SKARDU: A view of soil erosion in River Baltoro lake formed by a massive landslide.—INP photo

Leader of Hazara Province Demand Movement, Baba Haider

Zaman says the people ofHazara Kohistan region wantcreation of a new province outof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)to ensure rapid human progressand physical development oftheir area. “The people ofHazara region have distinct cul-ture steeped in their history andinfluenced by geography of thearea. Baba Haider Zaman ex-pressed these views during hisvisit to the Pakistan Observer(PO) officers in the federal

Hazara province demand

History, geography, people’s will at ourback: Baba Haider Zaman

Vision is 4 Es: Exploitation of resources, environment, energy, educationcapital. He was accompanied bysenior leaders of his movementfor Hazara Province.

In his exclusive interviewwith PO, Baba Haider Zamantouched on various aspects of hisdemand for the creation of a sepa-rate Hazara Province out KP. Heexplained the rationale of thedemand in terms of people’s as-piration and feasibility of the newprovince.

He said the people of Hazarahave maintained their distinctidentity throughout history, dur-ing the pre-British, British andpost-British eras. “This regionhas closer cultural affinities withadjacent Potohar region than anyother”, he said. “Geographically,

the Hazara region is a compactand interlinked vast land. It is

quite suitable for balanced devel-opment of its infra-structure, ag-

riculture and industry”, hestressed. He pointed to the stra-tegic importance of Hazara re-gion, especially in the wake ofconstruction of Karakorem High-way which pases through thisarea and Bhasha-Diamer DamProject. “The Hazara Provincewould also play important role infurther promoting of cooperativerelations between Pakistan andChina”.

Baba Haider Zaman said, thepeople of Hazara would be bet-ter placed for making their con-tribution to the development oftheir region in a province of theirown. “The region is blessed withimmense natural resources aswell as sturdy and talented man- Continued on Page 7

ISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission has issued codeof conduct for the generalelections after consultationwith all major political parties.

Under the new code ofconduct‚ the political partiesand candidates shall notpropagate any opinion or actin any manner prejudicial tothe ideology of Pakistan or thesovereignity‚ integrity and se-

EC issues conduct codefor general election

curity of Pakistan‚ or which de-fames or brings into ridicule thejudiciary and the armed forcesof Pakistan.

The parties and candidatesshall abide by all the laws‚ rules‚regulations and directions issuedby the Commission‚ from timeto time‚ relating to smooth con-duct of elections and the main-tenance of public order.

The political parties and

candidates shall at all times up-hold the rights and freedom ofthe people of Pakistan as guar-anteed by the Constitution andlaw.

All contesting candidatesand their supporters shall avoidthose activities which are of-fences under the election laws‚such as bribing of voters‚ in-timidation and personation‚Continued on Page 7

Allies discuss namesfor caretaker PMCoalition partners agree to strengthen coop

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A meeting ofheads of allied parties was heldat Aiwan-e- sadr Tuesday night.

The meeting chaired byPresident Asif Ali Zardari andPrime Minister Raja PervezAshraf was attended by formerPrime Minister Syed Yusuf RazaGilani, Senator ChaudhryShujaat Hussain, MushahidHussain Syed, Dr.Farooq Sattar, Babar Ghouri, Raza Haroon,Afrasiab Khattak, HajiMuhammad Adeel, Munir KhanOrakzai, Hameedullah JanAfridi, Senator Abbas Khan

Afridi, Israrullah Zehri, SyedKurshid Ahmad Shah, NazarMuhammad Gondal, QamarZaman Kaira and SpokespersonSenator Farhatullah Babar.

Spokesperson SenatorFarhatullah Babar said that themeeting discussed about theforthcoming elections and thecaretaker setup in accordancewith the constitution. TheSpokesperson said that Law Min-ister Farook H Naek was spe-cially summoned to brief themeeting on the constitutional pro-vision relating to the holding ofelections and the appointment ofcare taker setup.

The coalition partners ex-pressed their views on variousdimensions of the issues in-volved.

The meeting expressed theresolve that elections will be heldon time and the nomination ofcare taker setup will be in accor-dance with the constitution.

Briefing the meeting, LawMinister Farook H Naek saidthat the caretaker Prime Minis-ter under the constitution shall beappointed by the President inconsultation with the Prime Min-ister and the Leader of the Op-position in the outgoing National

InterviewAshraf Ansari

Trade across LoCresumes after 20 days

MUZAFFARABAD—Six Paki-stani goods trucks crossed intoIndian-administered Kashmir onTuesday, an official said, end-ing a 20-day halt in tradesparked by deadly army clashesearlier this month.

The convoy, carrying on-ions, dates and dried fruits,crossed the Line of Control(LoC) shortly before midday.

Traders on the Pakistaniside complained that the clo-sure of the key crossing pointhad cost them 30 million rupees($300,000) following the flare-up, which left five soldiersdead.

Brigadier Ismail Khan, thedirector general of Pakistan-ad-ministered Kashmir’s Trade and

Travel Authority (TATA), toldAFP that six trucks had gone tothe Indian side at the Titrinotcrossing.

Cross-border trade has beenencouraged in recent years as ameans to improve relations be-tween the nuclear-armed rivals,who have fought two wars overKashmir.

Kashan Masood, the head ofthe traders’ association in Paki-stan-administered Kashmir, saidthe recent disruption had hitbusiness hard.

“We had placed orders fortomatoes and other vegetablesfrom India. They were rottenand we suffered a loss of 30million rupees,” he said.

“We are always at risk that

our business will suffer when-ever tension starts on (the) LoC.We are doing this business at ourown risk as we don’t have anyguarantee from the authorities.”

The clashes, which began onJanuary 6, prompted fears thattensions between the two coun-tries could escalate, but aceasefire agreement on January16 between commanders fromboth armies has held.

A cross-border bus servicealso resumed on Monday. Theroute from Poonch on the In-dian-administered side toRawalakot on the Pakistani-ad-ministered side was opened in2005 to enable members of di-vided families in the region tomeet each other.

Solution of problemslies in democracy: AshrafSHARAFAT KAZMI

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Parvez Ashraf says resolu-tion of country’s all problems liesin the democracy and democraticnorms.

Addressing a ceremony ofGujar Khan Bar AssociationTuesday he said Pakistan PeoplesParty has rendered matchless sac-rifices for the establishment ofdemocracy in the country. Hesaid it is for the first time in thesixty five years of Pakistan thata democratically elected govern-ment is completing its stipulatedfive year term. This reflects thatthe democracy is taking roots and

strength. There is consensusamong the judiciary, armedforces and all the political forcesthat no other system but democ-racy is imperative for this coun-

try. Referring to challenges facedby the PPP government, he saidwe introduced politics of pa-tience, tolerance and reconcilia-tion which has started payingdividends. He said we formedcoalition governments and tookall the parties along.

He said the present govern-ment ensured food security andit a wheat exporting country. Theforeign exchange reserves arealso in stable position. We alsopushed the terrorists back.

Appreciating the role playedby the lawyers in restoration ofdemocracy, the prime ministersaid today the judiciary and themedia are fully independent.

SC orders removal of Bugti’sreservations over voters’ listsISLAMABAD—The SupremeCourt Tuesday ordered ChiefSecretary Balochistan to removereservations regarding voters’lists expressed by Talal AkbarBugti and sending of the previ-ous order in the case to the ChiefElection Commissioner.

A three-member bench of theapex court headed by Chief Jus-tice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry heard proceedings ofthe case pertaining to the law andorder and human rights violationin the Balochistan province.

During the hearing, Chief ofthe Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP)Talal Akbar Bugti told SC thatsome 0.25 million people of Dera

Bugti were displaced from theirhomes.

“Court should back the ChiefSecretary Balochistan as he is avery week and gentleman”, TalalAkbar Bugti stated.

He stated that unconstitu-tional powers want suspension ofgeneral elections in Balochistanand they were not provided se-curity after the martyrdom ofNawab Akbar Bugti.

He stated that all the votersshould be registered in the elec-toral lists as they want timelyholding of general elections.

The Chief Justice stated thatvotes of the residents of Dera

Continued on Page 7

Former Ograchief arrestedin Abu Dhabi

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Former chair-man of the Oil & Gas Regula-tory Authority (Ogra) TauqirSadiq was arrested in Abu Dhabion Tuesday.

Sadiq is accused of havingcaused a loss of Rs83 billion tothe national exchequer and even-tually fleeing away. He wentinto hiding soon after the Nov25, 2011 Supreme Court verdictwhich had declared his appoint-ment illegal and had directed theNational Accountability Bureau(NAB) to investigate corruption

Continued on Page 7

Pak is destined to emerge asa strong nation: Zahid MalikLauds private sector role in job creation

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Zahid Malik,Editor-in-Chief Pakistan Ob-server and the President ofBrands Award Council ofBrands Foundation has saidthat the significant role beingplayed by private sector in cre-ation of job opportunities is agreat help in poverty allevia-tion from Pakistan.

Addressing the Brands ofthe year Award ceremony inKarachi Zahid Malik said, as amatter of fact the private sectorshould be considered as the realdriving force for economicgrowth and stability hence itdeserves needed facilitation bythe government in making Pa-kistan a strong economy.

Zahid Malik, who is a com-mitted journalist for socio-eco-

nomic and political stability ofPakistan strongly, believes thatPakistan has come into being tostay forever and is not like adune of sand which appears and

vanishes with strong winds. Al-though the economy is con-fronted with difficult times yethe said it is a temporary phaseand the country has the strength

Continued on Page 7

Shabbir Anwarto be Secretary

InformationSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Mr ShabbirAnwar is likely to become Sec-

retary Informa-tion. He wouldbe replacing ChRashid who hasbeen appointedC h a i r m a nPEMRA.

S h a b b i rAnwar is one of the senior mostofficers of Information Groupwith rich and varied experienceat various departments of the In-

Continued on Page 7

Senate panelapproves KerrynominationWASHINGTON—The SenateForeign Relations Committee onTuesday swiftly and unani-mously approved PresidentBarack Obama’s choice of Sen.John Kerry to succeed HillaryRodham Clinton as secretary ofstate. By voice vote, the panelapproved the nomination of thefive-term MassachusettsDemocrat, who has been amember of the committee for28 years and led it for the pastfour. The full Senate likely willvote on Tuesday afternoon,clearing the way for hisswearing-in this week.

Kerry did not attend thesession in the ornate diplomaticroom in the Capitol. In hisabsence, Democrats andRepublicans praised Kerryand—AP

Nepraokays powertariff hikeSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The NationalElectric Power RegulatoryAuthority (Nepra) allowed onTuesday for an increase of Rs1.33 per unit price of electricity.

The price change wouldcome under the fuel adjustmentcharges for the month ofDecember 2012.

The increase in price was aresult of low electricitygeneration during the month ofDecember last year and thecharges would be recoveredfrom the coming month’s bill,Nepra sources said.

Fuel expenses incurredduring the generation of 6.23billion units of electricty in De-cember stood at Rs. 55.825 bil-lion. The Karachi Electricity Sup-ply Corporation (KESC) wouldremain exempted from the pricechange.

Polio teamattacked in Swabi

Cop dies, LHWwounded

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Yet another Poliovaccination team came under ter-rorists attack in Swabi leaving apolice man, deployed on the se-curity of the vaccinators, deadand wounded a lady healthworker Tuesday morning. Theassaulters, riding on motorcycles,managed to make good their es-cape after committing the hei-nous act.

It may be recalled that ThePolio teams administering Polio

4 Aman Lashkarmembers killedin KA clashesBARA—At least five personsincluding four members ofPeace Force (Aman Lashkar)were killed in a clash betweentwo banned organizations hereon Tuesday.

According to details,clashes between banned Ansarul Islam and militants belong-ing to Tehreek Taliban Pakistan(TTP) continued on fifthconsecutive day Tuesday.

It should be mentioned thatTTP wanted to established safehavens in Tirah Valley ofKhyber Agency but it had toface stiff resistance from localdefunct Ansar ul Islam.

Ansar ul Islam being localorganization was backed byAman Lashkar which hasstrengthened its positionagainst TTP militants.

Members of both organiza-tions hav e been trading firingfor the last few days and fivepeople including four membersof peace committee and a terror-ist were killed in the latest clashesmounting five-day toll to 86.

Continued on Page 7

power, but the potential is yetto be harnessed in the truesense”, he noted and lamentedbackwardness and object pov-erty. “We have suffered neglectin the past and we continue tosuffer even today”, he said. “Wewant to to hold our destiny inour own hands, we are destinedto achieve progress throughwise use of our God-gifted re-sources and through hard workand use of our talents”, he af-firmed. He said, the proposedHazara Province is justifiableon the basis of its vast area, bigpopulation, vast natural re-sources and homogeneity of itspeople. He said, the prominent

Continued on Page 7

FM address on Page-14

Continued on Page 7

Pak committed toconstructive

engagement withIndia: PM

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf has reiteratedPakistan’s resolve to continue

Continued on Page 7

IS L A M A B A D —No.F.2(1) /2013-Cord.— WHEREAS, forthe purpose of effective andmeaningful consultation withthe political parties as re-quired under Article 18 of thePolitical Parties Order 2002,the draft Code of Conduct forpolitical parties and candi-dates for General Elections2013 was shared with themajor political parties invit-ing their suggestions.AND WHEREAS the sug-gestions received from thepolitical parties were incor-porated and the amendeddraft Code was furthershared with the Senate’sSpecial Committee on Elec-toral Issues on the 7thJanuary, 2013 and the draftcode was then placed be-fore the Election Commis-sion in its meeting held onthe 10th January, 2013along with the suggestionsgiven by the Senate’s Spe-cial Committee.AND WHEREAS after dueconsideration of all the sug-gestions received from politi-cal parties and the SpecialCommittee of the Senate, theElection Commission has ap-proved the Code of Conductfor political parties and can-didates for General Elections2013.NOW THEREFORE, in pur-suance of Article 218(3) of theConstitution of the IslamicRepublic of Pakistan readwith Article 6 of the ElectionCommission Order 2002(Chief Executive’s Order No.1of 2002), Article 18 of the Po-litical Parties Order, 2002(Chief Executive’s OrderNo.18 of 2002), the directionsof the Supreme Court of Pa-kistan in Workers’ PartyPakistan’s case (C.P.No.87/2011) and all other powersenabling it in that behalf, theElection Commission ispleased to issue the follow-ing Code of Conduct for po-litical parties and candidatesfor the forthcoming GeneralElections 2013 and all subse-quent bye-elections:1. General Conduct:(1) The political parties andcandidates shall not propa-gate any opinion, or act in anymanner prejudicial to the ide-ology of Pakistan, or the sov-ereignty, integrity or securityof Pakistan, or the integrityor independence of the judi-ciary of Pakistan, or whichdefames or brings into ridi-

cule the judiciary or theArmed Forces of Pakistan, asprovided under Article 63 ofthe Constitution.(2) The parties and candi-dates shall abide by all thelaws, rules, regulations anddirect ions issued by theCommission, from time tot ime, relat ing to smoothconduct of elect ions andthe maintenance of publicorder(3) The political parties andcandidates shall at all timesuphold the rights and free-dom of the people of Pakistanas guaranteed by the Consti-tution and law.(4) All contesting candi-dates and their supportersshall avoid scrupulously allactivities which are offencesunder the election laws,such as bribing of voters, in-timidation and personation,canvassing within 400 yardsof a polling station includ-ing setting up of camps, andholding public meetingsduring the period of 48 hoursending at midnight follow-ing the conclusion of thepoll for an election in theconstituency, etc.(5) Canvassing for votes,soliciting of votes, persuad-ing any elector not to vote atthe election or for a particu-lar candidate is prohibitedwithin a radius of 400 yardsof the polling station.(6) Exhibiting, except with thepermission of the ReturningOfficer and at a place re-served for the candidate orhis election agent beyondthe radius of 100 yards of thepolling station, any notice,sign, banner or flag designedto encourage the electors tovote or discourage the elec-tors from voting for any con-testing candidate, is prohib-ited.(7) Incitement to violence orresort to violence duringmeetings, processions, orduring polling hours shall bestrictly avoided by contest-ing candidates and their sup-porters. They shall publiclycondemn violence and in-timidation and not use lan-guage that might lead to vio-lence or resort to violenceduring meetings, proces-sions, or during pollinghours. No person shall inany manner cause injury toany person or damage to anyproperty.(8) Contesting candidates

and their supporters shallnot procure the support orassistance of any person inthe service of Pakistan topromote or hinder the elec-tion of a contesting candi-date.(9) Contesting candidatesshall dissuade their workersor sympathizers from de-stroying any ballot paper orany official mark on the bal-lot paper.(10) No person or politicalparty or a contesting candi-date and their supportersshall hoist or fix party flagson any public property or atany public place, except withthe permission in writing fromlocal government or authori-ties and on payment of suchfee or charges as may bechargeable. .(11) Wall chalking as part ofan election campaign shall beprohibited in all forms. Simi-larly use of loudspeaker shallnot be allowed for electioncampaign except at the elec-tion meetings.(12) No person or a politicalparty shall affix posters,hoardings or banners largerthan the sizes prescribed bythe Election Commission asunder:(a) Posters 2-feet x 3-feet(b) Hoardings 3-feet x 5-feet(c) Banners 3-feet x 9-feet(d) Leaflets/Handbills 9-inches x 6 inches

The Head of district ad-ministration / Political Agentand the District ReturningOfficer shall be responsiblefor the effective implementa-tion of this provision.(13) The political parties,contesting candidates andtheir supporters shall not in-dulge in offering gifts orgratifications or inducementsto any person to stand or notto stand as a candidate, or towithdraw or not to withdrawhis candidature.(14) Political parties, contest-ing candidates and their sup-porters may announce theiroverall developmentprogramme, but after theannouncement of the electionschedule till the day of poll-ing, no candidate or any per-son on his behalf shall,openly or in secret, give anysubscription or donation, ormake promise for giving suchsubscription or donation, toany institution of their re-spective constituency or toany other institution.

(15) Contesting candidatesand their supporters shall re-frain from speeches calcu-lated to arouse parochial andsectarian feelings and con-troversy of conflicts betweengenders, sects, communitiesand linguistic groups.(16) The political parties,contesting candidates andtheir supporters shall refrainfrom deliberate disseminationof false and malicious infor-mation and shall not indulgein forgeries anddisinformation to defameother political parties / lead-ers. The use of abusive lan-guage against the leadersand candidates shall beavoided at all costs.(17) Criticism of other politi-cal parties and opponentcandidates shall be confinedto their policies andprogrammes, past recordand work. Parties and can-didates shall refrain fromcriticism of any aspect ofprivate life, not connectedwith the public activities ofthe leaders or workers ofother parties. Criticism basedon unverified allegationsand distortion of facts shallbe avoided.(18) Political parties, contest-ing candidates and their sup-porters shall not use any ve-hicle to transport to or fromthe polling station any elec-tor except himself and mem-bers of his immediate family.(19) Political parties contest-ing candidates and their sup-porters shall not propagateagainst the participation ofany person in the electionson the basis of gender,ethnicity, religion or caste.( ) The political parties, con-testing candidates and theirsupporters or other personsshall not encourage or enterinto formal or informal agree-ment / arrangement / under-standing debarringWOMEN from becomingcandidate for an election orexercising their right of votein an election. The PoliticalParties shall encourage thewomen to participate in elec-tion process.(I) No transaction towardsthe election expenses shallbe made through an accountother than the accountopened for the purpose.(II) All transactions relatingto the election expenses shallbe entered into with GST reg-istered firms / persons, wher-

ever it is possible.(III) The political parties, con-testing candidates and theirsupporters shall extend allnecessary help to law en-forcement agencies for pur-poses of ensuring the safetyand security of election ma-terials, election officials andpolling agents on polling day.(IV) The Political Parties shallendeavor to provide equalopportunity to its qualifiedmembers both men andwomen to participate in elec-toral process.(V) Issuing of advertise-ments at the cost of publicexchequer in the newspapersand other media and misuseof official mass media duringthe election period for parti-san coverage of politicalnews and publicity by theFederal, Provincial and Localgovernments shall be prohib-ited.(VI) The right of every indi-vidual for peaceful and un-disturbed domestic lifeshall be respected, irrespec-tive of any resentment thata political party or a candi-date may have against suchindividual for his politicalopinion or activities. Orga-nizing demonstrations orpicketing before the houseof such individual with aview to protest against hispolitical opinion or activi-ties shall be prohibited un-der all circumstances.(VII) No political party orcandidate shall permit its / hisfollowers to make use of anyindividual’s land, building,compound wall etc. withouthis permission for erectingflag-staffs, suspending ban-ners, pasting notices, writingslogans etc.(VIII) The Political Partiesand candidates shall firmlyrestrain their workers from ex-erting undue pressureagainst the print and elec-tronic media, including news-paper offices and printingpresses, or resorting to vio-lence of any kind against themedia.(IX) There will be a completeban on carriage and displayof all kinds of weapons andfire arms in public meetingsand processions as well ason the polling day and tilltwenty four hours after theconsolidation of official re-sults by the Returning Of-ficer and official regulationsin respect thereof shall be

strictly observed. Aerial fir-ing, use of crackers andother explosives at publicmeetings and at or near thepolling stations by any per-son shall not be allowed.(X) The President, PrimeMinister, Chairman /Deputy Chairman Senate,Speaker / Deputy Speakerof an Assembly, , FederalMinisters, Ministers ofState, Governors, ChiefMinisters, Provincial Min-isters and Advisors to thePrime Minister and theChief Ministers, and otherpublic office holders shallnot participate in electioncampaign in any mannerwhatsoever. This provisionwill also be applicable to theCaretaker setup.(XI) All Governments’ func-tionaries / representatives,including local governments’functionaries / representa-tives shall not announce anydevelopment scheme or doanything which tends to in-fluence the results of an elec-tion in favor of or against aparticular candidate or politi-cal party.(XII) The political partiesshall endeavour to take nec-essary steps to instill disci-pline within the party, itscandidates, employees andsupporters and guide them tofollow this Code, comply withlaws and regulations, commitno election irregularities andadhere to election regula-tions.(XIII) Posters, hoardings andbanners affixed by one partyshall neither be removed nordistribution of handbills andleaflets be prevented byworkers of another party.2. Meetings / Proces-sions / Rallies:(XIV) The Political Partiesand candidates shall holdpublic rallies and proces-sions only at the place orplaces through the routesspecified for the purpose.Such places and routes shallbe pre-determined in everycity and town by district /local administration in con-sultation with respectivecandidates or their autho-rized representatives and benotified for public informa-tion.(XV) The political parties andcandidates shall conveytheir schedule of public ral-lies / processions / publicjalsas at least three days in

advance. District / Local Ad-ministration shall be respon-sible for making appropriatesecurity arrangements andregulating such public rallies/ processions / public jalsasin such a manner that equalopportunities are provided tothose interested in holdingpublic rallies / processions /public jalsas.(XVI) The District Adminis-tration shall ensure that nopublic rallies / processionsshall be taken out by oneparty along places at whichmeetings are being held byanother party.(XVII) The political partiesand candidates may holdcorner meetings.(XVIII) Car rallies are not al-lowed to travel long dis-tances except if the politicalparties, candidates or theirsupporters have pre-ar-ranged corner meetings atspecific designated places.(XIX) The organizers in con-sultation with the Districtadministration shall takesteps in advance to arrangefor passage of the proces-sion so that there is no block-age of or hindrance to traffic.If the procession is very long,it shall be organized in seg-ments of suitable lengths, sothat at convenient intervals,especially at points where theprocession has to pass roadjunctions, the passage ofheld up traffic could be al-lowed by stages thus avoid-ing heavy traffic congestionand inconvenience of thegeneral public.3.Polling Day:( ) The Political Parties andcandidates shall:(a) Co-operate with the offic-ers on election duty to en-sure peaceful and orderlypolling and complete free-dom to the voters to exercisetheir franchise without be-ing subjected to any annoy-ance or obstructions; and(b) Supply to their authorizedpolling agents badges oridentity cards; and(c) Such authorized agentsshall also carry their origi-nal NICs.(i) No candidate or any of hissupporters or a polling agentshall interfere or create hin-drance in any manner in offi-cial functioning of a presid-ing officer, assistant presid-ing officer, polling officer orsecurity personnel ap-pointed to perform duty at a

polling station(ii) No candidate or any ofhis supporters or a pollingagent shall resort to violencein any form or manner againsta presiding officer, assistantpresiding officer, polling of-ficer or security officials orany other person officiallydeputed to work at a pollingstation.(iii) The Political Partiesshould carry out a compre-hensive plan for voters’ edu-cation regarding marking theballot paper, casting of voteand while doing so votersshall be informed that thesecrecy of ballot shall bemaintained.(iv) In no case the politicalparties, candidates or theirsupporters shall establishcamps near the polling sta-tion on the polling day. How-ever, the Election Commis-sion will provide the SMSfacility to the voters throughwhich each voter can get theinformation regarding his se-rial number at the voters’ listand name and location of thepolling station.(v) Except the voters, can-didates or duly authorizedelection agents, no onewithout a valid pass fromthe Election Commission orProvincial Election Commis-sioner, District ReturningOfficer or Returning officerconcerned shall enter thepolling station or a booth.Foreign / domestic observ-ers and representatives ofaccredited bodies will alsobe provided access to wit-ness the election process onproduction of the identifi-cation cards / passes issuedto them by the aforesaidElection Commission au-thorities.(vi) The District ReturningOfficer and Returning Officershall be responsible to en-sure implementation of theCode of Conduct, in their ca-pacity as Magistrate FirstClass, through District / Lo-cal administration, districtpolice or other law enforcingagencies, in the area of theirjurisdictions, and violationthereof by any candidate orpolitical party shall tanta-mount to malpractices as perlaw and rules and shall entaillegal action as per law andrules including disqualifica-tion of the candidate.By Or-der of the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan.—NNI

Text of ECP conduct code for general election 2013

BAHAWALPUR: Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif distributing Solar Home Systems to the students in a cer-emony at Islamia University.

ISLAMABAD—Deputy Parlia-mentary leader of PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) in thePunjab Assembly, ShaukatBasra said that establishmentof new province would helpimprove the lives of thepeople. Talking to PakistanTelevision (PTV), he said thatall the political parties exclud-ing Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) are in favourof new province in SouthPunjab. He said that newprovince would bringprogress and prosperity forthe masses of this region.

He urged Pakistan MuslimLeague Nawaz to come for-ward and support the govern-ment in the formation of newprovince so that the peoplecould enjoy the basic needs attheir doorsteps. Replying to aquestion, he said that equaldistribution of resources andfunds would bring stability inthe less developed part of the

country. He said that the gov-ernment is making efforts forproviding relief to the masses.He said that the steps are be-ing taken to develop the re-mote and far flung areas of thePunjab province. Replying toanother question, he said thatPPP had the majority for bring-ing the matter of new provinceto the table.

Shaukat Basra said thatPPP-led government wouldcontinue efforts for provid-ing due rights to the peopleof South Punjab. The de-mand of people of Hazara isalso supported by other main-stream political parties in-cluding PML-N, PML-Q andPPP but the most importantis the 100% consensus inHazara region for creation ofa separate province. If prac-tical moves can be initiatedkeeping in view the demandof people of South Punjabthen there is no reason to

deny the same right to peopleof Hazara. It is lamentablethat though PPP acknowl-edges this right of people ofHazara but it is not willing totake concrete steps in thisregard just to please the ANPthat is otherwise ardent sup-porter of division of Punjab.

Its opposition smacks ofdouble standards, exposesits bias and makes mockeryof its claims about democraticcredentials. Hazara has a dis-tinct identity in every respectand has almost nothing incommon with the rest ofKhyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Itshistory, culture, language andtraditions are quite differentto those of KPK and there-fore, its people deserve to begiven a separate identity asper their demand. We believethat instead of becomingPunjab-centric, the propo-nents of new provincesshould give a sober.—APP

New province to helpimprove people’s life

Winter is nothair-friendly spellISLAMABAD—Winter is nota hair-friendly season as ittakes away the moisture fromthe scalp and hair thatcauses dandruff and weaken-ing of the hair follicles, said abeautician Aliya Tipu. Talk-ing to private news channel,she said, winter is the mostdifficult season for peoplesuffering from hair loss. Hairbecomes dry in winter and ismore prone to breakage.

She said massaging thescalp with warm oil can helpin providing moisture andnourishment to the scalp andprevents hair fall in winter.Using coconut oil, olive oil orjaborandi oil to massage thehair can be very good, asthese oils help in replenish-ing the nutrients in the hairand scalp, she said. She sug-gested it is best to avoid haircoloring in this season as thechemicals present in the haircoloring products can causefurther damage to the hair re-sulting in more hair fall whilewomen should avoid ironingor streaking.—APP

JUI, BNP walkout against

Governor RuleISLAMABAD—Members hail-ing from Jamiat Ulema Islamand Balochistan NationalParty-Awami on Tuesdaystaged walkout from the Sen-ate to protest imposition ofGovernor Rule in Balochistanprovince. “It is not a demo-cratic act and the people ofthe province are protestingagainst it,” claimed SenatorMufti Abdul Sattar.

He also referred to previ-ous days when his party andthe BNP had been raising thismatter in the House as he alsodemanded to withdraw the or-der regarding imposition of theGovernor Rule. The memberannounced to walk out of theHouse along with members ofthe BNP-Awami. Balochistanteachers protest for regulariza-tion: Hundreds of teachers re-cruited under Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Pack-age on Tuesday staged dem-onstration to press their de-mands for regularization oftheir service.—APP

ISLAMABAD—President AsifAli Zardari on Tuesday calledfor using modern technologyto address the issues of so-cial inequity and economicinefficiency. Addressing at theinauguration of NADRA’s(National Database and Reg-istration Authority) BenazirMuawanat (Support) Card atthe Presidency here, the Presi-dent said the project wouldimprove the lives of the de-serving and needy.

Under the programme,NADRA in collaborationwith provincial Zakat and

Ushr Department would en-roll the Zakat beneficiariesand issue the cards to pro-vide Guzara Allowance (sti-pend). It is aimed at support-ing families living under pov-erty line and distributing Rs3,000 to each beneficiary ev-ery six months. He said thegovernment would pursuethe vision of ShaheedBenazir Bhutto to reach outto poorest of the poor andensure their economic uplift.

He said the Benazir Sup-port Cards would strengthenthe management of charitable

Low gas pressureirks Peshawarties

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Unscheduledloadshedding and low pres-sure of gas has adverselyaffected the domestic con-sumers and commercial ac-tivities in Peshawar and ad-joining areas of the city.According to details,people residing in Peshawarand surrounding localitieshave to face hardships dueto either total suspensionof gas and or low pressureof gas.

Women complained thatit take hours to cook mealowing to low pressure of gasand children as office goingfamily members often leavethe house on morning with-out having breakfast. Thehouse wives said that gascrisis in intense coldweather has adversely af-fected the routine life andgas pressure goes to zero inthe evening and duringearly morning hours. Pro-longed loadshedding.

funds as the biometric systemwould ensure fair distributionof allowances and wouldeliminate the ghost beneficia-ries. He appreciated NADRAfor realizing the government’svision of supporting the eco-nomically downtrodden andhoped that the programmewould facilitate those living inrural areas.

The President suggestedNADRA to consider workingon issuing driving licenses aswell, so as to maximize theuse of authentic database.He also urged the govern-

ment departments and otherbodies to uplink the public-related data particularlyforms and challans, to facili-tate the masses. ChairmanNADRA Tariq Malik saidNADRA’s BenazirMuawanat Card would en-sure that no ineligible personbecomes the beneficiary ofZakat. He said NADRA hadachieved several milestonesin short span of time includ-ing NADRA Smart Card, e-Sahulat, NADRA kiosks andchecking validation of vot-ers’ registration.—APP

Zardari for use of moderntechnology to facilitate masses

ISLAMABAD—The Met Of-fice here Tuesday forecastisolated rain with snowfallsover the hills of Hazara,Kohat and Malakand divi-sions on Wednesdayevening/night that will makethe weather cold. Accordingto Spokesman of Met Officehere, continental air is pre-vailing over most parts ofthe country and a fresh shal-low trough of westerly waveis likely to approach north-ern parts of the country onWednesday.

However, mainly coldand dry weather is expectedin most parts of the countryduring next 24 hours. In next48 hours, mainly cold anddry weather is expected inmost parts of the country,however, isolated rain withsnow over the hills likely inMalakand, Hazara, Kohat di-visions and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan on Wednesdayevening/night.

Weather remained cold

Cold dry weatherfor forecast

and dry in most parts of thecountry during last 24 hoursas no reports of rain receivedfrom any place of the coun-try. Skardu and Astore with -12 C remained the coldest

places followed byParachinar -9 C, Hunza -7 C,Gupis -6 C, Kalam, Gilgit,Bunji -4 C, Chitral -3 C,Mirkhani & Drosh -2 C re-spectively while pollencount recorded 7 per cubicmeter. The Met Office hasforecast a fair/partly cloudyweather with hazy morning inthe metropolis for the next 24hours on Tuesday. The mini-mum temperature will remainin the range of 12 to 14 de-gree celsius.—APP

DUKI—At least four childrenhave died of measles in NanaSahb Ziarat and Ustaranabadarea of Loralai district. HealthDepartment sources said on

Four more die of measles in LoralaiTuesday that four childrenincluding a minor girl died ofmeasles because they couldnot be immunized against thefatal disease that caused their

death in Tareenabad andUstaranabad area. The victimswere identified as Saifur-Rehman, Parvez Khan, Zia-Ullah and Bibi Sabira. Quetta:

A man was killed and anothersustained wounds in anarmed clash between twogroups in Gazag area of Kalatdistrict.—APP

CM approves teachers appointmentStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—Chief Minister KhyberPakhtunkhwa had approved appoint-ment of 83 female primary teachers indistrict Torghar where literacy ratio wasalarmingly low. It merits a mention herethat the said teachers were selectedpurely on merit basis by the district se-lection committee on directives of thechief minister. This step of the govern-ment will help to educate the girls ofTor Ghar. Girls literacy rate in the dis-

trict was alarmingly low while the present government wasfollowing a program of financial assistance to families inthe district for motivating girls to education. Under theprogram Rs. 1500 per month was offered to families of girlsstudying in Class-I to Class-V and Rs. 2000 per month tofamilies of girls studying in class-VI to Class-X. More-over, the availability of teachers at local level was also aserious concern. The approval of appointment of 83 fe-male teachers by the chief minister will prove a positivedevelopment in this connection. Governor takes notice ofre-employment: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, Bar-rister Masood Kausar has taken serious notice of the re-employment of the superannuated officers in Universityof Engineering and Technology and desired to furnishdetail report. The governor in his letter addressed to theconcerned authorities of the provincial higher educationdepartment as well as the respective vice chancellor hadalso realized them that the decision also lacked prior ap-proval of the Chancellor which is also violation of rulesand regulations and the judgment of the Supreme Court ofPakistan in this respect. The Azad Jammu Kashmir Minis-ter for Information, Bazil Naqvi called on the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor, Barrister Masood Kausar atGovernor’s House here on Tuesday.

