Continued on Page 7

Punjab too comes out withRamzan package................................................Politics, perhaps, no moregentlemen’s business................................................All should expel dissidentsof other countries

See Page 04

SRINAGAR—An Indian armysoldier was killed and twoothers wounded in a skir-mish near the heavilymilitarised Line ofControl(L0C) between Indiaand Pakistan in Indian Kash-mir, a defence spokespersonsaid Monday.

“A patrol of the armywas targeted by mines andsmall arms fire by a group ofunidentified armed person-nel,” a defence statementsaid, referring to the clashon Sunday night.

The incident took placein Akhnoor, 350 kilometressouth of the main city ofSrinagar, as hardline primeminister-elect NarendraModi was busy givingshape to a new governmentin New Delhi.

Modi, who has said thatpeace talks with Pakistancannot take place at thesame time as violence,swept to power on Fridayafter his Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) scored the firstparliamentary majority in 30years.

Indian soldierkilled, two

wounded near LoC

ISLAMABAD—Weeks of infightingbetween Taliban groups have ham-pered stop-start peace talks with thegovernment, sources said Monday,as the insurgents’ leader vowed tocontinue fighting until their Shariawas enforced in Pakistan.

Two factions of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the umbrellagrouping for disparate militantgroups, have been locked in bloodyclashes since at least March.

The fighting has claimed morethan 90 lives in the tribal areas alongthe Afghan border and has nowforced the TTP’s commander-in-chiefMullah Fazlullah to appoint a media-tor to try to end the feud, militantsources told AFP.

“The infighting has forced theTaliban leadership to postpone peacetalks for the time being,” a TTP in-sider told AFP on condition of ano-

nymity.Another Taliban commander in

the northwest confirmed to AFP that“peace talks have been halted untilend of differences between the tworival groups.”

The development threatens toundermine what little progress hasbeen made in the peace negotiations.The government of Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif began the talks in Feb-ruary to try to end the TTP’s seven-year insurgency which has claimedthousands of lives.

Insiders say the TTP feud, whichcame to light in March, is over com-mand in the South Waziristan tribalarea and who has the right to leadthe Mehsud tribe, from which themovement draws many of its mem-bers.

The conflict pits followers of thelate TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud,

led by commander SheheryarMehsud, against supporters of KhanSaid Sajna.

Hakimullah Mehsud was killed bya US drone last November.“Differences between the Sajna andSheheryar groups mean differencesin the Mehsud tribe and its continu-ation is very harmful for the Taliban,”the commander said.

Fazlullah, who became TTP chiefon Hakimullah’s death, has sepa-rately vowed to continue his armedstruggle until Sharia law is in forceacross Pakistan.

In a video released by the TTP’smedia wing, Fazlullah was seen ar-riving in a training camp somewherein a mountainous area with aroundtwo dozen masked men armed withassault rifles, pistols and rocket-pro-pelled grenades.

Taliban infighting impedes peace talks

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Election Commission ofPakistan on Monday decided to take ac-tion against those individuals found guiltyof casting more than one vote in the May2013 elections and also approved the reg-istration of 11 new political parties.

The election commission decided totake action against those individuals whohad olled more than one vote in last year’sgeneral elections and in this regard soughtdata of the constituencies whose record hadbeen verified by National Database andRegistration Authority, Syed Sher Afgansaid that those found guilty of casting more

than one vote would be dealt under crimi-nal laws and would be punishable uptothree years.

The commission also approved the reg-istrations of 11 new political parties takingthe tally of registered parties to 281.

The ECP also rejected a petition, filedby an independent candidate from Multan’sNA 151 constituency, seeking to cancel theregistration of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI).

The petitioner had claimed that the JIhad collected funds for charity which werelater used in the election campaign of theparty. The election commission rejectedthe petition citing a lack of credible evi-dence to prove the claims.

Multiple vote casters toget 3 years punishment

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The defence budget onlycaters to the needs of the maintenance ofmilitary installations and we cannot buyships, aircraft and submarines from thismeagre money, said Air Vice MarshalArshad Quddus, additional secretary Min-istry of Defence.

AVM Quddus was addressing an eventorganised by the Senate Standing Commit-tee on Defence, to have an ‘open discus-sion’ on the defence budget.

Out of the Rs627 billion of the defensebudget, 43.4% is spent on salaries and al-lowance, 25.8% on transport, fuel, rationand medical treatment while 21.1% is spenton physical assets and 9.9% on civil works.

“This year the armed forces’ tail hasbecome longer, while the teeth have short-ened”, said Quddus.

‘Teeth’ are the proportion of expendituresbeing incurred on acquiring fighting assetsto the expenses on logistical infrastructureand maintenance of troop, called ‘tail’.

Quddus said that teeth shortened to21% while tail became longer to 79% thisyear. Last year, the size of teeth was 22%while 78% was spent on other heads.

He said military’s share on account ofCoalition Support Fund reimbursements andUnited Nations peacekeeping forces shouldbe treated within the announced defencebudget. Quddus said that the army gets ashare of 70% of total defense budget and63% of it is spent on paying salaries andallowance.

The Air Force gets one-fifth of the totalbudget and spends 41.5% on physical as-sets while the Navy’s share is one-tenth ofthe total budget and it spends 40% of it onprocurements. He said Pakistan was spend-ing far less on defence when compared withregional peers.

It was a first in the parliamentary his-tory of Pakistan, the Senate Defence Com-mittee organized a detailed briefing for themedia on the defence budget and launchedthe first-ever Media Manual on the defence

Pakistan’s defencespending lowest in region

Defence budget barely meets needs: Secretary

Continued on Page 7

FBI agent JoelCox freed, armscase dismissed

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—FBI agent JoelCox was freed on Mondayof all cases registeredagainst him including carry-ing ammunition and spyingequipment.

On Monday, hearing ofthe case of carrying illegal

ammunitionwas con-ducted atthe SessionCourt ind i s t r i c tMalir. Po-lice hadsubmitted a

challan in the said case inthe court.

Counsel of the accusedCox, Barrister Zahid ap-prised the court that his cli-ent was on a special missionin Pakistan and the ammu-nition recovered from hispossession was not usedagainst anyone while hav-ing been on a special mis-sion, he had been allowedto carry ammunition withhim.

Barrister Zahid pre-sented a letter from US em-bassy in the court, whichwas attested by the SindhHome Department oncourt’s order after which thecourt dismissed the caseand ordered for return of thestuff that Police had takeninto custody from Cox’spossession after his arrest.

It is pertinent to mentionthat Cox was arrested fromJinnah International Airport,Karachi under charges forcarrying spying equipmentsand ammunition. Court hadordered his release againstRs 1 million and he was re-leased from Artillery MaidanPolice station.

Hamid Mirappears before

judicialcommissionOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—In order torecord his statement, se-nior journalist and Geo an-chor Hamid Mir on Mon-day appeared second timebefore the judicial commis-sion constituted to probethe assassination attempton him.

For some time HamidMir mingled with thepeople, some of whom werejournalists associated withvarious media outlets, andthen entered the court build-ing in his wheel chair. Hisbrother Amir Mir also ac-companied him.

All this time Hamid Mirappeared with his handplaced on his stomach asa feeling of pain reflectedclearly in his facial expres-sions.

Continued on Page 7

QUETTA—Security forcesraided a truck and recovereda large quantity of weapons,ammunition and explosivesin Gulistan area near thePak-Afghan border regionon Monday.

Balochistan Home Min-ister MirS a r f a r a zBugti allegedthat neighbouring countries,including India and Af-ghanistan, were trying tocarry out terror activities toweaken Pakistan.

He further claimed thatAfhgan intelligence agen-

cies had set up at least 34insurgent camps in this re-gard.Security forces claimed tohave recovered 70 sacks ofexplosive materials, 45 pre-pared bombs, 200 detona-tors, 100 AK-47 rifles, nine

K a l a k o vrifles, threeG-3 rifles and

135 handguns from hiddencompartments in the truck.

Bomb making and otherequipment recovered in-cluded one hundredbundles of prima cord, 50

Arms, explosives recoverednear Pak-Afghan border

Continued on Page 7

IHC notices toARY, summons

Geo teamZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—A senior law-yer of Shohada Foundationof Pakistan (SFP) on Mon-day came up with a “quick”solution to the week-longcontroversy that shatterednerves of the nation sug-gesting ban on the contro-versial qawwali. TheFoundation’s lawyer re-quested the Islamabad HighCourt to black out the very“qawwali” or “mankabat”

Continued on Page 7

Modi to beelected BJP,NDA leadertomorrowNEW DELHI—Jockeyingfor positions in the newUnion Cabinet gainedmomentum on Monday asNarendra Modi is all set tobe elected as leader of theBJP parliamentary partyand the NDA coalition onTuesday, ahead of hisbeing called to form thegovernment by thePresident.

Modi will meetPresident PranabMukherjee on Tuesdayafter his election in thefirst formal step before heis sworn in as PrimeMinister probably by theweekend.

A number of names oftop BJP leaders includingRajnath Singh, SushmaSwaraj, Arun Jaitley, NitinGadkari, Murli ManoharJoshi and Venkaiah Naiduwere doing the rounds forpossible inclusion inModi’s cabinet.

Picture on Back Page

Three newpolio casesin FATASTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Three morechildren were diagnosedwith poliovirus type 1 inFatao on Monday,bringing the total numberof cases to 66 this year.

According to anofficial press release fromPrime Minister’s PolioMonitoring & Coordina-tion Cell, the presence ofthe virus was confirmed inthree children.

Two of the cases werefrom North Waziristanwhile the third wasreported from SouthWaziristan.

The children afflictedwith polio are six-month-old Afsa Bibi and 22-month-old Waqas fromNorth Waziristan as well as22-month-old Romana fromSouth Waziristan.

In almost all casesreported from North andSouth Waziristan, thepersons have neverreceived an oral dose ofpolio vaccine, the pressrelease states. No poliocampaigns have beenconducted in these areassince June 2012.

The press release also

President toaddressparliamenton June 2STAFF REPORT

ISLAMABAD—PresidentMamnoon Hussain hassummoned joint session ofthe parliament for 11 AMon June 2.

PresidentMamnoon Hussain will beaddressing the joint sittingof the parliament for thefirst time after assumingcharge of his office.

Besides three serviceschiefs and members of theNational Assembly andSenate, the session willalso be attended byforeign ambassadors.

Continued on Page 7

ISLAMABAD: TV anchorperson Hamid Mir, surroundedby journalists, leaves the Supreme Court after appearingbefore the judicial commission on Monday.Continued on Page 7

OBSERVER REPORT

KABUL—Pakistan, Afghanistan andNato/ISAF have agreed to coordinateclosely during the drawdownof Nato forces from Afghani-stan later this year.

Consensus emerged dur-ing a high level meeting heldat Afghan Defence Ministryin Kabul on Monday.

Four-star level meetingwas attended by Chief ofArmy Staff General RaheelSharif, Afghan Chief of Gen-eral Staff General SherMuhammad Karimi andCommander of ISAF GeneralJoseph Dunford, an ISPRspokesman said in a state-ment issued at the end of themeeting.

“Participants reviewedthe current security situation in Af-ghanistan. Besides the transfer of se-curity responsibility to Afghan Na-tional Security Forces in the wake ofUS/ISAF drawdown, enhanced bilat-eralism between Pakistan and Af-

Pak, Afghan, ISAF mily commanders discuss security situation

NATO forces drawdownto be coordinated closely

Afghan Chief of General StaffGen Sher Muhammad Karimi

Chief of Army StaffGeneral Raheel Sharif

Commander of ISAFGeneral Joseph Dunford

ghanistan with particular emphasison coordination arrangements alongPakistan-Afghanistan border wasalso deliberated upon during the

meeting.”Afghan military officials also

briefed the Pakistani delegation overthe latest security situation in Af-ghanistan with special emphasis onthe Afghan Presidential Elections.

Gen Sharif said that Pakistan con-siders security and terrorism as thecommon enemy of both countries.

During the visit, Army Chief

Raheel Sharif held separate meetingswith the Afghan Acting PresidentYounis Qanooni and Afghan DefenceMinister General BismillahMuhammadi during which matters ofmutual interest were discussed.

Modi has previously re-acted sharply to clashes onthe border and his top aideAmit Shah has said on sev-eral occasions thatPakistan’s army would not“dare” cross the LoC withModi as prime minister.

He is expected to besworn in later this week.

About a dozen rebelgroups have been fightingIndian forces since 1989 forindependence or merger ofthe Himalayan territorywith Pakistan. The fightinghas left tens of thousands,mostly civilians, dead.

India accuses Pakistanof helping the rebels infil-trate Kashmir across theLoC, a charge Islamabaddenies, saying it providesonly moral and diplomaticsupport.

Bilateral ties betweenIndia and Pakistan haveonly slightly recoveredfrom the rock bottom theyhit after the 2008 Mumbaiattacks in which 166 peoplewere allegedly killed by Pa-kistani gunmen.—APContinued on Page 7

JoelCox

STAFF REPORTER

QUETTA—The Anti-Terrorism Court hereon Monday, granting exemption from ap-pearance in court on Monday, orderedformer president General (retd) PervezMusharraf to make his presence a ‘must’on June 16 next hearing of Akbar Bugti mur-der case.ATC Judge Tariq Anwar Kasi was hearingthe Akbar Bugti murder case here.

Former federal interior minister, AftabSherpao, former provincial home minister,Mir Shoaib Nausherwani and the two guar-

antors of Pervez Musharraf appeared be-fore the court.

During the hearing, Pervez Musharraf’scounsel submitted a petition praying hisclient’s exemption from appearance on medi-cal ground, which the court granted. How-ever, the court asked the guarantors offormer president to ensure PervezMusharraf’s presence on the next hearing.Meanwhile, Aftab Sherpao and Mir ShoaibNausherwani submitted their petitions inthe court praying for their acquittal.

Later, the court adjourned further hear-ing until June 16.

Bugti murder case

Musharraf appearance‘must’ on June 16: Judge

President inShanghai toattend CICAconference

S H A N G H A I — P r e s i d e n tMamnoon Hussain has ar-rived in Shanghai, China toattend three-day ‘Confer-ence on Interaction andConfidence-Building Mea-sures in Asia’ beginning onTuesday.

CICA is a multi-nationalforum for enhancing coop-eration towards promotingpeace, security and stabil-ity in Asia.

The President will high-light Pakistan’s efforts toovercome terrorism and pro-mote peace and stability inthe region.

During his stay, he willalso hold meeting with hisChinese counterpart XiJinping on the sidelines ofconference. He will discussbilateral cooperation andreview progress on the pro-posed mega projects foreconomic development ofPakistan to be launchedwith the cooperation ofChina.

The President is also ex-pected to hold bilateral meet-ings with other Asian lead-ers attending the conferenceContinued on Page 7

KARACHI/PESHAWAR—Chief MinisterSindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah inaugurated13-days long Special ImmunizationCampaign against Measles in Sindh byinjecting anti-measles vaccine to a childat CM house here in a simple ceremony.Sindh Minister for Health Dr SagheerAhmed was also present and adminis-tered the anti-measles vaccine to achild, said a statement on Monday.

The ceremony was also attendedby the Chief Secretary Sindh SajjadSaleem Hotyana, Secretary Health IqbalDurani, Qamar-ul-Hassan from WHOIslamabad, Arif Aslam from UNICEFKarachi, Wandeay from WHO Karachiand Mazhar Ali Khamisani PD-EPISindh and other officers of the Sindhgovernment. On the occasion, Provin-cial Secretary Health Iqbal Duranibriefed the Chief Minister that this 13-day long special immunization cam-paign is being launched with the col-laboration of Gavi-World HealthOrganisation with total joint investmentof Rs 1,050 million.

He said that out of this amount Rs800 million being spent on the purchaseof vaccines, while Rs 250 million wouldbe incurred on its operational activi-ties throughout the province. Durranifurther elaborated that at least 13.33

Anti-measles vaccination campaign kicks off in KP, Sindh

22.39m kids to be immunizedmillion children between age groupfrom six months to 10 years have beentargeted to be immunized with the helpof 6,959 skilled persons and 130,181social mobilizers in 1,120 union coun-cils of 29 districts of the province.

He said that the social mobilizershave been assigned to conduct houseto house visit, mobilize the children oftargeted age group and bring them tothe nearest hospitals or vaccinationsite for the purpose. Talking on theoccasion, the CM Sindh said that PPPgovernment was giving top priority tothe health services to ailing people andhas earmarked Rs 17 billion in currentbudget for the purpose.

He said that though we are invest-ing huge fund to cure the patients butmore awareness for care of diseases isneeded. He said that care is better thancure and the organisations within thegovernment and private sector to con-centrate on this issue. The CM Sindhsaid that Measles, Polio, Hepatitis B, Cand other fatal diseases are the chal-lenges to the individuals andorganisations concerned and thesecould be combated only with joint ef-forts of the government and commu-nity. The CM stressed upon the printand electronic media to sensitize

people about this issue for maximumvaccination of the children. The CMstressed upon the people to avail theopportunity of Extended Programme ofImmunization (EPI) available at eachhospital and get their children vacci-nated from all diseases.

Peshawar: A 12 days anti measlescampaign on Monday started inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa wherein 9.6mil-lion children would be vaccinated inthe province. Dr Janbaz Afridi, DeputyDirector EPI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa toldAPP that vaccination campaign againstmeasles started throughout the prov-ince today with a target of vaccinating9.6million children aged between sixmonths to ten years. He said the cam-paign will continue for 12 days whereinspecialist doctors and paramedics be-sides lady health visitors and volun-teers would vaccinate children.

He said decision has been made toinclude services of all the stakeholdersincluding Govt. departments, districtadministration, political leadership,ulema, media, academicians and civilsociety to make this campaign a suc-cess. Dr Janbaz said measles was a fa-tal disease and the vaccination was thebest option to wipe out this disease.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The pilgrims visiting theholy land for the performance of Umrahhave complained of serious irregulari-ties and fraudulent practice on part ofthe tour operators who are fleecing theinnocent faithfuls even exposing themto Haraam acts including running thesanctity of Pardah for the lady pilgrims.

A number of people recently re-turning from the performance of Umrahnarrated their tails of ordeal in the holyland to Pakistan Observer.

They said though over chargingthe pilgrims through hidden chargesby the Umrah and Hajj tour operatorshas become a common phenomenon,this time some of the operators in thelust of making more money, havestepped forward and mercilessly ru-

Pilgrims complain of deceptive practices of tour operators

Non-mehram males, femalesbundled up for same rooms

NOWSHERA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak Inaugurating water supply scheme at a remotevillage.

CHAMAN: Pakistan paramilitary soldier stands guard during making mud wall at Pak-Afghan border to seal all illegal crossing points between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

FAISALABAD: Residents of Kamala Abad protesting in favour of their demands at Clock Tower Square, here onMonday.

ined the sanctity of Pardah by puttingNon-Mehram male and females in thesame rooms only adding to the ago-nies of the ladies who found them-selves totally helpless abroad.

“Observance of Pardah from Na-Mehram is the requirement of our reli-gion and that condition is most re-quired during Umrah and Hajj and non-compliance is considered as Haraam,but a tour operator titled Karvan-e-Jeddah Peshawar bundled up both fe-males and males, strangers to eachother, in the same rooms without car-ing a fig about the religious obligationthat does not allow the female to evenshow her face to the Na-Mehram whatto say of sleeping in the same roomwith strangers”. M i s sKhan, one of the many aggrieved pil-grims returning from Umra recently,

told Observer adding “this is disgust-ing, how can a woman sleep in thesame room in presence of number ofNon-Mehrams and that too duringUmrah rituals.

She said when we brought this ob-noxious act in the notice of the touroperators they said this is sharing inthe rooms adding when we told themthe sharing of rooms can only be donewith the same sex, they had no answer.

Miss Khan and other pilgrims ap-pealed to the Federal Minister for reli-gious affairs, Secretary Religious af-fairs, Director General Hajj and otherrelevant quarters to take strict noticeof this situation and initiate actionagainst the tour operators indulgingin such kind of practice so that morefaithfuls embarking upon Umra tourare not cheated in the future.

PESHAWAR—Khyber PakhtunkhwaGovernor, Sardar Mahtab AhmadKhan Monday constituted a five-member FATA Reforms Commission toframe and steer reforms initiatives,process immediate, short, medium andlong term reforms.

On approval of the proposals,Commission would be converted intoFATA Performance Management Unitto supervise performance of all theimplementing agencies, departmentsand to monitor the progress on reformsinitiatives.

“It will generate regular reports forperusal of Governor, introduce mid-course corrections wherever requiredand will produce wholesome docu-ment”. According to a formal notifica-tion, the commission is mandated toformulate and propose clear strategicobjectives, strategies, policies, actionplan and put forward recommenda-tions for approval of the Governor. It

would have the authority to formulateor authorize policies into operationalactivities relating specifically to prepa-ration of next twenty five years strat-egy reforms program under the pa-tronage of the Governor KhyberPakhtunkhwa.

The Commission headed by formerChief Secretary, Ejaz Ahmad Qureshiwould be comprised of Lt. Gen (Rtd.)Sabahat Hussain, former Chief Secre-tary, Mir Layaq Shah, former Provin-cial Minister and Mussarrat Qadeem.

The commission would also workto formulate pro-investment policy invarious sectors of economic develop-ment including development of oil andgas, minerals and power, constructionof dams in FATA with special focuson improving quality of life.

The commission would also revisitand redefine state citizen relation-ships, identify reforms areas and op-tions for institutional development

and strengthening good governance.“Reviewing structure of existing

FATA Secretariat, Governor House,Governor’s Secretariat and PoliticalAdministration as far as their role forFATA is concerned were also includedin the mandate of commission.

“Introducing accountability pro-cess in financial management’ e-gov-ernance, grievances addressal system,one window facilitation centre for vari-ous services with help of NADRAborder management system in consul-tation with the Prime Minister of Paki-stan, review current legal and institu-tional system in FATA and to proposeimprovement in existing laws and de-velop legal reforms for implementationof approved initiatives, review the ef-fectiveness of FCR in changing cir-cumstances are also included in termsand conditions of the commission”,the notification stated here Monday.—APP

5-member FATA reformscommission constituted

Housescollapsed due togarbage dumpingQUETTA—The leadership ofPashtoonkhawa Milli AwamiParty (PkMAP) said that mudhouses collapsed in differentareas of the provincial capitalduring recent heavy rains as thestorm water nullahs and mainsewerage drains were blockedby garbage dumping into them.A press release issued by thePkMAP Quetta office, here onMonday said that dumping ofgarbage and faulty infrastruc-ture have blocked storm waternullahs and the main seweragesystem of the metropolis.

“ The torrential rainscaused flashflood as theblocked storm water nullahsand the main sewerage systemfailed in draining out the rain-water that entered the housesand shops in downstream ar-eas of the metropolis, resultingin collapse of several mudhouses in Hazarganji.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The world is losing the battleagainst diabetes as the number of peopleestimated to be living with the disease soarsto a new record of 382 million this year,medical experts said.

The vast majority have Type 2 diabetesthe kind linked to obesity and lack of exer-cise and the epidemic is spreading as morepeople in the developing world adopt West-ern, urban lifestyles, CBC News reported.

The latest estimate from the Interna-tional Diabetes Federation is equivalent toa global prevalence rate of 8.4 per cent ofthe adult population and compares to 371million cases in 2012.

By 2035, the organization predicts thenumber of cases will have soared by 55 percent to 592 million. “The battle to protectpeople from diabetes and its disabling, life-threatening complications is being lost,”the federation said in the sixth edition of itsDiabetes Atlas, noting that deaths from thedisease were now running at 5.1 million ayear or one every six seconds.

People with diabetes have inadequateblood sugar control, which can lead to a

Diabetes cases hit record382 million worldwide

range of dangerous complications, includ-ing damage to the eyes, kidneys and heart.

If left untreated, it can result in prema-ture death.”Year after year, the figures seemto be getting worse,” said David Whiting,an epidemiologist and public health spe-cialist at the federation. “All around theworld we are seeing increasing numbers ofpeople developing diabetes.” He said thata strategy involving all parts of society wasneeded to improve diets and promotehealthier lifestyles.

The country with the most diabeticsoverall is China, where the case load is ex-pected to rise to 142.7 million in 2035 from98.4 million at present. But the highestprevalence rates are to be found in theWestern Pacific, where more than a third ofadults in Tokelau, Micronesia and theMarshall Islands are already living with thedisease. Pharmaceutical companies havedeveloped a range of medicines over theyears to counter diabetes but many pa-tients still struggle to control their condi-tion adequately, leading to a continuinghunt for improved treatments.—APP

0.9m teacherswarn of country

wide protest

ISLAMABAD—Anti Narcotics Force (ANF)Monday recovered 62.2 Kgs Opium, 163Kgs Charas, arrested 12 drug suppliers andseized 6 vehicles.

The operations have been conductedat Lahore, Nowshehra, Quetta, Turbat,Attock, Mianwali and Faisalabad. Accord-ing to details, ANF Lahore Road CheckTeam recovered 18 Kgs Charas from a car,near Mianwali. The drugs were tactfullyconcealed in Cylinder of the SuzukiMargalla registered No. FDU-9231. 3 per-sons on board were arrested, namely Abdul

Wahab s/o Ahmed Jan r/o KhyberAgency, Muhammad Azeem s/o Alam Sherr/o Distt Khushab and Liaqat Ali s/o HajiAkbar Zaman r/o Kohat. ANF Lahore RoadCheck Team recovered 12 Kgs Charas from2 cars, near Faisalabad. The drugs wereconcealed in Toyota Corolla XLI (2011Model) registered No. RD-365 and ToyotaCorolla GLI (2007 Model) registered No.LEF-4555. Both accused have been arrestedat the spot, namely Arshid Mehmood s/o

ANF apprehends 12 drug suppliers,seizes 6 vehicles, recovers 225 kg drugs

Manzoor Mian and Muhammad Razaq s/oFaid Muhammad r/o Mandi Baha-ud-Din.

ANF Lahore Road Check Team recov-ered 36 Kgs Charas and 7.2 Kgs Opium fromthe personal possession of 3 persons. AToyota Corolla car registration No.IDK-6584which was used for drug smuggling hasalso been seized. Both accused MuhammadAli s/o Muhammad Arif r/o Peshawar, AlamSher s/o Islam Sher r/o Peshawar andAshfaq Ahmed s/o Mushtaq Ahmed r/oPeshawar have been arrested at the spot.

ANF Rawalpindi on information recov-ered 1 Kg Charas from personal posses-sion of 2 persons. Rickshaw belonging tothe accused, used for drug supplies at locallevel, has also been confiscated. Both ac-cused namely Umer Hayat s/o Ijaz Khan r/oHazro, district Attock and Rashid Mehmoods/o Jamdad r/o Hazro, district Attock havebeen arrested at the spot.

ANF Peshawar on information con-ducted an operation and recovered 55 Kgsof Opium from a car.

SWABI—A non-govern-ment representative orga-nization of teachers,‘Mutahidda MahazAsatiza Pakistan’ (UnitedTeachers Forum Pakistan)has announced hereMonday to formallylaunch a movement fromthe district level to pressfor their demands beforegoing for a rally on May29 before Parliamenthouse Islamabad.

In a bid to streamlinethe ongoing isolated pro-test and demonstrationcalls by various teachers’organizations, MutihiddaMahaz Asatiza Pakistan,claiming to represent 0.9million teachers acrossthe country, has warnedthe government to resolvethe problems faced by theteaching community andaccept their demands oth-erwise teachers wouldprotest before parliamenthouse on May 29.

Meanwhile, protestrallies and meetings havebeen planned in other cit-ies as well.

This announcementwas made by central chair-man of Mutahida MahazAsatiza PakistanMuhammad Nawaz inmeeting of the associationdistrict Swabi chapter. Se-nior vice president of theassociation, MuhammadFayaz Khan presentedcharter of demands on be-half of the teachers’ com-munity on the occasionwhile office bearers of lo-cal teachers’ associationalso presented their de-mands.

The speakers askedthe government to resolvetheir problems and threat-ened countrywide protestin case their demandswere not accepted.—APP

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Federal Ministerfor Railways Khawaja SaadRafique has said that rail-ways had demand Rs 50 bil-lion as Public Sector Devel-opment Programme for nextfinancial year of 2014-15 butMinistry Of Finance AndPlanning had indicated thatrailways may be allocatedRs 38 billion in this head butwe hope that Prime Minis-ter And Finance Ministerboth would intervene andrailways funds would beenhanced in forthcomingbudget. Minister for Rail-ways stated this, while talk-ing to journalists, after in-augurating an Engine Shedat railways workshops hereon Monday.

He said ministry of rail-ways would utilise 80 per-cent PSDP funds for thecompletion of ongoingprojects and 20 percentwould be reserved for newprojects. We are planning toimport more 75 more loco-motives from China in thenext phase and both local

Facility for proper maintenance of new locomotives revived

Railways likely to receive Rs 38b PSDP in next budgetand international firms whowould qualify the bids forlocomotives, they would ar-range 85 percent funds withthe support of banks, whilerailways would pay 15 per-cent funds from PSDP.

He assured that presentgovernment would deliverrelief rather than more prob-lems for the next regime. Fed-eral Minister said that hehad directed to the con-cerned officials that theywould install CCTVs andarrange fencing and properlighting system in engineshed to control the corrup-tion.

He also advised the rail-ways workers that theyshould make a courage torefuse the implement of ille-gal orders of their higherofficers and if any officerforce them to obey illegalorders they can also informhim. Khawaja Saad Rafiquesaid that all appointmentswould he strictly made onmerit and he would not al-low MNAs and MPAs tointerfere the political ap-pointments. He said that all

candidates must qualify theNTS exams to fill the 850

seats in railways police. Healso gave assurance thatsome 550 railways workers,who were working on con-

tract for last two years,would soon get a good

news. He said railways havearranged Rs 630 million forthe outstanding amount ofTA/DA to the workers

through their own resourceswhich was the proof that

railways income was im-proving gradually.

To a query, Saad Rafiquesaid that if Imran Khan has

some reservations about theresults of previous elections,he should resolve the issuein courts, parliament andthrough dialogue. He saidthat Imran Khan should visitin Khyber Pakhtoonkhwaand settle the public com-plaints against PTI govern-ment and if Imran Khanwould fail to deliver the re-lief to the common people,they would reject him in thenext elections. He said thatfederal government wouldincrease the salaries of em-ployees according to avail-able resources in the comingbudget.

Earlier Tariq Khan, ChiefMechanical Engineer, whilegiving the briefing, said thatET workshops was set-upin 1968 over the 28 acrespiece of land and we wouldrepair and maintain thenewly locomotives in theworkshop premises. He saidsome 60 employees wereworking and this workshopwas renovated worth Rs 6million. Senior railways of-ficers and workers were alsopresent on the occasion.

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique cutting the ribbon toinaugurate ET-Shed in Railways Workshop Lahore.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department(PMD) on Monday forcastchances of rain thunder-storm at isolated places ofIslamabad, Punjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, Kashmir andGilgit Baltistan during thenext 24 hours.

According to the syn-optic situation, a low waslying over northBalochistan and adjoiningarea. A western disturbancewas still affecting westernand upper parts of the coun-try.

The weather would re-main hot and dry in mostparts of Sindh andBalochistan during the next24 hours.

The highest maximumtemperatures recorded inChhor and Mithi was 39 Cwhile temperatures recordedin the other cities wereIslamabad 27 C, Lahore 35C, Karachi 35 C, Peshawar33 C, Quetta 20 C, Skardu 25C, Murree 17 C,Muzaffarabad 26 C, Gilgit 29C, Faisalabad 33 C, Multan32 C and Hyderabad 37 C.

The rainfall recorded

Rain likely atisolated places

during the last 24 hours wasMalam Jabba 18 mm, Balakot13, Kalam 13, Khuzdar 13,Kotli 13, Lower Dir 11,Turbat 10, Dir 9, Murree 7,Astore 5, Rawalpindi 4,Muzaffarabad 3.5, Drosh2.6, Islamabad (Zeropoint)2.2, Garhi Dupatta 2, Mangla2, Quetta(Samungli) 2,Rawalakot 2, Gilgit, Kakul

02, Kalat, Chitral, Jhelum,Quetta(Sheikh Manda),Chakwal, Hunza, SaiduSharif 01 mm.

Lahore: Mainly dryweather is expected in mostparts of the country, how-ever, rain-thunderstorm isexpected at isolated placesin Rawalpindi,Gujranwala,Sargodha, D.G Khan andMultan divisions in next 24hours. According to localMet office, weather remainedhot and dry in most parts ofthe country including pro-vincial capital.—APP

BATTAGRAM: JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman talking to mediamen on Monday.

