MURREE: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Hamid Karzai met to discuss bilateral issueson Tuesday.

Today’s issue of PakistanObserver carries a 2-PageSpecial Report on‘Kazakhstan ConstitutionDay’ on Pages 10 and 11.

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ISLAMABAD—The financeministry, keen to show its com-mitment to fixing Pakistan’s ail-ing finances, on Tuesday re-ported a 25 per cent rise in taxrevenues since the beginning ofthe fiscal year due to a raft ofnew tax collection measures in-troduced by the new PML-Ngovernment.

The finance ministry saidnew measures such as a sales taxrise to 17 per cent from 16 percent had already generated $1.3billion (Rs134.83 billion) in rev-

Pakistan reports big rise in taxrevenues as reforms kick in

enues since the beginning of thenew fiscal year in July, a 25 percent rise compared to a year ear-lier.A finance ministry official,speaking on condition of ano-nymity, said the new measureswere expected to generate 207billion rupees in the current fis-cal year.

“In the first month of the fis-cal year, that is in July, the in-crease ascribed to the new taxeswould be roughly 10 billion ru-pees,” the official said. “The restcan be ascribed to better assess-

ments, plugging of leakages andbetter supervision and manage-ment.” Any delay in implement-ing proposed reforms could dis-rupt the delivery of vital assis-tance from the IMF, which lastmonth agreed that Pakistan canseek a loan package worth $6.6billion (Rs 684 billion) to fix itsmoribund economy.

Pakistan’s new governmentwants to show it is serious aboutthe problem. “The governmenthad decided to bring 0.5 millionnew taxpayers into the tax net,”

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STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai flew back on Tues-day after spending second day ofhis two-day rapprochement tripthat aimed at luring Pakistan forkey role in much-desired Afghansolution. Islamabad’s role, asKabul desires, starts with the re-lease of Afghan Taliban in Paki-stan detention.

According to sources privyto the high-profile talks betweenthe erring neighbours tied in amore or less common fate as inencountering militancy, illiteracy,and poverty, Afghan side was ofthe view that release of somechronic Taliban in Pakistan’s cus-tody would attract the militantsto talks on both sides of the bor-der. At the same time, Pakistan’ssecurity establishment fears that

these key leaders of the militants,which Afghanistan is asking tobe released, would go back towork through their Pakistanilikeminded elements

However, there were prom-ises, and vows when PresidentKarazai wrapped up his extendedstay in Pakistan after spendingsome nice time with Prime Min-ister Nawaz Sharif at Murree, thebeautiful as well as popular sum-mer resort at just 20 miles aerialdistance and 40 minutes drivefrom here. The only concreteoutcome during the second daytalks was the invitation extendedby President Karzai to PremierSharif to visit Kabul that the lat-ter accepted.

According to a statementfrom the PM office, the two lead-ers discussed security situation ofthe region. “Our security and

future prosperity is linked to thatof Afghanistan in multiple ways,”it quoted the Prime Minister assaying during his meetings withthe visiting President. “ThereforePakistan attaches importance toa peaceful, stable and united Af-ghanistan,” he added.

Foreign Office stated sepa-rately that cordiality and mutualunderstanding marked the talks.Both sides reaffirmed their com-mitment to further deepen andbroaden Pakistan-Afghanistanrelations. It was agreed to con-tinue to work together for the pro-motion of peace and reconcilia-tion in Afghanistan.

To this end, the two sides alsoagreed to maintain and enhancemutual engagement on issues ofregional peace and stability. Af-ghan presidential spokesman,

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MPs denounce MQMdemand for army in KarachiSindh Govt failed to protect citizens: Altaf

MQM demand slap on face of democracy: ShahSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Parliamentariansacross the board condemnedrather than just opposing MQMdemand for army rule in Karachi,financial capital of the country,fast falling to target killers, gang-sters, and extortionists.

Self-exiled as well as self-styled leader of the MuttihidaQaumi Movement (MQM) chiefAltaf Hussain has once againsmashed a cracker against boththe PPP-led Sindh Governmentand PML-N ruling the center.

The leader of the MQM thatitself had faced an operation inthe past has now demanded com-plete army rule in port city beingthe only business hub in the coun-try. Though not posed as such thetreasury and the opposition in theNational Assembly on Tuesdayappeared to be on the same pagein opposing the MQM demand

terming it as unconstitutional anda design the to derail the demo-cratic process gaining momen-tum after third consecutive elec-tions held on time.

The two main oppositionparties namely the PPP rulingKarachi as the capital of Sindhand PTI of Imran Khan alsoplayed the opposition’s politicsat the same time in terming it asa ‘slap on the face of PML-Ngovernment. They also walkedout of the Lower House as in pro-testing what they described as thefederal government’s apathy tothe deteriorating security situa-tion in Karachi.

Parliamentarians belongingto the MQM were still adamantto defend the demand for armyrule in Karachi which their leaderhad made in London a while agowith the argument that the situa-tion had gone out of the hands ofthe PPP provincial government.

“The Sindh government hascompletely failed in protectingcitizens especially trader commu-nity from gang-war Lyari ele-ments, extortionists and terroristof Lyari,” said Altaf Hussain ear-lier on Tuesday. “The oppressedpeople and traders of Karachi arenow looking towards the army asa last hope,” he added.

“Pakistan is being put on thestake by sabotaging peace inKarachi where common peopleand especially traders are beingkilled daily,” said Farooq SattarParliamentary Leader of theMQM while talking to media atthe Parliament House.

In wake of traders facingthreats from extortionists, terror-ists and gang war elements, hand-ing over the city over to the armyis the only Constitutional way outof alarming situation in Karachi,

BRUNEI/LONDON—US De-fence Secretary Chuck Hagelsays US forces are now ready toact on any order by PresidentBarack Obama to strike Syria.

The US Navy has four de-stroyers in the eastern Mediter-ranean Sea within range of tar-gets inside Syria. The US also haswarplanes in the region.

In an interview Tuesday withBBC television during a visit tothe southeast Asian nation ofBrunei, Hagel predicted that USintelligence agencies would soonconclude that last weeks deadlyattack on civilians in a Damascussuburb was a chemical attack bythe government.

He called it pretty good in-telligence. Any strike by theUnited States and it allies onSyria will probably aim to teachPresident Bashar al-Assad - and

Iran - a lesson on the risks of de-fying the West, but not try to turnthe tide of the civil war.

US and European officialssay a short, sharp attack - perhapsentirely with cruise missiles —is the preferred response to whatthey believe is Assad’s responsi-bility for a chemical weapons at-tack on rebel-held areas lastweek.

If such a strike goes ahead,President Barack Obamas ad-ministration will have to selectits targets with extreme care as ittries to deter not only Assad butalso Syrias ally Iran over itsnuclear programme.

“The administration has todecide what its objective is —punishment to show that there isa price and to re-establish a de-terrent, or to change the balanceof power in Syria”, said Dennis

Ross, a top White House adviseron the Middle East until late2011. I suspect it will be gearedtowards the former.

Other Western powers havetold the Syrian opposition to ex-pect a strike against PresidentBashar al-Assad’s forces withindays, according to sources whoattended a meeting between en-voys and the Syrian NationalCoalition in Istanbul.

The opposition was told inclear terms that action to deterfurther use of chemical weaponsby the Assad regime could comeas early as in the next few days,and that they should still preparefor peace talks at Geneva, one ofthe sources who was at the meet-ing on Monday told Reuters.

In another developmentPrime Minister David Cameron

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Continued on Page 6

SC gives two weeks formissing persons’ recovery

OBSERVER REPORT

QUETTA—The Supreme CourtTuesday gave Frontier Corps per-sonnel, police and other intelli-gence agencies two week’s timefor recovery of missing persons.

A three-member Bench,headed by Chief Justice IftikharChaudhry, heard the case pertain-ing to unrest in Balochistan at theSupreme Court’s Quetta registry.

During the hearing, ChiefJustice Iftikhar remarked thatthere was no progress in the re-covery of missing persons otherthan mere assurances for theirrecovery.

Meanwhile, Additional At-torney General Habibullah

Shakir informed the bench thatthe missing persons would berecovered soon, upon whichChief Justice Iftikhar said therewas no progress in their recov-ery during the past three years.

The bench said unlawful de-tention of a person was a viola-tion of human rights, adding thatFC and other intelligence agen-cies had evidence of at least 70missing people.

Justice Jawad S. Khawaja,present on the bench, said therewere records of at least 506people in custody of governmentagencies. He added that if anyone of them was a criminal, theyshould be tried as per the law.

Continued on Page 6

Poor man diesafter winningRs1.2m prize

RAWALPINDI—A 60-year-oldman died of cardic arrest afterhearing about winning 1.2 mil-lion rupees in Prize Bond drawhere on Tuesday.

According to police,Zarrar, hailing from a very poorfamily, went to a bank nearChungi No 22 and asked thebank officials to check thenumber of his prize bond in thedraw list.

When he was informedthat he had won Rs1.2 millionprize. This was shocking forpoor Zarrar who at once suf-fered with heart stroke. Thebank administration calledRescue 1122 but he died beforethe rescue team reached there.

Spokesman of the RescueRawalpindi confirmed the re-port saying that Zarrar had aheart attack after hearing aboutthe prize money and breathedhis last in the bank. —INP

Commissionformed formissing personsOBSERVER REPORT

KARACHI—A commission ledby Deputy Attorney Generalhas been constituted to monitorthe issues relating to missingpersons in the province on theorders of Sindh High Court.

Deputy Attorney GeneralSindh M Aslam would head thecommission while AdditionalAdvocate General Miran Shahand Muhammad FarooqAdvocate would represent themissing persons. BarristerSalahuddin would play the roleof judicial coordinator in thecommission.

The first meeting ofcommission would be held onAugust 28 in SHC. It ispertinent to note here that thecommission has been

constituted on the orders oftwo-member bench headed byChief Justice SHC MusheerAlam during the hearing of miss-ing person case.

PM halts deathsentence to 468

inmatesSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif has suspendedimplementation on death sen-tence to 468 inmates includingterrorists and others who wereawarded capital punishment bymilitary courts.

According to the sources,the Prime Minister postponedthe capital punishments till fur-ther orders after holding consul-tation with President Asif AliZardari.

The sources further said thatthere is a pressure on Pakistanfrom European Union to scrapthe law permitting the death sen-tence. The EU has set this de-mand as a condition to give Pa-kistani exports a priority status.

Iran suingUS for 1953coup roleTEHRAN—Iran’s parliamenthas approved fast trackingdebate on a bill that seeks tosue the US for its involvementin the 1953 coup that overthrewthe country’s democraticallyelected Prime Minister.

Lawmakers will begindeliberations Wednesday overhow to launch a formalcomplaint accusing the USgovernment of intervening inIran’s internal affairs and theinflicting damages on thePersian State.

The 290-seat houseapproved the urgent debate ofthe bill Tuesday in a sessionbroadcast on state radio.

New declassified documentsrevealed recently offer moredetails of how CIA orchestratedoverthrow of Iranian PrimeMinister MohammedMossadegh 60 years ago. Thecoup restored oppressive regimeof Shah Mohammad RezaPahlavi.—AP

China welcomesPak desire to be

full memberof SCO

BISHKEK—China Tuesday saidit warmly welcomes Pakistan’sdesire to become full member ofthe Shanghai Cooperation Orga-nization. “China warmly wel-comes this and we will work withother countries to actively pro-mote such request”‚ the Vice-Foreign Minster Cheng Guopingsaid while replying to a questionat a press conference in Beijing.

The press conference wasalso addressed by Vice ForeignMinister Li Baodong‚ Vice Fi-nance Minister Zhu Guangyaoand Deputy Governor Yi Gangof People’s Bank of China tobrief the media on President XiJinping’s State visits from Sept3 to 13 to Turkmenistan‚

Malala awardedChildren’s

Peace AwardA M S T E R D A M — M a l a l aYousafzai, a teenager from Swatwho was shot in the head by theTaliban for promoting girls’ edu-cation last year, has beenawarded a top Dutch children’shonor for her activism.

Organizers announced Tues-day that 16-year-old Malala willbe presented with the Interna-tional Children’s Peace Prizenext month in The Hague, Neth-erlands. The foundation thatawards the prize hailed Malala as

Continued on Page 6

US all set to strike SyriaHagel also brackets Iran

Contempt of court

Imran Khansticks to his wordsOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—In his written re-ply to the Supreme Court in acontempt of court case, ImranKhan reiterated that the term“shameful” is not an abusiveword and should not be consid-ered as contempt.

The 21-page long reply willbe submitted to the apex court to-

day – a day before the secondhearing of the case is scheduled.

A press statement by Imranon July 26 triggered the contemptof court controversy when he saidthat the judiciary was involvedin rigging during the May 11elections.

The PTI chief had later saidthe statement was made in good

Continued on Page 6

Zimbabweshock PakistanHARARE—Zimbabwe chaseddown 245 at the loss of just

three wickets tocomplete a historicvictory against Pakistanin the first One DayInternational betweenthe two countries playedhere in Harare, on

Tuesday.This is the first time in 15

years that Zimbabwe has beatenPakistan in an ODI. Their lastwin came in a 1998 gameplayed at Sheikhupura.—AFP

A forlorn Pak-Afghan honeymoon in Murree

Karzai-Nawaz parleysend on promising note

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar toldreporters on Tuesday. “We havealso sent 10,935 notices to tax-payers last month.”

The new government hasalready made steps towards re-forms, setting an ambitious bud-get deficit target of 6.3 per centfor 2013-14, which most ana-lysts say might be hard to meet.

“We realise the conse-quences of a failure to imple-ment tax reform,” said the min-istry official. “We are workingon a war-footing.”—Reuters

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Inte-rior and Narcotics ControlChaudhry Nisar Ali Khan Tues-day said the government has de-cided to take strict action againstthose who are responsible for thesale of unauthorized SubscriberIdentification Module (SIMs).

Responding to a question ofMuhammad Talha Mehmood inUpper House of the Parliament,he said government has directedmobile companies to close un-verified SIMS as majority ofsuch SIMS are being used instreet crimes and terror incidents.A system was being devised tomake impossible the use of un-authorized mobile SIMS.

Nisar warns action againstsale of unverified SIMs

A bill would be presented inboth houses of parliaments toblock the use of unauthorizedSIMS and punish those who areresponsible for issuing unautho-rized SIMS. He said the systemwould be devised in consultationwith stake holders to make im-possible the use of mobile SIMS.Terrorism and street crimes couldbe controlled significantly if theissuance of unauthorized SIMSis controlled 80 percent. Govern-ment was trying utmost efforts toverify unauthorized subscriberidentity module or SIMS.

He said total of 199,569,914SIMS have so far been verifiedby National Database and Reg-istration Authority (NADRA).

Pak-ChinaEconomic CorridorSecretariat set up

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Minister forPlanning and DevelopmentAhsan Iqbal has said Pakistan-China Economic Corridor wouldopen new opportunities of eco-nomic development in SouthAsia and Middle East.

He was talking to media af-ter inauguration of Pak-ChinaEconomic Corridor Secretariat inIslamabad.

The Secretariat was jointlyinaugurated by the Minister andVice Chairman of National De-velopment and Reforms Com-mission of China ZhangXiaoqiang.

QUETTA—Chief MinisterBalochistan Dr Abdul MalikBaloch on Tuesday an-nounced to withdraw case reg-istered against the private newschannel and formed a commit-tee to probe into the issue. AnFIR was lodged in Quettaagainst Owner, CEO and Bu-reau Cheif of private news chan-nel for showing footage ofbanned organization’s attack atJinnah Residence.

The case was filed underAnti Terrorism act of 1997. Talk-ing on the point of order dur-ing Balochistan Assembly ses-sion, Chief Minister said that

incumbent government be-lieves in the freedom of expres-sion and respects judiciary. Henoted that provincial govern-ment did not ask to register FIRagainst the private channeladding it was misunderstand-ing that led to case against thechannel. “We have no role inthe registration of FIR and Iwithdrew case and constituteda committee to probe into theincident,” CM said.

He, however criticizedthe role of private channel forhis media trial holding himresponsible for an act whichhe never committed. On the

other side it has also beenreported that the oppositionparties in Senate Tuesdaystrongly protested over theregistration of FIR againstChief Executive Office andBureau Chief of a private TVchannel and staged a tokenwalk out from the House.Leader of the Opposition,Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan saidthe opposition has reserva-tions on the conduct of me-dia but they stand by withmedia in this hour of trial.

He criticized the registra-tion of First Information Report(FIR) invoking anti-terror laws

against the management andthe reporter. He urged Minis-ter for Information and Broad-casting Pervaiz Rashid to lookinto the matter and resolve theissue. Tahir Mashhadi appre-ciated the role of media andstressed withdrawal of the FIRagainst CEO and Bureau Chiefof the channel.

Abdul Rauf said hisPakhtoonkhwa Milli AwamiParty would continue its sup-port to media. Hasil Bizanjosaid the FIR against the TVchannel has not been regis-tered by the provincial gov-ernment.—APP

CM withdraws case against TV channel

Committee to probe issue

ANF recovers huge narcotics cacheISLAMABAD—Anti NarcoticsForce (ANF) has conductedfive different operations andrecovered 1,110 kilograms ofHydrochloric Acid (HCL), 113kgs charas / garda, 4 kgs opiumand 2.4 kgs heroin from differ-ent parts of country. In con-tinuation to zero tolerance onnarcotics as directed by Direc-tor General Anti NarcoticsForce, ANF conducted opera-tions in different parts of the

country, said a press releaseissued here on Tuesday.