Samsam meets Malala’s fatherISLAMABAD—Minister of State for In-formation and Broadcasting SyedSamsam Ali Shah Bukhari, met ZiauddinYousafzai in Birmingham and enquiredafter the health of his daughter MalalaYousafzai. According to press releaseissued here, the malala was shot in thehead by militants in Swat in October lastyear and was brought to the QueenElizabeth Hospital Birmingham for treat-ment. He was accompanied by Mr

Shabbir Anwer, Minister Press in Pakistan High Commis-sion London. Ziauddin briefed the Minister about the re-covery of Malala had made so far, including the futuretreatment and rehabilitation plan for her. He said that Malalawas in good health and high spirits. While speaking withMalala’s father, Bukhari said that the purpose of his visitwas to demonstrate solidarity with Malala and her familyand to wish her speedy recovery. Samsam Bukhari praisedMalala for her courage and determination against the forcesof extremist ideology. Describing Malala as a true face ofPakistan, he reassured that the whole Pakistani nationstands behind Malala and her cause. He also condemnedthe exponents of extremism and terrorism and reiteratedGovernment of Pakistan’s commitment to counter obscu-rantist forces and take Pakistan on the path of peace andmoderation, as envisioned by our founding fathers. Bukhariassured Ziauddin of Government’s continued support forthe recovery of his daughter and for the well being of thefamily. Ziauddin thanked the Minister for visiting him andconveyed his thanks to the Government for looking afterhis daughter and family. The Minister also appreciated therole of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, particularly the doc-tors treating Malala for taking exceptional care of her andthe British Government for its cooperation.—APP

Govt believs in free, fair pollsISLAMABAD—Federal Minister forCapital Administration and Develop-ment (CAD), Nazar Muhammad Gondalsaid that democratic governmentstrongly believes in free fair and trans-parent election for the continuity, sta-bility of democratic process. Talking toprivate television channel, he said thatas independent and strong institution,election commission of Pakistan (ECP)has to fully ensures the transparency

in coming general election. Replying to a question, Gondalsaid that Pakistan People Party (PPP) has fully committedto solves all issues through dialogue with all politicalstakeholders. He added that the government is ready tonegotiate with opposition. The minister said that parlia-ment is supreme institution to make legislation and is-sues should be brought in the parliament to solve throughdebate by peoples representatives. Replying to anotherquestion, he said that according to the constitution, headof state and provincial governors would not have con-cerned with the matter of general polls. He added thatPowerful ECP would advise to the interim set up on elec-tion matters to ensure transparency in election. Gondalsaid that PPP has not trusted on incredible survey bysome institutes, in past whom not even proved their cred-ibility in research. He said that PPP would not tolerateany conspiracy against election and election is only so-lution of all problems in democratic process. He addedthat the name of interim Prime Minister has not been dis-cussed or finalized yet, all matter to be solved accordingto the constitution with consultation.—APP

Govt ensures financial stability to peopleISLAMABAD—Minister for ReligiousAffairs Syed Khursheed Shah said thatPakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led gov-ernment gave financial stability to poorpeople of the country although it faceddifferent challenges like natural catas-trophes, war on terror, global economiccrunch and energy crises. Talking toPakistan Television (PTV), he said thatcurrent PPP leadership is in favour ofreconciliation policy, following the footsteps of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. PPP

led government regularized thousands of contract anddaily wages government employees, specially lady healthworkers and it was dream of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto toprovide job security to government workers, Khursheedmaintained. He said that PPP is the party of formers, labor-ers and a laymen and it always raised its voice for theirrights because Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Shaheed and BenazirBhutto Shaheed were sincere to poor people of the coun-try. The minister said PPP is the largest party of the coun-try. Meanwhile, senior PPP leader Makhdoom Shahabuddinhas said creation of Southern Punjab province will redressgrievances of the people and make them owners of theirown resources. Talking to Radio Pakistan, he said PPP isof the view to include three divisions of Bahawalpur,Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan in Southern Punjab prov-ince. People of the province will get new job opportunitiesand they will feel better psychologically, he said. Reject-ing comment of PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, he said PPPwant the creation of new provinces on administrative ba-sis instead of linguistic basis. He said PML-N has its ownreasons of opposing the creation of Southern Punjab prov-ince adding he said PPP has raised the issue for the peopleinstead of politics.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Governor, Bar-rister Masood Kausar hasapproved the establishmentof a special university in ad-dition to the FATA Univer-sity already approved, forstudents of FATA in highlevel disciplines as a conti-nuity of Cadet College,Razmak. The Universitywould be established in abuilding being given free ofcost which will be housed astemporary arrangements.

Giving a routine briefingon working of Cadet College,Razmak at Governor ’sHouse, Peshawar on Tues-day, the Governor has furtherdesired that any

upgradation, new construc-tions and future expansionof the insfrastructure facili-ties to meet the requirementsof the cadets, should be de-veloped in line with this fu-turistic approach.

The Governor also highlyeulogized the support and co-operation of the Pak Army inrunning the Cadet CollegeRazmak on temporary basis inits premises and furtherpointed out that he will alsowelcome the cooperation ofPak Army in developing a seatof higher learning at the site infuture.

The Secretary to Gover-nor, Muhammad AbidMajeed was present on thisoccasion while the Principalof the college, Col Tahir

Qayyum apprised the Gover-nor about the prevailing stateof working of the institutionas well as future needs in thisconnection.

Talking on various pointsthe Governor advised theconcerned authorities to fur-nish the details of the re-quirements of the college tothe FATA Secretariat andkeep the respective authori-ties up-dated in this connec-tion. He also appreciated thespirit and hard work of themanagement of the college incarrying forward its aca-demic pursuits of desiredstandards even in a tempo-rary arrangement and as-sured every possible supportand cooperation in makingthis possible in future too.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakthunkhwa Forest Depart-ment has chalked out a com-prehensive plan to plant 7.5million saplings of differentspecies during an upcomingSpring Tree Plantation Cam-paign 2013 starting from Feb-ruary 15 next across the prov-ince. To make KP lush green,Wajid Ali Khan Minister forEnvironment and Foreststold APP here Tuesday thatthe said target would beachieved with the assistanceof educational institutions,defence forces, NGOs, civilsociety, farmers, nationalbuilding departments andpublic, adding saplings

would be sent to the govern-ment departments, farmersand NGOs to achieve thetangible results.

The Chief MinisterKhyber Pakthunkhwa wouldformally inaugurate theSpring Plantation Campaignnext month , Provincial Min-isters, Administrative Secre-taries, Commissioners,Deputy Commissioners, Po-litical Agents and officials atgovt level to help contributein global efforts to offsets theeffects of global warming andclimatic change on theregion’s environment. He saidKP has been divided in fivecircles, southern, watershed,upper and lower Hazara, andMalakand with special focus

on arid and semi-arid areas forthe Spring Tree PlantationCampaign where the targetwould be achieved throughUsher plantation also.

Organizations with hu-man and funding resourcescoupled with organisationalinterest have been identifiedand earmarked with a greaterallocation of planting stock,he remarked. Local commu-nities are being encouragedthrough their respective vil-lage developmental commit-tees (VDCs) to help carry outmost of the planting while,individual farmers will be fa-cilitated on their farms andfields. He said Forests De-partment would be made aForce to curb illicit transpor-

tation of timber and takeprompt action against timbermafia for sustainable conser-vation and protection of natu-ral resources , adding forestsstaff working in fields wouldbe properly trained andequip with modern weaponry.

To bolster afforstration,Wajid Khan said three megaforests projects were also be-ing launched in Hazara,Malakand and Sothern Circlesof the province each costingRs. 450 million to bolster for-estry, bio-diversity and naturalresources. Forests nurserieswould also be raised underthese projects and would bedistributed among nationalbuildings departments, farmersand public for plantation pur-

poses. “People, having at least50 acres spare land, would befacilitated in afforestation pro-cess under these projects andthat its supervision and men-tioning would be made throughGeographical Information andRemote Sensing techniques,”he elaborated.

Three others megaprojects pertaining to raisingspecies of Chalgoza, Walnutand endangered Soum is alsobeing launched in Kalam,Chitral, Kohistan, Malakandand Hazara besides sowingmedicinal plants to provide analternative source of incometo people living near forestswould help improve economyof poor people. He said 20percent and 40% share re-

ceived by the Government asrevenue from forests ofKohistan and Malakand re-spectively has been shifted toForests Development Fund(FDF) and about Rs. 600 mil-lion fund received by theGovernment as revenue annu-ally from it will now go to PDFthat could be used inafforstration programs andother developmental projectsin these regions that wouldgreatly help making the de-partment self sufficient infunds. Work on the state ofart environment laboratory isunderway in BashirabadPeshawar to check controlenvironmental and water pol-lutions in the province andwould soon be inaugurated.

QUETTA—Nature has en-dowed Balochistan with va-riety of biodiversity besidesvast natural resources re-serves and the provincialgovernment is taking con-crete measures for efficientpreservation of world’s rarestspecies available in the prov-ince. Balochistan forests andwildlife department sourcestold APP here that Hingolnational park had been builtwith the objective to con-serve variety of biodiversityavailable in the province.

The park whichstretches over an area of619043 hectares of land isone of the biggest nationalparks of the world and the

largest of the country. Afterits completion the park hasnot only proved an attractiverecreational spot for local andforeign tourists but also playan important role in conser-vation of precious and rarewildlife of the province. High-lighting the important fea-tures of the park, the sourcesinformed it is comprised ofboth dry and coastal areasbesides having Active MudVolcano.

“The world’s rare animalsincluding Ibex, Urial,Chinkara, Sand Cat, Croco-dile and Marine Turtle habi-tat in the park”, they said.Efforts are underway to en-sure basic civic amenities in

the park for tourists in orderto promote tourism in theprovince.

Meanwhile, late arrivaland departure of trains fromthe provincial capital is caus-ing inconvenience to the pas-sengers who have to wait forhours in absolutely restlesscondition in absence of wait-ing room at the railway sta-tion. A large number of pas-sengers here at the railwaysstation, said the trains arriveand depart from the provin-cial capital hours late than theschedule and the passengershave to wait at the stationusing their luggage as sittingarrangements during the pe-riod.—APP

JUI-F leaderscondole with

NahiyoonHYDERABAD—Amir JamiatUlema-e-Islam (JUI-F)Maulana Fazal-UrRehman,General SecretarySenator Abdul GhafoorHaidri, have expressed sor-row and offered condolenceon the demise of mother ofJUI ,District HyderabadPresident Maulana TajMuhammad Nahiyoon.

Hafiz Hussain Ahmed,Khalid Mehmood Soomro,Moulana Abdul Karim Abidand other members of reli-gious parties also expressedtheir grief. According to apress release issued here onTuesday they prayed to Al-mighty Allah to rest the de-parted soul of the deceasedin eternal peace and givestrength to the family.—APP

Governor approves setting upof special university for Fata

Greener KP plan afoot, 7.5m saplings to be planted in spring season

Govt keen to preserveBalochistan’s biodiversity

QUETTA: Allama Maqsood Ali Domki speaks at All Parties Peace Conference organized by Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen. Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Liaquat Baloch and others sitting on stage.

CHAMAN: Col Haider Ali meet with the tribal elder in FC Headquarters about the Jirgaon law and order situation in Pakistani border town Chaman.

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Sindh Ministerfor Information Sharjeel InamMemon Tuesday said theprovincial government hadallocated Rs 413.5 billion forcarrying out developmentworks in the province. Thisallocation, he said, includedRs 318 billion under AnnualDevelopment Program(ADP), Rs 30.5 billion of For-eign Project Assistance andRs 65 billion for the districts.“This is unprecedented,” anofficial statement quoted theminister as saying.

This Memon said whiletalking to a group of journal-ists here in his office. He saida huge amount of Rs 38.9 bil-lions had been earmarked forthe road sector. Rs. 32.9 bil-

Sindh govt budgetedRs 413b for uplift

lions for special packages forthe different districts. He saidthat special projects underwhich mega schemes of dis-trict Karachi were financedand were given Rs 44 billions.Memon said for education Rs22.9 billons were allocatedfollowed by health which re-ceived Rs 18.9 billions.

The MPAs and MNAshad been given Rs 22.4 bil-lion for the developmentschemes of their constituen-cies respectively to providefacilities to the general pub-lic. He said Physical Planningand Housing received Rs 17.3billion and the coal develop-ment got Rs 10.3 billion.

The information minister,who is also Central DeputySecretary Information of PPP,said industries and mines.

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — D i r e c t o rNDMA Brig Sajid Naeem saidthat ‘the government is work-ing to improve climatechange adaption in the coun-try to ensure that the risksfaced by millions of poor andvulnerable communitiesacross Pakistan are reduced.We must all be prepared for aworld which is changing”.Addressing a seminar on‘Building Resilience in theIndus Basin’, organized bySave the Children, Brig Sajidsaid that ‘Pakistan remainsvulnerable to climate changeand this vulnerability is likelyto increase in the coming de-cades’. Aqeel Nawaz, Direc-tor Program Quality, Save theChildren, said ‘It is essentialthat the most vulnerablepeople in the most vulnerabledistricts of Pakistan areequipped with the resources

Climate change policies tobe implemented in districts

and knowledge to help themcope with the effects of cli-mate change’.

For poor and vulnerablecommunities living near theIndus River, their exposure tothe impact of a changing cli-mate pushes them further intopoverty and hunger. Al-though the Indus river sys-tem is a resource of great im-portance for the entire coun-try and region, the changingenvironment has increasedthe risk of humanitarian disas-ters manifold for the peoplewho rely on food and liveli-hoods from the mighty river.

Dr Chaudary Inayatullah,presented findings of a re-search study commissionedby Save the Children on cli-mate change in Pakistan. Hesaid that temperatures werelikely to increase by at least0.5 degrees per decade withsignificant implications foragriculture, food insecurity.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Public Ac-counts Committee, KhyberPakhtunkhwa has directedrecovery of Rs. 0.312 millionfrom those residing in KhyberPakhtunkhwa House,Islamabad within a period oftwo weeks and orderd an in-quiry into purchase of secu-rity system of Rs.12.89 mil-lion. It instructed the con-cerned authorities to identifythose responsible for it andto recover the amount andpresent the report to commit-tee in this regard.

The meeting of the com-

mittee was held here in theProvincial Assembly Secre-tariat with acting chairman,MPA Mohammad ZaminKhan advocate in the chair.Besides, Saqibullah KhanChamkani, Mukhtiar AliKhan advocate and MuftiSaid Janan the meeting wasalso attended by Secretary,Provincial Assembly,Amanullah Khan, AdditionalSecretary, Amjad Ali Khan,Secretary Administration,Hifz-ur-Rehman and officialsof audit, law and other con-cerned departments.

The meeting reviewed indetails audit objections of the

financial year 2010-11 regard-ing the department of admin-istration and took various im-portant decisions in that re-gard. The Public AccountsCommittee also expressed se-vere anger over alleged negli-gence and inflicting of loss tonational exchequer in the pur-chase of security system ofRs.12.89 million during theyear 2008-09.It instructed torecover another amount ofRs.0.312 million from a mem-ber of the National Assemblyand a Sub-Engineer of Capi-tal Development Authority(CDA) for staying in KhyberPakhtunkhwa House,

Islamabad in 2009-10 to de-posit it in the national exche-quer. Otherwise, legal pro-ceedings should be initiatedagainst the involved personsto present report to the com-mittee.

The committee also con-stituted an inter-departmen-tal committee comprising of-ficials of law, finance and au-dit departments under thechairmanship of SecretaryAdministration, to prepare atransparent report within aperiod of one-month in thematter of the unnecessaryexpenditure of Rs.5.199 mil-lion in head of the mainte-

nance of the 32 newly pur-chased vehicles. The com-mittee further directed imme-diate registration of FIRagainst the responsible offi-cials and presentation of re-port before the Public Ac-counts Committee.

The committee also tooknotice of the different irregu-larities of Rs.15.142 millionand constituted an inter-de-partmental committee underthe chairmanship of Secre-tary Administration forpreparation of a detailed andtransparent investigation re-port to present it before thepublic accounts committee.

PAC wants probe into purchaseirregularities of security system

Project OversightCommittees

coaching endsSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Three-day ca-pacity building trainings formembers of the Project Over-sight Committees (POCs)ended Tuesday in tribal ar-eas and two districts ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa to en-sure effective monitoring ofsmall development schemeslaunched by concerned ad-ministrations in Fata and dis-trict Dir.

The committees, consist-ing of authorities and localelders, aimed at mobilizing lo-cal communities to contrib-ute in uplift projects and tomake its process transparenton village level.

Be warned pollsmight be derailed

Pakistan has, unfortunately, acquired identity as a country inperpetual crisis due to conspiracies being hatched by internaland external forces. The Long March of Dr Tahirul Qadri, though

for good intentions, was considered to be a potent threat to the systemand that is why its peaceful culmination brought a sigh of relief for thepeople yet their peace of mind has proved to be a temporary phenomenonas more threats are rearing their ugly heads.

The emerging scenario once again forces one to believe thatconflicting interests are at play to get the general elections delayed ifnot abandoned altogether. Strange things are surfacing and resurfacingin Pakistan instilling fears and apprehensions among people. The latestis a wild statement of Interior Minister Rehman Malik who had theaudacity of talking about ‘fall of Karachi’ claiming that securityagencies would be held accountable if such an eventuality befell thecountry. His comments reminds one of the tragedy of fall of Dhaka,raising a pertinent that question why the Government remained a silentspectator to deterioration of things to such an extent. There is also aview point that a deliberate attempt is being made to create fuss inKarachi close to the general elections to provide justification fordelaying the polls. These are not mere speculations as Chairman ofthe National Security Committee of Parliament Senator Raza Rabbani,who is considered to be a serene personality, has also warned thatconspiracies are being hatched against democracy and the system.The Government has also chosen the stunt of new provinces at thistime of uncertainty and chaos and the issue is likely to add to theconfusion as representatives of almost all parties except PPP havewritten dissenting notes to the report of the Parliamentary Committeeon new provinces in Punjab. As if all this was not enough, ChairmanNAB has chosen to openly clash with the Supreme Court, which is acrude attempt by an individual to make mockery of one of the pillarsof the state. We would, therefore, urge all political parties to shuntheir petty self-centred differences and forge unity to ward off threatsto the security of the country and future of democracy.

Arundhati demandspunishment to rapists in IHKWHILE Kashmiris have been voicing their strong resentment for

several decades over massive human rights violations in IndianHeld Kashmir (IHK), prominent Indian writer and social activistArundhati Roy has underscored the need to punish the military andparamilitary forces for the heinous crimes being committed by them inthe territory. During a debate over the recent report released by Asso-ciation of Parents of Disappeared Persons, she warned that Indianswould suffer in future for what the people of Kashmir had to face overthe last two decades.

It is a documented fact that occupation forces have been involvedin various heinous crimes including custodial killings, disappearancesand rapes but to continue its occupation in Kashmir, India has madethem immune from every law there. The report noted that more than500 troops allegedly involved in 214 cases had not been brought tobook. Arundhati Roy accused India of not being serious in punishingthe military, police and government backed gunmen who had been de-clared accused in various crimes. These habitual offenders when de-ployed in other areas commit the same offences against innocent people.That is exactly happening all over India now and gang rapes are takingplace almost on daily basis bringing bad name to the so-called largestsecular and democratic country. In addition to the reported incidents,there might be thousands of rape and other cases in Occupied Kashmir.It is time that the international community and human rightsorganisations must take serious notice of these human rights violationsby the Indian occupation forces. We would caution that if these hei-nous crimes were not checked, Kashmiris would be left with no optionbut to once again take up arms and there would be no end to bloodshed.

Buddhist Force in Sri Lankanegates Buddha’s teachings

BARRING foreign-sponsored trouble of Tamil separatists, SriLanka has remained an island of peace and tranquillity. It is because

of its rich cultural history, humbleness and hospitality of its people thatthe country’s tourism industry has flourished. The country is movingahead following end of turmoil created by Tamil Tigers but it seemssome vested interests are bent upon spoiling the progress on this front.

It is, perhaps, in this background that President Rajapaksa has, ina meeting with a group of monks known as “Bodu Bala Sena” orBuddhist Force, urged them not to incite religious hatred and violence. The anti-Muslim agitation roused by the Buddhist extremistorganization Bodu Bala Sena has been the focus of discussions in SriLanka these days and according to the Justice Minister of the countrythe hate-campaign against Muslims could be a part of conspiracy,aimed at discrediting Sri Lanka in international arena. What ishappening to Muslims in Sri Lanka is against the spirit of theteachings of Buddha who exhorted his followers to live a happyand peaceful life. He never became angry or impatient or spokeharshly to anyone, not even to those who opposed him. Apart fromthis, people of different faith and ethnic background have been livingin peace and harmony like those in Malaysia and the currentcampaign of hatred doesn’t fit well in the overall scheme of thingsin Sri Lanka. We hope that people of Sri Lanka and its leadershipunderstand the conspiracy and foil it with vision and determination.

The best bet on Afghanistan

To travel hopefullyis a better thingthan to arrive, andthe true success isto labour.

With America’s announcement to withdraw troopsfrom Afghanistan even

before 2014, the date that it haditself fixed, it becomes imperativethat Pakistan and India should re-vise their strategy and face thenew development. Both have nooption except to be on the samepage because Taliban, the Al-Qaeda’s front, have neither beendecimated as Washington claims,nor have they been deterred fromtheir fixation to capture thePushtu-speaking areas, the NorthWestern Front Province (NWFP).

I do not know how PresidentBarrack Obama has come to theconclusion that Al-Qaeda hasbeen finished and that America’spurpose has been served. The en-tire terrorism in the area is be-cause of Al-Qaeda’s inspiration.It does not matter whether itcomes in the forefront or not. Theoutfit is working under differentnames and on different fronts.President Obama may be in ahurry to withdraw his forces toplacate the American opinion butWashington and its drones havenot wiped out Taliban, the prom-ise which it gave when it startedcarpet bombing in certain parts ofAfghanistan.

After America’s exit, Talibanand the warlords would try to di-vide Afghanistan among them-selves, not a difficult propositionwhen Kabul’s forces are in themidst of modernization and train-ing. Even otherwise, AfghanistanPresident Hamid Karzai has beennegotiating with “good Taliban”to suck them into the administra-tion so as to divide them.

Hope &lessons inSomalia

Somalia has been the paradigmof failed states since before1993, when militants shot

down two Black Hawk helicoptersand killed 18 American soldiers inMogadishu. One of the world’spoorest, most violent countries, ithas been pummelled by warringmilitias, famine and pirates. But thecountry recently has shown enoughpositive movement that the Obamaadministration last week hostedPresident Hassan SheikhMohamud in Washington and rec-ognized Somalia’s government forthe first time in more than two de-cades. The evolution is worth ex-amining as the West tries to grapplewith militants in Mali.

The election of Mr Mohamud,a moderate political activist andacademic, by Parliament last Sep-tember ended eight years of corruptand failed transitional govern-ments. Backed by a new Constitu-tion, he has started building gov-erning institutions with a focus onsecurity, on delivering public ser-vices and on judicial and financialreform. Investment from the Soma-lian diaspora, Turkey and else-where is coming back. So are for-eign embassies. None of this wouldhave happened if the security situ-ation had not also improved. Since2006, the country has been torn byan insurgency led by the militantgroup Al Shabab, which claims al-legiance with Al Qaeda.

The decision to recognize theSomali government was a reason-able move that will open the doorto other American and internationalaid and may make Mr. Mohamud’spolitical adversaries think twiceabout trying to throw him out. Butit would be a mistake to read toomuch into the progress that hasbeen made. The government isweak and doesn’t control much ter-ritory beyond the capital. Its armyis virtually nonexistent. Al Shababstill lurks as a dark force. If theAfrican Union force, and especiallyKenyan and Ugandan troops, leftSomalia anytime soon, the gainscould all be lost. It remains to beseen whether competing warlordsand clans can ever cooperate tobuild a real state. Mr. Mohamudneeds to follow through on a UnitedNations plan for reconciliation. Itis early to draw firm conclusions,and there are many differences, butSomalia may offer some caution-ary advice for the fight now beingwaged by France at the other endof the African continent againstmilitants in Mali. Degrading mili-tants is likely to take years. Re-gional forces, rather than foreignforces from farther afield, are bestpositioned to lead the fight. And po-litical progress is at least as impor-tant as military gains.— The New York Times

*****

Routinechecks oneateries

Dubai Municipality’s warning on “fresh” juice beingserved from rotten fruits has

thrown the spotlight again on someof the underhand practices used byfood outlets to make a quick buck.Be it adults drinking juice from res-taurants and cafeterias or childrenquenching their thirst in the schoolcafeteria, the risks are the same andcall for stringent monitoring on thepart of officials.

Residents have been encour-aged to call the authorities on thetoll-free number to report suchmalpractices. However, what isdisturbing is the fact that some res-taurateurs do not think twice be-fore endangering the lives of theircustomers. In doing so, not onlydo they put their clients at risk, butalso spoil the reputation of cafete-rias in general.

Over the years, the munici-pality has paid a great deal of at-tention to hygiene at eateries, inturn helping residents enjoy ameal without having to worryabout the dangers of eating out.If this is to continue, officials willnow have to take sterner mea-sures against those breaking thelaw and carry out random androutine checks to bring the cul-prits to book. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

R L Stevenson—Scottish writer

Islamabad knows, like othercountries in the world, thatit would be hard for Af-ghanistan to stay sovereignwithout America’s supportand that it would be a mat-ter of time before Taliban

would overrun the country. Theywould leave the warlords to gov-ern their fiefdoms. Sturdy and de-termined Taliban have dispersedthemselves over high mountains toawait the time when the forces ofAmerica and NATO would quit.How to ensure Afghanistan’s safetyis the issue that faces the world.

Policies of America and Indiacoincide since both want democ-racy to take roots in Afghanistanand become militarily and eco-nomically viable to stand on itsown legs. Things would haveworked smoothly between Delhiand Islamabad if the latter were togive up its insistence on treatingAfghanistan as a country within itssphere of influence.

In fact, such a policy has beenin the way of Delhi and Pakistanforging joint action against the ter-rorists, Taliban’s real face. Nodoubt, Pakistan is trying to defeatTaliban with the support ofAmerica which provides it witharms and money. Yet Taliban havespread themselves all over Paki-stan. The fight is not confined toAfghanistan and Waziristan borderbut inside Pakistan where Talibanhave joined hands with the funda-mentalists to fan terrorism.

The ideal arrangement wouldbe if Kabul and Islamabad couldjoin hands to fight against Talibanand other such forces which wouldbecome active after America’swithdrawal. The biggest obstacle inthe way is the Pakistan’s policy tohave Afghanistan as its strategicdepth. Former Prime MinisterZulfikar Ali Bhutto tried his bestto sell Kabul a status which wouldensure Afghanistan’s autonomy

under the protection of Pakistan’sarmed forces. No self-respectingnation, much less the one compris-ing Pathans, can accept to be a sat-ellite state.

Karzai knows it and has oftencriticised the ambition of “elderbrother,” the title he has given toPakistan. Indeed, there was a timewhen Islamabad flirted with

Taliban and considered them to bepart of its combative strength. ThePakistan rulers, including the lateBenazir Bhutto, welcomed them astheir “children.” Pakistan went tothe extent of recognizing the gov-ernment of Taliban at Kabul as longas it lasted, not very long.Islamabad realised its mistake of

India’s war mongering is takingnew and quite ridiculous turns.Now we hear that the Indian

State Disaster Response Force in anotice this week urged the Kashmiripeople to build shelters andtrenches and provide themselveswith food for two weeks to preparefor a potential nuclear conflict inthe disputed region after deadlyborder skirmishes on LoC betweenIndian and Pakistani troops thathave been happening recently. Thisis such a ridiculous idea that onewants to laugh at it if we were surethat it was a joke and not the realintention of the Indians.

Do they really want to wagenuclear war endangering their ownpopulation? Or is it that they don’tconsider Kashmiris their ownpopulation as they insist in thepolitical discussions? If I was anIndian held Kashmiri I would takethis notice by the disaster responseforce as a sign that Delhi is risk-ing my life and the lives of mypopulation for their crazy anti-Pa-kistani designs. Since Hiroshimaand Nagasaki we all know that youdon’t survive a nuclear war andthat in case of a single strike evenit is better to die immediately as abrave man, than to rot for yearswith nuclear burnings, cancers andother fatal illnesses that will takea heavier toll than the initial blastas Hiroshima has shown. Giventhe well-known devastation of

India’s amazing admissionnuclear weapons and the factthat the reach of the nuclearoutfall can not be directed orpredicted; in case of windcoming from the Pakistaniside more damage might bedone on the Indian side than

in Pakistan and that not necessar-ily in Kashmir but in Punjab andthe densely populated UP andRajasthan. It shows the ruthlessnessof India’s designs and their questfor power which is even not halt-ing before the use of nuclear weap-ons and endangering their ownpopulation. It was in 2001 when Iwas invited by the Indian Councilfor South Asian Cooperation andIndia International Center in Delhiin a seminar on South Asia’s Com-petitive Advantage along with mytwo Pakistani colleagues. It cameas a pleasant surprise to me, whenMr. I. K. Gujral after inauguratingthe seminar invited me to have aone to one meeting at his residencethat was finalized and I went to 5Janpat Road and held quite inter-esting discussions that lasted fornearly 3 hours.

Apart from many other thingsMr. Gujral told me that most of thethorny issues between our twocountries were almost resolved withMian Nawaz Sharif’s governmentso that his removal has come as areal set back to Indo- Pak relations.He was also keen to know who ac-tually rules in Pakistan because hecould not understand one encoun-ter with Pakistan’s Foreign Minis-ter Sahibzada Yaqub Ali, who dur-ing his visit to India threatened thatfire might be falling from sky onIndia and Mr Gujral had to give areply to him through the media. As

a matter of fact threat and war mon-gering has unfortunately been a fre-quent feature of Indo-Pak relationsby politicians who want cheappopularity. It is even more unfortu-nate that sober and good willingpeople like Mr. Gujral and JayParakash Narain are not any morewhile the number of war mongersis growing. On my return to Paki-stan, I remained in contact with Mr.Gujral for some time and kept dis-cussing Indo-Pak relations withhim. A very unpleasant situation forIndo-Pak relations had arisen afterthe Gujarat massacre and he wasalso of the opinion that war and kill-ing was no solution; but then as pertoday people like him are in minor-ity. I sent an open letter which wasalso published in 2002 inviting hisattention saying “Do you want, Mr.Gujral, a victory for BJP at the costof fourteen million Muslim people?Is Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee work-ing for his own name and fame maybe in black letters and get BJP againin power. You will appreciate thatthe war is not the solution of anyproblem whatsoever includingKashmir and the so-called waragainst terrorism.”

Further I drew his attention toanother fact of history. “When a fewurchins were celebrating in thestreets of Delhi the victory over Pa-kistan, the arch enemy of India in acricket match, the great Jai ParkashNarain rushed to Pundit JawaharlalNehru to say that please stop thisbecause partition has been the re-sult of a settlement between twomajor political parties strugglingfor independence from the British.Let us bury the hatchet and forgetthe past, turn over a new leaf of fra-

building up Taliban only whenthey occupied the Swat valley andthe adjoining areas, part ofPakistan’s territory. The first or-der they issued was to close girls’educational institutions and thenban music.

Although the Pakistanis wereMuslims, Taliban had a hatred forthem because they were not fa-natics, a cultural influence of thesubcontinent. Islamabad haspushed Taliban back after seeingtheir real face of terrorism. Butthe danger it cannot avert is thatnearly one third of Pakistan’spopulation—including thearmy—has come to adopt theTaliban philosophy. Otherwise, itis difficult to understand why thekiller of Punjab governor SalmanTaseer was hailed a hero andhonoured. Taseer’s fault was thathe opposed the blasphemy laws.His son is still under Taliban’sdetention.

Sooner or later, New Delhiwill have to join Islamabad tofight against terrorism whichTaliban are fomenting internallyand externally. Both countrieshave to chalk out a joint actionplan against Taliban who can posea threat to India’s tranquility. Pa-kistan is a territory lying betweenTaliban and our country. IfIslamabad falters or weakened inits fight against Taliban, Indiawould have to deal with them di-rectly. They have already an-nounced that they would interferein Kashmir. This is a dangerousscenario.

The withdrawal of Americanforces from Kabul would onlycreate a vacuum which both NewDelhi and Islamabad ought to fill.But they are mostly at loggerheadsand therefore the success ofTaliban is on cards.—The writer is a veteran Indianjournalist, syndicated columnist,human rights activist and author.

ternity and brotherhood as the In-dian Muslims are still in India inspite of this partition. We do nothave any problems with our Hindubrothers in spite of the fact that ourMuslim brothers are being killedsimply because they are Muslimin Gujrat – Is it not a fact thatMusalmans in Gujrat and else-where would still have been killedeven if partition of the sub conti-nent had not taken place.”

The world should notice thisand particularly those in the Westwho always tend to put blame onPakistan while the much larger andeconomically and militarily stron-ger India is trying to copy US worldpoliceman role in South Asia withUS and Israeli support. The wholestory has to be seen in connectionwith Indian Defense Ministers an-nouncement that normalization ofrelations with Pakistan is too earlyand should be slowed down andpolicy of wait and see is the pursuitfor some time.

Given the fact that India itselfadmitted the existence of terroristcamps of RSS and BJP on Indiansoil, then who really is the culprit?Will the Indian National Congresstake a step further and hold an allparties conference of political par-ties to arrive at a consensus with re-gard to terrorism and terrorist campsin India: not to allow peace to bedestroyed in the country any more,particularly that of Indian Muslimsand mention the existence of suchcamps for the sake of political pointscoring against their rivals for po-litical expediency and winning thesympathy of deprived people fol-lowing Muslim religion only in theworlds largest secular country.

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If Islamabadfalters or weakenedin its fight against

Taliban, Indiawould have to dealwith them directly.They have already

announced thatthey wouldinterfere in

Kashmir. This is adangerous scenario.The withdrawal ofAmerican forces

from Kabul wouldonly create a

vacuum which bothNew Delhi and

Islamabad ought tofill. But they are

mostly atloggerheads and

therefore thesuccess of Taliban

is on cards.

Voice of the People

Kerry & hyperactive Indian media

Senator John Kerry is likely tobe confirmed as the next USsecretary of state this week,

and American foreign-policy hawksaren’t the only ones wary. The In-dian establishment was listeningclosely to Mr. Kerry’s confirmationhearings, especially when he talkedabout Pakistan. New Delhi fears heis too dovish toward Islamabad’smilitary-jihad complex.

Arguing that Pakistan has notgotten “credit sufficiently for the factthat they were helpful” Mr Kerrysuggested last week that “it was theirpermissiveness in allowing ourpeople to be there that helped us tobe able to tie the knots.” The manwho could soon be America’s topmessenger abroad spoke againstadopting a “dramatic, draconian,sledgehammer approach,” becausePakistan is too integral to America’ssupply routes into Afghanistan. NewDelhi isn’t pleased to hear all this,because it confirms the reputationthat precedes Mr. Kerry. The Mas-sachusetts senator is widely viewed

Has the perspicacious readernoticed that people who oughtto know better, particularly in

the West, never tire of calling thiscountry as the epicenter of terrorismand Al-Qaeda? It is as if they havesuccessfully solved the riddle of ter-rorism and/or extremism in their ownbackyards. Facts would prove other-wise. Ever wonder why is it that someleaders of the developed world takeit upon themselves to accentuate the‘danger’ to their own countries of ‘ter-rorist attacks’ from certain quarters,rather than bring down the alreadyprevalent sense of insecurity? Eversince nine/eleven, most Western lead-ers – not to talk of their ‘sidekicks’ -have reveled in the self-defeating ex-ercise of constantly frightening theirown compatriots out of their wits byraising the bugbear of newer anddeadlier ‘terrorist attacks’.

Take, for instance, the case of thethen British Prime Minister GordonBrown some years back. Writing inthe Observer, Mr. Brown had assertedthat, “We know that there is an al-Qaeda core in northern Pakistan try-ing to organize attacks in Britain. We

World War-III at our doorstep?know also that there are anumber of networks here”.His was a blatant attempt atjumping to unwarranted con-clusions, never a good policy.British policy makers, regret-tably, have long wallowed inthe ‘misperception’ that theterrorist threat stemmed onlyfrom Asians. This is what has

made them oblivious of the threatemanating from the poor and de-prived sections of their society in theirown backyard.

Public figures of the so-calledfree world have been – through theirout of turn statements - contributingtheir bit to creating a state of jittersamong their own people, ever sincethe advent of the precipitate ‘war onterror’. The worst thing that can hap-pen to a people is loss of the senseof security. Once the common folkfeel that they are the targets of a ruth-less enemy and that the state is pow-erless to provide them protection,they might as well be written off asa viable nation. This diagnosis maysound unnecessarily harsh but thenwe do live in uncertain times, addedto a somewhat unpredictable NewWorld Order. Things could hardly bein worse shape. Coming to the ten-dency of the people who shouldknow better than to shoot from thehip as it were, the inevitable resultof all the ill-considered pronounce-ments by leaders is to rob their ownpublic of their sense of security.Come to think of it, isn’t this pre-

Utility billsdue date

DR MUKHTAR ALI

We all know that the present dayhigh Electricity and Gas bills bur-den every consumer twice eachmonth. First, an unexpected highutility bills delivered by hand at thewill of dispatcher, which happensusually closed to the last days ofdue dates. The hapless consumerstrouble further become doubled atits payment outlets when more thanexpected numbers of people gatherat the payment outlets which do nothave the capacities to accommodatesuch large numbers of people ac-cordingly.

