e-paper pakistantoday 12th october, 2012

PESHAWARSTaff RepoRT

A US drone on thursday targeted a religious seminary in theBulandkhel area of Orakzai Agency near the border withAfghanistan, killing at least 18 suspected Afghan militants,while injuring over a dozen others, including four children. Itwas the second US missile strike reported in as many days inthe northwest tribal belt. the attack was the deadliest sincesimilar strike in August last year killed 21 taliban fighters inthe region. According to security officials in Miranshah,headquarter of the North Waziristan Agency (NWA), thetarget of the strike was located near the boundariesconnecting Orakzai with Afghanistan and NWA. they saidthe four missiles fired by the drone hit a compound and killed16 occupants and injured over one dozen others, includingfour children. According to tribesmen, the compound wasowned by Maulvi Shakirullah, a commander in the forces ofwarlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur. they said the compound wasbeing used as a seminary to provide religious education tolocal children, including young militants. Maulvi Shakirullahis included amongst the killed persons. Bahadur is an ally ofthe Haqqani network blamed by the Americans for a string ofhigh-profile attacks in Afghanistan.the exact identity of otherpersons killed in the attack could not be ascertained so far.

g 20 killed in bombings in Orakzai, Nowshera, Sibig Terrorists plant explosives to a donkey, detonate it

remotely in busy Orakzai bazaarg 11 killed in roadside explosion in Sibi

cONtINuED ON PagE 04

PakIstaN PROtEsts DRONE attacks, agaIN | PagE 24

Friday, 12 October, 2012 Dhual-Qi’da 24, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol III No 107 19 Pages Islamabad — Peshawar Edition

PAGE |19PAGE |04

Dialogue with dissidentBaloch leaders ‘under national flag’

13 years after coup,Musharraf still holds

Sharifs’ responsible

Britain bars entry of Ghulam Ahmad Bilour

PAGE |02

PESHAWAR/SIBISTaff RepoRT/agencIeS

At least 20 people were killed and scores othersinjured when terrorists struck Orakzai Agencyand Balochistan’s Sibi district with bombs on thursday.

In the first bombing in Lower Orakzai Agency, eightpeople were killed and 18 others injured in a high-intensity bomb explosion in a busy bazaar in the agencyon thursday morning.the injured were rushed to Hangu and Kohat hospitalswhere condition of several of the injured was said to bein danger.Official in the political administration said militants hadplanted the explosives to a donkey that was led to thebazaar in Darra Hassan village of the agency. themilitants later detonated the explosives with a remotecontrol. the resulting explosion killed four people on thespot and injured 20 others. Four of the injuredsuccumbed to their injuries later.No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing sofar, but officials suspect the involvement of taliban.Separately, a person was killed and several othersinjured in a bombing at a shop in village Wattar in AkoraKhattak town of Nowshera district.Meanwhile in Sibi, 11 people were killed and 15 othersinjured in a roadside blast.Reports said a bomb weighing 20 kilogrammes wasplanted to a rickshaw that exploded on Nishtar Road.As a result, five people were killed and 15 others receivedinjuries. the injured were shifted to Civil Hospital,where six more succumbed to their injuries later.

At least 18 perishin deadly dronestrike in Orakzai

SIBI: Men carry an injured blast victim at the site of a bombing on Thursday. afp

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Sc orders govt to produce ‘Vani’ girls, tribal elders Samsung launches galaxy note II

Friday, 12 October, 2012

Sher Afghan Niazi passes awayISLAMABAD

app

Former law minister Dr Sher AfganNiazi passed away in Mianwali onthursday after suffering from livercancer for a long time. Sher Afganwas elected to the National Assemblyin 2002 from the platform of thePakistan People’s Party-Parliamen-tarians, but later defected to thePPP-Patriot before finally landing inthe Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid(PML-Q). He is also known for mem-orising all the articles of the 1973Constitution. Afterwards, Niazi

joined the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), which is led byformer president General (r) Pervez Musharraf. However, he laterresigned from the party following differences with the leadership.

Rimsha case: Court grants bail to Khalid Jadoon

ISLAMABADagencIeS

Islamabad District and SessionsJudge Raja Jawwad Abbas on thurs-day granted bail to Khalid Jadoon,the prayer leader of Mehra Jaffermosque, who had been accused of al-tering the evidence against RimshaMasih who was accused of blas-phemy. the cleric was granted bailagainst a surety of Rs 200,000. Po-lice had arrested Jadoon on Septem-ber 1 after Hafiz Zubair, a member ofthe Mehra Jaffer mosque, had ac-cused him of altering the evidence

against Rimsha. On October 1, three prosecution witnesses —Qari Owais, Khurram Shehzad and Danish — backtracked fromtheir earlier statements in which they had endorsed Zubair’s alle-gation. In light of the witnesses’ earlier statements and the com-pletion of the preliminary investigation, Jadoon had beendeclared the main accused in the first challan in the blasphemycase submitted to the court.

People want change through ballot, says Nawaz

LAHOREonLIne

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President NawazSharif said the people of Pakistan believed in democratic changethrough balloting instead of brute force or dictatorial grabbing ofpower. In a statement issued on thursday, he said under dictato-rial rule, an individual ran the entire system of the country, obey-ing the decisions of those with vested interests. Sharif labeled Oct 12 as a black day in the history of Pakistanadding that a tragedy occurred that day when the elected govern-ment of the people was removed by a dictator through an uncon-stitutional and illegal action. He stated that it was the erroneous decision taken that day whichallowed the world to impose its decisions on Pakistan through adictator, pushing the country into a quagmire of problems. Sharif said the country was facing manifold problems includ-ing terrorism, bad governance, inflation, unemployment andload shedding, due to inadequate and anti-people policies ofthe government. He further stated that if a state lost the trustand support of its people, it was considered defenseless by therest of the world.

MONITORING DESK

THe Britishgovernmenthas decidedto ban theentry into

Britain of Pakistan’s Rail-ways Minister GhulamAhmad Bilour andNakoula BasseleyNakoula, maker of theblasphemous film ‘Inno-cence of Muslims’ thatcaused riots across theMuslim world, Geo Newsreported on thursday.

the decision wastaken at a high levelmeeting in which HomeSecretary theresa Mayagreed to issue exclusionorders for both Bilour,who had offered a$100,000 bounty for thekilling of the maker of theanti-Islam film, andNakoula on the groundsthat their presence in the

UK will not be “conduciveto the public good”. Bothof them have been de-clared “undesirable” astheir presence in Britaincould harm race relationsand pose threats toBritain’s national inter-ests. A British Home Of-fice spokesperson refusedto comment on the “indi-vidual cases” but thechannel’s sources said thedecision has been con-veyed to Bilour.

the home secretarymay decide to ex-clude an individ-ual who is not aBritish citizen ifshe considersthat theirpresence inthe UK isnot con-ducive tothe publicgood. thesource said

that the home secretaryhad used her powers onfull justification, basedon all available evidenceand the decision is “rea-sonable and proportion-ate”. the government ofP a k -

istan and Bilour’s AwamiNational Party (ANP)quickly distanced them-selves from Bilour’s com-ments, saying hiscomments didn’t reflectthe government policy.ANP, which has govern-ment in the taliban-ledinsurgency infested Khy-ber Pakhtunkhwaprovince besides being a

strong ally of PresidentAsif Ali Zardari led

government inthe centre, saidat the time:“We are a sec-ular party.We consideral Qaeda andtaliban asour enemy.”

A dayafter at least26 peopledied in anti-film violencein Pakistan,

Bilour announced: “I an-nounce today that thisblasphemer who hasabused the Holy Prophet,if somebody will kill him,I will give that person aprize of $100,000. I alsoannounce that if the gov-ernment hands this per-son over to me, my heartsays I will finish himwith my own hands andthen they can hang me.”

Soon after Bilour’scomments the Pakistanitaliban said they have re-moved Bilour from their“hit list”. Bilour urged thetaliban and al Qaeda tocarry out what he calledthe “noble deed”. Biloursaid public opinion wasbehind him in Pakistan.“I expressed my personalview and faith. I stand bymy declaration. My faithis non-violent, but I can-not forgive and tolerate(this insult).”

Britain bars entry of Bilour

SIBI: The site of a bombing on

nishtar Road. at least 11 people were

killed and 25 injured in the blast. INp

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COmmeNt

Articles on Page 14

A chapter is closed.

aziz-ud-Din ahmad says;

No reconciliation: Devoid of ideas that can be defended through civi-lized argument, the militants have no future.Kunwar Khuldune Shahid says;Don’t blame the Taliban: Let’s call a spade a spade instead.

ARtS & eNteRtAiNmeNt

Story on Page 12

buSiNeSS

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Katie Holmes flourishing in singlehood IMf calls for action as euro zone crisis festers n Zealand’s Vettori out of S Lanka tour


Lawyers go on strike toprotest attackon malala

LAHORE/QUETTAagencIeS

the lawyers of various cities of Punjab andBalochistan boycotted the courts proceed-ings in protest against the heinous attack onSwat’s brave girl Malala Yousafzai on thurs-day.Lawyers hailing from Lahore High Court(LHC), District Bar Rawalpindi, Chakwal,Attock, Jhelum and Islamabad, went onstrike against the brazen daylight gunfire at-tack on a small girl while she was riding herway back home on board a school van.they did not appear before any courts, caus-ing the adjournment of the hearings of cases,resulting in halt of all judicial businesses inmost cities of Punjab.LHC Bar Rawalpindi President Sheikh Ah-sanud Din said Malala is the nation’s daugh-ter and the nation prays for her earlyrecovery.Rawalpindi District Bar President Sajid IlyasBhatti said the assault on Malala was a cow-ardly act, adding she enkindled the lamp ofknowledge, which would remain alight forall times to come.Islamabad District Bar President demandedthe attackers involved in the heinous act bearrested immediately.In Quetta and other districts of Balochistan,lawyers observed ‘black day’ in lieu of the at-tack on Malala Yousafzai. Black flags werehoisted on bar offices. the protestinglawyers demanded of the government to ar-rest the culprits who tried to assassinate thebrave daughter of the nation.

fears of targeted shootings grow in SwatMINGORA

afp

the horrific attack on a childrights activist, shot in the headby the taliban in front of terri-fied schoolgirls, has raised fearsthat targeted attacks are on therise in the Swat valley.

Malala Yousafzai, 14, whowon international recognitionfor a blog about the horrors oflife under the taliban and acampaign for the right to an ed-ucation, is the highest-profiletarget of militants in Swat formore than three years.

the army declared the re-gion once known as the“Switzerland of Pakistan” backunder control in July 2009, de-feating radical cleric Fazlullahand the taliban fighters who

waged a two-year campaign ofterror in the district.

the operation won praise inthe United States. It was ar-guably Pakistan’s most success-ful offensive to date against thehomegrown insurgents whohave bombed and killed thou-sands across the country for thelast five years.

the Swat of 2012 is un-recognisable from the Swat of2009. there are no taliban onthe streets. Girls are free to go toschool. Shops are bustling,women walk without fear.

But after Malala was shoton tuesday — by a man whoboarded her bus, asked the chil-dren to point her out and fireda bullet into her skull — parentsare worried. “It is calm now inSwat but this attack has wor-

ried us for our children’s fu-ture,” Rahim Khan, a memberof Malala’s extended family,told AFP at home in Mingora.And Malala has not been theonly victim.

In the last four months, twobusinessmen and outspoken

anti-militant campaigners havebeen shot dead and two otherswounded, raising fears of awave of assassinations target-ing those who speak out againstextremism.

“In the last three or fourmonths, unknown persons have

started targeting elders in thearea who want peace in Swat,”peace activist Mukhtar Yousafzaitold AFP. “We fear it may be thestart of targeted killings.”

All four victims beforeMalala were senior members ofan anti-militancy group.Yousafzai says he too has beenthreatened several times.

the army claimed to havekilled hundreds of taliban fight-ers in Swat, but many are under-stood to have fled to Pakistan’stribal belt and into Afghanistan.Fazlullah, under a bounty of 50million rupees ($524,000), hasnever been captured.

Local residents ask how theattack could have happened andhow the perpetrators could haveescaped an area with such a vis-ible police and army presence.

madonna dedicates songto malala at concert

Malala Yousafzai receivedsupport from an unex-pected quarter whenMadonna dedicated a songto Malala in a concert inLos Angeles. According to areport on the HollywoodReporter, the music divasaid she cried when she

heard about the shooting of the girl in Swat val-ley. “this song is for you, Malala,” she said andthen went on to sing “Human nature.”“the 14-year-old schoolgirl who wrote a blog about goingto school. the taliban stopped her bus and shother. Do you realise how sick that is,” Madonnaasked her fans in LA. the 54-year-old thenshouted “Support education! Support women!”to loud cheers from the crowd. neWS DeSK

Anger over Malala attack continuesPESHAWAR

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IN t e R N A t I O N A Loutrage grew thurs-day at the shooting ofa teenage Pakistanicampaigner by the

taliban, with US PresidentBarack Obama leading con-demnation of the “disgusting”attack.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon alsoexpressed horror at the attackon Malala Yousafzai, 14, who isin intensive care after she wasshot in the head in broad day-light on a school bus on tues-day, an assassination attemptthat has appalled Pakistan.

It took place in Mingora,the main town of the Swat val-ley in Pakistan’s northwest,where Malala had campaignedfor the right to an educationduring a two-year taliban in-surgency which the army said ithad crushed in 2009.

On Wednesday doctorssuccessfully performed surgeryto remove the bullet lodgednear her shoulder, where itmoved after entering her head,in a military hospital in thenorthwestern city of Peshawar.

Preparations were made tofly her abroad, but a militarysource told AFP she was cur-rently too ill to travel. White

House spokesman Jay Carneylater said US forces were readyto offer transport and treat-ment to the teenager if needed.

Her uncle Saeed Ramzansaid doctors told the familyMalala was stable after thethree-hour operation.

“But they said the next 48hours are important and afterthat it will be decided whethershe will be sent abroad or not,”he told AFP at the family homein Mingora, which is underheavy police guard.

“We saw movement in herbody today but she is still un-conscious.”

Obama described theshooting as “reprehensible anddisgusting and tragic,” Carneysaid, amid escalating interna-tional anger over the attack.

“Directing violence at chil-dren is barbaric, it’s cowardlyand our hearts go out to herand the others who werewounded as well as their fami-lies.”

Ban was “deeply moved” byher campaign for educationrights and called for “the perpe-trators of this heinous and cow-ardly act to be swiftly broughtto justice,” his spokesman Mar-tin Nesirky said.

european Union foreignpolicy representative CatherineAshton earlier condemned the

attack as a “a vile aggression”.President Hamid Karzai of

neighbouring Afghanistan,where a fierce taliban insur-gency is raging, telephoned hisPakistani counterpart Asif AliZardari to condemn the shoot-ing, according to a statementfrom the Pakistani government.

“Such incidents of barbar-ity strengthen national resolveto fight militants to the finish,”Zardari told the Afghan presi-dent.

Malala won internationalrecognition for highlightingtaliban atrocities in Swat witha blog for the BBC three yearsago, when the Islamist mili-tants burned girls’ schools andterrorised the valley.

Her struggle resonatedwith tens of thousands of girlsdenied an education by Islamist

militants across northwest Pak-istan, where the governmenthas been fighting local talibansince 2007.

She received the first na-tional peace award from thePakistani government last year,and was also nominated for theInternational Children’s PeacePrize.

Doctors earlier confirmedthe bullet had been removedfrom Malala’s shoulder and In-terior Minister Rehman Maliksaid she would remain in Pe-shawar until medics agreed shecould be moved.

“Malala’s condition is im-proving after the surgery anddoctors will keep her in a stateof unconsciousness for twodays,” Malik told reporters.

“every effort has beenmade to ensure that she doesnot suffer brain damage. Butanything can happen in such asituation.”

there has been shock andrevulsion in Pakistan, whereschoolchildren across the coun-try on Wednesday offeredprayers for Malala’s recoveryand small protests against theattack were held in Mingora, Is-lamabad and the eastern city ofLahore.

Powerful army chief Gen-eral Ashfaq Kayani visitedMalala on Wednesday and said

it was time to “further uniteand stand up to fight the prop-agators of such barbaric mind-set and their sympathisers”.

the provincial governmentannounced a 10 million rupee($104,000) reward for infor-mation leading to the captureof Malala’s attackers, who es-caped after the shooting.

Commentators said thebrazen shooting raises seriousquestions about why the gov-ernment did not do more toprotect Malala and about thetaliban presence in Swat, threeyears after the army said it haddefeated the uprising.

Amid public outrage, thePakistani taliban issued astatement seeking to justify thecold-blooded murder attempton a child, saying any femalewho opposed them should bekilled.

Followers of the taliban,who controlled much of Swatfrom 2007-2009, have de-stroyed hundreds of girls’schools across northwest Pak-istan.

taliban bombers havekilled thousands of Pakistanisoldiers and civilians over thelast five years, but many in thecountry blame the UnitedStates and its 2001 invasion ofneighbouring Afghanistan forthe violence.

LONDONafp

UN special education envoy Gor-don Brown will visit Pakistan nextmonth for talks with PresidentAsif Ali Zardari after the shootingof a child activist by the taliban,Brown’s office said thursday.

Brown, who was prime minis-ter of Britain from 2007-2010, willlead a delegation that will discusswith the Pakistani governmenthow to improve education oppor-tunities for children.

He said he was concernedabout the shooting of 14-year-oldMalala Yousafzai on a school busin the Swat valley in northwest

Pakistan, carried out by the tal-iban in revenge for the girl’s cam-paign for the right to aneducation.

“I have asked Pakistan’s Pres-ident Zardari to pledge thatMalala’s suffering will not be invain,” Brown said in a statementreleased by his office.

“In response, he has invitedme to lead a delegation of educa-tion leaders to visit him in Pak-istan in November to talk abouthow he can improve opportunitiesfor children.”

UN envoy Brown to visit pakistan after Malala shooting

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He urged all political and religiousparties and the civil society to showunity in order to root out the men-ace of terrorism and extremismfrom the country.

“It is the responsibility of thepolitical and religious parties andthe civil society to stand unitedagainst the terrorists, as the gov-ernment and national institutionscould not fight against this mindsetalone,” he added. Calling Malalathe daughter of the nation whoraised voice against illiteracy and

extremism, Kaira said he felt proudthat Malala had expressed her de-sire to become a politician.

