Zardari gradually becomes evasive ................................................ Is someone listening? Economy is sliding down ................................................ Thunderous threat of BJP Chief See Page 04 ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in a meeting with Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif at PM office. MUZAFFAR ALI LAHORE—Upholding a Ses- sions Court’s ruling, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday ordered police to register an FIR against the PML-N’s top leadership – including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif – over Lahore’s Model Town tragic incident. At least 11 workers of Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) were killed and over 100 people in- jured in police firing on June 17 in the Model Town local- ity. PAT workers had submit- ted an application with police to file a First Information Re- port (FIR) against 21 people, which included the prime min- ister, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Min- ister Nisar Ali Khan, former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah, Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique, and others. An additional district and sessions judge in Lahore had ordered police to register the Model Town incident LHC upholds decision to file FIR against PM, CM, 19 others FIR on the application of the PAT. The order was challenged in the LHC by four PML-N federal ministers — Khawaja Asif, Pervaiz Rasheed, Saad Rafique and Abid Sher Ali, nominated in the application for FIR. The case was heard by Jus- tice Mehmood Maqbool Bajwa of the LHC, who also directed the joint investigation team (JIT) to submit its report in court before the verdict was released. Reading out a short order, the high court upheld the lower court’s ruling and dismissed the federal ministers’ request not to file the FIR. Earlier on Tuesday, the court dismissed a request by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) to become a party in the appeal challenging the Sessions Court ruling. The request was filed by Zubair Khan Niazi on behalf of his party. However, the court dismissed it saying the PTI was not an aggrieved group and hence had no cause to become party in the case. I SLAMABAD —Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief, Dr. Tahirul Qadri has said joint investigation team (JIT) in its report has declared Chief Min- ister Punjab and provincial government responsible for massacre of 14 workers includ- ing two women and now the issue will not be simply re- solved with the resignations of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, but only with their hangings. In an inflammatory speech to the participants of the Inqilab March in front of Parliament House on Tuesday, Dr Tahirul Qadri said the Punjab Govern- ment kept the report in hiding for past 17 days, yet the private Tv channels somehow got it and made its important points public. Hiding of reports itself speaks the provincial govern- ment was guilty in Model Town tragedy that is why it was us- ing delaying tactics to make the Nawaz, Gen Raheel for resolving political crisis expeditiously ISLAMABAD—Chief of Army Staff Gen- eral Raheel Sharif called on Prime Minis- ter Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at Prime Minister’s House on Tuesday. Overall se- curity environment including the prevail- ing political situation in the country was discussed in the meeting. There was a consensus on the need to resolve the on-going issue expeditiously in the best national interest. According to sources, the prime min- ister said no unconstitutional demand of anyone will be accepted. The premier said all the demands of the PTI and PAT, which have been staging sit-in in Islamabad for the last 12 days, have been accepted. How- ever, he said unconstitutional demands cannot be entertained. He said the government exercised maxi- mum restraint and formed negotiating teams to persuade the PTI and PAT leadership to end the protests. He said even the govern- ment has allowed to the protestors to move into the Red Zone, which is the high secu- rity area and he has given clear orders that necessary facilities be extended to them as they are Pakistani citizens. Sources said the COAS informed the prime minister about the progress in the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb against ter- rorists and continuous violations of ceasefire by the Indian troops at the Line of Control.—INP ALI SYED ISLAMABAD—Amid the emergence of circular debt of Rs 264 billion, the pub- lic state enterprise Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has started feeling the punch and is again facing the financial crunch as its dues other entities owe to pay to it have alarmingly increased to Rs212.014 bil- lion out of which power sector alone is needed to pay Rs 191.03 billion to the state owed oil marketing company. This has landed the PSO into deep trouble and is unable to meet the liabili- ties for maintaining the existing letter of credit and open new L/Cs for import- ing the fuel required to run the power sector and country’s economic wheel as well. According to the latest statement showing the status of major receivables and payables unveils that financial liabili- PSO again faces financial crunch, receivables rise to Rs212.014b ties that PSO needs to pay to refineries and Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) have swelled to staggering figure of Rs115.043 billion. The receivables of PSO have amounted to Rs 212.014 billion out of which Wapda is needed to pay to oil mar- keting company Rs 111.540 billion, Hub Power Company (Hubco) Rs 52.305 bil- lion, Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) Rs 20.770 billion and K-Electric Rs6.408 billion. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) owes to pay to PSO Rs8.950 bil- lion, oil and gas development company (OGDC) Rs 0.378 billion, national logis- tic cell (NLC) Rs0.336 billion, Saba Power and Southern Electric Rs 0.742 billion and Pakistan Railways Rs 0.935 billion. Pakistan State Oil is also needed to be paid Rs0.953 billion under price dif- ferential claim on high speed diesel, Rs 0.028 billion under differential claim on E-10, Rs 3.407 billion under price dif- ferential claim on Lower Sulpher Furnace Oil and High Sulpher Furnace Oil and Rs 1.351 billion under price differential claim on imported PMG and Rs 3.909 billion under price differential claim on GLMP and NTDC-KESC. The statement also tells that PSO’s payables have also increased to Rs115.043 billion out of which it needs to pay to Pak-Arab Refinery Company (PARCO) Rs 6.349 billion, Pakistan Re- finery Limited (PRL) RS 2.297 billion, Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) Rs 5.448 billion, National Refinery Limited (NRL) Rs0.531 billion, Byco RS 1.582 billion and others Rs 1.806 billion. In addition, Pakistan State oil also needed to pay Rs 96.981 billion to Ku- wait Petroleum Company and other fuel suppliers. Pak-India Indus water talks fail LAHORE—Three days long negotiations by Indus Water Commission on water issue between Pakistan and India ended Tuesday without suc- cess. According to details, the negotiations initiated three days before in Lahore in which Pakistan placed its reservations over water issue before India, however the dialogue process ended without any significant solution of the issue. Negotia- tions final session will be con- ducted in September and Oc- tober between both countries. In case of India’s failure to PTI, PAT refuse to vacate Constitution Avenue: AGP STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD—The attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) has told the Supreme Court (SC) that the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have re- fused to vacate Constitution Avenue. The AGP has also said that both parties are not willing to shift their protests to an alter- native place. In compliance to the top court’s August 25 order, Deputy Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti has submitted a report on the outcome of the meeting held Pakistan, India DGMOs agree to reduce LoC tension RAWALPINDI—The Director General of Military Operations (DMGOs) from India and Pa- kistan contacted on a hotline on Tuesday to discuss the border firing issues. According to In- ter-Services Public Relations, the military’s public affairs wing, both the sides agreed to ease tension on Line of Con- trol and Working Boundary. “Both sides mutually agreed to reduce tension along the Line of Control and work- ing boundary,” read a short Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 Rupee stages smart recovery STAFF REPORTER KARACHI—Pakistan’s rupee staged a smart recovery against the US dollar Tuesday after the central bank prod banks to curb speculations in the currency market. In early Tuesday trade, the rupee gained 90 paisas to 102.20 to a dollar in the offi- cial interbank market. Dealers said that the State Bank of Pakistan Monday had convened an emergent meeting of the commercial banks. In the meeting, the banks were ad- vised to avoid speculation- based dollar buying as country’s economic fundamen- tals are strong. Ongoing political crisis is Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 TARIQ SAEED PESHAWAR—Bloody clashes between the security forces and the alleged terrorists in Khyber agency on Tuesday wee hours left four militants dead and many others injured. The clashes took place on the nigh between Monday and Tuesday at Ghunday area of Tehsil Jamrod. “At least four militants were killed in clash with the security forces in Jamrod Tehsil of Khyber tribal region”. Offi- cial sources said adding the overnight clash took place in Malik Shiga village of Tehsil Jamrod Khyber agency. A source in the political administration said exchange of fire took place in Ghunday area where a group of militants challenging the writ of the gov- ernment, clashed with the troops Tuesday early morning adding the shootout ultimately resulted in the killing of as many as four troublemakers while remaining manages to make good their escape. While number of terrorist’s outfits including Lashker-e- Is- lam and Ansaar ul Islam have 4 terrorists killed in Khyber clashes Continued on Page 7 Thackeray asks Modi to attack Pakistan NEW DELHI—Spitting venom against Pakistan, Chief of Hindu extremist organization, Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray has advised the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to attack Islamabad and “teach (it) a lesson”. Uddhav Thackeray wrote in ‘Saamana’, the party mouthpiece, “Now, the country (India) is expecting that we should set fire to Pakistan’s tail and reduce it to ashes.” “Don’t make any further delay. Act and show that this (India) is a ‘manly’ country. Prove to the people of India that a “macho” government has taken over in New Delhi. This is our plea to the centre,” Thackeray boasted.— NNI Reality of Khan’s allegation exposed: Ex-CJ STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD—Former chief justice of Pakistan Justice (Retd) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said that the re- ality of Imran Khan’s allega- tion being levelled against him has been exposed following submission of PTI chief’s re- ply to his defamation notice. Talking to media here Tuesday, the former chief jus- tice said that Imran Khan should now refrain from level- ling allegations against him af- ter the submission of reply in the court. “Had Imran Khan change his stance, I would decide TTP commanders form new splinter group PESHAWAR—Key command- ers belonging to the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have announced the formation of a new group by the name of TTP Jamatul Ahrar, with Maulana Qasim Khurasani as the new Ameer and also comprising other commanders. Former TTP spokesper- son Ehsanullah Ehsan, who has been nominated as the spokesman for the splinter group, mostly comprising the Mohmand Agency Taliban, Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said on Tuesday that independent investigation of 2013 election rigging is not possible under premiership of Nawaz Sharif, add- ing that the sit-in will continue until Nawaz Sharif resigns. Addressing ‘Azadi March’ partici- pants, Khan said that Nawaz Sharif’s ‘monarchy’ is losing people’s confi- dence and that the people of Pakistan Sit-in to continue until PM’s resignation: Imran Khan have given their verdict. He said the in- stances of rigging are emerging from every constituency now. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief ap- pealed the judges to play role in the matter of claims made by former Addi- tional Secretary of Election Commission Afzal Khan. He said that the ‘new Pakistan’ will be an ‘Islamic welfare state’ and that three sectors will be given special con- centration. Among those three concen- trated sectors, first one is increment of pay scales for teachers and training and pay raise for the police. “We want equality of laws for ev- eryone in Pakistan”, he said. Imran Khan alleged that Geo/Jang group chief Mir Shakilur Rehman has caused the country irreparable loss, add- ing that Shakilur Rehman sells his con- science for money. He told the cheering crowd that the Lahore High Court has dismissed Punjab government’s petition to vacate session STAFF REPORTER KARACHI—In an interview with a private TV channel on late Tuesday night, former president general (Retd) Pervez Musharraf supported the demand for ‘change’ and stressed the United States must not interfere in Pakistan’s internal politics. Musharraf said that ‘change must come be- fore elections’. The former president said that he has never seen protests as large and continuous as the ones currently being held in Islamabad. “Tahirul Qadri is asking for change. Imran Khan is asking for the audit of ballot papers, fair elections,” he said. He said: “Elections are not possible at the Musharraf supports public’s demand for ‘change’ Blames Govt for corruption, nepotism moment in my estimate.” The former military ruler said that corruption, nepotism, terrorism, tanking economy and no access to justice are some of the problems affect- ing Pakistan. “People are not getting justice,” he opined. “There is no doubt that there was rigging in the elections. People will come out into streets if there is no justice and no improvement in people’s lives,” he stressed. He further said that all levels of Pakistani society are represented in these protests. “People are asking for change,” said ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri addressing party workers. Shahbaz responsible for massacre: Qadri Continued on Page 7 PTI, Govt fourth round of talks remains inconclusive STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD—Deliberations between the government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took place on Tuesday as the two sides sat down for the fourth round of talks at a local hotel. Speaking to the media af- ter talks concluded, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that dialogue will continue tomorrow and that his party will not back down from its demand of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that talks will continue Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7 Sexual harassment Two Indian school girls commit suicide NEW DELHI—Two teenage girls in Haryana committed suicide by drinking fruit juice laced with poison and left notes saying they were being stalked and harassed by a group of youths, the Times of India reported on Tuesday. The two girls were rushed to hospital after losing consciousness while studying on Monday at an education centre in Rohtak, on the outskirts of the capital, but later died, the report said. Perera guides Sri Lanka to victory over Pakistan HAMBANTOTA—Thisara Perera smashed 65 off 36 balls and then grabbed three wickets as Sri Lanka thumped Pakistan by 77 runs in the second one-dayer on Tuesday to level the three- match series 1-1. Sri Lanka recovered from 194-6 to post a commanding 310-9 in their 50 overs after electing to bat, Continued on Page 7 Today’s issue of Pakistan Observer carries a 2-Page Special Report on 9th Con- sumers Choice Award on Page 14-15.
Transcript
Zardari gradually becomesevasive................................................Is someone listening?Economy is sliding down................................................Thunderous threat of BJP Chief
See Page 04
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in a meeting with Chief of the Army Staff General RaheelSharif at PM office.
MUZAFFAR ALI
LAHORE—Upholding a Ses-sions Court’s ruling, the LahoreHigh Court (LHC) on Tuesdayordered police to register anFIR against the PML-N’s topleadership – including PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif andShahbaz Sharif – over Lahore’sModel Town tragic incident.
At least 11 workers ofTahirul Qadri’s PakistanAwami Tehreek (PAT) werekilled and over 100 people in-jured in police firing on June17 in the Model Town local-ity.
PAT workers had submit-ted an application with policeto file a First Information Re-port (FIR) against 21 people,which included the prime min-ister, Chief Minister PunjabShahbaz Sharif, Interior Min-ister Nisar Ali Khan, formerPunjab law minister RanaSanaullah, Federal Minister forRailways Khawaja SaadRafique, and others.
An additional district andsessions judge in Lahore hadordered police to register the
Model Town incident
LHC upholdsdecision to file
FIR against PM,CM, 19 others
FIR on the application of thePAT. The order was challengedin the LHC by four PML-Nfederal ministers — KhawajaAsif, Pervaiz Rasheed, SaadRafique and Abid Sher Ali,nominated in the applicationfor FIR.
The case was heard by Jus-tice Mehmood Maqbool Bajwaof the LHC, who also directedthe joint investigation team(JIT) to submit its report incourt before the verdict wasreleased.Reading out a short order, thehigh court upheld the lowercourt’s ruling and dismissed thefederal ministers’ request not tofile the FIR.
Earlier on Tuesday, thecourt dismissed a request byPakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI)to become a party in the appealchallenging the Sessions Courtruling.
The request was filed byZubair Khan Niazi on behalf ofhis party. However, the courtdismissed it saying the PTI wasnot an aggrieved group andhence had no cause to becomeparty in the case.
I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nAwami Tehreek (PAT) chief,Dr. Tahirul Qadri has said jointinvestigation team (JIT) in itsreport has declared Chief Min-ister Punjab and provincialgovernment responsible for
massacre of 14 workers includ-ing two women and now theissue will not be simply re-solved with the resignations ofPrime Minister Nawaz Sharifand Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif, but only withtheir hangings.
In an inflammatory speechto the participants of the InqilabMarch in front of ParliamentHouse on Tuesday, Dr TahirulQadri said the Punjab Govern-ment kept the report in hidingfor past 17 days, yet the private
Tv channels somehow got itand made its important pointspublic. Hiding of reports itselfspeaks the provincial govern-ment was guilty in Model Towntragedy that is why it was us-ing delaying tactics to make the
Nawaz, Gen Raheel for resolvingpolitical crisis expeditiously
ISLAMABAD—Chief of Army Staff Gen-eral Raheel Sharif called on Prime Minis-ter Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at PrimeMinister’s House on Tuesday. Overall se-curity environment including the prevail-ing political situation in the country wasdiscussed in the meeting.
There was a consensus on the need toresolve the on-going issue expeditiouslyin the best national interest.
According to sources, the prime min-
ister said no unconstitutional demand ofanyone will be accepted. The premier saidall the demands of the PTI and PAT, whichhave been staging sit-in in Islamabad forthe last 12 days, have been accepted. How-ever, he said unconstitutional demandscannot be entertained.
He said the government exercised maxi-mum restraint and formed negotiating teamsto persuade the PTI and PAT leadership toend the protests. He said even the govern-
ment has allowed to the protestors to moveinto the Red Zone, which is the high secu-rity area and he has given clear orders thatnecessary facilities be extended to them asthey are Pakistani citizens.
Sources said the COAS informed theprime minister about the progress in theongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb against ter-rorists and continuous violations ofceasefire by the Indian troops at the Lineof Control.—INP
ALI SYED
ISLAMABAD—Amid the emergence ofcircular debt of Rs 264 billion, the pub-lic state enterprise Pakistan State Oil(PSO) has started feeling the punch andis again facing the financial crunch as itsdues other entities owe to pay to it havealarmingly increased to Rs212.014 bil-lion out of which power sector alone isneeded to pay Rs 191.03 billion to thestate owed oil marketing company.
This has landed the PSO into deeptrouble and is unable to meet the liabili-ties for maintaining the existing letterof credit and open new L/Cs for import-ing the fuel required to run the powersector and country’s economic wheel aswell.
According to the latest statementshowing the status of major receivablesand payables unveils that financial liabili-
PSO again faces financial crunch,receivables rise to Rs212.014b
ties that PSO needs to pay to refineriesand Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC)have swelled to staggering figure ofRs115.043 billion.
The receivables of PSO haveamounted to Rs 212.014 billion out ofwhich Wapda is needed to pay to oil mar-keting company Rs 111.540 billion, HubPower Company (Hubco) Rs 52.305 bil-lion, Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco)Rs 20.770 billion and K-Electric Rs6.408billion. Pakistan International Airlines(PIA) owes to pay to PSO Rs8.950 bil-lion, oil and gas development company(OGDC) Rs 0.378 billion, national logis-tic cell (NLC) Rs0.336 billion, SabaPower and Southern Electric Rs 0.742billion and Pakistan Railways Rs 0.935billion.
Pakistan State Oil is also needed tobe paid Rs0.953 billion under price dif-ferential claim on high speed diesel, Rs
0.028 billion under differential claim onE-10, Rs 3.407 billion under price dif-ferential claim on Lower Sulpher FurnaceOil and High Sulpher Furnace Oil andRs 1.351 billion under price differentialclaim on imported PMG and Rs 3.909billion under price differential claim onGLMP and NTDC-KESC.
The statement also tells that PSO’spayables have also increased toRs115.043 billion out of which it needsto pay to Pak-Arab Refinery Company(PARCO) Rs 6.349 billion, Pakistan Re-finery Limited (PRL) RS 2.297 billion,Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) Rs 5.448billion, National Refinery Limited (NRL)Rs0.531 billion, Byco RS 1.582 billionand others Rs 1.806 billion.
In addition, Pakistan State oil alsoneeded to pay Rs 96.981 billion to Ku-wait Petroleum Company and other fuelsuppliers.
Pak-India Induswater talks fail
LAHORE—Three days longnegotiations by Indus WaterCommission on water issuebetween Pakistan and Indiaended Tuesday without suc-cess. According to details, thenegotiations initiated threedays before in Lahore in whichPakistan placed its reservationsover water issue before India,however the dialogue processended without any significantsolution of the issue. Negotia-tions final session will be con-ducted in September and Oc-tober between both countries.
In case of India’s failure to
PTI, PATrefuse to vacate
ConstitutionAvenue: AGP
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—The attorneygeneral for Pakistan (AGP) hastold the Supreme Court (SC)that the Pakistan AwamiTehreek (PAT) and the PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have re-fused to vacate ConstitutionAvenue.
The AGP has also said thatboth parties are not willing toshift their protests to an alter-native place.
In compliance to the topcourt’s August 25 order, DeputyAttorney General Sajid IlyasBhatti has submitted a report onthe outcome of the meeting held
Pakistan, IndiaDGMOs agree
to reduceLoC tension
RAWALPINDI—The DirectorGeneral of Military Operations(DMGOs) from India and Pa-kistan contacted on a hotline onTuesday to discuss the borderfiring issues. According to In-ter-Services Public Relations,the military’s public affairswing, both the sides agreed toease tension on Line of Con-trol and Working Boundary.
“Both sides mutuallyagreed to reduce tension alongthe Line of Control and work-ing boundary,” read a short
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7
Rupee stagessmart recovery
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Pakistan’s rupeestaged a smart recovery againstthe US dollar Tuesday after thecentral bank prod banks to curbspeculations in the currencymarket.
In early Tuesday trade, therupee gained 90 paisas to102.20 to a dollar in the offi-cial interbank market.
Dealers said that the StateBank of Pakistan Monday hadconvened an emergent meetingof the commercial banks. In themeeting, the banks were ad-vised to avoid speculation-based dollar buying ascountry’s economic fundamen-tals are strong.
Ongoing political crisis is
Continued on Page 7Continued on Page 7
TARIQ SAEED
PESHAWAR—Bloody clashesbetween the security forces andthe alleged terrorists in Khyberagency on Tuesday wee hoursleft four militants dead andmany others injured. Theclashes took place on the nighbetween Monday and Tuesdayat Ghunday area of TehsilJamrod.
“At least four militantswere killed in clash with thesecurity forces in Jamrod Tehsilof Khyber tribal region”. Offi-cial sources said adding theovernight clash took place in
Malik Shiga village of TehsilJamrod Khyber agency.
A source in the politicaladministration said exchangeof fire took place in Ghundayarea where a group of militantschallenging the writ of the gov-ernment, clashed with thetroops Tuesday early morningadding the shootout ultimatelyresulted in the killing of asmany as four troublemakerswhile remaining manages tomake good their escape.
While number of terrorist’soutfits including Lashker-e- Is-lam and Ansaar ul Islam have
4 terrorists killedin Khyber clashes
Continued on Page 7
Thackerayasks Modito attackPakistanNEW DELHI—Spittingvenom against Pakistan,Chief of Hindu extremistorganization, Shiv Sena,Uddhav Thackeray hasadvised the Indian PrimeMinister, Narendra Modi, toattack Islamabad and “teach(it) a lesson”. UddhavThackeray wrote in‘Saamana’, the partymouthpiece, “Now, thecountry (India) is expectingthat we should set fire toPakistan’s tail and reduce it toashes.” “Don’t make anyfurther delay. Act and showthat this (India) is a ‘manly’country. Prove to the peopleof India that a “macho”government has taken over inNew Delhi. This is our pleato the centre,” Thackerayboasted.— NNI
Reality of Khan’sallegation
exposed: Ex-CJSTAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Former chiefjustice of Pakistan Justice(Retd) Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry has said that the re-ality of Imran Khan’s allega-tion being levelled against himhas been exposed followingsubmission of PTI chief’s re-ply to his defamation notice.
Talking to media hereTuesday, the former chief jus-tice said that Imran Khanshould now refrain from level-ling allegations against him af-ter the submission of reply inthe court.
“Had Imran Khan changehis stance, I would decide
TTP commandersform newsplinter groupPESHAWAR—Key command-ers belonging to the outlawedTehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) have announced theformation of a new group bythe name of TTP JamatulAhrar, with Maulana QasimKhurasani as the new Ameerand also comprising othercommanders.
Former TTP spokesper-son Ehsanullah Ehsan, whohas been nominated as thespokesman for the splintergroup, mostly comprising theMohmand Agency Taliban,
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) chairman Imran Khan said onTuesday that independent investigationof 2013 election rigging is not possibleunder premiership of Nawaz Sharif, add-ing that the sit-in will continue untilNawaz Sharif resigns.
Addressing ‘Azadi March’ partici-pants, Khan said that Nawaz Sharif’s‘monarchy’ is losing people’s confi-dence and that the people of Pakistan
Sit-in to continue until PM’sresignation: Imran Khan
have given their verdict. He said the in-stances of rigging are emerging fromevery constituency now.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief ap-pealed the judges to play role in thematter of claims made by former Addi-tional Secretary of Election CommissionAfzal Khan.
He said that the ‘new Pakistan’ willbe an ‘Islamic welfare state’ and thatthree sectors will be given special con-centration. Among those three concen-trated sectors, first one is increment of
pay scales for teachers and training andpay raise for the police.
“We want equality of laws for ev-eryone in Pakistan”, he said.
Imran Khan alleged that Geo/Janggroup chief Mir Shakilur Rehman hascaused the country irreparable loss, add-ing that Shakilur Rehman sells his con-science for money.
He told the cheering crowd that theLahore High Court has dismissed Punjabgovernment’s petition to vacate session
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—In an interview with a private TVchannel on late Tuesday night, former presidentgeneral (Retd) Pervez Musharraf supported thedemand for ‘change’ and stressed the UnitedStates must not interfere in Pakistan’s internalpolitics.
Musharraf said that ‘change must come be-fore elections’.
The former president said that he has neverseen protests as large and continuous as the onescurrently being held in Islamabad.
“Tahirul Qadri is asking for change. ImranKhan is asking for the audit of ballot papers,fair elections,” he said.
He said: “Elections are not possible at the
Musharraf supports public’sdemand for ‘change’
Blames Govt for corruption, nepotismmoment in my estimate.”
The former military rulersaid that corruption, nepotism,terrorism, tanking economyand no access to justice aresome of the problems affect-ing Pakistan.
“People are not gettingjustice,” he opined.
“There is no doubt that there was riggingin the elections. People will come out into streetsif there is no justice and no improvement inpeople’s lives,” he stressed.
He further said that all levels of Pakistanisociety are represented in these protests.
“People are asking for change,” said
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr TahirulQadri addressing party workers.
ISLAMABAD—Deliberationsbetween the government andPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)took place on Tuesday as thetwo sides sat down for thefourth round of talks at a localhotel.
Speaking to the media af-ter talks concluded, PTI ViceChairman Shah MehmoodQureshi said that dialogue willcontinue tomorrow and that hisparty will not back down fromits demand of Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif’s resignation.
Finance Minister Ishaq Darsaid that talks will continue
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7
Sexual harassment
Two Indianschool girlscommit suicideNEW DELHI—Two teenagegirls in Haryana committedsuicide by drinking fruit juicelaced with poison and leftnotes saying they were beingstalked and harassed by agroup of youths, the Times ofIndia reported on Tuesday.
The two girls were rushedto hospital after losingconsciousness while studyingon Monday at an educationcentre in Rohtak, on theoutskirts of the capital, butlater died, the report said.
Perera guidesSri Lanka tovictory overPakistanHAMBANTOTA—ThisaraPerera smashed 65 off 36balls and then grabbed three
wickets as Sri Lankathumped Pakistan by77 runs in the secondone-dayer on Tuesdayto level the three-match series 1-1.Sri Lanka recovered
from 194-6 to post acommanding 310-9 in their50 overs after electing to bat,
Continued on Page 7
Today’s issue of PakistanObserver carries a 2-PageSpecial Report on 9th Con-sumers Choice Award onPage 14-15.
