ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2015

13SUBCONTINENT

A Pakistani man rushes a child suffering from heatstroke to a hospi-tal in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 23. A scorching heat wave acrossthe southern city has killed hundreds of people, authorities saidTuesday. The heat wave compounded the struggles of ordinaryPakistanis as it struck amid the holy, fasting month of Ramadan,when observant Muslims abstain from food or water during daylight

hours. (AP)

Reputation took a bashing: Bulcke

Nestle trying to restorefirm’s ‘image’ after banGENEVA, June 24, (AFP):Nestle chief Paul Bulckesays he has drawn the lessonsfrom India’s shock ban on itsMaggi instant noodles over ahealth scare and is now tryingto salvage the image of theworld’s top food company.

Bulcke insisted that itshugely popular Maggi brandwas 100 percent safe, sayingthat packaged food was unfair-ly fingered by many aroundthe world as a health risk.

The Switzerland-basedfood giant’s reputation took abashing “because it’s a bigbrand and that (ban) made alot of waves,” the Belgianchief executive told AFP inan interview.

India’s food safety regula-tor on June 5 outlawed theproduct after it said testsshowed the noodles con-tained excessive levels oflead.

The largest food companyby revenues is challengingthe order and is in the processof destroying more than27,000 tonnes of Maggi noo-dles after halting production— a Herculean task givenIndia’s size.

The banhad led to 3.2billion rupees(44.5 millioneuros, $50.5million) worthof goodsbeing with-drawn, thecompany said.

Nestle had alreadyannounced it was pulling theproduct from sale when theFood Safety and StandardsAuthority of India imposed aban following similar movesby some state governments.

Preception“One can have facts on

one’s side but it’s the percep-tion that counts,” Bulckesaid, explaining the compa-ny’s decision to withdrawand destroy the product.

“Food has never beensafer,” he said. “But there isthis perception and we haveto work on that. We have toreconnect with consumers.”

According to BrandFinance, a consultancy firm,Maggi is set to lose over$200 million (180 millioneuros) in brand value follow-ing the setback in India.

Maggi was previously val-

ued at $2.4 billion, BrandFinance said, adding that ithad ranked the noodle manu-facturer as the 23rd most valu-able food brand in the world.

The ban in India couldhave devastating implica-tions for Maggi in neighbour-ing countries where it is alsovery popular, experts warn.

“The only thing that inter-ests me is to have the productback as soon as possible andthat things are cleared up,”said Bulcke, who took overas Nestle’s chief executive in2008.

Contact“We are doing all we can

to make contact with Indianauthorities at the earliest,” hesaid, adding: “The product issafe.”

Nestle notched up sales of13.5 billion Swiss francs($14.4 billion, 12.9 billioneuros) in ready-to-eat andready-to-cook meals lastyear, the third most profitablesector for the company aftersoft drinks and milk productsand ice cream.

The food industry has beenrocked by several scandals inrecent years including taintedmilk in China and horse meatbeing fraudulently passed offas beef in Europe.

There have also been grow-ing concerns over obesity andthe health effects ofprocessed or “industrial” food

Bulcke said Nestle, whichhas made nutrition, healthand well-being the main axesof development, had investedenormous sums to developbalanced and healthy prod-ucts, notably reducing thelevels of sugar and salt.

Nestle is currently tryingto relaunch frozen meals inNorth America.

As for India, Bulcke sayshe wants to get Maggi noo-dles back on the shelves “assoon as possible.”

Maggi noodles grewincreasingly popular as moreand more Indians movedaway from their home vil-lages to study or seek work.

It emerged as one ofIndia’s five most trustedbrands in a consumer surveyconducted last year.

Several celebrities haveendorsed Maggi over theyears, including Bollywoodsuperstar Amitabh Bach-chan.

Row takes some sheen off yoga

Hindu nationalist’s jibe at vice-presidentNEW DELHI, June 24,(RTRS): The Indian govern-ment has apologised to thecountry’s Muslim vice-presi-dent after comments by a sen-ior member of the Hindunationalist ruling party trig-gered allegations that sectari-anism had tainted a mass eventto celebrate World Yoga Day.

