Continued on Page 7 France may listen at least to Pope Francis ................................................ Petrol crisis highlights pathetic mismanagement ................................................ Take stock of other foreign funded NGOs See Page 04 AMANULLAH KHAN KARACHI—Although the KSE-100 Index moved up with a little with a gain of 20 points amid impres- sive market volume of 383 mil- lion shares. Bullish trend was evident in the market senti- ments. The index, that formed a higher high closing in green at 33786 level is eyeing for the target of the index approaching the upper daily Bollinger band is currently at 34,100. Friday’s top volume leader was Jahangir Siddiqi Company with 37 million shares traded in this scrip while K Electric and the Bank of Punjab were on second and third position with 32 million and 15 million shares respectively. The market is however looking expectantly at the SBP monetary policy review anticipat- ing 50-100 bps point cut in the policy rate. KSE-100 gains 20 points amid bullish mood LAHORE: Activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa hold a protest against blasphemous caricatures published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. M A KAISERIMAM LONDON—Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif has said that Pakistan will soon surmount all problems including terrorism, despite mul- tiple challenges. The Pakistani High Commission in Lon- don held a reception in Army Chief’s honour in Pak will soon surmount all problems including terrorism: COAS ‘No question of good or bad taliban: DGISPR which British Defense Minister Michael Falcon, members of parliament Lord Tariq Mehmood, Saeeda Warsi, Lord Nazir Ahmad, Khalid Mehmood and members of European parliament Dr Sajjad Kareem and Amjad Bashir and lead- ZUBAIR QURESHI/ IRFAN ALIGI/ MUZAFFAR ALI ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/LAHORE—Country- wide protests were held Friday to protest against publication of blasphemous caricatures by a French magazine. Speaking at rallies in differ- ent cities and towns and during Juma congrega- tions, religious scholars and leaders of public opinion strongly condemned the sacrilegious act of the French journal. They emphasized that attack on the daily was deplorable but it was equally unfortunate to injure feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims in the name of freedom of expression and media. They said there should be limits to such free- doms as they cannot be allowed to impinge upon fundamental rights of other people. The speakers urged the international community especially the United Nations to take serious notice of such provocative activities of some sections of the Western media, as these run against the spirit of inter-faith harmony, which is dire need of the time. In Karachi protest rallies were also taken out against insulting cartoons. A protest rally was intercepted by a heavy contingent of Police deployed to prevent the protestors from reaching the French Consulate in the city. Police contingent intervened and dis- persed the protestors through using water can- non, tear gas and aerial firing. The protestors having reached a high point of anguish retali- ated and started pelting stones on cops. A pho- tographer, was injured from a stray bullet while a cameraman of a local private television, was injured as he received a bullet in his ankle. A cop was also injured in the clash. The injured were shifted to the Jinnah Post- graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for treatment. Later, Pakistan Rangers Sindh reached the venue of clash and took many protestors in cus- tody, who were released after negotiations with the leaders of the protest march. The protestors had after the successful negotiations with the Rangers authorities ended their protest and reached the Karachi Press Club where they staged a protest demonstration and demanded action against those cops, who injured the pho- tographer, cameraman and others. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed concern over injury caused to a journalist of a foreign news agency during protest in Karachi. He prayed for his early recovery and asked au- thorities concerned to ensure best medical treat- ment to him. Protest were also held in different places of Lahore. Chief Jamaat-ud-Dawa Hafiz Mu- hammad Saeed also address a protest rally and severely condemned the blasphemous cartoons published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Jamaat-ud-Dawah Pakistan Amir Professor Hafiz Muhammad Saeed called the blasphemy “biggest terrorism” in the world and announced Countrywide protests against profane cartoons Three injured in Karachi rally Senate sub-committee passes resolution Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 PM Nawaz performs Umrah MAKKAH—Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif performed ‘Umrah’ on Friday and offered special prayers for sovereignty, stability and prosperity of Pa- kistan and unity of the Muslim Ummah. PM Nawaz who ar- rived in Saudi Arabia on a two day private visit the other day, to inquire after the health of ailing custodian of two holy mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz offered “Jumma” prayers at Haram. He offered ‘Nawafil’ at Haram Sharif be- fore the ‘Jumma’ prayers. Despite strict security Continued on Page 7 ASHRAF ANSARI ISLAMABAD—A special meeting to review the implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) on counter terrorism took place in the cabinet room of PM Secretariat today. The meeting was attended by Minister of State for IT & Telecom Anusha Rehman Khan, Special Assistants to PM Khawaja Zaheer and Barrister Zafar Ullah, Fed- eral Secretaries Interior, Finance, Law and Jus- tice and SAFRON, DGs IB and FIA, DG (Counter Terrorism) ISI, NC NACTA, Chair- men FBR, PTA and CDA, and IG Islamabad with federal minister for Interior and Narcotics Control Ch. Nisar Ali Khan in the chair. The meeting decided that over 100 million unverified SIMs will be verified within the next 85 days after which the possessing or sale of any unregistered/unverified SIM will be made Bank accounts, websites of terrorists blocked NAP review committee meeting held a cognizable offence. This will help not only in tracking down the unverified SIMs connected with terrorism but also to curb the massive grey traffic which is taking place in the communica- tion sector. Directives were given to all the relevant departments to block the bank accounts/ finan- cial transactions and all kinds of funding of pro- scribed organizations/ NGOs or any other indi- viduals or organization having connection with militants or terrorist activities. It was further decided that the registration of Afghan refugees, which has already been started, will move ahead on a fast track basis and all Afghan refugees should be shifted back to camps at the earliest. Ministry of IT was asked to work in close collaboration with PTA, the intelligence agen- Continued on Page 7 STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD—Minister for Petroleum and Natural Re- sources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that the prevailing petrol situation would start im- proving within a couple of days, while its complete short- age would end by January 25. The minister said that the prices of petrol and diesel would again decrease on 1st February. He said the first ter- minal of LNG gas would start working on 31st March this year. He said after the start of working by LNG tower the shortage of gas for domestic consumers would also de- crease. He said the prices of LNG would also come down with the start of functioning of LNG tower. In an interview with a private TV channel, he said the temporary shortage in some areas of Punjab was due to a sudden increase in petro- leum demand following sub- stantial reduction in its price. The minister said the petrol demand has increased up to 25 percent in last two weeks in Punjab and the government is making all out efforts to ar- range the additional fuel to meet the growing demand. Petroleum shortage to continue for a week LNG price not yet decided Continued on Page 7 TTP commander killed, 6 held in Khyber Agency JAMRUD—A commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was killed during clash with security forces in the Khyber tribal region on Friday morning. According to sources, the clash took place in Jamrud Shah Kas tehsil of Khyber Agency. Separately, security forces also arrested six suspects during search operation in Landi Kotal area. The raids were conducted in the area around Landi Kotal High School. It may be men- tioned here that a bomb was recovered from the same school on Thursday which was defused later. During overnight raid, two suspects were arrested in Landi Continued on Page 7 Paris post office gunman arrested, hostages freed PARIS—French newspapers Le Figaro and Le Monde, both citing an AFP news agency dispatch based on police sources, reported that a man equipped with a military weapon had taken an unconfirmed number of hostages at the post office in the town of Colombes, not far outside the capital. BFM TV said two people were being held hostage and that the incident was not deemed terrorist-related. Police sources said US welcomes Pak banning Haqqani terrorist network WASHINGTON—The US has welcomed news reports that Pakistan is contemplating banning several terrorist organisations including the Haqqani network and ten or eleven others calling it an important step towards eliminating terrorist activities in that country. “We welcome the reports that the Government of Pakistan plans to outlaw the Haqqani Network, and about ten other organisations linked to violent extremism,” State Department Deputy Spokes- person Marie Harf, told reporters. “If they go forward with this it is an important step, certainly, towards eliminating terrorist activity Continued on Page 7 PTI made many changes in JC draft: Dar STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD—Finance Minis- ter Ishaq Dar said on Friday that Imran Khan’s party had made several changes to the judicial commission draft sent to them. Dar in a statement said it was due to these changes in the draft by the Pakistan Tehreek- e-Insaf (PTI) which have caused delays in the formation of the judicial commission (JC). On Thursday, Imran Khan had said his party had written a letter to Ishaq Dar seeking a negotiated settlement rather than taking to the roads with regard to the election rigging probe. Khan added that Jahangir Tareen had sent a let- ter to Dar to remind him that his side had not returned to talks after December 23. The PTI chief said they had written a letter to Dar, as they wanted to push for a negotiated settlement of the issue instead of taking to roads with regard to the polls probe. He said Jahangir Tareen had sent a let- ISLAMABAD—Activists, campaigners and members of the civil society gathered across Pakistan on Friday to hold demonstrations against terrorism and terrorist sympathizers - marking one month since a deadly attack by Taliban militants on a school in Peshawar killed over 130 children. Protest vigils were held in several cities, Nation remembers kids martyred One month since APS massacre including Islamabad, Karachi, Abbottabad, Sialkot, Sargodha, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Jhelum, Jhelum Cantt, Bahawalpur, Dera Allah Yaar, Sukkur, Larkana, and Nawabshah. Demonstrations were also scheduled to be held in different parts of the world, including Boston, Dallas, Houston, New York, Washington, Los 3 children crushed to death in Peshawar STAFF REPORTER PESHAWAR—Three children were crushed to death under the crane during operation against encroachments in Peshawar’s Ghanta Ghar area on Friday. According to details, local administration launched opera- tion against encroachers during rush hours when the sale of fried fish and tikka was on its peak. Some shopkeepers re- sisted the drive and appeared before the cranes. Three children were crushed to death under the crane during the protest. Meanwhile, infuriated people raised slogans against the administration and de- manded justice. War crimes court opens probe into Palestinian territories THE HAGUE—The prosecutor of the Interna- tional Criminal Court launched a preliminary probe Friday that could clear the way for a full-scale investiga- tion into possible war crimes in Palestinian territories, plunging the court into the most politically charged conflict it has ever investi- gated. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement she will conduct the prelimi- nary examination with “full independence and impartial- ity.” The announcement comes after the Palestinian Authority Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 Chinese President to visit Pakistan next month ISLAMABAD—Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Pakistan in February to discuss bilateral relations and inaugurate projects in the country being implemented with Chinese cooperation. Accord- ing to sources, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will come to Pakistan first to finalize security and schedule ahead Continued on Page 7 Picture on Back Page
Transcript
Continued on Page 7
France may listen at least toPope Francis................................................Petrol crisis highlights patheticmismanagement................................................Take stock of other foreignfunded NGOs
See Page 04
AMANULLAH KHAN
KARACHI—Although the KSE-100 Indexmoved up with a little with again of 20 points amid impres-sive market volume of 383 mil-lion shares. Bullish trend wasevident in the market senti-ments.
The index, that formed ahigher high closing in green at33786 level is eyeing for thetarget of the index approachingthe upper daily Bollinger bandis currently at 34,100.
Friday’s top volume leaderwas Jahangir Siddiqi Companywith 37 million shares traded in this scrip whileK Electric and the Bank of Punjab were on
second and third position with 32 million and15 million shares respectively.
The market is however looking expectantly
at the SBP monetary policy review anticipat-ing 50-100 bps point cut in the policy rate.
KSE-100 gains 20 pointsamid bullish mood
LAHORE: Activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa hold a protest against blasphemous caricatures published by French satiricalmagazine Charlie Hebdo.
M A KAISERIMAM
LONDON—Chief of Army Staff General RaheelSharif has said that Pakistan will soon surmountall problems including terrorism, despite mul-tiple challenges.
The Pakistani High Commission in Lon-don held a reception in Army Chief’s honour in
Pak will soon surmountall problems including
terrorism: COAS ‘No question of good or bad taliban: DGISPR
which British Defense Minister Michael Falcon,members of parliament Lord Tariq Mehmood,Saeeda Warsi,Lord NazirAhmad, KhalidMehmood and members of European parliamentDr Sajjad Kareem and Amjad Bashir and lead-
ZUBAIR QURESHI/ IRFAN ALIGI/MUZAFFAR ALI
ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/LAHORE—Country-wide protests were held Friday to protest againstpublication of blasphemous caricatures by aFrench magazine. Speaking at rallies in differ-ent cities and towns and during Juma congrega-tions, religious scholars and leaders of publicopinion strongly condemned the sacrilegious actof the French journal.
They emphasized that attack on the dailywas deplorable but it was equally unfortunateto injure feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims in thename of freedom of expression and media.They said there should be limits to such free-doms as they cannot be allowed to impingeupon fundamental rights of other people. Thespeakers urged the international communityespecially the United Nations to take seriousnotice of such provocative activities of somesections of the Western media, as these runagainst the spirit of inter-faith harmony, whichis dire need of the time.
In Karachi protest rallies were also takenout against insulting cartoons.
A protest rally was intercepted by a heavycontingent of Police deployed to prevent theprotestors from reaching the French Consulatein the city. Police contingent intervened and dis-persed the protestors through using water can-non, tear gas and aerial firing. The protestorshaving reached a high point of anguish retali-
ated and started pelting stones on cops. A pho-tographer, was injured from a stray bullet whilea cameraman of a local private television, wasinjured as he received a bullet in his ankle. Acop was also injured in the clash.
The injured were shifted to the Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for treatment.
Later, Pakistan Rangers Sindh reached thevenue of clash and took many protestors in cus-tody, who were released after negotiations withthe leaders of the protest march. The protestorshad after the successful negotiations with theRangers authorities ended their protest andreached the Karachi Press Club where theystaged a protest demonstration and demandedaction against those cops, who injured the pho-tographer, cameraman and others.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has expressedconcern over injury caused to a journalist of aforeign news agency during protest in Karachi.He prayed for his early recovery and asked au-thorities concerned to ensure best medical treat-ment to him.
Protest were also held in different places ofLahore. Chief Jamaat-ud-Dawa Hafiz Mu-hammad Saeed also address a protest rally andseverely condemned the blasphemous cartoonspublished by French satirical magazine CharlieHebdo.
Jamaat-ud-Dawah Pakistan Amir ProfessorHafiz Muhammad Saeed called the blasphemy“biggest terrorism” in the world and announced
Countrywide protestsagainst profane cartoonsThree injured in Karachi rally Senate
sub-committee passes resolution
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7
PM NawazperformsUmrah
MAKKAH—Prime MinisterMian Nawaz Sharif performed‘Umrah’ on Friday and offeredspecial prayers for sovereignty,stability and prosperity of Pa-kistan and unity of the MuslimUmmah. PM Nawaz who ar-rived in Saudi Arabia on a twoday private visit the other day,to inquire after the health ofailing custodian of two holymosques, King Abdullah BinAbdul Aziz offered “Jumma”prayers at Haram. He offered‘Nawafil’ at Haram Sharif be-fore the ‘Jumma’ prayers.
Despite strict security
Continued on Page 7
ASHRAF ANSARI
ISLAMABAD—A special meeting to review theimplementation of National Action Plan (NAP)on counter terrorism took place in the cabinetroom of PM Secretariat today. The meeting wasattended by Minister of State for IT & TelecomAnusha Rehman Khan, Special Assistants to PMKhawaja Zaheer and Barrister Zafar Ullah, Fed-eral Secretaries Interior, Finance, Law and Jus-tice and SAFRON, DGs IB and FIA, DG(Counter Terrorism) ISI, NC NACTA, Chair-men FBR, PTA and CDA, and IG Islamabadwith federal minister for Interior and NarcoticsControl Ch. Nisar Ali Khan in the chair.
The meeting decided that over 100 millionunverified SIMs will be verified within the next85 days after which the possessing or sale ofany unregistered/unverified SIM will be made
Bank accounts, websites ofterrorists blocked
NAP review committee meeting helda cognizable offence. This will help not only intracking down the unverified SIMs connectedwith terrorism but also to curb the massive greytraffic which is taking place in the communica-tion sector.
Directives were given to all the relevantdepartments to block the bank accounts/ finan-cial transactions and all kinds of funding of pro-scribed organizations/ NGOs or any other indi-viduals or organization having connection withmilitants or terrorist activities.
It was further decided that the registrationof Afghan refugees, which has already beenstarted, will move ahead on a fast track basisand all Afghan refugees should be shifted backto camps at the earliest.
Ministry of IT was asked to work in closecollaboration with PTA, the intelligence agen-
Continued on Page 7
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Minister forPetroleum and Natural Re-sources Shahid Khaqan Abbasihas said that the prevailingpetrol situation would start im-proving within a couple ofdays, while its complete short-age would end by January 25.
The minister said that theprices of petrol and dieselwould again decrease on 1stFebruary. He said the first ter-minal of LNG gas would startworking on 31st March thisyear. He said after the start ofworking by LNG tower theshortage of gas for domestic
consumers would also de-crease. He said the prices ofLNG would also come downwith the start of functioning ofLNG tower. In an interviewwith a private TV channel, hesaid the temporary shortage insome areas of Punjab was dueto a sudden increase in petro-leum demand following sub-stantial reduction in its price.
The minister said the petroldemand has increased up to 25percent in last two weeks inPunjab and the government ismaking all out efforts to ar-range the additional fuel tomeet the growing demand.
Petroleum shortageto continue for a week
LNG price not yet decided
Continued on Page 7
TTP commanderkilled, 6 held inKhyber Agency
JAMRUD—A commander ofTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) was killed during clashwith security forces in theKhyber tribal region on Fridaymorning. According to sources,the clash took place in JamrudShah Kas tehsil of KhyberAgency. Separately, securityforces also arrested six suspectsduring search operation inLandi Kotal area.
The raids were conductedin the area around Landi KotalHigh School. It may be men-tioned here that a bomb wasrecovered from the sameschool on Thursday which wasdefused later.
During overnight raid, twosuspects were arrested in Landi
Continued on Page 7
Paris postoffice gunmanarrested,hostages freedPARIS—French newspapersLe Figaro and Le Monde,both citing an AFP newsagency dispatch based onpolice sources, reported that aman equipped with a militaryweapon had taken anunconfirmed number ofhostages at the post office inthe town of Colombes, not faroutside the capital.
BFM TV said two peoplewere being held hostage andthat the incident was notdeemed terrorist-related.
Police sources said
US welcomesPak banningHaqqani terroristnetworkWASHINGTON—The US haswelcomed news reports thatPakistan is contemplatingbanning several terroristorganisations including theHaqqani network and ten oreleven others calling it animportant step towardseliminating terrorist activitiesin that country.
“We welcome the reportsthat the Government ofPakistan plans to outlaw theHaqqani Network, and aboutten other organisations linkedto violent extremism,” StateDepartment Deputy Spokes-person Marie Harf, toldreporters. “If they go forwardwith this it is an importantstep, certainly, towardseliminating terrorist activity
Continued on Page 7
PTI made manychanges in
JC draft: DarSTAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Finance Minis-ter Ishaq Dar said on Fridaythat Imran Khan’s party hadmade several changes to thejudicial commission draft sentto them.
Dar in a statement said itwas due to these changes in thedraft by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which havecaused delays in the formationof the judicial commission(JC).
On Thursday, Imran Khanhad said his party had writtena letter to Ishaq Dar seeking anegotiated settlement ratherthan taking to the roads withregard to the election riggingprobe. Khan added thatJahangir Tareen had sent a let-ter to Dar to remind him thathis side had not returned totalks after December 23.
The PTI chief said they hadwritten a letter to Dar, as theywanted to push for a negotiatedsettlement of the issue insteadof taking to roads with regardto the polls probe. He saidJahangir Tareen had sent a let-
ISLAMABAD—Activists, campaigners andmembers of the civil society gathered acrossPakistan on Friday to hold demonstrationsagainst terrorism and terrorist sympathizers -marking one month since a deadly attack byTaliban militants on a school in Peshawar killedover 130 children.
Protest vigils were held in several cities,
Nation remembers kids martyredOne month since APS massacre
including Islamabad, Karachi, Abbottabad,Sialkot, Sargodha, Peshawar, Hyderabad,Jhelum, Jhelum Cantt, Bahawalpur, Dera AllahYaar, Sukkur, Larkana, and Nawabshah.
Demonstrations were also scheduled to be heldin different parts of the world, including Boston,Dallas, Houston, New York, Washington, Los
3 childrencrushed todeath in
PeshawarSTAFF REPORTER
PESHAWAR—Three childrenwere crushed to death under thecrane during operation againstencroachments in Peshawar’sGhanta Ghar area on Friday.
According to details, localadministration launched opera-tion against encroachers duringrush hours when the sale offried fish and tikka was on itspeak. Some shopkeepers re-sisted the drive and appearedbefore the cranes.
Three children werecrushed to death under thecrane during the protest.
Meanwhile, infuriatedpeople raised slogans againstthe administration and de-manded justice.
War crimescourt opensprobe intoPalestinianterritoriesTHE HAGUE—Theprosecutor of the Interna-tional Criminal Courtlaunched a preliminary probeFriday that could clear theway for a full-scale investiga-tion into possible war crimesin Palestinian territories,plunging the court into themost politically chargedconflict it has ever investi-gated.
Prosecutor FatouBensouda said in a statementshe will conduct the prelimi-nary examination with “fullindependence and impartial-ity.”
The announcement comesafter the Palestinian Authority
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7
Chinese Presidentto visit Pakistannext monthISLAMABAD—ChinesePresident Xi Jinping isexpected to visit Pakistan inFebruary to discuss bilateralrelations and inaugurate
Minister Wang Yi will cometo Pakistan first to finalizesecurity and schedule ahead
Continued on Page 7
Picture on Back Page
LANDIKOTAL: Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and other locals holding a protest rally to condemn the publication ofblasphemous caricatures
New board setup for BISP
ISLAMABAD—After the res-ignation of former ChairmanBenazir Income Support Pro-gram (BISP) Anwar Baig, anew board has been consti-tuted which will appoint anew chairman after approvalfrom the Prime Minister.
According to a seniorBISP official after the end-ing of tenure of the oldboard, a new board hasbeen consti tuted whichconsists of non govern-ment office al AmjadRashid and 9 other mem-bers. The board is likelyto meet next month inwhich new board chairmanwill be appointed after con-sultation and approval ofPrime Minister NawazSharif. Former ChairmanAnwar Baig resigned fromhis post in November2014. After his resignationconsultation was held toappoint SenatorMushahidullah as Chair-man BISP but he refusedto take the post.—Online
FATA Secretariatto utilize NTS for
appointmentsSTAFF REPORTER
PESHAWAR—In line with thedirectives of the GovernorKhyber Pukhtunkhwa tomake the process s of ap-pointments in the FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas(FATA) more transparentand merit based, the bossesin the FATA secretariat havedecided to utilize the ser-vices of the National Test-ing Services (NTS).
In this regard a Memo-randum of Understandingbetween the FATA secre-tariat and the National Test-ing Services was signed inthe committee room of thesecretariat here on Friday.The Deputy Secretary Ad-ministration and ServicesFATA Muntazir Khan andthe Chief Coordinator NorthNTS Mr.
Tahir Aslam inked theMoU. Also present on theoccasion were DirectorLive Stock Jehgangir Shah,deputy Secretary SpecialTask FATA SecretariatAdil Saeed and other offi-cials.
The authorities in theFATA secretariat said thatinitially all the inductionsin the three departmentsi.e Law & Order, Director-ate of Projects and LiveStocks would be madethrough the NTS whilelater on the scope of theprocess would be ex-panded to other depart-ments in the FATA Firsttime in the history of theFATA secretariat, the prac-tice of inductions throughNTS, is dest ined to golong way in ensuringtransparent and meri tbased appointments thusproviding equal opportu-nities of jobs to the edu-cated but unemployedFATA youth.
The Addit ional ChiefSecretary FATAMohammad Azam Khanhas directed all the depart-ments to make full utiliza-tion of the new arrange-ments so that meri t andtransparency reign su-preme in the FATA.STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—First Lady of Azerbaijan andGoodwill Ambassador of UNESCO andISESCO Mehriban Aliyeva inaugurated thesolar energy community water SahalKhinger, tehsil Gujar Khan, inremembrance of the martyrsof Azerbaijan.
Speaking at the cer-emony, Ambassador ofAzerbaijan Dashgin Shikarovstressed the ties and sharedvalues of two nations thatbrought the people ofAzerbaijan and Pakistan to-gether. Shikarov briefed theparticipants on events ofJanuary 20, 1990. He said thaton that fateful night Soviettroops stormed Baku, shoot-ing and smashing peacefuldemonstrators by tanks. “As a result ofthis unprecedented illegal action, 134 menwere killed about 700 men wounded,” headded.
The diplomat said that “Black January”was a turning point in the history ofAzerbaijan. “Despite military, political andmoral aggression, Azerbaijani nationalmovement kept on struggling, succeedingin declaring its independence on October18, 1991 and Pakistan was one of the firstcountries in the world to recognise thisindependence,” he added.
Addressing the audience, Ibn-e-Khaldun Academy Principle Qazi
Azerbaijan martyrs rememberedMuhammad Imran, Azerbaijan-PakistanMedia Forum Secretary General RajaJaved Batti and the other speakers spokeabout cordial relations between the twocountries and the importance to alwaysremember all those who sacrificed their
precious lives for the freedom of theirmotherland. They also spoke about theindependence movement of Pakistan andthe people who laid down their lives forthe Nation.
The speakers thanked the first ladyand the people of Azerbaijan for stand-ing together with the people of Pakistan.The ceremony was followed by perfor-mances of s tudents of Ibn-e-KhaldunAcademy and lunch. Later, the ambas-sador of Azerbaijan and other partici-pants of the function visi ted SahalKhinger village to get acquainted withthe water supply scheme.
QUETTA— Accountability Court hasawarded 7 years imprisonment to two offi-cials of NADRA Balochistan for issuanceof fake national identity cards to the for-eigners here on Friday. Fine of Rs 4 millionon each criminal was also imposed.
NAB Balochistan had filed referenceagainst Mr Syed Ali Mohammad Agha andMr Rizwan Aftab, Assistant DirectorsNADRA Balochistan. Accountability Courtin light of ample proof against the guiltyofficials awarded punishment of sevenyears in prison and imposed fine of Rs 4million on each..
NAB had arrested accused NADRA of-ficials on 4 September 2004. They had is-sued NICs to Afghan nationals from theKhanozai center of NADRA. Meanwhile, itis reported that at least 60 scanned copiesof fake passports, dozens of counterfeitcards of army and police personnel and ac-tivated illegal Pakistani and Afghani SIMswere seized in operation carried out in con-nection with National Action Plan againstterrorism, SSP Operation Aetezaz AhmedGoraya said.
Addressing a press conference here atCCPO office on Friday, SSP Operation saidthat 24 other accused were also held during
APNScondolesSTAFF REPORTER
KA R A C H I —Sarmad Ali ,Secretary General All Pa-kistan Newspapers Soci-ety has expressed pro-found grief on behalf ofAPNS over the sad demiseof the mother of RizwanAshraf (Daily Dunya) andMr Irfan Ashraf (DailyJang), who passed awayon Thursday.Sarmad Alihas offered his condo-lence to Mr RizwanAshraf , Mr Irfan Ashrafand their family andprayed that almighty Allahrest the departed soul ineternal peace and givethem courage and pa-tience to bear this irrepa-rable loss.
various raids in parts of the provincial capi-tal. “On a tip off, law enforcement agenciesapprehended two accused namelyNajeebullah and Allah Noor and recovered60 scanned copies of fake passports, plentyof cards of security men including Armypersonnel from the CPO of the Photostatshop run by the detainees.
He said that those who were issued fakepassports, NICs by the accused would alsobe traced and detained. “Several illegal ac-tivated SIMs were also confiscated from theAirport Road of the city. Two accused ZiaulHaq and Taimoor Shah were being interro-gated. To a question, Goraya said that onthe directives of Federal government fol-lowing the National Action Plan, hundredsof illegal immigrants were arrested.
“As many as 125 illegal Afghans werethe suspects of being involved in criminalactivities,” he maintained. SSP said that alist of property dealers, hotels was being fi-nalized to keep check on foreigners. The stateagents have been asked not to deal with theillegal Afghans for renting houses to them.
“Those who would rent out his houseor room at hotel to illegal Afghans wouldbe dealt in accordance with law,” hestressed.—APP
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—PEMRA in its 101stAuthority meeting held at Islamabadon Friday approved cancellation of 425cable TV licenses. Most of these cablelicenses were inoperative and dormantwhile some of them have been can-celled for being defaulters. There weretotal 3,600 PEMRA licensed cable op-erators across the country; however,after cancellation of 425 cable TV li-censes, the number would plummet to3,175.
PEMRA also approved cancella-tion of “Metro One”, TV channel’s li-cense on the premise that the licensewas void ab-initio according to Rule13 of PEMRA Rules 2009. Under saidRule, a person engaged in distributionservice (cable TV etc) cannot hold abroadcast license and vice versa.Whereas, the company was issuedsatellite TV license in year 2010 at thetime when the company and its direc-
PEMRA cancels 425 cableTV, one TV channel licenses
tor were already operating cable TVsystem.
Authority also deliberated onpossible relaxation of tariffs, criteriaand rules for protection, facilitationand growth of electronic media incountry. In this regard, Authority rec-ommended removing the limit of maxi-mum of two landing rights to one com-pany. Authority viewed that the capwas hampering inflow of quality con-tent, investment and employmentthus decided to relax this conditionby making necessary changes in theRules. For this purpose, Authority’srecommendations would be for-warded to the Federal Govt forchanges in the Rules. Authority alsoapproved waiver of fee for change ofchannel name or logo for off-shore(Landing Rights) TV channels. TheAuthority unanimously given goahead for bidding of DTH licenseswhich was a much awaited decisionand would surely revolutionize the
electronic media landscape of Paki-stan in days to come.
Authority also approved the revi-sion of licensing regime for award ofMobile TV licenses. Future licensingwould be on case to case basis on feeof Rs. 500,000/-. Scope of Mobile TVlicensees would be delivery of PEMRAlicensed channels and FM radio con-tent through PTA (CVAS) licensedcompanies. It was also decided that50% of one percent gross revenueearned every year through this serviceshall be allocated for establishment ofPEMRA Electronic Media R&D fund.
The meeting was chaired by Act-ing Chairman PEMRA, Mr. ParvezRathore while Executive MemberPEMRA, Mr. Kamal Uddin Tipu, Sec-retary Ministry of Information, Broad-casting & National Heritage and pri-vate Members Mr. Asraf Gujjar, Mr.Israr Abbassi, Mian Shams, Ms. ShamaParveen Magsi and Ms. FareehaIftikhar attended the meeting.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Mr. Qamar Zaman Chaudhry,Chairman NAB visited NAB Karachi Bu-reau to have annual inspection of NABKarachi Regional Bureau. NAB Chairman’sInspection & Monitoring Team (CI&MT)who was deputed to conduct Annual In-spection of NAB Karachi Bureau for theyear 2014. The inspection was carried outfrom January 14 to January 16, 2015 in or-der to review and evaluate the performanceof NAB Karachi Bureau on the basis of aquantified grading system. Senior member(CI&MT) alongwith his team conductedAnnual Inspection of Karachi Bureau forthe year of 2014. He gave briefing to Chair-man NAB about the inspection done andhighlighted the strengths and weakness ofNAB Karachi Bureau. He said that on thedirections of the Chairman NAB, Mr. QamarZaman Chaudhry, a quantified grading sys-
Qamar appreciates KarachiNAB office’s performance
tem has been devised, under this gradingsystem, performance of NAB Regional Bu-reaus will be evaluated at a given criteria.
The Chairman NAB said NAB isPakistan’s apex anti-corruption organi-zation which is assigned with the respon-sibi l i ty of el imination of corruptionthrough a holistic approach of aware-ness, prevention and enforcement. I toperates under the National Account-ability Ordinance-1999 which is extendedto all of Pakistan, including FATA andGilgit Baltistan. NAB has its Headquar-ter at Islamabad while it has Seven Re-gional Bureaus located at Karachi ,Lahore, Pehsawar, Quetta, Sukkur,Multan and Rawlapindi.
The Chairman NAB said that NABKarachi is one of the important RegionalBureaus of NAB. It plays prominent rolein contributing towards the overall per-formance of NAB.
Afghanijailed under
Foreigners ActHYDERABAD— court heresentenced one Abdul GhaniAfghani to undergo sixmonths imprisonment andfine of Rs 5,000. he SecondAdditional District and Ses-sions Judge Aijaz Khakheliconvicted Abdul GhaniAfghani under the Foreign-ers Act and directed the gov-ernment to deport him aftercompletion of his jail term.