ISLAMABAD: Khawaja Masood Akhter, CEO Forward Sports the manufacturer of ‘Brazuca’ called on PresidentMamnoon Hussain at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
ISLAMABAD—President Mamnoon Hussainon Tuesday said the present governmentgives priority to the promo-tion of healthy sports activi-ties in the country.
He said all out effortswould be made to provide theyouth of the country oppor-tunities and facilities forhealthy activities so that theirenergies could be diverted to-wards positive activities.
The President was talkingto Khawaja Masood Akhter,Chief Executive Officer (CEO),Forward Sports - the manu-facturer of international brandsoccer ball “Brazuca” used inthe World Cup Football Event2014, who called on him hereat the Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The President lauded thecontribution of ForwardSports Sialkot in bringinggood name to the country byproducing “Brazuca” andsaid that it not only helped inpromoting country’s exportsbut also provided to the citi-zens a connection with theglobal contest.
It was a matter of greatpride that the World Cup foot-balls were provided by a Paki-stani company, the President said and addedthat sports being a unifying force in Paki-stan can be used for projecting the messageof peace, progress and prosperity.
He said that rigorous efforts of thepresent government have resulted into the
Mamnoon for healthy facilities to youth to energisepositive activities for country development
creation of business and investors friendlyenvironment in the country.
He assured that the government will con-
tinue to make more concerted efforts to bol-ster trade and economic activities and pro-mote business interests of the country be-sides creating enabling environment to thelocal and foreign businesses in the country.
On sports talent in Pakistan, the Presi-
dent said that there was no dearth of talentin the country and the only thing neededwas to groom it properly so as to bring a
good name to Pakistan. He urged the business community to
play its role in promoting sports activitiesin the country and groom the abundantlyavailable raw talent on scientific lines sothat the youth can bring more laurels for
the country and project soft image of Paki-stan in the comity of nations.
The President said that “Brazuca” hasinstilled new spirit among theyouth and sportsmen of thecountry who can now focuson healthy sports activitiesapart from their studies andbring a good name to theirmotherland.
He assured that thepresent government wouldtake all possible steps to pro-mote sports activities in thecountry and providing ampleopportunities to the talentedsportsmen.
The President appreci-ated the contribution of For-ward Sports Sialkot towardscorporate social responsibil-ity especially for providingscholarships to the talentedneedy students and assuredfull cooperation of the Gov-ernment in company’s en-deavors to promote sportsactivities and enhancing thecountry’s exports.
He also urged the busi-ness community to enhancephilanthropic work for thewelfare of marginalized seg-ment of society.
Khawaja Masood Akhter thanked thePresident for meeting and said that his com-pany was committed to fulfilling the corpo-rate social responsibilities and that it wouldcontinue to work for progress and devel-opment of the country.—APP
PESHAWA R—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Se-nior Minister Inayatullah Khan on Tues-day said the provincial government willnot exercise civil disobedience called byPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ChairmanImran Khan. “Not paying electricity billsand other dues would be considered asan act of treason,” KP senior ministersaid while talking to media.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan, who con-t inued his s i t - in in the red zone ofIslamabad against alleged vote fraud inlast year general elections, had appealedthe nation to observe civil disobedienceto mount pressure on the Prime Minister
Jamaat supports PTI’ constitutional demands
KP won’t exercise civildisobedience: Minister
Nawaz Sharif to resign.Inayatullah Khan said that govern-
ment inst i tut ions could not functionagainst the state.
Replying to a question about forwardblock in PTI, the senior minister said thathe read some news in the media, addingthat he personally doesn’t know any-thing about that.
He said that the Jamaat e Islami is notparticipating in PTI-led sit-in, howeverhe added that the party supports consti-tutional demands. “We are making ourefforts for political reconciliation,” hesaid.—INP
ISLAMABAD—A month long pre Hajj operationto airlift Pakistani intending pilgrims to SaudiArabia for Hajj-2014 will start with the depar-ture of first Hajj flight No.SV-727 from BenazirBhutto International Airport, here on Sunday.
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs,Sardar Muhammad Yousaf will see off the in-tending pilgrims at the inaugural flight.
Besides Pakistan International Airlines Cor-poration (PIAC), Saudia, Shaheen Air, Air Blue,Air Arabia and other Middle East based air-lines will airlift intending pilgrims at their regu-lar flights along with other international boundpassengers. About 28,072 passengers willdepart from Islamabad airport to the sacredland, a spokesman of Civil Aviation Authority(CAA), Mubarak Shah told APP here on Tues-day.
He said the Management of Civil AviationAuthority, Islamabad Airport has finalized thepre departure arrangements of intending pil-grims. In this regard, a high level meeting washeld and chaired by Muhammad Ayaz JadoonAirport Manager, CAA.
It was informed in the meeting that 14 spe-cial Hajj flights will be operated by PIAC.
CAA finalizes arrangements: Pre-Hajjoperation to airlift pilgrims from Sunday
About 60% passengers will be airliftedthrough Hajj tour operators and remainingabout 40% passengers will depart through regu-lar Hajj scheme. This year, intending pilgrimswill depart by the regular flights also, therefore24 hours operation will continue at the airport.
Aftab Asif, Senior APS Officer is desig-nated as officer incharge Hajj alongwith activeteam of CAA staff to mann the Hajj operationin shifts on round the clock basis. The teamwill extend all efforts to facilitate the intendingpilgrims in proper and befitting manner. Sepa-rate place for prayer and wearing of Ahram isbeing made.
Announcement and video films regardinghajj will be aired and shown to provide basicinformation of Manasak-e-Hajj.
The PIAC scouts and staff of Ministry ofReligious Affairs will also be available to guideand facilitate the passenger leading to sacredland. Medical team equipped with first aid andambulance, Doctor and para medics will be avail-able.
The CAA has directed the concerned air-lines to be in touch with passenger in case ofdelay of Hajj flight through phone and sms in
order to avoid waiting and inconvenience tothe intending pilgrims. CAA flight inquiry 114will update the information of Hajj flights effi-ciently.
This meeting was attending by the StationManagers of all the concerned airlines, groundhandling agencies, officers of religious Minis-try, Immigration, Pakistan Custom, Health, AntiNarcotics Force, ASF and Traffic Police andCAA officers. It was emphasized that all neces-sary facilities should be extended to the pil-grims through the close coordination of all sis-ter agencies at the airport. Air Marshal (R)Muhammad Yousaf, Director General CAA hasinstructed the CAA Management to extendmaximum facilities to the intending pilgrims atall the airports and make sure that flights shoulddepart on time and safety standard should notbe compromised.
Mubarak Shah requested the general pub-lic to visit airport specially during the Hajj op-eration in minimum numbers in order to avoidcongestions/security concerns.
The visitors and their vehicles will undergothrough all security checks and heavy vehicles arenot allowed to enter the airport premises—APP
PAF Chiefarrives inSri Lanka
ISLAMABAD—Chief of AirStaff, Pakistan Air Force(PAF), Air Chief MarshalTahir Rafique Butt isscheduled to arrive in SriLanka on a three-day visiton Wednesday on theinvitation of Commanderof Sri Lanka Air Force,Air Marshal K.A.Gunatilleke.
During his stay, AirChief will call on Presidentof Sri Lanka, MahindaRajapaksa and meet topmilitary leadership of thecountry including Secre-tary Defence, HonGotabhaya Rajapaksa andthe services chiefs , ac-cording to a message re-ceived from Pakistan Mis-sion in Sri Lanka here onTuesday.
The Air Chief Marshalwill also hold discussionson matters of professionalinterests with his SriLankan counterpart , AirMarshal K.A. Gunatilleke.
The visit of Chief of AirStaff, PAF underscores thehistoric ties and friendlycooperat ion between thetwo countries.
The visit will provideboth sides an opportunityto review ongoing coop-eration and collaborationand to discuss ways tofurther broaden anddeepen this relat ion-ship.—APP
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Roots National Institute ofTeacher Training and Education-RNITTE isthe training institute that has been provid-ing Professional Development Courses tothe Teachers, Academic coordinators, Prin-cipals, Headmistress and the ManagementStaff. Every year RNITTE conducts Qualifi-cation Induction Program to its teaching fac-ulty before every academic session.
This year QIP 2014 training program wasdesigned to enlighten its teachers aboutthe importance of in-house curriculum ofRoots Millennium Schools and how it can
be effectively presented into the classroomsby integrating 21-century teachingpedagogies. This workshop facilitated inunderstanding and implementing the cur-riculum & then revolutionizing and amelio-rating the role of an effective teacherthrough a structured process of teachereducation, training & development. Thisfive day training venture comprised of spe-cialized orientations for Montessori, Jun-ior School, Lower Secondary Teaching andIGCSE teaching and management staff.
RNITTE organizes QualificationInduction Programme
Roots Millennium Schools has a history ofsuccessful and student centered curricu-lum advancements with a focus on childacademic development by involving the 3E’s Exposure, Expansion and Exploration.
From the beginning, the aim of our train-ing institute is to empower our teachingstaff by providing them trainings for theirprofessional development. Ultimately, theobjective is to support and invigorate class-room teaching with new ideas and energy,new texts and techniques, new content andconnections.
Speaking on the occasion RNITTEFounder and Chief Executive Roots Millen-
nium Schools Chaudhry Faisal Mushtaq TIsaid the responsibility of the 21st centuryeducator revolve around three key pointsi.e. Skills, Knowledge and Values. The im-portant parameters of the school develop-ments are Academics, Skills, Image, Culture,Curriculum And Management. Teacher roleis to reach out to the child, to build social-emotional connection with the child, mak-ing child understand development of skillsand understanding of the curriculum.
LAHORE—Greenvalley Supermarket atthe Mall of Lahore has established it-self as a leading retail brand in a shortspan of time. Recently its 3rd anniver-sary was celebrated with a fun-filledday of discounted shopping and otherfun activities. A face-painting stall wassetup to add color to the occasion andto the little ones. A cake cutting cer-emony was also held and the chiefguest at the occasion was VCE BahriaTown, Mr. Salman Ahmed.
“The edge Greenvalley has overits competitors is that they host thewidest range of international brandsfrom around the world, all un-der one roof”, said Mr. Haider,Greenvalley customer
“Shopping at Greenvalleyis a completely new experienceand has transformed groceryshopping into a fun-filled ac-tivity full of excitement”, saidMr. Bilal Mudasir,Greenvalley customer
“We are continuouslystriving to enhance the shop-ping experience of our cus-tomers and hopeful that theyappreciate our efforts andkeep coming back” saidMuhammad Muslim, GeneralManager Greenvalley.
Greenvalley launched itsoperations in 2011 with theambitions to provide a pre-mium retail experience to thePakistani market at par withthe finest international retailbrands such as Waitrose,Spinney’s and Walmart. For this pur-pose the same international consult-ants who have worked on these
brands were hired and a world-classsupermarket was designed. All theaisles and allied materials were im-ported from Italy in order to providethe best retail environment in Pakistan,which privileged Greenvalley with anInternational Property Award in thecategory of “Best Retail Interior”, heldin Malaysia 2012/2013.
Greenvalley has made a huge namefor itself throughout the region andnow enjoys full trust, credibility andsupport of the customers. The cus-tomer base of Greenvalley includescities such as Gujranwala, Sialkot and
Faisalabad, who drive to Lahore forthe ultimate shopping experience andsuperior quality product range.
Greenvalley is known for its world-class interior, top-of-the-line customerservices and the widest range of local& imported products at the most com-petitive prices.
After the huge success of the flag-ship store in Lahore, a second branchwas opened in Bahria TownRawalpindi, mainly due to thousandsof inquires and requests from the citi-zens of Rawalpindi to open a branchin their city.
Greenvalley 2 has also enjoyed thesame success as its flagship store inLahore, which is why Bahria Town
plans on launching 5 more branches,which will be opened in a period of afew years.
Sit-ins causes hugefinancial loss to country
ISLAMABAD—Secretary Information Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahidullah KhanTuesday said that the country’s economy had sufferedhuge financial loss due to PTI and PAT protest marches.
Talking to a private TV channel, he said it was all be-cause a leader of one of the protesting parties had an-nounced that he would not return loans to IMF and otherinternational organizations, besides urging the overseasPakistanis to send their money through Hundi and Hawala(illegal remittances) system. The senator said that it was allbeing done deliberately, adding, the reaction of Imran Khanto the US and British statements regarding support of de-mocracy were different. Imran Khan had interest in UnitedKingdom which was the reason why his response to theUK was different as compared to that given to the US, heunderlined.
He said Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf members had givenresignation from National Assembly but not from KPK As-sembly as they were ruling the province.
“Keeping in view the atrocities being done by Israel inGaza, why doesn’t Imran Khan ask masses to boycott Is-raeli products,” Mushahidullah questioned.
He further said those want to break Pakistan would behappy on the prevailing situation.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Parliamentary AffairsShaikh Aftab Ahmed on Tuesday termed both sit-ins ofPakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek(PAT) conspiracy against the State and reiterated that suchelements would not be succeed in their nefarious designs.
Taking part in discussion on motion about the prevail-ing political situation in the country, the minister said thatfew hundred people for the past 12 days were trying to marthe peaceful atmosphere of the country.He said that bothPTI and PAT were determined to destroy the country’seconomy and stock exchange. “The exchange rate of dol-lar has against surged to Rs.104 due to the current politicalcrisis”, he said.
The Minister said that the Election Commission of Pa-kistan (ECP) and the Judiciary were being made controver-sial for first time in political history of the country.
Regarding recent interview of the ECP official AfzalKhan, he questioned, why he (Afzal) did not resign soonafter general elections if the polls were rigged.—APP
PE S H AWA R —The displaced tr ibesmen ofNorth Waziristan Agency expressing theirconcern over prolong dharnas being by Pa-kistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and PakistanAwami Tehrik (PAT), have asked Imran Khanand Tahir-ul-Qadri to concentrate on endingthe predicament of IDPs instead of engagingcountrymen in non-issues.
Speaking at a press conference atPeshawar Press Club, office bearers of NorthWaziristan Affectees Committee criticized PTIChief, Imran Khand and PAT chief, Dr TahirulQadri for diverting the attention of media andcountrymen from the agonies and distress ofthe displaced tribesmen of Waziristan due tomilitary operation against miscreants.
“Both Imran Khan and Dr. Tahirul Qadrishould concentrate on the plight of IDPs andthe difficulties they are facing while living incamps.” said Nazar Deen Wazir, MemberWAC.
“The difficulties and distress being faced
Waziristan affectees ask PTI, PAT headsto concentrate on IDPs’ predicament
by IDPs is because of the integrity and soli-darity of the homeland,” Deen Wazir contin-ued.
We have opted for displacement for thesake of bringing peace in the country by al-lowing Army to purge Waziristan from mili-tants and extremists elements, he went on tosay.
In response to our sacrificies and suffer-ing, the PTI chief Imran Khan and PAT chief,Dr. Tahirul Qadri have launched dhrana poli-tics in Islamabad, diverting the concentra-tion of the government and countrymen fromthe miseries of IDPs.
Nazar Deen Wazir said Waziristan tribes-men needs urgent attention of the govern-ment, politicians, army and countrymen forending their predicament. “We are left unat-tended by countrymen and this is because ofImran Khan and
Tahir-ul-Qadri,” he added .He said its time for politicians to build
pressure on the government for early returnof IDPs to their native area besides givingthem better facilities during displacement, butironically Imran and Qadri have focused theirattention on non-issues. ANP resolution con-demns anti-democratic elements: Parliamen-tary leader of Awami National Party (ANP),Sardar Hussain Babad here Tuesday submit-ted a resolution in provincial assembly sec-retariat in which condeming the attempts todestabilize elected government and stronglydiscourage anti-democratic elements.
The resolution further said the prevailingpolitical turmoil not only affected the busi-ness activities but also damaged the image,solidari ty, prosperi ty and economy of thecountry.
It has become prerequisite for all politicaland religious parties to play active role inrectifying the situation, the resolution saidand added that to stop the advancement ofanti-democratic forces.—APP
PRCS to set up respondcells in 100 cities
SIALKOT—Dr Saeed Elahi, Chairman Pakistan Red Cres-cent Society (PRCS), on Tuesday announced setting uprespond cells in more than 100 cities, starting from Sialkot.
“We are going to take the initiative for emergencies inmore than 100 cities of the country to provide quick reliefto people,” he said while briefing members of the SialkotChamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) at SCCI here.
Saeed said he had negotiated with the federal govern-ment to introduce chapter of PRCS in the syllabus of alleducational institutions.
He said they had provided food, drinking water andhealth facilities to more than 8,000 families of internallydisplaced persons (IDPs) in Bannu.
Appreciating the performance of the SCCI, he said itwas a trend setter.
SCCI President Dr Sarfraz Bashier announced linkingDisaster Management
Committee (DMC) of the SCCI to the respond cell ofPRCS and said both would have close liaison to tackleissues.Brig Dr. Mehboob Sardar, Secretary General ofPRCS, briefed them about the function, history, role, chal-lenges and working structure of the organisation.—APP
QUETTA: Member of Hindu Community offering prayer on the occasion of 8th death anniversary of elderly Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugtiorganized by Hindu Panchayat at Arya Samaj temple.
ISLAMABAD—Rain-thundershowers ac-companied by windstorm are expected atisolated places of Islamabad/Rawalpindi,Gujranwala, Sargodha divisions during next24 hours.
Met office reported here on Tuesdaythat seasonal low lies over NorthwestBalochistan and adjoining areas. Weakmonsoon currents are pen-etrating upper parts of thecountry.
A westerly wave is ex-pected to approach upper partsof the country tonight andlikely to persist during next twodays.
In Punjab rain-thundershowers accom-panied by windstorm are expected at iso-lated places of Rawalpindi, Gujranwala,Sargodha divisions during next 24 hoursand also in the federal capital. Whereas,hot and humid weather continue to prevailin other parts of the province.
In Khyber Pakhtumkhwa rain-thun-dershowers accompanied by windstormare expected at isolated places during next24 hours.
Rain, thundershowersat isolated places
In Sindh mainly hot and humid weatheris expected in most parts of the provinceduring next 24 hours, whereas inBalochistan mainly hot and dry weather isexpected in most parts of the province.
However, rain-thundershowers accom-panied by windstorm are expected at iso-lated places of Quetta, Zhob, Kalat divi-sions during next 24 hours.
In Kashmir rain-thun-dershowers accompanied bywindstorm are expected atisolated places of Kashmirduring next 24 hours and inGilgit Baltistan rain-thunder-storm is expected at isolatedplaces during next 24 hours.
The highest temperature recorded dur-ing last 24 hours remained N.P.Thal, Nokkundi43øC, Dalbandin, Sibbi, Sukkur, Okara,Bahawalnagar, R.Y.Khan 42øC, Rohri, Dadu,D.I.Khan, D.G.Khan, Faisalabad, Bhakkar41øC. In Islamabad 35øC, Lahore 40øC,Karachi 34øC, Peshawar 36øC, Quetta 35øC,Skardu 29øC, Murree 25øC, Muzaffarabad36øC, Gilgit 32øC, Faisalabad 41øC, Multan40øC and Hyderabad 37øC.—APP
Army organizesfree medical camp
MAIDAN—Free medicalcamp was arranged by PakArmy in Gumbat BandaMaidan Lower Dir. Patientsfrom far areas came to thecamp and got benefited fromthis welfare activities of PakArmy. It is note-worthy thatGumbat Banda is a remote vil-lage of Maidan, no basichealth facilities are availablehere.
Even for simple tabletsone has to travel for 22 KMto Lal Qilla Hospital. Besidepeace restoration, Pak Armyis playing very active rolein developmental work andthe availability of basic fa-cilities of life.
Pak army is arrangingfree medical camps in thevery remote areas ofMadian.—INP
PML-N workers holdIstehkam-e-Pakistan rallies
BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI
HAFIZABAD—Hundreds of activists of PML-N taken outIstehkam-e-Pakistan rallies from Pindi Bhattian, JalalpurBhattian, Rasulpur Tarar, Sukheke Mandi, Kaleke Mandi,Kolo Tarar, Vanike Tarar to express their solidarity with thepresent government headed by Mian Muhammad NawazSharif and Pakistan Army.
These rallies were later joined the main rally at GhoraChowk Pindi Bhattian Road which was led by Minister ofState for Health, Regulation and Coordination Saira AfzalTarar, MPAs Malik Fayyaz Ahmad Awan, Asadullah Arian,MNA Mian Shahid Hussain Bhatti, local PML-N leadersRai Mukhtar Ahmad Mukhi, Khalid Mehmood Butt, RiazAhmad Tarar, Basharat Raza Butt, Mehr Gulfam Ahmadand others. The participants of the rally paraded throughJalalpur Road, Qatal Garh Chowk, Post Office Road,Katchehri Road, Gujranwala Road raising pro-Pakistan,pro-Army and pro-PML-N slogans.
Addressing big gathering Saira Afzal Tarar categori-cally declared that neither the assemblies would be dis-solved nor Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif wouldresign. She condemned the foul and indecent languagebeing used by Imran Khan against the Prime Minister andopposition leader in the National Assembly.
She further said that the opportunists would neversucceed in their nefarious designs and hoodwink themasses by their hollow slogans. Due to their sit-in demon-strations and unconstitutional and negative attitude theyhave already inflicted loss of billion of rupees to the na-tional exchequer, as a result of which patriotic Pakistanisparticularly traders and industrialists have been too muchperturbed.
PESHAWAR—Pak Army hasundertaken massive steps toenhance the delivery of fod-der for the cattles of IDPs andprotecting them from deadlydiseases. 650 tons of fodderhas been handed over to the
Army providing massive support toenhance delivery of fodder to IDPs cattle
IDPs for their animals.Army has donated 41 tons
of fodder while PDMA Punjabhas provided 500 tons, Ex-ser-viceman association 45 tonsand other organizations do-nated 64 tons fodder, said a
press release of ISPR here.Asfar as initiative in animal healthsector is concerned, total of75,124 animals have been pro-vided health facilities while102,377 poultry have beenvaccinated.—APP
Zardari graduallybecomes evasive
FORMER President and PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari had gothistoric opportunity to play a positive and result-oriented role indefusing the prevailing crisis but it seems, after initial kick-start, he has
gradually become evasive, perhaps, because of political expediencies. Thisshort-sighted approach to gain personal and party interests might cause thesystem to collapse and as a consequence everyone including Zardari and hisPPP would be sufferers.
Expectations were high when Zardari dashed to Lahore from Dubai tomeet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over lunch and PML-N version of themeeting between the two stalwarts also raised hopes of something positiveemerging out of the efforts of the PPP leaders to play reconciliatory role.However, at the press conference he addressed following his meetings withthe PM, JI Amir and PML-Q leaders in Lahore, the PPP Co-Chairpersonseemed to be somewhat unconcerned and not as focused as saner peoplewanted him to be. His decision to call meeting of the Central ExecutiveCommittee (CEC) of the PPP in Karachi after two days and his address at themeeting and decisions of the participants gave clear message to each andsundry that Zardari was not in a hurry and is acting leisurely despite seriousthreats to democracy. Zardari has proven capability of overcoming challengesbut his move to form a committee, whose members were not announced, andvague strategy on how to proceed further clearly meant he has other priorities.His not too clear stance on the issue of resignation of the Prime Minister,registration of FIR of Model Town incident and overwhelming support to therhetoric of rigging make his posturing enigmatic. It was also strange that henot only emphasized the need for probe into allegations of rigging but went astep further in describing the level of rigging as ‘massive’. All this amounts toextending tacit support to illegal and un-Constitutional demands of ImranKhan and Qadri. Taken together, launching of the dubious character of AfzalQazzafi to spoil prospects of understanding between the Government andPAT after meeting of Saad Rafiq with Dr Tahirul Qadri; Qadri’s deadline of48 hour followed by ‘Damadam Mast Qalandar’ meaning triggering ofviolence, prophecy of Sheikh Rashid something happening on Wednesdaywhen Qadri’s deadline expires and latest U-turns by Imran Khan, are indicatorsof which way things could proceed on the fateful day. We hope Zardari wouldcomprehend the urgency, shun evasive approach and demonstrate politicalacumen in evolving a formula that is considered win-win by all stakeholders;otherwise everyone is in for a loss.
Is someone listening?Economy is sliding down
THE ongoing political instability and uncertainty is hitting every sphereof national and individual life but the major victim is economy of the
country. According to the latest reports, dollar-rupee parity touched six monthhigh of 103.30, stock exchange shed 350 points on Monday alone and it hasdeclined to the level of 28,520 and the launch of $1 billion Euro-bond Sukukis in doldrums.
Though people of Pakistan have rejected the call of PTI leader for civildisobedience movement involving non-payment of taxes and utility bills butit is understood that revenue collection too would be affected by the politicalturmoil. Loss of production and resultant decline in exports and taxes is alsocomprehendible. The business community has already warned that the politicalinstability is taking toll of the business and industrial activities and that theissues should be resolved amicably and with speed. Apart from this two visitsby foreign VVIPs have already been postponed due to demonstrations on theConstitution Avenue and there are serious doubts about materialization of thescheduled visit of the Chinese President in September during which he is tosign a number of agreements with Pakistan. Cumulatively, the economy hassuffered losses worth billions of dollars, which should be a source for concernfor a country like Pakistan that is also facing many other challenges. Thepresent Government worked hard to put the economy back on track and therewere expectations that tickle down effect of the macro-economic stabilitywould be visible within a year. However, it seems some forces are deliberatelypushing the country behind for the sake of petty personal or party interestsand the nation would not forgive them.
Thunderous threatof BJP Chief
WHILE Indian troops continue to indulge in unprovoked firing acrossthe LoC and working boundary on daily basis, newly appointed ruling
BJP President Amit Shah has put the entire blame on Pakistan and hurled athunderous threat of giving a befitting reply. During his visit to Jammu, AmitShah made the threats to Pakistan at several meetings and interaction withlocal people to project India as a policeman of the region.
