foundation (PEF) inschool education sector haveproduced long-lasting effects toensure that no child is left un-attended.

As a result of these re-forms, the foundation hasemerged as a strong hope forthe unattended children byopening the doors of schools tothem.

This has also helped in pro-moting girls-education at thegrassroots.

First Iranian woman getsPhD degree from UETMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The first foreignstudent from Islamic Republicof Iran Ms. HosseinisasabSadatalshariyeh has completedher PhD from the Departmentof Architecture, University ofEngineering and Technology(UET) Lahore on the subject ofAnalysed the Different Conser-vation Approaches for the Re-vitalization of Iranian Cities un-der the supervision of Prof. Dr.Neelum Naz, Chairperson De-partment of Architecture, andProf. Dr. Ghulam Abbas Anjum,Dean Faculty of Architecture &City and Regional Planning.

Ms. HosseininasabSadatalshariyeh is the 1st in-ternational candidate who hascompleted her PhD fromUET, Lahore. A public de-fence/viva voce of her doc-toral thesis was held onWednesday at UET. The titleof her thesis is “AnalyticalStudy of Different Ap-proaches to the Revitalizationof Iranian Historic City Cen-tres” Case Study, Yazd, Iran”

Londonpolice toarrest AltafsoonLONDON—British politician and writerGeorge Galloway on Tuesdayclaimed that London police willsoon arrest Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) chief AltafHussain in connection withmoney laundering case. Citinghis sources from Scotland Yard,Galloway told media that policewas inching towards arrest ofAltaf Hussain. The Britishpolitician further stated thatKarachi is very dear to himbecause he had spent somememorable days of his life inthe city. Violence and corruptionin Karachi is intolerable, headded. Earlier on Monday,London police extended AltafHussain s bail till July 9, 2015after he was interviewed formore than five hours byinvestigating officers onsuspicion of money launder-ing.—INP

NA-125verdict ispeople’svictoryISLAMABAD—Spokesperson PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI),Shireen Mazari Wednesdaysaid while the governmentstill seems to be haunted bythe PTI Dharna (sit-in), ImranKhan has also taken a serioustoll on the government’snerves. In a media statement,the PTI spokesperson termedthe election tribunal’s verdictthe victory of Pakistanipeople. The FaisalabadElection Tribunal recentlyordered re-polls in NA-125constituency where KhawajaSaad Rafique of PakistanMuslim League-N had beendeclared winner in generalelections of 2013. She said itwas not the PTI but thegovernment itself that causeda delay to the Chinesepresident’s trip to Pakistan.

Man heldafter he likesown ‘mostwanted’FacebookposterNEW DELHI—A 23-year-oldman was arrested after heliked his own “most wanted”poster on a Facebook page,reported India Today. LeviCharles Reardon fromMontana, USA was arrestedafter he liked his own photoon the ‘Cascade CountyCrimestoppers’ Facebookpage. Levi was arrestedwithout incident on felonycharges of forgery in whichhe is suspected of stealing awallet and personal chequeslast January. TheCrimestoppers Facebookpage took a screenshotshowing Reardon liked hisown photo on the Great Falls/Cascade County page.—AFP

RAWALPINDI: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif receiving President of MaldivesAbdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom on his arrival at Nur Khan Airbase.

NEW DELHI—France’s defence minister andhis Indian counterpart pledged Wednesday toquickly wrap up negotiations over the purchaseof 36 Rafale fighter jets, agreeing to set up teamsto nail down the deal.

The meeting between Jean-Yves Le Drianand Manohar Parrikar came some four weeksafter the announcement of an outline purchaseagreement which fell a long way short of previ-ous proposals for India to buy 126 of the jetsmade by French firm Dassault.

“The two defence ministers discussed mo-dalities in order to reach an early conclusion ofan Inter-Governmental Agreement on the sub-ject,” according to a joint statement issued afterthe talks in New Delhi. “The two sides decidedto set up teams to work out the details in a time-bound manner.”

During a visit to France last month, India’sPrime Minister Narendra Modi announced that

New Delhi had ordered 36 of the “ready to fly”planes. The deal — estimated to be worth fivebillion euros ($5.5 billion) — followed tortu-ous years-long negotiations on buying the jets.

Talks began in 2012 about the possible pur-chase of 126 of the planes as part of a $12-bil-lion deal. But they became bogged down overcost and New Delhi’s insistence that 108 of theplanes be manufactured in India.

After news of the deal for 36 planes wasannounced, Parrikar played down expectationsof a larger deal. India has in recent yearslaunched a vast defence modernisationprogramme worth some $100 billion, partly tokeep up with rival neighbours Pakistan andChina.But contracts for new military hardware havebeen bogged down in India’s bureaucracy, whilesome were mired in corruption scandals underthe previous Congress-led government.—AFP

France, India pledgeswift conclusionof fighter jet deal

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The Chief Justice of SindhHigh Court, Justice Faisal Arab while ex-tending the date for bail before arrest of DrZulfiquar Mirza, ordered him to appear inthe court on May 9, the new date of extendedbail before arrest.

Justice Arab in his comments stated thatno further extension would be allowed to DrMirza in case he would fail to appear beforethe higher court. Advocate Ashraf Samoo hadappeared in the court on behalf of his client,Dr Mirza Wednesday.

On the occasion, the Sindh AdvocateGeneral Ghulam Mustafa Maheesar in-formed the higher court on the chaos beingcreated by Dr Mirza and he termed the sce-nario as ‘Mini Revolt in Sindh’. Just a singleperson was reigning the entire district andthe whole populous was living under thestress of severe premonitions and fears.

Bail extended till May 9

AG blames Mirza for‘mini revolt’ in Sindh

Fehmida demands withdrawal of ‘fake FIRs’ against her husbandEarlier, Dr Mirza’s counsel advocate Samoohad filed a contempt to court petition in thehigher court in which he had alleged Inspec-tor General of Police, Sindh Ghulam haiderJamali, DIG Hyderabad and SSP districtBadin of contempt to the higher court.

In the petition, he stated that despite thehigher court had granted bail before arrest tohis client, Dr Zulfiquar Mirza, house andfarm house of his client was besieged byPolice through stationing Police vans anddozens of armoured personnel carriers from4 different districts. The counsel had appealedto the higher court to seek explanation fromthe Police authorities.

The high court had also made the peti-tion for contempt to court as part of the pri-mary petition. Former Speaker National As-sembly and wife of Zulfiqar Mirza, DrFehmida Mirza has said that presence ofpolice at the entrance of Mirza House inBadin amounts to ‘contempt of court’ as her

husband had been granted protective bail.Addressing a press conference here

Wednesday, Fehmida Mirza said that courtorders were being openly violated.

“Despite being a former NA speaker, Iarrived here without any security escort at4:00AM. However, despite protective bail,police vehicles were present at every post,”she said.

She said that at first a single FIR waslodged against Zulfiqar Mirza, but now thenumber has increased to seven.

She appealed to Chief Justice of Paki-stan, Chief Justice Sindh High Court, PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister SindhSyed Qaim Ali Shah and the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) senior leadership to takenotice of such fake FIRs and withdraw themat the earliest. “We are part of PPP. It is myfamily and I cannot harm it,” said DrFehmida, adding that such matters should beresolved “within the family”.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan addressing media persons outside the Supreme Court.

BEIRUT—At least 16 members of theSyrian Kurdish security forces werekilled Wednesday in an Islamic Stategroup attack on a base in the northeast-ern province of Hasakeh, a monitor said.

“There was a large explosion at dawntoday in Hasakeh city caused by an Is-lamic State car bomb attack on a basebelonging to the Kurdish internal secu-rity forces,” the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights said.

The Britain-based group said ISjihadist militants opened fire on Kurdishforces after the blast, prompting fierceclashes.

All the attackers were killed, the Ob-servatory said, without specifying thenumber of IS fighters involved in the as-sault in the provincial capital, where

IS attack on Kurdish forces in Syria kills 16Kurdish and regime forces share control.

IS holds large areas of the country-side around Hasakeh and has attacked iton previous occasions. Syrian state me-dia reported a “terrorist car bomb” inHasakeh city had left several dead andwounded, without giving a toll, and saidthe jihadists had also bombarded the city.

“IS terrorists targetedneighbourhoods (of Hasakeh city) withrockets and mortars,” killing three peopleand wounding four more, the officialnews agency SANA said.

The Observatory said at least fourpeople had been killed in the bombard-ment.

In the southern province of Quneitra,rebel fighters led by Al-Qaeda’s Syrianaffiliate Al-Nusra Front chased out IS-

linked Jaysh al-Jihad from areas border-ing the Israeli-occupied portion of theGolan Heights.

The Observatory said the nine-daybattle had left at least 78 fighters dead intotal, including 46 from Al-Nusra and itsallies, and 32 from Jaysh al-Jihad.

He said the coalition of Al-Nusra,Islamist factions and local rebels had re-taken control of the village of Al-Qahtaniyah and surrounding areas.

Clashes and fierce shelling in the areabegan on April 27, after Jaysh al-Jihadambushed local rebels, killing six.

East of the Syrian capital, the Obser-vatory said rebels had regained controlof a town and a key road leading to thebesieged anti-regime bastion of EasternGhouta..—AFP

MIAN ARSHAD

ISLAMABAD—Finance Minis-ter Senator Mohammad IshaqDar, Wednesday, left for Dubaito lead Pakistani delegation inthe ongoing talks on 7th quar-terly review of Extended FundsFacility with the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF).

Pakistan entered an Ex-tended Fund Facility (EFF)with International MonetaryFund (IMF) in September2013. Pakistani team, compris-ing Finance Ministry officialsas well as officials from otherministries, is already engaged

Dar off to Dubai to attendEFF review with IMF

in talks with the IMF delega-tion concerning the IMF 7threview. Before leaving fromBaku, Azerbaijan after attend-ing the 48th annual meeting ofADB Board of Governors, Darseparately met with the hostMinister for Economy and In-dustry Shahin AbdullaMustaffayev and a delegation ofparliamentarians led by, Presi-dent of Pakistan-AzerbaijanParliamentary FriendshipGroup Arstun Javadov.

According to Finance Divi-sion, the two sides agreed to fa-cilitate and encourage business-

men from both sides to under-take joint ventures and valueaddition projects in order toachieve quick and best resultsin the said fields as well as en-hance the bilateral trade betweenthe two brotherly countries.

The Finance Minister con-gratulated the Minister ofEconomy and Industry on host-ing a very successful annualmeetings of the ADB Governorsand wished Azerbaijan all thesuccess in the forthcomingmegaevent of First Olympic Gamesin Azerbaijan.

PHOENIX—About 20 minutes before the shoot-ing at a Texas cartoon contest that featured cari-catures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), a finaltweet posted on an account linked to one of thegunmen said: “May Allah accept us asmujahideen,” or holy warriors.

Federal authorities were tracking the Twitteraccount linked to 31-year-old Elton Simpson ofPhoenix before he and another gunman openedfire Sunday in the Dallas suburb of Garland, saidRep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the HouseHomeland Security Committee, who was briefedon the investigation by federal law enforcement

Gunman’s hashtag hinted at Texas plotofficials.

The Department of Homeland Security andthe FBI on April 20 also had issued a joint intel-ligence bulletin to local law enforcement warn-ing that the Garland event was a possible targetfor a terrorist attack, according to a DHS officialwho was not authorised to be quoted discussingthe document.Social media accounts linked to“violent extremists” had been focusing on thecontest, the bulletin said.

A federal law enforcement official said au-thorities had an open investigation into Simpsonat the time of the shooting.—AP

PTI resolution inNA Secretariatdemands action

against AltafSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesdaysubmitted a resolution in theNational Assembly secretariatcondemning Altaf Hussain’s“anti-Pakistan” speech, andcalled upon the government totake action against theMuttahida Qaumi Movementsupremo.

The decision to submit theresolution was agreed as a re-sult of a decision taken by thePTI leadership.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Senate onWednesday paid rich tribute toslain human rights activistSabeen Mahmud and demandedthat the government to bring hermurderers to the book.

Sabeen was gunned downin Karachi in late April as shedrove home after organizing aseminar on missing persons inBalochistan where Baloch ac-tivist Mama Qadeer was thechief guest.

The Senate, which was re-named as the ‘House of Federa-tion’ on Wednesday, unani-mously adopted a resolution

Senate hails Sabeen’s couragehailing her courage. Moved byMQM’s Senator Nasreen Jalil,the resolution stated that “She(Sabeen) offered a public placein the form of T2F (The SecondFloor) for dissenting voices.This house salutes her courage.”

Earlier, Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP) Senator FarhatullahBabar, in a call to attention no-tice, emphasized on the need forlegislation which brings intelli-gence agencies under the ambitof the law so as to protect themfrom uncalled for and unsub-stantiated allegations of involve-ment in extra judicial killings,enforced disappearances andgrave human rights violations.

He said that the commission

on enforced disappearances hadalso asked for bringing agenciesunder the ambit of the law and,taking forward its report, theSenate committee on humanrights had last year proposeda draft legislation for thepurpose. The draft legisla-tion, Babar said, had beenforwarded to the govern-ment which had yet to re-spond.

“The most importantthing was to bring all 33 in-telligence agencies underthe ambit of law”, the PPPsenator said, adding thatunless this is done, fingerswould continue to be raised to-wards intelligence agencies.

Govt designatesPSO as

LNG buyerASHRAF ANSARI

ISLAMABAD — The Govern-ment of Pakistan has nomi-nated Pakistan State Oil (PS)as its designated LiquefiedNatural Gas buyer to importLNG into Pakistan. Currently,two potential procurementstreams are being explored forimport of LNG to Pakistan.

This information was givento the National AssemblyStanding Committee on Petro-leum & Natural Resources in ameeting held under the chair-manship of Ch. Bilal AhmedVirk, Chairman Standing Com-mittee. Mr. Shahid KhaqanAbbasi, Federal Minister forPetroleum & Natural Re-sources and Mir Jam Kamal,Minister of State for Petroleumand Natural Resources werepresent in the meeting.

The Committee was toldthat PSO and Government ofPakistan’s international consult-ants are currently engaged innegotiations with Qater Gas . Shahbaz opposes

NA-125 verdictSALIM AHMED

VIHARI—Following hisparty’s decision of challengingthe verdict of an election tribu-nal in the Supreme Court re-garding holding re-polls in theNA-125 constituency, ChiefMinister Punjab ShahbazSharif on Wednesday said hestrongly opposes the verdict.

Speaking to media repre-sentatives at the Circuit Househere, he said that he did notwant to disrespect the judge,who issued the verdict.

Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan addressing participants of work-shop on climate change.—INP

Defence Attache of Czech Republic Col. Stanislav Tesarek, chief guest Vice Admiral Khan Hasham bin Saddiq and others, cutting cake during a cer-emony to celebrate Armed Forces Day of Czech Republic at a local hotel.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

A beautiful view of purple flowers on trees along a road in the capital.—DNA

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—At a time when CapitalDevelopment Authority is making hugeclaims of the sufficient water for thecoming summer days, an announcementhas been made by the CDA spokesper-son that water supply to sectors G-7, 8and 9 would remain suspended today(May 7).

However the spokesperson attrib-uted this abrupt suspension to repair ofwater supply lines and made it clear thatwater supply would resume from Thurs-day (tomorrow). Meanwhile during ameeting chaired by Maroof Afzal chair-man of the Capital Development Author-ity it was told sufficient water is avail-able to meet the water requirements ofthe Federal Capital till the coming mon-soon.

Water level in Simly Dam is up tooptimal level and sufficient storage ofwater is also available in Khanpur Dam,so there will be no water scarcity duringthe summer, the meeting was further told.

The meeting held to review the situ-ation of water supply in the city afterfears were raised by various quarters thatthe federal capital could be hit with se-vere water shortage in coming days.Member Engineering Shahid Sohail,Director General Water Management andother senior officers of the Authority at-tended the meeting.

Sufficient quantity of water is avail-able in CDA’s water reservoirs and wa-ter complaints are fluctuating betweenthree to four hundred complaints per daywhich are nominal as CDA is ensuringwater supply to 55,000 consumers, themeeting was apprised of. Around 34

million gallons of water are being sup-plied from Simly Dam reservoir while 8millions are being provided from theKhanpur dam whereas the additionalwater supply is being managed throughother sources like Tube wells to meet thewater requirement of the city. Watermanagement wing is receiving the com-plaints mostly from those areas wherewater is being supplied through tubewells as seven hours, on average, per dayelectricity loadshedding hinders thesmooth water supply in few areas of thecity. However, water tanker service is en-suring prompt redressal of these com-plaints, the meeting was briefed. How-ever main water lines are being repairedto ensure uninterrupted water supplyduring the summer.

Chairman CDA stressed all out ef-forts to ensure un-interrupted water sup-

ply. He directed to take up the matter withIESCO so that smooth supply of watercould be made in the areas where wateris being provided from the groundsources. He said that the tanker servicesshall be strengthened and made moreefficient. For this purpose, tankers withthe Sports and Culture Directorate wouldbe also made available to supplement thealready existing fleet of water tankers.