Afghani was arrestedand booked in an FIR at HaliRoad police station last year.Meanwhile, Police arrested3 suspected street criminalsin Latifabad area here afteran exchange of fire in whichone of them was injured. hepolice spokesman informedthat the police carried outsearch operation in the areaafter a resident MashalMaseeh reported to the po-lice that the suspects hadsnatched their mobilephone, cash and importantdocuments. The B-Sectionpolice raided Bismillah CityPark but the suspect KamranRajar opened fire on the po-lice. he police arrested Rajar,Bilal Shaikh.—APP
Official sentenced for issuing NIC to Afghans
Three PAF JF-17 Thunders presenting fly past over Army Public School Pesawar.
Three suicidejackets recoveredBASHIR AHMAD REHMANI
HAFIZABAD—The imminentdanger to human lives hasbeen averted following recov-ery of three suicide jacketsfrom the Jhang branch canalnear a seminary, about six kilo-meter from here on Friday.According to police sources,some fishermen spotted somesuspicious material floating inthe canal and informed thepolice. The District Civil De-fence Officer Ali Imranalongwith bomb disposalsquad and police rushed tothe spot and recovered threesuicide jackets containingthirty kilograms explosive ma-terial. The bomb disposalsquad defused the explosivematerial. Meanwhile, heavypolice contingent cordonedoff the area and raiding dif-ferent undisclosed places toascertain who had thrownthese suicide jackets in thecanal. It is presumed thatthe suicide bombers hadthrown the jackets to savethem from being arrested fol-lowing crackdown launchedby the police to round upmilitants. The DPO ShakirHussain Dawar confirmedthat the suicide jackets havebeen defused by the bombdisposal squad. Had thesesjackets exploded therewould have been colossalloss to human lives, he main-tained. He further said thatthe police operation hasbeen launched on war foot-ing to apprehend the realculprits.
ISLAMABAD During around table discussion atthe Ministry of Planning in
Islamabad Friday, a team ofworld-class water experts fromthe Netherlands presentedtheir first findings on how toanticipate and respond betterto the floods that have tor-mented Pakistan and itspeople in recent years. TheDutch Disaster Risk Reduc-tion team, invited by the Gov-ernment of Pakistan and theGovernment of Punjab and fa-cilitated by the NetherlandsEmbassy in Islamabad, wel-comed discussion and sug-gestions on their first findingsfrom the involved ministries,academia and societalorganisations – beforefinalising their report suggest-ing smart solutions for im-proving Pakistan’s responseto the flood problem. Mr EhsanIqbal, Federal Minister of Plan-ning, stated that “Disaster riskreduction and flood mitigationare high priority areas for theGovernment of Pakistan. Thehigh level floods of recentyears have cost many inno-cent lives and economic dam-age amounting hundreds ofbillion rupees.
Dr Jos de Sonneville, arecognised authority on inte-grated water managementand leader of the scoping teamfrom the Netherlands, was im-
Experts suggest smartsolutions to address floods
pressed and encouraged bythe efforts already under-taken by Pakistan’s authori-ties. He said: “The scale ofPakistan’s water and irrigationinfrastructure, their opera-tional management and therecent improvements in flooddamage response are veryimpressive indeed.
I was also glad to note thesense of urgency – both onthe governmental level and insociety at large. I am hopefulthat Dutch expertise from boththe public and private watersector can help Pakistan tomove from relief to security.”To that effect, the team haveidentified smart solutions –often engaging entrepreneur-ial space – that they feel meritfurther development.
Dr Frank vanSteenbergen, a water re-source specialist with 25 yearsof experience in Pakistan,mentioned a few of these sug-gestions.
“For instance, the certifi-cation of embankments usingDutch know-how will notonly allow a more targeted re-sponse, but also enable realestate development in thearea. Moreover, floods can beturned into an economicboon if the waters are routedwisely and timely to be har-nessed for irrigation andgroundwater recharge.— INP
STAFF REPORTER
PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa GovernorSardar Mahtab Ahmad Khanreviewed the arrangement/states of preparedness fortimely repatriation of TDPsto their areas. He has alsostressed on rehabilitationand reconstruction of thedamaged infrastructure inKhyber Agency in particu-lar and FATA in general. Hewas presiding over a highlevel meeting at Governor’sHouse on Friday regardingtimely and dignified repatria-tion of TDPs rehabilitationand reconstruction of dam-aged schools and houses inthe respective areas. Addi-tional Chief Secretary AzamKhan, Principal Secretary toGovernor Dr. MuhammadFakhr e Alam, Secretary Lawand Order FATA Shakeel
Mahtab reviews TDPstimely repatriation
Qadir Khan, DG FDMA andPolitical Agent KhyberAgency were also presenton the occasion.
The Governor while re-ferring to various points ofthe agenda item said thatdistribution of food packageamong TDPs should bemade in a systematic way inorder to avoid any unrestand mismanagement. TheGovernor instructed theconcerned officials to final-ize the whole programme forthe dignified repatriation ofTDPs; link the new schemeof TDPs return with the pre-vious schemes in line tocover up all of the expectedloop holes. Furthermore, heinstructed the political ad-ministration and FDMA tofunctionalize the schools inFATA by providing booksand bags on successful re-patriation of TDPs.
STAFF REPORT
ISLAMABAD—On the directives of Air ChiefMarshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chief of the Air Staff,Pakistan Air Force, PAF adopted a unique wayof presenting tribute to the martyrs and coura-geous students of Army Public School Peshawar.
Flying at a low altitude, three JF-17 Thun-ders of Pakistan Air Force flew over APS,Peshawar to salute the martyrs and resilient stu-dents of the school.A large number of students,teachers and the parents who were gathered atthe School for this unique event, witnessed thefly past by PAF JF-17 Thunder aircraft.
The high speed bomb burst by the forma-tion of Thunders left the crowd spellbound.As the aircraft exited the area, the highlycharged and motivated students chanted slo-gans in favor of Pakistan and PAF.
The Air Chief in his special message to thestudents of APS lauded their courage for re-suming their academics after such a gruesometerrorist attack and stated that the supremesacrifice of the martyred students of APSwould never go waste.He also reiterated hisresolve to fight against the enemies of thecountry while standing shoulder to shoulder
PAF Thunders salute martyrs,resilient students of Peshawar APS
with the nation.The fly past was a clear manifestation of
PAF’s resolve to fight the menace of terrorismas the Air force is playing a lead role in theongoing operation Zarb e Azb. At the end ofthe event, the students sang the national an-them with a renewed vigor and resolve to fightagainst the evil of terrorism. The students andfaculty present at the event termed it a histori-cal event which would be cherished by thenation for the times to come.
The unique event was arranged by PAF asthe nation mourned one month of horrific ter-rorist attack on APS Peshawar.The students of various educational institutesand Army Public School (APS) here Friday re-affirmed their strong determination for con-tinuation of education on completion of onemonth of deadly terrorists attack on innocentpupils at APS at Warsak on the fateful day ofDecember 16 last.
The students and survivors of the deadlyassault that claimed lives of 145 people includ-ing 136 children vowed to utilize all their ener-gies to equipping themselves with ornament ofeducation whatever the situation may be, add-ing such cowardice attack could not deprive
them from their right of education. They said thesuccessful re-opening of APS within 26 daysafter the deadly terrorists attack was a strongmessage to enemy of education that they couldnot deprive students from education.
“The resumption of studies by the stu-dents in the APS is the defeat of terrorists,”said Ahmed Nawaz (15), a 10th grade student,who is still admitted at Cardiology Ward ofthe Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) told APP.
“Yes, I am eagerly waiting to resume mystudies at APS,” said Ahmed Nawaz whenasked. “First I was thinking to adopt the pro-fession of medical but now after the gruesomeattack on my colleagues and teachers, I hadre-set my priorities and would try to join themilitary services of Pakistan to defend mycountries against external and internalthreats,” he said.
Without knowing that his younger brotherHaris Nawaz was martyred in the attack, thehighly talented Ahmed Nawaz said terroristscould not snatch pen and books from ourhands, adding the assault on school has fur-ther strengthened students’ commitment andpassion to acquire knowledge and fulfill thedreams of his parents.
HAFIZABAD: Defence officials showing a suicide jacket found from the canal.
Women MPsvisit IDPs
Jalozai campNOWSHERA—A 05 memberdelegation of Women’s Parlia-mentary Caucus headed by theSecretary WPC MNA ShaistaPervaiz Malik visited Jalozaicamp of IDPs in Nowshera,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa onThursday to donate the reliefmaterial including medicinesand quilts in the wake of ex-treme cold weather to the FATADisaster Management Author-ity (FDMA) for distributionamong IDPs.
Concerned over the psy-chological trauma that the chil-dren and women have to un-dergo, the Parliamentariansmade a visit of the facilities inthe camp which include amake-shift hospital and a cen-tre for enhanced protection ofvulnerable girls, boys andwomen in the camp.—INP
Three awardeddeath sentence
SHER GONDAL
MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Addi-tional Sessions JudgeMalakwal Muhammad IqbalChaddar awarded three timedeath sentence to convictsAnsar Abbas, Asad Abbasalias Kaka residents of Chak49, Shahid Umar resident Chak2, Tehsil Bhalwal andSahibzada Gul Pathan residentof Bajor Agency and imposedfine of Rs 100000 to each in atriple murder case. Accordingto prosecution the convictshired a truck from Dil Khurramresident of Rawalpindi andbrought it to Chak 49 inMalakwal Tehsil. As it wasnight Dil Khurram broughtwith him his two nephews RajaWaqar and Raja Usman. Theconvicts after reaching Chak49 confined all three of them ina room.
ISLAMABAD—Cold and dryweather is expected in mostparts of the country duringnext 48 hours, Pakistan Meteo-rological Department reportedon Friday. Dense foggy con-ditions to decrease in plainsof Punjab, KP and upper Sindhduring next few days. Moder-ate to dense fog disturbednormal routine by disruptingrail and air traffic besides ham-pering vehicular movement onmajor inter and intra city routes
Cold, dry weather likelyincluding Motorway and Na-
tional Highway from late nightto early morning.Parachinarremained the coldest place inthe country where mercurydropped 09 degree.
France may listen atleast to Pope Francis
ALMOST the entire world community expressed complete solidaritywith France over attacks on a weekly that earned notoriety for publishing blasphemous material but highly biased attitude of France as
well as other Western countries encouraged the magazine to commit thesame mischief injuring feelings of 1.5 billion faithful around the globe.France and some other countries saw only one side of the mirror and totallyignored sensitivities of Muslims and as a result the dastardly act of theFrench weekly is being resented not only by Muslims but has also triggereda debate as to the limits of the freedom of expression by other societies.
It is a tragedy of unparallel magnitude that the Western world quicklycame together in condemning attacks on the weekly but closed its eyestowards the cause that led to such an extreme action. Had these countriesnot encouraged such magazines and newspapers and instead taken actionagainst them for deliberately making mockery of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)and the universal religion of Islam, there would not have been tendencies ofextremism and terrorism. It is because of this unfortunate attitude of theFrench Government that there is uproar all over the Muslim world againstre-run of blasphemous activities by a gang of deranged elements sitting inthe magazine. Rallies and protests are being witnessed in different parts ofthe world and there is strong condemnation of the latest provocation by theweekly and its encouragement by other Western media and governments.National Assembly of Pakistan adopted a unanimous resolution condemn-ing the outrageous act of the French weekly while Prime Minister NawazSharif and leaders of different political parties have urged the West not topromote such provocative and intolerant tendencies. But France, which hadpreviously enjoyed good standing in the Muslim world because of its some-what neutral and non-controversial policies and approaches, has so far notresponded in a positive manner to such appeals that have fallen on deafears. But we hope Paris would listen to what spiritual leader of the Chris-tian community had to say on this sensitive issue. Pope Francis on Thurs-day noted that freedom of speed did not allow ridiculing others’ religionand such action would face severe retaliation and a ‘punch’. He rightlypointed out that there are limits which must not be crossed and we expectFrance to give serious consideration to this viewpoint, which is shared byan overwhelming majority of the world public opinion.
Petrol crisis highlightspathetic mismanagement
AS if crippling shortages of gas and electricity were not enough, peoplehave been exposed to a grave petrol crisis mainly because of lack of
planning and foresight and total mismanagement of the Govt, which has nu-merous bodies to oversee things in the petroleum sector but they preferred tosleep over brewing crisis. Petrol stocks in Punjab have dried out, many petrolpumps have closed down due to shortages and there are long queues on petrolpumps reminiscent of such queues on CNG stations in the past.
There are different excuses and explanations being offered by the Gov-ernment but all of them are not plausible. If it is an issue of circular debt inthe oil and gas sector (it is said PSO has defaulted Rs. 50 billion to sixdifferent banks) and the subsequent adverse impact on imports then whythe problem is exclusive to Punjab as there is business as usual in rest of thecountry. And even if the default was mounting and imports were beingaffected then what a host of organizations concerned including Ministry ofPetroleum and Natural Resources and OGRA were doing. The forum ofECC is meant exactly for debating such issues and resolve them before theyassume monstrous proportions but it is intriguing that this platform too isguilty of ignorance. It seems its only objective is to protect and promoteinterests of the elite by imposing regulatory duties on import of sugar andencourage its export by grating lavish incentives at the cost of the commonman. What OGRA was doing and what is its justification if it miserablyfailed to ensure that the oil marketing companies maintained stocks formandatory 20 days? If Ministry of Finance can release Rs. 27 billion nowthen why not before so that the crisis could have been averted? This is amere lollipop that the release would ensure normal supply of petrol withintwo to three days as Minister for Petroleum is on record having said that thesituation would normalize in about ten days. People are already enragedbecause of unprecedented power load-shedding during winter when con-sumption lowers down and non-availability of gas even for kitchens andaddition of petrol shortage that would paralyze the life, amounts to forcingpeople to come on roads. With Imran Khan already planning to mobilizepeople against the Government, those sitting in the Government themselvesare knowingly or unknowingly complementing his agenda. What a shame!
Take stock of otherforeign funded NGOs
AT long last, the authorities concerned have started acting against NGOsinvolved in anti-state activities. On the instructions of the Interior Min-
istry, Islamabad district administration sealed offices of a US NGO calledI-MAP, taking its record into custody and sending its entire 21 memberstaff home. Foreign employees of the organizations have also been asked toleave the country.
There are reports that action was taken against the NGO on receipt ofinformation that it was collecting sensitive data that did not fall within itspurview. It is also said that Karachi chapter of the same NGO was closeddown in November last year as it was found involved in digital mapping ofPakistan’s nuclear installations. The issue is so sensitive that all chapters ofthe NGOs should have been immediately closed down but unfortunately weare working in typical bureaucratic fashion even on issues that are closelylinked to security and defence of the country. This is criminal negligence andthose responsible must be taken to task. We hope that credentials and activi-ties of all foreign funded NGOs would be probed and action would be takenif found guilty of operating beyond legal framework. It is an open secret thatthousands of foreign agents are operating in the garb of these NGOs and areengaged in anti-Pakistan activities. Regrettably, our embassy in Washingtonhad been instrumental in granting visas to dubious characters but agencieshere also failed to keep a check on their activities. It is time to thoroughlyprobe matter without disturbing those engaged in genuine humanitarian tasks.
Terror war & obfuscation of religious parties
US needsunity to
counter IS
FIVe months after the UnitedStates began to bomb IslamicState (IS) militants in Iraq and
Syria, it still has no new law autho-rizing this military action. PresidentObama had asked Congress to passone. But lawmakers have so farfailed to agree. Now the presidenthas reversed course. He said thisweek he will propose his own law,known generally as an Authoriza-tion for Use of Military Force(AUMF). This delay in providing alegal underpinning for the war re-veals two nonlegal problems: One,the threat from terrorist groupskeeps shifting in geography and tac-tics. Are Al Qaeda groups alignedwith Islamic State or opposed to it?What if new groups in Libya orYemen pledge loyalty to IS? Whatif terrorists carry out attacks onmore highly symbolic targets in theWest, such as the one on the Frenchsatirical magazine?
Two, despite 13 years of expe-rience since 9/11, Americans andtheir lawmakers have yet to definethe core principles – beyond de-fence of Americans – that wouldguide the commander in chief inleading all types of counter-terror-ism activities, from drones to elec-tronic surveillance to boots on theground. Since 2001, the variousactions against terrorists have alsospawned protests, court challenges,and frequent micromanagement byCongress. The best laws are oftenthe simplest because the principlesand goals are clear to everyone. YetCongress and the president have notbeen clear on a strategy toward IS,especially in Syria. In addition, dis-putes rage over how to track peoplewho might join IS or how to re-spond if Syria uses chemical weap-ons or if IS expands to other coun-tries. Congress and the presidentmust agree on an AUMF that rep-resents a long-lasting consensus onthe efforts against the dynamic ter-rorist threats, leaving the presidentwith enough flexibility and discre-tion to respond to new situations.“None of us can imagine all of thecircumstances that could arise,”said Secretary of State John Kerry,citing the possibility of IS obtain-ing chemical weapons and the needfor a quick response with US com-bat troops. Just after 9/11, Ameri-cans were united in a war againstAl Qaeda. The 2001 AUMF wasonly 60 words. By 2002, anotherAUMF for a war in Iraq was muchlonger. Those laws are now out ofdate because the threats havechanged. The wording of a new lawcan again be short if lawmakers andthe president agree on the principlesat stake. After all, the war againstterrorists is mainly a war over prin-ciples, such as freedom and plural-ism. The best weapon would be unityaround the principles guiding eachnew aspect of this war.— The Christian Science Monitor
*****
Mandatoryhealth care
rules
NEW regulations from theDubai Health Authority(DHA) making the presence
of fully-equipped and staffed healthclinics in Dubai’s private schoolsmandatory will come as a greatsource of comfort for parents. Thisis an important development be-cause it means that were there to bea medical emergency at a school, achild will be assured of immediateaccess to expert medical care andparents can rest assured that theirchild will be provided timely medi-cal assistance.
The new ruling is comprehen-sive and pertains to every aspectof health care at school, includ-ing the size of the clinic based onthe number of students, the mo-dalities of providing emergencyaid to children, presence of appro-priate medical equipment at theclinic and a confidentiality clausethat provides every child the rightto privacy. School clinics are alsoexpected to maintain a child’smedical records. These are excel-lent provisions that will ensure nochild suffers due to lack of com-petent medical care, a situationthat can often have severe conse-quences for all the stakeholders ina child’s education — the schooladministration, parents and mostimportant, the child. — Gulf News
MEDIA WATCH
ALL the democratic and constitutional niceties aside, thepeople of Pakistan are look-
ing up to one man: General Raheelto crush once and for all, the bogeyof religious terrorism. The massesare fully cognizant that the civiliangovernment lacks the will and thecapacity to overcome terrorism;hence the only hope is pinned on thearmy. Frankly speaking, a large ma-jority of Pakistan’s population doesnot care much about constitutional-ity of the army courts and other dra-conian measures, as long as the spec-ter of terrorism can be slayed onceand for all.
Ironically the main opposition tothe 21st amendment including the set-ting up of the military courts and theamendment in the army act; did notcome from the main stream and leftleaning regional parties, but from thereligious parties who have tradition-ally been considered close to thearmy. General Raheel, along with hiswife receiving the students of armypublic school after their school re-opened; was indeed a very poignantsight. This one gesture of GeneralRaheel endeared him to the wholenation. The complete contrast, of thegenuine affection, which was show-ered on the chief, could not be mis-taken, from hostile treatment, whichImran got next day from some par-ents, for his ambiguous policies onIslamic extremism. The soul curdlingattack on army public school badlyruptured the apologetic narrative—
Conspiracy to stir civilisational conflict
PARLIAMENT on Thursdayunanimously adopted a resolution tabled against blasphe-
mous caricatures published in Frenchweekly satirical magazine CharlieHebdo, which called upon the inter-national community to take actionagainst publishing such material.“These cartoons are a conspiracy tocreate misunderstanding amongcivilisations,” the resolution reads.Last week, the magazine’s offices inParis were attacked by gunmen, kill-ing 12 people in the worst attack inFrance in decades. Earlier in Febru-ary 2006, Charlie Hebdo had re-printed sacrilegious cartoons that hadoriginally appeared in Danish dailyJyllands-Posten. The cartoons hadset off a wave of violence in theMiddle East that claimed score oflives. Of course one should not con-done any act of violence, but at thesame time the provocative acts ofpublishing blasphemous carica-tures and hurting feelings of overbillion Muslims throughout theworld have to be condemned.
After the Charlie Hebdo attack,dozens of world leaders includingMuslim and Jewish statesmenmarched arm in arm with PresidentFrancois Hollande during a unitymarch in Paris to pay tributes tovictims of militant attacks. Presi-dent Francois Hollande and lead-ers from Germany, Italy, Israel,Turkey, Britain, Jordan, UAE, Tu-nisia, Afghanistan and the Palestin-ian territories among others, movedoff from the central Place de la
Practise whatyou preach.
Republique ahead of asea of French and otherflags. Turkey and otherMuslim countries thatjoined the march must beruing their decision tojoin march. At least, Tur-key has condemnedCharlie Hebdo’s decisionto caricature the Prophet
Muhammad on its first magazinecover after last week’s terrorist attack.Meanwhile, Pakistan’s lower houseof parliament unanimously passed aresolution condemning the cartoon ofprophet Muhammad (pbuh) pub-lished yesterday.
In February 2006, there was out-rage in the entire Muslim world overdastardly act of the Danish newspa-per and its motivated reproduction byothers in France, Italy, the Netherlandsand Norway. The then President Gen-eral Pervez Musharraf had condemnedthe publication of blasphemous car-toons in the strongest terms and saidsuch acts would encourage those whospeak of clash of civilizations. TheWest claims to be upholder of fun-damental rights; it preaches toler-ance and respect for others’ faiths,but in practice they do things thattend to inflame the sentiments of theMuslims. And when the latter retali-ate, they dub them as extremists andterrorists. The western countries,their intellectuals and the people ingeneral continue demonizing Islamfor the acts of terrorism by a verysmall minority of fanatics, extrem-ists and terrorists, though they havefanatical fringes in their countries.
As a matter of fact, the tiradeagainst Muslims and Islam had startedwith Samuel P. Huntington’s article oninevitability of clash between civili-zations. It appeared that after demol-ishing communism and disintegrationof the USSR, the West needed anothermyth to keep the West united, and theirintellectuals had been working to come
out with some ‘academic laboratorytheory’ to achieve this objective. The“Clash of Civilizations” was publishedin the journal Foreign Affairs in thesummer of 1993, which helped for-mation of series of attitudes opposingIslam. Given its intellectual and doc-trinal nature, it had the greatest nega-tive impact on the governments andthe people of the western countries.He wrote: “The fundamental sourceof conflict in this new world will notprimarily be ideological oreconomic…The most important con-flicts of the future will occur along thecultural fault lines separating the civi-lizations from one another”.
But the fact of the matter is thatthe cultural or religious differencesnotwithstanding, majority of thepeople are inclined to promote betterunderstanding and mutual respectamong followers of different civiliza-tions. Others, belonging to the clan ofthe author, may use it to engender themost pernicious kind of racist and dis-criminatory views. Pakistan has suf-fered most from terrorism, extremismand sectarianism, and since June 2014,military operation continues againstterrorists without any distinction.However, the US and the West shouldnot ignore the social, political andeconomic realities, which give rise toextremism. If the western countriescontinue to misuse the right of free-dom of speech to hurt Muslims andfollowers of other faiths, they wouldmake this world unsafe for the presentand the coming generations. Thepeople of Asia, Africa and LatinAmerican countries that were colo-nized in the past by the western pow-ers have not forgotten their repres-sion, exploitation, loot and plunderof their resources.
Despite the fact they got indepen-dence from the colonizers, they weresubjected to neo-colonialism througheconomic domination. This has re-sulted in poverty, hunger and disease
holding the field till recently:that the religions militants orTaliban were not necessarilybad people, but were at worstonly slightly misguided. Thesuicide bombing and all wereonly as a reaction to western
forces and drone attacks.The heart-wrenching tragedy of
army public school, at least got peopletalking about the objective reality, andpeople starting seeing the Taliban forwhat they actually were: cold-blooded murderers. The change ofnarrative about Islamic militancy wasnot sudden; the change had alreadybegun much before, even at the insti-tutional level. This change of counternarrative had also entered the army’sdecision-making corridors. ThePeshawar school incident acted as acatalyst, to sunder apart the old apolo-getic narrative of the religious right,and develop a more realistic counter-narrative against religious extremism.
There is no gainsaying, that ourmilitary has been involved, along withothers players, in creating most of theFrankenstein who have now turned on,not only on its masters, but the wholecountry. These strategic mistakes ofour army were more than made up for,when General Raheel took over in2013. His courageous and even handedoperation against all Taliban— good,bad and ugly —in North Waziristanwas the clear indication of the newthinking in the army.
Even before General Raheel tookover as Army Chief in 2013, he wasresponsible for gradual change inarmy’s internal thinking since 2007.Just before General Kiyani’s retire-ment he had announced a paradigmshift in army’s internal policy, byplacing ‘’internal insurgent threat toPakistan” on a higher level, than even
the threat from India. Being an aca-demic in military’ strategic institu-tions General Raheel had deducedthat religious militants had becomeas existential threat to Pakistan. Herealized the urgency of the army’schange of strategy, against religiousinsurgents. According to BBC report,General Raheel had ordered all mili-tary academy courses, to be in linewith threat of internal terrorism.
As the new army chief proved tobe most clear headed in his approachtowards the insurgency; and haslaunched a most cohesive military;political and even intellectual waragainst the terrorists. General Raheel,it seems, has in his professional andnon-exhibitionist manner, introduceda new military doctrine, challengingthe old myths and dogmas, doing therounds for the last so many years, inthe corridors of the establishment.
To the surprise of many, all ma-jor political parties including secularand ethnic ones –some with reserva-tions – have supported the army inits war against terror by voting forthe 21st amendment, which also in-cluded the set up of the militarycourts. The two religious parties inParliament the JUI and the JI, afterfirst agreeing, abstained from votingfor the amendment. The PTI also ab-stained as it had the convenient alibiof already not going to Parliament.The opposition of religious partieswas of course not on any principle ofconstitution or democracy: but sim-ply because those parties share theideological and religious worldviewof the religious extremists. They havean accommodating relationship withmilitant organizations, even if they donot share their violent ideologies. Os-tensibly these religious parties claim,that they oppose the military courts,
in these countries, and such condi-tions spawn crimes, extremism andterrorism. Through acts of blas-phemy, they inflame the sentimentsof the people especially Muslims. Bydoing so, they also create embarrass-ment for those who advocate peaceand wish to be the bridge betweenthe West and the Muslim world. Factremains, that majority of the Mus-lims, indeed, firmly believe that Is-lam is a religion of peace and standsfor progress and prosperity of man-kind. Self-seeking elements and re-ligious shysters, however, interpretIslam as a conservative religion up-holding obscurantism; thus deviatingfrom the simple, rational and humanespirit of Islam. Islam heralded the endof the ancient world of oppression,inequality and injustice, of pride andprivileges based on distinctions ofrace, colour and creed.
Unfortunately, profligacy ofMuslim rulers have brought theUmmah to the present pass, wherebyIslam is being demonized and Mus-lims have to face ignominy and op-probrium day in and day out. There-fore, in order to establish a tolerantsociety, the rulers of the Muslimcountries must allow their people toparticipate in democratic process andshare power. With a view to unitingtheir people, they should ensuresocio-economic justice in their coun-tries, as the societies bereft of justiceare likely to fall apart. And the unitythus achieved could enable theirpeople to safeguard the integrity, sta-bility and sovereignty of their coun-tries. In addition to these measures,we have to restore image of a mod-erate Ummah, and revive lost inspi-rational élan to ignite internal com-bustible spirit in us and convert therelease into useful energy with thepotential to change our state, and findus a niche in the comity of nations.—The writer is Lahore-based seniorjournalist.
— Proverb
on the grounds, that only religiousterrorists would be tried in thesecourts, to exclusion of all other kindof terrorists. But if truth were told:the most heinous terrorism, includ-ing sectarian and suicide bombing,is religiously motivated. Somemosques and madaris are definitelythe ideological breeding grounds ofIslamic extremists. Even if the num-ber of such madaris is only ten per-cent, according to government esti-mates, it is still very high and unac-ceptable. The government must im-mediately identify such outlets andtake drastic action against them.
Another source of great concernis the funding that madaris get fromabroad. The donors include manybrotherly Islamic countries ofMiddle East. Sectarian madrassasof Sunni sect mostly get aid fromSaudi Arabia while those of Shia sectget aid from Iran. These donationsare in some cases used for the propa-gation of that particular sect, and forthe violent suppression of other sectsand minorities. Such funds shouldbe properly audited and scrutinizedby the government. Any funds foundto be misused must be frozen, andthe source dried after speaking to therelevant donor country.
Even if violence is not propa-gated by most of these madaris, aretrograde and bigoted wouldview is certainly purveyed bymost of them. All effort at mod-ernizing, auditing, and introduc-ing secular subject is thwarted.The government should not sub-mit to this blackmailing, of thepolitical/ religious parties andtheir exploitation in the name ofreligion should end.—The writer is author, citizenjournalist and entrepreneur.
Those who died on 16th Decem-ber 2014 are in peace for sure butthose who alive will suffer more.Psychology of kids is affectedbadly. Some of us might haveseen such type of scenes in mov-ies but these kids experienced themoments when they were cravingfor life. They will never forgetthis phase of their life. Their stateof mind will take a long time toget normal.
A state where they will be get-ting terrifying dreams and flashbacks of that day will never makethem feel okay. They will be afraidof distance from their families andthe matter of trust will not be intheir lives. The hatred for humanswill exist in their hearts and re-main forever, it might get to therange of taking revenge. Otherchildren will be afraid of schoolsbecause the innocents don’t under-stand the disputes and conflicts oneducation, progress, developmentsand Taliban. To make them secureand normal we should stand unitedto get our goals.—Karachi
USAID is anecessary evil
HAFSA KHALID
In international relations, aid is avoluntary transfer of resourcesfrom one country to another, givenat least partly with the objectiveof benefiting the recipient coun-try. US aid is in fact a foreign aidand refers to the internationaltransfer of capital, goods or ser-vices in the form of grants or loanssometimes referred to as voluntarytransfer either from one govern-ment to another(bilateral assis-tance) or through a multilateral as-sistance agency like the WorldBank for the benefit of the recipi-ent country or its population. For-eign aid was conceived as a prod-uct of the Post World War II era.Its roots are in the Marshall plan,under which the United Statesgave funds to help rebuild Europeafter the war.
Encouraged by its role in re-building Europe, the US took thelead in trying to help the emerg-ing nations by providing capital inthe form of foreign aid especiallyto the countries that had develop-ment plans for investing the aidthey received and to those inwhich US had political interests.
On the other hand, there is nocredible evidence that US aid hasimproved the growth rate or re-solved the problems of any recipi-ent country. “Foreign aid doesmore damage than good. It cor-rupts governments and hardly everreaches the poor and needypeople”. Currently the number ofForeign Aid givers has increasedmainly drawn from the UnitedStates, Europe and some countriesin Asia such as Japan and China.The aim of all these donors hasnevertheless remained the same interms of security, economic main-tenance, political interests and hu-manitarianism.