Quackarrested, illegalhospital sealedKHANEWAL—A quack anda dispenser were arrestedand illegal hospital wassealed by a special team ofdistrict government.

On the special directionof DCO Muhammad UsmanMoazzam, Assistant Commis-sioner, Abid Hussain Bhattialong with Drug inspectorMuhammad Zubair anddeputy DHO Dr Abid Shiekhraided at Chaudhry Clinic onCinema Road Khanewal andarrested quack MuhammadRamzan and dispenserShafqat Rehman.

Muhammad Ramzan hadbeen running illegal hospitalfor the last 10 years where heprescribed allopathic medi-cines and steroids without li-cence.

Huge quantity of medi-cines were seized from thehospital. District Coordina-tion Officer, MuhammadUsman Moazzam said thatno body would be allowedto play with the lives ofpeople.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Min-ister for Finance Siraj-ul-Haq has expressedconcern over delay in the payment of Rs132billion net hydel profit including the principalamount, mark up and arrears by the federalgovernment and stated that not only the Na-tional Finance Commission (NFC) would beapproached in this connection but also thepolitical and national leaders would be calledto a platform to raise collective voice againstthis step-motherly treatment of the federal gov-ernment with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He was chairing a meeting of the workinggroup on the Finance Department at the com-mittee room of civil secretariat, Peshawar onMonday. Secretary Finance Syed BadshahBukhari and all the members of the workinggroup were present on the occasion.

The meeting also approved starting of Is-lamic micro-finance banking and issued neces-sary directives to the Bank of Khyber in thisregard. The minister finance regretted that dueto poor law and order situation in the Khyber

KP to take up non-payment ofRs 132b net hydel profit in NFC

Pakhtunkhwa province during the last manyyears, not only the province was facing financialissues but its whole infrastructure and been givena serious set back and at this stage the step moth-

erly treatment ofthe centre with itwas not a goodomen.

Sirajul Haqsaid the net hydelprofit was payableto the provincesaccording to theAGN Kazi’s Com-mittee constitutedin 1986 and wasapproved by theCouncil of Com-mon Interests inJanuary 1991. He

said WAPDA started payment on account of NHPand the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wasin the receipt of Rs. 6 billion (capped) per annumsince 1991-92. He regretted that WAPDA had beenvery irregular in payment of the capped amount

of Rs.6 billion to the province for the last twoyears in deviation of its constitutional obliga-tion. The minister said that the province hadreceived Rs. 5.2 billion of the previous financialyear 2012-13 during the current financial yearwhereas no payment had been received for thecurrent year 2013-14 so far. The meeting de-manded of the federal government to direct theWAPDA to pay Rs. 5.8 billion urgently so thatthe province could fix its budgetary allocations.The minister disclosed that the centre had topay Rs. 132 billion, including mark up and ar-rears of post arbitration period which was a bigamount.

The meeting also reviewed certain propos-als for improvement in public management in-cluding provincial taxation and public expendi-ture reforms. It also debated reforms in educa-tion and health and provision of funds to thedeeni madaris in the coming budget. The meet-ing also took notice of the malpractices in theaccounting system and stated that it neededimprovement. It also discussed certain amend-ments in the postings of provincial and fed-eral account officers in the district offices.

PAC directs tomake public giftsgiven to officials

ISLAMABAD—Sub-commit-tee of Public Account Com-mittee (PAC) on Mondaydirected the Ministry of For-eign Affairs to devise a sys-tem to make public the giftsgiven to government func-tionaries.

The committee waschaired by ShafquatMehmood. He said, “Wewill recommend to the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs todevise a system to makepublic the gifts being givenby our Prime Minister, presi-dent to other countriesheads of state and the gov-ernment and the gifts beingreceived by them.” He alsodirected the ministry to makeproper record of the giftspurchased.—APP

Missing boymeets parentsafter 17-year

QUETTA—A boy who hadbeen missing for 17 yearsfrom border town of Chamanmet his parents and reachedat his home.

Police sources said that10-year-old Obaidullah wentmissing from his home inChaman and reached MirPur Methelo and to start liv-ing with Hindu trader andjoined in catering business.

The trader and religiousscholar, Hafiz Matiullahtraced out the parents of theboy in Chaman, the parentssaid that they made years-long efforts to trace.—APP

PESHAWAR—Provincial Re-construction Rehabilitationand Settlement Authority(PaRRSA) has completedreconstruction of two mili-tancy hit middle schools inMalakand division.

The reconstructedschools, GovernmentMiddle School Nawagai andGovernment Girls MiddleBur Bandai Swat with recon-structed with the financialassistance of USAID.

Director GeneralP D M A - P a R R S AMuhammad Tahir Orakzaiaddressing the inauguralceremonies of newly recon-structed schools saidPaRRSA in coordinationwith all stakeholders isstruggling to reconstruct allaffected schools in specu-lated time.

Addressing to the stu-dents of both schools he

PaRRSA reconstructs2 militancy-hit schools

said, success without edu-cation is not possible andwith quality of education,you may access to yourbright future.

He emphasized uponstudents to perform best inthe development of thecountry.

Students presented tab-leau and skits during the in-augural ceremonies whileMuhammad Tahir Orakzaidirected the concerned offi-cials to provide generator,and electric supply to Govt.Girl School Bur Bandai Swat.

He also directed toheighten the boundary wallof said school on instantbases. Meanwhile thespokesman of PaRRSA saidthat USAID is providing freefurniture, school bags andlab equipments to newly re-constructed schools inMalakand Division.—APP

TAXILA: An inter province robber gang in police custody.

FAISALABAD—Punjab Minister for LocalGovernment and Law Rana Sanaullah Khanlaid the foundation of a 48-bed extensionblock of emergency ward at Faisalabad In-stitute of Cardiology (FIC).

The project will be completed with do-nation from the family of the late industri-alist Muhammad Anwar Sajjad. ChairmanBoard of Management FIC Kh. AsimKhurshid, Executive Director Dr. RajaParvez Akhtar, MS Dr Ziaullah, Mrs AnwarSajjad and her family members were alsopresent. Rana Sanaullah appreciated theservices and performance of FIC andthanked the family of Muhammad AnwarSajjad for generous donation to the exten-sion block of emergency ward which wasurgently needed due to the rush of heartpatients.

He said the Punjab government wasfollowing a comprehensive programme forthe provision of modern and quality medi-cal facilities in the province. He said a strat-egy had been devised for setting up hos-pitals for different diseases.

Chairman Board of Management, Kh.Asim Khurshid, said the 20-bed emergencyward was insufficient and the extension ofthe ward had been planned on a self-helpbasis. He said the family of MuhammadAnwar Sajjad would fund the project and amodern CCU III would be established onthe upper storey of the extended emer-gency block for heart patients.

Begum Muhammad Anwar Sajjad saidher family would bear all expenditure onMuhammad Anwar Sajjad Emergency

48-bed FIC extension block opensBlock. Multan: Director General MedicalServices WAPDA, Dr Gulroz on Mondaysaid that Wapda hospitals providing bestmedical facilities to the employees all overthe country.

Addressing a meeting with Mepco of-ficers and doctors during his visit to WapdaHospital Multan, he said that latest machin-ery was being installed at all hospitals de-spite limited resources. He said that ambu-lance of the Wapda hospital Multan wasbeing repaired on priority basis in whichall necessary equipments would be in-stalled.

He said that more officials were beingdeputed at reception of the hospital to fa-cilitate the patients. He added that compe-tent doctors have been appointed in thehospital and also provided medicines in it.

Dr Gulroz said that Mepco have a hos-pital of 50 beds and facilities of emergencyand gynae were available here.

Talking on the occasion, Chief EngineerOperations Mepco, Muhammad AkramChaudhry stressed to provide more re-sources at the hospital to improve its per-formance. MS Wapda Hospital Multan, DrNaseem Yousaf said that hospital staff wasutilizing all possible resources to providebest services to the employees. He de-manded to increase the staff for public fa-cilitation.

Project Director GSC, Malik SaeedVains, SE Multan Shahid Hameed Chohan,Dr Ali Abbas, Dr Jahanzaib Loon, Dr QaisarJoiya and other officials were alsopresent.—APP

PEF launchesexpansion

phase 12 ofEVS in Punjab

RAWALPINDI—Punjab Edu-cation Foundation haslaunched expansion phase 12of its Education VoucherScheme (EVS) in four districtsof Punjab.

During this expansionphase, deserving students ofFaisalabad, Muzaffargarh,Dera Ghazi Khan andRajanpur will be offered freeeducational facilities in pri-vate schools partnered underEVS with the foundation. PEFwill provide assistance inshape of monthly grants andfree text books to EVS part-ner schools.

Chairman Punjab Educa-tion Foundation Raja Anwarstated this here while talkingto a 20-member delegation ofPEF partner schools. Due tothis expansion phase, moredeserving students will beable to get educational facili-ties near to their homes. It isan important step towardspromoting free education inthe disfranchised sections ofthe society.

He told that EVS is de-signed for the poor andneedy students for givingthem free education inschools of choice.—APP

Three childrendrown in canalFAISALABAD—Three chil-dren including two brothersdrowned in the Rakh branchcanal near the Pipanwalabridge on Monday.

According to Rescue1122 sources, Khizar Saeed(12), Yasin Shakeel (12) andhis younger brotherMobeen Shakeel (10), allresidents of Street No 7,Dastgeer Colony, were tak-ing a dip in the canal nearthe Pipanwala bridge whenYasin fell into deep water.The other boys tried tosave him but they alldrowned.

Rescuers reached thespot and fished out bodiesof Khizar and Yasin while asearch for Mobeen’s bodycontinues. Two dacoits werekilled during shootout withpolice near Rehman gardenon canal road here Mondaymorning. Madina Town po-lice said that a personnamely Salahuddin r/o chak204 RB informed the policethat two armed men snatchedhis car (LEB-2895) at gunpoint and drove away to-wards Gutwala. ‘—APP

1,630 acres underdrip, sprinkler

system in PunjabMULTAN—Over 1,630 acreshave drip, sprinkler irrigationsystems under the high ef-ficiency irrigation systems(HEIS) project in SouthPunjab.

Fifty-five per cent of thetarget has been achieved inpursuit of installing modernirrigation systems at 3,000acre targeted area in SouthPunjab for year 2013-14, saidRais Ahmad Rais, theMultan region project direc-tor for HEIS on Monday.

High efficiency irrigationsystems can reduce the costof production by 30-40 percent and increase produc-tion by 20-100 per cent.

In a press release issuedby the media liaison unit ofPunjab agriculture depart-ment, Rais said that 300 grow-ers had also been given la-ser land levellers through adraw and remaining 100 farm-ers would get the levellerssoon. The provincial gov-ernment is providing Rs225,000 subsidy on each la-ser land leveller.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—KP Chief Min-ister Pervez Khattak hasstrongly condemned the at-tack and martyrdom of Po-lice Ticketing Officer Mus-lim Khan at Bhana MariChowk by unknown miscre-ants. He has announcedcompensation for themartyred brave police jawanunder Shaheed Packagewhose promotion was alsoin the offing on the basis ofgood performance. The chiefminister announced a com-pensation of Rs.3 million forthe martyred police person-nel and directed the con-cerned authorities to imme-diately release the compen-sation amount to heirs of themartyred. He also directedthe payment of his salary tohis heirs till the age of retire-ment, free education for hischildren and immediate pro-vision of employment to onemember of the family.

Pervez Khattak said thatthough the amount is no al-ternate to the precious life,

Khattak announcesRs 3m compensation forassassinate police officer

but it is a minor effort toshare the grief and financialproblems of the heirs onbehalf of government andpeople of the province. Hepaid homage to the policepersonnel for sacrificing hislife as well as glowing trib-utes to the whole police forcefor battling terrorism withbravery and expressed thehope that the police alongwith the people of the prov-ince will play their due rolein bringing the nation out ofthe prevailing difficult situ-ation. He said that the pur-pose of attacks on securityjawans is to create thesense of insecurity amongthe people, which will not beallowed by our governmentand nation.

The chief minister di-rected the effective crack-down against the culpritsinvolved in the incident andadequate arrangements topay the terrorist in the samecoin by reviewing the secu-rity network and strategy.

Punjab too comes outwith Ramzan packageAFTER the Federal Government, which, as per its traditions, an

nounced Ramzan package of worth over two billion rupees, thePunjab Government too has come out with its own package over and

above what the Federation plans to do to provide relief to the people duringthe holy month. Punjab Package, for which allocations of five billion rupeeshave been made, envisages opening of 360 bazaars with 334 fair price shopsfor the convenience of the people; the implementation of the package wouldbe monitored by a nine member committee of the Provincial cabinet.

There are complaints every year that prices soar up unjustifiably duringRamzan putting enormous pressure on the budget of people especially thosehailing from poor and middle class families. Media has been highlighting theissue and the Governments too issue routine warnings to businessmen to be-have but the unhealthy practice so far could not been eliminated. Ramzanpackages would have been more effective if these were given to compensatefor the existing inflation but unfortunately these turn out to be programmes tooffset Ramzan-related price-hike. We would, therefore, urge the Federal aswell as Provincial Governments to take effective measures to check artificialprice-hike during the holy month by activating price-control mechanism thatexists in almost every district. Anyhow, the initiatives of both Federal andPunjab Government are welcome and would go a long way in mitigatingsufferings of the poor and we hope other Provincial Governments too wouldfollow the suit so that faithful could observe the fasting month with relativeease. It has also been observed that most of the benefit of the Ramzan pack-ages is pocketed by shopkeepers and affluent people. Therefore, there is needto firm up a mechanism so that the benefit trickles down to only disadvan-taged sections of the people. After all, this is tax payers’ money and must notbe allowed to be misused by the well-to-do. Punjab has involved public rep-resentatives in the implementation of the programme and hopefully they wouldsee to it that maximum benefit accrue to those who are below poverty line.

Politics, perhaps, no moregentlemen’s business

AN analysis of 541 out of 543 winning candidates of Indian generalelections by National Election Watch and Association for Democratic

Reforms reveals that every third of the newly-elected members of LokSabha has a criminal background. Interestingly, 186 or 34% of them havethemselves disclosed in their election affidavits that they have criminalcases against them.

The startling revelation, based on affidavits by the members, has onething positive that the members have the moral courage to speak truth asthey did not hide facts from the Election Commission or the electorate.However, the percentage of criminals reaching to the assemblies is mind-boggling and shows in which direction India is proceeding. As most of thenewly elected members hail from BJP, the antecedents of the membersspeak volumes about their personal conduct and what they would do in theParliament. We may say that the situation is not very much different inPakistan where too people with dubious background have made their waysto assemblies. Cases were registered against many of them on account offake degrees and many others were defaulters of bank or utility services. Itis a pity that people with tarnished image, who may be called rogue ele-ments, are there in the elected bodies of the third world countries and this isin sharp contrast to England which is considered to be citadel of democracywhere elections are contested only by those who have dedicated themselvesfor service of the people. But in third world countries, even gangsters andmafias of all sorts reach to the assemblies making mockery of the system.In the sub-continent too, there were times when towering personalities likeQuaid-e-Azam, Liaquat Ali Khan and Sardar Abdul Rab Nishtar were inthe Parliament but now the people contest elections just to amass wealthand wield power. There have justifiably been demands that proper and com-prehensive scrutiny of the nomination papers of the contesting candidatesshould be carried out but so far these are being resisted by powerful lobbies.Hopefully, future electoral reforms would take care of the issue.

All should expel dissidentsof other countries

IRAN has demanded expulsion of its nationals who have taken refuge inIraq saying they are criminals and involved in murder of thousands of people.

Iranian Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani asked his Iraqi counterpartto return the members of Iranian Peoples’ Mujahideen Organisation who arebased on a former military camp near Baghdad airport.

In our view it is legitimate demand of Iran and should be respondedpositively by Iraq as the two countries now enjoy cordial relations. In factworld over, there should be an understanding that dissidents, corrupts, ter-rorists and most wanted criminals who take shelter in any country shouldbe extradited to their mother countries to meet the demand of justice. It isnow a common practice that leaders of dissident groups flee to other coun-tries after committing crimes but they continue to supervise anti-nationalactivities from abroad. Similar is the situation in Pakistan as many anti-national elements have gone abroad and with the financial and intelligencebacking of inimical forces, are directing terror activities. While the US andwestern countries are demanding and acting for the elimination of Al-Qaedaand other terrorists’ groups, they should also take into account the groupswho are involved in secessionist activities or behind acts of terrorism inother countries. Turning back to Iranian demand, former Iraqi PresidentSaddam Hussain exploited the Iranian dissidents, gave them a base in Iraqand extended support to wage attacks inside Iran and provide intelligence.That was an open interference in the internal affairs of the neighbouringcountry. This practice is also going on, world over, as intelligence agenciesfinance and arm groups for the attainment of their objectives. For worldpeace, it is necessary that nations should give up extending refuge to thosewho have background of armed resistance or acts of terrorism in their owncountry. Though Interpol is there to get criminals extradited but it has alsobecome toothless. Time has come that international community should de-vise a mechanism that gangsters, criminals and terrorists working againsthumanity are denied refuge and they are extradited to their mother coun-tries to face the law of the land for their illegal acts.

A string of disasters in Indian navy

Benghazi’sno-fly zone

THREE years of turmoil withthree prime ministers havingshown the door has brought

things to a head-on collision inLibya. The worst to come is in theform of a no-fly zone that was im-posed by the army over Benghazi,as militants continue to fight pitchedbattles with the security forces.Since Colonel Muammar Gadaffiwas overthrown, Libya has gonefrom worse to worst, and the writof the government has been lack-ing. At times it seems to be a fieldday for the militants as they are freeto sell the oil in international mar-ket as well as abduct the prime min-ister on their own! This state of af-fairs is not only unravelling theNorth African country but also en-abling the tendency of militancy toexplode beyond its borders.

With more than 50 peoplekilled and hundreds injured in a lat-est clash between the military andthe rebels, Benghazi is once introuble. Libya’s second largest citywas home to some of the worst up-heaval as militants ransacked theUS consulate in 2012 and killed itsenvoy and four other diplomats.This no-fly zone is one of the uniqueof its kind where in the state armyis engaged against a paramilitarygroup that has laid its hands on air-craft, and is capable enough to flyits own sorties. This unnervingnews incidentally comes in thewake of coup rumours by a desertedcolonel of army. It is no less than atragedy for one of the prosperousand resource-rich African-Arabcountry to experience a web of mili-tants among its midst and membersof civil and military bureaucracydefecting to rebel groups. This civilwar in Libya is a precursor for di-saster, and something serious is inneed of being done to save the coun-try from going over the brink.— Khaleej Times

*****

Nigeriamust act tostop Boko

Haram

INTERNATIONAL terror needsan international response. Thisis why last week’s much-de-

layed summit on how to respond toBoko Haram laid the ground workfor important international coopera-tion to stop their campaign of ter-ror. The terrorists in Boko Haramhave operated at a local level innorth eastern Nigeria, but they haverecently established links with AlQaida, which opens up the possi-bility that they will seek todestabilise large parts of Nigeria astheir allies succeeded in doing inMali in 2012.

Last week’s summit in Parisgathered leaders from Nigeria andits four neighbours Benin, Niger,Chad, and Cameroon and also in-cluded France, the United States,the United Kingdom and the Euro-pean Union who will coordinatetheir technical support. Nigeria hasagreed to coordinate patrols, poolintelligence and exchange weaponsand human-trafficking informationwith the countries at the summit. Itwould have made sense to includeother countries from further afieldlike Mali and the Central AfricanRepublic, both of which have weakgovernments that Al Qaida is wellable to establish bases there andoperate with impunity. These coun-tries should come to the follow-upsummit in Britain next month. Allthis international effort cannot justbe restricted to hunting for the miss-ing 270 abducted girls, althoughthat is an immediate priority. Thework has to also be part of a widereffort to eliminate Boko Haram forwhich the Nigerians have to takemore responsibility. It is unfortunatethat after doing very little for weekssince the latest kidnap, PresidentGoodluck Jonathan now claims thathis government has 20,000 troops,plus aircraft and intelligencesources, in parts of Nigeria whereBoko Haram is active, but still can-not find the Boko Haram bases orrescue the captive girls. It is vital toremember that Boko Haram has runa campaign of murder and intimi-dation across northern Nigeria thathas claimed 12,000 lives and left8,000 people injured or maimedsince 2009. This must stop andJonathan has to take a lead in mak-ing the world a safer place.— Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

THERE have been a string ofdisasters in Indian navy,firstly due to neglecting the

safety procedures, and secondly be-cause of corruption in Indian Navy’shierarchy. However, India’s navychief had to resign, or perhaps wasmade to resign over an accident onboard a submarine the INSSindhuratna in which two sailorswere killed and seven injured seven.Admiral D.K. Joshi had accepted theresponsibility and resigned over op-erational accidents involving navyships in recent months. The govern-ment accepted his resignation withimmediate effect, and Admiral R.K.Dhowan was made acting Navalchief, and was formally appointedas Naval chief in April 2014. Thelatest accident was thought to be the10th involving a navy warship andthe third submarine accident in thelast seven months. Last year, 18 sail-ors died in one of the Indian navy’sworst disasters. They were killedwhen a submarine sank followingtwo blasts and a fire at a Mumbaidockyard. Initial investigationsshowed arms on board the Russian-built INS Sindhurakshak played arole in its sinking.

Indian Defence Minister had in-structed Indian Navy, Defence Re-search and Development Organiza-tion, Defence Public Sector Under-takings and the shipyards to main-tain highest safety standards in thenuclear submarine project. Thoughthe incident had no direct impact onthe nuclear submarine program, itwas taken seriously by Ministry of

Defence. Safety procedures in thesubmarines and their constructionyards were reviewed to strengthen theoverall standards; but to no avail. Incase of sinking of Sindhurakshak,initially a terror attack was not ruledout, and the government started point-ing fingers across the border, but laterinvestigations suggested otherwise.Indian leadership should tighten theirsafety procedures with regard to Navyand nuclear reactors instead of cov-ering up the lackadaisicalness of navyand blaming others. Accidents onboard, a Submarine and a Destroyer,resulting in deaths of officer/sailorswas reflective of the fact that IndianNavy had completely failed to pre-serve their assets.

The INS Sindhurakshak had ex-ploded and sank in the Mumbai porton 14th August 2013, on the eve ofIndia’s Independence Day, whichstirred a debate about a possible ter-rorist attack. Theoretically, extrem-ists and secessionists in India mighthave planned to carry out a “demon-strative subversive act” ahead of thenational holiday. The majority of lo-cal experts and Russian experts haddismissed the version of sabotagesaying that the port and the subma-rine were guarded around the clock.Anyhow, between 13th and 14th Au-gust, a huge fireball followed bymultiple blasts from ‘INSSindurakshak’ lit the Mumbai harbor.Immediately after the explosions, thesubmarine partially sank alongside itsberth and it went down completelywith 18 crew members that includedExecutive Officer, Communicationsand Anti-Submarine Warfare officer.At the time of incident the Subma-rine was fully weaponized with tor-pedoes and Russian made land attackmissiles commonly known as Klub-

S with 300 Kms range. Almost aweek after the sinking of INSSindhurakshak, Defence MinisterA.K. Antony had said that he did notrule out sabotage angle in the Navysubmarine accident.

It has to be mentioned that ear-lier he had said “preliminary investi-gations into the sinking of INSsindhurakshak revealed that explo-sions were caused by the possibleignition of its armaments”. Accord-ing to Indian media, the night beforethe accident, Sindhurakshak endedpreparations for another outwardbound. It is possible that in view ofincreased Indian hostilities on LoC,India tried to keep the navy combat-ready. Anyhow, according to an offi-cial at the Zvezdochka ShipbuildingCentre, the specialists of the guaran-tee group had visited the submarineon the eve of the accident, and allsystems under their control werecompletely operable. There is a per-ception that because Indian navy hi-erarchy is involved in corruption, itfocuses on making a quick buck tothe neglect of safety procedures.

According to Russian experts, theonly reason for the tragedy was theviolation of safety standards and in-structions. Experts had discussed firstand foremost possible violations bythe crew during the recharging of thesubmarine’s accumulators. Hydrogenemits during the charging and exploi-tation of batteries, and when its con-centration increases, an extremelyexplosive mixture is formed in the air.In this case, submarine is equippedwith a hydrogen burner that is aimedat neutralizing a possible threat of anexplosion. In an interview with theVoice of Russia, retired CommodoreParambir Singh Bawa pointed to thepossibility of exploding hydrogen.

Behemoth’s reverse progress

WHEN Jang group waspublishing Urdu and English newspapers only, it

acted responsibly and kept the sen-sibilities of the people in mind.Founder of the group, Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman was admired for beingpragmatist and flexible. On theother hand, Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman is being dubbed by his op-ponents as canny and that woulddo anything for power and pelf. Heindeed took the group to unprec-edented heights but the reverse pro-cess seems to have started becauseof his arrogance and penchant tobe a king maker. Last month, whenGeo Group committed the act oflibel and defamation againstcountry’s secret agency ISI and DGISI Lt. General Zaheerul Islam, theowner of Geo Group failed to dem-onstrate high moral ground. Thegovernment had referred the mat-ter of blistering propaganda againstthe ISI and its chief to PEMRA foraction against Geo group, but ittook the matter to court to stop pro-ceedings by PEMRA. Geo’s pleawas dismissed by the court; and itfiled an intra-court appeal inIslamabad High Court.

When law takes its courseagainst others Geo becomes over-assertive, but when it comes to itsown, the Group demonstratesdouble standards. Anyhow, a two-member bench of Islamabad HighCourt heard Geo-Jang group’s in-tra-court appeal against PakistanElectronic Media Regulatory Au-

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 2852027-8, Ext: 116Email: magazinesocialdiary@hotmail.com

An idea does notpass from onelanguage toanother withoutchange.

thority (PEMRA) takingthe plea that PEMRAwas incomplete. JusticeShaukat Aziz Siddiquipointed out that in thefirst instance the verdictof the single bench courthas not been challenged;adding that “Geo likes

the court decision in its favor,whereas it does not like the rulingagainst it”. Geo’s lawyer prayed tothe bench to dismiss the case, butthe court adjourned the hearing foran indefinite period. Yet Geo con-tinues with its shenanigans, and inits morning transmission a blasphe-mous act invited the wrath of thepeople who came out in droves onthe streets to protest against thegroup. Punjab Bar Council in reso-lution has condemned Geo and de-manded a ban on the group.

On Saturday, the Punjab assem-bly adopted a resolution condemn-ing the blasphemy attempt by theGeo Television in its morning trans-mission. The resolution also urgedthe Pemra to act according to lawand justice. Protest rallies againstGeo were held across the country byreligious parties, lawyers, studentsand people from other walks of life.Scholars of the Sunni Ittehad coun-cil issued a fatwa against the Chan-nel asking its followers not to watchit. Meanwhile, leaders of Cable Op-erators Association in a press con-ference asked its members fromacross the country to act accordingto their conscience whether to screenGeo TV to their clientele. It is un-fortunate that anchors, reporting edi-tors and other media men associatedwith Geo media group act on thebehest of its owner Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, who has the penchant toappease India through aman ki ashaand other programs.

There is a possibility of clandes-tine business relations between a

media group of Pakistan and mediagroup of India because corporate In-dia is one of the leading trading hubsin the world. However, one wouldnot come across any Indian journal-ist or analyst condemning Indian in-telligence agency RAW or take a dif-ferent position to that of the govern-ment on Kashmir. On the other hand,some palmed off Pakistani mediamen have been criticizing militaryand the ISI day in and day out. Theydo not realize that they are provid-ing India, US and the West materialfor denigrating our intelligenceagencies especially ISI, which areeyes and ears of military. Media menassociated with Geo group have beenbadmouthing military and the ISI,knowing full well that they will notretaliate or even respond. On theother hand, they took dictation andhave been projecting banned orga-nizations for the fear of being at-tacked by them.

There are indeed patriotic ele-ments in Pakistani print and elec-tronic media who are aware of theirnational responsibility. Last month,when Geo group accused ISI and itschief of planning an attack onanchorperson Hamid Mir, almost allelectronic and print media con-demned Geo channel and expressedtheir solidarity with the ISI and mili-tary. In India, the government, mili-tary, intelligence agency RAW andmedia are on the same page so faras Pakistan-bashing is concerned.Unfortunately, Pakistani so-calledintellectuals and analysts badmouthmilitary on the basis of three mar-tial laws in the past, not realizing thatfor the last seven year, military hascompletely weaned away from in-terference in political matters, andhelped the previous PPP-led govern-ment to complete its tenure.

At this point in time when Paki-stan is confronting challenges to itsinternal and external security, Paki-

—Miguel de Unamuno Spanish writer

stani media men should rise to theoccasion, and play their role tocounter propaganda by a Pakistanimedia house as well as hostile In-dian propaganda. The said mediagroup has contributed towards pro-moting terrorism by glorifyingacts of terrorists, and linking ac-tion against terrorists as humanrights violations. The missing per-sons’ case has also been blown upout of proportions by the group.Mama Qadar was given publicityand in the process intelligenceagencies were criticized. Separat-ists in Balochistan get all sorts ofsupport from India, but Geo wouldnot project Indian involvement.However, Pakistan Army and ISIare the main targets of Indian pro-pagandists.

Hindu extremism, suppressionof Muslims in India, human rightsviolations in IOK and separatistmovements in India have neverbeen projected or highlighted byGeo; while Balochistan issue re-mains favorite subject of Geo andTimes of India (ToI). Obsessedwith the idea of promoting Indianculture, Geo has been toeing In-dian line in the context of Indo-Pak relations. The core issues in-cluding Kashmir dispute, Siachen,Sir Creek and water sharing dis-pute between India and Pakistanhave been further sidelined. Mis-leading media reports that allstakeholders including Prime Min-ister, Military, DG ISI, and politi-cal parties were taken into confi-dence before launch of campaign‘aman ki asha’ are efforts to con-fuse the people of Pakistan. It isimpossible to imagine that ISIwould have supported the idea ofjoint collaboration between theGeo/Jang and Times of India tolaunch the above initiative.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

There is a strong possibility that mis-siles were accidentally fired by thepersonnel. It was suggested thatoriginally, hydrogen exploded, andthen ammunition might have ex-ploded. According to another ver-sion, a warhead had exploded onboard and the submarine’s forwardend was completely destroyed be-cause a warhead of a Club anti-shipmissile contains 400 kilograms ofpowerful explosive.

A depleting submarine fleetmeans that India will have less andless capability of keeping subma-rines under the water all the time.On the other hand, six Scorpenesubmarines, which were meant tobe delivered by 2016, have beenfurther delayed. The first one wasexpected in 2012, but these boatswill now be inducted into the Navyin 2016. The order is not likely tobe completed before 2022. The sixsubmarines are being built atMazagaon Docks Limited (MDL)in Mumbai with technology trans-fer from DCNS of France. WithIndia’s buying spree of sophisti-cated and lethal arsenal, and itsplanning to add 100 naval shipsand submarines in the navy up to2030 with a view to matchingChina’s capability, India’seconomy is also sinking. Its rupeehas lost about twenty percentagainst US dollar during last twoyears. If India continues to spendhundreds of billions of dollars ondefence, it may implode fromwithin as the teeming millionswretched of the earth would remainwithout food, clothing, shelter andmedicine. And the fact remains thatthere are secessionist movementsin 11 provinces of India.— The writer is a Ph.D scholar.

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Nazia NazarEmail: nazianazar@hotmail.com

Voice of the People

Cyanide as apoisoning agentADEEL, BILAL, SHAHJAHAN

Cyanide toxicity is generally con-sidered to be a rare form of poison-ing; however cyanide exposure oc-curs relatively frequently in smokeinhalation from residential or indus-trial fires. Poisoning may occur as aresult of self-administration of hy-drocyanic acid by accidental expo-sure in industry, through inhalingsmoke from burning polyurethanefoam in furniture, particularly in themetal trade, mining electroplatingjewellery manufacturing and radio-graphic film recovery. It is also en-countered in fumigation of ships,warehouses and other structure.Cyanide is also used as suicidalagent, particularly among healthcare and laboratory workers. It canbe through ingesting amygdalinwhich is present in the kernels ofseveral fruits including apricots, al-monds and peaches, or from exces-sive use of sodium nitroprusside forseveral hypertension. The symptomof acute poisoning are due to tis-sue anoxia with dizziness, palpita-tions, a feeling of chest heavinessand anxiety.