According to detail, ANFKarachi, intercepted a HinoTruck, registered No. LIT 4313at Hub-River Road (near RaissGoth) and recovered 21 pack-ets garda and 92 packets cha-ras. Drugs were concealed inmislabeled 850 cartons ofapples. Total weight of thedrugs was 113 kgs. One per-son have also been arrested.

In another operation at KarachiAirport, ANF recovered 4 kgsopium, concealed in baggageof a passenger. He was travel-ing from Karachi to Doha byQatar Airline, Flight No. QR-321. Passenger has been ar-rested. Follow-up person ofpassenger has also been ar-rested from airport car parking.In a separate operation, ANFKarachi has intercepted a sea-shipment.—APP

PhD scholarshipsfor FATA journalists

announcedISLAMABAD—Higher Edu-cation Commission (HEC)has announced PhD schol-arships for the working jour-nalists belong to FederallyAdministered Tribal Area(FATA) under its Project‘Provision of Higher Educa-tion Opportunities for Stu-dents of Balochistan andFATA’.

An official of HEC toldAPP that these scholarshipwould be awarded to thosewho will secure admission inHEC identified universities inUSA, UK, Canada, Australiaand New Zealand.

These scholarships havebeen announced consideringthe contemporary advance-ments in field of Media andJournalism and to strengthenthe skills of FATA Journalists.The scholarships wouldcover Tuition fee, Mainte-nance Allowance, Book Al-lowance, Health Insuranceand Travel Allowance.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The Senate onTuesday witnessed uproarover the remarks of Ministerfor Railways Khawaja SaadRafique against oppositionmembers.

Leader of the OppositionChaudhary Aitzaz Ahsan de-manded withdrawal of the re-marks. Several oppositionmembers sttod up and pro-tested over the minister’s re-marks.

The war of wordsstarted when Senator RazaRabbani of the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) hadquetioned the absence ofMinister of Privatization. Hewanted a statement fromthe minister on the issue ofproposed privatization ofPakistan Steel Mills (PSM).Senate Chairman Syed

Uproar in Senateover Saad’s remarks

Nayyer Hussain Bukharisaid the minister had soughta leave due to the marriageof his maternal niece. But

Rabbani said the ministerwas absent to avoid ques-tioning over the PSM’sprivatization during the cur-rent session.—APP

KARACHI—The Cathay Pa-cific Airways announced onTuesday that it would spon-sor a return air ticket for BilalMasood to South Korea forparticipation in the 7th AsianYouth Workers Trainingprogramme to be held fromSep 1 to 8. An announce-ment here on Tuesday saidthat Bilal is the only one se-lected from Pakistan andamong top 20 highly spe-cialized youth workers fromAsia.

The programme will cre-ate opportunities for youthworkers to study the socialand political situation ofyoung people in Asiathrough high level of lec-tures, workshops and studytrips including visit to theMinistry of Gender Equalityand Family, South Korea, or-ganized by the Korea Youth

Work Agency. Alongwithneedful training, there aremany cultural visits planned.As part of programme, par-ticipants would present theircountry’s report on youthpolicies and challenges inyouth work.

Feroze Jamall, CathayPacific Airways CountryManager said, ‘Cathay Pa-cific has a history of invest-ing in youth, particularly insuch meaningful programsand it has been assistingcreative thoughts of youngpeople as it realizes that thepower of one traveler can bemagnificent. Cathay Pacificis delighted to support theefforts of Bilal Masood tobring positivity amongyoung people in Pakistanwith a passion to presentthe country’s image andhelp build bridges of peace

and friendship beyond bor-ders’.

Bilal Masood, who hasrepresented Pakistan in num-ber of countries as the YouthAmbassador and activelyworking for peace and inyouth activities said, ‘It is anhonor not only for me, butfor my country to be amongfew Asian youth leaders in-vited for this prestigiousprogramme.

In addition to flourishingmy direction to meet presentand future challenges facingthe young people in Asia,the programme will give mean unprecedented opportu-nity to strengthen the peace-ful and friendly relations atyouth to youth level betweenPakistan, Korea and rest ofthe participating countries,which is something we cer-tainly need today’.—APP

Pakistani youthamong top 20 in Asia

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D —Chai rmanMUSLIM InstituteSahibzada Sultan Ahmad Alisaid that Kashmir is not onlyissue of South Asia andMuslim world but it is one ofthe important issues of theglobe. Although interna-tional organizations ask Pa-kistan and India for the dia-logue on Kashmir on hu-manitarian basis as well as onpolitical grounds and offer toplay role in this regard whichis a good offer but the alarm-ing situation is that why theinternational organizationsand world powers do notcondemn the state spon-sored terrorism in Kashmir?If the leading personalities ofthe international organiza-tions are not going to raisevoice against the state spon-

sored terrorism in Kashmir,the trust of people of this re-gion on the international or-ganizations may be lost.

Like the implementationof human rights internationalconventions in rest of theworld, it should be imple-mented in Kashmir. The or-ganizations talking againstthe discriminations, if theydo not talk on human crisisof Kashmir, they will commitdiscrimination by them-selves. Former PM AzadJammu & Kashmir SardarAttique Ahmad Khan saidthat on 15 August 1947 therewas flag of Pakistan on gov-ernment buildings in allaround the Kashmir. Postageletters dispatched fromSrinagar on 15 August hadstamp of Pakistan. Unfortu-nately we do not have con-sistent policy on Kashmir. He

said that India is doing re-search to justify his wrongstance but we are not doingwork on our right stance.

We are doing much workon fault finding and now weshould work on good will.India is making dams illegallyand then releases more wa-ter in rivers driving flood sea-son. He further said thatshould do all types of dia-logue to solve the issue ofKashmir and take stand onthe resolutions of UN. Euro-pean Union took action onmass graves in Kashmir butwe did not work to raise theissue on international issue.Director National Institute ofPakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University. Tahir Amincongratulated MUSLIM In-stitute for organizing theevent. He said it is basicallythe issue of right of self-de-

Unfortunately we lack consistent policy on Kashmir: Attique

MULTAN: Pak Army personnel distributing relief goods among flood affectees on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD: Employees of a local public school holding a protest in favour of theirdemands.

ISLAMABAD: Sardar Atique Ahmad Khan ex-Prime Minister Azad Jammu, SahibzadaSultan Ahmad Ali, Prof Dr Tahir Amin, Brig (R) Asif Haroon Raja and Asif Ezdi seenduring a seminar titled ‘Kashmir: Question of Justice’. PO photo by Sultan Bashir

termination.It is probably the oldest

unresolved agenda on UNcharter. Banki Moon did notgive it much attention duringhis visit to Pakistan. India isplanning to build many damsviolating the Indus watertreaty and thus it will becomeworsening issue for Pakistan.There are reports thousandsof mass graves in Kashmir andit is ethnic cleansing. Indiansarmy enjoys the full powersto kill, torture and fake en-counters on Kashmiris.Change in Pakistan foreignpolicy has contributed inworsening the Kashmir crisis.Kashmir is fundamental issuebetween Pakistan and Indiaso both have to resolve it toimprove relations.

But if it is not resolvedthere might be severe conse-quences for both. Renowned

Defense Analyst Brig (R)Asif Haroon Raja said thatKashmir issue is unresolveddue to violence of India. UNcould has not been able toimplement its resolutions byIndia. India did not acceptdemilitarization and plebi-scite for Kashmiri people.UN remained ineffectiveeven with 18 resolutionsabout Kashmir. None includ-ing US tried to apply formulaof Sudan or East Timor.

International communityignored Human rights vio-lation in Indian occupiedKashmir. No solution can beimplemented withoutKashmiris will.

Former Ambassador &Renowned Columnist Mr.AsifEzdi said that Kashmiris old issue but it is not be-ing given that attentionwhich it demands.

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minis-ter Azad Jammu and Kash-mir Chaudhry AbdulMajeed Tuesday urged theUnited Nations and Interna-tional community to takenotice of violations by In-dian troops on Line of Con-trol (LoC). Addressing apress conference here inKashmir House, he said thatboth the government of Pa-kistan and Azad Kashmirwere against wars andwanted to resolve Kashmirissue according to the reso-lutions of United Nations(UN). He said that UNshould have to sent an ob-

server mission to monitor thesituation on LoC.

While expressing sad-ness over the silence of in-ternational community onthis issue, he said that 15 ci-vilians were martyred be-sides Pakistan Army also suf-fered losses owing to unpro-voked firing of Indian forceson 750 kilometers long LoC.He said that India could notsuppress the Kashmiri’smovement of self determina-tion with military might andexpressed the hope that theday was near when Kashmirbecomes a part of Pakistan.

He said that the peace in

the region is linked with theKashmir issue and peace inAsia was not possible with-out settlement of this issue.The AJK Prime Minister saidthat the governments of Pa-kistan and Azad Kashmirwere well informed about theproblems of people living onLoC and would not leavethem alone in the time of need.

He said that Pakistangovernment had a clearstance on Kashmir issue andtook up the Kashmir issue onevery forum. He appreciatedthe role of media for present-ing the real face of India be-fore the world community in

an effective way after the In-dian violations on LoC. Hesaid that Kashmir govern-ment was sending delega-tions to different Interna-tional fora to raise thelongstanding Kashmir issueon International level. Ear-lier, All Parties Hurriyet Con-ference (APHC) leader andthe Chairman of Jammu andKashmir Peoples Movement(JKPM), Ghulam Ahmed Mirhas urged India and Paki-stan to end the prevailingtension on Line of Control(LoC) by resolving theKashmir dispute peace-fully.—APP

Majeed urges world to takenotice of Indian LoC violations

Father seeksfinancial assistancefor son treatmentNASIB SHAH SHINWARI

LANDIKOTAL—Poor fatherhas demanded for financialassistance from governmenthigh ups for the treatment ofhis son. Khan Afzal’sShinwari son is sufferingfrom serious liver disease andhe needs some 3.5 Millionrupees for his treatment.

Afzal Shinwari who be-longs to Mukhtar Khellandikotal, during a press con-ference and Landikotal pressclub the other day, said thathis eight sons and threedaughters had gone in themouth of death due to this se-rious disease; adding that nowhis only son Imran Shinwari of9 years was also suffering ofthis deadly disease.

He informed and re-quested media men to conveyhis voice to the all those atthe corridors of power forproviding full financial assis-tance to his only son’s treat-ment adding that due to hislow income he was not ableto afford the treatment cost ofhis son. He also appealed toPresident of Pakistan, PrimeMinister of Pakistan, Gover-nor KPK and Political AgentKhyber Agency as well as thehumanitarian assistance bod-ies to come to the rescue ofhis family and do the needfulon humanitarian grounds.

STAFF REPORTER

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakthunkhwa Minister forForests and Environment,Ibrar Hussain Tanoli on Tues-day directed the officials ofhis department to adopt mea-sures for quick disposal ofwind fallen trees laying in dif-ferent areas of Malakand Di-vision especially in Chitraldistrict in order to save wast-age of precious woods.

He passed these directiveswhile presiding over a high levelmeeting of Forest Departmentattended by Chief ConservatorMalakand Division Hasham AliKhan, Managing Director For-est DevelopmentCoorporation, Gul Muhammadand others high ranking offi-cials in Swat district.

The meeting deliberated onvarious matters pertaining ofban on Forest DevelopmentCorporation regarding disposalof matters related to forests. TheMinister directed formation ofhigh-level committee with direc-tion to submit report within tendays in this regard.

The Minister was toldthe wind fallen timber, whichwas lying in Lawari Top inChitral since long is rottenand required immediate dis-posal. The Minister also di-rected probe of the matterrelated to decompose woodlying on banks side of RiverChitral. He said trees and for-ests can play a vital role in com-bating environmental pollu-tion, decertification, floods,social erosion and maters re-lated to climatic change.

Wind fallen timberdisposal stressed

Strengthening of democracyISLAMABAD—Minister of State for Par-liamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab on Tues-day said that the future of country waslinked to strengthening of democracy.Replying to a point of order in the Na-tional Assembly, he said, “Pakistan’ssecure future is linked with strengthen-ing of democracy and a nation havingdemocracy always progresses.” Hesaid the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) government had respected the

mandate of all political parties. The mandate of the Paki-stan People’s Party (PPP) had been respected in Sindhwhile the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was given a chanceto form government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he added.The Minister said the PML-N was in a position to formgovernment in Balochistan but it gave a chance to otherparties in the better interest of the province. He said blamegame should be stopped and time should not be wastedon fighting with each other. “We are here to work for thewelfare of the people as they have associated hopes withus to put the country on the road of progress and prosper-ity.” He said it was the responsibility of the people’s repre-sentatives to devise policies for the elimination of terror-ism, illiteracy and poverty. He also sought recommenda-tions from the legislators for strengthening of democracy,elimination of terrorism and strengthening of economy. Hesaid the government would welcome healthy criticism butit should be productive.—APP

Khurram for peace in countryISLAMABAD—Minister of State forPrivatization Khurram Dastgir Khansaid that it is the priority of democraticgovernment to resolve the issues of ter-rorism and extremism through dialogueprocess while taking all the stakehold-ers into confidence. He said that thegovernment has committed to protectlives of the innocent people as “we havealready sacrificed the lives of forty thou-sands civilian in war on terrorism.” Min-

ister of state said that the government has started the dia-logue to make strong civil and military relations and toevolve the joint security mechanism for maintaining peaceand stability in the country. Khurram Dastgir said that thegovernment has followed the policy of no interference inAfghanistan to enhance the relations between both thecountries for peace and stability the region. Talking to aprivate television channel, he said that the governmenthas discussed the counter terrorism policy to evolve con-sensus among all the stakeholder in the country. He addedthat peace in Pakistan is inter-linked with peace in Afghani-stan and his government is keeping in view the situationafter the United States exit from Afghanistan in 2014. Re-plying to a question, he said that the government had aplan for providing basic health and education facilities tothe people of Tribal Areas. Meanwhile, Federal Ministerfor Kashmir Affairs Barjis Tahir on Monday said that peoplehave once again expressed confidence in the policies ofPML-N and voted in its favour in by-elections.—APP

Teachers absence a serious problemPESHAWAR—Chairman, District Develop-ment Advisory Committee (DDAC),Abbottabad and Member Provincial As-sembly (MPA), Sardar Mohammad Idreeswhile terming the absence of teachers fromschools a very serious issue and directedthe department of education for initiatingstrict action in this regard. He expressedthese views while talking to different del-egations from his electoral constituencyPK-48 on public day in his office on Tues-

day. He said that no leniency would be shown in proceedingagainst absent teachers. Declaring the implementation of merit,elimination of corruption and provision of basic amenitiesand rights to the people as top priorities of the PTI govern-ment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said that no political inter-ference would be allowed in any public sector organizationand recruitment in the departments of health and educationdepartments would be carried out on the basis of only merit.In case of any complaint, he urged the people to either moveto Complaint Cell and DDAC office along with proof in thatregard. Following the directives of Chief Minister, DeputyCommissioner (DC) Peshawar, Syed Zaheer-ul-Islam has di-rected all Additional Assistant Commissioners (AACs) foraccelerating action against the selling of substandard foodand drinking items in the city.—APP

Housing facility for Pak Post employeesISLAMABAD—Additional Director Gen-eral (Admn) Pakistan Post Mashal Khanon Tuesday said work was underway onthe housing scheme for the employeesof the Pakistan Post. Talking to APP here,he said that it was the basic and the mostdemanded need of the employees andtheir grievances regarding accomodationand transport would be resolved soon.He informed that the organization wouldalso introduce new housing schemes for

the employees to solve their accommodation problems.Khan added that to improve the services of Pakistan Post,motorcycles would be distributed among postmen. The of-ficial said the organization was computerizing its services tofacilitate customers and assured that both the problemswould be solved on priority basis. The Director apprisedthat advance money transfer service would also be intro-duced shortly across the country. Mashal Khan said Paki-stan Post has taken various steps to improve its postal ser-vices and bring revolution in the services.—APP

F A I S A L A B A D — F E S C Otaskforce and intelligenceteams have nabbed 20 powerpilferers during the last 24hours. A spokesman forFaisalabad Electric SupplyCompany (FESCO) said onTuesday the accused in-cluded Muhammad Irfan,Ghulam Mustafa, Sana Ullah,Sultan Ali, Shahbaz Ahmad,Muhammad Imran,Muhammad Aamir andMuhammad Ismaeel ofGulistan Colony, QaisarMushtaq of Mehmoodabad,Muhammad Anwar ofMohallah Sharifpura,Muhammad Ramazan andSaeed Ahmad of Tariqabad,

Muhammad Iqbal, NoorAhmad, Muhammad AkramDogar, Sakina Bibi and ZaheerAhmad of Islamia Park, MstKishwar Begum andMuhammad Arshad ofWarriach House, ChibbanRoad. Detection bills of 9,5543units worth Rs1, 144,868 havebeen issued to the power pil-ferers and Rs 748,003 have sofar been recovered, he added.

Peshawar: Peshawar Elec-tric Supply Company(PESCO) Disconnection &Recovery Campaign is in fullswing throughout KhyberPakhtunkhwa. In this connec-tion a Disconnection Team ofWarsak 1 Sub-Division dis-

connected power supply toMathra, Ghari Mustajab, SairSang, Yari Koroona discon-nected from transformers ofdifferent categories due tonon-payment of dues of Rs100 millions, said a press re-lease issued here on Tuesday.

