Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 Today’s issue of Pakistan Observer carries a 4-Page Special Report on Corporate Social Responsibility. TARIQ SAEED PESHAWAR—A Major Gen- eral and Lieutenant Colonel of Pakistan Army are among the three men in uniform who embraced Shahadat in a tragic road side blast in Upper Dir. The incident is feared to cause serious blow to the proposed government- Taliban peace parleys in the coming days. The GOC Malakand Major Gen Sanaullah and Lt. Col. Tauseef were re- turning after visiting posts on Pakistan Afghan border in Upper Dir on Sunday when Improvised Explo- sives Device (IED) hit their official vehicle in Bin Shahi Continued on Page 7 area close to Afghanistan border. Lance Naek Imran was also martyred in the ex- plosion, two others are re- ported to have sustained se- rious injuries. An IED planted on the road caused this blast in Up- per Dir area near Pak-Afghan border that led to the Shahadat of two senior offic- ers of the Pakistan Army Major General Sanaullah and Lt Colonel Tauseef, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. The defunct Tehrik-e- Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has owned the responsibility of the act with its spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid saying the explosion was carried out by the Swat Chapter of Taliban which is greatly in- fluenced by the disgruntled Mullah Fazlullah alias Mullah Radio. According to Director Gen- eral ISPR, General Sanaullah has been on the tour to bor- der areas for the last few days and was returning from a check post near Pak-Af- ghan border on Sunday morning when his convoy was hit by the IED that also killed a Lt. Colonel and an army Jawaan. According to military sources Major Gen- eral Sanaullah belonged to Baloch Regiment and he was the General Officer Commanding for Malakand and Swat while his escort Lt Colonel Tauseef was from 33 Baloch Regiment. The general was commis- sioned in Pakistan Army in 1983. He is survived by a Major General Sanaullah LIAQAT TOOR ISLAMABAD—As Prime Min- ister Nawaz Sharif will embark on 3-day visit to Turkey to- day, Pakistan is eying invest- ment from Turkey in its new projects, particularly in en- ergy, transport and housing sectors. The visit being taken place at the invitation of PM embarks on Turkey visit today Pakistan eyeing investment in its new projects; Several MoUs to be signed Continued on Page 7 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Nawaz Sharif will address a big business forum in Istanbul which will be at- tended by a large number of Turkish investors and entre- preneurs. There was strong realisation at the part of both the countries to upgrade their closest brotherly ties to strategic level. To achieve the desired goal, a High Level Cooperation Council (HLCC) at Prime Ministerial level was set up in October 2009 dur- ing Prime Minister Erdogan’s visit to Pakistan in 2009. During the visit, Nawaz Sharif will also meet Presi- dent Abdullah Gul and co- chair the Third Session of the HLCC. The First Session of HLCC was held in December 2010 in Ankara. The Second Session of the Council took Continued on Page 7 ISLAMABAD—Air operations are being conducted to vali- date joint air power employ- ment concepts in the ongo- ing joint air exercise ‘Shaheen-II’, between Paki- stan Air Force (PAF) and Chinese Air Force (PLAAF). The exercise involves complex air operations for mutual learning as well as improving the coordination and interoperability of both the air forces, said a PAF press release issued here on Sunday.The exercise ‘Shaheen-II’ is providing an opportunity to combat crew Pak-China joint exercise continues of both the air forces to ac- quaint themselves with ap- plied tactics of air power in near real scenario. It is perti- nent to mention that the first exercise of this series ‘Shaheen-I’ took place in March 2011 in Pakistan at an operational air base of PAF. The PAF conducts such exercises on regular intervals both inland and abroad. It has been participating in a number of international air exercises with some of the best air forces of the world, including the United States GUJRANWALA,—The secu- rity forces and officials of secret agencies arrested 21 foreign students from two seminaries headed by former MNA here on Sun- day. According to reports, security forces raided two seminaries, Mazaher ul Uloom and Anwar ul Uloom - headed by former MNA Qazi Hamidullah, the 21 foreign students held from 2 seminaries teacher of Mullah Umar.During joint operation the security forces arrested 21 foreign students. Identity of the detainees has not been disclosed and all of them have been trans- ferred to some secret place for further investigation. Sources however said that the nabbed students hail from Afghanistan and north- ern area of the country. It is worth to mention here that Qazi Hamidullah was elected MNA by de- feating PML-N’s candidate Khurram Dastgir Khan in the general elections of 2002. He is accounted among teachers of martial leader of Taliban Mullah Umar who did not surrender before NATO forces for more than 10 years. —INP India test-fires nuke-capable missile BHUBANESWAR—India successfully test-fired for a second time a nuclear- capable missile on Sunday that can reach Beijing and much of Europe, bringing a step closer production of a weapon designed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent. “The test was success- ful,” said Ravi Kumar Gupta, spokesman for the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). “It hit the target in a predefined trajectory. It met all the mission objec- tives” A video distributed by the DRDO showed the Agni-V rocket blasting off from a forest clearing on an Continued on Page 7 Lt Colonel Tauseef Si Girl rapist identified, taken into custody OBSERVER REPORT LAHORE —The cousin of five-year-old rape survivor identified one of the rapists as Shehzad Kapadia on Sun- day. The accused was taken into custody after the cousin identified a sketch prepared with the help of CCTV foot- age which captured a sus- pect dropping the child at the hospital. The girl was found at around 8pm on September 13, a day after she went missing from a low-income neighbourhood in the city. The rape survivor underwent a surgery, while two more Continued on Page 7 WASHINGTON —President Obama declared that the United States is still pre- pared to act militarily to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons despite the deci- sion to pursue a diplomatic deal and not strike Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons. He also acknowledged that his approach to the Syria crisis has been uneven, but defended it as producing the right results. Obama spoke in an interview broadcast Sun- day on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” taped Fri- Iran should not misread Syria deal: Obama day before the United States and Russia agreed on a plan to bring Syrian chemical weapons under international control in order to avoid mili- tary strikes. But Obama said Iran should not interpret the dip- lomatic response — coming after he threatened to use strikes — as suggesting that the United States wouldn’t attack Iran to stop the devel- opment of nuclear weapons. “I think what the Iranians understand is that the nuclear issue is a far larger issue for us than the chemi- cal weapons issue, that the threat .?.?. against Israel that a nuclear Iran poses is much closer to our core interests,” Obama said. “My suspicion is that the Iranians recognize they shouldn’t draw a lesson that we haven’t struck [Syria] to think we won’t strike Iran.” Obama said, however, that what the Iranians should draw from this episode is that it is possible to resolve this type of disagreement diplo- matically. “My view is that if you have both a credible threat of force, combined with a rig- orous diplomatic effort, that, Picture on Back Page Continued on Page 7 Dilip Kumar hospitalised MUMBAI—Legendary actor Dilip Kumar, who has served the Hindi film industry for more than 50 years, was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital after complaints of feeling unwell, said a source. However, the 90-year- old actor is fine now. “After the complaints of feeling unwell, Dilip Kumar was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital. Currently he is going through a routine checkup. We will be able to clear everything in this MQM sends $10m notice to NY Times for carrying report against Altaf STAFF REPORTER KARACHI.—Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has sent a notice to the Editor, Publisher of New York Times, a global newspaper from United States. The notice was also sent to Declan Walsh, a reporter, who had written the story against MQM Chief Altaf Hussain. The MQM said that notice was sent to the publisher, editor and the reporter for publishing fabricated information and using derogatory remarks against the MQM Chief, which had hurt his fame and self-respect. The notice was sent Major-General, Lt-Colonel martyred in Upper Dir blast TTP claims responsibility President condemns, PM sends condolence message to Gen Kayani Security man killed in NWA Twin blasts rock KA
Transcript
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7
Today’s issue of PakistanObserver carries a 4-PageSpecial Report on CorporateSocial Responsibility.
TARIQ SAEED
PESHAWAR—A Major Gen-eral and Lieutenant Colonelof Pakistan Army are amongthe three men in uniformwho embraced Shahadat ina tragic road side blast inUpper Dir.
The incident is fearedto cause serious blow to theproposed government-Taliban peace parleys in thecoming days.
The GOC MalakandMajor Gen Sanaullah andLt. Col. Tauseef were re-turning after visiting postson Pakistan Afghan borderin Upper Dir on Sundaywhen Improvised Explo-sives Device (IED) hit theirofficial vehicle in Bin Shahi Continued on Page 7
area close to Afghanistan
border. Lance Naek Imran
was also martyred in the ex-
plosion, two others are re-
ported to have sustained se-rious injuries.
An IED planted on theroad caused this blast in Up-per Dir area near Pak-Afghanborder that led to theShahadat of two senior offic-ers of the Pakistan ArmyMajor General Sanaullah andLt Colonel Tauseef, the InterServices Public Relations(ISPR) said.
The defunct Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hasowned the responsibility ofthe act with its spokespersonShahidullah Shahid sayingthe explosion was carried outby the Swat Chapter ofTaliban which is greatly in-fluenced by the disgruntledMullah Fazlullah aliasMullah Radio.
According to Director Gen-eral ISPR, General Sanaullahhas been on the tour to bor-der areas for the last fewdays and was returning froma check post near Pak-Af-ghan border on Sundaymorning when his convoywas hit by the IED that alsokilled a Lt. Colonel and anarmy Jawaan. According tomilitary sources Major Gen-eral Sanaullah belonged toBaloch Regiment and hewas the General OfficerCommanding for Malakandand Swat while his escortLt Colonel Tauseef wasfrom 33 Baloch Regiment.The general was commis-sioned in Pakistan Army in1983. He is survived by a
Major General Sanaullah
LIAQAT TOOR
ISLAMABAD—As Prime Min-ister Nawaz Sharif will embarkon 3-day visit to Turkey to-day, Pakistan is eying invest-
ment from Turkey in its newprojects, particularly in en-ergy, transport and housingsectors.
The visit being takenplace at the invitation of
PM embarks onTurkey visit today
Pakistan eyeing investment inits new projects; Several
MoUs to be signed
Continued on Page 7
Turkish Prime MinisterRecep Tayyip Erdogan,Nawaz Sharif will address abig business forum inIstanbul which will be at-tended by a large number ofTurkish investors and entre-preneurs.
There was strongrealisation at the part of boththe countries to upgradetheir closest brotherly ties tostrategic level. To achievethe desired goal, a High LevelCooperation Council (HLCC)at Prime Ministerial level wasset up in October 2009 dur-ing Prime Minister Erdogan’svisit to Pakistan in 2009.
During the visit, NawazSharif will also meet Presi-dent Abdullah Gul and co-chair the Third Session of theHLCC.
The First Session ofHLCC was held in December2010 in Ankara. The SecondSession of the Council took
Continued on Page 7
ISLAMABAD—Air operationsare being conducted to vali-date joint air power employ-ment concepts in the ongo-ing joint air exercise‘Shaheen-II’, between Paki-stan Air Force(PAF) andChinese AirForce (PLAAF).
The exercise involvescomplex air operations formutual learning as well asimproving the coordinationand interoperability of boththe air forces, said a PAFpress release issued here onSunday.The exercise‘Shaheen-II’ is providing anopportunity to combat crew
Pak-China jointexercise continues
of both the air forces to ac-quaint themselves with ap-plied tactics of air power innear real scenario. It is perti-nent to mention that the firstexercise of this series
‘Shaheen- I ’took place inMarch 2011 in
Pakistan at an operational airbase of PAF.
The PAF conducts suchexercises on regular intervalsboth inland and abroad.
It has been participatingin a number of internationalair exercises with some of thebest air forces of the world,including the United States
GUJRANWALA,—The secu-rity forces and officials ofsecret agencies arrested 21foreign students from twoseminaries headed byformer MNA here on Sun-day.
According to reports,security forces raided twoseminaries, Mazaher ulUloom and Anwar ul Uloom- headed by former MNAQazi Hamidullah, the
21 foreign students heldfrom 2 seminaries
teacher of MullahUmar.During joint operationthe security forces arrested21 foreign students.
Identity of the detaineeshas not been disclosed andall of them have been trans-ferred to some secret placefor further investigation.
Sources however saidthat the nabbed students hailfrom Afghanistan and north-ern area of the country.
It is worth to mentionhere that Qazi Hamidullahwas elected MNA by de-feating PML-N’s candidateKhurram Dastgir Khan inthe general elections of2002.
He is accounted amongteachers of martial leader ofTaliban Mullah Umar whodid not surrender beforeNATO forces for more than10 years. —INP
India test-firesnuke-capablemissileBHUBANESWAR—Indiasuccessfully test-fired for asecond time a nuclear-capable missile on Sundaythat can reach Beijing andmuch of Europe, bringing astep closer production of aweapon designed tostrengthen its nucleardeterrent.
“The test was success-ful,” said Ravi KumarGupta, spokesman for theDefense Research andDevelopment Organization(DRDO). “It hit the target ina predefined trajectory. Itmet all the mission objec-tives”
A video distributed bythe DRDO showed theAgni-V rocket blasting offfrom a forest clearing on an
Continued on Page 7
Lt Colonel Tauseef
S i
Girl rapistidentified, taken
into custodyOBSERVER REPORT
LAHORE—The cousin offive-year-old rape survivoridentified one of the rapistsas Shehzad Kapadia on Sun-day. The accused was takeninto custody after the cousinidentified a sketch preparedwith the help of CCTV foot-age which captured a sus-pect dropping the child at thehospital.
The girl was found ataround 8pm on September 13,a day after she went missingfrom a low-incomeneighbourhood in the city.The rape survivor underwenta surgery, while two more
Continued on Page 7
WASHINGTON—PresidentObama declared that theUnited States is still pre-pared to act militarily to stopIran from developing nuclearweapons despite the deci-sion to pursue a diplomaticdeal and not strike Syria overits alleged use of chemicalweapons.
He also acknowledgedthat his approach to the Syriacrisis has been uneven, butdefended it as producing theright results. Obama spoke inan interview broadcast Sun-day on ABC’s “This WeekWith GeorgeStephanopoulos,” taped Fri-
Iran should not misreadSyria deal: Obama
day before the United Statesand Russia agreed on a planto bring Syrian chemicalweapons under internationalcontrol in order to avoid mili-tary strikes.
But Obama said Iranshould not interpret the dip-lomatic response — comingafter he threatened to usestrikes — as suggesting thatthe United States wouldn’tattack Iran to stop the devel-opment of nuclear weapons.
“I think what the Iraniansunderstand is that thenuclear issue is a far largerissue for us than the chemi-cal weapons issue, that the
threat .?.?. against Israel thata nuclear Iran poses is muchcloser to our core interests,”Obama said. “My suspicionis that the Iranians recognizethey shouldn’t draw a lessonthat we haven’t struck [Syria]to think we won’t strike Iran.”
Obama said, however,that what the Iranians shoulddraw from this episode is thatit is possible to resolve thistype of disagreement diplo-matically.
“My view is that if youhave both a credible threatof force, combined with a rig-orous diplomatic effort, that,
Picture on Back Page
Continued on Page 7
Dilip KumarhospitalisedMUMBAI—Legendary actorDilip Kumar, who hasserved the Hindi filmindustry for more than 50years, was admitted to the
feeling unwell, Dilip Kumarwas admitted to the LilavatiHospital. Currently he isgoing through a routinecheckup. We will be able toclear everything in this
MQM sends $10mnotice to NY Timesfor carrying reportagainst AltafSTAFF REPORTER
KARACHI.—MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM)has sent a notice to theEditor, Publisher of NewYork Times, a globalnewspaper from UnitedStates. The notice was alsosent to Declan Walsh, areporter, who had writtenthe story against MQMChief Altaf Hussain.
The MQM said thatnotice was sent to thepublisher, editor and thereporter for publishingfabricated information andusing derogatory remarksagainst the MQM Chief,which had hurt his fameand self-respect.
The notice was sent
Major-General, Lt-Colonelmartyred in Upper Dir blastTTP claims responsibility President condemns, PM sends condolence
message to Gen Kayani Security man killed in NWA Twin blasts rock KA
Preparation to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha. Youngsters bringing their sacrificial sheep forgrazing in Islamabad.
Twin cities again experienced heavy rain on Sunday morning inundating roads and hampering normal flow of traffic.
Models posing during the launch of an outlet in the capital.
05:1001:3005:00
08:15
Zohr
September 19
ART and Cultural Festivalunder Lok Virsa will startfrom September, 19 in fed-eral capital. Lok Virsa execu-tive director Khalid Javedsaid arrangements for hold-ing festival are being givenfinal shape. Folk singers,artists, skilled persons fromacross the country will par-ticipate in this festival.Handicrafts bazaar, re-gional dances show, musi-cal concerts, stage show,Bhangra, puppet showansd magic show will beheld in the festival , headded.
CITY REPORTER
I S L A M A B A D — T h eunsterilized equipment be-ing used by roadside bar-bers in the twin cities is afrequent source of transmit-ting communicable diseasesincluding Hepatitis B and C.Barbers having mobileshops, mostly under trees,along different roads of thetwin cities of Islamabad andRawalpindi do not careabout using properly steril-ized equipment thus playingwith the health of people.
These shops are estab-lished in different sectors ofthe capital including, G-6, G-7, G-8, G-9, F-6, I-8, I-9 andmany other areas ofRawalpindi as well includingFaizabad, Pindora andPeerwadhai etc.
Most of the people visitthese barbers mainly due tocheap rates of hair cuts andshaves.
“The rates of hair cuttingand shaves have gone sohigh at standard barbershops that they are out ofreach for poor,” said
Maqbool Ahmad, a customervisiting a roadside barbershop in G-7/1.
He said that he knew therazors, scissors and towelsbeing used here were notproperly clean but the rateswere also quite low and af-fordable.
A barber when askedabout using unsterilizedequipment said that he was apoor person and could notafford to buy a separate ra-zor and towel for every cus-tomer.
“I wash my razor with
Detol after every shave be-sides changing blade everytime. This is all I can do inlimited resources,” he added.Qaiser, a patient of hepatitis,said, “I went to a barber shopa few months ago and hadmy left cheek cut slightly. Igradually suffered skin prob-lems that grew into hepati-tis.”
A senior doctor of Paki-stan Institute of Medical Sci-ences (PIMS), Dr. WaseemKhawaja, when contactedinformed that the barbers in-volved in the practice were
the main source of dissemi-nating communicable dis-eases like Hepatitis B, C andHIV AIDS. He said he hasadvised citizens to avoidvisiting barber shops whereunsterilized equipment wasbeing used and prefer to visitbarbers using properly ster-ilized tools. “With thissimple practice, one can pro-tect himself from such fataldiseases. Mediapersons’role is also very importantto create awareness amongpublic in this regard,” Dr.Khawaja said.
ISLAMABAD—The NationalAssembly’s session will be-gin its session tomorrow,September 16 (today), duringwhich heated debate is ex-pected on important issuesincluding targeted operationin Karachi, act of terrorism inUpper Dir in which a MajorGeneral and a Colonel weremartyred, decisions of the AllParties Conference (APC)and the overall political situ-ation in the country will bestrongly raised by the oppo-sition. Other issues expectedto be agitated by the opposi-tion include legislation re-garding the local body pollsand appointment of the Na-tional Accountability Bureau
(NAB) chairman.Sources said the
Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) would raise theissue of alleged victimisationduring the on-going targetedoperation in Karachi includ-ing arrest of its former MPAand other workers. The PPPis likely to strongly opposethe proposed privatization ofPIA and the financial healthof Pakistan Steel Mills. ThePakistan People’s Party andthe Awami National Partywould also move adjourn-ment motions on the recenthike in petroleum prices. TheNational Assembly wouldalso debate on the legislationregarding the local bodypolls in cantonments.
Interior Minister Chaudhry
Nisar Ali Khan will take thehouse into confidence aboutthe unanimous decision of theAPC to hold talks with Talibanto end terrorism and restorepeace and order. During thisfirst day of the session, whichlikely to continue for ten days,the newly elected memberswould also take oath. A sourcein the National Assembly Sec-retariat said alongside NA ses-sion another important devel-opment in parliament was theappointment of heads of 29standing committee.
Alongside this ses-sion, 34 NA standing com-mittees would also startfunctioning, as their ses-sions were not summonedearlier because of delay inselection of their chairmen.
NA session today
Opposition to seekdebate on major issues
Poor drainageduring heavy rain
ISLAMABAD—Heavy show-ers in the twin cities floodedthe streets and roads ofRawalpindi and Islamabadadding to miseries of citizensbesides lowering the mer-cury level on Sunday. Thetwin cities received heavyrain following by hail andthunderstorm.
Due to poor drainage ar-rangements, streets androads turned into pools andwater entered in varioushouses of the low lying ar-eas. Stagnant water at roadsalso created disruption inflow of traffic and at manyplaces the motorists had towait for more than half anhour to pass through after thewater drained out.
In several areas ofRawalpindi people remainedstranded indoors due to sev-eral feet of water accumulatedin streets.
The rain also brought awave of coldness in theweather and citizens to en-joy the chillness of wind onthe weekly off day reachedthe parks and Rawal Lake.But despite problems cre-ated by rain, a rush ofpeople with families waswitnessed at picnic spotsand children enjoyed play-ing in rainwater.—INP
Inflated price,shortage of flourISLAMABAD—The federalcapital residents are facingtroubles due to increase inthe price and shortage ofwheat flour in the city. Theresidents said that wheatflour is not available in vari-ous shops, while the othertraders are minting Rs15 toRs20 extra on each 20-kg flourbag. They said that fine flouris being sold at Rs860 per 20-kg bag, subsidized flour isbeing sold at Rs770 per 20-kg flour and husky flour isbeing sold at Rs810 to 820 perbag. They said that the cur-rent government has com-pletely failed in providing re-lief to the masses.
Experts are of the viewthat wheat flour in large quan-tity is being smuggled to Af-ghanistan that is affectingthe demand and supply pro-cess in the country.
They said that residentsof the Khyber Pakhtunkhwaare suffering the most asmore than 50 percent of flourcoming to the province isbeing smuggled to theneighbouring Afghanistan.The said that the concernedauthorities should notice ofthe situation and focus onfulfilling demands within thecountry. —INP
Lawbreakersarrested
RAWALPINDI—Rawalpindipolice under its operationagainst anti-social elementshave arrested 14 lawbreakersincluding a drunkard andseized 3150 grams charras,five bottles of liquor, two pis-tols 30 bore with four rounds,one pistol 9mm, one gun 12bore and one Kalashnikov.
According to policespokesman, Pirwadhai policeheld Abdul Rasheed with1200 grams charras. AdeelShah was rounded up forhaving 530 grams charras.
Race Course Police ar-rested Khalid Naeem as 1150grams charras was recoveredfrom his possession. Citypolice netted Irfan for carry-ing five bottles of liquor.Gujar Khan police sent be-hind the bars Etashiam as hewas under the influence ofalcohol. Irfan, Adil, Riaz, Adil,Hameed Zafar, Toqeer, Latifand Umar Rauf were appre-hended for having illegalweapons.—APP
Training infirst aid skills
RAWALPINDI—Rescue 1122imparted training of emer-gency evacuation training inmore than 1100 publicschools and colleges andtrained more than 35000 citi-zens from all the districts ofthe province in life savingmeasures.
Director GeneralPunjab Emergency Service,Dr. Rizwan Naseer informedthat only well trained com-munity members can sig-nificantly contribute in es-tablishing safer communi-t ies in Pakistan and theyshould play due role andemerge as a safe, deter-mined, practical and pro-gressive nation of theworld, said a statement is-sued here on Sunday.
To attain our goal, thecommunity members are be-ing given basic life supportskills training so that theycan ensure maximum safetyprior to untoward incidents.He said each citizen shouldhave training of first aid toprevent emergencies. Dr.Rizwan said 1.24 millionpeople die in road traffic ac-cidents each year and thou-sands injured.
He informed that 20,000volunteers are attached withthe department.—APP
Progressive Panelcongratulated onwinning electionsISLAMABAD—President As-sociated Press of Pakistan(APP) Employees UnionAftab Zahoor has congratu-lated Progressive Panel on itslandslide victory inRawalpindi-Islamabad Unionof Journalists (RIUJ) elec-tions.
According to official re-sults announced on late Sat-urday night, Presidential can-didate of Progressive Panelsecured 620 votes while hisrival of Democratic Panelbagged 190 votes.
Similarly, General Secre-tary Bilal Dar candidate forGeneral Secretary got 578votes, Joint Secretary AyeshaKhan 589, Vice President AliRaza 550, Vice PresidentChaudhry Ishaq 500, FinanceSecretary Furqan Roa 572. Allthe delegates of the panelwere also elected.—APP
RBISE to announceFA/FSc part-II result
2013 on Sept 23RAWALPINDI—RawalpindiBoard of Intermediate andSecondary Education(RBISE) will announce FA/FSc part-II annual result 2013on Sept 23. According toRawalpindi Board Spokes-man, all the arrangements inthis regard are being finalized.
The results will also beavailable on the boards’websites.—APP
Anti denguedrive escalatedISLAMABAD—Dengue feverSurveillance Cell of DistrictHealth Department has esca-lated anti dengue campaignfor its elimination, while 5teams have been given taskto work in different unioncouncils. Details said 5 teamsunder the supervision of As-sistant Commissioners anddoctors are sprinkling antidengue spray in the unioncouncils of Bara Kahu, Tarlai,Sihala, Sawan and Rawatwhere water has inundated.
In charge Dengue feverSurveillance Cell Dr. NajeebDurani has appealed to resi-dents to follow safety pre-cautions and keep theirhouses clean in regard ofeliminating the dengue fromtheir areas.—Online
CITY REPORTER
RAWALPINDI—Chief TrafficOfficer (CTO) RawalpindiSyed Ishtiaq Hussain Shah,has taken strict actionagainst 413 traffic wardensfor violation of rules andregulations. He said severaltraffic wardens were dis-missed and censured for vio-lation of rules and regula-tions. Five wardens whowere absent from their dutyhave been dismissed fromtheir service.
Service of 11 wardenshave been forfeited oncharges of negligence to per-form their duties, 195 wardenswere imposed fines for viola-tion of other rules and regu-lations. 81 traffic wardenswere censured as they werefound absent from their dutypoints while 100 bad-tem-pered wardens were directedto perform duties withoutsalaries, he added.
Similarly, 21 junior traffic
wardens have also beenawarded punishments onseveral charges during cur-rent year, he informed. SyedIshtiaq Hussain Shah said thepunishment awarded to thesetraffic wardens will be enteredin the record, which will af-fect their future promotion.Ishtiaq Hussain Shah addedthat misbehaviour with thecitizens and violation of ruleswill not be tolerated at anycost and the violators will bepunished as per law.
He said prizes are alsodistributed among those traf-fic police officers who per-formed their duties honestly.He strictly directed the war-dens to ensure their timelyattendance on duties andwarned that violators will befined besides the departmen-tal action. All the traffic war-dens of city traffic policehave been directed to remainpolite and honest during dutyhours and rude attitude withthe citizens, even with the
traffic rules violators will notbe tolerated.
Impoliteness will not betolerated and bad-temperedwardens will be fined for be-ing rude to the citizens ordrivers, he added. The trafficwardens should deal with allthe citizens even a trafficrules violators politely. Traf-fic police officers would notbe allowed to use mobilephones on roads during theirduty hours. Strict action willalso be taken against the traf-fic wardens who will be seengossiping with each otherand attending cell phones attheir duty points and evenfound absent from duty.
On the complaint of cor-ruption, strict disciplinaryaction would be taken andthey would be dismissed. Hefurther said the traffic war-dens should perform theirduties with more dedicationand commitment so that theimage of the force could beimproved further.
Strict action againsttraffic wardens
RAWALPINDI—RawalpindiTerrific Authority (RTA) hasimpounded 28 private ve-hicles on installment of CNGcylinders following the ordersof Punjab government.
Details said, Punjab Gov-ernment has ordered to takeaction against the vehiclesproviding pick and drop facil-
ity to school children, follow-ing the orders RTA con-ducted operation in the areaof city and cantonment im-pounded 28 and challaned 40vehicles. Owners of the ve-hicles protesting against thisaction blocked the Kachehriroad and started severesloganeering against govern-
ment, while citizens faced dif-ficulties due to blocking ofroad for 2 hours.
On this situation heavypolice personnel of police sta-tion civil lines also reached tothe spot to control the situa-tion, however protestors spreadafter the assurance of districtadministration.—Online
Vehicles impounded oninstalling CNG cylinders
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—The Ministry ofReligious Affairs and InterfaithHarmony has announcedscholarship programme 2013-14 for deserving regular stu-dents of minority communitystudying in various govern-ment institutions of the coun-try.
According to an official ofthe Ministry, the aspirants ofHindu, Sikh, Christian, Bud-dhists and Mirzai, etc commu-nity students have been di-rected to submit their applica-tions by October 14, 2013 to theMinistry of Religious Affairsand Interfaith Harmony, GreenTrust Tower, Eighth Storey,Blue Area, Islamabad. He said,the regular students of govern-ment run educational institu-tions having secured at least50 percent marks in last exami-nation have been declared aseligible for submitting the ap-plication.
Likewise, the monthly in-come of the parents/ guardiansof school level applicants mustnot exceed from Rs 5000 permonth. And the income of par-
ents of higher class studentsshould not cross Rs 10,000 permonth.
Orphans, destitute, needyand poor students, havinggood educational record wouldbe eligible for submitting appli-cation for getting the scholar-ship, he said.
The head of the educa-tional institution of an applicanthas been directed to check theveracity of the claim of monthlyincome of the guardian of thestudent. The attested markssheet, progress report must beattached with the applicationform. Mark sheet on plain pa-per would be rejected.
The application must besubmitted through the head ofrespective school, college oruniversity alongwith a cover-ing letter. The students alreadygetting scholarship from anyother source would not be eli-gible for submitting applica-tion. The students must attachattested copies of Computer-ised National Identity Cards(CNIC) or form B, email address,phone number. The applicationforms could be downloadedfrom www.ppra.org.pk.
Scholarships forminority students
Hindu, Christianmarriage Act
ISLAMABAD—Human RightsDivision (HRD) has startedmulling over the preparationof Hindu, Christian marriageact, while help has been alsosought by Islamic IdeologyCouncil (IIC) in regard ofamendment in Muslim familylaw.
Source told ONLINE that,leaders of the Hindu andChristian have been con-tacted to work on the mar-riage act and very soon ad-vancement is expected onthis issue while after that itwill be presented in assem-bly for approval.
Sources said, in the lightof decision of Supreme Court(SC), HRD have also initiatedwork on preparing the amend-ment in the Law of claimingof Separation by woman, andin this regard it has also calledrecommendations by ICD.
HRD authorities said thatmuch of work regarding hu-man rights has been affectedafter the elimination of min-istry of Human Rights. Whilemerging it in Ministry of lawhas created problems be-cause both are differentthings.—Online
ANIELA, a 14-year-oldschoolgirl, was jubilantover her success in the
final exams. Her eyes glitteredwith passion and thirst forhigher education. Her proudfather promised to full cost ofher time at college. Though, hewas already struggling to bal-ance his small income with ris-ing family spending.
Aniela’s dreams were shat-tered on the tragic night thispassionate little girl saw herfather dying before her help-lessly.
Her father – Zubair Ahmed,47 – had become the latest vic-tim of the conflict in Kashmir.Zubair had been caught in thecrossfire during shooting be-tween Indian and Pakistanitroops along the Line of Con-trol (LoC) which separates In-dian and Pakistani administeredKashmir. Aniela’s family livesin a village just in front of In-
dian guns and bunkers. She andher five siblings have lost theirmain breadwinner and face anuncertain future.
This devastated family is notalone. They are just one of manywho have fallen victim to thislong-standing conflict. Theirnumbers increase whenevershelling and cross-bordershootings erupt between Indianand Pakistani troops.
Kashmir: a region divided:The Himalayan state of Jammuand Kashmir region was splitbetween India and Pakistan in1948. Both countries claim thewhole of the region, and havefought two wars to try to takecontrol. An insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir since 1989has also triggered India-Pakistanhostility.
India and Pakistan agreed toa ceasefire along the LoC in No-vember 2003. The ceasefireagreement has largely held fornearly a decade. Subsequently,India and Pakistan have been
heading toward the renewal ofpeace talks to resolve contestingissues in recent years.
However, tension flaredalong the de-facto border on Au-gust 6 when five Indian soldierswere ambushed and killed. Indiablames the attack on the Pakistanarmy, while Pakistan denies anyinvolvement.
In the wake of the terribleincident, India and Pakistan ac-cused each other of provokingviolence along the LoC. Botharmies have been exchangingmortar shelling.
Pakistan has proposed to In-dia a neutral investigation intoviolations of ceasefire. Pakistanclaims that eleven people, includ-ing 8 soldiers, were also killedand dozens wounded in Indianfiring on the LoC since Januarythis year.
On the other hand, Indiablames Pakistan for 39 ceasefireviolations reported across theLine of Control in August whichkilled six and injured more sol-
diers. India has also rejectedPakistan’s offer of neutral inquiryof the recent killings.
Delhi insists that Pakistanshould hand over the allegedmastermind of the 2008 Mumbaiattack, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed,and ‘to stop its soil for cross -border infiltration to hatch terror-ist attacks in India’. Conversely,Pakistan has maintained that itseeks to resolve all disputes withthe neighbouring country throughpeace talks.
The recent cross-bordershelling in Kashmir has also castdoubt on the possiblerecommencement of bilateralpeace negotiations between thenuclear-armed rivals. And a pos-sible meeting of Pakistani PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif with hisIndian counterpart DrManmohan Singh in New Yorkthis month is also expected to notgo ahead due to current uncer-tainty between two countries.Civil society call for peace: Un-der the shadow of uncertainty,
fear and increased violence onthe border, civilian populationsliving on both sides of the divideare concerned about the impactthe resumption of conflict willhave on livelihoods and civilianlives. They are worried about theescalation of tension between theoccupant armies.
To raise their concerns aboutthe fragility of peace in the vola-tile region and against on-goingskirmishes on the LoC, a groupof peace activists in Pakistaniadministrated Kashmir marchedin the southern city of Kotli.
Local peace groups Press forPeace and Future Kashmir Fo-rum arranged a Peace March tomobilise the communities tovoice their worries about dangersof war.
The marchers displayedplacards and banners inscribedwith slogans such as “No to ci-vilian killing on LoC”, “Educa-tion and progress are our priorneeds, not war”. The protestersappealed to India and Pakistan
for an immediate end to hos-tilities, for the safety and dig-nity of people and continuationof peacekeeping andpeacebuilding efforts.
“The people who reside onboth sides of LoC are directlyhit by sporadic incidents ofshelling and firing,” saysMansoor Rathore, an official ofpeace organisation.
Communities living in theconflict areas fear that an esca-lation may lead to massive suf-fering for the people of not justthe border areas, but eventuallythe whole of Kashmir, on bothsides of the LoC.
There is a growing concernamong the civil society groupsin both countries that unless lin-gering disputes are resolvedwith peaceful dialogue, thelives of innocent people cannotbe saved from the disastrousramifications of violent dis-putes. Courtesy: KW—Zafar Iqbal is Muzaffarabadbased campaigner and writer.
ISLAMABAD: Lord Nazir Ahmed and former Prime Minister Azad Jammu and Kashmir Barrister Sultan MehmoodChaudhry addressing a joint Press conference.
MUZAFFARABAD: Children presenting a drama during a ceremony.
MUZAFFARABAD: Inspector General of Police, Malik Khuda Bux giving a book to Physi-cal Planning Minister Chaudhry Pervez Ashraf.
