Rs 17.00 Vol III No 241 19 Pages Lahore Edition Wednesday, 27 February, 2013 Rabi us Sani 16, 1434

Cop killed in attackon polio vaccinatorsin mardanA police constable was killed when

unidentified gunmen opened fire at an

anti-polio vaccination team in Mardan,

officials said on Tuesday. Police said the

attack took place in Ghalla Dera area of

Mardan when a team of lady health

workers was tending to duty. The

workers remained unhurt and were

sent back to their unit, police said,

adding that the anti-polio campaign

continued in other parts of the

province. The body of the deceased

policeman was shifted to the District

Headquarters Hospital Mardan. page 03

World powers tooffer iran sanctions reliefIran with an updated and "good"

offer at talks this week on its nuclear

programme, although hopes for a

breakthrough appear slim. Talks

aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear

drive start on Tuesday in Kazakhstan,

with the so-called 5+1 world powers

represented by the European Union

sitting down with an Iranian team led

by negotiator Saeed Jalili. A

spokesman for European Union

foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton,

who leads the talks with Iran on

behalf of the powers, page 07

law minister delaystabling new provinces’bill in senateSigns of a thaw between the Pakistan

People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan

Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) became

evident on Tuesday as Law Minister

Farooq H Naek did not table the 24th

Constitutional Amendment Bill 2013,

which seeks the creation of Bahawalpur-

Janoobi Punjab province. With the start

of the proceedings in the Upper House,

Senate Chairman Nayyar Hussain

Bokhari announced that the law minister

had informed him that he would get late

therefore the matter would be taken up

later in the day. page 04

pakistan’s walk of shameIn a twisted turn of events, the rapist

and killer of a minor girl on Tuesday

also confessed to killing two other girls,

including a daughter of serving

superintendent of police (SP) of

Islamabad, Pakistan Today has learnt.

Police sources told Pakistan Today that

a couple of months ago, the accused

Ibrar Ahmed, in connivance with his

girlfriend cum accomplice, Mehak

Qaisar, killed a young daughter of a

serving SP. Last year, the dead body of

SP’s daughter was found in her

bedroom in mysterious circumstances

at Margalla Valley, Bharakau. page04

story on page 16

pakistan repays

$391.8 million to imF

page 02

page 02

story on page 04

story on page 04

story on page 03

story on page 03

story on page 02

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news

Arbitration award in Kishanganga

case is not a legal defeat for Pakistan.— Farhatullah Babar

IndIa has beenfIghtIng Proxywars In PakIstanvIa afghanIstanWASHINGTON:

United States

Secretary of

Defence nominee

Chuck Hagel

had suggested

in a previously

unreleased

speech that

India had for

many years been

using Afghanistan to

fight a proxy war against

Pakistan by sponsoring terror attacks

inside it. According to a video obtained

by Adam Kredo of the Washington Free

Bacon, Hagel said, “India has over the

years financed problems for Pakistan in

Afghanistan.” “India for some time has

always used Afghanistan as a second

front, and India has over the years

financed problems for Pakistan on that

side of the border,” Hagel said in the

speech in 2001. Sharply reacting to the

remarks, a spokesperson from the

Indian embassy told the Free Beacon

that Hagel’s remarks were not

‘grounded in reality’. “Such comments

are contrary to the reality of India’s

unbounded dedication to the welfare of

the Afghan people,” he said. “We will

continue to work to help the Afghan

people build a democratic and

prosperous future for themselves in an

environment free from terror and

intimidation,” he told the daily. In

contrast, Hagel had termed Pakistan as

a real nuclear power and ‘quite

unpredictable’. ONLiNE

rIaz fatyana

quIts PML-qISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Muslim

League-Quaid

MNA Riaz

Fatyana

announced to

quit the party

on Tuesday.

Talking to

reporters

outside the

Parliament House,

Fatyana said: “I have informed the

party leadership about my decision to

part ways with the PML-Q.” “The party

leadership doesn’t have time to address

my reservations,” he complained. To a

question, he said he might take part in

the upcoming election as an

independent candidate. “I am not

immediately joining any party. My

voters will decide whether to join any

party or contest polls independently,” he

added. ONLiNE

ISLAMABADSTAff rEPOrT

CHIEF of Army Staff(COAS) General AshfaqPervez Kayani has said themasses had the right to electtheir leaders through ballot

and result of the general election would beaccepted with an open heart.

“I advocate free and transparent timelyelections along with peaceful transition ofpower.”

In a candid conversation with seniorjournalists at a lunch reception at the GeneralHeadquarters, General Kayani said the armydesired free and fair election and hoped thatthe dream would become a reality soon.

He said during the past five years, thearmy had fully supported the democraticprocess in accordance with the constitutionalaspects and even today, he supported trans-parent elections and peaceful transfer ofpower. Kayani said though some people wereexpressing suspicion over role of the army,but its good intentions were in front of every-one and it proved its claims through practicalwork.

Gen Kayani refuted all such suspicionsmaking rounds in media that the army wassupporting any party or wanted to set up along-term technocrat government.

The chief of army staff said a free, fairand transparent election in the country was adream, adding that he was delighted that itwould soon be fulfilled. He said his intentionsshould be gauged not from his statements butfrom his actions and from the facts onground. The army chief hoped that free and

fair elections would take place in every partof the country, including Balochistan. Hesaid in 2008 elections, the interventionwas blocked and he aimed the sameeven today as well. Gen Kayani as-sured the chief election commis-sioner of complete military supportand cooperation and said the peoplehad the right and power to choosetheir representatives. He said elec-tion results would be welcomedwith an open heart, as the army hadnothing to do with people’s choice. Headded that it was military’s constitu-tional responsibility to support anelected government. GeneralKayani said since he took thechair of his office, he hadtried his best to ensure thatthe election process shouldnot be interfered. “I al-ways supported the dem-ocratic processaccording to the wordsand spirit of the consti-tution,” he added.

Pakistanis mastersof their own destiny

ARMY CHIEF SAYS MILITARYNEITHER SUPPORTINGANY PARTY DOES ITWANT TO SET UP ALONG-TERM TECHNOCRATGOVERNMENT

Much was made of the ‘Green Book’,touted as the strategic manual of the Pak-istani military. According to a recent arti-cle in the journal published by the GHQ,changing priorities after 11 years, theArmy has termed internal threats as thegreatest danger to the country’s security.This shifts concentration of troops fromthe eastern to the western borders.

Now we are told on good authoritythat the Green Book does not represent theofficial view of the Army but is a maga-zine representing personal views of the of-ficers who contribute articles in it. As suchthere is no change in the strategic doctrineof the Pakistani military.

India remains an existential threat,though terrorism is no less. The military isnot against better trade relations with India,however, normal relations could only berestored once there is some positive move-ment on resolving thorny issues includingKashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek etc.

The much-discussed ‘strategic depth’doctrine of the military also remains fullyintact. It is clarified that a peaceful, secureand friendly Afghanistan meant that ourwestern borders are safe. Hence the Pak-istani military can fully concentrate on theeastern borders.

So far as elections are concerned, themilitary spokesman has already clarifiedthat the Army supports timely electionsand contrary to speculations rife in a sub-stantial swath of public opinion it had nei-ther intentions nor the desire to scuttle theprocess. Furthermore the military has nofavourites. Whoever wins the elections fairand square and forms a government is ac-ceptable to it. Hence Nawaz Sharif has

nothing to fear that powers that be haveany desire to block him.

In this context, the military leadershipconsiders it an affront to its intelligence tobe accused of backing Tahirul Qadri.Hence if non-state political actors lookingat the GHQ for support (or perhaps gettingit from sections of the establishment) toscuttle the election process in the name ofaccountability not only stand discreditedbut abandoned as well.

There has been much talk about the

COAS General Ashfaq Kayani getting an-other extension before his second three-year term expires in November. It is highlyunlikely, according to those in the know ofthings. A newly-elected government willbe in place much before Kayani retires.Zardari’s term as president ends in August.

Hence there is a lot of slip between thecup and the lip. Nonetheless in the back-drop of a complicated geostrategic situa-tion owing to imminent Americanwithdrawal from Afghanistan by end ofnext year a one-year extension for the sakeof continuity cannot be entirely ruled out.

The General however has confided tofriends that he has no desire to seek or ac-

cept another extension. His friends will seehim sans uniform come 2014, it isclaimed.

So far as the Balochistan situation isconcerned the military is willing to play itsrole strictly according to the constitution;i.e. in aid of civil powers, if asked to inter-vene under Article 245 of the Constitution.Any other role of the Army in Balochistanor Karachi will be tantamount to imposingmartial law, which neither the military northe civilian government desire.

Figures like Brahamdag Bugti are thebane of the military. With scores of killingsin Balochistan on his watch, the Afghangovernment is giving him safe haven aswell as a passport. Karzai denies any truckwith Bugti but when Gen Kayani person-ally handed him the dossier on Bra-hamdag, he did not know where to look.

The APC called by Maulana FazlurRehman has the tacit backing of the mili-tary. It is keen that the civilian leadershipshould be on one page on talks with theTTP (Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan). Talksshould take place with a position ofstrength rather than weakness. Similarlyany agreement should be strictly within the

ambit of the constitution, law and writ ofthe Pakistan government.

The military is extremely worriedabout internal instability, terrorism and aweakening economy. Even the example offormer Soviet Union is invoked which dis-integrated owing to internal chaos and anemasculated economic base despite havinga strong military. Hence measures to sal-vage the economy, including going backto the IMF by a civilian government willhave army’s support.

The military’s desire to combat terror-ism has been thwarted by weak laws andflawed prosecution process. Belatedly astrong anti-terrorism law has been intro-duced in the National Assembly. Hope-fully it will become a law and not left onthe plate of the next parliament.

The army is bitter about the Swat ex-perience where it successfully flushed outthe terrorists. But it is still holding Swatwithout the civilian administration devel-oping the capability to take over. Not a sin-gle person that the military nabbed in theonce peaceful valley has been convicted.

The military supports intra-Afghan di-alogue with the belief that political processshould be in the lead. Within the parame-ters of its strategic doctrine the military de-sires a stable and peaceful Afghanistan. Itis no longer keen to foist a government ofits choice in Kabul.

However, it firmly believes that oncethe US troops leave, Pakistan should notbe left in the wrong corner.

The previous elections were widelyperceived to be deeply flawed and fraudu-lent. The military hopes that the comingelections to be held in 2014 before theAmericans leave are transparent and freethat give fair representation to the afghanTalban who as a result look towards Kabulrather than Islamabad.

Green Book is just a journal,no change in military doctrine

there has been muCh talk about the Coas generalashFaq kayani getting another extension beForehis seCond three-year term expires in november.it is highly unlikely, aCCording to those in theknoW oF things… the general has ConFided toFriends that he has no desire to seek or aCCeptanother extension. his Friends Will see him sansuniForm Come 2014, it is Claimed.

NEWS ANALYSISArif NizAmi

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03

wednesday, 27 February, 2013

Our reservations on the constitution of

Election Commission have not entirely

been removed. — Dr Tahirul Qadri

MARDANONLiNE

A police constable was killed when unidentified gunmenopened fire at an anti-polio vaccination team in Mardan,officials said on Tuesday.

Police said the attack took place in Ghalla Deraarea of Mardan when a team of lady health workerswas tending to duty.

The workers remained unhurt and were sent back totheir unit, police said, adding that the anti-polio campaigncontinued in other parts of the province.

The body of the deceased policeman was shiftedto the District Headquarters Hospital Mardan. A sim-ilar incident took place in Swabi on January 29 whenunidentified gunmen attacked a polio immunisationteam in Gullu Dheri area, killing a policeman whowas escorting the team.

Authorities had ordered police to provide security toanti-polio teams in the terrorism-hit province after deadlyattacks on campaigners across the country.

Pakistan is one of three countries where the cripplingdisease is endemic. Suspicion for attacks falls on mili-tants, who oppose the vaccination campaign, accusehealth workers of acting as spies for the US and claim thepolio vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

sC trashesbaLoChIstangovt’s rePort onquetta kILLIngsISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has

rejected the Balochistan government’s

report on the recent Quetta carnage, saying

appropriate measures for the arrest of the

terrorists behind the attack were not being

taken. The three-member SC bench

resumed the hearing into the suo motu case

on the killings of Hazaras in Quetta. Chief

Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry

presided over the proceedings. The CJP said

Quetta was very a peaceful city but its

tranquility had been destroyed by bomb

blasts and targeted killings. “Nobody can

compensate for the loss of lives. The chief

secretary should tell the court how the

government will bring back normalcy to the

province,” he added. The court said the

government was making no effort to find out

why were the Hazaraz being targeted. The

Balochistan advocate general appeared

before the court on behalf of the provincial

government and said the Balochistan

government was making all-out efforts to

control the law and order in the province,

adding that the process of reorganisation of

law enforcement agencies was also

underway. He said checkposts had been put

up in the inner parts of Quetta. Justice

Sheikh Azmat Saeed asked whether CCTV

cameras were installed or not. The AG said

the installation of CCTV cameras at

important points of the city was in the

pipeline. The security of Hazara Town had

also been enhanced, he said, adding that

operations against terrorists group were

going on and the government was also

giving relief to the affected. The bench said

the report revealed that the government had

not taken any solid action against the

terrorists. “It is the prime responsibility of

the government to provide protection to

each and every citizen and it is bound to

safeguard the life and property of the

citizens under Article 9 of the constitution.”

Shia leader Allama Abbas Kumaili told the

court that Hazaras and Punjabis were

leaving the province as they were not

protected there. The court sought a fresh

report from the chief secretary, the IG and

the FC commandant. Later, the proceedings

were adjourned until March 6. ONLiNE

2 buLLet-rIddLedbodIes found Inquetta, PanjgurQUETTA: Police on Tuesday recovered two

bullet-riddled bodies in Quetta and Panjgur

districts. According to reports, Quetta Police

recovered a body from Satellite Town police

precincts and shifted it to a hospital where it

was identified as that of Asmatullah.

According to family, the deceased had gone

missing several weeks ago. However, the

motive behind his murder was yet to be

ascertained. Separately, the local

administration recovered a body in Panjgur

District, which was shifted to a hospital

where he was identified as Saeed Ahmad.

Saeed was said to have been killed in a gun-

battle with law enforcers in the Tasp

Nokabad area of Panjgur. However, local

police expressed ignorance in this regard.

The administration handed over the body to

the family. SHAHzADA zULfiQAr

Power suPPLyrestored aCrossCountry ISLAMABAD: Electricity supply cut off late

Sunday night due to a major breakdown has

been restored in all parts of the country A

spokesman of the Ministry of Water and

Power said stated on Tuesday that the

technical fault developed at HUBCO Power

Plant had been resolved and all grid stations

were now operational. He stated that there

was a shortfall of 2,300 megawatts in the

system. The power generation capacity was

7‚ 200 megawatts against a demand of 9‚

500 megawatts. ONLiNE

Cop killed in attack on polio vaccinators in Mardan

LAHORE/GUJRANWALAUmAir Aziz/ATif BUTT

MI S M A N A G E -MENT, space-con-straints and shorttempers marred theintra-party elections

of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) onTuesday, Pakistan Today has learnt.

In Lahore, problems started when theparty had to shift from the spacious firstfloor of the Aiwan-e-Iqbal building to thebasement. The polling continued for agood part of the day and a large turnoutwas witnessed. However, mismanagementand space constraints led to incidentalscuffles among candidates who wanted toenter the polling area, where they were notallowed.

The voters, especially females, com-plained of long queues, insufficient spaceand improper management. “I was able tocast my vote after a long wait of fivehours, but the entire activity is definitelyvery positive, as a lot of people from allunion councils of the city have turned upto elect their leaders,” a female voter fromCantonment told Pakistan Today on the

condition of anonymity. However, the environment remained

charged throughout the day as the threemain contestants for the president had setup stalls outside Aiwan-i-Iqbal and werehanding over their respective pamphletsto the voters.

After few scuffles, the managementforced the candidates and their agents outafter which each candidate started to shoutthat his opponent be shown the door first.Many supporters barged into the roomtoo, damaging the doors.

Ten different booths were set up fordifferent towns in Lahore where peoplefrom their respective constituencies cameto cast votes. “Each candidate has to cast48 votes for his or her particular town aswell as for the district. Some women havetaken 45 minutes to cast their vote dis-cussing each candidate with a friend,” oneof the managers said.

People supporting MehmoodurRashid were impressed with his groundwork for the party, while many liked Fa-rooq Amjad Mir due to his neutrality,while Aleem Khan’s supporters were alsopresent. Voting stopped late in the eveningand the election results were not an-nounced until the filing of this report.

In Gujranwala, supporters of RanaNaeemur Rehman’s group and KhalidLoond’s group clashed with each otherverbally and physically due to which thepolls were cancelled. Supporters alsothrashed a cameraman who was coveringthe proceedings.

Activists accused the Sialkot electioncommissioner of being biased and afterthe main election hall was surrounded by

the supporters of the Workers and UnityGroup, police was called in.

In Sheikhupura, supporters of AshrafGhuman and Imran Kunwar beat eachother after which the polls got cancelled.

Similarly, polls were also cancelled inMultan, where PTI workers traded sticks

with each other. Supporters of one groupalso staged a sit-in outside the residenceof Javed Hashmi. The protesters said thatthe names of a few candidates were miss-ing from the ballot papers.

Polls in Mandi Bahauddin were alsostopped for a few hours.

hooliganism mars PtI’sintra-party polls

VOTING DELAYED INLAHORE, MANDIBAHAUDDIN; CANCELLEDALTOGETHER INGUJRANWALA,SIALKOT AND MULTAN

don’t interFere in pti polls, imran Warns shariFsISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)

Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday said

terrorists were roaming freely in Punjab but

the Punjab government was using the law

enforcement personnel to sabotage the PTI

polls. Addressing thousands of charged

and emotional PTI workers at the party’s

central secretariat in Islamabad, Imran

Khan urged the party workers to remain

calm. “Sharifs harmed the democratic system

by indulging in corrupt practices, promoted

‘lotacracy’ and by supporting Zardari regime.

Nawaz Sharif is hell-bent on reaching the power

corridors at all costs. Nawaz is ready to forge

electoral alliances with banned outfits and even

going with ‘Maulana Diesel’,” said Imran Khan,

adding that now the Sharifs wanted to

sabotage the PTI polls. “Sharifs are

suffering from PTI phobia and they are

crossing all limits of decency. They are

afraid of the PTI this is the party

which is working to introduce real

democracy in Pakistan,” he said,

adding that the Sharifs had a

history of using Punjab Police

for their political gains and

interests. STAff rEPOrT

ISLAMABADSTAff rEPOrT

The Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI) onTuesday became the only party of thecountry to have unveiled its environmentpolicy, vowing to shift in the country’sprimary focus on the provision of a cleanenvironment and clean drinking waterfor all and this right would be ensuredthrough the “Green DevelopmentAgenda” of the PTI.

“The PTI will include the provisionof clean environment mandatory in theconstitution while it will also generatefive million green jobs through an envi-ronment-friendly economic offensiveleading to an alternate and sustainableeconomy,” PTI Chairman Imran Khansaid while addressing the launching cer-emony of the party’s environment vi-sion.

He said the country had been incur-ring a loss of over Rs 1 billion every yeardue to environmental pollution, addingthat after coming into power, the PTIwill ensure implementation of its greendevelopment agenda and public parkswould be declared mandatory for allurban areas.

Addressing a large gathering of PTIworkers and environmentalists, Imran

said the PTI was the only party whichhad introduced an environment policyand the credit for this went to the partyleadership. He said the nation was notaware that an increase in the mortalityrate of animals, deforestation, and wasteof other natural resources was akin tosuicide for the country.

“The coming generations will haveto face dire consequences, if we fail toovercome these environmental crises,”said Imran, adding that the nature hadgifted Pakistan with such resourceswhich could not be find anywhere elsein the world. “But due to lawlessness andincapability of the rulers, the countrywas under the burden of foreign loans,”Imran said, adding that environment pol-lution had devastated the country and ac-cording to an international organisationmore than 0.3 million children werebeing killed in the country every year.

The PTI chief said the facility of

clean drinking water had become adream… the government had ignoredthe environment, and the education andhealth sectors during the announcementof budgets, adding that none of the po-litical parties, barring the PTI, had in-cluded these sectors in their partymanifestos.

