e-paper pakistantoday 24th October, 2012

Wednesday, 24 october, 2012 dhu al-Haj 7, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 119 19 pages Lahore edition

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It’s on Google:Pervaiz Elahi died in 2008

ECP decides against Malik’sdisqualification

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WASHINGTONspecial correspondenT

WHITe House hopeful Mitt Romney on Tuesday saidhe would maintain drone strikes in Pakistan if hedefeated President Barack Obama and would imposeconditions on aid to the nuclear-armed nation.

At the two men’s final debate before November 6 elections,Romney largely embraced Obama’s positions on Pakistanand in a departure from his frequent criticism, said he didnot blame Obama for troubled ties between the nations.Romney voiced concern about the Haqqani network, amilitant group in Afghanistan that US officials have linkedto Pakistan, and worried over the power of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.“It’s a nation that’s not like others and it does not have acivilian leadership that is calling the shots there,” Romneysaid. Asked by moderator Bob Schieffer if the United Statesshould “divorce” Pakistan, Romney supported continuedties but in line with legislation approved by Congress, calledfor more conditions on US assistance.“No, it’s not time to divorce a nation on earth that has 100nuclear weapons and is on the way to double that at somepoint, a nation that has serious threats from terrorist groupswithin its nation,” Romney remarked.Romney said they had to stay involved with Pakistan for abasic reason: “They have nuclear weapons. We don’t wantthem to fall into the hands of terrorists. We’re going to haveto work with the people of Pakistan.”

Romney oR obama,drone attackswon’t cease !g US presidential hopeful Romney says can’t

divorce Pakistan, backs tougher aid conditionsg Says Pakistan has been anything but an ally

PPP seeks apology fromSharifs for 1990 poll fraud

ISLAMABADTayyab Hussain

Senior Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) leader and InformationMinister Qamar Zaman Kaira onTuesday sought an apology fromPML-N chief Nawaz Sharif forallegedly receiving funding from theInter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to“steal” his party’s mandate in 1990election. Addressing a hurriedly-called press conference, Kaira saidthe doors to poll rigging had beenclosed forever and challenged thePML-N leadership to try rigging thepolls if it did not believe so. “Todaythe doors to polls rigging haveclosed and no one can win electionson basis of false propaganda andagencies’ support,” he asserted.Kaira’s assertions came followingconsecutive media interactions byPML-N leaders in wake of theAsghar Khan case verdict, in whichthe SC asked the government torecover money from politicians whoreceived bribes from the ISI back in1990. Asked why former PPchairperson Benazir Bhutto hadconferred Tamgha-e-Jamhooriat onGeneral (r) Mirza Aslam Beg if aconspiracy was being hatchedagainst her government in late1980s by him, the informationminister said the award had beenconferred upon the military as aninstitution, adding that the medalshould be placed in the GHQ insteadof Beg’s residence.

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All stakeholders mustbe on board to end

war, Imran tells Karzai

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02News

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punjab govt being run by a criminal, says Wattoo over 1000 android apps leak personal info, banking details: study

Wednesday, 24 October, 2012

Seven travellerskidnapped in BalochistanQUETTA: Unidentified gunmen on Tuesday kidnapped seven passengersof a van from the Bolan area of Balochistan. According to media reports, thevan was heading towards Sibbi from Quetta. It was ambushed by armedmen at a place called Dhadar. The attackers disembarked the driver and sixpassengers, took them hostage, and disappeared into the mountains. Noone had claimed responsibility for the abduction so far. online

Pakistan rejects ‘baseless’ Indianblame on cross-border terrorismISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday rejected India’s allegations that itwas helping terrorists’ infiltration into India, saying such accusationswere not helpful in creating a conducive environment necessary forimproving bilateral relations. Responding to media reports about Indianhome minister’s remarks that “Pakistan is helping terrorists to infiltrateinto India,” Foreign Office Spokesman Moazzam Khan said, “We totallyreject these allegations and insinuations. They are totally baseless andunfounded.” “Such unsubstantiated statements are not very helpful increating a conducive environment necessary for improving therelationship between our two countries,” he said. sTaff reporT

Three FC men injured in blast,another bomb defused in PeshawarPESHAWAR: Three Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were injured in ablast on Tuesday while the police defused another bomb planted by theroadside. According to details, unidentified men planted a remote-controlled bomb in a house that was under construction on Frontier Roadin Badhber area. When it went off, three FC men deployed nearby wereinjured. The injured FC men were taken to Lady Reading Hospital fortreatment. According to hospital sources, their condition was stable. Thepolice and other law enforcement personnel cordoned off the area andstarted investigation. Some sources claimed that the explosive materialwas stored in a room of the house. sTaff reporT

‘Pakistan can never accord approvalto drone operations from its territory’ ISLAMABAD: Calling a statement on drones being referred to thedefence secretary totally false, a spokesman of the Ministry of Defence onTuesday said Pakistan had always been against drone attacks and wouldnot support any such activity. He said the defence secretary was beingmisquoted in the media. The government could never accord an approvalfor drone operations from its territory. Pakistan has been lodging protestswith United States, officially against conducting the drone strikes. “Weconsider it a clear violation of international law and Pakistan’ssovereignty. Pakistan has very recently demanded the end of drone strikesduring the US envoy’s visit to Pakistan,” he said. app

Prominent trader killed in TurbatTURBAT: Unidentified armed men shot dead a prominent traderKhalid Moosa Panghuri on Tuesday while he was sitting at his shophere. The incident spread panic and fear among the people, andshopkeepers closed their businesses in protest. A large number ofpeople, shopkeepers and employees gathered in Turbat bazaar, andstaged a strong protest against police over its failure to maintain lawand order. Police took the dead body to a hospital for autopsy, andhanded it over to the deceased’s heirs for burial. Turbat is one of thetroubled districts where incidents of targeted killing and kidnappingare frequent. What is more distressing for the people is the fact that thekillers escaped from the scene and could not be arrested. sTaff reporT

ISLAMABADsTaff reporT

In a letter to Afghan President HamidKarzai, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)Chairman Imran Khan has said thateach and every stakeholder must bebrought on board in order to bringAfghanistan out of war.

The PTI chief was replying to a let-ter by the Afghan president. He urgedthe two nations to carve out a jointstrategy to end decade-long violence.

Commenting on drone attacks,Imran wrote: “Innocent civilians arepaying the price of drone attacks andmilitancy.”

“People of Pakistan andAfghanistan must work together toeliminate poverty and illiteracy fromthe region,” said the PTI chief, adding,“PTI completely supports efforts of rec-onciliation in Afghanistan.” Imran also

thanked the Afghan president for hissupport for Malala Yousafzai. He alsoexpressed grief over the lives lost in thedecade-long war in Afghanistan.

AbbottabadCommission refutesTelegraph reportISLAMABAD: The Inquiry Commission onAbbottabad Operation on Tuesday refutedBritish media reports that the commission hadcleared the Pakistan government and themilitary establishment of involvement inprotection of the al Qaeda chief, saying noreport had yet been presented to thegovernment and all assertions regarding thecontents of the report were concocted. Quotinga senior government official, the DailyTelegraph had said that “no one else in the townknew the world’s most wanted man had takenup residence there”. It cleared the Pakistangovernment and military establishment ofinvolvement, a verdict that would promptaccusations of a cover-up and infuriate Westerndiplomats. According to a press release issuedon Tuesday, the commission said all the newsregarding submission of report to thegovernment, its contents and recommendationswere “concocted, baseless and withoutsubstance” as the report was yet to bepresented. The commission therefore, clarifiedits position that no such report was revealed tothe press, the statement said. online

It’s on Google: PervaizElahi died in 2008!

ISLAMABAD: A glitch in Google’s record that declaresDeputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz elahi “dead” hasannoyed the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q),which asked the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority(PTA) to take immediate legal action against the internetsearch giant. PML-Q spokesman Malik Mustafa said onTuesday that the party reserved the right to sue Google. Onthe other hand, PTA officials showed complete ignoranceon the issue. If “Chaudhry Pervaiz elahi” is searched onGoogle, a description window shows that the “currentdeputy prime minister” died in 2008. The PML-Qspokesman said the party had lodged a protest with Googlethrough e-mail. He said that elahi was a popular leader ofthe country and was currently serving the people as deputyprime minister. “It is very much possible that some of hisopponents had posted the ad on Google, mentioning hisdate of death to malign his reputation,” Mustafa said. ThePTA officials, when contacted, refused to comment on theerror, saying they did not know anything about the matter.The PTA chairman did not respond to phone calls or textssent to his mobile phone. Google has not corrected theerror until the filing of this report, despite the fact that thematter had been brought to its notice. online

All stakeholders mustbe on board to endwar, Imran tells Karzai

FAISALABAD: Workers sharpen knives at a

workshop on Tuesday as preparations are in

full swing for the upcoming Eidul Azha. ONLINE


03NewseditOrialabbottabad commision:

cOmment

articles on Page 14

Back where we started from.

M J akbar says;Lord of the wring: News travels, and never faster than when by word of mouth.

syed Hassan belal Zaidi says;Idiocracy: We are one of the few countries that hate the US with a vengeance, yetpersist on calling ourselves ‘allies’.

artS & entertainment

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demi Moore wants spiritual healer to cope her divorce food imports shrink 6.35 % in first quarter cannot pinpoint retirement yet: Warne


ISLAMABADonline

THe first death anniversary of BegumNusrat Bhutto was observed on Tues-day. Quran Khawani was held at hermausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bukhshand other places. A special prayer cer-

emony was also held at the Presidency. President Asif Ali Zardari and a number of

federal ministers and parliamentarians attendedthe ceremony.

Addressing a gathering in Garhi KhudaBukhah‚ Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah saidNusrat Bhutto’s services for strengthening democ-racy would be remembered for long.

Shah laid floral wreaths at the grave of NusratBhutto and graves of other members of Bhuttofamily.

A delegation of the MQM, led by Sindh Minis-ter Abdul Hafeez Khan, also laid floral wreath atNusrat Bhutto’s grave.

In Punjab‚ prayers were held at the Governor’sHouse in Lahore. The executive body of the PPPPunjab also offered fateha for the eternal peace ofthe departed soul.

Speaking at a seminar in Muzaffarabad‚ AJK

Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majid said theBhutto family had rendered valuable sacrifices forthe uplift‚ prosperity and progress of the nation

and country.In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa‚ Quran Khawani was

held at the PPP’s Secretariat in Peshawar.

ISLAMABADagencies

NePRA has held corruptionand mismanagement in thepower sector responsible forthe energy crisis and in-crease in electricity tariff in

the country.Briefing the energy committee during

a meeting at the Parliament House onTuesday, NePRA officials said inactive andirregular functioning of the majority of thepower plants was the main reason in theskyrocketing electricity tariff.

The committee was also informed thatdespite repeated requests to cease the op-eration of these plants, the governmenthad not responded positively, and wasrather trying to regenerate the faulty

plants, instead of operating new ones. Ministry of Water and Power Addi-

tional Secretary Himayatullah Khan in-formed the committee that currentelectricity shortfall amounted to2,031MWs, causing five hours of loadshedding.

The committee members expressedstrong chagrin over what they termed awrong statement of the water and powerofficials, since cities like, Hyderabad,Sukkur, and Sanghar were being subjectedto 10 to 12 hours of load shedding daily.

Khan also said the ministry had devel-oped a monitoring system in cooperationwith the power distributor companies andheld several interactive sessions which re-mained helpful to reduce system losses.

Khan admitted that there were manyleakages in the distribution system. He

said “our tariff is not able to complete thegeneration cost and more power we gener-ate more amount we lose”.

The ministry officials informed thecommittee that a lack of gas had forcedclosures of eight power plants, adding thatdespite the fact that furnace oil producedelectricity at Rs 22 per unit, consumerswere being charged Rs 8 per unit.

NePRA member Khawaja Nadeemtold the committee that during the last sixmonths Rs 69 billion were paid to pur-chase oil for power plants and if theseplants were run with gas then Rs 138 bil-lion could be saved every year.

Meanwhile, WAPDA officials said theyhad so far not succeeded in rescuingWAPDA’s eight abducted employees fromGomal Zam dam, adding that the abduc-tors had also killed one of the abducted.

nusrat bhutto remembered on first death anniversary

‘Corruption, mismanagementresponsible for power crisis’

WASHINGTONspecial correspondenT

The anti-terror message from the shoot-ing of Malala Yousafzai has clearly res-onated with Pakistan, said the U.S.State Department in the backdrop ofthe nation’s unprecedented show of sol-idarity with the teenaged girls’ rightsactivist and her cause for education.

Spokesman Mark Toner said themessage emanating from the Talibanattack against the schoolgirl in Swatcould not have been clearer and that ithas strengthened the Pakistanis’ re-solve.

“When you’re talking about theright of young girls to receive an educa-tion and the fact that these individuals,these terrorists, are looking to wipe out

or stop these girls from access to educa-tion, access to their very basic rights. Ithink it was a clear message to the Pak-istani people, one that’s clearly res-onated with them, and I think itstrengthened their resolve,” Toner re-marked.

The 14-year-old Ms Yousafzai is nowunder advanced treatment in Birming-ham, UK after the incident and initialtreatment in Pakistan.

The Taliban attack - which has beenreportedly traced back to militantleader Mullah Fazlullah, who is hidingin Kunar area of Afghanistan - drewstrong condemnation from the Pak-istani leadership and galvanized thePakistani society and political main-stream behind the girls’ right to an ed-ucation in the militancy-hit areas.

Malala shooting message has

resonated with Pakistan: US

Musharraf to contestelection from ChitralISLAMABAD:Former presidentGeneral (r) PervezMusharraf hasdecided to contestthe upcomingelection fromChitral, All PakistanMuslim League(APML) SecretaryGeneral BarristerSaif announced onTuesday. Saif saidthe APML chiefwould formallyannounce hisdecision to contestthe election fromChitral onWednesday (today) through a video-link address to theelders of Chitral. Saif said the former president hadrendered great services to the people of Chitral, anddevelopment projects worth Rs 5 billion had beeninitiated during his tenure. He said the people ofChitral had invited the former president to contest theforthcoming election from their area. online

BHC orders police raids to recoverabducted doctor as strike continues QUETTA: The Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Tuesday directed police toconduct raids across the province to recover a kidnapped doctor, Dr SaeedAhmed. A divisional bench of the BHC took a suo motu on the issue. BHC ChiefJustice Qazi Faez essa said Dr Ahmed’s abduction was shameful. The courtasked the CCPO to conduct raids across the province and approach the court incase of any hurdle. The court also stated that the provincial government hadfailed to protect the public. Meanwhile, doctors’ strike in government hospitals ofQuetta continued on Tuesday. Patients have been suffering from the continuedsuspension of OPD and other services in government facilities but the doctors areadamant in continuing their strike until Dr Ahmed was found. On Monday, thePakistan Medical Association (PMA) had called a general body meeting anddecided to continue the strike. agencies


04


News

WASHINGTONafp

WITH the debate seasonnow over, the US presi-dential race is neck-

and-neck and could boil down tothe “ground game” effort to get outthe vote in just a clutch of swingstates, experts say.

President Barack Obama laidinto Mitt Romney’s foreign policyas “wrong and reckless” in Mon-day night’s final debate, but theRepublican challenger did nothingto disqualify himself as a plausiblecommander-in-chief.

Political analysts agreed thatwith the more pressing issue beingthe state of the US economy andtheir rival plans to revive it, theslugging match on national secu-rity probably did little to budge theelection needle.

Romney’s play-it-safe debatestrategy of towing more toObama’s line than he had on thecampaign trail reinforced this,Charles Franklin, co-founder ofPollster.com and professor at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison,

told AFP. “I don’t think you heardmuch tonight that suggests funda-mental differences in either mili-tary strategy or policy,” he said.“And so, in matching positionsthere, you take the foreign policyissues off the table.”

All eyes are now on nine or10 swing states, particularlyFlorida, Ohio and Virginia,which offer the largest number ofelectoral college votes in thequest for the magic number of270 that guarantees victory.Since trouncing Obama in thefirst presidential debate on Octo-ber 3, polls show that Romneyhas surged into the lead inFlorida and caught up with thepresident in Virginia, but he stilltrails in all-important Ohio.

“I think we are, at the mo-ment, close enough that you couldimagine a cliffhanger that comesdown to a single state’s electoralvotes,” said Franklin.

Dotty Lynch, professor of Pub-lic Communication at AmericanUniversity, told AFP that we canexpect an already exhaustive adblitz in the crucial battlegrounds

to intensify in the final two weeksof campaigning.

“The advertising is going to beextremely heavy and very targetedtowards specific groups, womenvoters, blue-collar (working class)voters,” Lynch said.

But the emphasis will alsoturn to the “ground game” asObama’s Democrats and Rom-ney’s Republicans focus greater at-tention on their street-by-streetdrive to get supporters to the pollson November 6.

“We’re really down to bothsides mobilizing whatever re-sources they have to get their vot-ers to the polls, to go as much asthey still can in the last two weeksdoor-to-door,” said George Wash-ington University professorChristopher Arterton.

“Oftentimes, it is the persontalking to somebody that theyknow, or somebody in their neigh-borhood or somebody very simi-larly situated that can have adecisive influence on whether thatperson votes in the first place, andhow that person votes,” Artertontold AFP.

SAN FRANCISCOafp

Cavalry comments gallopedonline as a shot by PresidentBarack Obama about “horsesand bayonets” became themost talked about moment ofthe final presidential debateon Twitter.

Online sparring betweensupporters of Obama and Re-publican challenger MittRomney spiked during Mon-day’s debate after Romneyderisively remarked that “ourNavy is smaller now than (at)any time since 1917.” Obamacountered that Romneydidn’t understand the mod-ern military, saying “we alsohave fewer horses and bayo-nets” to laughter from the au-dience.

“We have these thingscalled aircraft carriers where

planes land on them. We havethese ships that go underwa-ter, nuclear submarines,” hesaid, adding that analyzingmilitary capabilities was not“a game of Battleship.” Theexchange quickly trended onTwitter as #horsesandbayo-nets and within minutes ofthe debate’s close a Cavalry-menForRomney.com websitefeatured a forlorn warrior onhorseback holding a Romneybanner on a pike.

“So much sass I was notready to handle,” one onlinecomment read. “OMG, that’sa double burn.” Obama’s shotechoed at Tumblr.com whereartists posted cartoons andplayfully doctored imagespoking fun at a Romney mili-tary based on outdated equip-ment like horses. Afreshly-launched “Horses andBayonets” page at Facebook

with a charging US cavalryphoto bore the mocking mes-sage: “I stand with Mitt Rom-ney. We must buy morehorses and bayonets tostrengthen our military.”