In these areas the lossesof Pesco are 98% while recov-ery is less than 2%. About1200 direct hooks exist inthese areas. The companydisconnected power supplyto these areas to recover theout standing arrears againstwhich the inhabitants of thearea stage a protest rally andblock the road at Pir BalaChowk.—APP

PESHAWAR—Speakers at aseminar on Tuesday called fordrafting environment policiesbased on climate change fac-tor to lessen losses that are at-tached, directly or indirectly, tonatural calamities in more effec-tive way. They said that thegovernment should have toadopt cogent measures in na-tional policy on environment sothat the challenges especiallyrelated to global warming mightbe addressed properly.

Professor Ismail of Paki-stan NGO forum, DirectorPDMA, Pakistan Institute ofLabour Education and Re-search (PILER) researcherMehr Rafique, Director JCDSAli Akhtar and others partici-pated in the seminar titled“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa andflood in 2013: A review of di-saster preparedness and re-sponse” organized by PILER.Speakers on this occasion saidthat the provincial disaster re-sponse structure needs a re-visit. A part from deficits in itsdesign and structure, it is im-

portant to base it on pro-peoplepromise, involving communi-ties to broaden the current di-saster management constitu-ency engaging more non-tra-ditional actors both in policymaking and implementation.

They also recommendedthat localised knowledge ondisaster and a connection be-tween the bodies of knowl-edge in planning must be cre-ated. The speakers said thatDisaster Risk Education needsto be made priority with astrong institutional basis forimplementation. A system ofidentifying, assessing andmonitoring disaster risks andenhancing early warningneeds to be pursued and un-derlying factor causing andaggravating disasters need tobe reduced too, they added.They emphasized the need totake climate change as a prior-ity by the government embed-ding it with overall develop-ment policy of the provinceadding that in terms of infra-structure development.—APP

Schools to beused as technicaltraining centres

MIRPUR—The AJK govern-ment would provide propertechnical training to the joblessunskilled youths throughevening classes in various pub-lic-sector high school buildingsthroughout Azad Jammu Kash-mir, official sources said.

The AJK government hasalready inked a broad-basedplan aimed at to produce skilledhuman resources primarilyaimed at to adjust the unem-ployed youths in various tech-nical fields in nation-buildingprivate.—APP

20 pilferers nabbed

Power supply cut off in several areas

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Minister forSports and Tourism,Mehmood Khan on Tues-day directed the doctors andmanagement of Saidu SharifHospital Sawat to providebest medical facilities to ad-mitted patients of dengue vi-rus and strict action wouldbe taken against officialswho found guilty of negli-gence. In a press statementissued here, the Ministersaid the Govt was well awareof the situation and is fullyalert. He said the Govt wasutilizing all available re-

sources to control and pre-vent dengue virus in Swat.

He said PTI Chief ImranKhan and Chief Minister PervezKhattak also visited SaiduSharif Hospital the other daywhere they enquired about thehealth of dengue virus pa-tients. They also directed pro-vision of quality medical facili-ties to the admitted patients. Hesaid the provincial governmentwould soon make anti denguevirus fumigation spray in Swatthrough helicopter. Preventivemeasure needs to be adoptedagainst dengue: The number ofpatients affected by Dengue

virus have increased to 600 and300 patients of dengue werebeing given treatment in SaiduSharif Teaching Hospital, in-formed Chief Executive of thehospital, Dr Taj MuhammadKhan here Tuesday.

Dr. Taj in a briefing toldmedia men that about 180patients have been relievedby the hospital authoritiesafter providing them neces-sary medical treatment. Hesaid that patients of denguewere being given attentionon priority with theutilisation of all availablehealth resources. He said that

to mitigate the suffering ofpatients, free diagnostic fa-cilities have been ensured tothem. He said that menace ofdengue has been broughtunder control adding ifproper preventive measureswould not adopted againstdengue it might create a seri-ous threat to the people infuture. Speaking on the oc-casion, Zamir Minhas, an ex-pert of anti dengue team,termed dengue a social prob-lem saying each and everymember of society shouldjoin hands for its eradica-tion.—APP

Govt undertaking fumigationspray to control Sawat dengue

CHITRAL: People on their way by foot due to damaged main road of Kalash Valley blocked after flood.

CHAMAN: Pakistani security guard is checking luggageof the passenger travelling between Pak-Afghan borderbefore going to Afghanistan from Pakistan at ChamanFriendship Gate.

HYDERABAD: People of Katcha area of Sehrish Nagar migrating after rise of waterlevel in River Indus.

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanMeteorological Department(PMD) forecast mainly hotand humid weather for mostparts of the country withchances of rain and thunder-shower at few places ofPunjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Kashmir.According to the synopticsituation, seasonal low waslying over northwestBalochistan and adjoiningareas with its trough extend-ing south-eastwards. Weakmonsoon currents from Ara-bian sea were penetratinginto central and upper partsof the country.

The Met Office indicatedchances of rain and thunder-shower at isolated places ofKashmir and adjoining hillyareas, Rawalpindi,Gujranwala, Lahore, Hazaradivisions during the next 24hours. The highest maximumtemperatures recorded dur-ing the last 24 hours were:Nokundi and Chillas 43 C andBhakkar, Sibbi, Nurpurthaland Dalbandin 42 C.

The maximum tempera-tures in the other cities were:Islamabad 35 C , Lahore 38 C

Isolated rain likely, Karachi 32 C, Peshawar 38C, Quetta 35 C, Murree 23 C,and Muzaffarabad 36 C.

The KP MeteorologicalDepartment on Tuesday fore-cast rain-thunder showers atisolated places of Hazara di-vision during next 24 hoursthat would hopefully bringdown the existing hot tem-

perature. According to MetOffice Spokesman here, rainfor Abbottabad, Tandyani,Nathia Gali and Mansera ofHazara division is predicteddue to seasonal low lies overNorthwest Balochistan andadjoining areas whereas weakmonsoon currents from theArabian sea are also penetrat-ing into central and upperparts of the country. In next 24hours, mainly hot and humidweather is expected in mostparts of the country.—APP

Call for chiselling environmentpolicies based on climate change

Rs 3433millionsallocated for M-8ISLAMABAD—National High-way Authority (NHA) has de-cided to speed up work on on-going projects in Balochistanso that required road linkagesare provided for Gwadar port.In the past few yearsBalochistan road projectscould not be completed in timedue to certain reasons includ-ing lack of funds but now theNHA following the policies ofthe present government hasprepared a plan to complete theongoing road projects in theprovince as early as possible.

In the PSDP-2013-14 Rs63147.884 million allocated forNational Highway Authorityand the NHA would attach toppriority to the completion ofthose projects which are over70 per cent finished and on-going projects in Balochistanwould be especially in the fo-cus, said an NHA officialTuesday.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Another case offish mortality has occurredat Clifton beach, Karachi,which was second in themonth of Aug 2013. On5.8.2013, a mass mortality offish, mainly consisting ofgrey mullets, occurred withinthe Karachi Port extendingbetween Baba Island andChina Creek. That huge scalemortality was attributed topollution brought in by rainwater flowing through SindhIndustrial Trading Estate(S.I.T.E) and laden with toxicchemicals when enteredKarachi Harbour had re-sulted in mass mortality offish. It is estimated thatabout 100 m. tons fish died.

WWF-Pakistan DirectorRab Nawaz had pointed outthe recurring of mortality ofnatural fish stocks may af-fect the livelihood of the fish-

ermen of the coastal area.Mortality on account of toxicphytoplankton can be widespread and direct or indirectconsumption of such deadfishes can be harmful for hu-man being as well. He furtherinformed that WWF-Paki-stan had collected thesamples of fishes and will getthem analysed to identify thespecies of phytoplankton,which was causative agentof the present mortality offish.

WWF-Pakistan Techni-cal Advisor (Marine Fisher-ies) Muhammad MoazaamKhan informed that abruptand immense growth of phy-toplankton was known as“Harmful Algal Bloom”(HAB) or “Red tide”. Phy-toplankton was algae werenot harmful to human beingand marine animals. Bryde’swhale found dead at Damb,Sonmiani: A specimen of

Bryde’s whale was founddead in Damb, Sonmiani areaon 20.8.2013. It was interest-ing that this whale wasfound deep inside the MianiHor Lagoon, about 15-kmfrom the opening to the openocean.

Shoaib Kiyani, an expertof whales working in Insti-tute of Marine Sciences, Uni-versity of Karachi confirmedthe identification of thewhale as Bryde’s whalewhich is scientifically knownas Balaenoptera edeni, isfound in tropical and sub-tropical waters of Indian, Pa-cific and Atlantic Ocean. Ateam of experts from WWF -Pakistan, Balochistan Forestand Wildlife Department,Fisheries DepartmentBalochistan, local environ-mentalist and officials of twoconservation organizationsCARD (Coastal Associationfor Research.

Pollution kills tones of fish

GUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

CHITRAL—Main road ofKalash valley has been dam-aged due to tremendousflood in the month of HolyRamzn but due to apathy ofCommunication & Works(C&W) department the roadis still block and people in-cluding women folk, children,ailing and patients are com-pelled to cross some one ki-lometers mountainous wayby feet. As the road has beendamaged last month due totremendous flood and it waswashed away by flash flooddue to passing the road onthe bank of Kalash River.

Transporters also charg-

Opening of Kalash valley road stresseding extra fare from passengerstravelling within the limiteddistance. Due to no roadpeople of the entire valley car-rying their essential goods onthe back of rented donkeyswho charging 500 for 40 kilo-grams luggage. While somelabor carrying these goods ontheir back and charge 300 pertrip. No work was started onreconstruction of this roadeven passing 25 days andthere is acute shortage of ed-ible things at Kalash valleysincluding Rumbor, Bumboratand Shekhanandeh.

The annual religious fes-tival of Kalash communityOchal (Ochao) was also badlydisturbed because Kalash

people could not came toChitral bazaar for purchasingnew cloth and other things.People of Kalash valley de-manding from the govern-ment and high ups of C&Wdepartment for immediatelyrepairing of the road to restorevehicular traffic on this road.Because a large number ofvehicles have been strainedat Rumber, Bumborat andSheikhandeh. Main road hasbeen damaged at so manyplaces and local people havebeen carried this road at theirproperty charging 50 rupeesfrom each vehicle travellingonly in a few kilometers whichhas been strained after floodand damaging of the road.

Missing link inquest for peace

IT seems that the quest for peace in the region is being prioritisedby almost all stakeholders except, of course, India, which is tryingto create hurdles in the way in pursuance of its limited and self-

centred agenda. The principal players including the United States thathas, to some extent, realized the futility of over a decade longoccupation of Afghanistan, are contributing to efforts for earlyrestoration of peace in the region.

The visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which was extendedfollowing interaction with the Pakistani leadership, apparently helpedbring about a thaw in relations between the two countries because ofpositive response to his desire for help in reaching out to Taliban forpeace talks. It is, however, surprising that while focus of PresidentKarzai had been on terrorism and early restoration of peace in hiscountry through the process of dialogue, Pakistan seems to be stillclueless as to what to do to achieve the cherished goal of peace in thecountry. No doubt, the new Government has all along been stressingthe need for dialogue yet there is no move visible to transform piousintentions into practical steps. This is despite the fact that theGovernment leaders have been claiming that the Army too is on boardfor the purpose and the opposition is also expressing its willingnessto support both dialogue and use of force to tackle the menace ofterrorism that has pushed the country to the brink of virtual disaster.The Government also has good rapport with religious leaders andcircles that can help facilitate both contacts and dialogue with Talibanand on Sunday Maulana Samiul Haq offered his good offices for thepurpose. The Government is apparently waiting for the proposed APCand finalization of the national security strategy but it may be pointedout that we have already lost a lot of precious time on paper work.There is definitely a missing link between intentions and actions ofthe Government in its quest for peace with Pakistani Taliban becauseof the state of indecisiveness and lack of necessary courage. Why areyou shy of approaching Taliban when the United States, its allies andeven President Karzai are dying for talks with Afghan Taliban?

Zardari to leavePresidency with respect

AS he is approaching the fag end of his democratic tenure, PresidentAsif Ali Zardari, these days, is hosting farewell banquets for

different segments of the society and circles and the good thing isthat the PML-N Government too plans to bid him farewell in anhonourable manner as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would be hostinga farewell dinner in his honour. At a banquet for journalists on Monday,Mr. Zardari rightly pointed out that he was the first head of state inthe chequered history of the country to have left the Presidency withrespect and dignity.

President Zardari has reasons to be a satisfied man as he completedhis tenure because of his widely appreciated and acknowledged policyof national reconciliation and mutual accommodation. It would not bean exaggeration to say that he introduced a new but healthy culture ofmaturity, patience and tolerance in the national politics. It was partlybecause of his remarkable sense of accommodation and adjustmentthat one elected Government completed its Constitutionally mandatedterm and a new one assumed power. Of course, credit also goes toPML-N especially its chief Mian Nawaz Sharif who also demonstratedforbearance and did not resort to leg pulling politics of 1970s. ArmyChief also supported the democratic system while the Chief Justice ofPakistan gave judicial umbrella to the sapling of democracy. But thereis no denying the fact that the policy of the President to take othersalong paid dividends both to his party and the system. This was a newand unheard of trend in the history of the country and therefore, Zardariwill always have a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment afterleaving the Presidency on September 8.

SC’s fixation withmissing persons

THE Supreme Court has rightly taken up the issue of missing persons, as it is not only the case of fundamental rights of individu-

als but also their families under go long period of agony about thefate of their near and dear ones. It also reflects how the Apex Courtgives importance to human lives and this was evident when the Courtduring hearing at the Quetta Registry sought a report and release ofmissing persons on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court has been listening the case for quite sometime and on its directions several missing persons were releasedbut with the passage of time the number the going up. The NationalCommission constituted for the recovery of the missing personshad earlier submitted it report in the Supreme Court, stating it hastraced 378 persons while cases of 633 were pending. The recoveryof mutilated bodies of some of the missing persons from Balochistanin Karachi has also raised serious concern among civil society andit is praise worthy that the SC is fixed with the serious issue. Wemay also point out that some of the reported missing persons wouldhave joined the ranks of extremist elements in Balochistan withoutinforming their families and their cases have been filed for recov-ery. Having said that, in our view, the Supreme Court should havealso prioritised reforms at the lower level judiciary, which has be-come rotten and millions of poor people are suffering too. The SCand particularly the CJP would have earned more respect by pro-viding some relief to the poor folk by improving the lower judi-ciary side by side the crucial issues he is attending.

Why peace is elusive?

In nature there areneither rewards norpunishments —there areconsequences.

Respondingto Syrianatrocities

There is little doubt now thatPresident Obama is planningsome kind of military re-

sponse to what the administrationsays without equivocation was achemical weapons attack by theSyrian government that killed hun-dreds of civilians. On Monday,Secretary of State John Kerry be-gan forcefully making the case foraction. Speaking at State Depart-ment, Mr Kerry said attack “defiesany code of morality” and should“shock conscience of the world.”He said this “indiscriminate slaugh-ter of civilians, the killing ofwomen and children and innocentbystanders” was a “moral obscen-ity,” “inexcusable,” and “undeni-able,” despite efforts by PresidentBashar al-Assad and his enablersin Russia to blame rebel forces.

“Make no mistake,” Mr. Kerryadded, “President Obama believesthere must be accountability forthose who would use the world’smost heinous weapons against theworld’s most vulnerable people.”Administration officials said Mr.Obama had still not made a firmdecision on how to react, but itwould be highly unlikely — if notirresponsible — for him to autho-rize Mr. Kerry to speak in suchsweeping terms and then do noth-ing. Mr. Obama put his credibilityon the line when he declared lastAugust that Mr. Assad’s use ofchemical weapons would constitutea “red line” that would compel anAmerican response. After the firstattacks, earlier this year, killed be-tween 100 and 150 people, the ad-ministration promised weapons forthe rebels but delayed in deliver-ing them. This time the use ofchemicals was more brazen and thecasualties were much greater, sug-gesting that Mr. Assad did not takeMr. Obama seriously. Presidentsshould not make a habit of draw-ing red lines in public, but if theydo, they had best follow through.Many countries (including Iran,which Mr. Obama has often saidwon’t be permitted to have anuclear weapon) will be watching.

Using chemical arms is consid-ered a war crime and banned underinternational treaties, including theChemical Weapons Convention,the Geneva Protocol and the RomeStatute of the International Crimi-nal Court. Even so, if he decides touse military force, Mr. Obama willhave to show that he has exhausteddiplomatic options and present adefensible legal justification, andthat is not a simple matter. Ideally,the United States would muster aUnited Nations Security Councilresolution to authorize military ac-tion. But Russia and China, whichhave veto power, have long pro-tected Mr. Assad from punishmentthere and show no inclination tochange. It is hard to believe thatthey would defend his use ofchemical weapons, but there is noguarantee that they would not. Mr.Obama may instead bypass the UNand, as in the case of the 1999NATO air war in Kosovo, assemblean ad hoc international coalition tosupport military action that wouldprovide legitimacy, if not strict le-gal justification, for intervening toprotect Syrian civilians. Americanofficials are discussing the possi-bility that states like Turkey andJordan may make a collective self-defence argument because theycould be victims of Syrian chemi-cal weapons.