Statements by different quarters in New Delhi from the Prime Minister toDefence Minister and the ruling party chief should be a source of seriousconcern for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad and other concernedquarters, on the one hand, the international community, particularly the UnitedStates and European Union, on the other hand, should also take serious noticeof them. Unfortunately the US and European Union leaders are dying forgrabbing defence contracts and ignoring the hegemonistic designs of NewDelhi. They must take notice of threats by India to neighbouring countriesand persuade it to act in a responsible manner because as a major country inthe region it must fulfil its responsibility for peace and stability rather thancreating tension. We may point out that for the last over two decades Paki-stan has been all out to normalize relations with India and resolution ofdisputes including Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and Waters through dia-logue but it is New Delhi that backs out of dialogue under one pretext or theother. As for the new government, one realizes that Mr Modi and his partyare under immense pressure from the extremist Hindu organisation RSSand the opposition Congress party for dealing with Pakistan in a stronglanguage, but international relations are always conducted under certainnorms. Pakistan is not a weak country as it is a nuclear and missile powerand 180 million people have the capability to defend their motherland. We,therefore, are of the considered opinion that the tone and tenor of the Indianleaders should be given due consideration by the saner elements in theircountry and see to it that hawkish are duly reined in.
India transcends into RSS mindset
Will a robottake your job?
WOULD you be relievedand liberated if you couldhand your work over to a
robot or other form of artificial in-telligence? Or would you bealarmed or even wonder what yourlife was all about? With robots andother forms of artificial intelligencetaking over more and more tasks,these questions become less theo-retical and more immediate. PewResearch Centre’s Internet Projectrecently asked nearly 1,900 leadersin technological and other fieldshow artificial intelligence (AI) willaffect employment in 2025, just 11years from now. The group split al-most evenly on the question ofwhether robots or other AI will cre-ate or destroy jobs for humans.
In fact, by 2025, “Live, humansalespeople, nurses, doctors, actorswill be symbols of luxury,” one ex-pert predicts. Only the well-to-dowill be able to afford “the silk ofhuman interaction as opposed to thepolyester of simulated human con-tact.” Jobs that demand uniquelyhuman attributes – creativity, criti-cal-thinking skills, empathy – willbe the hardest for a synthetic sub-stitute to replace. While AI can out-perform humans at specific tasks,such as playing a game of chess,AI is unable to truly think broadlyin a human fashion. That problemremains unsolved and lacks even aclear path to being discovered.Some Pew respondents also worrythat the middle class could becarved out of society altogether. Ahighly educated and technologicallysophisticated elite would do verywell while the masses struggled; anever-sharper line would be drawnbetween haves and have-nots. Evenlower-level service jobs might notbe immune: Self-driving vehicles,for example, could do away with ahuge number of drivers who spendtheir days transporting people andgoods. But others note that techno-logical advances have always de-stroyed jobs (where have all theblacksmiths gone?) while creatingnew ones: Who could have pre-dicted 15 years ago that “searchengine optimisation” or “Web mar-keting” would be major job catego-ries? Science fiction writers havelong enjoyed imagining maliciousforms of future AI that could de-stroy humankind or AI that rises toa level of consciousness that makeshumans obsolete and irrelevant.Some thinkers about technologysuch as physicist Stephen Hawkingand inventor Elon Musk worryabout “dangerous AI” as well. Buta much more likely scenario wasexpressed by this Pew respondent:“Although technological advance-ment often seems to take on a mindof its own, humans are in controlof the political, social, and eco-nomic systems that will ultimatelydetermine whether the comingwave of technological change hasa positive or negative impact on jobsand employment.” In other words,humans created technology, andhumans still can determine how itwill shape humanity’s future. — The Christian Science Monitor
*****
Israel shows nomercy in Gaza
ISRAELI air strikes are continuing mercilessly in Gaza, with thedead and wounded mounting as
the humanitarian catastrophe in-creases every day due to the Israelibombardments. Tens of thousandsof survivors have had to flee theirhomes and find shelter whereverthey can as Israeli bombs fall allaround them. More than 2,100 Pal-estinians have been killed in theongoing violence, most of them ci-vilians and many of them womenand children. This contrasts withIsraeli casualties of 64 soldiers andthree civilians.
Netanyahu is shameless abouthis desire to rain down death on Gazaregardless of who is at the end ofIsrael’s missiles as Israeli forces un-leash destruction on whole blocks offlats or people’s homes, factories,hospitals, mosques and schools. Andall this is going on as efforts to finda ceasefire and start talks to find apermanent truce are under way inCairo with the active support of theEgyptian government, which hasurged both Hamas and Israel to re-sume indirect talks and agree to anopen-ended ceasefire. To this end,the international community needsto unite to hold Israel responsiblefor its crimes and impose sanctionson Israel to force it to end itsbehaviour as a rogue state with noregard for human life or interna-tional law. — Gulf News
MEDIA WATCH
TREASON case has been registered against Pakistan HighCommissioner Abdul Basit
and freedom movement leaderShabir Ahmed Shah in an Indiancourt. A petition has been filed indistrict court that Basit had metShabir Shah in contravention to theIndian government orders. The pe-titioner termed the move as ‘trea-son’ and a conspiracy against In-dia. Bizarrely court accepted thepetition and ordered to register thecase. Kashmir issue should belooked at dispassionately; the aimof High Commissioner’s meetingswith the Kashmiri leaders was tofind a viable solution to the issue.Pakistan has been holding talkswith Kashmiri leaders, on all suchoccasions, for the last 20 years. Pre-vious Indian prime ministers fromboth side of the aisle, including BJPstalwart Atal Bihari Vajayee, hadhappily lived with the practice. In-dian diplomats in Islamabad alsomeet people from all hues.
Going by the Indian traditionof stalling and subverting numer-ous peace processes with Pakistanon flimsy pretexts, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has also failed hispersonal leadership test by cancel-ling a foreign secretary level meet-ing with Pakistan. The peace pro-cess stands scuttled, at least for thetime being, however no one is re-ally surprised. India was workingon it since Modi’s assumption ofpower. Proximate cause to cancelthe talks is India’s anger over thepreparatory meetings thatPakistan’s High Commissioner toIndia held with the political lead-ership of Indian Held Jammu andKashmir (IHJ&K). Through this
India’s saffronisation taking shape
A SPATE of personal accountsby the insiders has made theIndian political scene inter-
esting and chirpy. However subjec-tive, they do put in the public do-main some information which wasnot available earlier. There is noth-ing earth shaking in the revelationsmade. But they do confirm some ofthe perceptions about our gover-nance. For example, it wasrumoured that Sonia Gandhiwielded authority without responsi-bility and ran the government fromher residence. This is now con-firmed. Official files were carried toher residence for direction. Till to-day, she has not said a word by wayof explanation to defend herself. Itappears that she believes that shedoesn’t have to explain as if it is thedynasty’s prerogative. Those whohave followed its ways will not besurprised about it.
Jawaharlal Nehru allowed hisdaughter, Mrs Indira Gandhi, to runthe government when he was in beddue to illness. On her part, she con-stituted a coterie to rule, which wasan extra-constitutional authority. Iwas then press officer of LalBahadur Shastri, minister withoutportfolio. Nehru had brought himback after sending him out of gov-ernment under the K. Kamaraj plan,a ruse to oust Nehru’s critics, par-ticularly Morarji Desai and JagjiwanRam, from the government. ThePrime Minister’s residence was atwo-storey building, Nehru staying
upstairs. Who from amongthe visitors would be allowedto go upstairs was dependenton Mrs Indira Gandhi’s deci-sion. She did not like Shastriand would keep him waiting.Once, still working as press
officer, I pointed out to Nehru’s aide,T.N. Sheshan that Shastri, then outof office, was kept waiting. He toldme not to get involved in such thingsas Mrs Indira Gandhi did it intention-ally. “This is politics”, he said.
The ruling party may havechanged at the Centre but the politi-cal culture has not. We are feudal inour outlook. This trait transcendsother considerations. It does not gowell with the democratic tempera-ment. But it is there and has not un-dergone any perceptible change inthe past. Those who come to powerbecome dictators in action. Evenwhen they profess that power is withthe people they are using it figura-tively and not realistically becausethey, a very few, rule the country.The rule by Prime Minister NarenderModi is no different. In fact, thePrime Minister’s Office under himis more powerful than the ones be-fore. The PMO is strong and seesto it that every bit of decision is rati-fied even before the files are sent tothe Home Minister who only signson the dotted lines. Thus power hasgot concentrated in Modi’s office.Therefore, one gets the impressionthat Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyand Home Minister Rajnath Singh,however powerful, appear to haveModi’s eyes and ears for their state-ments which look out of line withthe party’s thinking.
In all fairness, the Modi govern-ment should have changed the ad-ministrative apparatus which has the
Nehruvian stamp. After indepen-dence, Nehru who had gone throughlong national struggle set up para-phernalia which rejected liberalismthat bound the different elements to-gether. The BJP is different. Noneof its leaders went to jail during free-dom struggle. The party should havereorganized the polity to suit theirway of thinking and their way of do-ing things. Alas, the BJP has adoptedthe same old administrative meth-ods which give all the leeway to bu-reaucrats. The BJP should havemoved the machinery to the direc-tion which will work the way itwants. Perhaps the Modi govern-ment should have appointed an ad-ministrative reforms commission tosuggest steps to implement thesaffronised agenda. The administra-tion is still stuck in the old ways,partly secular and partly democraticbut mostly the withered ideas of theRSS leaders. True, there are so manyadministrative reform commissionreports accumulating dust. But theModi government’s commissionwould be a departure from the past,the liberal era of Nehru. Modi’s au-thoritarian way of governance re-quires new rules and guidelines. ABJP appointed commission couldhave provided the Modi governmentwith the instruments to Hinduise theadministrative set-up.
I wish I could say that the les-sons have been learnt. Persons whoused authority without responsibilitystill wield power. And bureaucrats viewith one another in obedience to theministers and bend rules to get out ofturn promotion or a cushy posting.The old type of civil servants is go-ing to be hard to get. Yet there is noalternative to the bureaucracy whichhas entrenched itself in the system
error of judgment, India has bluntlyconveyed to Pakistan to choose be-tween an Indo-Pak dialogue or in-teractions with the Kashmiri lead-ers. Drummed up hype about revo-cation of article 370 of the Indianconstitution and asking UN MilitaryObservers Group in India and Paki-stan (UNMOGIP) to vacate thebuilding were good indicators to-wards this happening. A more plau-sible reason for this kneejerk reac-tion is India’s mounting irritationwith the likely fizzle during theforthcoming elections in Kashmirexpected in October and November.Such earlier elections have beenmarred with low turnout, dubiousfunding and other manipulations.Modi himself made some hard-hit-ting statements against Pakistan dur-ing his visit to Kashmir. He wasgreeted in Kashmir by a completeshutter down and wheel jam strike.To ward-off the embarrassment, hegave carefully constructed incendiarystatements in the highly sensitive re-gion of Kashmir, while addressingIndian troops. In his toughest state-ment on Pakistan to date, Modi saidthat Pakistan “has lost the strength tofight a conventional war but contin-ues to engage in proxy war of terror-ism.” He chose a politically chargedvenue for his outburst—Kargil.
Calling off a fledgling peaceprocess on the basis of imaginedprovocations has exposed the dubi-ous intent behind the public invita-tion to talks. Having ridden a waveof Hindu nationalism and anti-Pa-kistan rhetoric to office, Modi ismore inclined to play to domesticgallery than promoting dialoguewith Pakistan. Curiously, there haveeven been claims in some Indianquarters that the meeting betweenPakistan’s High Commissioner andIHJ& K leadership in India wouldbe akin to Indian diplomats engag-ing Baloch separatists in Pakistan.
Needless to state the obvious thatwhile Kashmir has been an interna-tionally accepted disputed area fromthe very inception of Pakistan andIndia, Balochistan became part ofPakistan through wilful expressionof intent by the legitimate represen-tatives of the Baloch people.
Kashmir is a disputed territoryover which two countries havefought three wars. In a major aggres-sive military manoeuvre “OperationMeghdoot” in Kashmir, India movedits troops and occupied Saichen gla-cier in 1984; India gained more than1,000 square miles of territory be-cause of this military operation.Siachen glacier is the highest battle-ground on the earth where India andPakistan have fought intermittentlysince 1984. Kashmir dispute is onthe UN agenda since 1948, whenIndia took the issue to the UN. Thereare over a dozen UN resolutions onthe subject; and UNMOGIP is per-manently stationed in the two coun-tries to monitor the UN mandatedand Simla Agreement endorsedCeasefire Line/Line of Control inKashmir. There have been 57 bor-der violations by the Indian troopssince July last year for which Paki-stan has served demarche’; all vio-lations have been reported toUNMOGIP.
After India called off the talks,Pakistan’s High Commissioner toIndia Abdul Basit responded thatcalling off the August 25 talks wasa “setback” but hoped that it wouldnot discourage the two neighboursfrom resolving the Kashmir issue.Addressing a press conference atForeign Correspondents’ club inNew Delhi, Basit defended his meet-ings with pro-plebiscite Kashmirileaders and said that he did notbreach any protocol by holding talkswith them. “This has been a long-standing practice...It is important toengage with all the stakeholders to
find a peaceful solution to the is-sue...”. Modi had raised expecta-tions that he would work harder atresolving Pakistan-India differ-ences when he took the step of in-viting Pakistan’s Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif to his inauguration inMay 2014. Nawaz Sharif obligedhim despite an earlier refusal by DrManmohan Singh to attend NawazSharif’s inaugural. The photo of thetwo men shaking hands came tosymbolize the promise of that mo-ment; now that pictorial may fadeinto oblivion.
Internationally, Modi has beenfaulted for cancelling the meeting.“There are no two countries in theworld that need to talk, and talkregularly, more than these nuclear-armed South Asian neighbourswhose tensions must be carefullymanaged”, the New York Times hasrecently reported in a lead article.Noting the significance of talks, theNYT said that “cancelling the meet-ing was an over-reaction on India’spart, especially when it could haveserved as an opportunity to discussgrievances and press for asolution...There will always be po-litical excuses not to take risks”, thenewspaper opined.
It is all too easy to gauge howNarendra Modi could use a hard-linestance on Pakistan to reap domesticdividends. While the domestic andinternational dimensions of a typi-cal national policy are intricatelyinterconnected, India’s Pakistanpolicy should not become hostageto Indian domestic concerns alone.Without simultaneous commitmentat the very highest levels of politi-cal power, Pakistan-India relationswill never truly be able to move for-ward. As of now Nawaz Sharif facescriticism about the utility of his mis-placed fondness for India.—The writer is consultant to IPRIon policy and strategic response.
from top to bottom. The BJP musthave realized this when in powermore than 10 years ago. The regretis that it became a part and parcel ofthe system while its election plankwas to cleanse it.
It can be argued that the elector-ate faces a big problem. People castvote in favour of the BJP in the re-cent Lok Sabha elections. This wasnot because they liked the party. Butit was because they were sick andtired of the Congress rule. Partypresident Sonia Gandhi herself ad-mitted that the voters did not like theCongress. But she said she had noidea that their anger would convertitself into vengeance. They hadvoted the BJP to power. So much sothey have given the party a majorityby itself. But what would they dowhen they get disappointed with theBJP? They do not want to go backto the Congress. But what option dothey have? That is the reason whythe Congress is sitting pretty. Peopleare waiting for the Modi governmentto perform and prove itself. Insteadof that, the saffronisationprogramme is taking shape.
The alternative could have beenthe Aam Admi Party (AAP). In fact,it evoked hope when Gandhian AnnaHazare held meetings in differentparts of the country to warn thepeople against corruption. Their re-sponse was solid and AAP’s ArvindKejriwal was voted to power inDelhi. But then Hazare distancefrom Kejriwal and his dictatorial ten-dency, besides the ambition of a fewput cold water on finding a cleanalternative. Unfortunately, the oldcultures do not disappear quickly.—The writer is a veteran Indianjournalist, syndicated columnist,human rights activist and author.
The Producer is unknown; the Di-rectors are Qadri, Khan and others.This drama was started on 14 Au-gust 2014 with no closing date.However, Pakistan is now 66 yearsold, still every bad thing is here likepolio, unemployment, corruption,feudalism, terrorism, extremism etc.
No leader in this country is will-ing to finish all these problems ofthe country / society. Our eldersfaced same environment and nowwe are born to face as we are notfree; we accept that we poor areslave of government and opulent.
Moreover, in 2013, Pakistanscored 127 out of 175 on the Cor-ruption Perceptions Index publishedby the Transparency International.The Global Employment Trends re-port issued by the InternationalLabour Organization (ILO) pro-jected that Pakistan’s unemploymentrate — 5.17% in 2013 — is set torise slightly and then remain moreor less the same for five more yearsdue to the kind of political unrestplaguing the country. The literacyrate of Pakistan is 57%, Male 69%and female 45%. There are 104 con-firmed polio cases in Pakistan(2001-2013).
Furthermore, I am afraid, in thegiving circumstances and system,this country will never be stable.People will never get their rights. So,what should we do is a big questionmark for philanthropist organiza-tions, companies, agencies, partiesand individuals. So, we do not haveany hope in these leaders. We wantsleader like Adolf Hitler, Karl Marxetc. Ours are just pseudo leaders.They do not have any concern withthe people, poverty, education andhealth. The politicians are just gooddirectors; they themselves act andwant people to act. They are themost corrupt leaders in the world.Whatever, they do has nothing to dowith the poor people. So whateveris going on in this country must bestopped, otherwise if the poor wokeup the situation of the country willbe very different.—Via email
SNGPL apathy &Iqbal Town Rwp
BEGUM S GHAZANFAR
I want to draw the kind attentionof Prime Minister of Pakistan andFederal Minister for Petroleum andnatural resources that the Sui-gaspressure comes very low during thecooking time in all the houses ofIqbal Town Rawalpindi for the lastmore than three months.
Even making calls and register-ing complaints at 1199 help linehave no positive results; the con-cerned SNGPL officers don’t botherto redress the genuine complaint oflow pressure of the gas in IqbalTown Rawalpindi. I will request thePrime Minister of Pakistan and theHon. Minister for Petroleum tokindly take necessary action againstthe corrupt, inefficient and incapablepublic dealing officials of SNGPLfor mishandling the precious na-tional resource.—Rawalpindi
Sir Vivian’stribute to ImranS NAYYAR UDDIN AHMAD
Given below are some excerptsabout Imran Khan, from the booktitled “Sir Vivian”, an autobiogra-phy of famous West Indian crick-eter, Mr. Vivian Richards, Co-authored by Bob Harris. “He (ImranKhan) was one of the fiercest com-petitors and, no matter how well youwere batting, he would always havea delivery which could come anddestroy you. I respect him and hiscricketing views; and if the Pakistani
Panacea for all political illsIFTIKHAR MIRZA
TIME and tide wait for no man. The way time is slipping out of hands of our rulers is not onlycausing embarrassment to general public but also revealing how unmethodical Muslim League N
is. The ruling party, already in conundrums, has miserably failed to handle PTI and PAT marches. Itsubiquitous influence on electronic and print media to negatively propagate Imran Khan and Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri is not only deplorable but also against norms of democracy. It is totally unbecoming of rulerswho pose to be flag bearer and saviour of democracy. Unfortunately, Pandora boxes have been openedby Additional Secretary, Election Commission, who naively targeted government and Judiciary forrigging the Election 2013, thus consolidating the stance of protesters sitting in Islamabad. It is be-yond logic that mediators acknowledge and endorse demands of PTI and PAT but reject steppingdown or conditional resignation of Premier and Punjab Chief Minister. To add fuel to fire, the JointInvestigation Team probe report also goes against government. Things are going from bad to worse,whereas government is embarking upon politics of confrontation by ridiculing PAT and PTI leaders,taking out counter processions and rallies in different parts of the country, stubbornly sticking tothrone on the innocent plea of peoples’ mandate, which also has become doubtful in the wave ofrevelations by Additional Secretary Election Commission. One must feel how difficult life is for thosewomen and children who are fully exposed to rain, sun and extreme weather, how they have beenstaying there and managing daily chores? Is it not pitiable? It speaks volumes of rulers’ apathytowards masses, who are agitating for their legitimate rights. Although, there is no panacea for thesepolitical ills, especially in third world where democracy has not gained much ground; a policy of toler-ance, perseverance, effective and fruitful dialogue, is the only way to come out of this deadlock toeventually end Islamabad’s siege. More flexibility is required from all stakeholders; alternatively, de-mocracy of our country will become mockery for rest of world.—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
Views From AbroadBlacks in US not allowed making mistakes
TO be young, male and black inAmerica means not being allowed to make mistakes. For-
getting this, as we’ve seen so manytimes, can be fatal. The case ofMichael Brown, who was laid to restMonday, is anomalous only in that itis so extreme: an unarmed black teen-ager riddled with bullets by a whitepolice officer in a community plaguedby racial tension. African Americansmake up 67 percent of the popula-tion of Ferguson, Mo., but there arejust three black officers on the 53-member police force — which re-sponded to peaceful demonstrationsby rolling out military-surplusarmoured vehicles and firing tear gas.It is easy to understand how Brownand his peers might see the police notas public servants but as troops in anarmy of occupation.
And yes, Brown made mistakes.He was walking in the middle of thestreet rather than on the sidewalk,according to witnesses, and he wascarrying a box of cigars that he ap-parently took from a conveniencestore. Neither is a capital offence.
When Officer Darren Wilson stoppedhim, did Brown respond with puffed-up attitude? For a young black man,that is a transgression punishable bydeath. Fatal encounters such as theone between Brown and Wilson un-derstandably draw the nation’s atten-tion. But such tragedies are just thevisible manifestation of a much largerreality. Most, if not all, young mengo through a period between adoles-cence and adulthood when they arelikely to engage in risky behaviourof various kinds without fully grasp-ing the consequences of their actions.If they are white — well, boys willbe boys. But if they are black, theyare treated as men and assumed tohave malicious intent.
What else explains the shame-ful disparities in the application ofjustice? As I have pointed out be-fore, blacks and whites are equallylikely to smoke marijuana; if any-thing, blacks are slightly less likelyto toke up. Yet African Americans— and Hispanics — are about fourtimes more likely to be arrested onmarijuana charges than whites. Tocompound this inequality, studiesalso indicate that, among people whoare arrested for using or selling mari-juana, black defendants are much
more likely than white defendantsto serve prison time. For youngwhite men, smoking a joint is no bigdeal. For young black men, it canruin your life.
Similarly, blacks and whites areequally likely to use cocaine. But aperson convicted of selling crack co-caine will serve a far longer prisonterm than one convicted of selling thesame quantity of powder cocaine,even though these are just two formsof the same drug. Crack is the waycocaine is usually sold in the innercities, while powder is more popularin the suburbs — which is one bigreason there are so many AfricanAmerican and Hispanic men fillingour prisons. One arrest — even for aminor offence — can be enough tosend a promising young life reelingin the wrong direction. Police offic-ers understand this and exercise dis-cretion. But evidence suggests theyare much more willing to give youngwhite men a break than young blackor brown men. Why would this be?In Ferguson, I would argue, one ob-vious factor is the near-total lack ofdiversity among police officers. Whatyear is this, anyway?
But there is disparate treatmenteven in communities where the ra-
Eugene Robinsoncial makeup of the police forcemore closely resembles that of thepopulation. I believe the centralproblem is that a young black manwho encounters a police officer isassumed to have done somethingwrong and to be capable of vio-lence. These assumptions makethe officer more prepared than heotherwise might be to use force —even deadly force. The real trag-edy is that racist assumptions areself-perpetuating and self-rein-forcing. If young black men aretreated unfairly by the justice sys-tem, they are indeed more likely tohave arrest records — and, perhaps,to harbour resentment against po-lice authority.
They may indeed feel they havenothing to lose by exhibiting defi-ance. In some circumstances — andthese may include the streets ofFerguson — they may feel thatstanding up to the police is a matterof self-respect. Michael Brown hadno police record. By all accounts,he had no history of violence. Hehad finished high school and wasgoing to continue his education. Allof this was hidden, apparently, bythe colour of his skin. — Courtesy: Washington Post
Democracy and Parliament
MAJOR political parties areopposing current demonstrations in Islamabad over
rigging in last general election.There is a general consensus at thegrassroots that current parliament isillegal and it has failed to upholdinterest of the voters. In the name ofdemocracy, the corrupt politiciansand political parties have used hun-dreds of unlawful changes in theconstitution by the last parliamentto save vested stakes, mega corrup-tion, and protect global interests inthe region. Current parliament in-stead of protecting democracy, stateand public interests is protecting in-dividual politicians, political partiesand interests of western powers.
The parliament failed to restorethe original 1973 constitution. Therestoration of original 1973 Consti-tution would have saved the coun-try from Islamabad. The PPP leadgovernment made hundreds ofamendments in the Constitution in-cluding 18th Amendment, which
was illegal because parliamentwas elected as general assemblyand did not have the powers of aconstituent assembly to redrawthe 1973 Constitution. It wasonly supposed to restore the 1973Constitution in its original form
in which judiciary, lawmakers and es-tablishment were equal stakeholdersas part of trichotomy of power. Un-der the system of check and balance,constitution envisioned these threestakeholders to work within their do-mains with judiciary being superiordue to its power of judicial review.
There will be more Islamabad likedemonstrations in future also. Thechanges in the constitution have madepoliticians and political parties so pow-erful that they cannot be held account-able to the law. The cases in point arefailure of registering of cases againstthose who are currently in power andthose who were in power in the past.The tailor made changes in constitu-tion including immunity underminesthe very spirit of rule of law includingjustice delayed is justice denied.Pakistan’s law that no one is above lawincluding those in power has beenstifled on one pretext or the other. Theoriginal 1973 constitution needs to berestored to bring powerful people tobook just like the ordinary citizens.
The restoration of original con-stitution is necessary to restore in-dependence of judiciary and estab-lishment as equal stakeholders. Thelawmakers claims of seeking morepowers for true democracy are butploys to grab power and in turn be-come unaccountable to the system.A true democracy as envisaged inour original constitution is equallyanswerable to judiciary and estab-lishment. The idea of voter account-ability is a fraud. The ouster frompower is not accountability as politi-cians and political parties propagate.Our Constitution and laws are clearabout accountability of corrupt, thoseworking against the national and pub-lic interests and undermining democ-racy. The judiciary and establishmentshould hold lawmakers accountablein a true democracy. It is only pos-sible if system of check and balanceas envisioned in our original 1973constitution is restored.
There would have been no needfor public to hold mass rallies inIslamabad if our main political partiesand rulers had restored original con-stitution in which judiciary and estab-lishment were independent to upholdlaw. Since existing parliament like itspredecessor has failed to punish elec-tion rigging, protected mega corrup-
tion and failed to improve life atgrassroots, it has lost moral anddemocratic right to stay in power.
