e-paper pakistantoday 11th march, 2012

ISLAMABADMiAN ABRAR

AMeeTInG of the ruling coalitionpartners on Saturday decided inprinciple to hold the next generalelections in March 2013, while en-dorsing the nomination of nayyer

Hussain Bukhari as Senate chairman, andSabir Baloch from Balochistan as deputychairman, sources told Pakistan Today.

Sources said the coalition members haddecided to hold the elections next year in orderto allow the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) gov-ernment achieve its election targets, and go tothe masses with some achievements to sell.

“The idea was floated by Pakistan MuslimLeague-Quaid (PML-Q) President ChaudhryShujaat Hussain and endorsed by Awami na-tional Party’s (AnP) chief Asfandyar WaliKhan, leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) among others. President Asif AliZardari also supported the idea,” sources said,adding that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gi-lani had opposed the idea initially, but agreedwith the majority’s view later.

Sources said the president had told theallies that he would address the joint sessionof the parliament on March 17, and urgedthem to come up with their recommenda-tions to be included in his speech. Finally, itwas decided that the allies would meet againon March 15 to discuss proposals from theallied parties, sources added.

At a meeting held at the Presidency withZardari and Gilani, the heads of the coali-

tion parties also deliberated upon a strategyfor the next general elections. The meetingwas attended by PML-Q President ShujaatHussain, PML-Q Secretary GeneralMushahid Hussain Sayed, AnP chief As-fandyar Wali, Senator Afrasiab Khattak,MQM members Senator Babar Ghauri andSenator Tahir Mashhadi, Balochistan na-tional Party-Awami (BnP) chief Senator MirIsrarullah Zehri, Munir Khan Orakzai, andShaukatullah of the FATA parliamentarygroup. PPP leaders Khurshid Shah, Senatornayyar Hussain Bukhari, MnA Raja ParvezAshraf and Presidential Spokesman Farhat-ullah Babar were present in the meeting.

Zardari welcomed the allied parties tothe meeting, and said the PPP wished tonominate Senator nayyer Hussain Bukharifor the slot of the Senate chairman and Sen-ator Sabir Baloch from Balochistan for theslot of Senate deputy chairman.

Lahore edition Sunday, 11 March, 2012 Rabi-ul-Sani 16, 1433Rs22.00 Vol ii no 253 22 pages

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPoRT

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is“confused” about the Supreme Court’sfresh orders on writing a letter to Swissauthorities for reopening corruptioncases against President Asif Ali Zardari,saying it was not clear on which case heshould write the letter.

“There is confusion in the minds ofthe people that on which case the orderwas issued, as there are two separatecases,” he said while talking to a group of

journalists at the Prime Minister’sHouse. In an hour-long session with thereporters, the premier answered a volleyof tough questions in a frank and candidmanner, saying he would have to consulthis counsel over the SC’s order.

“Aitzaz Ahsan is a competent lawyerand he is representing me in the con-tempt case, although I don’t think I havecommitted any contempt,” he said.Asked whether he would write the letterto implement the court’s new orders, theprime minister said, “This is like puttinga cart before the horse. I would only take

any decision after seeking advice frommy lawyer.” However, when pressedagain whether or not he would imple-ment the court’s order, Gilani said hewould “abide by the constitution”. “I amready to appear before the court onceagain,” he added. Asked whether his gov-ernment would give in to the US pres-sure on Iran-Pakistan gas pipelineproject, the premier said that “nationalinterest would be kept supreme whiletaking any decision”.

HERAT: Former Afghan militant commander Basir Nawrouzi (C) is watched by his 16-year-old fiancee Parvana as he hands over his AK-47 assault rifle to a government official on Saturday. Nawrouzi surrendered some weapons to the government in order to fulfilconditions set by Parvana who Basir wishes to marry. afP

‘Confused’ PM finds it hard toimplement SC’s new orders

Continued on page 04

Allies decide to holdpolls in March 2013g PPP nominates Nayyer Bukhari for Senatechairman, Sabir Baloch for deputy chairman

Continued on page 04

LHR 11-03-2012_Layout 1 3/11/2012 2:28 AM Page 1

02 Sunday, 11 March, 2012


03Sunday, 11 March 2012

News

Today’s

LookQuick

NEwS

Story on Page 06

ARt & ENtERtAINMENt

Story on Page 14

CoMMENtNew spymaster:

Articles on Page 12-13

Will he change the ISI’s MO?

Another commission: Good step but make it effective.

Humayun Gauhar says:

Saad Rasool says:Testing judicial mettle: The Asghar Khan case gives the SC many opportunities.

M J Akbar says:UPA in trouble: On Congress’ poor showing in the UP elections.

Bench and bar together serve the cause of justice: CJP Naseeruddin shoots in Pakistan for indo-Pak director duo

Armageddon: That is what effectively Israel attacking Iran will be…

Cambridge electsits first Pakistanipresident ofgraduate union

ISLAMABADAPP

A Pakistani student from Faisalabad hasbeen elected as the president ofCambridge University Graduate Union.Arsalan Ghani will lead the student unionrepresenting 12,000 MA, M Phil and PhDstudents studying at CambridgeUniversity. It is a sabbatical position,meaning that Arsalan will have tointermit his studies and take a full timerole as the president of union offices. Inover 800 years of Cambridge’s history,this is the first time that a Pakistanistudent has been elected as the presidentof the Graduate Union. Arsalan did hisbachelors from the national TextileUniversity, Faisalabad and completed hismasters in Belgium. He is doing his PhDin manufacturing policy from Cambridge.

NEPRA increases

tariffs of 6 IPPsISLAMABAD

iNP

The national electric Power RegulatoryAuthority (nePRA) on Saturdayincreased the power tariff of six IPPs inview of increase in the prices of furnaceoil. The increase had been allowed from52 paisa to 83 paisa per unit.

Man throws

acid on wifeVEHARI

APP

A man threw acid on his wife, inflictingburn injuries on the face and other parts ofher body, over a family dispute in Chak 9/11WB on Saturday. According to Rescue 1122officials, Firdous Bibi, resident of Chak no9/11 WB had a dispute with her husbandIntezar Ahmed over some family issues. OnSaturday, Intezar Ahmed, along with histwo brothers Muhammad Sarwar andIftekhar, sister Yasmeen, cousin Pappu,Manzoor Ahmed and Menhdi Bibi, threwacid at his wife after an exchange of harshwords. The woman received burn injurieson her face and other parts of the body.Rescue 1122 officials reached the spot andshifted her to District HeadquartersHospital, Vehari. The acid victim was thenreferred to nishtar Hospital because of herprecarious condition.

NEW DELHIiNP

Pakistan’s new ISI chief, Lt Gen Zaheer-ul-Islam, is the nephew of Indian na-tional Army hero Shah nawaz Khan andthrough him, shares a tenuous link withBollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, de-fence analyst Ikram Sehgal has said.

Sehgal said that Islam’s fatherserved as a brigadier in the PakistanArmy and Shah nawaz Khan, who was amajor general in the InA led by SubhasChandra Bose, was his uncle.

The Inter-Services Public Relationshas however rejected the report thatIslam has any relation with ShahrukhKhan. “One son of Shah nawaz Khanwent with him at the time of Partition,while another, Mahmood nawaz, stayedon in Pakistan and became a full colonel.In fact, Mahmood nawaz went and methis father only after retirement as hecould not travel to India while he was inservice,” Sehgal said, providing details ofthe new ISI chief’s extended family.

Shah Rukh Khan’s late mother La-

teef Fatima was the adopted daughter ofShah nawaz Khan, according to the Bol-lywood star’s biography on several web-sites.

It could not immediately be ascer-tained whether Islam had ever met Shahnawaz Khan, who died in 1983.

Shah nawaz Khan was himself bornat Kahuta and served in the British In-dian Army during World War II. He wascaptured when Japanese troops overran

Singapore in 1942 and then joined theInA. He subsequently fought alongsideJapanese forces against the British inBurma (now Myanmar).

Shah nawaz Khan was captured bythe British and put on trial with otherInA officers in 1946. They were con-victed for treason but were dischargeddue to intense pressure from the public.He later joined the Congress party andwas elected to the Lok Sabha four times.

Judicial Commission

approves six judges

for LHCISLAMABAD: The JudicialCommission on Saturdayrecommended the names of six newadditional judges for appointment atthe Lahore High Court (LHC). TheJudicial Commission meetingpresided over by Chief Justice ofPakistan (CJP) Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry pondered over eightnames to fill the vacant seats at theLHC. The commission gave a go-ahead to the names of Abdus SamiKhan, Ayesha Malik, Shahid Waheed,Baqir Ali najfi, Shujaat Ali andIbadur Rehman Lodhi Mirza to beappointed as additional judges. Theproposal regarding the appointmentof Shams Mehmood Mirza was put inabeyance and the name of ShahidKarim was not discussed onrecommendation by a sub-committee. The commissionrecommended Sheikh Ahmed Farooqand Jahangir Arshad to be appointedat the Federal Shariat Court iNP

analyst claims new ISI chief’s

link with Shah Rukh Khan

ISLAMABADREuTERS

THe appointment of a newdirector general of theInter-Services Intelligencewill create a possible open-ing for improved US-Pak-

istan relations after 15 months oftension.

Lieutenant-General Zaheer-ul-Islam, who has participated in US-based training programs, will takeover as director-general of the Direc-torate of Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) after serving as the commanderof the V Corps, one of the most impor-tant in the army and based in Karachi.

“It is very important at this timewhen the Americans and nATO troopsare withdrawing from Afghanistan, itis important to have a professionalman running the ISI,” military analystTalat Masood said.

Islam takes over from Lt GenAhmad Shuja Pasha, who was ap-pointed in 2008 and oversaw some ofthe stormiest times in the US-Pakistanrelationship. Pasha is scheduled to re-tire on March 18.

A US official said that during thecourse of his career, Islam had “trav-eled to the US to participate in US mil-itary sponsored training andinternational fellowship programs.”

“We would expect General Zahirto continue cooperation with theUnited States in our mutual fightagainst terrorism,” the US official said.

As a brigadier, Islam attended theUS Army War College in Carlisle,Pennsylvania, in 2002-2003 and hadan academic year of interaction withAmerican military officers, a US mili-tary spokesman said. The college is thearmy’s top educational institution forsenior leaders. Analysts say the incom-ing director-general has held some ofthe most important posts in the armysince his commissioning in 1977, andis seen both inside and outside the mil-itary as experienced and professional.

The US official, who spoke on con-dition of anonymity, said that Islamwas close to Gen Ashfaq Kayani andsaid many of his key posts in the armywere focused on India. At one point, hewas chief of staff of the Army’s Strate-gic Forces command.

Islam also has previous intelli-

gence experience, the US official said.From 2008-10, he served as chief ofthe wing of ISI responsible for Pak-istan’s internal security.

“(Islam) has the confidence of thepeople who matter,” Masood said.“The institution also needed tochange; this injects new thinking andenergy into the organisation.”

Others, however, believe policywithin one of Pakistan’s most powerfulinstitutions will remain unchangedand will still be directed by Kayani, theArmy chief of army staff.

“The role of the ISI does not nec-essarily depend on an individual, butit’s a policy that is designed primarilyby the army chief. I think there will becontinuity of policy”, said political an-alyst Hasan Askari Rizvi.

either way, the appointment maybe an opportunity to set a new tone inthe often tense dialogue between Pak-istan and the United States.

“The new person can make a newbeginning because he doesn’t havethe baggage of problems with theUS,” Rizvi said. “So in a way, this canfacilitate the improvement of the re-lationship.”

Pak-US ties likely toimprove with ISI change

Four groups

added to list of

banned outfitsISLAMABAD

STAFF REPoRT

The Federal Interior Ministry onSaturday banned four religio-politicalorganisations for their involvement insectarian clashes and terrorism in thecountry. The banned organisations areAhle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, formerlyknown as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, ShiaTalba Tanzeem, Karachi-based People’sAman Committee, a wing of the rulingPakistan People’s Party (PPP), andTehreek-e-naujawan Ahle-Sunnat, Gilgit.A senior official of the Interior ministrytold Pakistan Today that a notificationhad been issued to the authorities of allfour provinces, including Gilgit andBaltistan. He said that the decision toban these organisations was taken in thebackdrop of the recent terrorist attack inKohistan that left 18 Shias dead. AhleSunnat Wal Jamaat Chairman MaulanaAhmad Ludhianvi condemned the ban,saying that the government had bannedhis group at the behest of the USA. Hesaid that for the last six months, AhleSunnat Wal Jamaat had been drawingpeople’s attention to the country’sdefence from the platform of Difa-e-Pakistan Council, which may have irkedWashington.


04Sunday, 11 March, 2012

News

KARACHI iSMAiL DiLAWAR

OS C A R - W I n -nInG direc-tor SharmeenObaid-Chinoyon Saturday

called on the government topromulgate effective laws toregulate the purchase andsale of acid to curb its use inviolence against the womenin the country.

“The law [on sale of acid]should be such where thebuyer should have a licenceto purchase acid. These lawsalready exist and have beenimmensely helpful inBangladesh,” she told a well-attended press briefing, or-ganised on her return fromLos Angeles, US, where she,along with Daniel Junge,won the Academy Award fordirecting a short documen-tary film “Saving Face”.

Chinoy said that inBangladesh, incidents ofacid-throwing on womenwere double than that takingplace in Pakistan but con-certed efforts by the govern-ment, media and civil societyto ensure strict implementa-tion of laws had reduced thenumber of such violent hap-penings by 25 percent.“Burning women by acid is a

disease and not a part of cul-ture,” she remarked.

At the press conference,the award-winning directorwas flanked by the film’s co-producer Fazeelat Aslamand cameraman Asad FaruqiLauding the country’swomen parliamentarians forplaying an instrumental rolein promulgating the womenprotection bill, the film-maker vowed to launch acountrywide campaign tocreate awareness aboutwomen rights, relevant lawsfor the protection of womenand the respective punish-ments therein to deter themale-dominated society inPakistan from creating moreZakyas and Rukhsanas, thevictims of acid burns filmedin her documentary.

She said the campaignwould include distributionof pamphlets inscribed withharsh penalties like life im-prisonment for acid throw-ing, enacted in therecently-passed women’s billby the parliament.

Recalling her “incrediblefeelings” at the AcademyAwards function, Chinoysaid “you can’t rememberwhat you say during that 45-seocond speech”.

About the WinnersWalk, she said all the Oscar

winners pass through aroom and when the door isopened no one is able to seebut the cameras flash asjournalists and photogra-phers from across the globeare there to cover the event.

On the awards day, thedirector said that the awardwinners are entitled to enterany event across Los Angeleswithout having an entrypass. “You show [them] theOscar and they allow youentry; it’s your entry pass,”she recalled.

Chinoy told the mediathat she, along with her hus-band Fahad Chinoy and co-producer Junge, was sittingin the 16th row from thestage and despite hearingthe words “Saving Face”,was not able to stand upuntil she saw Junge steppingdown the stairs. “It was themost incredible feelingever.”

About the film, she saidthe documentary took 15months to be completed,shot in Rawalpindi, Karachiand the Seraiki belt ofSouthern Punjab. “Thetheme of Saving Face was toshow that Pakistan can solveits social problems and islooking for solutions to itsproblems,” she added.

“The short film will be

aired by the Channel 4 inApril following which, wewould be dubbing it in Urduand Seraiki languages to bebroadcasted by the Pakistanichannels,” said Chinoy.

Asked for comments onthe impression attributingher win to her close relationswith “westerners”, the film-maker said that the jurymembers of the academy arenot accessible as their namesare never disclosed. “I got anOscar because my work de-served it”.

On claims of some cri-tiques saying the film hadmaligned the image of Pak-istan worldwide, she said itwas impossible to pleaseeverybody at the same time.“I tend to concentrate onlyon those who support me.”

She also rejected theview that her winning theOscar was due to the verynature of her topic of acidburn, which the West ismore interested in.

Preparing for developingmore films, one with the Unpeacekeepers and another inChina, the filmmaker alsointends to soon launch atleast two documentary se-ries, one on children anima-tion, being prepared by herfirm, SOC Films, for localtelevision channels.

Oscar lady calls for laws

regulating acid trade

SWAT: Skiiers and paragliders display their skills during the final day of the snow festival at

Malam Jabba on Saturday. ONLINE

KABULAFP

The Afghan foreign ministerwill visit Qatar in the “nearfuture” for peace discussionswith the Taliban, hisspokesman told AFP Satur-day.

Zalmay Rassoul will visitQatar in “the near future onthe invitation of the Qatarigovernment”, his spokesmanJanan Mosazi said.

The minister will holdtalks on the relationship be-tween the nations and also“discuss the Afghan peaceprocess,” including “the ideaof establishing an office... inQatar to facilitate the peaceprocess,” Mosazi said.

The Taliban, ousted inlate 2001 by a US-led coali-tion, have been fighting adecade-long guerilla waragainst Western forces inAfghanistan.

But in January they an-nounced their intention to

open an office in Qatar tohold talks with the US.

The Afghan governmenthas supported the idea, as itseeks to avoid being margin-alised from negotiations.The US has repeatedly reas-sured Kabul of its role in anytalks.

The Taliban demand therelease of imprisoned mem-bers from US-custody inGuantanamo Bay before sit-ting down to any negotia-tions, but Washington saysthey must first renounce vi-olence before discussingprisoner amnesties.

“The Afghan governmenthas agreed to the transfer ofAfghan detainees fromGuantanamo to their fami-lies if that’s what the de-tainees desire,” saidMosazai.

Twenty Afghans, includ-ing five officers of the formerTaliban regime, are beingheld in the US-leased navalbase at Guantanamo.

afghan fM to visit

Qatar for Taliban talks

“Iran and Pakistan are sover-eign countries. We do have bi-lateral ties, and Iran also hasties with other states. no sanc-tions have been imposed bythe United nations. Despitemedia statements, the US gov-ernment has not taken up thematter with Pakistan,” headded.

Gilani said his party wasin touch with coalition part-ners for amending the consti-tution for Saraiki province,but that some individualswere demanding otherprovinces to confuse the causeof Saraiki province.

When asked about a cabi-net reshuffle, Gilani said thepossibility could not be ruledout. He said he would alsochange top men in the bleed-ing public service enterprises(PSes).

About holding a joint ses-sion of the parliament to dis-cuss the recommendationscompiled by the Parliamen-tary Committee on nationalSecurity on new terms of en-gagement with the US, theprime minister said it wouldbe held in a matter of days,and soon after the joint ses-sion of March 17 which wouldbe addressed by PresidentZardari, another joint sessionof the parliament would besummoned to discuss the newterms of engagements with

the US.“You know that true

friendship starts after a quar-rel. The new terms of engage-ment with the US after theparliament’s nod would helpbuild mutual confidence andtrust. Previously, both the na-tions were interacting on ad-hoc basis and this was thereason there was lack of con-fidence which was a majorhurdle (in good relations),” headded.

Asked if Pakistan had seta precondition for the US gov-ernment to offer apology forattacking Salala check post,Gilani said no such demandwas ever made. “This is notthe government of an individ-ual who wore four caps (sic)but had fallen on a merephone call by (US) under-sec-retary,” said Gilani in an ap-parent reference to General(r) Pervez Musharraf withoutmentioning his name. He saidthat he had never acted in thatmanner, and had conveyedPakistan’s concerns to the USdiplomatically and in a decentmanner.

Terming terrorism andenergy crisis as the biggestchallenges his governmenthad faced in the past fouryears, the prime minister as-serted that several constitu-tional amendments were hisbiggest success as he had re-vived the 1973 Constitution inits original shape.

About the government’sfailure in convening an AllParties Conference (APC) onBalochistan issue, the premiersaid that he had decided to re-spect the mandate given to theelected representatives by thepeople of Balochistan.

“I had to consult with theBalochistan chief minister andseek his recommendations toimprove the law and ordercondition, which was thebiggest challenge in talks withthe dissident Baloch leaderswho want to settle the issue ofrecovery of mutilated bodiesas precondition. now this is aprovincial matter,” he said.

He said the Balochistanchief minister wanted that allthe federal law enforcementagencies should work on hisrecommendations. “I haveheld talks with the chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of StaffCommittee, the army chiefand the DG-ISI. All necessarysteps would be taken and Iwould direct the law enforcesto assist the chief minister inimproving law and order,” headded.

Terming all Baloch lead-ers as patriotic, Gilani saidthose who were killing settlersin Balochistan, including Pun-jabis and Saraikis, were some“other elements”.

“We cannot rule out theinvolvement of foreign handin Balochistan unrest,” hesaid, adding that a mechanism

was being finalised to improvesecurity situation in therestive province.

About reaching an ‘under-standing’ with Pakistan Mus-lim League-nawaz (PML-n)chief nawaz Sharif, Gilani saidhe used to develop under-standing with nawaz and Op-position Leader in nationalAssembly Chauhdry nisar onnational issues.

“We would also reach anunderstanding on the ac-countability bill like othermajor issues. My governmenthas never victimised anyoneand I placed nAB (nationalAccountability Bureau) underthe Law Ministry to ensurethat no one is victimised,” headded.

