Sino-Pak relations getdeeper and wider................................................Bhagwandas says No andemerges taller................................................Modi may listen toJethmalani

See Page 04

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—The 67- year of Pak-India history has seenmany ups and downs, but, this time a paradigm shift inthe policy of newly elected Government of Narendra Modion Kashmir dispute has threatened regional peace.

Pakistan has promptly rejected the new conditional-ity put up by New Delhi pushing aside Kashmiris to settlethis long standing and the core issue between both theneighbours.

Indian Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had said “Ithink a new red line has to be drawn in Pakistan toreconsider who they want to speak to.“Do they want tospeak to the Government of India or do they want tospeak to those who want to break India? … unless Paki-stan makes a conscious choice, a dialogue with Paki-

Paradigm shift in Indian policy onKashmir threatens regional peace

stan will not be possible.”“Pakistan is a party to the dispute. So this contention isnot acceptable,” FO spokesperson Tasneem Aslam saidin a media briefing on Thursday. Resumption of dialogueis a necessity for regional peace and development andnot a favour by one party to the other.

Earlier, India had put off dialogue at Secretary- levelscheduled for August 25 as agreed by both the PrimeMinisters in New Delhi on the pretext that Pak High com-missioner had met Kashmir leaders.At that time Pakistan had also rejected this Indian stanceby saying “it is a long standing practice that, prior to Pak-India talks, meetings with Kashmiri leaders are held to fa-cilitate meaningful discussions on the issue of Kashmir.’

Kashmiris are party to the dispute as recognised byContinued on Page 7

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif offering dua after inaugurating 76-km long Shakai–Makeen Road in South Waziristan Agency.

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Further consolidating theirposition on the 24th day of the OperationKhyber 1, the Pakistan Army led securityforces Sunday mowed down another 27 al-leged terrorists in parts of Khyber agencybesides destroying around dozen militantshideouts. The military sources said thosekilled on Sunday offensive include impor-tant militant commander besides two sui-cide bombers.

The Pakistan Air Force war birds wenthard on the insurgent’s positions Sundayearly morning Akka Khel area of remoteTiraah agency and the incessant bombingsflattened around a dozen terrorist’s hideouts and an ammunition depot. At least thir-teen alleged terrorists including a key mili-tant commander Munawwar, who was amaster trainer of the suicide bombings, werekilled in the action. Two suicide bomberswere also killed in the aerial strikes.

Besides, the security forces kept target-ing the militant’s position all the night be-tween Saturday and Sunday with the helpof medium Artillery inflicting heavy losses Continued on Page 7

PAF fresh blitzkills 27 insurgents

10 hideouts destroyedMohmand named new TTP Amir

on the trouble makers.In precise aerial strikes on Sunday in

Akka Khel area of Tiraah Khyber agency10 terrorist’s hideouts and an ammunitiondepot were destroyed. terrorists includingimportant militant commander known fortraining suicide bombers as well as twosuicide bombers were killed in the fresh of-fensive. The inter Services Public Relations(ISPR) communiqué issued to media onSunday said.

The Operation Khyber 1, it may be re-called is the second leg of ongoing Opera-tion Zarb-e-Azb in the volatile NorthWaziristan agency. The Khyber agency,specially the trouble Tiraah valley, has, infact, been in the grip of violence and blood-shed for the last many years including in-fighting between the defunct Tehreek Is-lam and Lashker-e-Islam led by self –styledcleric Mangal Bagh

The Operation nicknamed Khyber 1 wasinitiated in the Khyber agency on October17 and till date according to military sourcesmore than 150 insurgents have been killedin security forces ground and air offensives STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—General Raheel Sharif, Chief ofArmy Staff on Sunday inaugurated an im-portant section of upcoming Central TradeCorridor (CTC) alongwith the largest bridgeon this road in South Waziristan Agency.CTC is a strategic road link to facilitate tradenot only between Pakistan and Afghani-stan but it will also directly and indirectlyhelp revive local economy of FATA and KP.An international standard, 705 KM longroad network through southern KP &FATA, CTC is being built by Army Engi-neers and funded by friendly countries.

The 76 KM long Shakai – Makeen roadfunded through USAID is an important lat-eral along the CTC which connects the twomain axes of Trade Corridor i.e., Road Bannu– Miranshah – Ghulam Khan and RoadWana – Aangor Ada. Apart from other eco-nomic, security and strategic advantages,the newly constructed roads have reducedtravelling times considerably.

The COAS said, development of FATAis a priority task being undertaken by the

Gen Raheel opens CTC section, bridge in SWA

FATA development toppriority of Army: COAS

Army as a well considered strategy. Paki-stan Army has undertaken 178 x projectsso far in social sector take communicationinfrastructure and power sector in FATAand Malakand areas. These projects areaimed to improve the quality of life in tribalareas and address the problem of militancyon long term basis.

While addressing the tribal elders,COAS appreciated their support in combat-ing terrorism and acknowledged their sac-rifices in war against terrorism. He reiter-ated Army’s resolve to bring peace and sta-bility to the affected areas.

Referring to operation Zarb-e-azb theGen. Raheel Sharif said that the operationis progressing successfully as per plan. Hesaid while focusing on early completion,the army will continue with rehabilitationand reconstruction activities. A comprehen-sive plan in this regard has been chalkedout in consultation with the government.

Earlier on his arrival in SWA theCOAS was received by Corps CommanderLieutenant General Hidayat ur Rehmanand tribal elders.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

RAHIMYAR KHAN—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan Sundaydropped the demand of Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif’s resignation and proposed anew programme to end the political stale-mate.

Addressing a public rally here atKhawaja Farid Collegeground, Imran Khan pro-posed to get the charges ofrigging probed through a judicial commis-sion formed under the Supreme Court. Thecommission, he said, should also includemembers from ISI and MI.

He said the government has time tillNovember 30 to form this commissiontasked to complete its investigation in 4 to6 weeks. The head of the commission canbe appointed through mutual consensus,

Continued on Page 7

Imran drops demandof PM’s resignation

Calls for ‘poll rigging’ probe under SCcommission having ISI, MI members

he added.Imran said his party’s ongoing sit-in will

continue as it is during the period of theprobe and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif canalso continue to remain in his office. And ifrigging was proved you (PM) will have toresign and organize mid-term elections un-der a reconstituted Election Commission ofPakistan, he added.

He said his party willnot accept ECP that is formedunder ‘Muka Muka’ and re-

jected the name of Justice TassaduqHussain Jilani as the new CEC.

Before presenting his new proposal, hehurled serious allegations of corruption andunscrupulous practices against NawazSharif and Pakistan People’s Party Co-chair-man Asif Ali Zardari.

He said we have a right to know how

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif have returnedto Pakistan after a successful visit to China.

Speaking on his return to Lahore, theChief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said thatChinese leaders have expressed full confi-dence in the leadership of Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif.

He said that agreements for investmentof billions of dollars have been signed dur-ing the visit to China. He said that theprojects with the cooperation of China willbe implemented with speed and transpar-ency. He said that no hurdle can be createdin Pak-China friendship.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifbefore leaving Beijing, after his three-dayvisit said that his recent tour is a ‘gamechanger’.

A contingent of People’s LiberationArmy presented a salute to the Prime Min-ister at the Beijing International Airport.

He said the Memorandums of Under-standing (MOUs) signed with China will

Continued on Page 7

PM terms Chinavisit a ‘game changer’

Nawaz, Shahbaz back homehelp compensate for the loss allegedly in-curred due to the sit-in protests inIslamabad.

Pakistan and China had signed as manyas 19 MOUs worth billions of dollars onSaturday.

These MOUs include Pak-China eco-nomic corridor, energy projects includingThar coal mining, power plants, hydel powerprojects, Muzaffargarh power project, windpower project and solar power projectamong other technical assistance.

During his China visit, the Prime Minis-ter met Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiangand President Xi Jinping in which views onmatters of mutual interests including re-gional politics and bilateral cooperationwere discussed.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has an-nounced to establish a $40 billion infrastruc-ture fund to build a new Silk Road. He madethis announcement at a dialogue meetingin Beijing on strengthening connectivityand improving cooperation in the country’sneighbourhood.

Among other Asian leaders, Prime Min-

Allama Iqbal’sbirth anniversary

observedMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The 137th birthanniversary of philosopher,poet and the conceiver ofidea of Pakistan, AllamaMuhammad Iqbal was ob-served on Sunday.

A prestigious Change ofGuards Ceremony was heldby Pakistan Navy at Mazar-e-Iqbal in its traditionalspirit, customary enthusi-asm and befitting manner.

The ceremony com-menced when a smartlyturned out contingent ofPakistan Navy clad in cer-emonial dresses assumedguard duties replacing Pa-kistan Rangers. While thecontingent of Pakistan Navyand Pakistan Rangersformed up outside theMazar and took positionsalongside, both the outgo-ing and incoming guardswere inspected by StationCommander (Navy) Lahore,Commodore S M Shahzad.

Marching to the bandtunes, the Naval Contingenttook positions at the fourcorners of the Mazar. Simul-taneously, Rangers were

Continued on Page 7

BEIJING —Chinese President Xi Jinpingand his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putinpromised ever-closer cooperation Sundayas they met for the 10th time in less thantwo years.

The two men, who held talks in Beijing,have increasingly stressed their sharedoutlook which mirrors the countries’ con-verging trade, investment and geopoliticalinterests.

The two sides signed a series of agree-ments to step up their multi-billion-dollarnatural resources collaboration. “Togetherwe have carefully taken care of the tree ofRussian-Chinese relations,” Xi told Putinat the Diaoyutai state guesthouse inBeijing.

“Now fall (autumn) has set in, it’s har-vest time, it’s time to gather fruit,” he said. Continued on Page 7

Xi, Putin to ‘harvestfruits’ of deepening ties

“No matter the changes on the global arena,we should stick to the chosen path to ex-pand and strengthen our comprehensivemutually fruitful cooperation.”

Russia and China have been broughttogether by mutual geopolitical concerns,among them wariness of the United States.The two countries often vote as a pair onthe UN Security Council, where both holda veto, sometimes in opposition to West-ern powers on issues such as Syria.

Putin said Russian-Chinese cooperationwas “very important for keeping the worldwithin the framework of international law,to make it more stable, more predictable”.

“Me and you have done a lot for thisand I am sure we will continue to work inthis manner in the future,” he added. Mos-

PM leaves forGermany today

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minis-ter Muhammad NawazSharif will leave here todayfor a 2-day official visit tothe Federal Republic of Ger-many at the invitation ofGerman Chancellor, AngelaMerkel.

During the visit, thePrime Minister would holdofficial talks with Chancel-lor Merkel that will be fol-lowed by an official lunchin his honour. Thereafter, hewill meet with President ofthe German Bundestag (Par-liament) and also address aBusiness Forum organizedby the Pakistan Board ofInvestment, which is ex-pected to be attended by alarge number of Germanbusiness executives and in-vestors.

Pakistan and Germanyenjoy close and cordial re-

Continued on Page 7Continued on Page 7

Iran, US, EU holdnuclear talks in Oman

MUSCAT—With only two weeks to a deadline for a break-through deal, senior envoys of Iran, the United States andEuropean Union met in Oman on Sunday to try to advanceefforts to defuse a standoff over Tehran’s nuclear pro-gram.

Reiterating Iran’s official line, Ali Akbar Velayati, a topaide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wasquoted by Iranian media as saying the Islamic Republicwould not abandon its nuclear “rights” but was commit-ted to the negotiations under Khamenei’s leadership.

Western countries and close U.S. ally Israel suspectIran has covertly sought to develop the means to buildnuclear weapons, and a decade-long confrontation overthe issue has raised the risk of a wider war in the volatileMiddle East.

The discussions, between Iranian Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerryand EU envoy Catherine Ashton, aim to put verifiable lim-its on Iran’s uranium enrichment work in return for a gradual

Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

Govt wants toresolve issuesthru talks: PRSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—InformationMinister Pervaiz RashidSunday said the govern-ment wants to resolveissues through dialogue,however, it was ImranKhan who shut the doorsfor talks.

“Imran khan’s mustallow PTI’s committee toresume the dialogueprocess. Imran had giventhreats on August 14 butwe had shown patienceand would also tackle thesituation on November 30.If Imran cannot presentproofs of rigging to courts,he must share the samewith media,” Pervaiz saidwhile talking to media.

Information MinisterPervaiz Rashid said thegovernment will bring tojustice the perpetrators ofburning a Christian coupleto death. He said theaccused have been arrestedand would be punishedaccording to the law.

Answering a questionabout the entry of terroristorganization (DAESH) in

India againrejects talkswith PakistanNEW DELHI—In a sternwarning to Pakistan, Indiaon Sunday said therecannot be a dialogue withIslamabad if ceasefireviolations continue.

“If repeated ceasefireviolations take place thenenvironment for dialogueitself suffers,” defenceminister Arun Jaitley, whoalso holds the portfolio offinance ministry, said atthe India Global Forummeeting.

“Yes, there should be adialogue. We will welcomeit but then the environ-ment for dialogue has tobe created by bothcountries. One of themcannot upset the environ-ment and then say whydialogue is not takingplace,” Jaitley said.

The dialogue processwas derailed after Pakistanenvoy met Kashmiriseparatists just a daybefore the foreign secre-tary-level talks in August.

“When we further thediscussions (after swear-

Jubilant Pakistanend day onhigh note

ABU DHABI—Pakistan’s topbatting order onSunday came hardon the Kiwis andscored 269 runs atthe loss of just one

wicket by the end of day’splay at the Zayed Interna-tional Cricket Stadium inAbu Dhabi.

Ahmed Shehzadcontinued his top form andwas unbeaten on 126.Azhar Ali provided firmsupport to Shehzad at theother end by scoring notout 46.

Earlier in the day,Pakistan’s opening pairbuilt up a strong partner-ship of 178 runs. CJAnderson got MohammadHafeez caught and bowledwhen he looking solid at96.—AP

India test-firesnuke-capable

missileMUMBAI—India test-firedits nuclear capable missileAgni-II on Sunday from anisland of eastern Indian stateof Odisha coast.

Its medium-rangenuclear-capable Agni-IImissile with a strike range ofmore than 2000 km from theWheeler Island off Odishacoast is part of a user trialby the army.

“The trial of the surface-to-surface missile was con-ducted from a mobilelauncher from the LaunchComplex-4 of IntegratedTest Range at around9:40am,” defence officials

Details on Sports Page

Picture on Back Page

QUETTA: Senator Hasil Bizenjo presiding over fourth National Congress meetingorganized by National Party. Chief Minister Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch wasalso present.

THARPARKAR: A girl sits with her family on sand after receiving food bags from army relief camp in famine hit areaof Tharparkar.

Six SHOs warnedFAISALABAD—Regional Po-lice Officer (RPO)Muhammad Ihsan Tufail hasissued warning to six SHOson poor investigation incases including robberies.

According to press re-lease here on Sunday, the fol-lowing SHOs GhulamMuhammad Abad police sta-tion, Rail Bazar police station,city police Jarranwala,Khurrianwala police, CivilLines police and RodalaRoad police stations were is-sued notices. He also di-rected them to improve theirperformance or ready to facedepartmental action.

Meanwhile, the districtpolice in a campaign againstanti-social elements arrested83 outlaws of 16 gangs andrecovered stolen propertyworth about Rs 7.7 millionfrom their possession duringlast month (October).

According to a press re-lease issued here Sunday thearrested outlaws were wantedby district police in housedacoities, high way robberiesand police encounter duringlast month. Police also recov-ered two cars, mobile phones,gold ornaments, wristwatches, 28 motorcycles, 22cattle heads, twoKalashnikovs, 37 pistols, twoguns, a repeater gun and hun-dreds of bullets from them, thepress release added.—APP

THARPARKAR—One more in-fant died at Civil HospitalMithi today (Sunday) asdeadly drought continues toswallow lives in Tharparkar.

According to details, 2days old child of Thar dieddue to dearth of food risingdeath toll to 46 in 41 days.

On the other hand, RabitaCommittee, Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) alongwith Khidmat-e-Khalq foun-dation has arranged medicaland relief camps at Mithi HighSchool for the medical treat-ment of famine victims.Accoding to MQM, chiefMQM Altaf Hussain is ex-pected to address people ofThar via telephone.

Earlier, famine scared hu-manity in Thar swallowing upanother life mounting thedeath toll to 42. A 3-mothsold Sandeep under treatmentat Mithi Civil Hospital died onSaturday due to dearth offood whereas 5 children invarious areas died of starva-tion yesterday. The death tollhas risen to 42 in a span of 40days whereas no relief workhas been carried out as perSindh government s an-nouncement.

The unabated drought inTharparkar coupled with adearth of health facilities hasclaimed the lives of 275 chil-

ISLAMABAD—Final exams of SSC, FA,F.Sc, BA and BS programs for the Semes-ter Spring, 2014 of the Allama Iqbal OpenUniversity (AIOU) will commence today(Monday) across the country simulta-neously.

This was announced by IqbalHussain, Controller of Exams, and AIOU.The Roll No. slips, he said have alreadybeen sent to all the eligible/enrolled stu-dents at their given addresses by PostalMail Service. Those candidates who havenot received their roll no. slips so far aread-vised to contact the nearest RegionalOffice of the University or Abid HussainSatti, Deputy Controller of Exams (Con-duct) personally or at his Ph.No. 051-9250051, 9057648 for issu-ance of Dupli-

AIOU’s exams to be started todayacross country simultaneously

cate Roll No Slip.For duplicate Roll No Slip students

are required to bring two passport sizephotographs duly attested by the gazet-ted officer. Roll No. Slips have also beenplaced on the University’s web-sitewww.aiou.edu.pk for the convenience ofstudents. Web Based printed roll num-ber slips will be accepted by the CenterSuperintendent on production of originalCNIC issued by NA-DRA.

All candidates are also advised intheir own interest to read the instructionsmentioned on Roll No. Slip carefully be-fore entering into the Examination Cen-ter. In addition, the students are advisedto bring National Identity Card in origi-nal issued by the NADRA.—Online

Deadly drought continuesswallowing lives in Tharparkar

HASSANABDAL: Sikh pilgrims seen at Railways Station Hassan Abdal as followers ofBaba Guru Nanak return to their homes after participating in his birth celebrations atGurdwara Panja Sahib.

dren in 11 months, accordingto an official list prepared bythe district administration.

Deputy Commissioner(DC) Asif Jameel submitted

the list, containing the detailsof children under the age offive who died between De-cember 2013 and October2014, to the provincial gov-

ernment. Although the deathsare officially recognised asdrought-related, the medicalcauses of mortality havemostly been cited as being

pneumonia, blood infection,diarrhoea, birth asphyxia andhaemorrhagic fever.

This admission also fliesin the face of the Sindh

government’s attempts todownplay the effect of thepersistent drought and pre-vailing poverty among chil-dren and pregnant mothers.

Four more deaths, includ-ing that of a mother, havebeen reported fromTharparkar in the last twodays. The government hasfailed to clarify why the mor-tality rate has not yet sub-sided in the district. A seven-member committee of doc-tors, headed by former CivilHospital, Mithi, civil sur-geon Jawahar Lal, recently in-spected the district andtaluka hospitals. However,they refused to share theirfindings.

“We have noted short-ages and will be sending ourreport to the provincial gov-ernment,” said Lal, who wasremoved from his position bythe chief minister in Marchthis year when the district’schild mortality peaked.

“We want improvementsthrough the addressing ofthese problems by the gov-ernment.” Meanwhile, his re-placement at the hospital,Shafqat Dahiri, shrugs off re-sponsibility by reiterating theofficial stance: “The patientsare mostly brought to uswhen they reach very criticalcondition.”—Agencies

PTI tops list of PMs tofile statements of assets

JA M S H O R O—District Food Controller(DFC) Jamshoro, Qamaruddin Memon wassuspended while central incharge, NazeerLund was arrested over charges of negli-gence towards duty.

Sindh Minister for Food and Health,Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar on Sundaypaid surprise visit to governmentgodowns at Bolari to get first hand infor-mation about the situation after repeatedcomplaints against the staffers.

Beside action against the two officials,Jam Mehtab constituted a committee com-prising of store incharge, Abdul Sattar

DFC Jamshoro suspended,Inspector arrested over negligence

ISLAMABAD—Lawmakersbelonging to the PakistanTehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) havetopped the list of lawmakerswho have yet to submit state-ments of their assets and li-abilities to the Election Com-mission of Pakistan, localmedia quoting ECP officialsreported on Sunday.

A total of 19 lawmakers,including three members ofthe National Assembly andeight each of the provincialassemblies of Punjab andSindh, have been suspendedfor failing to submit their ownstatements of assets and oftheir spouses anddependants, more than fiveweeks after the deadline.

They include eight law-makers of the PTI, six of thePPP, four of the PML-N andone of the Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM).

Senior leaders of the PTI- including its chairman ImranKhan, Shah MehmoodQureshi, Jehangir Tarin,Shafqat Mehmood and DrArif Alvi - have filed the state-ments and the failure of theparty’s other legislators to doso appears to have nothingto do with their resignations.The three suspended MNAsbelonging to the PTI includeits candidate for the office ofspeaker of the National As-sembly, Shehryar Afridi (NA-14 Kohat), Muhammad AzharKhan Jadoon (NA-17Abbottabad) and Sajid

Nawaz (NA-3 Peshawar).When contacted, Mr

Afridi said he could not filethe statement because he hadgone to Saudi Arabia to per-form Haj. Mr Jadoon and MrNawaz could not be con-tacted for their comments de-spite repeated efforts.

The list of eight sus-pended members of thePunjab assembly is also domi-nated by the PTI. Five of themare from the PTI and the re-maining three from PML-N.

The suspended PTI mem-bers are Malik TaimurMasood, Dr SalahuddinKhan, Mian MuhammadAslam Iqbal, Waheed AsgharDogar and Abdul MajeedKhan Niazi.

The three suspendedmembers of the provincialassembly belonging to thePML-N are Rana ShoaibAdrees Khan, Jamil HassanKhan and Sardar Atif HussainKhan Mazari.Owais Muzaffar, former pro-vincial minister for local gov-ernment and a close aide ofPPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, isamong the eight members ofthe Sindh assembly whohave been suspended fortheir failure to file the state-ments. The other suspendedmembers of the house fromPPP are Aziz Ahmad Jatoi,Syed Fasih Ahmad Shah,Parveen Aziz Junejo,Khairunnisa Mughal andShahnaz Begum. —Online

Seven killedin two roadaccidents

SHEIKHUPURA—In Punjab,seven persons were killedand several others injured intwo separate road accidents.

Four persons were killedand several others when apassenger bus collided witha wagon near Sagian Bridgein Lahore on Thursdaymorning.

The injured have beenshifted to Jinnah and MayoHospitals Lahore for treat-ment. In Sheikhupura, threepersons were killed and tenothers wounded when a vancollided with a tractor trol-ley near Kot Abdul Malik.

Gas pressureweakens, CNG

stations to remainclosed in Punjab

LAHORE—As the winterseason has set in, gas pres-sure has weakened in Punjab.CNG stations in Punjab willremain closed on Monday.Officials of the Sui NorthernGas Pipelines Limited saythat the use of geezers hasput pressure on the gas dis-tribution system, weakeningthe pressure.

SNGPL officials said thatthe use of geezers has dis-turbed the demand and sup-ply system. According to thepolicy, domestic and indus-trial users are given priorityso it has been decided thatgas supply to CNG stationswill remain closed on Mon-day. CNG stations will not beprovided the gas on Mondayunder the weekly schedule.Gas crisis is feared to swellin the days to—Agencies

LA H O R E—Special Assistant to ChiefMinister Punjab and former InspectorGeneral Police, Rana Maqbool Ahmad hassaid that Punjab Prosecutiondepartment’s success rate for the currentcalendar year is 91%. Out of total 59071contested cases, 53855 were won by pros-ecution department and accused facedthe music. Only 5216 cases were acquit-ted on merit whereas 27160 uncontestedcases were acquitted due to resiling ofwitness. 17109 uncontested cases wereacquitted due to compromise between theparties.

According to the spokesperson Pros-ecution Department, in first 9 months of2014, 364 accused were given death sen-tence, 276 accused were sentenced to lifeimprisonment and 350 accused were givenimprisonment above 7 years.

It is pertinent to mention here that theperformance of prosecution department is

evaluated by counting the number of con-tested cases in courts that are resultant aswell. The cases disposed off on compro-mise, resiling of witness and consigned torecord cannot be linked with the contestedcases and prosecutors performance.

Commenting on the performance reportof the prosecution department, RanaMaqbul Ahmad congratulated the hardworking prosecutors and stressed that dis-pensing speedy justice to the oppressedpersons is a great mission.

He directed the Public Prosecutors toremain associated with the Police from theday one and visit the crime scene to col-lect the solid evidence to prepare the pros-ecution cases.

Secretary prosecution Nadeem IrshadKiani, while addressing the meeting said thathe along with a team of senior prosecutorsvisited London recently to study their pros-ecution system.—Agencies

Prosecution Deptt claimssuccess rate of 91% in 2014

HYDERABAD—A total of 13,885 candidatesincluding 2736 females and 3775 males Sun-day appeared in pre entry test for admis-sions to Bachelor Degree Programme foracademic year 2015 in the University ofSindh (SU) Jamshoro at seven examinationcentres.

The centres were set up by the Univer-sity at its campuses in various cities of theprovince including Jamshoro, Badin,Mirpurkhas, Dadu, Larkana, Thatta andBhitshah.

According to the University spokes-man, the test started at 10:45 am and con-cluded at 12:15 pm simultaneously inSindh University and its campuses, ac-cording to the schedule. The Universitymanagement also made separate arrange-ments for the disabled students, parkingand waiting-area facilities for the parentsof the candidates. Back-up power genera-tors were also provided at all campuses inorder to avoid any disturbance owing tothe failure of electricity.

Two disabled candidates sans handsalso took part in the test and attempted

the questions with their feet.At Allama I.I Kazi Campus Jamshoro, a

total of 10359 including 2507 females tookpart in the entrance test. Similarly, In Laarcampus, Badin 172 candidates including35 girls, Mirpurkhas campus 232 studentsincluding 30 female, in Mohtarma BenazirBhutto Shaheed campus Dadu 339 candi-dates including 63 girls, in Thatta campus110 candidates including 35 girls, in Inter-national University of Peace, Sufism &Modern Sciences Bhitshah 52 candidatesincluding 7 girls and in Larkana campus116 candidates including 27 female ap-peared in the test.

Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr.Imdad AliIsmaili along with other senior officialsvisited the examination centres at AllamaI.I Kazi campus to monitor the arrange-ments.

The 13885 candidates who appeared inthe test would compete for 4510 seats avail-able in eight faculties including Arts, Is-lamic Studies, Natural Sciences, Pharmacy,Social Sciences, Education, Law, Commerceand Business Administration. —APP

SU pre-entry test for Bachelorprogramme attracts 13,885 candidates

Memon, John Haider food inspector andMujeeb ur Rehman that will look after re-lief work.

The provincial minister for food andhealth also paid surprise visit to Insti-tute of Chest Diseases Kotri and CivilHospital Kotri.

He found that staff was workingproperly and treatment was also satis-factory. However, he expressed his dis-satisfaction over cleanliness situation inthe hospital and directed MS, Dr. AkhbarAli Somoroo to improve the situation.—INP

Drosh Hospitallacking basic

facilitiesCHITRAL—While there hasbeen public outcry overshortage of doctors andother facilities in Chitral,most of the issues stem frommismanagement and politi-cal interfer-ences in theworking of the hospitals inthe public sector.

A similar situation existsat the Tehsil Headquarters(THQ) Hospital Drosh.People of the area have beenup in arms against unavail-ability of medical officers andspecialist doctors at the onlyhospital in the town for morethan 100,000 populationwhere patients also comeacross the border.—INP

Center ofexcellence for seed

production soonISLAMABAD—Vice ChancellorMian Muhammad NawazSharif Agriculture UniversityMultan, Dr MuhammadAshraf, Sunday said a centerof excellence for seed produc-tion would be set up in JalalpurPirwala tehsil of Multan dis-trict.

The PC-I of the proposedcenter had already been fi-nalized, which would be sub-mitted to the quarters con-cerned fro approval soon, hetold. He said 500 acres landin Jalalpur, 180 at theuniversity’s main campus and50 acres land in MakhdoomRashid area, was available forthe project.

All registered varietiesof seeds, including wheatand cotton, would be pro-duced there, maintaininghigh standards tostrengthen the agriculturesector, which was consid-ered backbone of the na-tional economy, he added.The VC said the seed pro-duction center would helpprovide quality seed tofarmers and enable them toget bumper crops in diverseseasons.—APP

LAHORE: People praying during Tableeghi Ijtemaa at Raiwind.

PESHAWAR: Activists of Strive for Sustainable and Development Organization pro-testing against Kot Radha Kishan incident on Sunday.

FAISALABAD: School children performing in a tableau at the Arts Council during a function in connection with Iqbal Day.

NASIB SHAH SHINWARI

LANDIKOTAL—On the call of all Christiancommunity in Pakistan, Christian commu-nity in Landikotal here on Sunday also helda protest demonstration against killing ofChristian couple in the province of Punjab.

Holding banners and placards inscribedwith slogans against the killing of minoritycouple by brick kiln owner and a mob ofpeople some days before in the town ofKot Radha Kishan near Lahore city.

The protesters in the leadership of AllChristian community chairman ArshadMasih and leaders Fanyaz Sultan and Wil-son wazeer marched peacefully inLandikotal bazar and demanded the au-thorities to punish the killers involved inkilling the Christian couple.

The leaders and activists of minoritygroup demanded the authorities to protectthe lives and property of Christian commu-nity in Pakistan.

The Christians threaten if the murderswere not arrested; they would launch coun-

try wide demonstrations.It is to mention here that some days

before the a mob of people killed a Chris-tians couple namely Shama And Shezad bybeating them and burning their bodies inbrick kiln. The owner of brick kiln blamedthe couple for blasphemy of HazratMuhammad(Peace be upon him) and burn-ing the holy book of Quran.

The couple identified as Shehzad Masihand Shama Bibi were burnt alive by a mobafter being accused of committing blas-phemy.

It is said that a owner of a furnaceblamed the Christian couple of committingblasphemy over a monetary dispute. Ear-lier, Police had arrested several people saidto be involved in the crime.

Life in many neighboring areas has beenparalyzed after the tragic incident whereascurfews have been imposed in many differ-ent areas as well.

The social, religious and minoritygroups across the country have condemnedthe incident.

Christians protest KotRadha Kishan tragedy

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—While the governmenthas been striving to promote a healthysociety through an effective networkof facilities and services all over thetribal belt, the FATA Developmentplanners associated with health sec-tor have chalked out a comprehen-sive plan for improving health deliv-ery system in the Federally Adminis-trative Tribal Areas (FATA), with atotal budgetary allocation of Rs.1664.037 million for the current fiscal-2014-15 with main focus on comple-tion of the ongoing health schemes.

In fact, the Health bosses in theFATA Secretariat under the especialdirectives of the Additional Chief Sec-retary FATA Mohammad Azam Khan,have been putting their best to bringsubstantial improvement in the de-livery of health facilities keeping inmind the tribesmen common com-plaints of lack of doctors, state of theart facilities and medicines in the hos-pitals in the tribal agencies and thatis why lucrative packages are beingoffered to the doctors to fill the va-cant posts of medical offices in thehealth facilities all over the Tribal belt.

Health sector in FATA would re-ceive 10.83 percent of the total devel-opment outlay amounting toRs.15.372 billion which is the thirdhighest allocations after Educationand Communication sectors. Thehealth budget is being spent on 51ongoing and 39 new schemes in thecurrent financial year for whichRs.1028.872 million and Rs.635.165million have been allocated respec-tively.

The Federal PSDP 2014-15 docu-ments revealed that the allocation forFATA has been pitched at Rs.19.00billion. After deduction of rupee coveri.e.Rs.1.920 billion foreign aid compo-nent and Rs.1.708 billion for FATADevelopment Authority, the net de-velopment budget disbursableamong tribal agencies and FRs isRs.15.372 billion

The Fata health ADP program fo-cuses on 60 percent ongoing and 40percent new schemes. Say the offi-cial sources. The FATA ADP has beendesigned with special focus on FATASustainable Development Plan andPost Conflict Need Assessment(PCNA). The budget would focus onprovision of health, education facili-

ties along with development of exist-ing infrastructure in Fata.