The row has taken some ofthe sheen off the event led byPrime Minister NarendraModi, who along with 36,000people flexed his way intoworld records on a New Delhiavenue on Sunday at thelargest ever session of theancient Hindu discipline.

In a post on Twitter, RamMadhav, a general secretary inthe ruling Bharatiya JanataParty who coordinates closelywith Modi and top ministers,questioned why the vice presi-dent, Hamid Ansari, did notattend the celebrations.

It was later revealed thatAnsari had not been invited. Inhis post, Madhav also, wrongly,stated that a TV public broad-caster that Ansari heads had notcovered the event. Madhav laterdeleted the tweet and Modi’syoga minister said sorry.

“We apologise for that,”yoga minister Shripad Naiktold reporters. “It should havebeen avoided, it’s a mistake.”

Ansari, a veteran diplomatwho previously representedIndia at the United Nations,

has often been a target of hard-line Hindu nationalists whoaccuse him of putting his reli-gion before the nation.

Hardliners in Modi’s partybelieve that India is a Hindu-first nation and mistrust thecountry’s religious minorities,especially Muslims, who makeup about 18 percent of the pop-ulation.

Since coming to power ayear ago, Modi has at timesseen his reform agenda stymiedby inflammatory attacks onreligious minorities by minis-ters and members of his party.

“All too often, when it comesto assertions of crude majoritar-ianism, in the ruling establish-ment, there is no separating themainstream from the fringe,”the Indian Express newspaperwrote in a leader on Tuesday.

In a bid to make the yoga dayevent inclusive, the governmentdropped the “sun salute” fromthe exercises, since someMuslims say it represents sunworship and is against their faith.

India’s education ministeron Monday announced plans tointroduce yoga in governmentschools.

The All India MuslimPersonal Law Board, a grouprepresenting Muslims, is con-sidering bring a case before theSupreme Court to challengeany decision to make yogacompulsory at school, saying itis a breach of religious freedom.

Bulcke

Lawmakers trade blame

Pakistan heat wave deaths reach 800KARACHI, June 24, (RTRS): A heat wave has killed nearly800 people in Pakistan’s financial hub of Karachi and piledpressure on a beleaguered provincial government, as rivalsblame it for severe blackouts and crumbling public servicesthat have added to the woe.

The powerful military, which heavily criticized the gov-ernment for corruption last week, is winning praise after itset up 22 health centres to distribute aid.

“They (the army) are at least handing out cold wet towels,juice and rehydration salt,” said Ahmed Sultan, as hesqueezed a towel soaked in ice water over his sweat-soakedclothes at a military tent set up outside an overflowing pub-lic hospital.

“This government just keeps on giving us the death toll ...this government is a total failure.”

The heat wave has once again exposed Pakistan’s fledg-ling civilian government’s failure to fund social services,making for a glaring contrast to the military, which oftentakes the lead in responding to natural disasters.

The lion’s share of the national budget goes to the military,which has ruled Pakistan for about half of its history.

Public services in the nuclear-armed nation of 190 millionpeople are starved of resources because almost all its wealthyevade taxes. Fewer than 0.5 percent of citizens pay incometax; many legislators are among the tax dodgers.

The death toll in Karachi, a city of 20 million people, hadreached 780 by Wednesday, said Anwar Kazmi, a senior offi-cial of the Edhi Foundation, a private charity.

“We are planning to expand the Edhi morgue to cope witha situation like this in future,” he said. Government healthofficials did not return calls seeking comment.

Angry lawmakers blamed each other in parliament for thecrisis, feeding perceptions that the city’s political leaders arefloundering after a week of temperatures that touched 44degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit).

Civilian and military officials traded barbs over corruption

in Karachi, which is home to Pakistan’s main stock market,central bank and biggest port.

“Two years have gone by. Where are the government’spower projects?” demanded lawmaker Asad Umar, of theopposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

2 soldiers wounded during exchange of gunfire

Paramilitaries kill 10 militants in southern PakistanKARACHI, June 24, (AFP): Pakistan’s paramilitaryforces on late Tuesday gunned down at least 10 mili-tants in two encounters in suburban areas of thesprawling southern city of Karachi, an official said.