He said although media hadplayed a positive role in the war onterror, it needed to be more proac-tive to expose the elements behindthe attack on Malala. Kaira said po-litical leaders would be invitedthrough phone and letters to visitand enquire after Malala.

to a question, he said the cabi-net committee on Balochistan em-phasised that the next electionshould be free, fair and transparentand the reservations of the political

parties of Balochistan, if any,should be removed. the committeealso recommended diplomatic ef-forts to counter and expose foreigninterference in the province, addingthat an apex committee be formedconsisting of governor, chief minis-ter and corps commander for coor-dination, Kaira added. “All lawenforcement agencies and intelli-gence agencies will be accountableto the committee. It will also lookinto the prospects of any change inA and B areas of the province inconsultation with all the stakehold-ers,” it added. An additional secre-

tary-level officer of BPS 20 wouldbe entrusted responsibility for co-ordination of law and order issues,the committee recommended.Kaira said the committee also wasof the view that all federal min-istries and departments would beasked to provide details of vacan-cies against Balochistan’s quotaand these would be filled in withinone month through transparentmechanism from among those hav-ing genuine domicile of theprovince. “If needed, relaxation inrules will also be given for the re-cruitment from Balochistan on va-

cant posts in federal institutions,”the committee said, adding that theFIR in respect of all those perceivedto be missing should be lodged forproper investigation. Kaira said acommittee comprising religiousleaders would be set up to ensurereligious harmony in the provinceand the committee had categori-cally stated that all armed persons,organisations and groups should beidentified and eliminated.

the committee also recom-mended release of funds on prior-ity basis for Ratodero GwadarRoad and Katchhi Canal. the min-

ister said funds for the canal hadalready been released while fundswould be released soon for the roadto provide important link to theprovince. the cabinet also ap-proved five year extension in thelease of the Saindak Project afterconsent of the provincial govern-ment. He said that the governmenthad prepared a new policy for post-ing of high officials in Balochistan.the cabinet also approved policyguidelines for OGRA and startingof negotiations with ecuador forsigning of an agreement for exportof skilled manpower.

Dialogue with dissident Baloch leaders ‘under national flag’cONtINuED FROm PagE 19

ISLAMABADanWeR aBBaS

tHe National Assembly(NA) was informed onthursday that the coun-

try is currently facing a 3 billioncubic feet shortage of gas.

the House was given thisinformation during its session,however, reassurances weregiven that in coming years withexploration of more resourcesthe situation would be im-proved and gas shortage wouldbe controlled. the session waschaired by NA Deputy SpeakerFaisal Karim Kundi andopened with recitation of‘Fateha’ for the departed soulsof former MNA Dr Sher AfghanKhan Niazi and former MPAasiq Dayaal. During the sit-ting, NA passed the ProvincialMotor Vehicles (Amended)Bill, 2011, despite strong oppo-sition by MNA Zahid Hamidfrom PML-N; also the amend-ments suggested by PML-Nwere rejected.

Newly appointed PML-QMNA Rukhsana Shahbaz

Bhutta also took oath, replac-ing former MNA ShehnazSheikh from the same party.MNA Noor Alam Khan pre-sented a resolution on thefloor demanding the house toestablish a strong monitoringsystem to monitor the poliocampaign and its outcomes inall four provinces, FAtA andGilgit-Baltistan – the bill wasalso passed by members ofthe parliament.

MNA Dr tariq FazalChaudhry, PML-N, tabled amotion, which was also passedwithout any opposition, de-manding the government toban foreign channels beingaired by local cable tVproviders and websites thatwere involved in promotingobscenity. the resolution alsodemanded the establishmentof a committee charged withthe responsibility of chalkingout a strategy to curb the avail-ability of any obscene as well asblasphemous materials on tel-evision channels and the inter-net. During the session thejournalists also staged a walk

out from the press galleryprotesting against a recent fir-ing incident in which the Pun-jab Police opened fire on a localjournalist in Islamabad.

On a point of order, MNAAnjum Aqeel Khan demandedthe government to increase thequota of seats for studentsfrom Islamabad in the onlymedical college in the federalcapital, adding that the num-ber of seats for the localsshould be 200 which at presentwere only 10, as over 5000 stu-dents seeking admission therewere residents of Islamabad.earlier during the question-an-swer session, Advisor to PrimeMinister on Petroleum andNatural Resources, Dr AsimHussain, apprised the Housethat effects of price adjustmentwere being accordingly passedon to the consumers. the NAwas informed that the petro-leum product prices had beenincreased and decreased dur-ing the last six months in linewith the price trend in the in-ternational market and actualimport prices.

MONITORING DESK

today marks the 13th anniver-sary of the coup that broughtthe then Chief of Army Staff(COAS) General PervezMusharraf into power andbrought an end to the govern-ment of elected prime ministerNawaz Sharif, forcing him toflee into exile to Saudi Arabia.

the chronology of eventsthat took place on October 121999 and of those that causedthe coup has been the centreof heated discussions onmainstream media followingthe end of Musharraf’sregime. Naturally, both majoractors involved have takenopposite stances on the

events that accrued and theirlegitimacy.

Nawaz Sharif maintainsthat Musharraf’s takeoverwas illegal and unconstitu-tional and was in fact a per-sonal vendetta against hisfamily. Musharraf, on theother hand termed his com-ing into power a necessity forthe country and labels theSharif government as cor-rupt. Discussing the politicalevents that revolved aroundthe coup on express Newslast night, General Muhsarrafreiterated his stance that theSharifs had signed a writtenagreement taking a safe routeto exile in Saudi Arabia. Hesaid that they (Sharifs) were

in active contact with DG ISIGeneral Mahmud in framingthe contract that gave them asafe passage out of here.

Shahbaz Sharif, he said,did not want to leave Pakistaninitially but eventually de-cided to go with the rest of thefamily. Musharraf said hewas not vindictive towardsthe Sharifs despite the hijack-ing incident. He said thatHamza Shahbaz, son of Shah-baz Sharif, continued to liveand operate his business inLahore without obstructionand none of their childrenwere prevented from goingabroad for medical treat-ment. Commenting on theperformance of the federal

and Punjab provincial gov-ernment, Musharraf said theyhad failed miserably. Heopined that Pervez elahi haddone a much better job dur-ing his reign as Punjab chiefminister. In response to aquestion, he said he felt be-trayed at being deserted byPML-Q during the end of hispresidential era. Interest-ingly, he was of the opinionthat Pervez elahi would stilljoin forces with him when-ever the former presidentcame to Pakistan to partici-pate in mainstream politics.In the forthcoming elections,Musharraf believed that nei-ther PML-N nor Imran Khanwould come into power.

But the tribesmen believethat they included foreignmilitants, mostly Afghans. OnWednesday a US drone striketargeting another compoundin North Waziristan killedfive fighters, according toPakistani officials. the covert US attacks areunpopular in Pakistan, wherethe government calls them aviolation of sovereignty, butAmerican officials believethey are a vital weaponagainst the militants. Lastweek, cricket legend turnedpolitician Imran Khan led

thousands of supporters in amotorcade from the capitalIslamabad to the edge of thetribal belt to protest againstthe US strikes. In another incident maskedgunmen killed three peopleincluding a pro-governmenttribal elder in an attack onhis car on the outskirts ofMiranshah, AFP reported,citing officials.“Malik Mashar Khan wasreturning to his home whenunknown gunmen ambushedhis vehicle, killing him, hisdriver and a guard on thespot” before fleeing in a car, asecurity official said.

Fatwa declaresMalala attackun-IslamicLAHORE: More than 50 Ulema andreligious scholars belonging to SunniIttehad Council (SIC) issued a fatwa(religious edict) on thursday, declaringtaliban’s attack on child educationcampaigner Malala Yousafzai as un-Islamic. the fatwa noted that Islam did notbar women from getting education and thattaliban’s perception of Islam was based onlack of awareness and error. the fatwa saidthat Islam termed the sanctity of a believergreater than that of the Ka’aba. the fatwacame a few hours after Muttahida QaumiMovement Chairman Altaf Hussain urgedUlema to condemn the attack on Malalawithin 24 hours, threatening to exposethem otherwise. STaff RepoRT

NEW YORKafp

Millions of girls worldwideare not going to school, an ed-ucation gap that condemnsthem to lives of hardship andentrenches broader extremepoverty, a new report saidthursday. the report, “Be-cause I am a Girl: the State ofthe World’s Girls 2012,” wasreleased in New York by PlanInternational on the UnitedNation’s first InternationalDay of the Girl. “the esti-mated 75 million girls miss-ing from classrooms acrossthe world is a major violationof rights and a huge waste ofyoung potential,” the childpoverty alleviation group saidin launching the report.

A total of one in threegirls is denied education, butPlan’s report focuses espe-cially on the 39 million girlsaged between 11 and 15, righton the cusp of becomingyoung women, who are out ofschool. the report — whichcoincided with the news thisweek of a 14-year-old Pak-istani girl gunned down forher criticism of taliban cam-paigns against girl’s educa-tion — underlined the hugelypositive impact that schoolcan have on girls in poor

countries. “An educated girl isless vulnerable to violence,less likely to marry and havechildren when still a childherself, and more likely to beliterate and healthy intoadulthood — as are her ownchildren,” Plan InternationalCeO Nigel Chapman said.

“Her earning power isincreased and she is morelikely to invest her incomefor the benefit of her family,community and country. Itis not an exaggeration to sayeducating girls can save livesand transform futures.” Plancalled on global leaders toensure a minimum of nineyears’ schooling for all chil-dren, giving them a betterchance to enter secondaryeducation. But special prior-ity should be given to girls,the humanitarian organiza-tion said, with greater fund-ing and programs to stopchild marriage and violencein schools — two main rea-sons for the current dropoutrate among girls. In manycases, poor families pulldaughters from school out offear for their health orsafety. In Ghana, 83 percentof parents interviewed forthe report said the risks ofpregnancy were a disadvan-tage of school.

Troika discussessecuritysituation

MONITORING DESK

the troika comprisingthe president, primeminister and army chiefheld at importantmeeting at thePresidency late onthursday to discussmatters related to thecountry’s securitysituation, especially aftera taliban attack onteenage educationactivist Malala Yousafzai,and other issues ofnational importance.According to a tVchannel, Prime MinisterRaja Pervaiz Ashraf,Deputy Prime MinisterPervez elahi and PML-Qchief Chaudhry ShujaatHussain called onPresident Asif AliZardari at the Presidencyon thursday night anddiscussed the energycrisis in the country. the channel said thatArmy chief GeneralAshfaq Kayani alsojoined the talks.

At least 18 perish in deadlydrone strike in Orakzai

13 years after coup, Musharrafstill holds Sharifs’ responsible

Denying girls schoolentrenches poverty

cONtINuED FROm PagE 01

Country facing severe gas shortage

KaRacHI: a demonstrator carries a candle during a protest on Thursday against the assassination attempt on child activist

Malala Yousafzai. afp

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05


News

QUeTTa: activists of pashtunkhwa Students organisation shout anti-Taliban slogans during a demonstration on Thursday against the attack on Malala Yousafzai. INp

fC’s job is to establish peace in Balochistan: CJQUETTA

STaff RepoRT

Chief Justice (CJ) IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry onthursday said it was the job ofthe Frontier Corps (FC) to es-tablish peace in Balochistan.

the CJ made these remarksduring the hearing of a petitionon the law and order situationand human rights violations inBalochistan at the SupremeCourt’s Quetta Registry.

A three-judge bench of the

apex court, comprising ChiefJustice Iftikhar, Justice KhiljiArif Hussain and JusticeJawwad S. Khawaja, was hear-ing the petition filed by theBalochistan Bar Association onthe law and order situation inthe province.

During the hearing, SMZafar said that physical andpsychological attacks werebeing carried out against theFC.

Zafar moreover said that415 FC personnel had been

killed and over 600 injured inattacks.

He said the FC was operat-ing under a strict discipline.

the CJ remarked that thecourt’s priority was to establishpeace and ensure recovery ofthe missing persons.

He said that the commonperception was that FC person-nel detained people and did notinform concerned civilian au-thorities. He further said thatthe FC’s job was to establishpeace in the restive province.

Balochistan Advocate Gen-eral Amanullah Kanrani saidthe government had a list ofmissing persons and there were78 names on that list.

Justice Khawaja said thatministers have alleged thatthere was proof of involvementof a foreign hand in the unrestin the province.

india police arrestmilitants ‘planningdelhi attack’

NEW DELHIafp

Indian police on thursday said they hadarrested three Islamist militants sus-pected of planning bomb attacks in NewDelhi during the upcoming Hindu festi-val season. the men were members ofthe home-grown Indian Mujahideenoutfit and were behind a series of blastsin August in the western city of Punethat left one person injured, New Delhipolice commissioner Neeraj Kumar said.“With the three arrests we have pre-vented a major strike in Delhi,” Kumartold reporters.He said the arrests followed the interro-gation of Syed Zabiuddin, who was ar-rested in June in connection with the2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistan-basedgunmen which left 166 people dead.Police believes Zabiuddin belonged tothe Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-taibaguerrilla force.“these three are Indian Mujahideen op-eratives and linked to a Lashkar figureso it proves that the two groups haveclose links at some level,” Kumar said,adding the suspects had been picked upafter travelling to the capital.the Indian Mujahideen claimed respon-sibility for blasts in July 2008 inAhmedabad city when 45 died and inDelhi two months later when 20 peoplewere killed.the city of Pune in the western state ofMaharashtra saw a major restaurantbombing in 2010 killed 17 people.

two Cd shopsblasted in Nowshera

NOWSHERASTaff RepoRT

Unidentified militants destroyed two CDshops with explosives in Nowshera onthursday but no casualty was reported.According to police, the miscreants hadplanted explosives outside CD shops lo-cated at Pabbi Station Chowk. As a result of the blast, two CD shopswere completely destroyed while someneighbouring shops were partially dam-aged. After the incident, police cordonedoff the area and started an investigation.CD shops owners have been receivingthreats from militants to wrap up theirbusinesses and look for alternatesources of livelihood.

ISLAMABADSTaff RepoRT

THe Supreme Court onthursday ordered thatthe girls and ‘jirga’members involved in theDera Bugti ‘Vani’ inci-

dent be presented before the court atthe earliest.

the court issued the ruling duringthe hearing in the suo motu notice ofa ‘jirga’, which was reportedly held inDera Bugti district’s Bakar area andhad decided that 13 girls be marriedunder the custom of ‘Vani’ to resolvea feud between two groups of the Ma-suri tribe.

A three-judge bench comprisingthe chief justice, Justice Khilji ArifHussain and Justice Jawwad Khawajaheard the case at the apex court’sQuetta Registry.

During the hearing, JusticeKhawaja remarked that until all thoseinvolved in the incident did not ap-pear before the bench, the matterwould remain unresolved.

Justice Khawaja also stated thatno one should be made a victim of ha-rassment.

Addressing Sarfraz Bugti, a cousinof MPA Mir tariq Masuri who allegedlychaired the ‘jirga’, Chief Justice Iftikharsaid that if he had any evidence toprove his allegation that the ‘jirga’ thathad decided on the ‘Vani’ had takenplace, he should furnish it before thebench.

Bugti said the incident had hap-pened a month ago and that MPA Ma-suri was an influential man. He addedthat he could also name the tribal eld-ers who were present at the ‘jirga’.

However, Balochistan AdvocateGeneral (AG) Amanullah Kanrani saidthere was no evidence that any such in-cident occurred, and requested thebench to quash the case.

During the hearing, Dera BugtiDeputy Commissioner Syed FaisalShah informed the court that no evi-dence had been found regarding the in-cident and nobody was willing tocooperate in the investigation.

On this, the chief justice expressedanger over Bugti’s statement, sayingthat he had made a false claim.

Bugti however remained adamantthat the incident took place. He saidthat people in the area were too afraidto speak out due to pressure of MPAMasuri, who chaired the tribal meeting.

Later, the chief justice asked Bugtito bring those involved to the court.

Subsequently, the bench ruled thatthe girls and the tribal elders in ques-tion be presented before it and the casebe thoroughly investigated.

the bench adjourned the hearing toNov 9.

543 people killedin 384 bomb explosions in KP,FAtA in 2012 so far


At least 543 people have been killed and1,193 have been injured in 384 bomb ex-plosions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa andthe Federally Administrative tribalAreas (FAtA) during a period of ninemonths.According to a report, the explosions in-cluded 21 suicide acts in which 188 werekilled and 383 were injured in the firstnine months of the current calendaryear. eight of the 21 suicide attacks oc-curred in Peshawar alone, killing morethan 100 people.the official data revealed that most ofthe terrorist acts occurred in Peshawarwith 78 explosions in just nine months,killing 125 people and injuring 369 oth-ers. Superintendent of Police KalamKhan, North Waziristan tehsildar and anumber of other government and policeofficials were also killed in these blasts.During this period, terrorists blew up 81government schools in scattered areas ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa and FAtA ofwhich 10 were high schools, 11 weremiddle and 60 primary schools. According to the data, of the schools de-stroyed 43 were boys’ schools, 38 girls’schools and three degree colleges. the number of terrorist acts occurringin these nine months is greater than thetotal number of attacks occurring in2011. However, according to the data,terrorist acts occurring in 2010 and2009 were more than those occurring inthe first nine months of 2012.

Protest staged inPeshawar againstkilling of 3 men abducted last Sunday


Hundreds of tribesmen from MohmandAgency residing in Bakhsho Pull andother villages along the Charsadda Roadstaged a protest on thursday after find-ing the bodies of three people who weremysteriously whisked away by unknownmen last Sunday. the protesters said anumber of armed men in plain clothesraided a House during a wedding cere-mony on Charsadda Road. the armedmen, on confirmation of identity, pickedup five people and shifted them to anunknown place.However, late on Wednesday, the rela-tives were informed about the bodies ofthree of the five abducted men. Uponcollecting the bodies, the relatives tookout a procession outside the PeshawarPress Club. Chanting slogans, the pro-testers expressed severe concern overthe brutal assassination of the threepeople and urged the government toconfess its failure to secure the people.the protesters blocked the Sher ShahSuri Road for traffic for an hour but dis-persed following a request by high-rank-ing police officials.they demanded the government ensurean early and safe recovery of the re-maining two abducted men.

SC orders govt to produce‘Vani’ girls, tribal elders

3 troops killed in Dera Bugti blast

DERA BUGTI: A roadside bomb ripped through a vehicle ofsecurity forces in Dera Bugti, killing three officials and injur-ing another. Media reports on thursday said the vehiclestruck a landmine in the area which led to killing of three se-curity personnel. the dead bodies and injured were taken to anearby hospital. onLIne

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THe country’s busiest airbaseChaklala was renamed NurKhan Airbase on thursday,in acknowledgment of thelegendary and upfront lead-

ership qualities of a celebrated officer ofone of the best air-forces in the world.

First native Air Chief of PAF, AirMarshal (R) Asghar Khan, was the chiefguest at the ceremony.

Air Chief Marshal tahir Rafique Butt,retired air chiefs of PAF and other mili-tary officers of the tri-service attendedthe ceremony, according to a press re-lease issued by PAF.

Air Marshal (R) Asghar Khan recalledthe history of PAF where it had forced amore powerful adversary to repent due tothe sheer acumen and wisdom of AirChief Nur Khan.

“His war plan completely changed theadverse picture and nefarious mindset ofour adversary,” he said.

Paying tribute, the Chief of AirStaff said that Air Marshal Nur Khan’ssagacity in handling the activities ofthe Base (Nur Khan was first BaseCommander of the Chaklala airbase)especially amid all the mayhem, re-flected his organized, innovative andexemplary approach as a commander.

“Air Marshal Nur Khan, with his wis-dom and foresight, elevated both menand machines under his charge, to nearperfection. He had the charisma to in-spire and infuse spirit among men underhis command to perform their dutiesmost meticulously, regardless of whetherit was during peace or war,” he said.

Recalling days of the 1965 warwhen he had just taken over commandof PAF, he said, “When the balloonwent up, he was there at the front,marshalling his force and orchestrat-

ing his moves with immaculate plan-ning and aggression that helped PAFdominate the large Indian Air-force.”

“He was the most shining example ofa fearless leader who always led through

personal example whether it was a fa-mous C-130 night sortie in 1965 or later,the daring overpowering Fokker hijackeras the PIA boss,” Air Chief said.