A 23 year old American medi-cal student saw his dog suddenlycollapse. He started external cardiacmassage and mouth to nose ventila-tion effort. Moment later the dogdied and the student felt nauseated,vomited and lost consciousness. Asthe victim arrived at hospital, analert medical officer detected a bit-ter almond odour on his breath andadministrated the accepted treatmentfor cyanide poisoning after whichhe recovered. It turned out that thedog has accidentally swallowed cya-nide, and the poison eliminatedthrough lungs had been inhaled bythe master during the mouth to noseresuscitation. (Journal of Americanmedical association 1983)

Inhaled hydrogen cyanide maylead to death within minutes butwhen it is ingested as the salt, sev-eral hours may elapse before thepatient is seriously ill. Chronic ex-posure damages the nervous systemcausing peripheral neuropathy, op-tic atrophy and nerve deafness.—Islamabad

Nicotineand banana

AREEB, NABEEL, WALZLI

All of us have some degree ofknowledge about the havocs ofsmoking, nicotine and their effectson human life. As an addiction,smoking has been part of our livesfor centuries.

However, there has been con-tinuous research over negativities ofnicotine taken through smoking - beit a cigar, a cigarette, a bidi, a tradi-tional hukka or modern sheesha.Research has established that thereis about 8-10 mg of nicotine in acigarette, which during smokingdelivers about 1mg of nicotine intohuman body. This ratio of nicotineintake can be increased with thetechnique a smoker adopts e.g. rapidpuffing and extent of time of smokeretention in the lungs.

Nicotine is absorbed throughlungs, skin and stomach etc. Whena person first inhales the smoke of acigarette, nicotine causes the bodyto release ‘epinephrine’ – a fight orflight hormone. Nicotine is toxicantand stimulates the effects of depen-dency of tobacco smoking. Accord-ing to American Heart Association,“Nicotine addiction has historicallybeen one of the hardest addictionsto break”. A ‘toxicant’ is often re-ferred to as substances made by hu-mans or introduced into the environ-ment by human activity in contrastto toxins, which are toxicants pro-duced naturally by a living organ-ism. Although nicotine is not carci-nogenic, however, it is highly ad-dictive and smokers find it hard toquit because they are attached tonicotine. Nicotine is a fast-actingdrug and reaches the brain within 7seconds of being inhaled. For nico-tine, the withdrawal can involve im-pulsiveness and inability to control

Marriage ceremonies and noise pollutionATIF NOOR KHAN

Day before previous day, one of my neo-rich neighbour arranged a rock musical session on the rooftop of their house during marriage ceremony that much disturbed me and other residents in the

vicinity, the whole the night. Not only this but on the other day they used fire arms and explosive devicesto celebrate their marriage ceremony. Such people have no respect for others’ conveniences. This kind ofsound pollution mars the sleep of people living in the affected areas. This kind of nuisance is mostlycreated by the neo-rich people bereft of human values. Peace-loving people have to alternative but toface the music. Marriage is a sacred ceremony in the life of not only two individuals but the families,rather the entire society and social order. The institution of marriage is so important in the religion ofIslam that it is declared to be one half of one’s faith. As a Muslim one should live in accordance with theIslamic Jurisprudence in the way shown by the greatest of creations and the person who has the greatestimpact on mankind in the universe. But All forms of extravagance, unnecessary illumination, firing orfire cracking, ‘mujras’ and serving more than one dish in marriage functions should be avoided toaddress and resolve the problems faced by the common man - the man in the street - facing enormousdifficulties in coping with exploitative customs and social evils, prevalent in the society. The authoritiesconcerned should create mass awareness against noise pollution and rein in the people and organisationsresponsible for it in the interest of public health. A vigilant watch should be kept on the marriage cer-emonies and not allow anyone to do any activity that causes disturbances for others.—Islamabad

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THE articles, columns andletters are published on thesepages in good faith. However,the contents of these writingsmay not necessarily match theviews of the newspaper.

—Editor

Learning to lose gracefully..!

IT’S a pretty competitive worldtoday, but the truth is, it was acompetitive world also yester-

day: Nothing’s changed, fortunefavours the brave, and the prize goesto the winner! Sadly what’s differ-ent is that people don’t know howto lose! Losers after a match stompoff the field! Politicians say unkindwords of their opponent! Childrenbawl! Adults fume! The secret is tolearn to lose gracefully. As we grow

and age our life is filled repeatedly withtimes when we lose. The losses are notonly in games and sports, but also ourhomes, our loved ones in death, theloss of our youth and beauty, evensome of our dreams. It seems that lifepresents us with a series of losses thatculminate eventually with loss of lifeitself. The sooner we learn to cope withloss and learn from losing, the hap-pier our lives will be.

The lesson we need to learn ishow to let go. When young our firstwords are ‘no’ and ‘mine.’ It is onlyas we grow that we let go and learnto give and get more unselfish in ourthinking. This ability to lose grace-fully will not only avoid triggeringa heart attack, but will increase our

generosity and add to our happiness.This change of attitude will turn awin-lose situation into a win-win. Inall competitive situations someonehas to lose and losing can dent yourself confidence and self esteem andmake you feel very bitter and frus-trated, but it is important not to walkaway from the experience with un-remittingly negative feelings. Try tolearn from the situation, be honestabout things you did well and thingsthat could have been done better. Tryto discover why your batting wasmediocre, or project was bad or re-jected and learn from it.”

Although it might seem impos-sible that anything positive couldcome out of losing, once the initial

shock and disappointment abatesthere are steps to take. Talk to closeones. Admit how disappointed youare - it will show you are humanenough to be disappointed. Askwhy it happened, and take anycriticism gracefully - even if youthink it is unfair. Don’t react im-mediately, but go away and thinkabout everything that has beensaid. Even though it’s hard to haveyour shortcomings pointed out, it’sthe fastest way to overcome them.”

No-one likes being a loser. It’sokay to be angry, upset, disap-pointed, but it’s not okay to showyour resentment and create a tan-trum: Learn to lose gracefully..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Means justify the ends

ONE may or may not agreewith the mode of protestchosen by PTI to press home

its view on alleged rigging in electionsand the maladies afflicting our elec-toral system, there is no denying thefact that apart from other factors theparty was forced to adopt this coursedue to the delay in deciding its elec-toral petitions by the Election Tribu-nals, who under the Representation ofPeople Act 1976 are supposed to dis-pose them off within four months. Jus-tice delayed is justice denied.

Regrettably, the task has not beenaccomplished by the tribunals so fardespite the fact that the SC in its judg-ment on 18th November last year hadalso asked the tribunals to completethe disposal of petitions expedi-tiously. In the backdrop of the non-fulfillment of their legal obligationsby the election tribunals, the PTI didhave a cause for protest and also rais-ing the issue of reforms in the ECPand the electoral system to preventor minimize the chances of rigging

in the coming elections.Whether the rigging did takeplace as claimed by ImranKhan, or not, but there is nodoubt about the fact that ourpresent electoral system andthe authority responsible for

holding the elections, are afflictedwith innumerable inadequacies. Thatperhaps is the reason why such com-plaints have invariably been madeafter every election. FAFEN has alsoindicated these maladies in its latestreport and made certain recommen-dations to rectify them. Pending thosereforms, one thing that needs to bedone immediately to defuse the situ-ation and remove the cause of pro-test, is, for the Election Tribunals todecide those petitions without furtherloss of time. Reportedly, after the PTIrally in Islamabad, the ECP has alsowritten to the tribunals to expeditetheir verdicts on those petitions.

It would be pertinent to point outthat even those political parties who donot approve of the methodologyadopted by the PTI to have their griev-ances redressed, do concede the needfor reforms in the system. Even thegovernment seems agreeable to thisproposition as indicated by Minister forPlanning Ahsan Iqbal on the floor ofthe Assembly. As regards the demand

by Imran Khan for the Election Com-missioners to resign for their allegedrole in facilitating the rigging, he needsto realize that these commissionershave been appointed by the electedrepresentative in a constitutional man-ner and they cannot be dismissed onthe demand of a political party. He willhave to prove the allegations beforethe Supreme Judicial Council whichis the proper and constitutional forumto deal with such allegations.

Reforming the ECP and electorallaws would require constitutionalamendments and the enactment ofnew laws respectively which can bedone only by the parliament. There-fore instead of hurling uncalled forcriticism at the government, which inno way is concerned with the redressof the PTI complaints, and trying tosettle legal issues through public ral-lies, Imran Khan should focus onbuilding consensus among the partiesrepresented in the parliament for theneed to reform the system and per-haps also introduce a bill in the par-liament to this effect, if he does nothave any other hidden agenda as be-ing alluded by some circles. The gov-ernment has already shown remark-able spirit of accommodation by tak-ing along all the political forces andstakeholders in dealing with issues

and challenges faced by the nation.There is no credible reason to be-lieve that it would act otherwise indealing with the issue of electoralreforms which almost enjoys na-tional consensus.

The country is passing througha phase of consolidation of the gainsof revived democracy and it is theresponsibility of all the politicalparties and leaders to strengthen thisprocess by their unqualified supportto democratic ways and rule of lawin the country. That is the only waythey can deliver and keep the anti-democracy forces at bay. Forminggrand alliances against the govern-ment and resorting to politics ofpublic rallies and agitation willtake us no where except creating astate of anarchy and chaos in thecountry which it can ill-afford atthis juncture of its checkered his-tory. The politicians includingImran Khan must understand thatin our situation the maxim ‘Endsjustify the means’ is not relevant.It is the other way round. Islamalso stresses on the legitimacy ofmeans to achieve noble objectiveswith a view to preserve their sanc-tity and legitimacy.— The writer is Islamabad-basedfreelance columnist.

Views From Abroad

Why Modi matters

NEVER has India had a primeminister like Narendra Modi.The right wing Hindu nation-

alist who swept to power in parlia-mentary elections, according to offi-cial results Friday, is a proud outsider.A self-made man whose father soldtea at a railroad station, his blunt style,poor English, and disdain for socialgraces have made him as distastefulto India’s traditional ruling class ashe is popular elsewhere. “He is break-ing the door down,” says TavleenSingh, a political columnist. “He isthe wrong caste, the wrong class, thewrong everything.”

Mr. Modi, a barrel-chested manwith a neatly trimmed white beardand moustache, is the first leader ofa provincial state to win India’s toppolitical prize. He campaigned hardon his record of economic successin the western state of Gujarat, prom-ising similar benefits for the rest ofthe country under his leadership.“He is a doer … who could galva-nize the country,” says GurcharanDas, a multinational company ex-

ecutive turned author. “He is deter-mined and hungry and he can carrypeople with his sense of purpose.”

Modi’s image as a strong leaderwas particularly appealing in thewake of an ineffectual governmentled by the Congress party, whichfound it hard to make decisions.“Modi stepped into a leadershipvacuum,” says political commenta-tor Neerja Chowdhury.

But the next prime minister’sstrongman image has compoundedalarm about his political rise amongIndia’s Muslim minority, which makesup 19 percent of the population. ManyMuslims worry about Modi’s ties tothe RSS, a radical group that envisionsIndia as a sacred nation to which onlyHindus truly belong. And they recallthat he was Gujarat’s chief minister in2002, when Hindu rioters massacred2,000 Muslims.

Suspicions that Modi did not doall he might have done to stem the vio-lence have cast a shadow over his po-litical standing. The United States hasrefused him a visa since the massacreon the grounds that he bore “responsi-bility for the performance of state in-stitutions” such as the police. But re-lations have been slowly improving,

and US officials have said whoeverwon the election would be welcomein the US. But economic policy, notreligion, is likely to prove the defin-ing feature of his leadership, saysSiddarth Varadarajan, former editor ofThe Hindu newspaper. “He is the mosttrusted choice of Indian big businesstoday,” says Mr. Varadarajan. “That iswhat he represents.”

During his election campaign,heavily funded by Indian business-men, Modi promised to welcome in-vestors with “red carpets, not redtape.” He put single-minded empha-sis on the need for development andeconomic growth, and stressed thecreation of wealth rather than its dis-tribution through welfare programs,which has been the Congress party’straditional approach. His record inGujarat on this front has been gen-erally good, but Modi’s politicalstyle worries critics who valueIndia’s tradition of consensual deci-sion-making. “He loves controversyand he courts it,” says Ms.Chowdhury. “It’s his way of gettinghis message across.”

He is also known as a loner wholikes to keep personal control overeven minor details of policy, and

who delegates little responsibilityto his subordinates. At the sametime, he has a reputation for hon-esty in a country that is drowningin corruption; he and his relativesare known to live simply, which isunusual for Indian political leaders.“He is very passionate about gov-ernance and he looks at it as a mis-sion,” says Rajeev Chandrasekhar,an IT millionaire who is now an in-dependent member of the upperhouse of parliament. “He strikesyou as idealistic to a fault.”

During a presidential-style cam-paign that put his name and trackrecord high above those of hisBharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Moditapped into the electorate’s despera-tion for change after a decade of ruleby the Congress party. “He is a risk,because he is communal,” playing onhis religious identity, says Mr. Das,who voted BJP for the first time inhis life this year. “But I voted for Modibecause he is our best chance” of eco-nomic prosperity. As India turns apage, says one foreign diplomat,“Modi could turn out for the best, orhe could turn out for the worst.”— Courtesy: The Christian ScienceMonitor

one’s temper and emotions, blurredvision, headache, crawling sensa-tions, extreme appetite, depression,tiredness and, of course, severe crav-ing.

While Medical Research is work-ing relentlessly to find medication forfighting nicotine. Mother nature hasgifted the mankind a miracle fruit fullof vitamins and nutrients that providefront line defence and cures thenegativities of Nicotine. That miraclefruit is ‘banana’. Bananas are not onlycheap and tasty but are helpful inquitting smoking successfully by re-ducing and dealing with the stressesof nicotine withdrawal and keepingthe body’s energy to optimum level.

Smoking fulfils the desire ofnicotine in the body. When a personquits smoking, his / her body goesinto stress mode that leads to abnor-mal behaviour of the body such asstomach cramping, stress headache,shakiness, and even nausea. Brainstarts emitting messages to smoke acigarette as body is in smoke addic-tion. In such a situation, quittingsmoking might be a torturous job, butbananas can help make it easier.

Banana has the quality of ener-gizing the body and calming it downas it contains super high levels of vi-tamins such as Vitamin C, A1, B6,B12, Potassium and Magnesium. Itgives body a boost to fight with thestress, keeping the body into relaxedstate and helping it to get rid of nico-tine. Potassium helps in reduction ofpain in the body and the cramping oflegs. It does same for the mind andbody, while it suffers from nicotineaddiction.

Whenever you are craving forsmoking, have a banana. It will calmyou down by having something inyour mouth in motion, which willdecrease the urge for smoking. Vita-min boost of a banana also decreasesthe higher degree of need for smok-ing, resulting in reduction in head-aches, stomach cramping and over-all reduced level of desire for smok-ing. If you are a victim of nicotineand are willing to fight back, switchover to banana and lead a healthy life.—Islamabad

Illicit tradein tobacco

NAVEED AHMAD KHAN

The last fiscal budget revolutionizedthe excise structure for cigarettes byadopting a dual tier fully specific sys-tem. Despite a slow start, contribu-tion to the national exchequer by thelegitimate tobacco industry, under thereformed structure, are expected tosurpass the projected targets for thecurrent fiscal year. A fully specificexcise system not only provides pre-dictability to government revenue butalso gives it the independence tomanage excise increases.

Excise incidence is flawed as thebasis for setting tax policy; the ab-surdity of putting the incidence in theforefront of tax policy is evident.Prices are different from country tocountry. Levying 70% from a packof cigarettes sold in one country atUSD 0.3 yields only USD 0.21,which equals to just 10% tax inci-dence in another market where a packsells at USD 2.10!

Australia for many years, hasapplied very reasonable tax increasesjust following growth of personal in-comes and now has the second larg-est tax yield in the world from a packof cigarettes with the tax incidenceof ‘modest’ 46%. So, the question iswhat we should focus on - the moneyor percentage? On having reasonableannual growth in revenue or report-ing the high incidence today with thegoose dead by tomorrow?

Over the past two decades, coun-tries around the world have adoptedan array of tobacco taxation policies.Despite representing a range of mar-kets with different underlying char-acteristics, a common lesson can bedrawn from all of these experiences:increasing excise levels without re-gard for consumers’ purchasingpower is detrimental to the tobaccomarket, undermines the sustainabilityof government revenues, and is likelyto result in the development of large,unregulated illicit markets.nternational experience clearly showsthat countries which have imple-

mented the sort of substantial tax in-creases have seen a sharp rise in il-licit trade in cigarettes, damaging thelong-term tax base and underminingpublic health objectives.

Illicit trade in tobacco is now aglobal phenomenon. Experienceacross both advanced and develop-ing economies demonstrates that thekey economic drivers influencing theillicit tobacco trade are excessive taxlevels, usually resulting in a sharpdecline in cigarette affordability, andorganized crime’s willingness to sup-ply given the opportunity to gain largeprofits from tax avoidance.

In Pakistan, the excise regime ismaking the legitimate tax paying in-dustry incompatible compared to theillicit sector. According to a Septem-ber 2013 study by the InternationalTax and Investment Center and Ox-ford Economics on illicit tobaccotrade, in 2012, 25.4% of the cigarettesconsumed in Pakistan were illicit,causing the government approxi-mately PKR 26.9 billion (USD 275million) in lost revenue.

The legal industry’s volume havedropped from 76 Billion sticks to 64Billion sticks due to a very steep ex-cise hike in 2009. Also the smokingincidence has increased but legitimateindustry’s volumes remained flatwhich clearly indicates that consum-ers are opting for illicit trade prod-ucts due to cheaper prices.

At this point of time when thegovernment is struggling to meet itsrevenue targets and discouraging theillicit trade of goods introducing en-hanced excise regime may underminegovernment’s fiscal objectives andcould make the legitimate tax payingindustry vulnerable anduncompetitive.—Islamabad

Updation oftechnologies

SYEDA MEHROZ ZAHRA

As we all know that the communica-tion studies is a multi-disciplinaryfield which needs to be redefined andenhanced with the passage of timebecause of the advancement in tech-nology. Rapid growth in technologyis changing the communication land-scape day by day.

Communication studies are oftenin crisis and face a challenge of ac-ceptability whenever a new technol-ogy is introduced in the market; itoffers a significant challenge to theprevious conventional methods ofcommunication techniques becausethe people are by temperament pro-status quo and always prefer to con-tinue with what is habitual for them.It also depends on what actually hap-pens in the communication environ-ment, and in society; therefore it is achallenging for all communicationpersonnel. Communication studiesmust never be in a static form, butneed to be promoted projected andenhanced rapidly as is the case withevery aspect of life or technologiesin the 21st century environment.

It is important that the quality ofeducation you are providing to thestudent must have the ability to dealperfectly and powerfully with themultimedia environment of commu-nication. Therefore, Communicationstudies must always be open for in-terpretation, rendering and rival theo-rization. It is incumbent for the in-structors of the communication de-partments of different countries, toguide the students in light of the digi-talized communication technologyand leave their traditional methods ofteaching communication so the stu-dents are able to meet the global chal-lenges of journalism.—Islamabad

Peter Ford

Child labour in India

THE gap between the rich andthe poor is growing day byday rapidly; poverty is increas-

ing; population is growing and as aresult of this hazardous situation, mil-lions of children belonging to the poorfamilies are left with only one option;they have to work to save their fami-lies from the cruel clutches of dis-ease and hunger. According to a re-cent report of the (ILO) InternationalLabour Organisation, ‘Underage chil-dren work at all sorts of jobs aroundthe world, usually because they andtheir families are extremely poor.Large numbers of children work incommercial agriculture, fishing,manufacturing, mining, and domes-tic service. Some children work inillicit activities like the drug trade andprostitution or other traumatic activi-ties such as serving as soldiers.’ Butthe US department of Labour hassomething more frightening to say.The department issued a report on

child labour in India somewherein 2012. The report says, ‘Indiamade a moderate advancement inefforts to eliminate the worstforms of child labor by passingnew legislation to protect childrenfrom sexual offenses, from traf-

ficking and forced labor. But the worstforms of child labor continue to existin many sectors. Children work in ag-riculture, producing crops such as riceand hybrid seeds and picking cotton.Children who work in agriculture usedangerous tools, carry heavy loads,and apply harmful pesticides. Chil-dren in India also work under haz-ardous conditions manufacturing avariety of products, quarrying stoneand other materials, breaking stones,and polishing gems.’

The Harvard School of PublicHealth recently conducted a study as-sessment survey on painful fate of theinnocent children who are playing apivotal role in the carpet industry ofIndia. There are several thousand chil-dren who are forced to work in carpetindustry in the North-Indian states.The survey report indicates that it isnot only the carpet industry where in-nocent children are doing labour; theseinnocent workers are also in the field

of making matches, glass bangles, fire-works, cigarettes, incense sticks, foot-wear, garments, hand-loomed silk fab-ric, leather, and brassware. Duringtheir work, these children are exposedto harmful chemicals and dangerousmachinery and tools.

The experts of the Harvard Schoolof Public Health have concluded thatmost of these children have to facejoint pain, headaches, hearing loss,skin infections, respiratory problems,and finger deformities. The govern-ment of India is very well aware ofthe situation but it is unable to takeany stern action against those whoforce the children to work in the fac-tories because most of the factories areowned by the Indian politicians. Themost frightening thing with referenceto the child labour is that the childrenare being recruited by extra-legalarmed groups to serve as soldiers inzones where armed conflict is occur-ring such as by the Naxalites inChhattisgarh. However the main areaof interest of the experts of the HarvardSchool of Public Health had been thechild labour in carpet industry of In-dia. The report includes some painfulstatements of innocent carpet work-ers who were even not aware of their

pitiable fate when they were forcedinto this industry. Some of them arenow grown up boys. A twenty fiveyears old boy from Jharkand told theresearchers that he was just ten yearsold when he became a carpet worker.He said, “I came to Bhadoi fromJharkand with my brother. The con-tractor promised that we would earn200 Rupees per day and we wouldhave food and clean quarters. Nowwe are locked in this factory andwe two get just 100 rupees per dayfor twelve hours work. I didn’t wantto leave my home but we have noother option.” The report says thatthat India’s hand-made carpet sec-tor is actually a horrific businesswhere 20% of workers are children.They work in sub-human condi-tions, toiling up to 12 or more hoursa day to weave beautiful carpetswhich are very much popular in thewestern countries.

If the western people had eventhe slightest knowledge that theirfavourite carpets were the result ofthe exploited child labour, they wouldhave certainly discouraged using andbuying these carpets.—The writer is Multan-basedfreelance columnist.

Malik M AshrafEmail:ashrafazim2000@yahoo.com

Ali Sukhanver Email:alisukhanver@hotmail.com

Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk (L) senior Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmed (2nd L), head of the Hamas govern-ment Ismail Haniyeh (3rd L) and deputy speaker of Palestinian Parliament Ahmed Bahar attend a meting in Gaza City.

FARZIKHA SOERONO

This month, 16 years ago, Indonesia was in a state of perplexity. A combination of ethnic violence, economic crisisand political turmoil promulgated the call for democratic

governance, decentralization and to unravel corruption, collu-sion and nepotism (KKN) practices deeply rooted in the politi-cal system. It can be strongly argued that the call for democraticgovernance has been successful. This month, 16 years later, In-donesia is about to witness an important milestone in its demo-cratic progress: its third direct presidential election. Yet, ques-tions remain regarding the ability of post-Soeharto governmentsto really deal with the seemingly embedded KKN mentality inthe political system.

Different presidents have different approaches to the reformagenda. Soeharto’s successor BJ Habibie’s legacy lies in majorstructural reform primarily in institutionalizing a new political blue-print to suit the voracious demand of Indonesians for democracy.In addition, Habibie laid the foundations for the decentralizationof power, shifting power away from the state toward regenciesand municipalities. The post-1999 election presidents, AbdurahmanWahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri further reinforced the foun-dations laid by Habibie in moving toward greater democracy. Thethird and fourth amendments of the 1945 Constitution, which stipu-lated the provision of direct presidential elections, was implementedin the historic 2004 direct presidential election.

The success of the 2004 and 2009 direct elections have sig-naled the successful reform of the political system. Nonetheless,KKN, as the most important reform agenda, hardly madeprogress. None of the post-Soeharto presidents were able to eradi-cate KKN practices in the system. The establishment of the Cor-ruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has not proven to be aneffective instrument to actually warn off Indonesian citizens,primarily those who hold public office, from KKN activities.Notorious practices inherited from the Soeharto regime, such ascronyism, still exist. Soeharto’s cronies might be gone but newcronies have continued to emerge. The question on whether In-donesian people have successfully undergone total reform stillremains. Increasing numbers of mayors, regents as well as judgesin district courts detained for KKN activities highlight the woesof decentralization. Rather than providing more economic powerto second-tier regions, decentralization shifted KKN activitiesfrom the central to the regional level.

Corruption eradication was made top priority by PresidentSusilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government. KPK’s activities in-creased significantly during the first term of Yudhoyono’s presi-dency in 2004-2009. Although data seemed to provide positivesignals, the increasing amount of cases investigated up to 2014indicates that the KPK is not effective enough in discouragingcorruption. Elites, either from the private or public sector, are notafraid of the risk of being detained by the KPK. This could be dueto the seemingly short and “flexible” prison sentences that havebeen handed down. Clearly, the punishment for corruption so farhas not been effective as a deterrent to perpetrators. The valuablebusiness-politics relationship established under the Soeharto re-gime still exists until now, abusing state power for personal gain.

The march toward greater democracy is endless. Radicalgroups, including terrorists, emerged under the shield of democ-racy. Freedom of speech is used to launch attacks on govern-ment without any form of politeness. Freedom of the press isused by the press to convey biased information to Indonesiapeople. Negative issues such as KKN are exploited by the me-dia, leaving boast, positive information untouched. I grew up inan already democratic Indonesia. Younger generations, or peoplewho were just little kids during the reformasi like me, did notexperience the system built by the New Order. Nor did we expe-rience the power struggle after the fall of the regime. Organiza-tions such as Indonesia Future Leaders (IFL) and Parlemen In-donesia, spearheaded by Indonesian youths, showed increasingawareness of the youth that we are going to be the backbone ofIndonesia’s future. I believe that the younger generations’ im-munity from the New Order’s notorious system will better guideIndonesia toward greater reform realization.

—Courtesy: Jakarta Post

Analysis ofreform agenda

SYED FATTAHUL ALIM

When in Bangladesh election to change a governmenthas become a casualty of political parties’ greed forstaying in power indefinitely by fair means or foul, and

when the institution of Election Commission has lost its inde-pendence and credibility, our next-door neighbour, India, has gonesmoothly through another electoral exercise for the 16th time inits history. Considering the outcome, it was earth-shattering inthat it dealt a crushing blow to the ruling Indian National Con-gress, the party that holds the proud legacy of being the one thatbrought the country’s independence. What is more, it is also theparty that the founding fathers of modern India had built andworked for imbued with the ideals of secular nationalism. But sofar as legacy is concerned, the victor, Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), has nothing to write home about. Worse still, the politicsand ideology it vouches for is non-inclusive, revivalist Hindunationalism. Even so, Indian electorate has given an unprec-edented mandate to this party to rule India for the next five years.

However, the leadership of the losing party, the Congress, re-maining true to their democratic tradition, conceded defeat andbowed out of office respecting the fact that the election result wasthe verdict of the people. Congress President Sonia Gandhi ac-cepted responsibility for her party’s worst ever performance in itshistory. But even in the face of such debacle, she did not hesitateto congratulate Narendra Modi, the winner, on his success. It’s ashining example of how democracy works. What would be thereaction of any of our major political parties in a similar situationof electoral reversal? The patent response would be one of instantrejection of the election result with allegation of massive riggingagainst the winner and of blaming the Election Commission for itscomplicity in the rigging in favour of the winning party. The sadirony is we are yet to learn the spirit of elections and to consider apolitical rival not as an enemy, but as a partner whose existence isindispensable for a healthy democracy.

Now that the Indian electorate have expressed their will andchoice about whose turn it should be now to govern India, politi-cal analysts everywhere are scratching their heads over what pro-pelled the Indians to make this particular choice. Despite his taintedpast as the Gujarat chief minister under whose watch (Modi, how-ever, has denied his involvement and officially nothing could beproved so far against him) over a thousand members of the minor-ity Muslim community were massacred in the infamous ‘Gujaratriot’ of 2002, one wonders why the Indian people have put somuch trust in this man. Have the Indian public lost their faith inthe high ideals of inclusiveness and secularism that the Congressand its leadership stood for? What did BJP or Modi promise to theIndian public, or what was so appealing about him that Congressor its leadership were wanting in, and miserably at that? BJP’sNarendra Modi was not talking about lofty ideals, neither was heburdened with the baggage of past legacies that Congress was.

On the other hand, mired in corruption, presiding over a poorlyperforming economy afflicted with governance inertia, thanks tothe slothful bureaucratic juggernaut, the Congress-led United People’sAlliance (UPA) government had already overstayed its welcome.People were desperately looking for an alternative, a radical changein the leadership. Even the Congress’s candidate, the charming, youth-ful Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the celebrated political dynasty ofIndia, could not impress the voting public’s mind. So, the Congress’sfate was sealed. The public was looking for a new face and NarendraModi just came in handy to fill in the gap.

—Courtesy: Star Online

YU LINTAO

Filipino and U.S. marines on a reconnaissance boat ride during a beach assaultexercise facing the South China Sea in

San Antonio Town, Zambales Province, nearthe main Philippine Luzon Island on May 9(CFP). Even though China exercised restraintin the face of recent provocations by the Phil-ippines and Viet Nam in the South China Sea,Beijing did not gain the goodwill of the twoSoutheast Asian countries in response. Dis-regarding China’s opposition, the Philippinescharged nine of the 11 Chinese fishermenseized by its police while fishing in watersoff Half Moon Shoal, which is under China’sjurisdiction. And Viet Nam has continued tostir up nationalist sentiment against China,aiming to pressure Beijing into discontinu-ing a Chinese oil company’s drilling opera-tions in waters off China’s Xisha Islands.

However, the current tensions in the SouthChina Sea are neither incidental nor coinciden-tal. Observers have noted that as the United Statescontinues efforts to shift its focus to the Asia-Pacific, some regional countries are exploitingthe situation to meet their own agenda. Actionstaken by the United States to beef up military tieswith its regional allies have also taken a toll onregional stability, with irresponsible remarks byU.S. officials regarding the incidents further com-plicating settlement of the disputes.

On May 6, the Philippine police detaineda Chinese fishing boat Qiongqionghai 09063and the 11 Chinese fishermen on board inwaters off Half Moon Shoal of the NanshaIslands, two days after Manila and Washing-

The US Shadowton launched their annual “shoulder to shoul-der” military exercise. The Chinese ForeignMinistry urged the Philippines to release thedetained fishermen and their boat as the HalfMoon Shoal is traditionally a major Chinese fish-ing base and China has undisputable sovereignrights over the area. However, the Philippine sideignored China’s request and charged the fisher-men with poaching endangered turtle species.

Luo Yuan, a retired major general and Ex-ecutive Vice President of the Beijing-based ChinaStrategic Culture Promotion Association, believedthat the move taken by the Philippines is in viola-tion of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.In a recent article published on the Chinese newsoutlet Global Times, Luo commented that if thefishermen were poaching endangered speciesaround the Half Moon Shoal, the Philippinesshould have informed China, as the waters areunder China’s jurisdiction. The Philippine sidehad no right to make the arrests, he added.

Wang Xiaopeng, a sea waters researcher at theChinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), saidthe Philippines is exploiting its alliance with theUnited States in the midst of its “pivot-to-Asia”strategy. “The incident happened shortly after U.S.President Barack Obama’s latest trip to Manila, soit’s clear that the Philippines aims to lure the United

States into its maritime disputes with China to testwhether Washington is committed to strengthen-ing military ties,” Wang said.

During Obama’s visit, Washington and Ma-nila signed a 10-year-long Mutual DefenseTreaty to increase the U.S. troop presence in theSoutheast Asian country. Obama also pledged“ironclad” backing for the Philippines. China hasovertaken the United States to become the

world’s. With regards to the latest moves byManila, the GMA News, a major commercialtelevision and radio network in the Philippines,said Obama’s visit was an indication that theyhave acquired the United States’ protection.

