KABULSHAmIm SHAHID

Expressing grave concern over al-leged infiltration of militants andshelling from Pakistan on borderprovinces of Afghanistan, PresidentHamid Karzai on Thursday outlinedAfghanistan’s “preconditions” for astrategic pact with Pakistan, includingeffective measures by islamabad toprevent the infiltration of terroristsand suicide bombers into his country.

“i believe that uS war on terrorwill not be successful as it is beingfought on Afghan villages, ratherthan targeting the militant hideoutsand compounds in neighbouringcountries,” President Karzai said onThursday, without mentioning Pak-istan, while addressing a press con-ference in Kabul followingattendance at the uN General As-sembly session in New York.

Besides addressing the uN Gen-eral Assembly, Karzai also met Pak-istani President Asif Ali Zardariduring his stay in united States.

Karzai said Kabul’s precondi-tions for the strategic pact with is-lamabad included an end tointerference in Afghan affairs. inthis respect, he also diverted atten-tion towards frequent acts of mortarshelling on civilian population inKunar province of Afghanistan al-legedly from the Pakistani side.

According to the Afghan presi-dent, the shelling was costing lives toinnocent people, including womenand children. “The root causes of the

deaths of our children and instability(in Afghanistan) must be eliminatedfirst,” he stressed. Karzai saidAfghanistan would sign the agree-ment only when Pakistan met theconditions and stopped training andsending militants into Afghanistan.He recalled that he had discussedAfghanistan’s terms at a trilateralmeeting with Zardari and BritishPrime Minister David Cameron onthe sidelines of the uN General As-sembly last week.

President Karzai, however, said“Work on reaching an agreementwould proceed gradually, promisingthat any strategic pact Afghanistansigned with a foreign country,whether it was Pakistan, iran, indiaor the uS, would take into accountAfghanistan’s interests.” Referringto Afghanistan’s upcoming presi-dential elections, Karzai said, “Anykind of elections, even with continu-ation or regularities, are better thanan illegal government.”

He quoted an oft-used line thathe would not remain in office even a

day beyond of his legal term, whichends in 2014, and that presidentialelections would be held on time.However, Karzai made it clear that“foreigners” should not interfere inthe electoral process as they did dur-ing the previous presidential and par-liamentary elections. Karzai said hiscountry’s 2014 presidential electionwould be held on time even thoughthe voting would coincide with thewithdrawal of uS and NATO combattroops from Afghanistan.

ISLAMABADSHAIq HuSSAIn

RuSSiA on Thursdaybacked islamabad’sstance on dronestrikes in the Tribal

Areas by the Central intelligenceAgency (CiA), calling it aviolation of Pakistan’ssovereignty and integrity.“Russia believes that it is notacceptable to violate thesovereignty and integrity ofany state. We fully supportPakistan’s stance,” saidRussian Foreign MinisterSergey Viktorovich Lavrov at ajoint press conference with hisPakistani counterpart HinaRabbani Khar.Foreign Minister Lavrov wasresponding to a question onrepeated drone strikes by the uSin the Pakistani tribal regions.in response to the question,Foreign Minister Khar saidPakistan had always said incategorical terms that theattacks were not only illegalbut had also provedcounterproductive because ofthe collateral damage.She said the Pakistaniposition on drone strikes inclosed door meetings and inpublic was the same and anyimpression otherwise in thisregard was totally wrong.The two foreign ministersearlier held formal talks onvarious bilateral, regional andinternational issues with afocus on Afghanistan as well

as expansion of cooperation indefence and economic sectors.Foreign Minister Lavrov’stwo-day visit to islamabad,which ended on Thursday,coincided with the trip toMoscow by army chiefGeneral Ashfaq Kayani, who iscurrently in Russia andmeeting senior officials there.Lavrov said relations betweenislamabad and Moscow werecrucial in the light of thecurrent regional and globalsituation. “The two countrieshave agreed on increasingcooperation in several areas,including the political andeconomic sectors,” he said.To a question on thecancellation of RussianPresident Vladimir Putin’svisit to Pakistan to attend thequadrilateral summit earlythis month, the Russianforeign minister said thereason was the Russianleader’s tight schedule.“President Putin has sent amessage to President Asif AliZardari about his unavailabilityto visit islamabad due to busyschedule,” he said. Lavrovdispelled the impression thatthe postponement of Putin’svisit was linked to anymisunderstanding betweenPakistan and Russia. On herpart, Khar said Pakistan waskeen to receive President Putin.

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PTI’s anti-dronemarch a drama,says Bilor

Zardari responsible if PTI peace march is attacked: Imran

RussIa endoRsesPaKIsTan’s anTI-dRone sTanceg Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov says Pak-Russian relations crucial in light of currentregional, global situation g Pakistan, Indiacapable of resolving issues bilaterally g Hina Khar says Pakistan wants strengthening of ties with Russia

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

Prime Minster Raja Pervaiz Ashraf islikely to seek more time from theSupreme Court (SC) for implemen-tation of the verdict in the NationalReconciliation Ordinance (NRO)case when he appears before thecourt today (Friday).

The decision to seek more timeto write letter to the Swiss authori-ties was finalised during a meetingof the Pakistan People’s Party topbrass at Bilawal House on Wednes-day night. Sources said that duringthe meeting, President Asif Zardariand Prime Minister Ashraf agreedthat the latter will appear personallyon Friday before the Supreme Court

and seek more time to write letter toSwiss authorities.

Ashraf was summoned by thepresident to Karachi on Wednesdayand in their one-on-one meeting theydiscussed at length what stance willbe taken for the crucial court hearingon Friday. They also discussed chal-lenges on legal and political fronts.The top court has given a deadline to

the government to inform it whetherthe government will write a letter tothe Swiss authorities or not.

The government had beenusing delaying tactics over the let-ter for a long time but last month itagreed to write the letter. Formerprime minister Yousuf Raza Gilaniwas dismissed by the court for re-fusing to do so.

PM likely to plead for more time from SC today

Strategic pact when cross-borderattacks end, Karzai tells Pakistan

g Afghan president says US war on terror won’t be successful unlessmilitant hideouts, compounds in neighbouring countries are targeted

KARACHI: Dejected citizens react after the defeat of Pakistan in the semi final of ICC World T20 on Thursday. online

Pakistan fails to impressas Herath spins Lankainto World T20 final

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PmL-n has rendered Punjab bankrupt: Elahi Romans, Han Dynasty were greenhouse gas emitters: study

Friday, 5 October, 2012

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

Aletter calling foran end to dronestrikes in Pak-istan, signed byNoam Chomsky,

Naomi Wolf, Oliver Stone and3,000 more American civilians,was delivered to the uS Em-bassy in islamabad.

A statement said that theletter called upon the Americanauthorities to end the uS cam-paign of drone strikes in Pak-istan and to amend the dronepolicy in compliance with uSand international law.

The letter was signed byleading uS authors, film direc-tors, professors, activists and aNobel peace laureate.

The letter cited between 474to 884 civilian deaths caused byuS drone strikes in Pakistan

since 2004, including 176 chil-dren.

it also made reference to theconstant terror instilledamongst civilians.

The uS peace activists whodelivered the letter are in Pak-istan as part of a delegation or-ganised by uS peaceorganisation, Code Pink.

The delegation will alsotravel to Waziristan with thepeace march organised by Pak-istan Tehreek-i-insaf (PTi) tomeet victims of drone strikes.

Americans sign petition condemningUS drone attacks in Pakistan

Govt official shot dead in Kuchlak, two others injured

QUETTAnnI

A government official was killed and two others wounded on Thurs-day by unknown gunmen in Kuchlak, near Balochistan’s provincialcapital Quetta. According to police, the incident occurred in thetown’s main market when two gunmen suddenly opened indiscrim-inate gunfire on a car carrying the officials on the National High-way. All three occupants of the car, who were government officials,were injured in the attack and were shifted to Quetta for medicaltreatment. One of the injured succumbed to his wounds en route tothe hospital. The condition of the other two injured officials was re-ported as critical as well. in a separate incident, unknown gunmenentered a house in Dasht, some 30 kilometres from Quetta, andopened fire, critically injuring a doctor. The injured person wasrushed to a nearby hospital. in yet another incident, famous musiccomposer Qamar Allahditta was found dead in the backseat of a car.Allahditta, who worked for Pakistan Television (PTV), was foundwith a single shot in his head. Police have taken the car into custodyand initiated investigations.

Protests against SPLGO 2012continue across Sindh

HYDERABADnnI

Sindhi Nationalist Parties continued to protest against SindhPeople’s Local Government Ordinance (SPLGO) 2012 in differentparts of the province on Thursday. The protesters staged demon-stration at the highway, carrying dead body of a man who waskilled on Wednesday during a protest. The man was killed andthree others injured as guards of MPA Haji Hyat Talpur openedfire on them for protesting outside his residence in Degree area.Business activities, shops and markets were closed while trafficwas also very thin on roads across the province. Lawyers ofKhairpur also boycotted courts and protested against the ordi-nance. Other cities where protests were staged include Jhudo,Tando Jan Muhammad, Nokot, Kot Ghulam Muhammad, Mir-purkhas, Badin, Ghotki, Larkana and Dokri.

Another polio case unearthed in KPPESHAWAR

OnLInE

A new case of polio has been unearthed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)raising the number of polio cases to 17 in the province. As per KPhealth department, polio virus has been confirmed in 3-year-old Maria,in the area of Brawal Banda in upper Dir district. Three polio caseshave been discovered in Peshawar, two each in Mardan, Charsada andLakki Marwat and one each in Shangla Torghar, Hari Pur Swabi, Kohat,Dera ismail Khan, Karak and Dir Bala in KP this year.

ISLAmABAD: Relatives of missing persons protest

at a camp organised by Defence of Human Rights

outside national Press Club on Thursday. online

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cOmment

Articles on Page 14

Let’s take practical steps

Aziz-ud-Din AhmadThe truth about Balochistan: But the agencies, as usual, still deny it

Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

From Russia without love: Ramifications of Vladimir Putin’s eleventh hour snub

ArtS & entertAinment

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iSLAmABAd

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SPOrtS

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For a role, I can’t be as overweight as Vidya: mallika Sherawat Price monitoring Committee takes note of inflation trends Aussies to target Gayle in World T20 semi-final

Friday, 5 October, 2012

AnF freezes 22 bank accounts of Shahabuddin

RAWALPINDI APP

The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) froze 22 bankaccounts of Textiles Minister Makhdoom Sha-habuddin on Thursday and directed the bankmanagers not to allow him to withdraw anymoney from the accounts.According to ANF, the money deposited in the22 bank accounts was earned illegally by Sha-habuddin by allotting quotas of ephedrinewhen he was the health ministerThe bank officials, complying with the ordersof ANF, have stopped transactions for the for-mer minister.Challenging ANF’s decision to freeze his ac-counts, Shahabuddin filed a petition in theRawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court(LHC), maintaining that ANF cannot seize hisaccounts and that they should be activated.Admitting his plea, the court issued a noticeto the ANF, seeking a reply by Oct 10.

RUSSIA KEEPS DOOR OPEN TO PAKISTAN AFTER PUTIN CANCELS TRIPNEWS DESK

Confusion surrounds theKremlin’s hopes of establishinga tighter relationship with Pak-istan, in advance of NATO’splanned 2014 withdrawal fromAfghanistan, after PresidentVladimir Putin abruptly can-celled a visit to islamabadplanned for this week.

it would have been the firstvisit to Pakistan by any Sovietor Russian head of state, and astrong signal that somethingmight be changing in the for-eign policy calculus of a countrythat has always strictly re-garded india as its No. 1 re-gional partner.

The Kremlin says Mr.Putin’s trip to Pakistan wasnever officially confirmed andhis working schedule this weekis “too tight” to accommodatethe two-day visit, which was tohave included participation in aregular summit of regionalleaders on Afghanistan and bi-lateral talks on trade, technical,and military cooperation withPakistani President Asif AliZardari.

However, Putin dispatchedForeign Minister Sergei Lavrovto islamabad Wednesday inwhat looked like a hastilyarranged effort to explain thechange to Pakistani leaders andkeep the door open for futurewarming of ties. Experts saythat an increasingly anxiousRussia wants very much to en-gage with Pakistan, and sees itas an indispensable regionalplayer in dealing with whatever

emerges in Afghanistan follow-ing NATO’s pullout in barelytwo years. The Russians fear arepeat of the turbulent 1990s,when narco-trafficking ex-ploded across former SovietCentral Asia and militant is-lamist movements based inAfghanistan triggered majorcivil strife in uzbekistan, Tajik-istan, and Kyrgyzstan.

“it remains to be seen whatwill happen, of course, but mostin Moscow tend to view itthrough the prism of howthings went when the uSSRpulled its forces out ofAfghanistan in 1989. There fol-lowed a string of disasterswhich nobody would like to seerepeated,” Fyodor Lukyanov,editor of Russia in Global Af-fairs, a leading Moscow foreignpolicy journal, told the Chris-tian Science Monitor.

“Pakistan will be a keyplayer, and it follows that Rus-sia must have an open channelto Pakistan, at the very least toknow how they will react andwhat they will do,” he adds.A RuSSIAn tAke onAfghAnIStAn: Not every-one agrees that the outlook forAfghanistan after 2014 is chaos.Gen. Makhmud Gareyev, pres-ident of the Russian Academyof Military Sciences and a for-mer adviser to the pro-Sovietleader of Afghanistan, Presi-dent Najibullah, following thewithdrawal of Soviet forces, ar-gues that things are quite dif-ferent now.

“The fact is that the newpost-Soviet Russian govern-

ment established contacts withthe rebels, and left Najibullahwithout ammunition,” saysGeneral Gareyev.

“i firmly believe thatAfghanistan could have beennormalized if not for that.... TheAmericans talk about leaving,but they aren’t really going togo. They’ll do what they did iniraq, leave some forces and re-group them. They’ll try to keepbases in Central Asia and rein-force their presence in Pak-istan. The Americans will stillbe around,” he says.

“Which doesn’t meanthings will be OK. The Talibanwill continue killing, and drugswill still pour out ofAfghanistan. There will be lotsof problems,” he adds.

Putin’s planned visit thisweek would have been the per-fect opportunity to officiallybegin building bridges withPakistan. He was to have at-tended the regular quadrilat-eral meeting on Afghanistan,which includes the leaders ofRussia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan,and Pakistan. Previous sum-mits, held in various regionalcapitals, were always attendedby then-President DmitryMedvedev, who has met withMr. Zardari six times in the pastthree years – though never inPakistan.unceRtAInty WhyPutIn cAnceLLeD: Russ-ian experts say they are at a lossto explain why Putin duckedout of the meeting, a move thatseems to have seriously set backMoscow’s timetable and led to

a wave of injured feelings andperplexed speculation in thePakistani media.

“One possible explanationis that Putin is a very specificguy, who feels like he can writehis own rules and do things hisown way,” says Sergei Strokan,foreign affairs columnist for theMoscow daily Kommersant. Hepoints out that Putin last Mayrefused to attend a summit ofthe Group of Eight advancedcountries, despite the fact thatPresident Barack Obama hadspecifically moved the meeting’svenue to accommodate him.Putin never offered any moredetailed explanation other thanthat he was “too busy.”

“So far there is no clearstatement from the Kremlin asto when, if ever, the visit willtake place. it’s hard to seewhat’s going on here, but thefact that Lavrov has gone toPakistan suggests that there isa strong feeling in Moscow thatif we miss the chance to developstronger relations with Pak-istan now, we may pay for itwith deep complications downthe road,” Mr. Strokan adds.PIPeLIne PoLItIcS?:Some experts suggest thatpipeline politics may lie at theroot of the mystery. Russia’spowerful state-run natural gasmonopoly, Gazprom, is seen asdeeply involved in plans to ex-port iranian, Russian, and Cen-tral Asian gas to the lucrativemarkets of South Asia via twoprojects that are currently onthe drawing boards. First, theiran-Pakistan-india (iPi)

pipeline, which analysts sayGazprom has a strong interestin, has apparently been stalledby Pakistan due to uS objec-tions. Second, the Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-india(TAPi) pipeline, which expertssay Gazprom wants to buildand own, may also be an unre-solved issue between Moscowand islamabad.

“There is a lot of talk be-hind the scenes about thesepipelines, and it’s obvious thatinterests are lining up. it maybe a hidden explanation for theconfused diplomacy we’re see-ing at the moment,” saysStrokan. “But everything willdepend upon regional stability.You can’t build pipelinesthrough Afghanistan if thereisn’t reliable security there.”

Experts say that time maybe running out to find somekind of regional formula to han-dle the worst-case scenario forpost-NATO Afghanistan thatMoscow seems to believe in.

“From the moment NATOtroops are partially withdrawnfrom Afghanistan, Russia wantsthat country to be controllable,”says Alexander Konovalov,president of the independentinstitute of Strategic Assess-ments in Moscow.

“The fear in Moscow is thatradical islamism will spread,drug trafficking with explode,and Russia will be left to pickup the pieces. We know there’sno hope for stability there with-out Pakistan’s active participa-tion, and we need to be talkingseriously with them,” he adds.

PESHAWARSAjjAD ALI

WHiLE the gov-ernment hasfailed to stopuS drone at-tacks on Pak-

istani territory, a senior provincialminister has called PakistanTehreek-e-insaf’s (PTi) proposedmarch to Waziristan in this connec-tion “a drama”.

Talking to reporters here onThursday, provincial ministerBashir Ahmad Bilour, who belongsto the Awami National Party (ANP),said: “The PTi’s peace march toWaziristan is not more than adrama which is being carried out‘someone else’s’ instruction.”

However, the minister said theprovincial government would notcreate any hurdle in PTi’s peacemarch to South Waziristan Agency(SWA). “The provincial govern-ment is a democratic government,which believes in democratic prac-tices, and it will not resist thePTi’s rally,” he said.

The PTi has announced to holdits “peace march” on October 7 to-wards SWA against uS dronestrikes, which are a violation ofPakistan’s territorial integrity andhave killed scores of innocent civil-ians, including women and chil-dren. According to the PTi, theobjective of its peace march is tohighlight the issue in internationalmedia and show the ground realityin SWA and the destruction causedby drones. PTi’s former provincialspokesman Zahid Hussain rejected

Bilour’s statement, saying “theycannot succeed in their unholy ef-forts to make the march unsuc-cessful with such allegations”. “ThePTi will go to Waziristan at anycost and those thinking to stop themarch or make it a failure due tosuch allegations are living in fool’sparadise,” he added. The PTi hasgarnered the support of interna-tional civil society activists for themarch, and its convoy is expectedto kick off towards South Waziris-tan on October 7 at 7am.