The Facebook pageracked up more than 3,500“likes” shortly after launch.Obama’s “horses and bayo-nets” barb caused Twittermessage volume during thedebate to hit a peak of105,767 tweets, accordingto the popular San Fran-cisco-based micro-bloggingservice.

“While it was a busyevening with several eventscompeting for viewers’ atten-tion, the political conversa-tion on Twitter remainedstrong, with 6.5 milliontweets sent about the 90-minute debate,” the firm saidin a blog post.

PPP seeks

apology from

Sharifs for

1990 poll fraudKaira said what had been depicted by

the court verdict was just a minorchapter of the condemnablepropaganda, as various other charactersand their wrongdoings were yet to beexposed.The minister said the court verdict hadproven Benazir Bhutto right, as all herstatements were proving correct,including the theft of the people’smandate.He said though the people’s mandatewas robbed in 1990, those responsiblewere strangely calling it propaganda.Referring to the statement by PML-N’sOpposition Leader Nisar Ali Khan,Kaira said some people weredemanding a judicial or UNcommission, while others claimedaccepting the verdict but rejected aprobe by the FIA.“I am surprised over the statements ofPML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and othersdemanding establishment of acommission or investigation by theUnited Nations. It was the SupremeCourt, not the government that askedthe FIA to investigate the matter,” theinformation minister said.Kaira also cited a statement by BenazirBhutto in which she talked of threatsfrom spy agencies of killing her jailedhusband in case she did not accept thethen government.He said the robbery of people’smandate had been proven by the courtverdict, but the status of thegovernment formed on basis of riggingwas yet to be decided.He said the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad(IJI) was formed in 1986 when anarmy-led cell started gathering like-minded people and Gen (r) Hameed Gulformed the IJI after death of Ziaul Haq.The information ministers said thePPP’s political adversaries had beencoming to power using falsepropaganda and unconstitutionaltactics, but the PPP always banked onthe people’s mandate despite allconspiracies.He said after former president GhulamIshaq Khan toppled BB’s government,then chief justice of Lahore High CourtRafiq Tarar ratified Khan’s decision andthe judge was later awarded thepresidential slot for the deed.The minister also quoted news items of1990s containing BB’s statements onestablishment of a cell at thePresident’s House to rig the poll, whichwas proved later when the IJI won 105seats with several of them getting 100percent turnout.Kaira also mentioned a white paperissued by Benazir Bhutto containing thetactics used to rig the polls and clarifiedthat the PPP had nothing to do withAsghar Khan’s petition, as it was movedby Khan himself.Citing PPP’s apology to the people ofBalochistan, Kaira said his partyleadership tendered an apology formistakes committed by others.To a question, he said action againstelements involved in misusing thepublic money would be taken accordingto the constitution and law.About Younus Habib, Kaira said Nawazhad granted him the license of MehranBank as a gift to hatch a conspiracyagainst the PPP.He regretted that the governmentformed as a consequence of the riggedelections instituted cases againstBenazir and Asif Ali Zardari.To another question, he said thepresident was neutral and it was notfair to expect that he would be non-political, saying, “The president is partof the parliament, which is product ofthe political and democratic process.”Kaira said even the incumbent PPPprime minister was neutral in hisapproach and the government releasedfunds to opposition MPs on equal basis,besides giving them full respect.He said it was the PML-N that usheredpolitics of turncoats in the country,adding that the party was still runninga provincial government of turncoats.

WASHINGTON: Brushingaside Afghan criticism of USSpecial envoy Marc Grossman’sstatement reaffirminginternationally recognizedstatus of Durand Line as theborder between Pakistan andAfghanistan, the StateDepartment Tuesday said itspolicy on the issue remainsunchanged. The StateDepartment firmly stood byAmbassador Grossman’sarticulation of US position onDurand Line. “Our policy onthis has not changed. It wascorrectly stated by AmbassadorGrossman that we see this as

the internationally recognizedboundary,” State Departmentspokesperson Victoria Nulandsaid. She was asked tocomment on Kabul’s reportedrejection of a statement madeby US Special Representativefor Pakistan and AfghanistanAmbassador Grossman duringhis visit to Kabul, where he saidWashington believes 2640 kmlong Durand Line is theinternationally recognizedboundary. The spokespersonsaid she was not aware ofAfghanistan registering anyprotest with the US on theissue. SPEcIAL cORRESPONdENT

‘Cliffhanger’ US electionawaits as debates wrap up

US brushes asideAfghan criticism

He said what happened in Pakistanwould have a major impact on thesuccess in Afghanistan, adding thatPakistan’s role was very important forstability in Afghanistan. Althoughboth men spoke at length of thedangers of Iran going nuclear, theturmoil in Libya and Syria, andcontentious issues with China, it wasPakistan and its combustible mix ofnuclear weapons and home-grownterrorism, and its fallout onAfghanistan, the US withdrawal fromthere and on the neighbourhood, thatseemed to worry them most.There was clearly no love forPakistan – just concern, distrust,and a vague sense of bringing abouta course-correction in the countrythat Romney spoke about.President Obama set the tone whenhe bragged about killing bin Ladenand mocked Romney for saying in

2008 that the US should ask Pakistanfor permission to hunt him. PresidentBarack Obama said the US wouldhave never killed al Qaeda chiefOsama bin Laden if he had to seekpermission from Pakistan, indicatingthe sheer lack of trust he had with thePakistani leadership. Obama said hehad delivered what he had promisedon al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.Romney too said at one point thatPakistan had been anything but anally. Although Romney said he wasagainst “divorcing” Pakistan and wasfor “rebuilding” the relationship, heminced no words in support ofObama’s policy on drones.“I believe we should use any and allmeans necessary to take out peoplewho pose a threat to us and ourfriends around the world. I supportthat entirely and feel the presidentwas right to up the usage of thattechnology and believe that weshould continue to use it,” he said.

Obama’s ‘horses and bayonets’ remark goes viral

Romney or Obama,drone attacks won’t cease

MaKKaH: bosnian Muslim pilgrim senad Hadzic, 47, who left last december on pilgrimage to Makkah by foot, walks in the holy city on Tuesday. AFP

Taliban kill 10 Afghan security personnelHERAT: Ten Afghan security personnel have been killed in abloody battle with Taliban insurgents in the western provinceof Herat, officials said on Tuesday. Five police officers wereamong the dead, including the police chief of Obe district,where the battle took place on Monday afternoon, regionalpolice spokesman Noor Khan Nikzad told AFP. Nikzad saidthe gunfight erupted at noon when the Taliban attacked apolice convoy and lasted several hours. Najeebullah Ahmadi,the Obe district governor, said five police and five soldierswere killed in the battle. Three Taliban insurgents including acommander were also killed, he said. AFP

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05


NewsZia’s son ijazulHaq decides to join handswith nawaz

MONITORING DESK

Pakistan Muslim League-Zia chiefIjaz-ul-Haq decided on Tuesday thathe was joining Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N), DawnNewsreported. Ijaz, son of former militarydictator Zia-ul-Haq, said that hewould formally announce his decisionin a few days after meeting with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. He said that hetook this decision because he wantedalliance of the Muslim League. Addingthat, he said that he was always partof the Muslim League and will alwaysbe. Ijaz remained federal minister forLabour, Manpower and overseasPakistanis from 1997- 1999 in NawazSharif’s government. He steppeddown from the post followingdifferences with Sharif, who wasoverthrown shortly afterwards byGeneral Pervez Musharraf in 1999.Forming his own PML splinterfaction, Zia-ul-Haq, Ijaz was electedto the National Assembly for a recordfourth time in the 2002 generalelection. Initially allying himself withMusharraf’s PML-Q party, he wasappointed federal minister forreligious affairs. He lost for the firsttime in the 2008 general election, andresigned from the PML-Q in February2010. His revived PML-Zia upset thePakistan People’s Party inBahawalnagar for Member of theProvincial Assembly in March 2010.


TexTBOOKS used in country’sschools these days are rifewith factual errors, bias andhate towards a number of re-ligious groups and nations, a

development which is only fuelling intol-erance and extremism in the society.

Given that the increasing extremismposes an existential threat to Pakistan, thegovernment, civil society, education expertsand citizens need to contribute to a seriousprocess of curriculum and textbook re-forms to help combat the growing levels ofintolerance and violence towards minoritygroups in the society. During a roundtablediscussion on curriculum development andtextbook reform organised by the JinnahInstitute in collaboration with the National

Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP)in Islamabad, participants highlighted theneed for curriculum and textbook reform toachieve a tolerant and peaceful Pakistan.

Raza Rumi, Director of Policy andProgrammes at the Jinnah Institute,opened the discussion, pointing out thatcooperation between all stakeholders inthe education sector was required toachieve better policy outcome and theJinnah Institute roundtable was an efforttowards that. “We need to find a balancebetween the civil society and governmentinitiatives so that important and innova-tive solutions to curriculum-related is-sues can be implemented,” Rumi said.

NCJP executive Director Peter Jacobshared the commission’s report on biasesin textbooks and highlighted examples ofhate material in Pakistani textbooks andhow such material not only negatively im-

pacted the minds of the majority Muslimstudents but also harmed the educationand growth of non-Muslim students. Par-ticipants also highlighted how religion ofmany non-Muslim students – Christians,Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims from the non-majority sects – was ignored while high-lighting the majority faith.

Mirza Ashraf, a senior official of thePunjab provincial government’s text-book board, outlined the process of com-missioning, writing and approvingtextbooks. Participants felt the need fordevising policy and advocacy interven-tions for correcting hate material andstressed that a concerted effort neededto be made to review the subtle messagesin educational materials with respect tominorities’ and women’s rights, and thefreedom of religion and speech.

Haider Abbas Rizvi, MQM’s deputy

parliamentary leader in National Assembly,spoke about the damage caused to Pakistaniminds by an education system that taughtthem a falsified version of history. “Whenstudents come out of this system and inde-pendently look at the world, their minds arestruck by the contradictions. Many rejectboth, then, and become part of a confusedgeneration,” Rizvi said, adding that hewould pursue the matter with the educationminister in Sindh, where his party was amember of the coalition government.

Samson Sharaf of the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) detailed the perse-cution of non-Muslim Pakistanis over twodecades and how Christians and Hindus,the largest non-Muslim communities in thecountry, had been discriminated againstand deprived of opportunities to live as cit-izens of Pakistan through a flawed and bi-ased education system.

PESHAWARsHaMiM sHaHid

After reviving the Muttahida Ma-jlis-e-Amal (MMA) sans former allyJamaat-e-Islami (JI), JamiatUlema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chiefFazlur Rehman is now focusing onmustering the support of influentialpoliticians from various regions ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

As a latest example, Fazl wonthe support of former federal andprovincial minister Khawaja Mo-hammad Khan Hoti, who belongsto the influential Nawabzadgaan ofthe Hoti family in Mardan.

Over the last decade, Hoti hasbeen hopping parties without perma-nently settling into one. Before joiningthe JUI-F, he had pledged allegianceto Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)chief Imran Khan, and was nomi-nated as the party’s central senior vicepresident. However, he failed to ad-just in the party, and announced res-ignation in August this year.

Prior to joining the PTI, Hotistayed in the Awami National Party(ANP) for a couple of years, and wonthe 2008 election to the National As-sembly on ANP’s ticket. He was in-ducted in the federal cabinet, but laterentered into rifts with the party’s cen-tral and provincial leadership. He re-mained a dissident before completingone year in ANP’s parliamentary party.

Nonetheless, he remained at-

tached to the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) for two years, and was twiceelected on its ticket to the provincialassembly and became a minister be-fore promoting to the rank of PPP’sprovincial president. He was oustedfrom the PPP in early 2003.

Though terms and conditions be-tween Hoti and Fazl are yet to be madepublic, but sources said that Hoti wasdemanding JUI-F tickets for one na-tional and two provincial assemblyseats – one each for himself, his son,and his brother-in-law – in their na-tive town Mardan. On all three con-stituencies, the Nawabzadgaan wouldface no other than ANP candidates, in-cluding KP Chief Minister AmirHaider Khan Hoti.

Whatever may be the outcome ofthe upcoming general elections, butFazl has made his party capable ofgiving tough time to the ANP and thePPP by taking Hoti on board. At thesame time, Fazl’s decision couldforce three main parties – ANP, PPPand the JI – of entering into an al-liance or seat-to-seat adjustment,mainly in order to counter the JUI-F.

elsewhere in the province, Fazlcould face problems in his nativesouthern districts, after the PPP’s de-cision to nominate Anwar SaifullahKhan as its provincial president. Inaddition, Faisal Karim Khan Kundi isalso reluctant to leave open the fieldfor Fazl in his native Dera IsmaelKhan district.

Experts urge textbook reforms to cure rising religious intolerance

pesHaWar: protesters shout slogans against any military offensive in the tribal areas on Tuesday. INP

Fazl woos politicians tosecure MMA’s position

Punjab govt being

run by a criminal,

says Wattoo

LAHOREonline

PPP Central Punjab President MianManzoor Wattoo on Tuesday said thePunjab government was being run by acriminal. Talking to reporters, he saidhe appealed to Shahbaz Sharif to acceptthe court ruling in the Asghar Khan caseand resign from the seat of chiefminister. “The Supreme Court has givena clear order in the Asghar Khan caseand everyone should accept it,” he said.Wattoo noted that the Sharif brothersadvised the PPP to implement the courtorders. “The PPP has respected theorders of the apex court anddisqualification of Yousaf Raza Gilani isan example, now Sharifs should followsuit,” Wattoo said. He said he would tryto reconcile with the displeased workersof the PPP, adding that there was nodisagreement with Imtiaz SafdarWaraich, the former PPP central Punjabchief. Wattoo added that every PPPworker would be treated justly.



NEWS DESK

Pakistan’s second largest city Lahore is famous for itsmany gardens and historic buildings dating back to theMughal and British colonial era. It is a city where themodern exist side by side with the traditional inunique and at times disturbing ways, Hamad Ali re-ported for The Independent.

A few months back a new “women’s only” parkopened in Lahore. The Fatima Jinnah Park, which isnamed after the sister of the founder of Pakistan, isspread over four acres and with walls seven feet high.It has its own jogging track, gymnasium and bad-minton court. Since its opening the park has provenpopular among local women living in the area. Someprefer such female-only spaces places out of religiousfaith or cultural preferences, others are held back fromgoing out by their conservative-minded families. Amore troubling issue, however, is those women whofear harassment from men, something which can be areal problem in Pakistan’s public places. But whethercreating segregated parks is the right solution is a con-tentious point. Some might argue it doesn’t addressthe core issue. Lahore has long been known as the “cityof gardens.” During the Mughal era many famous gar-dens were built here, some of which have survived tothis day. Prominent among these is the Shalimar Gar-dens which were constructed by the emperer ShahJahan, who also built the Taj Mahal in India.

More recently a number of important chapters inPakistan’s history have taken place in the parks of La-

hore. School children in Pakistan are taught that it wasin 1940 in Lahore’s Iqbal Park (then known as MintoPark) that a now famous political resolution waspassed by the Muslim League calling for a separatehomeland for the Muslims of the Indian Subcontinent.Almost half a century later in 1986 a young BenazirBhutto returned from exile to the city of Lahorein acountry which was under military dictatorship at thetime. That day Bhutto addressed a crowd of millions -the majority of them men - who had come to greetherat the same Iqbal Park.

Yet beyond grandstanding political speeches or themore familiar family picnics, parks in Pakistan have

on occasion been the scene of controversy stirred bypretty innocuous acts. earlier this year a busybodyhost of a Pakistani morning show, Maya Khan, led agroup of middle aged women into a park in the seasidecity of Karachi to confront unmarried young couplesfor indulging in such “immoral” behaviour as sittingtogether and talking to each other.

As the camera rolled they were hounded withquestions like “do your parents know your here?” and“Where is your marriage certificate?” Following theairing of the programme Ms. Khan was hit by a waveof criticism by viewers for behaving in a manner moreakin to Taliban style vigilante, than a reputable jour-

nalist. She was eventually sacked by the channel (onlyto be hired by another, unfortunately). Back in Lahore,after the popular success of the Fatima Jinnah Park,the local authority in the city is reportedly planning tobuild ten more women-only parks in the city. It maybe a disturbing development to some, but Pakistancertainly isn’t alone in adopting such women-only ini-tiatives. In Iran for example, in 2008 a similar women-only park was opened in Tehran which drew polarisedreactions from different sections of society.

And in China there exists a controversial women-only theme park and, among certain members of theChinese Muslim minority, “women only” mosqueswhere prayers are led by female imams. even in theUK there has recently been a surge in popularityof “women only” taxis which are driven by female driv-ers and marketed specifically to women passengers.

Frankly, and particularly as a man, I am hesitantto express a strong opinion on the development of“women only” parks in Lahore one way or the other.If I criticize the initiative for pandering to the gendersegregation lobby I know I would be confronted bythe many local women who actually prefer to walkand exercise out of the sights of men. On the otherhand if I say I support such an initiative as a choicewomen should be freely allowed to make for them-selves then certain feminists might accuse me ofbeing an apologist for gender apartheid in a patriar-chal society. So in the end I rather prefer to quoteRumi who said: “The garden of the world has no lim-its, except in your mind.”

Are women-only parks the answer to street harassment?nLahore is following cities as diverse as London, Tehran and moscow in introducing women-only facilities, but do ‘gender ghettos’ make women more or less free?

n majority of the women harrassedin the streets was married

LAHOREWaleed MalHi

Atotal of 3,153 incidents of violenceagainst women were reported from Pun-jab in the period January – June, whichwas nearly 69 percent of the total num-ber of such incidents reported from the

country. Statistics showed that 42 percent of womenwho suffered from violence were unmarried. Around1,309 unmarried women were victims of violence,while 1,262 married women faced violence in Punjab.Around 38 percent victims were divorced while 71percent were reported to have been widowed. Therewas inconclusive information regarding 15 percent ofthe victims. Ages of most victims was uncertain, how-ever 455 victims were below 18 years of age, 173 were19 to 36 years old and 63 victims were over the age of36 years. If statistics from all other provinces werecombined, the number of incidents of violence inother provinces was less than the number reported inPunjab. The high number of incidents was an indica-tion of increased access, for women, to media and lawenforcement. It might however be possible that inci-dents of violence in Punjab were really more frequent.