Since Obama left the Philippines, Manila hastaken a series of provocative actions in the SouthChina Sea. On May 3, the Philippine air forceairdropped supplies to marines stationed on its oldtransport ship illegally stationed on China’s Ren’aiReef. The next day, the “shoulder-to-shoulder” drillwas held at the maritime and land areas near theSouth China Sea. On May 6, after the Philippinepolice detained the Chinese fishing boat, formerPhilippine senator Ramos Shahani openly trum-peted the idea of allowing the United States to setup military bases on the Ren’ai Reef and HuangyanIsland. Almost at the same time, a senior militaryofficer of the Philippines unexpectedly posed a “de-

fense plan concerning the South China Sea”through the Kyodo News Agency of Japan, ad-vocating more actions to arm the islands andreefs in the disputed waters.

Wang said the series of moves by the Philip-pines were carefully planned. “As the U.S.-Phil-ippine joint drill goes on, Manila’s provocationof Beijing is meant to test whether Washington’scommitments are merely empty talk,” he said.Wang also mentioned that current social and eco-nomic problems within the Philippines have ledpoliticians to shift public attention to the tusslewith China over the maritime disputes.

China’s Xinhua News Agency reportedthat from May 3 to 7, about 36 Viet Nam ves-sels, including warships, intruded into watersnear a Chinese oil rig in waters off the XishaIslands to harass the drilling operation andram Chinese boats. The reports said Vietnam-ese frogmen were found just five meters awayfrom Chinese ships in an act of intimidation,in addition to illegal placement of numerousbroken fishing nets and other large obstaclesin the waters that endanger passing ships andvessels. The Chinese ships eventually foughtback with water cannons.

Observers claimed that the interventionof outside parties have further complicatedthe security situation of the South China Seaand even the whole Asia-Pacific. It is neitherhelpful for the settlement of the disputes norconducive to the lasting peace and stabilityof the region. If the United States continuesto incite the governments of some regionalcountries, peace can hardly be achieved in theSouth China Sea, Wang with the CASS said.

—Courtesy: Beijing Review

End of legacy-boundpolitics?

South China Sea disputes are in danger ofescalating as some Southeast Asian countries

exploit perceived US backing.

BEIRUT—At least 162,000people have been killed inSyria’s three-year-old conflict,a monitoring group said onMonday, and thousands moreare missing after being cap-tured by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels try-ing to overthrow him. The pro-opposition, British-based Syr-ian Observatory for HumanRights said losses among fight-ers on the government sidewere higher than those amongpro-rebel groups, and estimatedthat at least 54,000 civilianshad been killed since the con-flict began.

It estimated 62,800 deathsamong the army, pro-Assad Syr-ian militia, Lebanese Hezbollahfighters and other foreign Shi’itegunmen. That compared with42,700 people who had died onthe rebel side, including fight-ers from al Qaeda’s Nusra Front,other Islamist brigades, and sol-diers who defected from Assad’sarmy.

Nearly 3,000 people of un-known identity or affiliationhad been killed, it said. TheObservatory said all sides in the

162,000 killed in Syriaconflict: Monitors

conflict played down theirlosses, making an accuratecount almost impossible, andthe overall death toll was prob-ably around 70,000 higher at230,000.

Efforts to find a politicalsolution to the conflict col-lapsed in Geneva three monthsago and the international me-diator Lakhdar Brahimi willstep down at the end of themonth. Assad, who has steadilyclawed back control over thecentre of the country, is widelyexpected to win a third seven-year term in a June 3 electionwhich his enemies have con-demned as a charade.

The Observatory said its fig-ures did not include 18,000people who had been detained byauthorities and whose fate wasunknown, as well as thousandsmore who were missing afterraids by security forces. Another8,000 soldiers and pro-Assadmilitia were also missing afterbeing held by rebels, and hun-dreds of people had been kid-napped, it said. A further 1,500fighters were abducted duringinter-rebel conflict.—Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR—One of themost influential figures inMalaysia’s ruling party claimsinformation about flightMH370 is being hidden and theAustralian-led search for theplane off Western Australia isa waste of time and money.Former prime ministerMahathir Mohamad said theplane’s disappearance onMarch 8 was “most likely notan ordinary crash after fuel wasexhausted”.

“The plane is somewhere,maybe without MAS [MalaysiaAirlines] markings,” he said. “Itis a waste of time and money tolook for debris or oil slick or tolisten for pings from the blackbox.” Dr Mahathir, 88, who wasprime minister for 22 years from1981, wrote in his personal bloghe could not imagine that “thepilots made a soft landing inrough seas and then quietly wentdown with the aircraft”.

“Someone is hiding some-thing. It is not fair that MAS andMalaysia should take theblame,” he wrote. Dr Mahathirsuggested the United States’Central Intelligence Agency hadknowledge of the disappearanceof the plane with 239 people onboard but was not sharing it withMalaysia. He also claimed thatBoeing, the plane’s maker, and“certain” government agencies,have the ability to remotely takeover control of commercial air-liners such as the missingBoeing 777.

“For some reason, the me-dia will not print anything thatinvolves Boeing or the CIA,”he said. In another blog lastmonth, Dr Mahathir, who re-mains a power broker in theruling United Malays NationalOrganisation, questionedwhether the plane crashed intothe southern Indian Ocean andblamed Boeing for its disap-pearance. During his time inpower, Dr Mahathir was oftencritical of Western countriessuch as the US, even once sug-gesting the attacks on the World

CIA withholding info onflight MH370: Ex-Premier

Trade Centre in New York werestaged as an excuse to mountattacks on the Muslim world.

His comments on MH370reflect deep suspicion in Ma-laysia of foreign involvementin the plane’s disappearancedespite Prime Minister NajibRazak saying last week thatnobody knew what happenedon board, or precisely wherethe plane was, more than twomonths after it disappeared. MrNajib said experts had identi-fied that MH370 ended in thesouthern Indian Ocean, wherethe search was focused, dis-counting dozens of other theo-ries and reported sightings.

But Dr Mahathir wrote inhis latest blog that planes “don’tjust disappear certainly not thesedays, with all the powerful com-munications systems, radio andsatellite tracking and film lesscameras which operate almostindefinitely, and possess hugestorage capacities”. “Can it notbe that the pilots of MH370 lostcontrol of their aircraft aftersomeone directly or remotelyactivated the equipment for sei-zure of control of the aircraft?”he wrote.

Meanwhile, relatives of the12 crew members on the planeclaim Malaysia Airlines aban-doned them after discoveringthey had engaged US law firmRibbeck Law Chartered for le-gal assistance. JacquitaGonzales, the wife of PatrickGomez who was the in-flightsupervisor on MH370, said theairline sent relatives an email lastFriday advising that caregiverswho had been assigned to helpfamilies had been terminated.

The airline earlier thismonth closed family assistanceand accommodation centres inBeijing. “From day one they[Malaysia Airlines] said thatwe are all family. ‘Anythingyou want, just come to us, wewill help you.’ That’s whycaregivers were assigned tous,” Ms Gonzales, 51, said.—Malaysian News

A worker controls the cast at a blast furnace of German steel manufacturer Salzgitter AG inSalzgitter.

GAZA CITY—A new Palestinian “consen-sus government” to be named by the Pal-estine Liberation Organization and theHamas movement is to be finalized withindays, a senior Hamas official said Mon-day. Bassem Naim, an adviser to Hamas’spremier for the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya,said a senior member of Palestinian Presi-dent Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement,which dominates the PLO, would meetwith Hamas officials in Gaza this week toconclude negotiations.

Azzam Al-Ahmad is “arriving in Gazaon Wednesday and Thursday to meet with

Hamas promises unity govt in daysthe Hamas reconciliation delegation tohold consultations,” Naim told AFP. “Weexpect the government to be announcedby (Abbas) early the following week,” hesaid, and will then be presented to the Pal-estinian Parliament for a vote of confi-dence.

Hamas signed a reconciliation deal lastmonth with the PLO in a surprise movewhich aims to overcome a years-long in-tra-Palestinian split. Hamas has dominatedthe Palestinian Parliament since winninga landslide victory in the last parliamen-tary election, held in 2006. But the US and

Europe have since backed the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority under Abbasand boycotted the Hamas movement,which advocates armed conflict with Is-rael.

Under their April 23 reconciliationdeal, the two sides are to form an “inde-pendent government” of technocrats,headed by Abbas, paving the way for long-delayed elections. Representatives fromthe rival factions have held several roundsof talks to heal the bad blood since Hamasexpelled Fatah from Gaza in a week ofdeadly clashes in 2007.—AFP

MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country’s cooperation with China hasreached its all-time best and that the two sides were ready to expand ties in numerous spheres.“China is our reliable friend. To expand cooperation with China is undoubtedly Russia’s diplo-matic priority,” Putin told Chinese reporters before attending the Conference on Interaction andConfidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) slated for Tuesday and Wednesday in Shanghai.

Putin, who will also pay a state visit to China on the sidelines of the summit, said he andChinese President Xi Jinping will review the implementation of already-signed agreements, andhammer out future objectives. “I believe the upcoming talks will inject strong impetus to variousbilateral cooperation projects, as well as to the deepening of coordination between the two coun-tries in the international arena,” he said.

Putin pointed out that at the present stage the two countries should give priority to enhancingcooperation in economy, science and high technology. Against the backdrop of global economicturbulence, it was of crucial significance for the two countries to strengthen mutually beneficialeconomic and trade relations and boost mutual investment, he said. China is currently Russia’slargest trading partner, with the trade volume between the two countries nearing 90 billion U.S.dollars in 2013.—Xinhua

Moscow’s ties withChina all-time best: Putin

Thai premierrefuses to quit

BANGKOK—Thailand’s actingprime minister on Monday ruledout resigning as a way out of aprotracted political crisis that isstunting economic growth, asanti-government protestersstepped up pressure to removehim and install a new administra-tion. Thailand is stuck in politicallimbo following the dismissal ofPrime Minister YingluckShinawatra and nine of her min-isters on May 7 after a court foundthem guilty of abuse of power.

Six months of turmoil thathas included violent protests anda disrupted general election isdragging down Southeast Asia’ssecond biggest economy, whichshrank 2.1 percent in the firstquarter of the year. CommerceMinister NiwatthamrongBoonsongphaisan has replacedYingluck as caretaker primeminister, but the anti-govern-ment protesters say he has nolegal standing and they want a“neutral” government to pushthrough reforms.

Niwatthamrong met mem-bers of the Senate, which is try-ing to come up with a way outof the deadlock, but he toldthem he would not resign. “Thecurrent cabinet is legal in ev-ery way ... it must stay until anew cabinet of ministers iselected in. We cannot installanother prime minister whilewe have an acting one inplace,” Niwatthamrong said instatement following the meet-ing. Thailand has not had afunctioning lower house of par-liament since Yingluck dis-solved parliament in Decem-ber.—Thai News

mentions that 54 of the 66cases of polio reported in thecountry have been from Fata.This tally includes 44 casesfrom North Waziristan, fivefrom South Waziristan, twofrom Khyber Agency andone from Bannu.

Nine of the cases havebeen from KhyberPakhtunkhwa and five fromSindh.

These cases have beenreported at a time when theWorld Health Organisation(WHO) has recommendedthat travel restrictions beplaced on Pakistan,Cameroon and Syria for be-ing the only three countriesthat are currently exportingpoliovirus.

Three newpolio cases

in FATAFrom Page 1

as according to him it was therootcause of the entire controversy.Seeking initiation of a similar case ofblasphemy (as is brought against GeoTV and its management) against ARYTV, its anchor Mubashar Lucman, pro-duction team of a morning show ofthe ARY in which the said qawwali waspresented, SFP sought complete banon airing of the controversial contenton any private or state-run TV chan-nel.

Islamabad High Court after hear-ing the petition issued notices notonly to Geo TV management and itsmorning show team but also soughtreply from the ARY TV for repeatingthe said content.

Justice Noor-ul-Haq N Qureshi ofthe IHC issued notices to MubasharLucman, ARY TV’s anchorpersonLucman, Morning Show’s host NidaYasir and the production team of theprogramme. The IHC judge also issuednotices to the Geo TV management,the morning show team and all theparties nominated in the petition.

Tariq Assad Advocate on behalf

IHC notices to ARY, summons Geo teamFrom Page 1

remote control detonators,sophisticated binoculars,sniper scopes and at least2,000 rounds of ammunition.Security sources said theweapons were beingsmuggled into Balochistanfrom Afghanistan to be usedin terror activities across thecountry, especially inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa prov-ince.—NNI

Arms,explosives

From Page 1

Mir is, presently, recov-ering from multiple bulletwounds he had suffered af-ter coming under an armedattack while en route to of-fice from the Karachi airporton April 19.

Hamid MirappearsFrom Page 1

budget here on Monday.The briefing was given

by Air Vice Marshal ArshadQuddus, Additional Secre-tary Defence, responsiblefor the budget. The brief-ing was attended by a largersection of media as well asparliamentarians includingSenators Farhatullah Babar,Saeed Ghani, Abdul HaseebKhan, Sardar Ali Khan andSughra Imam.

In his remarks at thebriefing Chairman SenateDefence Committee SenatorMushahid Hussain said“the Senate DefenceCommittee was serving as abridge between the militaryand the media, so that bothare on the same page as faras national security anddefence of the country areconcerned.”

Pakistan’sdefenceFrom Page 1

of Lal Masjid’s Shohada Foundationsubmitted before the court that GeoTV and its management had soughtapology for “inadvertently airing acontroversial programme but ARYTV’s anchor Mubashar Lucman hasrepeated the said content in hisprogramme many times and neversought apology from Almighty or thepeople of Pakistan.”

If a case was registered againstGeo TV and its anchor Shaista Lodhi,owner Mir Shakilur Rehman and othermembers of the management and pro-duction team, a similar case should beregistered against ARY’s anchor andthe members of the management andproduction teams, said Assad.

Advocate Tariq Assad was of theview that ARY also falls in the samecategory and should not be spared.In its application Shohda Foundationhas also made noted qawwal AmjadFarid Sabri and Aqeel Mohsin Naqvias parties and sought action againstthem.

Besides, the foundation has alsonominated Federal Secretary Informa-tion and Broadcasting, Chairman Pa-kistan Electronic Media RegulatoryAuthority (Pemra), Chairman IslamicIdeological Council (IIC), ChairmanCable Operators Association KhalidArain as parties and requested thecourt to direct them to clear their posi-tion regarding airing of controversialcontent by both the channels.

At a point Advocate Tariq Assadsaid ARY’s anchor Mubashar Lucmanin the past too indulged in mud-slinging campaign against former ChiefJustice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhrybut Pemra so far has not taken action.On this Justice Qureshi said he shouldrefrain from making emotionalstatements. “Whether judiciary isbeing criticized or a private TVchannel, court will take up the case onmerit without taking a personal standagainst any person,” said JusticeQureshi. The judge also asked himwhy his client did not approach Pemraas the matter is pending before theauthority.

and will discuss ways to fur-ther strengthen ties withthese countries.

He will also attend a cer-emony in Shanghai on Tues-day to launch Urdu ChineseDictionary. Punjab ChiefMinister Shahbaz Sharif isalso accompanying thePresident.

He will discuss with Chi-nese leadership progressover ongoing developmen-tal projects in energy, infra-structure, transport andother sectors.—INP

President inShanghai

From Page 1

US Administration inWashington D.C had con-firmed that Cox was sta-tioned in Miami field andwas on a temporary missionin Pakistan. However, Min-istry of foreign affairs hadin a briefing claimed that Coxdid not have any diplomaticexemption and hence hewas arrested. US foreignmission had contactedPakistan’s Foreign Office forrelease of Cox.

Police had also notedsome information from thelaptop of Cox but that wasof no strategic importance.

FBI agent JoelCox freed, armscase dismissed

From Page 1

Besides, some leaders belonging to al-lies like Shiv Sena, TDP, Akali Dal and LJPmay also be included.

The 282 newly-elected Lok Sabha mem-bers of BJP along with its Rajya Sabhamembers will assemble in the Central Hallof Parliament around noon to elect the 63-year-old Modi as their leader. Shortly later,they will be joined by their counterpartsfrom the allies who will elect Modi as theleader of the NDA coalition.

A delegation of the coalition will callon the President later in the day to conveyto him the decision of the two Parliamen-tary groups that will pave the way for Presi-dent to invite Modi and ask him to formthe government.

For the third day in succession, hecticdiscussions were on regarding govern-ment formation with Modi himself receiv-ing leaders.

For the first time since the results weredeclared, Swaraj called on Modi in GujaratBhawan, the nerve centre of activities thesedays. Close aides Jaitley and Amit Shah,besides Kalyan Singh met the Prime Min-ister to-be separately.

Vaiko, an ally of BJP in Tamil Nadu,who lost the election also met Modi, whileYSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy

Modi to be elected BJP,NDA leader tomorrow

From Page 1

also called on him and extended “issuebased” support to his government.Sources claim that Modi kept to himselfthe strategy over his cabinet formation.

After Tuesday’s election, Modi will goto Ahmedabad in the evening. On May 21,he will resign as chief minister and a newleader of the Gujarat BJP legislature partywill be elected to succeed him in the state.

Sources say that Modi’s close confi-dante and revenue minister AnandibenPatel is the frontrunner for the chiefminister’s post.

As party leaders continued parleysamong themselves and with RSS leaders,indications emerged that the leadershipwould like Jaitley to be part of the govern-ment, notwithstanding his defeat.

While the role of party patriarch LKAdvani in the new government is not clear,sources say party veteran Murli ManoharJoshi is said to have conveyed to Modithat he has no problems in working underhim in his cabinet.

The RSS office in Jhandewala was alsoabuzz with activity as a number of newly-elected BJP MPs met senior RSS leaders.Modi’s close aide Shah and Jaitley alsomet top RSS functionaries and held dis-cussions.—PTI

“Our jihad will continueuntil Sharia is enforced or weembrace martyrdom,”Fazlullah said in the video,urging would-be militants tomake contact with com-manders.

Fazlullah, who has a$500,000 governmentbounty on his head, hasmounted some brutal at-tacks on Pakistan’s military,including the beheading of17 soldiers after an attack inJune 2012.—AFP

Talibaninfighting

impedes peacetalks

From Page 1

are in fact supporting their own narrow in-terests and maligning the Armed Forces,”PPP leader stated in a statement is-sued hereon Monday.

Taj Haider said, “A false and negativeperception that the Armed Forces aresponsoring these support rallies is fasttaking roots among the people. Thosetaking out the rallies have also started avery damaging campaign that the presentgovernment will not complete its term ofoffice and the so called “ultra patriots”would be brought in power with the sup-port of the Armed Forces.” Taj Haider saidthat the people of Pakistan wanted to keepthe Armed Forces out of politics and thenegative perceptions created through theso called ‘support rallies’ can only resultin lowering the esteem of the ArmedForces in the eyes of the nation.

He said that the country could ill af-

Media, political partiesFrom Back Page

ford dragging of its Armed Forces intogroup or Party conflicts. Armed Forcesof Pakistan were valiantly fightingagainst extremist terrorism within thecountry and had given unparalleled sac-rifices to protect of peace loving Pakistanicitizens, he held. Outside the countrynew dangers had emerged on our easternborders with the coming to power of areligious extremist fascist government inIndia.

The hegemonic and imperialist agendaof Corporate India backed by religiousextremism and neo-fascism cannot be ig-nored by the countries of the region. Allof us have to keep our eyes open. Wehave to unite and work hard. Last but notthe least we have to allow the ArmedForces of Pakistan to concentrate on theirprofessional duties and make the nationaldefence impregnable.—NNI

SHANGHAI—Chinese President Xi Jinpingmet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai inShanghai on Monday, vowing to backAfghanistan’s efforts to maintain nationalindependence, sovereignty and territorialintegrity.

Karzai is in China to attend the fourthsummit of the Conference on Interactionand Confidence Building Measures in Asiaslated for Tuesday and Wednesday inShanghai.

Reiterating China’s friendly policies to-ward Afghanistan, Xi told Karzai China re-mains a reliable friend of the country de-spite changes in the international and re-gional situation.

“We are ready to maintain high-levelexchanges with Afghanistan, step up co-operation in various areas and offer aid tothe country’s reconstruction of peace,” Xisaid.

He vowed joint efforts with Afghani-stan to facilitate the construction of a Silk

Xi assures Karzai to backefforts for territorial integrity

Road economic belt, adding China supportsits companies to invest in Afghanistan.

Xi urged the Afghan government to takeeffective measures to ensure the safety ofChinese citizens and organizations in thecountry.

He vowed to enhance cooperation withAfghanistan in preventing and fighting the“three evil forces” of separatism, extrem-ism and terrorism.

“China hopes to see a unified, stable,developing and friendly Afghanistan,” Xisaid, vowing China’s constructive role inbacking the country’s efforts to maintainnational independence, sovereignty andterritorial integrity and supporting an Af-ghan-led and Afghan-owned national rec-onciliation process.

“We respect the Afghan people’schoice, and hope the ongoing presidentialelections will be a new starting point forthe country’s peaceful transition, solidar-ity and stability,” Xi said.

The Fourth Foreign Ministerial Confer-ence of the Istanbul Process on Afghani-stan is slated for August in China’s TianjinMunicipality, the first to be held in China.

Xi said China hopes to carry out closecooperation with Afghanistan and the in-ternational community to ensure the suc-cess of the meeting.

The Chinese president also vowed topromote a greater role of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization on the issue of Af-ghanistan.

Karzai hailed the brotherhood of bothcountries and called China a reliable neigh-bor. Afghanistan appreciates China’s valu-able support for the country’s peaceful re-construction, he said. Xi vowed to offeradditional assistance for reconstruction.

Earlier the Chinese government an-nounced it will offer 10 million yuan (1.62million U.S. dollars) in humanitarian aid toAfghanistan.—INP

ISLAMABAD: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources and Khuram Rahat, Managing Director, TeradataPakistan, with winners of the 12th Teradata IT Excellence Awards.

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Advisor to ChiefMinister Punjab on HealthKh Salman Rafique has saidthat strengthening of nurs-ing sector is essential for abetter healthcare system. Hesaid that due attention has

Steps being taken for capacitybuilding, clinical training of nurses

not been paid for the devel-opment of nursing sectorduring the last sixty years.

However, under the direc-tion of Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif,government is taking effectivemeasures for improving servicestructure and provision ofmore incentives to the nurses.

He said this while presid-ing over a high level meetingto review the steps for im-proving service structureand other matters related tothe nurses. ParliamentarySecretary Health Kh. ImranNazir, Director GeneralHealth Dr. Zahid Pervaiz, DGNursing Rukhsana Kamal,USAID Representative Dr.Nisar Cheema and other of-ficers of Nursing Departmentattended the meeting.

The meeting was in-formed that government hasgiven contract to 3382 nurseswho had been working onad-hoc basis whereas sum-mary for regularization of 825contract nurses has beensent to the government forapproval.

DG Nursing informedthat at present 4207 chargenurses are working on con-tract whereas 11572 nursesare working on regular basis.She said that the bed-nursesratio in hospitals is not up tointernational standard and

there is a need to enhanceposts of nurses. She furtherinformed that a number ofvacancies of nurses are ly-ing vacant.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Minister for EducationRana Mashhood Ahmad Khan today launcheda special awareness campaign against den-gue through holding awareness seminars intwo of the girls schools in his electoral con-stituency Gulshan-e-Ravi Lahore.

The special campaign is aimed at sen-sitizing the girl students to gain knowledgeabout preventive measures to avoid den-gue fever through eradication of AedesEgypti mosquitoes. First seminar in this re-gard was held at Govt. Girls High School,Block-G, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Lahore.

Addressing to the seminar, the Min-ister termed the awareness campaignagainst dengue a continuous process inwhich ensuring indoor cleanliness in ev-ery household was of supreme importancebecause this type of dangerous mosqui-

Special awareness campaignagainst dengue launched

toes prevail more in the nooks and cor-ners of our residences as compare to out-door atmosphere in the green belts.

Aedes Egypti mosquitoes have only200 feet range of flight. If we control thismosquitos’ breeding through larvaecidespray in the stagnant water, we would besafeguarded from 80 percent complicationsof dengue fever, the Minister added.

While talking to the girl students ofGovt. Muslim Model High School, GulshanRavi Lahore in another awareness seminar,Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan advised themto perform cleanliness work in their homesand take it as a special “Home Work” dur-ing the coming summer vacations.

He directed the Provincial Schools Edu-cation Department to ensure that “ZeroPeriod” in each and every public sectorschool must be held prior to the summervacations on daily basis.

PU Library seminarOBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Punjab University Library incollaboration with Pakistan Nuclear Regu-latory Authority (PNRA) organized a semi-nar on “Environmental Radioactivity andHarmful of lionizing Radiations” at Library’sJinnah Auditorium here on Monday. ChiefLibrarian Choudhary Muhammad Hanif,Deputy Chief Librarian Dr MuhammadHaroon Husmani, Sr. Scientific Officers MsHuma Iqbal and Ms Amina Bakht, facultymembers and a large number of studentswere present on the occasion.

In his address, Ch Muhammad Hanifemphasized on the regular campaign forthe awareness of general public about thisissue.

LHC takes notice ofassault on a minorschool girlMuzaffar AliLAHORE—Lahore HighCourt (LHC) Complaint Cellon Monday took notice of apress report on administra-tive side regarding assault ona 6-year-old girl while com-ing back from school.The Cell has directed theDistrict & Sessions Judge,Khanewal to look into thematter and submit detailedreport regarding steps takenby police along with his owncomments within a week.According to details,Razzaq, father of the victimgirl, along with his familystaged a protest in front ofPunjab Assembly and toldmedia that his minor daugh-ter was returning home fromschool when a vagabondJaffar forcefully took her to adeserted place and molestedthe innocent girl.

Fake Pir, accomplicesrape teenKASUR—A 15-year-old girlwas allegedly raped by fakePir and his accomplices inNoorpur area within the lim-its of Saddar police stationon Monday. Police said theparents of the victim tookher to the Pir namely BabaHamid for treatment of theillness. The accused saidthe girl possess Jinn andasked them to leave theirdaughter for its removal.Later, the fake Pir and his ac-complices allegedly raped theteen. The victim was shiftedto hospital while police havearrested the Pir.—INP

4 bodies found fromMohmand AgencyMOHMAND AGENCY—Four bodies were recoveredfrom Tehsil Yakka Ghondarea of Mohmand Agency onMonday. According to thepolitical administration of thearea, the bodies were founddumped along the road inKarpa area who were shotdead. The bodies wereshifted to Tehsil Hospital inYakka Ghond for identifica-tion and other medico-legalformalities. The deceasedbelonged to Khyber Agencyarea and their identity couldnot be ascertained until thelast report was filed.—INP

Quetta, Kalatreceive rainQUETTA—Quetta, Kalatdistrict and other respectiveareas received moderaterain on Monday whichturned weather pleasant.According to Met office,Quetta, Kalat and other re-spective areas ofBalochistan received rain. Itturned weather cold in cityand already heavy rain dam-aged several mud houses inHazarganji and other respec-tive areas. Several vehicleswere struck on National High-way near Kalat district due toflash flood while portion ofNational Highway was sweptaway by flood. —APP

TRIPOLI —A Libyan airforce base in the easterncity of Tobruk said onMonday it was allying it-self with a renegade gen-eral who has promised topurge the country of Islam-ist militants.

A statement from theair base said its personnelwanted to fight what itcalled extremists, echoingthe rhetoric of GeneralKhalifa Haftar.

“The Torbuk air forcebase will join...the armyunder the command ofGeneral Khalifa QassimHaftar,” the statementsaid.

Staff at the air baseconfirmed its authenticity.

Heavily-armed gunmenapparently loyal to Haftarhad stormed parliament onSunday demanding it besuspended and powerhanded over to a 60-mem-ber body that is rewritingLibya’s constitution.

The Tobruk air basedevelopment was signifi-cant as it was not clear howmuch backing Haftar’s menhad within Libya’s nascentregular armed forces andthe powerful brigades offormer rebels who hadtoppled Muammar Gaddafiin 2011.

Any alliance of militiaslining up against Islamistgroups threatens todeepen chaos in the OPECoil producer, whose frag-ile government is strug-gling to gain legitimacyand impose its authority.Haftar, once a Gaddafi allywho turned against himover a 1980s war in Chad,fueled rumors of a coup inFebruary when he ap-peared on television in

Libyan air force base joinsrenegade general’s forces

Shahbaz ordersaction againstpolice officials

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has takenstern action over the deathof a youth Hafiz Rashid dueto kite string in Badami Bagharea and ordered suspensionand removal from service ofDSP Shafiqabad and SHOsBadami Bagh and Ravi Road.

The Chief Minister alsoordered making SP CityImtiaz Sarwar as OSD anddirected that police officersguilty of negligence and der-eliction of duty regardingimplementation of the ban onkite flying be proceeded un-der PEEDA as they deserveno leniency.

He said that death of aninnocent youth due to kitestring is extremely tragic. Hesaid that kite flying will notbe tolerated and police anddistrict administrationshould ensure strict imple-mentation of the law in thisregard. The Chief Ministersaid that strict action will betaken without any discrimina-tion against the concerned of-ficers in case of complaint ofkite flying from any area. TheChief Minister also sympa-thized with the bereaved fam-ily of Hafiz Rashid.

Mansehra gang rape

3 accused sent on10-day physical

remandABBOTTABAD—An anti ter-rorism court in Abbottabadhanded over three accused ofgang raping a student inMansehra to police on tendays physical remand onMonday, Geo News reported.

The accused were pre-sented in the court Monday.

The alleged culprits haveconfessed to the crime in thejudicial magistrate’s court fol-lowing their arrest. They wereearlier sent on a four-dayphysical remand.

The police had incorpo-rated the Anti-Terrorism Act(ATA) clause in the gang-rape case of the student andproduced the rapists in theATC . Meanwhile, the law-yers here on Saturday de-cided not to plead the casesof those accused of raping agirl student. The members ofDistrict Bar Association(DBA) in its meeting held withits president Munir HussainLaghmani in the chairthrough a unanimouslyadopted resolution decidednot to defend the accused inthe gang-rape case.

NEW DELHI—Pakistan on Monday saidit was looking forward to a visit by NarendraModi as Indian Prime Minister and hopedthat the two countries would resolve “dif-ferences and disputes” through an earlydialogue.

“We are ready to host Narendra Modiwhen he decides to visit Pakistan. Our PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif has already extendedan invitation to him,” Pakistan’s High Com-missioner to India Abdul Basit said in aninteraction with members of Press Club ofIndia here.

Basit said people in both the countrieslonged for peace and prosperity and it was,therefore, mutually incumbent to spare noeffort towards resolving all the “bilateraldifferences and disputes”. He said Pakistanleadership was committed to a result-ori-ented dialogue process and hoped thatcomprehensive bilateral engagementwould resume sooner than later.

“Now the two democratic countrieshave to decide whether we will bury thehatchet or will continue to be at daggersdrawn indefinitely.

The two countries and the people can-not afford to move in wrong direction andto be on the wrong side of the history,”he said. Basit said the new government

Pakistan ready towelcome Modi:Basit

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) on Monday pre-sented a resolution in the Punjab Assem-bly to express solidarity with the armedforces.

Talking to media outside the AssemblyChambers after depositing a resolutionwith the Punjab Assembly Secretariat forexpressing solidarity with the armed forces,PML-Q parliamentary leader Moonis Elahisaid PML-N government should supportthem in the Assembly for the unanimousapproval of this resolution. On this occa-sion MPAs Ahmad Shah Khagga, SardarVickas Hassan Mokal, Dr. Muhammad Afzaland Khadija Umar were also present.

Moonis Elahi said that this resolution

PML-Q resolution in PA to showsolidarity with armed forces

was essential also because in India such aperson was going to form the governmentwho was involved in the massacre of thou-sands of Muslims, situation was changingpretty rapidly as such it was necessary thatentire Pakistani nation should fullystandby their armed forces.

Criticizing the performance of the PML-led government, he said presently the gov-ernment was not visible anywhere, all poli-cies of the government appeared to be fail-ing whether it was foreign policy or eco-nomic policy.` H said the rulers have secured so muchloans that four coming generations of Pa-kistan have become indebted. He said thegovernment had failed to give relief to thepoverty-ridden masses even after complet-ing of its one year.

uniform calling for a care-taker government to endthe crisis in Libya.

His forces attackedmilitants in the eastern cityof Benghazi on Friday.More than 70 people werekilled.

Tripoli was quiet onMonday with most peoplestaying indoors after fight-ing raged across the capi-tal on Sunday. Two peoplewere killed in that violence.

The international air-port was open thoughsome flights were canceledas travelers could not eas-ily reach it. But authoritiesextended the closure of

Benghazi airport for an-other week because of theunrest, the airport directorsaid. It was attacked withrockets overnight.Saudi Arabia closed itsembassy in Tripoli andevacuated its diplomaticstaff due to security rea-sons on Monday.