BPSc chief’s wife, daughters heading schools with fake degrees

QUETTAOnLInE

As the probe against Balochistan Public ServiceCommission (BPSC) Chairman MuhammadAshraf Magsi continues, investigators have re-vealed that the chairman’s wife and daughterswere holding fake degrees for key positions inschools. Media reports had earlier disclosedmassive irregularities in BPSC, following whichthe National Accountability Bureau (NAB) initi-ated investigations into the scandal. The investi-gations revealed that the chairman’s wife and histwo daughters were holding fake degrees, andwere serving as head mistresses at variousschools of the province. NAB is continuing withits investigations during which more disclosuresabout irregularities in commission are expected.

Sc asks nAB to arrest ex-chairman OGrA by 8th

ISLAMABADAPP

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursdayasked the National Accountability Bureau(NAB) to arrest former Oil and Gas RegulatoryAuthority (OGRA) chairman Tauqir Sadiq byOct 8.A three-member bench of the apex courtheaded by Chief Justice iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry heard the case of implementation ofcourt orders against Sadiq.The NAB deputy prosecutor general told thecourt that the Lahore CCPO had constituted ateam for the arrest of Sadiq. The court alsoasked NAB to submit daily progress report overits action regarding the arrest of Sadiq and ad-journed the hearing till Oct 10.

PTI’s anti-drone marcha drama, says BilourPTI rejects ANP minister’s statement, says‘unholy efforts’ against the march won’t succeed

PTI rally threatened by suicidebombers: Interior MinistryISLAMABAD: Federal interior Ministry, fearing suicide attacks on thepeace rally of Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTi) towards South WaziristanAgency (SWA), has issued a warning letter to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)police and other law enforcement agencies. The letter states thatTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has prepared 9 suicide bombers to at-tack the peace rally of PTi. The interior Ministry said that the peacerally might be hit by suicide bombers in Dera ismail Khan, Tank or Jan-dola. KP law enforcement authorities after getting the warning letterhave started working on a strategy to provide security. APPS

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Friday, 5 October, 2012

News

KABULAFP

With the end of the uS surgein Afghanistan, the Talibanhave survived the biggest mil-itary onslaught the West willthrow at them — and fears aregrowing that a disastrous newcivil war looms.

The last of the extra33,000 soldiers PresidentBarack Obama deployednearly three years ago left latelast month, and the remain-ing NATO force of some112,000 will follow by the endof 2014. Although a smallcontingent of foreign troopsmay remain to conductcounter-terror operations,Western politicians stressthat what Obama once calledthe “good war” will “end” in2014. But while the unpopu-lar conflict might end forNATO, some analysts predicta collapse of the Western-backed government and acivil war worse than that inthe 1990s when Soviet troopswithdrew after their own 10-year occupation.

“i think it is only a matterof time before the governmentcollapses. That is certain,” saysCandace Rondeaux of the in-ternational Crisis Group.“What will come to dominatein Kabul in 2014, 2015 will bechaos and violence.

“And the fracturing thatwe saw in the 1990s will onlybe compounded by the factthat there are more weaponsin the country and greater in-centives now for a lot morebrutality than we have seenbefore.” Afghan expert GillesDorronsoro of the CarnegieEndowment for internationalPeace also predicts renewedstrife, but goes further toforesee a Taliban return topower. “After 2014, the levelof uS support for the Afghanregime will be limited and,after a new phase in the civilwar, a Taliban victory willlikely follow,” he wrote in arecent analysis. This contrastssharply with forecasts by theNATO military and Westerngovernments that Afghanforces will be able to defendthe country after 2014.

ISLAMABADAPP

ARussiandelegation ledby ForeignMinister SergeyViktorovich

Lavrov called on PrimeMinister Raja Pervez Ashrafat the Prime Minister’sHouse on Thursdayafternoon and discussedmatters of bilateral interest.Expressing satisfaction overthe meeting, the primeminister said that relationsbetween Russia and Pakistanhad seen good progress overthe last few years, addingthat there was consensus inPakistan that bilateralrelations should be furtherstrengthened.

He said that relations withRussia were very importantbecause of the federation’slinkages with Europe andAsia. He said that the twocountries had similar viewson several regional andinternational issues,including Afghanistan, Syriaand the Security Council, aswell as the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation(SCO). The prime ministertold the visiting delegationthat Pakistan wanted toenhance economic relationswith Russia, and wanted tobenefit from Russia’sexpertise in the energysector, particularly itsexperience in coal miningand construction of coalpower plants. SimilarlyPakistan seeks cooperation

with the Russian Federationin expansion of PakistanSteel Mills, he added. Ashrafalso hoped for cooperationbetween the two countries toimprove railways inPakistan. The primeminister assured the Russianforeign minister that hisgovernment would extend allpossible assistance to theRussian Federation insecuring contracts inPakistan and theirexecution. He hoped that thetwo countries wouldexchange parliamentary,business and culturaldelegations to furtherstrengthen the relations. inthis connection he referredto the visit of NationalAssembly Speaker FehmidaMirza to Russia early next

year. The Russian foreignminister conveyed PresidentVladimir Putin’s best wishesfor President Asif AliZardari. He said that theinter-governmentalcommission between the twocountries had been workingto promote economiccooperation between the twocountries. He further saidthat Russia attaches greatimportance to consultationwith Pakistan and is lookingforward to Pakistan’sparticipation in the nextSCO Summit scheduled to beheld in Kirghizstan.The meeting was attendedby Minister for Water andPower Chaudhry AhmedMukhtar, Foreign MinisterHina Rabbani Khar, andseveral other senior officials.

RussIa endoRses She also said it was only due tothe tight schedule that Putin hadto put off his trip and there wasno other reason. “in diplomacy,a single visit does not define thescope of relationships betweenthe states,” she said. She hopedthat that there would soon be ameeting between the top leadersof the two countries. Khar alsodubbed the Russian foreignminister’s visit to islamabad avery positive indicationfollowing the postponement ofPutin’s visit. To a query onRussia’s stance on Kashmir,Foreign Minister Lavrov saidRussia welcomed the efforts ofPakistan and india to resumetheir dialogue and the steps thatthey had taken, the confidence-building measures (CBMs) forthe normalization of relations.He said the two South Asianstates were capable of resolvingtheir issues bilaterally. OnAfghanistan, Foreign MinisterLavrov said the solution toAfghan issue should come fromwithin the country. He said allother proposals that emanatedfrom abroad would not work toresolve the contentious matter.Earlier in her openingstatement, Foreign MinisterKhar said Pakistan’s politicalleadership was committed tohaving strong bilateral relationswith the Russian federation andalso to further expand those tiesinto all areas of cooperation. Shesaid Pakistan-Russia tiesentered a “new era” of bilateralrelations with the visit ofPresident Asif Ali Zardari toMoscow. Khar said the country’sparliament had given clearpolicy guidelines for furtherstrengthening and improvingties between the two countries.She talked about the recently-inked three memoranda ofunderstanding on the expansionand modernization of thePakistan Steel Mills,collaboration and cooperation inthe Railways and the energysector while terming them apositive development. Theforeign minister hoped that thetwo countries would be able tomove beyond the Mous. Shesaid during their meeting, theyalso discussed the conflicts inAfghanistan and Syria, as well asother crises in the Middle Eastand North Africa. None of theforeign ministers offered detailsabout what they exactlydiscussed, but Lavrov said there“is a convergence of views on allthese issues”.

neW yoRk: A uS judgeformally ordered iran, Al-Qaeda and several other de-fendants Wednesday to pay$6 billion compensation tothe victims of September 11,2001, in a largely symbolicruling. Although iran deniesany connection to 9/11, itwas included in the list of al-leged culprits by the uS Dis-trict Court in New York,along with the Lebanese mil-itant group Hezbollah,Afghanistan’s Taliban guer-rillas and Al-Qaeda, whichtook credit for the massiveterror attack. iran’s supremeleader Ayatollah AliKhamenei is also named.However, the money,awarded for economic, per-sonal and punitive damages

for a total of$6,048,513,805, is unlikelyto be recovered. iran is in atense standoff with theunited States over multipleissues, especially its nuclearindustry and alleged plan tobuild an atomic weapon.iranian-backed Hezbollahhas no relations with theunited States. Al-Qaedafounder Osama bin Laden,who is also named, waskilled by uS Navy SEALs in araid inside Pakistan in 2011.The Taliban are in an activewar with uS-led troopsacross Afghanistan. The rul-ing caps a series of court de-cisions prompted by lawsuitsfiled by families of 47 victimsfrom among the nearly3,000 killed on 9/11. AFP

PM seeks Russia’s help in energy, railwaysUS court orders iran, others to pay $6b for 9/11

Afghan civil war feared asTaliban survive US surge

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Friday, 5 October, 2012

NewsQaeda chief Al-Zawahiri may bein Pakistan: book

NEW DELHIInP

Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osamabin Laden as the new chief of al Qaeda,may be in Pakistan, says a new book. Za-wahiri, an Egyptian cleric, became the newal Qaeda chief after the killing of Osamabin Laden in Abbottabad in May last year.imtiaz Gul, a defence and security analyst,in his book “Pakistan: Before and AfterOsama” says, “Just as the search for binLaden has been a preoccupation for thepast decade, the whereabouts of Zawahiriare now likely to engage the uS and Pak-istan intelligence.” On where Zawahiricould be hiding, the author writes, “Thecity that would most suit him and providehim with the peace he needs to strategisehis takeover is islamabad.” “...it will be nosurprise if American or Pakistani intelli-gence were to scoop him up fromRawalpindi or islamabad one day - the waythey netted Khalid Sheikh Mohammedfrom Rawalpindi near the armed forces’General Headquarters. The 9/11 master-mind was finally indicted in early April2012 along with four others, with prosecu-tion demanding death penalty for him.”in May this year, former prime ministerYousaf Raza Gilani said Ayman al-Zawahiriwas not in Pakistan, challenging uS Secre-tary of State Hillary Clinton’s remark thatthe al Qaeda chief was there.On May 7, during her three-day trip toindia, Clinton had categorically said thatZawahiri was in Pakistan. Clinton had saidin Kolkata, “We want to disable al Qaeda.We believe Zawahiri is in Pakistan.” “Youhave to go over those who are trying to killyou. You have to be focused on that.”

Five killed in mandiover old enmity

MANDI BAHAUDDINOnLInE

Armed men gunned down five personsover old enmity in Mandi Bahauddin onWednesday. Per details, MukhtarAhmed and his accomplices kidnappedMuhammad Yar, two of his companionsand two guests from his house located inAlam Chak area of Mandi Bahauddin,and murdered them in Parrhana Lokarea. Yar and his friends in 2007 had al-legedly shot dead seven companions ofthe accused over personal enmity. Thepolice registered a case against the ac-cused and started raids for their arrest.

quETTA: Children look for usable items from the remains of burnt goods after a truck caught fire on Thursday. inP

Asif Zardari’s inspiring speech at UnS RAHMAN

Whenever President Asif AliZardari gets a chance to speak, hespeaks out his mind- and heart-and never tires of promoting thecause of global peace besideshighlighting the sacrifices of Pak-istani people and soldiers in thewar on terror, the other mainfocus of his speeches being,“trade, not aid’.

However, in his speech duringthe 67TH uN General Assemblysession, President Zardari sur-passed all other leaders, especiallyof the islamic world, by swimmingagainst the tidal currents un-leashed by the American priestwho dared make a blasphemousmovie. Presidents’ selection ofwords was indeed very strong and

it conveyed the innermost senti-ments of the Muslims throughoutthe world. He said, “Before i takeup my speech, i want to express thestrongest condemnation for theacts of incitement of hate againstthe faith of billions of Muslims ofthe world and our beloved Prophet,Mohammad (Peace Be uponHim)”. The international commu-nity must not become silent ob-servers and should criminalizesuch acts that destroy the peace ofthe world and endanger world se-curity by misusing freedom of ex-pression”.

These bold and candid utter-ances of Asif Ali Zardari have satis-fied the people in Pakistanincluding those who would mistakeZardari’s party, PPP, as the partythat symbolizes liberalism. For

sure, it is a mis-take to evaluatethe President andhis party leadersin this perspec-tive. Over theyears, particu-larly during theirfour-and-a-halfyear tenure so far,the PPP leadershave bravedmany challengesand difficulties.

Those whohave heardZardari’s speechand gone throughits contents in de-tail would be leftwith no option other than under-standing Zardari as a true patriot

who can go to anyextent for hiscountrymen aswell as for hisbrethren-in-faith.Obviously, goingto any extent likea fighter againstodds is his (Presi-dent Zardari’s)second nature.His inner convic-tion and twelveyears of his unjus-tified and unjusti m p r i s o n m e n thave enabled himto go to any extentfor his own or hiscountrymen’s due

rights. The President even men-tioned about these trials and tribu-

lations in his speech before the uNAssembly. Certainly, it was notmeant to discuss his own person orhis party’s sufferings but to explainthe faulty patterns prevailing in in-ternational relationships by way ofwhich military dictators and peopleequipped with the power of the gunwould be given red carpet welcomeand billions of dollars by some keyplayers of international communitywhereas the people’s representa-tives would rot in jail and even ex-ecuted through a sham judicialtrial as was done with Zulfikar AliBhutto Shaheed.

President Zardari also seizedthe opportunity provided by the in-ternational forum to turn Pak-istan’s pronounced relevance intopronounced significance by telling193 countries of the world that the

people of Pakistan have been fac-ing enormous challenges.

Highlighting the Pakistanipeople’s predicament that owes toglobal currents, President Zardaritold the General Assembly, “Wehave lost over seven thousand Pak-istani soldiers and policemen, andover 37,000 civilians. We havelost one of our Ministers and aGovernor of our most populousprovince of Punjab, to the mindsetof extremism.

And Pakistan’s first electedwoman prime minister and mywife Shaheed Mohtarma BenazirBhutto was martyred through thebullets and bombs of terroristswhose extremist actions have de-stroyed the human lives, torn so-cial fabric, and devastated theeconomy”.

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

tHE Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)has rendered Punjab bank-rupt with its five years ofloot and plunder and it can

never compete with the PML-Q’s welfare-oriented, ideal services, PML-Q seniorcentral leader and Deputy Prime MinisterPervaiz Elahi said on Thursday. Talking toreporters after briefing PML-Q PresidentShujaat Hussain and party workers fromall provinces, Elahi said the Sharif broth-ers had given nothing but deprivationsand disappointments to the people.

He said the media and the peoplewere witness to the fact that many of thePML-Q’s projects and plans for the wel-fare of the people had been “made victimof the Sharif brothers’ ego and their vestedinterests”, adding, “We will again put Pun-jab back on the path of prosperity andprogress through our developmentworks.” Earlier, detailed consultations re-garding the general elections, seat adjust-ment, by-elections and other matters ofnational importance were held and all par-ticipants fully expressed their views.

A fact sheet, along with proof of wel-

fare-oriented works undertaken in varioussectors in Punjab during the PML-Qtenure from 2002 to 2007, was also re-leased.

Elahi said the booklet not only gave abrief review of the development and wel-fare oriented works in Punjab but alsotalked about the party’s future roadmap.

He said his party’s destination was aprosperous, developed, and stable andstrong Punjab as a strong Punjab wouldguarantee a stable and developed Pakistan

“During our tenure in 2007, thegrowth rate in Punjab was 8 percent andPakistan’s on the whole was 7. 3 percent,”

adding that today the growth rate in theprovince had come down to just 1. 8 per-cent, and the overall growth rate of Pak-istan had also decreased to just 3.4percent.

The deputy prime minister said it wasa matter of great regret that the self-cen-tered rulers of Punjab had made theprovince a victim of corruption, nepotism,and egoism, adding that promotion ofvested interests and profiteering hadcaused growth in the province to decline.

Elahi said criminals were freely roam-ing the streets under the patronage of thecurrent rulers, helpless people were be-coming victims of thieves and dacoits, bil-lions of rupees of the public’s money hadbeen wasted in flop schemes like TandoorScheme, Food Stamp Scheme, AshianaHousing Scheme, Daanish SchoolsScheme, Green Tractor Scheme and nowthe Metro Bus Scheme was wreakinghavoc with the citizen’s lives.

He said it was the PML-Q’s solemnpledge and promise to the people of Pun-jab and of the entire Pakistan that aftersuccess in 2013 general elections, “we willmake Pakistan a prosperous, strong andstable and will accelerate the pace of de-velopment in all sectors in a dedicated andcommitted manner”.

PML-N has renderedPunjab bankrupt: Elahig Senior PmL-Q leader says politics of loot and plunder cannot compete with PmL-Q’s ‘historic

and welfare-oriented services’ g Party issues fact sheet and ‘proof’ against PmL-n

india test fires

Prithvi-ii missileNEW DELHI

nnI

india on Thursday successfully test-firedits nuclear-capable Prithvi-ii ballistic mis-sile with a strike range of 350 kilometresfrom a test range near Balasore in Odihsastate as part of a user trial by the army.“The surface-to-surface missile was flighttested from a mobile launcher from inte-grated Test Range’s launch complex-3 atChandipur,” defence sources said. Describ-ing the trial of the indigenously developedstrategic missile as “fully successful”, iTRDirector MVKV Prasad said, “All the mis-sion objectives were accomplished.” Thestate-of-the-art Prithvi is the first ballisticmissile developed under the country’sprestigious integrated Guided Missile De-velopment Programme (iGMPD) and hasthe capability to carry 500 kg of both nu-clear and conventional warheads with astrike range of 350 km, the sources said.The missile uses advanced inertial guid-ance system with maneuvering trajectory.The test-fire of the sophisticated short-range ballistic missile, already inductedinto the armed forces, was a user trial bythe army and monitored by scientists ofDefence Research and Development Or-ganisation (DRDO). The sleek missile ishandled by the strategic force command(SFC), a defence scientist said, addingthe trial was conducted to gauge the ef-fectiveness of the weapon in a real timesituation and improve accuracy. “Thewhole exercise was aimed at studying thecontrol and guidance system of the mis-sile besides providing training to theArmy,” said a DRDO official.

