e-paper pakistantoday 11th March, 2013

Rs 17.00 Vol III No 253 19 Pages Lahore Edition Monday, 11 March, 2013 Rabi us Sani 28, 1434

success inIndo-pak talksnot a one-dayaffair: Khurshid Calling "unofficial" Prime Minister

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf's visit to India,

Indian External Affairs Minister

Salman Khurshid has said that

success in bilateral issues involving

the two neighbours was a time-taking

affair.

The minister also said he would not

be able to give a time frame as to

when official talks between the two

nations could take place. page 18

Drone kills twomilitants in nWa

As many as two suspected militants

were killed after a US unmanned drone

fired two missiles on a village in North

Waziristan Agency on Sunday. page 04

Un inquiryteam on dronestrikes to visitpakistanA UN inquiry team probing the US drone

strikes in the Tribal Areas and some other

countries like Afghanistan, Yemen and

Somalia, will arrive in Pakistan by the end

of this month to hold talks with Pakistan’s

civilian and military leaders and

investigate the civilian casualties in these

attacks. UN Special Rapporteur Ben

Emmerson, who is a British lawyer, will

head the inquiry team to be sent to

Islamabad by the United Nations. page 04

attack onChristians aimedat maligningpakistan: shahbazPunjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif

has said burning of Christian homes and

shops in Lahore’s Badami Bagh was a

nefarious attempt to tarnish the image

of Pakistan.

The Punjab chief minister said the

Punjab government would bring

elements responsible for the incident

before the law and due punishment

would be ensured as they deserved no

leniency. page 02

Karzai saystaliban hand inglove with Us

story on page 19

story on page 03Be ready for super tsunami, says Imran

story on page 03

Ruined...

photo by Murtaza ali

LHR 11-03-2013_Layout 1 3/11/2013 2:39 AM Page 1

Nmonday, 11 march, 2013

02

news

Christians feel insecure in Punjab as the provincialgovernment has miserably failed in protecting the life,property and their rights as minorities — NationalRegulation and Services Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan

CJP tAKeS NotICe ofJoSePH ColoNy AttACKISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan

Iftikhar Chaudhry has taken suo motu

notice of the Joseph Colony attack,

according to a private TV channel on

Sunday. The CJP has summoned the

Punjab inspector general (IG) and the

Punjab advocate general. He also directed

them to submit a comprehensive report in

this regard. On March 9, a 3,000-strong

mob set ablaze more than 150 Christian

houses in the Joseph Colony over alleged

blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad

(PBUH) by Sawan Masih, a 28-year-old

Christian sanitation worker. Shahid Imran,

complainant in the FIR registered against

Masih, said Sawan used to say bad things

against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). On

March 7, Imran said, Sawan again passed

such remarks, he told his friend Shafiq,

who took out a knife and went straight to

Sawan’s house, but to no avail. On March

8, he gathered more people after

attending prayers led by Qari Saifullah.

Imran said Saifullah told them that they

would cut Sawan into pieces. aGENCiES

Will rebuild Joseph Colony

homes for free

ISLAMABAD: Real estate

tycoon Malik Raiz said on

Sunday, if given permission

by the Punjab government,

he was ready to reconstruct

homes which were ransacked

and burnt by an angry mob in

Joseph Colony of Badami Bagh.

In a statement, Riaz asked the

Punjab government to give necessary approvals

and permission to rebuild the homes of the

affected Christians. The homes, he said, will be

rebuilt free of cost and the work can start within

24 hours while the reconstruction process will be

completed within 45 days. iNP

Nawaz directs strict action

against attackers

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim

League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief

Nawaz Sharif,

taking serious notice of

the attack on a Christian

colony, on Sunday

directed Punjab Chief

Minister (CM) Mian Shahbaz

Sharif to take urgent and strict

action against all those responsible

for the attack on the Christian colony.

Sources said Nawaz issued these

instructions to the chief minister on

Sunday and expressed satisfaction over the

steps taken so far in this regard. iNP

Badami Bagh incident a

conspiracy to delay polls

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim

League-Quaid chief Shujat

Hussain strongly condemned

destruction of homes in

Joseph Colony and said such

incidents can be part of a

conspiracy to sabotage

elections. He said the most

unfortunate aspect of the incident

was that the police had been directed to stay away

which enabled the mob to destroy the houses. If the

provincial government wanted, the tragedy could

have been avoided two days earlier, he said. He said

the chief minister, ruling 65 percent of the country’s

population, cannot be acquitted. ONliNE

MQM slams Punjab govt

over Joseph Colony fiasco

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi

Movement (MQM) held a protest

demonstration against the

Badami Bagh incident,

demanding immediate

resignation of Punjab CM on

Sunday. A large number of

Christians along with MQM

workers participated in the

demonstration held outside the Karachi press club.

Speaking on the occasion, MQM leaders Dr Farooq

Sattar and Raza Haroon severely criticised the Punjab

government, especially Shahbaz Sharif, for what they

said was his failure and negligence in thwarting the

mob attack on the Christian neighbourhood. aGENCiES

Incident a conspiracy

against Pakistan

LAHORE: Pakistan Ulema

Council Chairman Allama Tahir

Ashrafi said the Badami Bagh

incident is a conspiracy to

defame Pakistan in the

world. Addressing a press

conference at the Lahore

Press Club on Sunday, he said

Islam did not allow any Muslim to

damage property or harm any innocent non-

Muslim. He demanded that the Punjab government

make an all-out effort for rehabilitation of the

Christian colony. He also demanded that the Chief

Justice of Pakistan take notice of the incident and

order a judicial inquiry. aPP

Minorities respect Holy

Prophet (PBUH), Holy Quran

LAHORE: Minister of State for

Minorities Affairs Akram Masih

Gill on Sunday said Christians

could not even think of

blasphemy as they respected

the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and

the Holy Quran like they

respected the Holy Bible and

Hazrat Isa (AS). Addressing a

protest rally of Christians outside the Punjab

Assembly building, he said it was the need of the

hour to stand united against the common enemy of

Muslims and Christians. Citing incidents of Gojra

and Silakot, the minister alleged the Punjab

government had failed to protect minorities. aPP

A dark blemish

on Pakistan

KARACHI: All Pakistan Muslim

League (APML) Central

Information Secretary

Aasia Ishaque said on

Sunday that the Badami

Bagh incident was a dark

blemish on Pakistan. She

said that the incident was a

flagrant failure of the Punjab

Government led by Pakistan Muslim League

Nawaz. While addressing a gathering of APML

workers and office-bearers at the central

secretariat in the city, she said the incident

was against the ideology of Pakistan and

teachings of Islam. ONliNE

JI extends complete support

to Christians

LAHORE: Jamaat e Islami

Secretary General Liaqat

Baloch on Sunday visited

the Christian residential

area in Badami Bagh and

expressed solidarity with

the affected people and

extended them an all-out

support. Lahore Bishop J Salik

was also present on the occasion. Liaqat Baloch

visited the camps set up for the affected

families and met women and children in therein.

He was accompanied by other party leaders

including Zikrullah Mujahid and former MPA

Chaudhry Shaukat Ali. ONliNE

Reaction to Badami Bagh incident

LAHOREONliNE

An n O u n C I n Gcompansation of Rs500,000 for each af-fected Christian fam-ily, Punjab Chief

Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Sundaysaid the burning of Christian homesand shops in Lahore’s Badami Baghwas a nefarious attempt to tarnish theimage of Pakistan.

He was presiding over a meeting atModel Town to review the progress ofrelief and rehabilitation activities. Sena-tor Pervaiz Rashid, Punjab AssemblyDeputy Speaker Rana MashhoodAhmad Khan, lawmakers RanaSanaullah, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman,Hamza Shahbaz, Pervaiz Malik, MalikRiaz, Asad Ashraf, Chaudhry Shahbaz,Rana Muhammad Iqbal and officersconcerned were present.

He said the Punjab governmentwould bring the elements responsible for

the incident before the law and due pun-ishment would be ensured as they de-served no leniency. He said the Punjabgovernment had sent a letter to the La-hore High Court registrar for judicial in-quiry into the incident. The CM directedpolice to accelerate the process of appre-hending the persons responsible by iden-tifying them in the light of video footage.He said that challans against those whohave been arrested should im-mediately be sent to theAnti-Terrorism Court.

Shahbaz said hisgovernment would ful-fill all responsibilitieswith regard to the tragicincident. He said that theprocess of provision of fi-nancial assistance to the af-fected families has beenstarted while the repair workof the houses and shops of thevictims was also being initiated.He ordered the authoritiesconcerned to assess

the losses as soon as possible and a case-to-case review should be made. He saidthat the government was making effortsfor compensating the Christian commu-nity.

He said the Punjab government hadannounced financial assistance to thevictims and the process of payment hasalso been started.

The CM said that relief camp hadbeen set up in the affected area

which was working. Shah-baz said the affected fami-lies had started returningto their homes and

provincial ministers, as-sembly members anddistrict administrationofficials were supervis-ing the process of their

rehabilitation.

Attack on Christiansaimed at maligningPakistan: Shahbaz

Jirga sells married

woman after

declaring her KariDERA GHAZI KHAN: A local jirga onSunday sold a woman after she was declaredKari. The woman, Zarina Mai, was a mother ofthree children. According to details, ZarinaMai was accused of having extra-maritalrelations by her brother-in-law, Imam BukshJandani. She was declared Kari and was soldout through a jirga decision. Her brother,Muhammad Ali, hailing from Chat Dagar areain the jurisdiction of Choti Police station,alleged that police were not arresting theaccused despite the local court’s order. A largenumber of relatives of the woman and herthree children staged a protest outside the RPOoffice and demanded recovery of the victimand suspension of policemen. iNP

Supreme Court to hear

Memogate todayISLAMABAD: A nine-member bench of theSupreme Court (SC), headed by Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, will hear theMemogate on Monday (today). Five benches ofthe SC have been constituted to hear cases duringthe week beginning on Monday. According todetails the cases to be heard by the five benchesinclude the Memogate, petition of Prime MinisterRaja Pervaiz Ashraf in the Rental Power Plantsinvestigation and application of former premierYousaf Raza Gilani against his disqualificationfrom contesting elections. iNP


news N

03

monday, 11 march, 2013

The Punjab government is patronising terroristsfor the sake of votes — The Sunni Ittehad

Council (SIC) chief Sahibzada Fazl Kareem

PESHAWARaGENCiES

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) March 23 rally in La-hore will not be a mere tsunami but a ‘tsunama’, which willsweep away all corrupt forces in the forthcoming elections,PTI Chairman Imran Khan said on Sunday.

Addressing a charged crowed of thousands, Khan said,“Those claiming the tsunami has subsided should come andsee for themselves. They should know that the tsunami isbuilding momentum each passing day as polls approach,”the PTI chief said. He said those afraid of the PTI’s tsunamiwill suffer another shock on March 23 when they witnessa flood of people in Lahore. Khan said the PTI would alsounveil its new manifesto on the 23rd, which would addressall issues being faced by the people of Pakistan.

The PTI chairman also announced the launch of ‘Tab-deeli Razakar Programme’ comprising one million youngvolunteers during his address at a mammoth gathering inPeshawar. “under the programme, one million enthusiasticyoung people would go from door-to-door to convey theparty’s manifesto of change to the masses and pave way fora positive change across the country,” said Khan, addingthat the volunteers would also perform duty at polling sta-tions across the country on election-day to thwart any bidof rigging during polling.

Khan said those who claimed PTI’s popularity had de-clined ought to open their eyes and witness the massive

gathering, adding that PTI’s triumph in general polls wasinevitable. “On the day of elections, the people of Pakistanwould have to decide between politics of money, greed andinterest on one hand and PTI’s vision, ideology and passionon the other,” said Khan.BADAMI BAGH INcIDENt: Khan lashed out at thePunjab government, saying had the PML-n not entered intoan electoral alliance or seat adjustment with terrorist outfits,the gruesome incident at Badami Bagh would not havetaken place. Those making false claims of good governancein Punjab should answer why police had allowed a mob toransack and set ablaze around two hundred Christianhomes, he said. Khan said his party workers were busy inintra-party polls while other parties were preparing for theforthcoming elections because the PTI firmly believed thatrevolution within the ranks of the party itself was a prereq-uisite for bringing a revolution in the country.

“no other party can dream of taking such a step.”Khan claimed PTI’s intra-party polls had made life very

difficult for leaders of “family-limited” political parties be-cause now workers of those parties were raising questionsand pressing them for holding intra-party elections on sim-ilar lines. “These parties did not give genuine leadership tothe country. They make nominations instead of electingpeople. Today their parties have become family-owned out-fits because their workers lacked the courage to questiontheir leaders and there is absolutely no accountability sys-tem within their ranks,” said Khan. He said the PTI had

given its workers the chance to elect their leaders and closedthe door for Imran Khan’s sons and relatives to inherit lead-ership positions. “Having a Sharif or a Bhutto surname is aprerequisite for anyone wishing to become a leader in thePML-n or the PPP. That is why Bilawal Zardari had tochange his name and add Bhutto to become chairman ofthe party. This can never happen in the PTI,” Khan vowed.

Khan said corruption and tax evasion were plagues thathad brought the country on the verge of collapse, addingthat the leadership of the two major parties were responsiblefor the instability in the country. “They transferred theirwealth abroad after looting the national exchequer,” he said.They should bear in mind that a historic accountabilityawaited them when the PTI assumed power, said a fieryKhan. Flaying JuI-F leader Fazlur Rehman on holding anall parties conference (APC), Khan questioned the timingof the conference. “Why had he convened the APC whenthe tenure of the incumbent government was almost over?”

He said PTI held solutions to the unrest in the TribalAreas and the ongoing wave of terrorism. These issueswould be resolved immediately through involvement oftribal people and police, if the PTI was voted to power,Khan said. “The ruling junta neither have the will nor thecourage to deal with these issues,” the PTI chief said.

PTI leaders Javed Hashmi, Shah Mahmood Qureshi,Dr Arif Alvi, Jahangir Tareen, Asad umar, Asad Qaisar,Shaukat Yousafzai, Murad Saeed and Begum nasim Hayatalso addressed the rally.

march 23 Lahore rally to sweep away corrupt forces: imran Khan

LAHORE/KARACHI/ISLAMABADWalEED MalHi/aGENCiES

CHRISTIAnS across thecountry took the streets onSunday in high tempers toprotest the ransacking andarson of over 200 houses in

Joseph Colony of Lahore’s Badami Bagharea, ransacking several government in-stallations and scuffling with law enforce-ment officials as they demanded justice forthe victim families.

On the other hand, the Sunni IttehadCouncil also issued a fatwa to condemn theincident. A decree by 30 clerics of the SICsaid a blasphemer was punishable by deathbut burning his or her home was un-Is-lamic.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG-Oper-ations Wing) Rai Tahir Hussain said policehad arrested more than 150 suspects inconnection with burning Christian homesand shops in the Badami Bagh. But thestatement provided no consolation.

One of the main protests on Sundaywas staged in Lahore’s Youhana Abad, ateeming Christian residential colony alongFerozepur Road in Lahore.

The protest started peacefully in themorning but soon turned violent when po-lice resorted to baton charge and teargas

shelling to disperse the agitated protesters.The four-kilometre long residential

area remained a battleground between po-lice and Christian youth, who demandedend to injustice and discrimination andprotection as enshrined in constitution.

A resident, Simon, said they wereprotesting peacefully but a heavy contin-gent of police appeared in no time andstarted shelling the protesters, promptingagitation from the demonstrators.

Sources said more than 500 teargasshells were fired on protesters, who in-cluded old men, women and children, aswell as on nearby houses.

The protest got further out of handwhen a trade union head was arrested bythe police while he was trying to negotiatewith police officials.

Simon added that the “state is squeez-ing our living space by the day and noteven a single official tried to communicatewith us”.

Another protestor said, “Policeslapped a protesting boy and arrested himfor no reason, which was completely un-fair. That made things get out of hand.”

“Minorities in Pakistan are not pro-tected. We always remain under pressureand are treated badly,” he said.

A young protester shouted, “Theyhave no right to manhandle us, police washarassing our protestors, they can do noth-ing except beat us like animals. What werethe police doing in Badami Bagh?”

Saeed Tarar, assistant superintendentof police (ASP), told Pakistan Today thatpolice contingents were just there for pro-tection and trying to appease the protestors.

“But the protestors started destroyingthe Youhana Abad BRTS station and dam-aging barriers and other property. About 15were people arrested who were throwingstones at us and fanning violence.”

“Many policemen were injured badlyand the protesters were asked to stop de-stroying the public properties. We resortedto teargas shelling when our request wasdisregarded.”

Sources told Pakistan Today that morethan 25 people had been arrested inYouhana Abad and 20 in protests in KotLakhpat.

They said the Christian protesters alsotried to attack the Lahore Railway Stationbut were thwarted.

Meanwhile, protests in other parts ofthe country were no less intense.

A protest against Saturday’s mob at-tack turned violent in Karachi, promptingpolice to resort to aerial firing and shellingat Fawwara Chowk and Zainab Market.

Christian protesters attacked severalshops and vehicles in the Saddar areaaround Zainab Market, forcing a closure ofnearby markets.

Rangers were called in to control thesituation and disperse the crowd, whilemore than 20 people were arrested in thisconnection.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) also staged a protest to expresssolidarity with the victims.

In Quetta, dozens of Christian familiestook out a rally and staged a demonstrationoutside the Quetta Press Club to condemnthe Badami Bagh ransacking and burningof hundred of homes.

The rally was organized by ChristianLeague and Masiah.

The participants also staged a sit-in atGPO Chowk that lasted for a couple ofhours.

Speakers including father Maqsoodand Shahzad Kundan criticised the Punjabgovernment for not taking timely actionagainst the perpetrators.

Christians of Waris Pura locality inFaisalabad also staged a protest demon-stration against the Badami Bagh incident.

They took out a rally that arrived out-side Catholic Church on Railway Roadafter marching through various city roads.

Protests were also staged in Multan,Hyderabad and London besides othercities.

The Human Liberation CommissionPakistan (HLCP) and Masih Millat Partyalso protested against the arson at JosephColony.

President Asif Ali Zardari held a meet-ing with Punjab Governor MakhdoomAhmad Mahmood in Karachi and dis-cussed the Lahore incident.

He sought a report on the incident anddirected him to provide all possible assis-tance to the affected people.

Minister in-charge for national Har-mony Dr Paul Bhatti called upon the Pun-jab government to carry out a transparentinvestigation into the Badami Bagh inci-dent for determining the facts.

Dr Paul said a certain mindset was cre-ating such problems in the country, how-ever, there was a strong need for collectiveefforts to counter such intentions.

Battered and bruised,Christians demand justice

President ordersRs 500,000 for eachChristian family

KARACHI/ISLAMABADaGENCiES

President Asif Zardari on Sunday ordered thegovernment to provide Rs 500,000 compensationto each Christian family affected by arsonists andlooters in Lahore’s Badami Bagh. He was talkingto Governor Punjab Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmudwho called on President Zardari at Bilawal Housein Karachi and briefed him about the incident.Spokesman to the President, Farhatullah Babarsaid that the governor was especially called by thepresident to get information about the unfortunateincident where a mob vandalised the Christianhouses in Lahore on Saturday. He said thegovernor apprised the president about the detailsof the incidents. Babar said that during meetingthe president advised the prime minister to provideRs 500,000 compensation each to the affectedfamilies. He advised the Governor to personallymonitor the relief and rehabilitation of the affectedpeople. The president also asked him to inform onregular basis about the progress into theinvestigations of the incident. The president alsourged the religious leaders to give suggestions toprevent the misuse of the blasphemy law, thespokesman added.

MPA Pervaiz Rafiqresigns over JosephColony incident

LAHOREiNP

In protest against the ransacking and burningof homes in Joseph Colony, the PunjabAssembly MPA Pervaiz Rafiq resigned onSunday. The MPA from the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) said the government had failed toprovide security to minorities. He expressedsorrow over the repeated attacks againstminorities in the country. Rafiq added that hewould submit his resignation in the PunjabAssembly Secretariat soon.

