PAGE | 03 PAGE | 04

Sex-change womenallowed to enter Miss Universe

Probe clears NarendraModi over

anti-Muslim riots

Rick Santorum quits White House race

PAGE |04

Islamabad-Peshawar Edition Wednesday, 11 April, 2012 Jamadi-ul-Awal 18, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol II No 284 22 Pages

ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT/MoNIToRINg DeSk

AFTER failing to rein in theAnti-Narcotics Force(ANF) from proceedingagainst Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani’s son

over the Rs 7 billion Ephedrine drugscam, the government has apparently letAli Musa Gilani jet off to South Africawith his wife and children shortly afterthe Supreme Court issued his summonsin a Rs 7 billion drug scam on Tuesday.

Gilani, who was recently elected as amember of the National Assembly, leftthe country after the ANF moved the In-terior Ministry to put his name on theExit Control List (ECL). The PM’s sonwill stay in South Africa for three daysbefore flying onwards to London, ac-cording to Express News.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday re-sumed the hearing of the Ephedrinechemical import case, and issued noticesto the prime minister’s son, along withsome top bureaucrats, including PM’sPrincipal Secretary Khushnood AkhtarLashari, to appear before the court.

Rules were flouted in the allocationof Ephedrine chemical quota by compa-nies that are said to be the favourites ofAli Musa Gilani.

During the hearing, the court was in-formed that the federal government hadrecently issued transfer orders of ANFRegional Director Brigadier FahimAhmed Khan and Investigating Officer(IO) Deputy Director Abid Zulfiqar.

A three-member SC bench led byChief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry also rescindedthe transfer orders, and asked the two of-ficials to continue with the investigationof the case without the fear of anyone.

The bench categorically announcedthat no order shall be passed by the au-thorities on the matter without the

court’s approval and until its decision onthe case. The SC also issued notices to theacting secretary of the Ministry of Nar-cotics Control; former director general ofthe ANF Major General Shakil Hussain;Iftikhar Ahmed Khan Babar, chief execu-tive of Berlex Labs International, Multan;and Ansar Farooq Chaudhry, chief exec-utive of Danas Pharmaceuticals PrivateLimited, Islamabad (Lahooti Group); be-sides summoning the attorney general ofPakistan on the next hearing.

At the onset of the hearing, SheikhAkram, counsel for the ANF regional di-rector, apprised the bench that his clienthad been summoned by Lashari for aone-on-one meeting. The PSPM ex-pressed the prime minister’s seriousconcerns on the case, while asking himto drop charges against Ali Musa Gilaniin “national interest”, he said.

Akram told the bench that his clientdid not agree with the principal secretarytherefore he had been transferred alongwith Deputy Director Abid Zulfiqar.

During the hearing, Brigadier Fahimalso submitted an affidavit on his meet-ing with Lashari and on the backgroundof the case. He apprised the bench thatan FIR No 40/2011 was registered in Oc-tober 2011 with the ANF in Rawalpindi,and notices were issued to Lashari forrecording his statement.

Brigadier Fahim added that he andZulfiqar went to Lashari’s office at thePM’s House on March 24, 2010, andheld a separate meeting with Lashari onhis request. “In response to the notices,I, along with Lt Col Syed Touqir AbbasZaidi (Joint Director ANF) and IO AbidZulfiqar (Deputy Director ANF), went tothe office of Mr Khushnood AkhtarLashari at PM’s House on 24th March,2010, and on the desire of Mr Khush-nood Akhtar Lashari and his assuranceto bring real facts to light, I had a sepa-rate meeting with him in his office,where he discussed/conveyed the follow-

ing to me in a maligning and threateningmanner, because he, being one of theprime abettor/associate/facilitator in thecase, wanted to make full use of his pres-ent appointment/office to suppress/dis-tort/misdirect investigation againsthimself and Ali Musa Gilani,” BrigadierFahim wrote in his affidavit.

“Khushnood Akhtar Lashari saidthat the father of Ali Musa Gillani wasvery upset and worried due to the sum-mons issued to him. Lashari said that ifANF focuses only on two pharmaceuticalcompanies, and spares the others, it willbe fully supported; both companies willbe ruined and the state machinery will bewith you,” the ANF regional directorsubmitted in his affidavit.

“Lashari said, ‘You know, civil mili-tary relations have recently improved andall depends on you (Brigadier Fahim) asonly you can save from chaos and up-heavals,” he added in his statement.

Fahim further said that Lashari hadtold him in a sarcastic manner that theANF was being commanded and con-trolled by army officers. The ANF direc-tor added that Lashari had asked him tospare Ali Musa Gilani, while promisingthat his “islah” (correction) will be done.“This is a matter of national interest,”Fahim quoted Lashari has telling him.

“In this regard, since then, manyprejudiced, unfair and unwarranted ac-tions have been taken by different statedepartments, which confirms the practi-cal manifestation of the above men-tioned threats and his heinous/maliciousdesign to sabotage the investigation byone way or the other,” Brigadier Fahimadded in his affidavit.

The court said in its order that ifLashari, Ali Musa Gilani, or any one elsewanted to appear before the court in themeantime to record his statement, heshould be given a fair opportunity in accor-dance with the law. The bench adjournedthe hearing of the case until April 20.

g ali Musa Gilani jets off to South africa as SC issues summons in Rs 7b drugscam g aNf moves Interior Ministry to put ali Musa on ECL, a little too late

3 ‘missing’Balochs found

QUETTAINP

Following the Supreme Court’s strictorders, police recovered the threeremaining missing persons onTuesday – three days after recoveringfour of the seven people abductedfrom Sariab Road on March 1. Theseven recovered persons are in thecustody of the police, and they will bepresented before the apex court onApril 12. On April 5, Chief Justice ofPakistan Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry had ordered police torecover the seven “missing persons”while hearing a case on poor law andorder situation in Balochistan. Thechief justice had warned theBalochistan inspector general ofpolice (IGP) and other prominentpolice officers that they would besuspended if the court’s orders werenot followed. Last Friday, policeproduced four of the seven “missingpersons” before the Supreme Court’sregistry in Quetta.

US embassy allset for expansion

ISLAMABADINP

The federal government has allowed theUS embassy to expand its lay out despitestiff resistance by intelligence agencies.The eight-storey building would expandover an area of several kilometersaccommodating more than 6,000personnel, the informed sources in CapitalDevelopment Authority told INP onTuesday. The sources said that it would belike a cantonment. While the US embassyspokesman said in his statement that theywere granted NoC from the CDA and noother institution in Islamabad hadexpressed reservation with the expansionwork. The expansion plan by majority inPakistan are seen as a threat to nationalinterests at a time when anti-USsentiments are at the highest level afterthe May 2 episode and Salala checkpostaerial attack killing 24 Pakistan armysoldiers. While the most extreme views ofstrategic experts are that the US may useits embassy as a base camp for its covertoperations in South Asia and Middle East.

ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT

The Parliamentary Committee on NationalSecurity (PCNS) on Tuesday finalised thepreliminary report on its recommendationsfor new terms of engagement with theUnited States, linking the resumption ofNATO supply routes with a halt in drone at-tacks inside Pakistan.

The report will be presented to the lead-ership of various political parties for a nod.The committee members are scheduled toagain meet on Thursday for giving finaltouches to the report. Later, the report will bepresented to the joint sitting of the parliament.

Although US Ambassador CameronMunter met with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman to clarifyhis country’s position on reopening ofNATO supply routes, the latter remainedadamant on his boycott of PCNS meeting.

A source while requesting anonymitytold Pakistan Today that the PCNS, in its

new draft, had recommended that the gov-ernment should make a conditional offer tothe US about reopening of NATO supplyroutes, only if drone attacks were haltedforthwith.

“We have also proposed to block trans-portation of weapons through NATO supplyroutes, while it was also recommended thatno airbase would be handed over to any for-eign force. The committee has also recom-mended that NATO supply routes may beopened with imposition of levy. No securitycontractor would be allowed to operate in-side Pakistan in covert or overt operations,the PCNS further recommended.

PCNS chief Senator Raza Rabbani toldmedia that the JUI-F continued its protestand boycott of the meeting, while the PML-N had sought permission for getting thedraft approved by its party leadership.

Rabbani said the PCNS had made somenew recommendations and members wouldnow hold consultations with their respectiveparties. The PCNS will next meet on Thursday.

pCNS links end to drone attacks with NaTO supplies

AMRITSAR: Indian Sikh Nihang (religious warriors) raise their swords after boarding a

train along with devotees to Pakistan on Tuesday. Thousands of Indian Sikh pilgrims are

expected in Pakistan for the Baisakh celebrations. afp

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:32 AM Page 1

02wednesday, 11 april, 2012

News

Today’s

LookQuick

iSlamabad

Story on Page 07

newS

Story on Page 06

Cartoon

Page 13

Sharmeen Chinoy, Dr Wyatt call for end to acid attacks ex-Taliban ambassador Mullah Zaeef flees to UAe

KARACHI/LAHORE/PESHAWARINP

CITIZENS had to face severehardship due to a simultane-ous strike by transporters inKarachi, Lahore and somecities of Khyber

Pakhtunkhawa on Tuesday against thereent increase in prices of petroleumproducts and CNG.

Expressing concern and resentmentover the hike in oil prices and CNG rates,public transport operators and goods’carriers went on a one-day wheel-jamstrike in Karachi, Lahore and various

cities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, includingprovincial capital Peshawar, Charsadda,Mardan, Swabi and Nowshera.

The strike crippled routine life andthe people had to face difficulties in trav-eling due to the absence of public trans-port. Other means of traffic in thesecities remained very thin as peoplefeared burning of their vehicles.

A large number of people, especiallystudents of school and colleges, office-goers, factory workers and labourers,were seen waiting at bus stops and thinpresence was noticed in educational in-stitutions and offices.

Many workers could not reach work

due to the strike.Commuters, mostly women at vari-

ous bus stops, said this strike call by thetransporters created immense problemsfor them.

Meanwhile, the Karachi Board ofSecondary Education postponed theEnglish language paper for Matricula-tion students in the wake of the strike.

Goods’ transporters also supportedthe strike, halting their goods and petrolsupply to different cities of the country.

The transport owners have calledupon the government to withdraw theincrease in petroleum prices and allowthem to raise fares.

Citizens suffer as transportersstrike over pOL price hike

kARACHI: People sit in an abandoned corridor at the city courts during a strike called by lawyers against targeted killings on Tuesday. ONLINE

Cop among seven killed inKarachi violenceKARACHI: At least seven persons, including a policeman and a governmentemployee, were killed and several others were injured, as violence continuedunabated across the port city on Tuesday. Police said a man was shot dead near LeeMarket, while a youth was gunned down in the Orangi area. Four other peoplereceived bullet wounds in shootings in Isa Nagri in the wee hours of Tuesday. Inother acts of violence, a private school’s owner, Syed Mukhtar Hussain, was shotdead by unidentified persons in sector 9 of Baldia Town. The deceased was a workerof the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). In another incident, some unidentifiedmotorcyclists shot dead a PPP worker, Younas, on Abul Ispahani Road, besidesinjuring another passer by. In the Mangopir area, 15-year-old Tariq was shot deadby some unidentified miscreants, while a police official, Raj Muhammad, was shotdead on Maripur Road. In Gulistan-e-Jauhar, some unidentified persons killed thedeputy director of a government department. The victim was identified as Abdullah.Police also recovered the body parts of a woman near Capri cinema at MA JinnahRoad. The body parts were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre formedico-legal formalities. Doctors said a sharp-edged dagger was used in cutting thebody into pieces. INP

Political leadership attends dinnerhosted for visiting Saudi princeISLAMABAD: The main political leadership of the country was seen attending adinner hosted in the honour of visiting Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Prince AbdulAziz bin Abdullah on Tuesday. The event was attended by PML-N President NawazSharif, Jammat-e-Islami chief Munawar Hassan, JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman, AwamiMuslim League leader Shiekh Rashid Ahmed, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar,Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Minister for Information Firdous Ashiq Awan.The event turned into a political gathering as the participants were seen hobnobbingand discussing national issues. The political leaders also discussed issues of mutualinterest with the visiting prince and told him that Pakistan attached great importanceto its relations with Saudi Arabia. During the discussion, Malik avoided Nawaz whileother leaders were seen discussing issues. INP

KARACHIoNlINe

The Jiyay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz(JSQM) has announced a strike inSindh on Tuesday against what itcalled the “killing” of its chief BashirKhan Qureshi.

JSQM Secretary Gen Asif Baladisaid Qureshi didn’t die of heart at-tack, instead he was killed by state el-ements.

He called a strike to be observedacross the province today (Wednes-day). JSQM workers demanded an in-vestigation into the death of Qureshito ascertain whether the death wasnatural.

They called for a transparent en-quiry by any reputable institution ofthe country to ascertain the exactcause of the sudden death of theirleader.

They also urged the concerned

authorities to ensure that the enquiryreport must be made public withoutany unnecessary delay and any cul-prits, if identified, be brought tobook. According to sources, the fam-ily of Qureshi has separated itselffrom legal proceedings being carriedout by the authorities into the deathof JSQM chief.

Qureshi, could not survive a car-diac arrest and died at the age of 54,on Friday night.

JSQM calls strike against ‘Qureshi’s murder’

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:32 AM Page 2

03wednesday, 11 april, 2012

NewsCommentTalking and dying

articles on Page 12-13

The Siachen issue.

on election expensesNot an easy task for an average person

Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi says:

Ali Aftab Saeed says:

foreign newS

Story on Page 17

artS & entertainment

Story on Page 14

SPortS

Story on Page 18

Norway mass killer deemed sane in new finding lopez's 'Dance Again' video slammed for being ‘too racy’

Changing dynamics of the PPP: The party has changed, much.

Speed, Service, Safety: Paksitan Railways’ multitude of problems.

kuldip Nayar says:Clemency matters: Religion and politics can’t go hand in hand.

PCB to reconsider cricket relations with Bangladesh

NEW DELHIAfP

An investigation team appointed byIndia’s Supreme Court has found no evi-dence against Gujarat’s chief ministerover deadly anti-Muslim riots in the statea decade ago, a court said Tuesday.

Narendra Modi had been accused byrights groups of having turned a blind eyeto the violence that swept the state in2002 claiming as many as 2,000 lives,and of failing to bring to justice the perpe-trators of the killings.

“According to the Special Investiga-tion Team, no offence has been estab-lished against” Modi or any of the 57others listed in the complaint, the magis-terial court said, reported by the PressTrust of India.

The announcement was a boost forModi, a prominent member of the Hindunationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)and seen as a potential candidate to beIndia’s prime minister in the 2014 generalelections.

The complaint had been filed by Zakia

Jafri, widow of a former Congress Muslimlawmaker, Eshan Jafri, who was burnt todeath along with 68 other people by amob in a housing colony in Gujarat.

Zakia Jafri had filed a complaintagainst Modi, his ministerial colleagues,

top police officials and members of theBJP, accusing them of conspiracy in theriots and the Supreme Court ordered aninquiry into the allegations.

Modi’s lawyer called the allegationsagainst his client “absurd.”

The decision by the Special Investiga-tion Team came as Modi is set to run for afourth term in office in elections in thewestern state, known as one of India’smost industrialised, due to be held laterthis year.

The decision came after an Indiancourt convicted 23 people on Mondayover the massacre of nearly two dozenMuslims during the riots in Gujarat state.

Some 31 Muslims were found guiltylast year on murder and conspiracycharges for the train attack in which 59Hindu devotees were killed that sparkedthe anti-Muslim riots.

Hindu mobs seeking revenge ram-paged through Muslim neighbourhoodsin several cities across Gujarat duringthree days of bloodshed that witnessedsome of India’s worst religious violencesince independence from Britain in 1947.

Modi got another boost last yearwhen a US Congressional research paperhailed his governance track record andcalled him the “likely” prime ministerialcandidate for the BJP in the 2014 nationalelections.

ISLAMABADAfP

RE S C U E R S searching for138 people buried under ahuge avalanche at a Pak-istani army camp are con-centrating their efforts on

five points at the site, the military saidon Tuesday.

A huge wall of snow crashed into theremote Siachen Glacier base high in themountains in Kashmir early Saturdaymorning, smothering an area of onesquare kilometre (a third of a squaremile).

Experts say there is little chance offinding any survivors at the site, whichis at an altitude of around 4,000 metres(13,000 feet).

Despite harsh conditions, the mili-tary said efforts had intensified, withmore than 450 people taking part — upfrom 286 late on Monday — aided bymechanical earth movers, bulldozersand excavators, and work is focusing oncertain key areas.

“Five points have been identified onthe site where rescue work is inprogress,” the military said in a state-ment.

“Two points are being dug withequipment while three points are beingdug manually.”

Photographs released by the mili-tary Tuesday showed diggers and res-cuers at work on an almost featurelessexpanse of dirty grey snow and ice, withno trace visible of the camp that hadbeen the 6th Northern Light Infantryheadquarters.

The total number believed missingin the disaster rose to 138 on Tuesday,as the military released an updated listnaming 127 soldiers and 11 civilians.They include a lieutenant colonel, amajor and a captain.

Army chief General Ashfaq Kayanivisited on Sunday and said an avalancheof this magnitude was unprecedented inthe 20 years the battalion had beenbased at the site.

Manzoor Hussain, the president ofthe Alpine Club of Pakistan, said the

camp had probably been hit by a chunkof glacier that split from the main mass.

He said there was “no possibility” ofanyone surviving and warned efforts tofind those buried under the mass ofsnow using specialist equipment wouldbecome harder.

“It is becoming difficult to locatepeople through thermal imagery cameraand infra-red system because by nowprobably there would be no body tem-perature under the snow,” he told AFP.

Retired Pakistani Colonel SherKhan, a mountaineering expert, sug-gested the devastation may have beencaused by a landslide rather than an av-alanche.

“For me it was a huge landslide pro-voked by a cloud burst, not an ava-lanche,” he told AFP.

“In this case a huge flood of water iscoming down from the sky and createsa lot of mud and loose earth on themountain. Mostly boulders, mud andwater ran down the mountain.”

Khan said several days of freezingtemperatures would have hardened the

mass of snow, mud and boulders, mak-ing digging more difficult.

Specialist teams from the UnitedStates, Switzerland and Germany have

arrived in Pakistan to help with thesearch, though a senior Pakistani secu-rity official said the US team has notreached the site due to poor weather.

Rescue workers concentrate avalanche search

ISLAMABADoNlINe

The residents of the federal capitalhave rejected prolonged energy out-ages in the city following the an-nouncement by the prime minister ofconducting equal load shedding acrossthe country.

The residents of Islamabad havebeen seriously perturbed by 8 to 12hours of load shedding, a surprising re-action considering that the entireprovince of Punjab had been up inflames over load shedding that hadcrossed 20 hours a day in recent weeks.

“We had nearly eight-hours of load

shedding on Tuesday. The outage hasbadly affected my preparations for thematriculation exams,” a student in Sec-tor G-10 said.

It seems residents of Islamabad areunaware that eight hours of load shed-ding a day is actually a sign of relief forthe rest of the country.

Speaking at a press briefing afterchairing the second national energyconference on Monday, Prime MinisterYousaf Raza Gilani had acknowledgedthat the energy crisis was affectingevery sector of the country and ex-pressed determination to overcome itwith the cooperation of all stakehold-ers.

He assured the government wouldgive serious consideration to proposalsof the conference to increase electricitygeneration and reduce load shedding inminimum time.

But the people rejected all the as-surances and promises of the govern-ment and said that the National EnergyConference was an attempt to deceivethe general masses depressed overlong-lasting energy shortage.

While people in Islamabad are ofthe view that the outcome of this use-less conference would not be differentfrom previous conferences that con-cluded with big claims but contributednothing towards reducing the energy

shortfall.Traders of Islamabad also rejected

decisions taken in the second energyconference and threatened to launch acivil disobedience drive if the proposedsteps were imposed. “The decisions arepolitical, unilateral and contrary to theground realities while stakeholdershave not been taken into confidence,”said Malik Sohail, vice president of Na-tional Traders Alliance.

Speaking at a hurriedly calledmeeting in Blue Area, he said traderswould not accept the outcome of thecontroversial conference whichamounted to economic murder of thereeling trading community.

SC wants babar

awan to tender

apology in

person on 18thISLAMABAD

STAff RePoRT

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjournedcontempt of court proceedings against former lawminister Babar Awan until April 18 after indicatingthat his unconditional apology would be consideredin his presence. A two-member bench comprisingJustice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Ather Saeedresumed the hearing of a suo motu notice takenagainst Awan after he passed contemptuousremarks against the apex court while addressing apress conference at the Press InformationDepartment on December 2, 2012. During thehearing, Awan’s counsel Ali Zafar told the courtthat his client had “great respect for the court”, andwanted to tender unconditional apology. The benchhowever noted that it would consider Awan’sapology in his presence on April 18, while turningdown his request for an exemption from courtappearance. Earlier on April 9, Awan’s counsel filedan application, seeking exemption from personalappearance before the apex court. Zafar hadcontended in the application that his clientintended to have medical examination during hisrecent visit to India until April 17, thus he might beexempted from personal appearance on medicalgrounds. On April 2, the SC had adjournedcontempt proceedings against Awan due to theunavailability of Attorney General Maulvi AnwarulHaq, who had gone to Quetta where the CJP washearing a case on the deteriorated security situationin Balochistan. The court then fixed April 10 toframe contempt charge against Awan. Earlier, thecourt had to frame charges on March 20, whenAwan’s counsel failed to show up before the court,delaying proceedings. The court had then fixedApril 2 for framing contempt charge against Awan.Babar Awan, along with few other federalministers, launched a tirade against the SupremeCourt on December 1, 2011, soon after it hadordered an enquiry into the memo issue led byFederal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) formerdirector general Tariq Khosa. Awan passedremarks against the family of a sitting judge of theapex court for being the brother of Tariq Khosa.

Islamabad gets a taste of load shedding

probe clears Narendra Modiover anti-Muslim Gujarat riots

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:32 AM Page 3

04wednesday, 11 april, 2012

News

NEWS DESK

Former foreign secretarySalman Bashir will be Pak-istan’s new high commis-sioner to India. Bashir’snomination, cleared by PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani,has formally been acceptedby the government of India.

Speaking exclusively toHindustan Times over phonefrom Islamabad, Bashir said:“Working on ensuring PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh’s

visit to Pakistan will be a pri-ority.” Bashir, who had fa-mously labeled India’sdossier on 26/11 accused andLashkar-e-Taiba chief HafizSaeed as “a piece of litera-ture” in 2010, adopted a lessdismissive stance on theissue. “We need to move onall tracks. We will do what isrequired to bring about aqualitative change,” he said,when asked specifically aboutIndia’s demand that Saeedand other 26/11 perpetrators

be brought to justice.“I look forward to being in

Delhi and enhancing relationscomprehensively and identify-ing opportunities,” he said.“The leaders of both countrieshave a shared vision not just forIndia and Pakistan but for theregion,” he added. Bashir willsucceed Shahid Malik, who hashad a record five-and-a-half-year stint as Pakistani envoy,and reach New Delhi within amonth. Despite his hawkishreputation, strategic observers

said Bashir’s selection willallow for continuity in theIndo-Pakistani peace processinitiated by Gilani and Singh.As Pakistan’s foreign secretary,Bashir has been part of thepost-26/11 dialogue process -from the thaw in Thimpu inearly 2011 to the bilateral meet-ing between the two PrimeMinisters in Maldives in No-vember last year, when Singhdescribed Gilani as “a man ofpeace”. Bashir, however, hashis task cut out for him. Several

important meetings areplanned between the two coun-tries. Apart from a meeting ofthe two home secretaries,talks are expected on the sen-sitive issues of Sir Creek andSiachen, apart from a meetingof the foreign ministers ofboth countries. The big ticketengagement will, of course, bethat of Manmohan Singh’svisit to Pakistan. Singh has inprinciple accepted PakistaniPresident Asif Ali Zardari’s in-vitation to visit that country.