Many aid givers dictate theprojects they would like to supportand encourage needy countries totake them up. This may led to theimplementation of projects that arenot priority projects, especially ifthe recipient government has littleto say in their choice. This toomakes the recipient countries toodependent on the aid givers as ev-erything is literally done by thedonors. The talk of constructionsof schools, road, hospitals andeven political independence is spe-cially addressed by the Aid giv-ers. This creates a state depen-dency among countries in the
Learning through mistakesMAIMOONA UROOJ
If we could only learn from our mistakes, we would not have to lose so many precious lives and ourdignity once again. When our largest International Airport and air bases were attacked by heavily
armed terrorists, Pakistan was exposed as an unstable state and poor according to security measures.We should have learnt a lesson after those attacks and our security plan would have been fool proof toavoid any terrorist attack in future. But what have we learnt from these attacks, the terrorists aretargeting our assets and our people with same style. Though our politicians tried damage control, mediahad already exposed Pakistan’s lack of protection of its strongholds. Attack on APS in Peshawar couldhave been avoided, if we had remembered the terrorist attacks on Mehran Base, Kamra Base, KarachiAirport a few years ago and Wagha border attack last month. As we all know our country is goingthrough many problems, we are still looking for rigging investigation and audit of last elections rather tosolving the other big issues. Some opposition parties of the country, advertently or inadvertently, arebent upon ousting the incumbent government; in this situation how would these politicians make politi-cal consensus to tackle terrorism, while big issues like load shedding and poor economy are far far away.Pakistani nation needs post-terror Pakistan as we are tired of picking up dead bodies continuously, thiscontinuous killings should come to an end now. We have seen too much bloodshed in the past; howmuch more do we have to witness and to bear? Now it’s our right to live in terror free Pakistan. Wehave lost more then 70,000 people in war on terror but this recent loss of children broke us frominside. People not only from our country but also from other countries have shown their sympathies.Government is taking serious steps on urgent basis, even Army sacrificed their next generation in APSattack. There is no option to step down now, war on terror is in final phase in Pakistan, we have toshow our strong support for civil military leadership to get success in the war. In this situationopposition’s role is very important too, opposition should stand with the government on the issue andshould help and cooperate in making Pakistan a terror free country.—Islamabad
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
View From Abroad
Europe is becoming a no God zone
THE visitor to London walkspast the plaited breadsstacked in the window of a
Jewish Deli. A passerby wears a hijab.Children in grey uniforms run out ofthe gates of the Catholic school. Theair fills with their cries – and withthe peal of bells from the AnglicanChurch. A snapshot of our capital city,circa 2015. Cherish it, because theodds are it will not survive. The trag-edy of the Paris attacks does not stopwith the victims murdered by extrem-ists. It spills over into our daily exist-ence. In Europe, many have the cour-age to proclaim “Je Suis Charlie”, buthow many Jews dare show their ob-servance after a kosher grocery storewas targeted by Islamist gunmen?
No wonder a poll today shows halfof the 250,000 Jews in Britain do notsee a future for themselves here; andanother shows that 100,000 Jews haveleft France in the last few years. ButJews are not alone. In some parts ofthe world, wearing the label “Chris-tian” also carries a death sentence.
Whether executed for the crime ofapostasy in Pakistan, or attacked as“kafirs” (infidels) in Mosul, in north-ern Iraq, Christians are forced to diefor their faith in parts of the MiddleEast. Nor are Muslims spared the per-secution the other Abrahamic religionssuffer: in western China and episodi-cally in India, public allegiance to Is-lam is punishable by death.
In ever-greater swathes of theworld, being a believer means em-bracing martyrdom. “Civilised”countries have failed to defend thepersecuted – and in fact have cre-ated an atmosphere where the per-son of faith finds themselves pushedinto an intolerable place. The ex-tremists want their blind allegianceor will claim their lives; while thesecularists suspect their collusionwith hot-head co-religionists.
How much longer will believersdare to stand up and be counted? SoonEurope, even London, the much-vaunted bastion of multiculturalism,will become No God Zones, banningany public display of religiosity. ‘Foryour own good’, the authorities willtell their pious citizens, “you mustcarry out your ancient rituals in se-
cret. We cannot vouch for your safetyotherwise.” Believers will have tohide their precious religious symbols,and conceal their rites. Like the earlyChristians in the catacombs, they willlead lives in the shadow.
Squashed between these Scyllaand Charybdis, the devout cannot sur-vive – unless the state steps in, deter-mined to keep alive our precious re-ligious heritage. If we in the Westwant to save the little shop with thesweet-scented challa loaves, the faithschool with its uniformed pupils, thepealing of church bells, and yes, theveil, we must act now. We must pro-tect outward signs of religious obser-vance. At present, in Europe, thismeans posting police and soldiersoutside Jewish schools and pursuingthe perpetrators of anti-Semitic at-tacks. Already, many synagogues aresurrounded by local volunteerstrained by the Community Security.Trust who protect the faithful mark-ing the Sabbath.
The sacred should be protected,but ignorance should be crushed. Il-literacy is condemned, when it comesto the ABCs, yet no one expects chil-dren to know who Abraham was, or
Good enough to vote..!
THE poor man who had converted from the religion ofhis forefathers to that of a so
called foreign god, stood in frontof a judge in a courtroom some-where in India wearing a loin clothand a bit of a discarded shirt.”Didyou change your religion out ofyour own free will?” asked thejudge. “Yes your honor.”
“Was there any allurement orinducement that made you do so?”
“Yes your honor!” said the poor manand the courtroom buzzed with ex-citement. “What was the inducementoffered?” asked the judge peering atthe poor tribal and getting ready toclose the case. “The promise of anattractive spiritual life and of a Godwho listens to me!” “Was there noother inducement?”
“No your honor, I was not offeredany money to change my God, as Iwas offered by all the candidates inthe last elections to change my vote!And your honor?” “Yes?” said thejudge. “When political parties offerfree TV’s, free electricity, cheap riceand free housing..” “Yes, yes I know!”
said the judge. “Isn’t that allurementand inducement?” “I am the one ask-ing the questions!” said the judge. “Iam sorry your honor. And yourhonor?” “I told you I am the one…”“I am a poor man...” “Yes I know,”said the judge. “Poor and uneducated!”“I know that!” “Starving and hungry!”“What are you leading up to?” askedthe impatient judge. “But you have stillgiven me the freedom to vote!” “Thatis the right of every citizen of this coun-try!” said the judge proudly, “and it ismy duty to see that no one stops youfrom exercising this right!”
“Thank you your honor!,” saidthe poor man and there was a hush in
the courtroom as he drew himselfto his full height and said, “If I yourhonor, can be trusted with the rightto vote a government out of power,then why your honor can’t I thesame poor man be trusted to changemy religion and my God when Iwant to, without having to give anexplanation to you or any officer inthis country? Let me test anothergod as much as I test a new govern-ment! If I am good enough to votethan your honor I am good enoughto choose my faith..!”
There was silence in the court-room as the poor man sat down.—Email:[email protected]
Turkey and what to expect in 2015
AS the world enters a new year,new developments also awaitthe turbulent Middle East. In
this new year, new foreign policy ini-tiatives await Turkey, which has beenfollowing a stable course from manyperspectives, despite major shockstaking place all around her over thepast three years.
One can examine these expecteddevelopments in various spheres.First of all, we may say that we arefacing a Turkey whose relations withthe European Union in particular arebecoming increasingly tense. This isno longer a secret; in 2014, the re-spective national interests of the EUand Turkey became prominent andran up against one another in a num-ber of areas that had an impact onthe other side. For example, the EUexpected Turkey to react morestrongly to Russia’s attitude towardthe domestic turmoil in Ukraine andto its seizure of Crimea than it did.Turkey not only did not take part insanctions against Russia, but alsodecided to improve trade relationseven further. This had a negative im-pact on the EU, and in terms of dip-lomatic relations, we have enteredone of the most stagnant period of
the last 50 years.Looking at the same issue from
Turkey’s point of view, it is easy tosee that Turkey made a difficultchoice and had to protect the inter-ests of its own citizens before others.While Turkey had no close relationswith the Arab world before the AKParty came to power, it had increas-ingly improved relations with North-ern African countries up until theArab Spring and based many com-mercial equations on relations withthese countries and their peoples.Although it managed to maintain do-mestic calm in the political senseduring the Arab Spring, it is still im-possible to say that it emerged scot-free from this process. If neighborswith whom you enjoy close rela-tions are changing regimes one af-ter the other, overthrowing theirleaders and are preoccupied withcivil war, uprisings and protests,then you need to look for alterna-tive havens in order to protect youreconomy, especially if you share aborder with two of those countriesand have undertaken the responsi-bility of looking after two millionrefugees, then you are obliged toprotect the lives of your own peopleand those of your neighbors.
It was under those conditions thatTurkey decided to step up its traderelations with Russia. Trade with theEU is not sufficiently profitable for
Turkey because of the provisions ofthe Customs Union. That being thecase, Turkey must not risk its rela-tions with Russia and the Turkic re-publics whether that pleases our allythe West or not. We see that Turkeywill continue to implement that deci-sion in 2015 as well. Being a mem-ber of NATO, Turkey will not jointhe Shanghai Cooperation Organiza-tion: Neither the nature of the Turk-ish people nor Turkey’s internationalagreements make that possible. How-ever, in terms of bilateral relations andtrade, if the EU does not invite Tur-key to sit down to the TransatlanticFree Trade Agreement negotiatingtable, its allies will see Turkey enter-ing into warmer and closer relationswith other states.
One of the neighbors with whichTurkey will enjoy a different conver-gence in 2015 is Greece. FollowingRussia’s decision to link the naturalgas distributed in Europe to Greeceover Turkey instead of Bulgaria,Greece and Turkey working togetheron this huge project has become acurrent issue. Besides this, Greecewho has received massive amountsof rescue funding since 2010 will, ofcourse, pay the price for that in thelong term and it appears that its lone-liness in the financial world will con-tinue. It seems unlikely that there willbe much demand for Greek bondsfrom major investors over the next
Cristina Odone
decade or so. That means that, evenif it persists on carrying out its poli-cies regarding Cyprus that areagainst our policies, Greece will beobliged to draw closer to Turkeydue to its healthy economy. As it isknown, Prime Minister Mr. AhmetDavutoðlu paid an official visit toGreece at the beginning of Decem-ber and carried out important meet-ings on a number of subjects: Goodsfrom Turkish industry are a reason-able option for the moribund Greekeconomy, which needs to be re-vived, because they comply withdelivery dates in a disciplined man-ner compatible with European stan-dards and are cheaper, yet of farbetter quality than the products ofFar East industry.
The general assessment we canmake regarding the course Turkishrelations will take in 2015 is thatTurkey will look favorably on bet-ter relations with all countries, irre-spective of what pact or union theymay belong to. With our new PrimeMinister, Ahmet Davutoðlu, beinga foreign policy expert himself, itappears that it will become evensmoother to building new and con-structive links in terms of interna-tional relations.—The writer has authored morethan 300 books translated into 73languages on politics, religion andscience.
Moses, or who the Wahabis are andwhat they believe - even thoughmore people are ready to die for theirfaith than for their alphabet. Thisstate of ignorance is shameful andincreasingly dangerous: it spreadsthe kind of suspicion and enmity thatexplodes in murderous rage.
An ill-tempered debate aboutfaith schools and faith in schools wassparked last year by the Trojan Horsescandal, when in 13 schools childrenwere subjected to frightening SunniIslam propaganda – told that hellawaited them if they did not obey;and the girls were told that when theymarried they could not refuse to havesex with their husbands, lest the an-gels punish them. The row left theeducation authorities feeling wary ofteaching their pupils about God inany guise. This is a mistake: we needmore religion in schools, not less.Clearly taught, made relevant to2015, and treated with the same re-spect we accord literature, science,or maths. The Paris tragedies showthat religion is such a non-negotiableforce in most people’s lives, we ig-nore it at our peril.— Courtesy: The Telegraph
south. As a result, accountabilitybetween developing countries,states and their citizens is almostnon-existent. The revenue receivedthrough taxes is hardly accountedfor by the governments which inturn results in corruption and lackof transparency becoming a normin most government. Judging fromthe number of positive and nega-tive effects of foreign aid, thenegatives seem to outweigh thepositives. Unfortunately for manydeveloping countries foreign aid isseen as a step forward to develop-ment but in the real sense devel-opment is totally dependent onother countries.—Islamabad
A plea to CMBalochistan
JAMEEL RODENI, BALOCH.
The Chief Minister of Balochistanis requested to take notice of the il-legal over-billing in Washuk. Thearbitraries and perversities ofmeter readers about over-billing isenormously regrettable and con-demnable.
Washuk is the most backwarddistrict of Balochistan; it is locatedbetween Kharan and Panjgoor andis adjacent to the Iran border. Theelectricity power is being pro-duced by a generator since twentyyears which was established byUAE Sheikhs on account of thepermission for Hobara hunting inWashuk.
Some meter readers and opera-tor of generator are running theirarbitraries and increasing an extraunits/bills for their self-interest onthe public residential bills. Theseelements are creating immensehurdles for the public and espe-cially for those who are jobless orpoor, by their heinous over-billingwhich is not affordable for public.Their abominable businesses arebeing continued from the past de-cade. We vehemently appeal toCM Dr. Malik Baloch, WAPDAauthority and chairman of QESCOAbdul Khaliq Baloch to take a se-vere action against thesekleptocracy system and peoplewho are involved in these cases.—Via email
HR underbanking sector
ALI JAVED
Mergers and acquisitions have be-come a common phenomenon in re-cent times. In Pakistan the wave ofmergers and acquisitions is morecommonly flowing in banking sec-tor. Mergers and acquisitions(M&A) are primarily driven bybusiness motives or market forcesand regulatory interventions. Lowertier banks when find it harder tosurvive alone in the tough centralbank regime, they usually merge orget acquired to carry on. Failure tomeet the minimum capital require-ment is another reason that leadsbanks towards M&A.
Although the merging banksgive a great deal of importance tofinancial matters and the outcomes,Human Resource issues are themost neglected one. Studies showthat most of the mergers in bank-ing sector fail to bring out the de-sired results due to people relatedissues. Human resource issues oc-cur in two phases’ pre-merger/ac-quisition issues and post-merger/acquisition issues.
In the Pre-merger/acquisitionstage banking organizations mostlyignore the impact of mergers ontheir employees. The announce-ment of a merger or take-over isoften linked with the announcementof job losses. The mergers oftenprove to be traumatic for the em-ployees of acquired banks; the im-pact can range from anger to de-pression. The employees who suf-
THE Islamic world and theMuslims are going throughthe toughest times of their his-
tory. Today we are faced with themanifold challenges of economicmodernization and its socio-politicalramifications. Momentous changes ofepic proportion are occurring in ourlives at a breakneck pace. History tellsus that almost all large scale changesoccurring in a people’s national lifeat a very fast pace in a short intervalof time brings in some degree of tu-mult and turmoil in their wake.
Two factors i.e. the moderniza-tion experience and the nature of re-lations with the developed worldhas, more than any thing else, deter-mined the attitude of the Muslimstowards the modern times. Unfortu-nately in both these cases we havenot had a very good deal. Today al-most the whole of the Muslim worldis awfully backward in socio-eco-nomic terms and in almost all thecases painfully related to the devel-oped world in a relation of depen-
dency and exploitation. The cold warthrough its various vagaries thatmost of the developing world cameinto a new contact with the majorpowers of the modern times. I be-lieve that the last major duel of thetwo cold war adversaries i.e. theUSA and the USSR was fought inour own backyard Afghanistan.
Whether we wanted it or not wehad to be involved in the Afghan the-atre of the cold war fought by theAmericans and the Russians becauseof our Geographical location. Weopted for a special relation with theAmericans and there started an un-balanced relationship that worked toour disadvantage in the long run. Justimagine for a while the conse-quences of that uncalled for relation-ship of this whole region with themajor adversaries of the cold warand you shall learn that Muslims ofour part of the world in fact are notterrorists but victims of the terror-ism of the major powers. The Af-ghan war played havoc with the so-cieties of the region.
Small arms proliferation, drugstrade, religious fanaticism, intolerance,private armies and militias of politicaland sectarian outfits, repressive state
organs and roguish security and intel-ligence operatives working in tandemwith the drug barons and criminals areall a legacy of the cold war-i.e. theUSA backed Afghan war against theUSSR 1979-88. This blowback of thecold war along with the bad social in-dicators in the country, a politically in-trusive military establishment and un-representative governments buttressedby a corrupt and flawed electoral sys-tem and the western major powers likethe USA and the UK are the rootcauses of the simmering Islamic radi-calism styled Terrorism by the west-ern world. The fact then remains thatthe Muslims far from being terroristsare actually at the receiving end of theforces unleashed by the misdeeds ofthe major powers.
In the case of Pakistan and Af-ghanistan the mere fact militantgroups i.e. Osama bin Laden, Aimanal Zwahri and Abu Musab alZarqawi had working relationshipwith the CIA and the Americans atsome stage of their militant careerpoints to the culpability of the ma-jor powers in brewing the stormcalled terrorism in the Muslimworld. Then the international com-munity so far has also failed to dis-
tinguish genuine struggles for self-determination like those beinglaunched in Kashmir, Afghanistan,Palestine, Iraq and Chechnya fromthe more reckless bombings andterrorist sprees of Al-Qaedda andcompany. Natioanl self-determina-tion is the due right of every peopleon Earth and is fully legitimized bythe United Nations in its Charter.People fighting for national self-de-termination can never be called ter-rorists and unless such distinctionshave been made at the legitimateinternational fora it is ridiculous toblame any one for terrorism for theline dividing the terrorists and thefreedom fighters is often an obscureone. We have seen cases whereleaders called terrorists once werelater acknowledged as national he-roes of various people.
The national ethos of Pakistanas embodied in the Quaid-e-Azam’s speech to the first sessionof the National assembly of Paki-stan is a telling evidence of the factthat a true Islamic state is never aterrorist state and the true Muslimsare never terrorists.— The writer is a freelancecolumnist.
fer most are those having the tradi-tional banking skills.
The Post-merger/acquisition isfound to have serious impact on theperformance of the employees dur-ing the period of transition. Differ-ent environment and culture createsa deep impact on the behaviour ofemployees. The culture is just likean air flowing everywhere in the or-ganization. The employees not onlyneed to abandon their own culture,values and belief but also have toaccept an entirely different culture.This changed culture includes un-certain environment, different orga-nizational structure, different orga-nizational policies and differentmanagerial style.
The usual impact is high turn-over, decrease in the morale, de-crease in motivation level, decreaseproductivity, decrease effort, de-crease individual performance, highjob stress and frustration that lowerthe commitment, cooperation, fo-cus and make them less productive.The M&A activity also causeschanges in their well-defined careerprospects and future opportunitiesin the organization. Another mis-take merging/acquisition banks dois the ignorance of training and de-velopment of changed staff andtheir compensation issues.
To make the M&A in bankingsector successful human resourceissues need to be properly managed.The top management of both thebanks should communicate withtheir employees about where lay-offs will take place (if any do), andhow the cultures should be merged.A combined SWOT analysis and abrief culture survey should be un-dertaken in both banks to discoverthe cultural differences.
Both the banks need to psycho-logically prepare their employeesbefore M&A. For both banks to in-tegrate successfully, they need toalign their HRM strategy to theirM&A strategy. Further they shouldprovide training and developmentand adequate compensation ac-cording to the changed designa-tions and duties of employees. Soa proper management of human re-source issues can result into thehigher success rate in M&A for theBanking institutions.—Lahore
Innocent livesAMBREEN AZEEM
Darkest of all the massacre ofthose innocent lives studying inill-fated Army Public School wasan act of extreme shame. Howcould any human do this? Whatwas their mistake? They were thestudents with many dreams,hopes, promises, plans and re-sponsibil i t ies . Their parentswould be waiting for them.
Their mothers would have pre-pared something out of theirfavourites, their father would havepromised them to take them somewhere in their vacations but whatthe day turned out to be. They didnot kill students but the future ofPakistan. They scattered thedreams. They killed the hopes.They were not humans. I wanted totell them that the little lives are inpeace and their parents are proudbut they are cursed by all the hu-mans of this world and they will getthe worst punishment here andhereafter, Insha Allah.—Karachi
JUST two years ago the region was celebrating the ascent of the professional politicianto power. What happened to their promise?
Egypt president Abdel Fatteh al-Sisi removedMohammed Morsi, an engineer, from power,highlighting the reversal in fortunes for tech-nocrat-led governments. Below, army man IanKhama is still soldiering on. (Photo, AFP)Egypt president Abdel Fatteh al-Sisi removedMohammed Morsi, an engineer, from power,highlighting the reversal in fortunes for tech-nocrat-led governments. Below, army man IanKhama is still soldiering on. (Photo, AFP)
THIS week, Madagascar’s president ap-pointed a military man as his prime minister, fol-lowing the resignation of the Indian Ocean island’sgovernment. Jean Ravelonarivo, a serving aircommodore, will replace Roger Kolo, a surgeonand radiologist by trade and who had been in of-fice for just nine months. The issue that led toKolo’s downfall—crippling national power black-outs—was especially ironic: it was a roll back ofa much-heralded trend that saw technocrats riseto head governments all around Africa, with muchoptimism that they were better aligned to tacklethe continent’s developmental challenges.
In 2012 for example no less than six coun-tries, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Senegal, Tuni-sia, Somalia, elected engineers to top politicaloffices, bulking up the ranks of others such asNigeria and Eritrea whose leaders also hadtechnical training. The import of the rise of thisprofessional cadre during the technocrats
Rise, and fall of African technocrat president
The Pentagon building in Washington.
“golden years” of 2011-2013 to top office wasthat the remarkable story of Africa Rising couldonly fortify.The party appears to have endedbefore the kola nut had been broken. This year,as ten countries—which together account fornearly half of the region’s Gross DomesticProduct, hold elections, the reversals in thefortunes of the technocrat class are stunning.
Security trumps infrastructure: Militarymen and hardcore politicians have quickly re-claimed their space, coinciding with the emer-gence of security—and not infrastructure—asthe continent’s pressing concern. The trend tookhold last May with the election of Abdel Fattehal-Sisi to power in Egypt, a retired field mar-shal who while trading in his military fatiguesfor a power suit, left few in doubt as to whichinstitution was really in charge.
The man he removed, Mohammed Morsi,an engineer, was the first democratically electedpresident in the country’s history. So admiredwas Sisi’s strongman approach that he wasthunderously applauded by African leaders at-tending a summit in Malabo at what was hisfirst foreign trip. In Tunisia, medic MoncefMarzouki last month lost elections—thecountry’s first free ballot —to the 88-year-oldveteran Ben Ali-era politician Beji CaidEssebsi, sparking murmurs that the country’srevolution had gone full circle.
The generals’ queue grows long. In Libya,electrical engineer Abdurrahim El-Keib tookthe reigns from the deposed Muammar Gaddafito much acclaim, but only lasted a year beforethe country fell to the rule of the brigands. The
North African country is for all intents run bya Gaddafi era general, Khalifa Haftar.
In Somalia, while the technocrat presidentis hanging on, prime minister Abdiweli SheikhAhmed, who has a background in science train-ing, was last month voted out by parliament, tobe replaced by career diplomat and politicianOmar Sharmake.Angola’s succession battle pitsa technocrat, Manuel Vicente, the vice president,against a military man, Joao Lourenco, theformer head of the ruling MPLA who was lastyear appointed defence minister. Angola’s spend-ing on defence and security is more than that ofeducation and health combined.
And in Nigeria, former army rulerMuhammadu Buharri is challenging zoologistGoodluck Jonathan in what is a tight race thatcould be decided on margins. Ironically, inEthiopia, engineer Hailemariam Desalegnlooks set to buck the trend of technocrats stum-bling, having considerably strengthened hisposition not unlike a soldier, with the opposi-tion struggling to even register for May elec-tions. Only one legislator of the country’s 547-member parliament is not from the ruling party.
In elections in Algeria, Mauritania andBotswana, there were no such pretensions, withlong-serving military men retaining their posi-tions, while veteran politicians in Namibia andSouth Africa kept the status quo party going.
The trend looks set to continue this year.Former Mozambique defence minister, FilipeNyusi, was Thursday sworn in as president.While he is also a technocrat, he has militarytraining and owes his momentous rise to his
liberation party-movement Frelimo, given hisprevious obscurity.Edgar Lungu, Zambia’sdefence minister and who has some militarytraining, is the frontrunner in the country’sJanuary 20 election. The army is said to haveinfluenced his candidature following thevacuum that developed following the death ofMichael Sata last year.
In Zimbabwe, vice president EmmersonMnangagwa owes his strength to his years-longacceptance by the county’s powerful generals,acting as their bridge with the ruling ZANU-PF party.Even Riek Machar, who holds a PhDin mechanical engineering, has since gone backto arms in South Sudan, while in Tanzania, theruling party career politicians are essentiallyjostling within themselves to succeed JakayaKikwete, whose second terms ends in Octo-ber. In neighbouring Kenya a cabinet of tech-nocrats has slowly been bumped aside by apresident who has recently taken a sudden lik-ing for military ways.
Extinction of technocratic species . Whathappened to the promise of the technocrats?For one, their decline looks to have coincidedwith the emergence of security and non-stateactors without return addresses as thecontinent’s major concern. Terrorism isgradually bumping big energy finds and tech-nological gains from the headlines, threat-ening billion-dollar investment and govern-ment support. Nyusi on being sworn inpledged to prioritise peace as a preconditionof economic development.
—Courtesy: LMAfrican/WA
JAMAL DOUMANI
IN TERMS of scale, surely the most resonant news story thismonth was not the terrorist attacks in Paris, which are a dreadful outrage, nor was it the Palestinians’ diplomatic Intifada
against Israel, which has rendered Washington an irrelevant playerin Mideast peace efforts, but the story of the unspeakable suffer-ing of Syrians who have taken refugee in the surrounding coun-tries, where a brutal winter has set in, with temperatures drop-ping to the mid-teens.
Reporters on the scene have filed numerous reports aboutthe catastrophic conditions — there’s no other way to describethem —these refugees have had to endure. Here is a long para-graph from one, filed by the Washington Post’s Liz Sly, that ap-peared in Jan. 7 edition, describing the travails of one refugeewoman and her family in Zahle, a mountain retreat in northeast-ern Lebanon.
“As the driving rain turned to icy sleet and a blustering windrocked their family tent,” wrote Sly, “Umm Khalil and her fourchildren shivered, with fear as much as from the cold. A majorstorm was descending on Lebanon, and along with hundreds ofthousands of Syrian refugees bracing for the onslaught, she wor-ried the family would lose the few possessions they had left. Orperhaps worse. Two Syrian babies died of exposure in Lebanon’slast storm, in November. Such is the ferocity of this one — whichis expected to bring snow and gale force winds to the areas wheremost of the refugees live — that aid agencies as well as refugeesworry that people’s lives could be at risk.”
There are fewer people in the world today who will suffermore during this season of misery than the millions displaced bythe war in Syria, who are facing their fourth winter in exile,without adequate shelter from the biting cold weather descend-ing on the region. We are talking, hyperbole aside, about a megacrisis that involves, literally, millions of people. We are talkingabout the astounding total, according to the United Nations, of10.8 million Syrians who have fled the war in the last four years,with 3.2 million of them having taken refuge in Lebanon, Jordanand Turkey, and 7.6 million displaced within their own home-land.
Other reporters have written about how the majority of thesefolks huddle in flimsy tents, made from sheets of white plasticand only straw mats as flooring, with just blankets to shield themagainst the icy wind and the torrential rain. One reporter fromthe British newspaper, The Guardian, quoted an elderly womanas bemoaning: “All we have is blankets and God’s mercy.”
How dreadful is that suffering? How does one quantify itsmagnitude? Let’s extrapolate here. This columnist lives in Wash-ington, a city known, shall we say, for its mild winters. I leavemy centrally-heated home, I bundle up with a thick woolen hat,a turtle-neck sweater, a heavy coat, gloves, a scarf and boots. Ihad just had a good breakfast and two cups of tea. I’m ready tobrave the cold. But am I? It is so nasty out there you can’t feelyour fingers. Raindrops freeze on your beard within seconds.You sprint two blocks to the subway, which is centrally heated,and then connect with a bus, which is equally centrally heated.You curse the elements and, after you run your errands, you runback home where you adjust the thermostat to your liking. Yetyou complain about the cold.
Now having extrapolated, I begin to imagine what a refugeeSyrian family, without access — not in any mockingly remoteway — to any of my decadent privileges, must be feeling at thismoment in any of the refugee camps in any of the surroundingcountries. And I wince at the horror of it all. I wince at the evil ofthe Syrian regime that has destroyed the lives of so many peopleover the last four years. And then I wince some more at how thatregime has armed itself with the assurance of impunity, immunitygranted to it, albeit indirectly, by the international community.
—Courtesy: Arab News
Syrians: The forgotten people
BEIJING—The Democratic People’s Republicof Korea (DPRK) has expressed unusual will-ingness to resume DPRK-South Korea summitsand hold direct dialogue with the United Statessince the beginning of the new year.
The United States, holding a stake in Ko-rean Peninsula peace and stability, needs to seizethe momentum to listen to the DPRK’s voiceand join hands with other pertinent parties tounravel the decades-old predicament. In a sig-nificant move taken since DPRK top leader KimJong Un came into office three years ago, theDPRK’s Six Party Talks representative Ri YongHo and former U.S. Special Representative forDPRK Policy Stephen Bosworth are scheduledto have two-day talks on Sunday in Singapore.
Last year, the DPRK’s diplomatic activi-ties focused on its relations with Russia and Ja-pan. This year, they have shifted toward SouthKorea and the United States. In his New Year’sspeech on Jan. 1, Kim said “there is no reason
US should listen toDPRK’s peace appeal
WASHINGTON—The US military is plan-ning to deploy more than 400 troops to helptrain Syrian rebels to fight the IslamicState, along with hundreds of US supportpersonnel, a Pentagon spokesman toldReuters on Thursday.
The US military has not yet identifiedwhere it will draw its forces from for thetraining mission, expected to begin in thespring at sites outside Syria, Colonel SteveWarren said.
Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia haveoffered to host the training. Warren did notoffer additional details on the troop fig-ures, first reported by Defense Onewebsite.
The training program is a part of Presi-dent Barack Obama’s multi-year plan to
Pentagon deploys 400troops to train Syrian rebels
field local forces in Syria to halt and even-tually roll back Islamic State fighters,while pounding them with US-ledairstrikes.
The Pentagon has estimated that it cantrain more than 5,000 recruits in the firstyear and that up to 15,000 will be neededto retake areas of eastern Syria controlledby Islamic State.
Critics in Congress have said thePentagon program won’t aid Syrian op-position forces fast enough, however,and question whether it is too small toinfluence the course of Syria’s multi-pronged civil war between PresidentBashar al-Assad and his opponents.Across the border in Iraq, Obama hasauthorized more than 3,000 US troops
to advise and train Iraqi and Kurdishforces.
The disclosure of the planned troopdeployments for the Syria training missioncame just days after senior US officialsmet Syrian opposition and civil societyleaders in Istanbul to discuss the program.US Major General Michael Nagata, Com-bined Joint Interagency Task Force - SyriaDirector, and US Special Envoy for SyriaDaniel Rubinstein led the meeting on theUS side.
“These introductory meetings were animportant step as we prepare to launch thetrain-and-equip program later this springwith our international partners,” said Pen-tagon spokeswoman Commander ElissaSmith.—Reuters
not to hold highest-level talks” with South Ko-rean President Park Geun-hye if right atmo-sphere is formed.
As a response, Park said at her New Year’spress conference that she could meet with Kimif it promotes inter-Korean relations, but shenoted that the DPRK should show sincerity to-ward resolving issues through dialogue.Pyongyang also knows clearly that whether theinter-Korean talks can resume depends on theUnited States which is the dominant player ofthe US-South Korea alliance.
Moreover, to fulfill Kim’s promise to boosteconomic development and improve the people’swell-being, the DPRK needs a peaceful exter-nal environment. The DPRK has long regardedSouth Korea-U.S. joint military drills as a seri-ous threat to its security on a divided peninsula.Starting talks with the United States will be ashortcut for the DPRK to resume negotiationswith South Korea.—Xinhua
JONATHAN POWER
WE HAVE much to be glum about at the onset of 2015;the latest is the killings by ultra Islamists of the cartoonists in Paris. But we are brainwashed with bad
news. “If it bleeds it leads.” One plane crash is worth more air-time than news that we are winning the fight against early death.The World Health Organisation has some telling facts. Over thelast two decades, infant deaths have fallen by half. Deaths be-cause of measles and tuberculosis dropped by three-quarters andmaternal deaths by a half. AIDS-related illnesses have been cutby over a quarter. In 1960, one-in-five children used to die be-fore the age of 5. Today it is one in 20, and falling. Developingcountries have caught up far more quickly in health than in wealth.For instance, Vietnam has the same health as the US had in 1980but at present, the same income per head as the US had in 1920.
Despite the Great Recession of the last six years, povertyrates have plummeted. Although most of that drop happened inChina and India, it has also happened in most Third World coun-tries. Population growth is slowing. The amount of children inthe world today is the highest there is likely to be. As Hans Roslingof Sweden’s Karolinska Institute told the BBC, “we have en-tered the age of the ‘peak child’.” Education is spreading rapidlyfor girls. In Muslim Bangladesh, there are as many girls in schoolas boys. In conservative Saudi Arabia, there are more youngwomen in universities than men. Coming up in 2015 will bemore war in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan. Ofthat we can be sure.