THOUSANDS OFCHRISTIANS TAKE TOSTREETS ACROSS THECOUNTRY TO SEEKPROTECTION, JUSTICEFOR BADAMI BAGHVICTIMS

PROTESTS IN LAHORE,KARACHI TURN VIOLENT,DOZENS OFDEMONSTRATORSARRESTED

SUNNI ITTEHAD COUNCILISSUES FATWADECLARING ATTACK ONCHRISTIAN HOMESUN-ISLAMIC

ISLAMABADaPP

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf onSunday telephoned national HarmonyAdviser Dr Paul Bhatti and Ministerof State for national Harmony AkramMasih Gill and ordered them to con-tact the Christian victims of theBadami Bagh incident.

He categorically ordered them toremain in touch with the affected fam-ilies.

Furthermore, the prime ministersaid the federal government was readyto extend assistance to the families intheir hour of need.

The prime minister assured thevictims that the government wouldtake all steps in safeguarding the life

and property of non-Muslim Pak-istanis. The prime minister saidall minorities had equal rightsas other citizens. He said nei-ther ethics nor Islam allowedviolence against followers ofother religions. The primeminister reiterated that Islampreached tolerance and peacefor all. On March 9, more than200 homes of the Christian com-munity were ransacked and burntby an angry mob after anindividual wasaccused ofblasphemy.

Pm ashraf telephonesminorities’ representatives


ISLAMABADSHaiQ HuSSaiN

In a significant development, a un in-quiry team probing the uS dronestrikes in the Tribal Areas and someother countries like Afghanistan,

Yemen and Somalia, will arrive here by the endof this month to hold talks with Pakistan’scivilian and military leaders and investigate thecivilian casualties in these attacks.

un Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson,who is a British lawyer, will head the inquiryteam to be sent to Islamabad by the united na-tions.

Currently, Pakistan and the un are work-ing on the exact dates for this important visitbut according to diplomatic sources, the trip toIslamabad would take place by the end ofMarch.

The visit of un inquiry team to Pakistanwas earlier expected to take place in Februarythis year but later it was put off and now thetrip has been rescheduled for the end of March,the sources said.

The united nations recently announcedlaunching an inquiry into the uS drone attacksand it was the result of requests by severalstates including Pakistan, a source said seekinganonymity.

“The inquiry team with study two to threedozen drone attacks in Pakistan and othercountries to determine the level of civiliankillings and also the identity of militants.Moreover, the drone strikes’ legality wouldalso be looked into by the un inquiry team,”

he said.He said apart from Pakistan, the un team

would also visit other countries where dronestrikes were taking place and it would submitits report to the un General Assembly laterthis year in new York. He said the inquirywould be coordinated through the rapporteur’sun office in Geneva.

A Pakistani diplomat in Washington con-firmed the visit of un inquiry team on droneattacks to Pakistan later this month. He said thevisit to Islamabad by the un team was verysignificant as it was in South and northWaziristan, two Pakistan tribal regions, wheremost of the drone attacks had taken place afterthe commencement of uS led war on terrorback in 2001.

According to a research done by the Bu-reau of Investigative Journalism, between June2004 and September 2012, the drone strikeskilled between 2,562 and 3,325 people in Pak-istan, of whom between 474 and 881 werecivilians, including 176 children.

In 2012 alone, 46 drone strikes took placein the country, according to Washington think-tank, the new America Foundation.

According to un Special Rapporteur BenEmmerson 51 states possess the technology touse drones but the uS is responsible for thevast majority of the world's drone strikes andthe practice of targeted killing has become acentral component of the Obama administra-tion's efforts to combat al Qaeda.

The Pakistani diplomat said during its visitto Islamabad, the un inquiry team could alsomeet the relatives and families of civilianskilled and injured in the drone strikes.

He said the Pakistani government wouldprovide all possible assistance to the un in-quiry team in its probe and would fully facili-tate its working in Islamabad and other regionsthat it wanted to visit.

newsN

04


PPP is the party of the poor and will not allow

anyone to play with their destiny – Public Accounts

Committee Chairman Nadeem Afzal Chan

LAHORE: A protester avoids a teargas

shell during a clash with police on

Ferozepur Road on Sunday. Murtaza ali

KABULaGENCiES

The head of the nATO-ledforce in Afghanistan hasvowed that the long-delayedtransfer of detainees from uSto Afghan control will nottake place if they pose a threatto international troops.

The transfer of a finalgroup of detainees at Bagramjail has been a cause of fric-tion between President HamidKarzai and the coalition, anda handover ceremony wasabruptly cancelled on Satur-day.

“There’s probably a dif-ference of opinion. We cer-tainly don’t have anyone in

the detention facility that wethink doesn’t deserve to bethere,” General Joseph Dun-ford, commander of nATOforces, said.

“If there’s a threat to theforce, we will not conduct thetransfer,” he said in a pool in-terview late Saturday. “Ifthere are people that need tobe detained, we will makesure they are detained.” Dun-ford’s stance is likely to angerKarzai, who on Saturday in-sisted that the controversialBagram jail, 50 kilometresnorth of Kabul, was put inAfghan control within days.

“President Karzai stressedthat all efforts must be madeto make sure the handover

happens this week and thatAfghanistan’s sovereigntycomes into full exercise,” astatement from his office said.

Last September, theunited States passed theAfghan authorities control ofmore than 3,000 detainees atBagram.

But the Americans contin-ued to guard 50 foreigners notcovered by the agreement andhundreds of Afghans arrestedsince the transfer deal wassigned in March 2012.

Kabul made control of theprison a condition for signinga long-term agreement and apossible legal immunity dealthat would allow some uStroops to remain in the coun-

try after foreign combat forceswithdraw next year.

uS officials suggest thatsome released detainees havereturned to the battlefield, andthere are fears that the govern-ment is freeing suspected mil-itants to help kick-start peacetalks with the Taliban.

Karzai said this week thatafter the transfer he wouldorder the release of all inno-cent detainees, even thoughhe expected to face criticismfor his actions.

Saturday’s ceremony wascancelled on the same daythat a suicide bomber killednine people in Kabul during avisit by new uS Defence Sec-retary Chuck Hagel.

MONItORINg DESK

Clerics at the shrine ofKhawaja Moinuddin Chishti inIndia refused a donation fromPrime Minister Raja PervaizAshraf when he visited the800-year-old Sufi shrine inAjmer. "The prime ministerwanted to offer 'nazrana' (dona-tion) at the dargah. But we toldthe Pakistan High Commissionthat any nazrana by the digni-tary will not be accepted,"Wahid Mian Chishti said.

The secretary of the Anju-man Khadims said on tele-phone from Ajmer that therefusal had nothing to do withthe boycott of Ashraf's visit by

the Diwan of the dargah,Zainul Abedin Ali Khan.

Chishti said all religiousheads and priests, barringZainul Abedin, were at the dar-gah when the Pakistani leadercame with his delegation onSaturday. The priests offeredheadgear to Ashraf before en-tering the dargah.

Ashraf offered a velvet'chadar' and floral tributes atthe mausoleum. He remainedat the dargah for about 20 min-utes along with his wife nusratand some 20 members of histeam.

Ashraf is said to haveprayed for global peace andprosperity, especially for Pak-

istan.Chishti said a lot of contro-

versy was generated whenPresident Asif Zardari offered$1 million at the dargah lastyear.

It took several months toget the amount. Most impor-tantly, there was a disputeamong various factions at thedargah on sharing the donation.The matter was later settled.

He said the priests did notwant to give the impressionthat money matters to them.

"Our job is to propagatethe teachings of Khawja Moin-uddin Chisti and render all pos-sible help to pilgrims visitingthe shrine," he said.

Drone kills2 militantsin NWA

PESHAWARStaFF rEPOrt

As many as two suspectmilitants were killed after auS unmanned drone firedtwo missiles in villageDeegaan in north Waziris-tan (nWA) on Sunday.The tribal sources in Mi-ranshah, headquarters ofnorth Waziristan, said thatthe two suspect militantswere on horseback nearPak-Afghan border In DataKhel Tehsil when the dronetargeted them. Both themen died on the spot.The bodies were beyondrecognition. However,tribal sources believed thatthey were foreigners, whohad taken shelter in thearea. Soon after the missileattacks, unrest eruptedamong local and foreignmilitants, scattered in thearea.Sunday’s drone attack oc-curred after a lapse of onemonth in north Waziristan.The uS authorities con-sider drone missiles strikesmore effective in ongoingwar on terror. On the otherhand, Pakistani leadershipconsidered it harmful tothe country’s sovereigntyand solidarity.

UN inquiry teamon drone strikesto visit Pakistan

TEAM TO PROBE CIVILIANDEATHS IN DRONE ATTACKSIN TRIBAL AREAS

ajmer clerics refuseddonation by pM ashraf

nato general takes hard line onafghan detainee dispute

ISLAMABADNNi

The Pakistan Economy Watch(PEW) on Sunday said mount-ing losses in politically-man-aged public sector enterprises(PSEs) were pushing the coun-try towards bankruptcy.

“Living on hefty bailoutpackages, not a single PSE hascontributed anything but sheerdisappointments over thedecades,” it said.

It said the companiesbeing run by non-professionaland politically-motivated man-agers had become hubs of

favouritism and corruption andhad little hope for revival

PEW President Dr Mur-taza Mughal said the govern-ments used PSEs as ajob-creation tool to seek polit-ical mileage, but it in turnadded to the losses in form ofmassive loans to pay salaries toan army of incompetent em-ployees.

He said Pakistan Interna-tional Airlines, marred withbad governance and misad-ministration, recently receivedRs 100 billion as bailout pack-age, while it had wastedaround Rs 200 billion in the

last five years.“Estimates suggest that

PSEs are wasting around 15percent of the total govern-ment’s revenue which shouldbe tackled immediately as col-lections have been slidingdown since years.”

Dr. Murtaza Mughal saidPSEs, including PR, PSM,nHA, PEPCO, PASSCO,TCP, uSC, receive over Rs300 billion as bailout packagesannually with no improvementand continued wastage of fis-cal resources that could havebeen used for bettering publicservices.

‘Pses pushing country to bankruptcy’

ISLAMABADiNP

Baloch leader andPakhtunkhwa Milli AwamiParty Chairman MahmoodKhan Achakzai said Balochis-tan’s rights on all its naturalresources should be acknowl-edged as a step towards restor-ing peace in the province.

In a meeting with an Is-lamabad Chamber of Com-merce & Industry (ICCI)delegation, led by the cham-ber’s president ZafarBakhtawari, Achakzai ex-pressed deep concern over re-cent bomb blasts in Quettaand said people involved in

terrorism in Balochistan didnot want a prosperous Pak-istan.

He strongly condemnedsectarian killings and urged allpolitical leaders to join handsto rid the country of thisplague and make Pakistan adignified, independent andprosperous country.

Bakhtawari said Balochis-tan is laden with natural re-sources and urged thegovernment to take all possi-ble steps to ensure peace andstability in the province.

He said political stabilityis a pre-requisite for economicgrowth and development ofthe country.

‘Balochistan’srights should beacknowledged’

India may put onhold group visafor Pakistaninationals

NEW DELHIONliNE

After suspending visa on ar-rival for Pakistani senior citi-zens, India may put on holdthe proposed group visa facil-ity to the nationals of thatcountry in the wake of theunease in bilateral ties fol-lowing alleged killing of twoIndian soldiers along theLoC, Indian media reportedon Sunday. The visa on arrival facilityfor senior citizens — part ofthe new relaxed India-Pak-istan visa agreement — wasput on hold by India hoursbefore its operationalisationon January 15 followingheightened tension along theLoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

Govt indecisive

on talks with

taliban: fazl

PESHAWARiNP

JuI-F chief Fazlur Rehmanon Sunday said the Talibanwere ready for peace talks butthe government was not clearon its stance on the matter.


Muslim British

lawmaker urges

speedy justice for

Badami Bagh victims LAHORE: Muslim British parliamentarian

and Safe Communities Pakistan (SCP)

Chairman Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar on

Sunday asked the chief justice of Pakistan

to take adequate and effective measures

to bring the culprits of the Badami Bagh

violence to justice. After visiting Joseph

Colony in Badami Bagh, Sarwar said when

riots erupted in London and shops were

vandalised and set on fire, the United

Kingdom judiciary had taken strict action

and after obtaining video footage of

incidents, all trouble makers were put

behind bars within three weeks. He was of

the view that the judiciary had a great

responsibility and an important role to play

at this critical stage to help reunite the

different segments of the society and to

establish the supremacy of the law. He

emphasised upon all quarters to ensure

that an impartial investigation be carried

and no innocent person be implicated.

Similarly, he added that those involved in

the incident should be taken to task within

two or three weeks. At the Badami Bagh

incident site, he met with the affected

families and reiterated that Muhammad Ali

Jinnah had categorically stated that

everyone was free to live and practice their

customs according to their beliefs and faith

in Pakistan. “The Quaid-e-Azam had

openly stated that the minorities would

enjoy equal rights as the citizens of

Pakistan,” he added. He also called upon

the Ulema to play their imperative role to

end religious unrest and establish harmony

on priority basis. Sarwar assured J Salik, a

representative of Christian Community,

that UK Pakistani Chamber of Commerce

would provide Rs 25,000 to each affected

families within two days. aPP

LahoRemonday, 11 march, 2013

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05 Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project is not against or infavour of any country except Pakistan — Minister for

Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira

LAHORE: Women sit outside their homes burnt down by an angry mob on Saturday over alleged blasphemy by a resident of Joseph Colony in Badami Bagh. Murtaza ali

LAHORENNi

tHE Punjab government onSunday said new residenceswould be provided to thevictims of Badami Bagh mobviolence. Punjab government

spokesman Senator Pervez Rasheedsaid the task of rehabilitation of theChristian community would soon beaccomplished. He assured distributionof compensation cheques of Rs500,000 each for the victims.

Rasheed said the costs ofrebuilding over 100 burnt houseswould be borne by the Punjabgovernment.

The police rounded up at least 150

people afterdemonstrators attackedand burned houses ofa small Christiancommunity duringa protest overallegedblasphemousremarks by aChristian youth.

The police,government officialsand rescue teams arecurrently investigating theextent of damage at JosephColony. At least 178 houses, 18 shopsand two churches were damaged by thefires.

Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister

Shahbaz Sharif said allthose responsible for

the incident wouldbe brought to bookvery soon.Presiding over ameeting toreview measurestaken for therehabilitation of

the affected, thechief minister said

repair of the houseswould be initiated after

the extent of the damagedcaused was assessed. He further saidthere could be no justification for theincident as it had brought shame to theentire nation.

Punjab IG summonedto explain policefailure in preventingBadami Bagh attack

LAHOREaPP

national Assembly Standing Committee onHuman Rights Chairman Riaz Fatyana onSunday summoned Punjab police inspectorgeneral (IG) on March 14 for his failure toprotect life and property of Christiancitizens at Badami Bagh in the wake ofblasphemy allegations. Talking toreporters, Fatyana said Islam had attachedgreat importance to the protection of lifeand property of all people, irrespective oftheir race, religion, caste or ethnicity. Hecondemned the attack on the Christiancommunity at Joseph Town. Furthermore,he said it was a constitutional obligation ofthe Punjab government, especially lawenforcement agencies, to ensure security ofall citizens. Moreover, he said that if thepolice had taken timely action, the tragicincident could have been controlled andprevented. He said the standing committeehad taken serious notice of the criminalnegligence of the police in its failure tohandle the situation and had summoned theIG to explain his position.

Salik expressessolidarity withChristian victims

LAHORE: Renowned Christian activistand politician J. Salik arrived in the city onSunday to express solidarity with thevictims of the Badami Bagh attack.According to details, he spent time with theChristian community at Joseph Town andregretted the mob attack on their homes,shops and churches. Salik further said thatthe administration could have takenpreventive steps to ensure the tragedy didnot occur since they had had previousintimation about tensions in Badami Bagh.Accusing the government of negligence,Salik demanded justice for the victims,adding that they should be providedcompensation at the earliest. ONliNE

Lawyers showconfidence in pML-Qleadership

LAHORE: A delegation of Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA),led by its president, Abid Saqi, on Sunday called on Pakistan Muslim League-

Quaid (PML-Q) senior central leader and Deputy Prime Minister ParvezElahi at his residence. Talking to members of the delegation, Parvez Elahi

said that the role of the lawyers’ community in the strengthening of anindependent judiciary and democracy had been very important. Hesaid as the Punjab chief minister, he had established the institutionof the prosecutor general for quick dispensation of justice in theprovince, appointed public defenders, set up consumer courts,

provided free medical facilities to the lawyers’ community andestablished Lawyers Housing Colony for solving the residential

problems of the lawyers. He said, “Our government launchedand completed a large number of welfare projects for peoplefrom all walks of life including the lawyers.” LHCBAPresident Abid Saqi appreciated the welfare works by

Parvez Elahi undertaken for well being of the lawyers’community and pledged support for PML-Q in theupcoming elections. ONliNE

Govt to provide newhouses, compensationto Christian victims

RoBBeRS HItJACKPot

MONItORINg DESK

Robbers hit jackpot on Sunday when they

looted 286 tolas of gold and Rs 2.2 million in

cash. According to details, a robbery took

place in the house of a citizen named

Chaudary Aslam, resident of 474 EME Society.

Robbers broke into the house and took 286

tola gold, Rs 2.2 millions in cash, other

valuables and escaped from the scene. The

owner of the house was not present during the

robbery as he had gone to an engagement

ceremony with his family.


L

06

monday, 11 march, 2013LahoRe

Our government launched and completed a large number of welfare projects for people from all walks of life including the lawyers — Deputy Prime Minister Parvez Elahi

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LAHOREONliNE

HunDREDS of people of allwalks of life took part in theFamily and Fun races onSunday that started fromSadiq Trade Centre and

ended at the Liberty roundabout.Ali Mohammad and Rabia Ashiq

won their respective races with flyingcolours amidst hot weather conditions.

Though both the races were given ago-ahead by Deputy Speaker RanaMashood Ahmed Khan along withusman Anwar, the races were given agap of about half an hour to start.

During the course of the race, thedeputy speaker also expressed solidaritywith the victims of the Saturday’s fire atBadami Bagh. He also walked with thechildren and other members of thefamilies whose houses were burnt toexpress Punjab government’s support.He also termed it an act of terrorism andsaid that the people committed thecrime would be held accountable fortheir actions.

The marathon and the races wereamong the events of the month-longPunjab Youth Festival that rolled intoaction in August last year. Althoughthere were no winners or losers to becounted in the fun races in which ladiesoutscored the male folks, theparticipation was quite healthy.

The ladies were in a greater numberthan males in the races. Their races wereheld separately but despite hot and

brightness of the sun, the enthusiasm wasimmense. In the fun race, Ali Mohammadof Sargodha took the fun race whileAbdul Samad and Farhan won the secondand third position in the category.

Meanwhile, Lahore’s Rabia Ashiq,who was also an Olympian won the firstposition among ladies’ race. Samabiatook the second place, while the thirdplace was tied between Farhat Batooland Kiran Rana.

christians vent their anger families participate in‘family and fun’ raceswith full gusto

LAHOREaPP

A 220-page book in English entitled My Debut in Jour-nalism comprising letters and articles written byfounder of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and formerprime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was published onSunday. Ministry of Information and BroadcastingDeputy Secretary Dr Shaista nuzhat, who is an authorof ten books, led the research and compilation of thebook. Talking to the reporters, she said Bhutto wasrecognised all over the world as a statesman and acharismatic leader. She said Bhutto had a number ofbooks and articles in his name over various subjects likemultilateralism in the domain of international politicsand public affairs. She said Bhutto’s passion for jour-nalism and a ceaseless urge to write in newspapers haddeveloped at a very early age. After completing his edu-cation in 1953, Bhutto emerged as a prolific and com-pulsive writer and regularly contributed to local as wellas foreign publications and news magazines such asDawn, Pakistan Observer, Vision, Times andnewsweek. She said My Debut in Journalism eulogisedthe young Bhutto’s unstinted faith in Pakistan as well ashis love for father of the nation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.“Journalism in our times, more than in the past, is writ-ten in ink and blood,” he said in one of his early arti-cles. She said this reflected the ability and capacity of aman who could see and foresee events from a point andperspective reserved for a true visionary. The Direc-torate of Film and Publications published the book witha price of rupees 1350 while former federal informationsecretary Taimur Azmat Osman wrote its foreword.