So the final result is a very bit-ter experience due to mismanage-ment on the part of department/or-ganization sending and receivingthese utility bills late and uncoor-dinated with other similar bills ev-ery consumer has to pay everymonth. Islamabad is one of smallcities with population of around onemillion. Public services must havebeen exemplary here but that is notthe case. I recently visited a friendin Islamabad he was much annoyeddue to the mishandling of these es-sential bills.

He further pointed out that hereceives the utility bills i.e. gas andelectricity at different dates that arecausing him to waste precious timeat payment outlets. He suggestedthat the Gas & Electricity bills becoordinated in its delivery and duedates of payments so that the twobills are received simultaneously,giving a chance to the consumersto pay them together, this way, theywill save some of their precioustime & energy.—Kurram Agency, Fata

Attitudeproblems

MUHAMMAD REZA ZAIN

I want to mention a severe prob-lem of the day. Student behaviorseems to be widespread problemand I think that modern lifestyle isprobably responsible for this issue.Children are often spoilt, not interms of love, affection and atten-tion but in more materialways.They are allowed to havewhatever they want, regardless ofprice and to behave as theyplease.This means that the childrengrow up without consideration forothers and without any understand-ing of where their standard of liv-ing comes from.

When they get to school agethey have not learnt any self con-trol or discipline.They have lessrespect for their teachers and refuseto obey school rules our as theirparents did. Teachers continuallycomplain about this problem andthe measures should be taken tocombat the situation.But I think thesolution to this problem lies withthe families, who could raise themto be considerate of others and tobe social, responsible individuals.

Perhaps parenting classes areneeded to help them to do this andthat would help support familiesmore in terms of raising the nextgeneration.The government shouldfund this kind of parental support,because this is no longer a prob-lem for individual families but forsociety as a whole.—Karachi

KarakoramUniversity closure

MUHAMMAD RIZA ZAIN

Through this letter I want to drawthe attention of concernedauthourities that Karakoram Inter-national University of Gilgit is offsince Moharram for no reason ex-cept bad governance of ruling partyPPP. The reason for closing the uni-versity, is the observation ofHussain Day (R.A) day by the stu-dents of a particular sect whichwas, i will say, is mere a politicalparody of the ruling party.

If this has been a valid reasonthen Punjab University, KarachiUniversity and all other universi-ties should also be closed because

Caretaker PMIQBAL HADI ZAIDI

The most trifling question of the hour is as to who should be the caretaker PM because he will be theperson to ensure that elections are held in fair and free atmosphere, yet the question is as to who

can be that impartial person to be trusted by all the stake holders. PPP and PML (N) are grouped upto nominate an candidate but PTI wants that it should also be consulted in this regard which is notillogical demand. What about the say of other political parties like JI and JUI (F) and so many others.I think there should be some mutually agreed standard and scale as to which parties be consulted inconnection with the selection of caretaker PM and that a party with just few hundred members beallowed to have its say in the process. At this point of time it looks that PPP and PML (N) are the onlytwo parties to nominate caretaker PM which is unfair. However, unless and until some scale is drawnas to which parties are eligible to nominate the caretaker PM the dust will not settle down in any case.The problem be resolved by setting up some standard as to which political parties can be the stakeholders to nominate caretake PM otherwise it will drag on to an indefinite period creating moreconfusion than settling down.—Dubai

Views From Abroad

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

are requested to typetheir letters legibly withdouble spacing and only onone side of the paper.

—Editor

cisely what the objective of the ter-rorist is? To create a general senseof insecurity, that is!

Be that as it may, this sorry stateof affairs is most relevant to thisblessed country because willy-nillyit has become the vortex of the wholerigmarole. More than any thing else,we need to re-orient our prioritiesin order to bring them in congruitywith the demands of our nationalinterest. This we appear to have sin-gularly failed to do. As a self-pro-claimed ‘frontline state’ in the ‘waron terror’ (how we managed to causethis millstone to adorn our collec-tive necks would also need lookinginto, but that is another story), theLand of the Pure needs now to takea dispassionate stock of the sorrysituation it finds itself in. Rather thantake pride in this bizarre appellation,we should instaed be looking at waysto get out of the quagmire.

History tells us that World WarII wrought havoc during the six oddyears that it lasted. The aftermath ofthat War gave birth to several corol-laries of International Law in gen-eral and those applicable to ArmedConflicts in particular. Most peoplein their naiveté believed that theworld would learn the necessary les-sons and nations would never go towar again. And if perchance theyever did, they would do so withinthe parameters set by InternationalLaw. Subsequent events have provedhow wrong they were. In the wakeof the nine-eleven events, all facets

they also observer Hussain A.S Dayas per official order. Due to suspen-sion of university registration pro-cess of the students of matric andintermediate thoughout Gilgit-Baltistan has become a serious prob-lem. The students are not surewhether they will be able to give ex-ams this year or not. Inspite claimsthe PPP government in Gilgit has to-tally failed to maintain the law andorder situation in the city.—Via email

Security &Police role

MUHAMMAD UZAIR NIAZI

The police force is a civil force in-stitute that maintains harmony, unityand firmness in the public. The po-lice department is responsible formaintaining rule and order but alsofor keeping together the trust of thegeneral man living in a state. Theirconduct towards society plays a sig-nificant function in fostering lawobedient approaches. The police de-partment in Pakistan needs solid andpositive changes so that they canprovide adequate safety to people.At the moment, the liaison betweenpolice and the citizens happens to befrightful in our country.

The approach of policemen to-wards their job is very casual. Thepolice do not enjoy the trust of thepopulation due to widespread dis-honesty and what is normally per-ceived by many as unfair reactiontowards people. The Communitygenerally prefers to resolve theirtroubles themselves, instead of tak-ing facilitation from the police. Thisinclination needs to be changed. Thefunctioning of Pakistani police is notup to the mark and Pakistan isamongst those states where peopleleast trust the police. Due to their in-effectiveness and dishonesty, theyare losing their reliability.

There is a need that policemenshould bring a modification in theirapproach towards the community.This transformation will facilitate toperk up the all over law and orderstate of our country. There must bea positive collaboration level link-ing both the policemen and citizensso that both can carry out their du-ties and also accept their responsi-bilities for a good and progressivesociety.

Additional, the capability of thepolice is guarded by political exploi-tation, the lack of forensic services,insufficient training and weaknessesin the legal spheres.—Mianwali

Situationin SindhHASHIM ABRO

There is collapse of, more or less,all the institutions and organiza-tions in Sindh province. This un-usual situation has unleashed itsgreedy and - above all - its suicidalpower. The belief is now that ev-erything - and everyone - is fairgame in the province.

There is extreme poverty andoutbreaks of epidemics in the ruralareas of the province. There is noproper health infrastructure in therural areas. Hospitals are turnedinto political, corruption and crimehubs. No hospital in the provincehas requisite skilled and semi-skilled manpower including medi-cal officers, surgeons, physicians,specialists, paramedical staff andalso necessary medicines. More orall less all ambulances are out oforder and those which are roadworthy, are being used by the ac-tivists of the political parties andother people of clout. Every daydozens of people die without propertreatment in the hospitals. The hy-giene and sanitation conditions aredeplorable in all hospitals.

Several cities, towns and vil-lages are deprived of potable waterfacility. It is noticed that the peopleare using contaminated and toxicwater in different parts of the prov-ince. Even in my home districtLarkano where hospital, domesticand industrial waste has made theunderground water contaminatedand toxic. Thanks to Right BankOutfall Drain (RBOD) and LeftBank Outfall Drain ( LBOD) whichhave soiled and polluted under

President Obama: New challenges

President Obama used ThomasPaine’s “Common Sense” andthe American Declaration of In-

dependence to recall, We the People,time and again in his inaugural ad-dress but did not compare what wentwrong with his own policies and prac-tices during the first term of office;and how he would envisage changeunder strains of complex multipleproblems - from continuing boguswars on terror, American losses of lifeand material to freedom from exploi-tation, human dignity, security andfiscal black hole of 16 trillion dollarsset to besiege the futuristic Americangenerations. Nobody questioned whythe future generations should be vic-timized by the false flags and venge-ful individualistic policies of thepresent and failure to deal with theprevalent realities of today.

President Obama spoke of vigi-lance and truth and coming to terms

with the changing fortunes of time, bututterly failed to demonstrate proactiverational passion for facts of life war-ranting navigational change and adapt-ability to the future and how he as aleader will transfer words into actions.During his first term of office and atthe first inaugural address, he madeinspiring statements and commitmentsto change America and its politics “YesWE CAN”, but rescinded most under-takings from his promised actions.Leaders when faced with adversity andcritical challenges prefer facts over fic-tion and pursue navigational changeto ensure a sustainable future.

Professor Michel Chossudovskyof Global Research (“The ObamaSpectacle: Nobody Likes a Liar”,Global Research: 1/21/2013), asks:“So who is really the man being soshamelessly celebrated across medianetworks today? Who is the persononce again elected to lead the world’smost powerful nation — or at leastthe well-armed — into the future?”The question is rational and impor-tant one from a realist human perspec-tive. Whenever in America a new

leader is sworn-in, the incoming willsay goodbye to the outgoing presi-dent and show moral decency to ac-company the outgoing leader to hiswaiting helicopter or motorcade.How did Obama, the 44th Presidentsay goodbye to Obama, the 43rdPresident? Were there any momentsof self- reflection and self-actualiza-tion to phase-in the body and spiritof new Obama and to phase-out theold and somewhat mythical first col-ored President Obama?

Was there any self-questioningand challenging split second mo-ments of a conflicting time zone thatObama the 44th president was walk-ing along the Obama 43rd ex-presi-dent in search of a new beginning?During his first term, PresidentObama could not claim any majormoral or intellectual achievements orthe role-play of an effective and in-formed leadership. He claimed to bea man of peace but acted like self-centered, unimaginative and vindic-tive president. Undoubtedly leader-ship is an art and intelligent ones arealways eager to improve it and be

of International humanitarian lawhave been allowed to fall by thewayside, unlamented and unsung.The ‘war on terror’ has completedmany more years with nary a signof a denouement in sight. Thewhole scenario leaves a person insome doubt as to whether the WOTis here to stay for all times to come.Provides a person food for thought,does it not? After all even each ofthe two World Wars ended withina matter of six years; and here theworld is witnessing a conflict thatappears to be open-ended.

Wags used to say that, since thetwo World Wars were fought on theterritory of the First World, the pow-ers that be would see to it that thesucceeding wars are diverted to theterritories of the Third World. Thisis precisely what has happened. Isthe world well into World War III?If only the leaders of the ThirdWorld had the foresight and thegumption to avert this disastroushappening! Even now it may not betoo late. All that is needed is a bit ofintrospection and the will to rightthe wrongs. Meanwhile, conflict inour region goes on unabated, whilethe United Nations basks in theglory of its erstwhile Nobel PeacePrize. In case public opinion hasforgotten, Nobel laureate PresidentObama too has yet to demonstratethe raison d’etre of his ‘award inanticipation’. Or is the world beingpresented with a brand new defini-tion of world peace?

Harsh V Pant

groundwater in the northern andsouthern Sindh districts. The riverIndus and its canals and channelshave been polluted and the peopleliving at the tail-end are left with nooption but to use contaminated andtoxic water. Different oil and gasdrilling and exploring companieshave also played their part to destroythe ecology and environment of theprovince.

Teens are being kidnapped andkilled. More than a dozen gruesomecases are reported during the lastweek from different parts of theprovince but the rulers have donenothing to control the situation. Girls–children are being abducted, gangraped and butchered but relevant or-ganizations are playing a role of si-lent spectator.

Illegal aliens and extremistsfrom the troubled parts of the tribalareas and other parts of the countryare pouring in the northern andsouthern districts and they are usingall devilish tricks to promote intol-erance and extremism so as to dis-turb the mystic milieu and pacifistSindhi society but who cares?

Fake seeds, fertilizers, insecti-cides and pesticides are being soldout which have destroyed the ecol-ogy and the fertility of fertile fieldsin the province. Fake and spuriousmedicines are being sold outthrough the length and breadth ofthe province and those haveclaimed several thousands lives sofar but unfortunately our relevanthealth and pharmaceutical organi-zations are in a slumber. They areconcerned with their commissionsand kickbacks and the lives of poorinnocent people do not hold anyimportance in their eyes.

Our indifferent, insensitive, in-active and inert rulers- those in theprovincial capital, Karachi- are busyeither in minting money or tryingto attract a cruel and callous lot ofwaderas ( feudal lords) and theirtouts so that they win the upcomingpolls –not on the basis of their per-formance but means of tyranny andterror in the constituency.

Unfortunately, my Sindh hassuffered during all past dictatorial re-gimes but the way it has sufferedduring this elected governmentwhich is about to complete its fiveyears- one who is sitting inIslamabad can not get to the bottom.Lawlessness, anarchy and chaosreigns in today’s Sindh but whocares about my Sindh?—Islamabad

Give usour dignity

AFNAN AHMAD

Pakistan is an atomic power, a well-known country with lots of re-sources. However, in the past fewyears, due to terrorism, our dignityand respect have vanished the worldover. This sense of terrorism is cre-ating major problems for the peoplewho are studying abroad or are earn-ing a living. One of my friends isstudying in Canada. He is trying tosearch for a job there. According tohim, he has given many interviewsat different places such as hotels,parks and petrol pumps but the onlyreason for him not being able to geta job is that he is a Pakistani. Hebelongs to a village. His parents soldtheir land and spent all their moneyfor his studies abroad. The parentshave a dream: that their son is liv-ing the life of a king.

However, he has been strug-gling for a job for the past 11months. He is now planning tocome back to Pakistan, leaving hisstudies incomplete because his re-sources will not be able to meet hisneeds without him having a stablejob. His last words were, “Pakistangave me nothing.” Is this the ideol-ogy we are giving to our youth? Wedo not need laptops and cars. Firstgive us our dignity.—Lahore

in Indian circles as sympathetic toPakistan’s viewpoint. He helped bro-ker the release of the CIA contrac-tor, Raymond Davis, arrested onsuspicion of murder and also laterpersuaded Pakistani officials to re-turn parts of a US stealth helicopterthat crashed during the May 2011raid on Abbottabad.

In short, Mr. Kerry seems al-ways willing to talk to Islamabad,which is why India’s hyperactivemedia have already labelled him asa friend of Pakistan. As the Timesof India commented, “Pakistan haspowerful supporters in Washingtonwho have pressed for ladling out UStax dollars in the belief that Americaneeds to remain invested in the coun-try, none more than Senator JohnKerry.” The Kerry-Lugar-Bermanact in 2009, bearing his name, thatauthorized a $7.5 billion financialaid package to Pakistan doesn’t help.So Indians infer that Mr. Kerry isunfriendly toward Delhi.

The US is preparing for its mili-tary withdrawal from Afghanistan in2014. Earlier this month, whenPresident Obama hosted HamidKarzai at the White House, he wentas far as to say that there would

hardly be a residual force in Afghani-stan after 2014. It was John Kerrywho long ago dubbed the Afghanwar “unsustainable,” and it doesn’tbode well that Washington is com-ing around to this dovish consensus.New Delhi has been warily antici-pating this turn in American policy,worried that Washington will againcosy up to Islamabad. Indians seeWashington’s refusal last week toextradite David Coleman Headley—one of the planners of the 2008Mumbai attacks—to India, as wellas its grant of immunity to twoformer generals of Pakistan’s intel-ligence services for their alleged in-volvement in those terror attacks, aspart of this bigger change.

India’s other worry is the returnof the Taliban. Pakistan is leverag-ing its role in the ongoing transitionin Afghanistan by releasing someTaliban leaders and expressing itssupport for a negotiated settlementthere. Islamabad wants to let theTaliban and the Haqqani networkloose in post-2014 Afghanistan, soit can exercise control over Kabul.All this leaves India out of the Af-ghan picture, even though Mr.Karzai has wished for an Indian

presence to counterbalance Pakistan.The more dominant Pakistan

feels in the neighbourhood, the moreit may be willing to risk confronta-tion with India. Witness the recentceasefire violations on the de factoborder between India and Pakistanin Kashmir. In a future confronta-tion, Delhi may want to retaliate—and it’s concerned Mr. Kerry willpressure it to back off. Thatsaid, New Delhi has not helped itscause either. Prime MinisterManmohan Singh’s government lastyear turned down Defence SecretaryLeon Panetta’s overtures for Indiato be part of the Asia pivot. Becauseof such political dithering, Mr. Singhhas allowed a constituency to growin Washington that doubts India’sability to emerge as America’s stra-tegic partner in Asia.

The new secretary of state willhave to make major overtures toDelhi if the Obama administrationwants to preserve the gains it hasmade with India in the last fouryears. And India will have to reactwith a greater sense of urgency. Thewriter is a professor of defence stud-ies at King’s College, London.Courtesy: The Wall Street Journal

effective for ultimate success.Surely, his words echo the intellectand wisdom of a smart person.

President Obama shall bearwitness to the ever challengingfacts of global affairs that historywill judge him by his actions, notby his inaugural day claims. Heechoed the words, pains and pas-sion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.but failed to demonstrate any co-hesive relationship to his idealsand human concerns for equality,peace, justice and his dream of anew America. Did he think to re-flect on his role and performance- what he has done to favor theAmerican masses and the largerglobal mankind so intrinsically af-filiated with the American histori-cal ideals of freedom, liberty andjustice? American duplicity and po-litical intransigence have lost thestrategic direction and rational senseof glory and triumph in honoring itscommitments to stop the War onTerror, peace, coexistence andbroader friendly relations with thenations of the world.

She’s packing. I stand at thedoorway of her room andwatch as she carefully, dili-

gently packs her two suitcases; Iknow most of her clothes, even theoccasions she wore each one, quiteoften watching her going to a partyor college, waving goodbye fromthe window.

Now I watch her packing sameclothes and many more she’s boughtrecently from foreign shores where

she goes back to study. Where didtime go, I wonder. Did I see her growup? Was it so I didn’t notice? Or wasI blind, paying attention to my ownlife, my worries, my problems?

Did I watch her first baby steps?Hold her hand after her first big fightin school? Was I there when she firstbroke up?

I can hardly remember, and shud-der guiltily. I am reminded of an in-cident: An old man was sits with histwenty-year old son in a train.

As the train starts the young manseems filled with lots of joy and cu-riosity. He puts a hand outside thebogey, feels the passing air andshouts, “Dad see all the trees are go-ing behind” The old man besides him,

smiles and looks at his son with af-fection. A couple sitting and listen-ing to the conversion between fatherand son feel a little awkward watch-ing the son behaving like a smallchild. Suddenly the young man shoutsagain, “Dad see the pond and animals.The clouds are moving with thetrain”. The couple watches the youngman in embarrassment.

Now it’s raining and some of theraindrops touch the young man’shand. He is filled with joy and closeshis eyes and whispers,” It’s raining,the water is touching me, see Dad”.

The couple can’t help themselvesand ask the old man. “Why don’t yousee a doctor and get some treatmentfor your son?” The old man smiles

Let’s open our eyes..!and says, ”That’s why he’s sohappy, we are coming from the hos-pital. Today my son got back hiseyesight for the first time in hislife!” She’s packing.

I stand at the doorway of myyounger daughter’s room, andwatch as she carefully and dili-gently packs her two suitcases. Iwish I had been like that blind boywith his sight regained and havelived each moment of her life withher, I wish like the drops of rain onmy hand, I could have felt her joyand pain over the years. With tearsI walk towards her and give her ahug; it’s never too late for our eyesto open..!—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

Khalid SaleemEmail: binwakeel@yahoo.com

Friendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly FireFriendly Fire

Mahboob A Khwaja Email: kmaboob@yahoo.com

TIM ROSS

HOWEVER, up to 40 British personnelcould be deployed inside Mali itself witha further 200 poised to train troops fromother African countries for the mission,

Number 10 said. Some 70 personnel are alreadyin the region operating a Sentinel spyplane, while20 RAF crew are staffing a transport plane carry-ing equipment from France to Mali. The detailedbreakdown of Britain’s wider support to theFrench-led mission in Mali follows promises fromDavid Cameron that the UK’s troop commitmentwould be in the “tens”, rather than hundreds orthousands. Philip Hammond, the Defence Secre-tary, said he was alive to the risk of “mission creep”and would ensure that Britain is not dragged intocombat operations in West Africa French troopsencircle Timbuktu as fleeing Islamists burn scrolls28 Jan 2013 Mali: French troops march unopposedinto Timbuktu 28 Jan 2013

British troops to join Mali conflict 29 Jan 2013France envisages “a short intervention” to stabilisethe situation on the ground before African troopstake over, and the government agrees, he told MPsduring an urgent Commons debate on Mali. “It isnot our intention to deploy combat troops. We arevery clear about the risk of mission creep and wehave defined very carefully the support we arewilling and able to provide to the French and theMalian authorities,” he said. British troops willbe able to fire in “self defence” only during theirdeployment in Bamako, the Malian capital, wherethey are being protected by the French, MrHammond said. He confirmed that no UK troopswould provide “force protection” for Europeantrainers in Mali. That means the UK is likely torely on French forces to protect British trainers.

No UK troops would be sent to the country aspart of the EU training mission until the govern-

ment is satisfied that “adequate force protectionmeasures are in place”, Mr Hammond said. ButJohn Baron, a Tory MP, warned Mr Hammond ofmission creep: “One can be drawn in to ever deeper

conflicts.” At a regular briefing for journalists inWestminster, Mr Cameron’s spokesman disclosedthat British involvement in the Mali operationswould include: :: up to 40 military experts to trainMalian troops as part of a European Union mis-sion, which is still being discussed :: Up to 200UK personnel are being offered to a wider mis-

sion to Africa, outside Mali, to train troops fromother African nations who will then go into Mali ::70 UK personnel already staffing a Sentinel spyplane, who the Defence Secretary said were based

in Senegal. :: About 20 RAF crew operating a C-17 transport plane, which will remain in Mali forthree months

:: An offer of a roll-on, roll-off ferry to shipFrench equipment by sea to Mali :: The offer of UKfacilities for Britain’s “allies” – thought to includethe United States – to mount air-to-air refuelling

operations. This will mean that up to 130 Britishpersonnel will be inside Mali, with 200 more else-where in Africa on related training activities. Num-ber 10 said it was not yet clear whether any wouldtake on a “force protection” role, with the expecta-tion that they would clash with the enemy. Mr

Cameron’s spokesman defended the deepening Brit-ish military involvement in the Malian conflict. “Itis in the international community’s interests to sup-port the Malian government and the wider regionin dealing with terrorist havens and that is exactlywhat we are doing,” he said. British officials willdiscuss sending military trainers to support a WestAfrican intervention force in Mali today. Up to 200troops could be involved in helping the planned re-gional (Ecowas) force take over from the Frenchwho have driven back the rebels from large swathesof the north of the country.

Hugh Powell, Britain’s deputy national secu-rity director, will discuss the potential UK contri-bution at an international donors conference for Malihosted, by the African Union, in the Ethiopian capi-tal, Addis Ababa. At the same time in Brussels, de-fence officials will be discussing details of theplanned European Union training mission to buildup the Malian army, which could include up to 40British personnel.

Mr Cameron has assured the French Presi-dent, Francois Hollande, that Britain is “keen” tohelp Paris with its military mission. The RAF has

already provided two heavy-lift C-17 transportplanes and a Sentinel surveillance aircraft to assistFrance’s operation. The National Security Adviser,Sir Kim Darroch, was in Paris yesterday to discusswhat further help may be offered. Mr Cameron hassaid the UK is ready to offer logistical, intelligence

and surveillance help to France, although he hasruled out a combat role for British troops. As Frenchtroops swept into the historic city of Timbuktu, theformer head of the British Army, General Sir MikeJackson, warned that nations involved may face a“protracted guerrilla warfare”.

“It doesn’t really surprise me that the BritishGovernment feels it needs to be seen to be help-ing,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.“We cannot let states fail because we know fromrecent history that failed states just lead to reallydifficult circumstances, instability. “What Mali andFrance, and indeed other countries who may chooseto assist may face, of course, is a protracted guer-rilla warfare taking place away from theconurbations.” The Prime Minister’s officialspokesman said “discussions are still ongoing” overhow long British personnel would be deployed inAfrica on the Mali operation. The three-month de-ployment of the RAF C-17 would be kept “underreview”, he said.Mali could become “Britain’s Viet-nam” a former Labour Cabinet minister has sug-gested.

—Courtesy The Telegraph

Frank Dobson gave the warning after the Government an-nounced that hundreds of British troops will go to West Africa to

support the fight against al Qaeda. Speaking in the Commons,Mr Dobson told Mr Hammond that the British role could grow:

“The American catastrophe in Vietnam started off with Americantroops in a training capacity.”

LUCAS BENTO & DANIEL FIRGER

BUT the United States wouldneed to consider theconsquences...and what happens next. On December 12,

2012, after 14 years of trials and failures,North Korea finally put a satellite into or-bit around the Earth. The Unha-3 rocketused to deliver this payload which was os-tensibly launched for weather trackingpurposes is functionally equivalent to aballistic missile, and South Korea was

quick to note that its successful launchproves that Pyongyang can now reach tar-gets at a distance exceeding 10,000 km(6,200 miles), putting much of the west-ern coast of the continental United Stateswithin striking distance. On January 22,2013, the UN Security Council swiftly

passed Resolution 2087, which condemnedthe launch. North Korea has since ex-pressed its firm determination to continuepursuing its nuclear program.

Some experts warn that North Koreais only a few years away from mountinga nuclear warhead on a missile. Othersdoubt its technological capabilities. In-deed, less than a week after the launch of

Can the US Legally Shoot Down ANorth Korean Rocket?

the Unha-3, U.S. astronomers pointed outthat the celebrated satellite appeared to be“dead” and “tumbling” through its orbit.Although the Unha-3 satellite itself maypose no direct threat, it likely part of along-term strategy to further developPyongyang’s ballistic missile capabilities.If North Korea launches an improvedUnha-3, -4 or -5 rocket later this year,could the U.S. preemptively shoot it outof the skies? Would it? While the U.S.undoubtedly has the capacity to destroy aNorth Korean satellite, may it legally do

so? Under international law, the answeris less than straightforward. Pyongyangis already in breach of UN Security Coun-cil Resolutions 1718 and 1874, whichbroadly provide that North Korea mustrefrain from launching ballistic missiles.Adopted unanimously in October 2006,

Resolution 1718 imposed sanctions onNorth Korea following its nuclear testearlier that year. The Resolution statesthat North Korea “must not conduct anyfurther nuclear test or launch of a ballis-tic missile.” Resolution 1874, adoptedunanimously in June 2009, imposed fur-ther sanctions and obligations onPyongyang following another nuclear test

in May 2009. That resolution authorizesstates to inspect North Korean cargo onland, sea and air, and to destroy any goodssuspected of being connected to its nuclearprogram.

But it’s not clear whether Resolution1874 extends to outer space. If so, it couldprovide a legal basis for the U.S. to “seizeand dispose of” a suspicious North Ko-rean satellite. If not, Pyongyang may geta free pass for future space launches. Amore controversial legal justification forthe destruction of North Korean spacetechnology is the doctrine of anticipatoryself-defense. Article 51 of the UN Char-ter, which governs (and largely prohibits)the use of force to settle international con-flicts, affirms the “inherent right of indi-vidual or collective self-defense if anarmed attack occurs against a member ofthe United Nations.” Unlike many othernations, the U.S. has long held that, con-sistent with Article 51 and customary in-ternational law, a state may use force inself-defense if it has been attacked or ifan armed attack is legitimately deemed tobe imminent.

Imminence is a thorny concept, how-ever. As anyone who has seen “Dr.Strangelove” can grasp, once a nuclear at-tack is underway, it may be too late to takeeffective self-defense measures. But shortof an immediate threat, where should astate draw the line between so-called le-gitimate anticipatory self-defense, whichseeks to preempt a truly imminent attack,and illegitimate measures that merely seekto prevent a possible but by no means cer-tain threat? Recent debates about the pre-emptive use of force are not much help.

Advocates of the 2003 invasion of Iraqstudiously avoided Article 51, relying in-stead on Iraq’s violation of several Secu-rity Council Resolutions as grounds for war.Current discussions about the murky legal-ity of an attack on Iranian nuclear facilitiesare more on point, although, according tothe U.S. itself, Iran does not have nuclearweapons, could not build a nuclear weaponanytime soon, and is not currently tryingto do so. North Korea is different. Thecountry has already tested nuclear weap-ons, and now has a ballistic missile at leasttheoretically capable of delivering a nuclearwarhead, if it were ever to acquire one, toU.S. soil and some of its allies, such asSouth Korea and Japan.

—[Lucas Bento is an attorney at aninternational law firm in New York,specializing in international disputesand international arbitration. Daniel

Firger is an attorney at an interna-tional law firm in New York and a

former postdoctoral research scholarat Columbia Law School].

To extend such precedents to outer space couldinadvertently encourage other nations to militarizeand accelerate their space programs, inviting new

and dangerous forms of international conflict whilesaddling the U.S. with the largely thankless and

extremely costly task of patrolling the outer bound-aries of the exosphere, as it now does the world’s

major sea lanes.

DAVID NALLY

WITH the launch of the“Enough Food for Everyone IF” campaign, globalfood security is once again

high on the public agenda. The UK cam-paign hopes to mobilise massive publicsupport leading up to the scheduled meet-ing of the G8 in Enniskillen in June thisyear, trying to replicate the considerablesuccess of the Make Poverty Historymovement in 2005. One of the key pillarsof the IF Campaign is land, and drawingattention to the plight of poor farmers whoare being forced to relinquish their prop-erty in what has been described as a neo-colonial “land grab”. We have, of course,seen processes of alienation and dispos-session accelerating over the last century.In The Age of Extremes, the final volumein his much-fêted quartet of books, pub-lished in 1994, historian Eric Hobsbawmdeclared that the “death of the peasantry”constituted “the most dramatic and far-reaching social change of the second halfof this [twentieth] century”, sealing “usoff forever from the world of the past”.“The peasantry,” Hobsbawm continued,“which had formed the majority of thehuman race throughout recorded history,had been made redundant by the agricul-tural revolution.”

While many on the left felt that thiswas a premature obituary, several com-mentators on the right saw the demise ofthe peasantry as an essential precursor toprogress and prosperity. In the pages ofthe American magazine Foreign Affairs,Paul Collier, an Oxford don and formerDirector of the Research DevelopmentDepartment at the World Bank, mocked“the middle- and upper class love affairwith peasant agriculture” and the view that“peasants, like pandas, are to be pre-served”. Given the present food crisis,Collier announced, support for small-scalefarming marks a “retreat into romanti-cism”. In Collier’s view, “the world needsmore commercial farms, not less”.Collier’s remarks are only the latest in-stalment in a long history of disparagingsmall farmers. Victorian elites castigatedin equal measure Indian ryot farmers, Irishcottier tenants and African sharecroppersas primitive, idle, mendacious and im-provident. To imperial eyes they weresymbols of obsolescence, no more capableof agricultural improvement than the dodowas capable of flight. And as with thedodo their future would be short-lived;extinction was the inevitable and naturaldénouement. Famines usually did thetrick.

uch the same narrative thatcharacterised the colonial period carriedover into the Green Revolution, as “de-peasantisation” became the sine qua non

Empty Words Won’t Fill Hungry Stomachsfor agricultural development. The push forhigher yields and greater agricultural pro-ductivity required a strong agricultural sup-port structure, including expensive pesti-cides, herbicides, fertilisers and regular ir-rigation, much of which was beyond thecapacity of small-scale growers. It didn’thelp that influential voices within the

Rockefeller and Ford Foundations - the keyagents introducing high-tech plant breed-ing and industrial farming to the globalSouth - dismissed rural peasants as humanobstacles to agricultural modernisation.

At first blush a new report by the WorldEconomic Forum’s “New Vision for Agri-culture” [PDF], launched last week to co-incide with its annual meeting in Davos,promises a break in this spiral of misan-

thropic thought. Recognising that the planetis home to some 500 million smallholders- who support two billion people, accountfor 97 percent of global agricultural hold-ings, and produce food for almost 70 per-cent of the world’s population - the reportstresses the importance of “collaborativeaction” with smallholders to deliver foodsecurity, economic opportunity and envi-ronmental sustainability. No longer fos-sils from by-gone era, smallholders areidentified as “change agents” and future“catalysts” in the business of agriculturaltransformation. The report insists that“smallholder-inclusive” projects can bedevised in partnership with private sectorinvestors, governments and civil society

organisations. With the right incentivesthose projects can then be scaled-up to theregional and national level, promoting pov-erty reduction and comprehensive ruraldevelopment. “Step Up to Scale Up” is theclunky new buzzword, but is this really adeparture from old practice - a genuinely“a new vision for agriculture”?

Firstly, partnership, as envisioned inthis report, is clearly a David-meets-Goliathtype alliance. Though local businesses andindigenous farmers frame the picture, it isglobal agribusiness that dominates theview. Can smallholders really have a voicewhen faced with the collective bargainingpower of Bunge, Cargill, Coca-Cola Com-pany, Diageo, DuPont, General Mills,Monsanto Company, Unilever, and Wal-

Mart - just a few of the 28 partner compa-nies that drive the initiative? Genuinelyinclusive “bottom-up” decision-makingneeds to be distinguished from the platitu-dinous rhetoric of development partner-ships and participation, which all too oftenmasks the vast asymmetries of power be-tween participants. What makes us evenmore cautious about the feel-good languageof partnership is the issue of trust, or moreprecisely the absence of it. STo preventgrowers from “illegally” using their seeds,Monsanto Company continues to carry outrandom farm inspections and regularlythreatens growers with lawsuits over theterms of use of its patented crops.

—Courtesy GPF

ALFRED GUSENBAUER

AS is customary at the start of a new year,imposing statistics and trend forecastsare being trumpeted worldwide. For example, in 2016, China is expected to re-

place the United States as the world’s largesteconomy. And, by 2040, India’s population willhave reached 1.6 billion, surpassing China’s, whichwill have stagnated a decade earlier. Perhaps themost startling projection is that the U.S. will be-come an energy exporter by 2020, and will becomeenergy self-sufficient 15 years later, owing to theplentiful supply of inexpensive shale gas and thediscovery of massive oil reserves everywhere fromNorth Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico. Despite op-position from environmental groups, these reserveswill be easier to exploit than those in Europe, be-cause they are largely located in sparsely populatedareas. As a result, energy will be significantlycheaper in the U.S. than in Europe or China for theforeseeable future. Indeed, shale-gas extraction isso economically favorable that even American gasexported to Europe would cost 30 percent less thanwhat the Russian energy giant Gazprom currentlycharges.

Cheap energy provides a powerful incentive forenergy-intensive industries ̄ from steel and glassto chemicals and pharmaceuticals ¯ to locate inthe U.S. In fact, the decreased cost of manufactur-ing in America, combined with the country’s busi-

ness-friendly regulations, strong rule of law, andpolitical stability, will eliminate the competitiveadvantage that has driven China’s rapid economicgrowth over the last several decades. Meanwhile,American universities still attract the world’s bestand brightest in many fields, most notably in sci-ence and technology. And the country’s otherlongstanding advantages ̄ flexibility, capacity forrenewal, economic mobility, international regula-tory strength, and the world’s main reserve currency

¯ remain in place.Given these favorable conditions, the U.S. has

already begun “on-shoring” its industry ¯ a pro-cess that will most likely continue for several de-cades. As other advanced economies become in-creasingly services-based, the U.S. is

reindustrializing. The resulting added value willbolster policymakers’ ability to find long-term so-lutions to persistent problems, including an ineffi-cient health care system, inadequate primary andsecondary education, and blatant social injustice.Success in these areas would further enhanceAmerica’s appeal as an industrial center.

As part of the Harvard Business School’s U.S.Competiveness Project, Michael Porter and JanRivkin recently published an eight-point plan, which

could be implemented within the next two to threeyears. Each proposed measure has generated broad,bipartisan agreement among policymakers (at leastbehind closed doors). The plan highlights the needto take advantage of the opportunities afforded byshale gas and newly discovered oil reserves. Low-

cost domestic energy could help to lower the tradedeficit, spur investment, and decrease America’seconomic exposure to volatile oil-exporting coun-tries. A strong federal regulatory framework couldhelp to ensure this result, while minimizing the en-vironmental and safety risks associated with extrac-tion.