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Friday, 5 October, 2012

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

tHE Lahore High Court on Thursdaysummoned Punjab home secretary,Punjab inspector general of police, SSP(operations) Lahore, DPO Vehari andDPO Rahim Yar Khan for October 10

on a plea against killing of nine people from a fam-ily, including five brothers, allegedly in three fakepolice encounters.

Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi passed theseorders on a petition by Saleema Bibi against killingof his five sons, including Malik Shahid, MalikZahid, Malik Majid, Malik Adnan and Malik imran,and four other relatives in three different police en-counters on September 18, 2012.

Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel submitted thata son of the petitioner imran and two other rela-tives including Jamshaid and Awais were killed ina police encounter within the jurisdiction of PoliceStation Chung, Lahore on September 18. Heclaimed that the encounter was staged as the FiRregistered indicates that no policeman received somuch as a scratch in the encounter.

He pointed out that police killed two other sonsof the petitioner, including Zahid and Majid, andtheir relative Ramzan in another encounter withinlimits of Burewala, Vehari. He added that peti-tioner’s two other sons, including Malik Shahid and

Malik Adnan, were killed in an encounter withinlimits of Adaadpur, Rahim Yar Khan.

The counsel said the petitioner had serious ap-prehensions regarding life of his four remainingsons who were being threatened by the police.

The counsel also alleged that petitioner’sdaughter-in-law was also missing along her threeminor sons and it was believed that she was in po-

lice custody. SP CiA umar Virk also appeared be-fore the report and submitted a report.

But the court criticized state of affairs in Pun-jab and notedthat the petitioner has been deprivedof his sons and property which pointed to the igno-rance of public functionaries.

The court took a notice of the matter and sum-moned the officials on next date of hearing.

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharifon Thursday said that mutual coexis-tence is detrimental to peaceful rela-tions with india.

Talking to senior editors and jour-nalists of print and electronic mediaof Germany during a meeting inBerlin, Shahhaz said Pakistan andindia will have to sit together to re-solve bilateral issues for which mean-ingful and result-oriented dialogue isextremely important.

He said that promotion of mutualtrade and exchange of delegations canimprove Pak-india relations.

Speaking on relations withAfghanistan, he said that Afghanistan isa neighbouring country of Pakistan and

that Pakistanis only want peace andprosperity in Afghanistan, because peacein Afghanistan is important for peace inPakistan as well. He added that only thepeople of Afghanistan have the right todecide the future of Afghanistan.

Referring to the initiatives for re-forms in education, health, infrastruc-ture, transport and other sectors and thedevelopment projects started by PML-Ngovernment in Punjab province, he toldthe German media that Punjab govern-ment is doing its very best for service andwelfare of the people.

He said that concrete measures havebeen taken for improving health, educa-tion and other sectors under a compre-hensive programme which has yieldedpositive results.

He said that the literacy rate in Pun-jab has increased since Daanish School

Project has been started for the childrenof poor families. He said that Educa-tional Endowment Fund has been set upwith a sum of Rs 10 billion throughwhich more than 35 thousand studentsare continuing their studies.

He said that work on metro busproject costing Rs 28 billion is cur-rently underway for providing quality,comfortable and international stan-dard transport facilities to the peopleand hoped that after Lahore this proj-ect will also be launched in other bigcities of Punjab.

The chief minister also referred tothe progress, reforms and initiativestaken in other sectors. Shahbaz saidthat Germany has expertise in solar en-ergy technology and Punjab govern-ment wants to benefit from thisexpertise for overcoming energy crisis.The Chief Minister said that he will alsomeet the heads of solar energy compa-nies and experts during his visit.

Mutual coexistence important for peace with India: shahbaz nSays Pakistan, too, wants peace in Afghanistan

‘Accusation of dual nationalityagainst CM are ridiculous’

LAHOREOnLInE

The spokesman for Punjab government on Thursdaysaid that accusation of dual nationality leveledagainst Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif isridiculous and totally baseless. The spokesman, in a statement, said that duringexile in Musharraf era, the CM had traveled fromSaudi Arabia to America on Pakistani passport forhis treatment during sever ailment. He added that the person leveling the accusationagainst Shahbaz has been declared dishonest by theSupreme Court.

Doctor’s associationsand Punjab govt meet again

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Different associations of doctors on Thursdaystarted another round of meetings with the healthofficials to sort out differences on the service struc-ture of doctors, Pakistan Today has learnt.This isnot the first time such negotiations have takenplace. Several other previous attempts to finalizethe service structure of doctors where all cadres aresatisfied have been in vain. Pakistan MuslimLeague –Nawaz (PML-N) Senator ishaq Darheaded the final round of talks. However, the re-sults of these initial talks were inconclusive becausethe General Cadre Doctors’ Association and therecords presented by the Health Department didnot match. The current session started with mem-bers from the Young Doctors Association, PakistanMedical Association and other medical associationsmet with health officials in the department. “After sorting out differences, the representatives

of doctors will meet me and the health secretary,”advisor to CM on health Khwaja Salman Rafiquetold Pakistan Today. Commenting on the progresson the service structure, he said the pyramid ofpromotion has been converted into cylindricalpromotion to accommodate the general cadre doc-tors. He was hopeful that this would be the last ofsuch meetings.

Gold, diamond, cars,money snatched

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Robberies took place in different places of the cityon Thursday.Three robbers managed to enter in a store namedi-Star Departmental Store in Nawab Town androbbed Rs 400,000 cash and goods worth Rs800,000 after breaking the locks. They managed toescape from the scene. CCTV footages was foundedand given to the police for further investigation.in a separate incident, a robbery took place in thehouse of Abid Ali where robbers managed to enterhis house and robbed gold, a diamond set, andother valuables worth Rs 1600,000 from the areaof iqbal Town. Abid said told the police that hismaids named Asia and Amna were involved in thisrobbery. The police filed an FiR on the request ofAbid for further investigation.Moreover, many citizens were also deprived oftheir vehicles in various parts of the city. Muham-mad imran’s motorbike was stolen from CampJail, a citizen named Ateeq lost his car from MianPlaza Joher Town. Nadeem’s motorbike from Services Hospital wasstolen and a citizen named ibrar also lost his mo-torbike from Sui Gas office near Factory Area.

Punjab home secretary, IG summoned in fake encounter casenWoman, whose 9 family mem-bers were killed in an encounter,tells court that she fears for thelife of her 4 sons who were beingthreatened by the police

LAHORES TA F F R E P O RT

A boy and h is s i s ter were myster ious lyf o u n d d e a d o n T h u r s d a y m o r n i n g d u et o c o n s u m p t i o n o f s o m e p o i s o n o u sfood.

According to detai ls , 13-year-oldAakash was visit ing his sister Rukhsana,25, who was married to imran, residingin main bazaar of Hinjarwal.

The sibl ings slept after dinner and inthe morning were found dead in theirbeds.

The bodies were shi f ted to hospita lwhere doctors confirmed that the deathwas the result of poisoning.

invest igat ion Of f i cer Amanul lahKhan said that the deceased had e i thercommitted suic ide or were poisoned todeath and invest igat ions were under-way.

Brother and sister found

mysteriously dead

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Friday, 5 October, 2012

07Lahore

cine StAr FindinG nemO 11:30PmPh: 35157462 BArFi 01:15Pm

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SUPer cinemA BArF 03:15Pm, 09:00PmAt rOYAL PALm herOine 12:30Pm, 06:00PmPh: 111-602-602 FindinG nemO 01:00Pm, 06:00Pm 36118679 Oh mY GOd 03:00Pm, 08:00Pm, 11:00Pm

dredd (3d) 12:00Pm, 07:15Pmthe cOLd LiGht OF dAY 02:45PmherOine 04:30Pm, 09:00

LAhoRe: The Health Department on Thursday issuedpromotion orders of five assistant professors to thepost of associate professor in Grade-19. These promo-tions have been made on current charge basis. Thosewho have been promoted as associate professors in-clude Dr Arif Zaheer of PGMi Lahore, Dr Najaf Masoodfrom Rawalpindi Medical College, Dr SM Javed iqbal ofKing Edward Medical university, Dr Muhammad YasinAlvi of Services institute of Medical Sciences Lahoreand Dr Ghulam Mustafa of Children Hospital Multan.The Health Department has also issued posting ordersof these doctors at the institutions where they are al-ready working. STAFF REPORT

LAhoRe: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursdaydirected the Religious Affairs Ministry to allocate quotato three Haj Group Organisers (HGOs). LHC Chief Jus-tice umar Ata Bandial, while hearing a petition callingfor contempt proceedings against Federal Minister ofReligious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah and SecretaryMuhammad Azam Samaa over not complying with acourt order on allocation of Haj quota among newly-registered HGOs, ordered the quota to be allocated tothree out of 10 HGOs who fulfilled the merit require-ments. The new HGOs, through their counsel AzharSiddique, argued that the ministry deliberately ignoredthe court’s directions and did not allocate Haj quotaamong the petitioner-organizers. During the hearing,the religious affairs ministry, through Haj Director (La-hore) Saeed Ahmad Malik, presented a list of 10 Hajgroup organizers who fulfilled the merit requirements.Malik requested the court to assign quota to any of theHGOs of the list that he said fulfilled the allocation re-quirements. The court directed the ministry to allocatequota to three out of the 10 HGOs after developing aconsensus among all parties concerned. The petition-ers’ counsel, Azhar Siddique, told the court that HafizSher Ali, who had been serving as a joint secretary atthe ministry, was transferred from his position for co-operating with the court. STAFF REPORT

LHC asks ministry tohurry up with allocationof haj quotas

Health dept promotes fiveassistant professors

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high

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Friday, 5 October, 2012

Lahore

yoGA AnD MEDITATIon CLASSES

dAte: APriL 01 tO decemBer 30, 2012VenUe: FAiZ GhAr, LAhOre

A unique blend of Yoga, meditation, neuro-LinguisticProgramming, Sufism & more.Achieve self-insight, mind-body harmony & betterhealth.

Yoga master Shamshad haider

100 GHAZALS oF MAULAnA rUMI

hast-o-neest centre for traditional Art & cultureinvites you to its monthly Saturday Sitting withJanab Ahmed Javed Sahib

(director, iqbal Academy Pakistan)

on 100 Ghazals of maulana rumi

3:30 to 5:00 pm, Last Saturday of every month

dAte: mArch 31 tO decemBer 29, 2012 VenUe: hASt-O-neeSt centre, LAhOre

new Arrangements showcases the work offive artists who explore different forms ofimage making in painting and photography.

dAte: OctOBer 02 – 10VenUe: the drAwinG rOOm Art GALLerY, 63-A,BLOcK e/1,GULBerG iii

PHoToGrAPHy & PAInTInGS

WoRLd sPace WeeK acTIvITIes

ISB 05-10-2012_Layout 1 10/5/2012 4:42 AM Page 8

09

Friday, 5 October, 2012

Foreign News

spain detains man ‘plottingcolumbine-style massacre’MADRID: Spanish police said Thursday they had ar-rested a 21-year-old man as he received 140 kilograms ofexplosives to carry out a Columbine-style massacre ofstudents. The suspect was arrested in the tourist haven ofPalma de Mallorca and his hate-filled personal diary andother papers revealed plans to attack the university ofthe Balearic islands, they said. identified only by the ini-tials J.M.M.S., he was detained Wednesday just as he re-ceived more than 140 kilograms of exposives that he hadbought online, police said in a statement. “in his personaldiary and other documents seized at his home, the de-tainee showed his hatred of society, epecially universitystudents, and his decision to strategically place shrapnel-filled pipe bombs in the university grounds, admitting toa possible suicide in the carrying out of the massacre,”the statement said. AFP

drone strike kills 5 Qaedasuspects in south YemenADen: A drone air strike blasted two cars carrying sus-pected Al-Qaeda gunmen in the southern Yemen provinceof Shabawa on Thursday, killing five of them, a tribal chiefand witnesses said. “Five militants belonging to Ansar Al-Sharia (Partisans of islamic law) were killed in a dronestrike” in Shabwa, said the tribal chief. Witnesses said thedrone fired four missiles at the two cars as they travelledthrough the town of Saeed in Shabwa, a stronghold of themilitant group. “The two cars are still burning and wecouldn’t get close to them because the drones are still hover-ing in the area,” said a local resident. The tribal chief saidgunmen suspected to have links with Al-Qaeda had earlierarrived in four vehicles and “set up a checkpoint on the roadlinking Saeed and Ataq,” Shabwa’s provincial capital. AFP

‘no evidence’ nigeria massacretied to campus vote: officialsLAgoS: A security official at a Nigeria college on Thurs-day dismissed reports that a massacre at a nearby stu-dent housing area which left at least 40 people dead waslinked to tensions over a campus vote. The official’s com-ments came after Nigerian police said they had mademany arrests over the massacre which saw victims shot orhave their throats slit, but offered no clues for whatprompted it as questions mounted over the killings. “ihave no evidence to link it to the election,” said ShuaibAroke, deputy registrar at Federal Polytechnic Mubi,where some of those killed in the massacre in the earlyhours of Tuesday were enrolled. “it is a fallacy,” he saidof the supposed link being suggested by some Nigerianauthorities. “We are united here at polytechnic,” addedAroke, who said he is currently in charge of security oncampus. He however said he had no information on whowas behind the killings. AFP

ANKARAAFP

tuRKEY hammered Syriantargets on Thursday inreprisal for deadly cross-border fire that sent ten-sions soaring in the

tinder-box region, prompting interna-tional calls for restraint.

in Ankara, the Turkish parliamentmet behind closed doors in an emergencysession to consider a government requestto authorise cross-border military opera-tions inside Syria. “Turkey has no interestin a war with Syria. But Turkey is capableof protecting its borders and will retaliate

when necessary,” ibrahim Kalin, chief ad-visor to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Er-dogan, said on Twitter. Western powerscondemned the Syrian strike, with the uSsaying it was outraged and France warn-ing it threatened global security.

Damascus’s close ally Russia saidSyria had admitted that the deadlyshelling was “a tragic accident, and thatit will not happen again.” Ankara un-leashed artillery shells into its neighbourlate on Wednesday after mortar firecrashed inside the Turkish border townof Akcakale, killing five civilians includ-ing a mother and her three children.

it marked the first time that Turkishcitizens had been killed by Syrian fire

since the uprising against PresidentBashar al-Assad’s regime began in March2011. Several Syrian soldiers were killedas a result of the shelling, the Syrian Ob-servatory for Human Rights watchdogsaid, without giving an exact figure.

Turkey has demanded that the uNSecurity Council take action againstDamascus over Wednesday’s attack,which drew sharp Western condemna-tion. uS Secretary of State Hillary Clintonsaid Washington was “outraged”, whileFrance said it constituted “a seriousthreat to global security and peace.”

Amid the rising tensions, calls forcalm poured in. The European union con-demned the attack and urged restraint on

all sides, while Germany called for a “de-escalation” “a measured handling of thisworsening situation.” Syria’s main allyiran also sought to cool tempers, asking“both sides to show restraint.”

in a crisis meeting late on Wednes-day, Turkish Prime Minister Recep TayyipErdogan’s government drew up a motionasking parliament to allow it to conductoperations inside Syria, like the bombingraids that the army regularly carries outagainst suspected Kurdish rebel bases inneighbouring iraq. Akcakale and the sur-rounding border region have come underfire from Syria for several weeks, forcingthe closure of some 100 schools andprompting the government to advise peo-

ple to stay away from the region.Following Wednesday’s shelling,

NATO member Turkey called an emer-gency meeting of the alliance and de-manded action from the uN SecurityCouncil over what it called a “heinous” at-tack. NATO said that it stood by its mem-ber Turkey and urged the Syrian regimeto end “flagrant violations of interna-tional law” that it described as “a clearand present danger” to an ally.Syrian in-formation Minister Omran Zoabi said ina statement reported by state televisionthat Damascus was looking into the ori-gin of the cross-border shelling and of-fered condolences to the families of thevictims.

ATHEnS: Police clash with shipyard workers at the Defence ministry in Athens. Angry unpaid shipyard workers, whose shipyard is contracted with the Defence ministry

managed to break through into the ministry to demand their payments. Police detained most of the protesters. AFP

BEIJINGAFP

Four Chinese children were killed and 14 others weremissing Thursday after a landslide engulfed theirschool as they gathered to make up classes lost dueto deadly earthquakes last month, state media said.

Chinese state television said four primary schoolstudents were confirmed dead after the landslidethat buried the school and two farmhouses in moun-tainous Yunnan province in southwestern China.

Another 14 students remained unaccounted for,the report said. A local villager had also been buried,state media has said.

The students at the Youfang Primary Schoolwould not normally have been in school this weekas China is on a week-long national holiday.

But officials said the children were making upfor lost time caused by disruptions stemming fromtwo September 7 earthquakes that struck Yiliangcounty where Zhenhe is located, killing 81 peopleand leaving hundreds injured.

Web users immediately raised questions aboutthe decision to have the children back in the schools.

The safety of school pupils is a sensitive issueafter thousands of students died when an 8.0-mag-nitude tremor in 2008 rocked Sichuan province insouthwestern China and parts of neighbouringShaanxi and Gansu.

“Are the officials all on vacation? Why was thereno alert? Why were there students in school duringthe holidays?” a user of leading portal Sina.com’spopular micro-blogging service asked after the land-slide. Many schools collapsed in the 2008 quake,which killed more than 80,000 people in total.

This led to accusations that corner-cutting inconstruction projects and possibly corruption led toshoddy buildings, especially as many buildingsnearby such schools held firm. images broadcast onstate television showed rescue personnel pickingthrough landslide debris. it said the landslide oc-curred after sustained rains in the area. Many build-ings in Yiliang County are located precariously atthe foot of steep mountainsides.