The agency wise break up inhealth sector for 2014-15 are Bajaurto get Rs.183.601 million, Mohmandagency Rs.171.671 million, KhyberRs.175.165 million, FR PeshawarRs.14.078 million, Kurram agencyRs.78.002 million, Orakzai Rs.41.929million, FR Kohat Rs.11.336 million,North Waziristan Rs.96.475 million,FR Bannu 11.276 million, FR LakkiMarwat Rs.5.316 million, SouthWaziristan Rs.162.591 million FR TankRs.14 million and FR D I KhanRs37.069 million.Under All FATA Program, as many as16 new schemes in health sector havebeen proposed for 2014 -15 includ-ing strengthening of health director-ates, establishment of comprehen-sive eye care services in Fata, physi-cal rehabilitation centers, improve-ment in existing health facilities,launching of hepatitis control pro-gram phase-11, establishment ofthalassemia centers in AHQ hospi-tals, up-gradation of family welfarecentre, mobile hospitals program, So-larization of existing AHQ and THQhospitals, TB control program and

award of scholarships to tribal medi-cal students.

Similarly sixteen ongoingschemes would be completed underall FATA program three in Khyberagency, five in Mohmand, four in FRD I Khan, five in South Waziristan,three in North Waziristan and five inKurram agency in the current fiscal.

Of the total 39 new schemes pro-posed in ADP 2014-15, nine wouldbe initiated under all FATA pro-grams, and the rest 30 in the respec-tive tribal agencies on need basis.South Waziristan agency toppedthe list of new schemes with thir-teen projects, Bajaur, Mohmand andOrakzai agencies to get two newschemes each and all FRs will getone each new schemes in the cur-rent fiscal year.

The Fata health planners haveproposed strengthening of health de-livery system in tribal region, facilita-tion in polio eradication program,strengthening of EPI program, spe-cial package for health staffers, healthnutrition setup in FRs, standardiza-tion of dentistry in AHQ hospitals andincentives for nursing students ofFATA.

FATA health delivery system plan on cards

FAISAL KHAWER BUTT

SIALKOT—The 137th birth anniversary ofone of great Muslim philosopher poets ofthe 20th century known as the Poet of theEast and the architect of the ideology ofPakistan, Allama Muhammad Iqbal wasobserved in Sialkot,with national zeal andfervor on Sunday, like in the rest of the coun-try.

A number of ceremonies were held inthe city under the auspices of various liter-ary, social, political and religious organiza-tion in this regard.

At the “Iqbal Manzil”, the ancestralhome and birth place of Iqbal in MuhallahKshmirian, so many ceremonies were heldby the Eden Lions Club, Sialkot HistoricalSociety, Sialkot Chamber of Commerce andIndustry (SCCI), Tehreek e Aiwan e Iqbal,District Government and others in whichbirthday cakes were cut.

In the ceremonies, Maj General Amir

Aslam Khan, MPAs, DCO Sialkot NadeemSarwar, Lion Arif Khawar Butt, ex-MinisterAzad Kashmir Hamid Raza, MuhammadWaseem, Kh Ishtaiq, Malik Furaqn, anilSarfraz, Sheikh Qaiser and many others paidgreat tribute to the “thinker of Pakistan”and later offered their prayers at the gravesof the parents of Allama Iqbal in historicgraveyard of Imam Sahib and laid flowersover there. Meanwhile hundreds of people,local and from other cities, visited IqbalManzil all day to pay homage to the na-tional poet.

It is worth mentioning that the IqbalManzil had been declared as a national heri-tage in 1970 by the then government andlater it was converted into a museum wheresome pictures of Iqbal and the utensils andsome other articles used by Iqbal are dis-played. The condition of the house is dete-riorating continuously and the local socialcircles have demanded serious steps onurgent basis to preserve it.

Iqbal’s birth anniversaryobserved with national zeal

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD—Patron-in-chief ofPakistan Hindu Council and Member Na-tional Assembly, Dr. Ramesh KumarVankwani has proposed establishment of acommittee under Prime Minister NawazSharif to prevent increased atrocitiesagainst minorities and to ensure formationof a violence-free society for promoting re-ligious harmony.

The suggestion was unanimously en-dorsed in an urgent meeting called by ex-ecutive body of Pakistan Hindu Council onSunday, which also assigned Dr Rameshthe task to contact other representativeparties in this regard, said a press state-ment. According a press statement, themeeting was chaired by Chela Ram Kewlanito review mounting atrocities against Mi-norities across the country.

Condemnation of brutal killing of inno-cent Christian couple was exclusively addedin meeting agenda. In the context of recentkidnapping of Hindu citizens, particularlyof minor girl Anjali from Dherki, Kiran fromNawab Shah and Jeoti from Hyderabad, theparticipants highly demanded Prime Min-ister and Provincial Chief Ministers toimplement an effective and practical legis-lation to protect Minorities Rights, adding

PHC demands establishment ofInterfaith Harmony committee

that interfaith harmony and Hindu MarriageActs were need of time.

Chela Ram while expressing his viewssaid that oppressed Minorities saw a ray ofhope with the Supreme Court Orders to pro-tect Minorities rights, but unfortunatelystate institutes while following their rou-tine negligible approach became fail for theimplementation, adding that minorities arestill as vulnerable as they were one and ahalf year ago, till today land mafia is activetowards Religious places occupation andkidnapping of Hindu Girls is still happen-ing.

He regretted that Minorities were alsobecoming hopeless with the Current Gov-ernment. At this occasion, Dr Ramesh Kumarsaid, Constitution of Pakistan guarantedMinorities Rights. He urged that peoplewould be made aware of Quaiz e AzamMohammad Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistanspeech delivered at the occasion of PakistanConstitutional Assembly on 11 August 1947,where he clearly said, it’s the first duty ofstate to take care of the welfare of citizen,minorties’ rights should be protected with-out discrimination. He emphasized thatPakistan’s national poet Allama Iqbal wasalso in support of a welfare state.—NNI

738 POs arrestedKHANEWAL—The districtpolice in a special campaignagainst criminals have ar-rested 738 Proclaimed Offend-ers (POs) during last month(October).

This was stated by DPOMuhammad Ayaz Saleemwhile talking to media here onSunday.

He said, during campaingthe police arrested 86 illegalweapon holders and recov-ered 13 clashincoves, 46 pis-tols 30-bore, 16 guns, fiverifles, one repeater, two re-volvers and hundreds of bul-lets from their possession.Multan: Police claimed onSunday to have arrested 16criminals including 11 pro-claimed offenders (POs) dur-ing separate raids across thedistrict.

According to officialsources, police conductedraids at various locationsand arrested 11 proclaimedoffenders.

Police also apprehendedtwo drug peddlers and threeillegal weapons holderswhile recovered 10 litre of li-quor.—APP

Four killed inaccidents

FAISALABAD—A womanwas killed in an accidentnear Chenab club chowk incivil lines police limits onSunday.

According to police,Manzooran Bibi was cross-ing the road near Chenabclub chowk when a car hither. As a result she receivedinjuries and was shifted tohospital but she succumbedto the injuries. Meanwhile,a young man was killed byrivals in the area of Garhpolice on Sunday.

According to police,Farzand Ali (30) of MauzaBhanda had enmity withRamzan and Jada. Today,Murtaza, Muhammad Ashrafand Nawaz along with theiraccomplices came toFarzand Ali’s house andopened indiscriminate firingat him.

As a result he receivedserious bullet injuries anddied on spot.

The police took the bodyinto its custody and startedinvestigation. A youth waskilled and another sustainedinjuries in an accdient inSadar Jaranwala police lim-its on Sunday.

According to police, aspeedy tractor hit a wall nearSain Di Khohi which fell onyouth Abdul Hammed andAbdul Jabbar. As a resultAbdul Hameed died on thespot while Abdul Jabbar wasshifted to hospital in criticalcondition.

The police took the bodyinto its custody and startedinvestigation. While, a cy-clist was killed in an acci-dent in Sadar police limitshere on Sunday.

According to police,Muhammad Sardar Malik ofMakkoana was going on acycle when a speedy motor-cycle hit him near Central Jailat Jaranwala road here. As aresult, Sardar received seri-ous injuries and died onspot.

The police took the bodyinto its custody and startedinvestigation.—APP

HYDERABAD—A high level meeting toreview the arrangements of 271st three-day annual Urs celebrations of great sufisaint and poet Hazrat Shah Abdul LatifBhitai will be held at the Cultural Centre,Bhitshah on November 11, 2014 underthe auspices of Sindh Culture Depart-ment.

According to announcement, themeeting will be presided over by SindhSecretary for Culture, Tourism and Antiq-uities while the heads and representativesof line departments as well as the SajjadaNaseen of Dargah Shah Abdul LatifBhitai, Deputy Commissioner and SSPMatiari will attend the meeting.—APP

Moot to review Bhittai Urs’ arrangements

Dry weatherexpected

ISLAMABAD—Mainly dryweather is expected in mostparts of the country duringnext 24 hours.However, rain

with thunderstorm is likely atfew places of Kalat divisions.

Different parts of thecountry including Islamabadreceived intermittent rain.Kalam received the highestamount of thirty-five millime-ters of rain, Lahore twenty-eight, and Dir twenty-threemillimeter rain fall was re-corded.

More rain with thunder-showers is expected at scat-tered places in Islamabad,Lahore, Faisalabad,Sargodha, and Azad Kashmirduring the next 24 hours.—Agencies

Rs13.7m earmarked forIqbal Manzil renovation

SI A L K O T—Federal gov-ernment has earmakred Rs13.7 million for the repairand renovation of IqbalManzil Sialkot, the birthplace of poet, philosopherAllama Muhammad Iqbal.

Official sources toldAPP here Sunday that un-der the programme specialattention would be fo-cused on maintaining origi-nality of Iqbal Manzil andto protect it from furtherdamage.

Apart from this largenumber of books written onIqbal by different authorshave also been added intoLibrary of Iqbal Manzil.

Similarly, provincialgovernment has also final-ized a plan for the repair andrenovation of Iqbal Manzil.Under the proposed plan a“Museum” will be estab-lished at Iqbal Manzil for

displaying different articlesbelonging to Allama Iqbaland rare books written byvarious authors on Iqbal.

Meanwhile, literarycircles have demanded ofthe district administrationto take steps for the removalof encroachments for wid-ening the road leading toIqbal Manzil to facilitate thevisitors especially diplo-mats. Under the new de-sign, the government alsoannounced its decision toestablish a parking stand,an Iqbal library includingseveral philosophical texts,and a research cen`The government originallyintended to purchase sev-eral houses surroundingthe Iqbal Manzil to pre-serve this national heritagebut the plan was foiled asthe owners of the housesrefused to sell. —APP

Sino-Pak relationsget deeper and widerUNPARALLELED relations between Pakistan and China got another

boost following Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s talks with ChinesePresident Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang and the signing of 19

agreements and MoUs that would involve an investment of $ 42 billion.The new agreements pave the way for China’s state owned companies tohelp build four new power stations in Pakistan while the deals also coverthe supply and mining of coal.

There were high hopes of taking the Sino-Pak relationship to newzenith during the planned visit of President Xi Jinping to Pakistan whichwas cancelled due to sit-ins by PAT and PTI but the successful visit of thePrime Minister has more than covered the losses. The Chinese leadershipdescribed the two countries as “iron friends”, all weather partners andreiterated to continue to support Pakistan in developing economy andmaintaining stability. What is more worth mentioning is that the wholeinvestment is being made by China and there is no loan or aid for theenergy projects. This investment by China in energy including nuclearpower plants and on the deep water port of Gwadar, which China is de-veloping and other infrastructure projects is more than double to what theChinese President agreed to invest in India. That is reflective of keeninterest of Chinese leadership to help take Pakistan out of the energycrisis and give a stimulus to economy of the close neighbour that has beensuffering for the last several years. We may say that the Sino-Pak friend-ship is not one sided but Nawaz Sharif during the talks pledged to helpBeijing fight militants in China’s north western province of Xinjing andsupported the Chinese view point on core issues from Taiwan and Tibetto human rights. He said Pakistan will also increase its coordination withChina on Afghanistan too so as to jointly maintain regional peace andstability. In addition the Prime Minister held meeting with Chairman ofBank of China and other investors during which he highlighted the prom-ising investment prospects in Pakistan and invited them to tap into vi-brant Pakistani market. We would say with certainty that visit of the PrimeMinister to China was highly rewarding which deepened and widened therelations and the need is that agreements signed should be implementedon fast track basis so that energy crisis is resolved at the earliest.

Bhagwandas says Noand emerges taller

IN this age where all and every body is in a race to grab top jobs throughfair and foul means, former Supreme Court Judge Rana Bhagwandas has

refused to accept the coveted post of Chief Election Commissioner. JusticeBhagwandas is considered as one of the few who can be counted on fingerswho have earned respect for their steadfastness, delivered justice on meritand never took sides or submitted to pressures.

Though senior PPP leader Senator Mian Raza Rabbani met the formerjudge at his residence and during the 90-minute long meeting tried topersuade him to accept the coveted post but he did not budge and latertold reporters that he declined the offer on personal grounds and pointedout that the Election Commission is not an autonomous and independentinstitution as we see in neighbouring country. The CEC is one of the topconstitutional posts which are focus of attention and carry lot of perksand privileges. The refusal by Justice Bhagwandas means a lot for differ-ent reasons and he has thus emerged still taller. One can assume that hemight have taken the decision keeping in view the circumstances underwhich the former CEC Fakhruddin G Ibrahim, also a clean man andcountry’s most respected jurist, had to resign after May 11, 2013 elec-tions. Holding of elections in Pakistan is not an easy task and unless anduntil the Election Commission enjoys full autonomy it cannot deliver.One hopes that the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms wouldcome out with unanimous recommendations acceptable to all the politicalparties inside and outside Parliament to ensure that the future electionsare held in a transparent and orderly manner and no one could raise anaccusing finger. For this, constitutional amendments would have to bemade to make Election Commission autonomous and there is no interfer-ence of any sort from any quarter. Unless that is ensured, the countrywould continue to witness allegations and protests over fairness of thepolls which could rain democracy and fair name of Pakistan.

Modi may listento Jethmalani

EVERY Head of State and Government in Pakistan since Quaid-e-AzamMohammad Ali Jinnah has been striving hard to have good neighbourly

relations with India and the incumbent Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wentan extra mile to have deeper understanding with India and its new PrimeMinister. But the cancellation of Foreign Secretary level talks in Augustlast on the orders of Narendra Modi came as a great disappointment forMian Nawaz Sharif.

By cancelling the talks, Mr Modi wanted to tell Pakistan that its am-bassador in New Delhi can no longer talk to the Kashmir’s Hurriyet leader-ship. It was not as if Pakistan’s envoy did anything new or unusual. Thiskind of conversation had been a routine by both sides for over two decades.The new move tells Pakistan, and the Kashmiris, that a political door hasbeen forcibly shut. And force, as anyone knows, especially someone usu-ally as astute as Narender Modi, does not yield dividends anywhere. It hasn’tin Kashmir, it certainly won’t in the future. This is not for the first time thatIndia is avoiding serious talks on Kashmir. A former BJP MP and eminentlawyer Ram Jethmalani has shown courage and disclosed that former Presi-dent Pervez Musharraf came to India with a firm and honest intention andpresented a four point formula for a permanent settlement of Kashmir issueand confessed that the efforts of the Pakistani leader were frustrated byIndia. Mr Jethmalani also suggested that the Indian army’s presence in theState has to be terminated as soon as possible. We wish Indian Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi should listen to Ram Jethmalani because a stage hascome when issue of right of self determination of Kashmiris and their voicebe heard because there cannot be peace in the region unless the lingeringdispute is resolved according to the aspirations of the Kashmiris.

New phase of Pak-China ties

The priceof peace

THE arrest of four suspectedIslamist terrorists, amidfears of a Remembrance

Sunday plot, is a reminder that theprice of liberty is eternal vigi-lance. Maintaining a strong de-fence is the best way to save livesand discourage conflict. Historyis a constant reminder of how, sooften, peace and freedom havehad to be fought for.

This Remembrance Sunday,we honour our war dead, medi-tating upon the incredible courageof those who have laid down theirlives for their country. They didso not out of thirst for war but inpursuit of eventual peace – andtheir deaths are marked by thesolemn promise of “never again”.For the relative security thattoday’s generation enjoys, weshould be eternally grateful tothose who once shed blood toachieve it. As well as greaterpeace, the world also now enjoysgreater freedom.

Tomorrow marks the anniver-sary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.It was the largest symbol of a con-tinent divided against itself bycommunism – an oppressive sys-tem that denied the fundamentalnature of man and had to be heldtogether by force of arms. It col-lapsed because it was unsustain-able, and also because foreignleaders – such as MargaretThatcher and Ronald Reagan –had the strength to oppose it whilethose living under its yoke had thebravery to defy it. Countless liveswere lost in the cells of the secretpolice because people were tooruggedly, honestly human to ac-cept the straitjacket of Marxism.Much as the courage of soldiersdying for their country inspires us,so too does the determination ofthe anti-communist dissenter. Ittakes will and great sacrifice tobuild a better world. To those menand women who dedicated them-selves to others so selflessly onthe battlefields of the past, we owean enormous debt.— The Telegraph

*****

Pakistanmust stopmilitant

attacks onpolio

workers

PAKISTAN’S Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decisionto set up a steering commit-

tee that will devise ways to eradi-cate polio in six months in thecountry is commendable but itwill not work on its intent alone.What Sharif needs to do is edu-cate people on the devastatingimpact of polio and the need forvaccinations, particularly in thecountry’s remote and inaccessibleareas such as the north-westwhere lack of knowledge is mak-ing people fall prey to militantpropaganda and terrorist threats.

Militant attacks on polioworkers have killed more than 60people in the last two years, cre-ating a huge setback for Pakistanin its fight against polio. Accord-ing to World Health Organisationfigures, this year alone 220 poliocases were registered in Pakistanand global humanitarian fundingorganisations like the Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation — thathas pledged $37 million for polioeradication by 2018 — are ex-pressing anxiety about possiblymissing their deadline due toPakistan’s inability to controlmilitant interventions. For Sharifto succeed in his goal and make adifference to the lives ofPakistan’s children, he needs tofinds solutions to this problem atmultiple levels. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

THE historical visit of PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif toPeople’s Republic of China

has earned for Pakistan a huge Chi-nese investment to the tune of over$35 billion. Indeed, China and Pa-kistan were sign on a number ofagreements in the middle of Sep-tember 2014. However, owing topostponement of ChinesePresident’s scheduled visit, thereagreements are now signed be-tween both countries in Beijing.Major agreements signed betweenPakistan and China during this visitof Pakistani Premier include; Eco-nomic and Technical CooperationAgreement, Framework Agree-ment on Provision of ConcessionalLoan by China to Pakistan, Gov-ernment Concessional Loan Agree-ment on Construction of Cross-bor-der Optical Fiber Cable System forInternational Connectivity of Voice/Data Traffic Project, and Frame-work Facility Agreement on Suki-Kinari Hydro Power Project be-tween China EXIM Bank and Suki-Kinari Hydro Power Project.

Being the largest trading part-ner of Pakistan, the current level ofSino-Pak bilateral trade is $15 bil-lion. China is the second largestexport destination of Pakistan, fol-lowing United States. Chinese Pre-mier promised his Pakistanicounter-part that, his country is allset to establish “a community ofcommon destiny” with itsneighbour. In the field of powergeneration, Chinese companies willinstall and invest in twenty-oneprojects in various parts of thecountry. Together, these projectswill add 16520 MW of electricity,thus, substantially making the en-ergy short fall in the country. PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif while ex-

A world worried about aging?

ONE often comes acrosspieces in the media of theThird World stressing the

fact that several developing coun-tries are ‘youth-heavy’, in thatyoung people constitute the major-ity of their populations. The FirstWorld, on the other hand, is wor-ried about the ‘problem’ of aging.Looking at the world as a whole,this does represent a paradox if everthere was one.

This country figures in the cat-egory of young entities in moresenses than one. It is young in viewof its year of creation; it is more sowhen one looks at its ever bloomingpopulation. But more about that later!

As far back as public memorygoes, man has been relentlesslysearching for the secret of long life.For some obscure reason, death evenat a ripe old age holds a terror formost people. This is particularly trueof persons who have led a blissfullife, mainly at the expense of theirless endowed fellow beings.

Scientific researchers, by thesame token, have bent their ener-gies towards discovering the elu-sive secret of living longer. Scien-tific research in this field , coupledwith developments in the fields ofmedicine and nutrition, have re-sulted in a dramatic rise in life ex-

The sublime and theridiculous are oftenso nearly related thatit is difficult to classthem separately. Onestep above thesublime makes theridiculous, and onestep above theridiculous makes the sublime again.

pectancy, especially in themore prosperous regions ofthis blessed planet.

So far so good! Life ex-pectancy, thereby, has beenpushed up a few notches;but to what end and forwhat purpose? By the ben-efit of hindsight, one can-not help noticing that this

single-minded quest for long life hasbeen pursued singularly with hardlya sense of purpose. This realizationnow appears to be coming home tohaunt the planners of the First World.

In the First World, allied to thesingle-minded determination to havepeople live longer, was the drive toreduce the birth rate. These two de-velopments have contributed to astate of affairs in which old peopleare set to outnumber the young,sooner than anyone expected. Someyears ago, the Center for Interna-tional and Strategic Studies, a pub-lic-policy Think Tank in Washing-ton, had raised the alarm. Global‘aging’, falling fertility, untenablepension costs with fewer tax pay-ers to support them and financialmarket chaos as developed coun-tries ‘grow old’ were cited as causesfor serious concern. This model,though, was not relevant to most ofthe developing states.

It was given out that human lifeexpectancy has made greater gainsin the past fifty years or so than inthe last five thousand years. But, thisis only half the tale. It would appearthat the planners may need to con-front what may appear to be a boonbut may prove to be a bane. Statis-tics in this regard make interestingreading. In developed countries, for

instance, the percentage of popula-tion aged over sixty-five is due torise to twenty-seven by 2050, asagainst fifteen at the turn of the cen-tury. Japan is already way ahead interms of its graying population.

The question that presents itself,begging for an answer is: where doesthe world go from here; and, whatis more relevant, where do the de-veloping countries like the Land ofthe Pure fit into the model? All inall, the growing percentage of theaged spells disaster not only fromthe economic but also from the eco-logical point of view. It just goes toprove that that man’s efforts to goone up on nature are, at best, ill-ad-vised. Nature has devised an opti-mum balance in everything and manwould do well not to make ham-handed attempts to upset it.

Developing countries like theLand of the Pure are at the receiv-ing end. Nothing seems to go right.As the events of the past few weekshave shown, even having a surfeitof young people has its drawbacks.Young people are restive and impa-tient. They want everything accom-plished in double quick time. Spar-ing time to contemplate appears tothem a waste of precious moments.The secret would lie somewherebetween the impatient yearnings ofthe young and the slow and steadyapproach of the seniors. How toreach the optimum is no easy task!

While the young have theirstrong points, among them enthusi-asm and fresh ideas reinforced bythe latest technology, but what mustnot be lost sight of is that there is nosubstitute for experience. It is expe-rience that teaches humankind how

pressing his satisfaction over theagreed Chinese investment in thepower sector of Pakistan said that,“Pakistan’s divine can be changedby overcoming power crises.” Simi-larly, he expressed that, poverty anddeprivation, currently unbridled inthe country, can be substantially re-duced after completion of theseprojects. Furthermore, these projectswill prove a great help in overcom-ing the unemployment in Pakistan.There will be massive industrializa-tion in the country, after provisionof cheap and uninterrupted electric-ity in the country.

Apart from signing over twentyagreements, pacts and MoUs, bothcountries agreed to vigorously per-suade the strategically significantChina Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC), connecting Gwadar port ofPakistan with Kashgar in China’sXinjiang Uygur autonomous region.A MoU, outlining the Long-TermPlan of CPEC, Capacity Building forDevelopment of CPEC betweenNDRC of China and Ministry ofPlanning of Pakistan was alsosigned. The idea of a trade and en-ergy corridor between Pakistan andChina is decades old. However, fol-lowing the commencement of devel-opmental work on Gwadar port in2001/2, Government of Pakistanunder former President PervaizMusharraf seriously concentrated onthe prospects of the corridor andconducted many surveys and stud-ies in order to find out the feasibil-ity of this corridor.

Indeed, the idea of building acommercial port at Gwadar was ini-tially conceived in 1964. However,owing to the lack of requisite fi-nances and expertise, the project re-mained unimplemented for theselong years. In 2001, China agreedto invest in the development ofGwadar Port. The port was devel-oped with the basic concept ofstimulating the economic growth inthe northern and western parts of

Pakistan. Besides, the port was alsoaimed at providing the shortest pos-sible approach to Arabian Sea for theWestern region of China, the land-locked Central Asian Republics andAfghanistan for their trans-shipmentfacilities. By virtue of its strategiclocation, the Gwadar port is a placeof great strategic value, giving tre-mendous boost to Pakistan’s impor-tance in entire Asia. It allows Paki-stan to extend an influence from thePersian Gulf through the IndianOcean to Southeast Asia.

The Gwadar deep-sea port hasthe potential to remain operativethroughout the year and can handlelarge ships. Being a hub between en-ergy efficient and energy deficientcountries, it can facilitate both Chinaand India in connecting them withenergy rich Middle East and Cen-tral Asia. Since, February 2013,Chinese government-owned ChinaOverseas Port Holdings Ltd is ad-ministering the operationalization ofthe Gwadar Port. It will spend over$10 billion for the development ofinfrastructure which will connect theport with various regions within Pa-kistan. Whereas the strategically lo-cated Gwadar port is primarilymeant for the economic and socio-political needs of Pakistan, wouldalso provide an easy excess toChina for the overland transporta-tion of its energy resources fromGulf and Central Asia. It wouldgive Chinese western autonomousregion; Xinjiang an easy excess tothe Arabian Sea, thus opening newvistas for the development and eco-nomic prosperity of the entire re-gion. Chinese Prime Minister, whoinitiated (indeed backed) the ideaof CPEC during his visit of Paki-stan in May 2013, called the projectas, a “flagship” project tostrengthen China’s connectivitywith neighbouring countries.

The development of Gwadarport and idea of CPEC has invitedlot of direct speculative criticism

from India and indirect criticismfrom United States and west. TheIndian and western media hurriedlypropagated that, “China harboursthe intention to build naval basesthere.” Indeed, a recommencementof the old jargon, ‘String of Pearlsconcept’ that China rejected timesand again. Besides, some regionalMuslim states provoked by Indiashown their concern that, onceGwadar Port is fullyoperationalized, their ports maylose their economic significance.Under these assertions, theadversarial forces, opposing theport have directly or indirectly con-tributed towards the destabilizationof the province of Balochistan.Local Baloch population was pro-voked in the name of Baloch sub-nationalism that their rights overtheir own land are being compro-mised by the Federal Government.

The huge Chinese investment,as agreed during the visit of PrimeMinister Sharif, will help Pakistanin overcoming its economic crisesand financial losses, it suffered overthe last thirteen years. These bilat-eral agreements for the promotionof economic prosperity will indeedbenefit both countries in the devel-opment of free and special eco-nomic zones. The deprived and ig-nored areas on either side will bedeveloped along the CPEC to ben-efit the local populace. SinceGwadar would be conduit or hubfor both economies and energy,therefore, the CPEC will facilitateother regional countries like Indiathrough shortest possible landroute. It is desired that, India andother regional countries shouldadopt a cooperative approach ratherdestabilizing the province, asCPEC and operationalization ofGwadar port will provide equalopportunities of economic prosper-ity to them in the coming decades.— The writer is Islamabad-basedanalyst of International Relations.

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Weekly Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 2852027-8, Ext: 116Email: magazinesocialdiary@hotmail.com

—Thomas Paine British writer

to avoid pitfalls that could lead todisaster and how to temper their de-cisions with circumspection andgood sense. The young are by defi-nition impetuous and rash. Amiddle path is what is or, at leastshould be, advisable.

The developed countries thatare worried about ‘global aging’have a point. But, then, this is theprice they have to pay for tinker-ing with the laws of nature. Nature,left to itself, always tends to de-velop a balance of sorts that keepsthings in check. Mankind in its un-bridled enthusiasm moves in a wayas to upset this balance, thus set-ting in motion events that are be-yond its control. Nature should al-ways be treated with the respectthat it deserves. Mankind in its turnneeds to be aware of its limitationsand not attempt to transgress them.

On another note, there are al-ways exceptions to the rule. Whileon this subject, one must not over-look the case of those regions ofthe world that are naturally knownfor longevity. Hunza Valley in Pa-kistan is one such area. But if onelooks at it closely nature has its ownfine-tuning mechanism that is miss-ing in the efforts of the scientificresearchers. In places like HunzaValley, nature has assured that ro-bust good health goes with longev-ity. Most of the aged residents ofHunza Valley – quite a few of themover 100 years of age – remain ac-tive workers and thus no burden onsociety. Can the scientific commu-nity match that?— The writer is a former ambas-sador and former assistant secre-tary general of OIC.

Khalid SaleemEmail: binwakeel@yahoo.com

Friendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly Fire

Dr Muhammad Khan Email: drmk_edu@yahoo.com

Voice of the People

Insecure infantsALI NAQVI

Life of human being is the mostvaluable thing on this earth. Butour own people are on the vergeof doing damage to it. The NICH(National Institute of Child health)is the largest government runhealth facility for the infant chil-dren. Being the largest infanthealth facilitator, it is their respon-sibility to have a proper powersubstitute arrangement in case ofany power failure situation. Butthe conditions are getting worsehere as no possible backup hasbeen shown yet. Due to load shed-ding NICH failed to provide oxy-gen due to which 4 children diedin incubators.

They returned to their Masterwithout observing the world out-side. This is such a big problem thatif alternate power could not be ar-ranged in time more infants’ livecould be on stake. They must ar-range appropriate alternate powersystems which can prevent suchincidents happening in future andimportant lives can be saved.—Karachi

Mysterious deathof Nabiha Ch

SYED MUNIB ULLAH FARID

Having known this iron lady forseven years and being inspired byher work and passion for Pakistan,the news of her death came as a bigshock for me. But what came as agreater surprise was the fact thatofficials declared it as a suicide onmedia within 30 minutes of herdeath with no sound forensic proofor proper investigation.

Her family has repeatedly re-jected these reports and have calledfor a free and fair inquiry into thecircumstances leading to her death.In meetings with the concerned of-ficials in Lahore, they shared de-tails of messages that Nabiha hadsent to her friends stating that shewas upset because of some un-known guy calling her from vari-ous different numbers - just one daybefore the incident.

Despite keeping the mobilephone, laptops etc in their custodyfor more than 3 weeks – the policehas not yet been able to identify thedetails of this unknown numberfrom the call records. Neither havethese belongings and other recordsbeen shared with the family. Also,her under training batch-mates havebeen issued a warning by CSPacademy not to talk to anybody re-garding the case.

Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharifis requested to personally look intothis matter and push the membersof the committee , that he had ear-lier constituted, to cooperate andshare their findings with the de-ceased family.—Texas, USA

Appointmentof CEC

MUKHTAR BUTT

I could not resist temptation towrite something about appointmentof Chief Election Commissioner(CEC) after seeing beautiful andwell meaning cartoon in PakistanObserver on Nov 8.. The cartoondepicts poor state of governanceand uphill task to nominate CECfrom 200 million people. The na-tion is sure on one thing that newCEC is gentleman because he iswearing shoes; otherwise it couldhave been any body’s guess. CEChas once again become a major is-sue amongst various stake holders.So far 6 candidates names havesurfaced all are retired Chief Jus-tices and Justices.