Majeed asksOverseas Kashmiris
to highlightKashmir issueOBSERVER REPORT
MUZAFFARABAD—The AJKPrime Minister Chaudhry AbdulMajeed has urged the OverseasKashmiris to further acceleratetheir efforts to highlight the Kash-mir issue over the globe with par-ticular emphasis on the Indianforces atrocities against Kashmiripeople in Occupied Kashmir.
Talking to a group of NorthAmerican Kashmiri Immigrantsin Islamabad today he said thatKashmir issue is now in the sharpfocus of the world attention how-ever the further steps are neededto be taken to apprise the worldcommunity about the massivehuman rights violations and sys-tematic killings of Kashmiri atthe hands of Indian troops.
The Prime Minister appealedto civilized nations of the worldto take measure for implementa-tion of UN Security Council reso-lutions on Kashmir for establish-ing lasting peace in region.
Naqash, Untooexpress solidarity
with Ghazi’s familySRINAGAR—The All PartiesHurriyet Conference (APHC)leader, Muhammad YousufNaqash and noted human rightsactivist, Muhammad AhsanUntoo, visited Pulwama and con-doled the death of Hurriyetleader, Abdul Rasheed Ghazi,with his family.
According to Kashmir Me-dia Service, Muhammad YousufNaqash Muhammad AhsanUntoo on the occasion paid glow-ing tributes to Abdul RasheedGhazi and said that his life wasan inspiration for the Kashmirisand he sacrificed it for a noblecause. They said that the Indiangovernment and its local puppetadministration were not only per-petrating heinous crimes againsthumanity in Kashmir by also kill-ing, oppressing, torturing and de-taining people in the territory. Re-strictions and curfew imposed bythem are further making the lifeof people miserable, they added.
Naqash and Untoo also con-demned dance programmes inGovernment Medical College,Srinagar, and sending of about 50medical students including fe-males to Delhi for dancing andsinging programme. —KMS
HAMEED SHAHEEN
ISLAMABAD—Sardar AttiqueAhmed Khan, ex-premier of AJKand president Muslim Confer-ence has hailed the formation ofthe National Security Council(NSC) pointing the need to in-duct in the Council the Chief Jus-tice of Pakistan and Leader ofOpposition in the parliament.
The subject of security hasassumed greater importance asour region has become a securityzone, he added.
Addressing his party work-ers of every tiers Sardar Attiqueclaimed that the idea of nationalsecurity council was floated byhim back in the year 1995 be-cause a raft of territorial and ideo-logical issues need existance ofsuch an entity. Talking about thestrategic leadership of the state
of Pakistan, he reiterated his callto seat an ex-General of armedforces of Pakistan as president ofthe state in the presidency.
He named General AshrafParvez Kayani,COAS, General(Rtd) Ihsanul Haque, GeneralRtd Mohammad Aziz Khan,General (Rtd) Parez Musharraf,fit for the slot of President ofPakistan at this crucial stage ofhistory. If France, US can takebenefits out of the experties oftheir retired generals why can’twe in Pakistan, he argued. Hetermed these generals as greatstrategist quoting GeneralKayani’s Brussels address to theEuropean event of world strategywhich had changed the cours ofhistory in South East Asia.
He said that he was thinkingto set up a Kashmir DisputeCommission independent of
party politics to convince theworld that Kashmiris want apeaceful solution to the disputeover Jammu and Kashmir. It mayforeign experts also.
Talking of priorities he saysKashmir stands atop our agenda.Without Kashmir Pakistan isideologically incomplete.Kashmiris are fighting a justcause and they are not against anycountry. The are fighting for theirown cause, he stressed.
Sardar Attique during hisEuropean tours in the recent pasthas been stressing that there mustbe a common development fo-rum like Jammu and KashmirEconomic Development Agencycomprising Pakistan, Hindustanand Kashmiris with commonfunds. The UN needs to contrib-ute towards funding of this jointmechanism, he added.
Attique hails formation ofNational Security Council
SRINAGAR—In Occupied Kash-mir, complete shutdown was ob-served on the second consecutiveday, today, to protest against thecivilian killings in Shopian andother human rights violations byIndian troops in the territory.
The call for the two-dayshutdown had been given by theveteran Hurriyet leader, SyedAli Gilani, to convey the mes-sage to India that the Kashmiriswere determined to continuetheir liberation struggle till com-plete success.
All shops and business es-tablishments remained closedwhile traffic was off the road.
Meanwhile, curfew re-mained in force in Shopian townon the ninth day running to pre-vent people from holding dem-onstrations against the killings.
Restrictions were put in place inKulgam and Pulwama areas.Several people were injured,yesterday, due to the use of bruteforce against protesters by In-dian police in Srinagar, Badgam,Ganderbal, Bandipora, Sopore,Baramulla and other areas.
The occupation authoritiescontinued to place the APHCChairman, Mirwaiz UmarFarooq, and other Hurriyet lead-ers including Syed Ali Gilani,Muhammad Yasin Malik,Shabbir Ahmad Shah, NayeemAhmad Khan and Zafar AkbarButt under house arrest.
Syed Ali Gilani in a state-ment in Srinagar termed as aneyewash the so-called probe or-dered by the puppet administra-tion into Shopian killings. Hesaid that such inquiries were an-
nounced in many such incidentsin the past but their findingswere not made public and theperpetrators were not brought tojustice.
He also deplored the silenceof the world community over thegrim situation in the territory.
Despite restrictions, theleaders of Tehreek-e-HurriyetJammu and Kashmir,Muhammad Yousuf Falahi andShakeel Ahmed Etoo, reachedSadapora area of Shopian andexpressed solidarity with thefamily of an innocent driver,Muhammad Rafiq Rather, whowas killed in the unprovoked fir-ing of troops on Wednesday.
and condoled the death ofHurriyet leader, Abdul RasheedGhazi, with his family. AbdulRasheed Ghazi was recentlyfound dead under mysteriouscircumstances.
In Geneva, a member ofAPHC-AJK chapter, AltafHussain Wani, addressing aseminar on the sidelines of the24th session of the United Na-tions Human Rights Councilsaid that Indian troops violat-ing all the international lawshad been engaged in the geno-cide of the people in occupiedKashmir.
He was accompanied byKashmiri representatives, SyedFaiz Naqshbandi, Sardar AmjadYousuf, Sardar AsadUllahKhan, Ms Shamim Shawl andMaria Shah.—KMS
IHK shuts on second day against killings, HRs abuses
Gilani deplores world’ssilence on Kashmir massacres
SRINAGAR—The Chairman ofAll Parties Hurriyet Conference,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, whileterming the situation in Kashmiras worrisome and grim has urgedthe ambassadors and high com-missioners of various embassiesin New Delhi to use their diplo-matic influence to impress uponIndia to desist from brutalizingthe Kashmiris and respect theirinternationally acknowledged ba-sic human rights.
According to Kashmir Me-dia Service, the APHC Chair-man in an open letter to thesedignitaries said, “While we havebeen gagged and forcefully con-fined to our homes or put behindbars, the repeated acts of inva-sion on the lives of innocentyouth at the hands of Indianarmed forces on the streets ofKashmir, compel me to write toyou and draw your attention to-
wards the pain and agony of thepeople of Kashmir.”
The Mirwaiz said in the let-ter that on September 7, 2013,when Zubin Mehta’s concert or-ganized by the German Embassyin India was in progress inSrinagar, four innocent Kashmiriyouth were murdered in coldblood by the CRPF troops atGagren in Shopian.
He said that on September11, 2013, the personnel of thesame CRPF camp without anyprovocation opened fire on a 27-year-old youth, Rafi AhmadRather, in Shopian, killing himon the spot.
The APHC Chairman main-tained that earlier on July 18,2013, in Gool area of Rambandistrict four persons were killedwhen personnel of BSF openedindiscriminate fire on thepeople. “60 persons were injured
in the shootout out of which twosuccumbed to their injurieslater,” he wrote.
He said that Indian armedpersonnel were spilling the bloodof innocent Kashmiris at theirwill and without any accountabil-ity. The continued imposition ofblack laws like Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act, DisturbedAreas Act and Public Safety Actprovide complete immunity tothe Indian armed forces againstthe prosecution of the crimescommitted by them in Kashmir,he stated.
“Though we have repeat-edly demanded repeal of theseblack laws and removal of thesekiller camps from populated ar-eas but the authorities seem tobe hell bent upon inflictingmaximum pain and agony onthe people of Kashmir,” headded.—KMS
Kashmiris being brutalized:Mirwaiz petitions envoys
HAMEED SHAHEEN
ISLAMABAD—The prominentKashmiri leader and convenerof the APHC (All PartiesHurriyet Conference) chapterof Pakistan/AJK Syed YusufNasim has described thePugwash Kashmir Conferencewhich opened here on Sundaymorning for three days as com-
plete failure and an eye washof juvenile effort on the worldsmost serious dispute – Jammuand Kashmir.
Asked why does he termsthe conference a failure he ex-plained that a single leader fromthe ongoing Kashmir move-ment has been invited to takepart and tender Kashmirisviews to the host organization.
“It has invited only pro-Hindustan group of people anda single one from the ongoingKashmir movement lot of lead-ers. It was necessary to see whorepresents whom, and this wasthe job of Pugwash.
But in the present formatthe three days conference seemsa Hindustan promotion act ofdrama in the name of Kashmirdispute, Nasim said irritatingly.
The global NGO on dis-putes settling, Pugwash hadcalled a Kashmir conferencerunning from Sept 15 to 17,2013, to discuss a Kashmir-tagged agenda inviting del-egates from Pakistan,Hindustan, AJK and HHK(Hindustan held Kashmir).Syed Yusuf Nasim representsthe APHC in Pakistan/AJKcomprising 27 Kashmiri politi-cal parties.
He regretted that Hindustanhas not given travel documentsto Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chair-man of APHC, Syed AliGeelani, senior leader of Kash-mir, Sajjad Ghani Lone and oth-ers. All current invitees fromHHK are pro-Hindustan andtheir views cannot be consid-ered those of the people ofJammu and Kashmir, angeredNasim said.
Had they secured the par-ticipation of the Kashmiri lead-ership like Mirwaiz UmarFarooq, the Kashmiri leaderscould have given the confer-ence a rich input to facilitate theprocess of settling Kashmirknot.
But this has not been done,it betrays the intentions of theOrganization, he viewed.
Pugwash Kashmirconference an eyewash
GENEVA—The member of AllParties Hurriyet ConferenceAzad Jammu and Kashmir(APHC-AJK) chapter, AltafHussain Wani, has said that In-dian troops violating all interna-tional laws have been engaged inthe continued genocide of thepeople in occupied Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Me-dia Service, Altaf Hussain Wani,addressing a seminar on the side-
lines of the 24th session of theUnited Nations Human RightsCouncil (UNHRC) in Genevadeplored that the United Nationshad failed to stop violations ofhuman rights by Indian troops inthe occupied territory.
He said that the troops, re-peating the 2010 incidents, re-cently killed innocent youth inShopian. He stated that if the In-dian government had punished
the troopers involved in 2010killings, the fresh killing spreewould not have taken place.
Altaf Hussain Wani main-tained that India could not sup-press the Kashmiris’ ongoing lib-eration movement through use ofbrute force. The people of Kash-mir would continue their strugglefor securing their inalienableright to self-determination tillsuccess, he maintained.—KMS
Indian troops engaged ingenocide of Kashmiris: Wani
Shopian peoplefacing acute
shortage of food,medicines
SRINAGAR—The residents ofShopian are facing acute short-age of edibles and other essen-tial commodities in the wake ofcontinued curfew.
According to Kashmir Me-dia Service, the residents of manyareas of the curfew-boundShopian said that they were fac-ing acute shortage of essentialcommodities including medi-cines. “We have not been able tobuy any bread, milk or medicinesduring the last eight days becauseof the indefinite curfew,” NazirAhmad Rather of Nagbal area ofShopian, informed newsmenover phone. “The ration stocksare also running thin and we fearstarvation unless the curfew isrelaxed and people are allowedto buy essentials,” he added.
Shams-ul-Haq Turray, a re-tired government teacher fromBongam, Shopian, said, “We arereally facing a tough time as ma-jor chunk of our food stocks likerice and flour are exhausted andwe are unable to purchase themdue to continued curfew.”
He also expressed concernover the shortage of medicines.He said that his mother was suf-fering from diabetes and it is nec-essary for her to take certainmedicines and insulin injectionsdaily but she had not taken anydose for past many days.
Meanwhile, the police havestarted investigation into the kill-ing of five youth in two differentincidents of CRPF firing inGagran area of Shopian on Sep-tember 7 and 11.
The police summoned non-local labourers in Shopian districtto identify the photograph of oneof the four persons killed in theCRPF firing in Gagran on Sep-tember 7. —KMS
JKPM paystributes to martyrsof 2010 uprising
JAMMU—The Jammu andKashmir Peoples Movement(JKPM), a constituent of the AllParties Hurriyet Conference, haspaid glowing tributes to the youthwho were martyred by Indianpolice during 2010 mass upris-ing in Mendhar area of Poonchdistrict.
The JKPM spokesman,Umar Arshad Inqalabi, in a state-ment issued in Jammu said thatthe Indian police had used bruteforce against pro-freedom dem-onstrations on September 15,2010, killing four students,Arshad Khan, Baghdad HussainShah, Shameem Ahmad andAlamdar Shah.
“Dozen others sustained in-juries due to state-sponsored vio-lence on innocent people. Thissold-blooded murder of youth istestimony to the war crimes com-mitted by Indian forces in Kash-mir,” he stated.
He said that despite peacefulpath followed by the Kashmiristo secure their inalienable rightto self-determination, New Delhiwas brutally suppressing theirstruggle by murdering the youth.He maintained that lacs of Kash-mir people had laid down theirlives for the Kashmir cause andtheir sacrifices would not be al-lowed to go waste.
The JKPM spokesmanpointed out that unresolved Kash-mir dispute was the biggesthurdle in the way of peace andprogress in South Asia.
He said that the disputecould be settled through tripar-tite talks involving Pakistan, In-dia and the genuine Kashmirileadership.—KMS
The way to get thingsdone is not to mind
who gets the credit fordoing them.
— Benjamin Jowett
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Russia intends tocooperate with Pakistan in theenergy sector, economic projectsand counter terrorism and for-mation of inter-governmentalworking groups on trade, eco-nomics and countering terrorismare under consideration in thisregard.
Political Counsellor at theRussian Embassy, Islamabad,Andrey Shabalin said this whileaddresing a round table orga-nized by the Center for Interna-tional Strategic Studies (CISS)on “Pakistan-Russia StrategicDialogue” here.
Andrey Shabalin has overfifteen years of experience indealing with arms control,non-
Russian expert foresees positive,stable future of Pakistan
proliferation and global securityissues.
Andrey Shabalin, said Paki-stan and Russia have taken al-most the same approach on anumber of issues as ImprovisedExplosive Devices (IED); pro-posed treaty on military busi-ness-operation of satellites inouter space, and proposed inter-national code of conduct ondrones operations.
He further said that Russiais trying to help Pakistan in up-grading Pakistan Steel Mills,Muzzafar Garh and Guddopower projects and increasingthe power generation capacity atTarbella.
Establishment of Pak-Rus-sian Business Council and inter-action between the business
communities of the two states isalso under consideration.
Shabalin while speakingon the Syrian issue said that In-ternational law does not autho-rize intervention in any stateeven it is for humanitarian pur-poses.
Western states stance on at-tacking Syria is seen as unjustby both Pakistan and Russia.Ambassador Ali Sarwar Naqvi,Executive Director at CISS, ob-served that the round table wasthe first step towards strength-ened and sustainable relation-ship between Pakistan and Rus-sia at the think tanks level.
He further said that he hopedfor a positive qualitative changein the relations of the two statesin near future.
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Minister of Statefor Petroleum and Natural Re-sources Jam Kamal Khan rep-resenting Pakistan at the 7th an-nual meeting of the New Cham-pions highlighted the impor-tance of cooperation in energysector and use of modern tech-nology
The meeting also known asthe Summer Davos is being heldin Chinese city of Dalian.
On the first day there wereseveral sittings with specialists,movers, government represen-tatives, professors and intellec-tuals on energy related matters.How the world and China is
State Minister for Petroleumhighlights cooperation in energy sector
seeing energy crises and whatsteps are there keeping all eco-nomic needs and challenges infront.
There were more then 10such interacting gatheringswhere the minister participated,each session of one hour.
The minister met one to onewith the Deputy Prime Ministerof Turkey, Foreign Office Chinaon Africa, Chairman of FujiPetro Chemical Company Chinaand Chairman All China Federa-tion of Industry and Commercein Private Sessions.
Beside this on 12th the min-ister was among the panelists offour mediated by CCTV on Asiaenergy specific, this was online
telecast and a good number au-dience was there which laterquestioned the panelists.
The Minister PetroleumJam Kamal Khan said that weas government, private sector,media and companies shouldparticipate more in such forumswhere the world leaders, busi-ness giants and world mediafocused.
He said it was not only alearning and knowledge gainingforum, but an opportunity to seehow the world was going andhow nations are doing to catchup with such phase. This forumwould give Pakistanis a greatvenue to talk and show what weare doing in each sector.
Railwaysrehabilitating old
locomotivesSTAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Rail-ways is currently executing aproject for rehabilitation of lo-comotives. A spokesman saidthe project is part of measuresto improve overall performanceof Pakistan Railways, said me-dia reports.
He said five locomotives areexpected to be rolled out andwill be available by June nextyear. After that, two locomotiveseach will be rehabilitated andinducted in freight operationevery month.
The spokesman said that thedepartment has already restoredthe operation of freight trainsand two trains are being oper-ated from Karachi Port to up-country every day.
The number of these trainswill be increased to ten everyday on availability of locomo-tives at the end of current finan-cial year.
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Federal Ministerfor National Food Security &Research, Sikandar Hayat KhanBosan has said that technologiesdeveloped by the Pakistan Ag-ricultural Research Council(PARC) must reach to farmersso they could contribute to theeconomy and for food security.
This he sated while visitingthe National Agricultural Re-search Centre (NARC) ChakShahzad, Islamabad.
Seerat Asghar, Secretary,Ministry of National Food Se-curity & Research (NFSR&)and Malik Zahood Ahmed, Di-rector General, National Ani-mal, Plant and Health InspectionServices (NAPHIS) and otherhigh officials of the ministrywere also accompany the Min-
Technologies developed by PARCmust reach farmers: Boson
ister during this visit.Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan
while visiting the experimentalfarm fields and laboratorieswhere he was briefed by theChairman PARC, Dr. IftikharAhmad, Dr. MuhammadAzeem, Director General,NARC, Dr. Muhammad Ali,CSO (PGRI), Dr.Samina Khalil,Director, Food Science & Prod-uct Development Institute(FSDPI), Dr. MuhammadAslam, Director (API), Dr.Mujeed Qazi, an internationalwheat expert, and other seniorscientists.
Sikandar Hayat Bosanstressed the scientists that aneffective mechanism must bedevised in collaboration withprovincial agricultural institu-tions for dissemination of newknowledge to end users to get
positive results of our efforts.He urged the Agricultural Sci-entists that Olive cultivation andits extraction will play a tremen-dous role in the economy; there-fore agricultural scientists workhard for production of Olive.
Bosan while inspecting thecotton and other crop experi-ments farm field area at NARCappreciated the agricultural sci-entists’ efforts for producingvarious varieties of crops includ-ing horticultural crops.
During the visit he wastaken to Food Science and Prod-uct Development Institute(FSPDI), Wheat-Cross Labora-tory, Bioremediation, Plant Ge-netic Resources Institute, GeneBank, Horticulture, Farm Ma-chinery, etc. He was much im-pressed to see the activities be-ing carried out at the NARC.
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—The PlanningCommission of Pakistan has sofar released Rs.41.208 billionunder its Public Sector Devel-opment Programme (PSDP) forvarious projects against the to-tal allocations of Rs.540 billionfor the fiscal year 2013-14.
According to latest data ofPlanning Commission of Paki-stan, out of these allocations,Rs.7243.403 million have beenreleased for various projects ofPakistan Energy Commission,out of its total allocations ofRs.52300 million earmarkedunder PSDP for FY2013-14.
Similarly, a sum of Rs.5699.961 million has been re-leased to National HighwayAuthority out of total allocationof Rs. 63038.619 million for thecurrent fiscal year.
Govt releases Rs41.208bfor development projects
Out of the total funds ofRs.25,739.199 million allocatedfor the National Health ServiceRegulations and CoordinationDivision for the current year, thePlanning commission releasedRs.5638.974 million so far.
The Commission also re-leased Rs.5539.679 for RailwayDivision out of its total alloca-tions of Rs.30,964.894 millionwhereas Rs,150 million havebeen released for National foodSecurity and Research Divisionout of its total allocations ofRs.750 million for the year.
Rs. 3698 million have beenreleased for Higher EducationCommission out of its total al-location of Rs.18490 million forthe year 2013-14 whereas out oftotal allocations of Rs. 2363.974million earmarked for Law, Jus-tice and Parliamentary AffairsDivision, Rs.461.368 million
have been released so far.According to the data, the
commission released Rs. 3400million for WAPDA out of itstotal allocations of Rs51443.425 million.
Rs.1500 million have beenreleased for Earthquake Recon-struction and RehabilitationAuthority (ERRA) out of its to-tal allocations of Rs.10000 mil-lion for the current year.
The Planning Commissionof Pakistan has been followinga proper mechanism for the re-lease of funds and accordinglyfunds are released as per givenmechanism.
The commission releases20% of funds in first quarter(July-September), 20% in sec-ond quarter (October-Decem-ber), 30% third quarter (January-March) and 30% in fourth quar-ter (April-June).
CNG Association summonsemergency meetingStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—The CNGAssociation has summoned anemergency meeting onSeptember 18 to mull overreduction in load shedding ofgas. Ghayas Paracha,Chairman of CNG Associa-tion, told media that thisemergency meeting has beensummoned, on September 18,to form next strategy, if gasload shedding will not bereduced. Paracha demandedon the occasion that the CNGsector should be also suppliedgas equally, like the industries.
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar HayatKhan Bosan inspecting Fig varieties developed by PARC scientists at NARC.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—President, KarachiChamber of Commerce and In-dustry (KCCI) MuhammadHaroon Agar has urged the gov-ernment to reduce the discountrate to 6 to 7 percent for pro-moting economic and commer-cial activities in the country.
This would not only moti-vate the industrial units whichhad shifted abroad to return butalso increase the domestic andforeign investment, he said in astatement issued here on Satur-day.
He was of the view that the50-basis points increase wouldnot help check inflation. He said
KCCI president for reducingdiscount rate to 7pc
that business community wasexpecting a reduction of 50 or100 basis points in the discountrate. It was their long standingdemand to bring down the dis-count rate to a single-digit.
Agar said the reduction ofdiscount rate to 6 to 7 percentwould enable the business com-munity to have a level playingfield with the competitors in theregion.
The law and order situation,energy shortage and increasingpetroleum prices were alreadyaffecting the industrial and com-mercial activities, while any in-crease in discount rates wouldraise the cost of doing business,he added.
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—Several officers ofPakistan Railways who are onex-Pakistan leave illegally gotworried over the orders of PRMinister Khawaja Saad Rafiqueto urgently report to their depart-ment.
According to the PR sourceson Sunday, 70 senior PR offic-ers of grade 17 to grade 20 areon leave and doing jobs abroadincluding Saudi Arab andMiddle East.
The Sources told media thataccording to the rules every of-ficer has to deposit 25 percent
PR officers on leave worryover minister’s order
of his salaries which he receivesfrom his second job.
It is pertinent to mention thatmajority of the officers are ille-gally doing jobs in abroad asthey have not got permissionfrom their department for sec-ond job and many of them areon leave to take care of theirfamily including children andwife or parents.
As per details, chief engi-neer Ameer Muhammad Khan ison leave for 365 days from De-cember 2011 and workingabroad, Joint director establish-ment Arshad Islam Khatak is onleave 730 days from November
2011, Mukhtar Nabi 730 daysfrom April 2012, XEN bridgeheadquarters Farhan Rafique1095 days from October 2012,divisional engineer RawalpindiAnamullah 730 days from Oc-tober 2011, XEN design head-quarters Fareed Ahmad 975days from July 2010, divisionalengineer Peshawar NiazullahKhan 900 days from June 2011,divisional engineer Rawalpindi1760 days from January 2009,assistant engineer M AnjumRasheed 365 days from Novem-ber 2011, deputy director P&Lheadquarters Qazi Badarullah
Continued on Page 14
MIR BACHA KOT—AbdulQadir, a farmer in the fertileShomali region north ofKabul, grows grapes much thesame way his father andgrandfather did. He tends hisvines close to the ground,crams clusters into big plasticsacks, drives them 25 miles tothe capital and sells them fromhis car for about $3 a bag.
Abdul Qudoos, a growerand trader from the same dis-trict, has abandoned such old-fashioned ways. He ties hisvines to cement trellises, chillsgrapes in a cold storage facil-ity, packs them in importedboxes and ships them by con-tainer to India and Dubai. Thisyear, he was able to invest
Afghan grape growers, but not all of them, prosper with modern methods$200,000 in his expanding fruitbusiness.
Qudoos, 38, made that leapwith support from a U.S.-fundedagricultural marketing programthat American officials call asmall but exceptional success ina decade of economic assis-tance. The project has alreadyendured difficulties rangingfrom Taliban attacks to resis-tance from farmers. But now, itmay face its biggest challengeof all. With most U.S. militaryscheduled to withdraw by nextyear, and an uncertain presiden-tial election looming in April,the project must soon be turnedover to Afghan hands.
And that raises the questionof whether the ambitious pro-
gram will produce more thriv-ing farmers like Qudoos, or willwither on the vine, The Wash-ington Post reported.
“I risked my money and Isent my grapes beyond Paki-stan, farther than my family hadever done. Most people aren’twilling to do that,” saidQudoos, proudly holding up animported packing box with hiscompany name and colorfulfruit logo. “I took some loss atfirst, but now I am making 30percent more than we ever didbefore.”
For several years, the U.S.Agency for International Devel-opment (USAID) has worked tohelp small Afghan farmers shiftfrom traditional local crops,
such as wheat, into high-valueexports. Improved grapes andnuts, they point out, can also out-earn opium poppies, which findeager buyers in the drug trade.
The grape program hasfaced an array of obstaclesunique to Afghanistan, such asland mines left in vineyardsfrom years of war and threatsfrom Taliban insurgents. Ithas also required participantsto imagine a different way oflife and to take financial risksfor a promise of long-termgain — qualities that are stillrare in this traditional, ruralsociety.
Like all USAID programs,the grape project must be turnedover to Afghans, in part because
of U.S. transition policy and inpart because of new require-ments from international do-nors that 50 percent of everyaid program be budgetedthrough the Afghan govern-ment.
William Hammink, theUSAID director in Kabul, saidthe agency “will remain a closedevelopment partner with Af-ghanistan for years to come,”but that “a major part of ourtransition is to ensure that ev-erything we do is Afghan-led,with Afghan ownership andcommitment to sustainability.”He called the farm marketingprogram an “exciting exampleof what is possible in the fu-ture.”—NNI
Starcom media vest groupoutlook on Pakistan
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Starcom MediaVest Group has agreed, in prin-cipal, to look at Pakistan as amarket and at Brainchild Com-munications as an agency part-ner much more closely this year.This was communicated by JohnSheehy, President, Global Op-erations, Starcom Media VestGroup.
BCP has been our affiliatesince 2010. In such a short spanof time, they have proved them-selves as an agency partner wor-thy of attention. Their deliveryon clients, global and local hasbeen outstanding. They havemanaged their administrativeand financial operations with ahigh level of diligence and trans-parency, something that is sel-dom seen in partner agencies.
In a meeting held at the glo-bal headquarters in Chicago, Mr.Sheehy informed the manage-ment of Brainchild Communi-cations that SMG is looking atPakistan much more deeply to-day. We can see the opportunityof growth in Pakistan. Perfor-mance numbers from the mediaindustry and interest of our keyglobal clients point towards Pa
Continued on Page 14
580,000 acres landbrought under cottoncultivation in Punjab
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—As many as 580,000acres of land was brought undercotton cultivation in Punjab thisyear against the target of 9.6bales of cotton.
Talking to media on Sun-day, agriculture experts saidper acre yield of cotton in Pa-kistan was less as compared tothat of other cotton producingcountries. The main reason ofless produce was attack of in-sects and different worms, theyadded. Experts have urged thegrowers to carry out pest scout-ing to counter the attacks ofworms and insects.
Adipec 2013 tofeature business
conferenceABU DHABI—The Abu DhabiInternational Petroleum Exhibi-tion and Conference (Adipec) onSunday announced that its up-coming 16th edition will includea business conference that willbring together the entire gas andoil strategic value chains for thefirst time.
In its debut edition atAdipec, the business conferencewill take place on the first twodays of the main exhibition andconference, November 10 and11, at the Abu Dhabi NationalExhibition Centre (Adnec).
Through a series of panelsessions and strategic presenta-tions where delegates and glo-bal industry leaders will shareknowledge and experience, thebusiness conference will explorea range of commercial topics.
In addition, experts from theworld’s largest gas and oil com-panies will debate issues relatedto the development of a globalenergy workforce, focusing ontopics such as succession plan-ning, employee retention, andcreating and increasing in-coun-try value. Themed: ‘Energy forall in a Changing World’, Adipec2013 will take place under thepatronage of the President HisHighness Shaikh Khalifa BinZayed Al Nahyan.
Mohammad A. Sahoo AlSuwaidi, Director, Gas Directorate,Adnoc, and Chairman of theAdipec 2013 Conference, said,“The business conference is a criti-cal new addition to the biggest hy-drocarbon event in the region. Withthe business landscape for gas andoil undergoing a phase of evolu-tion, the creation of a platform thatallows for knowledge transfer be-tween leading industry strategistswill enable businesses to stay aheadof the curve and maximise poten-tial opportunities.” “Several high-profile and respected internationalCEOs have already confirmed par-ticipation in the discussions and weare confident that the business con-ference will serve as one of themost important components of thisyear’s Adipec.”
A ministerial panel, at whichpolicy leaders will debate top-ics such as future energy secu-rity and the need for robust do-mestic energy policies to stabliselocal supply with internationaldemand.—Agencies
Rupee leads AsiaadvanceNEW YORK—Asiancurrencies had their best weekin two months, led by India’srupee, after US jobs datatempered speculation theFederal Reserve will cutstimulus that’s buoyedemerging markets. TheBloomberg-JPMorgan AsiaDollar Index rose 0.5 per centlast week, the most since theperiod ended July 12, to115.26 on Friday. The rupeerallied 2.8 per cent to 63.4950per dollar, according to pricesfrom local banks compiled byBloomberg. Thailand’s bahtrose 1.2 per cent to 31.850, thePhilippine peso gained 1.4 percent to 43.87 and Malaysia’sringgit appreciated 1.2 per centto 3.29. Global funds pumped$5.7 billion into the stockmarkets of India, Indonesia,the Philippines, South Korea,Taiwan and Thailand lastweek, according to exchangedata. The rupee, whichtouched a record low of 68.845per dollar on August 28,completed its best week sinceOctober 2009 after newReserve Bank of IndiaGovernor Raghuram Rajanannounced plans to strengthenthe financial industry andboost dollar supply. Elsewherein Asia, South Korea’s wonstrengthened 0.6 per cent lastweek to 1,086.88 and China’syuan was little-changed at6.1188.—Agencies
LG to usher in new eraBEIJING—LG Electronics isall set to usher in new era withthe launch of its flagshipsmartphone range in Dubaithis week, a top official said.The global technologyinnovator in consumerelectronics and mobilecommunications is confidentof securing q double-digitshare of smartphone market inMiddle East and Africa, orMEA, this year. “We are goingto launch a new product rangein premium smartphonesegment by introducing the G2in Dubai. The release willmark LG’s re-entry into theregion’s mobile communica-tions market,” Stan Lee,mobile division head of LGElectronics Gulf, told KhaleejTimes in an interview ahead ofofficial launch event later thisweek.—Agencies
DUBAI—If your country is lo-cated at the crossroads of Asia,Africa and Europe, with easy ac-cess to a potential market of al-most two billion consumers, thenlogistics should definitely be atthe top of your developmentgoals.
This is exactly what theUAE, a gateway to some of theworld’s most progressive mar-kets, has done: leverage its stra-tegic geography as an agent forbusiness and economic growth,with logistics as an underpin-ning function. Today, the WorldBank ranks the UAE the Gulf’stop trade logistics service pro-vider; the local logistics marketis poised to grow between eightand nine per cent annually until
Sustaining UAE’s logisticsleadership through quality
2020 and eventually generate$16 billion in revenues in thenext decade.
Aside from its advantageousgeography, the UAE is also fo-cused on economic diversifica-tion and is undertaking massiveinfrastructural projects such asDubai World Central, theworld’s first purpose-built‘aerotropolis,’ and the KhalifaPort in Abu Dhabi. These cansustain the UAE’s status as theregion’s primary logistics hub.
Moreover, emirates such asDubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabihave first-mover advantagesover neighbouring countries,which are exploring their logis-tics potential more closely. TheUAE has already established it-
self as a centre for trans-conti-nental trade and can thus con-stantly leverage its global status.
One area worth investigat-ing, though, is that most manu-facturing players have only trad-ing operations in the UAE, re-sulting in a logistics sector thatis skewed towards freight for-warding. There are stronggrowth opportunities beyondthis segment worthy of furtherinvestigation.
Local logistics playersshould not be lulled into com-placency, though: there are sev-eral challenges we need to workon to ensure that we continue tobuild on our successes and sus-tain our market leadership.—Agencies
TAWEELAH, Abu Dhabi—Emirates Aluminium Co.’s(Emal) third production linegot energised yesterday,three months ahead of sched-ule with rollout of the firsthot metal by September 19signalling the start of produc-tion, top-ranking executivesat Emal said.
“We have expanded ourpower station to 3,000 mega-watts from 2,000 megawatts.By the end of October, allthree gas turbines will berunning. Of the two steamturbines, the first will startrunning in January and theother from February nextyear,” Yousuf Bastaki, vicepresident — Project at Emaltold reporters at a news con-ference.
Bastaki said Emal’s cur-rent production capacity is800,000 metric tons a yearand would reach 1.3 milliontons a year by May 2014upon completion of phase IIof the project.
The Emal smelter is lo-cated about 100 kilometresfrom the Abu Dhabi city atTaweelah.
“The cost of buildingEmal phase I was $6 bil-lion. We have an invest-ment budget of $4.5 billionfor phase II, of which wehave committed $3 billion.We will try to finish theproject below the budget.We still have a year to go,”Bastaki added.
Asked if there were plansto build a fourth productionline, or phase III of Emal,Bastaki said: “From an infra-structure point of view, weare ready. But, we haven’tdiscussed this with our share-holders yet.”
Emal is a joint venturebetween Abu Dhabi’sMubadala DevelopmentCompany and Dubai Alu-minium (Dubal).
Bastaki said the alu-minium produced by Emal isbeing exported to markets inthe US, Europe, SoutheastAsia, Japan and the MiddleEast. He said Emal, uponcompletion of phase II wouldemploy a workforce of 3,000with the second phase set togenerate additional 1,000new jobs.
Khaldoon Khalifa AlMubarak, chief executiveofficer at Mubadala, whowas present to mark theenergisation of Emal’s thirdproduction line, said thesector would provide morethan 33,000 job opportuni-ties by the end of the de-cade.