The paramilitary rangers were acting on an intelli-gence tip that militants belonging to an unnamed,banned outfit were present in Kathor, a district in thenorthern outskirts of the port city.

Militants opened fire on the ranger contingents whilethey were cordoning off their hideout, according to therangers’ spokesman.

“When the rangers were cordoning the area, the mil-itants started firing,” the spokesman for the paramilitaryforce said in a press statement.

“Two of the militants were killed in the retaliatory fir-ing”, the spokesman said, adding that their accomplicesinitially escaped from the scene under the cover ofdarkness. In a pursuit that followed, the rangers killedfour more militants, who wounded two soldiers during

exchange of gunfire.In yet another encounter, this time in the Manghopir

area of the city, the rangers shot dead four militants andlater recovered automatic weapons and a suicide vest.

“One soldier got injured in the second encounter,” thespokesman said.

He did not elaborate as to which group the militantsbelonged, but the two areas are known as a hotbed forhomegrown Taleban militants and affiliated groups.

Pakistan has been battling a homegrown Islamistinsurgency for over a decade following the 2001 US-ledinvasion of Afghanistan.

The army began a major campaign against Talebanand other militant strongholds in the North Waziristantribal area in June last year.

The offensive against the militants intensified afterDecember last year when the Taleban militantsattacked a school in Peshawar killing over 150 people— mostly children.

Indian cricket tycoon declareswar, ‘rattles’ Modi government

Police arrest bootlegger over toxic liquor deaths

NEW DELHI, June 24, (Agencies): Pressure is growing on India’sforeign minister and a top member of the ruling party over helpthey gave to a disgraced cricket tycoon, as the first major scandalto touch Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government begins tothreaten his reform agenda.

Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has faced days of scrutiny for her ties to LalitModi, scion of an industrial family who almost singlehandedly turned the IndianPremier League into the world’s richest.

“This is war,” Modi, who is not related to the prime minister, has declared in recentdays from a hotel in Montenegro. He has used Twitter to attack opponents, such asFinance Minister Arun Jaitley and members of the opposition.

Dissent bubbled up in Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday, with onemember of parliament saying Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Rajewere wrong to have helped the tycoon in his bid for British travel papers.

The opposition Congress party, voted out last year amid corruption scandals, onTuesday warned of plans to disrupt parliament after it opens next month, unless Swarajand Raje resign.

The government hopes topass major economic reformsduring the session.

Modi fled India for Londonwhen tax and financial crimeauthorities raided his premisesin 2010 in a money launderingand tax evasion investigation.He says his life was threatenedby Mumbai mobsters.

Swaraj says she met theBritish high commissioner inJuly 2014 to recommend thatModi be granted British trav-el papers, after his Indianpassport was rescinded, andsent the same message toBritish Labour MP KeithVaz.

Swaraj, whose husband anddaughter have worked aslawyers for Modi, said herintervention was humanitarian,because he needed to travel tohelp his ailing wife.

There has been no sugges-tion of financial wrongdoingby Swaraj, but opponents ques-tion the legality of her assis-tance.

The foreign ministry did notrespond to a request for com-ment.

In another development,Education Minister SmritiIrani’s academic record facesscrutiny after the Delhi highcourt agreed to hear a petitionalleging that she lied abouthaving a degree. The court willhear the case in August.

The dispute stems fromIrani’s differing declarations toelectoral authorities. In 2004,she said she had a BA degree,but in 2014, she said she hadonly studied the first year of acommerce degree. Congresshas demanded that she, too,resign.

Indian police have arrested abootlegger accused of supply-ing the toxic liquor that killed100 people from a slum in thefinancial capital Mumbai, asenior officer has said.

Mansur Latif Shaikh, 26,was picked up during a raid onhis hideout in northwesternNew Delhi on Tuesday follow-ing a tip off, days afterMumbai police pledged tocrack down on the popularillicit trade.