19 killed in

3 afghan

suicide hitsHERAT

AfP

At least 19 people including10 policemen were killed and39 wounded in three suicideattacks in AfghanistanTuesday, officials said, asspring heralded the “fightingseason”. Defence Ministryspokesman General ZahirAzimi said “as the seasonchanges we will have morefighting than in winter”. Hetold a news conference that“attacks on Afghan forces areintensifying” as they takemore responsibility forsecurity from US-led NATOtroops who are due towithdraw by the end of 2014.Twelve people died and 28were wounded when twosuicide attackers rammed acar bomb into a governmentcompound near the westerncity of Herat, PresidentHamid Karzai’s office said ina statement condemning theattack. Women and childrenwere among the victims, thestatement said. Provincialpolice chief Sayed AghaSaqeb told reporters that thebombers were being pursuedby police when theydetonated the vehicle at theentrance to the Guzaradistrict compound along theroad from the airport to thecity. “The car was under oursurveillance. It was orderedtwice to stop but they didn’tstop,” said the police chief.“There were two individualsin the car, one was wearing aburqa. One of the bombers istotally shattered and theother person’s body is stillthere with his (suicide) veststill unexploded.” The deadincluded three policemen, aprovincial spokesman said.Just hours later, fourpolicemen died and five werewounded when three suicidebombers stormed theircompound in the southernprovince of Helmand, a localgovernment spokesman said.Two of the bombers set offexplosives strapped to theirbodies and a third was shotdead by police guarding theMusa Qala police offices inthe province, Daud Ahmadi,the spokesman for theprovincial administration,told AFP. In the third attack“a suicide bomber on amotorbike targeted a groupof local police who were ontheir way to help policeforces attacked earlier in thedistrict,” Ahmadi said.

naval promotionboard held

ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT

The Annual Promotion Boardof the Pakistan Navy Officerswas held at the NavalHeadquarters on Tuesday withall the naval field commandersand staff officers in attendance.In the conference, chaired byChief of the Naval StaffAdmiral Mohammad AsifSandila, 20 officers werecleared for promotion to therank of commodore, 33 to therank of captain, while 90 werepromoted to the rank ofcommander.Special prayerswere also offered for the saferecovery of the army officerswho are stranded in theSiachen avalanche calamity.The attendees resolved to standby the valiant soldiers and theirfamilies in this difficult time.

NEW YORKAfP

Donald Trump’s Miss Uni-verse contest on Tuesdaythrew open its doors to trans-gender models, allowing menwho have had a sex changethe chance to be crowned theworld’s most beautifulwoman.

The transgender contest-ants will be able to strut theirstuff in the internationalbeauty championships start-ing in 2013, while pioneeringsex-change model Jenna Ta-lackova will be allowed totake part this year, said gayand transgender rights or-ganization GLAAD. “TheMiss Universe Organizationtoday follows institutions thathave taken a stand againstdiscrimination of transgen-der women including theOlympics,” said HerndonGraddick, a spokesman forthe Gay and Lesbian AllianceAgainst Defamation.

“At a time when trans-gender people are still rou-tinely denied equalopportunities in housing, em-ployment and medical care,

today’s decision is in line withthe growing levels of publicsupport for transgender peo-ple across the country.” PaulaShugart, president of theMiss Universe Organization,said on GLAAD’s website:“We have a long history ofsupporting equality for allwomen, and this was some-thing we took very seriously.”The reversal of longstandingpolicy followed a campaignby Talackova, a statuesque,blonde transgender modelfrom Canada, who says sheunderwent surgery to becomea woman because she wasborn in “the wrong body.”The Miss Universe organiza-tion, owned by flamboyantand controversial real estatemagnate Trump, cited a rulethat contestants, who appearbefore judges in a variety ofgowns and skimpy clothing,must be “naturally born”women. Backed by GLAADand celebrity feminist lawyerGloria Allred, Talackova tookon the system, arguing, asAllred said, that “she did notask Mr Trump to prove thathe is a naturally born man. Orto see the photos of his birth

to view his anatomy to provethat he was male.” Talackova,23, underwent her sex changeoperation when she was 19and is identified on her Cana-dian passport as a woman.

Miss Universe gave in lastweek, saying it would “allowJenna Talackova to competein the 2012 Miss UniverseCanada pageant provided shemeets the legal gender recog-nition requirements ofCanada, and the standardsestablished by other interna-tional competitions.” Tues-day’s announcement saw that

ruling expanded to include alltransgender beauty hopefuls.Miss Universe is “close to fi-nalizing” the wording of thenew policy but it “includestransgender women in timefor the start of this fall’s 2013pageant season; a time whenmost of the competitionsaround the world begin totake place.”

The entry of transgendercontestants does not actuallymean that any woman can viefor the crown. Not only musthopefuls be between 18 and26 years old, one major tabooremains: motherhood. “No,contestants may not be mar-ried or pregnant,” the mis-s u n i v e r s e . c o m / m i s s u s awebsite says. “They must nothave ever been married, nothad a marriage annulled norgiven birth to, or parented, achild. The titleholders arealso required to remain singlethroughout their reign.” The2011 Miss Universe winnerwas 25-year-old Leila Lopes,Miss Angola, who told judgesshe was so beautiful she“wouldn’t change a thing,”but her best trait was her“inner beauty.”

WASHINGTONAfP

Rick Santorum, who pulledout of the race for the WhiteHouse Tuesday, emerged asan improbable leading con-tender for the Republicannomination, with a faith-and-family message that caughtfire with the party’s most con-servative voters.

Even as he quit the roller-coaster Republican presidentialrace, he remained the candidatewho seemed to stir more emo-tions than most, with his radicalviews on religion, women andmarriage. His dark horse presi-dential bid which turned into asurprisingly strong challenge tofrontrunner Mitt Romney, longconsidered the frontrunner butwho faced a succession of chal-lengers — most recently andperhaps most persistently San-torum — nipping at his heels.“This presidential race is overfor me,” the former US senatortold a crowd at a hastily con-vened press conference in Get-tysburg, Pennsylvania

Santorum now leaves a clearpath to the nomination for theformer Massachusetts governor,who is all but assured of lockingup the Republican party’s nomi-

nation to challenge PresidentBarack Obama in November.Despite his staid knitted sweatervest and easy boyish smile, San-torum was given to passionateoutbursts when he talked aboutGod and country which en-deared him to right-wing conser-vatives. But those same strongconservative views, born fromhis Catholic faith, are givingmany pause as Republicansstruggle to coalesce around onecandidate to take on DemocratPresident Barack Obama in theNovember elections. The 53-year-old former Pennsylvaniasenator was a virtual unknownwhen he first threw his hat intothe ring in June last year to be theRepublican Party’s nominee.

Despite being written offearly on, Santorum built hiscampaign state-by-state — aDavid and Goliath struggleagainst a Mitt Romney jugger-naut powered by a huge warchest and a solid organizationalmachine. But he faced the igno-minious prospect of possibledefeat in his home state ofPennsylvania, which is due tohold its presidential primary onApril 24, after openly declaringon several occasions that it wasa “must-win” election contestfor his foundering campaign.

ISLAMABADNNI

President Asif Ali Zardari saidthe potential for enhancingtrade and economic activitybetween Pakistan and SaudiArabia is still unexplored.

He said for tapping the po-tential it was important that ex-isting mechanisms such as theJoint Ministerial Commissionand the Joint Business Councilare fully utilised. The finalisa-tion of the Bilateral InvestmentTreaty will also go a long way inboosting bilateral economic re-lations, the president said. Hesaid this during his meetingwith Saudi Deputy ForeignMinister Prince Abdul Aziz BinAbdullah Bin Abdul Aziz at theAiwan-e-Sadr on Tuesday.

Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Ab-dullah was accompanied bySaudi Ambassador Dr AbdulAziz bin Ibrahim Al-Ghadeer,Assistant Deputy Economic Af-fairs Minister Faisal Hashmimand other officials. ForeignMinister Hina Rabbani Khar,Interior Minister SenatorRehman Malik, PetroleumMinister Dr Asim Hussain andother senior officials were alsopresent from the Pakistani side.The president said the twocountries enjoy special rela-tions marked by an atmosphereof trust, brotherhood and com-mon perceptions on all the is-

sues of mutual interest. He stated that the people

of Pakistan hold their Saudibrethren in high regard andappreciate their support intimes of distress, such as theearthquake of 2005 or anyother natural calamity. Presi-dent Zardari said Pakistan willwelcome Saudi investment inall sectors, especially in energy,oil and gas exploration andconstruction. He also reiter-ated his offer to meet the Saudimanpower requirement. Theregional situation was also dis-cussed during the meeting.

President Zardari said theregion’s countries need tofind solutions to their prob-lems. He stated that drugtrade was a main regionalissue that needed to be ad-dressed immediately. PrinceAbdul Aziz Bin Abdullahthanked President Zardariand said Saudi Arabia wasalso keen to strengthen rela-tions with Pakistan. He alsoexpressed concern on behalfof the Saudi king, governmentand people over the tragedyin Siachen. Prince Abdullahlater met with Prime MinisterSyed Yusuf Raza Gilani. ThePM said a delegation of Pak-istani businessmen will visitSaudi Arabia soon to explorenew vistas for enhancingtrade relations between thetwo countries.

Bashir is new envoy to india

Sex-change women allowedto enter Miss Universe

Santorum quitsWhite House race

ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT

The ruling coalition onTuesday night fine-tuned itsstrategy about therecommendations beingfinalised by the parliamentarycommittee on national securityon the new terms of re-engagement with US andNATO forces in war againstterrorism.

The meeting of heads ofallied parties was held at thePresidency with PresidentAsif Ali Zardari and PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilaniin the chair. The meetingwas attended by PML-Qchief Senator ChaudhryShujaat Hussain, ANPPresident Asfandyar WaliKhan, PML-Q Secretary-General Mushahid HussainSayed, ANP leader SenatorAfrasiab Khattak, MQMParliamentary Leader inNational Assembly DrFarooq Sattar, SenatorBabar Khan Ghauri, whileNoorul Haq Qadri andSenator Abbas Khan Afridirepresented the FATAparliamentarians.

Hina Rabbani Khar,minister for foreign affairs,Rehman Malik, minister

for interior, SyedKhursheed Shah, ministerfor religious affairs,spokesperson to thepresident SenatorFarhatullah Babar andSherry Rehman, Pakistan’sambassador to the US werealso present during themeeting. A source toldPakistan Today thatMushahid Hussain Sayedinformed the meeting onthe PCNS preliminaryrecommendations and toldthe meeting that allparties, except for the JUI-F, had agreed to hisproposal of linking theresumption of NATOsupplies with halting ofdrone attacks. “Thepresident asked Shujaat tocontact Maulana FazlurRehman and convince himto return to the committeeas he had agreed to initialdraft of the PCNS.However, Shujaat said Fazlhad informed him that hewas objecting to therecommendations due topolitical compulsions,” thesource said.

The source said SherryRehman also informed themeeting about thefrustration developing in the

US over the delays inopening of NATO supplyroutes and said it would beadvisable for the parliamentto take a decision soon.Spokesperson to thePresident SenatorFarhatullah Babar said theongoing discussions in thejoint sitting of theparliament on the report ofthe ParliamentaryCommittee on NationalSecurity about the contoursof foreign policy also cameunder discussion. He saidthe president briefed themeeting on his visit to Indiaand his luncheon meetingwith Prime Minister DrManmohan Singh in NewDelhi on way to AjmerSharif. The coalitionpartners congratulated thepresident on his visit toIndia and termed it a goodomen for peace in the region.The meeting expressed graveconcerns over the Pakistanitroops and civiliansentrapped in glacieravalanche in Siachen andprayed for their safety. Themeeting lauded the servicesand sacrifices of the soldiersand also previewed currentpolitical situation and othercoalition matters.

Coalition partners discuss

pCNS recommendations

no changeat foreignministry: Pm House

ISLAMABADNNI

The Spokesman of the PrimeMinister House hascontradicted a news storycarried by a section of mediaregarding the change ofPakistan’s Foreign Minister,Hina Rabbani Khar. TheSpokesman said that themedia had insinuated it fromthe Prime Minister’sstatement in the recent pastin which while welcomingthe President’s visit to India;he had said that a “newteam” would give a newimpetus to normalization ofrelations between India andPakistan.

pakistan, S arabia enjoyspecial ties: president

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:32 AM Page 4

05wednesday, 11 april, 2012

News

ISLAMABADMASooD ReHMAN

HEARING a petition seek-ing reduction and regula-tion of election expensesincurred by political par-ties during electioneering,

the Supreme Court on Tuesday observedthat the Election Commission of Pakistan(ECP) did not exercise its constitutionalpowers to monitor the expenditure of elec-tion campaigns.

This was observed by Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry whileheading a three-member bench compris-ing Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and JusticeTariq Parvez, which was hearing a petitionfiled by a noted lawyer Abid Hasan Mintoon behalf of the Workers Party.

Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haqassured the court of submitting the govern-ment’s point of view over the matter duringthe course of the day (Tuesday). “We wishthat there should be a culture of transpar-ent elections in the country, in which there

should be no projection of money,” thechief justice said. Resuming his arguments,Abid Hasan Minto argued that heavy ex-penditures on elections were a main hurdlein flourishing of real democracy in thecountry. He said culture of investment inpolitics should be ended. Justice Parveznoted that the code of conduct for thejudges had improved by bringing amend-ment into it. He said “our parliamentarianscan reform the system of election expendi-tures”. Meanwhile, the court directedMinto to conclude his arguments byWednesday (today). The court also directedHamid Khan, a party in the case, to ad-vance his arguments on Thursday. KhalidRanjha, counsel for PML-Q, contended thatthere was no need of any legislation to cur-tail the election expenditures. He said if theECP ensured implementation on the exist-ing laws on elections, the problem will besolved automatically.

Earlier on February 21, the SupremeCourt had put on notice 26 political par-ties, including the PPP and the PML-N, tocome up with replies on the petition

against heavy expenditures on elections.According to the ECP, only 26 politicalparties are currently functioning in thecountry. The petition has also pleaded forbarring political parties from holding huge

rallies and putting up banners. Instead,the petition suggested, parties should con-duct door-to-door campaigning and begiven equal slot on the Pakistan Televisionfor presentation of their manifesto.

SC reprimands ECP for not

monitoring campaign spending

ISLAMABAD: While hearing identical petitions against federal government’sleasing of gold and copper mines, including the world’s biggest goldmine of RekoDiq in Balochistan which is worth over $260 billion, to foreign companies inviolation of laid down rules, the Supreme Court on Tuesday hinted to start day-to-day hearing of the case from May 8. Ahmer Bilal Soofi, counsel for theBalochistan government, informed a three-member bench comprising ChiefJustice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and JusticeTariq Parvez that senior lawyer Shahid Hamid had been appointed as arbitratorto represent their case at the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) inParis. Meanwhile, the court adjourned further hearing until May 8. Earlier onMarch 5, the court was informed that the Balochistan government had rejectedthe appeal of Tethyan Copper Company Pakistan (TCCP) Limited for acquiring amining licence. STAff RePoRT

SC hints at daily hearing ofReko Diq case from May 8

Convert girls

cannot meet

parents: SC ISLAMABAD

STAff RePoRT

The Supreme Court on Tuesdayrejected pleas seeking meeting oftwo Hindu girls, who had allegedlybeen forced to convert to Islam, withtheir parents or husbands. The courtobserved that both girls should beallowed to make the decisionregarding theie future with theirown free will adding that the matterwill be taken up on April 18. Athree-member bench, headed byChief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry took the two applications,seeking permission for holdingmeetings with the Hindu girls in ashelter home in Karachi. NaveedShah, the husband of RinkleKumari, moved an applicationthrough his counsel MujeebPeerzada, with a request to allowhim to meet Rinkle. Likewise, DrRamesh, father of the other girl DrLata, also submitted plea throughhis counsel Nasir Mangle asking tomeet his daughter at the shelterhome in Karachi. During thehearing, Peerzada said the policewere not allowing his client to meethis wife (Rinkle). He said his clientwas also not even permitted to giveclothes to his wife. “You must beaware that she (Rinkle) wanted to gowith her mother on the last date ofhearing so let her think about herfuture until the next date ofhearing,” the chief justice said. Thecourt, however, asked the counsel togive the clothes to the Sindhadvocate general to give to the girl.Mangle also requested to allow hisclient with her daughter but thecourt declined his plea as well.

old enmity

claims three

lives in Sialkot SIALKOT

STAff RePoRT

As many as three people, includingtwo real brothers and theirsecurity guard, were killed in aclash between two rival groupsover an old dispute over cable TVin village Bhoth in the outskirts ofSialkot.According to details, armed men oftwo rival groups residing inSialkot’s cantonment police stationlimits exchanged hot words andtraded fire later on.In cross firing which continued formore than 20 minutes, threepersons belonging to both groupswere killed, while anothersustained wounds.The deceased included a formernaib nazim, Dr Iftikhar.Police have registered a case andstarted investigation.

WASHINGTONAfP

Less than a year ago, US Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton visited Indiaand declared that the relationship be-tween the world’s two largest democ-racies would shape the 21st century.

India and the United States arenow navigating some of the rockiestwaters since they began to buildcloser ties in the late 1990s, withWashington weighing sanctions un-less New Delhi significantly cuts oilimports from Iran.

No one expects a return tostrained ties of the sort seen duringthe Cold War, when India tilted to-ward the Soviet Union. But the mood

is palpably different from 2008 whenthe United States ended a three-decade ban on nuclear trade withIndia.

“You can’t expect every fewmonths or years that there’s going tobe another giant announcement. Thisis the slog — this is the long-termcommitment,” said Diane Farrell, ex-ecutive vice president of the US-IndiaBusiness Council.

Trade between the two countrieshas soared over the past decade butalso hit high-profile disputes. The nu-clear deal, meant to symbolize thenew partnership, has been at a stand-still over an Indian law on disaster li-ability.

India in December backtracked on

a plan pushed by the United States toallow foreign supermarkets such asWal-Mart into the country after anuproar by the ubiquitous mom-and-pop stores in the world’s second mostpopulous nation.

But few issues have caused asmuch friction as Iran.

A new US law, seeking to pressureIran to end a nuclear program seen byIsrael as a major threat, will slapsanctions starting on June 28 onbanks from countries that do not cutoil imports from the Islamic republic.

In public, US officials have playeddown differences and echoed Clin-ton’s July 2011 speech in Chennaiwhere she urged a greater global lead-ership role for India.

State Department number threeWendy Sherman, on a visit last weekto New Delhi, said the United Stateswill “never seek to undermine India’senergy security” but called for pres-sure on Iran “in whatever ways areappropriate for India.”

India and China, whose emergingeconomies are heavily reliant on en-ergy imports, have both opposed USsanctions on Iran. But China, and tosome extent India, are both reportedto be quietly diversifying their oilsources.

The United States has already ex-empted European Union membersand Japan from the sanctions aftercrediting their efforts to cut down im-ports.

PeSHAWAR: Transporters forcibly stop a passenger van as a countrywide strike was observed by various transport unions against the increase in petroleum and CNg prices on Tuesday. INp

US-India ties hit rough patch over Iranmunter calls

on fazlISLAMABAD: US Ambassadorto Pakistan Cameron Muntercalled on Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehmanon Tuesday, said a statementissued by the US embassy. Thestatement noted that theambassador and Fazl agreed onimproving ties between Pakistanand the United States. It notedthat Ambassador Munter toldFazl that Washington was readyto negotiate Pakistan’s newoutlines on foreign policy. Thestatement said that they alsoagreed on working jointly forregional peace. INP

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:32 AM Page 5

06wednesday, 11 april, 2012

News

ISlAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza gilani and Deputy foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz talk during a meeting at the prime

minister's residence on Tuesday. REUTERS

LAHORE STAff RePoRT

THE PML-N has sued for-mer Mehran Bank presidentfor Rs 10 billion for involv-ing PML-N presidentNawaz Sharif and Punjab

CM Shahbaz Sharif in the Mehran Bankscam.

The lawyer of Nawaz Sharif andMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif has sentlegal notices for damages of Rs 10 bil-lion each to former president of MehranBank for defamation.

It has been stated in the notices thatYounis Habib leveled fabricated andunsubstantiated allegations for damag-

ing the political and social standing ofNawaz and Shahbaz Sharif. In the no-tices served through famous legal firmCornelius, Lane and Mufti Advocatesand Solicitors, it has been stated thatNawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif wererespectable and highly revered citizensof the country and the former had twiceserved as a prime minister of the coun-try while the latter had twice been thechief minister of Punjab.

“Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharifduring their tenures took steps for thesupremacy of law in the country, ensur-ing sovereignty and strengthening ofnational economy as well as utilized allresources for the welfare of the masses.It has further been observed in the no-

tices that Younis Habib tried to conductmedia trial of Muhammad Nawaz Sharifand Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif by lev-eling false and slanderous allegationsfor damaging their political and socialstatus,” the notice said.

It has been stated that Habib gavecontradictory statements on media andchanged his stance again and again,which was proof of him being a liar.

After the receipt of notices YounisHabib should tender a formal apologyin print and electronic media within 14days of the receipt of the legal noticeotherwise legal proceedings would beinitiated against him seeking damagesof a minimum of Rs 10 billion each, ac-cording to the notice.

PML-N sues Younis Habib for Rs 10b

KABULINP

Former Taliban Ambassador to PakistanAbdul Salam Zaeef has fled Afghanistan tothe United Arab Emirates, fearing for his lifeafter US forces attempted to search hishome.

A source close to Zaeef told Al Jazeerathat US forces had tried to search his homein Kabul twice over allegations of involve-ment in an international terror plot, butZaeef’s government-provided bodyguardsprevented them. “He found life in Kabul dif-ficult, and he is currently in the United ArabEmirates. Twice they came to get him, whoknows if they might kill him the third time,”the source said.

An Afghan intelligence official confirmedto Al Jazeera that US forces tried to enter

Zaeef’s home this month, but were pre-vented. “The checkpost outside his home be-longs to us, so we were contacted when theUS forces arrived,” the official said.

“We denied them entry, and we sentback-up security to the area.” WaheedMuzhda, an Afghan analyst and former offi-cial in the Taliban government, told AlJazeera that Zaeef was summoned to thepresidential palace by President HamidKarzai last year and was questioned abouthosting and aiding two Arabs who were al-legedly plotting attacks in the US and Europefor the September 11 anniversary. “In frontof Karzai, American officials had asked himabout helping the two Arabs,” Muzhdaclaimed Zaeef told him. “They [the Americanofficials] told Zaeef that if an attack hap-pened, he would be the prime suspect.”