Bastaki said Emal andDubal between them arecurrently producing 1.8million tons a year of alu-minium, of which only upto 200,000 tons a year is lo-cally consumed, while therest is exported. SaeedFadhel Al Mazrooei,Emal’s chief executive of-ficer, previously said theglobal market for alu-minium is about 46 milliontons a year and is projectedto expand to 70 million tonsannually by 2015 with theUS, China, India and Bra-zil being the major import-ers.—Agencies
KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.
KARACHI:
MULTAN:
Currency Selling Buying
Bullion Rates
RS PER 10 GRAMS
KARACHI: Jahanzeb Khan, Country Head, Pepsi-Cola Pakistan & Afghanistan andMaryam Hassan ,Chief Executive Officer MCR Pakistan (Pvt) Limited signed an agree-ment for supply of carbonated and non-carbonated beverages to burger king® in Paki-stan.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Lafarge Indus-trial Ecology announced its in-
tent to collaborate with SaifHoldings Limited for the manu-facturing of Refuse DerivedFuel (RDF) from combustibleinorganic fractions of raw Mu-nicipal Solid Waste to be usedas Alternate Fuel. The agree-ment was signed between Mr.Pavel Cech Regional Vice Presi-dent Industrial Ecology, Lafargeand Ms. Hoor Yousafzai, Direc-tor Saif Group after conductingfeasibility study for the devel-opment, installation and com-missioning of an RDF manufac-turing plant.
Lafarge Industrial Ecology Int’lannounces joint venture with Saif Group
Amr Reda, Country ChiefExecutive Officer, Lafarge Pa-kistan stated, “By combining thetechnical innovation of Lafarge
Industrial Ecology experts withsolid business acumen of SaifHoldings we will provide anenvironment friendly method ofscientific disposal and recoveryof waste.”
Salim Saifullah Khan,CEO of Kohat Textile Millsand Director Saif Group alsostated, “We are proud to part-ner with Lafarge Group and wewant to turn waste productsinto resources, instead of bury-ing them in landfill sites or in-cinerating the waste and hurt-ing our precious environ-
ment.”Lafarge Group is commit-
ted to its sustainable develop-ment ambitions by actively pur-
suing AF and ARM relatedprojects through direct involve-ment in waste management ac-tivities or local partnershipswith waste management profes-sionals. Using waste derivedmaterial as fuel in cement kilnsis a radical solution for theelimination of wastes whichotherwise would have becomean environmental burden.Lafarge provides its expertswith advanced training in theco-processing and other rel-evant industrial ecology pro-cesses.
PRISTINA—Kosovo on Sat-urday lifted a ban on importsfrom neighbouringMacedonia, further defusing atrade row between the Balkancountries.
“The decision (on the ban)of the import from Macedoniawill be repealed from thismidnight,” (2200 GMT), thetrade ministry said in a state-ment.
The ministry said it ex-pected Macedonia to in turnannul a tax that had beenslapped on vehicles and peopleentering the country fromKosovo. Earlier, Macedoniahad called off its ban onKosovar wheat and flour.
The trade dispute betweenthe neighbours flared in July,when Skopje limited the im-port of wheat and flour from
Kosovo, Macedoniaback off from trade row
Kosovo, prompting Pristina torespond by banning importsfrom Macedonia of fruits andvegetables, alcohol and ciga-rettes.
The dispute escalated lastweek with Macedonia intro-ducing a tax on all vehicles andpassengers entering its terri-tory from Kosovo — 10 euros($13) for a truck, five euros fora car and two euros per pas-senger. The move promptedPristina on Monday to launcha total ban on all imports fromits southern neighbour.
In 2012, Macedonia ex-ported products worth some 300million euros ($390 million) toKosovo and imported productsworth about one-tenth of thatamount. Most of Kosovo’s im-ports travel throughMacedonia.—Agencies
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Coun-cil for Scientific and IndustrialResearch (PCSIR) is working toproduce various herbal cosmet-ics products, as it was noticedthat toxic metals, minerals, ar-senic oxides and pig fat are be-ing used in other cosmetics andimported bath soaps that mayaffect the nervous system.
Locally-made cheap cos-metic products contain largequantities of banned chemicalsthat damage the skin and in-crease the risk of cancer.
Face-whitening creams con-tained many hazardous chemi-cals including steroids and mer-cury salts that left black spotson the skin and might lead toskin diseases including mela-noma, according to a report is-sued by Pakistan Council of Sci-entific and Industrial Research(PCSIR).
Low-cost shampoos and
Use of toxic metals, arsenic oxidesin cosmetics causing diseases
hair dyes contain chemicals in-cluding lineralkoil benzene andsulphonic acid which are usedin carpet manufacturing and carwashing products and PPDchemicals that may cause skincancer or permanent hair fall andallergy problems.
Talking to media, MemberScience PCSIR, Dr. S S Tahirsaid PCSIR is producing herbalproducts including soaps, sham-poos, face wash and also hajj kitwhich is free from any haram(prohibited) ingredients.
“Cosmetics of PCSIR aremade up of all halal (allowed)ingredient and vegetable oils isused in all these products”, hesaid.
Hajj Kit is specially formu-lated for the use of pilgrims, tak-ing into consideration of reli-gious requirement for perform-ing the Hajj or Ummrah, he said.
He said stearic acid is acommon ingredient of all thecosmetics and toiletries, which
is synthesized from animal fat,adding in the products of HajjKit, the stearic acid is extractedfrom cotton seed oil.
In Hajj and Umrah, manypeople are concerned aboutskin-care products containingnon-alcoholic, no fragrance andherbal ingredients.
“In response to the needs offellow Muslims, all our productsmeet and comply with the Is-lamic standards”, Dr. Tahir said.Hajj Kit contains pure herbalbased halal products and complywith all Islamic standards (whichis need for Hajj and Umerah) andrising trend of using halal andherbal cosmetics in Pakistan. Dr.Tahir said there is lack of aware-ness among people and they arenot concerned what they are eat-ing or using for their skin, is safeor unsafe.
There must be some lawwhich may ensure enlisting ofingredients used in certain prod-uct, he said.
PR officers on leaveFrom Page 13
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—The Govern-ment has finalised a strategy togenerate 23,974.5 mw power bycompleting various short andlong term projects to extermi-nate the menace of loadsheddingin coming years.
According to the documentsof Ministry of Water and Power,efforts are being made to endloadshedding by short and longterm projects. Over 4,601 mwhydroelectric power would beadded in the National Grid dur-ing the year 2012-13 aiming tomitigate the sufferings of thepeople.
In short term, several HydelProject would be completed tofulfill the requirements of en-ergy as Dubaer Khawar capac-ity project having capacity togenerate 130 mw, Lareb HydroPower Project with 94 megawatt power generation capacity,
Govt plans to add 23,974.5MW power to National Grid
Gomal Zam dam 17 mw,Satpara 17 mw and Jabban Hy-dro Power Project having capac-ity to produce 22 mw.
On the other hand NadipurPower Project will add 425mega watt power, ChichokiMallian capacity 525 mw,Guddu 750 mw, UAE giftedPower plant Faisalabad capac-ity is 320 mw, lower Saptagah’scapacity is 496 mega watt andlower Palas Valley’s capacity is665 mw.
Independent Power Produc-ers (IPPS) would add includingUch 11, 405 mega watt, GrageHolding capacity is 180 mw,Fauji Fertilizer Company Ltdcapacity is 50 mega watt, Zorluenergy Pakistan Ltd capacity is56.4 mega watt, New Park En-ergy Pvt Ltd capacity is 50 megawatt, Tenage Generasi capacityis 50 mega watt, Green Powerpvt Ltd capacity is 49.5 megawatt, Beacon Energy Ltd capac-
ity is 49.5 mega watt, ThreeGorges First Wing Firm capac-ity is 50 mega watt, DawooPower Ltd capacity is 49.50mega watt, Sapphire WingPower Co. Pvt Ltd capacity is50 mega watt, Arabian Sea WingEnergy pvt Ltd capacity is 50.4and Lucky Energy pvt Ltd hasthe capacity to produce 50 mwpower.
As the long term policy,the government was workingat Neelum Jhelum HPP havingthe expected power generationof 969 mega watt, DiamerBasha HPP has 4500 megawatt capacity, Terbela Exten-sion 1410 mega watt, GolanGole, Chitral 106 mega watt,Karam Tungi 84 mega watt,Dasso HPP 4320 mega watt,Bonji Hydro Project 7100mega watt,Manda Darn 740mega watt, Kial Khawar 122mega watt and Jabban PowerStation 22 mega watt.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Eric Mariaud, aFrench expert with an interna-tional knowledge of textile re-tailing, garment sourcing andinternational trade will be visit-ing Textile Institute of Pakistan(TIP, Karachi) from 16-20 Sep-tember.
The visit has been coordi-nated by GIA Export MarketingServices Pvt. Ltd. Which is anestablished buying house deal-ing with complete range of gar-ment products.
The main purpose ofMariaud’s visit to TIP is toevaluate the academicprogrammes being offered andto provide guidance for futuredevelopment and diversificationin line with the global demands.An experienced internationalbuyer, Mariaud has over 30years’ experience of dealingwith garment industries in Pa-kistan, Bangladesh, India, Phil-ippines and Thailand to name a
French expert Mariaud to visitTextile Institute of Pakistan
few.He has also been involved
with setting up of retail outletsof large groups based in France,Belgium and Russia. He has alsobeen visiting Professor at 6 uni-versities in France teaching sub-jects in Retailing, Purchasing,Negotiation, Marketing and In-ternational Trade.
TIP is a HEC recognizeddegree awarding chartered insti-tute established in 1994 bymembers of the All PakistanTextile Mills Association(APTMA). To date, over 1000graduates have passed from TIPwith vast majority serving thelocal textile and garment indus-tries all over Pakistan. TIPalumni are today serving all themajor textile mills such as GulAhmed, Al-Karam, Younus Tex-tile, Sapphire Group, Tata Tex-tiles, Artistic Denim Mills aswell as popular brands such asBonanza, Cambridge, Khaadi,Ego to name a few.
TIP degrees are both na-
tionally and internationally rec-ognized with a number of stu-dents pursuing higher qualifi-cations like MBA and MScfrom well reputed national uni-versities like IBA-Karachi,LUMS, CBM, SZABIST andKSBL. Internationally, TIPgraduates have been acceptedon post-graduate programmesat North Carolina State Univer-sity (USA), Clemson Univer-sity (USA), University ofManchester (UK), London Col-lege of Fashion (UK), Univer-sity of Sydney (Australia) andmany other European universi-ties.
The institute is now in itsnext development phase andMariaud’s visit will be instru-mental in giving TIP the direc-tion it needs for next 20 years.
The French expert will behaving interactive sessions withstudents and faculty during hisstay and will then present hisfindings to the Board of Gover-nors for future implementation.
Ghafoor 1095 days from De-cember 2012 and divisional en-gineer Lahore Usman Abdullahis on leave for 730 days fromJuly 2012.
XEN headquarters AftabMehdi, Chief engineerAbdulsamad, project directorand an officer Javaid Iqbal havebeen enjoying leaves for severalyears.
Manager works CSCKhanewal Sami Ullah Khan ison leave for 730 days, DENKarachi Farrukh Temor Khanfor 730 days, divisional engi-neer Rawalpindi EhteshamSaifullah for 365 days, XENsignal M Ehsan Khan Yasir for365 days, director M&S YahyaJan for 730 days, divisional me-chanical engineer AbdulHaseeb Bukhari for one year,staff officer GM M&S AbdulMalik for 730 days and divi-sional mechanical engineerRawalpindi Iftekhar Hussain ison leave for 730 days fromMarch 2012.
Manager works construc-tion Mughalpura M YousufLeghari is enjoying leave of730 days at abroad from De-
cember 2011, divisional engi-neer Anjum Ali Naseer is onleave for 1825 days from Au-gust 2010, DME GhulamQasim for 1095 days, AMEtrack Qamar Mehboob for1825 days, senior electricalengineer Ghayas Ur Rehmanfor 1825 days from 2007,DEE M Farooq for 850 days,senior electrical engineerBahawalpur Syed Ali KamranJafery for 860 days, DEEShaista Gul Khan for 365days, Senior personnel officerheadquarters Irum AmeerKhan for 365 days DTOLahore Ashfaq Tabassum for1095 days and Joint directorWalton Haneef Gul is on leavefor 365 days from August2012.
While SMO Karren hospi-tal Dr Uzma Asghar Sheikh isenjoying 1825 days leave fromJanuary 2013, MO RawalpindiTahira Sadiq is on leave for 365days from January 2013, MORawalpindi Dr Nafees Akhtarfor 760 days from March 2013and Senior Medical OfficerKarachi Dr M Tayyab is on leavefor 365 days from March 2013.
kistan. It looks promising, bar-ring the concerns we have onsecurity.All economy and indus-try indicators are pointing in theright direction.
We are also very happy withthe performance of BrainchildCommunications Pakistan. It isa market leader and an innova-tor, values that are core toSMG’s business principles.They have handled our globalclients with integrity, transpar-ency and maturity. They haveprovided innovative solutionsand their performance scoresreflect the same. Their growthin terms of billing, revenues andclients gained in the last threeyears has also been worthy ofpraise. They have proved thatthey are equally focused andeager to perform well on bothinternational and local clients.
We particularly like BCP’scapability in building scale intohuman resource, ensuring com-pletely independent teamsacross agencies and clientsgroups and their operational ef-ficiency.
Most of all, we are im-pressed with the contributionsSMG team players have madetowards the growth and devel-opment of the media industry.The market move to rationalaudience based buying, imple-mentation of global bench-marks within the local industryand research based decisionmaking.
The process, as we see it,will take some time but we haveput the wheels in motion as ashow of our commitment. It willmark a new era in the PakistaniCommunications Industry. I amsure we will be able to maintainour position as the largest me-dia independent group in Paki-stan also.
Starcom mediaFrom Page 13
KUWAIT CITY—Kuwait willbegin conducting the first sur-vey of its offshore waters in de-cades this month, part of theGulf state’s plans to boost itshydrocarbon output, the explo-ration unit of state-owned Ku-wait Petroleum Corp said Sun-day.
The two-dimensional sur-vey would cover an estimated7,000 square kilometres in or-der to evaluate offshore hydro-carbon reserves, Kuwait Oil Co,or KOC, said in a statement.
The firm is also planning a
Kuwait to start offshore surveys3-D seismic survey that wouldcover an estimated 3,500 squarekilometres and would includethe capital Kuwait City and Ku-wait Bay, which is believed tobe rich in hydrocarbon pros-pects.
KOC in April signed a$29.5 million (Dh108.3 mil-lion) contract with France’sCGG Veritas Services to con-duct a 2-D seismic survey inall marine zones for threeyears. The planned seismicsurveys are the first to be con-ducted by KOC in 30 years,
KOC said.Kuwait, an Organisation of
the Petroleum Exporting Coun-tries (Opec) member, is commit-ted to increasing its output ca-pacity from the current 3.2 mil-lion barrels per day to 3.5 mil-lion barrels per day in 2015 and4 million barrels per day in2020.
The Gulf state also has agoal of producing 2 billion cu-bic feet of natural gas a day by2020, up dramatically from 140million cubic feet a day atpresent.—Agencies
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Responding to areport published in newspapersWaheed Hamid, a representativeof a leading fertilizer companyhas denied the perception beingspread amongst the farmers thatthe fertilizer companies arefleecing growers by selling fer-tilizer at higher prices.
The report said that ChairmanAgri Forum has alleged fertilizercompanies and dealers of raisingfertilizer prices from Rs 1700 toRs 1900 per bag in the market. Hetold that fertilizer manufacturersare ensuring timely delivery offertilizer across Pakistan at theprices between Rs 1730 and Rs1750 per bag.
Fertilizer manufacturers ensuring delivery atRs 1730 to 1750 per bag across Pakistan
The rates of fertilizers are be-ing published weekly by the manu-facturers in national and regionaldailies and company price lists arealso displayed with all authorizedcompany dealers for the awarenessof the farmers and the alleged priceof Rs 1900 per bag of urea is notbeing charged by any fertilizermanufacturer in Pakistan.
He further said that the regu-lation of market prices and to guardfarmers against any black market-ing is the duty of the government.Moreover, to bridge the gap be-tween demand and supply due toload shedding of gas the govern-ment must also plan to improve itsimport system or provide sufficientgas to the manufacturers to over-come the fertilizer shortage and
control the price hike in the openmarket.He further informed that the18th meeting of The National PriceMonitoring Committee (NPMC)under the chairmanship of FederalMinister for Finance, Ishaq Darwas informed that the NationalFood Nutritional Security Policy isbeing finalized and very soon thedraft will be circulated among thestakeholders so that it could beimplemented by December 30,2013. It is hoped that issues ofFertilizer prices which has a di-rect bearing on food securitywill also be taken up and thegovernment will fulfill its obli-gations to provide relief to thefarmers by strengthening thesystem to check the fertilizerprice hike.
Barclays faces$10b damages
claim from Saudibusinessman
LONDON—A prominent Saudibusinessmen has taken legal ac-tion against a US law firm in apreliminary step toward suingBarclays for what he says aredamages of potentially as muchas $10 billion (Dh36.7 billion).
Mohammad Bin Eisa AlJaber, chairman of MBI Interna-tional and founder of theJadawel property group, has de-manded that White & Case handover documents relating to a 10-year-old “confidential” settle-ment between Barclays, thefirm’s former client, and twoSaudi Arabian ministries, ac-cording to court documents filedin New York last week.
The proceedings are thelatest legal woe to befall thebank at a sensitive time — theformal process of the bank’s£5.8 billion rights issue getsunder way at the end of nextweek — and have arisen outof a US Department of Justiceinquiry into the bank’s subse-quent dealings in the MiddleEastern kingdom.
Al Jaber and his companyallege that Barclays conducted“corrupt activities” in SaudiArabia that ultimately lost hiscompanies $10 billion of rev-enue over the past decade.
“In exchange for assistancein obtaining a valuable licenceto conduct banking activities inthe Kingdom and other undis-closed corrupt activities,Barclays conspired with certainofficials of the Kingdom to in-jure petitioners’ business, repu-tation and access to credit,” thedocuments read.
The dispute turns upon twoproperties that were leased byJadawel to the Saudi ministry ofdefence and aviation (MoDA) in1999 for what would have been$1.4 billion of rental paymentsover 10 years, according to thedocuments.
Jadawel used the repay-ments to secure a $900 millionsyndicated loan from Barclaysand other lenders two years laterbut MoDA made a single latepayment and defaulted on therest in 2002, the documents al-lege.—Agencies
EU bank-failurepush stumbles
LONDON—A European Unionattempt to centralise control offailing banks stumbled under aGerman-led attack that may im-peril attempts by the bloc’s lead-ers to restore confidence inEurope’s financial system.
German Finance MinisterWolfgang Schaeuble said theEuropean Commission’s pro-posal for a Single ResolutionMechanism must be overhauledbecause it’s on shaky legalground and could endanger na-tional control of budgets. Dur-ing two days of talks with hisEU colleagues, the German wasjoined by critics from Swedento Slovakia.
If the plan doesn’t move for-ward quickly, the EuropeanCentral Bank won’t be able tocount on cross-border backstopsif it encounters problems ateuro-area banks. The ECB isscheduled to begin supervisinglenders in the currency zone assoon as October 2014, forcingthe EU to grapple with whoshould decide when to close abank and who will pay for it.
“There’s quite a lot to do,”Schaeuble told reporters on Sat-urday after the talks in Vilnius,Lithuania. “The path that thecommission has proposed to-wards a resolution mechanismis a rocky one. There can be nodoubt about it: we need to be ona legally certain foundation.”
The new resolution author-ity, along with ECB oversight,form the core of an effort to cre-ate a euro-area banking unionthat would sever the link be-tween bank and sovereign debt.In the coming months, the ECBwill assess the balance sheets ofbanks it will later supervise.
Objections to thecommission’s strategy, proposedby EU financial-services chiefMichel Barnier, included resis-tance to a planned common reso-lution fund and the scope of thesystem.—Agencies
Aer Lingus cutsprofit forecast
for the yearDUBLIN—Irish airline AerLingus cut its profit forecast forthe year by 13 per cent citingintense competition in Europeanshort-haul markets days after ri-val Ryanair also warned on prof-its.
Aer Lingus expects profitsfor the full year to be around •60million, it said in a statement,down from a forecast of •69million (Dh337 million, $91.83million) it made at the end ofJuly. At the time Aer Lingus re-ported weak bookings in Julyand August due to unusuallywarm weather in Ireland, butsaid it hoped to make up for thatin the remaining months of theyear.
“The current booking pro-file for the rest of the year sug-gests that despite more aggres-sive pricing in response to mar-ket conditions, it will not be pos-sible to recover lost volumes,”Aer Lingus said.—Agencies
Sethi defends Pakistan’shumiliating defeat at Harare
KA R A C H I—Former Paki-stan captain Aamir Sohailcalled up for clean-up op-eration and overhauling inPakistan Cricket Board(PCB) to put Pakistancricket back on the track.
“Defeat in ODI and Testmatch against low rankedZimbabwe was key reasonfor poor and mismanage-ment and poor systemwithin the board,” he saidin an interview while react-ing on Pakistan’s 24-runsdefeat against Zimbabwein Harare on Saturday.
“Peoples occupyingthe seats in PakistanCricket Board for years aredoing nothing in develop-ment, promotion andupliftment of cricket,” hecommented. Our cricket ison serious decline becauseof poor administration inPakistan Cricket Board.
“Without clean opera-t ion in the board andstrongly building our clubcricket and domestic struc-ture, Pakistan cannot
achieve anything,” Aamirsaid.
Former Test left handedopener Aamir Sohail wentto al lege that peoplesworking in the board tookextra-consti tut ional deci-sion and ought to harm Pa-kistan cricket.
Former Pakistan captainRamiz Raja and express fastbowler Shoaib Akhtar sug-gested forming a strongcricket committee of self-less peoples in PCB for rais-ing and improving the fall-ing standard of nationalcricket.
“Our cricket quality hasgone down very badly ascompared to other na-tions,” Ramiz said.
Both Aamir Sohail andRamiz Raja opined that de-feat against Zimbabwe inTest match is big “WakeupCall” and Pakistan shouldlearn a lesson from it.
Ramiz and Shoaib wereof the view that it was timefor PCB to replace Misbah-ul-Haq as a captain.
“Misbah’s time as cap-tain is over. He lacked at-tacking temperament whichremained the hallmark ofPakistan,” Ramiz com-mented.
Shoaib Akhtar saidMisbah had been doingwell as batsman but failedto improve the standardand insert inspiration in theteam.
However, Aamir Sohaildid not agree with Ramizand Shoaib and said with-out cleansing in the Paki-stan Cricket Board, Paki-stan cannot improve.
Shoaib Akhtar agreedthat Misbah is leading theworst-ever team withoutsolid batsmen, bowling at-tack and he himself got alimited talent.
“We are without stars;lacking inspiration to per-form and match-fixing havecaused a great damage toPakistan cricket . Misbahwas running the cricketwithout new players andold mindset,” he added.
He said talented play-ers like Umar Amin, SohaibMaqsood, and HarrisSohail are being over-looked.
Shoaib Akhtar even ad-vocated for appointingUmar Amin as the captainof the team.
Shoaib said players likeUmar Akmal, Umar Amin,Sohaib and Harris shouldbe the future of Pakistancricket.
Ramiz Raja said Paki-stan lost to the Zimbabweteam which got only clublevel attack.
Shoaib and Ramiz saidselfless peoples with greatknowledge of the cricketshould be included incricket committee on thelines of ICC.
Shoaib Akhtar put thename of former Pakistancaptain Rashid Latif part ofthe committee.
“Rashid Latif remaineddedicated cricketer , cor-ruption free and straightforward persons,” he said.He can help in preparingwicket-keepers.—APP
P E S H AWA R —MuhammadIrfan guided Government Pri-mary School No. 2 Babara to5 runs victory in the cricketfinal event of the DistrictCharsadda Primary SchoolsKids Games being played atCricket Ground Charsadda onSunday.
Assistant CommissionerCharsadda Saif-ul-Islam wasthe chief guest at the cricketand football finals. DistrictEducation OfficerMoinuddin, District SportsOfficer Jamshed Baloch, ADSports Arshad Khan, teach-ing staff, officials and largenumber of schools kids andspectators were also presentat the two finals.
In the cricket final GPSNo. 2 Babara Charsadda wonthe toss and elected to batfirst by setting up 82 runstarget after playing the allot-ted 10 overs match.
Muhammad Irfan struckelegant 36 runs with fourboundaries. Besides Irfan,Usman and Imran also made17 and 10 runs respectively.
ISLAMABAD—Former cap-tain of Pakistan hockeyteam Waseem Ahmed hassaid al l the stakeholdersshould take the World Cuptragedy as a wake-up callfor the true revival of thegame.
Talking to private newschannel, Waseem said it issurely a disappointmentbut there is still hope forthe national game by re-viewing our mistakes.
“Our exit is hurting butit’s not over for us, we areout of just one tournamentwhich in fact for me is ablessing in disguise as ashock was needed to re-deem”, he said.
Waseem said authori-ties should take the team’sfailure as a wake-up call toamend their strategy for abright future.
“Fitness or other weak-nesses on the field are justsymptoms, not the dis-ease .
The problems lie in thebleak future for hockeyplayers and our weak do-
KARACHI—Najam Sethi, theCare-taker Chairman of Paki-stan Cricket Board (PCB) has
defended Pakistan’s humili-ating defeat against Zimba-bwe saying it is part and par-cel of the game.
“There is nothing to
worry as it is part of thegame,” he said while com-menting on a private televi-sion channel on Saturdaynight.
He said unnecessary hueand cry is being created bythe former cricketers, whowanted jobs in the PCB. “Iwill not give them jobs in theboard,” he said.
Misbah-ul-Haq’s Paki-stan team suffered their firstloss to Zimbabwe in 15 yearswhen they went down by 24runs in the second and finalTest at Harare.
He expressed the confi-dence that Pakistan will wintheir coming series. He saidPakistan achieved somegood victories during theCaribbean Islands tour whereShahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq and players performedwell.
He praised and
complimented captainMisbah saying that he waskeeping the team togetherand doing well with the bat.PCB Chairman said a lotabuse was hurled at seniorbatsman Younis Khan but heperformed exceptionallywell.
PCB selectors over-looked fast emerging bats-men Umar Amin, HarrisSohail and Sohaib Maqsoodfrom the Test team despiteconsistent performances indomestic circuit.
Former Captain RamizRaja and ex-test pacemanSikander Bakht called for re-placing Misbah-ul-Haq ascaptain.
Najam Sethi said formerTest cricketers have beenadvocating for trying andexposing youngsters butwhat these youngsters havedone.
Najam Sethi said that hewanted a do a lots of thing inPCB but honorable courtstopped him from doing so.
He added that he wantedto form a new selection com-mittee and bringing in chiefselector. ‘But I was stoppedby the honorable court fromdoing so,’ he said.
PCB Chairman said hewanted to go to West Indiesto personally see variousthings on the tour was notallowed.
“My hands are tied. But Ikeep up talking,” he com-mented.
Former cricketers in theirstatements have demandedclean-up operation and over-hauling of the PCB andstrengthening Pakistan’scricket structure and launch-ing of strong cricket commit-tee comprising of selflesscricketers etc.—APP
KARACHI—Pakistan captainMisbah-ul Haq said Sundayhe hoped India’s decision toallow local team Faisalabadto play on Indian soil willopen up more cricket oppor-tunities between the two na-tions.
Misbah will leadPakistan’s domesticTwenty20 championsFaisalabad in the qualifyingrounds of the ChampionsLeague starting in the Indiantown of Mohali on Tuesdayafter New Delhi cleared thetour.
India had stalled all bilat-eral cricket with Pakistan inthe wake of 2008 terrorist at-tacks in Mumbai and — withthe exception of a short tourby Pakistan late last year —there have been no signs offull series revival amid height-ened tensions between thetwo countries.
But Misbah said matchesbetween the two cricket-ob-sessed nations should not behalted by politics.
KARACHI: Four motorcyclist expeditioners before starting their expedition from Karachi to Gwadar to promotePakistan-China friendship and Anti-Drugs and Anti-Terrorism Expedition-2013.
Misbah elated at India opening“I feel cricket must go
on,” Misbah told AFP onphone from Harare, Zimba-bwe. “Giving a Pakistani teamclearance is a positive sign
and I hope this will help openmore doors for Indo-Pakcricket.”
Pakistan humiliatinglylost the second Test in Harareon Saturday to level the two-match series at 1-1. Misbah
will join the rest of theFaisalabad squad in Indialater Sunday.
Despite the tensions be-tween India and Pakistan,Misbah said people on bothsides of the border enjoycricket.
“It is a fact that people ofboth the countries enjoyIndo-Pak cricket and it isnecessary for both the coun-tries to have regular ex-change of cricket tours be-cause it minimises tensionsand brings people together,”said Misbah.
Misbah denied playerswould be scared by recenttensions, sparked by a stringof recent clashes in the dis-puted Kashmir region.
“When we play cricket,people forget everything,”he said.
“We never expect andnever fear any aggression. Iam going to India with anopen mind, with a messageof friendship and peace, asalways.”—APP
GPS No 2 win cricket title ofPrimary Schools Kids Games
For GPS No. 1, Taimur Khanand and Sajid Ali took twowickets each while AbdulAhad and Gul Rehman gotone wicket each.
In reply, GPS No. 1bundled out for 78 runs withSajid Ali was the highest con-tributor who made 24 runswith one boundary. Usmanand Jabbar Khan scored 14and 11 runs respectively.
For GPS No. 2 BabaraMuhammad Irfan, with hisright-arm off spin bowlertook three wickets and wasalso declared as Man of theMatch. Tajamal, Rahim Khan,Ihsan Ullah took two wick-ets each.
In the football final GPSBabara No. 1 beat GPS No. 2by 4-3. Muhammad Atif, GulSiraj, Inayat Ullah scored onegoal each for the winner whilefor the runners-up teamJaffar Ali, Aurangzeb andBabar Khan scored one goaleach.
At the end, the chiefguest AC Charsadda Saif-ul-Islam awarded trophies. He,
on this occasion, also distrib-uted cricket, football, volley-ball and basketball equip-ments of worth Rs. two mil-lions among the youth of allUCs, Primary, High andHigher Secondary Schools ofDistrict Charsadda.
In his brief chat, Saif-ul-Islam advised the schoolskids to take active part inhealthy sports activities. Hesaid the youth are the futureof the country and involvingthem in healthy activitieswould lead to establish ahealthy society.
He said it is for the firsttime in the history of Districtthat games have been ar-ranged for the school kids,child labour, special kids,people from the trade union-ists and unjuman-e-tajaran,Charsadda.
He also lauded DSOJamshed Baloch for initiatinghealthy activities atgrassroots. A total of 20schools from all across thedistrict are taking part in the20-days festival.—APP
ISLAMABAD: An eye catching view of Sports Complex, after Sunday’s heavy rain
Ex-captain demandscleaning-up operation in PCB
Minister urgesyouth to utilizespare time in
sportsLAHORE—Minister Finance,Excise & Taxation PunjabMian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said that youthmust utilize their spare timein sports because these ac-tivities bring regularity intheir routine life and suchevents build up a positivethinking among the youth.
He expressed these viewsat the inaugural ceremony ofUmeed Sports Festival 2013at choburji.
The Minister said thatsports event plays vital rolefor the development of posi-tive activities among theyoungsters whereas Pakistanhas atmosphere and seasonsfor the promotion of all typesof games.
Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said that youth arefuture of our nation and wehave to provide them latestscientific education and tech-nology.—Online
LAHORE: Members of civil society taking part in a marathon race on Sunday.
Exit hurting but notover for us: Waseem
HBL holdstrong KESCOUR CORRESPONDENT
KARACHI—After havinglost three consecutivematches Habib Bank finallyshowed some spark to opentheir account when they heldone of the favourites KarachiElectric Supply Company(KESC) to a 1-1 draw in theirmatch of the Pakistan PremierFootball League here at theKPT Stadium.
Habib Bank got onto thescoresheet through Saeed inthe second minute. However,KESC, who put a lot of pres-sure on the rivals in the sec-ond half, struck an equaliserwhen internationalMohammad Rasool hit hisfourth goal of the season inthe 60th minute.
KESC coach Akbar Aliwas not happy with the wayhis team played againstHabib Bank. “We shouldhave won it by at least fourgoals margin,” Akbar told‘The News’. “The boys didnot play the way they shouldhave. They missed a handfulof easy chances,” Akbar la-mented.
But Akbar hoped that theteam would improve. “Youknow we have played justthree matches and are unde-feated but I feel that weshould raise our game andwill do it in the time to come,”Akbar said.
KESC, who moved toseven points after three ap-pearances, had finished sec-ond last season behind thewinners Khan ResearchLaboratories (KRL).
Akbar said that they werestill waiting for the NOC fromthe government for the Nige-rian player they had signed.“The government has notgiven us any response andonce we get NOC for the for-eigner we will send him theticket,” said Akbar.
KESC have hired the ser-vices of Nigerian strikerOludeyi Abayomi on amonthly pay of Rs55,000 forthe season. If the govern-ment issues NOC it will be thefirst time that a foreigner willbe featuring in the PremierLeague.
Habib Bank managerYousuf Khan was satisfiedwith the performance of histroops. “The players did afine job today,” Yousuf said.
FaisalabadWolves notissued visas
for ChandigarhCH A N D I G A R H —The un-professional at t i tude to-wards the FaisalabadWolves by Indian authori-ties continues as the teamwas not issued visas forChandigarh where they arescheduled to play theiropening match.
The players wereforced to shift out of thecity after it was discoveredthat their visas were onlyvalid for Mohali. The teamhad to shif t out of theirhotel rooms to the club-house at the Punjab CricketAssociation stadium.
According to the PunjabCricket Association Joint Sec-retary, the Indian cricket boardis in touch with the Ministryof External Affairs and HomeMinistry so that their visas areissued for Chandigarh.—APP
mestic structure,” he main-tained.
Former captain of Paki-stan hockey team WaseemAhmed further said the Pa-kistan Hockey Federationand former legends need towork together for the re-vival of the national gamewith assistance from thegovernment.
“I can still see loads oftalented youngsters whocan turn the tide if guidedproperly.
Pakistan still possessesthe best talent.
But these youngstersare confused about the i rfu ture and are workinghalf -hear tedly becausethey see thei r seniorsstruggling for livelihood,”said Waseem.
Former captain of Paki-stan hockey team WaseemAhmed added that by en-suring these youngsters agood future and with im-provement on the domes-tic level, they can progressby leaps and bounds in thegame.—APP
NCA EmergingPlayers Programme
KARACHI—A four-weekNCA Emerging PlayersProgramme, organised byPakistan Cricket Board(PCB), will start at NationalCricket Academy in Lahorefrom Monday.
The programme will beconducted under the su-pervision of NCA eli tecoaches and support staff.A group of twenty-fourplayers, recommended bythe National Select ionCommittee, will attend theprogramme.
CARDIFF—England levelledthe one-day series with Aus-tralia thanks to a stunninglate show from big hitters JosButtler and Ben Stokes in thefourth match in Cardiff.
The dynamic young paircame together with their sideappearing to be heading foranother defeat and losing theseries as well.
England needed 84 runsfrom just over 11 overs whenRavi Bopara was out.
But Buttler (65 not out)and Stokes (25) managed toturn the game on its head.