When asked to commenton the nature of role Afghan

President Hamid Karzai ex-pected from Pakistan in talkswith the Taliban, Gilani saidthe Afghan president felt thatPakistan had influence oversome Afghan militant groupswho had fought against theSoviet invasion.

“We are ready to assist inan Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace initiative andthis commitment is not new.Others would soon leave theregion, but we have to stay aswe are neighbours,” he said.

Recalling his first interac-tion with former US presidentGeorge Bush, Gilani re-counted that he had assertedhis party’s “3D policy” of “de-terrence, dialogue and devel-opment”. However, he added,the US president had laughedit off, thinking it was a Greek

proverb. “now the US itself istalking with the Taliban,” Gi-lani said.

He also rubbished the as-sertion that Pakistan hadsome agreement with the USgovernment for drone attacks.

He said the Mehran Bankscandal should have beenheard by the apex courtdecades ago. “However, it’sbetter late than never. Weleave it to the judiciary to de-cide the case as the matter issub-judice,” he said.

Gilani did not give a spe-cific response to repeatedquestions about the next gen-eral elections, saying the deci-sion would be made afterconsulting the coalition part-ners.

“The election date wouldbe announced by the govern-

ment rather than the chief jus-tice,” he said, adding that the20th Amendment had cut thepowers of the president andthe chief justice in naming thenext caretaker government.

“now the leader of thehouse and the leader of theopposition would name thecaretakers,” he added.

About Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief ImranKhan’s criticism against the20th Amendment, the primeminister said that Imran Khanshould be happy to know thatthe president would not namethe caretaker government.

When asked if he fearedthe rising popularity of thePTI, Gilani said Imran Khanwas his “favourite” so therewas no reason for him to beafraid of his popularity.

‘Confused’ PMContinued fRoM page 1

The president urged thecoalition partners to supportthe PPP in electing its nomi-nees for the offices of Senatechairman and deputy chair-man for which electionswould be held on March 12.All the allied parties attend-

ing the meeting endorsed thepresident’s suggestion, as-suring him of their supportfor PPP’s nominees. Theyalso congratulated Bukharion being nominated for thepost of Senate chairman.

The allied leaders alsoexpressed the hope that both

Bukhari and Baloch wouldbe elected unopposed aschairman and deputy chair-man of the Upper House re-spectively.

The president thankedthe allied parties for endors-ing the PPP nominees. Sena-tor Bukhari also thanked

Zardari for nominating himto the slot of Senate chair-man and all the allied partiesfor endorsing his nomina-tion. He said he would dis-charge his responsibilities tothe best of his abilities and inthe best parliamentary tradi-tions.

allies decideContinued fRoM page 1

Canal road party

leads to 3-hour

traffic stagnation

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

Vehicles remained stuck owingto a massive traffic jam onCanal Road late on Saturdayevening, causing problems forcitizens including many VIPpersonalities. The traffic messstarted building up on bothsides of road fromDharampura to Mall Road ataround 7pm and soon itreached to the extent wheremovement seemed to havealmost ceased. Around 10pm,the queue of stagnant vehiclesextended till Jail Road.According to traffic police, thejam was caused by heavy VIPmovement on the canal due toa party at a club located on theCanal Road. Several highprofile personalities ofpolitical, bureaucratic andjournalistic circles were invitedto the party which was hostedby a famous TV anchor.


Sunday, 11 March, 2012 05



News

ISLAMABADiNP

CHIeF Justice of Pakistan(CJP) Iftikhar Muham-mad Chaudhry has saidthat the nexus betweenthe bench and the bar is

very strong and the mutual aim ofboth is administration of justice.

“People reposed confidence in ju-diciary and it is incumbent upon us toensure justice to them at theirdoorsteps. Further judges are also ap-pointed with care and caution so thatthey may discharge their constitu-tional duty in free and fair manner,”the CJP said on Saturday, while ad-dressing the participants of the 21stRoll Signing Ceremony of newly en-rolled advocates of the Supreme

Court. The ceremony was held in the

Supreme Court Building in which 55new advocates (07 fromRawalpindi/Islamabad, 22 from Pun-jab, 10 from Quetta, two from Sindh,and 14 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)were enrolled as advocates of theSupreme Court.

“Indeed it is an important mile-stone in your career to be enrolled asan advocate of the Supreme Court ofPakistan. Henceforth you would be inposition to share more responsibilitythan usual as you have been appearingbefore the courts for long period.

“I know all of you and recogniseyour ability and talent. You deserveenrolment as advocate of SupremeCourt, and I congratulate all of you onbehalf of the Supreme Court and on

my own behalf for signing roll as Ad-vocate Supreme Court of Pakistan.After getting the enrolment inSupreme Court you have to work hardspecialising in the area of your choiceto appear before the court to assist thebench regarding the interpretation ofthe constitution”, the chief justicesaid.

“The responsibility of judges andmembers of the bar is to interpret theconstitution. To decide case is anonerous duty and you have to fully as-sist the bench to accomplish this task.Without able assistance of you, itwould be difficult for bench to decidecase in a befitting manner,” he added.

earlier, Dr Faqir Hussain, regis-trar of the Supreme Court of Pakistan,welcomed the newly enrolled advo-cates of the Supreme Court.

Malik announces

operation in GB

GILGITNNi

Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik onSaturday said that a large scale operationwould be launched in parts of Gilgit-Baltistan to maintain law and order in theregion. Chairing a meeting to review law andorder situation in Gilgit-Baltistan, Malik saidthat investigation teams have tracked downthe elements involved in the brutal killing ofat least 18 Shias in Kohistan on February 29.He said that five suspects involved in themassacre were arrested by the lawenforcement agencies, adding that foreignelements were also involved the incident.Malik said that no one would be allowed toplay with the law and order of the region andhe was in constant touch with the Gilgit-Baltistan chief minister as part ofgovernment efforts to bring peace.

PML-N not interested in alliance

with JI, says MunawarOKARA: Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed MunawarHasan has said that the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-n) has not shown keen interest inmaking an alliance with his party but the JI was incontact with all parties in this regard. Talking tomembers of Okara Press Club on the telephone onSaturday, Munawar said that a way out could havebeen found if nawaz Sharif had convened anothermeeting of the opposition parties. He accused thePML-n of supporting the government on the 20thConstitutional Amendment. Munawar said thatthe issue of distribution of money by the ISIamong the political parties was in the SupremeCourt and the court’s verdict in this regard shouldbe implemented, whatever it may be. iNP

Bench and bar together servethe cause of justice: CJPg Chief justice welcomes 55 new advocates of Supreme Court

PESHAWARSTAFF REPoRT

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S)chief Sami-ul-Haq inaugurated thepolio vaccination campaign at a fa-mous religious seminary on Satur-day by administering polio drops tohis six-month-old grandson.

Sami, who also chairs the Pak-istan Defence Council, has been avocal critic of polio immunisation inthe past.

The launch ceremony was at-tended by nowshera District Coordi-nation Officer (DCO) MohammadAyaz Mandokhel, former parliamen-tarian Hamid-ul-Haq Haqani, repre-sentatives of the World HealthOrganisation (WHO), United nationsChildren’s Fund (UnICeF), govern-ment officials and a large number of

teachers and students of the seminary. While launching the campaign at

Jamia Haqqania, Sami said humanlife was precisions and it was the re-sponsibility of all Muslims to takecare of their children’s health. Hesaid some people had doubts aboutthe polio vaccine, but decrees by reli-gious scholars in favour of the vaccinehad cleared those misconceptions.

He urged the people to come for-ward and help the country rid itselfof the crippling disease. He assuredof his seminary’s full cooperation ineradicating polio virus from thecountry. He also asked the seminarystudents and teachers to educate thepeople about the polio disease andhelp in its eradication. He laudedthe efforts of health authorities ineliminating the deadly virus fromPakistan.

JUI-S chief launches

anti-polio drive by

giving drops to grandson

BAHAWALPuR: Family members of a police torture victim block the road in front of the District Police office on Saturday. INP

Kidnappedstudentfound deadin fields

DASKASTAFF REPoRT

A 16-year-old student, who wasabducted for a ransom of Rs 1.5million, was found dead in the fieldsnear Lurkhiki village in the precinctsof Saddar Police Station, Daska.Manzar Ali, a resident of MomanKalan, was reportedly going home ona bus after attending theGovernment Technical College whenhe received a call on his mobilephone. He got off the bus near KotliBehram and went missing. Later, hisfamily received a phone call fromManzar’s kidnappers who demandedRs 1.5 million for his release.Manzar’s family reported the matterto the police, which startedinvestigations, and found Manzar’sbody in the fields. The police sent thebody to a hospital for autopsy.


Sunday, 11 March, 2012

Spreading the ‘Yellow Cab Scheme’ PAGE 07

Firdous, where’s

the proof?

LAHORE: A PML-n leaderand Special Assistant to CMPunjab, Senator Pervaiz Rashidhas said that those levelingallegations against MuslimLeague leadership should backthe allegations with proofs. Hesaid that they neither fearedaccountability earlier norwould they hesitate to appearbefore the courts in the future.While commenting on the talkof Federal InformationMinister Firdous Ashiq Awanwith media, Senator PervaizRashid said that Firdous AshiqAwan should not save the“don” sitting in the presidency,who had deposited nationalwealth in Swiss banks. Headvised Firdous Ashiq Awan toworry about the defence of thepresident house instead ofleveling accusations againstShahbaz Sharif. He said thatfacts could not be changed bydrawing conclusions onbaseless allegations and addedthat nawaz Sharif had exposedMehran Gate scam of YounisHabib in 1993 when he hadgone to Choti Zereen alongwith the national media andidentified the barren landagainst which a huge amounthad had been taken as a loan.Senator Pervaiz Rashidadvised the federalinformation minister tocorrect her record and checkthe rampant corruption beingcommitted in the PresidentHouse instead of levelingallegations against ShahbazSharif. He said that as far asaccountability was concerned,PPP presented the guard ofhonour to a dictator whocould not prove irregularity ofeven a single penny againstthe Mian Brothers despite all their endeavours for 10years. STAFF REPoRT

LAHOREiMRAN ADNAN

FeDeRAL Minister forInformation andBroadcasting FirdousAshiq Awan has deniedthat reshuffling or

change of Federal Cabinet is not onthe cards. She did, however, addthat it was the democratic right ofthe prime minister, party and itscollation partners.

She was speaking to the mediaafter inaugurating a constructionand building materials exhibition,‘Build Pakistan 2012’, here at Lahoreexpo Centre on Saturday. She saidthe party leadership would decidethe fate of the cabinet in greater na-tional interest after deliberatingwith coalition partners. However,the first preference was to adminis-ter oath-taking of the newly electedsenators and elections of deputy andchairman of the Senate, she added.

Speaking about the MehranBank scandal case, she said that theSupreme Court of Pakistan (SCP)

was hearing the ‘historic case’, inwhich former Mehran Bank Presi-dent Younis Habib had unveiledsensational revelations. He had dis-closed the names of several sacredcows, who always tried to voluntar-ily offer their cooperation to theapex court in almost every case, sheadded. Considering the proceedingsof recent hearings, she said, “I ap-peal to the so-called democracychampions to appear before thecourt for accountability and main-tain their tradition to cooperatewith the Supreme Court.”

Firdous stressed that theyshould give their clarifications to theapex court instead of the media andavail the opportunity to make his-tory by presenting them before thecourt. She further said that PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) expects the SCto do justice by assigning responsi-bility and giving exemplary punish-ment to all those elements who hadrobbed the national exchequer fortheir self seeking interests. She saidthat those elements were responsi-ble for toppling the government of

Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.The federal minister under-

scored, former Mehran Bank Presi-dent Younis Habib had revealedthat former Presidency’s PoliticalCell In-Charge Rudad Khan had hadpressurised Fozi Ali Kazmi and him-self for making fake cases againstPresident Asif Ali Zardari. She saidthat history had proved that theseso-called champions of democracyhad always tried to hatch conspira-cies against PPP for deviating itfrom the democratic path. She de-manded the SCP to include RudadKhan and his political aides in theinvestigation.

She said that Punjab Chief Min-ister Shahbaz Sharif, who claimedhimself to be one of these ‘champi-ons of democracy’, always made tallclaims of good governance and crit-icised Zardari.; but the time hadcome for him to present himself be-fore the court for accountabilityand prove that he was a truly dem-ocratic leader.

Responding to a question, thefederal minister said that it fell

under the category of treason tosend elected government packing.All institutions, including military,ISI and political parties, role shouldbe defined to resolve this issue oncefor all otherwise, similar caseswould keep coming before the na-tion, she maintained.

She said that PPP wanted to re-main live in the history of the coun-try and that it did not believe inday-to-day headlines. Historianswould definitely recognise thestruggle of PPP for restoring democ-racy in the country, she added.

She sidestepped the question re-lated to Babar Awan by stating thatshe did not want to comment on theissue as it was a constitutional andlegal matter. Responding to a ques-tion, she said that the public hadgiven mandate to PPP for five yearsand her party would not take part inany activity to ruin the public man-date. She pointed out that the elec-tion commission still required sometime to complete the voter lists oth-erwise free and fair elections wouldnot be possible.

No shuffling on the cards… not yet anywayg Firdous Awan says party leadership would decide Senate’s fate g wants Shahbaz Sharif to appear

before SC after Mehran Bank episode g Conveniently sidesteps question about Babar Awan

Dengue strikes again:

first patient tests

positive for virusLAHORE

STAFF REPoRT

The first case of the dengue virus was reported onSaturday in the provincial capital confirming thepresence of the virus in city despite the claims of theprovincial government. According to details, a youthwas confirmed to have contracted the dengue feverafter his nS-1 test reports came out to be positive.Recently, the emergence of suspected dengue caseshad made headlines but the government had refusedto acknowledge the cases, saying that the patients’nS-1 tests were not positive. However, 22-year-oldAbdullah a resident of the Abdalian Society wasconfirmed to have contracted the dengue virus after aprivate laboratory confirmed his nS-1 test reports tobe positive. The Punjab Health Department alsoconfirmed the patient as the first official dengue casein the province during the current year. Despite thePunjab government’s efforts, the city is yet to bedengue-free. The health department has been issuingreports that the presence of the dengue carriermosquito was not detected in the samples taken fromdifferent parts of city. The government’s official

dengue advisory committeerecently changed thecriteria for the

confirmationof the

dengue fever,setting the

nS-1 test ascompulsory

confirmatorytest.


Low

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celebrATing spring 2012

DAtE AND tIME: FEB 11 —MAR 11, 2012, 8AM to 1:00PMVENUE: ALHAMRA — GADDAFI StADIUM

Register till 10th March 2012 during office timings 3 pm atPermanent Art Gallery, Cultural Complex, Qaddaffi StadiumLahore Children will bring their art material along with DrawingBoards & Drawing Sheets size 18x20/28x 30 inches. Studentscan use any medium (Pencil colors, water colors, crayons,pastels, clay, collage, mix-medium oil color, acrylics etc).

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DAtE: FEBRUARY 10 — MARCH 10, 2012VENUE: UNSPECIFIED, LAHoRE

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Lahore

ArAbic cAlligrAphy

CALLIGRAPHY CLASSES are on-going, interestedstudents can enroll throughout the year. theduration of one module is three months. there arefour modules of learning calligraphyt: primary,secondary, advanced and higher. the course includestraditional pen and traditional paper making.

DAtE AND tIME: JUNE 1, 2012, 4PM to 6PMVENUE: HASt-o-NEESt CENtER

Feeling the need for wINGS?After an overwhelming response to Red Bull Paperwings held in Pakistan in 2009, the best and mostcreative Pakistani folders & throwers will have thechance to represent their country at the worldFinals at Hangar-7, Salzburg, Austria this year also!

LAHORE GNi

The Punjab government has extended the verification process for the Pun-jab Yellow Cab Scheme to the all otherprovinces including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Sindh and Baluchistan as well as to GilgitBiltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. TheAdditional Chief Secretary Punjab has re-quested Chief Secretaries of all theprovinces, Gilgit Biltistan and AJK toverify the driving licenses, academiccertificates, worth of assets ownedby the applicants and other relatedissues of the candidates in case areference is forwarded from Pun-jab for verificationunder the YellowCab Scheme.

At the provinciallevel, the District Veri-fication Committees willverify domicile certifi-cate, driving licenseand academic certifi-cate of the applicantsdrawn after com-puterised ballotingwhile the remain-ing features of theeligibility criteriawould be verifiedin case of anycomplaint. TheDCOs are re-quired to com-plete theprocess of ver-ification ofcredentials ofthe successfula p p l i c a n t swithin 15 daysof the balloting

for the respective districts. However, it is quite likely that few applicantsmay have driving license and academic qualification certificates issuedfrom provinces other than Punjab which would require verification from

the concerned quarters of those provinces. ThePunjab government has launched “The ChiefMinister Punjab, Self employment Schemefor educated Unemployed Youth (Yellow CabScheme) aiming at providing employment op-

portunities to the educated unemployedyouth, provision of dignified means of

public transport to the people and de-velopment of local auto industry.

Under the scheme 20,000 vehicles(Suzuki Mehran and Suzuki Bolan)

would be distributed among the el-igible applicants and the govern-

ment has already setthe criteria for it.According to the el-igibility criteria, the

maximum assets(own, parents and im-

mediate family) of the ap-plicant should not be

more than Rs2 million,while applicant shouldhave valid driving li-cense and should beat least matriculate.

The applicantshould have validdomicile certifi-cate of the districtof his residenceand should be be-tween 21 to 35

years of age on15th July 2011.The applicantmust not beemployed any-where either in

public or privatesector.

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

On the invitation of Punjab ChiefMinister, Shahbaz Sharif, Istan-bul Mayor Kadir Topbas is reach-ing Lahore today on a two-dayvisit. The Lahorities will accord a

warm welcome to the mayor. The visit wouldprove to be a milestone in promoting friendlyties between the two countries.

After reaching Lahore, Kadir Topbas isscheduled to call on Shahbaz Sharif after which,he would inaugurate Lahore Solid Waste Man-agement Project in Town Hall. After negotiationswith Turk companies, the cost of the project has

been reduced, which is a proof of the affection ofTurks with regards to Pakistani.

The Istanbul mayor would be the chief guestin the cultural show and participate in differentceremonies. He would also inaugurate Bus RapidTransit System Project at Ferozpur Road.

It is the first opportunity in the history ofthe country that this mega project is beinglaunched in collaboration with Turk compa-nies and people of Punjab are getting the fruitsof government efforts for the last three andhalf years.

The credit goes to Kadir Topbas and ShahbazSharif for important projects like Solid WasteManagement and Bus Rapid Transit System be-tween Punjab government and Turkey. It is dueto their personal interest that these mega proj-ects are adopting practical shape.

Lahore welcomesIstanbul mayor

Spreading the ‘Yellow Cab Scheme’g Punjab requests other provinces to verify particulars of applicants if referred



Lahore

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

THe Punjab govern-ment has terminatedPunjab Assistant Ad-vocate General (AAG)Maqsood-ul-Hasan

due to his reluctance in appearingbefore the Lahore High Court.

The former AAG was sum-moned to the court for a hearing ofthe case against the owners of theKharak medicine factory that col-lapsed after a boiler blast, leaving

26 people dead.The action against the AAG was

taken by the government after Jus-tice Kazim Raza Shamsi questionedhis absence from the court duringthe hearing for the bail applicationsfiled by Zafar Iqbal, Zaheer Iqbaland Zubair Iqbal, the owners of themedicine factory.

earlier, Punjab Advocate Gen-eral Ashtar Ausaf sought an expla-nation from AAG Hasan for notshowing any interest in the case,but the latter failed to justify his po-sition. Ausaf then sent in his com-

ments to the government whichstated that he had dismissed theAAG from service.

AAG Maqsood was allegedlysiding with the factory owners andwas trying to buy time for them by staying away from the court’sproceedings.

The counsel for the accused wasAdvocate Khurram Latif Khosa,Punjab governor Latif Khosa’s son.

The court had to adjourn thehearings and extend the interimbails of the accused two times dueto absence of the AAG despite being

repeatedly summoned by court.Punjab Prosecutor General

Sadaqat Ali Khan defended the gov-ernment’s case against the factoryowners in lieu of the AAG.

After hearing the arguments putforward by Sadaqat, the LHC dis-missed the bail applications, follow-ing which the accused were placedin police custody on remand.

The government had registeredan FIR against the factory owners inthe Sabzazar Police Station underSections 302/149, 324/ 427, 290/291 of the PPC.

Khosa discusses trade tieswith omani ambassador

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

The Omani Ambassador Mohammad Bin Said BinMohammad Al-Lawati met Punjab Governor Sardar LatifKhan Khosa at the Governor House on Saturday to discussmatters of mutual interest. Khosa said Pakistan and Omanenjoy friendly relations which should be strengthened forthe mutual benefit of the people of the two countries. Headded that international investors should utlise the widerange of facilities offered by Pakistan. He stated thatregular contact needed to be established in the areas oftrade, manpower, culture and education. He said Omancould accommodate more Pakistani skilled workers apartfrom the 170,000 already settled in the country. Khosaappreciated the visionary leadership of His Majesty SultanQaboos, saying that the country has made remarkableprogress under his leadership.