Since the end ofGaddafi’s one-man rule,the main rival militias of ex-rebels have becomepowerbrokers in Libya’spolitical vacuum, carvingout fiefdoms and flexingtheir military muscle tomake demands on thestate.—Reuters

in Pakistan strongly realises that for pur-suing the national and regional potential,peace is essential.

“In the vision of our foreign policy, itis the top-most priority. Peace is in ourmutual interest and peace can beachieved only through peaceful process,that is through dialogue process. In thepast, we have seen pre-conditions did notwork, nor they can work in the future,”he said.

Many opportunities provided byglobalisation to both the countries havebeen missed and time has come for newbilateral narrative, Basit said, adding “asneighbour we have no option but to talkto each other and normalise relations formutual benefits.”

“We have to leave the use of acri-mony and hostility. We have to engagewith each other. We have to talk to eachother and talk to each other comprehen-sively, meaningfully and for our mutualinterests and reciprocity,” he said.

Basit said Pakistan and India have tolook for peace rather than create an at-mosphere where there is no engagementand Islamabad is willing to engage in dia-logue and go out for development agendaand can go beyond narrative. .—INP MANSEHRA/BATTAGRAM—Jamiat Ulema-

e-Islam (JUI-F) chief, Maulana FazlurRehman has said that the country couldnot be steered out of the prevailing crisestill it was freed from the foreign dictations.

He was addressing ceremonies at JamiaImadadia Mansehra and Jamia KosarBattagram on Monday.

Fazl called for forming an independent

Country has to be freed from‘foreign dictation’: Fazl

KARACHI—General Secre-tary Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) Taj Haider has saidpolitical parties and Mediagroups are dragging theArmed Forces into politicalconflicts. “Armed Forces of Continued on Page 7

Media, political parties draggingarmy into politics: Taj

Pakistan do not need anysupport rallies or propa-ganda campaigns in theirsupport. Those who wereindulging in such activities

QUETTA: Balochistan Home Minister, Mir Sarfraz Bugti inspecting weapons recovered in operation by FC againstmilitants.

foreign policy and viable strategies totackle conspiracies being hatched at in-ternational level against Islam and Mus-lims.

The JUI-F chief said that religious semi-naries have always played positive role fordevelopment of country but those who areafraid of Islam and Muslims were defamingthem through negative propaganda.—INP

ISLAMABAD—Independent Power PlantsAdvisory Council (IPPAC) has said thatre-emergence of huge amount of circulardebt was adding to the problems of theIPPs.

The IPPAC during a meeting on Mon-day said that the sitting governmentcleared the outstanding amount of Rs. 480billion in June 2013 for electricity pur-chased by NTDC/PEPCO during June2012-June 2013 from IPPs and GENCOs.

However, the customer receivables ofDistribution Companies have reached Rs500 billion. This has resulted in Rs. 300billion again re-accumulating as circulardebt because NTDC/ PEPCO is unable topay for the full amount for the electricity itis purchasing from the power generators.

The IPPs, individually, and throughIPPAC have been agitating this issue withthe relevant Ministries of the governmentin an effort to seek release of payments forelectricity already supplied many monthsago. However, the payments are insuffi-cient to keep the plants fully operationaland as a result the receivables have grownagain.

In view of this serious liquidity crunch,IPPs would not be able to generate powerat full capacity and due to huge increasein the summer demand, the shortfall willsubstantially increase and load-sheddingduration could hit 12-14 hours a day.

Unless NTDC/PEPCO pays theamounts owed to IPP, some companiesare at risk of bank defaults for no fault oftheir own. Moreover, the cost of powergeneration is further increasing the needfor the subsidy due to non supply of gasto gas based IPPs as they are by and largebeing run on HSD. During 2012-13 whenNTDC/PEPCO did not pay on time, andas a result when IPPs were shutting down,NTDC/PEPCO imposed penalties whichwas a clear violation of the agreement, andthis matter is already in front of an arbitra-tor.

The imposition of more penalties willonly result in serious legal complicationsand force the IPPs to invoke their legalrights to protect themselves against be-ing forced out of business.

This situation is not only affecting theindustry and economy but is also givinga very negative signal to potential futureinvestors and bankers who are beingcourted to fund much needed additionalpower generation capacity.

In the circumstances, the Governmentneeds to realize urgency of taking actionby clearing the overdue amount of all IPPswithout any further delay and keeping re-tiring the circular debt frequently till thestructural adjustments having beenstarted by the present government startyielding results.—INP

Re-emerging circular debtcreating problems for IPPs

STAFF REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan People’s Partyleader and Senator Raza Rabbani haswarned of serious consequences if the cur-rent system is derailed.

Expressing his concerns in the Senateon Monday, Senator Raza Rabbani saidthis time the federation is facing threatsand not the constitution.

He said that media is a watchdog andthat it is not acceptable to put curbs onany news channel. The days are gonewhen media was restricted, he added.He said that the time has come for thedemocratic forces to find reasons as to

Rabbani warns of seriousconsequences if system derailed

why the situation is being deteriorated.Addressing the Senate, Senator Saeed

Ghani said that the nation is being misled bybringing people on the streets. He ques-tioned as to why the matter of Geo’s morn-ing show is not resolved yet even after thechannel’s apology. He further said that hecannot support curbs on media channelsover the wish of one political party. Mean-while, Farhatullah Babar said that if any newschannel committed some mistake and then of-fered public apology then the issue should bediscarded.Expressing his concerns in the Sen-ate, Babar said that the media channels aredivided and confronting each other.

MORE than a third of US adults areobese and are, therefore, at higher riskof type 2 diabetes. But new research

suggests a surprising prevention strategy forboth conditions - eating chocolate. In a mousestudy, led by Andrew P. Neilson of the Depart-ment of Food Science andTechnology at VirginiaPolytechnic Institute andState University, researchersdiscovered that a certain an-tioxidant in cocoa - the mainingredient in chocolate - pre-vented mice from gainingweight and lowered theirblood sugar levels.

This is not the onlystudy to suggest that con-suming chocolate can pre-vent such health conditions.Earlier this year, MedicalNews Today reported on astudy claiming that choco-late, as well as wine and ber-ries, protects against type 2diabetes, while other re-search found that teens whoeat lots of chocolate tend to be slimmer.

Such studies claim that the reason choco-late may have these health benefits is becauseof the flavanols it contains. These are types ofantioxidants. But the researchers of this mostrecent study say that not all flavanols are thesame. In fact, cocoa has several different types.Good news for chocolate lovers: a certainflavanol in cocoa may help prevent obesity andtype 2 diabetes.

In their study, published in the Journal ofAgricultural Food and Chemistry, the investi-gators set out to determine exactly whichflavanol may be responsible for preventingweight gain and lowering blood glucose lev-

els. For the research, the investigators as-signed mice to one of six different diets for12 weeks. These consisted of high- and low-fat diets, and high-fat diets supplementedwith either monomeric, oligomeric or poly-meric procyandins (PCs) - types of flavanols.

Mice were given 25 milligramsof these flavanols each day forevery kilogram of their bodyweight (25 mg/kg).

The research team foundthat a high-fat diet supple-mented with oligomeric PCswas the most effective formaintaining weight of the miceand improving glucose toler-ance - a factor that could helpprevent type 2 diabetes. Com-menting on the findings, theresearchers say: “OligomericPCs appear to possess the great-est antiobesity and antidiabeticbioactivities of the flavanols incocoa, particularly at the lowdoses employed for the presentstudy.

Additional studies ofprolonged feeding of flavanol fractions invivo are needed to further identify the frac-tions with the highest bioactivities and, there-fore, the greatest potential for translation tohuman clinical applications at reasonabledoses.” The investigators point out that thedoses of flavanols used in this study are sig-nificantly lower than doses used in past re-search and are more feasible when translatedinto flavanol levels for human consumption.

“Therefore, our data suggest that mod-erate doses of cocoa flavanols or cocoa pow-der have the potential to be more effectivein human clinical trials than previouslythought,” they add.

Chocolate could preventobesity and diabetes

Counsellor, Public Affairs Department of the Japanese Embassy, Toshikazu Isomura speakingduring a workshop of Japanese Woodblock Print Making at Nomad Art Gallery.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif on Mondaystressed upon the need for regular ex-change of parliamentarians and sharingof experiences between parliaments ofPakistan and Sweden.

“Pakistan has established a Pak-Sweden Friendship Group and estab-lishment of a separate Friendship Group

PM stresses regular Pak, Swedenparliamentary exchanges

Swedish Parliamentary delegation, led by Per Westerberg, Speaker of the Swedish Parliament, called on Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif atPM office. Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq is also present.

for Pakistan in the Swedish Parliamentwould be beneficial for both the coun-tries” he said.

The Prime Minister was talking toa delegation of Swedish parliament ledby Per Westerberg, Speaker of theSwedish Parliament, that called on himhere. The Prime Minister said Pakistanand Sweden can cultivate bilateral re-lationship as well as in the context ofEuropean Union by collaborating in

education and economic sectors.He also commended the consistent

support of Sweden to Pakistan’s questfor GSP Plus status.

“GSP plus Scheme will help Paki-stan to overcome its economic difficul-ties and generate job opportunities,” headded.

The Prime Minister also empha-sized the partnership between the Pa-kistan and Swedish cultural institu-

tions - museums and art institutions -to forge cultural linkages between thetwo countries. The Swedish delega-tion included members of Swedishparliament Lars Johansson, GunnerAxen, Ms. Wiwi-Anne Johansson andMs. Karlin Nilsson. Ambassador ofSweden in Pakistan Tomas Rosanderand Speaker National Assembly ofPakistan Sardar Ayaz Sadiq were alsopresent during the meeting.

STAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D —Talentedstudents from the Depart-ment of German Languagedemonstrated outstandingoratorical skills in the Ger-man Language Speech Con-test held at National Uni-versity of Modern Lan-guages (NUML) on Mon-day. The contest was ar-ranged by the Departmentof German Language in col-laboration with GermanEmbassy where Mrs UrsulaSaarbeck Director DAADCentre, Mr Stefan Ruppel,Assistant Defence Attacheof German Embassy andProf Dr Khalid Rashid,

former President of GermanAlumni Association werejudges in the contest.

Cultural and Press Atta-che of German Embassy, DrDan Tidten was chief guestin the event while RectorNUML, Maj Gen (R)Masood Hasan, Dr AnwerMehmood, Head of GermanDepartment, faculty mem-bers, students and other of-ficials of the University werealso present at the occasion.

In the first round of thecompetition, students of Cer-tificate and Diploma classesdelivered some flawlessspeeches demonstrating theirand teachers’ hard work forequipping them with a native

like fluency, vocabulary andpronunciation in Germanlanguage in a short span offour and eight months.

After going through avery tense atmosphere ofcompetition and judges’ me-ticulous scrutiny, they had achance to display their abil-ity to express their feelingsand ideas in recently learntlanguage through theatricalperformances on the stage.

Though the theme andstory of the play were de-rived from all times hit of“Anar Kali” and a Germanfilm “Goethe in Love” butthe idea, script, dialogues,plot, characters and climaxwere given the touch of a

melodrama and not of a trag-edy.

The beautiful juxtaposi-tion of Mughal and Germanroyal courts in the dresses,stage setting, make up andperformance was highly ap-preciated by the guests andaudience. The audience gavestanding ovation to the writerand actors who translated atragic love story into a ful-filled melodrama and pre-sented a beautiful refreshingtreatment of literature andlanguage by blending twodifferent cultures of the Eastand the West.

Moreover, students sangdifferent German songs,played musical instruments

and rendered a colourfulpresentation of differentcultures of Pakistan whichwas also admired by theguests and audience of theevent. German Cultural andPress Attache, Dr DanTidten and Rector NUMLMaj Gen (R) Masood Hasangave away the prizes to win-ning students.

Afshan Rafique Malik,Ebramhi Bin Najam, andShumail Tanveer won the first,second and third prizes respec-tively for Diploma categorywhile Farhan Shahid, KiranAbdullah and Savera Rehmanwon the first, second and thirdprizes respectively for Certificatecategory of Speech Contest.

Students mesmerise audience with speeches, stage performances

Students of German Language Department are displaying different cultures of Pakistan atGerman Language Speech Contest and Cultural Show at NUML.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Police have ar-rested 22 outlaws including five pro-claimed offenders and recovered weapons,hashish as well as stolen property fromtheir possession, a police spokesman saidon Monday. According to details LohiBher Police arrested four thieves identi-fied as Kabeer, Shaikh Ejaz Rabani, FaizRehman and Suleman. Sabzi Mandi po-lice arrested Sakhi Khan and recovered110 gram heroin from him while five other

22 outlaws includingfive POs nabbed

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan is facing a sys-temic problem of violence againstwomen, and parliamentarians irrespec-tive of their political affiliations shouldwork for pro-women legislation. Thiswas the consensus point of more thantwo dozen women parliamentarianspresent in the third meeting of WomenParliamentarians Council (WPC), a fo-rum of Sustainable Development PolicyInstitute (SDPI) here on Monday.

Stressing the need for making CNICcompulsory for marriage registration,the women MPs demanded that regis-tration of divorce should also be madecompulsory. The MPs, highlighting theplight of women in prisons, suggestedmeasures for their economic rehabili-tation once they complete their sen-tence.

They criticized the discriminatorytreatment meted out to women parlia-mentarians, who come to assemblies on

reserved seats. The women MPs dis-cussed in detail the problems faced bythem in parl iament, includingmarginalization in decision-making,lack of research support, gender dis-crimination, and inequality in politicalprocess.

They were of the view that women’spolitical empowerment and their mean-ingful inclusion in decision-making wasfundamental for any constructive andsustainable democratic change in Paki-stan. However, a few of them showedsatisfaction on the effectiveness of theirrole as parliamentarians, and denied anyinstances of political marginalization.Earlier, in his opening remarks, Dr AbidQaiyum Suleri, Executive Director ofSDPI, said there was a dearth of re-search evidence on various issues of na-tional concern and policy think-tanksshould rigorously provide research sup-port to parl iamentarians so as tostrengthen their role in evidence basedpolicy making. “SDPI is not only com-

mitted to providing research support tothe women parliamentarians but alsoplans to extend legislative drafting sup-port to them”, added Dr Suleri.

The meeting was attended by MNAArifa Khalid, MNA Romina KhusheedAlam, MNA Shahida Akhtar, MNANaeema Kishwar Khan, MNA MusaratAhmedzeb, Senator Robina Khalid,MNA Dr. Shahida Rehmani, MNAAnita Khalid, MNA Shmas ul Nisa,MNA Aisha, Senator Farah Aqil, MNASuriya Jatoi. Also members of PunjabAssembly Suraya Naseem, LubnaRehan, Tamkeen Akhter, Niazi & mem-bers of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Assem-bly Maliha Khan and Nagina Khan.

Naghma Imdad from DAI andAmbreen Ajaib from SPO were alsopresent. The women parliamentarianslauded the SDPI’s role in policy advo-cacy. Ambassador (R) ShafqatKakakhel, the Chairperson of Board ofGovernors of SDPI, presented the voteof thanks.

Women MPs asked to play active rolefor pro-women legislation

persons were nabbed in violation of sec-tion 144 of CrPC.

Shehzad Town policeapprehendedNadir Ali and recovered 210gram hashish from him while Bhara KahuPolice recovered one Kalashnikov from anaccused Hasnain Shah.

CIA Police arrested five accusedRizwan, Nazeer, Sufian Waris, ZulfqarAli, and Ali Raza during patrolling andrecovered one pistol each from them.Caseshave been registered against these nabbedpersons and further investigation is under-

way from them.Meanwhile, Islamabad police nabbed

five proclaimed offenders during crack-down against absconders and have also ac-celerated the efforts to arrest those whoare being at large despite their involvementin crime of heinous nature.

SSP Islamabad Muhammad AliNaikokara has directed all SHOs for ef-fective steps to curb activities of criminalelements. He also asked for strict vigilanceagainst suspects and enhanced patrollingmeasures in the city.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Parvaiz Ali Chawla, SeniorDirector of the Federal Judicial Academy(FJA) Monday said that in-service trainingsand orientations for Nazirs, Budget and Ac-counts Examiners were essential to enhancetheir efficiency and effective management ofthe court budget and accounts.

He expressed these views as a chief guestin the inaugural ceremony of a one-week re-fresher course titled “How to be an effec-tive Nazir/ Budget and Accounts Examiner”for Nazirs/ Budget and Accounts Examinersfrom all over Pakistan, Azad Jammu andKashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan here at theCenter of Excellence for Law and JudicialEducation,on Monday.

He said, “I have gone through the list of

subjects and on the basis of my personal ex-perience as a career Judge I am of the viewthat this kind of training is an important wayto improve the skills of each one of you whodevelop budget and perform accounting andfinance related activities in various courts. Aswe are aware that the judicial officers remainbusy with their judicial work and most of theirtime is spent in hearing the cases, therefore,accounting professionals such as Nazirs, Bud-get and Accounts Examiners play vital roleto maintain accounts/finance.

“I am confident that you people willmake this course highly successful with youractive participation in it.”

Spokesman of the Academy,HashimAbro said that twenty one Nazirs/ Budgetand Accounts Examiners were undergoingthis one week training here in the Academy.

Training essential to improveskills of court officials

Good environmentprotects life

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—President IIUIDr. Ahmed Yousif Al- Draiweeshon Monday said good environ-ment protected life. He said thiswhile addressing a lecture titled“Islam and Environment” orga-nized by the department of envi-ronmental sciences of the univer-sity. Dr. Al-Draiweesh said Islamhas stressed upon saving naturalresources. “Islam has taught topreserve the environment 1400years ago and now same has beentaught by the science” he added.He quoted various Quranicverses and sayings of HolyProphet (PBUH) regarding theprotection of environment.

He also urged the partici-pants to adopt the attitude ofmoderation in the life while say-ing “if we use water and mealin appropriate manner as guidedby Islam we can contribute eas-ily to save the environment andpreserve it from pollution”.

04:30 01:3005:30

09:00

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

May 28

A seminar on “The ChangingNature of the Nuclear NonProliferation Debate”, is to beheld at Pakistan Institute forParliamentary Services(PIPS) Attaturk Avenue (Ser-vice Road), F-5/2, onWednesday, May 28, 2014from 3:00-5:00 p.m.

President RCIC Purvis A Hussain presenting a gold medal to Samina Baig, the first Pakistani women to scale and success-fully conquer Mount Averest.—PO Photo

Federal Secretary CADD Faridullah Khan, Joint Secretary CADD Rafiq Tahir and Chief Executive Roots MilleniumSchools Chaudhry Faisal Mushtaq posing for a group photo with the participants of Pakistan’s 1st Public Private Profes-sional Development Programme at Roots Flagship Millennium Campus I-9/3, Islamabad. —PO photo by Sultan Bashir

Chairman of Nestle Pakistan and member NAVTTC Board Syed Yawar Ali presiding over the 12th NAVTTC Board ofMembers meeting.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—National Vocational andTechnical Training Commission (NAVTTC)Board on Monday approved 22 developmentprojects of Rs 257.3 million to impart train-ing in different trades.

Around 4060 jobless male and femaleyouth across the country would be providedtechnical and vocational training under PrimeMinister’s Hunarmand Pakistan Programme.

The projects were approved inNAVTTC’s 12th Board of Members (BoM)meeting held here and was presided over byChairman of Nestle Pakistan and memberNAVTTC Board, Syed Yawar Ali.

Earlier Executive Director NAVTTC,Khalid Hanif, in his opening remarks high-lighted role and functions of National Voca-tional and Technical Training Commission(NAVTTC).

He said the importance of TEVT was be-ing realized and recognized the world overfor economic stability and added skilled man-

22 projects worth Rs. 257.3mapproved for youth training: NAVTTC

power is a key to socio-economic devel-opment.

Being a Secretary of the Board, KhalidHanif also gave details of each of agendaitems.

He said out of 22 development projects,one pilot project was of nationwide to belaunched in collaboration with Pakistan AirForce (PAF), in which 800 jobless maleand female youth in 18 different demanddriven vocational trades will be trained.

The jobless youth of Balochistan hasbeen given priority under Aghaz-e-HaqooqBalochistan. Ten development projects, outof 22, have been approved for vocationaltraining to 1230 jobless youth ofBalochistan only. Two projects for the 100jobless youth of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa &FATA, two projects for the 740 youth ofSindh, one project for 150 youth of AzadJammu & Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan,two projects for 275 youth of Islamabadregion and four projects for 765 youth forwhole of Punjab, he said.

Three suspecteddacoits arrested

RAWALPINDI—Police havearrested three suspected dacoitsand recovered weapons fromtheir possession.

According to details,Naseerabad police acting on atip-off conducted a raid inBhata Chowk area in its juris-diction and arrested three lurk-ing dacoits namely Tariq,Pervaiz and Wasif who wereallegedly hiding there with anintention of dacoity.

Police recovered two pis-tols 30 bore with seven roundsfrom their possession. Furtherinvestigations were under-way.—APP

Mahmood appointedhead of P&PR

OBSERVER REPORT

IS L A M A B A D—Prominentwriter and author MahmoodRiazudd inhas been pro-moted ascontroller ofnews andposted ashead ofpress, publi-cations andpublic relations (PP&PR) wingof Radio Pakistan. DirectorGeneral Radio PakistanSamina Parvez Khalid hasgiven approval for his promo-tion and new posting.

Mahmood Riazuddin hailingfrom Faisalabad, remained asso-ciated with different dailies ofFaisalabad and Lahore in the earlyyears of his journalistic career, andlater contributed articles to En-glish and Urdu newspapers andmagazines on different topics andissues. He also penned downbooks. During 1990s, MahmoodRiazuddin remained attached withAzad Kashmir RadioMuzaffarabad and besides news,prepared and presented currentaffairs programs on Kashmir is-sue.

Other radio journalistswhose promotion as controllernews has been approved by DGRadio Pakistan Samina ParvezKhalid include Zafar IqbalMughal, Gul Akbar, ZohraUsmani and Riaz Ahmed Malik.

ISLAMABAD—The weight and prices of“Roti” and “Naan” go unchecked in twincities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi due toabsence of proper mechanism to check theweight and prices on daily basis. The resi-dents of various localities have expressedconcerns over the weight and prices of“roti” and “naan”, saying that it should bechecked on daily basis to ensure availabil-ity of the items of prescribed weight at af-fordable price.

The residents said that authorities con-cerned should take notice of the recent in-crease in the prices of ‘roti’ and ‘paratha’.

Ahmed Ali a resident of G-7 said thatsome ‘naanbais’ did not increase prices butdecreased the weight of ‘naan’ and ‘roti’to 70 to 80 grams instead of the official

weight of 120 grams. A nanbai at G-9market said he could not afford sellingbread at a low cost due to increase in thewheat and other expenses.

He claimed that the weight of the naanand roti had not decreased, adding that itis not true, however, there were a largenumber of complaints that ‘roti’ weighthad already been reduced in the twin cit-ies. A nanbai at Peshawar Morr said hehas increased the rate of 120 grams ofbread from Rs 8 to 10 according to thedecision of ‘Tandoor’ Owners Associa-tion.

The ‘naanbais’ at different localitiesof the capital are selling ‘naan’ and ‘roti’at different rates at Rs 7, Rs 8, Rs 10, Rs12 or Rs 15 and fleecing the common

people, said the residents of various locali-ties. An official of District Administration,when contacted he said that the DistrictAdministration had fixed rate of 120 gram‘roti’ at Rs 6 earlier. He further said thatno ‘Tandoor’ owner will be allowed to fixthe rate of ‘roti’ of their own choice andstrict action will be taken on violating thelaw.

The residents claimed that the con-cerned authorities had failed to ensure theprices and weight of the roti and naan,adding that authorities need to devise amechanism for checking prices andweight. They also claimed that most of thenaanbais using substandard floor and over-charging consumers due to lukewarm at-titude of the authorities concerned.—APP

Naan, Roti weight, prices go unchecked

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—To accommodate the in-creasing pressure of traffic, the Capi-tal Development Authority (CDA) hasdecided to expand Islamabad Highwayfrom Rawat to Koral Chowk to 10lanes.

The Planning wing of the CapitalDevelopment Authority (CDA) has is-sued the layout plan and cross-sectionof the project and now tenders wouldbe invited for the construction work.

However, it is still unclear thatwhether the road will be constructedunder Roads Department of the civicauthority or the new company of CDAwhich has been awarded the right ofway of Islamabad Highway.

The highway from Faizabad toKoral chowk is already of 10 lanes andnow the width will be extended toRawat as long queues of light and heavytraffic are seen throughout the day par-ticularly during morning and eveninghours. Similarly, the road from Zero

Point to Faizabad will also be widenedto 10 lanes, while another loop will beadded in Faizabad Interchange.

It is to be mentioned here that traf-fic pressure on Islamabad High-way hassignificantly increased as residents ofKorang Town, Pakistan Town, BehriaTown, Media Town, Judicial Colony,Doctors Town, PWD Housing Scheme,National Police Foundation Scheme,and Ghouri Town use the road. The resi-dents have appealed to the governmentto start the project on priority basis.

Islamabad Highway from Rawat toKoral Chowk to be made 10 lanes wide

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A three-day long workshopon “Optimizing Canal and GroundwaterManagement” concluded on Monday at PirMehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture Univer-sity Rawalpindi (PMAS-AAUR).

The workshop was organized in col-laboration with Australian Centre for In-ternational Agricultural Research(ACIAR), said a press release issued here.

The aim of the workshop was to planvarious activities to uplift the socio eco-nomic status of the farmers of the regionwith special focus on water availability.

On the occasion, AAUR, Vice Chan-cellor, Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz Ahmad was thechief guest while Dr. John Blackwell,Project Leader of ACIAR was the guestof honor.

The speakers delivered their lectureson hydrological modeling, Remote Sens-ing and Geographic Information System(GIS), decision support system for surfaceand ground water optimization.

They stressed upon the need to edu-cate the farming community about mod-

ern methods of farming at grass-root leveland urged for the optimizing water man-agement practices and to design and ad-aptation of innovative irrigation tech-niques.

The speakers also emphasized on uti-lizing Remote Sensing and GIS based toolsto integrate hydrological data with socio-economic data for optimal use of surfaceand ground water.

Prof. Dr. Rai Niaz said that there isdire need for groundwater management,evaluation and management of drip andsprinkler irrigation systems, developmentof methodologies and technologies to im-prove crop per drop. Vice Chancellor saidthat country is very much concerned aboutthe water security and, “We have to joinhands in order to combat the challenge. Ifwe improve our water efficiency, we candouble the areas for agriculture produc-tion”.

Dr. John Blackwell said that the ob-jective of ACIAR’s initiatives is to sup-port analysis that improves economic andnatural resource management.

He appreciated the work being con-

ducted at AAUR along with informationtechnology based software tools beingdeveloped by University. He assured fullsupport by his organization for the upliftof the farmers and agriculture sector of theregion.

It may be called that AAUR, PunjabIrrigation and Drainage Authority(PIDA) and Faisalabad Water Manage-ment Research Center (FWMRC) is al-ready working on a project titled Opti-mizing Canal and Groundwater Manage-ment in collaboration with ACIAR. Onthe occasion, project partners also dis-cussed and identified the opportunitiesfor equitable distribution of canal andgroundwater to improve livelihoodsthrough maximizing crop production andmanaging Stalinization in irrigated land-scapes.

They also agreed to develop tools ca-pable of analyzing hydrological and eco-nomic water management and to developimproved canal and groundwater manage-ment options. They also discussed the is-sues and future prospects of the project andagreed to support the farmers at field level.

Workshop on optimizing canal,groundwater management concludes

ISLAMABAD—Many students of the Federal Di-rectorate of Education (FDE) run educational insti-tutions have still not received their textbooks afterthe start of new academic session despite assurancesfrom the concerned authorities to ensure delivery oftextbooks in the first week of May. The classes forthe new session started on April 14 while the re-quired books could not be published in time by theauthorities concerned due to which students are fac-ing difficulties towards their studies.

Talking to APP, Sameer Akhtar, a parent said,“My son studying in class 9th has still not receivedtextbooks of two subjects and these books were alsonot available in the markets”.

“Non-provision of the textbooks after passingone month of the new academic session reflect thenegligence on the part of the concerned authorities”,

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad police have failed to con-trol street crimes and dacoities in various sec-tors ofthe federal capital, specifically sectors G-10 and G-11, putting lives and properties of the residents atstack. The outlaws are carrying out the dacoitiesand street crimes with impunity, even during dayhours while the police are playing the role of silentspectator.

In the latest incident of robbery on Monday, twounidentified dacoits barged into a flat in G-11/4 inthe jurisdiction of Ramna police station and lootedcash and valuables on gunpoint. Police arrived atthe scene after the incident and started investiga-tion. However, police failed to find the dacoits so

far. The residents, expressing their resentment onthe incident, said that the outlaws carry out crimeswith ease and disappear, while the police do noth-ing except registering cases against them. Theyblamed that some ‘black sheep’ in the police depart-ment were involved in the criminal activities in thecapital city.

They said that police patrolling should be in-creased in sectors G-10, G-11 and other adjacentareas and the cops should keep a vigilant eye oncriminal elements in the localities. They also stressedupon the need of using modern investigation andforensic techniques and equipments to deal with therising crime rate.—INP

Robberies, street crimesincreasing in Capital

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The reason, observing this dayis, because 50% people, even in developed coun-tries, are not aware of that they are sufferingfrom Hepatitis. According to a study, around15 million Pakistani population is suffering fromthis menace. It is just because of lack of aware-ness, poor diagnostic facilities and non avail-ability of standard of care treatment.

A Public Awareness Programme under su-pervision of Prof. Dr. Muzaffar Lateef Gill (Con-sultant Gastroentroligst &Hepatologist) onHepatitis was organized at MAROOF Interna-tional Hospital. More than 200 patients weretested for Hepatitis B&C free of cost.

In a briefing session Dr Muzaffer LateefGill explained, the poor quality treatment of-

fered to the patients leads to poor outcome andworsening of liver disease. The governmentand civil society should work together to fightthis menace. Every hepatitis patient should getthe best international standard of treatment.

Dr. Gill appreciated the efforts of MAROOFInternational Hospital for raising the awarenessfor Hepatitis and thanked to the management ofMAROOF, specially the executive director Mr.Bilal Bin Zaheer and Mr. Haroon Naseer theManaging Director MIH for organizing of suchactivities for the welfare of general public.

Message on this day is “get yourself testedfor Hepatitis , know your problem , get in touchwith appropriately trained doctor” to get besttreatment available. The doctors as well as thecivil society have a huge responsibility to tacklethis menace with missionary zeal.

World Hepatitis testingday observed

he said. The officials of National Book Foundation(NBF), which was given the task of publishing thetextbooks, claims that they have delivered the text-books to the FDE while the students have not re-ceived the books.

Anjum Shakil, another parent said, the collegeadministration keeps the textbooks under its cus-tody and provide textbooks to only those studentswhose parents pressurize them and ask for the booksagain and again. He said students of the federal capi-tal, which should be a model for others, are facingsuch issues what to talk about other provinces.

Director General FDE, Dr Shahnaz Anjum Riazsaid she has just assumed her charge few days agoand she will look into the matter. She said a strategywould be devised to ensure delivery of textbooks tothe students in time in future.—APP

Students in FDE run institutesstill without textbooks

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK Prime Minister Ch Abdul Majid and other ministers participating in All Parties SolidarityRally against brutalities in Indian Held Kashmir.

BUMBER: People are protesting against expelling of Kashmiri students from Indian educational institutes.

Z G MUHAMMAD

Curtains had almost beendrawn on ten-year-old UPArule in New Delhi. Dr.

Manmohan Singh had almoststuffed his suitcases at 7-RaceCourse and was readying to moveout to his retirement retreat at 3-Motilal Nehru Road, that KashmirUniversity hosted an unusual guestfrom the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr.Satinder K Lambah, - man engagedon Track II with Pakistan. There wasnothing unusual about an “outfit”,of the University with terrifyinglydubious track record since its incep-tion organizing a “selected” gather-ing for the Prime Minister’s specialenvoy. But, what caused curiosityamongst political circles in Srinagarwas timing of the visit and the con-tent and the context of the visitingdiplomat’s speech.