Recounting the services of his prede-cessors, Air Chief Marshal tahir Rafiquesaid that their visionary leadership was abeacon of light and source of inspirationfor all of them, particularly in these tryingtimes, when the security paradigm hasundergone a complete shift.

He said that by no choosing of ourown, the enemy from within has to beaccorded a much higher priority. “Whilewe prepare even harder and pray that nomore unfortunate incidents, take place,”he said.

During the Second World War theRoyal Air Force had used Chaklala Air-base as its forward airbase. After inde-

pendence the base had become a forwardoperational station for Royal Pakistan AirForce and was put under the command ofSquadron Leader Nur Khan.

In 1965, the base participated in theMarch 23rd fly-past with six C-1 30s,which was probably the largest ever fly-past with 128 aircraft of PAF.

During the 1965 war the base carriedout 17 trans-frontier combat missionsand the second mission called “OperationGibraltar” was personally led by Air Mar-shal Nur Khan.

Later, the Air Chief presented sou-venirs to Air Marshal Asghar Khan andBegum Farhat nur Khan.

Begum Farhat exhibiting her deeplove and affection for PAF presented arare and priceless Aviation painting tothe air chief.

Honouring Nur Khann PAF Airbase Chaklala renamed after one of the best Air Force officer


the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs hassought details from the Foreign Ministry in re-spect of its officers who have adopted foreignnationality soon after retirement, and thoseofficers whose wives and children hadadopted dual nationality during their ap-pointments abroad.

the committee met on thursdayunder the chairman Senator Haji Adeel.the Foreign Office told the committee thatwives of 16 of its officers were foreign na-tionals and the wives of 10 officers were dualnationality holders. No officer however was adual national.

Foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jillani told the com-mittee that Pakistan held dual nationality agreementswith 16 countries. Any officer of the Foreign Office hadto obtain prior permission in connection with his mar-riage, and in the case of marriage with foreign national,permission had to be obtained from the prime ministerthrough the establishment division.

Regarding the Pak-US NAtO supply agreement,the Foreign Secretary told the committee the timeframe of this agreement would expire on December,

31, 2012. the transit route was provided with re-gard to permanent goods for 11 years. An agree-ment had also been reached with US on

NAtO-ISAF transit trafficking. He also said that US would construct and

carry out repair work of the Peshawar-torkham road at the cost of $70 million.

On the issue of granting a mostfavourite nation status to India in terms oftrade, Commerce Secretary MunirQureshi told the committee that a negativelist will stand abolished in December.

A permanent joint working group has beenestablished to settle details of trade via

Khokhrapar-Munabao. Bilateral trade volumewith India has reached a mark of $1.84 billion.

the commerce secretary told the committee thattalks were underway with India to import electricityand petroleum products. three agreements had beensigned with India to repeal non tariff papers, he added.India had allowed Pakistani entrepreneurs to make in-vestments there. Pakistani investors could invest in allsectors excluding defence, space sciences and nucleartechnology in India under its relevant rules.

Committee seeks details about retiredofficers holding foreign nationality

Six environmentallaboratories closed downRAWALPINDI: Punjab governmenthas decided to close down laboratoriesconstructed for environment protectionin six cities of the province, includingRawalpindi. the purpose of these labo-ratories was to research and monitor theenvironment to protect it from pollution.these labs had nothing to do for the lastthree months and utility bills, office rentand furniture degradation were causinga loss to the provincial government.therefore, the government decided toclose down the laboratories in six cities,including Rawalpindi. the employees ofthe laboratories were informed of theirdismissal, causing massive frustration inthis regard. STaff RepoRT

Unattended bag createspanic at airportRAWALPINDI: the Airport SecurityForce (ASF), on thursday, spotted an un-attended bag in the parking area of Be-nazir Bhutto International AirportIslamabad, which caused the police andbomb disposal squad to rush the spot.the bomb disposal squad immediatelyreached there and opened the bag in aspecialized manner. the bag, which con-tained perfumes and cosmetics, openedwith a small bang caused by the gas usedby experts to check the bag, which createdpanic. Rejecting the impression that afirecracker blast had occurred at the air-port, Raja Waheed the security head, saidthat the sound heard at the airport wascaused by a method adopted by the bombdisposal squad for opening the bag. thesquad had recovered no particles of a fire-cracker from the site. STaff RepoRT


the government of Punjab on thurs-day ordered colleges to shut down allthe computer centers formed 15years ago with the collaboration ofthe private sector and to start thecomputer classes in collaborationwith the government.

According to sources, the provin-cial government was evaluating the

pros and cons of the computer centersin the government colleges running incollaboration with the private sectorfor last two years.

In a meeting with the secretaryeducation Punjab, director of col-leges said that the officials of the pri-vate sector had established theirmonopoly in the government collegesand ruining the discipline by keepingthe government colleges till eveningfor computer courses.

He further opined that the pri-vate sector was earning billions afterspending millions in the governmentcolleges, which the Punjab govern-ment could earn too.

After a consultation with the di-rectors of the colleges, the provin-cial government decided not toextend the contracts of the privatesector and start computer classes inthe government college on theirown. It is pertinent to mention here

that the contracts were to be re-newed in August this year.

At the same time, the peoplefrom the private sector said thatthey took the risk of establishing thecomputer centers when the govern-ment was not taking the risk andworked hard to make the computercenters a success. the added nowthat the centers are successful, thegovernment was separating themfrom the system.

Govt closes private computer centers in colleges to save money

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07Islamabad



ALLAMA Iqbal OpenUniversity (AIOU)will soon launch anumber of skilled-based programmes to

empower people in rural areas toearn their livelihood. this was an-nounced by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dr Nazir AhmedSangi in a certificate distributionceremony of the first batch of ‘gard-ner’s training course’ arranged bythe Department of Agricultural Sci-ences, AIOU.

While addressing to the func-tion, he said the Deans of relevantfaculties have been assigned to pre-pare necessary courses and syllabusfor the programmes.

Accordingly, the Central for In-structional Design (CID) set-up atthe university’s main campus willconvert the printed courses withCDs to facilitate the students, he as-serted. Sufficient funds for under-taking these programmes will alsobe made available.

Dr Sangi instructed the aca-demic staff of the department ofagricultural sciences to prepare and

launch some basic courses of agri-cultural at level one, two, three,Matric and Diploma level ie soil andland preparation, Veterinary Sci-ence, Livestock farming and others.

Dr Sangi said that all greatpeople in the world got successonly on the basis of their hard-work. He said that hard-work wasthe key to success. He urged thestudents to be dutiful, honest andearn your livelihood by hardwork-ing and become the upper handbecause the upper hand was thehand that gives while the lowerhand is the hand that takes.

Our country was facing scarcityof the skilled gardeners, on the in-struction of the vice chancellor tostart some courses for the garden-ers to strengthen their capabilitiesfor overall agricultural develop-ment, the four-month durationtraining course was started for thegardeners in April, Dean, Faculty ofScience, Prof Dr Nowshad Khansaid. total 27 gardeners were en-rolled in the first batch of gardenerstraining course out of which 20have completed the said training.

At the end the Sangi gave awaycertificates to the gardeners whohave completed their training.

AIOU to introducenew programmesto empower people

ISLAMABADInp

Contractors deployed for construction andmaintenance in the federal capital, underCDA’s Assignments Accounts could not re-ceive payment of their bills from the CapitalDevelopment Authority (CDA), as an ac-counts officer Muhammad Waseem hadgone for Hajj.

According to sources in CDA,Waseem was the only one with the au-thority to sign cheques for the release offunds from assignment accounts. As hewas off-station, the contractors couldnot get their money.

A CDA official told INP that the author-

ity administration had authorized anotherofficial, Azeem-ul-Arfeen, to sign thecheques, but the process of authorizationwas so complicated and time consumingthat the new authority’s signature had notreached the bank and cheques could there-fore not be issued yet.

He further said that the CDA chairmanhad approved the new official’s authoriza-tion and the case had been forwarded to thecabinet secretary. After that it would be sentto the Accountant General of Pakistan Rev-enue (AGPR) for approval.

Signatures of the new officials would besent to the National Bank of Pakistan andonly then will the contractors be able to gettheir funds.

ISLAMABADpR

Leader of the Parsi community, Mr. Is-phanyar Bhandara stated that the nationcould not bear to be a victim of further po-

litical crises and experiments. It was nec-essary for all political groups and partiesbe united in order to remove accusationsagainst minorities of being “traitors”.

Mr. Bhandara stated that the PML-N leader, Nawaz Shareef had taken the

initiative of bringing together localleaders of Sindh and Balochistan’scommunities and that this initiativewould result positively. this initiativewould also serve to eliminate concernsof leaders of smaller, local communi-

ties with the Punjab government. Headded that we should further open ourminds and join hands in support ofthis initiative.

It is necessary to join hands be-cause a single person can never over-

come the political, economic and ad-ministrative issues. All political lead-ership should come together to forman agenda and make efforts to ensurethe nation’s betterment for genera-tions to come.

NGOs observe

international

Girl Child dayISLAMABAD: Parliamentarians, civilsociety members and media represen-tatives demanded to abolish the prac-tice of child marriages. ‘thegovernment should take stringentmeasures to stop violence against fe-male children who are forcibly marriedoff at an early age and are involved indomestic child labour’, said Dr AttiyaAnayatullah, Member National Assem-bly and Human Rights Standing Com-mittee of the parliament. Speaking toparticipants of a press conference heldby ActionAid, Blue Vein and Girls NotBrides on thursday, to mark the Inter-national Girl Child Day, Dr Attiya saidthat the Women’s Parliamentary Cau-cus had introduced three different billson issues faced by women. pR

Parsi community appreciates Sharif’s initiative

Maintenance contractors await

release of funds from CDA

MY LIfe, MY cHoIce: an activist arranging dolls on the occasion of ‘International Day of the girl child’ outside the press club. INP


Chairman, Capital Development Authority, Syed tahir Shahbaz sus-pended seven employees of the civic authority, who were involved inhiring new recruits on the last day of the transfer of the formerChairman CDA, Farkhand Iqbal.According to CDA’s sources, the former chairman had recruited 100to 150 persons in nine months without advertising those posts innewspapers, despite a ban on recruitments. He had recruited manyemployees on grades 16 and 17 on daily wages, the source said,adding that on the last day of his transfer from the CDA, he re-cruited 18 persons.the sources said that the former chairman had left charge of thecivic authority on October 02, while notifications of the new recruit-ments were issued on October 03, due to which the new CDA chair-man suspended Deputy DG HRD, Najma Azhar, Director, KhalilAhmed Soomro, Deputy Director Syed Safdar Ali Shah, Assistant Di-rector, Muhammad Ashraf, HRO Kalsoom Parveen, AssistantMuhammad Mushtaq and the diary dispatch clerk.

Illegal recruitments: 7 CDAemployees suspended

Roots organises launch of Chinese text book ISLAMABAD

STaff RepoRT

Roots Chinese Language Department(RCLD) in partnership with Pakistan-China Institute, CRI Roots ConfuciusClassroom and Paramount Publishing,on thursday, organized a launch cer-emony of the book ‘Chinese madeeasy’.

the book is written by Hasan Javed,High Commissioner of Pakistan to Sin-gapore.

the chief guest Dr. Maria Sultan, Di-rector General of South Asian StrategicInstitute, Ambassador Akram Zaki, Am-bassador Riaz Hussain Khokhar, Ambas-sador Khalid Mehmood, Ambassadortariq Usman Hayder and Zhang Ying-bao, Cultural Counsellor Chinese em-bassy, graced the occasion with theirpresence and each distinguished speakerspoke on the importance and signifi-cance of the book’s uniqueness, as it isauthored to meet early learning needsfor Chinese language learners.

Javed, the author of the book, whileattending the launch ceremony, thankedthe organisers and said that the purposeand vision of his book was to provide a

pioneering and interesting medium tolearn Chinese for students across theworld.

the book “Chinese made easy” is abridge to connect the people of Pakistanand China in a stronger bond of friend-ship and provide guidance to readers in

learning fundamental Chinese for every-day use. Commonly used Chinese words,sentences, pronunciation and accent inChinese, Urdu and english are also in-cluded in the book and will prove to beespecially beneficial for people travel-ling to China.

ISLaMaBaD: president Jamhoori Wattan party Talal akbar Bugti, chairman

Ipo Hameedullah Jan afridi, former prime Minister aJK Barrister Sultan

Mahmood and others posing for a group photo during a dinner hosted by

Salman aftab, in Islamabad. ONLINE

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30 YeARS OF ROHTAS gAlleRY

Sixty five artists will exhibit more than165 works in what will be a testimony toPakistan’s contemporary artists and anamazing journey through their growth andcontribution to art over three decades.

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 6pm. we are having a great time, andwant to share the good time with you!Our drumming circle has children ...

SePt 24 - OCt 24, 5PmVeNue: NAtiONAL ARt GALLeRy

AnWAR MAQSOOD’S PAWnAY 14 Aug

‘Pawnay 14 August’ has broken all theatrical recordsin Pakistan with 28 performances and 15000viewers in Karachi and Lahore is now ready tosweep islamabad off its feet. For more details call 0333 3377909, 0300 9558701

SePt 1 - 25 PAKiStAN NAtiONAL COuNCiL OF ARtS

DRuMMIng CIRCle

NEWS DESK

MIDDLe-CLASS parentsare fueling stress levelsamong chi ldren bydri l l ing them to passschool tests , according

to a major study published. they admit to being “partly responsible”

for the culture of high-stakes exams by pay-ing for private coaching to get children intoprivate school.

Children under 11 even admitted thatschool tests were vital to get into the bestfee-paying schools, said the report, thetelegraph reported.

the claims are made in a study byCambridge University which lays barethe “increasingly perilous” state ofmodern childhood.

the study says government-im-posed exams taken at the age ofseven and 11 had caused anxietyamong children and distorted thecurriculum. It also claims that out-side the schools gates life is “inse-cure and in many areas dangerous”as concerns grow over familybreakdown, a rise in gun and knifecrime, materialism and the cult ofcelebrity.

In areas with a large influxof migrants, parents spoke oftheir fears over the“rapid changein the characterof establ ishedc o m m u n i t i e s ”and growingc o m m u n i t yt e n s i o n s .Some c i t iesare now“physical ly di-vided along eth-nic l ines” , saysthe report.

A c a d e m i c sinterviewed 750children, par-ents, teachersand governors aspart of a majortwo-year study intothe state of primaryeducation in england.

the enquiry in-cluded schools in leafysuburbs, rural areas anddeprived urban commu-nities. An interim reportpublished today - the firstof a series by Cambridgeacademics - says therewas “substantial” agreementon key concerns.

Despite cr i t ic ism overthe influence of national media

reports, i t says anxiety over the state ofchi ldhood was being driven by specif iclocal issues.

“today’s chi ldren, i t was general lyfe l t , are being forced to grow up toosoon, and the prospects for the societyand world they wi l l inheri t look in-creasingly peri lous,” i t said.

Robin Alexander, professor of educationat Cambridge, who led the study, said it cast

doubt on government claims that children’slives were better than ever.

“If things are going so well, why are peo-ple so worried?” he said.

Chi ldren interviewed were “moreambivalent” about nat ional tests , a l -though many admitted to feel ing nerv-ous and anxious.

Some in affluent areas told researchersthat doing well was important to “get usinto private schools”.

Parents in one affluent south Lon-don suburb “acknowledged they

were partly responsible” forstress levels after “paying

for regular private coach-ing to maximise their

children’s chances” ofgetting into independ-ent secondary schools.

According to the re-port, other parentscriticised the level ofcomputer use inschools, saying chil-dren should learn “tra-ditional as well aselectronic communica-tion” as a “vital anti-dote to children’sobsession with mobilephones and texting”.

Researchers a lsohighl ighted the ef fectrecent inf luxes of mi-

grants had in manycommunities. this

fol lows the pub-l ication of off i-

c i a lG o v e r n m e n tstat ist ics lastmonth show-ing that whiteBri t ish chi l -dren werenow a minor-i ty in many

inner-c i ty pr i-mary schools. the report said

primary schools were“committed to multi-cul-

turalism” but the complexityof the ethnic mix in many areas

could “no longer be accommodatedin the time-honoured fashion merely by

telling children about Divali and eid”. the Department for Children, Schools

and Families said its new Children’s Plan -which will dictate the future shape of gov-ernment policies for young people - wouldaddress many of the concerns.

“ t h e v a s t m a j o r i t y o f c h i l d r e n g ot o b e t t e r s c h o o l s , e n j o y b e t t e r h e a l t h ,l i v e i n b e t t e r h o u s i n g a n d i n m o r e a f -f l u e n t h o u s e h o l d s t h a n t h e y d i d t e ny e a r s a g o . ”

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09

egypt brotherhood

urges demos,

ex-officials’ retrial

CAIROafp

egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood onthursday called for demonstrationsdemanding the retrial of thoseresponsible for protester deathsduring last year’s popular uprisingagainst Hosni Mubarak. A court onWednesday acquitted 24 stalwarts ofthe ousted president who had beenaccused of incitement to murder overa notorious camel-borne assault onprotesters on February 2, 2011, to thedisbelief of human rights activists.“the Brotherhood was shocked, likethe egyptian people, throughout theverdict acquitting the accused of the‘battle of the camel,’” said MahmudHussein, general secretary of theIslamist movement, on its website.“this is why the Muslim Brotherhoodhas decided... to call on the egyptianpeople to express their anger in all thesquares of the republic on thursday...and to respond to popular andnational forces’ call for a million-manmarch in tahrir square on Friday,” headded. the group also demanded that“all those accused of the death ofprotesters be retried.” Variouspolitical parties and groups called fordemonstrations on Friday against thecountry’s Islamist-dominatedConstituent Assembly, to demand thata more representative body be formedand justice be done for protesterskilled or tortured last year. Almost850 people were killed in the 18 daysof popular protest that led toMubarak’s ouster on February 11 lastyear. the president of theBrotherhood’s political arm theFreedom and Justice Party also calledfor demonstrations. “I call on theyouth and members of the FJP to takepart in today’s (thursday) protestsand in the million-strong march onFriday in order to achieve justice forthe martyrs,” essam al-erian wrote onhis twitter account.

Foreign NewsMOSCOW

afp

RUSSIA furiously de-manded answers fromturkey on thursday afterit forced a Syrian passen-ger plane flying from

Moscow to land in Ankara on suspicion ofcarrying “illegal cargo”, reportedlyweapons, to Damascus.

turkey’s action on Wednesday risksnot only inflaming tensions with Syriabut also hurting ties between Ankara andMoscow which have starkly differingviews on the Syria conflict. And PresidentVladmir Putin’s spokesman said thurs-day the Russian leader has postponed aplanned visit to turkey, without givingthe reason for the delay. the trip hadbeen reportedly scheduled for October 15although the first media reports of thepostponement surfaced before plane wasintercepted on Wednesday.

turkey scrambled two jets to forcedown the Syrian Air Airbus A-320 afterreportedly receiving intelligence it wascarrying military cargo for the regime ofSyrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia, a top ally of the Damascusregime and its biggest arms supplier, saidAnkara had put the lives of passengers —who included Russian citizens — at riskby forcing it to land in the turkish capi-tal, and denied it was carrying arms ormilitary equipment.