Bapsi’s books launched

LAHORE: A booklaunch wasorganised by ILQAPublication anImprint of Readingsin a local hotel. Theceremony waspresided by son ofAllama Iqbal Justice(r) Javed Iqbal. BapsiSidhwa was among the special guests. nadia Jamilstarted the event with English readings from Bapsi’snew novel, Their Language of Love, while AdvocateShahid usman read passages from Jangalwala Sahib,an urdu translation of The Crow Eaters. Later,Professor Shaista Sirajudin, Khalid Ahmed, MustansarHuassain Tarar, Intezar Hussain, and Bano Qudsiaaddressed the audience. Bapsi Sidhwa and JusticeJaved Iqbal spoke about their experiences regardingpublishing of The Crow Eaters. PrESS rElEaSE

Bhutto’s posthumousbook released

PolICe ARReSteD 2,787ACCUSeD lASt MoNtHLAHORE: The police arrested 2,787 accused in a crackdown

against proclaimed offenders, absconders, dacoits, drug

dealers, gamblers and recovered stolen property, narcotics

and illegal weapons from them last month. In a drive

against drug dealers, the police arrested 371 accused and

recovered 87 kilograms of hashish, 17 kilograms of heroin,

six kilograms of opium and 7,989 bottles of liquor from their

possession, a police spokesman said. During a crackdown

against proclaimed offenders and absconders, the police

arrested 757 POs and 781 absconders. The police also

arrested 365 for possession of illegal weapons and seized

three Kalashnikovs, eight rifles, 22 guns, 319 revolvers,

pistols and hundreds of rounds from their possession.

Furthermore, the police raided dens and arrested 404

gamblers and recovered Rs 700,000, gold ornaments and

other valuables from their possession. aPP

A ransacked Metro Bus stationat Youhana Abad. Murtaza ali

A policeman fires a tear gasshell to disperse protesters atYouhana Abad. Murtaza ali

Children joined thestone pelting at YouhanaAbad. Murtaza ali

Policemen repliedin kind. Murtaza ali

Protesters block the Mallagainst Saturday’s burningdown of Christian housesin Badami Bagh. Murtaza ali


07

newsmonday, 11 march, 2013

A good head and a good heart arealways a formidable combination.– Nelson Mandela

N

SABANETA: A poster with an image of Venezuela's latepresident Hugo Chávez hangs over the handlebars of a bicycleat the main square of Chávez's hometown on Sunday. aGENCiES

DAMASCUSaGENCiES

REBELS in Syria have staged asurprise attack against the keydistrict of Baba Amr in the cityof Homs, a year after regimeforces retook it after a deadly

month-long siege, activists have said.The assault came as rebels in the oil-

producing east of the war-ravaged countrysaid they had established local religiouscommittees to administer the area, includ-ing policing, the judiciary and emergencyservices. "At dawn, the rebels launched asurprise attack on Baba Amr, which theyhave entered," Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights director Rami Abdel Rah-man, who was in contact with the rebels,told the AFP news agency on Sunday. Theassault on a key hub of the uprising againstPresident Bashar al-Assad's governmentalso comes two years after the outbreak ofpeaceful protests against his rule descendedinto armed conflict, when the regime re-

sponded with a brutal crackdown.Government forces pounded Baba

Amr relentlessly for more than a month in2012, seeking to oust rebels holed up inHoms. Assad's troops eventually retookthe district on March 1 last year after abloody campaign. The president himselflast toured the battered neighbourhood onMarch 27, assuring residents who hadstayed that it would be rebuilt and that nor-mal life would resume.

In the east of the country, where largeswaths of territory are now under rebel

control, groups including the al-nusraFront have set up a religious council to ad-minister affairs, the observatory said onSunday. "God commanded the Islamic bat-talions to form a religious council in the eastto administer the affairs of the people andfill a security gap," the groups said in a state-ment distributed by the Britain-based watch-dog. The council will include several officescharged with functions including justice,policing and emergency services, it said.

Video footage showed a convoydraped with black flags bearing Islamic in-

scriptions in the Deir Ezzor area and rebelsattaching a banner to a building inMayadeen, on which is written "ReligiousCommittee of the Eastern Region."

Rebels in Deir Ezzor and other easternprovinces such as Hassaka and Raqa havemade significant military gains as they bat-tle Assad's forces. Free Syrian Army fight-ers, composed mainly of army deserters,have told AFP that despite being fewer innumber, the al-nusra fighters, who wereunknown before the rebellion, have betterlogistic and economic backing and receivefinancing "from abroad."

The group, which would like to seeSyria become an Islamist state, has focusedon strategic targets in the east, such as oilwells, and also recruits and pays localfighters. Damascus accuses countries suchas Saudi Arabia and Qatar of financing therebel groups battling the regime.

It labels all armed opposition groupsas "terrorists," in a conflict which the unsays has left more than 70,000 people deadsince it erupted in March 2011.

Rebels stage surpriseattack on Homs district

CARACASaGENCiES

The council's announcement on Saturdaycame a day after nicolas Maduro, Chavez'shandpicked successor, was sworn in as act-ing president in a ceremony largely boy-cotted by the opposition, which slammed itas unconstitutional.

Shortly after the date was set, the mainopposition coalition announced it had cho-sen Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavezin the October election, as its unity candi-date again, this time to face Maduro.

Capriles wrote on Twitter that he was"grateful" for the offer and would announcesoon whether he will accept the nomina-tion. The Miranda state governor waspicked by the Democratic unity Round-table last year in an unprecedented primary.

Al Jazeera's Lucia newman, reportingfrom Caracas, said Maduro has a politicaladvantage, as he rides on a wave of hugepublic sentiment following the death ofChavez. "State television continues tobroadcast non-stop the images of Venezue-lans coming from all over the country, fil-

ing past the casket of Hugo Chavez, andwiping their tears away," she said.

"These images are still fresh in theminds of Venezuelans." The electoral com-mission announced that the campaigningperiod will be begin on April 2 and endingon April 11. "The period is extremely short.It will probably be the most intense politi-cal campaign in the history of Venezuela,"newman said. Political hostilities had al-ready begun just hours after Venezuela andmore than 30 foreign leaders gave Chaveza rousing state funeral, with Maduro railingagainst the opposition and capitalism fol-lowing his inauguration.

Capriles, meanwhile, denounced the in-auguration of Maduro as a "constitutionalfraud" and abuse of power by the govern-ment. "nicolas, nobody elected you presi-dent. The people didn't vote for you, kid,"Capriles said. He argued that the caretakerpresident cannot run for office under theconstitution. Chavez, 58, died on Tuesdayafter a two-year battle with cancer, endinghis 14-year rule over the country.

In last year's presidential elections,Chavez beat Capriles by 11 points. But the

40-year-old governor gave the opposition itsbest result ever against the late president,garnering 44 percent, or 6.5 million, of bal-lots. A recent survey by pollsters Hinterlacesgave Maduro a 14-point advantage overCapriles, though the opposition leader hasquestioned the firm's reliability in the past.

"The next president will have hugechallenges: Earning the respect of the im-

poverished population, who blindly believein Chavez, in a divided country," professorAgustin Blanco of the Central universityof Venezuela said. Venezuela has givenChavez an extended farewell, with hun-dreds of thousands of people swarming thestreets of Caracas on Wednesday, cheeringand crying as his coffin was slowly takento a military academy.

Chavez has been lying in state at theacademy since then and throngs have filedpast his half-open casket nonstop.

The government plans to embalm andpreserve Chavez "like Lenin" to rest in aglass casket "for eternity", a move decriedby some Venezuelans, who claimed that itwent against the president's wish to beburied.

Venezuela sets presidential poll for april 14 veNezUelA, CHINA voW DeePeR tIeS AfteR CHAvez DeAtHCARACAS: Venezuela's new acting president, Nicolas Maduro, held talks with a Chinese delegation on Saturday and the two

sides vowed to deepen strategic relations in honor of late leader Hugo Chavez. Maduro, who was sworn in late Friday, met

with the chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Ping, who represented President Hu

Jintao at Chavez's funeral. "The best tribute that we could give to our comandante Chavez is to deepen our strategic

relationship with our beloved China," said Maduro, who served as foreign minister for six years before becoming vice

president last year. Maduro, whose inauguration was rejected by the opposition as unconstitutional, thanked China for

providing scientific and medical support for Chavez's cancer treatment. Chavez lost his battle with cancer on Tuesday at age

58. Zhang recalled that Chavez travelled to China six times during his 14-year presidency, forging a "great friendship" with

the Chinese leadership. "We must join efforts to continue developing and deepening relations between China and Venezuela.

It's the only way to comfort the soul of president Hugo Chavez," he told Maduro in the televised meeting. The Venezuelan

government read a letter of condolences it received from Hu, saying that Chavez's death caused "great pain" to the people of

China. China is Venezuela's second biggest trade partner, with Caracas delivering 600,000 barrels of oil per day to Beijing with

plans to increase it to one million in 2015, according to the Venezuelan government. aPP

BAN SAyS SyRIAN RIvAlS MUSt ReSPeCt

UN 'fReeDoM of MoveMeNt'UNITED NATIONS: UN leader Ban Ki-moon on Saturday welcomed the release

of 21 Filipino peacekeepers held by Syrian rebels but said all sides in the conflict

must respect the UN's "freedom of movement." Ban "appreciates the efforts of

all concerned to secure their safe release," said a statement released by his

press office after the 21 crossed from Syria into Jordan. aPP

fReSH WAve ofvIoleNCe KIllS 8IN AfGHANIStAN

FARAH CItyiNP

Eight people, most of them civilians, losttheir lives to a fresh wave of violence indifferent parts of Afghanistan’s westernFarah province over the past 24 hours,officials said on Sunday. Two civiliansand one policeman were killed when acivilian vehicle struck a roadside bomb onSaturday night in Farah City, theprovincial capital, the governor’sspokesman, Abdur Rahman Zhwandai,said. In a similar incident, two civilianswere killed and four others were woundedin Pushtrod district, he added. Separately,a notorious rebel commander Syed Azeemwas killed along with two of hisaccomplices during a drone strike in thePasao area of Khak-i-Safed district, thetown's administrative chief, Abdulkhaliqnoorzai, said. Azeem maintained closeties with Al Qaida and had been involvedin insurgent activities, the districtintelligence director, Abdul Samad, said.But a Taliban spokesman Qari YousafAhmadi said the slain individual was aprayer leader in the area and that he hadno connection with the movement.

SUU KyI Re-eleCteD

AS oPPoSItIoN

NlD leADeRNAyPyIDAW

aGENCiES

Aung San Suu Kyi has been unanimouslyre-elected as leader at a landmarkcongress of the opposition nationalLeague for Democracy (nLD) in Yangon.Hundreds of opposition membersgathered on Sunday for the party's firstnational conference in a meeting thatstopped short of making sweepingchanges in its ageing top ranks ahead ofkey elections in 2015. The gathering wasa display of political strength that wouldhave been unthinkable under the militarygovernment that ruled the country fordecades. The meeting highlighted themyriad challenges facing the opposition,including its lack of experience as well asinternal divisions which saw fourmembers banned from attending, accusedof trying to influence the voting. ThenLD had faced calls to inject new bloodinto its top ranks, dominated by seniormembers including some in their 80s and90s, as it eyes key elections due to be heldin two years. But the party held back froma substantial revamp of its leadership,instead selecting older veteran partymembers to a core executive of 15 andunanimously reappointing Suu Kyi aschairwoman.

NelSoN MANDelA

BACK IN HoSPItAl

foR CHeCK-UPCAPE tOWN

aGENCiES

nelson Mandela has been admitted to ahospital for a scheduled medical check-up,South Africa's presidency says. Aspokesman for President Jacob Zuma saidthere was "no need for panic" and thatdoctors were treating Mandela for a pre-existing condition consistent with his age.Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj saidin a statement that 94-year-old Mandelawent to a hospital in Pretoria, the capital, onSaturday afternoon, without revealing anymore details about the condition of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader. It isMandela's second period of hospitaltreatment in less than three months. He washospitalised for nearly three weeks inDecember before going home onDecemeber 26. At that time, he was treatedfor a lung infection and had a surgicalprocedure to remove gallstones. The nobelPeace Prize laureate has a history of lungproblems dating back to when he contractedtuberculosis as a political prisoner. He spent27 years in prison, including 18 years on thewindswept Robben Island off Cape Town.


newsNmonday, 11 march, 2013

08 Balochistan’s rights on all its naturalresources should be acknowledged —PkMAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai

gHAZIABADiNP

CALLInG “unofficial”Prime Minister Raja Per-vez Ashraf’s visit toIndia, Indian External Af-fairs Minister Salman

Khurshid on Sunday said success in bi-lateral issues involving the two neigh-bours was a time taking affair.

The minister said that he would notbe able to give a time frame as to whenofficial talks between the two nationscould take place in the future.

“Success (in issues related to Indiaand Pakistan) is not achieved in a day ora moment. First the foundation is madeand then we subsequently go ahead tocreate an edifice,” Khurshid, who offici-ated as the chief guest at the Raising Daycelebrations of paramilitary CISF, said.

He was asked if there was anyprogress in bilateral issues after he metthe Pakistani prime minister in Jaipur onSaturday.

Khurshid maintained that the visit of

the Pakistani prime minister was “not anofficial” trip and it was a courtesy ex-tended by the Indian governmentwhen Ashraf desired to visit the Sufishrine in Ajmer along with his fam-ily.

“It is courtesy that one is allowedto go to his place of prayer for thepeace of the soul and mind...Simi-larly when people from India wantto visit a gurudwara for pilgrimage inPakistan that is a courtesy,” he said.

Khurshid, who flew in an IAF hel-icopter to the CISF base in Ghazi-abad’s Indirapuram for theevent, said he would not beable to give a time frame asto when official talks be-tween the two na-tions could takeplace in the fu-ture.

Success in Indo-Paktalks not a one-dayaffair: Khurshid

WASHINgtONSPECial COrrESPONDENt

Susan E Rice, the uS ambassador to theunited nations, is likely to get the powerfulposition of national security adviser in theWhite House later this year.

Citing an administration official famil-iar with the president’s thinking, The

Washington Post reported on Sundaythat Rice has “emerged as far and awaythe front-runner” to succeed incumbentThomas E Donilon as PresidentBarack Obama’s national security ad-viser.

The uS president has completeauthority in appointing national secu-rity adviser and his choice does notneed to undergo Senate confirmation.

Rice, had, earlier this year, withdrawnfrom the race for nomination as secretaryof state in the face of scathing Republicanopposition to her on account of her flawedcharacterization of September 11, 2012 at-tack on American diplomats in Benghazi,Libya.

As Obama’s national security adviser,Rice will wield tremendous clout in policy-making.

“The job would place her at the nexusof foreign-policy decision making andallow her to rival the influence of Secretaryof State John F Kerry in shaping the presi-dent’s foreign policy,” the Post story re-marked.

Rice, 48, has largely fallen below themedia’s radar, but her standing within theObama administration remains secure, ac-

cording to White House officials and Dem-ocratic lawmakers.

According to the Post, Rice’s un col-leagues are betting she will ultimately serveas Obama’s national security adviser, prob-ably sometime after the united States as-sumes the rotating presidency of the unSecurity Council in July.

“I think that Susan always maintainsclose relations with the president and hisnational security team, and that continuesto be the case,” said Ben J Rhodes, thespokesman for the national Security Coun-cil. “If anything, the way she handled theBenghazi situation — and then the with-drawal — only enhanced her relations here,because she did so with grace and goodhumor.”

Democratic lawmakers said they be-

lieve the controversy over Benghazi haslargely subsided.

At the united nations, Rice — who isset to become the longest-serving uS am-bassador to the united nations since HenryCabot Lodge Jr, who served from 1953 to1960 — has continued to plow ahead, over-seeing uS efforts to negotiate two sanctionsresolutions on north Korea.

According to the newspaper report, onecouncil diplomat, describing Rice’s recentscrapes with other diplomats, said she re-mains “combative.” Rice herself is all tooaware of such characterizations.

“People have called me brusque, ag-gressive, abrasive,” she joked at the u.n.correspondents’ ball. “Of course, they don’tsay that to my face, because they know I’dkick their butts,” the Post quoted her.

susan Rice is obama’s top pick for influentialnational security adviser post

SHUJAAt foRCoMPleteADMINIStRAtIveAUtHoRIty foR eCP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim

League-Quaid President Chaudhry

Shujaat Hussain on Sunday said the

Election Commission of Pakistan should

have completed administrative

authority so that no one could point

finger at its credibility. In a statement,

the former prime minister said terming

the Election Commission autonomous

would be meaningless without vesting it

with administrative authority. Shujaat

added that there was no mechanism at

present to implement the orders of

chief election commissioner. NNi

IRANIAN MPSCoNDeMNMASSACRe ofPAKIStANI SHIAStEHRAN: In a statement issued on

Sunday, 234 of the 290 members of

the Iranian parliament condemned

the killing of a group of Pakistani

Shias. The parliamentarians referred

to the massacre as a plot hatched by

enemies of Islam. The statement

was read out by Ali Reza Moradi, a

member of presiding board of the

legislative body. “Undoubtedly, such

organised crimes are committed by

main Islam’s enemies such as the US

and the UK and their regional allies,”

the statement said. The world public

opinion expects Pakistani parliament,

government and intelligence

agencies to react to this anti-human

plot. The statement said such a

conspiracy had targeted Pakistan’s

national security, stressing that

these brutal crimes should be halted.

The statement then criticised silence

of the international society and the

so-called advocates of human rights

towards brutality in Pakistan. It

reiterated that “today, the issue of

human rights has turned into a

political tool for big powers”. iNP

IP project tobe inauguratedtoday

ISLAMABADNNi

President Asif Ali Zardari is leaving forIran today (Monday) on a daylong visitto formally inaugurate the Pak-Iran GasPipeline Project along with his Iraniancounterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Itis his second visit to Teheran in the lasttwo weeks. In his previous visit‚President Zardari met Supreme LeaderAyatollah Khamenei and MahmoudAhmadinejad on the February 27. Thepresident‚ despite global pressure‚ hadcategorically said the gas pipelineproject was very important to meetPakistan’s energy requirements and thePPP government would nevercompromise on projects that were in thebest national interest. He said if theinternational community had allowedsuch projects with other nations‚ whywas pressure being mounted on Pakistanfor initiating such projects.

THAR: Farmers take their camel herds towards fields for grazing on Sunday. iNP


news N

09


Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is behind proposing RasoolBakhsh Palejo and Ataullah Mengal as caretaker PM— JUI-F leader Abdul Ghafoor Haideri

KABULiNP

AFGHAn PresidentHamid Karzai has accusedthe Taliban and the uS ofworking in concert to con-vince Afghans that vio-

lence will worsen if most foreign troopsleave as planned by the end of next year.

Karzai said two suicide bombings thatkilled 19 people on Saturday – one outsidethe Afghan Defence Ministry and the othernear a police checkpoint in eastern Khostprovince – show the insurgent group isconducting attacks to help show that inter-national forces will still be needed to keepthe peace after their current combat mis-sion ends in 2014.

“The explosions in Kabul and Khostyesterday showed that they are at the serv-ice of America and at the service of this

phrase: 2014. They are trying to frightenus into thinking that if the foreigners arenot in Afghanistan, we would be facingthese sorts of incidents,” he said during anationally televised speech about the stateof Afghan women on Sunday.

There was no immediate responsefrom the uS-led military coalition, whichis gradually handing over responsibilityfor securing the country to Afghan forces.

Karzai is known for making incendi-ary comments in his public speeches, amove that is often attributed to him try-ing to appeal to those who sympathisewith the Taliban or as a way to gainleverage when he feels his internationalallies are ignoring his country’s sover-eignty. In previous speeches he hasthreatened to join the Taliban and calledhis nATO allies occupiers who want toplunder Afghanistan’s resources.