“Keeping in view all the issues, thePTI has not only included the environ-ment sector in its constitution but hasalso made it a part of the party’s mani-festo,” Imran said. He said lawlessnesshad crippled the country as the rulersused government departments for theirvested interests.

Taking notice of the media-PTIworkers scuffle in Gujranwala, Imran or-dered an immediate inquiry against thoseresponsible and also sought a reportwithin 24 hours.

Earlier, former minister for envi-ronment Malik Amin Aslam announcedthe party’s policy on environment. Hesaid the rate of environmental pollutionin the country was very high and Pak-istan was on the top in the list of thosecountries which were suffering the mostfrom the climatic change, adding thatdue to the same reason the country wasfacing earthquakes and floods for thepast several years.

sIndh Mourns dargah

hajan shah boMbIngSHIKARPUR

ONLiNE

Several cities in Sindh including Shikarpur,Hyderabad and Larkana are mourning the blast at ashrine in interior Sindh that killed four and left atleast 12 injured on Monday. According to reports,angry demonstrators protested against the incidentand resorted to aerial firing in several areas ofHyderabad, including Qasimabad and Hussainabad.Situation turned tense in Larkana as well, andRangers and police were deployed. The HussainiParty and other religious organisations also calledfor a strike today (Wednesday). On Monday, a blasttore through Dargah Pir Hajan Shah Huzoori inMarri village near Shikarpur when a large numberof devotees were visiting the shrine. Witnesses saidthat an unidentified man was spotted running awayafter leaving a suspicious bag at the scene but not alot could be done since the bomb went off the nextmoment. “It was sudden and we could not find himafter the blast,” an injured devotee said. Sourcessaid that Syed Hajan Shah, the Gaddi Nasheen – aliving descendant of the saint as well as thecustodian of the shrine – was also among thecritically injured. He was shifted to Larkana formedical treatment. Later, the deputy commissionerShikarpur told reporters that Shah would bemoved to Karachi for treatment. Angry devoteesand local residents took to streets while violentprotestors also broke out in parts of Shikarpur.“Protestors blocked the National Highway and therailway track after the incident. They werechanting slogans against the governmentdemanding immediate justice,” sources said.

Imran promises 5m jobsunder ‘economic offensive’

PARTY VOWS TOFOCUS ON CLEANENVIRONMENT,DRINKING WATERFOR ALL

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If the country wants to see peace, then negotiations

with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are

necessary — PML-N chief Nawaz SharifnewsN

04

wednesday, 27 February, 2013

KARACHIiNP

the Pakistan MuslimL e a g u e - N a w a z(PML-N), PML-Functional and theNational People’s

Party (NPP) on Tuesdayagreed to enter into an elec-toral alliance in Sindh to chal-lenge the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP), which has so farremained the dominant partyin the interior of the province.

Speaking at a joint pressconference with PML-F chiefPir Pagaro and NPP chief Ghu-lam Murtaza Jatoi, PML-Nchief Nawaz Sharif said theywould make all-out efforts toinclude other opposition par-ties, including the Jamaat-e-Is-lami, in the alliance.

The PML-N chief met PirPagaro at the Kingri House.He was accompanied by sen-ior party leaders includingPunjab Chief Minister Shah-baz Sharif, Chaudhry Nisar

Ali Khan, Ghaus Ali Shah,and Mumtaz Ali Bhutto.

After the meeting, theleaders expressed their satis-faction at the broad electoralalliance, saying they wouldfield joint candidates at allseats in the province to rid theprovince of corrupt and inef-ficient leadership. He said theelectoral alliance would leadto one-on-one contest be-tween the ruling party and thealliance candidates.

Nawaz said the meetingalso demanded that provincialgovernors appointed on polit-ical basis should be removedto pave the way for independ-ent and judicial elections. Hesaid the PPP, fearing defeat,had withdrawn the controver-sial Sindh Local GovernmentOrdinance, calling it a victoryof the people of Sindh.

Responding to a question,Nawaz also told media repre-sentatives that if the countrywanted to see peace, then ne-gotiations with the Tehreek-e-

Taliban Pakistan (TTP) werenecessary. He announced thathis party wanted to contestelections in Karachi alongwith the PML-F, Jamaat-e-Is-lami (JI) and other parties.

PML-F chief Pir Pagaroexpressed confidence that thealliance would win elections inSindh. He said the recentpower breakdown was a mes-sage to the government, askingthe chief justice and the armychief to take notice of the inci-dent and hold an enquiry. Lash-ing out against the PPP, Pagarocriticised its five year rule. Hesaid the PPP’s policies had de-stroyed Sindh and now thepeople of the province wouldreject them as they were angrywith the party leadership. Ear-lier, National Assembly Oppo-sition Leader Chaudhry NisarAli Khan and Punjab ChiefMinister Shahbaz Sharif alsomet with a PML-F delegationat the Kingri House. Both par-ties agreed to work togetherwith “full cooperation”.

ISLAMABADANwEr ABBAS

The National Assembly (NA) onTuesday passed the Capital Univer-sity Islamabad Bill 2013, leaving77 percent of its agenda unad-dressed, as legislators from theAwami National Party (ANP) ex-pressed concerns over “bulldozinglegislations” in the House.

Meanwhile MMA Parliamen-tarians staged a protest walkout onthe killing of labourors in Passni.

The Lower House met under

Deputy Speaker Faisal KarimKundi for the seventh sitting of its50th session, with a delay of 30minutes. As usual, legislatorsshowed little interest in the pro-ceedings, as only 34 MNAs werepresent at the start of the sitting.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)lawmaker Yasmeen Rehman tabledthe Capital University IslamabadBill 2013, despite the fact that theHouse was having a private mem-bers day. She floated a motion tosuspend the business of the House toget the bill passed. Federal Minister

for Professional and Technical Train-ing Sheikh Waqas Akram did not op-pose the bill, and observed silence onthe issue; however ANP’s legislatorsopposed the legislation underway.

ANP’s Bushra Gohar raised ob-jections that the majority of theHouse was unaware of the draft andthe main points of the bills, sayingthat it was unfortunate. She said theruling coalition should not bulldozethe legislation in emergency, asthere was no need for that.

The ANP’s lawmakers de-manded the house to provide copiesof the draft of the bill so that themembers could see it and then de-cide what stance they should adopt.They said that legislation withoutknowing the contents was similar toshooting an arrow in the dark.

PPP’s Shazia Murree opposed

the ANP members, saying themembers were well aware of thebill and its contents.

She said the bill was not beinglaid in the House in any emergency,as the procedure started months ago,adding that the bill had been re-viewed at various forums. PPP’sChief Whip and Federal Ministerfor Religious Affairs Khurshid Shahrejected the objections raised byANP legislator Bushra Gohar, say-ing the impression of “bulldozingthe bill” was wrong as the legisla-tion had not been bulldozed in thehouse at the eleventh hour.

The specific legislation, Shahsaid, remained under review in var-ious standing committees of theHouse and the members had giventheir feedback on the issue.

Later, the deputy speaker read

the bill and it was passed unani-mously after a clause-to-clausereading, as the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) and otheropposition parties refused to op-pose the legislation and did notpresent any amendment in the draft.

Standing Committee on NationalRegulation and Services ChairmanIqbal Qadri, who belongs to the Mut-tahida Qaumi Movement (MQM),presented the report on the Bill to es-tablish the Pakistan PsychologicalRegulatory Authority (PPRA) [ThePakistan Psychological RegulatoryAuthority Bill 2012], followingwhich once again the business of thehouse was suspended, to whichBushra Gohar expressed herstrongest concerns at the occasion.

PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal, flankedby Bushra Gohar, pointed out the

technical flaws present in the legisla-tion. Khursheed Shah failed to defendthe bill, and it was deferred until con-sensus could be reached on the issue.

Members of the Muttahida Ma-jlis-e-Amal (MMA) also expressedtheir reservations on the poor lawand order situation in Quetta andcondemned the recent incident inwhich around a half dozen labour-ers had been gunned downed inPasni. Later, they staged a walkoutwhile demanding of the govern-ment to arrest those responsible.

PML-N’s Begum Sherien Ar-shad introduced the Pakistan Citi-zenship (Amendment) Bill 2013,following which the governmentbenches announced to not to opposethe legislation, to which the deputyspeaker sent bill to the relevantstanding committee for review.

KARACHI: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif during a

meeting with PML-Functional President Pir Pagara on Tuesday. iNP

nA misses most of its agenda while passing Capital University Islamabad Bill

nawaz paves wayinto sindh withelectoral alliance

ISLAMABADTAyyAB HUSSAiN

Signs of a thaw between thePakistan People’s Party (PPP)and the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) be-came evident on Tuesday asLaw Minister Farooq H Naekdid not table the 24th Consti-tutional Amendment Bill2013, which seeks the cre-ation of Bahawalpur-JanoobiPunjab province.

With the start of the pro-ceedings in the Upper House,Senate Chairman Nayyar Hus-sain Bokhari announced thatthe law minister had informedhim that he would get latetherefore the matter would betaken up later in the day. How-ever, the matter was not takenup despite Naek’s arrival inthe House. The Upper Houseunanimously passed “The Is-lamabad Capital Territory Pri-vate Educational Institutions(Registration and Regulation)Bill, 2013”, while a bill aboutrenaming the Pakistan Insti-tute of Medical Sciences(PIMS) after Zulfiqar AliBhutto and giving it universitystatus was referred to thestanding committee concerneddespite opposition by thePML-N and the MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM).

Opposing the move, Oppo-

sition Leader Ishaq Dar saidthat although the PML-N re-spected the politicians, but itdid not consider it appropriateto rename the Quaid-e-AzamMedical College – a name al-ready being used by PIMS – asShaheed Zulfiqar Ali BhuttoMedical University. He said theopposition had apprehensionsabout the content of the billstoo. “According to the bill, allthe public and private sectormedical colleges functioning inthe federal capital as well as themedical faculty of Quaid-e-Azam University will automat-ically be deactivated andbecome part of the new univer-sity with the formation of Sha-heed Zulfiqar Ali BhuttoMedical University,” he said.

He advised that the billshould not be passed in haste asthere were two weeks left inthe tenure of the National As-sembly, so it should be given toa standing committee. MinisterNazar Gondal assured theHouse that the government wasmaking a separate universitywithout changing the name ofQuaid-e-Azam Medical Col-lege. The Shaheed Zulfiqar AliBhutto Medical University willbe largest medical university inthe country, even bigger thanthe Agha Khan University ofHealth Sciences, he added.AAFIA SIDDIQUI: On a

point of order moved by Sen-ator Mushahid Hussain‚ Inte-rior Minister Rehman Maliksaid that all out efforts werebeing made for an early repa-triation of Aafia Siddiqui fromthe United States. He said thatthe Foreign Office was look-ing into the matter. He said ameeting would be held in thisregard with Dr Fauzia Sid-diqui and the governmentwould proceed according tothe desire of Dr Aafia Sid-diqui and her sister.

He told the House thatIndia had apologised for ac-cusing a deceased Pakistanilawmaker for involvement inthe Hyderabad blasts.KISHANGANGA PROJ-

ECT: Replying to a calling at-tention notice regarding thepartial decision by the Inter-national Court of Arbitrationon Kishanganga hydroelec-tricity project in response toPakistan’s appeal for interimmeasure against the dam‚Minister of State for Waterand Power Tasneem AhmadQureshi informed the Housethat in the short order, Pak-istan’s reservations had beenconsidered and the finaljudgement would be an-nounced in December thisyear. He said the judgementwas not against Pakistan, butin its favour.

Taking part in the discus-sion, Senator FarhatullahBabar dispelled the impres-sion that the arbitrationaward was a legal defeat forPakistan.

qaim thanks Pagarafor showcasingsharifs’ true picture

KARACHISTAff rEPOrT

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim AliShah has congratulated NawazSharif and Shahbaz Sharif ongetting the titles of Takht-e-Punjab and Takht-e-Lahore byPir Pagara during their visit toSindh on Tuesday. Shahpointed out that during theirjoint news conference, PirPagara described Nawaz Sharif(who was standing next to himon his left side) and ShahbazSharif (who was standing onhis right) as Takht-e-Punjaband Takht-e-Lahore,respectively. Talking to adelegation of the PPP office-bearers of Sindh, the Sindhchief minister thanked PirPagara for giving these titles tothe Sharifs that clearlydemonstrated their credentialsas pigmy politicians who wereconfined to Punjab andLahore. Shah wondered howcould the Sharif brothers dosomething good for the peopleof Sindh when their own alliesfrom Sindh were making itknown to all and sundry thatthe Sharifs had a narrow visionand a limited political agendaconfined to Punjab. The chiefminister added, “The alliancesNawaz is making for Sindh inthe upcoming general electionwill not help him bag even asingle seat from Sindh becausethe people of Sindh know himquite well as a product of GenZia’s martial law. They knowhe abandoned Pakistan afterstriking an exile deal withGeneral (r) Musharraf in thehour of trial unlike Asif AliZardari, who preferred tospend 14 years in jail insteadof compromising onprinciples.

Law minister delaystabling new provinces’bill in senate

MMA LAWMAKERS STAGE A WALKOUT AGAINST KILLING OF LABOURERS IN PASNI, POOR LAW AND ORDER IN BALOCHISTAN

SENATORS SAY INTERNATIONAL COURT’SDECISION VALIDATES PAKISTAN’S LEGAL POSITIONON KISHANGANGA HYDROPOWER PROJECT

ISLAMABADKASHif ABBASi

In a twisted turn of events, therapist and killer of a minorgirl on Tuesday also con-fessed to killing two othergirls, including a daughter ofserving superintendent of po-lice (SP) of Islamabad, Pak-istan Today has learnt.

Police sources told Pak-istan Today that a couple ofmonths ago, the accused IbrarAhmed, in connivance with hisgirlfriend cum accomplice,Mehak Qaisar, killed a youngdaughter of a serving SP. Lastyear, the dead body of SP’sdaughter was found in her bed-room in mysterious circum-stances at Margalla Valley,Bharakau. However, at thattime, the police official, whosename cannot be revealed toprotect his identity, did not pur-sue the case. His daughter,Aneela* (not her real name),who was pursing Masters de-

gree at Quaid-e-Azam Univer-sity, developed a friendshipwith Mehak. Gradually, Mehakbegan to visit her house regu-larly. One night, Mehak stayedover at Aneela’s house for asleepover. Later in the night,Ibrar paid a visit to the house.The couple then allegedlymixed pills in Aneela’s food.After consuming the food,Aneela fell unconscious. Theaccused then proceeded to rapethe unconscious girl and laterstrangled her. Sources saidthat the SP was in Saudi Ara-bia to perform Haj at the timeof the incident. Upon hearingthe news, he rushed home toattend his daughter’s funeral.

Sources further revealedthat in preliminary medical re-port, doctors had clearly men-tioned the presence of markson the victim’s neck and sug-gested that the girl was stran-gled. However, despite blatantevidence of foul play, the offi-cer did not pursue the case and

did not lodge a formal FIR. Moreover, the accused,

Ibrar, further confessed to therape and murder of a young girlin his native town of Lala Musa,Gujrat. Again, the rapist stran-gled the girl after raping her.Sources revealed that the ac-cused had established a patternto pursue their victim. Mehakwould first develop a friendshipwith the victim and then intro-duce her to Ibrar. He would thenmix drugs in his victim’s foodand proceed to rape and killthem. Police source said that theaccused confessed to raping andkilling many young girls in asimilar fashion. Upon hearingthe confessions, the Bhara kahuPolice lodged an FIR against theaccused Mehal and Ibrar forkilling the SP’s daughter. How-ever, the FIR has been sealed bythe police. Furthermore, the po-lice has also arrested the ownerof the medical store who soldthe medicine to the accused.

Meanwhile, in ShehzadiBibi murder and rape case, Ad-ditional Session Judge (ASJ-East), Zaiba Chaudhry extendedthe pre-arrest bail of Mehak andher mother for two more days.

pakistan’s walk of shameRAPIST AND KILLER OF 11-YEAR-OLD SHAHZADITURNS OUT TO BE SERIAL RAPIST

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More than half of the students in schools

buy junk food from canteens. –Study

LAhOrewednesday, 27 February, 2013

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LAHORErANA HAiDEr

WHILE the Police Department

continues to fine owners of the

vehicles without registration

number or plates, the Excise

Department’s laziness remains the

main cause behind the delay in obtaining the

number plates, Pakistan Today has learnt.

According to details, the Police Department

fined more than 4,000 motorcycles last week

for not having the registration papers and

number plates. However, in the same week the

Excise Department failed to deliver the papers and

plates of thousands of vehicles because of which the

citizens had to pay extra fines to the Police

Department. The CCPO had ordered an action

against vehicles without proper registration

numbers or plates, so much so that he even

ordered that each police station should fine at

least 60 to 70 vehicles daily. Because of these

instructions, the traffic police wardens have

been brutally fining the citizens without taking

the Excise Department’s delay into account.

“Crime cannot be controlled just by fining people for

not getting their number plates,” a source said,

adding that the CCPO needed to take solid steps to

place a check on crimes in the city. The source

further added that the Police Department was just

trying to meet its budget targets and was not taking

the people’s miseries into consideration. “The

government always finds ways to rob us of our

money,” a citizen named Shahzad told Pakistan

Today, adding that the police took money from him

even though he had paid a lot of money to the

Excise Department for his vehicle’s papers.

“We have made new arrangements with the

Speedex Courier Service and hopefully our

delivery will improve,” an Excise Department

official said.

TRAFFIC WARDENS CONTINUE TO FINECITIZENS FOR NOT HAVING THEREGISTRATION NUMBERS WHILE EXCISEDEPT CONTINUES TO DELAY DELIVERY

LAHOREUmAir Aziz

World Press Photo Journalists’exhibition has opened up a window tothe rest of the world forpeople busy withtheir domestictensions andproblem, saidErik de Kruijf,the Dutch curatorvisiting Lahore toorganize the event.

In an interviewwith PakistanToday,

Erik discussed the importanceof holding global events andhis experiences with includingthe provincial metropolitan inthe list of around 100 citiesacross the globe where the

exhibition will travelthroughout the year.

The World Press is theworld’s largest photojournalists’exhibition where more than100,000 photographs have beencontributed from 5,247

photographers—15of them from

Pakistan—coming from

124countries.

Thereare nine

different categories ranging fromnews, nature, sports, portraits andarts. Each category has three winnersfor a single image and three forstories.

The jury selects one photographfrom the winning pictures and thatbecomes the world press photo of theyear.

Started by a group of Dutchphotojournalists in 1955, theorganisation has grown a lot over theyears while it has arrived in themetropolitan for the first time.

“The aim of the exhibition is tostimulate quality ofphotojournalism and contributetowards free flow of information,both of which have been achievedto a large extent considering theexcitement people showed whilevisiting the gallery,” he said.

“I was positively surprised to seethat the people of Pakistan are verywelcoming and have been taking keeninterest the display of photographs,”he added.

Talking about the risks journalistsface in the field, he pointed out that afew winning photographers hadgotten killed weeks after theirpictures got selected by the jury.“People risk their lives to get theseimages, to reveal the truth and to tellstories,” he said.

“People get a peep into the entireglobe in a trip, which is not alwayshappy, but a trip nonetheless,” Erikadded.

OpenInG A wIndOwtO the wOrLd

World press photo Journalists’ exhibition(

(

People risk their

lives to get these

images, to reveal

the truth and

to tell stories

tippu truckanwala’sson bookedLAHORE: The Gowalmandi police on

Tuesday registered a case against Tippu

Truckanwala’s son Balaaj in the killing of

his cousin Basit Munir. Balaaj was said to

be involved in assault on his two cousins

Basit and Ahmed over a property

dispute. Both Basit and Ahmed was

injured after Balaaj and his guards

opened fire on them. Later, Basit passed

away and Ahmed was admitted to Mayo

Hospital in critical condition. A doctor at

the hospital told Pakistan Today that

Ahmed was shot in right hand, adding

that he would not be able to move his

hand for the rest of his life. Gowalmandi

police have registered a first information

report against Balaaj, Bhai Pehlwan,

Hasan and their guards on the complaint

of Ahmed. Ahmed told the police that all

accused have fled to Dubai. A source told

Pakistan Today that both groups had a

quarrel over a two and a half marla

ancestral house. The source said further

Balaaj had also registered a case against

his cousins, but family elders reconciled

between both groups. However, the

problem persisted and a civil court was

moved in this regard. The source said

Bhai Pehlwan, maternal uncle of Basit,

had reconciled between both groups, but

the rivals were not at talking terms.