Iraq bomb hits privatesecurity convoy, kills 4

BAGHDADAFP

A car bomb hit a private security convoy inBaghdad on Thursday, killing four peopleand wounding at least nine others, securityand medical officials said. The bombexploded in the Mansur area of westBaghdad at about 9:00 am (0600 GMT),killing four people and wounding nine, aninterior ministry official said. A medicalsource from Al-Yarmuk hospital confirmedthe facility had received four bodies, butput the number of wounded at 14. it wasnot immediately clear whether thecasualties were bystanders, peopletravelling in the convoy, or both. Neitherofficial gave details on the name of thesecurity company. Car parts were scatteredacross the street where the bomb exploded,and a number of shop windows in the areawere shattered by the blast, an AFPjournalist said. There were two burned carsat the site of the explosion in addition tothe remnants of the car bomb.

Turkey pounds Syria in reprisal for deadly fire

Four children die as landslideburies China school

DenverAFP

Republican Mitt Romney delivered astrong performance in his first presiden-tial debate, putting a more passiveBarack Obama on the back foot as hereignited hope for his flagging campaign.

Needing a good showing to turnaround poor poll numbers, the formerMassachusetts governor went on the of-fensive Wednesday, hammering thepresident for economic policies he saidhad “crushed” America’s middle class.

Romney played the aggressorthroughout the 90-minute encounterand appeared far more at ease in the cut-

and-thrust of the debate format, whichleft Obama seeming at times nervousand irritated, at others under-prepared.

Obama did jump on Romney’s lackof specifics as the rivals clashed on taxesand health care reform, but the presi-dent stuttered through several of hismore detailed answers, while his Repub-lican opponent was crisper and clearer.

“The president has a view very simi-lar to the view he had when he ran fouryears ago: that a bigger government,spending more, taxing more, regulatingmore — if you will trickle-down govern-ment — would work,” Romney said.

“That’s not the right answer forAmerica. i’ll restore the vitality that gets

America working again,” he vowed. “Mid-dle-income families are being crushed,and the question is, how to get themgoing again.” Obama hit back by suggest-ing Romney would bring $5.4 trillion intax cuts geared towards the wealthy, andsaid his Republican foe hadn’t been clearon which tax loopholes he would close inorder to maintain revenue.

“Governor Romney has a perspectivethat says if we cut taxes skewed towardthe wealthy and cut back regulations,we’ll be better off. i have a differentview,” the Democratic incumbent said,calling for “economic patriotism.”

Romney challenged Obama’s claimsas the tax issue sparked what proved the

fiercest clashes in a mainly low-key tele-vised debate watched live by tens of mil-lions of Americans. “Virtually everythinghe said about my tax plan is inaccurate,”Romney said. “if the tax plan he de-scribed were a tax plan i was asked tosupport, i would say absolutely not.”

Obama clings to a narrow lead in hisbid to defy the omens of a stubbornlysluggish economic recovery and to be-come only the second Democrat sinceWorld War ii to win a second term.

Romney, down in almost all the keybattleground states that will decide whogets the 270 electoral votes needed towin on November 6, sought a sharpchange of momentum.

Romney turns in strong debate performance Denver: Democratic presidential

candidate, US President Barack

Obama greets republican

presidential candidate, former

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt romney

during the Presidential Debate at the

University on Thursday. AFP

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Comment10

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Let’s take practical steps

renewal of ties

The cancellation of a keenly awaited visit by President Putinhad caused dismay in Pakistan. The departure of COASKayani for Moscow and the arrival of Russian ForeignMinister Lavrov in islamabad however indicate that the

ties are in a process of improvement. The renewal of the relationsafter a lengthy period of cooling off indicates that the two countriesshare perspectives on a number of issues vital to both. in the post-Cold War twilight world where alliances are changing withoutcountries shifting to altogether opposite positions, Russia andPakistan find many things in common. Both are keen to have goodrelations with the uS but do not agree with many policies pursuedby Washington. These include drone attacks inside Pakistan whichwere duly condemned by Lavrov as being in violation of Pakistan’ssovereignty and territorial integrity. Lavrov assured that Russiabacks Pakistan’s position on the issue. There is also a proximity inboth countries’ positions on iran, Syria and the Palestinian state.

Much more important for the two are other issues like narcoticssmuggling, terrorism in the region and the situation in Afghanistanafter the departure of the uS-led NATO troops. Russia has withgreat effort brought under control the terrorist groups operatingfrom its Muslim dominated areas, some of whom had been trainedin Afghanistan or Pakistan’s tribal areas. Better ties with islamabadwould ensure that Chechens do not use Pakistan’s soil againstMoscow. Russia also recognizes the key role Pakistan has to play inhelping bring peace to war torn Afghanistan.

Moscow helped set up the first steel mill in Pakistan in an erawhen no western country was willing to fulfill the need. Pakistannow wants Russian assistance for balancing, modernizing,revamping and expanding (BMRE) of the ailing PSM. Moscow isalso in a position to expedite TAPi and provide finances for theproject to bring Central Asian electricity to Afghanistan andPakistan.

in political field, an isolated Pakistan badly needs to cultivaterelations with countries in the region as well as those outside whomatter in international politics, Russia being one. Lavrov hasalready promised support for Pakistan’s membership of theShanghai Cooperation Organization. Hopefully the visit by GenKayani would take military to military ties to a higher level,increasing Pakistan’s options for acquiring modern weapons.Relations between countries take time to mature. The next stepshould be the removal of hindrances that led to the cancelation ofPresident Putin’s visit. The holding of the quadrilateral conferencewould further bring Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistancloser.

Friday, 5 October, 2012

Ensuring a constitutional solutionof the Balochistan issue, as rec-ommended by Gen Kayani, re-quires a number of confidencebuilding measures (CBMs) fol-

lowed by guarantees from the highest mili-tary quarters that this time there would beno manipulation by the agencies in the elec-tions. There is little hope the establishmentwould agree to the CBMs easily. The unrestand killings in Balochistan are thus bound tocontinue. Whatever possibility of a constitu-tional solution exists now—and the sixpoints by Akhtar Mengal indicate that it isthere—is likely to evaporate in days to come.Musharraf still represents the dominantthinking in the army. On Monday he claimedthat Balochistan was not East Pakistan im-plying that the tactics that have led to thepresent situation in the province should becontinued. The military thinking ignoresthat determined populations driven by adesperate sense of injustice and persecutionhave brought to their knees some of the mostpowerful armies. The plight of the uS-ledNATO forces in Afghanistan is just one ofseveral examples.

The illegal and unconstitutional stepstaken prior to February 2008 created a situ-ation in Balochistan marked by gross humanrights violations. Security agencies engi-neered the elections in the province onMusharraf’s direction. This led to the riseand proliferation of armed factions seekingthe province’s separation from Pakistan. Thepresent rulers in Balochistan that the agen-cies had helped to get elected were thor-oughly incompetent to deal with theaftereffects of Akbar Bugti’s killing. The con-tinuation of attacks on government propertyand killing of innocent citizens could havebeen brought to an end through talks leadingto the conviction of those responsible forBugti’s elimination. What followed insteadwas a highly repressive response to the in-surrection which further worsened the situ-ation. Hundreds, according to the

nationalists thousands, were picked up indefiance of law and constitutional guaran-tees, scores were tortured and their deadbodies dumped on streets. People startedmaking comparisons between Balochistanon the one hand and Kashmir and Palestineon the other vis a vis atrocities and grosshuman rights violations by state actors. Thearmy and the agencies however continue tobe in a state of denial.

Keen to continue to rule and return topower after the next elections, the PPP gov-ernment does not want to be seen on thewrong side of the establishment. instead ofsupporting the Supreme Court in its effortsfor the recovery of the missing persons, thegovernment has decided to side with theagencies. The statement presented beforethe SC on behalf of the federal governmentcorroborates the establishment’s stand thatthe agencies are not involved in enforceddisappearances. The government also main-tains, against facts, that there is a markeddecrease in the phenomenon. The commis-sion on missing persons, headed by Justice(rtd) Javed iqbal, disclosed on Tuesday that80 more cases of disappearance had been re-ported to it during the past three months.Similarly, there is no end to the killings, thelatest being that of a journalist in Khuzdarby a death squad reportedly working for theagencies.

Highly responsible and patriotic individ-uals, widely respected civil rights bodies andthe highest court in the country have rejectedthe denials by the agencies as utterly false.During the nine-month long hearing by theSC of the cases of enforced disappearances inBalochistan, the claim of innocence by theagencies has been again and again exposedand rejected. Officials of the agencies in-volved in disappearances were named by thecourt and threatened with action includingarrest. All persuasion by the apex court tohand over the missing persons howeverfailed. More than half a dozen in-depth re-ports by the Human Right Commission ofPakistan contradict the claims of innocencemade by the security agencies. Two nationalconferences held in islamabad and Quetta bythe Supreme Court Bar Association, theprime professional body of the lawyers com-munity, have also underlined that the ex-cesses were being committed by the securityagencies. Calling the disappearances aheinous crime, the uN Working Group onEnforced or involuntary Disappearances(WGEiD) has called for their discontinuance.

Of the six points presented by SardarAkhtar Mengal, five require pre-electionCBMs. What the establishment fails to un-derstand is that Mengal and the moderate

nationalists stand between the federationand the abyss. This explains the all-out op-position to Mengal’s visit and his six pointsby the extremists who would settle at noth-ing short of an independent Balochistan.They have unanimously charged Mengalwith sellout. Akhtar Mengal, along withother nationalist parties still supporting agenuine federation, is in a position to ensurea constitutional resolution to the issue ofBalochistan provided the CBMs are under-taken and elections are not manipulated bythe agencies as before.

The Baloch nationalists still willing tocontest the elections are putting themselvesin great danger. The separatists who aredeadly opposed to any Baloch politician tak-ing part in polls are likely to treat them as aprime target. it is in national interest to bol-ster the pro-federation Baloch parties. Thiscan be done if the establishment removes itsblinkers, acknowledges the reality and im-plements the six points. This would meanputting an ending to the forced disappear-ances, suspension of the operations under-taken by the FC, producing all accused ofanti-state activities in the courts, calling offthe death squads referred to by the SC at thelast hearing, punishing those responsible fortorture and extra judicial killing, and reha-bilitation of thousands of displaced Balochpresently living in appalling condition. Fol-lowed by free and fair elections this wouldpave way for the constitutional solution ofthe Baloch problem. Not a big price for keep-ing the federation intact.

What does one do in a situation when theestablishment buries its head in the sandwhile it suits the government to do the same?

The only way left is for the major oppo-sition parties to join hands and jointly pres-surize the government to agree to the CBMsand the establishment to reign in the secu-rity agencies. it appears however thatBalochistan stands low in the list of the op-position parties’ priorities, presumably be-cause it is population wise the smallestprovince of the country.

Mian Nawaz Sharif and imran Khanhave both spoken at the islamabad nationalconference on Balochistan called by theSCBA. They have to take lead now to jointlycall a conference on Balochistan to formulatean action program. Talk shows alone havenever won political battles. if the two partiesbecome active, the rest of the opposition par-ties and the Baloch nationalist parties arebound to join them. Together the combina-tion of forces can bell the cat.

The writer is a former academic and apolitical analyst.

But the agencies, as usual, still deny it

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

The truth about Balochistan

The thing with divorce, much likemost acts involving human bond-ing, is that it needs a catalyst to ac-

celerate it. The catalyst could come invarious shapes and sizes; although ide-ally it should be a member of the oppo-site sex who has an appealing shape andsize. it has been this lack of catalyst thathas delayed the much-awaited uS-Pakdivorce, with both sides regularly throw-ing tantrums of agitation clarifying howthey’d much rather be without eachother. With both countries crawling to-wards the rupture point, Russia was allset to be that voluptuous catalyst, set towoo Pakistan away from the clutches ofgrumpy old uncle Sam, before RussianPresident Vladimir Putin’s heart did asummersault leaving the budding islam-

abad-Moscow love, in veritable jeopardy.Putin was scheduled to visit islam-

abad on October 2 to participate in aquadrilateral summit featuring Russia,Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan,with additional bilateral talks with Pres-ident Zardari as well. And there arescores of reasons why the trip was ofparticular importance for not only Pak-istan but for the region as a whole.

The main aim of the four-nationsummit was to carve out a post-uSstrategy for Afghanistan, now that theAmerican forces look set to abscondaround 2014, leaving a massive vacuumof influence crying out to be filled. Andthere aren’t many countries more anx-ious about the future of that particularvacuum than Pakistan. Pakistan’s ap-prehension is the natural offshoot of therising indian interest in Afghanistan,whose massive investment in Afghan re-construction showcases their desire ofhaving some sort of a foothold in thecountry – if the desire were to come tofruition that would mean india would beable to flank Pakistan from both wings,which wouldn’t be that pleasant aprospect for islamabad. One conspiracytheory suggests that it has been theindo-American duo that has collectivelywarded Putin away from his Pakistanvisit, and in turn any involvement inAfghanistan. And in case this turns out

to be true, that would mean that theindo-American influence in Afghanistanwould be the next status quo even afterthe uS forces leave the country. Anotherthing that is gradually surfacing is thatindia – the latest ‘close ally’ for the uSis doing what Pakistan did in the ColdWar era: keeping the Russians out of theregion, with indirect help from Wash-ington.

Another drawback of Putin’s snub isthat the promise of a Russia-Pakistan-China axis that seemed on the brink ofsurfacing in the region now seems like afarfetched prognostication. With Russiaopenly backing Pakistan’s membershipin Shanghai Cooperation Organizationlast year; extrovertly vowing to solve ourgas troubles by showing interest in fi-nancing both the iP (iran-Pakistan) andTAPi (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pak-istan-india) pipelines; vying to stream-line our electricity troubles by financingthe Diamer Bhasha Dam and the $500million worth CASA-1000 electricitytransmission project – for the past cou-ple of years Russia had been acting likea passionate Romeo; throwing money,giving his Juliet all the attention in theworld and basically doing anything andeverything to convince his sweetheart ofhis affection – the sweetheart howeverturned out more high maintenance thanher profile suggests (as our second con-

spiracy theory would divulge). AfterRussian maneuvers to woo Pakistan be-came increasingly conspicuous; thatcoupled with the traditional Sino-Pakbond and China’s Aynak copper minedeal in 2008 and $7 billion oil deal withAfghanistan last year, meant that theMoscow-islamabad-Beijing trio seemedto be at the forefront of any decisionmaking regarding Afghanistan in the fu-ture. The Russian president’s cold-shoulder has ensured that that axis goespear-shaped.

On the bilateral front while the po-tential of energy and electricity basedprojects in Pakistan had brought Pak-istan and Russia closer, ironically it isone of these projects that is said to bethe reason behind Moscow’s unceremo-nious decision as well. Russian energygiant Gazprom has been eying iP andwanted to finance the $1.2 billion worthproject, but Pakistan never came up witha concrete offer. Conspiracy theory num-ber two suggests that the fact that Pak-istan was holding out for aninternational bidding rather than offer-ing the iP rights itself that has ticked offPutin. The reason being Pakistan’s his-torical offers to China without any inter-national bidding and with Russiafighting off some serious antagonism tobe a part of iP it is only natural that theywould have expected something similar.

Nonetheless, Russian media, mostnotably the newspaper The Kommer-sant has been rubbishing the conspiracytheories and claiming that Putin optedout of the trip owing to a “tight sched-ule”. Considering that the summit wasplanned months ago, that explanationdoes not seem particularly plausible.However, the Russians downplaying the“postponement” and negating the con-spiracy theories does connote that theydo not want the Russia-Pakistan love-into evaporate just yet. This is backed upby the Russian president inviting Presi-dent Zardari over to Moscow in the let-ter that he sent announcing thepostponement.

With Russian Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov in islamabad as you readthis and General Ashfaq Kayani head-ing to Moscow with President Zardariset to follow him, if Pakistan and Rus-sia can sort out their respectivetantrums and mood swings they canstill carve out a lucrative partnershipthat would benefit both sides economi-cally and geo-strategically. it is a bud-ding romance that the world has itseyes on, the fulfillment of which wouldthrow quite a few cats among a multi-tude of very fragile pigeons.

The writer is a staff member and canbe reached at khulduneshahid@gmail.com

From Russia without love

By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

Ramifications of Vladimir Putin’s eleventh hour snub

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Comment 11

Friday, 5 October, 2012

Pakistan must revert back to amodern welfare democratic state, in-stead of distorted version of a securitystate that it has been forcefully trans-formed into by military dictators in col-laboration with civil bureaucracyinherited and trained by Colonial Raj torule an occupied colony. Can anybodyjustify the cover-up and defiance byMusharraf of the rape of Shazia Khalidby an individual allegedly belonging touniformed services? it is not the job ofan army, whose exclusive role is to de-fend the geographical boundaries, toassume unto themselves supra-consti-tutional powers to detain citizens intimes of peace and be accused of being

involved in missing persons case. Theylack the intellectual capacity and fore-sight to rule and set priorities for a sov-ereign state to develop itsinfrastructure and become self reliantboth economically and technologically,nor the political wisdom to be re-spected in the comity of nations.

it were corrupt adventurers likeAyub, Yahya, Zia and Musharraf, whoabused their offices to illegitimately oc-cupy power and deliberately introduceelement of institutionalized corruptionwithin the forces by legitimizing theplunder of real estate and involvementof the security establishment in corpo-rate business ventures. The British oc-

cupation establishment distributedlands, titles and jobs as bait for nativesto buy their loyalties. Such tactics arerarely resorted to by sovereign states,which focus on welfare of most de-prived sections of society instead ofwelfare of its paid civil and uniformedservants, for doing jobs that they arepaid for.

With the Quaid's death, elements ofthe unionist Party, that had joinedbandwagon of Muslim League prevailedand the establishment resorted to largescale allotment of vast evacuee propertyon fake claims to plunder assets left be-hind by affluent Hindus and Sikhs andthereby create a new class of novae rich

who then assumed political power andlaid foundations of a culture of corrup-tion that has now eroded the very foun-dations of Pakistan. Our foundingfathers led by Quaid, Allama iqbal,Fazal-ul-Haq etc could never have visu-alized that land mafia dons wouldemerge as kingmakers of Pakistan, whocould defy not just our highest judiciary,but get away with robbing poor and des-titute, a country where institutions ofstate meant to serve public such as Rail-ways, PiA, OGDC, FBR etc are handedover to thugs, crooks or dual nationalsto be destroyed systematically.

ALI MALIK TARIQIllinois, USA

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to Editor,

Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey FatimaJinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302.

E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk.Letters should be addressed to Pakistan

Today exclusively.