Justice Fakharuddin G Ibrahimwas appointed CEC in 2012 whenhe was at the age of 84 years. Therehas been lot of criticism against himdue to his age factor because thejob of CEC is pretty tough and be-comes tough for older people. Out

IMF slavery hurting Pakistani economyALI ASHRAF KHAN

Again the West is trying to attack Pakistani resources this time of oil and gas. Obviously underpressure from the IMF to qualify for the next tranche of loan the PML(N) government, though

deferred the decision due to stiff opposition, wanted to sell off 10% shares of the OGDCL thusgiving international buyers a total foothold in Pakistan’s oil and gas industry. This is anotherincident of political gimmick that goes against Pakistan’s national interest and serves the West andour growing dependency on Western dominated money like IMF and World Bank. Though theChairman of Privatisation Commission, M. Zubair has been trying to sell the move as ‘simpleoffloading of shares’ and not privatization the fact remains that Pakistan is giving away controlover its natural resources to who knows whom for money that will be lost in the dark channels ofcorrupted economy. While past governments justified privatisation by telling us that loss-makingunits have to be privatized because then they will become profit making – even that is wrongbecause the profit will go to the new owners and not to Pakistanis as the sell-out of KESC hasshown and is showing each and every day, when ownership is perhaps changing between campfollowers of two beneficiary parties under NRO. But even this excuse is not there in this casebecause the OGDCL is a profit-making unit. It produces 55% of local oil and 28% of gas as Sena-tor Raza Rabbani highlighted in a recent press conference. The sell-out – even when disguised asoffloading - of national assets is another proof that this government, as previous ones, has nocommitment to the national interest of Pakistan but just to their own personal interests.—Karachi

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View From Abroad

US government up for sale

THE dominating significanceof the midterm American legislative elections just finished

has been the occasion’s dramaticconfirmation of the corruption ofthe American electoral system. Thishas two elements, the first being itsmoney corruption, unprecedentedin American history, and withoutparallel in the history of major mod-ern Western democracies. How canAmericans get out of this terriblesituation, which threatens to be-come the permanent condition ofAmerican electoral politics?

The second significance of thiselection has been the debasementof debate to a level of vulgarity,misinformation and ignorance that,while not unprecedented in US po-litical history, certainly attainednew depths and extent. This disas-trous state of affairs is the productof two Supreme Court decisionsand before that, of the repeal underthe Reagan Administration, of theprovision in the Federal Commu-nications Act of 1934, stipulatingthe public service obligations ofradio (and subsequently television)broadcasters in exchange for thegovernment’s concession of the freeuse in their businesses of the pub-lic airways.

These rules required broadcast-ers to provide “public interest” pro-gramming, including the coverage ofelectoral campaigns for public officeand the independent examination ofpublic issues. The termination ofthese requirements made possiblethe wave of demagogic and partisanright-wing “talk radio” that since hasplagued American broadcasting andmuddied electoral politics.

Those readers old enough to re-member the radio and early televi-sion broadcasting of pre-Reagan

America will recall the non-parti-san news reports and summariesprovided by the national networksand by local stations in the UnitedStates. There were, of course, popu-lar news commentators professingstrong or idiosyncratic views aswell, but the industry assured thata variety of responsible opinionswere expressed, and that blatantfalsehood was banned or corrected.

The two Supreme Court deci-sions were “Buckley v. Valeo” in1976 and “Citizens United v. theFederal Election Commission” in2010. Jointly they have transformedthe nature of the American politi-cal campaign, and indeed the na-ture of American national politics.This resulted from the nature andcharacteristics of mass communi-cations in the US and the fact thatbroadcasting has from the begin-ning been all but totally a commer-cial undertaking (unlike the statebroadcasters in Canada and Britain,and nearly all of Europe).

The two decisions turned politi-cal contests into competitions incampaign advertising expenditureon television and radio. The elec-tion just ended caused every Ameri-can linked to the Internet to be bom-barded by thousands (or whatseemed tens of thousands) of po-litical messages pleading for cam-paign money and listing the enor-mous (naturally) sums pouring intothe coffers of the enemy.

Previously the American cam-paign first concerned the candidateand the nature of his or her politi-cal platform. Friends and support-ers could, of course, contribute tocampaign funds and expenditures,but these contributions were limitedby law in scale and nature. No overtconnection was allowed betweenbusinesses or industries and majorpolitical candidates, since thiswould have implied that the candi-date represented “special interests”

rather than the general interest.The Citizens United v. Federal

Election Commission verdict iswell known and remains highlycontroversial since it rendered im-possible the imposition of legal lim-its on political campaign spending,ruling that electoral spending is anexercise in constitutionally-pro-tected free speech. Moreover, itadjudged commercial corporationsas legal citizens, in electoral mat-ters the equivalent of persons.

The court’s prohibition of leg-islation imposing such spendinglimits is responsible for the enor-mous tides of money that has sweptover recent America national elec-tions. This midterm election cam-paign is of minor importance com-pared with the presidential electionevery four years, which not onlycan but often does change the en-tire ruling apparatus of the execu-tive arm of the American govern-ment as well as the political char-acter of the US House of Represen-tatives and the Senate (since theentire House and one-third of theSenate must be elected or re-electedin every midterm).

Yet, the election just ended be-gan with a total campaign commit-ment by the contending parties andtheir corporate supporters of $4 bil-lion — and it went up from there.As journalists have noted, this was10 times the sum the US govern-ment committed to combat theEbola epidemic worldwide. Somequarter of this total consisted ofdirect campaign contributions to thecandidates and their staffs (nearlyalways provided by Washingtonresearch institutes, business corpo-rations, or other groups with directcommercial interests in future leg-islation, or by private or publicgroups lobbying in support of is-sues that they consider matters ofpublic concern).

The American government thus

William Pfaff

Laughable laws..!

NOTHING serious todayfolks! I thought we couldspend some time together

laughing at some amazing lawswhich our world offers us every-day: The first; the law of Me-chanical Repair: This law saysthat after your hands becomecoated with grease, your nose willbegin to itch! Now I’ve found thistrue whenever my hands are full!I’ve held a book during a concertand felt my nose beginning to itch,knowing that it’s impossible to putthe book down in front of audi-ence and have a good scratch!

Law of the Workshop: Any tool,when dropped, will roll to the leastaccessible corner! Why tool? In-variably when I play ball with mydog, the ball rolls to a spot whichis the most inaccessible spot underheavy furniture I can’t lift. I turnround and do I see my dog grinningat me? Law of the Telephone: Whenyou dial a wrong number, you neverget a busy signal!

Law of the Alibi: If you tell theboss you were late for work becauseyou had a flat tire, the very nextmorning you will have a flat tire!Variation Law: If you change lines,traffic lanes, the one you were inwill start to move faster than the oneyou are in now! I’ve seen this hap-pen all the time! Bath Theorem:When the body is fully immersed

in water, the telephone rings!Law of Close Encounters: The

probability of meeting someoneyou know increases when you arewith someone you don’t want to beseen with! Law of the Result: Whenyou try to prove to someone that amachine won’t work, it will! Be-lieve you me, how often I’ve seenthis happen to my computer, myprinter and even my car when I goto the mechanic!

Law of Biomechanics: The se-verity of the itch is inversely pro-portional to the reach! TheatreRule: At any event, the peoplewhose seats are furthest from theaisle arrive last! Law of Coffee: Assoon as you sit down to a cup ofhot coffee, your boss will ask youto do something which will last

until the coffee is cold!Murphy’s Law of Lockers: If

there are only two people in alocker room, they will have adja-cent lockers! Law of Dirty Rugs/Carpets: The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich of landingface down on a floor covering aredirectly correlated to the newnessand cost of the carpet/rug! Lawof Location: No matter whereyou go, there you are! Law ofLogical Argument: Anything ispossible if you don’t know whatyou are talking about! Brown’sLaw: If the shoe fits, it’s ugly!Oliver’s Law: A closed mouthgathers no feet! I take back mywords, these laws are no laugh-ing matter; they happen..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

is up for sale every four years, andan important part of it every twoyears. The members of Congressand some members of the Senate,with honourable exceptions, areup for sale every two years. Themost important political interestgroup regularly buying on thismarket, other than the gun lobby,is the American-Israel Public Af-fairs Committee, which is so suc-cessful that Israel’s President Ben-jamin Netanyahu earlier this yeartold followers in Israel that he wasno longer interested in persuadingPresident Barack Obama of hisviews because he, Netanyahu,controlled the American Congress.

The result of these develop-ments during the past 40 yearshas been the transformation of theUS into a plutocracy, which is tosay a state governed by itswealthiest class. No one inAmerica today doubts it. This isnot a constitutional issue, as thatdocument imposes age, citizen-ship and residence qualificationson candidates for election to fed-eral office, but relies upon thejudgment of the citizenry to drawits own conclusions regarding acandidate’s character and wisdom— assuming that it regards theseas important.

It is the Supreme Court thathas placed the US in this position,and while the court can and hasimplicitly reversed decisions, andcan be overruled by legislation incertain cases or by constitutionalamendment, it is difficult to seeeither course as relevant orfeasible in this situation, whosegravity is very widely accepted butwhose solution seems remote,given the society that the UnitedStates has become. The writer isan American journalist whofocuses on foreign policy issues.(www.williampfaff.com) —Courtesy: The Japan Times

New aviation policy against national interest

AS reported in the press newaviation policy has been prepared and is awaiting Cabi-

nets nod. The careful glance at theaviation policy would reveal itssole aim is to have full control overPIA, CAA and ASF by the avia-tion division undermining their au-thority. Such attempts in the pastwere also made but these were metwith failure. Unfortunately thispolicy revolves around inductingpeople at higher level with hugepay and perks and outsourcing cer-tain departments under the coverof new structure.

A new post has been createdwith the title of Chief OperatingOfficers who will exercise full con-trol over all the heads of agenciesworking at airports. The ousted DGCAA by Supreme Court to accom-modate his friend appointed two re-tired Air Vice Marshals as ChiefOperations Transition Advisors tooversee Islamabad and Multan air-port at hefty salaries over and aboveproject Directors and consultantsonly burdened the CAA withoutmaking any contribution

Ex DG CAA FarooqRahmatullah carried out restructur-ing of CAA to give corporate lookto organisation and he spent mil-lions of rupees and inducted peoplefrom outside by changing their des-ignations. Like Director Adminis-tration was named Chief HumanResource, Director Finance wasnamed as Chief Financial Officer,Director Legal as Chief Legal Ser-vices and so on so forth. DirectorAirport was named as Airport Man-agers. Unfortunately we are veryfond of new experiments without

realising its consequences. Thechanges brought by him proved tobe disastrous as more bottle neckswere created in smooth running ofCAA affairs

There is no doubt that AirportManagers had no say in the mattersof other agencies and their role wasrestricted to protocol duties andcleanliness of the airports. So muchso CAA’s own staff of other depart-ments was not answerable to him.For better coordination solutiondoes not lie in creating superfluousappointments but in streamliningthe working.The solution is verysimple without spending extrapenny or inducting new people, se-nior officers of CAA who have beensidelined for obvious reasonsshould be posted as Chief Operat-ing Officers they carry rich experi-ence of airport operations.

The heads of various agenciesworking at airports should fall un-der him only for administration andoperationally they should continueindependently as their nature of jobis very technical and most of thetime they have to take decisions onthe spot. There is no need tooutsource any department of CAAas well trained manpower is avail-able in abundance it is only theproper utilization that will bringdividends. The present mess is dueto posting of Chief Human Re-source who is a Mechanical Engi-neer and acts as robot. Secondlyoutsourcing would entail extra bur-den on CAA for which there is nojustification

The governments are run ontaxes, how it can be suggested thattax on general aviation or charterservice be done away with. Thiswill set a wrong precedence andother investors shall also seek suchrelief. On one hand you want toencourage investment and at the

same time impose restrictions onnew airline to arrange aircraft onwet lease. It is none of the prob-lem of aviation division whetherairline operates it on dry or wetlease, and imposing restriction ofminimum 5 aircraft against exist-ing requirement of 3 aircraft tan-tamount to discouraging the inves-tors. The point to understand ismore airlines more revenue to gov-ernment.

Why CAA should invest Rs 1Billion in acquiring lightweightaircraft, leave it to the investors.Large number of pilots have beentrained without involving CAA in-vestment. It is not question of ap-pointing a Major General or LtGen to head ASF, what matters isthe proper security training as perICAO requirements. When GHQand Wagha border can be attackedno place is safe, it will be the se-curity measures with state of theart equipment and proper foolproof security and SOP’s that willdeter the terrorists . No organiza-tion can be secured by just upgrad-ing the designations.

CAA’s annual earning runs be-tween Rs 60 t0 70 billions and thatis what is worrying?Out of Rs 70Billion 40 billion are earnedthrough aeronautical charges, restthrough commercial activities.Monthly salary bill is around Rs700 Million that comes to Rs 8.4billion. In fact there is need to in-vest the money in profitableprojects instead draining its re-sources by creating superfluous ap-pointments and outsourcing.

Prime Minister should inter-vene and take notice of this pro-posed aviation policy that amountsto wastage of poor people taxmoney and creates hurdle in theway of investors and is a big na-tional security threat. What is

needed is to affect improvementby appointing right people andmake all airports friendly to trav-ellers. We have sufficient surplusmanpower in CAA that can bebetter utilized. We have very se-nior competent regular officerswho are assets not only for CAAbut for the country.

What aviation division shouldaim to bring more airlines to Pa-kistan and create conditions con-ducive to investment environ-ments so that if anyone who wantsto invest in new airline his for-malities be completed in 30 daysinstead of torturing them with newobjections spread over years, theonly dilemma faced by the inves-tors irrespective where they wantto invest. Lastly the new aviationpolicy should be made public forcomments by people who contrib-ute billons of rupees annually. Thepolicy should never look or madeto look tailor made as nothing canbe hidden these days when mediaknows much more what is goingon behind the scene.

Government should revisit itsdecision and revert control ofCAA, ASF and PIA to MOD likeit was working previously, other-wise after every new change ofgovernment we will only makethe cosmetic change by changingthe organization. Secondly anyorganisation that is defence ori-ented should never be privatisedoutsourced as it will badly affectthe national security an importantaspect completely overlookedwhile proposing new policy pa-rameters. If Government is reallyinterested to improve the workingof CAA, PIA and ASF then itshould be reverted under Minis-try of defence.— The writer is Karachi-basedstrategic analyst.

Mukhtar AhmedEmail:mukhtar17@yahoo.com

of present contestants Justice RanaBhagwan Das is 62 years( has somelegal hitch) followed by JusticeTassadaq Hussain 65 and JusticeTariq Parvez 66 years and JusticeSaeed uz Zaman 77 years rest areover 80. But since this appointmentapart from age factor has politicalimplications therefore it is difficultto pin point. But if JusticeFakhruddin with 84 years could beappointed CEC so all justicesqualify, now it will depend on con-sensus who wears the crown. ButJustice Tasadaq has more chancethan others

But question arises why theCEC should be a retired judge, whynot a bureaucrat, educationist andany other category with unblem-ished record. Like USA let namesbe floated and people to commentif anything against them. This iswhat our governance is that eachtime Supreme Court is burdened tointervene in executive issues, theworld is laughing at us— Karachi

Naftali rantsand ravesSRH HASHMI

Through his article ‘For Israel, two-state is no solution’ Pakistan Ob-server (November 8) Naftali Bennet,a hard-line Israeli minister leavesreaders in no doubt as to what sortof person he is: an extremist whowants to leave no land for Palestin-ians to form a viable state with con-tiguous territory and with EastJerusalem as its capital. While thewhole world considers that settingup of a viable Palestinian state is theonly solution that could ensure du-rable peace between Palestinians andIsraelis, this beast of a man rules outthe two-state solution outright.

The man start his article talk-ing about 4,500 rockets and mor-tars fired by Hamas and their alliesat Israel, creating an impression asif this would have done enormousdamage and killed thousands of Is-raelis. He conveniently ignored thefact that most of the rockets wereeither shot down by the Iron-domemissile defence system suppliedand financed by the United Statesor else fell in empty fields, doingno damage, and Israeli civilians fa-talities totaled six people, with an-other 66 Israeli soldiers killed byHamas during land assault on Gaza,while 469 Israeli soldiers and 87civilians got wounded During theseven-week period.

During the same period,through their land, naval and air as-sault, Israelis dropped 20,000 tonsof bombs on 5,000 targets in a 360square-kilometre area that is Gaza,killing 2,191 people including 1,660civilians, and wounding 10,895 apartfrom doing exstensive damage tobuildings and infra-structure. Withthese sort of figures, the man is try-ing to convince the readers that Is-rael faces an existential threat fromHamas and if a viable Palestinianstate is created, it could wipe Israelout of existence, despite Israel be-ing militarily the most powerfulstate, and the only nuclear power inthe Middle East, whose security isalso guaranteed by the super powerAmerica. The man has the cheek tocall Mahmoud Abbas a terrorist,despite him having the reputation ofbeing most helpful person to Israel,for which reason he is disliked bymany Palestinians.

No doubt, the internationalcommunity is slowly and steadilyincreasing its support for Pales-tine. However, it needs to movemuch faster because at the pacethat Israel is continuing its illegalsettlement-building activity, andplanting in a zigzag manner in theoccupied territory, in a couple ofyears, there may not be left muchland for a viable Palestine statewith contiguous territory and EastJerusalem as its capital.

Now that international commu-nity has accepted the fact that a two-state solution is the only thing thatcould ensure lasting peace betweenIsrael and Palestine, they better takesteps to make it happen by taking

necessary step like putting pressureon Israelis to build settlements inIsrael proper instead of taking upmore and more of the Palestinianland with threat of sanctions if Is-raelis disregard their directive. Ihope the international communitydevelops a will to solve this prob-lem which is a blot on its conscienceand is responsible for a lot of mili-tancy that we see in the region andmore importantly, move fast in viewof the urgency of the situation.: timeis really of essence in the situation.—Karachi

Stop blame gameSABA KHATOON

In the past two decades, target kill-ings and bomb blast have beensteadily on the rise in Pakistan.While, the parameters of killingsare hard to define because it is in-terwoven into various social andpolitical problems. Here the ques-tion arises, who is responsible forthe current precarious situation inPakistan? Perhaps, we may blamethe government for all the wrongdoings. But the fact is that everyone of us is responsible for what ishappening today in Pakistan. Sincewe possess the same green passportas the government have.

I think all we need is to changeour mindset and recognize our duties,being a Pakistani as well as beingMuslim. As in the words of GarryHamilton many talks of duty and re-sponsibility, but few actually get it forreal. Hence, instead of pointing fin-gers, it is time to look inwards. Yetshifting the entire blame upon othersjust doesn’t cut it.

Basically, we have to convincepeople that if they change them-selves that is if we start respectingthe practices, opinions and beliefsof another group then it will con-tribute a lot. As little drops of wa-ter, make the mighty ocean. Like-wise, we need to remind the IslamicMessage of Peace and Equality,which I think we forget altogether.Otherwise today we are respectinghuman for being human not for anyother reason.—Karachi

Children andvideo games

SUNDAS HAROON

Video games have become so popu-lar among children that they haveforgotten all their physical and aca-demic activities. Once upon a time,the children used to play in the playgrounds or outside their houses intheir spare time and thus nourishedtheir physical health which resultedin their mental capabilities leading tobetter performance in studies. Butnow the play areas seem so dead be-cause of the new technologies havetaken over children’s interest.

No doubt Video games grab a lotof interest of children. In fact adultstoo play video games a lot but it’s alsosnatching one’s creativity, activenessand thinking ability. Some researchersaid ‘one who spends more than twohours playing video games a daydamages his brain; this causes lazi-ness, spoils tolerance and his mentalability ceases.

It’s the parental duty to haveproper check on their kids. Theyshouldn’t allow them to play gamesregularly. Instead, the parents and el-ders should motivate the younger lotto go for physical activities and out-door games.—Karachi

WASHINGTON : How Obama can make Asia trip a success.

MARK ADOMANIS

THE U.S. foreign policy commentariatwas positively thrilled with the unexpectedly large victories rung up by pro-

EU parties in Ukraine’s recently concluded par-liamentary elections. For the first time in itspost-Soviet history, Ukraine’s parliamentwould have a strong pro-Western majority.Even more remarkably, political parties thathad in the past done a great deal to stymieUkrainian integration and cooperation withEurope, groups like the Party of Regions andthe Communist Party of Ukraine, have all butdisappeared. Some of this was due to the exitof Crimea and to the lack of voting in Donetskand Luhansk, but a lot of it seemed to reflect agenuine change in public opinion.

From a political standpoint, then, Ukrainehas clearly never been in a better position tofollow the “European path” of democratic andliberal reform. The triumph of pro-Westernforces in Ukraine was also interpreted as ahumiliating rebuke for Russia in general andPresident Vladimir Putin in particular. Afterall the time, money, and effort that the Rus-sians had invested in protecting Ukraine’sformer president, Viktor Yanukovych, after theannexation of Crimea, and after fighting anundeclared war in Donetsk and Luhansk andin the process losing several hundred soldiers

Ukraine’s Poverty Jeopardizes Its Democracyby most estimates, they ended up getting aUkraine that was substantially more pro-West-ern.

If you’re looking for an example of “thelaw of unintended consequences,” you coulddo quite a lot worse than to look at Russianpolicy toward Ukraine over the past year. Onthis particular regard, contrarianism isn’t war-ranted: Russia’s position in Ukraine is nowweaker than it has been at any point since thecollapse of the Soviet Union and, in all likeli-hood, quite a bit before that. Exaggerated his-torical comparisons aren’t usually very help-ful, but you would arguably have to go backseveral hundred years to find a time when thegovernment in Kiev was so proudly andfiercely anti-Russian.

If Moscow is looking for someone to blamefor this, it has only to look in the mirror: Theturn in Ukrainian public opinion is a perfectlylogical response to Russia’s hyper-aggressivepolicy approach. But the fact that Russia hasfailed doesn’t necessarily mean that Ukrainehas “won.” While Ukraine’s politics have itprimed for a rapid push toward Europe, itseconomics could scarcely be in a worse state.Over the course of 2014, Ukraine’s economyhas been shrinking at an accelerating rate. Af-ter a lousy 2013, when it experienced essen-tially no growth, Ukrainian GDP shrank by 1.1percent in the first quarter, 4.7 percent in the

second, and 5.1 percent in the third.Keep in mind that even the 2012 and 2013

levels of GDP were still below Ukraine’s pre-financial crisis peak. The gap between peakand current output is thus getting larger witheach passing week, and Ukraine is essentiallyon pace to never regain the level it reached in2008 — and even then it was not exactlyanyone’s idea of a powerhouse.

As bad as Russia’s current economic situa-tion is, Ukraine’s is substantially worse. Thehryvna has been the world’s single worst per-forming currency in 2014, foreign currency re-serves are in desperately short supply, and in or-der to avoid defaulting on its sovereign debt thegovernment will need someone to bail it out. In-flation is spiking, unemployment has been in-creasing, the current account deficit — which wasalready unsustainably high — is getting evenworse, and some of the country’s most economi-cally productive areas seem fated to becomequasi-independent statelets like Abkhazia andSouth Ossetia. The situation in the Ukrainianeconomy is so hopeless that even a normally so-ber and buttoned-down outlet like the CarnegieInstitute for International Peace has called forimpossibly risky moves like the EU taking overNaftogaz, the legendarily opaque, corrupt andinefficient Ukrainian natural gas monopoly.

It’s anyone’s guess as to how such a movecould possibly function in practice — having

worked in government I’m having a hard timeeven imagining the bureaucratic turf wars thatwould erupt in Brussels were it to ever attemptsuch a policy — but the simple fact that suchradical action is even being contemplated givessome indication as to the desperation of thesituation. Despite Ukraine’s apparent politicalprogress, it has been losing economic groundat an accelerating rate. “Reform” has been dis-cussed everywhere and implemented nowhere.Eventually, the current economic slide will leadto political regression. As Russia’s experienceduring the 1990s should have impressed onWestern policymakers, democratic politicalreform — or the “European path” if you pre-fer more elevated language — simply cannotbe squared with economic implosion.

Unless Ukraine is able to get a handle onits economy in the very near future, the currentebullient public mood will sour. Economic de-cline is poison for democratic governance, anda Ukraine that hobbles along at zero percentgrowth will see a re-emergence of those regres-sive political forces that everyone thought hadbeen relegated to the ash heap. So while it mightseem as if Ukraine’s pro-Western orientation isnow set in stone, behind the scenes forces arealready at work and could prove its undoing.

—Courtesy: MT[Mark Adomanis is researcher at the Univer-sity of Pennsylvania’s Lauder Institute]

ALEXANDER GOLTS

AT the recent Valdai Discussion Club forum PresidentVladimir Putin conducted a three-hour tour of his ownspecial world — the same world that German Chancellor

Angela Merkel warned us he lives in. I must say that Putin’s worldis more frightening and filled with hidden terrors than any horrormovie. I was most surprised by one of the Russian president’smain assertions — namely, that the collapse of the Soviet Uniondestroyed a certain system of “checks and balances” that existedduring the Cold War. As a result, according to Putin, the UnitedStates began behaving uncontrollably in the international arena. Iwonder exactly what “system” the Russian leader had in mind. Iwould venture to assert that no such “system” ever existed. BothMoscow and Washington more or less did as they pleased, actingas they felt their own national security interests demanded. Thatthinking led to the invasions of Vietnam, Grenada, Afghanistanand Czechoslovakia.

The only system that existed was mutual nuclear deterrence,the understanding that the potential adversary could always causeunacceptable damage if the need arose. However, that systemremains effectively unchanged to this day: The U.S. and Rus-sian nuclear forces are relatively equal. At the very least, eachside has a large enough arsenal to dissuade the other from everlaunching a nuclear attack. The fact is, it was not a system of“checks and balances” that influenced Western governments, butthe fear that they felt before unpredictable Kremlin leaders. Butas Putin showed in his speech, it is specifically the violentlyunpredictable nature of the Soviet Kremlin that he misses most.

It is no accident that, after making this point about checks andbalances, Putin praised the most unpredictable former Soviet leader,Nikita Khrushchev. “True, the Soviet Union was referred to as ‘theUpper Volta with missiles,’” Putin said. “Maybe so, and there wereloads of missiles. Besides, we had such brilliant politicians like NikitaKhrushchev, who hammered the desk with his shoe at the UN. Andthe whole world, primarily the United States, and NATO thought:This Nikita is best left alone, he might just go and fire a missile, theyhave lots of them, we had better show some respect for them.” In allfairness, Khrushchev could only dream of the degree of nuclearparity that Russia now holds with the U.S. That is why he bluffedand waived his shoe around at the UN podium, thereby convincingeveryone of his unpredictability.

And now Putin has pulled a similar stunt before the Valdaiforum participants. He was obviously using demonstrative aggres-sion to compensate for Moscow’s undeniably weak position. Rus-sia clearly lacks all the essentials for a confrontation with the West— the money, the faithful allies and the industrial capacity. In fact,the Kremlin has only nuclear weapons at its disposal. But Putinfinds it terribly annoying that Western leaders know he commandsthe world’s second-largest nuclear arsenal and yet deny him therespect he believes he deserves. That is why he claims that craftyWashington has destroyed a system that granted the Soviet Unionsuperpower status. In reality, believing in the rationality of thenew Russian leaders following the collapse of the Soviet empire,Western leaders became convinced that a situation could not con-ceivably arise in which either side would push the red button andturn the planet into a radioactive desert.

The result was that the “nuclear factor” gradually lost signifi-cance when dealing with the Kremlin. When NATO began militaryoperations against Yugoslavia, Russia’s then-President Boris Yeltsingenuinely wondered: “Why aren’t they afraid of us?” Putin wants toregain that same “respect” that the West held for Khrushchev, andhe sees no other way but to underscore his own unpredictability. Isuspect that the recent sorties by Russian strategic bombers over theAtlantic Ocean and the Baltic, North and Black seas are a manifes-tation of this new unpredictability. It is no wonder then that in hisValdai speech Putin said: “Today, we already see a sharp increase inthe likelihood of a whole set of violent conflicts with either direct orindirect participation by the world’s major powers.”

—Courtesy: Moscow Times [Alexander Golts is deputy editor of the online newspaperYezhednevny Zhurnal]

The Frightening Worldof Vladimir Putin

JOSCHKA FISCHER

War said the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, isthe “father of all things”. In view of the bloody —indeed barbaric — events in the Middle East (and in

Iraq and Syria in particular), one might be tempted to agree,even though such ideas no longer seem to have a place in thepostmodern worldview of today’s Europe. The Islamic State’s(IS) military triumphs in Iraq and Syria are not only fuelling ahumanitarian catastrophe; they are also throwing the region’sexisting alliances into disarray and even calling into questionnational borders.

A new Middle East is emerging, one that already differs fromthe old order in two significant ways: an enhanced role for the Kurdsand Iran, and diminished influence for the region’s Sunni powers.The Middle East is not just facing the possible triumph of aforce that seeks to achieve its strategic goals by mass murderand enslavement (for example, of Yazidi women and girls).

What is also becoming apparent is the collapse of the region’s oldorder, which had existed more or less unchanged since the end ofWorld War I, and with it, the decline of the region’s traditional stabilisingpowers. The political weakness of those powers — whether globalactors like the United States or regional players like Turkey, Iran andSaudi Arabia — has led to a remarkable role reversal in the region’spower dynamic. Although the US and the European Union still clas-sify the pro-independence Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a ter-rorist organisation (whose founder, Abdullah Öcalan, has been in prisonin Turkey since 1999), only the PKK’s fighters, it seems, are willingand able to stop IS’ further advance.

As a result, the Kurds’ fate has become a burning question inTurkey. Turkey is a NATO member, and any violation of its territorialintegrity could easily trigger the North Atlantic Treaty’s mutual-de-fence clause. And the Kurdish question entails a potential for muchwider conflict, because statehood would also threaten the territorialintegrity of Syria, Iraq and probably Iran.

And yet, in fighting for their lives against IS, the Kurds have wonnew legitimacy; once the fighting has ended, they will not simplyforget their national ambitions — or the mortal threat they faced. Andit is not just the Kurds’ unity and bravery that have raised their pres-tige; they have increasingly become an anchor of stability and a reli-able pro-Western partner in a region that is short on both.

That presents the West with a dilemma: Given its reluctanceto commit its own ground forces to a war it knows it must win, itwill have to arm the Kurds — not just the Kurdish peshmergamilitia of northern Iraq, but also other Kurdish groups — withmore advanced weaponry. That will not sit well with Turkey —or, most likely, with Iran — which is why resolving the Kurdishquestion will require a large investment of diplomatic skill andcommitment by the West, the international community and thecountries in question. But the biggest regional winner could proveto be Iran, whose influence in Iraq and Afghanistan gained a sub-stantial boost from US policy under president George W. Bush.

Iranian cooperation is essential to stable solutions in Iraq andSyria, and the country plays an important role in the Israel-Palestineconflict and in Lebanon. It is impossible to bypass Iran in the searchfor solutions to the region’s myriad crises. In fact, in the fight againstIS, even limited military cooperation between the US and Iran nolonger seems to be off the table. The key strategic question, how-ever, will not be resolved on the region’s battlefields, but in thevarious negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.

—Courtesy: Jordan Times[The writer, Germany’s foreign minister and vice chancellorfrom 1998 to 2005, was a leader of the German Green Partyfor almost 20 years]

Mideast’s newwinners and losers

ABU DHABI—GCC member states are work-ing to establish a joint human rights body at thebloc’s general secretariat to help curb domesticviolence at the regional level. “The move to es-tablish the rights agency was prompted by thegrowing number of domestic violence incidentsreported throughout the Gulf countries,” said aGCC statement on Saturday. “Plans are beingprepared to set up the human rights office at theGCC base in Riyadh,” said the body’s chiefAbdullateef Al-Zayani, according to the state-ment. The GCC is concerned about domesticviolence, child protection, acts of torture andabuse mainly involving children and women,as well as maltreatment of domestics in the Gulf,

GCC declares war on domestic violenceadded Al-Zayani. Al-Zayani, who participatedin a forum on violence and security in Doha latelast week, said that the GCC countries will useall means to fight abuse and domestic violenceand to put up a united front against it at the re-gional level. He also revealed plans to introducea unified law to fight domestic violence in theGulf.

He welcomed the tough measures intro-duced by some Gulf countries including SaudiArabia to curb this social evil. Saudi Arabiaadopted a regulation in July 2013 that guaran-tees domestics nine hours of rest daily, one dayoff a week, and one month of paid vacation af-ter two years of service. Additionally, the Min-

istry of Justice has announced plans to appoint150 judges to deal with domestic violence cases.A report quoting Nasser Al-Oud, adviser to thejustice minister and general supervisor of thesocial services department, said there are 177cases of domestic violence currently beforeSaudi courts involving women and children,including assault, rape and forced confinement.He said the training would allow judges tohandle cases more effectively. In August lastyear, the Saudi government passed a lawcriminalizing domestic abuse. “Penalties fordomestic abuse were recently raised from amonth to one year in prison, and from SR5,000to SR50,000 in fines in the Kingdom,” he said.