Balaaj handles all family matters in

Lahore as his two elder brothers and

mother lived in Dubai. According to

police, a case has been registered against

Balaaj, his guards Malik and Rahim Shah

under sections 302 and 324. Balaaj, his

mother Noreena, Bicho Pehlwan, Bhai

Pehlwan and Hasan have been

nominated in another case under Section

109. Police claimed to have arrested

Balaaj’s four guards. SP Multan Khan

said they were investigating Balaaj’s

presence at the crime scene, adding that

they had come to know that he had gone

to Dubai a few days ago. rANA HAiDEr

father kILLsdaughter LAHORE: A man killed his daughter in a

family dispute in Misri-Shah on Tuesday.

According to details, a girl named Abida

was murdered by her his father, Shahid,

who managed to escape from the scene.

ROBBERIES: Robberies took place in a

house situated on the Abdul Rehman

Road in South Cantonement. According

to details, two robbers entered the

house of a citizen named Muhammad

Khaleel and took 2 tola gold and mobile

phones. STAff rEPOrT

LePark to open

bids for Lahore’s

parking spacesLAHORE: Lahore Parking Company

(LE-PARK) is going start a pre-bid

conference to rent out all parking

sites in the provincial capital, Pakistan

Today has learnt. The company will

hold a pre-bid conference on March 3

which will enable the company to rent

out the whole metropolitan parking

sites to a single contractor. The main

focus of the company is to provide an

automation parking to the citizens of

Lahore.

The Lahore Parking Company Limited

(LPCL), established under the

provisions of the Companies

Ordinance, 1984, is a part of City

District Government Lahore. Le-Park

has been established to provide

comprehensive management and

operations of parking facilities in order

to resolve parking problems in Lahore.

According to details, the companies or

the organisation that have five years

experience of automation parking

system will be able to bid. The local

contractor may come with the joint

ventures.

For the first time, the city’s parking

space would be hired out a single

contractor.

“The company has the mandate to

provide organized, secure and

automated parking systems to the

residents and we have taken this step

to assure the same,” officials of LePark

said while talking to Pakistan Today.

Local contractors have expressed

reservations over the 5-year

experience limit set by LePark.

“We are citizens and we have

experience also. We should be given

the right to bid too but we can’t

because we aren’t experienced in

automated parking,” a local contractor

said. wALEED mALHi

05

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06

wednesday, 27 February, 2013LAhOre

Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif approves Rs 1 million for

bone marrow transplant of a 10 months old child.

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NEWS DESK

“It’s all about words.”So says the slogan of the , scribbled in

the earthy shades of this city’s exquisiteMughal architecture, according to a report bythe BBC.

“Lahore has fired the imagination ofwriters, artists and thinkers over the ages,”remarked Razi Ahmed, founder and CEO ofthe first literary festival in a city longregarded as Pakistan’s cultural capital.

“We wanted to honour this Lahore,” he said.“If I toss up the word, and close my eyes,

it conjures up gardens and fragrances,” wrotenovelist Bapsi Sidhwa who grew up in a cityalso cherished for its winding canals,magnificent mosques and graceful Britishcolonial buildings.

Bapsi Sidhwa wrote acclaimed novelsset in this city including Ice Candy Man, alsopublished under the title Cracking India,which inspired the film Earth.

Wherever she went, 75-year-old MsSidhwa, now frail and delicate in her elegantPakistani shawls, was surrounded byadmiring fans of all ages. Over two days,large crowds filled the halls of the AlhamraArt Centre to listen to lilting recitals of Urduand English language poetry, and to delightin classical dance and music.

There was impassioned discussion ofthemes from “A Sense of Place”, “TheHoly Warrior and the Enemy” in film,music and media, and the globalisation ofPakistan’s literature.

“The words have been beautiful,” gushed16-year-old Jazil proudly wearing a white t-shirt emblazoned with the festival slogan.

“When my principal told us we shouldvolunteer, we thought we were too busy.

“But now all these words have come tous through this channel.”THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE: ZehraNigah, the esteemed 76-year-old poet,delighted the packed halls with her

evocative recital of Urdu verse.“There were tears in her eyes when she

saw all the young people applauding herwork,” marvelled artist and writer SalimaHashmi, Dean of the School of Visual Arts atthe Beaconhouse National University.

Luminaries from Pakistan’s growingclub of young internationally-renownedwriters turned out to read from their novels,along with other authors, including Britishhistorian William Dalrymple.

“This lets Lahore see what Lahore is,”commented Mohsin Hamid, author of theReluctant Fundamentalist who launched hisnew book How to Get Filthy Rich in RisingAsia. Mohammed Hanif, a former BBCjournalist who shot to fame with his firstnovel A Case of Exploding Mangoes,discussed his latest writing on the many who“disappear” in the volatile south-westernprovince of Balochistan.

The collection of stories, published bythe Human Rights Commission of Pakistan,is based on six true stories of Baloch who aremissing and others who are not - “for thesimple reason that they are dead”.

“We hope words have power,” he said.But like many at the festival, he

underlined that no matter how wonderfulwords are, they are not enough.

“There are still many kids in Pakistanwho will never even see the inside of aschool, who will never know the alphabet,”he said regretfully.

“We still don’t have a state educationsystem that can educate every Pakistani,”declared Lahore-born British-Pakistani writerTariq Ali. A few years ago, a Unesco reporthighlighted how Pakistan spends seven times

more on arms than on primary education.“We have a bubble that many of you here

live in,” Tariq Ali admonished an audience,which responded with thunderous applause.SECTARIAN vIOLENCE: In recent yearsLahore, like other major Pakistani cities, hasalso become synonymous with suicidebombings, and the growing presence ofmilitant Jihadi groups who traditionallysought sanctuary in the tribal areas along theAfghan-Pakistan border.

Coverage of the festival shared the frontpages of Pakistani newspapers with moretypical news fare such as calls for acrackdown against militant groups likeLashkar-e-Jhangvi.

The group is blamed for a resurgence ofsectarian violence including a recent spate ofkillings in the south-western city of Quetta,the provincial capital of Balochistan.

Initiatives like this festival are effortsto reclaim a different narrative, and future,for this country.

“We want to institutionalise thisliterary festival,” declared Shahbaz Sharif,Chief Minister of Punjab whose provincialcapital is Lahore. Mr Sharif also underlinedthe deep crisis, on many fronts, which has putPakistan “on the brink”.

But there was a palpable feel-good factoraround the literary festival.

“So many disparate groups have found avoice here,” said urban designer Attiq Ahmedwho staged a photographic exhibition ofLahore’s distinctive architecture.

Others used the occasion to highlightcampaigns to urge young Pakistanis to votein the upcoming elections, or to raiseawareness on a range of social issues.

“You’ve been to the Lahore LiteraryFestival?” queried the police officer atpassport control at the airport as I left Lahore.

“Do you still think this is a country ofterrorists?” he asked, only partly in jest.

“I never did,” I said. “And certainlydon’t now.”

LAHORE

STAff rEPOrT

Three to four hours of unannounced electricity outages invarious areas of provincial capital perturbed the people onTuesday. Faisal Town, Johar Town, Dharampura, GariShaho, Wasanpur, Shahdra, Gawalmandi, Gulberg, ModelTown, Nishtar Colony and others areas faced 8 to 9 hours ofoutages. People in the areas complained that they werefacing shortage of water due to the prolonged outages.

Lahore’s feeL-good faCtorTHE LITERARY FESTIVALHONOURED A SIDE OF CITYTHAT IS SLOWLY DYING

unannounCed outages

Irk CItIzens

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:18 AM Page 6

ItaLy faCes PoLItICaLdeadLoCk after vote

ROME: Italy faces political

paralysis as near-complete

results in crucial national

elections have shown

that no group won

enough votes to form a

government. The

uncertainty bodes ill for

the nation's efforts to

pass the tough reforms it

needs to tackle its economic

crisis and prevent a new round

of global financial turmoil. With more than 99.9 per cent

of returns in from polling stations, Monday’s results

showed the centre-left had scored a modest victory of

around 130,000 votes in the lower house of parliament,

enough to give it comfortable control thanks to a big

winner's bonus. But no party or likely coalition won

enough seats to form a majority in the upper house,

creating a deadlocked parliament - the opposite of the

stable result that Italy desperately needs to tackle a

deep recession, rising unemployment and a massive

public debt. The next move to solve the crisis will be

when Georgio Napolitano, the Italian president, calls in

political leaders to discuss how to form a government.

But this is not expected until March 10 after the election

result is formally confirmed and parliament convened.

The election results were an extraordinary success for

Genoese comic Beppe Grillo, leader of the populist 5-Star

Movement, who toured the country in his first national

election campaign hurling obscenity-laced insults against

a discredited political class. AgENciES

07

newswednesday, 27 February, 2013

I was never convinced that war was the

best system to bring democracy to the

country. — Silvio Berlusconi N

GuATEMALA CITy: Luis Amezquita hangs upside down

over the Periferico avenue while slacklining. According

to Amezquita, this is the first time in Guatemala that

anyone is attempting slacklining over a street. AgENciES

TEHRANAgENciES

WORLD powers will presentIran with an updated and"good" offer at talks this weekon its nuclear programme, al-though hopes for a break-

through appear slim.Talks aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear drive

start on Tuesday in Kazakhstan, with the so-called5+1 world powers represented by the EuropeanUnion sitting down with an Iranian team led by ne-gotiator Saeed Jalili.

A spokesman for European Union foreign pol-icy chief Catherine Ashton, who leads the talks withIran on behalf of the powers, said on Monday thatTehran should understand that there was an "urgentneed to make concrete and tangible progress" inKazakhstan. "We have prepared a good and updated

offer for the talks, which we believe is balanced anda fair basis for constructive talks," said thespokesman for EU foreign policy chief CatherineAshton. "The offer addresses international con-cerns... on the nature of the Iranian nuclear pro-gramme, but is also responsive to Iranian ideas.

"We hope that Iran will seize this opportunity andcome to the talks with flexibility and commitment tomake concrete progress towards a confidence-build-ing step." A source close to the negotiations said theoffer would still insist that Iran halts enriching ura-nium to 20 percent, shuts down its controversialFordo uranium enrichment plant and sends abroad alluranium already enriched to 20 percent.CONCESSIONS IN RETURN: "This still formsthe basis of the demands of the 5+1 group," said thesource who asked not to be identified.

Another Western source said the powers coulddiscuss lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange forspecific concessions, although the source provided

no further details. In Washington, a top US officialrefused to be drawn on the details of what he calleda "serious, updated proposal" to Iran saying "weneed to let the negotiators do their jobs."

But State Department acting deputy spokesmanPatrick Ventrell revealed that the proposal "does in-clude reciprocal measures" to encourage Iran "tomake concrete steps to begin addressing the inter-national community's concerns."

Earlier reports said the P5+1 group could con-sider easing sanctions on Iran's gold and preciousmetals trade. World powers have until now wantedIran to take the first step and only then reward it byeasing the various sanctions regimes in place.

However, Iranian negotiator Jalili said at theweekend that Tehran would not go beyond its obli-gations or accept anything outside its rights underthe non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

The 5+1 world powers are the United States,Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany.

world powers to offerIran sanctions relief

syrIan oPPosItIonCanCeLs PLannedboyCott

DAMASCUSAgENciES

The umbrella group for Syrian opposition partieshas said it has reversed a decision to boycott aconference in Rome being held to help drum upfinancial and political support for the opposition.Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the SyrianNational Coalition, said on Monday the movecame after a phone call between the group's leader,Mouaz al-Khatib, and US Secretary of State JohnKerry. Kerry said: "I want our friends in the Syrianopposition council to know that we are not comingto Rome simply to talk. We are coming to Rome tomake a decision on next steps." Kerry made thecomments after talks with his British counterpartWilliam Hague in London. Khatib said on hisFacebook page his group would go after Kerry andHague "promised specific aid to alleviate thesuffering of our people". Bunni said the decisionwas made based on guarantees al-Khatib heardfrom western diplomats that the conference wouldbe different this time. The boycott had put thegroup at odds with its Western backers. For hispart, Syria's foreign minister has said that hisgovernment is ready to hold talks with all parties,including armed rebels who want dialogue to endthe conflict.

EGYPTAgENciES

Egyptian officials say 18 people have died after ahot-air balloon crashed near Luxor in the coun-try's south. The balloon was carrying at least 20foreign tourists when it went down near thetourist town on Tuesday, state-run Nile TV said.

Ahmed Aboud, a spokesman for companiesthat operate balloon flights in the area, toldReuters news agency that the crash happenedafter a gas explosion when the balloon was 300metres above the ground. Bodies of the deadtourists were scattered across the field around theremnants of the balloon. A security official, whospoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnot authorised to speak to the media, said all 18bodies have been recovered. Tourists aboard theballoon included Chinese, Japanese, Hungarian,French and British citizens.

The head of Japan Travel Bureau's Egyptbranch, Atsushi Imaeda, confirmed that four Japan-ese died in the crash. Raymond Ng Do-Wing of theHong Kong travel agency Kuoni said there was a"very big chance" that nine of the Hong Kongtourists aboard the balloon have died. Ng said rel-atives of the tourists planned on flying to Cairo

later Tuesday along with three staff from Kuoni.In Britain, tour operator Thomas Cook con-

firmed that two British tourists were dead.Three survivors of the crash, including two

British tourists and the Egyptian pilot of the bal-loon - were taken to the hospital. An employee ofSky Cruise, the company operating the balloon,told AFP news agency that the pilot and one ofthe tourists survived by jumping out of the basketbefore it plunged to the ground. Ezzat Saad, thegovernor of Luxor province, imposed an imme-diate ban on all hot-air balloon flights in theprovince as Egyptian Prime Minister HeshamQandil ordered an investigation into the accident.A ‘FRIGHTENING BANG’: Konny Matthews,an assistant manager of Luxor's Al MoudiraHotel, said she heard a boom around 7am (0500GMT). "It was a huge bang. It was a frighteningbang, even though it was several kilometres awayfrom the hotel," she said by phone.

"Some of my employees said that their homeswere shaking." Although hot-air balloon accidentsin Egypt have led to injuries in the past, there hasbeen "nothing on this scale" since ballooning inthe area began in 1989, our correspondent said.

In 2009, 13 tourists were injured when theirhot-air balloon crashed near Luxor.

tourists die in egypthot-air balloon crashIsraeL says roCket

fIred froM gazaTEL AVIV: A rocket fired

from the Gaza Strip has

exploded in southern

Israel, in the first such

attack since a ceasefire

last November, Israeli

police say. Al-Aqsa

Martyrs Brigades, the

armed wing of Palestinian

President Mahmoud Abbas'

West Bank-based Fatah

movement, claimed responsibility for the rocket strike.

No casualties were reported. The group described the

attack as a "preliminary response" to the death of Arafat

Jaradat, a Palestinian and member of Al-Aqsa Martrys

Brigades who died in Israeli custody last weekend. Israeli

police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said remains of the

rocket were found south of the city of Ashkelon, in

southern Israel, on Tuesday. "The rocket fell early in the

morning near Ashkelon and did some damage to a road,

without hurting anyone," Rosenfeld said. There was no

military response from Israel hours after the rocket

strike. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said it was

investigating. AgENciES

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:18 AM Page 7

newsNwednesday, 27 February, 2013

08 I am not immediately joining any party. People of my

constituency will decide whether to join any party or

contest polls independently. — MNA Riaz Fatyana

PESHAWARSHAmim SHAHiD

Commanders of banned mili-tant groups and their affili-ates are focusing theirenergies on supporting like-minded politicians during

the upcoming general elections in order tosafeguard their future.

Through reliable sources, PakistanToday has learnt that senior commandersof the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)are framing strategies for ensuring the vic-tory of their sponsored candidates in theelections. In this regard, the TTP leadersare in touch with rightwing politicians onsupporting likeminded candidates from all

12 seats of the Federally AdministeredTribal Areas (FATA) as well as from theseven districts in southern KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

Sources informed that last year in sum-mer, TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud hadchaired a meeting of influential clerics fromBakakhel – a town connecting Bannu withNorth Waziristan. The latest round of the

meeting was held in Tirah Valley of KhyberAgency. The participants of the meeting in-cluded representatives of various groupssupporting the idea of supporting like-minded colleagues who could secure theircommon interests in the parliament.

The idea of electing likeminded orpoliticians is not new, as it was first wit-nessed in the 2008 general elections. How-ever, with the exception of a few, most ofthe fielding candidates had failed. Even inthe 2008 general elections some of the can-didates, including those affiliated with pop-ular political parties, paid a huge amountto Taliban militants for not attacking themand their gatherings.

In comparison with the previous elec-tions, some of the tribal MPs are facing

hardships in mustering Taliban’s support.A number of tribal MPAs have assuredself-styled commanders and leaders of pro-tecting their interests, especially opposingmilitary action against them. But in reac-tion, the militants have threatened them ofcarrying out attacks as well as abductingtheir close relatives for ransom.

The leaders of the Awami NationalParty (ANP) have been accusing the Tal-iban over the last several months of first at-tempting to sabotage the election processand later supporting their favourites in theelection. According to ANP leaders, suchblue-eyed or likeminded politicians willnot only be from religious parties but a ma-jority of them would contest polls as inde-pendent candidates.

Militants backing likemindedpoliticians for upcoming polls

MAJORITY OFPRO-TALIBAN POLITICIANSTO CONTEST ASINDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

ISLAMABAD NNi

The US Army Corps of Engineer has beengranted permission to build a TacticalCommand and Operations Centre (TCOC)

compound at the Karachi airport to ex-change info with Pakistan Customs DrugEnforcement Cell concerning smugglingin and around Karachi, according to docu-ments released by the US Army Corps ofEngineer, Middle East District.

“US Army corps of engineer intends tosolicit a Request for Proposal (RFP) toconstruction firms or Joint Ventures (JV)experienced in working in the Middle Eastregion who are interested in submitting aproposal for the design and construction oftactical command and operations centrecompound in Karachi,” the project docu-

ment says. The compound would supportthe officers, staff and equipment of thePakistan Customs Drug Enforcement Celland Rummaging and Patrolling Sections.The project would enable coordinatedquick-response to constantly evolving nar-cotics and contraband smuggling tactics inand around Karachi, including entirecoastal line of Pakistan, a private televi-sion channel reported on Tuesday.

According to project details, the com-pany which would get contract would beresponsible for designing building of atwo-storey TCOC consisting of a main

block and a cell/interrogation buildingplaced separately.

The compound would be spread over anapproximate area of 7,000 square feet (with apaved courtyard in the centre) and a 900square feet building, respectively. The docu-ment says the contractor should be licenced toconduct business in Pakistan. The documentsays further the acquisition would be unre-stricted, full and open, best value competition,no set-aside proposals would be evaluated andawarded based on the best value procurementmethod in accordance with FAR (Federal Ac-quisition Regulation) Part 15.

Us corps get permission ‘tooperate from Karachi airport’

COMPOUND WILL BESPREAD OVER 7,000SQUARE FEET

MaLIk asks Punjabgovt to takeaCtIon agaInstbanned grouPs

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman

Malik has again asked the Punjab

government to take action against

banned organisations operating in the

province. Talking to reporters in

Islamabad on Tuesday, he questioned

what action had so for been taken by

the Punjab government against

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. He said during the

last four years, several letters were

written to the Punjab government

regarding terror activities of the

organisation, but no action was taken.

