Continued on Page 6 Continued on Page 6 LONDON—British troops in Afghanistan are holding 80 to 90 people, some for as long as 14 months, without charging them. Lawyers call it a ‘secret prison’ akin to Guantanamo Bay, but the government says the facility is operated legally. The prisoners, Afghan na- tionals suspected of crimes or having links to insurgents, are kept in detention at Camp Bas- tion, the largest UK base in Af- ghanistan, housing some 30,000 troops. Normally British troops are supposed to hold prisoners in custody for no longer than 96 hours, but under exceptional cir- 80 to 90 Afghans held at British base without charges cumstances longer detention is possible. Apparently there are almost a hundred such exceptional cases currently. Lawyers acting for eight of the men say some of the prisoners have been held without charge for up to 14 months, ar- guing that it could amount to un- lawful detention. They also say that the situation has been kept a secret from the public. “The UK could have trained the Afghan authorities to detain people lawfully with proper stan- dards and making sure that they are treated humanely,” Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Law- yers, told the BBC.”Parliament has not been told that we have this secret facility,” he added. British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed the detention of the prisoners and their number, but not the time of their detention. He said Ministry of Defence did nothing wrong in the situation and denied the alle- gation that the government failed to report about the prisoners, say- ing both the current cabinet and the previous one informed the parliament. Earlier the MoD defended the imprisonment at the base. “The UK’s temporary holding facilities at Camp Bastion are regularly monitored by the ICRC,” the MoD said in a state- ment, referring to the Interna- tional Committee of the Red Cross, adding that the detentions “are legal under the UN mandate and comply with all applicable international obligations.” The secretary explained that the prisoners in question pose a threat to British troops if re- leased, and that “protecting troops, whether it is from being murdered on the streets of Lon- don or the fields of Helmand province.” But the MoD cannot hand them over to Afghan au- Continued on Page 6 thorities because of the actions of their lawyers, Hammond said. “What Mr. Shiner didn’t tell you is that last year his firm started proceedings against the department precisely to prevent us handing them over to the Afghan judicial authorities be- cause of concerns of treatment of prisoners in the Afghan sys- tem,” he told BBC Radio 4. In November last year Hammond issued a temporary ban on transfer of prisoners to Afghan detention after a farmer claimed that he had been tor- US drone kills No 2 in Pakistan Taliban hierarchy After vowing transparency, US mum on drone killing TARIQ SAEED PESHAWAR—Key militant commander and deputy chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Maulvi Wali Ur Rehman, who carried 2.5 million dollars head money by the America, is re- portedly among the six killed in fresh drone strike, first after the May 11 elections, in North Waziristan agency Wednesday morning. Two people also sustained wounds in the US plane’s hit that has irked the Pakistani gov- ernment and the foreign office has lodged strong protest with the US administration over the drone attack calling it a sheer vio- lation of the human rights and the international laws. There was controversy among the Taliban leadership over the killing of WaliUr Rehman with some source con- firmed the news while others de- clining to confirm his death in the Wednesday’s attack. The sources in the Pakistani security forces also said Wali Ur Rehman was among those killed in the fresh drones hit in North Waziristan agency. Reports reaching here said the American planes or the infamous CIA op- erated pilotless planes commonly known as drones, targeted a com- pound in Kato Khel area near Chashma Pul, some twenty kilo- meters from agency headquarters Miranshah on Wednesday morn- ing. “The American planes hit the compound with two hellfire mis- siles that not only destroyed the building but also damaged the nearby houses”, sources told Pa- kistan Observer. Initial reports say the mis- siles hit killed four inmates of the house while few others sustained injuries. Locals said they had no information about the dead add- ing the compound might have been used by the militants in the past. The official sources, how- ever, said all the victims of the Wednesday’s attack were the militants though their origin could not be ascertained but there are reports of fugitive’s movements in the destroyed compound. The Military sources on the other hand said, top militant commander and Deputy chief of TTP Wali ur Rehman who was poised to succeed TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud has been killed in the fresh attack. Be- sides, Wali Ur Rehman, Fakhre Alam, Naseer ud Din and Nasrullah, the official sources Continued on Page 6 Energy crisis is first priority: Nawaz Not to stay in PM House, Centre to have 26 ministers LAHORE—Chief of the Pakistan Muslim League–N Nawaz Sharif held a meeting at his Raiwind residence on Wednesday to ad- dress the energy crisis during which he said that the energy crises was his party’s first priority and that after coming into power his government would initially bring an end to unannounced KARACHI: Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro administering oath to the newly elected MPAs on Wednesday. CJ takes suo motu notice of Gujrat tragedy STAFF REPORTER ISLAMABAD—Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry took suo motu notice of the tragic explosion in a school van in the outskirts of Gujrat on May 25 which had claimed the lives of at least 17 children. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry taking notice of the tragic incident fixed June 4 as the date of hearing over the case. He also sought reports from Secretary Petroleum, Chief Secretary of Punjab, Punjab’s Secretary of transport depart- ment, Inspector General of Punjab police, and the administration of the school. At least 17 children and a Contd on Page 6 158 members of Sindh Assembly take oath Speaker, Deputy Speaker and CM election today PPPP not in contact with MQM over key positions Siraj Durrani to be next Speaker IRFAN ALIGI KARACHI—The first session of Sindh provincial assembly was held Wednesday. The scheduled time for the session to commence was 10 a.m. but it started one and half an hour late due to late arrival of cer- tain newly elected members of the Sindh assembly. Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhru presided over the session. There were 168 newly elected MPAs of which 158 were sworn in. Speaker Nisar Khuhru administered oath. Sixty-one new MPAs had joined the assem- bly of which 61 belonged to the Pakistan People’s Party Parlia- mentarian, 20 the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, 4 from the Pakistan Muslim League-Func- tional and 3 from the Tehreek-e Insaaf. One hundred and thirty MPAs have been elected by the voters during elections -2013. The newly elected MPAs took oath in three different lan- guages. The MPAs belonging to the PPP majority of whom was Sindhi speaking took oath in Sindhi language. The MQM MPAs, with majority Urdu- speaking took oath in Urdu while Irfanullah Khan Marwat from the PML-N, PPPP MPA Sardar Muhammad Bux Khan Maher and Sher Zaman of the PTI took oath in English. The MPAs from the PPPP in the assembly were 87, 48 of MQM, 9 from the Pakistan Mus- lim League-N, 10 from the PML- F and 4 from the PTI. Arbab Ghulam Rahim, who had remained absent during pre- vious assembly and lived in self- exile in Dubai was absent and thus could not tale oath as MPA. The newly elected leader of the House, Syed Qaim Ali Shah was the eldest MPA in the assembly while the youngest was from the 123 KP MPAs sworn-in Khattak: Govt to face huge problems; young, new faces to correct system TARIQ SAEED PESHAWAR—More than 120 elected parliamentarians took oath as members of the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa assembly during the maiden session of the newly elected house here Wednesday morning The newly elected MPAs, with most of them new to the house, took oath in a session chaired by Speaker Provincial Assembly Karamatullah Chagharmati who hoped the newly elected MPAs would put in their best to serve this prov- ince and their pledge to dream the destiny of the country in general and KPK in particular would be realized. Of those who were ad- ministered the oath of their of- fice, 55 members are affiliated to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), 17 each to Jamiat Ulema- e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Paki- stan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and five each to Awami National Party (ANP) and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad, eight to Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), 10 to Qaumi Jamhoori Ittehad (QJI).Two independent candi- dates are yet to decide their fu- ture course of action. Out of 124 MPAs of the House, 121 MPAs took oath today while former Chief Ministers Akram Khan Durrani and Amir Haider Khan Hoti who did not take oath as they are likely to retain their Na- tional Assembly seats of NA-26 Bannu and NA-9 Mardan respec- tively. Similarly, a female MPA of JUI (F), Naeema Ahktar also not took oath from provincial assem- bly seat and is likely to join na- tional assembly as MNA. Naeema will be replaced by Romana Jalil daughter of Jalil Jan, Provincial Information Sec- retary of JUI (F). In KP Assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf has emerged as the majority party and has nomi- nated senior politician and Cen- tral Secretary General PTI, Pervez Khan Khattak for the of- fice of Chief Minister. The party PML-N 100-day agenda to inject 3000mw in national grid AMANUJLLAH KHAN KARACHI—The first priority of the new government commenc- ing from June 6 is to add at least 2000-3000mw of power into na- tional grid under its 100 day agenda to shape up the tangled mess of the economy. According to informed sources, The 100 day agenda of the new government is to inject at least 2,000-3,000 megawatts to the national grid in the short term while anotgher 16,000 mega- watts in the medium term, sources said. It is also a coincident that at the time when a new era is to begin , the world energy leader ABB is set to showcase energy efficient equipment for the oil, gas and power industries at the 11th International Pakistan Oil Gas Energy Exhibition (POGEE) takes place from May 30 to June 1, 2013 at the Lahore Expo Center. The energy conference and exhibition is being held on the occasion when a new govern- ment having the priority chal- lenge of talking the energy cri- sis which has become a poten- tial danger to the economic growth if not resolved at the ear- liest. Laying a short term-me- dium and long term solution of the energy crisis is on top of the list of 100 day agenda of the new government. .Meanwhile, ABB’s interac- tive display will exhibit medium voltage panels, motors, drives, programmable logic controllers (PLC) and control products. In addition, the stand will display a selection of products from the KNX technology range – a smart control system used in buildings that helps to increase flexibility, security, economic efficiency and convenience. ABB can also help industrial and utility customers improve energy efficiency by providing specialists to audit en- ergy use and identify areas for improvement, providing equip- ment, systems and solutions to Continued on Page 6 No amendment in Blasphemy Law required: CII ISLAMABAD—Putting aside all reservations of critics over Blas- phemy Law in the country, Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) Wednesday said there is no need of amendment in the law. Media quoting sources said , the council members believe that law is fine to deal with the cases. Council of Islamic Ideology is the elite body to regulate reli- gious influence over the law in a country where majority of people favour implementation of religious values. In a meeting with Maulana Khan Muhammad Shirani in chair, the council also observe that human cloning could not be allowed. In the same meeting, the council members observe that DNA can’t be accepted as evi- dence in legal affairs. It should be an additional evidence and not as the funda- mental evidence, he further said.—Online ‘Assad will remain president until 2014’ BEIRUT—Syria’s foreign min- ister laid out a hard line Wednes- day, insisting that Bashar Assad will remain Syria’s president at least until elections in 2014 and might run for another term, con- ditions that will make it difficult for Syria’s opposition to agree to U.N.-sponsored talks on end- ing Syria’s civil war. Any deal reached in such talks would have to be put to a referendum, Walid al-Moallem said in a TV interview, introduc- ing a new condition that could complicate efforts by the U.S. and Russia to bring the two sides together at an international con- ference in Geneva, possibly next month. The wide-ranging com- ments by al-Moallem, a regime stalwart with decades in top po- sitions, reflected a new confi- dence by Assad’s government, which had seemed near collapse during a rebel offensive last summer but has scored a num- ber of battlefield successes in recent weeks. “Our armed forces have re- gained the momentum,” the for- eign minister said. He suggested that the regime is digging in. Asked by Lebanon’s Al- Mayadeen station when the civil war might end, he said: “That depends on when the patience of those conspiring against Syria will run out.” The uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011, turned into an armed insurgency in re- sponse to a harsh regime crack- down and escalated into a civil war. —AP Ephedrine case SC requested to initiate proceedings against accused ISLAMABAD—Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) Rawalpindi has requested Supreme Court (SC) to initiate proceedings against Hanif Abbasi, Moosa Gilani, Makhdoom Shahab ud Din and other five accused in Ephedrine quota case. Hanif Abbasi is former MNA from PML-N, Moosa Raza Gilani is son of former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Makhdoom Shahab ud Din is former state minister. A 2-member bench of SC headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja took up ephedrine quota case for hearing Wednes- Continued on Page 6 Afghan militants attack Red Cross guest house KABUL—Militants launched a coordinated assault on a guest house used by the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday, blasting through the gates with a suicide bomber before storming the building and setting off an ongoing gun battle, officials said. The attack in the eastern city of Jalalabad is the second major assault against an international organization in five days. Militants launched a similar operation against a U.N.-affiliated group in Kabul last week that killed three people. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, said Wednesday’s attack in Jalalabad began just before Balochistan CS refusal angers Barozai STAFF REPORTER QUETTA—Chief Secretary Balochistan, Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad has refused to make important postings and transfers just a week before formation of new coalition government in the province. Refusal and objection over the transfers of senior bureau- crats angered interim Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Barozai on Wednesday. “I have decided to quit since I was bypassed in sending summary for convening Balochistan Assembly session,” Nawab Baroozai told media. Governor Balochistan Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi convened the assembly session on June 1. He however contradicted the reports about refusal on the part of CS for postings and transfers. “The Chief Secretary refused to transfer senior Continued on Page 6 Continued on Page 6 MQM to sit on opposition benches in NA, PA STAFF REPORTER KARACHI —The Muttahida Qaumi Movement had in light of recommendations tabled by the MQM Parliamentary Committee decided to sit on the opposition benches in the centre and in Sindh province. The Coordination Commit- tee of the MQM had Wednesday Continued on Page 6 Continued on Page 6 Picture on Page 6
Transcript
Continued on Page 6
Continued on Page 6
LONDON—British troops inAfghanistan are holding 80 to90 people, some for as long as14 months, without chargingthem. Lawyers call it a ‘secretprison’ akin to GuantanamoBay, but the government saysthe facility is operated legally.
The prisoners, Afghan na-tionals suspected of crimes orhaving links to insurgents, arekept in detention at Camp Bas-tion, the largest UK base in Af-ghanistan, housing some 30,000troops. Normally British troopsare supposed to hold prisonersin custody for no longer than 96hours, but under exceptional cir-
80 to 90 Afghans held at British base without chargescumstances longer detention ispossible.
Apparently there are almosta hundred such exceptional casescurrently. Lawyers acting foreight of the men say some of theprisoners have been held withoutcharge for up to 14 months, ar-guing that it could amount to un-lawful detention. They also saythat the situation has been kept asecret from the public.
“The UK could have trainedthe Afghan authorities to detainpeople lawfully with proper stan-dards and making sure that theyare treated humanely,” PhilShiner, of Public Interest Law-
yers, told the BBC.”Parliamenthas not been told that we havethis secret facility,” he added.
British Defence SecretaryPhilip Hammond confirmed thedetention of the prisoners andtheir number, but not the time oftheir detention. He said Ministryof Defence did nothing wrong inthe situation and denied the alle-gation that the government failedto report about the prisoners, say-ing both the current cabinet andthe previous one informed theparliament.
Earlier the MoD defendedthe imprisonment at the base.“The UK’s temporary holding
facilities at Camp Bastion areregularly monitored by theICRC,” the MoD said in a state-ment, referring to the Interna-tional Committee of the RedCross, adding that the detentions“are legal under the UN mandateand comply with all applicableinternational obligations.”
The secretary explained thatthe prisoners in question pose athreat to British troops if re-leased, and that “protectingtroops, whether it is from beingmurdered on the streets of Lon-don or the fields of Helmandprovince.” But the MoD cannothand them over to Afghan au- Continued on Page 6
thorities because of the actionsof their lawyers, Hammondsaid.
“What Mr. Shiner didn’t tellyou is that last year his firmstarted proceedings against thedepartment precisely to preventus handing them over to theAfghan judicial authorities be-cause of concerns of treatmentof prisoners in the Afghan sys-tem,” he told BBC Radio 4.
In November last yearHammond issued a temporaryban on transfer of prisoners toAfghan detention after a farmerclaimed that he had been tor-
US drone kills No 2 in Pakistan Taliban hierarchyAfter vowing transparency, US mum on drone killing
TARIQ SAEED
PESHAWAR—Key militantcommander and deputy chief ofTehreek-e-Taliban PakistanMaulvi Wali Ur Rehman, whocarried 2.5 million dollars headmoney by the America, is re-portedly among the six killedin fresh drone strike, first afterthe May 11 elections, in NorthWaziristan agency Wednesdaymorning.
Two people also sustainedwounds in the US plane’s hitthat has irked the Pakistani gov-ernment and the foreign officehas lodged strong protest with
the US administration over thedrone attack calling it a sheer vio-lation of the human rights and theinternational laws.
There was controversyamong the Taliban leadershipover the killing of WaliUrRehman with some source con-firmed the news while others de-clining to confirm his death in theWednesday’s attack.
The sources in the Pakistanisecurity forces also said Wali UrRehman was among those killedin the fresh drones hit in NorthWaziristan agency. R e p o r t sreaching here said the Americanplanes or the infamous CIA op-
erated pilotless planes commonly
known as drones, targeted a com-
pound in Kato Khel area nearChashma Pul, some twenty kilo-meters from agency headquartersMiranshah on Wednesday morn-ing. “The American planes hit thecompound with two hellfire mis-siles that not only destroyed thebuilding but also damaged thenearby houses”, sources told Pa-kistan Observer.
Initial reports say the mis-siles hit killed four inmates of thehouse while few others sustainedinjuries. Locals said they had noinformation about the dead add-ing the compound might havebeen used by the militants in thepast. The official sources, how-
ever, said all the victims of theWednesday’s attack were themilitants though their origincould not be ascertained butthere are reports of fugitive’smovements in the destroyedcompound.
The Military sources on theother hand said, top militantcommander and Deputy chief ofTTP Wali ur Rehman who waspoised to succeed TTP chiefHakimullah Mehsud has beenkilled in the fresh attack. Be-sides, Wali Ur Rehman, FakhreAlam, Naseer ud Din andNasrullah, the official sourcesContinued on Page 6
Energy crisis is firstpriority: NawazNot to stay in PM House,
Centre to have 26 ministersLAHORE—Chief of the PakistanMuslim League–N Nawaz Sharif
held a meeting at his Raiwindresidence on Wednesday to ad-
dress the energycrisis duringwhich he said thatthe energy criseswas his party’sfirst priority andthat after cominginto power hisg o v e r n m e n twould initiallybring an end tou n a n n o u n c e d
KARACHI: Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro administering oath to the newly elected MPAs on Wednesday.
CJ takes suomotu notice ofGujrat tragedySTAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Chief Justice ofPakistan Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry took suomotu notice of the tragicexplosion in a school van in theoutskirts of Gujrat on May 25which had claimed the lives ofat least 17 children.
Chief Justice IftikharChaudhry taking notice of thetragic incident fixed June 4 asthe date of hearing over thecase.
He also sought reports fromSecretary Petroleum, ChiefSecretary of Punjab, Punjab’sSecretary of transport depart-ment, Inspector General ofPunjab police, and theadministration of the school.
At least 17 children and a
Contd on Page 6
158 members of SindhAssembly take oathSpeaker, Deputy Speaker and CM election
today PPPP not in contact with MQM over keypositions Siraj Durrani to be next Speaker
IRFAN ALIGI
KARACHI—The first sessionof Sindh provincial assemblywas held Wednesday. Thescheduled time for the sessionto commence was 10 a.m. butit started one and half an hourlate due to late arrival of cer-tain newly elected members ofthe Sindh assembly. SpeakerNisar Ahmed Khuhru presidedover the session.
There were 168 newlyelected MPAs of which 158 weresworn in. Speaker Nisar Khuhruadministered oath. Sixty-onenew MPAs had joined the assem-bly of which 61 belonged to thePakistan People’s Party Parlia-mentarian, 20 the MuttahidaQaumi Movement, 4 from thePakistan Muslim League-Func-tional and 3 from the Tehreek-eInsaaf. One hundred and thirty
MPAs have been elected by thevoters during elections -2013.
The newly elected MPAstook oath in three different lan-guages. The MPAs belonging to
the PPP majority of whom wasSindhi speaking took oath inSindhi language. The MQMMPAs, with majority Urdu-speaking took oath in Urdu whileIrfanullah Khan Marwat from thePML-N, PPPP MPA SardarMuhammad Bux Khan Maherand Sher Zaman of the PTI tookoath in English.
The MPAs from the PPPP inthe assembly were 87, 48 ofMQM, 9 from the Pakistan Mus-lim League-N, 10 from the PML-F and 4 from the PTI.
Arbab Ghulam Rahim, whohad remained absent during pre-vious assembly and lived in self-exile in Dubai was absent andthus could not tale oath as MPA.The newly elected leader of theHouse, Syed Qaim Ali Shah wasthe eldest MPA in the assemblywhile the youngest was from the
123 KP MPAs sworn-inKhattak: Govt to face huge problems;
young, new faces to correct systemTARIQ SAEED
PESHAWAR—More than 120elected parliamentarians tookoath as members of the KhyberPukhtunkhwa assembly duringthe maiden session of the newlyelected house here Wednesdaymorning
The newly elected MPAs,with most of them new to thehouse, took oath in a sessionchaired by Speaker ProvincialAssembly KaramatullahChagharmati who hoped thenewly elected MPAs would putin their best to serve this prov-
ince and their pledge to dream thedestiny of the country in generaland KPK in particular would berealized. Of those who were ad-ministered the oath of their of-fice, 55 members are affiliatedto Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf
(PTI), 17 each to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Paki-stan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) and five each toAwami National Party (ANP)and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad,eight to Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), 10
to Qaumi Jamhoori Ittehad(QJI).Two independent candi-dates are yet to decide their fu-ture course of action. Out of 124MPAs of the House, 121 MPAstook oath today while formerChief Ministers Akram KhanDurrani and Amir Haider KhanHoti who did not take oath asthey are likely to retain their Na-tional Assembly seats of NA-26Bannu and NA-9 Mardan respec-tively.
Similarly, a female MPA ofJUI (F), Naeema Ahktar also nottook oath from provincial assem-bly seat and is likely to join na-tional assembly as MNA.Naeema will be replaced byRomana Jalil daughter of JalilJan, Provincial Information Sec-retary of JUI (F).
In KP Assembly, PakistanTehreek-e-Insaaf has emerged asthe majority party and has nomi-nated senior politician and Cen-tral Secretary General PTI,Pervez Khan Khattak for the of-fice of Chief Minister. The party
PML-N 100-day agenda toinject 3000mw in national grid
AMANUJLLAH KHAN
KARACHI—The first priority ofthe new government commenc-ing from June 6 is to add at least2000-3000mw of power into na-tional grid under its 100 dayagenda to shape up the tangledmess of the economy.
According to informedsources, The 100 day agenda ofthe new government is to injectat least 2,000-3,000 megawatts tothe national grid in the short termwhile anotgher 16,000 mega-watts in the medium term,sources said.
It is also a coincident that atthe time when a new era is tobegin , the world energy leaderABB is set to showcase energyefficient equipment for the oil,gas and power industries at the11th International Pakistan OilGas Energy Exhibition(POGEE) takes place from May30 to June 1, 2013 at the LahoreExpo Center.
The energy conference andexhibition is being held on the
occasion when a new govern-ment having the priority chal-lenge of talking the energy cri-sis which has become a poten-tial danger to the economicgrowth if not resolved at the ear-liest. Laying a short term-me-dium and long term solution ofthe energy crisis is on top of thelist of 100 day agenda of the newgovernment.
.Meanwhile, ABB’s interac-tive display will exhibit mediumvoltage panels, motors, drives,programmable logic controllers(PLC) and control products. Inaddition, the stand will display aselection of products from theKNX technology range – a smartcontrol system used in buildingsthat helps to increase flexibility,security, economic efficiency andconvenience. ABB can also helpindustrial and utility customersimprove energy efficiency byproviding specialists to audit en-ergy use and identify areas forimprovement, providing equip-ment, systems and solutions to
Continued on Page 6
No amendmentin Blasphemy
Lawrequired: CII
ISLAMABAD—Putting aside allreservations of critics over Blas-phemy Law in the country,Council of Islamic Ideology(CII) Wednesday said there is noneed of amendment in the law.
Media quoting sources said, the council members believethat law is fine to deal with thecases.
Council of Islamic Ideologyis the elite body to regulate reli-gious influence over the law ina country where majority ofpeople favour implementationof religious values.
In a meeting with MaulanaKhan Muhammad Shirani inchair, the council also observethat human cloning could not beallowed.
In the same meeting, thecouncil members observe thatDNA can’t be accepted as evi-dence in legal affairs.
It should be an additionalevidence and not as the funda-mental evidence, he furthersaid.—Online
‘Assad will remainpresident until 2014’
BEIRUT—Syria’s foreign min-ister laid out a hard line Wednes-day, insisting that Bashar Assadwill remain Syria’s president atleast until elections in 2014 andmight run for another term, con-ditions that will make it difficultfor Syria’s opposition to agreeto U.N.-sponsored talks on end-ing Syria’s civil war.
Any deal reached in suchtalks would have to be put to areferendum, Walid al-Moallemsaid in a TV interview, introduc-ing a new condition that couldcomplicate efforts by the U.S.and Russia to bring the two sidestogether at an international con-ference in Geneva, possibly nextmonth.
The wide-ranging com-ments by al-Moallem, a regimestalwart with decades in top po-
sitions, reflected a new confi-dence by Assad’s government,which had seemed near collapseduring a rebel offensive lastsummer but has scored a num-ber of battlefield successes inrecent weeks.
“Our armed forces have re-gained the momentum,” the for-eign minister said. He suggestedthat the regime is digging in.Asked by Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen station when the civilwar might end, he said: “Thatdepends on when the patience ofthose conspiring against Syriawill run out.”
The uprising against Assaderupted in March 2011, turnedinto an armed insurgency in re-sponse to a harsh regime crack-down and escalated into a civilwar. —AP
Ephedrine case
SC requested toinitiate proceedings
against accusedISLAMABAD—Anti NarcoticsForce (ANF) Rawalpindi hasrequested Supreme Court (SC)to initiate proceedings againstHanif Abbasi, Moosa Gilani,Makhdoom Shahab ud Din andother five accused in Ephedrinequota case.
Hanif Abbasi is formerMNA from PML-N, MoosaRaza Gilani is son of formerprime minister Syed YousufRaza Gilani and MakhdoomShahab ud Din is former stateminister.
A 2-member bench of SCheaded by Justice Jawwad SKhawaja took up ephedrinequota case for hearing Wednes-
Continued on Page 6
Afghan militantsattack Red Crossguest houseKABUL—Militants launched acoordinated assault on a guesthouse used by the InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross onWednesday, blasting throughthe gates with a suicide bomberbefore storming the buildingand setting off an ongoing gunbattle, officials said.