If Mr Obama does forgo theUN, he will need strong endorse-ments from the Arab League andthe European Union, and morecountries than just Turkey, Britainand France should join the effort.And if he does proceed with mili-tary action, it should be carefullytargeted at Syrian air assets andmilitary units involved in chemi-cal weapons use. This, too, will notbe easy, but the aim is to punishMr. Assad for slaughtering hispeople with chemical arms, not tobe drawn into another civil war. Apolitical agreement is still the bestsolution to this deadly conflict, andevery effort must be made to findone. President Obama has resisteddemands that he intervene militar-ily and in force. Though Mr.Assad’s use of chemical weaponssurely requires a response of somekind, the arguments against deepAmerican involvement remain ascompelling as ever.— The New York Times

MEDIA WATCH

Robert G Ingersoll—US lawyer

Is this a lame-duck governmentdevoid of public mandate to negotiate peace with India? Or is

this a government formed by a partythat won elections on the slogan ofpeace with India. In a recent inter-view with UK’s Telegraph newspa-per Nawaz Sharif claimed, “Wedidn’t have any India-bashing slo-gans in the elections. We don’t be-lieve in such slogans. There havebeen such slogans in the past — 10years ago, 20 years ago — but notnow. In fact, I very clearly spokeabout good relations with India evenbefore the elections.” A vast major-ity of people of Pakistan havetrusted and mandated this govern-ment to move ahead and revive thestalled peace process with NewDelhi. It is in light of such a publicmandate that Nawaz Sharif pursueshis current political strategy of‘handling the escalating tensions atLOC with dialogue’. Why thenNew Delhi can’t break away fromsuch obstacles and barriers in thepast like suspicion, disbelief andmisgivings in our inter-state relation-ship and respond to Nawaz Sharif’sextended hand of friendship?

The abrupt creation ofNSC(National Security Council)something that Nawaz Sharif hadvehemently opposed in past alsogoes to demonstrate how both thepolitical and military elite in Paki-stan are now together on board inmending the historical fractures thathave been the hallmark of relationsbetween the two neighboringStates. The civil-military institu-tional banding at this stage it seems

UN & Pakistan: Convergence of views

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

The annual session of theUnited Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is around the

corner. Beside the main ministerialsession, the informal meetings on thesidelines also generate a lot of ac-tivity. These meetings provide theopportunity for interactions whichare otherwise either not feasible ornot suitable. One such meeting dur-ing the forthcoming 68th session isexpected to be between the primeministers of Pakistan and India.Hopefully, this meeting would helpin lowering the tensions betweenthe two countries which is on therise since eruption of recent seriesof violations of the Line of Controlin Kashmir. This meeting is not ex-pected to go beyond photo session;however, for a change, Pakistanination will be able to see its primeminster smiling!

During his recent two-day visitto Pakistan, the UNSG Mr Ban-Ki-Moon offered to play a brokeragerole in the resolution of the Kashmirdispute. He also said that Kashmirwas a ‘sensitive issue’. On earlieroccasions also Ban Ki-Moon hasexpressed his concern about the lin-gering Kashmir issue which is oneof the oldest items on the UN agenda.This matter would again come un-der focus during the forthcomingsession of the UNGA. There is aneed for fresh initiative on the partof the UN to resolve this issue. Pa-kistan is working for peace and sta-bility in the region. It is Pakistan’searnest desire to ease tension withIndia‚ start dialogue and address alloutstanding issues including Jammu

is designed tocreate an impres-sion that both thecivilian and themilitary elite re-alize the impor-tance of embrac-

ing a renewed security agenda andresponse without implementingwhich the credibility of pursuingpeace as an instrument of policy willlargely remain doubtful. Regardlessof how the civil-military nexus col-laborates at least by formulatingNSC the government has tacticallyagreed to give a joint civil-militaryplatform to institutionalize our se-curity response. Something that hasnot happened before and somethingthat the Indians will be closelywatching.

The restraint also being shownby Pakistan Army in the recent LOCflare up despite the Indian provoca-tions also reflects the civil-militaryunison commitment to peace. Therelease of 364 Indian prisoners isalso meant to further convey to In-dia that no matter what, peace withIndia is a compulsive strategicchoice that Pakistan today seeks.

Having said this, the reality isthat India unlike Pakistan is underno compulsion to speed up the dia-logue process. While the civil gov-ernment and the military in Pakistanmay realize now that we suffer as anation because we left our securityproblems unaddressed for far toolong, there seem to be no immedi-ate Indian insecurities that early re-sumption of peace dialogue with Pa-kistan may address. However, whatthe Indians need to carefully reviewis that resumption of India-Pakistanpeace dialogue will have a directbearing on how Pakistan strategizesto handle its insecurities on the west-ern border. The likely unpleasant de-velopments in Afghanistan not far

from now after the ISAF’s draw-down is completed can be besthandled if Pakistan and India agreeon certain security commitments onthe eastern front. This will give thatnecessary leverage to our politicaland military leadership to go abouteradicating militancy as the mostimportant evil with the manpowerand resources spared from the east-ern front. Else if militancy spirals

out of control then not only Paki-stan but the complete region will ex-perience its negative fallout and de-stabilize.

Viewed realistically India willwait and see what constitutes ourmuch-awaited reviewed and renewednational security policy. It will liketo first see the emerging picture oftransition and only when this transi-tion takes the shape of reality that itmay finally indulge in a meaningfuland sustainable peace dialogue with

and Kashmir. Pakistan has repeatedlycalled for a plebiscite in Kashmir inaccordance with the United Nationsresolutions. However, despite havingvoted for the relevant UN resolutionswhich call for plebiscite, India oftentakes U-turn to articulate that the dis-pute is a bilateral issue between thetwo nations.

In his recent interaction with me-dia, Indian external affairs ministryspokesperson Syed Akbaruddin hassaid that dispute between India andPakistan over Kashmir was no longeran international issue: “(Kashmir) isnot an international issue anymore…it is an issue between India andPakistan...No one on any interna-tional forum is focused on this issue… nobody is raising the matter else-where … this is success in itself.”Chief has recently voiced his concernover the renewed violence at the lineof control in Kashmir and called onboth the neighbouring states to re-solve the Kashmir and other bilateralissues through peaceful means.“While I am saddened by the loss oflives in the course of all this conflict,I am relatively, reasonably encour-aged by the recent move by both sidesto engage in dialogue, to resolve theirsource of conflict through dialogue –that I will strongly welcome andsupport...I know that this (Kashmir)is a long-standing issue, but the UNMilitary Observers Group India andPakistan (UNMOGIP) has been try-ing to prevent any conflict (across)the Line of Control,” the UNSG said.

During Ban Ki Moon’s visit toPakistan, Prime Minister NawazSharif said the escalation of tensionat the Line of Control is a matter ofgrave concern for us and the Secre-tary General. He also hoped “the UNwill play its due role in resolving theKashmir dispute.” He said Pakistan

will continue to exercise restraint andact with responsibility. He hoped In-dia will also reciprocate to reduce theprevailing tension. Pakistan seeks ajust and peaceful resolution in accor-dance with the UN resolutions andaspirations of the Kashmiri people.It would be worthwhile if the UNSGappoints his special representative onKashmir to facilitate a meaningfuldialogue between India and Pakistan.

UN Secretary General’s presenceon the Independence Day ceremonyhas earned him immense good willamongst the people of Pakistan. Pa-kistan has traditionally supported thepurposes and principles of the UNcharter and the UN efforts for main-tenance of international peace andsecurity. While in Pakistan, UNSGspoke on diverse areas of interestranging from disease to drones.UNSG commended the sacrificesmade by the Pakistan military as wellas the contribution that Pakistanmakes to UN peacekeeping forcesaround the world. Since 1960‚ Paki-stan has been contributing troops toUN peacekeeping missions. As oftoday, 8000 personnel are perform-ing peacekeeping duties, the worldover, under the banner of the UN.

Secretary General was quite ex-plicit on the issue of drone strikes,saying that they violated the interna-tional law and that drones should beused for the gathering of intelligencerather than as instruments of aggres-sion. Secretary General was con-cerned about civilian casualties aris-ing out of drone attacks. SecretaryGeneral’s remarks would be helpfulas Pakistan is engaged in a diplomaticcampaign for making its case againstthe US drone attacks in FATA. More-over, these comments are well timedas the special rapporteur of the UNHuman Rights Council is to submit

its report to the Council on droneattacks in September.

During his stay in Pakisatn,Secretary General was able to havethe first hand feel of the monsoontriggered floods. He received acomprehensive briefing at the Na-tional Disaster Management Au-thority. Ban Ki Moon said the UNwill work with Pakistan to betterprepare it face the natural disasters.Pakistan and the United Nationshave agreed to further strengthenpartnership in addressing regionaland global issues. Ban Ki Moonsaid Pakistan has paid an enormousprice in its war against terrorism,and the UN will be pleased to sup-port Pakistan in this fight.

Describing the recent generalelections as a milestone in thecountry’s history‚ he said it is hightime for both Pakistan and the UNto further deepen their relations indifferent spheres. HighlightingPakistan’s efforts for bringingpeace and stability in Afghanistan‚the Prime Minister said that Paki-stan wants peaceful and stable Af-ghanistan and will extend all pos-sible assistance for an Afghan ledand owned peace process. Ban saidPakistan was a pivotal globalplayer and an active UN member.The UN chief said he “wholeheart-edly welcomes all efforts to tackleserious challenges at home andstrengthen relations with yourneighbours.” Secretary General’svisit to Pakistan was quite whole-some. Ban said, “I firmly believewe need to widen our lens and lookat Pakistan beyond any one dimen-sion, prism or perspective. This isa vibrant, dynamic country full ofpromises and possibilities”.—The writer is a Consultant Policy& Strategic Response at IPRI.

us. As of now Nawaz Sharif’s goodintentions of moving forward theprocess of dialogue is viewed byIndia only as a compulsory prefer-ence and not a policy. Until we makesome really tough strategic choicesso essential to our security and pros-perity the Indians will neither be im-pressed nor view with seriousnessthe offer of dialogue by our PrimeMinister. So it is not a matter ofreaching out to India but essentiallya matter of reaching in to imple-ment the much needed security re-forms so essential to fight terror-ism and maintain order across ourcountry. Given India’s past experi-ence Nawaz Sharif will continue tobe reminded on how the militaryoperation in Kargil stood out as ablack mark against his peace seek-ing government in the previous ten-ure. One cannot blame India to waitand see how Pakistan’s deeply en-trenched institutions like the mili-tary and the powerful bureaucracystand up this time around to sup-port Nawaz Sharif.

Bringing terrorism and mili-tancy under control will be adrawn- out process. The future ofour relationship with India itseems will rely on how best weare able to challenge and meet thisthreat at home. Only after we havedone our homework and done itwell too that our desire of peacewith India might finally take theshape of reality. It will take somedoing and for all those includingour Prime Minister who are inhaste to see the two hostileneighbours getting together soonto sort out their problems I canonly say: Not so soon; not beforewe have done our homework.—The writer, a retired Lt Col, is aresearch scholar doing PhD incivil-military relations fromKarachi University.

Muhammad Ali EhsanEmail: muhammadaliehsan1@hotmail.com

Iqbal KhanEmail:wonderous101@gmail.com

Viewedrealistically Indiawill wait and seewhat constitutes

our much-awaitedreviewed and

renewed nationalsecurity policy. It

will like to first seeemerging picture oftransition and only

when this transitiontakes shape of

reality that it mayfinally indulge in a

meaningful andsustainable

peace dialoguewith us.

Voice of the People

Growing rateof divorce

ANJUM SHAHEEN

In the last two decades there is a raisein divorce rate in Pakistan. The mainreasons are: Lack of tolerance,forced marriages, greed, Joint fam-ily system, difference in social sta-tus and one of the main reasonhighly career oriented women.Surah Al Baqarah: ‘’And if you fearthat the two — ie Husband and wife- may not be able to keep the limitsordered by ALLAH, there is noblame on either of them if she re-deems herself (from marriage tie)

There are situations in whichDivorce is the only answer. Divorceis something which is hated by AL-LAH, but it is allowed becausethere are situations where divorceis the only option. It is not benefi-cial to raise children in an unstablehome. Most of the divorces takeplace due to lack of communica-tion plus inferiority complex. Withthe divorce rate on the increase inPakistan women becoming increas-ingly independent often placingtheir careers before family and hus-band. When you get married youenter into an agreement to go alongwith your spouse when making life-changing decisions and you aresupposed to honour them. There aremany people who do (deceive andlie about who they are) Somepeople are very good at it and canfool the best of us. So be carefulfrom a wolf in sheep’s skin.

So many women are getting ahigher education is one reason thewomen want to win further achieve-ments. She wants more education.Younger couples are more likely toget divorced. Waiting for maturityto set in before tying the knot alsoseems to have its own set of prob-lems, as does waiting for Mr. right.According to a survey most of thelawyers acknowledged that divorcerate is increasing in middle andlower middle class. Financial prob-lems is one of the big reasons forseparations. Normally in lowermiddle class husbands fail to fulfillthe demands of their wives, whichbecomes the main reason of dispute.

Joint family system becomes thereason of divorce in which, disputewith mother in-law is one of the ex-ample. Divorce cases are increasingday by day because women from allsegments of society are fully awareof their rights. women want to fol-low the lifestyle of modern girls asshown in television. Family disputes,forced marriages and second mar-riage by husband are the major rea-sons of divorce. Most of the womencompromise only because of theirchildren. Compromising means togive up one thing in exchange forconcession of something from theother side. Compromise is the keyword to save your marriage. To saveyour marriage, compromise to thechanging home environment.

It is important that both of youhave your own style of upbringing,values and beliefs. Both of you haveexperienced life in your own per-spective till you got married. It isimpossible for both of you to thinkand do alike in all matters. Respecteach other’s views and compromisewherever necessary to retain domes-tic and mental peace.—Lahore

We are soldiersborn to die...MAHRUKH IBRAHIM

It was very sad to see the coffin ofCaptain Sarfaraz Shaheed brutallykilled by Indian army by continu-ous shelling and firing without hav-ing solid reason to attack. Isn’t it aninjustice with those people sitting onthe borders who have left therehouses for our safety and there ownsafety is on stake. They ignites theburner of nation by there own blood,and the darkness of their homeslighten up the houses of others. Un-doubtedly martyrdom is a big re-ward but life is also a precious giftof GOD. Our forces till now aredoing there best on their part but itdoes not mean that their own secu-rity be seldom highlighted. If oursoldiers are not “BORN ONY TODIE”?? why our COAS is silent onthis and taking no considered actionon their infringements. I Request

Homegrown vegetables — healthy foodMALIK MURTAZA

Growing vegetables in one’s house is very easy and interesting activity. It can also be adopted as ahobby. One can start minimally and start growing vegetables organically for their consumption. By

this each one of us can contribute to the green coverage and also bring down pollution. To eradicatepollution we must take steps at all levels. We can grow vegetables in any small area available to usstarting from simple and easy to grow plants. Homegrown vegetables are more nutritious and tasty. Bythis we would be sure that what we consume, at least, we can see to that it is not chemically polluted andhave a healthy structure. Benefits of growing vegetables in your house: 1. Totally chemical free vegetablegrown under your own care. 2.By growing more vegetables we can fight inflation and also contribute tothe Nation’s green cover and in arresting pollution. 3. A wonderful exercise for the entire household.4.An excellent stress reliever for all since taking care of the plants keeps one fully occupied at leastmentally and to a great extent physically also.—Lahore

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

are requested to typetheir letters legibly withdouble spacing and only onone side of the paper.

—Editor

Can Syrian regime withstand limited strike?

A limited strike against Syriamight convince the Assad regime not to use chemical

weapons again, but it won’t changethe balance of power in Syria’s civilwar or bring about President Obama’sstated goal of regime change, analystsand rebel leaders agree. Syria’s Presi-dent Bashar Assad has behind himRussia’s veto at the United Nations,Iran’s military backing, Hezbollah’sforeign fighters and a rebel adversaryinfiltrated by Islamist groups theUnited States worries about arming.Breaking up this morass will likelytake more than the cruise-missilestrike Obama and Western allies areconsidering.

“The threats to our interests haveonly gotten worse, and our inactionhas been quite harmful to our inter-ests,” said Michael Singh, managingdirector of the Washington Instituteof Near East Policy and a former se-nior director for Middle East affairsat the National Security Council un-der President George W. Bush.“There’s no reason to think those con-sequences won’t continue to worsen,and yet you don’t see any momen-tum toward any kind of effective ac-tion by the United States and our al-lies to do anything about it,” he said.Assad “has used all kinds of weap-ons, chemical and cluster bombs,during massacres in Syria,” said AbuJaafar al-Mugarbel, an activist basedin Homs, in western Syria. “There isnothing that can stop the regime fromdoing that except military interven-tion. It is not the best way forwardbut there is nothing else after all thathas happened,” he said.

The White House says Obama isconsidering a range of military op-tions against the Assad regime fol-lowing reports that hundreds of Syr-

ian civilians, including children, diedlast week in a rebel-held district out-side the capital of Damascus. Doc-tors Without Borders, a humanitar-ian group based in France, says morethan 350 people were killed in an ap-parent chemical weapons attack. TheUnited Nations says morethan100,000 people have died inmore than two years of civil war.

British Foreign Secretary Will-iam Hague has called for a “strongresponse” to the use of chemicalweapons. His German counterpart,Guido Westerwelle, said Germanywould support any “consequences” ofthe Syria attack. However, the WhiteHouse appears wary of getting into awider war and is suspicious of rebelaims. “They do not want to createchaos and a vacuum that would ei-ther open the pathway to al-Qaeda orcreate such disorder that it might trig-ger the... ‘you broke it, you own it’rule,” said Jonah Blank, a politicalanalyst at Rand Corporation, a thinktank. US Defence officials told theAssociated Press that the Navy hadsent a fourth warship armed with bal-listic missiles into the eastern Medi-terranean Sea but without immediateorders for any missile launch intoSyria. Navy ships are capable of avariety of military actions, includinglaunching Tomahawk cruise missilesas they did against Libya in 2011 aspart of an international action that ledto the overthrow of the Libyan gov-ernment.