There will probably be a year of “Cold Peace” between Rus-sia and the West, unless both sides can engineer a way out of thequite unnecessary Ukrainian imbroglio. The European Unionmight be thrown into disarray again if the British vote to leave it.The pace of action against Ebola, malaria and global warmingwill be out of step with what is necessary. But also coming up in2015 are many facts that can be seen already on the radar thatsuggest that it will be the best year on the planet for humankind.We are outracing the “four horsemen”, extending the length ofhuman life faster than pestilence, war, famine and death can takethem. It has long been intellectually fashionable to debunk thevalue of foreign aid. Yet, the evidence is overwhelming that inmost poor countries the great advances in medical care wouldnot have been made without it. Take the programme to fight AIDSin Africa, initiated by president George W. Bush, head of a partythat has long derided aid.
It paid for the successful treatment of over 5 million people.The US aid programme is relatively smaller than European ones,but maybe the important fact is that rich nations these daysdonate large sums of money out of an altruistic commitment tohelp the poor get on their feet. Over the decades since the endof the Cold War, war has become less frequent and less deadly.It is true that in the last few years, mainly because of Syria,Iraq, Sudan, Somalia and Afghanistan, the number of fatalitieshas shown an increase after years of decrease, but the down-wards trend has continued the world over. MIT Professor StevenPinker, in his 2011 book “The Better Angels of Our Nature”,brought to light a treasure trove of data proving that the worldhas become much more peaceful. Over the last 50 years, deathsin war fell from an annual 300 per 100,000 people to less than1 per 100,000. One reason for this was the fast spread of de-mocracy; it is well proven that democracies do not go to warwith each other.
At the end of World War II, there were less than 10 democra-cies. Now it is commonplace. According to Freedom House,which measures the ups and downs of democracy and humanrights, 45 per cent of the world’s people are “free” and 30 percent “partly free”. That leaves only 25 per cent that are unre-deemed dictatorships. Most of that number is in China. TakeChina out of the equation and then only a small number of peoplelives under totally dictatorial regimes.
—Courtesy: Jordan Times
Is the worldgetting better?
CHENGDU (China)—The firstfew years of life are delicate forrural children living in south-west China’s mountain ranges.With threadbare living condi-tions and little access to medi-cine, they often survive by thegrim mantra of getting strongor getting sick. The harsh re-ality of rural child rearing hit27-year-old farmer HanJianying hard after she discov-ered her 2-year-old son experi-encing bloody stools. With in-come scarce, Han was neededon her mountain mushroomfarm in the Yi minority villageof Tangyang, Sichuan Prov-ince, less than a year after giv-ing birth to her son, MaYunlong. Because normal termbreastfeeding was not an op-tion, Han supplemented Ma’sdiet with buckwheat and gheebutter before he was one monthold.
With little supervision anda poor diet, Ma would oftenpick food from the ground withhis unwashed hands, resultingin serious digestion problemsfrom a very early age. WhileMa’s illness is easily cured withproper medical treatment,many villages in rural areashave little access to transportor hospitals. As a result, eventhe most easily treated sick-nesses claim the lives of thou-sands of rural children everyyear. Diarrhea is one of themost serious illnesses affectingchildren in China’s rural areas,taking the lives of an estimated13,000 children under fiveyears old every year, accordingto the United NationsChildren’s Fund (UNICEF).
Pneumonia, the mostprevalent, kills 44,000 childrenunder five everyyear.“Pneumonia and Diarrheaare preventable childhood dis-eases,” Zhu Xu, a Health Spe-cialist with UNICEF, toldXinhua. “They are treated bypneumococcal vaccination androtavirus vaccination, whichare not among the free vaccinesto children in China whilemany developing countrieshave adopted those new vac-cines.” Access is a major fac-tor for the villages.
Scattered and secluded inthe mountains, road access tomany of the mountain villagesin Muli Tibetan AutonomousCounty of Liangshan whereHan’s village is located isimpossible.Delivering medi-cine to these areas is costly andcomplicated, sometimes reach-ing as high as 2,000 yuan ($323U.S. Dollars), several months’wages, for a single box ofmedicine.It is even harder tosee a doctor. There are storiesof villagers climbing across themountains on all fours to ac-cess the nearby town where theclinic is located.
In many cases, folk rem-edies have taken the place ofmedicine, and local priestschanting sutras have taken theplace of doctors.While Ma isstill surviving, this is not thecase for an 8-month-year-oldgirl in the village, who, afterbeing improperly diagnosedwith food poisoning, died as aresult being mistreated withfolk medicine. “She had loosebowel movements for morethan a month,” PadmaKhamtrul, the 35-year-old vil-lage doctor, recalls.With herparents away working on a
China Focus: Healthor death for China’smountain children
farm and her grandparents tooold to make the trip, they wereunable to give the child propertreatment at a clinic.
“At first her grandparentsthought it was food poisoningand gave her wild pepper,which they believed was theantidote. Then she was fed withbulrush.” The baby finally died,two days before her one-yearbirthday. To battle the harsh liv-ing conditions of rural children,the government initiated a newrural medical care systemwhich was extended to Muli in2009. Starting from 2011,mothers receive 75 percent oftheir children’s medical costsback. The initiative has broughtin several more patients fromthe surrounding area, saysDruma, a doctor with thePeople’s Hospital of Mulicounty, the Tibetan countywhere Tangyang village is lo-cated.
“In the past, the childrenwere not brought to us untilthey had difficulty breathing,passed out or developed atwitch,” she said. “Now theycome at earlier stages of theirillness.” The number of chil-dren died in the hospital frompneumonia, dropped from fouror five per year before 2009 toone or two now, shesaid.Medical workers alsotaught villagers basic healthknowledge and first-aid skills.“Now most of them know thatthey should wash hands beforedinner,” said Padma Khamtrul.“This is a big progress. Fiveyears ago, most only washedtheir faces once a week.”Khamtrul also told villagers touse oral rehydration salts incase of diarrhea, which theycan make themselves withsugar, water and salt.
UNICEF figures showedthe fatality rate of children un-der five in China has droppedfrom 61 per thousand to 12from 1991 to 2013. The ratewas down by 71 percent in cit-ies and 80 percent in rural ar-eas. “The government of Chinashould be proud of its accom-plishments, especially for chil-dren,” said Gillian Mellsop,UNICEF representative toChina who just wrapped up atrip to Liangshan. “Its rapidprogress in building an eco-nomic foundation that has liftedmillions of people out of pov-erty, reduced under five mor-tality by three quarters...is un-precedented in world history.”But it is too early to celebratethe progress. Old habits diehard, and the lack of doctors isstill a haunting problem.
Tashi Yang, head of thehealth bureau of Muli, toldXinhua that they used to havemore than 100 village doctors,60 of whom had acquired medi-cal license. “But the licenseshave expired now, and theyfailed to pass the exam to get anew one, hence are now unableto prescribe medicines,” he said.While lobbying for proper vac-cinations, UNICEF is cooperat-ing with local health authoritiesto train medical workers on pre-vention and management ofpneumonia and other diseases.
“I will try my best to makesure that he doesn’t eat anythingnot clean,” she said. “Hopefullyhe will work hard in the futureand be a knowledgeable man.Then he will not make the mis-takes I did.—Xinhua
BRUSSELS—Belgian police killed two menwho opened fire on them during one of abouta dozen raids on Thursday against an Islam-ist group that federal prosecutors said wasabout to launch “terrorist attacks on a grandscale”. Coming a week after Islamist gun-men killed 17 people in Paris, the incidentfueled fears across Europe of young Mus-lims returning radicalised from Syria. Butthe Belgian probe had been under way be-
Two Islamic suspect-terrorists killedfore the Jan. 7 attack on French satiricalnewspaper Charlie Hebdo and officials sawno obvious link between the two.
A third man was detained in the easterncity of Verviers, where police commandos raninto a hail of gunfire after trying to gain entryto an apartment above a town center bakery.All three were citizens of Belgium, which hasone of the biggest concentrations of EuropeanIslamists fighting in Syria. Other raids on the
homes of men returned from the civil war therewere conducted across the country, notably inseveral districts of the capital Brussels, pros-ecutors said.They added that the men weresuspected of planning attacks on Belgian po-lice stations.“The searches were carried outas part of an investigation into an operationalcell, some of whose members had returnedfrom Syria,” said prosecutors’ spokesman EricVan Der Sypt. —Reuters
Three rescued,22 missing asboat sinks in
Yangtze RiverNANJING—Rescuers havesaved three people after a tugboat sank on the Yangtze Riverin east China’s Jiangsu Prov-ince on Thursday, said localrescue headquarters.
Twenty-five people aboardthe boat fell into the water, in-cluding eight foreigners — fourSingaporeans, an Indonesian, aMalaysian, an Indian and aJapanese national — when itsank while conducting tests inFubei Channel, near JingjiangCity, on the Yangtze River atabout 3 p.m. Thursday, accord-ing to the provincial maritimerescue center. About 30 profes-sional vessels, including patrolboats and tug boats.—Xinhua
in Pakistan,” she said addingthat Secretary of State JohnKerry had a very good visit toPakistan where he talked tothe Pakistani Governmentabout counter-terrorism and
how they can work to-gether more closely. “Certainly,this would be an important stepgoing forward. We certainlybelieve that if this goes for-ward, that it would be an im-portant step,” Harf said.
“We have a long history ofclose cooperation with Pakistanon counter-terrorism efforts.We’ve been very clear with thePakistani government that theyneed to crack down and go af-ter all terrorist groups thatthreaten them, threaten theirpeople – their people are, un-fortunately, the victims of moreterrorist attacks than, peopleprobably anywhere else,” shesaid.
Kerry, she said, had a suc-cessful visit to Pakistan. “Hehad a number of conversations,not just about counter-terrorismissues – although that was ahuge focus, and obviouslywanted to personally expresshis condolences over the hor-rific attack in Peshawar – butalso about the economic issuesand other issues,” she said. “It’sa broad relationship that goesbeyond security. I think thatwas a really key part of whathe wanted to focus on when hewas there. The banning of theseterrorist groups is obviously forthe government of Pakistan todecide on, but it was a verygood visit,” State Departmentspokesperson said.—INP
US welcomesPak banning
From Page 1widening countrywide protest movementagainst the publication blasphemous cari-catures in a weekly newspaper in France.
Addressing protestors against the blas-phemous caricatures at Chuburji Chownk,Lahore on Friday, Hafiz Saeed called uponthe government to immediately summona meeting of all Islamic countries for chalk-ing out a strategy for international legisla-tion for safeguarding the sanctity of theHoly Prophet (PBUH). Protestors, carry-ing placards and banners, showed theirrage and chanted slogans against the blas-phemers and demanded death plenty forthem. A large number of lawyers and stu-dents also participated in the protest.
The JuD Amir said that the West wastriggering clash of civilizations as 40 Eu-ropean countries were united to show soli-darity with the blasphemous caricatures.He said that these blasphemous caricatureshad hurt the emotions and religious senti-ments of 1.5 billion Muslims all over theworld. He said that all Muslims were alsounited for safeguarding the sanctity of theHoly Prophet (PBUH) and they would sac-rifice their lives but could not tolerate theblasphemy.
Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan,Sirajul Haq addressing a rally against theblasphemous caricatures at Multan Road,announced million marches in Lahore,Islamabad and Karachi next Friday in con-tinuation of the protest.
The JI chief appreciated the state-ment of Pope Francis and the GermanChancellor slating blasphemous carica-tures and expressed the hope that the Pon-tiff would play his role in saving Europefrom vast destruction as a result of theMuslims reaction against blasphemy. Healso demanded the French government totender an apology to the Muslim world onthe issue, arrest those involved in the blas-phemous acts and award them exemplarypunishment. Earlier, addressing the Fridaycongregation at Mansoora, Sirajul Haqwarned that the anti- Islam policies of thewest could plunge the world into the thirdworld war.
Leaders of other political and reli-gious parties of Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool also addressed the protest rally inChuburji Chowk and showed their firmresolves to go to any extent for safeguard-
ing the sanctity of the Holy Prophet(PBUH).
Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool andJamaat-ud-Dawah also held peaceful pro-tests in other cities of the country includ-ing Multan, Sukkur, Karachi, Hyderabad,Peshawar and Islamabad against the blas-phemous caricatures.
Meanwhile, the Senate Standing Com-mittee on Foreign Affairs, Friday also con-demned the insulting publication in aFrench publication in strongest possibleways by passing a unanimous resolution.
Senate body, met here with ChairmanHaji Muhammad Adeel in the chair andsent a copy of the resolution to the For-eign Office with directions to convey toambassadors and heads of foreign diplo-matic mission in Pakistan.
The committee passed a condemnationresolution which stated that the SenateForeign Relations Committee, representingthe sentiments of the Pakistanis people andall civilized humanity strongly condemns thewillful slander and insults hurled in a sectionof the French media towards Islam and thecore beliefs of all Muslims.
Such an approach reflects hypocrisyand double standards among some in theWest who justify this provocation in thename of ‘freedom’, while jailing those whodeny the Holocaust. The committee wel-comes the statement of Pope Francis-IIwho also condemned the provocation.
The Foreign Affairs Committee urgesthe government to take up this issue withthe European in Brussels, and criminalizeIslamophobia in a manner similar to thelaws regarding the Holocaust.”
The Committee discussed in detail thevisits of the Prime Minister to China, Ger-many and UK, Afghan President ’s visit toPakistan and outcome of the SAARC con-ference held in Nepal. Senator Haji Adeelasked the Adviser to Prime Minister onForeign affairs Sartaj Aziz about the rea-sons of postponement of the visit by Chi-nese President. The Chairman said that Pak-China Economic corridor is highly impor-tant for both countries, however, he pointedout that there were reports in the press aboutsome modifications in the original design.
Members of the Committee were ofthe view that the matter relates to Plan-ning Commission (PC) so it would be ap-
propriate to get a detailed briefing fromPC on Pak-China Economic Corridor andrecent developments in this regard.
Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affiars,Aizaz Chaudhary, informed the meetingthat the visit of the Chinese President waspostponed due to sits-ins. The Prime Min-ister visited China to sign important pactsand MOUs.
He said that China is an importantcountry for Pakistan and the visit of thePM gave further boost to bilateral rela-tions. He said that Pak-China EconomicCorridor is an important project which willbring socio-economic prosperity in thecountry. He also gave a detailed overviewof the visits to UK and Germany.
The Senators asked the Foreign Of-fice to look into the credibility of a newsitem published in Friday’s newspaperspertaining to trade between Afghanistanand India and Pakistan’s role in it. TheCommittee also offered fateha for the mar-tyrs of Army public School and sympa-thized with victim families.the recent SAARC summit in Nepal, For-eign Secretary told the committee that themember countries as well as the wholeworld saw a positive and constructive roleof Pakistani leadership. He said that Paki-stan held bilateral meetings with all themember countries except India but the in-cidental handshake between the two pre-miers also sent a very positive and mean-ingful message.
The committee also discussed thecomplaint by Ex-Accountant of PakistanEmbassy School, Sana’a Yemen ShafqatElahi against the Ambassador of Pakistanin Yemen, Dr. Irfan Yousaf Shami againsthis termination from school. The Senatorsexpressed dissatisfaction over the briefinggiven by Ministry of Foreign Affairs anddirected the Adviser to Prime Minister toappoint an inquiry officer to probe the is-sue and present a report in 15 days.
The meeting was attended among oth-ers by Senators Raja Muhammad Zafar ulHaq, Farhatullah Babar, Mrs. SeharKamran, Col(R ) Syed Tahir HussainMashahdi, Syeda Sughra Imam andMushahid Hussain Sayed. Advisor to PMon Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and seniorofficers of the ministry were also presentduring the meeting.
Countrywide protestsFrom Page 1
cies and International monitors to close downall terrorism related websites/ web based mes-saging services and other terrorism related ma-terial on the internet and social media.
The bank accounts of Afghan Nationals willbe filtered by the financial monitoring unit ofMinistry of Finance in coordination with FIAand the intelligence agencies and all informa-tion shall be shared with NACTA for scanningall such accounts involved in suspected trans-actions. All such business activities and bankaccounts which are operating without due legalrequirements will be blocked.
A databank and monitoring network is be-ing established for all the proscribed organiza-tions so that all such organizations re-emerging
secretly or under different names should be shutdown.
CDA was directed to chalk out a detailedplan in consultation with Police and District Ad-ministration within a week to identify illegal/unregistered Afghan Refugees in and aroundIslamabad in order to facilitate their movementto their camps. It was further decided to demol-ish all illegally constructed high structures nearsensitive installations in Islamabad.
A detailed discussion took place onMadrassahs having suspected connections withmilitancy and terrorism and it was decided totake a final decision on the matter after the meet-ing with Heads of all major Madaris bodies ofthe country tomorrow.
Bank accounts, websitesFrom Page 1
Kotal whereas heavy arms andexplosives were recoveredfrom their possession. Securityforces have stepped up actionagainst terrorists in the tribalareas following Taliban attackon military-run school inPesahwar on December 16 inwhich 151 people, most of stu-dents, were killed.—INP
TTP commanderkilled
From Page 1
He brushed aside the impression thatthe shortage is the result of any problemregarding supply of petrol. He said otherpetroleum products are available inabundance at fuel stations and “there isa little shortage of petrol.” He said thereis shortage of 150 million cubic feet gasin Punjab, adding that the supply toPunjab is 800 million cubic feet and de-mand is 950 million cubic feet. He saidthe physical work on the Pakistan-Irangas pipeline would be started in nextthree years.
He said that the Pakistan-Iran gas pipe-line project has not been ended, adding thatthere are some sanctions of internationalcommunity on Iran and it is expected thatthese sanctions would be removed in fu-ture. He said Pakistan-Iran gas pipelineproject would be completed after the re-moval of sanctions on Iran. He said fiveto six gas pipelines should be establishedbetween Pakistan and Iran for fulfilling thegas needs of Pakistan. He said no agree-ment has been made regarding the priceof LNG. He said that parliament would betaken into confidence regarding the priceof LNG.
Shahid Khaqan Abbassi said that theprices of petrol and diesel would furtherbe decreased from 1st of February, addingthat the petrol shortage is due to increasein demand. Shahid Kahqan said he was in
favour of deregulation of petroleum prod-ucts if it is ensured that the petroleum deal-ers will not earn unjustified profit. He saidif the petroleum products are deregulatedthen in some areas of the country priceswill come down and in some areas theprices would increase.
Minister for Petroleum and NaturalResources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi ex-pressed. He said that the issue emergeddue to increase in demand of petroleumproducts as compared to the previousmonths. To another point of order,Khawaja Asif said that the shortage ofpetroleum products has also affected thepower generation due to whichloadshedding has increased. He said thereis a shortfall of about three thousandMegawatt electricity in hydel sector dueto de-silting of canals.
He said after the completion of thede-silting and import of petrol there willbe significant increase in power genera-tion. He said that government was takingmeasures to reduce loadshedding in thecoming summer. Earlier, the house wasinformed that Pakistan Baitul Mal will setup new Sweet Homes for destitute chil-dren in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab andSindh this year. Minister of State for Par-liamentary Affairs, Sheikh Aftab Ahmedinformed the House during QuestionHour that initially these Sweet Homes
will be set up at Shangla, Bhakkar andKhairpur.
To a question, Sheikh Aftab Ahmedsaid financial assistance is being providedby Pakistan Baitul Mal to the deservingpersons for health and education. He saidthat up to 600,000 rupees financial assis-tance is being provided for medical treat-ment through designated government hos-pitals.
Meanwhile, National Assembly onFriday passed a resolution extending theGas Infrastructure Development Cess Or-dinance 2014 for further four months de-spite strong opposition by the oppositionand the provinces.
Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority(OGRA) has taken notice of the petrolshortage in the country and demanded oilmarketing companies to submit record ofstorage.
According to the sources, the OGRAauthority is considering the possibility ofsending show-cause notices to the oil mar-keting companies. OGRA Chairman hastaken notice of the shortage of petroleumproducts in the entire country.
According to the OGRA license, theoil marketing companies are bound to keeppetrol for usage of at least 20 days in stor-age. It is likely that the companies caughtin violation of the law would have to payfine as punishment.
Petroleum shortageFrom Page 1
ers of local Pakistani commu-nity participated. Referring toDecember 16 tragedy inPeshawar where terroristskilled nearly 150 schoolchil-dren, General Raheel Sharif as-serted the incident clearly tellsthat saboteurs can go to any ex-treme. He vowed to eliminateterrorists from Pakistan, say-ing, “Pakistan is in the state ofwar.”
“The military courts wereset up in accordance with thewish of people,” he remarked.Commenting on issues facedby IDPs displaced by NorthWaziristan operation, the armychief noted that the measuresare being taken up for the re-habilitation of the IDPs, add-ing Pakistan will soon get overall the problems despite numer-ous challenges it is facing.Army Chief said that the op-eration against the terrorists iscontinued and that several ar-eas have been cleansed of ter-rorists. Army Chief said thatPakistan’s relations with Af-ghanistan are improving andthat Pakistan’s political andmilitary leadership are workingtogether to root out the terror-ism from the country.
He said Pakistan was in astate of war, and the govern-ment and the armed forces weredetermined to wipe out the ter-rorists as the recent [APS] in-cident had shown the extent towhich they (the terrorists)could go. General Raheel wasconfident that Pakistan wouldovercome its problems soon.
General Raheel Sharif onFriday said that for the peaceand stability in the South Asia,the solution to the Kashmir is-sue is necessary. He said thatPakistan desires peace. Armychief said that significantprogress was being achieved inOperation Zarb-e-Azb.
He was speaking at the In-ternational Institute for Strate-gic Studies in London. GenSharif is on a three-day officialvisit to the United Kingdomwhere he is expected to meetsenior British political andmilitary leadership.
He said that the NationalAction Plan devised compre-hensively to address rising ex-tremism and terrorism in thelong-term.
He said that terrorists of allkinds were being targeted in themilitary operation, with “nofavourites”.
He said that relations withAfghanistan were improving,and that Pakistan was continu-ing to work for stability in theregion.
The army chief added thatthe government was doing itsbest for complete implementa-tion of the National ActionPlan.
Speaking on Kashmir, hesaid that the issue has to be re-solved to attain long-termpeace and stability in the re-gion.
The COAS said that theOperation Zarb-e-Azb is con-tinuing with success. The Na-tional Action Plan is an efficientpolicy to curb terrorism, he
Pak will soon surmount allproblems includingterrorism: COAS
From Page 1added. General Raheel Sharifsaid that the government is mak-ing all-out efforts to counter ter-rorism. COAS General RaheelSharif also said that terrorists ofall banned outfits are being tar-geted indiscriminately. More-over, he said that the country’srelations with neighbour Af-ghanistan are getting better.
Chief of Army Staff(COAS) General Raheel Sharifsaid that National Action Plan(NAP) is comprehensiveenough to address extremism,terrorism on long term basis.
In message on social me-dia website ‘Tweeter’ on Fri-day, General Raheel Sharif saidthat operation Zarb-e-Azb ismaking good progress. He saidthat no one among the militantsis ‘favourite’ and terrorists ofall kinds were being targetedwithout any discrimination.
The Army Chief said thatrelations with new Afghan gov-ernment are improving as it haspledged for cooperation in theongoing operation against ex-tremists and joint efforts forrestoration of peace and stabil-ity in the region.He said thatlongstanding Kashmir disputeneeded to be resolved in thelarger interests of the stakeholders and regional peace butnot at the cost of dignity andhonour of the country.
The Army chief visited theRoyal College of Defence Stud-ies and the Sandhurst MilitaryAcademy. Asim Bajwa said thatGeneral Raheel Sharif presentedPakistan’s perspective on secu-rity and the challenges faced.Addressing Pakistani cadets atSandhurst, the army chief ad-vised them to excel and maketheir country proud. The Armychief is currently on a three-daytour of Britain.Director GeneralInter Services Public Relations(ISPR) Major General AsimSaleem Bajwa has said that Paki-stan forces are conducting opera-tion against all the terrorists irre-spective of their caste and com-plexion, saying that there are nogood or bad Taliban – all are ter-rorists. Saleem Bajwa said thatmilitary operation will continuetill the complete elimination of theterrorists.
Asim Saleem Bajwa saidthat the world communityshould understand the stance ofPakistan, saying that militarycourts have been established fortrial of the terrorists’ cases.
He said that the entire na-tion is united for operationagainst the terrorists. He saidthat Pakistan wants end of ev-ery kind of terrorism, saying thatUnited Kingdom is also facingthe dangers of terrorism.
He said that no guaranteecan be given as to where andwhen the terrorists may target ,saying that the operation Zarb-e-Azb is in progress indiscrimi-nately as Pakistan wants elimi-nation of terrorism.
Asim Saleem Bajwa saidthat military operation will con-tinue till the end of last terror-ist. He said that Pakistan is con-tinuously displaying patiencebut India is showing its madnessthrough organized way and is
showing obstinacy and levelingbaseless allegations aiming atdeviating the attention of Paki-stan from wish of peace.
DG ISPR also termed theKashmir issue as the majorhurdle in the way of peace inthe region, saying that India iscreating hindrance in the actionagainst the terrorism by its vio-lations on the Line of Control(LoC). He said that India shouldthink that peace process is bi-lateral. DG ISPR reiterated Pa-kistan Army’s resolve to ensurewrit of the state in Bajaur andNorth Waziristan agencies(NWA) at all costs by wipingout terrorists.
Effective military opera-tions are under way in theseagencies to purge the areas ofterrorists, he said
He informed that the secu-rity forces have so far killed2,000 terrorists in NorthWaziristan Agency while 200soldiers embraced martyrdom inthe operation Zarb-e-Azb and800 others sustained injuries.
He said Army Chief Gen-eral Raheel Sharif has clearly di-rected to carry out the operationagainst terrorists without anydiscrimination. He Bajwa wasexpressing these views in aninterview with a British broad-casting institution in London.
He said even the UnitedNations has acknowledged theachievements of PakistanArmy against terrorists in theoperation Zarb-e-Azb.
Angeles, San Francisco in theUSA, the Canadian city ofToronto, London and York in theUK, Perth in Australia, Nairobiin Kenya, Berlin in Germany,and Dubai in the UAE.The pro-test campaign was started byMohammad Jibran Nasir, a law-yer and social activist fromKarachi. Nasir earlier led protestsagainst Maulana Abdul Aziz, thecleric of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid,when he gave statements sup-porting the Taliban shortly afterthe Army Public School tragedy.
Protesters also gathered out-side Parliament House inIslamabad, holding candles andplacards expressing solidaritywith victims of the Dec 16 trag-edy and anger at terrorists. In-formation Minister PervaizRashid in his address said theentire world was united againstterrorism and there was also nodivision on the issue in Pakistan.
Over 140 people - including132 schoolchildren - were killedwhen heavily armed Taliban mili-tants stormed the Army PublicSchool in Peshawar on Dec 16 -the deadliest terror attack in thecountry’s history. The attackerwent from classroom to class-room, shooting students point-blank in the head as well burningthe body of a schoolteacher. Thebloodshed sparked demonstra-tions across the country, with pro-testers demanding the govern-ment to take firm measures tocounter militancy and rising ter-rorism in the country.—Online
PM Nawazperforms Umrah
From Page 1
measures, a large number ofPakistanis in Saudi Arabia ap-proached PM to have hisglimpse and expressed rejoice.The prime minister waving hishands responded their affec-tion. The expatriates sharedtheir profound grief over lossof precious lives in the terror-ists attack on Army PublicSchool (APS) Peshawar.
They also lauded the re-solve and commitment of Pa-kistani government to eradicatemenace of terrorism and deci-sion of formation of militarycourts to try hardcore terrorists.The PM Nawaz Sharif later leftfor Madina Munawarah to visit“Roza-e-Rasool” to pay respectto the Holy Prophet (Peace BeUpon Him). Upon arrival inMadina, he was extended warmwelcome by the Governor andhigh officials of Saudi authori-ties.—INP
PTI madeFrom Page 1
ter to Dar to remind him thathis side had not returned totalks after December 23.
Khan told reporters hewould accept the judicialcommission’s findings even if itestablished that mismanagementtook place in the 2013 elections.
War crimescourt opens
From Page 1
acceded to The Hague-basedcourt’s founding treaty andrecognized its jurisdictiondating back to the eve of lastsummer’s Gaza war.
That move opened the doorto an ICC investigation that couldtarget possible crimes by bothIsrael, which is not a member ofthe court, and Palestinians.A pre-liminary examination is not aninvestigation, but weighs infor-mation about possible crimes andjurisdiction issues to establishwhether a full investigation ismerited.
Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas signed docu-ments to join the ICC a day af-ter the UN Security Councilrejected a resolution Dec. 30that would have set a three-yeardeadline for the establishmentof a Palestinian state on landsoccupied by Israel.Joining theICC is part of a broader Pales-tinian strategy to pressure Is-rael into withdrawing from theoccupied territories and agree-ing to Palestinian statehood.
Abbas had been underheavy domestic pressure totake stronger action against Is-rael after the 50-day war be-tween the Jewish state and mili-tants in Gaza over the summer,tensions over holy sites inJerusalem and the failure of thelast round of US-led peacetalks.Bensouda cast the deci-sion to open a preliminaryprobe as procedural followingthe Palestinians’ recognition ofthe court. It is unclear how longthe preliminary examinationmight take.—AP
Chinese PresidentFrom Page 1
of Xi’s visit.President Xi will hold
talks over defense, energyand other fields with the topPakistani leaders.
Earl ier, the ChinesePresident had been scheduledto visit Pakistan in mid-Sep-tember last year but the visitwas postponed due to oppo-si t ion party PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf s (PTI) pro-test in Islamabad.—INP
Paris postoffice gunman
arrested,hostages freed
From Page 1
several post office clients hadmanaged to escape and thatthe gunman himself hadcalled them.
The sources said he was“speaking incoherently” andwas heavily armed with gre-nades and Kalashnikovs.
The area around the postoffice in Colombes, a citynorthwest of Paris, had beencordoned off, with a helicopterflying overhead and elite secu-rity forces on the ground.
On January 9, hooded gun-men stormed the Paris officesof weekly satirical magazine,Charlie Hebdo, killing at least12 people including two policeofficers in the worst militantattack on French soil in recentdecades.—AFP
Russia terms blasphemoussketches publication illegal
MOSCOW—Russia’s media watchdog on Friday warned publicationsthat printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) was againstthe country’s law and ethical norms following the Charlie Hebdo at-tack in France.“The publication in Russian media of such caricaturesgo against ethical and moral norms worked out over centuries,” saidthe media and communications watchdog Roskomnadzor.“ Dissemi-nating caricatures on religious themes in the media can be consideredinsulting or humiliating to the representatives of religious confessionsand groups, and qualified as inciting ethnic and relgious hatred”, anoffence under Russian law, it said.
The publication would also violate the Russian media and anti-extremism laws, the watchdog said, adding that it was asking Rus-sian media to “refrain from publishing caricatures that can be seenas a violation”.The watchdog published the statement as a responseto the ongoing debate on the “legality of publishing caricaturesdepicting religious objects of worship which affect feelings of re-ligious people.”Many newspapers and magazines around the worldreprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) by CharlieHebdo, whose Paris office was attacked by Islamist gunmen onJanuary 7, leading to the deaths of 12 people.
Although Russia’s leadership extended its condolences toFrance, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov participated in theunity march staged at the weekend, pro-Kremlin commentatorsand Muslims accused the cartoonists of provoking the attack.
Russia’s Council of Muftis - a top Muslim authority - con-demned the attack but said that “perhaps the sin of provocation...is no less dangerous for peace than the sin of those who yield tothe provocation”.It further said after Charlie Hebdo published apost-attack issue with the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) on thefront page that it is an “unacceptable response” to the shootingbecause one “cannot laugh at the feelings of the faithful.”