Abduction and kidnapping remained the mostfrequent forms of violence against women in Punjab,with 29 percent cases of abduction reported. Murder,rape and gang rape were the second and third mostfrequently reported categories of violence, with 471murders and 366 rape and gang rape incidents re-ported. Suicide, honor killing, miscellaneous injuriesand torture, domestic violence and suicide attemptswere also frequently reported from Punjab. Around165 incidents of honor killing were also reported fromPunjab, 107 incidents of attempted rape and 13 inci-dents of sexual assault were also reported. FIRs hadbeen registered for 76 percent of the reported casesfrom Punjab. FIRs of 4 percent of the cases did not getregistered while there was no information regardingthe FIR status of the remaining 20 percent cases.

Nighat Khan from Asar told Pakistan today thatLahore is provincial capital of Punjab and it is alsoknown as the city of education. Despite that, acidthrowing is one of the most shameful acts which wehave not seen in other provinces except Punjab. CMPunjab should take such actions to stop this violenceagainst women, she added.

Categories of VAW in Punjab

Types of violence Total crimes Percentage

Abduction/Kidnapping 911 29%

Acid throwing 44 1%

Burning 24 1%

DV Injury 64 2%

DV Torture 51 2%

Honor Killing 165 5%

Attempt to kidnap 53 2%

Attempt to Murder 78 2%

Attempt to Rape 107 3%

Attempt to suicide 80 3%

Early Marriage 6 0%

Forced Marriage 4 0%

Harassment 34 1%

Illegal Custody 15 0%

Incest 8 0%

Misc Injury 200 6%

Karo Kari 7 0%

Trafficking 24 1%

Threat to Life 31 1%

Misc Torture 138 4%

Vani 20 1%

Watta Satta 0 0%

Murder 471 15%

Rape/Gang Rape 366 12%

Sexual Assault 13 0%

Suicide 239 8%

Total 3153100%

10 worst districts in Punjab

S.No District Name Total number of crimes Percentage of Total

against women

1 Lahore 272 9%

2 Okara 262 8%

3 Sargodha 223 7%

4 Faisalabad 185 6%

5 Rawalpindi 143 5%

6 Sialkot 135 4%

7 Gujrat 130 4%

8 DG Khan 125 4%

9 Pakpattan 110 3%

10 Muzaffargarh 105 3%

Marital Status Total Crimes Percentage

Un Married 1309 42%

Married 1262 40%

Divorced 38 1%

Widowed 71 2%

No information 473 15%

Over 3,000 women harrassedin Punjab in six months!

VAW Crimes against Married Women

LAHORErana Haider

Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has refused tosupply diesel to Pakistan Railways over theissue of non-payment of past dues and be-cause of this decision, 9 trains would haveto be grounded on the first two days ofeidul Azha, Pakistan Today has learnt. According to a Railways spokesperson, thegovernment owed PSO Rs 370 millionwhich it had failed to pay before the speci-fied deadline. Of the total amount owed,cheques of only Rs 30 million had been ho-noured while the rest had bounced. According to sources, Railway officials hadinformed the government about the issue.They had been told that diesel oil would bebought at market rates and the trainsschedule would not be disrupted. Howeverthe department did not have enough re-sources to purchase oil at market rates andas a result, nine trains would have to begrounded on the first two days of eid. Sources also revealed that Railways onlyhad enough oil to last two days and wouldface further shortage after that. Several passengers were enraged over thisnews. Ali Imran from Karachi, who workedin a transport company in Lahore, said,“Inflation has already made lives of citizensmiserable, it is a miracle to be able to buy aRailway ticket during holidays in the firstplace. Secondly travelling by train has be-come expensive and uncomfortable. Ourleaders, fed on the people’s money, leadcomfortable lives while the poor people areleft grappling with problems.” Another passenger Hamza, who was fromPeshwar, said, “Unless there is rule of lawin the country, no department can functionsmoothly. News of trains being grounded atcrucial times have become too commonnow, they never depart or arrive on time,and now are short of diesel. We suffer hardto deal with inflation, the least our leaderscould do is take pity on our poor existence.” Bushra Bibi from Duniapur said that a lotof people would have problems because ofthe non-availability of trains during eidand would not be able to travel to and fromtheir hometowns. She said that the peopleshould not be made to face the brunt ofgovernment’s flawed decision.

Lack of diesel forcesRailways to ground9 trains on eid



07Lahore

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LAHOREapp

A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tues-day stopped Punjab University Head of Physics Depart-ment Dr Shaukat Ali from work. The division benchcomprising Justice Muhammad Khalid Mehmood Khanand Justice Ibad-ur-Rehman Lodhi passed the order on aninter-court appeal filed by Muneer Ahmad against dis-missal of a writ petition for removal of Dr Shaukat Ali by aLHC single bench. The bench also sought a report fromPunjab University vice chancellor by November 11 besidesissuing a notice to Dr Shaukat Ali. earlier, the petitioner’scounsel told the court that Dr Shaukat Ali committed fraudwith the Punjab University by submitting a fake Matriccertificate. He contended that his date of birth was 1954whereas he submitted a matric certificate showing his dateof birth 1959. He submitted that two inquiries were initi-ated against the fraud by the university but it did not reachany conclusion. However, a university committee acknowl-edged that the respondent had committed fraud. Hepointed out that a LHC single bench dismissed petitioner’splea seeking removal of Dr Shaukat Ali for committingfraud. He asked the bench to set aside the orders of singlebench and directions be issued to remove the respondentfrom service. The bench after hearing the argumentsstopped Dr Shaukat Ali from work and sought a reportfrom Punjab University vice chancellor by November 11.

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Munawar Hasan has saidthe rulers are not serious in holding elections ontime and want to delay the polls for a year.

Addressing the Sheikhupura District Bar onTuesday, he said the opposition parties wouldhave to join hands and form a grand alliance onthe one-point agenda of timely elections.

He said the tradition of timely elections in thecountry was very weak and the masses had tocome on roads for the polls.

He said the rulers had planned to start a

military operation in North Waziristan“under the cover of the Malala incident” butit had proved a failure. “The government maycook up some other excuse for this purpose,”he added.

Hasan said a change in the country throughballot appeared to be a dream, yet the JI did notwant to adopt any other course.

He said the PPP and the PML-N providedcover to each other’s corruption.

The JI chief said the military operationscould not bring peace in the country and the gov-ernment should have to adopt the path of dia-logue.

He said the US was anxious to hold talks withthe Taliban while the Pakistan government wasbeing prevented from holding talks with the Tal-iban despite the killings of innocent women andchildren by drone attacks.

“Afghanistan had become graveyard for theUS just as it had proved a graveyard for Britainand the Soviet Union in the past.”

He called upon the army chief to explain whythe armed forces were not being pulled out fromSwat if peace had been restored there.

He said the strategy of war had changed withthe passage of time and the use of force inAfghanistan for a decade had proved futile.

LAHOREonline

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif onTuesday said that a consolidated strategyshould be adopted on the occasion of eid-ul-Azha for sanitary arrangements and disposalof sacrificial animals.

Presiding over a high-level meeting re-garding the cleanliness arrangements onthe occasion of eidul Azha, he said thatcleanliness arrangements should be en-sured on eid at any cost and stern actionwould be taken against the persons burn-ing “Siri Paays” (head and feet of sacrificialanimals) on the roadsides as it causes en-vironmental pollution.

Commissioner Ahmed Hassan, dis-trict coordination officer Lahore, La-hore Solid Waste Managementmanaging director, officials of Turkcompanies and concerned officers werepresent in the meeting.

The chief minister said that adminis-trative officers and officials negligence to-wards sanitary arrangements during eiddays would not be spared. He further said

that the ban on the sale and purchase ofsacrificial animals in the city should bestrictly implemented and this businessshould be carried out only at the pointsspecified for this purpose.

Moreover, he said that a vigorous publicawareness campaign should be launched formaintaining cleanliness during the eid daysand disposal of animals waste and the as-sembly members should personally super-vise the eid arrangements.

The chief minister directed that com-plaint cell regarding cleanliness arrange-ments should be activated and it shouldwork round the clock to redress public com-plaints. Modern technology should be uti-lized for the supervision of the sanitary staffand planning should be made for this pur-pose with the assistance of Punjab Informa-tion and Technology Board, he added.

Shahbaz further said that the volunteersshould also be deployed for sanitaryarrangements on the occasion of eid. Man-aging director Lahore Solid Waste Manage-ment informed the chief minister thatspecial bags would be given to the citizensfor disposal of animal waste.

LAHORE: The police on Tuesday conducted raids and ar-rested many criminals from different area of the city. Ac-cording to reports, the police arrested a criminal namedSher Bahadur from the area of Hanjarwaal. Police said thatthe criminal kidnapped a man named Manzoor Ahmed fivedays ago, killed him and buried his dead body in NarangMendi. In another raid, Iqbal Town police arrested 6 gam-blers. The police said that they were gambling in a fish shopat Main Boulevard. They recovered thousands rupees worthof cash and mobiles phones from their possession.Police also arrested six members of Fayiaz robberygang from the area of Sundar, and recovered two mo-torbikes, Rs 50,000 cash, many mobile phones,weapons and other valuables from their possession. Po-lice said that criminals to confessed many robberies inmetropolis during the investigation. Separately crimi-nals also continued their activities in different areas ofthe city. A robbery took place in a garments shop twicein a one month in the area of Joher Town, where rob-bers took goods worth 40,00,000 and escaped. An-other robbery incident took place when two robbersriding a motorbike snatched a mobile phone from awoman in the area of Garden Town. A citizen namedSayeed was robbed by robbers near FC College. Theytook Rs 21000 cash and a mobile phone and escapedTwo robbers riding a motorbike also snatched a goatfrom a citizen named Manzoor in the area of MuslimTown More. sTaff reporT

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker RanaMashhood Ahmed Khan on Tuesdaysaid that despite wars between Pak-istan and India, the issues are still un-resolved and that continuous peacetalks are important for the region ofSouth Asia.

Speaking at a luncheon hosted byHamdard School System in honour of a27-member Indian Scouts delegation, hesaid that despite having nuclear capabili-ties, both the countries are facing povertyand illiteracy.

He said that India and Pakistanshould benefit from the experiences ofeach other so that the illiteracy and

poverty could be eliminated. He addedthat both the countries should respectsovereignty and geographical boundariesof each other.

Moreover, he said that Quaid-e-Azamhad also pointed out that the foreign pol-icy of Pakistan should based on friendshipwith all and enmity towards no one. Hesaid that Pakistan and India are neigh-bouring countries and while friends andenemies can change, neighbours remainthe same.

He informed that the chief ministersof three provinces of India will visit Pak-istan on November 5 to participate inPunjab Youth Festival. He said that YouthFestival is playing an important role inpromoting friendship between Pakistanand India.

LAHORE: The police killed two suspected robbers in an‘encounter’ in the Soi Aasil area of Kahna Nau on Tuesday.Per reports, the police signalled two motorcyclists to stop ata picket at Soi Aasil but instead of stopping the men openedfire on the police. The police returned fire and were able tokill the two suspects after a 25-minute shootout. Liaquat, a50-year-old passerby, was also injured in the crossfire. TheModel Town SP told Pakistan Today that the suspects hadheld up a citizen Ameen Bhatti and his wife some minutesearlier before the shootout and deprived them of moneyand jewellery. He said that the police had been unable toidentify the dead suspects as yet. sTaff reporT

lHc to resumeKala bagh damhearing today

LAHORE

sTaff reporT

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tues-day adjourned the hearing of Kala BaghDam construction case till Wednesday(today). A single member bench ofLHC comprising Chief Justice UmerAtta Bandial heard the petition filed re-garding importance and construction ofKala Bagh Dam. The lawyer of the peti-tioner Shumail Ahmed told the courtthat keeping in view the energy situa-tion and availability of water for agri-cultural purposes, it shouldimmediately issue directives to start thedevelopment work on Kala Bagh Dam.The court questioned the lawyers if thecourt under the constitution of thecountry was mandated to issue direc-tives for start of work on any develop-ment project. The lawyer argued thatconstitution has given right to courts togive orders for initiating work on anyproject relating to public interests. TheLHC asked the lawyer to continue argu-ments in the case and adjourned thehearing till Wednesday (today).

Head of PU’sPhysics deptstopped fromworking

Robbers busted

Shahbaz plans for disposal of waste of sacrificial animals

2 robbers killed in encounter Rana Mashood urges peace with India

Rulers trying to put off polls: JI

WinTer’s firsT rain: people drive through the downpour on Tuesday evening. ONLINE


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reSerVatiOn 99201772

railWaY POlice 1333

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Lahore

YOGA AND MEDITATION CLASSES

date: aPril 01 tO december 30, 2012Venue: faiZ GHar, laHOre

a unique blend of Yoga, meditation, neuro-linguisticProgramming, Sufism & more.achieve self-insight, mind-body harmony & betterhealth.

Yoga master Shamshad Haider

100 GHAZALS OF MAULANA RUMI

Hast-o-neest centre for traditional art & cultureinvites you to its monthly Saturday Sitting withJanab ahmed Javed Sahib

(director, iqbal academy Pakistan)on 100 Ghazals of maulana rumi3:30 to 5:00 pm, last Saturday of every month

date: marcH 31 tO december 29, 2012 Venue: HaSt-O-neeSt centre, laHOre

the ejaz art Gallery invites you to acolourful display of art work on the desertlife in Pakistan. there is no entrance fee.

date: Oct 22 - nOV 05Venue: eJaZ art GallerY

COLOURS OF DESERT

NEWS DESK

PAKISTAN has faced a rising food cri-sis for the last three years, and globalprice hikes could worsen the situa-tion, according to a report by IRIN.“Given the predictions for lower

global production of cereal crops this year, thereis likely to be a global hike in prices that will af-fect Pakistan,” said Amjad Jamal, spokespersonfor the UN World Food Programme (WFP) inPakistan.

“Due to the massive floods of 2010 followedby further flooding in 2011, rising food prices,energy shortages and continuing conflict in partsof the country, the food security situation hasworsened since 2009.”

WFP notes in its market survey for Augustthat wheat prices in Pakistan have only gone upslightly, poultry prices have increased signifi-cantly, and gram pulse prices have risen 55 per-cent in a year.

Water shortages in some areas are also affect-ing food production: “A lack of water this year hasaffected the maize and cotton seed crop, used asanimal feed, and the 2012 monsoon has broughtlow rainfall [affecting vegetable prices],” explainedMuhammad Ibrahim Mughul, chairman of theAgri Forum of Pakistan which represents farmers.High food prices are driving more people to seekfood handouts from charitable organisations.

“There is a vast growth in the numbers thatturn up at our free feeding centres - I would saya 40 percent increase this year alone and eachyear since 2009 or so,” Anwar Kazmi,

spokesman for the edhi Foundation, told IRINfrom Karachi. The charitable Foundation, thelargest in the country, provides free food to thou-sands daily.

“Due to inflation even the middle class nowcome to us to get food,” Kazmi said.

The cost of food items rose by 9.8 percentbetween March 2011 and March 2012 while non-food items went up 11.5 percent over the sameperiod, according to the Consumer Price Indexmaintained by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The poor have been hit hardest. even if foodis available in the markets, not everyone can af-ford it. “The poor’s purchasing power is alreadylow and they may not be able to meet their di-etary needs, or may have to reduce spending onother essential needs such as health and educa-tion,” WFP’s Jamal told IRIN.IDPs FARE BADLY:

Among the poorest of the poor are internallydisplaced persons (IDPs) in KhyberPakhtunkhwa Province and the Federally Ad-ministered Tribal Areas. According to the UN Of-fice for the Coordination of HumanitarianAffairs (OCHA), there is a funding gap of $21million for food security operations in theseareas for the rest of the year, affecting 1.2 millionIDPs. Another vulnerable group are the threemillion Afghan refugees. The Washington-basedInternational Food Policy Research Institute, inits 2011 Global Hunger Index said the hunger sit-uation in Pakistan remained “alarming”. Theindex is based on three factors: malnutrition,child underweight levels and child mortality. Theindex also notes that hunger in Pakistan has

grown over the last decade. In a December 2011 report, the country’s

central bank stated: “The majority of the ruralpopulation is facing food insecurity includingmalnutrition, undernutrition and hunger. Thepopulation consuming less than 1,700 caloriesper day, which is far below the international lev-els, has increased from 35 million to 45 millionduring the last couple of years.” In an April 2012report published in the media the Bank said 37percent of the urban population were food inse-cure, and warned the government to “reduce therisk of a severe hunger-like situation.”

While experts are still assessing the situa-tion, those who already have too little food saythey are “not interested” in new studies.

“All I know is that we live only on what wefind on rubbish heaps. My children and I scav-enge daily, sell items that can bring in moneysuch as bottles or iron scrap, and take homewhat rotten vegetables, discarded `roti’ [flatbread] or other edibles we can find to make upour dinner,” said Sharifan Bibi, 40, a widow whosifts through the giant garbage heaps strewnalong the railway line. She says she has no otherway to feed herself and her five children, andonly wants to know what the government isdoing to “help people like us”.

The situation has prompted individuals tostep in. Parveen Saeed, a housewife, began asmall-scale food provision programme in Karachicalled `khana ghar’ or `House of Food’ in 2002,after reading about a woman who had killed herchildren rather than watching them starve. “It isthe government which needs to do more to feedthe millions who are hungry. They have the re-sources needed for this. People like me can onlyrelieve the hunger of a few,” she told IRIN.