With regard to water suspensionaccording to the spokesperson of Capi-tal Development Authority water sup-ply to sectors G-6, G-7, G-8, G-9 willremain suspended for 24 hours witheffect from May 7 (today). This is be-cause of the repair work of water sup-ply lines, the spokesperson said.Spokesman of the Authority requestedthe residents of the sectors to store therequisite quantity of water.

No water for G-6, G-7, G-8 & G-9 sectors today

Ample water reservoirs to meetcity’s demand, CDA claims

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for ClimateChange, Senator Mushahidullah Khan, Wednesday,expressed resentment over non-serious attitude andlack of responsibility by the rich polluting countriesin tackling global warming. Addressing the nationalConsultative workshop on environment, climatechange, biodiversity, land degradation, ozone deple-tion, urged the developing countries like Pakistan,Bangladesh, India, Nepal and other Asia-Pacificcountries to stand united against double standard ofthe rich nations and force them to pay for the globalenvironmental damages and global warming, whichis afflicting the economies, people and biodiversityso dangerously.

The sad truth is that the poorest countries in-cluding Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh on theplanet will be hit first and hardest by ‘now unavoid-able’ climate change, he warned saying, “Duringthe last decade it is poor counties like Pakistan,Nepal, Bangladesh, Philippine, Honduras, Myanmarand Thailand that have been most battered by theclimate change disasters including floods, storm andcyclones.”

Third world to be hit first byclimate change disasterscreated by richer nations

He was addressing a seminar jointly organizedby the Ministry of Climate Change and Global En-vironment Facility (GEF), which is a partnershipfor international cooperation where 183 countrieswork together with international institutions, civilsociety organizations and the private sector, to ad-dress global environmental issues. “It is matter ofgrave concern for developing countries like Paki-stan that they have been left out to cope with cli-mate change-induced disasters, particularly floods,cyclones, hurricanes, sea-level rise, landsliding, andriver erosion. Whereas, the rich countries continueto increase pace of global warming by increasingtheir carbon emissions,” he said.

Mushahidullah Khan said rich countries haveachieved economic growths at the cost of environ-ment and for this purposes exploited natural re-sources, particularly water, forests, land in unsus-tainable and cruel manner. “Though these rich coun-tries are now raising slogans of sustainable devel-opment and green development and pushing the poorcountries to cut their carbon emissions, protectingenvironment, planting more trees, shift towards cleanand renewable energy from fossil fuel burning forenergy purposes.

CITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Keeping in view theprevalence of eye diseases in Pakistan,particularly in children, the Al-Shifa TrustEye Hospital has decided to establish astate-of-the-art specialized eye hospital forchildren in Pakistan, a hospital officialsaid.

We have set a goal to establish a full-fledged children eye hospital by 2017which would be first of its kind in the en-tire region, said lt. gen. (retd) Hamid Javed,President of the trust. Talking to a group

of journalists, he said that founder of thetrust Late Jahandad Khan envisioned aspecialised eye hospital for children in Pa-kistan which will become a reality withintwo years.

As a first step, we have established afully equipped eye department which canhandle two hundred patients per day, saidgen. Hamid Javed.

We will double the capacity in one yearas the number of children with eye prob-lems is increasing in Pakistan which canbe attributed to the increase in pollution,allergies, unhygienic conditions,sugar and

a general lack of awareness.He said that only a specialized doctor

can check a child and very special equip-ment is required for screening prematurebabies, he said, adding that it is easy tocure eye disease in childhood rather to waitand let it grow to a complicated level.

Statistics show that 90 percent of theblind could be easily treated during theirchild hood to save their eyesight. He saidthat new hospitals would be establishedafter consolidation of the existing facili-ties at four hospitals in Rawalpindi,Sukkar, Kohat and Muzzafarbad.

Al-Shifa to establish specializedeye hospital for children

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A ceremony was held here onWednesday at Pakistan Red Crescent Society na-tional headquarters in connection with World RedCross/ Red Crescent Day, being observed all overthe world under the theme ‘Our Principles in Ac-tion’. Addressing the ceremony, Minister of Statefor National Health Services, Saira Afzal Tarar saidthat Pakistan being the disaster-prone country needstrained community volunteers to cope with the natu-ral and man-made disasters.

She said that selflessness is the main spirit ofvolunteerism and it must be flourished under theteaching of Islam and every volunteer should fol-low the teaching of Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad(PBUH). The minister said that over the last severaldecades, the Red Cross and Red Crescent societieshave provided assistance to millions of vulnerablepeople of the world.

She added the volunteers of PRCS have alsocontributed immensely during times of disasters withan aim of helping those in need, being the first toreach the scene of disaster and the last to leave.

Pakistan needs trained volunteersto cope with natural disasters

Mehfil-e-Mushairaat IIUI

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Student Advi-sor Office Female Campus, In-ternational Islamic UniversityIslamabad organized Mahfil-e-Mushaera in connectionwith Spring Carnival 2015 atIIUI.

The Musheara was gracedby the Rector IIUI Dr.Masoom Yasinzai as chiefguest, while, renowned poet-ess Sarwat Muhayeeuddinlighten the candle-stick ofMusheara, Mrs. HameedahShaheen was guest of honourand Dr. Najeeba Arif Students’Advisor was a moderator ofMusheara.

The Musheara was alsoattended by the renownedand famous poetesses includ-ing Perween Tahir,Muhamdia Ghazia, TalatNureen, Basra Farukh, AysahMasood, Tabassam Ikhlaq,Dr. Bashir Khan, Vice Presi-dent Academic IIUI, Dr.Samina Malik Director Fe-male Campus and large num-ber of students.

WE ALL LOVE PIZZA. No one likesto hear anything bad about pizza. Butit might be wise to keep an eye on

your kids’ intake of this delicious circular mealif the results of a new study published in thejournal Paediatrics are to be believed. The studyshows that on the days that they eat pizza, chil-dren consume significantlymore calories, fat and so-dium than on pizza-freedays.

Pizza is the second high-est source of energy in thediet of American youths.

If anyone needed proofof American youths’ lovefor pizza, the fact thatpizza is the second highestsource of energy in theirdiet might be it. The newstudy adds that about 20%of youths eat pizza on anygiven day in the US. Giventhat this foodstuff is con-sumed so hungrily and fre-quently, close attentionneeds to be paid to its nu-tritional content.

The researchers behind the new study,from the Health Policy Centre at the Instituteof Health Research and Policy at the Univer-sity of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), examineddietary recall data from children and adoles-cents aged 2-19 who took part in the NationalHealth and Nutrition Examination Surveybetween 2003 and 2010.

The data show that caloric intake frompizza among children between the ages of 2and 11 dropped by 25% during the study pe-riod. Also, among adolescents, despite a slightincrease in prevalence of pizza consumptionin this age group, there was a fall in calorieintake from pizza. However, during 2009-10,

pizza made up 22% of the total calorie in-take among children and 26% of adoles-cents’ calorie intake on the days when itwas eaten.

Children took in an additional 84 calo-ries, 3 g of saturated fat and 134 mg ofsodium on days that they ate pizza, com-

pared with pizza-free days.For adolescents, pizza daysmeant an extra 230 calories,5 g of saturated fat and 484mg of sodium - 24% and 21%of their recommended dailyintake for fat and sodium, re-spectively. The biggest impactpizza had on diet, the studyfound, was when it was eatenas a snack between meals.When eating pizza as a snack,children took in an additional202 calories and adolescentsan extra 365 calories.

“Children and adoles-cents do not adequately com-pensate by eating less ofother foods on days whenthey eat pizza,” commentslead author Lisa Powell, who

is professor of health policy and admin-istration in the UIC School of PublicHealth. Looking at children’s and adoles-cents’ pizza-eating behaviours in moredetail, the study found that from 2003-10, calories from eating pizza at dinnerfell, though there was no change in calo-rie intake from pizza consumption atlunch and from school cafeterias.

Also, calorie intake from school caf-eterias was approximately the same on daysin which pizza was and was not eaten. Theresearchers think this is because school caf-eteria food that is not pizza is similarly highin calories.

American kids are eating a lot of pizza- what are the health implications?

04:50 01:4505:30

08:30

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

Ambassador of Switzerland Marc George, Aziz Boolani and others inaugurating an exhibition ‘Making the Making’ atSatrang Art Gallery on Wednesday. Workers hold a protest against proposed privatisation of Wapda.—DNA

Asthmaaggravates dueto changes in

weatherSTAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Holy FamilyHospital(HFH) Tuesday ar-ranged a seminar in connectionwith World Asthma Day to cre-ate awareness regarding in-creasing Asthma patients in thecountry.

Speaking on the occasion,Prof Dr Mati Ullah Khan saidthat Asthma aggravates due tochanges in weather, dust, ani-mal dander, and pollution.

“Lack of awareness amongthe people about preventivemeasures, especially those liv-ing in rural areas, and suffer-ing from acute respiratoryproblems, he said needs to bechecked to curtail its spread.”

Stressing on the need forproper planning to control theharmful diseases, the Professorsaid that medical experts, stu-dents, social welfare institu-tions and media could play avital role in creating awarenessabout issues and prevention ofdiseases, including Asthma.

He said that carelessnesstowards animals kept in houseand in the use of carpets andcurtains could cause asthma inhuman beings. He said asthmawas not a curable disease butcould be managed effectivelywith prompt and proper treat-ment.

He said that efforts shouldbe made to improve the exter-nal and internal environments.Among others Dr Kanwal, DrRehana Kausar and Dr Aslamalso spoke on the occasion.

HSSC annualexams

to start todayRAWALPINDI—As many as63,921 candidates including37,106 regular and 26,815 pri-vate students have been issuedroll number slips to appear inHigher Secondary School Cer-tificate (HSSC), Intermediateannual exams 2015 which willstart in Rawalpindi divisionfrom May 7 (Thursday).

According to RawalpindiBoard of Intermediate and Sec-ondary Education (RBISE)spokesman, the board has final-ized all the arrangements forthe exams. He informed thatfoolproof arrangements havebeen made for transparent andsmooth holding of HSSC an-nual exams.

He said, apart from theboard’s office at Morgah nearAttock Oil Refinery Rawalpindi,the students can also contact con-troller examination’s phone num-ber 051-5450917-18 in case theycould not receive the roll numberslips. He said, 177 centers havebeen set up for the exams. Out oftotal examination centers, 92 arefor girls and 74 are for boys while11 combined examination centershave also been set up.—APP

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Students are facing residen-tial problems because of the acute shortageof accommodation facilities in the twin cit-ies of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Majid, a student, said that due to non-availability of proper hostel facilities, he hadto live in a small room. “It is quite difficultfor a students to find a reasonable living placeat affordable rates,” he added.

He said that private hostels had been

charging Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 for a singlebed accommodation, adding that these hos-tels lacking proper cleaning facilities.Shafqat Ullah, an employee said that rentsof rooms and houses had surged in the lastfew years due to the unprecedented influxof students and job seekers in the twin cit-ies.

“I am paying Rs 7,000 for a single un-furnished room, and the owner raised rent,10 percent every year,” he added.”I am re-siding in a small room of a private hostel

with three other girls due to paucity of hos-tels for girls in the twin cities,” said Fouzia,a student of IIU.

She said, “We pay Rs6,000 per head tothe hostel management who provide two timemeals and breakfast.”Fouzia said that therearrangements lacked proper cleanliness, andthe food was not of standard.

She appealed the authorities concerned totake steps for setting up new girls hostels inthe twin cities, because the existing hostelfacilities were not sufficient to the increasing

women working class. Israr Khan, living in asingle room in Shamsabad said that the maincause of the accommodation shortage was thelack of bachelor hostels and proper housingschemes. He said that he had been facing resi-dential problem since he came to capital in2003 after completing his studies.

“In the past five years, I have changedmy residence many times due to unkind at-titude of landlords or lack of basic facilities,”he added that the setting up of more hostelscould bring relief to bachelors, who came

here from distant areas of the country insearch of jobs and education.

Many universities and colleges are facingshortage of hostels in twin cities. The studentsdemanded that concerned authorities shouldprovide sufficient accommodation facilities todecrease the problems of the students. Theystressed that the educational instructions shouldbe bound to provide boarding, lodging andother facilities to its students as part of the reg-istration of these institutions set up in hiredbuilding lacking space an other facilities.

Students facing residentialproblems in twin cities

ISLAMABAD—Out of order manual as wellas Automated Tellers Machines (ATMs) ofNational Bank of Pakistan (NBP) here atCivic Center (Melody) were creating greathardship to its customers especially the gov-ernment servants of the twin cities ofRawalpindi and Islamabad. The ATMs in-stalled in different areas of the twin citieswere also irking thousand of account hold-ers as they were facing difficulties for ful-filling their cash requirements during the startof every month.

Particularly the ATM of National Bankof Pakistan installed in Rawalpindi andIslamabad was out of order or de-linked forthe past many days despite repeated com-plaints of the customers.

“I am a government servant and visitingthe NBP Melody branch for the past manydays but due to breakdown in the bank’s

manual as well as ATM I failed to draw myamount”, said Imran Ali a customer of thebank told APP.

“Even the machines installed outside themain branches of NBP Rawalpindi andIslamabad to facilitate the people for theircash withdrawal and transfer remained outof order during the first week of every monthwere increasing the vows”, he remarked. Thissituation was creating problems for peoplebelonging to different walks of life includ-ing government servants, retired employeesand students for cash withdrawal for pay-ments of their dues and utility bills.

Akhtar Khan, a government employeewhile waiting in a long que outside of anATM booth of NBP main Civic CenterMelody Branch Islamabad said that he wasvisiting the ATM from last four days for cashwithdrawal but all in vain.

He informed that other banks con-nected with NBP one link system was notaccepting NBP ATM card due to problemsoccurring in the inter bank connectivitywhich was also creating problems for itsclients.

Parents of students of different collegesand universities said that they were also fac-ing difficulties due to these ATMs for thepayment of their college and hostel dues be-sides fulfilling the other daily needs.

When the scribe contacted the relevantofficials of the NBP Civic Center, he said,“Boss is busy in a meeting and will respondethe situation after the meeting which was con-tinued from 9 am till the filing of the report”.Meanwhile, when contacted the RegionalHead of Rawalpidni, Tariq Zafar it was toldthat he was on official visit of Gujar Khanarea for inspection of bank branches.—APP

Out of order ATMs creatingproblem for customers

RAWALPINDI—Tehsil Municipal Administration(TMA), Rawal Town under its grand anti-encroach-ment operation on Wednesday confiscated six truck-loads goods of 70 encroachers while fines were alsoimposed on 40 shopkeepers.

According to PRO, TMA, Rawal Town, the staffconcerned under the supervision of Tehsil Munici-pal Officer (TMO) Ch. Liaquat Ali, Town OfficerRegulation (TOR) Malik Toseef Ahmed and Su-perintendent Pervaiz Mughal, conducted raids earlymorning at several markets and roads includingLiaquat Road, Iqbal Road, Raja Bazaar, Bara Ba-zaar, Jamia Masjid Road, Gungmandi, SaidpurRoad, Commercial Market and other adjoining roadsand confiscated goods of 70 encroachers while fineswere also imposed on those found indulged in en-

croachments.He said, despite, repeated warnings given to the

rules violators, the encroachments were not removed.Now, strict action in accordance with the law is be-ing taken and the confiscated goods will not be re-turned to the shopkeepers.

The ongoing anti-encroachment operation hasfurther been intensified aimed at clearing the cityroads.

He said, the city markets are regularly beingvisited and staff concerned conducting raids at mainmarkets and roads of the town.

He informed that the enforcement staff wouldcontinue the operation on daily basis and the rulesviolators would be fined and their goods would beconfiscated.—APP

TMA confiscates six truckloadsgoods of encroachers

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Urdu Department, Fatima JinnahWomen University (FJWU) has arranged a semi-nar titled ‘Fiqar-e-Iqbal’ to pay tribute to Dr. AllamaMuhammad Iqbal, a great poet and philosopher.

Vice Chancellor, (VC) FJWU Prof. Dr. SaminaAmin Qadir was the Chief Guest while the guest ofhonor was former Inspector General (IG) NationalHighways and Motorway Police, (NHMP) ZulfiqarAhmed Cheema. Dean Faculty of Arts and SocialSciences, Prof. Dr. Naheed Zia Khan, Registrar, Dr.Samina Bukhari and other faculty members and stu-dents attended the seminar.

Speaking on the occasion Zulfiqar Ahmed saidif you want to achieve good status then you musthave determination and will power. Talking aboutDr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal he said that Iqbal was

not a leader of Sub-Continent but also admired bythe people of Iran and Turkey.

He was a universal poet and his poetry and vi-sion of Islamic society was universal that tran-scended beyond any boundaries. He said that youthof the nation should transform themselves intoIqbal’s Mard-e-Momin and strive for self-reliancewithin own resources.

He urged the young generation to never losehope in any circumstances because losing hope isdeath. Life and teachings of Allama Iqbal is a greatsource of inspiration and there is need to practicethe message of this great man in our lives, he added.He said that there is no doubt that by following themessage of Iqbal, Pakistan can be ranked amongsttop ten nations of the world in future. Prof. NaheedZia Khan shed light on Iqbal’s philosophy of‘Khudi’.