The attack in the easterncity of Jalalabad is the secondmajor assault against aninternational organization infive days. Militants launched asimilar operation against aU.N.-affiliated group in Kabullast week that killed threepeople.
Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, aspokesman for the governor ofNangarhar province, saidWednesday’s attack inJalalabad began just before
BalochistanCS refusalangers BarozaiSTAFF REPORTER
QUETTA—Chief SecretaryBalochistan, Babar YaqoobFateh Muhammad has refusedto make important postings andtransfers just a week beforeformation of new coalitiongovernment in the province.
Refusal and objection overthe transfers of senior bureau-crats angered interim ChiefMinister Balochistan NawabGhous Bakhsh Barozai onWednesday.
“I have decided to quitsince I was bypassed in sendingsummary for conveningBalochistan Assembly session,”Nawab Baroozai told media.
Governor BalochistanNawab Zulfiqar Magsiconvened the assembly sessionon June 1.
He however contradictedthe reports about refusal on thepart of CS for postings andtransfers.
“The Chief Secretaryrefused to transfer senior
Continued on Page 6
Continued on Page 6
MQM to sit onopposition benches
in NA, PASTAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—The MuttahidaQaumi Movement had in light ofrecommendations tabled by theMQM Parliamentary Committeedecided to sit on the oppositionbenches in the centre and inSindh province.
The Coordination Commit-tee of the MQM had Wednesday
Continued on Page 6 Continued on Page 6
Picture on Page 6
QU E T TA —The ElectionCommissions has issuednotif icat ion on reservedseats for women and mi-norities in the BalochistanAssembly.
Official sources in theProvincial Election Com-mission told APP, here onWednesday that the com-mission has notif ied re-served seats for womenand minorities in the pro-vincial assembly ofBalochistan.
Pakistan MuslimLeague-N clinched three re-served seats for women andPML-N women MPAs in-clude Kiran Haider, SaminaKhan and Rahila HamidDurrani while the minorityseat went to SantoshKumar. Among the three
One killed,another injuredin road mishapMIRPUR—A man reportedlydrowned while his wife sus-tained injuries when their carskidded off the road and fellinto Jhelum River onWednesday inMuzaffarabad. A senior po-lice officer told APP, that Res-cue workers rescued IftikharShah’s wife. The deceasedwas an Accounts Officer inMuzaffarabad.
The couple washeadingto Garhi Dopatta onMuzaffarabad-Chakothi Roadwhen their car skidded andplunged into Jhelum river nearRasheed Abad, about 5 kilo-meter from Muzaffarabad city,DIG Police Sardar GulfrazKhan added. The search forIftikhar Shah’s body wasunferway till the filing of thereport.—APP
PTI govt. toface strong
opposition in KPPESHAWAR—The provincialgovernment of PakistanTehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa willhave to face a strong oppo-sition comprising of seniorparliamentarians from PML-N, JUI-F, PPP and ANP in theprovincial assembly.
The parliamentary partiesof the opposition partiesshow its first unanimity hereon the issue of the nomina-tion candidates for the postsof the Speaker and DeputySpeaker of the newly electedassembly.
The opposition parlia-mentary parties nominatedManawar Khan of JUI-F andArbab Akkbar Hayat Khan ofPML-N with consensus forthe offices of Speaker andDeputy Speaker. Theproposer of the Manawarwas Abdul Sattar, a PML-Nlegislator from Kohistan.
Later, talking to media, theparliamentary leader of PML-N in Khyber PakhtunkhwaAssembly, Sardar MahtabAhmad Khan said for thestrengthening of the demo-cratic traditions, the opposi-tion will contest on all threeseats including Speaker,Deputy Speaker and Leaderof the House. He said thatthough the opposition hasflouted joint candidates forthe offices of Speaker.—APP
MPAs of PashtoonkhawaMilli Awami Party (PkMAP)on reserved seats forwomen are Miss Fariza,Shapoz Mai Achakzai andMasooma Hayat while Wil-liam Jan Barkat is notifiedas minority MPA.
Two MPAs of NationalParty on reserved seats forwomen include Yasmin Bibiand Dr. Shama Ishaq whileHainderi Masih has be-come MPA on minori tyseat . Shahida Rauf andHusan Bano were notifiedMPAs on reserved seatsfor women on the ticket ofJamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl. Dr.Ruqayya Saeed Hashmiwas al lot ted women re-served seat on the ticket ofPakistan Muslim League-Q.—APP
HYDERABAD: SSP Hyderabad Saqib Ismail Memon addressing a Press conference at Police Headquarters.
QUETTA: Principal Secretary to Caretaker Chief Minister Balochistan, Sarwar Javedawarding certificate to a participant during a ceremony in connection with Mother andChild Day organized by PIDS.
PESHAWAR—Director Gen-eral NAB (KP) Lt Col (R)Shahzad Anwar Bhatti hassaid that educational insti-tutions are the fountain ofwisdom and they can playan effective role in estab-lishing a corruption free so-ciety through characterbuilding of future leader-ship. This, he said, while
addressing at workshop ofUniversity Students, fac-ulty members organized byNAB here on Wednesday.As many as 70 Students,faculty members of 12 Pub-lic and Private Universitiesof Khyber PakhtunkhwaProvince attended the work-shop .
DG NAB KP said that
the Bureau has adopted athree prong strategy viz-a-viz Awareness, Preventionand Enforcement as mereenforcement is no solutionto the problem even to es-tablish thousands of Anti-graft Agencies. That is why,he added we have estab-lished Character BuildingSocieties as they are the fu-ture leadership of the coun-try and shoulder responsi-bilities in various capaci-ties.
He advised the studentsthat beside academic excel-lence, they must practicehigh moral values such astruthfulness, punctuality,promise honoring, honesty,respect for others and give-up the bad habits of cheat-ing, fraud, revenge etc whichhe opined was a key to suc-cess in each and every walkof life. He further stressedupon the students to adoptpositive attitude in life andinstead of cursing others, itshould be preferred to con-tribute in individual capacityand focus on self-account-ability.
Later, the students weredivided in various groups forbrain storming and presenta-tions on personality traits forcharacter building. Everygroup arrived at consensusfor character building traitsincluding self discipline,truthfulness.—APP
Character building necessary forcorruption free society: DG NAB
EC Balochistan notifiesreserved seats
ISLAMABAD—The Councilof Islamic Ideology (CII)Wednesday directed thePunjab Government to in-clude the deleted chapters/essays from the curriculumof schools of the province.A two day session of IslamicIdeology Council was heldwith Chairman CII SenatorMaulana Muhammad KhanSherani in the chair. Express-ing concern on the exclud-ing certain essays from thecurriculum, the council ob-served that the removed es-says/chapters were reflec-tive of the teachings of the
Holy Prophet HazratMuhammad (PBUH) and ide-ology of the country so thesame must be included in thecurriculum of Punjabschools.
The CII observed thatcurriculum plays vital role inrepresenting the culture ideo-logue and character buildingof a nation. The Council di-rected the education depart-ments of all provinces in-cluding Azad Kashmir andGilgit-Baltistan to send theircurriculum from primary tohigher classes so that flawsin the curriculum could be pin
pointed.The Council also tasked
Allama Hafiz Zubair AhmedZaheer to thoroughly persuethe curriculums and report tothe Council to enable it topurge the curriculums fromany flaws in contrary to theideology of the country andteachings of the HolyProphet (PBUH), father of thenation Quaid e AzamMuhammad Ali Jinnah andcountry’s ideology. TheCouncil decided to hold aseminar for exterminatingcontradictions between offi-cial and private Ruet-e-Hilal
Committees. In the seminarthe members of Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and PrivateRuet-Hilal Committee, Ulemaand officials of Ministry ofReligious Affairs would beinvited so that a unanimousdecision could be made onsighting of the Moon.
The council also passedrecommendations for intro-ducing amendments in con-trary to the interests ofwomen. The council for-warded several recommenda-tion for elimination/amend-ments in anti women laws.The council approved recom-
Punjab govt asked to includedeleted essays in curricula
mendations for acceptingDNA test as evidence in thecases of rape. The councilalso approved recommenda-tion for introducing amend-ments in blasphemy act.
The meeting was at-tended by members of coun-cil Mufti Ghulam MustafaRizvi, Justice r Nazir Akhtar,Justice r Mushtaq AhmedMemon, Dr MuhammadIdrees Soomro, Allama SyedIftikhar Hussain Naqvi, SyedSaeed Ahmed Shah Gujrati,Allama Muhammad YousufAwan, Maulana Hafiz TahirMehmood Ashrafi.—APP
I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nPeople’s Party secretary gen-eral Sardar Latif Khosa onWednesday said that hisparty supports the democraticprocess in the country andexpressed the hope thatPML-N will rule in accordancewith the constitution. Talkingto media in PPP Central Sec-retariat here, he said PPP lead-ership and workers supportthe democratic process in thecountry and stands for therights of masses.
He said Balochistan is im-portant province of countryand election results have dis-gruntled the people’s mandateadding democracy is the onlysolution of problems being
faced by the country. To aquestion, he said election com-mission should take action forthe verification of thumb im-pression with the support ofNational Database and Regis-tration Authority and bringfacts before the nation.
He blamed internationalforces for PPP defeat in gen-eral elections and warned thatpolitical parties should becareful as in 1970 the coun-try was broken in two partswith of conspiracy thesehands. To another question,he said PPP government’sinking of Iran-Pakistan gaspipeline and handing over ofGwadar to China hurt the in-ternational forces.
Replying to another ques-tion, Khosa said PPP alwaysstood for the rights of thepeople of Southern Punjabadding that his party wasworking for establishing aSeraiki province. He saidBahawalpur district should beincreased from three to moreas no district was created inBahawalpur since the creationof the country which is injus-tice with the locals.
The new districts ofBahawalpur would help pro-viding basic facilities to thepeople of the area and incom-ing PML-N government inPunjab should remember thesacrifices of the people ofBahawalpur.—APP
PPP to support PML-N fordemocratic process: Khosa
ISLAMABAD—Rural Womendemands right to land, em-ployment quota for ruralwomen, protection of vio-lence against women and acomprehensive frameworkfor implementation ofwomen protection laws toensure rights and help themto become productive mem-bers of society.
Talking to APP here onWednesday, Executive Di-rector Potohar Organizationfor Development Advocacy(PODA), Samina Nazir saidthey sought from the up-coming government to givespecial attention to the is-sue of rural women whichwere not adequately high-
lighted in past.She said to empower ru-
ral women they urged thatone acre free land would begiven to landless women sothat they would be able toearn respectable living andsupport their families ratherthan being exploited by thelandlords. Samina furthersaid the upcoming govern-ment should introduce spe-cific program for ruralwomen focusing on their re-quirements and challengesas their problems are differ-ent from urban women andin past same policies for allwere not proved quite affec-tive for them.
“The patriarchal society
norms and dominant maleculture in rural areas createshindrances for women”, shesaid adding, “there is needto design special programfor them which would helpfacilitate them at grass rootlevel”. She also opined thatincentives for small and me-dium entrepreneurs wouldalso help expand their op-portunities and increasetheir confidence to utilizetheir abilities to raise theirincome resources despitetheir limited mobility andcultural issues.
The ratio of educationand opportunities for ruralwomen are quite less thanthose of urban women and
to bring them at par with all,it is imperative to addresstheir issues particularly, theexecutive director said. Ru-ral women lack training op-portunities for establishingtheir outlets and if theywould be imparted skills ofrunning small and mediumenterprises, they could getdecent earnings of their hardwork, she said. Samina alsosought for fixing quota ofrural women in high positiongovernment and privatesector jobs like administra-tion, judiciary, managementto develop healthy compe-tition among them andopens ways for their fu-ture.—APP
Rural women demand right to land
ISLAMABAD—The EuropeanCommission’s HumanitarianAid & Civil Protection de-partment (ECHO) has ap-proved another •12 million toaddress emergency food se-curity and nutrition needs ofover 340,000 flood affectedpeople in Sindh and Punjab.
Implemented by the Paki-stan Emergency Food SecurityAlliance (PEFSA), theprogramme aims to improvefood security for poor andvulnerable families as well astreat and prevent cases ofacute malnutrition. The yearlong programme will be imple-
PEFSA consists of six or-ganizations working towardsimproving food security andnutrition conditions in emer-gency and post emergencyscenarios in Pakistan, namelyACTED, ACF, Care Interna-tional, IRC, Oxfam, and Save theChildren. This alliance strivesto provide innovative solutionsto the emergency food insecu-rity and malnutrition issues thatintensify in the aftermath of
any humanitarian disaster. Thisis the fourth round of thePEFSA programme since 2010with total funding of 57 millioneuro over this period.
PEFSA started in Septem-ber 2010 in order to supportthe relief and early recoveryof communities affected bythe monsoon floods. In thewake of 2011 floods, the alli-ance delivered humanitarianprogrammes for flood-af-fected families in lower Sindh.PEFSA has primarily workedas an ECHO partner duringdifferent humanitarian emer-gencies.—APP
Food security programmefor flood affected people
Robber killed inpolice encounterBAHAWALPUR—A robberwas killed while his two co-horts managed to flee duringan encounter with police hereon Wednesday. Accordingto details, the police de-ployed at a check post nearZakhira More at Cholistansignaled to stop suspectedmotorcycle carrying threepersons.
The suspects instead ofstopping started firing at po-lice and tried to flee. In retal-iatory firing a robber waskilled while his two cohortsfled the scene leaving thebody behind. The police re-covered arms from the pos-session of the killed rob-ber.—INP
VIP treatment for blast victimsPESHAWAR—Chief Minister designateKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez KhanKhattak Wednesday informed the Pro-vincial Assembly that all the blast in-jured would get VIP treatment in thehospitals of the province. In his maidenspeech after taking oath as members ofthe provincial assembly, the CM desig-nate in response to the assertions madeby MPA Mufti Janan on the floor of thehouse, said that he has instructed the
officials of the health department to ensure provision ofbest medi-care facilities to the injured of the explosions asavailable to a VIP patient in the hospital. He vowed tobring positive change to this effect after the formation ofthe government in the province and said the people wouldfeel the change. Mufti Janan belonging to Hangu districtdrew the attention of the house towards poor treatmentfacilities given to the injured of the blast in the hospitals ofthe province.—APP
QWP to support KP Govt for peacePESHAWAR—Parliamentary leader ofQumi Watan Party in KhyberPakthunkhwa Assembly SikandarHayat Khan Sherpao MPA hereWednesday said that establishment ofpeace and improving law and order situ-ation in the province would be the toppriority of the newly elected govern-ment and would take all the likemindedparties on board to achieve this objec-tive. Talking to reporters at premises of
KP Assembly before taking oath as MPA here, SikandarSherpao said people have great expectations from the newlyelected assemblies and time has come to forge unity andcohesion to take the province out of existing difficult chal-lenges. He said QWP would support KP government forestablishment of durable peace and improvement of lawand order in the province. Sikandar Sherpao said a jointnational strategy was required to address menace of ter-rorism and militancy once and for all. Sikandar Sherpaosaid QWP has joined the PTI led government in KP in thenational interest to strengthen democracy system and carrythe ship of democracy forward. He said QWP would con-tinue struggle against corruption and injustices in the so-ciety. Sikandar Sherpao congratulated the newly electedMPAs.—APP
Doctor-patient communicationHYDERABAD—Eminent surgeon andAssociate Professor of Surgery LiaquatUniversity of Medical and Health Sci-ences (LUMHS) Jamshoro Dr FaisalGhani Siddiqui has said that the doc-tors need to communicate with patientsin an effective manner so that they candeliver quality medical care. It is worthnoting that effective communicationhelps in providing optimum informationand psychological support to patients.
Talking to this scribe here Dr Faisal Ghani said that aneffective communication is a vital skill required to excel inresearch, education and the two other important fields ofconcern during post-graduate education, helping post-graduate medical students to acquire these during resi-dency training is of vital importance. However, most of theliterature and studies in this regard relate to situation indeveloped countries and information relevant to commu-nication skills of residents working in developing coun-tries is lacking, he added. Dr Faisal said that the residentdoctors in Pakistan have certain unique problems in effec-tively communicating with patients and they often find itdifficult to explain the medical terminologies to patients.He said that doctors receive their training in English, dis-cuss patient related issues with their seniors in Englishbut are expected to converse in official language ‘Urdu’,or one of several regional languages while discussing withlay persons. He said that the patient’s understanding ofthe disease.—APP
7pc population fall prey to diabetesFAISALABAD—About seven percent ofPakistan’s population fall prey to diabe-tes with more than 10 million people, plac-ing the country at the sixth number in termof high rate of diabetes’ patients acrossthe globe. Speakers stated this at an inau-gural session of a seminar titled “Man-agement of Diabetes Mellitus” organizedby Department of Physiology, Govern-ment College University Faisalabad(GCUF). GCUF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr
Zakir Hussain chaired the session. Faculty of Science andTechnology Dean Prof Dr Naureen Aziz Qureshi, In-chargeDepartment Dr Haseeb Anwar and other spoke on the occa-sion. Prof Dr Zakir Hussain said that the disease was increas-ing rapidly in the country as in the year 2000, the number ofpatients was 5.2 million but now it had around doubled withone million patients. He told the audience that according toWorld Health Organization, it might become seventh largestcause of deaths worldwide by the year 2030 if tangible stepswere not taken. He stressed the need to aware the peopleabout the disease and its precautions to cope with. He toldthe participants that the obesity and physical inactivity wereone of the reasons of the disease.—APP
MUZAFFARGARH—Five chil-dren, including three broth-ers and two sisters, died offood poisoning in BastiJangla of tehsil Jatoi afterthey ate bread (Roti) taintedwith a gas emitting tablet thatis used to kill pests to keepwheat stock safe, police saidon Wednesday. The de-ceased were sons anddaughters of a villager,Ghulam Yasin. Investigatingofficer of Jatoi police stationAshiq told APP that GhulamYasin had got wheat flourgrinded from a local Chakki(a small flour grinding unit).The wheat mistakenly had
some tablets that are used tokill pests which got crushedto become part of the wheatflour at the Chakki. Elevenmembers of the family andrelatives fell unconsciousfew hours after eating Roticooked from that flour onMay 24 evening and startedemitting foam from theirmouths.
They were rushed to lo-cal hospital and were laterreferred to Nishtar HospitalMultan. A child Faraz diedon May 25 morning and waslaid to rest on May 26. Hisbrother Sheraz died thesame day and his burial was
held on May 27, the investi-gating officer of the casesaid. On Wednesday, an-other brother Shahbaz aliaAli (9), and sisters SamiaBibi (14) and Sajda Bibi (15)also passed away and theirFuneral prayers and burialwere held at Basti Jangla, thepolice officer said.
He said Ghulam Yasinwas admitted to Rohillanwalihospital after remaining un-der treatment at Nishtar hos-pital. Other family membersaffected by food poisoning,including Shehnaz Mai (28),Muhammad Amin, Asma,seven-year-old sister of
Ghulam Yasin and Misbah,were under treatment. Quot-ing relatives, police officersaid that they were planningto shift them to ChildrenHospital Complex Multan.The investigating officer saidpolice had sought a medicalreport from doctors regard-ing the cause of death.
The tablet that becamepart of flour is usually keptto keep wheat stock safe frompests and it kills pests byemitting some gas. He saidverbally doctors told him thatthe gas emitted by the tabletpowder might have affectedtheir hearts fatally.—APP
QUETTA—Acting Chief Elec-tion Commissioner (CEC)Justice Tasaddaq HussainWednesday said that con-ducting elections inBalochistan was a challengefor the Election Commissionof Pakistan (ECP) due to lawand order situation. He wasexpressed these views whiletalking to journalists after hisarrival here. He said “Thepolling staff deployed forconducting elections inBalochistan received threatsand keeping in view the poorlaw and order situation, elec-tions in these circumstanceswas a big challenge for theECP,” adding that however,the commission achieved thetask in collaboration with the
provincial government andthe Pak Army.
He said that smooth flour-ishing of democracy linkedwith rule of law adding that itis a need of hour to raise po-litical awareness among thepeople to strengthen democ-racy. He said that ECP has re-ceived several complaintspertaining to rigging in elec-tions and probe into them tobe continued.” Stern actionwould be taken against thosewho were found responsiblefor committing rigging inpolls,” he said. He informedthat the announcement of elec-tion results of some constitu-encies was delayed after somecandidate moved to thecourts.—APP
Another injuredLevies man diesQUETTA—Another LeviesForce personnel who re-ceived wounds in firing inGarisha area of Khuzdar dis-trict has succumbed to hisinjuries. Levies sources toldAPP on Wednesday that un-known armed men had at-tacked and opened fire atLevies check-post in Garishaarea of Khuzdar district onMonday, in which two per-sonnel of Levies Force re-ceived injuries.
One of the injured identi-fied as Ghulam Qadir suc-cumbed to his injures on theway to hospital while an-other injured personnelMuhammad Sharif was ad-mitted to Civil HospitalKhuzdar who has also suc-cumbed to his wounds. TheLevies Force has registeredthe case against the attack-ers and launched efforts totrace.—APP
P E S H AWA R —Prov inc i a lPresident of Pakistan Tahrik-e-Insaf and nominatedSpeaker of KhyberPakthunkhwa Assembly,Asad Qaiser said Wednes-day that establishment oflasting peace in the provincewas a big challenge for thenewly elected Governmentand PTI Govt would intro-duce such policies, whichwould usher a new era ofprogress, peace and pros-perity in the province.
Talking to reporters be-fore taking oath as MemberProvincial Assembly at theassembly’s premises here,Asad Qaiser said no com-promise would be made onlaw and order and peace inthe province and maximumresources would be utilize to
bolster peace efforts. Qaisersaid establishment of durablepeace in KP was a big chal-lenge for the newly electedgovernment and that all thelikeminded political partiesand opposition would betaken on board on nationalissues to put the province onroad to progress and devel-opment.
He said PTI has ac-cepted this challenge andwill form such policies thatwould ensure peace andeconomic stability in theprovince. For progress andeconomic development, hesaid, establishment of du-rable peace in the provincewas must and sought thesupport of all peace lovingsegments of the society tosupport hands of PTI lead-
ership to get desirable re-sults.
“We knew people havemade high expectations fromus. We have entered in theKP Assembly with a missionto serve masses and addressall the inherited challenges,”said Asad Qaiser, addingopposition would also betaken on board on nationalissues and that focus wouldbe made in smooth runningof the House. He said todaywas a historic day whenmembers of a newly electedtook oath and phase ofsmooth transition of powerfrom once civilian govern-ment to another is being com-pleted. He congratulated allthe democratic loving forcesand people on this historicoccasion.—APP
ISLAMABAD—Intense heatwave conditions will again gripthe whole country from Fridayto Sunday, increasing the snowmelting process. According toan official of Pakistan Meteo-rological Department (PMD),the whole country will be hitby intense heat wave on Fri-day, which will continue tillSunday. The day temperatureswill rise across the country, es-pecially in plain areas.
The snow melting pro-cess will be increased in thenext four to five days, whichhelp fill the water reservoirstoo, the official said. Aboutthe synoptic situation, theofficial said a seasonal low liedover Balochistan and its ad-joining areas. A shallow west-erly wave now prevailing overKashmir and its adjoining hillyareas will subside from Thurs-day causing hot and dryweather, he added.
The hot and dry weatherwill prevail in Punjab, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh,Balochistan, Kashmir and GilgitBaltistan from Friday onward.The official said the isolated rainactivity during the currentmonth was the result of west-ern disturbance and the mon-soon period would start when
that disturbance will be sub-sided by eastern one.
According to the clima-tology of Pakistan, the officialsaid, pre-monsoon period waslikely to start in last ten daysof June while the regular mon-soon period would begin inthe first week of July. Theweather will remain hot anddry on Thursday across thecountry, however.—APP
Oath taking of newelected MPAshistoric day
PESHAWAR—Terming theoath-taking of newly electedMembers Provincial Assem-bly (MPAs) of KhyberPakhunkhwa and Sindh As-semblies as historic day in thecountry said by Jumaat- e-Islami leader and MPA SirjaulHaq on Wednesday.
People have made greatexpectations from the parlia-mentarians and we need to fo-cus on key issues like law andorder situation, vital for eco-nomic prosperity and socio-economic uplift of masses.Taking to reporters after tak-ing oath as newly elected MPAhere at KP Assembly building,Siraj- ul- Haq said a lots ofmajor challenge before thenewly elected parliamentariansand government.—APP
HANGU—Polio female cam-paigners were injured onWednesday by stoning fromunknown miscreant in Tal dis-trict of Hangu town. A day be-fore two female workers wereshot dead in suburb area ofPeshawar. Continuation of anti-polio campaign is getting moredifficult as various incidents ofattacks carried out against theworkers around Pakistan.
In Wednesday incident,some miscreants threw stonesover the campaigners whichresulted in injuring a femaleworker busy in the anti-polio
campaign in KhyberPakhthkhwa’s town of Hangu.According to police sources,the campaign is still going onin the area while security hasbeen increased after this em-barrassing event. The injuredwere shifted to the hospital byrescue workers for initial treat-ment but the campaigners arestill working under fear of at-tacks. Previously, World HealthOrganization (WHO) appealedon Tuesday for cooperation inrunning polio eradication cam-paign in Pakistan from the reli-gious circles.—Online
5 children die of food poisoning Anti-polio campaignersattacked in Hangu
Intense heat waveto grip country
Election in Balochistanwas a challenge for ECP
Establishment of peace in KPchallenge for new Govt: Asad
MULTAN—Doctors at Chil-dren Complex staged a tokenprotest against non-paymentof salaries for April so far. Atotal of 50 doctors staged theprotest for an hour boycott-ing working in wards as theywere denied payment of sala-ries for April, Dr Zagham toldAPP on Wednesday.
A total of 23 doctors, in-cluding 15 house officers andeight post graduate regis-trars, could not get their sal-ary as cashier of the hospitalwas robbed of Rs one millionwhen he withdrew the moneyfrom State Bank in the begin-
ning of May, he said. DrZagham said the money in-cluded their salaries and theyraised the issue with hospi-tal administration and addedthat they were ensured ofpayment of salaries but itproved a lip service of theadministration.
The house officer saidthey spoke to Head of Insti-tute, Prof Dr Mukhtar HussainBhatti who made a two-mem-ber committee, including DrKashif Chishti and Dr SohailAshraf, to sort out the issue.The committee recommendedthat the salaries could be paid
Doctors protest againstnon-payment of salaries
from the personal account ofMedical Superintendent DrRana Aftab. The MS, he said,did not agree to pay the sala-ries by the time provincialgovernment gave him extrafunds.