Durham all-rounder
Australia innings:Finch lbw b Finn ............. 0Marsh c Buttler b Stokes 25Watson c Buttler b Rankin6MJ Clarke lbw b Finn .... 22Bailey c Buttler b Rankin 87Voges b Bopara ............. 30Wade b Tredwell ........... 36Faulkner run out .............. 1Johnson b Tredwell ........ 4NM Coulter-Nile not out 7CJ McKay b Tredwell ..... 2Extras: (b 1, lb 3, w 3) ...... 7Total: (all out) .............. 227Fall of wickets 1-1, 2-11, 3-51, 4-57, 5-124, 6-209, 7-210,8-218, 9-218, 10-227Bowling:O-M-R-WST Finn ............... 10-0-43-2Rankin ................. 10-1-31-2Stokes ................... 9-1-42-1Bopara ................ 10-0-45-1
JC Tredwell ....... 8.2-0-53-3JE Root ................... 1-0-9-0England innings:Carberry b Coulter-Nile 63Pietersen lbw b McKay .. 5Trott c Finch b McKay .. 0Root c Watson b McKay 0Morgan b Watson ........ 53Bopara lbw b Faulkner ... 7JC Buttler not out .......... 65Stokes b McKay ........... 25Tredwell not out .............. 1Extras: (lb 8, w 4) ........... 12Total: (7 wickets) ......... 231Fall of wickets 1-8, 2-8, 3-8,4-112, 5-126, 6-144, 7-219Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WMcKay ................ 10-3-39-4Johnson ............. 9.3-0-64-0Faulkner .............. 10-1-43-1Watson ............... 10-0-43-1Coulter-Nile ........ 10-0-34-1
4th ODI: England level seriesafter big-hitting late show
Stokes was out near the endbut Buttler remained and hitthe winning runs with aboundary off MitchellJohnson with three balls re-maining for a three wicketwin.
It sets up a thrilling endto the series at Southamptonon Monday.
Chasing 228 to win, fastbowler Clint McKay’s stun-ning hat-trick at the start ofthe England innings had putAustralia well on top.
The big Aussie fastbowler was called into theirside as a late replacement —
and then left Kevin Pietersen,Jonathan Trott and Joe Rootembarrassed as they limpedslowly back to the pavilion.
Michael Carberry (63)and Eoin Morgan (53) led therecovery before both theyand Ravi Bopara fell.
But Buttler and Stokeswere waiting to become thestars of the hour.
England’s bowling hadblown hot and cold earlier inthe day with the pace ofSteven Finn and BoydRankin ripping apart theAussie top order in seamerfriendly early conditions.
And then slow bowlerJames Tredwell found hisform late in the innings totake three wickets as Austra-lia were bowled out for 227off 48.2 overs.
But they had had their ri-vals on the ropes only to lackthe know how or ability totighten their grip on thematch with vice-captainGeorge Bailey saving his sidefrom complete disaster with87 from 91 balls.
Finn (2-43), struggling torediscover some of his oldform, did show real pace andzip with the Middlesex starremoving opener AaronFinch second ball.
Rankin (2-31), a real chal-lenger for a place in the Ashesthis winter, was even moreimpressive.
The 6ft 8in Irishmanproved too good for the dan-
gerous Shane Watson whileyoung all-round hopeful BenStokes weighed in with thewicket of Shaun Marsh (25).
Finn returned to removecaptain Michael Clarke andthe Australians were trem-bling on 57-4 with Englandeager to inflict further dam-age and punishment.
Sadly, the lack of a realfifth front line bowler provedthe downfall.
For Tredwell and RaviBopara were easy pickingsfor the Aussie middle orderand leaked runs constantlyenabling the tourists to buildmomentum.
Partnerships betweenBailey and Adam Voges (30)and Bailey and MatthewWade (36) frustratedMorgan’s side and theCardiff crowd who had satback expecting England to goin for the kill.
Indeed, Australia lookedset for a higher total until asudden collapse, losing theirlast five wickets for just 18runs.
Tredwell grabbed threelate wickets to finishing with3-53.
Unfortunately, forEngland’s batting the see-saw took a dramatic and wor-rying dip from the momentPietersen and Carberrywalked out to the crease.
McKay’s second overleft England rocking.
Pietersen was undone by
a swinging delivery whichtrapped him lbw. But bothTrott and Root were guilty ofbad shots and getting them-selves out.
It was the 34th hat-trickin ODIs and fifth by an Aus-tralian.
Morgan joined Carberry,who had been watching fromthe opposite end as the car-nage unfurled, and the pairslowly and surely repairedsome of the damage.
The pair put on 104 runsfor the fourth wicket untilMorgan was bowled byWatson to 53.
Carberry’s defianceended when he missed a de-livery from new Aussie fastbowler Nathan Coulter-Nileand was bowled.
Yet, the dramatic finaltwist of a roller coaster clashwas left to Buttler and Stokeswho conjured up the runsneeded to see Englandscrape home in the finalover.—AFP
CARDIFF: Michael Carberry of England managed to survive a vicious Mitchell Johnsonof Australia bouncer during 4th NatWest ODI.
BIPIN DANI
OBSERVER
CORRESPONDENT
MUMBAI—Nadir Shah, the50-year-old Bangladeshiumpire is probably hopingagainst hope.
In March this year, theumpire was handed a ten-year ban by the BangladeshCricket Board (BCB) oncharges of corruptionwhich were alleged by a TVsting operation in 2012. Thedecision followed an inves-tigation carried out by theBangladesh board.
“I am not going to beout of umpiring for so longthat is for sure”, he saidover telephone fromKolkata, where he is at his82-year old aunt’s place.
My ten year ban will berevoked: Nadir Shah
“There will be change at theBCB and my ban will be over-turned”, he added confi-dently.
“Look, how the playersfrom our country who werebanned for ten years for sign-ing in the Indian CricketLeague (ICL) got their sus-pension revoked. Similarlymy ban will not last long”.
In 2008, the BCB has an-nounced a ten-year ban for13 of its top cricketers forjoining the unauthorised ICLbut the same was removedafter players apologized.
Nadir Shah, without chal-lenging the ban, has alsosent a letter to the BCB seek-ing sympathy. “Let the BCBhold its election and my banwill be reduced or removed”,he hoped.
This is Nadir Shah’s notfirst visit to the country af-ter being banned by hisboard.“I keep coming toIndia as have severalfriends here”, he added. Heis scheduled to return toBangladesh on 19th Sep-tember.
Nadir Shah was bornwith a silver spoon inmouth. “My father was adoctor and my mother livesin America. I am planningto go to USA in Novemberif visas are granted.
“Yes, my 82-year-oldmother is aware about mylife-ban. She came to Dhakaa weeks ago”, he added.
Nadir Shah officiated in40 ODIs. His brother,Jahangir Shah played fiveODIs’ between 1986-1990.
Bale makesReal Madriddebut against
VillarrealMADRID—Gareth Bale willmake his long-awaited debutfor Real Madrid againstVillarreal on Saturday afterbeing included in coachCarlo Ancelotti’s startingline-up.
The Welshman, whosigned a six-year deal foraround #80 million ($124 mil-lion, 94 million euros) earlierthis month, is expected toplay on the right side of theattack in a 4-2-3-1 formationwith Cristiano Ronaldo andIsco also supporting the lonestriker Karim Benzema.
Asier Illarramendi alsomakes his bow for LosBlancos in midfield after join-ing from Real Sociedad for 39million euros ($51 million, #34million) in July.
Bale finally sealed his re-ported world record transferfrom Tottenham on Septem-ber 1, but has had to wait twoweeks to make his first ap-pearance due to the interna-tional break.—AFP
NEWCASTLE—Mo Farahmight have taken over fromKenenisa Bekele as the world’sleading distance runner on thetrack over the past three years,but on the road in the GreatNorth Run half marathon onSunday the British star foundhimself eclipsed by the resur-gent Ethiopian.
Bekele, a three-time Olym-pic gold medal winner, hasbeen troubled by injury andloss of form since 2009 but,after temporarily dropping be-hind Farah and compatriotHaile Gebrselassie in the 13.1mile race, the 31-year-old drewlevel and then pulled clear ona downhill stretch with a mileand a quarter remaining.
Farah made a desperate
NEWCASTLE: Kenenisa Bekele crossed the line first with Mo Farah just one seconddown in the Great North Run half marathon on Sunday.
Bekele outshines Farahin Great North Run
attempt to close the gap in thelast half a mile but finished astride down.
The world and Olympic5,000m and 10,000m championhad the consolation of a Brit-ish best time, 60min 10sec, withBekele clocking 60:09 on hisdebut at the half marathon dis-tance.
Gebrselassie, 40, a two-time Olympic 10,000m cham-pion, finished third in 60min41sec.
The women’s race hadbeen billed as a head-to-headbetween the arch Ethiopian ri-vals, world 5,000m championMeseret Defar and world10,000m champion TiruneshDibaba, but both were eclipsedby Prisca Jeptoo.
The Kenyan, who enjoyedsuccess on British roads inApril as the winner of the Lon-don Marathon, produced astunning performance, miss-ing Paula Radcliffe’s courserecord by 14 seconds with awinning time of 65 min 45sec.
The decisive move camewhen the trio hit the prolongeduphill climb that starts just be-fore the eight mile mark.
Jeptoo moved to the front,upped the pace, and openedup the first gap of significance.
Dibaba was unable to re-spond and, while Defar brieflyregained the lost ground,Jeptoo kept applying the pres-sure, reeling off a successionof sub five minute milesplits.—AFP
TA S H K E N T —Top-seededBojana Jovanovski earnedher second career WTA titleon Saturday by outlastingOlga Govortsova 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3) in the final of theTashkent Open.
Jovanovski was brokentwice in the first set butbounced back by breakingher opponent three times inthe second. Both players fin-ished with five breaks ofserve each in a match thatlasted nearly 3 hours.
The 21-year-oldJovanovski also won a tour-nament in Baku last year,while the 113th-rankedGovortsova was looking forher first WTA title. She madeher first Grand Slam appear-ance at this year’s U.S. Open.
Meanwhile, Australia areback in the Davis Cup WorldGroup for the first time in sixyears, with Bernard Tomicsupplying the crucial thirdpoint against Poland with a6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 win overLukasz Kubotin on Sunday.
That victory gave PatRafter’s team an unassailable3-1 lead in the best-of-fiveWorld Group playoff tie onclay.
Tomic, often the bad boyof Australian tennis, won hissecond singles match of thetie after he and LleytonHewitt gave Australia a 2-0lead on the opening day withstraight sets wins.
Jovanovski rallies to winTashkent Open title
Poland kept the tie aliveas Marcin Matkowski andMariusz Fyrstenberg de-feated teenage debutantNick Kyrgios and ChrisGuccione in Saturday’sdoubles, before Tomic com-pleted the job in impressivefashion.
The victory means Aus-tralia, 28-times Davis Cupchampions, will return to thetop 16 next year for the firsttime since 2007.
They had reached theWorld Group playoffs for thepast three years, only to fallat the last hurdle.—AP
TASHKENT: Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia returns againstOlga Govortsova in the final of the Tashkent Open.
African giantsawait World
Cup fateJOHANNESBURG—Africanfootball giants Ivory Coast,Ghana and Nigeria will dis-cover Monday which coun-try they must defeat to reachthe 2014 World Cup in Brazil.The trio, plus Algeria andTunisia, are seeded for aplay-off draw with Egypt,Burkina Faso, Cameroon,Senegal and Ethiopiaunseeded.
A noon ceremony at theCairo headquarters of theConfederation of AfricanFootball will create five two-leg ties between seeded andunseeded sides. And a sepa-rate draw will determine whoplays at home first as the 51-nation qualifying competitionreaches an intriguing climax.Seedings were decided bythe monthly FIFA Africarankings released this weekand topped by the DidierDrogba-captained Ivorians.
First legs are scheduled forOctober 11-15 and returnmatches for November 15-19with the five aggregate winnersrepresenting Africa at the glo-bal football showcase. All fivequalifiers for the previousWorld Cup in South Africathree years ago—Algeria,Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coastand Nigeria—are in contention.South Africa also participated,with hosts earning the rightautomatically, in a tournamentwhere Africa flopped with onlyGhana surviving the firstround. Ghana and Marseillemidfield star Andre ‘Dede’Ayew has no concerns aheadof a draw expected to be com-pleted by 1100GMT in theEgyptian capital.
“We are ready to faceany opponent,” said the sonof Ghana legend Abedi ‘Pele’Ayew and older brother ofMarseille team-mate Jor-dan.—AFP
Barca’s Albaout for three
weeksMADRID—Barcelona left-back Jordi Alba has beenruled out for up to threeweeks after suffering a tornhamstring in the Catalans’ 3-2 win over Sevilla on Satur-day.
“The medical serviceshave confirmed that theplayer suffered a muscle tearin his right femoral biceps(hamstring). The estimatedtime out is three weeks,” theclub said in a statement.
The Spanish interna-tional had to be replaced byAdriano after just 14 minutesof the clash against Sevillaand will almost certainly nowmiss Barca’s opening twoChampions League gamesagainst Ajax and Celtic.
The injury comes at theworst possible time for Barcaboss Gerardo Martino withthe injury prone Adriano theonly cover on offer at leftback.
Barca face a punishingschedule in the next fewweeks with six games in thenext 20 days and Alba is alsonow a doubt for Spain’s tworemaining World Cup quali-fiers against Belarus andGeorgia next month.—AFP
Britain back inDavis Cup
World GroupUMAG (Croatia)—AndyMurray secured Britain’s re-turn to the Davis Cup WorldGroup after a five-year ab-sence when he defeatedCroatia’s Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in a playoff rubber atUmag on Sunday.
That made the matchscore 3-1 in Britain’s favourwith just the second of thereverse singles to follow.Wimbledon and Olympicchampion Murray won hisopening singles on Fridayand teamed up with ColinFleming to win the doubleson Saturday.
Dodig, who beat DanEvans in straight sets on Fri-day, put up some resistanceearly on but tired badly in thesecond set and Murraycoasted away to clinch thewin that puts Britain backamong the elite of world ten-nis.—AFP
ENCOURAGING and counseling minority families to adopt healthier householdroutines led to a small decrease in children’s
weight, in a new study. Researchers found encour-aging families to eat meals together, limit TV timeand get better sleep was linkedto about a one-pound drop inkids’ weight relative to childrenin homes that didn’t receive theencouragement and counseling.“I can tell a family, ‘You reallyneed to get more physical ac-tivity’ and the conversation canend there,” Dr. Elsie Taveras,the study’s senior author fromMassachusetts General Hospi-tal for Children in Boston, said.
But, she added, “I think thatability to go deeper and talkabout their routines is key.” Pre-vious research has found certainhousehold routines - such aseating meals as a family andonly spending a couple of hoursin front of a TV each day - arelinked to a reduced risk of chil-dren being obese. It’s alsoknown that children in minority and low-incomefamilies are more likely to be overweight andobese than white children from wealthier fami-lies.For the new study, Taveras and her colleaguesrandomly assigned 121 families with childrenbetween age two and five, who were predomi-nantly black and Latino, to receive usual care orthe counseling program.
The 62 families assigned to the counselinggroup received four home visits and four phonecalls from health educators, educational materi-als mailed to the home and weekly text messagesabout adopting healthy household routines. Noneof the counseling, however, specifically mentioned
obesity or reducing children’s weight. The 59families randomized to the usual care group re-ceived educational materials, such as coloringbooks, in the mail. The materials didn’t addressthe household routines, but focused on children
reaching certain developmentalmilestones.
After six months, the re-searchers found children in thecounseling group were sleepingalmost an hour longer than chil-dren assigned to the usual caregroup. Kids in the counselinggroup also reduced their TVviewing by about one hour perday during the weekend. Therewas no change in the number ofmeals the children shared withtheir families, but Taveras saidmany of the children were al-ready eating family meals at thebeginning of the study.
The researchers did findthat kids in the usual care grouphad a small increase in bodymass index (BMI) - a measure-ment of weight in relation to
height - and those in the counseling group hada slight decrease in BMI. The difference wasequivalent to about one pound. “Relative tothe control group it was a small decrease, butnot insignificant in a six-month period in grow-ing children,” Taveras said.
Despite the study’s limitations - such asthe small change in BMI, uncertainty aboutwhether the change will last and the smallnumber of families that participated - IndianaUniversity School of Medicine’s Dr. AaronCarroll writes in an editorial accompanying itin JAMA Pediatrics that the approach is fea-sible and successful.
Routine changes tied tokids’ weight loss: study
Sher Shah scrapmarket traders to
go on strikeagainst extortion
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—The traders andscrape dealers of Sher Shahscrape market announced to ob-serve strike on Sep 18 in protestto failure of the government andthe law enforcement agencies(LEA) to protect them from thecriminals.
They said that while theLEAs had been engaged in con-ducting raids in nook and crannyof the metropolis for the arrestof the target killers, extortion-ists, kidnappers for ransom anddacoits, but they had left thetraders and dealers of scrape ofSher Shah Scrape market at themercy of the extortionist thatwere still operating free fromfear and were sending extortionchits to them for money in ex-tortion.
They said that the extortion-ists had been fearlessly collect-ing the desired sums of moneyfrom the frightened traders anddealers of scrape of Sher Shahscrape market. The extortionistswere enough powerful that po-lice was reluctant to take anyaction against them. The extor-tionists had also warned the trad-ers of dire consequences due towhich the traders were in utterstate of insecurity and fright.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—The acting Jamaat-e Islami (JI) Karachi Chief Prof.Nizamuddin Memon demandedof the government to national-ized the Karachi Electric supplyCompany (KESC) and appointhonest and competent officers inthe institution.
He made this demand onthe occasion of the 100-yearcompletion of KESC.
He said that the governmentshould evolve an effective strat-egy to resolve the issues of over-billing and power outage.
JI demands nationalization of KESCProf. Memon said that the
KESC’s services on its estab-lishment were exemplary, butnowadays, the said institutionhad destroyed completely due tocorruption, nepotism, incompe-tency and anti-people policies.
The industries were its vergeof collapse due to the long hoursload-shedding while the peopleof the city are also suffering byprolonged power outages, hesaid adding that if the PrimeMinister wanted to pull out thecollapse economy and thepeople of the city, so he shouldannounce the nationalization of
KESC.He said that the national in-
stitution (KESC) had becomethe den of corruption and politi-cal interference in the regime ofPervez Musharraf, and some el-ements on that time paved theway of denationalization of theKESC.
Prof. Memon further saidthat the JI had strongly opposedthe denationalization of theKESC at that time, but the so-called elements of the city withthe support of Pervez Musharrafgave the national institution inthe custody of private sector.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement’ Deputy Convener andthe member of National Assem-bly said that we have not been ableto achieve the objectives for whichPakistan was created. A society,which strives for elimination ofinjustices is considered the bestsociety. But today, we see a con-spiracy to crush MQM and stopit from spreading its message toother parts of Pakistan instead ofending the reign of terror fromKarachi. These short-sightedpeople must know that it is 2013not June 1992.
He expressed these viewswhile address a dinner party or-ganized by the Engineering Fo-rum for engineers at the CitySports Complex (KMC SportsComplex).
MQM’s Rabita CommitteeMember Haider Abbas Rizvi,former Haq Parast National As-sembly Member Engineer FarhanKhan, APMSO’s Tauseef
We see a conspiracy to crushMQM: Dr Khalid Siddiqui
Kareemi, former Petroleum Min-ister Atiq Ahmed and notables ofthe city were present too.
He said in his address thatdemocracy cannot flourish in acountry where feudal system ex-isted. This system negates demo-cratic system. Karachi was theonly place in Pakistan where de-mocracy existed. Highly educatedpeople from this city had reachedassemblies because of their politi-cal consciousness.
Dr Khalid Maqbool said thatMQM enjoys 85 percent mandateof Karachi. However, the resi-dents of Karachi were looted onthe pretext of searching illegalarms in their houses.
You could not clear Karachiof illegal arms unless you clearillegal arms from other parts ofPakistan. Some people get irkedwhen MQM says this. We say thisbecause arms are not made inKarachi. They were brought fromNorth Areas of Pakistan.
Everyone knows wherecriminals live in Karachi. Innocent
Mohajir people were slaughteredin Lyari. Kidnappers have madethe lives of Karachi’s businessmen, industrialists and peoplemiserable.
He said we wanted make itclear to our rivals that we hadmade Pakistan and Islam our iden-tity. More than 80 percent ofSindh’s urban population con-sisted of Hindus before partition.When Muslims settled here afterpartition they made Pakistan andIslam their identity because theyhad left their regional identitiesbehind.
Former Haq Parast NationalAssembly Member EngineerFarhart Khan said EngineeringForum has been formed to helpstudents in their problems. FormerPetroleum Minister and directorof Siemens Sohail Wajahat saidthat economy depends on engi-neers. We can improve oureconomy with good engineers. Headded that there were 27 thou-sands engineers if they sit togetherthe can create wonders.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Karachi Water andsewerage Board (KW&SB) Man-aging Director (MD) QutbuddinShaikh had in a letter despatchedto the Pakistan Rangers Sindh Di-rector General called for decisiveaction against the mafia that op-erated in the city for decades forstealing water from KW&SBlines and sold the stolen waterthrough tankers to the residents.
The KW&SB MD in his let-ter pointed at certain areas of thecity where the water stealingmafia had established illegal wa-ter hydrants and sold the stolenwater to the buyers across the city.The areas he had pointed at in-cluded Baldia, Sher Shah,Korangi, Pak Colony, Qasba andLandhi, which were pre-domi-nated by a particular ethnicgroups that had settled in the cityand the areas thus noted were alsostrongholds of the terrorists, reli-gious extremists and hardened
Rangers help sought to eliminateillegal water hydrants
criminals.Shaikh wrote to the Pakistan
Rangers Sindh DG that the ac-tivities of the water stealingmafia had inflicted colossal fi-nancial loss to the water utilityand had created obstacles formeeting its revenue targets, ex-tending the water supplying in-frastructure and maintenance ofthe already laid water infrastruc-ture.
The KW&SB MD furthersaid in his letter that the issueswas being raised through thenational media and authorities atthe government level were alsobeing apprised about the gravesituation. The provincial govern-ment had ordered police to takeaction against the water stealingmafia so that the water distribu-tion to the residents at the tail endcould also be maintained in jus-tified manner.
He further wrote that thecontinued operation of those il-legal water hydrants in the city
would tarnish the entire watersupply line while the operatorsof those illegal water hydrantshad been becoming stronger withthe passage of every single dayand no action taken for the elimi-nation of those illegal water hy-drants and their operators provedsuccessful. The water utility hadin past eliminated many illegalwater hydrants and lodged FIRsin police stations but the waterstealing mafia had re-establishedthose illegal water hydrants whilepolice failed to prevent themfrom re-establishing the closedwater hydrants.
He further wrote that it wasneed of the hour that such anti-social elements should be takento task for protecting the watersupply infrastructure and for thatreason, Pakistan Rangers Sindhshould extend their cooperationfor the protection of theKW&SB officials during cam-paign to be launched against thewater stealing mafia.
Police arrest117 accused
KARACHI—The Karachi policein their continued drive againstcriminals, arrested 117 accusedfrom various parts of the cityduring the last 24 hours.
A police statement on Sun-day said that those arrested in-clude 17 absconders and othersallegedly involved in cases ofmurder, dacoity and othercrimes. It further stated that 26weapons of various calibreswere also recovered from theirpossession.—APP
PIA Special Hajjflights beginfrom Multan
KARACHI—The PIA specialHajj flights began from Multanon Sunday. A PIA spokesmansaid here that till now the totaluplift of intending pilgrimsstands at 13,000 by 31 Hajjflights.
He said that the PakistanInternational Airlines (PIA) spe-cial Hajj flights have startedfrom Multan on Sunday. Thefirst Hajj flight PK2313 carry-ing 502 intending Hajis leftMultan at 7.35 in the evening.
PIA’s General Manager Pas-sengers Handling Services,Amir Bashir, saw off the intend-ing pilgrims at Multan airport.On the seventh day of its pre-Hajj Operation, PIA operatedfive special Hajj flights whilecarrying around 2,000 Hujjaj tothe Holy Land.
On Sunday, PIA’s PK2611carrying 329 Hujjaj leftPeshawar at 9.20 AM, fromLahore PK2213 carrying 500 at11.25 AM, another flight fromPeshawar PK2013 carrying 329at 2.00 PM, from MultanPK2313 carrying 502 at 7.35PMand from Quetta PK2713 tookoff at 10.00 PM carrying 329pilgrims to the holy land.
The departure and arrival ofall flights was on time, the PIAspokesman added. —APP
KU semesterexam forms
KARACHI—The students ofSecond Semester (MorningProgramme) at the University ofKarachi can submit their exami-nation forms and fee without anylate fee up to October 31.
This was announced by theIncharge of KarachiUniversity’s Semester Cell, onSunday. He said that with a latefee of Rs 500, the forms and feecan be submitted from Novem-ber 1 to 9 and with Rs 1,000from November 11 to 15.
The second semester stu-dents of the Evening Programmecan submit their examinationforms and fee up to October 28without any late fee.—APP
KARACHI: Hazardous smoke rising from burning garbage dump on the main road of LeeMarket due to which air got polluted and local people faced health problems just because ofthe carelessness of local administration.
KARACHI: Workers of United Human Rights Commission Pakistan stage a protest againstfake drinks.
KARACHI: The documents of handing over and taking over a Turkish Housing scheme constructed by Turkish Govern-ment at Thatta for flood victims being signed by Turkish representative Khalil Suhail and D.G. PDMA Muhammad Sulemanat CM house. Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah was also present on the occasion
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—The Physical posses-sion of a Turkish housingscheme scattered on 300-Acre ofland comprising 2120 housesconstructed by Turkish Govern-ment inDistrict Thatta to accom-modate flood affectee washanded to the management ofprovincial disaster managementauthority (PDMA) at a ceremonypresided over by Sindh ChiefMinister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.
Sindh Minister for LocalGovernment and Health SyedOwais Muzaffar, Consul Generalof Turkey Murat M. Onart, SindhChief Secretary MuhammadAijaz Choudhry, Secretary toCM Sindh Naveed KamranBaloch, Special Secretary AbbasBaloch, director general PDMASyed Muhammad Suleman Shahand other officers attended theceremony.
Addressing the ceremony, the
Turkey donates 2120houses for flood affected
CM said that Turkey was a bestfriend of Pakistan, which alwayshelped Pakistan and its people indifficult times. Pakistan speciallySindh Province had been passedform disaster like situation duringthe flash flood in 2010-2011, thathad effected 9 million people onlyin Sindh. At that time the PrimeMinister of Turkey came toPakistan, visited flood affectedareas of Sindh, where heannounced this housing scheme toprovide shelter to the shelter lessflood victims.
He said, “we are thankfulfor this gesture of Turkish gov-ernment that came to rescue ourpeople in difficult time. Duringthe ceremony.”
The CM directed the au-thorities concerned to providewater supply, drainage, electric-ity and other civic facilities atthe housing scheme withoutdelay so that the housing unitsof this scheme could be givento beneficiaries as soon as pos-
sible. He said that allotment ofhouses of this scheme would bemade purely on transparent sys-tem.
The Consul General MuratM. Onart while addressing theceremony said that Turkey wasenjoying friendly relationshipwith Pakistan since decades.Turkish Government wouldcontinue helping to Pakistanbrothers.
He said that more than10,000 people could be accom-modated in this housing schemeconstructed by his governmentfor the flood victims of the area.
He said that this schemecomprised 2120 house unitswith 3 mosques, a high school,a community hall, business cen-tre, sports complex and a playground.
He said this housing schemeis a mile stone in Pakistan-Tur-key friendship and will be re-membered for centuries.
Green Panelsweeps KUJ’s
electionsKARACHI—The Green Panelregistered a jubilant triumph inthe Karachi Union of Journal-ists (KUJ) annual elections-2013 with G.M.Jamali beingelected the president and WajidRaza Isfahani the General Sec-retary.
According to results: Presi-dent: G.M.Jamali got 739 votesagainst his opponent ImtiazKhan’s 193 votes. Wajid RazaIsfahani was elected as GeneralSecretary by securing 533,against 344 votes of his oppo-nent Fahim Siddiqi.
Green Panel-backed 10 can-didates for Members ExecutiveCouncil including AftabHussain, Anjum Alam, GhulamAkber Jaferi, Ishaq Baloch,Lubna Jerar, MuhammadAsghar, Muhammad Khurram,Muhammad Rizwan, SyedAther Hussain and Seema Shafigot elected with heavy majority.
Out of the 1342 total eligiblevoters, 967 voters exercisedtheir right of franchise in theKUJ election.
The Green Panel-supported54 candidates for Biennial Del-egates’ Meeting (BDM) also re-corded victory against their op-ponents.—APP
WDF launchesproject for
prevention ofdiabetes
KARACHI—The World Diabe-tes Foundation (WDF) haslaunched a three-year “Gesta-tional Diabetes Mellitus Preven-tion and Control Programme”project in Pakistan with the col-laboration of Baqai Institute ofDiabetology (BID).
The Head of the Institute,Prof. Dr. Abdul Basit, explain-ing the salient features of theproject said that WDF is help-ing the developing countries inencountering the epidemic ofdiabetes and in Pakistan BID isits strategic partner, says a state-ment here on Sunday.—APP
CHILDREN who are not vaccinated according to the schedule recommendedby U.S. health officials are at an in-
creased risk of catching whooping cough, ac-cording to a new study.
Researchers found kidswho fell significantly behindon their diphtheria, tetanusand acellular pertussis (DTaP)shots were between 19 and 28times more likely to be diag-nosed with whooping cough,also known as pertussis, thanchildren who were vaccinatedon time.
“What we found - not sur-prisingly - was that kids whowere not vaccinated on timewere at a greater risk of per-tussis, compared to those whowere vaccinated on time,” Ja-son Glanz, the study’s leadauthor from the KaiserPermanente Colorado Insti-tute for Health Research inDenver, said.
Studies have shown per-tussis cases have been on the rise across theU.S. Researchers suspect that’s due to the useof a new type of pertussis vaccine - which hasfewer side effects, but is less effective over thelong run - and to more children missing or de-laying vaccination (see Reuters Health story ofMay 20, 2013 here: reut.rs/18aYu17.)
Although parents sometimes believe delay-ing their children’s vaccines and following al-ternative schedules is safer, Glanz said there isno evidence that they are “any safer in terms ofadverse events than what’s typical.”
For the new study, he and his colleaguescompared the vaccination records of 72 chil-
dren who were diagnosed with pertussis inone of eight healthcare systems between2004 and 2010 and 288 similar kids whodidn’t get the disease. All of the childrenwere between the ages of three and 36
months.The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention rec-ommends children receivedoses of the DTaP vaccine attwo, four and six months ofage, another dose between 15and 18 months and a boostershot when they’re four to sixyears old.
The researchers found thatabout 47 percent of childrendiagnosed with pertussis werenot vaccinated according tothat recommended schedule,versus about 22 percent ofkids in the comparison group.
“Just over a third of thecases could have been pre-vented had they been vacci-nated on time,” Glanz said.
His team also found thatthe longer parents delayed getting their chil-dren vaccinated, the higher the kids’ risks ofcatching pertussis climbed.
Those who were three doses behind, forexample, were 19 times more likely to getwhooping cough than kids who were caughtup on their shots, and those who were fourdoses behind had 28 times the risk.
“I think the nice thing about this studyis that it quantifies the risk,” Dr. Mary Healy,director of vaccinology and maternal immu-nization for the Center for Vaccine Aware-ness and Research at Texas Children’s Hos-pital in Houston, said.
Delayed vaccines tied towhooping cough risk
Demo againstrape incident
LAHORE—The activists of civilsociety on Sunday staged a pro-test demonstration at “The Mall”against the rape of a minor girl.
A large number of peopleincluding women were carryingbanners and placards inscribedwith slogans against police andcriminals.
Addressing on the occasion,representatives of various NGOsstrongly condemned the tragicincident of rape.
They demanded of the gov-ernment to ensure the arrest ofculprits at earliest and deterentpunishment for them.—APP
LAHORE—Justice SyedMansoor Ali Shah of the LahoreHigh Court said that after theBhurban Declaration, the ChiefJustice of Pakistan had directedformation of green benches inevery High Court and districtcourt of the country and fivegreen benches were working inHigh Courts and 133 in districtcourts for resolution of environ-mental issues.
The judge was speaking atthe 2nd South Asian JudicialRoundtable on EnvironmentalJustice, jointly organized by theRoyal Court of Justice ofBhutan in collaboration with theAsian Development Bank(ADB) in Thimphu, Bhutan.
According to informationavailabe here, more than 80 par-ticipants comprising chief jus-tices, senior judges, ministry of-ficials and legal and environ-mental experts across SouthAsia gathered to discuss theregion’s most pressing chal-lenges and issues on environ-mental adjudication.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah,adorning the green bench at
Five green benches workingin HCs, 133 in district courts
Lahore High Court, repre-sented the judiciary of Pakistanat the conference.
He highlighted the prosand cons of the Bhurban Dec-laration in detail and presentedthe Pakistan perspective on en-vironment human health and itseconomics as well as access toenvironmental justice and al-ternative dispute resolution.
At the inaugural session,Chief Justice Lyono SonamTobgye of the Bhutan Su-preme Court welcomed theparticipants and threw lightthe importance of sustainableuse of natural resources toachieve national economicdevelopment that was in linewith Bhutan’s Gross NationalHappiness.
Mr. Christopher Stephens,General Counsel of ADB, alsomade the opening remarks andstressed the importance of en-vironmental governance forsustainable development.
At the culmination of theRoundtable, the participantsunanimously adopted theThimphu Declaration on En-
hancing Environmental Justicein South Asia which recognizedthe judiciary’s importance andunique role in ensuring envi-ronmental preservation by up-holding constitutional cases.
The participants agreed thatthe recognition of the role re-quired continued enhancementof the judiciary’s capacity andknowledge on environmentalissues and appropriateness ofthe judicial structure should bereviewed to ensure that institu-tional gaps within the judiciarywere dealt with.
The Thimphu Declarationalso proposed a regional ap-proach for safeguarding the en-vironment and share informa-tion on environmental justice.
The participants unani-mously agreed to work on andbuild consensus on a draftmemorandum of understandingfor cooperation among SouthAsian judiciaries to further en-hance collaboration on infor-mation exchange, capacitybuilding and strengthening thejudiciary’s focus on environ-mental issues.—APP
22 ticketlesspassengers finedLAHORE—A team of PakistanRailways caught 22 ticketlesspassengers on Sunday during araid at 37-Up Fareed Expressand charged Rs 29,380 as finefrom them. According to PRsources, PR Lahore divisionalcommercial officers MalikShahbaz Babbar on the directionof divisional superintendentHammayun Rashid raided thetrain. The team also charged Rs.2410 from a passenger for load-ing a motorcycle in a passengercompartment without its properbooking.—APP
Privatisation ofrailways not under
considerationLAHORE—Pakistan RailwaysMinister Khawaja Saad Rafiquehas said that privatization of Rail-ways is not under considerationof the government.
Talking to media here Sun-day, he said the PR would beproved itself a profitable depart-ment within the current year so itwas out of question that the PRwas being privatised.
Responding to a questionabout Public-Private Partnership,the minister said private compa-nies would not be discouraged,however, he added that not asingle penny would be right off toany company. Mentioning severalpro-railway steps taken by him,the minister said the PR was onthe right track now and it wouldbe able to deliver soon. He saidpurchase of locomotives was thepriority and transparency wouldbe ensured in every deal with lo-comotive manufacturing compa-nies.