Worries over food securitydespite bumper wheat crop

n Rising food prices are worsening food security

reScue 1122

edHi cOntrOl 115

mOtOrWaY POlice 130

POlice 15

GOVernOr’S HOuSe 99200081-7

cHief miniSter’S HOuSe 99203226

fire briGade 16

bOmb diSPOSal 99212111

mcl cOmPlaintS 99211022-29

laHOre WaSte diSPOSal 1139


09


Foreign NewsSyrians burn Jordan camptents in protest

AMMANafp

A group of angry Syrians set fire totheir tents in protest at "bad livingconditions" at the Zaatari desertrefugee camp in northern Jordan, aleading charity said on Tuesday. "Anumber of Syrian refugees torched 20tents last night, protesting bad livingconditions in Zaatari and demandingthe authorities replace tents withcaravans," said Zayed Hammad, headof the Ketab and Sunna Society, acharity that helps hundreds ofthousands of Syrians in the kingdom."Police did not make any arrests andno one was hurt. I think Syrian regimesupporters did this in an attempt tocreate riots inside the camp,"Hammad told AFP. There are 5,000tents and 350 caravans in Zaatari,which houses 37,000 refugees, hesaid. But Anmar Hmud, a governmentspokesman for Syrian refugee affairs,said without elaborating that "onetent caught fire because of somechildren who were playing." Riots andclashes erupted at the camp earlier inOctober and have occurred severaltimes in the past two months asSyrian refugees repeatedly complainof bad conditions, dust and lack ofelectricity. Jordan says more than200,000 Syrian refugees have crossedinto its territory since the conflict inneighbouring Syria erupted in March last year.

qatari emir

enters Gaza on

landmark visit

RAFAHafp

Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad binKhalifa al-Thani crossed into the GazaStrip on Tuesday in the first visit by ahead of state since the Islamist Hamasmovement took over in 2007. Liveimages broadcast on Al-Jazeerasatellite television showed the Qatarileader embracing Gaza's Hamas primeminister Ismail Haniya after crossinginto the Palestinian enclave from theegyptian Sinai. After Palestinian andQatari national anthems were played,the emir walked down a red carpetshaking hands with top Hamasofficials. earlier the emir, who istravelling with his wife Sheikha Mozabint Nasser, landed at el-Arish airportin the egyptian Sinai and was flownby helicopter to the Rafah crossing.He entered Gaza at the head of adelegation which also includes QatariPrime Minister Sheikh Hamad binJassem al-Thani. They were greetedby Haniya and his cabinet, as well asby Salah al-Aruri, a senior member ofthe Islamist movement's exiledleadership. The visit marks the second to the tiny coastal territory bySheikh Hamad.

CAIROafp

AN egyptian court meant torule on Tuesday on thefate of an Islamist-domi-nated panel has insteadreferred the case to a su-

perior court which has already expressedits opposition to the draft charter.

The case has widened a rift betweenthe ruling Islamists and secular-leaningopponents over the role of religion in thetext that led to skirmishes this month dur-ing rival rallies in Cairo. In a brief courtsession, a judge with the Supreme Admin-istrative Court said he had decided torefer the case to the constitutional court,which has said it opposes provisions inthe draft charter regulating the judiciary.

"Down with the Constituent Assem-bly," chanted a dozen opponents of theassembly after the judge read his deci-

sion. No date was set for the verdict onthe constitutionality of the 100-memberConstituent Assembly in charge of writ-ing the constitution, amid a power strug-gle between the judiciary and IslamistPresident Mohamed Morsi.

The Assembly is being challenged overthe mechanism with which its memberswere chosen. It is the second ConstituentAssembly formed since the uprising thattoppled president Hosni Mubarak lastyear, after an Islamist-dominated panelwas dissolved in April for failing to repre-sent all segments of society.

"A constitution is made to last," for-mer Chief Justice Ahmed Medhat el-maraghy recently told AFP. It "shouldhave been made up of legal experts, butthis did not happen." "It has been domi-nated by the Islamists, but the constitu-tion has to be a matter of nationalconsensus." The panel released a draftconstitution earlier this month that was

slammed by human rights groups as fail-ing to secure key freedoms. Some articles,including those defining the powers of thejudiciary and the role of the army, havenot been made available to the public.

Other contentious topics include therole of religion, the status of women andthe scope of freedom of expression andfaith. Article 2 of the draft constitutionstates that "Islam is the religion of theState, Arabic is its official language andthe principles of Islamic Sharia form themain source of legislation." Ultraconser-vative Islamists had asked to replace"the principles of Sharia" by "the rulingsof Sharia" or even just "Sharia."

The article has been at the centre ofdebates because it opens many avenuesfor the interpretation of Sharia.

Mona Makram ebeid, a veteranpolitician who pulled out of the first as-sembly, said the text "fails to protect therights of women and the character of a

civil state." "What is unbelievable is thatall the mistakes of the first assembly arepresent in the second one."

Last week, egypt's highest court criti-cised the panel, saying some of its propos-als put the court back under the authorityof the president. "The proposed text givesthe president the right to appoint thechairman and members of the court," saidcourt chairman Maher al-Beheiry, addingthat this allows the president to interferein its work. "Last year we finally got anamendment that does not allow the pres-ident to name the chairman and membersof the court without the approval of itsgeneral assembly." The criticism cameamid tension between Morsi and the judi-ciary, after he failed last week to removepublic prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mah-mud. Mahmud refused to step down afterMorsi ordered his removal to allay publicanger over acquittals of officials fromMubarak's ousted regime.

Tripoli: lebanese soldiers deploy in the bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighbourhoods where clashes are taking place

between sunni and alawites in the northern city of Tripoli. lebanese troops deployed across the country as more sectarian vi-

olence erupted, stoking fresh fears after a top security official was killed in a bombing blamed on neighbouring syria. AFP

indonesia shuts

christian, buddhist

places of worship

JAKARTAafp

Authorities in Indonesia's only provincethat uses Islamic sharia laws saidTuesday they had closed some Christianplaces of worship and Buddhist templesfollowing pressure from hardliners. Theclosures in Aceh, on the northern tip ofSumatra island, came after complaintsfrom the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI),and are the latest sign of growingreligious intolerance in Muslim-majorityIndonesia. Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal,deputy mayor of provincial capitalBanda Aceh where the closures tookplace, said the official reason was thatthe nine Christian sites and six Buddhisttemples did not have permits. But shetold AFP that they were shut last weekafter complaints from the FPI and that"there had been some tension before wetook a decision." "We do not want anysecurity trouble in Banda Aceh becauseof these illegal activities." The FPIpresents itself as an enforcer of moralsand Islamic laws and sometimesaccompanies police in some parts of thecountry on violent raids on bars andbrothels. Nico Tarigan, who ledChristian services at a two-storey houseuntil its closure last week, said the FPIhad attacked the building in June andsent text message threats. "What we'vedone was simply a religious activity. It'sonly once a week and lasts not morethan two hours," he told AFP. "Theythreatened through phone messagesthat if we continued to hold a Sundayservice, they would ruin our places ofworship," he said. Theophilus Bela,chairman of NGO ChristianCommunication Forum, said that he hadurged the central government in Jakartato intervene. But the interior ministrysignalled it would not step in, with aspokesman saying that "there's noclosure at all as those houses of worshiphave no permit yet".

Egypt court defers fate of constitution

BEIJINGafp

Beijing urged the US presidential candi-dates on Tuesday to refrain from inflamingtensions with China after President BarackObama and challenger Mitt Romneyvowed to get tough with the Asian giant.

Both men vowed to be firm on Chinaat their final presidential debate in Floridaon Monday with Romney reeling off a listof alleged Chinese trade violations.

"US politicians no matter from whatparty should view China's development inan objective and rational light and shoulddo more for China-US mutual trust andcooperation," foreign ministry spokesmanHong Lei said following the debate.

"The sound and steady development ofChina-US relations serve the fundamental

interests of both countries and both peo-ples, it is also conducive to regional andworld peace, stability and prosperity."

During the debate, Romney repeatedhis vow that, if elected, he would declareChina to be a currency manipulator on hisfirst day in office, charging that Beijing haskept its yuan artificially low to flood themarket with cheap exports.

"They're taking jobs. They're stealingour intellectual property, our patents, ourdesigns, our technology, hacking into ourcomputers, counterfeiting our goods,"Romney said.

But despite the tough talk, he dis-counted the possibility of provoking atrade war with Beijing should he win theNovember 6 vote.

Obama pledged cooperation with therising power despite numerous trade dis-

agreements and a gaping US trade deficitwith China -- which stood at nearly $300billion last year.

"China's an adversary and also a po-tential partner in the international com-munity if it's following the rules," Obamasaid at the debate in Boca Raton.

China's state press lashed out at theanti-China tone of the discussions.

"Willing or not, Democratic or Repub-lican, the next US president shall have totone down his get-tough-on-China rheto-ric made along the campaign trail," xin-hua news agency said in a commentary.

It added: "Both US presidential candi-dates vowed at their third and last de-bate... that they would press Beijing to'play by the rules' in shaping their bilateralties. "However, their definition of 'rules ofthe road' is primarily pro-American."

China fires back at US presidential candidates

BAGHDADafp

A car bomb and mortar attacks againstpredominantly Shia neighbourhoods innorth Baghdad killed at least eight peo-ple Tuesday, days before the Muslimholiday of eid.

The attacks, which also wounded atleast a dozen people and damagednearby cars and houses, struck theChikouk and Shuala neighbourhoods ataround 6:45 am (0345 GMT), days afterdeadly violence targeted anothermostly-Shia district in the north of thecapital. Multiple mortars struck Chik-ouk while a car bomb detonated inShuala, an interior ministry officialsaid, putting the overall toll from theattacks at nine dead and 12 wounded.

A medical source said eight peoplewere killed and 25 wounded, with

women and children among the casual-ties. The medic warned that the tollcould rise. Conflicting casualty figuresare common in the chaotic aftermath ofviolence in Iraq. In Shuala, the carbomb badly damaged a wall of onehouse and shattered windows in nearbyhomes and cars, an AFP journalist said.

Security forces cordoned off the siteof the attack, and barred reporters fromfilming or taking photographs.

"We were sleeping, and my daugh-ter and son were preparing to go toschool when the bomb went off," saidAbu Ali the owner of the house that wasworst hit by the car bomb.

"Thank God no one was in thekitchen, and no one in our family wasbadly hurt," he added, clad in a tradi-tional Arab robe, or dishdasha. "Now,we are bringing the materials -- wehave to rebuild the room."

Both neighbourhoods struck aremajority Shiite, while Chikouk is hometo a camp for internally displaced per-sons, mostly Shia Muslims who fledlargely Sunni areas during the worst ofIraq's confessional violence in 2006and 2007. The attacks come after 12people were killed in nationwide vio-lence on Saturday, with the deadliestincidents then also targeting a Shia areaof north Baghdad.

The latest violence comes ahead ofFriday's eid al-Adha holiday. The daysleading up to the annual holiday areoften marked by a spike in violence.

Killings and assault are downsharply across Iraq from their peak in2006 and 2007, but attacks are stillcommon, especially in Baghdad andMosul. At least 250 people have beenkilled as a result of unrest in each of thepast four months.

Baghdad anti-Shia attacks kill at least eight

three dead in new wave of myanmar communal clashesYANGON: At least three people have been killed in a fresh outbreak ofcommunal violence between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar'swestern Rakhine state, a local official said on Tuesday. The clashes laid barefestering tensions between the two communities after widespread violence inJune left dozens dead, tens of thousands displaced and prompted rights groupsto warn of a humanitarian crisis. "We got the information that three people, anethnic Rakhine man and two Muslim women, were killed at Pandeinkonevillage during yesterday's (Monday's) clashes," Hla Thein, Rakhine state chiefjustice told AFP. "It's difficult to control the situation," he said, adding thatthere was no information on the number of wounded. Hundreds of homes werealso torched in the unrest that affected two neighbouring villages, he said, whilepolice said an overnight curfew failed to prevent violence continuing for asecond day. "The conflict between the two communities is happening again thismorning. About 50 houses were burnt down this morning at a village in MraukU town," a police official said requesting anonymity. More than 50,000Muslims and up to 10,000 Buddhists are thought to be displaced acrossRakhine state, where people from both communities were forced to flee asmobs torched entire villages in June's flare-up. afp


Comment10


Between Barack HusseinObama and Willard MittRomney, the latter is the

last person you’d think has any-thing in common with a stereo-typical Muslim. But given the factthat if he were to win Indecision2012 and then croak, the WhiteHouse would have a first, secondand third lady: he is very much inthe Muslim vein of things. If youdo not know what this means,congratulations; you know evenless about the most irrelevant USpresidential election in recent his-tory than I do.

Comparing Obama’s first out-ing to this, his re-election bid,would be like comparing an India-Pakistan cricket match to a Nor-wich-Swansea football match: itwould sound just plain dumb. It isa foregone conclusion that the in-cumbent has about as much inter-est in this race as a beaver wouldhave in the Greek financial crisis.Relying heavily on the “I killedOsama” card is a mistake that theObama camp is surely making. Orso the numbers say.

To be fair, the money bags-Mormon tag team are worthy op-ponents. Money may not buyhappiness, but it does get one adecent shot at winning a popular

election. Ask any Pakistani MNA.However, what is surprising isthat Pakistani politics is not beingoverrun by analogies and parallelsto the US presidential race. Thereare no wordplays around the “Yeswe can” tagline, and the promiseof change, having been success-fully hijacked by Imran Khan, isthe furthest thing from people’sminds right now.

Critics of my viewpoint maysay that Pakistan has a lot ridingon the elections, and will furtherargue that any ‘excitement’ amongPakistanis (or the lack thereof) isirrelevant in the greater scheme ofthings because this is, after all, theUS presidential elections and notthe local body polls in Karachi. Butit is interesting how people are nolonger asking each other, “Did youwatch the town hall last night?”

The facts are quite simple.Obama has abandoned his tallclaims of ‘change we could possi-bly at one time have believed in’and is counting on his successesand the weakness of the GOP tolead him to an easy victory. evenCNN is not doing the complicatedelectoral college projections thatwere staple fare ahead of the 2008elections. Add to that a lacklustreround of debates on abstract is-

sues between two unimpressivecandidates and this officially be-comes a snoozefest.

From a purely Pakistani per-spective, there is not going to be achange. Romney overtly endorsedObama’s rocky relationship withour fair backwater, going so far asto say that he “understands” theincumbent’s frustration with itsmost unwilling of allies. This, un-fortunately, is true. We are, forbetter or for worse, one of the fewcountries that hate the UnitedStates with a vengeance, yet per-sist on calling ourselves ‘allies’.Being in the same list as SaudiArabia isn’t really something to beproud of.

On everything from drone at-tacks and economic aid to travelrestrictions and broader diplo-

matic relations, both candidatesseem to be reading from the sameplaybook. Gone are the days whenClinton and Bush had polarizingviews and approaches to dealingwith Pakistan. Washington todayhas even less context about Islam-abad and the things it does thanany of their predecessors. And thisis not without reason. The onlyway to achieve nuance is throughcontinued engagement at a peer-to-peer level. However, the US isincreasingly treating Pakistan asan academic anomaly, somethingwhich is to be studied, not en-gaged with. Most of the folks up inDC would much rather ask aca-demics what to do with Pakistanrather than asking Pakistanis. Andto be fair, we should give them adose of their own medicine.

I hope you understand thatmy lack of grasp (or rather, an un-willingness to grasp) the biggerpicture in the case of Indecision2012 stems not from ignorancebut indifference. The picture isnot changing, only the frame.Come November, we’re just gonnahave another guy who refuses tocome to Pakistan because of “se-curity concerns” and will probablybe making the pilgrimage to Delhithree or more times during thecourse of his term. Obama wastoothless when it came to tensionin the subcontinent and from thelooks of things Romney is going tobe more of the same, only moreovertly pro-India. He already hashis eyes on our “100 plus” nuclearweapons stockpile and has madeit clear that he’s still not con-vinced that the democraticallyelected civilians are fully in chargeof things.

Given the state of the idioc-racy, I don’t think we should getour hopes up. It’s not even a ques-tion of the lesser evil. More likethe lesser dumbass. And that’s notgood.

Follow @mightyobvious onTwitter for more incoherence in140 characters or less

IdiocracyMighty obviousBy Syed Hassan Belal Zaidi

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

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

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

back where we started from

abbottabad commision

After spending a year and a half and missing severaldeadlines, the five-member Abbottabad Commissionavowedly submitted its report to the government lastweek. The Pakistani media has, however, been kept in

the dark about the contents of the report. Whatever little oneknows about its contents is through foreign press, in this casethe British newspaper The Telegraph. The commission hasreportedly exonerated the government, intelligence agencies andarmy of any shortcoming vis a vis the presence of Bin Laden inthe high security cantonment city and of the successfuloperation by the US Navy SeALs. A senior government sourcetold The Telegraph correspondent that they would find fewanswers in the commission’s report. “At the end of the day itreally doesn’t tell us much more than we already knew.”

For many the Abbottabad Commission has been a thoroughdisappointment. It wasted much time on unrelated matters likequeries regarding why so many visas were issued to the USnationals. This rightly prompted the question whether OBL hadentered Pakistan on a valid visa. The commission issued calls tounconcerned people including Pakistans High Commissioner inLondon for no rhyme or reason. The commission spent moretime considering infringements of Pakistan’s sovereignty by theUS SeALs than probing how they managed to sneak into thetown, completed their mission successfully in 40 minutes, andreturned safely to their base. After all the presence of the chiefof the Al-Qaeda on Pakistani soil was itself an infringement ofthe country’s sovereignty. The issue of how it was made possiblewas equally important. If the security agencies were reallyperforming their duties satisfactorily, how could the mostwanted man in the world, whose pictures were flashed for yearson international media, manage to stay in the country, safelytravelling with his large family from place to place, finallylanding in the vicinity of Kakul Academy and remainundetected all this time?

There is a need on the part of the government to urgentlymake the report public. Unless this is done people would haveto rely on stories in the foreign media and on hearsay to drawconclusions and express views. There are already comments inthe Western media suggesting that the report is just a cover up.It was a bad decision by ZAB and the governments that tookover after him to keep the Hammod-ur-Rehman CommissionReport classified. It was finally carried by an Indian journal inAugust 2000, subsequently leading a Pakistani daily to publishit the day after. Hopefully this would not happen this time.

Lord of the wringnews travels, and never faster than when by word of mouth

The english writer G K Chester-ton famously dismissed journal-ism as saying ‘Lord Jones isdead’ to those who had no ideathat Lord Jones was alive. But

journalists do become a trifle more usefulwhen they find out what precisely LordJones has been up to, particularly if LadyJones has been caught with her hand in thecharity cash box.

Lord Salman Khurshid, doubly enno-bled by an old stint at Oxford, dislikes badnews as much as any mere mortal; but hetruly hates the messenger. Threats are thedefault position of those who have forgottenthe difference between authority and au-thoritarianism. When the dust of bluster athis press conference on 14 October had set-tled down, Lord Salman had a simple mes-sage for Aajtak, the news channel whichbroke the story that made him front pagenews: ‘Off with your head!’ But pesky re-porters know how to keep their heads, evenwhen all around them others are losingtheir cool.