FJWU organizes seminaron ‘Fiqar-e-Iqbal’

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—A laptop distribution cer-emony under the Prime Minister LaptopScheme was held here at Pir Mehr Ali ShahArid Agriculture University Rawalpindi(PMAS-AAUR) on Wednesday.

Total 800 laptops and internet devices,provided by Higher Education Commis-sion (HEC) were distributed among thestudents while MNA, Maiza Hameed wasthe chief guest. PMAS-AAUR Vice Chan-cellor, (VC), Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmed,DG Information Technology HEC,Anwaar Amjad, Registrar, Deans/Direc-tors, Principal Officer and faculty mem-bers were also present on the occasion.

Addressing the ceremony, the chiefguest said youth is the future of our na-tion and the government has introducedso many initiatives for the youth to en-able them to meet the challenges of fu-ture. She said that Information Technol-

ogy is need of the hour and the main pur-pose of distribution of laptops among thestudents is to equip them with the latestand modern technological innovation.She said that it was the vision of PM whowanted to provide all required facilitiesto the students so that they could devotethemselves fully to education and becomeproud Pakistanis.

She stated that education is the toppriority of Prime Minister MianMuhammad Nawaz Sharif and specialsteps have also been taken to provide besteducational opportunities to the studentsin urban and rural areas. She lauded theVice Chancellor, (VC), Faculty membersand university administration on success-ful launch of the ceremony and advisedthe students to use this technology in aright way so that we could bring educa-tional revolution in our country. She urgedthe students to concentrate on their stud-ies so that they could lead the nation. At

the end she also planted a tree in univer-sity premises. On this occasion the VCsaid that the step was taken by the govern-ment will provide the students better edu-cational and research environment.

He appreciated the wisdom and visionof the Prime Minister of PakistanMuhammad Nawaz Sharif for launchinglaptop scheme. He said that the govern-ment awarded these laptops to the studentsin order to enhance their professional skillsand open the ways of progress for the Pa-kistan. Now it is students’ responsibilityhow efficient they use this technology intheir studies, he added. Advising the stu-dents, the VC said that students are thefuture of nation and they should work hard,produce better quality research papers toplay their due role in the development ofthe country. The students also appreciatedthe laptops distribution initiative taken bythe government and hoped that suchprojects will continue in future.

800 PMAS-AAUR students getlaptops under PM scheme

Shah Hamdan literaryconference at RAC

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Chairman International Organi-zation Sufizm Dr. Ghazanfer Mehdi on Wednes-day said that life and work of Hazrat ShahHamdan and other sufi saints need to be con-veyed to new generation and a policy must beconstituted to spread sufizm.

He expressed these views at the conferenceorganized here by Rawalpindi Arts Council(RAC) in collaboration with International ShahHamdan Association.

Renowned historian Dr. Riaz Ahmed saidthat it was great honor for Pakistan to organizeInternational Shah Hamdan Conference in 1995in Tajikistan which was presided over by itsPresident Emomali Rahmon. Scholar Dr. AllamaHussain Ahmed said that literary work of HazratShah Hamdan has been preserved in British Li-brary and our government need to get publishedhis literature.

Syed Ali Moosvi on this occasion said thatIslam spread in Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan dueto efforts of Hazrat Shah Hamdan.

MNA Maiza Hameed giving laptop to a student during PM Lap Top distribution ceremony at Arid Agriculture University.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD —Government would pay a sum ofRs 1.5 billion per annum subsidy to Metro Bus Ser-vice Project of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to pro-vide affordable travelling facilities to the people,State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs ShaikhAftab Ahmed told Senate.

Answering the question of Osman SaifullahKhan, he said 153,000 passengers would trael dailythrough MBS. Fare of MBS would be from Rs 20to 25 per trip. Travelling passengers would be pro-vided subsidy.

Private sector had not been invited for execute

the project as it seems impossible for private sectorto charge Rs 20 or 25 per passenger per trip.

The actual cost may be Rs 50 per passenger. Hesaid the project is purely for the poor expected inter-nal rate of return for the Rawalpindi-Islamabad metrobus project will be seventeen to twenty four per-cent. Answering a question, Sheikh Aftab Ahmedinformed the House that twenty bullet proof vehiclesof different categories are on the charge of cabinetdivision, central pool of cars. He said these vehiclesare not being misused. He said a bullet proof ve-hicle has been provided to the ex-Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on the orders ofIslamabad High Court.

Govt to pay Rs1.5b perannum subsidy to MBP

Police detain independent MLA Er Rashid after he tried to take out a march to the civil secretariat against the proposedplan of setting up a separate township for Kashmiri Pandit migrants.

Z.G. MUHAMMAD

MEMOIRS or autobiographies even if written objectively elements of subjective always seep in these genera of literature.

Nonetheless, in the resistance movement, theywork as guides in identifying the pitfalls and pot-holes that been worked as impediments in achiev-ing the national goal. For biographies enablingus to know about behind the scene developmentthat have affected people or the nations work aslodestars for guiding the future generation engagedin the resistance movements or in the nation build-ing. Moreover, the biographies exposing hideousdesigns of the powers that or revealing hithertounknown chivalry of some leaders or sacrificesof the political workers enrich the national narra-tive. Unfortunately, in Kashmir resistance that datebacks to nineteenth century there has been no tra-dition of publishing memoirs.

Contemporary, history of Kashmir suffersmany missing links and distortions as hardly anyof the protagonists of our political movement from1931 to 1947 or from 1947 to 1990 have publishedtheir memoirs. Important correspondence betweenKashmir leaders and leaders of the sub-continenthave also been confined to the cupboards to gatherdust. Had this correspondence been made publiclike that of correspondence between Nehru, Jinnah,Patel and Mountbatten it would not only hadbrought to light machinations and conspiracies ofvillainous characters in our movement but wouldhave also helped in fighting back the denial modein New Delhi and defeating its policy of procras-tination towards resolving the Kashmir dispute.

Importance of such correspondence forstrengthening Kashmir narrative can be under-stood in the blanket ban imposed by GOI on mak-ing documents about Kashmir public. The NationalArchives or the Nehru Museum has been denyingaccess to Kashmir related papers not only to schol-

Sheikh Abdullah Betrayal: Nida-e-Haq Spills Beansars and researchers from Kashmir only but fromoutside. You will be surprised even scholars likeCharealekha Zutshi and Mridu Rai were deniedaccess to papers not only about Kashmir problembut right from 1819.

Looking in this perspective at the recentlypublished memoirs of Munshi Mohammad Ishaq,I see it as important contribution for connectingthe missing links of contemporary Kashmir his-tory. Let may say it with all frankness, I even seeposthumously published autobiography of SheikhMohammad Abdullah with all its subjectivity andprejudices as an important source material forunderstanding the political dynamics of the pe-riod.

In 1947 rule of feudal autocracy ended but itdid not usher in democracy in Kashmir. It wasbeginning of new rule where individual libertiesand freedom of expression was denied- somethingakin to neo-fascism. The voices of dissent weremuzzled, jailed and even pushed across theceasefire line. While weaving myths around theirleader and orchestrating the “dominant discourse”the new class of politicians made the truth firstcausality. This resulted in clouding, contorting andconfusing history of most important juncture inour history that is 1947. Thanks to Western schol-ars like Stanley Wolpert, Allister Lamb, VictoriaSchofield and Christopher Snedden for unveilingthe truth.

The memoirs of Late Haji MunshiMuhammad Ishaq, one of the prominent leadersin the Kashmir Struggle from early thirties to latesixties and a very close confident of SheikhMuhammad Abdullah is an important addition tothe contemporary Kashmir history. It is the dia-ries maintained by the author over years and somescribed by him during imprisonments at differentphases of the political struggle that have providedwarp and woof to these memoirs. This in fact isthe first inside story by one of the important lead-

ers of the struggle against autocracy, and witnessto the misgovernment after 1947- that was largelymarked by political vendetta, hooliganism andcorruption.

This book is first major work on twenty-twoyears movement for right to self-determination ledby the Plebiscite Front. I for one believe that thebook is first of its kind that provides an insightinto, the struggle of the Plebiscite Front.

The 464 page memoirs in Urdu, titled Nida-e-Haq edited by Munshi Ghulam Hassan, son of theauthor, a scholar and historian in his own right isimportant for a variety of reasons. One, after SheikhAbdullah these are the first memoirs by a top leaderclose to him. Second, for the author being centralfigure during the 1946 Quit Kashmir movement, withhis office in Rawalpindi, the book splits beans andexposes the dubious role played by some importantNational Conference leaders during their self-exileddays in Delhi and Punjab. Third, the memoirs areimportant for understanding the birth and the deathof the Plebiscite Front.

The comprehensive preface to the book by theeditor works as an appetizer that stimulates a readerto remain glued to the lucidly written book from pageone to the last page- with every page-taking lid offfrom some hideous plots that contributed to the birthof the Kashmir dispute, its perpetuation and suffer-ings of the people. In his preface, the author withsubtlety tells that his father right in 1969 had real-ized that Sheikh Abdullah and Mirza MuhammadAfzal Beg wanted to retract their steps and saw theparty decision to participate in the Panchayat elec-tions as betrayal of the cause.

The memoirs’ of Munshi Ishaq are differentfrom biographies of other leaders in as much as,these are not aimed at self-glorification but tell-ing truth about perfidy of top leaders with com-punction. The exchange of correspondence be-tween the author and Sheikh MuhammadAbdullah, Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad, Ghulam

Mohammad Sadiq and some other leaders during1946 and 1947 lends authenticity to some untoldstories told for the first time in the book.

These letters also tell about the hardship facedby the leaders during the struggle and how theirfamilies suffered immensely during trying times.In one of the letters Sheikh Abdullah from Reasijail, writes to Munshi Ishaq to support his familyby providing Begum Abdullah monthly Rs. 150for meeting the monthly expenses as GhulamMohi-u-Din Qara had not done the same. Thisletter was sent by Sheikh Abdullah at a time ‘Mohi-u-Din Qara was collecting huge donations in thename of Quit Kashmir Movement’ and outside thestate Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad and Sadiq werefattening on the donations received from the Mus-lims of Punjab.’

The letters of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad andGhulam Mohammad Sadiq quoted in the bookexpose hideous intentions and ambitions of theseleaders right in 1946, when Maharaja Hari Singhwas still in his saddle. I see the exchange of let-ters between the author and other important lead-ers as forte of the book. The editor of the bookneeds to publish complete correspondence forposterity, as it will provide leads to the research-ers for chafing fact from fiction during the mostcrucial period of Kashmir history.

The author being an insider and an eyewit-ness, the book is most authentic source for futurehistorian for understanding the truth behind therelease of Sheikh Abdullah and other NationalConference leaders and the fast political develop-ments in the state that culminated in the landingof Indian troops on October 27, 1947.

The author as an eye witness testifies, the as-sertions made by many other important historiansabout the delegations sent by Muhammad AliJinnah in 1947, headed by M.D. Taseer invitingSheikh Abdullah to Karachi before taking a deci-sion on the future of Jammu and Kashmir. ‘At-

taching paramount importance to the will of thepeople Taseer had told Sheikh Abdullah that statecould be autonomous with right to secede, it wouldalso have role in foreign affairs and Kashmir lead-ers would be part of foreign ministry.’ The bookdetails, how the National Conference leaders atthis critical point of history played a dubious rolethat ultimately resulted in Kashmir becoming athorn in the neck of people in the sub-continent.

Munshi Sahib despite having remained a sup-porter of Sheikh Abdullah but in his memoirs’nurses grouse against his leader for not informingthem about atrocities committed by the soldiersof the Sikh regiment on their landing in Srinagar.

The memoirs’ for author being an insider hasbeen eyewitness to the developments within Na-tional Conference but he has not been privy tomany behind the scene development that haveimmensely contributed to the birth of the Kash-mir tragedy. Nevertheless, editor of the memoirsMunshi Ghulam Hassan has largely made up thesedeficiencies with profusely written footnotes, eventhen the memoir stumbles on certain fact and suf-fers inaccuracies in details.

Talking about the Muslim Conference leader-ship, the author obviously would not know that itwas at the insistence of Sardar Patel that SheikhAbdullah and other National Conference leaderswere released under a plan and the Muslim Con-ference leaders continued under detention. Topmost contemporary historian, Ramachandra Guhain his book ‘India After Gandhi’ has honestly writ-ten about objective behind the release of Abdullahand other NC leaders and jailing of the MuslimConference leaders. The book is first major docu-mentation of the Plebiscite Front Movement. Itwill be of immense help to researchers workingon post-1953 phase of Kashmir struggle.

—Email[Mr Z. G. Muhammad is Srinagar based writer

and conlumnist]

SRINAGAR—Chief Minister MuftiMuhammad Sayeed has said he has not givenup his idea of “battle of ideologies” to pro-vide political space to separatists “but somepositions are unacceptable.”

“It (battle of ideologies) is there. It is anevolutionary process and my agenda won’tgo anywhere. But governance is the first pri-ority of my Government which is faced withchallenges to rehabilitate flood victims andrebuild infrastructure,” Sayeed said.

He was addressing a press conferenceat Civil Secretariat here that opened after sixmonths after Durbar shifted from Jammu toSrinagar. The Chief Minister said theGovernment’s “agenda for peace” was partof PDP-BJP’s ‘Agenda of Alliance.’

Commenting on arrest of senior sepa-ratist leader Masarat Alam, the Chief Minis-ter said his government would “provide spacefor political dissent but some positions areunacceptable.” Alam was arrested on April17 for “seditious activities” and later jailedunder Public Safety Act for allegedly rais-ing pro-Pakistan slogans and allegedly wav-ing Pakistani flags at a rally organized towelcome Hurriyat Conference (G) ChairmanSyed Ali Geelani here from New Delhi.

“When I saw Masarat Alam on TV (inthe rally)…those positions are unaccept-able,” Sayeed said. Alam’s release from jail

I will give space toseparatists: Mufti

ALI RAZA

MUZAFFARABAD—A team from the EuropeanUnion Delegation to Pakistan led by the actingEU Ambassador, Mr Stefano Gatto, met withrepresentatives of the Kashmiri civil society, theacademics and the business community hereand shared views on the current situation in AJKand discussed possible ways forward to furtherstrengthen cross-LoC people to people contacts.Representatives from AJK at meeting in-cluded: Prof. Syed Dilnawaz Ahmad Gardezi,Vice Chancellor of the University of AzadJammu and Kashmir, Ershad Mahmud, Ex-ecutive Director and Co-founder of the Cen-tre for Peace, Development and Reforms(CPDR), Sardar Amjad Yousaf Khan, Execu-tive Director Kashmir Institute of Interna-tional Relations (KIIR), Zulfiqar Abbasi,

EU team interacts withAJK civil society leaders

Joint-president of the Jammu & Kashmir JointChamber of Commerce and Industry (JK-JCCI), Tanveer Qureshi, businessman and amember of the Joint Chamber of Commerceand Industry (JCCI), Dr. Waqas Ali, authorand expert on youth affairs, Dr MohsinShakeel, medical doctor and peace activist,Raja Muhammad Wasim, Director Press forPeace, Adnan Rehman, lecturer at the depart-ment of Law, University of AJK, WaqasIdrees Mughal, Youth activist and memberCPDR’s youth core group, Sumera MehboobQureshi, Chairperson of the AJK Crisis Man-agement Organization (CMO) and Atia AnwarZoon, Kashmir Institute of International Re-lations. At the meeting, the EU Delegationreaffirmed its commitment to support peopleto people interaction and dialogue across theLoC.

27 houses guttedin Baramulla

BARAMULLA, IHK—At leasttwenty-seven houses were gut-ted and two persons were injuredin two separate incidents of blazein Baramulla and Islamabadtowns. Twenty-five houses weregutted and two persons were in-jured during a fire that broke outin densely populated MohallaJalal Sahib area of Baramullatown. Forty-six families lost theirshelter in the blaze.

The fire left scores of resi-dents, mostly from lower middleclass families, shelter-less. Manyfamilies also lost important be-longings including gold orna-ments. “I lost gold ornamentsworth lakhs of rupees. All theseitems were meant for marriage ofmy daughter. Now nothing is leftwith me, not even shelter,” saidan affectee, Abdul Ahad.—KMS

SRINAGAR—Police has cane-chargedhundreds of traders here who hit the streetsin protest against the J&K government’s“failure” to rehabilitate the Valley’s busi-ness community after the devastatingfloods in September last year.

The traders—under the banner ofKashmir Traders and Manufacturers Fed-eration (KTMF)—had called for daylongshutdown over the issue.

Several traders were injured in thepolice action, witnesses said. Shops andbusiness establishments across the Valleyremained closed, but public transport—which was exempted from the strike—plied normally.

Thousands of traders assembled atBudshahChowk here and held a demon-stration. They later tried to march towardsthe Civil Secretariat—the highest seat ofgovernance which opened in the summercapital on Tuesday after operating for sixmonths in Jammu.

However, the protest rally wasthwarted by policemen who resorted toheavy teargas shelling on the protestingtraders. The cops lathi-charged traders who

Police cane-chargeshundreds of traders

attempted to reach the secretariat and de-tained some of them, including presidentof KTMF Muhammad Yasin Khan at Po-lice Station KothiBagh, witnesses said.