He told, recently a powervan agreement had been revivedand an amount of Rs 140 mil-lion had been saved through anamendment in manufacturing ofvans. He said a contract of Die-sel Generating set with a com-pany of the United States had tocancel due to irregularities anda new tender would be soughtin this regard.—APP
1388 criminalsarrested in
eight monthsLAHORE—Punjab Highway Pa-trol (PHP) arrested 1,388 crimi-nals including 44 proclaimed of-fenders and six court abscondersand recovered looted propertyfrom their possessionk during thelast eight months.
The PHP officials registered1309 cases against the arrestedcriminals including 305 of havingillegal weapons and 247 of nar-cotics. About 21 encounters be-tween police and criminals wereheld at national highway duringthe same period, PHP spokesmansaid on Sunday.
The force have recovered Rs6.7 million in cash, 12 cars, 31motorcycles, wood worth Rs 5.9million, 63 cattles, 4162 litre ofdiesel, 45 mobile phones, 13klashnikoves, 27 rifles, 48 guns,167459 litre of liquor , 243grammes of heroin, and 388grammes of liquor.
The PHP force had providedhelp to 88198 passengers on theNational Highways while pro-vided first to 4421 people in caseof accidents. The force also re-moved 2870 encroachments fromthe highway. The force had recov-ered 269 missing children andhanded over them to their familymembers during the same period
Additional IG PHP SohailKhan told APP that total approvalposts of PHP are 522 out of which335 have been operational whilenine were under-construction.Approval for construction of otherreaming 178 posts would be givenshortly, he added.—APP
LAHORE—Punjab Governmentwill start fresh recruitment ofEducators of Science and Artssubjects in 36 districts of theprovince from the first week ofOctober.
As many as 29,822 educa-tors of various cadres would beinducted through entry test andinterview across the province.
The School Education de-partment after scrutiny of fivecompanies, finalized three com-panies to conduct entry test.University of the Punjab andNational Testing Service (NTS)are among the companies whichwere short listed for the entrytest.
Every candidate must to get
Educators’ recruitment from October33 percent marks in entry test toqualify for the interview.
Well placed sources in theEducation department stated thatthe recruitment would be madedistrict wise and all vacancieswould be filled on school basis.According to the initial datacompiled by the department,thePunjab government approvedthe recruitment of teachers ofEnglish,Science subjects includ-i n gPhysics,Chemistry,Biology,Maths,Urdu, Arabic, ComputerScience,Physical Education andDrawing Master.
As many as 1461 educatorswould be inducted both in Sci-ence and Arts subjects in
Lahore, 1703 in Attock and 754in Bahawalnagar.
The number of vacancies inother districts are :Bahawalpur741, Bhakkar 584,Chakwal742,Chiniot 578,D G Khan 435,Faisalabad 1943, Gujranwala849,Gujrat 531, Hafizabad 322,Jhang 650,Jehlum 506,Kasur1039, Khanewal 691,Khushab799, Lahore 1461,Layyah355,Lodhran 488,M B Din889,Mianwali 788, Multan411,Muzaffar Gardh958,Nankana Sahib 760,Narowal1350,Okara 1224,Pakpattan 402,R Y Khan 1014,Rajanpur 233,Sahiwal 1017,Rawalpindi 1858,Sargodha 1378,Sialkot 587, TTSingh 365 and Vehari 688.—APP
Around 90 pc liver diseasesrelated to Hepatitis
LAHORE—Around 80 to 90 per-cent of liver disease patients suf-fering from viral diseases likehepatitis while remaining pa-tients have metabolic, wilson andalcoholic diseases. This wasstated by Prof.Muhammad Amirof Liver diseases of Kidney cen-tre of Shaikh Zaid Hospital(SZH) while talking to APP hereon Sunday.
Regarding the symptoms of thedisease in patients, Prof.Amir saidconstant feeling of tiredness, darkcomplexion of face, fever,haemetensis, melena and ascites aremajor symptoms of liver diseasepatient. As many as over 1,100,000patients of different liver diseasesincluding transplantation are presentin the country, he added. Respond-ing a query about the survival pe-riod of liver disease patient, he saidit varies with respect to its intensityand stages of disease, however, aliver disease patient may expirewithin one to six years if not treated
properly. “We can provide all kindsof treatment of liver disease if gov-ernment provide required facilitiesincluding two operation theatres, 50-bed separate ward, medical officersfor back up treatment, some diag-nostic equipment and funding”, hesaid.
Around 350-bed second floorof the Kidney centre has been con-structed and ready to start function-ing after its soon inauguration, butthe hospital management did notwilling to set up a separate unit forthe liver transplantation and patientsare forced to undergo liver transplan-tation in the operation theatres ofUrology and Cardiac departmentswhich have started infection in theliver patients,hospital sources in-formed.
When contacted the ChiefExecutive of the SZH, Prof.ZafarIqbal said due to paucity of fundsmanagement had some restric-tion to set up separate OPs forliver unit.—APP
LAHORE—Over 110 posts ofprofessors are lying vacant inmedical institutions includingPostgraduate Medical Institute(PGMI), Amiruddine MedicalCollege (AMC) and Childrenhospital in the city for manyyears, hospital sources saidhere.
The vacant posts include sixposts of professors, 13 posts ofassociate professors and around24 posts of assistant professorsare yet to be filled in Postgradu-ate Medical Institute andAmiruddine Medical College.
Principal PGMIProf.Anjum Habib Vohra admit-ting the facts said that the insti-tution was giving an advertise-ment to recruitment some va-
Over 110 posts of doctors,professors lying vacant
cant posts on adhoc basis forone year so that the educationalloss of the medical students aswell as patients could be re-moved.
Meanwhile, despite manyadvertisements given in thenewspapers, 70 posts of seniorcadres doctors are also lyingvacant in Children Hospital forthe last three years, hospitalsources said here.
The vacant posts includeassociate professors, assistantprofessors and around over 30senior registrars (SRs). How-ever, some posts have beenfilled on ad hoc basis butmostly posts are lying vacantcontinuously.
Punjab Health department
has advertised many timesthese posts but failed to get anypositive response from the doc-tors community.
When contacted YoungDoctors Association leadersDr.Nasir Abbas and others tocomment on this matter, theysaid neither senior nor medicalofficers were ready to do workon meagre pay scale of BPS-17,18.
They said health depart-ment officials despite over twodozens meetings with PakistanMedical Association, YDA andMedical TeachersAssociation(MTA) could notevolve consensus to announceservice structure of doctors.—APP
LAHORE: Provincial Welfare Minister Begum Zakia Shahnawaz speaking at a seminar atIranian Cultural Centre, on Sunday.
LAHORE: Models on the occasion of jewellery exhibition in Gulberg on Sunday.
Minister visitsServices Hospital
LAHORE—Provincial HealthMinister Tahir Khalil Sindhu onSaturday said that a team of doc-tors was providing treatment torape victim and option for treat-ment abroad also available ifneeded.
Talking to the media aftervisiting Services Hospital, hesaid that Punjab Chief Ministerwas in contact with all theprogress regarding this case andhe had directed the police offi-cials to arrest the culprits asearly as possible.
Responding to a question,the Health Minister said that besthealthcare was being providedto the rape victim while the op-tion of treatment abroad wouldbe used if needed. The victim,however, is recovering and hercondition is better, he added.
Provincial Finance MinisterMujtaba Shujaur Rehman andSecretary Health Hassan Iqbalwere also present on the occa-sion.—APP
Three moredengue cases in
Punjab, tollmounts to 124
LAHORE—Tall claims of theprovincial government andhealth authorities fail to bringthe outspread of dengue virusunder control as more denguecases surface in Punjab on Sun-day.
According to health depart-ment, dengue virus was detectedin three patients of which twobelong to the provincial capitalLahore and one hail fromSheikhupura district. With threenew cases total number of den-gue patients in Punjab hasreached to 124.
Rapid spread of dengue hasincreased the worries of peopleof province as it played havoclast year claiming hundreds oflives besides affecting hundredsothers. Punjab Health Depart-ment claims that all out effortswere being made and all avail-able resources were beingutilised to overcome the diseasebut on ground realties wereagainst the health departmentassertions.
The citizens of various dis-tricts of Punjab have expressedgrave concerns over the surge innumber of dengue patients anddemanded the provincial as wellas federal government for extraor-dinary steps in this regard.—INP
ANF foils bid tosmuggle heroin
to DubaiLAHORE—The Anti NarcoticsForce (ANF) foiled a bid tosmuggle heroin worth hundreds ofthousand rupees at Lahore Airporton Sunday.
According to ANF sources atAllama Iqbal International Air-port, luggage of a passenger iden-tified as Javed Aslam who wasleaving for Dubai through a pri-vate airline flight was searched onsuspicion. During search heroinhidden in the soles of shoes worthmore than a million rupees in in-ternational market was recovered.The ANF personnel arrested theaccused hailing from Lala Musa,Gujrat district who in the prelimi-nary interrogation revealed that hewas to travel to Barcelona viaDubai.—INP
LAHORE: A shopkeeper, oblivious of surroundings, is sleeping at his stall in Shalimar Sun-day bazaar.
Pakistan hosting1.6m registered
AfghansISLAMABAD—Pakistan is stillhosting over 1.6 million regis-tered Afghan refugees, thelargest and most protractedrefugee population in theworld. Since March 2002, theUnited Nationas High Com-mission for Refugees(UNHCR) has facilitated thereturn of almost 3.8 millionregistered Afghan refugeesfrom the country.
According to a UNHCRdocument, the Commissioncontinues to encourage thePakistan government to for-malize a strategy for 2013 andbeyond that offers a solu-tion for Afghan refugees inthe country. Afghan refu-gees can open bank ac-counts and obtain driving li-cences and mobile phoneSIM cards in Pakistan nowthat Islamabad has agreed toextend their stay until theend of 2015.—APP
UET Taxilaconvocation on
ThursdayOUR CORRESPONDENT
WAH CANTT—The 12thConvocation of University ofEngineering and Technology(UET) Taxila would be held atthe main campus on Thurs-day (Sept 19). GovernorPunjab ChaudharyMohammad Sarwar will be thechief guest on the occasion.Students of 2009 Batch, whocompleted BSc EngineeringProgramme in Civil, Com-puter, Electrical, Mechanical,Software, and Telecommuni-cation Engineering, MSC andPhd, would be been givendegrees in the Convocation.
The graduates of 2009 En-try who completed their BScEngineering Programmes fromUET Sub-Campus Chakwal,would also be awarded med-als and degrees. Meanwhile,it is reported from Hyderabadthat Sindh Universities Teach-ers Association (SUTA) willobserve an “autonomy day”for public sector universitiesin the province.
Commits suicideFAISALABAD—A girl commit-ted suicide in Mansoorabadpolice limits here on Sunday.According to police, Nasira ofAmeen Town, a student ofBSc (Honors) in GovernmentCollege UniversityFaisalabad, had developedsome differences with herfamily over a domestic dis-pute. Which, she took her dueto life by hanging herself witha ceiling fan. Police handedover the body to the familyafter legal formalities.
Pishin: At least four per-sons were injured in two sepa-rate incidents in Killi Shadainzaiand Surkhab area of Pishin dis-trict. Police informed here onSunday that unknown armedmen opened fire at SyedKhuda-e-Noor and Syed NoorMuhammad over an old enmityand fled from the scene. As aresult, both received wounds.Meanwhile, two personsnamely Niaz Muhammad andShehbaz Khan were injured inclash between two groups overminor issue near Surkhabarea.—APP
FAISALABAD—About Rs 3.21billion will be spent on im-provement and expansion ofLower Chenab Canal-II (LCC-II) system and the federalgovernment has also formallyapproved it. A spokesman forthe irrigation departmentwhile talking to APP here onSunday told that under LCC-II project, major canals ofFaisalabad zone, includingUpper Gogera, Lower Gogeraand Borala branches, wouldbe brick lined besides cement-ing its more than Rajbahs.
He said new regulators
would be installed besides con-structing new bridges on vari-ous canals whereas water chan-nels would also be redesignedto improve the irrigation sys-tem in the zone. The LCC-II ex-pansion project will also helpin increasing water capacity inall canals besides facilitatingtail-enders with an ample pro-vision of irrigation water.
The LLC-II project wouldbe completed on a war-footingand construction work wouldcommence within a month, headded. Rs 5m sanctioned forFIC patients: The Ushar and
Zakat department has sanc-tioned Rs 5 million for poor,deserving and needy patientsof the Faisalabad Institute ofCardiology (FIC). A spokesmanfor the FIC told APP here onSunday that poor cardiac pa-tients had been facing difficul-ties for the last six years as theyhad to pay charges and fee oftests. Medical Social OfficerAasia Faqeer Hussain had re-quested the department a num-ber of times to which the Usharand Zakat department ap-proved Rs 5 million for FIC pa-tients, he added.—APP
Rs 3.21b to be spent onexpansion of LCC-II system
SIALKOT—Federal Ministerfor Water and PowerKhawaja Muhammad AsifSunday said that driveagainst electricity and gaspilferage would be furtheraccelerated across the coun-try. Talking to APP, he saidthat under the drive, specialsteps were being taken tounearth the employees ofWapda and Sui gas involvedin this malpractice. He saidthat without the involvementof staff, the pilferage of gasand electricity was impos-sible.
The PML-N government,he said was committed toweed out this practice atgrass roots levels from thesociety. The impact of thisdrive against the electricityand gas theft would help in-crease the revenue of Wapdaand Sui Gas considerably,
Khawaja Asif said. The Min-ister further said the govern-ment would take stern actionagainst the persons involvedin mal-practice and causingloss to national exchequerjust for their personal gains.
He said that Wapda andSui Gas companies would bepurged of black sheep andstern action would be takenaccording to the law besidesdepartmental inquiry againstthem. A large number of tam-pered electricity and gasmeters were detected duringthe drive last week of July andseveral members of mafia werearrested in Sialkot and otherparts of the country, he added.The theft of gas and electric-ity is a serious crime and thispractice would not be toler-ated and people should refrainfrom involving in this practice,he warned. K h a w a j a
Asif further said the PML-Ngovernment was focusing on
overcoming energy crisis onpriority basis, adding that ut-most efforts are being madeto complete power generationprojects at the earliest.
Multan: Multan ElectricPower Company (MEPCO)has signed an agreement
with Jamal Din Wali Sugarmills for purchasing 26 mega-watt electricity on the direc-tions of Ministry of Water &Power and Alternate EnergyBoard. A ceremony was heldat MEPCO Headquarters inwhich Chief Executive OfficerMEPCO Engineer AbdulMateen Khan and GM AdminJamal Din Wali sugar millsMuhammad Safdar Kanjoosigned agreement.
The electricity taken fromJamal Din Wali sugar millswould be included in the sys-tem at the end of November2013 while the price fixed Rs10.40 per unit for 30 years.The MEPCO is the only dis-tribution company whichsigned agreement for pur-chasing electricity from pri-vate sector under federalgovernment’s Bagasse, Bio-Mass, and Co-generation
policy 2013.Speaking on the occa-
sion, the CEO MEPCO saidthanked the Jamal Din Walisugar mills for providing loanof Rs 70 million to MEPCOwithout interest for installingtransmission line and thecompany would return it innext four years. GM Adminsugar mills Safdar Kanjoosaid that every Pakistanishould play its role for eradi-cation of energy crisis in thecountry. He said sugar millsadministration was thankfulof Ministry of Water andPower and Power whichsigned agreement with sugarmills first under fast trackprogramme. Finance DirectorMEPCO Mian AnsarMehmood, Project DirectorShahid Hammed and MangerCommercial Imtiaz Ahmadwere also present.—APP
Drive against power, gas theft to be accelerated
ISLAMABAD—Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chiefMaulana Fazlur Rehman hassaid that confidence-build-ing measures have caused anew beginning with Talibanwhile the government andthe militia need to sustainconducive environment.
In a statement issued hereby his spokesperson, JanAchakzai, Fazl said that ex-change of prisoners with theTaliban and the relative lull
in violent activities are sig-nals of new confidence build-ing measures prior to formalengagement with the Taliban.
“Now the test is how deepand sustainable is the politi-cal will of both the civilianand military establishment inengaging the Taliban and car-rying the process to its logi-cal end as there will be manyhiccups and spoilers alongthe way,” he added.
He also expressed con-
cern over political situation ofKarachi, adding that opera-tion should not be made hos-tage to political pressures. Fazlsaid that the MQM’s griev-ance regarding non-formationof a political committee asagreed in Karachi APC isgenuine. He also called forexpediting political efforts inBalochistan so as to imple-ment the decision of APC re-garding engagement with mili-tants.—INP
New beginning withTaliban is unfolding
ISLAMABAD—Federal gov-ernment has launchedseven new schemes forpoverty alleviation and em-ployment across the coun-try. Government has in-creased the allocation ofcash support programmefrom Rs.44 billion for fiscalyear 2012-13 to Rs.75 billionfor fiscal year 2013-14 forpoverty alleviation and em-ployment.
According to availabledocument with APP, underthe Prime Minister’s YouthTraining Programme all thosecompleting a 16 year degreeprogramme and having ageblew 25 years will be pro-vided one year trainingprogramme. During the train-ing, they will be entitled to astipend of Rs. 10,000 permonth.
The small businessloans scheme will enable the
Govt launches seven newschemes for poverty alleviation
youth to start their ownbusinesses. Small businessloans from Rs.100,000 to Rs.2,000,000 will be made avail-able through banking sys-tem at a mark up cost ofeight percent while the re-maining cost will be gener-ated by the government. Inthe first year of the scheme,a total of 50,000 loans willbe offered.
In Prime Minister ’sMicrofinance Scheme menand women will be enableto undertakemicroenterprise activities.Rs. 5.00 billion have beenallocated for Qarz-e-Hassana Scheme (loan with-out mark-up). These microloans will be made availablethrough selected micro fi-nance providers includingAkhuwat, NRSP and pro-vincial RSPs. Fifty percentof the beneficiaries of this
scheme will be women.Under the Prime
Minister’s Youth Skills De-velopment Programme,25,000 young persons up tothe age 25 years with mini-mum qualification of middlewill be imparted training ina number of trades acrossthe country. Six monthtraining will be given forwhich fee will be paid by thegovernment.
In the Fee Reimburse-ment Scheme for Less devel-oped Areas bright studentsfrom Balochistan, FATA,Gilgit-Baltistan are beingprovided tuition fee supportfor higher education atMaster’s and Doctorate lev-els. This scheme is beingextended to other equallyless developed areas suchas those of interior Sindh,South Punjab and KhyberPakhtunkhwa.—APP
HYDERABAD: Activists of Taraki Pasand Party listening to the Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi during a rally at Haider Chowk.
SWAT: Provincial Minister for Health, Shaukat Yousafzai inquiring about the health ofdengue patients admitted at Saidu Shairf Hospital.
CHINIOT: A view of vehicles at police station under the custody of police at PunjabGovernment starts special campaign against the illegal CNG kits in public transport.
FAISALABAD: MPA Suraya Naseem talking to media persons outside Allied Hospitalafter inquiring about the health of 15-year old girl, Sumaira a victim of rape.
MUZAFFARABAD—The StateDisaster Management Au-thority (SDMA) has set upState of the Art emergencycenter in Muzaffarabad toeffectively respond andhandle any emergency innew civil Secretariat area ofthe city in general and en-tire Muzaffarabad district inparticular. The center withemergency 1122 serviceavailable round the clockhas been set up in the base-ment of the central office ofSDMA.
While unfolding the re-cent steps taken by the or-ganization, SecretarySDMA, Fahim Ahmed Khan
told that the emergency cen-ter, first of its kind, would befully functional and formallyinaugurated on October 8. Hesaid that the emergency cen-ter with capacity to respondany emergency at any timehas been established in viewthe vulnerability of the area,which is projected by the ex-perts as most disaster prone.He said that SDMA hassigned a MoU with 1122 de-partment of the Punjab gov-ernment to get its rescueworkers trained in variousskills to deal with the emer-gency. The Secretary saidthat SDMA with the financialassistance of World Food
Program is constructing ahuge warehouse atLangerpura in the outskirt ofMuzaffarabad.
The warehouse with ca-pacity to house 3000 metrictons food and non food itemswould be built shortly. TheWFP would provide hundredmillion rupees for the project.Similarly United Nations De-velopment Program is pro-viding 4 million for the emer-gency center along with AJKgovernment which is contrib-uting 1 million for the sameproject, he added About theactivities of October 8 the 8thanniversary of the devastat-ing earthquake that struck
AJK in 2005, Fahim AhmedKhan said that SDMA is ac-tively engaged to chalk outelaborate programs for ob-serving the day and all thestake holders including so-cial organizations, membersof civil society and con-cerned government depart-ments are being consultedto actively participate in theday.
Sardar Faheem AhmedKhan, an officer of AJK po-lice has taken a number ofmeasures to strengthenState Disaster ManagementAuthority since he assumedthe charge of the depart-ment.—Online
SDMA sets up modern emergencycentre to respond any eventuality
Child electrocuted,woman dies over
doctor’s negligenceCHICHAWATNI—A child waselectrocuted as he touched awater pump here on Sunday,while the heirs protestedagainst the death of a womandue to alleged negligence ofdoctors during delivery. Ac-cording to details,Muhammad Babar hailingfrom Silanwali village, Chak132 southern of Chichwatni,was electrocuted when hetouched the naked wire ofwater pump during drinkingwater.
Muhammad Kameer, aresident of village HayatKathiya, shifted his wifeMunawar Bibi to a privatehospital located at Ghee Millsroad due to labour pain. Thedoctors over dosed her withchloroform before operatingwhich resulted in herdeath.—APP
PM’s Turkey visit to be fruitfulISLAMABAD—Former Foreign MinisterGohar Ayub Khan has said eight impor-tant agreements will be signed duringPrime Minister Mian Muhammad NawazSharif’s visit to Turkey. Talking to thisscribe, Gohar Ayub expressed the hopethat the coming three-day visit of thePrime Minister will be successful asIslamabad and Ankara enjoy old friendlyrelations. Gohar Ayub said the PrimeMinister during his visit to Turkey will
also discuss situation in Syria and will favor the diplo-matic solution of the issue. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifwill also discuss ongoing situation in Syria, Egypt andAfghanistan with Turkish officials during the visit whereAnkara can play a positive role.” he added. To a questionhe recalled that Nawaz Sharif had also visited other coun-tries to stop war through diplomatic channels when theUS was opting to attack Iraq after the latter’s invasion onKuwait. He said Turkey is one of the most important friendsof Pakistan and both the countries have deep-rooted reli-able relations. He observed that the incumbent electedgovernment is determined to further strengthen Pakistan’sties with Turkey. To a question he said Pakistan is facingproblems of poor economy, energy crisis and worst lawand order situation and cooperation of Turkey in this re-gard will be beneficial for Pakistan. It is reported that dur-ing his stay in Turkey, the Prime Minister will also meetPresident Abdullah Gul and co-chair the Third Session ofthe High Level Cooperation Council (HLCC). The HLCC atthe Prime Ministerial level between Pakistan and Turkeywas established during the visit of Prime Minister RecepErdogan to Pakistan in October 2009.—APP
PML-N to change lifestyleISLAMABAD—State Minister for Educa-tion, Training & Standards in HigherEducation, Engineer Baligh-ur-Rehmanhas said that PML-N would bring a radi-cal change in the lifestyle of commonman through its revolutionary agenda.Talking to APP, he said, entire nationwas eying on Nawaz Sharif as he hadthe ability to steer the country out ofprevalent crises. He said that it was timeto be humble and dedicate all efforts for
the serving the people. To a question, he said PML-N gov-ernment would utilize all available resources to improveliteracy rate in the country. To another question, he saidthe education fees of students of Bahawalpur, Multan,Dera Ghazi Khan Divisions and Interior Sindh will be waivedoff to ensure relief for these areas. Earlier, he said that withthe consultation of provinces a unified syllabus would bedeveloped to promote national harmony, Radio Pakistanreported. He said under a millennium development goalfour percent of national budget would be utilized on edu-cation. He said that our nation is far behind in the field ofeducation as compare to other nations. The Minister saidwe need a basic effort to improve our education standard.On the othersid,PPP senior leader and former informationminister, Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that political leaderswho came into power with making tall claims and pledgesare deceiving the nation. He blamed the government wasplanning to bring changes in 18th constitutional amend-ment, which would be opposed at all platforms in coopera-tion with other opposition parties. Kaira said that federalgovernment has acquired Rs 13 billion loan in three monthsof coming into power, adding if it seeks further loan it hadto get approval from the parliament.—APP
Release of kidnapees appreciatedPESHAWAR—Chairman, Qaumi WatanParty (QWP), Aftab Ahmad KhanSherpao on Sunday welcomed the re-lease of the kidnapped workers of GomalZam Dam project and asked the gov-ernment to make efforts to secure therelease of Ajmal Khan, vice chancellorof Islamia College University. In a state-ment, he said the release of the kid-napped workers would benefit the peaceprocess, urging the government to use
this opportunity to restore peace in the country particu-larly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “The government shouldalso show seriousness and implement the declaration ofthe recently held All Parties Conference in letter and spiritto pave the way for establishing sustainable peace,” hemaintained. He said Ajmal Khan had been in captivity forthree years and the government should make efforts to gethim released as he had gone through great difficulty. AftabSherpao said time was ripe for peace talks as the soil of thePakhtuns witnessed a lot of bloodshed over the last sev-eral years. The QWP leader hailed the start of the return ofthe IDPs hailing from Tirah valley in Khyber Agency andsaid the government should provide all necessary facili-ties to the returning families to facilitate them. He wel-comed the phase-wise withdrawal of the Pakistan Armytroops from Malakand Division from the next month andsaid the capacity of civil administration and law-enforcingagencies should be enhanced so that the law and ordercould be maintained there. “Peace was restored in Swatvalley as a result of unprecedented sacrifices rendered bythe security forces and the masses. Around 2.5 millionpeople were displaced when military operation waslaunched to flush out the militants,” he recalled.—Online
Culprits’ inhuman actRaza Naqvi
ATTOCK—It is difficult to find wordsto condemn an act of such cruel anddepraved evil with a five years old girl‘Sumbal’. Every one is condemning itand is in a state of shock and sorrowand grief. State Minister for Parliamen-tary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad saidthis while talking to newsmen here athis residence. He said, a child defense-less, alone, and at the mercy of societyhas been made victim of a crime of such
horror that it can not be explained .He said such brutal actof those who surely worst than animals and beasts cannot be forgiven and will soon be brought to justice andwill be given exemplary punishments making these inhu-man brutes example for the world. They must be immedi-ately arrested and given maximum punishments as suchbeasts deserved no place on this earth. Sheikh Aftab saidthis inhuman act of the culprits has made every one gloomyand sad. He said there are no words available to condemnthis act of the beasts. He said our sympathies are withSumbal and her parents and we pray for her early recovery.Meanwhile, Provincial Minister for Health, Minority Af-fairs and Human Rights Khalil Tahir Sindhu visited AlliedHospital Faisalabad and inquired about the health of theanother rape victim. Acting Divisional Commissioner NajamAhmad Shah, City Police Officer (CPO) Abdur RazzaqCheema, Medical Superintendent Allied Hospital Dr. RashidMaqbool accompanied the minister. The Minister ex-pressed concern over the rape incident with a minor girl inFaisalabad and said that Chief Minister Punjab MuhammadShahbaz Sharif especially directed him to visit Faisalabadand inquire about health of the rape victim besides takingaction against the accused. The Minister also directed theadministration of Allied Hospital for providing best treat-ment to the rape victim.
GUL HAMAAD FAROOQI
CHITRAL—Main Bridge onDanin Nullah has been dam-aged by tremendous flood asa result Gahtak village, GovtGirls Degree College, GovtCentennial Model HighSchool for Girls, Officers andJudges Colony, Wild LifeDepartment, Main Bulk OilDepot have been discon-nected which were situatedacross this nullah on theother side.
But most of them 2000students of Govt Girls De-gree College and Govt Cen-tennial Model high Schoolfor Girls badly suffering andthey coming by feet from along distance while crossingthis deep nullah (stream) byfeet which is also dangerousand can caused for death ofhundred of girls students in
case of another flood.Principal of the college
and professors told that atmorning times classes alsomissing of these studentsbecause main bridge dam-aged and now they comingby feet by that road or theCollege Bus have to travelvia a long distance at Jughorsquare some 14 kilometersextra distance.
Girl students said thatthey facing great problemsbecause on one hand theirlives are in danger whilecrossing this Nullah (river)by feet because bridge overthis stream has been dam-aged and on the other handtheir obscenity also badlyaffecting because youngboys standing in their wayand they looking them. Girlstudents demanding fromthe Federal Govt.
Students want re-constructionof Danin Nullah Bridge
FAISALABAD—The local ad-ministration has decided todemolish houses on state landnear Central Jail to beef up se-curity. A spokesman for theCity District Government toldAPP here on Sunday that se-curity agencies in their reporthad declared more than 20houses dangerous, whichwere constructed on state landnear Central Jail, Faisalabad.
Teams of police and secu-rity agencies have completedtheir paper work and the planwould be implemented withina couple of days besides de-puting an additional force atCentral Jail, Faisalabad, tobeef up security to avert anyterror attack, he added.
*****A state-of-the-art snooker
Houses to be demolishedon state land near jail
academy has been establishedat University of AgricultureFaisalabad (UAF) in order toprovide a platform for talentedsportsmen to polish their skillsand promote snooker game atgrass root level. Federal Min-ister for Inter Provincial Coor-dination Riaz Hussain Pirzadainaugurated the snooker acad-emy here on Saturday whileUAF Vice Chancellor Prof DrIqrar Ahmad Khan and Presi-dent Snooker AssociationAlamgir Sheikh were alsopresent on the occasion.
Addressing the inauguralceremony, the minister an-nounced donating twosnookers tables to the acad-emy. He said that federal gov-ernment was mulling setting upa sports university in order to
promote the sports activitiesat par with international stan-dards. The minister also saidthat he would present his rec-ommendations before thePunjab Government to estab-lish a sub campus of the sportsuniversity in Faisalabad in col-laboration with the UAF.
He also said that PT mas-ter system would be revivedto provide the coaching tothe students. He also an-nounced to make active thesports women wing as partof the revamping the sportssystem. The Vice ChancellorUAF Dr. Iqrar said thataround half of the hockeyplayers, who participated inthe Olympic 1936, had got thetraining while playing at theUAF grounds.—APP
Medical camps heldfor IDPs of SWA
PESHAWAR—Directorate ofFATA Health Services onSunday organises two mo-bile free camps for providingmedical cover to InternallyDisplaced Persons of SouthWaziristan Agency (IDP) re-siding in Tank and DI Khan.
The camps were ar-ranged on the directives ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Gover-nor, Engr. Shoukaullah. Ac-cording to FATA Health Sec-retariat, a total of 6824 pa-tients were examined while349 laboratory tests wereperformed. 184 patients weregiven X-Rays facility besidesproviding free medicines toneedy.—APP
STAFF REPORTER
PESHAWAR—CECOS Univer-sity arranged a one day OPENHouse Project Exhibition atCECOS University MainCampus in which distin-guished scholars, engineersand professors from reputeduniversities of Peshawar wereinvited. Dr Rasool Jan, ViceChancellor University ofPeshawar was Chief Guest onthe occasion. The OpenHouse Project Exhibition wasarranged in which projectsdesigned by the students ofB.Sc Civil Engineering, Elec-trical Engineering were dis-
played with a view to developan innovative attitude amongthe students.
A large of number of stu-dents and faculty members ofvarious universities visited theOpen House arranged by theCECOS University and appre-ciated the efforts of thestudents.On the occasion DrRasool Jan, Vice ChancellorPeshawar University highlyappreciated the Universitymanagement, Faculty mem-bers, scholars and engineersfor organizing the Openhouse. He pleased to knowthat CECOS University is mak-ing every effort to maintain its
reputation as a private sectorUniversity in sustainable man-ners and said that this is allbecause of its hard workingfaculty under the guidance andpatronage of Dr Riaz A Khattak
Speaking on the occa-sion, Dr Riaz A Khattak ex-pressed that being a privatesector Institution, CECOSUniversity is trying to playvital role in supplementing theGovernment efforts to meetthe growing demand of edu-cation of the people particu-larly in the under developedareas. With this aim CECOSUniversity arranges Work-shops, Seminars & Sympo-
sium for time to time. He statedthat the CECOS Universityencourages their Graduates togain practical knowledge & todesign state of Arts projectswhich are exhibited every yearin the OPEN House Project Ex-hibition arranged by CECOSUniversity. The VC CECOSUniversity informed the gath-ering that the basic objectiveof the OPEN House is to pro-vide a competitive platform tothe students of Engineeringand Architecture through dis-play of their Projects for dem-onstrating their technical ca-pabilities in the spirit of com-peting with each other.
VC UoP lauds CECOS University’srole for imparting quality education
HAMEED SHAHEEN
ISLAMABAD—The Srinagar-based APHC (All PartiesHurriyet Conference} has pe-titioned the New Delhi head-quartered embassies of theEuropean countries to cometo the humanistic rescue ofthe gun-suppressedKashmiris whose youngones are picked up just as ascorpion instill drop of itspoison into the body of aone-dayer chicken and tor-ture them in stragulation cells.The Hindustan armed forcesare doing bovine blood-bleeding acts daily in Kash-
APHC petitions Europeanembassies over Kashmir scene
mir Valley; the young genera-tion is being decimated to thelevel of ‘no voice’. A situationhas erupted calling for urgentintervention of the globalcommunity to save humanbeings in Kashmir Valley.
The Chairman of the APHCMirwaiz Umar Farooq has sentwritten peitions to the Delhibased ambassadors of the Eu-ropean bloc seeking their hu-manitarian role in persuadingHindustan to cease oppres-sions, playing “your role insaving Kashmiri teenagers andyouth”. The Mirwaiz in his pe-titions, says his facebook post-ing, invited the attention of the
European bloc of countries.“Thesituation in Kashmir
is grim and greatly worrisome.Authorities in power are eithermute spectators or collabora-tors to the killings in Kashmir,who coveniently provide thefacade of democratic rule in thestate. Even a scant respect forbasic human rights is not rel-evant for them. With everypassing day the situation isturning more and more vola-tile. It is high time that killingof innocent Kashmiris is putan end to so that the people ofthis land do get entitled at leastto the basic human right, theright to life”.
KHYBER AGENCY—Inter-nally Displaced People fromTirah Valley have started toreturn back to their villagesand tribes. Earlier, the UnitedNations Office for the Coor-dination of Humanitarian Af-fairs (UNOCHA) had de-clared Tirah Valley a safeplace for return for the IDPs
The families were dis-placed by the ongoing op-erations inside the provinceby Pakistan Army against themilitants in the province. The
CHITRAL: Local residents cross Danin Nullah after it was damaged due to tremendousflood at Gahtak Village.
BAHAWALPUR: Saudi delegate Dr Abdul Rehman S.Al-Dawood along with Vice Chan-cellor Islamia University Dr Muhamamd Mukhtar unveiling plaque to inaugurate datesfarm in the university.
IDPs in KP startreturnning to home
government had claimed that98 villages in the provincewere affected during the con-flict. Earlier, the Chief Minis-ter of Khyber Pakhtunkhwahad approved the withdrawalof all military units from theMalakand division. The with-drawal of all forces from theconflict affected provincewas ordered after the AllParty Conference, in whichthe government had decidedto hold peace talks with theoutlawed group.—NNI
MUZAFFARGARH—Three chil-dren were killed and three oth-ers sustained serious injuriesin a fireworks blast here atToheedabad in QasbaKhangarh on Sunday. Accord-ing to police, MuhammadUsama (12), MuhammadKashif (10), Sania Bibi (8) andSonia (6) reached MuhammadYounis’s house at Toheedabadin Qasba Khangarh to meet hismaid Abida Bibi on Sunday.