Zaeef was the Taliban’s ambassador toPakistan at the time of the September 11,2011 attacks on the US. After the US inva-sion, he was captured in Pakistan and sent tothe US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.He was released four years later, but hasbeen under close watch ever since. He grewto be considered an important person inhelping bring the Taliban into negotiation.Muzhda told Al Jazeera that Zaeef feared forhis life after the attempted raids. Many of theTaliban prisoners freed from Guantanamohad been killed in night raids and that madeZaeef more nervous.

Saudis expresssolidarity withPakistan overSiachen tragedy

ISLAMABADINP

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Deputy ForeignMinister Prince Abdul Aziz bin Abdullahbin Abdul Aziz met Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani at the Prime Minister’s Houseon Tuesday and discussed a range ofbilateral relations between Pakistan andSaudi Arabia. The prime minister expressedsatisfaction over the strong brotherlyrelations between the two countries andhoped that the deputy foreign minister’svisit to Pakistan would further bolster theexisting relations. Both sides agreed to asettlement leading to peace and stability inAfghanistan as well as in the region. Gilanipraised the relief assistance extended bySaudi Arabia during floods and earthquake.He particularly lauded the appeal launchedby Khadim-e-Hariman-Sharifain to raisefunds for the floods victims in Pakistan. Theprime minister emphasised the importanceof convening of a joint ministerial meetingto work out the mechanism to give impetusto trade compatible with the exemplaryrelations between Pakistan and SaudiArabia. He said he would send a delegationof Pakistani businessmen to Saudi Arabia toexplore new vistas of enhancing traderelations between Pakistan and SaudiArabia.

250 kg heroin recoveredfrom textile exports toUK; 9 arrested

FAISALABADINP

The police on Tuesday recovered 250 kgheroin from textile products that were beingdispatched to the United Kingdom (UK). Thenine people involved in the smuggling weretaken into custody. According to details, thecustom’s officials were searching the textileexports when they recovered the heroin. TheAnti Narcotics Force (ANF) respondedimmediately and arrested a textile mill ownerAbdul Latif and eight other people. Thedetainees have admitted to smuggling drugsto foreign countries under the cover of textileexports. The ANF has widened theinvestigations to nab other culprits involvedin the smuggling ring. It is worth mentioninghere that the recovered heroin amounts tobillions of rupees in international market.

india’s tank

ammunition down

to four days reserve NEW DELHI

INP

Presenting a sobering account of long-term as well as immediate challenges, asenior IAF and Army brass told aparliamentary committee that whileIndia’s window to catch up with China’sdefence modernization thrust couldclose by 2017 or earlier, stocks of certaintypes of tank munitions are down tofour days of reserves.Responding to queries posed bymembers of Parliament’s standingcommittee on defence, IAF Vice-chiefAir Marshal Kishan Nohwar said theasymmetry between India and China iswidening with Beijing’s aggressive wardoctrine powering a rapid expansion ofits military.While the IAF Vice-chief said Indiawould need to be proactive if it is not tokeep lagging China in terms of itspreparedness, Army Vice-chief Lt Gen SK Singh told MPs that there was ashortfall with regard to certain tankammunition due to an Israeli firm beingblacklisted, but the situation is not tooworrisome as sufficient stocks areavailable with regard to most weaponsystems.

Ex-Taliban ambassador

Mullah Zaeef flees to UaE

NEW DELHIINP

A Delhi court on Monday granted bailto a Pakistani couple accused of ille-gally entering India to enable them toprove that they intend to permanentlysettle in this country.

Chief Metropolitan MagistrateVinod Yadav granted bail to Imranand his wife Soofia, arrested by theDelhi Police last year, on a personalbond of Rs 20,000 and an “Indiansurety” of like amount — which wasfurnished by Imran’s parents who livein Ahmedabad — but directed them toappear in the court for every hearing.The next hearing is on April 23.

The couple, however, would notbe released from judicial custodyuntil at least April 13, by when theauthorities have been directed by thecourt to verify the residential addressof Imran’s parents.

In its order, the court noted that“initially, in the print media, both theaccused persons were branded as ter-rorists who had come to India with a

jihadi mission. But on completion ofprobe, there was nothing in the chargesheet for any such activity”.

Granting the couple’s plea thatthey be released on bail to enablethem to pursue their case and seekpermission to settle permanently inIndia, the judge pointed out that theydid not want to plead guilty and bedeported to Pakistan because theyhad submitted that “media there hasgiven them wide publicity and theywould be branded as Indian spies andapprehended”.

The court had earlier given in-terim bail to Imran so he couldprove, with relevant documents, thathe was born in Gujarat and had goneto Pakistan in the 1980s. He has toldcourt that he returned to India withthe intention to settle permanentlywith his family after his business inPakistan went under in the 2008 eco-nomic crisis. But in India, he was ar-rested on false charge that he and hiswife Soofia were part of a terror plotto kill Gujarat chief minister Naren-dra Modi, he said.

pakistani couple

detained for illegally

entering India bailed

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:32 AM Page 6

wednesday, 11 april, 2012

ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT

As education is a priority for the government, a teach-ers’ training system will be introduced, in which theIslamabad College for Boys (ICB) institutions willplay a significant role.

Prime Minister’s Task Force on Islamabad Chair-man Faisal Sakhi Butt stated this while meeting withthe ICB alumni at the Islamabad College for Boys, G-6/3 on Tuesday.

Faisal Sakhi Butt said the ICB has been providingquality education to its students in the federal capital,adding that its legacy will be highlighted by properlyactivating the old students’ organisation, which willhelp in generating financial support, enhancing thequality of education and training teachers in collabo-ration with the private sector.

He stated that this was only educational institutewhich served students irrespective of their cast, creedand social class.

He added that the ICB’s former students are serv-ing the nation at coveted posts.

He urged the management of the colleges toutilise their professional skills in providing qualityeducation to the students, enabling them to meet thechallenges of the future, both at national and inter-national levels.

Sakhi Butt said currently, it is the era of scienceand technology, therefore the introduction of newteaching techniques was necessary.

Faisal Sakhi Butt stated that proper meetings ofthe alumni will be called as per schedule to resolvethe issues, adding that a grand reunion ceremony willbe organised for the ICB alumni.

ICB Principal Professor Anwar Ali Khan said theprestigious institute has educated thousands of stu-dents in the last 30 years and that more than 500 for-mer students of the institute were working at highlevel positions in Pakistan and abroad.

ICB Vice-Principal Professor Shafqat Hussain,Professor Dr Muhammad Anwar, Intellectual Prop-erty Organisation Chairman Hameed Ullah JanAfridi, Dr Ahmad Sohail, Humayun Toro, AhsainBhatti and members of the alumni were also presentat the meeting.

ICB lauded for rolein educating youth

ISLAMABADkASHIf ABBASI

DR Marilyn Wyatt, wife ofUS Ambassador to Pak-istan Cameron Munter,joined Academy Awardwinner Sharmeen Obaid-

Chinoy in calling for an end to acid attacksand other violence against women duringa panel discussion held here on Tuesday atthe Higher Education Commission.

The panel discussion, attended by anaudience of more than 150 universitystudents and officials from across Pak-istan, was sponsored jointly by the

Higher Education Commission, theAurat Foundation, and the Acid Sur-vivors Foundation with the US support.

Applauding the efforts of the Pak-istani legislature to pass acid attack leg-islation, Dr Wyatt asked the participantsto work to end gender-based violence,specifically acid attacks. Dr Wyatt said:“The main objective of this event is toraise awareness among university agestudents about the devastating effects ofacid attacks and acid crimes on Pakistanisociety. Pakistan’s youth demographicrepresents 60 percent of the nation’s cit-izenry, it is important that you sensitizeyourself to this important issue so that

your mothers, sisters, and daughters donot suffer from this gruesome crime.”

Dr Wyatt also noted that the US as-sistance helps empower Pakistaniwomen through civil society, academia,and the government. Through the gen-der equity program, implemented by theAurat Foundation, USAID providesgrants to civil society organizationswhich work to end gender-based vio-lence, and advance women’s rights andeconomic opportunities.

Thus far, USAID has provided 76grants valued at $3.5 million for genderequity programs. These projects will in-crease civil registration enabling 1.6 mil-

lion women to vote and access govern-ment services, advocate and coordinatenational policy reforms combating genderbased violence, provide internships for200 women lawyers, and assist women re-gain property rights in flood affectedareas. The panel featured SharmeenObaid-Chinoy and Professor Hamid Has-san, a doctor who heads the burn unit atBenazir Bhutto International Hospital inRawalpindi; Dr Khadija Tahir, a psy-chotherapist that treats acid survivors;Barrister Naveed Muzaffar Khan, a barris-ter who defends victims of acid attacks;and representatives from the Acid Sur-vivors Foundation and Aurat Foundation.

dacoits gang

busted; stolen

car, weapons

recoveredISLAMABAD

STAff RePoRT

The city police claimed to have busted agang of dacoits besides arresting sevenoutlaws from various areas of the city onTuesday. The police was said to haverecovered a stolen car, two 30-borepistols and looted items from theirpossession. The Bhara Kahu policenabbed four dacoits identified asKhuram Shehzad, Aamir, Abid andNasir besides recovering mobile phonesand other items from their possession.The Shalimar police arrested twothieves Haleem and Saleem whileRamna Police ASI Irfan Ullah arrestedthree other thieves identified as UmerHyat, Zeeshan and Saif Ullah. The policealso recovered stolen items worth Rs 2,30, 000 from their possession.The Margallah police recovered a stolencar (AKA-826), from Shehbaz Ahmed.Cases have been registered against thepeople arrested and investigationsinitiated.

army wins

national Shooting

ChampionshipRAWALPINDI

STAff RePoRT

The Pakistan Army won the 19thNational Shooting Championship, heldat the Pakistan Army Rifle AssociationRanges, Jhelum. According to a pressrelease issued by the ISPR, shootingteams from all the Provincial RifleAssociations, the Army, Navy, PAF andthe Federal Rifle Associationparticipated. Lieutenant GeneralMuzammil Hussain, Training andEvaluation inspector general andPakistan Army Rifle AssociationPresident gave away the prizes. The Army won the championship with aconvincing lead, securing 24 gold, 15silver and 13 bronze medals.

Sharmeen Chinoy, Dr Wyattcall for end to acid attacks

SSP directs police for speedy investigations

ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT

Islamabad Senior Superintendent of Police Muhammad YousufMalik has directed police officials to take effective steps tocontrol crime and expedite the investigation on crime casesof heinous nature. He made these directions while chairing ameeting at Rescue 15 held to review the performance ofSaddar Zone of Islamabad police. The meeting was attendedamong others by SP (Sadda Zone) Sajid Kiani, ASP Dr GhayasGul, Station House Officers of various police stations injurisdiction of Saddar Zone, patrolling officers as wellinvestigation officers. The SSP directed all police officialsto adopt professional as well as responsible attitude tomitigate the sufferings of the people. He also reviewed theprogress of all police officials performing in Saddar Zone, andordered to devise an effective strategy to control crime. The SSP also ordered to ensure arrest ofproclaimed offender and other criminals involved in crimes of heinous nature and are still at large. Hedirected to focus on resolving public complaints and take every possible step to provide maximumrelief to citizens. He said those police officials responsible in delaying the registration of cases anddoing sluggish investigation would not be spared and strict disciplinary action would be taken againstthem. He also directed all police officials performing duties at police stations to improve theirperformance and address the grievances of the masses on immediate basis following the merit to winthe confidence and support of the people for cops’ department. SP (Saddar) assured to award thosecops performing well and also encourage to the efficient policemen. He stressed for speedy disposal ofcases and their investigation purely on merit. Policing is a service oriented job and every police officialmust serve the humanity with devotion, SP Sajdi Kiani maintained.

g faisal Sakhi butt urges adoption of modern teaching techniques

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 7

08 wednesday, 11 april, 2012

Islamabad

low

High

tHUrSday friday SatUrday26°C i 17°C 24°C i 16°C 24°C i 16°C

Prayer timingSfajr Sunrise zuhr asr maghrib isha

04:16 05:42 12:09 16:45 18:38 20:02

City direCtory

PoliCe emergenCy 15

ambUlanCe 115

reSCUe 1122

Hilal-e-aHmer 9250488

edHi foUndation 2827844

bomb diSPoSal 9270698

fire brigade Centre 16

CiVil defenCe 9262830

emergenCy HelP

HoSPitalS

blood banK

PimS blood banK 9261272

Poly CliniC blood banK 9209123

ComPlaint

waPda 111-000-118

SUi gaS 1199

railwayS

City Station (enqUiry) 117

reSerVation 9273614

railway PoliCe 1333

airPort

fligHt enqUiry 114

Pia reSerVation 111-786-786

CollegeS / UniVerSitieS

international iSlamiC UniVerSity 9260765

baHria UniVerSity 9260002

nUml 9257677

qUaid-e-azam UniVerSity 90642098

arid agriCUltUre UniVerSity 9290151

fJwU 9273235

riPHa international UniVerSity 111510510

nCa rawalPindi 5770423

PUnJab law College 4421347

maHroof int 2222920

PimS 9261170

Poly CliniC 9218300

Cda 9221334

SHifa international 4603666

ali 4444435

diStriCt HqS 5556311-14

UltraSoniC CliniC 2824862

Holy family 9290319

MOnSTER TRuCK In ISLMAbAD

monster truck in islamabad.

DRuMMIng CIRCLE

date and time: 05:00 Pm, weeKly eVentVenUe: tHe Centre for artS & CUltUre

our drumming circle is a (free!) ongoingevent and is held every friday from 5pmto 6pmwe are having a great time, and want toshare the good time with you! ourdrumming circle has children ...

HeaVy rain SHower

weatHer UPdateS

23°C

date: mar 20 - aPr 21, 2012 VenUe: f-9 ParK, iSlamabad

15°C

FOLK FESTIVAL

folk festival has got stalls representingdifferent cultures living in Pakistan.additionally there is a folk musicians areperforming in open air theatre.

date: aPr 06 - 15 2012VenUe: loK VirSa - ifH (iSlamabad)

ISlAMABAD: A woman traffic police official delivers a lecture to the students on the importance of using overhead pedestrians’ bridge for crossing road at

Islamabad expressway. ONLINE

Slogging helps kidsresolve reading problems

ISLAMABADAPP

SLOGGING helps chil-dren resolve readingand writing problemsbetter than the tradi-tional tuition offered by

schools, a new study shows.The study trained, by educa-

tionists from the University ofGothenburg, more than 50 nine-year-olds with reading and writingproblems for 40 minutes’ daily for12 weeks, Times of India Reported.

The training comprised inten-sive and structured exercises in un-derstanding the alphabetical code.It also incorporated space for cre-ativity, play and curiosity, accord-ing to a Gothenburg statement.They were then compared with anequivalent group that had beengiven the traditional remedial tu-ition offered by schools. “The un-derlying problem is a limitedphonological ability,” or “limitedawareness of the sounds that makeup spoken words”, says UlrikaWolff, lecturer in education atGothenburg who led the study.

The results show that childrenunderwent training coped signifi-cantly better than their peers giventraditional remedial tuition, andthat they did so in all of the areastested word decoding, spelling,reading speed and reading compre-hension. “Structured and individualteaching meant that these childrenmade significant progress.

Reading and writing difficultiesoften lead to low self-esteem and

poor self-confidence, which canmake learning to read even moredifficult for children,” says Wolff.PAK PoweR StAtIonSSHouLD Run At fuLLCAPACIty, SAyS exPeRt: Anenergy expert and former memberWater and Power DevelopmentAuthority (WAPDA) Sardar Tariqhas said that Pakistan has ageneration capacity of 21,000 MWswhereas the demand for electricityis 14,000 to 15,000 MWs.

Talking to Radio Pakistan, Sar-dar Tariq said that they are gener-ating only 8000 to 9000 MWs asthey should have opened power sta-tions. He maintained that they aregenerating 70 percent of our elec-tricity by thermal power which con-sumed furnace oil, whereas 30percent electricity is being gener-ated by hydel power.

He said with the sky-rocketingprices of furnace oil they are unableto provide funds to the Independ-ent Power Producers (IPPs) to runtheir plants at full capacity.

The energy expert said shortageof recovery and electricity theftshould be checked for contributingin the ongoing energy crisis in thecountry. Sardar Tariq stated thatnew projects fueled by Thar coaland Hydel power projects will haveto be initiated. He also asked thatdemand for electricity has de-creased due to closure of industrybut the crisis is due to the non pay-ment to IPPs. He said Pakistan hasmassive coal reserves so theyshould explore ways to utilize thisshare of coal in power sector.

fRIeD fooD gooD foRHeALtH: StuDy: A new studyhas revealed that fried food isalways helpful for good health.

Contrary to just about every-thing you may have heard about thedangers of fried food, it has turnedout that it may be helpful for yourhealthy lifestyle.

In fact, according to a newstudy, it is a myth that regularlyeating fried foods causes heart at-tacks. There is mounting researchthat it is the type of oil used in fry-ing the food that really matters.Researchers in UK followed40,000 people for 14 years andfound the amount of oil they con-sumed made no significant differ-ence in the incidence of heartdisease. The research, published inthe British Medical Journal, ismore evidence, dietitians say, thatpeople should switch to healthieroils from saturated fats like butter,lard and palm oil.DIALogue PRoCeSS MuStfoR KASHMIR ISSue, SAySfARooq: All Parties HurriyatConference Chairman MirwiazOmar Farooq has said that peopleof the Kashmir welcome contacts ofIndian and Pakistani leaders.

Talking to private news chan-nel, he said that “We have seenmeetings of leaders of both coun-tries but their meetings becomeevents. We need constant processin which Kashmiri people play theirdue role”.

He said that after meeting ofleaders of both countries, we are atsquare one, Kashmir is a core

issue. Constant platform of nego-tiations is necessary for furtherprogress and development. To aquestion he said that people wantimprovements of human rights inKashmir. If India continues bru-talities in Kashmir, the talks willbe useless.

Permanent process of dia-logue with inclusion of Kashmirileaders is necessary. Without in-volvement of Kashmiri leaders,the process cannot make anyheadway, he added.

Meanwhile, Mirwaiz Umar Fa-rooq said that Kashmir is incom-plete without Kashmiri Pandits.

The APHC Chairman, while in-teracting with a joint delegation ofCivil Society and Kashmiri Panditsthat called on him at his Nageenresidence in Srinagar said, Kash-miri Pandits are an inalienablepart of our society and withoutthem Kashmiri society is incom-plete, Kashmir Media Service re-ported. “We have always said thatwe want Kashmiri Pandits to re-turn. For them the doors of ourhearts are always open. The Mus-lims are ready to receive them withopen arms,” he said.

Meanwhile, the APHC Chair-man in a statement paid glowingtributes to the noted Kashmiri reli-gious scholar, Maulana ShowkatAhmad Shah, on his first martyr-dom anniversary.

Remembering the sincere reli-gious and social services ofMaulana Showkat, the Mirwaiz re-iterated the pledge to take his mis-sion to its logical end.

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 8

09wednesday, 11 april, 2012

Islamabad

ISLAMABADAPP

experts have confirmedwhat parents and teach-ers already feared thatyoungsters who useFacebook do worse in

exams.A study showed that most pupils

who regularly surf the social network-ing site under-perform in tests some byas much as a grade, Xinhua reported.

The American research found thatFacebook rituals, including building anempire of friends, adding applications,joining groups and ‘poking’ otherusers, can swallow up hours of studytime. Some users were spending as lit-tle as an hour a week on academicwork. ‘Our study shows people whospend more time on Facebook spendless time studying,’ said Aryn Karpin-ski, a researcher in the education de-partment at Ohio State University.

‘Every generation has its distrac-tions, but I think Facebook is a uniquephenomenon.’ While it focused onFacebook, the findings are also thoughtto hold true for other social networkingsites. It involved only university stu-dents, but usage among younger chil-

dren is high and growing.For the study, the researchers

quizzed 219 undergraduates and post-graduates about their study habits andtime spent on Facebook. They foundthat 65 per cent of Facebook users ac-cessed their account daily, often check-ing it several times to see if they hadreceived new messages. Some spent justa couple of minutes during each log-inbut others were surfing for more than anhour. The study said that 68 per cent ofstudents who used Facebook had a ‘sig-nificantly’ lower grade point average themarking system used in US universitiesthan those who did not use the site.

‘It is the equivalent of the differ-ence between getting an A and a B,’said Karpinski, who will present herfindings this week to the annual con-ference of the American EducationalResearch Association.

However students appeared to bein denial about the effect of their usageon their academic performance. Themajority did not feel it had an impacton their work. In Britain, 83 per centof 16 to 24-year-olds use social net-working sites such as Facebook, Beboand MySpace.University student DaisyJones, 21, said: ‘I was in the library try-ing to write a 2,000-word essay when

I realised my Facebook habit had gotout of hand. ‘I couldn’t resist going on-line. You do that, then someone’sphoto catches your eye.’Before youknow it, a couple of minutes has turnedinto a couple of hours and you haven’twritten a thing.’ A study by the Na-tional Literacy Trust recently showedthat one in five youngsters aged sevento 15 never reads books outside schoolbecause websites and blogs are becom-ing their reading matter of choice.

Pupils ranked social networkingsites, blogs, general websites and mag-azines above books in a survey of theirreading habits.A quarter of youngstersdid not believe that being a proficientreader would help them achieve suc-cess in future.

Research has also shown thatyoungsters are spending up to sixhours a day in front of a screen.Theyare turning their bedrooms into multi-media ‘hubs’ with TVs, computers,games consoles, MP3 players and mo-bile phones all within easy reach.

A spokesman for Facebook said:‘There is also academic research thatshows the benefits of services likeFacebook.’It’s in the hands of students,in consultation with their parents, todecide how to spend their time.’

doctors urge

for adopting

dengue preventive

measuresISLAMABAD

APP

Medical experts have advised citizens totake special preventive measures toprotect themselves from dengue virus.According to them, people shouldproperly dispose off solid waste and stopwater storage practices in their homes toprevent access to egg-laying femalemosquitoes. They said mosquitoes breedprimarily in containers like earthenwarejars, metal drums and concrete cisternsused for domestic water storage, as wellas discarded plastic food containers, usedautomobile tires and other items thatcollect rain water. Dr Sharif Astori of theFederal Government Poly Clinic (FGPC)told APP that dengue was a mosquito-borne infection, which in recent yearshad become a major public healthconcern. He said dengue fever was asevere, flu-like illness that affects infants,young children and adults. He added thatthe spread of dengue is attributed toexpanding geographic distribution of thefour dengue viruses and of theirmosquito vectors, the most important ofwhich is the predominantly urbanspecies aedes aegypti. He said the rapidgrowth of urban population was bringingever greater numbers of people intocontact with this vector, especially inareas that were favourable for mosquitobreeding like where household waterstorage is common and where solid wastedisposal services are inadequate. DrAstori said dengue viruses weretransmitted to humans through the bitesof infective female aedes mosquitoes. Headded that mosquitoes generally acquirethe virus while feeding on the blood of aninfected person. He stated that aftervirus incubation for eight to ten days, aninfected mosquito was capable, duringprobing and blood feeding, oftransmitting the virus to susceptibleindividuals for the rest of its life. He saidthe virus circulated in the blood ofinfected humans for two to seven days,approximately the same time they sufferfrom fever. He added the clinical featuresof dengue fever varied according to theage of the patient.