PLC dedicates women’s Dayto Sharmeen obaid Chinoy

LAHOREPRESS RELEASE

On 8th March 2012 with reference to InternationalWomen’s Day, Punjab Law College Lahore dedicated theday to Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, the first Oscar AwardWinner from Pakistan. In this regard, a seminar onWomen Inheritance was organised by Study CircleSociety in which the Guest Speakers threw light on basicfactors which directly or indirectly affected theobservance of women inheritance. Afterwards, PunjabLaw College Principal Hadia Awan unleashed thehindrances and proposed solutions, as to how we canassure inheritance for women in Pakistan.

MAo College concludesdeclamation contest

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

The Punjab Group of Colleges won the final round of theAll Pakistan Bilingual Declamation Contest, held onSaturday at the MAO College. 16 teams from Punjab’seducational institutions participated in the event whichwas attended by a large number of students. MnAKhawaja Saad Rafiq was the Guest of Honour of thecompetition which was judged by MAO College PrincipalProf Dr Farhan ebadat Yar Khan, Prof Dr Sabieh Anwar ofLUMS and GCU Lahore Debating Society PresidentMuhammad Saddique Awaan. Punjab College Lahore wonthe trophy while Almas Sabieh of GCU Lahore stood firstin Urdu declamation. Rabia Zia of King edword MedicalCollege won the first prize for english declamation.Speaking on the occasion, Khawaja Rafiq, an MAOalumnus, said co-curricular activities are an essential partof college life. He appreciated the efforts of Dr ebadat YarKhan for changing the culture of the MAO College.

AAG dismissed for notappearing in court

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

A 50-year old billiard club owner was shot dead bysome unidentified people in Misri Shah Policeprecincts on Saturday. The victim was identified asShahid Butt, a resident of Dilawar Street. Accordingto details, Shahid had left home for some domesticchores when some unidentified persons opened fireon him with automatic weapons. As per policesources, the victim sustained five bullet injuries andsuccumbed to heavy bleeding before he could beshifted to the hospital. Police removed the body tocity morgue and started investigating the matterafter registering a case. The heirs of victim said he

had not had any enmities with anyone which couldhave led to the incident.SECURITY GUARD MURDERED: A securityguard was found shot dead in mysterious circum-stances in Millat Park police precincts on Saturdaymorning. The victim, 30, was identified as Inayat Ali.According to details, he was a security guard of atrader’s house located at Multan Road. early Satur-day, Inayat’s employer found him dead in his house.Police officials said the victim was shot with a tripletwo rifle bullet. The body was removed to morgue forautopsy and further investigations. Police said thevictim’s phone record showed that he used to talkwith a local lady on phone. Police suspected the affaircould have been a possible reason of the murder.

IGP addresses Police

Darbar, ensures

timely resolution

of problemsLAHORE

STAFF REPoRT

Modern, professional training canenable the police officials to meet thechallenges of terrorism and eliminatingcrime from the society. This was statedby Punjab Inspector General of PoliceMohammad Habib-ur-Rahman whileaddressing the Passing-out Parade ofASIs at the Sihala Police College onSaturday. Among the 542 graduatingASIs, 462 belong to Punjab, 12 are fromBalochistan, 30 from Azad Jumu andKashmir, one from Islamabad. Thenumber also included 37 Anti-narcoticsForce ASIs. The IGP was told that thepolice academy had taught a revisedsyllabus titled ‘Continuous ProfessionalDevelopment Programme’ in which,subjects like terrorism, religiousextremism, heinous crimes, securityintelligence, crime scene investigationand crime controlled strategies weretaught. Retired army officers,intelligence school instructors andsenior FIA officers were hired to teach atthe academy.

KEMU announces

final professional

exam resultsLAHORE

STAFF REPoRT

The examination Department of Kingedward Medical University Lahore hasannounced the result of MBBS FinalProfessional Annual examination 2011.Total 290 candidates appeared and 260have been declared pass. According tothe result, the pass percentage is90.59%. The result of three candidateswould be declared later on.Roll no 115024 Anum Afsar got the firstposition; roll no 115018 Anam Kamrangot the second position, roll no 115097Maryam Hameed got the third positionand roll no 115169 Zainab Tariq got thefourth position.

Review petition filedagainst Habib Bank’s saleLAHORE: A review petition has been moved in theSupreme Court’s Lahore Registry against the sale of theHabib Bank Ltd at a throw-away amount of Rs 22 billion.The sale was initiated by the Musharraf governmentunder its privatisation policy. The plea was filed bybarrister Zafar Ullah Khan contending that the base valueof the bank was Rs 500 billion, but it was sold at Rs 22billion, causing a huge loss to the national exchequer. Hesaid he had filed a petition against the privatisation of thebank in 2011, which was later dismissed by the court. Herequested the court to admit his review petition forregular hearing and grant a stay order to stall the bank’ssale. He submitted that Musharraf’s government hadbenefited its political aides by selling national assetsunder the guise of privatisation. STAFF REPoRT

MiNi CiNEMA: An old man takes children through a colourful, enthralling experience. NadEEM IJaz

Billiard club owner left in blood pool

New gadget will save up to 25 percent fuel LAHORE

STAFF REPoRT

Comprehensive proposals and suggestions have been submitted to the Islamabad Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (ICCI) regarding fuel saving equipment that reduces fuel usage in vehicles upto 25 percent. This was stated by Future Technologies Chief executive Officer (CeO) Shoaib AshfaqQureshi, while talking to a group of journalists on Saturday. Qureshi said he had met ICCI PresidentYassar Sakhi Butt in Islamabad and made a presentation to him regarding fuel saving measures. He saidthe presentation especially focused on a small innovative gadget called the ‘Panther’ which reduces fuelconsumption up to 25 percent and gives more power to the engine without reducing the mileage. Hesaid the ICCI President had asked him to submit a written proposal that would outline the role thechamber could play in educating the people of the federal capital about fuel saving measures. Qureshisaid the gadget is based on Japanese technology and is now being marketed in Pakistan after beingtested internationally. Asked about the ICCI’s response to the gadget, Qureshi said he was hopeful thathis suggestions would be accepted as the chamber president was very keen to try the equipment.



Lahore

CINEMA FILM tIMECINE StAR KAHAANI 02:30 PMPH: 35157462 DR. SEUSS’ tHE LoRAx 05:00 PM

tHE woMAN IN BLACK 06:30 PMLoNDoN PARIS NEwYoRK 08:00 PMKAHAANI 10:15 PM

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KAHAANI 05: 30 PMKAHAANI 08: 30 PMLoNDoN PARIS NEwYoRK 11: 00 PM

PGMI’s book fair to host

renowned publishers

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

The Post Graduate Medical Institute annual book fair willbe held on March 15 in the institute. Renowned publishersfrom across the country will participate in the event, whiletheir books will be available at affordable prices. PGMIPrincipal Prof Dr Tariq Sallahuddin announced the eventon Saturday. He said books from all genres, includingmedical, social, political, economic and religious subjectswould be presented on various stalls. Sallahuddin statedthat the fair would promote good reading habits among thestudents. He added that similar book fairs should be heldand the number of libraries increased to introduce theyouth to a legacy of love for books and a thirst ofknowledge. Sallahuddin said there were more than 13, 000books in the PGMI library and was considered to be one ofthe best libraries in the city’s medical institutions. The PGMI library is the only facility to online access tomedical universities all over the world.

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

PUnJAB Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharifsaid on Saturday that Pak-istan and Oman enjoy frendlyties that will be strengthened

over time. He was talking to Omani Ambassador

Mohamed Bin Said Bin Mohamed Al-Lawati. Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif also in-vited Omani investors to explore investmentprospects in the livestock, energy, agricul-ture, information technology industries inPunjab. Sharif said a large number of Pak-istani expatriates in Oman are playing animportant role in Oman’s development.

He stated that a joint business councilhad been set up by the Chambers of Com-merce of the two countries to enhance tradeand economic relations. The Chief Ministeradded that Punjab has a conducive eco-

nomic environment and that investmentsmade in the province are safe and prof-itable. He said the Punjab government hasprovided all the trade facilities under theaegis of the Punjab Board of Investmentand Trade for facilitating foreign investors.

The CM stated that Muslim countrieshave played an active role in the rehabili-tation of the families affected by the recentflood. He also commended the cooperationextended by Oman and other Islamic coun-tries in setting up model villages. Ambas-sador Al-Lawati said Oman is willing toplay its due role in the rehabilitation of thepeople affected by the floods. He expressedthe hope that economic relations betweenOman and the Punjab province will bestrengthened in the future. Punjab Board ofInvestment and Trade Vice Chairman DrMiftah Ismail informed the meeting aboutthe investment prospects in the province.Omani Commercial Attache Abdul Ghaniwas also present on the occasion.

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

The Government of Pakistan is com-mitted to improving the health ofwomen and children, as well as itsglobal health index.

Government of Pakistan Planningand Development Division SeniorChief Muhammad Ayub stated this onSaturday while addressing a workshopon the regulatory monitoring of salt,oil and wheat flour fortification pro-grammes in Pakistan.

The workshop was organised incollaboration with The MicronutrientInitiative, World Bank and other de-velopment partners.

Ayub said the workshop wouldhelp in improving communication be-tween the private and public sectors inimplementing quality fortification

programmes. The Micronutrient Ini-tiative Country Director Dr TausifAkhtar Janjua appreciated govern-ment’s commitment to eliminating vi-tamin and mineral deficiencies fromthe country.

He stressed that monitoring, qual-ity control and regulatory enforcementwere essential for the success of anyfortification programme and that theworkshop would strengthen the exist-ing regulatory system in Pakistan,while paving the way for the enforce-ment of these regulations.

World Bank Consultant QuentinJohnson highlighted the importanceof regulatory and monitoring frame-work of wheat flour, salt and oil forti-fication programmes. The participantsof the workshop were updated onglobal standards for fortified salt, edi-ble oil and wheat flour.

PMA wants suomotu over ‘out ofmerit’ appointments

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

The Pakistan Medical Association hasappealed to the Chief Justice SupremeCourt of Pakistan to take suo motunotice on the out of meritappointments of heads of medicalinstitutions made by the PunjabGovernment. The seniority list of thePunjab Health Department has beensent to the Supreme Court of Pakistanto bring the violations of merit infront of the Supreme Court ofPakistan. The Pakistan MedicalAssociation office bearers Dr MTanveer Anwar, Dr Izhar Ahmed, ProfDr M Ashraf nizami, Dr Shahid Malik,Dr Ihsan-ur-Rehman, Dr YasminIhsan, Dr Kamran, Dr Sabahat HabibKhan, Dr Salman have also demandedof the Chief Minister Punjab toreconsider the out of meritappointment and give the seniorprofessors their due rights.

Medical camp on

world Kidney Day LAHORE

STAFF REPoRT

A free medical camp was set up onWorld Kidney Day at ShalamarHospital Outpatient Department onSaturday for special medical tests ofpatients. The patients were facilitatedwith free kidney, sugar, urine,ultrasound and blood pressure tests inthe camp. Awareness literature andfree medicines were provided to thepatients in the camp. Chief Guest ProfDr Tahir Shafi and Dr Rashid Ahmedvisited the camp and appreciated thepublic interest and involvement ofpharmaceuticals.

Patients’ attendees file applications for

negligence, mistreatmentLAHORE: The attendees of patients admitted at two different hospitals protested againstthe hospitals’ administrations and lodged applications with the police for mistreatment.The attendees of a patient admitted at the Jinnah Hospital were involved in a minor clashwith the hospital’s security guards. They filed an application with the Garden Town policeagainst guards. According to details, Ramzan, a resident of Kasur, had brought a patient tothe Jinnah Hospital emergency Ward. He exchanged heated words with a security guard,after which the guards allegedly tortured him and his friends. Ramzan and his friends laterprotested in front of the hospital administration block against the paramedical staff andthe security guards. In a separate incident, protesters also slammed the Doctors Hospitaladministration for negligent treatment administered to a patient and filed an applicationwith the Johar Town police. The protestors alleged that the negligence of the medics at thehospital had caused their relative to go into a critical situation. STAFF REPoRT

CM hopes tostrengthen tradeties with Oman

LAHoRE: Students participate in the annual sports day of the Anjuman

Himayat-e-islam College on Saturday. ONLINE

Govt reiterates commitment

to end malnutrition


The energy crisis in the countryseems to be deteriorating with eachpassing day. The gas crisis that confrontsthis nation is no less serious. In fact, it isas alarming as the electricity crisis. Themeasures that are being taken by thoseat the helm of affairs in the government,to deal with this grave problem, aregrossly insufficient. That is why the situ-ation vis-à-vis the issue under referencecontinues to be alarming. A possible so-lution, in sight, to overcome the gas cri-sis is purchasing gas from neighbouringIran.

Pakistan and Iran signed the GasSale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) in

June 2009. The Government of Pakistanhas already made an assessment thatnatural gas imported from Iran wouldprovide the cheapest and perhaps themost suitable fuel for power generation.It has been estimated that 750 mmcfdgas would help generate around 4,000MW of electricity.

Moreover, this would also help cre-ate significant employment opportuni-ties in the backward areas of Balochistanand Sindh. Iran has already laid the 56-inch diameter pipeline for a distance of900 km from Assaluyeh to Iran Shehr.The remaining 200 km to bring thepipeline to the Pakistani border are

likely to be completed in the next twoyears. Pakistan, on its part, is planningto complete its segment of the pipelineby the end of 2014. However, a bottle-neck that seems to seriously impede thepace of work on the project is the rapidlydeteriorating US-Iran and stalled US-Pakistan relations.

The US pressure on Pakistan toforego the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gaspipeline project must be viewed in thecontext of the foregoing situation. Itsreal purpose is to build up pressure onIran more than anything else. But if wegive in to the US demand, it would haveserious (negative) consequences for Pak-

istan, which is facing serious energy cri-sis because of electricity and gas short-ages.

Also, from the economic point ofview, it seems appropriate for Pakistanto complete the Iran-Pakistan pipelineproject as early as possible to meet itsfast-growing energy requirements. Thealternate project that would bring gasthrough pipeline from Turkmenistan(TAPI) doesn’t seem to see the light ofcompletion, in the near future, becauseof the continuing armed conflict inAfghanistan.

M FAZAL ELAHIIslamabad

Editor’s mail 11Sunday, 11 March, 2012

Send your letters to:Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, PakistanFax: +92-42-36298302E-mail: [email protected] Letters may be edited for length and clarity.It would be appreciated if letters were ad-dressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

More on HEC rankingsSenior faculty members of the Insti-

tute of Business Management (IBM)have rejected the recent ranking releasedby Higher education Commission(HeC). They believe that HeC has ig-nored or misinterpreted data submittedby the institute. Crucial data on teaching,research and quality assurance was notincorporated. It is more distressful tonote that IBM which has always enjoyedreputation as one of the top tier businessschools evidenced by its quality of intake,faculty and placement of graduates, wasranked so low.

Mistakes made by HeC are also obvi-ous from the press, protests by other uni-versities and articles appearing in thepress by individuals supporting the factof unfair ranking.

IBM faculty members have de-manded that HeC revisit the data andalso implement those shortcomings asmentioned by Chairman HeC himself inthe press recently.

Faculty members strongly feel thatonce the data is carefully scrutinised IBMwill be one of the top business schools ofPakistan. ed Universal, Paris, in its rank-ings of the world’s business schools, hasalready ranked IBM as one of the bestbusiness schools of the region.

PROF DR AKHLAQ AHMEDKarachi

Some real workThe main issue nowadays is the polit-

ical situation of Pakistan. every politi-cian wants to be the next leader ofPakistan.

They are going to organise jalsay util-ising the public holidays. Is that the bestway through which they can attract thepeople to vote for them in the comingelections? The most important thing thatthey should do is to ensure us that theyare doing something for the nation, notjust making promises or waiting to be-come a PM or president.

Why don’t they try to perform theirduties sincerely? They should show ustheir work and fulfil their promises first,only then we will vote for them. Our na-tion wants some positive changes. Merepromises are not sufficient to qualify forthe PM's seat or be a president.

HINA ZAFARKarachi

Anyone for morality?In a recent media quagmire vis-à-vis

banning of a morning TV show host, onaccount of her infringement on the pri-vacy of people, was a step which receivedmaximum response from all and sundry.However, the scary part which most ofthe people missed was “the presence ofpaid actors doing this fiasco’’.

Is there any rule in electronicmedia/print media on what to do or whatnot to do other than self-preservation?Irrespective of the social service someonewants to do, there has to be some welldefined red lines, do’s and don’ts, whichshould be followed/enforced in true let-ter and spirit, by all, specially the ownersand CeOs, of the media houses.

ZARA SHAHIslamabad

Safe by chance?The Prime Minister Syed Yousaf

Raza Gilani says that he cannot beturned out, in or over. He is lucky in-deed.

It is clear from our history that ourcivilian governments are terminatedmidstream only by the men in uniformwho have the express backing of ourgreat friend United States of America.

But the situation is such that ourgreat friend is down in the dumps eco-nomically right now and all foreign in-terferences cost a lot of money which itcannot afford under the present cir-cumstances.

Our civilian government is there-fore safe for the foreseeable future andmay not fear removal even if it robs thepeople blind through continuous priceescalations of common utilities.

TALIB HUSSAINMuzaffargarh

Malik’s statementsThe interior minister has said that

an image capturing system is being in-troduced in major cities of the country.This system will be helpful in control-ling crimes in big cities.

The ground reality is that extortionand killing of people are on the rise. Iwant to ask him: what has been theprogress of the government in control-ling such crimes in the past four years?People feel insecure. It has become dif-ficult for businessmen to continue theiractivities under the deteriorating lawand order situation.

I advise the interior ministry to takeconcrete steps to control crimes incities. The time of employing hollowslogans and befooling the people is nowover.

TARIQ HUSAIN KHANKarachi

Pakistan's worsening energy crisis

Air Martial (Retd) Asghar Khan deserves national apprecia-tion for his 1996 petition regarding the lavish distribution ofMehran Bank’s, under duress, dole of Rs 340 million, for distri-bution amongst various political dignitaries, in the “supremenational interest” under the orders of then President GhulamIshaq Khan, through former army chief Aslam Beg.

The act was reprehensible and the SC must bring all thoseinvolved to book so that this unholy alliance of money and poli-tics can be unravelled and the prospect of hidden hand interfer-ence in the political process curtailed.

SULTANA RIZVIKarachi

Mehrangate

on KoNY 2012The greatness of the power of social

media has only recently been made obvi-ous to the people of the world. After theArab Spring, we may have the next social,perhaps international, movement in theform of the viral documentary KOnY2012. It was made by documentary film-makers who researched and presented tothe world the horrors of the war crimescommitted by one Joseph Kony, theUgandan leader of the Lord's ResistanceArmy. In 2005, he was at the top of themost wanted list by the InternationalCriminal Court and is said to have a30,000 strong army of child soldiers whoamongst other horrors were abducted,raped and forced to kill their families.

The efforts of the project team for In-

visible Children – KOnY 2012, and nu-merous young volunteers, have broughtthe issue on to the US foreign policyagenda even though the country has nopolicy or financial interests in the region.Their aim is to have an American or per-haps international force to help theUgandan Army fight Kony. For that tohappen, they would require large scalesupport from the world community. Theyintend to get this support by makingKony famous the world over. The websitefor KOnY 2012 shows a petition to havehim brought to justice, the documentaryand information about how people fromanywhere can get involved in the effort.

It is awe-worthy what they have ac-complished with one film, posters, t-shirts and Facebook posts. It isheartening to see that the people are not

powerless in the face of bureaucracies orfor that matter, borders. There is a lessonin this for the youth of Pakistan as well.This is a time for optimism and a beliefin a better future, and it is us, with thepower of our speech, who can and mustfight for what is right, in Pakistan andanywhere in the world. Stand up andspread the word.

SHANDANA SAJJADRawalpindi

Step-in‘Government is taking steps to bring

Fata into mainstream,’ said Dr FirdousAshiq Awan, Information Minister. Thisis very much like acquiring new boots.

Z A KAZMIKarachi

Since her arrival in Washing-ton about two months back,Ambassador Sherry Rehman

has been making earnest endeav-ours to put Pakistan-US relation-ship back on the rail and build apositive image of Pakistan at theWhite House, State Department,among Congressmen and the thinktanks.

To counter the impression inthe western society and the mediaabout women in Pakistan, the am-bassador made it a point to organ-ise a special function at theembassy on "empowering women:The Way Ahead" on the occasionof International Women Day atwhich the ambassador, herself achampion of women and humanrights, through a video documen-tary showed the audience how thePakistani women were being em-powered through legislation thathad been pursued by the parlia-ment to make them a valuable

member of the community.Sherry Rehman, who was a

close associate and confidant offormer Prime Minister ShaheedBenazir Bhutto, in her address saidwomen's rights is part of the his-tory of struggle of the PakistanPeoples Party. As the first womanever elected to head an Islamic na-tion, our leader Shaheed Mo-htarma Benazir Bhutto felt aspecial responsibility to address is-sues relating to women, she saidand added that the present gov-ernment was committed to followher vision.

Ambassador Rehman, wassummoned back in the last week ofMarch for fresh briefing at thehighest level during which she metPresident Asif Ali Zardari, PrimeMinister Yusuf Raza Gilani andCOAS General Ashfaq ParvezKayani. She has a very difficulttask as tension between the two al-lies in war on terrorism hasplunged US-Pakistan relations totheir lowest point since the end ofthe Cold War.