International community and su-per powers have undermined democ-racy in Pakistan. The claims of sup-porting democracy in Pakistan arefalse because western powers areforcing third world countries tochange their constitutions so thatthey can expand their global marketsand create more jobs back home. Itexplains hundreds of changes inPakistan’s constitution to give abso-lute power to politicians in the nameof democracy so that they turn maketrade deals and create routes thatexpand western economies at thecost of Pakistan’s economy, indus-try and national interests. The casesin point are no progress on linkingof Asia and ME through Pakistan,repeated push for giving land accessto India to CARS through Pakistanand accepting failed strategic energyprojects to promote western hege-mony at the cost of Pakistan andregion’s energy needs. It explainswest’s support for corrupt politi-cians, current democracy and con-stitutional trichotomy of power,which undermines our economic,public and national interests.—The writer is freelance columnist.
side had a leader they looked up toand respected like they did him, theywould be a much better and moreconsistent team than they are now. He(Imran Khan) and Miandad are twoof the most patriotic individuals Ihave met, and I can identify with that.I am quite certain you wouldn’t behearing stories about match-fixingand other bad things if they were atthe helm. Both would die for theircountry. This is how the best playersfeel. It is so often the passion involvedin playing for your country that leadsto the raw aggression which cansometimes surprise spectators.”(Page 174). “This wasn’t always thecase around the world. Australia wasnotorious for ‘home’ decisions, andthere were problems in Pakistan, inIndia and even at home in Caribbean.This is what brought about the changeto neutral umpires. Imran Khan was,maybe the first to demand neutralumpires, and when we toured Paki-stan we had two Indian umpires.”(Page 207).“…They talk of reverseswing as something new, but when Ifirst toured Pakistan in 1975, we sawImran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz do iton a regular basis with the old ball.”(Page 213).
“I could never imagine a playerlike Imran Khan being involved inanything like that, because he loveshis country, the way I love the WestIndies and Ian Botham loves En-gland. Imran’s pride wouldn’t allowhim to, any more than ours would -me or Ian. The problem needs to betaken more seriously and be thor-oughly investigated. Anyone caughtand proved beyond doubt to be in-volved in match-fixing should begiven the maximum punishment, bothwithin the game and under the lawsof the country in which it happens.In my view, it’s a kind of treason,selling your country out. At one timethat would have meant being put infront of a firing squad! How can any-one sell out his or her country for afew bucks? It is beyond my compre-hension.” (Page 219).—Lahore
Use of abusivelanguage
A SENIOR CITIZEN
One has to subscribe to the editorialpublished in Pakistan Observer onSunday, regarding the use of languageat public forums. Most of us are ut-terly disappointed with use of abu-sive language by an Oxford educatedPolitician. Is this the New Pakistanhe wants to bring about? It appearshe is more interested in settling per-sonal scores than any thing else. Hemust realize that by playing to thegalleries, he is losing support of se-nior citizens.—Via email
Dilemma ofcareer change
SYED USMAN SHAH
Has our education system stoopeddown to its lowest ebb? Is there no illthat our education system does nothave? It is certainly hard to say muchagainst this claim. My intention is notto give an overview of our educationsystem’s discrepancies and inadequa-cies. People are generally aware ofthose. Today, I want to highlight some-thing very specific; the hurdles andissues faced by students like me andmany others who want to change theireducation career. It is extremely frus-trating to note - if you go through theselection criteria mentioned by univer-sities - that once you enter into thenatural or physical sciences the doorfor social sciences just closes for you.If you want to switch to social sciencesyou have no other option but to gothrough graduation again in social sci-ences. There has to be another way.
Is it not possible for someonewith a background in natural sciencesto shift to a certain subject of socialsciences on the basis of his/her own
Hiding Sachin..!
INDIAN fans went wild withrage when pretty MariaSharapova with pouted lips and
dimpled chin, looked quizzicallyat her questioner and asked, “Whois Sachin?” And all of India hadbouts of anger. Indian rage is dan-gerously dangerous and newspa-per depots and kiosks all over thecountry downed their shutters asthey realized where the angerwould be directed.
“Tear the page that carries herpicture!” said a kiosk owner inDelhi as he hastily tore pictures of
the pretty tennis star and stuffed itdown a drain. Indian rage as I said isdangerously dangerous and kioskowners knew that with pictures of thetennis sensation in hand and keroseneoil in the other she would be a scarredface, burnt beyond recognition. WhenIndia goes into a rage mountainstremble (old jungle saying).
Now Sharapova she got a hint ofthe anger when her doctor an Indian,as all Indians are doctors abroad, atleast in the movies, asked her icily ifshe knew she had angered India.“Where’s India?” asked Maria allpouted lips and dimple chin, “Doc-tor is it a bone on my elbow, a muscleon my thigh or skin off my back?Does too much tennis anger this partof my body you call India?” “India,”
said the doctor icily, “Is a country andSachin is our hero!” “So why did youleave the country doctor?” askedMaria ever so sweetly. “Because Iwanted to do well,” said the doctorstill all icy, “So I came to America!”“And you still love all things Indian?”“Like Sachin!”
Maria Sharapova she likedscratched the side of her chin, and thedoctor he went all dreamy with de-sire, “What does Sachin do?” sheasked. “He plays cricket?” “What’sthat?” asked the tennis star, and thedoctor explained seriously, “It’s agame where one batsman stands andwaits patiently as another playerbowls to him and another ten wait tosee where he hits the ball!” “That’scricket?” asked Maria looking horri-
fied, “Now doctor I understand whyyou have a paunch, that’s no exer-cise!” The doctor he looked at MariaSharapova’s elegant legs, slimwaistline and perfect body andsighed as he went to the corner ofthe room and removed the pictureof Sachin that hung there.
“What are you doing?” askedMaria with pouted lips and dimpledchin. “Nothing!” said the doctor,trying to hide Sachin’s picture.“Glad you took that photo off thewall,” said the tennis great, “Helooked a bit podgy and fat, not apicture you would keep in a sportsclinic! Who was he?” The doctorsmiled, “Somebody you wouldn’tknow!” he said and hid the picture.—Email:[email protected]
It’s State, not politics, that matters?
GEN Beg in his recent article“Politics at the dead end” hasmade a very interesting dis-
closure when he says ‘Is there adoubt in any body’s mind that be-hind this facade, it is former Presi-dent, General Musharraf, backed byforeign hands who have their ownaxe to grind’. This is very danger-ous and serious allegation and tan-tamount to un necessarily involvingarmy that too from an ex COAS atthis stage when the country is in tur-moil. The onerous lay with him toprove his allegation. Is there anydoubt that Nawaz Sharif is settlinghis personal score with Musharraf.
Let us not sidetrack the move-ment launched by IK and TUQ, theyare fighting the old system whereonly faces change and cruel systemprevails. The issue is to bring changein system where these 1170 legisla-tors should have no say in thecountry’s politics. They think thatthis country is their personal prop-
erty, they loot plunder and depositlooted money in foreign countries.On the other hand poor people ofPakistan that is 80 % of populationdon’t get even clean drinking water.Poor cannot get justice from anycourt. Every where it is selectiveaccountability and punishment.There is institutional distinctionwhen it involves elite of country.
Our SC takes suo motu on twobottles of whisky and case is insti-tuted immediately by police, on theother hand 17 people are shot dead,90 wounded by Police in ModelTown and no FIR is being regis-tered in spite of court orders. Irre-spective of appeal FIR cannot bestopped it is constitutional right ofevery citizen. Imran Khan’s wish tobecome PM cannot be translated into reality even if Nawaz goes, suchstatements are given to build pres-sure and generate heats amongstvarious groups. While criticising IKand TUQ why we ignore our pasthistory, all political parties havedone the same but since they wereweak on the ground hence their pro-tests, dharnas had short durations.The difference is very clear IK and
TUQ have neither borrowed, norpaid crowd but they are all commit-ted to a cause that would help themto get rid of the old system.
Pakistan image has alreadybeen tarnished, what is left is towrite epitaph. Is the house consti-tutional when the Interior Ministersays in the parliament that 60 to 70% votes cannot be verified? Foot-age is available showing mass rig-ging of election, you don’t need tohold seminar to determine whathappened in election 2013. What isthe remedy? The government mustshow flexibility as has been doneby IK, they want PM to go on leavefor 30 days so that things movewithout interference.
At the moment the country is atstand still, the government is nonfunctional, the writ of state is notseen anywhere in the country, it istotal anarchy, the nation was alreadydivided and it is heading for furtherconfrontation. How long army canperform duties of sentries guardingbuildings that are mainly the respon-sibility of police. It is too late forthe government to clear Islamabadfrom protesters by applying force
that time is over. The governmenterred in allowing them to leavefrom Lahore. TUQ is wellorganised like the army camps, itis most disciplined crowd andready to sacrifice their lives on thecall of their leader. There is noway out it has to be an amicablesolution. The political crisis havereached alarming situation and noone knows what is happening. Thefact remains it is the responsibil-ity of Mian Nawaz Sharif to steerthe country out of theses crisis.We must set examples rathershowing arrogance. That is the dif-ference between a nation and acrowd of nation.
Let this be stated categoricallyModel Town tragedy cannot beignored or sidelined and it is timeto settle the issue before situationgoes out of control of everybody.The spill over has already startedas now all parties have startedshowing their strength on thestreets. The choice is limited, PMis already too late please hurry upbefore things go out of your hand.—The writer is Islamabad-basedpolitical analyst.
ability and self learning? Certainly itis logically possible. I know somepeople and you, the reader, wouldalso surely know such people aroundyou. So, we are justified in asking thatshould an earlier bachelor-degree ina particular discipline be the sole cri-teria to enter into the same disciplinefor higher education? Can’t you, witha bachelor-degree in engineering,learn more about political sciencethrough self learning or by virtue ofan inherent God-given aptitude thana student with a bachelor’s degree inpolitical science?
The question is; is it possible ornot? And if it is possible, which cer-tainly is, then there has to be a wayto accommodate such learners in ourhigher education system. Students forhigher studies must be selected on thebasis of their knowledge of the sub-ject rather than just a degree. Somesort of entry test or interview can bethe criteria. Some universities usuallydo conduct such entry tests, but inthese tests only the degree holders ofrelevant subjects can sit. In otherwords, our problem still remains un-addressed. What benefits and oppor-tunities the someone who wants tochange the course of his higher edu-cation in the midway, would get fromsuch tests, in which they are not evenallowed to sit? Those aspiring tochange their career should be allowedto sit in these tests and if they cancompete with the degree holders ofthe relevant subject, then there is nopoint in denying them the educationin the new discipline.
If universities are not ready toconduct the entry test as the sole cri-teria and if they still want to give thereal weightage to the bachelor’s de-gree, then at least they can fix a cer-tain amount of seats, let say 10 %,for the such God-gifted ‘career-changing students’. Such studentsshould be allowed to compete forthose 10% seats regardless of theirbachelor degrees in other disciplines.That is to say, in the discipline of so-cial sciences if 90% seats are for thosewho have their bachelor in social sci-ences, then on the remaining 10%seats, candidates from other disci-plines, let say from engineering ormedical, should be allowed to com-pete, if they choose to do so. I amfully convinced and have practicallyobserved and experienced that a stu-dent after doing F.Sc. show betterproficiency if they opt for social sci-ences or humanities group, in theirgraduation and post-graduation stud-ies, than those hailing from the art /humanities group during Matricula-tion and Intermediate studies. Afterall, the whole point of higher educa-tion is to facilitate the mantel growthand diversity of knowledge in the bril-liant students rather than to restrictthem into a narrow field even if theyare capable or in need of variegation.—Lahore
RememberingSultan Rahi
DANISH HASAN
Hearing the bluster and brag of ImranKhan in the afternoon and eveningsessions of the so-called sit-ins ofPTI, one is inexorably reminded ofSultan Rahi, the hero of Punjabi filmsof yester years. The resemblance inthe performance of the two, hits theeye and one is led to feel that a filmstudio is a better place for the gentle-man performing at the D-Chowk thanthe platform of a political party.—Via email
New volunteers of the Ukrainian interior ministry’s special battalion “Sich” take oath of allegiance to their coun-try, during a ceremony in Kiev on Tuesday.
JEAN-PIERRE FILIUNG
THE current conflict in Gaza is the thirdsince 2008. If nothing is done to address the root causes, any cease-
fire agreement between Israel and Hamaswill only be a pause before the next out-break of violence. The collective impo-tence of the world’s leaders is striking,since the Gaza Strip is, within the broaderIsraeli-Palestinian conflict, a far less com-plex issue to handle than East Jerusalemand the West Bank.
All parties have endorsed the GazaStrip’s borders, which were drawn in 1949at the end of the first Arab-Israeli war. Thelast Israeli settler left Gaza in 2005, afterAriel Sharon opted for a unilateral with-drawal, similar to Ehud Barak’s disengage-ment from southern Lebanon in 2000.There is no religious site in the Gaza Stripto be contested by Muslims, Jews andChristians.
Many Israelis dream of waking onemorning to discover that Gaza has goneaway (or been annexed by Egypt, a softerversion of such a fantasy). But Gaza isthere to stay, with its 1.8 million peoplecrowded into 141 square miles (360 squarekilometers). How did this tiny slice of theMediterranean coastline become one ofthe most wretched spots on earth? Overthe centuries, travelers have remarked onthe fecundity of Gaza’s vegetation. TheGaza Valley, which runs down into theMediterranean coast, south of the mod-ern city, is a refuge for migrant birds andsmall animals. Gaza was once the leadingexporter of barley in the region; more re-cently, it has been a producer of citrus.Perched between the Levant and the Sinai
Gaza, Victim of Historyand Negev deserts, Gaza has had the mis-fortune of being at the crossroads of em-pires.
Gaza City, slightly inland and adjacentto a natural harbor, has been inhabitedfor at least 3,500 years. The first historicalreference to the loose subsoil of Gaza —which has made possible the network ofHamas tunnels targeted by Israel in thelatest conflict — dates to Alexander theGreat, whose forces besieged the Arabgarrison for three months and eventuallysacked the city, filling six ships with booty.Some 1,500 years later — following theemergence of Islam and sporadic rule bycrusaders — Gaza was the westernmostpoint of the Mongol advance. Centurieslater, it was seized (briefly) by Napoleon.In 1906, the British government, whichcontrolled Egypt, agreed with the Otto-man Empire on the boundary between theEgyptian Sinai and the Ottoman provinceof Palestine, with Rafah becoming thecoastal border town that it is today.
In Gaza, the earliest Jewish-Muslimconflict dates to the period of the Britishmandate, which began in 1922. The indig-enous Jewish inhabitants — some 54 in-dividuals, as of 1922 — left the city afteranti-Zionist riots broke out in Jerusalem,Hebron and elsewhere (although they hadbeen protected by their Arab neighbors).By 1945, 4 percent of the land in the Gazaregion was owned by European Zionistsettlers, who made up 2 percent of thepopulation. Under the 1947 partition planof the United Nations, Gaza was supposedto be part of a new Arab state, alongsidethe new Jewish state. But when the stateof Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948,the Egyptian Army entered Gaza and the
territory became a magnet for Palestiniansfleeing from all over. Continue reading themain story Israel bombed Gaza by land,sea and air, even though its firepower wasfar more restrained than what we witnessnowadays. American Quakers, funded bythe United Nations, tended to the firstwaves of refugees. Measles and cold tookdozens of lives. Gaza became, as one refu-gee told me, the “Noah’s Ark” of a lostPalestine. One in four Arabs from theformer British mandate took refuge on 1percent of its land area. Seen another way,200,000 refugees were packed into a terri-tory inhabited by 80,000 Palestinians. (Theproportion is about the same today: 1.2million refugees out of a population of 1.8million.) But for the Sinai, those waves ofrefugees could have settled in refugeecamps around Cairo the way they didaround Beirut, Damascus and Amman.The Egyptians administered this territory,but refused to annex it, contrary to whatJordan did in the West Bank. So in 1949,David Ben Gurion proposed to annex theGaza Strip and to resettle its Palestinianrefugees throughout Israel.
This offer was rebuffed both by theUnited Nations and by the Arab states,which would not accept Israeli territorialexpansion. An Egyptian-run Gaza inexo-rably became a hotbed of Palestinian na-tionalism. It was sometimes directedagainst Egypt’s ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser,as during an uprising in 1955. Or it couldbe manipulated by Egyptian intelligence,which trained the first PalestinianFedayeen — freedom fighters or terror-ists, depending on your point of view —for missions in Israel. The young state ofIsrael became obsessed with the menace
from Gaza. This was one of the main moti-vations for the offensive against Nasser’sEgypt, begun in October 1956 with Frenchand British support. Gaza was occupiedfor four months, with a terrible toll on thepopulation (more than 1,000 dead out ofsome 300,000 inhabitants). Under Ameri-can pressure, Ben Gurion agreed to with-draw from the Gaza Strip, but he trustedNasser to keep the territory quiet. The next10 years were marked by very little ten-sion, but the Fedayeen merely went un-derground. The Palestine Liberation Or-ganization was established in 1964 withprominent nationalist figures from Gaza.
During Israel’s Six Day War against itsArab neighbors, in June 1967, Gaza wasconquered in a matter of hours and thesurrendering Egyptians were soon evacu-ated. But local Palestinian guerrillas keptfighting this new occupation for the nextfour years. Then the Israeli military thoughtit best to let an Islamist network develop,to neutralize the nationalist camp in Gaza.This is how Sheikh Ahmed Yassin built apower base and eventually founded hismovement, Hamas, to challenge the na-tionalist P.L.O. In December 1987, a Pales-tinian generation born and raised under twodecades of occupation found in its frustra-tion the energy for an unprecedentedintifada, or uprising. The cradle of this up-rising was the Gaza Strip, but it soon spreadto the West Bank and forced Jordan’s kingto relinquish any claim over the West Bank.
—Courtesy: NYT.[Jean-Pierre Filiu is professor of MiddleEast studies at Sciences Po, a formercareer diplomat for France, and the au-thor of the forthcoming book “Gaza: AHistory].”
EU Will Likely Get aBad Deal On Ukraine
ARKADY MOSHES
THE recent flurry of European diplomatic activity onthe crisis in Ukraine suggests that a trilateral compromise between the EU, Russia and Ukraine may
be in the making. Or, at least, this would be the EU’s pre-ferred choice.
First, there are strong doubts whether Ukraine will beable to successfully transform, to separate business andpolitics, to become a functioning economy and liberal de-mocracy. Continuing conflicts between oligarchs, the un-certainty surrounding constitutional reform, and poor co-operation between the various branches of governmentfrustrate Ukraine’s allies and give arguments to the skep-tics. The question inevitably arises whether Europe’s com-mitment would be justified.
Second, there seems to be an assumption that Russiawill not allow Kiev a military victory in eastern Ukraine,whatever the costs. If so, the lack of a deal would onlylead to further escalation and loss of human lives, which isnot acceptable.
Third, Russia’s demands do not look excessive or ex-orbitant from the point of view of realpolitik: the recogni-tion of Crimea’s annexation and keeping Ukraine outsidethe EU and NATO. The former has already happened defacto. As for the latter, even before the crisis, the idea ofgranting Ukraine EU membership did not have too manysupporters in Europe. On the contrary, the recommenda-tion that Ukraine seek the status of Cold War-era Austriaor Finland — despite failing to state clearly who will guar-antee the country’s neutrality —was and still is being maderather often.
Last but not least, Europe does not feel comfortableabout conflict with Russia. The main issue is not money.After all, the whole value of banned EU food exports toRussia is more than two times smaller than the interna-tional rescue credit package provided to Cyprus in spring2013. The issue is that the basic philosophy of post-mod-ern Europe, according to which a bad compromise is al-ways better than a conflict, and peace under any circum-stances is better than war, even trade war. In addition,confrontation with Russia further corrodes EU solidarityand cohesion.
All this is bad news for Kiev. It can no longer excludethe possibility that the EU will at some point propose thatit accept what in qualitative terms is the same formula testedin Georgia: Territories are lost, including the frozen con-flict area in the east, but financial compensation is offered.The problem with this option is that it would provide nolong-term sustainable solution. Russia would no doubtharvest the diplomatic triumph, but the structural geopo-litical rivalry in the region would not disappear.
The conflict will continue in latent form. Neither politi-cal relations with major European countries nor mutualtrust will be restored. This will be taken into account byinternational business and will entail serious security im-plications. Europe, in turn, will be also face a dilemma: tominimize ties with Russia in hope that economic slowdownwill gradually change Moscow’s diplomatic stance, or toreturn to the “business as usual” stance and continueselling technologies and weapons to Russia, thus strength-ening a country perceived as a security risk.
Moreover, there will be no short-term solution, either.A frozen conflict in the east would be bound to become asource of destabilization for Ukraine’s adjacent regionsand possibly for Russia as well. Worse, the government inKiev, if it had to accept the deal, could collapse, openingthe way for a real Bosnianization of Ukraine.
Hopefully, the architects of the bargain are fully aware ofthese and other possible negative implications. Because ifnot, they could be advised to go back to the drawing board.
—Courtesy: MT.[Arkady Moshes is director of the EU’s Eastern Neigh-borhood and Russia Program at the Finnish Institute ofInternational Affairs].
As US, EU close doors,China, Russia open new ones
DMITRI TRENIN
CONFRONTATION with the US over Ukraine and theeconomic sanctions imposed by the US and its allies have made the Russian government change its
economic, financial and trade policies. The priority now isstimulating domestic development, particularly in indus-try and agriculture, as well as science and technology.Russia is not about to abandon globalization, or shut it-self out of the wider world and adopt autarky. Its foreigneconomic ties, however, are undergoing a major restruc-turing. The share of the West is going down, while theshare of Asia, notably China, is going up.
China is the world’s second largest economy, soon tobecome the global leader. It is the global manufacturing work-shop. It owns the world’s largest currency reserves. It hostsone of the world’s three top financial centers, in Hong Kong.And - what is particularly important, from Moscow’s per-spective - Beijing is fully sovereign in setting its own policycourse, successfully resisting and rebuffing Washington’spressure. Thus, it is one major economy in today’s worldunlikely to join US-led sanctions against Russia.
Moreover, for obvious geopolitical reasons, China hasno interest in seeing Russia crushed by US policies. Thismakes the Sino-Russian economic relationship a majorbeneficiary of the downturn in Russia’s ties with the West.The signs for this are multiplying, above all in energy. InMay, Russia agreed to supply China with natural gas in ahistoric, 30-year, $400 billion deal. This follows an earlieragreement to ramp up oil trade. According to The WallStreet Journal, Russia’s oil deliveries to Asia, mostly toChina, have grown from 20 percent to 30 percent of thecountry’s total exports in just one year.
Since Russia’s oil production is essentially stagnant,the growth of the Asia trade means a reduction of deliver-ies to Europe. After the West has banned exports to Rus-sia of oil drilling technologies for use on the shelf, a Chi-nese company, Honghua, is reported to be in line to re-ceive future Russian contracts. The sanctions and thespecific restrictions on banking operations with Russiaare also closing the books on the long era of cheap West-ern credit. China, on the other hand, is awash with moneyand has already been lending to Russia. More is to come.Megafon, a leading communications company, has recentlyconverted a large part of its assets into Hong Kong dol-lars, away from the US dollar and the euro.
Gennady Timchenko, President Vladimir Putin’s closefriend and Russia’s sixth richest man who had made a for-tune as oil trader, was specifically targeted by the West-ern sanctions. Unable to use his Visa and MasterCard ac-counts, Timchenko transferred his funds into a UnionPaycard. Taking a cue from this, the Russian government iscurrently working on a national electronic payments sys-tem which would end the monopoly of Visa andMasterCard in Russia. Both global companies proved them-selves too pliant when confronted with Washington’sdemands to sanction Russian banks and their clients.
—Courtesy: Global Times.[The author is director of the Carnegie Moscow [email protected]]
KABUL—The U.S. has begun surveillanceflights over Syria after President BarackObama gave the OK, U.S. officials said, amove that could pave the way for airstrikesagainst Islamic State militant targets there.While the White House says Obama hasnot approved military action inside Syria,additional intelligence on the militantswould likely be necessary before he couldtake that step. Pentagon officials have beendrafting potential options for the president,including airstrikes.
One official said the administration hasa need for reliable intelligence from Syriaand called the surveillance flights an im-portant avenue for obtaining data. Two U.S.officials said Monday that Obama had ap-proved the flights, while another U.S. offi-cial said early Tuesday that they had be-gun. The officials were not authorized todiscuss the matter by name, and spoke onlyon condition of anonymity.
Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters inKabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday that theU.S. wants more clarity on the militants inSyria, but declined to comment on the sur-veillance flights. “Clearly the picture wehave of ISIS on the Iraqi side is a more re-fined picture,” said Dempsey, using one ofthe acronyms for the Islamic State group.
US surveillance planes fly over Syria“The existence and activities of ISIS on theSyrian side, we have ... some insights intothat but we certainly want to have moreinsights into that as we craft a way for-ward.”
The U.S. began launching strikesagainst the Islamic State inside Iraq earlierthis month, with Obama citing the threat toAmerican personnel in the country and ahumanitarian crisis in the north as his ra-tionale. Top Pentagon officials have saidthe only way the threat from the militantscan be fully eliminated is to go after thegroup inside neighboring Syria as well.Obama has long resisted taking militaryaction in Syria, a step that would plungethe U.S. into a country ravaged by an in-tractable civil war. However, the president’scalculus appears to have shifted since theIslamic State announced last week that ithad murdered American journalist JamesFoley, who was held hostage in Syria. Thegroup is also threatening to kill other U.S.citizens being held by the extremists inSyria.
Dempsey, who was in Kabul for the U.S.military’s change of command ceremony,has said he would recommend the militarymove against the Islamic State militants ifthere is a threat to the homeland. He didn’trule out strikes for any other critical rea-
sons, but listed the homeland threat as onekey trigger. Dempsey also said the U.S. hasbeen meeting with allies in the region tohelp develop a better understanding of theIslamic State group’s threat. He said hebelieves those talks are now beginning to“set the conditions for some kind of coali-tion to form.” He said they are “trying tobetter understand the threat that ISIS poses,not just in Iraq and Syria but regionally.”Dempsey has said he believes key allies inthe region - including Jordan, Turkey andSaudi Arabia - will join the U.S. in quashingthe Islamic State group.
White House spokesman Josh Earnestsaid Monday that Obama has demonstratedhis willingness to order military action whennecessary to protect American citizens.“That is true without regard to internationalboundaries,” he said. The White Housewould not comment on Obama’s decisionto authorize surveillance flights over Syria.“We’re not going to comment on intelli-gence or operational issues, but as we’vebeen saying, we’ll use all the tools at ourdisposal,” said Caitlin Hayden, spokes-woman for the White House National Se-curity Council.