Such Lords like to believe that nastyjournalists are impelled by malice. The pri-mary motivation is rather less dramatic, ifmore dangerous: curiosity. Curiosity is abasic and rewarding human virtue, the inspi-ration for both the introvert in the laboratoryas well as the extrovert searching throughthe topography of an arctic pole. It is entirelyappropriate that NASA named its Marsrobot Curiosity. It is also the primary reasonwhy citizens read newspapers and watch tel-evision. Yes, curiosity does occasionally killthe cat, and there are occasions when a jour-nalist working the ledge leans too far, loseshis balance and lands in a mess. But forevery fatal mistake there are 99 success sto-ries. The expose of Salman Khurshid was anexcellent example of journalists doing their

job, untroubled by fear of revenge.Perhaps Salman Khurshid should be

more worried by his real friends in politicsrather than imagined foes in journalism.His senior Cabinet colleague and partner onthe UP election campaign, Beni PrasadVerma, a man who has clearly seen moneyarrive and depart, raised a piquant ques-tion: why would someone so senior in gov-ernment think of stealing a mere Rs 71lakhs? It is a very good question. When talkof corruption under the present govern-ment swirls into hundreds of thousands ofcrores, why pick up petty cash? Khurshid isnot a junior official in a minor Union terri-tory; he is the Union Minister for Law, withan Oxford degree. But the curious do havea different way of looking at facts. How doyou measure the depth of an iceberg unlessyou have done due diligence on the tip?

The Congress seems to have adoptedtwo techniques to deflect bad news: bluffand aggression, as in Khurshid’s case; andself-pity, laced with threats against mediaand officials, as in the case of Robert Vadra.Perhaps the nadir came when DigvijaySingh made the preposterous suggestionthat families of the powerful should be keptoutside the corruption debate.

It did bring to mind the fact that Vadrais not the only model for a son-in-law.Jawaharlal Nehru had a son-in-law as well.His name was Feroze Gandhi, and it is hissurname that is being used by the mostpowerful ruling family in the country. Fer-oze was husband of Indira and a Member ofParliament at a time when Jawaharlal’spersonal power was unquestioned. Ferozedid not seek to enrich himself with sordidland deals, encouraged by a kindly wifewearing a beatific smile, while the primeminister pretended that nothing had hap-

pened. One the other hand, Feroze Gandhias MP exposed one of the major financialscandals in the Nehru government. Bytoday’s standards, of course, the amount ofmoney involved was pitiable.

There are many in the establishmentwho believe that news can be suppressed,and that if no one knows the story, it hasnot happened. You can shield informationup to a point, but not beyond it. The oldestand most revered Indian epic, Ramayana,poses a question that it does not quite an-swer: how did a dhobi in Ayodhya knowthat there were rumours about Sita inLanka? News travels, and never faster thanwhen by word of mouth. The Lord of Indiadid not threaten the dhobi, even when heknew the dhobi was wrong, because he un-derstood that the credibility of his thronelay in his ability to eliminate both appre-hension and misapprehension with reasonand evidence. That dhobi is nameless. Buthe cannot be eliminated from history be-cause he questioned power, and then wentback to washing clothes.

India is greater than its governments.India has produced an astonishing citizens’revolution to challenge the passage ofpower into the grasp of pygmies. each crisispoint produces the hitherto unknown revo-lutionary who takes a national mission for-ward. Ashok Khemka, the Haryana IASofficer who further exposed Vadra’s landdeals in Haryana, has just joined a growinglist of heroes who believe that if they dotheir honest duty, our nation will be safe.

The columnist is editor of The SundayGuardian, published from Delhi, India onSunday, published from London andEditorial Director, India Today andHeadlines Today.

Third eyeBy M J Akbar

obama was toothless when it came to

tension in the subcontinent and from

the looks of things romney is going to

be more of the same, only more

overtly pro-india.

We are one of the few countries that hate the us with a vengeance, yet persist on calling ourselves ‘allies’


Comment 11


The recently concluded ‘peacemarch’ to tribal areas by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan wasaimed to put a halt on the nine-year-oldUS drone campaign in Waziristan re-gion. An anti-drone group CODePINKthat includes 32 Americans also joinedImran Khan’s convoy in Pakistan toprotest the civilian deaths that occur inthe aerial strikes against Taliban fight-ers – calling the attacks “barbaric as-sassinations”. Reacting on the droneattacks, Marion Birch, director ofMeDACT, an NGO, believes thatdrones are not only unacceptable froma human, moral and legal point of view,they are traumatising families and

damaging the chances of peace.Nonetheless, the US remains oblivi-

ous from all these protests/demonstra-tions and continues its policy of dealingterrorism with military means only bysending drones on hapless citizens.Drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areasare one of the contentious issues in thecurrent challenges between Pakistanand the US. Those living under droneshave to face constant worry that adeadly strike may be fired at any mo-ment, inflicting deep-rooted feeling ofhelplessness coupled with an inabilityto protect themselves from this men-ace. As the drones are capable of strik-ing the same target again and again,

therefore, its presence terrorizes men,women, and children, giving rise toanxiety and psychological traumaamong civilian communities. The dailyroutine life have been grossly dis-turbed, children are scared to go toschools, whereas residents prefer to re-main inside their homes for countlesshours. The families are apprehensive togather at funerals for innocent peopleerroneously killed in earlier dronestrikes. The NGOs involved in humani-tarian relief and rescue efforts had todelay assistance by many hours.

The main objective of the anti-wargroups is to throw a spotlight on the USdrone attacks strategy, which Pakistan

oppose as violations of the country’ssovereignty that often kill civilians. Inlight of serious concerns, Washingtonmust conduct a fundamental re-evalua-tion of current targeted killing prac-tices, taking into account all availableevidence as well as the concerns of vari-ous stakeholders of the area.

The US must recognize how inhu-mane and counterproductive thedrones are. Besides, violating the codeof ethic encourages countries to repli-cate US practices, it makes Americansvulnerable. That alone is reason enoughto rethink the drone throwing policy.

IMRAN SAEEDIslamabad

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to

Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-ShaareyFatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected].

Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

the nlc scamAS a part of the on-going cleansing drive

initiated by the media to unearth unholy doing inthe civil society, even some scams such as, PakistanSteel Mill’s Rs 22 billion scam, NICL case,corruption in Pakistan International Airlines andPakistan Railways, Hajj corruption case, NATOcontainers’ case, rental power projects and theephedrine quota case, have been made public. Morerecently, a stage is set against Maj Gen KhalidZaheer, Lt Gen Khalid Munir and Lt Gen AfzalMuzzafar for their involvement in the NationalLogistic Cell (NLC) scandal in 2008. Better late,then never. It goes to the army’s credit that insteadof hushing the scandal up, it ordered investigationsand recording of the Summary of evidence (Soe).All the three general officers are facing court martialafter being recalled into service. However, theobstructionists are creating misperceptions aboutthe good offices of armed forces. They opined thatPakistan Army will hush up to save the sacred cow.Nonetheless, by court martialing the accusedofficers, the army has dispelled all the bickering andspeculations engulfing the country. The case is subjudice, while GHQ is evaluating evidences of the case.

As the new standard of corruption has gnawedat the innards of Pakistani civility, it has alsopenetrated inside the iron-clad defenses of thePakistan armed forces. Resultantly, a few, at thevery top, have faltered and fallen prey to greed. Towhat extent has much-admired image of Pakistan’sarmed forces – as a highly disciplined, honest,responsible and professional body, turned intoabyss? The defenders of Pakistan’s frontiers takepride in boasting that the service in Pakistan armedforces is not merely a job, but it is a profession thatdemands sacrifice of their lives for the sake of theirmotherland. Any harm to them will invariably inflicta heavy blow to the sovereignty of the country. If weas civilians do not respect the institution of military,we ought not to complain if we are not adequatelydefended from our adversaries in the war. And, if wereally want to condemn corruption, then the civilsociety will have to relegate the recognition ofcorruption, only to be followed by the militaryculture – inviting a cultural change in the society.

MOHSIN MIRZAIslamabad

President Zardari’s speechOne should not be much surprised by the presi-

dent Zardari’s speech of 21 Oct wherein he expressedhis hopelessness in forging a consensus with opposi-tion parties on a military operation in North Waziris-tan. Just a few days back, the ruling party tried to tablea resolution in the parliament to get consent on NorthWaziristan operation but had to back out as opposi-tion parties were not ready to support the same. He re-gretted the increased polarization in the society whichhas heavily affected the war on religious militancy.

One example is murder of Punjab governorSalmaan Taseer whose murderer was later garlandedby lawyers. The government couldn’t get any promi-nent lawyer to pursue the murder case on behalf of de-ceased governor’s family, while a former Chief Justiceof Lahore High Court offered his services to defend thegovernor’s murderer. Take the case of attempted mur-der of Malala YousifZai; after reluctantly condemningthe brutal attack, several mainstream political-reli-gious leaders started confusing an already disjointednation – some were of the opinion that it’s work ofAmerican agents as no Muslim Jihadi can do this,some questioned why so much focus on Malala, whynot other girls killed in attacks, some started linking itwith drone attacks. Taking such distorted stand, theywere in a way supporting the militants.

Yes, there is polarization in the society which isdivided among religious, ultra-religious and liberalpeople. Yes several of ultra-religious militants arearmed to the teeth ready to kill anyone, and thenthere are people whose inaction or silence is in away supporting the militants. But should we assumethat we have entered in a street with dead end andmilitancy is our way of life. It is duty of all theliberal forces in Pakistan, be it PPP, ANP or MQM,and civil society not to surrender for fear of life. IfPakistan has to survive, we have to defeat the evilforces of dark, otherwise sacrifices of 40,000civilians and military personnel will go waste.

Yesterday it was Salmaan Taseer, today it isMalala, tomorrow it could be any party leader asmilitants lump all the liberal and right-wing partiesas agents of the West. Time is running out; if wedon’t agree to take the job, someone else will do onour behalf. And in return we will get only regrets.

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arabia

manzoor Watto in PunjabHow right was Javed Hashmi, a politician who

has been fighting against the establishment and astaunch supporter of democracy in Pakistan, whenhe said that in order to understand Zardari, onemust have a PhD in politics. By nominating MianManzoor Watto the president of PPP for centralPunjab and Tanvir Kaira as the general secretary, aveteran political matchmaker and a new generationjiyala of PPP, Asif Zardari has sought a balance toachieve his ultimate objective of retaking the centralPunjab from Sharif brothers, who have been rulingthe largest province, with 62 percent of totalpopulation and has a key role in army,establishment, bureaucracy and judiciary.

Mr Watto was received by a large number of PPPworker when he arrived at Lahore the other day.While addressing the party workers, he demandedthat Sharif brothers should resign on moral groundsfrom politics after the Supreme Court verdict asboth brothers received money from the ISI to stopthe PPP from coming into power in 1990. Mr Wattoalso criticised CM Punjab’s mega Lahore Rapid BusTransit Project costing about 75 billion rupeeswhich is not going to solve the public transportproblem of the city. Mr Watto said that this amountshould have been used to repair the roads in all thedistricts of Punjab which were in deplorableconditions. He asked the PPP workers to trust him.Although he had only joined the PPP five years ago,he would win the next elections for PPP to form itsgovernment in Punjab.

The students of politics and political analystsknow that Punjab politics is based on castes, personalcontacts and horse trading. Mr Watto is a master ofmaking allies and satisfying the needs of candidatesof rural Punjab. He has been the speaker of PunjabAssembly and the chief minister Punjab and knowsthe worth of each politician in Punjab. Mr Zardari, byappointing Mr Watto and making alliance with thePML-Q, has divided the Muslim Leagues. The politicsof ideology is no more important than winning theelections. With Imran Khan’s PTI losing popularitydue to his ambiguous stand against the PakistanTehrik-e-Taliban, the election of 2013 is becoming areal political battle for Takht-e-Punjab.

S T HUSSAINLahore

the anti-drone campaign

Our standardsThere is a standard for all jobs and

responsibilities. A certain person withcertain qualifications is fit to be a teacher,or an administrator or an accountant. Acertain person with such skills is sup-posed to be engine driver or a bus driver.A certain person with certain number ofhours or years of experience is supposedto be a pilot of an aircraft. In most caseswe make no compromises. There are nor-mally maximum and minimum limits.

Police report is usually a part of pre-qualification. But it is amazing that wehave no standards fixed to be an MNA orMPA or Senator in our country. These leg-islators are supposed to make laws, amendconstitution, reframe legal network, repre-sent Pakistan abroad, get a seat in the cab-inet, debate on threats to the country, anddiscuss broad outline of foreign policy andalliances. Instead, most of what we get tosee on TV is sick and uneducated people.

Above all, they are not accountable toanyone for anything. This dichotomy isfunny. Why can’t eCP reframe andpublish prequalification charter? Whycan’t eCP verify each fact at the veryoutset? Why can’t we get to know theirassets before and after elections and havethem verified and audited? Why can’t wecheck their nationalities?

In other words, why can’t we evolve aproper system of eligibility for high of-fices? If we start doing this, 50 percent ofthe problems in our country will be overin one day. The remaining 50 percent willget solved when we have able-minded andserious legislators for five-year tenure.

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

Poverty strikesSargodha: ‘Sumaira, 6, was aspirant

of new cloth for eid. The poor father wasnot able to afford and after somearguments with his wife he left the home,while the mother strangulated Sumaira’.

Sumaira was anxious to be seen inher new clothes like her friends, nomoney was father’s majboori, in allprobability the mother suffered frompoverty-stricken extremist attitude.

Z A KAZMIKarachi



12

no more action for Speilberg?

HE is credited for big-budget sci-fi and

adventure movies like “jaws” and the

“Indiana jones” franchise, but filmmaker

Steven Speilberg wants to turn his back to the

action genre for now. The oscar-winning filmmaker

insists he has no interest in directing another high-

octane blockbuster anytime soon, reports

contactmusic.com. His latest movie “Lincoln”,

about former US president Abraham Lincoln, has

no big action sequences or special effects. The

director revealed on TV show “60 Minutes” that

that’s the reason why he was attracted to the

project. “I knew I could do the action in my sleep

at this point in my career. In my life, the action

doesn’t hold any... it doesn’t attract me anymore,”

said Speilberg. courTesy TT

ajay Devgn now chargesRs 1 crore per day

AjAy Devgn has reportedly increased his price

to rs. 1 crore rupees per day. The 43-year-

old actor, who is on cloud nine these days

after the astonishing success of his latest comedy Bol

Bachchan, demanded rs. 7 crore from a leading

producer-director who wants Devgn for a 7-day

shooting for a cameo. “I was told he would charge

me rs. 7 crores, 1 crore per day. That’s Ajay’s new

price range. He doesn’t charge for the entire film. He

now takes home his remuneration on a day-to-day

basis,” the director-producer said. courTesy HT

‘Paranormal activity 4’tops n america box office

Horror flick “Paranormal Activity 4” opened

atop the North American box office this

weekend, while political thriller “Argo” held

onto second place, industry figures showed Monday.

The fourth installment in the found-footage franchise

raked in $29 million to lead the top 10, while several

other pre-Halloween spooky movies also did well,

according to box office tracker Exhibitor relations.

Ben Affleck’s “Argo,” which earned $16.4 million,

tells the true story of how a CIA agent managed to

rescue six Americans who had escaped the embassy

in Tehran in 1979 and taken shelter at the Canadian

ambassador’s residence. Last week’s top earner

“Taken 2” — Liam Neeson’s return as ex-CIA agent

Bryan Mills — was pushed down to the number three

spot, earning $13.3 million in its third weekend. In

fourth place was animated comedy “Hotel

Transylvania,” in which monsters become Dracula’s

guests, with $13 million in ticket sales. afp

KARACHI: Models presenting creations by Pakistani designerson the second day of the Pakistan Fashion Week. AFP

JOSH, english Title “Against The Grain”is the only Pakistani film to be show-cased at the 14th Mumbai Film Fest thisyear, making it the first fiction film infive years to make it to one of the re-

gion’s most prestigious film festivals. Josh is thebrainchild of Iram Parveen Bilal, a Pakistani filmmaker who dedicated the last 4 years of her life toworking on her debut feature film.

“Josh is a story of what happens when you findyour world turned upside down and you want totake control of your life again,” said Iram ParveenBilal, who is currently in Mumbai for the worldpremiere of her film. “What happens when youwant your life to be much bigger than yourself andabout others. It is a story of hope, of trying, of re-demption. It is a story of the youth, of Pakistan, ofthe pain, the pleasure and the spirit of unity andindependence. Ultimately, if I were to pick onething, it is about “never giving up”.”

Josh, which is already creating waves both inPakistan and across the border, was recently men-tioned in Hollywood’s Variety and IndieWire forbeing one of only 2 fiction films to be granted theprestigious Women In Film Finishing Fund. Thefilm has also been mentored by Oscar nominatedHany Abu Assad.

The film has a stellar cast, with some of themost talented and renowned actors and actressesstarring in it. Describing the casting process, IramParveen Bilal said: “We begun the casting processa year and a half before the shoot. Numerous meet-ings, call back and interviews led us to a cast that Ithink outdid anything I could have written and di-rected for this film. They are amazing and espe-cially as an ensemble with the killer talentedAamina Sheikh at the helm,” said the young direc-tor, who hopes to lock distribution deals for thisfilm both in Pakistan and internationally.

Aamina Sheikh, who is one of the most visiblefaces of stardom in Pakistan, has made her pres-ence felt through captivating roles in TV, film andmodeling stints. In this film, she plays the role ofFatima, a committed schoolteacher living the cos-mopolitan high life in Karachi, who is devastatedwhen her nanny, Nusrat, inexplicably disappears.Though her friends and family beg her not to dis-turb the status quo and confront the powerful feu-dals in Nusrat’s village, Fatima travels there toinvestigate. Will the trials and tribulations deterFatima’s resolve? Will the quest challenge an al-ready complicated romantic relationship? What allshall Fatima have to sacrifice in the search for an-swers?

Pakistani film Josh screens at the 14th Mumbai Film Festival

James Franco datingAShlEy BEnSon?