She brought glamour to hercritical post along with a willing-ness to play hardball embodyingthe beauty and the boldness of herfriend and mentor, BenazirBhutto. Since taking up her postthe envoy has handled her chal-lenging portfolio with similar, pur-poseful charm and made herpresence felt at the Capitol Hill.

After landing in Washington,Ambassador Sherry Rehman fol-lowed a hectic schedule by meetingall the key Senators, Congressmen,state department and Pentagonpolicymakers and important thinktanks before presenting her cre-dentials to President Obama. Inher interaction with Obama, shehighlighted Pakistan's cooperationwith the US and the internationalcommunity in defeating terrorismand the sacrifices and efforts byPakistan for security along theAfghan border and the region atlarge.

As a former journalist, politi-cian and in her new role as a diplo-mat, Sherry Rehman fully knows

that she had to strengthen bilateralties and set them on firmer, trans-parent and equitable footings withthe support of who is who in theUS and the Pakistani-Americancommunity.

She followed the right path bymeeting Secretary of State HillaryClinton and the all importantChairman of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee SenatorJohn Kerry. During meeting withClinton which lasted for an hourand attended by Barack Obama'sspecial representative forAfghanistan and Pakistan, MarcGrossman, troubled ties betweenthe two nations came under de-tailed discussions and views wereexchanged on the way to moveahead. The Pakistani ambassadorasserted that Pakistanis were verysensitive to their country's honourand dignity and in no would acceptany type of interference in their in-ternal affairs. She stressed that thePak-US relationship would be en-during only if it was built on equalfooting and Islamabad's strategic

interests in the region were kept inview by the policymakers at theCapitol Hill.

John Kerry, who is a formerpresidential candidate and is lis-tened with great respect in theAmerican policy circles, in his ad-dress emphasised for a serious at-tempt to understand Pakistan'sstrategic interests in the regionand for rebuilding a productive re-lationship. He was quick to recog-nise that there was much reasonfor distrust between Pakistan andUS saying a series of tactical dis-putes have strained their strategicpartnership and the truth was thatthe US would have a lot of work todo to rebuild a productive relation-ship.

In view of the tremendous eco-nomic losses that Pakistan suf-fered during the war on terror, theambassador made it a specialpoint to address the US-PakistanBusiness Council urging the Amer-ican investors to benefit from vastbusiness opportunities Pakistanoffers in several potential areas,

particularly the energy sector.In the US, different think

tanks play key role in shaping thepolicies, and to judge whereSherry's heart lies, she addressed apacked auditorium at the UnitedStates Institute of Peace in Wash-ington. Her speech signalled a de-sire for substantive changes in USengagement with Pakistan basedon a belief that it is understand-able for the US to reach out to Pak-istan only in times of strategicneeds. She hoped that she wouldbe remembered as an anchor in acritical bilateral relationship be-tween the two countries.

While the Pakistani Parlia-ment is all set to debate Pak-US re-lations, and the government willfollow the guidelines in reshapingthe vital relationship, AmbassadorRehman, herself a former legisla-ture, will have to play a key role toremove the trust deficit by stronglyadvocating Pakistan's viewpoint.She thus faces some formidablechallenges in her term as ambassa-dor to reset US-Pakistan relations.

By Sajid Hussain

Sherry Rehman at Capitol Hill


Comment12Sunday, 11 March, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

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

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

New outlook at the agency too?

New spymaster

The change of command in the ISI has taken placeat a crucial moment. The role played by thesecurity agencies is under public scrutiny as neverbefore. The security agencies are being widely

accused for disappearances and extrajudicial killings atcourt proceedings, seminars and in the media. early thismonth, referring to the incidents of missing people inBalochistan, the chief justice regretted that fingers werebeing pointed at the intelligence agencies. In the Adyalajail missing persons case, the Supreme Court expressedserious concern about the ISI and MI detaining people inviolation of law. The relatives of missing persons campingoutside Parliament House have roused sympathy in thepublic and drawn media’s attention.

The politicians, including those once in the good booksof the ISI, are highly critical of the agencies meddling inpolitics. The admission in the SC by a former ISI chief thathe distributed huge amounts of money among certainpoliticians at Gen Aslam Mirza’s orders constitutes anotherindictment of the agency. The agencies are under attack ontwo scores: for undertaking activities that do not comeunder their purview like political engineering and forviolating constitutional guarantees provided to citizens andbreaking laws. As the change in command takes place,there is an opportunity to improve the image of the ISI byturning it into a non-political, thoroughly professional andlaw abiding organisation. Gen Zahir who headed the ISI’sinternal wing for almost two years is the best person toinitiate the much needed policy change.

Gen Zahir takes over the charge amidst importantchanges in the regional scenario. The US which isscheduled to hand over fighting to the Afghan troops by2014 is playing the endgame now. Hints thrown by ForeignMinister Khar reveal some of the contours of the newforeign policy that is to be formulated within weeks byparliament. She has rejected the concept of strategic depthachieved through military means or proxy war affirmingthat “The only way to do is through building trust with theAfghan state.” She has also maintained that good relationswith neighbours are to be the corner stone of Pakistan’sforeign policy. The ISI’s outlook must not be out of syncwith the country’s foreign policy.

Empower this one, please

Another commission

The Senate on Friday did a commendable job byunanimously adopting a bill seeking theestablishment of a national commission onhuman rights, incorporating various clauses to

enlarge the scope of the legislation carried out by thenational Assembly a few months ago.

The bill was moved by Leader of the House nayyarBukhari after it was thoroughly examined and vetted by aSenate committee comprising prominent legal andconstitutional experts which had proposed keyamendments aimed at making the commission morepowerful, impartial and free from political interference.The bill will now be referred to the nA for its re-endorsement before being sent to the president for finalassent.

The commission to be headed by an individualqualified to be appointed a member of the superiorjudiciary with sufficient human rights expertise will haveChairperson on the national Commission on the Status ofWomen and a minority representative as its members.

The government might have been compelled toexpedite the process to meet a criterion set by the Ununder which all member states are bound to constitutesuch commissions and furnish reports on the state ofhuman rights to the world body without hiding any aspect.

That the proposed commission will be empowered toentertain complaints of human rights violations againstmembers of the armed forces and their intelligenceagencies is indeed welcome. There, however, remains anobvious lapse on the part of the senate committee whichhas suggested only a recommendatory role for thecommission while leaving it to the government to decidewhether or not to take any action against the culprits.

The bill was passed at a time when the people havebeen protesting against enforced disappearances across thecountry. But the proposed commission may not be able toachieve the desired objectives unless the ruling politicalleadership takes concrete measures to rein in the military’sintelligence apparatus involved in human rights violations.

armageddon

Anyone who imagines that Is-rael can attack Iran and notunleash another world warmust be mad. Pray pauseand think.

I know that if the world weren’t half-full of madcaps we wouldn’t have hadthe first two world wars in the first place.Both were touted as ‘wars that wouldend the world’ but they were essentiallyeuropean, with Japan thrown into thesecond and most of the rest of the worldin bondage to european powers draftedin, not really knowing what they werefighting, killing and dying for who andwhy. For King and country? WhichKing? Which country? not theirs,surely? That was the lot of the Indian.not so Iran, which was not enslaved andnever was. Herein lies the essential dif-ference in mental makeup, not in beingShia or Sunni.

But the next world war could trulybring Armageddon. It would be the end,if not of the world, if not of humankind,then certainly of contemporary civilisa-tion. Khatam shud. That includes Israel,which ironically would have started thewar to protect itself. It would not be thefirst time that our brother Jews wouldhave brought destruction down uponthemselves. But I’m sure of one thing:the Jews may be anything but they areone people who are not crazy. Going bythe record, they are the most intelligentpeople on earth, so intelligent that theyoften are too intelligent for their owngood.

“Good,” some would say. “I want toget off this ship of fools. Let’s begin allover again.” That’s easy to say in thecomfort of your armchair, but not soeasy when you see your child’s skin peel-ing off before your eyes because of heatand radiation.

So what do we do? Give Israel whatit wants? not a bit of it. Think it through.Try and understand why Israel and itssupporters (I use the word ‘supporters’tongue in cheek) are fanning the flamesof war and fomenting hysteria. Gaugewhat they really want, and then, if youcan, outsmart them. Beat them at theirown game. not so easy, but if there isany Muslim country capable of doingthis, the only one is Iran. The rest are…best not to say it. Or should I? The rest

are largely regional general managers inAmerica’s global scheme of things.Those few who are not are despots at thevery least. Look at Assad the Tyrant ofSyria and what he won’t do, how manyof his own brothers, sisters and childrenhe won’t kill just to cling to power. Heshould visit his despotic father Hafiz theTyrant’s grave sometimes and seewhether he can detect a throne there. Hewill find it not there but under his ownderriere. Soon, someone else’s derrierewill be on it. And his derriere will begone.

It was netanyahu’s speech in Wash-ington that set the cat amongst the pi-geons. It fell just short of a declarationof war. There is still a ‘window of oppor-tunity’ open for an attack, he said, butfast for it would close soon and Iranwould have passed the nuclear thresh-old. Time was of the essence, not to bewasted contemplating one’s navel. Israeldidn’t need anyone’s blessings andwould go it alone if need be. But as Tucosaid, “When you have to shoot, shoot.Don’t talk.” With netanyahu speaking somuch, I doubt if he really intends toshoot. Soothing of feathers started inearnest. Kick the can down the road, atleast until the US presidential electionsand hope that better sense would prevailthereafter.

But then Israeli President ShimonPeres added to the hysteria by letting offin the same vein, that sanctions wereonly the first option. If they didn’t workall other options were still on the table,including a military strike. echoes ofOsirak, what?

Why don’t I think Iran will be at-tacked, either by Israel or America?Here are some reasons.1. My analysis is rationality based. Rul-

ing is ruthless, often bereft of ration-ality. Look at it objectively and youcan only see losers in this conflict, nowinners. not one.

2. Obama is up for re-election this no-vember. Here he is trying to get outof the two brainless wars his prede-cessor got him into, would he want toget or sucked into a much biggerone?

3. America’s and europe’s economiesare fragile. Truthfully, the worldeconomy is fragile. Closing theStraits of Hormuz is easy for Iran,despite America’s fabled armadagoing up and down watery hills inthe Arabian Gulf, like the Duke ofYork. They should recall the evenmore fabled Spanish Armada. Whenthe price of oil goes up appreciably,which it most certainly will, theworld economy will collapse. There’sno two ways about it. Would anyonein his right mind want that? Thequestion is: are rulers in their rightminds all the time? Types like uswould be done and dusted, which ismost of the world. India’s growth, al-ready sputtering, will take a giantleap backward. China’s growth will

stall. Humanity will go intowretchedness never before seen, noteven in pre-biblical times.

4. Whatever destruction it might cause,Israel too will get destroyed in theprocess. Attacking Iran would be sui-cidal. Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas atthe very least would jump into thefray. So might other Muslim coun-tries, especially if their people rise insupport, forgetting historic Shia andSunni cleavages for the moment. Itcertainly would spell the end of manymanufactured post-World Wars andpost-colonial states.

5. Worse, whether it likes it or not, andregardless of the noises it is making,America would also have to jumpinto the fray, not just because of theinordinate pressure brought to bearon it by ‘The Jewish Lobby’ andAIPAC, but more because it would beeying who gets control of the oilfieldsof the Arabian Gulf and the CaspianBasin once the region starts unravel-ling. There is no gainsaying that Rus-sia and energy-starved China wouldnot want a piece of the action. evenenergy-starved India might madlyimagine that it can also grab some ofthe booty. In that unlikely event,what adventure do you think Pak-istan might get into? even Chinamight advise us to. Sounds like theMad Hatter talking right now, Iagree, but it won’t sound so madwhen history comes to be written. The foregoing begs the question:

then why all this sabre rattling? It’sabout applying pressure on:1. America to side even more with Is-

rael.2. Russia and China to talk to Iran to

make it come under internationaloversight, just as Pakistan is peren-nially being asked to. They are theonly countries Iran might pay heedto.

3. The threat of the destruction that anattack on Iran would wreak could ac-tually prevent a war and bring Iranto where Israel feels safe.

4. A US president driven by electionfever would bend over backwards toplacate Israel if he wants to win. On the other hand, you just don’t

know. Madness comes without givingnotice. It doesn’t take an appointment.The rationale of rulers is different fromthe rationale of normal people. Oftendriven by imaginary demons, the confi-dence they exude is frequently hubris.They are so certain of their technology,their satellites, their listening andwatching devices and their fearsomecomputer driven gizmos of mass de-struction, that logic and rationality oftendesert them. That is how empires, super-powers and civilisations end and newones begin. These are social super novae.

The writer is a political analyst. He can be contacted [email protected]

By Humayun Gauhar

Madness comes without giving notice

With the change of the name of nWFP to KhyberPakhtunkhwa, there was an increase in the vi-brancy in the demand for other provinces in the

country including Hazara and Seraiki provinces.Addressing a public gathering at Muzaffargarh, Prime

Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also supported the creation ofSeraiki province, saying it was imperative to be carved outnecessarily. The prime minister added on the occasion thatthe creation of a Seraiki province could bring an end to thesense of deprivation among the people there and that thegovernment would utilise all its resources in this regard todo the right thing.

The prime minister delivered this speech on a Seraikiprovince at a time when there are an increasing number ofvoices for the creation of new provinces, the Hazaraprovince being one of them. After this movement has gainedsteam in the recent days, there have also been protestsagainst the carving out of a Hazara province which have ledto some injuries and other untoward incidents.

There is no denying that if the government puts itsweight behind the Seraiki province cause, movements forother provinces would also gain impetus. As mentioned ear-lier, these movements earlier gained momentum when thename of nWFP was changed to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as itmeant that the federation was more cognisant and respect-ful of ethnic identity and favoured greater political auton-omy.

One consequence of the prime minister’s speech atMuzaffargarh could be that it could lead to some estrange-ment between the AnP and PPP as the former does notfavour the creation of a Hazara province and the latter’s sup-port for a Seraiki province might entail that it has to supporta Hazara province too.

Creating new provinces is no mean feat and a lot ofthought must go into the process. Before any decision canbe taken, all stakeholders should assess in detail whetherthe ground reality warrants the carving out of a new entityand only then should all the legislative bodies move on it.

– Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur RaufKhattak

on new provincesDaily Pashtun Post

Regional Press


Comment 13Sunday, 11 March, 2012

Will it survive this summer?

UPa in troubleCan the court rein in the spooks?

Testing judicial mettle

every once in a while,during the course of anation’s journey of self-

discovery, a clear and presentopportunity is presented tocorrect the wrongs of the pastand set the course for a newand promising future. TheSupreme Court of Pakistan hasone such opportunity before itnow – the Asghar Khan case.

It is no secret that the ISIhas been dabbling in Pak-istan’s politics for manydecades – at the very leastsince the creation of its politi-cal-wing in the 1970s. And thispractice continues still today.However, either out of fear orthe extreme wizardry of ourspymasters, no one has evercome forth with substantiveproof of the ISI’s tinkeringwith the democratic process.

That, however, doesn’tapply to the Asghar Khan case.For once (and probably for thelast time ever) we have onrecord the sworn affidavits ofmilitary’s top brass, includingformer DG ISI, admitting thatthey bribed certain politiciansinto forming the IJI as a coun-terforce to the PPP (havingdeemed Benazir Bhutto a ‘na-tional security threat’ pursuantto a tapped phone conversa-tion between her and RajivGandhi in which the two pre-miers agreed in principle tomutual troop reduction). Andif this was a slam-dunk, add toit the fact that no alleged recip-ient of the money has comeforth to deny the claim.

All this amounts to blatantviolations of the law. The mili-tary officers involved have,prima facie, violated their oathunder Article 244 of the Con-stitution, which forbids themfrom “any political activity”.They have also subverted thedemocratic process, hatched a

conspiracy against the stateand violated Article 5 (Loyaltyto State and obedience to Con-stitution). Additionally, theyhave also violated section 15(Attestation/Oath), section 31(Mutiny) and section 42 (Ille-gal gratification) of the ArmyAct, 1952, and should havebeen court martialed.

Similarly, the elected rep-resentatives who participatedin this abominable exercisecould be held guilty under sec-tion 78 (Corrupt practice), 79(Bribery) and 83 (Illegal prac-tice) of the Representation ofPeople Act, 1976.

The stage is set, and thematter is now before the hon-orable Supreme Court. Andthe Court has three possibleroads to walk down.

One, it could hear the mat-ter and not decide the issue –to the dismay of everyone butthe culprits. Following thisroad, the court could listen tothe arguments and simply re-serve the judgment; which, ifreserved for long enough for ajudge on the concerned benchto retire, would mean that theentire case would have to bereheard by a fresh bench. Al-ternatively, a commission ofsorts could be constituted toinvestigate and prolong theissue (though it is hard toimagine what investigationcould be required since the af-fidavits are on record and noone has denied the facts statedtherein).

Two, the court could limitits judgment to the disclosureof the affidavits and a verdictagainst the generals, leavingthe prosecution of offences tothe government. While this –the convicting of three andfour star (retired) generals –would be no small feat, this isperhaps the lesser goal. Muchmore important than punish-ment (for crimes committedalmost 25 years ago) is theneed to set a direction for thefuture.

This brings us to the thirdoption – a judgment that goesbeyond mere disclosure andconviction, to take on the vir-tuous endeavour of definingthe contours of ISI’s authority.Currently, there is no law thatgoverns the ISI, unlike some

of its international counter-parts including the CIA (Cen-tral Intelligence Agency Act,1949) and MI-6 (SecurityService Act, 1989). In the ab-sence of a legislative mandate,the ISI essentially operateswithout any check. And thisproblem extends far beyondthe circumference of the As-ghar Khan case, into the dark-ness of the missing-personsissue and the murder ofSaleem Shehzad.

Stricto sensu, ‘legislating’the ambit of ISI’s authorityfalls outside the gates of judi-cial responsibility. this is ex-clusively the parliament’sdomain. But the issue needs tobe viewed through the prism oftwo connected realities: one,the parliament (this or anyother) is not likely to stand upto the intelligence apparatusand deliver a meaningful legis-lation, and two, over the pastsome years our (independent)Supreme Court has edged evercloser to ‘legislating justice’ inareas that parliament standsimpotent.

As a result, based on thefacts of the Asghar Khan case,the court can make simple dec-larations that effectively formthe law and limit ISI’s role to a(somewhat) constitutionallyadherent agency: declaringISI’s influencing of domesticpolitics as unconstitutional;requiring that ISI’s budget,while being a secret from openpublication, must have someaccountability process in thecivilian government; declaringthat, independent of the gov-ernment, the ISI cannot definewhat constitutes ‘national se-curity’; declaring phone-tap-ping, except in accordancewith law (section 54 of PTAAct), as illegal.

In this regard, the AsgharKhan case is a test of judicialmettle. And millions acrossthis land, who rallied for an in-dependent judiciary, are ex-pectantly looking towards theapex court.

The writer is a lawyerbased in Lahore. He has aMasters in Constitutional Lawfrom Harvard Law School. Hecan be reached at:[email protected]

By Saad Rasool

Afall from grace is par for thecourse. A slide into humilia-tion is another discourse. De-

feat is the familiar price of failure indemocracy. Humiliation is retribu-tion for a more dangerous sin, arro-gance. Parties often blossom afteran election victory, as Congress didafter 2004; very few retain any rela-tionship with reality after re-elec-tion. The trap of 2012 was set in2009.

Rahul Gandhi sought to win hiselectoral spurs in Bihar and UttarPradesh on the road to the PM’s of-fice. After two years of effort and ex-pense, he has just discovered thathe has neither horse nor directionalong the Gangetic belt. Family, inthese egalitarian times, is an inade-quate rationale for office.

Dynasties are loath to admitmistakes, since they damage theirprincipal claim to power, mystique.even a punctured prince must bepraised, therefore, if for nothingelse than hard work, as if hard workis perfectly understandable for mor-tals like Akhilesh Yadav andMayawati but a labour of love for aprince. everyone works hard in anelection. Defeat cannot be a prince’sfault: candidates were wrong, or theparty was to blame, and not a whis-per about who chose the candidates,or who was in charge of building theparty.

Rahul Gandhi is not young. Athis age, 41, his great grandfatherJawaharlal presided over the his-toric 1929 Lahore session andpushed through, despite the skepti-cism of his mentor MahatmaGandhi, the swaraj resolutionwhich formally committed the Con-gress to complete independencefrom the British. Jawaharlal soaredahead in national esteem on thewing of ideas, not slogans under-cooked by trainee chefs who do notknow the difference between hot airand nourishment.

When in 321 BC Chandraguptasought to overthrow Mahapadmananda (‘the son of a barber’),Chanakya offered some sensible ad-vice: Remember how your mothertaught you to eat a hot chapatti –begin from the edges. RahulGandhi’s strategy, literally andmetaphorically, was the reverse. Heoperated from the centre. From thecomfort of a power perch in Delhi,he converted the chapatti into a jig-saw puzzle. His advisers thoughteach geographical or demographicpiece could be adjusted by money,legislative illusion or emotional pa-tronage.