He stated that they hadgiven deadline till 11’o clockedon May 30 to administrationfor resolving the issue, other-wise, they would suspendOPD services. When con-tacted, MS Children ComplexDr Rana Aftab said after therobbery of one million, theyhad lodged an FIR with thepolice concerned.—APP
ABBOTTABAD: Nuclear Scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan waving toward students during his visit to Ayyub Medical College.
HYDERABAD: Residents of Station Road set on fire tyres during a protest againstliquor shop and illegal activities in their locality.
QUETTA—Additional Gen-eral Secretary Pakistan Mus-lim League-Nawaz (PML-N)Balochistan chapter MirLiaquat Ali Lehri has de-manded the party leadershipto nominate candidate fromthe party cadre for the topslot of the provincial govern-ment in Balochistan.
In a statement issued,here Wednesday, he said“PML-N has been enjoyingmajority in the BalochistanAssembly and according tothe parliamentary tradition, itis the right of the majorityparty to head the govern-ment”. He said that masseshave given mandate to PML-N in recent general electionsand they have pinned hopeon this largest party of the
PML-N Balochistandemands its own CM
country that it would takesolid measures to resolve theirproblems.
“The Chief Minister ofBalochistan from PML-N willwork better to resolve the is-sues and problems of peoplethat would help in strengthen-ing the party in the provincethat would bear fruits in shapewinning maximum seats in thenext general elections,” he said.
Reliable sources revealedthat majority of the parliamen-tary party members ofBalochistan Assembly arebacking Sanaullah Zehri forBalochistan chief minister andwill not accept any other in thisoffice. Apart from the PML-N,the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) also supportSardar Sanaullah Zehri.—APP
MNS speaks truthnothing else but truthPML-N leader and Prime Minister-elect Mian Muhammad Nawaz
Sharif might have shocked his supporters, sympathizers and peopleat large by making bitter remarks about the curses of load-shedding,
poverty and debt but the ground realities are no different than what he hastried to convey. Speaking at a Youm-e-Takbir related function in Lahore,he lamented that a nuclear country should remain in darkness and addedthat addition of more power to the national grid would take up to threeyears. Similarly, MNS said he was in a fix to decide whether to eliminatepower outages or repay the circular debt.
People, who are witnessing about 20 hour of load-shedding a day,were desperately waiting for oath-taking of Mian Nawaz Sharif as PrimeMinister of the country in the backdrop of consistent media reports thatits groups, committees and think tanks have pieced together a compre-hensive plan to launch a frontal attack on power shortages and thatsome relief is expected immediately on assumption of power by thenew leader. Therefore, his pronouncement that the load-shedding couldtake up to three years to eliminate must have dampened expectations ofthe people, who were anticipating miracles from PML-N Government.No one can differ from MNS when he says a new power plant couldtake three years to complete but experience of the last five years showsit is not question of addition of more power to the national grid but ourability to eliminate circular debt, reduce line losses, check power theft,wipe out concessions for privileged classes and institutions and makeevery power consumer — be it domestic, commercial, industrial, insti-tutional or provincial government — to pay the bill. What is point inadding to more power to the grid if already installed plants are unableto operate on full capacity due to non-supply of fuel? The dream ofeconomic development, promised by PML-N, cannot be realized with-out addressing the power crisis and three years is too long a period towait for results. MNS is right when he points towards rising debt andother challenges but that is why the electorate rejected the PPP andvoted for PML-N and we hope it will start delivering from day one, aspeople are fed up with deadlines and they now want results. Apart fromtightening of our own belt, we should also seek assistance from ourfriends in the Gulf to mitigate sufferings of the people.
Criteria of womenreserved seats
THE Election Commission on Tuesday announced results of seats reserved for women and minorities in the National Assembly and four
provincial assemblies. There were no surprises in the result as there was nocompetition and those on the priority lists of the political parties made theirway to the elected houses under proportional representation system.
The spirit with which the framers of the Constitution allocated specialseats for women in the parliament is appreciable as in a male dominatedsociety it was not expected that women, constituting over half of the popu-lation, would find adequate representation despite freedom to contest forgeneral seats in the face of many odds. Similarly, minorities too were givenspecial quota so that their representation is ensured in legislatures. How-ever, the criteria adopted for the purpose is without logic and reasoning asit promotes blatant favourtism at the expense of genuinely deserving can-didates. With the exception of few women, the only criteria of all thoseelected on the strength of different parties is that they are daughters, sistersand relatives of influential figures of these parties. Representation in theparliament is no joke as it is law-making forum but we have observed thatmajority of those reaching there through reserved seats system remain si-lent spectators during proceedings and have no capability or capacity tocontribute anything worthwhile. No doubt, election of a woman as PrimeMinister or Speaker or their presence in assemblies presents soft image ofthe country but this objective can better be served if technocrat and vision-ary ladies are nominated by political parties for the purpose.
Facilitate SC tooverhaul lower courtsTHE Supreme Court on Tuesday declared the appointment of NAB
Chairman Fasih Bokhari as illegal and directed the federalgovernment to appoint a new head of the accountability institution asprovided in the law. It is in continuation of the notices taken by theSupreme Court to cleanse different organisations from non-deservingappointments made on the basis of political considerations.
In our view the Apex Court played a commendable role in ensuringrule of law and meritocracy whenever cases of wrong doings werebrought to its notice. It is a common practice in Pakistan that whenevera new government is formed, it inducts new people to head differentdepartments on the ground that they specialize in the field and improvethe working of a particular department/organisation. But in most ofthe cases, these people serve their own interests and of their masters.Had the Executive made appointments on merit, much of the time ofthe Apex Court had been spared to galvanize the judicial system. It isunderstood that there are many lacunas in the proceedings of the lowerjudiciary and a perception has developed of wrong doings and casesare dealt with at snail pace. Frequent strikes and absence of lawyers ondifferent grounds and non-appearance of witnesses have resulted inhuge pendency of cases in the lower judiciary and every Judge is hearingaround a hundred cases every day. In this scenario, a Judge cannotgive more than a few minute to every case and the litigants are givennew dates for hearing. Anyhow, we would suggest that the newgovernment should make all top appointments on merit so that peopleshould not move to the SC and the Apex Court is facilitated to squeezesometime for overhaul of the lower judiciary.
Who will empower people?
There is only oneway under highheaven to get bestof an argument — &that is to avoid it.
Syria:Arms SansFrontières
If it was already a gargantuantask to get all sides conductingand feeding the war in Syria
around a table in August, threeevents in the last three days havejust made that task much more dif-ficult but no less urgent. The firstand by far the most important wasHassan Nasrallah’s speech on Sat-urday in which the leader of theLebanese militant group Hezbollahpersonally committed his move-ment to the survival of the Assadregime. Unlike any other develop-ment in the grinding two-year warof attrition between Syria’s Sunnimajority and its Alawite-dominatedgovernment and military,Nasrallah’s statement has thepower to upset the fragile balancebetween Sunnis, Shias and Chris-tians in Lebanon that has lastedsince the end of its own 15-yearcivil war. For the first time in itshistory, Hezbollah shed the fig leafthat its sole purpose was to defendLebanon against Israel, and pub-licly committed itself to waging asectarian war against fellow Arabs.
Nasrallah’s statement shouldhave made everyone involved intrying to staunch the bloodlettingin Syria pause for thought, becauseit means that Iran’s involvement inthe planned talks sponsored by theUS and Russia becomes even moreimportant. While John Kerry, theAmerican secretary of state,showed flexibility on the notionthat Bashar al-Assad’s removalneed not be a precondition of thetalks, but a possible outcome ofthem (the rebels have so far beenunbending on this point), the USand Russia are still far apart onwhether Iran should have a seat atthe table. The second developmenthas just occurred in Brussels. Un-deterred by the increasing gravityof the regional dimensions of thecrisis, Britain and France pushedahead with their plan to arm therebels. In a debate in which theyfound themselves to be a heavilyarmed minority of two against 25,they forced a decision to let the EUarms embargo lapse. That was rap-idly followed by the third develop-ment, Russia’s announcement thatit would go ahead with deliveriesof S-300 anti-aircraft missiles toSyria – although the decision wasmore in response to Israel than tothe EU. Moscow had been waitingon an Israeli commitment not tocarry out further air raids over Syria– which never came. Russia’s de-cision is calamitous. If it is true thatarming the rebels with shoulder-mounted Stingers is beset by prob-lems about end users, that is evenmore true for fast radar-guided mis-siles that could be used by Assadagainst any target, airborne or not.
As things stand – with a civilwar in Iraq that has claimed 300lives in the last two weeks alone;with rising sectarian tension inLebanon; with Hezbollah’s overtinvolvement; with the prospect ofmore Israeli air strikes to come;with the re-militarisation of theGolan Heights and the warning thatAustria has given that it might pullits troops out of the UN observerforce there – it is no exaggerationto say that the Syrian conflict couldspill over a region extending fromthe Straits of Hormuz to the Medi-terranean. It is against this rapidlydeteriorating regional backdrop thatone must judge the wisdom of theBritish and French decision to armthe rebels. William Hague, the for-eign secretary, gave three main rea-sons: it would give Syrians underdaily bombardment from Assad theability to fight back; it would em-power the moderates, by which hemeans pro-western rebel units, andstop them defecting to the better-armed jihadi groups; and it wouldput more pressure on all sides toattend the planned peace confer-ence. All three are assumptions, andprecariously untested ones at that.Russia, Britain and France arehardly paving the way towards aceasefire and the sort of sustainedmultilateral diplomatic effort thatwill be needed over months to forgea solution. More weapons willmore likely entrench warlordism,prompt Assad’s backers to increasetheir military support, and give sub-stance to his claim to be fighting aforeign-backed Islamist plot. Moreweapons feed the myth that thisconflict has a military solution. Itis one that both sides in Syria stillnurture. — The Guardian
MEDIA WATCH
Dale Carnegie—US writer
The 2013 elections in Pakistanhave been highly flawed.Complaints about rigging
have been pouring in from all overPakistan but Sindh, the strongholdof the former ruling party PPP is atthe center of it. While it was clearfrom the beginning that the Elec-tion Commission did not even aimat tackling the task of organizingsafe and sound elections given theway it had come into existence itnow turns out that the flaws aremore severe than usual in any pre-vious Pakistani election. Fair playhas never been a strong point inPakistani politics and flawedvoter’s lists, pre-poll rigging andeven an amount of ballot box stuff-ing may have taken place in thepast also. But this time it seems thatthe missing security at the pollingstations and the lack of commit-ment of the polling staff and policehas resulted in a largely flawedelection result.
The PPP had been expectingdifficulties in their election cam-paign because of the dismal recordof their five years of government.That was why they made sure thatthere was a weak and impressibleElection Commission and caretakergovernment in place. Fair play wasnot a point in their power game andthe tamasha we are facing is a re-sult of it. The flaws in the electionthat have been much better docu-mented this time than any time be-fore have naturally undermined thecreditability of the new govern-ment. While there had been a strongcry for change – meaning changefrom old and traditional politicalforces to ‘new faces’ before the 11thMay this change did not take place.
Pakistan is no place for revo-lutions – this has been recognized
Man is a moral and intellectual being articulatinghappiness and progress
horizontally in peace-time, not incontinuing warmongering and irra-tional threats to other people and na-tions. When fear of the unknown,hatred and animosity attempt togovern the human consciousness,degeneration replaces humanprogress. America used to be aleader of change and new strategiesto envisage global friendship, co-existence and harmony of the man-kind. This week, President Obamamorally stressful and intellectuallyexhausted in his final White Houseterm of office, spoke on the Ameri-can priorities on the War on Terror-ism, global affairs and the over-whelming sexual assaults across theUS armed forces.
Leaders provide assurances andcomforts to the nation in momentsof crisis, not so by the in-betweenstriving president. Morally and in-tellectually conscientious Americanmasses if they were waiting forswift actions to restore confidencein the administration, it re-ignitedmany critical issues being un-touched by the president. Obamaintends on continuing the corporateworld-controlled drone attacks onthe innocent humanity and the ter-rorism of wars. The continuedAmerican led bogus War on Terror-ism has wide-ranging impacts onthe America political and intellec-
even by the ‘new face’ ImranKhan and his party that con-tains a number of ‘electables’that is members of the tradi-tional political families andclans that change their politi-cal affiliations according to the
‘political wind’. On the other hand,the electoral rolls remained flawedand millions of people were not in-cluded or were deprived of their vot-ing rights because of the civil wargoing on in Pakistan and their dis-placement: sitting in an IDP campfor years after displacement throughfloods, drone attacks or bombings ofthe Pakistani army you can’t vote.And even without displacementthousands of women were preventedfrom voting by their tribal elders notonly in the official tribal areas butin settled areas as well.
Pakistan is at the edge of col-lapse economically; the energy cri-sis is souring in the scorching heat,poverty is on the rise and law andorder are weak and in some placesnon-existent. Thus we need a gov-ernment and at the end of the dayany government regardless how itdid come about that can ease the situ-ation will earn its creditabilitythrough the results it is achieving.Thus, this coming government evenwith a Prime Minister who did notimpress anybody during his first twoterms in office will have to be judgedby the results it achieves now. Thereare two main issues that have to beapproached on priority basis, that isPakistan’s role in the so-called waron terror (that so far has createdmore terror) and the matter of droneattacks and secondly, the economicsituation and how to deal with it.With regard to the drone strikes pre-vious governments of GeneralMusharraf and PPP had an under-standing with the US that Pakistanwould accept them without counter-ing them while only issuing formalprotests from time to time.
This agreement has to gopeople will not accept NRO 2 gim-mick by PML-N and Pakistan
Tehrik-e-Insaf, who have beenvoted in place of PPP and its coali-tion partners. Drone attacks are notonly an attack on Pakistan’s sover-eignty; they are also a violation ofinternational law. In addition, theyhave created militancy not only inthe directly affected border areasbut all over Pakistan including thebig cities Karachi, Lahore andIslamabad. That is why it is inPakistan’s national interest to tacklethis militancy and terrorism that iscreated by the drones. No droneattacks are acceptable anymore andno army bombings are either. IDPsneed to go home to their villagesand they need to be helped to find anew beginning economically, edu-cation-wise and politically. But thisis not going to be an easy ride: theUS is intending to use Pakistan asits colony as they have done before.
While there is a discussion in theUS about giving drone attacks intothe hands of the US army and thusmake them controllable by the USgovernment drone attacks in Paki-stan are reported to remain in thehands of the CIA which allows theUS government to close its eyes onthem. The creditability of the cen-tral government and of the one inKPK will depend on how they areable to bring about a peace processwith Pakistani Taliban and that in-cluded the unconditional stop ofdrone attacks in Pakistani territory.The second and not less importanttask is the economic revival of ourcountry and how to go about it. Themain question is if Pakistan shouldgo back into the lap of IMF andWorld Bank or should we try to relyon our own reserves? Our newlyelected government has to explainwhy Oil and Gas resources found inabundance in Baluchistan are not be-ing tapped, if we do that poverty,unemployment and national devel-opment can be achieved without tak-ing bagging bowl before the prover-bial monkeys.
The second option seems to bemuch more promising given the fact
that IMF conditions for their loansare not suitable for Pakistanieconomy and the intentions of IMFof promoting free market economyare not in the interest of a highlyimpoverished country like Paki-stan. That is why the new govern-ment should rely on our own re-sources and carefully choose part-ners in those areas and projects thatneed outside help.
Instead of relying on interna-tional and US aid it would be abetter option to look towards ourneighbors like Iran for energyprojects and towards China forthe revival of our economy. Butbefore deciding any of this wehave to define what our own Pa-kistani national interest is allabout. Foreign policy and foreignaid and cooperation is certainly aneed in a globalized world; butthe details have to be decided byand matching the national inter-est of the country. Thus, thoughwe call China our ‘all-weatherfriend’ we should not forget ourown national interest and thatChina has its own national inter-est as well which they consider apriority. That is why the ChinesePrime Minister visited India firstand Pakistan second; with Indiawho is their largest trading part-ner they have a border conflictthat needs to be tackled on a pri-ority basis. It is not a sign of pre-ferring India to Pakistan.
In any case, the new govern-ment will have to revisit all thesequestions of policy, not surrenderour sovereignty and work on thedotted lines as was done in past,select the right man for the rightjob. Avoid job hunters and hang-ers on getting into the corridor ofpower, and it is by the results ofpromised change in load shed-ding, enforcement of the writ ofthe government to maintain lawand order that we should judgethem as representatives of peopleof Pakistan and not of any vice-roy. God bless us all.
tual psyche. Americans are in thefrontline of terrorizing the globalmankind, not searching for strategicrethinking - what went wrong withone of the most cultured and intel-lectually enriched nations of theworld. President Obama offerednothing new to the present and fu-turistic generations of America tobuild a peaceful relationship with therest of the humanity.
The US foreign policy is ulti-mately linked to its geo-politicalgrandeur interests not to the commonthinking and primary interests of thepeople of America. There is a con-tinuing evolution of the War Think-ing and conflict-making and conflict-keeping against Iran within the ae-gis of the current Obama presidency,more so during the re-electionagenda campaigns. Did Obama learnanything from the past to changeanything because of the knowledge,history and facts of life to know hisweaknesses and strengths of visionand to change and reform his mindand behavior when facts warrant achange, be it in policy making or glo-bal interactive behavior?
After all listening and learningare critical factors for the changingrole of the 21st century political lead-ership and so is the flexibility mecha-nism to be built-in for effective lead-ership. But there are no intelligentand proactive leaders with a visionof the future to see the imperative ofone humanity except naïve and self-geared egomaniac full of the sensa-tion of power using triviality and vi-ciousness to torture and kill the man-kind and destroy ecological habitats.But contrary to the brutal perceptions
and actions of the US-former Euro-peans imperialists, the internationalcommunity is informed, mature, andenjoys the moral and intellectual ca-pacity to know and understand thefacts of life and to challenge the po-litically imperiled insensitivity touniversal accord and unity of themankind against brutality of the Ter-rorism of Wars that unites them witha common fate more than dividesthem by any token of adversity andseparate national identities.
Obama failed to see the biggerpicture of the American national in-terests and the converging essenceof the vital interests of the interna-tional community; he remained en-tangled to worship the form in at-tracting roaring applause and forgotthe essence of peace and security. Ina political culture much charged byconscious intransigence of the few,America and Israel are fearful of theunknown and have no vision forpeace and co-existence either in theregion or in a global context. Peaceand security are not one-sided pur-suits nor can be experimented in alab. There are many who could do abetter and more productive leader-ship in America and Israel.
America and Israel both needchange for their future. Both desper-ately proactive, culturally conscien-tious and intellectual unbiased lead-ers who could see the bigger pictureof futuristic world - a different worldof tomorrow of peace and co-exist-ence rather than perpetuated animos-ity and extreme naïve belligerent be-haviors, leaders who will serve thepeople and could learn to make anavigational change and adaptabil-
ity to the making of a promising fu-ture for all the mankind. PresidentObama appears to be standing at thecrossroads of his career and en-gaged in time-killing exercises, notan intellectual and proactive personleading to the future-making. Man-kind needs morally and intellectu-ally responsible leadership. All ab-solute rulers and leaders tried to rundown the mankind as if it was anumber- conscious less entity. Butall of them fell in disgrace destroy-ing their own nations and empires.This author had first-hand oppor-tunities to walk through the historicremains of many so called greatnations of their own time span whowere playing lord of the world butended-up being destroyed by theirown plans and designs against theNature of Things.
America was enriched with in-tellectual foresights to safeguard therest of the mankind. But its contem-porary leaders and major institutionsseem to defy the logic of co-exist-ing with the global community. Latehistorian Howard Zenn defined“History is a Weapon and tyrannyis tyranny.” For sure, American lead-ers lack even “Common Sense” tochange but historical change willreplace America’s global time cap-sule with others, more understand-ing and relevant to the mankind.After eight years of Bush-like war-mongering, perpetuated hatred forothers and degenerating impacts,history will judge Obama by his ac-tions, not by claims.—The writer specialises in globalsecurity, peace and conflictresolution.
It has been reported recently in thenational press that the salaries ofgovernment employees are going tobe enhanced in the next budget byfive thousand rupees per employeeirrespective of their grades. Butthere is no mention of the poor pen-sioners in these reports.
It would be a most cruel act ofthe government if it does not in-crease the pensioners’ allowance aswell by the same amount. Newgovernment is requested to take im-mediate steps for this measure infavour of the retirees or be preparedto be remembered as the most un-just government in the history ofour country.—Karachi
Ignoranceabout damsRAMEEZ FAROOQUI
Shehla Raza, Deputy SpeakerSindh assembly, said on TV, ‘Westopped Musharraf from buildingKalabagh dam’. I wish the anchorperson had asked the learnedShehla the reason for the opposi-tion. Apart from politicisation ofthe issue there is an abysmal levelof ignorance about dams, particu-larly about Kalabagh dam.
Politicians seem to be totallyignorant of the fact that a damcould store 7 million acre feet ofadditional water for the use of theprovinces. There is also ignoranceof the fact that with the loss of theeastern rivers, now the wholecountry has to survive on the re-maining three rivers, of whichIndus is the only river with sur-plus flows. It is through sheer ig-norance that the people of Sindhare causing incalculable harm notonly to themselves but also to thewhole country.—Karachi
Swept underthe carpetFARIHA AKBER
Matters tend to move so fast in Pa-kistan that headlines appear alwaysto be pushing others out of the waybefore being replaced themselves.Old issues, once they‘re out of therunning news, get left by the way-side. A case in point is the ban onYouTube imposed last September.Over seven months have passed,the issue at the centre of the block-ade has been relegated to historyand the damage done by rioters inmajor cities has long been forgot-ten. Even the government that im-posed the ban as a placatory ges-ture to douse inflamed passions hasgone. But the video-sharingwebsite remains inaccessible.
What justification is there forthis? The provocation, an offensivemovie trailer, behind the shutdownis hardly recalled. The caretakerset-up now in place would do wellto turn its attention to this matter,not least because the interim min-ister forinformation, Arif Nizami,is a seasoned journalist who hasoften reiterated the importance ofcitizens‘ right of free access to in-formation. A reversal of the banfalls within the mandate of a care-taker government, which is alsofree from the sort of political pres-sures that resulted in the shutdownof YouTube in the first place.—Karachi
Karachi’senigma
SYEDA AREEBA RASHEED
Karachi generates about two-thirdsof revenue of Pakistan and thusplays an important role in buildingthe economy of the country. An un-stable Karachi means an unstablePakistan. Karachi’s major problemis its dense population, which needs
An inspiration for UmmahRAMEEZ FAROOQUI
May 28, 1998 was a landmark day in Pakistan’s history. It was a day Pakistan became a nuclearpower and rose in the form of first Islamic atomic power in the world. From an underdeveloped,
psychologically dependent state compelled to look westward, it became the first Muslim state to acquirenuclear weapons capability – which it tested overtly to inform the rest of the world that it would notallow India this strategic advantage. After all, let us not forget that the only time nuclear weapons wereused – by the US against an already-defeated Japan – was when the enemy did not possess them Whilethe nuclear capability came about as a result of a national team effort, if anyone was the “father” of ouratomic weapon, it was the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and he literally gave his life for it. He brought abouta new nationalist thinking and worldview that was missing from our ruling elite’s mindset and it disap-peared again with his death. Amongst the scientists one should not forget the role of Dr Munir Ahmedand Dr A.Q. Khan along with the dedicated PAEC and Kahuta specialists and infrastructure that builtthe resource base for the eventual nuclear tests. Dr Khan of course has aroused the wrath of the US andits Western allies because he defied them and acquired uranium enrichment technology that continuesto give us the edge in our atomic weapons programme. More than anything else it is the trauma of thisdefance that marks the American demand for punitive action against him! Pakistan would also do wellto remember that we had the support of steadfast allies like China and some of our close Arab allies –and the outpouring of joy across the Arab world when we tested our device was a reaffirmation thatregardless of the routine of global politics, there is an underlying thread that connects the Muslimnation (Ummah), even if their rulers are at odds with each other.—Karachi
are requested to typetheir letters legibly withdouble spacing and only onone side of the paper.
—Editor
Should we learn to love ‘Muslim bomb?’
May 28 was the 15th anniversary of the day Pakistan decided to go nuclear and the
world, supposedly, changed forever.Pakistan’s decision to test a nucleardevice was driven by age-old enemyIndia’s nuclear tests a few weeks ear-lier (though India first tested a smallnuclear device in 1974, it hadn’tcrossed that line again; Pakistan hadvowed to go nuclear if India did).
India and Pakistan’s duelling testsfuelled frightened headlines and edi-torials around the world, economicsanctions that did more harm toPakistan’s economy than to India’s(though the situation changed afterSept. 11, 2001), and intense polariza-tion about what was to be “done”about South Asia. It also spurred talkof Pakistan’s “Muslim bomb” as ifthe weapon would somehow be usedto in the interests and at the demandsof all Muslims, rather than in the in-terests of Pakistan.
(The history of that phrase wouldbe interesting to pursue; its first ap-pearance in this paper appears to be1981 and I also found a quote in an
August 1981 New Yorker article inwhich an unnamed Pakistani generalparaphrases former Pakistani PrimeMinister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the fa-ther of the nuclear programme, assaying “There is a Christian bomb inthe US, a Jewish bomb in Israel, aHindu bomb in India, why not aMuslim bomb in Pakistan?”)
And yet, 15 years later ... noth-ing particularly awful has happenedbecause of Pakistan having joinedthe nuclear club. In fact, the past 15years has been the quietest suchstretch when it comes to nuclear test-ing since the US was first to test anuclear weapon on July 16, 1945,following that up just a few weekslater with the only aggressive use ofnuclear weapons in history - the USbombings of Hiroshima andNagasaki. Though North Korea ex-ploded its first bomb in 2006, itsthree separate nuclear tests havebeen the only nuclear detonations inthe past 15 years.
And yet, this paper wrote the dayafter the Pakistan test in a dispatchfrom Washington that: Peace in SouthAsia, home to the poorest one-sixthof humanity, and the future of globaldisarmament have been plunged intouncertainty by Pakistan’s detonation
of five nuclear devices in response tofive by rival India. In setting off thedevices yesterday in an undergroundshaft at a site in the remote Chagairegion, Pakistan ignored threats ofeconomic sanctions and pleas for re-straint by President Clinton. ... PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif bowed to in-tense domestic pressure stoked bynational pride and demands he en-sure Pakistan’s security... These testsby India and Pakistan have trans-formed the global balance of powerwithin 17 days.