The U.S. had already stepped up its airsurveillance of the Islamic State inside Iraqearlier this year as Obama began consider-
ing the prospect of airstrikes there. Andthe administration has run some surveil-lance missions over Syria, including aheadof an attempted mission to rescue Foleyand other U.S. hostages earlier this sum-mer. The U.S. special forces who were sentinto Syria to carry out the rescue missiondid not find the hostages at the locationwhere the military thought they were beingheld. Officials who confirmed the failed res-cue last week said the U.S. was continuingto seek out intelligence on the other hos-tages’ whereabouts.
Administration officials have said aconcern for Obama in seeking to take outthe Islamic State inside Syria is the pros-pect that such a move could unintention-ally help embattled Syrian President BasharAssad. A top Syrian official said Mondayany U.S. airstrikes without consent fromSyria would be considered an aggression.The Islamic State is among the groups seek-ing Assad’s ouster, along with rebel forcesaided by the U.S.The White House on Monday tried to tampdown the notion that action against theIslamic State could bolster Assad, with Ear-nest saying, “We’re not interested in try-ing to help the Assad regime.” However,he acknowledged that “there are a lot ofcross pressures here.”—AP.
KIEV—Ukraine released a video of capturedRussian soldiers on Tuesday, sharply escalat-ing a dispute over Moscow’s alleged backingfor separatist rebels in the east of the formerSoviet republic.
The footage was released only hours beforethe two countries’ presidents were due to meetfor the first time since June to discuss the con-flict, which has killed more than 2,000 peopleand provoked Western sanctions against Rus-sia. In Moscow, a military source told Russiannews agencies that a group of soldiers had sur-rendered to Ukrainian forces after crossing theborder by accident.
Ukraine rejected that explanation. “Thiswasn’t a mistake, but a special mission they werecarrying out,” military spokesman AndriyLysenko said in a televised briefing. He also saidseparatists were attacking the southeastern bor-der town of Novoazovsk “at this very minute”and Ukrainian forces had destroyed 12 armouredinfantry vehicles in the area. Twelve Ukrainianservice personnel had been killed in fighting inthe past 24 hours, he said, including four borderguards who died when Russian Mi-24 helicop-ters attacked a frontier post in Luhansk region
Ukraine releases captured Russian soldiers video
Israel destroys 2Gaza high-rises
in escalationGAZA CITY—Israel bombedtwo Gaza City high-riseswith dozens of homes andshops Tuesday, collapsingone building and severelydamaging the other in a fur-ther escalation of sevenweeks of cross-border fight-ing with Hamas. In the past,the military has hit targetsin high-rises in pinpointstrikes, but left the buildingsstanding. However, sinceSaturday, it has toppled ordestroyed five towers andshopping complexes in anapparent new tactic aimed atincreasing pressure on theHamas militant group. Theobjects of the latest strikescontain apartments inhabitedalmost exclusively by middle-class Gazans, who up untilnow have been largelyspared the considerable dis-location that has affected tensof thousands of other resi-dents— A P
Iran rules outforeign
interventionin Libya
TEHRAN—Foreign Minis-try spokesman MarziyehAfkham on Tuesday ruledout any military interven-tion or foreign interferencein Libya and that Iran ad-vocates the Libyan peopleshould administer their ownaffairs.
[Iran rules out foreignintervention in Libya]
Speaking to IRNA, sheexpressed concern over es-calation of violence andheavy clashes which en-danger lives of civilians.She invited all sides to ex-ercise restraint and help re-solve their disputesthrough negotiations.Libya has turned intoscene of violent clashesand political unrest causingconcern of the countries inthe region as well as itsneighboring states.—IRNA
on Monday. Russia has always denied asser-tions by Ukraine, backed by the United Statesand the European Union, that it has been send-ing arms and troops across the border to sup-port the pro-Moscow separatists.
The latest dispute cast a further pall overTuesday’s talks in the Belarussian capitalMinsk, where presidents Vladimir Putin ofRussia and Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine weremeeting for the first time since a tense en-counter in France on June 6. “I hope the re-sult of today’s meeting will be the achieve-ment of an agreement that will bring peace toUkrainian soil,” Poroshenko told reporters.He held separate talks with EU foreign policychief Catherine Ashton and Belarussian Presi-dent Alexander Lukashenko, the summit host.Fighting in eastern Ukraine broke out in April,a month after Russia annexed Ukraine’sCrimea peninsula in response to the topplingof a pro-Moscow president in Kiev.
Tuesday’s video provided the strongest evi-dence yet to back up Kiev’s claims of direct Rus-sian military involvement, which Moscow hasalways disputed. It came a day after Ukraine’sstate security service said it had detained 10
Russian paratroopers who had crossed the bor-der in a column of several dozen armed infantryvehicles. In footage posted on the officialFacebook page of the Ukrainian government’s“anti-terrorist operation”, the men were showndressed in camouflage fatigues. One of them,who identified himself as Ivan Milchakov, listedhis personal details, including the name of hisparatroop regiment, which he said was based inthe Russian town of Kostroma.
“I did not see where we crossed the border.They just told us we were going on a 70 km (45-mile) march over three days,” he said. “Every-thing is different here, not like they show it ontelevision. We’ve come as cannon fodder,” hesaid in the video. Another man in the footage,who gave his name as Sergeant AlekseiGeneralov, said: “Stop sending in our boys.Why? This is not our war.”
Social media accounts belonging to sev-eral of the men showed them in camouflageor paratroop uniform. Russian news agenciesquoted a defence ministry source as confirm-ing that Russian servicemen had crossed intoUkraine but saying they did so inadvert-ently—Reuters
Madani vistingIndonesia
JEDDAH—The SecretaryGeneral of the Organisationof Islamic Cooperation(OIC), Mr. Iyad AmeenMadani is undertaking anofficial visit to the Republicof Indonesia from 27 to 29August 2014, during whichhe is scheduled to meet withH.E. President SusiloBambang Yudhoyono to re-view bilateral relations be-tween the OIC and Indone-sia and the OIC charitableproject for the Guardianshipof Tsunami orphans as wellas some other issues.
The OIC Secretary Gen-eral will also meet with theIndonesian Foreign Minis-ter, some other Indonesiansenior officials and a num-ber of UN representa-tives—PR
told a TV channel that thenew group was not willing totake sides in the current
political tussle inIslamabad as they only wantedthe Shariah system to prevailin the country. According tothem, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf(PTI) chairman Imran Khanand Pakistan Awami Tehreek(PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadriwere no different from the cur-rent political rulers, and thatboth of them were inclined to-wards the Western style of de-mocracy.—INP
TTPcommanders
From Page 1
about my next move,”Chaudhry said. He said thatKhan’s reply is being examinedby his lawyers. The formerchief justice termed Khan’s al-legation against him is falseand baseless.
Reality of Khan’sFrom Page 1
been active in the volatileKhyber agency, the Politicaladministration of the Khyberagency said it could not be as-certained as to which organi-zation the militants belongedto.
The security forces are alsoreported to have cordoned offthe area and kicked off exten-sive operation in the region tonet the culprits though therewas no report of any arrest.
“Curfew was imposed andsecurity forces launched searchoperation in the area to traceother militants”, local admin-istration said
It may be recalled that themilitants have paced up theiractivities in the restive Khyberagency and alone in the last oneweek the miscreants havelaunched three attacks on theTwenty-wheeler containers en-suring supply to NATO forcesinside Afghanistan throughTorkham Pak-Afghan Border.While number of NATO ve-hicle were burnt down in therecent attacks, five peoplemostly the truckers were alsokilled during the last five days.
4 terroristsFrom Page 1
by the AGP and both parties’ counsels, HamidKhan and Ali Zafar, regarding the clearance ofConstitution Avenue for free movement.
The report says that the meeting was heldon Monday in the Pakistan Bar Council Library,wherein AGP Salman Aslam Butt offered bothPTI and PAT an alternative place for their sit-ins, however they have rejected his offer.
It is to be noted that the AGP offered twolocations, namely Parade Ground in Faizabadnext to Islamabad Highway and Sports complex,for the protests.
Ahmad Awais, counsel for PTI on Tuesday(today) told the AGP that PTI chairman ImranKhan is not willing to leave the present spot.
Similarly, Zafar informed the AGP that PATis not willing to shift to any other place and thaton account of a large number of people gath-ered at one location, PAT would not be able tovacate the place or open the road lanes alongConstitution Avenue.
However, Zafar stated that PAT would en-
deavour to make arrangements for facilitatingthe flow of traffic along Constitution Avenue.
Hamid Khan, another counsel for PTI, how-ever informed the court that workers of PTI havenot blocked any routes nor are they causing anyhindrance in the movement of people.
He further stated that the protest is takingplace in the Parade Ground, which is away fromParliament House and other buildings nearby.He submitted that Parade Ground has not beenused for any kind of traffic for the last five years.
Earlier, the five-judge bench of the apexcourt — headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk— after hearing the bar’s plea against the ongo-ing protests at Constitution Avenue on Monday,directed the counsels of both parties, and theAGP to work together to come up with a solu-tion which allows for free movement on Con-stitution Avenue.
The court sought a report about the clear-ance of Constitution Avenue for free movementon Tuesday in the chambers.
PTI, PAT refuseFrom Page 1
statement from the ISPR. Twocivilians were killed on August24 in firing by Indian forcesalong Working Boundary inSialkot. Cross border firing byIndia has injured scores if ci-vilians in the days gone by.However, Indian forces weresuccessfully silenced in retali-ation fires by Pakistan borderforces.—NNI
Pakistan, IndiaFrom Page 1
weighing on the capital andcurrency markets. The rupeeslid sharply Monday to hit asix-month low amid panic dol-lar buying.
Rupee stagesFrom Page 1
formed the ECC that the draftpolicy was not circulated toFBR and in order to examineits implications on revenuegeneration, necessary time begiven for their comments. TheFinance Minister observed thatall stakeholders have not beenconsulted on this important is-sue and hence the summarywill be considered in the nextECC meeting after detailed re-view by the Law Division andFBR. The meeting was also at-tended by Senator PervaizRashid, Minister for Informa-tion, Broadcasting and Na-tional Heritage, KhawajaMohammad Asif, Minister for
Water and Power, Mr. ShahidKhaqan Abbasi, Minister forPetroleum and Natural Re-sources, Mr. Zahid Hamid,Minister for Science and
Technology, Mr. SikandarHayat Khan Bosan, Ministerfor National Food Security, Mr.Abbas Khan Afridi, Ministerfor Textile Industry, Ms.Anusha Rehman Khan, MOSfor IT and Telecom, Mr. AshrafMahmood Wathra, GovernorSBP, Mr. Muhammad Zubair,Chairman Privaization Com-mission, Mr. Tahir Mehmood,Chairman SECP, Federal Sec-retaries and senior officials ofthe government.–INP
ECC approvesFrom Back Page
Imran facesisolation: PR
From Back Page
Constitution Avenue. PervaizRashid deplored that TahirulQadri is using women andchildren as a shield. He saidin the court, Imran Khanapologized to former chief jus-tice Iftikhar Chaudhry forhurling allegations, but thenagain repeated the allegationswhile addressing workers atthe sit-in. The Minister saidImran Khan is not acceptingthe government offer to con-stitute a judicial commissionto probe rigging allegations ashe has no evidence to prove hisaccusations.
He said election tribunalsgave decisions against PML-N,which prove that the govern-ment cannot influence theirverdicts.—NNI
IRFAN ALIGI
KARACHI—Criticism on Judiciary was part ofplanned conspiracy aimed at suspension of theconstitution of Pakistan. Political parties on sits-in were leveling baseless allegations against theJudiciary, which deserved condemnation instrongest possible words. However, it should beclear that the lawyers’ community won’t acceptany unconstitutional step.
Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) ExecutiveCommittee (EC) Chairman Abrar Hassan ex-pressed these views while addressing a pressconference along with other members at Su-preme Court Bar Association office Tuesday.
He warned federal government not to ac-cept any unconstitutional demand of PakistanTehreek-e Insaf (PTI) or else the lawyers’ com-munity would not only oppose accepting suchunconstitutional demands but would also showsevere resistance against federal government’syielding to the unconstitutional demands. Fed-eral government had already accepted 6 demandsof PTI.
He said PTI Chairman Imran Khan had firstaccused former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry of patronising theact of rigging and now he was alleging formerCJP Tasadduq Hussain Jilani and former ChiefElection Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ibrahimunder Afzal Khan’s cover, who was a retiredadditional secretary of the election commissionof Pakistan.
While speaking on the occasion, PBC EC
Legal fraternity vows to defend democracy
PBC warns fed govt of lawyers’ wrathif PTI’s demands were accepted
Vice Chairman Akhtar Hussain said that law-yers were united across Pakistan and could notbe divided through any scheme. Retired Judgeswere used to be appointed for different poststhrough the Judicial Commission but it wouldnot allow anyone to levy serious allegationsagainst them. Former EC AC Afzal Khan hadalleged the Judiciary after half and year of rig-ging the elections-2013 and hence federal gov-ernment should try him for his baseless allega-tions.
He asked leaders of political parties to adoptserenity and show mature attitude and abide bythe orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
He said the lawyers’ community did notwant agitation in the country but the commu-nity also smelled something unconstitutionalsteps in the country, which should be avoided.It was mandatory for governments and leadersof the political parties to comply with the or-ders of the SCP in letter and spirit.
In his address, former SCBA PresidentYaseen Azad asked the politicians to stop talk-ing about new and old Pakistan but should speakabout sovereignty of the country, instead. Allthose political issues that could be resolved inthe Parliament should not be brought on streets.
He said the statement of PTI ChairmanImran Khan in which he appealed to the over-seas Pakistanis to transfer foreign exchangethrough Hundi had brought a bad name to thecountry and it looked as if a conspiracy wasbeing hatched against Pakistan for creating aturbulence like that of Iraq and Syria.
Karachi AirportAttack
10 Uzbekmilitants buried atEdhi Graveyard
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Ten militants be-longing to Islamic Movementof Uzbekistan executed by thesecurity forces were buried atEdhi Graveyard at MawachGoth Tuesday. The Uzbek mili-tants were killed by the secu-rity forces at Jinnah Interna-tional Airport Karachi on Jun8. The Uzbek militants had at-tacked JIAK in which 30 secu-rity forces personnel including11 Airport Security Force per-sonnel, Pakistan Rangers Sindhpersonnel, Civil Aviation Au-thority personnel, employees ofa private cargo company and aPakistan International AirlinesCorporation engineer weremartyred.
The attack by the militantwas too furious to control bythe ASF and hence Police,Rangers and Pakistan Armytroopers had to play their roleand they executed all the 10militants.
Bodies of Uzbek militantswere saved at Edhi Morgue andon Tuesday, Edhi Foundationsought permission from Policefor their burial at Edhi Grave-yard at Mawach Goth.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Lack of rains hascreated extreme dryness acrossdistrict Tharparkar due towhich the inhabitants ofTharparkar have started mi-grating to other areas wherewater and fodder for their live-stock were available. The pov-erty-affected and drought-hitpopulation was already facinga surge in health disorders aschildren and minors were ex-posed to severe malnutritionand acute water shortage.Deaths of animals in largenumber is feared.
The wells had dried up
Lack of rain: Drought startsgripping Tharparkar
while a very small segment ofpopulous in Tharparkar had ac-cess to potable water throughreverse osmosis plants and elec-tricity. Though Sindh govern-ment had already establishedTharparkar Development Au-thority (TDA) after escalateddeaths in Tharparkar due todrought, malnutrition and im-proper response to the affectedand starving inhabitants ofTharparkar, the TDA had yet totake initiatives for the pre-emptive measures to save thepeople of Tharparkar from fac-ing another catastrophe.
Sindh Cabinet had in a meet-ing with Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) Chairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari and Co-Chairman Asif
Ali Zardari had suggested forproviding wheat to the people ofTharparkar at 50 percent lessprice as compared to market ratesbut PPP Co-Chairman Asif AliZardari had rejected that sugges-tion and asked to provide wheatto the people of Tharparkar freeof cost.
The provisioning ofwheat to the drought affectedpeople of Tharparkar failed toaddress their needs because ofmismanagement. Stocks ofwheat could not reach thedrought affected people.Likewise, claims for speedyestablishment of reverse os-mosis water filtration plantsalso proved to be a dream thatdid not come true.
2 TTP militantFrom Back Page
place when the alleged TTPmilitants attacked a Police vanon patrol near Sumaira Chowkon Super Highway within theprecincts of Sachal Police Sta-tion Tuesday.
According to Police, the TTPmen on a motorcycle were askedto stop for a snap checking. How-ever, they started firing at Policevan in an attempt to escape awaybut were down after immediateretaliation by the cops.
Director International Seerat Centre, Dr.Muhammad Mian Siddiqui and Dr. Inam ul Haq,members of Board of Governors of InternationalSeerat Centre were also present.
Zahid Malik said the Nazriya is enrichedwith multiple aspects and vast spectrum to ca-ter to the needs of all communities and regionsin Pakistan.
He said Pakistan is a great blessing of Al-mighty Allah and it has bright future.
Addressing the students he said “You haveto repose confidence in yourself and Pakistan.You have great strength to build this countrywhich is going to play its important role in the
Spiritual dimensionFrom Back Page
comity of nations.” Lauding standard and qual-ity of the Darul Aloom, he said students of thisinstitute are lucky to get education here. “Youhave all qualities to become eminent personali-ties like Dr. Abdul Qadeer,” he said.
Dr. Sahabzada Sajid ur Rehman said this seatof learning has syllabus which is a mix of reli-gious and present day social and scientific knowl-edge. Quality of education can be measured fromthe results of Rawalpindi Board as our studentsare securing first and second positions.
We are also stressing on character build-ing as well as equipping our new generationwith Nazriya Pakistan, he said.
15-day capFrom Back Page
perform Hajj (pilgrimage) aregenerally keen to performUmrah at least once in theirlives.
Hajj (Pilgrimage) is one ofthe five pillars of Islam and isrequired from every physicallyfit and financially able adultMuslim. Around three millionMuslims perform pilgrimageevery year.
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pa-kistan Awami Tehreek (PAT)outside the parliament house,not only reaching the court wasdifficult but also security con-cerns were involved.
Farogh Nasim requestedto delay the hearing of the caseuntil at least two months. Thecourt, however, deferred thehearing of Musharraf’s treasoncase till September 2. It isworth mentioning here that the
Musharraf ‘treason’From Back Page
special court in Islamabad istrying former President Gen-eral (retd) Pervez Mushahrrafunder Article 6 of the consti-tution. The premises of thespecial court is located oppo-site the Supreme Court build-ing on the Constitution Avenuewhere thousands of followersof Imran Khan and TahirulQadri are currently stagingprotest sit-ins against the gov-ernment.—INP
between the two sides until anamicable solution has beenreached.
Earlier, the ice was brokenby Minister for Information andBroadcast Pervez Rasheed af-ter he placed a call to PTI ViceChairman Shah MehmoodQureshi and suggested continu-ing the dialogue.
The PTI negotiating team,led by Qureshi, includes vet-eran politician Javed Hashmi aswell as Jahangir Tareen, AsadUmer, Arif Alvi and PervezKhattak.
The government team isled by Rasheed and comprisesof ministers Ishaq Dar, SaadRafique and Zahid Hamid.
PTI, GovtFrom Page 1
satisfy the objections raised byPakistan, Indus Water Com-mission will take the matter tothe International Court andneutral mediator.
Indus Water Commis-sioner Pakistan Asif Baig,while talking to media, saidthat the dialogue report hasbeen sent to the government.He further said that it is pre-mature to say anything aboutthe settlement of water issuewith India. —NNI
Pak-India IndusFrom Page 1
court’s verdict calling to bookPrime Minister Nawaz Sharifand Chief Minister PunjabShahbaz Sharif for ModelTown tragedy.
He said a case will nowbe registered against ShahbazSharif. He demanded the gov-ernment to place ShahbazSharif ’s name in the ExitControl List (ECL) to renderhim unable to fly abroad.
Sit-in tocontinue
From Page 1
Police said preliminary in-vestigations suggested they hadtaken poison and a post mortemwould be conducted on Tues-day to confirm the cause ofdeath.
Two suicide notes, writtenby the girls and found at theirdesks at the education centre,said they were being stalkedand sexually harassed by agroup of young men on motor-cycles, police said.—Reuters
Two IndianFrom Page 1
Musharraf.“Protests like this have
never happened before, oversuch a long period and withsuch vigour...The public is ex-ercising its democratic right byprotesting,” Musharraf said.
“The people’s legitimatedemands are not beingmade...This is democratic pub-lic mobilisation,” he said.
On democracy, the formerpresident said: “I am a strongbeliever in democracy, genuinedemocracy. This is not real de-mocracy. Real democracy ishow you perform after beingelected.”
“You have to bring aboutsocio-economic development.Democracy is not an end by it-
Musharraf supportsFrom Page 1
self. It is a means to an end,which is the welfare of themasses,” he said.
The former army chief saidthat Pakistan is not Iraq, add-ing: “As long as the Army isplaying its role in stabalisingthe country, (there is) no chanceof the country breaking. No-body should have any doubt onthe Army’s ability to defend thecountry and keep it together.”
Musharraf went on to add:“No individual matters, it’s thestate of Pakistan that matters.We need to rise above our dif-ference and make decisions innational interest,”
“We need reforms andchange before going for anotherelection,” he stressed.
JIT report public.He said that a one-member
and one-sided tribunal declaredShahbaz Sharif and the PunjabGovernment to be responsibleof Model Town massacre onJune 17. The PAT chief paidglowing tributes to the elec-tronic media of Pakistan forexposing the murderers of hisparty workers at party secre-tariat. He said after the JIT re-port, it is now proven that
Shahbaz responsibleFrom Page 1
Shahbaz Sharif and the Govern-ment of Punjab killed those 14PAT workers, while the PrimeMinister, Nawaz Sharif cannotescape as well, for such a deci-sion cannot be made withoutconsultation between the twobrothers. Qadri inquired wherethe constitution is, what kind ofdemocracy and humanity it isthat the poor are going door todoor seeking justice, but no oneis ready to listen to them.—INP
before dismissing Pakistan for233 in 43.5 overs in the day-night match in Hambantota.
Pakistan had won the firstmatch at the same venue byfour wickets last week. Thedecider will be played inDambulla on Saturday.
A second-wicket stand of96 between Ahmed Shehzad(56) and Mohammad Hafeez(62) lifted Pakistan to 114-1 bythe 18th over before nine wick-ets fell for the addition of 119runs.
Hafeez, who had takenthree wickets in Sri Lanka’sinnings, appeared in good bat-ting form with 11 boundarieswhen he was leg-before to spin-ner Seekkuge Prasanna.
Umar Akmal was caughtbehind off Tillakaratne Dilshanfor one and Shehzad becameleg-spinner Prasanna’s secondvictim through a smart catch byveteran wicket-keeper KumarSangakkara.
Left-arm spinner RanganaHerath removed skipperMisbah-ul Haq (36) and SohaibMaqsood (nine), before Pereraensured a quick finish to theinnings by taking the next threewickets.
Earlier, Sri Lanka were re-duced to 62-3 when skipperAngelo Mathews (93) andMahela Jayawardene (67) re-
Perera guidesFrom Page 1
trieved the situation by adding122 for the fourth wicket.
The dismissal ofJayawardene in the 34th over,the first of three wickets in asmany overs by Hafeez, saw SriLanka collapse from 184-3 to194-6.
Perera helped Mathewsadd 87 off 57 balls for the sev-enth wicket before the captainholed out to mid-wicket againstWahab Riaz seven runs shortof a century.
Perera smashed fiveboundaries and four sixes in hiswhirlwind innings as the hostsplundered 101 runs in the last10 overs. Hafeez finished withthree for 39 from 10 economi-cal overs, while Riaz took fourfor 65.
Hafeez stepped in for theprolific Saeed Ajmal, who wasyet to return from Australia,where he underwent tests on hisbowling action after being re-ported by the umpires duringthe preceding Test series.
Pakistan, hoping to win theone-day leg after they lost theTests 2-0, were also withoutfrontline batsman YounisKhan, who returned home fol-lowing a death in the family.Sharjeel Khan replaced Younis,while Sri Lanka dropped bats-man Dinesh Chandimal to playPrasanna.—AFP
Institution of ConsumersFrom Page 14
other. Consumer Associations ofPakistan (CAP) which has beenfounded as NGO to voice andfight for the promotion of theconsumerism in Pakistan has,with a view to develop andstrengthen relations betweenconsumers and suppliers de-signed a novel idea of the insti-tution of a “Consumers ChoiceAward” (CCA) You would ap-preciate that consumerism as anew word added to the disciplineof life is only a century old. Abook of Upton Sinclair entitled“ The Jungle” in 1906 was a truedescription of the unethical en-vironmental conditions sur-rounding the Chicago meatgrinding and packing industry.Fifth years later, it was followedby another book by VancePackard entitled “The HiddenPersuaders” charging that the
consumers were becoming vic-tims of misleading advertise-ments. This led to the consum-ers, bill of rights presented in1962 by US President John F.Kenned.Now more of less simi-lar situation has cropped up inPakistan as was in USA aboutfifty years ago, there is a needthat we, from here onward, pro-mote a consumer supplier rela-tionship culture for faster eco-nomic growth.5. It is with theabove mission in mind that theConsumer Association of Paki-stan has taken the initiative forinstituting on a regular yearlybases “Consumer Choice Award”from last eight years for such lo-cal manufacturers and service pro-viders who enjoy distinct qualityand reputation edge over theircompetitors in the Consumersproducts and services sector.