However, many other Gulf countries have sofar not taken such strict measures to curb do-mestic violence. For example, Qatar currentlydoes not have a specific law criminalizing do-mestic violence that also includes rape. Accord-ing to a report issued by the Qatar Foundationfor the Protection of Women and Children, thenumber of reported cases about violence againstwomen rose by 54 percent between 2011 and2013. In Kuwait, the legislation process alsoremains in its infancy. It is important to notehere that Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, and Omaneither exclude domestic workers from their la-bor laws completely, or have very lax provisionsfor their protection.—AN

WASHINGTON—His influence at homefading, President Barack Obama is look-ing abroad to China, the opening stop of athree-country trip that will test his abilityto play a commanding global role duringhis final two years in office. Once Obamawas treated like a superstar on the worldstage. But the president will arrive inBeijing on Monday under far different con-ditions, with his most powerful days be-hind him. At home, Republicans are stillrejoicing at having pummeled Obama’sparty in the midterm elections, relegatingDemocrats to the minority in both cham-bers of Congress. His counterparts in Asiasurely have noticed.

The trip also marks one of Obama’sfinal chances to deliver on his goal to am-plify America’s influence in Asia and thePacific. In China, Myanmar and Austra-lia, leaders may render a judgment onwhether Obama’s lofty ambitions in theregion have been sidetracked by crises inEastern Europe, Africa and the MiddleEast. “This is going to be a tough trip forthe president,” said Ernest Bower, an Asiaexpert at the Center for Strategic and In-ternational Studies in Washington. He saidAsian leaders were viewing Obama’s visitwith this question in mind: Who is thepresident after the midterm elections?“They’ll be trying to discern whether hehas the commitment and political capitalto follow through,” Bower said.

Even before the election, Obama’scommitment to the region and his abilityto boost U.S. clout there was in doubt inmany capitals. U.S. allies such as Japanand South Korea have pressed for a greaterAmerican presence, partly to counterChina’s growing influence. Yet Obama’smission against the Islamic State group and

Obama’s Asia trip tests hispost-polls global clout

his government’s Ebola response have di-verted U.S. military and financial re-sources elsewhere. “The president remainsdeeply committed to his Asia rebalancingstrategy, and its implementation will re-main a top priority throughout the secondterm,” said his national security adviser,Susan Rice.

During his three days in China,Obama planned to give a speech aboutU.S. ties to Asia at the Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation summit andmeet with President Xi Jinping. U.S.presidents often immerse themselves inforeign affairs during their last yearsin office, when the focus on the nextpresidential race saps the energy fromtheir domestic efforts. After last week’selections, White House officials spokeoptimistically about Obama’s prospectsfor clinching trade deals in Asia andelsewhere now that Republicans are setto control Congress.

Under Obama, U.S. trade negotia-tors for years have been pursuing theTrans-Pacific Partnership, a major tradepact being negotiated with 11 nations.The talks repeatedly have blown pasttheir deadlines, and other nations havebeen wary about Obama’s ability topush a deal through Congress, whereDemocrats are sensitive to the concernsof labor unions. But with Republicansin charge, Obama’s prospects may haveincreased - so the argument goes. Re-publicans tend to support trade deals asa way to boost the U.S. economy, andGOP leaders have spoken positivelyabout giving Obama the power to sub-mit a final deal to an up-or-down vote,preventing last-minute amendmentsthat could sink it. China is not part of

the talks, and is pursuing its own freetrade deals in the region. What’s more,Chinese leaders have viewed Obama’sfocus on Asia with suspicion, fearingan attempt to contain China’s growthand influence in the region.

In a sign of the political climate fac-ing Obama in China, state-run media havebeen mocking him in the days before hisvisit. “Obama always utters ̀ Yes, we can,’which led to the high expectations peoplehad for him,” read an editorial in the En-glish-language Global Times. “But he hasdone an insipid job, offering nearly noth-ing to his supporters. U.S. society hasgrown tired of his banality.”Another reminder of the tensions in theregion came hours before Obama lefton Saturday when North Korea releasedtwo American detainees after Obama’sspy chief made a secret mission toPyongyang to secure their release. Inhis meetings with Xi, Obama plans toaddress human rights issues, officialssaid, including the treatment of jour-nalists as well as pro-democracy pro-tests in Hong Kong.

Climate change, a big concern insmog-filled Beijing, and China’s ag-gressive behavior toward its neighborsare also on Obama’s agenda. DouglasPaal, who headed Asia policy underPresident George W. Bush at the Na-tional Security Council, said Chineseleaders have signaled that this visit willdetermine whether to keep workingwith Obama or just wait him out. “Ifhe comes in and tries to be tough withthem, they’ll see that as putting a pe-riod on cooperation with Obama,” saidPaal. He added, “They see HillaryClinton coming.” —AP

N. Koreareturns two

last UScaptives

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD,WASH.—The last two Americansbeing held captive by North Ko-rea have returned home. KennethBae and Matthew Miller landedSaturday night at a Washingtonstate military base after their de-parture from the reclusive Com-munist country was securedthrough a secret mission by thetop U.S. intelligence official. Bae,surrounded by family members,spoke briefly to the media afterthe plane carrying him and Millerlanded about 9 p.m. “I just wantto say thank you all for support-ing me and standing by me,” hesaid. He thanked PresidentBarack Obama and the manypeople who supported him andhis family. He also thanked theNorth Korean government for re-leasing him. “It’s been an amaz-ing two years, I learned a lot, Igrew a lot, I lost a lot of weight,”said Bae, a Korean-Americanmissionary with health problems.Asked how he was feeling, hesaid: “I’m recovering at thistime.” His family has said he suf-fers from diabetes, an enlargedheart, liver problems and backpain. U.S. officials said Miller ofBakersfield, California, and Baeof Lynnwood, Washington, flewback with James Clapper, the di-rector of national intelligence.Clapper was the highest-rankingAmerican to visit Pyongyang inmore than a decade. Members ofBae’s family, who live near thesprawling military base south ofSeattle, met him when he landed.His mother hugged him after hegot off the plane. Miller steppedoff the U.S. government aircrafta short time later and was alsogreeted with hugs Their releasewas the latest twist in the fitfulrelationship between the Obamaadministration and the youngNorth Korean leader, Kim JongUn, whose approach to the U.S.has shifted back and forth fromdefiance to occasional concilia-tion. “It’s a wonderful day forthem and their families,” Presi-dent Barack Obama said at theWhite House following his an-nouncement of his pick for attor-ney general. “Obviously we arevery grateful for their safe return.”

A senior Obama administra-tion official said the presidentapproved the mission last weekand U.S. officials spent the nextseveral days planning the trip.Clapper spent roughly a day onthe ground and met with NorthKorean security officials - but notwith Kim, the official said aboardAir Force One as Obama pre-pared to head to Beijing. Clapperwent with the sole purpose ofbringing home the two detainees,although the U.S. anticipated thatother issues of concern to theNorth would come up duringClapper’s discussions on theground, the official said.—AP

Heavy eastUkraine fightingthreatens truce

KIEV—Heavy shelling aroundthe eastern Ukrainian city ofDonetsk increased strains on atwo-month-old ceasefire be-tween Ukrainian governmentforces and pro-Russian separat-ists on Sunday. Reuters report-ers in rebel-held Donetsk saidshelling by heavy artillery con-tinued throughout the night andinto the early hours, and thenpicked up again later on Sun-day morning. The shelling ap-peared to come from areas heldby the separatists as well as frompositions controlled by the gov-ernment forces, and could beheard in the center of the city,which had a pre-conflict popu-lation of more than 1 million.The truce, agreed on Sept. 5, haslooked particularly fragile over thepast week, with each side accus-ing the other of violations afterseparatist elections on Nov. 2 thatwere condemned as illegitimateby the West. Residents said thereappeared to be fighting nearDonetsk airport, around whichbattles have repeatedly violatedthe ceasefire in a conflict in whichmore than 4,000 people have beenkilled since mid-April. Therewere no immediate reports of newcasualties. Donetsk’s City Coun-cil said in a statement on itswebsite that the shelling had dam-aged residential buildings and thatfire fighters were at the scene ofone of the damaged buildings. Therebels have accused Ukrainianforces of launching a new offen-sive and Ukraine’s military ac-cused Russia of sending a col-umn of 32 tanks.—Reuters

Govt wantsFrom Page 1

Pakistan, Pervaiz Rashidsaid there is no name of ter-rorists. Whoever perpe-trates any terrorist act hewould be dealt with an ironhand, just as is being doneagainst the terrorists inNorth Waziristan.

The Minister said PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharifsigned important agree-ments with China to meetenergy needs of the coun-try. He said over 10,000 MWelectricity would be added tonational grid through theseprojects in next three years.

Regarding appointmentof new Chief Election Com-missioner, he said all politi-cal parties had reached con-sensus on the name of RetdJustice Rana Bhagwan Das,but unfortunately he re-fused to accept the position.

Paradigm shiftin Indian

From Page 1

the United Nation resolu-tions. Their right of self-de-termination has also beenadmitted and accepted bythe UN as enunciated in itsresolutions on Kashmir.Kashmir is not a territorial dis-pute between Pakistan andIndia. It is a issue of millionsof Kashmiris who had alreadyoffered great sacrifices in menand material during the longstruggle. An attempt at thisstage to set aside their fun-damental right will amount todestabilising the region.

The Kashmir dispute canonly be settled according tothe wishes of Kashmiris. Nosolution will work if theirwishes are nullified. The newIndian shift on Kashmir willplunge the region into chaosand turmoil.

PAF fresh blitz kills 13 insurgentsFrom Page 1

till date and the military sources said thesurgery would continue till the time all themiscreants are flushed out of the region.

On the other hand after the split be-tween the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)and the Emir of its Mohmand Agency chap-ter Umar Khalid Khorasani WaliMohammad, the militant outfit on Sundayappointed a new Emir for the agency. “Onbehalf of TTP’s Supreme Council (RehbariShoora), we announce a new in-charge ofMohmand Agency, Commander MansoorMohmand”. Said the newly appointed TTPspokesman Mohammad Khorasani. He saidall mujahedeen in association with TTPwere obliged to wage jihad under the com-mand of Commander Mansoor Mohmand

in the region. Wali Mohammad alias UmarKhalid Khorasani, it may be mentioned, hadparted ways with the TTP after developingdifferences with the leadership over hold-ing peace talks with the government.

He had also announced his new group,Jamat ul Ahrar, which claimed to have sup-port of key former TTP commanders on itslist of shoora.

He has also proved to be a strong com-mander since his rise by establishing LalMasjid in Safi Tehsil. The new TTP struc-ture under Mansoor Mohmand would befacing a tough challenge from theKhorasani Taliban fighters who had bro-ken away from the Mullah Fazlullah-ledgroup of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

PM terms China visit a ‘game changer’From Page 1

ister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif also at-tended the event.

In his address on the occasion, he ap-preciated China for taking a remarkable ini-tiative to host such a valuable dialogue.

Nawaz Sharif also lauded China’s rolein helping Pakistan to meet its developmentneeds.

He said China Pakistan Economic Cor-ridor, linking China’s West to Pakistan’ssouthern port of Gwadar, in close proximityto the Middle East, is a flash point projectthat is being vigorously pursued by both

the governments.Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan views this

corridor as a catalyst for development ofour two countries and for regional economiccooperation.

Pakistan will increase its coordinationwith China on Afghanistan too, so as to“jointly maintain regional peace and stabil-ity”, Sharif said.

Pakistan will also do all it can to guar-antee the safety of Chinese companies andworkers in the country, he added, who havein the past been attacked by militants.

Allama Iqbal’sbirth anniversary

observedFrom Page 1

ceremoniously moved outby their officer-in-Charge.

The ceremonial Guardmounting followed by floralwreath laying at the Mazarof Allama Iqbal by StationCommander (Navy) on be-half of the Chief of the Na-val Staff, officers & men ofthe Pakistan Navy. Later on,the Station Commander of-fered Fateha and recordedhis impression in the Visi-tors Book.

Both the ceremonieswere witnessed by a largenumber of military, civil offi-cials, school children andgeneral public.

PM leaves for Germany todayFrom Page 1

lations. Germany is Pakistan’s fourth larg-est trading partner globally and the largestin the EU. Pakistan’s bilateral trade withGermany stands at US$ 2.5 billion annually.The two countries have a strong collabora-tion in various other fields.

There is also a strong Pakistan

Imran drops demandof PM’s resignation

From Page 1

much tax Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari payand what is the worth of their assets out-side Pakistan. “They don’t declare theirassets because they were acquired throughwealth amassed through illegal means,” hesnapped.

He said Pakistanis are paying the priceof the rulers’ ‘theft’ in the form of exorbi-tant electricity bills. The burden of debt ismounting on every Pakistani and as of to-day this burden has hit Rs90,000 per per-son.

He said had ‘Mian sahib’ been clean hewould have launched a probe into the elec-tion results of four constituencies. “Wewent to the Supreme Court but ‘the matchfixer Chaudhry Iftikhar did not dispense jus-tice.”

He said even after a lapse of eighteenmonths no action was taken, forcing us tocome out stage peaceful protest to get jus-tice.

Imran siad in 2003 elections both the win-ners and losers complained of rigging andreiterated his claim that a transparent probewas not possible with Prime Minister NawazSharif in office.

He claimed that government was set tocommit another ‘big robbery’ in the form ofcoal-powered electricity plants. “The elec-tricity generated through coal will be so ex-pensive, it will make it impossible for an av-erage Pakistani to afford it.”

Reiterating his resolve to make a newPakistan, PTI chief said a sea of people willenter Islamabad on November 30, addingthat it will be the biggest protest in the his-tory of Islamabad.

PTI chairman warned that the fresh sit-in protest scheduled to take place on No-vember 30 would not necessarily be peace-ful and that it would make it tough for thegovernment to continue.

He said PTI hasn’t turned down nego-tiations and dialogue, alleging that the dia-logue process was stopped by the govern-

ment.Imran Khan also criticized judiciary by

saying that the judiciary might be indepen-dent but it is not yet impartial. He also saidthat individuals found guilty of riggingshould be put on trial under Article 6 of theConstitution.

Imran Khan said that if the governmentfalls, then an impartial Election Commissionneeds to be formed and that all current mem-bers have to resign.

“The election commissioner should besomeone whom all the political parties of thecountry have reached a consensus on,”Imran Khan said. “We struggled a great dealfor an independent judiciary, but it is stillnot impartial,” the PTI leader said during hisspeech.

‘I spent spent eight days in jail in DeraGazi Khan for the independence of the judi-ciary,” he said.

The PTI chairman also said in his speechthat if he becomes prime minister all loansfrom the International Monetary Fund wouldstop.

“People from other countries will cometo Pakistan seeking work…If corruption iscurbed then the cost of electricity would behalved,” he said.

Imran also announced the schedule ofhis upcoming protests in the country. Hesaid the PTI ‘tsunami’ will reach NankanaSahib on Wednesday, November 12, Sahiwalon Saturday, on Sunday it will be in Jhelumwhile a protest is also scheduled inGujranwala on Wendesday, November 19.“We will reach Larkana on November 21,”he added.

Earlier, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said hisparty wants a Chief Election Commissionerwho enjoys everyone’s trust and that any‘Muk Muka’ (secret deal) in the appointmentof the CEC will not be acceptable.

He told Pakistan People’s Party Co-chair-man to brace himself for a ‘Tsunami’ set toreach Larkana on November 21.

Diaspora of over 70,000 living is Germany.In addition, there are more than 2,300 stu-dents from Pakistan in German universi-ties.

The visit of the Prime Minister will helpin strengthening the exiting ties betweenthe two countries.

Xi, Putin to‘harvest fruits’

From Page 1

cow faces harsh Westerncriticism and sanctions overits seizure of Crimea and theconflict in eastern Ukraine,which could see Europe re-duce its consumption ofRussian gas.

China also has tense rela-tionships over territorial dis-putes with neighbours suchas Japan, Vietnam and the Phil-ippines. Under Xi, CommunistChina has mounted crack-downs on dissidents andtightened limits on expression,while critics accuse Putin’sRussia of rights abuses.

After a decade of nego-tiations, the countriessigned a huge 30-year gasdeal said to be worth $400billion during a visit to Chinaby Putin in May. On Sundaythey stepped up the engage-ment, with Russia’s Rosneftand China National Petro-leum Corporation, both ofthem petroleum giants, sign-ing an agreement for the Chi-nese firm to take a 10 percentstake in a huge Siberian en-ergy project.—AFP

Patron in Chief Pakistan Hindu Council Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani addressing a press conference to condemnincreased number of crimes against minorities.

Former Senator TariqAzeem was the chief guestwhile NPC Chairman & Edi-tor-In-Chief Pakistan Ob-server, Mr. Zahid Malik pre-sided over the national con-ference. Senator TariqAzeem pressed on the na-tion to spare at least fiveminutes for Pakistan every-day to shape the country in

accordance with the sayings of Allama Iqbal.He said, tragically and unfortunately, wehave forgotten our national heroes,whereas, other nations keep their heroesalive in their hearts and minds, adding, “un-der a well conceived conspiracy, our he-roes are being made controversial for ouryouth”.

Former DG ISI, Lt. Gen-eral (R) Hameed Gul saidthat unfortunately, chaptersrelating to our national he-roes including Allama Iqbaland Quaid-i-AzamMohammad Ali Jinnah hadbeen excluded from oureducational curricula in abid to keep our youth un-aware of the golden visionand thoughts presented bythem. “Western democracy

is at the ending phase of its life while AllamaIqbal made a prophecy about it over eightyyears back” he said. He said that Iqbal’stwo nation theory had been globalized tothe extent that now the entire world wasdivided into two nations’; Muslims and nonMuslims.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Rector InternationalIslamic UniversityIslamabad (IIUI) Dr.Masoom Yaseenzai saidthat Pakistan could over-come the internal and exter-nal challenges merely byfollowing thinking of Iqbal.Allama Iqbal laid stress oneducation, self reliance, vi-sion at leadership level hesaid adding that all these

principles provided sound foundation forprogress and prosperity.

NPC Iqbal Day national conferenceFrom Back Page

Yaseenzai said that Allama Iqbal’s writ-ings were instrumental in molding of publicopinion when Pakistan resolution was for-mally passed and the dream of Allama Iqbalwas a great blessing for the Muslims of theSub-Continent. His message strengthenedthe spirit and will of the Muslims to getseparate homeland for them where theycould live according to their creed, culture

and tradi-tions.

Otherp r o m i n e n tspeakers in-cluded DrHaroon urR a s h e e dTabbasum,Dr. TalibH u s s a i nSial, Dr.

MuhammadArif, Dr.MuhammadAyub Sabirand others.They said,Allama Iqbalp r o p o s e drecipe fortheir revivalof the lostglory of theMuslims. They said that the MuslimUmmah in general and Pakistan in particu-lar today are confronting problems andchallenges that could be overcome throughthe proposed remedies by Allama Iqbal asIqbal was the great proponent of unity ofMuslim Ummah.

They observed that Iqbal’s vision ofIslamic society was universal that tran-scended territorial boundaries and bar-riers of nationhood. Extremism and big-otry had no place in Allama Iqbal’sscheme of things and he wanted Mus-lims to be moderate, peaceful and en-lightened so that their deeds could con-vince non Muslim to develop penchantfor Islam.

Earlier former Senator Tariq Azeem in-augurated exhibition of Allama Iqbal’s pic-tures.

a section of media are presenting a darkpicture of Pakistan and they are ignoringthe other side of the picture where a silverlining is appearing on the sky. The younggeneration is coming up with zeal to servethe nation with patriotic spirit. Their eyesare filled with great hopes, he said.

Citing the example of Wagah tragedy,he said the nation, particularly theLahorites bounced back within twentyfour hours and enlivened the parade cer-emony defeating all aims of the enemy.

He said Pakistan is to stay as vision

Nation’s powerfulFrom Back Page

of Allama Muhammed Iqbal is guiding andproviding it a great strength.

The lovers of Allama Iqbal are presentin the conference who are a source ofgreat inspiration for the youngsters, hesaid.

Zahid Malik advised the young gen-eration to repose full confidence in Paki-stan and work relentlessly to make it astrong and prosperous country. The NPChas prepared comprehensive programmesto promote Nazriya Pakistan and visionof Allama iqbal, he added.

Iran, US, EUhold nuclear

talks in OmanFrom Page 1

lifting of sanctions.Iran denies any secret

nuclear weapons agenda,saying it wants peacefulnuclear energy only, but hasrefused to curb enrichmentcapacity and has been hit bydamaging U.S., EU and U.N.Security Council sanctionsas a result.

The thorniest unre-solved issues are the size ofIran’s enrichment program,the length of any long-termagreement and the pace atwhich international sanc-tions would be phased out,according to Western diplo-mats involved in the nego-tiations.

As Kerry arrived inOman, a senior U.S. officialsaid the three-way talkswould be “an important meet-ing,” with the focus on mak-ing progress in order to meetthe deadline.

U.S. officials say majorgaps still remain in negotiat-ing positions. Kerry said lastweek that the United Statesand its partners were notcontemplating an extensionof the Nov. 24 deadline, al-though he held out the pos-sibility that negotiationscould go beyond that date ifmajor issues were resolvedand there were only techni-cal details to wrap up.

Speaking to Iranian statetelevision on his arrival in theOmani capital Muscat onSaturday night, Zarif reiter-ated that sanctions imposedon Iran had brought “no re-sult” for the West.

“If the West is interestedin reaching such a solution,there is possibility to find asolution and to reach an un-derstanding before Novem-ber 24,” he said.

Quoted by Iranian stu-dent news agency ISNA inTehran, Velayati said Iran“will not abandon our rights”over nuclear facilities atFordow, Natanz and Arak aswell over the size of its cen-trifuge program that enrichesuranium for nuclear fuel.

Centrifuges are machinesthat spin at supersonicspeed to increase the ratio ofthe fissile isotope in uranium.Low-enriched uranium isused to fuel nuclear powerplants, Iran’s stated goal, butcan also provide material forbombs if refined much fur-ther, which the West fearsmay be Iran’s latent aim.—Reuters

Tariq Azeem

General (R)Hameed Gul

Dr. MasoomYaseenzai

Dr Haroon urRasheed Tabbasum

Dr TalibHussain Sial

Dr. MuhammadArif

Dr. M. AyubSabir

India test-firesnuke-capable missile

From Page 1said.Describing the test of

the state-of-the-art missileas fully successful, ITR Di-rector MVKV Prasad said,“It was a user trial con-ducted by the army.”

Prasad, director of theIntegrated Test Range, said,“The test was successful.”

The medium-range mis-sile with a range of over2,000 km has already beeninducted into the army, andis part of the Strategic Forcesarsenal for nuclear deter-rence.

Sunday’s test was car-ried out by the speciallyformed Strategic ForcesCommand of the Army aspart of training exercise withlogistic support providedby the Defence Research

India againFrom Page 1

ing-in invitation) it wasthrough foreign secretarydialogue, this was re-sponded to by an immedi-ate invite to the separatistsparticularly keeping inmind elections in J&K at thedoorsteps. Now this wefound completely unac-ceptable,” he said.

Admitting that there areissues in Kashmir, Jaitleysaid but the valley hasbeen by and large peace-ful. “We are expecting apeaceful elections in thevalley notwithstanding ef-forts to disturb the envi-ronment.”

He also praised thearmed forces for showingexemplary courage in res-cue and relief operationsduring the recent floods inthe state.

With regard to the bor-der issue in the eastern re-gion, Jaitley said India iskeen for expediting the pro-cess to resolve the matter.

“As far as China is con-cerned, our economic rela-tionship continues to grow,there are a lot of mutual in-vestments in both coun-tries and there are hugetrade between two coun-tries,” he said.

“But then we have a pend-ing issue of settlement ofboundary itself and the com-mission appointed in 2003 forthat purpose; we do hope itfunctions now expeditiously.We (will) continue to have ameaningful dialogue withthem,” he added.—INP

Minorities fearful of worstlaw, order situation in country

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) senior central leader and former DeputyPrime Minister Ch Parvez Elahi has said ev-ery Pakistani including the minorities werefearful of worst law and order situation dueto incompetency of the rulers whereas dur-ing tenure of our govt in Punjab not onlyall crime had decreased appreciably butalso complete protection was available tothe minorities. He said this while talking toPML and Minority Wing workers whocame to meet him at his residence here.

He said during five years of our govt inPunjab, proper policy was framed for pro-tection of life and property of every Paki-stani and it was duly implemented, effec-tive steps were also taken to protect theminorities from the miscreants. Ch ParvezElahi maintained there was no concept of“Mob Justice” in Islam, Constitution andlaw which means that no group of peoplecould decide about an accused being acriminal and punishing him nor this was so-lution of any problem, in Islam the govt wasduty bound to provide complete protection

to every citizen without any discriminationof religion, colour and creed and there wasa formal system for punishing any accusedthrough judiciary.

PML and Minority Wing workersforcefully endorsed when Ch Parvez Elahisaid that according to the official facts andfigures all sort of crime incidence had in-creased manifold during the tenure ofShahbaz Sharif as compared to our govtand every citizen particularly the minori-ties considered themselves unsafewhereas during our tenure between 2002to 2007 all sorts of crime including heinouscrime on highways, rural road, villages andcities had decreased by as much as 60 percent due to establishment of patrollingposts and provision of most modernequipment to the police besides increas-ing the salaries but today there was not asingle household in any village or citywhose one or other family member was notvictim of dacoity, theft and way-laying. Hesaid the rulers could not mislead anyonethrough false promises and advertise-ments because the people were facing wor-risome situation.

and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO), theofficials said.

The two-stage sophisti-cated missile equipped withadvanced high accuracynavigation system, guidedby a novel scheme of stateof the earth command andcontrol system was pro-pelled by solid rocket pro-pellant system, they said.

“The entire trajectory ofthe trial tracked by a batteryof sophisticated radars, te-lemetry observation sta-tions, electro-optic instru-ments and naval ships lo-cated near the impact pointin the down range area ofthe sea,” said a DRDO sci-entist.

The 20-metre long Agni-

II missile is a two-stage, solid-propelled ballistic missile. Ithas a launch weight of 17tonnes and can carry a pay-load of 1000 kg over a dis-tance of more than 2,000 km.

The Agni-II missile wasdeveloped by AdvancedSystems Laboratory (ASL)and integrated by the BharatDynamics Limited (BDL),Hyderabad.

Agni-II is part of theAgni series of missiles de-veloped by DRDO whichincludes Agni-I with 700 kmrange, Agni-III with 3,000 kmrange, Agni-IV with 4000 kmrange and Agni-V more than5,000 km range, they said.The last trial of Agni-II con-ducted on April 7, 2013 fromthe same base was a totalsuccess. —NNI

Published by: Zahid Malik, Printed by Gauhar Zahid Malik,33-Queens Road, Lahore at Barex Printers.

QueenElizabeth IIleads UKmemorialceremonyLONDON—Queen ElizabethII honored fallen soldiersfrom Britain and theCommonwealth Sunday in adignified ceremony at theheart of central London.The 88-year-old monarchplaced a poppy-ladenwreath at the foot of theCenotaph, built after WorldWar I to remember thosewho lost their lives.—AP

Yemen’sSaleh movesto spike newgovernmentSANAA—Yemen’s ex-president AliAbdullah Saleh dismissedUN sanctions against himand senior Huthi rebelchiefs, pulling his partyfrom a new cabinet andplunging the country intodeeper chaos. Saleh’smove came as Al-Qaedaclaimed it had killeddozens of Shiite rebelsand tried to assass inatethe US ambassador ,and the rebels alsorejected a new govern-ment announced onFr iday.—AFP

ISIS: British suicide bomberkilled Iraq police general

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The NationalAssembly Standing Com-mittee on Parliamentary Af-fairs unanimously adopteda bill on Sunday to amendthe political parties orderand proposes a minimum al-location of 10 per cent gen-eral seats for women and a33 per cent quota of womenin general councils.

The private members’bill, introduced by Dr NafisaShah and Dr Azra FazalPecheco aimed at ensuringmeaningful representationfor women in the politicalprocess.

The committee headedby PML-N MNA MianAbdul Manan convincedother members that the Pa-kistan People’s Party MNAwas pursuing the bill rigor-ously and they should notoppose the idea to enhancewomen representation inthe decision-making pro-cess.

“Once the bill gets ap-proval from Parliament, I will

introduce further amend-ments in the bill regardingarea wise representation ofwomen,” Shah said whilespeaking to media.

“The bill seeks to pro-tect and strengthenwomen’s representation inthe political and legislativeprocess,” she added. “Rep-resentation of women inthe present Parliament isless than the previoussetup,” the PPP MNA said,citing her reason for intro-ducing a bill which couldensure women’s meaning-ful representation in thedemocratic setup.

In her bill, Shah pro-posed that every politicalparty should select a mini-mum of 10 per cent womencandidates for elective of-ficers for general seats.

“Every political partyshould have a minimum of33 per cent quota forwomen in the party’selected general council andin any associated partycommittee and form at thefederal, provincial and lo-

cal levels of the party, wher-ever applicable, and towhatever names these maybe referred to,” the bill pro-posed an amendment in theArticle 10 of the Constitu-tion. Shah said that the per-formance of the womenparliamentarians was satis-factory and they provedthemselves active, intelli-gent and relevant in the pro-cess of legislation andother parliamentary de-bates.

The statement of ob-jects and reasons of the billsuggests that the nationaland international commit-ments of government of Pa-kistan, including the Con-stitution, the NationalPolicy for the Developmentand Empowerment ofWomen (NPDEW) 2002,Convention on Civil andPolitical Rights underscoreattainment of non-discrimi-natory and equal opportu-nities for women in thepublic and political spheresas inextricably linked to hu-man right, democracy and

NA panel adopts bill allocatingmore seats for women

NPC Iqbal Day national conference

Muslims urged to follow Iqbal’s thinkingMIAN ARSHAD

ISLAMABAD—Academiciansand intellectuals have high-lighted the need for theMuslim Ummah to followthe thinking of the Poet ofthe East, AllamaMuhammad Iqbal.

They also observed thatworld had received thefruits of Iqbal’s thinking inthe form of four revolu-tions; creation of Pakistan,the ongoing revolution inAfghanistan, Iranian revo-lution as well as revolutionin Tajikistan.

They were addressing aNational Conference titled;Pakistan of 21st Centuryand Iqbal’s Thinking’ heldto celebrate 137th Birth An-niversary of AllamaMuhammad Iqbal, orga-nized by Nazriya PakistanCouncil (NPC) here on Sun-day. They said that Pakistancould overcome all kinds ofchallenges and problems byfollowing the thinking ofAllama Iqbal.

The conference was at-tended by a large number ofintellectuals, women, chil-dren and students from vari-ous universities.

The National Confer-ence was part ofprogrammes being arrangedby NCP during ‘Iqbal Week’and was addressed by theprominent scholars and re-

Continued on Page 7

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—Discarding and renouncingall sorts of despondency in the country,Zahid Malik, Chairman NPC said powerful

Nation’s powerful resilience toovercome challenges: Zahid Malik

resilience of the nation will overcome allchallenges being faced by Pakistan.

Addressing the National Conference,he said unfortunately some elements and

Continued on Page 7

ISLAMABAD—Chairman Nazriya Pakistan Council and Editor-in-Chief PakistanObserver Zahid Malik delivering presidential address at National Conference titled“Pakistan of 21st Century and Thinking of Allama Iqbal” held at Aiwan-e-Quaid.Seated on dais are ex-Senator Tariq Azeem, Rector International Islamic University,Islamabad, Dr. Masoom Yaseenzai, Prof Dr Haroon ur Rasheed Tabassum, Prof Dr.Talib Hussain Sial, Prof Dr. Muhammad Arif and Dr. Muhammad Ayub Sabir.

RAHIM YAR KHAN: A large number of activistes of PTI attending public gathering at Khawaja Farid College.

inclusive sustainable devel-opment and human security.

searchers. Kalam-e-Iqbalwas beautifully and melodi-ously sung by two students

Kiran and Noor from theGovernment College for El-ementary Women Teachers,

Islamabad.

BAGHDAD—The ISIS groupsaid on Sunday that a Britishnational carried out a suicidebombing that killed a seniorIraqi police officer.

ISIS said in a statementposted online that “AbuSumayyah Al Britani” deto-nated a truck carrying eighttonnes of explosives on theoutskirts of the northern townof Baiji, killing Major-GeneralFaisal Al Zamili.