A limited strike would allowObama to say he’s following throughon his warning a year ago that Assadwould incur “game changing” actionif he used chemical weapons, saidTony Badran, an analyst at the Foun-dation for the Defence of Democra-cies. However, it would also allowAssad to continue prosecuting the warand spread violence intoneighbouring countries. “The casu-alty toll, the ability of unsavoury ac-tors to further entrench themselves,

Views From Abroad

NSC vs CCNS — I

An impression has been createdthat Pakistan has been converted into Security State due

to frequent military interventions.Whereas the fact is that from the dateof its birth uptill now, Pakistan wasand has existed as a Security Statewith different threshold of insecurity.Despite the wishes and hope ofQuaid-i-Azam Muhammad AliJinnah that after the constitutionalsettlement between the British Gov-ernment, All India Congress and AllPakistan Muslim League, Bharat andPakistan – the two new states - wouldlive as peaceful and friendlyneighbours, respecting each other’srights but his wish was in history,answered in reverse and within oneyear of the creation of the two coun-tries, the first war on the issue ofJammu & Kashmir broke out. Arma-geddon between them has beenavoided number of times but the ten-sion persists.

A State which is thus threatenedby an aggressive, stronger and mightyneighbor would per se be a SecurityState, and remain conscious of itsnational security and continuity. Geo-political importance of the locationof Pakistan which is an asset is an-other factor which has created newparadigm of insecurity. Passing overthe period of cold war between thetwo super powers i.e. USA and USSRwhich did cast its dark shadows inthe region, the recent two examplesmay elucidate this point. Invasion ofAfghanistan by USSR in 1999 inwhich Pakistan played no hand wasfollowed by a strong perception thatUSSR, the then a Super Power, whichhad invaded Afghanistan, has a planto reach warm waters and that sooner

or later, it may cross the lineinto Pakistan. This added a newdimension to the insecurity ofthe State which ultimately drewPakistan into supporting proxywar of USA (Jehad) in Af-ghanistan to get the occupying

forces leave Afghanistan. The closenexus between CIA and ISI duringthis period is well known and dulydocumented by political analysts.

Similarly, in the event of 9/11in the year 2001 which promptedthe President of the United State todeclare a crusade against terrorismand a long and wild hunt initiatedagainst Al-Qaeda not only in Af-ghanistan but also in other neigh-boring countries including Paki-stan, who had no hand in the 9/11incident which was organized byyoung militants from Middle East.The Government of the time due tocountry’s geo-political location,was confronted with the sinistermessage “are you with us or withthem”? In this long and unendingwar, Pakistan reversed its previouspolicy of supporting Taliban in theJehad which they were still carry-ing. The blow back on account ofthe turn around created a new inse-curity issue in the form of terror-ism within Pakistan, aimed at de-stabilizing the country.

In conclusion, the historical pro-cess from the date of its birth till nowhas raised various natures of insecu-rity. Pakistan, its government andpeople will, therefore, have to ac-knowledge the status and meet thechallenges as a Security State. Na-tional Security which has been de-fined in the past only in military termsis no longer relevant and is being re-vised to include key civilian compo-nents as an integral part of NationalSecurity. In the current context, thenature of threat to National Securitycomes from unconventional sources.The factors such as extremism, ter-rorism, sectarian and ethnic tension,

anti-Pakistan propaganda, weakeconomy and even the energy crisisimpinge on the fabric of NationalSecurity. These are new kinds ofthreats which cannot be ignored whilediscussing and formulating the policyrelating to National Security.

Additionally, over the years, onaccount of bad governance andadventurism by the Armed Forces ofPakistan, the equation between the

Armed Forces of Pakistan and civil-ian government has tilted in favourof the former, which needs to be rati-fied so that on national issues andthe remedies both civilian and themilitary leaders remain on the samepage. The Defence Committee of theCabinet on 22.08.2013 has decidedto reconstitute the Committee andhas baptized it by new name “Cabi-net Committee for National Secu-rity”, which is interpreted as rejec-tion of the proposal to create a properNational Security Council under theAct of the Parliament. I tend to be-lieve differently and hope it is notfinal. It is pertinent to survey vari-

ous organizations existing in Pa-kistan that pertain to the issue ofNational Security. 1) CabinetCommittee for Defence now re-named as Cabinet Committee forNational Security. 2) Parliamen-tary Committee for National Se-curity consisting of only the mem-bers of the Parliament. 3) The un-named Cell created by the InteriorMinistry for coordination betweenthe various intelligence agencies.4) Inter Services Intelligence (ISI),Military Intelligence (MI) andCivil Intelligence (IB). But thecomplex issue of the National Se-curity cannot be dealt with by theseadhoc measures nor in installments,through fragmented institutions asabove. No doubt when the militaryrulers tried to establish a NationalSecurity Council under constitu-tional dispensation to give su-premacy to the Armed Forces withthe President chairing the Councilwho retained his uniform, and in-cluded four Chiefs of Armed Forcesin the NSC, the democratic govern-ment that followed them abolishedthe same by repealing it throughconstitutional amendment.

A Senator criticized the NSCcreated by General PervezMusharraf and stated what will thePrime Minister or other Ministers

be able to achieve when four tigersin uniform will be sitting across.Coming from the rural area, anotherSenator elaborated: “Someoneasked a peasant if you meet a lionin the jungle, what will you do? Thepeasant said, then what can I do, itis for the lion to do what he likes.Consequently, the NSC was abol-ished. Now is the time to examinehow the other nuclear & non-nuclear States who are similarlyconfronted with National Securityissues have dealt with the problem.The writer is former Senator andChairman, Human Rights Societyof Pakistan. — To be continued.

Abdulrahman alMasri, Oren Dorell

We are startled, shocked,sickened when rape takesplace. We shout for res-

ignations. We have candle light vig-ils. We ask our daughters and sis-ters to come home early.

And as photos of the rapists ap-pear in newspapers and on TV welook at them with repulsiveness andloathing: “Why do you look at melike that?” “You are a rapist!” “Yousir are as much a rapist as I am! I

raped once, whereas you rape ourcountry everyday! Like I filmed myact on camera, I have filmed yourrapes in my mind.

Here let me show you!” “Who isthat? What is he doing?” “That is yousir! And I guess you do recognizewhat you are doing?” “B..bbut whendid you film this? Have you shown itto anyone?” “Not yet, but I maysooner or later along with the othervideos!” “You film rape scenes?”

“That’s what the newspaperssaid, didn’t they?” “But this one ofme?” “Do you recognize the victim?”“It is she, my country!”

“Don’t worry you are not the onlyone raping our country, here are vid-eos of thousands of our country men

and women doing the same!” “Thisis terrible.”

I whispered, “Here’s me bribinga policeman, here’s a municipal en-gineer encroaching on his housing so-ciety property, here is somebodyspreading rumours about a good man,here are people trying to create a com-munal divide where there was good-ness previously! “

“What difference is there be-tween you and me?” said the rapist,“I have been caught! Soon a judgewill pronounce his verdict and I willmost probably hang from the gallows.Even as I hang from that rope therewill be rejoicing from all you realrapists, who are getting away scotfree! Raping your country day after

Rape and the rapist..!day, till she is covered with theslime of corruption, the filth of dis-honesty, wrapped under the falsegarb of religious hypocrisy. Lookat you victim sir! Look at what youhave made of her!”

I walked away, head bowed.“Sir!” shouted a policeman runningtowards me, “The rapist told me togive you this.

He said you might want to showit to the rest of the nation, the dayhe is hanged!” I looked at the videothe policeman held in his hand. “Isit a good film? Who is the hero sir”he asked. “No heroes,” I said as Iran away in shame, “Only vil-lains..!”—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

the ability of Assad to consolidate apart of the country under his controland continuing to destabilizeneighbours — all that stuff contin-ues to play out” under a limited strike,Badran said.

It’s not even clear whether a lim-ited strike would prompt the Assadregime to refrain from using chemi-cal weapons again, said Ken Pollack,a former CIA analyst and formerMiddle East expert at the NationalSecurity Council. It’s unclear who’smaking decisions and what the Syr-ian command structure is, and “thatmakes it really hard to structure a de-terrence message or to know how itwill be received,” he said. The ad-ministration hopes the regime re-mains unified, “that a group of rea-sonable people are at the top of thechain of command, and that they readthe message the way we want themto,” Pollack said.

When US forces moved closer toSyria on Monday, it prompted Rus-sian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovto warn that any military interventionwithout a UN mandate would be aviolation of international law. Whilethe UN Security Council has dis-cussed intervention, any decisions onaction have been vetoed by Assadbackers Russia and China. Russiacontinues to provide weapons toAssad and has refused pleas from theWest to cease.

“First, hit military locations tostop missile attacks and air raids,which kill thousands of civilians,”said Abu Rami, a 32-year-old anti-Assad activist in Homs. “But I’magainst ground intervention in Syriato avoid what happened in Iraq. It isunacceptable for all Syrians.” Ramiis sceptical that the international com-munity would take action needed tostop the violence. “For two years, wehave been hearing about a no-fly zonebut it still hasn’t happened,” he said.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey,chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

told Congress that the US militarycan destroy the Syrian air force, buthe warned that that could escalatehostilities and further commit the USto the conflict. The Obama admin-istration has said it expanded mili-tary assistance to the armed opposi-tion, but the Free Syrian Army andother rebels groups say there’s noevidence of it arriving.

Former administration officials,such as Defence secretary LeonPanetta, have warned that a collapseof Assad’s regime will let his largearsenal of chemical weapons fall intothe hands of al-Qaeda-linked mili-tias fighting the regime andHezbollah.

Anna Boyd, deputy head ofMENA forecasting at IHS defenceand security analysts in London,doubts a limited strike will changeanything. “There is apparently no in-ternational appetite for any kind ofground intervention and I think thatis the only thing that would have achance at changing the outcome ofthe war,” she said. Jon Alterman,director of the Middle East programat the Centre for Strategic and Inter-national Studies, said any US opera-tion in response to the recent atroci-ties is likely to fall far short of whatrebel forces desire. The administra-tion could target the regime’s chemi-cal weapons directly, but that risksreleasing toxic agents and causingmass casualties, Alterman said. Itcould also target elite military units,airstrips and missile batteries to dam-age the regime’s ability to deliver itschemical weapons, he said.

It’s clear the administration doesnot intend “to decisively tip the bal-ance in favour of Syria’s insur-gency,” Alterman said. “Everythingthe administration has done up tonow has suggested they don’t wantto own the outcome of this and theirmost preferable outcome is somesort of negotiated solution.”— Courtesy: USA Today

COAS not to delay the matter andtake deliberate action as soon as pos-sible. We Don,t want to loose moreJawans on this unpredictable peace.The assassin should be condemned.—Abbottabad

Toxic chemicalsin cosmeticsM MOAZEN BILAL

The human sense of smell is verypowerful. Consumers love a productthat appeals their senses or evokescertain emotions. Companies thatproduce consumer products knowthis. They capitalize on the emotionsthat go with smell. The productionof artificially scented products hasincreased substantially just over thepast few decades. With this increasewe’ve also seen a leap in allergies.This is not surprising consideringthousands of chemicals are used tomake these synthetic scents. Com-mon symptoms of exposure includeear, nose and throat irritation, nauseaand headaches. The chemicals thatare often used to formulate these fra-grances are toxic to the human bodyover time. These chemicals are foundin artificially scented air fresheners,soaps, detergents and cleaners, de-odorants, lotions, perfumes and othercommon products.

Many of the chemicals used toformulate certain aromas are actuallypetrochemicals. Petrochemicals arederived from natural gas and petro-leum. Benzene, toluene, xylenes, andmethanol are some of the commonpetrochemicals used in these aromaticconcoctions. It is estimated that 95%of the synthetic fragrances availablein the market today are derived frompetroleum by-products. Studies haveshown that repeated use of syntheti-cally fragranced air fresheners, clean-ers and detergents produce toxicchemical interactions. The air can becontaminated by the interactions ofthese types of products. It is my re-quest to the authorities related, tocheck the quality of the productsavailable to the customers in the mar-ket. On the other hand it is the dutyof the consumers to read the labelsof the products they buy. If somethingis heavily scented, it is probably wiseto avoid it. Also avoid products wherethe list of ingredients is a mile longand contains multiple unrecognizablechemical names.—Lahore

World literacy day,where we stand?

A CITIZEN

September 8 is celebrated as WorldLiteracy Day all around the world,as proclaimed by UNESCO on No-vember 17, 1965. The Day stressesthe importance of education, aware-ness and learning to an individual andsociety. Pakistan has the same oldfashioned literacy definition adoptedin 1981 which says “A person is lit-erate if he/she can read a newspaperand write a simple letter”. Literacyrate of Pakistan is around 57% as es-timated in 2011. 63% of total popu-lation is occupied by youth and theyhave literacy rate of 53%. On theother hand when we look in ourneighboring countries they have avery decent approach towards lit-eracy. In Bangladesh a person is con-sidered to be literate who can readand write in any language. India alsohas an impressive definition of lit-eracy which states that one who canread accurately at a speed of approxi-mately 40 words per minute (wpm),write at 10 wpm and take dictation inany language at not less than 7 wpm.This factor is surely a very main rea-son that we as a nation are laggingbehind our neighbors in development.

From the massive budget of3.203 trillion, only 47.8 billion is al-located for education while on de-fense, huge amount 545 billion hasbeen earmarked in thr budget for theyear 2012-13. This is really alarmingfor a country like Pakistan where edu-cation system has all type of prob-lems, including difference in curricu-lum for rich and poor. Majority of theyouth in Pakistan don’t get opportu-nity to experience childhood due topoverty and other family issues.Other important issue that there is noco-relation between the system of oureducation and the needs of our life.The student is taught lesson frombooks but not lessons from life. Our

education system is considered to beold fashioned as compared to the ad-vancement in various walks of life.World is moving on really fast pacedue to technological advancement,science and social awareness. Moti-vating youth through sessions forawareness is a fashion popping in thecountry. But such programmes are de-signed for the youth. But when a childof under age who has been taughtsame old curriculum and misin-formed history, comes to his adult-hood, has his own temple of thoughtswhich is really hard to break? Pa-tience is also a very important factorwhich comes from proper awarenessand distinguishes the literate fromthe illiterate. We as a nation have lostthe essence of listening and learningpositively from others which haspushed us far behind.

Government is not responsiblefor everything. We as an individualand society need to fulfill the Oathwe signed in our forms of Matricula-tion to educate at least one unprivi-leged child. If we keep that oath’sessence alive, this will make a verypositive impact on society. We as na-tion have to rise and eliminate the il-literacy to step along in the walk ofdevelopment with the countries thatare already ahead of us.—Lahore

UrduAfsana MailaSYED SADAQAT HUSSAIN

It would be an intellectual dishonesty,if I could not discuss Urdu LiteraryForum designed and staged in theworld’s largest social network “FaceBook” in the recent days. An event ofUrdu Fiction under the supervision ofgreat Urdu fiction writers is carryingout on Face Book by the name of“Aalmi Afsana Maila” (15th Augustto 31st August 2013) in which, greatUrdu writers are participating from allover the world with their unique writ-ings. Similarly, new and young fic-tion writers are also taking part enthu-siastically and making this event morevibrant and successful by their piecesof art. A tremendous literary fictionand its dazzling can be seen in thisevent. It is an excited event in which,colours of our society and traditionalnorms are discussed in full length.Writers from all over the world spe-cially our neighboring country Indiashowing great interest posting theirvaluable literary assets in this event.The event has full space for learningthe technique, strategy, language,characterization, psychological upsand downs, chemistry of charactersand treatment of Urdu fiction. It isan attractive event for Urdu fictionlovers that has great path of learningof the basic fiction techniques as well.

A number of Urdu fiction read-ers are appreciating the value of cel-ebration of the ‘good things” in faceof Urdu Story that do exist in thissociety. The spirit of Urdu fictionwriting that motivates high-profileevents such as Aalmi Afsana Maila.The most beautiful and attractive partof this event is the “Comments”. Youcan see the variety and essence ofexperience in comments of the Urdulovers is overwhelming that makesthis event more valuable. A numberof new and young writers depictingand projecting a true, vibrant and or-ganic literary culture that is the needof the hour. Similarly most experi-enced Urdu writers who have flairand know all aspects of Urdu fictionwith its traditional technique in writ-ings are highlighting flashing pointsof the new writers as guidelines. Thatis called a remarkable service by theseUrdu legendary writers.

Readers of all kind of ages arerequested to reach the following linkto enhance their knowledge regard-ing the Urdu Fiction and its impor-tance. I do understand that it is agolden opportunity for learnersgrooming their expertise in Urdu lit-erature through participating in theevent, which will be concluded on 31st

August, 2013.—Karachi

S M ZafarEmail: smzlaw@yahoo.com

NationalSecurity which hasbeen defined in thepast only in militaryterms is no longer

relevant and isbeing revised to

include key civiliancomponents as an

integral part ofNational Security.

In the currentcontext, the natureof threat to NationalSecurity comes from

unconventionalsources.

on Tuesday recalled Parliamentfor an urgent discussion and voteon a possible military responseto the alleged chemical attack inSyria.

Cameron said the crisis ses-sion will be held Thursday, whenParliament would traditionally beon its summer recess.