His latest remarks come as his gov-

ernment is negotiating a pact with the uSfor the long-term presence of Americanforces in Afghanistan and just days afteran agreement to transfer the uS prisonoutside of Kabul to Afghan authority fellthrough. His comments also came whileuS Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel ismaking his first visit to Afghanistansince becoming the Pentagon chief.

Karzai said in his speech said thatany foreign powers that want to keeptroops in Afghanistan need to do sounder conditions set forward byAfghanistan.

“We will tell them where we needthem, and under which conditions. Theymust respect our laws. They must respectthe national sovereignty of our countryand must respect all our customs,”Karzai said. Karzai offered no proof ofco-ordination, but said the Taliban andthe united States were in “daily negotia-

tions” in various foreign countries andnoted that the united States has said thatit no longer considers the insurgentgroup its enemy. Karzai said he did notbelieve the Taliban’s claim that theylaunched Saturday’s attacksto show they are still a po-tent force fighting theunited States. “Yesterday’sexplosions, which theTaliban claimed,show that in realitythey are sayingthey want the pres-ence of foreignersin Afghanistan,”Karzai said.

JALALABAD NNi

uS Defence Secretary Chuck Hagelvisited the uS Army’s 101 AirborneDivision’s “Bastogne” 1st BrigadeCombat Team and listened to questionsfrom soldiers in Jalalabad.

Hagel travelled to Afghanistan onhis first trip as the 24th defence secre-tary to visit uS troops, nATO leadersand Afghan counterparts.

The secretary spent time withtroops at Forward Operating BaseFenty, located near the airfield, andpinned two Bastogne soldiers withPurple Hearts: Sgt Jeremyah Williamsand Pfc Harry Hikes IV. Each suffereda traumatic brain injury during a De-cember 2 predawn attack on the base.

Following the award ceremony,Hagel told more than 100 of thebrigade’s troops he would “always domy best for you, for your families[and] our country. I will always put ourmen and women in uniform first”.

The secretary acknowledged thatnow is not an easy time to serve in theuS military. But those now in uniform,

he added, have “a rare opportunity toparticipate in something that doesn’tcome along every day”. The world isin transition, as Afghanistan itself is, hesaid. “That presents great possibilitiesfor all of us,” he said, along with thedangers, uncertainty and complicatedchallenges.

The military mindset is to “seethrough challenges to find the oppor-tunity to help make a better world”, thesecretary said. “And if there’s onething that defines your service, yoursacrifices, it is to help make a betterworld.” Hagel said he is “very proud tobe part of your team”. He then askedthe soldiers if they had questions or ad-

vice for him. Hagel responded to sev-eral questions regarding the sequesterand the $500 million in across-the-board spending cuts it could mean forthe uS Defence Department over thenext 10 years. The soldiers asked if itwould affect change-of-station moves,retirement benefits or transition pro-grams for service members leaving themilitary?

The secretary said he and the Con-gress were committed to keeping thepromises they have made to servicemembers. “I will do everything I pos-sibly can to assure those commitmentsare fulfilled at every level, in everyprogram,” he said.

PPP to clean sweepgeneral elections inPunjab: WattooRENALA KHURD: Punjab chapter PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) President Manzoor AhmadWattoo on Sunday said the PPP would sweep theupcoming general elections in Punjab.Talking to reporters, Wattoo said that PunjabChief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had visited hisconstituency to influence his voters. He said thatthe government would give subsidy to thefarmers regarding electricity bills to bring arevolution in the agriculture sector. He said all resources would be utilised torehabilitate and protect the Christian community.It was the need of the hour to promote religiousharmony in the country, he added. He alsolauded President Asif Zardari for signingPakistan-Iran Gas Pipeline agreement andhanding over Gwadar Port to a Chinesecompany, which would uplift the economy ofcountry. aPP

Child killed in KhyberAgency bomb explosion PESHAWAR: A child was killed in a bombblast on Sunday in Kohga Khail area ofLandi Kotal tehsil of Khyber Agency.According to Khyber Agency policeadministration, explosive material planted atthe entrance of a local mosque went offsuddenly, killing one child nearby. no onewas injured in the incident. However, ahouse near the mosque was also partiallydamaged in the explosion. Soon after theblast, paramilitary troops and politicaladministration officers rushed to scene andcordoned off the area. aPP

hagel meets soldiers infirst afghanistan visit

DEFENCE SECRETARYACKNOWLEDGES NOWNOT AN EASY TIME TOSERVE IN US ARMY

Sherpao feelsgovt’s intentionsto delay elections

PESHAWAR ONliNE

Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman AftabAhmad Khan Sherpao has said it seems thegovernment wants to postpone the electionson the pretext of poor law and order in thecountry. Addressing a public gathering inSwabi on Sunday, he said, “We want timelyelections because it is the only way to steerthe country out of the prevailing crises andput it on the way to progress,” he said.Several activists and supporters of Awaminational Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and PakistanMuslim League-nawaz, including formernazim Mohammad Ismail, former councilorShoaib Khan, Inamullah, Sher Ali Khan,former head AnP Swabi Sher Ali Khan andothers, announced joining the QWP. He saidthe government had failed on all fronts andthe people would hold the rulers accountablein the coming elections and the polls wouldprove a referendum against the incumbentgovernment. He said the government haddone nothing to provide relief to thedisadvantaged segments of the society andthe have-nots were running from pillar topost to make ends meet.

‘Promotion ofquality educationin fAtA KP govt’stop priority’

PESHAWARaPP

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor EngineerShaukatullah on Sunday said that peace,normalcy and promotion of qualityeducation in FATA would remain apriority in his efforts for sustainabledevelopment in the region. Furthermore,he requested the people of the region tojoin hands with him in ensuring thecompletion of educational institutionsand the provision of education to allchildren of the area. Addressingdelegations of tribal elders and youthbelonging to various areas of Peshawar,Khyber, Mohmand, Bajaur agencies atGovernor’s House, he stressed upon theelders the need for quality education inthe area. Responding to queries by tribalelders, the governor said that he wouldcontact the authorities of TESCO toapprise him about ground work done toaddress their grievances. He added thatspecial measures were underway toenhance the infrastructure especially ineducation and health sector. As far as thedeficiency of staff in educational andhealth institutions, re-construction ofbuildings and link road were concerned,the governor also assured to contact theappropriate authorities.

QUETTA: Christians protest against Saturday’s ransacking in Joseph Colony in Lahore’s Badami Bagh area outside the Quetta Press Club on Sunday. iNP

Karzai alleges US, taliban colluding


Protecting non-MuslimsDozens of angry protestors in a mob on Saturday setablaze more than 100 houses and shops belonging toChristians. This incident is yet another sad event in thelong list of sufferings of non-Muslims in the country.

The failure of the present system to provide securityand protection to its citizens in general, and non-Muslims in particular is evident without an iota ofdoubt. non-Muslims have faced such incidents bothunder dictatorships and democracies. Each time there iscondemnation, compensation and words of consolation.However, the fact that these incidents continue showsthat the present rulers and the secular democratic systemlacks the capacity (and perhaps even intention) tosafeguard the rights of non-Muslims.

The Islamic Law, is crystal clear with regards toprotection of non-Muslims. In one ahadith, Prophet(PBuH) said: “He who hurts a dhimmi (non-Muslims)hurts me, and he who hurts me annoys Allah.”

In a true Islamic State (khilafah), it is theresponsibility of the state to implement Islamic law thatprovides justice and safeguards the rights of its citizens.

The importance of regulation of affairs of societythrough an Islamic State, can be understood from asaying of Ibn Tahmiyyah:

“It should be noted that to regulate the affairs ofpeople is one of the most important requirements(wajibat) of the religion (al-din). Really speaking, al-dincannot be established without it. The wellbeing of thesons of Adam cannot be accomplished except through awell-organized society (ijtima) because they are in needof one another; and for such a society a ruler isindispensable.”

Islamic history, is testimony to the fact that non-Muslims citizens were properly looked after andprotected. The Ottoman Caliphate helped the Jews, whowere fleeing persecution. Coptic Christians were safeand flourished under the caliphate in Egypt. In thesubcontinent under the rule of Islam, for centuries theHindus lived without any fear of oppression.

Today, as we witness the failure of the present statesystems, it is imperative that we revert to the system ofIslam which provided the much needed protection andprosperity that people are yearning for.

SHARIquE NAEEMLahore

comment

Arif NizamiEditor

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

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273 Fax: 051-2850505Web:www.pakistantoday.com.pk

Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

C

Where was the teargas when Joseph Colony was burnt down?No place to be a minority

Marlboro mancometh?

eCP’s resolve

ELECTIOnS in Pakistan are a rare and unique commodity, one that given a chancecould have an impact on the country’s political landscape in a positive way, but aswith many other things this democratic tradition has been pushed down to give

space to machinations of highest order. However, now that the situation is not that drasticanymore, with a democratic government gearing up to hand over the setup to anothergovernment of the sort, things are looking up and there is a real chance the electionsmight deliver what they were supposed to in the first place: a peaceful political change inthe government.

The Election Commission of Pakistan seems to be on a steady pace with its efforts inmaking this election a success. It has just announced the polling scheme which detailshow many polling stations, polling booths, and staff would be used this time around.Looking at the numbers alone, the effort seems to be gigantic with polling stations alonerunning above 70,000 in number and the staff being in hundreds of thousands. Twothings that this announcement makes clear are the intentions of the ECP to go ahead withthe elections come what may, and that it is confident it can execute its plan into practice.Whatever the rumour mill is churning out, the ECP appears to be in no mood for anymonkey business. It has set itself a target and seems determined to make it.

But that would just be the one side of the story; another one involves the politicianswho are all set to go to the public to ask them to depose their trust in them again, for betteror for worse. Their eagerness to return to the power corridors, however, would be checkedby the ECP and the electorate. One of the thorns in their side is the implementation of thearticles 62 and 63, which though being controversial could be used in a much better senseto weed out the ones not worthy of holding any public office, let alone becomingrepresentatives of the public. The implementation of the said articles could, however, be achallenging task. The ECP would be better if it does so in a way that doesn’t give anypersonal affront to the politicians while the end objective is achieved amicably.

Being the ruling party in the federal government, the PPP needs to announce electionschedule as soon as possible for one particular purpose: it would quell any rumours of adelay in elections by making sure that the government is eager to walk the talk it has sooften been making about transferring power to the next government.

AnOTHER harrowing attack on a religious minority has taken place. 200 houses,80 shops torched, 200 families in hiding. It was reminiscent of the Gojra mobviolence in 2009. But what has chilled the citizens of the country is that the mob

attack took place in Punjab’s provincial capital – the home of the Chief Minister – andunder watchful gaze of the Lahore police force.

Trouble was brewing in Joseph Colony, Badami Bagh since Wednesday night. Twomen, one Muslim, one Christian, got into a verbal scuffle at a shop. no one knows whatwas – or was not – said. But after a quiet Thursday, a mob turned up on Friday, ready to‘kill the blaspheming’ Christian. The Christian’s father was arrested in his absence to ‘forcehis surrender’ and so the alleged blasphemer did indeed turn himself in. Despite this, policetold the Christian families to ‘evacuate’ due to a security threat, which was duly done. OnSaturday, the ‘expected’ happened. Between 2,000 and 3,000 Muslims descended onto thecommunity, broke locked homes, ransacked them and set them on fire. The photographs ofthe incident sent a chill down one’s spill. Amongst these was a glaring image that made itonto the front page of an English daily showing a protestor burning a cross.

Ominous was the silence of the Punjab government, police force and mainstreampolitical parties as the incident was in the pipeline. The chief minister’s tokenism afterthe incident was to promise “reconstructed houses and Rs 200,000 per family”, as if thiswas enough, while the former minorities minister Kamran Michael and others remainedabsent from the public gaze. The fact that the incident had occurred in the ruling party’sstronghold suggests it was guilty by implication.

The Christian community brought hope by not taking the government’s inaction onthe chin and took to the streets: the Punjab Assembly, press club and Youhanabad inparticular were host to mass protests. Police, for some reason yet to be known, chose toclamp down on the Youhanabad protest, on which it used 500 teargas shells. The policeclampdown was not on the Muslim mob that ransacked and burnt 200 houses in BadamiBagh – but on the Christian protestors at Youhanabad, the city’s largest Christiansettlement, for protesting against the incident and allegedly “damaging the CM’s petproject, the Metro Bus System (MBS)”.

Who are we lying to when we claim “religious minorities have equal protection”under the constitution of our Islamic Republic of Pakistan?

Organised mob attacks on the Christian community have continued under the ‘safety’provided to rioters by the much criticised – and much valourised – Blasphemy Laws. Arereligious minorities not equal citizens? Moreover, why do we even call anyone a‘religious minority’?

Most importantly, where was the teargas when Joseph Colony was burnt down? Thisquestion will ring long in the memory of religious minorities and those who wish for amore progressive Pakistan.

Undeterred from its objective


10

The military’s role would be critical to Musharraf’s fate

I am living for my community, and

for suffering people, and I will die to

defend their rights. –Shahbaz Bhatti

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-32535230 E-mail: [email protected] Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusivelyEditor’s mail

PAKISTAn has no shortsupply of wannabe saviourseven if they come with a$2500 tag for hangers-on inwhatever hue on his come-

back flight. Following the red hot revo-lution drama recently enacted by DrTahir-ul-Qadri, the ‘original’ saviour —Retired General Pervez Musharraf — isapparently landing next week.

If he manages to make good on hissecond promise for a second coming,it would be one spectator sport wewouldn’t want to miss for its excite-ment quotient alone.

The former strongman reneged ona declaration to return in January lastyear, citing security concerns but pur-portedly because he did not get guar-antees from his parent institution for asafe passage.

Last week, he emphasized the sit-uation had come to a “now or never”pass, and he would leave his securityin the hands of the Almighty.

It is unclear who will want towager their spare change, despite tiringof the general lack of governance inPakistan — even British envoy in Is-lamabad recently dared to air a dollopof disappointment rather publicly.

With little political stock and ex-tremely doubtful ability to create anymeaningful space, the security estab-lishment would be loathe to back thewrong horse. That is, if the horse willbe able to bolt.

Musharraf, whose hand was forcedafter the political parties of two formerprime ministers he had vowed never toallow back in politics, threatened toimpeach him after winning the polls inearly 2008, is no stranger to contro-versy, of course.

More significantly, the retiredGeneral has no dearth of enemies inthe political fray, judiciary and the

media, which combined, makes for alethal cocktail. All of them have agenuine grouse or two and would bewaiting on him if he lands.

As if the brew was not rich enoughto unsettle Musharraf, the militarywhose leadership he bequeathedgrudgingly to General Ashfaq Kayaniin the winter of 2007, is itself wary ofseeing the ex-head honcho come homeMarlboro-style.

The security establishment’s rolewould be critical to Musharraf’s adven-ture. Last year, the-then ISI chief flewinto the uAE to convince Musharraf todrop his plans for a comeback.

The military’s role in the contextof his return assumes added signifi-cance for two reasons; one, under Gen-eral Kayani, the institution studiouslymoved away from his predecessor’s in-trusive role in politics, and; two, para-doxically, it may yet be sensitive to anyhumiliation its former boss would cop.

Significantly, Kayani openly de-clared his backing for the democraticprocess, calibrating the intent with acommitment for his “dream of a trans-parent, free and fair election.”

If Musharraf comes calling thatcommitment will be tested. Consider:the former strongman has a slew ofcases awaiting him. He may have beengiven a guard of honour — a farewellthat still rankles the democrats — fol-lowing his forced resignation in 2008under peculiar circumstances but forthe political forces there is no such ob-ligation to swallow pride now.

To begin with, Musharraf facescharges of involvement in the killing ofBaloch nationalist nawab Akbar Bugtiin 2006. Last year, an anti-terrorist courtin Bugti’s restive province issued arrestwarrants for the retired General and hisaides. There is a national consensus onhow that killing sent the province spiral-ing into lawlessness from which neitherthe province nor state has recovered.

The former strongman is also facingarrest warrants for his alleged role in theassassination of former prime ministerBenazir Bhutto. He was, in fact, de-clared an absconder in the case last year.

Musharraf, of course, denies thecharges and his legal team comprising ofthat wily old fox Sharifuddin Pirzada arehopeful of obtaining bail before arrival.

He also ordered the military oper-ation at the Lal Masjid in 2007 toevict militants — with hundreds ofseminary students, including females,holed up inside the compound — de-spite an apparent last-minute agree-ment between the cleric and the

government’s mediating team. Musharraf has so far refused to ap-

pear before the court in the said case. But the decision that will really

come back to haunt him is the abroga-tion of the constitution with a sweepingEmergency in 2007 when he sacked thesuperior judiciary (detaining the judgesand their families) before it could an-nounce a verdict on the legality of hisre-election as president in uniform.

Musharraf could do no worse when,in a decidedly cavalier move, his regimetook the private electronic media off airas well. The subsequent crackdown onlawyers, who had by then, galvanizedthe nation into launching a popularmovement against the dictator, as wellas political and social activists loosenedhis grip on power and ultimately, cat-alyzed his descent into irrelevance.

It would probably be an exaggera-tion to suggest he will be tried under Ar-ticle 6 and eventually pay with his life;history makes that inconceivable for ob-vious reasons even though the currentjudiciary is not shy of stamping its feeton the line in some interesting ways.

Having said that, some red lines doexist even at the worst of times, how-soever invisible. Perhaps, this is whatMusharraf is banking on to make his“now or never” advance.

Realistically speaking, Musharrafhas been away from Pakistan for a verylong time and is most likely only over-estimating his ambition make the cut.For one, Pakistan has undergonetremendous transformation in its jour-ney towards sustainable democracy.

If Musharraf can see the irony ofhis predicament, it is that even thepowerful military is sensitive to beingeven remotely conjectured as a con-spirator against Project Democracy.

Just recently, the DG ISPR andthen the chief khaki himself categori-cally affirmed their backing of a dem-ocratic transition with the latter evensuggesting it was inevitable and theonly ticket in town.

With Musharraf’s nemesis nawazSharif riding a crest of popularity andelectability wave, there is going to be noshortage of excitement. More than fiveyears ago the ex-Commando packed offSharif back to the Holy Land before hecould properly inhale the air outside theairport lounge. now, he himself woulddo well to even overcome cabin fear!

Fasten your seatbelts.

The writer is Editor PiqueMagazine based in Islamabad. He canbe reached at [email protected]

Monday MusingsKaMraN rEHMat


PAKISTAn conducted an internationalnaval exercise AMAn-13 in the northArabian Sea from March 4 to 8. It wasthe fourth drill in this series that began

in 2007. Reportedly, 24 countries attended theopening ceremony. The American destroyer uSSWilliam P. Lawrence was amongst the ships tak-ing part along with vessels from Australia, China,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Japan,Malaysia, Turkey, uAE, Britain and Italy.

On the other hand, countries participating asobservers were: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil,Canada, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Maldives,Myanmar, nigeria, north Sudan, Oman, Poland,Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Tanza-nia, Turkmenistan, and ukraine.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of this multi-national exercise, Pakistan Fleet Commander RearAdmiral Hasham bin Siddique stated: “AMAn-13will be instrumental in enhancing tactical and oper-ational readiness amongst its participating navies.”

AMAn-13 was projected to be a routine ex-ercise focused on combating piracy, terrorism, andthe protection of shipping-lanes and trade flows.However, a deeper look reveals a newfound as-sertiveness, momentum, and significance behindthese drills. AMAn-13 and similar exercisesbeing conducted by other states are reflective ofthe broader tensions around Iran’s nuclear pro-gram, situation of Syria, and island disputes in theSouth China Sea. underneath the island disputesof the South China Sea are the tussles for the bal-ance of naval power in the Pacific Ocean. Whilethe defense budgets of European nations and uSare decreasing, that of China is only increasing.Furthermore, the naval forces of states like Indiaand Japan are rapidly growing.