It identified two morebombers involved in attacksin the area as “Abu AbdullahAl Turkistani” and “AbuAbdullah Al Turki,” indicat-ing that they were fromTurkmenistan and Turkey, re-spectively.

A podcast called “TheISIS Show,” interviewed a Brit-ish militant identified as AbuSumayyah Al Britani earlierthis year, but it was unclear ifhe was the same person whocarried out Friday’s suicidebombing.

“For us to be here, it’s free-dom. Totally freedom. I canwalk around with aKalashnikov if I want to, witha (rocket-propelled grenade)

if I want to,” Britani said onthe podcast.“It’s actually quite fun,” hesaid of fighting in Syria, whereISIS also holds significant ter-ritory, comparing it to a popu-lar video game. “It’s betterthan... what’s that game called,‘Call of Duty’? You can seeeverything happening infront of you — it’s real,” hesaid.Thousands of foreign

fighters have joined militantgroups including ISIS, spark-ing fears in western countriesthat the militants may seek toreturn home and carry out at-tacks. But Britani said he didnot want to return to theUnited Kingdom.

Iraqi officials gave a dif-ferent account of the Baiji at-tack than that in the ISIS state-ment.—AFP

PROSTATE cancer is one of the mostcommon cancers in men and a majorcause of cancer-related deaths. Yet it

is tricky to diagnose - the commonly usedPSA test can result in over- diagnosis andun-necessary further pro-cedures. Now, new re-search led by the Univer-sity of Adelaide in Austra-lia prom-ises to improvethe accuracy of prostatecancer di-agnosis with thehelp of biomarkers in semi-nal fluid.

Writing in the journalEndocrine-Related Can-cer, the researchers de-scribe how they analysedseminal fluid samples from60 men and found smallmolecules calledmicroRNAs were “surpris-ingly accurate” at indicat-ing which men had pros-tate can-cer and how se-vere it was. The problemwith the current PSA (prostate specific an-tigen) test for pros-tate cancer is that, whileit is very sensitive, it is not highly specificfor prostate cancer. For instance, it mightbe positive for non-cancerous conditionssuch as prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) andprostatitis.

This results in many unnecessary bi-opsies and, perhaps more seriously, in sub-stantial over-diagnosis and over-treatmentof slow-growing, non-lethal prostate can-cers that are probably best left alone andjust monitored under a so-called “watch-ful waiting” regime. “Biomarkers that canaccu-rately detect prostate cancer at an

early stage and identify aggressivetumours are urgently needed to improvepatient care,” says lead author Dr. LukeSelth, a Young Investigator of the Pros-tate Cancer Foundation in the US.

When they analysed theseminal fluid samples, theteam discovered a number ofmicroRNAs known to be in-creased in prostate cancer.Mi-crosRNAs are small non-coding molecules that areimportant for controllinggene expression.

Unlike a PSA test, whichis not highly specific forprostate cancer, microRNAsin seminal fluid samplescould differentiate men withlow tumors from those withhigher-grade tumours. Theywere surprised to find thatsome of the microRNAswere more accurate than aPSA test at detecting whichof the men had cancer and

which did not.They also found one specif ic

microRNA - called miR-200b - coulddifferentiate men with low tu-moursfrom those with higher-grade tumours.“This is important ,” explains Dr.Selth, “because, as a potential prog-nostic tool, it will help to indicate theurgency and type of t reatment re-quired.” In previous work, Dr. Selthand his team showed that microR-NAs in the blood can predict whichmen are likely to experience recur-rence after their prostate cancer hasbeen surgically removed.

Prostate cancer diagnosis maybe more accurate with semen test

Chairman Metro Bus Project Haneef Abbasi talking to media persons.

Former Senator Tariq Azeem witnessing the photo exhibition of Allama Iqbal’s pictures, arranged by Nazriya Pakistan Council at Aiwan-e-Quaid. Mr. Zahid Malik, Chairman Nazriya Pakistan Council and Editor-in-Chief Pakistan Observer alongwith other participants wasalso present.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

STAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—President MamnoonHussain Sunday appointed Vice Admi-ral Khan Hasham Bin Saddique as ViceChief of the Naval Staff.

Vice Admiral KhanHasham Bin Saddique wascommissioned in the Opera-t ions Branch of PakistanNavy in June 1980. He un-dertook init ial training atBritannia Royal Naval Col-lege Dartmouth, UK, said apress release issued by Na-val Headquarters here.

On commissioning, theofficer won the covetedSword of Honour from Pa-kistan Naval Academy. Hegot his early education from prestigiousPAF College Sargodha and FSc from Ca-det College, Petaro.

During his distinguished career, theadmiral attained vast experience of bothcommand and staff appointments. Hiscommand appointments include com-mand of a Destroyer, Commandant Paki-stan Naval Academy, Commandant Pa-kistan Navy War College, CommandantNational Security College at National De-

Vice Admiral Khan Hashamappointed Naval Vice Chief

fence University, Commander PakistanFleet and Command of Multi NationalCombined Task Force 150 at HQNAVCENT Bahrain.

His key staff appointments includedChief Staff Officer to Com-mander Pakistan Fleet, As-sistant Chief of Naval Staff(Plans) Deputy Chief of Na-val Staff (Admin), DeputyChief of Naval Staff (opera-tions) and Deputy Chief ofNaval Staff (Projects).

Prior to his appoint-ment as Vice Chief of theNaval Staff, the Admiral wasserving as Chief of Staff atNaval Headquarters ,Islamabad.

The Vice Admiral is agraduate of Joint Services Staff Collegeand National Defence Universi tyIslamabad. He holds master ’s degree inOperations Research from the UnitedStates and Joint Warfare and War Stud-ies from Quaid-e-Azam Universi ty,Islamabad. He also has M Phil degree inPublic Policy and Strategic Securi tyManagement. In recognition of his meri-torious, the Admiral has been awardedHilal-e-Imtiaz (Military).

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan In-stitute of Medical Sci-ences (PIMS), as part ofits measures to providebetter medical facilities,has provided treatment to1.762 million outdoor pa-tients during two years.

The number of out-door patients treated inPIMS, Islamabad during2011 was 853212 and

908720 during 2012.As per data issued by

Capital Administration andDevelopment Division(CAAD), the PIMS has es-tablished sufficient com-puterized registrationcounters for patients (sepa-rately for male and female)and also deputed adequatenumber of doctors for bet-ter facilitation to the pa-tients.

Senior Citizens are

much respected segment ofour society and the hospi-tal is carrying out its re-sponsibilities to give duefacilities to them. A specialcounter is functioning inOPD for guiding the pa-tients, issuance of treat-ment cards, and provisionof wheel Chairs.

Special seating arrange-ments have also been madein OPD and senior citizensdo not have to stand in

queues for obtaining treat-ment card as well as for con-sultation.

Moreover, all the indoorpatients are being providedfree of cost medicines. Thepatients admitted in GeneralWard and entitled patientsare provided facility of freetests .

Meanwhile, the Minis-try said it has already intro-duced a system in PIMSand Federal Government

Services Hospital (FGSH),Islamabad for redressal ofcomplaints of patients.

With regard to proce-dure of redressal of com-plaints of patients in PIMS,an official at PIMS said thecomplaints are submitted toconcerned/designated Ad-ministrator Officer who pro-cesses the same accord-ingly.

The Deputy Director In-door, OPD and EAC are

designated officers for re-ceiving complaints regard-ing their respective area ofresponsibility.

The complaints probedinto by the nominated of-ficers/Committees and theauthorities act accordingly.The same is highlighted forpublic information throughsign boards. The con-cerned Cell of PIMS headedby Superintendent & Addi-tional Director act as Coor-

dinating Officer.Regarding procedure

of redressal of complaintsof patients in FGSH, an of-ficial at the hospital saidPolyclinic has a propercomplaint cell for receivingcomplaints and formulatedfollowing committees com-prising of senior doctors todeal with such issues,whenever it is brought intonotice of administration.Furthermore, there is laid

down procedures (E&DRules) and the actionsare taken according tothese rules where re-quired.

There are EthicalCommittee, VigilanceCommittee, ComplaintCommittee and Death Re-view Committee andwhen require under(E&D) rules other commit-tees are also constitutedto deal such matter.

1.762m outdoor patients treated in PIMS during two years

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Police havearrested three persons for their allegedinvolvement in the murder of an of-ficer of international organization andhis wife, a police spokesman said onSunday.

Riaz Mehmud, officer of an inter-national organization, andhis wife Zakia Riaz, Princi-pal at IMCB G-11/1, werestrangulated to death at theirhouse in Sector E-11/4 onOctober 29 this year by thealleged killers, who alsotook away their vehicle(VIGO, ICT-UU-259), goldornaments, cash, mobilephones and other valuablesafter commiting the crime.

IGP Islamabad TahirAlam Khan constituted aspecial team headed by SP(Saddar) Muhammad Ilyas.The team, which also in-cluded DSP MuhammadHussain Lasi, SHO Golrapolice station Haq NawazRanjha, Sub-InspectorMuneer Ahmed, and ASIShah Nawaz, succeeded toarrest the three alleged as-sassins.

The accused, identified as Aftab,Shah Nawaz and Yasir Khan, have re-portedly confessed their involvementin this crime and the police also re-covered the vehicle and other valu-ables from them.

According to initial investigation,Shah Nawaz, who was employed in thehouse six days ago, planned to com-

mit dacoity in collaboration with YasirKhan, who was performing duties asa guard in Street 25 of Sector E-11/4and Aftab Ahmed.

SSP Islamabad Asmat Ullah Junejohas appreciated this overall perfor-mance and announced cash prizes andcommendation certificates for the po-lice team.

Three held for killing internationalorganization’s employee, wife

Assassins arrested by Golra Police Islamabad involved in blind murder of Riaz Mehmood,World Bank officer and Zakia Riaz, IMCB Principal in Sector E-11/4.

Metro Bus route would be signal free,project will be completed in January: Hanif

CITY REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Metro BusService Project Implementa-tion Committee Chairmanand former MNAMuhammad Hanif Abbasi onSunday said the Metro BusService in the twin citieswould be launched on Janu-ary 30, 2015. He said the 24kilometre long Metro Busroute would be signal freeand the project will be com-pleted in January.

Accompanied by Com-missioner Rawalpindi ZahidSaeed, Hanif Abbasi told re-porters here that the project,which was scheduled to belaunched on Dec 25 thisyear, had been delayed dueto the sit-ins in the FederalCapital, as work on itsIslamabad portion could notcontinue.

He said 24 bus stations,10 in Rawalpindi and 14 inIslamabad, were being con-structed on the Metro Busroute at a cost of Rs 4152 mil-lion. The bus stations, whichwould be 216 meter long and19 meter wide, would havestate of the art facilities likescreen doors, lifts, electronicstairs, ticket stations and au-tomatic platforms.

The bus stations forRawalpindi included Saddar(Flashman Hotel), Marir

Chowk, Liaquat Bagh, Com-mittee Chowk, Waris Khan,Benazir Bhutto Hospital,Rehmanabad, Sixth Road,Shamisabad and Faizabad,while IJP Road, PotoharRoad, Khayban-e-Johar, FaizAhmed Faiz Road, KashmirHighway, Jhaman Road, Ibn-e-Sina Road, KutcheryChowk, Stock Exchange,Seventh Avenue, Shaheed-e-Millat Road, ParadeGround and Secretariat Stopwould be in Islamabad.

The Commissioner saidthe Metro Bus Authoritywould take over the com-mand and control centre and

bus stations of Metro BusService in November.

The Rawalpindi Devel-opment Authority (RDA) istrying hard to complete theconstruction work on metrobus command and controlcentre and 14 bus stationswithin the shortest possibletimeframe, he said.

After taking over, theMetro Bus Authority wouldinstall elevators, escalators,security camera monitors andother equipment at the cen-tre and bus stations, he said.

He said the Metro BusAuthority would not onlyrun the bus service but also

handle other issues includ-ing security and providingambulance service in case ofan accident.

He said a seven-storeyplaza was being constructedin Saddar where two floorswould be allocated for thecommand and control centreand the remaining for park-ing vehicles of passengers.Total cost of the plaza wasRs440 million, which wasbeing constructed on fourkanals land.

He said that the MetroBus Authority would take atleast two months for instal-lation of elevators and other

equipment in the commandand control centre. TheCommissioner said the CCTVcameras would be installedon the elevated road andmain route of the bus servicefor monitoring from the com-mand and control centre.

He said total 83 elevatorsand escalators would be in-stalled at bus stations. Thecommissioner said the con-struction work on theIslamabad section was in fullswing. The RDA would handover bus stations in Islamabadto the Metro Bus Authorityas soon as work on them wasfinished, he said.

05:40 01:3004:15

07:00

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

November 10

A lecture by archaeologistAlper Yurdemi on ‘OttomanEmbroideries: Meeting Pointif Ottoman palace and popu-lar culture’, will be held at LokVirsa on November 10 at 4:00pm. The lecture is organisedby Turkey’s embassy.

November 13

NATIONAL Institute ofPsychology is holding a In-ternational conference onEducation Psychology on13th November, 2014. It willbe held at National Centreof Physics (NCP), Quaid-I-Azam University Campus,Islamabad time 9:00-18:00.

November 14

ALUMNI Association-Na-tional Institute of Psychol-ogy (AA-NIP) will hold an-nual Alumni Dinner, 2014 on14th November , 4:00 p.m. to8:00 p.m. at Geo Physics Au-ditorium, QAU.

November 18-19

A two day InternationalConference on “Major Pow-ers’ Interests in IndianOcean: Challenges and Op-tions for Pakistan” will beheld in Serene HotelIslamabad on November 18-19, 2014. The conference willstart at 09:00 am. It has beenorganized by IPRI andHannas Seidel Foundation.

Citizens buying used laptops from Sasta Bazaar Committee Chowk.Students presenting tableau during a ceremony in connection with Iqbal Day at Faiz ul Islam Secondary School.

Demonstrators holding placards chanting slogans during a protest organized by World Minorities Alliance againstkilling of Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishan, at China Chowk.

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—The citizens have urgedthe authorities concerned to take solidsteps to avoid traffic jam problem on cityroads as the motorists travelling on cityroads are witnessing worst trafficgridlocks across the city. Several ambu-lances are also seen stuck in the longtraffic queues on the roads.

The commuters of public transportare the worst sufferers as traffic on sev-eral chowks is diverted to alternativeroads. Traffic wardens are found absentfrom duty points and others made half-hearted efforts to regulate traffic.

A car rider Amjad said, “There was a

traffic chaos every where on Saturdayand motorists were left abandoned.”

The citizens have called on the au-thorities to outline a comprehensiveplan to solve traffic congestion in thecity as heavy traffic jam on city roadsespecially at Raja Bazar, College Road,Circular Road and Jamia Masjid Roadarea after launching of Metro Bus Projecton Benazir Bhutto Road (Murree road)is creating a lot of problems for themasses of Rawalpindi city.

Talking about traffic jam in the city,people belonging to different walks oflife said, the Benazir Bhutto Road, RajaBazaar Road, Bank Road, Bunni Chowk,Said Pur Road, Peerwadhai Road, Tench

Bhatta, 22 Number Chungi have verymuch importance for the residents ofRawalpindi but traffic jam has become aroutine matter on these roads, the citi-zens are suffering great.

Lack of traffic signals in Raja Bazaarand other important chowks of the cityalso creating traffic problems. The traf-fic wardens also do not perform theirduties properly in several chowks, saida motorists.

The citizens have urged the authori-ties concerned that strict checking of traf-fic rules violations, particularly onSaddar Bazar, Raja Bazar and TenchBhatta roads should be ordered. Thecommuters face big traffic problems on

several city roads due to heavy trafficload, traffic mismanagement, rules vio-lations and encroachments.

Driving in Raja Bazar, Saddar Bazarand Tench Bhatta areas is enough totest the nerves of the commuters, Atif, acommuter, said. He added, “We dailyface huge traffic mess particularly at thepeak hours”.

Five to 10 minute wait at all main traf-fic signals is a routine matter on busyroads, said Tahir, adding traffic problemson city roads could only be addressedthrough strict observance of trafficrules.

Meanwhile, the shopkeepers havestarted encroachments of footpaths in

Capital’s famous Aabpara Market due towhich pedestrians and customers are fac-ing severe difficulties.Due to encroachments of vegetables,fruits, clothes and other stalls set up byshopkeepers, the customers and resi-dents have been facing acute difficultiesfor parking their vehicles or to walk onfootpaths. The residents also claimed thatthe owners of bakeries have also illegallyset up ‘samosa’, ‘pakora’ stalls outsidetheir shops while the concerned author-ity is playing role of silent spectators onall this illegal business. To this effect, theresidents demanded that encroachmenton footpath be removed and relief shouldbe provided to them.

Traffic jam, encroachmentsslowing down routine life

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Vice-Chancellor, Allama IqbalOpen University, Prof. Dr. Shahid Siddiquihas lauded the role of Pakistan Broadcast-ing Corporation, TV channels and newspa-pers for supporting AIOU in promotion ofeducation across the country.

While addressing the certificate award-ing ceremony of the 5-day long script-writ-ing workshop on radio and television pro-duction that was arranged by theUniversity’s Institute of Educational Tech-nology, the Vice-Chancellor said media hasnow been merged in the country’s socialinstitutions that play a significant role instrengthening society and disseminatingknowledge.

He further said with the help of media,AIOU covers all parts of the country andits 1.3 million students in minimum time, forthat AIOU is grateful to the media.

He expressed his gratitude to the Direc-tor General PBC, Ms. Samina Pervaiz for theirconstant support to AIOU in increasing ofliteracy rate by disseminating education todoor-step of everyone. Dr. Siddiqui reiter-

ated that improving professional skill of theemployees will be his foremost priority sothat they could provide required services tothe students and help them to achieve theacademic targets in their educational pur-suits. In this connection, suitable and rel-evant professional training courses and pro-grams will be arranged from time to time.

Appreciating AIOU role in promotionof education, Director General, PBC SaminarPervaiz expressed various aspects and im-portance of Script-writing. She assured theAIOU Vice-Chancellor of their full supportin broadcasting the AIOU messages. Shefurther said that the doors of PBC wouldalways be opened for Script-writers andproducers.

Addressing the function, Director IETMuhammad Qasim Haider said that a seriesof script-writing workshops have alreadybeen conducted for University academi-cians. Ninety faculty members have partici-pated in the radio and television workshops.He said radio and television programmesproduced in IET promote and support thedistance-teaching-based courses of theUniversity.

AIOU lauds ‘media role’ inpromoting education

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—The inspection departmenthas examined over 1200 houses during antidengue drive in Rawalpindi.

According to details, following the di-rections of Cantonment Board Executive Of-ficer, 11 separate teams have participated

Anti-dengue drivecontinues in City

in anti dengue drive and inspected over 1200houses in different areas includingGawalmandi, RA Bazaar, Afshan Colony,besides Nasir Abad, Faisal Colony, PeoplesColony and Railway colony.

While 106 places were found denguelarva which have been eradicated and antidengue spray made in all places.

ISLAMABAD—Plastic surgeon, Dr Aman UllahRaja, has performed surgeries on 30 cleft lipand palate children at a week-long medical camphere. Parents came along with their kids fromfar flung areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, AzadKashmir and Punjab including Rawat,Sargodha, Peshawar, Chakwal and Sargodhaat the medical camp held by the Islamabad CleftLip and Palate Association (ICLAPA), said MAftab, the chief coordinator of ICLAPA.

Speaking at the concluding event of thecamp, Dr Aman Ullah Raja, who especially trav-els from the United Kingdom after every fewmonths to perform free of cost surgeries, saidthis service to humanity brought him a lot ofsatisfaction as it brought back smiles on thefaces of children.

Dr Amanullah along with Ijaz Bashir startedthe mission of treating the cleft lip and palatepatients in Pakistan in 1996.

According to ICLAPA focal person ProfFarhat Akhtar Rehman, out of every 530 livebirths, one Pakistani child is born with a cleftlip or a cleft palate or both.

There are tens of thousands of childrenneeding surgery with seven to ten thousandnew-borns adding to the number.

A cleft lip and palate can lead to furthercomplications if the child is not treated at a

Cleft lip, palate children treatedat ICLAPA camp organized

very early age of 3-6 months for cleft lip and 11months to a year for a cleft palate.

Islamabad Cleft Lip and Palate Associa-tion has been organising free plastic surgerycamps for treatment of children born with cleftlip and palate twice a year. Ali Medical Center,a health facility in Islamabad, has been provid-ing its operation theater for the surgeries andan industrialist in Sialkot has been giving freeof cost medical instruments for the operationsof children, most of whom belong to disad-vantaged sections of society. According toProf Farhat, they are providing feeding equip-ment and facilities to the children so the par-ents do not need to purchase equipment frommedical stores. She said the parents shouldcontact their medical facility in F/8-3 sectorIslamabad to get information about causes ofthe disease like congenital defects.

The facility also offers skill improvementand training of Pakistani doctors and paramedi-cal staff on how to handle, treat and care pa-tients besides free speech therapy and dentaltreatment of patients.

The organization continues registration ofpatients all around the year and then foreignand Pakistani surgeons hold camps to carryout operations and check previously operatedand treated patients.—APP

RAWALPINDI—Rawalpindi city looks hid-eous as it filled with plastic bags thrown bycity residents. Plastic bags are a commonsight all over the city. Certainly, they givethe city a very ugly and sickening look. Onwindy days they fly everywhere, anywhere,even in your face.

The perils of plastic bags are quite ob-vious but Pindiites continue using themand the district government doesn’t seembothered to control their manufacture oruse.

Citizens said that problem is not onlybags and the garbage being thrown by the

Littering makingRawalpindi looks ugly

roadside; plastic cups, bottles waste pa-pers being dumped there. All over the cityrubbish can be seen, tonnes and tonnes ofit, on the roads, streets, along railway lines,in parks; choking up rainwater vents onroadsides.

Citizens said that banning plastic bagwill not be a good decision as it has lightweight and is easy to carry. Only problemwith plastic is that it is not biodegradable.Therefore it should not be thrown awayhere and there, it should be properlydropped in dustbins and then it will notcause any problem.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Ministry of Information Tech-nology (MoIT) is in process of developing afully automated radio broadcast monitoringsystem to detect content of interest in live au-dio and video streams. The system will be de-signed to work on ‘Software as a Service’(SAAS) model where end-clients will be ableto exploit functionalities of the system overthe web. The project called Realtime Auto-mated Broadcast Monitoring and InformationExploitation System is being executed by Na-tional ICT Research and Development Fundin collaboration with TechArete, Islamabad ata coat of Rs. 14.32 million by next year.

As per information, the proposed systemwill also address challenges of a robust au-dio-video content matching and the bottle-neck of huge computing resource requirementfor processing audio-video streams by mak-ing innovative use of state-of-the-art many-core processors. The detection and match-

ing results will in turn be used by the systemto generate critical analytics and statistics.

The research and development done andthe solution developed as a result of this projectwill be extensible to address the problem ofother domains which require automated videoprocessing and hence will be an important as-set in a world where millions of minutes of videois uploaded each day on the internet.

It is mentioned here that in Pakistan,more than 3000 hours of video content isbroadcast on TV channels every day.

Extracting useful information from thisvast video content has become very criti-cal for local and multinational companies,media houses, regulatory authorities andsecurity agencies. The current market trendis to “make sense” of a very small subset ofthis video content through human opera-tors watching the content and `manually’transcribing the desired information. Whilethis practice may be relatively low cost, it isnot scalable and lacks accuracy.

System being developed toimprove broadcast monitoring

Decrease in fruit,vegetable prices

demandedISLAMABAD—The residentsof twin cities of Islamabadand Rawalpindi have de-manded decrease in theprices of fruit and vegetableon pretext of reduction infuel prices.

Talking to APP, the shop-keepers of various marketssaid that after reduction inthe fuel prices, the authori-ties should take notice ofovercharging by the ven-dors and shopkeepers offruit and vegetables.

They claimed that theshopkeepers have increasedthe prices of fruit and veg-etables as compared to therates in the previous monthin twin cities.

The prices of most of veg-etables including potato, on-ion, ginger, ladyfinger, cauli-flower, black pepper, lemonand cabbage registered an in-crease. Similarly, the prices ofapple, grapes, banana,mango, melon and other fruitalso rose. Muhammad RiazKiani, a resident of G-9 appre-ciating the government deci-sion to decrease fuel pricessaid that the vendors are stillselling fruit and vegetable onhigh prices despite decreasein the fuel prices.

He said that the con-cerned authorities need totake action against the peopleovercharging the people withboth hands. However, shop-keepers were of the view thatthey had nothing to do withprice hike and contended theprices had increased in thewholesale market.—APP

CDA to auctionconfiscated material

every quarterISLAMABAD—Capital Devel-opment Authority (CDA)announced that its anti-en-croachment policy would bestrictly implemented and allconfiscated material wouldbe auctioned every three-month to discourage en-croachers.

An advertisement foropen auction of confiscatedmaterial has already beenpublished in the print media,said a press release.

Member Administrationand Estate, CDA Amer AliAhmed has directed the En-forcement Directorate tocontinue its operationagainst the illegal construc-tions and encroachments inthe Federal Capital withoutany fear or favour.

Amer said the Enforce-ment Wing would also ensureeffective monitoring of clearedareas in the city so that en-croachments could not crop upagain. He said the EnforcementDirectorate staff’s performancewould be monitored too for im-provements.

He said Chairman CDA,Maroof Afzal has directedthe concerned formations ofthe authority to addresspublic complaints.—APP

MUZAFFARABAD: In connection with celebrations of 137th birth day of Allama Iqbal, poet/philosopher of the East Mr.Abdur Rashid Karnahi Advocate presenting a book on Iqbal to Ms Taqdis Gillian Chairperson Kashmir Culture Acad-emy here on Sunday.

DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL

THE ultra Hindutva party BJP cannot but beoverwhelmed by the so-called secular Congress support for its Hindutva agenda, so

openly pursued in Jammu Kashmir. Although BJPcalls the Congress a pseudo-secular outfit, pam-pering Muslims for their vote, but they know thatcongress party manages Muslim votes only bysheer coercion by using BJP as a monster party. Infact, the Congress and BJP joint gimmicks canmake envious even the Republican and Democraticparties engaged in joint gimmicks in USA, target-ing resources of Middle eastern Arab nations. Con-gress party has done its part in making Hindusprominent in Jammu Kashmir assembly with amere puppet chief minister Omer Abdullah obey-ing the orders from New Delhi and Congress highcommand.

In fact, in pursuing the Hindutva agendas of“secular” India, Congress has managed even aHindu as Deputy chief minister of JK when entirecountry has no such posts existing, not even inKerala where Muslims are in a commanding posi-tion with many MLAs. People at large would won-der as to how a secular party Congress could ad-

BJP wants to replace Congress in Jammu Kashmir!vance the India’s Hindutva policy as aggressivelyas the Hindutva parties led by BJP.

BJP has been as Indian policy focusing onJammu region and has made gains. BJP now tar-gets the Kashmir valley as well. Now the PDP isalso focusing on Jammu region very earnestly. Asa powerful anti-incumbency wave sweepingagainst the National Conference–Congress govern-ment, the BJP is keen to make the best out of Modifactor to win the JK assembly polls, and with NCand independents to form a coalitional, albeit frag-ile, government in Srinagar, to be supported bythe Modi’s BJP’s government in New Delhi.

However, the Maharashtra poll did not showthe Modi shine in a proper format and could notwin majority in the assembly because of the SivaSena factor and this phenomenon seems to beworry the BJP and RSS alike as they face the pollsin the troubled JK. With the build-up of media andmoney resources, the BJP has been cleverlypolarising votes in Jammu region in the name ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi plus the usual Pa-kistan factor. The BJP is attempting to make in-roads in Kashmir Valley by selling its toweringleader Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s peace initiatives withPakistan and separatists.

However, the ground reality does not supportBJP’s rise to power in JK easily as Kashmiri Mus-lims in both Jammu and Kashmir regions who feelthe insult and injury committed on them by Hindutvaforces and military do not favor BJP as well. Thephenomenal emergence of the BJP with assistancefrom Congress party and NC, already raises fearsabout Kashmiri identity. Congress party has failedpeople both at the national and JK levels.

Even if it cannot form the government in coali-tion, the BJP aims at replacing Congress as the mainopposition in the state. That they would consider astheir achievement in Muslim dominatedKashmir.Under the anti-incumbency mood in thestate, it is likely that the PDP will form governmentand with Congress out, only the BJP can be the op-position if they win more seats than otherparties.However, if people to judge the BJP on thebasis of the performance of their MLAs, in the out-going assembly, then, BJP would be left out of JKat par with its secret ally the Congress. While thenational Conference is already thinking of shiftingto BJP to form the government enjoys power shar-ing against the genuine interests of Kashmiri Mus-lims if it wins enough seats, BJP could be gratefulto Congress for its constant help in protecting anti-

Muslim forces in India. If at all the BJP becomesthe opposition party in JK, it is because of its ag-gressive anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan plus Hin-duism gimmicks (like Amarnath Yatra) that havebeen ably supported by Hindutva wings within theCongress party led UPA government.

The implications of the upcoming elections inJK are beyond government formation and the re-sults would be crucial to safeguarding interests ofthe state, resolution of explosive Kashmir prob-lem and securing the rights of Kashmiri Muslimsin the state and in India. Kashmiri Muslims haveduty before the fellow humans and they shouldvote to save the remaining Muslims in Kashmirvalley. They must change their political policy ofarmed struggle against a powerful military of In-dia that has been responsible for the death of over100, 000 innocent Muslims in Kashmir alone. True,Kashmiris Muslims have never been so sure offairness of elections conducted essentially by themilitary forces in the state.

Instead of a credible rehabilitation plan, theBJP government and Congress-NC state govern-ment have hurried up for polls to claim Indian le-gitimacy for occupational crimes. PDP has no ob-jections , too. After they lost Lok Sabha polls, the

Congress-NC were using power to manage pro-motions, backdoor appointments, transfers. Thestate government has submitted a plan worth Rs44,000crore to the central government many richguys are waiting to enjoy the money they wouldget from huge projects after the colossal tragedy.

A possible fractured mandate in JK can be avertedonly if the freedom groups come together to fightpoll by providing historic opportunity to the peopleof Jammu Kashmir to assert their identity, politicalrights and constitutional distinction. Only they canstop the Hindutva forces to push for CM or DeputyCM to be reserved for Hindu leaders who opposesuch posts for Muslims elsewhere in Indian states.Interestingly, Hindu leaders oppose a Muslim to be-come Indian prime minister for obvious reasons- themost important one being the inferiority complex theysuffering from for vague reasons. The button for allnukes India possesses, moreover, is under the PM’scontrol- under the control of president of India - rea-son why a Muslim could become president of Indiaand not PM of India. However, no such implicationis associated with a Muslim becoming CM of a state.It is just the Hindu bosses do not want a Muslim to betheir CM. All other reasons are just false.

[abdulruff@gmail.com]

OLD CITY, IHK—A Kashmir journalist who tookpart in the relief and rescue operations when thedevastating floods hit the region early Septemberthis year has been given a bravery award by aninternational civil society group. The United Citi-zens Child Support Organization which activelyworked during floods in Kashmir valley, felicitatedan international bravery award to Bilal Bhat whocontributes to Kashmir Dispatch besides otherpublications. The award has been given to Bilalfor saving precious lives and tireless work in pro-viding medical relief to flood victims.While speaking to media the country head ofUCCSOU-I, Noor-ul Hussain Khan said, “Wereceived many names for bravery award but we

Kashmir journo gets braveryaward for rescue during floods

BHADERWAH, IHK—PDP chief MehboobaMufti today alleged that National Conference-ledJammu and Kashmir government has done noth-ing for betterment of the people of the state and achange in the government is imminent. “A changein the government is writing on the wall and PDPaims at changing the entire system to ensure jus-tice, development and increased opportunities ofgrowth for all,” Mehbooba said while addressinga public meeting in Bhaderwah constituency inDoda district. On the fifth day of her campaigntrail, Mehbooba claimed that all the regions andcommunities of the state are now eagerly wait-ing to become part of the change.

Mehbooba said that if elected to power herparty will revive the “reconciliation, reconstruc-tion, rehabilitation and development” process ithad started during its brief tenure in the govern-ment between 2002 and 2005. She said the forth-coming Assembly polls offer “historic” oppor-tunity to the people to liberate themselves fromthe “exploitation” of the National Conference.“You have to come out to vote for PDP for a

Change in govt imminentin IHK: Mehbooba

bright future as both Congress and NationalConference have done nothing for your better-ment, empowerment till now,” Mehbooba said.