A clear motion will be con-sidered by lawmakers, who havebeen urging Cameron to consultParliament before any possibleaction against Syria. Cameron’soffice said that the UK is consid-ering a proportionate responsethat would deter Syrian PresidentBashar Assad from using chemi-cal weapons in the future.

The decision on the recallcame as the military drew up con-tingency plans for a possiblemilitary attack on Syria. BritainsMinistry of Defence also said thata planned Royal Air Force train-ing mission involving BritishTyphoon fighter jets has beenpostponed. The jets were to havebeen deployed on the Mediterra-nean island of Cyprus.

Meanwhile, the British gov-ernment said Tuesday its mili-tary is drawing up contingencyplans for a possible military at-tack on Syria. Prime MinisterDavid Cameron’s office said thatUK is considering a “proportion-ate” response that would deterSyrian President Bashar Assadfrom using chemical weapons infuture. —AP

Kazakhstan‚ Uzbekistan‚Kyrgyzstan and his attendance atthe G20 St. Petersburg Summitand the Shanghai CooperationOrganization’s Bishkek Summit.

Minister Cheng said Chinawill continue holding discussionon the formal documents accept-ing new members. He said be-cause they have to go throughsome procedures therefore‚ theyare still working on this document.To become a full member state ofthe SCO is required consensus ofall the existing member states‚ hesaid adding therefore‚ in terms ofexpanding the membership of theSCO it will still take sometime.

The 13th meeting of thecouncil of heads of memberstates of the Shanghai Coopera-tion Organization (SCO) is slatedfor September 13 in Bishkek‚ thecapital of Kyrgyzstan.

As Chinese President‚ XiJingpin will for the first time at-tend the summit at the invitationof Kyrgyz President AlmazbekAtambaev. He will also hold talkswith various leaders on the side-lines of the meeting. Founded inJune 2001‚ the SCO’s memberstates consist of China‚ Russia‚Kazakhstan‚ Kyrgyzstan‚Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Paki-stan‚ India‚ Iran‚ Mongolia andAfghanistan have observer statusin the organization.—NNI

China welcomesFrom Page 1

Imran KhanFrom Page 1

“a brave and talented child whohas demonstrated special dedica-tion to children’s rights.”

Malala was 15 years oldwhen she and two of her friendswere attacked on their way homefrom school in Swat. She sur-vived and now attends school inEngland after being flown therefor treatment.

Malala will be handed theprize Sept. 6 by Yemeni NobelPeace Prize laureate TawakkolKarman.—INP

MalalaFrom Page 1

Chief Justice Iftikhar alsoremarked on the increasing num-ber of bodies being recoveredfrom different parts of Pakistan,saying it was an extremely dan-gerous situation. Deputy Advo-cate General, Tariq Ali Tahir sub-mitted a report to the SC, detail-ing the anti-terrorist operationsbeing undertaken in Quetta andBolan. The report also talkedabout the general conditions ofBalochistan.

DAG Tahir also told thecourt about the high number ofexplosives and arms that wereconfiscated from the EasternBypass and Satellite Town inQuetta.

The chief justice respondedby asking the chief secretary torelate to the court exactly where60,000 kilograms worth of am-munition and explosives wasfound.

Ch Iftikhar asked whichroutes were being used tosmuggle so much ammunitioninto the country. He further de-manded that Afghan refugees bekept within the boundaries oftheir camps.

The bench expressed hopethat the new Inspector GeneralFrontier Corps chief might beable to produce better results.

The court gave police, FCpersons and other intelligenceagencies two weeks’ time for therecovery of missing persons. Thecase’s hearing is scheduled totake place after two weeks.

SC givesFrom Page 1

CBC campaignagainst dengue

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—CantonmentBoard Chaklala has started cam-paign against dengue. Foggingspray is being done in ChaklalaCantonment area on daily basis.

According to the plan, ag-gressive approach would beadopted to fight against the den-gue virus more effectively.

Under the instructions, spe-cial steps would be taken to con-trol dengue in cantonment area.

The concerned authoritiestold that all possible precaution-ary measures to control the den-gue virus would be taken.

Campaign to conduct anti-dengue spray round in all canton-ment areas has been startedwhich will continue till the threatof the disease is over.

US all setFrom Page 1

faith wherein the reference to ju-diciary was for the returning of-ficers (ROs) and district return-ing officers (DROs) belonging tosubordinate judiciary assigned toelection process.

Imran appeared before thecourt on August 2 in this regardand submitted a brief written re-ply. Unimpressed by the reply,the apex court bench adjournedthe hearing till August 28 andasked Imran’s counsel to submita comprehensive response at thenext date of the hearing.

Aimal Faizi, said that Karzai hadcalled for Pakistan’s role in talkswith the Taliban. He also saidAfghan side had demanded re-lease of all Taliban detainees inPakistan.

Talking to media in Murree,the Prime Minister said the re-gion is facing instability for thelast many decades and time hascome to work together both forPakistan and Afghanistan toovercome this challenge.

The Prime Minister saidpeaceful and stable Afghanistanis very significant for Pakistan aspeace and stability in Afghanistanis linked with the prosperity ofPakistan also.

To a question‚ he said Paki-stan would continue to supportreconciliation efforts in Afghani-stan to ensure peace and stabilitythere. Prime Minister also hosteda luncheon for visiting AfghanPresident and his delegation.

Earlier Prime MinisterMuahmmad Nawaz Sharif andPresident Hamid Karzai held oneon one meeting in Islamabad thismorning and exchanged views onbilateral issues besides discuss-ing regional situation with par-ticular focus on post-NATOtroops withdrawal from Afghani-stan next year. They also dis-cussed border situation and pos-sible cooperation in war againstterrorism.

Karzai-NawazFrom Page 1

Giving breakup, he said60,954,586 SIMS were issued byMobilink, 57,850,964 SIMs byTelenor, 39,012,878 by Zong,18,547,166 by Warid.

A score of unverified SIMsare not at the record of cellularcompanies and NADRA, he said.

The Minister informed theHouse that all political partiesincluding Pakistan MuslimLeague-N are on the same pageas far as freedom of expressionand information is concerned.

Replying to a question‚ theMinister told the House that atotal of 381 persons went miss-ing in 2012 whereas 93 weretraced. He said 153 persons weremissing in Punjab‚ 98 in Sindh‚34 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and21 in Balochistan.

He said although he did notagree with the figures providedin the House by the provinces‚

yet he cannot challenge them. Hesaid the Supreme Court has donea lot of work to trace out the miss-ing persons and the matter is stillsubjudice. He said a committeeon forced disappearances is alsoworking so that a correct figurecould be established.

He said specified timeframefor delivery of passports on ur-gent fee is five working days andfor ordinary‚ it is twelve work-ing days. He said currently thereis no backlog of passports.

He said the grievances ofpublic regarding the malpracticesin passports offices are being re-solved on priority basis.

Replying to the point oforder raised by leader of the op-position Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsanthat the House was not in orderbecause media is boycotting theproceedings following registra-tion of an FIR against a private

TV channel‚ Minister for Infor-mation and Broadcasting PervaizRashid said FIR has been regis-tered on the directives ofBalochistan High Court.

He said that he has spo-ken to the Balochistan ChiefMinister and discussed the issuewho will send him the relateddocumentation. He assured theHouse after consultations withmedia organizations and journal-ists‚ he will resolve the issue.

Information Minister PervaizRashid visited media gallery inthe Parliament and held discus-sions with media representatives.He assured the media personsthat he would discuss the issuewith Balochistan Governmentand extend full cooperation forresolution of this issue.

After the assurance of theMinister‚ media ended boycott ofthe parliamentary proceedings.

Nisar warns action againstFrom Page 1

While hearing the on Monday theSupreme Court of India criticisedthe large number of rape casesthat end in acquittal, amid re-newed outrage over violenceagainst women after the recentgang-rape of a photographer.

Expressing concern over theissue, the Supreme Court (SC)questioned the reason for the highnumber of acquittals, adding thatthe situation “is going from badto worse”.

“What is wrong with thesystem? Why are 90 percent ofrape cases ending in acquittals?”Justice R.M Lodha asked thecourt in New Delhi.

He asked why rape incidentswere so common, adding thatthese cases were only to be foundin metropolitan cities.

The two-judge bench alsoordered the country’s states tocome up with better schemes tocompensate and rehabilitate vic-tims of rape as well as to improveprotection for victims and wit-nesses.

The statements come afterfive men were arrested over the

Indian SC warns lower courtsFrom Back Page

gang-rape of a 22-year-old pho-tographer in Mumbai on Thurs-day, reigniting anger aboutwomen’s safety in India follow-ing a similar attack last year.

The group allegedly trappedand repeatedly raped the womanin an abandoned mill near a poshdistrict of central Mumbai, whereshe was on assignment for amagazine with a male colleague.

The colleague was tied upwith a belt while the attack oc-curred.

Five suspects have been ar-rested in regards to the case, withIndian officials promising swiftjustice.

The attack rekindled memo-ries of the fatal gang-rape of a23-year-old student in New Delhiin December last year. That crimesparked nationwide protests andbrought to the surface seethinganger about violence againstwomen in India.

The ensuing outrage led to atougher anti-rape law, includingincreased punishment for sex of-fenders, who face the death pen-alty if a victim dies, and a broader

definition of sexual assault. Butwomen’s groups have said manyvictims do not report attacks be-cause of social stigma, a hostilepolice reaction and an inad-equate and notoriously slow ju-dicial process.

Official data shows 11,154rape cases ended in acquittal ordischarge during 2012, whileonly 3,563 cases resulted in aconviction.

Another 86,032 cases wereawaiting trial at the end of lastyear, according to the data fromthe National Crime Records Bu-reau.

The Supreme Court made thecomments during a hearing intothe gang-rape of a schoolgirl inthe northern state of Haryana.

The 15-year-old was alleg-edly raped by three men in 2012,and her mother was later killedfor not withdrawing a complaintover the attack, the Press Trustof India reported.

It said the court was told thatthe school’s principal refused tolet the girl return to classes afterthe incident.—Online

would keep their shops and mar-kets closed and then the strikefor an indefinite period in theport city would further the im-pacts.

The extortionists and kid-nappers for ransom had madethe lives of the traders a hell andthey had extended their loopupto the traders. houses and thusthe traders were even not safeand secure inside their homes.

He warned the governmentto start the day counting frombelow upward if it would notstill pay heed to the traders’ call.No political party was capableof bringing a revolution in thecountry but they would be the

Karachi traders threatenFrom Back Page

traders that would cause a revo-lution to happen in the country.

He said that the launch ofthe protest campaign would notbe allowed to be ended withoutthe achievements of its goals andwould continue till the completeelimination of the extortionistsand terrorism from the city.

He said that the traders hadfervent hopes that the federalgovernment would sure stepforward and would intervenefor the sake of the country orelse the federal governmentwould still not come forward,then the traders had their op-tions open for contacting theChief of The Army Staff gen-

eral Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani andwould seek his intervention infast deteriorating situation inthe city.

Those who addressed therally included Kashif Sabrani,Ismail Lylpuria, SaleemMemon, Habib Shaikh, RashidAli Shah, Fahim Noori, Faiz UrRehman, Naeem Zaki, MurtazaSiddiqui, Maqsood Ahmed,Jawaid Abdullah, Saleem Halla,Rafique Jadoon, Ilyas Memon,Haroon Chand, MehmoodHamid, Mehboob Azam, AbdulSamad Khan, Khalid Mehmood,Muhammad Arshad, HussainQureshi, Ayub Nizami andYasmin Khan.

little far from the school. Herbrother asked her to go to schoolon foot as the school was justsome steps away. However, theill-fated girl was kidnapped bythe miscreants.

Late in the evening when thegirl did not return home, the fam-ily looked for her and in their

Girl student killedFrom Back Page

quest, reached hospital wherethey were told that the body oftheir daughter was found from acanal.

According to hospitalsources, she was wearing schooluniform at the time of her kill-ing. The hospital sources said shewas murdered after rape.—INP

Japan’s new rocketfails to lift off

TOKYO—Japan’s first newrocket in 12 years failed to liftoff on Tuesday, dealing a poten-tial blow to hopes that Japan maybe able to take a larger share ofthe growing, multi-billion dollarsatellite launch industry.

It was the second setback forthe Epsilon rocket this month.An earlier launch was postponedbecause of a computer glitch. Noword was immediately availableon the cause of the problem onTuesday or when the launchmight be tried again.

The countdown at Japan’sUchinoura launch center wasbroadcast live over the Internet,with commentary in English aswell as Japanese. But nothinghappened at the end of the count-down. JAXA, Japan’s spaceagency, later said the launch washalted with 19 seconds to go.Japanese media said an “irregu-larity” had been detected.

A three-stage rocket, the Ep-silon - named for the fifth letterof the Greek alphabet - is 24.4meters (80 feet) high, about halfthe size of Japan’s workhorseH2A rocket. It weighs 91 met-ric tons (100.31 tons) and hasbeen touted as a new, low-costalternative.

The rocket was scheduled tocarry a telescope into space forobservation of the solar system.Analysts said it was not imme-

diately clear how much of animpact the failure would have onJapan’s ambitions to cash in onthe international satellite launchindustry. “This was the firstflight and it was already post-poned once and now will bepostponed again,” said YukihiroKumagai, an analyst at Jefferies& Co securities in Tokyo.

“Inevitably, this will raisesome questions, but overall it isunlikely to have much influ-ence,” he added, noting that theEpsilon is not scheduled for an-other flight until 2015.

The rocket’s smaller sizeand a computer system that al-lows it to perform its own sys-tem checks means it can be as-sembled quickly, which is ex-pected to cut both personnel andequipment costs.

Launch control can be car-ried out using conventionaldesktop computers, greatly re-ducing costs and making thelaunches more mobile sincethey could take place at moresites. U.S. companies had a mo-nopoly on the commerciallaunch business 30 years ago,but its hold has steadily de-clined, with most of the busi-ness going to the France-basedArianespace, a public-privateEuropean partnership that in2012 reported revenue of 1.3billion euros.—Reuters

he added. He explained that hisparty did not demand martial lawbut “mere handing over of ad-ministrative affairs to military,”which he said was a ‘legal’ and‘constitutional’ demand, claim-ing that Rangers, too, had failedto control situation in Karachi.

“MQM’s demand is a slap onthe face of democracy,” saidPPP’s Leader of the Oppositionin the house Khurshid Shah.“This seems to be part of a con-spiracy and an illegal, unconsti-tutional and undemocratic de-mand.”

PTI’s Shah MehmoodQureshi expressed his ‘shock’over the demand, saying thatMQM is still somehow part ofthe government. He called uponGovernor Sindh to resign fromhis office.

Ruling PML-N’s FederalMinister for States and FrontierRegions Lt. Gen (retd) AbdulQadir Baloch also opposed thedemand, saying that army couldnot be given policing powers.

MPs denounceFrom Page 1

HARARE: Ahmed Shehzad is stumped for 24, Zimbabwe v Pakistan, 1st ODI.

NEW YORK: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, of Russia, returns a shot to France’s VirginieRazzano during the first round of the 2013 US Open tennis tournament.

No action on three England players for urinating on pitch: Wehave more worrying issues than this, says players’ association

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—The three En-gland players who were re-ported to have urinated onOval pitch are unlikely to faceany action. At the time of go-ing to press on Tuesday night,no serious inquiry is reportedto have been ordered by theEngland and Wales CricketBoard (ECB).

“We have nothing to sayon this matter”, Colin Gibson,the ECB’s Media and Commu-nication Director said fromLord;s.

Interestingly, the Profes-sionals’ Cricketers’ Associa-tion (PCA) representing theEngland players, doesn’t seeit a “serious” issue.

“No, we don’t consider ita issue to be discussed. The

game has more worrying issueslike corruption etc. than this”,Angus Porter, the PCA’s ChiefExecutive Officer, said overtelephone from London.

Chris Broad, the ICC’smatch-referee is the president ofthe association and his son,Stuart Broad was one of thethree (the other two being KevinPieterson and James Anderson)who are alleged to have urinatedon the pitch.

The pitch on the ground isbeing highly regarded as HolyGrail by some Pakistani crick-eters, according to SudhirVaidya, the renowned Indianstatistician.

“There is an instance ofJaved Miandad who lied downon the pitch and kissed it”,Sudhir Vaidya said. “He wasseen doing so in one of the in-ternational matches where hescored heavily”, he added.

“It is common among Paki-stani players to lie down on thepitch and thank the Lord for giv-ing opportunities to show theirbest”, he further added.

Miandad was not availablefor comments, but the SouthAfrican bowler Makhaya Ntinidid confirm the incident wherehe kissed the pitch.

“Yes, it was in 2003 atLord’s where I did kiss the pitch.That was because I grabbed tenwickets (five in each innings) inthe match”, he said over tele-phone from South Africa.

The 37-year-old righthanded fast bowler Ntini wasjointly awarded the Man of theMatch award (with his captainSmith) in the Test.

It may also be noted herethat Monty Panesar or three En-gland players are not the firststo have urinated in public.

Former England Test player

Bobby Peel was reported tohave done so several years ago.

“He is possibly best re-membered for being the manwho in 1897 was banned fromplaying for Yorkshire by LordHawke after supposedly uri-nating on the pitch during aChampionship game againstLancashire. That rumour isgenerally considered to havebeen an exageration, but whatis beyond doubt is that he haddrunk too much. TheAlmanack in 1942 wasn’t upto mentioning such vulgarevents. “Lord Hawke put hisarm round me and helped meoff the ground - and out offirst-class cricket,” Peel said.“What a gentleman!”, thewebsite Espncricinfo.comsays about this old generationcricketer, who died in 1941.