The minister said he would soon

provide details of the activities of the

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to the people. Malik

said Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi called

him and said he had no connection with

the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The interior

minister said Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi

should publicly announce his

disassociation with the Lashkar-e-

Jhangvi. He said banned organisations

had now started their activities with

new names. ONLiNE

sIx dead In

sahIwaL road

MIshaPSAHIWAL: As many as six people

lost their lives and 44 others were

injured in a collision between a bus

and truck on Tuesday. According to

reports, a Sialkot-bound bus (T-1179)

hit a tractor trolley while overtaking

another bus. As a result, six

passengers died on the spot while 44

other sustained severe injuries. Upon

receiving information, the Rescue

1122 teams reached the scene and

rushed the injured to the District

Headquarters Hospital Sahiwal. Nine

of the injured were said to be in a

critical condition. Police said scores of

children and women also wounded in

this road mishap. The deceased were

identified as driver Afzal, conductor

Safdar Ali, Rizwan, Muhammad

Yaseen. Two bodies could not be

identified so far. Police have

registered a case and started

investigation. ONLiNE

nepalese womanenters record forclimbing everesttwice

KATMANDUONLiNE

Nepalese mountaineer Chhurim on Tuesdayentered the record book by scaling MountEverest twice in the same climbing season.According Guinness World Records, she isthe first woman to climb the world’s highestmountain twice in the same season duringthe brief window of good weather each yearthat allows climbers to reach the summit.Nepal’s Tourism Minister Posta BahadurBogati handed over the Guinness WorldRecords certificate issued to 29-year-oldChhurim. She scaled the 8,850-meter(29,035-foot) summit on May 12 last yearand descended to the base camp for a coupleof days’ rest and then scaled the peak againa week later on May 19. Chhurim, who usesonly one name like most Sherpas, said shewas not ready to quit. “Everest is the first ofthe highest mountains that I have climbed,but I will continue mountaineering and hopeto scale more peaks,’’ she said. Chhurimsaid there were not many femalemountaineers and only a few of them heldrecords. “The male mountaineers have setmany records but women have fallenbehind. It can be difficult for womenbecause they are considered not as strong asmen and face many problems like findingtoilets,’’ she said. The Nepal MountaineeringAssociation said Everest has been climbedby nearly 4,000 people since New ZealanderEdmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay ofNepal did so in 1953. Women are a smallnumber of them. The extremely harshweather conditions that batter the highestHimalayan peaks limit the climbing seasonto just a few weeks every year. Spring is themost popular season on Everest whenhundreds of mountaineers attempt everyyear. The climbers generally reach themountain in March or April, acclimatize tothe higher elevation and low oxygen andtrain for climbing the snowy trail to the peak.The weather usually improves for a few daysin May when they line up to the summit.

fC repulse militantattack in bannu

BANNUiNP

The security forces and Frontier Corps (FC)on Tuesday prevented a militant attack ontheir joint camp in Janikhail area of Bannu.According to security forces, a group ofunidentified armed militants attacked a campjointly set up by security forces and FCpersonnel in the area. The security forces andFC personnel managed to repulse the attacksuccessfully. No casualties were reported.

QuETTA: A young scavenger sits beside a bonfire to keep warm during rain in the provincial capital on Tuesday. iNP

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:18 AM Page 8

news N

09

wednesday, 27 February, 2013

PPP wants to give

identity to south Punjab.— Yousaf Raza Gilani

LONDONONLiNE

BRITISH historian andwriter William Dalrympleon Tuesday warned thatAfghanistan could be sec-ond Kashmir once the US

forces pulled out of the landlocked coun-try.

Speaking to audience during a presen-tation at the launch of his latest book Re-turn of a King - The Battle forAfghanistan, William Dalrymple saidthere might be another proxy war between

India and Pakistan as India would armHamid Karzai and Pakistan would arm theTaliban.

Dalrymple’s latest book Return of aKing uses sources never before translatedinto English to draw startling parallels be-tween the First Anglo-Afghan War andtoday’s conflict.

Dalrymple gave a chilling account ofBritish forces’ humiliating defeat in theearly 1840s during the presentation whiledrawing parallels between the British in-vasion of Afghanistan in the first half ofthe 19th century and the US occupation ofAfghanistan in the beginning of the 21st

century. He said that the British invasionof Afghanistan (1839-1842) was the‘biggest catastrophe’ that the Raj had eversuffered as out of the 18,000 British andEast India Company troops only one sur-vived.

“There was a sensation in 2006 thathistory was in a general sense repeating it-self but what usually happens is the closeryou get to the detail, the parallels dissolvein the face of detailed evidence. What wasso weird this time is the details lead togreater parallels,” he says.

This is the third time Dalrymple hasturned his eye to the complex relationship

between Britain and South Asia in the1800s. In The Last Mughal and WhiteMughals he mined the Muslim history ofIndia and the Raj. The British historian andwriter gathered epic poems, letters, mem-oirs and even Shah Shuja’s autobiographyguided to a bookseller in Kabul while on aresearch trip but Dalrymple said Englishhistorians had long denied the existence ofindigenous sources from the period. Shujahad been the king of Afghanistan between1803 and 1809 until he was overthrown byhis brother Mahmud. His father and grand-father had been the first rulers of the Dur-rani Empire.

afghanistan could be the ‘secondkashmir’ after us pullout: dalrymple

us, PakIstan

workIng on new

fertILIzer forMuLa

to thwart boMb

MakersWASHINGTON: The United States

and Pakistan will begin working

together on a new fertilizer formula

that could be a significant technological

step to limit the ability of terror groups

to make improvised explosives and car

bombs using the ingredient. According

to CNN, an agreement to try to make a

product more inert was reached last

week after Pakistani officials from

Fatima Group, a major fertilizer

manufacturer, met with Pentagon

officials. “Such a long-term solution

would be a true scientific

breakthrough,” Lt Gen Michael Barbero,

the head of the Pentagon’s Joint

Improved Explosive Device Defeat

Organisation, said. Barbero met with

Fatima representatives to urge them

again to take steps to control fertilizer

inventories. The meeting itself was a

step forward since Pakistan previously

had stopped the US military from

talking directly to the company. Fatima

Group is a Pakistani-based producer of

calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN). It

was developed as a non-explosive

alternative to ammonium nitrate, long

a key ingredient in homemade bombs

used widely in Pakistan and in

Afghanistan. But it can be converted

into an explosive mixture. The channel

reported that Pakistan and the United

States would now work on a

“reformulated” CAN product in hopes of

reducing its effectiveness in homemade

bombs. The company has suspended

sales of CAN fertilizer products in the

border provinces to 228 dealers in the

area. It is also working on plans for

more readily visible bagging of CAN in

hopes the Pakistani border control

agents will stop smuggling when they

see it. Barbero is still pressing for

colour dying so it can more readily be

identified. The news channel said

“Fatima may have its own economic

reasons for trying to improve its

practices”. A US unit of the company,

Midwest Fertilizer, has proposed

building a plant in Indiana that

promises 2,500 construction and 309

permanent jobs. Midwest issued $1

billion in bonds to finance the plant, but

Indiana Governor Mike Pence

suspended state support after learning

of Barbero’s longstanding criticism.

SPEciAL cOrrESPONDENT

PakIstan ranked

nuMber 2 on LIst

of CountrIes hIt

by terrorIsM ISLAMABAD: Pakistan ranks second on

in the world as the country most affected

by terrorism, according to a report

revealed by the Global Terrorism Index.

In a world dotted with conflicts of all

kinds, raging civil wars , bloody sectarian

violence and terrorism, South Asia

emerged as the worst affected. According

to the Global Terrorism Index, that

profiles data on terrorism from across the

world, Pakistan was the second most

affected in the world by terrorism, after

Iraq. Iraq is the worst-hit by terrorism. It

is said to be the bloodiest battleground in

the world where nearly 1800 people were

killed in terror attacks in 2011, most of

which took place in Baghdad. In the

same year 1,468 people died in Pakistan,

1,293 people died in Afghanistan and 402

in India because of terror attacks. In

America, there were no deaths due to

terrorism since the 2001 September 11

attacks when two planes crashed into the

twin towers of World Trade Centre. The

last terror attacks in the United Kingdom

were the co-ordinated attacks on the

London Underground and a bus. At least

52 people lost their lives that day. ONLiNE

ISLAMABADSTAff rEPOrT

Political violence in the country claimedlives of 163 people in 37 incidents be-tween February 16 and 22, 2013, up fromthe preceding week’s figure of 106 and89 the week before, according to the Freeand Fair Election Network (FAFEN).

A total of 225 people were injuredduring the three weeks. Two of the 37 in-cidents were direct observations made byFAFEN District Long-Term Observers(DLTOs). Civilians, again, constitutedthe majority of the 388 casualties–126people killed and 218 injured. In Quetta,a sectarian attack killed 94 civilians,claimed the FAFEN press release.

It further said that civilian deaths in-creased almost 80% from last week,when 70 people were killed.

Region-wise, 99 people, includingfive militants, were killed in Balochistanand 180 were injured. Sindh was the sec-ond most violent region, with 26 peoplekilled and 14 injured, mainly in targetedattacks, followed by sectarian violenceand attacks on political party workers. In

FATA, 26 militants were killed in twoaerial bombings while four security per-sonnel sustained injuries in an attack. InKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine people werekilled and 27 injured in attacks on publicand security forces. In Lahore, two peo-ple were killed in a sectarian attack. Intwo separate incidents one PML-Nmember was killed and one injured in aclash in Gujranwala while four PML-Nworkers sustained injuries in anotherclash in Okara.

Sectarian violence claimed mostlives this week, leaving 106 people deadand 183 injured in 10 incidents. Ofthese, eight occurred in Sindh and oneeach in Balochistan and Punjab. Terroractivities were the second most violenttactic, claiming nine lives with 29 beinginjured in 10 incidents across the coun-try. Five terrorist attacks targeted statesecurity forces, killing six security per-sonnel and injuring seven others. Fourhit the public and one was aimed at agovernment school building.

Thirty-one militants were killed inthree counter-terrorism operations inOrakzai Agency, Khyber Agency and

Quetta. Fourteen people were gunneddown and eight injured in 10 targetkilling incidents in Karachi. In four at-tacks on political party workers, threeworkers—one each of PML-N, Mu-tahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) andMutahidda Qaumi Movement-Haqeeqi(MQM-H)—were killed.

Sindh, again, saw the most incidentsof political violence (22), followed byKhyber Pakhtunkhwa (6), the FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas (FATA),Balochistan and Punjab (three each).

This week, political violence oc-curred in 12 districts, up from the pre-ceding week’s eight districts. Quetta wasthe most violent district followed byKarachi and Peshawar. In Quetta, 99people were killed, including five mili-tants, and 177 injured in a major sectar-ian attack and a counter-terrorismoperation. In Karachi, 25 people werekilled and eight injured in targeted at-tacks, sectarian violence and attacks onpolitical party workers while eight peo-ple were killed and 22 injured in two at-tacks on the public and an attack onsecurity forces.

qadri says will

support eC for

free‚ fair electionLAHOREONLiNE

Tehrik-Minhaj-ul-Quran(TMQ) chiefTahirul Qadrion Tuesday saidhe will supportevery decision ofthe ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) to holdfree and fair elections in the country.Whilst addressing a press conference,Qadri stated that all of TMQ’sreservations on the constitution of ECPhad not entirely beenremoved. He added that ECP shouldimplement the new nomination papersand the demand of information Sourcesin Qadri’s family revealedthat the TMQ chief will be leaving forCanada for a medical checkup via aprivate airline on tonight (Wednesday).Qadri is said to return by March 10 andlikely to address a press conferencebefore his departure.

163 dead owing to politicalviolence last week: FAFen

KARACHI: Women protest in front of the Supreme Court Registry office during a demonstration against killing of a Ahl-e-Sunnat Waljamaat activist in

Saddar on Tuesday. ONLiNE

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:18 AM Page 9

IT is a paradox that the openingup of the media in Pakistan hascreated more space for conspir-acy theories and speculationsabout politics and societal de-

velopment. The speculations about thedelay of the elections and the setting upof a government of technocrats for anextended period of time were rife onthe media for the last couple of months.When the Senate elections approachedin February 2012, similar speculationsof no Senate elections were all aroundus. The deadlines for the removal of thefederal government were given with alot of confidence after every couple ofmonths during the last five years. Allthese rumours proved to be wrong. Therumours about the postponement of theforthcoming general elections havenow been demolished by the SupremeCourt and the military.

Another problem pertains to a strongtendency in the media to offer highlypartisan and single-variable explana-tions of politics and foreign and securitypolicies. There is little dispassionateanalysis that withstands the test of logic.

Partisanship and emotionalism inone’s arguments can be moderated if oneexamines how the problems of transitionfrom an authoritarian/military rule todemocratic political order are addressed

elsewhere. The is-sues that Pakistanismust review includehow other countrieshave dealt with thequestions that seemto baffle the Elec-tion Commission,the Supreme Courtand the politicalleaders of Pakistan.These include howother states havedealt with the issuesof representation,minimum votes towin the electionsand the notion of re-polling, the holdingof elections, thequalification of can-didates for the elec-tions and the right tovote for the citizensof a country livingabroad. Pakistandoes not have toreplicate the experi-ence of others but itcan certainly drawlessons from theirexperience.

Many of the ar-guments that are

very popular with the political and so-cietal leaders in Pakistan about Pak-istan’s domestic politics, foreign policyand security affairs, especially the ef-forts of Pakistan’s state institutions tocope with religious extremism and ter-rorism, do not get any acceptance at theinternational level. We spend more timeon discussing issues with those who al-ready share our views and do not wantto move away from straight-jacketedself-serving worldview that is oftenbased on one’s understanding of reli-gious conservatism rather than analysisof dynamics of international and re-gional politics. There are people whothink about political and social issuesin either-or terms: either it should be aperfect and ideal political or socialorder, especially democracy, or there isno democracy or stable political order.

Most people subscribe to the ide-alised and textbook and abstract notionof democracy, honesty and fair play.Anything short of the ideal situation iszero. There is no concept of the processand the movement of the political andsocial system along a spectrum fromdeficit of democracy to working democ-racy. There is nothing in-between be-cause they do not see the developmentof democracy and social order as aprocess that can gradually move for thebetter or slide back to decay.

The experience of other societiesshows that the societies with consider-able achievements in social and politi-cal domains are governed by theleaders who are normal human beingsrather than angels. They reach the po-sition of power and authority with thesupport of the same society.

They sustain and stabilise thedemocracy process through politicalcontinuity of the electoral process,change of government through elec-tions and improvement of quality ofdemocracy and delivery of services tothe people over time.

If the people of Pakistan wantdemocracy to stabilise they will have torecognise that democracy cannot func-tion to the exclusion of political and so-cietal leaders. The military and thebureaucracy cannot manage democracyand participatory political order. There-fore, a constant campaign against the po-litical leaders and their projection ascorrupt and power hungry people en-gaged in nepotism and mismanagementundermines the prospects of civilian anddemocratic political order. One wondersif they are the only corrupt and powerhungry people in Pakistan.

The irony of the situation is that thepolitical leaders often accuse each otherof all the ills of human character. In

their effort to outbid each other, theyexaggerate the corruption and misdeedsof the political adversary without real-ising that this is a self-destructive ap-proach. At times, some politiciansattempt to woo the military to pulldown their adversary’s government. Inthe long run this approach weakens thepolitical forces, including those seekingout the bureaucracy or the military.

As we approach the general elec-tions, the Supreme Court and others whohave no direct stake in the elections areattempting to stretch Articles 62 and 63of the constitution in a manner to dis-qualify as many political leaders as pos-sible. The proposed election commissionapplication form for nomination of thecandidates contains several newcolumns that are meant to frustrate thepolitical leaders. Some of the columnsappear to have been inserted on the sug-gestion of Federal Board of Revenue.The operationalisation of some of thedemands made in the proposed nomina-tion papers is going to be problematic incase the candidate has no house in hisname and the utility bills are not in hisor her name. Even the notion of loan de-fault will cause problem in some cases.

The Supreme Court has been in-sisting on giving voting right to over-seas Pakistanis. Its implementation isdifficult because overseas Pakistanisare spread over so many countries thatpolling arrangements will be extremelyimpractical. Postal ballot lends itself tomanipulation. The Supreme Courtshould learn from the experience ofother democratic countries. OverseasPakistanis should be advised to be ac-tive in the politics of their adoptedcountry. By participating in the politicsof their country of residence they caninfluence the policy of that country toPakistan’s advantage.

The Supreme Court’s suggestionsfor changes in the electoral system likethe new demarcation of electoral con-stituencies in Karachi, proportionalrepresentation and that the winningcandidate must get more than fifty per-cent votes cast can be deliberated bythe political circles in the post-electionperiod and may be adopted for the fu-ture elections.

At this stage the sole criterionshould be the holding of the election ontime because any delay in the electionin search of a textbook perfection willbe counterproductive to strengtheningdemocracy. The people are the finaland best judges for the selection oftheir elected representatives.

The writer is an independentpolitical and defence analyst.

No one gains from delaying tactics

Dr HASAN ASKAri rizvi

COMMent

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36375963-5 Fax: 042-32535230Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9 Fax: 021-35381208

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287273 Fax: 051-2850505Web:www.pakistantoday.com.pk

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

C

Pre-election wrangling gaining momentuma political Mou

attacks on shrines

IN a place where religion plays an important role, and sometimes adominant one, sensitivities regarding the subject run deep. One could easilyget distracted and embark upon a personal but misguided and crusade

resulting in casualties. That’s what the terrorists and other miscreants like toexploit, and unfortunately they seem to be hell bent on achieving their target.Two bomb explosions, one at a shrine in Shikarpur and another on a religiousrally near Jacobabad, leaving four killed and over 25 injured is not just a terrorstrike but could also be an attempt at driving a wedge of sectarianism betweenthe relatively peaceful interior Sindh.As both districts where the attacks took place border Balochistan, which itself hasseen its share of terrorism, particularly the sectarian terrorism, the law enforcementagencies should better investigate if these incidents are not in retaliation of Shiakillings in Quetta in the past few weeks. If that indeed is the situation, it is ahighly dangerous one and needs to be checked urgently. But if it is not the case,the MO of the incidents also fits well on the Taliban militants, though strikingon shrines in interior Sindh is not what they are known for. Whatever is thecase, both provincial governments and the federal government need to worktogether to reach to the bottom of the issue as soon as possible. This getspriority also because the fallout, if the situation gets any worse, would be feltnot just in the rural areas but also in major urban areas, including Karachi andHyderabad, which the country can in no way afford, this being the election year.

In Jacobabad, the Pir of Qambar Sharif was injured while his grandson waskilled in a roadside, remote controlled bomb detonation while the Shikarpurincident resulted in injuring Syed Hajan Shah, the gaddi nasheen. Consideringhow deep is the influence of pirs in the area, strike calls and protests are a giventhing. The Sunni Tehreek’s call for strike in this regard helps no one though itcould make matters worse. Moreover, some overzealous type in militantorganisations could retaliate create a law and order nightmare. However, toensure that the situation does not deteriorate any further, it is important for thegovernment, on the one hand, to calm down the aggrieved party by negotiatingwith them and explaining to them that protests and strikes would not help them,and on the other hand it should launch an expedited inquiry into the incidentsand catch the culprits before things get out of control.

THE agreement between the PML-N and JUI-F on election cooperation isa significant development. Fazlur Rehman who had long been treatedwith disdain by the PML-N is now being seen as an ally. How the

understanding finally pans out remains to be seen though certain contours of theagreement stand out prominently. Besides the NA and Senate, the JUI- F isrepresented in all the provincial assemblies with the exception of Sindh, Theparty hopes to make gains with PML-N’s collaboration in Punjab where MMAcould bag no more than two provincial seats in the 2008 elections. There isalready an ideological affinity between the two sides. Both parties are supposedto have a soft corner for the extremists. The JUI-F seminaries have producednumerous Taliban leaders. Even the PTI now accuses the PML-N of having a‘nexus’ with the extremists. A party spokesman has referred to a statement by aprominent ASWJ leader claiming that the PML-N had approached him for seat-adjustments for the coming elections. This would explain why the PML-N andJUI-F have been named as guarantors for the peace talks proposed by the TTP.The PML-N thinks that an understanding with the JUI-F will help it improve itsfortunes in Balochistan where it suffered a debacle in 2008. The party alsohopes to form a coalition government with the JUI-F in KP. Both the PPP andANP are suffering from the incumbency factor in the province. Many considerthe ANP’s electoral prospects are dim despite its courageous stand againstterrorism and despite providing the province an identity of its own by getting itsname changed to KP. A number of party stalwarts including its senior ministerBashir Ahmad Billour have fallen to terrorist attacks. Many grassroots levelorganisers have suffered the same fate or are under pressure from the extremists.The TTP has announced that it would continue to target the ANP as it would theMQM. This has caused dismay among some of the ANP candidates who are keento participate in the polls. On Tuesday an ANP provincial minister resigned whilea party MNA defected to another party. The PPP too is feeling the heat in theprovince. Being in the good books of the TTP would provide the new alliancethe advantage of violence-free election campaign not available to others. In thedays to come, the JI may also agree to become a part of the alliance in KP.