From this emerged a campaignof smoke and mirrors. A cash awardwas assigned to Bundelkhand. TheDalit heart was meant to melt at thesight of a prince dropping in for ameal. Rahul Gandhi’s problem isnot that he is young, but that hecontinued to play with toy soldiersin his electoral war room. I trustthat Rahul Gandhi is not going totear up any opponent’s manifestofor a long time.

The biggest play was made forthe Muslim vote, with promises thatwere tainted with compromise. Thedust of reservations was throwninto the eye and pantomime pa-raded as drama. Second rank Con-gress leaders began to compete forawards in histrionics. The only as-tute player in this game was theMuslim voter: on a bulk level, hedrove Mulayam Singh Yadav to of-fice, and in constituencies wherestrategic voting made more sense,he elected fellow Muslims across la-bels. There should be a lesson inthis somewhere.

Congress President SoniaGandhi thought the crisis was seri-ous enough to merit that rare indul-gence called a press conference. Shelet slip a thought that should trou-ble her colleagues, that the problemwas too many leaders rather thanlack of leadership. But we shall letthe party worry about that. Hermore substantive comment was thatUPA still had time to correct its mis-takes, since the next general elec-tions were in 2014.

In straight political mathemat-ics, association with Congress isslowly turning into a liability. Con-gress leaders like spokesman Man-ish Tiwari are beginning to admitthat there is sweeping urban resent-ment against the party. This is, onceagain, a reversal from UPA1, when

Congress added value to an ally’svote base. But the decisive impetuswill come from the Agatha Christiequestion: who benefits from deathin the drawing room, or, in a morestraightforward simile, the collapseof Dr Manmohan Singh’s secondgovernment?

Just as the Congress, as MrsGandhi pointed out, needs time,others need to be in a hurry. Ma-mata Banerjee, nitish Kumar, Jay-alalithaa, Jagan Reddy,Chandrababu naidu, naveen Pat-naik, Prakash Karat, nitin Gadkari,Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati,Prakash Singh Badal, Om PrakashChautala may have enough contra-dictions between them to confuse adoctorate in logic, but they want anelection when the Congress is at itsweakest. Throughout 2012 Congresswill remain shaken by the UP-Pun-jab earthquake. By 2013, Congresscould begin to recover. Why wait?

Some facts will linger like a ter-rible, toxic cold. Dr Singh, the firstSikh Prime Minister, has lost Pun-jab twice to the Akalis. The firsttime could have been carelessness;the second time is punishment. MrsSonia Gandhi has lost all Assemblyseats in Rae Bareli, despite the con-tinual presence of Priyanka Gandhi,internally touted as a bigger cam-paign star than brother Rahul.Rahul Gandhi has blamed the partyinfrastructure for the UP defeat, buthas he looked at the structure at thetop? not a single Congress heavy-weight is heavy enough to lift hisown state, or even a part thereof.Why blame the worker at the base?

The Congress can revive, ofcourse. But it must return to what itused to be, liberal in spirit and dem-ocratic in ethos. It can either be anational trust or family property,not both. The fact that other partiesare run by families is irrelevant.There were many turning points inthe UP election. One of them wasthe arrival of Priyanka Gandhi’shusband Robert Vadra and her stillyoung children to Rae Bareli. Theelectorate was being given advancenotice for 2030. I don’t know whatvoters will do in 2030, but we knownow what they did in 2012.

The columnist is editor of TheSunday Guardian, published fromDelhi, India on Sunday, publishedfrom London and EditorialDirector, India Today andHeadlines Today.

Third EyeBy M J Akbar


NEW DELHi: Bollywood actor Imran Khan, known for hischocolate boy looks, will turn baddie for the sequel ofthe 2010 film ‘once Upon A time in Mumbaai’. He willplay a don in parallel lead with Akshay Kumar. themovie was to feature Shahid Kapoor earlier but nowImran has been finalised for it. “talks were on withShahid but we have decided on Imran now. Imran lovedthe script, and we are very gung-ho about this project.the audience will get to see a different Imran,”Girish Johar, head of acquisition anddistribution, Balaji Motion Pictures said. Inthe film, Akshay will be seen asunderworld don Dawood Ibrahim, andImran will play his rival Aslam. theproject will be directed by MilanLuthria, who is basking in thesuccess of ‘the Dirty Picture’.the prequel – ‘once Upon Atime In Mumbaai’ - had AjayDevgn and Emraan Hashmitogether on screen. theirmentor-turned-rival chemistryas Sultan Mirza and Shoaib,respectively, was appreciated.Producers are hoping thatthe Akshay-Imran pairingworks wonders for thesequel too. AGENCiES

Imran Khan finalised for ‘Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai 2’

Action is easy, comedy toughest:

Akshay Kumar

NEWS DESK

THe unconventional romanticcomedy of Rose moviesproduction, ‘London Parisnew York’, which marked thedirectorial debut of Anu

Menon has managed to impress theoverseas audience. The film, which mainly

revolves around the conversationalrelationship of nikhil and Lalitha, playedby Ali Zafar and Aditi Rao, was mainlytargeted at a niche audience as told byCeO of Fox Star but the box office figuresreveal that it has managed to score betterthan many commercial masala films.According to an official statementreleased by the film's official publicist, thefilm collected approximately 32,538pounds, which is said to be more than thecollection of ‘Band Baaja Baarat’ (25,000pounds), ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ (28,000pounds) and ‘JaaneTu... Ya Jaane na’(30,000 pounds). Also the movie collected$53,535 on its opening weekend in the USand $112,000 in the Middle east. Suchoverwhelming response of the targetedaudience has earned Ali Zafar variousmovie offers right after his film releasedon the 2nd March. Movie critics were allpraises for his effortless enactment of acharacter that was to go through anemotional transition at every time lapseduring the film. So having deliveredspectacular performances in three hitmovies in a row, Ali Zafar has become oneof the most desired new actors in B-Townthat are here to stay for a long time.

Marium Bilwani

and Usman Bilwani Mosin SayeedMaheen Khan


NEWS DESK

Actor naseeruddin Shah was recently inPakistan to shoot for a film by debutantIndo-Pak director couple Minoo Gauharand Mazhar Zaidi. While naseer tried tokeep it a hush-hush visit, he was followed

by chants of ‘Ooh la la’ wherever he went.“That sound follows me everywhere. It's acurse, I tell you,” he laughed. naseer playsa despicably negative character in the filmwhich is about illegal immigrants. “I wasvery moved by the script and Minoo andMazhar's sincerity,” the actor said. He isreally kicked about the fact that apartfrom being an Indian acting in a Pakistanifilm, the film itself is being made byMinoo, a Hindu from Meerut and herhusband Mazhar, a Muslim fromPakistan. This isn't naseer's firstPakistani film either. He played a pivotalrole in Shoaib Mansoor's highly laudedfilm ‘Khuda Ke Liye’ and was to be part ofthe director's next, ‘Bol’. Unfortunately,he could not do it, a fact he regrets.Meanwhile, naseer will return to Pakistanon the 17th of this month to continueshooting. This would be his fifth visit tothe country. naseeruddin Shah, who waslast seen 'Ooh La La' ing with the gorgeousVidya Balan in ‘The Dirty Picture’.

Naseeruddin Shahshoots in Pakistan for Indo-Pak director duo

Marvi Sanam ChaudhriAli Xeeshan

Asad Tareen Nadia HussainFrieha Altaf and Deepak Perwani

KARACHI: the House of Kamiar Rokni Lawn by Bonanza 2012 was launched at a star-studded event. PR

Faisal Qureshi Anoushay with Nabila Salon team

SOCIETY‘London Paris New York’s success lands Ali Zafar

various offers

NEW DELHi: He has proved to be a ‘khiladi’ of bothgenres - action and comedy. But kicking and boxing infront of the camera is far easier than making theaudience laugh, says Bollywood star Akshay Kumar.“Action is easy, it is very easy. Comedy is difficult,”Akshay said while on the sets of Neeraj Pandey’s‘Special Chabbis’. “You know...you can kick your legs,

punch someone very easily and do action. Infact, action can even look great throughcamerawork. Also, for an emotional scene, youcan put glycerine in the eyes and make anyartist cry, and the viewers think he is crying, sopeople also start crying,” said the actor. “But tomake someone laugh, you have to work veryhard. It’s very difficult to make people laugh. Socomedy is tough-the toughest,” he added.Akshay became the undisputed action star ofHindi films with projects like ‘Khiladi’, ‘SabseBada Khiladi’, ‘International Khiladi’, ‘waqtHamara Hai’ and ‘Mohra’. In 2000, he tried hiscomic timing in the hit movie ‘Hera Pheri’. It wasfollowed by others like ‘Garam Masala’, ‘BhagamBhaag’, ‘welcome’, ‘Singh Is Kinng’, ‘Housefull’and ‘tees Maar Khan’. “Nothing has changedabout comedy. People enjoy what you give fromthe heart. Don’t try and go by the trend. Go withyour heart and mind. If you do your work withsincerity, it will always work,” said the actor whohas done about 100 films in his 25-year-oldcareer. “If you make a film with your head andheart, it will always have a connect with theaudience,” said Akshay, who is now awaiting forthe sequel of Sajid Khan’s 2010 comic film‘Housefull’ to hit the theatres April 5. AGENCiES

MuMBAi: Vidya Balan, who won thebest actress National award for herbold and beautiful performance in‘the Dirty Picture’, says she hasachieved a lot more than she everexpected to in her seven-yearBollywood career. “I am feeling verygood. Actually, I am speechless totell how wonderful and happy Iam feeling,” the 33-year-oldsaid at an event. “I alwaysthought of receiving at leastone National award in mycareer. I am just seven yearsold in the industry and Ialready have a National awardto my credit. As I said, I havegot much more than I hadexpected. I am feeling verycontent,” she added. Vidyaforayed into Bollywood in2005 with ‘Parineeta’ andreceived the Filmfare award forbest female debut for her roleas Lolita. the year 2011 provedto be splendid for the actress,whose ‘No one Killed Jessica’and ‘the Dirty Picture’received accolades. Vidya’slatest ‘Kahaani’ is also fetchingthe actress rave reviews forher performance as a pregnantwoman in search of hermissing husband. AGENCiES


MuMBAi: two of the biggest Khans inBollywood are no longer on speakingterms. Many of Salman Khan’smovies have crossed the 100 croremark, and Shah Rukh still rules asthe badshah of Bollywood.there’s no love lost between thetwo biggies, and at the receivingend of the cold (or otherwise)war is Aditya Chopra. Salmanhas allegedly demanded a rupeemore than the amount that ShahRukh gets from Aditya Chopra.Apparently, the ‘one rupee more,please’ demand has alwaysbeen behind the amicablerelationships andcompetitions betweenactors in the industry.Since the times ofactors like DevAnand and RajKapoor, and then tothe more recentRajesh Khanna andAmitabh Bachchan,directors have alwayshad the difficult work

of choosing an actor worth a rupee more.tradition has continued as far as

the monetary remuneration isconcerned. And it has

permeated down to ourKhans – Salman and ShahRukh, too. one crore or ahundred crores is hardly ofany consequence to thearch rivals. It is only onerupee that matters.AGENCiES

Salman is worth a rupee more than Shah Rukh!

WELLiNGToN: Brad Pitt, who is concerned about hislongtime partner Angelina Jolie’s health, is said tohave given the actress “an ultimatum that she has tostart eating.” the celebrity couple raise six childrentogether, and Jolie, 36, is rumoured to be pregnantwith another set of twins. Pitt, 48, is reportedlyconcerned for the health and wellbeing of his loveand his unborn kids, as the loving patriarch believesJolie is too thin. “It’s really got Brad terrified,”Stuff.co.nz quoted a source as saying. “Brad gaveAngie an ultimatum that she has tostart eating for the sake of the twins’health,” the source said. It is speculatedthat the ‘Salt’ star began battling issueswith her weight nearly a decade ago.“She’s been extremely thin since ‘Mr andMrs Smith’. She’s never properly put thatweight back on,” the source claimed.Jolie’s frame altered drastically followingthe birth of her twins Knox andVivienne in 2008. the actress wasn’thappy with how her body changed.“when she went to Cannes eightmonths after the twins were born, shehad the tiniest of curves in her hips andstomach. “I think it was the mostbeautiful she’s ever looked. But I don’tthink she felt that way,” the source said.Pitt is prepared to take a stand for hispartner’s wellness. “Brad is determinedto see her gain some weight. And thistime he’s not going to back down. Bradneeds to get her to start eating for atleast one,” the source added. AGENCiES

I’ve got more than I expected: Vidya Balan

Brad Pitt ‘terrified’

overAngelina Jolie’s health

Frieha Altaf, Umer

Sayeed and Kamiar Rokni

Anoushay Ashraf, Kamiar

Rokni, and Nadia Hussain

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy returns home:

talks about Academy win at SOC Films’ conference

15

‘Bol’ actorManzar Sehbai makes Bollywood debut

NEWS DESK

Pakistani actor Manzar Sehbai, whoplayed the lead in ‘Bol’, is all set tomake his Bollywood debut withHasnanin Hydrabadwala’s film ‘YaRab’. Sehbai, who has been living inGermany since the past 30 years, willplay a pivotal character of aneurosurgeon in the Hindi film. Theactor had wowed critics and theaudience with his turn as a stricthakim in Shoiab Mansoor`s ‘Bol’."That was my debut in Pakistani filmindustry and ‘Ya Rab’ is my debut forHindi film industry. I have enjoyedboth the experiences. I am basically atheatre artiste and have done seriousresearch in theatre in Germany. Filmsare a new medium for me postretirement from teaching theatre and Iam thoroughly enjoying it. It’s quiteentertaining," Sehbai said. He has alsoreceived an offer to work side by sidewith naseeruddin Shah in anotherPakistani film. “I am heading toPakistan to get complete narration andget into my character.”

Dennis Quaid's wife files for divorce

LOS ANGELES REuTERS

Actor Dennis Quaid and third wifeKimberley Buffington are splittingafter Buffington filed for divorce, theactor's spokeswoman said. “We canconfirm that Kimberley Quaid has filedfor divorce. Contrary to what has beenreported, a satisfactory settlement isbeing worked out for both parties,”Quaid's spokeswoman said in astatement, adding no further detailswould be provided on this “privatematter.” Quaid, 57, married Texasreal-estate agent Buffington in 2004,and the couple had twins ThomasBoone and Zoe Grace in 2007 via asurrogate. The ‘Soul Surfer’ actor wasmarried twice before, once to actressPJ Soles from 1978 to 1983, and toactress Meg Ryan from 1991 to 2001.

LOS ANGELES REuTERS

COUnTRY singerTaylor Swift,22, was namedB i l l b o a r dM a g a z i n e ' s

biggest money maker onFriday, beating powerhousesU2, Lady Gaga and Adele totop the list with earnings ofmore than $35 million in 2011.The ‘Love Story’ singerpocketed more cash from heralbum sales and world tour in2011 than Irish rockers U2,country music veteran KennyChesney, pop star Lady Gaga,and rapper Lil Wayne, whorounded out the top five onBillboard's annual list of 40 ofmusic's biggest money makers.Sade, rockers Bon Jovi,Canadian singer Celine Dion,country singer Jason Aldeanand current pop music darlingAdele rounded out the top 10,with earnings ranging from$32 million to $13 million.

Swift’s breakthrough 2008album, ‘Fearless,’ debuted atno. 1 on the Billboard 200album chart and 11 tracksentered the Billboard Hot 100singles chart, led by ‘LoveStory.’ now 22, Swift has alsobecome a brandingpowerhouse, with her ownmanagement company andlucrative contracts withcompanies such as Covergirl.She also launched her ownperfume, Wonderstruck. Shehas a following of more than29 million fans on Facebookand 11 million fans on Twitter.Swift will feature in thesoundtrack for the upcomingfilm ‘The Hunger Games’.

Taylor is Billboard’s

big money maker

LOS ANGELESAGENCiES

Bruno Mars and Justin Bieberaren’t just multi-platinumsingers — they’re also snappydressers. Both stars areamong the musicians who’vemade GQ’s list of the 30 MostStylish Young Men inHollywood, along with JoeJonas, nick Jonas and ‘Glee’s’Darren Criss, who actuallytopped the list. The magazinecalls Bruno, who came in atnumber 30 on the list, “amaster of throwback style,”saying he’s “one part elvis, onepart Sinatra, one part R&Bcharmer.” As for the Bieb, inat number nine, the magazinesays, “His taste is about as luxas you can get: YSL brooches,Watanabe varsity jackets,

custom-made motorcyclejackets in powder blue.”

nick Jonas is number sixon the list, and GQ says he“looks like a movie star” withhis “leather jackets and slinkytees.” The most unusual per-son to end up on the list,though, is Gwen Stefani’s son,Kingston Rossdale. Yeah, he’sunder 30, all right — he’s noteven six-years-old. Still, themagazine raves about his look,which isn’t surprising giventhat his mom’s a part-timefashion designer and his dadGavin Rossdale’s no slouch inthe style department either.“Look at this kid!” says GQ.“This rock scion obviously hasa leg up on all the other boys inthe, er, playground. expecthim to occupy this list for, oh,the next 24 years or so.”

Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber,make GQ’s most stylish list

KARACHINEWS DESK

As investigative filmmakerSharmeen Obaid-Chinoy re-turned to Pakistan, SOC Filmshosted a press conference whereSharmeen addressed the mediaand discussed her AcademyAward win in the Documentary(Short) category for her film‘Saving Face’, co-directed byDaniel Junge. ‘Saving Face’chronicles the work of acclaimedBritish Pakistani plastic sur-geon, Dr Mohammad Jawad ashe travels to Pakistan and per-forms reconstructive surgery onsurvivors of acid violence. Acidviolence, an extreme form ofphysical abuse, is systemicallyunderreported in Pakistan. ‘Sav-ing Face’ is an account of suchviolence told by survivorsthrough their personal journeysof endurance, recovery and rec-onciliation. The observationaldocumentary was filmed en-

tirely in Pakistan and was pri-marily based in the Seraiki beltin addition to Rawalpindi,Karachi and Islamabad. Speak-ing about the film, Sharmeensaid “This is a film about despairas much as is it is a film abouthope – to know that an issue likeacid violence is being tackled onthe ground by so many people isheartening. Daniel and I hopethis film will spur more support

for the victims of acid attack aswell as long term measures toprevent future occurrences.” Inaddition to those within the filmand behind the scenes, the mak-ing of ‘Saving Face’ was deeplyaided by Sarkar Abbass (Zakia’slawyer), PIMS Hospital, IndusHospital, Islamic help and Va-lerie Khan of the Acid SurvivorsFoundation. Sharmeen will belaunching an outreach campaign

in collaboration with the AcidSurvivors Foundation in Pak-istan to spread awareness andpromote critical conversationabout acid violence. ‘SavingFace’ was presented in the USAon the 08th March by HBO doc-umentary films, JUnGeFILMand MILKHAUS. ‘Saving Face’was co-produced by AaronKopp and Fazeelat Aslam, anddirected by Sharmeen andDaniel Junge. One of her mostrecent projects is a film titled‘Transgenders: Pakistan’s OpenSecret’ which sees Sharmeen atthe director’s helm – the filmwas released in the UK in De-cember 2011. The film exploresthe lives of transsexuals inPakistan who exist on thefringes of society. Sharmeen isalso producing an animatedtelevision series for children inPakistan for national broadcastwhich endeavours to exploreissues in identity, history andculture in Pakistan.

Kamiar Rokni



16 Foreign News

DAMASCUSAFP

SYRIAn President Bashar al-Assad promised internationalenvoy Kofi Annan Saturday thathe would back any “honest”peace bid but warned dialogue

would fail if “terrorist groups” remained.State television said there was a “posi-

tive atmosphere” to the Damascus meetingbetween Assad and the former Un chief,on his first visit since being named Unitednations-Arab League envoy on the conflict.

Annan himself made no public com-ment about the progress of his crux mis-sion to prevent a year-old uprising fromspiralling into all-out civil war. “Syria isready to bring success to any honest bid tofind a solution,” the official SAnA newsagency quoted Assad as telling Annan. But“no dialogue or political process can suc-ceed as long as there are terrorist groupsthat are working to sow chaos and desta-bilise the country by attacking civilians andsoldiers,” he added. “The success of any ef-fort firstly requires an examination of what

is happening on the ground instead of pre-sumptions spread by certain states of theregion and others to distort the reality ... ofthe situation in Syria,” said Assad.

The meeting came against a backdropof fierce fighting between troops and rebelfighters, particularly in the northwesternprovince of Idlib, close to the border withTurkey, where the Free Syrian Army hasbeen especially active. Troops killed 16rebels in an ambush in the province on Sat-urday while the rebels killed four soldiersand captured five, the Syrian Observatoryfor Human Rights said. nationwide, 31people were killed, the Britain-basedwatchdog said, adding to a death toll thathad already topped 8,500 since protestsagainst Assad’s regime erupted last March.

emissary of the United nations andthe Arab League, Annan has the support ofDamascus allies Beijing and Moscow andhis mission has been welcomed by the boththe Syrian government and opposition.