Transformed the global balanceof power? Maybe. They’ve certainlymade India and Pakistan less likelyto be invaded. And while they’vemade their mutual hostility moredangerous, they’ve also restrainedtheir hands from all out war. The twocountries had three major wars be-fore Pakistan went nuclear and, de-pending on how you view the Kargilconflict in 1991 which claimed about1,000 lives, one or none since (re-straint from both sides may have hadsomething to do with fears of nuclearescalation).
After Pakistan’s second nucleartest that weekend, the Monitor quotedAQ Khan. “Pakistan’s top nuclear sci-entist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, said yes-
Dan Murphy
Views From Abroad
Raft of challenges for new govt
Pakistan in its 65-year-old history has tumbled from one crisis to another and even now is
immersed in a crisis situation whichis far more critical than it has everexperienced. Pakistan adversial rela-tions with its enemy India and the USduplicitous role together with lead-ership crises and abysmal perfor-mance of our successive regimes areprincipally responsible for keepingPakistan geo-political environmenttense ridden and domestic front inthe state of flux. The new strugglesare no longer ideological, culturaland historical. New tensions such aspopulation increases, urbanizationand resource depletion are under-mining fragile governments acrossthe development world and for Pa-kistan as well. After the event of 9/11 the problems for Pakistan beganto increase and being an ally of USin war on terror the consequences forPakistan are severe and is harmingPakistan not only at the national levelbut beyond that.
Pakistan is becoming symbol ofdemographic, environmental and so-cietal stress in which criminal anar-chy emerges as a real strategic dan-ger. The coming anarchy arises of
scarcity of resources, over popula-tion, terrorism, tribalism, sectarian-ism, insurgency and other issues arerapidly destroying the social fabricof our country. The scarcity is driv-ing Pakistan towards crisis charac-terized by interlocking economic,political and security dimensions andhas already brought the governmentclose to fiscal collapse. These prob-lems will spiral as a country’s popu-lation grows.
Pakistan should fulfill its energyneeds. IP and TAPI projects shouldbe completed on time in order to ben-efit the people of Pakistan. Issues likeenvironmental degradation, watercrisis with India must be solved. In-surgency is in fact it is destabilizingthe country internally. Pakistan secu-rity forces are fighting the militantsin the northwest since 2002 and arealso confronted with foreign aided in-surgency in Baluchistan which hassnowballed in to a separatist move-ment. Drone attacks by the US on thetribal areas have also resulted in se-curity situation there and hatredagainst the government.
Border tension is also one of themajor problems for Pakistan whichchallenges the sovereignty of thecountry. The relationship betweenIndia and Pakistan has always beenhostile and different wars have beenfought between these two countries.The tension continues between these
two. Kashmir issue is one of the ma-jor issues which creates problem be-tween India and Pakistan relations soit must be resolved in order to gainharmony and peace. On the otherhand the relationship with Afghani-stan acts as a roller coaster for Paki-stan. Despite Kabul regime’s provo-cations, Pakistan behaves maturelyand has been extending political,technical and economical support.Importantly the worst scenario forPakistan is hostile India on its eastand pro-India Afghanistan on itswestern boarder posing threat to itssecurity which it cannot afford.
Sectarianism is also destroyingPakistan and causing domestic insta-bility. Sectarian violence in Pakistanrefers to attacks against people andplaces motivated by antagonism to-ward their sect, usually a religiousgroup, which in Pakistan may includethe Sunni majority, Shia, and thesmall Ahmadi, and Christian reli-gious group. Especially Quetta andKarachi are suffering in this regard.Several bombing took place in dif-ferent areas of Quetta, Swat, Gilgitand Karachi as well. Target killingshave become very much common.Religious extremist on the other handnot only creating bad image of Paki-stan but also creating bad image ofIslam. These incidents are a result ofreligious bigotry, ignorance, ethnictensions and religious tensions that
terday that a nuclear warhead couldbe deployed on missiles “withindays” if “we are forced to do some-thing,” but he also believes thatnuclear capability can help guaran-tee peace.
Other officials say Pakistan’snext move could be diplomatic. “Ifthere is a conciliatory signal fromIndia or the US offering itself as aconciliator, that may move the pro-cess ahead,” said an official whorequested anonymity. “Pakistancould also probe ideas for peace.But the exact strategy is still beingdevised.”
So far, India and Pakistan haveavoided another all-out war. Andboth countries have been more re-strained in flexing their nuclearmuscles through testing than almostall the other countries that joinedthe nuclear club before them. Doesthis mean the tongue-in-cheekheadline at the top of this storyshould be taken literally? No.Nuclear weapons are scary, and themore people that have them thescarier they get. But the trackrecord of countries who get thebomb behaving responsibly withthem has held. The Christian Science Monitor
have lead to a rise in ethnic and sec-tarian violence in the country.
Tribalism is the state of beingorganized in, or advocating for, atribe or tribes. There are differenttribal and feudal traditions in Paki-stan which should be abolished be-cause these traditions are just thesource of tension, People some-times undertake heinous acts in thename of tribal culture such as likea girl is murdered in the name ofKaroo karri or honor killing just tojustify the traditions. So measuresshould be taken to educate peoplein a way that they can differentiatebetween good and bad practices.Unemployment is also one of themajor problems. In the current situ-ation more than 30 lac people areunemployed in Pakistan and unem-ployment ratio is more than 12%.Employment opportunities foryouth will have to be created.
These are the issues which thenewly government will have to faceand planning and proper mecha-nisms should be devised in order toovercome all these problems. Theremust be some practical work insteadof planning People and governmentshould cooperate with each other inorder to make Pakistan prosperous.If these issues are not resolved soonthey will bring chaos and instabilityto the country.—The writer works for IPRI.
One problem about religion isthat very often we repeatlines till they lose their
meaning: One line that I have oftrepeat is the words, ‘My Cuprunneth over with joy!’
It is only when we stop andthink out the words, it is only whenwe picture the action that we say,“My God, I did not know how pow-
erful those words are!” Picture thescene of a cup running over: It meansthat there is so much being pouredinto your cup that it is spilling overinto the saucer.
Now imagine that it is not coffeeor tea that is being talked about butan overflow, a spilling over of bless-ings! So much blessings in your cup,that it has overflowed into your sau-cer and you are now drinking fromthe saucer.
Here’s a beautiful poem that talksabout that wonderful experience ofdrinking the overflow from the sau-cer: I’ve never made a fortune, andit’s probably too late now. But I don’t
worry about that much, I’m happyanyhow. And, as I go along life’s way,I’m reaping better than I sowed I’mdrinking from my saucer, ‘Cause mycup has overflowed.
Haven’t got a lot of riches, andsometimes the going’s tough! But,I’ve got loving ones all around me,and that makes me rich enough. Ithank GOD for his Blessings, and theMercies HE ‘s bestowed. I’m drink-ing from my saucer, ‘Cause my cuphas overflowed.
I remember times when thingswent wrong, My faith wore some-what thin. But, all at once the darkclouds broke, and the sun peeped
My cup runneth over..!through again. So, LORD , help menot to gripe, about the tough rows Ihave hoed. I’m drinking from mysaucer, ‘Cause my cup has over-flowed. If GOD gives me strengthand courage, When the way growssteep and rough.
I’ll not ask for other blessings,I’m. already blessed enough. Andmay I never be too busy, to helpothers bear their loads. Then I’llkeep drinking from my saucer,‘Cause my cup has overflowed. Myblessing to you today, is that youwill drink from your saucer, be-cause your cup is running over..!—Email:[email protected]
resources to be provided to citizensto control security issues. The sec-ond problem of Karachi is its beingmini-Pakistan, in which people fromall over the country are living, andcontrolling different communities isa difficult task for law-enforcementagencies. The third problem ofKarachi is the law and order situa-tion which becomes difficult for se-curity agencies to maintain. Thefourth major problem is sectarianviolence and discrimination ofpeople on the basis of caste, religionand mainly gender. As mentionedabove, different languages are spo-ken and different people from insidePakistan are living in Karachi.
Different parties have beenformed on the basis of religion andcaste and, as a consequence, thesehave created problems for citizenswho are forced to observe strikesand wheel-jams. All these affect theeconomy of Pakistan very seriously.Moreover, as a result of targetedkillings many people have lost theirlives. Therefore, the governmentand law-enforcement agenciesshould do their best in order to over-come Karachi’s acute law and or-der problem.—Karachi
Women andpublic transport
SIDRA TUL MUNTAHA
Many women are working outsidethe homes to support their familiesand using the local transport to reachdestinations. While the local trans-port system facilities the people, es-pecially women, it has many draw-backs that need serious attention.Travelling becomes a painful expe-rience for them because of staresfrom both the drivers and the pas-sengers. Women feel unsafe whiletravelling by public transport. Driv-ers display uncivilized behaviourtowards women passengers, whichis extremely annoying.
Loud vulgar music is also playedthroughout the journey, which isvery disturbing for women passen-gers. Women use front seats next tothe driver, as these are assigned tothem .It is our duty to respect thewomen passengers, as they are alsolike our mothers, sisters and daugh-ters. We must raise our voice to stopthis uncivilized activity. As suchsituations amount to women press-ing charges of sexual harassmentagainst such drivers, women mustregister complaint whenever theycome across such problem. The anti-harassment act is meant to providesupport to workingwomen, and theirproblems can be solved on register-ing a complaint.—Karachi
Land mafiapolitics
SYED AMMAR ZAIDI
Politics in Pakistan has been scan-dalized by land mafia dominance,who share common bonds of greedwith few in civil cum khaki bureau-cracy and politicians for whom ty-rants like Machiavelli are source ofinspiration, instead of men likeQuaid-e-Azam, Allama Iqbal, Lin-coln or Nelson Mandela. The inten-sity of this insatiable curse shouldbe gauged from the fact that Su-preme Court of Pakistan had to in-tervene, to stop transfer and sale ofstate lands in Sindh. When laws be-come slave to criminals, who holdpower and influence in choice ofappointments to important state in-stitutions, then the country wouldbecome victim to anarchy and moremoney will be collected through ex-tortion, than by state tax collectorssuch as FBR.
During the last few weeks ofthis government, important finan-cial regulatory institutions such asState Bank, National Bank etc andtheir Board Of Directors are sur-prisingly dominated by men whohold dual nationalities, and havenever remitted a single rupee to thiscountry and instead have facilitated
Women in Pakistan aremostly attached to sometypical professions, which
are being narrated by the family andthe society like teaching, banking,doctors etc. In Pakistan police, thenumber of female officers is less thanone percent. This one percent is be-ing used only in supplementary posi-tion like to escort the male policeduring house search, arresting femaleoffenders or physical examination ofwomen at the entry points of sensi-tive buildings.
As the society has a conventionalimage of women, police is not con-sidered a profession of choice forwomen as they are measured too sen-timental, extremely inactive and sig-nificantly tender for an unsympa-thetic, unsafe and enormously diffi-cult job environment. Women alsosight the police department as theleast opted profession, partly due tothe cultural inhibitions and mostlydue to unfriendly work place envi-ronment, illogical working hours,
Low women ratio in Policelack of transportation and related fa-cilities. The expression women po-licing is not novel to the world, butfor us this is fresh area where we haveto focus extremely. The results com-ing from different surveys disclosethat at present only 1% women arethe part of police department in Pa-kistan. The 51% women in Pakistanare only having a minimal sharing of1% in the police department.
The number of women in provin-cial police force in Pakistan is about0.38 % of the whole strength as com-pared to the UN standards which pro-pose at least 20 % percentage forwomen police personnel in acountry’s police force by 2014.Theoverall percentage of women policein Pakistan is 0.89 % whereas it is 7% in India, 27 % in UK, 12 % inUSA and 1.9 % in Bangladesh.These results are fairly shocking,and it is very significant to find theway in a direction where we cangenerate new avenues of growth andempowerment for the women ofPakistan. The present representationof women in police is very low, andthis is really important to increase thislow percentage. Women in Pakistanare having the leaning to add prop-
erly to their state and society, so it isimportant to unlock doors of newopportunities for them. Those womenwho are representing the police de-partment in Pakistan must be broughtin to a mainstream, so that they canbecome role models for our educatedwomen. Women police officers inPakistan are not equipped with pow-ers to make self-governing decisions.They are also not facilitated by nec-essary resources like vehicles to dis-charge patrolling tasks.
Unnecessary Pressure from thesenior male police officers is also agreat hurdle in front of these womenpolice officers in accomplishing theirtasks. The senior male officers mustfacilitate the women colleagues andtheir subordinates, as this will helpthem to build up their moral. Womenworking in the police department aremissing confidence; hence it is veryvital to convince them about their truepotential. Women police officersmust be equipped with the technicalskills and must be given differenttrainings. Such fresh developmentswill help the women police to moveon climax and serve at different se-nior positions. Many new techniqueslike computer technology, bomb dis-
posal techniques’, and basic life sup-port practices must be included inthe women police trainings. Suchnew developments will help in en-hancing the role of women policingin Pakistan. Women police in Paki-stan are an asset for our society, andcan play an important role in com-bating violence against women. Thestatus of women in policing needs alot more attentiveness and enhance-ment, with consistent efforts.
Gender Responsive PolicingProject, a combined venture of Na-tional Police Bureau (NPB) andGIZ funded by the German foreignoffice are functioning with the Pa-kistan government in order to perkup the overall status of women inpolicing. The contributions ofwomen police officers could be sig-nificant in every aspect of policing,be it operations, investigations,community policing or prosecu-tions. Women associated with thepolice department are having theabilities to excel further, in theirprofessional career. For this it is im-portant that they must be stream-lined with in their profession, sothat they can build a better imageof police department.
huge transfers of foreign exchangefrom Pakistan through loopholescreated by design to do so. It is timethat people of this country stand upto uphold rule of law in Pakistanand ensure that fate and destiny ofthis country is decided by those forwhom Pakistan is the only mother-land, where they live with theirfamilies and a place where all theirassets are located.—Karachi
Land grabbingmafia
ALMAS UR REHMAN SHAFI
About 50 years ago, the banks ofriver Indus in the Punjab were lushwith green forests. But as the riverstarted to dry up due to several rea-sons, those trees started disappear-ing. The land over which those treeshad stood, completely bare by now,has been occupied by squatters whoare making millions of rupees with-out giving anything to the govern-ment, the rightful owner.
Thousands of acres of such landlying on the eastern fringes of mauzaLundi Pitafi and the adjoining vil-lages in district Muzaffargarh hasbeen grabbed by some unruly mis-creants who on the strength of thisfree booty not only behave likedacoits but are also creating mischieffor the surrounding settlements. Thegovernment of Punjab is requestedto get this land vacated and auctionit off on merit to deserving tillers.—Karachi
Leatherindustry’s harms
FARHAD HASSAN
Worldwide the use of leather andplenty of its products are verywidespread. Look around yourselfyou will find many leather madebits and pieces universally ieleather shoes, cloths, leather bookbinding, car seat covers, cell case,belts, and very regularly ladieshandbags and men valets and manymore, due to its being sturdy, flex-ibility and easy to rinse.
As everyone knows leathercomes from the sin of millions ofcows and other animals through tan-ning. Tanning is basically the pro-cess of treating skins of animals toproduce leather. The effluents,which discharge from leather tanner-ies, contain large amount of pollut-ants such as salts, lime, sludge, etc.People who work in an live near tan-neries suffer badly. Many die fromcancer possibly caused due to expo-sure of toxic chemicals used to pro-cess or dye leather on regular basis.
The centre for disease controland prevention found that majorityof the residents and workers in ornear the tanneries have the symp-toms of leukemia (bone marrow orcancer). Arsenic another tannerychemical is also responsible forlung cancer in workers. The pro-duction of leather hurts animals, en-vironment, and the workers whomanufacture it. The only one whogets benefit are people who profitfrom misery and suffering of oth-ers. Exposure to such industries,contributing in the release of gigan-tic tons of toxicants, affects theworkers and other lives, whichcome in contact with these chemi-cals. Acute exposure to such haz-ardous chemicals is your death ad-dress. We, the humans, the founderof these hazardous substances areadversely affected in our own trap,by nature’s negative feedback re-sponse to our actions and reactions.—Islamabad
COURT NOTICE
In the Court ofMohammad Amin
Shahzad Family JudgeMalakwal
Misbah SikandarVs Amjad IqbalSuit for Dissolution of Mar-riageMemo.
Whereas the services ofabove mentioned respondentsis not possible through ordi-nary means, therefore, he isdirected to attend this courtpersonally or through hiscouncil on 5-6-13. Otherwisethe ex party proceedings shallbe taken against him.
Given under my hand andseal of the Court.
Sd/-Family Judge Malakwal
COURT NOTICE
In the Court ofMohammad Iqbal
Chadhar AdditionalSession Judge Malakwal
Mohammad Saeed Aftab VsNaveed Aftab etcCivil AppealMemo.
Mohammad WaheedAftab S/o Saeed AftabAhmad Caste Syed R/omohala Kotli KalanMalakwal Tehsil MalakwalDist Mandi Bahauddin
Whereas the services ofabove mentioned respondentsis not possible through ordi-nary means, therefore, he isdirected to attend this courtpersonally or through hiscouncil on 31-5-13. Other-wise the ex party proceedingsshall be taken against him.
Given under my hand andseal of the Court.
Sd/-Additional Session Judge
Malakwal
PTI. All the political parties inthe assembly had named theirParliamentary Leaders except theMQM. The MQM had filednomination papers for the officeof Speaker and deputy Speakers.MPA Khawaja Izhar Ul Hassanand Heer Sohu would contest theelection for these offices respec-tively.
However, the PPPP sourcesclaimed that the party would notshare the two offices with theMQM and the PPPP nominee forthe office of the Speaker, AghaSiraj Khan Durrani and ShehlaRaza would be elected as theSpeaker and Deputy Speaker re-spectively.
Meanwhile, Durrani said thatthe PPPP did not have any for-mal contact over the issue of elec-tions of the Speaker and deputySpeaker and would conduct theassembly affairs in an amicablemanner. He said that he wasgrateful to the President Asif AliZardari for nominating him forthe office of the Speaker of theprovincial assembly.
On the other hand, the MQM
158 members of SindhFrom Page 1
MPA Faisal Sabzwari said thatthe MQM would continue to playits role for the continuation of thedemocracy.He said that the MQM was con-testing for the offices of theSpeaker and Deputy Speakeronly because they wanted to en-sure the democracy would con-tinue in the country.
Meanwhile, the Sindh pro-vincial assembly will today electthe Speaker and the DeputySpeaker through balloting.The PPP, the MQM, the PML-Nand the PML-F had nominatedtheir candidates for the offices ofthe Speaker, which includedAgha Siraj Khan Durrani(PPPP), Khawaja Izhar UlHassan (MQM), Irfanullah KhanMarwat (PML-N) and SyedaShehla Raza (PPPP), Heer IsmailSohu (MQM), Nusrat SaharAbbasi (PML-F) for the office ofthe Deputy Speaker.
The election of Speaker andDeputy Speaker would be heldin the morning and would electthe leader of the house, the newChief Executive of the province,
Syed Qaim Ali Shah in the sec-ond phase of the session.Later, Sindh Governor Dr IshratUl Ebad Khan will take oath fromthe newly elected Chief Execu-tive of the province, Syed QaimAli Shah at the Governor house.
It is pertinent to mention thatEbad would avail the honour oftaking oath from 5 Chief Execu-tives of the province, which in-cluded Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim,caretaker Chief Minister AbdulQadir Halepota, Syed Qaim AliShah and caretaker CM Justice(Retd) Zahid Qurban Alvi.The MQM has not yet shown itsdecision whether they would siton the opposition benches orwould join the PPPP-led govern-ment in the province as the coali-tion partner. However, the PPPPhad a simple majority to form itsgovernment but the policy of thereconciliation introduced by Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari and endorsedby the MQM Chief Altaf Hussainwas manifest of the real situationon the ground that both the majorpolitical parties would form a coa-lition government in the province.
dusk with a suicide blast atthe entrance to the guest housecompound belonging to the RedCross.
“The initial reporting showsthat two other people have en-tered the building,” Abulzai said.“Right now a gun battle is goingon between the Afghan securityforces and the attackers.
We have reports of one guardof the guest house being killedas a result of the attack. From thebattle we have no reports of othercasualties.”
The Red Cross confirmed theattack but had no other details.“We can confirm that there hasbeen an attack on our offices inJalalabad. We are working to findout the whereabouts and well-
Afghan militants attackFrom Page 1
being of our colleagues,” saidRobin Waudo, communicationscoordinator for the Red Cross inAfghanistan.
An AP photographer at thescene said smoke can be seen ris-ing from the vicinity of the guesthouse and the crackle of gunfirecan be heard.
There was no immediateclaim of responsibility, and it isunclear why insurgents wouldwant to target the Red Cross,which not only carries out hu-manitarian work around Afghani-stan but also is the conduit forfamilies to communicate withdetainees taken off the battlefield,including the Taliban.
The Red Cross warned lastmonth that security was deterio-
rating across Afghanistan as mili-tants flood the battlefield andconduct attacks in what could bethe most important spring fight-ing season of the nearly 12-year-old war.
The violence comes just fivedays after Taliban gunmenbacked by a suicide car bomberattacked the Kabul offices of theInternational Organization forMigration, killing two Afghancivilians and a police officer.
The assault sparked anhours-long street battle and leftanother 17 wounded, includingseven IOM staff members.
The IOM is a U.N.-affiliatedagency assisting returning Af-ghan migrants as well as thosedisplaced by fighting.—AP
day. The accused includingIftikhar Ahmad Babar, SheikhAnsar, Nadim Zafar, HanifAbbasi, Muhammad Nasir Khanand others and counsels for otheraccused persons appeared in thecourt. Akbar Qureshi advocateon behalf of Dr Khalid Ranjhatold the court that the latter couldnot reach Islamabad due to lackof flight . He requested the courtto adjourn the hearing.
Counsel for ANF told thecourt three FIRs had been reg-istered so far and two accusedhave been named in one FIR andthe remaining 11 accused per-sons have been named in otherFIRs. Some accused have beengranted bail before arrest whilesome have been granted bail af-ter arrest. ANF has filed appealsagainst grant of bail to these ac-cused.
The court remarked thathearing of the case is being ad-journed till June, 5 as a seniorlawyer has filed applicationseeking adjournment.
The court also directed the5 accused persons includingMuhammad Nasir Khan,Ghazanfar Ali, MohsinKhurshid and Seraj Ahmad tohire the services of lawyers sothat they could face no difficultyduring the hearing of the case.
The hearing of the case wasput off till June, 5—Online
SC requestedto initiate
proceedingsFrom Page 1
loadshedding in the country.Though other challenges
faced by the country were alsodiscussed in the meeting but theenergy crisis remained the top-most agenda of the meeting.
Sharif said that all resourceswould be fully utilised to bringan end to loadshedding whereasno deicsion has been taken tofreeze development funds.
The meeting, which dis-cussed different options to elimi-nate the energy crisis in the coun-try, was attended by ChaudhryNisar, Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Asif,Sartaj Aziz, Ahsan Iqbal, ParvezRasheed, Shaukat Tareen, MianMansha and renowned energyexperts.
Nawaz said that everyonehad to work day and night toeliminate loadshedding and op-tions such as generating energyvia coal and sugarcane wouldrequire time. The PML-N chiefadded that both local and foreignbusinessmen need to invest in theenergy sector.
Meanwhile, Mian NawazSharif has decided that he will notstay in the Prime Minister Houseand the number of ministers willbe restricted to 26.
According to Party sources,Nawaz Sharif has also decided tokeep a small protocol squad.
A meeting held under thechair of Nawaz Sharif also de-cided that Punjab will have 32ministers. Further, the ministerswill not use flags on their carsand have no security guards.
The major decision of themeeting says that no subsidy willbe given to people in the budget.A strategy will be adopted to savethe money from all the depart-ments and this amount will beused to produce electricity, re-ports a private TV channel.
Energy crisisFrom Page 1
PESHAWAR: PTI’s nominated Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak and Speaker Asad Qaiser aretaking oath as MPAs.
UN rights council demandsSyria protect civilians
GENEVA—The US, Turkey andQatar pushed through a UN reso-lution Wednesday demanding aprobe into the fighting around theSyrian town of Qusair, near Leba-non, and condemnation of foreignfighters supporting PresidentBashar Assad.
The resolution approved by avote of 36-1 in the UN HumanRights Council calls for urgentinvestigation into alleged abusesby government forces andHezbollah fighters in Qusair,along with more aid access andcivilian protections. Only Venezu-ela voted against it. Eight othernations in the 47-nation councilabstained; two were absent. UNHigh Commissioner for HumanRights Navi Pillay set the tone for
the debate, saying Syria’s civil waris “spilling out of control” andrepresents a failure to protect citi-zens against war crimes andcrimes against humanity that arenow a routine occurrence.
“The situation in Syria re-flects a colossal failure to protectcivilians. Day after day, children,women and men suffer the bru-tality of unbridled violence andgross human rights violations byall parties,” she told the 47-nationUN Human Rights Council. “Themessage from all of us should bethe same: we will not support thisconflict with arms, ammunition,politics or religion.”
At an emergency session of theGeneva-based council, the threecountries sought a resolution, re-
ferring to Lebanon’s militant Shiitegroup Hezbollah, aimed at pressur-ing for more accountability, civil-ian protection and humanitarian aidaccess.
The council, which is theUN’s top human rights body, hasheld a series of urgent debates,special sessions and other high-profile talks on Syria since twoyears ago that have so far pro-duced nine resolutions, but hadlittle effect on dimming the spi-raling violence. Pillay said the re-cent introduction of foreign fight-ers into Syria, where they arecrossing borders to support boththe government and opposition,has added a new dangerous ele-ment that is destabilizing the re-gion.—AP
said, also succumbed to their in-juries while Shahabuddin andSaeed Ur Rehman sustained in-juries in the Wednesday’s attack.
Wali Ur Rehman was thesecond key Taliban commanderkilled during the drone attack inthis year as earlier importantTaliban commander MullahNazir, who was dubbed as pro-government commander, wasalso killed by the Americanplanes in January 2013.