Other proposals include easing the immigrationof highly skilled individuals, particularly graduatesfrom U.S. universities; addressing distortions in in-

ternational trade and investment; developing a moresustainable federal budget framework; streamliningtaxes and regulations; and initiating an ambitiousinfrastructure program. By pursuing these strategies,President Barack Obama could restore America’sposition as the engine of the global economy. But

implementing the eight policy proposals would alsowiden further the wealth gap between the U.S. andEurope, which has been growing for the last threedecades. In 1980-2005, the U.S. economy grewby a factor of 4.45 ¯ a level that no major Euro-pean economy even approached. In 2011, Norwayand Luxemburg were the only European countrieswith higher per capita national income than the U.S.in purchasing power parity terms. And, by 2040,European countries’ populations will have stag-nated or shrunk (with the exception of the UnitedKingdom, which will have a population of roughly75 million, comparable to Germany), whileAmerica’s will have grown to 430 million, from314 million today.

The political consequences of the U.S.economy’s renewed strength will reverberateworldwide. But maintaining this economic revivalwill require greater reluctance to intervene in for-eign conflicts or engage in new wars. This recog-nition has already dampened U.S. policy supportfor the Arab Spring uprisings: witness Obama’shesitation to intervene in Libya and his unwilling-ness, at least so far, to involve America directly inSyria’s bloody civil war. Although the ArabSpring’s historic significance was initially likenedto that of the fall of the Berlin Wall, mounting con-cern about the Muslim Brotherhood’s increasingpolitical influence is overshadowing the positivepotential of change in the region.

—Courtesy Korea Herald

Given this, America’s foreign-policy priorities have shifted to the Asia-Pacific region, where themost pressing economic, political, and security challenges including the threat of North Korean

missiles and rising tensions between China and its neighbors over competing sovereignty claimsin the South and East China Seas are emerging. Other global challenges appear relatively minor in

comparison. Although the weight of global politics, economics, and, in turn, influence is largelyshifting from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it would be a mistake to underestimate America’s role in

the new world order.

More than 300 UK troops set for Mali mission

British troops could travel to Mali to support the French in their fight against militants in thecountry.

The American comeback kid

What the company describes as “supply chainoptimisation” means that small growers and food

producers must bear the brunt of its efforts to maintainlow prices at the till. If past record is any indication of

future conduct we ought to approach the promisesemanating from Davos with great scepticism.

South Korea is preparing to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it strays intothe South’s territory..

World should care for hungry stomachs….

politicians of the Hazara region,belonging to various politicalparties are more interested in per-sonal power and profit than wellbeing of the their fellow poorpeople. “The proposed HazaraProvince holds hope for thedowntrodden and less fortunatepeople of the region”, heemphasised.

Baba Haider Zaman said, “Ibelieve that apart from our de-mand, there must be more prov-inces wherever it is feasible andin people’s interest”. He howeverstressed that new provinces mustnot be created on the sole basisof language or ethnicity. “Theprovinces so created would resultin fanning of linguistic superior-ity or ethnic complexes and ha-treds. “Name of any new prov-ince should not smell ‘ethnic orlinguistic complex”, he observed.“Otherwise the other ethnic andlinguistic groups would feelalienated”, he said. He pointed

History, geography, people’s willat our back: Baba Haider Zaman

From Page 1out that in the ‘Hazara Province’there would be mostly Hindko-speaking people but quite a num-ber of people would be speakingPashto, Gojri and Shina lan-guages. “The identity of thepeople of our Hazara Provincewould be linked to the land notto the ethnicity”, he said.

Baba Haider Zaman recalledthat the people of Hazara hadplayed historic role by voting forPakistan in the referendum heldby the British to decide the fateof erstwhile NWFP. He saidHazara, after its emergence as aprovince would be able to greatlycontribute to the solidarity,strength and prosperity of Paki-stan. “Small provinces, fulfillingrational imperatives in terms ofgeography, history, resources andaspirations of the people are needof the hour in our country”,Haider Zaman said, expressinghis belief that such provinceswould usher in a new era of not

only local but also nationalprogress.

The leader of the HazaraProvince Movement, HaiderZaman was asked a question inthe end as to what was his visionof would-be Hazara Province re-garding prosperity of the people.He said: “Our vision is based onfour Es: Exploitation of re-sources, focusing on Environ-ment, Energy and Education.We’ll preserve our beautiful for-ests, we’ll produce large quantityof hydel power by using our wa-ter resources and build educa-tional institutions for the devel-opment of our human resources”.“Educated and skilled people ofour region would make use ofvast natural resources for devel-opment. “We’ll also focus ondevelopment of tourism, makingour province a replica of Swit-zerland. These are our dreamsand they are not beyondrealisation”.

Bugti should be registered, addedthat if the people elect their rep-resentatives through their votes,then issues would be resolved.

He stated that the democraticprocess should continue regard-less of situation.

The Chief Justice remarkedthat democracy should not faceany threats and should not bederailed, added that the federa-tion through the President took astep according to the constitutionpertaining to Balochistan crisis.

Counsel of Balochistan gov-ernment, Shahid Hamid was ofthe view that the federation’s stepto impose governor rule in theBalochistan province has notbeen challenged, except the factthat the Chief Minister has beenprevented from working.

Notification of the Governorrule imposed in Balochistanprovince was also presented be-fore the bench.

Then, SC ordered Chief Sec-retary Balochistan to eliminatereservations regarding voter listsexpressed by Talal Akbar Bugtiand sending of the previous or-der in the case to the Chief Elec-tion Commissioner. Then, the SCadjourned hearing of the case till15th Feb.—Online

canvassing within 400 yards ofa polling station including set-ting up of camps‚ and holdingpublic meetings before fortyeight hours of polling.

Incitement to violence orresort to violence during meet-ings‚ processions‚ or duringpolling hours shall be strictlyavoided by contesting candi-dates and their supporters. Theyshall not procure the support orassistance of any person in theservice of Pakistan to promoteor hinder the election of a con-testing candidate.

Contesting candidates shalldissuade their workers or sym-pathizers from destroying anyballot paper or any official markon the ballot paper.

No person or political partyor a contesting candidate andtheir supporters shall hoist or fixparty flags on any public prop-erty or at any public place‚ ex-cept with the permission in writ-ing from local government orauthorities and on payment ofsuch fee or charges as may bechargeable.

Wall chalking as part of anelection campaign shall be pro-hibited in all forms. Similarlyuse of loudspeaker shall not beallowed for election campaignexcept at the election meetings.

No person or a politicalparty shall affix posters‚ hoard-ings or banners larger than thesizes prescribed by the ElectionCommission.

The political parties shallnot indulge in offering gifts orgratifications or inducements toany person to stand or not to

EC issues conduct codefor general election

From Page 1stand as a candidate‚ or to with-draw or not to withdraw his can-didature.

After the announcement ofthe election schedule till the dayof polling‚ no candidate or anyperson on his behalf shall‚openly or in secret‚ give anydonation‚ or make promise forgiving donation to any institu-tion of their respective constitu-ency or to any other institution.

Contesting candidates andtheir supporters shall refrainfrom speeches calculated toarouse parochial and sectarianfeelings and controversy of con-flicts between genders‚ sects‚communities and linguisticgroups.

The political parties shallrefrain from deliberate dissemi-nation of false and maliciousinformation and shall not in-dulge in forgeries anddisinformation to defame otherpolitical parties.

Political parties shall not useany vehicle to transport to orfrom the polling station.

Political parties shall notpropagate against the participa-tion of any person in the elec-tions on the basis of gender‚ethnicity‚ religion or caste.

No transaction towardsthe election expenses shall bemade through an account otherthan the account opened for thepurpose.

The political parties shallextend all necessary help to lawenforcement agencies for pur-poses of ensuring the safety andsecurity of election materials‚election officials and polling

agents on polling day.The Political Parties shall

endeavor to provide equal op-portunity to its qualified mem-bers both men and women toparticipate in electoral process.

Issuing of advertisements atthe cost of public exchequer inthe newspapers and other mediaand misuse of official mass me-dia during the election period forpartisan coverage of politicalnews and publicity by the Fed-eral‚ Provincial and Local gov-ernments shall be prohibited.

There will be a completeban on carriage and display ofall kinds of weapons and firearms in public meetings and pro-cessions as well as on the poll-ing day and till twenty fourhours after the consolidation ofofficial results

The President‚ Prime Min-ister‚ Chairman‚ Deputy Chair-man of Senate ‚ Speakers andDeputy Speakers‚ Federal Min-isters‚ Ministers of State‚ Gov-ernors‚ Chief Ministers‚ Provin-cial Ministers and Advisors tothe Prime Minister and the ChiefMinisters‚ and other public of-fice holders shall not participatein election campaign in anymanner whatsoever.This provi-sion will also be applicable tothe Caretaker setup.

All Governments’ function-aries including local govern-ments’ functionaries shall notannounce any developmentscheme or do anything whichtends to influence the results ofan election in favor of or againsta particular candidate or politi-cal party. —NNI

drops and that mostly comprisefemale health volunteers, wereattacked by the unknown terror-ists for continuous five days inthe third week of December lastyear in parts of KhyberPukhtunkhwa includingPeshawar, Charsadda andRisalpur as well as Karachi.Around ten polio workers,mostly female, were killed andmany others sustained seriousinjuries in the assaults against thePolio workers which had not onlysent a wave of terror, anxiety andharassment among the Polio staffin the country but had also at-tracted serious concern of the in-ternational community

That had also forced the UNto withdraw its staff facilitatingPolio vaccination in Pakistan andthe field staffers of World HealthOrganization (WHO) andUNICEF were directed to sus-pend their activities with regardto Polio campaign.

However, the activities ofdispensing the Polio drops wereresumed after the governmentannounced security for the Polioworkers and deputed a policeman with every team dispensingPolio drops in every part of thecountry.

Reports reaching here fromSwabi district said a polio vacci-nation team comprising femaleworkers, accompanied by policemen, was performing duty inGulo Dheri in Punj Peer area ofSwabi district when unknownarmed assaulters attacked thepolio staff leaving a police menrecognized as Munsif Ali deadand a lady vaccinator wounded.She was rushed to hospital fortreatment where her conditionwas declared out of danger.

“A Polio team performing theduty on foot was attacked by thetwo terrorists riding on the mo-torbikes when it was dispensingPolio drops in Gulo Dheri in PunjPeer area in the morning”. TheDeputy Commissioner Swabi saidadding the Police man guardingthe team was killed on the spotwhile a lady worker receivedwounds. It was also reported thatfollowing the incident the law en-forcers kicked off search opera-tion against the terrorists attack-ing the Polio team, yet the mis-creants remained at large.

Swabi, also witnessed abloody terrorist attack on a teamof an a NGO named SupportWith Working Solution in thefirst week of January 2013 thathad resulted in brutal killing ofseven people including six ladyworkers in the Ambaar area.

Polio teamFrom Page 1

SC ordersFrom Page 1

cases against him within 45days.

Sources said, a three-mem-ber team of law enforcementofficials from Pakistan had ar-rested the former Ogra chairmanin Abu Dhabi with assistancefrom local police.

Authorities are makingpreparations to bring the formerofficial back to Pakistan.

Last week, the SupremeCourt had ordered the NAB tofile within a week two corrup-tion references in the caseagainst Sadiq.

One of the references or-dered to be filed points a fingerat the prime minister who hadallegedly approved Sadiq’s ap-pointment as chairman of theOgra. The other is against theofficials who are accused of ob-structing investigations againstSadiq and facilitating his es-cape from the country.

They include Interior Min-ister Rehman Malik and Paki-stan People’s Party’s seniorleader Jehangir Badar who is aclose relative of Sadiq.

Former OgraFrom Page 1

Burney callson KausarSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The renowned phi-lanthropist, Anwar Burney calledon the Khyber-PakhtunkhwaGovernor, Barrister MasoodKausar at Governor’s House,Peshawar on Tuesday evening.

He remained with the Gover-nor for some time and discussedmatters of mutual interest includ-ing restoration of peace; stepsagainst extremism and upholdinggenuine human rights. Burney ap-preciated the struggle of the Gov-ernor for that purpose.

formation Ministry. He has beenPIO as well as Press Secretary tothe Prime Minister in addition todoing various important assign-ments. A summary to this effecthas been sent to Prime Ministerfor approval.

Shabbir AnwarFrom Page 1

to get through it sooner or later.“Hence we should not lose hopeto make country a greater Paki-stan in the days to come”.

Appreciating the efforts ofthe Brands Foundation, ZahidMalik said that reckoning of theefforts of the private sectorthrough conferring Brands of theYear Award in fact adding valueto the skill of the private sectorin developing quality brands tograb a respectable share in theglobal market.

Expressing his hope in thecommitted people of Pakistanand plenty of resources the Al-lah Almighty has given to thiscountry, Zahid Malik said in afirm tone that all these resourcesalong with the divine supportwhich helped in creation of Pa-kistan is the extension of the hollyland of Madina having enoughcourage and strength to emergeas a strong nation among the co-mity of the nations.

Pak is destinedFrom Page 1

Due to clashes and worsen-ing law and order situation,people have started moving tosafer places. Dozens of familieshave already left the area whilemigration of several others wasunderway.

The affected population wasalso facing difficulty in move-ment and relocation due to nonavailability of transport and fearof attacks on them.—INP

4 Aman LashkarFrom Page 1

WASHINGTON—Transporta-tion Secretary Ray LaHood, theonly Republican still in Presi-dent Barack Obama’s first-termCabinet, said Tuesday he plansto leave the administration. Hismove continues an exodus thatwill give Obama’s team a newlook in his second term.

The 67-year-old LaHood, aformer congressman from Illi-nois, pushed for greater safetyon the highways and in the air.

He led the TransportationDepartment throughoutObama’s first term and helpedsteer a campaign to curb dis-tracted driving, promote high-speed rail and repair roads andbridges.

Under his watch, the depart-ment demanded tougher fuel ef-ficiency requirements forautomakers and took steps toaddress airline pilot fatigue.Obama thanked LaHood in a

US Transportation Secretaryto leave administration

statement, saying they were“drawn together by a shared be-lief that those of us in public ser-vice owe an allegiance not toparty or faction, but to thepeople we were elected to rep-resent. And Ray has never wa-vered in that belief.”

LaHood said in an interviewwith The Associated Press thathe told Obama a week after theNovember election that heneeded to move on but said hewas still “conflicted” by his de-cision because he liked workingfor Obama and considered it the“best job I’ve ever had in publicservice.”

He said he plans to remainat the department until his suc-cessor is confirmed by the Sen-ate, which he expected in abouttwo months. The only otherRepublican who was inObama’s first-term Cabinetwas Defense Secretary Robert

Gates, who stepped aside andwas replaced by DemocratLeon Panetta earlier.

LaHood said he would notrun for public office in his homestate of Illinois and said he didnot have any specific plans.

“I have had a good run. I’mone of these people who believethat you should go out whilethey’re applauding,” he said.LaHood said he was content towatch from the sidelines as hisoldest son, Darin, serves in theIllinois state senate.

Obama is remaking hisCabinet at the beginning of hissecond term with the departuresof Secretary of State HillaryRodham Clinton, Panetta andTreasury Secretary TimothyGeithner. In addition to LaHood,the heads of the Interior and La-bor departments also have an-nounced their resignations in re-cent weeks.—AP

Assembly and in the case of dis-agreement within three days ofthe dissolution of the NationalAssembly, the Prime Ministerand Leader of Opposition shallforward two nominees each to acommittee to be constituted bythe speaker of the National As-sembly comprising eight mem-bers of the outgoing NationalAssembly or the Senate or bothhaving equal representation fromthe treasury and the opposition.

The Spokesperson said thatafter the briefing by the law min-ister some tentative discussionalso took place on the probablenames for the caretaker PrimeMinister.

The coalition partners agreedto strengthen their cooperationand have more regular contactsand consultations as the electiondraw near. The President alsohosted dinner for the participantsof the meeting.

Allies discussFrom Page 1

extending moral, diplomatic andpolitical support to the Kashmiripeople in their struggle of selfdetermination. Pakistan wascommitted to constructive en-gagement with India for thesettlement of all disputes includ-ing Jammu & Kashmir, said thePrime Minister.

The Prime Minister was talk-ing to President AJ&K, SardarMuhammad Yaqoob Khan,Prime Minister AJ&K, ChaudhryAbdul Majeed and ex-PrimeMinister AJ&K, Barrister SultanMehmood Chaudhry who calledon him here on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister said thatPakistan believed in peacefulsettlement of the Kashmir dis-pute, in accordance with the UNresolutions and wishes of theKashmiri people. A peacefulresolution of the issue is also es-sential for the progress and pros-perity of the entire South Asianregion, he added.

The President and PrimeMinister of AJ&K lauded thePakistani leadership for their un-equivocal and continued supportfor the freedom struggle ofKashmiri people. —NNI

Pak committedFrom Page 1

Elahi urges peopleto vote for PML-Q

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Quaid (PML-Q) seniorcentral leader and Deputy PrimeMinister Ch Parvez Elahi hassaid that if the people want res-toration of local bodies system,which guarantees their serviceand development, they shouldvote for PML-Q in the next elec-tion and ensure its victory.

Addressing a big gatheringof former Nazims, Naib Nazims,Councilors and notables of fourUnion Councils of NA 105 ofGujrat here on Tuesday, ChParvez Elahi said that during ourtenure as the Chief Minister wehad eliminated politics of falsecases but Shahbaz Sharif hasbeen doing the same during lastfive years, Gujrat is our homewe will contest elections fromhere, PML-N has done nothingfor Punjab what to talk aboutGujrat alone, funds of 35 dis-tricts including Gujrat have beenwasted on “Jangla” Bus inLahore while PML-Q hadserved the people of entire prov-ince without any discrimination.

Parvez Elahi said that in therecent bye-elections PML-N es-tablished records of rigging to theextent that even Election Com-mission also admitted in the bye-election of Gujrat PML candidateMian Imran Masood had beensuccessful. He said that the par-liamentarians themselves cannotmeet Nawaz Sharif, how they aregoing to let people meet him.“We provided employment op-

portunities in Punjab, put it onthe path of progress, develop-ment and prosperity, we providedfree education, medicines andstarted service like 1122,” add-ing he said that the people shouldnot be fooled by PML-N now.

He said that PML-Q wouldput up its candidates all over thecountry including Gujrat and se-cure victory with clear majorityand in the next elections PML-Q’s role in Punjab will be veryimportant.

He said that intention ofShahbaz Sharif is bad and hisevery plan and scheme prove hubof corruption instead of beingblessed with success, PML-Q’sintention was good and thus theywere able to complete bigprojects all over the province andmade the Punjab for the first timein the history a surplus province.

Federal Minister Ch WajahatHussain in his address said theyare out to reconcile with our an-gry friends and as such it is oursubmission that all colleaguesand friends should join hands andwork together for PML-Q.

Foreign countries ‘plotting’against Afghans: Karzai

ISLAMABAD—President AsifAli Zardari, Tuesday inaugu-rated Guzara Allowance andSindh Arms License Revalida-tion, Sindh Government’sprojects undertaken by NationalDatabase and Registration Au-thority (NADRA).

Guzara Allowance will begiven through BenazirMuawanat Card, initially 85,000Zakat beneficiaries in Sindhprovince will benefit from thisprogram.

NADRA in collaborationwith Sindh’s Ushr and ZakatDepartment has developed thisprogram to facilitate the benefi-ciaries with a view to streamlinecountry’s zakat disbursementsystem through a secure biomet-ric mechanism and easy dis-bursement mechanism throughe-Sahulat targeting the poorestof the poor.

Speaking on the occasionthe President said it’s a historicoccasion and very much in linewith the needs of time. He saidNADRA had introduced tech-

President inaugurates Guzara allowance project

nology at the grass root levelwith a view to facilitate generalmasses especially people livingin densely populated and ruralareas. The President appreciatedNADRA’s multitasking perfor-mance in addition to the citizen’sregistration; thus facilitatingmasses through state-of-the-arte-solutions for good governancein the country.

The president said “Thissystem will not only bring trans-parency in Guzara AllowanceDisbursement through BenazirMuawanat Card by eliminatingthe ghost beneficiaries but alsobring efficiency in the manage-ment of funds. We realize thatthe end goal of running a trans-parent government is the deliv-ery of services to the people andthat the citizens are able to workin an economy that will affordthem food, shelter, educationand employment. Today, by fa-cilitating Guzara Allowancebeneficiary with efficient ser-vices we are one step closer tothat goal.”

KABUL—Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai accused foreigncountries on Tuesday of plottingagainst his war-weary nation’speace programme, saying allnegotiations should take placeunder his administration.

Without pointing a finger atany particular country, Karzaisaid he had told the US govern-ment during a recent visit toWashington that “no foreignparty must try to take the Afghanpeace process in its hand”.

All negotiations withTaliban insurgents should takeplace through the government-appointed High Peace Council,but unnamed “foreigners” hadtried to sidestep the council,Karzai said. Karzai made thecomments in a long diversionduring a speech to a water man-agement conference in Kabul,but it was unclear why he raisedthe issue or who exactly he wastargeting. A senior official told

AFP that Karzai was referring“to foreign and internal elementswho are trying to tell the Talibanto hold talks with other groupsand encouraging political groupsto hold talks with the Taliban”.

The plan was to weaken theAfghan government, he said,adding that the “foreign ele-ments” were from both Westernand regional countries.

Afghan Defence MinisterBismillah Khan Muhammadi ison a five-day visit toneighbouring Pakistan, where hehas met Chief of Army StaffGeneral Ashfaq Kayani.

Afghan-Pakistani relationsare understood to have improvedrecently despite years of suspi-cion and mutual accusations ofTaliban violence plaguing bothcountries. “Any effort to con-duct peace talks individually isnot an effort for peace but it’s aplot by the foreigners, aimed atweakening Afghanistan,” Karzai

said. Washington began tenta-tive moves towards peace withthe Taliban a year ago.

But the militia broke off thetalks a few months later, appar-ently over the failure of theUnited States to free Talibanprisoners held atGuantanamoBay.The Talibanare in the process of opening apolitical office in Qatar to facili-tate talks, but the US ambassa-dor to Afghanistan said earlierthis month that a peace process“hasn’t even really begun”.

The United States, whichwill withdraw its combat troopsnext year, has repeatedly saidany peace process should beAfghan-led.

Pakistan, which Kabul ac-cuses of harbouring Talibanfighters, said it freed 26 Talibanprisoners late last year in a bidto kick-start peace talks aheadof the withdrawal of US andNATO forces. —AFP

The President said “Tech-nology is playing a central rolein our lives, society and eco-nomic growth. The methods andtechniques used in Guzara Al-lowance address several dimen-sions of problems in social in-equities and economic ineffi-ciencies. This effort will cer-tainly strengthen the institutionin the management of the chari-table funds. I am delighted thatthe Zakat initiative took lessthan a year from the conceptlevel to actual delivery.”

Presenting main features ofthe projects, ChairmanNADRA, Tariq Malik said thate-Sahulat is a people-friendlysystem which has introducedonline transactions for generalpublic. He said with the intro-duction of IT-based system inZakat disbursement, the chanceof pilferage and corruption isgone with the wind. He appre-ciated the initiative of SindhGovernment, their understand-ing and faith in NADRA tech-nology solutions. —Online

ISLAMABAD—Supreme CourtChief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry Tues-day ordered that those whoaided prime suspect ShahrukhJatoi in fleeing the countryshould be arrested.

A three-member benchheaded by Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhryheard the murder case of 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan whowas shot dead on December 25in Defence area of Karachi.

During proceedings, theChief Justice addressed theDIG Shahid Hayat and saidthat he will be responsible forany ignorance, as he had del-egated the investigation of thecase to a sub-inspector.

He, then, questioned the

DIG if he had seized the traveldocuments of Shahrukh Jatoi onthe basis of which he managedto escape from the country.

On this, Shahid Hayat toldthe court that the documents arewith the traveling agency and itis the duty of Federal Investiga-tion Agency (FIA) to find outhow Shahrukh managed to flee.

Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry re-marked that this case should setan example so that the culpritsshould know that they will notbe spared if any such incidentoccurred again. He, then, toldthe DIG that he should have ar-rested the aides involved inShahrukh’s escape.

Justice Gulzar Ahmed re-marked that police department

is the most ignorant one asevery one knows about thekillers except police.

Chief Justice alleged thatit is possible that police havedeclared Shahrukh Jatoi asminor intentionally and askedthe DIG if he has scrutinizedhis educational certificates.Responding to this, DIGShahid Hayat told that anidentity card number was is-sued to him but no picturewas found from the record.

He told that investiga-tions are underway to find outhow the identity card num-ber was issued to Shahrukhif he was not 18 years old. Hisdate of birth, as per his pass-port, is November 22, 1995,he told..—INP

House blastedin KohatKOHAT—Unknown miscreantson Tuesday blasted house of aformer UC Naib Nazim with ex-plosives but no human loss was re-ported. According to police, uniden-tified militants had planted explo-sives material outside house offormer UC Naib Nazim, ShakoorKhan, located in Tappi area of Kohatwhich exploded with a big bang. Asa result of blast, gate and boundarywall of the house were partiallydamaged while window panes ofthe house were smashed due to theintensity of the blast. —INP

ALMATY—All 20 people onboard a domestic flight inKazakhstan operated by theSCAT airline died Tuesdaywhen their Bombardier jetcrashed on approach to Almatyairport in thick fog, the airlinesaid.

“Twenty people were onboard – five crew members and15 passengers,” the airline saidin a statement, quoted by theInterfax news agency.

“According to preliminaryinformation there are no survi-vors,” the statement added, say-ing the aircraft was a CRJ-200made by Canadian manufacturerBombardier.

SCAT said the plane wentdown about five kilometres(three miles) short of the finan-cial centre’s main airport on aflight from the northern steppe

city of Kokshetau.Commercial KTK televi-

sion said the plane crashed intoa suburb of Almaty but gave noinformation of possible casual-ties or damage on the ground.

The Kazinform newsagency reported that officialsfrom both the interior and trans-portation ministry had travelledto the site of the crash.

The accident came just amonth after a crash that killed27, claiming the lives of muchof the top echelon of theKazakh state border service in-cluding the acting chief.

Aviation disasters remain ascourge across the former So-viet Union due to ageing hard-ware that often has not beenreplaced since the fall of theSoviet regime, as well as hu-man error. —AP

20 aboard Kazakhairliner killed in crash

Labourer injuredin police firingMULTAN—A labourer was shotat and injured by police after hefailed to pull up his motorcycleearly Tuesday. Waseem(21) wasgoing to the vegetables marketfrom Chungi No 14 alongwithhis brother to work as labourerat around 5 am when a policeparty signalled him to pull up.“I did not stop because I had noregistrationdocuments,” injuredWaseem told newsmen at theemergency ward of NishtarHospital. Police then fired atand hit into the leg, he said add-ing that he and his brother weretaken into custody without anyreason. —APP

Ex-MNA Virk joinsPTIMuzaffar AliLAHORE—Former MNA andMPA of Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) Abdullah Virk of Kamokeannounced his joining in PakistanTehrik-e-Insaf (PTI). In a meet-ing with chairman PTI ImranKhan here on Tuesday, MrAbdullah Virk showed full confi-dence in the leadership of ImranKhan. His joining was warmlygreeted and welcomed by the PTIworkers. PTI workers ofKamoke strongly contended thatthe PTI tsunami has reachedKamoke and this will be provedin the next elections when PTI willhave landslide victory in area.

ExplosivesrecoveredPESHAWAR—Police raided awarehouse on Pandu road withinthe limit of Pandu police stationin the outskirts of Peshawar andrecovered a huge quantity ofexplosives on Tuesday. Actingon a tip-off police conducted araid at a scrapyard in Pandu areanear Ring Road and recovered45 kilograms of high qualityexplosives, 71 kilograms of low-grade explosives and 25 mortarbombs. Two suspects were takeninto custody from the site whowere later shifted to an undis-closed location for questioning.The raided warehouse is situated35 kilometres from the PAFBase Badaber. NNI

ISLAMABAD—Minister for In-formation and BroadcastingQamar Zaman Kaira said onTuesday that the governmentwanted to create consensus onthe caretaker set up and holdingelections for national and pro-vincial assemblies on the sameday and consultations with allpolitical forces for this purposewere underway. Talking to media personsafter launch of website of Infor-mation Service Academy (ISA)here he said that the OppositionLeader in the National Assem-bly has hinted that it was notnecessary that elections for allassemblies should be held onone day. Kaira said that it was pos-sible but the federal governmentwas holding consultations withall political forces to reach aconsensus date for elections. To a question he said that thegovernment was of the view thattill the dissolution of the assem-blies the government was boundto serve the masses and the elec-tion commission could not im-

pose any restrictions on itsworking. He said if the funds forongoing projects were stoppedthe work will suffer. Technically speaking theelection commission could notbar the government from per-forming its duties, he added. About the possible name ofthe caretaker prime minister hehoped that the Leader of theHouse and the Leader of theopposition will reach a consen-sus which will be acceptable tothe entire nation. Kaira was of the view thatsome media persons in a sectionof the press make news out oftheir personal biases against thePPP and then organize talkshows on those so-called newswhich was unjustified. About the scheduled sit-in ofthe Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz he said that its leadershipwas confused.

First they should clear theirstance whether they are with the ECPor against it, as on Karachi voter listsand delimitation issue their stance isagainstthe ECP.—APP

Govt for consensus on caretakersetup, elections date: Kaira

Army verificationof electoral rolls

hailedKARACHI—Chief ElectionCommissioner (CEC) of Paki-stan Justice (Retd) FakhruddinG. Ibrahim on Tuesday visitedthe ERV-Facilitation/ Coordina-tion Cell of the Pakistan Armyat Sindh Election CommissionOffice here.

The CEC hailed the role ofArmy officials in the process ofverification of electoral rolls andcalled upon them to expeditetheir efforts to further improvethe process, said a statement.

He said the Army officialswill remain associated with theverification process of electoralrolls till its end, to monitor theprocess. He said any complaintwith regards to verification ofelectoral rolls be communicatedto the ERV-Facilitation/ Coordi-nation Cell of the Pakistan Armyand to the office of the SindhElection Commission so as toinitiate timely action.

He said that the staff con-cerned should also carry theirComputerised National IdentityCards (CNICs) during the veri-fication of electoral rolls processand people should not cooper-ate with the staff withoutCNIC.—APP

PPP youths stormAhmed Mukhtar’s officeISLAMABAD—Members of thePPP Youth Organization pro-tested outside and inside the of-fice of Federal Water and PowerMinister Chauhdry AhmedMukhtar. The protestors weredemanding that they be givenjobs. The protest took a cha-otic turn when members of theYouth Organization werestopped from entering the office.They ransacked sack the officeand demanded the presence ofAhmed Mukhtar.

The situation was broughtunder control when State Min-ister for Water and PowerTasneem Ahmed Qureshi ar-rived and told the protestors thatthey would be offered jobs onmerit and their demands wouldbe taken to President Asif AliZardari within two days.—DNA

ISLAMABAD—The EconomicCoordination Committee (ECC)of the Cabinet at its meeting hereTuesday under the chairmanshipof Federal Minister for Financeand Economic Affairs, Dr. AbdulHafeez Shaikh approved NaturalGas Load Management plan. Itwas decided that first priority or-der will be given to the domesticand commercial sectors, power& general industries sectors willbe accorded second and third pri-ority respectively while cementsector will be on fourth and CNGsectors will be on fifth priority.

The Ministry of Petroleum &Natural Resources submittedNatural Gas Load Managementprinciples for approval of theECC. In the backdrop of loadshedding in power sector the Min-istry of Water & Power had re-quested for enhanced gas supplyto power plants on SNGPL sys-tem. The ECC agreed that the gas

companies should be allowed tomanage gas load on their own,while observing general priorityorder including curtailmentprogramme.

The ECC also accorded itsapproval to marginal/standard gasfields pricing criteria and guide-lines, 2013, submitted by the Min-istry of Petroleum & Natural Re-sources. The guidelines providefor pricing structure applicable tothe oil or gas reservoirs that can-not be exploited economicallyunder the existing E&P Policies,pricing structure and availabletechnologies.

The ECC approved the pro-posal of the Ministry to set the Mar-ginal Fields gas prices in accordancewith Petroleum Exploration & Pro-duction Policy 2012 with an addi-tional premium of US$0.25 perMMBTU for the three zones as de-fined in Petroleum Exploration &Production Policy 2012.—INP

ECC approves gasmanagement plan

Domestic consumers first priority, CNG last

Ephedrine case

ANF court ordersMusa Gilani’sassets seizure

ISLAMABAD—Anti-NarcoticsForce (ANF) has frozen accountsof Ali Musa Gilani, son of formerPrime Minister Yousuf RazaGilani. According to the mediareports, the four other people’saccounts have also been frozen.They include former PM’s wife,daughter and former health min-ister Shahabuddin. In ephedrinecase, the court has summoned allfour people on February 12 andasked to explain their position inthe case.

As per details, the assets ofex- prime minister Yousaf RazaGilani’s son Ali Musa Gilani,wife, Fozia Gilani and other ac-cused including MakhdumShahabuddin and KhushnoodLashari have been seized regard-ing Epherdine case. —NNI

Benazir caseATC accepts defence

request to obtaininquiry report

RAWALPINDI—An anti-terror-ism court in Rawalpindi onTuesday accepted a request ofthe defence lawyer to obtain aninquiry report in the BenazirBhutto murder case.The courtmoreover issued a notice to thePunjab government to make thereport available by Feb 09.

Earlier in the day, the de-fence lawyer had submitted therequest to obtain the report. TheFederal Investigation Agency’sprosecutor had opposed the re-quest, however, the court even-tually decided in the favour ofthe defence.

Also, the court adjourned a re-quest to allow key witness and USlobbyist Mark Siegel to testify in thecase through video conferencing toFeb 9. In his statement recordedbefore FIA’s joint investigation teamconstituted to probe the assassina-tion in 2009, Siegel had accusedformer president Pervez Musharrafof extending threats to BenazirBhutto regarding her safety and se-curity in Pakistan.—INP

Tehrik SubaHazara to stage

sit-in todaySTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Tehrik SubaHazara would hold a sit-in infront of Parliament House to-day (Wednesday).

The sit in would be led byChairman of Tehrik SubaHazara, Baba Haider Zamanwho has been in the forefront fora separate province of Hazarasince NWFP was renamed asKhyber Pakhtoonkhwa. He hasdemanded of the government toform a commission for Hazaraprovince without wasting fur-ther time. He threatened tostart country wide civil disobe-dience movement if the demandwas not accepted.

He said that a referendummight be conducted in Hazara,which would prove that 99percent people of the regionwant their own province. Hesaid that i f the Tehriklaunched long march towardsIslamabad, he would not beseated in separate bomb proofbunker, but he would prefer tosit with the people.

Shahzeb murder case

CJ orders arrest of those who helped Shahrukh flee

NEW DELHI: People demonstrating against the gang rape of a female student holding protest banners.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari distributing Benazir Support Cards to the deserving poor of interior Sindh andKarachi at a ceremony held in connection with launching of Benazir Muawanat Card at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

Altaf phoneaddress atRawalpindi todayLONDON—The Founder andLeader of Muttahida QuamiMovement (MQM) Altaf Hussainwill telephonically address audi-ence at Shalimar Hotel inRawalpindi today.Talking to themembers of the Central ExecutiveCouncil and Rawalpindi ZonalCommittee, Hussain said that themessage of the MQM was spread-ing rapidly in the country andpeople belonging to poor andmiddle classes were being attractedtowards the MQM in large num-bers. He hoped that the MQMwould give surprising results in thecoming general elections. Hussainsaid that the MQM wanted to elimi-nate the decaying feudal system inorder to empower the educated andhonest people belonging to poorand middle classes. —INP

A STUDY of elderly people finds thatthose whose diets were high in certainessential nutrients were less likely to

have the brain shrinkage associated withAlzheimer’s disease and more likely to scorebetter on tests of mental performance. The re-searchers published a paperon how they came to thesefindings in the 28 Decemberonline issue of Neurology.

The paper’s first author isDr Gene Bowman from theDepartments of Neurologyand Public Health and Pre-ventive Medicine at OregonHealth & Science Universityin Portland, and a member ofthe American Academy ofNeurology. He and his col-leagues describe three sets offindings:

Elderly people with dietshigh in several vitamins oromega 3 fatty acids were lesslikely to have the brainshrinkage that usually accom-panies Alzheimer’s diseasethan people whose diets were low in those nu-trients.

Those whose diets were high in omega 3fatty acids and in vitamins C, D, E and the Bvitamins were also more likely to score betteron tests of mental ability than those whose di-ets were low in those nutrients.