But Russia said its Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov made clear to Annan at ameeting earlier in Cairo that Moscow wasopposed to “crude interference” in Syria’s

affairs. “A particular emphasis was placedon the inadmissibility of trampling on in-ternational legal norms, including throughcrude interference in Syria’s internal af-fairs,” the foreign ministry said. The Russ-ian stance drew an angry reponse fromGulf states when Lavrov joined an Arabforeign ministers’ meeting in Cairo withSaudi Arabia’s Saud al-Faisal accusingMoscow of giving Damascus a “licence toextend its brutal practices against the Syr-ian people, without compassion or mercy.”

Current Un chief Ban Ki-moon saidAnnan would demand an immediate endto the violence and aid agency access to be-sieged protest cities to evacuate casualtiesand provide desperately needed relief sup-plies to civilians trapped by the fighting. “Ivery strongly urged Kofi Annan to ensurethere must be an immediate ceasefire,”Ban said. “I also asked him to urge Assadto facilitate humanitarian assistance andaccess.” Ban said his predecessor wouldseek to encourage dialogue betweenAssad’s government and the oppositionbut that he would not meet opposition fig-ures inside Syria on his two-day visit.

NEW DELHIAFP

Tibet’s government-in-exile on Satur-day blamed China’s “hardline” leadersfor a string of Tibetan self-immolationsas it marked the anniversary of theDalai Lama’s failed revolt against Chi-nese rule. In the past year, more than20 Tibetans, most of them monks, haveset themselves ablaze to protest Bei-jing’s rule, sparking international con-demnation of what critics call religiousand cultural repression.

Lobsang Sangay, the head of theexiled government, said that while hestrongly discouraged such extreme ac-tions, the “fault lies squarely with thehardline leaders in Beijing”. Beijing hasheaped blame for the self-immolationson the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile inIndia, accusing the 76-year-old Bud-dhist leader and his followers of plot-ting to create “turmoil” in China’sTibetan-inhabited areas. But Sangaysaid “the self-immolations are an em-phatic rejection of the empty promisesof the so-called ‘socialist paradise’“ and

the lack of ability to protest in any otherway in Tibet. “Today, there is no spacefor any conventional protests such ashunger strikes, demonstrations andeven peaceful gatherings in Tibet,” San-gay said. “Tibetans are therefore takingextreme actions such as the one by 26Tibetans who have committed self-im-molations since 2009,” Sangay said.The Harvard academic’s statementcomes as Tibetans around the worldmarked “national uprising day” to com-memorate the abortive uprising againstChinese rule in 1959 that sent the DalaiLama into exile in northern India. Chi-nese authorities launched a huge secu-rity clampdown ahead of the sensitiveanniversary of the uprising which alsomarked the deadly anti-Chinese gov-ernment riots that erupted in Tibet fouryears ago. Sangay asked the United na-tions to appoint a “special rapporteur”to visit the troubled Tibetan region inthe statement issued from the northerntown of Dharamshala where the Ti-betan government-in-exile is head-quartered.

In new Delhi, at least 1,000 pro-

testers shouting “we want freedom” pa-raded through the Indian capital to paytribute to the men and women whothey said had “sacrificed their lives” forthe cause of the Tibetan people. InKathmandu, the capital of neighbour-ing nepal, nine protesters were ar-rested for chanting “anti-China” and“free Tibet” slogans near the Chineseembassy. And in Australia, 150 demon-strators marched through Sydney, car-rying placards with slogans such as“Tibetans are burning”, before staginga noisy rally outside the Chinese con-sulate. Beijing insists that Tibetansenjoy religious freedom and have ben-efited from improved living standardsbrought on by China’s economic expan-sion. But the Tibetan government-in-exile rejected that claim and called forChina to embrace a “Middle Way Pol-icy” which seeks “genuine” autonomyfor Tibetans. “We hope that China’s up-coming leaders will initiate genuinechange, and they find the wisdom toadmit the government’s long-standinghardline policy in Tibet has failed,”Sangay said.

eu frets at latestgaza violence

BRUSSELSAFP

The european Union on Saturdayexpressed concern at the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in three years whichleft 14 Palestinians dead, calling on bothsides to restore calm. A statement fromeU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashtonsaid the bloc “is following with concernthe recent escalation of violence in Gazaand in the south of Israel”. “I very muchdeplore the loss of civilian life. It isessential to avoid further escalation and Iurge all sides to re-establish calm.” Medicssaid Saturday that Israeli air strikes on theGaza Strip killed 14 Palestinians,including a militant group chief, afterPalestinian militants fired at least 90rockets and mortar rounds into southernIsrael, according to an armyspokeswoman. The Palestinian barrageinjured four people, one of them seriously,Israeli military sources said. Israeli mediasaid that three of the casualties, includingthe badly wounded man, were agriculturallabourers from Thailand working on afarm near the border with Gaza. One ofthe retaliatory air strikes killed the head ofthe Popular Resistance Committees(PRC), Zohair al-Qaisi, and fellowmember Mahmud Hanani.

young new star rises in india’s most populous state

LUCKNOWAFP

A fresh young star was chosen Saturday totake power in India’s most populous andpolitically key state after dealing astinging electoral humiliation to thenehru-Gandhi dynasty scion RahulGandhi. Charismatic politician AkhileshYadav, 38, is credited with crushingGandhi’s hopes of reviving the nationalruling Congress Party’s fortunes inimpoverished Uttar Pradesh ahead ofnational elections due in 2014. “We willwork to take Uttar Pradesh on the path ofprosperity and ensure that it matches upto the other states which have left usbehind,” Yadav promised after his partychose him to be chief minister following ameeting in the state capital Lucknow. Hisselection came after he engineered theregional socialist Samajwadi Party’ssweeping comeback in state electionsearlier in the week in Uttar Pradesh,which has 200 million people — morethan Brazil’s population. Riding hisregional party’s symbol, the cycle — whichhe called the “cycle of hope” — at ralliesacross the state, the marine engineeringgraduate represented the face of the“new” Indian politician, analysts said.Uttar Pradesh is viewed as critical inIndia’s political alliance formulations asthe state sends the biggest single bloc oflawmakers to the national parliament innew Delhi. Akhilesh Yadav is the son ofwrestler-turned politician Mulayam SinghYadav, who has served in the role threetimes. In the elections, the Yadav son andfather duo trounced the incumbent chiefminister Mayawati, a mercurial low-casteleader criticised for her grandiose displaysof wealth and taste for expensive statues,including those of herself. Akhilesh“embraced the idea of aspiration andchange” in the state, which has sufferedfrom a series of corruption-taintedgovernments that have failed to bringdevelopment, India express editorShekhar Gupta told India’s nDTV.Congress scored disappointing results inthree other states elections, winning aclear majority only in the far-flungnortheastern state of Manipur. Thefourth-place finish of Congress in UttarPradesh has raised doubts over thepolitical abilities of Gandhi, often taggedas India’s “prime minister-in-waiting”, tolive up to his party’s aspirations for him.But despite the setback, 41-year-oldGandhi is seen as the party’s unofficialcandidate to succeed Manmohan Singh,79, as prime minister of the Congress-lednational government.

MiNAMiSANRiKu: Visitors look around the devastated area in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture on Saturday. afP

Assad promises Annan to back any ‘honest’ peace bid

Tibet exiles blame China‘hardliners’ for immolations

Troops kill 16 rebels in ambush while rebels kill four soldiers and capture five

CAIROAFP

Arab and Russian foreign ministers met inCairo on Saturday over Syria, amid splitsover how to move forward to resolve a crisisthat has left thousands dead in a year. Themeetings come as the West and the Arabworld pile pressure on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to end a year-old uprisingspiralling into all-out civil war. Beijing andMoscow have used their veto powers aspermanent members of the Un SecurityCouncil to block resolutions condemning thecrackdown, because they singled out Assadfor blame. “Today, the most urgent is to endall violence irrespective of where it camefrom,” Russian Foreign Minister SergeiLavrov told his Arab counterparts. He saidboth the government and the armed groupshad to vacate Syrian cities and towns. ButSheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani, Qatar’sforeign minister, said the killings of civiliansin Syria amounted to “genocide” and that a

ceasefire was “not enough.” “The Syrianregime is committing systematic genocidewhile we talk of a ceasefire,” Sheikh Hamadsaid.“After all the killing, we cannot just talkof a ceasefire,” he said, demanding“accountability” for those responsible for theviolence.Sheikh Hamad said “the time hascome to apply the proposal to send Arab andinternational troops to Syria,” while callingfor the recognition of the Syrian nationalCouncil as the Syrian people’s “legitimaterepresentative.” “When we went to theSecurity Council, we did not get a resolutionbecause of the Russian-Chinese veto, whichsent a wrong message to the Syrian regime,”he said, warning that “our patience and thepatience of the world has run out.” SaudiForeign Minister Saud al-Faisal said the Unveto allowed the “brutality” to continue. Thestand of “the countries that thwarted the UnSecurity Council resolution and voted againstthe resolution of the General Assembly onSyria gave the Syrian regime a licence toextend its brutal practices against the Syrian.

arabs, Russia discuss Syria amid splits


SAINT PETERSBURGAFP

Russian police Saturday ar-rested dozens of people asthey broke up oppositionrallies in Saint Petersburgand in nizhny novgorod on

the Volga, an AFP correspondent andactivists said.

Truncheon-wielding police violentlybroke up a protest and detained severaldozen people in nizhny novgorodprotesting strongman Vladimir Putin’scrushing victory in presidential polls,activists said. Another 40 people weredetained at an unsanctioned protest inthe former imperial capital Saint Peters-burg after scores were detained Mondayfollowing a similar protest in Russia’ssecond city, an AFP correspondent said.Using batons, police in nizhny nov-gorod roughly detained around 50 to 60protesters after about 1,000 gatheredfor a march and subsequent rally, an op-position activist said.

Konstantin Baranovsky, a leader ofthe Solidarnost (Solidarity) movement,said the rally proceeded peacefully be-fore police started pulling people out ofthe crowd and beating them with trun-cheons. “This happened for the firsttime since 2007 when an oppositionrally was violently dispersed,” Bara-novsky told AFP. Around 250 peoplegathered in Saint Petersburg as the bud-ding protest movement attempted tosustain its momentum following Putin’sdecisive victory in March 4 polls that

gave him a third Kremlin term.Unlike a simultaneous protest in

Moscow, the Saint Petersburg rally wasnot sanctioned and police detainedaround 40 people, a local policespokesman told AFP. The detentionscame after dozens were arrested in Saint

Petersburg at an unsanctioned rally ofaround 1,500 people on Monday. Manyfear Putin’s crushing victory will takethe sting out of the opposition move-ment but those at the rally expressed thehope that Russians will continue tostand up for their rights. “I am sure this

is not the last protest,” Viktor Droby-shev, 38, told an AFP reporter in SaintPetersburg. “The fact that there are sofew of us does not mean anything. Manyhave just been released following the de-tentions on March 5. They haven’t hadthe time yet to come to their senses.”

Foreign News 17Sunday, 11 March, 2012

Rio DE JANEiRo: Britain’s Prince Harry plays rugby with children during a British and Brazilian-themed sports day on Flamengo beach on Saturday. afP

RUSSiA PoliCe BReAK UP ANTi-PUTiN RAllieS oUTSiDe MoSCow

MoSCoW: Police officers block protesters in central Arbat area on Saturday shortly after an anti-Putin rally. afP

SANAAAFP

Air strikes killed at least 33 suspectedAl-Qaeda militants in Yemen, in thefirst such action since a massive attackon the army, local officials said on Sat-urday. The sources said that 27 werekilled and 55 wounded in air raidswhich residents said were carried outby US warplanes on positions in amountainous area of Al-Baydaprovince, south of the Yemeni capital.

“They were new recruits, youthsfrom the region, taken by surprise bythe raids which struck as they were din-ing in training camps” on Friday night,one official said, on condition ofanonymity. The raids hit three villageswest of the provincial capital, alsocalled Al-Bayda — Al-Makhnaq, Al-Dooqi and Al-Mamdud, the sourcessaid. On Saturday, Yemeni planesraided the southern province of Abyan,

killing six militants, a local official said.He said positions near Jaar, 12 kilome-tres (seven miles) from the militant-held town of Zinjibar, were hit.

The air strikes were the first since amassive March 4 attack on an army campin Abyan province claimed by the ji-hadists’ Yemeni branch, Al-Qaeda in theArabian Peninsula (AQAP) that cost thelives of 185 soldiers. Residents said theraids in Al-Bayda were carried out by USaircraft, but the accounts could not beimmediately verified. Yemen is the an-cestral homeland of slain Al-Qaedaleader Osama bin Laden and the jihadistnetwork took advantage of a protractedanti-government uprising last year toseize large swathes of the south and east.

Washington has long made Yemen amajor focus of its “war on terror” and theUS Defence Department has providedhundreds of millions of dollars worth ofequipment and training designed to helpYemeni special forces counter AQAP.

Two of the raids, launched from around9:00 pm (1800 GMT) and lastingaround three hours in total, struck thehomes of Ahmed and Ali al-Humaiqani,two residents of Wadi al-Makhnaq, wit-nesses said. Wadi al-Makhnaq has an Al-Qaeda training camp, one local residenttold AFP. “Several armed men arrived inmultiple vehicles, along with two trucksloaded with weapons and ammunitionboxes, and attended Friday prayers inWadi al-Makhnaq,” said the resident,who declined to be identified.

Islamist militants, some of themAl-Qaeda loyalists, launched a majoroffensive in Al-Bayda province in Jan-uary, that brought them just 200 kilo-metres (125 miles) from the capital, theclosest they have reached. That month,around 1,000 Al-Qaeda fighters sweptthe town of Rada and overran it withinhours, holding it for nine days beforewithdrawing under pressure fromYemen’s powerful tribal leaders.

‘Many dead’ inSomalia Islamistattacks onEthiopian troops

MOGADISHUAFP

An offensive by Somalia’s Islamist Shebabfighters on ethiopian troops on Saturday leftmany combatants dead, military sources onboth sides and witnesses told AFP. “Thefighting around the village of Yurkut was themost intense since ethiopian forces enteredSomalia” in november, said one of thewitnesses in the country’s southwesternregion, Abukar Moalim Yarow. Militarysources in both camps gave differing tolls butstressed the fierceness of the fighting, whichlasted three hours, according to independentwitnesses. “The mujahideen fighters led theirmost important military incursion againstenemy positions in Yurkut,” Sheikh MohamedAbu-Fatma, a top Shebab commander in thesector, told AFP by telephone. “We forced theenemy to temporarily abandon three barracksand we killed more than 40 of their men,” headded. Kalif Adan, a pro-government official,told AFP from Baidoa that the Shebab“attacked Yurkut this morning. Many of themwere killed in fierce fighting. “The fighting isnow over and (the Shebab) have been heavilybeaten.” The hardline Shebab attackedethiopian positions in Yurkut, near thestrategic town of Luuq, on the road linking theSomalia-ethiopia border with Baidoa, aformer rebel bastion in southern Somaliawhich ethiopian forces recaptured last month.Somalia has been plagued by a relentlessconflict since the 1991 ouster of presidentMohamed Siad Barre.

Merkel laudsGermany’s nuclearphase-out plan

BERLINAFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel onSaturday lauded her country’s decision tophase out nuclear power, speaking on the eveof the first anniversary of Japan’s Fukushimadisaster. “We have seen the risks in a highlydeveloped industrial country, risks which weconsidered impossible — or speaking formyself, I considered impossible,” she said inan interview posted on the government’swebsite. “I think that quite a large part of the(German) population is in favour of thephasing out of nuclear energy by 2022,” sheadded. In March last year, europe’s leadingeconomy decided to immediately shut downits eight oldest nuclear reactors and to takenine others out of service by the end of2022. “We have a good chance of becomingleaders in other markets, for example in themarket of renewable energy sources, andthat could work out very well for us in thefuture,” she said.

nigeria grillskidnappers ofslain british,italian hostages

KANOAFP

nigeria on Saturday quizzed suspectedkidnappers of two Westerners killed duringa failed British-nigerian rescue operationamid a row between Italy and Britain overthe incident. Italian engineer FrancescoMolinara, 48, and his British colleagueChris McManus, 28, were believed to havebeen shot by their captors before theycould be rescued in the assault authorisedby British Prime Minister David Cameronon Thursday. nigerian security sourcestold AFP eight suspects had been flown tothe nation’s capital Abuja and hadconfessed to killing the two expatriates inthe northern town of Sokoto during thejoin military operation to free them afteralmost a year in captivity. “Those that werearrested in connection with the incidentwere brought to the SSS (secret police)headquarters, Abuja yesterday,” a securitysource said. “In the course of interrogationone of them said they killed the two guyson sighting the security men because theywere not sure they, too, will survive theattack,” he said. Another security sourcesaid: “They are being interrogated to have acomplete picture of the whole episode.” “Alot of substantial information is beginningto emerge from the suspects,” he said. Italyhas condemned Britain’s failure to warn itahead of the failed rescue operation, butLondon said it had been forced by thesituation to act swiftly.“The behaviour ofthe British government, which did notinform or consult with Italy on theoperation that it was planning, really isinexplicable,” President Giorgio napolitanotold reporters on Friday. “There needs tobe a political and diplomatic clarification,”he said. At an eU foreign ministers’meeting in Copenhagen later Friday,Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agatasaid he made Italy’s feelings clear duringtalks with British Foreign SecretaryWilliam Hague. “I asked for detailedinformation because we have a right tomaximum clarity on this episode,” Italy’sforeign minister said.

air raids kill 33 Qaeda suspects



SouTH AFRiCA 1st innings 238 (H. Amla 62, G. Smith 53, J.

Rudolph 52; Martin 4-56)

NEW ZEALAND 1st innings 273 (B. McCullum 48, D. Vettori

46; V. Philander 4-72)

SouTH AFRiCA 2nd innings

Alviro Petersen c Southee b Bracewell 25

Graeme Smith b Bracewell 115

Hashim Amla c Guptill b Bracewell 2

Jacques Kallis c Nicol b Boult 113

Jacques Rudolph not out 105

AB de Villiers c McCullum b Williamson 29

Mark Boucher not out 34

EXTRAS (b 2, lb 6, w 1, nb 3) 12

ToTAL (5 wickets dec; 140 overs) 435

Fall of wickets: 1-45 (Petersen), 2-47 (Amla), 3-247 (Smith),

4-283 (Kallis), 5-353 (de Villiers)

BoWLiNG: Martin 23-4-74-0, Boult 26-4-93-1, Bracewell 25-

3-70-3 (3nb), Southee 26-4-100-0 (1w), Vettori 32-5-65-0,

Nicol 1-0-9-0, Williamson 7-4-16-1

NEW ZEALAND 2nd innings

Rob Nicol c Smith b Tahir 19

Martin Guptill c de Villiers b Philander 6

Brendon McCullum not out 58

Ross Taylor not out 48

EXTRAS (lb 2, w 2, nb 2) 6

ToTAL (2 wickets; 41 overs) 137

Fall of wickets: 1-16 (Guptill), 2-55 (Nicol)

BoWLiNG: Steyn 8-2-25-0 (1w), Philander 12-2-29-1 (2nb),

Morkel 9-2-33-0 (1w), imran Tahir 8-2-33-1, Kallis 4-1-15-0

Toss: New Zealand

umpires: Billy Doctrove (WiS), Aleem Dar (PAK)

TV umpire: Richard Kettleborough (ENG)

Match referee: Roshan Mahanama (SRi).

SCoREBoARD

Azarenka scrambleswin at Indian wells

Page 27

DHAKAAGENCiES

MISBAH also warned histeammates about thestiff challenge posed byBangladesh ahead oftheir clash in the open-

ing match of the Asia Cup on Sunday.He said his side would not make the

mistake of taking Bangladesh lightly de-spite Pakistan’s nearly perfect recordagainst the hosts. Of the 29 matches be-tween the sides, Pakistan has lost justone, an ODI at the 1999 World Cup.

‘We don’t want to commit that mis-take. Bangladesh is a difficult oppositionat home, because they know the condi-tion very well,’ Misbah said. ‘On their daythey can upset you, so we will not takethem lightly. We have to put in our hun-dred percent, we really have to come outhard to win the game.’

He added that new Pakistan coachDav Whatmore, a former Bangladeshcoach, should be able to provide thetourists with details about the oppositionand the local conditions. ‘He is alreadycontributing, and of course he can givesome input about the Bangladeshi play-ers,’ Misbah said. ‘But I think we are play-ing lots of cricket against Bangladesh, weplayed a series against them here inDhaka. So we are quite familiar withthem. ‘Both the teams know each otherwell, both the teams know strengths andweaknesses of each other.’

He added that Pakistan will pay par-ticular attention to Bangladesh all-

rounder Shakib Al Hasan.‘Shakib is a key player, so we are fo-

cusing on him. But we are also focusingon other players as well,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Shakib said dealing withPakistan’s spin attack would be the keychallenge for Bangladesh.

‘Handling Pakistan’s spin attack isvital for us, and moreover their fast bowl-ing unit is also good. I think they have thebest bowling unit of all the teams playingthis tournament,’ Shakib said.