The fresh drone attack cameat a time when the emotionsagainst the drone strikes are run-ning very high and the new gov-ernments in waiting in the centeras well as in KP are opposed todrone strikes and term them asattack on the sovereignty of Pa-kistan and have been raisingvoice against missile hits in thePakistani tribal belt.
Agencies add: The UnitedStates on Wednesday refused toconfirm that it killed the numbertwo in the Pakistani Taliban, de-spite President Barack Obama’spromise of more transparency onthe drone war.
“We are not in a position toconfirm the reports of WaliurRehman’s death,” White Housespokesperson Jay Carney saidin Washington, following an at-tack in which the TTP numbertwo and at least five others werekilled.
Carney said Rehman wasalso wanted in connection withattacks on US and Nato person-nel in Afghanistan and for in-volvement in the attack onAmerican citizens in Khost, Af-ghanistan on December 30, 2009.
A CIA spokesperson alsodeclined to confirm Rehman’sdeath. The Pakistani government“expressed serious concerns”over the US drone strike thatkilled Waliur Rehman onWednesday, according to a pressrelease from the Ministry of For-eign Affairs. Pakistan has main-tained its stance that US dronestrikes are counter-productive,result in the loss of innocent livesand violate Pakistani sovereignty.
US droneFrom Page 1
teacher were burned to deathin a village near Gujrat on Satur-day when a faulty fuel systemcaused an explosion in a van whichwas transporting them to school.
CJ takesFrom Page 1
use energy more efficiently.ABB experts will be on hand
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Visit ABB’s booth in hall 2for the chance to exchange viewswith ABB experts and to see thelatest cutting edge innovations,solutions, products and servicesfrom one of the world’s best en-gineering companies.
ABB is a leader in power andautomation technologies that en-able utility and industry custom-ers to improve their performancewhile lowering environmentalimpact. The ABB Group of com-panies operates in around 100countries and employs about145,000 people.
PML-N 100-dayFrom Page 1
has nominated its provincialpresident Asad Qaisar for the of-fice of Speaker. Tough securityarrangements were made for thisimportant occasion. The hallwas jam packed as a lot of visi-tors arrived to attend the maidensession. Even newsmen wereunable to find seat in the housefor covering proceedings whilethe ladies gallery was fully oc-cupied by male visitors.
The outgoing speakersKaramatullah Khan congratu-lated the newly elected MPAs onthis occasion and expressed op-timism that they would workday and night for progress anddevelopment of the provincebesides addressing problems ofthe people.
He said it is very auspiciousoccasion that an elected govern-ment successfully completed itsfive year tenure and now poweris being transferred to newlyelected government. This smoothtransition of government willstrengthen and nourish demo-cratic process in the country.
He said, great expectationhave been attached by people tothe newly elected parliamentar-ians to address their problemsand are hoping for a positivechange in society and system.The future government has tofocus on tacking the menace ofcorruption, lawlessness, electric-ity load shedding, illiteracy andpoverty for which the new gov-ernment has to work hard andadopt a holistic approach. Oth-ers who spoke on the occasionincluded Sardar Hussein Babakof ANP, Shaukat Yousafzai of
PTI, Mufti Janan of JUI (F),Nighat Orakzai of PPP, UzmaKhan of JUI (F) .In the mean-while a meeting of the parliamen-tary committee of PakistanTehreek -e- Insaaf was held onWednesday where they formallynominated Asad Qaiser andImtiaz Qureshi for the offices ofSpeaker and Deputy Speaker ofKhyber Pukhtunkhwa Assembly.The meeting was presided overby Chief Minister-designate andCentral Secretary General PervezKhan Khattak. As per the party’sdecision, Asad Qaisar and ImtiazQureshi have submitted theirnomination papers with Secre-tary Khyber Pukhtunkhwa As-sembly. The election for both theoffices would be held on Thurs-day with secret ballots’ proce-dure. The candidate interested inSpeaker and Deputy Speakerslots can submit their nominationpapers till 4 pm. Later theSpeaker adjourned the assemblysession to meet on Thursdaymorning at 10:00:am when thehouse would elect the speakerand deputy speaker of the house.
Addressing a joint meetingof the members of the coalitionparliamentary parties after theoath taking ceremony Chief Min-ister designate Pervez KhanKhattak said that the new provin-cial government has to face seri-ous challenges of corruption,price-hike, loadshedding, pov-erty, unemployment and law andorder but for establishing an ex-emplary government, they wouldtake the three coalition parties onboard and through collective ef-forts they would be successful in
controlling the problems. Heexpressed the hope that due totheir sincere efforts they wouldalso be together in the comingelections. The meeting was at-tended by the parliamentaryleader of JI Sirajul Haq, parlia-mentary leader of QWP SikandarSherpao, Shehram Tarakai, par-liamentary leader of AJI and alarge number of the coalitionmembers.
For the slot of speaker anddeputy speaker of the provincialassembly the names of AsadQaisar and Imtiyaz Qureshi wereproposed on the occasion, whichwere unanimously approved bythe parliamentary leaders andMPAs. While expressing grati-tude to the coalition parties,Pervez Khan Khattak said thattheir government would not beweak as they knew as how to runthe government. He said therewould be no one to dream abouttoppling their government. Hesaid politics needed a lot of ex-perience but the experienced onedid not deliver services in thepast. He said the young and newfaces would correct the systemand would make the present andfuture of the nation a better one.
Pervez Khattak said the prov-ince was facing a number of criti-cal challenges therefore it couldnot bear any conflict. He said theprovincial government would takeall measures through consultationfor the development of the peopleand for this purpose he himselfmet the opposition leaders andinvited them to cooperate with thegovernment for reformation anddevelopment of the province.
123 KP MPAs sworn-inFrom Page 1
ISLAMABAD—Minister for In-formation and Postal ServicesArif Nizami on Wednesday saidthat ministry of postal serviceshad facilitated the process ofholding free and fair electionsand had printed 20 million bal-lot papers to facilitate holdingof timely elections. He expressed these viewswhile addressing a press confer-ence here at the ministry. Flanked by Director-Gen-eral (DG) Postal ServicesGhulam Panjtan Rizvi, theminister said that during hisstint as caretaker minister, hehad made utmost effort to re-main impartial and was in-debted to the journalist com-munity for the cooperation ex-tended to him as minister forinformation. He said that around 1,78,426voters had exercised their rightto vote through the postal ballotin the May 11 polls and thepostal services department hadfacilitated this process. “The ministry of postal ser-vices also issued a stamp on theeve of general elections the waythe stamps were issued about thePakistan Movement leaders andmartyrs of the armed forces,”said the minister.
He added that though postalservices departments were fac-ing closures across the globe butin Pakistan, the postal servicesdepartment had adjusted itselfwith the modern trends. The minister said that postalservices department had also wona bronze medal in competition ofaround 192 states which was anachievement by all means. Briefing the media, GhulamPanjtan Rizvi said that postalservices department had broughtinnovation in its services. “The postal services de-partment has introduced elec-tronic money order servicewhich could be used for deliv-ery of upto Rs one lakh onminimal charges of Rs 600,” hesaid. Rizvi added that themoney transfer service of thepostal services was receiving awelcome response and Rs 290million had been transmittedthrough the service in only fourmonths time. “We have received a rev-enue of Rs 3.1 million throughthis service alone,” he said andadded that the ministry had also
launched money order servicefor passengers at all airportswhere the passengers may re-
Postal services ministryfacilitated timely polls: Nizami
ceive upto Rs 50,000 money or-der to meet any emergency cashrequirements.—APP
bureaucrats just a week beforeformation of next government”,an insider at the meeting be-tween Chief Minister and CStold media.
He said that the CS tried toconvince the CM that transfer ofsenior secretaries before the for-mation of the government wouldnot look good.
“Transfer and postings is themandate of new government,” hesaid while quoting the reply of theCS to CM. The insider said theCM directed the CS to transferManaging Director Lasbella In-dustrial Estate Authority and fourother provincial secretaries beforethe establishment of new set up.
BalochistanFrom Page 1
announced its decision. TheMQM further announced to con-test the election for the office ofthe Chief Executive of the prov-ince and for that purpose hadnominated Syed Sardar Ahmed.
The Coordination Commit-tee also nominated FaisalSabzwari and Khawaja Izhar ulHassan as the Parliamentaryand Deputy parliamentary lead-ers in the provincial assemblyrespectively.
MQM to sit onFrom Page 1
MOSCOW—A prominent econo-mist and government adviser hasfled Russia after being questionedby state investigators, amid a grow-ing clamp-down on groups and in-dividuals critical or independent ofPresident Vladimir Putin. SergeiGuriev, an English-speakingeconomist well known to Westerninvestors, had been questioned asa witness in an investigation intothe defunct Yukos oil company,whose founder MikhailKhodorkovsky was jailed in 2005for fraud.His real transgression,supporters and commentators say,was to support Alexei Navalny, an
Russian economist fleesanti-corruption campaigner wholed protests against Putin’s returnto the presidency which the Krem-lin has been trying gradually tosnuff out. An enemy? Of course,”Boris Nemtsov, a protest and op-position leader, said ironically. “Hefights corruption? That betrays ourfundamental ideals!”
Since Putin’s return to theKremlin after four years as primeminister, the authorities havemoved across a broad front to si-lence critics, with Navalny nowon trial on fraud charges which hesays are trumped up and politi-cally motivated.—Reuters
tured in a prison after being cap-tured by UK troops and handedover to Afghani judicial.
Official Kabul is sensitiveabout detention of Afghans bythe US-led military coalition andwants to see all of the prisonersunder Afghanistan’s control.The handing over of the BagramPrison from the US to Afghani-stan, which had been delayedseveral times, was a major irri-tant in relations between Presi-dent Hamid Karzai’s govern-ment and the Obama adminis-tration.—Reuters
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BIPIN DANI
OBSERVER
CORRESPONDENT
M U M B A I — A n k e e tChavan, who has beenseeking second-time bail(the first application wasrejected on Tuesday) to gethimself married on June 2,should think twice at thisjuncture, according to Dr.Chaitanya Sridhar, theBangalore-based SportPsychologist, who hasdone Doctoral Research onthe ‘Emotional Labour(Work) of Indian andAustalian cricketers.
Speaking exclusivelyover her mobile, she said,“it would be good ifChavan can look into themirror and take a call on thiscrucial matter of marriage,especially when there isanother innocent personthe bride in the picture.What happens to him in thefuture will have a hugebearing on his married lifeand wife, if the wedding isscheduled in early June”.
“Firstly, anyone in theirproper mind would not in-volve in ghastly spot-fix-ing. Having said that, mar-
Introspection crucial forChavan to decide on marriage,
say sports psychologistsriage is a personal issue andhe is the best person to de-cide whether he should betying the holy knot at thisjuncture when his whole lifeis topsy turvy”, she added.
“Of the three cricketers,Chavan seems to have atleast pleaded guilty at inter-rogation. Yet, seeing howthings have come out tillnow, I’m not sure if they’re(all three cricketers accused)morally guilty”.
“If Chavan does not seeanything wrong with whathe’s done; he could just beusing wedding as a way tobail himself out for the timebeing. If he is not facing themirror, he might be using thewedding a good way to es-cape from things”.
“On the other hand, theadded responsibility of mar-riage may have a differentimpact. It would depend a loton how he grown with thisexperience”.
“However, one wouldfeel more empathetic towardsthe bride to be. What andhow she is feeling would de-pend a lot on her moral val-ues. Does she feel he (still) isinnocent? Is she alright withChavan’s involvement for fi-
nancial gain? If she is not,then there might be mentalturmoil which could worsenlater if they do get married”,she explained.
“Furthermore, we don’tknow the consequences ofthis investigation. I cansurely vouch that mostcouples wouldn’t want tostart their married life in thisfashion with the groom tobe in judicial custody. Theimplication of spot-fixing isbound to affect their mar-ried life, especially at thisjuncture”, she signed off.
Dr. B. P. Bam, anothersports psychologist, whohas worked with theMumbai Ranji Trophy teamwhen Ankeet Chavan wasplaying, says, “if the girl isstill ready to accept Ankeet,I would call it a true loverand admire her”.
“Ankeet is in deeptrouble now and better if hedelays his marriage plan”.
“Yes, I found him, to bea good promising bowlerwhen he was introduced tome by the Mumbai-coach(Sulakshan Kulkurni). Heattended the group sessionwith other members of theteam”, Dr. Bam signed off.
PESHAWAR—Laiba and Foziaguided Peshawar to victoryagainst strong Hazara in thefinal of the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Inter-RegionGirls Squash Championshipplayed here at Qamar ZamanSports Complex on Wednes-day.
Former World ChampionQamar Zaman was the chiefguest on the occasion.
Director Sports WomenGames Rashida Ghaznavi,Najma Qazi, former Pakistanhockey team goal-keeperAbdur Ruaf, coaches FalakNaz, Kamran Khan, ShakeelKhan were also present, be-side a large number of spec-tators.
In the final matchPeshawar faced tough resis-tance against strong Hazarateam as Hazara’s Saba wonthe opening singles againsttop seeded Peshawar playerNoorjat by 3-2.
Noorjat failed to click inthe first two games won bySaba by 12-10, 11-9 but shestaged a strong comebackby winning the third andfourth game by 10-12, 12-14.Noorjat has full commandover her service as she gotmost of the points throughthe service.
Saba, a member of the last
PESHAWAR: Former world squash champion Qamar Zaman giving away winner trophy to the Peshawar team afterthe final of Inter Regional women Squash Championship.
Peshawar win KP InterRegion Girls Squash title
time winner team fromHazara, also played and afterconceding two sets, shetook the fifth and decisive setby sealing the fate of Noorjatto 3-2.
In the second singles,Fozia of Peshawar defeatedAmina of Hazara by 3-1, thescore was 10-12, 11-9, 11-7and 11-8. Fozia after losingthe first set, settle down herposition and did not givemuch time to Amina of Hazarato strike back. Fozia has bet-ter short against Amin in the3-1 battle.
It was the third singleswhen Laiba Ijaz Ahmad de-feated Kinza Waheed in theone-sided affairs by 3-0.Laiba fully dominated theproceedings and did not al-low Kinza Waheed to strikeback. Laiba won the singlesby 3-0, the score 11-8, 11-9and 11-6.
In the third positionmatch Mardan defeatedKohat by 3-0, Mardan Ayshadefeated Safina of Kohat by3-1, the score was 11-9, 6-11,11-9, 11-7, Renoon of Mardansecured victory againstBenish of Kohat by 3-0, thescore was 11-9, 11-3 and 11-7while in the last singlesSundas of Mardan beatHafza of Kohat by 3-0, the
score was 11-5, 11-7 and 11-8.
At the end, the chiefguest former World Cham-pion Qamar Zaman gaveaway trophies and cashprizes to the winners andrunners-up. The winner wasawarded Rs. 5000 toPeshawar and Rs. 4000 wasawarded to runners-up.
Qamar Zaman appreci-ated the Directorate of Sportsfor holding 12 female disci-pline including femalesquash in which a total of 23females from seven differentregions comprising DeraIsmail Khan, Bannu, Kohat,Malakand, Hazara, Mardanand host Peshawar took part.
Qamar Zaman also ex-pressed astonishment thatPakistan Sports Board didnot include squash female orsquash male games in thePSB Sports Annual calendar.He assured that the matterswould be taken to the Direc-tor General Pakistan SportsBoard to include squash inits yearly sports calendar.
He said KhyberPakhtunkhwa Senior andJunior Female Squash Cham-pionships would be orga-nized so that players wouldbe facilitated at grassrootslevel.—APP
NEW DELHI—India’s sportsministry on Wednesday piledpressure on the chief of thecountry’s cricket board toquit on “moral grounds” overa widening betting and spot-fixing scandal that hasrocked the sport.
N. Srinivasan, head of theBoard of Control for Cricketin India (BCCI), has beenunder fire after his son-in-lawGurunath Meiyappan wasarrested for allegedly bettingon Indian Premier League(IPL) matches.
The BCCI on Tuesdayset up a three-member in-quiry commission to lookinto complaints againstMeiyappan, an executive atthe Chennai Super Kings IPLteam which is owned bySrinivasan’s group India Ce-ments.
“The ministry of youthaffairs and sports has ob-served with considerable dis-quiet, the reports aboutmatch- and spot-fixing incricket,” said a statementfrom the sports ministryheaded by Jitendra Singh.
“As there is a conflict ofinterest in this inquiry, there-fore BCCI President should
IPL spot fixing: ‘Indian cricketchief N Srinivasan must quit’
tender his resignation onmoral grounds, pending theoutcome of the inquiry,” itadded.
Earlier Wednesday IPL
chairman Rajeev Shukla said“it would be good” ifSrinivasan — who is manag-ing director of India Cements— stayed away from the in-quiry into the spot-fixing al-
legations.Srinivasan, a 68-year-old
businessman from the southof India, said he would notinterfere with the probe com-mittee, comprising twoformer high court judges andBCCI secretary SanjayJagdale.
“I have already made itvery clear that I will havenothing to do with the inves-tigating commission. Theprobe commission is inde-pendent. It has the power toimpose sanctions and handout punishment,” he told re-porters in Mumbai.
Srinivasan, who waselected as the BCCI presidentin 2011, has been resistingpolitical pressure for him tostep down and can only besacked if two thirds of theboard’s members voteagainst him.
Also on Wednesday, acourt in Mumbai extendedthe police custody ofMeiyappan until Friday toenable investigators to inter-rogate him further.
Betting on sports otherthan horse-racing is a crimein India.
Meiyappan’s arrest fol-
lowed similar action againstWorld Cup-winning pacebowler ShanthakumaranSreesanth and two team-mates in his IPL franchise theRajasthan Royals — AnkeetChavan and Ajit Chandila.
The trio, who deny anywrongdoing, have been sentto judicial custody in NewDelhi after police accusedthem of deliberately bowlingbadly in exchange for tens ofthousands of dollars afterstriking deals with bookmak-ers.
The police have widenedtheir probe into the scandal,arresting scores of bookiesand Bollywood actor VinduDara Singh Randhawa.
Police suspect that thebetting racket is being con-trolled by international crimesyndicates whose bossesare well aware of the rewardsif they can manipulate eventson the field throughout thecricket-mad region.
Spot-fixing is when an el-ement during a game, suchas the number of runsscored in a particular over,is fixed. Match-fixing iswhen the result of the gameis fixed.—AFP
PARIS—Victoria Azarenkawaited until the fourth day ofthe French Open for heropening match, then showedshe’s eager to advance.
Filling a mostly emptystadium court with her famil-iar shrieks Wednesday, theworld’s former No. 1 playerbeat Elena Vesnina of Russia6-1, 6-4 in a match postponedone day because of rain. Thatmeant Azarenka reached thesecond round 72 hours aftersome players.
“I felt like I’m one of thelast ones to start,” she said.“It was a long wait, but I thinkperformance-wise it was agood match.”
The Australian Openchampion in each of the pasttwo years, the No. 3-seededAzarenka is hoping for abreakthrough at RolandGarros, the only major whereshe has yet to reach a semifi-nal.
American Jamie Hamptonearned her first career FrenchOpen victory when she beatNo. 25 Lucie Safarova 7-6 (5),3-6, 9-7. Hampton, the ninthAmerican woman to reachthe second round, hit sevenaces and overcame 50 un-forced errors to outlastSafarova in the 2 1/2-hourmatch.
Mallory Burdette of theUnited States was eliminatedin the second round by No.4-seeded AgnieszkaRadwanska 6-3, 6-2. Burdettecommitted 28 unforced errorsto five four Radwanska, lastyear’s Wimbledon runner-up.
In other first-roundmatches, No. 7 Petra Kvitovaoutlasted wild card AravaneRezai of France, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2,and No. 12 Maria Kirilenkobeat fellow Russian NinaBratchikova 6-0, 6-1. No. 23Klara Zakopalova lost to
Azarenka into round 2, Ferrerround 3 at French Open
PARIS: Victoria Azarenka of Belarus plays a forehand inher Women’s Singles match against Elena Vesnina of Rus-sia during the French Open .Kaia Kanepi 7-6 (3), 6-2.
In men’s second-roundplay, No. 4 David Ferrer brokeserve eight times and beatfellow Spaniard AlbertMontanes 6-2, 6-1, 6-3. No.10 Marin Cilic defeated 18-year-old Australian NickKyrgios 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
No. 24 Benoit Paire de-feated Marcos Baghdatis ina rain-interrupted first-roundmatch, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4.
Azarenka waited in vainto play for much of the day
on a rainy Tuesday, but saidshe wasn’t flustered by thedelay.
“I just really was chillingthe whole day, watching`The Voice,”’ she said. “It wasincredible. I was so enter-tained. There’s this girl, hername is Judith. She was aduet singer with MichaelJackson. She’s absolutelyincredible. I mean, I have noidea how sounds like that cancome out of somebody’smouth. It’s just, wow.”
LONDON—Former Australiacaptain Ricky Ponting has saidhe is ready to return to Testcricket if required as an emer-gency call-up for Ashes dutyagainst England.
The 38-year-old, one of thebest batsmen of his generation,retired from Test cricket in De-cember with 13,378 runs, includ-ing 41 hundreds, in 168matches at an average of 51.85to his name. Ponting is in En-gland, where Australia will hopeto regain the Ashes in a seriesstarting in July, to play countycricket for London-based sideSurrey. But he said that if hiscountry came calling again itwould be hard to say ‘no’.
Ponting ready for Ashes emergencyFlower hopes Pietersen will be fit for Ashes
“Mate, they will have re-serve batsmen around shouldanything like that happen so Idon’t think they will be need-ing me. You wouldn’t say no,would you, if that call came andI would never say never, butyou have to say a call-up likethat now is extremely unlikely,”Ponting told Wednesday’sDaily Mail.
Meanwhile, England teamdirector Andy Flower said onWednesday that he was “think-ing optimistically” about starbatsman Kevin Pietersen’schances of returning to fitnessin time for the Ashes seriesagainst Australia.
A knee injury has kept
Pietersen out of action sinceMarch, forcing him to miss the
current series at home to NewZealand, the Indian Premier
League, and next month’sChampions Trophy.
He hopes to be available forthe Ashes series, which startsat Trent Bridge on July 10, andposted pictures of himself bat-ting on Twitter earlier this week,much to Flower’s delight.
“We are thinking optimisti-cally about Kevin’s injury im-proving and it’s nice that he’spain free. That is great news forhim and for us,” said Flower.
“Kevin’s a really specialplayer and we want him backas soon as he’s fit enough tobe back. That (seeing him bat)is good news for us and hope-fully his improvement graphwill carry on in the same way.”
Pietersen’s absence has al-lowed Yorkshire pair Joe Rootand Jonny Bairstow to staketheir claims for long-term in-volvement in the England set-up. Both players impressed ontheir home ground in England’s247-run win over New Zealandat Headingley this week, withRoot claiming a maiden Testcentury and Bairstow finishingunbeaten on 64 and 26.
“Joe has played outstand-ingly well in all three forms ofthe game since he’s been giventhe chance to play internationalcricket and he’s handled it re-ally well, which is testament tohis character and his skill,” saidFlower..—AFP
Asad rejectsspot fixingallegations
LAHORE—Pakistan’s ICCelite penal umpire, Asad Raufhas strongly rejected his in-volvement in match or spotfixing in the Indian premierleague and offered to presenthimself before ICC’s anti cor-ruption unit to clear his name.
“These are all baselessallegations and I have beeninvolved in match or spot fix-ing in any manner,” he toldmediamen at a news confer-ence in which he read out abrief statement and refusedto answer any question hereon Wednesday.
Asad whose name waswithdrawn by ICC from thelist of ICC penal of umpiresfor the Champions Trophy inthe bac drop of recent spotfixing scandal in Indian pre-mier league , expressed hisresolve to clear his name fromhis alleged involvement inmatch.
“If ICC initiate probe intothe matter and I am ready toappear before ICC’s anti cor-ruption unit and I will behappy to answer their ques-tions ,”said Asad in a confi-dent manner.
He said money was neverhis preference throughouthis umpiring career and hehas not done anything whichcan cause embracement forhim at this stage.
He claimed that that hewas not excluded from the listof ICC’s umpires to officiatein the Champions Trophy ashe withdrew his name himself.
“ICC done that (with-drawal of Asad) in the largerinterest of cricket and for mybetterment and let me tellyour people that there is a bigdifference between being ex-cluded and withdrawn ,” heasserted. Asad said he hasnothing against ICC for with-drawing his name from theICC penal of umpires forchampions trophy.—APP
PCB to honourIHC decision ingood spirit: BariKARACHI—Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) will honour thedecision of Islamabad HighCourt (IHC) in a good spirit,former Pakistan captainWasim Bari said on Wednes-day.
The IHC in decision onTuesday ordered PCB chair-man Zaka Ashraf to “refrainfrom exercising his powerwithin his incumbency.”
It was responding to a pe-tition filed by a formerRawalpindi Cricket Associa-tion official against the Paki-stan board’s elections thatwere held three-day before theGeneral Elections in whichAshraf was elected to a four-year term as chairman.
While defending the PCB,he said current set-up of theboard was trying to broadenthe base of Pakistan cricket byincluding new regional cricketassociations on rotation ba-sis and departments in theGoverning Board, he told re-porters in a news conferenceat National Stadium.—APP
TDCP gear upfor 9th Cholistan
jeep rallyMULTAN—Tourism Devel-opment Corporation Punjab(TDCP) has started ap-proaching the ambassadorsof different countries in a bidto attract tourists to thecountry’s mega car sportevent held annually inCholistan desert,near histori-cal Derawar fort. TDCP Man-aging Director, Habib UrRahman Gilani told APP thatalthough the rally would beheld in February 2014,how-ever, intensive preparationsneed to be made well beforethe event.