He played 20 Testmatches for England.

Bangladesh players denycorruption charges

DHAKA—Two Bangladeshicricketers declared their inno-cence on Tuesday after con-firming they were among thosecharged with match-fixing fol-lowing a probe earlier thismonth by the sport’s worldbody.

Paceman Mahbubul Alamand left-arm spinner MosharrafHossain said they would defendthemselves against charges offixing in the Bangladesh Pre-mier League (BPL), a scandalthat has already brought downteammate and national heroMohammad Ashraful.

“I am innocent, I was notinvolved in any kind of corrup-tion,” said Alam, 29, who hasplayed four Tests and four one-day matches for his country.

“I have appointed a lawyerto represent me in the (upcom-ing) disciplinary panel hearing,”Alam told AFP. Hossain, 31,also confirmed he would contestthe charges laid under theBangladesh Cricket Board’s(BCB) anti-corruption code,ahead of the deadline later Tues-day for officially responding tothe allegations.

Selim Chowdhury, owner ofthe Dhaka Gladiators BPL fran-chise, confirmed that he and hisson, co-owner ShihabChowdhury, have also beencharged along with thefranchise’s Indian CEO GauravRawat. Selim Chowdhury saidthey would all plead not guiltyat the hearing.

The International CricketCouncil (ICC) announced thismonth that seven unidentifiedpeople had been charged withfixing involving the DhakaGladiators, following an inves-tigation by its anti-corruption

officials. Another two werecharged with failing to reportcorruption when they were ap-proached during the 2013 sea-son of the Twenty20 tourna-ment, in a scandal that furthershook confidence in the gameacross South Asia.

English all-rounder DarrenStevens became the first amongthe nine accused to reveal his iden-tity, when he confirmed that he hasbeen charged with failure to re-port a corrupt approach made tohim.

The scandal has already en-snared Ashraful, the formerBangladesh captain, who madea tearful confession to match-fixing on national television inJune after being quizzed by theICC’s officials.

He was allegedly involvedin fixing a match between theDhaka Gladiators and theChittagong Kings. Local mediahave reported that the batsmanwas paid about one million taka($12,800) to lose the match onFebruary 2.—APP

Saqi to workwith Windies

spinnersKARACHI—Former Pakistan Testoff-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq willbe working with West Indies spin-ners during the 3-week trainingcamp. “West Indian head coachOtis Gibson on behalf of the WestIndies Cricket Board had asked meto work with the West Indian spin-ners and I had no hesitation in say-ing yes,” he told a Pakpassion.net.website on Tuesday.

“It’s a new challenge forme and one that I’m reallylooking forward to” stated

Saqlain, an inventor of famous“Doosra”.

Saqlain Mushtaq, who took208 wickets in 49 Test and 288wickets in 169 One-DayInternationals, confirmed that he isnow set to provide his insight intothe art of spin bowling in a train-ing camp for West Indies playersin Barbados. During the trainingcamp Saqlain will be monitoringbudding players like SamuelBadree as well as world class oneslike Sunil Narine a fact that he rec-ognizes as an honour and a chal-lenge.—APP

Pak volleyball teamin int’l events

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan volley-ball team will participate in thesecond qualifying round of theWorld Volleyball Championshipto be held in Iran next month.

Talking to APP, MazharHussain, team coach said thatteam will depart to Iran on Sep-tember 9 as the event will bestaged from September 11 to13. He said besides this the teamwill also participate in the fournation volleyball tournament tobe held in Qatar from September19 to 23. “Teams of Pakistan,Japan, Australia and Qatar willbe participating in the event,” hesaid.—APP

Pakistan innings (50 oversmaximum)Nasir Jamshed c Taylor bChatara ............................ 27Ahmed Shehzad st Taylor bUtseya ............................. 24Mohammad Hafeez c Marumab Chatara ......................... 70Misbah-ul-Haq* not out .. 83Umar Amin run out ......... 1Afridi c Taylor b Vitori ... 11Haris c Utseya b Vitori ... 2Sarfraz Ahmed run out .... 7Saeed Ajmal not out ........ 3Extras (lb 7, w 9) ............ 16Total (7 wickets; 50 overs; 214mins) 244 (4.88 runs per over)Fall of wickets 1-56, 2-80, 3-179, 4-184, 5-198, 6-202, 7-223Bowling ............... O-M-R-WT Panyangara ....... 10-2-38-0BV Vitori ............. 10-0-42-2TL Chatara ........... 10-2-32-2

SCOREBOARDP Utseya ................ 10-0-60-1E Chigumbura ....... 2-0-11-0MN Waller ............ 2-0-19-0SC Williams .......... 4-0-18-0H Masakadza ........ 2-0-17-0Zimbabwe inningsMasakadza c Misbah ....... 85Sibanda lbw b S. Ajmal .. 54BRM Taylor* not out ...... 43T Maruma b Junaid ........ 18SC Williams not out ........ 39Extras (b 1, lb 3, w 3) 7Total (3 wickets; 48.2 overs;191 mins) 246 (5.08 runs perover)Fall of wickets 1-107 , 2-176 ,3-201Bowling ................O-M-R-WM. Irfan ................. 9.2-1-45-0Junaid Khan .......... 9-0-55-1Saeed Ajmal .......... 10-0-44-2M. Hafeez ............. 10-0-40Shahid Afridi ........ 9-0-51-0Umar Amin ........... 1-0-7-0

HARARE—Zimbabwe beat Pa-kistan by seven wickets Tuesdayfor its first one-day internationalwin in a bilateral series over thePakistanis in 15 years.

Zimbabwe had lost its lastthree ODI series against Paki-stan 3-0, 5-0 and 5-0 before half-centuries by openers HamiltonMaskadza and Vusi Sibanda and43 not out by captain BrendanTaylor led the lowly-ranked Af-rican team to a rare win atHarare Sports Club.

Sean Williams made an un-beaten 39 and won the gamewith a six over long-on as Zim-babwe overhauled Pakistan’smodest 244-7 with 10 balls tospare.

Zimbabwe finished on 246-3 and also secured only its fourthODI win since late 2011.

Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq’s 83 not out andMohammad Hafeez’s 70 earlierwere in vain for the tourists.

A strong opening stand of107 between Vusi Sibanda andHamilton Masakadza was thebedrock in their chase of 245.Having dealt with the seamerswith ease during the T20s,Zimbabwe’s chances of victoryhung on how they would per-form outside their comfort zone.

Zimbabwe stun Pakistanfor first win in 15 years

They looked ill at ease againstthe spin trio in the T20s but cru-cially, this time, they didn’t letthe spinners run away with theadvantage. Saeed Ajmal man-aged to strike, but the long in-terval between breakthroughsmeant that Pakistan were alwaysplaying catch-up. In the closingstages, Pakistan had createdenough pressure to bring theequation down to a run-a-ball,but a combination of poor field-ing and freakish luck meant thatit was Zimbabwe’s day.

Before this match,Masakadza spoke about the im-portance of his duty, as anopener, to set the base and notallow pressure to build on thelower order. Back at the top, aposition he is comfortable with,and with an opening partnerfrom school days, Masakadzatook the initiative by hammer-ing Junaid Khan for threeboundaries in an over. The open-ers were strong through the offside against the left-armers andthe boundary barrage promptedcaptain Misbah-ul-Haq to bringin spin from both ends from theeighth over.

The spinners managed tokeep the runs down but wicketseluded them. Misbah used all

five bowlers by the end of 12overs and the breakthrough fi-nally came in the 24th, whenSibanda stayed back to an Ajmalball that spun back in.Masakadza reached his fifty thefollowing over and continued totake on the spinners, sweepingAjmal and reading ShahidAfridi’s variations in pace. Hechipped down the track andlofted Afridi over extra cover forsix and in an over that produced13. The frustration showed inPakistan’s fielding, when in thatover, a drive back to the bowlershould have been stopped, butthe resultant misfield producedtwo runs.

Masakadza fell during thebatting Powerplay, smashingAjmal straight to cover. It wasonly temporary relief for Paki-stan because by then Taylor wasset, having already scored fourboundaries. Pakistan didn’t dothemselves any favours in thefield, though. A strugglingTimycen Maruma tried to loftover long-on but AhmedShehzad was in two mindswhether to catch or stop the balland the ball bounced over hishead for four. Taylor himselfwas let off, on 37, when a re-verse sweep went straight topoint where Junaid dropped it.

Luck was firmly inZimbabwe’s favour. Maruma’swobbly knock suggested thatZimbabwe were starting topanic, but Sean Williams, aidedby some good fortune, ensuredhis side held the edge with aspicy cameo. An inside edge offJunaid hit the base of the stumpsbut miraculously, didn’t dis-lodge the bails. Worse still forPakistan, it went for four. Will-iams sealed the win in style,smashing a six over midwicketto give Zimbabwe their firstODI win against a top teamsince October 2011.

Pakistan, winning the toss,found runs hard to come by atthe start due to steady seambowling, recovered in themiddle thanks to MohammadHafeez’s brisk half-century, andstumbled towards the end, fail-ing to accelerate due to the pres-sure caused by the sudden fallof wickets.—Agencies

ISLAMABAD—A total numberof 32 matches were decided onTuesday in the main draw ofmen’s singles and boys under18 singles of 1st Eastern Test-ing Services PTF RankingTennis Championship 2013here at Syed Dilawar AbbasPTF Tennis Complex,Islamabad.

Wildcard Faizan Khurramof Lahore made the major upsetin the tournament when heeliminated 5th seed UsmanRafiq of Lahore in a thrillingthree-set match 6-3,3-6,6-1.

All the other seeded playersregistered straight set winsagainst their opponents. ArhamAtiq upcoming junior tennisplayer beat Zain Nawab in an-other good three-set match. Aone stage Zain was leading 5-3and serving 40-15 but Arhamfought back bravely to level thescore 5 all by breaking 8th game

Faizan causes majorupset in PTF ranking

with some good passing shortsand winning the set at 7-5.

He kept full pressure in thesecond set and won easily at thescore of 6-1. Seeded players ofboys under 18 singles’ firstround Muhammad Mudasir,Arham Atiq, Hasnain Manzoor,Hamza Bin Asif, Syed NofilKaleem, Saad Zafar, and AbdalHaider won their matches instraight sets without any resis-tance.

Talha Bin Asif won hismatch against Hamza Bin Rehanin a three set-match, whileAsadullah of Peshawar elimi-nated Sibtain Bokhari of Lahorein another three-set fixture.

On Tuesday, the matchesstarted two-hour late because ofrain. But due to hard work ofground staff all the matches fin-ished as per schedule. Thematches of 2nd round will startat 9:00 am tomorrow.—APP

Pakistan beatTaipei by 13-0

KULALUMPUR—Pakistan havecruised into Semi Final of AsiaHockey Cup after beating Chi-nese Taipei by 13-0 in Malaysiatoday.

Pakistan team upheld itsunbeaten stature in third matchagainst comparatively weakerteam of Chinese Taipei after outclassing it by 13-0 victory andcruising into Semi Final of thetournament with highest goals’average in 9th Asia Hockey Cup.

Pakistan took three goals’lead in first half of the matchagainst rival team in today’s fix-ture and consolidated victory to13-0 by adding 10 more goalsin second half of the match. Pa-kistan skipper MuhammadImran, players Abdul HasimKhan and Muhammad Tausiqperformed brilliantly in today’smatch. Pakistan has secured topposition in Pool-A of 9th AsiaHockey Cup by winning allthree matches and scoring ninepoints.—APP

ENGLAND: Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney (R) challenges Chelsea’s Ashley Cole during their English Premier Leaguesoccer match at Old Trafford.

Mobile court firstverdictPESHAWAR—Peshawar mobilecourt has started serving in theprovince on regular basis anddisposed of first case in this re-gard. In Hayat Abad, mobilecourt’s civil judge Fazl Wadoodconducted hearing of 19 civiland criminal cases. He also an-nounced his judgment regard-ing property dealer associationcase. Parties were clashingeach other over Rs 0.6 millionsince one year. The judgeheard arguments from partiesand ordered to distribute themoney between them by Rs 0.3million each.—NNI

5 labourersscorchedFAISALABAD—At least fivelabourers were scorched due tobursting of an electricity trans-former here on early Tuesdaymorning. According to rescuesources, five factory labourerswere sleeping in open place inFaizabad area of Faisalabadwhen a transformer installed onan electric pole nearby caughtfire after explosion. As a resultof fire and leakage of hot oilfive people identified as Yasir,Mushtaq, Allah Rakha, Umerand Muhammad Ashraf suf-fered burn wounds. The rescuepersonnel rushed the injured toAllied Hospital where accord-ing to hospital sources condi-tion of one injured person wasserious. —INP

BB murder: ATCsummons doctorsRAWALPINDI —Anti Terror-ism Court) Rawalpindi sum-moned doctors, responsible forpost mortem of slain PPPleader Benazir Bhutto. Duringthe hearing on Tuesday beforeATC judge Chaudhry HabiburRahman, the court was toldthat doctors who conductedpost mortem of BenazirBhutto could not appear dueto their personal engage-ments. The ATC summonedall the three doctors, includ-ing Dr. Ashraf, Dr Hina, andadjourned the hearing till Sep-tember 3.—Online

COAS leaves forTajikistan todayISLAMABAD—Chief of ArmyStaff (COAS) General AshfaqPervez Kayani will depart fora three day official visit toTajikistan Wednesday. Ac-cording to sources, GenaralKayani will meet the TajikPresident Emomalii Rahmon,Defence Minister SheraliKhairulloyev and other seniormilitary officials in Dushanbe.During the meet, an exchangeof views will take place aboutthe mutual defence and mili-tary relations between Paki-stan and Tajikistan. COASGeneral Kayani and the keyleadership of Tajikistan willdiscuss the affairs relating tothe training and professionalskills of the armed forces.General Kayani during his of-ficial tour, will also visit theTajik Military Institute. —NNI

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar in a meeting with Zhanjian Guan of Universal Credit RatingGroup on Tuesday.

BEIJING—China on Tues-day brushed aside calls fromJapan to hold a leaders’ sum-mit as “grandstanding”,while Japan’s finance min-ister said Tokyo should makeclear it would use its navyto defend islands at the coreof a dispute with Beijing.

Ties between the world’ssecond- and third-largesteconomies have beenstrained for months becauseof a row over the islands,known as the Senkaku in Ja-pan and the Diaoyu in China,as well as disputes over thecountries’ bitter wartimepast.

Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe is keen to im-

prove ties and has called fordialogue with China, though hehas rejected any conditions ontalks. China has shown no in-clination to respond to the over-tures.

“A meeting between lead-ers is not simply for the sake ofshaking hands and taking pic-tures, but to resolve problems,”Chinese deputy foreign minis-ter Li Baodong told reportersahead of a G20 summit nextweek that both Chinese Presi-dent Xi Jinping and Abe willattend.

“If Japan wants to arrangea meeting to resolve problems,they should stop with the emptytalk and doing stuff for show,”Li said, when asked about the

possibility of a meeting of Chi-nese and Japanese leaders onthe sidelines of the G20.

Aircraft and ships fromboth countries have played cat-and-mouse games near the is-lands for months, ratcheting uptension.

Japan’s coastguard said onTuesday three Chinesecoastguard vessels had brieflyentered what Japan considersits territorial waters near thedisputed islands. China said thetrip was a routine patrol in itsown waters.

Japan’s finance minister,Taro Aso, who doubles as Abe’sdeputy, said the governmentmust make clear its intent todefend the islands or risk what

happened when Argentinetroops landed on the Falklandislands in 1982, triggering warwith Britain.

“When Britain deployedaircraft carriers to the FalklandIslands, it did not convey its in-tentions to protect the islands.Argentine saw that (Britain)had no intention of protectingthe Falklands and so invaded,”Aso said in a lecture to parlia-mentarians in Yokohama, nearTokyo.

“Fighting ability, nationalconsensus and informing othercountries (of our intention touse force) can act as a deterrentonly if these three are allpresent,” Aso said.

“We must clearly convey

our intention to protect theSenkaku with the MaritimeSelf-Defense Forces. In thatsense, we cannot avoid increas-ing defense spending ... This isthe reality we’re in while fac-ing the situation in the EastChina Sea.”

The legacy of Japanesemilitarism in the 1930s and1940s also haunts Sino-Japa-nese ties.

China’s Li said denials bysome Japanese politicians ofthe country’s wartime past donot help. “Under these condi-tions, how can we organize thekind of leaders’ summit thatJapan wants?” Li said.

China reacted angrily thismonth when Abe sent an offer-

ing to a shrine for war dead,which also honors war crimi-nals, while cabinet membersvisited it in person.

China suffered underJapanese rule, with parts ofthe country occupied from the1930s. Japanese leaders haveapologized in the past butmany in China doubt theirsincerity, partly because ofcontradictory remarks bypoliticians.

“What Japan has to donow is show vision and cour-age, properly face up to his-tory and take a proper attitudeand real actions to get rid ofthe obstacles which exist forthe healthy development of bi-lateral ties,” Li said.—Reuters

China nixes talks with Japan

KABUL—Forty-three people, in-cluding one dozen civilians,where killed in Afghan violenceover the last 24 hours, the authori-ties said Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, six civil-ians were found dead in easternprovince of Paktia borderingPakistan.“The bodies of six civil-ians were found along a road inZurmat district early Tuesdaymorning. The killing took placein the district, located just southof provincial capital Gardez city,100 km south of national capitalKabul,” a provincial governmentspokesman Rohullah Samon toldXinhua, adding details will be re-leased to the media after an ongo-ing investigation.