22pc voters choose

candidate on political

affiliations: PollISLAMABAD

APP

According to a Gilani ResearchFoundation Survey carried out by GallupPakistan, 22 percent voters say theychoose a candidate based on his politicalparty. A nationally representativesample of men and women from acrossthe four provinces was asked “What isthe most important reason for which youhave chosen the candidate you want tovote for in the upcoming elections? I amgiving you seven options, kindly thinkand tell me which one is most importantfor you.” Responding to this 22 percentclaim that they intend to vote for thecandidate based on his/her political party.

ISlAMABAD: Relatives of late Sobia Sheraz stage a protest demonstration in support of their demands outside the National Press Club. ONLINE

Pupils who spend time on Facebook doworse in exams

ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT

The Riphah Youth Festival 2012, organ-ised by the Riphah International Univer-sity (RIU) began at its Rawalpindi andIslamabad campuses on Tuesday to bringtogether people from all walks of life, in-cluding students, teachers, parents andmultinational companies.

This is the second youth festival or-ganised by the university and will con-tinue up to April 14. The programmesdesigned for the youth festival include

games, competitions, a poster exhibitionand a social evening.

Students of various faculties ofthe Riphah University and other educa-tional institutions of Rawalpindi, Islam-abad and other cities are taking part inthe contests that include debates andQirat and Naat competitions.

RIU Pro-Chancellor Hassan Muham-mad Khan formally opened the festivalduring a colourful ceremony held at themain campus of the university.

Speaking on the occasion he said suchactivities are an essential part of the uni-

versity’s curriculum to help promote asense of healthy competition among theyouth. He lauded the efforts of the univer-sity’s faculty members, the managementand students for organising the event.

RIU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr AnisAhmad said the RIU is imparting profes-sional education with the inculcation ofIslamic ethical values. He advised thestudents taking part in various games andcompetitions, to follow ethical values intheir co-curricular activities.

The games and competitions for fe-male students are being held at the Al-

Mizan campus in Rawalpindi while thosefor the male students are being held atthe main campus in Islamabad.

In the Qirat competition held on Tues-day, Qaisar Muhammad of the Interna-tional Islamic University Islamabad gotthe first position among the male partici-pants. RIU’s Zulaqarnain Haider stoodsecond, while Syed Rehan Bukhari stoodthird. In the Naat competition, Hafiz Ar-salan of the RIU stood first, while Muham-mad Faisal Asif of Hamdard University gotthe second position and Syed RehanBukhari of the RIU was declared third.

Among female participants, MairaHassan Kiyani of the RIU got the firstprize in calligraphy while Sabahat Nazand Maria Sajid of the same universitygot second and third prizes respectively.

In the Naat competition, Zikra of theRIU stood first, while Wajiha of the sameuniversity obtained the second position.Saba Shokut of the Fauji Foundation Med-ical College was declared third. In the Qiratcompetition, Mubashira Yaseen of the RIUstood first, while Zikra Zulfiqar and SairaHira of the same university obtained sec-ond and third positions respectively.

Riphah University launches Youth Festival 2012

international day

of Street Children ISLAMABAD

APP

The International Day of Street Childrenis celebrated every year on April 12 whichprovides a platform for the millions ofstreet children around the world to sharetheir voices about their rights. In 2012 thetheme for the International Day for StreetChildren is `challenging perceptions’. TheInternational Day for Street Children waslaunched in 2011 by the Consortium forStreet Children (CSC), bringing togetherits 70 members to raise awareness ofstreet children by being `louder together’.The day is celebrated by street children,NGOs, policy makers, celebrities,corporate and individuals across theglobe. Since the first international day in2011, the United Nations commissioned areport into street children in order to bebetter able to protect and promote theirrights. Street children are often ignoredand stigmatised. They have no support,no family, school, healthcare; they faceviolence and hunger daily. Unlessgovernments take responsibility andchange policy and practice to includestreet children, for every child helped,another two will be forced onto thestreet. The International Day for StreetChildren gives a louder voice to millionsof street children all around the world sotheir rights cannot be ignored. Streetchildren need to be on nationalgovernment’s policy agendas and theirspecific needs recognized and addressed.By raising further awareness andworking with governments to activelyinclude these children in policy andpractice, it will make a direct impact onthe lives of the estimated 100 millionstreet children worldwide.

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 9

10wednesday, 11 april, 2012

Islamabad

ISLAMABADAPP

tHE World Health Organi-zation (WHO) and UnitedNations International Chil-dren Emergency Fund(UNICEF) has said that

currently 2.5 billion people still lack im-proved sanitation in the world.

According to a report issued byUNICEF and WHO, the world is still farfrom meeting the Millennium Develop-ment Goals (MDG) target for sanitationand is unlikely to do so by 2015.

Only 63 percent of the world nowhas improved sanitation access, a figureprojected to increase only to 67 percentby 2015, well below the 75 percent aimin the MDGs.

UNICEF and WHO also cautionedthat since the measurement of waterquality is not possible globally, progresstowards the MDG target of safe drinkingwater is measured through gatheringdata on the use of improved drinkingwater sources.

Significant work must be done to en-sure that improved sources of water areand remain safe. Water, sanitation and

hygiene are key to improving health anddevelopment, said report.

The report highlights the immensechallenges that remain. Global figuresmask massive disparities between re-gions and countries and within coun-tries. The report confirms that in caseswhere water supplies are not readilyaccessible, the burden of carryingwater falls dis-proportionately onwomen and girls.

In many countries, the wealthiestpeople have seen the greatest improve-ment in water and sanitation access,while the poorest still lag far behind.

The report provides the latest updateon rural areas across the globe, high-lighting the need for greater attentionboth to water and sanitation.

In rural areas in least developedcountries, 97 out of every 100 people donot have piped water and 14 percent ofthe population drinks surface water forexample, from rivers, ponds, or lakes.

Of 1.1 billion people who still prac-tice open defecation, the vast majority(949 million) live in rural areas. TheUnited Nations General Assembly hasrecognized drinking water and sanita-tion as human rights.

2.5 billion people still lack improved sanitation in world

ISlAMABAD: lawyers belonging to PTI wing protest against price-hike and petroleum price. STaff pHOTO

rs 1b projects

completed in

cantonment areas

RAWALPINDIAPP

The provincial government hascompleted a number of developmentprojects for welfare of people incantonment area costing Rs 1 billion.Official sources sharing details of theprojects informed that Rs 40.80million have been spent to providefurniture and other missing facilitiesat Khadiga Degree College. Talking toAPP they said, Rs. 20 million havebeen given to Degree CollegePeshawar Road while around 10primary schools have also beenupgraded and given status of middleschools besides an overall grant of Rs4 million. Besides, some moreprojects worth Rs two billion are inpipeline, which will be completedshortly, they stated. They apprisedthat Chur Chowk to Pirwadhai flyoveris at initial stage, which would helpensure smooth flow of traffic in thecity. PC-I of the project has beenfinalized, while work on it would bestarted soon after release of therequired funds. One governmenthospital having state-of-the-artfacilities would also be established inthe Cantonment area aimed at helpingthe suffering humanity, for which aformal request have been forwardedto Chief Minister Mian ShahbazSharif. Talking to APP, MemberNational Assembly Malik IbrarAhmed said the Punjab Governmenthas launched and completed a recordnumber of development projects inRawalpindi in the four years. He saidRs 10.3 million have been disbursedin all high schools of the area toensure provision of missing facilitiesat the educational institutions.

Pakistan to have

new australian High

Commissioner ISLAMABAD

APP

The new Australian HighCommissioner to Pakistan PeterHeyward is likely to take up his newannouncement in June.A statement from the Australian HighCommission Tuesday said Heywardwill replace Timothy George who hasbeen High Commissioner since June2009. Heyward is a senior careerofficer with the Department ofForeign Affairs and Trade, and wasuntil recently Assistant SecretaryAfrica Branch, a position he heldfrom June 2011. Prior to this, he wasAssistant Secretary, ConsularOperations Branch. Heywardpreviously served overseas asAustralia’s Ambassador to EastTimor; Ambassador to Brazil, alsoaccredited to Colombia andVenezuela; Deputy PermanentRepresentative, AustralianPermanent Mission to the UnitedNations, Geneva and Deputy Head ofMission, Australian Embassy,Argentina. Recalling the long-standing friendship built on acommon heritage as members of theCommonwealth, the embassy statedthe “two countries have significantshared interests, including mutualstrategic interest in combatingterrorism and extremism.” Australia is committed to working inpartnership with Pakistan in itsefforts to confront security threatsand to build economic prosperity andenhance development. It pointed thatthis includes assisting in dealing withthe impact of recent devastatingfloods. “Our relationship ischaracterised by solid bilateral tradeand economic links, increaseddefence and law enforcementcooperation and an expandeddevelopment cooperationpartnership.

traders protest

against Pol prices,

load shedding

and inflationISLAMABAD

STAff RePoRT

Members of the trader community tookout a protest rally on Tuesday againstthe increase in petroleum prices, load-shedding and inflation.The rally started from the Saudi PakTower and culminated in front of theParliament House. The protesters,hailing from Rawalpindi and Islamabad,condemned the government’s policiesand asked it to withdraw the increase inthe prices of POL products. They saidfailure to do so would compel them totake extreme steps. They stated thatthey were facing more than 10 hours ofelectricity load-shedding every day.Jamil Ahmad, a businessman, said: “Theprices of all food items have gone up by20 percent and transport fares have alsoincreased due to the increase in thepetrol and CNG prices, but thegovernment is completelyunconcerned.” Faisal Sheikh, a residentof sector I/10, said nobody was listeningto the problems of the common man.“We don’t have faith in any politicalparty in the country,” he said. He addedthat the residents supported the traders’call to protest.

ISLAMABADAPP

The World Homeopathy Day 2012 wasobserved across the globe includingPakistan with the aim to explore moreup-to-date treatments to cure the dif-ferent kinds of diseases.

Different processions and rallieswere held at Gujarat, Gujranwala, Mul-tan, Dera Ismail Khan, DG Khan andother cities emphasising the real im-portance of Homeopathy treatment ofall the diseases. Homeopathy is highlyscientific, logical, safe, and effectivemethod of healing the diseases as it of-fers long lasting and permanent cure,treating from its roots.

April 10 is the birthday ofrenowned scientist Dr Samuel Hahne-mann who created and developed thesystem called homeopathy. It is alsoknown as similia similibus curentor or“let like be cured by like”. The good as-pect of the homeopathy treatment isthat it is capable of curing a personcompletely and there are no side-effectsfrom this mode of treatment.”

Homeopathy, or homeopathic med-icine, is a holistic system of treatmentthat originated in the late eighteenthcentury. The name homeopathy is de-rived from two Greek words that mean“like disease.” The system is based onthe idea that substances that producesymptoms of sickness in healthy peoplewill have a curative effect when given invery dilute quantities to sick people

who exhibit those same symptoms.Homeopathic remedies or homeopathicmedicine are believed to stimulate thebody’s own healing processes. Peoplearound the world require medicines atone time or the other. Some people usedirect medicines like antibiotics andothers opt for alternative therapies likehomeopathy, ayurveda, etc.

Currently the alternative healthcareindustry is approximately Rs 7,000crore of which Homeopathy accountsfor 14 percent of around Rs 630 crore.Homeopathy has also been witnessing

25 percent yearly growth from the past5 years.

Homeopathy is the revolutionary,natural medical science. It is gentle andan effective system of medicine. Theremedies are prepared from naturalsubstances to precise standards andwork by stimulating the body’s ownhealing power.

Homoeopathy does not treat super-ficially by just driving away the symp-toms but heals the patient from within.Undoubtedly, homoeopathy is the med-icine of the future.

World Homeopathy Day

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 10

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk. Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

Editor’s mail 11wednesday, 11 april, 2012

indian proddingWhile a barrage of senior US officials

started pouring Pakistan in an attempt toreduce the tension between the twocountries, Washington is still enteringinto a fresh controversy by making newdemands to prosecute the founder ofbanned Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Muham-mad Saeed with announcing a $10 mil-lion reward for information on him. Thepolitical gurus interpret this new USmove as a motivated campaign againstPakistan on the prodding of India. TheUS announcement of bounty on HafizSaeed also meant to pressurize the on-going parliamentary review committeethat is rewriting ‘terms of engagement’(including suspension of the NATO sup-plies) for the future cooperation withNATO troops in the US-led war on ter-ror.

It is very interesting that instead ofappreciating Pakistan’s efforts againstMumbai suspects, India has hingedeverything on the prosecution of HafizSaeed. How can Pakistan take actionagainst Hafiz Saeed on the basis ofhearsay and conjectures? So much so, In-dian interior minister has been continu-ously urging the US to intervene in theissue and press Pakistan to act againstHafiz Saeed.

In the wake of on-going thorny US-Pakistan relations, the recent statementof US State Department spokespersonMark Toner that it wanted the founder ofbanned Lashkar-e-Taiba to be prose-cuted and jailed, is totally uncalled fordevelopment. Pakistanis want desper-ately for Americans to do good things inPakistan.

Pakistan has experienced huge lossesfighting insurgents at its own borders,nearly 6,000 troops and between 30,000to 40,000 civilians. It will be unbecom-ing of America to pressurise Pakistan’snascent democracy at a critical stagewhere Pakistan is facing with plethora ofserious challenges. Under these circum-stances, the US must not react impul-sively on the prodding of Indians hawks.

NOOR-UL-HUDAIslamabad

lack of street lightsThere is a lack of street lights on the

main road leading to Gulistan-e-Johar. Ilike to apprise that our area is inhabitedby more than 2000 flats on both thesides of the road. The electricity boardhas installed poles on either side of theroad to supply light to the residents, butthese are just poles, not the electricity.

There is apprehension of some majoraccident taking place because the trafficpasses through this road mostly after 7pm. The necessity of electrification re-quires no emphasis. In addition to acci-dents, cases of thefts and robbery canalso not be denied. Darkness may lead toany kind of mishap. It may also be statedthat many residents reach their homeseven after late hours in the night.

The residents pay house tax to themunicipality regularly but the facility ofstreet lights is denied to them. The mat-ter has been taken to the authorities timeand again, every time mere assuranceswere given but the problem persists as itis. The authorities concerned must wakeup from slumber and solve the problem.

FARYAL RASHEEDKarachi

all-weather talks“Al-Qaeda plotting another 9/11 style

attack from Afghanistan”, said US am-bassador to Afghanistan. (April 1).

One’s unknown tomorrows, theother’s unforgettable todays.

Z A KAZMIKarachi

on israelWhy do I say only now – That the nuclear power Israel en-

dangers anAlready fragile world?Because that must be saidWhich may already be too late to

say tomorrowThese are few verses from a poem

by Guenter Grass, a German Nobel lau-reate. These fact were good enough tocause a widespread anger in both Ger-many and Israel.

Israel has declared him a ‘persona-non-grata’ and barred him from enter-ing the country. He has been accused ofbeing anti-Semitic, his Nazi era past(when he served Waffen SS during theWWII) was immediately blamed for hisbad mouth against the state of Israel.

In other words, whoever dares tocriticize Israel, regardless how genuineis the criticism – whether its Israeli nu-clear program, occupation of Arab terri-tories, siege of Gaza, is liable to belabelled as anti-Semitic. It’s a bid to si-lence the criticism and make a scene forwould-be-critiques.

Are these not facts that Israel hasbeen running an ambitious nuclear pro-gram, Israel has refused to return topre-1967 war borders, has been behav-ing as an apartheid state for its Arabcitizens and Palestinians in West Bank,despite all sort of pressure from humanrights activists and organizations Israelhas refused to lift the Gaza siege?

We all accept that Israel has gotsome very influential and powerfulfriends, that’s why it is able to do what-ever it wants in the name of security,however, it doesn’t mean that peopleare not even allowed to call a spade aspade. Tirelessly claiming as beacon ofdemocracy in the region, Israel shallnot behave like a dictatorship andapartheid regime.

Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyan described Grass’ work as ‘ig-nored and shameful declarations thatany fair person in the world must con-demn’. I don’t know in which world Bibiis living, that’ why he appears to bequite surprised by the criticism. Per-haps he believes in See No Evil, HearNo Evil but doesn’t believe in Do NoEvil.

MASOOD KHANJubail, Saudi Arabia

gender discriminationI invite the kind attention of the Ho-

nourable Chief Justice of Pakistan to therecent advertisement published in thenewspaper, for regular commission inthe Pakistan Army 130 PMA longcourses.

Under the eligibility conditions, thefemales are not allowed to apply and onlymales are eligible. This is discriminationwhen the constitutions of Pakistan guar-antees equal rights to the citizens irre-spective of their gender, when 50 percentof the citizens are female, and they havealready proved that they are capable offlying fighter jets and can perform thosejobs that have been the domain of malesearlier.

Why deprive the females from serv-ing the country as an army soldier or anofficer? Islamic history does have femalecommanders who fought wars. Arecourage and bravery the domain of malesonly? Why should we not respect theright of women to have equal participa-tion in the affairs of the state?

S T HUSSAINLahore

dargah diplomacyAll governments we have had have

claimed, in their own way, one thing forsure that they want good relations withIndia. I do not understand this and wishif your readers can apprise me with theirviews.

What good relation means? And whyis it the desire of Pakistan to have goodrelations? Disputes between the two areunresolved and multiplying both in num-bers and magnitude. Since lots of waterhas flown under the bridge since 1947,Kashmir dispute has remained outstand-ing and for all intents and purposes, it

has been sent to cold-storage by ourrulers for safe keeping.

India has violated Indus WaterTreaty of 1969 blocked our water in theirown typical styles. Siachen is another dis-pute. Zia-ul-haque applied ‘cricket diplo-macy’. Musharraf applied ‘Taj Mahaldiplomacy’. Now Asif Ali Zardari applies‘dargah diplomacy’.

These diplomacies neither createdany way in the past nor will they createany headway now. India remains hostiletowards Pakistan when it comes to grant-ing any margin. India gets away smartly

internationally. India has made progresseconomically in all these years and cannow be called a ‘super power’. Indiathwarts China in consumer goods mar-ket.

India blackmails US and gets civilnuclear programme. India has naughtyIsrael in its pocket. Indian small-indus-trial giant is ready to unleash into Pak-istan having sick and sickening economy.MFN status to India is around the corner.India is all well planned and we are busyinventing diplomacy terms.

Individuals like Rahat Fateh Ali,

Veena Malik, Wasim Akram, Ali Zafar,Aisam-ul-Haque etc are making full useof Indian dominance in their respectivefields. And now I read Babar Awan, hav-ing been ditched by his god fathers, hasgone to Dehli to try his luck there. Let usnot keep harping on old and outdatedpublic-rally rhetoric and dictums. Let ussit with India to resolve outstanding andserious issues on one to one basis. Weneed some wisdom. But the question isdo we have some?

AMJAD H MIRZALahore

Balochistan: ready to explode

Silent trend-settersOnce Karachi University comprised

such clued-up and inspiring teachers injournalism as Professor Shariful Mu-jahid, Inam ur Rahman, Dr Sajid Zakariaand Mr Mohsin Ali, in the visiting fac-ulty, who were not only assets for theuniversity but were trend-setters of posi-tive thinking and practice in journalism.Like teacher like student, Shahida Kazi, aKU student of journalism turned pioneerof a woman reporter with an illustriousbackground in media and a teacher andmentor of students in journalism, is stillat work as a source of inspiration tomedia students and young professionalsalike.

Among KU’s cherished assets aresuch noble and humble men of letters asAbul Khair Kashfi, Asif Noorani, AslamFarrukhi, Farman Fatehpuri, GhulamMustafa Khan, Ibn-e-Insha, MuhammadAli Siddiqui, Imran Nazar Hosein,Jameel Jalibi, Jamiluddin Aali, ManzoorAhmad, Moinuddin Aqeel and others.While Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, and ProfDr Atta ur Rahman need no introductionas KU alumni being instrumental in Pak-istan’s nuclear capability and higher edu-cation reforms respectively, Dr KhalidaGhous, Justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqiand Mr Muhammad Taqi Usmani are KUalumni of credibility in human rights, lawand jurisprudence respectively. Remem-

bering late Dr Mrs Khursheed Haider,late Dr Abdul Qadeer and late Dr Mu-jtaba Rizvi as KU’s distinguished facultyin international relations, one recalls ofthe same department the legendary Pro-fessor Dr Ehsan Chaudhry and ProfessorShamim Akhtar. KU’s faculty in econom-ics range from the academic excellenceand research acumen of late Dr EhsanRasheed to the national and internationalcredibility of Dr Shahida Wizarat.

Pakistan’s universities, whether it isBahauddin Zakaria University, Multan;Islamia University Bahawalpur; GomalUniversity D I Khan; Punjab University,Balochistan University, Peshawar Uni-versity, or for that matter, our medicaland engineering colleges and others, qui-etly have such illustrious but humblealumni that need to be discovered astrend-setters for the youth. It is wherediscovering is the key to cherishing andbenefiting from what may be called areservoir of national strength.

PARVEZ JAMILKarachi

the trickle down effectThe latest episode of Indian Army

Chief V K Singh having confrontationwith the political establishment is notnew. In 1959, the Indian army Chief K SThimmayya also resigned when he had toface a similar situation on the issue of ap-

pointments and promotions of army per-sonnel. Then in 1992, another army ChiefS F Rodrigues declared that governanceof the country was very bad under thethen Prime Minister Narisima Rao’s govt.In 1999, the case of sacking of IndianNaval Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwatover criticism on interference in promo-tions caused ripples and hot debate in themedia.

The latest controversy started overthe date of birth of Indian Army Chief VK Singh. He wanted extension in hisservice to complete his stipulated tenure.But the failure in doing so hurt his pro-fessional ego and the chief of the armyprojected himself as an egoist and self-centred person. He made public that howprevious director general of defence in-telligence offered him bribe and the de-fence secretary remained quiet.

The issue was still being debatedwhen he came up with a letter written tothe Indian govt over the issue of Indianarmy’s weaknesses. Such an attitude atthe army chief level is going to affect themorale of his troops directly and the na-tion indirectly. The irony is that the nextIndian army chief to take over charge isalready having a tainted image on the al-legation of fake killings in Indian HeldKashmir. His case is going to open a newPandora’s Box if challenged in the court.

ANWAR PARVEENIslamabad

There is no secret that Balochistan remained marred withviolence repeatedly challenging the writ of the government.Notwithstanding the Baloch Sardar’s traditional lust for ab-solute power and money, the fact that the province was allowedto slip out of hands proves federation’s criminal neglect over allthese years, especially the last four years that professes recon-

ciliation.Now that the resolutions are being discussed in the global

power centres, our state machinery has still not moved to re-trieve the province from the brink of impending disaster.

ENGINEER JAVED IQBALIslamabad

Who is not familiar with the impor-tance of education? Our Holy Prophet(PBUH) said that acquisition of educa-tion is necessary for both men andwomen. Education has great importancein Islam. With the passage of time theimportance of education has grown to agreat extent, especially in the last coupleof years.