Several rallies have been announced next week by Muslims op-posing the cartoons, including one in Chechnya’s main city Grozny.Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov said those who drew the car-toons were “people without spiritual and moral values” and said that500,000 people would participate in the rally scheduled for Mondaymorning.Meanwhile some protesters who have picketed in support ofCharlie Hebdo have been punished. Moscow’s Tverskoy District Courton Friday sentenced Mark Galperin, an opposition activist who heldup a “Je Suis Charlie” poster near the Kremlin last Saturday, to eightdays of arrest.Another picketer, 75-year-old Vladimir Ionov, wasfined. Both were found guilty of staging an unsanctioned pub-lic event.—AP
Nationremembers kids
From Page 1
AitzazblastsNawaz govtfor fuelshortageLAHORE—PakistanPeoples Party veteranleader Barrister AitzazAhsan Friday held thePrime Minister NawazSharif led governmentresponsible for a terribledearth of petroleum oil(POL) products. “Therulers have fallen into theclutches of petroleumlobby,” Aitzaz told Samaain an exclusive interview.In the next breath, hecalled the Punjab govern-ment to carpet for itsoverambitious transportprojects. “What should Isay about a governmentthat can’t provide petro-leum products to theconsumers but is hell-benton running fuel-guzzling
Failure nooption interror war:GilaniMULTAN—Former Prime MinisterSyed Yousuf Raza Gilanihas said that failure tocombat terrorism is not anoption for Pakistan.Speaking to media personshere on Friday, Gilani saidthat army and governmentwere on same pageregarding army’s operationagainst militants. To aquestion regardingdemands of PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), hewas of the view that ball wasin government’s court. Theformer premier urged thePunjab government tocomplete incomplete projectsfirst instead of starting workon metro bus. —Online
NEW YORK—At the United Nations Se-curity Council, Pakistan unequivocallycondemned terrorism perpetrated by ISILagainst states and individuals and rejectedthe notion of the so-called caliphate.
Participating in a debate on the situa-tion in the Middle East, AmbassadorMasood Khan, Pakistan’s Permanent Rep-resentative said that Pakistan was fullyimplementing UN Security Council Reso-lutions 2170 and 2178, in letter and spirit.“We must together stop this tide to saveour global civilization”, he added. Ambas-sador Khan said that for the fourth yearrunning, the last year was the deadliest inSyria.
“This progressive deterioration mustbe halted”, he pleaded. Pakistan expressedfull support to Secretary General’s SpecialEnvoy Staffan de Mistura’s efforts to ar-range localized ceasefires and initiate apolitical process. Emphasizing the need forunited action by the Security Council, Pa-kistani envoy said that last year’s destruc-tion of the Syrian chemical weaponsprogramme demonstrated what could beaccomplished when this Council wasunited.
Pakistan condemnsterrorism, ISIL at UN
Talking on the issue on Palestine, Am-bassador Khan urged the Security Coun-cil members to work on a resolution thatcould pave the way to a clearly markedpathway to peace.
He warned that the absence of engage-ment between Palestinian Authority andIsrael, a constant state of fear and animos-ity and continuing violations of the Pales-tinians’ rights does not constitute a stateof limbo but a very precarious and peril-ous situation. He expressed fear that vio-lence and conflict could erupt any momentand highlighted the need to re-energizeand intensify diplomacy.
Pakistani envoy said that while the Pal-estinian statehood had increasingly beenrecognized worldwide, the Council hadfailed to pass a resolution based onagreed parameters, which had a strong jus-tification for adoption.
The only path to a viable and sustain-able peace, Ambassador Khan said, wasthe establishment of the State of Pales-tine, based on the pre-1967 borders, withAl-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, and va-cation of all Arab lands by Israel, includ-ing the Syrian Golan.—INP
ISLAMABAD—Supreme Court (SC) has given15 days to counsel for 5 death convicts in-volved in attacking army camp near riverChenab and killing 7 officers and jawans formaking further preparations in respect of ap-peal plea filed against death warrants of theculprits. A 2-member bench of SC presidedover by Justice Anwar Zahir Jamali took upthe case for hearing Friday.
The allowing of more time has avertedexecution of death penalty in respect of thesefive death row prisoners for 15 days more.Justice Anwar Zahir Jamali has remarked “how can we hear the appeal against the deci-sion of military court. You are not serious.Come here prepared in the case . Laiq Swaticounsel for the accused took the plea that fairtrial under article 10 A is legal right of the ac-cused which was not given to us. Nothing
Attack on army camp
SC gives 15 days to5 convicts for appeal
was made known to us about their trial andwhat was the charge sheet served on themduring trial at military court. Jail authoritiestold us that the accused had been awardeddeath punishment. Even record could not bemade available.
Counsel for the petitioners told the courtLahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi benchon December 22, 2014 accepted appeal pleaagainst the death warrants of the accusedincluding Ehsan Azeem, Kamran Aslam, AmirYusuf and Asif Idrees and suspended deathwarrants. However high court withdrew itsfirst decision on December, 24, 2014 on theappeal plea filed by government and dis-missed the petitions filed against the issu-ance of death warrants.
The copy of this decision has not beenso far received.. —Online
DOHA—Qatar warned Friday that publish-ing sketches of Prophet Mohammed (PeaceBe Upon Him) would “fuel hatred and an-ger”, as a leading Muslim body called forpeaceful protests against French weeklyCharlie Hebdo.
Qatar “condemned the reprinting byFrench satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo andother European press of pictures offensiveto Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be UponHim),” the foreign ministry said in a state-ment. “Freedom of speech does not mean in-sulting others, hurting their feelings, andmocking their religious beliefs and idols,” saidthe statement published by the official QNAnews agency. “These disgraceful actions arein the interest of nobody and will only fuel
Qatar cautions blasphemoussketches will fuel hatred
hatred and anger,” it warned, describing themas a “violation of human values of peacefulcoexistence, tolerance, justice, and respectamong people.” The new issue of the Frenchmagazine, published on Wednesday, featuresa cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed (PeaceBe Upon Him) on its cover holding a “Je SuisCharlie” sign under the headline “All is for-given”.It was the first edition of Charlie Hebdoto be published since Islamist gunmen killed12 people in an attack on its Paris offices onJanuary 7. Qatar, accused of backing radicalIslamists, urged Western media “to respectothers and their beliefs and to steer away fromintolerance and extremism, and to commit tothe values upon which Western civilisationwas built.”—INP
LONDON—World oil prices rebounded Friday after the In-ternational Energy Agency declared there were signs “thetide will turn” following recent multi-year lows.
In early afternoon London deals, Brent North Sea crudefor delivery in March rallied $1.41 to trade at $49.68 perbarrel. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for Febru-ary gained $1.09 at $47.34. “How low the market´s floor willbe is anyone´s guess,” the Paris-based IEA energy watch-dog said in a monthly report published on Friday.
“A price recovery — barring any major disruption —may not be imminent, but signs are mounting that the tidewill turn.” —AFP
MOSCOW—Pakistan consid-ers the ongoing dialogue withRussia as productive and in-tend to develop ties in vari-
Pakistan seeks to strengthendefence ties with Russia: FO
ous spheres including de-fence and energy products,Foreign Office spokespersonTasnim Aslam told Russian
news agency. “Russia and Pa-kistan are trying to enhanceand develop relations inmany areas; Minister of Fi-nance and Economic AffairsIshaq Dar has recently vis-ited Moscow where a meet-ing of the inter-governmen-tal working group for energyissues took place.
It was very useful,” Aslamsaid. She further added that“we received Russian De-fense Minister Sergey Shoiguin Pakistan last year; theyheld fruitful discussions andadopted a set of measuresaimed to strengthen defensecooperation. Now, time hascome to materialise them inreal life.”—Online
Oil market reboundson IEA report
LONDON: COAS in a group photograph during his visit to Military Academy Sandhurst.
3 LeJ membersarrested
in LahoreSALIM AHMED
LAHORE—Security forces inLahore arrested three terror-ists from the banned outfitLashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) afterconducting operations onFriday.
Sources said the militantswere arrested in Batapur,close to the Wagah border. Alarge contingency of securityforces participated in the op-eration.
The three men have beennamed as Qari Mushtaq,Asim Umar and JameelMuawiya, the sources said.
The arrested men are saidto be associated with the ter-rorist group and have beenmoved to an undisclosed lo-cation for furtherinterrogation.Since the terror-ist attack on an Army PublicSchool in Peshawar lastmonth, there has been acrackdown against bannedorganisations in the country,with several terrorists beingarrested.
PM approvesaccountability
subject forcurriculumSTAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif has given con-sent to include subject of‘Accountability’ in the cur-riculum. The decision hasbeen made in order createawareness in the childrenagainst corruption so thatthey could prevent them-selves from the menace intheir future.
In this regard, High Edu-cation Commissions andMinistry of Education havebeen directed in all the prov-inces.
IN 1971, the first email was delivered. Morethan 40 years on, social media has takenthe world by storm. Social networking sites,
such as Facebook and Twitter, are now usedby 1 in 4 people worldwide. Such activity mayseem harmless, but some researchers suggestsocial media may affect ourmental health and well-be-ing. In 2012, Medical NewsToday reported on a studysuggesting that Facebookuse may feed anxiety andincrease a person’s feelingof inadequacy.
A more recent study, ledby social psychiatrist EthanCross of the University ofMichigan, found that usingFacebook may even make usmiserable. “On the surface,Facebook provides an in-valuable resource for fulfill-ing the basic human need forsocial connection,” saysKross. “But rather than en-hance well-being, we foundthat Facebook use predictsthe opposite result - it undermines it.”
But are such claims exaggerated? Or shouldwe be limiting our use of social media? Medi-cal News Today looks at the evidence.
In essence, social media defines an arrayof Internet sites that enable people from all overthe world to interact. This can be through dis-cussion, photos, video and audio. Facebook isthe leading social networking site, with morethan 1.2 billion global active users every month.The site’s popularity is followed closely byMySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and Bebo.
On average, Americans spend 7.6 hoursusing social networking sites, such asFacebook, every month. The latest statistics
show that around 42% of online adults usemultiple social networking sites. Perhaps notsurprisingly, the majority of social mediausers are under the age of 30, although thenumber of older users is on the rise. Around45% of Internet users aged 65 or older now
use Facebook, increasing from35% in 2012.
On average, Americansspent 7.6 hours a month usingsocial media, with the majorityof individuals accessing socialnetworking sites through cellphones. In the late 1980s, thefirst commercial dial-upInternet service provider (ISP)was launched in the US.Internet technology has cer-tainly advanced in the past 25years, so much so that thewords “dial-up” make mostpeople cringe.
Of course, one of themain attractions for connectingto the Internet was, and still is,the ability to better connectwith the world around us. For
example, the Internet allowed us to sendemails as an alternative to the timely pro-cess of sending letters through the mail. So-cial media has built on this premise.“Facebook’s mission is to give people thepower to share and make the world moreopen and connected. People use Facebookto stay connected with friends and family,to discover what’s going on in the world,and to share and express what matters tothem.” This sums up what the majority ofsocial networking sites endeavor to achieve,and there is no doubt that the general publichas succumbed to the world of social me-dia, perhaps a little too much.
Social media: how does it really affectour mental health and well-being?
Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, members of civil society holding a rally in front ofparliament house to express solidarity with the victims of Army Public School.—PO photoby Sultan Bashir
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—‘We will notlet your blood go to waste!We will take your revengewith our pen!’ – MaryamImran, student of RootsDHA-1 campus grade IG-1B.
Today the students ofRoots Ivy InternationalSchool and DHA-1 campusgathered in solemn unison incommemoration of ‘BlackDay 16-12-2014’. CEOKhadija Mushtaq highly en-couraged and appreciated thebravery and courage of theseyoung children. They recited
duas for the lost innocent livesof the children of Army PublicSchool Peshawar, sang the Na-tional Anthem and displayedheartfelt notes of love and sup-port for the victims’ families,shunning the violence of terror-ism and words of wisdom forthe nation to stay strong andunited against brutality againsthumanity.
This day marked the onemonth anniversary of the mostill-fated tragedy in the historyof Pakistan when the enemiesof humanity violently raidedArmy Public School –Peshawar, brutally killing inno-cent children.
However, in the wake ofsuch tragedy, the studentsshowed immense bravery byreturning back to school witha solid conviction that theywill not be intimidated bycowardly acts of terrorism.Their spirits were high andthey have vowed to beat thesecowards and avenge the bloodof the martyred not by vio-lence but by the might of thepen.
(May Allah grant theselittle angles the highest ranksin heaven and give their par-ents the strength to bear thisloss.’Long Live Pakistan! Amen.)
Roots Ivy students pledge to avenge terrorism through mighty Pen
RAZA UR REHMAN
I S L A M A B A D —Pres iden tMamnoon Hussain whilestrongly condemning the publi-cation of blasphemous sketchesin a French journal on Friday saidthe freedom of speech did notallow anyone to disrespect thesacred values of any religion andteasing its followers.
“The limits of freedom ofexpression end from where thefreedom of any other is affectedand his sentiments are hurt,” hesaid while commenting on thepublication of blasphemoussketches in a French magazine.
The President in a statementsaid that Muslims respect allother religions with open heartand their faith did not completeuntil they believe in all holyprophets and the revealed books.
The Muslims cannot eventhink of disrespecting not onlyany prophet but the leader of anyreligion as well, he said. “That iswhy, they know that anyone inthe world having any faith can-not be allowed to commit blas-phemy for the Prophet of IslamHazrat Muhammad (Peace BeUpon Him),” he added.
The President said it was alsothe need of globalization that nosuch action is taken which hurtsthe sentiments of any segment ofsociety, adding, “there is no doubtthat the French journal has hurtthe feelings of Muslims, for whichit should apologize.”
Meanwhile, Religiopoliticalgroups of all schools of thoughtobserved Friday as a black daythroughout the country againstthe French magazine which re-published blasphemous carica-tures of Prophet HazratMuhammad (PBUH). JamiatUlema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S)chief Maulana Samiul Haq con-demned the publication of pro-fane cartoons.
In a statement issued fromAkora Khattak, Maulana SamiulHaq asked the religious scholarsand people to raise voice againstthe publication of the sacrile-gious caricatures.
President condemns publication ofblasphemous sketches in French journal
Religious groups observed Friday as black day
Security personnel stand alert outside the French embassy in the wake of publication ofblasphemous cartoons in a french journal.
Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami chanting slogans during a protest against sketches.
People protesting against blasphemous sketches outside Masjid-e-Quba after Jummaprayers.
He said the entire Europe ex-pressed solidarity in its enmitywith Islam after the attack at theoffice of the magazine. “TheMuslim countries should uniteand take measures to force thewestern countries to tender anapology for hurting the feelingsof millions of Muslims across theglobe,” he urged.
“The government shouldrecord strong protest to theFrench government and Europeover the printing of the sacrile-gious cartoons in the magazine,”he added.
Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam (JUI-F) and Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT)took out rallies in the twin cities.Islami Jamiat Talaba took out ral-lies from Raja Bazar toRawalpindi Press Club, and atAabpara Islamabad and stagedDemonstrations after Fridayprayers to protest against the cari-catures which has caused outrageacross the Islamic world. JI AmirSiraj ul Haq has announced acountrywide protest against thepublication on Thursday.
JUI-F’s Maulana AmjadKhan called for convening a Mus-lim leaders’ conference. MaulanaAmjad Khan called upon theUlema to sensitise the peoplethrough Friday sermons of theblasphemous acts and conspira-cies of Christians and Jews againstIslam and hold peaceful protestsoutside mosques after the prayers.
According to a statement Pa-kistan Awami Tehreek (PAT)chief Dr Tahirul Qadri has de-manded a meeting of the OICand urged the UN, EuropeanUnion and French government totake notice of the blasphemywhich had nothing to do with thefreedom of expression as the hei-nous act had violated fundamen-tal rights of the Muslims.
Mujlis Wahdet-e-Muslimeen (MWM) DeputySecretary General MaulanaAmeen Shaheedi said that thegovernment should record strongprotest to the French governmentand Europe over the printing ofthe sacrilegious cartoons in themagazine,” he added.
Annualmeeting,
election of IHSOBSERVER REPORT
ISLAMABAD—Annual Gen-eral Meeting of Islamabad Hor-ticultural Society will be held
on Friday 30.01.2015 at 4:00p.m. in the Banquet HallIslamabad Club.
All office bearers, Mem-bers of Executive Council andMembers are requested to at-tend the meeting. Election forthe year 2015 will also be heldin the AGM.
Dr. Shaukat Malik, Advi-sor of the Society has beenappointed Chief ElectionCommissioner for the Elec-tion 2015. any information ifrequire can be obtained fromthe office of the President ofthe Society. Office phone #051-9262129, cell # 0333-5030909
ZUBAIR QURESHI
ISLAMABAD—The Islamabad High Courthas directed promotion of some 27 senior of-ficers, bureaucrats to next grade within threedays time.
These officers had moved the court asthey were being denied promotions despitethe fact that the Central Selection Board(CSB) had recommended their cases.
Through Advocate Asma Jahangir, thepetitioners, officers of different servicesgroups of BPS-20, 21, had filed a petition inthe Islamabad High Court . Just iceMuhammad Anwar Khan Kasi on Fridaywhile hearing the petitioners’ counsel gavethis order.
Central Selection Board in February2014 had okayed promotions of 44 officersof DMG, 11 police group 21 Foreign Officegroup officers. However, when their nameswere put before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
he sent cases of 18 officers of DMG, 5 Po-lice Services and 4 Foreign Services groupsback to the bard for review.
Upon delay in promotions that too on thedirections of Prime Minister, these bureau-crats filed petition in the Islamabad HighCourt. The IHC then ordered the governmentto promote these officers to next grade asper recommendations of the CSB. However,the federation moved Supreme Court againstthe IHC verdict. The apex court too threwaway the government’s petition and gave thesame direction.
Yesterday, while giving arguments, AsmaJahangir said since the Supreme Court toohas dismissed the government’s plea deny-ing these officers their legal right of promo-tion was against their fundamental rights.IHC Chief Justice while directing the gov-ernment to promote these officers to nextgrade within three days adjourned the casetill January 19.
IHC directs promotion of grade-20, 21 officers within 3 days
ZUBAIR QURESHI
IS L A M A B A D —IslamabadHigh Court (IHC) has fixedJanuary 19 to hear thegovernment’s appeal againstbail granted to alleged Mas-termind of Mumbai terror at-tacks of 2008, ZakiurRehman Lakhvi by Anti-Ter-rorism Court (ATC).
A division bench of theIHC comprising Just ice
Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui andJustice Noor-ul-Haq NQureshi wil l hear thegovernment’s appeal. ATCon Dec 18 had granted post-arrest bail to Lakhvi againstsurety bonds of Rs1 million.
Upon this the govern-ment had to open a 6-year oldkidnapping case againstLakhvi in order to keep himbehind the bars. In kidnap-ping case, too he was grantedbail.
A judicial magistrate ofIslamabad Thursday grantedbail to Zakiur RhemanLakhvi, the alleged master-mind of Mumbai attacks of2008, in a kidnapping caseagainst surety bond ofRs200,000.
The government howeverissued a notification and tookhim into custody under sec-tion ‘3’ of the Maintenance ofPublic Order (MPO). Al-though another single benchof the IHC is hearingLakhvi’s appeal against use ofMPO against him, yet thegovernment took a new moveand filed appeal against ATCorder of granting Lakhvi bail.
FIA prosecutors will ar-gue against grant of bail toLakhvi.
Hearing fixed forgovt’s appeal against
Lakhvi’s bail
MIAN ARSHAD
ISLAMABAD—The Establish-ment Division has completed34% process of verification ofdegrees of officers of variousAutonomous Bodies/ Corpora-tions attached to different minis-tries and divisions. “The processof verification of degrees/ certifi-cates of officers of the FederalGovernment is in progress and
it has not been stopped” a wellplaced source at EstablishmentDivision told Pakistan Observerhere on Friday.
“The latest status of theexercise reported by the Min-istries/ Divisions to the Estab-lishment Division reveals thatthe process of verification ofdegrees/ certificates of 23% ofthe officers (BS-17 & above)of the Federal Ministries/ Di-visions and Departments hasbeen completed” the sourceobserved adding that a similarexercise pertaining to 34% of-ficers of various AutonomousBodies/ Corporations had alsobeen completed
The source further elabo-rated about the procedures forrecruitments and said that awell establish had mechanismwas in place in the federal gov-ernment for direct recruitmentto civil posts on the basis ofprovincial/regional quota ofdomicile to which a candidatebelongs. However, domicile isissued to a person by the Dis-trict Magistrate/District OfficerRevenue/District Authority ofthe respective province.
Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity
Air University students pose for group photo after receiving laptops under PM National Laptop Scheme with Regis-trar, Air Commodore (R) Ghulam Mujaddid and Dean Administrative Sciences, Dr. Mueen A. Zafar.
January 20-21National Conference
A two-day national confer-ence on inter-religion cohe-sion and understandingstrategy will be held on 20-21st January at Allama IqbalAuditorium International Is-lamic University FaisalMasjid Campus.
January 25NUML
NUML University will remainclose till Jan25, 2015. Howeverthe university staff will con-tinue to perform its duties.The Interviews for admissionwill be scheduled in last weekof January and Exam will beheld in February 2015.
Twin cities continue to face acute shortage of petrol. Long queues of vehicles are seen on different filling stationswhere people wait for hours to get petrol.
A view of bus stop where encroachments remained a question for CDA since long.
RAWALPINDI—City Traffic PoliceRawalpindi has launched strict actionagainst vehicles and motorcyclesbearing ‘fake number plates’ plying onvarious roads in the city.
During the operation, City Trafficpolice issued challan tickets to 11,071vehicles and motorcycles on violationof law.
On Friday, Chief Traffic Police of-ficer Shoaib Khurrum Janbaz said thatthe operation has been startedagainst vehicles bearing fake number
plates or revolving blue light, tintedglasses and without number platesafter reports of involvement of suchvehicles in increasing cases of hei-nous crimes.
He said that city traffic police havebeen strictly directed to act againstfake number plates and revolvinglights without fear and favor, whileseveral vehicles and motorcycles wereimpounded in the police stations inthis connection.
“Motorcycles and vehicles would
be impounded in police stations if theyfailed to display original numberplates,” he warned, adding that sternaction would be taken against thosewho have installed revolving light ontheir vehicles impersonating as policeofficers.
He advised citizens particularlyparents to ensure their responsibili-ties and stop young ones from deadlypractice, one wheeling which isequally dangerous for riders and otherroad users.—APP
Police launch operationagainst fake number plates
RAWALPINDI—Police on Friday launchedoperation and arrested 16 outlaws besidesrecovering drugs, weapons and illegal gasrefilling instruments from their possession.
According to police spokesman,Ganjmandi police arrested Ifthikhar and re-covered 375 grams charas from his posses-sion while Waris Khan police held Jabbarand recovered 540 grams charas from hispossession.
In another case, same police nabbedBilal and recovered 570 grams charas fromhis possession. Bani police held QamarRashid and recovered pistol 30 bore along3 rounds from his possession. New Townpolice arrested Bilal and recovered pistol30 bore along 2 rounds from his posses-
sion. Taxila police arrested Mulhtar and re-covered pistol 30 bore along 2 rounds fromhis custody.
Mandra police arrested Nasir Ali andrecovered pistol 30 bore from his pos-session. Rawat police arrested Arshadand recovered pistol 30 bore along 4rounds from his possession. Waris Khanpolice held Aashiq and recovered 12 borerifle along 4 rounds from his possession.R.A bazaar police arrested Moin, Zahoorand Umer Shah and recovered illegal gasrefilling instruments from their posses-s ion.
Police have registered separate casesagainst all of them and started investiga-tion.—APP
Police arrest 16 outlaws,drugs, weapons recovered
RAZA UR REHMAN
ISLAMABAD—Secretary Finance, Dr. WaqarMasood Khan here on Friday apprised theSenate Standing Committee on Finance, Rev-enue and Economic Affairs that governmenthas released Rs.17 billion for Pakistan StateOil (PSO) for smooth supply of petroleum prod-ucts across the country.
The Committee which met with SenatorNasreen Jalil in chair was also informed thatrecent petrol shortage occurred due to distur-bance in supply chain and it would be over-come with in next few days.
The Committee was informed that a shipcarrying 50,000 tons of oil has been anchoredin Karachi Port besides opening of five newletter of credits (LCs) and it is expected thatsupply of petrol would improve with in fewdays. The government has also finalized ar-rangements to fulfill the financial requirementsof PSO to keep petroleum supply at smoothlevel in future besides taking steps for the re-covery of circular debt.
Dr. Waqar said that the government wasproviding Rs. 222 billion subsidy on petro-leum products and the amount of subsidy wasprovided every month to avoid any crisis likesituation. Giving the overview of nationaleconomy, he told the Committee that the gov-ernment was optimistic to achieve the GDPgrowth targets of 5.1 percent as the flood as-sessment report had reveled that major cropswere not affected by floods at large and their
Steps taken to overcome petrolshortage: Senate Committee told
production would also not be affected. Dur-ing the period from July-October, industrialsector recorded 1.2 percent growth as com-pared to corresponding period of last yearbesides auto-mobile and steel sector was per-forming well, he added.
The meeting was informed that core-in-flation was recorded at 6.7 percent during last6 months which stood at 8.2 percent in corre-sponding period of last year. During last 6months average inflation recorded at 6 per-cent. The secretary informed that exports werereduced and government had not receivedany relief in imports as import bill of oil wasincreased during the months of July-August,2014.
He said that the oil import bill came downduring the months of November and Decem-ber and it is expected that government wouldbe able to earn $3-5 billion as oil prices wit-nessed decreasing trend in international mar-ket. Secretary Finance said that stock marketwas also performing well as it had crossedthe 34,000 points mark and from last threeyears it was among the world best markets.Remittances posted 15 percent increase asduring last 6 months country received about$9 billion which are likely to reach $25 billionsby the end of current fiscal year.
The forex reserves has crossed $15 bil-lion mark, foreign direct investment registered19 percent growth and stood at $529 billionwhich was recorded at $445 billion of sameperiod last year.
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—The new Islamabad inter-national airport including its signal freeapproach road would be completed byOctober 2016, Parliamentary SecretaryRaja Javed Ikhlas told National Assem-bly on Friday. Replying to the questionof Naeema Kishwar Khan, he said theproject, inaugurated in 2007 has beendelayed due to various reasons. Thecases of the responsible of the delay andcorruption in the project were being re-ferred to National Accountability Bureau(NAB).
The initial cost of the project has al-ready been enhanced to Rs 82 billion fromRs 38 billion. The project cost is likely toenhance further as the new land has tobe purchased for constructing new run-way.
Parliamentarians expressed concerns
over delay in the construction of newIslamabad airport project. Replying tothe question of Sheikh Rolahe Asgharhe said the actual cost has been increasedby Rs 10,191 million due to variation or-ders, currency fluctuations and inflation(basic estimation). Giving break-up hesaid Rs 3,742 million project enhanceddue to variation orders, Rs 2,556 milliondue to currency fluctuations and Rs 3,893million owing to inflation (basic estima-tion).
Replying to the question ofMuhammad Muzammil Qureshi, JavedIkhlas said 15 aircraft are being added inthe fleet of Pakistan International Airlines(PIA) for enhancing efficiency. He saidPIA was being restructured. Theprivatization commission has been taskedto carry forward the privatization of coreactivities of national airline by divesting26 percent of shares with complete man-
agement. The privatization commissionhas selected a financial advisor in thisregard to offset the airline from recurringlosses and to improve service for thepassengers. PIA was provided Rs 16 bil-lion in 2014 and USD 52 million in 2015for leasing of 5 ATR and 10 A-320 air-craft.
State Minister for Parliamentary Af-fairs Sheikh Aftab told National Assem-bly that the new survey would be con-ducted for giving financial assistance todeserving people of far flung areas un-der Benazir Income Support Programme(BISP).
Replying to question of ShakilaNauman during question hour, he saidin many districts the facility of BISP isnon-existant. The PML-N governmenthas enhanced monthly support from Rs1200 to Rs 1500 per month. The poor arebeing supported across the board.
New Islamabad airportto be operational by Oct 2016
Motor Cyclistsadvised to takesafety measures
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—All motor cy-clists must take safety mea-sures while driving on theroad, said Islamabad trafficpolice.
ITP started its aware-ness raising campaign toensure that motor cyclistsmust take safety measureslike back view mirror andelectric kit. Islamabad Traf-fic Police asked the citizento these necessary itemswith them.
Traffic officers will en-sure during its seven daychecking campaign and spe-cial units are asked to ensure.SSP Traffic said it is our dutyto the safety of every citizento ITP taking some strict ac-tion against the outlaws.
Park enclave to becompleted in Dec
ISLAMABAD—CDA Spokes-man Asim Khaceri said ParkEnclave Project costing Rs1.24 million will be completedby December. In an exclusivetalk with Online, he said thatthe work on the project is infull swing and it will be com-pleted by 31 December, 2015.
He said that authorityhas launched many megaprojects for convenience ofthe public and in this regard2 parking plazas are underconstruction in Jinnah Su-per and F-7 markaz. Besideswork is in progress on facili-tation center in G-7 in whichmatters related to propertytransfer, clearance of maps,ICT licenses and NADRAcards would be handled.
The permission of FaisalAvenue Flyovers has alsobeen given. He also denied thenews that cost of projects areincreasing and said that allprojects would be finished attheir estimated cost.—Online
CITY REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Allama Iqbal Open University(AIOU) will soon start training courses for itsaround 70,000 tutors at regional officesthroughout the country, ensuring their bestacademic output in teaching students as wellmarking their examination papers and assign-ments.
This was stated by the vice chancellor Prof.Dr. Shahid Siddiqui while addressing the se-niors’ tutors during his visit to the AIOU’sRawalpindi Region. The tutors’ training pro-gram is a part of the University’s consistentefforts to provide quality education to the stu-dents through qualitative improvement in theteaching and evaluating system.
He underlined the important role of the tu-tors in the success of the distance learning
system. Dr. Siddiqui hoped that trainingcourses which help the tutors to enhance theirprofessional skill. He advised the DirectorRawalpindi Region, Dr. Malik Tauqir AhmedKhan to take necessary measures for improv-ing their professional working and providingbest possible facilities to the students.
He announced that the University will con-struct its own building in the Rawalpindi re-gion, as soon as they get suitable place for thepurpose. Earlier, while welcoming the Vice Chan-cellor, Dr. Tauqir Khan assured that the AIOU’sPindi region will further expand its facilities tothe students in admission and examinationprocess. Director Regional Services Prof. Dr.Rashid A. Naeem also spoke on the occasionand explained the new initiatives being takenfor the overall improvement of educationalsystem at the regional level.
AIOU to arrange trainingcourses for its 70,000 tutors
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD —National Assembly was in-formed Friday that Pakistan Baitul Mal will setup new Sweet Homes for destitute children inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh thisyear. The session started with DeputySpeaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi in the chair.Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs,Sheikh Aftab Ahmed informed the House
Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal to set upmore Sweet Homes
during Question Hour that initially theseSweet Homes will be set up at Shangla,Bhakkar and Khairpur.
To a question, Sheikh Aftab Ahmed saidfinancial assistance is being provided byPakistan Baitul Mal to the deserving per-sons for health and education. He said thatup to 600,000 rupees financial assistance isbeing provided for medical treatmentthrough designated government hospitals.
CITY REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Citizens have voicedstrong protest against construction ofpower grid station in F-9 ParkIslamabad. The civil society andpeople from every strata of societyhave denounced the provision of 10kanal plot as gift by CDA for con-
struction of grid station in FatimaJinnah Park and allowing the IESCOto lay electricity lines for supply ofelectricity.
The citizens said that IESCO hasstarted constructing grid station onthe land of public park without obtain-ing no objection certificate from Envi-ronmental Protection Agency (EPA).
They condemned the irresponsibleattitude of IESCO.
They urged the CDA to allot alter-native plot to IESCO for construction ofgrid station instead of allowing the lat-ter to build the station in public park ofF-9. The citizens said that as per SupremeCourt decision CDA can not use publicpark land for some other purpose.
Grid station in F-9 Public Parkaggravates public fury
Indian police arrest JKLF Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik during a rally in Srinagar against India’s move to permanently settle non-Kashmiris in IOK.
APHC leader and the Chairman of Kashmir Freedom Front, Syed Bashir Andrabi expressing serious concern over theproposed settlement of non-Kashmiris in the Kashmir.
NAYEEMA AHMED MAHJOOR
AMID controversy over the interception of“Terror boat” in Arabian sea, the exchangeof fire on border or tough posturing might
be a sport for politicians or a tool for raising “Na-tionalistic” sentiments but it has already renderedmany families homeless. ‘Experts’ keep wonder-ing about the credibility of spiral of clashes mostlyunfolding on the TV channels. Though, media givesyou no chance to find out the truth as they hurry tofeed you with their “managed Nationalistic percep-tion”, yet, it has always been a dangerous adventurefor any independent journalist to venture into theterritory, more dangerous than the border itself.