In Sindh, Nawaz Sharif met Pir Pagara, a pro-establishment, conservativepolitician, to set up an anti-PPP alliance. At a stage when the country faces anexistential threat from terrorist groups, politicians are supposed to work togetherto bring peace and stability to the country. One can only hope that the newalliance will in no way provide encouragement to militants.

Sectarianism rearing its ugly head again

wednesday, 27 February, 2013

10We have enough religion to make

us hate, but not enough to make us

love one another. –Jonathan Swift

rumours andelections

sectarian sensitivitiesBrazen attacks on sufi shrines in upper Sindh reflect a verydangerous social trend in the land of sufis. Some extremedevelopments in the past year or so like Hindu migration(mostly from upper Sindh), forced conversion of Hindu girlsplus this fresh wave of attacks on shrines must have worriedleft forces of Sindhi nationalism. Sindh, since the days of“Bazm-e-Sufia-e-Sindh” founded by GM Syed, has been acitadel of tolerant Sufi inspired Sindhi social attitudes andbehaviours against establishment’s ideological onslaught.An opportunist political leadership of Muslim League after thedemise of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah sided withthose who had openly opposed the formation of Pakistanleaving no choice to left leaning forces of cultural nationalismbut to hit back. The formation of Bazm was one suchendeavour. The ultimate purpose was to preserve the delicatediversity of Sindhi society which had evolved through aprocess of interaction between Muslim mystics and local ritualsof Hindu faith. The strong bond of Sindhi language has kept thediverse population in terms of religion and ethnic back grounds

united and served as a cultural chain, from southern district ofThatta to northern districts of Jacobabad and Shikarpur.The right wing establishment revised its strategy and enteredthe province in 80s through religious seminaries. Riots againstAhmadi community in upper Sindh in early years of 80s wasan early manifestation of states policy of imposing it’s socalled policy of Islamisation. Ultra right ideology motivatedproduce of seminaries are now attacking Sufi symbols in Sindhand removing the last hurdle to finally Islamise Pakistan.Institutional radicalisation through religious seminaries acrossthe country is the most effective tool that has been used byextremist forces since Afghan jihad days. Petty interests ofcorrupt politicians in the ranks of all major political parties aredriving them ever closer to these forces of insanity,everywhere in Pakistan including Sindh. So-called harbingersof secularism are now shaking hands openly and in someplaces doing under hand deals with anarchists just to retaintheir seats in next parliament. The situation is a great challengeto the forces of Sindhi nationalism in decades where the entiresocio-economic balance of Sindh is at stake.

MALIK ATIF MAHMOOD MAJOKAMelbourne, Australia

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan. Fax: +92-42-32535230 E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusivelyEditor’s mail

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:18 AM Page 10

IN a week, John Kerry travels to the MiddleEast and the Arab Gulf states for his firsttrip as Secretary of State. A few weekslater, President Barack Obama will make

his first trip to Israel as President, followed by hisfirst visits to Palestine and Jordan.

High on the agenda of both the President andSecretary of State will be the civil war in Syria,and the regional crisis it has created, as well asIran’s nuclear programme. Earlier maiden voy-ages to the region by presidents and their emis-saries have focused on Israeli-Palestinianpeacemaking. I hope I am proven wrong, but Ido not believe that we will see any serious effortto restart peace talks.

I say this not because I believe the WhiteHouse has lost interest in resolving this criticalconflict or because I think that they no longer un-derstand that Israeli-Palestinian peace is vital toUS interests in the region. The reason for mypessimism is simple: current conditions makeprogress impossible and pretending otherwisewould be a fool’s errand.

First and foremost, Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu has, to date, been unable toform a government (this is the reason beinggiven for why Kerry is not going to Israel). Therecently completed Israeli election left the primeminister weakened. Ever the maneuverer, Ne-tanyahu is attempting to cobble together a gov-erning coalition by tilting this way andthat—mixing secular and religious parties, advo-cates of renewed talks with the Palestinians withhardline opponents. He appears to thrive on dys-function. The paralysis it produces allows him torule while avoiding the tough decisions.

Netanyahu will be forced to either call newelections or form a government of indecision. Mybet is that, fearing a loss in new elections, desper-

ation will win out and Netanyahu will form aweak governing coalition—able to expand settle-ments, but incapable of advancing peace.

The Palestinian situation is also dysfunc-tional. Unity talks between Fatah and Hamashave been fruitless. We once criticised the notionof an endless “peace process” that was all processand no peace. This appears to have been replacedby a “reconciliation process” that is all processand no reconciliation. Given their divisions, it isdifficult to see how Palestinians can move for-ward with any peace-making effort.

Not only are Israelis and Palestinians not inany position to make peace, but neither is theUnited States. Despite President Obama’s re-election, nothing has changed in Washington’sinability to deal with Middle East peacemaking.The continued resistance of Congress to any rea-soned discourse on Israel was on display thismonth during the debate over Chuck Hagel’sconfirmation as Secretary of Defence. This de-bacle harkened back to thehumiliating “smackdown”Congress delivered to thepresident in 2011 when theypublicly supported Ne-tanyahu’s position over thatof their own President.

In this sorry state of af-fairs, it is hard to see anynew bold initiatives comingfrom Washington. Israeliswouldn’t accept it. Pales-tinians couldn’t do anythingwith it. And Congresswouldn’t support it.

That doesn’t mean theWhite House will do noth-ing. The president can raisecritical questions and supportpositive behaviour whilechallenging bad behaviour.He may speak out about set-tlements, warning that ex-panding these colonies in theWest Bank and EastJerusalem will make peaceimpossible. Israelis will, no doubt, be told that theUS will continue to support their security, but theyshould also be told to decide whether the futurethey seek is one of peace and partnership in achanging Middle East, or one in which they re-main at war both internally and externally.

Additionally, the president can and should ad-dress Palestinian realities, giving support to Pales-tine’s civil society and business community.Labouring under the most difficult circumstances,support for these critical sectors is vital.

No fool’s errand, but a recognition of real

needs and gestures of support may be all that canbe expected at this time.

Iran and Syria, however, will likely domi-nate the agenda of the president and his secre-tary of state. Both are pressing regionalconcerns that cannot be ignored and must be ad-dressed. Kerry’s itinerary, including Turkey andseveral Gulf states, suggests that these topics arefront and centre on his agenda.

The flood of Syrian refugees to Jordan,Turkey, and Lebanon has become a humanitariandisaster. The refugees face dire conditions thatmust be addressed. They are taxing the resourcesof host countries. The humanitarian situation isespecially important in Jordan. Also of concernis the fear that Syria’s violence and instabilitywill spill over into the broader region.

Almost from the beginning, Syria’s civil warbecame a regional proxy war in which no onewins and everyone loses. 70,000 lives later, thereare hints of an international initiative, with the US

and Russia in the lead, tofind a negotiated settlement.Though certainly difficult,there are hopes this effort canbe advanced. For it to suc-ceed, the Russians, Turks,and the Gulf states must beon board. With Jordan’s KingAbdullah fresh from a visit toRussia, this will be a criticaltopic of discussion.

With talks beginningwith the Iranians over theirnuclear programme, GulfArab states will want assur-ances that their concerns willbe considered. Israel is againmaking unhelpful “red line”warnings. At this point, theirthreats of a military strike,though dangerous, ring hol-low. With Iran losing popu-larity in the Arab worldbecause of its involvement inSyria, the last thing the al-ready unsettled Middle East

region needs is for Israel to create a new disrup-tion. They should be told to cool their rhetoric.

The agenda for these visits will be differentthan those of previous visits by presidents andsecretaries of state. It will, no doubt, be disap-pointing to those desperate to see a resolution ofthe Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But realitytrumps aspirations. At this point, Syria and Iranare front and centre.

The writer is President of the Arab-American Institute.

Centre of attentionObama and Kerry’s Middle East visits

washington watchDr JAmES J zOgBy

COMMent Cwednesday, 27 February, 2013

In this sorry state ofaffairs, it is hard tosee any new boldinitiatives comingfrom Washington.Israelis wouldn’t

accept it. Palestinianscouldn’t do anythingwith it. And Congresswouldn’t support it.

11History and experience tell us that moral progress

comes not in comfortable and complacent times,

but out of trial and confusion. –Gerald R Ford

Can a scarred Muslim nation everget ‘truth and reconciliation’?

dealing withghosts past

NO one knows when or how Syria’s civil war will end.Nor Afghanistan’s fight against the Taliban. Nor Pak-istan’s struggle against jihadis in its northwestern bor-der region. Iran seems set for bloody domestic strife

in coming years, as does Lebanon and perhaps even Egypt. In allof these places, the winning coalition that comes out on top willpreside over a population that is still mourning the dead and nursingwartime grievances.

Over the last 30 years, modern nations have developed a modelfor dealing with the legacy of great national traumas: truth and rec-onciliation. Canada has its Indian Residential Schools Truth and Rec-onciliation Commission. The Czech Republic has its Office for theDocumentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism.South Africa, most famously, established a Truth and ReconciliationCommission for the investigation of crimes and policies committedunder the Apartheid regime. According to one internet-cataloguedtally, some two dozen nations have pursued fact-finding and a meas-ure of social justice under the truth-and-reconciliation model.

But look down that list, and you notice not a single Muslim-majority country, just two majority Muslim nations, Morocco andSierra Leone.

One reason is that the very idea of truth and reconciliation is afundamentally democratic one — and until recently, democracyand Islam haven’t gone well together.

Dictators want history to be understood on their own terms, andhave no desire for any sort of candid assessment of what they, or theirminions, did on the way to seizing power. No surprise, then, that everynation on the truth-and-reconciliation list is either a democracy (or,as in the case of Sri Lanka, at least a pseudo-democracy).

There is another factor at play, too: Bloody conflict in Muslimnations, in recent decades at least, typically has involved differentbands of Islamists fighting under this or that religious banner. (InSyria, for instance, the probable winner will be a loose coalitionpowered by a hardcore of Saudi-supported Sunni extremists; theirsworn enemies are largely Alawite Shiites.) This means that anytruth-and-reconciliation exercise would involve scrutinising actionsperformed under the banner of jihad — a fraught exercise thatwould involve one sect denouncing another, and shariah scholarsaccusing one another of apostasy and heresy.

In Western nations, even opposing factions generally speak thesame language on human rights. The same is not true in most Mus-lim nations. Just imagine, for instance, a Sunni Muslim Brother-hood member from Syria debating a former Alawite militarycommander about the Hama massacre of 1982. One might as wellask Jews and Palestinians to convene a “truth and reconciliation”panel regarding the events of 1948.

It is with this background in mind that I’ve been followingevents in Bangladesh, where the government has been prosecutingwar-crimes charges against veterans of the country’s 1971 civil war.

That 42-year-old conflict, which began in what was then EastPakistan, is obscure in the West. Yet it was the Syria of its time —perhaps even the Rwanda. Here is how a Time magazine reporterdescribed events:

“The evidence of the bloodbath is all over East Pakistan. Wholesections of cities lie in ruins from shelling and aerial attacks. InKhalishpur, the northern suburb of Khulna, naked children and hag-gard women scavenge the rubble where their homes and shops oncestood … Kushtia, a city of 40,000, now looks, as a World Bankteam reported, “like the morning after a nuclear attack”. In Dacca,where [Pakistani] soldiers set sections of the Old City ablaze withflamethrowers and then machine-gunned thousands as they triedto escape the cordon of fire, nearly 25 blocks have been bulldozedclear … countless corpses have been dumped in rivers, wells andmass graves …”

All of this would make Bangladesh a tragically perfect candi-date for the truth-and-reconciliation process. Yet the war-crimestribunal proceedings that have been playing out there since 2010show the difficulties that this model presents: Abdul Quader Mol-lah, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison this monthfor his role in rape, torture, and the killing of 381 civilians, is alsothe assistant secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’sleading Islamist party. Indeed, many of the country’s current cropof Islamist leaders are accused of allying themselves with Pak-istan’s military in opposition to the emergence of a more secular,pluralistic Bangladeshi state in 1971. This fact has led to a furiousbacklash from Jamaat-e-Islami and a dozen smaller Islamist allies,which claim that the whole war-crimes tribunal process (which alsois prosecuting eight other Jamaat-e-Islami leaders) is actually a po-litically motivated plot against the Islamist movement. (There alsohave been massive counter-protests by those who feel Mollahshould have gotten the death penalty.)

Truth and reconciliation is always a wrenching trauma. But itis even more complicated in a place such as Bangladesh, wheremany Sunni Islamists — who are suspicious of the nation’s secu-larists, Hindus, Sufis and other minorities — rose up in oppositionto the very idea of a pluralistic Bangladeshi state from the beginning.As a case study, it shows the world how the dogmatism and paranoiathat always goes along with orthodox, militant Islamist movementswill continue to hinder efforts at truth and reconciliation.

The writer is Managing Editor for Comment at the NationalPost. and a Fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democraciesin Washington, DC. He can be contacted at:jkay@nationalpost.com. This article also appeared in New Europe.

JONATHAN KAy

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:18 AM Page 11

I have a lot of nervous energy. Work is my best way of

channelling that into something productive unless I want to

wind up assaulting the postman or gardener. — Ben Stiller

arts

Awednesday, 27 February, 2013

12

Pregnant kateshows offbaby buMP atPubLIC eventAs she arrived at an addiction recovery

centre in Clapham, south London, she

stood with her hands clasped under her

bump as she chatted to dignitaries, The

Telegraph reported. The Duchess looked

tanned after her recent holiday in

Mustique, when pictures of her wearing a

bikini were taken and published in some

foreign magazines. She is visiting Hope

House, a residential centre for women run

by Action on Addiction, of which she is

Patron. As she chatted to women in an art

therapy class, she told one of them: “Well

done for getting sober.” NEwS DESK

hePburn In adCaMPaIgn forChoCoLateLate actress Audrey Hepburn has been

unveiled as the new face of Galaxy, a

chocolate company, and she even features

in a special ad for it. The cinematic icon

passed away in 1993. Ccomputer-

generated imagery technology has been

used to allow her to star in a new British

TV commercial for the chocolate company,

reports contactmusic.com. “Our mother

often spoke about her love of chocolate

and how it lifted her spirit, so we’re sure

she would have been proud of her role as

the face of Galaxy. The advert perfectly

captures her playful spirit and we hope

audiences enjoy it as much as they

enjoyed her movies,” said Hepburn’s sons,

Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti. The

commercial - which will air for the first

time Sunday during a break from Mr.

Selfridge on ITV, sees Audrey sitting on a

crowded bus wondering when she can

enjoy her hidden bar of Galaxy. NEwS DESK

Some people think Robert Greene is evil. They’re the

ones that read The 48 Laws of Power, his bestselling

1998 debut, saw the world depicted as a writhing

snakepit of treachery and mind games, and felt that

the author must be part of the problem. Other fans

think he’s the solution, including Will Smith, American

Apparel CEO Dov Charney (who calls it “the Bible for

atheists”) and so many rappers, from Jay-Z on down,

that the New Yorker dubbed him “hip-hop’s

Machiavelli”. But when you advise your readers,

“Discover each man’s thumbscrew” (Law 33) or “Pose

as a friend, work as a spy” (Law 14), some are prone

to expect the worst.

“I’m not who people expect me to be,” says Greene,

an earnest, thoughtful 53-year-old with a somewhat

tense smile. “I’m not Henry Kissinger.” In conversation

at his London publisher’s office, as in his books, he

always has an apt quotation to hand. “Charles de

Gaulle said, I realised that when people met me they

were expecting to meet Charles de Gaulle. I had to

learn to be the man inside the quotes. But generally I

prefer to be myself. I don’t have to pretend to be this

mastermind.”

Greene doesn’t think he’s evil, obviously, but nor does

he consider himself particularly good. He says he’s

just a realist. “I believe I described a reality that no

other book tried to describe,” he says. “I went to an

extreme for literary purposes because I felt all the

self-help books out there were so gooey and

Pollyanna-ish and nauseating. It was making me

angry.”

Even if The 48 Laws of Power can be read as a

bastard’s handbook, he wrote it to demystify the dirty

tricks of the executives he encountered during a

dispiriting period as a Hollywood screenwriter. “I felt

like a child exposing what the parents are up to and

laughing at it,” he says. “Opening the curtain and

letting people see the Wizard of Oz.”

Greene is accustomed to defending his first book, but

I suspect he’s trying to move beyond it with his latest,

Mastery, which studies how talent is developed, using

a heavily researched slew of examples including

Einstein, Darwin, Goethe and John Coltrane. “I was a

little worried that young people would think the only

game was being political and manipulative when really

the bigger game is being so good at what you do that

nobody can argue with your results,” he says.

Mastery is an illuminating book but its message (the

secret of success is working incredibly hard for many

years) is much tougher and more exacting than the

follow-your-dreams manuals with which it will share

the self-help shelves. “I hate them,” he says. “I was

under a lot of pressure to write something faster and

shorter and easier for people to consume and I

resisted that. So maybe this book won’t sell because

I’ve loaded the donkey with all that baggage, but I do

at least try to debunk the idea that it’s all about your

parents and education and wealth.”

On that subject, Greene himself had an “insanely

middle-class” upbringing in Los Angeles. His father sold

cleaning supplies while his mother was a housewife

with thwarted artistic ambitions. After studying classics

at college, Greene travelled around Europe, working

dozens of menial jobs while trying to find the right

outlet for his writing. Back in the US, he meandered

through journalism and into Hollywood, before finally

publishing The 48 Laws of Power in his late 30s.

His bestsellers (including the similarly gimlet-eyed The

Art of Seduction and The 33 Strategies of War) have

made him a wealthy man, but he could be even richer

if he took all the offers that came his way. For one

thing, he doesn’t think he’s a great public speaker.

“I’m not like Malcolm Gladwell, who makes millions

from that kind of thing. Maybe it’s a shortcoming. I’m

so earnest in trying to give people so much

information that I overdo it.” He laughs almost

inaudibly. “I need to get a shtick.”

He turns down a lot of consultancy work because he is

only drawn to people with interesting life stories,

whether Charney (he’s on American Apparel’s board of

directors), 50 Cent (they collaborated on 2009’s The

50th Law) or Barack Obama. He is now working with

labour organisers in Latin America, and his liberal

politics disappoint some of his fans in the business

world, who expect him to be a champion of the

ruthless go-getter.

“I’m a huge Obama supporter,” he says. “Romney is

satan to me. The great thing about America is that

you can come from the worst circumstances and

become something remarkable. It’s Jay-Z and 50 Cent

and Obama and my Jewish ancestors – that’s the

America we want to celebrate. Not the vulture

capitalist. These morons like Mitt Romney, they

produce nothing. Republicans are feeding off fairytales

and that’s what did them in this year and hopefully

will keep doing them in for ever, because they’re a lot

of scoundrels.”

Greene claims that most of the emails he receives are

from readers who used his first book to understand

and outwit manipulative people, but surely he has

inadvertently created a few scoundrels himself? “There

are people on the borderline and maybe the book

helps them to move into that sociopathic realm so

then I feel bad,” he concedes, “but mainly it’s positive.”

Mastery is so much warmer and more encouraging

than its predecessors that I wonder if his view of

human nature has softened. Instead of

backstabbing brutes, are we in fact marvellous

creatures?

He pulls a face, resisting the siren song of Pollyanna.