Pakistan’s neighbor Iran regularly conductsnaval drills to showcase its preparedness and tocounter any plans to attack its nuclear installations.Moreover, the country has threatened to close theStrait of Hormuz if there is such a strike. In Decem-ber 2012, alarm was raised when Israeli media re-ported on the presence of a Pakistan’s nuclear-armednaval ship Shamsheer at Port Sudan. According tonews, the vessel was to rendezvous with two Iranianvessels and conduct maneuvers on the Red Sea.

However, the joint operation was reportedlyaverted under pressure from uS, Saudi Arabia andIsrael. Iranian and Pakistani ships had showed upin Sudan after the October, 2012 attack on an armsdepot in Port Khartoum. The strike was allegedlycarried out by Israel, claiming the depot was beingused to store Iranian arms that were being shippedonwards to Gaza via Sinai in Egypt.

Soon afterwards, in January 2013 naval Spe-cial Forces from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia partic-ipated in a tenth joint naval exercise under naseemAl Bahr. Earlier, in november 2012, Pakistannavy Ship Shamsheer and P-3C Orion aircraftparticipated in a Turkish ex-ercise Mavi Baline-12.

While Pakistan was busywith AMAn-13, Pakistan’sneighbor to the east, Indiaconcluded its largest naval ex-ercise TROPEX 13 on March1. In the recent past, India hascarried out a number of suchdrills with the naval forces ofother states that included uS,Japan and Australia. One doesnot have to be much creativeto imagine some of the sce-narios being practiced, espe-cially in the post Mumbaiincident environment.

The recent controversy inPakistan over the setting up ofuS ‘Tactical Command andOperations Center’ at the Jin-nah International AirportKarachi may be linked to thislingering risk. As Pakistan-India ties improve, the ex-tremist groups may attempt to pull-off anotherMumbai style event. A uS based website hasclaimed the tactical command center is meant tomonitor Karachi and the entire coastal belt to con-trol smuggling. Iran may be equally worried aboutthis development. The downing of RQ-170 Sentineldrone in December 2011 demonstrated the multiplepurposes such assets can play. The drone reportedlyflew out of Pakistan or Afghanistan to conduct sur-veillance over Iran. The Sentinel was also used inthe operation to go after Osama bin Laden.

The increasing assertiveness of Pakistan navy

has ironically been matched by growing targetingof its assets that deal with surveillance and mar-itime security. This lends further proof to the factthat the agenda of TTP is more sophisticated thana rag-tag group of mercenaries can intellectuallycome up with or financially back. For example, inthe 2011 assault on Mehran naval aviation base inKarachi, 2 P-3C Orion anti submarine and mar-itime surveillance aircrafts were destroyed. How-ever, it should be noted that after the incident, uShad offered to replace the destroyed planes. In theAugust 2012 strike at the Minhas airbase inKamra, TTP targeted one of the key componentsof Pakistan’s airborne early warning system, Saab2000. The advanced plane is capable of detectinghigh and low flying objects over a long range ofabout 450 kilometers, to include on the surface ofthe sea. On the other hand, Pakistan’s coastal linestretches about 960 kilometers.

While the schedules for such drills are decidedmuch in advance, the timing of AMAn-13 was pe-culiar. It took place when Pakistan just handedover the Gwadar port to a Chinese government

owned firm. The country hasalso decided to move aheadwith the Iran-Pakistan gaspipeline project, while Iranannounced its plans to de-velop an oil refinery at theGwadar port. These develop-ments are deeply worrisomemoves for India and uS.

The presence of China,uS and other pacific nationsin the exercise, serve to calmthe waters of mistrust be-tween these countries.Through these naval maneu-vers, Pakistan is playing aninstrumental role in reducingtensions between China andother nations of the Orient.At the same time, such drillsreduce apprehensions re-garding Pakistan-China co-operation. Moreover, itsignals that while India reg-ularly conducts naval exer-

cises with Japan, uS and Australia, it does notnecessarily mean Pakistan is isolated. Pakistan’snavy has its role to play in the region because ofits strategic location. However, as it relates to eco-nomic and security cooperation with Iran, Pak-istan will continue to confront pressure from theWest as well as the Arab nations.

The writer is chief analyst at PoliTact, aWashington based futurist advisory firm(www.PoliTact.com and http:twitter.com/politact)and can be reached at [email protected]

comment Cmonday, 11 march, 2013

11

If you examine the cases of the hundreds tried under the[Blasphemy] Law, how many of them are well-to-do? How comeover 50 percent of them are Christians when they form less thantwo percent of the country’s population? –Salmaan Taseer

Pakistan Navy testing the watersAMAN-13 naval exercise could help reduce regional mistrust

ariF aNSar

Damning and disgraceful

nO T H I n Gcan be moredamning anddisgraceful -

for a country called the Is-lamic Republic of Pak-istan - than the mob attackon the Christian neigh-bourhood in Lahore thisSaturday over an allegedblasphemy issue. There isno way this incident canbe explained and justifiedto the outside world as itis not an isolated occur-rence. It has almost be-come a recurring phenomenon. As if the Gojra carnage was notenough as an indelible stigma on the face of the state and the nega-tion of the Islamic teachings, we now have the Badami Baghepisode where the enraged mob took it upon itself to punish the en-tire population of the locality for an alleged act of blasphemy byan individual. The incident has come as a rude shock to the peopleof Pakistan, who believe in the lofty principles and teaching ofIslam and social harmony. no words would be enough to condemnthis dastardly act seemingly a sequel to a dispute between two for-mer friends, a Muslim and a Christian, who even used to drink to-gether. The shopkeepers of the market where the conflicting partieswere running businesses reported that the two had a long standingdispute. On the face of it, the accuser found it convenient to exploitthe religious sentiments of the people and the Blasphemy Law invogue to take revenge from the accused, who belongs to the Chris-tian community. The incident has not only further damaged theimage of Islam but has also dented reputation of Pakistan as a pro-gressive Islamic state where minorities enjoy protection of life andproperty as equal citizens in the light of Islamic teachings.

The bestiality enacted at Gojra against the Christian communitywould put to shame even Adolf Hitler, the architect of the Holocaust.The most sordid aspect of that gory incident was that those who werelynched and whose houses were subjected to arson, were not in-volved in any alleged desecration. The carnage, ostensibly carriedout to uphold the sanctity of the Holy Quran, against the very teach-ings of the Holy Book itself, is yet another manifestation of the reli-gious bigotry, intolerance and hatred against minorities, afflicting oursocial fabric. In Surah al-Maidah, the Quran enjoins Muslims to dojustice and shun hatred against other communities in these words:“Oh Ye who believe, be steadfast witness for Allah in equity and letnot hatred of any people seduce you that ye deal not justly, that isnearer to your duty.” According to the details of the circumstancesleading to the pogrom and the barbarity let loose on the Gojra attackvictims, the imam of the mosque in village Korian was the architectof the senseless blood-letting. He was the one who incited people toavenge the desecration of Holy Quran by “the Christian community,”without bothering to ascertain the circumstances or the exact natureof the incident. Lashkare Jhangvi also got involved to take advantageof the situation. It is now an established fact that no adult member ofthe Christian community had committed any act of blasphemy.Rather some Christian children had cut out some pages of Islamiattextbook and used them as confetti at a wedding ceremony in the vil-lage, unaware of the consequences of such an act. The RimshaMaseeh incident in Islamabad last year also stemmed from the wronguse of the religious pulpit by a religious fanatic.

What is noteworthy about these incidents is that most of themhave happened in Punjab over the years which indicates uncheckedrise of religious extremism in the province. Granted that the desecra-tion of the Holy Quran and making offensive comments about theHoly Prophet is an emotional issue for Muslims and constitutes blas-phemy, if committed deliberately by an individual or an organizationwith an explicit purpose to offend the Muslim community. Even thenthere is no justification whatsoever to the people to take the law intheir own hands and perpetrate mob justice on offenders. There arelaws in the country to deal with such matters and it is the responsibilityof the state to initiate action against the accused person or persons andthe accused has the right to be given a chance to defend themselves.That is how the Islamic system of justice and the law of the land en-visages the dispensing of justice. It is however satisfying to note thatthe President, Prime Minister have taken a serious notice of the inci-dent and directed for a through probe and stern action against the per-petrators of the crime. The Punjab Chief Minister has also announcedcompensation for affected families and requested for the formation ofa judicial commission to hold a probe into the incident. This soundsencouraging. However, the time has come for taking concrete and de-cisive measures to ensure that such incidents do not recur in the future.Moreover, the Punjab government must show spine to enforce a policyof zero tolerance against the exploitation of the Blasphemy Law andcheck the spread of religious fanaticism in the province.

We have had enough of it. We need to stop the merchants ofdeath in their tracks right now and forestall their efforts to propagateand spread their fissiparous ideologies. The government and thecivil society has to stand up and refuse to be hostages to the bizarrebrand of Islam bandied around by the religious fanatics and militantoutfits. A loud and clear message should go out to them that therewill be zero tolerance against their creed of hate and violence. Asa first step the government should ensure to make an example outof those who are found guilty of inciting the people to such despi-cable actions. There is also a need to revisit the Blasphemy Law tomake sure that no body is able to exploit it to settle personal enmi-ties. We, as a nation, also need to fight the menace on the ideolog-ical front. The ulema and media have a significant role to play inerasing the influence of the ideologies preached by religious ex-tremists and creating awareness among people about the true spiritof Islam and its emphasis on building a harmonious society, boast-ing peace and tranquility as its hallmarks.

The writer is an academic.

MaliK MuHaMMaD aSHraF

Badami Bagh mob attack signals needto take religious fanaticism seriously

The presence of China, USand other pacific nationsin the exercise, serve to

calm the waters ofmistrust between these

countries. Through thesenaval maneuvers, Pakistanis playing an instrumentalrole in reducing tensionsbetween China and other

nations of the Orient


The fear of death follows from the fear of

life. A man who lives fully is prepared to

die at any time. — Mark Twain

arts

Amonday, 11 march, 2013

12

eMMA WAtSoN GoeSRAUNCHy IN SofIACoPPolA’S tHe BlINGRING tRAIleR

Emma Watson joins a gang of teenage

thieves in a one-minute teaser for The

Bling Ring. Sofia Coppola’s latest film

following Somewhere, which won a

Golden Lion at the Venice film festival,

The Bling Ring is based on the true story

of a series of burglaries at celebrity

homes. Set to Sleigh Bells’ Crown on

the Ground, the teaser focuses on Emma

Watson, whose character finds herself

wrapped up with a well-off group of

teenagers who steal from the homes of

Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox and Paris

Hilton. The Bling Ring is due out

worldwide in June, with a premiere

possible at the upcoming Cannes film

festival. NEWS DESK

No IDeA ABoUtANIStoN’S WeDDING,SAyS BeSt fRIeNDComedian Chelsea Handler says she has

no details about her close friend actress

Jennifer Aniston’s wedding. Aniston is

engaged to marry Justin Theroux but

details of her wedding are being kept

under wraps. “I know she’s engaged but

that’s all I know. I’m sure I’ll find out

about it when it’s about to happen... for

privacy issues... I honestly don’t know

anything about it. She doesn’t consult

me on her plans,” Handler said on a US

chat show. There were speculations that

the couple, who got engaged in August

last year, will tie the knot in Hawaii in

the coming weeks. However, her

representative later denied the rumours.

NEWS DESK

MoDellING tIMefoR BAlDWIN’SDAUGHteRActor Alec Baldwin 17-year-old daughter

Ireland has signed a deal with IMG

Models. Ireland, who lives here with

actress mother Kim Basinger, shared her

excitement on Twitter, reports

contactmusic.com. “Officially working for

Two Management and IMG models! I am

blessed, happy, and ready to work,” she

tweeted. Baldwin, 54, who married 28-

year-old yoga instructor Hilaria Thomas

in June last year, confirmed the news of

their first child in February. Thomas

recently confirmed they are expecting a

baby girl. Ireland gets along with and

Thomas. “She is like a big sister to me,

but I feel like I have not spent enough

time with her yet. We have a lot more

to learn about each other and we have

a lot more experiences to have

together. We joke around and I call her

mom. But I respect her,” Ireland earlier

said. NEWS DESK

COURtESy HP

YOu’VE probably reada few. They’re commonon Amazon and otherconsumer book reviewsites. You’ll sometimes

read them in respected print publications,too. They pick at elements of plot, char-acter, setting, and pacing with razor-sharptalons. They shred themes and pummelprose. They may even be right in their as-sessment of some novels, yet it’s theirscathing presentation that gives themaway. I’ve often wondered if these re-views aren’t written by struggling novel-ists so poisoned by envy that they lashout against those who receive the covetedbook deals and critical acclaim.

A March 3, 2013 piece by journalistAlexander nazaryan in Salon admits thathis jealousy influenced his reviews ofbooks. He says, “Consequently, the re-views I wrote came to bear a stench ofbitterness, none more so than one I wrotefor the Village Voice in 2008 in which Itook on two debut novelists, Keith

Gessen and nathaniel Rich.”I selected nazaryan’s piece for yes-

terday’s #litchat MediaMonday, hopingto scratch some difficult areas and stim-ulate insightful conversation. I’m notproud of it, but I’ve been envious of somewriters who got book deals for novels Ifound banal, hackneyed, and precious.After reading such books, I’ve often goneto Amazon and Goodreads to see whatothers have said about the book, just tosee if I’m the only one with such convic-tions. Often I’m not. That’s when I seethe reviews dripping with green ink. Andthat’s when I feel compassion for the au-thor. no matter how much one doesn’tlike a book, it doesn’t deserve the viciouslashing of an unsuccessful novelist. Be-hind every book is a person who put hisor her time and talent onto each page.

Just after my former agent shoppedmy novel to the big houses without suc-cess, I began to examine why it both-ered me so much when other authorsreceived publishing deals for books Ideemed inferior to mine and to those ofmany of my writer friends whose books

were also being passed.While there is an element of compe-

tition involved—after all, there are onlyso many coveted slots a publisher pro-vides each year—it’s more than that. Iwant to earn a living writing books. I’mnot so naive as to think my first book willbring in seven figures. I realize that a ca-reer novelist must write several books andkeep them in print in order to earn enoughmoney to quit the day job. While I am notenvious of bestselling authors personally,I covet their success. To be a bestsellingnovelist I must first be published.

My envy also stems from a sense thatbecause my book didn’t sell, it wasn’t asgood as those which did. Yet, based onvery positive beta readings from otherwriters whose opinions are highly re-spected, this is simply not true. Then I re-alized a deeper truth. I am something ofa book snob. I simply don’t enjoy mostpopular fiction.

While I am not a wine snob, I admitto enjoying fine wines. Trending rightnow are sweet wines, which I call starterwines. I am not a fan of these sweet

drinking wines, although I love a goodport or dessert wine following a meal.Despite my preferences, there is a grow-ing population of people who prefer thesesweet wines. Does their popularity andtrendiness make them bad wines? Justbecause I don’t like them, does that meanthat they shouldn’t be made?

Popular fiction is a huge market. Ro-mance novels consistently outsell othergenres. 50 Shades of Grey is credited forkeeping Random House in the black.Like the sweet red wines, there will al-ways be a taste for popular fiction.

Which leads me to the deepest truth.I want my books to be read. I write pri-marily because I enjoy discovering astory and mining it from the earth ofimagination. But when that story is com-plete, it’s like I want to stand on thestreet corner and yell, “Hey, I wrote thisstory. Want to read it?” Many peoplewill read most anything if it’s free. Yet Istrongly believe there is value in litera-ture. That’s when it circles back to want-ing to do this crazy thing calledstorytelling for a living.

JeAloUSy AND tHe WRIteR

NEWS DESK

Selena Gomez was once a favorite at

Hooters.

The 20-year-old Texas beauty covers the

April issue of Harper’s Bazaar and

reveals inside that when she was a little

girl she used to help her father, Ricardo,

pick up waitresses at Hooters after her

dad split from her mom.

“When I was seven, my dad would go to

Hooters to watch [San Antonio] Spurs

games, but he started noticing that when

I would come, with my little pigtails, all

the waitresses would be like, ‘Hey!’”

Gomez tells Bazaar about her Hooters

trips, according to the new York

Post. “So he ended up

spending time with me

but with all those cute

girls coming over.

And that became our

thing.”

The “Spring

Breakers”

star previously opened up about her

parents’ divorce to E! news. Her mom

and dad broke up when Gomez was just

5 years old.

“I blame my mom a lot, because I

wanted a family so bad,” she said. “I

wanted to have my dad and my mom

together. So, it was really hard. I

remember just being really angry with

my mom. And I still feel really bad for

that.”

Although adorable little Selena was once

a Hooters hit for her dad, the single

starlet has had trouble finding dates

herself these days.

“(I don’t get) asked out a lot,” Gomez

told Bazaar about dating post-Justin

Bieber. “When I actually look

presentable, I’m at an awards show. It’s

not like I’ve wanted to go out and look

for someone. I’m not really good at

that.” But she still believes in love. “I

believe in love — yes, I’m one of those

girls,” she said.

Still, Gomez says she is happy and

“having a lot of fun” with her friends

these days. “I’ve been telling

people I’m definitely a little bit

more sassy now,” she told E!

news. “I’m a little bit more

mouthy.”

helped dad pick up Hooters waitressesSeleNA GoMez olyMPUS HAS

fAlleNACtIoN AlltHe WAy:BUtleRAfter his performance in epic saga“300”, actor Gerard Butler is back inaction mode for his upcomingthriller, “ Olympus Has Fallen”.He says it promises classicaction. The Antoine Fuqua-directorial will see Butler as asecret service agent, runningaround with guns and doingsome deadly action whileprotecting the President duringa terrorist attack on the WhiteHouse, reads a statement.Talking about his love for theaction genre, the 43-year-oldsaid: “The story is really fun.north Korean terrorists comedown the Mall in a bloody cargoplane and also attack the WhiteHouse from the inside.” “It’sinsane, but you buy it, you gowith it. It’s action-packed allthe way through - a traditional,classic, unapologetic, bigaction movie. It’s Die Hard inthe White House,” he added.“Olympus Has Fallen” alsofeatures Morgan Freeman,Aaron Eckhart, AngelaBassett, Rick Yune, DylanMcDermott, Ashley Judd,Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauserand Robert Forster. The filmwill hit screens in IndiaMarch 22. NEWS DESK


If you know the enemy and know

yourself you need not fear the results

of a hundred battles. — Sun Tzu

13aRtsmonday, 11 march, 2013

A

JILL ZarIn“The ultimate reason for setting

goals is to entice you to

become the person it takes to

achieve them.” - Jim Rohn

ronnIe the LIMo DrIVerJust what I need 1hr less

sleep! 3:15am isn’t early

enough! Who’s brain storm

idea was this!

rUsseLL sIMMonsWhen you’re faced with fear andanxiety, don’t medicate,meditate instead.

Bryan aDaMsDriving down the autobahn at 220

km per hour to Bremen. What’s

the rush? No rush, that’s normal

German driving.

phILLIp sChofIeLDHappy Mothers Day to all the

lovely mums ... especially

mine :)

notaBLe tWeets

Sean Penn sat grim-faced at Hugo Chavez’s

funeral Friday — one of a clutch of Hollywood

stars who lionized the late Venezuelan

leader, in defiance of America’s fierce

antipathy to his regime. Following a long

tradition of Hollywood liberals, Penn was

joined by Oliver Stone, Danny Glover

and documentary maker Michael Moore in

lauding the charismatic Venezuelan

president after his death this week. Only

Penn appears to have made the trip to

Caracas for the lavish funeral of Chavez —

who died aged 58 on Tuesday after a long

battle with cancer — but the others made

their feelings quite clear. JFK and Natural Born

Killers director Stone, interviewed Chavez for a

2009 documentary South of the Border, called

him a great hero to the majority of his people and

those who struggle throughout the world. “Hated

by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chavez will live

forever in history,” he added in a statement released

after his death, adding: “My friend, rest finally in a peace

long earned.” Glover, a long-time Afro-American activist

and star of the Lethal Weapons films, praised Hugo

Chavez as a social champion, in a full-page

statement issued by his publicist. “I join with

millions of Venezuelans, Latin Americans,

Caribbeans (and) freedom-loving people around

the world who embraced (him) as a social

champion of people-centered democracy,” he said.