Despite Bangladesh’s inconsistentperformance against top teams, Shakibsaid the hosts will aim to win every matchat the tournament. The Asia Cup also in-volves India and Sri Lanka.

Although Bangladesh was white-washed in its bilateral series against Pak-istan earlier this year, Shakib remainedconfident of his side’s chances. ‘We havethe ability to bowl well against any bigside in the world. We will play every game

to win,’ he said. ‘We did not perform wellin the last series we played against Pak-istan, but this is a different tournament,and we are preparing well.’

Shakib said Bangladesh could notpractice much as a team before the AsiaCup, ‘but we have been playing domesticcricket so the guys are confident.’

India has won the Asia Cup five timeswhile Sri Lanka won it four times. Pak-istan has won it once.

The tough experience that India andSri Lanka went through in Australia intheir recent tour will give them an advan-tage over their rivals, Misbah said. Thebiennial four-nation Asia Cup begins inDhaka on Sunday with Pakistan andBangladesh vying for the top spot in thecontinent along with India and Sri Lanka.

India had just a few days break beforeflying to Dhaka after a tough Australiatour where they lost all four test matchesand failed to qualify for the finals of the

tri-series one-day tournament.Sri Lanka, beaten by Australia in the

best of three finals of the tri-series, flewto Dhaka directly from Australia on Sat-urday. "I think the way they have playedcricket in Australia, it will always be dif-ficult... to play against them as they haveplayed tough cricket over there," Misbahtold a news conference in Dhaka abouttheir opponents.

"To compete with them we have towork very hard and have to improve ourperformance." Pakistan touredBangladesh in December and won bothtest and one-day series by a clear margin.They also beat england in a test series 3-0 in the United Arab emirates before los-ing the one-day series 4-0 to the sameopponents.

"Regardless of the situation that wehave played here and have some advan-tage, but it will hardly matter as they haveplayed some tough cricket. A lot of teams

get mentally strong after playing overthere (Australia)," he said.

Misbah said they want to forget thepoor showing in the one-day seriesagainst england and take inspirationfrom the past good test results.

"every game and every series is a dif-ferent ball game. You can't just stick tothe series that you have lost," said Mis-bah. "If you look at the series before wewon six series in a row, I think this is partof the game. What we want to do is justforget the one-day series and just lookforward," he said.BANGLADESH: Imrul Kayes, tamim Iqbal, Nazimud-din, Jahurul Islam, Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), ShakibAl Hasan, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe binMortaza, Abdur Razzak, Elias Sunny, Nazmul Hossain,Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Anamul Haque.PAKiSTAN: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), MohammadHafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal,Hammad Azam, Asad Shafiq, Shahid Afridi, AzharAli, Sarfraz Ahmed, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman,Umar Gul, Aizaz Cheema, wahab Riaz.

Pakistan to focus on Shakib in openerAustralia experience

gives rivals edge in

Asia Cup: Misbah

Bangladesh

chief selector

returns after

PM interventionDHAKA

REuTERS

Bangladesh's chief national selectorAkram Khan withdrew his resignationon Saturday following assurancesfrom Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinathat there will be no interference inhis work.Akram resigned earlier this week cit-ing interference in the wake of a se-lection row involving his nephewTamim Iqbal for the Asia Cup.Bangladesh board president AHMMustafa Kamal omitted openerTamim Iqbal reducing the 15-mansquad to 14.Tamim, who had been suffering froma groin injury, was later recalled tothe side after he passed a fitness test."I was invited by the Prime Minster ather office on Thursday to discuss theissue," Akram told a news conference."She (Hasina) assured me I can workfreely and no one will interfere fromnow on. Later through a board direc-tor she asked me to withdraw my res-ignation letter," said Akram."She is our guardian, so after herwords there is nothing much to say. Ihope I will be able to work independ-ently," he said.Akram, a former captain, helpedBangladesh qualify for their firstWorld Cup in 1999 following victoryin the lower-tier ICC trophy in 1997.He played eight tests and 44 one-dayinternationals, and has been a selec-tor since 2007. He was made chief se-lector after the World Cup last year.

DUNEDINAFP

new Zealand need to break their recordhighest fourth-innings winning total ifthey are to snatch victory from SouthAfrica in the first Test on Sunday.

South Africa declared their secondinnings on Saturday at 435-5 givingnew Zealand a 401-run target -- a win-ning fourth-innings total beaten only

four times previously in cricket his-tory.

At stumps, with one day remaining,new Zealand were 137-2 -- requiring afurther 264 runs -- with Brendon Mc-Cullum on 58 and Ross Taylor on 48.

The Black Caps' current recordfourth innings winning total is 324-5against Pakistan in Christchurch in1994.

The West Indies hold the record for

the highest winning run chase whencenturies by Shivnarine Chanderpauland Ramnaresh Sarwan laid the foun-dation for their fourth innings 418-7 tobeat Australia at St John's in 2003.

South Africa scored 414-4 to beatAustralia at Perth in 2008, Indiascored 406-4 to defeat the West Indiesat Port of Spain in 1976, and Australiawere the first Test side to surpass 400in a successful fourth-innings run

chase when they made 404-3 againstengland at Leeds in 1948.

The highest unsuccessful fourth in-nings total is 654-5 by england whenchasing a target of 696 to beat SouthAfrica at Durban in 1939.

There should be 98 overs availableon Sunday for new Zealand to score theruns or South Africa to take the lasteight wickets, although morning rain isforecast in Dunedin.

South Africa set New Zealand record mark

DUNEDIN: Brendon McCullum of New Zealand bats during day four of the first test match against South Africa at the University oval. AFP


Sports 19Sunday, 11 March, 2012

DHAKA: Pakistan coach Dav whatmore (C) briefs players during a team training session at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. afP

Seeded playersin Jr talent Huntevent next round

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

All the seeded players have moved intothe next round of the 2nd nasir Ali KhanMemorial Junior Talent Hunt Tourna-ment being held at Punjab Coaching Cen-ter Bagh-e-Jinnah.On day two of the tournament under-10and under-12 first round and pre-quartermatches were played.Results 0f Under-10 1st Round: MustafaBaig beat M Hamza Khan 6/1, TalhaAhmad beat Zaman Imran 6/0, SameerSaeed beat Shimza Tahior 6/4, HaiderJhanzeb beat Miss Amesha, AhmadSaeed beat Rasheeda 6/0, Aman Kam-ran beat Hamza Saeed 6/0Under-12 1st Round: nalain Abbass beatZain Imran 6/0, Mustafa Baig beatAhmad Saeed, Malok Hussain beatAslam Shazaib Amin, Talha Ahmad beatMuhamad Saeed. Under-10 Pre Quarter: Ahmad Saeedbeat Abdullah Adnan, Shazan beatAmman Kamran, Talha Ahmad beatSammer Saeed, nalain Abbas beat AmanSyedUnder-12 Pre Quarter: Hafiz Arbab Alibeat Sameer Saeed 6/3, Ali Zubair Bhan-dari beat Hamza Saeed 6/1, nalain Ab-bass beat Shameer Ahmad 6/4, Humbalbeat Mustafa 6/1, Omer Mehdi beatMalik Hussain Aslam 6/0, Haviza AbdulRehman beat Hashim Javaid Qureshi6/1, Haris Irfan ul Haq beat AhmadSaeed 6/0.

PCB condolesdeath ofMiandad’s mother

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman, ZakaAshraf, Chairperson Women Wing Mrs.Bushra Aitazaz, Chief Operating OfficerSubhan Ahmed and management haveexpressed their deep sense of sorrow onthe passing away of Miandad's mother onSaturday at Karachi.In their condolence messages the PCBmanagement have expressed their deepgrief and sorrow over the sad demise ofthe mother of Director General PCBJaved Miandad.The management prays that her soulrests in peace and "May Allah Almightygive him and his family strength to bearthis huge loss," the PCB said.

watson fires 62 toseize wGC lead

MIAMIAFP

Bubba Watson fired a 10-under 62 toseize the second-round lead at the Cadil-lac Championship on Friday as he andplaying partner Justin Rose delivered abarrage of birdies at Doral. Watson had a12-under total of 132, while england'sRose, who carded an eight-under 64, wasin second place on 11-under 133.

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

State Bank and ZTBL moved past their rivalin round two of the Faysal Bank One DayCup 2011-2012 Division-I beating nBP andHBL respectively here on Saturday. Playingat the LCCA ground State Bank defeatednational Bank by nine wickets while at theGaddafi Stadium, ZTBL beat HBL by 114runs. In other matches of the tournament,PIA, Abbottabad, Karachi Dolphins andFaisalabad Wolves registered wins. SCoRES: GRouP AAt LCCA GRoUND, LAHoRE: State Bank 234 in 49.4overs: (Kashif Siddique 57, 51 balls, 5x4s, 1x6, RameezAziz 52, 74 balls, 4x4s, Gulraiz Sadaf 33, 62 balls, 3x4s,

Rameez Raja Jr. 28, 26 balls, 3x4s, 1x6, Irfan-ud-Din 5-42)NBP 225-5 in 50 overs: (Qaiser Abbas 83*, 94 balls,8x4s, 1x6, Umer Amin 53, 73 balls, 7x4s, Aqeel Anjum 30,37 balls, 4x4s, Adnan Rasool 2-26, Rameez Aziz 2-31) Man of the match: Rameez Aziz (State Bank)Result: State Bank won by 9 runstoss: State Bank, Umpires: Ghaffar Kazmi & Mir Dad,Referee: Kahlid Niazi, Scorer: Masood AhmedAt GADDAFI StADIUM, LAHoRE: ZtBL 349-7 in 50 overs:(Sharjeel Khan 163, 128 balls, 15x4s, 9x6s, Babar Azam100, 115 balls, 6x4s, Abdul Razzaq 24, 12 balls, 2x4s, 1x6,Fahad Masood 3-66, Kamran Hussain 2-64) HBL 235 in 39.1 overs (Humayun Farhat 52, 25 balls,9x4s, 1x6, Hasan Raza 47, 46 balls, 5x4s, Imran Farhat45, 48 balls, 4x4s, taufeeq Umer 36, 35 balls, 5x4s,Fahad Masood 21, 34 balls, 1x4, 1x6, Junaid Zia 4-50,Rehan Riaz 2-42, Babar Azam 2-28) Man of the match: Sharjeel Khan (ZtBL)Result: ZtBL won by 114 runs

toss: HBL, Umpires: Ejaz Ahmed & Zameer Haider, Ref-eree: Saadat Ali, Scorer: Najmus Saeed At IQBAL StADIUM, FAISALABAD: wAPDA 241 in 49.4overs: (Ali Azmat 56, 82 balls, 1x4, 3x6s, Riffat Ullah 45, 46balls, 7x4s, Rana Naveed ul Hasan 31, 37 balls, 2x4s, 1x6,Zulfiqar Babar 28, 29 balls, 3x4s, Imran Ullah 21, 15 balls,5x4s, Anwar Ali 3-51, Zia-ul-Haq 2-32, Shoaib Malik 2-43) PIA 246-6 in 49 overs: (Shoaib Khan 86*, 106 balls, 8x4s,1x6, Faraz Ali 69, 95 balls, 7x4s, Agha Sabir 32, 29 balls,4x4s, 1x6, Imran Ullah 3-38) Man of the match: Shoaib Khan (PIA)Result: PIA won by 4 wicketstoss: PIA, Umpires: Saleem Badar & tahir Shah, Referee:Nadeem Arshad, Scorer: tahir Suhaib GRouP BAt ABBottABAD CRICKEt StADIUM, ABBAttABAD:Sialkot Stallions 238-7 in 50 overs: (Muhammad Ayub108, 142 balls, 10x4s, Kamran Younas 25, 35 balls, 1x4,Mubeen Mughal 21*, 19 balls, 2x4s, Muhammad Azhar

21, 19 balls, 3x4s, Ikram Ullah 2-46, Nabi Ullah 2-49)Abbottabad Falcons 239-3 in 47 overs: (Hammad AliShah 97, 125 balls, 13x4, 1x6, Muhammad Naeem 84, 109balls, 11x4s, Rameez Ahmed 31, 38 balls, 3x4s, 1x6)Man of the match: Hammad Ali Shah (AbbottabadFalcons)Result: Abbottabad Falcons won by 7 wicketstoss: Abbottabad Falcons, Umpires: Riazuddin &Kamal Marchant, Referee: Muhammad Javed Malik,Scorer: Aamir SharifAt DIAMoND CRICKEt GRoUND, ISLAMABAD: KarachiDolphins 232 in 48.2 overs (Shahzeb Hasan 67, 80 balls,7x4s, 1x6, tanveer Ahmed 44, 41 balls, 4x4s, 2x6s,Muhammad Sami 31, 39 balls, 2x4s, Shahzad Azam 3-50,Kamran Hussain 3-31, Imad wasim 2-37)Islamabad Leopards 229-9 in 50 overs (Afaq Rahim 65,77 balls, 10x4s, Zeeshan Mushtaq 53, 61 balls, 5x4s,Naeem Anjum 39, 53 balls, 3x4s, tanveer Ahmed 2-45,Azam Hussain 2-47, Haris Ayaz 2-39)

Man of the match: tanveer Ahmed (Karachi Dolphins)Result: Karachi Dolphins won by 3 runstoss: Karachi Dolphins, Umpires: Ahmed Shahab &Qaiser waheed, Referee: Khateeb Rizwan, Scorer:Adnan FarooqAt KRL StADIUM, RAwALPINDI: Faisalabad wolves 224-7in 50 overs: (Muhammad Salman 62*, 65 balls, 6x4s,Zeeshan Asif 51, 79 balls, 2x4s, Muhammad Shahid 45,74 balls, 6x4s, Yasim Murtaza 4-43, Haseeb Azam 2-32)Rawalpindi Rams 163 in 41 overs: (Awais Zia 38, 39 balls,6x4s, Muhammad Nawaz 32, 45 balls, 2x4s, Yasim Mur-taza 31, 36 balls, 3x4s, Ahsan Adil 3-35, Aqeel Ahmed 3-25, Muhammad Shahid 2-21, waqas Maqsood 2-26) Man of the match: Muhammad Salman (Faisalabadwolves)Result: Faisalabad wolves won by 61 runstoss: Faisalabad wolves, Umpires: Shakeel Khan &Ihtasham-ul-Haq, Referee: Musaddaq Rasool, Scorer:Shakeel Ahmed.

State Bank, ZTBL grab easy win in National ODI Division-I

LAHoRE: MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif during the inauguration ceremony of the Premiert20 League at Khaiyaban-i-Amin Ground. STaff PHOTO

LAHORESTAFF REPoRT

Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and ZTBLeased to wins in the 7th nationalWomen Cricket Championship-2012round two on Saturday.

Lahore Region won the openingmatch of the day by five wickets againstIslamabad, Multan Region defeated Ab-bottabad by 171 runs, Peshawar regionedged to a one wicket win over Sialkotand ZTBL thrashed Rawalpindi by 10wickets, Rawalpindi.

SCoRES: PooL - AAt NAtIoNAL GRoUND, ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Re-gion – 102 in 25.1 overs: (Uzma Kanwal 28, 107 balls,5x4s, Huma Shafiq 17, 17 balls, 4x4s, Bakhtawar Iqbal4-7, Namra Imran 2-20)Lahore Region 103-5 in 35.3 overs: (Komal Feroz 19,34 balls, 2x4s, Namra Imran 17*, 52 balls, 2x4s,Anoshey Malik 2-24)Player of the match: Bakhtawar Iqbal (Lahore Region)Result: Lahore Region won by 5 wickets toss: Lahore Region, Umpires: Kaukab Butt & Sam-era Aftab, Match Referee: Ghulam Mustafa, officialScorer: Muhammad Akbar At MARGHAZAR GRoUND, ISLAMABAD: Multan Region267-7 in 50 overs: (Sana Gulzar 63, 63 balls, 7x4s,Fakhira Kazmi 53, 67 balls, 6x4s, Sadia Bibi 3-46)

Abbottabad Region 96 in 42.4 overs: (Sadia Bibi 14,72 balls, 1x4, Nadia Husain 3-17, Fakhira Kazmi 2-4,Hadia Hussain 2-30)Player of the match: Fakhira Kazmi (Multan Region)Result: Multan Region won by 171 runstoss: Multan Region, Umpires: Jamshed Iqbal & Sul-tan Mahmood, Match Referee: Raj Hans, officialScorer: Umer IqbalPooL - BAt IttEFAQ CRICKEt GRoUND, LAHoRE: Sialkot Re-gion 194-8 in 50 overs: (Saima Jamil 39, 75 balls, 4x4s,Rafia Liaqat 36, 36 balls, 6x4s, Nadia Naseem 30, 66balls, 3x4s, Zainab Khan 3-32, Yousra Amin 2-23)Peshawar Region 195-9 in 49.4 overs: (Ayesha Naeem30, 61 balls, 3x4s, Arfa Hasan 31, 78 balls, 3x4s, Sha-keela Naz 22, 31 balls, 5x4s, Saba Sardar 2-21)

Player of the match: Ayesha Amin (Peshawar Region)Result: Peshawar region won by 1 wickettoss: Sialkot Region, Umpires: Afia Amin & HumairaFarrah, Match Referee: tanvir Afzal, official Scorer:Azhar HussainAt LAHoRE GYMKHANA GRoUND, LAHoRE:Rawalpindi Region 47 in 15.1 overs: (Iqra Maroof 11, 11balls, 2x4s, Sara Rasheed 10, , 26 balls, 1x4, AlmasAkram 7-24, Kanita Jalil 2-15)ZtBL 48-0 in 5.4 overs: (Sana Mir 25*, 15 balls,5x4s, Rabia Shah 11*, 16 balls, 1x4)Player of the match: Almas Akram (ZtBL)Result: ZtBL won by 10 wicketstoss: Rawalpindi Region, Umpires: Rana Sohail &Nasir Hussain, Match Referee: Zaigham Barki, offi-cial Scorer: Abdul Hameed.

Lahore, Multan, Peshawar,zTBL win in Women Cricket

KARACHISTAFF REPoRT

The KPT national Football Challenge Cup2012 kicks off at KPT ground Karachifrom today.

Addressing a press conference herePakistan Football Federation (PFF) Lt.Col. (Retd) Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi sidthat it was a matter of pride for KPT tosponsor the event as part of their 125 yearscelebrations.

He gave the details of the panel of of-ficials from KPT and PFF side. From KPTside, Rear Admiral Azhar Hayat, GeneralManager Operations and Shah naeemZafar, Manager Sports were present.From the PFF side besides the GeneralSecretary PFF, it was attended by Syed

Khadim Ali Shah, President Sindh Foot-ball Association (SFA) and Wing Com-mander (Retd) Pervaiz Saeed Mir,Director Development and Competitions.

The General Secretary said that this isthe first time we have inducted two youthteams in an event like this and stressed onseeing great potential in the youth. Hesaid that our future is in the hands ofyouth who with experience and exposurewill become asset for the national teambuildup. Under the vision outlaid by thePresident PFF Makhdom Faisal SalehHayat in his vision 2020, we are strictlymonitoring the results and we have greatexpectations from our youth. This gesturewill encourage the players to put in theirbest efforts in the game and bring creditto the nation; he added.

KPT National footballChallenge Cup set to kick off


Sports20Sunday, 11 March, 2012

Pakistan travel to Bangladesh knowingthat a triumph in the Asia Cup could re-instate the confidence that we had lostin the ODIs against england, as the teamlooks to make a surge towards the top ofthe pile in Asia. Meanwhile, we have anew world number one in golf, while LaLiga has confirmed its status as the bestleague in the world. ASIA CUP PREVIEW

Thick-headedness with all things re-lated to Pakistan has ensured that cap-tain Misbah-ul-Haq is under immensepressure to deliver in the shorter formatof the game, as Asian giants – andBangladesh – lock horns in the Asia Cupstarting from today. After the anticli-mactic showing in the ODIs against eng-land, Pakistan have the idealopportunity to make emends inBangladesh. The home side have noth-ing really in their favour, barring homeadvantage – and too is questionable.India are arguably worse off than Pak-istan, as far as morale and confidenceare concerned after their blunder DownUnder, and Dhoni, like Misbah is underthe scrutiny gun. Sri Lanka are undoubt-edly the favourites heading into thetournament, as they give the Oz a verita-ble scare in the CB series and nearlyclinched it as well.

The induction of nasir Jamshed is apromising prospect for Pakistan, sincesub-continental pitches are batting par-adises, in every sense of the cliché andtherefore, Pakistan would need someoneto have the ability to score briskly up topto have the potential of posting totals inexcess of 300. nasir Jamshed can dothat, without compromising steadiness,and if Mohammed Hafeez is able to re-call the fact that he has a batting respon-sibility to perform as well – arguably oneof the most significant ones – in crunchmatches, then we might have a stablepair up top who have the ability to pushthe accelerator as well.