Zupported by advisory councilmembers in the respective fieldsof expertise. CAP has regionaloffices in Punjab, Sindh andIslamabad and zonal offices in(Lahore, Gujranwala andBahawalpur) are busy in creat-ing awareness among consum-ers to empower them.Objectivesof CAPØ To formulate poli-cies for Pakistani Consumers. ØTo promote consumer’s rights &responsibilities which are: vThe right to satisfaction of ba-sic needs.v The right to safety.vThe right to be informed.vThe right to choose.vThe right to be heard.vThe right to redress.vThe right to consumereducation.v The right to ahealthy environment. ØTo encourage high level of ethi-cal practices in the market Ø
Rising Graph of AchievementsFrom Page 14
To curb abusive businesspracticesØ To develop fair ef-fective market economics.ØTo facilitate development ofconsumers groups at grass routelevel.Ø To attain further inter-national co-operation.ØTo ensure follow-up of UNguidelinesØ To createstandard and healthy environ-ment for consumers to live.Accreditation ofCAPConsumers Associationof Pakistan is recognized byUNIDO (United Nations In-dustrial DevelopmentOrganization).CAP is enlistedwith the following organiza-tions:· Wafaqi Mohtasib Of-fice· Pakistan National Ac-creditation Council (PNAC)·United States Agency for In-ternational Development(USAID)·
Corridor totake Pak tonewheights:AhsanBEIJING—Minister forPlanning and DevelopingAhsan Iqbal has said Pak-China Trade Corridor willtake the country to newheights. Talking to media inBeijing Tuesday, theMinister said the govern-ment is determined to speedup pace of development onvarious mega projects, whichwill not only help review theeconomy but will also helpgenerate new job opportuni-ties. He said these megaprojects will also help opennew avenues of trade andeconomic activities in theregion, which will go longway in improving socio-economic condition of thepeople in Pakistan. —NNI
LIAQAT TOOR
KAHUTA—Spiritual dimen-sion gives greater meaningand depth to Nazriya Paki-stan which is genesis of Pa-kistan.
Spiritual dimension gives greater meaningto Nazriya Pakistan: Zahid Malik
Zahid Malik, Chairman Nazriya Pakistan Council (Trust) Islamabad presiding over third meeting of Board ofGovernors of International Seerat Centre at Darbar-e-Alia Baghar Sharif, Kahuta.
This was stated byZahid Malik, ChairmanNazriya Pakistan Council(trust) Islamabad and Edi-tor-in- Chief of PakistanObserver while addressingstudents and faculty mem-
bers of Darul AloomYaqubia, Baghar SharifKahuta, district Rawalpindion Tuesday.
Dr. Sahabzada Sajid-ur-Rehman, Nazim-e- Ala ofthe educational institute
and Sajjada Nashin ofDarbar-e-Alia BagharSharif, Mian MuhammadJaved, Vice Chairman ofNPC, Dr. Muhammad Tufail,
Continued on Page 7
Dar tobecomeinterim PM,predictsRashidStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—AwamiMuslim League (AML)leader Sheikh Rashidpredicted that PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharifwould quit and Ishaq Darwould replace him.Speaking to media 0nTuesday, Rashid reiteratedthat there would besacrifice before Eid ulAdha. “One or twoimportant developmentswill take place over thenext two days,” he said.
ISLAMABAD—The Economic CoordinationCommittee (ECC) of the Cabinet which methere Tuesday with Finance Minister Sena-tor Ishaq Dar in the chair approved provi-sion of GOP(Govt of Pakistan) guaranteeto support the facility of Pak rupees 1.0 bil-lion, to PIAC, from a private bank.
Secretary Aviation Division, Mr.Mohammad Ali Gardezi briefed the ECC onfinancial discipline which has been put inplace during the last one year to bring backthe PSE on the track. He informed that thesaid loan will be utilized for paying liabili-ties of PIAC to smoothen the forthcomingHajj operation.
The Finance Minister underlined theneed for PIAC to improve its performanceboth financially and with provision of qual-ity service to its clients. He said that theOrganization has to follow cash flow disci-pline in order to effectively pursue its turn-around plan.
The ECC while approving the requestdirected Secretary Aviation Division thatthe loan should only be utilized for engineand component support programme and forensuring fuel supply to the national airline.The ECC also considered a summary of theMinistry of Water and Power for allowingNTDC to approach NEPRA for approval ofthe agreed tariff with Power Generation andTransmission Management Company, Iran(TAVANIR) and of power acquisition re-quest. It may be mentioned that the NTDCis purchasing 74MW electricity from
Hajj operation
ECC okays Rs 1b guarantee for PIA
TAVANIR Iran since November 2002 forsupply to Makran Division, Balochistan.The last contract between the two expiredon 31.12.2013 and TAVANIR has agreed toprovide electricity for another term ending31st December 2014 on the same tariff.Minister for Water and Power, Khawaja Asifinformed the ECC that the contract is nothit by the UN sanctions and the Ministryintends to import 1000MW of electricityfrom Iran in the coming years. The FinanceMinister while agreeing to the request ofNTDC, said that the government is alreadyworking on comprehensive energy plan toboost power generation and in this regardimport of electricity from Iran will be help-ful. The Finance Minister also emphasizedon the concerned Ministries to expeditepayment of arrears of TANAVIR by work-ing with the Iranian side on exchange ofwheat and rice for the arrears.
The ECC also considered summary ofthe Ministry of Water and Power for ap-proval of policy to attract private sectorinvestment in transmission lines projects.The ECC was informed that due to largescale capacity additions in the electricitygeneration system there will be a need toput in place additional transmission net-works. Under the draft policy, the privatesector will be invited for investment in thenew transmission lines to reduce burdenon the public sector. Chairman FBR in
UN observers visitvillages hit byIndian shelling
SIALKOT—United Nationspeace-keeping mission ob-servers, led by Captain MrBinu of Italy and Hanu ofFinland, visited Indianshelling-hit border villagesof Umeraanwali, Beeni,Joyiaan, Anula, BajrahGarhi, Harpal, Charwah andKhadraal on Tuesday.
The UN observers metthe affected people andsought details from themabout Indian firing. The ob-servers also inquired aboutthe health of several injuredin unprovoked shelling bythe Indian Border SecurityForces (BSF) on border vil-lages along the SialkotWorking Boundary .
Sialkot-based seniorjournalists and senior offi-cials of Chenab Rangerswere also present. The UNobservers said they wereinvestigating and collectingevidence of Indian shellingon the villages.
People belonging toAnula, Bajrah Garhi, Beeniand Khadraal villages toldthe UN observers that In-dian BSF was targeting thecivilian population.—APP
SIALKOT: United Nations peace- keeping mission observers, led b y Captain Binu of Italy and Hanu of Finland,visited Indian shelling-hit border villages of Umeraanwali, Joyiaan, Anula, Bajranh Garhi, Harpal , Charwah andKhandraal.
Continued on Page 7KARACHI/ISLAMABAD—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) leader Babar Ghauri onTuesday said time was running out for theresolution of a political deadlock, addingthat his party’s priority was to save thestate.
“The system can be salvaged if the stateis saved,” Ghauri said addressing the pressin Karachi. He said quid pro quo was theway to go in this situation, adding that thedeadlock will not end without flexibility.
The MQM leader also spoke about theModel Town tragedy, saying a proper FIRshould have been registered and with theright action taken, things would not havecome to a head as they now have. “We donot see flexibility from either side.but weare trying to work out the situation,” Ghaurisaid. He said MQM leaders were holdingmeetings with a number of politicians withthe objective of finding a way where all
Time running out for settlingpolitical crisis: Ghauri
parties engage and dispense fairly.Ghauri said MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s
statement of late Monday was a policystatement, adding that PTI should also tryto resolve the issues through talks. Ghaurisaid the allegations of former election com-mission official Afzal Khan should also beinvestigated, adding that democracy canonly work if we have a democratic attitudetowards our opponents.
It will be wise for the government totake a step back in order to save the coun-try, the MQM leader said, adding that ifQadri’s deadline of tomorrow nightpasses without any changes, things arelikely to quickly deteriorate.
Meanwhile, A delegation of seniorMQM leaders Tuesday met JUI-F leaderMaulana Fazlur Rehman in Islamabad inthe backdrop of ongoing political situa-tion.—INP
AMANULLAH KHAN
KARACHI—Saudi pilgrimageauthorities may impose a 15-day cap on stays by for-eigners who enter the king-dom to perform Umrah it islearnt.
According a report,Umrah operators have beengiven one week by the pil-grimage authorities to re-view the 15-day cap pro-posal and share their obser-vations and recommenda-tions that will be used todraw up a new policy, thereport said.
The decision will be pro-portionate with the capac-ity to accommodate wor-shippers inside the GrandMosque in Makkah, cur-
15-day cap likely on stayof Umrah performers
rently undergoing massiveconstruction work that hasshrunk its space. Peak sea-sons, mainly during theholy month of Ramadan,have witnessed heavy con-gestion and the authoritiessaid that they wanted toavert overcrowding to themaximum.
The policy that will betied to the issuance of visasto enter the Saudi kingdomwill be implemented with thestart of the new Umrah year,expected in December.
It may be noted that un-like Hajj pilgrimage, Umrahis not obligatory in Islam.However, millions of Mus-lims who may not be able to
2 TTP militantgunned down inPolice encounter
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Two allegedmembers of Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan (TTP) werekilled in an encounter withPolice. The encounter took
Continued on Page 7
Imran facesisolation: PR
ISLAMABAD—InformationMinister Pervaiz Rashidsays PTI chief Imran Khanfaces isolation as all otherp o l i t i c a lparties wanta politicalsolution tothe prob-lem.
Talkingto a privateTV channelhe said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan AwamiTehreek are on one side andthe whole country is on theother side.
The Minister said thegovernment has acceptedall doable demands of ImranKhan. He said the SupremeCourt has given a clear orderto PTI and PAT to vacate the
ISLAMABAD—The specialcourt of Islamabad on Tues-day deferred the hearing offormer military ruler, PervezMusharraf ’s treason casewithout any court proceed-ings on a plea filed byMusharraf ’s counsel
Musharraf ‘treason’ case hearingdeferred due to political unrest
Farogh Nasim.Farogh Nasim had filed
a petition saying that all theroads leading to Red Zonearea have been blocked be-cause of the ongoing sit-inprotests by Pakistan
Continued on Page 7
Continued on Page 7Continued on Page 7
OVERWEIGHT patients with risk factorsfor heart disease should be sent by theirdoctors for “intensive behavioral coun-
seling” about diet or exercise, according to newrecommendations from the United States Pre-ventive Services Task Force.That includes overweightpeople with high blood pres-sure, high cholesterol, ‘meta-bolic syndrome’ or bloodsugar levels higher then nor-mal and on the cusp of type2 diabetes.
A literature review com-missioned for the govern-ment-backed USPSTF, pub-lished in the Annals of Inter-nal Medicine, found that in-tensive behavioral counsel-ing can help lower these pa-tients’ risk for heart prob-lems. “My message for pa-tients would be that we havethe ability by changing ourbehavior to modify our riskfor heart disease and strokeand your doctors can help you do that,” Dr.Michael L. LeFevre, the chair of the Task Force,told Reuters Health by phone.
LeFevre is also vice chair in the Departmentof Family and Community Medicine at the Uni-versity of Missouri School of Medicine in Co-lumbia. The recommendations are targeted tohealth care providers more than to patients,LeFevre said. To patients, he says, “The mostimportant thing that we can do right now is haveyou lose some weight, be more active but justoffering that advice and giving you a pamphlet,we don’t really find any evidence that that’shelpful.” Instead, the Task Force review found,intensive behavioral counseling - involving mul-
tiple sessions with experts in nutrition andexercise over an extended period, for severalmonths to a year - can help people lose weightand bring down their blood pressure and cho-lesterol. The researchers reviewed 74 studies
of various lifestyle interventionsand found that with intensivecounseling, many health mark-ers were improved one and twoyears later, and the risk of dia-betes decreased.
“This crystallizes 25years of research and a hugenumber of studies but I don’tthink this is new or earth shat-tering information,” said Dr.Jennifer S. Lin of the KaiserPermanente Center for HealthResearch in Portland Oregon.Lin was the lead author of theliterature review.
There is a great deal ofdata on people with heart attackand stroke risk factors and mostof those studies focused on acombination of diet and exercise
counseling, so those kinds of programs havethe most evidence behind them at this point,she said. “On average we’re talking about a few mil-ligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of bloodor a couple of millimeters of Mercury decreasein blood pressure,” Lin told Reuters Healthby phone. “We’re calling that a modest ben-efit applied to a population but even thesemodest benefits translate into health outcomesthat patients can actually feel,” she said.
Right now, larger health organizations likeKaiser Permanente in California or GroupHealth in Washington are most likely to beable to do this, he said.
New recommendations foroverweight people with heart risks
Managing Director Pakistan Baitul Mall Abid Waheed Sheikh giving away check to cancer patient Qayyum.
PBM to bear medicalexpenses of cancer patientZUBAIR QURESHI
ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) sit-in may be causing inconve-nience for many living in the twin cities,however, for Qayyum Khan, it was anightmare. For ten days, he kept raisingslogans for his leader Imran Khan hop-ing against hope that Khan might recog-nize his old and ailing worker and sendhim to Shaukat Khanam Cancer Hospi-tal for treatment but all in vain.
However, in a way the same dharna(sit-in) turned out to be a blessing in dis-guise for him. Life for Qayyum Khanwho is a man of limited means and largefamily was full of misery as he has beensuffering from throat cancer for the lastcouple of years. A diehard fan of Imran
Khan, Chairman of the PTI, QayyumKhan remained an active worker andsupporter of the PTI chief’s 2013 elec-tion campaign held in Rawalpindi.
In return, he never demanded anyworldly help nor was given any. Thechairman of the PTI might not even knowhis name but Qayyum Khan kept raisingslogans for his leader with his throat thathad developed a bulge.
According to Qayyum, doctors haddetected cancer in his throat and he hop-ing to attract Imran Khan’s attention andbe sent to Shaukat Khanam Cancer Hos-pital for treatment kept visiting the sit-insite for the last ten days, since the Azadicaravan arrived in Islamabad on Aug 15.Despite his presence in the front rows,Qayyum could not draw his leader’s at-
tention. Meanwhile, a number of TVchannels in search of some juicy storiesinterviewed him and disappeared afterrecording his statements/appeals to thePTI leader.
On Tuesday however fate smiled onhim when Managing Director of Paki-stan Bait-ul-Mal Barrister Abid WaheedSheikh chanced to see a private TV chan-nel report covering Qayyum Khan’s re-port. The enthusiastic TV reporter wastelling the viewers the PTI’s sit-in is at-tended by even a cancer patient who leav-ing everything behind had come only tohave a glimpse of his leader.
MD Abid Wahid Sheikh sent his of-ficers to the said TV channel headquar-ters and got hold of the tape as well asthe cell number of the cancer patient.
ZUBAIR QURESHI
ISLAMABAD—Justice Athar Minallah of theIslamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday declared apetition that challenged allegedly immoral activi-ties—dancing and singing—by the youth at the Pa-kistan Tehreek-I-Insaf (PTI) protest sit-in, frivolous,unnecessary and dismissed it imposing Rs5,000 fineon the petitioner.
The petition was moved by Shohada Founda-tion of Pakistan Trust. The petitioner had prayed tothe court to pass directions to stop these musical per-formances.
IHC bench dismissed the petition declaring itnon-maintainable and directed the litigant to depositRs5,000 fine with the Amna Masood Janjua’s De-fence of Human Rights Organization that is work-ing for the cause of missing persons.
Shohda Foundation of Lal Masjid through Ad-vocate Supreme Court of Pakistan Tariq Asad hadcontended before the IHC that PTI’s sit-in had virtu-ally turned into a musical concert. “It starts in eveningand ends after midnight with performances of topsingers and celebrities in between the speeches ofleaders. Almost every speech includes a song or two,followed by a song break. When the leaders takebreaks, the music continues to be played to entertainthe audience, he added.
He said it seemed the PTI organizers had usedthe trick to attract maximum crowds during theevening as the people visited the rally venue alongwith their families for fun and entertainment.
A large number of participants are male and fe-male teenagers who are not even registered votersbut come to the venue with friends to enjoy anevening of fun, he further said. The petitioner al-
leged some private TV channels were airing thosedances of mix groups of girls and boys in the PTI‘sit-in’ in immoral and obscene way that it was hurt-ing the feelings of the citizens of Pakistan.
The petitioner had prayed to the court to directPakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority(PEMRA) to stop live coverage of the protest. How-ever, the court asked how it could hurt feelings ofthe people. Those who don’t want to see the protestcan change the TV channel as they have the option.Under Article 199 how a party’s right to protest orsit-in can affect the fundamental rights of petitioner,the court asked. People may differ with each other’sopinion and such matters cannot be brought beforethe court in form of petition, remarked Justice AtharMinallah. Calling it a wastage of court’s time, Jus-tice Minallah disposed the case and imposed fine ofRs5,000 on petitioner.
IHC fines petitioner Rs5000 for wasting court’s time
ISLAMABAD—26th August 2014 was markedas an important and auspicious day in the his-tory of Japan-Pakistan cultural relations when,on behalf of Fumio Kishida, Foreign Ministerof Japan, Hiroshi Inomata, Ambassador of Ja-pan to Pakistan, conferred the Japanese For-eign Minister’s Commendation to RoeedaKabir, President of Pakistan-Japan CulturalAssociation (PJCA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inrecognition of her significant contribution forpromoting Japan-Pakistan cultural relations.
The commendation award ceremony was heldat the Embassy of Japan on Tuesday, whichwas attended by the select gathering.
This year, Commendation will be awardedto 108 individuals and 30 groups of which, 20individuals and 10 groups are from Japan, and88 individuals and 20 groups are from over-seas. The Foreign Minister’s Commendationsare awarded to individuals and groups with out-standing achievements in international fields,to acknowledge their contributions to the pro-motion of friendship between Japan and othercountries and areas.
Japan’s FM commendationfor President Pak-Japan
Cultural Association
Hiroshi Inomata, Ambassador of Japan, presenting Japanese Foreign Minister’s Com-mendation to Roeeda Kabir, President, Pakistan-Japan Cultural Association KP, in rec-ognition of her outstanding contribution for the promotion of cultural relations betweenJapan and Pakistan. The Commendation award ceremony was held Tuesday at the offi-cial residence of the Ambassador.—PO photo Sultan Bashir
MPA Tahseen Fawad and MPA Zaib-un-Nisa Awan with position holders of Milli Naghma Competition in connection with Independence Day celebra-tions at Government Viqar-un-Nisa Post-Graduate College for Women.
CITY REPORTER
RAWALPINDI—Dead body of a man who drownedin an open manhole after falling in it was recoveredby rescue 1122 in Marrir Chowk Murree Road hereon Tuesday morning.
According to Rescue sources, some manholesfor electricity and telephone wires in connection withmetro bus project were constructed on Murree roadand left open by the contractors. On Monday eveningopen manholes and road were inundated from heavyrainwater. A passerby man fell into one of the man-
holes located in Marrir Chowk. Police and rescue1122 teams arrived at the scene and recovered thedeceased. The body was shifted to district head-quarter civil hospital where the deceased could notbe identified yet. Police started investigation andsearch for the heirs.
Metro bus project openmanhole claims life
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—A meeting of the Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP) which was scheduled for Wednesday in or-der to discuss the situation arising in the wake of a string ofallegations against it was cancelled due to the sit-ins onIslamabad’s Constitution Avenue.
According to sources, the meeting was cancelled be-cause members and senior ECP officials were unable tomake it for the meeting on account of closure of roads. Themeeting on the current situation will soon be reconvened
soon, sources added.The meeting was expected to focus on the allegations
leveled against the ECP by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)chairman Imran Khan. It was also expected to review alle-gations in connection with the additional printing of ballotpapers.
The announcement of the meeting had come a day after aformer additional secretary of the commission MohammadAfzal Khan alleged that returning officers for the 2013 gen-eral elections had been appointed and controlled by then chiefjustice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
ECP meeting postponeddue to sit-ins at Red Zone
05:00 01:3005:30
08:45
Zohr
Asr
Isha
Fajar
Meghrab at Sunset
Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity
Minister of State for CADD Usman ibraheem awarding degree to the students during 5th Convocation of IslamabadModel College for Girls F-6/2.— PO photo Sultan Bashir
ISLAMABAD—The 5th convocation ofIslamabad Model College for Girls(IMCG)was held here on Tuesday.
In IMCG convocation, 116 students wereawarded degrees at graduate and post- gradu-ate levels in the fields of Arts and Science.
Graduates were awarded medals and cer-tificates for their outstanding achievementsin their respective degree programmes.
Four gold medals in resp[ective catego-ries were awarded to Amna Asghar, RabiaAnwar ,Hubba Akram and Yumna Zahra.
Speaking on the occasion, state ministerfor Capital Administration and DevelopmentUsman Ibrahim who was also chief guest onthe occassion said the IMCG was one of thebest institutes.
The degree, he believed, besides being a
tool for seeking job, was the beginning ofan endless process of learning, doing goodand being kind.
Barrister Usman Ibrahim highlighted theimportance and role of education particularlyresearch and innovation through which na-tions could achieve progress to become pros-perous and powerful countries.
The minister stressed on the need to pro-mote education to bring change while urg-ing the students to strive for improving theirqualifications.
Principal of the college, Rehana Rasheedcongratulated the graduating students and ad-vised them to work hard and make greatercontributions to the development of theircountry and nation.
She called upon the campus faculty tofocus on research and publications in orderto contribute to and keep pace with the newdevelopments of knowledge.
ISLAMABAD—Around 359 children ofOverseas Pakistanis from KhyberPakhtunkhwa have benefitted under MeritAwards and Needy Scholarship programmelaunched by Overseas Pakistanis Founda-tion.
The OPF, which has taken many stepsfor welfare of Overseas Pakistanis duringlast five years, has announced that Voca-tional Training Center at Peshawar has been
revived last year to impart training to youthfrom KPK and Federally AdministeredTribal Areas (FATA) and ensured trainingto 87 students. Moreover, the OPF also pro-vided financial assistance of Rs. 2.85 mil-lion to 190 destitute families of OverseasPakistanis from KPK during the periodwhile free eye medical camps were orga-nized in Overseas Pakistanis concentrationareas i.e. Swabi, Haripur, Besham, Swat and
Baffa wherein over 7000 patients weretreated.
The construction of OPF PublicSchool’s Building Budhani Road, Peshawarhas also been completed while constructionof OPF School Building at Hangu is inprogress. Three seats are annually reservedfor children of Overseas Pakistanis of KPKincluding one in Khyber Medical Collegeand two in Ayub Medical College.—NNI
Overseas Pakistanis childrenprovided scholarships
Student’sdistinction
I S L A M A B A D —Abdul lahDogar, a student of Froebel’sInternational School Islamabadbagged distinctive position inhis school by securing 5 Agrade (2 A Star) in final ‘O’Level examination held byAdexcel Board London andenlisted as high achiever.
Abdullah Dogar got firstposition in school by getting152/180 marks in Chemistry.Educational and Social dignitar-ies have congratulated Mr.Riasat Ali Dogar, PRO OGDCL(Abdullah Dogar’s father) andShamina Kamal, PrincipalFroebel’s International SchoolIslamabad on this distinctionachieved by Abdullah Dogar.
Imran does notoffer any apology
to Ex-CJPI S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaderDr. Shireen Mazari has saidthat PTI Chairman Imran Khandid not offer any apology toformer Chief Justice of Paki-stan Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry.
Dr Shireen Mazari, whiletalking to media on Tuesday,said that Imran Khan stands bythe statements he made towardsIftikhar Chaudhry. —NNI
ISLAMABAD—Parliamentary Committeeon the appointment of judges has approvednomination of Justice Qazi Faiz Esa, ChiefJustice of Balochistan High Court as judgeof the Supreme Court.
The committee which met inIslamabad Tuesday under the chairman-ship of Arshad Leghari also approved theappointment of Justice Ghulam MustafaMengal as new Chief Justice Balochistan
High court. It also approved extension ofservice of Shakeel Ahmed, Ejaz Sawatiand Kamran Mallakhel as three additionaljudges of the Balochistan High Court forone-year.—INP
Committee approves Justice QaziFaiz as judge of SC, JusticeGhulam Mustafa as CJ BHCRAWALPINDI—Rawalpindi police on Tuesday
arrested 11 outlaws and recovered drugs, weap-ons and bottles of liquor from their possession.
According to police spokesman,Kahutapolice arrested Zahid and recovered 210 gramscharas from his possession.
Ratta Amral police arrested NazirAshraf,Fazal Abbas and Sabir shah and recov-ered 8,10 and 8 liter liquor  bottle from themrespectively.
Naseerabad police nabbed Faiz and recov-
11 outlaws arrestedered 5 bottles of liquor from his custody.
Ratta Amral police recovered one 30 borepistol from Mubbasir Iqbal.New town Policerecovered 1 pistol and 3 rounds from Waqas.
Wah cantt police arrested Faisal Mehmoodand recovered one 30 bore pistol fromhim.Kalar syeda police apprehended Israr andrecovered one pistol from him.
Cases have been registered against the ac-cused and further investigation is underway.—APP
RAWALPINDI—Rawalpindi City TrafficPolice (RCTP) issued 61,885 challantickets in eight months with fines amount-ing to over Rs 24.3 million imposed onthe tinted glass vehicles, the vehicles andmotorcycles did not have proper numberplates, the drivers without licences andunder age drivers.
Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) SeniorSuperintendent Police (SSP) ShoiabKhurram Janbaz informed that 1189 ve-hicles and motorcycles were also im-pounded in different police stations un-der the campaign during the period.
CTO told that CTP, in view of thesecurity situation, started grand operation
and took action in accordance with the lawagainst tinted glass vehicles and those whodid not have proper number plates or wereon the roads without number plates.
The CTO informed that 3965 vehiclesfor having tinted glass were fined duringthe period and black papers were removedon the spot. 40,313 vehicles and motor-cycles which were without number platesor without registration were penalized.13,410 drivers without licenses were alsofined. Challan slips were issued to 4197under age drivers.
He said strict action is being takenagainst the violators as tinted glass vehiclesand other vehicles which are without num-
ber plates or with improper numberplates are security risk. He informedthat the operation will continue and norelaxation will be given to anyone.Steps are being taken to avoid any un-toward incident in the city. City trafficpolice in its efforts for the smooth flowof traffic on city roads is taking actionagainst the traffic rules violators, headded.
The CTO urged the people to co-operate with traffic wardens as they areon the roads to facilitate them. A spe-cial squad is available to help and fa-cilitate the citizens on Helpline 1915,he added.—APP
Vehicles, motorcycles impoundedunder special campaign
RAWALPINDI—Provincial Minister for Labourand Manpower Raja Ashfaq Sarwar has saidthat those hatching conspiracy against the con-stitution and the democracy will not be allowedto succeed.
He said the demand of resignation of PrimeMinister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and ChiefMinister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif is uncon-stitutional and they will not resign at any cost.
The patriotic forces are united for the pro-tection of the parliament and the constitution,he said adding the sit-ins of Imran Khan andTahir ul Qadri have caused huge loss to thenational economy.
Raja Ashfaq Sarwar in a statement issued
here on Tuesday said that Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri have indulged in the politics of black-mailing by making shield of women and chil-dren.
He said all political parties of the countryhave made it clear that no one will be allowedto derail democratic system.