Putin’s cancelled visit“Army fully supports any political process, as

long as it is within the constitution,” said Gen Kayanibefore leaving for Russia while referring to Balochis-tan. This statement is surprising and equally damag-ing for the elected government as it tantamount tointerfering in the politics of the country. COASshould have been careful at a time when the country'spolitical atmosphere is dangerously fragile. Heshould have talked about military cooperation andexchange of high level military delegations instead oftalking about constitution on which army's trackrecord is very poor.

Any visit by military head to any friendly coun-try provides opportunity to interact and create at-mosphere of goodwill and better understanding. Toexpect miracles with just one visit is asking toomuch. We must not forget that our relationshipstarted derailing when Liaqat Ali Khan preferred tovisit uSA instead of uSSR. it entered the worst erawhen on 01 May, 1960, a uS spy plane u2 flew fromBadaber (Peshawar) and was shot down by Rus-sians. But due credit must be given to the Russiansin forgetting the past and moving forward, of coursewith reservations.

President Putin has a favorable approach towardsPakistan and is on record to have offered expansionof Pakistan Steel and has also shown interest in de-veloping the Thar coal project. Putin had also con-demned attack on Salala checkpost as it interferedwith the sovereignty of an independent state.

it is not correct to suggest that it is a big shockto the Americans as President Musharraf andKayani have visited Russia in the past. The uS istoo busy in elections and has little time on suchminor developments. in any case, our relationsspread over a decade cannot be put right by GenKayani's visit as everyone is watching who formsthe next government.

Our media created hype before Putin's cancelledvisit and now undue hype is being created on GenKayani's visit. After 9/11, islamabad and Moscowcame closer when uS was given free hand to dealTaliban. Pakistan enjoys unique position in SouthAsia, whether it is uS or Russia, both have interestin South Asia and Pakistan is the gateway. There-fore, both countries have to have cordial relationswith Pakistan to gain access to CAS. Pakistan has to

be very careful in its policies as it is going to haveserious impact after the elections in uS and Pak-istan. Lastly, Pakistan army should avoid makingpolitical statements and to follow the constitutionshould be left to the parliamentarians and theSupreme Court. All institutions must work withinthe prescribed limits and four-walls of their man-dates. interference or public announcements/state-ments that affect the functioning/working of otherinstitutions should be avoided at all costs.

MUKHTAR AHEMDKarachi

no hydroelectric dam on the horizonin view of the World Bank declaring Bhasha dam

a risky investment we are catching on straws like adrowning man. Some talk of uSA donating $200million for the dam while others dream of Russiafooting the entire $13 billion bill for the dam. in the-background of Russian President cancelling his visitto Pakistan there does not appear any silver lining tothe clouds hanging over the dam. in view of the factthat even Tarbela dam was not filled to capacity dur-ing the summer his year due to reduced flow fromglaciers and snowmelt due to global warming, howdo we expect to fill up Bhasha dam in future whenthe glaciers are further reduced.

Meanwhile, there is no dam below Tarbela tostore rain water that is yearly ravaging Punjab, KP,Sindh and Balochistan. The PPP wizards ought toponder over the dire situation. Thar coal can be nosubstitute for a mega hydroelectric dam that couldnot only provide cheap renewable power but alsowater from rains predicted to be severe in the future.Only Kalabagh dam can fill the bill to mitigate ourwater and power woes. is WAPDA listening?

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

women educationEquipping the people with education is the first

step towards prosperity. Education is the mainblock of the overall societal structure as without itprosperity never gains momentum. Pakistan haspaid very little attention towards the female educa-tion and neglected this sector. Only two percent of

the budget is allocated for education. The developedworld has minimized the concept of gender inequal-ity in education. These healthy changes have laidvery positive results in their societies as women arealso playing an active role in the development ofthose countries.

Without providing quality education to our fe-males we cannot achieve our goals. Gender inequal-ity in any country has always transferred unwelcomeeffects to the next generations. When the disparity ineducation increases, the society suffers from differ-ent ends. Pakistan is blessed with a large number ofworkforce and it can be better utilized after givingthem quality education. Mostly the traditional normsand values become a major hurdle in a female educa-tion. With the increase in the rural urban migration,the urban population is providing better chances tofemales to get education. However, the rural womenin Pakistan are not able to equip themselves with ed-ucation. Many female schools were destroyed duringthe insurgency in Swat and adjacent areas. in Pak-istan one out of two girls are still illiterate. Recentfacts given by “Educational Task Force of Pakistan”in 2011 reflect that one in three rural women havenever attended the school. it is very important to layemphasis on female education, as educating femalesdelivers a towering return.

MUHAMMAD UZAIR NIAZIMianwali

when you want, you can do itThe cricket team in Sri Lanka and their win over

the Kangaroos has taught one lesson to their country-men back home that when you want to do something,you can do it. The defeat of mighty record holdersAustralians has proved that any or all obstacles can besmashed when there is a will. My thanks to our elevenbut i want our nation also to learn the lesson. Whilstwe dance and rejoice our victory in streets and homes,we ought to learn that they can all do it to eliminatemajor obstacles to set our country back on track. Ourfinal is not too far and the elections are coming. Let usplay in our final with the same spirit. Let names,caste, colour or wealth not come in our way and let uscast our votes to those who can deliver.

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

disfiguring Quaid's Pakistan

help flood affecteesit has been the third consecutive year in

which Pakistan is facing the flood catastro-phe. Since we are living in the 21st century icannot digest the idea that PMD failed topredict the upcoming floods. At one point oranother, the government must have re-ceived the warnings but why did it fail totake any preventive measures? Let’s forgetthis negligence of the authorities and moveto the next step which is the rehabilitationof the flood victims which was greatly takencare of by the general public in the last twoyears. But this year, millions of people arehomeless right now waiting for some help tocome. Do we as a nation have lost our senseof obligation to help those in need? Or havewe accustomed ourselves to the idea offloods thinking that as long as we are notthe affectees we should carry on with ourlives? is there any antidote of this apathy?

Zara AhmadLahore

Beauty industry and studentsSelf-confidence and physical appearance

are very much related with the use of suchproducts. There are many social and culturalstandards set in every society of the world forwomen and they are constantly striving toachieve those standards. These standardshave been set by our media. Magazines andtelevision portray unrealistic representationof people and have a negative effect on theself-confidence on young teenagers. Beautyindustry uses highly beautiful models in theiradvertisements and students start idealizingthem. Magazines, TV shows, billboards andadvertisements are responsible for manyproblems and incorrect concepts beingforced on and negatively affecting teenagerstoday. The inaccurate and negative conceptsbeing portrayed by these sources are givingyouth an incorrect impression and interpre-tation of the world and the people in it. Per-haps the largest opportunity for positivechange lies within the media industry itself.if enough people challenge the modern stan-dards of beauty by providing alternatives tothe single, rigid ideal, then those who work inthe mainstream media will be pressured tochange their behaviors and begin to portraymen and women more realistically.

AYESHA HAFEEZLahore

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12

Mani Ratnam, Aishwaryanot teaming up!

THErE are reports doing the rounds that

director mani ratnam is roping in aishwarya

rai Bachchan for an adaptation of Daphne Du

maurier’s famous 1938 novel rebecca. However,

these reports have been denied by sources close to

mani ratnam. When TOI contacted mani’s wife,

Suhasini, she denied the report that ash and mani

will be working together next. asked if the director

had roped in ash for rebecca, she said, “no, it’s

wrong.” Suhasini went on to add, “mani is currently

focussed on Kadal, which still has seven days of

shoot left. He will decide on his next only after this

film releases. It will take him eight more months

after that to write his next script. So, any news

about his future project that comes up in this time

period is false.” COuRTESy TOI

Amy Winehouse featuresin video with rapper Nas

AmY Winehouse appears from beyond the

grave in the video for rapper nas’ latest

single. The clip for Cherry Wine features

images of the tragic songbird performing live

projected onto a brick wall. nas, 39, plays a

bartender in the promo. The video ends with a black

and white still image of amy alongside the words ‘In

memory, amy Winehouse, (1983 - 2011)’. Cherry

Wine comes from nas’s tenth studio album Life Is

Good. amy - who died from alcohol intoxication in

July 2011, aged 27 - and nas recorded together back

in 2008 and another track Like Smoke has already

featured on amy’s posthumous album release

Lioness: Hidden Treasures. nEWS DESK

I deliver more profits thanany other actor: Emraan

emraan Hashmi might not be referred to as a

star yet but the actor couldn’t care less. “I

deliver more profits than any other actor,”

asserts Emraan and adds, “I have always wanted to

be a bankable actor and 90 per cent of the times it

does happen.” But the actor was pleasantly

surprised when his latest release raaz 3 entered

the 100 crores club. He says, “I knew that it would

open to large collections but I didn’t have a number

in mind. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised because

raaz 3 has a niche genre and it’s not easy to get to

the 100 crores club. adult and horror films have a

tough time doing business because of the fact that

they have lesser audience.” He says, “It depends

on how long you have been in the industry, actor

with at least 25 years of experience are generally

the ones who get to that club. I guess I have been

lucky, I have been in the industry for just nine

years and have achieved such a feat.” “I try not to

repeat the characters I play and give the audience

something fresh every time.” COuRTESy TOI

She’s Razia. She’s Laila. She’sJalebi Bai. Clearly, she’s thehottest ‘item’ on the block. AndMallika Sherawat promises to getnaughtier than ever before. Wepromise, it’s no KLPD! Read on... You’ve more item songs thanMunnis, Sheilas and Chamelis...Ha, ha, ha! Well, that’s a greatthing. And, if all the actresseswant to do item songs now, it’sfor the good of the industry. Myfavourite item song is MayyaMayya, and my favourite item girlis Malaika. i turned Munni forthe South remake of Dabangg,but she’s still way hotter than me.Your film’s quite bold, just likeyou... i still don’t know what thisKLPD term means, and no one’stelling me! it seems to be somemysterious word. But as far asthe film is concerned, it is for allthe lafangas of india. All thenaughty boys are going to have ablast watching it.Talking of bold, do you think youcould have pulled off a ‘dirtier’Silk than Vidya?i just can’t be that over-weight.i’m very health conscious, and iknow actors do things for roles,but i couldn’t have. That said, i

think it’s great that Vidya istaking centre-stage with women-oriented films. You’ve beengetting naughty with Vivek too.Like getting into the same T-shirt... Oh, Vivek’s a sweetheart. iget along pretty well with hiswife, too. i was embarrassed todo the ‘T-shirt stunt’ with him,where we had to get into thesame tee for the posters. i calledup his wife Priyanka and tookpermission.How’s Hollywood treating you?i’ve just done a video withAmerica’s youth icon BrunoMars, i play a Bond girl in it. it’ssort of a spoof. i’m also doing aseries with HBO. But i’m not all-

work; my life goes beyond films. ihave a life outside the industry. ilike to travel and chill. Yourpictures with Antonio Banderascreated quite a stir...Oh, did they? Chalo, somethinghas created a stir! i hope my filmdoes that too, now. Having beenthere, done that, tell us... isHollywood really looking atindian talent? Hollywood is notlooking for indian women.There’s no dearth of good-looking, talented women there.More so, women from all over theworld vie for a place there; that’swhat makes it more challenging.You’re competing for a spot withglobal contestants. CoURTeSy Toi

FoR a RoLe, I can’T Be as oveRWeIgHTas vIdYa: MaLLIKa sHeRaWaT

A series of events are to be heldtoday to mark the 50thanniversary of the James Bondfilms, the iconic spy saga thathelped define half-a-century ofcultural, political andtechnological upheaval. The suaveBritish agent, code name 007,appeared on the silver screen forthe first time in the 1962 classic“Dr. No”, introducing himself withthe immortal line “Bond... James

Bond” over a high-stakes game ofbaccarat. Bond has been played bysix different actors over the 22-series adventure, but has alwaysmaintained his obsession with fastcars, beautiful women, high-techgadgets and vodka Martinis —shaken, not stirred. Worldwideevents to celebrate Global BondDay include an online charityauction, a survey to discover thefavourite Bond film by country, a

film retrospective at New York’sMuseum of Modern Art and aMusic of Bond night in LosAngeles. The 23rd and latest film,“Skyfall”, has its worldwidepremiere in London on October 23with Daniel Craig playing Bond forthe third time. The “Skyfall” themetune, sung by British diva Adele,will be released at 00:07 Britishtime on Friday, although the trackwas leaked online on Tuesday. AFP

Bond fans set to mark 50 years of big-screen style

Hong Kong thrilleropens asia’s top film festival

A glittering line-up of top Asian cinemastars converged on the South Korean portcity of Busan on Thursday for the openingof the region’s premier international filmfestival. Along with Korean heartthrobsLee Byung-hun and Jun Ji-hyun, Chinesestars Tang Wei and Cecilia Cheung areattending the 10-day Busan internationalFilm Festival (BiFF).Launching the 17thedition of the festival will be the worldpremiere of Hong Kong thriller “Cold War”which stars screen veterans Aaron Kwokand Tony Leung Ka-fai. “it’s an honour tohave this film open BiFF, the first time aHong Kong film has done so,” said Kwok atthe event’s opening press conference. “Wehope it will remind the world that there area lot of talented filmmakers in Hong Kongand they are still making exciting films.” inthe tradition of Hong Kong thrillers suchas “infernal Affairs” (2002) — remade byHollywood into the Oscar-winning. AFP

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i like a role when itscares me: Arjun

Actor Arjun Rampal likes those charactersthat challenge his skills as an actor. “i like arole when initially it scares me, when thecharacter scares you that, whether i can do itor not. Every character i thought can be easilydone, went wrong,” the 39-year-old said hereWednesday at the music launch of hisforthcoming film ‘Chakravyuh’ at a radiostation. “But Prakash (Jha) has always givenme characters which allow you to pushyourself and go beyond,” added Rampal.Meanwhile, Arjun also revealed that‘Chakravyuh’ director Prakash Jha has alsoacted in a scene of the film. “That was themost historical moment actually because he(Jha) kept the juiciest dialogues and the bestset for himself, for his scenes... But it cameout as a wonderful scene and i hope it`s inthe film,” said Arjun. Talking about his stintas an actor, Jha said, “There were some juniorartists like Arjun Rampal because of whom ihave not been able to keep that scene in thefilm. ‘Chakravyuh’ also stars Abhay Deol,Esha Gupta and Manoj Bajpayee and hitstheatres Dusshera, Oct 24. newS deSk

rihanna to perform atVictoria`s Secret showR&B star Rihanna is set to perform at theVictoria`s Secret fashion show in the uS onDecember 4. The 24-year-old `We Found Love`hitmaker is expected to perform two songs, one ofwhich will be her new single `Diamonds` at theevent, reported People magazine. She will bejoined on stage by Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars.Previous musical guests to have performedalongside the models include the Spice Girls, KatyPerry and Justin Timberlake, while last year`sNicki Minaj, Kanye West, Adam Levine and Jay-Zall performed, with Beyonce Knowles looking onfrom the front row. newS deSk

South Korean rapper Psy will gave afree concert in Seoul, capping astunning month in which his hit“Gangnam Style” has stormed globalcharts and made the chubby 34-year-old a national hero. Around 50,000fans turn out for the show in front ofthe capital’s City Hall that streamedlive to an international audience viaYouTube — the forum that launchedhim to stardom in the first place. Thevideo to “Gangnam Style”, featuringPsy’s much-imitated horse-riding

dance, went viral after its July releaseon the Google-owned video sharingsite, where it has now notched upmore than 350 million views. Almostovernight, Psy was transformed intoSouth Korea’s best-known culturalexport, succeeding where themanufactured girl and boy bands ofthe homegrown “K-pop”phenomenon have failed bybreaking into the uS market.Despite being sung almost entirelyin Korean, the song is currently top

of the British charts and numbertwo on the uS Billboard’s Hot 100chart. During a hugely successfuluS promotional tour last month,Psy made a guest appearance at theMTV awards in Los Angeles, taughthis signature dance to BritneySpears, and was given a cameo roleon NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” Hishorse-riding moves have beenimitated, parodied and referencedin pretty much every conceivablecontext. AFP

Ashton Kutcherplanning christmasproposal to mila KunisAshton Kutcher is reportedly planning topropose to his girlfriend of just a fewmonths Mila Kunis over Christmas, asthose close to the couple claiming they`ve“never been happier”. The Hollywoodstars, who have been friends for over adecade after starring in That ‘70s Showtogether, have been dating for the last fewmonths. Kutcher apparently feels ready tosettle down again, even though hisdivorce from wife Demi Moore is yet to befinalized. “Ashton and Mila are talkingmarriage. He’s planning to propose atChristmas. They’re moving fast butneither of them has ever been so happy,”News.com.au quoted an insider as tellingHeat magazine. “Ashton wants kids andmisses the security of being married,” theinsider added. “Ashton wants a new lifewith Mila. They know they’ve not beendating long, but as they’ve been friendsfor over a decade they feel like the timingis right,” the source added. newS deSk

Kate begs Princewilliam forforgivenessKate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridgeis said to have apologised repeatedly to herhusband Prince William after she wasexposed in a new series of bottomlesspictures. The humiliated future queen can’tstop apologising to the Duke of Cambridge,as she thinks that she has almost ruined herreputation and embarrassed her husbandand the Royal family over the picturespublished lately, which completely exposedher. “Kate is mortified. Since she andWilliam met, she’s constantly been onguard against embarrassment. When theyused to go away with William’s friends,Kate would lecture everyone on what not todo in case there were photographers,”Contactmusic quoted a source as tellingOK! Magazine. it is the Celebrity gossipmagazine, Se Og Hor which reportedlyprinted a 16-page special of candid shots ofher on holiday in the south of France withher husband. CoURTeSy HT