‘127 Hours’ star James Franco is reportedlydating model-actress Ashley Benson. The 34-year-oldactor began romancing the ‘Pretty Little Liars’ beautylast month and the pair are smitten with each other,reported New York Post online. “They have beenseeing each other for a little over a month, butthings are going well,” a source said. Last year,Franco split from his long-term girlfriend AhnaO`Reilly after dating for five years. He said thatthe long-distance had become too much for themas he was studying english at Yale University, inNew Haven, Connecticut, while she stayed in LosAngeles. “That relationship lasted about four orfive years. We`d been living together in LA then Icame to New York to go to school for two years.Then I signed up for more school at Yale. I thinkthat was it for her,” he had said. The Hollywoodstar also said that he didn`t have much luck withgirls when he was growing up because he was soshy. “I think girls liked me, but I was awkward,shy and emotionally immature, so I didn`t have aton of girlfriends. I had short-term relationshipsand always got dumped, I think because I was tooslow for them,” he added. neWs desK

`Great expectations`role stunned Helenabonham CarterActress Helena Bonham Carter says she wasstunned when she was offered the role of Miss

Havisham in a film adaptation of CharlesDickens` classic ‘Great expectations’. The45-year-old said she had reservations whenshe was approached by the film`s director,Mike Newell, because she thought she wastoo young to play the bitter spinster,reported BBC online. “My first reactionwas, `Am I that old?`... (Newell) said ifyou go back to the the book and work outthe mathematics she is only 56. I said`Yeah but I`m 45`, and he said it spansfrom age 27 to 56 - and I thought what anoriginal idea,” she said. The coming of agenovel, set in the early to mid 19th century,depicts the growth and personaldevelopment of an orphan named Pip.Miss Havisham, an iconic character in

english literature, is depicted as a bitter, oldspinster, who is always dressed in a decayingwedding gown after being ditched by herlover on her wedding day. neWs desK



13

bhansali and KJo back tobeing friends?

NoT many people know filmmakers Sanjay Leela

Bhansali and Karan johar have always made it a

point to watch each other’s films, come what

may. And while this may not be a big deal for Karan

who watches a majority of new releases, for Sanjay,

who hardly ever watches movies, making the trip to a

suburban theatre to see Karan’s latest film was no mean

feat. on Saturday afternoon, a day after Karan’s

Student of the year hit theatres, onlookers at this

multiplex were surprised to see Sanjay and Karan,

directors who’ve otherwise never missed an opportunity

to take pot shots at each other, greet and hug each

other warmly. Apparently, Sanjay was there at the

multiplex to catch a show of SoTy. And Karan was

theatre-hopping the same day to check out the

audience’ response to his film. An eyewitness told ToI,

“Karan was very touched to see the reclusive Sanjay at

the theatre watching his film. They met very warmly

and spoke about Student of the year.” neWs desK

Wedding was `magical` forJustin Timberlake

For justin Timberlake, his marriage ceremony with

actress jessica Biel was “magical”. “It was magical,”

Timberlake, 31, told People magazine in an exclusive

interview. “It was an unforgettable evening,” he added.

They tied the knot friday at the Borgo Egnazia resort in

Puglia, Italy, in the presence of close friends and family. “It

was a fantasy,” said Biel. Italy happened to be a special

location for the couple partly because of their love for its

food and wine. It served as the perfect backdrop for the

festivities. A day before the wedding, the couple hosted a

party for guests who hung out around open fires and dined

on fresh-made cheese, local olives and wine. The night

before, the group celebrated at a beach where they watched

fireworks and listened to live music. neWs desK

aamir Khan refuses Rs 150crore deal; goes the social way

If there is anyone apart from Salman Khan in

Bollywood to actively indulge in social

campaigning, it’s his dear friend and contemporary

Aamir Khan. The ‘perfectionist’ star of Hindi cinema,

who was recently honoured for his social programme

‘Satyamev jayate’ by the National Commission for

Scheduled Castes, has apparently refused to accept a

whopping rs 150 crore endorsement deal. Talking to a

tabloid, a source said, “Aamir is now going for a

complete image makeover and wants to go the social

way. He wants to get involved with social causes only.”

Even the actor confirmed the news and said, “I have

cancelled all my endorsement deals.” And reportedly,

Aamir has started work for the second season of his

super-hit TV show ‘Satyamev jayate’. The actor is

currently on Haj pilgrimage with his mother. neWs desK

AC-TReSSN e h aD h u -

pia, who was ap-preciated for herconfident perform-

ance in ‘I M 24’ israring to be seen on

the marquee onceagain in ‘Rush’.

WHAT IS SPEcIALABOUT YOUR NEWFILM WITHEMRAAN HASHMI,‘RUSH’?

The film is a story of Sam,who is a crime reporter.He goes through a lot ofups and downs in his ca-reer. The character I playis named Liza who is com-pletely responsible for the

ups and downs in Sam’s life. She works for a mediatycoon and knows her job really well. Liza has theability to use her mind and body to achieve what-ever she wants to. The best thing is that she doesin the film is to hire Sam to work as a crime re-porter. The movie shows how far emraan’s char-acter Sam is used by those above him for theirselfish motives and how far Sam is able to resistthe temptations. Basically, our film is about sen-sationalising. We are trying to demarcate news andsensationalism through this film. We have raiseda question on media’s accountability by way of‘Rush’.

YOU DID A LOT OF cOMMERcIAL FILMSWHEN YOU ENTERED BOLLYWOOD.BUT IN THE LAST FEW YEARS YOUWERE SEEN DOING A LOT OF OFF-BEATFILMS AS WELL SUcH AS ‘I M 24’ETcETERA. SO, IS THAT A DELIBERATESTEP TO cHANGE YOUR IMAGE TO ANON-cOMMERcIAL HEROINE? IF YES,THEN WHY?

No, there is no deliberate step from my end.Whether the audience reacts or not is entirely up

to them. I am not a brooding actor who sits at homeand plans the next role she would do. I don’t havea line of producers and directors standing outsidemy home. I have to choose the best among thescripts that I get. And if I am inclined towards thosescripts then it is just like any another phase in mylife. I am enjoying doing cool and idealistic films.Now, I have a film like ‘Rush’ which is extremelydear to me and after that I have to shoot for ‘Ungli’.

YOU ARE vISIBLE AT A LOT OF EvENTS,BASHES AND BRAND PROMOTIONSTHESE DAYS MORE THAN EvER. DOESTHAT HELP IN STAYING IN NEWS INTHE ABSENcE OF A GOOD FILM ROLE?Well, if you are not a newsmaker then nobody isgoing to pay you to come to an event or hire you.If you are consequential enough to sell a product,then clearly you are doing something right. So,there is nothing wrong in being at an event.

WHEN cAN WE SEE NEHA DHUPIATYING THE kNOT?

Tying the knot! (Laughs) When Salman (Khan)does. neWs desK

I will tie the knot when Salman Khan does: neha Dhupia

Lindsay Lohan escapesprosecution in recenthit-and-run case Lindsay Lohan, who was accused of clipping a manwith her car outside a New York nightclub, will notbe facing any charges for the accident, it has beenrevealed. The 26-year-old actress had been due tomake her first court appearance in the case onTuesday, but the Manhattan district attorney’soffice said that there is no court date scheduled atany point regarding her case, Fox News reported.Lohan’s publicist Steve Honig said the allegationsproved to be “a big nothing,” as he’d said from thestart. The ‘Mean Girls’ starwas arrested on a chargeof leaving an accidentscene. Restaurantworker Jose Rodriguezsaid that her Porschehurt his knee in the hitand run accident lastmonth. Grainysurveillance footagereleased by the policeshowed Lohan’s car turningas Rodriguez passed.Blurring to concealwitnesses’ facespartially obscuredthe accident scene.neWs desK

She has been unable to get her life back on tracksince toyboy Ashton cheated with a San Diegoparty girl less than half her age in Septemberlast year. The actress has tried everything. Shehas sought advice from MICHAeL JACKSON’sformer spiritual guru Deepak Chopra and shehas partied in nightclubs with a young showbizcrowd including Zac efron. She has even hit thelaughing gas. That sorry episode in January in-famously ended up with Demi in hospital andthen rehab after collapsing, high on nitrousoxide. Her search for happiness has nowreached Mexico, where she found a supernatu-

ral healer who she is con-vinced can save her.

And a pal of theGhost star re-vealed: “Demi isdesperate and willtry anything to be happyagain. “She started seeing aspiritual healer from Mexicowho has been trying tohelp her get over the

heartbreak and suffering. “She’s been flying herinto LA for meetings and it’s already costing hera fortune. She’s now thinking of moving herfrom Mexico to Los Angeles so she can see herat all times.” Demi’s recovery has not been

helped by the fact Ashtonmoved on from their

six-year marriage soquickly with actressMILA KUNIS. neWs

desK

demi Moore wants spiritualhealer to cope her divorce


14Infotainment


Male beluga whale mimicshuman speech

IT could be the muffled sound of singing in theshower or that sing-songy indecipherablevoice from the Muppets’ Swedish Chef.

Surprisingly, scientists said the audio theycaptured was a whale imitating people. In fact, thewhale song sounded so eerily human that diversinitially thought it was a human voice. Handlers atthe National Marine Mammal Foundation in SanDiego heard mumbling in 1984 coming from a tankcontaining whales and dolphins that sounded liketwo people chatting far away.It wasn’t until one day, after a diver surfaced fromthe tank and asked, “Who told me to get out?” didresearchers realize the garble came from a captivemale Beluga whale. For several years, theyrecorded its spontaneous sounds while it wasunderwater and when it surfaced. The study is notthe first time a whale has sounded human.Scientists who have studied sounds of white whalesin the wild sometimes heard what sounded likeshouting children. Caretakers at the VancouverAquarium in Canada previously said they heardone of the white whales say its name. agencies

Aeroplane turned intokindergarten in Georgia

Aman has created a top flight playschool inRustavi, Georgia out of a retired Yakovlev 42plane. Headmaster Gari Chapidze brought

the old plane from Tbilisi airport for an unspecifiedsum and arranged for it to be transported toRustavi. The refurbishment took several monthsand Mr Chapidze says he was concerned at first thatpeople would not take to the idea, but the uniqueplaypen has become a hit with the parents too. Staff hope that in addition to being a fun place fullof knobs to turn and buttons to push, playing onthe aircraft will help children develop technically.The kindergarten currently has 20 children, butmany more have been added to the waiting listsince the arrival of the aircraft. courTesy TT

Japan teachers fined forsneaky smoking

FIVe teachers in Japan who sneaked offschool grounds for a crafty cigarette inbetween lessons have been hit with hefty

fines, officials said Tuesday. education boardbosses docked up to 500,000 yen ($6,300) fromeach of the five after they were caught smokingoutside school gates during the working day. Thefive, who all work in the western city of Osaka, fellfoul of a 2008 diktat by then-prefectural governorToru Hashimoto, who imposed a total ban onlighting-up at all schools run by theauthority. Smoking is still commonplace inJapanese bars and restaurants, unlike inmany other developed countries. Butthere are by-laws banning tobacco onstreets, on railway platforms and at bus-stops. While cigarette packets carrymandatory warnings of the health risksand there are public informationcampaigns, they are not as prominent asin other rich countries and thepercentage of Japanese who smoke is

comparatively high. afp

Fresh Windows 8, butwhere’s the start button?

over 1000 Android appsleak personal info,banking details: Study

Millions of people across the globe areusing ‘vulnerable’ Android apps, which areleaking users’ personal data, a newresearch has said. The new study, whichtested the 13,500 most popular free appsfrom the Google Play Store, found that1074, almost eight per cent, used incorrector inadequate coding. Researchers at theLeibniz University of Hannover and thePhilipps University of Marburg, both inGermany, tried to hack a sample of 100 ofthe vulnerable apps. According to theBrisbane Times, they could easily exploit41, of which there are at least 39.5 millionusers worldwide. “We could gather bankaccount information, payment credentialsfor PayPal, American express and others,”the study said. “Facebook, email and cloudstorage credentials and messages wereleaked, access to IP cameras was gainedand control channels for apps and remoteservers could be subverted,” it added.According to the report, the researchersused a Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphonerunning on Android 4.0 (Ice CreamSandwich) to carry out the tests. Theresearchers created a fake Wi-Fi hot spot andmounted an attack that spied on data sentand received by the apps. They were able tocapture log-in details for online banking,social media, email services and corporatenetworks, and even disable securitysoftware, the report said. neWs desK

exam cheats in Bangladeshhave been caught receiving an-swers on mobile phones dis-guised as wrist watches, policesaid on Tuesday after busting acriminal racket in Dhaka. Offi-cers paraded ten hand-cuffedmasterminds behind the

scheme along with several of theelectronic devices that had beenused in university admissionexams and in job applicationtests. The criminal organisersbribed teachers or education of-ficials to get the questionsshortly before the tests, and

then sent the answers via textmessage to students inside theexam hall, police said. “A stu-dent in a test for a top universityor recruitment to a bank or gov-ernment office would get an-swers through this hi-techdevice after paying 120,000taka ($1,500) or more,” deputypolice commissioner MoshiurRahman told AFP. The gangleaders told police they hadbrought 120 pieces of the tai-lor-made device from Chinaand has been renting them outsince 2009. “Many teachersand officials are on their pay-roll. Once they get the test pa-pers, experts would solve thequestions in minutes and thensend them to clients,” he said.Mobile phones are banned inexam halls in Bangladesh, butwatches are allowed. afp

Bangladesh exam answers sent to students’ ‘watches’

MANy of the familiar sign-

posts from PCs of yore

are gone in Microsoft’s

new software, Windows

8, like the Start button

for getting to programs and the drop-down

menus that list their functions. It took Mr.

McCarthy several minutes just to figure out

how to compose an e-mail message in Win-

dows 8, which has a stripped-down look

and on-screen buttons that at times resem-

ble the runic assembly instructions for Ikea

furniture. “It made me feel like the biggest

amateur computer user ever,” said Mr. Mc-

Carthy, 59, a copywriter in New york. Win-

dows, which has more than a billion users

around the world, is getting a radical

makeover, a rare move for a product with

such vast reach. The new design is likely to

cause some head-scratching for those who

buy the latest machines when Windows 8

goes on sale this Friday.

To Microsoft and early fans of Windows

8, the software is a fresh, bold reinvention

of the operating system for an era of touch-

screen devices like the iPad, which are re-

shaping computing. Microsoft needs the

software to succeed so it can restore some

of its fading relevance after years of watch-

ing the likes of Apple and Google outflank it

in the mobile market. To its detractors,

though, Windows 8 is a renovation gone

wrong, one that will needlessly force people

to relearn how they use a device every bit as

common as a microwave oven. Mr. Ludwig

said Microsoft’s strategy was risky, but it

had to do something to improve its chances

in the mobile business: “Doing nothing was

a strategy that was sure to fail.”

Little about the new Windows will look

familiar to those who have used older ver-

sions. The Start screen, a kind of main

menu, is dominated by a colorful grid of

rectangles and squares that users can tap

with a finger or click with a mouse to start

applications. Many of these so-called live

tiles constantly flicker with new informa-

tion piped in from the Internet, like news

headlines and Facebook photos. What is

harder to find are many of the conventions

that have been a part of PCs since most

people began using them, like the strip of

icons at the bottom of the screen for jump-

ing between applications. The mail and cal-

endar programs are starkly minimalist. It is

as if an automaker hid the speedometer,

turn signals and gear shift in its cars, and

told drivers to tap their dashboards to re-

veal those functions. There is a more con-

ventional “desktop” mode for running

Microsoft Office and older programs,

though there is no way to permanently

switch to it.

Microsoft is convinced that most people

will quickly become accustomed to Win-

dows 8. But to help ease the transition, the

software offers tutorials when it is first

started up. And Microsoft is spending more

than $500 million on a marketing campaign

that is partly intended to familiarize people

with the new design. Mr. Harris said the

company needed to modernize Windows

for the way people use computers today:

“We’re not surprised people have a strong

reaction to it.” neWs desK

Journalism is no longer a job for Superman. His alterego Clark Kent is quitting the Daily Planet, the Me-tropolis newspaper where he’s worked since the firstSuperman comics were published in the 1940s, theUSA Today newspaper said Monday. The plot twist —prompted by the Daily Planet’s takeover by a mediaconglomerate — is one of many to appear in the newedition of Superman that goes on sale Wednesday inboth digital and hard-copy forms. “Why am I the onesounding like a grizzled ink-stained wretch who be-lieves news should be about, I don’t know, news?”says the Man of Steel, according to a leaked panel thatappeared on the Newsarama.com website. “This is re-ally what happens when a 27-year-old guy is behind adesk and he has to take instruction from a larger con-glomerate with concerns that aren’t really his own,”new Superman writer Scott Lobdell told USA Today.There was no immediate confirmation from Super-man publisher DC Comics, itself part of the TimeWarner multimedia empire, but Lobdell posted a linkto the USA Today article on his Twitter account. afp

Stop press! Superman quits Daily Planet


Wednesday, 24 october, 2012

Page 18

li na looks tomake more history

LAHOREsTaff reporT

C RICKeT South Africa has turneddown Pakistan's request to changethe dates of its tour of the republicso as not to clash with the first Pak-

istan Premier League next March. ThePakistan Cricket Board asked the CSA tobring forward the tour of South Africa,which begins on Jan. 25 and ends onMarch 24, spokesman Nadeem Sarwarsaid on Tuesday. "We requested them tochange the itinerary so that we could ex-pand the window of our premier league,"

Sarwar said. "CSA said it is not possi-ble now since the tickets of the series aresold out. We understand their positionand we are comfortable with that."

Pakistan is scheduled to play threetests, two Twenty20s and five one-day in-ternationals during its two-month tour of

South Africa. Pakistan is planning to or-ganize a Twenty20 league in March simi-lar to the leagues in england, Australia,South Africa, India, Sri Lanka andBangladesh. The PCB is also hoping tolure foreign players to build confidence inplaying in Pakistan, where no majorteams have toured since the deadly attackon the Sri Lanka team convoy in 2009 inLahore. The PCB's premier league planshave yet to be revealed. It faces a squeezein time not only because of the SouthAfrica tour but also because the IndianPremier League starts in early April.

A provincial minister successfullyhosted two exhibition Twenty20s betweenan International World xI of retired play-ers from West Indies, Sri Lanka andSouth Africa and the Pakistan All Stars inKarachi last weekend. Crowds of morethan 32,000 attended the games at Na-tional Stadium.

South Africa says no to change in tour by Pakistan

LAHORE sTaff reporT

International standard floodlights willbe installed at Lahore City Cricket As-sociation ground to develop a new cul-ture of night cricket in the city.

“Night cricket has become quitepopular and people like to watch it attheir leisure time and that is the reasonwe are in the process to equip the arenawith latest lights to start a new era ofnight cricket in Lahore,”said President,LCCA, Khawaja Nadim Ahmed here onTuesday. He said Karachi is the onlycity of Pakistan which is having three tofour grounds where night cricket isbeing played and it has been observed

that a large gathering turns up when-ever a night cricket matches is organ-ized. “Our aim is to develop cricket andto equip LCCA grounds with lights is apart of our endeavor to introduce a newculture of night cricket for clubs and re-creational cricket including T-20matches during summer and Ra-madan.”