The government will accept only constitu-tional demands of Imran Khan and Tahir ulQadri. He further said that people have givenmandate to Prime Minister Muhammad NawazSharif. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif andMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif are the real andpopular leaders of PML-N and the people ofthe country, he added.—APP
Sit-ins caused huge loss toeconomy: Raja Ashfaq
Istehkam-e-Pakistan rally
Entire nation wanted continuationof democratic process
RAWALPINDI—The workers and activ-ists of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUIF) along with traders and law-yers held a rally to express solidaritywith Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif anddenounce unconstitutional demands ofPTI and PAT.
The rally was led by the local PML-N and JUI-F legislators and leaders in-cluding former MNAs MuhammadHanif Abbasi, Haji Pervaiz Khan, MNAMalik Abrar Ahmed, Raja Javed Ikhlas,MPA Malik Iftikhar Ahmed, ChaudhrySarfraz Afzal, Zaib-un-Nisa Awan, RajaMuhammad Hanif Advocate, Dr JamalNasir, former MPAs Shaukat AzizBhatti, Zia Ullah Shah, Sheryar Riaz,Chaudhry Muahammad Ayaz, SardarNaseem, Ilyas Subhani and others, theparticipants marched through BenazirBhutto Road and gathered at FaizabadInterchange.
The jubilant workers and activists ofPML-N and JUI-F boarding on vehiclesand motorcycles were holding nationaland party flags, and placards and ban-
ners in favour of prime minister and chiefminister Punjab. They were also hold-ing portraits of their beloved leaders anddanced on the tune of national and partysongs.
The most echoed song, being playedin full volume, was ‘Hum sab ki jaan haiNawaz Sharif.’
The leaders and workers renewedtheir support to PM Nawaz Sharif andvowed to foil all unconstitutional at-tempts and undemocratic moves.
PML-N stalwart Muhammad HanifAbbasi, gathered a large number of sup-porters at Chandni Chowk and marchedtowards Faizabad Interchange.
Speaking on the occasion, he saidthat the entire nation wanted continua-tion of the democratic process and a hugemajority backed the prime minister.
He said that a few thousand peoplebelonging to a disgruntled party couldnot be allowed to undo the mandate givento PML-N by millions of its voters.
He said that the masses had rejectedthe ‘unconstitutional’ demands of PTIand PAT.
A mammoth rally, taken out by MNAMalik Abrar and Malik Iftikhar, alsojoined the main procession at FaizabadInterchange by marching on IJP Road.Haji Pervaiz Khan, a former MNA, alsotook out a rally on Benazir Bhutto Roadwhich was attended by a good numberof workers.
The rally was started from KohatiBazaar and joined the procession on 6thRoad Flyover.
Some 700 workers of PML-N, un-der the leadership of Mustafa Khan SafiChairman Pahktoonkhwa Federation,marched towards Faizabad Interchange.In Gujar Khan, PML-N MNA Raja JavedIkhlas and former MPA Shaukat AzizBhatti also arranged a gathering towardZero Point.
Meanwhile, hundreds of JUI-F activ-ists were taken out from Mareer Chowkto Faizabad Interchange.
A rosy welcome was accorded toleaders and stalwarts of N league upontheir arrival at Faizabad Interchange bythe workers. Tight security arrangementswere made on the occasion.—APP
RAWALPINDI—he model emergencyservice Rescue 1122 is fully equippedto cope with the possible flood in theLeh Nullah during the monsoon season.
According to a Rescue 1122, the res-cue staff would be on standby to pro-vide timely emergency response, medi-cal treatment and transportation facili-ties to possible flood victims in low-ly-ing areas.
The Rescue 1122 has requested
people not to stand on the banks of low-lying areas along Leh Nullah duringflood and follow instructions given bythe flood control room.
City District GovernmentRawalpindi has completed all the ar-rangements to cope with the flood situ-ation. However, the dwellers of low ly-ing areas of the city and cantonment in-cluding Arya Mohallah, Shamsabad,Dhoke Kala Khan, Sadiqabad, Muslim
Town, Rahimabad, Nadeem Colony,Dhoke Juma, Adiala Road, Pirwadhai,Gharibabad, Scheme No-III are spend-ing sleepless nights owing to the fearof floods during the rainy season.
Earlier, the Director General,Punjab Emergency Service Rescue 1122Dr. Rizwan Naseer reviewed monsoonpreparedness and contingency plan forRawalpindi division in a meeting heldat Central Station here.—APP
Rescue 1122 on high alert tocope with flood situation
A view of tent city in front of parliament house due to independence and Revolution sit-ins.
Liaqat Bagh Road has been closed for traffic due to Metro Bus Project.
In our equitiesbusiness, 49 of the50 most important
Lehman clients areback doing busi-ness with us. Theflows are 75 to 80per cent of what
they were prior tothe bankruptcy.
The issues whichdamaged Lehman
were aroundcommercial mort-gages and illiquid
private equityassets.
—Bob Diamond
ISE-10 index staysbearishISLAMABAD—TheIslamabad Stock Exchange(ISE) on Tuesday wit-nessed bearish trend, asthe ISE-10 index was downby 40.94 points to close at4407.7 points. A total of48,200 shares were traded,which showed a positivegrowth of 45,700 shares,when compared withprevious day’s trading of2500 shares. Out of 124companies, share prices of29 companies recordedincrease while those of 93companies decreased and 2companies remained stablein today’s trading.—APP
Conversion ratesKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign CurrencyDeposits, Dollar BearerCertificates, ForeignCurrency Bearer Certifi-cates, Special U.S. DollarBonds and profits thereonby all banks and forproviding Forward Coveron Foreign CurrencyDeposits (excluding F.E-25 deposits) by the StateBank on August 27, 2014.The rates are U.S. DollarRs 102.3280, Japanese YenRs 0.9853, Pound SterlingRs 169.6497 and Euro Rs135.1242.—APP
Sukkur IBA, SCCIsign MoUSUKKUR—Sukkur Instituteof Business Administra-tion (IBA) signed amemorandum of under-standing (MoU) with theSukkur Chamber ofCommerce and Industry(SCCI) for strengtheningthe industry-academiarelationship. Bothinstitutions vowed to worktogether for the develop-ment of the region.According to the MoU,Sukkur IBA will offer itsservices in the areas ofconsultancy, research,capacity development, ITsolutions, feasibilityreporting, training anddevelopment and skilldevelopment programmes,which will create new waysto improve the localindustry, enabling it tocompete in the globalmarket.— APP
Port Qasimshipping activityKARACHI—Three shipsC.V MSC Itea, M.T BungaLevendor and M.T Lahorecarrying containers,chemicals and furnace oilwere allotted berths atQasim InternationalContainer Terminal, EngroVopak Terminal andFOTCO Oil Terminalrespectively at Port Qasimon Monday, Port sourcessaid here on Tuesday.Seven more ships carryingcontainers, VCM, phos-phoric acid, palm oil andfurnace oil also arrived atouter anchorage of PortQasim during the last 24hours. Berth occupancywas managed at the Port atsixty four percent onMonday where nine shipsnamely C.V MSC Itea, C.VLOS Angles, M.V IkanPandan, M.V Vina linesGlobal, M.V Inlaco Brave,M.T ECF Nurk, M.TAtlantic Glory, M.T BungaLevendor.—APP
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif witnessing signing ceremony while Secretary Agriculture Sindh, Saqib AhmadSoomro and Country Director World Bank, Rachid Benmessaoud signing the project agreement of Sindh Agriculture Growth Project.
ISLAMABAD—Prime Minis-ter Muhammad NawazSharif has witnessed thesigning ceremony of fi-nancing agreements ofUS$ 588.4 million and US$76.4 million with the WorldBank relating to the devel-opment of Dasu Hydro-power Project and SindhAgricultural GrowthProject. The Project Agree-ments of Dasu Hydro-power Project were signedby Chairman, Water andPower Development Au-thority (WAPDA) andManaging Director, Na-tional Transmission Dis-patch Company (NTDC)and Country DirectorWorld Bank, Mr. RachidBenmessaoud.
The Project Agree-ment of Sindh AgriculturalGrowth Project was signedby Secretary, AgricultureDepartment, Governmentof Sindh and Country Di-rector World Bank. On thisoccasion the Prime Minis-ter was informed thatDasu Hydropower Projecthas the potential of pro-ducing 4320 MW electric-ity, which will be devel-oped in two phases. Un-der Phase-I 2160 MWelectr ici ty wil l be pro-
Govt, WB sign agreements on Dasu Hydropower,Sindh Agricultural Growth Projects
duced which will be ex-tended to 4320 MW in fu-ture under Phase-II. SindhAgricultural Growthproject would improve theagriculture and livestocksector productivi ty ofSindh province.
The project will use avalue chain approach toprovide direct investmentsupport to the farmers andsmall & medium producergroups for (i) developmentof more effective and effi-cient farming systems; (ii)Introduction of technol-ogy packages for in-creased productivity andvalue addit ion; and (i i i )Improved market access.
The ceremony was at-tended by Federal Minis-ters for Information, Broad-casting and National Heri-tage, Senator PervaizRashid; Planning, Develop-ment & Reforms, Mr. AhsanIqbal and Water & Power,Khawaja Muhammad Asifalong with Minister of Statefor Water & Power, Mr.Abid Sher Ali; Sindh Min-ister for Agriculture, Mr. AliNawaz Mehr and SindhMinister for Livestock &Fisheries, Mr. Jam KhanShoro among senior offic-ers.—NNI
HYDERABAD—With the assistance of StateBank of Pakistan the agriculture graduateswill be empowered through three months in-ternship program in agri-financing, so the limitof 500 million of credit could be reached tothe farming community. Prof. Dr. MujeebuddinMemon, Vice Chancellor, Sindh AgricultureUniversity Tandojam said this while address-ing the inauguration session of the regionalinternship program for agriculture graduatesheld at State Bank of Pakistan at Hyderabad.In his inaugural speech he emphasized thetrained manpower in the field of agriculturecredits to cope the challenges of the agricul-ture sector in the province.
He further said that the farmers of the prov-ince are facing lots of problem. However, weshould strengthen the agriculture graduatesthrough agri-financing for proper credit exten-sion services to the farming community. Hesaid that agriculture is the backbone of our
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—Bio-energy is a versatile source that can be used to over-come electricity challenge in Pakistan besides making a consider-able contribution to climate change phenomenon. This was crux ofthe speeches delivered at the International conference on ‘Bio-En-ergy as Alternative Fuel’ jointly organized by Lahore Chamber ofCommerce & Industry, Pakistan Council of Scientific & IndustrialResearch (PCSIR) and Umeed Foundation Trust and Governmentof Punjab here on Tuesday.
Provincial Minister for Mines & Minerals Sher Ali Khan, LCCIActing President Mian Tariq Misbah while Vice President KashifAnwar, Secretary Environment Iqbal Muhammad Chohan, formerChairman WAPDA Tariq Hameed, Chairman Pakistan Science Foun-dation Prof. Dr. Khalil Ahmed, Co Chairman Prof. Dr. Salahuddin Khan,Chairman Standing Committee on Bio Technology Dr. Shahid Raza,CEO Revegreen Mian Arif Ali, DG PCSIR Dr. Shahzad Alam, Dean,Faculty of Agriculture, Engineering & Technology Prof Dr. Allah Baksh,Dr. Anjum Munawar, Dr. Khalid Islam, Vice Chancellor Sargodha Uni-versity Prof. Dr. Muhammad Akram, Pro-Rector NUST Source of Bio-Methene Fuel Prof. Dr. Bilal Khan, Director Rutgerss Eco Complex Dr.Serpil Guran, Prof. Dr. Ehsan Ali, Prof. Dr. Salahuddin Khan, Dr. Shabi-ul-Hassan, Engineer Muhammad Shoaib Hashmi, Dr. Faiz ul Hassanand Shahzad Mughal of Umeed Foundation spoke on the occasion.
The speakers were of the view that biomass energy has the
Bio-energy vital source to overcome power shortagepotential convert a wide variety of wastes into clean energy be-sides being substitution for diminishing global oil supplies. Theenergy sector experts said that bio energy can play a very vital rolein production of carbon-neutral fuels of high quality and addressmany environmental issues, especially global warming and green-house gases emissions, and foster sustainable development amongpoor communities. Biomass fuel sources are readily available inrural and urban areas of all countries.
Punjab Minster for Mines & Minerals Sher Ali Khan said thatPunjab government was actively pursuing all alternate energy re-sources, citing, it was not the solar energy only but a number ofwind energy projects were also in the pipeline. He said that coal isthe only available indigenous and inexpensive alternate energy re-source, which has the potential to not only ensure self-sufficiencyin energy sector but also turn Pakistan into a power exporting coun-try. Globally, the coal component contributes 41 per cent in electric-ity generation.
The LCCI Acting President Mian Tariq Misbah said that mainobjective of the conference was to introduce a new technology fordevelopment and generation of CNG from wastewater/biowaste.“We all are aware of the present challenges to our economy andespecially the problem widely caused due to severe energy crisis. Itis indeed a matter of concern for us that our gas reserves are deplet-ing with the passage of time, and be it domestic or industrial usersall have to face shortage of gas in winter season. Even the genera-
tion of electricity through gas has to put on halt in this period thatfurther aggravates the situation,” he maintained.
Tariq said that Pakistan desperately need some good alterna-tives and viable solutions in this connection and bio-energy in theform of biomethane and its conversion into compressed natural gas(CNG) can promise us a major breakthrough. A wide range of biom-ass resources, particularly woody biomass and organic waste isavailable in Pakistan in abundance, so some serious efforts are re-quired to be made to establish necessary modalities to commercial-ize it at a mega scale, he added.
The Chamber’s Acting President said there are serious effortsbeing made world over to introduce biomethane as a renewabletransport fuel in vehicles designed to run on compressed naturalgas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG). This idea can benefit us toshift the load of road transport fuel to biomethane.
The LCCI Vice President Kashif Anwar said the LCCI wouldcontinue to hold special training sessions for guidance of technicalpeople with latest trends in new alternative technologies and toincrease their efficiency. The LCCI will bring together leading aca-demic scientists, researchers and research scholars at one place tocome up with a joint strategy to make best use of this technology.He said the desired results of our efforts can be doubled or evenmore if the government’s support remains available to us in imple-menting the research findings and replicating the successful mod-els related to Bio-Energy from modern world.
Professor Tekalign Mamo Assefa working with a farmer in the field.
SBP initiates internshipprogram for agri financing
country and the role of agriculture and live-stock is not being ignored for the prosperity ofthe nation. He appreciated the efforts of StateBank of Pakistan for initiating such internshipprogram especially for the agriculture gradu-ates to develop their skills in agri financing. Heurged the students that they should take maxi-mum benefit from this opportunity and makebright future in their career services.
He assured that Sindh Agriculture Uni-versity Tandojam will play a vital role forthe quality of education in the field of agri-culture and livestock. Mr. MuhammadHumayoon Khan, Chief Manager (SBP)welcomed the participants. Mr. KamranAkram Bakhshi, Additional Director, Agri-culture Credit and Microfinance Department(SBP) said that this program is focused tocreate awareness among the agriculturegraduates regarding the agri-financingpolicy and regulatory framework.—INP
SALIM AHMED
LAHORE—Provincial Minister for Excise &Taxation and Finance Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said that in result of govern-ment economic policies and current fiscalyear’s budget, job opportunities will be of-fered to 4 million people whereas 20 lakhpeople will be provided technical trainingso that to make them self-sufficient. He saidthat Punjab government wants to upgradethe growth rate of the province to 8 percenttill next four years and in result of it, morethan 70 lakh people will be able to live abovepoverty line.
He said that the budget allocated foreducation Rs.274 billion which is 26.25 per-cent of total expenditures whereas the bud-get allocated for health Rs.121.80 billonwhich is 11.66 percent of total expendituresof the government. He said that 95 percentdiscretionary funds are spent on the treat-ment and financial help of poorest people.He said that 36 percent of developmentbudget has been allocated for south Punjab
Punjab govt to upgradegrowth rate by 8pc till 2018
so that maximum development projects willbe completed in the less developed districts.He said that workers’ minimum wages havealso increased from Rs.10 thousand to Rs.12thousand per month.
While talking to PML-N workers at hisresidence, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman saidthat priority is being paid to education andhealth sectors and development budget ofcurrent fiscal year is 17 percent more ascompared to previous year. He said thatpower generation and elimination of loadshedding is our foremost priority and 1320-megawatt electricity will be available on thecompletion of Sahiwal power plant, whichwill decrease the industrial, and agricultureproduction cost.
Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said thatpresent government has levied tax only onelite and well-to-do-people while tax on bighouses and increase in the duty of luxuryvehicles. He said that property tax has beenincreased after 13 years and this increasewill also be imposed on big houses as wellas affluent people.
Chinesediplomatadmires
PCJCCI ChiefSTAFF REPORTER
L A H O R E — A m b a s s a d o rof China Mr. Sun Weidonghas appreciated Mr. ShahFaisal Afridi , PresidentPak-China Joint Chamberof Commerce and Industry(PCJCCI) for registeringcondolence and grief overmassive causali t ies oc-curred due to earthquakestruck in Yunnan Prov-ince of China.
In a letter received inthe PCJCCI office, the Chi-nese Ambassador has saidthat the Chinese govern-ment was going all out forthe rescue work and withthe strong support fromPakistan and other mem-bers of international com-munity.
The relief work as wellas the post disaster recon-struction will be carriedout smoothly, and thepeople in the quake-hitareas will return to theirnormal life soon, the Am-bassador said.
The Chinese Ambas-sador has extended thismessage in response to aletter earlier delivered byPresident PCJCCI to theChinese Embassy for ex-pressing condolence andsympathies to members ofthe bereaved families andall those whose lives hadbeen affected by the dev-astat ing natural disasteroccurred in Yunnan prov-ince of China.
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—PIAF-Founders Alliance willkick-start its election campaign by inau-gurating its election office on September02 at Lahore Railway Station near officeof Pak Business Express. The decisionwas made in the meeting of PIAF-Founders Alliance Steering Committeemeeting chaired by its Chairman MianAnjum Nisar. LCCI former presidentsMianMuhammad Ashraf, Mian ShafqatAli, Mian Misbah Rehman, Irfan Qaisersheikh, Syed Mohsin Raza Bukhari,
PIAF-Founders Alliance to startelection campaign from Sept 2
Sheikh Muhammad Arshad, ShahidHassan Sheikh, Mian Abuzar shad,Shahzad Ali Malik, Amjad Ali Jawa andSheikh Muhammad Asif were present onthe occasion.
PIAF-Founders Alliance has also de-cided that Mian Misbah ur Rehman andSheikh Muhammad Arshad would be thegroup leaders for Corporate Class and As-sociate Class respectively. PIAF-Founders Alliance leaders pledged tocontinue to raise voice for the solutionof the problems being faced by the busi-ness community.
Bipin DaniOBSERVER CORRESPONDENT
MUMBAI—Indian cricket board may havelost confidence in their bowling coach JoeDawes, but the 44-year-old former fastbowler is still the best man for the job,opines Michael Jeh.
“I played cricket with him at ValleysCC in Brisbane as he made his way intofirst-class cricket. Unbelievably he is ahard-working cricketer. Very tough man,very strong disciplinarian”, Jeh, the SriLanka-born fast-bowler, now settled inAustralia, says.
“He was never a child protégé so heunderstands what it is like to work hardto get his success. That should be thegreat legacy he leaves India – there is nosubstitute for hard work”.
“He left the police probably becausehis cricket career was just taking up toomuch time and even in the off-season, heplayed in England.
So maybe the police could not keepgiving him leave. Or maybe he fanciedmore time learning to become a coach”.
Dawes and Jeh, both also played forMCC in England.
“In any other era, he would haveplayed Test cricket. He was just unluckyto be born in an era with McGrath,Fleming, Gillespie, Kasprowicz, Bichel,Reiffel, Dale, Lee etc. He was a very in-timidating bowler and feared on the Shieldcircuit”, added Jeh.Excellent job
Incidentally, India’s bowling coachhas also earned praise from KeithBradshaw, the former MCC official andnow the South Australia Cricket Associa-tion (SACA) chief. “In Australia, he(Dawes) is highly regarded and did excel-lent job at SACA”.Uncertain future
Sadly, Dawes is unsure on his future.“I am not sure what my future holds”, hesaid over his mobile from Australia. Af-ter returning from England, Dawes willlook at other options once informed onhis future by the Indian cricket board.“The BCCI is not allowing me to speakto the Indian reporters till then”, headded.
Joe Dawes was never a childprotégé, says Michael Jeh
Angelo Mathews drives through the off side, Sri Lanka v Pakistan, 2nd ODI, Hambantota, August 26, 2014
MUMBAI—Leading Indian boxer VijenderSingh has been ruled out of next month´sAsian Games due to a hand injury, theOlympic bronze medallist said on Tues-day.
Singh, whose middleweight bronze atthe 2008 Beijing Olympics helped raiseboxing´s profile in India, injured his handduring the Commonwealth Games final inGlasgow. “It´s very disappointing for anathlete. The hand is still not stable. So Ihave no option but to pull out,” the 28-year-old told Reuters, confirming his with-drawal from the regional multi-sports gath-ering in Incheon, South Korea.
Skipping the Asian Games will meanthe end of season for Vijender and he will
Indian boxer Vijender Singhout of Asian Games
Judo: Japan’sEbinuma wins
66kg goldCHELYABINSK (Russia)—Japan’s Masashi Ebinumaclaimed gold in the -66kg cat-egory for the third time at theWorld Judo Championshipson Tuesday.
It is the third consecutiveworld title for the 24-year-oldOlympic bronze medallist af-ter Paris in 2011 and Rio deJaneiro in 2013.
Ebinuma dominated onTuesday and spoiled homehope Mikhail Pulyaev’s bid togive the hosts their first goldof the championships beingheld in Siberia.
Russia’s Kamal Khan-Magomedov and Georgia’sGeorgii Zantaraia won bronze.
Earlier Kosovar MajlindaKelmendi held her women’s -52kg crown by beatingRomania’s Andreea Chitu inthe final with Russia’s NataliaKuziutina and Brazilian ErikaMiranda taking bronze.Kelmendi, 23, has impressedall season winning a first Eu-ropean title in Montpellier,France last April.—AFP
England’sLampard calls
day on int’lcareer
L O N D O N — E n g l a n dmidfielder Frank Lampardannounced his retirement
from international footballafter a career spanning 15years on Tuesday.
The 36-year-old’s 106thand final cap for his coun-try came on June 23 whenhe captained England intheir final World Cup gameagainst Costa Rica.
Lampard said in astatement released by hismanagement company: “Ihave taken the decision toretire from internationalfootball . “I t has been avery tough decision for meto make which is why Ihave given i t so muchthought since the WorldCup.”—AFP
Northantsrelease SouthAfrica’s Hall
L O N D O N — N o r t h a m -ptonshire will release formerSouth Africa all-rounder An-drew Hall at the end of theseason, the English countyannounced Tuesday.
The 39-year-old Halljoined Northamptonshire in2007—the same year heplayed the last of his 21 Testsfor South Africa.
Hall went on to captainthe Midlands side from 2010-2012.
Although he has been aregular in relegation-threat-ened Northamptonshire’sCounty Championship thisseason, Hall has played lessof a role in limited-overscricket.—AFP
LONDON—Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud willmiss Wednesday’s Champions League play-off second leg against Besiktas with an ankleinjury, manager Arsene Wenger said.
Giroud, 27, was hurt late in his side’s 2-2Premier League draw with Everton on Satur-day, with media reports suggesting theFrance forward could be out for up to threemonths. Wenger said he would definitelynot play against Besiktas at the Emirates Sta-dium, with an assessment by a specialist thesame day likely to shed light on how long hemay be out.
“Olivier will not play against Besiktas andwill see a specialist, then we’ll make an an-nouncement of how long he’ll be out,”Wenger told reporters on Tuesday. “It canbe (a long term injury). We’ll see tomorrow. Idon’t know (if it’s broken). It’s sad for us butwe are focused on the game.” The first legfinished 0-0.
Arsenal striker Giroudout of Besiktas clash
Theo Walcott is still returning to full fit-ness after a long layoff and Wenger said hewas yet to give thought as to whether hewould delve into the transfer market shouldGiroud, who was hurt shortly after scoringArsenal’s 90th minute equaliser at GoodisonPark, be a long-term absentee.
Midfielder Mikel Arteta is also outthrough injury, while Aaron Ramsey is sus-pended after being sent off in the first leg.
Victory over would see Arsenal reach theChampions League group stage for the 17thstraight season, and Wenger said that expe-rience was key after a tough first leg encoun-ter. “Experience plays a big part. We havebig experience in the Champions League ofplaying high pressure games and we can usethat,” he said. “This group is strong andmentally prepared and ready for the fight.What’s most important is that we go out andplay at our best.”—APP
now focus on the World Championshipnext year. “I want my injury to get healedfirst and then prepare for the World Cham-pionships,” said Vijender, who had won abronze medal at the 2009 World meet.
The 81kg-category boxer SumitSangwan, who too participated at theGlasgow CWG, will also skip the trials dueto an injury in his left hand.
The two-day trials in Patiala will fea-ture the likes of five-time World championM.C. Mary Kom, four-time Asian cham-pion Laishram Sarita Devi, and young sen-sation Pinky Jangra in the women’s cat-egory. 2010 Asian Games 60kg-categorychampion Vikas Krishan will also take tri-als.—AFP
NEW YORK—Former championsNovak Djokovic and Maria Sharapovasparkled under the Arthur Ashe Sta-dium lights to end a steamy first daythat proved more than a little stressfulfor several of the US Open favouriteson Monday.
Djokovic, who had won only twomatches in the hard court run-up tothe season’s final grand slam aftergetting married just days after hisWimbledon triumph, was back to hisbest once the center court spotlightshone on him at Flushing Meadows.
The 2011 champion treated hisfirst-round match against unseeded22-year-old Argentine DiegoSchwartzman like a breezy workout,dominating in all phases with 24 win-ners including seven aces in a 6-1 6-26-4 rout.
His fast work followed a scintillat-ing finish by French Open championand 2006 winner Sharapova, as thefifth seed won 10 straight games toprevail 6-4 6-0 after falling 2-4 behindagainst her Russian compatriot and oldfriend Maria Kirilenko.
Despite the night programme start-ing one hour later than scheduled dueto ceremonies featuring bands,speeches and fireworks, Djokovic en-abled the New York night crowd to
head to the exits shortly before thestroke of midnight.