Those whose diets were high in trans fatswere more likely to have brain shrinkage andperform less well on thinking and memory teststhan those whose diets were low in trans fats.

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for hu-man health but the body can’t make them.These are primarily found in fish, also an es-sential source of vitamin D; some plants and

nut oils are also good sources of omega 3 fattyacids, which are also called polyunsaturatedfatty acids (PUFAs).

B vitamins and antioxidants C and E areprimarily found in fruits and vegetables, ex-cept for B12, which mostly comes from ani-

mal products, although it is alsopresent in fortified breakfastcereals. Trans fats are primarilyfound in fast, packaged, friedand frozen food, many bakedgoods and margarine spreads.

The study is thought to bethe first to measure several nu-trient biomarkers in the bloodas a way to examine links be-tween diet and memory, think-ing and brain volume.

Until now, other studieshave only examined or or twonutrients at a time, or have useddata from diet questionnaires,which rely on people’s memoryof what they eat and do not ac-count for how efficiently theirbodies retain the nutrients, aparticular problem in the eld-

erly.For the study, Bowman and colleagues

recruited 104 elderly people of average age87 who had few risk factors for impairedmemory and thinking. From participants’blood tests the researchers measured 30 dif-ferent nutrient biomarkers.

All the participants also completed testsof memory and thinking, while 42 of themalso underwent MRI scans that measured theirbrain volume.

The results showed that overall the par-ticipants’ diets were healthy, but 25% werelacking in vitamin D and 7% were deficientin vitamin B12.

Nutrients may stop brainshrinkage linked to Alzheimer’s

ISLAMABAD: Students and teachers of Roots School System DHA1 who participated in Mehfil-e-Milad.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister and Chairperson Benazir Income Support ProgrammeFarzana Raja talking to an Indonesian media delegation at her chamber.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Min-ister for Capital Administra-tion & Development (CAD),Nazar M. Gondal has urgedfor a more space and impor-tance for cu-curricular activi-ties in the academic calendarof public sector institutions inthe capital.

He said it while address-ing the concluding session ofPoetry Recitation Competi-tion amongst the colleges of

Islamabad, held at IslamabadModel College for Girls(IMCG).

“Academic excellence, nodoubt, is necessary and theprime responsibility of the stu-dents, academic institutions andparents, but co-curricular ac-tivities are exceedingly crucialfor formation of a balanced hu-man being.

The purpose of education isnot only getting good gradesbut the making of a balanced,healthy and tolerant individual.

Co-curricular, especially liter-ary activities must be givenmore space in the academic cal-endar.

We need to impart educa-tion that makes our studentsgood human beings, first. Po-etry energizes the soul andbrings the good out of a person.It motivates and encourages thegood part of man”, saidMr.Gondal.

Mr. Gondal directed theFederal Directorate of Educa-tion (FDE) to ensure that

Poetry has pleasant effect and matchless message for all

ISLAMABAD: Lady visitors keenly viewing the paintings by Tayyiba Aziz, Saima Aamirand Qudsia Jabbar during an exhibition at Jharoka Arts Gallery.

enough time and attention isgiven to make such healthy ac-tivities an integral part of thecalendar of events.

The minister appreciatedthe college management andstudents for selecting nice po-etry for recitation and was allpraises for the legendry Englishpoets, saying, “Literary activi-ties provide food for the spiritand soul, and are thus very im-portant for leading a normallife. The message and lessoncontained in a short poem by a

poet like William Shakespeareand John Keats could not begot from any other source.Poets paint a world throughwords; a world that is far bet-ter than the one we live in.”

Students from thirteen dif-ferent colleges participated inthe event.

The minister distributedprizes among the winning par-ticipants. He also congratu-lated the teachers who pre-pared their students for thecompetition.

HCBA delegationmeet Chief JusticeRAWALPINDI—High Court BarAssociation (HCBA),Rawalpindi bench delegationled by its President SheikhAhsan-ud-Din met Chief JusticeIfthikhar Muhammad Chaudhryhere on Tuesday.

The delegation consisted ofVice President Masood Akhter,Mughees Haider, SecretaryRaheel Akhtar, Additional Sec-retary Nargis Sadoozi, JointSecretary Zaki Qurashi alongwith executive membersTanveer Hijra, Imran Rasheed,Yasmeen Akhtar and MudisarGondal.

The Chief Justice appreci-ated the role of legal fraternityparticularly High Court Bar As-sociation Rawalpindi for theirfight for rule of law, supremacyof constitution and restoration ofdemocracy in the country.

He advised the lawyers toact upon judicial policy whichwas launched for the welfare ofthe people and speedy dispen-sation of justice.—APP

Extraction of sand, stonesfrom Margalla hills destroyshabitat of Fish ‘Tor Putitora’

Govt to takehistoric steps fornew provinces:

NafisaISLAMABAD—Leader of Paki-stan People’s Party (PPP), DrNafisa Shah on Tuesday saidthat top leadership of party tookhistorical initiative for forma-tion of new provinces in thecountry.

In an interview here, shesaid that number of politicianswere joining PPP, following thepolicies of the party.

She said that the PPP is afederal political party which hasstrength in all parts of the coun-try. The PPP is representing thepeople of South Punjab by work-ing for new provinces, sheadded.

Replying to a question, shesaid that the government tookhistorical steps during its tenuresuch as introduction of NationalFinance Commission (NFC)award for Balochistan and for-mation of Gilgit Baltistan prov-ince.—APP

CNG Associationopposes gas loadmanagement planISLAMABAD—All PakistanCNG Association on Tuesdayopposed gas load managementplan approved by the EconomicCoordination Committee of theCabinet saying the decision willhamper investment in the CNGsector.

The decision to keep Com-pressed Natural Gas (CNG) sec-tor at the bottom of the prioritylist for provision of the naturalgas is unacceptable which willbe resisted and challenged at allforums, said Chairman SupremeCouncil APCNGA, GhiyasAbdullah Paracha.

In a statement issued here,he said least priority to theCNG sector means that generalpublic will continue to wait forhours in long queues to getCNG.

He claimed that the decisionhas threatened investments tothe tune of Rs 400 billion in theCNG sector and frustrate own-ers of 3.5 million people who arerunning their vehicles on theeconomical fuel.

He said that CNG sector hasno option but natural gas to runtheir business while all othersectors using natural gas haveother options available. He saidthat depriving masses of eco-nomical fuel will trigger importsof petrol, LNG, and LPG whichwill enhance inflation, unem-ployment, environmental degra-dation etc.—APP

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Roots SchoolSystem DHA1 Flagship campusIslamabad held a glorious Mehfil-e-Milad, an annual religiouslycelebrated at RSS, to commemo-rate the birth anniversary of theHoly Prophet (PBUH) during theholy month of Rabbi-ul-Awwalhere on Tuesday according to apress release. More than 2000 la-dies from the twin cities were in-vited by Ms. Khadija Mushtaq,Executive Director of Roots Sys-tem DHA1 campus Islamabad topay tribute to Hazrat Muhammad(PBUH) and thank Allah for hiscountless blessings during thisholy month.

All the participants alongwith their teachers and staff mem-bers were collectively attired inbeautiful gold and bronze floorlength pishwases, pink churidarsand multi-colored duputtas.Young flower girls from RSSMontessori section warmly wel-comed all the guests by throwingdelicate rose petals at the recep-tion. Executive Director RootsSchool System DHA1 campusMs. Khadija Mushtaq and Mrs.

Riffat Mushtaq, Founder ofRoots School System welcomedthe chief guest for the ceremonyBegum Ashfaq Parvez Kayanialong with the proud mothersand ladies from the academic andprominent social segment of thesociety. The entire hall was mag-nificently decorated with freshpink roses and gold silk sheets.Delicate aroma of rose water wassprayed everywhere as younggirls carried small baskets con-taining green cardamom, fennelseeds and sweet sugary delightsto serve all the guests. The stagewas beautifully decorated withfresh roses along with a beauti-ful calligraphy mural made bythe Fine Arts students.

The Milad began with therecitation of the Holy Quran fol-lowed by ‘Hamd’. Young stu-dents of RSS DHA1 campus re-cited melodious ‘Naats’ and tookturns to narrate a wide range of‘Sunnats’ from the life of theHoly Prophet (PBUH). Themothers of the participants wereoverwhelmed as they listened tothe harmonic ‘Naats’ melodi-ously recited by their daughters.Students expressed their im-

mense love and deep affection forthe Holy Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) and renewed theirpledge to truly follow ‘Sirat-un-Nabi’ and spread the message ofpeace, tolerance, harmony andaffection. Durood-o-Salam wascommunally offered for theblessed soul of ProphetMuhammad (PBUH). Everyonefelt spiritually elevated andbonded together as they listenedto the holy recitals.

Mehfil-e-Milad ended withan overwhelming and heart rend-ing ‘Dua’ for the prosperity ofcountry and for the unity of theMuslim Ummah that broughttears to everyone’s eyes. At theend, Ms. Khadija Mushtaqthanked everyone for gracing thisholy occasion with their presenceand advised everyone to adoptthe teachings of the Holy Prophet(PBUH) for eternal success andblessings in life here and after.The chief guest Begum GeneralAshfaq Parvez Kayani thankedKhadija Mushtaq for arrangingsuch a splendid and spiritualgathering to honour and celebratethe birth anniversary of the HolyProphet (PBUH).

Roots School System DHA1students celebrate Milad

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Joint ActionCommittee Private Schools andColleges Islamabad Tuesday saidthat private educational instituteswere providing quality educationin low fees and also employmentto educated people which shouldbe encouraged. Addressing apress conference at National

Private institutionsproviding quality education

Press Club (NPC), Central Presi-dent of All Pakistan PrivateSchool and Colleges, Dr. Babarsaid these private institutes wereplaying a pivotal role to mini-mize illiteracy in the country.

The government should en-courage and facilitate these in-stitutes, he added. He also de-manded to take their suggestionsbefore sending the bill regarding

private schools and colleges inIslamabad Capital Territory(ICT) to Upper House of the Par-liament.

The National Assembly hasalready passed the bill with ma-jority vote last week.

He said that protests wouldbe held if their genuine demandswere not met by the concernedauthorities.

ISLAMABAD—Large scale ex-traction of truck loads of sand,gravel and stones from theMargalla hills have destroyed thenatural breeding grounds of fa-mous sports fish ‘Tor Putitora’.

This fish has been a greatnatural asset of the Potowar Pla-teau over the ages.

The Margalla Hills of RiverSoan has been a natural breedingground for this fish, which breedsin cool waters with gravely andstone bed.

The areas of Margalla,Murree, Kahuta and Lehtrar pro-vide such type of natural habitatfor the breeding of this Fish.

“ The deteriorated aquatichabitat due to municipal and in-dustrial effluent from Rawalpindiand Islamabad are a potentialthreat for upstream migration andbreeding of this Fish”, DirectorPakistan Museum of Natural His-tory (PMNH) Dr. MuhammadRafique told APP. He said Fin-

gerlings and fries of this fishwere,however, observed in theareas above the Rawal dam, whichshows that the fish is still breed-ing in this area inspite of construc-tion of dams and pollution in RiverSoan below Rawalpindi.

Dr.Rafique said the popula-tion of this fish is however, verylow and it seems as if small popu-lation is surviving in the area.

The fish fauna however ismostly represented in Rawal lakeand Shahdara valley nullah.

The major commercial fishare only represented in Rawal lakearea which forms a buffer zone ofMargalla Hills National Park,he said. “The problems like di-version of water bodies, fast paceof construction work, urban-ization, population influx, habitatfragmentation, physical and eco-logical barriers in migration of fishand pollution due to municipalgarbage is very severe in thisarea”.—APP

Non-release offunds delays

MCRT projectRAWALPINDI—Mareer ChowkRailway Tunnels (MCRT) projectis likely to be delayed due to non-release of third quarter funds.Government of Punjab has pro-vided only Rs 119 million toRawalpindi Development Author-ity (RDA) in respect of MCRTproject worth Rs 429 million. Thisentire amount has been paid toRailway and other departments onaccount of services charges andmobilization advance.

RDA is left with no moreamount even to clear a billamounting to Rs 40 million fromNational Logistic Cell (NLC).

Sources said case had beensent to government of Punjab withregard to P and D funds. But theconcerned quarters are pursuinga dilly dallying posture in the re-lease of funds matter.

Malik Shakeel Awan MNAsaid that secretary implementationcommission is going to release thefunds soon and these will be trans-ferred to RDA within one or twodays.—Online

ISLAMABAD: Contract teachers of Cantt Garrison stage a demonstration in favour oftheir demands outside Parliament House.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah giving away shields to winners of Qirat andNaat competition held at IMCG F-7/2.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Training forthe Police officials on human& child rights was held hereunder a project “Police Train-ing and Capacity Buildingfor Democracy and HumanRights”, supported by theEuropean Commission andimplemented by Plan inter-national in Pakistan with animplementing partnerSPARC. The main aim of theevent was to share the expe-rience of the project andother good practices on child

Police training and capacity building for democracyrights initiated by police de-partment. Overall aim of theproject is to ensure that the po-lice force realized the impor-tance of human and child rightsand gain the trust of the citi-zens by being sensitive to therights violation issues faced bythem.

Under the project, a com-plete training Manual/moduleshave been developed after con-ducting organizational levelTNA. On that ground, 103Master trainers and 585 peerEducators have been trainedwho further sensitized 5000

Police officers/officials by fol-lowing cascading model.

Besides stakeholders’ dia-logue meetings, a Nationallevel Conference was held inSeptember 2012 in collabora-tion with the Islamabad Capi-tal Territory Police, wheremembers form civil society,National and internationalNGOs, UN agencies, represen-tatives of provincial police de-partments also participated.During these dialogues andconference, issues regardingHuman & Child Rights werediscussed and how best to pro-

tect the citizens and; createawareness regarding the issueswere delivered. Another maintopic which was addressed wasabout the need of joint effortsby all stakeholders for protec-tion of child rights.

An exposure visit fortrained Police officer was ar-ranged to Citizen Police liai-son committee and Remandhome Karachi which was veryproductive regarding commu-nity Policing and child protec-tion during investigation. Chil-dren from Revolutionary The-ater group also performed a

motivational play on the roleof police in facilitation of pub-lic specially girls, during theseveral events of project.

During the press confer-ence, Mr. Imran shami Coun-try Program manager Plan In-ternational Pakistan empha-sized the importance of justtreatment of children in con-tact or conflict with law and;discussed in detail the funda-mental requirements for theprotection of the children inconflict with law and the needof change in societal normsand legal frame work. He

urged the audience to changethemselves if they want to seethe change in society.

Aamir Gilani Project man-ager PTCB said that judiciary,police and jail administrationneed to have ample knowledgeof child protection laws and in-ternational treaties in order toprotect child rights.

Dr Fakhir Sohail TrainingManager SPARC and Projectcoordinator PTCB focused onneed of trainings and to learnmore about human/child rightsand to implement them to ful-fill their duties.

Mr. Mirvais Niaz, SSPIslamabad Police (security Di-vision) praised the efforts ofPlan International and SPARC.He also stressed the need tobuild awareness regarding childrights and emphasized on howimportant the role of the Policeis to impart a sense of protec-tion amongst the citizens espe-cially children.

He also shared some ofintervention which IslamabadPolice is already taking tobuild capacities of the forceand to enhance their profes-sionalism.

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Po-lice on Tuesday apprehended18 culpri ts , recovered, 8bottles of wine, car, charas,heroin, cameras and variousstolen items from their pos-session.

On the directives of SSPIslamabad Yasin Farooq,Islamabad police duringcrackdown operation againstcriminal arrested 18 accusedinvolved in various unlawfulactivities in the capital.

Bhara Kau police stationInspector Mansoor Ahmed ap-prehended accused HayderShah and Hussan Mir and re-

covered two camera worth Rs.50,000.

Sub-Inspector of Police sta-tion of Tarnol Ghulam Shabeerduring a search operation arrestedaccused Dialwar Hussain andrecovered 135 gram heroinwhile ASI Iqbal Muhammad ar-rested accused Sarfaraz Khanwho were busy in filling gas cyl-inder without permission.

Police station of Industrialarea ASI Muhammad RaizRanja arrested accusedNabeel Meshi for fillinggas cylinder without permis-sion.

Ramana Police station

Police apprehend 18 accusedASI Muhammad Arif alongwith team arrested accusedMuhammad Faheem, Zakir,Abbas Ali, Farakh Saheed andRabia from Flat 5 block 23sector G-11/4 for involvingimmoral activities.

Sub- Inspector IftikharAhmed of Banni Gala policestation during a search opera-tion arrested Amir Mustfaand recovered 130 gram ofchars.Police station LoahibhirASi Muhammad Ishaiq ar-rested accused Raja Intakhib,Zubir Wahib Buttt and IrshidAhmed involved in theft ac-tivities.—INP

RAWALPINDI: A young vendor waiting for the customers to sell cassette players for ve-hicles in a local market.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Under contractwith USAID Citizens’ VoiceProject, Human DevelopmentFoundation (HDF) has launcheda nationwide campaign for sign-ing Citizens’ Charter of De-mands for education sector re-forms in the country The char-ter of demands has been devel-oped to urge the legislators,opinion makers, parliamentar-ians, politicians and bureaucratsfor taking concrete steps to makeimplementation of Article 25-Aof Constitution of Pakistan a re-ality. By signing Charter of De-mands, the stakeholders willbecome part of the movementmeant for activating & pushingthe federal & provincial govern-ments to further legislate andimplement the law. Article 25-A of the constitution providesthat State is responsible for pro-viding every child of age 5 to16 the right to free and compul-sory education up to secondarylevel.

HDF is engaged in lobbyingwith parliamentarians, politi-cians, opinion-makers, bureau-crats and other stakeholders forplaying an effective role in de-vising an efficient mechanismfor implementation of the law.The stakeholders and other seg-ments of society have hailed theinitiative taken by HDF which

Campaign for signingcitizens’ charter of demands

will help in building pressureupon the authorities to acceler-ate efforts and making rules forprovision of free & compulsoryeducation.

Human Development Foun-dation launched a nationalproject entitled “AdvocacyCampaign for Education sectorreforms in Pakistan” underUSAID Citizens’ Voice Projectin one district of each province.These districts are Mardan,(KPK), Tando MuhammadKhan (Sindh), Rahim Yar Khan(Punjab) & Zhob (Baluchistan).The awareness raising campaignis being done through convey-ing messages to the massesthrough radio in regional lan-guages at the district level andbuilding capacities of commu-nity organizations working atgrass-roots level. Capacitybuilding workshops for civil so-ciety organizations androundtable conferences wereheld in each program districts ofPakistan. The main purpose ofthese events was to impart es-sential knowledge on the subjectof education, apprise the stake-holders of the current situationof education prevailing in thecountry and seek cooperation ofstakeholders in the efforts beingmade for the launch of move-ment for implementation of Ar-ticle 25-A of the constitution inthe respective provinces.

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minis-ter and Chairperson ofBenizeer Income SupportProgram (BISP) Farzana Rajaappreciated the role of Na-tional Database and Registra-tion Authority (NADRA) forsupporting BISP’s initiativesand facilitating the issuanceof CNICs and Benazir DebitCards (BDCs).

She expressed these viewsduring the meeting with TariqMalik, Chairman NADRA.

She said that NADRA is

Farzana appreciates NADRAfor facilitating BISP

playing a pivotal role in theimplementation of BISP’stechnology based initiatives.

She appriciated the contri-bution of NADRA for sup-porting Pakistan’s largest so-cial safety net programme.

The minister praisedNADRA’s vital partnership inBISP’s technology based pay-ment mechanisms and issu-ance of BDCs.

She lauded NADRA’scommitment to register poorpeople, especially

marginalized women from far-flung areas and appreciated itsswift response in issuingCNICs to eligible BISP benefi-ciaries to enable them to ben-efit from BISP’s initiatives.

Farzana Raja also con-demned the bomb attack onBenazir Debit Card Center inChaman distr ict ofBalochistan yesterday andsaid such malevolent acts cannever deter our commitmentto serve the poor peoples ofPakistan.—APP

Use of narcoticson increase

ISLAMABAD—According to aGilani Research FoundationSurvey carried out by GallupPakistan, 62% of Pakistanis be-lieve the use of narcotics is in-creasing in the country.

A nationally representa-t ive sample of men andwomen from across the fourprovinces was asked “Keep-ing in mind news from allover the country, in your opin-ion is the use of narcotics inPakistan increasing, decreas-ing or is there no change?”Responding to this, 62% saidit is increasing, 14% said it isdecreasing and 20% said thereis no change.—INP

Kamran phonecall data clearedISLAMABAD—The investiga-tion into the mysterious death ofKamran Faisal, an officer ofNational Accountability Bureau(NAB), was currently inprogress while phone call datawas cleared, a media report saidon Tuesday.

According to report, callsdata from Kamran Faisal’s mo-bile phone has been declaredclear as no stranger’s call wasfound in the data. The peoplewho came in his contact duringsome last days include his wifeSaadia, father Abdul Hameed, afriend Shehzad and office col-leagues.—Online

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minis-ter for Religious Affairs SyedKhursheed Shah on Tuesdayurged the nation to fight out themenaces of extremism and ter-rorism through following theteachings of the Holy Quran.

Addressing at the Inter-Col-leges competitions of Qirat andNaat at Islamabad Model Col-lege for Girls (Postgraduate) F-7/2, he said nation can better

Nation urged to followteachings of Holy Quran

cope with the conflicts by adopt-ing the principles of toleranceand patience.

He congratulated the win-ners of the competition and an-nounced the cash prizes worthRs. 10,000 for each participantof the competitions.

The federal minister saidthe whole nation was sufferingfrom extremism, terrorism, ha-tred and prejudices and can onlyget rid from such menacesthrough acting upon the teach-

ings of Allah and Prophet(PBUH) in letter and spirit.

He said, “Islam teaches toadopt the human values of toler-ance and patience which helpavoid the hatred and prejudices”.

The chief guest distributedshields and certificates amongthe winning students of flowerarrangement, Naat and Qiratcompetitions.

A number of students,teachers and officials werepresent on the occasion.

06:2001:3004:15

07:30

Zohr

January 31

INSTITUTE of Policy Stud-ies will hold a seminar onIslamic Banking and Fi-nance Supreme CourtJudgement on Riba and be-yond at 10:45 am at Instituteof Policy Studies 1, StreetNo 8 F-6/3.

*****SCREENING of film‘Jhoomer’ under the Paki-stan film festival 2013, at thePakistan National council ofthe Arts Auditorium, SectorF-5/1 at 3 pm.

February 01

THE Institute of StrategicStudies, Islamabad is orga-nizing a Public Talk on‘Peacekeeping, Peace build-ing and State4building inAfghanistan: Lessons fromLiberia by Ms. EllenMargrethe Loej, Chair of theInternational Board andMembers of PLAN Interna-tional and Former SpecialRepresentative of the UN,Secretary General forLiberia, at 1130 hrs at itspremises.

*****

PUBLIC talk on ‘Peace-keeping, Peace-building andState-building in Afghani-stan: Lessons from Liberia,by Ellen Margrethe Loej,chair of the InternationalBoard and Members Assem-bly of Plan International andFormer Special Representa-tive of the UN General As-sembly for Liberia, at theInstitute of Strategic Studies,Sector F-5/2 at 11:30 am.

February 02

M E H F I L - E - M I L A Dorganised by the Associationof Business, Professional andAgricultural Women andAnjuman-e-Rifah, at the PearlContinental Hotel, The Mall,Rawalpindi at 10:30 am.

February 05

PRIME Minister Raja PervezAshraf to chair Kashmir Con-vention to mark the KashmirSolidarity Day at the Audito-rium Hall, Prime MinisterSecretariat, Islamabad at 3:00pm. Speakers include Presi-dent AJK Sardar MuhammadYaqub Khan, Prime MinisterAJK Chaudhry Abdul Majeedand others.

UN resolutions vis-a-vis Shimla AgreementABDUL MAJID ZARGAR

INDIA and Pakistan gotinto a verbal duel at theSecurity Council on therelevance of United Na-

tions Military observer groupfor India & Pakistan(UNMOGIP) at the LoC inJammu and Kashmir, with In-dia stressing the force’s rolehas been “overtaken” by sub-sequent Shimla agreementssigned by the two Countries in1972. Pakistan has summarilydismissed this contention andsaid that that no bilateralagreement between the twonations has “overtaken or af-fected” the role or legality ofthe observer group.

Besides the Shimla agree-ment, India submitted twomore arguments in support ofits contention-One that intimes of austerity, resourcesneed to be better utilized else-where than on UNMOGIP and

second that since the nomencla-ture of Line of Ceasefire haschanged to Line of control,(again courtesy Shimla agree-ment), the deployment ofUNMOGIP has become invalid.It is pertinent to mention herethat the Military observer Groupwas itself constituted by UNpursuant to its resolutions ofApril 48 read with resolution ofAugust 1948 as revalidated byresolution of 1951 to monitorceasefire between the two war-ring Countries. In sum & sub-stance, India has contended thatSince UN resolutions passed inthe matter have become redun-dant & irrelevant after theShimla agreement , so has theUNMOGIP constituted under it.

Much has been said andmany have waxed eloquent overShimla Agreement as something, which is the only pana-cea that can cut the long-drawnIndia-Pakistan ice. Even aca-demics too are sometimes mis-

taken on this. Indeed the talksabout Shimla accord still con-tinue to be half truths & mereeyewash. An ordinary analysiswould reveal the actual pictureand nature of this much-publi-cized agreement for which it isnecessary to have a look at therelevant clauses of the originalagreement which are repro-duced below:

“The Government of Indiaand the Government of Pakistanare resolved that the two coun-tries put an end to the conflictand confrontation that havehitherto marred their relationsand work for the promotion ofa friendly and harmonious rela-tionship… 1.In order to achievethis objective, the Governmentof India and the Government ofPakistan have agreed as fol-lows:

(i) That the principles andpurposes off the Charter of theUnited Nations shall governthe relations between the

countries; (ii) That the twocountries are resolved to settletheir differences by peacefulmeans through bilateral nego-tiations or by any other peace-ful means mutually agreedupon between them. 1V.i) ii)InJammu and Kashmir, the lineof control resulting from thecease-fire of December 17,1971 shall be respected byboth sides without prejudice tothe recognized position of ei-ther side.”A cursory look at the aboveclauses makes following thingclear: That differences betweenthe two countries have to be re-solved through bilateral nego-tiations failing which any otherpeaceful means or mechanismwill have to be worked out tosettle them

That Cease fire line of 17thDecember 1971 shall be re-spected by both sides withoutprejudice to the recognized po-sition of either side That the re-

lations between the two coun-tries shall continue to be gov-erned by UN charter. It is veryessential to put the variouswords and phrases used in theabove agreement in proper per-spective and assign them themeaning in the context inwhich these are used. For in-stance once the two countrieswant their relationship contin-ued to be governed by UNcharter- the meaning of words“or through other peacefulmeans” assumes a great sig-nificance. In the context inwhich these are used, it onlyenvisages role of a third partyin the settlement of disputebetween the parties.

As it is a common knowl-edge that India & Pakistanhave failed to settle their coredispute over Kashmir despitelapse of more than thirty yearssince the Shimla agreementwas signed and India, the firstobligation of settling the dis-

ISLAMABAD: AJK President Sardar Muhammad Yaqub Khan, Prime Minister Ch Abdul Majeed affering Dua afterinauguration of Ghazi-e-Millat Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan Medical College at Rawalakot.

pute bilaterally vanishes. Sincethis obligation cannot bestretched upto eternity, we moveto the next option of settling thedispute through “ other peace-ful means” .

This naturally envisages arole for third party mediation orreversion of matter back to UN.Since India Vociferously op-poses a third party mediation byany party like USA or EuropeanUnion, the settlement of disputeprocess has to be initiated byUN. In the Shimla agreementthe two Countries have also re-iterated to continue to be gov-erned by UN charter.

Article 103 0f the said char-ter provides that in the event ofa conflict between the obliga-tions of the Members of theUnited Nations under thepresent Charter and their obli-gations under any other interna-tional agreement, their obliga-tions under the present Chartershall prevail. It also provides

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK Secretary Education, Colleges Mehmood Khan briefing minis-ters about educational facilities.

SRINAGAR: Civil servant scuffling with police during anti govt demonstration.

ISLAMABAD—The Jammuand Kashmir Liberation Front(JKLF) has called for a com-plete shutdown in occupiedKashmir on February 11 tomark the martyrdom anniver-sary of prominent martyredleader‚ Maqbool Butt.

A JKLF spokesman said inSrinagar that February 11 willbe observed as Maqbool Dayand on this day a public rallywill be held at Trehgam‚Kupwara.

“Besides‚ special meet-ings will be held at all the dis-trict headquarters in Jammu

JKLF calls for complete shutdownin occupied Kashmir on Feb 11

Kashmir and all the offices inother countries to pay tributesto Shaheed MuhammadMaqbool Butt‚” the spokes-man added.

Meanwhile‚ the JKLF at ameeting in Srinagar an-nounced its 10-dayprogramme from 2nd Febru-ary to commemorate martyr-dom anniversary of MaqboolButt.“On February 2‚ Satur-day‚ a candle-light march willbe held at Madina ChowkGawkadal after Magribprayers. On February 4‚ pro-grams will be held in Pulwama

and Shopian‚ on February 5‚in Baramullah and Bandipora‚on February 6 in Islamabadand Kulgam‚ on February 7‚in Ganderbal‚ on February 9in Budgam‚ and a programmewill be held in Kupwara onFebruary 10‚ Sunday‚” thespokesman added.

On February 11‚ Monday‚a complete shutdown acrossKashmir will be observed‚ hesaid. On February 8‚ Friday‚a protest rally will be orga-nized from JKLF headquartersMaqbool Manzil Srinagar af-ter Friday prayers in connec-

tion with Maqbool Day.Same kind of programs

will be organized across AzadKashmir‚ Islamabad‚Rawalpindi‚ Lahore andKarachi. Programs will also beorganized in USA‚ UK‚Canada‚ Germany‚ Brussels‚United Arab Emirates‚ SaudiArabia‚ Holland and otherparts of Europe‚ the statementsaid. On the other hand‚ pro-liberation leader‚ JavedAhmad Mir in a statement is-sued in Srinagar also called fora complete shutdown on Feb-ruary 11.—NNI

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, senior APHC leader,Shabbir Ahmed Shah has saidthat the time has come whenIndia should fulfil its first PrimeMinister Pandit JawaharlalNehru’s pledge with the peopleof Kashmir that their future willbe decided by themselvesthrough plebiscite.

Shabbir Ahmed Shah in astatement issued in Srinagarurged India to revoke draconianArmed Forces Special PowersAct, stop human rights viola-tions, release all illegally de-tained Kashmiri leaders andwithdraw all its troops from theoccupied territory to create anatmosphere conducive for ameaningful tripartite dialogueon Kashmir.

APHC leader and Jammu

India asked to fulfil Nehru’s promiseIndian soldier commits suicide in Uri

and Kashmir National FrontChairman, Nayeem AhmadKhan addressing his party ac-tivists in Srinagar said that pro-India Kashmiri politicians werethe main hindrance in resolutionof the Kashmir dispute.

The General Secretary ofJammu and Kashmir MuslimLeague, Abdul Ahad Parrah ina statement said that the occu-pation authorities were deliber-ately playing with the health ofailing detained Hurriyet leader,Masarrat Aalam Butt by deny-ing him access to medical andother facilities in jail.

A spokesman for theJammu and Kashmir LiberationFront in a statement unveiling a10-day programme beginningfrom 2nd February called for acomplete shutdown in occupied

Kashmir on 11th February tomark the martyrdom anniver-sary of prominent martyredleader, Muhammad MaqboolButt. An Indian soldier commit-ted suicide by shooting himselfin the head with his service rifleinside the camp at Gingal in Uriarea of Baramulla. This hasraised the number of suchdeaths among the Indian policepersonnel and troops in the oc-cupied territory to 258 sinceJanuary 2007.

The Criminal InvestigationDepartment in a report furnishedto the Human Rights Commis-sion of the territory concededthat Indian troops had carried outthe 1994-Kupwara massacre,without any provocation. 27 in-nocent Kashmiris were killed inthe incident.—KMS

SRINAGAR—Kashmir Centerfor Social and DevelopmentStudies (KCSDS) has demandedimplementation of Justice Vermacommittee report recommendingreview of the contentious ArmedForces Special Powers Act(AFSPA). elcoming JusticeVerma committee report,KCSDS demanded governmentto implement it.

“The onus lies on the Stategovernment. They should lobbyat the highest level and use theirgood offices to push for the re-view. We hope the Governmentof India and the parliament havea sense of human rights and passand implement the JusticeVerma recommendations,”former president of FederationChamber of Industries Kashmir

Implement Verma committeereport on AFSPA: Kashmir group

(FCIK) Shakeel Qalander saidaddressing a news conference.“Mere rhetoric will not do.”

Qalander said the State gov-ernment and the Government ofIndia should take a cue fromJustice Verma panel and makeserious efforts for review ofAFSPA. “Some sense shouldprevail. As the State govern-ment has all the powers in theirhands for the review of AFSPA,we appeal all political parties touse their good offices to pushfor the passage and implemen-tation of recommendations,”Qalander said.

Reacting to Chief MinisterOmar Abdullah’s proposal forthe all party meet to discuss therecommendations, KCSDS said“it should not be a time buying

tactic”. KCSDS members de-manded there should be an eq-uitable law to treat the people.“Any person, whether he is acivilian or uniformed, involvedin any crime against womenshould be tried as a criminal.APSPA should not be used as ashield by the armed forces,”KCSDS members said.

KCSDS claimed that mostrecommendations submittedbefore the Verma panel hadbeen accepted and incorporatedin the report. KCSDS throughits chairperson HameedaNayeem had submitted recom-mendations against AFSPA dur-ing a two-day deposition ses-sion held last week by the three-member committee at NewDelhi.—NNI

ISLAMABAD—The Jammu andKashmir Liberation Front Chair-man, Muhammad Yasin Maliksaid that cease fire violations atLine of Control are happening dueto India and Pak failing to settlelong pending Kashmir dispute.

“The leadership of Pakistanand India will have to accept thisreality and accept that thesekinds of incidents which raisetensions and confrontation’s andput the lives of billions in boththe countries at stake cannot beavoided till Kashmir is resolved”Malik said. Yasin Malik said thatit is the people of Jammu Kash-mir who have to bear the bruntand consequences of war andpeace and love and hatred be-

Kashmir dispute main cause of Indo-Pak confrontation: Yasin Malik

tween India and Pakistan. Hesaid that the longer it takes us toresolve this dispute, it wouldjeopardize the peace, prosperity,stability and lives of billions ofpeople in India, Pakistan andJammu Kashmir. Malik said thatthe leadership of India and Paki-stan needs to take positive steps,show statesmanship and bigheart in this regard. “This willenable and ensure the peace,prosperity, stability and safety ofbillions of humans living in thisregion,” he added.

Malik said that Kashmir is-sue is not a border dispute be-tween India and Pakistan. “Thisissue is about the determinationof future, prosperity and security

of millions of Kashmiris. So thisissue cannot be solved withoutthe inclusion of Kashmiri’s in theresolution process” he added.Malik said sooner or later theleadership of India and Pakistanwould have to accept the propri-etorship and real party status ofKashmiris and include them inthe process of resolution of theissue. Malik hoped that the In-dia and Pakistan will show mag-nanimity, wisdom and better un-derstanding and would take suchpositive steps that would ensurethe resolution of Kashmir dis-pute. He said by virtue of thiswe all can live with a lastingpeace, stability, prosperity andsafety.—Online

SRINAGAR—Chief Minister,Omar Abdullah is ready to con-vince New Delhi to officiallyinvite Hurriyat leaders for dia-logue if only they show willing-ness in this regard.

“If Hurriyat people give usan indication that they are readyfor talks and are waiting for aninvitation, I will definitely go toDelhi and talk to the prime min-ister and others to convince themand invite the Hurriyat Confer-ence leaders”, he said in an inter-view with local news agencyKNS. “They have always re-jected invitations. They wereasked to meet interlocutors andothers but they were not ready. Ifthey are ready for talks, then wewill definitely get them an invi-tation from New Delhi. If theycan’t say that publicly, they haveto at least give us an indication

Ready to get Delhi’s invitationfor Hurriyat leaders: Omar

that they are ready for talks. Itshould not be the case that we getthem invitation from New Delhiand they reject it to become he-roes among people here.” Whilereacting to the five conditions setby Hurriyat Conference factionsfor entering into a dialogue withNew Delhi, the chief minister saidthey (Hurriyat) have so far failedto submit their demands to Gov-ernment of India.