Amanda Bynes “obsessively hates”Lindsay Lohan and often rants abouther fellow former child star, accordingto reports. “She obsessively hatesLindsay,” usMagazine quoted afriend of Bynes as saying. “Sherambles about ‘that bitch Lindsay’ allthe time.” Bynes, who made a namefor herself as a child star onNickelodeon’s sketch comedy show,All That, is currently facing a Duicharge from an April arrest, two hit-

and-run charges, as well as a chargefor driving on a suspended license(police impounded her BMW in mid-September). However Lohan, 26,took to her Twitter page to complainabout, in her opinion, the lack ofpunishment received by Bynes. Shewrote: “Why did i get put in jail and anickelodeon star has had NOpunishment(s) so far?” A rep forLohan insists, “There is no feud”between the two actors. CoURTeSy Toi

matt reeves todirect ‘rise Ofthe Apes’ sequel

Director Matt Reeves will reportedlydirect the sequel to 2011 sci-fi filmRise Of The Planet Of The Apes.Reeves, 46, who has directed movieslike Cloverfield, and Let Me in willhelm the sequel titled as “Dawn of thePlanet of the Apes,” There was a longdiscussion and meeting with severaldirectors Reeves was finalised for themovie, reports contactmusic.com. Themovie was a story about a virusinjected in chimpanzees for testing,but which eventually gave themintelligence at par with humans.“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” isslated to release in 2014. CoURTeSy HT

Psy brings ‘GangnamStyle’ home with free show

Amanda Bynes ‘obsessively hates’ LiLo

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14Infotainment

Friday, 5 October, 2012

Blue and green honey makesFrench beekeepers see red

BEES at a cluster of apiaries in northeasternFrance have been producing honey in mys-terious shades of blue and green, alarming

their keepers who now believe residue from contain-ers of M&M's candy processed at a nearby biogasplant is the cause. Since August, beekeepers aroundthe town of Ribeauville in the region of Alsace haveseen bees returning to their hives carrying unidenti-fied colorful substances that have turned their honeyunnatural shades. Mystified, the beekeepers em-barked on an investigation and discovered that abiogas plant 4 km (2.5 miles) away has been process-ing waste from a Mars plant producing M&M's, bite-sized candies in bright red, blue, green, yellow andbrown shells. Asked about the issue, Mars had noimmediate comment. AGEnCIES

Fox tries to eat hand of sleeping pensioner

Apensioner awoke from sunbathing to find afox was gnawing at his hand. in a letter inCountry Life magazine Carey Tesler told

how her 83-year-old father-in-law had asleep in achair in the back garden when he woke by a “searingpaid” to see a “mangy-looking fox eating his hand”.When the father-in-law’s neighbour was also trou-bled by the fox, the neighbour telephoned his localcouncil and asked them to come and get rid of theanimal. But he was left baffled to be asked if he stillhad the fox with him. When the neighbour said no,the council officer replied: “Well next time you seethis fox, throw a blanket over him, carry him intoyour car and drive him to your nearest RSPCA.” it isnot clear which council Ms Tesler is referring to,however she lives in London. An RSPCA spokesper-son said that is has no arrangements with councils totake in foxes that are irritating residents. He advisedhomeowners not to follow the council officer’s ad-vice. COuRTESy THE TELEGRAPH

Man squirts soap In girlfriend's Mouth

JOHN Caruso had a problem with the way hisgirlfriend swore like a sailor. Problem is, hisalleged solution -- squirting dish soap in her

mouth -- may end up staining him with a domesticbattery charge. Stephanie Madewell, 21, called po-lice in Hudson, Fla., after Caruso, her on-again,off-again boyfriend of five years, put the detergentin her mouth while she sat on the love seat in theirhome, WTSP-TV reported. Besides leaving behinda soapy taste, Madewell reportedly suffered a smallcut on her lip caused when Caruson allegedlyshoved the soap bottle into her jaws. A deputyalso reported there was "dried up dish soap on herright cheek/chin and down her neck into her braand shirt," according to documents obtained bythe Smoking Gun. Caruso, 26, didn't soft soap theallegation. He told one officer that his parentsused to wash his mouth out with soap, and addedthat he "will still put soap in his mouth now out ofrespect for his parents," the New York Daily Newsreported. COuRTESy THE HuFFPOST

Before and after photos of Fifi Bottomley, a black and white cat from

Bradford, who has been highly commended by PDSA Pet Fit Club, after she

lost 22% of her body weight. TelegRAPH

A humpback whale dives in the Antarctic Peninsula while whale watchers on a Zodiac

boat cruise watch and take pictures. These tourists got more than they bargained

for, as a humpback whale's tail crashed out of the water metres from their boat.

A200-year period covering theheyday of both the Roman Em-pire and China's Han dynastysaw a big rise in greenhousegases, according to a study thatchallenges the u.N. view that

man-made climate change only began around1800. A record of the atmosphere trapped inGreenland's ice found the level of heat-trappingmethane rose about 2,000 years ago and stayed atthat higher level for about two centuries.

Methane was probably released during defor-estation to clear land for farming and from the useof charcoal as fuel, for instance to smelt metal tomake weapons, lead author Celia Sapart ofutrecht university in the Netherlands toldReuters."Per capita they were already emittingquite a lot in the Roman Empire and Han Dy-nasty," she said of the findings by an internationalteam of scientists in Thursday's edition of thejournal Nature. Rates of deforestation "show a de-crease around AD 200, which is related to drasticpopulation declines in China and Europe follow-ing the fall of the Han Dynasty and the decline ofthe Roman Empire," the scientists wrote.

Mankind's emissions 2,000 years ago, whenthe world population was an estimated 300 mil-lion, were discernible but tiny compared with cur-rent levels caused by a population of 7 billion.Sapart estimated that methane emissions until1800 were about 10 percent of the total for thepast 2,000 years, with 90 percent since the indus-trial Revolution.

Methane is generated from human sources in-cluding burning of forests and fossil fuels, ricepaddies, livestock or landfills. Natural sources in-clude wetlands, wildfires or mud volcanoes. Thefindings by Sapart's team questioned the view bya u.N. panel of climate scientists that man-madeclimate change started with the surge in use of fos-sil fuels during the industrial Revolution.

RIce PADDIeS

"The pre-industrial time was not a naturaltime for the climate - it was already influenced

by human activity," she said. "When we do fu-ture climate predictions we have to think aboutwhat is natural and what did we add. We haveto define what is really natural," she said. Thescientists, in the Netherlands, Switzerland,Denmark, the united States and France, noteda second rise in methane in Medieval times, co-inciding with a warm period from 800 to 1200that also saw Europe's economy emerge fromthe Dark Ages. That spike might be becausepopulation growth in Asia and Europe led tomore deforestation for farming. Rates then fell,perhaps partly because factors such as the BlackDeath cut the population. Methane levels rose athird time around the start of a cool periodknown as the Little ice Age in the 1500s, per-haps also reflecting strong population growthafter the plague.

The scientists used variations in the chemicalmake-up of methane in the ice to try to distinguishbackground natural sources from man-madeemissions.

ice cores from Greenland - made up of layersof compacted snow that give a year-by-year record- found concentrations of methane rose fromabout 600 parts per billion around 2,000 yearsago to above 700 ppb by 1800.They are now atabout 1,800 ppb. Methane is the second most im-portant greenhouse gas behind carbon dioxide,emitted by human burning of fossil fuels. A u.N.panel of climate scientists has said the build-up ofgreenhouse gases is pushing up temperatures andcausing more droughts, floods, and rising sea lev-els. China is now the biggest greenhouse-gas emit-ter ahead of the united States, the Europeanunion, india and Russia. AGEnCIES

Romans, Han Dynasty weregreenhouse gas emitters: study

You use your mouse for just abouteverything: you drag, you drop, youhighlight, you scroll. But even if youclick your mouse a thousand times aday, i bet i've got a few secret mousetricks you've never heard of.

cLIck tRIckS

You surely know that doubleclicking highlights a word, and youmight even know that triple clickinghighlights a paragraph. But have youever wanted to select a column of text

in a Word document, without gettingall the text to the left and right of it?Here's how you can: Hold down thealt and left mouse button (on a Mac,option-left mouse), and drag the cur-sor over the section you want to se-lect. The coolest thing about this trickis that the text you are selecting doesnot even need to be formatted as acolumn for this to work.

ScRoLL tRIckS

Most mice have a scroll wheel.Sure, it takes you up and down on apage, but in combination with otherkeys, it can do much more:

• Scroll sideways: in manyversions of Excel, holding down theshift key while scrolling will take yousideways. That's super helpful in a bigspreadsheet.

• Scroll wheel as back button:in most web browsers, if you hold theshift key while using the scroll wheel,

it works like the back button: You canfly through all the sites you've recentlyvisited. (Some mice have side buttonsthat work like back and forward but-tons in your browser, too.)

• Scroll to zoom: Holding ctrland scrolling lets you zoom in or out ofthe page you're viewing. Ctrl-scroll upzooms you in; ctrl-scroll down zoomsyou back out. On a Mac, this trick willzoom in and out your whole screen,not just the document you're in.

WInDoWS-SPecIfIc tRIckS

While most of the tricks i've listedso far work in either Windows or MacOS, here are a few that are specific toWindows machines:

• To maximize a window:drag the title bar to the top.

• To minimize all windowsexcept the active window: "Shake" thetitle bar. Then if you want to restoreall the windows you just minimized

with this shortcut, just click again onthe title bar of the window in view.

• To view two windows in a50-50 split: Drag the title bar of onedocument to the left edge of yourscreen, then drag a second documentto the right edge; they will snap intoposition in a nifty side-by-side view.

BonuS SneAky tRIck

Suppose you want to walk awayfrom your hyper-secure work com-puter for a few minutes and not haveto re-log in when you get back. Sure,you could change the sleep settings,but this idea is much more clever: Setyour mouse on top of your analogwatch or a clock. The mouse tracksthe second hand's movement and ittricks your computer into thinkingyou're still busy working. Of course,there are valid security reasons forNOT using this trick, but i still thinkit's cool that it works. nEWS DESK

Hidden PoweRS oF yoUR MoUSe

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Li joins Azarenka and Sharapovain Beijing but Gasquet out

COLOMBOAFP

AuSTRALiA hope to removebig-hitter Chris Gayle early toput the West indies underpressure during the second

semi-final of the World Twenty20 inColombo on Friday. The belligerent left-hander holds the key to his team's bat-ting success and Australian captainGeorge Bailey said it was important notto let Gayle settle down at the crease.

"Their (West indies) batting is nodoubt their strength," Bailey said afterhis team's training session on Thursday."if you can knock Gayle over early it re-ally does put pressure on the rest of theirbatsmen to step up."

Gayle hit 54 to help West indies to191-8 against Australia in the prelimi-nary league, before Shane Watsonscored a 21-ball 41 to steer his teamhome via the Duckworth-Lewis methodin the rain-affected match.

Gayle also smashed 58 during a103-run opening stand with JohnsonCharles to set up a 15-run win over de-fending champions England in theSuper Eights in Pallekele. But when theopener fell for two against Sri Lanka,

the West indies crumbled for a paltry129 to lose by nine wickets. Bailey,smarting against the unexpected 32-run defeat by Pakistan on Tuesday,wanted an aggressive attitude by histeam against the West indies bowlers -- even if it costs Australia a place in thefinal. "i'd rather see us throw caution to

the wind. if we get knocked over, we getknocked over," Bailey said and hintedthat David Hussey could be back for thesemi-final in place of Glenn Maxwell. "isaw (coach) Mickey Arthur hadweighed up those two players and that'sprobably the only one to be weighed up.But the structure doesn't change in

terms of a like-for-like," the captainsaid. Australia's four wins in fivematches so far in the tournament havebeen made easier by a sensational all-round display by Shane Watson, whohas scored 242 runs and taken 11 wick-ets. The West indies, in contrast, havejust two wins from five matches andneed to lift their game if they are to stopAustralia from making their secondsuccessive World Twenty20 final.

Skipper Darren Sammy insisted histeam's success did not hinge on Gaylealone. "it's not only about Chris," saidSammy. "Obviously he sets the momen-tum for us at the top of the order. But towin the game, it will need a total teameffort. "in any cricket match, you get oneindividual doing something brilliant.But it will take a collective effort to winthe semi-final."

Sammy predicted a close game withthe result depending on who wins thekey moments in the game. "it could be aspectacular catch somewhere, or guysout in the middle making the right deci-sion at a crucial time," he said. "i thinkthe team that wins at the end of the dayis the team that will make less mistakes."But it's two evenly matched teams andit promises to be an exciting game."

Aussies to target Gaylein World T20 semi-final

cOLOmBO: west indies cricketer chris Gayle warms up during an icc twenty20 cricket worldcup practise session ahead of their semi-final match against Australia in colombo yesterday. AFP

NEWSDESK

Members of the Australian women’ssquad took time out from their prepa-rations for Friday’s iCC Women’sWorld Twenty20 semi-final againstWest indies to spend time in aColombo school.

According to iCC official website,players visited the Ceylon School forthe Deaf and Blind in an event jointlyorganised with the Australian HighCommission in Colombo.

Captain Jodie Fields, Alex Black-well, Lauren Ebsary, Jess Cameron,Nicola Carey, Ellyse Perry, JessJonassen, Alyssa Healy and JulieHunter spent Wednesday (October 3)afternoon conducting a coachingclinic for the children as well as play-

ing a friendly match. Around 300 chil-dren attended the event in what theAustralian players saw as a welcomediversion ahead of their last four en-counter at the R. Premadasa Stadium.Australia skipper Jodie Fields said:“Cricket is such a huge part of life herein Sri Lanka and to be able to sharesome of our skills and stories withthese kids is just fantastic.

“We had a go at batting withoutbeing able to see and there is a defi-nite skill to it, a few of the girls wereclean bowled by some of the kids outthere, it was very impressive.

“This school is a great example ofthe fact that cricket shows no bound-aries and anyone can get out and playand enjoy the game we all love,”Fields concluded. Australian High

Commissioner, HE Ms Robyn Mudie,added: “Among the many links Aus-tralia and Sri Lanka share, cricket isone of the highlights. Australiastrongly supports the involvement ofwomen and girls in sport as a way ofpromoting equality and empower-ment. So it’s great to see our teamget together with another inspiringgroup – the children from the Schoolfor the Deaf and Blind.”

The Ceylon School for the Deafand Blind provides education, voca-tional training, food and lodging,healthcare, and recreational facilitiesfor around700 children. A registeredcharity, it provides these servicesfree of charge. Established 100 yearsago, it was the first school of its kindin Sri Lanka

COLOMBOAFP

Sri Lankan cricket authorities havecomplained to organizers aboutcheerleaders at the WorldTwenty20 tournament after mediacriticism describing them as a "dis-graceful eyesore".

Nishantha Ranatunga, secretaryof Sri Lanka Cricket, told AFP thatfans had also provided "negativefeedback" after lacklustre displaysby the local performers, who leadcelebrations when wickets are takenand boundaries scored.

"The impression created bythese cheerleaders is not accept-able," Ranatunga said Thursday."We complained to the iCC (inter-national Cricket Council) that thisis harming the image of Sri Lanka.

"We had a lot of negative feed-back which we passed on to the iCCas we had nothing to do with select-

ing the dance troupes."The dancers, who are dressed in

blue leggings, striped skirts and T-shirts bearing advertising slogans,have been attacked in the SriLankan media for their amateurdancing and un-coordinated rou-tines. "The sorry performance of theso-called cheerleaders is not only adisgraceful eyesore, but has show-cased Sri Lanka in a poor light tothe entire world," the Daily Mirrorsaid.

The manager of the cheerlead-ers, Sudev Abeysekara, was quotedin india's Hindustan Times on Sat-urday as saying that more attractivedancers were not available due tolow wages.

"in an event like this you needgood looking girls, and to get thebeautiful girls who are professionaldancers, you have to pay more," hesaid. "The payment is not thatgreat."

He added that "the girls are notcomfortable, the tights they arewearing slip down while dancingand the girls are busy tying themhere and there."

Abeysekara, who was not avail-able to comment to AFP, also saidthat the dancers declined to wearshorts as they "are conscious thatparents are watching".

Event organizers said the con-tract for providing cheerleaders hadbeen awarded to a foreign companywhich sub-contracted the work to aSri Lankan firm.

Cheerleaders were popularizedin cricket with the arrival of thehigh-energy Twenty20 format, andthey have become a popular part ofthe annual indian Premier League(iPL).

The first Twenty20 semi-finalwill be held on Thursday betweenSri Lanka and Pakistan, with thefinal on Sunday.

radford urgesteam to stay calm

NEWSDESK

West indies assistant coach Toby Radfordhas called on the team to maintain their abil-ity to remain cool under pressure when theyface Australia in the second iCC WorldTwenty20 2012 semi-final on Friday (Octo-ber 5). According to iCC official website,Radford suggested the team should be able todraw strength from their Super Over victoryagainst New Zealand in their final SuperEights match when they go into their crunchmatch at the R. Premadasa Stadium. “it wasgreat that we had Gayle and Samuels in forthe ‘Super Over’ against New Zealand,” Rad-ford said. “When people talk about pressure,these guys don’t really look like they feel thepressure. They are remarkably calm and coolunder pressure. You can’t get much coolerthan Marlon and Chris, so having them at thecrease was ideal for us in that situation. “Wealso saw Dwayne Smith with a brilliant runout off the last ball of the match – again stay-ing calm under pressure. They, along with thecaptain [Darren Sammy] and a few other ex-perienced players, bring a calming influenceon the team. “What we’re hoping for on Fri-day is that two sides of our game come to-gether. in some of the matches so far we havebeen able to get big scores – like you sawagainst Australia in the first round andagainst England in the Super Eights; andbowled well – like we did against ireland inthe first round and against New Zealand torestrict them and force a tie in the SuperEights.” West indies lost to Australia earlierin the tournament, in a rain-affected match,but Radford prefers to draw on a previousmeeting for inspiration. “We are confidentwe can deliver against Australia. Earlier inthe year we beat them in a Twenty20 matchin Barbados (by 14 runs on 30 March) and wefelt we could have beaten them earlier in thetournament when the rains came – they wereahead (on Duckworth/Lewis Method) whenthe rain came and ended the match, but theystill needed 90 runs in 10 overs and we feltwe could bowl well enough to rebound andwin. “We like to play against them. We had agood series against them in the Caribbean inthe T20s and the ODis. We know they’re agood side, but no one in our team fears them.We know that once we play to our potentialwe have every chance of beating them andadvancing to the finals,” he concluded.

england crushKiwis to enterwomen’s t20 final

COLOMBOAFP

Former champions England eased intothe women's World Twenty20 final with aseven-wicket win over out-classed NewZealand at the Premadasa stadium inColombo on Thursday. in a one-sidedsemi-final played in front of near-emptystands, New Zealand were restricted to93-8 after being sent in to bat and Eng-land surpassed the modest target with 16deliveries to spare. Skipper Charlotte Ed-wards led the charge for the 2009 cham-pions with 33 off 37 balls, while SarahTaylor remained unbeaten on 21 whichincluded the only six of the match. NewZealand opener Amy Satterthwaite top-scored with 30, but none of the other bat-ters managed 20 against the steady spinbowling by the English women.Off-spinner Danielle Wyatt grabbed 2-15 inthree overs and left-arm spinner HollyColvin had the same figures in four overs.England await the winner of Friday's sec-ond semi-final between defending champi-ons Australia and the West indies in thefinal on Sunday. "This has been our bestperformance with the ball so far," Edwardssaid. "it's turned a lot more here than inGalle where we played our league games."it was tough but i'm really pleased we gotover the line. it was a good all-round effort."New Zealand captain Suzie Bates, whosedismissal in the first over triggered the col-lapse, admitted her team was outplayed."England are the number one side and weknew we had to play well," she said. "Wecame up a few runs short but i am proud ofthe way we tried to defend a small total."BRIef ScoReS: New Zealand 93-8 in20 overs (Amy Satterthwaite 30, DanielleWyatt 2-15, Holly Colvin 2-15). England94-3 in 17.2 overs (Charlotte Edwards 33,Sarah Taylor 21 not out). Player of thematch: Charlotte Edwards (ENG).