“We are concerned that this emer-gency situation put at risk the lives and

safety of passengers, who included 17Russian citizens,” said a statement by for-eign ministry spokesman AlexanderLukashevich.

“the Russian side continues to insiston an explanation of the reasons for suchactions by the turkish authorities towardRussian citizens and to take measures to

exclude such incidents in the future,” headded. turkish Foreign Minister AhmetDavutoglu said turkey had seized “illegalcargo” from the plane, adding that turkeywould hold on to it for further investiga-tion but declining to elaborate on the con-tents, the Anatolia news agency reported.

the confiscated cargo was believed to

be missile parts, the turkish NtV newschannel reported, while state-run tRtspeculated it could be communicationsequipment headed for Damascus.

A source in the Russian arms exportindustry denied the claims.

“Neither weapons nor any systems orassembly parts for military equipment

were or could have been on board thepassenger plane,” the unidentified high-ranking source fold Interfax.

Russia has infuriated turkey and itsWestern allies by refusing to halt militarycooperation with Syria, one of its keyweapons clients, despite the raging conflictin the country. turkey and Russia havestarkly different views on the Syria conflict,with Moscow defiantly refusing to takesides against Assad’s regime which turkishPrime Minister Recep tayyip erdogan hasvehemently condemned. But Davutoglusaid “the incident would not affect turk-ish-Russian relations at this point”.

However, in a sign of the tensions theplane intercept could cause, the Russianforeign ministry also listed a number ofwhat it saw as serious shortcomings bythe turkish authorities in their handlingof the incident.

“the turkish side did not inform theRussian embassy in Ankara that there areRussian citizens among the detainedplane’s passengers,” it said. “We foundout about this from news websites.”

It said the turkish authorities deniedRussian diplomats a meeting with theRussian citizens, without an explanation.the Russian passengers had to spendeight hours on the plane without food andwere not permitted to go inside the air-port, only to rarely exit the plane and godown to the landing strip, the statementsaid. According to Anatolia, the plane wasallowed to leave at 2330 GMt, nine hoursafter it was intercepted, with all of its 35passengers on board.

DHAKAafp

At least 14 people were killed and an es-timated 1,500 fishermen are missingafter tropical storms smashed intoBangladesh’s southern coastal islandsand districts early thursday, police said.

Police said at least 1,500 mud, tinand straw-built houses were also levelledin the storms that swept Bhola, Hatiyaand Sandwip Islands and half a dozencoastal districts after midnight Wednes-day midnight.

At the worst-hit island of Hatiya, atleast five people were killed after theywere buried under their houses or hit byfallen trees, said local police chief Mok-tar Hossain. More than 1,000 houseswere flattened. “More than 100 fishingtrawlers, each carrying at least 10 fisher-men, have been missing since thestorm,” he told AFP, calling it one of themost powerful in decades.

Many fishermen are expected tohave taken shelter in other remote is-lands in the Bay of Bengal or in theneighbouring Sundarbans, the world’s

largest mangrove forest.In the past, many fishermen thought

to be missing from storms returnedhome to coastal villages a week or twolater. Four people were killed in Bhola,three in Sandwip and two at Char Jab-bar, police said.

the police chief of Bhola district,Bashir Ahmed, told AFP more than 500fishermen were missing from the coun-try’s largest island and at least 500 mudand straw-built houses were levelled bythe sudden storm.

Bangladesh’s weather office forecast

heavy rain in the coastal region and ad-vised fishermen to approach the shoreand take care. But there was no majorstorm warning.

“We only got the warning signalnumber three. But the storm was sopowerful, the weather office should havehoisted the signal number seven oreight,” said Ahmed, referring to the in-tensity of the storm in a scale of ten.

“It caught the fishermen and coastalpeople by surprise. till now we haven’thad any reports from the missing fisher-men,” he said.

14 killed, 1,500 fishermen missing in Bangladesh storm

india’s marching

poor end their

protestNEW DELHI

afp

tens of thousands of poor Indiansfighting for land reform ended theirprotest march to New Delhi on thursdayafter signing an agreement with thecentral government, a campaignspokesman said. the protesters — mostlylow-caste labourers, small-scale farmersand marginalised tribal people —gathered from across India eight daysago in the town of Gwalior, intending tomarch 350 kilometres (220 miles) to thecapital. Aneesh thillenkery, spokesmanfor the main organising activist groupekta Parishad (Unity Forum), told AFPthe group had stopped the march“because the government has signed anagreement with us”. According to a copyof the document seen by AFP, the centralgovernment has pledged to draft anational land reforms policy and pushstate governments, which control landdistribution, to help marginalisedcommunities. the proposed measuresinclude the provision of agricultural landto India’s vast numbers of rural, landlesspoor, whose condition has improved littledespite the country’s booming economy.India’s constitution does not allow thecentral government to carry out landreform without the consent of electedofficials in the country’s states. thecentral government also promised topressure state governments to providelegal aid to anyone from the lower castesor tribal communities who is involved incourt cases over their access to land. theclash between India’s industrialexpansion and its agriculturalcommunities has become a test of howthe government deals with thedevelopment that is transforming Asia’sthird-largest economy.

Russia seeks answers from Turkeyover Syria plane intercept

AnkArA: A Syrian passenger plane was forced to land in Ankara on

Wednesday evening on suspicions that it was carrying weapons. afp

BEIRUTafp

Dozens of people have died in battlesbetween Syrian troops and rebels forstrategic northern towns, a watchdogsaid thursday, adding that war planeswere bombing rebel belts in the centralcity of Homs.

the Syrian Observatory for HumanRights said at least 69 people — 15 civil-ians, 21 soldiers and 33 rebels — werekilled in clashes Wednesday in the north-ern province of Idlib province, includingfor control of Maaret al-Numan and othertowns along the highway linking Damas-cus to the commercial capital Aleppo.Regime forces from early thursday re-sumed shelling of Maaret al-Numan,which was seized on tuesday by rebelsafter a 48-hour battle and heavy shelling,the Britain-based watchdog said.

Syria’s army has sent reinforce-ments to help retake the towns so thatroad links can be restored with Aleppo,which since mid-July has been one ofthe main focuses of the civil war rav-

aging Syria. But insurgents were tryingto halt the advance using rocket launch-ers and improvised explosive devices, arebel source said.

In the central province of Homs,the town of Qusayr and rebel districtsin the city of Homs came under attackby the army on thursday, the Observa-tory said. “Regime forces used warplanes to bomb the Khaldiyeh district,which they have been trying to breakinto for the past several days. there arenow clashes near the neighbourhood,”the Observatory said.

It added that at least four soldierstroops had died in the fighting, while therebels had also suffered casualties in theirranks. Mortar fire rained down from earlymorning on the nearby town of Qusayr,close to the Lebanon border, according tothe Local Coordination Committees, a net-work of activists on the ground.

the army has intensified opera-tions against Homs and Qusayr, whichhave been besieged by regime forces formonths, vowing to overrun them by theend of the week to free up troops for

battle zones in the north.On tuesday, state television said

that government troops had enteredKhaldiyeh and were “pursuing the rem-nants of the terrorists,” using regimeterminology for the rebels. According tothe Observatory, thousands of civiliansremain trapped in the besieged, rebel-held districts of the city rebels refer toas “the capital of the revolution.”

thursday’s fighting followed after abloody day in which almost 200 peoplewere killed nationwide in Syria, accord-ing to the Observatory, which gleans itsinformation from a network of activists,medics and lawyers on the ground.

the ruling Communist Party hassought to draw attention to its efforts tocombat corruption ahead of a partycongress next month, when a once-a-decade leadership transition will be an-nounced. While China’s 538 millionInternet users are able to use mi-croblogs to accuse local officials of cor-ruption, posts making reference toChina’s most powerful politicians areregularly deleted by online censors.

DUBAIafp

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a senior Yemeni security of-ficial employed by the US embassy in Sanaa in a hit-and-runattack on thursday, a security official and a US diplomat said.

Qassem Aqlan was shot dead by gunmen on a motorbikeas he drove along Sittin Street, a main artery of the Yemeni cap-ital, the official said, adding the assailants managed to escape.A US diplomat said Aqlan was in charge of coordinating a USand Yemeni probe into an attack last month on the embassy byprotesters angry over an anti-Islam film that triggered a wave

of deadly demonstrations across the Muslim world.Demonstrators attempted to storm the US embassy in

Sanaa on September 13, and some managed to break into themission’s compound, before Yemeni security forces intervened.Four protesters were killed and 34 others wounded. Yemen’sPresident Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi apologised to his US coun-terpart Barack Obama and the American people for the acts ofa “mob” and ordered a probe. the unrest came two days afterfour Americans, including the ambassador, were killed when amob attacked the US consulate in Libya’s second city Benghazi,and protesters in Cairo attacked the US mission there and toredown the Stars and Stripes, replacing it with a black Islamic flag.

Dozens die in battles for keynorth Syria towns: watchdog

Gunmen kill Yemeni security staff at US mission


ISB 12-10-2012_Layout 1 10/12/2012 2:23 AM

Comment10

Arif NizamiEditor

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

Web:www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

a chapter is closed

the Swiss letter

the crisis has been resolved. What remains is thewithdrawal of the contempt case against Raja PervaizAshraf which will take place when the Swiss authoritiesofficially acknowledge the receipt of the letter. this is

supposed to take place within the next four weeks. As far asPresident Zardari is concerned, the chapter of the NRO case hasbeen closed.

that it took two years and a half to resolve the issue of theNRO would bring credit neither to the apex court nor thegovernment. As a former judge and SCBA president put it, theissue was resolved because both the executive and the judiciaryhad softened their stance. the court knew it from day one that thePPP would never allow the trial of it co-chairman who enjoyedconstitutional immunity as long as he held the office of thepresident. Despite the provision of immunity regarding the headof state in the constitution being amply clear, the Supreme Courtcontinued to insist that this could not be taken for granted andanybody claiming immunity would have to seek it from the court.Why did the court insist on interpreting a provision that had noambiguity? By agreeing to and praising the latest draft of theSwiss letter presented by Farook H Naek on Wednesday, the courthas accepted the government’s stand on immunity by reversing itsearlier position. that there is a change in the court’s attitude is awelcome sign. the initial signals came when the court observed inits July 25 order that President Zardari was also their presidentand that bridging the trust deficit between the executive and thejudiciary was not an impossible task. the court had also rejected aperception that there was any standoff between the two pillars ofthe state and suggested to the government to find away to resolvethe issue. this led the PPP to conclude that the court was willingto accommodate its reservations.

the way the PPP leadership has taken a U-turn on the Swissletter has surprised its rank and file. earlier Zardari, followed byother PPP leaders, had termed writing the letter as a trial ofBenazir Bhutto’s grave. As the letter concedes immunity only forZardari, all other accused are likely to be tried after the letter isdelivered to the Swiss authorities. It would be difficult to explain tothe PPP workers how the letter has stopped the presumed trial ofthe grave. thirty months were wasted on an issue that had norelevance for the common man while it kept most people ontenterhooks. While the decision is welcome, one fails to understandwhy the change in thinking came so late. Had the decision comeearlier the tenure and the political career of a prime minister wouldhave been saved. Similarly, the perception of uncertainty about thefuture of the system would not have been created.


the attack on Malala Yousafazionce again raises the questionwhether it is possible to have adialogue with the taliban. theattack indicates the hidden fear

pervading the ttP leadership about thefragility of their ideology. the network haslost hope, if ever it had any, of winning overpeople through arguments. they know thattheir Stone Age ideas can only be imple-mented through terror, by killing those whodo not agree with them.

the militants knew that if the allowedthe 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai to live, shecould foil their attempts to deprive the girlsin Swat of education.

they found that people considered herarguments more convincing than theirs.Malala stood for the education of girls andfor the children’s rights. this was unaccept-able to the militants who have destroyedhundreds of schools, particularly those im-parting education to girls in KhyberPukhtunkhwa (KP) and the tribal areas.What annoyed them was the people in Swatand elsewhere in KP disregarded their edictsand were sending their daughters to schoolsfollowing Malala’s example. they wanted toeliminate her physically because she was be-coming a role model in the region.

According to a report “the State of Pak-istan’s Children-2011”, around 600,000children in KP have missed one or moreyears of education due to militancy. the re-port launched during a function organizedby Society for the Protection of the Rights ofthe Child at the Peshawar Press Club in Au-gust also revealed that a total of 710 schools,121 alone in Swat, had been destroyed ordamaged by militants in the province.

taliban have nothing to offer the womenother than a servile life within the four wallsof their homes. As Sufi Muhammad, one ofthe ttP’s ideological mentors once put it, awoman can leave the precincts of her house-hold only on two occasions, for performing

the Haj or when taken to the graveyard.Malala wanted women to take part in all

spheres of life including politics. Unmindfulof threats that she received from the mili-tants, the courageous girl wanted to set upher own political party after completing hereducation. the idea was another source ofworry for the ttP warriors living in caves.What if the younger generation followed inMalala’s footsteps and more and more girlsin Swat and surrounding tribal areas startedto abandon the seclusion the ttP wanted toimpose on them? With more and morewomen in the KP joining the struggle fordemocracy, considered un-Islamic by thetaliban, it would be the undoing of the mil-itant organization.

the taliban thus decided to commit thehorror which is now being condemned al-most with one voice in Pakistan. Adding atouch of callousness to the misdeed the ttPspokesman ehsanullah ehan has owned thebrutality, maintaining that his henchmenattacked Malala because she was propagat-ing anti-taliban and ‘secular’ thoughtsamong the youth. And if she survived, hesaid, more attacks would be launched to killher.

the attempt at Mala’s life should makethe apologists for the militants to do someheart searching.

the hollowness of the argument that themilitants indulge in terrorist attacks only asa reaction to the presence of the US-ledNAtO troops in Afghanistan is becomingclear with every passing day. the explana-tion is often offered by Imran Khan in a vainattempt to gain their sympathy. the ttPspokesman never mentioned the invasion ofAfghanistan as a motivating factor behindthe attack. His argument was that Malalawas to be eliminated because, as he put it,she had preached secularism “and so-calledenlightened moderation”. Further “It’s aclear command of sharia that any female,that by any means plays a role in war againstthe mujahideen, should be killed.”

Malala never spoke openly against the“mujahideen”. She was by no standard awesternized school girl. She wore the tradi-tional Pakistani dress along with a scarf. Shedid not campaign in support of the US poli-cies either. But the ttP knew that her advo-cacy of girls education and her commitmentto help them lead a fruitful life negated theirprimitive ideals. this was considered unpar-donable. the militants have always opposeddemocracy as a secular system. SufiMuhammad rejected parliament, constitu-tion and the Supreme Court as false godsworshipped by the fans of democracy. He

vowed to establish Islamic Khilafat throughthe barrel of the gun. even if the US-ledNAtO forces left Afghanistan, the militantswould continue to detonate bombs, launchsuicide attacks and destroy schools. Howcan anyone desirous of seeing a modern,democratic and pluralistic Pakistan recon-cile with the ttP?

there are others who want to support adialogue with the militants. there are stillothers who favor bringing the ttP into themainstream. Knowing what the militantsare aiming at, these people are in fact advo-cating capitulation.

On Sunday, ehsanullah ehsan leveledthe same charge of secularism againstImran Khan. Pakistani politicians, he main-tained, were of two types. those in power,like the PPP, MQM and ANP, were openlyhostile to Islam and mujahideen, but thosewho were not yet in power, like the PML-Nand PtI, were also “secular and slaves of theWest”. they considered Imran Khan, hesaid, a secular and liberal person as he him-self proudly claimed.

Women all over the Muslim world areincreasingly participating in social lifeshoulder to shoulder with men. In Pakistanthey take prominent part in politics. In2008 elections, as many as 16 women con-tested and won on open seats defeating theirmale rivals. Pakistani women are no morecontented with professions like teachingand medicine. they also fly fighter jets,work as engineers, architects and bankersand have been appointed ambassadors. InKhyber Pukhtunkhwa, women continue toplay active role in politics. Women belong-ing to practically all religious parties, whichparticipate in elections, have been membersof parliament. the awakening is not con-fined to Pakistan alone. In Iran, turkey, andegypt, women are playing equally signifi-cant role in social life. even in the Salafi-dominated Saudi Arabia, women aredemanding the rights enjoyed by their sexin other Muslim countries. this year Saudiwomen participated in London Olympics.All over the world the taliban ideology is onthe retreat.

the militants have lost the war in theMuslim world. they are only fighting a rearguard action. Devoid of ideas that can be de-fended through civilized argument, the mil-itants have no future. It is futile to try torollback the advancing wheel of history.thos who advocate negotiations with thyttP want the country to capitulate.

The writer is a former academic and apolitical analyst.

Devoid of ideas that can be defended through civilized argument,the militants have no future

By Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

No reconciliation

the Malala incident is déjà vutimes million. You have religious‘extremists’ manifesting brutality;

the ‘educated’ class calls the actheinous, the ‘intellectuals’ label the of-fenders as beasts, the ‘liberals’ protestagainst the ‘cowardly act’ and whileeveryone is condemning the act, they re-main shushed about the root cause of itall: the ideology. throughout the pastevery single person who has denouncedthe taliban has acted as an apologetic,justifying the religious ideology andclaiming how those ‘uneducated mo-rons’ have ‘unfortunately’ misinter-preted the teachings of peace andtranquility – no, they haven’t, ‘unfortu-nately’.

It is so painfully amusing to notehow the ‘moderates’ and armchair revo-lutionaries, would sit there with a glassof vine in their hands, uninhibitedlyhanging out with the opposite sex, nothaving offered a prayer or fasted forages, claiming how the taliban – wholead their lives strictly according to theShariah – are infesting their religion ofharmony. the poor chaps are only doingwhat their scriptures – the ones that thepseudo intellectuals extol, or don’t havethe cojones to criticize – tell them to do.When you are being taught, through thescriptures that are universally recog-nized by the followers as ‘authentic’,that all the non-believers or threats tothe grandeur of your ideology should bekilled, you will kill them, where is themisinterpretation here?

Finding slaves or slave girls, repul-sive; physically assaulting women, dis-gusting; cutting off hands for theft,inhuman; stoning people to death,beastly and then venerating the ideologythat permits this at the same time ishypocrisy of the very highest order. Yousit there, criticize and mock the talibanthat follow your religion in its true formwhile you live in oblivion with your ex-tremely palatable, but simultaneouslyblatantly fallacious, brand of religionand then claim that the taliban are mis-

interpreting and misapprehending yourideology? Oh, the irony.