In developed countries, education isconsidered as an investment. The pacewith which technological changes aretaking place all over the world have revo-lutionised every aspect of human life. Inorder to cope up with these changes, oneneeds to be well educated.

Unfortunately, the educational fieldin our country has a lot of problems.

Nothing has been done to introduce anybig change in our educational system.

Firstly, our education system is notbased on Islamic principles. With due re-spect, I would like to say that our educa-tion is too materialistic in its outlook.There is no harm in pursuing educationfrom the West, but we should not forgetthat we are Muslims first and we havecertain responsibilities.

The present confusion and corrup-tion in the society can only be cured ifpeople are familiarised with the teachingof Islam at a very young age.

Secondly, we should be aware of thatfact that Pakistan is a developing coun-try. We need doctors, engineers, agricul-turist, specialist, expertise and more

skilled workers in every field of life. Thegovernment should provide all facilitiesto in order to make people work harderand selflessly for the betterment of ourcountry. We should have more technicaleducation and colleges. This will solvethe problem of unemployment to a greatextent. Moreover, we will be able to getrid of foreign experts, who harm morethan help.

Another major problem of our educa-tional system is the use of old and obso-lete curriculum. Most of the books arepublished by some foreign publisher.Some are published in Pakistan, but theyare not up to date. They are not fulfillingthe needs of present era and cannot com-pete with international standards. The

learned men and scholars in the countrymust devote themselves to writing newbooks according to our social and cul-tural requirements. IT education shouldbe given a considerable share in syllabus.

Our system is not a sure test of one’sability. The system should discouragecram work and all possible steps shouldbe taken to ensure originality of thoughtsand an aptitude for research work.

It’s time now that all of us shouldanalyse ourselves and should realise ourduties and responsibilities towards Pak-istan. We should envision to stand withthe advanced and developed nations ofthe world.

AFFAN MATIKarachi

focus on education

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 11

Comment12wednesday, 11 april, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – 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

only for the very rich

on election expenses

Aperception is arising that with candidates spending ineight figures to win seats in the provincial andnational assemblies and many times more in the caseof the senate seats, the legislative assemblies are

turning into exclusive millionaires’ clubs. The facts are soobvious that these are recognised also by political leaders andthe courts. Last month, both Khurshid Shah and Ch Nisar AliKhan publicly complained that large amounts of money hadchanged hands during the Senate polls. On Monday, hearing apetition seeking a curb on election expenses the CJ observedthat various lobbies invested money in the elections to come inthe government. Unless action is taken to bring electionexpenses under control, neither a middle class man nor a smallparty would be able to take part in elections.

Not that there is a lack of laws to regulate electionexpenses. Under Representation of the People Act (RPA) 1976presently a candidate cannot exceed the limit of Rs 1.5 millionin case of an election to a National Assembly seat and Rs 1.00million in case of a Provincial Assembly seat. Other Sections ofRPA make it obligatory for a contesting candidate to submitthe return of election expenses within 30 days of thepublication of the name of returned candidate. Despite thepresence of the legal requirements, these cannot be enforcedbecause the lawmakers have failed to create animplementation machinery.

While hearing arguments on the petition a learned judgeasked the counsel not to “put the burden of 180 million(people) on the court” and asked him why he had notapproached the parliament for curtailing expenditure in thegeneral elections. It is encouraging that the courts are realisingthat they cannot resolve all the issues under the sun. In casethe SC drops the hot potato, either the parliament or theElection Commission have to take up the challenge to make itpossible for a middle class man and smaller parties to contestthe elections.

Who does what

talking and dying

War, said Odysseus to Achilles, is young men dyingand old men talking.The old men are talking these days. For thetragedy at Siachen has stirred up debate on

wisdom of the war itself and the old men are frothing at themouth. Row upon row of home-grown Sun Tzus are waxingstrategic about why this glacier is the only thing that liesbetween our way of life and compulsory Sanskrit lessons forour kids.

The Indians started Siachen. Does that mean we cannotend it? We can, but not without Indian concessions on thefront as well. But the prospects of all that went bust with theKargil adventure. One general, Zia-ul-Haq, let Siachen happen;another general, Musharraf, ensured it stays that way.

Pakistan spends roughly one million dollars a day tomaintain its presence on the glacier. India spends more. Theyboth lose more soldiers to the elements than they do to enemyfire. The guns, after all, did fall silent in 2004. All subsequentcasualties are because of the penetrating cold.

To segue into subsequent tragedies, the forces of the statusquo will want to use the ongoing tragedy, which is now puttingat great risk even the lives of the rescuers, what to speak of theunfortunate soldiers under the avalanche, to brand astreasonous and ungrateful all those questioning the merits ofthis absurd theatre of war.

In the dystopian future that Orwell painted in 1984, heimagined a troika of world powers fighting perpetually overmarginal pieces of land. These conflicts were designed suchthat there actually never is a decisive outcome. Only for thewar machine to keep running. It doesn’t take a ravingconspiracy theorist to conjecture that there would be high-altitude warfare contractors content with the Siachen conflict.It would even make sense, considering economies of scale, tohave the same profiteer serve both sides; keeping elements onboth sides happy.

The recent tragedy should serve as an impetus for us tothrash out an understanding with the Indians. There needs tobe a calibrated withdrawal from the ice from both the armies.Modalities on what should happen in the likelihood of warcould be worked on. The presence of both sides could beaccepted as theoretical constructs.

These brave young men, our hearts go out to them andtheir families, shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Changing dynamics of the ppp

Political parties are integral todemocracy. It is not possible toconceive of functional democ-racy in the absence of openlycompeting political parties

that subscribe to constitutionalism anddemocracy. A political party can be in-strumental to promoting political cohe-sion and building nationwide politicalarchitecture if it thinks and acts in termsof the whole nation or country ratherthan limiting itself near-exclusively to aparticular ethnic, linguistic, regional orreligio-cultural identity.

A meaningful political presence andsupport in all four provinces implies thatthe activities of a political party must beconsequential for the politics inside dif-ferent provinces or regions rather than aparty simply having some token officesand recruiting some members to claiman all-Pakistan standing.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has atangible presence in all four provincesand Gilgit-Baltistan. Its members of theparliament get elected from all provincesand it is also present in all provincial as-semblies.

The PPP-led coalition governmentsat the federal level and in Sindh andBalochistan have been functioning sinceMarch 2008. However, these govern-ments have not been successful in ensur-ing good and effective governance andaddressing socio-economic problems ofthe people.

The major predicament of the PPP-led federal government is that it couldnot get over the survival question be-cause it faced challenges from politicaladversaries and state institutions. Themilitary top brass built pressures on it

from time to time with refer-ence to their professional andcorporate interests. TheSupreme Court has also keptstrong pressure on the federalgovernment in the cases filedby political adversaries of thePPP. The Supreme Court, andat times, the High Courts, tookup matters relating to the fed-eral government ontheir own, what is de-scribed as the suo-motu action. Theprime minister facesa contempt of courtcharge because of hisrefusal to theSupreme Court direc-tion to revive criminalproceedings againstPresident Asif AliZardari in SwissCourts. The opposi-tion parties also causeproblems for the fed-eral government ei-ther by street protestor by taking politicalmatters to theSupreme Court foradjudication. Thishas turned political

survival into a higher priority over per-formance.

The federal government did not col-lapse under these pressures mainly be-cause the PPP leadership succeeded inbuilding and sustaining partnership withother political parties. President Asif AliZardari has been instrumental to build-ing political partnership and he also won-back the MQM when it decided twice towithdraw from the coalition. The coali-tion partners – PPP, ANP, MQM andPML(Q) – are expected to be accom-modative towards each other in the nextgeneral elections.

The political survival strategy is partof the changes that have taken place inthe PPP over the years. These changeshave helped the party to address the cur-rent challenges but caused complaintswithin and outside the party of compro-mising its ideology and pursuing politicsthat negated its political heritage. A num-ber of PPP leaders that played key role inits politics in the earlier period are alien-ated from the present leadership. How-ever, with a few exceptions thesealienated leaders continue to subscribe tothe PPP ideology and its political legacywhile maintaining distance from the cur-rent top leadership.

The present day PPP is different fromthe PPP of the first phase, 1967-1977, onfour major counts. First, the leadershipof Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) owed its ori-gin to popular struggle and mass mobili-sation during 1967-71. It cultivated firmroots in the people. In the current con-text, the PPP leadership fell on the shoul-ders of Asif Ali Zardari and BilawalBhutto from above after the demise ofBenazir Bhutto. Had Benazir Bhuttobeen alive, the composition of the topPPP leadership would have been differ-ent.

Second, ZAB legitimised his leader-ship through his actions in favour of thepeople. He talked of the present agoniesof the people and gave them a vision forthe future that gave him legitimacy. Thecurrent PPP leadership seeks legitimacyfrom the past. They talk of ZAB and Be-

nazir Bhutto to seek support for them. Third, the ZAB era was marked by

ideological clarity. He stood for socialismand state control of major sources of eco-nomic power. There were people duringthose days who opposed socialism. Bothsides were clear about the future direc-tion of the society. Currently, there is ide-ological confusion in the PPP and theoutside. There is no definite vision for thefuture of Pakistan. There are high flyingslogans that are supportive of modifiedcapitalism.

Fourth, political context has changedover time. ZAB came to power against thebackdrop of socio-economic changes inthe 1960s by industrialisation in the con-text of maximum freedom to private sec-tor and free enterprise. ZAB mobilisednewly emerging socio-economic classesand activated the hitherto non-active sec-tions of the populace. Pakistan’s currentpolitics is shaped mainly by the fallout ofthe political and military changes in andaround Pakistan in the 1980s and the1990s that increased religious orthodoxy,religious-cultural intolerance, militancyand terrorism. All this makes governancea more complex task than was the case inthe past.

As Pakistan approaches the generalelections, the PPP leadership will have toadopt a host of measures to sustain itscommanding position. It needs to put itshouse in order by strengthening interac-tion between the leadership and its ded-icated workers. Party machines needs tobe activated by the leadership at all levelby seeking out the workers.

The federal government can improveits image if it manages shortages of elec-tricity and gas. It needs to inform thepeople how prices of oil products are de-termined, starting from oil’s prices inter-national market to what a consumer paysat the petrol and gas stations.

Electricity and gas shortages have ad-versely affected industry and increasedunemployment and poverty. If the fed-eral government cannot manage powerand gas shortages, it will suffer from ir-reparable electoral losses.

Corruption in the officialcircles may be exaggerated bythe media but even the sympa-thisers of the PPP say that ithas increase over the years.The government must be seenas working towards controllingit.

Further, the leadershipand their immediate familiesshould avoid life of glamourand pursue a low profile lifestyle. If the PPP leaders cannotaddress these issues, they willfind it difficult to sustain theirpresent position simply by in-voking the past. They need tostrengthen performance legit-imacy.

The writer is an independ-ent political and defence ana-lyst.

The party of the past is not the party of the present

By Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi

With elections around the corner, most political partiesare now gearing up for them. Not only are their leadersnow making statements that are designed to lure the

public’s vote, most political parties are now treating every pub-lic gathering like campaign rallies and trying to ensure that allof these have high turnouts. Many parties are still calling for‘early’ elections even though the tenure of the incumbents is al-most up.

Currently, the biggest issues facing the masses of Pakistanare that of law and order, unemployment, gas and power load-shedding, hyper-inflation and so on. These have brought frus-trated the masses as is manifest in the frequent protests anddemonstrations taking place. This should make all the politicalparties do some introspection and question their own strate-gies. While they have already started to flex their muscle for theupcoming elections, have any of these parties started to comeup with tangible solutions to any of these problems?

The incumbent government has neither succeeded in fetch-ing peace nor has it done something commendable to address

and ameliorate the poor condition of the citizens of the country.Back in 2008, people put their trust in the incumbent rulers asthey were democratically elected and thus had the people’smandate and were making all kinds of tall promises. But thegovernment has only disappointed the people. There is little orrather no hope left that the hanging issues can be addressed bythe incumbents in the one year that they have left (assuming noearly elections).

But having said this, the call for early election are not goingto benefit anyone either. Firstly, the opposition parties woulddo well to understand that the government completing itstenure will strengthen democratic processes. Also, practicallyspeaking, if any of the opposition parties are able to come ingovernment after early elections on the back of the governmentdismal governance problem, they will only inherit the currentgovernment’s problem and not be able to control things like theprice hike, loadshedding etc. So, they would do well to utilisethe remaining time to come up with proper manifestoes andcampaigns rather than wasting time calling for early elections.

– Translated from the original Pashto by Abdur RaufKhattak

Switching to election modeDaily Khabroona

Regional Press

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 12

Comment 13wednesday, 11 april, 2012

Pakistan Railways is dead; long live Pakistan Railways!

Speed, Service, Safety

In my article On Exten-tions, dated March 27, Iwrote: “Saeed Akhtar has

been given an extension as GMRailways. He has the reputa-tion of someone who alwayskeeps a briefcase by his sideand apparently is on very goodterms with Bilour.” On the30th, an accountability courtgranted NAB a 15-day remandfor the GM, for selling scrap onlower rates. Defence counselAdvocate Asad Butt maintainsthat his client has beenwrongly accused, adding thatthe ministry handled the con-tract and that his client hadnothing to do with it. Thecourt has fixed April 14 as thenext date of hearing.

Kamran Khan has done alot of reports on corruption inthe buying of railway engines,but the whole issue had caughtmy attention when I got toknow that Saeed Akhtar wasgiven a straight third exten-sion after his retirement! Rail-way scrap has said to havemade industrialists in Pak-istan – Nawaz Sharif has beenallegedly accused of scrapstealing too. From dopers toGMs, scrap attracts everybody;in a country where railwaylines and live high-voltagepower lines are stolen, impos-sible is nothing.

From booking clerks to op-erations, management, ticket-ing and Inspector of Works –which is a scale-16 job that re-quires lacs in bribes to get ap-pointed – there is corruptionin each and every departmentof PR. TV channels often userailway stations and enginesheds for shooting and if youare willing to part with around5k, the staff is happy to let youuse engines like a rented bicy-cle although an engine con-sumes more than Rs 3500

worth of diesel on ignitionalone, not to mention directstealing and selling of the fuel.Railway unions provide amplecover for all these activities –Peoples Labour Union and Ja-maat-e-Islami’s PREM unionare especially notorious.

PR also has its own police.Originally this force wasn’t adeterrent for thieves and otheranti-social elements becauselet alone facing up to dacoits,it was scared to the marrow ofthe local policemen. It’s truethat a railway police officialused to travel with every train,but he was regarded by all andsundry as a harmless individ-ual, like the vice-captain of acricket team. (I must acknowl-edge here that there are rarebut notable exceptions. Case inpoint: our very own M. Hafeez,who despite having an averageof 27 after hundred odd ODIs,can’t be messed with, on ac-count of being the undisputedProfessor.) Thankfully, the im-potence of the Railway policeis a thing of the past now; eversince there is an IG, DIG andDSP deputed for railway po-lice, they aren’t afraid of any-body anymore; although somehaters maintain that this hasresulted in institutionalising ofcorruption. Well you can’tplease everybody.

It is a myth that the PRonce used to earn out of pas-senger trains. Even at the bestof times, it was consideredgreat if it managed to breakeven, because it was more of asocial service. The Railways’real earning was transporta-tion of goods to and from theKarachi port. Ten trains weredispatched every day; now ithas dropped to two a month.The main reason behind it issaid to be the lack of engines.Bilour saab ordered 69 en-gines, all turned out unfit towork; and instead of fixingthem, he ordered 70 more! Butthere is another factor in-volved too: the Railways trans-port lost its credibility: the waythings go missing from NATOcontainers, the cargo startedgetting stolen and appearingin markets.

And then there is the NLC.It started getting a lot of busi-

ness that traditionally PR en-joyed. That is the differencebetween an organised and anunorganised institution. Thiscan also be seen in Balochis-tan, where markets are beingconstructed and there is someinfrastructure development aswell, but people are wonderingwhy all of it is being done bythe FC? Where is the local gov-ernment? People of disputedKashmir also have similar is-sues with India.

PR has a lot of land inMayo Gardens and inKhanewal, Rorhi, Lodheran,Multan, Karachi etc, where itis ‘occupied’ by mostly servingand retired Railways officers,and which can presumably beput to great use with some will.We have all heard about theRoyal Palm but that’s not all. Aformer DS Railways oncewrote a letter to a Corps Com-mander stating that the armyhad a lot of railway land, andasking for suggestions on howto retrieve it. The CC report-edly advised him to give up theeffort, graciously offering toname one road on each land‘Railway Road’ instead. Ac-cording to the PR report pre-sented to the SC, 87 acres ofland has had so far been re-trieved from illegal possession,but that has been mainly bydemolishing huts of the poor.According to the report, Pak-istan Army is in possession of1,059 acres, Pakistan Air Force1.4 acres, Pakistan Rangers496 acres, Janbaz Force 5acres, Frontier Constabulary2.5 acres, Frontier Corps 0.34acres and FWO 2.3 acres.

While I write all this, anEnglish daily in its epaper re-ports ‘Railways & Army settleland dispute’, though it is notreported anywhere else, itmost probably is true. The re-port states while some of theland has been retrieved, mostof it has beenregularised/leased on mutu-ally agreed terms. The ques-tion arises if it is based onmutual understanding or it isa Hobson’s choice for PR?

The writer is a member ofthe band Beygairat Brigade.

By Ali Aftab Saeed

Religion and politics an unsuitable concoction?

Clemency matters

At the height of an Akali ag-itation in the eighties,Punjab chief minister

Parkash Singh Badal, then out ofoffice, reached Delhi under theguise of a truck driver and burnta copy of the Indian constitution.He personally did not agree withhis Akali party’s fiat but wentalong with the decision as a disci-plined soldier. Subsequently, heregretted his act of burning.

I don’t know whether Badalhas felt the same way after filinga mercy petition to the presidenton the clemency of Balwant SinghRajoana who has been sentencedto death. The Punjab andHaryana High Court has ad-judged him an accomplice in themurder of former chief ministerBeant Singh. Mixing religion withpolitics has been the bane ofAkalis. But I thought they hadcome out of their contradictoryposition. The manner in whichthe party and the governmentconnived at the “unrest” in thestate a few days ago indicates thatthe passion of religion still has thebetter of the community.

Most unfortunate was therole of the Akal Thakt. It is ahighly respected seat of Sikhs andmany others in the country lookup to it with prayers on their lips.Its hukamnama on the clemencyof Rajoana meets the norms of re-ligious assertion but mocks at thelaws and the courts in the coun-try. The decision was not politicbut it conveyed the impressionthat the highest religious author-ity of the Sikhs could have a per-spective that went against theethos of democratic secular soci-ety. The twin principle of “miripiri” (polity and clergy) does notfit into the religious fervour.

What happened in Punjabduring the agitation over the

clemency of Rajaona reminds meof the lawless and brutal dayswhich the state went throughsome years ago. Once again themessage of the recent happeningis that a few determined people,fired by religious fanaticism,could dictate an agenda whichmade Punjab an uncertain state.The nation heaved a sigh of reliefwhen the fire of extremism wasextinguished in Punjab and itbegan to live like a normal Indianstate since three decades ago.

A similar kind of indignationswept through Tamil Nadu whenNalini, a culprit in the RajivGandhi murder case, had servedher life sentence and was ready tobe released. Even the state as-sembly passed a resolution forclemency. Sonia Gandhi’s familytoo did not oppose the clemency.But since the release went againstthe spirit of the judgment, shewas kept in jail along with threeothers. Yet the state did not wit-ness the stir which Punjab did,nor did any party make a politicalcapital out of it as the Akali did.

I personally think that hang-ing should be dropped from thestatute book because it is me-dieval in practice, tit for tat, atooth for a tooth in attitude. Some125 countries in the world havedone away with the death sen-tence. India too without banningthe hanging was more or less fol-lowing the practice till a few yearsago, without specifically sayingso. Even the Supreme Court en-dorsed it by underlining in ajudgment that hanging shouldtake place in the “rarest of rare”cases. But surely, the results saysomething else. The statisticsshow that the cases of deathpenalty were the highest in thefive years following the SC’s ad-vice.

There is no go from a parlia-ment act to stop the hanging. It istime that the political parties inthe country paid serious attentionto the proposal. The sentenceshould be for life, meaningthereby that the guilty should notbe released till his death. Alterna-tively, we can adopt the practicefollowed in America where thecourt gives a sentence for 40, 50or 80 years. In any case, the sen-tence of hanging is reprehensibleand should stop.

Yet the existing law has toprevail till the abolition of hang-ing. What I saw in Punjab was notthe protest against death sen-tence but defiance. True, the sit-uation would have taken an uglyturn if Balwant Singh Rajoana’sexecution had taken place. Yetwhat it conveys is that how weakthe state has become over theyears in fighting against somemotivated elements who decideto mock at the law. The five-starfacilities provided to Bibi JagirKaur, once a minister but now aconvict, in jail takes the cake.Does the government realise whatthe messages it gives to the peo-ple? Is it the extension of the gov-ernment’s double standardsshown in the case of Rajoana?

The point at issue is notwhether Balwant Singh Rajoanashould be given clemency butwhether the pressure and the vi-olence threats should be used toget a favourable decision. Whenthe state government itself be-comes partisan, it sends out awrong signal. It was alarming tofind a few officials at Gurdaspurnot rising to the occasion andputting down a communal riotfirmly. That the government sus-pended or transferred themshows that it woke up to its du-ties. But then the damage hadbeen done.

What hurts me more thananything else is the attitude of thePunjab chief minister. How couldhe file the clemency petitionwhen Rajoana does not wantclemency, as he has said in writ-ing? How does the state govern-ment come into the picture whenthe step is legally, leave apart thefact of clemency, questionable?

It is another matter that Ra-joana should not be hanged be-cause the death sentence is anoutdated practice which thecountry should have abandonedlong ago. The Badal government,I am afraid, has only proved thatwhen the option is between reli-gion and politics, it opts for thefirst. That the BJP is an integralpart of the Punjab governmentdoes not surprise me because ittoo mixes religion with politicswhen it suits the party.

The writer is a senior Indianjournalist.

Border CrossingsBy Kuldip Nayar

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 13

NEWS DESK

Pakistan’s well known fashion designerSaim Ali is working on his first ever fashionvideo to go with his collection to be show-cased at the Bridal Couture Week 2012.After creating so many dazzling collections,Saim Ali has come up with the idea of apromotional video for his latest fashioncollection. Fashion models, such as SadiaFaisal, Amna Babar, Kiran Butt, AyeshaAzhar, Asma Zernab, and Fia from FQ Pro-ductions will be seen in Saim Ali’s promo-tional video. Makeup artist Hussain hasdone the hair styling and makeup of themodels. The video is directed by Qasim Ali,assisted by Habib Mushtaq. The event co-ordinator is Ali Khan from FQ Productions.