A Nepalese police officer walks with a sniffer dog in Durbar Square ahead of the International Conference on Nepal Reconstruction inKathmandu, on June 24. On June 25, the government of Nepal will host an international conference in Kathmandu on Nepal’s

reconstruction following a series of devastating earthquakes. (AFP)

Bid to link migrant return to freeing guard

Bangladesh rejects Myanmar proposal DHAKA, June 24, (RTRS): Bangladesh’s borderguard said on Monday it turned down a propos-al it said Myanmar had made to return a cap-tured officer if Dhaka also took in some 600 ille-gal migrants from a people trafficking ship inter-cepted by the Myanmar navy.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry has alreadysummoned the Myanmar ambassador in Dhakaand lodged a strong protest to ask for the imme-diate release of Abdur Razzak.

Razzak was seized and another Bangladeshiguard was wounded by Myanmar forces on June17 after the two sides exchanged gunfire whilechasing drug smugglers on the Naff River sepa-rating the two countries.

Border Guard Bangladesh battalion com-manding officer Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad

Abu Jar Al Jahid said the countries had agreedlast year that any soldiers straying across theborder should be handed back after senior offi-cers held a so-called “flag meeting” at the fron-tier.

But on this occasion, he said, Myanmar want-ed to link the handover to the return of themigrants. Jahid said his counterpart, the com-mander in Border Guard Police in Maungdaw,Myanmar, had made the proposal.

“We have rejected the proposal as this can notbe linked with trafficking victims,” Jahid toldReuters. “Instead, we proposed a flag meeting tosettle the issues.”

Officials at Myanmar’s embassy in Dhaka andat the ambassador’s residence were not immedi-ately available for comment.

Jahid said Myanmar wanted Bangladesh toidentify around 600 of the 727 migrantspicked up from the ship intercepted by theMyanmar navy on May 29 as Bangladeshinationals and take them back as part of thedeal.

Thousands of people, many of themBangladeshi or Muslim Rohingya fromMyanmar, have taken to the sea in recent monthsin dangerously crowded boats run by people-traffickers, heading south towards other south-east Asian countries.

Previously, Myanmar has said nearly all ofthem were Bangladeshis seeking better econom-ic prospects, rather than Rohingya, a group whocomplain of severe discrimination and mistreat-ment in Myanmar.

Family members of Nazar Singh, who at age 111 was believed to beboth Britain and Europe’s oldest man, gather around his body for lastrituals before his cremation in the village of Fazalpur some 40 kmfrom Jalandhar on June 24. Singh died on June 20, two weeks afterhis 111th birthday, as he was visiting his family in India, media

reports said. (AFP)

Govt focused on impending parliamentary polls

Sri Lanka says war crimes probe delayedCOLOMBO, June 24, (AFP): Sri Lanka’s proposedwar crimes investigation has been delayed by severalmonths until September as the government focuses onimpending parliamentary elections, Foreign MinisterMangala Samaraweera said Wednesday.

Samaraweera said he hoped the composition ofthe investigating team along with its terms of refer-ence would now be finalised just before the UNHuman Rights Council’s session in September inGeneva.

“We are working out the contours of a domesticmechanism to look into human rights abuses and warcrimes,” Samaraweera told reporters in Colombo.“This will be in place before the September sessionsin Geneva.”

President Maithripala Sirisena came to power inJanuary promising reconciliation and accountabilityfollowing alleged atrocities during the island’s sepa-ratist war that ended in 2009.

But Samaraweera said the government’s schedule

of reforms including starting the probe by June hasbeen pushed back because of a delay in holding gen-eral elections.

Sirisena was due to sack the parliament he inherit-ed from his autocratic predecessor MahindaRajapakse by April. He is now expected to dissolveparliament and call elections very shortly,Samaraweera said.

Sirisena is hoping to strengthen his numbers in par-liament, where Rajapakse’s party and its allies stillhold a majority, and bolster his mandate for demo-cratic reforms.

“I hope the president will dissolve parliament in amatter of hours and we can have an early election,”Samaraweera said amid intense speculation the 225-member assembly could be dissolved at midnight.

The US led international pressure on former presi-dent Rajapakse to probe allegations that up to 40,000civilians were killed in the military’s final push to endthe war against ethnic minority Tamil rebels.