Khan said the police action againstflood-hit traders “showed true face of thecoalition government.” “Mufti Governmentis best serving interests of RSS headquar-tered in Nagpur. It is worst dispensation forKashmir and its people,” he alleged.

Khan said: “Our protest was peaceful.We are demanding our rights and protest-ing against the government’s failure to re-habilitate flood-hit traders who lost every-thing to the September 2014 floods. Butinstead of mitigating the sufferings of vic-tims, the police action rubbed salt into theirwounds,” he said.

Khan said some BJP and PDP “agents”were “trying to disrupt peaceful proteststo meet their nefarious designs.” TheKTMF also condemned the police actionon media-persons who were dischargingtheir professional duties.

Khan said the government’s serious-ness towards flood victims can be gaugedfrom the fact that while it should be busy

in their rehabilitation, its top brass is “dat-ing Bollywood actors.”

“J&K’s Finance Minister who seemsleast interested in providing compensationto traders only knows the economy of im-proving Bollywood relations. But ifBollywood is his interest, he should nothave befooled people that the PDP-BJPalliance would bring economic package forKashmir,” Khan said. “The way govern-ment wants to scuttle the voice of floodvictims, it seems we are heading towards‘Muhammad Shah Rangeela regime’whose concern was only entertainment atthe cost of public miseries,” Khan said.

Khan said the KTMF would soon de-cide future course of action on the issue.“We‘ll take all concerned members onboard and decide our future program.KTMF is committed to ensure rehabilita-tion of flood-hit traders. If this governmentthinks our voices will die through its dilly-dallying tactics, it is mistaken,” Khan said.

The KTMF said 40 per cent of about35000 flood-hit traders are yet to revivetheir businesses while others are strugglingfor revival.—GK

NEW YORK; Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to UNO Dr. Maleeha Lodhi and Ex-premier AJK Barrister SultanMehmood Chaudhry in a meeting here on Wednesday.

in March this year after more than five yearsevoked strong reaction from New Delhi withUnion Home Minister Rajnath Singh de-manding strict action against him in wake ofthe rally.

“We didn’t arrest him under pressure.These were his deeds. You have to followrules,” Sayeed responded to a questionwhether his government acted under pres-sure from New Delhi to arrest Alam. Sayeedsaid the J&K Government was in the pro-cess of “finalizing source of funding” to pro-vide compensation to flood victims and re-building ravaged infrastructure.

Thousands of families who lost theirhouses in the devastating deluge last year arewaiting for compensation for the past eightmonths. A vast network of roads and otherinfrastructure that was damaged in the floodis yet to be rebuilt. Sayeed said under newly-constituted NITI Aayog, the devolution offunds under the Finance Commission awardwas a matter of right for the States includingJ&K.

“We got those funds but what we needis funding for rehabilitation of flood affectedpeople,” he said. He said the Governmentprovided a “token compensation” to unin-sured marginal traders and destitute, whowere hit by flood and assured that peoplewho suffered damage to their property and

trade at higher scale would also being com-pensated.

“We’ve already started a process forthat,” he said. J&K was hit by one of theworst-ever floods in September 2014, leav-ing 300 people dead and causing loss of prop-erty worth Rs one trillion.

Sayeed said people should have patienceto allow Government to come to their ex-pectations.

“It will take time to put system back ontrack,” he said. “The coalition Governmenthas just completed two months but somepeople talk as if we have been in power foryears. Things cannot happen overnight; ittakes time,” he said, seeking “breathingspace” for his two-month old Government.Sayeed said the “financial crunch” faced byJ&K won’t be over (soon). “They (previousgovernment) have emptied coffers. We willhave to build our own resources,” he said.

On April 27, Sayeed had said his gov-ernment inherited Rs 9000 crore liabilityfrom previous National Conference-Con-gress government. The Chief Minister alsospoke about reviving tourism to ensure live-lihood to people associated with it.

He said under new recruitment policyGovernment would fast track filling up ofvacancies in a transparent and time-boundmanner.—GK

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, the Chair-man of All Parties Hurriyet Conference,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has termed Indiangovernment’s retreat on its plan of setting upseparate townships for the Kashmiri Pandits inthe Kashmir Valley as the victory of theKashmiri people.

The APHC Chairman commenting on thedecision in an interview in Srinagar said, “Wewelcome any rehabilitation package for KashmiriPandits but no separate settlements. The Indiangovernment’s decision is a victory for people of

India admitscivilians killingsin Machil fake

encounterNEW DELHI—The Indian De-fence Ministry has admitted thatArmy headquarters has received19 cases of human rights viola-tions against troops in occupiedKashmir during the past threeyears.

In a written reply the Minis-try informed the Indian parliamentthat it had got 19 complaints per-taining to custodial killings, rape,torture and enforced disappear-ances against Army personnel inthe territory since 2012. The Min-istry said that disciplinary actionwas taken against 14 Army per-sonnel involved in Machil fakeencounter in 2010.

“Pursuant to newspaperreports about killing of inno-cent civilians in an operationlaunched in general areaKatwari Forest.—KMS

Shelving Pandits’ townshipsplan victory of people: Mirwaiz

the Valley. We will welcome Pandits like our ownbrothers. They have nothing to fear here but wewill not allow separate settlements.” Noted mem-ber of the civil society, Shakeel Qalandar, in aninterview said that the whole Kashmir was wait-ing for Kashmiri Pandits to return to their nativeareas and people of the Valley would offer themfull logistic support.

The President of Kashmir Traders andManufacturers Federation, Mohammad SadiqBaqal, said that the Kashmiri people wouldwelcome the Pandits.—KMS

SRINAGAR—The chairman of Hurriyat Confer-ence (G) SyedAli Shah Geelani was placed un-der house arrest by police last evening, his amal-gam said. A spokesman of Hurriyat said in a state-ment issued to GNS: “Mufti government has putChairman All Parties Hurriyat Conference SyedAli Geelani under house arrest from Monday

Geelani under house arrestevening and a heavy deployment of police forcehas been made around his residence,” and termedit “fascism”. Condemning the house arrest, thespokesman said: “Mufti Sayed’s slogan of “battleof Ideas” has practically come to a halt and hehas miserably failed in facing the Geelani sahibon political turf.”—KW

I think I’ve got mybusiness notionsand my sense forthat sort of thingfrom my dad. Mydad never had achance to go to

school. He couldn’tread and write. But

he was so smart.He was just one ofthose people thatcould just makethe most of any-thing and every-thing that he had

to work with.

—Dolly Parton

RABIA RASHEED

BEING sole public sector agriculture development financing institution, ZTBL(formerly Agriculture Development

Bank of Pakistan) has played its significantrole in providing the requisites leverage tothe farming community. About 50 years ear-lier, agricultural sector was not considered asa commercial sector for economic develop-ment in a large number of developing anddeveloped nations. During the last 50 yearsthis sector is realized as a major productivesector of Pakistani economy. Almost 61%population is living in more than 50,000 vil-lages in Pakistan.

According to Economic Survey 20010-11,backward agricultural sector contributes 20.9% to GDP. Its growth rate is as low as 1.2 %.Itemploys the 45.0 % of total labor force. Itscontribution to exports (Food Group) is 8.62%.At the time of partition, contribution ofagriculture sector to GNP was 60%, which

Role of ZTBL in agriculture sector for economic development of Pakistandecreased to 29.4% in 1980-81. Now its shareto GDP is 20.9% in 2010-11. Accordingly, agri-cultural sector is the major contributor toPakistan’s national income. Agriculture sec-tor provides employment to major portion ofour labor force. More than45.0% of our labor force is di-rectly involved in agriculturesector, while 66.7% of our ruralpopulation is dependent on ag-riculture. This is the major sec-tor, which provides employmentto a large portion of our popu-lation. Agriculture sector is helpful to reducethe unemployment and disguised unemploy-ment.

Role of agricultural sector in capital for-mation cannot be ignored. It increases theincomes of the people that lead to more sav-ing and more investment. Here, more invest-ment leads to rapid capital formation. Capitalformation rate in Pakistan is 5%.Total invest-ment is only 13.4% of GDP in Pakistan. This

low investment is mainly due to low incomeand low savings. Agricultural sector in-creases the income of people that caused inmore saving and more investment. Accord-ingly, agricultural sector is helpful in increas-

ing the investment.There is no direct tax on the agricultural

income. But indirectly government receives ahuge amount of tax form agricultural sector. Itimposed some duties on imported technolo-gies applied in farming. It imposes tax onchemicals etc. So agriculture sector is also asource of income for the government. TheZarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) (formerlyknown as Agricultural Development Bank of

Pakistan) is the largest public sector financialdevelopment institution in Pakisan.It servesaround half a million clients annually and hasover one million accumulated account hold-ers and a wide network in the country.

The bank offers a variety of products andservices, Agricultural Credit Schemes, Depos-its, and Loan schemes, Home remittance, Hajjapplications. It is the only institution playinga vital role by providing a combination of tech-nology along with credit for enhancing theagriculture productivity in Pakistan. The roleof the government is vital in this very impor-tant sector. The Zarai Taraqiati Bank is stillthe most important source of credit to agri-cultural entrepreneurs which needs to be re-organized and strengthened, because anyprivate entity would always be looking forother possibilities to make profits instead ofcatering the needs of the agric ZTBL is con-sidered one of the most important institutionalsources of credit for agriculture in Pakistan.The enhanced credit to the agriculture sector

if channeled through ZTBL will benefitPakistan’s economy as a whole.

It is felt that any agriculture developmenttarget or requisite policy initiatives can notbe worked upon until and unless the role ofZTBL is expanded more towards develop-ment lending. For the majority access to af-fordable rural finance services is also impor-tant to enable them to compete in the post-world trade organization scenario. Inabilityto compete because of high financial costscould reduce income of the majority of farm-ers and rural clients, particularly the smalland subsistence clients. Lack of access toaffordable rural finance services will alsoprevent the clients from sustaining to non-farm activities. The recurring financial drain, perusingthe old rural finance paradigm and the nar-rowing fiscal space have also promoted a shiftin Government strategy that now seeks vi-able intermediaries for enhancing outreach.—Email.rabiarasheed0333@yahoo.com

PRESS RELEASE

ISLAMABAD—Telenor Pakistan announcedtoday the appointment ofIrfan Wahab Khan to theposition of Deputy CEO ofthe company in addition tohis current responsibilitiesas Chief Marketing Officer.“Irfan’s loyalty and longexperience with Telenor Pa-kistan, in Asia and Europe,coupled with his strongrecord of value creationmade this the easiest of ap-pointments,” said MichaelFoley, CEO Telenor.

Irfan has been withTelenor for 11 years, starting as Executive VicePresident and Head of Corporate Affairs Divi-

Irfan Wahab appointed as DeputyCEO in Telenor Pakistan

ISE-10 Indexwitnesses bullish trendISLAMABAD—IslamabadStock Exchange wit-nessed bullish trendhere on Wednesday asthe ISE-10 index was upby 128.67 points andclosed at 3789.28 points.A total of 24,100 shareswere traded, which wereup by 15,400 shareswhen compared withprevious day’s tradingof 8,900 shares. Out of145 companies, shareprices of 84 companiesrecorded increase whileshare prices of 61companies registereddecrease whereas nocompany remainedstable in today’s trading.The Siemens PakistanEngineering remainedthe top trading companyin today’s trading withRs.37.25 per share, whilethe shares of IndusMotors was decreasedby Rs.17.31 per sharesduring the tradingsession. PakistanPetroleum, Bank ofPunjab and United Bankremained the marketleaders duringTuesday’s trading with9,700, 5,000 and 3,500shares respectively.—APP

LSE gains 58.58pointsLAHORE—Lahore StockExchange here Wednes-day witnessed bullishtrend by gaining 58.58points as the LSE Index-25 opened with 5596.91points and closed at5655.49 points. Themarket’s overall situationalso corresponded to anupward trend as itremained at 861,500shares to close againstprevious turnover of490,200 shares, showingan upward move of371,300 shares. While,out of the total 83 activescrips 20 moved up, 10shed values and 53remained equal. The topthree Major Gainers ofthe day were PakistanOil Fields Limited,Pakistan PetroleumLimited, and Oil and GasDevelopment CompanyLimited by recordingincrease in their pershare value by Rs 18.70,Rs 6.01 and Rs 5.77respectively.—APP

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—PIA has achieved a gross op-erating profit of PKR 2.83 billion in thefirst quarter of 2015 against a gross oper-ating loss of Rs.3.93 billion in the firstquarter of 2014.

With the inclusion of fuel efficient,narrow body aircraft, the airline’s opera-tions improved enabling efficiency andbetter control on fuel costs. The combinedeffect of a downward trend in fuel pricesand the impact of replacing an aging fleetwith fuel efficient aircraft resulted in al-most 49% decline in fuel costs in com-parison to the corresponding period oflast year.

PIA achieves profit ofRs 2.83b in Q1 2015

The airline is in the process of increas-ing capacity by inducting more narrowbody aircraft. Five ATR’s and two widebody aircraft on dry lease had alreadybeen initiated through a transparent andcompetitive bidding process. Two ATR72-500 have already arrived and are operat-ing. The airline now has four A320 aircraftwhile nine more will be added starting fromJune, this year.

With the dedication and commitmentof the airline’s management and employ-ees and with new fleet induction, the air-line is expected to improve its scheduleintegrity, market share and profitability inthe coming months and can look towardsgreater customer satisfaction.

ISLAMABAD: Chinese delegation called on Federal Minister for Industries & Pro-duction Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for Finance, SenatorMohammad Ishaq Dar held a meeting with Shahin AbdullaMustaffayev, Minister of Economy and Industry ofAzerbaijan, in Baku on Wednesday to boost bilateral co-operation in trade, commerce, mutual investment, energy,pharmaceutical and textiles. The two sides agreed to facili-tate and encourage businessmen from both sides to un-dertake joint ventures and value addition projects in orderto achieve quick and best results in the said fields as wellas enhance the bilateral trade between the two brotherlycountries, according to a press release issued here.

The two Ministers expressed satisfaction on the bilat-eral relations that so happily exist between Pakistan andAzerbaijan and discussed ways and means to boost bilat-eral cooperation. The Finance Minister congratulated theMinister of Economy and Industry on hosting a very suc-cessful annual meeting of the ADB Governors and wishedAzerbaijan all the success in the forthcoming mega event

Pakistan, Azerbaijan to encouragebusinessmen for joint ventures

of First Olympic Games in the country.The Finance Minister apprised the Economy Minister

about the macro- economic measures undertaken by Paki-stan, explained the development strategy and “peacefulneighborhood” policy of the government of Pakistan un-der the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad NawazSharif. The two Ministers agreed to support each other onthe Jammu and Kashmir dispute and Nogorno Karabakhconflict.

They also emphasized the need to transform excel-lent bilateral political relations into expansion of bilateralcooperation in economic, trade and investment areas be-tween the two countries. To promote bilateral businessand investment relations, Finance Minister Dar extendedan invitation to Economy and Industry Minister Shahinto visit Pakistan which he gladly accepted. Pakistan Am-bassador Khalid Usman Qaiser, Secretary (EAD)Muhammad Saleem Sethi, Azeri Ambassador, DashginShikarov and other officials of Azeri Ministry of Economyand Industry attended the meeting.

Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar meeting with ADB President Takehiko Nakao in Baku.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Twelve companies under theauspices of Trade Development Authorityof Pakistan (TDAP) are participating in Af-rica Health Expo, which is being held atGallagher Convention Centre,Johannesburg, South Africa from 5-7, May,2015. This is the largest exhibition of healthrelated products in the African Continentand has been organized annually since 2010.More than 20 countries including Germany,France, Brazil, China, India, and Turkey areparticipating at the event in addition to 400exhibitors from across the globe.

This participation is pursuant to the ‘Af-rica Plan’ of Trade Development Authority ofPakistan. Pakistani exports are increasing in

Chinese delegationvisit Ministry of

Industries &Production

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A Chinese del-egation met with Federal Min-ister for Industries & Produc-tion Ghulam Murtaza KhanJatoi at his office. The delega-tion comprised of representa-tives of a major Chinese com-pany. The delegationshowed interest in investingin generators, automobileengines and rollers, and re-quested the Minister for hissupport. The Minister as-sured them of his supportand promised the coopera-tion of his ministry. TheMinister encouraged futureinvestments of such naturefor industrial developmentin Pakistan.

Oil prices at2015 high

SINGAPORE—Oil prices ex-tended gains in Asia to tradeat 2015 highs Wednesday asfresh tensions in oil producerLibya raised concerns abouta supply disruption in theMiddle East, analysts said. USbenchmark West Texas Inter-mediate for June deliverygained 87 cents to $61.27,while Brent crude for June rose63 cents to $68.15 in afternoontrade. WTI jumped $1.47 inNew York while Brent closedup $1.12 in London. Both fin-ished at levels unseen sinceearly December.—AFP

ISLAMABAD—The country’s garments ex-ports posted 8.51 percent growth duringfirst three quarters of current financial yearas compared to the corresponding periodof last year. About 22,843 thousand dozenof ready made garments worth US$ 1.54 bil-lion were exported during from July 2014-March 2015 against 21,434 thousand doz-ens valuing US$ 1.42 billion of same periodof last financial year.