Mehbooba claimed the people living in theentire Chenab Valley are facing hardships on mul-tiple fronts. Referring to the local issues, Mehboobasaid Bhaderwah area after having remained the hubof education and intellectual activities even dur-ing pre-independence era have suffered deteriora-tion in education. “Student community has to badlysuffer here because of the lack of proper infrastruc-ture and teaching staff in the education institutions,”Mehbooba said, adding that if voted to power, PDPwill put in every effort to revive ‘Chota’ Kashmir’suncelebrated glory.

Mehbooba said people here have to faceimmense hardships because of the lack ofproper medical facilities also. “Being moun-tainous area the people here have to travel alot to get the treatment done in hospitalswhich at times becomes difficult for the pa-tients particularly children, women and oldage persons,” she said.—KT

TANGMARG—The teachers body work-ing under education scheme SSA, in northKashmir has threatened of Election dutyboycott, if their salaries were not releasedbefore the commencement of next phaseof election duty training. The representa-tives of the teachers body of Tangmarg,Kunzar and Nehalpora education zones onSunday said here that they will be forcedto go for election duty boycott and suc-cessive strike till their salary is not releasedand the responsibility of non-complianceof govt orders will lie on govt. itself. “ Wesubmitted a memorandum to Sub Divi-sional Magistrate Tangmarg on the occa-sion of first phase of election duty train-ing conducted by the District administra-tion in Govt Higher Secondary SchoolKunzer Tangmarg on Saturday in whichwe asked the authorities to release our sal-

Salary starved teachersthreaten duty boycott

ary pending fro last six months, lest we gofor indefinite strike from November 11 andelection training/ Duty boycott in the forth-coming Assembly elections” Said ShowkatRehman, Rehbare Taleem Teachers Forum(RTTF) spokesperson.

“The teachers working under centrallysponsored scheme SSA further said thatthey have been neglected by the govt fromlast two years as their salary is not releasedon time which has defamed their status inthe society and elsewhere therefore theyhave decided to boycott election trainingand will continue their protest till theirsalary is released. We have no other op-tion to break the ice which has frozen thefeelings of govt as they have no humanemotions as to how a teacher can do with-out salary for six months. State and cen-tral govts blame one another for the prob-

lem, he said. We had earlier registered ourprotest against non availability of salaryand govt had assured us of speedy redressalbut till date no respite is seen from thegovt,” added Showkat.RTTF zonal president Tangmarg SheikhIrshad said “Teachers are going throughhard times and they are not even able toprovide proper food clothing to their fami-lies and their wards have been discardedfrom the schools as they are not in a posi-tion to pay their school fee. If govt. can’tpay our salary they should not expect com-pliance of govt. orders from us” It is perti-nent to mention that SSA salary ratio is65:35, 65 % share of SSA salary comesfrom centre whereas 35% share from statebut both central and state govts haveblamed one another for the SSA salary is-sue in the media.—KW

CHATTERGAM, IHK—A day after the army ac-cepted responsibility for Chattergam killings, hun-dreds of persons mostly women blocked theNowgam Bypass road Sunday in protest againstthe arrest of four youth by the police on charges ofstone pelting. The protesters blocked traffic andraised slogans against the police, army and thegovernment. They also demanded immediate ar-rest of army men involved in the Monday killings.The protesters sought release of the arrested youthwhom they identified as Towseef Ahmed Wani

Teens killings: Womenprotesters block road

resident of Charipora, Irfan Qadir Bhat of PadshahiBagh, Muhammad Amir of Methan and ImtiyazAhmed of Nowgam. Two youth got killed onMonday evening when army fired upon the carthey were travelling in. Two other sustained inju-ries triggering massive protests in the area. Thearmy has admitted its mistake and assured a ‘free’probe. The Army also announced a compensationof Rs 10 lakh each to the next of kin of those killedand Rs five lakh each to the injured. However, theaggrieved families have rejected the offer.—KR

14 hurt incloudburst

ISLAMABAD (ANANTNAG)—IHK Fourteen persons were in-jured in a cloudburst inKokernag area of south Kash-mir late Saturday evening, po-lice said today. The cloudbursthit the Patti Samdal village inAnantnag district. The injuredhave been shifted to a hospitalfor treatment.—GK

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, the leader ofHurriyet Conference Jammu and Kashmir leader,Shabbir Ahmad Shah, has appealed to the interna-tional community to take serious notice of gravehuman rights violations committed by Indian armyand police in the territory. Shabbir Ahmad Shah,who continues to be in illegal detention of Indianpolice in a statement from a jail in Kupwara, calledupon the United Nations and the Muslim world tomake sincere efforts for settlement of long-pend-ing dispute over Jammu and Kashmir.

On the other hand, shutdown was observed inDelgate and adjoining areas of Srinagar against thekilling of two civilians, who were deliberately hitby an Indian army vehicle in Srinagar, yesterday.APHC leaders, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and Javed

World urged to helpresolve Kashmir dispute

Ahmad Mir in their statements said that the person-nel of Indian armed forces were killing civilians instaged traffic accidents under a planned conspiracy.The All Parties Hurriyet Conference in a statementdenounced the act. Protests continued in Nowgamarea of Srinagar, today, against the recent killing oftwo youth by Indian Army at Chattargam in Badgam.Kashmir Journalists Corps, a forum of newsmen, ina statement strongly condemned the threats issuedby a former Indian Senior Superintendent of Policeto Showkat A Motta, the editor of a Srinagar-baseddaily. The police officer threatened the editor for areport on the said officer’s role in the killing of 300Kashmiri youth. Meanwhile, Indian army andpolice launched a search operation at Levdorain Qazigund.—KMS

MIRPUR: AJK President Sardar Muhammad Yaqub Khan who also is Chancellor MUST Varsity being presented bouquet of flowers here.

selected Bilal because despite not knowing swim-ming, he mustered courage to save people duringdevastating floods. Most of the time, he was inneck-deep water and his boat capsized twice buthe didn’t give up.” Our organization will felicitatemore awards to these rescuers, who saved peopledespite playing with death, he further said. “It isan honour for me to receive the award. I dedicatethis award to my friends, who volunteered withme during floods especially my cousin, who is adoctor. Without him giving life saving drugs toflood victims would have not been possible,” saidBilal. He also thanked the Kashmir university of-ficials for providing them boats and space to carryout the rescue operations. —KD

Modi’s upcomingvisit to Kashmir a

futile exercise:JKLF

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, the Jammu KashmirLiberation Front (JKLF) de-scribing as an exercise in futil-ity the upcoming visit of IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modito the territory has said thatnothing could be achieved bysuch sojourns. A JKLF spokes-man in a statement issued inSrinagar said, “This visit is justa gimmick to hoodwink inter-national community, providelegitimacy to the so-called as-sembly elections and boost themorale of the killers, who re-cently murdered our youngboys at Chattergam.”

“Kashmiris, as in thepast, will strongly protestagainst this visit and give amessage to the internationalcommunity that Kashmir is adisputed terr i tory andKashmiris don’t accept thispolitics of Indian leaders,”the statement said, addingthat “the military and policeoppression in Kashmir is go-ing on and hundreds andthousands of political work-ers have been put behindbars.” “To cover this un-democratic practice, Modi isvisiting Kashmir to tell theworld that all is well,” itadded.—KMS

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, theHurriyet Conference Jammu and Kashmir(HCJK) leader and Democratic FreedomParty (DFP) Chairman, Shabbir AhmadShah, terming as misleading the Indian ArmyGeneral’s statement on the Chattergam inci-dent, has said that the brutal killing of twoteenage boys was not a mistaken identity buta deliberate act.

Shabbir Ahmad Shah, who continues tobe in illegal detention, while reacting to theArmy’s assertions in a statement issued bythe HCJK spokesman in Srinagar, said thatthe black laws had given unbridled powersto the Indian forces paving way for them tocommit heinous crimes like Chattergam kill-ings.

He termed the army’s statement as con-fession of murder, demanding they shouldconfess to the killings they carried out in

Chattergam killing adeliberate act: Shabbir Shah

Kashmir for the past 24 years. “They shouldalso reveal who are buried in unmarkedgraves and where all the 10,000 disappearedpersons are,” Shah said. He appealed to theinternational community and the United Na-tions to take serious notice of grave humanrights violations committed by the armedforces and hold New Delhi accountable forall the crimes committed in Kashmir.

Shabbir Ahmad Shah reiterated his ap-peal for election boycott saying said that thepeople, who consider AFSPA as “a divinecommandment and are strengthening theNew Delhi’s forcible control Jammu Kash-mir, are now begging for votes.” Welcom-ing the statement of OIC, Shah said the Mus-lim world should now take serious initiativesto resolve this long pending dispute of Kash-mir to ensure durable peace in the region.—KMS

Ex-SP threatensnewspaper editorto teach a lesson

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kash-mir, former officer of thecounterinsurgency Special Opera-tions Group (SOG) of Indian po-lice, Syed Ashiq Hussain Bukhari,has threatened an editor of a Val-ley-based newspaper to teach hima lesson for “painting a bad pic-ture” of him in a news report.Bukhari, who retired in Februarythis year as Srinagar’s Senior Su-perintendent of Police and re-tained his official phone number,rang up Kashmir Reader EditorShowkat A. Motta in the morn-ing, the other day, to convey thethreat. He had taken umbrage atthe news report headlined EX-SOG officer Ashiq Bukhari ad-dresses ”.—KMS

“I insist on a lot oftime being spent,

almost every day, tojust sit and think. Thatis very uncommon inAmerican business. I

read and think. So I domore reading and

thinking, and makeless impulse deci-sions than most

people in business. Ido it because I likethis kind of life.”

— Warren Buffett

72

BEIJING: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a meeting with different companies owners during his visit to China.

COMMERCE REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The All Pakistan CNGAssociation (APCNGA) on Sunday re-jected the decision of SNGPL to closeCNG stations across Punjab on the pre-text of excessive load on the system.

The unilateral decision will hurt theinterests of millions of masses and thou-sands of CNG filling stations owners there-fore it cannot be accepted under any cir-cumstances, said Pervaiz Khan Khattak,Central Chairman APCNGA.

In a statement issued here, he said thatclosure of CNG stations throughout Punjabon Nov 10 in the garb of load on system is

unacceptable as there is no city in the prov-ince facing biting cold.

The unilateral and flawed decision willadd to the problems of CNG operators andmiseries of the masses, said Pervaiz KhanKhattak.

He said that some of the governmentand business circles cannot tolerate CNGsector even if it is running for two days aweek.

The SNGPL has deprived masses ofaffordable fuel many times in recent daysand now the department has repeated thedecision without taking stakeholders onboard which is unfortunate, he added.

Pervaiz Khattak said that closure of

CNG stations will affect millions of jobs,thousands of CNG operators while driv-ers of taxis, rickshaws and wagons willincrease fares.

He said that CNG is the only busi-ness in the world which is not allowed tooperate for more than two days in a weekand it is being strangulated which has leftus with no option but to take a strict ac-tion.

He said that depriving Punjab’s CNGindustry of gas is highly unfortunate there-fore the CNG operators facing the wrathof SNGPL should be immediately com-pensated against the wastage of businessdays.

APCNGA rejects forced closure ofCNG filling stations

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Samsung’s latest and themost fascinating smartphone (Phablet) -Galaxy Note 4, is now available in Paki-stan with Free Accidental Insurance. Allthe superb features, functions and tremen-dous performance of this feature-richPhablet are now protected against anyuntoward incident or accidental damage,to ensure that the customers can consis-tently enjoy the 2.7GHz Quad-Core pro-cessor and 3 GB RAM, with crystal clearimages on the 5.7 inch Quad HD SuperAMOLED Display screen, which hasbeen truly optimized for web-browsingand e-booking.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4with free insurance

The powerful 16 Mega Pixel SmartOIS back camera, along with the 3.7 MPfront camera (F1.9 lens) captures brightand vivid images and videos to immortal-ize your best moments, during a sunny dayor even in a dark night.

Make your own notes or take photosusing the unique “Photo Note” feature,which allows you to instantly convert ana-log content into digital, which can thenbe edited as notes and allows change ofcolors in the pictures. The user may alsoput in additional memos with S Pen eas-ily.

With the advanced S-Pen technologywith enhanced pressure sensitivity, theuser gets an improved and precise digi-

tal handwriting experience. With the newS-pen, you can also select any contenteasily, from any text, screen or app, andthen put it together to share or save itinstantly.

The highly intuitive Galaxy Note 4empowers you with Free-Flowing andNatural multitasking between numerousApps. The gesture recognition feature de-livers unmatched convenience for doingmore in less time, as the device also en-ables “Multi-Window” on a single screen.In addition to the superlative digital expe-riences, the high-capacity, fast-chargingbattery of the Galaxy Note 4 can recharge30% faster, besides offering an UltraPower-Saving mode.

FAISALABAD—Senior vicepresident Faisalabad Chamberof Commerce and Industry(FCCI) Nadeem Allahwala hassaid the visit of Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif toChina will help to usher a newera of prosperity and develop-ment in the country.

In a statement here Sunday,he said that MoUs and agree-ment signed with Chine govern-ment will help to overcome en-

ergy crises in the country onpermanent basis.

He said that billion dollarsinvestment by Chinese govern-ment in different sectors espe-cially in energy sector will alsocreate job opportunities for un-employed educated youth.

Nadeem Allahwala said thatthe politics of sit-ins had badlydamaged national economy andhoped that PTI will also end sit-in like PAT.—NNI

PM’s China visit tousher in new era ofprosperity: FCCI

LAHORE—Chairperson TEVTA Irfan QaiserShaikh has said that economic strength ofthe developed countries depends on theirtrained Human Resource and skilled man-power.

The importance of technical education &vocational training cannot be denied for sus-tained economic development and industrialgrowth of a country. Promotion of technicaleducation is the only way to eradicate pov-erty and bring prosperity in the country.

He was addressing two members delega-tion of Faisalabad Chamber of Commerceand Industry here yesterday at TEVTA Sec-retariat. President FCCI Engr. RizwanAshraf, Member Executive CommitteeZeeshan ul Haq, World Bank Delegation in-cluding Ms. Scherezad J Monami Latif (TaskTeam Leader), Ms. Ayesha Khan (OperationsAnalyst), Ms. Margo Hoftizer and Ms.Yevgeniya Savchenko (Consultants), ChiefOperating Officer TEVTA Jawad AhmedQureshi and General Manager (Operations)Hamid Ghhani Anjum were also present onthis occasion.

Irfan Qaiser Shaikh said that TEVTA willintroduce demand driven courses on the rec-

ommendations of private sector. We havenow started efforts to assemble representa-tives of all important stakeholders of TVETbusiness i.e. chambers of commerce & in-dustry, industrials associations, employers toget their input to introduce demand drivencourses across the province of the Punjab.Their recommendations will be given prior-ity.

These activities are in line with the policyof Chief Minister Punjab MuhammadShahbaz Sharif.

President Faisalabad Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (FCCI) Engr. RizwanAshraf in his address said that we will fullycooperate to promote technical education andprovision of skilled manpower to the indus-try. Pakistan has plenty of natural and hu-man resource for economic development.

With clear vision and sustained & orga-nized efforts to implement it, TVET sectorcan revolutionize socio-economic landscapein Pakistan. TEVTA can play its vital rolein the national development process by pro-viding trained workforce for local industryand also for export to the global set-up.—NNI

Developed countrieseconomic strength dependson trained HR, manpower

ISLAMABAD—The government has re-leased over Rs 99.821 billion under Pub-lic Sector Development Programme(PSDP) for various projects against totalallocations of Rs 525 billion for the fiscalyear 2014-15.

According to the latest data of Min-istry of Planning, Development and Re-forms, Rs23,736.200 million have beenreleased for various projects of Paki-stan Atomic Energy Commission, outof its total allocations of Rs51,475 mil-lion, earmarked under PSDP for FY2014-15.

An amount of Rs3,921.931 millionhave been released for Higher EducationCommission (HEC) out of its total alloca-tions of Rs200,68.926 million whereasRs9,745.275 million have been releasedfor Water and Power Division (Water Sec-tor) out of its total allocations ofRs43,427.180 billion for the current fiscalyear.

The government releasedRs15,216.400 million for Railways Divi-sion for which Rs39,566 million have beenearmarked in the PSDP of FY 2014-15.

An amount of Rs1,259.291 has beenreleased for Cabinet Division out of itstotal allocations of Rs2,077.587 million

whereas Rs18.226 million have been re-leased for Communications Division outof Rs191.130 million.

A sum of Rs139.200 million have beenreleased for Commerce Division out of itstotal allocations of Rs363 million whereasout of the total allocations of Rs11,061 mil-lion allocated for Finance Division, thegovernment has so far released Rs880.478million.

According to the data, the governmentalso released Rs704.729 million for Inte-rior Division for which Rs3,900.168 mil-lion have been earmarked in the budget ofcurrent year whereas Rs170.259 millionhave been released for National Food Se-curity and Research Division.

Similarly, Rs5,587.004 million havebeen released for National Health Services,Regulations and Coordination Division outof its total allocations of Rs27,014 mil-lion.

A sum of Rs334.683.083 million havebeen released for Planning, Developmentand Reform Division out of Rs32,878.379million, the data revealed. An amountof Rs18.226 has been released for Com-munications Division (other than NHA)out of its total allocations of Rs191.130million whereas Rs.13.860 million have

been released for Narcotics Control Divi-sion out of its total funds of Rs324.300million.

The government also releasedRs147.171 million for Science and Tech-nological Research Division, Rs40.400million for Textile Industry Division andRs140 million for SUPARCO out of itstotal allocations of Rs.700 million.

The government released Rs4,212.482million for AJK (Block and other projects)out of its allocations of Rs12,127.410 mil-lion, Rs4,227 million for Gilgit-Baltistan(Block and other projects) out of its totalallocations of Rs9,230 million andRs3,619 million for SAFRON/FATA outof its Rs.19100 million.

Rs1,354 million have been released forEarthquake Reconstruction and Rehabili-tation Authority (ERRA) out of its totalallocations of Rs5,000 million. ThePlanning Commission of Pakistan has beenfollowing a proper mechanism for the re-lease of funds.

Commission releases 20 percent offunds in first quarter (July-September), 20percent in second quarter (October-De-cember), 30 percent third quarter(January-March) and 30 percent in fourth quarter(April-June).—INP

Rs99.821b released for dev projects

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister’s spokesman DrMusadik Malik says 10,400 megawatt electric-ity would be added to the national grid duringthe next three to four years to overcome the en-ergy crisis.

In an interview, he said several projectssigned in Beijing by the Prime Minister in thisregard would help improve the availability ofelectricity, give boost to the business activities,create more job opportunities and strengthen thenational economy.

Musadik Malik said under these projects,solar, wind, coal and hydroelectricity would be

produced across the country.He said power generation from solar and

wind would start in two years while coal andhydroelectricity projects would be completed inthree to five years respectively.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said Chinawould also assist Pakistan in developing a bighighway network from Khuzdar to Gwadar aspart of Pak-China Economic Corridor.

He said another highway network connect-ing Sindh and Punjab and leading to Afghani-stan would be built to turn Pakistan into a hubof regional trade.—NNI

10,400 MW power to beadded in 3-4 years: Musadik

WASHINGTON—US jobgrowth increased at a fairlybrisk clip in October and theunemployment rate fell to afresh six-year low of 5.8 percent, underscoring theeconomy’s resilience in theface of slowing global demand.

Despite the strengtheninglabour market picture, wagegrowth remained tepid, sug-gesting the Federal Reservewould be in no hurry to startlifting interest rates. Employ-ers added 214,000 new jobs totheir payrolls last month, theLabour Department said onFriday. The unemployment ratefell from 5.9 per cent, even as

more people entered the labourforce, a sign of strength in thejobs market.

Data for August and Sep-tember were revised to show31,000 more jobs created thanpreviously reported. “Today’sjobs report confirms that theUS remains the bright spot in aglobal economic picture fillingwith clouds,” said MichaelGriffin, managing director atCEB in Arlington, Virginia.

Economists polled byReuters had forecast 231,000new jobs last month and for theunemployment rate to holdsteady.

US stock index futures

edged up on the data. Prices forUS Treasury bond prices fellslightly and the dollar was littlechanged.

Monthly job growth hasexceeded 200,000 for ninestraight months, the longeststretch since 1994, sufficientstrength to keep the economyon a higher growth path after itexpanded at a 3.5 per cent pacein the third quarter.

The Fed last month struck afairly upbeat tune on the jobs pic-ture as it ended its bond buyingprogram, dropping its character-ization of labour market slack as“significant” and replacing it with

US job growth accelerates

Continued on Page 14

Fresh produce trade set to grow across Arab regionWASHINGTON—The latest UN Comtrade report showed thatover Dh3 billion worth of fresh produce was imported duringthe first six months of the year.

Industry experts have forecasted further growth in the tradeof fresh produce across the Arab region, particularly in Dubai,which has firmly established itself as the regional hub for freshfruits and vegetable trading.

“The rapid growth of the industry can be attributed to sev-eral key factors like the high demand for fresh produce and theever-expanding population of countries in the region. Fresh pro-duce exporters and international growers have expressed theirbullishness on the industry’s growth and have eyed the regionas a hub that represents many potential opportunities for theirbusinesses,” said Tarek Sibai, project manager at planetfair,organisers of the World of Perishables Expo, or WOP Dubai2014, the Middle East’s only dedicated trade fair for fruits andvegetables.

Held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid AlMaktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance

and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, WOP Dubai 2014 willtake place from November 9-11, 2014, at the Dubai World TradeCentre.

Speaking to Khaleej Times ahead of the event, Sibai notedthat the latest UN Comtrade report showed that over Dh3 bil-lion worth of fresh produce was imported during the first sixmonths of the year.

“At least 661 million kilogrammes of fruit and vegetableswere imported into the UAE during the same period,” Sibairevealed. “The heightened activity complements the remark-able growth that the region’s fresh produce segment experiencedin 2012 and 2013. Fresh produce imported in the Middle Eastreached 4.1 per cent [$4.2 billion] from total world imports in2012, with the GCC alone standing at 54 per cent [$2.2 billion]of the total imports of the Middle East region.”

He added: “The UAE, for example, witnessed a 10 per centgrowth in apples, pears and quinces from 2011 to 2012, withimports in 2012 peaking at $201 million covering 191 millionkilogrammes coming from 20 destinations. The UAE imports

mainly from the US and Australia, bringing in fruits like apples,pears and citrus fruits like lemons, oranges and the like. Recentindustry reports have shown that the top fresh produce export-ers to the UAE are the US, India, China, South Africa, Chile,France, Egypt, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Austra-lia.”

Asked about the UAE’s re-export trade of perishable foodstuff, Sibai said that some of the UAE’s re-exported fruits in-clude apples, pears and citrus fruits like oranges and lemons.Owing to its strategic proximity to Europe, Asia and Africa, theUAE has emerged as a major hub linking the Arabian Gulf withproducer markets in the region as well as connecting global pro-ducers and consumer centres. As per recent industry statistics,Dubai has emerged as a regional re-export hub for perishablegoods. The total imported value for edible fresh fruits and nutshas increased from $95.48 billion in 2008 to more than $114billion in 2012.

“The global transportation of commodities has becomean essential component for the modern world, with ship-

ping and logistic services considered a necessity in the movetowards rapid economic growth,” Sibai revealed. “There isa wide variety of cultures and nationalities in the UAE, soanalysts have shared that an efficient supply chain is neededin responding to the needs and demands of today’s mar-kets.”

Asked if Dubai and the region is now leaning towards ahealthier lifestyle of choices, Sibai answered in the affirmative.“We are seeing preferences leaning towards more healthy alter-natives — placing more value on products that are good for thepopulation’s health and leaving less of an environmental im-pact. The sales of organic packaged food in the UAE reached$16.3 million in 2013, according to Euromonitor International.Retail sales are forecast to grow by 31 per cent to top $21.1million in 2018,” he noted.

“Similar to its past editions, this year’s WOP Dubai willprovide a unique business-driven and practical environment toall participants as well as access to the region’s fastest growingeconomy,” Sibai said.—Agencies

Apec supportsChina-backedtrade zoneBEIJING—China’s promotionof the Free Trade Area of theAsia-Pacific (FTAAP) idea— and the narrative of Sino-US trade rivalry on the issue— has loomed as a majoragenda item at the diplomaticgathering in Beijing. APacific Rim summit onSaturday voiced cautioussupport for a vast free-tradezone proposal being pushedby China in the face ofreported resistance from theUnited States, which ispromoting its own regionaltrade pact. China’s promotionof the Free Trade Area of theAsia-Pacific (FTAAP) idea— and the narrative of Sino-US trade rivalry on the issue— has loomed as a majoragenda item at the diplomaticgathering in Beijing. A jointstatement by foreignministers of the 21-memberAsia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (Apec) forumcalled for steps to be taken to“translate the FTAAP from avision to reality”. But itagreed to launch a “strategicstudy” on FTAAP, avoidingChina’s calls for a “feasibilitystudy” on the concept. Thewording of next week’s finalsummit communique hasbeen toned down in acompromise by Beijing afterthe United States objected touse of the term, according toa report by the Hong Kong’sSouth China Morning Post(SCMP).—Agencies

Waha Capital9-month net profitrises to Dh1.6bABU DHABI—Waha Capital,an investment company basedin Abu Dhabi, reported a netprofit of Dh1.6 billion for thefirst nine months of 2014, anear six-fold increase on thesame period in 2013, thecompany said in a statement.This was largely due to a one-off gain recorded in the secondquarter as the companyunlocked part of the value ofits stake in AerCap. For thethird quarter of 2014, thecompany recorded a net profitof Dh301.2 million, up fromDh107.1 million a year earlier,driven by strong contributionsfrom the company’s stakes inAerCap Holdings and DuniaFinance. According to thecompany, in the third quarter,AerCap again made a strongcontribution to Waha Capital’searnings, as the New York-listed company recorded a117.6 per cent rise in earningsper share from a year earlier,due to its acquisition in Mayof International Lease FinanceCorporation (ILFC).—Agencies

Canada, Chinain $32.67b

currency swapLONDON—The agreementwas announced after Cana-dian Prime Minister StephenHarper met Chinese PremierLi Keqiang.

China’s and Canada’scentral banks agreed to a cur-rency swap worth 200 billionyuan ($32.67 billion) orC$30 billion, said a Canadiangovernment statement issuedat a meeting of Asia Pacificnations.

The statement did notsay for how long the cur-rency swap would be effec-tive. The agreement was an-nounced after CanadianPrime Minister StephenHarper met Chinese PremierLi Keqiang.

China’s central bank, thePeople’s Bank of China, willalso appoint a yuan clearingbank in Canada as part of amemorandum of understand-ing, said the statement. It didnot say which bank would beappointed the renminbi clear-ing bank, but is likely to beone of China’s four largestbanks.

The currency swap willhelp set up the clearing bank,and allow the two banks toswap currencies if needed toease trade and investment.The yuan clearing bankwould be the first in theAmericas, and allow Cana-dian financial institutions touse the clearing bank to pro-cess payments for their cus-tomers in yuan.

The move is in line withBeijing’s ambition to pro-mote its currency to moreinternational investors andeventually turn the “redback”into a global reserve cur-rency, while at the same timeexpanding China’s alreadyconsiderable political andeconomic clout.

“This is a fantastic an-nouncement for Canada andChina relations, a terrificmove for Canadian busi-nesses to be able to competemore abroad, not only direct-to-China investment but... asmore RMB/CNY activitytakes place around theworld,” said C.J. Gavsie,managing director of foreignexchange sales at BMOCapital Markets.

China will additionallygive Canadian investors theright to invest up to 50 bil-lion yuan initially in China’scapital markets, said thestatement.

The quota will be grantedunder the Renminbi QualifiedForeign Institutional Investorscheme.—Agencies

Currency Selling Buying

USA 97.90 97.70

UK 161.42 161.09

Euro 135.15 135.43

Canada 87.26 86.44

Switzerland 110.86 110.63

Australia 89.28 89.46

Sweden 15.26 15.23

Japan 0.9556 0.9537

Norway 16.18 16.14

Singapore 77.03 77.18

Denmark 18.10 18.06

Saudi Arabia 26.10 26.05

Hong Kong 12.59 12.62

Kuwait 347.38 346.67

Malaysia 29.63 29.57

Newzealand 83.62 83.57

Qatar 26.88 26.76

UAE 26.65 26.60

KR. WON 0.0907 0.0905

Thailand 3.016 3.010

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The real benefit of reduc-tion in oil prices could not be transferredto general public despite firm and strictdirective of Prime Minister of PakistanMian Nawaz Sharif on this issue. Itseems that transporters mafia is so strongthat provincial governments could notbound transporters to make necessaryreduction in fares. Conspiracy to closeChing-chee and rickshaw services is inprocess to compel public to use busesand coasters.

This was stated by President PakistanConsumers Federation and Chairman Con-sumers Association of Pakistan Mr.

Kaukab Iqbal while addressing media per-sons in his office where Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Khan- General Secretary Con-sumers Association Of Pakistan, ViceChairman IshaqAbbasi and Anwar AzizJakartawala were also present.

Kaukab Iqbal added that transportersare using CNG in public transport espe-cially in buses and wagons but they areovercharging the fares by charging theprices of diesel. While making agreementwith Transport Associations ProvincialMinister for transport did not bother to askwhy people are forced to pay diesel rateswhile CNG is being used in transport. Hesaid, throughout the World particulars ofRickshaw, taxi, buses and public transport

driver’s licenses colored copies are dis-played including numbers of traffic depart-ments prominently to enable passengersthat they are travelling with a licenseholder driver.

He stressed the need to display copiesof driver’s license at prominent place andgovernment should issue orders for reduc-tion of transport fares at least Rs. 4 to 5sothat, real benefits of reduction in oil pricescan be transferred to general public. Healso said ching-chee and Nine-seaters arenow popular public transport, general pub-lic will not bear any ban on it in any case.It is the duty of Government to providecheap and mass transport in greater publicinterest.

Benefit of cut in oil pricesmust go to consumers

LAHORE—The Punjab government has de-cided to get opportunities for commercial uti-lization of railway lands, specially those nearrailway stations, said a senior official of Punjabgovernment while talking to APP here on Sun-day.

The government, the official said, hadconstituted a committee headed by the ChiefSecretary for preparing recommendations onpractical possibilities to promote commer-cial and business activities at Railway la-nds.

A period of one month has been given tothe committee to complete the task after a de-tailed study, he said.

The committee will consider preparation ofa feasibility report for construction of sportsgrounds and other venues having profitable eco-nomic activities, he said.

This initiative is part of the government’ splanning to utilize available resources, increaseearning of national organizations, strengtheningnational economy and ensure public welfare, hesaid.—APP

Committee formed for Railwaylands commercial use

STOCKHOLM—Geely-owned Volvo Car Groupsaid on Sunday it had begun production of itsbest-selling XC60 crossover at its plant inChengdu, taking a further steptoward supplying locally-pro-duced cars in China as well asopening the door to overseas ex-ports.

Volvo said in a statementthe start of XC60 productionwould add 500 new manufac-turing jobs at its plant inChengdu, in central China, where it alreadymakes another model, the S60L. The XC60is Volvo’s best-selling car.

“The start of XC60 production in Chengduis the latest milestone in Volvo Cars’ transfor-mation,” Volvo Cars Chief Executive HakanSamuelsson said in a statement.

“It will be instrumental in boosting Volvo’soverall growth in what is now our largest mar-ket.”

Volvo Cars begins XC60production in China

Strong growth in China has helped Volvorack up 16 straight months of rising sales thoughlacklustre performance in the United States -

once its biggest market but noweclipsed by China - remains aheadache.

Volvo, bought by ZhejiangGeely Holding Group Co. fromFord Motor Co. F.N in 2010,aims to nearly double annualsales to 800,000 cars by 2020 andstake out a claim in a premium

market dominated by rivals such as Daimler’sMercedes-Benz and BMW.

While one of Sweden’s top exporters andemployers, Gothenburg-based Volvo remains asmall player in the global autos industry thoughit recently rolled out its first new car developedunder Chinese ownership, its XC90 SUV.