Gilani said that a briefinghas already been given tothe ambassador of Turkeyand added that TDCP willextend cooperation to for-eign drivers regarding theirvisas and import of sportsvehicle.—APP
ANP to sit on oppbenchesISLAMABAD—Awami NationalParty (ANP) on Wednesdayfiled an application to sit on op-position benches in the Senate.The application was given bySenator Haji Adeel of the ANP.In his application, he said thatANP members should be allot-ted opposition seats in the Up-per House. —NNI
Khoso dissolvesPM anti polio cellISLAMABAD—Care TakerPrime Minister (PM) Mir HazarKhan Khoso has dissolved PManti polio cell and sacked its incharge. Media reports said thatcaretaker PM has again taken acontroversial step by dissolvingthe PM anti polio cell, now min-istry of National Health ServiceRegulation and Coordinationwill handle the matters regard-ing anti polio cell. Ex PM YusufRaza Gilani established this cellin 2011 to monitor the poliocampaign in all over the coun-try and to make contacts withinternational institutions for theelimination of polio. —Online
PR restores 2trainsISLAMABAD —Pakistan Rail-ways has restored two trains 354Down and 353 Up which wereclosed on Malakwal Section dueto the shortage of oil. The man-agement of Pakistan Railways hasmade proper arrangements of oiland restored the trains due to thedifficulties being faced by the pas-sengers, a spokesman of PakistanRailways said on Wednesday. Theremaining two trains 138 Downand 137 Up would also be put ontheir routes soon.—Online
Shoukat visitsLRHPESHAWAR—The ProvincialGeneral Secretary of PakistanTehrik-e-Insaf and MPA-Elect,Shoukat Ali Yousafzi onWednesday visited Lady Read-ing Hospital (LRH) and inquiredafter the health of injured inImamia Colony blast. ShoukatYousafzai met with familymembers of the injured and di-rected the hospital administra-tion to provide best availablemedical cover to the victims. Healso prayed for early recovery ofthe injured. —APP
Salute topeacekeepersISLAMABAD—The Interna-tional Day of United NationsPeacekeepers was observed onWednesday across the world,including Pakistan, to saluteover 111,000 peacekeepers serv-ing in 15 missions in world’smost dangerous environs. Thetheme of 2013 United NationsPeacekeepers is “ UN Peace-keeping: Adapting to new chal-lenges”. The United Nationspeacekeeping has adapted itspolicies, revised its structuresand developed new practicesand training to better perform itslife-saving work. —APP
SALIM AHMAD
LAHORE—Punjab chief min-ister-designate Shahbaz Sharifhas urged overseas PakistanisWednesday to shun their dif-ferences related to electionsand work for the uplift of Pa-kistan.
“I thank overseas Paki-stanis for favouring the PML-N during general elections,”Shahbaz told delegations ofoverseas Pakistanis who calledon him in London. “A numberof Pakistanis from abroad trav-elled to their hometown andvoted for PML-N on May 11.Millions of other Pakistanisacross the world also prayedfor the PML-N’s success,” hesaid.
Shahbaz said that it washeartening to see that overseassupporters of other politicalparties had also declared PML-N’s victory a good omen forPakistan. “They are convincedthat Nawaz Sharif is capableof steering the country out ofprevailing crisis, including
load shedding.”The CM-designate said
that overseas Pakistanis con-tributed $13 billion to the
country’s economy annuallyand the PML-N governmentwould provide them an invest-ment-friendly environment inthe country. “We will shape
special packages of investmentfor them in consultation withbanks and other financial in-stitutions.” He said that at least
50% of annual remittanceswould be channelised into pro-ductive investment.
Shahbaz said that PML-Nwould also initiate a bank
loans scheme for small to me-dium new expatriates’ businessstart-up. “Protection to prop-erty of overseas Pakistanis willalso be provided against QabzaMafias,” he said.
Separately speaking to alocal TV channel, Shahbazsaid that apart from the peopleof Pakistan, international insti-tutions had also acknowledgeddevelopment schemes of thelast Punjab government. ThePunjab government, he added,was the only provincial gov-ernment in Pakistan that hadinvited Transparency Interna-tional to evaluate it projects.“The watchdog has declaredall our mega projects corrup-tion-free,” he said.
Shahbaz said that when thePML-N came to power inPunjab, the province was at topin terms of corruption. But, headded, the exceptional perfor-mance of the PML-N govern-ment rendered Punjab the titleof most transparent and cor-ruption-free province of Paki-stan in 2010.
Role of overseas Pakistanismust for progress: Shahbaz MOSCOW—Disputes between
Russia and the West over arm-ing warring sides in Syria onTuesday dimmed prospects forpeace talks that were alsoclouded by disarray amongPresident Bashar al-Assad’spolitical foes.
As Western nations debatewhat action, if any, they shouldtake on Syria, Assad’s main al-lies - Russia, Iran andLebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollahgroup - have been closingranks behind him.
Russia, which has pro-tected Assad diplomaticallysince the Syrian uprisingerupted in March 2011, said itwould deliver an advanced S-300 air defense system toDamascus despite U.S.,French and Israeli objections,arguing that it would help de-ter “hotheads” intent on inter-vention in the conflict.
Moscow also accused theEuropean Union of “throwingfuel on the fire” and “under-mining” the chances of hold-ing a peace conference atGeneva by letting an arms em-bargo on Syria expire.
France and Britain, theEU’s strongest military pow-ers and most ardent advocatesof scrapping the embargo, saidthey had not yet decided to arm
Syrian rebels, but wanted toput Assad under pressure to ne-gotiate.
“Our focus in the comingweeks is the Geneva confer-ence,” said British ForeignSecretary William Hague.
“What this is doing issending that signal loud andclear to the regime and ... be-ing very clear about the flex-ibility that we have if it refusesto negotiate.”
Russian Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov said Westernpowers were putting the veryidea of a conference at risk
while his deputy, SergeiRyabkov, defended Moscow’smissile shipment.
“We think this delivery isa stabilizing factor and thatsuch steps in many ways re-strain some hotheads,” he said.
The S-300s can interceptmanned aircraft and guidedmissiles and their deliverycould improve Assad’schances of retaining power.
Western nations criticizesuch arms deliveries in muchthe same terms as Moscow as-sails weapons supplies torebels.—Reuters
US-Moscow ties gosour over arms to Syria
PM approvesPolicy for overseas
PakistanisSHARAFAT KAZMI
ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterMir Hazar Khan Khoso has ap-proved first ever national policyfor overseas Pakistanis aimed toprotect‚ and encourage invest-ment to facilitate foreign invest-ment through legal channels.
The decision was taken whenMinister for Overseas Pakistanis‚Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhelcalled on the Prime Minister andbriefed him about the salient fea-tures of the National Policy forOverseas Pakistanis in Islamabadon Wednesday.
The National Policy providesfor social and welfare facilitiesto the overseas Pakistanis in-cludes proposals for housingschemes in different cities of thecountry‚ allocation of a specificsector or percentage in govern-ment residential schemes‚ open-ing of Pakistanis schools in dif-ferent cities abroad on need ba-sis‚ establishment of overseasuniversity in Islamabad‚ con-struction of hospitals ‚ provisionof mobile medical units and le-gal assistance for families ofoverseas Pakistanis.
MQM workersbeing killed underconspiracy: Rizvi
IRFAN ALIGI
KARACHI Muttahida QaumiMovement Coordination Com-mittee member Haider AbbasRizvi has said that the law en-forcement agencies’ personnelin plain clothes were abductingworkers of the MQM. Subse-quent to that situation, 9 work-ers of the MQM went missingon the similar pattern of thegrave situation in Balochistan.
He was addressing a pressconference at the KhursheedBegum Secretariat in AzizabadWednesday.
The killing of the workersof the MQM was being carriedout under a pre-planned con-spiracy. The workers are beingkilled, injured and intimidatedfor their affiliation to the MQMand further some of the workerswere murdered on sectariangrounds.
The similar situation carriedout in past for pinning a selec-tive community to the wall hadits worst implications and againtoday the question had risen whythe authorities concerned werefailing to stop that spree ofplanned killings of workers ofthe MQM.
HAMEED SHAHEEN
ISLAMABAD—The 8th Euro-parliament week on Kashmir sce-nario has started under overallauspices in Brussels, the head-quarters of the European parlia-ment with open exhibition ofKashmir tragedy photograps andother blow-ups to tell Europwwhat is happening in captivatedKashmir, says a KW latest report.
A Kashmir well-wisherEuropian parliament memberfrom United Kingdon NicoleSinclare informed the democraticworld via her press conference inBrussels on Wednesaday that theaim of the Week longprogrammes “is to raise the is-
sue of Kashmir as a “humanrights issue.” “We have the larg-est Kashmir community diaspora(in West Midlands, UK) outsideKashmir and for me this is a con-stituent issue,” she stressed.
The dispute of Kashmir is onthe EP agenda since the year2003. the EP is most poerful in-ternational forum comprising 27industrial world of Europe. TheKashmir Week this time ismarked in cooperation with theKashmir center EU whose direc-tor Mr Majis Trumboo told me-dia that the theme of the Week is: “Reconciliation: Kashmir, Indiaand Pakistan.” He said the exhi-bition aims to promoting at alllevels reconciliation and dialogue
between the three stakeholders -Pakistan, Kashmiris and India.
“It is also to emphasize to themembers of the European Parlia-ment to continue to keep in theirmind and in their heart the woe-ful situation in Kashmir,” he as-serted He noted that EuropeanParliament elections are to beheld in 2014 and stressed that“we have to ensure that we sup-port such MEPS like Sinclairewho work for Kashmir issue.” “Itis very crucial for us to see howover the next months the BritishMEPs are putting and placing thisissue on their agenda. This exhi-bition before the elections is anappropriate thing to do,” headded.
Euro-parliament hostingKashmir Week
THE HAGUE—FormerBosnian Croat leader JadrankoPrlic was sentenced to 25 yearsin jail on Wednesday for “eth-nic cleansing” that included themurder, rape and expulsion ofMuslims from Bosnia during thebreakup of Yugoslavia in the1990s.
The International CriminalTribunal for the former Yugosla-via (ICTY) in the Hague alsosentenced five others, includingSlobodan Praljak, Croatia’sformer assistant minister of de-fense, to jail terms of between
10 and 20 years.The judges said Croatia,
which on July 1 will become thesecond former Yugoslav repub-lic to join the European Union,had been involved in the plan,and that late President FranjoTudjman believed ethnic cleans-ing was necessary to create anethnically pure state that couldbe joined up to Croatia.
Reading from a summary ofa judgment that ran to more than2,600 pages, presiding judgeJean-Claude Antonetti said mur-ders, rapes and deportations had
been committed by the armedforces of the self-proclaimedethnic Croat state of Herceg-Bosna. “The crimes were notthe random acts of a few unrulysoldiers,” he said. “They werethe result of a plan ... to perma-nently remove the Muslim popu-lation of Herceg-Bosna.”
The six were also held re-sponsible for the destruction ofthe Ottoman-era Old Bridge atMostar, whose shelling becamea symbol of the ravages of the1992-1995 Bosnian conflict.—Reuters
Hague court convicts BosnianCroat leader of war crimes
TWO researchers in Italy suggest exposure to pesticides and solventsis linked to a higher risk of devel-
oping Parkinson’s disease. They came tothis conclusion after analyzing over 100studies from around theworld.
Parkinson’s is a pro-gressive degenerativedisease that affects aperson’s ability to controland coordinate theirmuscle movement.
What can begin as atremor in a little fingereventually leads to prob-lems with speech andwriting, and one day, in-ability to walk withouthelp.
This deterioration iscaused by the gradual re-duction in brain levels ofdopamine, a chemicalmessenger that carriessignals to brain regionsthat control movement and coordination.
Exactly why Parkinson’s develops andhow this affects dopamine productionand maintenance is not known. But thereis increasing evidence of an inherited orgenetic component in a small proportionof cases.One view that is gaining groundis that inflammation likely has a role in thedevelopment of Parkinson’sdisease.Dopamine is produced by a spe-cial type of brain cell, the dopaminergicneuron.
There is also a suggestion that cer-tain compounds in the environment causeParkinson’s by selectively destroying
dopaminergic neurons. This latestanalysis from Italy appears to add someweight to that view.
Emanuele Cereda from the IRCCSUniversity Hospital San Matteo Foun-
dation in Pavia, and GianniPezzoli of the ParkinsonInstitute - ICP in Milan,write about their findingsin the 28 May print issueof the journal Neurology.
For their meta-analysis,a type of study that poolsdata from several studies ofsimilar design, Cereda andPezzoli reviewed results of104 cohort and case-con-trol studies that examinedlinks between exposure tobug, weed, fungus and ro-dent killers, and solvents,and risk for developingParkinson’s disease.
The research foundthat people exposed to bugor weed killers and sol-
vents had an increased risk of develop-ing Parkinson’s disease of between 33to 80 percent compared to people whowere not exposed to them.
And results from high quality case-controlled studies shows that exposureto paraquat (a herbicide) and maneb andmancozeb (fungicides), is tied to arounda two-fold increase in risk of develop-ing Parkinson’s. The analysis also in-cluded studies that took into accounthow close people lived to the site of ex-posure (for instance urban or rural set-tings), their jobs, and whether theirdrinking water came from wells.
Pesticide exposure tiedto parkinson’s risk
ISLAMABAD: Vehicles standing in a long queue to get CNG from a CNG station.
ISLAMABAD: Chief Guest Vice Admiral Shafqat Jawed HI (M), Defence Attache ofJapan Embassy Colonel Ken Asada, Ambassador of Japan Hiroshi Oe, President AJKSardar Yaqoob and Sheikh Rashid Ahmad cutting the cake during a ceremony to cel-ebrate the Japan Self-Defense Forces Day, at a local hotel.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir
ASHRAF ANSARI
ISLAMABAD—The ambas-sador and Mrs TotraKumari Acharya hosted areception to celebrate the6th Republic Day and theNational Day of Nepal. Alarge number of guestsdrawn from various sec-tions of society as well asmembers of the diplomaticcorps and senior officialsgraced the function. Chiefguest was Interior MinisterMalik Muhammad Habib.
National anthems of thetwo countries were playedat the start of the reception.The ambassador, the chiefguest and other guests cutthe ceremonial cake, deco-rated with the nationalcolours of the two coun-tries. The ambassador, hisspouse and other diplomatsof the Nepalese embassywarmly received the guests.The ambassador in his in-formal chat with the Paki-stani guests said, Nepal isproud of Pakistan’s friend-ship and cooperation withhis country. He believedthat bilateral relations be-
tween the two countrieswill continue to grow withthe passage of time. Hesaid, there are vast possi-
bilities of closer cooperationbetween the two countriesin several vital areas.
Pakistan and Nepal are
partners in the regional or-ganization, SAARC. TheSAARC headquarter is inthe Nepalese capital,
Kathmandu, the city famousfor its mountainous land-scape and its Himalayanconnection. The city has ahistory spread over thou-sands of years going backto early Buddhist era. It at-tracts thousands of touristsfrom Pakistan and othercountries of the worldthroughout theyear.
Nepal hasbeen a peace-ful countryand it plays positive role inpromoting peace and secu-rity in the region. In fact Pa-kistan and Nepal have beenworking together in thefields of peace and secu-rity. With the advent of de-mocracy, the countrystarted moving to highertargets of progress. Thecountry can now take pridein its steps that have beentaken for social develop-ment and upholding of hu-man rights.
The Nepalese peopletake keen interest in visit-ing Taxila, Takht Bahai andother historic centers ofBuddhist civilization in Pa-
Pakistan Nepal relations continue to grow
Nepal celebrates National Day
ISLAMABAD: Chief guest Interior Minister Malik Muhammad Habib Khan, Ambassa-dor of Nepal Bharat Raj Paudyal, Dean of Diplomatic Corps Rodolfo Martin Saravia,Akram Zaki and others, cutting the cake on the occasion of the 6th Republic Day andthe National Day of Nepal.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir
kistan. There is goodscope for promoting tour-ism in Gandhara region ofPakistan to attract touristsfrom Nepal. People topeople contacts betweenthe two countries canboost bilateral relations togreater heights. Evenaround Islamabad there
are severalhistoric sitesr ep re sen t ingBuddhist civi-lization. The
historic and cultural linksbetween the two countriesserve as solid foundationfor their friendship andcooperation. In the chang-ing world scenario, Paki-stan and Nepal can playtogether a more significantrole in promoting peaceand progress in the re-gion. The two countriesshare common percep-tions of important issuesand they have identicalapproach towards them.The two countries arecommitted to promotingregional cooperation inthe framework of SAARCto their mutual benefit.
May 30
THE Annual Convocationof Islamabad Model Col-lege for Girls Post Gradu-ate F-7/4. Will be held onMay 30th at 9:30am. V.C ofFatima Jinnah University,Dr Samina Amin Qadir willbe the chief guest.
June 1
A ONE-day preview of art-works exhibition by SanaArjumand will be dis-played here on Saturdayat Gallery 6. The show willbe inaugurated by HighCommissioner of Austra-lia Peter Heyward and hiswife Susan Heyward.
Guests at the national day reception of Nepal.
Decorous gatheringat Japanese Forces
Day festivityLIAQAT TOOR
ISLAMABAD—A decorousand attractive gatheringjoined Japanese ambassadorHiroshi Oe and Mrs. MidoriOe to celebrate 59th Anniver-sary of Japanese Self-De-fence Forces Day on Tues-day evening in a local hotel.
Vice Admiral ShafqatJawed HI (M) was the chiefguest on the occasion whileColonel Ken Asada, DefenseAttaché, Embassy of Japan,represented the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF).
Besides military officialsof the Government of Paki-stan, members of the diplo-matic community, politicians,businessmen, retired civiland military officers,mediamen and eminent per-sonalities from different seg-ments of society graced theoccasion. Sheikh RashidAhmed, Lt. Gen. (retd)Hameed Gul, Caretaker LawMinister Ahmer Bilal Sufi andJehangir Badr were amongthe personalities who partici-pated in the festivity.
The Day is celebrated inconnection with the estab-lishment of the Japan De-fense Agency and the inau-guration of the JapanGround, Maritime and AirSelf-Defense Forces on 1stJuly, 1954. The Japan De-fense Agency was upgradedto the Ministry of Defense in2007.
Clean, Green Islamabad campaignSTAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—The phase-wise
“Clean and Green Islamabad”campaign of the CDA would belaunched in F-11 of the Federal
Capital on Thursday.The cam-paign would remain continuein sector F-11 for three days.
SHARAFAT KAZMI
ISLAMABAD—Democratic ac-tivities in the schools helpboost the leading skills in stu-dents enabling them to ac-quire the best leadershipqualities as they are the fu-ture leaders of the nation.
Chairman Capital Devel-opment Authority (CDA),Syed Tahir Shahbaz said thison the occasion of 26th Stu-dent Council Oath TakingCeremony at CDA ModelSchool here on Wednesday.
In his address to the stu-dents, Chairman CDA said
Extracurricular activitiesvital for students
that extracurricular activitiesalong with academic activi-ties play vital role in build-ing the personality of stu-dents.
He appreciated the out-standing academic recordof CDA Model School andsaid that the authoritywould take effective mea-sures by utilizing its avail-able resources for the up-gradation of school, pro-motion of teachers andconstruction of new build-ing for the CDA Modelschool. Chairman CDAgreeted the newly elected
President and Members ofStudents Council of CDAModel School. He ex-pressed his hope that theelected Students Councilwill work for the promotionof academic and extracurricu-lar activities to maintain out-standing track record of CDAModel School. He also laudedthe performance of Principaland teachers of the school formaintaining the high standardin education.
25 student members forthe first Students Council forthe new academic year wereelected through direct vote.
CITY REPORTER
IS L A M A B A D—Load-shed-ding is causing trouble topatients and doctors at hos-pitals as power fluctuationcauses delay in laboratorytests and other medical facili-ties in the twin cities ofIslamabad and Rawalpindi.
Patients are facing im-mense troubles at twin citiesas Public and private hospi-tals including Pakistan Insti-tute of Medical Sciences(PIMS), Polyclinic, CDA hos-pital, Benazir Hospital, Bilal
Loadshedding addingmiseries to patients
Hospital, Ahmad Medicalcenter, Ferhan and Rawalhospital are suffering due toprolonged load sheddingand absence of generators.
Patients’ attendants at dif-ferent hospitals while talkingto Pakistan Observer, com-plained that hospital adminis-tration and patients are facinggreat difficulties in conduct-ing general tests and X-raysbecause of loadshedding. Be-sides, equipment of operationtheaters are also affected, theysaid.
Asim Ali a patient at
PIMS said that worst af-fected are the emergency pa-tients, injured & indoor pa-tients whose radiological andpathological tests are essen-tial for diagnostic purposesbut cannot be conducteddue this single reason of loadshedding and without theseessential tests no propertreatment can be given bythe consulting doctors.
He further said that CTScan facility also remainsclosed which has badly af-fected the treatment processof these patients.
Hindrances stimulatethe man of purpose ...
Mistakes, losses;pains do not subduehim... For he is ever
conscious of thecertainty of final
achievement.—James Allen
ISLAMABAD: CFO Shakarganj Food Products Najeeb Saigol and Country Director Hashoo Foundation Ali Akbarsigning an agreement to provide chillers to the beneficiaries of the USAID Entrepreneurs Project.
AMANULLAH KHAN
KARACHI—A paradigmshift in the external flowslikely to bring at least $5-6billion foreign directinvestment(FDI) to mark thepositive change in the gov-ernment.
According to OverseasInvestors Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (OICCI)given the right environmentand support the Foreign Di-rect Investment (FDI) inflowcan substantially increaseto as much as US$ 5 to 6billion annually.
The Chamber is opti-
mistic that the new Govern-ment will set a clear and fo-cused direction to addresskey issues of governance,security, energy, and incon-sistent policy implementa-tion which in the recent pasthas severely affected the in-flow of Foreign Direct Invest-ment (FDI) in the country.
Mr. Kimihide Ando, thePresident of The OverseasInvestors Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (OICCI),on behalf of the foreign in-vestors expressed his confi-dence in the Government ofPakistan. He congratulatedMian Mohammad Nawaz
Sharif, PML (N) leadershipand other major election lead-ers as the new set up movestowards a smooth transition
of the power at the Centreand in the provinces.
OICCI believes that theongoing democratic process
is creating a positive inter-national perception which ispartially reflected in the in-creasing level of FPI in thestock market. This windowof opportunity can be usedto channel the longer termFDI to bolster the manufac-turing and infrastructuresector for sustained busi-ness activities which willhelp increase employmentand economic growth.OICCI believes in Pakistan’sgreat potential and is confi-dent that a few bold eco-nomic policy initiatives bythe new government candramatically change the eco-
nomic situation. Mr.Kimihide Ando suggestedto the Government to con-stitute a high powered Eco-nomic and Investment com-mittee with representation fromkey trade bodies, like OICCI toget periodical feedback onpolicies and performance and,more importantly, agree on wayforward to achieve rapid eco-nomic growth.
OICCI has regularly putforward specific proposals tohelp achieve an environmentthat is conducive to eco-nomic growth that includetaxation, changes in publicsector and measures to im-
prove policy implementa-tion in various sectorswhich the Chamber is hope-ful that the governmentwould like to consider.
OICCI is the collectivevoice of 190 leading foreigninvestors belonging to 33countries and include manyleading Fortune 500 compa-nies operating in Pakistan.OICCI members collectivelycontribute about one fourthof the total tax collectionand GDP of the country be-sides facilitating transfer oftechnology and skills andemployment to a sizeablenumber of people.
Foreign investors optimistic of new leadership
$5-6 bln FDI expected in first year of new govt
ISLAMABAD—The EXIMBank of China has signed anagreement with the Govern-ment of Pakistan to provideUS $ 448 million for 969 MW-Neelum Jhelum HydropowerProject.
An official sources toldAPP that the agreement wasa significant development inthe efforts to secure requisitefinancial resources for theremaining works of under-construction Neelum Jhelum
Hydropower Project. NeelumJhelum Hydropower Projectis being constructed on RiverNeelum in Azad Jammu andKashmir.
They said that in additionto generating much-neededlow-cost hydel electricity tohelp mitigate power short-ages in the country, theproject is also equally impor-tant for Pakistan to establishpriority water rights.
In view of its significance,
WAPDA is making all possibleefforts to complete NeelumJhelum Hydropower Project by2016 according to its construc-tion schedule, they said. Thesources said constructionwork on all sites of the projectwas progressing satisfactorily.Out of total 67-kilometre (km)tunnels, 34.24 km long tunnels(51 percent) had so far beenexcavated, while excavation ofunder-ground power housestood at 75.24 percent andtransformers hall at 96.33 per-cent.
They said 95 percentwork on de-sander of theproject had also completedwhile Nauseri Bridge overRiver Neelum was also con-structed. Second stage di-version of the River Neelumhad also been completed. Itis pertinent to mention thatNeelum Jhelum HydropowerProject, on completion, willcontribute 5.15 billion unitsof cheap electricity everyyear to the National Grid.Annual benefits of theproject have been estimatedat about Rs. 45 billion.—APP
969 MW Neelum Jhelum project
EXIM Bank toprovide $ 448m
Vaidik sees improvedPak-India trade tiesaheadLAHORE—The Indianintellectual, columnist andChairman Council forForeign Policy Dr V.P. Vaidikhas expressed the optimismthat Pak-India ties wouldget a boost after theinstallation of new govern-ment in Pakistan as theleadership in India wantedto have good relations withPakistan. Dr V P Vaidik wastalking to LCCI PresidentFarooq Iftikhar on Wednes-day. LCCI Vice PresidentMian Abuzar Shad, formerPresident Mian MuzaffarAli and Executive Commit-tee Member Mumshad Aliwere also present. Dr Vaidiksaid he was in favour ofPak-India trade as hebelieved that the tradewould bring the two sidesmore close to each otherand help resolve challengesbeing faced by the twocountries. He said thatpolitical leadership of Indiawished to have goodrelations with Pakistan andwas hopeful that newly-elected leadership inPakistan would makeheadway regardingproblems of the region, inparticular, for improvementof relations and talksbetween India and Pakistan.He said that they alsounderstood that talksshould be held on allissues, including Kashmirand water, so that matterscould move ahead.—APP
Import of gas to end loadmanagementHYDERABAD—GeneralManager Distribution SuiSouthern Gas CompanyNisar Ahmed Shaikh hassaid that after import of gas,there will be no need ofload management of naturalgas in the country. Thedecision of importing gashas been made due todecline in gas explorationand non- availability of newgas reserves, he said whileaddressing the members ofHyderabad Chamber ofCommerce and Industryhere at the Chamber’ssecretariat on Wednesday.He informed that thegovernment has imposedban on provision ofindustrial gas connectionsand whenever the ban willbe lifted, the company willstart providing suchconnections. About illegaluse of gas, he said thatconsumers have beenwarned through number ofadvertisements thatregularisation of generatorsis necessary for generatingelectricity through gas, butthe consumers are notpaying attention towardssuch warnings.In Hyderabad, the com-pany has 1,30,000 gasconsumers and majority ofthem are generatingelectricity through gasduring load shedding, heinformed.—APP
Conversion ratesKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Depos-its, Dollar Bearer Certifi-cates, Foreign CurrencyBearer Certificates, SpecialU.S. Dollar Bonds andprofits thereon by allbanks and for providingForward Cover on ForeignCurrency Deposits(excluding F.E. 25 deposits)by the State Bank on May30, 2013. The rates are U.S.Dollar Rs 98.4741, JapaneseYen Rs 0.9683, PoundSterling Rs 148.0262 andEuro Rs 126.9134.—APP
DASKA—Rice would besown over 42.68 lakh acresduring Kharif season in vari-ous paddy areas of theprovince. Sources in Agri-culture department told APPon Wednesday that 3.77 lakhacres of land would be un-der paddy cultivation inSialkot, Pasrur, Daska andSambrial tehsils of Sialkotdistrict during Kharif sea-son. Tehsil wise target of
paddy sowing is: Daska93000 acres, Pasrur 1.19 lakhacres,Sialkot 1.11 lakh andSambrial 54000 acres acres.Sources said Agriculturedepartment has initiatedtraining programme forpaddy growers with the ob-jective to enable them meetthe targets.