“Where are their 5 points?As far as I know when they metthe prime minister last time, hehad asked them to give their de-mands in writing in the form ofa memorandum but that writtenversion never came. Perhaps GoIis also waiting for those demandsfrom Hurriyat leaders.” Omarsaid talks with different quartersin Government of India weregoing on for initiating revocation

of Armed Forces Special Pow-ers Act from AJK. “The talks areon. I have said this in Assemblythat I want revocation of AFSPAduring this tenure. I said it wasmy desire. I don’t say it will becompletely revoked but there hasto be a beginning. He said theywere very close to beginning ofrevocation of the controversialAct in year 2011, but due to somereasons the army stepped back.“However, we are talking inter-nally and let’s see what comesout of the talks.” Reiterating hisstand that Kashmir issue was abilateral issue to be resolved byIndia and Pakistan takingwishes of Kashmiris on board,Omar said he did not expect anysignificant breakthrough in nearfuture as far as resolution ofKashmir issue was con-cerned.—NNI

‘Indian army carriedout unprovoked 94Kupwara massacre’

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, the Criminal Investi-gation Department (CID) hasconceded that Indian troopswere involved in 1994-Kupwara massacre without anyprovocation. The Human RightsCommission of the territory saidthat it would decide the 1994-Kupwara massacre, in which 27people were killed and 36 in-jured in indiscriminate firing byIndian Army on next hearing inMarch. The rights panel hadsought detailed report about theincident from the police and In-dian Home Ministry on a peti-tion seeking re-investigationinto the case. It came up forhearing on January 28.

A report by the Criminal In-vestigation Department (CID)received by the Commissionseparately from the local policeand the Indian Ministry has in-dicted troopers of 31 Med Regi-ment for killing civilians with-out any provocation.

“Troops deployed on dutyin Kupwara town under thecommand of Second LieutenantS Bakshi indiscriminately firedin Bus Stand, Kupwara, with-out any provocation and justifi-cation, with criminal intention,”said the CID report.

The case was reopened in2004 but the investigatingagency again rued the non-co-operation from the Indian armyauthorities. Later, the Interna-tional Forum for Justice throughits Chairman Muhammad AhsanUntoo and Human Rights ForumJ&K approached the humanrights commission of the occu-pied territory seeking reinvesti-gation into the case. —KMS

World HRbodies urged to

help releaseMasarrat AalamSRINAGAR—In occupied Kash-mir, the Jammu and KashmirMuslim League has expressed itsgrave concern over continuedpolitical victimisation of illegally-detained Hurriyet leader,Masarrat Aalam Butt in Indianjail. The JKML General Secre-tary, Abdul Ahad Parah in astatement in Srinagar said thatMasarrat Aalam Butt was look-ing week and frail during hisappearance before a court inSrinagar, last day. He said thatthe Hurriyet leader was feelingunwell while the occupationauthorities were deliberatelyplaying with his health by de-nying him access to medicaland other facilities in jail.

Abdul Ahad Parah urged in-ternational human rightsorganisations to impress uponIndia to immediately all illegallydetained Hurriyet leaders includ-ing Masarrat Aalam Butt.—KMS

We are not againstmeaningful talks:

Hurriyat (G)SRINAGAR—The HurriyatConference (G) led by Syed AliGeelani has made it clear that itwas not against the dialogue butwon’t enter into any talks aimedat the repeat of 1975 exercise,which according to it laterproved to be a sell-out.

In a statement issued here,the Hurriyat (G) spokesmansaid the people who welcomedIndian Army in Kashmir are di-rectly responsible for the blood-bath of past two decades. Re-acting to the Rural Develop-ment Minister Ali MuhammadSagar’s speech made during theR-Day function here, theHurriyat spokesman said it is afact that serious issues are re-solved through dialogue. “TheHurriyat was never afraid ofentering into a dialogue. Talksare of two-types. One aimed atreaching the resolution and theother like we witnessed in thepast in the form of Beg-Parthasathy accord that institu-tionalized the Indian control,”the spokesman said.

He said the Hurriyat has al-ready put forth some conditionsbefore New Delhi for makingthe atmosphere conductive fortalks.

“The conditions include In-dia should accept Kashmir as adispute, announce demilitariza-tion, revoke AFSPA and releaseall prisoners,” the spokesmansaid.—NNI

Civil rights activistsoppose J&K govt’s

nuke advisoryJAMMU—Coalition forNuclear Disarmament andPeace has appealed for peacebetween India and Pakistan andhas also asked the Jammu andKashmir government to stop itsnuclear war advisory.

The group has started anonline signature campaign andover 170 intellectuals, activistsand scholars have alreadysigned the petition.

According to a statement bythe Coalition for Nuclear Dis-armament and Peace, the gov-ernment advisory to commoncitizens on do’s and don’ts in theevent of a “nuclear” war is “asickening reminder of the pa-thology of the Cold War, whena nuclear exchange was consid-ered worth fighting and evenwinnable.” The statement addsthat no civil defence is possiblewhen it comes to nuclear weap-ons. Hence, the advisory isclearly misleading and frighten-ing at the same time.—NNI

that UN should assume anArbitrator’s role between twodisputing membership nationsif the said dispute becomes athreat to global peace. India &Pakistan are two nucleararmed nations and are sittingon a powder keg. UN, there-fore has a role here to play bydefault as well.

The agreement also usesthe words “without prejudiceto the recognized position ofeither side”. This nails the oft-repeated lie that there weresome behind the scene agree-ments and the two Countrieshad decided to divide & enjoythat portion Kashmir whichwas under their respective con-trol as on date.

In effect Shimla agree-ment has neither overtakenUN nor made its resolutionsredundant. Instead it hasmade its role & resolutionsmore relevant & important.Courtesy.—Kashmir Watch.

Mufti welcomesJustice Verma’s

recommendationsRSPURA—Reiterating his callfor strengthening institutional de-mocracy and a strong justice de-livery system in the state thePeoples Democratic Party patronMufti Muhammad Sayeed wel-comed the recommendations ofJustice J S Verma about securingthe dignity of women in conflictareas. Addressing an impressivepublic meeting at Phinder villagein RS Pura he said the amend-ments proposed by Justice Vermain AFSPA represent the minimumthat is needed to establish the ruleof law in the state of JK that haswitnessed a serious deficit in gov-ernance, civil liberties and demo-cratic process. Mufti said it wasunfortunate that a state that ac-ceded to India for its democraticsystem is reduced to fight evenfor basic democratic rights of le-gal remedies that are available torest of the country and guaranteedby its constitution.—NNI

When you really wantto do something, theentire Universe con-spires in helping you

to achieve it…”

— Paulo Coelho

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The US investorsare showing keen interest in oiland gas exploration in Pakistanbecause of the incentives givenin the recently announced Petro-leum Policy but the governmentstill needs to create awarenessabout the benefits to attract moreinvestors from other parts of theworld as well.

US Commercial CounselorJames Fluker stated this, whiletalking to LCCI PresidentFarooq Iftikhar during a visit toLahore Chamber of Commerceand Industry on Tuesday.

US Consulate’s EconomicOfficer Frank P. Tallute, LCCIVice President Mian AbuzarShad, former President TariqHameed, Executive Committeemembers Mian Zahid Javaid,Mumshad Aliand Asia SaailKhan also spoke on the occasion.

James Fluker said that newdiscoveries of oil and gas couldhelp Pakistan in overcoming itsenergy problem to some extent.There was a revolution in the USenergy sector after discovery ofShale gas, he said, adding that US

US investors keen in Pakoil and gas sector

had surplus gas that it could export.He said that a large part of

US assistance to Pakistan wasfocused on energy as it was aliveto the issue and the US govern-ment was committed to helpsolve the economic challengesbeing faced by Pakistan. It wasa happy sign that Pakistan’s pri-vate sector was doing well de-spite a number of challenges.

Replying to a question aboutCivil Nuclear Technology,James Fluker said that no optionshould be discarded and shouldbe taken up at higher level.

While, LCCI Presidentcalled for immediate US re-sponse to Pakistan’s energywere asserting that there must besome timeframe to this regardas Pakistan and US have very

cordial relations for the lastmany decades. He said that a lotof many problems could besolved if US granted greater ac-cess to Pakistani merchandise.

He said the US enjoyed ex-clusive position for the lastmany decades in the field oftrade and investment and Paki-stan was its major non-NATOally, as part of the war on terror.

James Fluker, Commercial Consular US Embassy in a group photo with members of LCCIduring his visit along with other officials of US consulate.

El-Shafie Ahmed Mohamed, Ambassador of the Republic of Sudan called on Dr Asim Hussain,Advisor to Prime Minister on Petroleum and Natural Resources.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Bull dominated themarket Tuesday to capitalize onlucrative values as 100 Index ofKarachi Stock Exchange (KSE)soared by 167.05 points or 0.98% to close at record 17,172.04,a dealer said.

Turnover volume was alsohigh at 196.813 million as pricesof 184 scrips recorded gains and154 sustained losses while 22remained unchanged.

A dealer at a leading broker-age house Zubair Memon saidthat market was bullish sincemorning on good financial re-sults and encouraging news onpolitical front. The market capi-talization was also improved byRs 39 billion to Rs 4.285 tril-lion.

KSE index touchespeak on hectic activity

Telecard Ltd was the vol-ume leader with a turnover of34.705 million shares fol-lowed by Fauji Cement18.978 million shares, DGKhan Cement 13.244 millionshares, Engro Corp 11.373million shares and WorldcallTelecom 8.813 million shares.PSO closed at 229.32, DGKhan Cement 55.57, OGDC193.39, Engro Food 105.50,Fauji Cement 7.95, Byco Pe-troleum 13.99 and Engro Corp95.60.

Unilever Food recorded thehighest increase of Rs 175 to4080 followed by Unilever Pakwhich went up by 110.94 to9994.20 while Nestle Pakdipped by Rs 106.25 to 4693.75and Mitchells Fruits slipped byRs 11.50 to 321.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s rankin Open Budget Index has in-creased from 38 in 2008 and2010 to 58 in 2012. Out of thehundred countries surveyed byInternational Budget Partner-ship - an independent budgettransparency surveyorganisation, Pakistan hasscored 58, which reflects signifi-cant improvement and demon-strates the Government’s com-mitment to achieve budget com-prehensiveness and transpar-ency.

In its latest ‘Open BudgetSurvey’ report 2012, the Inter-national Budget Partnership hasacknowledged improvement incomprehensiveness of the bud-get that has been achievedthrough the Medium-Term Bud-getary Framework reform sup-ported by the Department for

Pakistan budgeting systemefficient improvement

International Development(DFID), UK from 2003 to 2011and implemented by the FinanceDivision under the guidance ofthe Finance Minister, AbdulHafeez Sheikh.

International good practicesinclude publishing of eight keybudgetary documents at variouspoints in the budget cycle.Pakistan’s score of 58 out of 100is higher than the average scoreof 43 for all the 100 surveyedcountries.

The ‘Open Budget Survey’report appreciates thatPakistan’s pre-budget statement,called the ‘Budget Strategy Pa-per’, is adequately prepared andadvises its publication, since aBudget Strategy Paper that pre-sents mid-year review, medium-term fiscal framework andgovernment’s policies, will im-

prove budget transparency andencourage people of Pakistan toprovide their comments on poli-cies and related finances thatimpact their daily lives.

The survey report also ac-knowledges that presentation ofthe ‘Green Book’ in the Parlia-ment together with the annualbudget has increased the com-prehensiveness of the budget bymany folds. The ‘Green Book’provides policy priorities, per-formance definition, and budgetby services to be delivered overthe next 3-years. The GreenBook is an important documentfor the Parliamentary StandingCommittees that should reviewit at the time of budget presen-tation (through at least a monthlong review budget process asopposed to the existing 12 days),

Continued on Page 14

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf has di-rected the Ministry of Informa-tion Technology (IT) to startsurvey and submit a feasibil-ity report for the establishmentof an Industrial Park in GujarKhan to encourage IT Indus-try in Pakistan.

The Prime Minister gavethe direction in a meeting withDr. SM Junaid, RectorCOMSATS and Dr. M HaroonRasheed, Pro-RectorCOMSATS at the PM’s Sec-retariat Tuesday.

IT industrial park to beestablished in Gujar Khan: Raja

During the meeting propos-als regarding establishment ofIT University in Gujar Khanwere also discussed.

Raja Pervez Ashraf said thatestablishment of IT Universityat Gujar Khan would open newvistas of opportunities for thetalented youth of the region. Hesaid that all necessary assistancefor the establishment of IT Uni-versity at Gujar Khan would beextended by the Government.

The Prime Minister said thatthe government was taking con-crete steps to facilitate IT sector

for effective delivery of its ser-vices to the people besides pro-viding employment opportuni-ties. In this regard, he said Gov-ernment had planned severalprojects for promotion of Infor-mation Technology by establish-ing several IT Universities andIT Labs throughout the country.

He said that the govern-ment was committed to set-upIT Centres in every UnionCouncil so that youth could beequipped with IT skills to keepit abreast with state of the arttechnology.—INP

Fertilizer outputdeclines during CY12

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The production ofcountry’s premier fertilizer,urea, witnessed a decline of 15percent YoY during calendaryear 2012.

Such has been the impact ofgas curtailment on urea produc-tion, especially on the plants thatare supplied gas through SuiNorthern Gas Pipelines (SNGP)network, said the analysts atInvestCap Research.

The production of the sec-tor contracted by 734k tons involumetric terms, they said.

Likewise, the analysts said theCAN production also declined bya massive 21%YoY to 475k tons.DAP production on the other handwas not as severely impacted bygas issues and down by 1.9%YoYto 645k tons compared to corre-sponding last year.

During CY12, urea off-takeposted negative growth of12%YoY to 5.2mn tons as com-pared to 5.92mn tons in CY11.Such a large decline was attrib-uted largely to the ever increas-

ing urea prices, on average reach-ing Rs1740/bag up 22%YoY.

Consequently, deterioratingfurther already under pressurefarmer economics sufferingfrom lower yields and delayedsowing of cash crops duringCY12. However, DAP off takeregistered a growth of 6.2%YoYto 1.19mn tons during the saidperiod as its selling price in-creased by only a nominal2.1%YoY to Rs3,946/bag.

Moreover, NP posted recordsales of 491k tons (+47% YoY)as production from Fatima Fer-tilizer improved sales volume ofsaid fertilizer. With low produc-tion of fertilizer on the localfront, as a whole the local indus-try is losing share in the marketto rising imports. Urea lost itsmarket share by 4ppsYoY to79%, local DAP reduced its con-tribution in total sales volume by7ppsYoY to 51% in CY12.

Going forward, the analystssaid, any positive news on sup-ply of gas will play a vital roleas far as fertilizer productionwas concerned.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The South AsianFederation of Exchanges(SAFE), the only industry as-sociation of the South AsianSecurities markets, held apress briefing of its USAIDSmall Grants Program fundedproject on developing a re-gionally harmonized regula-tory framework.

Aftab Ahmed ChaudhryManaging Director/Chief Ex-ecutive Officer Lahore StockExchange and Secretary Gen-eral (SAFE), in his speech,emphasized on the need to in-

Call for improving S Asia-vide cross border financial activitiescrease cross boarder financialactivities within the South Asianregion to create strongintraregional links and an inte-grated economic region. “Al-though efforts have been madeto promote intraregional tradewithin South Asia, still theintraregional financial integra-tion appears to lag behind dueto asymmetric developments inthe economic and financial sec-tors. SAFE’s project on devel-oping a harmonized regulatoryframework shall serve as a firststep towards a financially inte-grated south Asian region”, hefurther stated.

SAFE’s consultants, Mr.Murad Baig and Mr. NabeelZuabair, gave an elaborated pre-sentation on the project progressand talked about their upcomingenvisaged visit to the SouthAsian countries in the followingmonth.

Speaking on the occasion,Mr. Abid Anwar, USAID SmallGrants representative, said, “Aspart of its commitment to thePakistani people, the U.S. Gov-ernment, through the U.S.Agency for International Devel-opment (USAID) seeks to se-cure a self-sustaining economicfuture of Pakistan by nurturing

more efficient economic envi-ronment. We believe thatSAFE’s project shall serve as alandmark initiative to achieveeconomic growth, not only inPakistan, but all across the SouthAsian region”. He further as-sured that the people of UnitedStates of America are commit-ted to assist Pakistan to furtherdevelop its economic sector andeconomic sustainability.

The concept for this projecthas been developed under thespecific needs identified by theSouth Asian Association forRegional Cooperation(SAARC) Secretariat of facili-

tating regional financial integra-tion. The objectives of theproject are to develop harmo-nized market regulations for thecapital markets; to standardizeself regulatory framework forthe management and the opera-tions of the markets in the re-gion; to enhance market integ-rity and investor confidence; tointroduce consistent & commonreporting standards; to improvethe governance and transpar-ency norms for the listed sector;to facilitate easy capital raisingon regional basis and the pro-motion of cross border listings;to deepen and broaden the

region’s securities markets; toassist in, relatively, free move-ment of capital and portfolio in-vestments; and to promote thegreater integration of the SouthAsian capital and financial mar-kets.

SAFE is a cooperative plat-form launched by the bourses inSouth Asia with a purpose topromote the development andharmonization of the securitiesmarkets in the region. SAFE isa not for profit association hav-ing Recognized Body status ofthe South Asian Association forRegional Cooperation(SAARC), and is a network ex-

change association of theWorld Federation of Ex-changes (WFE). The opera-tions, activities, and the pro-grams of Federation are prima-rily funded by its member ex-changes, while some specificprojects get sponsorships fromsome multilateral donor/devel-opment agencies.

As of January 2013, SAFEcomprises of thirty four (34)member entities from theSAARC Region (Afghanistan,Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and SriLanka) as well as fromKazakhstan, Mauritius and UAE.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A total of 705non custom paid vehicles havebeen confiscated up to Decem-ber 2012 during the current fi-nancial year, State Minister forFinance Saleem H Mandviwalasaid Tuesday. Replying to aquestion of Begum NajmaHameed of PML-N, he said 80percent accused have been ap-prehended on the charges of us-ing non custom paid vehicles.

He said 495 vehicles werereturned to owners upon pay-ment of custom duty mainly asconsequence of amnestyscheme. While Rs 144.26 mil-lion have been collected fromthem as custom duty.

Giving breakup of last fiveyear, he said 1419 non custompaid vehicles have been confis-cated during 2008-09, and 1258vehicles were confiscated in2009-10, 1350 during 2010-11and 1205 in 2011-12.

Replying to another ques-tion of Talha Mehmood, he saidPakistan was spending 0.67 per-cent of GDP for promotion of

705 non-custom paidvehicle confiscated

Research and Development inthe country.

Replying to a question ofMs Nuzhat Sadiq a total of $7.878 billion had been borrowedby Pakistan from InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) from2008-09 to 2012-13.

Giving break up, he said$3.900 billion had been bor-rowed in 2008-9 as Stand-ByArrangement (SBA). $3.526 bil-lion in 2009-10 as SBA. Asmany as $0.452 billion had beenborrowed as Emergency andNatural Disaster Assistance(ENDA) during 2010-11.

Giving year wise details ofincome and sales tax waived offfrom 2008-9 to 2011-12 he saidRs 58.364 billion had beenwaived off in 2008-9. And Rs73.943 billion had been waivedoff during 2009-10, Rs 71.831billion during 2010-11, Rs93.908 in 2011-12.

Customs duty exemptedthrough SROs during the period2008-9 to December 2012-13including Rs 72,486 million cus-tom duties has been waived offduring 2008-9.

Kohat Cement postshigher profitStaff ReporterKARACHI—Kohat CementCompany Ltd has reported ahigher profit after tax of Rs1.179 billion during sixmonths ending December 31,2012. According to financialresults sent to KSE, the pre-taxprofit of the company soaredto Rs 1.621 billion during theperiod under review comparedto Rs 1.043 billion in the sameperiod last year. The earningper share also improved to Rs9.16 compared to Rs 5.46 in2011.

Rates for conversionKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency BearerCertificates, SpecialU.S.Dollar Bonds and profitsthereon by all banks and forproviding Forward Cover onForeign Currency Deposits(excluding F.E.25 deposits) bythe State Bank on January 30,2013. The rates are U.S.Dollar Rs 97.6711, JapaneseYen Rs 1.0779, Pound SterlingRs 153.3925 and Euro Rs131.2505.—APP

PBIT, Hungarianenvoy discussbilateral trade

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Hungarian Ambas-sador to Pakistan Istvan Szabosaid on Tuesday that water man-agement, livestock and agricul-ture were common grounds be-tween the two countries, whichcould further be explored bysharing knowledge and exper-tise in key areas of cooperation.

He was talking to PunjabBoard of Investment and Trade(PBIT) Chief Executive OfficerJaved Akbar here, while, Hun-gary Embassy’s First SecretarySzanto Attila and HonoraryConsul General of HungaryMahtab Mohiuddin were alsopresent.

‘Szabo also commended theefforts of Hungarian petrol com-pany for establishment of threegas plants in KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KPK) with theinvestment of US$ 1.4 billion.He also officially requested thePBIT Chief to engage Punjab-based businesses and NGOs toattend a major international wa-ter event (Budapest World Wa-ter Summit) in October 2013.

Tycoons demandarrest of business

leader’s killersKARACHI—Trade and industryhas strongly condemned the tar-get killing of prominent tradeleader Muhammad Irfan.

In a statement Patron In-Chief Korangi Association ofTrade and Industry (KATI), S MMuneer, Chairman MohammdZubair Chhaya, President AllKarachi industrial Alliance,Mian Zahid Hussain, ViceChairmen Najmul Arfeen andNiaz Ahmed while condolingwith the family of deceasedtrader and former ChairmanKarachi Electronics DealersAssociation, Muhammad Irfan,they said that target killing in thecity is continuing unabated andunchecked while terrorists andgangsters are let free to harassand target innocent people par-ticularly the businessmen whorefuse to pay bhatta.

They said that it’s extremelyunfortunate that the law-enforcingagencies (LEAs) and provincialgovernment have miserably failedto control target killing in the cityand business community has re-mained extremely harassed.—NNI

‘End discriminationin electricity, gassupply to Punjab’

LAHORE—All Pakistan Pa-per Merchants Association(APPMA) has demanded ofthe government to end dis-crimination with Punjab inelectricity, gas and CNG sup-ply to the Punjab otherwisePunjab people would makeaccountability of the presentregime in the national generalelections.

In a press statement issuedhere Tuesday, APPMA leaderKhamis Saeed Butt, PresidentMuhammad Ajmal and VicePresident Khawaja NadeemSaeed Wayeen said thatthough the federal govern-ment was elected with thevotes of all provinces but ithas targeted Punjab and tak-ing revenge due to reasons

Continued on Page 14

Not involvedin RPPs

case: ShaukatISLAMABAD—Former financeminister Shaukat Tareen has saidthat he was being defamed byadding his name among the ac-cused of Rental Power Projects(RPP) case.

Talking to media outside theSupreme Court, he said that hewas not among the accused ofRPPs corruption case, but hewas from those who made seri-ous efforts for eradication ofcorruption. He added that Rs22billion were given after takingguarantees, out of which Rs21billions have been returned.

The former minister saidthat if he approved 2700 mega-watts then the amount wouldhave been higher than this one.

Tareen asked what was hismistake in the case, and why hisname being defamed in the case.

It is pertinent to mention herethat the Supreme Court of Pakistanhas involved Tareen’s name forinvestigation in RPPs case.—INP

LSE gains42.33 points

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Lahore Stock Ex-change on Tuesday witnessedbullish trend by gaining 42.33points as the LSE-25 Indexopened with 4108.26 and closedat 4150.59 points.

The market’s overall situation,however, did not correspond to anupward trend as it remained at3.487 million shares to closeagainst previous turnover of 4.535million shares, showing a down-ward move of 1.048 million shares.While, out of the total 97 activescrips, 34 moved up, 51 remainedequal with 12 down value.

Engro Corporation Limited,Muslim Commercial Bank Lim-ited and Pakistan Petroleum Lim-ited were ajor Gainers of the dayby recording increase in their pershare value by Rs 3.44, Rs 3.30and Rs 1.50 respectively.

Engro Foods Limited, FaujiCement Company Limited andBank Al-Habib Limited losttheir per share value by Re 0.39,Re 0.17 and Re 0.15.

Oil prices trademixedLONDON—Global oil pricesdiverged on Tuesday incautious trading on the eve of akey monetary policy announce-ment in top crude consumer theUnited States, dealers said.Brent North Sea crude fordelivery in March droppedseven cents to $113.41 a barrelin early afternoon Londondeals. New York’s maincontract, light sweet crude forMarch or West Texas Interme-diate (WTI), added 13 cents to$96.57 a barrel. “It has been aquiet start to the week for theoil market with ratheruninspiring volume and tradingactivity,” said energy analystMyrto Sokou at the SucdenFinancial Research brokeragein London. “Crude oil pricescontinue to remain on aconsolidation mode, ahead ofthe Federal Reserve policymeeting that could provide auseful insight about the USeconomic prospects.” The UScentral bank’s Federal OpenMarket Committee was set tobegin its regular monetarypolicy meeting which con-cludes on Wednesday.—APP

World’s thirdbusiest airportDUBAI—Dubai Internationalairport has become the thirdbusiest airport in the world forinternational passengersrecording a 13.2 per cent annualgrowth in passenger traffic in2012. The annual traffic reportissued by the Dubai Airports, theoperator of the airport, said thepassenger traffic surged tonearly 58 million last year, upfrom 50.9 million passengersrecorded in 2011. The passengertraffic also exceeded the DubaiAirports’ forecast at thebeginning of the year of 56.5million by more than onemillion passengers. Indiaremained Dubai International’ssingle biggest country destina-tion in terms of passengernumbers. The passenger trafficbetween Dubai and Indiacontinued to show robustgrowth during the past year,with total passenger traffic rising7.4 per cent year on year to 7.34million passengers in 2012.Aircraft movements for 2012reached 344,245 movements, up5.5 per cent from the 326,318movements recorded in 2011.The airport’s year-end numberswere bolstered by a record 5.3million passengers in December2012, 13.4 per cent higher thanthe 4.69 million passengersrecorded in December 2011.—Agencies

Gold Tezab 53571.00Silver Tezabi 960.00

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 53500.00Gold 22 Ct 52000.00SilverTezabi 960.00Silver Thobi 800.00

USA 97.60 97.40

UK 153.22 152.91

EURO 131.30 131.03

Canada 97.08 96.88

Switzerland 105.31 105.09

Australia 101.82 101.61

Sweden 15.21 15.17

Japan 1.0730 1.0708

Norway 17.63 17.59

Singapore 78.87 78.71

Denmark 17.60 17.56

Omani Riyal 255.00 254.50

Saudi Arabia 26.02 25.97

Hong Kong 12.58 12.56

Kuwait 346.78 346.07

Malaysia 31.71 31.64

Newzeland 81.57 81.40

Qatar 26.81 26.76

UAE 26.57 26.52

KR WON 0.0896 0.0894

Thailand 3.269 3.262

Pak not meetingKinnow export

targetISLAMABAD—Chief Execu-tive Officer (CEO) HarvestTradings, Ahmad Jawad hassaid that Pakistan, though amajor citrus producer, is stilllagging behind in moderntechniques when it comes toenhancing the value of citrusexports. He said that onlyaround 10% of total produc-tion is exported.

Ahmad Jawad said thatPakistan produces about twomillion tons of citrus annu-ally, 90% of which is kinnow.This year witnessed less cropwith production of kinnowsgoing down to 1.8 milliontons and the export target washardly fixed at 200,000 tons(2012-13), he said addingthat for this small target,kinnow export faced drasticissues on three accounts.

Firstly, again loss of lu-crative market “Iran” sec-ondly strikes of goods trans-porter in the month of De-cember and thirdly imposi-tion of GRI levy from theshipping lines of $ 1500 per40 feet.

Regardless shipping ex-perts mentioned at that timethat there was no plausiblereason for the increase asthere was neither any conges-tion at the Karachi Port andPort Qasim nor any chokingof containers.

Jawad said with onemonth left only, it is obviouswe cannot expect any bench-mark and export target maybe close around 160,000tons.

If we take a look on ourexport markets, in the past,Iran had been a major buyerof Pakistani kinnows. It usedto import around 60-70,000tones of the fruit but due tointernational sanctions, weare going to close this mar-ket permanently.

Similarly Indonesia whohas enjoyed free access to thePakistan market for manyitems, including palm oil, forthe past six years has stopentry of our fresh produce tothe Port of Jakarta.

As a result all Pakistaniexports to that country mustinstead go via Surabaya City,Indonesia from where it isshipped over land at an addi-tional cost of $2500.

The CEP harvesttradings said that we mustrecall in mind PreferentialTrade Agreement (PTA)singed by Pakistan and Indo-nesia recently to enhancetrade activities and on thesame note our exporters wereexpecting unhindered marketaccess for kinnow exportwith a volume of 50,000 tonsthis season, but this couldn’tfulfilled .

Jawad further men-tioned that UAE and SaudiArabia always welcomedPakistani kinnow but thesale in these markets de-pends on Demand & Sup-ply basis. Currently inJeddah the price of ourkinnow is cheaper com-pared to local market price.The Netherlands, Oman,Sri lanka, Kuwait etc, con-sume small volumes whichcan’t add maximum contri-bution in the target.—INP

PPAF pioneers farmers crop,livestock insurance

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Securitiesand Exchange Commission ofPakistan (SECP) is introducingExtensible Business ReportingLanguage (XBRL), a user-friendly online language thatmakes the analysis and ex-change of corporate financialinformation easier and more re-liable.

Traditionally, the financialstatements filed with the SECPare prepared by the companiesin conventional word process-ing, spreadsheet or portabledocument formats, renderinganalysis and comparison of suchstatements difficult.

A statement issued by SECPhere on Tuesday said that theXBRL transforms financial re-porting process by creating anInternet-based global reportinglanguage that permits the inves-tors, analysts, and regulators toreview and evaluate financial

SECP implementing XBRL to improvecorporate financial reporting

data more easily and efficiently.XBRL is a data-rich dialect

of eXtensible Markup Language(XML), which is the universallypreferred language for transmit-ting information via the Internet.

Through this language,tagged data can be automaticallysearched and analyzed therebygreatly reducing the chances oferror.

The SECP has already heldvarious sessions for setting outthe milestones in a way to imple-ment mandatory filing of corpo-rate financial information inXBRL format for designatedclasses of companies.

The Institute of CharteredAccountants of Pakistan (ICAP)has already been taken on boardfor developing the IFRS (Interna-tional Financial Reporting Stan-dards) taxonomy as a prerequisite,which define elements and rela-tionship of financial data based onthe regulatory requirements.

Using the regulator-ap-

proved taxonomy, companieswould map their reports andgenerate a valid XBRL instancedocument.

The XBRL is a globally ac-cepted standardized business re-porting tool, which will help notonly the SECP in easily dissect-ing the bulk of corporate finan-cial information without delaybut will also facilitate other regu-latory authorities, bourses and theinvestors in analyzing the corpo-rate financial data in order tomake an informed decision.

Moreover, the current eco-nomic crisis has depleted inves-tors’ confidence in the capitalmarkets.Greater transparency inbusiness and financial informa-tion is critical to the economicrecovery.

In the medium to long run,XBRL is poised to move fromthe early adopter phase to be-coming the generally acceptedway of reporting business infor-mation.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Pakistan Industrialand Traders Associations Front(PIAF) has urged all the politi-cal parties to share their respec-tive economic agenda with theprivate sector for much-neededindustrial and economic revolu-tion.

In a statement issued here onTuesday, PIAF Chairman Engi-neer Sohail Lashari said thatpolitical debate and economicpolicy considerations requireconvergence at this critical junc-ture when the country is facedwith multiple challenges includ-ing industrial deceleration, de-teriorating law and order situa-tion and above all unprec-edented domestic borrowing.

“This is a prerequisite tohelp reduce dependence on In-

PIAF calls economic agendafrom political parties

ternational Financial Institutions(IFIs) like International Mon-etary Fund (IMF) and the WorldBank and for paving way forself-reliance in coming years.The PIAF Chairman said thatPakistan, at this point in time, isin dire need of stability in policymaking and strong institutionsand to achieve the very objec-tive, both the politicians and thebusiness leaders would have tojoin their heads for finding outa common economic agenda.

To compete head-to-headwith the great nations of theworld, he said, the country needsa selfless and visionary leader-ship who has the ability to thinkbeyond tomorrow to tackle allthe governance-related issuesand for the sake of future gen-erations.

As, he said, the general elec-

tions are fast approaching there-fore it is important that eachpolitical party should clearlyspell out its economicprogramme.

Engineer Sohail Lasharisaid the Pakistan economy wasfacing two formidable chal-lenges to breakout of the currentstagflation in which theeconomy is mired, characterisedby low growth-an average of 3.0percent in the last five years- anddouble digit inflation even if thelatter at least temporarily isshowing signs of abating. Mostworrying is the decline in invest-ment, he added.

He said that the country to-day is in dire need of macro sta-bility, structural change andstrong and well-functioning in-stitutions to overcome the inter-nal and external challenges.

PESHAWAR: President KP Chamber of Commerce and Industry Dr M Yousaf Sarwar addressing annual general meetingof Provincial Youth Assembly.

Security Paperposts higher

profitsSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Security Paper Ltdhas posted a higher profit aftertax of Rs 177.391 million for sixmonths period ending Decem-ber 31, 2012.

According to financial re-sults sent to KSE here Tuesday,the pre-tax profit of the companyalso surged to Rs 265.974 mil-lion compared to Rs 250.775million during the same periodlast year.

The earning per share im-proved to Rs 4.31 in the periodunder review as against Rs 3.86in 2011.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The exports oftextiles products is witnessingboost in the country as the sec-tor contributed around US $ 40.2billion precious foreign ex-change to national kitty duringmore than last three years.

As per year-wise break-upPakistan earned US $ 10.3 billionthrough exports of textiles prod-ucts during 2009-10,US $ 13.8billion during 2010-11 and US $12.5 billion during 2011-12.

A senior official here onTuesday said in first quarter ofcurrent year 2012-13 (Jul-Sep)the exports of textiles productshave been recorded at US $ 3.60billion which is a good sign.

He said in fact during lastfive years the exports of textilesector have seen an increasingtrend from US $ 10.3 billion toUS $ 12.5 billion, registering anincrease of around 20%.

Enumerating the measures

Textiles exports contribute$40.2b to national kitty

adopted during the period, theofficial said a detailed in-houseanalysis has been conducted asa result of which Textiles Policy(2009-14) document was pre-pared by the Ministry of Textileto identify the loopholes.

He said the Textiles Policy(2009-14) was duly approved bythe Cabinet in which variousinitiatives were stated to supportthe textile sector.

Moreover, the official saidthe government was taking anumber of initiatives tostrengthen and support value-added products of cotton.

The indicative list of suchinterventions are drawback oflocal taxes & levies scheme,Employees Old-Age BenefitsInstitution (EOBI) and socialsecurity contribution reimburse-ment scheme for women andhandicapped, mark-up rate sup-port scheme for textile sector,export finance mark-up rate sup-port scheme, duty free import of

textile related machinery facil-ity, refund of past R&D supportclaims, establishment of gar-ment cities at Lahore andFaisalabad and establishment ofPakistan textile city, Karachi.

Similarly, a comprehensiveonline registration exercise waslaunched to overcome the handi-cap of non-availability of veri-fiable data pertaining to textilesvalue chain in order to makesound policy decisions for thebetterment of the sector.

The other initiatives arestitching machine operatorstraining program (Phase-II) andestablishment of Pakistan-Koreagarment technology training in-stitute, Karachi.

In addition, he said, someinitiatives are in pipeline whichinclude establishment of cottonginning research & training in-stitutes, skills developmentprogramme for textile industryand establishment of Karachigarment city.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The United Statesis strengthening Pakistan’s energysector and helping to end energyshortages. In this effort, the U.S.Agency for International Devel-opment (USAID) Power Distri-bution Program’s Ewa Szajnerwas on hand to support the inau-guration of a computer center atthe Peshawar Electric SupplyCompany (PESCO). The PESCOCEO and Board of DirectorsChairman were also present at theinauguration with senior manage-ment from the USAID PowerDistribution Program.