Let’s stop carving out quasi reli-gions, or defending ideologies thatwe’ve all grown up blindly following asthe truth. Let’s call a spade a spade in-stead and realize that at the end of theday as much as you might have a cardiacarrest admitting it, the root cause of re-ligious extremism is: religion – espe-cially in its raw crude form, which againis the only ‘authentic’ form.

every single religion has a violentstreak. every single one of them ordersviolence and killing in one form or theother for the ‘non-believers’. One canquote verses from every holy scripturedepicting loathe and despise for anyonewho doesn’t believe in the said scriptureand its propagator. Sure, those scrip-tures would have the occasional fit ofpeace as well, but that only springs intothe open when it is recognized as theonly supreme authority. every religionis a ‘religion of peace’ as long as it for-mulates the status quo; there is no con-cept of ideological symbiosis in anyreligion. When a tyrannical regime ordictator calls for peace with the condi-tion that they would reign supreme welabel them as oppressors, but when thisis done in the name of religion we toutit as maneuvers of ‘harmony’.

the taliban have defended the at-tack on Malala Yousafzai through scrip-tures and historic precedents. You canclamor all you want about how there isa lack of understanding on the part ofthe taliban, but how on earth can yourefute clear messages of violence andhistorical evidence – scribed by histori-ans of your faith – depicting brutality onthe part of some of the most illustriouspeople in the history of the religion? Itis easy to launch vitriol against the tal-iban for attacking a 14-year-old girl, butit is also equally hypocritical and pa-thetic when you eulogize people fromyour history who did the same in thepast, who massacred masses, destroyedlands, pulverized places of worship,raped women, just because they osten-sibly did it in the name of your religion.Don’t blame the taliban for followingtheir lead, don’t blame the taliban forusing violence as a means to cement re-ligious superiority – something that hasbeen done for centuries – don’t blamethe taliban for the fact that you don’thave the guts to call a spade a spadeeven though it has been spanking yourbackside for centuries now.

the fact that groups like tehreek-e-taliban-Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangviexist is because Islam is still traversingits Dark Ages while other religions have

gone through Reformation, resulting ina collective Renaissance – and that toohalf a millennium ago. None of the reli-gion in its crude form can work in thisday and age, and instead of taking theeasy route and scorning at those that fol-low religious teachings in its originalform, the more logical approach wouldbe to accept the truth.

If you’re acknowledging Islam as thesupreme authority, you have no groundsfor hauling coals over Zia-ul-Haq forimplementing laws from the Shariah,you have no grounds for attackingMumtaz Qadri or feeling sorry forSalmaan taseer who clearly spokeagainst the blasphemy law, you have nogrounds for lauding Dr Abdul Salaam asa national asset who belonged to a sectthat clearly defies Islamic teachings,and yes, you have no grounds for blam-ing the taliban.

It’s time our ‘thinkers’ stopped tak-ing the easy way out and finally pickeda side. You either follow a religion in itstrue form or you’re irreligious. the tal-iban know which side they are on. Doyou?

The writer is Editor Business/City(Karachi), Pakistan today. He tweets@khuldune and can be contacted [email protected]

Don’t blame the Taliban

By Kunwar Khuldune Shahid

Let’s call a spade a spade instead

ISB 12-10-2012_Layout 1 10/12/2012 2:23 AM

Comment 11


military and PakistanMilitary in Pakistan was unfortunately allowed to work

outside the fold of any central government for too long andwith too much excessive autonomy. this enabled themilitary to create the new ideological frontier of which thedeath squads of tPP are an essential part. the guardiansof our territorial frontiers were once the creators andguardians of this ideological frontier that has recruited,armed and trained the perverted minds that indulge inviolent acts like the one that severely injured Malala.

Who will hold the state accountable for the statepatronage that was given to the jihadists in the past? Willthose who ran the affairs of the state or the autonomousand powerful institutions within the state be everconsidered as criminals who conducted state crimes?

At least two ISI heads in the past, General Javed Nasirand General Hameed Gul, used the agency to supportjihadists and militants as part of the state policy. thesepromoters of great pan-Islamism used and employedjihadists not for geostrategic but for ideological reasons.they promoted Islamic nationalism by utilizing huge fundsat their disposal through the dollars stacked in secret ISIaccounts that received money both from USA and SaudiArabia. these generals and many others played a directrole in creating and rehabilitating these Islamist terroriststhat have today turned their guns towards our society.

Utilizing power without responsibility the militarydictators used the intelligence agency to create thisideological frontier that sponsors the cowards that firedthe shots at Malala Aurakzai. We will not be able todefeat the mindset that harbors and flourishes in theideological frontier by only conducting militaryoperations against its believers but by bringing to justiceall those who have in the past played a role in its creation.the leadership that formulated and implemented thepolicy in the past of supporting, arming and training theIslamic militants to fight proxy wars against India andAfghanistan must be made accountable. If this is notdone we will have many more leaders playing with thefuture of this country leaving Malala, her generation andthe generation next to pay the price of their follies.

MUHAMMAD ALI EHSANKarachi

National Accountability billthe federal government having failed to get a piece of

legislation – holding of public offices (accountability2009), passed by the National Assembly presented a newNational Accountability Bill 2012 without consultationwith the opposition and some other allied groups.

Neither the previous bill was circulated among peoplenor the new one to elicit public opinion. People are totally ig-norant about the contents of the draft bill which has been re-ferred to the standing committee of the National Assemblyfor scrutiny and resubmission to the house. Probably, effortsare afoot to get it hurriedly passed without debate, which isby no means good for democracy. to ascertain public views

in my opinion is a pre-requisite under democratic norms.From media reports it is evident that the proposed

bill would be effective from October 2002. If true, it isdiscriminatory and selective for corruption andmalpractices are a crime, and there is no time limit for acriminal offence. to make a law effective from aparticular date means condoning and granting immunityto crimes committed before that date. Instead, the lawshould take course with retrospective effect.

there appear to be some implicit understandingbetween the PPP and PML-N about fixing of October2002, in order to save some prominent leaders belongingto each party from the grip of law.

Furthermore, barring few, most of the politicalleaders are product of martial law regimes and have madeunprecedented fortunes. they would be benefiting fromthis discriminating law taking effect from October 2002.

If both PPP and PML-N are sincere about across theboard accountability the draft bill be referred to peoplethrough electronic and print media to get public opinion.Otherwise, this exercise might end in a fiasco. therefore,the government ought to take necessary action in thisregard and the media also need to create awarenessamong the masses.

RAJA SHAFAAT ULLAHIslamabad

An extreme actthe cowardly attack on the 14-year-old innocent student

of Swat, Malala Yousafzai, has sent shockwaves across Pak-istan and forced everybody even those who have soft cornerfor the taliban to think over the mindset these terroristshave for Pakistan and its future. targeting an innocent girl,who has been a ray of hope for girls in war-torn area of Swatand Malakand, is an act of barbarism and cruelty. She raisedher voice against terrorists and extremists and for girls’ edu-cation and rights at a time when they had control over muchof the area as nobody could dare to speak.

terrorists have their own mindset and claim that theyhave been working for the betterment of the country andall their efforts are to save Pakistan’s future. But suchattacks negate all such propaganda. Malala is a girl whofought for a cause, the education and rights of children.About her efforts Chief of Army Staff General AshfaqPervez Kayani remarks that she is a symbol for values thearmy was fighting for, are truly depict her efforts andservices she has done for her country and nation.

Besides every segment of society, scholars andreligious leaders also condemned the attack. Malala isour future who wants her people to move forward byacquiring education. the values that have set Malala areneeded to adopt and to follow by every Pakistaniespecially our youth. Her daring approach and standagainst evil forces will be remembered. the nation willnever let off those culprits who want to destroy ourfuture, Malala. May you live long!

IBNE SHAMSISialkot

Compensating war victims‘US court orders Iran, others to pay $6 billion to 9/11

victims’, a news item. they should also pay attention tothe Iraqi victims of American war of 2003 and make USpay more than this amount for using depleted uraniumwhich causes cancer.

Z A KAZMIKarachi

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

4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-36298302.

E-mail: [email protected] should be addressed to Pakistan today exclusively.

an illustrated career it was

one of the greats

Amidst unconscious mechanistic in-stitutionalized human functions, Isaw a conscious man – an eccentri-

cally individualistic rebel, Mirza AtharBaig. Or maybe, that is how I see him. Herecently said goodbye to his second homeGovernment College University, Lahore.those outside the world of GCU know himas the author of Ghulam Bagh, esteemedunanimously as the chef d’oeuvre of mod-ern Urdu literature, and those within GCUmake him out as an uncanny, eerie hairedexceptionally genius professor of Philoso-phy, scholarly attired. Mirza Athar Baigruled the department of Philosophy inGCU for more than twenty five years withastounding abilities and never satisfiedhimself with mere teaching honors. Satis-faction hampers the urge to go a notchabove, to transcend your standing, to aug-ment your flight and that is why he neversatisfied himself as the one among all toomany organized functions.

How much does it take for humanity torecognize an achievement? For some amoment of sheer brilliance is enough andfor others a whole lifetime of proficient ex-traordinaire may seem a little less. theman I am endeavoring to speak here fallsmoderately in the middle of these two cat-egories. He is venerated to the status of amentor in some circles while hardly giventhe acknowledgement he deserves in oth-ers, partially owing to his reserved and in-trovert nature. I am privileged to be a partof the former group of people who havewitnessed his talent in person and I cansafely say that he is the most splendidamalgamation of expertise in literature,psychology, science and philosophy that Ihave come to witness in my six years life atGovernment College University, Lahore.

Mirza Athar Baig is immaculate ateacher, impeccable a scholar, unblem-ished a writer and a remarkable humanbeing. taking the chance of occasion, itwould be suitable a strive to define him as

a teacher, which is what he is to me prima-rily. Whatever the topic and whoever thephilosopher, he had the skill to detachhimself from his personal views and pres-ent a neutral picture. In my two years ashis student I never found out, despite un-remitting inquisitiveness, what philoso-pher or school he belonged to or reveredthe most. While teaching Kant, he wouldbehave like a Kantian and when indoctri-nating Nietzsche, he would become a Niet-zschean despite the fact that both have anessential contrariness in their philoso-phies. He would be as much objective ashumanely possible and leave the rest onus. the most appreciating attribute of histeaching was his appreciation for creativeskills; the more you employed your skillscreatively, the more you were rewarded.that is how he used to enhance the realmof our knowledge and horizon of our un-derstanding.

He would entice the listeners’ atten-tion to the most bland and tastelessphilosophies through his command on thesubject, language and whole environmentof the class. He was intrinsically translu-cent in his expression and eloquently con-gruous in his communication, a seldomconcoction of dexterities which cannot bepurchased in the market. And this too onlytells a sinfully scant story of his titanic ca-reer.

Although I am not qualified enough totalk about his literary skills but I wouldstate daringly that what Jean-Paul Sartrewas to French Literature, sir Baig has beento modern Urdu literature. there is, com-paratively, nothing as much deep, im-mense and universally appealing in Urduliterature these days as the works of MirzaAthar Baig. He has meticulously carvedout a connection between academics andaesthetic-o-social philosophy and dealtwith it through his literary works the sameway Sartre did it half a century ago for theFrench people. It was admired as a greatservice on Sartre’s part and gradually andslowly, the same is being attributed on sirBaig’s part. We may yet have to wait adecade or so when common man will com-pletely grasp and realize the value of hiswork in literature.

Few months back I asked him abouthis plans ahead and he said he wanted towrite something in english, maybe go in-ternational. Considering his track recordin mind, of always striving to make it anotch above, he might as well grab an in-ternational award or two and receive therecognition that he deserves so genuinely.

The writer is an academic.

By Shehram Sarwar

ISB 12-10-2012_Layout 1 10/12/2012 2:23 AM


12

Ben Affleck happy for Jennifer Lopez`s success

ACToR Ben Affleck says he is still in touch withhis ex-fiancee Jennifer lopez and respectsher a lot. "I respect her. I like her. She`s put

up with some stuff that was unfair in her life, andI`m really pleased to see her successful," HollywoodReporter quoted Affleck, 40, as saying. "we don`thave the kind of relationship where she relies on mefor advice. But we do have the kind of relationshipwhere there`ll be an e-mail saying, òh, your movielooks great`," Affleck said. "I remember when shegot Àmerican Idol`, I said, `This was really smart.Good luck`," he added. The two were engaged fortwo years before parting ways in 2004. neWS DeSK

Stewart bombarded withPattinson questions

kNowN Kristen Stewart was attacked withnasty comments and questions from upset‘Twilight’ fans after a fashion house opened

up a web chat with the actress who recently madeheadlines for her cheating scandal with marrieddirector Rupert Sanders. Balenciaga invited fans tosubmit questions about the fragrance,Florabotanica, on their site ahead of her sessionnext week. “why are you doing this? you’ve neverworn perfume before,” the Mirror quoted onecomment as saying. “do you love Robert? or doyou cheat Robert???” it said. “does Rupert like thissmell on you?” another fan said. “what happenedto Bear?” one more fans said referring to thecouple’s dog. Some people asked more interestingquestions, like “what’s your favourite letter in thealphabet?” neWS DeSK

Brad Pitt first male faceof Chanel perfume

Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt has signedon to become the first male face of Frenchfashion house Chanel`s famous scent, No 5.

In its 91 year history, it is for the first time that theperfume is being endorsed by a male celebrity,reported daily Mail. Pitt, 46, has reportedly got USd7 million paycheck for the job. The luxury brand hasreleased a selection of teaser shots of theadvertising campaign, due to hit magazines`November issues. Chanel has also released anumber of mini videos - a maximum of just eightseconds each featuring father-of-six. director Joewright, whose previous works include two KeiraKnightley movies Àtonement` and ÀnnaKarenina`, shot the full commercial. PreviouslyMarilyn Monroe, Nicole Kidman and Audrey Tautouhave endorsed the perfume. neWS DeSK

3rd PakistanMedia AwardsNothing is bigger for an artist thanbeing appreciated. the Pakistan MediaAwards is a first-of-its-kind effort topromote media industry of Pakistanglobally, thus reaching out to millions ofits fans. this great initiative is managedby triple-e (Pvt.) Limited, an eventmanagement company working since1990. triple-e has been organizingPakistan Media Awards for last twoyears. the main objective of this awardis to appreciate and acknowledge theefforts of Pakistani artists for theiroutstanding performances to promotePakistani Drama across the globethrough tV. Apart from this, it is aneffort to revive Pakistani film andtheater industry through this platform.After the great success of 2010 & 2011,3rd Pakistan Media Awards are comingagain. Individuals from Film, tV, Radio& theatre to new talents all will beapplauded & praised on November 10,2012 at Karachi. this effort hasimmensely kindled the reviving andfostering of Pakistani Media. So let’sjoin hands and cast our votes via publicpoll on the website. Also join theFacebook .STaff RepoRT

Special song shotfor ‘Talaash’A special song has been shot for AamirKhan-starrer suspense thriller ‘talaash’and in the song all the suspects of acrime come under one roof. In theReema Kagti-directed film, the song"Muskaane jhoothi hain" has been shotto raise the anticipation among theaudiences, said a source. Produced byRitesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar`sexcel entertainment, the film marks thecoming together of the producers andAamir after 11 years since the 2001release "Dil Chahta Hai". Aamir Khanplays inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawatwho is given the task of solving a case.the movie also stars Kareena Kapoorand Rani Mukerji in lead roles. It isexpected to come out Nov 30. NewS DeSk

the much loved vampire lovestory is nearing its end with therelease of the "twilight Saga:Breaking Dawn Part 2". However,director Bill Condon hopes tocontinue the series, even if thereare no books left to adapt. "It isone of the most successful moviefranchises that have run out ofbooks to adapt. However, thismay not be an obstacle for the'twilight' films. the movie isexpected to gross $700 millionplus worldwide in revenues,"Condon said in an emailinteraction. "It's hard to imaginea movie that does $700 millionplus doesn't have ongoing value.We are contemplating aboutcontinuing the series even thoughthere are no books to adapt to,"he added. the first film of the"twilight" series was released in2008, which instantly catapultedactors Robert Pattinson andKristen Stewart to star status.And Condon is confident that"...Breaking Dawn Part 2" will beas successful as the previous

"twilight" films. "I am positivethat it will be huge success andwill fair equal, if not more,compared to the previous threeparts," he said. "In fact, the wholecrew is excited to see theresponse we get from theaudience and more so from thepeople who have read the book

and come to watch the movie. Wejust can't wait for the movie torelease," he added. the first filmof the "twilight" series wasreleased in 2008, which instantlycatapulted actors RobertPattinson and Kristen Stewart tostar status. And Condon isconfident that. NewS DeSk

Katie Holmes flourishing in singlehood Actress KatieHolmes is reportedly flourishing in her life post the

divorce from actor tom Cruise. "Katie is justflourishing in her new life. Yes, there have been some

dark moments but Katie was more than ready toembark on the next phase of her life post tom Cruise,"

thesun.co.uk quoted a source as saying. the actressalways felt her marriage to Cruise hampered her

career. "Katie felt that her professional career sufferedbecause she was married to tom and that she didn`thave the final say in her acting roles," the source said.

However now Holmes, 33, has also signed two bigmovie projects. In one movie she will be playing the

role of a single mother and also as the producer of theproject. the second project is a Broadway play.

KATIE HOLMESFLOURISHINGIN SINGLEHOOD

Hope to continue ‘Twilight’ series

ISB 12-10-2012_Layout 1 10/12/2012 2:24 AM


13

SRK to be a trademark!

THe actor has sent an application to theTrade Mark Registry that his often-usedinitials not be used without his permission

Shah Rukh Khan is a brand by himself. And verysoon his often-used initials - SRK may become avery valuable property. ToI found out that theactor has recently applied for a trademark on hisname SRK at the delhi office of the Trade MarkRegistry. However, he has not received a finalconfirmation on it yet. According to the rules,once his trademark SRK is published in the IndianTrademark Journal, anybody who has an objectioncan file a notice within three months.Interestingly, Sachin Tendulkar had applied forthe same, to trademark his name SRT, earlier thisyear. In fact, we had told you how when VidhuVinod Chopra needed to use the cricketer's namein his film Ferrarri Ki Sawaari, he had to seekSachin's permission. In the west, getting atrademark on one's name isn't uncommon. Infact, Roger Federer, Michael Jordon and Jenniferlopez are among some of the names that havebeen trademarked in the past. And now, SRK isready to add his name to the list. neWS DeSK

Rihanna wants to marry Brown

PoP star Rihanna is reportedly telling friendsthat she wants to marry singer Chris Brownand that she should never have dumped

him. The couple had parted ways before Brown wasconvicted of assaulting her in 2009. However, theyare believed to be back together. "No one close tothem would be a bit shocked if they suddenlyeloped. Rihanna has told her close friends pointblank - I would marry Chris," contactmusic.comquoted a source as saying. "She even says shewould have never left him if the media scrutinydidn`t get so bad. They`re passionate, and whenthey`re drunk, they`ve both made many commentsabout getting married," added the source. "NeitherRihanna nor Chris want to make things harder forher than they already are. Chris wants to set her upfinancially and do right by her - he wants her tostay in his life if possible," said a source. neWS DeSK

Ashton Kutcher draggingdivorce process

ACToR Ashton Kutcher, the highest paid actoron TV who earns 440,000 pounds per episode,is reportedly dragging his divorce from demi

Moore. He is said to be refusing to budge on thefinancial terms of their separation and how they shoulddivide their assets. A source said that the actor isrefusing to sign off on the paperwork so they can finallygo their separate ways, reports contactmusic.com. The34-year-old has already moved on from the actressand is reportedly living with his new girlfriend MilaKunis whom he has known her for 14 years. Theypreviously starred together in hit comedy series "That70s Show". According to reports, Moore is worth 94million pounds, while Kutcher`s fortune is said to beworth 87 million pounds. neWS DeSK

It is possibly one of the biggest open secretsof the Indian film industry but rekha and

Amitabh Bachchan's off-screen romance stillcomes alive every year on October 10 and 11.