Kashmir related Track-2 diplo-macy between New Delhi andIslamabad picked up during the NDAgovernment, continued with all itspeaks and valleys during two terms

Kashmir and delusions of diplomacyof the UPA government. Lamah wasappointed by Manmohan Singh as spe-cial envoy for Track-2 dialogue withPakistan. During his tenure, he never-ever had an interface with the peopleof Kashmir. It is for the first time that hemade his nine-point formula for resolu-tion or dissolution of the Kashmir Dis-pute public. Ostensibly, he has beenengaged with his Pakistan counterpartaround these points only.

Much before analysing the formulathat Lambah articulated before the “se-lected” gathering, it is important toknow if an internationally recognizeddispute with United Nations SecurityCouncil having laid out a well definedformula for its resolution needs to bediscussed on the Track-2, by the par-ties that are committed to uphold thepledges made before the comity of na-tions. Here arises a fundamental ques-tion. What is Track-II diplomacy andwhat circumstances necessitate thismode of diplomacy. Theorists and aca-demicians have defined Track-2 diplo-macy as “unofficial, informal, interac-tion between adversary groups or na-tions that aim to develop strategies to

influence public opinion, organize hu-man and material resources in waysthat might help resolve the dispute”.

The definitions given by theoristssound plausible but there are someinherent contradictions in this genusof diplomacy coined some thirty yearsback. The actors involved in Track-two have scant ‘ability to influenceforeign policy’, power structure andpublic opinion. Apparently, they havea freehand but in fact their hands aretied down to the stated policies oftheir countries that denies them sus-tained leverage for arriving at agree-ments. Looking in this perspective atthe decade old Track-2 diplomacy onKashmir, it at best has been “a feelgood exercise”.

If one takes the nine point formulaclaimed by Special Envoy to PrimeMinister of India as “personal”, as thecumulative outcome of the Track-2diplomacy, it can comfortably said, tenyears have gone down the drain. Forconstraints of space, it may not bepossible to reproduce all the points ofhis formula in this column but the veryfirst point that talks about converting

the LOC into a ‘border between twonormal states’ is a blatant denial to thehistory and legality of the dispute.Most of the points in the formula arenothing but replications or amplifica-tion of the much-touted four point for-mula of General Musharraf.

When this formula was first timeannounced, in this column I had writ-ten it offered no solution for the Kash-mir dispute instead as a Pakistani com-mentator Asif Ezdi wrote sometimeback Musharraf ‘sowed seeds of con-fusion by announcing dropping ofUN resolution on Kashmir out of bluewithout popular mandate and initiat-ing back channel dialogue on his half-backed and ill-conceived formula.” Thefact remains, not raising strong voicesof dissent against any such formulaeroding the very edifice of the people’sfundamental right or by not calling aspade a spade we have been addingconfusion to the Kashmir problem.Had strong dissent been expressedagainst 4pt formula perhaps AsifZardari would not have continued theTrack-2 diplomacy on same lines withAmbassdor Riaz Mohammad Khan as

his interlocutor.When Joseph V Montville coined

the phrase he had not seen it as analternative to Tack-I diplomacy but it“grew out of the observation that pri-vate individuals, meeting unofficially,can find their way to common groundthat officials negotiators can’t.” Mybelief is that Track-II diplomacy worksin immediate conflict situation thatcause diplomatic breakdown andstandoffs- situation like that of 2008when terrorists had attacked twoMumbai hotels and not in dispute thathave been part of Tack-I diplomacy.

By all definitions, Kashmir fallsunder the category Track-I diplomacyor official diplomacy. It needs to en-gage “track one players” that includeheads of the States of the two coun-tries, United Nations or any other or-ganization. A scholar in Cartier Foun-dation has drawn long list of Track-Iactors that could be engaged in re-solving disputes like that of Jammuand Kashmir. The time, date and venuechosen by Prime Minister’s Specialenvoy Lambah for making his ideasknown about the resolution of Kash-

mir has raised a fundamental ques-tion what promoted him to talk aboutit when new government is about totake over. A leading New Delhi news-paper saw the move “to set out thebackdrop for Modi Government ifthey decide to pick up the baton onKashmir negotiation”.

It can be said that Mr. Lambahleft a handover charge note, in casethe new government appoints an-other special envoy for Pakistan.But, it would be too early to sayabout the new government in NewDelhi, whether it engages itself withIslamabad on Kashmir on Track-oneor Track-2 or not at all. Notwith-standing, Pakistan Prime Minister,Nawaz Sharif immediately after vic-tory of BJP inviting Narendra Modito Pakistan, according to leadingPakistan newspaper (Tribune) thereare apprehensions in Pakistan thatModi may “not augur well for re-gions stability” and there are also“fears that he may team-up againstPakistan with Dr. Abdullah who isall set to become Afghanistan.”

—Courtesy: Greater Kashmir

HAMEED SHAHEEN

MUZAFFARABAD—Backing the call ofCh Abdul Majeed, Prime Miniter ofAzad J&K, hundreds of thousandsof youth and students on Mondayobserved Black Day across the terri-tory to reiterate their solidarity withthe struggling people of India-heldparts of Jammu and Kashmir State. Theyouth streamed across towns, villagesand highways and demonstrated theirresolve to stand by the youth andpolitical forces of Occupied Kashmirfor their right to self-determine theiraffiliation as per UN mandate via nu-merous UN Security Council resolu-tions on Kashmir dispute.The demon-strators chanted slogans condemningthe ongoing Indian atrocities, oppres-sion and suppression against theKashmiris in the held Valley.

An AJK media note says ‘PrimeMinister himself led a rally and ad-dressed the mammoth youngsters as-sembled in University groundMuzafarabad. All Parties Hurriat Con-ference (APHC) leaders Mir WaizUmar Farooq and veteran leader SyedAli Gellani made telephonic speecheson this occasion. The Prime Ministerof Azad state of Jammu & Kashmircondemned cold-blooded brutal actsof Indian army against Kashmiri youthsaying the only crime they had wastheir inexaustible love for Pakistan. “ Iwant to assure all my brothers and sis-

Premier Ch Abdul Majid’s callters especially the youth of IHK thatwe are with you in every thick and thinand its my prime responsibility as be-ing the Prime Minister of the basecamp (AJ&K) government to utilize allenergies for the right to self determi-

nation of Kashmiri people who arestruggling against Indian tyrant oc-cupation”, he asserted.

He warned the international com-munity that the world was on the vergeof atrocious and nuclear third worldwar. “ India is inviting for nuclear warand one must not put out of his mindthat this war would not come to passbetween the two countries but ulti-mately result into world war three” hetipped off. While phrasing the recentIndian polls a farcical drama in Jammu

& Kashmir AJ&K Premier said it madeno difference whoever comes intopower in so-called secular democracyas Kashmiris never accepted Indianconstitution and such elections un-der it.

The AJ&K Premier expressedgratitude to all political leadership ofPakistan specifically mentioning PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazal-Ur-Rehman and Chief of Army StaffGeneral Raheel Shareef for their bold,far-sighted and just position on Kash-mir issue and unrelenting moral, dip-lomatic and political support ofKashmiri people. He applauded theGeneral Raheel Sharif and welcomedhis statement saying he assured themall Kashmiri youth, men, women andchildren were with Pakistan army.Chairman Hurriat Conference MirwaizUmar Farooq in his telephonic speechsaid that Kashmiri youth was knownfor their uncountable sacrifices theylaid for their right to self determina-tion. “ Hurriat has a slogan Kashmirka Tarjuman Kashmir ka Nojwaan (Youth of Kashmir is the representa-tive of Kashmir) and it was the youthwhich started freedom struggle andwill continue with full zeal unless theyattain their goal”, he observed.Mirwaiz revealed that around ten thou-sand youngsters were missing in IHKand thousand others are put behindthe bars illegally but India could notstifle their voice.

AJK awash withyouth solidaritydemonstrations,condemning In-dian atrocities;

Mirwaiz, AliGeelani address

via phone

Ayub Bandayremembered

SRINAGAR—The Jammu andKashmir Salvation Move-ment (JKSM) has paid glow-ing tributes to liberationleader, Shaheed MuhammadAyub Banday on his 10thmartyrdom anniversary. TheJKSM spokesman in a state-ment issued in Srinagar saidthat the services and con-tribution of MuhammadAyub Banday for Kashmircause would always be re-membered. He added thatthe people of Kashmirwould never forget the sac-rifices of Kashmiri martyrs.

The spokesman urgedIndia to realize ground real-ity on Kashmir instead ofcommitting the human rightsviolation in the occupiedterritory and settle the lin-gering Kashmir dispute inaccordance with the aspira-tions of Kashmiri people. Healso condemned the contin-ued illegal detention of partyChairman, Zafar Akbar Buttand other Hurriyet leadersand demanded their imme-diate release.—KMS

PDP expressesgratitude towards

workers, partyleadership

JAMMU—Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) has ex-pressed its gratitude towardspeople of Jammu and Kash-mir for their over-whelmingsupport to the party in justconcluded Lok Sabha elec-tions. In a statement, Yash PalSharma, MLC and PDP can-didate for Jammu-Poonch LokSabha segment, said that itwas all due to the hard workof party that PDP has securedrespectable number of votesfrom Jammu-Poonch LokSabha segment.

He said that every sec-tion of the society has votedfor PDP in the elections. Hefurther said that it was all dueto credible leadership ofPDP that voters of all sec-tions of the society havevoted for PDP. Yash PalSharma also congratulatedparty leadership for snatch-ing all the three Parliamen-tary segments of KashmirValley from ruling the Na-tional Conference. Mean-while spokesman of PDPand former Minister SardarRangil Singh has also con-gratulated party leadershipfor the historical victory inKashmir Valley.—NNI

Time for Modi to undoinjustices with

Kashmiris: Gilani

Gunmen killstudent in

SoporeKRANKSHIVAN (IHK)—Unidentified gunmen shotdead an undergraduate stu-dent in north Kashmir’sSopore Tehsil during theprevious night, police said.Police said Abid AkbarWani (20) son ofMuhammad Akbar ofKrankshivan colony wasshot dead by unidentifiedgunmen in a nursery innearby Tarzoo area.

Family sources saidAbid was missing since Sat-urday evening and theywere informed about his kill-ing Sunday morning. How-ever police said Abid’s CallDetail Record (CDR) sug-gest his cell phone wasswitched off from last threedays.

“He was tied to a willowtree and shot from pointblank range,” a senior po-lice official from Sopore toldGreater Kashmir, adding theyouth had received two bul-lets in head and one in ab-domen. Police said: “Wehave started investigationsinto the incident.” Abid waselder son in the family andhas two sisters and ayounger brother. His fatheris a motor mechanic.—GK

RAJBAGH (IHK)—The Chairman of AllParties Hurriyet Conference, Mirwaiz UmarFarooq has said that if India bases its policyon reality and initiates a meaningful dia-logue by inviting Pakistani leadership andKashmiri resistance leadership, the Hurriyetwould lend its full support to the process.

He was addressing an event titled“Hawal incident: A Bloody Chapter in Kash-mir History.” The function was organizedby the APHC to remember MoulviMohammad Farooq, Khwaja Abdul Ganilone, martyrs of Hawal and other martyrs atits Rajbagh headquarters in Srinagar.

“But if they continue their policy of sup-pression and military repression it will beresisted strongly at all levels,” he added. TheAPHC chairman stated that the rulers in Delhishould apprise people in India about the his-torical context to the Kashmir dispute. Hesaid Kashmiris have already rejected the so-called polls in Kashmir and have conveyedtheir message loud and clear.

Terming Kashmir as a police state,Mirwaiz said there is no democracy in Kash-mir. He said all the significant decisions aretaken by army and police to run the Kash-mir affairs. He said that Kashmiris wouldcontinue to fight for their freedom till they

Ready to lend support if Indiaserious about Kashmir: Mirwaiz

would achieve it. He condemned the con-tinuous arrest and detention of pro-free-dom leaders and youth and demanded theirimmediate release.

The Mirwaiz stated that the so-calledclaimants of democracy opened indiscrimi-nate fire on the rally, mourning the martyr-dom of Mirwaiz Moulvi Muhammad Farooq,at Hawal in 1990, and killed over 70 peopleand injured hundreds of others. He said thatsuch example of brutality was rarely foundin the history. He said that real motive ofobserving the Martyrdom Week was to re-affirm the resolve to take the mission of mar-tyrs, who laid their lives for the sacredcause, to its logical conclusion.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that Kashmirwas not a dispute of borders, neither it wasan internal issue of India nor a problem ofeconomic deprivation, but it was an interna-tionally recognized dispute and urged theworld community to respect the will and as-pirations of Kashmiris and play their dutifulrole in resolving the long vexed dispute.

He stated the change in dispensationin India would have no bearings onKashmiri people till their policies and think-ing showed a radical shift from the currentstandpoint.—KMS

SRINAGAR—The veteranHurriyet leader, Syed AliGilani has said that India hasdone injustice with thepeople of Kashmir and In-dian Prime Minister-desig-nate, Narendra Modi, canundo it by fulfilling the prom-ises that New Delhi hadmade with the people aboutplebiscite in Jammu andKashmir.

Syed Ali Gilani in a state-ment issued in Srinagar saidthat Modi expressed his sor-row for not contributing tothe freedom movement ofIndia, but he had a chance tounderstand the freedommovement of Kashmir in itsreal perspective.“Indian ju-diciary has also miserablyfailed in providing justice tothe oppressed people ofKashmir,” he said and added“if Modi is really seriousabout his promise of justicethen first of all he should atleast accept the injusticedone to the Kashmiri peopleand then try to eliminatethese injustices.

Modi had said in his

statement that ‘the newgovernment will take deci-sions according to thewishes and aspiration ofpeople’. “But time is the bestjudge, he said, adding:Kashmir people are in noway enemies of India or itspeople but they want thatjustice should be done withthem and their rights shouldbe respected.

Gilani said that thoughModi was born in1950, buthe would be aware of thetragedy of 1947 when only72 days after the liberationof India and Pakistan fromthe forced occupation ofBritain, New Delhi landed itstroops in Jammu and Kash-mir and forcibly enslavedthe comparatively weak andunarmed people.

“Then India itself tookthis issue to UN where thisinternational body alsotermed the occupation ofJammu and Kashmir as in-justice and advocated thatright to self-determination ofthe people of Jammu andKashmir,” he said.—KMS

SRINAGAR—Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed,has said that people of Kashmir throughtheir clear mandate in favour of PDP hasfurther strengthened the party’s resolve towork towards accomplishing its unfinishedagenda of securing dignified peace, last-ing stability and inclusive prosperity forthe people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mufti while congratulating NarendraModi for his overwhelming success acrossthe country hoped that Modi’s develop-mental agenda would be intensive and po-litical agenda inclusive. “We congratulateMr Modi and his party on their outstand-ing victory. We hope his developmentalagenda is intensive and his political agendais inclusive. That is what is needed andexpected of him in his new role,” Mufti said.

He hoped that the new Government atthe Centre, under the leadership of Modi,will take tangible measures to address thecauses of alienation and trust deficit in Kash-mir and work towards finding long-lastingsolution of the problem plaguing the regionfor the past more than six decades.

“At the national level also people havevoted and given a decisive mandate to theBJP for a strong and stable government at theCentre. Mr Narendra Modi has got the politi-cal and electoral legitimacy to head the newGovernment as the Prime Minister. We mustall respect this legitimacy that has been ac-corded to him by the people of the country.”

Meanwhile, the PDP patron and theformer chief minister said that the people

Hope Modi will remove trustdeficit in Kashmir: Mufti

of Jammu and Kashmir have spoken– and‘spoken decisively’. “As I extend my grati-tude to the people for reposing their faithand trust in Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and ensuring a remarkable and his-toric victory for the party, I am in no doubt,at all, as to what it means.

I am especially humbled by the overwhelm-ing endorsement of my party’s political andeconomic agenda by the State’s young popu-lation who have started playing decisive rolein democratic exercises as is evident from theresults of the recent Lok Sabha polls. Time hascome for the State’s youth to fully assert them-selves to become active partners in politicaldecision-making processes.”

Mufti said: “I compliment the PDP cad-res from the core of my heart for having suc-cessfully and effectively carried the party’spolitical and economic agenda to thegrassroots level. They sacrificed their per-sonal interests for the larger objective of en-suring peace and dignity for the State andits people and it is because of the untiringefforts of the PDP cadres that their partyhas today become a real people’s movementacross Jammu and Kashmir. I also expressmy appreciation for the Election Commis-sion of India (ECI) for ensuring by and largefree, fair and peaceful elections in Jammu &Kashmir with the endorsement of the Cen-tral Government led by Dr Manmohan Singh.Equally commendable is the role played bythe State Administration in accomplishingthis drawn-out and massive democratic ex-ercise smoothly.”—KNS.

Omar findssolace in

dickens wordsSRINAGAR—Jammu andKashmir chief minister OmarAbdullah whose party Na-tional Confer-ence receiveda historic drubbing at thehands of opposition in theIndian Parliamentary elec-tion has invoked the wordsof English Novel writerCharles Dickens and said heidentified with the openinglines of his acclaimed novel:A tale of two cities. A Taleof Two Cities (1859) is anovel by Dickens, set inLondon and Paris beforeand during the French Revo-lution.

With well over 200 mil-lion copies sold, it ranksamong the most famousworks in the history of liter-ary fiction. Omar on Twittersaid in multiple tweets: “Itwas the best of times, it wasthe worst of times, it was theage of wisdom, it was theage of foolishness, it wasthe epoch of belief, it wasthe epoch of incredulity, itwas the season of Light, itwas the season of Darkness,it was the spring of hope, itwas the winter of despair…”Charles Dickens in A Tale ofTwo Cities.” He wrote: “andthe words that I identifywith closely.”—NNI

The superior manunderstands what

is right; the inferiorman understands

what will sell.

—Confucius

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The tile importers have expressed theirconcerned over regulatory duty on imported tileswhich they feel may hurt growth of real estate andhousing sector which has shown a restart in Paki-stan. The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises(UNISAME) has invited the attention of the min-istry of commerce that on the one hand the gov-ernment is promoting housing industry and onthe other hand imposing regulatory duties on tileswhich is an important item of the constructionbusiness. UNISAME has urged the governmentnot to treat tiles as a luxury item and remove regu-latory duty on imported tiles to promote the hous-ing industry in right earnest.

The tiles importers who are mostly SMEshave informed UNISAME that they are badly af-fected by the imposition of regulatory and dump-

ing duty. The SME tile importers are paying dutyfrom 30% to 37.5% on different varieties. Theyare still paying regulatory duty of 15% which wasimposed on luxury items in 2009-2010 and re-moved in 2011-12 from all items but not removedon 4 items namely tiles, cars, arms and ammuni-tion and betel nuts. The SMEs fail to understandwhy the government has included regulatoryduty on tiles.

President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver said tIlesis not a luxury item it is necessity of small and bighouses , shops , hospitals , schools and tiles isalso one of the main condition of ISO certificationfor factories as tiled flooring keeps the productshygienically safe from dust and infection. With-out tiled flooring the factories are not able to gettheir factories approved for export contracts andcome under noncompliance rules and regulations.The tile importers group led by Javed

Tarmohommed informed the UNISAME chief thatthe National Tariff Commission (NTC) imposedanti-dumping duty on Chinese tiles and now theyare working for imposing anti-dumping duty onother origins also which is unfair and uncalled for.

The local tile manufacturers have influencedthe government and tile importers are paying du-ties under import tariff prices which are also higherthan genuine price which is again based on unfairpractices. In Pakistan there are only 7 factoriesmanufacturing tiles and they are producing to fullcapacity and they are increasing their productioncapacity due to heavy demand which they areunable to meet and there is need for imported tilesto meet the demand both quality wise and pricewise.

Since last year big volume of tiles is beingsmuggled from Iran due to high tariff rates of dutyand taxes which is again effecting genuine import-

ers and the government is also losing on importduties. Javed Tarmohommed said that the SMEtile importers are trying to raise their voice fromdifferent forums but it is reported that since onevice president of the Federation of Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (FCC&I) is also a manu-facturer of tiles so this year in their federal budgetproposal they proposed government for continu-ation of regulatory duty on tiles and also for tilesto be removed from Free Trade Agreement (FTA)with China which clearly shows their vested in-terest against business of SMEs. U N I S A M Eurged the government to seriously consider theinjustice and remove the regulatory duty on im-ported tiles to enable the SME tile importers sur-vive and continue their business as they are be-ing troubled by the smugglers on one side and onthe other by the vested interest of the big local tilemanufacturers.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—President Lasbela Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (LCCI), Ismail Suttarhas opposed the State Bank’s decision to keepmonetary policy unchanged at 10 percent forthe next two months despite the fact that vari-ous economic indicators of the country havestarted showing signs of improvement. He saidthat exporters have already suffered monetarylosses due to abrupt fall of dollar and facingfinancial crunch, the central bank has remainedunmoved while industry was expecting at leastone percent reduction in interest rate.

The State Bank need to review its decisionand bring down the key policy rate by at least1 percent to 9 percent in order to reduce thecost of doing business and give some relief tothe business community members who are al-ready under immense pressure due to recentdepreciation of US dollar, he urged. President

New PSC ChairmanStaff ReporterKARACHI—PresidentFPCCI Mr. Zakaria Usmanhas appointed Mr. AbdulRasheed Jan Mohammadas Chairman of PakistanShippers Council for theyear 2014. Mr. AbdulRasheed Jan Mohammadis a renowned business-man and the ChiefExecutive Officer of MapakEdible Oils (Pvt.) Limited.

Shell, McDonaldsign MoUKARACHI—As part of itsexpansion plan anagreement between ShellPakistan and McDonald’sPakistan was recentlysigned to open and operateDrive-Thru Restaurants onmultiple Shell outletsnationwide. Drive Thrurestaurants at Gas stationsare a very common sight inmature markets. Thisinitiative is sure to open upnew venues of businessand will add a newdimension to the restaurantand Gas station co-alliancein Pakistan.—PR

Hashoo group’s‘Namak Mandi’Staff ReporterKARACHI—Pearl Conti-nental of Hashoo groupwith a freedom of culture,colors and food hasplanned to present NamakMandi at Marco PoloRestaurant on 23rdMay2014, with a view tocelebrating the culture ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa,along with their specialcuisines. The event to becommenced with anamazing celebrationreception, followed bydinner during the formalproceedings.

ISE-10 index staysbullishISLAMABAD—TheIslamabad Stock Exchange(ISE) on Monday wit-nessed bullish trend, asthe ISE-10 index was up by23.44 points to close at4447.95 points. A total of66,000 shares were traded,which showed a positivegrowth of 28,900 shares,when compared withprevious day’s trading of4424.51 Out of 247companies, share prices of88 companies recordedincrease while those of 59companies decreased andno company remainedstable in today’s trading.The share price of SanofiAventis Pakistan increasedby Rs 46.97 while that ofPakistan Tobaccodecreased by Rs 67.88 pershare.—APP

Port Qasimshipping activityKARACHI—Four shipscarrying containers, dieseloil and edible oil wereberthed at Qasim Interna-tional Containers Terminaland FOTCO Terminalrespectively. Meanwhilefour more ships carryingcontainers and edible oilalso arrived at outeranchorage of Port Qasimduring last 24 hours. Berthoccupancy was 30% at thePort on Monday wherefour ships namely MaerskHartford, Pona and AlSalam II are currentlyoccupying berths to load/offload containers, g.cargoand diesel oil respectivelyduring last 24 hours. Acargo volume of 56337tonnes comprising 54153tonnes imports and 2184tonnes exports inclusiveof containerized cargocarried in 568 containers(TEUs) were handled atthe Port during last 24hours.—APP

OBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—Since the incumbent govern-ment led by Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharifcame into power, it has been focussing ongetting the economy back on track. Variousmeasures have already been taken up by thegovernment on both monetary and fiscalfronts, which have yielded substantiallypositive results during the last one-year. Oneof the key drivers for attaining sustainableeconomic growth is the availability of creditthrough the banking sector.

It has been witnessed that historically,the bulk of Banks’ funds are deployed eitherin investment in Government paper or fewlarge corporate entities, belonging to bothpublic and private sectors. Hence the creditavailable to the Commercial as well as Small& Medium Enterprise (SME) sectors remainsat the lowest ebb. While being cognizant ofthe immense potential presented by the Small& Medium Enterprises (SME) segment forassisting a sustainable economic progressof our country, the Government initiated vari-ous customised programs for channelizingfunds to this credit starved segment of popu-lation.

The highpoint of the initiative taken bythe Government in this regard is the PrimeMinister’s Youth Business Loan (PMYBL)Scheme, which is led by the National Bank of

From vision to reality: NBP delights to be part of PMYBLPakistan (NBP). PMYBL was envisioned bythe Prime Minister as a catalyst for benefitingthe youth by empowering them economicallyand by creating multiple job opportunities.While NBP has designed this facility purelyon its commercial merits and has emphasizedon a transparent assessment criteria and pro-cessing of the loans without any outside in-tervention. Conventionally, banks have beenreluctant in venturing into this area due tonumerous challenges of operating in theunorganised sector.

It is noteworthy that a vast majority ofthe potential customers in the SME sectorsdo not even operate a bank account. Hence,continued handholding is required by thelenders to assist these potentials to graduateto bankable clients. With over 1,365 branches,operating one of the largest domestic branchnetworks across Pakistan, NBP is wellequipped to increase its footprint in the smallbusiness sector.

NBP’s existing presence in the agricul-ture and retail sectors can be leveraged totake advantage of this opportunity for eman-cipating the small businessmen. The multi-plier effect of the success of this segmentwill yield tremendous positive results to-ward sustainable economic growth of ourbeloved country – Pakistan. Yet again NBPleads as “The Nation’s Bank” by turning avision into reality.

SBP needs to changemonetary policy below 10pc

LCCI further advised the government to takebusiness community on board prior to takingsuch decisions having a direct impact on costof doing business. The mechanism to controlinflation through this measure would not workas government the major borrower of the banksborrowed huge money. He added that the avail-ability of surplus liquidity in the market is al-ways essential as its absence is the prime rea-son behind lack of investment in the industry.Reduction in bank mark-up rate could encour-age fresh investment in the industry particu-larly in the textile and other industry and in-crease jobs and exports of the country. Suttarwho is also a Vice President of FPCCI said thatprivate sector borrowing remains still very lowas banks prefer lending to the government anda hike in the key policy rate would amount topunish the masses, as well as the private sec-tor as they would have to pay more interest onborrowings.

Regulatory duty causes unrest for tiles importers

ISLAMABAD—Finance Minister SenatorIshaq Dar chaired a meeting here on Mon-day to review budget proposals. ChairmanFBR briefed the Finance Minister on themeasures being considered for inclusion inthe proposals, with the objective tobroaden the tax base and encourage docu-mentation of economy.

The Finance Minister considered pro-posals on expanding the tax net and di-rected the officials to further fine-tune these

Dar reviews budget proposalsproposals. He underlined that they have towork with whole dedication for the uplift ofcountry. He added that the taxpayersshould be facilitated by simplifying tax pro-cedures and emphasized that the overalleconomic vision must be roped in the bud-getary proposals. Dr. Waqar Masood, Fi-nance Secretary, Rana Assad Amin, Advi-sor to the Finance Ministry and senior offi-cials of the Finance Ministry and FBR at-tended the meeting. —APP

KARACHI: Governor Punjab Ch Muhammad Sarwar giving away trophy brands of theyear award to CO Umar Rajput from Aamir Rajput Caterers during function.

BISP releases Rs 84m toover 18K beneficiaries

OBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—Benazir Income SupportProgramme (BISP) has released first pay-ment of Rs. 84.114 million to eighteen thou-sand six hundred and sixty two beneficia-ries of Waseela-e-Taleem (WeT) initiative.The pilot phase of WeT initiative of BISPwas started in October 2012, in five districts,with the objective of increasing and retain-ing enrollments of five to twelve years oldchildren of BISP’s beneficiaries for primaryeducation. The beneficiaries of BISP wereasked to send their children, within the per-missible age limit, to schools in return foradditional monthly cash benefit of Rs. 200per child, up to three children per family.This conditional cash grant is to be releasedon quarterly basis to the WeT beneficia-ries, in addition to the quarterly cash grantof Rs. 3600 per beneficiary.

The initiative was launched in five pilotdistricts in the country, i.e. Mirpur, Skurdu,Malakand Protected Area, Noshki andKarachi South. Thirty-two thousand ninehundred and eighty three children of BISPbeneficiaries were verified for their schoolenrollments and the payment is being re-

leased accordingly. Due to some technicalreasons of funds flow and ground verifica-tion to ascertain the transparency, there wasan unfortunate delay in the release of pay-ments to WeT beneficiaries in the five dis-tricts. The payment being released now in-cludes all due arrears of beneficiaries sincethe start of the initiative. BISP now com-mits that all future payments will be releasedon time. BISP has a rigorous grievanceredressal system with all Tehsil officers act-ing as face of the Programme at grass rootlevels and a toll free number 0800-27677, onwhich complaints can be registered directlywith the headquarters.

The current government has committedto strengthen and expand the various ini-tiatives under BISP. Therefore WeT pilotphase has been extended to 27 additionaldistricts from all provinces and regions ofPakistan. BISP has already signed Memo-randum of Understanding with all the pro-vincial and regional education departmentsfor their cooperation and support in achiev-ing the common objective of maximizing theenrollments for primary education and at-tainment of Pakistan’s Millennium Devel-opment Goals commitment.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—SME Bureau of Chinese ProvinceGuangdong has invited the Small and Me-dium Enterprises Development Authority(SMEDA) to participate in the China Interna-tional SME Fair (CISMEF) to be held in Octo-ber this year at Guangzhou city ofGuangdong. The invitation was extended byMr. He Zouxian, Deputy Director General ofthe Bureau at a meeting with Mr. AlamgirChaudhry, Acting Chief Executive Officer ofSMEDA. He was leading a Chinese delega-tion during his visit to SMEDA head officetoday. Mr. Hassanien Javaid, Provincial ChiefSMEDA-Punjab, Ms. Nadia Jahangir Seth,Head Policy and Planning Division, Mr.Ashfaq Ahmad, DGM-Technnical and Mr.Liaqat Ali Gohar, DGM-Admin.& PR accom-panied the Acting CEO on this occasion.

Mr. He Zuoxian assured to offer specialprivileges and incentives to encourage par-ticipation of Pakistani SMEs in the CSMEF-2014. He said that Pakistan would be able toavail of new export opportunities for variousitems produced in its SME sector includinghandicrafts, Horticulture, food and Textile prod-ucts. He also assured to arrange exclusive pre-sentations’ events for Pakistan in the Fair.

Mr. Zouxian said it was the top prior-

SMEDA gets Chinese InternationalSME Fair invitation

ity of Chinese government to expand traderelations with Pakistan to the optimal level.That is why Pakistan is among the topmost countries bearing Chinese invest-ment, he said adding that the biggest partof Chinese investment made in the foreignconstruction industry belonged to Paki-s tan.

Mr. He was confident that CISMEFwould prove to be the best international plat-form to get Pakistani SMEs introduced inthe world market and also create joint ven-ture opportunities to attract foreign invest-ment. He told that CISMEF had success-fully held 10 editions since 2004 and attractedaltogether over 20, 000 exhibitors and 1.1million visitors from around the world. TheExhibitors come from various industries in-cluding electronics, household appliances,machine-making, textiles and garments, foodand beverage, pharmaceuticals, biotechnol-ogy, building materials, furniture, toys andgifts, cases, bags, headwear and footwear,etc, he added.

Earlier, Mr. Alamgir Chaudhry, ActingChief Executive Officer SMEDA welcomedthe Chinese delegation and expressed deepgratitude to leader of the delegation for hisspecial invitation to SMEDA for participa-tion in CSMEF-2014.

SECP ensuresunclaimedinsurance

benefits paymentISLAMABAD—The Securi-ties and Exchange Commis-sion of Pakistan (SECP) hasissued a circular outliningdetailed procedure to be fol-lowed by insurers to ensuretimely payment of unclaimedinsurance benefits. TheSECP has observed that sig-nificant amounts are lyingwith the insurers on accountof unclaimed benefits, saida statement issued here,adding the large chunk re-lates to unclaimed life insur-ance maturity benefits.

The circular requires theinsurers to disclose the un-claimed benefits in their fi-nancial statements sepa-rately. It also requires that asa matter of accounting policyno insurer can write back, i.e.remove its liabilities on ac-count of unclaimed benefits.A format for the regulatoryreporting has also been in-troduced to ensure that theinsurers hand down benefitsin a timely manner.

In addition, the SECP hasrequired the insurers to carryout a search process for theunclaimed maturity benefitsdue under a life insurancepolicy. For this purpose, aninsurer may establish andsubsequently use a proce-dure to utilize the NADRA’sdatabase to get up-to-dateinformation about the policy-holders and their beneficia-ries, it said adding similar re-quirements have been placedin respect of unclaimed deathand other benefits.