“I’m not sure I’d go that far.” cOUrTESy DOriAN LyNSKEy

robert greene on his 48 laws of power: ‘I’m not evil – I’m a realist’

Lot needs to be donefor security ofwomen: aishwaryarai bachchanFormer beauty queen and Bollywood actressAishwarya Rai Bachchan feels strongly aboutsafety of women in the country and says a lotneeds to be done to make them feel secure. The39-year-old actress, also a mother of a one-year-old girl, says she is angry because a lot isbeing said but very little action is taken torectify the situation. “I don’t feel fear, ratherthere is a lot of anger and I don’t hesitate to saythis. Many of us are privileged to have a lot ofassurance about our safety but most of thewomen in our country do not have that”. “A lotis being said but a lot more needs to be doneabout it. There should be definite laws foroffenders. They should be punishedimmediately. That is when we will see thechange in the society,” says Aishwarya, whowas in the capital to attend the second editionof Zindagi Live Awards. Delhi chief ministerSheila Dikshit, cricketer Gautam Gambhir andUnion minister FarooqAbdullah alsoattended theceremony, whichfelicitated eightwomen whochallengedsocialstigmas.NEwS

DESK

AN U PA M Kher spoke to TOI min-utes after his tryst with HollywoodA-listers at the Oscars Your firstthoughts about your first Oscartryst. I have learnt that this is a cele-

bration of cinema. It is all about the warmth ofmeeting people and appreciating cinema. It is notabout one winner or nominees, but a winneramongst many winners. I will always cherish thisexperience. Your colleague Jennifer Lawrencebagged the Best Actress Award. We heard you hadalready predicted her win quite sometime back. t 22years of age, she is a very natural actress and avery humble person. This makes her an exemplaryactress and it wasn’t difficult to predict that shewill get the Oscar. I am very proud of her and ofthe fact that I was with herto share the moment.Life of Pi, whichstarred another In-dian (SurajSharma) gotthe Best Di-rector Award. DID yOU

MEET HIM?

WHAT DO

yOU FEEL

ABOUT HIS

POTEN-

TIAL AS AN

ACTOR?

I would likecongratulateeveryone whowas a part ofLife of Pi. Surajhas had a brilliantbeginning withthis movie, con-sidering he carriesthe film on hisshoulders. He isyoung with a verybright future.

HOW WAS yOUR INTERACTION WITH ANG

LEE, WHO WON THE BEST DIRECTOR

AWARD?

I have been fortunate to have worked with Ang Leein the past (Conquest, Lust). He is an amazing per-son, very Buddha-like. I asked him, ‘How are youfeeling?’ and he said ‘Nothing’. I asked him again,‘What will you do post Monday?’ and he said ‘Idon’t know yet’. The Ang Lee that I know is one ofthe most calm persons with humongous amount oftalent.HEARD yOU HAvE ALREADy MET yOUR

FAvOURITE ACTRESS HILARy SWANK AND

SHE IS vERy KEEN TO ACT IN AN INDIAN

FILM?

I met Hilary at Mont Blanc (The pre-Oscar Lunch-eon) lunch which is in association with Unicef.

Hilary who is a global ambassador for Unicefand has done a lot of good work in Soma-

lia. She appreciated my work for under-privileged kids and their education.

And yes, there was obvious cinemaconversation.

yOU HAD A MEMORABLE

INTERACTION WITH

BRUCE WILLIS TOO?

He is a very kind and soft spo-ken person, and it was a pleasureto meet the Die Hard hero.

A LSO HEARD THAT yOU

ARE BEING FELICITATED

IN LA SHORTLy AFTER

THE OSCARS CEREMONy.

COULD yOU TELL US A LIT-

TLE MORE ON THAT?

I am in the entertainment capitalof the world, and I realised aftercoming here that this proclama-

tion is a huge honour. It is notjust for my work in Cinema

but also for all the socialwork that I have done

so far. NEwS

DESK

ANG LEE IS LIKE BUDDHA:

anuPaM kher

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:19 AM Page 12

I keep waiting for the roof to cave in. I was raised to follow the Golden

Rule; treat people the way you wish to be treated. That’s kind of the way I

live my life. Maybe someone up there likes me for that. — Matt LeBlanc

13Artswednesday, 27 February, 2013

A

riChard bransonWork isn’t 9-5 anymore, the

world is connected. Remote

working is more effective

than ever

rainn WilsonWomen... You can’t live with

em, you can’t live WITHIN

them

matheW perryCongratulations to GeorgeClooney for winning anOscar last night. Man, it’sabout time something goodhappened to that guy.

deepak Chopra How do we discover ourpurpose? Does anyoneever know what it is inthis lifetime?

paula abdul@nedastaff Thank YOU for

ALWAYS bringing #awareness

to eating disorders! Your work

goes FAR beyond this week!

xoP

notable tWeetsPrInCe harryready to settle down withnew love Cressida BonasPrince Harry is apparently set to ditch his wild ways andsettle down with his new girlfriend Cressida Bonas. Palsof the party prince have revealed that Harry is lookingforward to settling down and has his sights firmlyset on the posh heiress, the Daily Star reported. Itis said that Harry will give up his KensingtonPalace bachelor pad and move into nearbyNottingham Cottage. According to sources Harry isgiving the place a cosy makeover to woo Bonas. Hewants to give it a lick of paint and a warm, welcomingand homely feel with comfy furniture. The two-bedroom retreat has been the weekend home of PrinceWilliam and Princess Kate after their marriage. But sincethe couple will need somewhere bigger place to live withtheir baby, they are planning to move to Norfolk’s AnmerHall this summer with their newborn. Then Harry will takeNottingham Cottage. “Harry’s old bachelor pad was verysmall but the cottage is a brilliant size for two. It’s a perfectlove nest,” the paper quoted a source as saying.Another source said that that after his failedrelationship with Zimbabwean Chelsy Davy,Harry is now ready to shed his wild image.But pals of Cressida said that she has beentaking things slowly as she is keen tomake a life for herself before getting theroyal seal of approval. “They areenjoying each other’s company andhaving fun together, but she is stillyoung and keen to make the most ofher dance degree,” the paper quotedone friend as saying. NEwS DESK

NEWS DESK

Nargis Fakri faded out of people’s memories asquickly after the release of Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar(2011) as she rose to popularity prior to it.Lambasted by critics and masses alike for hertepid performance opposite Ranbir Kapoor, theactors admits that her career did slump afterher grand debut. “I know I have taken sometime off but I think it’s cool. I think oneshouldn’t rush; it’s better to take it slowand easy as well choose wisely,” saysNargis. Nargis who is wrapping up hersecond film — Shoojit Sircar’s MadrasCafe — opposite John Abraham,adds that she is now working hardto prove herself as a better actor.“I am really trying to give mybest shot to the characters I amchoosing to play. I can nowread and write in Hindi,which I think is a greatachievement. So I amnow literate in Hindi andI am working hard toimprove my languageskills. It takes time,”says the actor, who hasmanaged to bag quitea few endorsementsof late. Born to aCzech father andPakistani mother,Nargis reveals thather role in MadrasCafé is intense. “I amplaying aninternational journalist. Thisis a stronger role than my previousone. You are definitely going to seeme doing something different thistime,” she says. The actor, who isalso one of the faces of MumbaiHeroes, one of the CelebrityCricket League (CCL) teams,believes that this association hashelped her in professionalnetworking. “I get to meet manyactors and directors at every event.It is a great platform forprofessional work too,” she says.

rihanna hiresobama’s ex- secretservice agentsRihanna has hired President Obama’sformer Secret Service staff to protect herafter being hit with death threats. Thepopstar has increased security after a seriesof vile taunts following her first publicappearance with beau Chris Brown at theGrammy Awards earlier this month. Angryfans turned on her after she rekindled heron-off relationship with the hip hop star,who assaulted her in 2009. The pair werespotted all over each other last week duringa break in Hawaii to celebrate the Barbadiansinger’s 25th birthday. While she was out onher holiday, her home was fitted with a newsecurity system, including a fully-equippedpanic room. The Umbrella hitmaker decidedto beef up her protection after a man wasarrested for trying to break into her PacificPalisades pad in LA. But the intruder pickedthe wrong house andattempted to get into aneighbour’s property.“Death threatsagainst Rihannahave tripled sinceher publicappearance withChris at theGrammyAwards,” asource said. Oneof the precautionsbeing taken isto bring intwo ofPresidentObama’sex-SecretServiceagents toprotect her,who havebeen onrotation24/7 –standingoutside herhotel roomand onclose call atall times.NEwS

DESK

steven spielbergcomes to India?

NEWS DESK

Make a list of contemporary greats in theworld of film direction, and it’s hard to leaveout Steven Spielberg’s name. The Hollywoodheavyweight, who is also a multiple Oscar-winner, is known for films such as E.T. theExtra-Terrestrial (1982), Schindler’s List(1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998) and mostrecently, Lincoln (2012), to name a few.Now, news is that the veteran producer-direc-tor will be in Mumbai soon. According tosources, on March 10, Spielberg will arrive inthe city on his first trip to the country. Histour will take place because of Lincoln’sIndia connection. The source says, “Lincolnis produced by Reliance DreamWorks, whichis helmed by Anil Ambani. Spielberg will behere on a four-day trip. He is coming to meetAnil and his wife, Tina Ambani.”This is thefirst international trip the filmmaker is set tomake post the Oscars. At the time of going toprint, Anil and Tina were expected to be pres-ent with him at the Oscars. The source furtherreveals, “He (Spielberg) will be staying at theTaj Mahal Hotel, Colaba. And from what hisschedule looks like right now, he will onlyvisit Mumbai. He doesn’t have other travelplans.” Ask if there’s a likelihood of a partyto welcome him, and the source adds, “TheAmbanis will give him a grand welcome.He’s known to be close to them.” So therecould be either a party to celebrate the suc-cess of Lincoln, or one with a select few invi-tees in honour of Spielberg’s trip. We are alsotold that during his stay here, a few media in-teractions will take place. We tried contactingthe publicist for the film, but we were toldthat they do not have the authority to com-ment on the subject.

I can now readand write in Hindi:nargIs fakhrI

Sienna Miller shops for her wee one at Little Marc Jacobs in New

york City on Tuesday.

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:19 AM Page 13

NEWS DESK

A satellite with an Android smartphone at its heart isnow orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 785 kilometres.Called STRaND-1, the satellite’s incorporation of aGoogle Nexus One phone is a bold attempt to test thehow well cheap, off-the-shelf consumer electronicshandle the harsh temperature variations and microchip-blasting cosmic radiation of space.

If it can, say the satellite’s makers - Surrey SatelliteTechnology and the Surrey Space Centre in Guildford,UK - such spacecraft could become a lot cheaper tomake. The orbiting phone was bought from a shop inGuildford’s High Street.

The phonesat lifted off at 12.32 GMT yesterdayaboard an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle fromthe Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Shriharikota, India.The rocket carried small satellites from India, France,Canada, the UK, Denmark and Austria. One of the twoCanadian spacecraft was the suitcase-sized asteroid-spotter NEOSat, short for Near Earth Object Surveil-lance Satellite, which will watch out for incomingrocks like the one that came out of nowhere and ex-ploded over Russia on 15 February.

But it is STRaND-1 - the UK’s first cubesat - thatspace-flight engineers will be watching with particularinterest. The shoebox-sized satellite includes a Linux-based computer to maintain its orientation by control-ling miniature plasma thrusters. But control will, atvarious points in the mission, be switched to the An-

droid phone’s circuitry to see how its consumer-levelelectronics copes. Can accelerometers and GPS re-ceivers operate as a cheap guidance system? No oneknows. The satellite has already been successfully incontact with ground control and the team plans to con-tact the phone in the next few days. Radiation can be amajor problem in space because incoming cosmic-rayprotons have enough energy to flip a binary 1 stored ina memory chip to a 0, and vice versa, corrupting soft-ware and causing crashes. On the first paid-for SpaceXDragon cargo mission to the International Space Sta-tion last October, for example, one of the spacecraft’sflight computers was knocked out by a radiation hit. Sothe Google phone faces a challenging time.

NEWS DESK

HUAWEI, the Chinese tele-coms equipment group,has unveiled what itclaims is the world’sfastest smartphone and an-

nounced a 60% annual rise in shipments ofits mobile devices.

Headlining at the mobile phone indus-try’s annual gathering in Barcelona, whichopened its doors a day after hundreds ofthousands of demonstrators rallied acrossSpain in protest at national austerity,Huawei presented its latest device to runon Google’s Android software.

The Ascend P2 connects to the webtwo or three times faster than other smart-phones when using Wi-Fi, its makerclaims, downloading high-definition filmsin minutes and videos, songs and ebooksin just seconds. In the Christmas quarter,Huawei overtook BlackBerry to becomethe world’s third largest smartphonemaker. Although it is some way behindSamsung and Apple, its less expensive buthigh-performing handsets are attracting agrowing following.

It shipped a total of 127m consumerdevices last year, of which 32m were

smartphones alongside more basic “fea-ture” phones, home broadband modemsand dongles to connect laptops to mobilenetworks.

The division generated $7.5bn of rev-enues in 2012, a 10% increase on the pre-vious year. Overall income including salesof network equipment to telecoms compa-nies totalled $35.4bn, bringing Huaweilevel for the first time with the marketleader Ericsson.

The surge in sales is despite height-ened concerns in Washington and Londonover cyberspying and the degree to whichHuawei’s equipment should be trusted atthe heart of western networks.

A United States Congressional reportin October stated the firm and its fellowChinese business ZTE posed a national se-curity threat, while the UK’s IntelligenceSecurity Committee is due to complete itsown investigation shortly.

In a sign of the shifting power balancein telecoms, Huawei and Samsung arevying with Sweden’s Ericsson and UScomputer chip maker Qualcomm to hostthe largest stands at this year’s MobileWorld Congress trade fair.

Although the number of delegates isexpected to rise from 67,000 to 70,000 thisyear, cash-strapped mobile phone net-works are cutting back their presence asausterity grips Europe. According toBloomberg, Vodafone is spending 20%less this year and, along with Sweden’sTeliaSonera, is sending fewer executives.

“What we see at the event matches thetrends we have in the industry,” saidMichael O’Hara, chief marketing officerof mobile carriers association and congressorganiser GSMA. “Europe is the flatterpiece of the equation.”

Following student riots last year andSunday’s 100,000-strong demonstration inMadrid, at which prime minister MarianoRajoy was urged to step down, security isexpected to be tight. Conspicuously miss-ing from the exhibitors is Google. Lastyear, to showcase Android, the companytook a gigantic stand which featured ajuice bar and a helter-skelter.

The showmanship will be left toHuawei, which launched a new brandingcampaign under the slogan “Make it Pos-sible” by commissioning an artwork of asolid steel 1m square cube magneticallysuspended in mid-air.

Huawei is redoubling efforts to estab-lish its brand with consumers, moving outfrom behind the shadow of the mobile net-works it supplies. Richard Yu, head of theChinese company’s consumer business,said the company now had “strong mo-mentum” in its efforts to be a “leadingsmartphone brand in the coming years”.

a week of bad sleepalters your genesSleeplessness starts to bring about

dramatic changes in the body within

just a few days, disrupting hundreds

of genes, hindering the body’s ability

to repair itself, and raising the risk of

illnesses linked to immunity and

stress, according to new research.

Researchers analyzed the blood of

subjects after they had more than 10

hours sleep a night for a week and

compared the results with tests taken

after the subjects had less than six

hours a night for a week, the BBC

reports. “There was quite a dramatic

change in activity in many different

kinds of genes,” the lead researcher

says. “Clearly sleep is critical to

rebuilding the body and maintaining a

functional state, all kinds of damage

appears to occur—hinting at what

may lead to ill health. If we can’t

actually replenish and replace new

cells, then that’s going to lead to

degenerative diseases.” Experts not

involved with the study noted that if a

way to turn off the gene changes

associated with sleeplessness can be

found, it could be possible to eliminate

the effects of sleep deprivation—

making sleep unnecessary. NEwS DESK

‘Christian martyrdom’never happened

Were early Christians martyred en

masse? That notion is key to Christian

history, but in The Myth of

Persecution: How Early Christians

Invented a Story of Martyrdom,

Candida Moss assails the idea that

Christians spent centuries hiding from

godless Romans who wanted them

thrown to the lions, Salon reports. The

book’s strong point is inconsistencies

Moss finds in early accounts of

Christian martyrdom and surviving

Roman records. For example, Moss

describes one undeniable Roman anti-

Christian campaign between 303 and

306—but explains that Christians were

kicked out of public offices, meaning

they were respectable enough to hold

public office. Moss concedes that some

Christians were executed, but says

that was normal in a society

embracing capital punishment for even

minor offenses. Moss argues that the

“martyr myth” lies behind modern

conservative rhetoric about the “war

on Christianity”: “You cannot

collaborate with someone who is

persecuting you,” she writes. “You

have to defend yourself.” NEwS DESK

inFotainment

IWednesday, 27 February, 2013

14Indifference and neglect often

do much more damage than

outright dislike. –JK Rowling

76-year-old faces jailover 1957 murder

A 76-year-old Wisconsin woman accused of killing

her infant daughter more than a half-century ago will

serve 45 days in jail and 10 years’ probation, under

a plea agreement approved today. Ruby Klokow was

charged with second-degree murder in the 1957

death of her 6-month-old daughter, Jeaneen, only

after her son, James Klokow Jr., came forward in

2008 with horrific stories of childhood abuse. District

Attorney Joe De Cecco cited Klokow’s advanced age

and health as factors in the agreement approved by

a county judge. De Cecco said if Klokow had been

tried, she might have been acquitted altogether

and walked free. No charges were filed after

Jeaneen’s death in 1957. Ruby Klokow told the

police that the baby had fallen off a sofa while she

was tending to a crying James. An autopsy found

that Jeaneen had suffered two brain hemorrhages,

a partially collapsed lung and three scalp bruises.

According to a criminal complaint, Klokow

admitted causing her daughter’s death. NEwS DESK

Identity theft hits 3-year high

Wondering how safe it is to use your credit card? A

long-running study shows that identity theft reached

a three-year high in the US last year, striking 12.6

million people, LiveScience reports. Fraudsters

ripped off $21 billion, the most in 3 years, and stole

an identity every three seconds. What’s more, a

quarter of American adults notified of a data breach

were victimized anyway—meaning people should

pay better attention to those notifications. Another

sad result: Fraud victims become more cautious

about using credit cards with smaller online

businesses, but didn’t worry about big retailers like

Amazon. The study has better advice for avoiding

identity theft, however: Shred financial documents

around tax season. Fraudsters like combing through

your garbage. Use a safe connection when buying

things online. Look for that “https” URL and a

padlock in the address bar. Stay skeptical about

sharing personal details, especially your Social

Security number; people

whose number became

compromised

were victimized

five times more

often than the

typical consumer.

NEwS DESK

China unveils ‘world’sfastest smartphone’

navy discovers 250 metre-deep ‘Grand Canyon’

Android smartphone tocontrol satellite in orbit

NEWS DESK

A Royal Navy ship has discoveredand mapped a ‘Grand Canyon’ be-neath the waves using state-of-the-art technology it emerged yesterday.HMS enterprise discovered the 250metre-deep (820ft) canyon beneaththe Red Sea during a nine-monthmission to improve understanding ofthe waters east of Suez. The Devon-port based ship created 3D images ofthe canyon, which was found afterthe ship left the Egyptian port ofSafaga. The ship used a state-of-the-art multi-beam echo sounder, whichis fitted to the hull of The Enterprisefor mapping and measuring the seabed. The echo sounder is considereda highly accurate way of measuringthe sea bed in order to correctly de-

termine if the depth of water is safefor navigation and shipping. DerekRae, commanding officer of HMSEnterprise, said: “These features

could be the result of ancient riversscouring through the rock strata be-fore the Red Sea flooded millenniaago. “Some may be far younger andstill in the process of being createdby underwater currents driven by thewinds and tidal streams as they flowthrough this area of the Red Sea,carving their way through the softsediment and being diverted byharder bed rock. Or there is alwaysthe possibility that they are a combi-nation of the two. It is, however, al-most certain to say that this is theclosest that humans will ever get togaze upon these truly impressivesights.” HMS Enterprise will remainin the area until the summer in orderto update some of the 3,300-plusAdmiralty Charts which are usedby many of the world’s seafarers.

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:19 AM Page 14

CHENNAIAgENciES

After India wrapped up their eight-wicket victory on thefifth morning in Chennai, Australia had a makeshift netset up around the dusty, crumbling pitch. Craters haddeveloped behind the creases at both ends, where thebatsmen's spikes had worn away at the dry surface. Theunaffected midsection of the pitch had shrunk every day.To the Australia batsmen it might as well have been thesurface of Mars as of the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Atleast the Martians aren't renowned for their spin bowling.

But Australia's batsmen know that over the next fourweeks, the only way they will be able to fight back in theseries, and hold on to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, is ifthey find a way to thrive in the challenging conditions.The next Test starts on Saturday in Hyderabad and duringthe Chennai Test the former batsman-turnedcommentator VVS Laxman, a Hyderabad local,described the pitch for the second Test as hard and firm,but likely to crumble. Sound familiar? So it was anencouraging sign for Australia that David Warner tookthe chance for some extra practice after the loss. He hadfaced 154 deliveries in the Test but did not appear at ease,and further work on the Test pitch cannot have hurt hispreparation for Hyderabad. For the best part of an hourhe faced spinners including Glenn Maxwell, StevenSmith and even his opponent Harbhajan Singh in thehastily-arranged net session in the middle of the ground.