While the two themselves have said very little,everyone else seems more than certain of theaffair.And it is probably the deafening silence

that the two celebrities have maintainedwhich adds to the enigma of this complicated

relationship.THe On-Screen rOmAnce: rekha and AmitabhBachchan were first cast opposite each other in

Do Anjaane, ironically that's what they'vebecome to each other today, strangers. Only

difference being that in the film, it wasrekha's character who wanted to forgetAmitabh, while in real life it is the otherway round. The story of their romance

began to be talked about as theyfeatured in many more films like khoonPasina, Suhaag, muqaddar ka Sikandar

and even the famous mr natwarlal.THe cOmPlIcATeD SIlSIlA...: But itwas in Yash chopra's 1984 romance

Silsila, that the rumours of theiralleged affair peaked. Starring

Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchanand rekha as the 'other woman',

the interesting cast almost seemedto show the stars playing theirrespective roles real lives. no

wonder then that despite the him staying withJaya Bachchan in the end, it Amitabh's

romance with rekha that became the mosttalked-about. Silsila director Yash chopra was

one of the few who openly spoke of rekha andAmitabh's relationship. In an interview with BBc,

chopra said that rekha and Amitabh were verymuch in a relationship before Silsila. As for

himself, the veteran director admitted toconstantly being on tenterhooks while filming thethree. The atmosphere was evidently tense for all.

THe DenIAl: Once Silsila was completed,Amitabh is said to have ignored rekha

altogether till this date.cAnDID rekHA: rekha, however, never seemedto mind and even defended Amitabh refusing to

acknowledge their relationship. In rekha's famous1984 interview with Filmfare magazine, rekha had

this to say about his denial: "Why should he havenot done it? He did it to protect his image, his

family, his children. I think it is beautiful. I don'tcare what the public thinks of it. Why should the

public know of my love for him or his love for me?"rekha declared. "I love him he loves me - that's it!I don't care what anybody thinks. If he would have

reacted to me like that in private I would have beenvery disappointed. But has he ever done that? I askyou. So why should I care about what he has said in

public. not that he has 10 rollicking affairs! mr.Bachchan is still old-fashioned. he doesn't want to

hurt anybody. So why hurt his wife?" sheexclaimed. "We are human beings who love andaccept each other for what we are. There's morehappiness in our lives than misery. nothing else

matters. But as long as I'm with that person I don'tcare," she said with finality. 20 years later, Simi

Garewal asked rekha pointblank, "Did you... fall inlove with him (Amitabh)?" The answer was

prompt. "Absolutely! Duh, that’s a dumb question! Ihave yet to come across a single man, woman, child

who can’t help but fall completely, passionately,insanely, desperately and specially, hopelessly in

love with him." But just a moment later, rekha saidsomething quite different to Simi: "You want to

know the truth? There was never a personalconnection with him. That’s the truth." When Simicountered: Why didn’t you just come out and denyit? rekha's calm reply was: "What do I deny? That

I’m not in love with him? Of course I am!"rekHA STIll GuSHeS:

In yet another interview with Filmfare, rekhagot candid with magazine editor Jitesh Pillaai."I’m just blessed by being born one day apart

from him. To be able to understand hisinterpretation of his craft, character, impulse is

nothing short of karmic. cOurTeSY HT

ISB 12-10-2012_Layout 1 10/12/2012 2:24 AM

China netizensapplaud Mo Yan'sNobel prize

BEIJING: Millions of China's microblogusers broadly welcomed thursday'saward of the Nobel Literature Prize to MoYan, with many claiming an achievementfor the country's literature.the award was the most discussed topicon Weibo, China's version of twitter, withalmost three million users postingmessages about the writer within twohours of the news being announced onstate media. "Mo Yan winning is hispersonal honour, but also the honour ofChinese literature," wrote one."For Mo Yan to win the Nobel prize is thegreatest thing for so many Chinesepeople. It really is a dream," said another.Mo Yan, 57, one of the country's leadingwriters of the past half-century, becamethe first Chinese national and just thesecond Chinese-language writer to winthe literature prize. "Congratulations MoYan. A Chinese person has won. therewere tears in my eyes," said one user.While the majority of posts on Weibowere congratulatory, some netizensdisplayed indifference. One said theauthor impressed the judges because hiswriting style appeals to Westerners. "Butto read his books, I do not think theycapture the style of the Chinese people."Other microblog users said the authorwould be able to exploit commercialopportunities following his triumph."Mo Yan has achieved overnight fame. Myroommate tomorrow will go to the libraryto get a Mo Yan book. I doubt she willfind one," said one user."His books are about to outsell SteveJobs' biography," added another. afp

Free pizza promisedfor Obama-Romneydebate question

14Infotainment


Samsung launchesGalaxy Note II

Jeddah shisha smokers forcedout of the Saudi city’s cafes

SMOKeRS of the hubble-bubble water pipehave until Saturday to indulge their fondnessfor sweet flavored tobacco in Jeddah’s cafes

as the Saudi city prepares to enforce a public banon the habit. A law against smoking the pipes,known in Arabic as shisha, in public places hasbeen in place for years in some other Saudi cities,but it is only now being implemented in Jeddah.“It’s a big problem for our cafe. More than 80percent of our customers come to smoke shisha.Now they complain as soon as they walk throughthe door when we say we won’t have shisha,” saidGhassan Mohammed Mansour, the manager ofJeddah’s upscale Caffe Aroma in a phone interview.Businesses that flout the ban face increasingly heftyfines and ultimately closure if they are caughtoffering the pipes to customers. “At this momentwe have good menus and good food, so we will tryto bring in new customers by advertising our food,but still we lose,” Mansour said. agencIeS

SAMSUNG, the leading mobile dealer inGhana, has introduced its latest rangeof Galaxy smart phones onto the mar-ket. the Galaxy Note II, the first “Ph-ablet” smart phone, with features of

both a phone and tablet, comes with a 5.5 inchscreen which is the best display screen Samsunghas ever produced.

At a media launch in Accra, Andy Akpebu,technical Support for Hand Held Phones(HHP), Samsung, explained that the Galaxy NoteII, which is an improvement over the GalaxyNote I comes with a much longer and thinkerstylus pen (S Pen) which provides a great optionfor users who find typing on glass to be limiting.

He stated that the ‘Air View’ feature allowsthe user to see previews of emails or calendar ap-pointments, stressing that if the S Pen is hoveredover an item, it can be kept on the screen whilethe user does something else on the phone.

Jaspreet Singh, Business Head for HHP atSamsung, explained that “we aspire to create

new technologies and innovative products thatinspire the world while delivering new value toenhance the lives of our customers. We strive tocontinuously fulfill our brand promise of inspir-ing the world and creating the future throughour commitment to bring new and meaningfulinnovations to the doorsteps of our customers.”

He noted that “Galaxy Note II comes withthe newest Android 4.1.1 version with the excel-lent Google voice natural language voice recog-nition. “We also give you extra templates tochoose from in the S Note application. Hand-writing is significantly improved and you cannow handwrite in emails, messages, or simplyuse it to convert the handwritten words to textautomatically.” Mr. Singh indicated that “thereis so much that we have added on which meansthe user’s life is becoming easier and better dayin and day out.” the phone is available in allSamsung shops across the country and comeswith a free slip cover and a free chief hero phoneon early purchase. neWS DeSK

Stilwell went on strike when she noticed that hergirls, twins, age 10, and her oldest, age 12, werenot picking up after themselves and seemed tohave the expectation that Mom or Dad would doit. Stilwell reached her breaking point one nightwhen her husband, Dylan, was out of town. Aftera typical weekend of running errands and takingthe kids to various sporting events, Jessica satdown around 11 p.m. on Oct. 1. that’s when shenoticed the mess and knew that it had not beencreated by her or her husband.

Stilwell did not inform her kids that she wasgoing on strike. Instead, she just stopped clean-ing altogether. Stilwell did update her Facebookstatus with this message: “this working mom hasofficially gone on strike within the home! Nothingsaid, no warning ... updates to follow.” Unfortu-nately, it took the kids a while to notice that thehouse was in total disarray. Stilwell began detail-

ing the mess first on Facebook, then on a blogcalled Crazy Working Mom. On day one, dirtyplates and clothes were piling up around thehouse. By day two, she wrote, “cereal left sittingin milk in the bowl begins to stink much soonerthan one would expect.” On day three, her kidsbegan to take notice of their unkempt surround-ings. Stilwell’s 10-year-old daughter Quinn brokedown in tears as she asked her mom to help cleanthe house. Stilwell took her daughter on a tour ofthe home, pointing out that none of the mess hadbeen made by the parents. On day six, the strikewas officially over. Stilwell got an apology in theform of her daughters cleaning while she relaxed.Stilwell says that in the end, her children gaineda much larger respect for all the work that goesinto keeping the place tidy. Here’s hoping thekids learned a valuable lesson, and maybe they’lleven share it with their friends. neWS DeSK

Mom goes on strike toteach messy kids a lesson

Maine drivers warned ofzombie danger

DRIVeRS may have gotten a chuckle out ofan electronic message board in Mainewarning of zombies, but city officials were

not amused. the sign at a Portland roadconstruction site was changed by a hacker to read“Warning Zombies Ahead!” on Wednesdaymorning. It originally read “Night work 8 pm-6am. expect delays.” City spokeswoman NicoleClegg says the signs are a safety precaution andchanging it could have led to driver distraction.tampering with a safety device is a misdemeanorpunishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.She says it’s not clear who changed the sign, butit’s not the first time it has happened. agencIeS

Coffin used as flower plantersold for $150K

FORGet about finding a briefcase full ofcash—just hope for a coffin full of flowers. Ina Dorset garden, a Roman marble coffin was

detected by auction valuer Guy Schwinge on a routinevaluation, the BBC reports. While walking the grounds,Schwinge saw the coffin “peeping out from undersome bushes.” He investigated and discovered thecoffin wasn’t your ordinary, everyday pine box. “AsI drew closer I realized I was looking at a Romansarcophagus of exceptional quality,” Schwingeexplained to the BBC. experts believe it dates to thesecond century. Cha-ching! the coffin had apparentlycome into the possession of the owner’s family acentury earlier when, according to an auctioncatalog from 1913, it “was imported to Britain byQueen Victoria’s surveyor of pictures.” expertsbelieve it was originally used as a final resting placefor a high-ranking Roman official, according to theDaily Mail. the owners were apparently unaware ofits value. And indeed, it’s worth a lot of money. thefamily auctioned off the flower pot/coffin for about$150,000 and are (not surprisingly) “utterlydelighted” by the turn of events. neWS DeSK

Pizza Hut is promising “free pizza for life”to whoever dares to ask Barack Obamaand Mitt Romney the most burningquestion of the day: sausage orpepperoni? the fast food chain is anglingto get some publicity out of a town halldebate on October 16 between theDemocratic president and his Republicanchallenger at a liberal arts college outsideNew York. In a statement, Pizza Hutoffered “free pizza or life” — or more tothe point, one large pizza a week for 30years — to whoever pops the question.“We recognize there are a lot of seriousissues to be debated,” said Pizza Hut’schief management officer Kurt Kane. “Butwe also know a lot less serious — but noless important — ones are being discussedevery night inside houses across thecountry.” to ask “on behalf of the PizzaParty” what their favorite pizza topping iswould demonstrate how much each manis “in tune on all the issues.”Free pizza isamong several PR stunts planned in therun-up to the November 6 elections, theUSA today newspaper reported. afp

ISB 12-10-2012_Layout 1 10/12/2012 2:24 AM

friday, 12 october, 2012

Page 18

Federer back fromthe brink in Shanghai

LAHORESTaff RepoRT

tHe Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) has barred umpireNadeem Ghauri from officiat-ing in first-class matches fol-

lowing the recent sting operation carriedout by an Indian television channel thateventually led to the suspension of all sixumpires featuring in the video clip.

the PCB stated that the way Ghauriwas seen talking in the video raisesdoubts, and added that Ghauri will onlybe allowed to return to duty once he

comes out clean after the investigationis completed.

"the board has always maintained astrong stance against its employees whoare involved or named in suspicious ac-tivities and thus Ghauri has been sus-pended. His actions were certainlyquestionable and we`ve sought evidenceagainst him to put this matter to bed,"reports quoted a PCB official, as saying.

Ghauri was given four matches toofficiate in the President`s trophy buthe has only supervised in one. However,the official added that Ghauri`s dueswould be cleared.

PCB suspends Ghauri from first-class matches

LAHORE: the Pakistan women cricket team's trainingcamp will start next week for the preparations of the upcom-ing twenty20 Asia Cup scheduled to be held on October 24in China.According to the officials from Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB), the board has asked all the team players to report inthe national training camp on Monday that will be held fromOctober 15 to 20 in Muridke. earlier on tuesday, the Pakistan Cricket Board announcedthe 15-member squad for the country's women twenty20Asia Cup which will be held in Guangzhou, China from Oct

24 to 31. the team will leave on Oct. 21 for China where it will partici-pate in the eight-nation t20 event by playing its first matchagainst thailand on Oct. 24. the semifinals and the final will be played on Oct. 30 andOct. 31 respectively, in the Guangzhou cricket stadium. Pak-istani squad is placed in Group A.the Pakistan women squad recently returned from SriLanka after participating in the 2012 World twenty20Championship where it failed to qualify for the semifinaland was knocked out in the group stages. STaff RepoRT

Pak women cricketers to train in China

WELLINGTONafp

Injury-plagued spinner Daniel Vettori willmiss New Zealand's tour of Sri Lanka,cricket chiefs said thursday, forcing selec-tors to draft uncapped leggie todd Astle intothe 15-man test squad. New Zealand Cricketsaid Vettori had failed to recover from anAchilles strain picked up at last month'sWorld twenty20 tournament, where theBlack Caps where eliminated by eventualchampions the West Indies.

the loss of New Zealand's most cappedtest player is a major blow as the team pre-pares to tour a country renowned for spin-friendly wickets, leaving journeyman JeetanPatel as its most experienced slow bowlerwith 15 tests. Chief selector Kim Littlejohnwas confident Astle, 26, the only new face inthe test squad, could perform at the toplevel if given the chance.

"He has the ability to contribute in allthree facets of the game and deserves his op-portunity after putting in consistent per-

formances over a number of seasons," Lit-tlejohn said. A separate 15-man limitedovers squad for the tour included 12 playerswho featured in the World twenty20 alongwith trent Boult, Andrew ellis and tomLatham. New Zealand will play two tests,five one-dayers and one t20 in Sri Lankabetween October 30 and November 29.

New Zealand's 15-man test and limitedover squads for the tour Sri Lanka startingon October 30.TEST SqUAD:Ross taylor (captain), todd Astle, trentBoult, Doug Bracewell, Daniel Flynn,James Franklin, Martin Guptill, ChrisMartin, Brendon McCullum, Rob Nicol,Jeetan Patel, tim Southee, Kruger vanWyk, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson.LIMITED OvERS SqUAD:Ross taylor (captain), trent Boult, An-drew ellis, James Franklin, Roneel Hira,Rob Nicol, tom Latham, Brendon McCul-lum, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, AdamMilne, Jacob Oram, tim Southee, BJWatling, Kane Williamson.

N Zealand’s Vettori out of S Lanka tour

SYDNEYafp

Ageing Australian batsman Ricky Ponting sayshe's put himself through a gruelling trainingregime to be ready to face South Africa, admit-ting they have the best fast-bowling attackaround. the 37-year-old, who was dumped fromthe one-day and twenty20 international squads, hasnot played a test since the West Indies last Apriland said he went months without picking upa bat. "I gave my body and mind a bit of arest because I bashed myself up prettymuch during the summer last year,"he told reporters thursday, a dayafter smashing seven sixes in an un-beaten 85 for tasmania againstSouth Australia. "So after the WestIndies I had a couple of months offwith nothing and then about 12weeks where I just trained myselfinto the ground really, physically."I got myself in good physicalshape. I'm a few kilos down againat the start of the season and feeling

really good and feel like I'm moving really good." Heis preparing for the three test series against SouthAfrica, which gets underway in Brisbane on Novem-ber 9 before three tests with Sri Lanka, also athome. the former skipper could break Steve

Waugh's record as Australia's most-capped testcricketer in the first match of a Sri Lanka se-ries, with his eye on making the 2013 team totour england. "they're the number one team in

the world and they are that for a reason,"Ponting, who has played 165 tests, said

of South Africa. "they have got proba-bly the best fast bowling attack going

around ... they bat really low aswell ... they're an exceptionally

well-balanced side. "But sayingthat, we have had some greatcontests against them since Ihave been playing for Aus-tralia. they have never reallydominated us and the series

have been great contests."We know that if we do every-

thing as well as we can in Australia thisyear, they will find it hard to beat us."

ponting fit and fired up for Sa

LONDONafp

Former england captain Andrew Strausshas returned to cricket following hisshock retirement after accepting a rolewith the International Cricket Council onthursday.

Strauss stunned the sport when heretired in August in the aftermath of theKevin Pietersen row, which coincidedwith england losing their position as theworld's top-ranked test team.

Pietersen sent provocative text mes-sages to South African players reported tohave contained criticism of Strauss andthe mentally drained skipper decided to

walk away following his team's test seriesdefeat against the Proteas.

But it was felt even then that Strauss,who captained england in 50 tests andled the team in two successful Ashes cam-paigns, would return to the game in amore political role.

the 35-year-old's appointment asone of two past players on the ICC'scricket committee was supported unani-mously by the world game's governingbody.

Strauss has replaced former West In-dies pace bowler Ian Bishop, who did notseek an extension to his term.

Meanwhile, former India captain AnilKumble, 41, was the unanimous choice to

replace Clive Lloyd as chairman of thecommittee.

the ICC's 16-member cricket com-mittee meets twice a year to consult onplaying matters and offer recommenda-tions to the ICC.

ICC president Alan Isaac said: "InAnil Kumble, we have a new chairmanwho has unquestioned experience notonly as a player with India but also as anadministrator with Karnataka StateCricket Association as well.

"I am sure that he will carry on Clive'sgood work and bring, like AndrewStrauss, contemporary thinking to thecommittee, and both understand clearlythe issues facing the modern game."

briton getssuspended jail termfor ticket theft

COLOMBOafp

A Sri Lankan court handed a one-year sus-pended jail term to a British man on thurs-day after he pleaded guilty to stealing ticketsfor a crucial World twenty20 cricket matchinvolving england. Colombo Chief Magis-trate Rashmi Singappuli said the sentencefor 54-year-old Caesar Buller would be sus-pended for five years because he had no pre-vious convictions. He was arrested onSeptember 30 after sales staff raised thealarm at a ticket sales outlet in the capitalColombo. Police said the man pocketed fourbooks of tickets for the game between SriLanka and england, which saw englandeliminated from the tournament. Buller hadremained in custody since he pleaded guiltyon October 2 as there was no one to post themillion rupee ($7,700) bail ordered by court.