Volvo has also said it expects to begin ex-porting cars from its plants in China to the UnitedStates next year.—Agencies

OSLO—”Norway” and “cheap” are two words thatrarely go together, yet this oil-rich Scandinavian coun-try is where Europe’s third-largest budget airline firstspread its wings.

Over the past decade, Norwegian Air Shuttle hasbrought budget travel into the Nordic mainstream, push-ing Scandinavian legacy carrier SAS to the brink.

Its latest mission is to compete on long-haul routes,a market where budget airlines have tried to gain a foot-hold without success, and comes at a time when allEuropean airlines face stiff competition from state-backed Gulf rivals.

Founded as a regional airline before turning itselfinto a low-cost operator in 2002, Norwegian launchedinto a depressed market suffering from the impact ofthe 9/11 attacks. “In order to survive we had to go forcosts... And in order to get the costs low enough wehad to grow,” said Bjoern Kjos, the fighter pilot-turned-lawyer who is the company’s chief executive.

At the heart of Norwegian’s success has been a largeand modern fleet that consumes less fuel than those ofits rivals.

It also focuses on large population areas to ensure

Europe’s 3rd largest budget airline spreads wings in Norwayflights are never half empty. By contrast, traditionalEuropean carriers use connecting flights to fill theirplanes, meaning the aircraft spend more time in the air-port.

“The aircraft isn’t earning any money sitting on theground,” Kjos told AFP.

Norwegian’s red and white aircraft have an aver-age turnaround time — the time an aircraft must re-main parked at the gate — of just 20 minutes in thecountry’s airports.

In 2012, the group placed the largest order in Euro-pean aviation history as it agreed to buy 222 Boeing737s and Airbus A320neos for a list price of 16.6 bil-lion euros ($21.6 billion).

As it begins to take delivery of the new generationaircraft in 2016, the company will save up to 15 per-cent on fuel.

From its headquarters — which once belonged toarch-rival SAS before they had to downsize — outsideof Oslo the group oversees an ever-expanding routenetwork. It has opened bases in the other Nordic capi-tals, several Spanish cities and, most recently, in Lon-don.

The set-up allows it to hire staff locally on lowersalaries than in Norway. For every 100 euros in rev-enue, Norwegian pays 17.4 euros in labour costs com-pared with 32.1 euros at SAS, which is 50 percentowned by the governments of the three Scandinaviannations.

This is partly why the low-cost carrier has beenprofitable since 2006 while troubled SAS, despite sev-eral restructuring plans, has only turned a yearly profitonce since 2007.

Since last year, Norwegian has offered long-haulflights from Scandinavia to a handful of US destina-tions and to Bangkok, and since last summer betweenLondon’s Gatwick and North America.

“The challenge on the Atlantic is that 87 percent ofthe traffic has been... controlled by the three alliancesand of course they don’t like any competitors, at leastthey don’t like a new low-cost entrant,” Kjos said.

Amid outrage from his rivals, trade unions and someUS politicians, the company is still waiting for Wash-ington to grant a license to its Ireland-registered long-haul subsidiary, Norwegian Air International (NAI).

The advantages of an Irish licence include using

cheaper non-European staff on transatlantic routes,prompting accusations of social dumping.

“The airline won’t even be flying into or out ofIreland. It’s just to avoid the application of strong Nor-wegian labour and social laws,” said Ed Wytkind, presi-dent of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of tradeunions in the United States.

On the federation’s website, he lashed out at “a Wal-Mart-style race to the bottom for cheap labour”.

The long-distance routes have also been hit by theteething problems of the 787 Dreamliner, the eighth ofwhich it will receive next year.

Along with expansion costs, this has weighed onNorwegian’s bottom line and dented its image. Thecompany is facing prosecution in Sweden and Norway,and the term “Kjosfast” (“grounded because of Kjos”)has entered the language.

“They lack aircraft for the time being,” said Ken-neth Sivertsen, an analyst at Arctic Securities, addingthat “it’s likely that they will make money or at leastbreak even next year” on long-haul flights.

“It will have taken them two years. This is quiteacceptable,” he said.—AFP

BEIJING— The leaders of China and Russiasigned agreements Sunday to boost energy co-operation, including an understanding to developa second major route to supply the Chinese sidewith Russian gas following an initial $400 bil-lion deal in May.

The cooperation with China gives Russia aboost at a time when Washington and the Euro-pean Union have imposed sanctions againstMoscow and grown increasingly wary of theKremlin because of the crisis in Ukraine.

Presidents Xi Jinping of China and VladimirPutin of Russia presided over the signing of theaccords, which also included financing agree-ments, after meeting in Beijing ahead of thisweek’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperationsummit.

“Regarding cooperation in the internationalsphere, the most important thing is cooperation

China, Russia sign accordon second gas route

between China and Russia to keep the worldwithin the framework of international law, tomake it more stable, more predictable,” Putinsaid. “Together we’ve done a lot to achieve that,and I am sure we will work in this direction inthe future.”

One of the memorandums of understandingis to develop a western route for the delivery ofRussian gas, following the May agreement tosupply 38 billion cubic meters of gas annuallythrough an eastern route.

“Together we have carefully taken care ofthe tree of Russian-Chinese relations. Now fallhas set in, it’s harvest time,” Xi said.

The deals give Russia a way to vastly ex-pand its market for its gas, which now goes mostlyto Europe. For China, the world’s second-largesteconomy, the cooperation helps ease gas short-ages and curb its reliance on coal.—AP

LAHORE: Men and women peasants busy in extracting rice using old methods.

European Central Bank pledges more actionLONDON—European Central Bank mem-bers are all prepared to take more policyaction if necessary and the bank’s staff willprepare the groundwork in case, PresidentMario Draghi said.

The ECB kept interest rates at a recordlow 0.05 per cent at it monthly meeting,waiting to see how stimulus measures laidout in recent months unfold.

Draghi said risks to the eurozone’s re-covery remained skewed to the downsideand told a news conference: “The Gov-erning Council is unanimous in its com-mitment to using additional unconven-tional instruments within its mandate.

“The Governing Council has taskedECB staff and the relevant Eurosystem(central bank) committees with ensuringthe timely preparation of further measuresto be implemented if needed,” he said.

After the US Federal Reserve endedits bond-buying programme while theBank of Japan increased its pace moneycreation, markets are trying to judge how

close the ECB is to launching more ag-gressive steps, such as quantitative easingmoney-printing to buy large amounts ofgovernment bonds.

There has been mounting discomfortover Draghi’s leadership style. Reutersreported on Tuesday national central bank-ers in the euro area planned to challengeDraghi over his communication style andin particular his mention of a balance sheettarget for how much money the ECBplanned to pump into the economy afterthe Governing Council agreed not to makeany figure public in September.

Draghi reaffirmed that target, sayingthe balance sheet would “move towardsthe dimensions it had at the beginning of2012”.

He added that the policymaking Gov-erning Council had signed up to that unani-mously but nodded to some policy differ-ences.

“When we differ in our views and ourpolicies ... there is no drawing of a line

between North and South. There is no coa-lition, not at all,” Draghi said.

The euro hit a 26-month low and pe-ripheral European bond yields fell after heaffirmed the target and highlighted risksto economic growth.

To keep the eurozone from slippinginto deflation, the ECB has started pump-ing more money into the banking systemthrough purchases of private debt and of-fers of long-term loans, aiming to boostits balance sheet by up to •1 trillion.

There is growing doubt whether itscurrent measures will be enough, but theECB is expected to wait until it gets aclearer view of the impact of its asset pur-chases and four-year loans to banks be-fore adding further stimulus.

Sources close to the ECB have toldReuters that its plan to buy private-sectorassets may fall short of its goal and pres-sure is likely to build for bolder actionearly next year, firstly moving into thecorporate bond market.—Agencies

DUBAI—The UAE’s commitment towardsaviation biofuel could see Boeing utilise itsgreatest percentage of the economically-friendly fuel here, chairman and chief ex-ecutive officer Jim McNerney said.

“Biofuel commitment is great here andit is a big bonus for Boeing. I predict theUAE is where we’ll be using the greatest per-centage of biofuel in our planes,” he said atThe Atlantic’s “What’s Next?” summit onglobal innovation, which was held in AbuDhabi recently.

Referring to Etihad’s recent Boeing 777trial flight that carried 10 per cent of biofuel,McNerney said this was a sure sign thatthings were “scaling up” in regards to theuse of aviation biofuel in the Middle East.

In a move to reduce emissions of green-house gases, initiatives like Etihad’s recenttrial flight are being introduced to support asustainable aviation biofuel industry in theUAE. And with a big global footprint itself,McNerney said Boeing back the move 100per cent.

During the summit, McNerney alsostated that planes with ceramic engines couldbe the future of aviation.

“I foresee more corporations introducingengines with ceramics. It may sound surpris-ing but they can handle more heat.”

He said the aviation industry can expectto see bigger, composite aircrafts taking tothe skies by 2030, adding that “good con-nectivity” will become the “basis of compe-tition”.

“Boeing’s new 737 MAX will carry usthrough to the next decade at least but thenthere is a good chance we will see more com-posite aircrafts. This would be a further spinoff of the 777-X.”

Though the conventional shape of planeswill remain the same, he said aircraft interi-ors will see big changes. Seats will be morelike video arcade seats as data speed for in-flight Internet access will increase, which inturn is expected to lead to greater use of de-vices and bandwidth, on planes.

Last week’s summit in Abu Dhabimarked the first time it has been held out-side the US and McNerney said it made senseto connect with its audience in the MiddleEast.

With enormous physical developmenttaking shape in the UAE, McNerney saidBoeing was fortunate to be tied into manyprojects here.

“We’re being challenged in the UAE. Itsfocus on the development of people makes areal difference and it’s what accelerates aneconomy.”—Agencies

UAE may be Boeing’s mainmarket for biofuel usage

“gradually diminishing.”Sturdy job gains on

their own, however, willprobably not be enough toconvince the US centralbank to start raising inter-est rates before the secondhalf of 2015 given a stilllow level of inflation.

Wage growth is themissing piece of the jobsrecovery and without sig-nificant increases, mosteconomists say the Fedwill be in no rush to liftbenchmark lending ratesthat it has kept near zerosince December 2008.

The employment reportshowed that average hourlyearnings rose only threecents last month, leaving theyear-on-year change at 2.0per cent, the range its beenin for the last few years. Butother data have begun toshow wage growth pickingup.—Agencies

US jobFrom Page 13

SYDNEY—Australian Prime Minister TonyAbbott on Sunday vowed that the G20 lead-ers’ summit this week “won’t be a talkfest”as he hailed the economic meeting as themost important ever held in his nation.

Abbott reiterated that the forum, whichwill see the leaders from 20 of the world’sbiggest developed and emerging economiesgather in Brisbane on November 15 and 16,was resolute in its aim to lift growth.

“We have a very clear goal — to boostglobal economic growth by two per centabove what is currently expected over thenext five years,” Abbott said in a statementon Sunday.

“All the countries of the G20, includingAustralia, will be detailing their growth strat-egies at this summit.

“It won’t be a talkfest. It’s an economicsummit — so it will focus on what can bedone to create jobs, identify tax cheats andimprove the world economy.”

Australia has sought to make economic

growth the G20’s top priority since it as-sumed the rotating presidency, amid concernsthe annual meeting has lost its way in recentyears after it was upgraded to a leaders’ sum-mit in 2008 to tackle the fallout from theglobal financial crisis.

G20 finance chiefs said after their Sep-tember meeting in Cairns that they were setto achieve an extra combined 1.8 per centgrowth over the next five years under re-forms agreed among member nations, withfurther measures needed to reach the two percent goal.

Abbott said three themes Australia hadset for the meeting included strengtheningthe private sector to promote growth, mak-ing the world economy more resilient to fu-ture shocks, and shoring up global institu-tions.

“I am confident that the G20 summit willmake a real difference to the lives of peopleright around the world,” he added.—Agen-cies

G20 summit won’t be atalkfest: Australian PM

Kingdom’s nonoilGDP remains

within 4pc range

JEDDAH—The National Com-mercial Bank (NCB) had pro-jected in its report Saudi Eco-nomic Perspectives titled“Growth Moderation on theHorizon” issued in June, thatthe Kingdom will face a mod-erate business cycle during2014 and 2015, growingaround 4 percent in real terms.

The bank’s assumptionscentered on lesser contributionfrom the oil sector and modera-tion in the nonoil sector. It ex-pected the weighted averageArab light prices to fall from$106.4 per barrel in 2013 to anestimated $102 per barrel in2014, a wild call at the timeespecially that oil peaked in thesummer as the benchmarkBrent broke the $110 per bar-rel threshold.—Agencies

SYDNEY: The victorious Australian team with the series trophy after beating South Africa in 3rd Twenty20.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Ashiq Hussain of MultanGolf Club, a 24 years upcoming golfer,captured the Coca Cola backed 33rdPunjab Amateur Golf title after crush-ing his nearest challenger, GhazanfarMehmood of Rawalpindi in a play offbattle that lasted only one hole hereat the Royal Palm Golf Course.

As per rules of the championship,the play off rule applies when someof the competitors end up with levelscores at the conclusion of the cham-pionship and in this Punjab Amateurtitle event, Ashiq and Ghazanfar com-pleted the three rounds at a score of219 requiring a sudden death playoffto determine the Championship. Asthese two players teed off from thefirst hole, their drives were power-fully superb and so were the fairwaychips to the green on this par fourfirst hole. But after that the see sawbattle the equilibrium shifted in favourof the younger Ashiq Hussain as he

Ashiq Hussain wins PunjabAmateur Golf title

two putted on the first hole greenearning a par while Ghazanfar threeputted and scored a much dreadedbogie that relegated him to the run-ners up position.

In this championship , AshiqHussain surfaced as the championwith a perfection oriented golfing per-formance on the final day on Sundayand in the final go he did not relentfor a moment.The all round effortcomprised perfect tee shots on thepar 4’s and par 5’s, crisp approachshots from the 120 yards distance andsome adept putts on the greens.Andhis card of gross 68 for the final dayreflected four birdies on holes 3, 5, 7and 15 and fourteen regulation parsthus giving him a bogie freeround.Through this excellent displayof golfing skills , this young one of aten member huge family has earnedpride for his family and parent MultanGolf Club and seeks support so thathe can continue to develop his golfto a higher level.

As for the other contenders cham-pions like Mohsen Zafar, SalmanJehangir, Waseem Rana and evenZulfiqar Ali the current national cham-pion faded out on the final day andwere no where in the final reckoning.

As for Ashiq Hussain, he endedthe championship with a score of 219,with Ghazanfar as runner up at a simi-lar score of 219, followed by Wazir Aliat 227.

In the race for net honors OmairJaved of DHA Karachi Golf Club re-ally blossomed and won the first netprize.The second net went to MohsenZafar and Tariq Mehood got the thirdnet position.

The honors in senior section be-longed to Dr Tariq Malik of Royal PalmGolf Club.He reflected a good com-mand over his game and his grossscore of 77 reflects a determined ef-fort.

Maryama Khan had earlier cap-tured the ladies title.

Other Results:Seniors net;DrTashbeeb Gulzar(istn e t ) ; C o l ( r ) H a m a y u nRashid(2nd net);ShafiqBhatti(3rd net);Seniorsgross;were Dr TariqMalik(1st gross);Col(r)AsifMehdi(2nd gross), andJaved A.khan(3rd gross).As for Ladies, MaryamaKhan was(1st gross), AnaJames Gill(2nd gross), andZeb un Nisa(3rdgross);Sunaya Osama1stnet), Shazadi Gulfam(2ndnet) and Dr Asma Shami(3rdnet),Sponsors of this Champi-

onship were Coca Cola.At the conclusion of the

33rd Punjab Amateur GolfChampionship at the RoyalPalm Golf Course, LtGen(r)Khalid Maqbool,former Governor Punjabawarded prizes to the win-ners alongwith SyedMuhammed Salman of CocaCola, in a grand prize distri-bution ceremony attendedby Ramzan Sheikh, ParvezQureshi, Omer Mir , partici-pating players and families.

PRAGUE—Petra Kvitova and LucieSafarova put the Czech Republic on thebrink of the Fed Cup title with victories onthe opening day of the final against Ger-many on Sunday.

The hosts roared into a 2-0 lead, leav-ing them requiring just onemore victory on Sunday toseal their country’s third vic-tory in the Fed Cup, the pre-mier team tournament inwomen’s tennis, in the lastfour seasons. Playing infront of a capacity 13,000crowd at the O2 Arena inPrague, the home favouriteswere given a flying startwhen inspired Wimbledonchampion Kvitova, who ledthe Czechs to the title in 2011and 2012, defeated AndreaPetkovic 6-2 6-4.

Safarova then downedAngelique Kerber 6-4 6-4,prevailing after a see-sawmatch against theGermany’s top-rankedplayer. It left Germany fac-ing an uphill task to win theCup for the first time sinceSteffi Graf led them to the1992 title. “I couldn’t askfor more than to be leadingafter the first day. They wonin straight sets, which is ex-cellent,” Czech captain PetrPala said. “But we have tobe ready again for tomor-row.”

Kvitova, a winner ofthree titles in 2014 includinga second Wimbledoncrown, set the tone swiftly,gaining an early break against Petkovic andtaking the first three games en route to win-ning the opening set.

Petkovic, though, showed fight, break-ing Kvitova at the start of the second setbefore surrendering the advantage in thenext game. Causing Kvitova problemsthroughout the set, Petkovic levelled thescore at 3-3 but the Czech hit a pair ofdeft drop shots to keep herself ahead.

Kvitova leads Czechs tobrink of Fed Cup title

“(Kvitova) was playing amazingly well. Iwasn’t playing badly, she was just somuch better,” Petkovic said.

“The main difference was she servedbetter and returned better. She put a lot ofpressure on my serve.” A double fault from

Petkovic set up match point for Kvitova,who quickly closed out the match.

Kvitova and Safarova both said theybattled nerves as they went into their firstfinals matches on home soil since theCzechs won the trophy in 2012. “It is aprivilege to play at home but also pres-sure,” Safarova said. “I’m happy that Petraand I were the stronger ones on the courttoday.”—APP

PRAGUE: Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova returns a ballto Germany’s Andrea Petkovic during their Fed Cup Fi-nal tennis match between Czech Republic and Germany.

SYDNEY—Australia won a thrilling finalTwenty20 international against SouthAfrica by two wickets with one ball tospare to take the series in Sydney onSunday.

Cameron White steered the Austra-lians home with an unbeaten 41 off 31balls to pip the Proteas in a tense de-cider at Sydney´s Olympic Stadium.

The Australians had restricted theSouth Africans to 145 for six off their 20overs after winning the toss, but needed19.5 overs to get the winning run offWhite.

Australia took the series 2-1 afterlosing the opening game in Adelaide byseven wickets then claiming the next inMelbourne by seven wickets and win-ning in Sydney.

White´s composed knock got theAustralians over the line after SouthAfrica´s five bowlers had threatened topull off a gritty victory as wicketstumbled.

Giant all-rounder David Wiese cap-tured three for 21 and spinner RobinPeterson took three for 28 to lead theSouth African attack.

The Australians began briskly, withskipper Aaron Finch clubbing two sixesin his 33 off 25 balls and Glenn Maxwellhitting a typical improvised 23 off 15balls.

But the wickets kept falling and giv-ing the South Africans a sniff of victory.

The Australians needed 41 runs offthe last 36 balls as White masterfullyshepherded the strike to keep the scor-

LAHORE: Prize winners of the 33rd Punjab Amateur Golf Championship South Africa innings:Kock c Dunk b Cummins48Hendricks b Bollinger ... 49Rossouw b Boyce ........... 4Miller not out ................. 34Behardien c Abbottb Faulkner ........................ 1Duminy c Maxwell bFaulkner ............................ 2Wiese c Dunk b Faulkner 0Peterson not out ............. 4Extras: (b 1, lb 1, w 1) ...... 3Total: (6 wickets) ......... 145Fall of wickets: 1-75, 2-88, 3-117, 4-122, 5-133, 6-134Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WBollinger ............... 4-0-28-1Maxwell ................ 4-0-24-0Faulkner ................ 4-0-28-3Abbott .................. 1-0-14-0Boyce .................... 3-0-26-1Cummins ............... 4-0-23-1

SCOREBOARDAustralia innings:Dunk c & b Peterson .... 14Finch c Lange b Wiese 33Watson b Peterson ......... 5Maddinson b Wiese ....... 4Maxwell c Hendricks bPeterson ......................... 23White not out ................ 41Faulkner b de Lange ....... 9Cummins c & b Wiese .... 3Abbott lbw b Abbott ...... 5Boyce not out .................. 1Extras: (w 8) ...................... 8Total: (8 wickets) ......... 146Fall of wets: 1-40, 2-53, 3-61, 4-62, 5-100, 6-125, 7-135, 8-144Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WAbbott ............... 3.5-0-20-1Lange .................... 4-0-34-1Parnell ................... 4-0-43-0Wiese .................... 4-0-21-3Peterson ............... 4-0-28-3

White guides Australia home inT20 series decider against Proteas

ing rate ticking over.Proteas skipper J.P. Duminy declined

to bowl his off-spinners and relied onhis contingent of five main bowlers, butpaceman Wayne Parnell proved particu-larly expensive and went wicketless for43 runs from his four overs.

Kyle Abbott claimed the wicket ofSean Abbott leg before wicket with thethird-last ball and incoming batsmanCameron Boyce almost ran out Whitewhen he scampered for a single off hisfirst ball.

P e t e r s o n ´ sthrow from back-ward square legnarrowly missedthe stumps withWhite well out ofhis ground. Whitethen choppedaway Abbott´s nextdelivery to gothrough for thewinning run.

A u s t r a l i a ´ sbowlers earlierfought back to re-strict South Africato 145 for six afterwinning the tossand sending theProteas into bat.

South Africawere well placed at75 without loss af-ter 8.3 overs withopeners Reeza

Hendricks (49 off 48) and Quinton deKock (48 off 27 balls) breezing along.

However, Australia clawed their wayback. James Faulkner (3-28) was effec-tive in the closing overs, smashingthrough the South African middle order.Faulkner subsequently was named manof the series.

David Miller remained unbeaten on34 off 26 balls and was the only Proteasbatsman to make an impact in the clos-ing overs.—AFP

ICC warnsagainst WestIndies repeat

DUBAI—The ICC has issueda warning against players tak-ing contractual matters intotheir own hands, as WestIndies did in withdrawing fromtheir tour of India, and hintedthat the right to play in domes-tic tournaments such as theIPL could be removed forthose who transgress in fu-ture. West Indies effectivelycancelled their commitmentsin India last month due to adispute between the WICB,the West Indies Players’ As-sociation (WIPA) and theplayers themselves. TheWICB faces a claim for millionsof dollars in damages from theBCCI and could still be sus-pended by the ICC, with thematter a subject of ongoingboard meetings in Dubai.

The ICC, which has previ-ously stated it cannot inter-vene in disputes over bilateralseries unless it receives a com-plaint, said that players aban-doning tours had the poten-tial to cause “irrevocable dam-age” that could “adverselyaffect the financial viability ofthe sport itself”. The state-ment continued: “Players whobehave in a similar manner inthe future will not only riskbreaching the disciplinaryrules of the relevant memberboard and being sanctionedaccordingly, but may also putin jeopardy their ability to con-clude future contractual ar-rangements with domestic fran-chises or clubs in other juris-dictions.” West Indies play-ers, including the ODI cap-tain, Dwayne Bravo, who wasat the forefront of the disputewith WIPA, are regular par-ticipants in the IPL, althoughit has previously been sug-gested that their eligibilitywould not be affected by thewalkout.—APP

RAWALPINDI—Fast bowler Asad Ali’s six-wicket haul in the second innings helpedSui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited crushRawalpindi Rams by nine wickets at theRawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

Rams, after being inserted, were bundledout for 158 inside 40 overs in their first in-nings. Naved Malik was the team’s top-scorer with 42, but lacked support at theother end, as Bilawal Bhatti (4 for 48) andImran Ali (4 for 29) shared eight wicketsbetween them to wreck Rams’ line-up.SNGPL, however, were pegged back by asix-for from the seamer Rizwan Akbar. His 6for 60 bowled SNGPL out for 189, keepingthe lead to a slender 31.

But Rams were unable to build on theirimpressive bowling performance, and wereshot out for a paltry 97 in 33 overs. Asadcollected 6 for 39, as Rams lost their lasteight wickets for just 31 runs. Bhatti andImran Ali chipped in with two scalps each.

It meant that SNGPL needed just 67 forvictory, which the team chased down in 12.1overs thanks to an unbeaten 47 from thecaptain Adnan Akmal.

Ataullah, the National Bank of Pakistanseamer, claimed nine wickets in the matchto help his side past Karachi Dolphins bysix wickets. His best first-class figures of 6for 45 had run through the opposition anda face-saving century from MohammadWaqas and Yasir Mushtaq’s 58 became vi-tal to drag the total to 207.

However, Dolphins’ bowlers were up forthe challenge and were led by 22-year oldleft-arm seamer Mir Hamza. He blew pastthe openers, weathered resistance from themiddle order as Umar Waheed, Fawad Alamand captain Kamran Akmal struck fifties,

Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Gold League

Asad’s 6-wicket haul sinks Ramsand claimed 7 for 73 and limit National Bankto 271.

Still with a lead of 64, the National Bankbowlers were able to dismiss Dolphins for197. It took Hamza Ghanchi’s 73 and a stringof 20s from the tail to get to that mark asAtaullah and Zia-ul-Haq claimed thee wick-ets apiece, while Ahmed Jamal and RazaHasan took two each.

With a modest target of 134 to achieve,Umar Waheed made 65 off 120 balls, with12 fours while Fawad Alam struck 44 off 63balls to clinch victory.

Islamabad Leopards and Water and PowerDevelopment Authority played out a draw atthe Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad, afteronly 20 overs of play was possible on thesecond day, though Leopards secured threecrucial points on account of a first-inningslead. Batting first, Leopards were restrictedto 229 despite a half-century from the captainZohaib Ahmed, as Mohammad Ali andWaqas Maqsood both collected four-fors todismiss the team in 82.4 overs.

WAPDA, however, did not fare anybetter in their first essay, being shot out for196 with none of the players able to pro-duce a fifty. Shehzad Azam was the pick ofthe bowlers, taking 4 for 74. It meant Leop-ards had a slender, but crucial lead of 33,but once again, they failed to really pro-duce a threatening score in their innings.

Sarmad Bhatti, coming in at No.8, made83, but Khalid Usman ran through the lowerorder on his way to collecting 4 for 23, even-tually dismissing Leopards for 219. With253 left to get in less than 40 overs, aWAPDA win was all but ruled out, andIftikhar Ahmed’s patient 46 ensured a stale-mate.—APP

LAHORE—An impressive batting displayfrom Abbottabad Falcons’ lower middle or-der helped secure a crucial first-innings lead,but the team did not have the required timenor overs to chase down the 158 runs thatwould have given them an outright winagainst Faisalabad Wolves. This wasmainly because the second day’s play waslimited to just 22 overs.

Batting first, Wolves’ captain FahimAshraf led the way with 105, and SadaqatAli, the No.10 batsman, hit 62, but none ofthe other players could muster more than18. Aziz-ur-Rehman and Umair Khan bothcollected three-wicket hauls, as Wolveswere skittled for 232.

Bursts from Faisal Yasin (4 for 110) andFahim Ashraf (4 for 100) had Falcons pre-cariously placed at 180 for 7 in their reply.However, Wolves’ hopes of securing threepoints were dashed by Nasir Khan’s 72,Sohail Akhtar’s 94 and a handy 45 fromShakeel Ahmed, which pushed the score to353, a lead of 121.

Wolves then batted the game to safety,with Shahid Siddiq’s 76 taking the total to

Silver League: Falcons,Wolves play out draw

278 for 5, before they decided to declareand set Falcons 158 for victory. Falconswere 9 for 0 when stumps were called.

Fahad-ul-Haq struck a brisk, unbeatencentury to help Lahore Eagles present atarget of 310 to Quetta Bears, who werehappy to hold on for the 38 overs remain-ing till stumps and secure a draw.

The second day’s play was lost leavingEagles to rue a batting display filled withstarts that were not capitalised.Wicketkeeper , Jahanzeb Abdullah came inat No. 9 and top scored with 53 off 81 balls.His team’s prospects improved on the nextafter a maiden five-wicket haul from 18-yearold seaner Shahid Nawaz. Bears folded for142, 48 of which was provided by ShahbazKhan and Eagles had managed to wranglea lead of 87 runs.

Eagles’ batsmen produced a much bet-ter effort led by Fahad’s 100 off 129 balls,but they did not leave their bowlers enoughtime to push for victory. They got rid of theBears openers cheaply, but a half-centuryfrom Arun Lal ensured there were no fur-ther hiccups.—APP

Pakistan toparticipate in

World BowlingChampionshipSPORTS REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Ten-pin Bowling Federation sec-retary Ijaz-ur-Rehman an-nounced Pakistan teamwould participate in the WorldBowling Championship inAbu Dhabi from 2nd Decem-ber to15th December 2014and would be played in theKhalifa International BowlingCenter at Zayed Sports City.

Ijaz expressed these viewsduring an exclusive interviewon Sunday, he further said, atotal of 134 countries bowlerswould be in action for the ten-pin bowling most prestigiousevent, the event would beheld under the patronage ofHis Highness Sheikh Nahyanbin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chair-man of Abu Dhabi SportsCouncil.

He further said, the tour-nament is held after every twoyears, first for men and thenfor women the followingyear, 6 players would repre-sent country in singles,doubles, trios and team event,which include, Ijaz-ur-Rehman, M. Hussain Chatha,Fazil Mania, Ahmer AbbasSaldera, Sultan Durrani andUmar Khalid, while SaqibShahzad would accompanythe team as manager.

Umer steersNBP to sixwickets win

KARACHI—Umer Waheedstruck his half century of thematch to steer NationalBank of Pakistan (NBP) toan impressive six wicketsvictory over Karachi Dol-phins in the Quaid-e-AzamCricket Trophy Gold Leaguetie here at the National Sta-dium on Sunday. Umer followed his 76 inthe first innings with an en-terprising knock of 65 in 120balls with 12 boundaries andFawad Alam made 44 as NBPromped home for the loss ofsix wickets. Mir Hamza, who took 7-73 in the first inningssnapped-up three wicketsfor 63 runs in the second toend with match figures often wickets for 136 runs. NBP got nine points forthe outright victory.—APP

ABU DHABI: Azhar Ali plays the ball down during Pakistan vs New Zealand 1st Test’s first day on Sunday.

ATHENS: Kenya’s Felix Kipchirchir Kandie celebrates as he crosses the finish line ofthe 32nd Athens marathon.

ATHENS—Kenyan runner FelixKipchirchir Kandie won the 32nd AthensClassic Marathon the “Authentic” onSunday amidst the warm applause of thou-sands of Greeks and foreign visitors, break-ing the race record.

The 27-year-old athlete crossed first thefinish line at the Panathinaic Stadium in thecentre of Athens covering in 2:10:36 the42.195 kilometres original course from Mara-thon city to the Greek capital first run bylegendary Athenian soldier Pheidippides 25centuries ago.

Kandie broke the all time best perfor-mance on the authentic course held by Ital-ian Stephano Baldini since the 2004 Ath-ens Olympic Games (2:10:55).

The Kenyan athlete had run the race in2:16:12 two years ago.

His compatriots Raymond Kimutai Bett(2:12:34) and Josphat Kiptanui Too Chobei(2:15:38) ranked second and third.

Kandie wins Athens marathonin record time

Another Kenyan, Naomi JepkogeiMaiyo (2:41:05) won the women’s Mara-thon. Kenyan Nancy Joan Rotich(2:41:28)followed in the second place and KidistFiseha Tedla (2:42:40) in the third place.

Christoforos Meroussis was the firstGreek athlete who crossed the finish line,winning the parallel Panhellenic Champion-ship.

For the Greek organizers of the HellenicSports Federation (SEGAS) all 35,000 par-ticipants in the 42 kilometers course, as wellas the shorter distance races held on Sun-day - which was a record runner’s partici-pation for the Athens Marathon - are win-ners.

Among the runners who followed thefootsteps of the ancient Athenian soldierPheidippides who announced the victoryagainst the Persian forces before collaps-ing dead from exhaustion 2,500 years ago,this year were 345 Chinese runners.—AFP

BERLIN—Defending championsBayern Munich opened a seven-pointlead at the top of the Bundesliga on Sat-urday as Thomas Mueller netted a hat-trick in their 4-0 romp at Eintracht Frank-furt.