Penn, wearing a black suit and tie, did not comment

publicly at Friday’s funeral, where he sat among the

crowd of foreign dignitaries paying tribute to the

leftist firebrand leader. But in a statement after

Chavez’s death he said: “The people of the United

States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor

people around the world lost a champion. I lost a

friend I was blessed to have.” Their support for

Chavez fits into a tradition of actors-turned-activists

stretching back to Charlie Chaplin accused of

communist sympathies, Jane Fonda in Vietnam, and

up to George Clooney, arrested over Sudan last year.

Fonda was dubbed Hanoi Jane when she visited north

Vietnam during the war there and accused of being

anti-American. Such outspoken political activism is not

without its career or commercial risks for the actors or

filmmakers involved — especially when it runs counter to

US interests. Americans in general want their stars to speak

out praising what is right with America,” said Steven Ross, a

University of Southern California professor and expert on

Hollywood’s links with politics. NEWS DESK

NEWS DESK

Variety has revealed that Keri Russellhas landed the female lead role inDawn of the Planet of the Apes.Russell joins Gary Oldman, JasonClarke and Kodi-Smit McPhee, whohave already been confirmed for thefollow-up to Rise of the Planet of theApes. For now, there is no indication asto which part Russell will play. Shewill, however, be on familiar groundsince she will be directed by MattReeves, who co-created Felicity, theseries in which she shot to fame at theend of the 1990s. Filming on Dawn ofthe Planet of the Apes, which will again

be loosely based on Pierre Boulle’snovel, will start in spring. Andy

Serkis will reprise his role as Cesar,the chimpanzee leading theviolent revolt of the apes againstmankind. Gary Oldman will playthe leader of the humanresistance in a story set fifteenyears after the first movie.Dawn of the Planet of the Apesis set for release on May 23,2014 in north Americancinemas. It will be releasedworldwide shortly thereafter.

Hollywood liberalshail Chavez, indefiant tradition

Bieber’s UKmeltdown wasover SelenaGomez split

NEWS DESK

Justin Bieber’s British meltdown was triggered byhis split from Selena Gomez, it has been revealed.According to friends, the end of his two-yearrelationship with the 20-year-old actress left himdevastated and he hurtled off the rails, the Mirrorreported. “He was crazily in love with her. Shekept him grounded. She’s been a tower of strengththrough all the hysteria of being one of the world’smost famous pop stars. To lose her was like losingan anchor,” one pal said. The ‘Baby’ hitmaker’stroubles burst into the open last week. He was twohours late for his show on Monday at the O2 arenain London. He collapsed on stage with breathingdifficulties at the same venue on Thursday, and thefollowing day he tried to fight with aphotographer. A source close to the teen popstarsaid that he simply hasn’t been the same since hesplit from Gomez. “It really broke him. They weretogether for such a long time for two people soyoung. He hasn’t quite known what to do withouther. He is lonely,” the source added.

KeRI RUSSellto star in Dawn Of The

Planet Of The Apes

Brooke Shieldsin talks to jointhe view

NEWS DESK

Brooke Shields has reportedly beenapproached by ABC to join uS morningchat show ‘The View’ after current host JoyBehar recently announced she is leaving thepopular series after 16 seasons and amidrumours Elizabeth Hasselbeck’s contract hasnot been renewed. According to gossipwebsite showbiz411.com, Barbara Walters,who is at the helm of the series, thinks thatthe 47-year-old ‘Blue Lagoon’ actress wouldbe a great addition and is eager for her totake over one of the vacant spots,Contactmusic reported. Sources revealedthat Barbara wants Shields to join the showbecause the actress has two children, is aPrinceton graduate, ‘’very articulate’’ andalso has great connections in Hollywood. Itis said that the actress, who previously actedas a guest host, is in final negotiations to jointhe show next season alongside WhoopiGoldberg, Sherri Shepherd, and Barbara.Elisabeth was axed from the series on as shewas deemed to be ‘’too extreme and rightwing’’ in a recent audience poll, according tous Weekly. But a spokesperson for the seriessaid she has a ‘’long term contract.’’

Antonio Banderas to star inChilean mine filmAntonio Banderas is set to star in a flick about the 33Chilean miners who were trapped underground for twomonths. The Hollywood heartthrob has joined the castof ‘Los 33’ which reveals how the men survived theirincredible ordeal while the world watched with batedbreath, the Daily Star reported. Film director PatriciaRiggen confirmed that the Spanish actor will star in themovie. “Antonio Banderas will be part of our team ofactors. We’re very happy to have him in the cast. Buthe’s just the first one confirmed. There will be manymore,” she said. The story revolves around miners,who were imprisoned 2,300ft below ground aftera cave-in at the San Jose mine in the AtacamaDesert, 500 miles north of the capitalSantiago, in August 2010. They spent 17days eating just two spoons of tuna, afew sips of milk and half a biscuit a daybefore they were located in anunderground refuge. NEWS DESK

California Jennifer Garner arrives at Soul Cycle for an earlymorning workout on Sunday in Santa Monica.


NEWS DESK

Protecting your child's long-term health may mean notgetting a prescription for antibiotics—even incases of ear and sinus infections, write Jessicaand Tim Lahey at The Atlantic. The authorswere surprised that their "smart, highly ed-ucated" friends turn easily to antibiotics fortheir children. Only problem: Humanbacteria is becoming so antibiotics-re-sistant that a prescription may well beuseless in a few years, and "people[will] die from what are currently nui-sance illnesses easily cured with a pill."So the Taheys offer a few tips to avoidthe "antibiotic apocalypse": Antibioticsdestroy bacteria, not viruses, so antibioticsdo bupkis for colds and bronchitis. Greenphlegm and sinus discharge don't necessarilyrequire antibiotics. Many studies have con-cluded that green sputum well be viral ratherthan bacterial. Even ear and sinus infections

may not need antibiotics, provided there are no "red flagsymptoms." Consult with your doctor to make sure. Al-ways get a chest X-ray to make sure your child has bron-chitis rather than pneumonia. The physical examinationand symptoms can be the same, but

bronchitis is often viral whilepneumonia isbacterial.

NEWS DESK

THERE is new evi-dence suggestingthat evolution doesnot proceed inex-orably forward in a

more or less straight line as manyhave long believed. Researchershave discovered that the commonhouse dust mite has undergone“reverse” evolution, changingfrom a parasitic life form to afree-living one, presenting scien-tists with a new piece of the evo-lution puzzle. The theory of anorganism reverting to the charac-teristics of its ancestors is knownas “Dollo’s law.” The hypothesis,posed by Belgian paleonologistLouis Dollo, states that “an or-ganism is unable to return, evenpartially, to a previous stage al-ready realized inthe ranks ofits ances-t o r s . ”A l -

though evolutionary biologistshave disagreed about how therule is applied in nature, theyhave been in general agreementon the general principle that theevolutionary process is irre-versible. now biologists from theuniversity of Michigan, relyingon a large-scale genetic study ofthe house dust mite, seem to havediscovered an example of re-versible evolution, calling intoquestion Dollo’s law. The studyshows that the familiar housedust mite evolved over millionsof years from free-living organ-isms into para-sites beforet h e nevolv-i n g

back into free-living organisms.“All our analyses conclusivelydemonstrated that house dustmites have abandoned a parasiticlifestyle, secondarily becomingfree-living, and then speciated inseveral habitats, including humanhabitations,” according to PavelKlimov and Barry O’Connor ofthe university of Michigan De-partment of Ecology and Evolu-tionary Biology. Mites aremembers of the arachnid (spider)family. Known forc a u s i n ga l -

lergic symptoms in humans, theyare poorly understood from anevolutionary standpoint. Accord-ing to Klimov and O’Connor,there are 62 different publishedhypotheses arguing aboutwhether today’s free-living dustmites originated from a free-liv-ing ancestor or from a parasite. Inan effort to paint a more compre-hensive picture of the mites evo-

lution, Klimov andO ’ C o n n o r

eva lua tedall 62 hy-potheses.u s i n g

DnA

sequencing, detailed evolutionarytrees called phylogenies, and sta-tistical analyses to test their hy-potheses, the pair of researchereventually recreated the evolu-tionary history of house dustmites. House dust mites appearwithin a lineage of parasiticmites, called Psoroptidia, whichnever leave the bodies of theirhosts — mainly mammals and

birds. Thea n a l y s i s

shows thatthe imme-diate para-s i t i cancestorsof housed u s tmites in-c l u d e

s k i nm i t e s ,

such as themange mitesof livestock

and the dogand cat

e a rmite.

stop giving your children antibiotics

How womenhelped nuke Japanwithout knowing itMany young women helped build the

A-bomb at a secret atomic research

facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.—but didn't

know what they were making, the

Daily Beast reports. Denise Kiernan's

new book, The Girls of Atomic City:

The Untold Story of the Women Who

Helped Win World War II describes the

weirdness of daily life at so-called "Site

X." One 18-year-old, for example, was

told only to monitor and adjust gauge

needles: "The idea was to get as much

R as possible," writes Kiernan, "so that

when the men came to empty the 'E'

boxes of the 'D' units there would be a

nice amount in there." What did it all

stand for? "Smart girls didn't bother

asking." But "Site X" had a darker side.

Women had letters boldly censored,

romantic outings monitored, were fired

for discussing work, and laboured

under Orwellian billboards—like one of

a huge eye with a "swastika-embedded

pupil" that read, "THE ENEMY IS

LOOKING FOR INFORMATION GUARD

YOUR TALK." Meanwhile, black workers

were treated poorly, banned from the

swimming pool and any family

cohabitation (white couples were

allowed to live together). In the end,

the plant's workers were shocked to

see the fruit of their labour dropped on

Japan. Their curiosity, writes Kiernan,

was replaced by "pride and guilt and

joy and relief and shame." NEWS DESK

teacher gets firedfor letting kidstaste bloodA Norwegian school teacher put a new

twist on show and tell by bringing a

blood sample to class and letting

students taste it, Gawker reports. The

unnamed teacher brought a vial of her

blood from a doctor's visit, and

poured it on a plate for students to

touch during "sharing time." The kids

"asked if they could touch it and she

allowed them," the school's director

told Reuters. "Then they asked 'How

do we get it off?' so she put her finger

in her mouth and the children

followed suit." The kindergarten in the

Norwegian town of Sola has sent the

blood in for HIV/AIDS and other

testing, knowing that up to 12

children may have tasted the

teacher's blood. The teacher said

sorry for the odd presentation, but the

school fired her anyway. NEWS DESK

InfotaInMent

IMonday, 11 March, 2013

14The cure for crime is not the

electric chair, but the high

chair. –J Edgar Hoover

NEWS DESK

Can’t find a face in the crowd? notto worry, a human recognition systemcan spot people for you – even whentheir faces aren't visible. Designed forGoogle's forthcoming Glass headset,it recognises people by the clothesthey are wearing. Their name is thenoverlaid on the headset's video. Thesystem, called InSight, is part-fundedby Google and was unveiled at theHotMobile technology conference inJekyll Island, Georgia, last week. Itaims to help users find their friendsand be spotted themselves in busyplaces like shopping centres, sportsstadia and airports. Face recognition

systems cannot be used for this, saysInSight developer Srihari nelakuditiat the university of South Carolina inColumbia, because it is unlikelysomeone in a crowd will be lookingstraight at a headset's camera. Sonelakuditi joined forces with RomitRoy Choudhury and colleagues at

Duke university in Durham, northCarolina, to develop a recognitionsystem based on a "fashion finger-print" of a person's outfit, from theirclothes to their jewellery, badges andglasses. This fingerprint is con-structed by a smartphone app whichsnaps a series of photos of the user asthey read web pages, emails ortweets. It then creates a file – calleda spatiogram – that captures the spa-tial distribution of colours, texturesand patterns (vertical or horizontalstripes, say) of the clothes they arewearing. This combination of colour,texture and pattern analysis makessomeone easier to identify at oddviewing angles or over long distances.

Bee venom destroys HIv andspares surrounding cellsNanoparticles

containing bee

venom toxin

melittin can

destroy human

immunodeficiency

virus (HIV) while

at the same time

leaving

surrounding cells

unharmed,

scientists from

Washington University School of Medicine reported

in the March 2013 issue of Antiviral Therapy. The

researchers said that their finding is a major step

toward creating a vaginal gel that can prevent HIV

spread. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. Melittin

is a powerful toxin found in bee venom. It can

poke holes in the protective viral envelope that

surrounds the human immunodeficiency virus, as

well as other viruses. Free melittin in large-enough

quantities can cause considerable damage. Senior

author, Samuel A. Wickline, MD, the J. Russell

Hornsby Professor of Biomedical Sciences, has

demonstrated that nanoparticles loaded with

melittin have anti-cancer properties and have the

capacity to kill tumour cells. Linking bee venom

with anticancer therapies is not new, in 2004

Croatian scientists reported in the Journal of the

Science of Food and Agriculture that honey-bee

products, including venom, could well have

applications in cancer treatment and prevention.

Normal cells remain intact - the scientists showed

that nanoparticles loaded with melittin do not harm

normal, healthy cells. Protective bumpers were added

to the nanoparticles surface, so that when they come

into contact with normal cells (which tend to be

much larger), the nanoparticles bounce off rather

than attach themselves. HIV is much smaller than

the nanoparticles and fits in between the bumpers.

When HIV comes across a nanoparticle it goes in

between the bumpers and comes into direct

contact with its surface, which is coated with the

bee toxin, which destroys it. NEWS DESK

google glass app identifies you by your fashion sense

Have scientists discoveredreversible evolution?


sPoRts

Smonday, 11 march, 2013

15I am happy the way I am leaving cricket although

I have so many sad memories also. I was dropped

three-four times in my career. – Thilan Samaraweera

UNIVERSIty OVALaGENCiES

NIGHTWATCHMAn StevenFinn was the unlikelycornerstone of England'sresistance as they closed out a

nervy stalemate in the first Test against newZealand. Finn went 49 balls without a singlescoring shot at one stage of his near five-hour 56, but England could nonetheless begrateful that he made the move up fromnumber nine to three so seamless with hismaiden half-century in any professionalcricket at the university Oval.

After Saturday's epic opening stand of231 between centurions Alastair Cook (116)and nick Compton (117), England began asunny final day with strong prospects ofensuring a draw at the start of this three-match series. But they might reasonablyhave expected their main contributor to beany one of seven other contenders withsubstantially better batting pedigrees thanfast bowler Finn, with his previous highestfirst-class score of 32.

He could muster only five fours from203 balls, having batted throughout twosessions on Sunday before finally fallingwhen he missed a sweep at slow left-armerBruce Martin to be lbw immediately aftertea. Finn's departure induced one finalwobble, Joe Root run out for a duck an overlater when Tim Southee's dive and direct hitfrom cover was too quick for the youngYorkshireman as he answered Ian Bell's callfor a single. But in Bell and Matt Prior,England still had two frontline batsmen inreserve - and their unbroken stand of 31against the third new ball took their team tothe safety of 421 for six before new Zealandagreed to call time 128 in arrears.

Compton's was the only departure of asunny morning, to neil Wagner (three for141). But Jonathan Trott (52) and KevinPietersen also went to the left-arm seameras England made 53 for two from 28 oversin the middle session and the onus fellincreasingly on Finn to keep the Kiwis atbay. Compton augmented his maidenhundred by just 15 runs before falling lbw;Trott shared a third-wicket stand of 90 withFinn but went caught-and-bowled, and then

Wagner got Pietersen for the second time inthe match following his first-innings goldenduck. Finn, meanwhile, not only improvedhis Test-best twice in the same match butdug in for a cussed central role. Comptonreopened his account in the fifth over of theday with a trademark extra-cover drive forfour off Southee, but was to be the onlycasualty before lunch - falling over slightly

in defence as Wagner found just a hint ofinswing. His 310-ball vigil was over afteralmost seven hours at the crease, mostly incompany with Cook. Thanks to them,England's remaining batsmen could beencouraged that survival ought to beroutinely viable on a pitch showing no signsof deterioration.

That impression was underlined by

Finn, who batted with increasing assurance- having come to the crease last night andaccompanied Compton to his hundred onceCook went.

He needed just one minor moment offortune this morning when he edged KaneWilliamson's off-spin low and just out of theclutches of second slip to move into the 40s,in familiar surroundings following his stintwith Otago in late 2011.

Trott was fluent on his way to a 78-ball50, which he completed with his eighth four- in his favourite direction past straightmidwicket off Southee.

But the return of Wagner undid him,extra bounce inducing a return catch instartled back-foot defence, and Pietersennever looked comfortable in his short staybefore he got a faint inside-edge behind.

Finn's stoic presence verged on thestrokeless after he reached his 50, as hecame to terms with his new responsibilities,especially once Trott was gone.

His durability, though, in the second-longest innings by any Englishnightwatchman down the years wasnonetheless the main reason the touristsmanaged to steer clear of further anxiety.

They can therefore head toWellington on Monday, for next week'ssecond Test, relieved that their haplessfirst-innings collapse to 167 all out didnot cost them as dearly as it might in thisrain-shortened match.

Nightwatchman finnushers england to draw

ENGlaND FirSt iNNiNGS 167 all OutNEW zEalaND FirSt iNNiNGS 460-9 DEC.ENGlaND SECOND iNNiNGS (OVErNiGHt 234-1)a. Cook c Watling b boult 116N. Compton lbw b Wagner 117S. Finn lbw b Martin 56J. trott c & b Wagner 52K. Pietersen c Watling b Wagner 12i. bell not out 26J. root run out 0M. Prior not out `23Extras (b-6, lb-11, nb-1, w-1) 19total (for six wickets, 170 overs) 421 Fall of wickets: 1-231 2-265 3-355 4-367 5-386 6-390bowling: t. Southee 36-8-94-0 (nb-1), t. boult 35-12-49-1,N. Wagner 43-9-141-3 (w-1), b. Martin 44-13-90-1, K. Williamson12-3-30-0 result: Match drawnremaining fixturesMarch 14-18 - second test, WellingtonMarch 22-26 - third test, auckland

SCOrEbOarD

gALLEaGENCiES

Galle has traditionally been a stronghold forSri Lanka, with their spinners known forrunning through sides and wrapping up Testswell inside five days. Mohammad Ashrafuland Mushfiqur Rahim, however, batted likethey were unfazed by that intimidatingrecord, digging in for big centuries andbreaking country records over a single day.Their unbeaten partnership of 261 was thehighest in Bangladesh's 13-year history as aTest nation and Ashraful went past his ownrecord for the highest individual score by aBangladesh batsman.

A common criticism of Bangladesh hasbeen the inability of their batsmen to occupythe crease long enough and thus post totalsin excess of 400 consistently. It had affectedtheir ability to stretch Tests into the fifth day.On this occasion, Ashraful played thelongest innings by a Bangladesh batsman interms of balls faced (381) and the teampassed the 400 mark with only four wicketsdown, well on track to beat their highest of556 against West Indies last november.They lost only two wickets on the third day- both in the first hour - before Ashraful andMushfiqur remained un-separated tillstumps. Two wicketless sessions marked aforgettable day for Sri Lanka's bowlers. Theseamers got no swing, and Rangana Herathfailed to get enough turn and bounce.Ajantha Mendis was ineffective in hiscomeback Test, failing to pitch on thedesired length and dishing out the odd fulltoss. Part-timers were called upon but all

changes were in vain.The pitch was a batsman's dream but

that wasn't taking any credit away fromBangladesh. The absence of two mainstaysin the line-up was talked about asBangladesh's biggest challenge ahead of thisgame, but Ashraful allayed fears of ameltdown with a mature innings. Ashrafulhas fancied the Sri Lankan bowling since hisdebut, with five of his six Test centuriescoming against them. His presence providedstability after Sri Lanka had struck in thefirst hour - Mominul Haque edging to slipfor 55, and Mahmudullah waltzing down thetrack to Herath before getting off the mark.