During play, the childrenreached the second floor ofthe house where Younis hadstored fireworks. The fire-works exploded as the chil-dren touched them. As a re-sult, Muhammad Usama andMuhammad Kashif died onthe spot while Sania, Soniaand owner Younis sufferedserious injuries. The injuredwere shifted to the NishtarHospital where Sania Bibisuccumbed to her injuries.
Hyderabad: Two personsincluding a child were killedin separate incidents here onSunday, according to the
3 kids die in fireworks blastpolice and Edhi WelfareFoundation sources. A 12-year- old boy Navid was hitby a stray bullet in MumtazColony area near AqsaMosque. His father,Manzoor, told the police thatNavid was sleeping in thebalcony of their house whenhe was hit by the bullet.“When we woke up in themorning, we found him lyingdead on charpoy,” the policequoted him as saying.
The body was shifted tothe Civil Hospital where theboy’s post- mortem was held.The incident happened in thelimits of Makki Shah policestation. In a separate incident,the body of a young un-known man was found fromthe sugarcane fields alongH y d e r a b a d - T a n d oMuhammad Khan Road. Ac-cording to the Edhi’s sources,the man who appears to be inhis early 20s, was hit by bul-lets in his chest while therewere also other marks ofbruises on his body.—APP
Entry of irrelevantpeople banned
FAISALABAD—DCO NajamAhmad Shah under section 144banned entry of irrelevantpeople around 100 meter radiusof examination centers for B.Edannual examinations 2012 and2013 under the aegis of thePunjab University. Under thisorder, carrying books, guidebooks, solved papers, digitaldiaries, mobile phones, weap-ons etc will also be banned.GCUF to recruit assistant pro-fessors: Government CollegeUniversity Faisalabad (GCUF)has invited applications for therecruitment of two posts of as-sistant professors of econom-ics. Muhammad Ayub, Reg-istrar GCUF, told APP here onSunday that candidates hav-ing PhD/relevant qualifica-tion from a recognized insti-tution with excellent writtencommunication skills as wellas presentation skills wereeligible for the post.—APP
KOHAT: Khyber Agency IDPs standing in a queue to get their token before returning to their homes, at Jarma Kohat camp.
ISLAMABAD—Scattered rainand thundershower is ex-pected in Kashmir,Malakand, Hazara,Islamabad, Rawalpindi,Gujranwala and Lahore divi-sions, while Peshawar,Kohat, Sargodha divisionsand Gilgit-Baltistan are likelyto receive isolated rain dur-ing the next 24 hours. Ac-cording to the Meteorologi-cal Department, seasonal lowlies over northwestBalochistan and adjoiningareas with its trough extend-ing south-eastwards.
Weak monsoon currentsfrom the Arabian Sea are pen-etrating the upper parts of thecountry and a westerly waveis affecting upper parts of thecountry and is likely to per-sist during the next 2-3 days.
More rain, thundershowers expected
Hot and humid weather isexpected in most parts of
Punjab and Islamabad. How-ever, rain and thundershoweris expected at scatteredplaces of Islamabad,Rawalpindi, Gujranwala andLahore Division, and at iso-lated places of Sargodha Di-vision during the next 24hours.
Mainly hot and humidweather is expected in mostparts of KhyberPakhtunkhwa.—APP
US achievesobjectives sans
open war
THE agreement in Geneva between the US and Russia ondisarming Syria’s chemical stockpile looks impressive on paperas it sets out a firm time frame for compliance. Syria will declare
what chemical stocks it holds within a week and the UN inspectorswill be on the ground by November, and the stockpiles destroyed bythe middle of next year.
The Geneva decision has enabled the United States to achieve itsobjectives without going into an open war as President Obama said laterin a statement issued by the White House, that we now have the opportu-nity to achieve our objectives through diplomacy without going into war.However, according to other comments by Barack Obama and otherofficials, the red lines on all sides remain where they were at the begin-ning of this week. Over the years, chemical weapons had provided Syriawith a strategic benefit against Israel, with whom it is formally at war.The destruction of the chemical weapons would thus make the closeAmerican ally – Israel – free of any danger of weapons of mass de-struction. We strongly believe that chemical weapons had to be andshould be dismantled not only in Syria but also in Israel and anywherein the world. While the agreement has addressed the US concerns aboutchemical weapons, it appears that Washington is least interested to bringan end to the civil war in Syria. It has increased the supply of weapons tothe opposition groups in order to sustain the war and further destabilizethe region, as that would be in the interest of Israel. We would stress thatthe UN and the world must not lose sight of the larger sufferings of theSyrian people in this two-year-old war and every one including the USand Russia should put more muscle into ending it.
Let not Karachioperation fizzle out
IT is ironical that selective operation launched with the support of allpolitical parties including the MQM is now being given a strange twist.
After the arrest of one former MPA, the MQM has come out with state-ments that only its workers were being targeted.
Reports from the Mega city clearly state that the selective operation isbeing carried out in the areas which had in the past seen incidents of targetkillings, extortion, kidnapping for ransom and other street crimes. MQMwas the only party, which demanded military operation in the city due tofailure of the Police and Rangers to bring some normalcy. In fact there washue and cry everywhere including by the businessmen and common citi-zens that they have become hostage to the crime mafia and an all out opera-tion was the need of the hour. It is encouraging that the Provincial ChiefMinister with the support of the Federal government is heading the opera-tion and workers of other political parties including PPP and ANP havealso been arrested who were accused of involvement in murder and othercrimes. The operation has been even-handed and none of the media outletshave so far raised any accusing finger for being partisan. Nadeem Hashmi,former MQM MPA was arrested on charges of murder of two policemenand if he is innocent the courts would certainly release him honourably. Itis in the interest of the party not to call for strikes and protests on the arrestof any of its worker and instead let the law take its course and if its workerswere innocent they would be honourably released and that would give ahigher political ground to MQM and clear its name of having armed wing.We may point out that the security forces also raided the house of defunctPeoples Amn Committee leader Uzair Jan Baloch in Lyari which is proofof across the board handling of the law and order situation. Therefore, wewould stress that the operation should not be allowed to fizzle out underpressure and urge all the parties including the MQM that for the greatergood of Pakistan, it should not be given political colour.
Rising cases ofrapes of Sumbals
INCIDENTS of rapes and honour killings are on the rise in the countryfor quite some time but the brutal rape of a five year old girl has shocked
the people across Pakistan in general and Lahorites in particular. While theincident is a slur on our society, it has caused serious concerns among theparents who feel scared when their daughters are out for study or jobs.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Iftikhar MohammadChaudhry, took suo moto notice of the sexual molestation of the girl andordered the Inspector General Punjab Police to submit a report. PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had also or-dered the arrest of culprit immediately and according to a report the ac-cused has been taken into custody. We may, however, point out that thiswas not the first case but two other cases were reported during last monthin the Provincial capital, while in another such incident a college goinggirl was abducted and raped in Sialkot last year. Similar other cases havebeen taking place in different parts of the country while many more aregoing unnoticed as the girls and their families keep silence for the sake oftheir honour. This is due to the fact that there is no fear of law among theperpetrators and also due to weakness of the law enforcement agencies.It is unfortunate that even those who are bound to ensure respect andobservance of law of the land have been found involved in heinous crimes.As the rape cases, like the one of little Lahore Girl Sumbal, are on therise, there is danger that parents may be forced not to let their children goout of homes which is a matter of serious concern and the authoritiesmust take serious notice of this possibility.
The Turk model
Look before youleap.
EndingSyria’s warTHE chemical weapons dis
armament plan for Syriahammered out in Geneva by
Russian Foreign Minister SergeiLavrov and US Secretary of StateJohn Kerry is unprecedented. Re-moving these dangerous weaponsin a civil war would be a signifi-cant accomplishment. But the jointeffort by Russia, the United Statesand United Nations must not dis-tract from a larger strategy to endthe battles of bullets and bombs thathave cost 100,000 lives.
The most striking aspect of theagreement, announced Saturday, isits broad scope. Mr. Kerry and Mr.Lavrov committed to liquidatingthe entire Syrian chemical weap-ons arsenal and manufacturingcomplex: production, filling andmixing equipment; full and emptyweapons and delivery systems;chemical agents not yetweaponized; precursor chemicals;and material and equipment for re-search and development. Thiswould make it very difficult — ifnot impossible — for Syrian Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad to restart achemical weapons program. Syriahas pledged to join the ChemicalWeapons Convention this week.This normally starts a series ofevents, beginning with a declarationof weapons stockpiles within 30days. However, Mr. Kerry and Mr.Lavrov seek extraordinarily fast ac-tion for extraordinary times. Theagreement calls for the first decla-ration within a week, completion ofon-site inspections and destructionof the production and filling equip-ment by November and completeelimination in the first half of nextyear. While the sense of urgency islaudable, the timetable may be un-realistic. Previous attempts tosafely destroy chemical weaponshave required years of effort.
The factories of death in Syriaprobably will have to be destroyedin place, which can be done by fill-ing reactors with concrete, weld-ing tight the plumbing and othermethods. The chemicals inside theweapons — the sarin and VX nerveagents, for example — are ex-tremely potent; destroying themwill be difficult. The agreementwisely suggests removing thesebombs and shells from Syria alto-gether. Both the US and Russia haveexperience destroying them. Theremaining agents and precursors thatare not in weapons might be neu-tralized inside Syria by chemicalprocesses that would render themless dangerous. The Kerry-Lavrovagreement includes a commitmentto ensure stringent verification,backed up by possible UN action ifthere is cheating. For all the horrorof chemical weapons and the grue-some photographs and videos of theAug. 21 attack near Damascus, wemust not lose sight of the larger suf-fering in this two-year-old war. UNinvestigators reported Friday thatMr. Assad’s forces are systemati-cally attacking hospitals and deny-ing treatment to the wounded in op-position-controlled areas, just an-other reminder of the brutality ofthis conflagration. The US andRussia, at loggerheads so long overSyria, should put more muscle intoending it. — The Washington Post
*****
Independencecall
INDEPENDENCE activists inthe Catalan region of Spain aredetermined to forge ahead with
plans to form a separate state basedin the northeast of the Iberian pen-insula. Their latest publicity stuntwas to call for a human chain tocircle their region as well as land-marks such as the Nou Camp Sta-dium and Sagrada Familia inBarcelona. The reality is that whileCatalans may enjoy a degree of re-gional autonomy from the centralgovernment in Madrid — they havea distinct culture and dialect —there is little prospect of the stateever being an independent entity.
Let us face it, Spain is havinga tough time economically. Its un-employment rate remains stub-bornly high above the 20-per centlevel, its public finances are strain-ing under liberal social welfareprogrammes and its labour marketlacks competitiveness. During suchtimes, it is all too easy to adapt anattitude that ‘we’d be better off onour own’. Really? A successfulfootball team and a half-finishedcathedral will not support a smalllocal government facing the sameissues as those facing Spain as awhole. United, Spaniards will suc-ceed. — Gulf News
MEDIA WATCH
—Proverb
WHY should a formerpresident and a militarydictator not be tried un-
der article 6 of the Constitution?Why should anyone term such anact as political victimization? Ac-cused of subverting the Constitu-tion twice the former PresidentGeneral Pervez Musharaf’s (Retd)trial is an important benchmark inour democratic history and one ofthe leading challenges that con-fronts Mr Nawaz Sharif and hisgovernment.
If the general is allowed toleave the country or exiled, assome media speculations suggest,then it would be a black mark onnot an independent and bold but a‘compromised government’. Willsuch a government be able to re-tain any leverage to institute a‘Kargil Inquiry commission’ oreven investigate the involvementof ISI in the Mumbai terrorist at-tacks as already promised by theperson heading it? For the doorsof dictatorship to be permanentlyclosed in our country Mr NawazSharif will have to take what manyterm as ‘political risk’ of proceed-ing against the military dictator.Doing that he may look at whatanother democratic leader hasdone in Turkey.
In Turkey more than 340 gen-erals and admirals have been putbehind the bars. Almost 15 percentof the top military brass has beensubjected to trials. All this has beendone by Prime Minister TayyipErdogan and his Justice and De-velopment Party (AKP) that cameto power in 2003. Could this betermed as retribution? Had it beenretribution or an unpopular act
with the Turkishpeople wouldTayyip Erdoganand his party beagain elected in2007 and re-elected in the
Turkish elections of 2011.The hide and seek between de-
mocracy and dictatorship in Turkeywhere generals overthrew govern-ments in 1960, 1971 and 1980 hasnot ended because of ‘participationof the people’ but only because ofa bold government that respondedby initiating the process of account-ability against the coup makerswhen elected and re-elected by thepeople. Even last year (September2012) three former army generalswere sentenced to 20 years of im-prisonment by a Turkish court af-ter a 21 month-trial.
The charges against themranged from plotting a coup, plan-ning to wage war with neighboringGreece and even planning and or-ganizing explosions in Turkishmosques to create justification ofcoup d’état against Mr Erdogan’sgovernment almost a decade ago.
Seeing the Turkish model andthe democratic civilian control thatthe government of Turkey has beenable to exercise over its army overthe last decade or so it is difficultto understand why Mr NawazSharif would desist from making a‘Turk choice’. If the Nawaz Sharifled government has to take up theownership of the country’s foreignand security policies than it willhave to demonstrate the politicalwill and courage that Mr Erdoganand his party demonstrated when itcame to power. It will have to makePakistan military’s leadership ac-countable for the mistakes it hascommitted. The way forward is notreconciliation and retribution butjustice, accountability and punish-ment to all those military leaderswho have played with the future of
this country in the name of ‘nationalinterests’; interests that have onlyextended and perpetuated the rulesof the dictators rather than bring-ing any significant change in thelives of the people of this country.
The core question proceedingfrom this analysis is, ‘Can themethod employed by the demo-cratic government of Turkey to suc-cessfully shift the balance of powerin civil-military relations be equallysuccessful in Pakistan? ’The answer
lies in what Turkish govern-ment has been able to achieve un-der the government of PM Erdogan;political power and the seriousnesswith which it is viewed not only byits neighbors but also the world ledby USA. The very world that con-demned it for meddling in the in-ternal affairs of Syria under themilitary led security policy nowgives it credit for hosting the refu-gees of the same country.
What Pakistan has lacked is a
Getting away with BB murder
THE Book entitled, “GettingAway with Murder: Behindthe Investigation of Benazir
Bhutto’s Assassination” byHeraldo Munoz has initiated an-other debate about the mystery ofthis unresolved murder, still undertrial and investigation in anti-ter-rorist court of Rawalpindi. MrHeraldo Munoz, the current Assis-tant Secretary General, AssistantAdministrator and Regional Direc-tor for Latin America and the Car-ibbean of the United Nations De-velopment Programme is a formerChilean politician and diplomat.He has been a former Chilean Am-bassador to United Nations. MrHeraldo Munoz was the head ofUN investigating team, which un-dertook the inquiry of the murdercase of Benazir Bhutto, assassi-nated on December 27, 2007, af-ter she addressed a huge gatheringof his party in Liaquat Bagh,Rawalpindi.
UN team under HeraldoMunoz visited Pakistan in—, 2009and after a year in ——, 2010 pre-sented the report of the inquiry toUN Secretary General Ban KiMoon. The salient of his book,published in the form of an article,in the Foreign Affairs Magazine,on August 19, 2013, has furthercomplicated this mystifying case,rather providing some guidelinesto reach over to the real killers. Thecrux of the report as mentioned inhis book reveals that, “In Bhutto’s
case, it would seem that the villageassassinated her: Al-Qaeda gave theorder; the Pakistani Taliban ex-ecuted the attack, possibly backedor at least encouraged by elementsof the establishment; the Musharrafgovernment facilitated the crimethrough its negligence; local seniorpolicemen attempted a cover-up;Bhutto’s lead security team failedto properly safeguard her; and mostPakistani political actors wouldrather turn the page than continueinvestigating who was behind herassassination.”
Regrettably, after spending mil-lions of dollars out of pooreconomy of the nation, as a cost ofthis probe by UN team, if this isthe outcome, the people of Pakistanwere looking for, then, there musthave been something wrong withthose who ordered such a probe, orelse, it is in connivance of both par-ties. While systematically goingover the summary of the report, asmentioned in the concluding re-marks of the book, the first impres-sion is that, report is ambiguous andvague. “The village assassinatedher.” Where does this sentence leadthe readers and those still investi-gating the case?
The next misleading sentenceof the report says; “Al-Qaeda gavethe order; the Pakistani Taliban ex-ecuted the attack, possibly backedor at least encouraged by elementsof the establishment.” Very hilari-ous and impractical findings of thisUN team, indeed, shocking and im-plausible findings. In Pakistan, es-tablishment means, Inter ServicesIntelligence agency and Pak Army,as usually assumed. This hypocriti-
cal portion of the report wouldmean, there is a linkage between Al-Qaeda, Pakistani Taliban (TTP) andthe establishment of Pakistan. Asof today, over 50,000 Pakistanihave lost their precious lives in theirfight against the menace of terror-ism, perpetrated by TTP and AlQaeda. How Pak Army, fightingagainst these two groups since2003, can be blamed to party withthe terrorists for this heinous crime.Its intelligence apparatus, ISI, MIacts a vanguard against these ter-rorists, who killed over 5500 offic-ers and troops of the armed forcesof Pakistan.
If there is a union between Es-tablishment, Al Qaeda, and TTP,then, why there is so much blood-shed in Pakistan and why Pakistanisecurity forces are fighting againstterrorists of these groups? So muchso, these two terrorist outfits at-tacked the man at the helm of af-fairs at that time, President GeneralPervaiz Musharraf. Then, PresidentMusharraf had brokered a deal inthe form of NRO with BenazirBhutto, indeed, a win-win situationfor both. Who could have beenmore acceptable to PervaizMusharraf then Benazir Bhutto,since he had acute differences withNawaz Sharif, owing to obviousreasons of ousting the later in 1999?
A portion of the concluding re-marks of the book says that, “theMusharraf government facilitatedthe crime through its negligence;local senior policemen attempted acover-up.” In my opinion, the mainaddress of the late Benazir Bhuttowent well without any securitylapse, which mean, nothing wrong
democratic leader who is seen bythe world as a person who is in con-trol of our country’s domestic, for-eign and security policies. Unlessthis happens we will keep living ina world of our own isolated fromthe real world. The breach of oursovereignty as well as the extremechoices that we are made to makewhen asked ‘you are with us oragainst us’ may only end when anall powerful people’s representa-tive government finally takes itsrightful place in the political land-scape of the country. That placedemands a subordinated army tocivilian authority that finally stopstelling the political leadership ofthis country on how the country hasto be run. Nothing less will achievethis than putting all those militaryleaders on trial that have madegrave mistakes in the past. Thename of General Musharaff (Retd)figures out on top of that list.
It is time for Mr Nawaz Sharifto make a hard choice and it is alsotime for the Pakistan Army as aninstitution to readily give up its sta-tus of a holy cow that creates amyth of being untouchable and un-accountable. For all those who saythat the prosecution of generals willhurt the morale and prestige ofmilitary as an institution I haveonly one question to ask, ‘Whatabout the morale and prestige ofour country and the nation?’Would it be dipping as low as it isif the military dictators had not re-peatedly played with the future ofthis country? Pakistan Army’sprestige as an institution will onlyrise in the eyes of the people if allthose senior officers that have in-dulged in politics are prosecuted.If this happens it will promote in-stitutional professionalism and per-manently shut the door on indi-vidual led coups in Pakistan.—The writer, a retd Lt Col, isdoing PhD in Civil-Military re-lations from Karachi University.
with security arrangements at thevenue, but on her way-out. As ob-served on such occasions, after themain event is over, the police andthose deputed on security wouldstart packing up and lower theirguards.
The real question here is whoprovoked BB to raise her headfrom the roof top of her bullet-proof vehicle. Who made thephone calls or somebody fromwithin the same vehicle or out ofPPP loyalists dedicated for her se-curity, compelled her to wave thecrowed surrounding her vehicle.This raising of BB’s head andarms from the rooftop must havebeen advised by someone inti-mately known to her or very con-fidential one, not by Musharraf,Pak Army or ISI operatives. Thereport does not say anything onthat account, which makes it not aneutral one, but prejudiced one.
Surprisingly, the contents ofthe book did not make a mentionof the ultimate beneficiary of herassassination. Despite being at thehelm of affairs, her husband, MrAsif Ali Zardari, who could neverhave been even a MNA, becamethe President and real power cen-tre of the party. Despite being inpower for five years, why he andPPP of Benazir could not track thekillers of BB? Mr Heraldo Muñozfailed to raise such touchy and realquestions in his book and report.Indeed, UN team and HeraldoMuñoz, touched the peripheral is-sues, while concealing the core,may be deliberately.— The writer is Islamabad-basedIR analyst.
the morale andprestige of militaryas an institution I
have only onequestion to ask,‘What about the
morale and prestigeof our country andthe nation?’ Wouldit be dipping as low
as it is if themilitary dictators
had not repeatedlyplayed with the
future of thiscountry?
Voice of the People
Availability of lifesaving drugs
ADEEL ASHRAF
I am a patient of Asthma for manyyears using inhalers to keep my dis-ease under control. A few yearsback, the inhaler I was using gotvanished from the market and onmy inquiry, I was told that the com-pany has stopped producing thatinhaler. Anyway, another companystarted producing similar inhalersoon and I didn’t have to suffermuch but it also had availabilityissues.
When I went to market lastweek to get that inhaler, I was toldthat it is not available. I checkedwith many chemists but they hadthe same answer that it is short. Iam afraid that the same thing ishappening again. Now, I have toregularly gets nebulized once ortwice daily in hospital as othermedicines are not suitable for me.I wonder if there is any govern-ment body which keeps an eye onsuch ‘life saving drugs’ and ensuretheir availability in the market toprovide some support to helplesspatients like me.—Karachi
KPK healthservices
MOHAMMAD FAYYAZ
On Thursday, the 12th of Septem-ber, a poor student, Zahidullah, ofa local Madrassah in Charsadda,while riding his bicycle was hit bya heavy truck, breaking the lowerpart of his leg down the knee atthree different places. He wasrushed to the District HeadquartersHospital Charsadda, which, as itdoes in most cases, referred him toPeshawar public hospitals for on-ward best medical services.
He could not be provided therequired medical services not onlyin the Charsadda hospital, but alsoto my surprise, and anger at themost important famous public hos-pital, Lady Reading Hospital inPeshawar. For approximately 18-24 hours, he was provided the re-quired blood at the LRH, and thattoo by the relatives of the patients,as blood was continuously oozingout his wounded broken leg butnothing else was done to his bro-ken leg for its x-ray, surgery, ban-dage, and other required treatment.The poor relatives, indeed verypoor financially, out of fear that incase of further delay in proper treat-ment, the poor patient might endwith a severed leg, the patient wastaken to the North-West privatemedical center, where treatment isaffordable by the elite class and bythe financially-affordable well-off.
This story of the poor studentof a Madrassah has grieved me per-sonally to a great extent. My opti-mism that the current PTI KP gov-ernment may bring to track thestrayed public institutions is gradu-ally dwindling. The CM KP, theHealth Minister, Mr. ShaukatYousafzai, and the higher authori-ties of the health department shouldtaken action on all these heart-sad-dening health problems of the poorresidents of KP.—Charsadda
A funny game!M MUDASSAIR KHAN
They say “Cricket is a funnygame”. Pakistan cricket team hasproved it right when they convinc-ingly lost a test match to a teamwhich never won a single testmatch during last decade and werestruggling to return to the Inter-national cricket. All the top teamstry out their youngsters and im-prove their records against theminnows like Zimbabwe, but ournational team does it otherwise.
Mr. PM wake up – protect innocent grand daughtersRAJA GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN
All the TV Channels covered on Saturday, one of the most depressing and shameful news about therape of a five year old innocent child girl and leaving her in a miserable condition. This is height of
moral degradation level where the Pakistani society has stooped. I have also observed the period ofBritish Government Before partition of the Sub-continent and emergence of Pakistan. In those days, theInsaniyat – the human values – were there. The Indian Civil Service and the District Managementconsisted of well-educated, intelligent officers of noble families having noble blood line with noble moralcharacter. They were so strict in the performance of their responsibilities and officially duties that theyalways used to take immediate on-the-spot legal action and used to award exemplary severe punishmentto the culprits in order to teach a lesson to others and to maintain the moral fiber of the society intact.Therefore, such incidents never occurred and besides this, no notorious person could dare commit suchheinous and shameful crimes. But, alas1 now we are the citizens of an independent democratic countryfounded on the name of Islam, we are more educated, we are more liberal, any Tom, Dick or Harry canjoin our civil service whatever his/her family background be, because this is an age of human rightswhere all notables and means are equal. What is the moral standard of the ones whom we give thedemocratic right to lead us, to rule us and molest our five year old innocent children. Shame on us,shame on our rulers, shame on our systems. We, as a nation have stooped so low that Doom’s Day is notfar off. It is one of the most serious incidents of Pakistan but I don’t find any hope that the political,democratic or civil service leadership will catch and prosecute the culprits. Please don’t go for a legalaction; the heinous act is beyond the limits of law; courts can do nothing but follow the law, delay thematter and finally release the culprits, as seen in case of Shahrukh Jatoi. Just catch the culprits and hangthem publicly in front of the Punjab Assembly building. However, I am sorry, I have no option but torequest the Prime Minister and Chief Minister Punjab, to proceed and take stern action to protect theinnocent grandchildren of any body – it can be any body.—Rawalpindi
Disarm Syria with diplomacy
IN concluding his argument fora military strike against Syria,President Obama powerfully
evoked Franklin Roosevelt’s con-viction that foreign entanglementsdo not free us from “deep concernwhen ideals and principles that wehave cherished are challenged.”
Another president’s enduringlegacy is also worth considering.Our mighty military, DwightEisenhower told the nation in his1961 farewell address, is “a vitalelement in keeping the peace.” Yetthe heroic World War II general-turned-commander-in-chief im-plored the American people: “To-gether we must learn how to com-pose differences, not with arms,but with intellect and decent pur-pose.”
When I voted against authori-zation of military force in Iraq asthe single then-Republican USsenator to do so, those words in-spired my opposition. I was con-vinced that the bar for sending ouryoung servicemen and women intoharm’s way had not been met. Not
only was the national security im-perative shaky, we had not comeclose to exhausting peaceful alter-natives. Instead of strategic diplo-macy to avert the human cost andsuffering of war, which wouldspread a decade-long cancer of vio-lence in Iraq and across the region,there was a ruinous rush to militarycombat. The Bush administrationbullied the nation into war, alienat-ing our friends and the wider inter-national community.
Unlike his predecessor, I amheartened that President Obama isnow re-evaluating diplomatic in-volvement and agreeing to a UnitedNations discussion for internationalcontrol of Syria’s chemical weap-ons. The harrowing footage of deadchildren in Syria’s ongoing civilwar cries for action — but the rightkind of action.
Had we recklessly conductedmilitary action without properchecks from our legislative branch,we might have missed the opportu-nity for a diplomatic solution. Forthis reason, we can be proud thatthe president has encouraged a na-tional conversation, allowing ourcitizens and the world to debate themerit of military intervention. Still
Views From Abroad
Afghan drug trade goes unchecked
IF one goes by the Americanmeasurement, the saying goesthey do not start a venture unless
they are sure about its cost not goingfrom their own kitty. The Afghan ven-ture does not seemingly pay them asdoes Iraq’s but permitting poppy cul-tivation to the Afghan warlords andbigwigs favouring the US interven-tion was the bid to justify finances oftheir stay in that country.
It is now an open secret, and ev-eryone knows it, as to who runs thelargest global business of narcoticssmuggling and weapons trade. Digdown just a little of these areas andyou’ll find the American CIA sittingbehind the scenes, smiling broadlyand exposing widely its ugly teeth.There are certain local aides in vari-ous countries, which also play as thefront men. We all know as to whourged and supported the Afghans torestart growing poppy after the fallof Taliban regime. The American in-telligence is known for continuouslyplaying dirty games in the SouthAmerican countries which are con-sidered as heavens for production andtrade of narcotics.
No one can judge as the Ameri-cans fund Pakistan’s Anti-NarcoticsForce, coupled with diplomatic pres-sures, to stop drug trafficking in thecountry, but when it comes to ISAFand the government in Kabul, thestory comes out far more different.The fact that poppy cultivation in Af-ghanistan has increased and its in-come is being utilized by terroriststo buy weapons surprises many in theworld. Poppy cultivation is increas-ing in 28 of the country’s 32 prov-inces. Today, between 90 to 95% ofthe world’s supply of opium comesfrom Afghanistan. This is despite MrKarzai laid out a comprehensive Na-tional Drug Control Strategy for Af-ghanistan based on four key priori-ties: (a) disrupting the drug trade bytargeting traffickers and their back-ers; (b) strengthening and diversify-ing legal rural livelihood; (c) reduc-ing the demand for illicit drugs andtreatment of problems of drug users;(d) developing state institutions at thecentral and provincial levels.
inflamed with bitter memories ofIraq, I stand with the Americanpeople, along with friends abroad,who are dubious about arms as asolution. At first glance, the currentadministration’s case for war waseerily reminiscent to the one wewere sold during the lead-up to Iraq.Moreover, the chaos unleashed inIraq pales in comparison to the glo-bal conflagration that could resultfrom military intervention in Syria,specifically, the prospect ofemboldening al-Qaeda, whichwould work against our long-terminterests.
In his argument for no-boots-on-the-ground military strikes, Sec-retary of State John Kerry said hewas not “imprisoned” by his ownexperiences with Vietnam and Iraq.But I am concerned that we are ac-tually imprisoned by a military-only mindset impervious to recentmisadventures overseas. He addedthat military inaction would leadour foes to “plunge ahead with …provocation … if they see (SyrianPresident Bashar) Assad’s actionsgo unanswered.”
Kerry’s approach assumes thata non-military option is not an “an-swer,” but the renewed diplomatic
movement worldwide suggestsotherwise. Our future relationswith Iran and North Korea — whathe called “the most pressing pro-liferation challenges” — alsohinge upon how we confront thesituation in Syria. We know thatthe infamous “Mission Accom-plished” declared following mili-tary combat in Iraq was false, andwe can do better this time.
President Eisenhower warnedagainst the domination of our vastmilitary-industrial complex, amost forceful reminder that we canachieve peace through non-violentmeans. There is no more an im-portant mission today than that:creative, resilient and committedAmerican diplomacy. We must al-ways view war as an absolute lastresort — even if the threat of mili-tary action must be used as a bar-gaining chip.
I agree with the president thatour national credibility — onceagain — is on the line. Let us proveto the world anew that we can bepeaceful global problem-solvers.The writer, Democratic governorof Rhode Island, served as a USsenator from 1999 to 2006. — Courtesy: USA Today
Lincoln Chafee
This is despite a NATO drive, asreported in a recent New York Timesreport, to disrupt Afghanistan’s drugtrade. The reason being cited is thatthe NATO and ISAF member coun-tries’ law at home does not allow thesoldiers to carry out operationsagainst the poppy cultivation, etc. Theobjections were raised despite anagreement that the alliance’s cam-paign in Afghanistan would be broad-ened to include attacks on narcoticsfacilities, traffickers, and middlemenand drug lords whose profits helpedto finance insurgent groups.
American policymakers andmilitary officers used to say that itwas critical to choke off the drugmoney that sustained the insurgency,much as they were working with Pa-kistan to “halt the use of its tribal ar-eas as a haven by the Taliban andother antigovernment forces justacross the border from Afghanistan.”
Twelve years after the rout of al-Qaeda and the fall of Taliban, dis-agreements over how aggressivelyNATO forces should have gone afterthe insurgency’s chief source of rev-enue are only the latest hurdle in acampaign that has been troubled bydisputes between the United Statesand some of its allies about what roleNATO soldiers should play in a mis-sion cast as “security assistance.” TheUN figures show that Afghan insur-gents reap more than $100 million ayear from the drug trade, althoughsome estimates put the figure at fivetimes as much. A NATO commandersaid profit from the narcotics trade“buys the bomb makers and thebombs, the bullets and the trigger-pullers that are killing our soldiers andmarines and airmen, and we have tostop them.”
Such efforts, if made by NATOand allies, failed to control poppy cul-tivation. Recent survey conductedjointly by the Afghan Ministry ofCounter-Narcotics and the UN Officeon Drugs and Crimes predicted anupsurge in the poppy cultivation area.The survey showed an increasingtrend in the poppy cultivation in 13provinces, especially Helmand, Ghor,Uruzgan, Zabul, Nangarhar,Leghman and Badakshan. Opiumserves as “the main engine of eco-nomic growth” in Afghanistan but“there is little on the ground to sug-gest that practical steps have been
taken to set off this menace,” said anAfghan journalist based in Peshawar.
As the Peshawar-based Afghanjournalist Eschmall Sardar reportedin her article that NATO and EU of-ficials had refused to lead a hand-onrole in fighting the narco problem.“One reality is that ISAF has onlysome 52,000 troops on the ground:the Helmand province is home to asignificant proportion of ISAF troopsand yet still cultivates some 50% ofthe opium produced in Afghanistan.”The irony of current times is the easewith which the biggest culprits onglobe could manipulate the facts and
figures to paint a whole scenariobased upon certain illusions and ho-lograms.
There is no denying the fact thatthe Indians and Afghans are deeplyinvolved in destabilizing Pakistan, es-pecially in the tribal areas, which isevident from a report that made star-tling disclosures as the three arrestedterrorists Khurram Ishtiaq, GhulamMustafa and Shamim confessed thatRAW was behind the suicide attacksin Pakistan and it had funneledRs680m through its links with Af-ghan secret agency. “The gang work-ing under Qari Hussain, FarrukhUsman, Shahjee and Ustad TayyabBaba admitted that they belonged tothe group who had been deputed to“destabilize Pakistan”.
The militants were caught red-handed possessing complete suicidekits with two jackets and 70 kg ofexplosive and detonators. But themost startling was the disclosure that
the Indian RAW, in collaborationwith CIA and allied countries’ intel-ligence agencies, was involved indrug trafficking in order to fund in-surgency inside Pakistan.
Veteran journalist Rahimullahrecalls that the only era in which thepoppy cultivation was stopped wasthat of Mullah Omar during theTaliban regime. “This seems untruethat the Taliban ‘insurgents’ todaydepend on a trade which they prac-tically banned during their period ofgovernment.” In fact it is only beingpropagated that the Taliban are in-volved, while the fact of the matteris NATO and ISAF forces are di-rectly are indirectly allowing thistrade to flourish because this waythey can win the hearts of the war-lords who have provided them shieldin their respective areas against theTaliban.
The whole process of poppy cul-tivation, transportation, processing,and the like is more than a Taliban-al-Qaeda event; it is pervasivethrough much of the Afghan soci-ety, and divides the population fromboth ISAF and national governance.“It is not surprising, therefore, thatsome 60% to 70% of the Afghanparliament is occupied by formermujahideen, former Communists,drug barons, and warlords, who notonly control both houses of parlia-ment but, as a result, prevent the es-tablishment of the centralgovernment’s writ across the coun-try.” The Kabul government ishardly in a position to marginalizethe members of parliament who playdrug games from their respectiveconstituencies. Undoubtedly, thedrug menace of Afghanistan has in-directly got massive encouragementfrom the Americans themselves,who allowed the warlords to re-es-tablish their hold in many parts ofAfghanistan. The warlords restartedopium cultivation towards which theAmericans turned a blind eye as theyneeded support to strengthen their in-stalled regime in Kabul and to keepthe Taliban at bay. As per AP reportfor the Taliban in Afghanistan andPakistan, money comes from extor-tion, crime and drugs. Narco-dollaris their major funding source besidesextortion and kidnapping.— The writer is Rawalpindi-basedfreelance journalist.