According to the data of Pakistan Bu-reau of Statistics, knitwear exports wit-nessed 7.54 percent increase and reachedat 81,650 thousand pairs against 80,310thousand dozen of same period of last year.The country earned US$ 1.791 billion byexporting the knitwear during the periodthis year and US$ 1.66 billion last year, thedata revealed.

Garments exports witness 8.51pcincrease during first three quarters

Towels exports increased by 1.75 per-cent as about 120,862 metric tons of towelsworth US$ 579.588 million were exportedagainst 123,394 metric tons valuing US$569.614 million last year. Similarly, exportsof tents, canvas and tarpaulin also regis-tered an increase of 82.01 percent to 36,466metric tons worth US$ 105.614 millionagainst 21,691 metric tons valuing US$58million last year.

However, the exports of bed wear de-creased by 2.40 percent during the periodunder review and recorded at 238,277 metrictons against 240,251 metric tons last year. Itmay be recalled that textile exports witnesseddecrease of 1.57 percent during last ninemonths as compared to same period of lastyear whereas exports of other textile materialincreased by 2.39 percent.—APP

Growing potential for Pakmed exports to Africa

the Sub-Saharan African region and this ex-hibition will further boost the exports of Paki-stani healthcare related products. Sub-Sa-haran Africa accounts for 11 percent of theworld’s population, yet bears 24% of the glo-bal disease burden. Sub-Saharan Africa’s im-proving economic performance means thedemand among all sectors of society forhealthcare is poised to increase reaching amarket value of $35 billion by 2016. This boomin demand and resultant growth has resultedin massive opportunities for people involvedin the healthcare industry. With an estimated500,000 – 650,000 hospital beds to be built inthe next decade, the resulting demand in hos-pital equipment, medical devices and phar-maceuticals in the sub-Saharan African con-tinent is poised for substantial growth.

sion at Telenor Pakistan in 2004. Since then hehas served in various Telenor Business Unitsin Asia and Europe. Since 2009, he has served

as Group Vice President De-vices and VP-Head of AsiaDistribution within the TelenorGroup in Norway and Thai-land respectively. In Bangkok,Khan was responsible for de-veloping sales and distribu-tion capabilities, organizationsystems and processes forover 1.1 million retailers within5 countries in Asia. As VPDevices with Telenor Group,he was responsible for GroupDevice Strategy, Partnershipsand Innovation, Handset

Bundles and Device Portfolio of over USD 2Billion across 11 countries.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The trade and industry hasurged the government to revive ‘no-duty,no-drawback’ scheme for five export-ori-ented industries. President Lasbela Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI),Yakoob H Karim in his proposal to theforthcomng federal budget (2015-16), sug-gested that textile exports have already de-clined due to high cost of doing businessand inordinate delays in refunding pay-ment under the heads of sales tax, rebate,etc and as a result of which exporters havebeen suffering liquidity problem.

While endorsing the proposals of FPCCI’smember-bodies he said that, on one hand,

No duty, No drawback forexport oriented industries

Pakistan’s exports were on the declining trendand on the other, competition from the com-petitors in the international markers was in-creasing. “And If this trend continues un-abated the government won’t be able toachieve its export target of $26 billion aspointed out in the new textile policy. He saidthat If sales tax was levied at the rate of 5 percent on the zero-rated sector - textile, leather,carpet, sports goods and surgical instru-ments - it would prove as a last nail in coffinof export-oriented industries. He showed hisdismay that although the country had achievedthe GSP plus status, around 40pc value addedtextile industry had already been closed,thereby causing further decline in export andcreating unemployment in the sector.

Currency Selling Buying

USA 101.60 101.40

UK 154.50 154.20

Euro 114.09 113.86

Canada 84.44 84.27

Switzerland 109.84 109.62

Australia 80.95 80.80

Sweden 12.21 12.19

Japan 0.8470 0.8454

Norway 13.45 13.42

Singapore 76.54 76.39

Denmark 15.29 15.26

Saudi Arabia 27.09 27.04

Hong Kong 13.11 13.08

Kuwait 336.56 335.90

Malaysia 28.44 28.39

Newzealand 76.07 76.92

Qatar 27.91 27.85

UAE 27.66 27.61

Kr Won 0.0941 0.0939

Thailand 3.054 3.048

Ms. Azra Jamali, Consul General of Pakistan in Montreal, Mr. Samir Dossal, Presi-dent of Canada and Pakistan Business Council, Mr. Faisal Hassan, Group CEO ofGlobal Seafood Marketing and Mr. Asghar Ali Golo, Consul General of Pakistan inToronto on the occasion of food fair.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—“One belt, One road is a paradigmof regional co-existence”, said Faisal Afridi,President Pak-China Joint Chamber of Com-merce and Industry. Afridi said that the projectfirmly focuses on the continent developmentgoals. He added that this model of shareddestiny and cooperation had a unique three-dimensional character engulfing a spirit of reci-procity, kinship and inclusiveness. FaisalAfridi declared that China would construct anew world economy that would serve gen-erations. While highlighting the significanceof “One Road, One Belt” he said that the megaproject aimed at linking China, Central Asia,Russia, and Europe, with the Persian Gulf,South East Asia, and the Indian Ocean withthe Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regionand Yunnan as starting points.

The land Corridor between China-Mongolia-Russia will be built with the Chi-nese province of Heilongjiang as a startingpoint. Starting from Kolkata, the China-India-Bangladesh-Myanmar Corridor will be built.

ISLAMABAD: Maj. Gen (Retd) Syed Shakeel Hussain, High Commissioner designateto Sri Lanka called on Federal Minister for Commerce Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan.

RAWALPINDI: MNA Malik Ibrar punching the button of the draw of motorcycle duringthe first lucky draw of Rawal Shopping Festival organized by RCCI.

KARACHI: Waseem Vohra V. President FPCCI Umar Ghauri Chairman ConsumersEye Pakistan-ECEP, presenting memento to the Commissioner Karachi Shoaib AhmedSiddiqui in 5th Consumer Products & Service Quality Conference-2015. Syed NasrullahController & Registrar of Designs IPO Pakistan and Aamir Rafi President ConsumerPakistan were also present.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—German/ Pakistan Trade Investment (GPti)organised a skype conference with representatives fromGerman firm BME, here on Monday.This preliminary conference was aimed to promote two-way trade; both import and export, between Pakistan andGermany. Many exporters and industrialists participated.

The head of BME, Olaf Holzgrete through skype linkfrom Germany said that BME is one of the largest purchas-ing associations in the world, helping buyers do a betterjob and provide training to its members. The Germanorganisation deals with 38 regions, organizes about 400 ofits own events annually, and consists of over 30 focusgroups. The firm comprises of two sections: logistics andprocurement service providers. It has more than 2,000members, who are in a position to facilitate cooperationbetween German and Pakistani businessmen.

Olaf Holzgrete said BME can provide assistance in themechanical and plant engineering, car makers and automo-tive suppliers, distribution sector, metal production andworking, service providers; electrical and electronic engi-neering, financial service providers, pharmaceutical, plas-tics, public utilities, information technology service provid-ers, construction industry, logistical service providers, print-ing and publishing; textile and leather, timber and furniture,food, tobacco and alcohol and contracting authorities.

KARACHI: Qazi Sajid Ali, Chairman of the Board, addresses on the “German Paki-stan Trade Investment” at a local hotel. Ms. Ines Chabbi, Ayaz Thaver, and DirectorGPti Mr.Qaseem Jafri, also present on the head table.

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—The Lahore Biennale Founda-tion held its first public event with the open-ing of Rashid Rana’s project My East isYour West, at Liberty Market. The “My Eastis Your West” Lahore/Venice project is acollaborative effort between Rashid Ranaand the Lahore Biennale Foundation, andwill stay open till October 2015. This projecthas been brought to the public with thesupport of HBL, Pakistan’s largest bank, inits efforts to enable the arts in the country.Rashid Rana is one of Pakistan’s leadingcontemporary artists, a pioneer in Pakistanivisual art, presenting the first large-scalepublic project of its kind in the country.

Rashid Rana’s works are featured in thisyear’s Venice Biennale, one of the world’smost prestigious art events. Part of theseworks in Venice feature a room with a videoprojection of a live feed from a mirroredspace in Liberty Market. Audiences inVenice are able to see and interact with thepublic in Lahore. The artist’s room in Lahore,an exactly replicated space, similarly allowsviewers to witness the Venice audience

Pak-German trade group arrangeskype conference

Chairman, German-Pakistan Trade and Investment (GPti)Qazi Sajjid Ali said GPTi is the recognised trade and investmentpromotion association servicing German and Pakistani indus-tries, and trade and investment related policies in close coop-eration with Pakistan and German diplomacy, and various as-sociations in Pakistan and Germany. It has formed differentexperts groups to effectively accomplish its task. He emphasisedon better supply chain and said it is very important for Pakistanto have multi-directional access up to Central Asian States andthe Middle East besides China and India.

Chief Operating Officer of GPti, Ms. Ines Chabbi andChairman of Industry Expert Group of GPti, Mr. AyazThaver, and Director GPti Mr. Qaseem Jafri also spoke ofGPTI’s role in promoting trade and investment betweenPakistan and Germany, he further induced confidenceamongst the audience by highlighting the importance oftrade financing solutions that can be readily provided tothe traders between the two countries. The skype confer-ence will help mobilize Pakistan businessmen as a firststep to move forward to participate in an exhibition andsymposium to be held at Hotel International Berlin fromNovember 11 to 13, 2015 by the BME. Ms. Mehreen Illahifrom the Women Chamber of Commerce and Industryshowed her interest in BME international trade event inBerlin in November 2015. She said the members of womenchamber would exhibit Pakistani handicrafts, textile andleather goods which have great demand in the world.

‘One Belt, One Road’ paradigmfor region: PCJCCI chief

The China-Central Asia-West Asia Corridorwill be built with Xinjiang as a starting point.An exclusive China-Pakistan Economic Cor-ridor (CPEC) will be built to connect Gwadarwith Xinjiang. He further said that China haschosen to begin the implementation of thisbig bang template with Pakistan, as both na-tions are ‘iron friends’. He described CPEC asa significant opening move on the ‘belt androad initiative’ chessboard. CPEC is, in fact, atrunk passageway connecting the Silk Roadeconomic belt in the north with the 21st-Cen-tury maritime Silk Road in the south, he added.

Faisal Afridi further elaborated thatbranches from this trunk are also expectedto connect Afghanistan, India and Iran withthe Chinese ‘belt and road’ system. Refer-ring to the recent visit of the Chinese Presi-dent to Pakistan, he said that the decisionstaken by President Xi Jinping and PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif and the signing of51 MOUs were a historic first and one thathad further consolidated relations withChina, which would bring a new era ofprogress for the people of Pakistan.

LBF connects Lahore toprestigious Venice Event

through another live feed. The project thushas broken barriers between these twopopulaces across the globe, through just asimple room.

Commenting on the event, Qudsia Rahim,Director of LBF, stated “The partnershipbetween LBF and Rashid Rana fits neatly aswe both seek to engage the public in art”Adding “We hope to initiate an alternativedialogue in the region and expand possibili-ties for artists, whilst also questioning theposition of the arts in the public domain.LBF aims to project Pakistani art as a rel-evant force in the contemporary world, andto stimulate public interest in the arts. Itserves to encourage imaginative discourse,aesthetic exploration in all forms, and to ad-vance new and old Pakistani art, on a globalas well as local stage.”

LBF is providing support to Rana’sproject from Pakistan, by offering a win-dow into Venice for audiences in Lahoreand simultaneously a window into Lahorefor audiences in Venice. The organizationwill be assisting with parallel programs andlaunch in Lahore, corresponding with au-diences in Venice.

Govt to expendFTA withSri Lanka

ISLAMABAD—Federal Min-ister for Commerce EngineerKhurram Dastgir Khan hereon Wednesday said that FreeTrade agreement (FTA) withSri Lanka would be furtherexpended to promote bilat-eral trade between both thecountries. Talking to Ambas-sador Designate to Sri LankaMajor General (R) ShakeelHussain, he said that gov-ernment was working to im-prove the trade agreementswith other countries.

The minister said thatPakistan give due impor-tance to its trade relationwith neighboring countriesadding that during the up-coming visit of Sri LankanPresident it would be dis-cussed to further enhancethe bilateral trade. He di-rected the Ambassador des-ignate for taking steps topromote cooperation be-tween the private sectors ofboth the countries and usediplomacy to improve theimage of the country.—APP

Participationof Pakistan inSIAL CanadaOBSERVER REPORTER

CANADA—With the initiativeof Mr. S.M. Muneer Chief Ex-ecutive TDAP, Pakistan offi-cially participated in SIALFOOD Canada, Toronto, oneof the biggest Food Fairs inNorth America. Nine compa-nies from Pakistan, dealing inseafood, rice, spices, bever-ages and ready-to eat meals,participated in the exhibitionand promoted Pakistani prod-ucts. The Pakistani delega-tion was managed and coor-dinated by Mr. Faisal Hassan,Group CEO of Global SeafoodMarketing. In this regard, theefforts made by TDAP werehighly lauded by stakehold-ers in Canada.

The coordination fromCanada was effectively man-aged by Ms. Azra Jamali,Consul General of Pakistanin Montreal and Mr. AsgharAli Golo, Consul General ofPakistan in Toronto. Mr.Samir Dossal- President ofCanada & Pakistan BusinessCouncil strongly supportedthe participation of Pakistanicompanies and arrangedB2B meetings with the lead-ing companies, chain storesand food marts. The Paki-stani side invited severalCanadian companies to visitPakistan and see their manu-facturing/processing set-ups.

The delegation of Paki-stan also commended theremarkable efforts made byMr. Badar R. Shamim, Chair-person and Mr. Sohail Saeed,Director- Brampton Board ofTrade/ Economic Develop-ment Office in arranging pro-ductive B2B meetings. Over-all, the Pakistani stalls at theexhibition attracted a consid-erable number of buyerswho visited not only fromNorth America but also fromthe Caribbean, CentralAmerica and other SouthAmerican countries. At thesame time, the Pakistani par-ticipants including GlobalSeafood Marketing acknowl-edged that the participationin SIAL Canada has giventhem the opportunity to tapthis important market of theworld.

ISLAMABAD—SAARC Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (SAACII) has decidedto establish relief camps at Islamabad, Lahoreand Karachi for the victims of devastatingNepal earthquake. Vice President SAACIIand Chairman United Business Group,Iftikhar Ali Malik told APP that all trade bod-ies including Federation of Pakistan Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry and Cham-bers across the country would establish re-lief camps for the collection of donationsand relief goods in the three major cities.

Malik further said that member coun-tries of SAARC would also establish reliefcamps for the victims of the Napal earth-quake in their respective countries. “Thedonations will be accepted in cash and kind,he remarked. Malik said that SAARCCI hasalready despatched a truck full of exportquality “guard rice” for the victims of Nepalearthquake. He added that for the first timein 28 years, the SAARCCI has taken thisprivate sector initiative for the earthquakevictims of a member state.

It may be mentioned here that more than7,500 people have died as a result of themagnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck Nepalon April 25. The death toll could rise stillhigher, as thousands of people remainedmissing and remote villages affected by thequake were still being reached. More than

SAARCCCI to set uprelief camps for victims

of Nepal earthquake14,500 people have been injured in the di-saster, which caused buildings to collapse,trapping people in the rubble. At least 8million people have been affected by theearthquake, and more than 2 million havebeen displaced, the United Nations said,as Voice of America reported.

Fifty-eight camps had been set up tohouse roughly 37,500 people who losthomes or had left them. In addition to see-ing injured patients and providing supplies,aid and relief groups have also aimed atpreventing outbreaks of waterborne dis-eases, such as cholera, by distributing cleanwater and water purification tablets. Still,more than a week after the quake, rescueand recovery groups were still working toreach communities in isolated areas that hadbeen cut off after roads were severely dam-aged or made impassable by landslides.

In many villages, especially those nearthe earthquake’s epicenter, nearly all thehomes had collapsed, leaving residents tospend nights in the open, sometimes in therain. The International Red Cross estimatedthat up to 90 percent of homes were de-stroyed in some communities. At govern-ment level Pakistan has also sent reliefgoods for the victims of Nepal earthquakeand established field hospitals at camps forthe treatment of the patients.—APP

Raise in salaryfor PIA

employeesSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—PIA manage-ment has made a 17 per-cent adhoc increase in thesalaries of PIA Staff andOfficers. PIA managementfulfilled a long-standingdemand for increase in sal-ary of its employees inmaking the increase, whichwill be effective from May2015. The step has beenwelcomed by PIA’s Collec-tive Bargaining Agent(CBA) and other associa-tions including the staffemployees of Pay Group1-IV and officers of PayGroup V – IX.