Sri lankan cheerleaders branded an ‘eyesore’

cOLOmBO: cheerleaders perform during the 1st cricketsemi-final match between england and new Zealandwomen's world t20. AFP

Australia women go back toschool ahead of big match

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Friday, 5 October, 2012

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

Several of the sporting eventsof the District Level of thePunjab Youth Festival 2012are near completion whileevents like badminton,karate, arm wrestling, tug ofwar volleyball and bodybuild-ing concluded on Thursday.

The Sports Board Punjab isdirectly conducting the sportsevents of the festival while incollaboration with Higher Edu-cation Commission, Livestockand Dairy Development, SocialWelfare, Population Welfareand School departments. Atotal of 10,512 players, whowere the top performers of theprevious levels, showed theirskills in this fourth level of thefestival and 2586 won their re-spective matches to stake theirclaim for selection for theteams that will figure in thefifth level that is the DivisionalPhase of the festival. in Lahorecompetitions of badminton,arm wrestling, cricket, volley-ball, tug of war, billiard, tabletennis, hockey, athletics karate,chess and basketball were heldand around 608 were involved

in these events and 228 wontheir encounters. Similarly inother areas of the Lahore divi-sion like Sheikhupura 440 werethe participants and 154 win-ners, at Kasur hockey and foot-ball matches were played by 96players and 32 won their gamesand at Nankana Sahib 166 tookpart in five sport and 83 werethe lucky persons.

The inter-collegiateWeightlifting competitionswere organized by islamia Col-lege Railway Road Lahore andon the one-day event that con-cluded at the Punjab universityGround near Chaburji Lahoremore than 30 weightliftersfrom five colleges took part.Punjab College of CommerceMuslim Town Lahore teamwon by securing 45 pointswhereas Punjab College ofCommerce City Campus La-hore were runners up by man-aging 20 points followed byGovt. islamia College RailwayRoad Lahore with 12 points. is-lamia College Railway RoadLahore, Principal, ProfessorAmjad Ali Shakir was the hon-orable Guest of the occasionand distributed the prizes to thewinners. in Taekwondo 55 kgs,

Adil Mushtaq of iqbal Townwas declared winner, in 65 kgs,Asif Ali of iqbal Town was thewinner while in 75 kgs, ShahanAli of iqbal Town bagged firstposition to win the title. in Vol-leyball, Data Ganj Bux beatNishtar Town 2-0. The scorewas 25-8, 25-7. Wahga Towndefeated Shalimar Town 2-1.The score was 25-13, 25-14, 25-15. in the final, Wahga Townhit Data Ganj Bax 2-1 with thescore 25-23, 25-21 and 25-20.in the cricket Hardball, Saman-abad defeated Gulberg by sixwickets. Aziz Bhatti Townmoved past Shalimar Town by27 runs, Ravi Town bangediqbal Town by 19 runs and DataGanj Bax Town defeated NishtarTown by 51 runs. in gymnastic,Punjab College won the titlewhile Govt College for Womenwas placed second and Govt is-lamia College Railway Road wasthird from among 10 colleges.in the healthy baby competi-tions which was held betweenMohammad Ali Safdar of Canttand Fatima Khan also of Canttand Safdar was declared thewinner. Advisor to CM NaseemBanu was the chief guest andgave the prizes to the winners.

district level nears completion

COLOMBOAFP

VETERAN spinner RanganaHerath grabbed 3-25 to lifthosts Sri Lanka into the WorldTwenty20 final with a 16-run

victory over Pakistan in Colombo onThursday. Sri Lanka, restricted to 139-4after electing to bat, hit back to keep Pak-istan down to 123-7 in a thrilling semi-finalbefore 35,000 screaming fans at the Pre-madasa stadium. Herath, the 34-year-oldleft-arm spinner playing only his sixth T20international, was supported by two wick-ets each from seamer Angelo Mathews andunorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis. itwas Sri Lanka's second appearance in theWorld Twenty20 final, having lost to Pak-istan in the 2009 title clash at Lord's.

it was also the first time in four editionsof the tournament that began in 2007 thata host country had made it past the semi-final round. Rival captains MahelaJayawardene and Mohammad Hafeez top-scored for their teams with 42 each, but theother batsmen struggled to force the paceon a sluggish pitch that hampered stroke-making. Sri Lanka wasted a sound start to

plod to 123-4 in 19 overs, before ThisaraPerera smashed three boundaries in thefinal over of seamer umar Gul, which re-alised 16 runs. Pakistan's openers Hafeezand imran Nazir began the reply on a con-fident note, putting on 31 for the first wicket

in six overs. Mendis, brought on to senddown the sixth over, broke the stand withthe last delivery by bowling Nazir for 20.Pakistan moved to 55-1 in the ninth overwhen Mathews grabbed two wickets in fourballs to swing the match Sri Lanka's way.

Herath spins SL into World T20 final

cOLOmBO: Sri Lankan cricketers celebrate after their victory in the icc twenty20 cricketworld cup's semi-final match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the r. Premadasainternational cricket Stadium on thursday. AFP

Sri Lankam. jayawardene c Hasan b Afridi 42T. Dilshan lbw b Gul 35K. Sangakkara c malik b Hafeez 18j. mendis st Kamran b Ajmal 15T. Perera not out 11A. mathews not out 10Extras: (b3, nb1, w4) 8Total: (for four wickets, 20 overs) 139Fall of wickets: 1-63 (jayawardene), 2-84 (Sangakkara), 3-117(Dilshan), 4-118 (j. mendis).Bowling: Tanveer 3-0-11-0 (w1), Hasan 4-0-26-0, Ajmal 4-0-33-1 (w1), Afridi 4-0-28-1, Hafeez 2-0-12-1 (w1), Gul 3-0-26-1(nb1, w1)Pakistanmohammad Hafeez st Sangakkara b Herath 42Imran nazeer b A. mendis 20nasir jamshed lbw b mathews 4Kamran Akmal c jayawardene b mathews 1Shoaib malik b Herath 6umar Akmal not out 29Shahid Afridi b Herath 0Sohail Tanveer st Sangakkara b A. mendis 8umar Gul not out 2Extras: (lb2, w9) 11Total: (for seven wickets, 20 overs) 123Fall of wickets: 1-31 (nazir), 2-55 (jamshed), 3-57 (Kamran),4-64 (malik), 5-91 (Hafeez), 6-91 (Afridi), 7-113 (Tanveer).Bowling: mathews 4-0-27-2, Kulasekara 3-0-15-0 (w2),malinga 4-0-19-0 (w7), A. mendis 4-0-27-2, Perera 1-0-8-0,Herath 4-0-25-3.Result: Sri Lanak won by 16 runsman of the match: m. jayawardeneToss: Sri Lankaumpires: Simon Taufel (AuS) and Rod Tucker (AuS)TV umpire: Ian Gould (EnG)match referee: jeff Crowe (nZL)

SCOREBOARD

Footballers chargedover betting

LONDONAFP

Three footballers are among a group who havebeen charged by the British Horseracing Au-thority (BHA) following an investigation intosuspicious betting activity. ipswich's MichaelChopra, Nottingham Forest loanee James Cop-pinger, ex-Manchester united player MarkWilson and six others are accused of "seriousbreaches of the rules of racing". Jockey AndrewHeffernan has also been charged by the BHA,with several of those charged accused of offer-ing bribes to Heffernan, a former British li-censed jockey now riding in Australia. PaulScotney, the BHA's integrity, compliance andlicensing director, said: "The charges BHA hasissued are the result of a long and complicatedinvestigation. This process has taken signifi-cant time and resources. "However, investiga-tions such as these are very similar to fraudinvestigations and as such are complex andtime consuming. "Furthermore, we encoun-tered difficulties in obtaining telephone recordsfrom certain individuals who refused to coop-erate. This resulted in us having to make anumber of applications to the High Court fororders against their mobile telephone serviceproviders for disclosure of the relevant records.

Sports

PUnjAB yoUTH FESTIvAL 2012

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Friday, 5 October, 2012

CHInA OPEn RESuLTS

WoMen'S SIngLeS3RD RounDMaria Sharapova (RuS x2) bt PolonaHercog (SLO) 6-0, 6-2Victoria Azarenka (BLR x1) bt ElenaVesnina (RuS) 6-3, 6-3Angelique Kerber (GER x5) bt CarolineWozniacki (DEN x10) 6-1, 2-6, 6-4Li Na (CHN x7) bt Peng Shuai (CHN) 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3)Men'S SIngLeS2nD RounDMikhail Youzhny (RuS) bt Kevin Ander-son (RSA) 6-3, 6-3Zhang Ze (CHN) bt Richard Gasquet(FRA x5) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4Feliciano Lopez (ESP) bt Lu Yen-hsun(TPE) 6-3, 7-6 (9/7)Sam Querrey (uSA) bt Andreas Seppi(iTA) 6-1, 6-4

jAPAn OPEn - DAy 4 RESuLTS

SIngLeS 2nD RDJanko Tipsarevic (SRB x3) bt MarcoChiudinelli (Sui) 6-4, 6-2Tomas Berdych (CZE x2) bt AlejandroFalla (COL) 6-3, 7-5Milos Raonic (CAN x6) bt Viktor Troicki(SRB) 3-0 ret'dMarcos Baghdatis (CYP) bt JuanMonaco (ARG x4) 7-5, 1-6, 6-3Kei Nishikori (JPN x8) bt Tommy Ro-bredo (ESP) 5-7, 6-1, 6-0Dmitry Tursunov (RuS) bt Tatsuma ito(JPN) 7-5, 6-3

Big screens atPunjab Stadium

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

The Sports Board Punjab installed bigscreens to show the Pakistan and SriLanka semi-final match of the World T20received overwhelming public responsewith more than 100,000 people gatheredat the at the Punjab Stadium to enjoy thePakistan cricket progress ball by ball.The SBP on the platform of Punjab YouthFestival provided Lahorites an opportunityto go wild by every moment of the match.it was not only the youth but families, chil-dren and even old were present in the sta-dium to witness the match. The SBPinstalled nine screens to shown the matchand there was high security to keep thecrowd in control. Apart from police, therewere volunteers of the PYF who managedthe arena and kept everything under con-trol and calmed the crowd on the fall ofevery wicket and hitting of the boundary.SBP and Youth Affairs, Director General,usman Anwar provided the platform to thepeople of Lahore to entertain with everymoment of the match and remained vigilantat the venue throughout match. Speaking onthe occasion, usman Anwar said that it wasthe aim of the Punjab government to fulfilltheir dream by participating in the PunjabYouth Festival and showing the Pakistanmatch on the big screen was part of the planto bring the youngsters on one direction andthat was to think as a Pakistani and dareand build the future of their dreams. Thestadium gave a look of Pramadasa StadiumColombo as the match it was the PunjabStadium where all the activity was beingheld. There was no one in the stadium whodid not cheer on every ball and boundarydeveloped by the Pakistani batsmen.

LONDONAFP

England manager Roy Hodgson has pub-licly apologised to Manchester united de-fender Rio Ferdinand after a privateconversation about the demise of the de-fender's international career was publishedin an an English national newspaper.

Hodgson is alleged to have told fellowpassengers on a London Tube train enroute to the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal'sChampions League game in midweek thathe would not select Ferdinand again. Andhis words soon made it onto the back pages.

Hodgson did leave Ferdinand out of hissquad, announced on Thursday, for WorldCup qualifiers against San Marino andPoland, but admits he owes an apology tothe experienced centre-back, who has won81 caps for England. "i have tried to speak

to Rio and i am very disappointed that thestory has come out like that and i apologizeto him because there is no way i would everindicate i wasn't going to use a player inthat way," Hodgson said.

"i didn't choose him in the squad thistime and it is for the same reasons as be-fore, we have other players. But certainly iam not suggesting it is the end of the line.

"i would never dream of telling a playerit's the end of the line or the end of the roador whatever i am supposed to have said.That is up to every player to decide for him-self." Hodgson has yet to speak to Ferdi-nand despite several attempts to contacthim; but he was anxious to explain the sit-uation, adding: "All i remember was that iwas talking to quite a lot of people on theTube and one guy said 'is Rio in the nextsquad?' and i think i might have said 'idon't think so'. "i think that is about as far

as i went. But i shouldn't say that of course.it's a mistake and i need to apologise forthat. "This is one of the hazards i supposeof travelling on Tube trains when you go upto London which is the best way for me totravel and then of course speaking to peo-ple who ask me questions rather than sit-ting there tight-lipped refusing to evenopen my mouth. i've paid for it."

Chelsea's John Terry was also absentfrom the squad to face San Marino after thedefender retired from international footballin protest at facing charges of racially abus-ing Rio Ferdinand's brother Anton in amatch against QPR last season -- despitehaving already been found innocent of sim-ilar charges in a criminal court. Terry wasbanned for four matches and fined£220,000. And Hodgson was quick to side-step questions about whether he wouldever consider picking Terry in future.

BeiJinG: Victoria Azarenka of Belarus returns a shot

during her third round women's singles match against

elena Vesnina of russia at the china Open tennis

tournament in the national tennis center of Beijing

yesterday. Azarenka went on to win 6-3, 6-3. AFP

Hodgson says sorry to Ferdinand over england snub

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

The indian golfers touring Lahore hadan intense practice round of golf at thegrand, par 72, Royal Palm Golf Courseand prepared themselves for the actualthree rounds contest that commencestomorrow, Friday at Royal Palm.

On the first day, competition willbe on Scrambles match play basis andthe pairings for the first day are; AshokSingh Malik and M.M.S.Bhala vs Sar-dar Murad Khan & MaqboolA.Babri;Man Mohan Singh and VijayDhawan vs imran Miraj & ShoaibBokhari;R.S.Bedi and ini Bawa vs AmirMehmood & Mian Asad Hameed;MajGen(r)K.M.S.Shergill and PrakashBhandari vs Raja Asif Mehdi &Lt.Gen(r)Sabahat Husain;Prakash

Brahma and Ashwani Luthra vs Asadi.A.Khan & M.Ramzan Sheikh;Harbha-jan Singh and Anil K.Mehra vs AsadAmin Sheikh & Moeen Salahuddin;AnilVirmani and Ms Bubbles Suneja vsAsad Alam & Mrs Asma Afzal Shami.

Meanwhile a memorandum of un-derstanding was signed here on Thurs-day between Delhi Golf Club and thePakistani counterpart 'Together WeGolf'. The President of Delhi Golf Clubsigned on behalf of organizers fromacross the border and Shoaib Bokharifrom the Pakistani side.

As per this understanding, golfteams from the two countries will ex-change visits every six months on alter-nate basis and as Man Mohan Singhsaid after the signing ceremony "This isa pilot project and the vision is to ex-pand this to a much wider level and in-

volve all the leading golf clubs on bothsides and develop friendship throughgolf and involve a very wide section ofthe influential people who are linked togolf,in reaching the goals". On this oc-casion Asad i.A.Khan of Sindh Golf As-sociation and Member ExecutiveCommittee of Pakistan Golf Federationendorsed the thoughts and hoped thatgolf clubs of Karachi would immedi-ately respond and step in.

Only two ladies are participating inthis event. Asma Shami from Pakistanand Bubbles Suneja from india. Asmais a lady member of the Executive Com-mittee of Pakistan Golf Federation andBubbles is the lady captain of DelhiGolf Club managing lady golf strengthof over 500 lady golfers. Both of themhoped for a regular visit by the ladygolfers.

indian golfers practice for golf championship

memorandum Of Understanding signed by man mohan Singh,President,delhi Golf club and ShoaibBokhari of together we Golf,for exchange of regular golf visits between the two neighbours.

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Sports 18

Friday, 5 October, 2012

watch it LiveTEN SPORTSWORLD T20 2nD SEmI

Australia V West Indies07:00PM

workshop division

win railways

weightlifting titleLAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Showing all round skills and superior lift-ing techniques, lifters from Workshop divi-sion won the Railways inter Divisionweight lifting Championship here onWednesday at Railways Stadium. Work-shops Division gathered 77 points to re-main at top with the sterling performanceof their lifters who won seven finals, out oftotal eight contested. Lahore Division gotthe second place with 52 point and Rail-ways Police attained the third place with 45points. Former international Weight LifterNadeem Butt was the Chief Guest on theoccasion and gave away the prizes.

Lahore Badshah

cricket team to take

part in Swat festivalLAHORE

STAFF REPORT

Lahore Badshah cricket team will takepart in Swat cricket T-20 festival to beplayed in Swat from October 9 to 14.Fahad ul Haq will lead the side whoseother members are umer Siddiq, imranButt, ikhlaq Butt, Jahangir Mirza, HafizZohaib (wicketkeeper), Asif Raza, SaadNaseem, Musfata iqbal, Saadullah Ghouri,Waqas Aslam, Rohail Ali, Waqar Ahmedand Abdul Ghaffar. Rasheed Bhatti is themanager of the team. Eight regional teamsfrom all over the country will take part inthe event. The participating teams havebeen drawn in two groups and the eventwill be played on knock out basis.