How unsettling for the US President whosevisit to India brings misery to millions of people.Red alert to security raids to surveillance to roadblocks to border escalation becomes “managed”nightmare and frets people whose anticipation ofsomething “nasty” is going to happen often comestrue every time some dignitary has to visit Sub-continent. Mutual hostilities guide guests to takeside of the host country.
Had there been no “Kashmir dispute”, would itstill happen on the eve of visit of US President orother foreign guests to Sub-continent? And, wouldKashmir has to be the ‘altar of sacrifice’ for arch
The politics of belligerencerivals?....these questions need serious thinking sothat those poor souls are being given little comfortwho harbour feelings of becoming sacrificial goatsfor military adventurism. On the one hand, the USinvolvement in ‘Afghanistan to Iraq’ or nine elevenattack has reduced “Kashmir dispute to non-entity”,and at the same time it becomes the “conflict of in-terest” for strategic bargaining against commercialexpansion among the stakeholders.
What India or Pakistan has to gain to initiatefiring at present? India claims it a ploy to infil-trate militants into Indian side of Kashmir, thetheory, India succeeded in the past in convincingthe International community after its diplomaticlobbying. Although, the latest border clash or boatinterception claim has, at the moment, only fewtakers, courtesy to the U-turn policy of PakistanArmy after deadly attack on children in Peshawar.The logic put forward is that the terror-ridden coun-try can hardly afford to take risk of fighting withIndia when its army has been engaged in FATAand other troubled tribal belt adjoining Afghani-stan. “Army’s strong resolve to eliminate Anti-Pa-kistan militants inside and outside the country hasmade India little bit jittery because Pakistan has toeliminate those groups first (mostly remnants ofLal mosque attack who flew to Afghanistan), con-sidered to be working at the behest of Indian agen-
cies”. Says former Pak diplomat, Munir Akram.To the dismay of India, US/Afghan-Pak co-
operation has become re-rejuvenated since RaheelSharief set the new target for Army operation. His“policy of elimination of terror outfits” has restorednot only the confidence among his countrymen, ithas also build trust of stakeholders in the region,thus agreeing to give direct access into the strong-holds of Taliban in remote Afghanistan. Pakistanbelieves India’s engagement with Taliban remnantsthrough its consulates in Afghanistan has a soleaim of denting Pak/China economic relations thathas reached to new heights after the constructionof Highways in Northern peaks, bringing bothcountries close to each other.
Pakistan has a lot on plate. The daring suicideattacks by Taliban on ‘civilian to its strategic in-stallations’ have unnerved the country. Those whowere its “strategic assets” have become dreadfulenemies. Taliban cared, fed and nurtured havebecome unleashed atom bombs, killing anybodywhosoever comes in their way. According to de-fence analyst in FATA, “Pakistan was blamed fornurturing militants, now its rivals are paying themhuge amount to attack Pakistan assets. The circum-stantial evidence refutes the claim that Pakistanwould be looking for any other adventure with In-dia at a time when it has become embroiled in in-
ternal strife”. Also, the claim cannot be substanti-ated on the premise of infiltrating few militantsunder the cover of firing. Pakistan has done it with-out firing in the past. The infiltration becomes dif-ficult in winter as many routes become inacces-sible until March. Another stark reality has dawnedon Pakistan that local population in Kashmir couldhardly dare to provide shelter to militants at a timewhen the valley is going through the worst night-mare of having BJP at the threshold of achievingpower that could result in losing its “Muslim char-acter” after recent elections. So sending militantsin oblivion will hardly suit Pakistan interest.What some Think Tanks suggest that India mightbe planning to attack “Azad Kashmir”, followingthe route Israeli took when it pounced Gaza withtacit support of some powerful countries.
The fractured mandate in the state of Jammuand Kashmir has made the International commu-nity wary about the situation born out of the democ-racy, though, feel compelled to support India in re-turn for its commercial ventures. The skirmishes atborder might be intended to divert the attention ofpolitical pundits who keep counting the days of morerebellions in future in the troubled valley.
European democracies took long time to un-derstand the Pakistan’s strategic assets, but it tookno time in assessing the India’s political
manoeuvring, the policy, with which the democraticpowers are grappling now. Military posturing, GharWapsi or intimidation of minorities has furthercreated mistrust against Modi government whosemantra of “Vikas for all” has got over-shadowed.
Pakistan has totally given up on Kashmir is farfrom reality. It seems they have prioritised the “ar-eas of interest”. FATA or tribal belt has becomethe initial target of Zarb-i-Azb, the operation mightor might not get expanded to South Punjab.
And, it can never be accepted that Pakistanarmy will follow its political leadership so far asKashmir is concerned, it will remain its “area ofinterest” even if it has to fight this war without thebacking of political leadership or without the sup-port of Kashmir. Only time is not on Pakistan side.
So, the political viciousness of both the coun-tries has never disappeared nor have they left Kash-mir to sort out its own issues. What has becomeevident is that India is looking for fast track to com-plete “unfinished” Kashmir whereas Pakistan hastaken a step back until it sorts out Taliban. Till then,the border will remain under the grip of intermit-tent firing. India and Pakistan have to shun theaggressive attitude so that borders are calmed.
—Courtesy: Greater Kashmir[The writer has worked as Editor of news/cur-
rent affairs in BBC London]
SRINAGAR—While appealing for com-plete and statewide shutdown on 26January, Hurriyat Conference (G) chair-man Syed Ali Geelani strongly con-demned the circular by the administra-tion in which the participation of thegovernment employees in the 26Januaryfunction of government hasbeen termed compulsory and whereinthey have been directed to remainpresent into the Bakshi Stadium on theday.
In a statement from New Delhi hesaid, “India is claiming to be a bigdemocratic country in the world andcelebrates 26 January as its republic daybut its democratic claims are beingbadly exposed in Jammu & Kashmirand this country is denying the demo-cratic right of the people of Jammu &Kashmir from last 68 years.
Kashmiris are nether the enemies ofIndia or its people and nor are they op-posed to their republic day celebrationswithin the limitations of Indian Terri-tory but as far as the Kashmir is con-cerned, it is although an occupied ter-
Geelani calls for totalshutdown on Jan 26
ritory held by India with the help of itsmilitary might so, they have no consti-tutional and moral justifications to cel-ebrate these functions on the surface ofJammu & Kashmir because we see nosign of its democracy here visible onthe ground.”
He also expressed his concern overthe reports that some school girls werebeing prepared for the singing anddancing programs for this day. “The UNCharter supports the right to self deter-mination of every nation of the worldand this right has been accepted as thebasic and birth right of every humanbeing.
This world body has recommendedthat the wishes and aspirations of thepeople of Jammu & Kashmir should berespected and India has promised at na-tional as well as international levels thatthey will held a referendum in this statebut those promises are yet to be fulfilledand the people of this state are beingdenied their democratic right,” he said.Geelani added that it was the only rea-son for their opposition to hold this
function of 26 January in Jammu &Kashmir and “we treat it as a big jokewith the democracy.”
While appealing for complete boy-cott of the 26 January function, Hurriyat(G) chairman termed this governmentorder as “sheer hooliganism and coer-cion which have termed the participa-tion of employees in these functions ascompulsory.”
“Participation of employees is in noway any part of their duty and forcingthem for this is itself a proof of the factthat the state of Jammu & Kashmir isruled by the police and army,” Geelanisaid and appealed the school children,teachers and parents not to be any partof the 26 Januaryfunction.
He also expressed his concern overthe reports that some school girls werebeing prepared for the singing anddancing programs for this day.
“It doesn’t suit to a conscious per-son to allow his daughter for perform-ing dance and singing in front of theunknown persons. It is also against ourcollective conscious,” he added.—KW
Newsman’sbrother killedin encounter
BUDGAM—Among the fivemilitants killed in bloody en-counter in Keller Shopian, onewas the brother of a journalistwho works for a trendy IndianHindi News Channel. ShakeelAhmed Wani, joined Jaish-e-Muhammad in July 2014 accord-ing to locals of his native placePakharpora Budgam was veryreligious and pious.
One of his relatives toldCNS that before joining mili-tancy Shakeel was doing a gov-ernment job. “He was a postgraduate student and was themember of an influential family.He was married and had twodaughters and a little sonAbdullah.”
Shakeel according to localswas an active member of‘Tableegi Jammat’ and accordingto one of his relatives he was com-pletely a transformed man afterhe spent 40 days at a stretch in aMasjid with a Tableegi Jammat.
Soon after joining militancy,Shakeel came to lime light aftera group of militants attacked po-licemen deployed at local shrinein Pakharpora. “He was one ofthe group members involved inthe attack and weapon snatchingincident at Pakharpora shrine in2014,” a police official told CNS.
There was spontaneous shut-down in Pakharpora after thenews about the death of Shakeelreached there. Reports said thatscores of protestors made theirentry into the Shrine of Syed Sul-tan Syed Muhammah Ali Aali(RA) and attacked the policemenguarding the shrine. The violentyouth reportedly ransacked thebelongings of policemen andtried to set their post on fire. “Po-lice exercised maximum restraintand did not use any force. Soonafter the incident, reinforcementreached there to restore the peaceand order,” a police officialsaid.—KW
SRINAGAR—Former J&K Chief Minister andNational Conference Working President OmarAbdullah Thursday hit out at New Delhi for“holding up” Rs 44,000-crore relief package forflood victims of Kashmir. This is for the first timethat Omar openly slammed the Centre after de-mitting the office of the Chief Minister on Janu-ary 8.
“Dear GovtOf India now that you are directlyruling J&K can you please tell us why packagefor flood victims relief is being held up?” Omarwrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter.
Soon after the floods hit Kashmir on Sep-tember 7 last, the Omar-led government submit-
Omar slams Delhi for ‘holdingup’ flood relief package
ted a memorandum of losses to the tune of Rs44,000 crore to the central government for itsassistance. However, the Centre is since main-taining that the proposal is under its examina-tion.
Without naming anybody, Omar also offereda “piece of advice” to politicians and famous per-sons, asking them to delete their earlier posts onFacebook and Twitter, before switching their al-liances and parties.
“Note to famous people joining politics-be-fore joining check your Twitter/FB archive & de-lete all posts critical of party you are joining,” hetweeted.—GK
SRINAGAR—The Jammu and Kashmir HighCourt Thursday stayed re-investigation intothe Kunan-Poshpora mass rape in whicharmy soldiers allegedly raped over 40 womenin the twin villages of north Kashmir’sKupwara district, in 1991.
“Till next date, subject to objections ofthe other side, the impugned order dated 18-6-2013 and 8-8-2014 shall stay (Sic),” abench of Justice Tashi Rabstan ordered,while issuing a notice to the state govern-ment on a petition by Army, against the re-investigation, within two weeks.
The court ordered the case be listed af-ter two weeks.
Soldiers of Army’s 4-Rajputana Rifles of68 Brigade allegedly raped over 40 womenin Kunan and Poshpora villages during theintervening night of February 23-24, 1991.Following massive public outcry, Policelodged an FIR vide no 10/1991 against Armyunder various criminal sections at police sta-tion Trehgam. In its order of June 18, 2013,the court of Judicial Magistrate Kupwara hadordered that a police officer not below therank of Senior Superintendent of Policeshould re-investigate the case within threemonths. And vide order dated August 8,2014, the Principal Sessions Judge Kupwarahad dismissed a revision petition by armyagainst the order of Judicial MagistrateKupwara.
The Judicial Magistrate Kupwara had di-rected for further investigation into the caseafter the victims filed a protest petition inthe court against the police closure report.
In the petition by GOC 28 Infantry Divi-sion against reinvestigation in the case, theArmy has stated an officer is empowered andauthorized to examine, enquire and try itspersonnel “subject to Army Act” under hiscontrol in respect of the allegation attributedto them while on “Active Service” in J&K.
The Jammu and Kashmir High CourtThursday stayed re-investigation into theKunan-Poshpora mass rape in which armysoldiers allegedly raped over 40 women in
HC stays re-probe ofKunan-Poshpora mass rape
the twin vil lages of north Kashmir ’sKupwara district, in 1991. “Till next date,subject to objections of the other side, theimpugned order dated 18-6-2013 and 8-8-2014 shall stay (Sic),” a bench of JusticeTashi Rabstan ordered, while issuing a no-tice to the state government on a petition byArmy, against the reinvestigation, within twoweeks. The court ordered the case be listedafter two weeks.
“What is the course open to a Magistratewhen a Closure Report under Section 173OfCrPC is laid before it by the Station HouseOfficer in-charge of a Police Station.Whether law permits the Magistrate to record
evidence and thereafter direct further in-vestigation,” the petition states, adding,“Whether a Judicial Magistrate at the timeof consideration of final police report orcompliant can rely upon the unaccepted find-ings/observations of State Human RightsCommission to decide the further course ofaction in the compliant police /report;Whether or not the findings of the Commis-sion in evidence and whether magistrate canrely thereon to decide further course of ac-tion while dealing with proceedings on Clo-sure Repent.”
The petitioner seeks to know whether thedirections/findings of the J&K SHRC are rel-evant for investigation of offences under theRPC. In 2011, the J&K State Human RightsCommission (SHRC) recommended to theGovernment to re-investigate the case. TheCommission asked for constitution of a Spe-cial Investigation Team headed by an officernot below the rank of Superintendent of Po-lice to conduct the re-investigation.
However, the Government has done littleto act on the recommendations. On Novem-ber 9 last year, the Special InvestigatingTeam (SIT) probing the case had pleadedbefore the High Court that the Union of In-dia be directed to provide information about125 Army personnel who conducted searchoperation during the night of 23/24 Febru-ary when the mass rape took place.—GK
SRINAGAR—South Kashmir Civil SocietySKCS, in a statement strongly deplores theblasphemous caricatures published in a Frenchmagazine.SKCS urges upon United Nations(UN), UNESCO (United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organisation)and Eu-ropean Union (EU) to stop such caricaturesfrom being published.
Since, Islam is the religion of peace withinclusive approach outrightly rejecting themindset of otherness, it is Prophet ofAllah(peace-be upon-him) who made the firstpossible written document in human historyabout peaceful coexistence through an agree-
Civil society deplores Frenchblasphemous caricatures
ment commonly called as Declaration ofMadina in 622 A.D ,SKCS respects the free-dom of expression but European countriesmust know the limits associated with it, thefreedom must not hurt the religious faith of avast community.
Publishing of blasphemous caricaturesseems to be a deliberate attempt to play withthe sentiments of Muslims and to fuel vio-lence, SKCS spokesperson said, adding thatno Muslim could tolerate blasphemy and So-ciety as such urges upon Muslim countriesto raise this issue on every international fo-rum.—KW
SRINAGAR—The Employees’ joint ActionCommittee (EJAC) president AbdulQayoom Wani Friday flayed the plan tosettle permanently the West Pakistan Refu-gees (WPRs) in Jammu and Kashmir,terming it (plan) a ‘conspiracy to changethe state’s demography.’
“This decision depicts New Delhi’s
WP refugees settlement is a conspiracycommunal approach and it will pose a seri-ous threat to the unity and integrity ofJammu and Kashmir.
It will divide the state on communallines and trigger an uncontrollable unrest,”a spokesman of the EJAC, in a statementtoday quoted QayoomWani as having saidwhile addressing a meeting of EJAC of-
fice-bearers, warning that the decisionwould be resisted tooth and nail by thestate employees.
“The West Pakistan refugees are non-state subjects and it will be sheer viola-tion of state constitution to grant them per-manent resident certificates (PRCs) andvoting rights.—GK
The reality is thatbusiness and
investment spend-ing are the true
leading indicatorsof the economyand the stock
market. If you wantto know where the
stock market isheaded, forget
about consumerspending and retailsales figures. Lookto business spend-ing, price inflation,interest rates, andproductivity gains.
—Mark Skousen
ISLAMABAD—Minister for Finance SenatorMohammad Ishaq Dar has said that Pak-ChinaEconomic Corridor is not going to benefitChina and Pakistan alone, but it will bringbenefits to the entire region—to the CentralAsian states, to India, to Afghanistan, and toother neighbouring countries. “Even Japanwon’t have to go to the Gulf to get thingsdone if this economic corridor from Kashgar[in northwestern China] to Gwadar [in south-western Pakistan] is activated” he told NikkeiAsian Review in an interview which is Japan’sleading economic journal.
“It’s a win-win for everybody. We are quitegrateful for China’s support, which they an-nounced. Now we are looking to Japan for anequal package, hopefully”, he added. Financeminister urged Japanese investors to takeoptimum benefits of the investment friendlypolicies and opportunities in various sectorsof economy. “China has indicated that theyare willing to finance coal-based generationand if Japanese companies would like to come,they are most welcome”, he remarked.
Replying to a question about economicgrowth projections of Pakistan, the Ministersaid that the economic position of Pakistanwas fairly unstable [prior to the 2013 generalelection] and that’s why many internationalinstitutions stopped working with Pakistan.
Pak-China Economic Corridor to benefit entire region: DarBut now the political party headed by PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif—the Pakistan MuslimLeague—had a very clear road map of how tomake an economic recovery, he added.
“That was included in our manifesto. Wehad four Es: economy, energy, extremism, edu-cation and health,” he remarked. “Our fiscalyear starts July 1. Soon after we took the oath[of office] in June 2013, we [pursued] verystrong structural reforms to fix the economy.They’re always painful, but I’m glad to sharewith you that ... all of our macroeconomic in-dicators have shown very good performance”,he told the Japan’s Economic daily. “We hadalmost an average [gross domestic productgrowth rate] of 3% in the [previous] five years.But we pushed for over 4% in our very firstyear. [We resolved] to make a full attempt tohave GDP growth of 4%, and the next year5%, the third year 6% and the fourth year 7%.So our projected GDP growth is 7% in the2017 to 2018 fiscal year”.
Ishaq Dar said “We took the country backto the international bond market after sevenyears. We issued in April a conventional bond,a euro-dollar bond. It was heavily oversub-scribed. We offered it for $500 million, and wegot $7 billion [worth of orders]. By the way, wedid not take $7 billion, we took only $2 billion.”For sukuk—Islamic bonds, he said that in No-
vember “we went again to the internationalmarket and offered $500 million. We were of-fered $2.3 billion and we picked $1 billion.” Hetold the Japanese newspaper that the state-owned enterprises [involved]: 31 and there arethree types of privatization taking place. Oneis pure privatization. “We will be trying to sellelectricity distribution companies”.The second,he said is what we call strategic partnerships.We want to keep 74% [stakes].
If somebody comes and says, “No, we want51%,” we can talk. Because they’re so huge:Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan SteelMills. With these types of entities we want stra-tegic partners to come and work with us. Wewill give them the management, and they willimprove efficiency.” The third, he said is divest-ment of shares. For example, we had a certainamount of shares left in United Bank Limited,and we sold them all. UBL now is 100% private.
“There are three categories, so it’s diffi-cult to give you a figure. It depends,” he re-marked. Replying to another question, he saidthat unfortunately, in the last two decades,“we have [relied on] power generation basedon furnace oil or diesel”. “They have beenvery expensive. Our coal-based productionis less than 2%. We have plans for somethinglike a 10,000-megawatt addition in the elec-tricity generation sector, because the supply-
demand gap right now is around 4,000MW to5,000MW”, he remarked.
China, he said has indicated that they arewilling to finance coal-based generation. IfJapanese companies would like to come, theyare most welcome. The Finance Minister saidthat he had a very useful meeting with a four-member delegation from Mitsubishi that wasled by their chief executive in Pakistan,Kimihide Ando. Specifically, “we discussedmatters pertaining to possible export of [liq-uefied natural gas] by Mitsubishi’s subsid-iary, Diamond Gas International, to Pakistan,[along with] overall enhancement ofMitsubishi investment,” he said.
Ishaq Dar said “We have never compro-mised on our defense budget. This has al-ways taken a top priority. That’s No. 1. No. 2,our party, under the leadership of Prime Min-ister Sharif, made a very clear public commit-ment that we will deal with security. Primarily,the security issue is related to extremism.Post-9/11, I think many of the [militants] foundan easy location at the borders of Afghani-stan and Pakistan.” Immediately after we tookthe oath, he said “we called all parties to aconference. This is something our party be-lieves should [involve the] participation of allpolitical parties, whether they are in govern-ment or not. It’s a national issue; it must be
handled collectively”.He told the newspaper that in September
2013, a few parties suggested that “we shouldgive dialogue a last chance in the peace pro-cess. Our government agreed, we went aheadwith the peace process dialogue, but it didnot succeed”. “After that], those parties—for example, the political party of [key oppo-sition leader] Imran Khan—had no option butto agree with the government that we had to[take action] against the terrorists. We gavethe go-ahead to the armed forces to launchthe operation we call Zarb-e-Azb. That op-eration is very successful, and it’s still on. Ithas eliminated the sanctuaries of the terror-ists, it has destroyed their ammunition, it haskilled almost 1,200 [militants, including] theirhigh-profile leaders”, he remarked.
The [attack] in Peshawar, he said was a reac-tion. “When you undertake any such operation,you expect a blowback. We expected a biggerblowback. But they are so weakened that thesecowards chose to attack innocent children”.Ishaq Dar said that the terrorists do not havereligion. They neither have religion nor national-ity. Islam is a peace-loving religion. Our holy booksays that the killing of one human being is [akinto] killing all of humanity. ... It doesn’t say killingof a Muslim, it doesn’t say Christian or Buddhistor Jew—any person”.—APP
ISLAMABAD: Chairperson Prime Minister’s Youth Program, Ms Leila Khan in meet-ing with management of the Sindh Bank in Prime Minister’s Office.
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Chairman, Oil and Gas Regulatory Author-ity (OGRA) Saeed Ahmad Khan Friday said that the Au-thority has taken serious notice of Liquified Petroleum Gas(LPG) price hike and immediately dispatched inspectionteams in cities where prices were reported high. Briefingmedia regarding LPG prices here at OGRA office, he saidthat inspection teams had visited around 300 distributors/LPG storage and filling plants in all four provinces andissued show cause notices to 17 companies and in finalaction after unsatisfactory reply of the company fine un-der rule 29 of LPG (Production and Distribution) Rules,2001 of Rs.250,000 was imposed on each company.
Saeed Ahmad Khan said that OGRA had also issuedshow cause notices to other 29 companies and their re-plies are awaited. He said that significant amount of fine/penalties are being imposed on the licensees who violateLPG (Production and Distribution) Rules, 2001. He saidthat imposition of fine, penalties, suspension and revo-cation of licenses are being considered by the Authorityon repeated violations.
He said that LPG marketing companies have also beenadvised to direct their distributors to display their autho-rization and sell LPG as per company rates only. The Chair-
OGRA deputes inspectorsto monitor LPG price hike
man OGRA said all chiefs secretaries and DCOs havealso been requested to ensure that LPG distributors sellLPG cylinders of LPG marketing companies only and totake strict action against the illegal distributors/ decant-ers operating in their respective areas.
“Further, meetings with the district coordination of-ficers are also being scheduled for coordination in thematter,” he added. He said that inspection teams are stillin the field and inspection for all areas especially in thewinter season have been planned to enforce LPG prices.Saeed Ahmad Khan said that as a result of concertedefforts of the Authority, the consumers’ prices of LPGhave started going down during the last fortnight.
“Rule 18 of LPG Rules says that LPG producers and mar-keting companies will notify prices of their LPG on monthlybasis and inform the Authority about the same. The licens-ees are also required to publish their prices in the press,” hesaid. He said if the prices so notified by the licensees areconsidered unreasonable or in the event of any cartel forma-tion, the authority may determine a reasonable price in accor-dance with the prevailing policy of the Federal Government.He said that LPG Guidelines 2013 provides the framework forLPG pricing at producer and consumer levels and role ofOGRA therein. As per policy LPG producers can charge anyprice from LPG marketing companies.
TOKYO: Finance Minister, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar being received by JapaneseMinister for Economy, Trade & Industry Yoichi Miyazawa prior to their meeting.
ISE-10 index staysbearishISLAMABAD—IslamabadStock Exchange here onFriday witnessed bearishtrend as the ISE-10 indexwas down by 23.85points and closed at3930.62 points. A total of65,300 shares weretraded, which were downby 550,200 shares when itcompared with previousday’s trading of 615,500shares. Out of 162companies, share pricesof 73 companies recordedincrease while shareprices of 89 companiesregistered decreasewhere as one companyremained stable intrading. The share priceof Atlas Battery in-creased by Rs 44.31 pershare while the shareprices of Akzo NobelPakistan decreased by Rs22.28 per share. K-Electric, Lotte Chemicalsand PSO remained thetop trading companies inFriday’s trading with30,000, 30,000 and 3,000shares respectivelyshares respectively.—APP
Shipping activity atPort QasimKARACHI—Two shipsC.V CMA CGM floridaand C.V Hansa Americacarrying containers wereberthed at Qasim Interna-tional Container Terminalberth # 6 and 8 respec-tively at Port Qasim onThursday, 15th January-2015. Meanwhile fivemore ships scheduled toload/offload Containers,Tug Boat, Cement andCrude oil also arrived atouter anchorage of PortQasim during the last 24hours. Berth occupancyremained at the Port at50% on Thursday, whereseven ships namely, C.VCMA CGM Florida, C.VHansa America, C.VMaersk Hardford, M.VHyderabad, M.V Sino-6,M.T FSL London andM.T Eupen were occu-pied PQA berths to load/offload Containers.—APP
SECP verified FBRdata of compliant
companiesISLAMABAD—The Securi-ties and Exchange Commis-sion of Pakistan (SECP) hasresponded to the FederalBoard of Revenue’s queryand apprised it about thecompanies that had satis-fied its compliance require-ments but had not filed taxreturns with the FBR. TheFBR wanted to confirm theirfiling status with the SECPfor the year 2014.
The FBR had shared alist of 9,721 companies withthe SECP on January 5.These companies did not e-filed income tax returns asof January 5, 2015, but hadfiled tax returns for the taxyear 2013. It emerged thatabout 62% of companies,out of 7,444 companies,have filed their annual re-turns with the SECP in2014.—INP
Sindh Bank becomespart of PM’s Youth
ProgrammeISLAMABAD—Sindh Bank hasbecome part of the PrimeMinister’s Youth Programmewith an initial allocated amountof Rs 100 million. Chairperson,Prime Minister’s YouthProgramme, Leila Khan on Fri-day congratulated Sindh Bankon behalf of the Prime Minis-ter for joining the PM’s Busi-ness Loan Scheme. She wastalking to President of SindhBank Bilal Sheikh here.
President Sindh Banksaid that it is a matter of im-mense pride for the bank tobe part of the Prime Minister’sYouth Programme, whosemain aim is to serve the na-tion. Leila Khan was apprisedthat Sindh Bank is one of thefastest growing banks in thecountry with more than 240branches.—APP
ISLAMABAD—The Sensitive Price Indica-tor (SPI) for the week ended on January 15for the lowest income group up to Rs 8,000registered a decrease of 0.39 percent as com-pared to the previous week. The SPI for theweek under review in the above mentionedgroup was recorded at 199.82 points against202.58 points registered in the previousweek, according to data of Pakistan Bureauof Statistics (PBS).
The weekly SPI has been computed withbase 2007-2008=100, covering 17 urban cen-tres and 53 essential items for all incomegroups and combined. The SPI for the com-bined group also decreased by 0.34 per-cent as it went down from 210.53 points inthe previous week to 209.14 points in theweek under review. As compared to the cor-responding week of last year, the SPI forthe combined group in the week under re-view increased by 0.33 percent.
As compared to the last week, the SPIfor the income groups from Rs.8001-12,000,Rs.12,001-18,000, Rs.18001-35,000 andabove Rs.35,000 decreased by 0.37 percent,0.36 percent, 0.35 percent and 0.30 percentrespectively. During the week under review
Weekly inflation dips 0.39pcaverage prices of 17 items registered de-crease, while that of 08 items increase withthe remaining 28 items’ prices unchanged.
The items which registered decrease intheir prices during the week under reviewincluded tomatoes, LPG cylinder (11 kg),onions, eggs (farm), chicken (farm), veg-etable ghee (tin), rice IRRI-6, potatoes,sugar, rice basmati (broken), cooking oil(tin), wheat flour, vegetable ghee (loose),red chilly powder (loose), gur and wheat.The items, which recorded increase in theiraverage prices included garlic, tea, ba-nanas, pulse moong (washed), pulse gram(washed), pulse mash (washed), curd andbeef with bone (average quality).
The items with no change in their aver-age prices during the week under reviewincluded bread, mutton, milk fresh, pow-dered milk, mustard oil, salt powder, cookedbeef, cooked daal, tea prepared, cigarettes,long cloth, shirting, lawn printed, georgette,gents sandal, gents chappal, ladies sandal,electricity charges, gas charges, keroseneoil, firewood whole, electric bulb, washingsoap, match box, petrol, Hi speed Diesel,telephone call charges and soap.—APP
ISLAMABAD—Fimcotex Industries has de-cided to set up 35 Mega Watt captive powerplant in Pakistan by using 12 GE Jenbachergas engine units, one of the largest of itskind in Pakistan while it would be estab-lished at Kotri, Hyderabad. Chief Execu-tive Officer (CEO) Fimcotex IndustriesMasood Pervez said that this is an impor-tant project for Fimcotex and for the widercommunity and the electricity generated willnot only be utilized to run Fimcotex’s textilemill but surplus generation sufficient topower approximately 2,500 Pakistani house-holds will also be fed into the grid of thelocal utility, Hyderabad Electric SupplyCompany (HESCO), helping to meet a partof the energy demand and supply gap inthe country.
He said that delivery of the first fiveunits will take place in the first half of 2015and GE will also provide Fimcotex withMaterial Stream Agreement (MSA) supportfor 90,000 operating hours. Masood Pervezsaid, “We appreciate the strong technicalsupport & guidance extended by GE’s Dis-tributed Power team in the country behindthe deal.” Regional Leader of GE Power andWater’s Distributed Power business in theMiddle East, Turkey and Pakistan, Hisham
Fimcotex Industries to set up35 MW power plant at Kotri
Albahkali said, “We are honoured thatFimcotex chose GE’s Jenbacher engines tomeet their power generation needs. GE’sJenbacher engines have a proven trackrecord in Pakistan and can generate reli-able, efficient power under harsh condi-tions.”
“The textile sub-sector is of prime im-portance to the country’s economy andGE Jenbacher has been their partner ofchoice for the last two decades,” said SarimSheikh, President and CEO, GE Pakistan.According to the Pakistan Economic Sur-vey 2013-14, it accounted for 8 percent ofPakistan’s GDP and provided livelihoodopportunities for more than 10 million farm-ing families.
“Reliable power is among the key fac-tors to enable the industry’s growth andGE is proud to provide technologies thatnot only contribute to the strengthening ofthis vital sector but also help to meet theenergy needs of local communities.” GE hasbeen a long term partner in Pakistan’s de-velopment, with GE-built technologies gen-erating more than 25% of Pakistan’s elec-tricity today. The country has one of thelargest concentrations of Jenbacher en-gines in the world..—INP
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—The PakistanWater and Power Develop-ment Authority (WAPDA)held a road show in Karachito appraise the local banksabout investment potentialof Dasu HydropowerProject with a view to seek-ing their collaboration forfunding of the project.
The heads of invest-ment of as many as 16 lead-ing local banks participatedin the road show. WAPDAteam headed by its Member(Finance) and Member (Wa-ter) introduced the projectwith emphasis on possiblemodalities of investment inthe project.
It highlighted the vastlucrative investment oppor-tunities in the project. It wasinformed that WAPDA wasseeking an investment ofaround US $ 1 billion fromthe local banks that maytake benefit of the opportu-nity by constituting their
16 Pak banks participate inroad show for DasuHydropower Project
consortium to invest in theproject through workableinstrument.
The participants weretold that World Bank hasprovided $ 588 million forDasu Hydropower Projectas first tranche and will pro-vide $533 million as secondtranche. In addition, WorldBank will also help raise$920 million from the inter-national and local marketby offering its guarantee.The local banks, showingtheir keen interest, appre-ciated the WAPDA’s initia-tive. They said that thebanks would thoroughlyexamine the various pro-posals presented in theroad show and respond ac-cordingly.
It is pertinent to mentionhere that Dasu HydropowerProject is a run of riverproject at the Indus River lo-cated seven kilometers up-stream of Dasu Town in Dis-trict Kohistan of KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KPK).