In order to enhanceawareness of policyholdersand their beneficiaries, thecircular requires the insurersto place on their websites anupdated list of all policyhold-ers’ names, who have notclaimed their benefits. Fur-thermore, all the insurersshall place on their websitesthe names of officers whowould provide informationpertaining to the existence/status of an insurance policyto the insured or his/her le-gal heirs. The circular alsorequires the insurers to placeperiodic advertisements intwo national newspapersabout these benefits.—APP

KARACHI: Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Chairperson Prime Minister YouthLoan Scheme, Senator Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister, Syed Ahmed Iqbal Ashraf, President, National Bank of Pakistanat the eve of first balloting of PM youth loan scheme.

Oil prices riseon Libyanviolence

SINGAPORE—Oil pricesedged higher in AsiaMonday on escalatingviolence in crude producerLibya following a coupattempt by a rogue gen-eral that has raised con-cerns about potential sup-ply disruptions, analystssaid. The US benchmark,West Texas Intermediate(WTI) for delivery in June,rose 17 cents to $102.19 inafternoon trade, whileBrent North Sea crude forJuly rose 24 cents to$109.99.

Armed groups at-tacked Libya’s interim par-liament and an airbase inthe east Sunday, addingto turmoil in the countrywhere a colonel claimingto speak on behalf of thearmy declared that parlia-ment had been sus-pended. “The situation inLibya is having a firm im-pact on sentiment,”Michael McCarthy, chiefmarket strategist at CMCMarkets in Sydney, toldAFP. “There has been noimpact on supply but it isa good reminder to inves-tors of potential disrup-tions that exist not only inUkraine but also in oil-producing countries likeLibya,” he said.

Since the toppling ofdictator Moamer Kadhafi in2011, successive Libyangovernments havestruggled to impose order asheavily armed former rebelbrigades carve out their ownfiefdoms. The violence inLibya, a member of theOPEC cartel, comes justweeks after the resumptionof oil exports following anine-month blockade of seaterminals by rebels.

Its exports are ex-pected to quadruple to onemillion barrels per day bymid-June, as slashed out-put is restored. McCarthysaid oil prices also remainpropped up by the Ukrainecrisis, where rebels are at-tempting to break awayfrom the former Soviet stateand become a part of Rus-sia.—AFP

Agri experts urgegrowers to drain

out rainwater fromcotton fields

MULTAN—Agriculture ex-perts have urged growers todrain out rainwater from cot-ton fields immediately toavoid losses. Water fromrains last, if accumulated incotton fields for long, wouldaffect oxygen and food ab-sorption by plant roots thatcould result in plant death,says a release issued by theCentral Cotton Research In-stitute (CCRI) Multan. Rain-water accumulation dam-ages cotton sown on flatfields, however, sowing onridges can lessen damage, itadded.

The flat cotton fieldsruined by rains can be re-vived provided growersrepeat and complete sow-ing by May 30, the releasesaid. Experts said thatrains also trigger growthof weeds and growersshould pay special atten-tion for their removal.Weeds can compromiseproduction by 30-40 percent because of sharingfood and water and alsoserve as shelter for suck-ing pests, expertswarned.—APP

Currency Selling Buying

USA 98.50 98.30

UK 165.72 165.38

Euro 134.99 134.72

Canada 90.69 90.51

Switzerland 110.48 110.26

Australia 92.23 92.04

Sweden 15.02 14.99

Japan 0.9700 0.9680

Norway 16.60 16.57

Singapore 78.75 78.59

Denmark 18.08 18.05

Saudi Arabia 26.26 26.21

Hong Kong 12.71 12.68

Kuwait 349.28 348.57

Malaysia 30.62 30.56

Newzealand 85.19 85.02

Qatar 27.06 27.00

UAE 26.82 26.76

Kr. Won 0.0963 0.0961

Thailand 3.031 3.025

KARACHI: Mazhar Ud Deen (General Manager Retail, Shell Pakistan Limited) andJamil Ahmed Mughal (Director Marketing & Development, McDonald’s Pakistan). JawadShah (Network Delivery Manager, Shell Pakistan Limited), Saif Ullah Khan (NetworkPlanner, Shell Pakistan Limited), Hisham Khan (Marketing and Operations Manager -Retail, Shell Pakistan Limited) and Syed Emraan Razi (Senior Manager Real EstateDevelopment, McDonald’s Pakistan) were also present at the MoU signing ceremony.

Daily opening& closing ratesPMEX Index 3,024Total Volume (Lots): 13,809Traded Value (Rs): 2,987,160,658

Commodity .......................... Price Quotation .......................... Open CloseCRUDE OIL ......................... $ Per Barrel ................................... 101.64 102.61SILVER ................................. $ Per Ounce .................................. 19.368 19.525GOLD ................................... $ Per Ounce .................................. 1,294.2 1,300.8GOLD ................................... Rs Per 10 gms ............................... 41,380 41,586MTOLAGOLD .................... Rs Per Tola ................................... 49,544 49,810GOLD ................................... Rs Per Tola ................................... 49,544 49,810RICEIRRI6 ........................... Rs Per 100 kg................................ 3,581 3,578PALMOLEIN ...................... Rs Per Maund .............................. 4,530 4,526SUGAR ................................ Rs Per kg ....................................... 44.60 44.56ICOTTON ............................ US Cents per pound ................... 90.79 89.85WHEAT ............................... Rs Per 100 kg................................ 3,380 3,377

The total value traded was reported at PKR 2,987m. Number of lots traded wereregistered at 13,809 and PMEX Commodity Index closed at 3,024. Major businesswas contributed by gold amounting to PKR 1,496m – up by 4 percent, followed bycrude oil (PKR 1,386m) and silver (PKR 104m).

LAHORE: Dr. Amjad Saqib, Dr. Mujahid Kamran, Prof Humayun Ihsan Heera Sahib,Khalid Pervaiz, Abubakar Siddique Moazam Bin Zahoor, Aslam Mughal, Dr. Shahid AZia Omar, Shaharbano, Lubna Babar along with volunteers and guest.

KARACHI—JCR-VIS Credit Rating Com-pany Limited (JCR-VIS) has reaffirmed theentity ratings of Pakarab Fertilizers Limited(PFL) at ‘AA-/A-1’ (double A minus/ A-one). The rating assigned to the privatelyplaced TFC issue of Rs 6.5 billion has alsobeen reaffirmed at ‘AA’ (double A). Out-look on the ratings is ‘ stable’, said a pressrelease here on Monday. The ratings takeinto account PFL’s association with re-nowned and well-established businessgroups of the country. The sponsors’ com-mitment to met financial obligations on timeis a key-rating factor.

Prevailing energy crisis in relation to thesupply of natural gas to the fertilizer indus-try had severely impacted the productionprofile of all fertilizer plants on the Sui North-ern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) networkincluding PFL. Capacity utilization of PFLwas marginalized in calendar year 2013 onaccount of acute gas curtailment. Accord-ingly, profitability and internal cash gen-eration were adversely impacted.

Despite such difficulties, PFL made timelypayments on its debt obligations during cal-

STAFF REPORTER

LA H O R E—The laurels won by HarisManzoor has proved that Pakistani youthis capable to lead the world in everysphere of life. This young student hasbrightened the name of Pakistan at Inter-national forum and whole nation is proudhis achievement. These views were ex-pressed by the President of Lahore Cham-ber of Commerce & Industry EngineerSohail Lashari while talking to HarisManzoor here at the LCCI on Monday.The LCCI Vice President Kashif Anwarwas also present on the occasion.

The LCCI President said that govern-ment should patronize such intelligent stu-dents who earned respect for the whole na-tion. He said that we have to excel in educa-tion sector and government should spendmore for this purpose as we were lacking farbehind than other regional countries as faras literacy rate was concerned. EngineerSohail Lashari urged the government to al-locate sufficient funds for the education sec-tor in the Federal Budget 2014-15 as no coun-try could find the milestone of progress &prosperity until and unless investment ineducation sector was not increased.

While stressing the need for invest-

Meezan Bankaccredits forexcellence in

Islamic BankingSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Internationalrating as the best bank ofPakistan for Meezan Bank,was endorsed byAsiamoney magazine, HongKong. This is the fifth timethat Meezan Bank has beenrecognized by Asiamoneyfor its excellence in IslamicBanking.

Meezan Bank wasawarded the ‘Best IslamicBank’ in Pakistan for itscommitment to quality,customer satisfaction, in-novation and reliability.The award brings to lighta highly successful yearfor Meezan Bank. TheBank demonstrated robustbusiness growth in 2013,closing the year with a de-posit figure of Rs. 289 bil-lion.

With a branch networkof 352 branches in 103 cit-ies across Pakistan,Meezan Bank is not onlythe first and largest Is-lamic bank in Pakistan butis also Pakistan’s 8th larg-est bank in terms of branchnetwork and 10th largest interms of deposits.

Meezan Bank has beenconsistently recognized asthe Best Islamic Bank in Paki-stan by various other localand international institutionssuch as Islamic Finance News- Malaysia, Global Financemagazine, Asset AAA - HongKong and CFA Association -Pakistan. The JCR-VIS CreditRating Company Limited, anaffiliate of Japan Credit Rat-ing Agency, Japan has ratedMeezan Bank’s short term rat-ing at A1+ (A One Plus), thehighest standard in short termrating, and a long-term entityrating at AA (Double A) withstable outlook which high-lights sound performance in-dicators of the Bank.

Mobilink winsPAS Award

2014KARACHI—Mobilink wonthe Pakistan AdvertisersSociety (PAS) Awards 2014for the Best Campaign ofthe Year under the “Tele-communication ServiceProvider” category. Theaward was presented forMobilink’s ‘Har Dil Har Din’campaign launched in June2013. The PAS 2014, orga-nized by the Pakistan Ad-vertisers Society, is de-signed to acknowledge andreward the most effectivecommunication advertisingcampaigns in Pakistan.

PAS announced awardsin a total of 34 different cat-egories where Mobilink wasthe only winner in “Telecom-munication Service Pro-vider” category. Speaking onthe occasion, Ali Murtaza,Director Brands and Commu-nication Mobilink said,“Winning the PAS Award2014 is a result of our contin-ued commitment to our cus-tomers and is reflective of theconnect that we have estab-lished with them.

I thank our customersfor placing their trust andconfidence in Mobilink,which has been our inspira-tion for creating a ‘BetterEvery Day’ for them”. PASAwards are recognized byadvertisers and agenciesthroughout Pakistan as thepre-eminent award in the in-dustry. PAS Award has be-come a symbol of bigachievement since 2011 andis an industry benchmark forassessing the best creativecommunications work.—PR

KARACHI—Chairman, NationalAssembly’s Standing Committee onCommerce Siraj M.Khan has said thatSaudi Arabia and other Gulf stateshave lifted ban from import of poultryproducts from Pakistan. This he saidwhile presiding over a meeting of thecommittee at the office of Trade De-velopment Authority of Pakistan(TDAP) here on Monday.

Now the local businessmen canexport poultry meat to Saudi Arabiaand other Gulf states, he added. Ad-dressing the meeting he underlinedthe need for better coordinationamong all government organizationsrelating to trade and business to en-

Saudi Arabia, Gulf States liftban on Pak poultry products

hance exports. He said that TDAPhas an important role for boosting upexports.

Discussing the issues of exports,the chairman underlined the need forincreasing the standard of exportproducts and their packing to com-pete the international market. He re-marked that presentation of productis also an important factor in this re-gard. He assured full cooperationfor improving the facilities to export-ers.

The meeting appreciated perfor-mance of TDAP and assured that thecommittee will play its role for resolv-ing the problems being faced by the

Authority. Secretary TDAP RabiaZavaria Agha gave a detailed brief-ing to the committee members aboutthe working of the authority. Themeeting was attended by PervaizMalik, MNA, Waseem Akhtar SheikhMNA, Tahira Aurangzeb, MNA,Shahzadi Umerzadi Tawana, MNA,Makhdoom Syed Ali Hasan Gilani,MNA, Dr.Mahreen Razzak Bhutto,MNA, Naseer Ahmed Boghio, MNA,Shazia Marri, MNA, Mussarat AhmadZeb, MNA, Sajida Begum, MNA,Tahira Asif, MNA, Sanje Parwani,MNA, Shahji Gul Afridi,MNA, andAdditional Secretary of Ministry ofCommerce.—APP

LCCI chief demands govt topatronize intelligent students

ment in human capital and knowledge-based education, the LCCI President saidthat the Higher Education Commission ofPakistan should work with missionaryzeal to facilitate the institutions of higherlearning so they could serve as engine ofsocio-economic development of Pakistan.He said that “Industry – University Link-age” is considered a vital instrument ofgrowth that has direct and far-reachingimplications for the national economy.The concept has successfully evolved inthe developed world and some develop-ing countries have also made visible ef-forts to have this linkage working underinstitutionalized system. Necessity forthis linkage is also being felt in Pakistanfor quite some time but not much hasbeen achieved.

He said that the researchers’ collabora-tion with local industry could improve theproduct and processes leading to de-creased import of raw material and increasedexport of the finished products. The prod-ucts and processes needing improvementshould ideally be in priority areas relevantto national needs for socio-economic de-velopment of the country. The LCCI Presi-dent also presented a cheque of Rs 100,000to Haris Manzoor as token of appreciation.

JCR-VIS reaffirms PFLentity ratings

endar year 2013.Realization of receivables froman associated company facilitated PFL in meet-ing its obligations. Moreover, loan of Rs 3billion was also made available from a groupconcern, evidencing sponsor support. Giventhe recent discussions with sponsor’s repre-sentatives, there is a strong likelihood of sup-port from sponsors/group concerns going for-ward as well. Given the outstanding debt ofPFL and the resources available with the group.

PFL expects to be able make timely pay-ment on its debt obligations. Two of thefour fertilizer plants previously on SNGPLnetwork have shifted to other gas field op-erators while PFL continues to be relianton supply from SNGPL. The managementof PFL is expecting better gas supply dur-ing the ongoing year. Till to-date, the com-pany has received gas for one month.

Meanwhile, the company has undertakentrading in DAP fertilizer. During CY13, themanagement is expecting improvement in in-ternal cash flows based on the aforementionedfactors. Availability of gas feed-stock remainscritical for the long term sustainability of thelocal fertilizer industry.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

SIALKOT—In a workshop held at theSialkot Chamber of Commerce and Indus-try today, it was highlighted that in orderfor climate change adaptation and mitiga-tion to be sustainable and applicable on awide scale, it must be incorporated and in-tegrated on “mainstreaming” basis into thepolicy apparatus of the Government. In theclimate change context, mainstreaming re-fers to the incorporation of climate changeconsiderations into established or ongo-ing development programs, policies or man-agement strategies rather than developingthe adaptation and mitigation initiativesseparately. Accordingly, UNIDO hasplanned on Mainstreaming Climate ChangeAdaptation through Water Resource Man-agement in Leather Industrial Zone beingdeveloped by Sialkot Tannery Association(Guarantee) Limited (STAGL) at Sialkot.

UNIDO held a Stakeholders’ Consulta-tive Workshop on 19-5-2014 at SialkotChamber of Commerce and Industry,wherein officials from Government, localNGOs, Tanners Community, Federal Gov-ernment Officials from GEF focal point,UNIDO focal point and Community repre-sentatives participated. The workshop de-liberated on matters pertaining to establish-ment of STZ as well as housing of Com-bined Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP)through finalization of Master Plan for ECO-Leather City (STZ) taking into account ex-pected changes in the climate.

The project of creating Sialkot Tan-nery Zone (STZ) is a project in partner-ship between the private sector and the

SCCI workshop highlightsclimate change considerations

Government of Pakistan/Government ofthe Punjab. Keeping in view the impor-tance of the project and the fact that theprivate sector of Sialkot is the drivingforce behind the Tannery Zone, the Glo-bal Environment Fund has approvedfunds for the establishment of a Com-bined Effluent Treatment Facility andother allied matters.

In this connection, Mr. Ivan Kral, In-dustrial Development Officer, UNIDOVienna, who is also the project manager ofthe GEF project, is visiting Pakistan from12th to 22nd May, 2014. Mr. Esan Alqararah,UNIDO representative Pakistan along withMr. Ivan Kral has held meetings with theFederal Ministry of Industries and Produc-tion, Ministry of Commerce and ClimateChange Division Islamabad, to appriseabout the project details and seek co-fund-ing. Similar meetings have also been heldwith Secretary Environment Protection De-partment, Urban Unit, Government ofPunjab, Sialkot Chamber of Commerce andIndustry and DCO Sialkot so as to firm updetails of the project.

The project aims to address the inte-gration of Climate Change Adaptation con-siderations (Water conservation, watertreatment, flood management, introductionof CPC techniques/waste managementtechniques) so that the Sialkot project couldbe a demonstrative model to be replicatedin other parts of the country. This is also inline with Inclusive and Sustainable Indus-trial Development (ISID). It is expected thatproject at Sialkot Tannery Zone would besource of employment and socio-economicuplift of the inhabitants of the area.

KARACHI: Chairman Standing Committee of National Assembly on Commerce SirajMuhammad Khan presiding over a meeting regarding the TDAP performance.

FAISALABAD: Farmers are threshing wheat in their field at bypass.

PESHAWAR: KP Sports Minister, Amjad Khan Afridi with winning team of 1st FATA International Football Peace Cup 2014 on Monday.

PESHAWAR:Badminton event participants of 3rd National Police Martyred Sports Gala on Monday.

RAWALPINDI: Chief guests Malik Ibrar, Ch Muhammad Tayyab & Ch Amjad givingaway winning trophy to winning captain in football matches.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Zuhair Siddiqui, MD, SSGChailed the competitive spirit and a brilliantshow of camaraderie throughout the SSGCSports Festival that ended with glitteringAward Ceremony held at SSGC’s KarachiTerminal ground.

Zuhair said that sports were an ultimateleveler that can cultivate a sense of togeth-erness and this Festival demonstrated plentyof unity. The MD especially congratulatedProject lead Shahbaz Islam, DGM (Corp.Communications/Organization Develop-ment) and his team for putting together aspectacular sports extravaganza.

SSGC Sports Festival 2014 started with abang and ended with a bigger bang with aglittering Award Ceremony held on Satur-day May 17, 2014 at SSGC’s Karachi Termi-nal ground.

One of the Company’s eight inter-divi-sional teams, IT Lions headed the pointstable by winning the most number of med-als. Last year’s Champions MS Kangarooscame in a close second while Finance Fal-cons secured the third spot.

Earlier, in his address, Yusuf J. Ansari,DMD (Corporate Services) and Sr. Vice Presi-

SSGC Sports Festival 2014

Sports activity induceshealthy competitive spirit

dent SSGC Sports Board expressed his hopethat the Company employees will be able todemonstrate the same determination and willto win that they have shown during the fes-tival, in their day jobs.

Sui Southern Officers Association’sGeneral Secretary Shahabuddin Siddiqui,and President Irfan Ali Jafri in their ad-dresses, congratulated the organizers for ar-ranging a spectacular sporting event andadded that SSGOA had chipped in to co-organize this Award Ceremony to acknowl-edge the participating team’s performancesand provide the Company employees andtheir families with quality entertainment.

Project Lead Shahbaz Islam thanked themedia for giving the 4-week Festival exten-sive coverage, sponsors for their monetarysupport as well as all the departments insidethe Company for their respective support.During the Award Ceremony, SSGC’s execu-tives presented comedy skits that met withtremendous applause from the audience.

After dinner some of the country’s lead-ing musicians including Mohammad AliShayaki and Hasan Jehangir entertained theaudience with their popular songs while thecomedians brought the house down withjokes and humour.

Interprovincial

competitionsstart today

LAHORE—The Inter-Pro-vincial Junior Hockey, TableTennis and BadmintonChampionships will beginfrom Tuesday at NationalHockey Stadium andNishtar Park Sports Gymna-sium Hall.

The scrutiny process ofall the participating teamswill be conducted from 8 to9 am while the opening cer-emony of the grand eventwill be held at 4pm at Na-tional Hockey Stadium onTuesday.

The teams from Punjab,Sindh, Balochistan, KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KPK), Fata,Gilgit Baltistan andIslamabad will participate inthe Under-14 Hockey Cham-pionship being held fromMay 20 to 24.

The U-16 Girls TableTennis and BadmintonChampionship wi l l bes taged a t SBP NishtarPark Sports GymnasiumHall from May 20 to 22 inwhich fol lowing teamswill part icipate: Punjab,Sindh, Balochis tan ,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(KPK), Fata, Azad Jammu& Kashmir (AJK) andIslamabad.

Following are the mem-bers of Punjab U-14 boys’hockey team: Waqar, AtifIqbal, M Waqas Ahmed,Saad Ali Naseem, Waqar Ali,M Hamza, Mansoor, Sheraz,Ibrar Ahmed, M Kamran,Abdur Rahman, Ahmar Ali,Usman Ghani, M Daniyal,Abdur Rahim, M BilalYounis and M KamranAsghar.

Punjab U-16 girls’ bad-minton team: Manaal Tariq,Kainat Kamal, Iqra Tahir,Syeda Humail Zainab andFiza Akram.

Punjab U-16 girls’ tabletennis team: Rimsha,Zainab Waqar, Maria Khan,Fatima Khan and Umm-e-Farwa.—APP

PESHAWAR—PAF clinched the trophy af-ter defeating star-studded Afghan ClubChaman Quetta by 1-0 in the second-halfof the extra-time in the final of the First FATAInternational Peace Football Cup played atSumbal Khan Football ground, QayyumSports Complex here.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister SportsAmjad Khan Afridi was the chief guest onthis occasion.

Director Pakistan Football FederationPervez Saeed Mir, Director DevelopmentKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Arshad Hussain, Di-rector Sports FATA Faisal Jamil Shah, Or-ganizing Secretary Shahid Khan Shinwari,hundreds and thousands of football spec-tators were also present and witnessed thethrilling match.

Afghan Club Chaman, the National Pre-mier League Champion, played very excel-lent football but their overall attacking dis-play marred their poor finishing. AfghanClub Chaman have the services of six inter-national players comprising MehmoodKhan (captain of the team), Jadeed KhanPatan, Kamran Khan, Aziz Ullah, NaimatUllah Junior and goal keeper Abdul Basitbut despite their excellent display the Clubfailed to score any goal.

Afghan Club Chaman, Quetta missed fiveeasy goal scoring opportunities, three in thefirst session and two in the second session.Samad Khan, Muhammad Uzair missed twogoals scoring opportunities each while achance missed by Jadeed Khan Patan.

Despite missing five easy goal scoringchances, the performance of Afghan ClubChaman was superb as they dominated theproceedings all the time. PAF, who playedright from the outset with defensive strat-egy, also failed to score any goal. The top

PAF clinch FirstFATA Int’l PeaceCup Soccer title

scorer Mujahid this time also failed to scoreany goal despite having some goal scoringchances. PAF have the services of interna-tional players comprising team goal-keeperGhazanfar Yaseen, Muhammad Asif, Afzal-ur-Rehman, Muhammad Sher, Irfan Ali andMuhammad Mujahid played well but failedto score any goal.

Mujahid got two easy goal scoringchances in the first and second session butMujahid too missed the target. On first oc-casion the attempt of Mujahid of taking afoul kick was intercepted the upper barwhile secondly the Afghan club Chamangoal-keeper thwarted the attack with hisexcellent diving on his left.

After the goal-less first-half none of theteam could succeed in scoring any goal inthe second-half and thus the match wasended without goal. It was the extra-time of15-minute, 7 and half minute of each halfbut the teams also tied goal-less in the first7 and half minute.

PAF in the whole time only raided the ri-val defence for four five times and it was thesecond session of the extra-time whenMujahid slammed in a beautiful goal in the99th minute to make the tally 1-0. The goalinjected new vigor in the rank of PAF whomarched into the victory against strong Af-ghan Club Chaman. Mujahid of PAF was de-clared the best players of the Cup, who scored7 individual goals. The match was supervisedby Muhammad Amin while M. Zahid andAllauddin acted as deputy referees.

At the end, the chief guest gave awaytrophies and cash prizes. The winners wasawarded Rs. 50,000 cash prize and runners-up top Rs. 30,000. The fair play trophy wasawarded to FATA on the decision of theCup committee.—APP

Judo advancecoaching course

completedOBSERVER REPORT

LA H O R E —A three-dayjudo advance coachingcourse has successfullyCompleted by PakistanJudo Federation at Paki-stan Sports Board (PSB)coaching Center Peshawarin accordance with the re-quirements and proce-dures of the Pakistan JudoFederation coaches Edu-cation and Cert if icat ionSystem.

This course was heldat Pakistan Sports BoardCoaching Center ,Qayyum Stadium,Peshawar.

The Chief guest of theclosing ceremony wasTajammal Hayat , Vicepresident of KP OlympicAssociat ion and Manag-ing Director of ICMS,along with Faisal Jamil, Di-rector Sports FATA sportsDirectorate, MansoorAhmed, President KP Ka-rate Associat ion and Sr.Karate Coach, GhulamNoorani Pride of Perfor-mance and many other of-ficials of K.P Olympic As-sociation/ K.P Sports Di-rectorate were alsopresent .

The President of Paki-stan Judo Federation Col.Rana Shujaat Ali appreci-ated the act ivi ty andstressed to be performedsuch activities on contin-ues basis all over the Pa-kistan in order to updateand strengthen ourcoaches to meet the chal-lenges of the modernworld Judo sports.

In the end of the clos-ing ceremony the chiefguest distributed the cer-tificate and licence to allsuccessful coaches.

BAKU (Azerbaijan): Ismayilov Ismayil, Deputy Minister for Youth & Sports Govern-ment of Azerbaijan in a meeting with visiting Malik Saad Shaheed Sports Trust Paki-stan during their study tour to Azerbaijan where they decided to organize speicalsports events with technical cooperation of Azerbaijan. (L-R) Bahra-e-Karm, MalikTajamul Hayat Khan, Syed Ali Nawaz Gilani, Nu Mardan, The Deputy Minister, AmjadAziz Malik, Javed Marwart, Muhammad Dawood Khan.

ZUBAIR QURESHI

ISLAMABAD—The Islamabad HighCourt (IHC) on Monday released thedetailed judgement according to whichthe federal government’s February 10,2014 notification was declared null andvoid hence Najam Sethi and PCB’s In-terim Management Committee (IMC)were shown the door. The IHC 26-pagedecision also declares all the decisionstaken by the former PCB chairmenNajam Sethi-led Interim ManagementCommittee as ‘null and void’. After thedetailed judgement, now uncertaintylooms large over the fate of PCB’s re-cent induction of Waqar Younis asPakistan team’s head coach. Similarly,Grant Flower and other recently in-ducted officials will be able to keeptheir jobs or not, there is a big ques-tion mark on it.

In the Chairman PCB appointmentcase, the IHC detailed judgement heldit was necessary to suspend the Statu-tory Regulatory Order (SRO) and thenotification which brought Sethi inpower at the expense of an elected

Court issues 26-page judgement

Sethi’s appointment as PCB chiefbased on malafide: IHC

team of Ch Zaka Ashraf. In the judge-ment, it has been pointed out that nei-ther the PCB’s counsel nor thegovernment’s lawyers could give anyvalid reason to oust Zaka Ashraf.

The court also held the long-termdecisions taken by the Interim Man-agement Committee (IMC) as excessesof powers. The interim set up wasmeant for only one hundred twentydays (though extendible and giving itthe right to take long-term decisionswith far reaching consequences willcast negative impact on the policiesof Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

How can an elected body be re-moved by mere issuing a notification,wonders the court in its judgement.Besides, the Ministry for Inter-Provin-cial Coordination had assured thecourt to implement the divisionbench’s order (re-instating ZakaAshraf and his cabinet) in letter andspirit but the government did instead.

It may be mentioned here that adivision bench of the Islamabad HighCourt on January 15, 2014 had re-in-stated Zaka Ashraf as the chairman of

the Pakistan Cricket Board. However,on February 10, 2014 the federal gov-ernment through a notification re-moved Zaka Ashraf and reappointedNajam Sethi as the Chairman of thePCB. The government also constitutedan interim management committee tooversee day to day affairs of the PCBmatters however with all the powersvested in the chairman.

The Islamabad High Court also re-instated all the 25 sacked employeeswho were illegally dismissed by thePCB former chief Najam Sethi. Mean-while, the ousted chief Sethi has an-nounced that he would challenge thedecision of reinstating Zaka as thePCB chairman. On Monday, the gov-ernment also made an official an-nouncement that it would appeal thedecision of the IHC in the SupremeCourt and back Sethi. Sethi said thecourt judgement would be challenged“vigorously and swiftly.”

“The good steps we took toprofessionalise and invigorate cricketand clean up the PCB will not be al-lowed to go in vain,” Sethi told media.

ISLAMABAD—Top seeded players movedinto the pre-quarterfinals of the 1st AJ PharmaSenior-Junior National Ranking Tennis Cham-pionship being played here at PTF TennisComplex.

Top seed Muhammad Mudasir eliminatedHasnain of Islamabad in a well contested twoset match 7-5,6-3. Shoaib Khan of Peshawarstruggled hard to eliminate Mir ShahzaibAhmed in a thrilling three set match, the matchlasted one hour 45 minutes. 3rd seed SyedNofil Kaleem registered straight set willagainst Sheheryar Khan of Peshawar at a scoreof 6-1,6-2. 2nd Seed Muhammad Muzamil beatShakirullah without any resistance at a scoreof 6-1,6-1. 4th Seed Ilham Khan won his en-counter against Ahmed Asjad at 6-1,6-2. Inthe Boys Under 14 category 7 players moved

Top seeds move into Tennis pre-quarterfinalsinto the per quarterfinals by winning theirrespective matches. The draw of junior Un-der-18 Doubles was taken out at the occa-sion and according to the draw top 4 seedsare Mudasir-Muzamil, Syed Nofil Kaleem-Arham Atiq, Ilham Khan-Yousaf Khan andHasnain-Hafiz Arbab Ali. Brig (R) MansoorHamid, Chairman AVTEC (Khyber TV) inau-gurated the Opening Ceremony of the tour-nament.

Boys Under 18 first round matches:Muhammad Mudasir beat Hasnain 7-5,6-3;Waleed Anwar beat Kashan Umer 6-3,6-0;Shoaib Khan beat Mir Shahzaib 6-7,6-4,7-6;Hafiz Arbab Ali beat Saifullah Khan 6-1,6-0;Ilham Khan beat Ahmed Asjad 6-1,6-2; IbrarKhan was given a walk over againstSheheryar Waqar.—APP

ROME: Juventus players celebrate with team members after winning the Serie A championship at the end of theirmatch against Cagliari at the Juventus stadium in Turin.

ISLAMABAD: Members of Street Child Football team in a group photo on the occasion of reception hosted in team’shonour by Ambassador of Brazil Alfredo Leoni, at the embassy premises on Monday.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Naureen, the first wife ofcricketer-turned-politician MohammadAzharuddin, says that after his loss inthe recent polls, he should leave politicsand concentrate on their son Asad’scricketing career.

Azhar, contesting on a Congressticket from the Tonk-Sawai Madhopurseat in Rajasthan, lost by over 1.30 lakhvotes to BJP’s Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria.

“Yes, I watched the news on TV andmy son also kept me informed aboutAzhar’s defeat,” says Naureen fromHyderabad. “It is unfortunate and sad.”

“I am not bothered about his personallife but I am concerned for my son

Azhar should quit politics,concentrate on our son’s cricket

Asaduddin,” she says, adding, “My sonis close to both his father and me.”

“Both of our sons wanted to be crick-eters. Azhar was very keen to see themplay.”

Unfortunately, their other son Ayaz,died in a motorcycle crash in 2011 at theage of 19.

“Azhar does not want Asad to enterpolitics. He has overseen his cricketingactivities from the beginning. We won-der why Asad is not being selected, maybe he needs to perform better,” adds themother.

“One never knows about politics. Lasttime he was a winner, this time a loser.May be next time... But I want Azhar toleave politics and make Asad a cricketer,”she signs off.

SPORTS REPORTER

LAHORE—The reinstated Chairman ofthe Pakistan Cricket Board, Zaka Asrhafhas reiterated his pledge to take deci-sions in the larger interest of Pakistancricket saying the interest of the coun-try is foremost at every forum of thegame.

“All the decisions takenby the previous regime standnull and void and we will bereviewing them keeping inview the betterment of thegame and the interest of ourcountry,” he told a news con-ference after taking charge onMonday after the IslamabadHigh Court reinstated him asChairman of the PCB and an-nulled the committee headedby Najam Sethi and all thedecisions taken by it.