“Supporting the Governmentof Pakistan’s efforts to improvethe performance of the energysector is one of our top assistancepriorities,” said Power Distribu-tion Program Chief of PartyCraig VanDevelde. The aim ofestablishing the computer center

USAID sets up planning and engineeringcomputer centre for PESCO

is to modernize the Planning andEngineering (P&E) sectors ofgovernment-owned power distri-bution companies (DISCOs),improving energy distributionacross Pakistan. “I am confidentthat, through this effort, PESCOwill be better able to efficaciouslysupply electricity to consumersin Peshawar and surrounding ar-eas,” Mr. VanDevelde added.

USAID has establishedsimilar computer centers at theIslamabad Electric Supply Com-pany, Faisalabad Electric Sup-ply Company, Lahore ElectricSupply Company and at theGujranwala Electric PowerCompany. USAID also providestraining for engineers and tech-nicians from all nine DISCOsand is introducing internationalbest practices for public utilitymanagement.

This initiative to equipPakistan’s power distribution

companies with modern technol-ogy and training the human re-source is just one part of a com-prehensive United States’ energyassistance program which in-cludes renovating the powerplant at the Tarbela Dam, upgrad-ing the Guddu, Jamshoro, andMuzafaragarh power plants, andcompleting the construction ofthe new Satpara and Gomal Zamdams. Together, these large-scaleenergy projects will add up to 900megawatts to the power grid by2013 – enough power to supplyelectricity to an estimated twomillion households.

The five year USAID PowerDistribution Program was an-nounced by Secretary of StateHillary Clinton in 2009 as be-ing among the United States’efforts to support the Govern-ment of Pakistan to reform itspower sector to mitigate the cur-rent energy shortfall.

unknown.He said that line losses,

electricity and gas theft inPunjab is far less than theother provinces but it is asheer injustice that Punjab isfacing horrible electricity, gasand CNG load shedding whileSindh was getting all of thesewith an ignorable interrup-tion.

They said that Punjabtrade and industry conditionwas already fragile massivegas and electricity load shed-ding for the Punjab industrywould be the last nail in thecoffin.

APPMA leaders said thatthousands industrial unitswere closed due to discrimi-nation with Punjab and sus-pension of gas supply to thePunjab industry. He said thatduring the tenure of presentregime, million industrialworkers have lost their jobs,their families are facingtroubles but federal govern-ment is busy to peruse its po-litical interests.

He said that during thetenure of present regime, mil-lion industrial workers havelost their jobs, their familiesare facing troubles but federalgovernment is busy to peruseits political interests.

They said that the destruc-tion would not limited to thePunjab level but nationaleconomy would also feel theheat as the most of export-ori-ented industries were situatedin the Punjab.—NNI

Enddiscrimination

From Page 13 STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan PovertyAlleviation Fund (PPAF) haslaunched the first-ever indexed and

hybrid weather micro-insuranceproducts to facilitate and compen-sate small farmers in Pakistan.

Presided by the Commis-sioner, Securities and ExchangeCommission of Pakistan,Muhammad Asif Arif, a simpleceremony to this effect was ar-ranged at a local hotel, whichwas attended by representativesof State Bank of Pakistan, theWorld Bank, International Fundfor Agricultural Development(IFAD), KfW – German Devel-opment Bank, UKAID, TameerMicrofinance Bank, NationalDisaster Management Authority,Pakistan Microfinance Net-work, government bodies, insur-ance companies and others.

Addressing the occasion,Muhammad Asif Arif said thatmicro-insurance stands at a criti-cal juncture in Pakistan. Hecommended PPAF on for intro-ducing revolutionary indexedcrop and livestock insurance

products in Pakistan. As regula-tor, he said, SECP has remainedcommitted to promoting microinsurance in the country throughresearch, introducing pivotal

regulations and promoting ahealthy policy environment.

Member, PPAF Board ofDirectors, Zubyr Soomro saidthat the need for micro-insur-ance has been felt over the yearsand it is the tipping point to up-scale it. He said that we wouldhave to make the most of thisopportunity. He said that sincereefforts are needed to make mi-cro-insurance sustainable.

In his remarks, PPAF ChiefExecutive Qazi Azmat Isa saidthat micro-insurance initiative isthe result of close collaborationbetween PPAF and IFAD. Helauded the role of insurance com-panies and SECP as a regulator tomake micro-insurance a success.He said that farmers are badly af-fected by climate change, fluctua-tion in the prices of their produceand poor quality of agri in-puts.He said that micro-insurancewould prove to be a vital instru-ment in fight against poverty.

PTCL offersunlimited calls,

free Wi-Fi modemsSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tele-communications Company Lim-ited (PTCL), the largest inte-grated Information Communica-tion Technology (ICT) servicesprovider is facilitating its cus-tomers by offering free on-netcalls through its Freedom Pack-age and free Wi-Fi modems withnew Broadband connections.

PTCL Freedom Packageenables landline customers tomake unlimited on-net callsfrom PTCL to PTCL and Vfoneacross the country without anymonthly line rent. All doubleplay customers can avail thisoffer for only Rs 250 extra whilesingle play customers can ben-efit from this offer for Rs.499per month only.

Aasif Inam, PTCL Execu-tive Vice President (EVP)Wireline Business commented,“We are delighted with theoverwhelming response fromour customers for PTCL Free-dom Package. At PTCL, webelieve in differentiating our-selves by offering customizedvoice and data packages de-signed to suit varying needsand demands of our custom-ers.”

Keeping in view of the in-creased demand and proliferationof Wi-Fi enabled devices, PTCLis also providing free Wi-Fi mo-dems with every new Broadbandconnection. PTCL remains theleading player in the Broadbandmarket of Pakistan with the larg-est consumer base of more than 1million subscribers.

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—IFC, member ofthe World Bank Group, andBankIslami Pakistan Tuesdaysigned an agreement that willhelp local companies access glo-bal import and export markets,spurring trade, production, eco-nomic growth and job creation.

The agreement seesBankIslami joining IFC’s Glo-bal Trade Finance Program,which promotes trade in emerg-ing markets by supporting theflow of goods and services. Un-der this agreement, IFC willsupport BankIslami’s trade fi-nance business by providingpartial or full guarantees for in-dividual trade transactions.

“IFC guarantees will helpPakistan’s private sector accessglobal markets and in turn con-tribute to economic growth and

IFC, BankIslami ink accord to givePakistani companies global access

job creation,” said HasanBilgrami, Chief Executive Of-ficer of BankIslami. “It is a tes-tament to the strong businessfranchising and expanding mar-ket share of BankIslami in gen-eral and in the Islamic bankingsector in particular.”

Since the trade financeprogram’s inception in Pakistanin 2006, IFC has provided morethan 3,500 guarantees worth$1.74 billion to financial insti-tutions, helping to drive tradeand create jobs.

“Trade finance is the en-gine of an estimated $14 tril-lion in annual global com-merce,” said K. Aftab Ahmed,IFC Director for FinancialMarkets and PE Funds for Eu-rope, Central Asia, MiddleEast and North Africa. “Witheasy and affordable access totrade finance, local entrepre-

neurs can reach new markets,grow their businesses, and hiremore employees.”

Close to 85 percent of IFC’strade finance guarantees in Pa-kistan covered the import ofproducts which are crucial forsustainable economic growth.Those included food and rawmaterials used in industrial pro-duction.

Pakistan is a priority coun-try for IFC. During the lastthree years, IFC has ramped upits investments and advisoryservices work in the country,supporting the development ofPakistan’s private sector. IFChas focused on mobilizing in-vestments in power and infra-structure, and providing accessto finance for micro, small,and medium enterprisesthrough financial intermediar-ies.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Dr. Abdul HafeezShaikh, Federal Minister for Fi-nance has said that it is theproven fact that the support andgrowth of the private sector isthe key to economic growth andstability all over the world andPakistan too is not an exception.

Speaking as the chief guestat the “Brands of the Year Award2011-12” an annual feature or-ganized by Brands Foundationat the packed hall of MarriotHotel in Karachi the financeminister appreciated the endeav-ors of the organizers to motivatethe private sector for develop-ing brands by producing qualityproducts which have started tocarve a respectable place in theworld market besides upliftingthe image of Pakistan with thequality brands.

Brands of the year award

Hafeez: Private sector iskey to economic growth

He added that producingquality products would only helpstrengthening of the economywhen the private sector suc-ceeded in selling them abroadthrough establishing qualitybrands. Skilled man power, qual-ity products and stable private arethe pre-requisite for economy sta-bility and we are gradually mov-ing in that direction.

He cited what he called thepraise worthy contribution of theoverseas Pakistanis who are notonly contributing significantlyto the national economy but alsohelping image building of thecountry.

Dr. Hafeez Shaikh who gaveaway as much as 200 brands ofthe year award in a variety ofcategories was fully determinedof the potential of this youngnation despite temporary diffi-culties faced by the nation.

However we should be optimis-tic and celebrate the successesachieved either by any sector oran individual who in fact sets anexample to follow for others.There is a queue of successes bythe people of Pakistan whichwere globally recognized. Herecalled the historic movementof struggle for Pakistan by theMuslims of sub-continent led byQuaid e Azam Mohammad AliJinnah born in Karachi, sym-bolic services by Abdul SattarEdhi who established world’sbest air ambulance for the causeof humanity, Dr. Abdussalam,who earned the first Nobel Prizein science and technology,Sadquain in the field of Arts,Jehangir Khan sports. BenazirBhutto Shaheed born in Larkanawhose political acumen andleadership was acknowledgedglobally.

and monitor performance onregular basis.

The survey report suggests thatPakistan should publish a ‘Citizen’sBudget’ report together with theannual budget. A Citizen’s Budgetis a ‘non-technical presentation’ toenable broad public understandingof Government’s plans for raisingrevenues and spending publicfunds in order to achieve policygoals.

In addition, the survey re-

port also suggests that Pakistanshould publish a ‘mid-year re-view report’ that provides actualexpenditure of the past sixmonths vis-à-vis the originalenacted budget includingchanges made by the Executivein the budget due to additionalbudgets and movement betweenbudget heads. The ‘mid-year re-view’ also discusses anychanges in economic assump-tions that affect approved bud-

Pakistan budgetingFrom Page 13

get policies.The survey report also sug-

gests that Pakistan should pro-vide a ‘year-end report’ thatshould include performanceachieved vis-à-vis the perfor-mance planned in addition to theexpenditure against budget. Theperformance monitoring reportis vital for people of Pakistan tounderstand what the Govern-ment has delivered by usingtheir taxes.—INP

Lahore becomes2nd largest

jewellery hubSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Lahore has be-come the 2nd largest jewelleryproduction hub of Pakistan af-ter Karachi, as more than 25000business enterprises related togems and jewellery are operat-ing in Punjab, providing em-ployment to more than 20,0000individuals. TraditionallyLahore has always been a landof finesse artisans and this tra-dition has transcended in thejewellery industry as well.

Continuing its progress onthe mandate of development ofgems and jewellery industry,Pakistan Gems and JewelleryDevelopment Company(PGJDC) has established aGems and Jewellery Trainingand Manufacturing Center(GJTMC) at Lahore.

The center is successfullyproviding training and com-mon facility services to thegems and jewellery industry ofPunjab. Talking to media, anofficial said the training cen-ter is not only for the jewel-lers but for everybody whowants to learn to designjewellery. “With its new ap-proach in jewellery making,GJTMC will help refine artis-tic abilities to makingjewellery while working in acreative and rewardingjewellery profession”.

Japan-China summit talks likalyTOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister ShinzoAbe said on Tuesday he was open to a meet-ing with Chinese leaders to rebuild ties dam-aged by a territorial dispute but said there wasno room for negotiations on their row over agroup of small islands. The remarks came af-ter China’s Communist Party chief, Xi Jinping,told a Japanese envoy sent to Beijing last weekthat he was committed to developing bilateralties and would consider holding a summitmeeting. Relations between the world’s sec-

ond- and third-largest economies plunged after the Japanese govern-ment bought three disputed islands from a private owner last Sep-tember, sparking anti-Japan protests across China. Some Japanesebusinesses were looted and Japanese citizens attacked. “It is pre-cisely because we have a problem that we should hold the summitbetween leaders and have high-level talks,” Abe said on a televisionprogramme. “I would like to consider a top-level summit if circum-stances allow.” The conservative prime minister has just increasedthe defence budget for the first time in 11 years and swept back topower in a December election calling for the protection of Japan’s“beautiful seas”. He reiterated Japan’s stance on the islands, which itcontrols. Japan calls them the Senkaku while China calls them theDiaoyu. “The Senkaku Islands are our land and China has takenprovocative steps against them ... we have been clear that there is noroom for negotiation on this matter,” he said. “But on top of that,there’s an economic relationship. Japan invests in China and reapsbenefits from exporting its goods there while China creates job placesthanks to Japanese investment,” said Abe, adding that maintainingstrong economic ties were vital for both countries.—Reuters

Hollande to address Euro-ParliamentPARIS—French President Francois Hollandewill set out his vision of the European Union’sfuture in a keynote address to the EuropeanParliament next week, his office said on Mon-day. The “solemn” speech, followed by a de-bate with the leaders of the political groups inthe Strasbourg-based EU legislature, gives theSocialist leader a chance to respond to BritishPrime Minister David Cameron’s call for a re-formed EU that returns more power to mem-ber states. Since his election last May, Hollande

has pressed for the EU to do more to stimulate growth and ease thepace of austerity to revive Europe’s stagnant economies. But he hasside-stepped German calls for closer political union with more cen-tral control over the budgets of euro zone countries, calling insteadfor more “solidarity” to precede each further step in European inte-gration. During his election campaign, he embraced calls for com-mon euro zone bonds to eliminate wide differences in borrowingcosts among countries, or to pay off their excess debt stock over aperiod. Hollande’s will address the parliament two days before a keyFebruary 7-8 summit on the 27-nation bloc’s long-term budget forthe next seven years. EU leaders failed at their first attempt last No-vember to agree on the 2014-20 budget, with Britain, Sweden andthe Netherlands, and to a lesser extent Germany, demanding deepercuts in EU spending to match national austerity efforts. Hollande iskeen to avoid agricultural subsidies, of which France is the mainbeneficiary, or regional aid for poorer member states, bearing thebrunt of any further savings measures. —Reuters

Israeli to cut defence budgetNEW YORK—Israeli Finance Minister YuvalSteinitz, fresh from a record-setting sale ofIsraeli bonds to investors in Florida, said onMonday that balancing the government bud-get will require “moderate but still signifi-cant” cuts to the defence sector. In an exclu-sive interview with Reuters, Steinitz, a lead-ing member of the weakened Likud party ofhawkish Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu, also said there are no plans tofurther raise taxes in order to hit a deficit tar-

get of 3 percent of economic output. Parliamentary elections lastweek returned Likud to the top spot in the 120-member assembly,albeit with 11 fewer seats. One area “that we will have to makesome moderate but still significant cuts is the defence budget, Iassume. It is not easy but we did it in the past,” Steinitz said duringa stopover in New York before flying home. Israel spends roughly20 percent of its budget on defence. It has to find a way to close a14-billion-shekel deficit. Steinitz stuck with the 3.5 percent grossdomestic product growth target this year, rising from 3.3 percentin 2012. He added that it would not be a surprise if economic growthtouches 4 percent in 2014. The debt-to-GDP ratio is expected todecline to somewhere in the 73-percent range, down from 74.1percent in 2011, he said. One main reason for expecting an eco-nomic rebound is the return of cheaper natural gas to power Israel’sindustry as the Tamar natural gas field off the Mediterranean coastcomes online in April.—Reuters

Canadian bill makes secession easierOTTAWA—Canada’s biggest opposition partyintroduced a bill on Monday that would makeit easier for the French-speaking province ofQuebec to secede, although the proposal hasno chance of becoming law now. The bill,from the opposition New Democratic Party,would allow Quebec to leave Canada if therewere a simple majority vote on a clear ques-tion - 50 percent plus one vote, offering cluesto NDP policy on the matter if it wins the2015 election. Current legislation says a “clear

majority” is needed for a province to secede, an undefined numberthat is described as more than a simple majority. NDP leader Tho-mas Mulcair said the side with the “largest number of validly ex-pressed votes” should win a referendum, provided the question inthe vote was unambiguous. His proposal won’t become law be-cause the Conservatives hold a majority of seats in the House ofCommons. Quebec secessionists came within a hair of winning areferendum to break away from Canada in 1995, gaining 49.4 per-cent of the vote to 50.6 percent for the pro-Canada side. Thatsqueaker prompted the federal government to pass the Clarity Act,which requires a clear majority on a clear question. It does notspecify what is meant by a clear majority but says it is more than asimple majority. The issue has become more pressing with the elec-tion last year of a separatist government in Quebec. The separatistParti Quebecois has only a minority of seats, so it cannot hold anew referendum now.—Reuters

Willem-Alexander to succeed QueenAMSTERDAM—Dutch Queen Beatrix, whoturns 75 on Thursday, announced she wasabdicating in favour of her son, PrinceWillem-Alexander, telling her country it wastime to hand the crown to the next genera-tion after more than three decades on thethrone. Willem-Alexander, 45, who will besworn in as king on April 30, is married toPrincess Maxima, who comes from Argen-tina, and has three young children. Decadesof grooming for the throne involved shak-

ing off his image as a beer-drinking fraternity boy whose bluntcomments upset the press and politicians and did not fit the im-age of the Netherlands’ low-key “bicycling monarchy”. Speak-ing calmly in a television broadcast, Beatrix, who once facedscandal over her father’s involvement in a bribery case and whosemiddle son lies in a coma after a skiing accident, said she wasstepping down because she felt Willem-Alexander was now readyto take her place on the throne. “I am not stepping down becausethe tasks of the function are too great, but out of the convictionthat the responsibilities of our country should be passed on to anew generation,” she said. “It is with the greatest confidence thaton April 30 of this year I will pass on the kingship to my son, thePrince of Orange. He and Princess Maxima are entirely ready fortheir future tasks.”—Reuters

SEVARE—As French andMalian soldiers held control ofthe fabled desert city ofTimbuktu following the retreatof Islamist extremists, Tuaregfighters claimed Tuesday thatthey control the strategic city ofKidal and other northern towns.The National Movement for theLiberation of Azawad theTuareg group’s name for north-ern Mali appears to have takenadvantage of a French-ledbombing and ground campaignto dislodge al- Qaida-linked Is-lamist fighters from Mali.

Phone lines were down inKidal, making it difficult to in-dependently confirm thegroup’s claim. The Tuaregmovement said on their websitethat it was ready to work withFrench troops and fight terrororganizations.

However, it said it wouldrefuse to allow Malian soldiersin Kidal, and the other townsunder its control in northeasternMali, following allegations thatthe troops killed civilians sus-pected of having links to the Is-lamists. It said it “decided to re-take these localities with all ur-gency to assure the security ofthe belongings, and more par-ticularly of people, because ofthe grave danger their livesfaced with the return of theMalian army, marching in thefootsteps of the French army.”

While the group known asNMLA was an important player

Mali military retakes Timbuktu city from rebelsin the early days of the Malianconflict last April, it had beenousted from power in northernMali by the al-Qaida-linked ex-tremists known as Ansar Dine.Kidal is the last of the three pro-

vincial capitals across the norththat had been under the grip ofthe Islamists since last April.French and Malian forces retookGao over the weekend, and an-nounced Monday that the

Malians had entered the fabledcity of Timbuktu. The Malianmilitary is in control ofTimbuktu,” Modibo Traore toldThe Associated Press on Tues-day morning. The French mili-

tary operation began more thantwo weeks ago and has so farmet little resistance though ex-perts warn it will be harder tohold on to the towns than it wasto recapture them from the Is-

Govt troopsbattling rebels in

Deir cityBEIRUT—Activists say Syriantroops are fighting rebels over agovernment intelligence complexand a major prison where oppo-sition figures are reportedly be-ing held in the oil-rich east of thecountry. The Britain-based Syr-ian Observatory for HumanRights says Tuesday’s clashes aretaking place in the city of Deirel-Zour, along the border withIraq.

The Observatory says therebels now control most of thegovernment complex, includingthe prison, from which they havefreed at least 11 opposition fig-ures. It isn’t clear if the freedpeople are fighters or activists.Deir el-Zour has been the sceneof heavy fighting during nearlytwo years of conflict. The aidgroup Doctors Without Borderssaid last month the city is beingshelled and bombed by govern-ment forces almost daily.—AP

Massive floodshit Aussie states,

thousandsevacuated

CANBERRA—Massive summerfloods have killed four peopleand forced thousands of peopleto evacuate their homes acrosstwo Australian states on Tuesday,disrupting air and rail travel andcoal production. A deluge fed bythe ex-tropical cyclone Oswalddumped more than 200 millime-ters (8 inches) of rain in someareas of the Queensland and NewSouth Wales states over the pastthree days, swelling rivers andswamping towns.

The worst-hit areas werearound Bundaberg,Rockhampton and Ipswich in theQueensland state, and around thenorthern New South Wales townsof Grafton and Lismore. A fleetof 14 helicopters rescued morethan 1,000 people acrossQueensland overnight and rescueefforts continued on Tuesday.

“Across Queensland the wildweather has broken a lot ofhearts,” Australian Prime Minis-ter Julia Gillard said. Among thefour people killed was a three-year old boy, who died in hospi-tal after being hit by a falling treeas he and his mother watchedfloodwaters in parts of Brisbane,Australia’s third largest city.

In Bundaberg, one of theworst hit towns, more than 2,000homes were swamped and 7,500people evacuated. People clungto rooftops calling on passingboats to rescue them and televi-sion footage showed people be-ing winched from floodwaters.Brisbane residents have beenwarned to boil all drinking wateras the city’s main water treatmentplant had been shut, unable tocope with the torrent of muddywater flowing down stream andswelling the Brisbane River. Butthe floodwaters have peakedmuch lower than similar floodsin 2011, which inundatedBrisbane, and cost more thanA$6.6 billion ($6.87 billion) torepair. The 2011 floods cutAustralia’s gross domestic prod-uct by 0.5 of a percentage point,cutting coal production inQueensland by A$6 billion andcutting agricultural production byround A$1.9 billion.—Reuters

JERUSALEM—The terror attackwas the deadliest on Argentiniansoil, coming just two years aftera bomb flattened the Israeli em-bassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29people. Deputy Foreign MinisterDanny Ayalon said the Argentina-Iran agreement, which was struckon Sunday, “is like inviting a mur-derer to investigate the killings hecommitted.”

Argentine prosecutors haveformally accused six Iranians ofcoordinating under orders fromtheir government the July 18,1994, bombing that demolishedthe Argentine Israelite MutualAssociation building. The center,a symbol for Argentina’s Jewishcommunity, was destroyed and85 people were killed and hun-dreds more wounded. Argentineofficials have claimed that Iranmasterminded the attack whileagents of the Lebanese militantHezbollah group carried it out.

Among those accused of in-volvement in the community cen-ter bombing is Iran’s current de-fense minister, Ahmad Vahidi.

Israel jittery over Argentine-Iran bombing probe

The Argentines have spent yearsseeking to interrogate the six withthe help of Interpol, but Iran’s gov-ernment has refused to make themavailable until now. On Sunday,Argentine President CristinaFernandez announced via Twitterthat her country and Iran agreedto establish an independent inter-national “truth commission” to in-vestigate the bombing.

The commissioners will ex-amine the evidence and recom-mend how to proceed, “based onthe laws and regulations of bothcountries,” Fernandez said. Then,commissioners and Argentine in-vestigators will travel to Teheranto question the suspects. Theagreement was signed in Africa byArgentinian foreign minister Hec-tor Timerman and his Iraniancounterpart Ali Akbar Salehi.

Previous Argentine probesresulted “only in failures and scan-dal, with a trial that ended up be-ing a farce” after high-level offi-cials were accused of covering upevidence and deliberately misdi-recting investigators, Fernandez

said in a series of tweets. Israel’sforeign ministry said Tuesday thatit is “deeply disappointed” and issummoning Argentina’s ambassa-dor to demand an explanation overthe joint probe and that Israel’sambassador in Buenos Aires willrequest a meeting with Argentinesforeign minister for clarifications.

“Though the (Jewish commu-nity center) attack took place onArgentinean soil and was aimedat Argentinean citizens, the find-ings of the ensuing investigationby Argentinean authorities hasbrought up a clear resemblancewith the bombing of the Israeliembassy in Buenos Aires, whichoccurred two years earlier,” theforeign ministry said in a state-ment. “The proven relation be-tween the two attacks grants us thenatural right to follow the investi-gations and to expect the perpe-trators and their sponsors to bebrought to justice, particularly intimes when to suffer from the Ira-nian terror plague around theworld,” the ministry said. —AP

Thick smog causesflights cancellation

BEIJING—Thick, off-the-scalesmog shrouded eastern Chinafor the second time in about twoweeks Tuesday, forcing airlinesto cancel flights because of poorvisibility and prompting Beijingto temporarily shut factories andcurtail fleets of government cars.The capital was a colorlessscene.

Street lamps and the outlinesof buildings receded into a whitehaze as pedestrians donned facemasks to guard against the caus-tic air. The flight cancellationsstranded passengers during thefirst week of the country’s peak,six-week period for travel sur-rounding the Chinese New Yearon Feb. 10.

The U.S. Embassy reportedan hourly peak level of PM2.5tiny particulate matter that canpenetrate deep into the lungs at526 micrograms per cubicmeter, or “beyond index,” andmore than 20 times higher thanWorld Health Organizationsafety levels over a 24-hour pe-riod. Liu Peng, an employee ata financial institution in Beijing,said he will keep his newbornbaby indoors.

“It’s really bad for yourhealth, obviously,” Liu said. “Ibike to work every day and al-

ways wear a mask. The pollution in recent

years is probably due to the in-crease in private cars and gov-ernment cars.” Visibility wasless than 100 meters (100 yards)in some areas of eastern China,the official Xinhua NewsAgency reported. More than 100flights were canceled in the east-ern city of Zhengzhou, 33 inBeijing, 20 in Qingdao and 13in Jinan.

Every year, China’s trans-port system bursts at the seamsas tens of millions of peopletravel for the Lunar New Yearholiday, in the world’s largestseasonal migration of people.Ren Haiqiang, a bank worker inhis early 30s, said he had bookedtickets to fly out of Beijing onThursday to visit family in thecoastal city of Dalian, but nowworried about flight cancella-tions.

“Traveling over the holidayis already a huge hassle, alongwith all the gift-giving and fam-ily visits. We thought flyingwould be the best way to avoidthe crush, but if the weather con-tinues like this we’ll be in realtrouble,” Ren said as he waitedin line at a bakery in downtownBeijing.—Reuters

MAIDUGURI—Security forcesin Nigeria’s volatile northeastwelcomed on Tuesday aceasefire declaration by a com-mander of the Islamist sectBoko Haram, but said theywould not lower their guard.Sheik Abu Mohammed IbnAbdulazeez, a man local secu-rity sources say is a BokoHaram commander, called onsect members to halt attacksthat have left many hundredsdead since it launched an up-rising to carve out an Islamicstate in Nigeria in 2009.

But it was not immediatelyclear if Abdulazeez was speak-ing on behalf of Boko Haramleader Abubakar Shekau whohas neither publicly backed, nordenounced the commander whoalso called for dialogue in No-vember last year. In a statementto journalists in Maiduguri, thesect’s headquarters,Abdulazeez urged securityforces to reciprocate.

“Conflicts are resolved

Nigeria cautiously welcomes Islamists ceasefire

through dialogue, hence the dec-laration of ceasefire by the sect’sleader is a welcome develop-ment,” Lieutenant Colonel SagirMusa, spokesman for joint mili-tary and police forces (JTF) inBorno state, said by phone. “Bethat as it may, the JFT will re-main in a staging position tocontinue maintaining law andorder ... in its area of operationalresponsibility,” he said.

The doubts over the author-ity of Abdulazeez raise questionsabout possible rifts within thesecretive militant movement. Hemay represent only one factionwithin Boko Haram, which isseen as the main security threatto Africa’s leading energy pro-ducer.

Hours before he spoke, gun-men in Borno state killed eightpeople in an attack that bore thehallmarks of Boko Haram, butwhich could also have been oneof several criminal gangs prof-iting from the growing lawless-ness in Nigeria’s northeast.

The timing of the allegedceasefire has been seen as curi-ous given Nigeria’s involvementin military efforts to dislodgeIslamists in Mali, with whomBoko Haram are known to haveforged links. Security agencieshad been braced for a backlash.A spokesman for Borno stategovernor Kashim Shettima alsowelcomed the ceasefire.

“The governor has regularlyadvocated that, unless we wantto engage in an endless war, thebest way out of the crisis is dia-logue,” his spokesman Isa UmarGusau said.

President GoodluckJonathan has alluded to linksbetween Boko Haram and Sa-haran Islamists as a reason forjoining efforts by allied Frenchand West African forces fight-ing them in Mali.

But critics say Nigeria’s in-surgency is largely a home-grown problem that can only beresolved with a political settle-ment —Reuters

ISTANBUL—Kurdish militantswill announce a halt to hostili-ties with the Turkish state inFebruary according to the time-table of a fledgling peace pro-cess aimed at ending a 28-year-old insurgency, a newspaper re-port said on Tuesday. As an ini-tial confidence-building step,around 100 fighters from theKurdistan Workers Party (PKK)guerrilla group will disarm andwithdraw from Turkish soil, theHurriyet daily said.

Turkish intelligence offi-cials began talks with jailedPKK leader Abdullah Ocalan inlate 2012 and Hurriyet said talkshad also been held with the PKKin northern Iraq, where most ofthe group’s militants are based.More than 40,000 people havebeen killed in fighting since therebels took up arms in 1984 with

Kurdish militantshalting Turkey hostilities

the aim of carving out a Kurdishstate in southeastern Turkey. ThePKK is designated a terroristgroup by Ankara, the UnitedStates and the European Union.

The conflict is the chief do-mestic problem facing PrimeMinister Tayyip Erdogan after 10years in power. “According to thetimetable on the table, the PKKwill announce its decision to halthostilities in February right afteran official call by AbdullahOcalan,” the paper said.

Under a framework forpeace discussed with Ocalan, thePKK fighters will ultimately dis-arm after withdrawing from Tur-key and the government will inreturn boost Kurdish minorityrights. The paper did not iden-tify its sources and officials werenot immediately available tocomment.—Reuters

TOKYO—Japan’s governmentwill review statements by previ-ous administrations about war-time history including a landmark1995 apology, Japan’s educationminister said, but added that anychanges would not mean reject-ing those statements but makingthem more “forward-looking”.

Any moves to renege on the1995 apology by then-PrimeMinister Tomiichi Murayama -now in Beijing on a missionaimed at soothing tension over aterritorial row - would raise hack-les in both China and South Ko-rea, where bitter memories ofJapan’s military aggression andcolonization run deep.

The government will alsoreview guidelines for school text-

Japan govt to reviewwartime history

book publishers aimed at ad-dressing the sensitivities ofneighboring countries which suf-fered under Japan’s military in-vasion and colonization, Educa-tion Minister HakubunShimomura told Reuters in aninterview on Tuesday.

“The government as a wholeplans to review these (statements)issued by past cabinets concern-ing historical perspective,”Shimomura said. “This doesn’tmean we will reject them and cre-ate something new, but it may benecessary to add forward-look-ing expressions,” he said. “Atleast it is not the sort of reviewthat China or South Korea wouldhave to worry about. It is a do-mestic matter.”—Reuters

MOGADISHU—A suicidebomber blew himself up nearthe Somali presidential palaceon Tuesday, killing at least twosoldiers in a strike apparentlyaimed at the country’s leaders,a palace guard at the scene said.Officials working in the palaceand guards said Somali Presi-dent Hassan Sheikh Mohamudwas abroad at the time of theblast and Prime Minister AbdiFarah Shirdon Saaid, whosehouse was near the site of theexplosion, was safe.

The blast was the first thisyear in Mogadishu, where se-curity has improved greatlysince Al Shabaab - Islamist

Suicide blast near Somali presidency kills 2

rebels allied to al Qaeda - weredriven from the capital by Afri-can peacekeepers in late 2011.The group - which wants to im-pose its strict version of Shariaor Islamic law - is fighting totopple Mohamud, whose electionlast year was the first such votesince warlords ousted militarydictator Mohamed Siad Barre in1991.

“The man blew up himselfnear a wall between the Ethio-pian embassy and the SomaliPM’s residence,” Ahmed Ali, aSomali soldier at the presidentialpalace told Reuters. The twobuildings are inside a sprawlingcompound that also houses the

presidential palace.“One guard died there and

then. Another died of his wounds.They were all the guards of thePM,” said Ali. “The man was anal Shabaab defector. He had agate pass, an identity card of thenational security.”

Guards at the palace who de-clined to be named said the blastpartially damaged a small roommade of iron sheets where theprime minister’s guards are sta-tioned, but little else was dam-aged. Buildings and cars withinthe compound were untouched.The guards said the bomber wasknown to them, and frequentlyvisited the palace.—Reuters

The photo provided by the French Army Communications Audiovisual Office (ECPAD) and released Tuesday.

lamists.Photos released by theFrench military showed throngsof jubilant residents greeting thearrival of troops in the town,where Islamists whippedwomen for going outside with-out veils and amputated the handof a suspected thief. There alsowas celebration among the thou-sands of Timbuktu residentswho fled the city rather than liveunder strict and pitiless Islamicrule and the dire poverty thatworsened after the tourist indus-try was destroyed.

“In the heart of people fromnorthern Mali, it’s a relief free-dom finally,” said CheickSormoye, a Timbuktu residentwho fled to Bamako, the capi-tal. However, the mayor ofTimbuktu said Islamists set fireto an institute housing irreplace-able manuscripts before theyfled the town.

Timbuktu has been home tosome 20,000 irreplaceablemanuscripts, some dating to the12th century. It was not imme-diately known how many weredestroyed in the blaze that wasset in recent days in an act ofvengeance by the Islamists be-fore they withdrew. MichaelCovitt, chairman of the MalianManuscript Foundation, calledthe arson a “desecration to hu-manity.” “These manuscripts areirreplaceable. They have thewisdom of the ages and it’s themost important find since theDead Sea Scrolls,” he said.—AP

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Belinda Clark,the former Australianwoman captain will cer-tainly follow the forthcom-ing Women’s World Cup(WWC) to be commencedin India later this week.

Her record of most runsin ODI career is underthreat.

Speaking fromBrisbane, where the 42-year-old former openingbatswoman is a manager atthe Cricket Australia’s Cen-tre Of Excellance (COE), shesaid, “as the old saying

Belinda Clark’s record of most runsin ODI career under threat : All theBest to Charlotte Edwards, she says

goes “ records are meant tobe broken”.

England’s captain Char-lotte Edwards (4783) is justbehid 61 runs of BelindaClark’s 4844 runs.

“I am thrilled that Char-lotte Edwards is close to themark and likely to break therecord at such an iconic eventas the ICC women’s worldcup”, she added.

“The World Cup is afavourite event and I am look-ing forward to a successfuland entertaining tourna-ment”.

“Charlotte is an out-standing player and hasbeen critical to the rise ofEngland in recent years. I

wish her all the best”, shesigned off.

Belinda was the firstand is the only femaleplayer to score a doublecentury in a women’s OneDay International (inMumbai against Denmarkin 1997).

In 2011, she was in-ducted into the ICC CricketHall of Fame. She was alsonamed Wisden AustraliaCricketer of the Year in1998.

England’s first WorldCup match will be againstSri Lanka on Thursday(CCI) and all eyes will be onEngland skipper, CharlotteEdwards.

ISLAMABAD: Athletes taking part in the Long Jump event during National Youth and Junior Athletics Championship at Sports Complex.

NEW DELHI—Diana Edulji,the former India Women cap-tain, has criticised the “dis-criminatory” attitude of theBCCI and said the board isnot interested in runningwomen’s cricket beyondpaying “lip service”. Shewarned that the women’sgame in India is in danger ofdying out if the current situ-ation persists.

Edulji, one of India’s pio-neering woman cricketers,was on the BCCI’s women’scommittee and was also man-ager of the Indian Womenteam in 2009. It was a “dream”when the BCCI took overwomen’s cricket a few yearsago - in line with ICC regula-tions - but now the bubblehas burst.