Former indianskipper Kumblelands top iCC job

COLOMBOafp

Former Indiancaptain AnilKumble was onthursday ap-pointed head ofthe influential'cricket commit-tee' of the Inter-national CricketCouncil (ICC),replacing West Indian legend CliveLloyd. Kumble, 41, is the world's third-highest wicket-taker in tests with 619scalps, behind Sri Lankan Muttiah Mu-ralitharan (800) and Shane Warne(708). He also took 337 one-day inter-national wickets."the ICC Board agreed unanimously toappoint former Indian captain AnilKumble as the new chairman of the ICCCricket Committee," the governing bodysaid in a statement.the ICC board took the decision at ameeting in Colombo, where the WestIndies won the World twenty20 tour-nament that concluded Sunday."In Anil Kumble we have a new chair-man who has unquestioned experiencenot only as a player with India but alsoas an administrator with KarnatakaState Cricket Association," ICC Presi-dent Alan Isaac said.He said that Kumble would bring "con-temporary thinking to the committee".Andrew Strauss, who retired as englandcaptain earlier this year in the wake of arow involving batsman Kevin Pietersensending critical text messages to theirSouth African opponents, was also ap-pointed to the committee.the 35-year-old, who had been ex-pected to return to the game in a politi-cal capacity, replaces former WestIndies pace bowler Ian Bishop, who didnot seek an extension to his term.the ICC cricket committee meets peri-odically to recommend changes to therules to make the game more balancedand entertaining.

Retired england skipper Strauss joins ICC

ISB 12-10-2012_Layout 1 10/12/2012 2:24 AM Page 16

PunjAB YOuTH FeSTIvAl 2012

CHAMPIOnS leAgue

Sports 16


LAHORESTaff RepoRT

the Divisional Level of the Punjab Youth Festival 2012on thursday saw some colourful activity with Lahoretaking honours in several of the events.

Lahore girl’s players won the cricket match to addflavour to the festival while the city players also won intaekwondo, tug of war, baseball and table tennis.

In taekwondo’s 55 kgs, Adil Mustafa of Lahore beatPatras of Kashur, who took the second place. In 65 kgsweight class, Lahore’s Asif Ali achieved first positionwhile Kasur’s Mohammed Khalid was second. In 65-plus kgs, Lahore’s Shahan Arif baggoed first positionwhereas Kasur’s Asif Masih was second.

In tug of war, Lahore beat Sheikhupura 2-0 whenthe finalists Lahore defeated Nankana Sahib in the firstsemi-final and Sheikhupura moved past Kasur in thesecond semi-final.

In baseball final, Lahore took the title beating the ri-

vals while in table tennis final, Lahore bagged first afterbeating Kasur second positions.

In basketball, Sheikhupura won the title beating La-hore in the final while Lahore won the hockey matchagainst Nankana Sahib.

In female cricket, Lahore beat Nankana Sahib by 99runs at the Kinnaird College ground.

In all 240 players took part in 10 events of body-building, chess, cricket, hockey, Kabaddi, mat wrestling,mud wrestling, karate, boxing and powerlifting duringthe last two days and 75 were declared winners.

In the non-sporting events like Science modeling,four teams took part and displayed their models at Uni-versity of Veterinary and Health Sciences and was par-ticipated by Ahsan Ishfaq and Mohammad Qasim ofPunjab College Sheikhupura, Hasan Raza and Ali Razaof Punjab College, Waheed Akbar and Abdullah Shakeelof Government College township and Ameer Hamzaand Mudassar Hussain of Government Degree CollegePhool Nagar Kasur.

Lahore on front foot in majority events

JOHANNESBURGcRIcInfo

AFteR the first three balls ofthe match, trinidad & tobagowent 18 deliveries without arun off the bat. they lost three

wickets in the process. they even strug-gled to score at four an over for the firstnine overs. All the makings then of a stir-ring comeback for a Caribbean side. thestirring comeback happened through De-nesh Ramdin and Darren Bravo, it wassustained by Ravi Rampaul and SamuelBadree with the ball, but trinidad & to-bago ran out of quality bowlers.

Gary Ballance and Adil Rashid madeastute use of t&t's limitations, adding103 for the fifth wicket. Between them,Rampaul and Badree went for 44 in eightovers, but Yorkshire plundered 110 of theremaining 10.5. By chasing successfully,Yorkshire progressed to the main compe-tition, leaving t&t and Uva Next to playan inconsequential game.

For a long while, though, the matchfollowed the script written in the Worldtwenty20 final three days ago. Five ofthat winning squad were part of this XI.It was Ramdin and Bravo who did whatMarlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo haddone in the World twenty20. Ramdin, inparticular, needed to do this because hismoves as captain had put him in a poten-tially embarrassing situation. First hechose to bat first on a moist, sticky pitch.then he came in to bat at No. 5, whichseemed awfully early. Ramdin respondedwith a punchy little counterattack andBravo provided solidity at the other end.

t&t had three openers in the XI, allthree of whom played poor shots to makeit 8 for 3 after three overs. Ryan Sidebot-tom and Steven Patterson kept the pres-sure on, but Yorkshire had only threeseamers to use. From the moment theybrought the spinners on, Bravo andRamdin batted with freedom.

Rashid opened the floodgates in the

10th over, first staying away from bowl-ing legbreaks, and then dragging themhalf way down when he did bowl them.the two legbreaks in his first over wentfor four and six, and t&t were away.that over started a spell of six oversthat went for 63 runs. there were theelegant drives from Bravo, and improv-isation from Ramdin, who hardlyplayed any dots.

Rashid brought Yorkshire back,though, as Bravo played a mistimed loftjust before he could reach his fifty. De-spite two run-outs after that, the t&tlower order kept going, making it 111 inthe last 11 overs. Sidebottom starred with3 for 13, but his support cast had left thebatsmen much to do.

the second part of the match also gotoff to a familiar start. Badree got a left-

hand batsman grazing the stumps, Ram-paul troubled the top order with someheavy balls, and Yorkshire threatened todisintegrate under the pressure of thechase. However, they had also exhaustedseven of their eight overs. At 51 for 4, t&tneeded one of their lesser bowlers to stepup after the good work.

It wasn't to be. Rashid started theturnaround with back-to-back fours offmedium-pacer Rayad emrit in the 10thover. the big-hitting Ballance then tookover, targeting the lesser bowlers ruth-lessly. By the time Ramdin was forced touse Lendl Simmons, the game was clearlyslipping away. And when Ballance hoistedSimmons for two sixes in the 16th over,only 31 were left to get in the last fourovers. Rampaul's one remaining over wastoo few to make a difference.

RAIN RUINS GAME AfTER T&TMAkE 181: the inconsequential gamebetween trinidad & tobago and UvaNext, both of whom were already elimi-nated, was rained out after t&t posted astrong 181 for 3. the two men who wereat the centre of t&t's batting resurgenceon Wednesday, Denesh Ramdin and Dar-ren Bravo, were among the runs in thegame against Uva as well to muscle theirside to what was comfortably the highestscore of the qualifying stage.

Unlike yesterday, Bravo and Ramdinwere given a platform to build on. AgainstYorkshire, t&t's top three had been dis-missed within three overs, but todayWilliam Perkins began with a series ofpowerful lofted extra-cover shots to scoreat over two-runs-a-ball, and Lendl Sim-mons was slightly more controlled thanhis swing-at-everything avatar yesterday.By the time Simmons fell in the 10th over,t&t had motored to 86 for 3, bringing to-gether Ramdin and Bravo.

the pair began a bit cautiously butsoon opened out, making sure that eachof the final six overs went for ten or more.Uva had five bowlers with internationalexperience but only Andrew McDonaldwas taken for less than eight an over.there have been questions raised overRamdin batting as high as No. 5, but hehas put them to rest with successive half-centuries.

It may be a huge total but t&t suf-fered against Yorkshire due to a lack ofdepth in their bowling. to compoundmatters, they left out their two bestbowlers from this dead rubber; RaviRampaul and Samuel Badree were on thebench, which meant Uva weren't out ofthe game yet despite facing a tall target.

the chase got off to the worst possiblestart as Dilshan Munaweera upper-cut acatch to third man off the first ball of theinnings. the drizzle then intensified andforced the players off the field, and the Jo-hannesburg storm did not ease up in timefor the game to resume.

Committees

formed to make

tiger dangal

a successLAHORE

STaff RepoRT

Convener Punjab Chief Minister forwrestling Mohsin Arshad on thursdaysaid different committees were formedin order to make Hamza Shahbaz tigerDangal a successful event which will beheld on October 14.Mohsin said this in a meeting held to fi-nalised all the arrangements regardingholding of the event in a befitting man-ner. “We have formed a four-memberreception committee comprisingKhawaja Allauddin, Malik NadeemMunna, Ch Dilshad and Imran Shahwhile technical committee consist of ChNaeem Pehalwan, Munawar HassanBhatti, Haji Yameen and Riaz Pehal-wan. During the dangal competitions,Ch Rasheed, Haji Siddiq, Sh Shaukat,Siddique Pehalwan and Khalifa SaeedButt will act as referees.“the crowd will witness interesting andthrilling competitions among the youngand talented wrestlers who would dowell at international level and earngood name for the country,” Mohsinconcluded.

Open Punjab

football trialsLAHORE

STaff RepoRT

Open trials are being held to select thePunjab football team fort participationin the Punjab International Sports Fes-tival scheduled in the first week of No-vember.the trials will be held at Model townFootball Academy ground on October 16and 17 at 9 am under the supervision ofcoach Habib of Faisalabad. In all 30players will be picked for camp trainingwho will be shortlisted in final selection.

Yorkshire qualifyfor main draw

Ryan Sidebottom took 3 for 13.

LAHORE: Indian Punjab Sports SecretaryParam Jeet Singh has on thursday confirmedthe participation of four Indian Punjab teamsin the Punjab International Sports Festival2012 to be held in November. Addressing apress conference here at the Conference Hall ofthe Sports Board Punjab, Param said thatDeputy Chief Minister Indian Punjab SardarSukbir Singh Badal will be leading the Indiandelegation of 55 sports officials and the busi-ness community. Deputy Speaker Punjab RanaMashhood Ahmed Khan, who is the chief or-ganizer of the Punjab Youth Festival, DirectorGeneral Sports and Youth Affairs PunjabUsman Anwar and Indian Punjab DirectorSports Shiv Dular Dhillon were also present onthe occasion. Param informed that the 55-mem-ber sports contingent of Punjab will include theplayers of hockey, mat wrestling, kabaddi andtug of war. He further said that the visit of theirplayers and business community to Lahore willdevelop harmony and open up new door ofpeace and cordial relations. “the exchange ofplayers and business people is the effort of thechief ministers of both the countries who fre-quently talk on different issues. “the first stepof talks was initiated between the two CMs atAttari and it was then the Deputy Chief Minis-ter was asked to visit Lahore for and further de-velop the relations,” he said. Param furtheradded that he has seen festival at federal leveland a state holding such an activity and on sucha big scale is a thing of great praise and also ex-pressed his hope next time the Pakistan teams

will give Indian Punjab a chance to host them.“It is necessary for both the Punjabs to havefrequent sports exchanges for the revival of ourtraditional games. We organized WorldKabaddi and it cannot be successful without theparticipation of Pakistan team,” he added. Hefurther said that they have already extended in-vitation to Pakistan for World Kabaddi tourna-ment to be held in December. In his views,Rana Mashhood said that the Punjab YouthFestival was the vision of Punjab Chief MinisterMian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif who wantedthe revival of sports in the province. “It was thehardwork of Sports Board Punjab team and thevolunteers which is now paying off,” he added.Rana Mashhood on behalf of Mian Shahbaz as-sured full security to the Indian Punjab teams.“the Punjab Youth Festival is the principalclause of the Punjab Youth Policy under whichthe CM wanted to engage the youth in differenthealthy activities,” he maintained. STaff RepoRT

Four Indian Punjab teamsto participate in festival


Sports17


Gavazzitakes stagethree in beijing

BEIJINGafp

Francesco Gavazzi won the third stage ofthe tour of Beijing in dramatic style onthursday, but the Italian remained in sec-ond place overall behind last year's cham-pion tony Martin. Gavazzi, who races forAstana Pro team, burst through in the finalminutes of the race to overtake edvaldBoasson-Hagen and Dan Martin on the fin-ishing line. Boasson-Hagen had made abold sprint for victory with just four kilome-tres remaining but the Norwegian could notmaintain his lead over the chasing pack inthe crucial final moments of the race. Mar-tin then took the initiative and briefly led onthe final dash for the finishing line, but itwas Gavazzi who timed his sprint to perfec-tion and claimed victory in the 162.5 kilo-metre race in just over four hours. Gavazzi'svictory shaved just 10 seconds off tonyMartin's overall lead of 50 seconds cominginto thursday's race. Martin, who races forOmega Pharma-QuickStep, won the secondstage on Wednesday after dominating formost of the race and cruising across the linewith a huge lead of 46 seconds.

defending champChoi shareslead with webb

KUALA LUMPURafp

Defending champion Choi Na-Yeon kepther cool on the last hole to sink a puttfor a share of the lead on the openingday of the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysiathursday. the South Korean had ablemish-free round at the Kuala LumpurGolf and Country Club to finish on six-under 65, tieing with Australian veteranKarrie Webb who also had a bogey-freeround. World number one Yani tseng,who was runner-up last year, had a hor-rendous opening day, shooting a seven-over 78 after carding three doublebogeys and four bogeys before savingher round with three birdies. Choi, acrowd favourite, holed birdies on thesecond, fourth, sixth and eight holes asshe blazed through the opening nineholes. She added further birdies on the12th and 14th holes on the back nine.

NbP Gold Cup hockeytournament postponed

LAHORESTaff RepoRT

NBP gold cup hockey tournament whichwas to played here from October 15 hasbeen postponed due to occupation of syn-thetic field of National Hockey StadiumLahore for Punjab Youth Festival. “Hockeyfield is busy in holding the matches of thehockey event of the ongoing hockey festi-val and we were left with no option but topostpone the competition,” said Rana Mu-jahid,former Olympian and organizingsecretary of the event on thursday. Hesaid now the event will be played from No-vember 21 to 30 at the same venue.

beiJiNG: Cyclists ride their bicycles on a

mountain road during the third stage of

the 2012 tour of beijing cycling race. afp

BEIJINGafp

Local hero Liang Wenchong played flawlesslyfor a three-under-par 68 to share the lead withcountryman Yuan Hao and Australian StevenJones after the opening round of the NanshanChina Masters thursday. the trio outshoneMajor winners Louis Oosthuizen and Y.e.Yang, who were both level par at the OneAsia$1 million event. Six players will have to finishtheir first round on Friday but none havemuch chance of catching up with the leaders.

Liang eagled the first hole and birdied thethird to continue a run of form that started inJapan two weeks ago when he finished jointrunner-up at the ANA Open. "I'm familiarwith Nanshan as I have played here manytimes," Liang said in a report released by the

organisers. "the course is in very good condi-tion but really tests my game." Yuan, a lowly100th on the Order of Merit, kept pace withhis better-known countryman. Jones has notmade a cut on OneAsia this year but saidworking with a sports psychologist has im-proved his mental toughness. Only 15 playerswere under par around the 6,539 metre (7,151yard) course. Oosthuizen -- winner of the 2010Open Championship -- said he would proba-bly try to play more conservatively on Friday.

"I'll just try to hit 18 greens and give my-self 18 putts for birdie and hopefully one ortwo will go in," he said. "there are a lot ofbirdies out there, but that bogey is just lurkingaround the corner all the time." Yang, winnerof the 2009 PGA Championship and a two-time OneAsia champion, double-bogeyed thelast hole to finish level par.

Local hero Liang grabs share of lead

LAHORESTaff RepoRT

In the third of six tournaments of theMeNA (Middle east and North Africa)Golf tour, that concluded at the RiyadhGolf Club yesterdy, Shafiq Masih of Pak-istan and Lahore Gymkhana Club, cap-tured the American express Dirab GolfChampionship title after a playoff againstCraig Smith of Wales. In the final roundnerves were strained to the breaking pointas Shafiq Masih overturned a three shotfinal round deficit to level with Craig Smithand thereafter acheive victory in a playoff.

What Shafiq Masih managed washeroic indeed as he dug deep into hisknowledge of the golf course, a placewhere he had been teaching golf till a fewyears back, to match his tough rivals siz-zling final round of gross 66. Just a littlemore hot and brilliant was Shafiq as hecontested bravely to manage a scoregood enough to end up, level with Craig,thus forcing a play off. Shafiq Masih's ar-dent and animated approach in the play-off hole fetched him a birdie as his rival

barely managed a par. this enabled himto wrap up a moment of glory for hiscountry, for his home club in Pakistanand for himself, besides a lucrative purseof 9000 dollars. As regards his perform-ance on the last day, he was simply irre-sistible from tee to the green. Masihrattled off seven birdies and 12 regula-tion pars. One bogie did come his waybut then it was simply crushed under theweight of the birdies. "It feels great to

win a tournament of this stature andmakes me more jubilant because it ishere that I used to give golf lessons tomembers. No doubt I have won tourna-ments in Pakistan but this win is spe-cial." Here in Pakistan Shafiq's victorywas applauded by taimur Hassan ofPakistan Golf Federation, Brig (r) Akramof Punjab Golf Association and formersportsmen like Shafqat Rana, JehangirAziz and many golfers of significance.

Girls handballChampionshipreaches final stage

LAHORESTaff RepoRT

trinity college will face City SchoolPAF Chapter in the senior final ofKarachi’s girl handball tournament onFriday. In the first semi final trinitycollege gave handball lesson to DJACollege with a 12-4 thrashing. Cityschool PAF Chapter beat St Joseph col-lege 1-0 in the second semi final. In thejunior level, Habib Girls school andCity School PAF Chapter qualified forthe final after winning their respectivesemi finals.Habib school beat City school PeCHS11-7 and City school defeated trinitygirls school 5-4 the technical officialsincluding Zaib un Nisa, Shazia Yousaf,Darakshan, Uzma Waqar, AnwarAhmed, Liaq Khawar Butt & KhalidParvez supervised the matches. the fi-nals will be played today, Friday.

Shafiq wins MeNa Golf event in Riyadh

RiO de JANeiRO: uS mmA-uFC fighter Stephan bonnar practices ahead of his fightagainst brazilian Anderson Silva on October 13. afp

Choi Na-yeon talks with her caddy on the 17thhole during the first round of malaysia golf. afp


Sports 18


watch it LiveESPNSports Center07:30PM

PhF, tahirmend fences

LAHORESTaff RepoRT

the Pakistan Hockey Federation onthursday called former hockey Olympiantahir Zaman and sought his help in lift-ing the sagging fortune of the nationalhockey team. “Secretary PHF Moham-mad Asif Bajwa specially invited me forthe meeting and it was a meeting inwhich we discussed the present hockeyscenario,” said tahir after the meeting.tahir has parted with the present regimeof the national hockey federation fouryears ago and time and again crticisedthe working as well as the performance ofthe national hockey team. the meetingcomes as a surprise as both the PHF andtahir had fallen apart and it seems boththe parties have reached an agreement tosink their differences. “My services areavailable for the cause of hockey and ifPHF offers me any responsibility I willconsider it in the larger interest ofhockey,” he added. to a question, hesaid, the meeting purely focused on re-vival of hockey and it does not mean thateverything is ok as far his differenceswere concerned with the present regimeof the national hockey federation. “It wasa step forward to look into the presenthockey situation and nothing else and ifsome one says that I came here with anagenda with some conditions is com-pletely wrong,” he said. He further said:“I have my own group and think tank andI cannot leave them in one go , I will con-sider every thing before making a finaldecision.” He said he is a high perform-ance certified coach of internationalhockey federation and has coached manyteams of the world successfully. “I have alot of coaching offers with me but my aimis to serve Pak hockey because what everI have achieved in life is because ofhockey,” he said. He said he does notknow that if he will be handing over thesenior or junior team. “What ever they(PHF) will offer me I will look into it be-fore making up my mind,” he said.