Lopez's 'Dance Again' video slammed for being ‘too racy’

14 wednesday, 11 april, 2012

Saim Ali presents promotional video of latest collection

KARACHI: Designers present their collections at Fashion Pakistan Week. PHOTOGRAPHS BY: IMRAN ALIFASHION

Abhishek-Ranbir

to form the

All Stars Football Club

MUMBAI: india's favourite filmstar amitabh bachchan waspreparing for a medical scantuesday after suffering from"horrendous" pain less than twomonths after undergoingabdominal surgery. the 69-year-old bollywood legend said on hisblog that he had been struckdown on Sunday night. "i rosefrom my desk to get to bed, butexcruciating pain, stopped me inmy tracks and i found it difficultto walk to stand to sit to liedown. quite horrendous!" hewrote. "this was not there postoperation even ... so what reallyis the reason for it two monthsdown the line? i have no answer.but tomorrow there should beone as i prepare for a Ct Scan."bachchan, who still acts inseveral films every year, wasdischarged from a mumbaihospital late in february afterundergoing surgery twice for anabdominal problem. the actorspent weeks in hospital in 2005after bowel surgery, including oneweek in intensive care. He alsonearly died following an accidenton the set of the 1982 film‘Coolie’ where he ruptured hisspleen during a fight scene. AfP

LOS ANGELES AgeNCIeS

J ENNIFER Lopez's video for ‘DanceAgain’ has riled up some critics.Writhing around in with your 25-year-old lover may make for goodTV, but not everyone is happy with

Jennifer Lopez's new video for ‘DanceAgain’. In a recent interview with Radar, arep for the Culture and Media institute did-n't mince words when going after Lopez."Jennifer Lopez's skanky new video showshow desperate she is to retain her fame de-spite her fading relevance," Dan Gainortold the site. The video, which debuted on‘American Idol’ last week, and has rackedup nearly 10 million views on YouTube, ispretty typical pop fare, with Lopez dancingaround and running her hands over herselfand other dancers. Lopez's choreographerand boyfriend Casper Smart figures promi-nently in the video. "Nobody knows whatI'm feeling inside," Lopez sings. The chorusof the track is simple enough: "I wannadance and love and dance again." Pitbull isalso featured on ‘Dance Again’. It's Lopez'ssecond recent collaboration with the Cubanrapper, as the duo also put out ‘On theFloor’. Gainor said the big issue with thevideo is the fact that it premiered during ashow watched by children. "Even the sup-posedly family-friendly TV shows like‘American Idol’ are never safe in the handsof Hollywood," he said. "Such videos aren'tappropriate for any children to watch, in-cluding Lopez's own twins." Despite thefact that it debuted on such a popularshow, the song was neither on the Bill-board singles chart nor the iTunes Top 10.

Saif replaces Salman in Sajid's next MUMBAI: reportedly, Saif ali

Khan has replaced SalmanKhan in Sajid nadiadwala's'Judwaa 2'. the romanticcomedy will be directed bySajid Khan. interestingly,this project brings SajidKhan and Saif ali Khantogether for the first time.Very few know that Saifwanted to sign Sajid as adirector to make films forhis home production,illuminati films. but beingvery loyal to Sajidnadiadwala, Sajid politelydeclined the offer.apparently the duo wasdestined to work together.Sajid nadiadwala announced‘Judwaa 2’ which will be asequel to david dhawan'sdirectorial venture Judwaathat had Salman in the lead.to see Saif in a double roleand in a comic caper willcome as a welcome changeafter the kind of films hehas been a part of the inthe recent past. AgeNCIeS

MUMBAI: they are heirs to perhaps the two biggestfamilies of the Hindi cinema industry. and now theyhave joined hands for a completely different ball game- football. abhishek bachchan and ranbir Kapoor willbe a part of an all stars football club that'll play threematches every year. the exhibition match to flag offthis unique collaboration will be held in delhi this June.apart from bachchan and Kapoor, several other actorswill also be a part of the club. though they have beensworn to secrecy, ranveer Singh, arjun rampal, dinomorea, zayed Khan, rahul bose, Shabbir ahluwalia andHarman baweja are already on the list. tennis playersleander Paes, mahesh bhupathi, cricketers Sreesanthand mohammad Kaif, tV actor Karan wahi and modelsmarc robinson and Hrishant goswami will also join theclub. according to the source, the all Stars football

Club will play againstbusiness firms andngos and also withinthemselves."bollywood stars,cricketers and sportspersonalities fromother fields can be aheady mix. every gamewill be a professionalgame of 90 minutes,"added the source. theproceeds from thematches will go forcharity. the decisionabout will be taken bythe team membersthemselves. AgeNCIeS

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 14

Lindsay Lohan says

club battery claim

‘one big lie’

15

Vaneeza’s Vlawn launches V Limited Edition and V Luxury Prints

LOS ANGELESReUTeRS

L INDSAY LOHAN, on thecomeback trail after beingreleased from formal probationlast month, strongly denied aclaim that she had shoved a

woman in a West Hollywood nightclub.Lohan's spokesman said the 25 year-old‘Freaky Friday’ actress was never at thenightclub in question and called theallegations "malicious and unfounded."Police said they were investigating a

battery report filed by a woman whoclaimed that Lohan had pushed andshoved her in an argument over a man at anightclub at the Standard hotel. "Lindsaywas never at the club and the whole thingis one big lie. Whomever started this willbe held accountable for their malicious andunfounded accusations," said Lohan'sspokesman Steve Honig. Lohan, who hasmade multiple trips to jail, rehab and courtin recent years, was released in Marchfrom almost five years of formal probationstemming from a 2007 drunk driving andcocaine possession arrest.

LOS ANGELES AgeNCIeS

Director Martin Scorsese isplanning to make a biopicabout American singer andactor Frank Sinatra. The'Goodfellas' filmmaker has re-vealed that he has already metwith writers to develop theproject. Sinatra died of a heartattack in 1998, aged 82. Scors-ese is hoping to bring the RatPack star's life story to the bigscreen but he says he's strug-gling to come up with a fo-cused script, although hehasn't ruled out developing aSinatra TV miniseries. "I'mtalking to one or two writersnow. Where do you start? Imet this writer who I thinkcould do a lot with it, but (we)have to get a hold of the story,"he told ETOnline.com. “I lovethe idea of a miniseries be-cause, as long as you stay rea-sonably on budget, you havefreedom, which is very difficultto find in the cinematic mar-ketplace," he added. And whilehis long-time pal Leonardo Di-Caprio, who Scorsese directedin both 'The Departed' and'Shutter Island', has expressedan interest in taking on the

lead role, the Oscar-winningdirector is keeping his optionsopen. "Leo's always talkedabout doing it, but what if thestory takes you in a completelydifferent way? We could go foran unknown. Maybe the per-son who plays him isn't impor-tant. Maybe it's distracting tohave a star in that role," hesaid. But it is clear that Scors-ese's choice for Sinatra won'tbe singing in the project as hesaid, "You can't have someoneelse sing! It's got to be Sina-tra's voice. It's tricky."

Martin Scorsese settingsights on Sinatra biopic

Rolling Stones back in thestudio? Guitarist Woodsays they'll give it a gonew yoRK: Ronnie Wood says theRolling Stones will meet in a recordingstudio later this month "to just throwsome ideas around." The guitarist forthe legendary rock group said he andthe band just want "to get the feelagain." He also added that the RollingStones 50th anniversary is like trainingfor something big. Wood made the com-ments in an interview following a pressconference for his exhibition, ‘Faces,Time and Places,’ which features hisown paintings, including pieces of himand his band mates, as well as Muham-mad Ali and Al Pacino. Wood's weekwill get busier when he is inducted intothe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as amember of The Faces, along with RodStewart. The Rolling Stones were in-ducted in 1989. He also talked aboutpossibly recording another solo album."Lots of people don't know I've madeseven, ‘cause most of my albums es-cape; they're not released," he said,laughing. "Keith (Richards) says they allskyrocket to oblivion." AgeNCIeS

Singer-actress Miley Cyrus hates being called anorexic LoS AngeLeS: Miley Cyrus can’tstand people that call her anorexic. The19-year-old, daughter of Billy Ray Cyrushas taken to her Twitter account to slamher accusers and explain the real reasonwhy she’s avoiding certain food, re-ported Aceshowbiz. "For everyone call-ing me anorexic I have a gluten andlactose allergy. It’s not about weight it’sabout health. Gluten is crapppp any-way!" Cyrus posted on her Twitter page.When a fan responded to her tweet bysaying, "Gluten free food is sooo good &healthy!", she urged her fans to try "nogluten for a week" and pointed out itsbenefit, "The change in your skin, phy-isical (sic) and mental health is amaz-ing! U won’t go back!" AgeNCIeS

AmitabhBachchan to undergo

scan

MUMBAI: Kunal Kohli's ‘teri meriKahani’ starring Shahid Kapoorand Priyanka Chopra is on thebrink of release. the film spansover three time period rightfrom 1912 to 1960 to 2012.while Chopra related to her2012 character, Shahidconnected to his characterbased on 1912. Said Shahid:"i related to the Javed of1912. there was so much ofme in it. whether he wascoming up shayari orplaying a lover to the hilt,he was just the way i am.there is so much of magicin him. and there is somuch of me in him. Javedis the man every womanwould love to meet. also,he is shown belonging toan era of 1912 that is whatmakes it special." Priyankaenjoyed playing the 2012role. "She is the girl oftoday so obviously irelated to her. like me,she is very contemporaryin her outlook andbelieves in living her lifeto the fullest. i enjoyedplaying that character,"Priyanka said. AgeNCIeS

NEWS DESK

Designing lawn since 2006,Vaneeza Ahmad Ali introducesa new designer lawn collectionfor her pioneering brand Va-neeza Vlawn Prints this April.Further, Vaneeza innovateswithin her lawn repertoire tointroduce two brand new lines:Vluxury Prints Collectionand the Limited EditionCollection. This year Va-neeza’s Lawn is anessence of a multi ethniccelebration of colour anddesign. Rich patternsof Jamavar andbold representa-tions of psyche-delic truckunique to Pak-istan have beenbrilliantly incor-porated as thelatest state-ment of Pak-istani fashion.The Topkapiand Shang-

hai bring colourful imagesfrom the glorious Ottoman andOrient eras. Inclusion of otherethnic impressions, crochetand lace introduce the currentinternational ramp trends ofsummer 2012. This season’saesthetic is bold and innova-tive, retaining the design phi-

losophy and ethos ofcreating prints which

are trendy and have amodern, contempo-rary feel to them.The V LuxuryPrints, LimitedEdition and VLawn Prints col-

lections will belaunched in aseries of exhi-

bitions to beheld in Karachi,

Lahore and Islam-abad from the 21st

of April 2012 andwill be available atretail outlets andselect stockistsacross Pakistan.

Salman Khan to play a conjoined twinMUMBAI: ‘Chillar Party’, director Vikas bahlis all set to tackle another sensitivesubject- conjoined twins, except that thetreatment will be of an out-and-outmasala flick. the film, being scripted bySanjay Chel and Vikas, will star SalmanKhan in the lead, if all goes as per plan.Vikas bahl confirmed the news, saying, "iam writing a film on conjoined twins. i amin the process of finishing the script andwanted Sanjay Chel on the project. So,both of us are finishing it." asked whetherSalman would play the lead, bahl chose tobe non-committal, "i don't know. i knowone thing for a fact that i will definitelyget an audience with him if i have a goodscript. and i want to cast someone likehim in the film. However, i haven't spokento him about it." meanwhile, a source inthe know of the project revealed, "Vikasbahl made an extremely sensitive film like‘Chillar Party’ and after watching the film,Salman Khan loved it so much that heagreed to lend his name as producer ofthe film, going all out to promote it. nowVikas is busy setting up his project andwants Salman to play the lead as he isextremely close to him." AgeNCIeS

Priyanka-Shahid's

‘Kahani’

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 15

wednesday, 11 april, 2012

16 Foreign News

OSLOReUTeRS

NORWEGIAN AndersBehring Breivik was sanewhen he killed 77 peoplelast summer in attacks hesaw as punishing pro-im-

migration "traitors", a psychiatric teamsaid on Tuesday, contradicting a priorreport that found him psychotic. Breivikhas insisted he is mentally stable anddemanded that his attacks - the most vi-olent in Norway since World War Two -be judged as political rather than thework of a deranged mind.

His trial on terror and murdercharges is scheduled to start in Oslonext week and last 10 weeks. The newreport could give judges grounds to sen-tence Breivik to prison.

Breivik, 33, has admitted detonat-ing a bomb that killed eight people atgovernment headquarters in Oslo onJuly 22, then massacring 69 people withgunfire at a Labour Party summercamp. Most of the summer camp vic-tims were teenagers.

"We're talking about psychosis, andwe have found no evidence of it," psy-chiatrist Asgar Aspaas told reportersafter submitting the 310-page reportbased on weeks of round-the-clock ob-servation.

Aspaas was one of two experts ap-pointed to provide a second opinionafter a previous team using differentmethods found Breivik to be a psychoticwho also suffered from paranoid schiz-ophrenia. The initial finding caused apublic uproar.

"It's a completely open question

now," said Jo Martin Stigen, a Univer-sity of Oslo law professor. "I don't thinkwe can rule out that he will be consid-ered legally sane in the end."

The dueling psychiatric teams areexpected to defend their diagnoses incourt, an unusual event in Norway. Thefinal ruling will be made by a five-judgepanel as part of its verdict at the end ofthe trial.

Breivik's attorney, Geir Lippestad,has said he would call political expertsand historians to testify that Breivik'sworld view is shared by others. Hewould also call a radical Islamist clericwho holds a similar view that Europeanand Islamic culture are irreconcilable.

If he is found guilty and the judgesside with the latest psychiatric report,Breivik could face 21 years in prisonwith the potential for unlimited exten-

sions to prevent him from repeating hiscrimes.

If Breivik is ruled psychotic he couldface an indefinite period of psychiatriccare in a locked facility.

District Judge Ina Stroemstad, whois not on the case, said the trial judgeswould now have to sort a tangle of evi-dence about Brevik's mental state, in-cluding his behaviour in court.

At a preliminary hearing Breivik de-nied criminal guilt and suggested his ac-tions were part of a war to saveEuropean culture.

"I am a military commander in theNorwegian resistance movement andKnights Templar Norway," Breivik said,echoing a written manifesto in which hecalled himself "a hero of Europe, a sav-iour of our people and of EuropeanChristendom."

SANAAAfP

Al-Qaeda militants killed nine Yemeni sol-diers Tuesday in an attack on a makeshiftmilitary post on a desert road in the coun-try's mostly lawless eastern provinces, a se-curity official said.

"Al-Qaeda militants attacked a militaryposition on the road between Hadramawtand Marib province (in the east)," the offi-cial said requesting anonymity, adding that"nine soldiers were killed" in the assault.

He said at least eight other soldierswere wounded.

Al-Qaeda gunmen attacked the sol-diers just after dawn with "automaticweapons," the official added.

The attack is the latest in a deadlyweek of battles between Yemeni securityforces and Al-Qaeda linked militantsthat have strengthened their presencein the country's south and east in thewake of the year-long uprising thateventually toppled former president AliAbdullah Saleh.

A local official in the Abyan provincetown of Loder said Tuesday that Al-Qaeda militants have surrounded thearea in preparation for the completetakeover of the town.

"Al Qaeda has distributed statementsthroughout the town saying that it is deter-mined to take control of Loder," said the of-ficial who requested anonymity.

At least 78 people were killed onMonday when Al-Qaeda militants raidedbarracks in Loder, 58 of them Qaedamilitants.

At least 14 soldiers were killed in theraid, including an officer, while six otherarmed civilians loyal to the Yemeni armywere also killed.

Two other armed civilians were killedTuesday in Loder and six others woundedin sporadic clashes between Qaeda mili-tants and the army, the local official said,adding that the Yemeni air force also "de-stroyed two tanks that were seized by al-Qaeda."

In total, 80 people have been killed inLoder since Monday.

11 'qaeda'

members arrested

in iraq: police

BASRAAfP

Iraqi forces have arrested 11 al-leged Al-Qaeda members saidto be responsible for attacks inthe southern province of Basrathat killed dozens of people, atop police officer said on Tues-day. "Eleven criminals fromAl-Qaeda have been arrested,including a Pakistani man whowas born in Kuwait, who areresponsible for recent explo-sions in Basra," Major GeneralFaisal al-Ebadi, police chief ofBasra, told a news conference.A video played during the newsconference showed allegedconfessions of the detainees, inwhich they said they were re-sponsible for attacks, includingone on January 14 against Shi-ite pilgrims that left 53 peopledead. Ebadi said that the ar-rests were carried out in coor-dination with intelligenceagents and others securityforces. One of the detainees isa policeman named Issam Ab-delal Yassin who gave "infor-mation about the locations ofpolice officers to facilitate as-sassinating them," Ebadi said.

iran arrests ‘major

terrorist group’

linked to israelDUBAI

ReUTeRS

Iran said on Tuesday it had identified a"major terrorist group" it said was affili-ated to its arch-foe Israel and had arrestedsome of its members, the official IRNAnews agency reported, citing a report bythe country's Intelligence Ministry. "Iran'sIntelligence Ministry announced it hasidentified a major terrorist group from theZionist regime (of Israel) and has arrestedsome of its protected operational membersinside the country," IRNA reported withoutmaking clear when the arrests had takenplace. The semi-official Fars news agencysaid the suspects were arrested "whilepreparing to carry out terrorist acts",adding that a considerable number ofbombs, machine guns, military and com-munication equipments were seized.Tehran has in the past accused Israel ofbeing behind the killings of its nuclear sci-entists. The Islamic state blamed Israel inJanuary when a nuclear scientist was killedby a bomb placed on his car by a motorcy-clist in Tehran. Iran denies Western suspi-cions that its nuclear programme hasmilitary goals, saying it is for purely peace-ful purposes. Fars cited the IntelligenceMinistry's statement as saying that furtherinformation would be announced later.

RAMALLAHAfP

The Palestinians have sent a letter to the UN Security Councilseeking condemnation of Israeli settlement activity, the foreignminister said on Tuesday.

Riyad al-Malki said Palestinian envoy to the United NationsRiyad Mansour submitted letters on Monday to the council andto UN chief Ban Ki-moon, ahead of a meeting of the peacemakingQuartet in Washington on Wednesday.

"The letters called on the international community, and par-ticularly the Security Council, to condemn settlement activity --which is illegal -- and other illegal Israeli policies in the occupiedPalestinian territory," Malki told AFP.

The message also called for "urgent measures to put pressureon the occupying power, which is Israel, to compel it to stop

these actions and policies immediately," he said.The text of the letter warns that Israel's "illegal and destruc-

tive plans not only inflames tensions but further underscoresthe dubious nature of the occupying power's claims of readinessto negotiate a peace settlement."

It said settlement activity was part of a campaign"being deliberately waged in an attempt to seize morePalestinian land and entrench (Israel's) control over thePalestinian territory."

Malki said the delivery of the message was carefully timed."The goal of these messages at this time in particular is to

keep the issue of settlements at the top of the priorities of the Se-curity Council and General Assembly," Maliki added.

"These messages anticipate the Quartet meeting being heldtomorrow, which will discuss the stalled peace process in theregion," he said.

Norway mass killer deemed sane in new finding

al Qaeda kills nine Yemen soldiers

palestinians seek UN condemnation of settlements

ColoMBo: Sri lankan Army soldiers participate in a traditional game during a Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebration on Tuesday. afp

bomb in Philippines

kills one,

wounds 27 soldiersISABELA

AfP

A powerful booby trap bomb killed onePhilippine soldier and wounded 27 oth-ers as they patrolled a former strongholdof Al-Qaeda-linked militants on Tues-day, the military said.The soldiers were patrolling the outskirtsof a remote camp captured last monthfrom Abu Sayyaf extremists when the de-vice went off, local army commanderColonel Ricardo Visaya told AFP.The Abu Sayyaf had formerly used thecamp on the southern island of Basilan, tohide many of their kidnap victims until alarge military assault dislodged the rebelsin March, Visaya said."The camp had a lot of improvised ex-plosive devices planted around it... tostrengthen (the extremists') defensiveposition. They are very difficult to de-tect," he told AFP.He described the device as an old boobytrap left behind by the Abu Sayyaf beforethey abandoned the camp. It was set offwhen soldiers tripped on it.Helicopters were deployed to airlift thewounded to a military hospital but onesoldier died before he could be treatedwhile six others remained in critical con-dition, Visaya said. The heavily-forestedisland of Basilan is a known stronghold ofthe Abu Sayyaf, a group founded with seedmoney from late Al-Qaeda chief Osamabin Laden in the 1990s. The group hasbeen blamed for the worst terror attacksin Philippine history and has frequentlyresorted to kidnapping to raise funds,often targeting foreigners. Seven foreign-ers -- a Dutchman, a Swiss national, anAustralian, two Malaysian traders, an In-dian and a Japanese man -- are believedto still be held by the Abu Sayyaf andother outlawed groups in the south.

g New expert team rejects prior diagnosis of psychosis

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 16

Foreign News 17wednesday, 11 april, 2012

Syria violence kills 37, most in Homs

BEIRUTReUTeRS

SYRIAN troops killed at least31 people and insurgentskilled six soldiers on Tues-day, opposition activistssaid, on the day President

Bashar al-Assad was to withdraw hisforces 48 hours ahead of the firstceasefire of the 13-month-old conflict.

Activists said 26 people, mostlycivilians, were killed in the city ofHoms in Syrian army bombardment ofthe Bayada and Khalidiya districts ofthe city of Homs.

"They are attacking Bayada withmortars from three different locations.People have taken refuge in some

schools and now some of the schoolswere hit," said an activist calling him-self Abu Yasser.

"We have at least 20 martyrs and70 wounded, most of them women andchildren," he told Reuters by tele-phone.

An earlier report from activists saidsix people were killed by army shellingin the Homs district of Khalidiya. Fourwere identified by residents in a fieldhospital, but two were disfigured be-yond recognition by wounds.

The activist Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights (SOHR) said six sol-diers were killed in attacks on twocheckpoints on the desert highwayrunning through the eastern town ofMarqada, south of the Turkish border.

A seventh civilian was killed in BabTadmor, another Homs neighbour-hood that activists say has beenshelled. Four people were killed in amilitary operation in Kafar Zeita northof Hama city, SOHR chief Rami Abdel-rahman said.

"Late last night there was heavyfighting between the rebels and theSyrian forces. Helicopters were used bythe army. Today, the army conducted amilitary operation and there are ongo-ing clashes between both sides," Abdel-rahman said.

There was no report of clashes orattacks from the official Syrian newsagency, SANA.

In the days leading up to Tuesday'sdeadline, violence intensified and daily

death tolls were often over 100. Syriasays it has already pulled back some ofits troops from the cities in keepingwith its undertaking to United Nationsand Arab League peace envoy KofiAnnan.

His peace plan calls for rebel forcesto stop shooting as the army withdrawsso that all forms of violence cease atdawn on Thursday.no PuLLout Seen: The Observa-tory, a British-based information clear-ing house that has collated reports onthe violence in Syria for the past year,said there was no clear sign on Tuesdayof the troop withdrawals that Annan'splan calls for.