Recommended varietiesof rice are super Basmati,Basmati-385, Basmati-2000,
Basmati-515, Basmati-370,Basmati Pak and ShaheenBasmati etc which wouldhelp attain maximum yield ofthe crop and well as goodquality rice for export pur-pose. The Agriculture de-partment has advised grow-ers to use only “recom-mended” and authenticatedpaddy seeds and pesticidesfor obtaining “quality” andmaximum per acre yield inPunjab, sources added. Lo-cal agriculture departmenthas already completed farm-ers’ training in 1442 villagesof Sialkot, Daska, Pasrur andSambrial tehsils of Sialkotdistrict.
Experts have directedpaddy growers to refrainfrom transferring plants fromnurseries to their respectivefields before June 20 in orderto reap good yield of thecrop.—APP
Paddy cultivation on 42.68lakh acres in Punjab
BoP files detailsof rescheduled
loans in SCISLAMABAD—Bank ofPunjab (BoP) has filed detailsof the rescheduled loansamounting to Rs 38 billion inSupreme Court (SC).
The court has been toldthrough the details that BoPhas rescheduled most of theloans , therefore, no actionbe taken by the court on thiscount.
Report was filed byAnwar Mansoor before 3-member bench of SC pre-sided over by the Chief Jus-tice of Pakistan (CJP) IftikharMuhammad ChaudhryWednesday.
The court has adjournedthe hearing of the case tilltoday to review the list con-taining details of rescheduledloans. —Online
FBR advisestaxpayers not to send
account detailsISLAMABAD—Federal Boardof Revenue (FBR) has ad-vised the taxpayers and gen-eral public not to send theirbank account details andpassword to emails receivedfrom any email address thatis apparently from FBR.
A statement issued byFBR here on Wednesdaysaid that it has been reportedthat some fraudulent peopleare using a fake webpage ofFBR created for nefariouspurposes.
The taxpayers receive anemail from fake email addressesl i k [email protected] appear to be originatingfrom FBR but in fact are not, itadded. In mail the people aretold to collect their tax refundby clicking the link to a fakewebsite of FBR with links tobanks. It further said that FBR’sofficial website is http://www.fbr.gov.pk but the clickleads to web address http://w w w . s p r i n g t o w i n t e r . g r /f b r . g o v . p k /fbr.gov.refundportal.htm. Oncethere, the fake page of their bankopens asking for their accountnumber and password.—APP
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—ChairpersonCompetition Commission ofPakistan (CCP) Ms. RahatKaunain Hassan said onWednesday that Pakistan’scompetition laws are fair,transparent and match inter-national standards to helppromote economic growthby encouraging and enforc-ing competition in allsphares of economy. Theselaws “help enhance eco-nomic efficiency and protectconsumers from anti com-petitive behavior and create
level playing field for busi-ness in the country”, she saidwhile addressing the partici-pants of an InternationalConference on “Role of Com-petition in fostering trade andinvestment “ here.
The two-day conference,organized by the CCP in col-laboration with EuropeanUnion, was attracting expertsin competition laws fromwithin and outside the coun-try.
Lars -Gunnar WeigemarkAmbassador and Head ofdelegation of the EuropeanUnion and Eduar Perez Chair
of the International Compe-tition Network (ICN) Steer-ing Group and President ofMexican Federal Competi-tion Commission also spokeduring the inaugural ses-sion.
The Chairperson CCPMs.Rahat Kunnain Hassanhighlighting the aim, objec-tive and performance of herorganization said that es-sentially, a regulator and anenforcer of law, she wouldnot delve into theories ofhow trade and develop-ment is fostered throughcompetition.
Pakistan competition lawsmatch int’l standards
STAFF REPORTER
PESHAWAR—The IT Expo inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa at-tracted a large number of visi-tors on first day which wouldhelpful to develop industriesand academic linkages withpromotion of manufacturingproducts of various local andforeign companies. A largenumber of buyers on took in-terest in various IT accesso-ries and computers gadgets.The organisers expected thatthe Expo would draw morecrowds in remaining two-day,which will continue till Thurs-day. Around 45 registeredcompanies with KhyberPakhtunkhwa InformationTechnology Park, put on dis-play their products at 76 stalls,mainly computer accessories,hardware and other various ITstuffs.
In this connection, a for-mal opening ceremony washeld, in which the Sarhad
Chamber of Commerce and In-dustry, President DrMohammad Yousaf Sarwarinaugurated the event. On theoccasion, organisers and part-ners, Sohail Chishti, AbdulKhaliq, Abid Iqbal, RasheedKhanullah, Janhangir Ahmad,Asif Khattak, and variouscompanies CEO/Managerswere present. The first-everinitiative of KhyberPakhtunkhwa InformationTechnology Park in collabo-ration with Gravity IT Solu-tion.
Chief Executive Officer,Gravity IT solution andorganiser, Zafar Iqbal whiletalking to media persons atsideline of three-day IT Exposaid the KP IT board has alsoextended assistance, for mak-ing successful this IT exhibi-tion. “We have received verypositive response from buy-ers on very fist-day of this ex-hibition which would be help-ful for marketing products and
promotion of brands, saidAsif Khattak, a stall holder at-tached with ABC solutioncompany. He welcomed theinitiative of KP IT Park forproviding opportunities tovarious companies to show-case their manufacturing prod-ucts during the IT Expo.
We expect for optimal ori-entation of products and out-reaching the buyers in nexttwo-days, Khattak said. Iqbalsaid that 76 stalls at the three-day exhibition – which beganon Tuesday were showcas-ing products as diverse ITaccessories, include comput-ers and hardware and otherspecific gadgets, informationtechnology, engineeringgoods. He informed thatcompanies enlisted with ITPark, from Peshawar,Abbottabad, Islamabad,Karachi, along withneighbouring Afghanistanwere displaying their prod-ucts in the exhibition.
IT Expo attracts huge crowd
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—Lahore Tax BarAssociation (LTBA) formerPresident Zahid Att iqueChaudhry has opposed theidea of increasing the ratesof indirect taxes and said itwill put additional burdenon the masses already be-ing grinded by the infla-tion. In a statement issuedon Tuesday he said thatthe incoming governmentshould instead work onsimplifying the sales taxsystem and abolishing theunnecessary exemptions.He also claimed that impo-si t ion of income tax onelectricity bills is also un-constitutional.
He was of the view thatNawaz Sharif governmentshould not take weak deci-sion l ike enhancing therate of sales tax to 17 percent as people cannot bearthe brunt of it in the pre-vailing circumstances.
He also said i t is notwise to put additional bur-
den on already registeredtaxpayers to increase rev-enue rather Federal Boardof Revenue (FBR) shouldtake steps to bring thosehundred of thousands ofpeople under tax net whoselist is available with theBoard.
Zahid Attique said thatformer f inance ministerHafeez Sheikh on the floorof the house had said thatthe government had list of700,000 such people whospend on foreign tours,have residences in posh ar-eas, have more than onebank accounts and sendingtheir children to expensiveschools but were not pay-ing the taxes.
He said there is a needto bring such people in totax net. He was also of theview that proposal of levy-ing income tax on electric-ity bill is unconstitutionalas tax could not be col-lected through any suchmedium which is not con-sidered as income.
LTBA opposesincrease in taxes
JS Investmentsannounces
interim dividendOBSERVER REPORT
KARACHI—The Chief Execu-tive Officer under the author-ity of the Board of Directorsof JS Investments Limitedhas announced interim divi-dend for JS Cash Fund andJS Income Fund for the pe-riod ending on May 31, 2013.
A payout of Re 0.50 perunit was approved to theUnit holders of JS CashFund and a payout of Re 0.30per unit was approved forthe Unit Holders of JS In-come Fund. Unit Holderswho have opted for cashpayout will receive cash pay-ment while Unit Holders whohave opted for bonus unitswere allocated units at theex-dividend net asset valueat the close of business onMay 24, 2013.
The above entitlementwill be paid to the Unit Hold-ers, whose names appear inthe register of Unit Holdersat the close of business onMay 24, 2013.
KARACHI: Managing Director PIA Muhammad Junaid Yunus addressing PIA shareholders at the airline’s 56th
ISLAMABAD—The Paki-stan Economy Watch(PEW) on Wednesdayasked the next govern-ment to escalate the re-vival of industrial activi-ties in tribal areas. Afteryears of unrest somepeace has been restoredand life has becomingnormal which calls for re-newed efforts to supportpeople of tribal areas liv-ing miserably, it said.
New wave of terrorismcan resurface in the tribalareas if government con-tinued to ignore the re-vival of business activitiesin Fata and Pata, said DrMurtaza Mughal, Presi-dent PEW.
He said that businesscommunity and overseasPakistanis should also in-vest in militancy-hit andcash-starved tribal areaswhile government shouldensure conducive envi-ronment, proper commu-nication facilities andsmooth supply of energy.He said that many indus-trial concerns have beenclosed in tribal territorywhile few have luckilybeen surviving. Few yearsback there were fifteenvegetable ghee units intribal belt while the num-ber has come down to twocatering for one sixth ofthe demand in tribal areas.He criticised the ghee pro-ducers of the settled areawho are conspiringagainst the two survivingunits to impose certainlevies in violation of theconstitutional immunityto get them closed andseize the entire market ofthe tribal area.
The FBR should notpay heed to the demandPakistan Vanaspati Manu-facturing Association for-warded through letter No.PVMA/1097/FBR/2013 as itwill be illegal and unconsti-tutional which will deprivehundreds of their jobs.
Oil downSINGAPORE—Oil priceseased in Asia on Wednes-day, with traders takingprofits ahead of key inven-tory data from the UnitedStates, analysts said. NewYork’s main contract, lightsweet crude for delivery inJuly, dropped 20 cents to$94.81 a barrel and BrentNorth Sea crude for Julydelivery shed 11 cents to$104.12.
“Prices have pulled backa little. We are seeing someprofit-taking after the gainslately,” Jason Hughes, headof sales trading at CMCMarkets in Singapore, toldAFP. “Dealers are takingsome risks off the table aheadof US inventory data.” TheUS Department of Energylater Wednesday will releasedata on US crude oil inven-tories for the week endedMay 24.—AFP
KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.
KARACHI:
MULTAN:
ISLAMABAD—Agricultureexperts believe that ad-dressing the problems ofwheat rust and scarcity ofcertified seed would leadthe country towards foodand nutrition security inthe years to come. “Avail-ability of certified seed is amajor issue as only 25-28%of purchased seed is certi-fied and mostly farmers usethese seed for 3-5 years,”remarked Chairman Paki-stan Agriculture ResearchCouncil (PARC), Dr.Iftikhar Ahmed while ad-dressing a seminar here.
He said that wheat wasone of the major importantcrops of Pakistan and to en-sure food and nutritionalsecurity there is need towork for rapid diffusion ofrust resistant wheat veri-ties; generating a durumwheat value chain for Paki-stan. “We need differentvarieties to fit into differentecologies of the countryand strong collaborationamong wheat and ricebreeders can contribute dif-ferent wheat and rice vari-eties to fit into the rice-wheat system,” he added.
In maize, most of theproblems are with droughtand heat tolerance, headded. Problems are veryregion-specific includinghigh rain-fed areas, poorquality seed, poor agro-nomic practices, droughtand Hybrid seed productiontechnology. Availability ofgood quality and certifiedseed to the maize farmers isbeing focused in AIP.
Similarly, hybrid seedproduction technology canbenefit the farmers at large,he said adding the countryneed to ensure the availabil-
ity of inputs particularly tosmall farmers at affordableprice. The moot titled Inter-national Agricultural Inno-vation Program (AIP) Incep-tion Workshop was orga-nized by PARC in collabo-ration with various interna-tional organizations.
The workshop wasaimed at developing strat-egy for implementation ofAIP to support agricultureresearch community in Pa-kistan to increase crop pro-ductivity and productionvalue of livestock, horticul-tural and cereal crops, thus
increasing income for Paki-stan farmers. Dr. Iftikhar saidthe livestock also facesmany challenges that in-clude market access, prod-uct differentiation, productquality; animal breeding -lack of recording, loss ofquality animals; Animalfeeding - feed shortage,feed quality, balanced diet,seed supply; Animal health- access to veterinary ser-vices, supply and quality ofvaccines, economic lossesdue to disease and Range-land condition - degrada-tion, grazing management
and seed availabilityThe AIP seeks to de-
velop innovative models ofcooperation and marketing;formal and informal sectors;market differentiation; de-velop appropriate breedingprograms; recording sys-tems; artificial insemina-tion; synchronization ofbreeding in June/July tosupply summer milk; assessprevalence of disease usingepidemiological surveysand molecular tools assesseconomic and public healthcosts of disease to assist intargeting R&D.—APP
Overcoming wheat rust, scarcity of certified seed to lead towards food security
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—The govern-ment should make strenuousefforts to regulate the to-bacco industry in order todiscourage the smuggledand counterfeiting cigarettesin domestic market, Industrysources said.
According to the indus-try sources, World no To-bacco Day is traditionallymarked on May 31st and itgenerally sees many groupsjoining forces under a cam-paign banner every year toreduce the level of tobaccoconsumption. “Some of theanti-tobacco enthusiasts
take it a notch higher andtarget the tobacco industry,under the assumption theseefforts would likely result ineliminating smoking. In ef-fect though, much of theseefforts hit only the legal in-dustry, while providing un-due advantage to the flour-ishing illegal tobacco indus-try”, Industry sources re-vealed.
In Pakistan, the legitimatetobacco industry providesemployment and livelihoodsto more than 1 million people,directly or indirectly. Theseinclude thousands of farmer,distributors and retailers,who are the direct affectees
of any blow to the legitimateindustry players.
Sources said that in theabsence of a legal tobaccoindustry in Pakistan, thesmugglers of cigarettes andtax evaders would rule themarket place. The smuggledcigarettes that will then beavailable in the market wouldescape harsh regulatory re-strictions and would comewithout the mandated healthwarnings. The prices wouldof course be much lower asduties would be evaded,bringing these low qualityproducts within reach of mil-lions of new consumers,mostly youth.
Government shouldregulate tobacco industry
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Hussain Lawai,Senior Member PIA Board ofDirectors presided over the56th Annual General Meetingof Pakistan International Air-lines held at Karachi. Man-aging Director PIA,Muhammad Junaid Yunusand Member Board Mr.Javed Akhter were alsopresent at the occasion.
PIA shareholders appre-ciated present management’srole in maintaining the airlineoperations with a fleet con-straint and other factors af-fecting the airline especiallyinconsistency and frequentchange of Management.They demanded consistencyand continuity of manage-ment to implement their planeffectively to achieve desiredresults.
Earlier Mr. Junaid Yunusin his address said that the
airline is in an urgent need toinduct new aircraft in its fleetto meet demand and capac-ity. He said that the airline isin the process to acquire 12narrow body fuel efficientaircraft in its fleet which willenable the airline to offer bet-ter services to its customersand will have savings withregard to fuel costs and main-tenance costs, as presentlythe airline fuel cost is around60% as compared to the in-dustry average of 35%.
Mr. Hussain Lawai in hisaddress said that good newsis that very soon in first phasePIA will be getting four newernarrow body aircraft on Leasefrom its own resources and nofurther loans will be obtained.He said that a complaint cellwill be established with activeparticipation of shareholders.Later the shareholders ap-proved the annual accountsfor year 2012.
Lawai presides PIA BoDannual general meeting
ISLAMABAD: Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman PARC addressing a two-day Agricultural Innovation ProgrammeInception Workshop.
ABB toparticipate
energy expoSTAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—ABB is set toshowcase energy efficientequipment for the oil, gas andpower industries.
The 11th InternationalPakistan Oil Gas Energy Ex-hibition (POGEE) takes placefrom May 30 to June 1, 2013at the Lahore Expo Center.
ABB’s interactive displaywill exhibit medium voltagepanels, motors, drives, pro-grammable logic controllers(PLC) and control products.In addition, the stand willdisplay a selection of prod-ucts from the KNX technol-ogy range – a smart controlsystem used in buildings thathelps to increase flexibility,security, economic efficiencyand convenience. ABB canalso help industrial and util-ity customers improve en-ergy efficiency by providingspecialists to audit energyuse and identify areas forimprovement, providingequipment, systems and so-lutions to use energy moreefficiently.
India’s IT sectoragain in unwelcome
spotlightMUMBAI—A breach of secu-rity at two payment card pro-cessing companies in India thatled to heists at cash machinesaround the world has reopenedquestions on the risks ofoutsourcing sensitive financialservices to the Asian nation.Global banks that ship work tobe processed in India, either in-house or to big IT services ven-dors, were already under pres-sure to step up oversight ofback-office functions after aseries of scandals last year.Last week, U.S. prosecutorssaid a global criminal gang stole$45 million from two MiddleEastern banks by breaking intothe two card processing com-panies based in India and rais-ing the balances and with-drawal limits.
“India is exposed in twoways: The threat that the sametheft could happen in India andthe fact that the outsourcingindustry will also get affected,”said Arpinder Singh, partnerand national director for fraudinvestigation and dispute ser-vices at consultancy Ernst &Young. The episode is reopen-ing debate on banks sendingwork requiring a high degree ofconfidentiality to offshore lo-cations. “It is the weakest link,”said Shane Shook, an expertwith U.S. cyber-security firmCylance Inc who has helped fi-nancial firms conduct investi-gations into some major cybercrimes.
“I think the lesson is theyneed to pull back on whatthey’ve outsourced. Whenyou’re giving a third party, theoutsourced entity, the ability toaccess credit limits or cash lim-its of the consumers you’remanaging the finances for,you’re giving up control that isyour fundamental responsibil-ity.” India’s $108 billion IT ser-vices industry is the world’sfavored destination foroutsourcing. Over 40 percentof exports by the industry aresupport services for the globalfinancial sector, ranging frominvestment bank back-officefunctions to research, risk-management and processing ofinsurance claims.
Lured by a tech-savvyEnglish-speaking populationand wages that can be one-fifth those in the West, morethan three-quarters of globalbanks have a direct or third-party offshore presence inIndia.—Newswire
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Trade and indus-try has taken a sigh relief asthe massive load-sheddinghas been eased up followingintervention by the GovernorSindh Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan.The Governor has held ameeting last night with thetop brass of KESC and SSGCwith a close coordination ofMinister of IT Mian ZahidHussain and the two utilitiesagencies have resolved theissue.
The President Federationof Pakistan Chambers of com-merce and Industry (FPCCI)Zubair Ahmed Malik whileappreciating the efforts by theGovernor Sindh Dr IshratulEbad Khan for resolving the
issue and extending relief tothe general masses as well astrade and industry.
Karachiites were suffer-ing badly due to the poweroutages in sultry summerweather while the industrialproduction has been affect-ing massively. He also appre-ciated the efforts of IT Min-ister Mian Zahid Hussainwho coordinated well withthe utility agencies and ar-ranged a meeting at Gover-nor House. The Vice Presi-dents FPCCI Gulzar Firoz andShaheen Ilyas Sarwana MsRukhsana Jehangir have alsopraised the gesture of theGovernor Sindh and MianZahid Hussain for their ef-forts to rescue Karachi frommassive Load-shedding.
FPCCI praises Governorfor easing up load shedding
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—EngineeringDevelopment Board and Cen-tre for Promotion of Importsfrom Developing Countries(CBI), Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, Netherlands here onWednesday signed a partner-ship agreement to support pri-vate and public export sector.Chief Executive Officer EDB,Qazi Ebadullah Khan and Am-bassador of the Netherlandsto Pakistan, Hugo GajusScheltema signed the agree-ment behalf of their respectivecountries.
The purpose of the part-nership is to contribute to cre-ating economic prosperitythrough direct support to pri-vate and public export sectorand their intermediate sup-port organizations in Pakistan.
The partnership also aimsat creating synergies betweenthe two organizations for thebenefit of their clients to pro-mote bilateral trade betweenPakistan and Netherlands.Under the partnership agree-ment, local engineering indus-tries of Pakistan will be sup-ported by CBI in differentfields including training of ex-porters.
Speaking on the occa-sion, CEO EDB said that asper the proposed terms, CBIand EDB will collaborate inareas of mutual interest whichinclude access to EuropeanUnion market information da-tabase along with participa-tion in export coaching pro-gram and institutional devel-opment activities. He furthersaid that EDB has been play-ing the role of an effectivebridge between the govern-ment and the private indus-trial sector of the country add-ing that Dutch Centre for Pro-motion of Imports from Devel-oping Countries (CBI) is op-erating in 48 countries of theworld in 25 sectors.
The common mission ofthe two organizations wouldbe to contribute to trade leddevelopment by strengthen-ing the competitiveness ofengineering companies of Pa-kistan and preparing them tobecome exporters to EU mar-ket, he added. EDB shall to-day become the first BusinessSupport Organization (BSO)of the Government of Pakistanto formally become a partnerwith CBI the Netherlands.which focus on enhancingexport competitiveness of lo-
cal engineering industrythrough CBI’s Export Coach-ing and Market ResearchProgrammes, he added.
He further said that EDBin its endeavors to perform itsrole as an effective BSO, hasdeveloped linkages with vari-ous international donors, de-velopmental agencies andother international supportorganizations to channelizeresources and expertise forhand holding and develop-ment of local engineering in-dustry. While terming thisagreement a landmarkachievement in bilateral rela-tions between Pakistan andthe Netherlands Ambassadorto Pakistan said that he ispleased to represent CBI onthis momentous occasion.
The CBI activities in Paki-stan have intensified since2008, and cover sectors as di-verse as tourism, sportswear,medical devices, fresh fruitsand vegetables, etc. Our se-lected companies follow amulti-annual coaching trajec-tory, after which they areready to export to developedmarkets and CBI maintains adatabase of trusted compa-nies that have completed theprogramme, he added.
EDB, CBI to supportexport sector
MUZAFFAR ALI
LA H O R E—Business com-munity has expressed thehope that nominated PrimeMinister of Pakistan MianMuhammad Nawaz Sharifwould overcome the eco-nomic challenges by utiliz-ing his best abilities. In ajoint press statement is-sued here Wednesday,Chairman Ferozepur RoadIndustr ial Associat ionMubasher Naseer Butt, Se-nior Vice ChairmanShahzeb Akram and ViceChairman Rana Khalid saidthat the country was pass-ing through a critical timeof history and facing a
number of challenges in-cluding massive load shed-ding, acute gas shortage,corruption, impeded indus-trial growth, decline in for-eign exchange reserves anddeteriorating law and ordersituation.
They said that recentpast regime was least inter-ested in the progress andprosperity of the countryand remained busy in mal-practices. They said thatnominated Prime Ministerof Pakistan MianMuhammad Nawaz Sharifand nominated Chief Min-ister of Punjab MianMuhammad Shahbaz Sharifhave the God-gifted abilities
and could pull the countryout of mire of crisis.
They said that motorway,Lahore Metro Bus service,laptop scheme and Danishschools were the ample proofof sincerity shown by thePML-N leadership. Theyhoped that Mian MuhammadNawaz Sharif would work onwar footing to enhancepower generation to keep in-dustrial wheel moving. Theyurged the nominated primeminister to create consensuson Kalabagh dam, expeditework on Pak-Iran gas pipe-line project and remove bu-reaucratic hurdles coming inthe way of smooth runningof businesses.
Biz community pins hopes on PML-Nto overcome challenges
Syntax becomesEdelman’s
exclusive affiliateSTAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Syntax Commu-nications has entered intoan exclusive affiliate rela-tionship with Edelman, theworld’s largest public rela-tions firm. With this exclu-sive affiliation, Syntax Com-munications has become thesole representative ofEdelman in Pakistan.Through the partnership,Syntax Communicationsaims to take public relationsto the next level in Pakistanby introducing internationalbest practices and the cre-ativity that Edelman isknown for.
Mr. Ali Mandviwalla,COO of Synergy Group, theholding company for SyntaxCommunications, said, “Thealliance between SyntaxCommunications andEdelman is a strategic part-nership that will have a long-term impact on PR in Pakistanand the way it is perceived.An international alliance withthe world’s top-ranked com-munications firm will allowSyntax Communications toachieve the highest standardof excellence in communica-tions services.
PQ shippingactivity
KARACHI—Five ships C.VSealand New York, C.V WanHai-602, M.T Lahore, M.TSea Charming and M.VSpring Sunshine carryingcontainers, furnace oil, palmoil and fertiliser wereberthed at Qasim Interna-tional Container Terminal,FOTCO Oil Terminal, LiquidCargo Terminal and Grain &Fertilizer Terminal respec-tively at Port Qasim onTuesday, port sources saidhere on Wednesday. Thesources further said an-other ship M.T Maple withpalm oil also arrived at theouter anchorage of PortQasim during the last 24hours.—APP
STAFF REPORTER
ISLAMABAD—Two studentsfrom Islamabad have baggedsilver medal in the world finalsof the International ComputerProjects Competition held re-cently in Romania by givingsolution to end loadsheddingand resolve issue of energytheft. Shahbaz Khattak andAbdul Muizz Lodhi of PakTurkSchool Islamabad have de-signed a GSM-based Auto-matic Meter Reader (AMR)which was presented in theInfomatrix Romania where theirproject won silver medal in thecategory of Hardware Control.