As was seen during the match, the odd ball spat andothers stayed low. But enough other deliveries were thereto be hit, which some of the Australia batsmen struggledto do, especially during the second innings. The

conditions were challenging but far from impossible tohandle, as MS Dhoni showed during his double-century.If Australia are to bounce back, batsmen like Warnercannot get bogged down. "I've always made very clearto the players I want them to back their own ability andplay how they see fit," Australia captain Michael Clarkesaid after the eight-wicket loss. "It might have been quite

tough for them to play the way they would have liked toplay so credit has to go to the Indian bowlers. But theplayers know they have the freedom to play their way,play with intent and back your own ability. "The wicketplayed better than it looked. Both first innings the wicketwas pretty good for batting, in the second innings as wethought the wicket did deteriorate and spun and bounced

a lot more, and the bounce was inconsistent. I like to seea result in Test cricket. The fact that the game went fivedays says to me it's a pretty good Test match wicket."

As does the fact that three players, Clarke included,scored centuries over the course of the match. Even onthe final morning, the debutant Moises Henriques hadtriple figures in his sights when he lost his last partner.But too many of the top-order batsmen fell into the trap,which Clarke spoke of before the match, of getting startsand failing to turn them into big scores.

Ed Cowan made 29 in the first innings and 32 in thesecond, Shane Watson scored 28 and 17, Warner managed59 and 23, Matthew Wade made 12 and 8 and PhillipHughes was the only one who failed to reach doublefigures in either innings. With the exception of Watson,all were playing Test cricket in India for the first time, andClarke said he was confident they would have takenplenty from the experience. "It's about learning in theconditions. You've got to play your way," Clarke said."You've got to have your own plan. I'm sure they'll workthat out. Ed played pretty well. He didn't make a big scorebut he played pretty well in both innings and he's lookinglike he's improving a lot against spin bowling. Hughesycouldn't have done much in the second innings. That ballbounced and spun so there's not much he could have donethere." Hughes did fall to a tricky ball that bouncedsharply in the second innings and it was unfortunatebecause more than any other player in the side, he needstime in the middle. In the warm-up game against India A,Hughes scored 1 and 19, and in the Test he didn't survivemore than 15 balls in either innings. The team travels toHyderabad on Wednesday afternoon and will have twodays to train in the lead-up to the second Test.

spOrts

Swednesday, 27 February, 2013

15Tom Maynard was a very special person

and his death leaves a huge hole in all our

lives. – Professional Cricketers’ Association

Clarke wants batsmen to back their abilities

QUEENSTOWNAgENciES

The bike rides around Queenstown'sstunning shoreline and the helicopterflights to snow-capped mountains nowget put to one side. England's Testsquad - virtually at full strength withonly the injured Tim Bresnan not partof the 15 - are now all in the sameplace, on New Zealand's South Island,to prepare for the Test series whichstarts in Dunedin on March 6.

The Test-only players - NickCompton, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior,Graham Onions and Monty Panesar -along with team director Andy Flowerarrived in Queenstown last week for atraining camp that has not all been aboutcricket. The players have been postingregular updates on Twitter, marveling at

the beauty of the location and the chanceto undertake some of the more touristyaspects of the town rather than nets andfitness drills all the time.

However, now joined by the Testnames from the one-day squad, whoare not going to have the sameopportunity for too much downtime -although some of the players werehurling themselves off a suspensionbridge on Tuesday in one ofQueenstown's adrenalin-filled options- there are four important days aheadto get back into red-ball cricket.

"It's about getting your temporight, getting back into those routinesand hopefully we can do those quicklyso we can hit the ground running," IanBell said. "We always look to winthese warm-up matches as that helpscreate momentum going into the Tests

series."Bell, at least, showed solid form in

the ODIs, batting in a style not farremoved from his Test cricket.Compton has not batted in the middlesince Nagpur, Prior has only had abrief, unproductive stint at the BigBash League, while Onions andPanesar (the latter unlikely to play amajor part in the series) will havebeen indoors until arriving here a fewdays ago. Pietersen played all five ofEngland's ODIs in India but has hadthe last month off.

"It's more like playing in Englishconditions so it's quite familiar to us,"Bell said. "In India, it was greatbecause the way we had to bat andbowl was different to home. We don'twant to go away from what we dowell."

england get back into test mode

LAHORESTAff rEPOrT

FORMER players havequestioned some of theselection decisions made bythe tour selection committee

and the role Whatmore has played sofar. Asif Iqbal said the Board had raisedfalse hopes among the cricket followersin Pakistan ahead of the South Africa.

Pakistan's capitulation in the threematch Test series in South Africa hasnot only led to stinging criticism fromformer players but also spawned adebate on, if Pakistan dressing room isa divided house.

There is talk about Test captainMisbah-ul-Haq having an argumentwith his deputy Mohammad Hafeezduring the third Test, which the teamlost by an innings and 18 runs onSunday.

"The argument was the result ofHafeez's insistence on having the ballchanged during South Africa's firstinnings in the first session on thesecond day after which the SouthAfricans added more valuable runs totheir total.

"Misbah didn't think they shouldask the umpires to change the ball asthe bowlers were getting some reverseswing but Hafeez who has a influentialpresence in the team insisted it shouldbe changed," reports quoting a sourcesaid. The source said they were even

question marks over whether fastbowler Umar Gul, the most experiencedbowler in theside, could haveplayed the thirdTest.

"There is abig questionmark over howserious was Gul'sillness that kepthim out of theTest or whetherhe himself hadlost the will toplay the matchafter strugglingin the first twomatches," thesource said

Another source said the atmospherewas not as positive it normally is in thePakistan dressing room.

"Certainly now questions need to be

asked over the role/influence of someseniors in the dressing room after the

way the teamcrumbled in thematches," the sourcesaid.

"If Pakistan alsostruggles in the one-day series thendefinitely Misbah'stenure as Test andODI captain couldbe over while thefree hand given toHafeez andWhatmore couldalso be curtaileddramatically," thesource said.

Former playershave questioned some of the selectiondecisions made by the tour selectioncommittee and the role Whatmore hasplayed so far. Former captain, Asif

Iqbal said the Board itself had spoilt theplayers and made them soft.

"These players are professionalsand are well paid for their jobs. Thanwhat is the purpose of the board givingspecial bonuses and cash prizes ormaking a big noise after the team beatEngland in the Test series, when itreached the semi-finals of the T20World Cup and won the one-day seriesin India," Iqbal said.

"This has I feel spoilt the culture inthe team why are we rewarding playersfor something they are supposed to doanyway as professionals and for whichthey are already being well paid," theformer captain said.

He also said the Board had raisedfalse hopes among the cricket followersin Pakistan ahead of the South Africa.

"Realistically in the last two yearswe have done well against teamsmostly in sub-continental conditionslike we find in UAE, Sri Lanka orIndia. I don’t think the chances of ourteam were ever realistically assessedbefore the tour." He also questioned forthe need to have such a big support staffwith the team.

"I have always felt that the lesserpeople you have on the bench it isalways better for a team. Too manypeople means too much advice and thatdoes not work sometimes. I just feelthere should be a coach who needs to begood at man management andmotivating the players," he said.

divisions in the dressing room

India have found a‘settled combination’,says dhoni

CHENNAIAgENciES

India have found what their captain MSDhoni calls a "settled batting and bowlingcombination" for the remainder of the threeTests in the series against Australia. It isevery indicator that India will go aheadwith playing five bowlers, includingRavindra Jadeja as a third spinningallrounder, for the remainder of the Testseries. In the past India have rarely gone inwith five bowlers, including an allrounder,but have done so in their last two Testsagainst England in Nagpur and Australia inChennai. Dhoni said that playing at homehad made the five-bowler choice "a bigplan" due to the conditions at work andperfecting the combination at home.Playing overseas like they did in Nagpurand Chennai, with six batsmen includingthe wicketkeeper, made the batting sidelook "weak." At home, though, Dhoni saidthe team had needed to find the rightcombination which - including Jadeja in theeleven - had worked. "With three Tests tocome this looks like a very settled battingand bowling combination." The threespinners put into use on the way to India'seight-wicket win over Australia in Chennaion Tuesday did not include left-armspinner Pragyan Ojha, who had taken 20wickets in the last series against England.

there is talk abouttest Captainmisbah-ul-haq havingan argument Withhis deputymohammad haFeezduring the third test,WhiCh the team lostby an innings and 18runs on sunday

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:20 AM Page 16

spOrts Swednesday, 27 February, 2013

16Wasim Akram is a legend and a great motivator to have around the team.

However, we fully appreciate the reason why he will be unavailable. We hope

to work with him in future. – Knight Riders' chief executive Venky Mysore

CHENNAIAgENciES

India needed a little less than a session towrap up an eight-wicket victory overAustralia on the fifth morning in Chennai.Australia debutant Moises Henriques wasleft stranded on 81 as his side were bowledout for 241 this morning, leaving Indiachasing just 50 to win the first Test. Thatsimply was not enough to cause any jittersfor India, even when the wickets of MuraliVijay and Virender Sehwag fell to NathanLyon, and there was time for SachinTendulkar to delight the home crowd withmaximums off his first two deliveries. Vijayperished for six - all of which came via astraight, flat maximum down the ground offLyon - as he picked out Henriques at shortmid-off when he mistimed a drive off JamesPattinson. Sehwag followed in unusuallytame fashion, edging to Michael Clarke atfirst slip as he defended the spinner.

Few in the Chennai crowd weredisappointed, though, as that broughtTendulkar to the crease - and he gave themwhat they wanted by heaving his first two

balls off Lyon for six. He could not makeit a hat-trick to win the game, but an edgefor a single from Cheteshwar Pujara did thejob just as well. Earlier, Lyon could not

help Henriques reach a debut century asAustralia could only add nine to theirovernight score. Lyon's stout defencehelped to repel the Indian bowlers for

around 20 minutes this morning before hewas finally caught by Vijay at short-leg offRavindra Jadeja. The second of four Testsbegins on Saturday in Hyderabad.

India wrap up victoryon final day in Chennai

AUSTrALiA 1ST iNNiNgS 380

iNDiA 1ST iNNiNgS 572

AUSTrALiA 2ND iNNiNgS 241

iNDiA 2ND iNNiNgS

m vijay c Henriques b Pattinson 6

v Sehwag c clarke b Lyon 19

cA Pujara not out 8

Sr Tendulkar not out 13

EXTrAS (b 4) 4

TOTAL 50

DiD NOT BAT v Kohli, rA Jadeja, mS Dhoni*†, r Ashwin,

Harbhajan Singh, B Kumar, i Sharma

fALL Of wicKETS 1-16 (vijay, 2.6 ov), 2-36 (Sehwag, 9.2 ov)

BOwLiNg: JL Pattinson 3-1-13-1, Nm Lyon 5.3-0-29-1, Pm Siddle

3-2-4-0

match details

Toss Australia, who chose to bat

Series india led the 4-match series 1-0

Test debuts mc Henriques (Australia); B Kumar (india)

Player of the match mS Dhoni (india)

Umpires HDPK Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and m Erasmus

(South Africa)

Tv umpire vA Kulkarni

match referee Bc Broad (England)

reserve umpire K Srinath

ScOrEBOArD

CENTURIONAgENciES

Kyle Abbott, Test cricket's latest pace-bowling sensation, is one of many SouthAfricans ruing the international schedule'splans for his country. South Africa do notplay Test cricket for the next seven months,with their next assignment a return seriesagainst Pakistan in the United ArabEmirates. With the team ranked No.1 in theworld there is a disappointment from manyquarters, including the players, that they donot feature sooner.

Abbott played his first Test at Centurionagainst Pakistan and, after becoming thecountry's second-most successful bowlingdebutant, he wants more. "I've had a tasteand it tastes really good. It's going to be alittle frustrating not playing for a while. Ifeel like I'd love to have another series toshowcase my skills again," he admitted.

Graeme Smith, the Test captain, agreed,calling it "disappointing," to be away fromTest cricket for such a length of time. SouthAfrica's break would have been shorter buttheir tour to Sri Lanka was truncated and the

Tests postponed to 2015 on request from theSLC. They also have the Champions Trophyto occupy them in the winter. Smith's majorconcern is that the sizeable gap betweenTests is followed by a challenging tour so"preparation is going to key," he said. "Youcan't focus on keeping guys on top of theirgame for six months so the time just beforeis when we will have to put in a lot of work."

He may be reassured by the strength ofSouth Africa's domestic competition, whichwill resume before the visit to the UAE andprovide a base to restart Test training.According to Abbot, the franchise system isat its healthiest and, given the amount oftime he has spent there, he may know.

Until last Friday, Abbott had onlyplayed first-class cricket at domestic level,with the exception of one match for theSouth African Invitation side against thetouring Pakistanis. He believes his time inthe franchise prepared him adequately tomake the step up to the international stage.

"The domestic circuit is at its strongest,"Abbott said. "There are a number of bowlersknocking on the door. It's a real credit to thesystem that we've got, the High

Performance Programme and the even theSouth Africa A which is run really well now.There are good coaches and good structuresto prepare guys to the next level so the guys

stepping up are ready. I'd say the core ofSouth African cricket is really strong."

Abbott is the fourth pace bowler to becalled up to the Test team under GaryKirsten. All of Vernon Philander, Marchantde Lange and Rory Kleinveldt enjoyedvarying degrees of success at internationallevel as proof that the domestic circuit isfunctioning as it should and producingplayers regularly. Only de Lange wasselected on potential in the absence ofexperience. The young quick was part ofthe South African A side that played againstAustralia A in October 2011 and his fivewickets got him noticed. Due to his expresspace, he was invited to national training andpicked for the Boxing Day Test against SriLanka later that year. Injuries have sincehampered his progress.

The other three players picked wereincluded on the weight of theirperformances at the tier lower-down.Philander was the leading wicket-taker inthe first-class competition for two seasonsbefore he got a look in, Kleinveldtsucceeded him and was rewarded in thesame way and Abbott followed suit.

Abbott hungry for more Test cricket

LONDONAgENciES

Amir Khan has revealed his next fightwill be a homecoming bout in Britain.Khan has not fought on British shoresfor almost two years after heading toAmerica to pursue his big-name rivalsin the light-welterweight division.

And the Bolton fighter ended atwo-fight losing streak with adominant win over Carlos Molina inDecember.

Khan is yet to name an opponent,date and venue for the fight, but theformer WBA and IBF champion willbe roared on by his own fans as hecontinues his climb back to the top. Hetweeted: "Next fights in UK everyoneafter 2 years. Venue tba."

Former IBF lightweight championJulio Diaz is thought to be a possiblefoe for Khan after reports suggestedthat Vyacheslav Senchenko, JuanManuel Marquez, Humberto Soto, TimBradley, Josesito Lopez and Jessie

Vargas had all turned down a fight.Khan's last bout in the UK was an

ugly stoppage win over Paul

McCloskey in April 2011 and he willbe hoping to mark his return with anexplosive victory.

‘won’t rushjudgment onspinners’

CHENNAIAgENciES

Michael Clarke has said Australia'sselectors won't rush to judgment aboutwhether a second spinner is required forthe second Test in Hyderabad after theireight-wicket loss to India in Chennai. On apitch that took turn from day one it wasnot surprising that India's spin attack wasone of the most dominant forces of thegame, and the three of them - R Ashwin,Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja -took all 20 Australian wickets.But Australia's frontline spinner NathanLyon picked up only four victims for thematch, while eight came from the fastbowlers - six to James Pattinson and oneeach to Peter Siddle and Moises Henriques.Lyon was at times threatening, but alsoleaked far too many easy runs. He wasmilked for singles by all of India's middle-order batsmen and was especiallyvulnerable against MS Dhoni, who scored104 off the 85 balls he faced from Lyon.The left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty is theother specialist spinner in the squad andClarke was impressed with the control hedisplayed in the tour match against IndiaA, when he took 3 for 108 from 24 overs.However, Clarke would not be drawn onwhether Australia had made a mistake bychoosing a pace-heavy attack for the Testand he said better bowling from those whowere picked might have helped Australiato a different outcome.

I’m a bit moreversatile now,says fulton

SPORTS DESK

Peter Fulton has admitted he has "a prettyaverage" Test record, but hopes a newfound versatility will help him grasp hislatest opportunity in international cricket.Fulton has not played a Test sinceDecember 2009 but, having enjoyed a finerun of form in domestic cricket, findshimself back in the New Zealand Testsquad to face England. Fulton hasaveraged just 20.93 from his first 10 Testsbut, as the second-highest run-scorer inthis season's Plunket Shield, has forced hisway back into contention. Fulton scored902 runs in nine Shield matches, withthree centuries, seven half-centuries at anaverage of 56.37. Had the recurrence of aknee injury not forced him home, hewould have opened the batting during theseries against South Africa. "Gettingselected is great, but now I need to workhard, play well and score runs to keepmyself in there," 34-year-old Fulton said."I've always looked at my internationalcareer in two parts. There's the ODI stuff,where I played 49 games and compiled apretty handy record. Then there's the 10 orso Tests I played. I never really got goingand had a pretty average record. "I dothink my game has changed a bit thoughand I'm a bit more versatile now. I'vescored a few runs this season, some quitequickly and some I've really had to grindout." He is not the only mature face in theNew Zealand squad. Bruce Martin wasfirst called into the New Zealand squad asa teenager in 2000 but, 13 years later andaged 32, remains without an internationalcap. Now, like then, he owes his call-up inpart to injury to his fellow left-arm spinnerDaniel Vettori but, while he missed out toDarly Tuffey on that occasion, lookscertain to play this time. Martin's PlunketShied record this season is modest - heaverages 40.40 runs per wicket - but,having narrowly missed out to Jeetan Patelfor selection in the Tests against SouthAfrica - will play unless New Zealand optfor an all-seam attack. "I worked hard inSouth Africa and I was disappointed Ididn't get a run there," Martin said. "Iknew I was thereabouts and I had to keepworking hard. It was still a nice surprise.It's going to be good fun and I can't wait.

Amir Khan announceshomecoming plans

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spOrtsS

wednesday, 27 February, 2013

17I've said this before, many times, there's nothing stopping Asia

from having a Major, except just having the right timeslot and

opportunity to build one. – LPGA commissioner Mike Whan

NEW DELHIAgENciES

The Sports Ministry on Tuesday overruledthe Sports Authority of India's (SAI)decision not to clear the Indian men hockeyteam's trip to the Sultan Azlan Shah Cupwith a stern warning to Hockey India (HI)not to overshoot its budget in future. Thesports ministry's decision came minutesafter HI withdrew the team from the 22ndedition of the tournament after the SAIrefused to pick the airfare tab for thetournament to be held in Ipoh, MalaysiaMarch 9-17.

Sports secretary Pradip Kumar Deb saidthat the ministry has cleared the trip after thecase was forwarded by SAI, which hadrefused to sanction the trip citing budgetissues. "We have an annual budget ofRs5.94 crore for Hockey India, but theycrossed it and we have already spentRs11.27 crore. So SAI didn't clear the case

and forwarded it to us. I have cleared the tripsince Sultan Azlan Shah Cup is a toptournament and the team will get goodexposure," said Deb. "But we have warnedHI that in future they should not cross the

budget," he added. Radhica Sreeman, SAI'sregional director (team's wing), said that atthe start of the season, HI was asked toprioritise its tournament schedule within thebudget and Azlan Shah was not part of it.

"HI's schedule of events for the year did nothave Azlan Shah and that was to be takencare of by the federation. In fact, HI'ssecretary general Narinder Batra said thatsince the Azlan Shah organisers took care ofboard and lodging, it was passage that hadto be paid and HI would foot the bill. "Nowall of a sudden, HI wanted government tobear the passage of the team. Afterdiscussions with secretary, department ofsports, the trip was cleared," she said.

Earlier in the day, HI said that SAI hadmade it clear that the men's team will playthe tournament at no cost to government.

"Hockey India has been forced towithdraw its participation from thetournament. Government has alwayscovered the airfare of the team for thistournament till date," HI said in a statement.India are five-time champions in thetournament. They finished third in the lastedition in 2012 and were joint winners in2010 with South Korea.