“It is a positive and com-prehensive decision of thefree judiciary which gave itsverdict against those whocame into the PCB unlawfully,.”

He said adding “I am the electedChairman of the PCB and I always re-spected the decisions of the apex courtsand now it is also mandatory for others(Najam Sethi) to follow the same toshow respect to the courts.”

“Despite being the elected chair-man I accepted the decisions of the

Decisions in larger interestof Pak cricket: Zaka

court in true letter and spirit andstopped working as the Chairman PCBwhen first time I received such a deci-sion in the past months,” he said “I amthe only Chairman of the PCB who hasmade a come back to the PCB thrice.”

Zaka Asrhaf carefully answered aseries of questions put up by the me-

dia men and didnot give a clearroad map onwhich he intendsto run the PCB.

“As perruling of the courtall the decisionsbecome invalidbut we will be re-viewing them be-fore reaching a de-cision as it relatesto number of im-portant issues,”he said when hisattention wasdrawn to the ap-pointment of team

management and selection committeesand on some other issues.

Zaka Asrhaf once again termed theBIG-3 ‘not good’ for Pakistan and worldcricket saying the previous Chairman,Najam Sethi has taken a decision tolend support to it (BIG- 3) and he wouldbe looking into it keeping in view thedignity of the country.

Answering a question, he said thefrequent changes at the highest levelof the PCB in recent months damagedthe cause of cricket in Pakistan. “I amthankful to Allah Almighty for my rein-statement as Chairman PCB and I willcontinue my efforts in good faith forfurther elevating the Pakistan cricket.”

To a question, he praised the po-tential and leadership qualities ofMisbah- ul- Haq as the captain and alsotermed Muhammad Hafeez a talentedteam leader.

“In my opinion both of them havegood cricket administrative qualities ascaptains and the selection of the teamshould be through a transparent wayconsidering the fitness and form of theplayers.

“We have to set our goals andonly those should be considered whowill be fully fit at the time of selec-tion, setting aside the age factor,” headded.

Answering a question, he said ifthe former chairman Najam Sethi hassome ‘good news’ regarding Pakistancricket he should forward them tothem and they would welcome it andput in efforts to get a positive out-come. It is pointed out here that Sathihas claimed that he has put in a lotoff efforts at international level forthe cause of Pak cricket and he wouldbe revealing ‘good news’ in duecourse of time.

UROOJ RAZA

ISLAMABAD—With a great applause andhonour Pakistan Street Children Footballteam was welcomed to the embassy of Bra-zil at Islamabad. Embassy of Brazil arrangedshields, awards, gifts and sumptuous lunchfor the team on Monday.

This is the second time the Embassy ofBrazil hosted an event with Pakistan streetchildren football team. The first time it wasin March 2013, when the Embassy broughtto Pakistan the Brazilian music group“Patubate” (who uses recycled and garbageitems as musical instruments).

While welcoming the team, Ambassa-dor Alfredo Leoni underlined importanceof sports as a tool for social organizationsand institutions to promote education andtake children out of the streets. He praisedthe young Pakistani footballers for theirachievement in Brazil, which will be an in-spiration for all children in Pakistan.

He thanked the presence at the eventof representatives of Azad Foundation,Muslim Hands, Mashal Model School,Luttuce Bee Kids and Rah-e-Amal, and ap-preciated excellent work done by these in-stitutions in helping children in need. Hethen distributed shields among Pakistanistreet children footballers, their coach, theChairman of Azad Foundation and the di-rector of Muslim Hands, as well as prizesfor the winners of the football goal compe-tition which marked beginning of the event.

The ceremony was attended by mem-bers of Pakistan street children footballteam, their coach, Mr. Abdual Rashid, and

Award ceremony for Pakistanstreet children football team

at Brazilian embassyrepresentatives of the Pakistani institutionswho supported the team: Mr. Naveed HasanKhan (Chairman of Azad Foundation), Mr.Amjad Rasool (Director of Muslim Hands)and Mr. John Wroe, CEO of the NGO StreetChild World Cup.

The children from three institutions inIslamabad and Rawalpindi who deal withchildren in need: Mashal Model School,Lettuce Bee Kids and Rah-e-Amal; stu-dents of the Portuguese Language Courseand the Capoeira (the traditional Brazilianwrestling sports) Course of the Embassyalso enjoyed the football match arrangedby the Embassy. Mr. Dan Dohrmann (Coun-try Representative of UNICEF), Mr. MarcSaba (Country Representative of UNAIDS),Mr. David Skinner (Country Representativeof Save the Children) and Ms. NageenHyatt (Director of Nomad Culture Centre)appreciated the sincere efforts of the am-bassador Alferado Leoni who always takeskeen interest in arranging such events forthe people of Pakistan and believes in bring-ing the two nations closer and facilitatingpeople to people interaction.

The Street Child World Cup is a globalmovement for street children to promoteprotection of the street children and createand opportunities that all other children areentitled to. Ahead of each FIFA World Cup,they unite street children from across fivecontinents to play football and unite in aunique international conference. Togetherthrough football, art and campaigning theiraim is to challenge the negative perceptionsand treatment of street children around theworld.

Rooney slams‘disgusting’

pressLONDON—England strikerWayne Rooney has at-

tacked the “disgusting” Brit-ish press for reporting onhis bid to regain fitnesswhile also taking a familyholiday in Portugal.

Manchester Unitedstriker Rooney has gone toPortugal, where England aredue to hold a pre-WorldCup training camp, with hiswife and two sons, as wellas a couple of fitness expertsin a bid to recover from thegroin strain that saw himmiss the final three matchesof the Premiership season.

On his Twitter feed,Rooney wrote on Sunday:“Disgusting that Englishpress have flew out to Por-tugal to follow me while I’mwith my children.”

But the fact Rooney—who last played for United onApril 26—is in Portugal forrehabilitation work, as well asa family holiday, will be usedby the British media to arguethat his time there, in additionto that the England squad willspend in the country aheadof the World Cup finals inBrazil, is a subject of legitimateinterest.—AFP

Sri LankanHathurusingha

namedBangladesh

coachDHAKA—Former Sri Lankabatsman ChandikaHathurusingha will takeover as Bangladesh coachon a two-year contract, lo-

cal cricket board chiefNazmul Hassan said onMonday. This will beHathurusingha’s first stintin charge of an interna-tional side, replacing Aus-tralian Shane Jurgensenwho stepped down lastmonth following the team’sstring of poor perfor-mances. “He will take upthe new role next month,”Hassan told Reuters, add-ing the board was also look-ing for bowling and field-ing coaches.—APP

Scott topplesTiger Woods

as world No. 1LONDON—Adam Scott offi-cially replaced Tiger Woodsas world number one golferMonday, ending theAmerican’s 60 week reign onthe top of the rankings.

Scott, 33, is the first Aus-tralian to be world number onesince his boyhood hero GregNorman, who spent 331 weeksin the position in the 1980s and’90s.

The 2013 Masters cham-pion was inactive last week,but was already assured oftaking top spot with Woodssidelined with a long-standingback problem.

Playing in the ByronNelson Championship, Ameri-can Matt Kuchar could alsohave moved ahead of Woods,but tied for seventh and hadto settle for fourth spot in therankings. Woods returned tothe top of the world rankingsin March, 2013, taking overfrom Rory McIlory and he hasbeen there ever since.—AFP

PA R I S—Former world number oneVictoria Azarenka pulled out of the FrenchOpen on Monday as she struggles to re-cover from a foot injury.

“Unfortunately I will not be able tocompete in Roland Garros this year,” thetwo-time Australian Open champion, 24,wrote on her Twitter page.

“Working hard on my recovery andgetting back on court,” the world numberfive added.

The 24-year-old Belarus star, whonormally would be a main rival to favouriteSerena Williams, has not played since asecond round loss to Lauren Davis at In-dian Wells in the first week of March.

Injured Azarenka out of French OpenShe missed the Madrid and Rome

claycourt events in May, both crucialwarm-up tournaments ahead of theFrench Open, the second Grand Slam ofthe season, which starts on May 25 andruns until June 8.

She has only played three tourna-ments in 2014, making the final inBrisbane, exiting in the quarter-finals ofthe Australian Open before her early lossin California.

Azarenka has won two Grand Slamtitles - at the 2012 and 2013 AustralianOpens. She lost to Maria Sharapova atthe semi-finals stage in Paris last year.—AFP

ROME—A stunning Andrea Pirlo free-kickfrom 35 metres set Juventus up for a 3-0win over Cagliari and a record 102-pointfinish as the champions celebrated in style.

Juve claimed the Serie A title with twogames to spare two weeks ago when clos-est challengers Roma crashed 4-1 atCatania, a day before Juve added more glosswith a 1-0 home win over Atalanta.

Now with 30 official titles—the clubwere stripped of ‘scudetti’ won in 2005 and2006 due to their role in a match-fixing scan-dal—Juve went on to set two new recordslast week when a 1-0 win away to Romagave them a 32nd win of the season and a99-point tally.

Inter Milan had held the previous recordof 97 points for a title-winning season un-der the current format in 2007.

Conte is expected to remain with theTurin giants despite reports that he is un-happy with a projected lack of investmentin players for a fresh assault on the Cham-pions League. The two-time Europeanchampions failed to get past the groupstages this season.

He told Sky Sport: “I want to say a mas-

Juve wrap up record 102-pointscudetto as Roma crumble

sive thank you to all the players, every oneof them has been phenonmenal.

“Our objective was to win a third con-secutive scudetto, instead we’ve set recordafter record.”

Asked about his future, Conte added:“Tonight the appointment is to celebratethe title, my appointment with the club willcome later.”

Faced with the chance to become thefirst league champions to claim 100 pointsor more, Antonio Conte’s men did not dis-appoint a packed-out Juventus Stadiumahead of their celebratory parade aroundTurin.

Pirlo helped the Bianconeri get off themark when he launched a free-kick from dis-tance which came off the post and bouncedback into the net after coming off hapless‘keeper Marco Silvestri, who was later cred-ited with an own goal.

That eased the early nerves and, withCagliari shell-shocked, Fernando Llorentetapped home a second on the quarter hourwhen a Pirlo corner was flicked on byLeonardo Bonucci as the visiting defencefailed to clear.—AFP

WELLINGTON—New Zealand Cricket(NZC) said Monday that Blacks Caps cap-tain Brendon McCullum was not under in-vestigation for corruption after reports sur-faced that he was approached to fix matchesin 2008.

NZC said it was “dismayed” thatMcCullum’s testimony to the InternationalCricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption unithad been leaked to the British media, say-ing the big-hitting Kiwi skipper was com-mitted to cleaning up the game.

“We can confirm that Brendon is NOTunder investigation by the ICC and his tes-timony has actually been applauded by

McCullum not corrupt: NZCthem,” it said in a statement.

“NZC has 100 percent confidence in ourcaptain and his role in tackling corruption.”

Britain’s Daily Mail reported onlineMonday that McCullum told investigatorshe was approached by a “world renownedformer cricketer” twice in 2008, first inKolkata ahead of the inaugural Indian Pre-mier League, then during New Zealand’stour of England later that year.

McCullum reportedly said the formerstar, player X, whom he described as “ahero who became a friend”, offered him upto 107,000 pounds ($180,000) tounderperform in matches.—AFP

MORE than a third of US adults are obeseand are, therefore, at higher risk of type2 diabetes. But new research suggests

a surprising prevention strategy for both condi-tions - eating chocolate. In a mouse study, ledby Andrew P. Neilson of theDepartment of Food Scienceand Technology at VirginiaPolytechnic Institute andState University, researchersdiscovered that a certain an-tioxidant in cocoa - the mainingredient in chocolate - pre-vented mice from gainingweight and lowered theirblood sugar levels.

This is not the only studyto suggest that consumingchocolate can prevent suchhealth conditions. Earlier thisyear, Medical News Todayreported on a study claimingthat chocolate, as well aswine and berries, protectsagainst type 2 diabetes, whileother research found thatteens who eat lots of choco-late tend to be slimmer. Such studies claim thatthe reason chocolate may have these health ben-efits is because of the flavanols it contains. Theseare types of antioxidants. But the researchers ofthis most recent study say that not all flavanolsare the same. In fact, cocoa has several differenttypes. Good news for chocolate lovers: a cer-tain flavanol in cocoa may help prevent obesityand type 2 diabetes.

In their study, published in the Journal ofAgricultural Food and Chemistry, the investi-gators set out to determine exactly whichflavanol may be responsible for preventingweight gain and lowering blood glucose levels.

For the research, the investigators assignedmice to one of six different diets for 12 weeks.These consisted of high- and low-fat diets,and high-fat diets supplemented with eithermonomeric, oligomeric or polymeric

procyandins (PCs) - types offlavanols. Mice were given 25milligrams of these flavanolseach day for every kilogram oftheir body weight (25 mg/kg).

The research team foundthat a high-fat diet supplementedwith oligomeric PCs was themost effective for maintainingweight of the mice and improv-ing glucose tolerance - a factorthat could help prevent type 2diabetes. Commenting on thefindings, the researchers say:“Oligomeric PCs appear to pos-sess the greatest antiobesity andantidiabetic bioactivities of theflavanols in cocoa, particularlyat the low doses employed forthe present study.

Additional studies ofprolonged feeding of flavanol

fractions in vivo are needed to further iden-tify the fractions with the highest bioactivi-ties and, therefore, the greatest potential fortranslation to human clinical applications atreasonable doses.” The investigators point outthat the doses of flavanols used in this studyare significantly lower than doses used in pastresearch and are more feasible when trans-lated into flavanol levels for human consump-tion.

“Therefore, our data suggest that mod-erate doses of cocoa flavanols or cocoa pow-der have the potential to be more effectivein human clinical trials than previouslythought,” they add.

Chocolate could preventobesity and diabetes

The outgoing Consul General of Switzerland Didier Boschung hosted a farewell dinner andto introduce new Consul General Emil Wyss at a local hotel. Picture shows MPA, Arif Jatoi,Barrister Abdul R Sattar with host.—PO photo

Residents of Lyari hold a demonstration in favour of Uzair Baloch.—PO photo Sultan Chaki

A view of under-construction road in Korangi industrial area at Malir River.

KARACHI—CSR Brands of the YearAward 2013 has been won by the AgaKhan University Hospital, Karachi forits indigenously designed solar shuttle.

A statement here said that the BrandsFoundation presents the awards, whicheach year shortlists over 1,000 popularand trusted brands in Pakistan fromwhich a winner is selected for each cat-egory. It said that the solar vehicle is partof the University Hospital’s shuttle ser-vice fleet facilitating the movement ofvisitors and patients between the differ-ent service buildings. The 6-days-a-week

service has been operational since late2011, with the solar vehicle added to thefleet last year. The idea of using a solar-powered vehicle was first tabled in 2012.“We had already designed and built golf-cart type shuttles using our own design.We now needed transport vehicles thatwere eco-friendly and reduced the use offossil fuels,” recalls Mehdi Bawa, Man-ager of AKUH’s transport department.

A solar-cum-electric shuttle, one ofits kind in Pakistan, was developed withthe assistance of a local firm, Water Se-curity Company Pvt. Ltd., and commis-

sioned in November 2013. A replica ofthe five petrol shuttles already plyingacross the campus, it saves the Univer-sity Hospital 3,000 litres of petrol a year.If each litre of gas produces 2.5 kg ofCO2, AKUH saves 7,500 kg of CO2 or7.1 tonnes of green house gas emissionsannually. The shuttle is one more steptowards reducing the impact of campusoperations and part of a commitment bythe University Hospital and the Aga KhanUniversity to operate in an environmen-tally sustainable and socially responsiblemanner.—APP

AKUH solar shuttle wins CSRBrands of the Year Award

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Senior Ministerhinted at future alliance with apparentlyaggrieved Sindh chapter leaders of Paki-stan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) ashe stated that when Pakistan people’sparty (PPP) could engage with MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) under itspolicy of reconciliation, any other mem-ber provincial assembly of Sindh fromPML-N might also be welcomed for asupport to Sindh government.

He said that there was no harm inacquiring support from the PML-N

MPAs as the PPP-led Sindh governmenthas kept its doors open for all top comeand join the government. Any politicalgroup in Sindh assembly might supportSindh government while any MPA mightalso play a vibrant role in Sindh assem-bly without sitting on opposition benches.

The Senior Minister said that he hadalso learned through newspapers aboutchange of Sindh governor but the fact wasthat Dr Ishrat Ul Ebad Khan was yetSindh Governor and since the governoralways represented the federal govern-ment hence it was the constitutional privi-lege and discretion of the federal gov-

ernment to change the governor any time.He said that May 11 had to be com-

memorated as Day for the Democracy butPakistan Tehreek-e Insaf had commemo-rated that day as black day, which was amanifest of open enmity to democracyand it was not reasonable for the PTI.

Khuhru said that the federal govern-ment had let it down by sitting withTaliban that beheaded the people and thatthe result of ongoing peace talks withTaliban would yield no results. Unfortu-nately, the federal government was nowmaking attempts to convince Taliban forcease fire.

Khuhru hints at alliancewith PML-N MPAs in Sindh

Preparations for joining Sindh Govt finalised

Marwat gives 7-day deadlineto PM to resolve issuesSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The controversies among PML-N leadership and PML-N Sindh chapter lead-ers had entered a crucial stage of direct con-frontation.

Parliamentary leader in Sindh assemblyfrom Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Irfanullah Khan Marwat said that PrimeMinister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif haddespite living in exile for 11 years could notlearn the ways to rule the country.

Marwat said that the federal governmentwas ignoring the elected representativesform Sindh regarding law and order and tar-geted operation in Karachi and developmen-tal projects while Prime Minister also ig-nored them during his visit to Karachi and

did not invite them in meetings. He de-manded Prime Minister to take PML-NSindh chapter elected representatives intoconfidence over developmental projects inSindh or else they would be free to take theirown decisions.

Marwat said that Mian MuhammadNawaz Sharif had lived in exile for 11 yearsbut he could not learn as how governmentsshould be run.

Prime Minister should review his poli-cies and take the elected representatives intoconfidence in a week time and resolve theirissues failing which they would be com-pelled to sit on separate benches in Sindhassembly and would also consider invitationby Pakistan People’s party for joining Sindhgovernment.

Mandokhail asksMarwat not to

waste time withPML-N, join PPP

STAFF REPORTER

K A R A C H I — P a k i s t a nPeople’s Party Central Secre-tary General Qadir KhanMandokhail said the electedrepresentatives of PML-N inSindh had been compelled tosit on independent benches inSindh assembly only becauseof discriminatory attitude ofthe kitchen cabinet ofMuhammad Nawaz Sharif.

He said that one of topPML-N leadership in Sindh wasin close contact with formermilitary dictator General (Retd)Pervez Musharraf and wasworking to form an independentgroup against PM NawazSharif, which responsibility alsoshould go to the kitchen cabinetfor neglecting the those thatplayed pivotal role for revivalof PML-N.

He was exclusively talkingto Pakistan Observer Mondayevening.

According to sources privyto the emerging situation, itwould not be very far forMarwat and other PML-NSindh chapter leaders to an-nounce their formal resignationsfrom PML-N and joining thePPP shortly.

CS asks PDMAothers to get readyfor expected floodsKARACHI—Chief SecretarySindh Sajjad Saleem Hotianahas asked the Provincial Disas-ter Management Authority(PDMA) and all concerned de-partments to strengthen liaisonto ensure preparedness in com-bating expected flood 2014. Heexpressed these views whilepresiding over a meeting to re-view arrangements and contin-gency plan in connection withmonsoon-2014.

Director General, PDMASyed Salman Shah briefed theparticipants about contingencyplan to meet any emergency ifarises due to expected heavyrains in forthcoming monsoonseason. Secretary IrrigationBabar Effendi apprised themeeting of salient features ofstrategic plan with specific ref-erence to vulnerable points ofbarrages, lakes and canals inprovince.—APP

4 killed in firingKARACHI—Four persons in-cluding a trustee of anImambargah were killed in dif-ferent incident of violence hereon Monday.

According to police, thefirst incident took place in thecity’s Mithadar area where un-known bike riders fired shots attwo persons, killing them on thespot.

SP City Police said the vic-tims were identi-fied as ShaukatShirazi, a trustee of anImambargah, and Qaisar, whowas Shirazi’s guest. “It seemsto be an act of sectarian targetedkilling. We are investigating it,”the SP said. In other drive-byattacks, a man Farhan Afzal,who was identified as owner ofa marble factory, was gunneddown in Manghopir area.

Another person was tar-geted near Dak-khana bus stopin Liaquatabad No 2. He wasidentified as Mohsin Ali. Policesaid the firing inci-dents oc-curred within an hour.

Sir Syed Varsityorganises 6th CED

mini project exhibitionKARACHI—The Computer Engineering Department (CED)of Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology(SSUET) Monday organised the 6th Mini Project Exhibitionto get them updated with the computer graphic skills.

The objective of the exhibition was to help the students inincorporating animations of different objects in a ComputerGraphic Scene.

The exhibits demonstrated animations of various vehicu-lar objects besides focusing on human beings and wildlife.Tocreate interest for the viewers, each animation was linked witha brief story or an incident.

The viewers were highly appreciative of creative work ofstudents and animations on display, particularly the fire bri-gade van which secured first prize.The animation of the mixedrace bagged second prize while cheetahs roaming about in ajungle was adjudged for third prize. The projects were devel-oped using Visual Studio 2010.The students used double buff-ering technique for creating animations. The exhibition gave ademonstration of student’s software development expertise andalso afforded them an opportunity to transform their projectsinto commercial products.—APP

MORE than a third of US adults are obeseand are, therefore, at higher risk of type2 diabetes. But new research suggests

a surprising prevention strategy for both condi-tions - eating chocolate. In a mouse study, ledby Andrew P. Neilson of theDepartment of Food Scienceand Technology at VirginiaPolytechnic Institute andState University, researchersdiscovered that a certain an-tioxidant in cocoa - the mainingredient in chocolate - pre-vented mice from gainingweight and lowered theirblood sugar levels.

This is not the only studyto suggest that consumingchocolate can prevent suchhealth conditions. Earlier thisyear, Medical News Todayreported on a study claimingthat chocolate, as well aswine and berries, protectsagainst type 2 diabetes, whileother research found thatteens who eat lots of chocolate tend to be slim-mer. Such studies claim that the reason choco-late may have these health benefits is becauseof the flavanols it contains. These are types ofantioxidants. But the researchers of this mostrecent study say that not all flavanols are thesame. In fact, cocoa has several different types.Good news for chocolate lovers: a certainflavanol in cocoa may help prevent obesity andtype 2 diabetes.

In their study, published in the Journal ofAgricultural Food and Chemistry, the investi-gators set out to determine exactly whichflavanol may be responsible for preventingweight gain and lowering blood glucose levels.

For the research, the investigators assignedmice to one of six different diets for 12 weeks.These consisted of high- and low-fat diets,and high-fat diets supplemented with eithermonomeric, oligomeric or polymeric

procyandins (PCs) - types offlavanols. Mice were given 25milligrams of these flavanolseach day for every kilogram oftheir body weight (25 mg/kg).

The research team foundthat a high-fat diet supplementedwith oligomeric PCs was themost effective for maintainingweight of the mice and improv-ing glucose tolerance - a factorthat could help prevent type 2diabetes. Commenting on thefindings, the researchers say:“Oligomeric PCs appear to pos-sess the greatest antiobesity andantidiabetic bioactivities of theflavanols in cocoa, particularlyat the low doses employed forthe present study.

Additional studies ofprolonged feeding of flavanol fractions in vivoare needed to further identify the fractionswith the highest bioactivities and, therefore,the greatest potential for translation to humanclinical applications at reasonable doses.” Theinvestigators point out that the doses offlavanols used in this study are significantlylower than doses used in past research andare more feasible when translated intoflavanol levels for human consumption.

“Therefore, our data suggest that mod-erate doses of cocoa flavanols or cocoa pow-der have the potential to be more effectivein human clinical trials than previouslythought,” they add.

Chocolate could preventobesity and diabetes

People participating in Azmat-e-Toheed rally organised by Tehrik Dawat-e-Toheed onMonday.

A Sikh delegation presenting model of Golden Temple to Provincial Minister Ashfaq Sarwar on Monday.

DIG Police Jawad Asghar and Mukhtar Qureshi attending ‘A policy dialogue on the Implementation of Punjab Trans-parency and Right to Information Act 2013 at Lahore College.

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Ombudsman Punjab, JavedMahmood inspected a number of newlyestablished Regional Offices at districtlevel to review requirements for the fa-cilitation of complainants.

Ombudsman Punjab visited Re-gional Offices established at NankanaSahib, Toba Tek Singh, Jhang, Bakkarand Sargodha and briefed the advisorsand the staff about the methodology ofreceipt and disposal of complaints aim-ing at giving relief to the public.

Complainants need not to visit toLahore to lodge their complaints as allthe Regional Offices of OmbudsmanPunjab at every district are totally func-tional. Ombudsman Office is in fact “a

poor man’s court” where justice is dis-pensed without spending huge amountof money, said the Ombudsman Punjab.

No compromise on the provision ofrelief to the complainant and we are de-termined in this regard, directed theOmbudsman.

He said that all the advisors postedat Regional Offices at every districtwould also act as District Commission-ers for Children and minors, in case ofviolation of their rights or prevailinglaws, can also lodge complaints to Advi-sors of concerned Regional Office.

The response from government agen-cies as well as from the public is muchpositive and encouraging which will leadus to accomplish our goals to eradicatemaladministration from the government

agencies, he hoped. Ombudsman Punjabsaid that it is not mercy at all but I amduty bound to outreach the remote andbackward areas the province of Punjabto redress their grievances. I will person-ally visit all Regional Offices of theOmbudsman in the province and ensureprovision of required facilities for thecause of public service, announced theOmbudsman Punjab.

He told that “Mohtasib Punjab Pen-sion Cell” at all districts of the provincehave been set up to safeguard the rightsof pensioners, collect their complaintsand disposal of the same at district leveland Advisors to Ombudsman Punjab atRegional Offices in each district havebeen made Incharge “Mohtasib PunjabPension Cell” of concerned district.

Punjab Ombudsman outreachplan becomes functional

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Minister for Educa-tion Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan to-day launched a special awareness cam-paign against dengue through holdingawareness seminars in two of the girlsschools in his electoral constituencyGulshan-e-Ravi Lahore.

The special campaign is aimed atsensitizing the girl students to gainknowledge about preventive measuresto avoid dengue fever through eradica-tion of Aedes Egypti mosquitoes. Firstseminar in this regard was held at Govt.Girls High School, Block-G, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Lahore.

Addressing to the seminar, the Min-ister termed the awareness campaignagainst dengue a continuous process inwhich ensuring indoor cleanliness inevery household was of supreme im-portance because this type of danger-ous mosquitoes prevail more in the

nooks and corners of our residences ascompare to outdoor atmosphere in thegreen belts.

Aedes Egypti mosquitoes have only200 feet range of flight. If we controlthis mosquitos’ breeding throughlarvaecide spray in the stagnant water,we would be safeguarded from 80 per-cent complications of dengue fever, theMinister added.

While talking to the girl students ofGovt. Muslim Model High School,Gulshan Ravi Lahore in another aware-ness seminar, Rana Mashhood AhmadKhan advised them to perform cleanli-ness work in their homes and take it asa special “Home Work” during the com-ing summer vacations.

He directed the Provincial SchoolsEducation Department to ensure that“Zero Period” in each and every publicsector school must be held prior to thesummer vacations on daily basis. Thestudents be provided specific guidance

about preventive measures to avoid den-gue mosquitoes and other vectors caus-ing Malaria and other communicablediseases.

The Minister expressed his satisfac-tion over the cleanliness conditionachieved in the public sector schoolsduring the last two years and emphasizedthe need to spread awareness in themasses at large against dengue. TheMinister awarded a cash prize of seventhousand rupees to seven girl studentswho presented a thematic tableau inGovt. Girls High School, Gulshan-e-Ravi, Lahore.

This prize was offered by the localPakistan Muslim League-N leaderMuhammad Iqbal Dogar. Senior Head-mistress Mrs. Rubina Gul Shabbir, Se-nior Headmistress Ms. Parveen Akhtar,Additional Secretary Schools EducationRana Hassan Akhtar, teachers and stu-dents of both girl schools participatedin the seminars.

Special awareness campaignagainst dengue launched

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Advisor to Chief MinisterPunjab on Health Kh Salman Rafiquehas said that strengthening of nursingsector is essential for a better healthcaresystem. He said that due attention hasnot been paid for the development ofnursing sector during the last sixty years.

However, under the direction ofChief Minister Muhammad ShahbazSharif, government is taking effectivemeasures for improving service struc-ture and provision of more incentivesto the nurses.

He said this while presiding overa high level meeting to review thesteps for improving service structureand other matters related to the nurses.Parliamentary Secretary Health Kh.

Imran Nazir, Director General HealthDr. Zahid Pervaiz, DG NursingRukhsana Kamal, USAID Represen-tative Dr. Nisar Cheema and otherofficers of Nursing Department at-tended the meeting.

The meeting was informed that gov-ernment has given contract to 3382nurses who had been working on ad-hoc basis whereas summary for regu-larization of 825 contract nurses hasbeen sent to the government for ap-proval.

DG Nursing informed that atpresent 4207 charge nurses are work-ing on contract whereas 11572 nursesare working on regular basis. She saidthat the bed-nurses ratio in hospitals isnot up to international standard and thereis a need to enhance posts of nurses. She

further informed that a number of va-cancies of nurses are lying vacant.

Kh Salman Rafique said that thereis a need to introduce amendments inthe syllabus of nursing in view of theadvancement in health sector and latestrequirements of the profession. He saidthat government is taking necessarysteps for improving clinical training ofnurses as well as their capacity-build-ing and management skill.

He said that government would pro-vide opportunities for higher educationand Ph.D for nurses. He said that va-cant posts of nurses would be filled andnew vacancies of nurses would also becreated for providing better health fa-cilities to the public. Kh Salman Rafiquedirected DG Nursing to submit recom-mendations in this regard within a week.

Steps being taken for capacitybuilding, clinical training of nurses

Glow introduces‘Glow Generation’

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—When you live itlarge, live it free! Where theworld talks about 5, 10, 15 FNFnumbers we talk about a gen-eration - the Glow Generation!Powered by Warid Telecom,Glow has revamped its identityto lead Pakistan’s youth towardsa technologically advanced era.With an evolved logo andtagline of ‘Join the Glow Gen-eration’, Warid plans to take theyouth by storm with its latestofferings.

Being the nation’s favouriteyouth brand, Glow, for the firsttime in Pakistan now gives itscustomers a platform to add“Unlimited” number of Waridfriends & family numbers totheir network.

3 die in roadaccident

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A child and twoothers were killed in an accidentas a motorcycle crashed into abus in the precincts of Chohangpolice station here on Monday.

According to the Rescue1122, a speeding bus, made con-tact with a motorcycle due towhich three persons, includinga child, was killed whereas an-other got severe injuries.

LHC takes notice of assaulton a minor school girl

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Lahore High Court (LHC) Complaint Cell onMonday took notice of a press report on administrative sideregarding assault on a 6-year-old girl while coming back fromschool. The Cell has directed the District & Sessions Judge,Khanewal to look into the matter and submit detailed reportregarding steps taken by police along with his own commentswithin a week.

According to details, Razzaq, father of the victim girl, alongwith his family staged a protest in front of Punjab Assemblyand told media that his minor daughter was returning homefrom school when a vagabond Jaffar forcefully took her to adeserted place and molested the innocent girl.

He said that he got registered a case against the said sus-pect and police also arrested him but was compelling him towithdraw the case. On the other hand, family of the accusedwas also threatening them for dire consequences. Razzaq al-leged that police was not helping them and providing shelter tothe influential accused.

PU Libraryorganizes seminar

OBSERVER REPORT

LAHORE—Punjab UniversityLibrary in collaboration withPakistan Nuclear RegulatoryAuthority (PNRA) organized aseminar on “Environmental Ra-dioactivity and Harmful of lion-izing Radiations” at Library’sJinnah Auditorium here on Mon-day. Chief Librarian ChoudharyMuhammad Hanif, DeputyChief Librarian Dr MuhammadHaroon Husmani, Sr. ScientificOfficers Ms Huma Iqbal and MsAmina Bakht, faculty membersand a large number of studentswere present on the occasion.

In his address, ChMuhammad Hanif emphasizedon the regular campaign for theawareness of general publicabout this issue.