Japan agrees tohelp in Pakecono-boom
TOKYO—Japan has agreedto provide assistance andmake substantial invest-ments in different sectors ofPakistan’s economy. Commit-ments in this regard cameduring three day hectic visitof Finance Minister IshaqDar to Japan, which con-cluded on Friday. In a meet-ing in Tokyo, State Ministerfor Foreign Affairs of JapanMinoru Kiuchi informed Fi-nance Minister that his coun-try would be happy to pro-vide about 850 million dollarfor Lakhra Power Project.
Toyota Group said it isconsidering further invest-ments in Pakistan. Yamah del-egation announced that inau-guration of its MotorcyclePlant in Pakistan will take placein April this year. During meet-ings with the senior politicalleadership of Japan, it wasconfirmed that the JapanesePrime Minister would visit Pa-kistan at the earliest possible,mutually convenient time. Mr.Ishaq Dar also met JapaneseMinister for Economy, Tradeand Investment YoichiMiyazawa today.—SABAH
Mobilephone
imports riseby 6.15pc in
5 monthsISLAMABAD—The mobilephone imports into thecountry increased by 6.15percent during first fivemonths of the year 2014-15 over the same period oflast year. The imports ofmobile phones into thecountry during July-No-vember (2014-15) were re-corded at $282.872 millionagainst the imports of$266.471 million duringJuly-November (2013-14),according to the data ofPakistan Bureau of Statis-tics (PBS).
On month basis themobile phone imports intothe country during themonth of November 2014also increased by 19.17percent and decreased by0.54 percent when com-pared to the imports inNovember 2013 and Octo-ber 2014 respectively.The mobile phone importsduring November 2014stood at $58.278 millionagainst the imports of$48.9 million in November2013 and $58.596 million inOctober 2014, the data re-vealed.
Similarly, the overalltelecom imports also in-creased by 21.1 percentduring the period underreview over the same pe-riod of last year. The im-ports of telecom in to thecountry during first fivemonths of current fiscalyear, were recorded at$635.709 million againstthe imports of $524.945million in July-November2013-14.—APP
TDAP role in Pakexport promotion
hailedSTAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Dr. Wallraff,DG Federal Office of Eco-nomics and Export controlwhile appreciating TDAPefforts in promoting Paki-stan export sector espe-cially in Germany, has as-sured that BAFA will co-ordinate for Expo Pakistanfor mounting a Germandelegation to create op-portunities for trade be-tween both the countries.He was talking to S. M.Muneer, Chief ExecutiveTrade Development Au-thority of Pakistan metwho called on Dr. Wallraff,DG of Federal Office ofEconomics and ExportControl (BAFA) alongwith Mr. Mehtab Chawala,Chairman of TowelsManufacturers Associa-tion.
Dr Wallraff briefedhim about the activities ofBAFA organizing 250 ex-hibitions all over theworld subsidizing GermanSMEs. S. M. Muneerinformed him about gov-ernment efforts to im-proved measures for pro-moting bi lateral trade re-lationship. He high-lighted the measures toeliminate the menace ofterrorism and providingproductive environmentfor business community.Pakistan appreciated Ger-many as largest tradingpartner in EU with morethan US$ 1 billion exports.CE TDAP invited Germaninvestors in Pakistan.
Currency Selling Buying
Daily opening& closing ratesPMEX Index 2,624Total Volume (Lots): 20,376Traded Value (Rs): 3,625,602,571
Commodity ------------------- Price Quotation ---------------------- Open ------ CloseCRUDE OIL ------------------ $ Per Barrel ----------------------------- 48.13 ------- 46.30SILVER ------------------------ $ Per Ounce ---------------------------- 16.882 ----- 16.832GOLD -------------------------- $ Per Ounce ---------------------------- 1,230.1 ----- 1,256.6GOLD -------------------------- Rs Per 10 gms ------------------------- 39,948 ----- 41,002MTOLAGOLD -------------- Rs Per Tola ----------------------------- 48,191 ----- 48,989GOLD -------------------------- Rs Per Tola ----------------------------- 48,191 ----- 48,989RICEIRRI6 -------------------- Rs Per 100 kg -------------------------- 3,201 ------- 3,025PALMOLEIN ---------------- Rs Per Maund ------------------------- 3,716 ------- 3,746SUGAR ------------------------ Rs Per kg ------------------------------- 45.18 ------- 45.16ICOTTON -------------------- US Cents per pound ----------------- 59.01 ------- 59.37WHEAT ----------------------- Rs Per 100 kg -------------------------- 3,406 ------- 3,405
The total value traded was PKR 3.626 billion as compared to PKR 3.017 billion re-ported on last business day, an increase of 20 percent. Number of lots traded alsoincreased by 31 percent to 20,376 from 15,530. PMEX Commodity Index increased by0.64 percent and closed at 2,624. Major business was contributed by crude oil amount-ing to PKR 2.136 billion, a 20 percent increase when compared to the previous tradingday. This was followed by gold (PKR 1.386 billion) and silver (PKR 104 million).
USA 100.50 100.30
UK 152.63 152.33
Euro 116.97 116.73
Canada 83.97 83.81
Switzerland 116.27 116.03
Australia 82.81 82.65
Sweden 12.38 12.35
Japan 0.8646 0.8629
Norway 13.15 13.12
Singapore 75.92 75.77
Denmark 15.73 15.70
Saudi Arabia 26.78 26.72
Hong Kong 12.96 12.94
Kuwait 342.17 341.49
Malaysia 28.14 28.09
Newzealand 78.90 78.74
Qatar 27.60 27.55
UAE 27.36 27.31
Kr Won 0.0930 0.0928
Thailand 3.076 3.070
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Secretary Finance, Dr. Waqar Masood Khanhere on Friday apprised the Senate Standing Committeeon Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs that govern-ment has released Rs.17 billion for Pakistan State Oil (PSO)for smooth supply of petroleum products across the coun-try. The Committee which met with Senator Nasreen Jalil inchair was also informed that recent petrol shortage oc-curred due to disturbance in supply chain and it would beovercome with in next few days.
The Committee was informed that a ship carrying 50,000tons of oil has been anchored in Karachi Port besidesopening of five new letter of credits (LCs) and it is ex-pected that supply of petrol would improve with in fewdays. The government has also finalized arrangements tofulfill the financial requirements of PSO to keep petroleumsupply at smooth level in future besides taking steps forthe recovery of circular debt. Dr. Waqar said that the gov-ernment was providing Rs. 222 billion subsidy on petro-leum products and the amount of subsidy was providedevery month to avoid any crisis like situation.
Giving the overview of national economy, he told theCommittee that the government was optimistic to achievethe GDP growth targets of 5.1 percent as the flood assess-ment report had reveled that major crops were not affectedby floods at large and their production would also not beaffected. During the period from July-October, industrialsector recorded 1.2 percent growth as compared to corre-sponding period of last year besides automobile and steelsector was performing well, he added.
The meeting was informed that core-inflation was re-
Govt releases Rs 17b for PSOto maintain smooth supply
corded at 6.7 percent during last 6 months, which stood at8.2 percent in corresponding period of last year. Duringlast 6 months average inflation recorded at 6 percent. Thesecretary informed that exports were reduced and govern-ment had not received any relief in imports as import bill ofoil was increased during the months of July-August, 2014.
He said that the oil import bill came down during themonths of November and December and it is expected thatgovernment would be able to earn $3-5 billion as oil priceswitnessed decreasing trend in international market. Secre-tary Finance said that stock market was also performingwell as it had crossed the 34,000 points mark and from lastthree years it was among the world best markets. Remit-tances posted 15 percent increase as during last 6 monthscountry received about $9 billion, which are likely to reach$25 billions by the end of current fiscal year.
The forex reserves has crossed $15 billion mark, for-eign direct investment registered 19 percent growth andstood at $529 billion, which was recorded at $445 billion ofsame period last year. The Committee recommended theMinistry of Finance to take appropriate measures for pro-viding more relief to masses as petroleum product pricesregistered about 50 percent reduction in international mar-ket. The Committee also expressed its concern over recentshortage of petrol and asked for taking measures to keepsupply smooth besides completing the Board of Oil andGas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). Senators, Saleem H.Mandviwala, Sardar Fateh Muhammad Muhammad Hasniand Syeda Sughra Imam attend the meeting. The Gover-nor State Bank of Pakistan, Ashraf Mahmood Wathra andsenior officials of ministries of finance and privatizationwere also present in the meeting.
Federal Minister of Commerce, Engr Khurram Dastgir Khan giving away CRS Excel-lence Award to Dr Murtaza Mughal, Executive Director UIG.
GUJAR KHAN: Ambassador of Azerbaijan, Dashign Shikarov and others on the occa-sion of inauguration of Solar Energy Community Water Sahal Khinger.
ISLAMABAD: Seerat Asghar, Federal Secretary Ministry of National Food Securityand Research presiding over a meeting for Establishment Provincial Agricultural Re-search Boards in Balochistan, KP & Sindh Provinces. Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, ChairmanPARC, Dr. Stephen Davies, Dr. Jennifer, Dr. Muhammad Imtiaz, CIMMYT CountryRepresentative-Pakistan, Dr. Mubarik Ali, Ex-CE PARB, Dr. Nazim Ali (USAID), Dr.Shahid Masood, Member (PSD)/Focal Person (AIP) and other senior PARC TechnicalMembers are present in the meeting at PARC HQs.
ISLAMABAD: Mrs. Asyia Nasir MNA, Zahid Muzaffar Chairman of OGDCL Boardand Muhammad Rafi MD/CEO OGDCL cutting cake on the occasion of ChristmasCeremony held at OGDCL HQ.
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Chairman Senate StandingCommittee on Commerce Haji Ghulam Ali,Friday, said that Drug Regulatory Author-ity of Pakistan (DRAP) had become hub ofconspiracies against local pharmaceuticalindustry. He said that only few sectors areoperating in profit in the current gloomysituation in which includes the local pharmasector with over 550 industrial units andsizeable exports which must be protected.Senator Haji Ghulam Ali who has alsoserved as President FPCCI said this whiletalking to former VP FPCCI Mirza AbdulRehman who was leading a delegation ofowners of various pharma units.
He said that DRAP is full of incompe-tent people and without a CEO since twoyears, adding that the dysfunctional insti-tution is not serving the interests of massesand the pharma industry. Interviews for theCEO of DRAP were conducted on Dec 24
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—The Christian employees ofOil and Gas Development Corporation Lim-ited (OGDCL), Friday, organized X-Massfestival here at Head Office. The ChairmanOGDCL Zahid Muzafar and Asia NasirMNA chaired the Annual Christmas func-tion along with Muhammad Rafi MD/CEO-OGDCL. Executive Directors, GMs andManagers were present on the occasion ofcake-cutting ceremony of Christmas and thefunction was largely attended by the fami-lies of OGDCL Christian employees andfriends. Few minutes pin drop silence wasobserved for the solidarity of martyrs ofthe tragic incident of Peshawar.
Asia Nasir MNA of Minorities said thatthe Christ preached to care and help thepoor and hungry, save humanity and toler-ance for the sinners and love and affectionto mankind. She expressed her joy on thisoccasion with all officers and workers ofOGDCL. She said that Christianity promotespeace in the world; as such these testa-ments are need of the time in the presentturbulent world where aggression and ter-
OBSERVER REPORT
ISLAMABAD—National Productivity Organization (NPO),Ministry of Industries in collaboration with APO (AsianProductivity Organization) is organizing an International
program on Food Safety & Quality (FSQ) Standards forMarket Access. Participants from 18 different countriesare attending this International program. The objective ofthis workshop is to enhance participants understandingof the structures and effectiveness of public and privatefood safety and quality (FSQ) standards prevailing in world
NPO, APO to organise Int’lprogram on FSQ standards
food and agricultural markets; To familiarize participantswith the issues and challenges faced by small- and Me-dium-sized farms and enterprises in the agricultural andfood industry in meeting the requirements for certificationunder private food standards and possible solutions
CEO-NPO Mr. SherAyub Khan was the chiefguest of the inaugurationsession. The other panelspeakers included expert Mr.Richard Merx fromNetherland & Howie Ngfrom Hong Kong. APO di-rector Dr. Saeed was alsopresent at the occasion andMs. Rabia Jamil & Mr.Usman Adil being the maincoordinator of the program.CEO-NPO Mr. Sher AyubKhan while speaking to theaudience said that global-ization of food trade makesfood chains longer and morecomplex and increases the
risk of food safety incidents. Adding he said that in re-sponse, Governments are strengthening food control sys-tems, while food industry has put in place. FSQ stan-dards, both public and private, are fundamentally aboutestablishing control, conformance, and compliance in theproduction, processing, and distribution of food.
DRAP not functioning in localpharma industry favour
but no one was appointed from the healthdepartment rather names of two personsrepresenting influential multinationals havebeen forwarded for the approval, which isnot acceptable, he added. Haji Ghulam Alisaid that appointment of any CEO otherthan the official of Health Department willplay havoc with the pharma industry as theywould serve the multinationals only.
At the occasion, Mirza Abdul Rehmanwho has also served as Chairman FPCCIStanding Committee on Pharmaceuticalssaid that eighty owners of local pharma-ceuticals assembled in the RCCI few daysback and vowed to resist appointment ofCEO DRAP from the private sector. Express-ing serious reservations they decided toinform Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif abouttheir doubts and decided to resist any moveto induct anyone from private sector inDRAP. They said that they would try toget the decision reversed or invoke courtsof law to safeguard their rights.
OGDCL Christian communitycelebrates X-Mass festival
rorism is the order of the day.The MNA lauded the OGDCL for hold-
ing the X-Mass celebratory ceremony. Shestrongly condemned the publication of blas-phemous drawings of the French magazine.While addressing the congregation ZahidMuzaffar Chairman OGDCL expressed bestwishes to all its OGDCL workers on the eveof X-Mass New Year occasion. He also con-gratulated all the Christian community. Ear-lier Father Sarfaraz delivered a speech onthe fundamentals of Christianity and spe-cial prayers were offered for the solidarityof the country and the martyrs of the tragicincident of Army Public School & CollegePeshawar, who laid down lives for thehomeland.
The function ended with a prayer and adinner for the community. X-Mass Cakeswere also presented to all the EDs, GMs andManagers who attended the function. TheOGDCL Christian community celebrated thefestival by attending special carol singing.At the end Ms. Rubaica chairperson of or-ganizing committee thanked the chief guestsand management for providing generousfunds to organize the occasion.
Malaysian company toinvest in Palm oil
production
KARACHI—Malaysian com-pany, Felda Global VenturesPlantations, has decided toestablish a small palm oil fac-tory in Thatta at the cost of Rs20 million and start two pilotprojects of plantation of palmoil trees in Agriculture Univer-sity Tando Jam. This was de-cided in a meeting of the offi-cials of company with SindhMinister for Coastal Develop-ment, Dr. Sikander Mendhro,said a statement on Friday.
Vice President of Malay-sian Company, Soh Kim Yawand Agronomist, Lee Chin tuicalled on the Minister at hisoffice in Sindh AssemblyBuilding here. Senator TajHaider, famous industrialist,Bashir Jan Muhammad, Direc-tor General Sindh Coastal De-velopment Authority, AbdulHaleem Shaikh, Chief Execu-tive Dalda Food private lim-ited, Pervez H. Khan and oth-ers were also present on theoccasion.—APP
Around 69pcNeelum-Jhelum
HydropowerProject completed
ISLAMABAD—Around 69 per-cent work on 969-megawattNeelum-Jhelum HydropowerProject has been completedand efforts are being made toaccomplish the project duringthe scheduled year 2016. Offi-cial sources said in Islamabadthat the third diversion stageat the dam site will be com-pleted by April while the C-1site of power house had been100 per cent completed. Thefirst unit of the project will startgenerating next year. Morethan one hundred and sixty-six billion rupees have so farbeen spent on the project.The Neelum-Jhelum Hydro-power Project will contributefive point one five billion unitsof cheap electricity to the na-tional grid.—SABAH
MADRID: Atletico Madrid’s Fernando Torres is fouled by Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos during their King’s Cupround of 16 second leg football match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
MADRID—Fernando Torres scored hisfirst Atletico Madrid goals in eightyears as the La Liga championsdumped holders Real Madrid out ofthe Copa del Rey 4-2 on aggregate af-ter a 2-2 draw at the Santiago Bernabeuon Thurs-day.
Already leading 2-0 from lastweek´s first-leg, Torres stunned thehosts inside the first minute whenturning home Antoine Griezmann´spass to hand Atletico a vital awaygoal. Sergio Ramos pulled a goal backfor Real, but Griezmann and Torres re-peated the trick seconds into the sec-ond-half to restore Atletico´s lead.
Fresh from winning the third Ballond´Or of his career, Cristiano Ronaldoensured the home side at least sal-vaged a draw on the night, but theyhave now failed to beat Atletico in fivemeetings this season. Atletico will faceBarcelona in the last eight after theCatalans completed an 9-0 aggregatewin over Elche as goals from JeremyMathieu, Sergi Roberto, PedroRodriguez and Adriano sealed a 4-0victory on the night at the Marti-nezValero.
Torres was only starting due to anillness suffered by Mario Mandzukicon the day before the game, but hadby far his biggest impact since return-ing to the Spanish capital. “I am very
happy. It was a game in which we hadto feel comfortable due to the result inthe first-leg and the early goal allowedus to play the game we wanted,” Torrestold Canal Plus. “The tie was never indanger. We didn´t have to sweat itout.”
Meanwhile, Real boss CarloAncelotti was left to lament the de-fensive errors that undid much of hisside´s fine attacking play in the firsthour. “I am delighted with how theteam played in the first-half. You can´tplay better,” said the Italian. “Theworry doesn´t come from not takingour chances because we played withpace and intensity. The worry comesfrom the defensive mistakes we made.”Ronaldo paraded the Ballon d´Or infront of an adoring full house at theBernabeu prior to kick-off.
However, it took just 46 secondsfor Atletico to silence the home fansas Griezmann broke down the left andsquared for Torres to turn home hisfirst Atletico goal since May 2007. Realthen laid seige to Atletico goal insearch of the four goals they neededto progress to the last eight.
Gareth Bale saw a flicked headereasily held by Jan Oblak, whilst theSlovenian was on hand to somehowprevent Ronaldo turning home KarimBenzema´s knock-down moments
later. However, Atletico´s secondchoice ´keeper was at fault when thehosts levelled after 20 minutes as hegot nowhere near Toni Kroos´s free-kick and Ramos gratefully headed intoan empty net.
Mario Suarez made a desperateclearance from just in front of his owngoal line to prevent Ronaldo givingMadrid the lead and Oblak made asmart low save from Marcelo as thevisitors held on till half-time. And in-credibly Atletico struck again within aminute of the restart after half-time insimilar fashion as Ramos gifted the ballto Griezmann, who fed Torres and hecut inside Pepe to slot home his sec-ond goal of the night.
The former Liverpool and Chelseastriker could even have had a hat-trickmoments later as he wriggled pastRamos inside the area, but Griezmanntook the loose ball from his teammateand smashed a shot just wide.Ronaldo restored parity on the nightfor Carlo Ancelotti´s men when hestooped to head in Bale´s cross fromthe left nine minutes after the break.
Benzema had one final chance toset up a grandstand finish, but heblasted over on the volley from closerange to ensure Madrid´s winlessstreak against Diego Simeone´s mencontinues.—AFP
Real stunned by Torres, Barcathrough to Cup quarters
TERMES DE RIO HONDO—Qatari driverNasser Al-Attiyah continued his dominanceof the Dakar Rally on Friday as he won hisfifth car stage and closed in on a secondsuccess after his maiden win in 2011.
The 44-year-old, who won an Olympicbronze in skeet shooting at the 2012 Lon-don Games, drove his Mini to a 27sec winover teammate Orlando Terranova, on the520km route (194km timed) from Salta toTermas de Rio Hondo.
South African Giniel de Villiers in aToyota was third, 39secs back. It was the10th win in 11 stages for Mini who nowstand on the brink of a fourth success inthe gruelling annual event.
Al-Attiyah now holds an overall leadof nearly 30mins on de Villiers with twodays until the finish at Buenos Aires wherethe race began.
Defending champion Nani Roma ofSpain was unable to start the stage al-though his chances of winning the racewere already beyond doubt. In the motor-cycle category, Spaniard Joan Barreda rode
Al-Attiyah wins again to takefull command in Dakar Rally.
his Honda to a second straight stage winand fourth overall while standings leaderMarc Coma comfortably protected his ad-vantage with two days to go.
The riders raced across 523km (298kmtimed) over fast terrain to Termas de RioHondo as KTM rider Coma coasted homein sixth place with the knowledge that hisclosest rival Paulo Goncalves (Honda) hadbeen penalised 15mins on Wednesday forchanging his engine.
Portugal´s Goncalves finished secondbehind Barreda, who followed on from hisstage win on Wednesday, but now trailsSpain´s Coma by nearly 20mins with Aus-tralian Toby Price (KTM) third at over31mins. Barreda picks up his 14th overallstage win on the race and would have beenhigher up the rankings had he not lost morethan four hours with mechanical problemson the stage to Chile´s Pacific Coast onMonday. Coma´s Austrian KTM team arenow just two days from the arrival in BuenosAires and a 14th consecutive triumph inthe gruelling event.—AFP
TERMES DE RIO HONDO: Mini’s driver Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar at the 2015Dakar Rally.
PESHAWAR—Hazara and Mardan will clashin the final after registering victories againsttheir respective rivals in the ongoingKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Inter-Region WomenHockey Championship being played underthe aegis of Directorate of Sports KhyberPakthunkhwa at Mardan on Friday.
In the first semi-final Mardan recordedvictory against Bannu in a thrilling 2-1 en-counter with Bannu first slammed in a beau-tiful goal through Maryum in the very out-set of the match. Bannu early goal lead gaveextra-boost to the team which dominatedalmost all the first session of play. Bannumade some good attacks but Mardan goal-keeper Asma played well and succeeded inthwarting all attacks.
On the other hand, Mardan did someresistance but failed to click in the first ses-sion mostly dominated by the Bannu for-wards. Mardan got a golden chance whenthey were awarded a penalty stroke but
Noureen failed to score on it due to poordrill.
It was the second session in whichMardan players managed their position andsucceeded in leveling the tally 1-1 whenIqra netted a fine goal in the 49th minute.When the tally was locked 1-1, Mardanscored another goal in the 54th minutethrough Huma on the field attempt. Bannuplayers tried hard to level the tally but theywere failed and thus Mardan marched intothe final.
In the second match Hazara Region de-feated Kohat by 3-1 in another thrillingmatch. It was the 2nd minute when Kohatscored a beautiful goal through Laila butsoon Hazara tied the tally 1-1 when Afshanslammed in two quick goal in the 14th and19th minute to make the tally 2-1. It was thesecond session in which Hazara scoredanother goal in the 59th minute to make thetally 3-1 and thus won the match.—APP
Inter-Region Women Hockey Championship
Hazara, Mardan to clash in final
ISLAMABAD—Pakistan thrashed Afghani-stan by 41 runs in the final of the PhysicalHandicap Cricket series played here atMarghazar Cricket Ground on Friday.
Batting first, Pakistan pilled up a totalof 241 runs in 40 overs losing all wickets.Nehar Alam and Abdul Manan were the pickof the batsmen scoring 79 and 36 runs, re-spectively.
For Afghanistan, Shereen and Zubairgrabbed 4 and 2 wickets, respectively.
In reply, Afghanistan team was unableto achieve the target and was all out on 201runs in 36 overs.
Jahanzeb and Eidullah scored 44 and47 runs, respectively. For Pakistan Sher Aliand Nehar Alam bagged 3 wickets each. Atthe occasion the Pakistan team shared thetrophy with the Afghanistan team as a good-will gesture.
Pakistan Cricket Association for Physi-
PESHAWAR—Spirited Swabi upset strongPeshawar in the final by winning the cov-eted trophy of the Khyber PakhtunkhwaInter-District Men Volleyball Championshipplayed here at PSB Coaching Center on Fri-day.
Member Provincial Assembly SahibzadaWali Muhammad and Additional Chief Sec-retary Hamayun Khan graced the occasionas guests. Former Pakistan team skipperAbdur Rahim, international player ShahidHussain and Fazali Rabi, Director TrainingTariq Mehmood, Director Sports SyedSaqlain Shah, Organizing Secretary ArshadHussain, Syed Jaffar Husain, JamshedBaloch, officials, players and large numberof game enthusiast were also present andwitnessed the grand final.
Before the start of the final match theplayers of all the two finalists teams Swabiand host Peshawar were introduced tothem. The match was started with aggres-sive approach of the two strong teams.
Surprisingly Swabi was two sets downagainst strong Peshawar but it staged astrong comeback by winning three con-secutive sets and lifted the trophy for thefirst time in game history. Peshawar domi-nated the game since long but this time
Swabi played attacking game and suc-ceeded in toppling Peshawar in marathonfive sets battle.
Peshawar team comprising Waseem,Bilal, Hamza, Waheed Ullah, Sohail andMuhammad Shah played well and guidedthe team to 2-0 victory by winning the firsttwo sets 23-25 and 21-25 but Swabi camefrom behind and first tied the tally 2-2 bywinning the third and fourth sets at 25-22and 29-27.
In the fourth sets both Swabi andPeshawar were stretched to 29-27 beforeleveling at 5-5, 8-8, 10-10, 11-11, 12-12, 13-13, 14-14, 15-15, 19-19, 20-20, 24-24, 25-25,26-26, 27-27 and thus Swabi got the set by29-27.
It was fifth and decisive set in whichboth the teams – Swabi and Peshawar gaveeach other a tough fight again as the setwas decided in favour of Swabi at 15-13.The teams were locked at 8-8, 9-9, 10-10, 11-11, 12-12 and 13-all.
At the end, both MPA Sahibzada WaliMuhammad, Additional Secretary SportsHamayun Khan gave away trophies andcash prizes. The winner got Rs. 7000 andthe runners-up was awarded Rs. 5000 ascash prizes.—APP
Swabi upset Peshawar toclinch Volleyball C’ship
cally Handicapped (PCAPH) ChairmanAbbas Hashmi said he always want to con-tribute one way or the other to promotecricket for the Physically Handicapped play-ers in this region.
“I have the hunger and desire to workfor a cause. In a short span of time, we havemanaged to arrange a cricket series withmany countries including India, Afghani-stan and others,” he said adding in this yearwe will be touring many countries includ-ing UAE, Australia etc for a series.
President Afghanistan Cricket Associa-tion for Physically HandicappedMuhammad Hussain Sadat, PCAPH Secre-tary Waqar Ahmed Khan, Syed Amir AliDirector PCAPH, Rehan Qureshi ManagerPCAPH, Tahir coach PCAPH, Irfan assis-tant coach PCAPH and Khurram Mehmoodlegal advisor PCAPH were also present atthe occasion.—APP
Pakistan beat Afghanistan in Cricket series
WEGEN: Winner of the event, Switzerland’s Carlo Janka competes in the slalom raceof the FIS Ski World Cup Men’s Alpine Combined on Friday.
Junaid KhanMRI normal
heading to NZas planned
KARACHI—Pakistan pacebowler Junaid Khan MRI testis normal and he will headingto New Zealand as planned,Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)announced on Fridayevening.
“Post MRI Scan afterJunaid Khan’s injury duringcamp training on Thursday(Jan. 15) around noon, follow-ing is the report from Dr SohailSaleem, PCB’s General Man-ager, Sports Medicine basedhere at the National CricketAcademy (NCA), it said instatement.
Junaid Khan was pre-sented to us with pain in hisright thigh and left elbow af-ter he had a fall while bowlingin the nets Thursday. Pain inthe right thigh was non-radi-ating and was confined to anarea of 4x4 centimeters justbelow the hip. There was nodiscoloration or change in thetemperature in the said area.On testing damage to the ham-strings was suspected.
In order to reach correctprognosis, he was putthrough MRI Scan todaywhich came out to be normal.
“We have put him on lo-cal conservative manage-ment. He has already beenfeeling better. We expect himto travel to New Zealand asplanned without any prob-lem,” PCB statement con-cluded.—APP
Sangakkarasigns two-year
Surrey dealI S L A M A B A D — K u m a rSangakkara, the world’s No.1 Test batsman, has agreed atwo-year deal with Surrey,BBC reported.
Sangakkara will end hisODI career after the WorldCup and he has previouslyhinted strongly that it willmark the conclusion of his in-ternational days, althoughthere remains a chance of afinal spell in Test cricket laterthis year. His arrival at Surreywill see him back working withGraham Ford, the former SriLanka coach, who is now incharge at The Oval.
“We’re delighted thatKumar has agreed to join us.He is the number one Testbatsman in the world but it’sthe special character that hehas which is as important tous,” Alec Stewart, the Surreydirector of cricket said.—AFP
Alpine skiing: Janka wins WorldCup super-combined
WENGEN, SWITZERLAND—Carlo Janka of Switzerlandwent fastest in the downhilland then held on in the clos-ing slalom to win a World Cupsuper-combined on Friday.
Winning for the secondtime in his career on homesnow at Wengen, Jankaclocked a total of 2 minutes29.31 seconds, 1.31secs clearof Frenchman Victor Muffat-Jeandet and 1.38secs fasterthan Ivica Kostelic of Croatia.Meanwhile, Bode Miller hasopted not to race on Sundaywhen the United States men’steam seeks a third straightWorld Cup downhill victory.
Miller opted for cautionafter a training run on Thurs-day, on his return to top-levelskiing since undergoing backsurgery in November. “I’m defi-nitely not in race shape,” Millersaid after practice on a short-ened version of the classic 4.4-kilometer (2.75-mile) course,the World Cup’s longest. “It’sa challenge, it’s hard to accept,
but it is what it is.” Miller came to Wengenaiming to intensify his preparation for a homeworld championships at Vail-Beaver Creek,Colorado, from Feb. 2-15. Still, the temptation
was strong to start in the 85th edition of a sto-ried Alpine race he has won twice. U.S. men’shead coach Sasha Rearick said Miller took atough but smart decision.—AFP
SYDNEY—Eoin Morgan said unwanted KevinPieter-sen was not part of his plans asEngland’s one-day captain on Friday and washappy with his group of players ahead of nextmonth’s World Cup in Australia and NewZealand.
Morgan, who took over the England cap-taincy from Alastair Cook last month, moved
Morgan shuts door onPietersen’s Cup dream
to end speculation surroun-ding the futureof the maverick batsman, sacked by Englandlast February. Pietersen renewed speculationduring a television interview this week withformer Australia captain Ricky Ponting dur-ing a Big Bash League match when he claimedMorgan wanted to have him back in England’s50-over team.—AFP
Nadal‘working hard’
to be readyfor Australian
OpenM E L B O U R N E — R a f a e lNadal says he’s “workingas hard as I can” to beready for Monday’s startto the Australian Open fol-lowing a right wrist injuryand appendix surgerywhich sidelined him formost of the last six monthsof 2014.
Nadal went through astrenuous workout atMelbourne Park, followedby a two-hour exhibitionmatch against MarkPhilippoussis andFernando Verdasco as partof a charity night to openthe renovated MargaretCourt Arena, the AustralianOpen’s third court with aretractable roof.
On Thursday, Nadalsaid he recovered well fromthe tough day of work-outs, but added it would bedifficult to quickly reachthe level of fitness to winthe title this year.
“I’m back, and I’mhealthy, but it’s hard tocome back after such in-jures,” Nadal said.
“I will hope for firstround, second round, andtake the wins as theycome.”
Nadal was knocked outin the first round in a tour-nament at Doha two weeksago by a qualifier, but thenteamed with good friend,Juan Monaco of Argentina,to win the doubles final,giving him some valuablecourt time.
“It was an importantweek because I came backto the tour after a long timenot being competitive,”Nadal said. “I’m going towork hard to be ready forAustralia.”
The third-seeded Nadalwill find out on Friday whowill be play in the firstround when the tourna-ment draw is held.—AP
LAHORE: Waqar Younis giving tips to bowlers as Pakistan cricket players busy in training camp at the GaddafiStadium for the preparation of upcoming cricket World Cup in Australia.
SYDNEY—Australian opener DavidWarner led his team to an emphaticthree-wicket win over England in theopening one-day international of thetriangular series at the Sydney CricketGround on Friday. The powerful left-hander’s commanding century can-celled out a long overdue ton by newEngland skipper Eoin Morgan to helpthe Australians earn a bonus point forreaching the target inside 40 overs.