AMR can collect con-sumption data from power, gasand water meters without in-volvement of meter readers.AMR transmits data to centraldatabase of service providingcompany for billing, trouble-shooting, and analysis. AMR
saves utility providers the ex-pense of visiting every locationto read a meter, its billing isbased on actual consumptionrather than estimates, past orpredicted consumption. More-over timely information canhelp utility providers and cus-tomers’ better control usageand production. It provides ac-curate data, it track usage, im-prove energy management,detect tempering and cut op-erational costs by discourag-ing wastage to boost profit. Itcan be used for security andfire alarm systems. Khattak andLodhi said that metre readingwill no more remain a time con-suming and labour intensivemanual process if gas, powerand water utilities employARM which will also settle theissues of complaints by con-sumers and increasing energytheft presently estimated at Rs250 billion annually.
Loadshedding, energypilferage solution found
TWO researchers in Italy suggest exposureto pesticides and solvents is linked to ahigher risk of developing Parkinson’s dis-
ease. They came to this conclusion after ana-lyzing over 100 studies from around the world.
Parkinson’s is a progressive degenerativedisease that affects a person’sability to control and coordi-nate their muscle movement.
What can begin as atremor in a little finger even-tually leads to problems withspeech and writing, and oneday, inability to walk withouthelp. This deterioration iscaused by the gradual reduc-tion in brain levels of dopam-ine, a chemical messenger thatcarries signals to brain regionsthat control movement andcoordination.
Exactly why Parkinson’sdevelops and how this affectsdopamine production andmaintenance is not known.But there is increasing evi-dence of an inherited or ge-netic component in a small proportion of cases.
One view that is gaining ground is that in-flammation likely has a role in the developmentof Parkinson’s disease.
Dopamine is produced by a special type ofbrain cell, the dopaminergic neuron.
There is also a suggestion that certain com-pounds in the environment cause Parkinson’sby selectively destroying dopaminergic neurons.This latest analysis from Italy appears to addsome weight to that view.
Emanuele Cereda from the IRCCS Univer-sity Hospital San Matteo Foundation in Pavia,and Gianni Pezzoli of the Parkinson Institute -ICP in Milan, write about their findings in the
28 May print issue of the journal Neurology.For their meta-analysis, a type of study
that pools data from several studies of similardesign, Cereda and Pezzoli reviewed resultsof 104 cohort and case-control studies thatexamined links between exposure to bug,
weed, fungus and rodent kill-ers, and solvents, and risk fordeveloping Parkinson’s disease.
The research found thatpeople exposed to bug or weedkillers and solvents had an in-creased risk of developingParkinson’s disease of between33 to 80 percent compared topeople who were not exposedto them.
And results from highquality case-controlled studiesshows that exposure toparaquat (a herbicide) andmaneb and mancozeb (fungi-cides), is tied to around a two-fold increase in risk of devel-oping Parkinson’s.
The analysis also includedstudies that took into account
how close people lived to the site of expo-sure (for instance urban or rural settings),their jobs, and whether their drinking watercame from wells.
In a statement, Cereda says they alsofound “a link between farming or country liv-ing and developing Parkinson’s in some ofthe studies”.
And while they did not look at whethertype of exposure, such as through the skin orinhaled, and type of application, such as spray-ing or mixing, affects the risk, Cereda says itappears that the risk “increases in a dose re-sponse manner as the length of exposure tothese chemicals increases”.
Pesticide exposuretied to parkinson’s risk
KARACHI: Lawyers protesting against target killing of lawyers in front of Sindh Assembly.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki
KARACHI: Ladies taking interest in doctors books exhibition.—PO photo
KARACHI: Group photograph of models on the occasion of Karachi Fashion Week Manat local club.—PO photo
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—The Pakistan Medi-cal Association (PMA) said thatit appreciated the decision of Pa-kistan Medical and Dental Coun-cil (PMDC) in which PMDC hadstopped the Vice Chancellor,Registrar and the Principal ofBenazir Bhutto Shaheed MedicalUniversity (BBSMU) andChandka Medical College fromadmitting students for eveningmedical classes.
They were also warnedagainst giving any advertise-ment in this regard unless it ispermitted by PMDC. This wasstated in joint press conference
PMA hails decisions by PMDC forimposing admissions in BBSMU
by PMA Centre Secretary Gen-eral Dr Mirza Ali Azhar, Trea-surer Dr S.M.Qaisar Sajjad,PMA Sindh President Dr SaeedMemon and PMA Sindh GeneralSecretary Dr Pir Manzoor Aliheld at the PMA Karachi OfficeWednesday.
They said that the caretakerRegistrar of PMDC Dr. ShaistaFaisal wrote a letter on 14th Mayto all above mentioned officebearers and the Provincial HealthSecretary not to admit any stu-dents for evening classes. Theletter said the evening shift wasnot covered under relevant lawsand “shall have penal conse-quences as ordered by the Su-
preme Court of Pakistan and vio-lations of PMDC Ordinance-1962 and Medical and DentalCouncil (Amendment) Act, 2012and liable to action under section22A and 22B of Medical andDental Council (Amendment)Act, 2012.”
They said that the PMA hadbeen raising its voice against theEvening Medical College sincethe day it was announced by theEx-Vice Chancellor of LiaquatUniversity of Health Sciences.The Civil Society, Media (Print& Electronic) Knew very wellthat PMA was active against theevening classes in the medicalcolleges because firstly this kind
of medical education does notexist anywhere in the world andsecondly this idea was totally notworkable. The fact of the matterwas that the medical educationwas only possible if it is impartedas a full time business.
They said that they thoughtthat the evening classes will fur-ther deteriorate the already rottenmedical education in the country.Once these classes were startedat any public sector medical col-leges each and every private sec-tor medical college will follow itand the result we will be produc-ing an army of glorious qualifiedquacks who will be interestedonly in making money. Accord-
ing to the new development, theVice Chancellor of BBSMUwas bent upon to defy the di-rective of the PMDC. This wasan unfortunate situation inwhich the medical educationistlike a VC of a medical univer-sity did not understand the con-sequences of the evening medi-cal colleges.
They demanded that thePMDC should tackle these ele-ments with iron hands and takethem seriously according to theLaw. The PMA will support ev-ery action of PMDC in which themedical education in this coun-try is benefited and the medicalprofession earns its lost glory.
STAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—The United States,through the U.S. Agency for In-ternational Development(USAID), awarded over 200scholarships to future educators,bringing the total number ofscholarships awarded in Sindhunder the USAID’s TeachersEducation Program to over 400.
The ceremony was presidedover by Michael Dodman, Con-sul General, U.S. ConsulateKarachi, who was joined byFazlullah Pechuho, the AdditionalChief Secretary, Education, Gov-ernment of Sindh, university vicechancellors, college principals.
During the ceremony, at-tendees alsocongratulated 63 fu-ture teachers who recently com-
pleted a U.S.-funded AssociatesDegree in Education programand will enter Pakistani class-rooms equipped with newknowledge and skills that willallow them to better educatetheir students.
On this occasion, ConsulGeneral Dodman said, “The Pa-kistan – United States relation-ship is based on common val-ues and mutual respect. TheUnited States is committed tobuilding a strong Pakistan.
There is no better way to dothis than to help ensure that Pa-kistanis have the education theyneed to find good jobs, startbusinesses, support their fami-lies and community and contrib-ute to the growth of this greatnation. I applaud all of you for
playing an important role inhelping to build a brighter fu-ture for Pakistan’s youth.”
The USAID Teacher Educa-tion Project is a $75 million pro-gram which works to developand implement innovative cur-ricula and provides scholarshipsto more than 1,900 studentsacross Pakistan; and is just onepart of the comprehensive USeducation assistance programmefor Pakistan.
This includes building or re-habilitating more than 850schools; establishing Centers forAdvanced study at three Paki-stani universities to focus on ap-plied research in energy, agricul-ture and water; and expandingEnglish skills for more than5,000 low-income students.
US awards over 400 scholarshipsfor teacher education
Altaf slamskilling of
MQM workersSTAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) chief AltafHussain strongly condemned thebrutal killing of in-charge ofNazimabad unit 183, SarfrazAhmed and workers of ShahFaisal Colony sector Yasir Iqbaland Qasba-Aligarh sector’s unit5-E and injuring of New Karachisector’s (unit-140-A) worker ofthe party’s organizational struc-ture and demanded immediatearrest of the culprits involved insuch heinous crimes.
In a statement issued onWednesday, the MQM chief saidthat the people at the helm of af-fairs should immediately takeserious action against those whounder a conspiracy were involvedin the extra judicial killings andthe terrorist acts of causing se-vere injuries to the office-bear-ers and workers of the partyworkers.
He demanded of the authori-ties to immediately apprehend thekillers of MQM workers and givethem exemplary punishment.
Expressing his sympathieswith the members of the be-reaved families, Hussain prayedto Almighty Allah to rest the de-parted souls in eternal peace andgrant fortitude to the grief-stricken families to bear this ir-reparable loss.
KARACHI—Sindh Chief Secre-tary Muhammad Ijaz Chaudhryhas asked the Karachi UrbanTransport Company (KUTC) andKarachi Mass Transit Programme(KMTP) to prepare a joint-needbased presentation on Bus RapidTransit System (BRTS) andKarachi Circular Railway (KCR),so that due support of Federal andProvincial Governments might beattained for further necessities.
While presiding a reviewmeeting in his office here onWednesday, he maintained thatground realities must be kept inview in this connection.
Earlier, in the KUTC presen-tation, the rail and road basedMass Transit Project, identified
by JICA study, were highlightedby two rail-based and six bus-based routes. The rail- basedroutes included (i) New SabziMandi to Tower via M.A. JinnahRoad, with 22.4 kms length, thatis, 14.1 kms elevated and 8.3 kmsunderground. (ii) NaganChawrangi to Korangi via RashidMinhas Road, with 18.5 kmslength al elevated.
The meeting was attended byAdditional Chief Secretary ArifAhmed Khan, Secretary Imple-mentation Ms. Naheed S. Durrani,Secretary Finance Suhail Rajput,Secretary Transport M.V.Kalhoro, Administrator KMCHashim Raza Zaidi and MDKUTC Sher Ayaz.—APP
Police WirelessOperators to get
appointment ordersKARACHI—The complete listsof those candidates who weredeclared successful in test forthe post of Wireless Operator inSindh Police have been dis-played in the districts’ headquar-ters of Police.
According to a statementissued on Wednesday, the suc-cessful candidates have beenasked to come to the office ofthe AIG Telecommunication atSouth Police Line here on May31, at 10 am, to get their appoint-ment orders.
The successful candidatesare also directed to bring theiroriginal documents, CNIC, fivepassport size photographs, at-tested copies of their educationalcertificates, domicile along withthem.—APP
Admissions toSMIU girls & boys
model schoolsSTAFF REPORTER
KARACHI—Sindh MadressatulIslam University (SMIU) an-nounced on Wednesday that ad-mission to limited number ofseats in various classes of SMIUGirls Model School and SMIUBoys Model School will continueup to May 31.
SMIU administration saidthat admission are being give toclass I, II and IV (for boys andgirls in English - Sindhi medium),from Class VI to Class IX (onlyfor girls in English - Sindhi me-dium), from Class IX (for boysin English - Sindhi medium) andin Class VI and Class VII (forboys in English - Urdu medium).
It was further informed thatthe written test would be held onJune 1 and its result would beannounced on June 3.
Interviews of successful can-didates would be held on June 4and 5.
KARACHI—The Aga KhanUniversity Hospital (AKUH)has introduced the first dedicated‘Anticoagulation TherapyClinic’ in Pakistan for safe andeffective management of patientson blood thinning medications.
‘Every day we have newpatients coming in with heart andblood diseases, many of whomneed to be placed on drugs thatthin the blood and prevent fatalcomplications’, said AssociateProfessor, Haematology, DrBushra Moiz, at the patientawareness session held at theAKU’s Stadium Road Campuson Wednesday.
‘Warfarin and heparin aregold standards for out-patientand in-patient therapies, how-ever, if their levels are not moni-tored carefully then they cancause uncontrolled bleeding oreven severe clotting of vesselscausing strokes’, she added.
‘The main objectives of thisnew management service are to
provide patient education andtimely interventions’, it was fur-ther stated.
Explaining the feasibility andimpact of such clinics, she addedthat various research studies haveshown that close monitoring ofblood therapies reduces potentialcomplications: the risk for bleed-ing due to drug overdose is be-tween 2.8 and 8.1 percent in rou-tine medical care versus 1.4 and3.3 percent when a patient ismanaged in a dedicated antico-agulation clinic.
Similarly, the risk to formblood clots due to poor and inad-equate anticoagulation is be-tween 6.2 and 8.1 percent in rou-tine clinics, but is much lower at0.7 and 6.3 percent when a pa-tient is managed in specific anti-coagulation clinic.
‘Dedicated clinics in thelong run prove to be more cost-effective with increased patientsatisfaction’, explained DrMoiz.—APP
AKUH introducesAnticoagulation Clinic
Changesdepend on
values, moralsKARACHI—Chancellor of SirSyed University of Engineeringand Technology (SSUET), Engr.Muhammad Adil Usman has saidthat changes depend on valuesand morals, character is themagic component that makessomeone unique among the con-temporaries.
‘Each of us has the abilityand potential to develop andstrengthen our character that, ofcourse, ensures the success inlife’. This he said while speak-ing at a reception hosted for vis-iting senior Aligarh graduate Brig(Rtd) Iqbal Shafi at SSUET, saidan official on Wednesday.
Focusing on the importanceof character building, Chancellorpointed out that character is anamalgam of many qualities likehonesty, integrity, dependability,diligence, loyalty, compassion,sincerity, attentiveness, determi-nation, confidence etc.
‘Good character is whenyour head, heart, soul and handsagree to do the right thing, in theright way, for the right reasonsand the combined effort gets theright results in the midst of themost adverse conditions’. —APP
Nominationsof CM Sindh,
Speaker laudedKARACHI—Pakistan People’sParty (PPP) Karachi Divisionleaders have expressed gratitudeto Chairman PPP Bilawal BhuttoZardari and President Asif AliZardari for nominating SyedQaim Ali Shah and Agha SirajDurrani for the posts of SindhChief Minister and SpeakerSindh Assembly, respectively.
Abdul Qadir Patel, NajmiAlam, Lateef Mughal and others,in a joint statement issued onWednesday, expressed the hopethat Syed Qaim Ali Shah andAgha Siraj Durrani will serve themasses in the light of vision andideology of Shaheed Zulfikar AliBhutto and Shaheed MohtarmaBenazir Bhutto.—APP
Karachi Mass Transit Programme, KCR
Ground realities must bekept in view: CS
A HEALTHY immune system is afinely balanced system: too littleactivity and we fall prey to disease,
too much, and it attacks our own tissue,triggering autoimmune diseases like mul-tiple sclerosis. Now three studies pub-lished online this week inNature suggest theamount of salt we eat mayinfluence this balance byindirectly encouraging theoverproduction of immunecells.
In the three studies theresearchers focused on agroup of immune cellsknown as T cells becausethey play an important rolein clearing disease-caus-ing pathogens and also inautoimmune disease. Theywere particularly interestedin how T cells develop.
Previous research hassuggested that sometypes of autoimmunitymay be tied to overpro-duction of a type of immune cell calledTH17, a type of helper T cell that protectsagainst pathogens.
However, Th17 cells have also beenimplicated in diseases like multiple scle-rosis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, andankylosing spondylitis.
Treatments for some of these dis-eases, such as psoriasis, involve manipu-lating T cell function.
Until now, scientists have struggledto pinpoint the molecular machinery be-hind the overproduction of TH17 cells,partly because the usual way of activat-ing native immune cells in the lab, such
Salt may play role inautoimmune disease
as RNA interference (RNAi) to manipu-late genes, either harms them or disturbstheir development.But, by using a newmethod based on nanowires to manipu-late genes in immune cells without alter-ing the cells’ functions, the authors of
the first study, led by AvivRegev, a biologist at theMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology, in Cambridge,in the US, were able “sys-tematically” to assembleand validate a model ofhow TH17 cells are con-trolled in mice.
Regev got the idea forthe new approach after at-tending a lecture given byco-author, Hongkun Park, aphysicist at Harvard Uni-versity, also in Cambridge,on how to use siliconenanowires to disarm singlegenes in cells without dis-turbing the way the cellsoperate.She says in a re-port by Nature NEWS that
without such a model they would prob-ably have been only “guessing in thedark”.
Co-author Vijay Kuchroo, an immu-nologist at Brigham and Women’s Hos-pital in Boston, Massachusetts, says ina statement that until they got the newtechnology using the nanowires, everytime they downregulated a gene (withthe previous technology), the cell wouldchange.The team identified and vali-dated 39 “regulatory factors” altogether,uncovering the most important pointsin the network and untangling their bio-logical meaning.
LAHORE: A measles child patient playing with her toys in hospital.
LAHORE: Women candidates for reserved seats, submitting their nomination papersin the Election Commission Office.
LAHORE: Workers are busy in their work at a clay pot factory.
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—With 210 newcases reported during the last24 hours, the number ofmeasles cases reported inPunjab during last six monthshas reached to 14,600.
According to health de-partment officials, the deathtoll has so far risen to 117 andmostly deaths occured inLahore, Gujranwala,Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan,Kasur and Sialkot.
During the last 24 hours,around 210 cases of measleswere reported from Punjab,including 59 from city hospi-tals.
Meanwhile, Director Gen-eral Health Services PunjabDr Tanveer Ahmed talking tomedia persons said that oninvestigation it was foundout the majority of deaths inLahore were caused by se-vere pneumonia and delay inreaching hospitals.
However, measles vacci-nation is available in all hos-
pitals of the city in amplequantity and patients werebeing treated at free of cost.
He appealed to parents toget their children upto fiveyears of age vaccinatedagainst meassles withoutany delay and cooperatewith vaccinating teams.
Meanwhile, the LahoreHigh Court Wednesdaysought a report from theHealth Department till June11, about the steps taken tocontrol measles during thepast three years.
Justice MuhammadKhalid Mehmood Khanpassed the orders on a peti-tion filed by Judicial Activ-ism Panel, a public interestlitigation firm, againstmeasles outbreak.
As proceedings started,Director General, PunjabHealth Department, Dr TanvirAhmad appeared before thecourt on being summoned.
To a court query, he toldthat the measles vaccine wasof international standard and
it was being provided to 12million children.
However, the court ob-served that if the vaccine wasof international standardthen why children were dy-ing.
The DG replied that vac-cine was effective for only 85percent but not for all.
The court observed thatthere were 30 million children,if 4.5 million die then did itnot make any difference?
The petitioner’s counselAzhar Siddique pointed outthat no measles campaignwas launched for the lastfour years.
However, the DG saidthat the campaign waslaunched in 19 districts ofPunjab and vitamin A wasalso provided along the vac-cine, if required.
The court observed thatif dengue could be rootedout in one year then measlescould also be controlled.
To a court query, the DGsaid that Rs 243 million was
spent on measles campaignin Lahore. He said thatmeasles fatality rate was 5percent in the world whereas2.5 percent in Asia but it wasonly 0.8 percent in Pakistan.
The court observed thatthe measles fatality rateshould be zero and if therewas any problem of fundsthen apprise the court as itwas necessary to save chil-dren lives.
The court adjourningthe matter till June 11sought a report from healthdepartment and directed totake steps for keeping vac-cine as per internationalstandards.
The petitioner, JudicialActivism Panel, a public in-terest litigation firm, throughhis petition submitted thatthe government had failed tocontrol measles and allegedthat corrupt health officialswere responsible for childrendeaths. The petitioner de-manded action against theresponsible.
Court seeks report from Health Department
No let up in Measles,210 new cases reported
SALIM AHMED
LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister Najam Sethi has saidthat caretaker government ofPunjab has successfully dis-charged the national respon-sibility of holding elections.He said that the role of mediaduring election process wasalso commendable. He saidthat besides monitoring theelection process, media hasalso been playing an effec-tive role for highlighting thesocial problems.
The Chief Minister saidthat due to the role of mediain the era of technology,world has become a globalvillage due to which the en-tire world immediately be-came aware of any incidenthappened in any part of theworld. He said that due to theeffective role of media, dis-tances have reduced.
He expressed these viewswhile talking to the delega-
Sethi lauds media role ingeneral elections
tion of Lahore Editors Clubwhich called on him at ChiefMinister’s Secretariat today.Provincial Secretary Informa-tion Amjad Hussain was alsopresent.
Talking to the delegation,Najam Sethi said that theteam comprising impartial,hard working and able offic-ers was selected for complet-ing the election process in apeaceful and transparentmanner and due to its untir-ing efforts, caretaker govern-ment succeeded in its mis-sion.
The Chief Minister saidthat as a result of efforts ofprovincial administration,peaceful atmosphere becameavailable to the people forexercising their right of fran-chise. Najam Sethi said thathe and his team workedround the clock for ensuringholding of elections in apeaceful manner and main-taining law and order. He said
that foolproof security wasprovided to the political lead-ers and rallies during electioncampaign. He said that theforeign observers have alsolauded the arrangementsmade by the provincial gov-ernment for holding elec-tions. The Chief Minister saidthat load-shedding has cre-ated numerous problems forthe people.
He said that poverty andunemployment have in-creased due to closure of in-dustries. Najam Sethi saidthat although load-sheddingwas the federal issue yet wemade sincere efforts for pro-viding relief to the people. Hesaid that newly elected gov-ernment would have to workaccording to the expecta-tions of the people for cop-ing with the problem of load-shedding. The Chief Minis-ter said that solid measureswere taken for providing besthealth facilities to the people.
LHC noticesacid attack on
a womanMUZAFFAR ALI
LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Wednesdaytook notice of the news pub-lished in a section of press thata man attacked his relativewoman with acid in the subur-ban area of Toba Tek Singh.
District & Sessions Judge,Toba Tek Singh has been di-rected to probe into the matterand submit a detailed reportregarding steps taken by thelocal police along with his owncomments.
According to details,Asma Azeem, resident ofNawaz Town, told the city po-lice that she had come to seeher parents when MujahidHussain and his three accom-plices entered the house, threwacid on her and escaped.
She received serious inju-ries and was admitted to thedistrict headquarters hospital.Revealing to the police, sheadded that she had opposedher nephew’s marriage withMujahid’s daughter and in re-venge he threw acid on her.
STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE—Punjab Chief Min-ister-designate and PML-Nsenior leader MuhammadShahbaz Sharif Wednesdayasked newly elected MPs ofPML-N to lead from the frontand wage a war against terror-ism and load shedding.
In a communiqué to thelegislators, Shahbaz askedthem to adopt austerity mea-sures and help the PML-Ngovernment conserve re-sources so that sufferings ofpeople due to an all-time high
Shahbaz asks PML-N MPs to helpfight terrorism, loadshedding
load shedding could be miti-gated and their standard of liv-ing could be improved.
The PML-N senior leadersaid, “I congratulate you on thesplendid victory in general elec-tions. Your victory in fact re-flects people’s allegiance toPML-N President Nawaz Sharifand their trust in the party’smanifesto. Similarly, the excep-tional performance of our gov-ernment in Punjab during thelast five years has further el-evated the level of people’sconfidence in the PML-N.”
First of all, Shahbaz said,
“We shall thank Allah for be-stowing this landslide victoryupon us. Let’s make a pledgethat we will work for the upliftof Pakistan and well-being ofour people beyond our per-sonal interests. We all knowthat Pakistan is facing severalcrises, including terrorism andload shedding. We also knowthat we cannot overcome othermenaces such as unemploy-ment, inflation and povertyunless we curb terrorism andpower cuts. You leadership iscommitted to coping with thissituation and providing relief
to people on a war footing.”The PML-N leaders said,
“I hope that being representa-tives of public, you would leadfrom the front and wage a waragainst these crises. At a timewhen the country is experienc-ing worst ever load shedding,what is needed to rid peopleof power outages are hugefunds along with commitment,pursuance and hard work. Iexpect you to adopt austeritymeasures and help the govern-ment conserve resources sothat we can fight load shed-ding together.
LAHORE—Peace Committeefor Inter-faith HarmonyPunjab Vice president ZaheerAhmad Butt has said the in-coming government shouldfocus on education and edu-cation emergency in thecountry is the need of thehour.
Talking to APP here onWednesday, he said nationsalways grew on the basis ofliteracy rate but it was ex-tremely poor in our country,adding that education sys-tem should be improved on
Educational emergency need of timean urgent basis.
He also demanded com-mon education system for all,including the rich and thepoor. Appreciating DanishSchool System, he said nor-mal government schoolsshould be converted to Dan-ish ones so that equal qual-ity education could be pro-vided to children of all seg-ments of society.
Zaheer said literacy ratein regional countries likeSrilanka, Maldives andBangladesh was higher than
Pakistan which was a pointof pondering.
He said fee structure forall private and public sectorschools should be monitoredby the government and itshould be controlled.
He hoped the PML-Ngovernment would takesteps to raise literacy rate inthe country on emergencybasis.
He said better literacyrate could also be helpful inreducing terrorism and ex-tremism.—APP
Stray dogs,constant hazard
on the moveLAHORE—Stray dogs are aconstant menace for peopleof all ages in the provincialcapital but authorities con-cerned have yet to take mea-sures to eliminate the un-wanted canines. Free roam-ing dogs can be spotted in sev-eral areas—Allama Iqbal Town,Garhi Shahu, Railway Station,Johar Town, Ghaziabad, FaisalTown, Township, Lahore Gen-eral Bus Stand, Shadbagh andRewaz Garden.
Several residents of theseareas have voiced their con-cern in this regard.”Straydogs in our area have be-come a big problem for thelast several months”, saidMuhammad Faheem, a resi-dent of Township.—APP
Urs of SyedAhmad Shah
Ghaus on June 2LAHORE—The two-day an-nual urs celebrations ofHazrat Syed Ahmad ShahGhaus will be held at hisshrine, Astana AaliaBadomalhi district Narowalon June 2.
Chairman SyedFaqeerullah Shah Trust SyedSalman Ahmad Aali will su-pervise the celebrations.
Mehfil-e-Samaa will beheld after Isha prayers. Re-nowned qawal and singerswill perform on the occasion.
Talking to APP, SyedSalman said that Syed AhamdAli Shah Hospital would pro-vide free medical and herbalmedicines facilities to the pa-tients for three days duringthe urs celebrations.—APP