Ashraful eased the pressure by remainingpositive, punishing the fuller deliveriesoutside off for fours and forcing the SriLankan captain to push cover back.Mushfiqur's calm presence helped Ashrafulas he neared his first Test century in morethan four years. He found his timing with acouple of sweetly timed punches past coverin one over from nuwan Kulasekara.

Ashraful entered the 90s with a forcefuldrive past cover point, but his nerves wereapparent. He spent a fidgety 35 deliveries inthe 90s before driving Mendis past cover tobring up his century. The relief was palpableas he roared and stretched his arms towardsthe dressing room, temporarily putting torest the criticism he is so accustomed to.

Sri Lanka took the new ball after lunchbut it didn't change their fortunes.Mushfiqur whipped Kulasekara off thepads in the first over before Ashrafulthrashed Angelo Mathews past cover forconsecutive boundaries. A Mushfiqurcover drive brought up the century stand,the second of the innings.

The stand was highlighted by severalsuch confident drives through the off side,and Mushfiqur also used his feet to Herathregularly, chipping down the track andsmashing over the off side. Mendis wasn'tused as much as the senior Herath, but hetoo couldn't maintain control, bowling afull toss to Mushfiqur that was clubbedover midwicket. Mushfiqur also enteredthe 90s with a boundary to third man justbefore tea. After playing out a full sessionthe batsmen shook hands, acknowledginga job well done.

ashraful, mushfiqur in tremendous partnershipSri laNKa 1st innings 570/4dbaNGlaDESH 1st inningsMohammad ashraful not out 189Mominul Haque c Mathews b Kulasekara 55Mahmudullah st †Chandimal b Herath 0Mushfiqur rahim*† not out 152EXtraS (b 2, lb 1, nb 6) 9tOtal 438tO bat Nasir Hossain, abul Hasan, Sohag Gazi, Elias Sunny,Shahadat HossainFall OF WiCKEtS 1-23 (Jahurul islam, 7.5 ov), 2-65 (anamulHaque, 23.6 ov), 3-170 (Mominul Haque, 52.3 ov), 4-177(Mahmudullah, 53.6 ov)bOWliNGKMDN Kulasekara 21-3-76-1, rMS Eranga 22-3-80-1, HMrKbHerath 42-9-103-1, baW Mendis 23-2-92-1, aD Mathews 6-1-16-0, tM Dilshan 20-3-55-0, HDrl thirimanne 2-0-13-0Match detailstoss Sri lanka, who chose to battest debuts anamul Haque and Mominul Haque (bangladesh);KDK Vithanage (Sri lanka)Player of the match tbaumpires rK illingworth (England) and NJ llong (England)tV umpire tH WijewardeneMatch referee DC boon (australia)reserve umpire MSK Nandiweera

SCOrEbOarD

Australia hopefor pace in Punjab

SPORtS DESK

Reasons for hope have been few and farbetween for the Australians during thistour of India. But the third Test inMohali was always going to provide aglimmer. Last time a Test was played atthe Punjab Cricket Association Stadiumwas in 2010, when India beat Australiaby one wicket. Mitchell Johnson took afive-for. So did Zaheer Khan. BenHilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger were inthe wickets. All up, 25 batsmen fell topace over the course of the Test, andonly 12 to spin. Of course, a lot canchange in two and a half years. Just askSimon Katich, who was opening withShane Watson during that Test. Or thefirst-choice spinner nathan Hauritz. Infact, Clarke, Watson and Johnson are theonly three men from that XI who are partof this squad. But after India's spinnersclaimed 20 wickets in Chennai and 14 inHyderabad, any suggestion of a morepace-friendly surface will be welcomedby the Australians.


a BaD Day for paKIstan

sPoRts Smonday, 11 march, 2013

16There has been a bit of concern about his

right knee in this Test match but he should

be fit to play in Wellington. – Alastair Cook

BLOEMFONtEINaGENCiES

SOuTH Africa began their journeyto the Champions Trophy with aleap - not just a step - as theyovercame Pakistan with a polished

all-round effort that was set up by theirbatsmen and finished off in the field.Importantly for them, the contributions camefrom quarters that have been areas of concernin the past. The middle order, and ColinIngram in particular, played a meaningful partand a bowling attack without Dale Steyn andMorne Morkel functioned effectively. SouthAfrica's batsmen dealt with Pakistan's quartetof spinners with ease while their seamers, ledby Ryan McLaren and Rory Kleinveldt, shutthe opposition out of the match.

By contrast, Pakistan suffered becausethey fielded only two seamers and did not useSaeed Ajmal well enough, taking him offafter he had made a breakthrough. The fifthand sixth bowlers, Shahid Afridi and ShoaibMalik, conceded 81 runs in 11 overs runs ona surface that did not aid turn, and againstbatsmen who were intent on proving theircaptain's belief that they were capable of

smothering the spin threat. The Pakistanquicks had started well as both Junaid Khanand umar Gul found early seam movement.Gul repeatedly beat Graeme Smith's bat withdeliveries that moved away. Even HashimAmla, who opened the boundary count witha gorgeous coax through the covers, did notfind the going easy. He inside-edged Junaidfor four early on and went on to do it twicemore in a somewhat charmed stint, whichalso included him being dropped on 15.

The openers chose to take the Powerplayas soon as it become available. Pakistan usedit to introduce spin, which they continuedwith for 21 overs, but it only restricted SouthAfrica for a while. They scored 29 runs in thePowerplay for the loss of Smith. AB deVilliers promoted himself to no. 3 and wasjoined by Colin Ingram after Amla had onetoo many dalliances with chance and was

caught on the deep square-leg boundary.De Villiers and Ingram shared in the

most important stand of the innings, withIngram's knock of greater importance as hetries to cement a spot in the starting XI.Ingram swept well and for the most part theyaccumulated runs quietly but quickly.

De Villiers hit his first boundary afterhe had scored 37 runs but his search forsingles was ceaseless. When he did find therope, he did it a second time for goodmeasure. He made room against Ajmal andlofted over extra cover for four to bring uphis half-century and then pulled the nextball to bring up the century stand off 103balls. It had swelled to 120 when Ajmalhad the last laugh as de Villiers lobbed toshort cover. Ingram took over and playedhis part in ending Afridi's participationwith the ball. His eighth and last over cost21 runs; Ingram hit two out of fiveboundaries. Faf du Plessis was responsiblefor the other three. He put on 62 withIngram before scooping to short fine leg.

Although Farhaan Berhardien is notknown as a hitter, he was sent in with fourovers to go and hit the two sixes of theinnings off consecutive balls. He sentJunaid Khan over long-on and midwicketand ensured Ingram, on 96, had strike inthe last over.

He needed only one delivery to strokethe ball through the covers and bring up asecond century in Bloemfontein and a secondagainst Pakistan. He also took South Africato their third highest total at the ground,giving Pakistan a tough chase.

Pakistan's openers were challenged byLonwabo Tsotsobe, who found swing andinduced an edge from Mohammed Hafeezthat fell short of slip. He could have hadHafeez a second time when he got a leadingedge to du Plessis, which popped out of hishands at gully.

Kyle Abbott offered some relief byinviting the drive. Jamshed, however, wasjust getting into a higher gear when he chaseda wide ball off Kleinveldt's second over andwas caught at first slip. Kleinveldt also gotthe timely breakthrough when he ran Hafeezout at the non-strikers' end. Younis Khan haddriven back at the bowler, who deflected theball with the slightest touch of his ring finger.

SPORtS DESK

Australia brightened their chances ofmaking the final of the Sultan AzlanShah Cup after crushing Pakistan 6-0 fortheir second consecutive win in thetournament in Ipoh on Sunday. Australiaproved too hot for Pakistan to handle asthe world champions scored throughDaniel Mirecki (8th minute), MattGohdes (9th minute), Jacob Whetton(19th, 34th minute) in the first half. In thesecond half, two penalty cornerconversions by Daniel Beale andnicholas Budgeon in the 45th and 60thminutes respectively sealed the fate ofthe Asian giants. With wins over Indiaand Pakistan, the Hockeyroos are well oncourse to seal a place in the final onMarch 17. In the match, Australia beganon an aggressive note, scoring twice inthe space of two minutes and went up 4-0by half time. In a fast-paced game,Australia drew the first blood in the 8thminute after an aborted penalty cornerscoring a field goal through Mirecki, whomade good use of the opportunity arisingout of a defence lapse. Pakistangoalkeeper Imran Butt, who did well toblock the penalty corner a minute before,

was reduced to mute spectator this time.In the very next minute, Gohdes made it2-0 for Australia after being put inpossession by a short pass from RobetHammond. Jolted by the double reverse,Pakistan slowed down the game and inthe 15th minute, a solo attack from themiddle saw Muhammad Wagas on a fastrun and he took a shot as soon as heentered the circle but the Aussie goaliewas up to the mark thwarting with ease.However, Australia pumped one more inthe 19th minute following a quickcounter-attack where Whetton made nomistake after the initial spadework wasdone by Aran Zalewski. He went on toincrease the margin to 4-0 a minutebefore half-time, deflecting a long crossinto the goal from near the spot. Australiacontinued to dominate the game in thesecond half and in the process earned fivepenalty corners to add to the one beforethe cross-over. In the 45th minute, a pushby Ghodes was perfectly set up byTristan White and nicholas Budgeon'sflick was deflected into the goal byBeale. After wasting two more shortcorners, nicholas sent a sizzling flickinto the net in the 60th minute to brookno answer from the rival golie.

Ingram, Kleinveldt starin huge Proteas’ win

(

(

australia beatPakistan inazlan shah cup

SOutH aFriCaGC Smith c †Kamran akmal b Saeed ajmal 30HM amla c Shoaib Malik b Mohammad Hafeez 43ab de Villiers*† c younis Khan b Saeed ajmal 65Ca ingram not out 105F du Plessis c umar Gul b Junaid Khan 26F behardien not out 34EXtraS (b 1, lb 5, w 6) 12tOtal 315DiD NOt bat r Mclaren, rJ Peterson, rK Kleinveldt, KJabbott, ll tsotsobeFall OF WiCKEtS 1-72 (Smith, 13.5 ov), 2-83 (amla, 16.1 ov),3-203 (de Villiers, 36.1 ov), 4-265 (du Plessis, 46.1 ov)bOWliNG: Junaid Khan 9-0-59-1, umar Gul 10-1-68-0,Mohammad Hafeez 10-0-48-1, Saeed ajmal 10-0-53-2, Shahidafridi 8-0-60-0, Shoaib Malik 3-0-21-0PaKiStaNMohammad Hafeez run out (Kleinveldt) 25Nasir Jamshed c Smith b Kleinveldt 25younis Khan c †de Villiers b abbott 30asad Shafiq c abbott b Mclaren 5Misbah-ul-Haq* c †de Villiers b Mclaren 38Shoaib Malik c Mclaren b tsotsobe 19Kamran akmal† c Smith b Mclaren 2Shahid afridi c behardien b Kleinveldt 34umar Gul c & b Kleinveldt 2Saeed ajmal lbw b Kleinveldt 0Junaid Khan not out 0EXtraS (lb 6, w 4) 10tOtal 190Fall OF WiCKEtS 1-42 (Nasir Jamshed, 7.1 ov), 2-52(Mohammad Hafeez, 11.2 ov), 3-65 (asad Shafiq, 15.6 ov), 4-114 (younis Khan, 25.4 ov), 5-135 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 28.5 ov),6-148 (Kamran akmal, 31.5 ov), 7-165 (Shoaib Malik, 33.5 ov),8-178 (umar Gul, 34.4 ov), 9-178 (Saeed ajmal, 34.5 ov), 10-190 (Shahid afridi, 36.2 ov)bOWliNG: ll tsotsobe 9-0-52-1, KJ abbott 6-0-35-1, rKKleinveldt 5.2-2-22-4, rJ Peterson 8-0-47-0, r Mclaren 7-0-19-3, F behardien 1-0-9-0

SCOrEbOarD

S PERVEZ QAISER

SHAHID Afridi became the thirdPakistan after Inzamam-ul-Haqand Wasim Akram and eighth

player overall to appear in 350 or moreone day international matches.The firstmatch of the five-match series between

Pakistan and South Africa atChevrolet Park, Bloemfontein on Sunday(March 10) was 350th match in one dayinternational cricket for this all rounder.

Shahid Afridi who made hisinternational debut against Kenya onOctober 2,1996 took 16 years and 160days to achieve this feat. The hard hittingright hand batsman and leg break googlybowler, played 57 one day internationalmatches at home while he appeared in 293one day internationals outside Pakistan.

Sachin Tendulkar (India-463matches), Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka-445 matches), Mahela Jayawardene (SriLanka-391 matches), Inzamam-ul-Haq(Pakistan-378 matches), Ricky Ponting(Australia- 375 matches), Wasim Akram(Pakistan-356 matches) and MuttiahMuralitharan (Sri Lanka-350 matches)were the other players to appear in 350 ormore one day international matches beforeShahid Afridi who also led Pakistan in 34matches.

** Colin Ingram and Abraham deVilliers set up a new record for the third

wicket position for South Africa againstPakistan at home by adding 120 runs. Itwas South Africa's third best third wicketstand against Pakistan after 137-run stand

between Abraham de Villiers andHerschelle Gibbs at Lahore on October18,2007 and 121-run partnership betweenAbraham de Villiers and Jacques Kallis at

Dubai on november 8,2010.** Colin Ingram's unbeaten 105 in 137

minutes off 104 balls with 10 fours was hissecond hundred in six innings of as manymatches against Pakistan. His firsthundred against Pakistan was 100 in 143minutes off 119 balls with 10 fours and asix at Abu Dhabi on October 31,2010. Itwas Colin Ingram's third hundred in 17innings of 19 one day internationals.MOSt MAtcHES IN ONE DAY

INtERNAtIONAL cRIcKEt:

Player M Runs AVG H.S Wkts AVG BestCt/StSachin Tendulkar (India) 463 1842644.83 200* 154 44.48 5-32 140Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) 445 1343032.36 189 323 36.75 6-29 123Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) 39110892 33.20 144 7 79.71 2-56 195Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pakistan) 378 1173939.52 137* 3 21.33 1-0 113Ricky Ponting (Australia) 375 1370442.03 164 3 34.66 1-12 160Wasim Akram (Pakistam) 356 371716.52 86 502 23.52 5-15 88Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka) 350674 6.80 33* 534 23.08 7-20 130Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) 350 7075 23.34124 348 33.87 6-38 112Rahul Dravid (India) 344 10889 39.16153 4 42.50 2-43 196/ 14Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) 33710915 38.56 138* - - - 330/ 81.

Shahid Afridi eighth man to play 350 One Dayers Razzak addedto Bangladeshtest squad

SPORtS DESK

Abdur Razzak, the left-arm spinner, has beenadded to the Bangladesh squad for the Testseries in Sri Lanka. Razzak, 30, is among themost experienced players for Bangladesh inthe limited-overs formats but has not been aregular in the Test side. His last Test came inAugust 2011, when Zimbabwe beatBangladesh in Harare. "We received arequest from the Bangladesh teammanagement in Sri Lanka and according totheir requirement Razzak has been includedin the side," Akram Khan, Bangladesh'schief selector, said. Razzak will join thesquad on Monday, in Galle where the firstof two Tests is currently taking place.Meanwhile, another senior bowler,Mashrafe Mortaza said he was worriedabout the slow recovery from an ankleinjury, though he didn't rule out playing theODI series that begins on March 23.


sPoRtsS


17Before the Test match, I thought people would say, 'Look he

already made a hundred in the practice match, there's no way

he will make one more in the Test – Mohammad Ashraful

Ayaz wins grossand faisal Sayidwins net in 7thInfotech Golf

LAHOREStaFF rEPOrt

In the 7th Infotech GolfChampionship held the Royal PalmGolf Course yesterday,the highachievers turned out to be AyazSaleem,a five handicapper and FaisalSayid a nine handicapper of the hostclub.Their in-depth knowledge of thegolf course, especially the greenssupplemented by admirableapplication of golfing techniquesfacilitated Ayaz and Faisal to gatherthe top prizes in the gross and netcategories.Ayaz Saleem won the bestgross and Faisal Sayid picked up thebest net trophy to outshine the other118 competitors.Conditions were challenging at thegolf course and even some forcefulgolfers like Azfar Hassan, ShoaibShams,Sardar Murad,Mir Maaz,AmirMehmood,Saleem Raza and ShahidAbbas ended up with a disappointingouting with strokes losses just toomany and their overall score no wherenear the mark of excellence.As for the gross winner,AyazSaleem,his score of gross 74 reflectedgood,steady play with hole wise scorecomposition being three birdies,tenpars and five bogies."I really enjoyedmy hitting" said Ayaz and "mystrategy was to go for regulationpars".The other man of excellence forthe day was Faisal Sayid and his score in the netcategory was net 67 backed byextremely accurate hitting and nervesfree putting on the greens.In thehandicap category 13 to 18 theconquering invader in gross categorywas Imran Miraj,thanks to somefanciful hitting, while TashbeebGulzar was the runner up.In the samehandicap range, the winner net turnedout to be Arif Shuja and runner upwas Waqar Butt. In the other events umer Azeem wonthe prize for nearest to the pin,AsifShuja hit the longest drive and AyazSaleem picked up the maximumbirdies shield. The other winners wereRashid Akber,runner up net inhandicap category 0-12 and TaimoorShabbir,runner up gross. naseerAkhter the CEO of Infotech awardedsome grand looking trophiesaccompanied by golf equipmentprizes to the winners.

easy winfor Azarenka

INIDAN WELLS: World number one

Victoria Azarenka opened her defence of

BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells with a

6-4 6-1 defeat of two-time former winner

Daniela Hantuchova. Azarenka, who had

lost two of her previous three meetings

with the Slovakian, recovered from 4-1

down to take the opening set. The top

seed broke Hantuchova six times to win in

one hour and 32 minutes. The Belarusian

remained undefeated in 2013, improving

her record for the year to 15 wins. There

was smooth progress for former US Open

champion Samantha Stosur, the seventh-

seeded Australian overcoming American

Madison Keys 6-3 6-4. aGENCiES

INDIAN WELLSaGENCiES

RAFAEL nadal won his firstmatch on a hard court for ayear as he defeated RyanHarrison in his opener at the

BnP Paribas Open at the Indian WellsTennis Garden. The Spanish fifth seedcruised to a straight sets win as he continuedhis return from a knee injury. nadal took theopening set 7-6 (7/3) and then wrapped upvictory by taking the next 6-2 to make itinto the third round. A two-time championat Indian Wells, nadal has not won a hard-court title since 2010 but since coming backfrom his knee problem has won twice onclay, most recently in Acapulco.

World number two Roger Federeropened his title defence with a 6-2 6-3 victoryover uzbekistan's Denis Istomin. Bidding forhis fifth title at Indian Wells, Federer neededjust 58 minutes to beat Istomin for the fourthtime in as many meetings. Federer brokeIstomin's serve four times and won 32 of 36of his service points. In the third roundFederer will face Croat Ivan Dodig after he

beat Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-4 6-2.Fourth seed David Ferrer suffered a surpriseearly exit at the hands of Kevin Anderson. Allhad looked to be going to plan for the worldnumber four from Spain when he won thefirst set, but the unseeded South African

responded superbly to win the second-roundencounter 3-6 6-4 6-3. Anderson will faceJarkko nieminen in round three after the Finnenjoyed a comprehensive victory againstanother more-fancied Spaniard, trouncing29th seed Fernando Verdasco 6-1 6-0.

DUNEDINaGENCiES

Relief was the overriding emotion forAlastair Cook after England salvaged adraw in Dunedin despite one the worst

starts they have made to a Test in recenttimes and he admitted to being no nearer toan answer on why the team starts so poorlyoverseas. Led by Steven Finn's unexpectedresistance as nightwatchman - he batted203 balls in nearly five hours - England

negotiated the final day with only a fewuncertain moments, largely after tea whenFinn and Joe Root fell in quick successionwith the lead below 100.

It was the second Test in a row whereEngland have batted out nearly two days tosave a game following their series-clinching performance against India innagpur before Christmas. Although adifference scenario - on that occasion thefirst-innings scores were almost level so itwas always about building a lead - it actedas inspiration for a batting line-up stillembarrassed by their demise for 167 on thesecond day.