Morgan’s lone hand of 121 off 136balls with 11 fours and three sixes en-abled England to recover from a di-sastrous start to make 234 in 47.5overs. Warner then made 127, break-ing his own drought with his first one-day international ton since back-to-back hundreds against Sri Lanka in2012, as Australia cruised to the vic-tory target with 61 balls to spare, fin-
ishing on 235 for seven from 39.5overs. Warner faced 115 balls, hitting18 fours, and fell when just eight runswere needed to win and Australia waschasing the bonus point. He was de-lighted to become the first Australianto score a limited overs century againstEngland at the SCG, his home ground.“It was good to score a hundred, itwas a big one (getting the record), hereat the SCG,” Warner said.
“Importantly, we won the gameand we got a bonus point.” Englandhave now won just three of their last14 one-day internationals as they headtowards next month’s World Cup inAustralia and New Zealand. Morgantook little solace from his own perfor-mance after the loss. “Ultimately theearly wickets cost us,” Morgan said.
“I was happy with my performanceto start like this ascaptain but devas-tated at the result.”In the first match ofthe triangular se-ries, which alsofeatures India,Morgan won thetoss in his debut asskipper since re-placing AlastairCook and electedto bat. His sixth
one-day century for England helpedthe tourists put on a defendable totalbefore being dismissed in 47.5 overs.Morgan was the only England bats-man to score over 30.
The century ended a dry run forMorgan, as it was his first century inhis past 20 one-day innings, which hadincluded just one prior half-century.He brought up his ton by lofting JamesFaulkner (3-47) over cover from the127th ball he faced, having hit ninefours and two sixes. Morgan had tosave the innings after a top-order col-lapse and strode to the wicket with hisside in strife at 12 for three.
The home side struck with the veryfirst ball, with Ian Bell trapped lbw byleft-armer Mitchell Starc for a duck.Worse was to come for England whenBell’s replacement at the crease, JamesTaylor, was also adjudged lbw for aduck two balls later.
Morgan arrived after Joe Root wascaught by Shane Watson from thebowling of Pat Cummins for just five.The captain was eventually the ninthman to fall, in the push for late runs,holing out to Glenn Maxwell at deepmid-wicket from the bowling of Starcin the 48th over.
The England innings was wrappedup one ball later, when Steven Finn wasclean bowled by a Starc yorker..—APP
Warner counters Morgan tonto lead Aussies to big win
SYDNEY: David Warner gave Australia a fast start againstEngland in the opening match of Carlton Mid Tri-Series.
Sana’s hat-trickleads Pakistan tovictory against
Sri LankaSHARJAH—Pakistan cap-tain Sana Mir picked up animpressive hat-trick, leadingthe women cricket team tovictory against Sri Lanka by55 runs in the secondTwenty20 on Friday.
Mir gave a solid all-round performance, scoring48 runs with the bat as wellas the hat-trick. The Paki-stani side initially stumbledwith a disappointing startwith the bat, with four wick-ets falling at only 54 runs.
But the captain stuck atthe crease responsibly, lead-ing the batting side to 124runs for six wickets. JovairiaKhan scored 25 runs with thebat.
The Sri Lankan battingline-up was unable to facean impressive spell by SanaMir, losing all wickets atonly 69 runs.
Mir picked up four wick-ets in quick succession.Bisma Maroof took twowickets. The three-matchT20 series has now beenleveled 1-1. The Pakistanteam has already white-washed the ODI seriesagainst Sri Lanka.
MELBOURNE—Hamza Aldaradreh scoredthe first hat-trick of the Asian Cup on Fri-day as Jordan hammered Palestine 5-1 tokeep themselves alive in the competition.
Aldaradreh finished with four goals,helping Jordan end a miserable run of 11games without a win, but their hopes ofadvancing still hang in the balance with de-fending champions Japan to come in theirfinal Group D game on Tuesday.
Yousef Ahmad scored with a superbcurling effort after 33 minutes, beforeAldaradreh doubled Jordan’s advantagemoments later.
The striker grabbed his second in first-half stoppage time to leave Palestine with amountain to climb and completed his treblewith a clinical strike in the 75th minute.Adrenalin pumping, he piled on the miseryfor Palestine with another goal from point-blank range.
But Palestine carved out a little piece ofhistory for themselves from a pulsating
JAVED MIANDAD
NO cricketing contestcan ever match thethrill and excitement of what a
Pakistan versus India contest offers— it is the mother of all games.Whether it’s a one-sided affair or anail-biting finish, people from bothcountries get involved so much thatsometimes it is just not cricket! When-ever or wherever we play against eachother, fans from all age groups in ourtwo cricket-mad countries forget theirThings To Do. They simply get gluedto their TV sets or watch the actionon giant screens in a hope that onlytheir team would win.
The lucky ones have the ticketsto the Adelaide Oval for the absorb-ing contest, which is now just 29 daysaway. It was the first match of themega event which got sold out withinhours of the tickets going up for saleon Feb 14, 2014. I think the Interna-tional Cricket Council (ICC) did theright thing to showcase this iconicgame early in the World Cup, insteadof slotting it midway through thegroup stage. It will take off some pres-sure from both the sides and they willconcentrate more on their remainingpool matches. I do believe that all thematches in an ICC World Cup deserveequal importance, but there are somecontests which build extra pressureand stress on the players. What Iwould like to see is another excitingcontest and whoever win in Adelaide,fans should treat it as a loss on sport-ing field and nothing else.
I would like to see the Pakistanversus India rivalry more on thecricketing field and the only way go-ing forward is by improving ourcricketing relations – both on and offthe field.
While it’s tough to pick winnersof the Feb 15 encounter, Pakistan’sloss of Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmalthrough injuries and suspension, re-spectively, is a huge setback. Consid-ering the depth in India’s batting line-up with the likes of Rohit Sharma,Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, SureshRaina, Ajinkya Rahane and MahendraDhoni, their big batting pillars, Umar
Good that India, Pakistan are playingearly in the showpiece
and Saeed could have been provedhandy for Pakistan. Without thesetwo, I can now only hope thatMohammad Hafeez clears his retestas Pakistan need experienced bowlersagainst what is sure to be a highly-experienced India batting line-up.
India’s recent 2-0 Test series de-feat in Australia will count for noth-ing in defence of their World Cup title.In fact, they will be more acclimatised
and have more knowhow of thepitches than the Pakistan team. TheBCCI did its homework well by sched-uling its team’s tour to Australia be-fore the all-important event. Playersneed time to adjust to the conditionsand pitches in countries like Australiaand New Zealand, and the Indian teamhave grabbed that added advantage.
Remember, we also went to Aus-tralia in 1992 a month before the WorldCup. We didn’t win a single warm-upor practice match, but the experienceof playing on various pitches helpedour players when it mattered most incrucial matches. Pakistan haven’tplayed in Australia for quite some timenow. Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan,
Shahid Afridi and Ahmed Shehzadneed to adjust quickly in a short time.We need big scores, keeping in mindthe bowling resources we have and Ifeel nothing less than 300-325 couldchallenge India’s strong batting. InODI cricket, not all of the top six bats-men have to score. What Pakistanshould not forget is they need, atleast, two of their top-order batsmento score heavily and then the rest
could chip in with 30s and 40s to givethe scoreboard a solid look.
Pakistan should also forget thehorror stats of having never beatenIndia in a World Cup match. In fact,what they should remember is thatwe lost against them in 1992 too, butit was us who lifted the World Cuptrophy at the Melbourne CricketGround. Pakistan should not get side-tracked in case the result doesn’t goin their favour on Feb 15. The focusshould be to win the World Cup!Playing and winning the first matchin any big tournament gives a teaman added confidence, but it doesn’tguarantee you a place in the final.
—Courtesy: ICC
Javed Miandad poses with the ICC World Cup 2015 trophy.
Jordan’s Aldaradreh slamsfour in 5-1 rout of Palestine
match when Jaka Hbaisha smashed home aconsolation goal five minutes from time.
The result will give Jordan coach RayWilkins a huge lift with the Englishmanunder fire after failing to arrest the team’sslide since taking over last September.
Wilkins, robbed of star striker AhmadHayel after he collapsed from dehydrationduring a dope test following Jordan’s 1-0defeat by Iraq earlier this week, endured anervous opening as Hisham Salhi’s vi-ciously dipping effort was tipped onto thebar by goalkeeper Amer Shafi.
Confident and cohesive where they hadbeen awestruck in their 4-0 thumping byJapan on their Asian Cup debut, Palestinepaid the price for their gung-ho approach,however, as Ahmad scored with a peach ofa goal against the run of play.
Aldaradreh then ran riot, his whirlwinddisplay making him the competition’s topscorer and giving Jordan a chance of sneak-ing into the quarter-finals.—APP
MELBOURNE: Hamza Aldaradreh scored the first hat-trick of the Asian Cup on Fridayas Jordan hammered Palestine 5-1 to keep themselves alive in the competition.Kazakh qualifier
Kukushkin intoSydney final
SYDNEY—Qualifier MikhailKukushkin defeated the soleremaining seed LeonardoMayer on Friday to make thefinal of the Sydney Interna-tional.
The Kazakhstan worldnumber 66 downed the Ar-gentine fifth seed 6-4, 6-4 toreach his third ATP Tour fi-nal.
Kukushkin will face eitherSerbian qualifier Viktor Troickior Luxembourg’s Gilles Mullerin Saturday’s final.
A 10-year tour journey-man, Kukushkin has one ca-reer title from Moscow in 2013.
He had a service break ineach set against the Argen-tine and has yet to drop a setthis week in Sydney.
Kukushkin also saved 11break points, including ninein the second set—taking himto a total of 19 saves out of 22break points for the tourna-ment. The triumph extendedhis winning record in Sydneyto seven matches after hewon three times in qualifyingto make the main draw.—APP
SYDNEY—Petra Kvitova edged out fellowCzech Karolina Pliskova in two tiebreak setsto win the Sydney International on Friday.The reigning Wimbledon champion downedher rising compatriot 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (8/6) tosend her into next week’s Australian Openfull of confidence. Kvitova quelledPliskova’s tenacious challenge in one hourand 52 minutes to secure her 15th careertitle. It was Kvitova’s third win in Australiafollowing her victory in the 2009 Hobart In-ternational and the 2011 Brisbane Interna-tional before she went on to win the first ofher two Wimbledon crowns in 2011. Kvitovais the world number four and was Fridaydrawn in Serena Williams’ top half at theAustralian Open, setting the stage for apotential semi-final against the world num-ber one.
A former Australian Open junior cham-pion, Pliskova took the fight to Kvitova,breaking the tournament’s second seed inthe second game of the final to seize an earlyinitiative. But Kvitova clubbed two fore-hand winners and then unleashed a scorch-ing backhand pass to break back as Pliskovatried to serve out the opening set at 5-4.After snatching the first set in a tiebreaker,
Kvitova claimed an early break in the sec-ond and looked headed for a routine win.Pliskova had other ideas, drawing back onlevel terms in the sixth game to force an-other tiebreaker, only for Kvitova’s class toprevail once again when it mattered most.Underlining her superiority over her com-patriots, Kvitova’s win was her 15th straightagainst Czech opponents.
Kvitova said her hard-earned win threedays out from the start of the AustralianOpen was most satisfying. “It’s alwaystough to play a final,” she said. “I’m glad Istand here as the winner of this tournament.It’s always going to stay as a great memoryin my mind.”
Pliskova was satisfied with her week’swork and now looks ahead to Melbournewhere she has drawn a qualifier in the open-ing round of the Australian Open. “She wasreally better today and deserved to win. Itwas a good match for me. She is four in theworld, so I’m not really sad,” Pliskova said.“Definitely it’s better to go there(Melbourne) with some matches like what Iwon here, and good matches.
“I beat one top 10, one top 20, so that’sdefinitely better.”—APP
Kvitova wins all-Czech finalover Pliskova in Sydney
England innings:Bell lbw Starc ................ 0Ali b Faulkner ............. 22Taylor lbw Starc ........... 0Root b Cummins ........... 5Morgan b Starc ........ 121Bopara b Doherty ...... 13Buttler b Faulkner ...... 28Woakes b Maxwell ....... 8Jordan b Faulkner ...... 17Broad not out ............... 0Finn b Starc ................... 0Extras: (b2, lb3, w14, nb1) .... 20Total: (all out) ........... 234Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-12, 4-33, 5-69, 6-136, 7-168,8-224, 9-234, 10-234Bowling: ........ O-M-R-WStarc ................ 8.5-0-42-4Cummins ............ 9-1-42-1Watson .............. 4-0-23-0Faulkner ........... 10-1-47-3Maxwell ............. 6-0-37-1
Doherty ........... 10-0-38-1Australia Innings:Warner b Woakes .... 127Finch b Woakes ......... 15Watson b Jordan ........ 16Smith b Ali ................... 37Bailey b Woakes ........ 10Maxwell b Woakes ....... 0Haddin run out ........... 16Faulkner not out ........... 6Starc not out ................. 0Extras: (lb7, w1) ........... 8Total: (7 wickets) ..... 235Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-71, 3-158, 4-199, 5-200, 6-227, 7-233Bowling: ........ O-M-R-WWoakes .............. 8-1-40-4Finn .................... 8-1-48-0Broad .............. 6.5-0-49-0Jordan ................ 6-0-33-1Ali ....................... 9-0-45-1Bopara .............. 2-0-13-0.
IN 1971, the first email was delivered. Morethan 40 years on, social media has takenthe world by storm. Social networking sites,
such as Facebook and Twitter, are now usedby 1 in 4 people worldwide. Such activity mayseem harmless, but some researchers suggestsocial media may affect ourmental health and well-being.In 2012, Medical News Todayreported on a study suggest-ing that Facebook use mayfeed anxiety and increase aperson’s feeling of inad-equacy.
A more recent study, ledby social psychiatrist EthanCross of the University ofMichigan, found that usingFacebook may even make usmiserable. “On the surface,Facebook provides an invalu-able resource for fulfilling thebasic human need for socialconnection,” says Kross. “Butrather than enhance well-be-ing, we found that Facebookuse predicts the opposite result- it undermines it.”
But are such claims exaggerated? Orshould we be limiting our use of social me-dia? Medical News Today looks at the evi-dence.
In essence, social media defines an arrayof Internet sites that enable people from all overthe world to interact. This can be through dis-cussion, photos, video and audio. Facebook isthe leading social networking site, with morethan 1.2 billion global active users everymonth. The site’s popularity is followed closelyby MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and Bebo.On average, Americans spend 7.6 hours usingsocial networking sites, such as Facebook,
Social media: how does it really affectour mental health and well-being?
every month. The latest statistics show thataround 42% of online adults use multiple so-cial networking sites. Perhaps not surprisingly,the majority of social media users are underthe age of 30, although the number of olderusers is on the rise. Around 45% of Internet
users aged 65 or older now useFacebook, increasing from35% in 2012.
On average, Americansspent 7.6 hours a month usingsocial media, with the major-ity of individuals accessingsocial networking sites throughcell phones. In the late 1980s,the first commercial dial-upInternet service provider (ISP)was launched in the US.Internet technology has cer-tainly advanced in the past 25years, so much so that thewords “dial-up” make mostpeople cringe.
Of course, one of the mainattractions for connecting tothe Internet was, and still is,the ability to better connect
with the world around us. For example, theInternet allowed us to send emails as an alter-native to the timely process of sending lettersthrough the mail. Social media has built onthis premise. “Facebook’s mission is to givepeople the power to share and make the worldmore open and connected.
This sums up what the majority of socialnetworking sites endeavor to achieve, and thereis no doubt that the general public has suc-cumbed to the world of social media, perhapsa little too much. Recent statistics show that63% of American Facebook users log on tothe site daily, while 40% of users log on mul-tiple times a day.
Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan Governor Sindh addressing Youth Parliament during ‘’Youth Convention Hopes & Challenges 2015".— PO photo by Sultan Chaki
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Pakistan People’s PartyParliamentarian (PPPP) central VicePresident Sheri Rehman said the nationwas standing with the Pakistan Armyagainst war on terror and the war wouldnot be over till the last terrorist wouldface the music for the barbarism.
She was addressing PPPP’s work-ers and leaders at the Three SwordMonument in Clifton Friday eveningwhere PPPP had organized a vigil to
Candle Vigil in memory of APS’s martyrs:
Pakistan has brighter future, noroom for Taliban: Sheri Rehman
pay homage to the martyred studentsof the Army Public School in Peshawar.
She said the PPPP had alwaysshowed a strong and unparallel stanceagainst all forms of extremism and ter-rorism and had also paid the price forthat stance. Nonetheless, the PPPP wasdetermined that the future of Pakistanwas brighter and the Pakistan Army’sdecisive action would eliminate the ter-rorism form the country for which thewhole nation was at the back of theArmy while PPPP was at the forefront
of that war on terror.Speaking on the occasion, PPPP
Karachi Division President Abdul QadirPatel said the menace of terrorism wasthe product of extremism and in orderto eliminate the terrorism, it would beimperative that all forms of extremismshould be washed out from the societyfor which the civil society had greatresponsibility to promote tolerance.
The vigil was though a simple cer-emonial event but was attended by peoplefrom all walks of life. The participants
including men, women and the youth hadlit candles in memory of the martyredStudents of the APS. They chanted slo-gans in condemnation of terrorist Talibanand in support of Pakistan Army.
MNA Dr Nafeesa Shah, BegumShehnaz wazir Ali, Provincial MinisterJawaid Nagori, PPPP Sindh secretaryInformation Waqar Mehdi, RashidRabbani, Habibuddin Junaidi, LateefMughal, Manzoor Abbas, ZulfiquarQaimkhani and Haji Muzaffar AliShujra were present.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) member nationalassembly Syed Naveed Qamarwhile vehemently condemningthe republication of blasphe-mous caricatures of the holyProphet Muhammad (peace beupon him) by the French peri-odical, Charlie-Hebdo said thePPP considered it as a plannedconspiracy to causing an erup-tion of worst confrontation andextreme unrest in Muslim
Republication of caricatures a waragainst Islam: Syed Naveed Qamar
world.He said the Muslim being
the second largest populationof the world always wanted tolive with peace and completereligious harmony but a hand-ful of those in the west withsick mentality had missed noopportunity to spark agitationin Muslim world so that they
could paint the soft image ofIslam, the religion of peace, asthe symbol of terror.
He said the republicationof the caricatures were nothingbut a deadly plot against Islamand it proved that they were theso-called champions of expres-sion of freedom, who did notwant to see prevalence of peace
and inter-faith harmony. Thecaricatures had insulted over abillion Muslims of the worldand if the West would fail tocontrol such conspiratorialschemes against Islam, thedream of causing peace andinternational brotherhoodwould never come true.
The PPP MNA Syed
Naveed Qamar urged the rul-ers of the West and the UnitedNations to consider the con-demnation of the Charlie-Hebdo by the spiritual leaderof the Christian world, PopeFrances as ‘Great Advice’ andplay their role for imposing banof all periodicals involved inproducing caricatures.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—US Consul General BrianHeath stressed the importance of multilat-eral organizations at the Institute of Busi-ness Administration’s (IBA) Model UnitedNations (MUNIK VI) annual conference inKarachi. IBA Dean and Director Dr IshratHussain and 300 students participated. Thisyear’s theme is “Resetting Priorities, Rede-fining Possibilities.”
Multilateralism, said Heath, is diplo-matic term that refers to cooperation among
US CG Heath highlightsimportance of multilateralism
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Armed clash between 2 gangs ofLyari claimed lives of 3 gangsters, who belongedto Uzair Balouch faction. The casualties occurredduring an attempt by the gangsters from Uzair’sside to occupy the stronghold of rival gang led byBaba Ladla.
The incident took place near Rexor Lane areaof Kalakot. According to eye witnesses, over halfdozen gangsters belonging to the Uzair Balouchgroup tried to penetrate the Rexor Lane, the areapredominantly occupied by Baba Ladla. However,militants of Ldla group had the information and
3 Lyari gangsters gunned downattacked the Uzair’s militants while resorting toheavy shootout in which 3 of Uzair’s gangsterswere down.
A resident of the area on the condition ofanonymity said that following the indiscrimi-nate fire by the Ladla’s men, three gangsterswere shot multiple times and died shortly af-ter the incident while the remaining otherswere managed to escape under the cover offire. A passerby, namely Abdul Sattar was alsowounded in the crossfire. The bodies of thegangsters killed were shifted to Civil HospitalKarachi where they were identified as Sulemanalias Sallu, Tariq and Majid.
several nations. “It is the system of inter-national institutions and rules intended topromote the common good; it is interna-tional cooperation; it is global diplomacy,”he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama has mademultilateralism a central element of U.S. for-eign policy. “Given the global nature ofmultilateralism, multilateral policies are dip-lomatically intensive but offer the potentialfor great payoffs,” said Heath. PresidentObama has made strengthening multilateralinstitutions —the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization (NATO), United Nations, WorldBank, and International Monetary Fund(IMF) – a top priority, he said. “We realizethat our world is changing with acceleratingspeed and that America must be equipped torespond to an increasingly dynamic environ-ment,” said Heath. “A key component inour response is multilateralism — mobiliz-ing allies and partners to take collective ac-tion,” he said. “This approach will be vital inmarshalling the needed to support to deal withthe many issues facing the world and itspeoples,” said Heath.
KARACHI—Minister of Statefor Communication AbdulHakeem Baloch has expressedhis committment to resolve allproblems of his constituncy onpriority basis.
This he stated while talk-ing to the secratry EducationSindh who called on him here
Hakeem urges teachers to ensuretheir presence in schools
on Friday said a statement.Talkigh to the secratry he
said that there are many schoolsin his constituency which arefacing shortage of staff whilemany of the teachers also re-mained absent from duty. Hesaid to ensure attendence ofteachers and availbality of
other basic needs includingclean drinking water in schools.
“We need to take revolu-tionary measures in the field ofeducation for the progress ofour country”,he added. Mean-while he visited his constitu-ency schools and inquiredabout their problems.—APP
British Deputy High Commissioner John Anthony Tucknott MBE addressing at the launch of the “ British Food Festival”at British High Commission.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki
KARACHI—As a part of its on-goingteacher training programme, the OxfordUniversity Press (OUP) is organizing aworkshop for teachers on its popular En-glish language series, Oxford ReadingTree, here on Saturday, at the OxfordUniversity Press Head Office.
A statement on Friday said that Ox-ford Reading Tree is a comprehensivereading programme for children learning
Oxford workshop on English language courseEnglish. It is one of the most highly suc-cessful reading schemes in the world asit teaches children aged 2.5 to 12 years toread through finely graded and progres-sive stages while keeping them engagedwith storylines and characters they canrelate to.
Each book in the scheme tells a com-plete story. As children progress to eachnew stage the number of words and the
difficulty of the sentences in the storiesgradually increase.
The workshop will be conducted byRahila Ashraf who is currently a memberof staff at the Oxford University Press(OUP), where she has worked for someyears. She has invaluable experience of con-ducting numerous workshops on OxfordReading Tree and other English languageprogrammes offered by OUP.—APP
Police blocked road during a protest against blasphemous sketches published by a Frenchmagazine near Consulate General of France.
IN 1971, the first email was delivered. Morethan 40 years on, social media has takenthe world by storm. Social networking sites,
such as Facebook and Twitter, are now usedby 1 in 4 people worldwide. Such activity mayseem harmless, but some researchers suggestsocial media may affect ourmental health and well-being.In 2012, Medical News Todayreported on a study suggest-ing that Facebook use mayfeed anxiety and increase aperson’s feeling of inad-equacy.
A more recent study, ledby social psychiatrist EthanCross of the University ofMichigan, found that usingFacebook may even make usmiserable. “On the surface,Facebook provides an invalu-able resource for fulfilling thebasic human need for socialconnection,” says Kross. “Butrather than enhance well-be-ing, we found that Facebookuse predicts the opposite result- it undermines it.”
But are such claims exaggerated? Orshould we be limiting our use of social me-dia? Medical News Today looks at the evi-dence.
In essence, social media defines an arrayof Internet sites that enable people from all overthe world to interact. This can be through dis-cussion, photos, video and audio. Facebook isthe leading social networking site, with morethan 1.2 billion global active users everymonth. The site’s popularity is followed closelyby MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and Bebo.On average, Americans spend 7.6 hours usingsocial networking sites, such as Facebook,
Social media: how does it really affectour mental health and well-being?
every month. The latest statistics show thataround 42% of online adults use multiple so-cial networking sites. Perhaps not surprisingly,the majority of social media users are underthe age of 30, although the number of olderusers is on the rise. Around 45% of Internet
users aged 65 or older now useFacebook, increasing from35% in 2012.
On average, Americansspent 7.6 hours a month usingsocial media, with the major-ity of individuals accessingsocial networking sitesthrough cell phones. In the late1980s, the first commercialdial-up Internet service pro-vider (ISP) was launched in theUS. Internet technology hascertainly advanced in the past25 years, so much so that thewords “dial-up” make mostpeople cringe.
Of course, one of the mainattractions for connecting tothe Internet was, and still is,the ability to better connectwith the world around us. For
example, the Internet allowed us to send emailsas an alternative to the timely process of send-ing letters through the mail. Social media hasbuilt on this premise. “Facebook’s mission isto give people the power to share and makethe world more open and connected.
This sums up what the majority of socialnetworking sites endeavor to achieve, and thereis no doubt that the general public has suc-cumbed to the world of social media, perhapsa little too much. Recent statistics show that63% of American Facebook users log on tothe site daily, while 40% of users log on mul-tiple times a day.
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—TEVTA Punjab will soonestablish a model training institute forGarments sector at Lahore with thetechnical assistance of Turkish Coop-eration & Coordination Agency(TiKA), Turkey. The garment institutewill offer courses specializing in gar-ments manufacturing under guidance ofTurkish experts to produce skilledworkforce for this industry.
It was stated by Chairperson TEVTA
TEVTA to establish model traininginstitute for garments sector
MUZAFFAR ALI
LAHORE—Lahore Waste Management Com-pany (LWMC) has introduced new small sizedwaste bins to be used dedicatedly by each house-hold initially on trial bases in the locality ofwalled city. Initially a small number of binshave been installed to check their feasibility andusability by the citizens.
A cleanliness awareness campaign was alsocarried out in the locality to aware and sensi-
LWMC walled bins on trialbases in Walled City
tize the citizens which was comprised of a walk,setting up of camps for registration & resolu-tion of complaints, door to door public briefingand leafleting etc. walk was led by PML Nleader Waseem Qadir, LWMC’s Head of Com-munication Department Jamil Khawar and Se-nior Manager Operations Suhail Anwar Malik.Officials of albayrak, political coordinators,member civil society and students also took partin the campaign and played their active role forhighlight significance of issue.
Irfan Qaiser Sheikh while addressing theofficers here yesterday. The Chief Op-erating Officer Jawad Ahmed Qureshiand others were also present on the oc-casion.
Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that Turk-ish delegation has recently visitedTEVTA to discuss the scope of techni-cal assistance in the proposed GarmentsTraining Center at Lahore. Turkish sup-port in setting up of this institute, provi-sion of machinery & equipment andtraining of Pakistani trainers are some
of the key areas of cooperation. TEVTAhas developed a proposal to send it tofederal Govt. for its formal approval toreach an agreement with the Turkishagency in this regard. Turkish expertsfrom Marmara University, Istanbul alsovisited garments manufacturing units inLahore for training needs assessment.
The Chairperson TEVTA furtheradded that garments manufacturing is akey export oriented industry for Paki-stan which requires well-trained skilledworkforce.
LAHORE—Provincial Minis-ter for Law, Excise & Taxa-tion and Finance MujtabaShuja-ur-Rehman has saidthat job opportunities wouldbe provided to four millionpeople whereas two millionpeople will be provided tech-nical training in result of gov-ernment economic policies.
Job opportunities to be providedto 4 million people: Mujtaba
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—Punjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif presidedover a high level meeting here todaywhich gave approval to various mea-sures for the uplift of health sector.
Addressing the meeting, the ChiefMinister said that provision of modernand quality treatment facilities to thecitizens is the priority of the govern-ment as health is directly linked to edu-cation and progress and prosperity ofthe country. He said that there is a needto pay maximum attention to the provi-sion of quality health services to themasses and keeping in view this fact
CM gives approval to measuresfor reforms in health sector
measures will be taken for introducingrevolutionary reforms in health sector.He said that health authorities shouldfix targets of improvement in publichealth facilities and devote all their en-ergies for their achievement. He saidthat reforms in healthcare system arethe need of the hour and besides col-lective efforts and hard work, a teamspirit is also required for this purpose.
The Chief Minister gave approval toup-gradation of nursing schools and giv-ing them status of nursing colleges an-nounced that four center-of-excellencenursing colleges will be set up in Punjab.He also gave approval to pilot project ofsetting up district health authorities in
three districts of the province. The meet-ing also decided to change the non-func-tional boards of management of autono-mous medical institutions.
Shahbaz Sharif said that there is noneed for non-functional boards of man-agement and active and well-reputedpersons should be included in theboards. The meeting also gave approvalto up-gradation of emergency wards ofdistrict and Tehsil hospitals of the prov-ince under a phased programme and toallocate separate pediatric wards. Healso directed that an effective monitor-ing system should be evolved for thepurchase and distribution of medicinesas well as ensuring their standard. He
said that a comprehensive mechanismof accountability should be introducedin health department at every level.
He said that information technol-ogy should be utilized for evolving adigital system for the purpose of moni-toring. He further directed that aprogramme should be chalked out forthe training of doctors, nurses and para-medical staff in a professional manner.Shahbaz Sharif further directed thatplanning should be made for givingspecial incentives to the doctors, nursesand paramedical staff serving efficientlyin far-flung areas of the province andcomprehensive recommendations beevolved for this purpose.
Movement Disorder ClinicMUZAFFAR ALI
LAHORE—With a view to im-prove clinical services in Neu-rosurgery Department ofLahore General Hospital(LGH), a combined “Move-ment Disorder Clinic” is goingto start on every Saturday from
11:00am to 01:00pm.All the cases with move-
ment disorders includingParkinson disease, Distonia,Chorea, essential tramerswould be examined in Neuro-surgery OPD on Saturday inroom no.4.
Principal Post Graduate
Medical Institute/Lahore Gen-eral Hospital Prof. AnjumHabib Vohra informed that aMulti Disciplinary Teamheaded by Prof. of Neurosur-gery Dr. Khalid Mehmood hasbeen constituted for the treat-ment of movement disorderpatients.
Members of Punjab Assembly holding a demonstration on Friday demanding public executions for terrorists.
Food Minister Bilal Yaseen is talking to students of Defence Degree College for Boys Lahore Cantt, on security measures.
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—Advisor to Chief MinisterPunjab on Health, Kh. Salman Rafiq hassaid that with a view to resolve the psy-chiatric issues of the affected persons ofnatural disasters, calamities and terror-ism, provincial psychological traumacenter has been set up at King EdwardMedical University. He said that Psychia-trists would impart training to the offi-cials of Police, Rescue-1122, teachers,
Trauma Centre set up to resolve psychological problemsdoctors, nurses and also prepare train-ing modules for media persons so thatawareness could be created amongmasses on this important issue.
He said this while presiding over ameeting of provincial steering commit-tee constituted by Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif for psycho-social trauma, at Civil Secretariat heretoday. Besides Additional Chief Secre-tary Syed Mubhassar Raza, SecretaryHigher Education, Secretary School
Education, Additional Secretary Home,DG Rescue 1122, DG Social Welfare,Additional Secretary Health (Techni-cal), Director General Punjab Instituteof Language, Art & Culture (PILAC),Head of the Psychiatry DepartmentKEMU Prof. Aftab Asif, Associate Prof.Dr. Ali Mehdi Hashmi, Prof. AftabQadir head of Psychiatry DepartmentPGMI and experts from Allama IqbalMedical College and other institutionsattended the meeting.
Talking to party workersat his Cooperative Road resi-dence on Friday, he said thePunjab government wanted toupgrade the growth rate of theprovince to 8 percent till nextfour years.
He said, property tax hasbeen increased after 14 yearsand this increase will also beimposed on big houses aswell as affluent people.
The minister, prioritywas given paid to education
and health sectors while de-velopment budget of currentfiscal year was 17 percentmore as compared to previ-ous year.
He said that budget allo-cated for education Rs 274
billion which was 26.25 per-cent of total expenditureswhereas the budget allocatedfor health Rs 121.80 billonwhich was 11.66 percent oftotal expenditures of the gov-ernment.—APP
Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashood Ahmed Khan and others observing a one minutesilence during a ceremony honouring the victims of APS Peshawar carnage at University ofEngineering and Technology (UET).