“The BCCI is runningwomen’s cricket becausethey have to run it, becausethe ICC is now running bothmen’s and women’s cricket,”Edulji told ESPNcricinfo.“Otherwise, there is nowomen’s cricket. They can-not play under any otherbanner. I would say it is aninsult to women’s cricket tobe treated this way.”

She was scathing aboutthe gender-based doublestandards prevalent in thegame’s administration. As anexample, she spoke about howthe India Women team pre-paring for the Women’s WorldCup had been put up in a cen-trally-located but budget ho-

Women’s game dying in India’

Diana Edulji slams‘discriminatory’ BCCI

tel before being shifted to theluxury Taj Mahal Palace hotela couple of days ago.

“I was driving and onMarine Drive I saw thiswhole bunch of red t-shirtscoming. I realised it was theIndia Women team,” Eduljisaid. “They were walkingfrom Sea Green [the hotel] tothe Wankhede [Stadium]. Istopped my car, and the waythey greeted me, I felt nice,but I also felt that this is theIndian national team, andthey are walking on thestreet?

“And where are they play-ing? Police Gymkhana, HinduGymkhana, BombayGymkhana? Would any mencricketers play there?”

India’s international anddomestic women cricketershad to make do with signifi-cantly lower match fees andother benefits, Edulji said,and combined with a sus-tained lack of exposure, therewas little motivation to takeup the game apart from purelove of the sport. “The play-ers should be getting themaximum. The irony is, inwomen’s cricket it is theother way round; the selec-tors get the maximum, thencome the match referees, andthen come the players. Sohow are you going get girlsto come into cricket? Andwhat is the domestic matchfee? Rs 2500 (US$ 47 approx).Where are you going to eat,

if you stay in a four-star ho-tel? And for T20 it is evenless, Rs 1250.”

Despite consistently be-ing among the top-rankedplayers in the world, Eduljisaid India captain Mithali Rajhad little chance of beingrecognised in public due tothe lack of visibility ofwomen’s cricket in India. “Imay be boasting. Still, whenI go to movies or restaurants,I am still recognised. But I amsure if Mithali is with me, shewon’t be recognised. It issad. I still feel nice whensomeone comes up to me andintroduces me to their chil-dren. And why shouldn’tthese girls get the recogni-tion? Jhulan [Goswami] is aPadma Shri [winner], she’s anArjuna awardee, so isMithali.”

However, RatnakarShetty, the BCCI’s chief ad-ministrative officer, said theboard was giving women’scricket adequate support.“Women’s cricket has comeunder BCCI’s wings in 2006.Since then, the board hasdone an excellent job with it,”he said. “We have extendedthe best of facilities towomen cricketers. All thestate associations havethrown open all their trainingfacilities to the girls. Besides,virtually every team has allthe requisite support staff,including a coach, a physioand a trainer.—Agencies

ISLAMABAD: Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chief of the Air Staff, PAF, who is also President PakistanSquash Federation awarding pride of performance award to Amjad Ali Noon, President Punjab Squash Association.

CANBERRA: Kieran Powell made 92 before retiring hurtduring Prime Minister’s XI versus West Indians.

Australia andSri Lanka

make peaceMELBOURNE—Australianand Sri Lankan players offi-cially made peace following afiery end to their finalTwenty20 international wonby the tourists off the last ball,Cricket Australia said Tuesday.

They also sought to playdown the angry exchanges asthe two sides walked off thepitch after Sri Lanka won bytwo runs under theDuckworth-Lewis method.

Cricket Australia admittedthe rain-hit match finished with“ugly scenes” but stressed“both teams apologised”.

Trouble erupted when all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, need-ing four runs from the final ballto clinch victory for Australia,told the Sri Lankans, in no un-certain terms, to get on with it.

Sri Lanka veteran MahelaJayawardene, who earlier hit anunbeaten 61, yelled back atMaxwell. After the last ball wasfinally delivered the pair jostledin an angry face-to-face ex-change.

Wicketkeeper MatthewWade and captain GeorgeBailey also bickered withJayawardene and bowlerThisara Perera during the on-field handshakes. “I went intothe Sri Lankan rooms after andthey apologised for going overthe top. All good,” Maxwellsaid on Twitter.—AFP

PARIS—French number oneMarion Bartoli is aiming to goone step further at thisweek’s Paris Open in herquest for a maiden title onhome soil.

Bartoli was defeated byAngelique Kerber in lastyear’s final—a result thatserved as a catalyst for theGerman’s breakthrough 2012campaign.

But even with Kerber notdefending her crown thisyear, Bartoli, whose last ofseven WTA titles came inOsaka in October 2011, wasguarded in her expectations.

“I don’t know if it’s agood year or not, it’s a loadeddraw. There are still two other

top 10 (women) in the fieldand lots of dangerous play-ers,” she said.

“There is a long way togo before thinking aboutwinning,” added Bartoli, thetournament’s third seed.

The world number 10,who suffered a disappoint-ing third-round exit againstRussia’s Ekaterina Makarovaat this month’s AustralianOpen, insisted the GrandSlam tournaments remainedthe focal points of her sea-son but admitted success inthe French capital also ratedhighly among her priorities.

“I want to base my sea-son around the Grand Slamtournaments with the hope

of getting closer to the topfive in the world. But aboveall I would really like to winthe title here because I wantto play well in France.”

Bartoli, who has a first-round bye, will face Ameri-can Christina McHale, whobeat fellow FrenchwomanPauline Parmentier in heropening match 6-4, 6-1.

Meanwhile, the event’stop seed Sara Errani of Italywill be seeking to ignite her2013 campaign after crashingout at the first hurdle inMelbourne. The world’s sev-enth ranked player, a finalistat the 2012 French Open,faces a qualifier in her firstmatch.—AFP

Bartoli craving successon home soil in Paris

SAN DIEGO—Tiger Woodsnever looked so irritated win-ning a golf tournament socomfortably.

His record eighth victoryat Torrey Pines was all butover when Woods ripped a5-iron from 244 yards over thecorner of a bunker and ontothe green at the par-5 13thhole, setting up a two-puttbirdie that gave him an eightshot lead in the Farmers In-surance Open.

At least he had plenty oftime to savor this victory. Thefinal five holes felt like theytook forever.

Woods twirled his clubon the tee and leaned on it inthe fairway as the final round

Woods makes shortwork at Torrey Pines

dragged on. He lost rhythmand appeared to lose inter-est, and it showed. A bogeyfrom the bunker on the 14th.A tee shot that caromed off aeucalyptus tree on the 15thhole that led to double bo-gey. A tee shot he popped upon the 17th hole that left him50 yards behind the otherplayers and led to anotherbogey.

‘’It got a little ugly at theend,’’ Woods said. ‘’I startedlosing patience a little bit withthe slow play.’’

No matter. It only affectedthe margin, not the outcome.Woods had to settle for aneven-par 72 that gave him afour-shot win over defend-

ing champion BrandtSnedeker and Josh Teater,who each had a 69.

For a tour that has beencriticized for slow play, thiswasn’t an ideal start to thenetwork portion of its sched-ule. With Woods virtually alock to win, CBS Sportswanted the final round to re-sume Monday later than nor-mal so that it could be tele-vised in late afternoon on theEast Coast. Play was so slowthat CBS went over its allot-ted time.

Woods, meanwhile, hadthe ideal start to his tourseason. He might have beenthe only one who didn’tpanic.—AP

Man Utd world’sfirst team to top $3

billion in valueLONDEN—English PremierLeague soccer clubManchester United are theworld’s first professionalsports team to be valued atmore than $3 billion, accord-ing to Forbes Magazine. Arecent surge in the club’sshares after a poor start whenthey were offered on the NewYork Stock Exchange last yearhas boosted ManchesterUnited’s value to $3.3 billion,a report on Forbes’s websitesaid.

The increase has United,English champions a record19 times, comfortably aheadof the world’s second-mostvaluable sports team, theNational Football League’sDallas Cowboys, worth $2.1billion. Forbes put the surgein United shares down tobrighter earnings prospectsfrom new sponsorship dealsand said the demand couldcontinue given the team’spotential for lucrativepayouts in the EPL andChampions League.

United, who claim to have659 million followers world-wide, are owned by theAmerican Glazer family whoretained a tight grip on theclub after the flotation on theNew York Stock Exchange.United shares closed 41cents lower at $16.48 in NewYork.—Agencies

Lodhi to featurein World Chess

qualifiersKARACHI—Pakistan’s leg-endary chess playerMahmood Lodhi will repre-sent in the 3.2 Asian ZonalChess Championship beingheld in Colombo (Sri Lanka)from February 2 to 9.

The event will serve asthe qualifying rounds for theWorld Chess Championshipbeing staged in Batumi(Georgia) in September 2013.

Being reigning andrecord 13-time NationalChess Champion,Internationl masterMahmood Lodhi has beennominated by Chess Federa-tion of Pakistan (CFP) to fea-ture in the championship.

Besides five Grand Mas-ters from Bangladesh, play-ers from Pakistan, Nepal,Maldives will be taking partin the 8-day 11 round con-test.—APP

Asif makessterling start inThai snooker

K A R A C H I — P a k i s t a n ’ sIBSF World AmateurSnooker ChampionMuhammad Asif made asterling start in SangsomMukdahan Cup SnookerTournament when he ham-mered local player BunditKiewsuthi 4-0 with a cen-tury break on Mondayevening, according to infor-mation received on Tues-day.

Asif was invited by theBilliard Sports Associationof Thailand (BSAT) to par-ticipate as a wild card en-trant in the event being heldin the Mukdahan province.

Faisalabad-based Asifconstructed 122 breaks inthird frame while carving outan easy 67-44, 68-66, 128-0,70-17 victory. Asif also madethe breaks of 39, 22 and 37 inthe match.

BSAT had funded the tripof Muhammad Asif includingairfare, boarding and lodgingand the guaranteed purse ofThai baht 15,000.

The winner of the eventwill get Thai baht 100,000 andrunner-up grabs 50,000 Thaibaht and losing semi-finalistwill collect 30,000 Thai baht.

Muhammad Asif will playhis last 16 round match onJanuary 31.—APP

Obama’s opinionson footballcriticised

NEW ORLEANS—BaltimoreRavens linebacker TerrellSuggs respects and under-stands President BarackObama’s opinion about thedangers of football - and hesi-tation about having a childplay.

The hard-hitting 2011Defensive Player of the Yearalso says that no matter howviolent the sport, his 4-year-old son will be allowed totake it up if he wants. ‘’Itwould have to be hischoice,’’ Suggs said Mon-day. ‘’Football isn’t for ev-erybody.’—AP

A STUDY of elderly people finds thatthose whose diets were high in certainessential nutrients were less likely to

have the brain shrinkage associated withAlzheimer’s disease and more likely to scorebetter on tests of mental performance. The re-searchers published a paperon how they came to thesefindings in the 28 Decemberonline issue of Neurology.

The paper’s first author isDr Gene Bowman from theDepartments of Neurologyand Public Health and Pre-ventive Medicine at OregonHealth & Science Universityin Portland, and a member ofthe American Academy ofNeurology. He and his col-leagues describe three sets offindings:

Elderly people with dietshigh in several vitamins oromega 3 fatty acids were lesslikely to have the brainshrinkage that usually accom-panies Alzheimer’s diseasethan people whose diets were low in those nu-trients.

Those whose diets were high in omega 3fatty acids and in vitamins C, D, E and the Bvitamins were also more likely to score betteron tests of mental ability than those whose di-ets were low in those nutrients.

Those whose diets were high in trans fatswere more likely to have brain shrinkage andperform less well on thinking and memory teststhan those whose diets were low in trans fats.

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for hu-man health but the body can’t make them.These are primarily found in fish, also an es-sential source of vitamin D; some plants and

nut oils are also good sources of omega 3fatty acids, which are also called polyunsatu-rated fatty acids (PUFAs).

B vitamins and antioxidants C and E areprimarily found in fruits and vegetables, ex-cept for B12, which mostly comes from ani-

mal products, although it isalso present in fortified break-fast cereals. Trans fats are pri-marily found in fast, pack-aged, fried and frozen food,many baked goods and mar-garine spreads.

The study is thought to bethe first to measure severalnutrient biomarkers in theblood as a way to examinelinks between diet andmemory, thinking and brainvolume.

Until now, other studieshave only examined or or twonutrients at a time, or haveused data from diet question-naires, which rely on people’smemory of what they eat anddo not account for how effi-

ciently their bodies retain the nutrients, aparticular problem in the elderly.

For the study, Bowman and colleaguesrecruited 104 elderly people of average age87 who had few risk factors for impairedmemory and thinking. From participants’blood tests the researchers measured 30 dif-ferent nutrient biomarkers.

All the participants also completed testsof memory and thinking, while 42 of themalso underwent MRI scans that measuredtheir brain volume.The results showed thatoverall the participants’ diets were healthy,but 25% were lacking in vitamin D and 7%were deficient in vitamin B12.

Nutrients may stop brainshrinkage linked to Alzheimer’s

KARACHI: Director Gereral Culture Centre Islamic Republic of Iran Mehdi Khatib calledon Sunni Tahreek leader Sarwat Ejaz Qadri at Qadri House.

KARACHI: A group photograph of 20 ambassadors during their visit to mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

KARACHI: Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Mohammad Asif Sandila addressing inaugu-ration ceremony of new campus at Bahria University.

KARACHI: Students of Government Muneeba Memorial School protesting against illegaloccupation on the building of their school.

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Chief of Naval Staffand Pro-Chancellor of Bahria Uni-versity Admiral Mohammad AsifSandila formally opened the newcampus of Bahria UniversityMedical and Dental College(BUMDC) here on Tuesday.

Speaking as a chief guest,Sandila said BUMDC wasemerging as the center of excel-lence in health sciences at bothgraduate and post-graduate lev-els, and across the medical, den-

Naval Chief inaugurates newcampus at Bahria University

tal and nursing fields. While still in its infancy

stage, the college had been in-cluded in the InternationalMedical Education Directory bythe Foundation for advance-ment in medical education re-search, and also listed in the di-rectory of World Health Orga-nization. The BUMDC hasbeen also recognized for theUnited States Medical LicenseExamination (USMLE). Hesaid the faculty and parentswere doing their best to teach,

train and support them to dis-charge their obligations towardstheir noble profession effec-tively. He said medical and den-tal education was just one of thefields that Pakistan Navy hadventured into as its obligationtowards the community service.

He added that Navy’s edu-cation services were provided insync with its presence. Whereasthey were previously confinedto Karachi and Islamabad, theynow extend as far as Gwader andOrmara.

KARACHI—Sindh Assembly’sPublic Accounts Committee(PAC) on Tuesday directed theDeputy Commissioners (DCs) toconduct surprise visits of hospi-tals and schools to bring im-provements there as mostly doc-tors and teachers do not performtheir duties.

The PAC Chairman SardarJam Tamachi Unar while con-ducting scrutiny of audit of dis-trict governments also proposedthe provincial government toauction perceived unfeasibleschools.

He observed that the state ofeducation and health was poorin Sindh province. Teachers were

Sindh PAC directs DCs to conductsurprise visits to hospitals, schools

not attending the schools whiledoctors were not available atpublic hospitals in evening shift.Substandard medicines werebeing procured at cost of life ofpatients.

“If DCs could conduct vis-its of schools and hospitalstwice a week, it would bringbetter results by instilling fearin minds of doctors and teach-ers,” believed Jam Tamachi.

He proposed the govern-ment to identify the schools,which existed during 1998 cen-sus and focus on provision offacilities in the same and run-ning the same properly. He saidthose schools, which were built

under influence of influentialpersonalities and were not fea-sible and subsequently occu-pied, should be auctioned intransparent manner that wouldalso help the government to re-duce expenditure.

The DC TandoMuhammad Khan Asif Memonconcurred Jam’s views andcited an example of Bulri ShahKarim School where a mereannouncement of his visit to itprompted the teachers to at-tend the school. However, heopined that thecommissionerate system hasbeen revised recently but theylacked old powers.—NNI

Delegation ofambassadorsvisit Quaid’s

MazarKARACHI—A delegation of 20ambassadors visited the mauso-leum of Quaid-i-AzamMuhammad Ali Jinnah on Tues-day to pay respect to theFounder of Pakistan. The en-voys were led by the Dean of theDiplomatic Corps Argentina’sRodolfo Martin Saraovia. TheAmbassadors included those ofMalaysia, Canada, Czech Re-public, Norway, Egypt,Maldives, Japan, Bangladesh,Indonesia, Switzerland,Mauritius, France, Bulgaria,Nepal, Poland, Turkmenistan.The Argentinean envoy said onthe occasion that they have comehere to pay tributes to Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

The envoy further stated thathe felt almost like a Pakistani ashe had been in this country foralmost eight and a half years. Hedescribed the people of Pakistanas very friendly, open and gen-erous. Later, the delegation alsovisited Quaid’s museum locatedwithin the precincts of the Mau-soleum.—APP

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Ambassador of Hun-gary to Pakistan said that Govern-ment of Hungary will never hesi-tate to support the people of Paki-stan in times of need.

While inauguratingManzalai School in Gurguri, heannounced the release of 20,000USD for the purchase of librarybooks and other items for thenewly built school. He alsopromised another 40,000 USDfor the other two schools plannedto be established by MOL Paki-stan in area of operations. Am-bassador Istvan Szabo said hewas immensely pleased to be partof the initiative which was aimedat brightening up the future ofchildren of KPK. He appreciated

Hungarian envoy reiteratessupport for Pakistani people

MOL Pakistan’s role in variouswelfare activities in Pakistan.The Deputy Commissioner Mr.Ali Anan Qamar while address-ing the gathering appreciatedMOL for its contributions in thearea with special emphasis onpromotion of quality education inits area of operations.

MD MOL Pakistan, Mr.Erno Lipták, in his speechthanked the elders of the areaand District AdministrationKarak for making the endeavora success. He told the gatheringthat the school was operationalunder banner of The CitizenFoundation (TCF) and abouthundred children had alreadybeen enrolled. He said that withhelp of TCF, we wished to makethe project a success and set it

as a benchmark for other schoolsto follow. MD MOL said that hiscompany had always given spe-cial emphasis to the socio-eco-nomic uplift of the areas andconsidered education as themost powerful instrument. Hesaid that two other schools werealso planned to be constructedin TAL Block in KPK.

The MD/CEO (designate)Mr. Ferenc Juhasz also presenton the occasion said that theschool was another success ofMOL in the area of Gurguri, af-ter exploring gas and oil reser-voirs here. The ambassador alsodistributed school bags in theschool children and also for-mally kicked off Polio eradica-tion Campaign by administeringPolio drops to children.

KARACHI—At least six people,including a political activist,were killed in separate incidentsof violence across the city onTuesday.

Tension prevailed inGulbahar area after the killing ofa political activist, Rehan. Hewas deeply wounded in a firingincident yesterday but suc-cumbed to injuries today. Shops,markets and other activities were

Political activist among6 shot dead in city

suspended in the area after hiskilling. A man identified asMuhammad Siddiq was shotdead in a firing incident inManzoor Colony. Two otherpersons were killed in separatefiring incidents that occurred inShaheed-e-Millat Road and VitaChowrangi, Korangi.

On the other hand traders ofthe city protested against acracker attack. According to po-

lice, the cracker attack was oc-curred yesterday on the resi-dence of a local trader Fayaz inLandhi 89 area.

The traders’ communitystages a protest against the inci-dent and blocked the roads inMalir, demanding adequate se-curity to the community. Fewdays ago, the trader’s son wasrecovered after paying the ran-som amount.—INP

IGP Sindh callsfor effective actionagainst criminals

KARACHI—The InspectorGeneral of Police (IGP), SindhFayyaz Ahmed Leghari Tuesdayvowed to intensify the driveagainst the criminals.

In a statement here on Tues-day he asked the police that incoordination with the intelli-gence agencies effective andconcrete measures be taken forthe protection of the lives andproperty of the people. Hestressed that every possible stepbe undertaken for the arrest ofthe absconders and proclaimedoffenders. The IGP also in-structed that there should be ef-fective investigations against thearrested accused so that they getexemplary punishment from thecourts. He also called for in-creased snap checking, picket-ing as well as patrolling and de-ployment of the policemen atvital installations, places of wor-ship, semi-government organi-zations’ buildings as well as thepublic places.

Leghari said that in collabo-ration with the people effectivesteps be taken for curbing thecriminals. —APP

Administratorannounces Rs 1m,

plot for MALCKARACHI—Administrator,Karachi Metropolitan Corpora-tion (KMC) Mohammad HussainSyed has announced a donationof Rs one million and a plot forconstruction of rehabilitation fa-cility for patients treated at MarieAdelaide Leprosy Centre(MALC). Speaking at a cer-emony organised to commemo-rate World Leprosy Day 2013,the KMC Administrator said citi-zens of Karachi in particular andthat of the country in general areindebted to the selfless servicesof Dr. Ruth Pfau, founding mem-ber of MALC and her team.

“We do need to own thework undertaken by Dr. Ruthand team for control of leprosy,tuberculosis and prevention ofblindness in the country,” saidMohammad Hussain Syed.

He said a plot will be do-nated to MALC in SurjaniTown, North Karachi or Korangiso as to facilitate treatment andrehabilitation of patients treatedat chains of MALC centres.

He on the occasion also urgedthe civil society and differentNGOs and government organiza-tions to collaborate with eachother and help the country effi-ciently face the challenges it ispresently exposed to. “KMC itselfis committed to promotehealthcare and education facilitiesfor the citizens and would coop-erate with organisations workingfor the cause,” said KMC Admin-istrator. Mohamamd HussainSyed with specific reference toleprosy said that it is a disease thatmaims if not managed in time.

“It is a matter of satisfactionthat through the platform of MALCleprosy has been controlled since1996 and it is our collective respon-sibility to eliminate it and other dis-eases,” he said.—APP

AEIRC conferenceon Feb 2

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Advance Educa-tional Institute & ResearchCenter (AEIRC) is launchingits first International Confer-ence on Endorsing Health Sci-ence Research, the conferencetrack will follow two sessionsconsecutively for two dayschair by clinical, medical andhealth science researchers fromNational and Internationalgrounds, along with Pre Con-ference Workshops.

The Conference will coverall aspects of Research, particu-larly Bio medical health sci-ences, Environmental health sci-ences, Bioengineering andPsycho-social health. Pre-Con-ference workshops on Labora-tory Bio safety training atFUUAST and Basic tools forClinical Research at SheikhZayed Islamic Center from 1st-3rd Feb 2013, to facilitate Re-search and Development fol-lowed by main conference daysalong with workshops on 2ndand 3rd Feb 2013 with scientificand Research oriented sessions.

PEOPLE driving to work every day arepacking on more pounds than their colleagues on trains, buses and bikes, accord-

ing to a new study from Australia.“Even if you are efficiently active during lei-

sure time, if you use a car forcommuting daily then that hasan impact on weight gain,” leadauthor Takemi Sugiyama of theBaker IDI Heart and DiabetesInstitute in Melbourne toldReuters Health.

Among people in thestudy who got at least two anda half hours of weekly exer-cise, car commuters gained anaverage of four pounds overfour years - one pound morethan people who got to workanother way or worked fromhome. Of 822 study partici-pants, only those who gotenough weekly exercise andnever drove to work managedto stave off any weight gainover the course of the study.

Participants who didn’t get enough weeklyexercise also gained weight, but how much theygained wasn’t tied to their mode of getting towork, according to results published in theAmerican Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“Simply achieving the amount of moder-ate physical activity otherwise recommendedwon’t provide enough compensation to over-come the effect of commuting for a long pe-riod of time,” said Lawrence Frank of theSchool of Community and Regional Planningat the University of British Columbia inVancouver, Canada. But there are probablyother factors at work that were not consideredin the study, noted Frank, who was not involved

Car commuters gainmore weight

in the new research.“People who have longer commutes tend

to purchase a lot of their food and run a lot oferrands on their way to and from work,”which could influence weight gain, Frank told

Reuters Health.And 80 percent of car

trips are non-commuting, hepoints out. Previous studies thatfocused on total time spent incars per day have also found alink to becoming overweight orobese.

A 2004 study of adults inAtlanta, Georgia, found thateach additional hour of timespent in a car each day was as-sociated with a six percent in-crease in the chances of obe-sity. “Commuting is a trulyimportant predictor of obesity,”Frank said. In Australia, about80 percent of working adultstake a car to work every day -similar to the 86 percent figurein the U.S. But many of those

people don’t have another option, saidSugiyama, who researches health risks indaily life. “The message is, if possible try toavoid cars, but for many people that sort ofchoice isn’t available,” he said.That’s largelydue to the layout of cities and suburban ar-eas, according to Frank, a registered landscapearchitect. “Spreading growth out, and build-ing cities to add cheaper housing at the out-skirts is a problem,” he said.

“It’s the responsibility of government toprovide public transport to and from work,and design neighborhoods where short walksare accessible to people,” said Sugiyama.“But that’s a long term solution.”

LAHORE: Chief Traffic Officer Cap (R) Sohail Chaudhry distributes pamphlets regardingmobile phone awareness campaign at Mall Road.

LAHORE: Actress Mahira Khan cutting the ribbon to inaugurate Pink Ribbon Campaignat Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre.

LAHORE: Ambassador of USA Richard Olsen called on Governor Punjab Makhdum Syed Ahmad Mahmud atGovernor House.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Quaid (PML-Q) seniorcentral leader and Deputy PrimeMinister Ch Parvez Elahi hassaid that if the people want res-toration of local bodies system,which guarantees their serviceand development, they shouldvote for PML-Q in the next elec-tion and ensure its victory.

Addressing a big gatheringof former Nazims, NaibNazims, Councilors and no-tables of four Union Councilsof NA 105 of Gujrat here onTuesday, Ch Parvez Elahi saidthat during our tenure as theChief Minister we had elimi-nated politics of false cases butShahbaz Sharif has been doingthe same during last five years,Gujrat is our home we will con-test elections from here, PML-N has done nothing for Punjabwhat to talk about Gujrat alone,funds of 35 districts including

Elahi urges people to vote forPML-Q to restore LB system

Gujrat have been wasted on“Jangla” Bus in Lahore whilePML-Q had served the peopleof entire province without anydiscrimination.

Parvez Elahi said that in therecent bye-elections PML-N es-tablished records of rigging tothe extent that even ElectionCommission also admitted in thebye-election of Gujrat PML can-didate Mian Imran Masood hadbeen successful.

He said that the parliamen-tarians themselves cannot meetNawaz Sharif, how they are go-ing to let people meet him. “Weprovided employment opportu-nities in Punjab, put it on thepath of progress, developmentand prosperity, we provided freeeducation, medicines and startedservice like 1122,” adding hesaid that the people should notbe fooled by PML-N now.

He said that PML-Q wouldput up its candidates all over thecountry including Gujrat and

secure victory with clear major-ity and in the next electionsPML-Q’s role in Punjab will bevery important.

He said that intention ofShahbaz Sharif is bad and hisevery plan and scheme provehub of corruption instead of be-ing blessed with success, PML-Q’s intention was good and thusthey were able to complete bigprojects all over the provinceand made the Punjab for the firsttime in the history a surplusprovince.

Federal Minister ChWajahat Hussain in his addresssaid they are out to reconcilewith our angry friends and assuch it is our submission that allcolleagues and friends shouldjoin hands and work together forPML-Q.

He said they have to makeGujrat stronghold of PML-Qonce again.

Former Provincial Educa-tion Minister Mian Imran

Masood said that present PunjabGovt has not started any majorproject in Gujrat during last fiveyears and utilized all funds ofGujrat in Jaati Umrah.

The gathering was also ad-dressed by Mehr IrshadMuhammad Arshad, MehrMuhammad Ali Ilyas, ChNaseer A. Sindhu, Ch ZahidBhatti, G. A. Khan, MohammadJamil, Dildar Bhutto, InamulHaq, Hakim Zulfiqar, Anwar AliShah, Zaheer Butt, MehboobDar, Raja Sikander, Haji Amjad,Mehr Azam, Raja MuhammadArif, Ch Ajmal, Ch Usman, ChSafdar Warraich, GhaziKhokhar, Zahoor AhmadMughul, and Lala HameedMughul among others whilethose sitting on the stage in-cluded MPA s Khalid AsgharGhural and Abdullah Yousuf,Mirza Jamshed, Ch SaadatNawaz, Ch Ejaz Mian, HaneefHaideri, Ahmad Shah Gujrati,Zulfiqar Paan and other leaders.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—A delegation oftraders led by the Mall RoadTraders Association presidentand All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran central general secretaryNaeem Mir held a meeting withPunjab Governor MakhdoomAhmed Mehmood to presenthim compliment for fair supportof the ruling party of the PPP tosmall traders in the country.

The traders’ delegationcomprises of Farooq Azad,Abdul Wadood Alvi, HafizAsim, Mian Affan, KhawajaKhalid, Tahir Afzal and severalother trade leaders.

The governor after listeningto the traders’ reservations onuncertain law and order situationdirected his staff to hold a con-ference in this regard atGovernor’s House.

Traders team meets Punjab governor

Small traders demand officesin chambers buildings

He said that the governmentis willing to give representationto small traders; and this is thereason that the new Trade Ordi-nance acknowledges their rep-resentation. He said that it wasbecause of the government‘swillingness that the new TradeOrdinance of 2007 acknowl-edged the representation ofsmall traders. He also promisedto consider several other issuesraised by the traders’ delegation,especially poor performance oflaw enforcement agencies in theprovince.

The delegation told themeeting that there was a com-munication gap between thegovernment and the small trad-ers, because there is no repre-sentation of them at the federallevel. The delegation hoped thatnew small chambers would bean exemplary body for the rest

of the country‘s traders associa-tions.

On the occasion, the APATgeneral secretary Naeem Mirasked that chambers of smalltraders should be provided asuitable place in buildings ofpresent chambers, as small trad-ers have no funds to build infra-structure immediately.

He argued that small trad-ers have a significant contribu-tion to set up present chambers,as they are paying chambers feeand other expenses for the lastmany decades, but they werenever their due share in the fo-rum of chamber. In the aftermathof the approval new Trade Or-ganization Bill 2012, the smalltraders demand their separateoffice as well as provision ofstaff ’s services in the samebuildings of present chambers,he maintained.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Slamming InteriorMinister Rehman Malik’s state-ment regarding “Governmentand agencies to be blamed ifKarachi falls, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) terms this state-ment nebulous and detrimentalat a time when Pakistan is besetwith multiple crisis.

In a statement issued here onTuesday, PTI Information Sec-retary Shafqat Mahmood said,“What does the Interior Minis-ter mean when he says thatKarachi is going to fall? Is heGod forbid saying that Karachiwill no longer be a part of thecountry? And fall to whom? Ishe referring to a foreign forceor something else?”

He further asked, “In thesame breath while predicting the‘fall’ of Karachi Rehman Malikis also saying the governmentand agencies will be responsiblefor this catastrophe”. Is he notthe government? And are theagencies not working for thegovernment.

PTI is of the consideredopinion that the PPP govern-ment at the centre and in Sindhis responsible for the terriblesituation in Karachi in whichthousands of innocent citizenhave lost their lives.

Instead of making dire pre-dictions about Karachi what thePPP government should be do-ing is to ensure that security isprovided to the citizen ofKarachi.

Drug reactioncase: LHC

seeks judicialinquiry report

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Tuesday hasordered to present a report onjudicial inquiry and its imple-mentation regarding the deathsby reaction to drugs distributedfree of cost by Punjab Instituteof Cardiology (PIC).

The Lahore High Courtheard the drug reaction case.During the hearing, petitionerAdvocate Azhar Siddique com-plained that there is no imple-mentation of judicial inquirypertaining to the case.

On this, the court ordered topresent the report on judicialinquiry and its implementationand adjourned the hearing tillFebruary 04.

14th day ofPunjab youngdoctors’ strike

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Young Doctors As-sociation (YDA)’s strike inPunjab has entered into the 14thday, yet there is no sign of flex-ibility seen in the stands of ei-ther of the parties the YDA andthe Punjab government, whilethe patients’ woes know nobounds.

Young doctors have erectedtents in the parking shades andopen areas of the governmenthospitals all across the provincefor the medical check up of thepatients, who neither get themedicines nor provided the nec-essary medical test facilities.

Young doctors vow to con-tinue their strike until the final-ization of their service structureand the release of their arrestedfellow doctors.

On the other hand, the gov-ernment claims that majority ofthe striking doctors have startedsigning the letter for pardon giv-ing an undertaking that theywould not participate in strike infuture. Meanwhile, the patientsall over the Punjab continue tosuffer with no relief in sight.

Olson callson Governor

PunjabSTAFF REPORTER

LA H O R E —The GovernorPunjab, Makhdum SyedAhmed Mahmud said Pak -USrelationship is based uponmutual respect, cooperationand a spirit of goodwill andPakistan is the front runnerally of America in the waragainst terrorism as well as ina bid to restore peace in thisregion.

These views were ex-pressed by the GovernorPunjab, Makhdum SyedAhmed Mahmud during ameeting with the US Ambas-sador Richard Olson at Gov-ernor House Lahore here onTuesday.

Governor Punjab said thatour government is a firm be-liever in democracy and theempowerment of its people.“Our government’s first pri-ority is to hold free and fairelections in the stipulatedtime,” adding he said Pakistanneeds to obliterate misman-agement and corruption fromthis nation in order to advancetowards national prosperityand we are fully determinedin this cause.

On this occasion, the USAmbassador Richard Olsonstated that the United Statesof America is a staunch sup-porter of democracy and islooking forward to timely andtransparent elections to bringforth a credible leadership.

United States of Americais not the supporter of anysingle political party, but isthe supporter of the PakistaniNation.

He said that we not onlywant to see democracy flour-ish in Pakistan but also wewould like for it to flourishworldwide.

PTI slams RehmanMalik for his

Karachi remarks

Don’t acceptNAB chiefresignationSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Quaid (PML-Q)President Chaudhry ShujaatHussain has given advice toPresident Asif Ali Zardari notto accept resignation of Na-tional Accountability Bureau(NAB) Chief Fasih Bokhari.

In his statement he gave tomedia he said that approval ofNAB Chairman’s resignationwould trigger a new debate af-ter which the consultationprocess among political par-ties would ruin.

The PML-Q president saidthat Fasih Bokhari had ten-dered the resignation underpressure. He demanded NABchief to withdraw his resigna-tion to avoid a crisis.

Death of youthby Mujahid Forcetorture protested

LAHORE—Family, relativesand citizens held a protestdemonstration against allegedkilling of a youth due to tor-ture of police. Taking actionover the allegation, DIG op-eration suspended the law en-forcement personnel involvedin the murder.

According to details, threepersonnel of Mujahid Forcebrutally tortured Naveed, aresident of Gujarpura area ofLahore for playing music inloud voice which resulted inhis death.

Dozens of people includ-ing family members, relativesand dwellers of the area tookto streets and held protest dem-onstration.

They blocked the road andchanted slogans against thebrutal murder by law enforce-ment agency personnel.

The protesting people de-manded the Chief MinisterPunjab and authorities con-cerned for taking strict actionagainst personnel involved.

DIG operation taking no-tice of the incident suspendedthe three personnel ofMujahid Force involved in thetorture. He said that investi-gations were underway andaccused would be brought tojustice.—INP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Minis-ter Muhammad Shahbaz Sharifhas taken strict notice of illegalgrabbing of 400 kanal land of anexpatriate Pakistani in DongaBonga (Bahawalnagar).

He directed the Commis-sioner Sahiwal Division BarristerNabeel Awan to submit a reportafter probing the matter.

The Chief Minister ordered toinitiate stern action against theland grabbers in accordance withthe law and said that Qabza mafiaand Bhatta mafia will never be

CM takes notice of illegalgrabbing of 400-kanal land

tolerated in the province.He said that Punjab govern-

ment has recovered vast state landfrom the Qabza Mafia by takingeffective action during the recentperiod.

The Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif or-dered all Divisional Commission-ers to take stern action against landgrabbers across the province.

Meanwhile, CommissionerLahore Division Jawad RafiqMalik has taken strict notice of theopen sewerage water standing inthe streets of village RakhChandroye near Chungi Amar

Sidhu.He has ordered the TMA

Nishtar Town and WASA to de-vise a sewerage scheme withinone day and within next twoweeks to install the scheme. Hesaid that that village’s populationis fifty thousand approximatelyand open dirty sewerage water isa source of different diseases, soimmediate planning and actionwas needed.

Commissioner Lahore Divi-sion Jawad Rafiq Malik presidedover a meeting regarding sewer-age and water supply issues ofRakh Chandroye village.