The President of PIA’sCollective BargainingAgent, Shamim Akmal, PIASSA, Aqeel Siddiqui, Presi-dent PIA Aircraft Tech-nologists Association,Najeeb ur Rehman, Presi-dent PACCA, NasrullahAfridi and Officebearers ofCBA and Officers’ Asso-ciations have welcomedthe increase and thankedthe Special Assistant tothe Prime Minister onAviation, Shujaat Azeem,Chairman PIA, Nasser NSJaffer and MD PIA,Shahnawaz Rehman onfulfilling the demand of in-crease in the salaries of allPIA employees. The CBAand all Officers Associa-tions have extended theirfull support to the airline’smanagement for the revivalof the airline.

ICCI for focusingon cheap energy

sources to promoteindustrialization

ISLAMABAD—IslamabadChamber of Commerce andIndustry on Wednesdaycalled upon the govern-ment to focus on energygeneration through cheapsources including hydro,nuclear and coal in orderto overcome energy crisis,reduce energy cost andpromote industrializationin the country. President,Islamabad Chamber ofCommerce and Industry,Muzzamil Hussain Sabrisaid that per unit cost ofhydro electricity genera-tion was Rs.1.5, nuclearRs.1.35 and coal Rs.3.46while cost of electricitygeneration through oil wasmore than Rs.20/perunit,said a statement is-sued here.

Sabri said that thesefacts make it imperativethat government shouldgive top priority to gener-ating electricity throughcheap sources, especiallyhydro, nuclear and coalthat will help in bringingdown cost of doing busi-ness, reducing import bill,boosting industrial activi-ties and creating plenty ofnew jobs. He said in 1990sthe share of hydropowerin total production was45% which had comedown to around 28% by2013 while share of ther-mal power had increasedto over 67%.

Muzzamil Sabristressed to reprioritize theenergy structure and givepreference to cheap en-ergy sources. He laudedthe commissioning of100MW solar power plantat Bahawalpur and govern-ment plan to increase so-lar power up to 900 MWby 2017. —APP

ISLAMABAD: A view of hockey match between Margalla and ARL clubs played in connection with Siddiq and KaleemShirazi Memorial Hockey Tournament.

HYDERABAD: President District Cricket Club giving the winning trophy of PCB Inter-District U-19 cricket tour-nament to skipper U-19 Daniyal Hussain Rajput at Niaz Stadium.

PESHAWAR—Mardan clinched thetrophy after securing 81 points withfive gold medal, four silver and onebronze medal in the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Inter-Division WomenJudo Championship played here at LalaRafique Sports Arena on Wednesday.

Director Women Games KhyberPakhtunkhwa Rashida Ghaznavi wasthe chief guest on this occasion.

Secretary Pakistan Judo Federa-tion Masood Ahmad, officials, play-ers from Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu,Kohat, Mardan, Hazara, Swat and hostPeshawar, Coordinator Peshawar Up-lift Programme were also present.

After Mardan, Peshawar with 50points with two gold, one silver andthree bronze medal got second posi-tion, followed by Swat with 40 pointswith one gold, two silver and twobronze medals. In the 36kg weightAbida of Mardan won gold medal, fol-lowed by Nadia of Peshawar, Sheebaof Dera Ismail Khan and Sana of Kohat,in the 40kg weight Asma og Peshawarwon gold medal, followed by Hanidaof Dera Ismail Khan, Saheha of Swatand Naleem of Mardan, in the 44kgweight Naida of Swat won gold medal,followed by Abida of Hazara and Aliya

Mardan win Inter-DivisionWomen Judo Championship

of Peshawar and Safina of Dera IsmailKhan, in the 48kg weight Maria ofPesahwar, Asifa of Hazara, Sunehra ofMardan and Karishma of Kohat, in the52kg weight Husna of Mardan got goldmedal, followed by Tnazila ofPeshawar, Nadia of Swat and Munezaof Hazara, in the 57kg weight Muhsinaof Mardan won gold medal, followedby Naheeda of Bannu, Muqadas ofPeshawar and Kalsoom of Hazara, inthe open weight category Aysha Qamarof Mardan took gold medal, followedby Syeda of Bannu, Robi of Dera IsmailKhan, Lal Bibi of Peshawar.

At the end, the chief guest gaveaway trophies and cash prizes.

Meanwhile, Khyber PakhtunkhwaYouth Games Football and Volleyballevents got under way here at two dif-ferent venues at Qayyum Sports Com-plex on Wednesday.

In both the events Football andVolleyball teams from Dera IsmialKhan, Bannu, Kohat, Hazara, Mardan,Swat and host Peshawar are takingpart. Before the start of the events attwo different venues, former Testcricketer Maazullah Khan gave awaycomplete uniform including track-suites to all the participating teams

from all seven regions on behalf of thePeshawar Uplift Program.

Firs the opening ceremony of thevolleyball was held wherein SecretaryPakistan Volleyball Federation ShahidKamal, Secretary KP Volleyball Asso-ciation Waqar Ahmad, District SportsOfficer Peshawar Arbab Asad, Orga-nizing Secretary Syed Saqlain Shah,Jamshed Baloch were also present.

In the Bannu defeated Dera IsmailKhan in straight sets, the score was25-20, 25-21 and 25-23 while in the sec-ond match Swat defeated Kohat by25-22, 27-25, 25-19.

In the Football event former crick-eter Anwar Zeb formally inauguratedthe Championship. Former Test crick-eter Maazullah Khan, Director SportsTariq Mehmood, Director Youth Af-fairs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ArshadHussain were also present.

In the opening match Dera IsmailKhan upset Mardan by 3-0 in a one-sided affair. Mardan struggle hard tosettle down but failed to click and thusDera Ismail Khan won the match. ForDera Ismail Khan Zaka Ullah, HarisKhan and Bilal Marwat scored onegoal each to steer the team to vic-tory.—APP

NEW DELHI—Outside Bollywood films,Sania Mirza might be the only Indian suc-cess welcomed as warmly in Pakistan andthe 28-year-old expects her doubles featsto inspire girls on both sides of the borderto pick up a tennis racquet.

Mirza has long been the face of thewomen’s game in India and her high-profilecross-border wedding to cricketer ShoaibMalik five years ago placed her in a uniqueposition.

Her rise to the top ranking in WTAdoubles was hailed in both countries,though they remain suspicious of each af-ter fighting three wars since independencein 1947.

Malik’s international career has stalledsince his last one-day match two years ago,but Mirza last month became the first In-dian to climb to the top after winning theFamily Circle Cup in Charleston, South Caro-lina, her third successive title partnered withMartina Hingis.

“It feels good,” Mirza said in an inter-view.

“Me and my husband, we live in a kindof extraordinary situation because we bothare professional athletes from differentcountries who still represent their owncountry after marriage and I don’t think thathappens very often.

“We both are very active, still playingand it’s great if it can inspire not just peoplein India and Pakistan but hopefully girlscan pick up tennis racquets in the whole

I wish to inspire girls toplay tennis: Sania

subcontinent, really think that sports canbe a career option.

“That does not come first to the headof any girl or parent ... Whether it’s India,Pakistan or anywhere in the subcontinent,I’d like to believe people hopefully will geta little inspired by this and hopefully things

change.”Once a top 30 singles player with a po-

tent forehand, Mirza was the first Indian towin a WTA singles title in 2005, but afterbattling knee and wrist injuries, feels herswitch to doubles has been vindicated.

“I ended my singles career solely forthe reason that my body was not just ableto take it anymore,” said Mirza, calling it a“surreal feeling” to top the doublesrankings.

“I had three surgeries in seven-eightyears and in those years ... it was eitherplaying doubles or not playing tennis atall. I love tennis too much to have given upon it so soon.”

Finally at peace, Mirza has set herself acouple of goals.

“It would be great to try and get recordson how long I stay there and definitely tryand win a women’s doubles grand slamwhich has not happened. I have come closeso many times even though I won mixedgrand slams. Hopefully try and end the yearat one, if not this year, next year.”—AFP

JAKARTA—FIFA has ordered the Indone-sian government to revoke its decision tofreeze all activities of the country’s footballassociation by the end of the month or facesuspension from international football.

The ultimatum was the latest twist in arow that erupted in April when the associa-tion, the PSSI, halted the country’s top-flight league due to a disagreement withthe sports ministry over the participationof two clubs.

The ministry then froze all activities ofthe PSSI, and said it was setting up a tran-sitional body as a step towards replacingthe association.

FIFA has backed the PSSI, which insistsit remains in charge of football in Indonesiaas the government has no authority, andthe world governing body’s secretary gen-eral Jerome Valcke has now demanded thatJakarta revoke its move.

In a letter cited widely by local media,Valcke said the government’s actions hadviolated FIFA rules stating that all footballassociations have to manage their affairsindependently, without influence from thirdparties.

If authorities do not comply with FIFA’sdemand by May 29, “we will have no otheroption but to refer this matter to the appro-priate FIFA body for an immediate suspen-sion”, said the letter.

FIFA threatens to suspendIndonesia amid row

The PSSI confirmed that the associa-tion had received the FIFA letter on Mon-day, and on Tuesday attempted to hand itto the sports minister, but the minister hasyet to accept it.

Association chief La Nyala Mattalittiwarned that a FIFA ban would meanIndonesia’s exclusion from competitionsincluding the Southeast Asian Games inJune and the Asian Football ConfederationCup.

Despite the suspension, PSSI soughtto restart the top-flight league, the Indone-sian Super League, at the end of April butfailed to do so after the police refused toissue match permits.

A suspension would be a huge setbackfor Indonesian football, which is only justrecovering from a long-running feud be-tween the PSSI and a breakaway associa-tion which led to the creation of two rivalleagues.

FIFA also threatened to ban Indonesiaover that row. The two sides eventuallyovercame their differences and merged,avoiding sanctions.

Weak management, corruption, poorsecurity at games, and high-profile casesof foreign players dying after going unpaidhave also cast a shadow over football inthe world’s fourth-most populous coun-try.—AFP

Athleticscamp at HCP

from 13thKARACHI—A month-longannual 34th summer athlet-ics coaching camp willcommence at the HockeyClub of Pakistan Stadiumon May 13 under the aegisof Athletic Fitness School(AFS).

The camp which is be-ing held earlier this yeardue to Ramazan concludeson June 11.

A panel of coachesheaded by former interna-tional athlete and founderof AFS, Mohammad Talib,will impart fitness and trackand field training to theparticipants includinggirls.

Those who are willing tojoin the camp have beenasked to register themselvesat the AFS from 5.00 to6.30pm daily with the excep-tion of Sunday.

Registration can also bemade at email athleticsfitnessschool@gamail.combefore May 12.

The school has beenproviding free of costcoaching to youth since1977 and has groomed thou-sand of athletes so far.—APP

LAHORE—Wazir Ali won the tripof Dubai after winning the first BookIt 247 Golf Tournament held at thehistoric Lahore Gymkhana Course.Wazir and his spouse are eligiblefor a three-day free trip to the Emir-ates.

Competitive conditions weretough indeed and even thoughplayers like Nasir Irshad, Abbas AliKhan, Mohsen Zafar, Imran Mairajand Saeed Ahmed displayed amplegolfing ability and were consistentin their shot making, they could notemerge as the superb ones of theday.

In fact, this prized status wentto Wazir who traversed the golfcourse layout, demonstrating ex-ceedingly fine shot making and

Golfer Wazir wins trip to Dubaibacked it up with classy work in andaround the greens. As a result thebirdies came with magical frequencyand his round of net 64 carried atouch of total excellence.

In the race for honours in thenet section Hassan Samiuddincame second with a score of net 65while Ali Raza Jaffrey was third witha net card of 69. Other winners towin prizes in the gross section wereMohsen Zafar (first), Abbas AliKhan (second) and Nasir Irshad(third). At the conclusion, chiefguest Rehmatullah Ghauri gaveaway the prizes. Winners of otherevents were: Invitational: FaisalSyed (gross), Shaoor Ahmed (net).

Ladies: Sameea Javed Ali(gross), Rabia Tiwana (net).—APP

KUALA LUMPUR—Malaysia have named 15-year-old shuttler Goh Jin Wei and former worldnumber one Lee Chong Wei in their badmin-ton squad for next month’s Southeast AsianGames. However, twice Olympic silver med-allist Lee will only feature in the men’s teamevent at the biennial Games for the 11-nationblock which will be held in Singapore fromJune 5-16.

Badminton Association of Malaysia(BAM) bosses said they wanted Lee, whowill return to competition on Sunday follow-ing an eight-month doping ban, to play singleselsewhere. “We’re planning to send him tothe U.S. Open (June 16-21),” BAM technicaldirector Morten Frost was quoted as sayingby The Star on Wednesday.

“There is a clash of dates and we’ve totake into account the travelling time and jetlag.” The U.S. Open will provide Lee with theopportunity to earn vital ranking points andhelp him move up from his current position of45th in the world. The 32-year-old’s lowlyranking due to his suspension has left him asthe third-rated Malaysian with the countryonly allocated two spots at the world cham-pionships in August.

World number 31 Chong Wei Feng and41st-ranked Zulfadli Zulkiffli occupy the toptwo slots but Malaysian Sports MinisterKhairy Jamaluddin said Lee should be se-lected. “I will leave it to the BAM to de-cide. I will not intervene,” Khairy said. “But

Badminton: Malaysian 15-yr-oldto join Lee at SEA Games

Chong Wei is still the best in the country.He has to be there. “We all know the rea-

son he didn’t qualify. He would have quali-fied if he had not been out of action foreight months. “But we’ve to play by therules of the game.—APP

Green-shirtsseem back ontrack: Zaheer

I S L A M A B A D — A s i a nBradman Zaheer Abbas onWednesday said the pas-sion and aggression thatwas missing in the green-shirts was seen in the sec-ond Test againstBangladesh.

Talking to APP, Abbaswhile praising Azhar Ali andYounis Khan for their su-perb innings said the win-ning will power he saw in theteam in the second test waslacking before. “In the pre-vious games I didn’t seematch winning perfor-mances,” he said.

Abbas said he don’tknow where the game planwas missing in the previousgames. “Was it the playersor the coaching staff,” hequestioned. Abbas said thecoaches are only there totrain and advise the playerswhereas it’s the players whohave to put the plan intoaction on the field.

“Youngsters should begroomed and given chancein the team,” he said addingthe Twenty-20 World Cup isnext year and we shouldstart its preparations now.

Speaking about theZimbabwe’s tour to Paki-stan, Abbas while backingthe tour urged the PakistanCricket Board (PCB) to ropein other test playing nationsimmediately after this tourends as all eyes would beset on this visit.

Abbas said theZimbabwe’s tour to Pakistanwill absolutely prove suc-cessful and will help in re-viving international cricketin the country. “PCB shouldrope in tours against theother international sides asI believe a lot of teams wouldbe interested in visiting Pa-kistan,” he said.

Abbas said this is verygood news for all our play-ers who have been desper-ately waiting to play in theirhomeland.—APP

Jubilee Insuranceannounces

Rs 200,000 forHamza Akbar

KARACHI—Jubilee Gen-eral Insurance CompanyWednesday anounced asum of Rs 200,000 fornewly crowned AsianSnooker Champion HamzaAkbar as a part support forplaying on the World Pro-fessional circuit in UnitedKingdom.

Support for HamzaAkbar was announced byTahir Ahmed, Managing Di-rector Jubilee General Insur-ance Company during hismeeting in office. JubileeInurence is also the majorsponsors for Snooker in Pa-kistan.

F a i s a l a b a d - b a s e dHamza Akbar recently wonthe Asian title by beatingformer IBSF World Cham-pion Pankaj Advani of Indiain Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)last week.

By virtue of winning theAsian title, Hamza Akbar hasqualified for the World Pro-fessional Billiards andSnooker Association(WPBSA) circuit.—APP

PESHAWAR—Peshawar, Mardan, Bannuand Swat reached Khyber PakhtunkhwaInter-District Women Table Tennis Cham-pionship, which got under way here atTariq Wadood Hall on Wednesday.

Director Sports Tariq Mehmood wasthe chief guest on this occasion whoformally inaugurated the Championship.Organizing Secretary and DirectorWomen Games Khyber PakhtunkhwaRashida Ghaznavi, players from DeraIsmail Khan, Bannu, Kohat , Mardan,Swat, Hazara and host Peshawar are tak-ing part.

In the f irst match Bannu defeatedMalakand by 3-0, Hina, Zeba andNayyab recorded victories against Iqra,Nousheen, and Tahira in straight sets,in the second match Charsadda defeatedAbbottabad by 3-0, in the first singles

Peshawar, Mardan, Bannu, Swatreach Women TT semi-finals

Sana of Charsadda beat Iqra ofAbbottabad by 3-0, the score was 11-8,11-7 and 11-9, in the second singlesRoheena of Charsadda beat Muniza ofAbbottabad by 3-1, the score was 10-13,11-9, 11-7, 11-7.

In the third match Irum of Charsaddabeat Tanzila of Abbottabad by 3-0, thescore was 11-7, 11-8 and 11-6. In the thirdmatch Mardan defeated Swabi by 3-0, inthe first singles Neelam of Mardan beatSabrina of Swat by 3-0, the score was11-9, 11-7 and 11-7, in the second singlesAysha Qamar of Mardan beat Seemab ofSwabi by 3-0, the score was 13-10, 11-9,11-7 and 11-7 and in the last singlesJaveria of Mardan beat Lubna of Swabiby 3-2, the score was 13-10, 10-13, 7-11,11-9 and 11-6. The semi-finals will beplayed on Thursday.—APP

Bipin DaniOBSERVER CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Bangladesh right-handed fastbowler Shahadat Hossain has “serious”injury, according to team doctorDebashish Chaudhary.