LCCA chief said he floated the ideaof lights at a meeting with the formerprime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif wholiked it and asked him to discuss it withthe Punjab Chief Minister, MohammadShahbaz Sharif, a keen lover of sports .

“Punjab Government is financingthis project and we have having regularmeetings on it with Hamza Shahbaz

Sharif who is taking extra ordinary in-terest to help out LCCA on this projectand we are thankful to all of them forpatronizing Lahore’s cricket to providea night cricket facility for the players aswell as lovers of the game ,”saidKhawaja Nadim himself a former firstclub cricketer. He said the Punjab Gov-ernment will be providing Rs thirty mil-lion for the installation of the lights andLCCA has shortlisted the most suitableinternational firm for executing theproject .

“Hopefully the lights will be in-stalled within two months and we canstart night cricket in December thisyear ,”he said adding “ We will evolve asystem to provide ground to our clubs

and our teams to get much neededpractice of night cricket which will helpthem to perform up to a required stan-dard whenever they play cricket underlights “. Kh Nadim disclosed that Pak-istan Cricket Board will be providing fi-nancial assistance to build a newpavilion at the LCCA ground erasingthe existing building . “

“The present regime of LCCA is de-termined to make LCCA ground, an in-ternational standard facility wherestate of the art cricket facilities areavailable under one roof and we havetaken a number of decisions to revampLahore’s cricket and to make LCCA arole model regional cricket body,” heconcluded

LCCA ground to have floodlights

SYDNEYafp

Australian cricket legend Shane Warne Tuesday saidhe could not say when he would finally retire, as heprepares to captain a domestic Twenty20 team fiveyears after leaving the international scene.

The 43-year-old leg-spinner announced his re-tirement in 2007, only to return as captain andcoach of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Pre-mier League (IPL) for four years, winning the in-augural tournament in 2008.

Warne appeared to bring down the curtain onhis stellar, two-decade cricket career at the IPL inMay 2011, but went on to join the AustralianTwenty20 team Melbourne Stars for the Big BashLeague's inaugural season the same year and hascontinued playing with them.

"I have to never say 'never' because in 2007 Isaid I'd never play cricket again," Warne told re-porters in Melbourne.

"But 18 months later the IPL came up, so thatwas something that interested me, tocaptain/coach and do it the way I always thoughtit should be done."

Warne, who remains Australia's highest everwicket-taker with 708 Test scalps, said each timehe thought he might have played for the last time,another competition came along that sparked hisinterest.

"I do love cricket, I'm passionate about thegame and if I can help Australian cricket in anyway, shape or form then I will," he said. Warne re-

turned to training on Tuesday ahead of the BBL,which will kick off on December 7 when the Mel-bourne Stars play the Melbourne Renegades.

cannot pinpointretirement yet: Warne

Pcb requestZimbabweto reschedulebilateral series

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Pakistan put back their tour to Zim-babwe, scheduled for December, tonext year as it clashes with the limitedover series against arch-rivals India."We have written to the Zimbabwecricket board to put off the tour to nextyear as the dates were clashing withour tour to India," a Pakistan CricketBoard official told AFP.Pakistan was due to tour Zimbabwe fortwo Tests, three one-day and twoTwenty20 matches from early Decem-ber.India have invited Pakistan for a threeone-day and two Twenty20 match se-ries starting from December 25 -- thefirst bilateral series between the twocountries since 2007.India had stalled all bilateral cricketwith Pakistan in the wake of the No-vember 2008 attacks on its commercialhub Mumbai, attacks which killed 166people.New Delhi blamed the attacks on mili-tants based in Pakistan and refused tosend its team to Pakistan a month afterthe Mumbai attacks.Since then India have played Pakistanin multi-national events only, the tworecent matches were played in theWorld Cup in Mohali last year and theWorld Twenty20 Super eights match inColombo earlier this month.

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) Chairman Zaka Ashraf has an-nounced that the Pakistan PremierLeague (PPL) will be take place in May,2013. A meeting of the PCB was heldhere to discuss the PPL and according

to sources the event will last for 15days. Zaka Ashraf informed the mediathat the league would be successful ifinternational players take part in it,adding that several cricketers had beencontacted already. Ashraf also hoped

that international cricket would returnto Pakistan soon. In all 30 matches be-tween five teams will be played duringthe tournament and each team will beallowed to acquire three internationalplayers. sTaff reporT

abbOttabad: chairman Pakistan cricket board, chaudhry Zaka ashraf and members of the bOG visiting the abbottabad cricket Stadium.

Pakistan Premier League in May: Ashraf

lHc declares POaelection illegal

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial onTuesday declared elections of the Pakistan OlympicAssociation (POA) illegal except for the post of presi-dent. The chief justice further held that the POA, if soinclined might conduct fresh elections for the remain-ing seats. The chief justice passed the order on a peti-tion filed by Nadeem Aftab Sindhu through his counselMunawar-us- Salam and Usman Sahi challenging ap-pointments made by the newly elected president ofPakistan Olympic Association (POA) on various of-fices. The petitioner had argued that he had filed nom-ination papers for the slot of general secretary in POAelections held on February 4 but he was not allowed toenter the election meeting.The petitioner maintained that after the announce-ment of election for the office of president,the entireelection process was declared to be over and it waslearnt that the president announced his panel for theremaining seats who would take charge as office-bear-ers without going through the election process, thecounsel said. The petitioner's counsel contended that the electionwas conducted in a clandestine manner against princi-ples of natural justice and rules of the InternationalOlympic Committee.He prayed the court that the action of not holding elec-tion for the remaining seats be declared illegal and ap-pointments made by the president also be declarednull and void. However, the POA contended that thepetitioner was present during the election.The court after hearing the arguments of both partiestoday allowed the petition and declared the election il-legal except for the office of president.


Sports 16


DURBANcricinfo

SYDNeY Sixers, with ShaneWatson, were the most im-pressive side of the Champi-ons League Twenty20,

winning three out of three matches.Today they were without Watson forthe first time, and though they weren'tas powerful with the bat, their bowlingand fielding skills were sharp enoughto win their fourth consecutive gamecomprehensively, and send the de-fending champions Mumbai Indianshome without a victory.

Sydney's batsmen weren't able toimpose themselves on a pitch withbounce that was steep and spongy.Only three of the top seven batsmenmade it out of single digits for Sydney:Michael Lumb's 28 was full of mis-timed pulls but gave the innings a sat-isfactory start, Nic Maddinson's 27was at breakneck speed and attemptedto blaze his team out of trouble, andSteve Smith's run-a-ball 41 was a re-pair job that did not grow into more.

A target of 137 might have beeneasier to achieve against most otherteams but Sydney's pace attack andtheir exceptional fielding never letMumbai stage a breakaway. The mar-gin of victory was only 12 in the end,but the game was lost long before that.Mumbai scored 20 futile runs off the

final over. Mumbai opened withDwayne Smith and Sachin Tendulkarand they struggled to get going againstJosh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc andPat Cummins. The ball seamed andbounced under lights and Mumbaicobbled together 30 for 0 after sixovers. Just when they had begun togain momentum, with Smith and Ten-dulkar clearing the boundary, MoisesHenriques removed both within fourballs in the ninth over, leaving Mum-bai 53 for 2. Rohit Sharma began torepair the chase but he was run out bya direct hit from Cummins. Rohitvented anger at being sent back by Di-nesh Karthik, who had dropped theball at his feet and taken a few stepsdown the pitch. Karthik was also runout later, as he was forced to runaround a back-pedaling Henriquesand was caught short by McCullum'sdirect hit. Thereafter, Mumbai simplywent through the motions.

Sydney's innings had a start thatwas worse than Mumbai's after BradHaddin chose to bat. They had been 33for 0 but slumped to 40 for 3.

Maddinson began an audaciouscounterattack by upper cutting hisfirst ball, off Lasith Malinga no less,over the keeper for six. He swept theleft-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha twiceto the leg-side boundary and thensmashed the ball into the second tierbeyond long-on. While Smith was

steadying the innings, Maddinsonwent about giving it momentum,until he was caught short by a directhit from Malinga at point. Henriqueswas done in by a Harbhajan Singharm-ball, and Sydney had lost twowickets for one run.

Their hopes for a Smith-propelledfinish ended in the 18th over, whenMalinga beat a cheeky paddle and hit

the stumps. McCullum, playing forWatson, was the fourth person tomake a double-digit score and he ledthem to 136. It was below-par for thissurface, but enough for Sydney's crackbowling attack.ScORES: Sydney Sixers 136 for 7(Smith 41, Munaf 2-17) beat Mum-bai Indians 124 for 8 (Cummins 2-16) by 12 runs.

Sydney Sixers win fourout of four in CL T20

fc college annualSwimming Gala

LAHOREsTaff reporT

The Annual Swimming Gala of Forman ChristianCollege (A Chartered University) was held onTuesday at the College Pool. There was a huge participation of the facultyand students. The Rector Forman Christian Col-lege (A Chartered University) Dr. James A.Tebbe was the Chief Guest on this occasion whodistributed the medals and certificates amongthe winners. The secretary Prof. Babar Kamiland Chairman Prof. Safdar Ali Mirza Sports As-sociation presented the souvenir to the ChiefGuest. In this swimming Gala, other than tradi-tional Swimming events included the gymkhanaevent in view of the students interest. FarukhButt was declared the Best Swimmer. The detailsof results are annexed herewith. 50m candle race: Junaid mizari & Warda, imran & Shabnam,50m thread the needle race: taseer & anila, imran & Shabnam,Sardar & Ghanva50m Soft drink race: baker & Ghanva, Hamza & aqsa, ali Hamza& Shabnam50m balloon race: Hamza & anila, Jabraan & Ghanva, faraz Safdar& Shabnam25m under Water race: farukh butt, Jabraan, faraz50m freestyle: m. awais Junaid 33.89, taseer raza, faizan ali100m free Style: farukh butt 1.19.54, taseer raza, m. awais Junaid50m back Stroke: farukh butt 43.24, Junaid mizari, taseer raza100m back Stroke: Junaid mizari 1.46.04, taseerraza, m. faizan ali 50m breast Stroke: taseer raza 43.61, m. faizan ali, m. awais Junaid100m breast Stroke: farukh butt 1.45.93, taseer raza, m. faizan ali 25m butterfly: faizan ali 16.15, farukh butt, taseer raza50m butterfly: farukh butt 32.31, m. awais Junaid, m. faizan ali100m individual medley: farukh butt 1.33.53, m. awais Junaid, m. faizan alibest Swimmer: farukh butt while second best Swimmer taseer raza

Zidane ‘headbutt’statue angers officials

PARISafp

A row is simmering over a giant bronze sculpture de-picting French footballer Zinedine Zidane's infamousheadbutt on Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the2006 World Cup final, which has been placed out-side the Pompidou Arts Centre in Paris. The five-metre tall statue is the work of French, Algerian-bornartist Adel Abdessemed, who is being honoured by

the Pompidou with a retro-spective on his work fromOctober to January. But itsprominent display outside

the popular centre hasangered the nationalassociation of local

French football of-ficials who claim

that it is not theimage of Zi-dane, who re-tired after the

2006 World Cup final, thatshould be promoted. "Bychoosing this provoca-tive image, the artist hasdeliberately opted to ig-nore all your talentsand all the postitiveemotions that youwere able to sharewith the people ofour country," the offi-cials wrote in an open

letter to Zidane.

PARISafp

UeFA president Michel Platinihinted Tuesday that europeanfootball's governing bodywould come down hard on Ser-

bia if claims that several eng-land under-21players were sub-

jected to racistabuse there areproven. "We'll col-late all the reports,

we have the tele-vision pictures,the disciplinarycommittee is al-ready on it,"Platini said onthe sidelines ofa euro 2016 or-ganising com-

mittee meeting here. "But we havealready dished out a yellow card toSerbia (for previous instances oftrouble). "Racism is a problem thataffects us massively. We're fightingit, and that's what I replied to theBritish prime minister, who wroteto me." england Under-21s' 1-0victory over Serbia in Krusevac lastweek, which saw them qualify fornext year's european Champi-onship in Israel, was overshad-owed by apparent racism from thestands towards england full-backDanny Rose.

The Serbian federation (FSS)issued a statement "absolutely"denying there was any racism at alland branding the england players'behaviour "vulgar". UeFA chargedboth the english and Serbian asso-ciations for the improper conductof their players, and the Serbs for

"alleged racist chanting" by fans.Britain's Prime Minister DavidCameron was said to have been"appalled" at the scenes from the

match in Krusevac. Cameronwanted "tough sanctions" againstSerbian football if racism isproven, according to a spokesman.

The UeFA disciplinary committeewill meet on November 22 to de-cide what, if any, punishmentneeds to be meted out.

UEFA will come down hard if racism proved: Platini

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Guinness World Record adjudicator Gareth Deaveshas praised the organization of Guinness recordbreaking events during the ongoing Punjab Youth

and Sport Festival. “It was a memorable experienceto be part of such big gatherings. It were the best everorganized events for Guinness World Records whichI have seen as an adjudicator during an event andits credit goes to Punjab Government and SportsBoard Punjab,” he said before his departure to eng-

land here on Tuesday. He said it was an amazingfeeling to experience that high standard organiza-tional facilities for attempting GWR and he was verymuch impressed with the handling of all the events,specially the big ones including singing of Pakistan’snational anthem and formation of the flag.

“I have attended a number of record breakingevents but the way Punjab Government organizedthe events it showed a lot of discipline and keennesson part of the gatherings on the occasion of makingnew records,” he said.

Gareth gave credit to the youth of Punjab for get-ting Pakistan into GRW by demonstrating higher ex-hibition of skills and talent and said it was the resultof their hard work and commitment which put theircountry into record book for establishing as many aseleven new marks in different fields.

“It was a very impressive show on part of Pak-istani youth and it is good to see that Pakistani youthcreated number of records in a very well behavedand disciplined manner,” said the GWR adjudicator.

“Punjab youth is full of talent and it was a lifetime experience to see big gatherings singing na-tional anthem and forming national flag,” he said

He further added: “If they keep doing hard workin a similar wan they can do a lot more in future forbringing good name for their country.”

He said the creation of records has created a newimage of Pakistani people who are keen to do won-ders in different fields and tasks. Gareth said GWRteam is very impressed to see the enthusiasm of thepeople of Pakistan and he was glad to see the interestof people to attempt create new records for GWR.

One of the best held Guinness events: deaves

durban: Sydney Sixers celebrate the win during a champions league t20 (clt20)against mumbai indians at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead. AFP

Witsel finding his feet at feuding ZenitSAINT PETERBURG: Zenit St Peterburg's 40-million-euro rookie Axel Witsel insisted Tuesday he was settling intohis new life in Russia, despite a recent internal fued in the club after his big-money signing. Zenit's September signing ofBrazilian striker Hulk for a reported 60 million euros and Witsel's arrival sparked a salary dispute among the other play-ers with Russian national captain Igor Denisov dropping into Zenit's youth squad. But Witsel believes he is starting to gelwith his teammates. "Though I haven't spent much time in Saint Petersburg, I'm already playing well with my new team-mates," insisted the midfielder, who joined the reigning Russian champions from Portuguese giants Benfica. "Our mu-tual understanding is growing day by day. Besides, I noticed that my personal skills are also on the rise here in Zenit."Witsel, who missed a clear scoring chance in Saturday's 1-0 home win against Kuban Krasnodar, is confident he willsoon get on the scoresheet as the club look to move up from their current fourth place in the league table. "It was a goodshot and I was a couple of inches shorter than needed to score. It's a pity but I believe I will open my scoring account inZenit pretty soon." Meanwhile, the 23-year-old also said that he was enjoying some new adventures in his adopted cityincluding the Russian banya -- a hot sauna and freezing plunge pool -- as well as ice hockey. "The Russian baths aregreat! Super! I really love it," Witsel said. "The ice hockey match beween the local team and the visitors Ufa was reallyfascinating. I think I will attend ice hockey matches here together with my teammates on a regular basis." afp


Sports17


Olympic champKemboi assaultcharges dropped

NAIROBIafp

Kenya's two-time Olympic 3,000m stee-plechase champion ezekiel Kemboiwalked out of court a free man on Tues-day after assault charges were droppedby his accuser, his lawyer said.Kemboi, 30, had been accused of as-saulting and causing bodily harm to awoman, Anne Njeri, following drinks to-gether late in June in his hometown ofeldoret, some 300 kilometres (200miles) west of the Kenyan capital.However, Njeri dropped all charges onTuesday, as the case was due to beheard before court. "The girl said shehad made a personal decision to dropthe charges," said Kemboi's lawyerMichael Chemwok. "She had experi-enced a lot of suffering to herself andher family, who had felt ostracised fromthe community after bringing up thecase against their track hero." Kemboi,who is also a police officer, might nowseek legal action against the woman ashe had suffered legal and financialrepercussions arising from the case,Chemwok said, repeating allegationsshe had been part of a kidnap ring. "Weknew that the lady had no case toprove, because she was part of a widerconspiracy to kidnap Kemboi before theOlympics and demand a ransom for hisrelease," Chemwok claimed. The ath-lete, who denied all the charges, wasbailed in time to participate in the Lon-don Olympics, where he won the3,000m steeplechase gold medal, be-coming the first Kenyan to take twoOlympic titles in the event, which healso won at the 2004 Games. He is alsoa two-time world champion.

tour wins evaporatefrom armstrongtwitter profile

LOS ANGELESafp

Lance Armstrong, stripped of sevenTour de France titles and cast into cy-cling oblivion on Monday, apparentlyacknowledged the decision on Twitter.The phrase "7-time Tour de Francewinner" evaporated from Armstrong'sprofile on his @lancearmstrong feedon the social networking site, hoursafter the International Cycling Unionsaid it would back the far-reachingdoping charges against him. Now Arm-strong's profile describes him as:"Raising my 5 kids. Fighting Cancer.Swim, bike, run and golf whenever Ican." It's a change from the "Father of5 amazing kids, 7-time Tour de Francewinner, full time cancer fighter, parttime triathlete" formerly posted.

SHanGHai: World number one golfer rory

mcilroy of northern ireland (l) and martin

Kaymer of Germany (r) play table tennis at a

media event for the bmW Shanghai masters. AFP

GENEVAafp

As world cycling chiefs look to a future after LanceArmstrong, one man was singled out for specialpraise by the International Cycling Union (UCI):special agent Jeff Novitzky.