With main rivals VfL Wolfsburg andGladbach playing Sunday, PepGuardiola’s Bayern claimed their eighthwin in 11 league games to pull clear ofthe chasing pack against ThomasSchaaf’s Eintracht.

“Once we get into our stride, we’redifficult to stop,” said Bayern’s Ger-many defender Jerome Boateng, whoset a new Bundesliga record of 50games unbeaten in matches in whichhe has played. Having been rested forWednesday’s 2-0 home win overRoma, which confirmed Bayern’s placein the Champions League last 16 as

Mueller claims hat-trick as Bayern extend lead

BERLIN: Bayern Munich’s midfielder Thomas Mueller tries to score past Frankfurt’s goalkeeper Felix Wiedwaldduring their German first division Bundesliga football match in Frankfurt.

ABU DHABI—Pakistan’s managementwas consistent in its selection and tac-tics, and their top-order batsmen dis-played a heartening stability to givetheir team the ideal start to the Testseries against New Zealand. The hostsfielded an unchanged XI for the thirdsuccessive Test, Misbah-ul-Haq wonhis third consecutive toss and battedagain - at a venue where his team hadmade 570 against Australia last week -and Mohammad Hafeez and AhmedShehzad gave Pakistan their bestopening partnership in 14 years.

While Hafeez fell four short of hisfirst Test hundred since June 2012,Shehzad converted a watchful startinto a third century in only his eighthmatch, and Azhar Ali, who had scored

Shehzad hits century as Pakistandominate New Zealand

two tons in his previous Test againstAustralia, helped consolidate the ad-vantage gained by a 178-run openingstand. New Zealand managed only onewicket in 90 overs, and the disciplinethey bowled with in the morning wa-vered as the sun grew higher andharsher.

The visitors had their chances,though. Shehzad was on 16, and hispartnership with Hafeez was 44, whenhe walked down the pitch to offspinnerMark Craig and was beaten yards out-side his crease. The wicketkeeper BJWatling fumbled the take. Shortly af-ter Hafeez, on 35, edged a legbreakfrom Ish Sodhi but replays found RossTaylor had taken the catch on the halfvolley at first slip. And late in the day,

Azhar was on 31when he at-tempted a re-verse-paddle andedged the ball.Watling createdthe opportunityby anticipatingswiftly and mov-ing to his right,but the ball thud-ded into his chestand fell to theground.

Those weremerely blips on awholesome per-formance. Hafeez,who had only 150runs in his last 13innings as opener,glanced his thirdball - from TrentBoult - for fourand batted withc o m p o s u r ethrough the firstsession. He leftwhen the ball wason a tight lengthoutside off stump,but drove and cutwhen offeredwidth. A return toform for him meantPakistan had aline-up with everybatsman in theruns.

Shehzad hadedged his secondball - from Southee- through the cor-don for four andthen slowed downdrastically but

never looked out of sorts. And afterhis reprieve, Shehzad swept Sodhi forfour and drove consecutive CoreyAnderson deliveries to the straightand cover boundaries. New Zealandtried five bowlers in the first sessionwithout success, and their day gotworse.

Pakistan had scored 85 runs in themorning, but they racked up 50 in thefirst hour after lunch as both batsmenplayed more aggressively. Hafeezpulled Southee to bring up his half-century, and the hundred partnershipwas achieved in the 38th over. Hepulled Jimmy Neesham as well - theshort balls not getting high enoughto cause discomfort on a slow pitch -and attacked Craig by stepping outand lofting and driving through coverand mid-on.

Shehzad too shed his conserva-tive approach after lunch, and targetedSodhi in particular, using his feet toloft the legspinner down the groundand then going back to cut and pullwhen the bowler pitched short. He wastroubled by one googly from Sodhibut remained unfazed enough to cutthe next ball - a legbreak - to the back-ward-point boundary.

T h eflurry ofb o u n d -a r i e sh e l p e dShehzadc a t c hup withhis part-ner, butH a f e e zsteameda h e a da g a i nb ys w e e p -i n gC r a i g ,a n dcu t t ingAnderson for two boundaries, tomove into the 90s. He was a shot awayfrom a century when a ball from Ander-son stopped on him and he popped areturn catch to the bowler. NewZealand had finally snapped the open-ing stand in the 53rd over, but thebatsman walking in was Azhar, whowas fluent from the start. Pakistanwent into tea having scored 109 runsin the second session.

With a new batsman at the crease,Pakistan began carefully after tea, butit wasn’t long before Shehzad inside-

Pakistan 1st innings:Hafeez c & b Anderson 6Shehzad not out ....... 126Azhar Ali not out ....... 46Extras: (nb 1) ................. 1Total: (1 wicket) ........ 269Fall of wickets: 1-178Bowling: ........ O-M-R-WTA Boult .......... 16-4-38-0Southee ........... 15-2-47-0Craig ................. 17-1-59-0IS Sodhi ........... 23-5-68-0Anderson .......... 7-1-31-1Neesham ............ 7-0-20-0McCullum ............ 5-1-6-0

ABU DHABI: Ahmed Shehzad acknowledging the crowdafter scoring his third Test hundred during Pakistan vsNew Zealand, 1st Test.

group winners, Mueller opened thescoring from a Franck Ribery pass atthe second attempt on 23 minutes.

The 25-year-old then boosted histally with two goals in three minutes af-ter converting another Ribery pass af-ter the Frenchman sprinted through thedefence with Poland striker RobertLewandowski also queuing up to scoreon 64 minutes.

Mueller bagged his third to leavehim with nine goals in all competitionsand the league’s joint top scorer whenhe finished off a move from a quickRibery throw-in to claim his sixthBundesliga goal.

Xherdan Shaqiri grabbed the fourthon 86 minutes after fellow second-halfreplacement Arjen Robben had pulledthe Frankfurt defence to pieces to leavethe Swiss winger to tap into an empty

net.“It’s always hard to play against a

team from Thomas Schaaf,” saidGuardiola.

“They were very aggressive in de-fence, we had a few problems with ourstructure, but the last 20 minutes was acompletely different game.” WerderBremen can move off the bottom, andleave last season’s runners-up BorussiaDortmund last before hosting third-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach onSunday, with just a point at VfB Stuttgarton Saturday evening.

Hoffenheim dropped to fifth after alively 4-3 defeat at home to Cologne withNigeria striker Anthony Ujah netting histhird goal of the season for the visitorsand Poland defender Pawel Olkowskiscoring twice, including the 83rd-minutewinner.—AFP

Motorcycling:Alex Marquezwins Moto3

World C’shipVALENCIA (Spain)—AlexMarquez completed a cleansweep of Spanish worldtitles in the same season forthe first time when heclaimed the Moto3 champi-onship with a third-placedfinish at the Valencia GrandPrix on Sunday.

Australian Jack Millerwon his sixth race of theseason ahead of IsaacVinales in second, but itwasn´t enough to make upthe 11-point advantageMarquez had in the champi-onship standings headinginto the final race of the sea-son.

In the end the champi-onship was decided by justtwo points as Marquezended the campaign on 278with Miller on 276 andMarquez´s Honda team-mate Alex Rins third on 237.

Marquez joins olderbrother and MotoGP worldchampion Marc Marquezand Moto2 championEsteve Rabat as the winnersof the three motorcyclingclasses for 2014.

“It´s incredible. I thoughtit would be the race of my lifeand it was,” said Marquez.“Ifelt good throughout the race.I felt comfortable. I am sohappy and I just want tothank everyone who has sup-ported me through every mo-ment.”—AFP

Tendulkar playedfor Pakistan beforerepresenting India!M U M B A I — E v e r y o n eknows that legendary bats-man Sachin Tendulkar madehis debut for India againstPakistan in 1989, but did youknow that he actually gothis first taste of interna-tional cricket two years ear-lier, not playing for India butfor a Pakistan team —against India!

According to Times ofIndia website, duringPakistan’s tour of India in1987, Tendulkar was sent inas a substitute fielder forImran Khan’s team during afestival match with India atMumbai’s Brabourne sta-dium.

Javed Miandad andAbdul Qadir left the field atlunch time and Tendulkarwas asked to field. Imrandeployed him at long-onand soon Kapil Dev hit askier in his direction. De-spite running 15 metres,Tendulkar could not reachthe ball.

Recounting the incidentin his recently releasedbook, Playing it My Way,Tendulkar remembers com-plaining to a friend later thathe could have taken thecatch had he been posi-tioned at mid-on instead oflong-on.

“I don’t know whetherImran Khan remembers thisor has any idea that I oncefielded for his Pakistanteam,” writes Tendulkar inhis book.— Agencies

SHANGHAI—Bubba Watson captured his firstWorld Golf Championship with a stunningturnaround Sunday when he holed a bunkershot for eagle on the 18th hole to get into aplayoff, and then made a 20-foot birdie puttto beat Tim Clark and win the HSBC Champi-ons. Watson had a two-shot lead with threeholes to play until he appeared to throw it allaway. He missed the 16th green with a lobwedge and made bogey, and then took twoshots to get out of a bunker on the par-3 17thand made double bogey to fall one shot be-hind a five-way tie for the lead.

The two-time Masters champion wasfidgety and irritated at any movement aroundhim, even stopping at the top of his swingfrom the bunker left of the green on the par-518th hole because of a camera click from thehospitality suite. But angst turned to joy whenhe blasted onto the green and watched theball roll some 25 feet into the cup for eagle.

“You always joke about holing it,”Watson said. “And then it actually went in.So I didn’t know how to react, and so I justkind of screamed and I lost my voice a littlebit. It was one of those shots — one-in-a-lifetime kind of shot.”

He closed with a 2-under 70.Clark was the only player from the five-

way tie to join Watson at 11-under 277. Helaid up on the 18th and hit wedge to 5 feet forbirdie and a 69. In the playoff, his wedge wasto the right edge of the green about 25 feetaway. The putt was on line, but short.

Bubba Watson wins athriller in Shanghai

“Never expected to be in that positionstart of the week,” Clark said. “I fought hard.I knew Ineeded tobirdie thatplayoff, espe-cially with himbeing able toreach. I’mpleased over-all. Obviously,disappointedto be thatclose.”

R i c k i eFowler, in thegroup withWatson andClark, was tiedfor the leadwhen he triedto reach the green with a 5-wood from 228yards, but it rolled back into the water. Hescrambled for par and a 70.

“I misjudged how it was going to play,”Fowler said. All three players in the final groupfailed to make birdie.

Graeme McDowell, trying to complete awire-to-wire win, missed a 12-foot birdie at-tempt and shot 73. Hiroshi Iwata (72) missedan 8-foot birdie putt. Martin Kaymer’s wedgefor his third shot bounded off the green tothe right and went into the water, leading todouble bogey. He had a 73.—AP

PROSTATE cancer is one of the most common cancers in men and a major cause ofcancer-related deaths. Yet it is tricky to

diagnose - the commonly used PSA test canresult in over- diagnosis and un-necessary fur-ther procedures. Now, new re-search led by the University ofAdelaide in Australia prom-ises to improve the accuracyof prostate cancer di-agnosiswith the help of biomarkers inseminal fluid.

Writing in the journal En-docrine-Related Can-cer, theresearchers describe how theyanalysed seminal fluidsamples from 60 men andfound small molecules calledmicroRNAs were “surpris-ingly accurate” at indicatingwhich men had prostate can-cer and how severe it was. Theproblem with the current PSA(prostate specific antigen) testfor pros-tate cancer is that,while it is very sensitive, it isnot highly specific for prostate cancer. For in-stance, it might be positive for non-cancerousconditions such as prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)and prostatitis.

This results in many unnecessary biopsiesand, perhaps more seriously, in substantialover-diagnosis and over-treatment of slow-growing, non-lethal prostate cancers that areprobably best left alone and just monitoredunder a so-called “watch-ful waiting” regime.“Biomarkers that can accu-rately detect pros-tate cancer at an early stage and identify ag-gressive tumours are urgently needed to im-prove patient care,” says lead author Dr. LukeSelth, a Young Investigator of the Prostate

Prostate cancer diagnosis maybe more accurate with semen test

Customers buying warm clothes and shoes from roadside vendors in the area of Lighthouse.

Cancer Foundation in the US.When they analysed the seminal fluid

samples, the team discovered a number ofmicroRNAs known to be increased in prostatecancer. Mi-crosRNAs are small non-coding mol-

ecules that are important forcontrolling gene expression.

Unlike a PSA test, whichis not highly specific for pros-tate cancer, microRNAs inseminal fluid samples coulddifferentiate men with lowtumors from those withhigher-grade tumours. Theywere surprised to find thatsome of the microRNAs weremore accurate than a PSA testat detecting which of the menhad cancer and which did not.

They also found one spe-cific microRNA - called miR-200b - could differentiate menwith low tu-mours from thosewith higher-grade tumours.“This is important,” explainsDr. Selth, “because, as a poten-

tial prognostic tool, it will help to indicate theurgency and type of treatment required.” In pre-vious work, Dr. Selth and his team showed thatmicroR-NAs in the blood can predict which menare likely to experience recurrence after theirprostate cancer has been surgically removed.

He says they are “excited by the potentialclini-cal application of microRNAs in a range ofbody fluids,” and he and his colleagues are al-ready plan-ning to validate their results with largergroups of patients. Meanwhile, Medical NewsToday recently learned how a commercial epi-genetic test for pros-tate cancer, when done along-side initial biopsy, accurately rules out the exist-ence of cancer up to 88% of the time.

Patron-in-Chief Pakistan Hindu Council Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani addressing a pressconference to condemn increased number of crimes against minorities.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)Media Cell in-charge and Senator Saeed Ghaniand members Habib Ud Din Junaidi, LateefMughal, Zulfiquar Qaimkhani and ManzoorAbbas had felicitated PPP-backed members ofSindh Bar Council (SBC) Ayaz Soomro, AsifSoomro, Zia Linjar, Hakim Shaikh, Fazal QadirMemon, Shafi Memon, Lala Yaseen and IqbalMeher on winning elections of SBC-2014.

Senator Saeed Ghani and PPP Media Cellmembers said the victory of afore-mentionedlawyers in SBC elections-2014 was a manifest

SBC elections-2014

PPP lawyers’ victory a manifest oftrust on party leadership: Saeed

of trust of the lawyers fraternity on PPP Chair-man Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-ChairmanAsif Ali Zardari.

They said PPP was the sole representativeparty in the country that always supported thelabourers, students and the lawyers fraternity.They said PPP was the custodian of rights ofthe people belonging to all walks of life andhence the people had always elected their rep-resentatives belonging to PPP with regard toelections in different sections of life. They saidthe victory of afore-mentioned members of law-yers fraternity in SBC elections-2014 was hencethe candid manifest of their on PPP leadership.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Pakistan Muslim LeagueQuaid-e Azam (PML-Q) Sindh Presi-dent challenges Sindh government toprove their claim for ‘all is well inTharparkar’. Fangs of deaths werethrilling the life in Tharparkar and theinfants and children were easy baitowing to unending hunger, malnutritionand even their deprivation of potablewater despite tall claims of Sindh gov-ernment.

The death toll in Tharparkar wouldescalate to unprecedented numbers withthe advent of winter as the infants al-ready affected with serious malnutritionwould be unable to bear the deadlythrust of cold temperature. Federal andprovincial governments had bitterlyfailed to set things in Tharparkar in or-

Federal, Sindh govts responsible fordevastation in Tharparkar: Haleem

der and help people sustain the devas-tations with provisioning of food, wa-ter and medical care.

The water scarcity issue could beresolved provided that the town munici-pal administration should stop their cor-rupt practices and if they manage to de-liver water through tankers, the watersupply would be enough for at least amonth. He stated this while giving a pressconference at Karachi Press Club Sun-day. It would be pertinent to mention thatHaleem Adil Shaikh had since pastcouple of years been very active inTharparkar personally and the relief andrehabilitation work he had so far done tothe inhabitants of Tharparkar was morethan any political party or even the fed-eral and provincial government but hiscontributions were yet being underminedand needed a good and due applause.

The PMLQ Sindh PresidentHaleem Adil Shaikh, who had arrivedat the metropolis after spending a hec-tic week in Tharparkar, alleged Sindhgovernment of utter negligence and fail-ure in checking corruption.

He alleged that millions were be-ing embezzled from the funds allocatedfor vaccination programme and thepopulation welfare department wasmissing from the scene. The inhabitantsof Tharparkar were being compelled tomigrate to other areas so that they couldsave their children and livestock fromdying of thirst and huger. There was alarge portion of the inhabitants ofTharparkar that had migrated to otherareas and there was a dire need of treat-ing them as internally displaced per-sons. He said there was none to con-spire against Sindh government but

there were conspirators within the pro-vincial government’s lines whilepeople, leaders and media had just iden-tified the problems of the people ofTharparkar with an intention to seesomething good done to them.

He said the problem was beingseated in 2300 villages of rural Sindh andPakistan People’s Party should catch thereal conspirators present inside the partyand government. He demanded that theNational Disaster management Author-ity and the Provincial Disaster manage-ment Authority should be revamped asthose 2 authorities were good for noth-ing and their role was deplorable. Therewere millions of water bottles that hadexpired but were not provided to thethirsty inhabitants of Tharparkar whilewheat provided to them was more thanthe half was filled with sand and dust.

M.Phil Programmeadmissions begin

from todayKARACHI—The admissionsto M.Phil Course WorkProgramme Session 2014-15in the Area Study Centre forEurope of the University ofKarachi will start from Mon-day.

A statement of KU saidSunday that the candidates eli-gible to apply should haveMasters degree with at leastsecond class in InternationalRelations, Economics, Politi-cal Science, General History,Philosophy, Mass Communi-cations, Sociology or En-glish.—APP

KARACHI—Gulshan-e-Iqbal police in raidsat different places arrested six suspects, in-cluding a target killer, dacoits and allegedstreet criminals, and recovered arms andlooted items. A police party led by SHOGulshan-e- Iqbal Inspector Shabbir AhmedAwan took the actions. DIG East Zone MunirAhmed Shaikh and SSP East Pir MuhammadShah gave this especial task.

The police party raided five different

Six arrested in Gulshan-e-Iqbalsites and arrested in one of the raids an al-leged target killer Tariq alias Khayal andrecovered a pistol from his possession. Theaccused has, according to police, confessedto the target killings of sub-inspector HaiderBhatti in the limits of Noor Jahan police sta-tion and social worker Saleem Kohistani inManghopir police limits besides his involve-ment in a number of other target killingcases.—APP

KARACHI—The Karachi Transport Action Committee’s Presi-dent Muhammad Ashraf Banglori has criticised nominal reduc-tion in public transport fares in the city after a considerable fallin the petroleum prices. In a statement on Sunday, he said thatpublic transport in the city is running on the Compressed Natu-ral Gas (CNG) and still a negligible cut in fares is unjustified.

Negligible cut in transportfares unjustified: Ashraf

Ashraf Banglori said that the CNG is selling at Rs 71/kg asagainst diesel which is available at Rs.100 per litre, so the trans-porters, who are running their buses on CNG, are saving almostRs 30 per litre. Ashraf Banglori said that it is unjustified not toprovide relief to the commuters after a substantial fall in petro-leum prices.—APP

AAMIR MAJEED

KARACHI—The management of theUniversity of Karachi (KU) is in a fix tocomplete the required formalities beforedistribution of laptops on November 11as many of the varsity graduates do nothave validated educational record withthe Higher Education Commission(HEC).

As per details PMYP Chairperson

Many KU students may fail to get laptopsMaryam Nawaz Shariff is scheduled toarrive at KU to distribute laptops amongstthe varsity graduates in a ceremony onTuesday. However, the university manage-ment has so far failed to finalize the namesof its graduates, who would be awardedwith laptops. Few weeks ago, a containerhaving 3,870 laptops reached at the var-sity. The management of the varsity woke-up with arrival of the container and theyhurriedly contacted HEC to know the pro-

cess. HEC told the varsity managementthat only those graduates would receivelaptops who would have updated educa-tional record in HEC.

When the university management ap-proached to know the status of its gradu-ate record in HEC then it was revealed thatmost of the students do not have their vali-dated records with HEC. The managementcame into action and started gatheringrecord of the students to send it to HEC. It

was come to know that the varsity hasfailed to meet HEC first deadline for sub-mission of graduate’s data, but it has suc-cessfully got relaxation of one week tocomplete the work. However, the univer-sity management has failed to send data ofstudents despite passing the relaxation pe-riod.

Sources in the varsity claimed that thefederal government has sent 3,870 laptopsfor its graduates; but the varsity has so far

send data of just 2500 graduates, whileHEC has validated only 1400 graduates.“We have sent data of 2500 students toHEC as yet,” KU Student’s Advisor andIn-charge Laptop Distribution Prof DrAnsar Rizvi said. “When we come to knowthat only those graduates would collect thelaptops who would have validated recordin HEC then we start accumulating the dataof our graduate,” he added.

“We approached Board of Advance

Studies and Research (BASR) and theSemester Cell to complete the valida-tion process,” Rizvi said, adding that“Till today, we have sent data of 2500graduates to HEC and we are in processof collecting data of more students forHEC validation.”

“HEC has validated records of 1400graduates and we are hopeful that thisprocess would be completed shortly,”Rizvi maintained.

Members of Christian community light candels in the memory of Shahzad Masih and his wife killed in Kot Radha Kishan.

PROSTATE cancer is one of the most common cancers in men and a major cause ofcancer-related deaths. Yet it is tricky to

diagnose - the commonly used PSA test canresult in over- diagnosis and un-necessary fur-ther procedures. Now, new re-search led by the University ofAdelaide in Australia prom-ises to improve the accuracyof prostate cancer di-agnosiswith the help of biomarkers inseminal fluid.

Writing in the journal En-docrine-Related Can-cer, theresearchers describe how theyanalysed seminal fluidsamples from 60 men andfound small molecules calledmicroRNAs were “surpris-ingly accurate” at indicatingwhich men had prostate can-cer and how severe it was. Theproblem with the current PSA(prostate specific antigen) testfor pros-tate cancer is that,while it is very sensitive, it isnot highly specific for prostate cancer. For in-stance, it might be positive for non-cancerousconditions such as prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)and prostatitis.

This results in many unnecessary biopsiesand, perhaps more seriously, in substantialover-diagnosis and over-treatment of slow-growing, non-lethal prostate cancers that areprobably best left alone and just monitoredunder a so-called “watch-ful waiting” regime.“Biomarkers that can accu-rately detect pros-tate cancer at an early stage and identify ag-gressive tumours are urgently needed to im-prove patient care,” says lead author Dr. LukeSelth, a Young Investigator of the Prostate

Prostate cancer diagnosis maybe more accurate with semen test

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar addressing International Iqbal Conference at Aiwan-e-Iqbal.

Cancer Foundation in the US.When they analysed the seminal fluid

samples, the team discovered a number ofmicroRNAs known to be increased in prostatecancer. Mi-crosRNAs are small non-coding mol-

ecules that are important forcontrolling gene expression.

Unlike a PSA test, whichis not highly specific for pros-tate cancer, microRNAs inseminal fluid samples coulddifferentiate men with lowtumors from those withhigher-grade tumours. Theywere surprised to find thatsome of the microRNAs weremore accurate than a PSA testat detecting which of the menhad cancer and which did not.

They also found one spe-cific microRNA - called miR-200b - could differentiate menwith low tu-mours from thosewith higher-grade tumours.“This is important,” explainsDr. Selth, “because, as a poten-

tial prognostic tool, it will help to indicate theurgency and type of treatment required.” In pre-vious work, Dr. Selth and his team showed thatmicroR-NAs in the blood can predict which menare likely to experience recurrence after theirprostate cancer has been surgically removed.

He says they are “excited by the potentialclini-cal application of microRNAs in a range ofbody fluids,” and he and his colleagues are al-ready plan-ning to validate their results with largergroups of patients. Meanwhile, Medical NewsToday recently learned how a commercial epi-genetic test for pros-tate cancer, when done along-side initial biopsy, accurately rules out the exist-ence of cancer up to 88% of the time.

Provincial Parliamentary Secretary of Human Rights and Minority Affairs Masih Gul speaksduring a ceremony to condole the death of the couple killed in Kot Radha Kishan.

A large number of vehicles seen at the site during Tableeghi Ijtemaa at Raiwind.

Minorities fearful of worstlaw, order situation in country

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Useful information regarding pre-ventive measures, symptoms, treatment andchild health care in the backdrop of polio havebeen provided on the official website of LahoreGeneral Hospital (www.lgh.org.pk andwww.facebook.com/lghlahore ) through a link.Prof. Anjum Habib Vohra, Principal PGMI andLGH told in this regard that tools of informa-tive banners, SMS service and Public addresssystem in addition to LGH official website arebeing used effectively in order to sensitize po-lio patients, their attendants and general massesagainst polio.

He told that walks and seminars would alsobe arranged to create awareness in this regard.He said that polio is a highly infective diseasewhich attacks human nervous system causingparalyses and death. He said that mostly kidsunder five year age fall victim to polio which

LGH sensitising people about polio

FNF advises to drink water

can be safeguarded only by polio vaccine. Hesaid that Muslim scholars round the world havedeclared this vaccine as valid from Islamic pointof view. We will have to dispense polio drops tokids to save our coming generation from fallingphysically disable, he added. He said that rep-etition of polio drops dispensation is essentialto ensure suppression of this disease on perma-nent basis.

Prof. Anjum Habib Vohra said that presentlyPakistan is on top of more than 50 Islamic coun-tries in number of reported polio cases which isvery worrisome and alarming for us. He saidthat the same spirit of dengue eradication wouldhave to be adopted with the collaboration ofUlema karam, media, civil society and generalmasses to rid polio. He stressed upon all the seg-ments of society to play their role for makingour homeland polio free and thus our country’sesteem and respect could be restored in the co-mity of world.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Pakistan Muslim League(PML-Q) senior central leader and formerDeputy Prime Minister Ch Parvez Elahihas said every Pakistani including the mi-norities were fearful of worst law and or-der situation due to incompetency of therulers whereas during tenure of our govtin Punjab not only all crime had decreasedappreciably but also complete protectionwas available to the minorities. He saidthis while talking to PML and MinorityWing workers who came to meet him athis residence here.

He said during five years of our govtin Punjab, proper policy was framed forprotection of life and property of every Pa-

LAHORE—An international conferencepresided over by Punjab GovernorChaudhry Muhammad Sarwar was heldhere on Sunday to pay homage to thepoetry and highlight concept of estab-lishment of Pakistan given by the great-est poet. Information Minister PervaizRashid speaking as chief guest saidIqbal’s poetry gives message of love,brotherhood and sincerity. He remarkedthat no human being has the right to killhis fellow. He said no one can acceptdestruction, riot and chaos as code ofethics.

Information Minister stressed theneed for conveying Iqbal’s philosophyof life and message to the new genera-tion. Pervez Rashid said the thoughtsof philosopher poet Allama Dr.Muhammad Iqbal, he presented in hispoetry, bear a lesson of love, peace,unity, brotherhood and tolerance for thewhole mankind. He said, either it is thelife or the teachings of Allama Iqbal,

Iqbal’s poetry givesmessage of peace: PR

both of them are a model of a struggleand excitement to move forward. Re-citing Iqbal’s couplets, he said that thephilosophy of self-respect (khudi) ofAllama Iqbal urges the human being touphold its status, respect the humanity,save the lives and to achieve the cher-ished objectives of human being.

The Ministry of Information,Broadcasting and National Heritageorganized the Conference in collabora-tion with the Iran-based cultural insti-tute of Economic Cooperation Organi-zation. The ambassadors and scholarsfrom the member states of the ECOinluding Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan,Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,Kirghizstan, Tajikistan andTurkmenistan and North Cyprus as anObserver attended the conference to paytributes to the philosopher poet.

In Sialkot, there was great rush ofthe people at Iqbal Manzil (the birth-place of Allama Iqbal) and Quran

Khawani was also held at Iqbal Manzilin which large number the people fromall walks of life participated. Specialprayers were also offerred besidesQuran Khawani at all city mosques. Alarge number of the people from Sialkot,Sambrial, Pasrur, Narowal, Daska,Gujranwala and other parts of the coun-try also visited Iqbal Manzil.

An exhibition of the ancient andrare pictures, books and personal be-longings of Allama Iqbal and his fam-ily members was also held at IqbalManzil to pay rich tributes to the GreatPoet and Philosopher AllamaMuhammad Iqbal. The managementalso displayed Allama Iqbal’s personalQalam and Dawaat (pen and inkpot) forpublic view at Iqbal Manzil.

The visitors showed keen interestin the rare books and photos of Iqbaland his family members. Sialkot Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI),Rescue 1122 and Civil Defence Sun-

day jointly organized birthday cake cut-ting ceremony at Iqbal Manzil. A del-egation of Punjab University under theleadership of Acting Vice ChancellorProf Dr Ehsan Malik visited mausoleumof Allama Iqbal and laid floral wreathand offered Fateha for the departed soul.

Later, Prof Dr Ehsan Malik pre-sided over a sitting in the committeeroom of VC office, New Campus inwhich PU Registrar Prof Dr Liaqat Ali,Iqbal Chair’s Prof Dr Syed Akram Shahand senior faculty members partici-pated. The participants threw light onvarious aspects of life, teachings andpoetry of Allama Iqbal and paid tributeto his personality.

To mark the day, people from crosssections of the society paid visit to thebirthplace of Allama Muhammad Iqbalin Sialkot and Iqbal Museum in Lahorewhere he breathed his last. They willalso visited Mazar-e-Iqbal in Lahore topay homage to the national hero.—INP

kistani and it was duly implemented, effec-tive steps were also taken to protect the mi-norities from the miscreants. Ch Parvez Elahimaintained there was no concept of “MobJustice” in Islam, Constitution and law whichmeans that no group of people could decideabout an accused being a criminal and pun-ishing him nor this was solution of any prob-lem, in Islam the govt was duty bound toprovide complete protection to every citizenwithout any discrimination of religion, colourand creed and there was a formal system forpunishing any accused through judiciary.

PML and Minority Wing workers force-fully endorsed when Ch Parvez Elahi saidthat according to the official facts and fig-ures all sort of crime incidence had in-creased manifold during the tenure of

Shahbaz Sharif as compared to our govtand every citizen particularly the minori-ties considered themselves unsafewhereas during our tenure between 2002to 2007 all sorts of crime including hei-nous crime on highways, rural road, vil-lages and cities had decreased by as muchas 60 per cent due to establishment of pa-trolling posts and provision of most mod-ern equipment to the police besides in-creasing the salaries but today there wasnot a single household in any village orcity whose one or other family memberwas not victim of dacoity, theft and way-laying. He said the rulers could not mis-lead anyone through false promises andadvertisements because the people werefacing worrisome situation.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has expressed deep sense of sor-row and grief over the death of sister of MujtabaShuja-ur-Rehman, Provincial Minister for Law,

CM condoles death of sisterof Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman

Finance and Excise & Taxation.In a condolence message, the Chief Minis-

ter prayed that may Allah Almighty rest the de-parted soul in eternal peace and grant courageand strength to the bereaved family to bear theirreparable loss with fortitude.

Committee formedto implementreduced fares:

Khawaja HasaanLAHORE—Punjab governmentconstitutes a monitoring commit-tee for implementation of the re-duced transport fares. This wassaid by chairman Lahore Trans-port Company (LTC) KhawajaAhmad Hasaan while talking toAPP here Sunday. The commit-tee will take steps for redressingcomplaints of commuters regard-ing overcharging etc. and suggestrequired punitive action.—APP

LAHORE—Fresh Nursing Facility(FNF) held a Chronic Kidney Disease(CKD) Awareness event here on Sat-urday. The doctors present explainedto attendees how the kidneys functionand what steps we can take to im-prove its health and how preventivemeasures can be incorporated in ourdaily lives.

FNF is a special concept of care de-signed to provide comfort and supportto patients and their families. Its mis-sion is to provide a skilled nursing fa-cility to patients and their families. FNFis a special concept of care designed toprovide comfort and support to patientsand their families when a life-limitingillness no longer responds to cure-ori-

ented treatments.FNF has a home like environment

providing adequate lodging, house-keeping meals, recreational facilitiesfor the residents, 24/7 nursing care andpsychological counselling. It ad-dresses all symptoms of a disease,with a special emphasis on controllinga patient’s pain and discomfort.—PR