Speaking exclusively over his mobilefrom Shere Bangla National Stadium,Mirpur, the doctor says, “Shahadat’s in-jury is “serious” not in terms as life-threat-ening but his MRI report (done at ApolloHospital) indicates he has ligaments me-niscus”.

Shahadat Hossain is considered to bethe fastest bowler in his country. “Notonly he will be able to bowl in this Testbut he may miss the matches against In-dia next month too”.

The bowler twisted his right knee dur-ing the lunch break on the first day againstPakistan on Wednesday.

Shahadat Hossain has ‘serious’ kneeinjury, may be out for months

While having some bowling some prac-tice during the lunch interval he fell overand had to be stretchered off the ground.

“If he needs surgical intervention, thebowler may be out of the game for nearlyfive months”.

“The team management will decidewhether he can be sent to bat”, Dr.Chaudhary added.

“The medical team will assess himafter 2-3 days and then decide whetherto treat him conservatively or surgically.At present he has been advised to rest.Let the pain in his knee subsidies andtill then he has been kept under obser-vation”.

“It will be the decision of theBangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) whetherto send him overseas for the surgery. ButI can make it clear we also have the bestsurgical treatment in Bangladesh for suchinjuries”.

DHAKA—Younis Khan and AzharAli hit centuries as Pakistan capit-alised on Bangladesh’s misfortuneto post a commanding 323 for threeon the opening day of the secondand final Test on Wednesday.

Younis made 148 and Azhar wasunbeaten on 127, the pair havingshared a third-wicket stand of 250to rescue the tourists from 58-2 af-ter Bangladesh captain MushfiqurRahim won the toss and elected to

field in Dhaka.Both batsmen were lucky to

reach three figures after being re-prieved by no-balls even asBangladesh struggled to overcomethe loss of strike bowler ShahadatHossain in the day’s first over.

Shahadat, who replaced the in-jured Rubel Hossain for the deci-sive Test, collapsed on his followthrough after sending down the first

2nd Test: Younis, Azharhammer luckless Bangladesh

ball and hobbled off the field afterhis second delivery.

Shahadat returned after themorning drinks break, and eventhough he did not bowl for the restof the session, he took a catch inthe deep to dismiss Sami Aslam.

However, Shahadat succumbedto injury again while training dur-ing the lunch break and had to belifted away on a stretcher.

Chief selector Faruque Ahmed

said the 28-year-old seamer had in-jured his right knee and was unlikelyto take any further part in the match.

Left with a depleted attack,Bangladesh used nine bowlers totry to contain the run flow, withRahim and Tamim Iqbal the onlyones who did not turn their armsover.

Part-time seamer Soumya Sarkar

would have dismissed Younis on 78,caught in the covers from amistimed drive, but TV replaysshowed the bowler had oversteppedto concede a no-ball.

Similarly, Azhar escaped on 18when he was caught in the slips offMohammad Shahid, only to see TVumpire Ranmore Martinesz confirma no-ball.

Azhar’s dismissal at the stagewould have reduced Pakistan to 38-

2 after Bangladesh had removed oneof the openers cheaply.

Mohammad Hafeez, who hit adouble-century in the drawn firstTest in Khulna, was caught behindoff Shahid for eight.

Left-arm spinner Taijul Islamhad Sami Aslam caught byShahadat on the mid-wicket bound-ary for 19, but Younis and Azhar

settled in to tame the depleted at-tack.

“I love to score for my team,”said Younis, the 37-year-old veteranof 98 Tests, who hit 11 boundariesand three sixes in his 29th Test cen-tury.

“When the team is under pres-sure and needs me, it feels nice toget a century because it is goodboth for me and the team.

“Partnerships are always thekey. Azhar and I got together andhad a big one today. But we need tokeep up the good work tomorrowalso,” he said.

Azhar, who reached his eighthhundred by lofting Taijul for his 10thfour, added three more boundariesbefore stumps.

Younis was dismissed by thehard-working Shahid five overs be-fore stumps when he slashed ashort ball to gully, where ShuvagataHom made no mistake.

Captain Misbah-ul Haq wasunbeaten on nine at stumps withPakistan well-placed to build a hugetotal and put the hosts under pres-sure.

Shahid, who took two of thethree wickets, rued the injury toteam-mate Shahadat, saying theoutcome may have been different ifhe had been bowling at the otherend. “This is definitely a pacebowler’s wicket,” he said. “Therewas grass on the pitch, there wasmovement and we were getting alot out of it. “I wish Shahadat wasaround to bowl. Hopefully thingswill work out better for us tomor-row.”—AFP

Pakistan 1st innings:Hafeez c Rahim b Shahid ....... 8Sami c Shahadat b Taijul ...... 19Azhar Ali not out ................ 127Younis Khan b Shahid ....... 148Misbah not out ....................... 9Extras: (lb6, w1, nb5) ............. 12Total: (for 3 wickets) ........... 323Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-58, 3-308Bowling: ................... O-M-R-WShahadat ..................... 0.2-0-4-0Soumya .................... 11.4-1-32-0Shahid ......................... 21-6-43-2Taijul ......................... 30-2-102-1Shuvagata .................... 8-0-47-0Shakib ......................... 14-0-68-0Mominul ......................... 2-0-8-0Mahmudullah .............. 2-0-12-0Imrul ................................ 1-0-1-0

MIRPUR: Azhar Ali and Younis Khan put on 250 runs for the third wicket during Bangladesh vs Pakistan,2nd Test’s 1st day on Wednesday.

LAHORE—Zimbabwe will be the first Test-playing nation to tour Pakistan since the2009 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankancricket team in Lahore.

Alistair Campbell — ZimbabweCricket’s (ZC) managing director —headed a security delegation to Pakistanto assess the security situation in Lahoreon Wednesday and expressed satisfactionover the arrangements in place by the Pa-kistan Cricket Board (PCB).

“Zimbabwe has succeeded in reviv-ing international cricket in Pakistan,” saidCampbell, adding that “we are touring Pa-kistan as a measure of establishing bilat-eral relations between us and them”.

“We start here in Lahore and will hope-

fully come back again and play in othercities as well. We hope to build good rela-tions with Pakistan,” said Campbell.

All three One-Day Internationals andtwo Twenty20 Internationals will takeplace at the Qaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Zimbabwe Cricket Chairman WilsonManase had already confirmed the touron April 30.

Zimbabwe security delegationclears Pakistan tour

LAHORE: Managing Director Zimbabwe Cricket Alistair Campbell talking to medidapersons about security arrangements for upcoming Pakistan and Zimbabwe CricketSeries during their visit at Qaddafi Cricket Stadium.

According to the Zimbabwe cricketchief, the decision to tour Pakistan wastaken only after security fears of the play-ers and their families were allayed.

“We had a duty to ensure that the play-ers, parents of the players, and govern-ment through the Sports and RecreationCommission (SRC) were on board beforeannouncing,” Manase said of the tour.

“We have taken cognisance of all thefactors for us to arrive at this decision, solet’s not be alarmist about the situation inPakistan,” he added.

Since the deadly attack on the SriLankan team in Lahore in 2009, only non-Test-playing Kenya and Associates Af-ghanistan have visited Pakistan.

Pakistan and Zimbabwe last faced offin Zimbabwe two years ago with thencoach Dav Whatmore at the helm.

Whatmore has now taken that positionwith Zimbabwe and it is being speculatedthat the 61-year-old may have played a rolein convincing Zimbabwe Cricket about thesecurity situation in Pakistan.—APP

SEOUL—American ski queen Lindsey Vonnducked questions Wednesday about hersplit from Tiger Woods and said she wasfirmly focused on reclaiming her Olympicdownhill crown at the 2018 PyeongchangWinter Games.

The 2010 downhill goldmedallist and the formerworld number one golferhad become the goldencouple of American sportafter meeting at a charityevent in 2012.

But Vonn announcedtheir split on Sunday in astatement on her Facebookpage, citing hectic and in-compatible schedules.

“I don’t really want totalk about my personal life,”Vonn said when asked aboutthe rift with Woods during apress briefing in the SouthKorean capital, Seoul.

“I think I said everythingin my Facebook post. I willjust leave it at that,” sheadded.

The 30-year-old skierwas in Seoul for her formalappointment as an honoraryambassador for the 2018Games in the South Koreanresort of Pyeongchang.

Vonn was forced to sitout the 2014 Winter Games

Vonn brushes off Woodssplit, targets gold

in Sochi with a serious knee injury, butstormed back to form last season, whichshe crowned with back-to-back crystalglobes in the World Cup downhill and su-per-G.—AFP

American ski queen Lindsey Vonn ducked questions onWednesday about her split from Tiger Woods.

MADRID—Holder Maria Sharapovaneeded more than two and a halfhours of battle to see off a challengefrom Frenchwoman Caroline Garciaon Wednesday, with the third seedfinally posting a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 win toadvance to the quarter-finals of theMadrid Masters.

Sharapova ended the dramaticthird-round match with an ace, whichhad to be confirmed from the chair.

The 28th-ranked Garcia, clearlypeeved to have missed her chanceagainst the five-time Grand Slam win-ner, gave an abbreviated “drive-by”handshake as the players met for afew quick seconds at the net, follow-ing protocol in name only.

Sharapova is fighting to regainthe number two WTA ranking thatshe lost last month with an early de-feat in Stuttgart and needs to reachthe final to have a chance of stand-ing second again behind Serena Wil-liams.

The scenario opened up at theweekend when second seed and 2014

MADRID: Maria Sharapova serves against Caroline Garcia during Madrid Open ten-nis tournament match on Wednesday.

Sharapova survives to oust Garcia in Madridlosing finalist Simona Halep lost inher opening match at the CajaMagica.

Garcia reached the quarter-finalshere a year ago as a qualifier and beatnumber 13 Karolina Pliskova in thesecond round this week to earn herspot against Sharapova.

Sharapova is also building for herRoland Garros title defence after beat-ing Halep for the title in Paris lastJune.

The Russian started 2015 by win-ning 17 of her first 18 matches in 2015,but came to Madrid having lost threein a row.

She has now won 57 of her last 62matches on clay as she waits to playeither fifth seed Caroline Wozniackiof number nine AgnieszkaRadwanska in the quarters.

Sharapova produced a dozenaces to 10 for her opponent, break-ing Garcia five times and losing herown serve on three occasions.

Two-time Wimbledon winnerPetra Kvitova, the fourth seed, ad-

vanced with ease over RussianAnastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-4with the Czech confirming that herclay gave is still not where she wantsit.

Romanian Irina Begu beat BarboraStrycova 6-4, 6-4 to next take onKvitova.

“I’m glad that I played better thanyesterday for sure,” said Kvitova,who took an extended break form thesport in recent weeks to ward offburnout and fatigue. “I played moreaggressive than yesterday, that wasimportant.

“If I had not, I think she wouldhave smashed me.

“It’s still taking some time to getto know each other well, and then wecan start dating,” the Czech jokedabout her “reacquaintance” with clay.

“I’m glad everything went well. Iserved well and the last game was re-ally important. I didn’t expect that Igoing to play three, four matches herebefore the tournament, so I’m reallyglad to still be in.”—AFP

Mourinho toextend

Chelsea dealLONDON—Chelsea man-ager Jose Mourinho has

verbally agreed a two-yearextension to his currentcontract, according to re-ports in the British media onWednesday. Mourinho, 52,returned to Chelsea in 2013on a four-year contract andthis season has led the clubto the Premier League title—their first since 2010—andthe League Cup.

During his first spell atStamford Bridge, between2004 and 2007, he won twoleague titles, in 2005 and2006, as well as two LeagueCups and one FA Cup.Mourinho is already thebest-paid manager in En-gland, with a reported annualsalary of #8.4 million ($12.75million, 11.4 million euros),and British tabloid The Sunreported that his new dealwould be worth around#10.5 million per year.

Speaking after Chelseasecured the league title witha 1-0 win over Crystal Pal-ace on Sunday, Mourinhoreiterated that he will stayat the club as long as ownerRoman Abramovich wantshim to remain.—AFP

Olympics: Fivecities ‘interested’

in hosting2024 Games

LAUSANNE—Five cities -Boston, Hamburg, Rome,Paris and Budapest - “areinterested” in hosting the2024 Olympic Games, IOCexecutive directorChristophe Dubi disclosedon Tuesday.

Cities have until Septem-ber 15 to enter bids and theInternational Olympic Com-mittee will make a decisionin mid-2017.

Paris is close to enteringan intense Olympic battle,the French capital that lostout to London for the 2012Games has only to officialiseits candidature after back-ing from the Paris City Hallin April.—AFP

SSP Central Asad addressing a press conference at his office on law and order in the city.—INP

American kids are eating a lot of pizza- what are the health implications?

WE ALL LOVE PIZZA. No one likesto hear anything bad about pizza. Butit might be wise to keep an eye on

your kids’ intake of this delicious circular mealif the results of a new study published in thejournal Paediatrics are to bebelieved. The study showsthat on the days that they eatpizza, children consume sig-nificantly more calories, fatand sodium than on pizza-freedays. Pizza is the second high-est source of energy in the dietof American youths.

If anyone needed proof ofAmerican youths’ love forpizza, the fact that pizza is thesecond highest source of en-ergy in their diet might be it.The new study adds that about20% of youths eat pizza onany given day in the US.Given that this foodstuff isconsumed so hungrily and fre-quently, close attention needsto be paid to its nutritionalcontent.

The researchers behind the new study,from the Health Policy Centre at the Instituteof Health Research and Policy at the Univer-sity of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), examineddietary recall data from children and adoles-cents aged 2-19 who took part in the NationalHealth and Nutrition Examination Survey be-tween 2003 and 2010.

The data show that caloric intake frompizza among children between the ages of 2and 11 dropped by 25% during the study pe-riod. Also, among adolescents, despite a slightincrease in prevalence of pizza consumptionin this age group, there was a fall in calorie

intake from pizza. However, during 2009-10,pizza made up 22% of the total calorie intakeamong children and 26% of adolescents’ calo-rie intake on the days when it was eaten.

Children took in an additional 84 calories,3 g of saturated fat and 134mg of sodium on days thatthey ate pizza, compared withpizza-free days. For adoles-cents, pizza days meant anextra 230 calories, 5 g of satu-rated fat and 484 mg of so-dium - 24% and 21% of theirrecommended daily intakefor fat and sodium, respec-tively. The biggest impactpizza had on diet, the studyfound, was when it was eatenas a snack between meals.When eating pizza as a snack,children took in an additional202 calories and adolescentsan extra 365 calories.

“Children and adoles-cents do not adequately com-pensate by eating less of other

foods on days when they eat pizza,” commentslead author Lisa Powell, who is professor ofhealth policy and administration in the UICSchool of Public Health. Looking at children’sand adolescents’ pizza-eating behaviours inmore detail, the study found that from 2003-10, calories from eating pizza at dinner fell,though there was no change in calorie intakefrom pizza consumption at lunch and fromschool cafeterias.

Also, calorie intake from school cafeteriaswas approximately the same on days in whichpizza was and was not eaten. The researchersthink this is because school cafeteria food thatis not pizza is similarly high in calories.

Ambassador of the Netherlands, Marcel de Vink, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and Agha Siraj Durrani cutting a cake to celebratebirthday of King Willem Alexander at a ceremony. Honorary Consul General and Mrs Adeela Tarek Khan and MirzaIkhtiar Baig are also present on the occasion.—PO photo by Arif

SALAHUDDIN HAIDER

KARACHI—It was a fantastic eveningat the spacious grand ballroom of a lo-cal hotel in Karachi, where the birthdayof King Willem Alexander of Nether-lands was celebrated Tuesday night.

A reception, flowing with galaxy ofpeople was arranged by the Honoraryconsul general of the country TarekKhan and wife Adeela.

The Dutch Ambassador to PakistanMarcel De Vink, and several of his keyfunctionaries had flown from Islamabadto add charm to the occasion.

Birthday of King WillemAlexander of

Netherlands celebratedSindh’s senior minister Nisar Khuhro,

the ambassador and the honorary consulgeneral delivered speeches, expressingkeenness of the two countries to promotebilateral relations in different fields.

Guests included the US diplomat,Chad, dealing with political affairs, Ger-man and Russian consul generals, Dr TinoKlinner, and Avedeev Oleg, the Indone-sian counterpart Hadi Santoso,Karachichamber of commerce and industry chiefIftikhar Vohra, former KCCI presidentMian Abrar, elite businessmen like KaleemFarooqui, Aziz Memon, Majyed Azeez,former Chile honorary consul general

Anwar Saleh Mohammad, President ofthe Pak-Belgium Business Forum,Mohammad Rajpar and many more.

A slide show, and movie was shownabout the King and his queen wife, withhis people.

Holland is a lovely country with richcultural heritage. Just across the EnglishChannel. Its major cities are Amsterdam,and Rotterdam, but Den Hag is the capi-tal, quiet and serene but lavish in lifestyle.