Cristiano Ronaldo to lead Portugal squadLISBON

AFP

Portugal coach Paulo Bento unveiledhis 23-man squad on Thursday thatwill travel to Russia on October 12 be-fore returning to take on Northern ire-land on October 16 in Porto, for theupcoming rounds of 2014 World Cupqualifiers.

Real Madrid superstar CristianoRonaldo leads Bento's team that arecoming off victories over Luxembourgand Azerbaijan and take on unbeatenRussia at the top of Group F. The onesurprise sprung by the Portuguese han-dler was the inclusion of 24-year-olduncapped defender Luis Neto, whilestriker Eder keeps his place after im-pressing on his debut last September.

SquAD:

goALkeePeRS: Rui Patricio (Sport-ing Lisbon), Eduardo (istanbulBB/TuR), Beto (Sporting Braga).

DefenDeRS: Joao Pereira (Valen-cia/ESP), Miguel Lopes (Porto), BrunoAlves (Zenit St-Petersburg/RuS), Pepe(Real Madrid/ESP), Luis Neto (Sienna,iTA), Sereno (Valladolid/ESP), FabioCoentrao (Real Madrid/ESP).MIDfIeLDeRS: Miguel Veloso (Dy-namo Kiev/uKR), Custodio (SportingBraga), Raul Meireles (Chelsea/ENG),Joao Moutinho (Porto), Ruben Amorim(Sporting Braga), Ruben Micael (Sport-ing Braga).StRIkeRS: Cristiano Ronaldo (RealMadrid/ESP), Nani (Manchesterunited/ENG), Varela (Porto), HelderPostiga (Real Zaragoza/ESP), Pizzi(Deportivo La Coruna/ESP), NelsonOliveira (Deportivo La Coruna/ESP),Eder (Sporting Braga).BRAnDAo In cLeAR oveR RAPechARge: Brazilian footballer Bran-dao is in the clear over a rape case afterthe alleged victim opted not to appeal adecision last week that saw chargesagainst him dismissed for lack of evi-

dence. Brandao, currently playing forFrench side St Etienne, was accused ofrape by a young woman who claimedthat he attacked her in his car after of-fering to drive her home from a night-club in Aix-en-Provence, nearMarseille, in March 2011.

But the examining magistrate onFriday dismissed the charges following"inconsistencies and contradictions" inthe plaintiff's case.

The accuser had opted not to chal-lenge the ruling, according to herlawyer Emmanuel Molina on Thursday.

The alleged incident occurredwhen Brandao was playing for Mar-seille, whom he joined from ShakhtarDonetsk in January 2009. He waslater loaned to Brazilian clubsCruzeiro and Gremio in a bid to avoidmedia scrutiny.

The striker returned to Marseillein January this year but last monthsigned a two-year deal with Ligue 1 ri-vals St Etienne.

Berdych reachesJapan Open quarters

TOKYOAFP

World number six Tomas Berdychreached the quarter finals of the JapanOpen on Thursday after beating Colom-bia's Alejandro Falla in a straightfor-ward 6-3, 7-5 win.The 2008 Tokyo champion, from theCzech Republic, beat Falla in just 78minutes and without facing a singlebreak point."The biggest difference between my firstround and this one is... it was already acouple of days after i came here. i wasfeeling really much, much better physi-cally than in the first match," saidBerdych."i was able to profit from that, i wasserving well, playing solid and when ihad a chance, i took it," added Berdych,who reached the uS Open semi-finalslast month.Second seeded Berdych hit a fine back-handed approach shot to seize a triplebreak in the sixth game of the openingset, before striking a key passing shotthat decided the winner of the set.After breaking the 11th game of the sec-ond set, the 27-year-old Czech calmlyserved three aces in a row against adispirited Falla to finish off the match.The win sets up a quarter-final clash onFriday with eighth seed Kei Nishikori ofJapan, who beat Tommy Robredo ofSpain 5-7, 6-1, 6-0.Berdych said of Nishikori: "We played acouple of matches. i think the last onewas this year at Monte Carlo, which wasa close match, a close battle for us. Heplays really good tennis.""He is going to play at home. i think it'sa good advantage, extra motivation. ijust go out there, try to play my game,try to play my best tennis, and then we'llsee what's going to happen on thecourt," he added.Nishikori said he would be looking outfor Berdych's forehand."This surface suits his game. He hits agood serve and his forehand shots aredeep. i must defend his attacks verywell, especially his forehand."in other matches on Thursday, thirdseed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia beatMarco Chiudinelli of Switzerland 6-4, 6-2, while sixth seed Milos Raonic ofCanada went through when Serb ViktorTroicki retired with a calf injury.

BEIJINGAFP

Li Na joined top seeds VictoriaAzarenka and Maria Shara-pova in the last eight of theChina Open on Thursday but

there was a shock in the men's draw withRichard Gasquet losing to a Chinesewild card. China's Li, who is banking ona good week to help her qualify for the$4.9 million season-ending WTA Cham-pionships in istanbul, needed three setsand a tie break to overcome compatriotPeng Shuai. The former French Openchampion finally won 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3)after almost two hours and 30 minutes.

Asia's only Grand Slam winner willplay defending champion AgnieszkaRadwanska in the quarter-finals of theBeijing tournament. World number oneand first seed Azarenka dispatched Russ-ian qualifier Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-3 toset up a quarter-final tie with Switzer-land's Romina Oprandi. The 23-year-oldfrom Belarus has yet to drop a set in thetournament, defeating France's AlizeCornet 6-1, 6-0 in the first round andSabine Lisicki of Germany 6-4, 6-2 in thesecond. "it was a little bit of a challengetoday, for sure," Azarenka said. "i feltlike i could have been a bit more aggres-sive and not hesitate so much.

"When i won that last point, i wasrelieved and happy to finish the matchin two sets." Second-seed Sharapova,number two in the WTA rankings be-hind Azarenka, defeated Slovenian qual-ifier Polona Hercog, ranked 90th in theworld, 6-0, 6-2 at the capital's NationalTennis Stadium. Sharapova, 25, hadbeaten Romania's Simona Halep 7-5, 7-

5 in the first round and Sorana Cirstea,also of Romania, 6-2, 6-2 in round two."i had a long first round, even though itwas two sets, but today and yesterdaywas definitely a little bit quicker," Shara-pova said. "i played really well in the be-ginning and got a little tense in thesecond set, but i felt like i really neededthat challenge. "it's nice to be in thequarter-final stage of this tournament."Sharapova will face her first real test ofthe Premier Mandatory event in the nextround when she takes on fifth seed An-gelique Kerber of Germany.

Kerber, ranked sixth in the world,defeated former world number one Car-oline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. The China Open is the fourth and finalcompulsory tournament of the women'scalendar, behind only the Grand Slamsand end-of-season Championships inprestige. Kerber's win came shortly after

she discovered she had qualified for theChampionships later this month, alongwith Czech Petra Kvitova and Sara Er-rani of italy. The three will compete withAzarenka, Sharapova, Radwanska andSerena Williams, leaving only one placein the race up for grabs. That position iscurrently held by Li.

in the men's section, fifth-seed Gas-quet of France suffered a second-roundloss to lowly-ranked Zhang Ze in threesets. Zhang defeated last week's Thai-land Open winner 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to recordthe biggest victory of his career.

Gasquet admitted afterwards thathis exploits in Bangkok had left himtired but said Zhang, ranked 165th, hadbeen the better player and deserved hisvictory. "Last week i played a big tour-nament. i'm not physically 100 percent,but it's not the reason i lost," worldnumber 11 Gasquet said.

Li joins Azarenka andSharapova in Beijing

LAHORESTAFF REPORT

MuShtAq AhMeD: The target of140 runs was not beyond reach. Theycould have reached the score. The easyscore was made difficult by the bats-men with their own mistakes.BASIt ALI: The Pakistan team lackedplanning. Dav Whatmore did not knowthe ABC of coaching. There should be an-other coach who can have vision to win.SIkAnDAR BAkht: There are a num-ber of players who should be given rest fromthe team now. Take the case of imran Nazirwho failed to settle play in his entire career.He plays better against minnows and don’tscore against big teams. Shoaib Malik playsbut he hangs balance while Shahid Afridishould have showed maturity. He has beenplaying cricket but did not play. Abdul Raz-zak should have played if he was part of theteam while Kamran Akmal was a total fail-

ure as he dropped several catches and YasirArafat was good for nothing.AAqIB JAveD: imran Nazir came backin the team for at least 10 times withoutany performance. He was selected againand again but did not perform. As of AbdulRazzak, i fail to understand he is a bowleror a batsman. He did not settle in the teamin his career. Afridi worked very hard for

the tournament. He did his best in thewhole of the event but was out of form.WASIM AkRAM: The team was lack-ing in many ways. First they lacked pro-fessionalism. They lacked planning. Theytook wrong decisions and gave theirwickets. However, Sri Lanka played toproper planning and trapped the Pak-istan batsmen with proper team work.

Cricket greats lament loss

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Friday, 5 October, 2012

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami

19

ISLAMABADTAyyAB HuSSAIn

THE Supreme Court on Thurs-day accepted a request bySalman Akram Raja, thelawyer for former air chiefmarshal Asghar Khan, for

making the office of the president a re-spondent in the case pertaining to the al-leged existence of a political cell in thePresidency and the alleged distribution ofmoney among politicians by the inter-Ser-vices intelligence (iSi) to sway the 1990elections in favour of the islami Jamhooriittehad (iJi).

The court issued notice to the presi-dent’s principal secretary, seeking recordabout the existence of a political cell duringtenure of former president late Ghulamishaq Khan (late).

A three-judge bench of Chief Justiceiftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, JusticeJawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji ArifHussain heard arguments presented bySalman Akram Raja.

After hearing the counsel’s contention,the bench directed its office to send copiesof order sheets along with classified docu-ments to the office of the president withfurther observations to make arrange-ments for appearing of secretary to thepresident if he was advised or desired so.

The bench also ordered the secretaryfor the Cabinet Division to submit hisstatement with the SC Registrar before thenext date of hearing, indicating if there ex-isted a political cell in the intelligence Bu-reau (iB) in the past or at present.

The bench issued the directives afterinterior Secretary Khawaja Siddique Akbarapprised the bench through a certificate

that the iB was under the control of theCabinet Division.

Commander Shahbaz, representativeof the Ministry of Defence, submitted adocument on behalf of the ministry and in-formed the court that they had nominateda deputy attorney general to representthem during proceedings. The benchnoted that despite previous orders, the rel-evant deputy attorney general had failed toappear in Wednesday’s hearing without in-timating the bench. The ministry submit-ted its statement, signed by DefenceSecretary Lt Gen (r) Asif Yasin Malik, stat-ing that no political cell was operating inany of its subordinate departments at pres-ent.

Earlier at the onset of proceedings,Commander Shahbaz apprised the benchthat the notification remained untraced andits reference was made in the court’s order

sheets. The chief justice told the counsel forthe petitioner that the cell was allegedlyfunctioning in the President’s House at thetime and was controlled by former bureau-crats Roedad Khan and ijlal Haider Zaidi, asappeared from the record, and questionedhim whether he had ever considered thePresidency as party in the case. SalmanAkram Raja requested the bench to makethe Presidency a party. Justice Jawwad SKhawja remarked that two names had sur-faced from the issue, Ghulam ishaq Khanand Farooq Leghari, both of whom wereblamed for ‘slush money’.

The chief justice observed that underArticle 243, the president was the supremecommander of the armed forces and suchactivity should not have taken place in thePresidency. He said the objective of a po-litical cell in the President’s House couldonly be to ensure a victory in elections,

adding that time and again during thehearing, officials had said that the Presi-dent’s House at the time was issuing direc-tions pertaining to political manipulation.

Moreover, Justice Hussain said a po-litically-involved president would eventu-ally affect the state’s institutions.

The bench also expressed displeasureover the absence of Attorney General irfanQadir. Salman Raja contended that thepresident could not have been advised bythe prime minister at that time and if hehad allowed such activity, he had violatedthe oath of his office. The lawyer said theformer president was no more alive, how-ever, Justice Jawwad remarked people didnot live forever, but the pertinent questionwas of constitutional abidance. Salmansaid the Presidency could have the recordof such activity. The proceedings were lateradjourned until October 15.

WASHINGTONSPECIAL CORRESPOnDEnT

in a reminder that progress on Jammuand Kashmir dispute is critical to mak-ing Pakistan-india peace process re-sult-oriented, the united States hassaid the recent economic cooperationprogress between the two South Asiancountries should be translated intotalks on the lingering issue.

Speaking on the heels of clash be-tween the two nuclear neighbors overthe Kashmir dispute at the uN GeneralAssembly, the State Department alsomade it clear that its stance on the issueremains unchanged, meaning it contin-ues to see the heavily militarized Hi-malayan territory as disputed. The uSalso prefers that Pakistan and india ad-dress the issue bilaterally.

“On the broader issue of Kashmir,as i said, we want to see this economicwarming now translate into a betterconversation on that issue as well,”State Department spokesperson Victo-ria Nuland said.

The spokesperson was asked aboutWashington’s position on the decades-

old dispute in the context of PresidentAsif Ali Zardari’s forceful statements onthe issue including calling the issue’snon-resolution as symbolizing uN fail-ure and indian External Affairs Minis-ter’s objection to islamabad’s raisingthe issue at the highest diplomaticforum. islamabad and New Delhi arepursuing a peace process, with an em-phasis on expanding bilateral trade andeconomic cooperation but Pakistan hasall along maintained that if the twocountries are to embrace enduringpeace, Kashmir and several security is-sues need to be addressed fairly.

At the briefing, the spokespersonsaid there has been no change in Wash-ington’s policy on the issue, an interna-tionally accepted dispute.

“With regard to our own policy onKashmir, it hasn’t changed. it’s been thesame for a very long time,” Nuland said.“We have said for some time that we ap-plaud the progress that india and Pak-istan have made in their dialogue,particularly on the economic side. We areencouraged that they’ve taken some con-crete steps to normalize trade relations,including the recently signed agreement

on visa liberalization. We want to see thiseconomic warming extend to otherareas,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson was respondingto a series of questions by an indianjournalist who tried to confuse the uN-recognized dispute with terrorism andhuman rights situation in Pakistan.

in response, Nuland remarked theunited States gives importance tohuman rights issues in Pakistan butturning to the broader perspective im-mediately noted its time that Pakistanand india started conversation on Kash-mir as well. Post-9/11, india tried toequate Kashmiris’ struggle with terror-ism but both the Bush and Obama ad-ministrations avoided adopting NewDelhi’s narrative, although the issue hasgone on the backburner due to Afghanconflict at Pakistan’s western borderand Washington’s overriding focus oncounterterrorism goals in the region.

But the 2008 Mumbai attacks,blamed on Pakistan-based militants,also hurt prospects of serious discus-sions on Jammu and Kashmir andsome other vital issues like Siachen andwater issues.

SC summonsShahbaz Sharif, riaz in dual nationality case

ISLAMABADSTAFF REPORT

Taking notice of Pakistan People’s Partyleader Raja Riaz’s remarks that PunjabChief Minister Shahbaz Sharif holdsdual nationality, the Supreme Court onThursday issued notice to both men forappearing in court in the dualnationality case.The notices have been served forOctober 17.On Wednesday, Opposition Leader inthe Punjab Assembly Raja Riaz allegedthat Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif haddual nationality and urged the SupremeCourt and Election Commission ofPakistan (ECP) to probe into thematter.The apex court, under theconstitutional clauses, has alreadysuspended memberships of severalparliamentarians who held dualnationalities.Other assembly members suspected ofbeing dual nationals are currentlyunder scrutiny by the Supreme Court.

Zardari responsible

if Pti peace march

is attacked: imranISLAMABAD

AnWER ABBAS

Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTi) Chairmanimran Khan said on Thursday that hisparty would hold President Asif Ali Zardaridirectly responsible if somethingunpleasant happens to the participants ofthe PTi’s peace march. Addressing a pre-departure press conference, imran said thepresident was the head of state,commanding the entire machinery of thecountry and the security institutions, andwould be responsible for any untowardincident against the rally, which includesuS activists against drone strikes. He saidthat despite all its force, the governmentwould not be able to deter the marchers,and that they would surely reach theirdestination in Kotkai, South WaziristanAgency (SWA). He asked why thegovernment was creating hurdles in theway of the anti-drone rally if it was reallyopposed to drone strikes. He said thateveryone, including the military, themilitants, and even the uS administrationhad assured not to attack the rally, but thegovernment alone was objecting to thepeace march. On the other hand, thepolitical administration of SWA and theFATA Secretariat refused to grantpermission for the peace march, whiledeclaring the area a “conflict zone”.Meanwhile, interior Minister RehmanMalik has warned of a threat of suicideattack on the peace march. Condemningthe government’s role in allowing deaths ofinnocent civilians, including women andchildren, imran said that it was makingmoney out of the so-called war againstterror, and that’s why it was reluctant toend the war despite a loss of 40,000 lives.He said the war in the region wouldcontinue unless the government stopsfollowing uS directives, while warning thatthe victims of drone strikes would keepjoining the militants and eventually thecountry would be destroyed in the war.Terming drone attacks “inhuman,immoral, illegal and counterproductive”,imran said that the collateral damagecaused by the strikes was encouraging therecruitment of more militants. “Cananyone imagine what those people gothrough when they have four or five dronesbuzzing over their heads round the clock,”imran asked. He said the PTi wasorganising the rally in order to supportlocal tribal leaders in finding solution toend the foreign war, besides providing achance to foreign guests to interact withSWA locals. “if these people from theunited States and other countries canarrive from thousands of miles away, whythe Pakistani nation cannot get out of theirhomes to participate in the peace march,”imran said, while appealing to thecountrymen to participate in the marchand show support for the cause. Speakingon the occasion, anti-drone activist LaurenBooth, sister-in-law of former Britishprime minister Tony Blair, held the unitedStates responsible for the security crisisacross Pakistan.

SC makes Presidency respondent in ISI political cell caseg issues notice to president’s principal secretary, seeks record of political cell in Presidency

Time to lace economic bonhomiewith Kashmir talks: US

mOSCOW: Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani inspects the guard of honour on arrival in Russia on Thursday.

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