“I’m very pleased,” the Serbianworld number one said in a courtsideinterview after his 97-minute win. “It’snever easy to start a US Opensmoothly.” Several of the favorites atFlushing Meadows could attest to hisopinion. Busy bees made life difficultfor two grizzled veterans and a pair of
Djokovic, Sharapovasparkle, others toil
favourites were forced to work over-time on a hot, steamy day at the USNational Tennis Center that drew acombined 57,000 fans to the day andnight sessions.
Eighth-seeded 2012 championAndy Murray fought off cramps tobeat Dutchman Robin Haase in fourpainful sets, while women’s secondseed Simona Halep lost an earlytiebreak to US debutant DanielleCollins before claiming victory.
And in an intriguing match-up of19th seed Venus Williams and KimikoDate-Krumm of Japan, the oldest play-ers in the women’s draw, some peskybees joined in and refused to leavethem alone.
Major cramping Murray appearedon course for an easy victory beforehe fell victim to cramps that left himstretching and straining to get com-fortable before clinching a 6-3 7-6 (6)1-6 7-5 victory over Haase.
“I felt extremely good before thematch, and I did train very, very hardto get ready for the tournament,” saidMurray, one of the fittest players onthe ATP Tour.
“My quads were cramping, then itstarted to get to my lats, then my fore-arms,” he added. “I just tried to hangaround and at the end I was trying to
play without moving my legs muchand managed to get through.”
Murray said he might consult witha nutritionist before meeting his sec-ond-round opponent, Germany’sMatthias Bachinger.
A less serious intrusion hit the ir-resistible women’s clash betweenseven-times grand slam singles win-ner Williams and Japan’s remarkable
Date-Krumm, who were beset by bees.First the 43-year-old Japanese
player and later 34-year-old Williamsdipped, ducked and danced away be-fore ballgirls helped usher the stub-born swarm away from the baseline.
When finally left to play tennis ona sun-bathed Arthur Ashe Stadiumcourt, Williams stung her opponent2-6 6-3 6-3 to advance.
Asked about who presented thepeskier test in the two-hour match,two-time US Open winner Williamssaid: “The bee was a challenge buteasily the answer is Kimiko.”
In an upset on the men’s side, twiceUS Open semi-finalist MikhailYouzhny of Russia, the 21st seed, fellto big-serving Australian teenagerNick Kyrgios 7-5 7-6 (4) 2-6 7-6 (1).
The 19-year-old Kyrgios, whomade a Wimbledon splash by oustingRafa Nadal in the fourth round to reachthe quarter-finals, blasted 26 aces.
The 60th-ranked Kyrgios movedon to a second-round match againstItaly’s Andreas Seppi.
Advancing with relative ease instraight sets were Australian Openchampion Stan Wawrinka of Switzer-land and fifth-seeded Canadian MilosRaonic, a Wimbledon semi-finalist.
The Swiss third seed beat Jiri
Vesely of the Czech Republic to setup a second-round test against Bra-zilian Thomaz Bellucci, while big-serv-ing Raonic defeated Japan’s TaroDaniel to get to the next round againstPeter Gojowczyk of Germany.
Halep survived a scare in thetournament’s first match on stadiumcourt before overtaking Collins 6-7 (2)6-1 6-2.—Agencies
NANJING, CHINA: Katarina Majovska of Slovakia competes with Montserrat Hernandez of Mexico during the 2014FIFA Girls Summer Youth Olympic Football Tournament 3rd Place Playoff match between Mexico and Slovakia atWutaishan Stadium.
DHAKA—Bangladesh all-rounder ShakibAl Hasan’s six-month ban imposed lastmonth for “misbehaviour” has beenlifted, the Bangladesh Cricket Board saidon Tuesday.“After Sept. 15, Shakib willbe available for selection,” BCB presi-dent Nazmul Hassan told reporters aftera board meeting.
Bangladesh’s most prominent crick-eter was banned for what the BCB calleda “severe attitude problem”.
He later apologised and made a pas-sionate public plea to the board to re-duce the punishment.
Shakib, who has played 34 tests and136 one-day-internationals, was accusedof travelling to the West Indies to playin the Caribbean Premier LeagueTwenty20 tournament without clearancefrom his board and was subsequently or-dered to return to Bangladesh.
The 27-year-old had reportedlythreatened to quit playing for his coun-try and had an altercation with coachChandika Hathurusinghe. Shakib has
Bangladesh lift ban on Shakibdenied the allegation.
Tuesday’s decision paves the way
for Shakib to play in the home seriesagainst Zimbabwe in October-Novem-ber.—AFP
OVERWEIGHT patients with riskfactors for heart disease should besent by their doctors for “inten-
sive behavioral counseling” about dietor exercise, according to new recommen-dations from the United States Preven-tive Services Task Force.That includes over-weight people with highblood pressure, highcholesterol, ‘metabolicsyndrome’ or bloodsugar levels higher thennormal and on the cuspof type 2 diabetes.
A literature reviewcommissioned for theg o v e r n m e n t - b a c k e dUSPSTF, published inthe Annals of InternalMedicine, found that in-tensive behavioral coun-seling can help lowerthese patients’ risk forheart problems. “Mymessage for patientswould be that we havethe ability by changing our behavior tomodify our risk for heart disease andstroke and your doctors can help you dothat,” Dr. Michael L. LeFevre, the chairof the Task Force, told Reuters Health byphone.
LeFevre is also vice chair in the De-partment of Family and Community Medi-cine at the University of Missouri Schoolof Medicine in Columbia. The recommen-dations are targeted to health care pro-viders more than to patients, LeFevresaid. To patients, he says, “The mostimportant thing that we can do right nowis have you lose some weight, be more
active but just offering that advice andgiving you a pamphlet, we don’t reallyfind any evidence that that’s helpful.”
Instead, the Task Force reviewfound, intensive behavioral counseling- involving multiple sessions with ex-
perts in nutrition and exer-cise over an extended pe-riod, for several months to ayear - can help people loseweight and bring down theirblood pressure and choles-terol. The researchers re-viewed 74 studies of variouslifestyle interventions andfound that with intensivecounseling, many healthmarkers were improved oneand two years later, and therisk of diabetes decreased.
“This crystallizes 25years of research and a hugenumber of studies but Idon’t think this is new orearth shattering informa-tion,” said Dr. Jennifer S. Linof the Kaiser Permanente
Center for Health Research in PortlandOregon. Lin was the lead author of theliterature review.
There is a great deal of data onpeople with heart attack and stroke riskfactors and most of those studies fo-cused on a combination of diet and ex-ercise counseling, so those kinds of pro-grams have the most evidence behindthem at this point, she said. “On average we’re talking about a fewmilligrams of cholesterol per deciliter ofblood or a couple of millimeters of Mer-cury decrease in blood pressure,” Lintold Reuters Health by phone.
New recommendations foroverweight people with heart risks
AMANULLAH KHAN
KARACHI—The Government of Japan hasextended a grant of US$ 1,20,120 to AmanHealth Care Services. This grant has beenextended by the Government of Japan, underits Grant Assistance for Grassroots HumanSecurity Projects (GGP) scheme, with furthercontribution by Toyota Indus Motors of PKR1.2 million.
The donated funds have enabledAMANAMBULANCE service to add twonew “Advanced Life Support” (ALS) ambu-lances to its existing fleet of more than 100ambulances. These new life-saving vehicleswill be deployed in Bin Qasim town, Karachi.
A special handover ceremony was heldrecently at the Aman Foundation premises in
Karachi, where the Japanese Consul Generalpersonally donated the new ambulances tothe Aman Foundation. The ceremony wasaddressed by the Consul-General of Japan inKarachi - Mr. Akira Ouchi, Chief ExecutiveOfficer of Aman Health Care Services - Dr.Junaid Abdul Razzak and CEO (Toyota) IndusMotor Co. Ltd. – Mr. Parvez Ghias. Speakingat the occasion, Dr. Junaid Razzak, CEO ofAman Health Services said, “Aman Ambu-lances are the only ambulances in Karachi thathave advanced life saving facilities onboard,and can provide triage services and havetrained medical staff which can make the dif-ference between life and death in emergencymedical situations. We have conducted600,000 interventions since our inception, andhave countless examples where lives have
been saved. We encourage every citizen ofKarachi and Pakistan to donate to help usreach our goal of replacing our fleet this year.Karachi ideally requires 250 such lifesavingambulances to be able to respond adequatelyto the city’s large population and keep re-sponse times as short as possible. ”
The grant contract was made official andsigned in December 2013, between the Con-sul-General of Japan and the CEO of AmanHealth Care Services, to further strengthenfriendly relations between Japan and Pakistan.
Aman Foundation is a leading humanitar-ian organization, established in Pakistan to pro-vide Healthcare, Nutrition and Education tothe underserved segments of the population.AMAN AMBULANCE is one of the manybusiness initiatives, which has redefined am-
bulatory care in Pakistan.AMANAMBULANCE was launched in 2010and today it operates a fleet of 80 state-of-the-art ambulances. The vehicles are equipped withlifesaving equipment and trained doctors andparamedics on board, to provide care en-routeduring critical emergencies. The fleet servesall the parts of Karachi city. To-date, it has con-ducted approximately 600,000 interventions.
The Aman Foundation is born out of thebelief that Pakistanis must take the lead in solv-ing Pakistan’s problems, through direct inter-vention and aspiring to drive scalable, sus-tainable and systematic change in Pakistan.Aman’s initiatives also include; community-based workers bringing health-information tothe homes, a 26-seat call center providing 24/7medical advice over the phone and an upcom-
ing network of primary care clinics acrossKarachi.
Aman has established Pakistan’s largestvocational training institute with a capacity of5,000 students and offers certification from City& Guilds UK. At underprivileged schoolsAman provides nutritious meals and essentialsports curricula, coaching and equipment. Glo-bal programs such as Teach For All and JuniorAchievement have been launched in Pakistan,as “Teach For Pakistan” and “INJAZ Paki-stan” respectively.
Aman Foundation has partnered with theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Real MadridFoundation, the British Asian Trust (A PrinceCharles charity) and other International orga-nizations, to apply global expertise to solvelocal problems.
Japan gives ambulances to Aman foundation
IRFAN ALIGI
KARACHI—The killers fully eyeingon their prey without any fear ofbeing intercepted, checked and en-countered used their guns freely asthey knew no civilian except themilitants, hardened criminals andterrorists could carry guns and usethem fearlessly.
Hardened criminals let go nochance of cutting throats of civil-ians in the city while Police andother law enforcement authoritiescontinued with boastful claims forcausing a salient decline in civilians’murder by paid assassins.
As a routine, killings went un-checked on Tuesday as the paid
assassins gunned down 4 while in-juring 2 cops in the city.
Paid assassins gunned downNatthu Lal 45, son of Jeo Lal nearPatel Para within the precincts ofJamshed Quarters Police station.The victim was on his way to homein Manghopir Colony after meetinghis friend in Clifton. He was in aprivate car and was intercepted bythe paid assassins, who showeredvolley of bullets on him and easilymanaged to flee from the crimescene.
The victim belonged to Hinducommunity and was a peon by pro-fession at Sindh Government QatarHospital in Orangi Town. He hadexpired on the spot and his body
was shifted to Civil HospitalKarachi for onward medico-legalprocedures.
Abdul Khaliq 50, son of GhulamQadir was gunned down on LyariExpress Way within the precinctsof Soldier Bazaar Police station.Police had yet to ascertain whetherit was an incident of target killingor otherwise.
However, murders of 2 friendstold a different story of savagismin the city. A family of a girl claimedlives of 2, who were friends to eachother, in Qasba Colony within theprecincts of Pirabad Police station.The slain friends were identified asMirza Shaukat Baig 20, son ofAbdul Salam and his friend Sheroz
18, son of Abdul Hameed aftertheir bodies were shifted to AbbasiShaheed Hospital.
The perpetrators targeted acop Abid Raza 40, son of HammadRaza Rizvi was shot and injured ina firing incident within the pre-cincts of Shahra-e Noor Jahan Po-lice station. A cop Dilawar Khan42, son of Gulzar Khan was tar-geted near Nishtar Park within theprecincts of Soldier Bazaar Policestation.
However, the cop was injuredand survived. He was posted at theSecurity Zone Police and had ar-rived to visit his friend, a mechanicwhere robbers had picked him andon showing resistance was shot.
KARACHI—Pakistan was achieved byQuaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,Allama Iqbal and Muslim leaders throughargument and negotiation and not by us-ing the un-parliamentary language anddharnas.
This was stated by former secretarySindh Education Department MehtabAkbar Rashidi while addressing aHamdard Naunehal Assembly Karachi-circle gathering as a chief guest, whichwas arranged to mark independence daycelebrations.
She said those countries which gotfreedom after Pakistan such as China,Korea and Malaysia are touching theheight of progress, but Pakistan was go-ing down and down because of lacking ofsincerity, honesty and integrity on the partof those people who were responsible for
the management of the country.Speaking on the occasion, Sadia
Rashid, President, Hamdard FoundationPakistan said Independence is Allah’smatchless blessing and to value and safe-guard the independence is the foremostduty of all of us.
“Pakistan got its freedom after pass-ing through a long period of slavery andit was the result of Allama Iqbal’s dream,great struggle and statesmanship ofQuaid-e-Azam and his companions,” sheadded.
Paying tribute to Professor AnitaGhulam Ali who died recently, she saidthat Anita Ghulam Ali had dedicated herwhole life for the cause of education.
“She being a member of the Board ofGovernors, Hamdard Education Societyalso rendered valuable suggestions toHamdard for the promotion of educationon the part of Hamdard,” she maintained.
Pakistan achieved through,dialogue not Dharna
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Additional Dis-trict and Sessions Judge,South Abdul QudoosMemon ordered for the reg-istration of a defamation case
under section 500 (defama-tion) & 501 (punchement ofdefamation) , 120 – A (con-spiracy), 34 (common inten-tion) of Pakistan Penal Codeagainst famous businessmanAqeel Karim Dhedhi, Chair-man AKD Group, MubasharLuqman (Anchor ‘KharaSuch Program of ARY News’and others.
A criminal Complaint wasfiled by Mahvash & JahangirSiddiqui Foundation,Jahangir Siddiqui Company
Limited & JS Bank againstAqeel Karim Dhedhi, IftikharShafi, Mubashir Luqman,Khalil Masood andMuhammad Ali on Decemberlast year.
Applicants in their com-plaint prayed the court thatthe accused persons by us-ing their positions of mediafalsely defaming and mislead-ing the public to form a nega-tive image of the mentionedentities.
Additional Session Court
Judge, Karachi South Mr.Abdul Qudoos Memon afterhearing the arguments fromthe councils of both sides or-dered for the registration ofcase and bail-able warrants(BWs) in the sum of Rs.50,000 each against all theaccused for their attendancebefore the court on Septem-ber 9, 2014.
Petitioners in their com-pliant prayed the court forproper legal action against theaccused persons. Complain-
ants in their petition narratedthat accused Aqeel KarimDhedhi and MubasharLuqman collaborated to-gether in a conspiracy tofalsely malign the good nameof Mahvash & JahangirSiddiqui Foundation (MJSF),Jahangir Siddiqui CompanyLimited (JSCL) & JS Bank fortheir personal interests bycontinuously using the forumof ‘Khara Such Program’ ofARY News over a long pe-riod of time.
Judge oders defamation case againstKarim Dhedhi, Mubashar Luqman
Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan exchanging views with governor Punjab Ch Muhammad Sarwar during a meeting at Governor House.
Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui presiding over a meeting to discuss healthissues at his offices.
AAMIR MAJEED
KARACHI—The students of class-XIis likely to suffer badly due to late ad-missions in colleges this year, it is re-liably learnt. As per reports, the SindhEducation Department has introduced
reforms in the Centralized AdmissionPolicy (CAP) and decided to awardadmission to students willing to getenroll in the public sector colleges andhigher secondary schools for highersecondary level education.
However, the provincial govern-
ment has later announced that theplacement forms would be available incolleges when many students hasfailed to open the website of CAP dueto huge traffic. With this, the govern-ment has extended the date of sub-mission of forms.
Class-XI students suffer due to delayed admission
OVERWEIGHT patients with risk factorsfor heart disease should be sent by theirdoctors for “intensive behavioral coun-
seling” about diet or exercise, according to newrecommendations from the United States Pre-ventive Services Task Force.That includes overweightpeople with high blood pres-sure, high cholesterol, ‘meta-bolic syndrome’ or bloodsugar levels higher then nor-mal and on the cusp of type2 diabetes.
A literature review com-missioned for the govern-ment-backed USPSTF, pub-lished in the Annals of Inter-nal Medicine, found that in-tensive behavioral counsel-ing can help lower these pa-tients’ risk for heart prob-lems. “My message for pa-tients would be that we havethe ability by changing ourbehavior to modify our riskfor heart disease and strokeand your doctors can help you do that,” Dr.Michael L. LeFevre, the chair of the Task Force,told Reuters Health by phone.
LeFevre is also vice chair in the Departmentof Family and Community Medicine at the Uni-versity of Missouri School of Medicine in Co-lumbia. The recommendations are targeted tohealth care providers more than to patients,LeFevre said. To patients, he says, “The mostimportant thing that we can do right now is haveyou lose some weight, be more active but justoffering that advice and giving you a pamphlet,we don’t really find any evidence that that’shelpful.” Instead, the Task Force review found,intensive behavioral counseling - involving mul-
tiple sessions with experts in nutrition andexercise over an extended period, for severalmonths to a year - can help people lose weightand bring down their blood pressure and cho-lesterol. The researchers reviewed 74 studies
of various lifestyle interventionsand found that with intensivecounseling, many health mark-ers were improved one and twoyears later, and the risk of dia-betes decreased.
“This crystallizes 25years of research and a hugenumber of studies but I don’tthink this is new or earth shat-tering information,” said Dr.Jennifer S. Lin of the KaiserPermanente Center for HealthResearch in Portland Oregon.Lin was the lead author of theliterature review.
There is a great deal ofdata on people with heart attackand stroke risk factors and mostof those studies focused on acombination of diet and exercise
counseling, so those kinds of programs havethe most evidence behind them at this point,she said. “On average we’re talking about a few mil-ligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of bloodor a couple of millimeters of Mercury decreasein blood pressure,” Lin told Reuters Healthby phone. “We’re calling that a modest ben-efit applied to a population but even thesemodest benefits translate into health outcomesthat patients can actually feel,” she said.
Right now, larger health organizations likeKaiser Permanente in California or GroupHealth in Washington are most likely to beable to do this, he said.
New recommendations foroverweight people with heart risks
Provincial Minister for Special Education Asif Saeed presiding over a meeting at Special Education Secretariat.
Governor Ch Muhammad Sarwar addressing during a function in connection with Independence Day celebrations.
LAHORE—Project Management Office (PMO) ofIrrigation Department is working on the project ofrenovation and restoration of Jinnah Barrage on RiverSindh at Mianwali with the collaboration of WorldBank, says a handout issued here Tuesday.
A Memorandum of understanding (MoU) hasalso been signed between Irrigation Department andAsian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok (Thai-
land) under which AIT presented master degrees inWater Engineering & Management to equip 20 youngengineers of Irrigation Department with latest tech-nical skills.
The Punjab Irrigation Department has selected20 young engineers through a transparent and openmerit policy for M.Sc in Water Engineering & Man-agement so that they could perform to resolve water
sector problems and work on various project effec-tively. These selected engineers met Secretary Irri-gation Saif Anjum while Task leader Masood Ahmadand former Secretary Riaz Ahmad Khan were alsopresent on the occasion. Secretary Irrigation congratu-lated these engineers on getting opportunity of ob-taining M.Sc degree in world best institution on gov-ernment expenses.—APP
‘Irrigation Dept’s PMO workingon renovation of Jinnah barrage’
OBSERVER REPORT
LAHORE—According to spokesman ofProsecution Department, process of pro-fessional training courses for Public Pros-ecutors is continuing for creating aware-ness about modern laws and judicial sys-tem. He said that a training course hasbeen started for 36 Public Prosecutors inCriminal Prosecution Department in thisregard. The spokesman said that after
providing training in modern laws and ex-pertise in international standards of cross-question, public prosecutors will beposted in the field. He told that the effi-ciency of prosecutors will improvethrough this training course and they willbe able to discharge their responsibilitiesefficiently.
The spokesman told that Public Pros-ecution Department is computerizing allits record for improving service delivery.
He said that besides officers, officials arealso being imparted training in this re-gard.
He told that first 3-day course washeld at Pakistan Institute of Management(PIM), Gulberg where 20 officials wereprovided IT training. He said that provi-sion of immediate justice to the oppressedis the responsibility of the governmentand the Prosecution Department is dis-charging its duties efficiently.
Professional training courses forpublic prosecutors continues
OBSERVER REPORT
LAHORE—Provincial Minister for Spe-cial Education Asif Saeed Manhais hassaid that government has allocated 800million rupees in the budget of currentfinancial year for the welfare of the spe-cial children.
He said this while presiding over ahigh level meeting held at the Secretariatof Education Department here Tuesday.
Director Special Education FaazilCheema, Deputy Director ShahidAbbas and other officers attended the
meeting. The meeting reviewed in de-tail 5-year departmental schemes.These schemes included constructionand repair of buildings and up-grada-tion of schools.
Provincial Minister said that gov-ernment is taking all possible steps forthe rehabilitation of special children sothat they could discharge their respon-sibilities themselves instead of becom-ing burden on the society.
He said that Special Education De-partment has taken a number of stepsfor the rehabilitation and education of
special children and making them use-ful citizens of the society. Asif SaeedManhais directed that regular monitor-ing of the departmental schemes shouldbe carried out and after completion theseschemes should also be reviewed.
He stressed upon well-to-do peopleto lend helping hand to the governmentfor the education and training of spe-cial children so that they could lead theirlife like normal children. Secretary Spe-cial Education Ambreen Raza gave adetailed briefing to the Provincial Min-ister about departmental schemes.
Rs 800m allocated forwelfare of special children
OBSERVER REPORT
LAHORE—The case of alleged change of newborn baby in Lahore General Hospital hasreached its drop scene and according to DNAtest report of forensic science laboratory Hinaand Abid Ali are the real parents of the babyand the allegations against the hospital staffof changing the new born have proved wrongand baseless.
Principal PGMI Prof. Anjum Habib Vohraand Medical Superintendent LGH Dr. PervaizImtiaz informed that Hina Abid of Laliyanidistrict Kasur was admitted in Labour Roomof LGH on August 2, where a girl child wasborn to her but his family alleged that the hos-pital staff had changed the new born and gavethem a baby girl instead of baby boy.
The Principal said that in view the sensi-tive nature of the case and to satisfy the af-fected family an inquiry committee headed by
prominent gyeanachologist Prof. Dr. FarrukhZaman was constituted who checked the recordand also took statements of the staff. In ac-cordance with the decision of the committeethe DNA of the baby girl and her parents weretaken to forensic laboratory in their presence.Dr. Anjum Habib Vohra said that inspite ofthe fact that this test is very costly no expenseswere charged from affected family and theywere also taken to the laboratory on govern-ment vehicle. He said that the laboratory re-port proved that Hina and Abid Ali are the realparents of the baby girl.
Prof. Anjum Habib Vohra said that inorder to check such incidents in future,the hospital administration has installedeight more CCTV cameras in emergencyraising the total of such cameras to 24, infuture new born baby will be handed overto their parents before the cameras to re-move any doubt.
Case of alleged change ofnewborn reaches its drop scene
OBSERVER REPORT
LAHORE—The process of presenting cheques offinancial assistance to the government by welfareorganizations for IDPs of North Waziristan is con-tinuing. Chairman Akhuwat Foundation Dr. AmjadSaqib presented a cheque of financial assistance to
Senior Member Board of Revenue Nadeem Ashraffor IDPs.
Speaking on the occasion, Senior MemberBoard of Revenue Nadeem Ashraf said that on thedirection of Chief Minister Punjab, distribution ofrelief items and financial assistance among IDPs iscontinuing.
He said that besides a cash amount of Rs.37.50crore, relief items of more than sixteen crore ru-pees have been distributed among IDPs.
He said that the cheques of financial assistanceare being deposited in Chief Minister’s Relief Fundby various welfare organizations and financial in-stitutions.
Distribution of financial assistance among IDPs
LAHORE—The City District Government Lahore(CDGL)’s Price Control Magistrates during driveagainst overcharging conducted 762 raids in the cityand got arrested 08 shopkeepers after lodging casesagainst them, here Tuesday. According to the DCO
office, special teams of the district administration alsochallaned 107 shopkeepers besides imposing fineworth Rs 117,200 on violators of the Price Act.
These teams headed by the Assistant Commission-ers and Town Municipal Administrators conducted raids
on shops in various areas and inspected prices of com-modities at local level. DCO Capt. (retd) MuhammadUsman issued directions to the price control officials tocontinue crackdown against the hoarders and profiteersto provide relief to the masses.—APP
762 raids against overcharging
LAHORE—Punjab Emergency Service (PES)provided rescue services to the victims of 534road accidents in Punjab during the last 24hours.
According to Rescue 1122, six personswere killed while 442 sustained serious inju-ries in these accidents. However, 211 drivers,14 juvenile drivers, 68 pedestrians and 346passengers were among victims of the acci-dents.
Statistics show that 110 accidents werereported in the provincial capital which af-fected 114 persons placing the provincial capi-tal at top of list followed by accidents inFaisalabad with 64 victims and Gujranwalaat third with 34 accidents and 35 victims.
About, 418 motorcycles, 52 rickshaws, 59cars, 29 vans, seven buses, 14 trucks and 84other vehicles and slow moving carts wereinvolved in the accidents.—APP
Emergency service toaccident victims
PML-N to thwart conspiracy against democracyLAHORE—PML-N Lahore President PervaizMalik has said the government will foil a con-spiracy being hatched against democracy.
Talking to party workers here Tuesday, he said
the government had initiated developmentprogrammes in every part of the country.
He said apolitical elements like Imran Khanand Tahirul Qadri were indulging in emotional
politics.He said the PTI leadership wanted to grab
power by pressure but his dream of becomingprime minister would never come true.—APP
LAHORE—The Lahore Development Au-thority (LDA) Additional Director GeneralAmina Munir has transferred Basit Naseer,Assistant Director, Directorate of EstateManagement-I with immediate effect. Mean-while, Syed Jahanzebul Hassan, Assistant
Director (Computer) Directorate of EstateManagement-II has been transferred andposted in the Directorate of Land Acquisi-tion. The LDA also dismissed MuhammadWaqas, Naib Qasid, from service due to longabsence from duty.—APP