Misbah and Umar Akmal would bepivotal in the middle order, the formercould do himself a world of good by put-ting up robust batting show, while thelatter is possibly the most pivotal cog inour batting machine – albeit a cog thathas looked rusty and out of sorts for awhile. With sub-continent sides beingdexterous against spin, Umar Gul’s im-portance hikes up a couple of notches,and maybe we need to give Wahab Riaza good run in the side – he has showedenough to deserve that. Although wehave the best spinning repertoire in thegame, we can’t just look to out-spin ouropponents in Bangladesh. We have mostbases covered in the bowling depart-ment, but it’s the batting that needs tostep up to the plate this time round. Fail-ure to make the final, or being outdoneby India – both facets are intertwined –could result in a serious backlash thatmight result in a complete overhaul ofthe batting line-up, and perhaps the cap-taincy, for the limited-over sides. MCILROY REACHES PROMISED

LANDThis month’s Honda Classic might

just be recalled as one of those symbolicsporting moments, in the times to come,that divulge a lot more than what’s on thefinal scorecard. The tournament began,much like the one before it, with thegauntlet being thrown to Rory McIlroy tousurp the number one ranking by win-ning the tournament – something he hadpartially bottled the previous weekend.With hefty expectations resting on theyoung northern Irish shoulders, and somuch scrutiny being bombarded on everyhalf a manoeuvre of his, the accusationsof bottling in le clutch have surfaced inthe past – most notably in the Masterslast year, when they weren’t mere indict-ments. now, golf statisticians tell us thatthe probability of one succumbing to big-time pressure escalates at full tilt if oneTiger Woods is amongst the chasingpack. And oh sweet lord there he was!

Shooting a 62 on Sunday – his best everclosing round – with the phrase ‘boltfrom the blue’ bulging out from every iotaof the American’s exploits.

ever since Woods bartered sportingexcellence with off-field turbulence, thegolfing throne has been up for grabs.And despite Lee Westwood, MartinKaymer and Luke Donald filling in thecavity temporarily, the golf aficionadoshave been awaiting the next superstar –the next Tiger Woods. McIlroy has longbeen the one touted to fill those particu-lar boots; and when the US Open Cham-pion approached the final holes at theHonda Classic to consolidate his lead,the ‘Tiger roars’ from the crowds aheadof him and the scoreboard showcasedWoods upping the ante on the golfingprodigy’s quest to claim top spot. exhil-arating stroke-play gives you stardom,but the ability to scramble through inthe final holes – if need be – on Sunday,is the litmus test of a champion. Know-ing too well that capitulation would re-soundingly throw the cat among thepigeons, Rory pulled off golfing reper-toire too mature for his 22-years but be-

fitting the world’s top player to reachPromised Land.

That moment had its fair share ofsymbolism. It was the first time thatWoods and McIlroy faced off in genuineclutch-time, with Tiger finishing T2 andRory winning the tournament. And itmight just be a glimpse of the things tocome in the near future, as the golfingworld has long been craving for a dose ofMcIroy-Woods with both being on theirA game – there or thereabouts. It wouldbe hard to deny that sporting romanti-cism has been whetted by the fact thatTiger retraced something bordering onhis halcyon days the day McIlroy finallyachieved what he was long prophesisedto do.

not since Jack nicklaus and TomWatson were taking each other on in thelate 70s and early 80s has golf really hada veritable ‘clash of the titans’. And eventhough there is a considerable age dis-parity between the two, the fact thatTiger seems to be on his way back to hisbest and has a good many years of peakform ahead of him to hunt down nick-laus’ tally of 18 majors – this could fi-

nally give us that golfing showdown thatthe world has long pined for. Also, withPhil Mickelson striking the ball as wellrecently, as he has since the 2010 Mas-ters, we might just be entering into thenext golden era of golf – one akin to thedays of nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, LeeTrevino, Watson or the Jones-Hagen-Sarazen era or indeed the Snead-Hogan-nelson era – and this is one scrumptiousprospect!

Meanwhile, there’s hardly any doubtas to who’d be the vanguards of this po-tential epoch. Tiger has made a careerout of rewriting golf history books, andhe has a long way to go before that par-ticular ink dries. Au contraire, if anyonefrom the current generation can pull offa Tiger-esque career it’s Rory McIlroy,who’d find out, in the coming days, howit feels to be battling it out for su-premacy against someone, whose firstmajor triumph’s scorecard found a placeon your wall when you were seven. BILBAO CONFIRM LA LIGA’SSTATUS

Manchester United’s loss againstAthletic Bilbao on Thursday in the eu-ropa League has confirmed what hasbeen mulled over for a couple of years –the status of La Liga as the best leaguein the world. ever since Liverpool’sChampions League triumph in 2005,which was followed by a lucrative era forUnited between 2007 and 2011 – withthree finals in four years including a title– it was asserted that the english Pre-mier League is the best league in theworld. This fact was also confirmed byChelsea and Arsenal being present at thebusiness end on a regular basis. now,ever since Barcelona outdid United inthe 2009 final, there has never been aquestion over who’s the best team in eu-rope, and few would argue about RealMadrid being there as well; but the sheerdisparity between the top two and therest in Spain connoted that La Liga as acompetitive spectacle failed to live up tothe hype. There were also questionmarks over the quality of the sides belowthe top two and hence apprehensionsover labelling La Liga as the best leaguein the world – all that has changed now.

Bilbao, currently lying fifth on the LaLiga table, are no way near being a Span-ish powerhouse. The fact that they com-pletely outplayed a team that currentlyfinds itself two points of the top in ePLand has won four of the last five leaguetitles confirms the supremacy of Spanishfootball over their english counterparts.United fielded a strong side at Old Traf-ford, and even though they still have achance of going through to the nextround after the return leg, the showingat home has confirmed the prodigiousgap between La Liga and ePL.

Numero UnoThe battle for the best in Asia kicks off today, McIlroy rises tothe apex of world golf and La Liga confirms itself as the best

KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID

ALL BASES COVERED

Jankovic crashesout of Indian wells

INDIAN WELLSAFP

Former winner Jelena Jankovic becamethe first seed to crash out of the IndianWells tournament on Friday, losing instraight sets 6-4, 6-3 to world no. 99Jamie Hampton Friday. The 12th seededJankovic blamed her second round losson fatigue, especially being jet laggedafter flying all the way from southeastAsia and arriving in the California deserton Monday night. "Today I was a shadowof myself," Jankovic said. "I didn't feellike I did anything right." Jankovic, whowon the Indian Wells title two years ago,reached the semi-finals at the KualaLumpur tournament last week beforeheading to the United States. "I am feel-ing jet lagged and have some allergieshere and there," she said. "I went oncourt and I expected much more frommyself, but it didn't happen." The 22-year-old Hampton fired three aces, in-cluding one in the final game of thematch to go ahead, 30-0. She clinchedthe win when Jankovic pushed a fore-hand wide, ending the 89 minute matchon centre court. Jankovic survived twomatch points but couldn't overcome a40-0 deficit in the final game, bowingout on the third match point. She postedtwo double faults and won just 46 per-cent of her first-serve points. "My legsfelt tired and swollen," Jankovic said."Give credit to Hampton she played solidand did what she had to do."

titles keeppiling upfor Djokovic

INDIAN WELLSAFP

Novak Djokovic heads into the Indian wellstournament sufficiently recovered from winningthe first major of the year and ready to con-tinue last year's amazing run of success. theworld number one has captured the last threeGrand Slams, including winning a near six-hourduel over Rafael Nadal in the Australian openfinal in January. "Everybody had time after Aus-tralia to recover, to get rest, and play someevents prior to Indian wells," Djokovic said. "Youneed to play lots of matches and play againstthe best players in the world. the conditionshere are suitable to my style of game. thecourts are a little bit slower which I prefer."when he arrived at Indian wells last year,Djokovic was riding a season-long match winstreak that he eventually stretched to 41matches. Djokovic opens the defence of his titlein the California desert Saturday when he facesqualifier Andrey Golubev in a second roundmatch. He is showing no signs of slowing downas he goes for his third Indian wells title.


Sports 21Sunday, 11 March, 2012

wATch IT LIve

ESPNSports Center

07:30PM

BeRMUDA DUNeS:

Novak Djokovic poses

with the Bombardier

learjet 45 XR. AFp

Rahul Dravid was the epitome of acraftsman. never the most talentedstroke player, he more than made upfor it with an impenetrable defence al-lied with a high percentage, beautifullycontrolled range of strokes and backedup by mental stamina of the highestorder. Opposing teams considered hiswicket to be the most important in theIndian team. Considering the names inthe Indian batting order, this was theultimate compliment from his peers. Itwas almost inevitable that RahulDravid would be given the nickname,“The Wall”.

Dravid had a brilliant 2011, scoringfour hundreds in his seven Tests, theonly batsman to withstand the scrutinyof england’s rampaging pacemen. Hehad changed his mental tactics. Beforehe used to concentrate from the mo-ment he stepped onto the field till thetime he was dismissed. He changedthat by concentrating only when theball was being bowled and relaxing inbetween. It seemed to work for him. Itwas also obvious that the soundness ofhis technique was compensating forany loss of hand-eye speed.

But it all came apart on the Aus-tralian tour. Perhaps it was the cannyCraig McDermott who found a crack inDravid’s wall, but the Australian pacerswidened the breach and the balls startedsmashing into the stumps with alarmingfrequency. It was no coincidence thatthe Indian batting folded like a house ofcards. The fulcrum was gone.

Rahul Dravid made tons of runs andoodles of hundreds, but he will be re-membered most for his modesty, teamspirit and a dry sense of humour. Dravid’sshoes will be extremely hard to fill.

Cricketers like him come once in ageneration and there is none visible onthe horizon. Virat Kohli is the realthing, but he is more in the role of aTendulkar. Suresh Raina is suspectagainst the rising delivery. Ironically,the one player who reminds of Dravidis the Pakistani Azhar Ali, although hehas miles yet to go.

Good luck, DavDav Whatmore has taken over as

coach of the Pakistani cricketers. He is atough no nonsense man who has hadsome success, particularly in Sri Lanka afew years ago. Whatmore played a fewTests for Australia and should commandrespect from the players because of that.The fact that he is a proven commodity inhis field will add to that.

Whatmore will probably be eager toring the changes in the team’s training andtechnique, but should be careful, becausechanges take time to gestate and can, ini-tially cause problems. He should rememberthat the knives will be waiting to be un-

sheathed the moment his team has a badloss, something that is inevitable consider-ing the amount of cricket being played.

It is up to the PCB higher ups to sup-port him to the hilt and, critically, to givehim the players he wants. After all, if theteam does not perform, his neck is on theline. Being an Australian, there can be nosuspicion of undue favouritism or nepo-tism, the major reason for hiring an over-seas coach. The PCB should let Whatmoreselect his assistant coaches, physios as well.He is the general who is leading his army towar. Let him win or lose on his own termsand with no excuses. Good luck, Dav. Youare certainly going to need it.

Good year for Men’s TennisOn the ATP Tour, the year’s first

Masters 1000 event begins at IndianWells in California. The BnP ParibasOpen has a draw worthy of a GrandSlam event, with all four of the topplayers competing. Andy Murray, whofinished runner up to Roger Federer atDubai last week, is sporting a new atti-tude as well as a more powerful fore-hand. This helped him to a straight setswin over novak Djokovic in the semifi-nals last week and although he lost tothe masterful Federer in the final, thisshould give him some confidence.

Murray has, in the past, had a hor-rible body language on court and theloss of even one point would send himinto a frenzy of self reproach. IvanLendl, his new coach, will have none ofthat. While his previous coaches wouldwring their knuckles in sympathy fortheir ward, Lendl has taken completecharge and one thing he will not toler-ate is a crybaby. Things are looking upfor Andy Murray.

Rafael nadal probably hates thesight of hard courts. They are murderon his legs, knees and his punishing all-court style of play. Although he per-forms well on the surface, nadal muchprefers the soft forgiving red clay of eu-rope where he can slide into the balland where he has that split secondextra to hit his ground strokes. Butnadal’s biggest problem is the samethat Federer has against him. He sim-ply cannot beat novak Djokovic. It issimply a case of strengths and weak-nesses dovetailing. nadal’s punishingforehand is a nightmare for Federer’sbackhand. Instead of stepping in andhitting a firm slice, Federer stays backand rolls the ball back, setting it upperfectly for nadal to hit a forcing shot.nadal cannot get away with this tacticagainst novak, who sits on the baselineand hammers the ball back, taking itearly.

Federer on the other hand, fancieshis chances against novak. So that isthe fascinating triangle where the toptrio of tennis stands. Men’s tennis hasnever been stronger, with new playerschallenging the established order. Thispromises to be a very good year.

Azarenkascrambles winat Indian wells

INDIAN WELLSAFP

World number one Victoria Azarenkasurvived an opening-match scare to beatMona Barthel 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (8/6) ina three-hour marathon at the IndianWells tournament Friday. The 22-year-old Azarenka appeared headed for disas-ter, trailing 4-1 in the third set but theunseeded German Barthel could notclose the deal. "It was a survival,"Azarenka said. "She had nothing to loseand I wanted to go for my shots but Ihesitated. "Today my game was not at itsbest but the most important thing is Iwon." Azarenka arrived in Indian Wellsriding a 17-0 match win streak which hastaken her to the final of her last five tour-naments, but the Barthel made her workto extend her winning run. It was thethird time Azarenka and Barthel havelocked horns this season, with the topranked player beating Barthel 6-2, 6-4 enroute to the Australian Open title in Jan-uary and again 6-1, 6-0 last month inDoha. "Mona was real motivated to beatme. She played great," Azarenka said.Azarenka clinched victory on her secondmatch point of the tie-breaker after com-ing back from the brink in the third set.earlier in the tie-breaker Azarenka al-lowed Barthel to level it at 4-4 when thetop seed delivered her 12th double faultof the match. The win means Azarenka,who claimed her first Grand Slam title inMelbourne, will face SvetlanaKuznetsova in the third round, who ad-vanced after Swiss Timea Bacsinszkypulled out of their match with a wrist in-jury. Azarenka, who withdrew from theWTA event in Dubai last month with anankle injury, won despite struggling onher serve. She pulled out of Indian Wellslast year with an injury in the middle ofher quarter-final match against CarolineWozniacki. The dogged Barthel, ranked37th in the world, had her finest mo-ments in the second set and served forthe set in the third. She lost the first set6-4 then forced a tiebreaker after beingdown 5-1 in the second. Despite defeatthe 21-year-old said she could eventuallybeat Azarenka. "It was difficult servingfor the match against the world numberone," Barthel said. "I am sad I couldn'twin, but I will get another chance."Barthel possesses an aggressive returngame, potent backhand and movesquickly around the court for a 1.85 metre(6ft 1in) tall player. She also stepped upher play with precision groundstrokes onthe longer rallies at key stages in thematch. "This year I have improved a lot. Iam just trying to get used to the tour.everything is new for me. I just want tosee where I am at the end of the year,"Barthel said. Former Indian Wells win-ner Jelena Jankovic became the first seedto crash out Friday, losing in straight sets6-4, 6-3 to world no. 99 Jamie Hampton.

ALI AKBAR

SpORtS thiS WEEk

The fulcrum of Indian batting has gone

INDIAN wELLS: Viktoria Azarenka of Belaruscelebrates a point against Mona Barthel ofGermany during the BNP Paribas open. afP


Sunday, 11 March, 2012 22

Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami, Executive Editor: Sarmad Bashir

LAHORENAuMAN TASLEEM

In a clear violation ofSupreme Court’s orders,the Punjab FinanceDepartment is all set togive reemployment to its

two grade-20 officers by creatingnews posts.

The working paper in thisregard has been submitted withthe Reemployment Board, whichwould give the final approval onSaturday. The top leadership ofthe Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-n) has beencriticising the federal governmentfor considering to extend the

tenure of Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI) chief by callingit against the rules, but at thesame time its government inPunjab has violated all such rules.

Sources in the FinanceDepartment told PakistanToday that two grade-20officers — Rab nawaz Khan andMuhammad Zubair — would getreemployed. Rab nawaz wasworking as the professionaldirector of Local Fund Audit,while Muhammad Zubair wasworking as the chief inspector ofTreasury. The two blue-eyedofficials of Punjab governmentwill be appointed against twospecially created posts. After

approval from theReemployment Board, thegovernment is considering toappoint Rab nawaz asconsultant for Internal Control,and Muhammad Zubair asconsultant for Treasury. In bothcases, the government is notfollowing the rules, which saythat the Punjab Public ServiceCommission (PPSC) shouldappoint officers in grade-16 orabove. “Both of the officials arebeing appointed through theReemployment Board, whichhas no authority in this regard,”a senior officer of the Punjabgovernment said, adding thatthe move violated rules from all

aspects. “The ReemploymentBoard can take only those casesin which the extension is givenon posts where a person wasworking, and if a new post iscreated, then the PPSC wouldhave to be asked,” the officialsaid. He added that ifemployment was given on oldposts then the ReemploymentBoard would have had thejurisdiction, but in the currentsituation both cases do not fallunder the writ of the board, thusany employment would be illegal.

It is relevant to mention herethat Rab nawaz was laid off afterthe SC ordered removal of all

contract employees. Sources saidthat Rab nawaz Khan could notbe reemployed in any case; as hewould reach the age of 63 inDecember, 2012, while the rulessay that a person of that age couldnot be reemployed. “Thereemployment is for one year,and if given in March 2012, thenit expires in March 2013. Rabnawaz would reach 63 inDecember 2012, therefore hisreemployment is against therules,” sources said. The secretaryof Punjab Services and the actingchairman of the ReemploymentBoard were not available for comments despite repeated attempts.

PESHAWAR/HANGUAGENCiES

Four soldiers and at least 39militants were killedSaturday in a day-long gunbattle in Pakistan’s troublednorthwestern tribal region,officials said. The fightingtook place as Pakistanitroops, backed by helicoptergunships, carried out asearch operation around thetown of Bara in the lawlessKhyber tribal districtbordering Afghanistan.“Four paramilitary solderswere martyred and sevenothers were wounded intoday’s fighting,” a seniorsecurity official told AFP.“At least 39 militants werealso killed,” he said. Fourcivilians also died when a

mortar shell hit a house, agovernment official said.“Four civilians were killed inthe day-long gunfight whena mortar shell hit theirhouse,” Khyber’s deputyadministration chief SyedAhmed Jan told AFP. It wasnot immediately clear whofired the mortar shell, hesaid. A senior paramilitaryofficial said the militantsbelonged to the Taliban-linked Laskhar-e-Islamgroup that is led by warlordMangal Bagh. Independentverification of the incidentis not possible as access tothe area is restricted by themilitary.33 MILITANTSKILLED: Fighter jetsbombed several militanthideouts in Orakzai

Agency, killing 33 militantsand wounding 23 others,military officials said onSaturday. According tosources, hideouts ofterrorists were pounded inshelling by the forces inUpper Orakzai Agency areaof Mamozai, Oadkhel andJabba, killing severalmilitants. They added thatat least three dens werealso destroyed in theoperation. In anotherstrike, four militanthideouts in the Khadezaiand Mamozai areas of thetribal region weredestroyed. Orakzai is oneof seven ethnic Pashtuntribal areas where themilitary has carried outoffensives to root outinsurgent groups.

isrAelkills 14 in gAzA

GAZA CITYAFP

Israeli air strikes on Gazakilled 14 Palestinians,including a militant groupchief, medics said Saturday,in the deadliest 24 hours inthe border area in more thanthree years. Two men ridinga motorcycle in the town ofKhan Yunis were killed in araid on Saturday, medicssaid. They had earlierreported one man asclinically dead but said hedied later in hospital. TheIsraeli military confirmed itsaircraft attacked a target inthe Gaza Strip but had noimmediate details. The raidscame as Palestinian militantsfired at least 90 rockets andmortar rounds into southernIsrael since Friday morning,according to an armyspokeswoman. ThePalestinian barrage injuredfour people, one of themseriously, Israeli militarysources said. Israeli mediasaid that three of thecasualties, including thebadly wounded man, wereagricultural labourers fromThailand working on a farmnear the border with Gaza.Local residents interviewedon radio and television saidthey had been told to stayclose to bomb shelters andthat large public gatheringshad been banned, leading tothe cancellation of severalfootball matches onSaturday. An armystatement said earlier thatthe air force had attacked arange of targets in Gazasince Friday. One of theretaliatory air strikes killedthe head of the PopularResistance Committees(PRC), Zohair al-Qaisi, andfellow member MahmudHanani, the ultra-hardlinemilitant group said. ThePRC threatened reprisalsfor Qaisi’s death. Al-QudsBrigades, the military wingof Islamic Jihad, said theair strikes also killed 10 ofits members. Thousands ofmourners, many chantingcalls for revenge and firingautomatic weapons into theair, buried the 12Palestinians killed earlier atfunerals across the strip onSaturday.

More power outages imminent as tarbela,Mangla touch dead level

LAHOREAGENCiES

The water reservoirs atTarbela and Mangla on Sat-urday reached dead level,further reducing the coun-try’s already inadequatehydropower generation andincreasing the odds of pro-longed blackouts across thecountry. Water level inMangla Dam has reached1,040 feet, with a dispro-portionately large outflowof 31,182 cusecs against aninflow of 15,465 cusecs.The inflow of water in Tar-bela Dam stands at 17,100cusecs, and the outflow is16,400 cusecs. In Hyder-abad, Water and PowerMinister naveed Qamarhinted at the continuity ofunannounced blackouts,saying “it will take time toend load shedding”.

Punjab govt flouts rules by re-hiring two BS-20 officers

4 troops, 39 militantskilled in bara clash


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