THE articles, columns andletters are published on thesepages in good faith. However,the contents of these writingsmay not necessarily match theviews of the newspaper.
—Editor
QUITE often the seriousminded people of thisworld, look at authors and
other writers and say with conde-scending attitude, ‘can’t you be alittle mature?’ I smile and tellthem that it is this childlikenessof writer that work his creativejuices. ‘Not childish, mind you,not immature, but a childlike qual-ity that asks, and questions andwonders, that feels and cries andlaughs and finally emotes intoprose and poetry.
That childlike quality is alsowhat gives them a whacky senseof humour that makes so many ofthem great pranksters.
Perhaps, Mark Twain was oneof the greatest pranksters of the
literary world. One day the youngMark Twain and his friends caughta raccoon. The boys skinned it andMark Twain was delegated the taskof selling the skin to the localdealer, from whom he received,much to his disgust, only ten cents.
As he was leaving the shop,however, he noticed that the manthrew the skin into a back room, thewindow of which was open. Hecrept round to the window, climbedin, retrieved the skin. Later he en-tered the front door once more, tocome out with ten more cents. Thiswas repeated many times, until theby now suspicious storekeeper hap-pened to look into the back roomto see how many skins he hadbought..! The world-renowned nov-elist and film producer, AlfredHitchcock, was fond of playingelaborate hoaxes on his friends andadmirers.
On one April Fools’ Day, he ar-ranged to have phone calls sent tohis friends, stating that he had met
with an accident in the bath tub andthat he was dead. When scores offriends rushed to the writer’s resi-dence, they saw to their great sor-row, that the still dripping body ofHitchcock was pronounced dead bythe doctor.
It was sometime afterwardswhen mourners had gathered at hishouse to pay their respects to thedeparted soul that Hitchcockwalked in, to everyone’s pleasantshock and disbelief. Hitchcock hadgot made a life-size dummy of him-self and with the help of the familydoctor and a few other friends hadplayed an elaborate joke on hisfriends.
Another equally mischievousprankster from the literary worldwas Robert Benchley, author ofmany books, including My TenYears in a Quandary.
While at Harvard University,Robert Benchley and a friend werewalking one day through an exclu-sive square. Smitten by inspiration,
Childlike qualities of writers..!he walked up to a house andknocked the door. When the maidopened the door, Benchley said,“We’ve come for the sofa set.”
The confused maid let themin; they picked up the sofa set andcarried it across the square to an-other house. Again they knockedand were greeted by a maid. Rob-ert announced, “Where shall weput these chairs?” The bewilderedmaid indicated a place in the liv-ing room. Benchley and his frienddeposited it there and went hap-pily on their way.
After several months whenthe owner of the sofa set went tothe other house for tea, she rec-ognized with astonishment, herstolen property..! That’s a fewwriters and their pranks! Sillymaybe, to the serious of the world,but still capable of producing asmile, some laughter, and a littlebanter in an otherwise grim world.What d’you say?—Email: [email protected]
Poppy cultivationis increasing in 28of the country’s 32provinces. Today,
between 90 to 95%of the world’s
supply of opiumcomes from
Afghanistan. This isdespite Mr Karzai
laid out acomprehensiveNational Drug
Control Strategy forAfghanistan.
There is always fun watching themperish miserably against below-parteams. This defeat reminds the timewhen green-shirts lost to cricketing-infants, Ireland during World Cup-2007 campaign.—Larkana
*****IFTIKHAR MRIZA
After breaking 15 year old recordof getting beaten in one day matchat the hands of Zimbabwe, Paki-stani cricket team rubbed its nosein the dust of disgrace by breakinganother 15 years old record of pock-eting insult of defeat in test matchfrom Zimbabwean minnows. Heftypay packages are offered to crick-eters, coaches and PCB officials toearn respect & honor to country.Victory & success in any game isdependent on hard work, commit-ment, dedication and preservation.Alas! Our cricketers lack all thesetraits.
The humiliation we received ismemorable. PCB must be made ac-countable for this failure. It is ironyof fate that our cricketers lick dustevery now and then — and withoutdigging out causes and effects of de-feat, we move ahead for anothershameful defeat. The droves of offi-cial swarming PCB are just parasitessucking blood of nation and deliv-ering nothing.
In the recent series, Hafiz, AzharAli, and Asad shafiq failed miser-ably, and, therefore, they must beshown door for good. Irresponsibleattitude of top order, poor captaincyand spineless batting paved the wayto complete downfall. Is it not theright time to fix the responsibilityand make major changes in PCB hi-erarchy. What else is now overbur-dening PCB, and should be replacedimmediately, is the presence ofbowling and batting coaches whoshould also be sent packing. Thereis no need of keeping deadwood for-ever. Extra weight must be shed off.If some drastic steps are not takenat this time, winning World Cup2015 would remain a wild goosechase for Pakistan.
It is hoped that these suggestionswould not fall on deaf ears of au-thorities as usual.—Islamabad
*****M OSAMA AFNAN HANAFI
Pakistan’s shock defeat to lowlyranked Zimbabwe in the second Testmatch on Saturday has led to callsfor the sacking of captain Misbah-ul-Haq and Coach Dav Whatmoreand for radical changes in the cricketset-up. This defeat is very disap-pointing and it is very frustrating forPakistani cricket lovers.
This defeat is also the alarmingbell for Pakistan cricket. Honestlyspeaking, Zimbabwe deserves creditfor the win, adding that the perfor-mance of Pakistani team was verypoor. Perhaps Misbah has gone stalenow and is short of new ideas. Weneed to have a new captain now andfresh direction. This is the time totake decisions because we can’t doworse than this.
We shouldn’t rely on spin blow-ing attack because if we look in thepast we heavily depended on our fastbowlers and on playing natural andaggressive cricket. But I think los-ing to Zimbabwe is a big setback forPakistan cricket and the Board nowneeds to make changes in the man-agement and team.—Karachi
*****YASIR FEROZ
Pakistani team loosing from youngZimbabwean side is actuallycricket’s victory. After regainingtheir test team status, Zimbabwe-ans looked sober in game and theirspirit at the moment is at peak. Theteam members of Zimbabwean sideget only 20$ per day for matchwhich are equal to about 2500 PKR
whereas Pakistani team is highlyrich on this area and gets manymore than the poor Zimbabweans.But if we compare the performanceof our national side, they justly de-serve 20$ a day!
Many senior players who areplaying first class cricket for morethan ten years are in our test matchesbut the way they played was not lessthan ‘gully’ cricket, i.e. “irrespon-sible cricket.” On the other hand,young Zimbabweans played a ma-ture cricket and was looking fullymotivated for improving their testranking to play against bigger teamsthan Pakistan like; Bangladesh,Srilanka, Australia etc.
Alarming situation has come forthe Pakistani team to improve itsbasics and look forward for the fu-ture tours, which are against SouthAfrica and Srilanka who are far bet-ter teams than young Zimbabweansand after that the mighty World Cupwhich really needs preparation be-fore entering the competition. Oth-erwise result will not be differentfrom last two tournaments.—Karachi
Lost glory ofPakistan hockeyM ATIF MAHMOOD MAJOKA
Pakistan hockey team’s recent de-bacle has deprived the country fromits place among competing nationsfor coming World Cup. It is theworst hour in the history of Pakistanhockey which also is the nationalsport of the country. Once upon atime, the hockey alongside squashwon the most laurels for the coun-try. Pakistan won its first GoldMedal in Rome Olympics in 1960through hockey.
The country emerged in the in-ternational scene with its stunninghockey performance at the succes-sive Olympics in 1968 and 1984.Hockey till late 90s was one of themainstream sports across the coun-try. Hockey players used to be na-tional heroes. People like Samiullah(Flying horse), Hanif Khan, HassanSardar and many like them werewidely known and respected. Paki-stan is a nation of 190 millionpeople, rich in resources includingnaturally talented human resource.It is heart aching that a nation thatonce ruled hockey pitch, has nowdescended to the unprecedentedlow. If we compare Pakistan tosmaller nations like Australia wemay notice that Australia has actu-ally improved its hockey in the lastdecade or so.
The difference between the twonations is not talent but merit. Paki-stan strictly needs to opt to the policyof merit. Nepotism must be up-rooted. Hockey always had a rivalrybetween its Asian and Europeanstyle. Asian Hockey was alwayshailed for its beauty relying on ag-gressive approach towards the sport.Pakistan may explore potential forhockey in India and both countriescan cooperate to revive the Asianstyle. It’s time to cleanse Pakistanhockey and the present Governmentheaded by a Prime Minister whohimself has keen interest in sportsowes this to Pakistani nation andneeds to take every possible step torestore the lost glory of Pakistanhockey. I am sure Pakistan will beable win its lost status in the worldof hockey.—Melbourne, Australia
A turning pointYU LINTAO
US President Barack Obama’s embrace of the Russian suggestion to put Syrian chemical weapons under internationalcontrol has brought a temporary sense of relief to the inter-
national community. The seemingly positive turn at least bringsthe prospect of giving the diplomatic process more time to handlethe Syrian crisis.
Observers claimed that the step has undoubtedly presented away out of the highly tense current situation for both sides in thenear term. But in the long run, they said, the risk of a Syrian warstill remains as it is possible the two sides will engage in endlesshaggling over the inspection of Syrian chemical weapon—muchlike what happened in Iraq years ago. If inspection delays do oc-cur, observers predicted Washington would probably turn to mili-tary action to settle the problem, which will surely add new troublesto the turmoil in the Middle East and impact related countries.
Diplomatic overture: Just before the U.S. Congress was setto begin debating whether to approve a possible U.S. strike againstSyria, Russia proposed a fresh initiative on the Syrian crisis in-spired by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s seemingly off-the-cuff statement in a London news conference.
When asked whether there is anything Assad could do tostop U.S. strikes, Kerry said, “Sure, he could turn over everysingle bit of his chemical weapons to the international commu-nity in the next week...without delay and allow the full and totalaccounting for that, but he isn’t about to do it and it can’t bedone, obviously.”
Kerry might not have meant his words sincerely at that time,but Russia soon took up the idea and it was welcomed by Syria.Observers said the Russian proposal would be like extinguishingthe fire before it could reach the “powder keg” of the MiddleEast, offering a solution to the respective dilemmas of both Dam-ascus and Washington.
“For Obama, if the motive of the planned punitive strike is tostop the use of chemical weapons in Syria as he claims, the Rus-sian proposal could achieve that end without a drop of blood spilled.Washington could avoid a military attack unpopular both at homeand abroad,” Yu Guoqing, an associate researcher with the Insti-tute of West-Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Acad-emy of Social Sciences (CASS), told Beijing Review.” And forthe Assad administration, giving up its chemical weapons could atleast avoid suffering the disaster of war for the moment.”
Though the move is seen as the first step toward a politicalsolution of the Syrian crisis, Yu worried that the issue might yetrun into problems over the inspection of Syrian chemical weap-ons, much like the nuclear weapon inspections in Iraq under SaddamHussein’s regime. Uncertainty remains whether the United Stateswould resort to military action or not if the inspection on Syria’schemical arsenal meets difficulties in the future, Yu said.
Li Shaoxian, Vice President of the China Institutes of Con-temporary International Relations (CICIR) and a senior researcheron Middle East studies, said the operation of chemical arsenalinspection in Syria is actually very difficult despite the Assadadministration’s sincere willingness to give up chemical weap-ons for the sake of peace under the current situation. He said thaton one hand, it’s uncertain whether the Syrian opposition’s shareof the chemical arsenals in the country will be included in theinspection. On the other hand, the opposition is unwilling to seeWashington abandon military action on Assad’s administration.It is possible that the opposition will create problems for thediplomatic process, including the chemical arsenal inspection. Itcannot be ruled out that Washington could continue to make anissue of the chemical arsenal inspection, said Li.
In a nationally televised speech on September 11, Obamasaid he ordered the U.S. military to maintain its “current postureto keep the pressure on Assad and to be in a position to respondif diplomacy fails.” Though Obama called the Russian offer anencouraging sign, he warned that “it’s too early to tell whetherthis offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that theAssad administration keeps its commitments.”
In the meantime, the United States has already provided weap-ons for the Syrian opposition. Opposition spokesman KhaledSaleh confirmed in a news conference on September 10 thatWashington has provided lethal aid to them. France is also stillpreparing for military action as the diplomatic process is ongo-ing. Potential risk remains: In Li’s view, the risk of a Syrian warremains as the removal of the current Assad administration is afixed policy of the United States. Li said the current Syrian Gov-ernment as well as its allies Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah areseen as the major threats of the United States and its ally Israel inthe region following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein andMoammar Gadhafi.
In some sense, Li declared the momentarily shelving of themilitary strike on Syria is also due to Washington’s inability tofind suitable political forces to replace the Assad administration.With its unique geographic position and rich energy resources,Syria plays a significant role in geo-politics. It is also seen as the“beating heart” of Arab nationalism. After the regime change ofIraq and Libya, the current Syrian administration has becomethe last kindling of Arab nationalism in the Arab world, whichobservers claimed is one of the major reasons why the UnitedStates is determined to remove the Assad administration even byuse of force. Tian Wenlin, an associate researcher of CICIR, saidthe Arab world has been plagued by disputes and wars in the lasthundred years. One major reason for this is that the Arab coun-tries have not united together, which leads to foreign interfer-ence in regional affairs.
“If the Assad administration were removed, the last kindlingof Arab nationalism for unity would disappear. It is very bad forthe rejuvenation of the Arab world,” said Tian. Though the Obamaadministration said their potential attack would be in the form ofa limited strike, observers believe the situation may become soexplosive that the entire region could be dragged into the vortexof war. Yu claimed that even the limited strike would bring theAssad administration a deadly blow as the opposition would takethe opportunity to smash the current Syrian authority. Syria wouldthen be mired in new chaos, with the regional pattern changedand regional forces affected.
“Iran would be further isolated if it loses its Syrian ally andsuffer more threats from the United States,” said Yu. Li evenclaimed that the major impetus of Washington’s removal of theDamascus authority is to weaken the influence of Tehran, anenemy of Washington, in the region or even overthrow the cur-rent Iranian Government. The Shia alliance composed of Iran,Syria, Iraqi Shia and Hezbollah in Lebanon has formed an anti-U.S. and anti-Israel alliance in the region.
Efforts for peace: Since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis, Rus-sia and China have insisted on the peaceful settlement of the crisisthrough political dialogue and have made their own efforts jointlyand respectively to that end. At the very critical moment of a pos-sible U.S. military strike, the Russian proposal alleviated the crisisonce again. Yu said it is well known that Syria is a major ally ofRussia in the region. Russia has its own interests in Syria.
Russia and Syria have kept a traditional ally relationship sincethe Cold War, forming close military and economic relations.Tartus Port on the Mediterranean coast of Syria has long beenused as a naval base of Russia and the only Mediterranean fuel-ing spot of Russia. The base is of strategic significance for Rus-sia to prevent the eastern expansion of NATO and respond toconflicts in the Middle East. “Russia also worries that the furtherdeterioration of the Syrian crisis may affect the stability of theNorth Caucasus of Russia,” said Yu. “Though Russia might notdirectly involve in a possible Syrian war, it would not allow theWest to use force on Syria easily.”
China welcomed Russia’s new proposal swiftly and urgedthe United States to proceed with extreme caution and return tothe United Nations to discuss the Syrian crisis. And days before,during the G20 Summit in Russia, Chinese President Xi Jinpingalso told Obama that a military strike could not solve the prob-lem and that a political solution was the correct way out. “Thenon-interference of internal affairs principle and peaceful settle-ment of Syrian crisis are the firm stance of China,” said Yu. “Chinadoesn’t want to see Syria mired in a new war which would hurtthe Syrian people most.”
Yu added that China is more and more likely to make itsown voice heard in international arena to claim and defend itsown interests—even though it has few stakes in the Syrian is-sue.—Courtesy: Beijing Review
BEIJING—China on Sundaywelcomed a Russia-U.S. agree-ment on securing and destroy-ing Syria’s chemical weapons,saying it was a peaceful solutionto the stockpile issue that couldease the tense situation in thewar-torn country.
In a diplomatic break-through that averts the threat ofU.S. military action against Syr-ian President Bashar Assad’sregime for now, American andRussian diplomats in Genevaagreed Saturday on a deal to se-cure and destroy Syria’s chemi-cal weapons.
“We believe the frameworkagreement will ease the currenttense situation that may be trig-gered at any moment in Syriaand creates new prospects for re-solving the chemical weaponissue in Syria through peacefulmeans,” said Foreign MinisterWang Yi.
He spoke at the beginningof a meeting with his Frenchcounterpart, Laurent Fabius,who was visiting Beijing in acontinuing diplomatic drive toend the 2 1/2-year civil war.
China hails US-Russia deal on SyriaFabius said later that ques-
tions over the deal remained, in-cluding what measures should betaken if the Syrian government
PHNOM PENH—Cambodianriot police clashed with opposi-tion party supporters Sunday inthe capital as a new wave ofdemonstrations against PrimeMinister Hun Sen’s governmentkicked off with a vow that theprotests would not stop until thenation’s post-election deadlockis resolved.
At least one policeman wasinjured in the violence. Most ofPhnom Penh was calm, how-ever, as around 20,000 peoplerallied at a city park earlier inthe day to push for an indepen-dent investigation of results fromthe July election.
The opposition says that itshould have won a majority ofseats in parliament, but that the
Cambodian police clash with opposition supporterselection was marred by irregu-larities.
The government had warnedprotesters to stay off the streets,but thousands of them marchedacross various parts of the citythroughout the day.
At one riverside spot east ofdowntown, around 200 protest-ers faced off with police across abarricade of barbed wire androadblocks that had been erectedto keep them from strategic partsof Phnom Penh, including theRoyal Palace.
When the protesters refusedto disperse and began jeering,police fired water cannons andthen smoke grenades, promptingdemonstrators to throw shoes andother objects back. One police-
man was hit in the head with whatappeared to be a piece of iron.
The mass rally comes oneday after Cambodia’s kingbrought Hun Sen face to facewith opposition chief SamRainsy for the first time in years,urging the two rivals to resolvetheir conflict over the electionresults peacefully for the sake ofnational stability. No agreementwas reached, but the two are ex-pected to meet again Monday.
Political analysts say theweekend protest is mostly aimedat appeasing angry supportersand strengthening theopposition’s hand in negotiationswith Hun Sen. Although the rallyis aimed at pushing for an inde-pendent investigation of the elec-
tion results, the government hasno legal means of meeting therequest now that the results havebeen ratified.
The opposition CambodiaNational Rescue Party says itshould have won the vote.
“Their ballots were stolenand they are asking for justice,”Sam Rainsy said of his support-ers.
He said Sunday’s protest, ini-tially planned for three days,would continue until theopposition’s demands for justiceare met.
The opposition plans to haveits supporters camp overnight,setting up a possible confronta-tion with riot police since authori-ties have requested that the rally
end by nightfall.Fears of violence have risen
amid a visible increase of mili-tary forces in the capital since theelection and the discovery Fridayof explosives planted by un-known people near the parkwhere the demonstration tookplace.
Official results announcedlast weekend gave Hun Sen’sparty 68 seats in the NationalAssembly and Sam Rainsy’sparty 55 - a dramatic oppositionincrease from the 29 seats it wonin the previous election.
On Saturday, King NorodomSihamoni also urged lawmakersfrom both parties to attend theopening session of parliamentSept. 23. The opposition has said
it would boycott the session andSam Rainsy repeated that prom-ise Sunday.
Ou Virak, president of theCambodian Center for HumanRights, said talks between the ri-vals this week could have fo-cused on allotting the oppositionseveral parliamentary leadershippositions, reforming the electoralcommission and allowing SamRainsy to take a seat in parlia-ment.
Just before July’s disputedvote, the king pardoned the then-self-exiled Sam Rainsy at the re-quest of Hun Sen - likely underinternational pressure. He re-turned to Cambodia before theelection, but too late to registeras a candidate himself.—AP
fails to adhere to it. France firmlybacks the Syrian rebels and hasstrategic and historic interests inthe region. It urged military ac-
tion after a chemical attack onAug. 21 that Paris and Washing-ton blame on Assad’s govern-ment. In contrast, China and Rus-
sia have consistently blockedresolutions at the U.N. SecurityCouncil aimed at sanctioningAssad’s regime.
After Sunday’s meeting, theFrench foreign minister said thedeal on destroying Syria’s chemi-cal weapons was “a significantstep forward, but it’s a firststage.” “On one hand, we aregoing to move forward with thedestruction of chemical weapons— bravo — but on other hand,hundreds of deaths every day aremounting in Syria and that’s alsowhat we must tackle, that is tosay find a political solution to theSyrian crisis,” Fabius said.
He said he would discuss theagreement and its implementa-tion at a meeting Monday in Pariswith U.S. Secretary of State JohnKerry and British Foreign Sec-retary William Hague. On Tues-day, he will meet with his Rus-sian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov,in Moscow.
Fabius also said a report byU.N. inspectors on last month’schemical weapons attack on theoutskirts of Damascus would bepublished Monday.—AP
BEIJING: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, left, shakes hands with his Chinesecounterpart Wang Yi before their meeting at the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sunday.
NEW DELHI—With its defenceties with India growing at a rapidpace, Israel on Sunday assertedthat it will not supply any weap-ons systems and military hard-ware to Pakistan, saying thepolicy in this regard was “veryclear” and “strict”.
Israeli ambassador to IndiaAlon Ushpiz said his countryfollows very strict guidelines inexporting weapons systems andthere was no question of revers-ing its policy of not supplyingmilitary hardware to Pakistan.
“The policy of governmentof Israel is (very clear) and weare tremendously strict about itthat we do not export weaponssystem to Pakistan,” he said.
A report by Israel’s Haaretznewspaper in June had quoted aBritish government report sayingIsrael exported military equip-ment, including hi-tech gear usedin combat jets, over the past fiveyears to Pakistan. Israel hadstrongly rejected the report, say-ing it would “not do anything thatcould undermine” India’s secu-rity.
“Very specifically we do notexport weapons system to Paki-stan. We have a very strict set ofregulations for exporting. It isvery, very sophisticated processand different agencies are engagedin that. India is a close friend,” hesaid, replying to a question on thereport by the Israeli newspaper.
Expressing satisfaction over de-fence ties with India, which isIsrael’s largest purchaser of secu-rity equipment, he said there wasno possibility of reversing thepolicy of not supplying weaponssystems to Pakistan.
“There is a very strict policyof state of Israel. This is in blackand white. The answer to all yourquestions is a very clear swiftlong no. You are asking some-thing very very hypothetical andeven to that I think the answer isno,” Ushpiz said.
Refusing to speak about anyspecific arms deals with India, hesaid the defence ties between thetwo countries was not about“buying and selling”.—INP
Israel not to supply weaponsystems to Pakistan
BAGHDAD—A new wave ofinsurgent attacks, mostly carbombs targeting Shiite-domi-nated cities in central andsouthern Iraq, killed at least 35people on Sunday, officialssaid.
The attacks continue asurge in bloodshed that has en-gulfed the country for months.No one has claimed responsi-bility for the blasts, which tar-geted commercial areas andparking lots in seven cities. Butsystematically organizedwaves of bombings are usedout by al-Qaida’s local branch,known as the Islamic State ofIraq, to undermine confidencein the Shiite-led government.
The deadliest was in thecity of Hillah, 95 kilometers(60 miles) south of Baghdad,where a car bomb explosionnear an outdoor market andparking lot killed nine civiliansand wounded 15 others, a po-lice officer said. A few minuteslater, another car bomb went off
nearby, killing six civilians andwounding 14, he added.
In the nearby town ofIskandariyah, 50 kilometers (30miles) south of the capital, an-other car bomb hit a parking lot,killing four civilians and wound-ing nine, police said.
Another explosives-riggedparked car bomb went off in anindustrial area of Shiite city ofKarbala, killing four and wound-ing 25, a police officer said.Karbala is 80 kilometers (50miles) south of Baghdad. And inKut, another Shiite-dominatedcity 160 kilometers (100 miles)southeast of Baghdad, a car bombtargeted a gathering of construc-tion workers and food stalls, kill-ing two, wounding 14, anotherprovincial police officer said.
In Baghdad’s northernSunni-dominated Azamiyahneighborhood, a car bomb ex-ploded near the convoy of thehead of Baghdad’s provincialcouncil killed three andwounded eight, police say. The
council head escaped unharmed.Two other car bombs hit the
southern adjacent cities of Basraand Nasiriyah, killing five civil-ians and wounding 21, two po-lice officers said. And two morecivilians were killed when abomb hit a police patrol inBaghdad’s western suburbs.Nine other people werewounded.
Eight medical officials con-firmed the casualty figures. Allspoke anonymously as theyweren’t authorized to release in-formation.
Iraq is going through itsdeadliest bout of violence since2008, raising fears the countryis returning to a period of wide-spread killing such as that whichpushed it to the brink of civil warfollowing the 2003 U.S.-led in-vasion. More than 4,000 peoplehave been killed in violent at-tacks since the start of April, in-cluding 804 just in August, ac-cording to United Nations fig-ures.—AP
Bombings kill 35in south, central Iraq
ZAMBOANGA—Philippinetroops Sunday closed in on Mus-lim rebel positions and cut offescape routes to end a week-longstandoff that has left more than60 people dead in the southerncity of Zamboanga, officials said.
Sporadic clashes continuedas soldiers moved to clear MoroNational Liberation Front(MNLF) gunmen from coastalneighbourhoods after a ceasefireplan collapsed, with thousandsmore residents fleeing to safety.
As troops moved through theSanta Barbara district Sunday, theextent of the damage from sevendays of fighting came into fullview, with buildings reduced tosmouldering heaps or pock-marked with bullet holes, an AFPreporter said.
Soldiers recovered the bod-ies of two slain gunmen stillclinging to their rifles, and sev-eral unexploded warheads for usein rocket propelled grenades hadbeen left behind by the fleeingrebels.
In the distance, black smokebillowed from another area thathad just gone up in flames.
And in a nearby district, agroup of soldiers could be seencrouched on the street as sniperfire whizzed just above theirheads, television footage showed.“We are continuing to press for-
ward with our calibrated militaryresponse,” military spokesmanLieutenant Colonel RamonZagala told AFP. “Fighting iscontinuing as we speak. Theycontinue to resist and conduct of-fensive actions against us.”
Heavily armed MNLF forcesentered the port city’s coastalneighbourhoods Monday andtook dozens of hostages in a bidto scupper peace talks betweenanother militant group and thegovernment aimed at ending adecades-long rebellion in thesouth. Zagala said the fightingwas now concentrated in twocoastal districts, while other ar-eas were secure.
But the attack underscoredthe complexity of ending conflictin the southern third of the mostlyCatholic Philippines, where thereare several armed Muslim fac-tions and which has seen a pro-liferation of unlicensed firearms.
Day and night operations byat least 3,000 elite governmenttroops have now seen 51 MNLFrebels killed, as well as six sol-diers, a policemen and four ci-vilians.
Air and sea ports remainedclosed Sunday in a crisis that hasparalysed the city of one million,seen entire neigbourhoods razedto the ground, and forced tens ofthousands to flee.—AFP
Philippine troops advanceas ceasefire falters
WASHINGTON—The US dealwith Russia to eliminate Syria’schemical weapons has pulled theObama administration into deepwaters: the Kremlin’s long-stand-ing drive to put the brakes onAmerican power and to restoreMoscow to its place as a pivotalMideast player.
If Syria, which relies on Rus-sian patronage, signs on, then thedeal temporarily would solve abig domestic political problemfor President Barack Obama.Russian President Vladimir Putinwould walk away with two im-mense prizes, at the least.
The framework does notsettle the larger issue, ending thecivil war that has ravaged Syriafor more than two years. Nordoes it address Obama’s calls forSyrian President Bashar Assad’sdeparture and his replacement bydemocratic order in a country thathas never known one.
For Obama, the agreementhammered out in Geneva wouldbuttress his inclination to findanswers through diplomacyrather than military means.
It could, for a time, distractAmericans who had grown criti-cal, or at least doubtful, about hisforeign policy bona fides, given
Russia wants seatback at Mideast table
White House waffling and coursechanges on threatened airstrikesagainst Syria. That was Obama’sdeclared response to punishAssad for what the U.S. says washis use of chemical weapons inan attack last month, killing morethan 1,400 people.
Putin, on the other hand, willhave taken great strides in show-ing that Russia must play a criti-cal role in the Middle East, some-thing it surrendered with the col-lapse of the Soviet Union morethan two decades ago.
What’s more, Putin has forthe time being shored up Assad.Equally important to the Krem-lin, Russian intervention will en-hance Putin’s stature as a geopo-litical counterbalance to Ameri-can power.
The deal calls for unspecifiedU.N. penalties against Syriashould Assad fail to comply, butstops short of authorizing a mili-tary strike. That would leaveObama in a position of ignoringthe world body’s directive shouldhe revert to airstrikes.
“It was a brilliant tacticalmove” for Russia, said JonathanAdelman, professor at the Uni-versity of Denver Korbel Schoolof International Studies.—AP
Hurricane Ingridpounding
Mexican coastMEXICO CITY—HurricaneIngrid strengthened on Saturdaynight off Mexico’s Gulf coast,dumping heavy rain across cen-tral and eastern Mexico andcausing thousands to seek emer-gency shelters as river levelsclimbed.
Tropical Storm Manuel onMexico’s Pacific coast was alsostrengthening late on Saturday,drenching coastal towns, includ-ing the beach resort of Acapulco.
Rain from the Category 1Ingrid, which was 185 miles eastof port of Tampico, in Veracruzstate, at 0300 GMT, has causedlandslides and local flooding,but state oil monopoly Pemexsaid its installations in the Gulfof Mexico were operating nor-mally.
More than 6,000 people inVeracruz state on Mexico’s Gulfcoast were in temporary sheltersor staying with relatives, stateGovernor Javier Duarte said onTwitter late on Saturday. A hur-ricane watch was in effect alongVeracruz’s northern coast, whereIngrid is expected to make land-fall on Monday.
Ingrid, with sustained windsof 85 miles per hour, could groweven stronger over the next twodays as it nears Mexico’s coast,US National Hurricane Centersaid. A Category 1 storm is thelowest intensity on the five-stepSaffir-Simpson scale.—Reuters
World’s oldestman dies in NY
at age 112GRAND ISLAND—The world’soldest man, a 112-year-old self-taught musician, coal miner andgin rummy aficionado fromwestern New York, has died. Hewas 112.
Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez died Friday at a nurs-ing home in Grand Island, ac-cording to Robert Young, seniorgerontology consultant withGuinness World Records.
Sanchez-Blazquez becamethe world’s oldest man whenJiroemon Kimura died June 12at age 116.
Born June 8, 1901, in villageof El Tejado de Bejar, Spain, hewas known for his talent on thedulzaina, a double-reed wind in-strument that he taught himselfand played at weddings and vil-lage celebrations.
In 1920, he came to theUnited States through Ellis Islandand worked in the coal mines ofLynch, Ky. Ultimately, he movedto the Niagara Falls area of NewYork, where he worked in con-struction and in the industrial fur-naces. He married his wife, Pearl,in 1934.—AP
Israelis cautiouslyhopeful on Syria
weapons dealJERUSALEM—Israeli leadersexpressed cautious hope Sundayabout a U.S.-Russia agreementthat would require Syria to iden-tify and eliminate its chemicalweapons by mid-2014, as U.S.Secretary of State John Kerryarrived in the region to discussthe deal.
Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu said Israel hoped theplan would lead to the “completedestruction” of Syria’s chemicalweapons arsenal and would pushthe world to stop Iran, Syria’sclose ally, from developingnuclear weapons. Israel believesthat Iran is pursuing nuclearweapons and has identified theinternational community’s re-sponse to the Syrian crisis as a“test case” for Iran. Iran deniesthe charge. “This test of resultsalso applies to the internationalcommunity’s diplomatic effortsto stop Iran’s nuclear arma-ment,” Netanyahu said. “Wordswill not decide, only actions andresults. —AP
DUBAI—A deal between Rus-sia and the United States to re-move Syria’s chemical arsenalwas a sign of US “rationality”,Iran’s speaker of parliamentwas quoted as saying by Iranianmedia on Sunday.
US Secretary of State JohnKerry and Russian ForeignMinister Sergei Lavrov de-manded on Saturday that Syr-ian President Bashar al-Assadaccount for his secret stockpilewithin a week and let interna-
tional inspectors eliminate allthe weapons by the middle ofnext year.
Iran strongly backs Assadagainst the rebels seeking to ousthim, and has said the rebels wereresponsible for a chemical attacklast month outside of Damascus.The United States and its alliessay Assad’s government is re-sponsible.
Speaker Ali Larijani said ina news conference late on Sat-urday that any U.S. strike in re-
taliation for the gas attack wouldresult in a larger conflict in theregion and would be against in-ternational law, and that USpolicymakers had realized this.
“We are hopeful that Ameri-can politicians have some ratio-nality so they avoid extremistbehaviour, and the events of thelast few days and the decisionsthat have been taken indicate thisrationality,” Larijani said, ac-cording to the ISNA newsagency on Sunday.—Reuters
Syrian chemical weapons dealsign of US ‘rationality’: Iran
Major-General, Lt-Colonelmartyred in Upper Dir blast
From Page 1
widow and two daughters. Though the Tehreek-e-
Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hasclaimed responsibility forthe blast in Upper Dir ex-perts believe the decision ofthe killing of top military of-ficials was planned and ex-ecuted by a group of dis-gruntled Mullah Fazlullahwho prefers to maintain itsindependent identity andperhaps wanted to show itsimportance as no one con-tacted him for the expectedGovt-Taliban parleys norwas he taken into confi-dence by the TTP top lead-ership about advancementsin this regard.
Unfortunately the brutalassassination of the Paki-stan Army’s senior officerscame at the time when thegovernment is seriouslymulling over offering peacedeal to the militants to putan end to the surging vio-lence and ensure peace inthe region that has been hitby the militancy for the lastmany years. Hardly a dayearlier the KhyberPukhtunkhwa governmentin principle approvedgradual withdrawal of theArmy from Swat andMalakand division. This isdestined to attract greatercriticism from the forces op-posed to Govt-militants dia-logues.
In a message for the me-dia from an undisclosed lo-cation, the TTP spokesmanShahidullah Shahid saidthose siding with the ‘infi-dels! would not be spared.Shahidullah said an impor-tant meeting of the TTP washeaded by its chiefHakimullah Mehsud in whichthe Punjabi Taliban werealso invited.
He said the meeting de-cided that confidence of theTaliban could be restored ifthe government takes seri-ous steps in this regard. Hesaid serious steps meanwithdrawal of army fromFATA and release of theTaliban prisoners.
The TTP spokesmansaid some journalists weredoing ‘irresponsible’ report-
ing to sabotage the peaceprocess. He said the Talibanare well aware of the activi-ties of such journalists.Shahidullah made it clearthat no list of Taliban pris-oners was handed over tothe government and no talkshave taken place so far. Hewarned the media not to in-dulge in negative propa-ganda. In another incidentone security man wasmartyred and two woundedin an explosion that oc-curred near the forces ve-hicle on Miranshah-MiraliRoad in North WaziristanAgency (NWA) on Sunday.