Activists said the Homs bombard-ment began at breakfast time.

thousands

rally in restive

Kyrgyzstan's southJALALABAD

AfP

Around 5,000 supporters of the Kyrgyz na-tionalist opposition Tuesday held theirthird rally in two months in the restivesouth of the country demanding the gov-ernment's ouster.The series of peaceful demonstrations inthe ethnically-mixed and deeply impover-ished region of the mountainous CentralAsian state represents a nagging concernfor the recently elected government ofPresident Almazbek Atambayev.The protests began on March 1 in the flash-point city of Osh from where the oustedpresident Kurmanbek Bakiyev -- an ethnicKyrgyz representing a hate figure for thelarge Uzbek minority -- draws his support.The ethnic Kyrgyz who gathered in Jalal-abad on Tuesday were members of themain nationalist Ata Zhurt party as well asa group called Butun Kyrgyzstan."I am being accused of plotting to stage athird revolution and to seize power," AtaZhurt's parliament group leader Kamchy-bek Tashiyev told the rally. "But I have nosuch plans. If I did, I would have done it along time ago," the private K-News net-work quoted Tashiyev as saying.

CAIROAfP

An Egyptian court suspended on Tuesdaythe Islamist-dominated commissiontasked with drafting a new constitutionamid a boycott by liberals, moderate Mus-lims and the Coptic church.

The administrative court in Cairo said itwas "suspending the constituent assembly"without explaining the reasons,but lawyersand liberal political parties had filed a com-plaint accusing the Islamist-majority parlia-ment, which formed the panel, of havingabused its powers.

The decision comes amid a tense standoffbetween Islamist and secular forces just sixweeks ahead of the country's first post-revo-lution presidential elections.

Mohammed Nur Farhat, a lawyer and of-ficial of the liberal Social Democratic Partysaid the "constitutional commission has beenmade null and void by this judicial decisionand may not continue its work.

"Parliament must meet to re-form theconstitutional commission, and we invite it tobegin setting out the criteria that will guaran-tee an equitable representation of social andpolitical forces, so that it is not dominated bya single political current," he added.

The 100-member panel, which is evenly

divided between parliamentarians and publicfigures, was elected by the parliament, whichalso voted for a number of reserve candidateswho could could replace the panelists.

But most of its members are from theMuslim Brotherhood and Salafist fundamen-talists who hold the majority in both housesof parliament.

The secular parties have already with-drawn from the commission, believing thattheir presence was only used as a smoke screenallowing the Islamists to draft a basic law thatreflects their political-religious ideologies. Theprestigious Sunni Islamic institution, Al-Azhar,and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt havealso decided to boycott the panel.

Islamists believe the commission shouldreflect the composition of a parliament, wherethe Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Jus-tice Party (FJP) holds nearly half the seatsand the Salafists Al-Nur party almost onequarter. The secularists want a more balancedcommission, fearing that the Islamist gripwould lead to the strengthening of a demandfor Islamic sharia law to be the point of refer-ence for legislation.

On Tuesday, around 150 people demon-strated outside the offices of the State Council,which has the power to rule on administrativedisputes, to protest against Islamist control ofthe constitutional project.

kABUl: A young Afghan girl plays on swings near the kart-e-sakhi shrine on Tuesday. afp

Egypt judiciary suspends

Islamist-led constitution panel

bulgarian

toddler survives

eight-storey fallSOFIA

AfP

A three-year-old girl survived aneight-storey fall from an apart-ment building in Bulgaria with-out major injuries, hospitalofficials said Tuesday.The Roma girl, named in thepress as Poli Filipova, waschasing a ball when she fellfrom the eighth-floor terracein the southern town ofPazardzhik on Friday."It is a miracle. The toddler tum-bled down from balcony to bal-cony to finally end on soft soil.She only had a scratch on thehead," local hospital chief nurseElena Sluncheva told AFP.The girl was held in hospital forsurveillance and would returnto her family later Tuesday, theofficial said.Only last week a 20-year-oldwoman sustained serious spinalinjuries when she tripped whilewashing windows and fell fromthe third floor of the samebuilding, Sluncheva said.

bahrain arrests 4

after 'terrorist attack'

on policemenDUBAI

AfP

Bahraini authorities arrested four peopleTuesday in a dawn raid on a Shiite village,the opposition said, after seven policemenwere wounded there in what officialsclaimed was a "terrorist attack."Al-Wefaq, the main opposition bloc, saidthat security forces arrested four peoplein the village of Akr, south of Manama,and "brutally" beat up relatives of thosewanted by authorities in a crackdownwhich also left several wounded. The ar-rests came hours after state news agencyBNA quoted public security chief, GeneralTareq al-Hassan, as saying that an impro-vised bomb exploded late Monday near apolice checkpoint at the entrance to Akr"wounding seven policemen, three ofthem critically." Hassan added that theinitial investigation "revealed that the ex-plosion was caused by a pipe bomb at-tached to a container full of gasoline."

g no clear sign of army withdrawals, activists say g districts in Homs, Hama bombarded, over

30 killed g Six soldiers killed in remote eastern ambushes

MAYfADUN: lebanese women mourn during the funeral of cameraman

Ali Shaaban on Tueday. lebanon’s Al-Jadeed satellite television accused

the Syrian army of shooting dead Shaaban, saying it opened fire at its

team which was on lebanon’s side of the border. afp

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 17

Wednesday, 11 April, 2012

Page 20

Chakvetadze shocks lesiato enter main draw

LAHORE STAff RePoRT

Former chairmen of the Pakistan CricketBoard on Tuesday appreciated the consis-tency shown by the Pakistan cricket team inits recent approach and supported the ef-forts of the PCB for bringing internationalcricket back to the country.

An official of the board said: “The for-mer chairmen who attended the annual gen-eral meeting of the board appreciated andacknowledged the most noticeable upsurgeand consistency in the team’s performancein recent months, all five were all support onthe Board’s endeavour to bring back inter-national cricket to Pakistan and also on theway the PCB’s policies and management.”

The PCB Annual General Body meetingwas held under the chair of PCB ChairmanCh. Muhammad Zaka Ashraf and was at-tended by around 112 members includingpresidents of District Cricket Associations,Regional Presidents, Representatives of De-partments, Chairperson Women Wing, Pak-istan Blind and Deaf Cricket Associations.Members coming from all parts of the coun-try, from cosmopolitan to the remotest ofthe remote of districts, were in attendanceat the meeting.

Five former chairmen also most gra-ciously attended the meeting in their capac-ity as honorary members.

The agenda of the second AGM underthe current constitution consisted of fourpoints. These were: approval of the minutesof last AGM (held in 2011), to consider theAnnual Report 2011 and Future Pro-grammes as devised by the GoverningBoard; to consider the Audited Accountsand Budget Estimates and to make appro-priate recommendations to the Governing

Board for the promotion of cricket in Pak-istan.

All items were discussed threadbare ina candid and informed manner by the mem-bers and the requisite approvals weregranted after detailed deliberations on eachpoint. Each of the five former chairmenpresent – Khalid Mahmood, Zafar Altaf, Lt.Gen. (Retd) Tauqir Zia, Sheharyar M. Khanand Ijaz Butt – gave a most decent input.

Though the words differed, the views ofall five were unanimous on three counts. Allfive individually appreciated and acknowl-edged the most noticeable upsurge and con-sistency in the team’s performance in recentmonths, all five were all support on theBoard’s endeavour to bring back interna-tional cricket to Pakistan and also on theway the PCB’s policies and management.

Mr Khalid Mahmood suggested thatapart from full members, the PCB shouldalso try to invite the associate members. MrZafar Altaf suggested that Pakistan cricketbe marketed more aggressively so that it re-mains financially viable. Gen. Tauqir Ziapromising support to the present chairmanand the management, reiterated the need toinvite the ICC’s associate members for shortseries. Mr Sheharyar Khan also had a wordof praise for the Pakistan women’s team,which also has gone places in recent times.He also appreciated the fact that the agendaof the meeting had been circulated well inadvance, helping members to come pre-pared. Mr Ijaz Butt, other than the Board’sefforts acknowledged its chief patron MrAsif Ali Zardari’s raising the issue of recom-mencing bilateral ties between the two lead-ing sub-continental nations at the highestlevel, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singhin India on his recent visit.

Members coming from all parts of the

country took this opportunity to discuss theinitiatives they are taking in their respectiveareas and the problems they are facing intheir quest to promote cricket. ChairmanPCB, Ch. Muhammad Zaka Ashraf assuredthe delegates that PCB will do everything inits capacity to help and promote the sport.

In his address the PCB Chairman, whohad earlier especially welcomed membersfrom Balochistan, noted that all Pakistanisshould contribute towards bringing interna-tional cricket to Pakistan. All such efforts arewelcome by the Board.

Excerpts from PCB Chairman ZakaAshraf’s address to the AGM:

“I believe we have performed excellentlyon the cricket front, as is evident from theconsistently appreciable results, especiallyin the Test series against England, theworld’s top-ranked side, and the recent AsiaCup triumph after 12 years. These achieve-ments have induced self-confidence in theteam and morale quite understandably isupbeat and positive.

“But I believe we need to keep things inperspective, some self-analysis of the situa-tion in the not-too- distant past is in order.We have had spells of success before, butnever the consistency that is the hallmark ofgreat teams. When we are winning, we allowsmugness and complacency to take over,and that is when the degeneration sets in.

“This time round we have to be on ourguard against it. “Not just that, my vision ac-tually is perpetual improvement all round.That means, not just by our national repre-sentative cricket teams – Senior, Women’s,’A’ and the age-group squads – but also theway our cricket in all spheres is managedand run. “The mantra is: nothing short of ex-cellence is acceptable.

“And here is how we’re going to achieve it.

“We are determined to bring interna-tional cricket back to Pakistan, by guaran-teeing the teams that visit us with watertightsecurity. Afghanistan has already been here.And I myself and my management teamhave striven very hard to convince theBangladesh Board to visit us by reassuringthem that Pakistan is a safe destination forcricket.

“While bringing back internationalcricket remains the foremost priority, thereare equally important other issues that haveto be addressed. “To ensure enduring excel-lence, throughout my time in-charge, I haveemphasised three prerequisites: i) strict ad-herence to merit; ii) no compromise on dis-cipline; iii) zero tolerance for corruptpractices. “The current dispensation at thePCB remains committed to continuouslypurge and cleanse, to instill discipline andmake Pakistan cricket a meritocracy compa-rable with the best in the world. It is a mustif we need to win not matches and tourna-ments but also the respect and admirationof the cricketing fraternity and ensure thatthe embarrassing incidents of 2010 in Eng-land are never again repeated.

“The Board will provide the best and themost seasoned coaches, support staff andother facilities to the Pakistan team. The ap-pointment of Dav Whatmore, who hasproven credentials spread over two decadesand more, as Pakistan’s national coach is afirst step towards realisation of that objective.

“Whatmore’s presence is definitelylikely to make the outlook of our team awhole lot more professionally oriented. Hewould also be provided with world standardbackup to ensure quality in coaching. [Thathis appointment was made after the Com-mittee made for the purpose thoroughly vet-ted and advised his hiring, reflects a

pronounced desire to follow transparentprocedures].

“The aim of the current PCB manage-ment is that Pakistan’s first class cricketshould be just that: first class, and in everysense of the word. Steps are afoot to achievethat. And this involves not just lots of en-deavour but a great deal of expense too.While a committee comprising former crick-eters has already been formed and tasked togive its recommendations for the revamp ofour domestic cricket, to implement thesePCB plans by considerably enhancing themarketing yield by aggressively pursuing formore from the existing revenue streams andcreating new ones as well.

“From the razzmatazz in the final of ourFaysal Bank Super8 Twenty20 event thatconcluded on April 1, 2012, it should be ob-vious that we want to get best mileage fromour local events by enhancing their value asa spectacle.

“Our auxiliary aims are to provide moreopportunities to our women cricketers whoare also winning laurels for the country. ThePCB has already taken a lead in maximumexposure of the physically impaired crick-eters by inviting foreign teams to Pakistan. Itis my heartfelt desire that all our efforts inany sphere should eventually lead to enhanc-ing our country’s and our cricket’s image.

“And last but not the least, we are ac-tively engaged in launching Pakistan Pre-mier League, on the line of such eventselsewhere. The PCB is working on it, and Ishall soon be able to share something con-crete with the General Body on this.

“Let’s all strive to make Pakistan the No1 team across all three formats. We have thepotential to return with honours from wher-ever cricket is played. It is about time we re-alised that potential.”

Former PCB chairmen appreciate team’s consistency, support board’s efforts

KARACHIAfP

Deprived of hosting internationalmatches since a deadly attack on the SriLankan team bus three years ago, Pak-istan hopes a high-profile new Twenty20league can lure back overseas players.

No international team has played inPakistan since the March 2009 attack inLahore, which left eight people dead andseveral visiting players wounded, and thenational team has had to play its "home"matches abroad, mostly in the United ArabEmirates. The Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) is still waiting for Bangladesh's re-sponse to an invitation to play a limited-overs series later this month.

If Bangladesh are reluctant to come,it is inevitable that bigger-name teamslike Australia, India, England and SouthAfrica will continue to stay away whileany doubts linger over players' safety.

Passion for cricket in Pakistan re-mains undiminished, however, and cor-porate interest has reignited the PCB'sefforts to start a Pakistan PremierLeague (PPL), modelled on themegabucks Indian Premier League.

Nine teams are competing in thisyear's IPL, the fifth edition of the tourna-ment, with defending champions Chen-

nai Super Kings led by Indian captainM.S. Dhoni again emerging as one of thesides to beat.

But Pakistani players, who are usu-ally a major draw in India, have been keptout of the tournament since the secondedition, reportedly due to security fears.

Four companies, including one fromIndia, are expected to give a presentationto the PCB this week on how to stage thePPL, with a UAE-based bank and twotelecoms companies interested in takingup team franchises.

"It's exciting to have a very good ini-tial response from corporate companieson the PPL," PCB chief operating officerSubhan Ahmed told AFP.

"We are looking at the viability of aTwenty20 event involving some foreignplayers, and it would be great if it comesabout," he said.

A British Universities team playedtwo limited-overs games in Lahore lastweek -- at the Gaddafi Stadium thathosted the fateful Sri Lanka Test in 2009-- and Ahmed said the visit should en-courage other foreign sides to follow.

"The security situation has improvedand is improving. That is why the BritishUniversities team toured Pakistan, andwe have stringent security plans for thesafety of the foreign players."

But convincing foreign players tocome to a country still battling Islamistmilitancy will be no easy task -- particu-larly with the IPL on the doorstep offer-ing huge salaries and reliable safety.

Ehsan Mani, a Pakistani who was In-ternational Cricket Council (ICC) presi-dent from 2003 to 2006, admits there isa lot of work to do and warns it will taketime to persuade overseas players it issafe to come to Pakistan.

"The PCB should have a strong secu-rity plan and engage the ICC, ask themon what benchmarks of security they willsend their officials," he said. "Theyshould start a league in which very fewoverseas players come initially, and con-fidence should be built gradually."

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

THE Pakistan Cricket Boardwill reconsider its support tothe Bangladesh Cricket Boardin the International CricketCouncil if their team did not

visit Pakistan as promised by its PresidentMustafa Kamal. Talking to journalistshere at the end of the AGM, PCB Chair-man Zaka Ashraf said that he was hopefulof the Bangladesh tour to Pakistan but incase it did send out a warning in case thetour did not take place. “The board willreview it’s relation with Bangladesh isthey refuse to tour Pakistan” Ashraf said.

Earlier an official from theBangladesh Cricket Board had tweetedthat the team will not be visiting Pak-istan for any upcoming series. ”We willhave to reconsider our cricketing rela-tions if they don’t come” to play eithertwo one-day internationals and a

Twenty20 match or three ODIs later thismonth or in early May. The BangladeshCricket Board is yet to receive clearancefrom its government after submitting asecurity report on Pakistan. Afghanistanplayed three ODIs in Pakistan year, be-coming the first country to tour sincegunmen killed several police officers anda bus driver in their attack on a Sri Lankateam bus during a test in Lahore threeyears ago. Ashraf also spoke of cricketingties with India and that the recent trip ofPresident Zardari would have a positiveimpact on reviving them. The PCB Chair-man said the Pakistan Premier Leaguewould be organised soon. Pakistan'scricket chief said on Tuesday he was"positive" about reviving stalled cricketties with India, following President AsifAli Zardari's weekend trip to New Delhi.

The arch-rivals met in the Asia Cupone-day tournament last month and theWorld Cup semi-final in India last year,but regular tours have been frozen since

the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai,blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

India postponed a tour to Pakistanscheduled for January 2009 in the wakeof the Mumbai carnage, which left 166people dead, before suspending all sport-ing links. Indian Prime Minister Manmo-han Singh had lunch with Zardari onSunday and said he would consider re-viving what is one of the most hotly-con-tested rivalries in cricket. "We are quitepositive about the revival of cricketingties with India after our president tookthe initiative," Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf told re-porters after a PCB meeting. "It was agood move to invite the Indian premierto Pakistan and I am sure that it will helpin moving forward." Pakistan and Indiaare slated to play in 2012 in the Interna-tional Cricket Council's Future ToursProgramme, but India's already hecticschedule makes this difficult even ifthere is a thaw in relations.

pakistan eyes T20 league

PCB to reconsider cricketrelations with Bangladesh

laHore: Chairman PCb zaka ashraf addresses the annual general council meeting. STaff pHOTO

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 18

Sports 19wednesday, 11 april, 2012

P&t gym march to quarters

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

P&T Gym has qualified for quarterfinalstage of 27th Mohammad Yaseen AkhterMemorial Event after beating Canton-ment Gym by 5 wickets played at ModelTown ground on Tuesday. Fine bowlingby Asif was the main feature of thematch. Servis Club and Lucky star clubhave marched into Semifinal, WhileModel Town club, Wahdat Eaglets andLudhiyana Gym have moved to quarters. Scores: Cantonment Gym 137 all out in19,2 overs. M NAeem 41, M Asad 37,Ahmed Akram 15, Rizwan Faisal 13,Rizwan 11, Zubair butt 10. Asif 4/15,KAramat Ali 2/21, Ali Manzoor 2/26,Asim 1/24. P&T Gym 139/5 in 19.2 overs. HusainTalat 45, Manan 21, Tayab 21, Asim21(no),Ali Manzoor 13(no). Waqas 1/14,Ahmed 1/23, Zubair Butt 1/17.

Punjab Club in to quarters

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

Punjab club has moved into the quarterfinal of 9th M Siddique Memorial cricketevent when they down strong Apallosports by 31 runs played at Allama Iqbalinstitute ground . Fine batting by SherazButt and equally good bowling by Faisalwere the main feature of the match. Scores: Punjab club 191/9 in 20 overs.Sheraz Butt 75, Zeeshan Ali 39, Afzal 10,Nazir 14, Yousuf 10. Baber Safder 3/25,Mubeen 3/38, Shahid 2/47, Arif 1/16,Mohsin 1/47. Apallo sports 160 all out in 19.2 overs.Abrar 98 (no), Afzal Shah 24, Mohsin 14.Faisal 5/16, Adeel 2/30, Awais 2/40,Shoaib 1/23.

BRIDGETOWNAgeNCIeS

RYAN Harris produced afighting half-century, hisfirst in Test cricket, as thechances of a West Indiesvictory slipped on the

fourth day at Kensington Oval by lunch.Fidel Edwards and Kemar Roach madea fine start to the day by picking up twowickets in the first five overs but a stringof handy partnerships from the tail-en-ders saw Australia through to lunch at366 for 9, with Harris unbeaten on 60and Nathan Lyon on 16.

Earlier, West Indies held the upperhand at the end of the third day of thefirst Test here on Monday as they re-duced Australia to 248 for 5, still trail-ing by 201 runs.

Only a solid 73 by captain MichaelClarke and a typically stubborn un-beaten 47 by veteran Mike Hussey allbut ensured that the Aussies wouldavoid the follow-on.

Clarke was disappointed with histeam's performance in the match so far.

"We have no excuses for not bowl-ing and fielding as well as we wouldhave liked day one, day two and cer-tainly no excuses for being five down onthat wicket today," he said.

However, he was still cofident theAustralians could win the match.

"I think we're going to have to bowlbetter than what we did in the first in-nings and we're going to have to try tomake as many runs as we can in thisfirst innings to see how close we are tothem.

"I certainly think we can still winthe Test match from here."\ His WestIndian counterpart Darren Sammy wasby contrast delighted with his team.

"The team played well. The bowlerssupported each other," he said.

"We're quite happy with the way theday went."

Sammy snapped up the first wicketto fall as having added only one run tohis overnight score of 13, Ed Cowan wasdrawn into a shot to a ball just outside

off stump and edged through to thekeeper.

Shane Watson, batting for the firsttime in a Test at number three, was for-tunate to survive twice when he hadscored five.

Sammy's persevering line just out-side off stump worked again whenDavid Warner, having scored 42 off 55balls, played at a ball without much footmovement and Darren Bravo took thecatch at second slip.

After the early scares Watson hadsettled but when he turned a Fidel Ed-wards delivery to fine leg he was lookingfor a second run which would have beentight.

After running the first RickyPonting hadn't moved as Kraigg Brath-waite pounced on the ball and threw inone movement.

There was so much confusion be-tween the two batsmen that Pontingwas given out without a referral being

necessary.Devendra Bishoo's leg breaks were

causing few problems but in the 36thover one stayed low and Clarke, on 21,cut at the ball prompting the West In-dies to appeal for a catch behind.

Umpire Tony Hill gave it out butClarke immediately called for the DRS.

There was quite a bit of surprisewhen TV Umpire Marais Erasmus over-turned the on-field decision as theredidn't appear to be conclusive evidencein favour of Clarke.

The second ball after lunch, Watsonplayed a loose drive at a Roach deliveryoutside off stump and got a thick edgethrough to Carlton Baugh.

The dismissal put the West Indiesfirmly in charge with Australia 133-4.

The West Indies knew how impor-tant Clarke's wicket would be and whenKemar Roach struck his pad when he'dscored 31 they were quick to use the re-view system.

It was a poor move as the ball wasclearly missing the stumps and thehome side had used both of their re-views.

Hussey was playing the perfect sup-port role for Clarke.

By the time tea came Clarke andHussey had batted through virtually thewhole session and their unbeaten 67run partnership for the fifth wicket waspulling Australia clear of a precarioussituation.

West Indies mainly used the spin ofDevendra Bishoo and Narsingh Deonar-ine and they combined to take the allimportant wicket of the Australian cap-tain.

Clarke suddenly came down thewicket to Bishoo and he continued to gothrough with a shot in the air to long ondespite not quite getting to the pitch ofthe ball - Deonarine came in off theboundary and caught the ball againsthis chest.