Aussie Open holds ‘constructive’ money talksMELBOURNE

afp

tennis officials thursday said they hadheld constructive talks with players agi-tating for a greater share of revenue atthe Australian Open, a day after AndyMurray said a strike was never a real op-tion. Last week, organisers of the sea-son's opening major boosted prize moneyto a record Aus$30 million (US$31 mil-lion) as they responded to a push byplayers to gain a higher percentage ofGrand Slam revenues.

the move followed reports thatplayers were mulling a boycott of the2013 Australian Open to press theircase, with one issue at stake the pay oflower-ranked players, who often exit inthe first round.

tennis Australia chief executiveSteve Wood said he met with the AtP(Association of tennis Professionals)and players at the Shanghai Mastersabout a fairer distribution of prizemoney, and talks were productive.

"tennis Australia has had some veryconstructive and positive discussionswith the AtP and the player council," hesaid in a statement. "We feel we havebeen well received and are buoyant

about the future. "We have talked aboutour long-term plans for player compen-sation, including further significant in-creases, and the feedback we havereceived from the AtP and the playershas been positive." AtP executive chair-man and president Brad Drewett wasalso upbeat following the talks with ten-nis Australia, saying they were "encour-aging and positive".

"tennis Australia deserves credit forthe way they have recognised the signifi-cant input the players have in the suc-cess of the tournament," he said. "I'mdelighted the players have given theirfull support to the AtP leadership dur-ing this process with the AustralianOpen, as well as backing our decision topursue this issue through constructivedialogue. "I am confident that the AtPand our players will remain committedto the ongoing discussions with theother Grand Slam tournaments."

While this year players pocketedAus$20,800 for a first-round defeat atthe Australian Open, some playersstruggle to make ends meet during theyear as they pay for much of their ownexpenses and travel. Without a highprofile, they are also unable to score lu-crative sponsorship deals that could

help sustain their careers.Player council president Roger Fed-

erer on Sunday cautiously welcomed themove to boost prize money but said hewas not sure it was significant enough toquell player unrest over the long-run-ning row. However, on Wednesday Mur-ray said he never viewed a strike as areal option, adding "the Australian Openhas stepped up really well".

While the prize money break-up isyet to be revealed, Australian Open di-rector Craig tiley last week said in-creases would be weighted towardsthose who lose in the early rounds.More talks are scheduled to take placebefore a final decision is made, Woodsaid. "We have plans for further dis-cussions regarding distribution andwill also be having talks with the WtA(Women's tennis Association) to gettheir feedback," he said.

"Our intention has always been tomake a major contribution toward im-proving the compensation of profes-sional tennis players to make theirprofession more viable throughouttheir ranks. the attitude of the playershas been very pleasing." the Aus-tralian Open is played at MelbournePark in January.

Aman, moinAcademy to trainunderprivilegedschools players

KARACHISTaff RepoRT

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)has been signed between Aman Sports – aninitiative of Aman Foundation, and MoinKhan Sports Academy (MKSA), to help pro-mote and re-inject sports into the main-stream as well as underserved areas. thepartnership would give a platform to iden-tify hidden sports talent, specifically incricket, amongst school-going students ofKarachi. the signing ceremony took place atDHA Moin Khan Sports Academy. MKSA’sCeO and Pakistan’s pride, Moin Khan andAman Foundation’s CeO, Ahsan Jamil,signed the agreement in the presence of ex-ecutive Director of AmanSports, M. FaisalMirza and many prominent sports person-alities. the programme will be catering bot-tom of pyramid schools primarily and henceexposing them to the experiences andunique sense of fulfillment that only sport-ing achievement can give. Under this part-nership MKSA will provide expert guidancein implementing cricket academies and asupport structure for cricket conduct acrossthe city, with international experts as well.the programme will include trainings incricket, football, athletics and basketball forthe first year and will expand to around 11sports afterwards. Aman Foundation’s CeO,Ahsan Jamil said, “the future of the nationlies in the hands of children. At Aman Foun-dation, we are committed to creating sys-temic, scalable, and sustainable change, andre-injecting sport into the mainstream isgoing to play a huge part in drastically alter-ing the social landscape and equity para-digm in the country.” Speaking on theoccasion, Moin Khan thanked Aman Foun-dation and AmanSports for the step takentowards promoting sports in the segmentwhere lack of facilities are causing depri-vation in the lives of our people. He said,“It is an investment by AmanSports in thefuture of Karachi and Pakistan.” executiveDirector of AmanSports, M. Faisal Mirzapresented an overview of the programmeand briefed on the mission, vision andstrategy of AmanSports. He said, “AmanSports is proud to be a part of the AmanFoundation, aspiring to make a differencein society by creating a meaningful pushinto grassroots sports development andacademia, event creation, and sportsmarketing. It is extremely important toencourage involvement of our youth inhealthy, organized sports activities.”

SHANGHAIafp

ROGeR Federer survived ahuge scare thursday to reachthe Shanghai Masters quar-ter-finals and guarantee a

300th career week as world number oneas Novak Djokovic and Andy Murrayshowed ominous form.

the Swiss 17-time Grand Slamchampion came into the match againstcompatriot Stanislas Wawrinka with anenviable 11-1 head-to head record butstruggled to impose himself and wasforced to dig deep before winning 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-0.

In a gripping contest lasting nearlytwo hours, Wawrinka, who teamed upwith his illustrious compatriot to winOlympics doubles gold in 2008, brokeFederer in the seventh game to lead 4-3and sealed the first set. Out-of-sortsFederer, 31, continued to struggle in thesecond set as the pair swapped breaks ofserve and was in desperate trouble whenWawrinka earned a break point for a 5-4 lead, which would have left him serv-ing for the match. But the Swiss greatdodged that bullet and stayed strong ina nerve-jangling tie-break to level thematch and immediately broke his 27-year-old countryman at the start of thethird set as momentum shifted deci-sively in his favour.

A dejected Wawrinka failed to winanother game as Federer wrapped up thethird set 6-0. earlier, Serbian secondseed Djokovic looking to wrestle the

world number one ranking from Federerbarely broke sweat against Spain's Feli-ciano Lopez, wrapping up a straightfor-ward 6-3, 6-3 victory in front ofenthusiastic fans. In-form Djokovic, freshfrom his third China Open title in Beijingon Sunday, struck 12 aces and took ad-vantage of some below-par serving by theleft-handed Lopez, breaking him threetimes. "I'm not very well known aroundthe tour for big serving," said Djokovic,25. "But so far in this tournament, and

also in Beijing, it has been working verywell for me. "It has been giving me a lotof free points, a lot of confidence into thematches." US Open champion Murray,25, proved far too strong for Ukraine'sAlexandr Dolgopolov, serving consis-tently well and seizing on five out of sixbreak points to win 6-2, 6-2 in just 57minutes. It was the first match of thetournament for the Scot, who had awalkover into the third round. the topeight seeds received a first round bye.

Federer back from thebrink in Shanghai

SHANGHAIafp

World number two Novak Djokovic said thursday that opt-ing out of the Davis Cup this year could be a factor in hisend-of-season freshness as he keeps his eyes firmly on theyear-end top spot. the Serbian, 25, suffered from injuryproblems towards the end of 2011 as he faded after a stellarseason but this year is in red hot form, reachingthe quarter-finals of the Shanghai Mastersdays after winning his third China Open. Hecurrently sits behind Swiss great Roger Fed-erer in the rankings but looks a good bet tofinish top of the pile for the second year run-ning as he has fewer points to defend in thelast few weeks in the rolling 12-month system."the scheduling more or less was similar inthese two seasons. I haven't changed my rou-tines that I've been respecting in practices,preparation and recovery programmes. Itall has been the same," said Djokovic. "But

I've made maybe a couple of wiser decisions on how to play,what to play, what to do in order to stay fit. I had a very longand emotional 2011. "Winning the US Open also brought me a

lot of joy, but a lot of fatigue also. I went back to Serbia andplayed a Davis Cup match, which got my injury worse,

then I had to be away for two months also." Djokovic,who successfully defended his Australian Open crownthis year, said not playing in the Davis Cup had possi-

bly contributed towards his improved freshness to-wards the end of this season. "I haven't

played a Davis Cup. Maybe that helped meto stay fit. But I'll be having Davis Cup

matches in the next year hopefully. I'mreally looking forward to play for mycountry once again. I'll try to keep thegood scheduling as a priority." the Ser-bian, who also reached the finals of theFrench Open and US Open in 2012, said

it was a tough decision to turn his back onthe Davis Cup this year after he wonthe title with his nation in 2010.

Djokovic fresh after no Davis Cup

ShANGhAi: Roger Federer of Switzerland returns to Stanislas wawrinka of Switzerlandduring their third round match at the Shanghai masters. afp

ShANGhAi: Andy murray of britain celebrateswinning his game against Alexandardolgopolov of ukraine in their third roundmatch of the Shanghai masters. afp



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

19

ISLAMABADTaYYaB HUSSaIn

AS the sub-committee of the fed-eral cabinet on thursday recom-mended launching a dialogue

process with all Baloch leaders who were“ready to talk under the banner of thenational flag”, Prime Minister Raja Per-vez Ashraf asked all cabinet membersand stakeholders to give their input onthe recommendations so that the nextmeeting, which will exclusively discussthe Balochistan issue, could finalise therecommendations.

the committee also recommendedfor formation of another high-levelcommittee comprising the Balochistangovernor, chief minister and corp com-mander for better coordination be-tween civilian and military hierarchy,Pakistan Today has learnt. the federalcabinet, which met at the PM’s secre-tariat with Raja Pervez Ashraf in thechair, held two separate sessions – firstdedicated to devising a strategy to dis-cuss the militant attack against MalalaYousufzai, while the second sessiontook up other important issues.

Per a source, Prime Minister RajaPervez Ashraf covered issues such asthe attack on Malala, the Swiss letter,

President Asif Ali Zardari’s address tothe United Nations General Assembly(UNGA), energy crisis an accountabil-ity bill in his address. A source saidduring the meeting, a minister calledfor launching an operation against thetehreek-e-taliban Pakistan (ttP), butanother opposed such a move.

the minister urged the govern-ment to take a final decision to naildown the militants who had lost thesympathies of the media and evensome major religio-political parties fol-lowing the attack on Malala.

During the first session, Ashrafcondemned the terrorists attack onMalala, stating that he had given spe-cial instructions to the relevant author-ities to provide best medical treatmentavailable at home and abroad at stateexpense to the injured girls, a memberof the cabinet informed Pakistantoday. He said the nation had the willand determination to protect its valuesand principles and the future of its chil-dren, while the cabinet prayed for anearly recovery of the injured girls.

the source said the Supreme Courthad approved the text of the letter pro-posed by the government for sending itto Swiss authorities, adding that itclearly showed that the government

fully respected the courts and it also si-lenced those who had been propagatinga clash between the executive and judi-ciary. the PM also directed the Ministryof Petroleum and Natural Resources tochalk out a comprehensive plan for gasload management during winter with aspecial focus on ensuring uninterruptedsupply to the domestic consumers. Healso reiterated the government’s resolveto contact all opposition parties and at-tempts to form a consensus on the na-tional accountability bill.

Briefing reporters over the cabi-net’s decisions, Information MinisterQamar Zaman Kaira said the sub-com-mittee of the cabinet on Balochistanpresented its report containing its rec-ommendations to the meeting.

He said the sub committee had rec-ommended that political reconciliationshould be given top priority. “Dialogueshould be started with all the con-cerned with the involvement of nota-bles and elders, who can easilycommunicate with them,” he added.Kaira said the PM had already made itclear that dialogue would be initiatedwith all those who were ready to talkunder the banner of national flag.


Pakistan on thursday again protestedwith the United States over the successivedrone strikes in the last two days, sayingthe attacks were clear violation of its sov-ereignty and the international law.

“A protest has been lodged by theMinistry of Foreign Affairs with the USembassy in Islamabad on drone strikesinside Pakistani territory on October 10and 11, 2012,” Foreign Office SpokesmanMoazzam Khan said in a press statement.

He said, “the embassy was informedthat drone strikes on Pakistani territorywere a clear violation of international lawand Pakistan’s sovereignty. these attacksare unacceptable to Pakistan.” At least 16people were killed on thursday when USdrones targeted the compound of a mili-

tant commander believed to have linkswith the Haqqani network in Orakzaiagency, press reports said. this was thesecond drone strike in Orakzai, the firstcarried out in 2009. the US drones alsocarried out a strike in North Waziristanon Wednesday, killing five people.

Addressing a weekly press briefing,Khan said Pakistan had taken a clear po-sition on the Kashmir issue. He said Pres-ident Asif Ali Zardari in his address to theUN General Assembly also raised theKashmir issue and also referred to theUN failure to address the long standingissue. He admitted that there were diffi-cult issues to be settled between Pakistanand India but there was a desire on bothsides of the Indo-Pak border to addressall outstanding matters in a meaningfulway. “Both Pakistan and India are capa-ble enough to address their issues bilat-

erally. However, if Russia, the US orChina are willing to play good role to ad-dress the issues between Pakistan andIndia, they are welcome,” he said.

On Russian foreign minister’s visit toIslamabad, Khan said the trip was produc-tive as the talks with him covered coopera-tion in diverse fields, including economyand trade. “Recently, relations between thetwo countries have witnessed a change. thechief of army staff also visited Moscow re-cently and held constructive talks with themilitary establishment there. there is a de-sire on both sides to take the relationshipforward,” he said. Commenting on newdates for the visit of the Russian president,Khan said Vladimir Putin had expressed hiskeenness to have a summit-level meetingwith President Asif Ali Zardari in a lettersent to the president. He said, “Both thecountries are working on new dates. How-

ever, no date has yet been finalised.” to aquestion on the response of internationalcommunity on the terror attack on MalalaYousafzai, he said several countries, includ-ing the US, had condemned the reprehen-sible act. He said Foreign Minister HinaRabbani Khar had also condemned the at-tack, adding that “it was an attack on the fu-ture and hope of Pakistan”.

About the Syria-turkey tension,Khan said Pakistan had condemned theSyrian shelling on turkish territory andhoped that the Syrian government wouldtake action to avert such incidents in thefuture. “Pakistan wants peaceful resolu-tion of the issue without any coercivemeasures,” he said. Khan said PresidentAsif Ali Zardari would pay a two-day visitto Baku, Azerbaijan from Monday to at-tend the economic Cooperation Organi-sation (eCO) Summit.

Military top brassvows to root out militancy

ISLAMABADSHaIQ HUSSaIn

the top brass of the armed forces onthursday strongly condemned the terroristattack on Malala Yousafzai, the teenageeducation activist, and resolved that allpossible steps would be taken to root outmilitant organisations working against thesovereignty of country and killing Pakistanicitizens. the Joint Chiefs of Staff CommitteeMeeting (JCSC) was held at the Joint StaffHeadquarters, the ISPR said. “the JCSC is aquarterly moot of senior military leadershipto assess and evaluate the operationalpreparedness of the armed forces, and totake stock of upcoming challenges,” it said.Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff CommitteeGeneral Khalid Shameem Wyne presidedover the meeting that was attended by Chiefof Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani, Chiefof Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad AsifSandila, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshaltahir Rafique Butt, defence and defenceproduction secretaries,, chief of general staff,director general joint staff, the Inter-ServicesIntelligence director general, Strategic PlansDivision director general and senior militaryofficers from the three services. “Issuesrelated to Pakistan’s national security andemerging regional geo-strategic environmentalong with the progress on the agenda pointsof last meeting came under discussion,” thestatement said. However, an official seekinganonymity said the life attempt on Malala byterrorists in Swat on tuesday was discussedin detail by the military leadership. “theparticipants of meeting strongly condemnedthe attack on Malala while praising hercourage and bravery and they observed thatthe terrorists who attacked her would not bespared. the army top brass also made it clearthat militant bodies working againstPakistan’s sovereignty and killing Pakistanicitizens would be taken to task andeliminated,” he said. the ISPR statementsaid the “participants expressed theirsatisfaction over the standard ofpreparedness of the armed forces to take onthe upcoming challenges being faced by thecountry”. “It was reiterated that the resolveto fight the menace of terrorism will bekindred and the armed forces of Pakistan areready to render any sacrifice therein,” it said.

Retired iSi brigadierkidnapped, guardkilled in islamabad


Unidentified armed men kidnapped formerInter-Services Intelligence officer Brig (r)tahir Masood and gunned down his guard foroffering resistance on thursday. According todetails, armed men stopped Masood’s vehiclewhen he left his house located in DHA PhaseII, in Sihala police precincts. the assailantsgunned down Masood’s security guard foroffering resistance and made away withMasood. Police and spy agencies cordoned offthe area after the incident and started asearch for the criminals.

KP govt not in theloop as Malala isairlifted to PindiPESHAWAR: teenage education activistMalala Yousafzai was airlifted toRawalpindi on tuesday as doctors claimedher condition had improved after removingthe bullet from her body. According toColonel Junaid, one of the doctors treatingthe 14-year-old victim of a cowardly tal-iban shooting, Malala would be treated atthe Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the ArmyInstitute of Cardiology. A report by AFP,quoting another doctor Mumtaz Khan, saidthat Malala had 70 percent chance of sur-vival. “At the moment her condition is bet-ter,” he said. “She has been put on aventilator for two days. the bullet has af-fected some part of the brain, but there is a70 percent chance that she will survive.”Mehmoodul Hasan, one of Malala’s rela-tives, said the family had been told that hercondition had improved but that doctorswere sending her medical reports abroad.“they are checking if better facilities areavailable in the UK or Dubai or any othercountry, then they will decide about send-ing her abroad, otherwise they will treather here,” said Hasan. On the other hand,the provincial government of KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) claimed that it was nottaken into confidence over relocating theteenage terror victim. KP InformationMinister Iftikhar Hussain said he came toknow about the airlifting through televisionreports, which were informed by the KPgovernor. Soon after Malala’s surgery wascompleted at the Combined Military Hos-pital (CMH) in Peshawar, the informationminister had said that her condition was“satisfactory”. But after she was airlifted toRawalpindi, Hussain said that her condi-tion was “serious”, while requesting thearmy officers to inform the people aboutMalala’s condition, as people from all overthe region and rest of the country were wor-ried. Highly-placed officials told Pakistantoday that the federal government and themilitary had made the decision to shiftMalala to Rawalpindi without bothering totake the provincial government into confi-dence. Another senior official confirmed onthe condition of anonymity that the high upsof the army and the Peshawar CMH adminis-tration had refused to allow several provin-cial ministers and lawmakers from seeing theterror victim and enquiring about her health.“Some of the ministers succeeded in enteringthe CMH early in the day, but later almost allthe visiting ministers and MPs were deniedentry,” the official added. Briefing the mediaabout Shazia, one of the other girls injured inthe attack, the information minister said shehad been shifted to Peshawar and was admit-ted at the CMH. He said that Shazia had sus-tained two bullets and now her treatmentwas in progress. ShaMIM ShahID/aGeNCIeS

Dialogue with dissident Balochleaders ‘under national flag’federal cabinet mulls action against TTp following attack on Malala

Pakistan protests drone attacks, againcONtINuED ON PagE 04

RaWaLpInDI: army doctors shift injured Malala Yousafzai to an army hospital after she was brought to the garrison city from peshawar on a helicopter on Thursday. afp


e-paper pakistantoday 12th october, 2012

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