Novitzky was already known in the world ofsport for an investigation into American sprintqueen Marion Jones, who despite regular testingduring a glittering Olympic gold-winning careernever once tested positive.

Novitzky's evidence on the athletics star wouldunveil an elaborate doping programme run by Vic-tor Conte's BALCO laboratory, and it proved like-wise with Armstrong.

When Novitzky was asked to invetigate claimsthat Armstrong's US Postal team had used millionsof dollars of public money on a systematic dopingprogramme, he went at it with the same gusto.

He racked up thousands of air miles interview-ing dozens of people known to have frequentedArmstrong, who on Monday was sensationallystripped of all his results since 1998 by the UCI.

Despite his findings not being used in the fed-eral court case against the American, who has al-ways vehemently denied doping, the evidence

gleaned did not go to waste. It found itsway to the United States Anti-DopingAgency (USADA), whose president TravisTygart launched a similar, single-mindedquest for the truth that would lead tothe downfall of the world's most cel-ebrated cyclist. The USADA's re-cently-published, damning reportsaid Armstrong helped orches-trate the most sophisticated dop-ing programme in the history ofsport. The UCI ratified theUSADA's findings Monday,agreeing that Armstrong shouldsuffer the disgrace of losing allhis results since 1998, includ-ing all seven of his Tour deFrance wins.

Although the USADA willtake much of the credit, UCIpresident Pat McQuaid be-lieves Novitzky and the threatof criminal proceedingsagainst many of those who tes-tified against Armstrong waskey.

"We tested Armstrong

over 200 times and he was always negative,we tested the other riders many times and

they were negative. Not only the UCI,but also USADA," McQuaid told

AFP."Bear in mind that this re-

port has not emerged thanksto a UCI or USADA investiga-tion. It's Jeff Novitzky, a fed-

eral investigator, whocollected all that informa-tion for the file. "It provesthe use of having policeinvolved in anti-dopinginvestigation," the Irish-man added. Since Arm-strong's last yellowjersey win in 2005, tests

for banned drugs have im-proved significantly.

The UCI now also boaststhe blood passport pro-gramme, which charts and

compares blood samples fromriders over time, pinpoints sig-nificant changes and targets

the rider with specific testing

in the event of suspect parameters.Despite not being without its critics, it has

snared many riders who did not test positive and isnow considered a significant deterrent.

Such measures did not exist in Armstrong'sheyday. In the end it took the threat of being per-jured in court for many former associates of Arm-strong to speak up about his and their own dopingpast.

"Remember, none of these guys, the witnesses,volunteered to come forward. They were subpoe-naed by police and told to sit down and talk," saidMcQuaid.

On Friday the UCI will discuss possible changesin the sport aimed at eradicating even the tempta-tion to cheat.

As McQuaid brushed off suggestions he shouldresign for the UCI's failure to expose Armstrong'scheating, which took place in his predecessor's(Hein Verbruggen) reign, he admitted it would nothave broken down had the federal agents not beenaround.

"I am grateful to USADA for what they haveachieved. But they haven't achieved any more thanthe UCI could have achieved on their own," he said.

"They needed the support of the federal agentsto do it, and that's evident."

SHANGHAIafp

Jose Maria Olazabal was reunited withhis Ryder Cup heroes on a fun-filledTuesday before the serious action be-gins at the $7 million inaugural BMWMasters in at Lake Malaren on Thurs-day. Olazabal and 11 of the 12 membersof Team europe came together for thefirst time since the dramatic defeat ofthe United States in Chicago.

Inspirational captain Olazabal wasjoined by Nicolas Colsaerts, Luke Don-ald, Peter Hanson, Martin Kaymer,Paul Lawrie, Rory McIlroy, GraemeMcDowell, Francesco Molinari, IanPoulter, Justin Rose and Lee West-wood, who will all be competing in

China this week. The team, withonly Sergio Garcia absent,shared stories of their historiccomeback in the Singles at Med-inah Country Club to defeat theUnited States 14 1/2-13 1/2 andretain the Ryder Cup. english-man Poulter, europe's tal-isman who won fourpoints out of four ad-mitted that he still waspumped up by eventsat Medinah. "It wasvery special," he saidon Tuesday. "I thinkeverybody as a teambonded very well.That Sunday will godown in history. So

to get us all back together again, allbut one, it's great. "It's great to see

everybody again and to get backinto some normality." It

wasn't such as normalday for GermanKaymer, whose crucial

point in the singles keptthe Ryder Cup in euro-

pean hands, and worldnumber one Rory McIlroy

who tried their hand atChina's unofficial nationalsport table tennis, alongsidethe 18th green at LakeMalaren. Their opponent wasformer world number one fromGermany, Timo Boll, who im-pressed the golfers with his

skill. China's number one golfer WuAshun also took part in the fun knock-about.

"We had a table tennis table in theteam room at the Ryder Cup," saidMcIlroy. "So we've had a bit of prac-tice.

"I've played a bit of tennis but thisis very different and the spin he (TimoBoll) puts on the ball is incredible. Itwas almost impossible to return."

McIlroy gained a modicum of re-venge for being taught a lesson on theping-pong table when he triumphed ina fun nearest the pin chipping contest,again involving Boll, Kaymer and Wu.

"Yeah, I felt a lot more comfortablewith a club in my hand," joked doublemajor winner McIlroy.

Ryder cup heroes reunited on fun day at BMW Masters

Federal agents crucial in snaring Armstrong: UCI


PUNjAb YOUTH FESTIvAL 2012

Sports 18


watch it LiveESPNSports Center07:30PM

tomic thrashedbut ebden winsfor australia

BASELafp

Bernard Tomic was badly beaten in thefirst round for a third straight tourna-ment, with the Australian number oneshunted out of the Swiss Indoors 6-0,6-2 on Tuesday by Mikhail Youzhny.Tomic, who just turned 20, has not wona match since the second round inBangkok one month ago after losingearly in Tokyo and Shanghai.The 48th-ranked Tomic lost serve fivetimes in the rout and managed only oneace as the experienced Russian sixthseed took just 56 minutes to wrap uphis ticket to the secound round.Matthew ebden however saved the dayfor Aussie pride with his defeat of Ro-manian Victor Hanescu 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).ebden, ranked 115, never faced a breakpoint against the lucky loser from qual-ifying as he won in just under 90 min-utes. The Australian will have a chancefor revenge on Friday as he facesTomic's conqueror Youzhny.ebden is bidding for his third quarter-final in a year after Atlanta in July and2011 Shanghai.

ISTANBULafp

PIONeeRING Li Na aims tomake more tennis history bybecoming the oldest leadingplayer in the game as well as

the first super-rich player from com-munist China.

Li, 30, secured her financial futureand sought to extend her career soonafter famously becoming the first Chi-nese player to win a Grand Slam title atthe French Open last year.

Now with the support of arenowned Belgian coach and a well-known American entrepreneur she hascreated a highly knowledgeable teamaround her which could see her last tillher mid-thirties. She should also makemany tens of millions of dollars morethan she expected.

Whether these ground-breakingachievements would help trigger achange of Chinese zeitgeist, thus en-abling compatriot players to follow Li'suniquely independent path, is now acontentious issue.

She was therefore carefully evasivewhen asked about money but veryforthright about the influence of CarlosRodriguez, who coached Justine Heninto seven Grand Slam titles and is nowhelping to prolong Li's top level career.

"He has changed a lot," Li said."And the first two days I hated it all be-cause I had to change all the thingsfrom long ago.

"So, first two days I always fight -not against Carlos, I was fightingagainst myself! But after one or twoweeks I was getting better and better."

Though they have still only beentogether for two months, Li thinks Ro-driguez is a significant reason why she

found the extra push to snatch the lastplace at the WTA Championships start-ing here on Tuesday. Already the firstChinese player ever to take part in thewomen's tour's flagship event, Li isnow one of the elite eight qualifiers forthe second successive year.

"It was like so many people say -after Carlos came to my team, thechange was unbelievable," she said. "Ireally have to say he's doing a good job.

"I was also happy to have him be-cause I think he is a positive personand gives a lot of positive things for allthe team. He make me training a littlebit for strength in the mind, not onlyfor tennis. "So I think if I can stayhealthy on court I can play another twoor three years, for sure." If Li is right itwould keep her on tour until she is 34.

She may also have gained mentalstrength from the enterprise of Maxeisenbud, who helped make MariaSharapova become the world's highestpaid female athlete and recently nego-

tiated a three-year deal for Li report-edly worth $48 million.

Tossed a question about the likelyeffects of this wealth, Li wisely decidedagainst catching the political hot po-tato, instead hinting at its effect uponthe longevity of her career.

"You know I would like to say thatafter my birthday - I mean most likeevery second of the tournament - I wasalways asked 'when you ready for re-tire?'" she said.

"Right now I am feeling healthy. Ican still run around the court. I canstill play good tennis.

"I never think about when I shouldretire, because right now I really enjoymy tennis life. I will enjoy every secondof every day."

This attitude suggests that Li, whois fed up with being 'retired' by themedia, will continue for some time,generating a yet higher profile both forherself and for a pragmatic People'sRepublic of China.

Li Na looks tomake more history

Lahore, Faisalabad moving neck and neck

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Lahore and Faisalabad are going neckand neck in the Provincial Level of thePunjab Youth Festival 2012 here onTuesday. Faisalabad which was domi-nating the activity saw Lahore comingeven with them on the day.

In girls basketball Lahore beat Sar-godha 48-21 to take on Rawalpindi inthe final and in university level final La-hore has reached the title match whilethe other finalist will be decided today(Wednesday). In college cricket, Lahore

and Sargodha will meet in the final andsimilarly Lahore will take on the winnerof the Multan and Faisalabad semi-final.

In college table tennis, Lahore de-feated Faisalabad 3-0 and in badmintonLahore moved past Faisalabad. Lahoreuniversity team defeated Sargodha for aplace in the final.

In Badminton school level competi-tions, Lahore was declared first whileSahiwal got second position. At collegelevel, Lahore achieved first and Faisal-abad attained second position whereasat university level, Lahore beat Sargodhato maintained it’s supremacy while Sar-

godha got second position. In boxing, 55kgs, Ali Ahmed of Lahroe beat AsgharAli of Gujranwala, Naveedullah Sar-godha beat Roman Multan.

In 65 kgs Ashfaq Sahiwal beat AbdurRehman Lahore, Mohammad Asif of Gu-jranwala beat Asif Mughal Multan. In 75kgs Mohammad Irfan Faisalabad beatWaqas Ahmed Lahore and Aftab Multanbeat Shoaib Sargodha.

In general public football, DeraGhazi Khan outplayed Rawalpindi 3-1and Bahawalpur edged out Sahiwal 3-2and both the matches were decided onpenalty kicks. The semi-final and final of

the Rugby Sevens will be played today atDefence Stadium.

In blind cricket, Bahawalpur beatSargodha, Rawalpindi defeated Faisal-abad, Sahiwal thrashed Multan and Gu-jranwala beat Lahore.

In Architecture, the Architecture de-partment bagged first position. Usmanand Haseeb made a building model.

Healthy baby competition, winnersof nine divisions took part in which Mo-hammad Musa of Gujranwala was thewinner while Lahore’s Rana Faisal wassecond and Larab Zahra of Multan wasthird. Ms Zakiya Shahnawaz was the

chief guest and gave the prizes to thewinners.

Meanwhile the students of engineer-ing University displayed their talent bymaking remote control machines and ro-bots while fine arts models were also puton display. In girls hockey, Lahore beatSargodha while Bahawalpur beat Faisal-abad 3-0.

In tug of war of schools, Rawalpindibeat Lahore. In college finalGujranwaladefeated Multan 2-0 while University ofLahore moved past Sargodha 2-0. Uni-versity of Lahore prevailed over other di-visions in athletics.



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


THe election Commission on Tues-day decided not to disqualify Inte-rior Minister Rehman Malik as a

legislator.election Commission Secretary Afzal

Khan said that no further proceedingswill be conducted against Malik. Khansaid the decision was taken during ameeting of the eCP, chaired by Chiefelection Commissioner Fakhruddin Gebrahim, following a reference sent byDeputy Chairman Senate Sabir Baloch re-garding Malik’s disqualification.

The reference states that there was noquestion of Malik’s disqualification.

Last month, the Supreme Court haddisqualified 11 members of parliament andprovincial assemblies, for holding dual na-tionalities — forbidden for lawmakers byPakistani law — but had spared Mr Malik,leaving the ball in the Senate chairman’s

court to file a reference against him to theelection Commission within 30 days decid-ing on his disqualification.

The only sentence the minister re-ceived was a court observation that hecould not be considered sagacious, right-eous, honest and ameen.

earlier on Tuesday, Malik also filed areview petition against the SC’s sentence.

Malik said that the case was taken upagainst him on the request of an absconderand proclaimed offender Syed MahmoodAkhtar Naqvi. Malik also said that neitherwas he issued a notice, nor was he giventhe chance to be heard in court.

He said after he had resigned from theSenate, Naqvi’s application should nothave been heard by the court.

The interior minister said he was notissued a notice, nor was he heard in thecourt, which was a violation of the law andthat the decision of withdrawing perks was“unlawful”. The review petition was filedunder Article 188.


Interior Minister Rehman Malikon Tuesday said there was threatof terrorism in major cities of thecountry during eidul Azha festiv-ities and if deemed necessary, cel-lular mobile services would beshut for a limited time with theconsultation of the provinces.

Talking to reporters in Islam-abad after chairing a high-levelmeeting, Malik said mobilesphone services would be closeddown for a limited time in areasthreatened by terrorists. In thisconnection, Malik said directiveswould be issued separately.

The interior ministry said90 percent of the general pub-lic appreciated the govern-ment’s earlier decision to closedown mobiles phone servicesduring festivals wherever athreat was felt.

He said there would be a

complete ban on the collectionof skins of sacrificial animals bydefunct organisations duringeidul Azha.

Malik said he had alreadywritten to the provincial chief sec-retaries‚ home secretaries and in-spectors general of police in thisconnection.

He said no one would be allowedto collect hides of sacrificial animalsforcefully and strict action would betaken against such elements. He saidthat use of loud speakers would alsobeen prohibited.

The interior minister addedthat the PML-N used FIA for itsagendas during its tenures, but itwas strange why the party wasdead set against investigation bythe very institution in the AsgharKhan case.

“They are ridiculing SC’s or-ders,” he said.

Malik said Nawaz had be-come the prime minister by ob-taining funds through illegal

means, and he should now re-spect the courts and bid adieu topolitics.

“Mian Sahab should tour Rai-wind and write books,” Maliksaid.

He challenged OppositionLeader Nisar Ali Khan to a debateanywhere over the Asghar Khancase.

The minister said the PML-Nleaders did not trust anyone ex-cept themselves and they weretrying to divert attention awayfrom the Asghar Khan case.

Malik praised the role of themedia in curbing terrorism, say-ing it should continue with itspositive contribution.

The interior minister said se-curity would be provided to allcongregations on eid day.

Commenting on the attack onMalala, the minister said impor-tant headway had been made inthe investigation and the probehad entered a decisive phase.

LAHOREsTaff reporT

Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)leader KhwajaMuhammad Asif said onTuesday that his partycompletely accepted theSupreme Court’s verdicton Asghar Khan case,and that it was notcalling for a newcommission to probedisbursement of fundsamong politicians in the1990 elections. Reacting to a statementby National AssemblyOpposition LeaderChaudhry Nisar AliKhan that the PML-Naccepted the SC’s verdictbut did not trust theprobe carried out by theFederal InvestigationAgency (FIA), Asif saidthe statement given byNisar reflected his

personal view, and notparty’s policy. He saidthe PML-N fully acceptsthe verdict as well as theprobe carried out in lieuof the petition filed in1996 by Air Marshal (r)Asghar Khan againstdoling out of funds bysecret agencies toinfluence the 1990 polls.

bengHaZi: libyan girls wear traditional outfits during celebrations

to mark the first anniversary of the country’s ‘liberation’ from the

regime of ousted leader Moamer gaddafi on Tuesday. AFP

ECP decides against Malik’s disqualification

President failsto woo ANPover SPLGO

ISLAMABADonline

President Asif Ali Zardari has failed toconvince angry coalition partner ANP over theissue of Sindh People’s Local GovernmentOrdinance (SPLGO). Sources said PresidentAsif Ali Zardari not only took the ANP chiefAsfandyar Wali Khan with his delegation toUN General Assembly in New York, but alsotried his best there to convince him on theissuance of local bodies system in Sindh. Allefforts of the president to convince AsfandyarWali went in vain. However, the ANP chief putthe whole matter in the party leadership’shands regarding a final decision on LG systemin Sindh. A few days ago, ANP leaders SenatorHaji Adeel and Senator Afrasiab Khattak metthe president and rejected the request byZardari. The sources further said that twodays ago, Interior Minister Rehman Malik alsomade efforts to convince the ANP during ameeting with Senator Zahid Khan, however,his effort also proved unfruitful. Senator ZahidKhan said the decision of the ANP regardingLG system in Sindh was final and the partywould remain determined upon its decision.

Three killed asshells hit housesin Miranshah

MIRANSHAHonline

At least three people were killed on Tuesdaywhen mortar shells fell on houses in NorthWaziristan, officials said. Security officialssaid the casualties took place in Miranshah,the headquarters of the agency, whereterrorists attacked a checkpost. Officials saidsecurity forces retaliated against the militantattack during which few mortar shells landedon nearby houses, killing three people andinjuring nine others, including women andchildren. Local people and army troopsmoved the injured to Miranshah hospital fortreatment, the officials added.

Cell phones may drop dead againas Malik warns of Eid terrorism

No reservationsover FIA probe,says Khawaja Asif

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the PrimeMinister on Petroleum Dr AsimHussain tendered resignation from hisSenate seat on Tuesday. Although thereasons behind his resignation couldnot be ascertained immediately,sources say the adviser resigned fromthe Upper House seat due tounconfirmed reports over his dualnationality. On September 20, theSupreme Court ruled that 11lawmakers holding dual nationalitieswere not eligible to hold any publicoffices and declared all suchlawmakers disqualified. It ordered thedisqualified lawmakers to return theamount spent on their salaries andperks. Acting Senate Chairman SabirBaloch accepted Dr Asim’sresignation, sources said. STAFF REPORT

Dr Asim resigns from Senate seat

g Interior minister says cell phone service to shut for limited time in areas vulnerable to terror attacks

19


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