Harris fights with half century bangladesh set forfirst-ever test inindia: bd chief

DHAKAAfP

Bangladesh may play their maiden Testseries in India later this year, theBangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) said onTuesday.India have not hosted Bangladesh for aTest match since the Tigers gained fullstatus in 2000. Bangladesh's only visitsto India have been for one-day interna-tionals.India have played seven Tests inBangladesh, including the inauguralmatch in Dhaka in November 2000, butremain the only Test-playing nation yetto welcome the Bangladeshis at home.Bangladesh cricket chief Mustafa Kamalinformed his colleagues in the BCB thathe had been assured by his Indian coun-terpart Narayanaswamy Srinivasan thatIndia will host Bangladesh this year.Kamal met Srinivasan on the sidelines ofthe Indian Premier League tournamentand he had "received assurance thatIndia will host Bangladesh for a full tourlater this year", a BCB statement said.There was no immediate comment fromthe Board Of Control For Cricket InIndia, and it remained unclear how Indiawill accommodate Bangladesh in theircrowded schedule.India are due to host New Zealand in Au-gust-September for three Tests, take partin the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka inSeptember-October, and then host Eng-land for four Tests in November-Decem-ber.Bangladesh have lost 63 of their 73 Testsso far, winning only three, but openerTamim Iqbal hopes his country will getto play five-day matches on a regularbasis."If we want to really improve in Testmatch cricket, we need to play the formata lot more," Tamim, who is in India forthe IPL, was quoted as saying by theCricinfo website.

broad ruled out of all cricket for three weeks

LONDONAfP

England bowler Stuart Broad has beenruled out of all cricket for three weeks ashe attempts to recover from a calf strain,the England and Wales Cricket Board an-nounced on Tuesday.Broad missed England's second Test vic-tory over Sri Lanka in Colombo last weekand had been due to take part in the In-dian Premier League for Kings XI Punjabbefore flying home from the tour."Stuart Broad has been ruled out of allcricket for three further weeks, includingthe current Indian Premier League, inorder to continue his rehabilitation froma right calf strain sustained during Eng-land's recent tour of Sri Lanka," an ECBstatement said."Broad will be assessed regularly overthe coming weeks with a view to return-ing to cricket with Nottinghamshire inearly May."

Imad beat Naseeb in a marathon match LAHORE

STAff RePoRT

Matches in two categories were playedon Tuesday in the 3rd Atlas HondaCup Tennis Championship here atModel Town Sports Club, Lahore.

Match of the day was betweenImad Qamir and Shah Naseeb in boyssingles under 18 years category whichtook 2 hours and 30 minutes to reachthe final stage. Both the promising up-coming players of Govt College, Lahoreshowed excellent game skills and longrallies through out the match. Thismatch was recorded the most longishmatch of today’s schedule and attractedlarge number of audience around thecourt. Both players were stuck at thebase line and were playing with defen-sive strategy which was the reason inproducing some very long rallies.

At love-30, Shah Naseeb onceagain came-up with strong first serve

and managed to get two points. How-ever, Imad who looked more deter-mined broke the service game bytaking rest of two points followed byholding his own service game.

He won the first set 7-5. 2nd setwas started in different fashion andImad started making unforced errorsproviding his opponent a lead of 3-love. At this stage Shah Naseeb couldnot held his Service game and samewas done by Imad . Both the playersonce again started to stick with firstset strategy and started playing defen-sively . Shah Naseeb who looked moredetermined in 2nd set , won this set bysix games to three. The 3rd and finalset was not much different from thefirst one however the only differencewas that both players were seemed ex-tremely tired and pace of the game wasnot as fast as in the first set . Imad wonthe match with score line 7-5,3-6,7-5.

Results Men’s Singles .

Shehzad khan beat Irfan-Ullah Khan6-2,6-2, Malik Abdul Rehman beat SanaUllah Khan 6-3,6-1, Saad mubarik beatHassan riaz 6-4,6-3, Imran Shoukat beatFaizan Khuram 6-4,6-4, Heera Ashiqbeat Ahmed Ch 6-2,6-2. Rashid Malikbeat Zohair Raza 6-2,6-2, Jabran Ul Haqbeat Adeel saif 6-2,4-6,6-4.

Results Boys Singles Under 18Imad amer beat Shah Naseeb 7-

5,3-6,7-5, M. Mudassir beat Abdulwahab 6-0.60, Shayan tarik beat HafizArbab 6-1,6-6, Raja Shahid beat Alihaider 6-1,6-3, Bilal ahmed beat Has-san shoukat 6-4,6-4, M.Adnan beatShoib Khan W.O, M.Muzam,il beatJalal Gilani 6-2,6-2, Hasnain Manzoorbeat Hassan khursheed 6-1,6-1,M.Ahmed beat hasher farook 6-2,6-0, Hashim Khan Ayaz Khan 6-1,6-1,Syed Nofil kaleem beat Ubaid Khan 6-0,6-3, Faisal Iqbal Rauf Iqbal 6-2,6-3,Hafiz Shiraz M.sardar 6-2,6-1, AhmadBabar beat Ali Talib WO.

LOS ANGELESAfP

Mark Lenzi, who won Olympic divinggold for the United States in 1992, hasdied at the age of 43.

"USA Diving is truly saddened bythe passing of Olympic champion MarkLenzi," USA Diving chairman Bob Rydzesaid in a statement posted on the feder-ation's website.

"As an Olympic gold and bronzemedalist, Mark was one of our country'sgreatest divers, and he will be missedtremendously."

Lenzi won the gold medal in the 3-meter springboard at the 1992 Games inBarcelona and earned bronze in thesame event at the 1996 Olympics in At-

lanta.He was the first diver to score more

than 100 points on a single dive.Indiana University, which Lenzi had

attended, first announced his death onMonday, saying he died in Greenville,North Carolina.

The cause of his death was not im-mediately known, but the Free Lance-Star in Fredricksburg, Virginia, Lenzi'shometown, reported he had been in hos-pital in Greenville after experiencingfainting spells.

USA Diving's website offered friendsand fans a place to post messages of con-dolences for Lenzi's family. He is sur-vived by his wife, Dorothy, his mother,two brothers and one sister.

American diving great Greg Louga-

nis was quick to offer his sympathy."Mark and I spoke just a few weeks

ago, my heart goes out to you," Louganis

wrote on the USA Diving site. "There areno words to express how heartfelt a lossthis is. Healing hugs, Greg."

former Olympic gold medallist Lenzi dies

barbadoS: west indies bowler fidel edwards (C) celebrates with teammates after dismissing

australian batsman matthew wade during the fourth day of the first-of-three test matches. afp

West Indies 1st innings 449 for 9 declared (S. Chanderpaul

103 not out, k. edwards 61; D. Warner 2-45, R. Harris 2-83)

Australia 1st innings

eJM Cowan c Baugh b Sammy 14

DA Warner c Bravo b Sammy 42

SR Watson c Baugh b Roach 39

RT Ponting run out (Brathwaite/Baugh) 4

MJ Clarke c Deonarine b Bishoo 73

Mek Hussey c Baugh b Roach 48

MS Wade c Bravo b fH edwards 28

PM Siddle c kA edwards b fH edwards 0

RJ Harris not out 60

BW Hilfenhaus b Roach 24

NM lyon not out 16

extras (lb 13, nb 5) 18

Total (9 wickets; 132 overs) 366

fall of wickets 1-50 (Cowan, 12.3 ov), 2-65 (Warner, 20.2 ov),

3-84 (Ponting, 23.6 ov), 4-133 (Watson, 42.2 ov), 5-215 (Clarke,

78.1 ov), 6-249 (Hussey, 98.2 ov), 7-250 (Siddle, 99.4 ov), 8-

285 (Wade, 108.5 ov), 9-329 (Hilfenhaus, 119.2 ov)

Bowling:

fH edwards 28-3-84-2, kAJ Roach 29-8-72-3, D Bishoo 39-

10-111-1, DJg Sammy 17-5-50-2, N Deonarine 19-5-36-0

Toss: West Indies

Umpires: Ian gould (eNg), Tony Hill (NZl)

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZl)

Third umpire: Marais erasmus (RSA)

SCoReBoARD

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:33 AM Page 19

Sports20wednesday, 11 april, 2012

afC footballfestival startstoday

ISLAMABADSTAff RePoRT

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC)Under-14 Boys’ Football Festival will kickoff from Wednesday (today) here at Jin-nah Stadium, Pakistan Sports Complex.The arrangements have been given finaltouches to stage the 4-team interna-tional fixture under the banner of AFC.Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan andPakistan A will show their game skillduring the 5-day juniors’ soccer gala.The opening ceremony will be takenplace today at same venue, as the chair-man, Capital Development Authority(CDA) Farkhand Iqbal will the chiefguest on this eve. Also top officials ofPakistan Football Federation (PFF) andIslamabad Football Association (IFA)will be present in the ceremony.Meanwhile, chairman Organizing Com-mittee Dr. Fazal-ur-Rehman said thatthe participating teams arrived in Islam-abad to take part in the event. “Initially,seven teams including one from Pak-istan had to compete in the AFC Foot-ball Fixture. However, four teamsregretted to visit Pakistan includingIran, Turkmenistan, Kyrgazistan andKazakhstan, “he maintained.“Now, four teams will be in action during

the five days international event. Twoteams from Pakistan and each one fromTajikistan and Afghanistan are in thetournament to show their mettle. However, we have assured fully security to allteam during the tournament and will alsoprovide international standard facilitiesto players and officials as well, “he said.Fazal further said that the otherarrangements for holding the interna-tional fixture in the benefiting mannershad been finalized and the differentcommittees also constituted, which wereperforming their duties actively. “AFChas already awarded next AFC FootballFestival to Pakistan that will be held atsame venue next year, “he added.He said that the closing ceremony wouldbe held on April 15, 2012 and all visitingteams would fly back their respectivehometown on April 16. “We will provideall the facilities to foreign team during theAFC Under-14 Football Festival accordingto international demands. We are workingunder the guideline of Pakistan FootballFederation (PFF), “he concluded.

bank alfalah beat

lotto Carpets in

Summer Polo LAHORE

STAff RePoRT

Bank Alfalah cut Lotto Carpets into halfon the opening day of the Summer CupPolo here at the LPC ground on Tues-day. In the pinching heat, Bank Alfalahscored six goals ad allowed Lotto Car-pets three goals and the star of the winwas Shah Shamyl Alam who convertedall the six goals of the winners.Imran Abid Mir, Abdul Rehman Mon-noo and Hamza Mawaz Khan scored onegoal each for the losing side.

COPENHAGENAgeNCIeS

RUSSIAN starlet, AnnaChakvetadze, bounced backto stun the qualifying topseed, Lesia Tsurenko, in athree set mouth-watering

match at the qualifying competition of e-Boks Open 2012. She jolted down a 5-7,6-4, 6-2 success against the 22-year-oldto secure a place in the main draw of thisindoor hard court tournament held inFarum, Denmark north of Copenhagen.

Chakvetadze made a shaky start atthis WTA (Women’s Tennis Association)International event eventually lost theopening set. However, she made an epiccomeback to not only claim this two hoursand three minute hard-fought battle butalso book a spot in the opening round.

The 22-year-old stormed into theFarum Arena and drew the first blood inthe opening game to eventually go 2-0up. Tsurenko then held her remainingserves until she lost her serve to love in

the 10th game and squared the scores at5-5. However, she maintained her inten-sity and broke her rival’s serve in thevery next game, consequently clinchingthe opener with a 7-5 score line. Ranked398th in the WTA Premier Rankings,Chakvetadze carried her losing ways inthe following set and after suffering thefirst blow in the third game, she went 1-3 down. However, the Russian made afitting reply and stroke out the last fourgames in a row, consequently sealing theequaliser by winning six games to four.

The Russian kept her spark lit in thefinal set and after breaking Tsurenko’sserve twice early in the set, she jumped toa 5-1 lead. Despite squandering herchance to serve out the decider with abreadstick, Chakvetadze capitalised onanother break chance in the eighth gameand pocket the set with a 6-2 win. Chakve-tadze will square off against France’sPauline Parmentier in the opening round.

The qualifying second seed, MelindaCzink, faced a better fate later that day.She hit back from a set down to outfox

the Swiss competitor, Amra Sadikovic,in a three set nail-biter to progress. TheHungarian starlet dusted away 10 out of

14 breakpoints she faced and capitalisedon four out of 10 break chances to for-mulate a 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-3 victory.

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

The Lahore Race Club which is one of thebiggest horse racing arena of the country ison a verge of closure and the day is not faraway that it would collapse with no ownerleft there to make the sport competitivethat it used to be and that all due to a hand-ful of people’s self-centred and money-mincing approach.

A couple of years back there werearound 1600 horses in the stables of LRCwith around 50-plus owners but now thereare only 450 horses and just 15 owners left,who too are fed up of the policies adoptedby the stewards of the LRC.

A group of certain people including ShWaheed Akhtar, who is believed to be asteward-broker, Arif Qureshi, president

book-makers, Shahzad Akhtar, secretaryclub, and Haji Aslam, caretaker planta-tion, have developed a monopoly at therace club with a couple of more peoplewho are not only pocketing money fromthe book-makers but also not givingproper stake money to the winners of UKraces. A person like book-maker SaeedDaniyal who a couple of year ago came tothe club with nothing in pocket has nowmade enough money with these people’ssupport that he visit UK twice a week andplay race there.

There are around 22 book-makers inthe club and all of pay at least Rs 100,000each on the race day but there is no devel-opment work seen in the entire facility.Only 15 to 20 sand trolleys are brought tospread on the track when there is a re-quirement of at least 100 trolleys.

As of the stake money for UK horseraces, it has been fixed at Rs 20,000 forfirst six races when in Karachi it startsfrom Rs 35,000 and increases gradually toRs 80,000 till the six races of the category.Then comes the gate money which is Rs300 per person but there is no proper ac-count where the money is being spent.

When it comes to races, they raise thebet money on the horses of others whichdrops the stake for the owner of the horsewho is at the ultimate loss. They evenchange the rider at the last moment with-out the consent of the owner and whenanybody objects to their wrongdoings theyban that person’s entry into the club andsimilarly sideline the owner or create prob-lems for him in different manners.

On the other hand some of the customsdepartment employees despite being gov-

ernment officers are occupying sound po-sition in the club.

The club has also a fixed deposit ofaround Rs 160 million for which around Rs1.5 million profit is coming to the club butwhere it goes no one is clear about it whilethere is no account of the tax being paid tothe Punjab government.

There are around 80 riders registeredin the club and if they agree to these peoplelike Waheed and Arif they are given bene-fits otherwise they too are not allowed totake part in big races. They have also madetheir relatives members of the club andwhen the elections time comes they getthrough easily as they have pushed the bigguns like Syeda Abida Hussain and FakhrImam away from the LRC.

When the LRC was contacted on thesenumbers 0423 5114040, 5112864,

5115002, the person picking the phone didnot give answer to the queries. They ask tohold the phone for a while or keep thephone engaged or place it on the side.

Even fodder which comes under HajiSb’s control, is grown at the club premisesfor all stake-holders but it is kept free forthe persons monopolising the club whilethe owners who are backbone of the clubhave to buy it. In these circumstanceswhen there is no check and balance and acouple of people are drawing money whilemaking races on the behest of others, itseems the stewards are not serious to keepthe club running while the owners are fac-ing great difficulties. With no benefit insight several owners have already left theLRC and the remaining would also followsuit if all of them at the club were not giventheir proper share of benefits.

all is not well at Lahore Race Club

Chakvetadze enters into main draw

ViSaKHaPatnam: mumbai indians team members

congratulate rohit Sharma(2r) after scoring a

winning shot during the iPl twenty20 match. afp

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:34 AM Page 20

Sports 21wednesday, 11 april, 2012

watch it Live

GEO SUPERIPL-5: Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals07:30PM

TEN SPORTSFirst Test: Australiav West Indies06:50PM

Ushna reaches doublesquarters in Uae

LAHORE STAff RePoRT

Ushna Suhail is currently participatingin international women's tennis tourna-ment being held in Fujairah UAE, anITF professional circuit event. She played doubles prequarters, herpartner being an Indian, Sharon San-chana Paul won the match and moved tothe quarter-finals. Their opponents werea Swiss, Tyra Kotuwattegedera and a Ser-bian, Sofia Sabjarevic. Ushna and Sharonwon in straight sets 6-2, 7-6 (7-4).In the first set, the Pak-Indian playerdemonstrated superb coordination withmany aces, baseline and net vollies re-sulting in 2-0 lead. Their opponentsmade it two all but could not sustain theaggressive strokes of Ushna and Sharonwho easily won the first set by 6-2.In the second set, the Indo-Pak pairmaintained their pace and kept the lead5-2. But then the Swiss- Serbian pairgave them a tough time by playing a su-perb coordinated games levelling it to 5all. The Swiss-Serbian pair held theirserve at 5-5 to take a 6-5 lead. In thenext game, the Indo-Pak team also heldserve to make it 6-6. In the tie breakUshna and Sharon played aggressivelyand kept the lead finally winning the setand match with a scoreline of 6-2 and 7-6(7-3). In the quarters, they are going to face to-morrow the top seeds, Fatma Alnabhaniof Oman and Kyra Shroff from India.

BANGALORECRICINfo

LBalaji bowled KolkataKnight Riders to their firstvictory in IPL 2012 against astrong Royal ChallengersBangalore batting line-up.

He formed part of a destructive, three-pronged Knight Riders' pace attack thatsaw Brett Lee create pressure and JacquesKallis get the early breakthroughs.

Their consistent line outside the offstump and slightly shorter length had theRoyal Challengers' batsmen tied down.The required run-rate eventually soaredout of control, leaving the home side play-ing catch-up throughout.

One of Kallis' two early strikes removedthe biggest threat in the Royal Challengersline-up, Chris Gayle, before he could do anydamage. After having Cheteshwar Pujaracaught at slip with a ball that angled intohim and bounced a little more than usual,Kallis simply presented Gayle with a shortball. With only a single added to the totalafter Pujara was dismissed, Gayle's shotwas a response to pressure and he top-edged a pull to midwicket.

Responsibility then fell on Virat Kohliand AB de Villiers' shoulders and neitherwas able to get the job done as Balajibrought a second wave of attack. Kohli wasbeaten twice by Balaji before getting aleading edge to point. De Villiers followedin the next over, bowled by a beautiful de-livery which angled in from a good lengthand straightened to hit the off stump.

Balaji continued to trouble the bats-men with his line. He had further rewardwhen Mayank Agarwal spooned a catch toextra cover and then bowled Daniel Vettoriwith a slower ball to complete his quadru-ple haul. He should have had a fifth when

Saurabh Tiwary swung violently and pre-sented Shakib Al Hasan with a simplecatch at deep square-leg that was fluffed.

By the time Balaji had finished hisquota, Royal Challengers were 61 for 6after 12 overs. Tiwary was the only recog-nised batsmen at the crease and the re-quired run rate was over 13. It balloonedto over 30 as the innings neared an end,ensuring the Knight Riders were able tocomfortably defend a total that, at thehalfway mark, appeared a few short.

Despite 165 being the highest totalKnight Riders have posted this season,they would have wanted more after estab-lishing a platform from which a score inexcess of 200 seemed possible. CaptainGautam Gambhir opened the batting andcombined with Kallis and Manvinder Bislain two aggressive partnerships to take histeam to 125 for 1 in the 14th over.

Bisla was preferred over big-hitterslike Yusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschatedespite Knight Riders' start and he repaidthe faith shown in him. He hit the ball withimmense power, complementing Gamb-hir, who showed the deftest of toucheswith his dab to third man off Muttiah Mu-ralitharan. The Knight Riders' captainbrought up the fastest half-century of thetournament so far, off 28 balls, with alofted shot over cover but could not presson as much as he should have. Bisla wasstumped three balls later, in the firstboundary-free over of the innings and theKnight Riders slid steadily from there.

Royal Challengers effected a collapsewhich saw Knight Riders lose seven wick-ets for 26 runs. R Vinay Kumar was thechief strangler and used wily changes ofpace to dry up the runs.

Scores: Kolkata Knight riders 165 for 8 (gambhir 64,

r Vinay Kumar 2-18) beat royal Challengers bangalore 123

for 9 (Vinay Kumar 25, balaji 4-18) by 42 runs

LAHORESTAff RePoRT

The Sports Board Punjab with an at-tempt to get Punjab Sports Festival2012 entry into the Guinness Book ofWorld Record will also attempt anotherrecord of singing of national anthemwith 20,000 people when the previousrecord is of 15,000 people.

Deputy Speaker Rana Mashood hason Tuesday announced to apply thePunjab Sports Festival 2012 for entryinto the Guinness Book of WorldRecord. “We will go for another recordof singing national anthem when the of-ficials of Guinness Book of WorldRecord visit the National Hockey Sta-dium in the coming days.

The historical festival gained popu-larity as around 1.25 million athletestook part in the event which he believeswas the biggest ever participation in theworld.

“There are countries with a popula-tion of more than one billion and evensome countries have 300 million popu-lation but none of those have organizesuch a big participation sports event,”he maintained.

He appreciated the efforts of theSports Board Punjab's employees andthe co-operation of media. “In order toacknowledge their efforts in conductingsuch a successful event, DG Sports Pun-jab Usman Anwar has decided to awardhonorarium to all the employees fromgrade 1 to 18 amounting Rs 2.28 million.

"Sports Board Punjab has also de-cided to establish the media center inorder to prompt news execution," hesaid. "We will also conduct a megasports event in the upcoming Septem-ber or October among all provinces," headded.

Director General Usman Anwar fur-ther said that the expenditure of SportsFestival 2012 was carried out by thesponsorship. He further said: "We areworking on introducing more projectsin the upcoming months."

He further said that in the comingNational Games Punjab will showcaseits talented players to other provinces.“While in summer holidays we wouldhold competitions in all the affiliatedsports of the department to involve allthe students of the in different sportsand spread the colours of Punjab in thecountry,” he maintained.

Sports Festival may get entry

into Guinness World Record

laHore: rana mashood, deputy speaker Punjab assembly, and Usman anwar, director

general Spots board Punjab address a press conference. STaff pHOTO

rohit dazzlesas mumbai winthriller

VISAKHAPATNAM CRICINfo

The fifth edition of the IPL, whichbegan in tepid fashion, finallyhad a nail-biter as Rohit Sharmahit the last ball of the match forsix to seal a thrilling finish forMumbai Indians against DeccanChargers, who fought tooth andnail while defending 139. DanielChristian, not the wisest choicefor the final over, as very recenthistory tells us, dished out twofull tosses to Rohit. One of themwas off the final ball, which wasdispatched over long-on to sparkwild celebrations.The Chargers were still favouriteswith 18 to defend off the last over.Kumar Sangakkara had bowledout his best bowler, Dale Steyn,leaving the final task with Chris-tian. The first ball was smashed byJames Franklin past long-off forfour; the second down the sameregion; the batsmen sneaked a byeoff the third; the fourth was a highfull toss slammed by RohitSharma over deep backwardpoint. With five needed off two,the penultimate ball was forced tolong-off and Rohit Sharma timedhis dive just in time to survive arun-out appeal. Christian couldn'tcome up with anything special,gifting Rohit Sharma the most hit-table delivery of the over, breakingthe hearts of the home fans whosaw their side slip to a secondstraight defeat.Fortunes kept oscillating in thefinal overs, but for most periodsin the chase, the Chargers were incontrol. Scores: Mumbai Indians 142 for 5(Rohit 73*, Steyn 3-12) beat Dec-can Chargers 138 for 9 (Dhawan41, Christian 39, Munaf 4-20) byfive wickets.

Kolkata sealmaiden win

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:34 AM Page 21

Published by Arif Nizami for Nawa Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Editor: Arif Nizami, Executive Editor: Sarmad Bashir, Resident Editor: Rana Qaisar

22wednesday, 11 april, 2012

ISB 11-04-2012_Layout 1 4/11/2012 4:34 AM Page 22