Tarek Khan and his wife were awonderful hosts and took great care oftheir worthy guests.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Minister for infor-mation and Local government SharjeelInnam Memon said the shedding ofpower load on water pumping stationsby the Karachi Electric (KE) was a tac-tic to create chaos and to damage thepeace and tranquillity in the port cityof Karachi. The KE had by commenc-ing to shed load on water pumping sta-tions violated the law. KE had commit-ted contempt to court.

He said the Supreme Court of Pa-kistan had already given its verdict in

Water crisis

Sharjeel Memon warns K-Electric overload shedding resulting in water shortage

Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’sfavour. The disconnection of electric-ity supply to the pumping stations orshedding load on water pumping sta-tions would thus be a sheer act of con-tempt to court. He said that the SindhGovernment had already settled all theoutstanding dues to the KE from July2014 to April 2015, which amountedto Rs.4.41 billion. Henceforth, therewere no outstanding dues payable tothe KE.

The Minister demanded the KE toimmediately stop shedding the powerload on water pumping stations or the

Sindh government would not spare any-thing regarding stern action against theKE. The Minister said the load shed-ding on water pumping stations hadworsened the water crisis in the city,which had bitterly tormented the city’spopulation.

He warned the KE would be solelyresponsible for any untoward scenarioin the city particularly in case of publicagitation owing to water paucity, whichwas only because of KE. The Ministerwarned the KE management to imme-diately stop shedding the load on waterpumping stations and keep it in a right

direction failing which the Sindh Gov-ernment would be constrained to ini-tiate legal action against the KE.

Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) General Secretary Syed NajmiAlam, Vice President Izhar Ul HaqueHassan Zai, Vice President HabibHassan Balouch and acting InformationSyed Manzoor Abbas while expressingserious concern on shedding of load onwater pumping station by the KarachiElectric said the act of shedding loadon water pumping stations was tanta-mount to enmity with the beloved coun-try Pakistan.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Board of Interme-diate Education Karachi’s high-powered vigilance team contin-ued to paying surprise visits at

Certificates to be given to honest officials

BIEK vigilance teams payingsurprise visit to examination centres

the examination centres to ensurethe fool proof mechanism forcurbing the use of unfair meansby the candidates in examina-tions was implemented in letterand spirit.

In this regard, the vigilanceteam under the leadership ofBIEK Chairman Prof. AnwarAhmed Zai had along with theBIEK Controller of Examina-tions Muhammad Imran KhanChishti, Secretary ArshadHussain Qazi, Director GeneralColleges Dr Nasir Ansar, Direc-tor General Private Institutions

and Private Schools Dr MansoobAhmed Siddiqui had on Wednes-day visited Govt Ship-ownersCollege in N Nazimabad.

The Team had found the lo-cal management of the examina-tion centre had applied satisfac-tory measures with feasible ar-rangements on which the teamlaude the Principal of the collegeDr Salahuddin Sani and his col-leagues. The local managementhad installed close circuit videosurveillance system to preventuse of unfair means by the can-didates and catching any candi-

date if found involved in anyunlawful act.

The team had also visitedother academic institutions, Gov-ernment Boys Islamia Arts Col-lege, Government Boys IslamiaScience College and Govern-ment SMB Fatima Girls College.Earlier, the team paid surprisevisits at the Government GirlsDegree College, Saudabad, GovtLiaquat Girls Degree College,Government Boys Degree Col-lege, Saudabad and Jamia MilliaGovernment Degree College,Malir.

The BIEK Chairman andhead of the high-powered vigi-lance team, Prof. Anwar AhmedZaid while appreciating the col-lective efforts of the team and thelocal management of the exami-nation centres announced theBIEK would present certificatesof appreciation and shields to theheads of examination centres,which had diligently worked forthe conditioning of fair and trans-parent annual examinations andplayed their dynamic role in theprevention of use of unfair meansin examinations.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Board of Intermediate Edu-cation Karachi Controller of ExaminationsMuhammad Imran Khan Chishti has in hisfresh advice to the candidates interested to

Today last date for forms submissionappear in annual exams-2015 for CommerceGroup (regular and private) to submit theirexams form till May 7, which is the last day.

The CE has warned that the BIEK hadextended forms submission dates earlierand in this regard, the May 7 is the last

after no new date would be given for sub-mitting exams forms. He said the candi-dates interested in appearing in annualexams should not waste this final oppor-tunity otherwise no exams forms wouldbe acceptable under any circumstances.

Irfan Aligi

KARACHI—Keeping in view of the deterio-rated law and order in the metropolis, the pro-vincial government of Sindh had approved es-tablishment of Southern Headquarters of theFrontier Constabulary (FC) in Sindh on per-manent basis.

In this regard, the FC headquarters would

Frontier ConstabularyHQ to be set up at Gadap

be set up on a 10-acre land at Deh Jhaddo inGadap Town in the periphery of the metropolis.The Sindh Finance Department had waved offcost of 10-acre land allocated for the FC head-quarters.

Earlier, the FC District Officer had writtento the Sindh Home department for the allotmentof 10-acre land at the earliest. The issue of FCheadquarters in Karachi was pending since 1996.

CITY REPORTER

KARACHI—The Karachi administrationhas decided in principle to initiate a crack-down against drivers of heavy and longsized, commercially run vehicles founddevoid of specified driving licenses andtraining certificates.

Chairing a meeting on Wednesday, Com-missioner Karachi, Shoaib Ahmad Siddiquiurged the associations of public transportersas well as those of heavy and long sized ve-hicles to ensure that drivers hired by theirmembers are not only properly trained butmust necessarily hold driving licenses speci-fied for commercial vehicles.

Addressing participants of the meeting,that also included officials from traffic po-lice and transport departments, he said allconcerned drivers alongwith members of re-spective associations would from now on-wards be held equally responsible for thewrong committed by their staffers.

The Commissioner said while seeking fa-

City administration toinitiate crackdown on

heavy vehiclescilities and concessions from the administra-tion the owners of tankers and trailers as wellas trucks and buses must also realise their re-sponsibilities towards public lives and prop-erty.

He said recent instances of road accidentsmainly caused due to non-compliance of traf-fic rules by the drivers are simply not accept-able to the administration and that strict ac-tion would be ensured against the culprits.Commissioner Karachi said that there existsa proper set of laws that needed to be imple-mented in due letter and spirit by the relevantstakeholders.

On the occasion, Chairman, KarachiTransport Ittehad and office bearers of variedother transport bodies, expressing their regretwith regard to surge in the instances of mis-haps leading to loss of precious lives assuredto play their role in addressing the situation.

They assured the Karachi administrationthat drivers hired by them alongwith support-ing staff would be compelled to follow traf-fic rules.

PU VC Dr Mujahid Kamran addressing seminar on Maulana Hali and Maulana Shibli.

American kids are eating a lot of pizza- what are the health implications?

WE ALL LOVE PIZZA. No one likesto hear anything bad about pizza. Butit might be wise to keep an eye on

your kids’ intake of this delicious circular mealif the results of a new study published in thejournal Paediatrics are to bebelieved. The study showsthat on the days that they eatpizza, children consume sig-nificantly more calories, fatand sodium than on pizza-freedays. Pizza is the second high-est source of energy in the dietof American youths.

If anyone needed proof ofAmerican youths’ love forpizza, the fact that pizza is thesecond highest source of en-ergy in their diet might be it.The new study adds that about20% of youths eat pizza onany given day in the US.Given that this foodstuff isconsumed so hungrily and fre-quently, close attention needsto be paid to its nutritionalcontent.

The researchers behind the new study,from the Health Policy Centre at the Instituteof Health Research and Policy at the Univer-sity of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), examineddietary recall data from children and adoles-cents aged 2-19 who took part in the NationalHealth and Nutrition Examination Survey be-tween 2003 and 2010.

The data show that caloric intake frompizza among children between the ages of 2and 11 dropped by 25% during the study pe-riod. Also, among adolescents, despite a slightincrease in prevalence of pizza consumptionin this age group, there was a fall in calorie

intake from pizza. However, during 2009-10,pizza made up 22% of the total calorie intakeamong children and 26% of adolescents’ calo-rie intake on the days when it was eaten.

Children took in an additional 84 calories,3 g of saturated fat and 134mg of sodium on days thatthey ate pizza, compared withpizza-free days. For adoles-cents, pizza days meant anextra 230 calories, 5 g of satu-rated fat and 484 mg of so-dium - 24% and 21% of theirrecommended daily intakefor fat and sodium, respec-tively. The biggest impactpizza had on diet, the studyfound, was when it was eatenas a snack between meals.When eating pizza as a snack,children took in an additional202 calories and adolescentsan extra 365 calories.

“Children and adoles-cents do not adequately com-pensate by eating less of other

foods on days when they eat pizza,” commentslead author Lisa Powell, who is professor ofhealth policy and administration in the UICSchool of Public Health. Looking at children’sand adolescents’ pizza-eating behaviours inmore detail, the study found that from 2003-10, calories from eating pizza at dinner fell,though there was no change in calorie intakefrom pizza consumption at lunch and fromschool cafeterias.

Also, calorie intake from school cafeteriaswas approximately the same on days in whichpizza was and was not eaten. The researchersthink this is because school cafeteria food thatis not pizza is similarly high in calories.

Wapda workers hold a protest in favour of their demands outside Punjab Assembly.—DNA

An overloaded passenger bus, may result in on accident.—DNA

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The first foreign student fromIslamic Republic of Iran Ms.Hosseinisasab Sadatalshariyeh has com-pleted her PhD from the Department ofArchitecture, University of Engineeringand Technology (UET) Lahore on thesubject of Analysed the Different Con-servation Approaches for the Revitaliza-tion of Iranian Cities under the supervi-sion of Prof. Dr. Neelum Naz, Chairper-son Department of Architecture, and Prof.Dr. Ghulam Abbas Anjum, Dean Facultyof Architecture & City and Regional Plan-

First Iranian woman getsPhD degree from UET

ning.Ms. Hosseininasab Sadatalshariyeh

is the 1st international candidate whohas completed her PhD from UET,Lahore. A public defence/viva voce ofher doctoral thesis was held on Wednes-day at UET. The title of her thesis is“Analytical Study of Different Ap-proaches to the Revitalization of Ira-nian Historic City Centres” Case Study,Yazd, Iran”

Her thesis was evaluated by threeforeign examiners, two from USA, onefrom Netherland, and one local exam-iner. All the examiners gave excellent

remarks and appreciated the researchwork done by the researcher. Firsttime in the history of UET, Lahore,the Vice-Chancellor UET, LahoreProf. Dr. Fazal Ahmed Khalid, hasattended a public defence/viva voceof doctoral thesis and appreciate onher excellent research work, on thisoccasion Faculty members and alarge number of M.Phil, and PhD stu-dents attended the public defence.Ms. Hosseininasab Sadatalshariyehpresented an excellent presentationregarding the research work and an-swered the questions of the audience.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Advisor to ChiefMinister Punjab on Health Kh.Salman Rafique presided over ameeting of Cabinet Committee onDengue at Civil Secretariat, hereWednesday.

Besides elected public repre-sentatives, Additional Chief Sec-retary Syed Mubashar Raza andsenior officers of all concerned de-partments attended the meetingwhile Commissioners, DCOs andEDOs Health of Gujranwala,Faisalabad and Rawalpindi Divi-sions participated in the meetingthrough video link and apprisedthe meeting of the indoor and out-door dengue surveillance activi-ties and other steps taken for con-trolling dengue in their respectivedivisions.

The senior officers of differ-ent departments including Auqaf,Information, Zakat & Usher, Ag-

Dengue larvae reportedfrom ten different places

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Accidents and EmergencyDepartment of Jinnah Hospital will beexpanded with the financial assistanceof Sakeena Nazli Tribute. The estimatedcost of construction of new emergencyblock is about 50 million rupees whereasold graduates of Allama Iqbal MedicalCollege in USA will provide medicalequipments worth Rs. 30.5 million forthe new block. This extension will ac-commodate another 120 beds for the pa-tients.

In this connection, a ceremony washeld at Allama Iqbal Medical College,

Accidents and EmergencyDepartment of Jinnah

Hospital being expanded

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Punjab University ViceChancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamranhas said that Maulana Altaf HussainHali and Maulana Shibli Naumani arebig names of Urdu literature and theirteachings and thoughts must be pro-moted among the young generation.

He was addressing a seminar orga-

Hali, Shibli teachingsto be promoted: PU VC

nized by PU Department of Urdu atSherani Hall here on Wednesday. Re-nowned intellectual Intzaar Hussain,Prof Dr Khawaja Muhammad ZakriaDean Oriental Learning Prof DrIsmatullah Zahid, Chairman Depart-ment of Urdu Dr Muhammad Kamran,faculty members and a large number ofrenowned writers and students werepresent on the occasion.

In his address, Dr Mujahid Kamransaid that people learnt a lot from theactivities of Oriental College and thepresence of Mr Intzaar Hussain in theseminar was a source of honor. In hisaddress, Mr Intzaar Hussain said thatMaulana Altaf Hussain Hali andMaulana Shibli Naumani laid founda-tion stone of critique in Urdu literatureand it was their great service for devel-

opment of Urdu literature.They said that such activities must

be organized to create awareness re-garding teachings of Maulana Haali andShibli among the people. Presenting hisresearch paper, Prof Dr KhawajaMuhammad Zakria said that there wasno match of Maulana Hali who couldwrite very well both in prose and po-etry. He said that it was difficult to de-

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The sustained reforms initiated bythe Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) inschool education sector have produced long-last-ing effects to ensure that no child is left unat-tended. As a result of these reforms, the foun-dation has emerged as a strong hope for the un-attended children by opening the doors ofschools to them. This has also helped in pro-moting girls-education at the grassroots.

Managing Director PEF, Dr. Aneela Salmansaid this while presiding over a departmentalmeeting at her office on Wednesday. Deputy MDSalman Anwar Malik as well as program direc-tors attended the meeting.

The meeting reviewed in detail the pace ofdevelopment on different PEF sponsored freeeducational programs and expressed the hopethat these useful interventions will help toachieve 100 percent literacy. The meeting was

PEF shouldering freeeducation of 1.6

million needy studentstold that the foundation is strenuously engagedin partnering new low-cost private schools un-der its free education programs and the totalnumber of newly partnered schools in the Punjabwill exceed to 1500 this academic year alone.

Currently, PEF has arranged free schoolingof more than 1.6 million most deserving maleand female students in 36 districts of the prov-ince through its four thousand partner schools.She told that PEF is going to launch ‘schoolsimprovement program’ for the needy partnerswhich need some sort of academic support toimprove the quality of education.

This beneficial program will also guide andhelp the needy partners to improve their perfor-mance in annually held Quality Assurance Tests(QATs). A total of one hundred partner schools fromdifferent districts have been short-listed to attendthis free program which will commence from nextweek under the aegis of Continuous ProfessionalDevelopment Program (CPDP) of the foundation.

riculture, Housing Urban Devel-opment, Cooperatives, Fisheries,Education, Local Government,Environment, Social Welfare,Labour, Transport, Pakistan Rail-ways, Cantonment Board,WASA, Police, Punjab Informa-tion Technology Board, Dean In-stitute of Public Health, and EDOHealth Lahore briefed the meet-

ing about the dengue surveillanceand vector surveillance activities.

They informed the meetingregarding dengue surveillance andmonitoring at graveyards, tyreshops, construction sites,junkyards, nurseries, indoor andoutdoor places. It was informedthat meetings of Town Emer-gency Response Committees

(TERC) are being held on regu-lar basis in which MNAs andMPAs and the concerned govern-ment officers participating.

It was also informed thatduring the surveillance, denguelarvae is being reported at alarge number in different townsand mechanical and chemicalmethods are being utilized to

destroy the larvae. Moreover,targeted fogging and spray isalso being carried out. It wasalso informed that dengue lar-vae has been reported from tendifferent places in Miani SahibGraveyard. Fisheries Depart-ment has released more thanthree lakh larvae eater fish indifferent ponds.

here Wednesday. Advisor to Chief Minis-ter on heads Kh. Salman Rafique and rep-resentative of the NGO Mrs. ZainabQureshi signed a memorandum for theconstruction of new emergency block.Prof. Mahmood Shaukat informed thatvarious developmental projects and wel-fare works are being carried out in JinnahHospital with the collaboration of philan-thropists and non-governmental organiza-tions due to which maximum treatmentfacilities are being provided to the patients.

He disclosed that after completion ofadditional block of emergency department,another 120 beds would be accommodatedin Accidents and Emergency Department

of Jinnah Hospital. Prof. MahmoodShaukat told that old graduates of AllamaIqbal Medical College have promised toprovide medical equipments worthRs.30.5 million for the new block.

Kh. Salman Rafique appreciated thespirit of serving ailing humanity of phi-lanthropists and NGOs by launching de-velopment project and other welfareworks at Jinnah Hospital said that pa-tients’ welfare is joint responsibility ofthe government and the society andwell-to-do and philanthropists are dis-charging this religious and national re-sponsibility properly by extending fi-nancial cooperation.