"We've been lucky in one sense toescape with a draw certainly," Cook said."That's a huge reminder that if you don'tperform, you don't deserve to win anything.When you get bowled out for 160-odd inthe first innings on a good wicket you arealways going to be struggling and facing anuphill battle just to save the game. Afterthey were 130 for none, it was pretty muchdamage limitation from there on.

"It was about stopping them scoring

which we didn't do as well as we couldhave done and we knew when we battedagain we had to bat 170 overs. It was verysimilar to the nagpur situation. That wasvery evident to see and we reminded thelads that they done it before and there's noreason, if we applied the same mindset, wecouldn't do that. The character to digourselves out of a hole is very pleasing."

While England's fight bailed them outof a tough situation - as it did at Brisbanein 2010-11 - it would be far more preferableif they did not find themselves in suchpositions. Excluding Bangladesh, they havenot won the opening Test of an away seriessince beating South Africa at Port Elizabethin 2004-05. Cook did not have an answer."We don't know. That's the bottom line," hesaid. "It's a thing we talked about before theseries, something that we recognise wehave started overseas series poorly for awhile now. It's something we wanted toaddress, but unfortunately our actions didn'tback up our words and it's very hard tocome back from the situation we foundourselves in."

Cook relieved to have salvaged draw

Nadal, federer winIndian Wells openers


sPoRts Smonday, 11 march, 2013

18

wAtCh It LIve

ESPN

Sports Centre

07:30 PM

I thought even up until the last couple of overs we

were a red hot crack, if we could get into those

bowlers with the ball still new – Brendon McCullum

MUHAMMAD BUtt

An undefeated league campaign, a winpercentage of 88 and the youngestmanager ever to win a European trophyare just some of the honours that AndreVillas Boas achieved during his briefspell at Porto. He then committed careersuicide and joined Chelsea.

The departures of Mourinho andAncelotti are usually singled out asdefining points but there is a possibilitythat twenty years from now, the harshtreatment meted out to Andre VillasBoas may prove to be the most costly.

AVB’s penchant for making slightlyleft field career choices did not quiteend there. A couple of months later hebecame the manager of TottenhamHotspurs. In theory, this was the perfectmove and perhaps the sort that he

should have made before joiningChelsea but the catch was that he wasreplacing Harry Redknapp, the darlingof English football and especiallymedia.

In about a year’s time, AVB haddared to ask John ‘the warrior’ Terry toplay a higher defensive line and thenhad the temerity to replace England’sfinest managers. Who did he think hewas, The Special One?

He may not be The Special One buthis choices reveal much about hismental toughness and determination tosucceed. A less ambitious manager mayhave taken the easy route and gone backto Portugal. What it also reinforces isthat he was always a good managercontrary to what he was made out to beduring his spell at Chelsea. Granted,much of his success came in the

Portuguese League, which may not beas tough as the Premier League butnonetheless his record was quiteastonishing (in a good way) and onedoes not become a bad managerovernight.

Spurs started slowly and soonenough, the knives were out but withSpurs sitting pretty in third place 2points ahead of Chelsea and 7 ahead ofbitter rivals Arsenal, nobody iscomplaining now. That being said, thisis usually the time when Spurs go intoself-destruct mode. A tricky tie atAnfield awaits them this Sunday andfixtures against Everton, Chelsea andManchester City, one after the other,soon follow and they may ultimatelydecide where Spurs finish this season.The team under Villas Boas does appearto be mentally tougher and able to grindout victories this season and they willrequire these qualities if they are tosucceed.

Roman Abramovich is directlyresponsible for a lot of good things thathave happened at Stamford Bridge inhis tenure. This should not and does notprovide him immunity for the blundershe has made. One can quite safely assertthat had the Russian not behaved like akid in a candy shop when it came tohiring and subsequently firingmanagers, Chelsea would have becomea much bigger beast than it is at themoment. Chelsea fans may live toregret the day Villas Boas wasdismissed and there would indeed be anelement of poetic justice if his Spursside were to usurp the Chelsea outfit inthe league.

of justice and redemption

LAHORE : The athletes of army tookthe honour of winning the 17kilometres Marathon’s main threepositions here on Sunday with DirectorGeneral Sports and Youth Affairsusman Anwar, other officials of theSBP along with scores of peoplewelcomed the winners cross the finishline at the Punjab Stadium.

Army’s Adnan Khan took aboutjust one hour and one minute to

complete the 17 kilometres race thatstarted from the LCCA ground whichwas organsied in connection with thePunjab Youth Festival. Adnan’steammates Mohammad Zahid and AbidHussain maintained the Army’ssupremecy in the long distance races inthe country by taking the second andthird positions respectively.

Deputy Speaker Rana MashhoodAhmed Khan along with DG usman

Anwar flagged off the participants ofthe Marathon. He not only encouragedthe participants of the marathon butalso gave the vision of the Punjabgovernment.

There was a slight change in theroute of the Marathon to complete the17 km distance. It started from the frontof the LCCA ground at around 10.00am with more than 15000 registrationbut there were thousands of those who

entered late into the race. They ran tothe Liberty roundabout and whilepassing through the newly-built KamlaChowk underpass went towards BarketMarket and from Campus took theCanal road to Dharampura. From therethey took the u-turn and returned to theFC College underpass to turn to ZahoorElahi Road and then towards the backroad of Hafeez Centre and then to thePunjab Stadium. StaFF rEPOrt

Punjab Youth Festival marathon: army athletes take top honours

UsmaniafC thrashDemolitionfC 5-0

LAHOREStaFF rEPOrt

usmania F.C and Raider F.C earnedvictories against their respective rivals inthe District Football Championshipmatches here on Saturday at Model TownFootball Ground and Faisal Town FootballGround. usmania F.C thrash DemolitionF.C 5-0 at Model Town Football Club /Academy ground. Hassan Waleed struckthree in 5 minutes, 10 minutes and 16minutes while Ahmed, Adnan shared onegoal each. Raider Football Club defeatedModel Town united F.C 6-0. Ijazproduced three goals in 11 minutes, 18minutes and 68 minutes while AnwarKhan, nadaul Haq & Shahbaz scored in25 minutes, 26 minutes and 49 minutes. MONDAY FIxTURE:Raider F.C Vs Fame F.C (4.00pm) at

Raiders Football Club ground Faisal Town

Nadeem F.C Vs Real Lahore F.C (5:00pm)

at Model Town Football club / Academy

ground Model Town

Sabzazar F.C Vs Nasir Shaheed F.C

(6:30pm) at Model Town Football club /

Academy ground Model Town

Usmania F.C Vs Jabbar Friends F.C

(8:00pm) at Model Town Football club /

Academy ground Model Town

thousandstake part infamily, fun run

LAHORE StaFF rEPOrt

The thousands of people of all walks oflife took part on the Family and Funsraces of three kilometres that startedfrom Sadiq Trade Centre and terminatedat Liberty Roundabout. Ali Mohammadand Rabia Ashiq won their respectiveraces with flying colours amidst hotconditions. Though both the races weregiven a go ahead by Deputy SpeakerRana Mashhood Ahmed Khan alongwith usman Anwar, these races weregiven a gap of about half an hour tostart. During the course of the race,Deputy Speaker also expressedsolidarity with the victims of theSaturday’s fire at Badami Bagh. He alsowalked with the children and othermembers of the families whose houseswere burnt to express Punjabgovernment’s support. He also termed itan act of terrorism and said that thosepeople who took heinous step ate thereal threat to the solidarity of thecountry. The Marathon and the FunRaces were the events of the monthslong Punjab Youth Festival the rolledinto action in August last year. Althoughthere were no winners or losers to becounted in the fun races in which ladiesoutscored the male folks, theparticipation was quite healthy. Theladies were in greater number thanmales in the races. Their races were heldseparately but despite hot and brightnessof the sun, the enthusiasm was immense.In the fun race, Ali Mohammad ofSargodha took the fun race while AbdulSamad and Farhan won the second andthird position in the category.Meanwhile, Lahore’s Rabia Ashiq, whois also an Olympian, left all theparticipants of the ladies and family raceof three km behind to claim the firstposition. She saw Samabia also ofLahore take the second place whileFarat Batool and Kiran Rana got thethird and fourth positions.

Diamond, ColonySugar, Army-CocaCola win inNational Polo

LAHOREStaFF rEPOrt

Diamond Paints, Colony Sugar and Army-Coca Cola grabbed victories in the ZongSponsored national. Polo ChampionshipFor The Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup 2013here at the Lahore POlo Club ground onsunny Sunday. These three teams areholding the first three positions on thepoints table in order nowe. Diamond Paintshammered master Paints with 10 goalswhile let them get seven. james Harper, MirShoaib Ahmed, Raja Samiullah and OmarAsjad Malhi combined together to score thegoals for the winners while Gaston Moorerwas the mahot contributor for the losingside with little support coming from ShahShamyl ALam in the second match, ColonySugar was stretched to full length by GuardGroup for 10-9 win. Matias. Vial Perez andSaqib Khan Khakwani foght all ends forthe win while n Shaikh also added hisshare in the victory. On the other hand,Taimur Ali Malik, Santiago Mendivil,Ahmed Ali Tiwana scored for the losingside and some on field support from Bilal.Haye gave the rivals a caution to think oftheir abilities in the game. The third matchsaw, Army-Coca Cola win over Hataff-newage 9-7. Raja Tamur nadeem andHissam. Ali Hyder got whatever they couldto give tough time to the rivaklls whichhave Manuel Crespo as the main contenderdoing the damage from the winning side.

PUNJABaGENCiES

Australia wicketkeeper MatthewWade is in doubt for the third Testafter hurting his ankle while playingbasketball in Chandigarh onSaturday. Brad Haddin has beenplaced on standby for Wade and is astrong chance to fly to India, pendingthe result of scans on Sundaymorning, four days before the start ofthe Test. "Matt Wade sprained hisright ankle playing basketballyesterday afternoon," Australiaphysio Alex Kountouris said. "Hisankle is subsequently swollen andpainful so will have a scan thismorning to help determine the extentof the injury and how we manage it.

He will not take part in today'straining session." This is the secondconsecutive Test in which there hasbeen doubt surrounding Wade'sfitness, after he suffered a minorfracture to his cheek while facingthrowdowns in the nets on the eve ofthe second Test in Hyderabad. Wadeplayed that match and scored 62 inthe first innings batting at no.6,which has been his position since thefinal Test of the home summer.

There was no backupwicketkeeper in the group in the lead-up to the second Test and PhillipHughes, who has occasionally stoodin at state and international level, wasin line to take the gloves had Wadebeen ruled out. But the longer breakahead of the third Test means there

will be plenty of time to fly Haddinto India if required. Haddin hasplayed four Tests in India, all duringthe 2008 tour, and scored 163 at anaverage of 27.16. However, he hasbeen in strong Sheffield Shield formthis summer and has made 468 runsat 52 including two centuries. Haddinhas not played a Test since the end ofthe home series against India inJanuary 2012; Wade became thepreferred gloveman in all formats onthe West Indies tour later that year.

Both Wade and Haddin arelikely to be part of the squad for theAshes tour but if Haddin was toplay in India and succeed with thebat and gloves it could raisequestions over the first-choice manfor the start of the Ashes.

Ankle injury puts Wade in doubt for third Test



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

KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari exchanges views

with Punjab Governor Makhdoom Syed Ahmed Mehmood

during meeting at Bilawal House on Sunday. PPi

ISLAMABADaPP

Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project is a greatdevelopment to meet the energy require-ments of the country, Minister for Informa-tion and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kairasaid on Sunday.

Talking to Pakistan Television (PTV),he said the project had great importance inview of the energy demand that was why thegovernment had started the mega project.

Kaira said the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) always stressed on global relationswhich was the need of the hour.

To a question, he said the Pakistan-Irangas pipeline project was not against or infavour of any country except Pakistan. Hesaid the uS did not show its reservation to

the government of Pakistan regarding theproject at any forum, adding that if Wash-ington officially contacted the governmentin this regard, then it was ready to negotiate.

He said the heads of the state of bothcountries were showing great interest in in-augurating the project because it had greatimportance for regional cooperation.

The information minister said Pakistanwas a responsible country and expressedhope that the uS would not impose anysanctions on it due to the project.

To another question about Turk-menistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India(TAPI) project, Kaira said the project wastoo difficult to begin because it was linkedwith peace in Afghanistan. He said regionalstability was not possible without maintain-ing peace in Afghanistan.

Pak-Iran gas pipeline project mustto meet energy requirements: Kaira

LONDONMaJiD KHattaK

The British Muslim women face physical as-saults, harassment or intimidation because oftheir faith, according to the first results fromthe uK's official helpline for victims of Is-lamophobia.

The attacks, collated by the helpline, TellMAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks),show that Muslim women were targeted in58 percent of all incidents.

More than 630 incidents were loggedduring the first 12 months of the helpline,launched in February 2012 in an attempt toquantify the scale and nature of anti-Muslimviolence in Britain. Some of the most egre-gious attacks recorded include a family being

forced from their nottinghamshire home, afive-year-old girl knocked over by a hit-and-run driver and a Somali lady who had dogfaeces placed on her head by a white manwhile shopping in south London.

The majority of physical assaults com-mitted in the street were on women wearingIslamic clothing, with most victims describ-ing the nature of the attacks seemingly "ran-dom".

High-profile female targets have in-cluded first uK’s women Muslim ministerSayeeda Warsi who was threatened online byan English Defence League (EDL) memberand Jemima Khan, whose 14-year-old son re-ceived anti-Muslim comments on Twitter.

The majority offenders were subse-quently found to have had links to recognised

far-right groups such as the British nationalParty (BnP) or the English Defence League(EDL). So far, information provided to thehelpline has led to the arrests of 21 far-rightEDL supporters, with more than 40 incidentsreported against EDL leader Tommy Robin-son alone. Members of the BnP or EDL wereinvolved in 54% of all incidents, of whichthree-quarters were committed by men. Theaverage ages of perpetrators were between21 and 30.

According to the Guardian, the resultsfollow a report by the British think-tankChatham House which identified a consid-erable Islamophobic sentiment in the uK,detecting a "wide reservoir of public sym-pathy for claims that Islam and the growthof settled, Muslim communities pose a

fundamental threat to the native group andnation." The majority of incidents receivedby the helpline related to what it describedas "abusive behaviour" with 74% ofrecorded incidents occurring online. How-ever, experts agree that even non-violentincidents have a profound adverse impacton peoples' lives.

Fayaz Mughal, coordinator of TellMAMA and director of non-profit groupFaith Matters, told media that he was"shocked" by the amount of racial hatredthey had detected in their first year of moni-toring, particularly online.

Mughal, a former adviser to DeputyPrime Minister nick Clegg, added, "We arecalling on police and politicians to do moreto tackle this shameful wave of fear and

prejudice. From the internet, to the work-place, the street and even houses of wor-ship, too often Muslim women and men arebecoming the target of vicious, sometimesviolent, abuse.”

He is now calling on police forces todrastically improve their recording of Is-lamophobic crimes. At the moment justtwo forces, the Metropolitan police andCity of London police, currently recordanti-Muslim crimes separately. Mughalalso wants the Home Office to take overmonitoring of online hate and far-rightgroups from the Department for Commu-nities and Local Government. Other areasthat the Muslims believe could be im-proved include more prosecutions againstonline-based hatred.

muslim women face islamophobia in Britain

JERUSALEMaPP

uS President Barack Obama's three-dayvisit to Israel and the Palestinian territorieswill begin on March 20, Israel said on Sun-day, in the first official announcement ofthe much-anticipated visit.

A statement from Prime Minister Ben-jamin netanyahu's bureau said Obama wasdue to arrive Wednesday, March 20, at BenGurion airport near Tel Aviv and then headto Jerusalem for talks with President Shi-mon Peres and a dinner meeting with ne-tanyahu.

The White House has not announcedspecific dates for the Obama visit, his firstto Israel and the West Bank as president.

Israeli media reports and a Palestinianofficial have said that it will run fromMarch 20-22 and take in talks with both Is-raeli and Palestinian leaders in Jerusalemand Ramallah.

According to the official Israeli pro-gramme released by netanyahu's office,Obama is due to visit on Thursday the Is-rael Museum in Jerusalem and then travelto Ramallah in the West Bank to meetPalestinian Authority officials.

Later on Thursday he is scheduled to

deliver a speech at the International Con-vention Centre in Jerusalem and in theevening attend a dinner reception at the of-ficial residence of Peres.

On Friday the American president is toattend a ceremony at Mount Herzl, wherehe will lay a wreath on the grave of assas-sinated former prime minister YitzhakRabin before heading to the Yad VashemHolocaust institute.

Obama will also be taken to see a uS-funded Iron Dome missile defence batteryon Wednesday or Friday, the statementsaid, before taking off for the next leg ofhis trip in Jordan.

Obama noted there would be no bigMiddle East peace initiative on the tableduring the trip which he said would be "anopportunity to consult with the Israeli gov-ernment about a broad range of issues --including Iran, Syria, the situation in theregion, and the peace process," a uS offi-cial said last week.

Palestinian-Israeli peace talks havebeen deadlocked for more than twoyears.netanyahu has said his talks withObama would focus on three issues: Iran'snuclear programme, the conflict in Syriaand the diplomatic process with the Pales-tinians.

obama in Jerusalem on mar 20: israel

General electionsto be held by May9: Khurshid Shah

MONItORINg DESK

The general elections will be conducted byMay 9 and its schedule will be announcedover the next three to four days, Ministerfor Religious Affairs Khurshid Shah saidon Sunday. He was talking to reporters atthe residence of former PML-Q provincialminister Maqbool Shaikh. To a question,Shah said the political scenario never re-mained stagnant and “in politics no onecan be called a permanent friend or a foe”.He said the PPP-led government had com-pleted its five-year tenure and now it wasup to the people to elect their next rulers inthe upcoming polls.

one killed, twokidnapped inBalochistan

QUEttAiNP

unidentified miscreants shot dead a man,injured another and kidnapped two othersin Washaq area of Balochistan on Sunday.According to details, the assailantsopened fire at a vehicle in Washaq area,20 kilometres away from Baseema Townin Quetta. As a result, a man identified asDost Muhammad was killed on the spotwhile another Hazoor Baksh sustainedwounds. The attackers also kidnapped twopeople on board the vehicle and fled.

Nizami condemnsattack on Christians

MONItORINg DESK

While condemning Saturday’s attack onChristians in Lahore Badami Bagh area,Pakistan Today Editor Arif nizami said itwas a shameful incident. nizami was talking to Zaeem Qadri(PML-n), Khawaja Izharul Hasan(MQM), nabil Ahmed Gabol (PPP),ulema Council Chairman Tahir Ashrafiand Federal Minister for national Har-mony Akram Masih in a fresh episode ofZer-e-Bahas on Samaa news. nizamisaid after vacating the Christian colonythe homes and shops were set ablaze. He asked, “Are our political parties andpoliticians protecting minorities? Is thereany symbolic importance of white colorin our national flag?”The PML-n-led Punjab government hada soft corner for such elements, he de-plored. The Christians were shifted to a saferplace after the situation worsened, butthe families were not given protectionfrom the mob, nizami added.He said the Punjab CM praised police forshifting the families to a safer place, butit seems that the government a free handto arsonists and looters.“Five days are left for the dissolution ofthe government, but a caretaker setup hasnot been announced so far,” he also said.

Presidentialsystem need ofthe hour, saysSalim Saifullah

RAWALPINDI ONliNE

Pakistan Muslim League Likemindedleader Salim Saifullah on Sunday said thepresidential system of government wasthe need of the hour, as the parliamentar-ian system had failed in Pakistan.Addressing a public gathering here, hesaid poverty, terrorism or other problemsfaced by Pakistan could not be removedby chanting hollow slogans of democracy. Saifullah said Kurram Tangi Dam was amatter of life and death for southern dis-tricts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and “thepeople will try to make the project pos-sible in near future”. He criticised for-mer KP chief minister Akram KhanDurrani for deliberately ignoring LakkiMarwat district during his tenure.


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