Sports Ministry clears India’s Azlan Shah trip with warning

MELBOURNEAgENciES

Formula One chief executive BernieEcclestone wants to keep aMelbourne Grand Prix on the racecalendar in the face of localopposition and rival bids.

The Australian GP, a fixture atAlbert Park since moving fromAdelaide for the 1996 F1 season,has come under scrutiny from localpoliticians and residents groups dueto the considerable costs incurred bythe taxpayer in staging the event.

The race is contracted to stay inthe Victorian capital until 2015, butits future beyond that date appearsuncertain. While it remains to beseen if the government and localcouncil will seek to extend the deal,

they appear to have a willing partnerin Ecclestone. Speaking to theAustralian GP's Keeping Trackpodcast, the Ecclestone voiced hispreference for renewing the existingarrangement. "We hope we're goingto be in Melbourne forever. We'rehappy with Melbourne and I'd behappy to sign a 50-year contract. Wedon't have a problem withMelbourne," he said.

"I understand we do get a littlebit of criticism. I don't know why.You start wondering are we reallywanted in Melbourne?

"It appears to be (wanted) now;whenever these sorts of thingshappen I'm told, 'Don't be silly aboutthat, it's just one or two peoplemaking a noise. We're happy forFormula One to be there.'"

ecclestone keento keep MelbourneGrand prix

MufaP Crickettwenty 20

LAHORESTAff rEPOrT

The MUFAP's first hard ball T20 CricketTournament, which started from December8, 2012 was well received and enjoyed inthe asset management industry as thistournament encouraged fun, interaction andbonding between member companies. The event brought together 12 teams splitinto two groups, Group A and Group B, of 6each. The participating members includedAtlas Asset Management, Al MeezanInvestment Management, Arif HabibInvestments, Central Depository Company(CDC), MUFAP, HBL Asset Management,JS Investments, Pak Oman AssetManagement, NBP Fullerton AssetManagement (NAFA), National InvestmentTrust (NIT), IGI Investments and UBLFund Managers. Held on Saturdays, eachteam played 5 group matches. After thecompletion of group stage, four teamsqualified for the semi-final. The top twofrom Group A included HBL Asset andNIT. The top two from Group B includedNAFA and Al Meezan.HBL Asset and NAFA qualified for thefinals which was held on February 23, 2013at National Stadium, Karachi. HBL Assetwon the match by 9 wickets. NAFA afterwinning toss decided to bat, making 143runs for 7 in 20 overs. HBL Asset chasedthe target of 144 runs in 14.3 overs. EmmadHashmi of HBL Asset was declared theMan of the Match scoring 92 runs (not out). Wazir Ali Khoja, Managing Director ofNational Investment Trust Limited was thechief guest at the occasion.Tanweer Ahmed Haral of Arif HabibInvestments was declared the BestBatsman of the Series, Sundeep Kumar ofCDC was declared the Best Bowler of theSeries, Rehan Shaikh of HBL Asset wasdeclared the Best All Rounder of the Seriesand Nadir Akbar of HBL Asset wasdeclared the Best Wicket Keeper of theSeries. Man of the Series was MuhammadIdrees of NAFA. PICIC Asset Managementwas the platinum/lead sponsor of thetournament and Central DepositoryCompany (CDC) is the co/Gold sponsor ofthe tournament. The Silver Sponsorsinclude Al Meezan InvestmentManagement, Arif Habib Investments,HBL Asset Management, NAFA and UBLFunds. NIT sponsored the awards for Manof Matches and Series Awards includingMan of the Series, Best Batsman, BestBowler and Best All Rounder.

baghbanpura moveLAHORE

STAff rEPOrT

Baghbanpura Eaglets entered into the 2ndround of 28th M Yaseen AkhterMemoroial Cricket Event when they beatRavi Park gym by 9 wickets played atIqbal Park Ground on Tuesday.SCORES: Ravi PArk Gym 64 all out. Mazhar

16, Amir 10. Gul Khan 2/9, Ashfaq Aslam

2/13, Safdar 1/6, Hafiz Usman 1/16, Bilawal

2/18, Ishtiaq 2/12. Baghanpura Eaglets 65/1.

Gul Khan 37, Tauseef 27(no). Ramzan 1/9.

LAHORESTAff rEPOrT

Despite being out of favour since long,former Pakistan Hockey captain, RehanButt is in no mood to hang his bootsanytime soon. In a television interview, theexperienced forward applauded theyounger lot which performed well in therecent international events.

“Dropping me was the decision of thefederation, but frankly the playersperformed exceptionally well in theabsence of some senior guys, thereforeshould be highly praised,” said Rehan ButtThe Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF)dropped a few senior players includingRehan Butt, following team’s dismal showin the London Olympics last year. “I ampleased to see the team returning withBronze and Gold medals in back to backevents lately”, added Butt, who has recently

monitored the trails to pick national U-16outfit for the upcoming Asia Cup. On aquestion about retirement, the formerskipper termed it a one-time call, addingthat he wanted to take the important

decision after through deliberation. “I don’twant to go and then come back. Retirementwill come eventually but not till I amplaying foreign leagues. I will hang myboots once and for all.” maintained RehanButt. The PHF recently gave Rehan Buttthe responsibility of coaching the junioroutfit for the upcoming event. In the firstphase he, along with other officials, haswitnessed trials in various cities to pick abunch of U-16 players.

Rehan Butt, 32, said he has beenenjoying his new responsibilities andconsiders it as a way to give somethingback to the country. “I have witnessedvery good players at this level especiallyin Punjab and KPK, soon the probables beannounced for the training camp inKarachi, where I will be working on themfor the Asia Cup” concludes Rehan ButtThe U-16 Asia Cup is scheduled to be heldin Singapore from April 4 to 7.

retirement is a one timedecision, says rehan Butt

team prepareactively for uae7s rugby

LAHORESTAff rEPOrT

Pakistan rugby team will participate in UAErugby sevens tournament and for thepurpose the team is preparing actively.According to spokesmen of PRU and UAErugby that this event is to be hosted by theUAE Rugby Federation, the tournament willbe played over the weekend of March 15and 16 at Dubai Sports City. Pakistan rugbyteam training camp will start at the weekendat DHA Lahore K block ground under thesupervision of Head coach Rizwan Malikand Coach Shakeel Malik. Players from allover the country are participating in thiscamp which will also be shortlisted thisweekend. UAE spokesmen, said that theaim of the tournament is to providedeveloping Unions with the opportunity tocompete at an International level and aims tocater for teams who do not participate in theHSBC sponsored Asian Sevens Series.

akhter Club winLAHORE

STAff rEPOrT

Akhter Abdul Rehman club entered into the2nd round of 10th M Siddiq Memorial cricketevent after beating strong Muslim Gym by 6wickets played at Mehran Block ground onTuesday Morning. Fine batting by Imran Buttwas the main feature of the match. SCORES: Muslim Gym 164/3 in 20 overs.

Arslan Bajwa 49, Faraz Meer 57, Mohsin

PErvaiz 24, Asim Ali NAsir 15(no). Gia Khan

2/13, Asfand Mehran 1/44. Akhter Abdul

Rehman CLub 165/4. Imran Butt 90(no), Asif

Raza 18, HAfiz Imran 25, Rana Tahir 18. M

Hussain 1/24, Waqas Aslam 1/35, Moshin Asim

1/34, Noman Aslam 1/30.

garhi shaho gym win LAHORE

STAff rEPOrT

Ghari Shaho Gym has won the openingmatch of 16th Tauseef Trophy cricketchampionship when they beat NationalGym by 27 runs played at MehranBlock ground on Tuesday afternoon.The chair man Tournament Committeof East Zone cricket association MrWaqar-ul-munir was the chief guest ofthe match. Fine all round performanceby Kamran Khalil was the main featureof the match. SCORES: Garhi Shao Gym 150/5 in 20 overs.

Atif Ijaz 54, Kamran Khalil 44, Zafar Gohar 13,

KAshif Ijaz 14. Waqas 2/20, Ali Haider 1/16, M

Khan 1/9. ational Gym 123/8 in 20 overs. Ehsan

Ali 34, Waqas Ahmed 23, Babar Malik 23,

Fakhar Abbas 10, ALi abbas 11. Zafar Gohar

3/8, Kamran Khalil 3/19, M Asif 1/23.

AvANTHAAgENciES

Colin Montgomerie, the most prolific British winner in EuropeanTour history, will make his first appearance in the AvanthaMasters next month. The Scot, who captained Europe to RyderCup glory in 2010, has won 31 European Tour titles - two of themin Asia - in an illustrious career, and will now hope to add to hisimpressive tally when the fourth edition of the Avantha Mastersis held at a new venue, Jaypee Greens Golf Course, Greater

Noida, India from March 14-17. Montgomerie's title ambitionsat the €1.8million event, which is tri-sanctioned by the AsianTour, European Tour and the Professional Golf Tour of India(PGTI), will be put to test by a stellar field that includes Three-time Asian Tour Order of Merit winner Thongchai Jaidee ofThailand, Singapore's Mardan Mamat, a three-time Asian Tourwinner and Australia's Scott Hend. The local charge will bespearheaded by Jeev Milkha Singh, Asia's number one in 2006and 2008 as well as Anirban Lahiri and Gaganjeet Bhullar whohave a combined total of six Asian Tour victories.

Montgomerie to make Avantha Masters debut

MELBOuRNE: Jenson

Button of Great Britain and

McLaren leads the field at

the start of the Australian

Formula One Grand Prix.

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:21 AM Page 18

spOrts Swednesday, 27 February, 2013

18

wAtCh It LIve

STAR SPORTSAFC League: Pohang Steelersv Beijing Guoan03:55 PM

Lewis is a fantastic driver from a speed, competitiveness and

racing perspective, and now we have to learn to work together

on an engineering and development side. – Ross Brawn

ESPNFA Cup: Middlesbroughv Chelsea01:10 AM

ESPNAFC Cup: KingfisherEast Bengal v Selangor02:55 PM

LAHORESTAff rEPOrT

The 10th Royal Palm Flood Lit CricketTournament was played over 7 days with theparticipation of 16 teams and the preliminaryrounds were contested on league basis and aftersome real hot contests, four teams with all roundcricketing ability and appreciable level of fitnessand commitment emerged as the semi finalists.The semi-finalist did produce fireworks andthrilling encounters were witnessed with theRoyal Vikings team losing out to the outfit ofLahore Lions in the first semi final and in thesecond semi final Indus Warriors crushed theiropponents Indus Chargers. As for the final

encounter between Lahore Lions and IndusChargers ,the hero of the event turned out to beUsman Javed who bowled exceptionally welland succeeded in curbing the shot making abilityof the opponents and when it came to batting hishandling of the opposition bowling was amplyadroit and through masterly batting sparkledwith flow of sixes.The members of the winningteam were Tanveer Karamat,JunaidAhmed,Ahad Tanveer,Usman Javed,OmerSubhan,Omer Salamat,Junaid Khawaja andUsman Pervaiz.

At the conclusion of this six day event,Faisal Munir of Chawla Aluminium and OmerMir of Royal Palm awarded prizes to thewinning and runners up teams.

RAWALPINDISTAff rEPOrT

The Rotary Global Swim marathon event washeld at Pearl Continental Hotel, Rawalpindi.

The Global Swimarathon was organisedto create Polio eradication awareness from

the World. The event was participated by ateam of Rotarians and swimmers of PearlContinental Hotel, Rawalpindi.

All the swimmers swam 100metres indifferent styles. At the end of the competition,Sheharyar Mirza distributed certificates, andpolio books among all the participants.

DUBAIAgENciES

ROGER Federer thinks he canbe the top man in tennis onceagain, but will need to playout of his skin to get there.

Following his Wimbledon triumph lastyear, Federer briefly reclaimed the numberone ranking which allowed him overtakePete Sampras for the most weeks spent atthe top. However, the Swiss has not wona tournament since the Cincinnati Mastersin the lead-up to the US Open and withAndy Murray adding to the stiffcompetition already offered by NovakDjokovic and Rafael Nadal, once hereturns, it is looking increasingly unlikelythat he will scale the summit once again.

The 31-year-old agrees it can happenonly if he's playing exceptional tennis. "It'sdefinitely realistic if I'm playing great, butI need to play absolutely great," he

remarked to reporters in Dubai where he'sdefending his title and reached the secondround after beating Malik Jaziri in threesets. "I can play great, but will I be allowedto? Time will tell. My big focus is onmaking sure that every tournament I enter

I am perfectly prepared. I am hopeful I willget enough matches, but if not my schedulecan be changed. I need to make sure I haveenough time off, so that when 2014 comesI am in a position with options, which Ialmost wasn't this year to a degree."

fed has to play ‘absolutelygreat’ to be no. 1

dolgopolov dumped

out by dodig in florida

DELRAYAgENciES

Sixth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov was themajor casualty on the opening day of theDelray Beach International TennisChampionships. The Ukrainian wasbeaten 6-3 6-3 by world number 62 IvanDodig of Croatia, ranked 40 placesbelow him. There were no suchproblems for the other two seeds inaction, Sam Querrey and Xavier Malisse.

10th Royal Palm Flood LitCricket Tournament

pC, rawalpindi Globalswim Marathon event

LAHORE: The winners of the Royal Palm Cricket, the Lahore Lions receive trophy

from Faisal Munir of Chawla Aluminium.

RAWALPINDi: Sheharyar Mirza, General Manager, Pearl Continental Hotel Rawalpindi

along with the participants of the Global Swim-marathon, 2013 to support the global

campaign to ‘end polio now’.

LHR 27-02-2013_Layout 1 2/27/2013 5:21 AM Page 19

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami

wednesday, 27 February, 2013

ISLAMABADNNi

tHE government has an intense de-sire to see Balochistan prosperwhich is only possible if the childrenof the province, especially girls, aremotivated and educated, Prime Min-

ister Raja Pervez Ashraf said on Tuesday. Addressing the third session of the

Prime Minister’s Scholarship Programmefor the students of Balochistan, the primeminister said not only Islam laid a greatstress on education but it was essential forleading a successful life. Praising the con-fidence of the students‚ Ashraf said he waspleased with the performance of the girlswho had come from far-flung areas ofBalochistan and were being educated in thefinest schools in Islamabad.

The prime minister urged the girls toseek further education so that they could be

successful in life. Acknowledging the ef-forts of Special Assistant to Prime MinisterShahnaz Wazir Ali‚ he said he wanted toplace on record her role and those who hadplayed their role in the education of girlsfrom Balochistan.

The prime minister accepted the de-mand of the children to increase theirstipend from Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 permonth. Earlier, principal of the school

Shaista Pirzada apprised the prime ministerthat a number of young girls from remoteareas of Balochistan were presently bene-fiting from the Prime Minister’s Scholar-ship Programme.

Sara Khalid, a student said she be-longed to Pashin and had never traveled be-fore. She pledged to work hard and payback the country by passing on the knowl-edge she was receiving.

RAWALPINDIAmir SAEED

In a major development, an accountabil-ity court on Tuesday approved the appli-cation of an accused – legal adviser toTauqir Sadiq, former OGRA chief andthe main accused – in the Rs 82 billioncorruption case and accepted his assis-tance in the investigation.

The court also directed the NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB) to produceTauqeer Sadiq on February 28. The Ac-countability Court of Rawalpindi acceptedthe application of Shahzad Saleem Bhatti,legal advisor to former OGRA chief, whois accused of extending undue favours toprivate companies and causing a loss ofRs 82 billion to the national exchequer.

Rawalpindi Accountability CourtJudge Chaudhry Shahid Naseer resumedthe hearing of OGRA corruption case onTuesday. During the course of hearing,Bhatti filed an application before thecourt, offering to cooperate with officials

investigating the multi-billion rupee cor-ruption case.

On December 30, 2012, a NAB teamarrested Bhatti, who is the son of PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) MPA from BurewalaSardar Khalid Saleem Bhatti, in connectionwith the OGRA corruption case. Bhatti isaccused to be Tauqir Sadiq’s front man.Sadiq allegedly received more than Rs 50million from various parties for approvingtheir licenses for opening CNG stations.

According to the prosecutors, Bhatti al-legedly received Rs 3 million, each fromMuhammad Iqbal Bhatti, MuhammadSaleem Chohan of Arifwala, MuhammadShafique Butt of Muzafargarh, MirzaShahzad Ahmad of Burewala, Sprint Energyof Bahwalnagar, Hasilpur among others.The former legal adviser to OGRA chiefalso submitted a “voluntary return” of Rs 6million in the shape of a pay order in favourof NAB chairman regarding the case.

During the course of hearing, thecourt also enquired about the arrest of theprincipal accused, Tauqir Sadiq.

NEW DELHIONLiNE

A resolution of the outstanding Kashmirissue would make Pakistan a “more normalstate” and reduce its preoccupation withIndia, said a former CIA officer, who was oneof the architects of US President BarackObama’s Af-Pak policy in his first term.

In his latest book Avoiding Armageddon:America, India, and Pakistan to the Brink andBack, Bruce Riedel said by eliminating Pak-istan’s desire to wage asymmetric warfareagainst India, it would also discourage Pak-istan from making alliances with the Taliban,Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and al Qaeda.

Riedel and late Richard Holbrooke werethe architects of Obama’s Af-Pak policy. He iscurrently a research scholar at the prestigiousBrookings Institute. “The resolution of theKashmir issue would go a long way towardmaking Pakistan a more normal state and re-ducing its preoccupation with India,” he wrote.

He said it would also remove a major ra-tionale for the army’s disproportionate rolein Pakistani national security affairs that in

turn would help to ensure the survival of gen-uine civilian democratic rule in the country.

“Former ambassador William Milam, aseasoned South Asia hand, has rightly stressedthat the ‘India-Centricity of the Pakistani mind-set is the most important factor and variable’in the future of the country. Such an agreementwould not resolve all the tensions between thetwo neighbours. However, their disputes on is-sues other than Kashmir are comparativelytrivial,” he wrote. “A Kashmir deal would setthe stage for a different era in the subcontinentand for more productive interaction between theinternational community and Pakistan. It couldset the stage for a genuine rapprochement be-tween India and Pakistan and nurture trade andeconomic interaction, which could transform thesubcontinent for the better,” Riedel said.

He said “it is also in India’s interest” tofind a solution to the conflict, which hadgone on far too long. “Since the Kargil warin 1999, the Indians have been more open toan American role in Kashmir because theysense that Washington is fundamentally infavour of a resolution to maintain the statusquo, which India can accept,” he claimed.

adiala missingpersons cannotbe released, agtells sC

ISLAMABADiNP

A three-member Supreme Court benchwas informed on Tuesday that releasingthe Adiala Jail missing persons wasimpossible in the absence of CivilAuthority’s regulations. AttorneyGeneral Irfan Qadir informed the benchheaded by Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry that the suspectswere arrested in the semi-autonomousnorth-western tribal belt, where the armyhad been fighting militants for around adecade. He said none of the suspectscould be freed until the end of operationsin the Tribal Areas, and declined to sayhow long they had been in custody. “Thedetained men can be handed over toauthorities only after the operation ishalted in the tribal region.” The chiefjustice said the suspects must be put ontrial and holding them indefinitelyviolated principles of human rights.“These people cannot be kept in illegalcustody for an indefinite period becauseit is against the constitution and basicfundamental rights,” he said. “We don’tsay you should release them, we want youto try them in accordance with the law,”the court added.

government wants to seebalochistan prosper: PM

tauqir sadiq’s legal adviseroffers help in probe

zardarI to Leave

for Iran today

ISLAMABAD: President Asif AliZardari is scheduled to make a two dayofficial visit to Islamic Republic of Irantoday (Wednesday). Presidentsspokesman Senator Farhatullah Babarsaid that during the visit, the Presidentwill hold talks with the Iranian leader-ship on a host of bilateral issues andthe regional situation. He said the visitwas part of ongoing efforts at the lead-ership level to further strengthen the bi-lateral relations and consult each otheron regional and international issues ofconcern to the two countries. He addedthat the president has been urging forfurther strengthening of the bilateral re-lations and for early completion of themega projects between the two coun-tries. President Zardari expressed thehope that the visit would lend furtherimpetus to the efforts aimed at earlycompletion of the bilateral projects’ Headded. PPi

Kashmir solution will makepakistan ‘normal’: Us expert

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