Official sources said thatthe security forces vehiclewas on way from Miranshahto Bannu, when some un-known persons exploded theplanted bomb as the vehiclecame nearby through a re-mote control on Mirali Road,which resulted in the martyr-dom of one security person-nel and two wounded.
The blast occurred at atime when the entire NorthWaziristan was under cur-few, sources said.
Twin blasts that oc-curred in Tehsil Jamrud ofKhyber Agency fortunatelycaused no loss of life onSunday.
Khasadar Force said thatthe explosions took placenear the residences of a Natocontainers supplier inGhaziza area and one NGOpersonnel in Ghundi area ofJamrud, which damaged thehouses partially, however,no loss of life occurred.
Armed men gunneddown two employees of CIDpolice here on Sunday.
According to details,unknown miscreants am-bushed two CID employeeswhile they were returninghome riding a motorcycleafter performing duty in civildress.
As a result of firing bothCID officials were killed onthe spot.
The attackers managedto escape from the scene af-ter committing the crime.
The bodies were shifted
to hospital where they werehanded over to heirs aftermedico-legal formalities.
President MamnoonHussain and Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif have expressedprofound grief and sorrowover the martyrdom of Gen-eral Officer CommandingMalakand division MajorGeneral Sanaullah, Lt. ColTauseef and L/Nk Imranwho embraced martyrdomSunday in Upper Dir whilereturning from a post onPak-Afghan border.
In his condolencemessage the President paidtributes to the martyrs fortheir supreme sacrifices inthe defence of themotherland and prayed fortheir eternal peace. He alsoexpressed his sympathieswith the bereaved families.
The Prime Minister in hismassage to Chief of ArmyStaff General Ashfaq ParvezKayani highly lauded role ofthe army in fightingterrorism. Interior MinisterChaudhry Nisar Ali KhanSunday telephoned Chief ofArmy Staff General AshfaqPervez Kayani and ex-pressed grief over Upper Dirincident in which threemilitary officials includingtwo senior officialsembraced martyrdom.
He expressed solidaritywith the Pakistan army.
The KhyberPukhtunkhwa Governor,Engr: Shaukatullah hasstrongly condemned the kill-ing of GOC Maj. GeneralSanaullah along with a Col:in IED blast in Upper Dirdistrict on Sunday and paidrich tributes to the immortalsacrifices of martyrs. Thesacrifices of the great sonsof the soil, the Governorsaid, are the national assetsand will always be remem-bered with great nationalpride.
Expressing his deepsympathies with the mem-bers of the bereaved fami-lies, the Governor said thatthey should not feel alonein this hour of trial, rather theentire nation fully sharestheir grief.
place in May 2012 inIslamabad.
The HLCC is mandatedto oversee and steer theunique partnership and in-tensify cooperation betweenthe two countries.
Key cabinet ministers in-cluding senior officials willaccompany the prime minis-ter.
Prime Minister’s meet-ings with the Turkish lead-ership and his interactionwith the Turkish business-men would be an excellentopportunity to reinforcePakistan’s strong desire forforging a comprehensivestrategic partnership withit , aimed especial ly tobring a quali tat ive andquantitative change in bi-lateral economic and traderelations.
The prime minister willalso exchange views withthe Turkish leadership onregional and global issuespart icularly the develop-ments in the Middle East.
Several agreements andMoUs covering a widerange of areas such as se-curi ty, f inance, housing,education, culture, scienceand technology and tradeare expected to be signedduring the visit.
Altaf condemnsattack on PakArmy officers
From Back PageKiyani, officers of the armedforces and soldiers. He urgedthem to remain calm and com-posed.
He demanded of the Presi-dent Mamnoon Hussain, PrimeMinister Nawaz Shareef andFederal Interior Minister totake notice of this tragic inci-dent and martyrdom of offic-ers and take action against theterrorists responsible for the at-tack and prosecute them.
Hussain expressed his deepsorrow over the martyrdom ofMajor General Sanaullah andLieutenant Colonel Tauseef andprayed to Allah to grant themhigh places in the Paradise andgive power to bereaved fami-lies to bear the loss.
ISLAMABAD: Supporters of Progressive Panel, winner of RIUJ election with President Afzal Butt and GeneralSecretary Bilal Dar.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir
LAHORE: Models on the occasion of jewellery exhibition in Gulberg on Sunday.
India test-firesFrom Page 1
island off India’s east coaststate of Odisha.
India is trying to keep upwith China’s growing militarystrength and wants to havea viable deterrent against itslarger nuclear-armed neigh-bor. The two countries havegenerally warm relations, butthey fought a brief Himalayanwar in 1962 and a buildup ofconventional defenses alongtheir disputed border is asource of tension.
The Agni-V is the mostadvanced version of the in-digenously built Agni, or Fire,series, part of a program thatstarted in the 1960s. Earlierversions could reach old rivalPakistan and western China.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan isincreasing its arsenal of nuclearwarheads and developingshort-range, tactical nuclearweapons, raising concernabout an escalating SouthAsian arms race, the Interna-tional Institute for StrategicStudies said on Thursday.
The think-tank said in areport the race with Pakistanwas increasing the risk of anuclear exchange during aconventional conflict, perhapssparked by an act of terrorism.
The Agni-V missile wasfirst tested in April 2012. It ismostly domestically built andhas a range of about 5,000 km(3,100 miles). Only the U.N.Security Council permanentmembers - China, France,Russia the United States andBritain - along with Israel, arebelieved to have such long-range weapons.Gupta saidIndia was now ready to starta process of production andsubsequent induction of themissile.—Agencies
Dilip Kumarhospitalised
From Page 1
regard tomorrow. But he isfine now,” said the source.
“He (Dilip Kumar) wasbrought to the hospitalaround 8:45 pm. He report-edly had breathing problemsand he has been admitted inthe intensive care unit (ICU).He is under the care of cardi-ologists and sources said heis suffering from a heart ail-ment,” said the COO ofLilavati Hospital Dr NarendraTrivedi.
“However, there is nocause of concern, he is ab-solutely stable and he hasbeen kept in the ICU just forobservation,” he added.
The actor has deliveredseveral amazing films and hiscontribution towards the in-dustry is incomparable. Hehas won the Filmfare awardfor best acting eight times inhis ravishing career.—Agen-cies
Pak-ChinaFrom Page 1
Air Force, Italian Air Force,Turkish Air Force, RoyalSaudi Air Force, JordanianAir Force and those of otherallied countries.—APP
Girl rapistidentified, taken
into custodyFrom Page 1
operations are scheduled forthe coming weeks, accordingto her doctor.
As per details gatheredfrom the hospital, her condi-tion has improved and she isresponsive but is not speak-ing.
Her parents were givenvisitation rights but she is notallowed any other visitors.The doctor said that theywant to give her sleepingmedications to help speed upher recovery from mentaltrauma.
Iran should not misreadSyria deal: Obama
From Page 1in fact you can .?.?. strike adeal,” he said, confirmingthat he had communicatedwith Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani by letter.
Obama also defendedhis approach to the Syriancrisis, acknowledging thatit has been turbulent, butinsisting that it hasachieved the right results.
The comments come af-ter a number of lawmakersand foreign policy expertson both sides of the aislehave criticized Obama forfirst making the case to goto war in Syria, then decid-ing to ask Congress for ap-proval, and then making thecase for strikes to a prime-time audience while also an-nouncing that he wouldfirst give a Russian diplo-matic proposal a chance towork.
In response to thosecriticisms, Obama said he isless interested in style thanresults.
“I think that folks herein Washington like to gradeon style. And so had werolled out something thatwas very smooth and disci-plined and linear, theywould have graded it well,even if it was a disastrouspolicy. We know that, be-cause that’s exactly howthey graded the Iraq war,”Obama said.
He added, “I’m muchmore concerned about get-ting the policy right. .?.?. Asa consequence of the stepsthat we’ve taken over thelast two weeks to threeweeks, we now have a situ-ation in which Syria has ac-knowledged it has chemicalweapons, has said it’s will-ing to join the conventionon chemical weapons, andRussia, its primary sponsor,has said that it will pressureSyria to reach that agree-ment.
That’s my goal. And ifthat goal is achieved, thenit sounds to me like we didsomething right.”
Obama also playeddown differences with Rus-sian President Vladi-mirPutin as Russia and theUnited States work togetherto resolve the Syria stand-off.
“Mr. Putin and I have
strong disagreements on awhole range of issues,”Obama said. “But I can talkto him. We have worked to-gether on important issues.... This is not the Cold War.This is not a contest be-tween the United Statesand Russia.”
Obama plans to pivotback to a focus on theeconomy this week aheadof major fiscal battles inCongress, and he said hecould change the directionof the economy — includ-ing the upward path of in-equality — if Congresswould let him.
Asked if a president justcouldn’t stop inequality, heresponded, “I think thepresident can stop it. Theproblem is that there con-tinues to be a major debatehere in Washington.”
While he acknowledgedthat government can’t over-come every trend in the mar-ket, policy that invests inthe economy “pushesagainst these trends. Andthe problem that we’ve gotright now is you’ve got aportion of Congress whosepolicies don’t just want toyou know, leave thingsalone; they actually want toaccelerate these trends.”—W P
PM embarkson Turkeyvisit today
From Page 1
beyond understanding.Asfandyar said that
current terrorism is a con-tinuance of the US-Russiawar in Afghanistan. He saidthat ANP had said that theUS-Russian war was notours but rulers of that timeand some of our politicianstermed them agents of Rus-sia and India and enemiesof Islam, adding that nowthose very people wereterming the war against ter-rorism as others’ war. Hesaid that drone attacks werebeing conducted inWaziristan but the terroristswere killing innocent people
Hazara province aconspiracy to divide
Pakhtuns: AsfandyarFrom Back Page
suicide attacks and bombblasts.
Asfandyar said thatANP would oppose the for-mation of Hazara provincewith their full might as theprovince was conspiracy tofurther divide Pakhtuns. Hesaid that 50 percent popu-lation of Hazara region isconsisting of Pakhtuns andwhat would happen of thispopulation if the provincewas formed.
He said that France andGermany were used to beworst enemies but now theyhave become economic part-ners and prosperous. He
said that rulers of India, Pa-kistan and Afghanistanshould also follow the ex-ample of Germany andFrance and improve rela-tions.
He said that his partywould play its role for bet-ter relations with Afghani-stan and India.
He said if the talks withTalban turn out to be un-successful, then there wasno option but to use armedoperation.
He said holding talkswith Talban is not defeat ofthe government or politi-cians.—INP
MQM sends $10mnotice to NY Timesfor carrying report
against AltafFrom Page 1
through MQM SenatorBarrister F. Nasim askingthe New York Timespublisher, editor and thereporter to pay $10 millionin compensation andapologize to the MQMChief within 7 days from thedate of the notice served tothem.
The notice further de-manded the publisher, edi-tor and the reporter to ad-vertise their apology in thenewspapers and on elec-tronic media and pay the $10 million as compensationor else the MQM wouldproceed to legal actionagainst them.
22 ticketlesspassengers finedLAHORE—A team of Paki-stan Railways caught 22ticketless passengers onSunday during a raid at 37-Up Fareed Express andcharged Rs 29,380 as fine fromthem. According to PRsources, PR Lahore divi-sional commercial officersMalik Shahbaz Babbar on thedirection of divisional super-intendent Hammayun Rashidraided the train. The team alsocharged Rs. 2410 from a pas-senger for loading a motor-cycle in a passenger compart-ment without its proper book-ing.—APP
Privatisation ofrailways not under
considerationLAHORE—Pakistan RailwaysMinister Khawaja SaadRafique has said thatprivatization of Railways is notunder consideration of thegovernment.
Talking to media here Sun-day, he said the PR would beproved itself a profitable depart-ment within the current year soit was out of question that thePR was being privatised.
Responding to a questionabout Public-Private Partner-ship, the minister said privatecompanies would not be dis-couraged, however, he addedthat not a single penny wouldbe right off to any company.Mentioning several pro-rail-way steps taken by him, theminister said the PR was on theright track now and it wouldbe able to deliver soon.
He said purchase of loco-motives was the priority andtransparency would be en-sured in every deal with loco-motive manufacturing compa-nies.—APP
Published by: Zahid Malik, Printed by Gauhar Zahid Malik,33-Queens Road, Lahore at Barex Printers.
KABUL—The United KingdomAmbassador to Afghanistan SirRichard Stagg has said it willrespect the result if the Talibanwin next year’s presidential andprovincial council elections.
“The election is open to ev-eryone. If the Taliban take thepath of honour and wish to nomi-nate a candidate, that is theirright,” the ambassador said onSunday in a message on the In-ternational Day of Democracy.
But the Taliban’s boycott ofthe polls would prove they wereafraid of the verdict of the Af-ghan people, Sir Richard Staggsaid in his message. Followingis the text of the message:
“Across the world, peopleare celebrating a basic humanright: the right to choose theirleaders and how they are gov-
erned. For many years, Afghanswere deprived of this right. Theyhad dictatorship, violence and fa-naticism imposed on them.
“But, in the last ten years, thathas changed. On 5 April, the Af-ghan people will vote to decidewho they want to lead them forthe next five years. Every Afghan,man or woman, from every prov-ince and tribe, will have the rightto choose. Every person’s votewill count the same as everyoneelse’s. I hope that as many peopleas possible will take part, in allareas of the country.
“I congratulate all those whohave been involved in the electionpreparations. The work is ontrack. More than one million newvoters have registered to vote inrecent weeks. Parliament has de-bated and passed new election
laws, which the President hassigned. And new members of theIndependent Election Commis-sion have been appointed.
“Many people ask me whatrole Britain will play. The answeris simple. This is Afghanistan’selection. We fully respect the sov-ereign right of the Afghan peopleto pick their next leader. We haveno preferred candidate. We willnot interfere. Afghans know farbetter than anyone else who is theright person to lead them.
“We will, though, support theAfghan authorities, if they ask forour help, so that it is an orderlyelection. We will work with theIndependent Election Commis-sion to help them fight fraud andcheating. We will do all we canto encourage a high turnout in allareas of the country. And we will
work with the Afghan securityforces and our ISAF partners toallow as many Afghans as pos-sible to vote safely.
“The election is open to ev-eryone. If the Taliban take thepath of honour and wish to nomi-nate a candidate, that is their right.If they win, we will respect theresult. But, if they choose not tostand, then it will be clear that theyare afraid of the verdict of theAfghan people.
“Afghanistan’s next Presi-dent will have a great responsi-bility. The country needs a leaderwho can build on PresidentKarzai’s legacy. Afghanistan to-day looks very different to how itlooked in 2001, after more thantwo decades of conflict and civilwar. “One lesson from the lastdecade is that stability and eco-
Britain wants Taliban to contest polls
Dasu hydropowerprojectISLAMABAD—The governmenthas decided to immediately takeup Dasu hydropower project ata cost of six billion dollars. Ac-cording to state-run radio hereon Sunday, work on the projectcan be initiated within sixmonths without any major pa-per and technical work. Thepower generation can also startwithin two to three years. TheWorld Bank has been asking Pa-kistan to prefer 4,320 MW Dasuproject to 4,500 MW Diamer-Bhasha dam. Dasu project willalso provide storage of 8.5 acre-feet of water and enhance the lifeof Tarbela Dam and barragesdownstream.—Online
KP shops to beclosed at 8:00 pmPESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa government has de-cided to close all the shopping cen-tres in the province by 8:00 pm dailyafter Eid-ul-Azha in order to savethe electricity. The decision wouldbe implemented from 1st Novem-ber , but before that traders wouldbe taken into confidence. All the fourprovincial governments includingPTI government had agreed in theCouncil of Common Interests’meeting to get closed the shops by8:00 in the night. Now CM KP hastaken verdict to implement thepledge made in the CCI meeting .Strict action would be taken againstthe traders, who would not complywith the orders. The traders of thecity opposed the decision , howeverthe government would take them onboard and in this connection a Jirgais being constituted. —Online
Demonstrationagainst rapeLAHORE—Pakistan AwamiTehrik Women Wing on Sundaystaged a protest demonstrationhere at Faisal Town against therape incident. A large number ofwomen participated in the pro-test led by City president of thewing Arshad Iqbal. The protest-ers were carrying banners andplacards inscribed with differentslogans against the rape inci-dents in Lahore, Faisalabad andToba Tek Singh.—APP
KABUL—At least 27 miners inAfghanistan have been killedin a coal mine collapses, offi-cials said on Sunday.
The collapse occurred onSaturday evening in the north-ern province of Samangan,said provincial governor’sspokesman Sediq Azizi “Res-cue teams have recovered 27dead miners and there are 22more wounded,” Azizi said.District police chief AkramBehzad said all trapped min-ers had been rescued. Afghani-stan is estimated to be sittingon as much as $1 trillion(629.72 billion pounds) in un-tapped mineral resources butdecades of war and instabilityhave kept most investors away.The government says it ex-pects to make as much as $4billion a year in mining rev-enues in the decade from 2014,when most Western forces aredue to leave, compared withless than $150 million from itsresources sector last year.
The U.S. Pentagon said ina in 2010 briefing paperAfghanistan’s main resources
27 Afghans die as tunnelcollapses in coal mine
were iron ore, with an esti-mated value of nearly $421billion, and copper depositsvalued at $273 billion. But in-security has hampered invest-ment. Last year, work washalted at China MetallurgicalGroup’s $3 billion Aynak cop-per mine in the eastern prov-ince of Logar following at-tacks.
Safety standards are alsooften lax in Afghanistan, withsome mines employing chil-dren as young as 10 despitegovernment regulations for-bidding child labour, the gov-ernment has said. Aminullah,a police official says more than1,000 area residents rushed tohelp, using shovels to try torescue the workers. —INP
nomic growth can be achieved ifthe Government draws on a widevariety of talents and reflects thecountry’s rich regional and po-litical diversity. Afghanistan isstrongest when all Afghans can‘see their face’ in the Govern-ment. “Britain and other coun-tries have made a huge, long termcommitment to support Afghani-stan.
We want to build on thisclose co-operation in the years tocome: the more Afghanistan’snext President wants to deepenthis partnership, the more we willbe able to do to support Afghani-stan.
“Next April, Afghanistanwill show its own people and theoutside world how much hasbeen achieved here in the lastdecade. —NNI
OUR CORRESPONDENT
D I KHAN—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman ImranKhan Sunday claimed the PTIadministration has come totransform the system and withindays the framework for the newsetup will be presented in the(provincial) assembly.
“No democratic governmenthas ever let the local bodies (LB)system function,” Imran Khanregretted while addressing anelection rally here in TehsilPiyala. He said that the electedmembers, who did not even have
No democratic govt let LBsystem function: Imran
a bicycle in the past, now travelin Land Cruisers. While the na-tion is getting poorer and poorer,these people are getting richerand richer, he added.
The PTI chief pointed outthat all other parties had repeat-edly taken their turns at the helmand it has only been two-and-a-half months since his party waselected to power. “People willwitness a visible difference inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa and otherprovinces in a matter of sixmonths,” he maintained.
He said he had been stress-ing not to be a part of the US-
led war on terror for the past 9years and now the political par-ties across the board are endors-ing his stance.
“The time has come to getyourself free, as today all theparties of Pakistan are sayingwith once voice to pull out ofthe US war”.
Imran said the peace will berestored through the means ofnegotiations. The province ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa has beenmost affected by the scourge ofterrorism. “We will bring peaceand prosperity to this province,”he promised.
Hazara provinceconspiracy to
divide Pakhtuns:Asfandyar
ISLAMABAD—Awami NationalParty (ANP) central leaderAsfandyar Wali Khan has said thatif Afghanistan and Pakistan didnot follow a joint strategy after thewithdrawal of Nato forces fromAfghanistan, both the countrieswould have to face dangerousconsequences.
During an interview withCharsadda Union of Journalists atWali Bagh here, Asfandyar saidthat Afghanistan is completelydestroyed and this destruction isto come to Pakistan too. He saidwhen the centre has called an AllParties Conference (APC) on ter-rorism and assured the provincesits full cooperation calling anotherAPC by the KP government is
Altaf condemnsattack on PakArmy officers
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) chief AltafHussain while condemning theattack on Pak Army trooperstermed the attack on Pak Armyofficers with improvised explo-sive device was the attack on thesecurity of Pakistan. People re-sponsible for that attack hadconspired to destabilize thecountry.
The MQM chief expressedhis heartfelt condolences to be-reaved families of Maj. Gen.Sanaullah, Lieut. Col. Tauseef,Lance Nayak Irfan Sattar, Chiefof Army Staff General Pervez
Continued on Page 6
Continued on Page 6
Pakistan Air Force fighter aircraft along with Chinese PLAAF fighter aircraft taxing out for the mission in Shaheen-II Airexercise, on Sunday.
REWARI (HARYANA—BJP’sprime ministerial candidate andGujarat Chief Minister NarendraModi Sunday told Pakistan toshun its anti-India attitude andstop backing terrorism against In-dia. In his first rally after beingchosen the prime ministerial can-didate Friday, Modi told a mas-sive rally of ex-soldiers in thisHaryana town that promoting gunculture had done Pakistan no goodover the last 60 years.
“The rulers in Pakistan shouldresolve that they will not allowterrorists to (operate) in Pakistanfor 10 years, will not protect ter-rorists, will not allow its soil to bethe breeding ground for terrorists.
“I can say with authority thatif this happens, Pakistan will seethe progress that it has not seen inthe last 60 years (since it got in-dependence),” he said.
Modi said Pakistan had “con-verted India into a war zonethrough its war mindset and sup-
port for terrorism.“Earlier, the war used to take
place on the border. But when you(Pakistan) could not defeat theIndian Army, you started going forkilling innocent citizens.
“Killing innocents throughcross border terrorism is neithergoing to help Pakistan nor India.”
Amid cheers, Modi went on:“You cannot progress with anti-India tirade. You cannot progresson this basis... For you own inter-ests and for the youth of yourcountry, you should rethink thewrong path you have chosen inthe last 60 years and step back.”
“I want to tell the rulerswhether it is of Bangladesh, In-dia or Pakistan: if we have tofight, we should fight againstpoverty, illiteracy and other ills.”
Thousands of people, includ-ing former soldiers, turned up forModi’s first public rally as theBharatiya Janata Party’s primemin.—Online
Shun anti-India attitude,Modi tells Pakistan
Majority satisfiedon 100-day govt
performanceISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif re-ceived 62 per cent approval ofthe masses across the country forhis performance during first 100days in a survey conducted byPILDAT here Sunday.
The poll is a performancetracker regarding governance bythe Federal Government led byPrime Minister Nawaz Sharifand performance of democracyin its various forms and express.
Prime Minister NawazSharif policy of seeking har-mony with state institutions andprovincial governments wasgiven the highest rate of ap-proval. His reaching out on thekey foreign policy issues alsoreceived popular approval.
The Pakistan Institute ofLegislative Development andTransparency (PILDAT) surveywas released on the InternationalDay of Democracy observed to-day (September 15).—APP
ENCOURAGING and counseling minority families to adopt healthierhousehold routines led to a small
decrease in children’s weight, in a newstudy. Researchers found encouragingfamilies to eat meals to-gether, limit TV time andget better sleep waslinked to about a one-pound drop in kids’weight relative to childrenin homes that didn’t re-ceive the encouragementand counseling. “I cantell a family, ‘You reallyneed to get more physi-cal activity’ and the con-versation can end there,”Dr. Elsie Taveras, thestudy’s senior authorfrom Massachusetts Gen-eral Hospital for Childrenin Boston, said.
But, she added, “I thinkthat ability to go deeper andtalk about their routines iskey.” Previous research has found certainhousehold routines - such as eating mealsas a family and only spending a couple ofhours in front of a TV each day - are linkedto a reduced risk of children being obese.It’s also known that children in minority andlow-income families are more likely to beoverweight and obese than white childrenfrom wealthier families.
For the new study, Taveras and her col-leagues randomly assigned 121 families withchildren between age two and five, who werepredominantly black and Latino, to receiveusual care or the counseling program. The62 families assigned to the counseling group
received four home visits and four phonecalls from health educators, educationalmaterials mailed to the home and weeklytext messages about adopting healthyhousehold routines. None of the counsel-
ing, however, specificallymentioned obesity or reduc-ing children’s weight. The 59families randomized to theusual care group receivededucational materials, suchas coloring books, in the mail.The materials didn’t addressthe household routines, butfocused on children reachingcertain developmental mile-stones.
After six months, theresearchers found children inthe counseling group weresleeping almost an hourlonger than children as-signed to the usual caregroup. Kids in the counsel-ing group also reduced theirTV viewing by about one
hour per day during the weekend. Therewas no change in the number of meals thechildren shared with their families, butTaveras said many of the children were al-ready eating family meals at the beginningof the study. The researchers did find thatkids in the usual care group had a smallincrease in body mass index (BMI) - a mea-surement of weight in relation to height -and those in the counseling group had aslight decrease in BMI. The difference wasequivalent to about one pound. “Relativeto the control group it was a small decrease,but not insignificant in a six-month periodin growing children,” Taveras said.
Routine changes tied tokids’ weight loss: study
Models walking on the ramp during Hunarkada Fashion Show of Diploma Students at Rock Bottom, in the capital.
Civil society activists Naseer Memon, Mushtaq Gadi, Jami Chandio, Zafarullah Khan,Iqbal Haider and Hussain Jarwar at a seminar on Strengthening Citizens Voices orga-nized by Indus Consortium and Oxfam to celebrate International Day of Democracy inIslamabad.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir
Activists of civil society holding placard during protest against five years old girl’s rapedemanding arrest of the culprits at D chowk.
CITY REPORTER
I S L A M A B A D — ” B o n d e dLabour Liberation Front Pa-kistan in collaboration withFredrich Ebert Stiftung (FES)has organized a three day“Photos & Paintings Exhibi-tion” at Pakistan NationalCouncil of Art (PNCA),Islamabad. The exhibitionfocused on the life ofBonded Labourer to pay trib-ute to the Supreme Court ofPakistan for the historicaldecision in which prohibitedbonded labour in 1988.
BLLF celebrates this dayas Freedom Day while theexhibition includes marvel-ous paintings and photosmade by professionals andvolunteers from differentwalks of life.
Beside the representa-
Photo exhibition on life of brick kiln labourtives of civil society, INGOs,NGOs print and electronicmedia, students and a largenumber of brick kiln workersvisited the inauguration ses-sion photo and painting ex-hibition at Pakistan NationalCouncil of Art (PNCA). ChiefGuest Kamran Michael Fed-eral (Minster Port and Ship-ping) inaugurated the event.
Whilst addressing theaudience Mr. KamranMichael admitted that Labourlaws have been ignored fromimplementation point of viewbut I assure you that we arecommitted to assure theimplementation on existingLabour laws for the better-ment of laborers. KamranMichael said that the work-ers are the backbone of na-tion and for their improve-ment; the Government is tak-
ing steps for implementationof its policies so that thebonded labour could beeliminated from Pakistan.
He appreciated thestruggle of BLL and con-gratulated the organizers onsuch event. Munir Qureshi,Federal Secretary, OverseasPakistanis and HR Depart-ment thanked Federal Min-ister and distinguish gueststo come and arrange suchan event on the life ofBonded Brick Kiln workers.He assures he will take per-sonal interest in issuance ofEOBI cards to brick kilnworkers.
He said that his depart-ment is taking keen interestto facilitate the labourers, inPakistan or overseas. Hefurther said that Labourersare playing pivotal role in the
economy of the country andtherefore, steps should betaken for their better life sothat they could generatemore economy.
Philipp Kauppert Coun-try Director, Friedrich EbertStiftung (FES) Pakistan,briefly explained the struc-ture and key work of FES inPakistan after thanking theFederal Minister Mr. KamranMichael and other distin-guish guests. He said thatit’s honor for us to work withBLLF and appreciated thesincerity of BLLF to work forthe right of brick kiln work-ers. And pay tribute to theCourt for the historical judg-ment in Pakistan in August.He said that they are work-ing in Pakistan from lasttwenty years they are focus-ing on Child Labour and es-
pecially on Bonded Labour.Paras Mani Tamang,
Country Director Action Aid,Pakistan, said on this occa-sion that he is seeing posi-tive development in Govern-ment and civil society orga-nizations for the eliminationof Bonded Labour from Paki-stan. Action Aid is fortunateto have such visionary part-ner, as BLLF and we are com-mitted to achieve some won-derful results together. SyedaGhulam Fatima General Sec-retary (BLLF) briefly ex-plained the role of BondedLabour Liberation Front Pa-kistan. She said Bonded La-bor Liberation Front (BLLF)Pakistan is a civil society or-ganization struggling for thebetterment of the bonded/brick kiln labourers in apeaceful and proactive way.
STAFF REPORTER
RAWA L P I N D I—Focal per-son for Rawalpindi MedicalCollege Dr Javed Hayatsaid Sunday that around 173dengue fever suspects hadbeen brought to the AlliedHospitals of the city so far.Eighteen of them were di-agnosed posit ive afterlaboratory tests. Eleven pa-t ients have been dis-charged after recovery,while seven were undertreatment, he added.
Dr Javed Hayat, who isalso Deputy Medical Super-intendent of the Holy Fam-ily Hospital (HFH), said thatsome 159 dengue fever sus-pects were registered at theHFH and 14 at the BenazirBhutto Hospital(BBH).
“Presently only four den-
gue patients are under treat-ment at the HFH and three atthe BBH,” he added. He saidsome 17 dengue fever sus-pects visited the above twoallied hospitals during last48 hours, raising the numberfrom 156 to 173.
Dr Hayat said majority ofthe patients belonged to theRawalpindi city and theirnumber had increased due toongoing rains.
He said all-out effortswere being made to controldengue cases in theRawalpindi district. “Thedengue fever situation is un-der control. Its threat willend by mid of October withthe change of weather con-ditions.”
Dr Hayat said maximumarrangements for the treat-ment of dengue patients had
been made at the allied hos-pitals. All possible preven-tive measures were in placeto meet any eventuality. Dis-trict Health Officer Dr AnsarIshaque said a full-scalefumigition drive was under-way in different localities ofthe city, espcially wheredengue larva had beenfound.
He said the healthdepartment’s teams hadvisited Khayaban-e-SirSyed, Dhoke Naju, DhokeDalal, Safdarabad, BangashColony, besides schools,colleges, bus terminals, in-cluding Pirwadahi BusStand, service stations, andtyre shops and sprayedchemicals to eliminate mos-quitoes. He advised the citi-zens to adopt precautionarymeasures.
More Denguepatients visit hospitals
CITY REPORTER
I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nUlema Council [PUC] will ob-serve Friday, September 20thas “daughters are a blessingnot a burden” day. In theirFriday sermons on that day,clerics, scholars and speak-ers will express their views onthe protection of daughtersand significance of daugh-ters in Islam.
This was stated by PUCCentral Chairman HafizMuhammad Tahir Mahmood
Ashrafi during his meetingswith delegations of scholarsbelonging to differentschools of thought. He saidthat several incidents of rapesand killings of innocentdaughters had taken placeduring the past one week andone couldn’t stay tightlippedover these incidents.
He said that those whoconsider daughters a burdenare violating Islamic teach-ings and Pakistan’s law andconstitution. “Therefore, thegovernment should take se-
rious note of these incidents.Rape cases should be heardin courts and the identities ofculprits should be revealedthrough the media,” he added.
Hafiz Muhammad TahirMahmood Ashrafi furthersaid that Islam was the pro-tector of women’s rights andoffered complete protectionto women. “Some ignorantpeople use the name of Islamto stop girls from gettingeducation, but these peoplehave nothing to do with Is-lam,” he said.
Daughters areblessing not a burden
Parliamentariansdrinking
unhygienic waterISLAMABAD—Unhygienicwater is still being suppliedto the residents of parliamentlodges and parliament sinceone year which has risen se-vere worries among membersof Parliament House.
Sources said, 8 under-ground and 8 above theground water tanks are fixedin parliament lodges, whichhave not been cleaned sinceone year.
During April 2011, watertankers were cleaned withapproved chemical while forthe second time they werecleaned by departmentalstaff in October 2012.
Sources said that new es-timates are being prepared forthe cleanliness of these watertanks during this year, andafter the approval and alloca-tion of funds with this con-nection, cleanliness of watertanks will take place.—Online
Drug addict killsex-wife, sonCRIME REPORTER
RAWALPINDI—A drug addictgunned down his ex wife andson over a property disputebesides injuring daughter in-law here on Sunday.
According to police, ac-cused Rehmat Ali, resident ofFazal Town of Rawalpindiasked his ex-wife Rubina Bibito vacate his house. Howevershe refused to vacate thehouse pleading that there wasno other place for her, son anddaughter in law to live in. Theexchange of harsh wordscompelled the man to open fireon his wife and son, killingboth on the spot and injuringdaughter in law.
ISLAMABAD—Medicines ofRs1.25 lackh have been usedfor the treatment of Sikandar,the gunman who kept the fed-eral capital on standstill for morethan five hours last month, sofar. Dr Waseem Khwaja of Pa-kistan Institute of Medical Sci-ences (PIMS), talking to a pri-vate TV channel, said that ateam of surgeons would decideabout discharging Sikandar. Hesaid that Sikandar is fully con-scious now and talks to thedoctors.
Dr Waseen said thatwounds on the chest and legof the patient are better nowand his eyes were alsochecked on his request.
It is pertinent to mentionhere that Sikandar accompa-nied by his wife and childrenbrought Islamabad to astandstill on August 15 bywaving two sub-machineguns and occasionally firinginto the air. The standoff thatlasted for five hours eventu-ally ended after Sikandar wasshot and arrested.
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Mishal Pakistanwill host second round of an-nual journalism awards ‘AgahiAwards 2013’ here on Septem-ber 21. The awards will begiven in collaboration withleading press clubs acrosscountry, local and internationalmedia development bodies,regulatory authorities, privatesector and other stakeholders.
The Agahi Awards are anannual series of awards forjournalism in Pakistan, devel-oped under the umbrella ofthe Credibility Lab at Mishalfor creating an appreciationmethodology for ethical andquality content.
The evaluation methodol-ogy and criteria of the awards
has been designed on the pil-lars of Media DevelopmentIndicators of UNESCO, in col-laboration with the Center forInternational Media Ethics(CIME) and UNESCO head-quarters in Paris. The Awardswere inaugurated in March2012 and have become themost prestigious awards forthe journalism in Pakistan,said a press release issuedhere on Friday.
The Awards have createdappreciation for journalism inmore than twenty different cat-egories including business andeconomy, conflict, corruption,crime, education, infotainment,the nexus between water, en-ergy and food security, gen-der and governance, health,extremism and terrorism.
Agahi awards onSeptember 21
Notices issued tohotels, bakeries
I S L A M A B A D —IslamabadCapital Territory (ICT) admin-istration has issued noticesto 170 hotels and bakeries forfailing to complying withsanitation and pure food lawsin the Federal Capital.
Health and Food Depart-ments of Islamabad and Capi-tal Development Authority(CDA) Health Directorate,under the directive of ICTAdministration, have con-ducted checking of 214 foodoutlets in the city and ruralareas and sent challansagainst 91 hotels and baker-ies in the court of law for un-hygienic conditions at thepremises and preparing fooditems with sub-standard foodmaterials. As many as 19samples were sent to the labo-ratory for analysis during thechecking.—APP