Witnesses said the victimswere employees of a local con-struction company in charge ofbuilding a road in the area.

In addition, six governmentemployees were shot dead in rela-tively peaceful Herat provinceovernight. “The dead bodies of sixemployees of the Ministry of Ru-

ral Rehabilitation and Develop-ment were found early Tuesdaymorning in Gulran district wherethey were kidnapped Sunday. Allof them were shot dead,” head ofprovincial criminal investigationdepartment Israeel Khan toldXinhua. Afghan President HamidKarzai strongly condemned theincident. According to Khan thevictims were working for aministry’s development project aspart of the National Solidarity Pro-gram. Blaming Taliban for theshooting, Khan said that the killedincluded four engineers and twostaff members of the project.

Separately, 10 militants andone policeman were killed earlyTuesday morning as the militantslaunched attack in Joy-e-Ganj areaof Bala Murghab district of neigh-boring Badghis province.

“Militants numbered severalhundred raided the Afghan Bor-der Police (ABP) checkpoints inareas near the border withTurkmenistan. The clash is goingon up to now later Tuesday,” the

provincial governor AhmadullahAhmadzai told Xinhua.

He said 10 militants, includ-ing a local insurgents’ leadernamed Mullah Abdullah, werekilled in the clash in the district,which is located in northern partof the provincial capital Qala-e-Naw, 555 km northwest of Afghancapital Kabul.

One policeman was also kid-napped by the militants. GeneralTaj Mohammad, the commanderof army corps 207 in neighboringHerat province, told Xinhua thatan army unit was dispatched to thearea to reinforce the police forcesthere. Witnesses said that morethan 500 militants were involvedin the attack, saying the Talibanalso took control of two check-points there. This is the second at-tack by militants in Bala Murghabover the past one week. In easternKunar province, militants be-headed an off-duty policemanalong a main road linking the prov-ince with the neighboring Nuristanprovince over night. —NNI

Over 40 killed in Afghanviolence in one day

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Tajir Ittehad(Sindh Traders Alliance) (STI)has announced for one day coun-try-wide while for the indefiniteperiod strike in the port cityagainst escalating threats to thetraders from the extortionists.The STI would in the first phasesurround the Sindh assembly onthe day when the House wouldbe in session to seek attentionof the rulers at the provinciallevel for the redressal of theircomplaints and the grievances.Failing to redress the traderscomplaints and the grievances,the traders alliance would be

Karachi traders threaten indefinitestrike against extortion, target killing

compelled to proceed to thestrike schedule.

This was stated by the SITChairman Jamil Paracha whileaddressing a protest rally of trad-ers of the city outside theKarachi Press Club Tuesday.

Paracha in his address de-manded the federal governmentto immediately intervene to re-store peace in the city and helpthe traders rid the extortionistsand kidnappers for ransom fail-ing which the traders would ap-proach the Pak Army to inter-vene and play its role in that re-gard.

He said that the traders hadlaunched their protest campaign,

which would continue till theultimate resolution of tradersgrievances and prevalence ofpeace and tranquility in cornersof the city. The STI had alsocommenced a campaign forbringing the traders of the en-tire country on board so as toform a grand alliance for thesimilar and mutual interests andin that regard, the traders of thecountry had been respondingquiet positively.

He said that soon the federalgovernment would also get thetrue picture of traders unity dur-ing a country-wide strike underwhich the traders of the country

Continued on Page 6

PPP moves bill togive representation

to labour class ISLAMABAD—The PakistanPeoples Party Tuesday movedthe Constitution (Amendment)Bill‚ 2013 to give representationto laboures. Senator Mian RazaRabbani said Pakistan People’sParty moved the Constitution(Amendment) Bill‚ 2013, so togive due representation to labourclass of the country.

Addressing media personsin the parliament‚ he said PPPhas proposed for the inclusionof 4 additional reserved seats inthe National Assembly and twoeach in all provincial assembliesfor labour class. He said PPPwill consult all political partiesto support this bill as it is in thebest interest of labour class‚which plays a pivotal role in oureconomy.—NNI

RAWALPINDI—In order to en-sure quality of education, Punjabgovernment has decided to awardforced retirement to the teachersshowing less than 10 percent re-sult in Matric exam, remainingcontinuously absent and beinginvolved in any case.

Teachers to be forced to retirefor poor Matric result

A ban on the teachers’ unionsin primary, middle and highschools is also under consider-ations. According to sourcesthese steps are being taken toensure 100 percent attendance ofteachers in schools, end unnec-essary protests and improve re-

sults of schools.Meanwhile, Punjab Teacher

Union leaders Raja ShahidMubarak, Tahir Mehmood andothers have expressed resent-ment on the decision and de-manded that no policy be madeagainst teachers.—INP

India asksPakistan to hand

over DawoodIbrahim

NEW DELHI—Indian HomeMinister Sushil KumarShinde on Tuesday said Indiahas asked Pakistan to handover underworld don DawoodIbrahim.

Shinde, who was respond-ing to supplementaries duringthe Question Hour in LokSabha, said that he had a talkwith Pakistan’s Interior Min-ister in this regard and healso raised this matter withInterpol.

According to Indian me-dia, Abdul Karim Tunda, thearrested Lashkar-e-Taiba’s‘bomb expert’, has claimedthat Dawood Ibrahim is stillin Karachi.

Pakistan till now has de-nied the presence of Dawoodon its soil, though Indian se-curity agencies have repeat-edly mentioned his name anddetails in dossiers handedover to Pakistani authorities.

According to repor ts ,Dawood was based inKarachi, where he had fledaf ter the 1993 Mumbaibombings in which 257people were killed and over700 injured.—INP

MOSCOW—Russia on Tuesdaywarned a military intervention inSyria could have “catastrophic con-sequences” for the region andcalled on the international commu-nity to show “prudence” over thecrisis.

“Attempts to bypass the Secu-rity Council, once again to createartificial groundless excuses for amilitary intervention in the regionare fraught with new suffering inSyria and catastrophic conse-quences for other countries of theMiddle East and North Africa,” aforeign ministry spokesman said.“We are calling on our Americanpartners and all members of theworld community to demonstrateprudence (and) strict observance of

Russia warns of ‘catastrophic consequences’international law, especially thefundamental principles of the UNCharter,” ministry spokesmanAlexander Lukashevich said in astatement. Deputy Prime MinisterDmitry Rogozin, who is known forhis sharp tongue, said on Twitterthat “the West behaves towards theIslamic world like a monkey witha grenade.”

Earlier Deputy Foreign Min-ister Gennady Gatilov said thatMoscow regretted Monday’s de-cision by the US to postpone ameeting on the Syria crisis, asWestern powers mulled militaryaction over last week’s chemicalattack in Syria. The scrapping ofthe meeting, which was due to takeplace at The Hague later in the

week, is the latest sign of a newpeak in tensions between Moscowand the West over the possibilityof military strikes against PresidentBashar al-Assad’s regime.

“It arouses regret that our part-ners decided to cancel the bilateralmeeting,” Gatilov said on Twitter.“Working out the parameters of apolitical solution in Syria wouldhave been especially helpful rightnow, when military action is hang-ing over this country,” Gatilov said.

In such a climate, it was es-pecially important to work in con-cert to try to organise the repeat-edly postponed peace conferencebringing together the Damascusregime and the rebels,Lukashevich said.—AP

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Fierce clashesbetween the security forces andthe alleged terrorists in SouthWaziristan agency Tuesday weehours led to the martyrdom oftwo Army men while at leastfour insurgents including a sui-cide bombers were also killed inthe clash that took place in

2 troops martyred in clashes with militantsFour terrorists including a suicide bomber killed

Sararogha area around 3 in themorning. Also, a man in uni-form sustained injuries and wasstated to be in critical condition.

According to militarysources the trouble makers am-bushed a military camp inSararogha area before dawnwith the help of sophisticatedweapons yet the alert jawaans ofthe Pak Army, effectively re-

pulsed the attack and gunneddown three assaulters. In themeanwhile an accomplice of theinsurgents who was wearing asuicide jacket blew himselfclose to the soldiers.

The explosion resulted inShahadat of an army Jawaanwhile two others sustained criti-cal injuries and were rushed tothe Military hospital for treat-

ment where a soldier succumbedto his injuries. Condition of an-other soldier was also stated tobe as precarious. “He has alsosuffered head injury and doctorshave described his condition ascritical”, a senior military offi-cial told Pakistan Observer add-ing the victims received multipleinjuries caused by the splintersduring the suicide explosion.

NEW DELHI—Indian SupremeCourt Tuesday said that a com-promise between a rapist and thesurvivor cannot be used to re-duce the sentence for the con-vict.

“Rape is an offence againstthe society and there is no scope

Indian SC warns lower courts‘don’t be soft on rapists’

for comprise,” the judges said ata time when the country isshaken and outraged by lastweek’s gang-rape of a youngphotographer in Mumbai, oftenconsidered one of India’s safestcities for women.

The judges were hearing the

case of a man who was sen-tenced to 10 years for a gang-rape in Haryana. The womanwho was assaulted said that sheis now married and has childrenand is leading a normal life andthe convict should therefore bereleased early from jail.

The convict has so far com-pleted three years in jail. “Thecompromise can’t be believedbecause there is every chancethat the victim may have beenpressured by the convict,” thejudges said.

Indian Supreme Court alsohad a clear message for lowercourts. It warned that despitestrict laws, judges often givelight sentences to rapists. “Don’tbe soft,” the Supreme Courtsaid.

Continued on Page 6

SARGODHA—Unknown mis-creants abducted, gang-rapedand killed a teenaged female stu-dent after subjecting her to im-mense inhuman attitude whileshe was going to her school.

The culprits gang-raped herand dumped her body into the

Girl student killed aftergang-rape in Sargodha

city’s Pichasi Jhaal canal.It should be mentioned

here that the 13-year student,resident of Istiqlalabad, was enroute to school along with herbrother on his motorbike whenthe motorbike broke down a

Continued on Page 6

MORE than one in 10 children had astutter by age four in a new Australian study, but those kids scored just

as high or higher than their peers on assess-ments of language, thinking skills and tem-perament.

“Stuttering onset is rela-tively common but parentscan be reassured that devel-opmental stuttering is notassociated with poorer out-come in the preschool yearsat least,” Sheena Reilly, thestudy’s lead author from theMurdoch Childrens Re-search Institute in Parkville,said.

The researchers said thefrequency of stutteringamong their preschoolers -about 11 percent - washigher than in previous stud-ies, perhaps because theystarted following the chil-dren very early in life.

Commonly accepted es-timates put the rate of stut-tering at about 5 percent of children and 1percent of adults, Reilly told Reuters Healthin an email.

Her group’s study included just over 1,600children from Melbourne, Australia. Mothersfilled out regular questionnaires starting whenbabies were eight months old and kids wereassessed on a range of language and behaviorscales at age four.

Reilly and her colleagues asked parentsto call the study group if their child startedshowing signs of stuttering. Diagnoses wereconfirmed by a speech pathologist, who thenvisited the homes of children with a stutterevery month to check on their progress.

By age four, 181 of the study childrenhad been diagnosed with a stutter. Follow-up visits for the 142 who were consistentlyassessed after diagnosis showed just nine nolonger had their stutter one year later.

Stuttering children scored 5.5 pointshigher than their non-stutter-ing peers on language testsand 2.6 points higher on a testof non-verbal intelligence,where 100 is an average score.

Parents also rated four-year-olds with and without astutter similarly on behaviorand temperament scales, ac-cording to findings publishedMonday in Pediatrics.

The researchers said it’spossible stuttering couldsomehow improve languageskills, or that stuttering couldresult from very fast languagedevelopment among somekids.

“This is a period in whicha child’s motor speech systemis challenged to keep pace

with the phenomenal rate of language ac-quisition,” they wrote.

Corrin Richels, a speech-language pa-thologist who has studied stuttering at OldDominion University in Norfolk, Virginia,said it wasn’t all that surprising preschoolerswho stuttered didn’t tend to be worse off inother ways.

She said most of the anxiety and otherproblems that have been tied to stutteringare seen among teenagers and adults.

“The adverse outcomes come from be-ing a person who stutters over a long periodof time,” Richels, who wasn’t involved inthe new study, told Reuters Health.

Early stuttering common, nottied to development issues

Members of European parliament with Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in Islamabad.

TARIQ KHATTAK

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad onceconsidered being the mostgreen and beautiful city of Pa-kistan is now stained with in-creasing encroachments due tothe greed of the business com-munity backed by the indiffer-ent attitude of the Capital De-velopment Authority (CDA).

Trading community of thefederal capital has become in-creasingly influential transform-ing their associations into a mafiain last few years while the pri-vate educational institutions nowcommonly called ‘educationmafia’ are following the suit.

CDA, the civic body respon-sible for the development andupkeep of the city, seems impo-tent or compromised as the en-croachments have become agreat menace.

Many top officials havetaken over as city father in lastfew decades and claimed to over-come the nuisance of encroach-ments in the city but to no avail.

Over the last many yearssome chairmen in the office tookup the issue of encroachmentsonly in the markets and bazaarsas a challenge and claimed thatthey would wipe away en-croachers and regain the veran-das and footpaths back for the

Encroachments multiplying due to CDA’s apathyRoots School encroachments a great headache for residents

public to walk on but result dis-appointed many.

After the departure of ev-ery Chairman of the CDA, thecity ended up with more en-

croachments. Just take an ex-ample of G-8 Markaz. All theclaims of the CDA chairman toend corruption and other unlaw-ful activities have proven merelip service as car showroomsmafia has encroached upon allthe parking places in G-8Markaz with the connivance ofthe civic body officials.

The owners of the car show-rooms have parked the vehiclesfor sale in parking lots of G-8Markaz and the visitors have topark their vehicles on roadside

at the mercy of the car-lifters.This mafia has not even leftenough space for pedestrians asfootpaths around the Markaz arealso encroached by them but theCDA authorities are not takingany action to vacate the parkinglots.

Encroachments by privateschools in residential areas has

also make life difficult not justfor residents but also inconve-nience commuters especiallyduring rush hours.

The schools have occupied

government land by installinggates and sometimes creatinggardens or parking lots. Placingconcrete blocks in front of in-stitutes for security reasonshampers the flow of traffic.

The number of privateschools has increased in recentyears as investors consider thema profitable business and many

owners prefer to hire houses tosave money.

A number of private schoolsare operating within houses andare not even registered with the

Private Educational InstitutionsRegulatory Authority which can-not keep a check.

Let take an example of aknown school in the G-8Markaz. Encouraged by the openviolation of law and the rightsof masses, Roots School has alsostarted encroaching ongovernment’s land.

The school is owned byWaleed Mushtaq who is be-lieved to be connected with thetop officials of the civic agency.

Has not only occupied a lot

of area including half of the roadin front so that it can milk par-ents on the pretext of securityarrangements but it has alsograbbed a lot of area at the backof the school.

It is interesting to note thatthe area grabbed by the schoolillegally is far more than its ownbuilding where the administra-

tion has established canteens,tennis courts etc.

Residents of the G-8Markaz doubt that CDA wouldever be able to ask owners of the

Roots School about their con-duct let alone taking any actionagainst them under the provi-sions of the law.

Most of those contacted byPakistan Observer believed thatofficers of the civic authority werereceiving thousands of rupeesfrom the car showroom mafia andbacking the unlawful activity.

The CDA chairman couldresolve the matter if he takesinterest in the issue, they added.

In a survey, majority of therespondents said that the current

chairman of the CDA will fol-low suit of his predecessors asthere were more encroachmentsin markets, in greenbelts and allover the ICT after his tenure.

The next chairman, as aritual, will also announce thateliminating encroachment andcleanliness will be his top pri-ority.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Po-lice have deployed 650 trainedand young police officers in-cluding commandos at 60 po-lice pickets around the capitalwith an objective to further se-cure the metropolitan and en-sure protection to lives andproperty of the citizens.

According to details, thesecurity bosses have made thisdecision to further secure thecity and ensure elaborate secu-rity arrangements in the city.These cops including comman-dos are well trained and below32-year age. These police offi-cials have special training insniper shooting and they willinitially perform their duties forthree months.

This step is being taken onthe special directions from Min-

60 pickets in capital

650 snipers with shootingexpertise deployed

ister for Interior ChaudhryNisar Ali Khan who is show-ing his great commitment to-wards taking effective securityarrangements to protect the cityand enhance professional capa-bilities of the force.

SSP IslamabadMuhammad Rizwan has saidthat Islamabad policemen willbe trained on modern lines andto be equipped with moderntechnology.

According to the plan, 62trained ASIs, 124 head con-stables and 464 constables willpeform at 60 pickets in threeshifts out of which 32 falls inCity Zone, four in Rural Zone,9 in Industrial area and 13 inSaddar Zone.

Islamabad police will giveaccess to these officials withNational Database of Vehicles,NADRA and mobiles through

ICTP’s main server and specialcell phones with in next sevendays. It is to mention that thesepolice officials have specialtraining in detecting and check-ing suspicious vehicles.

This technology is beingused for the first time in anycity of the country which willmake pickets effective and helpin improving intelligence aswell coordination system in theforce.

IGP Islamabad, SikandarHyat said it is need of hour tomodernize police force and im-prove their checking as well asinvestigation techniques be-sides special training to themfor efficient policing.

He said no stone will beleft unturned and all possibleresources will be used toachieve this goal and ensureeffective policing in the city.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Maintaining theprevious trend, once again girlsoutshone boys in the HigherSecondary School Certificate(HSSC) annual exams byclinching more top positions inall the groups.

According to the result an-nounced by the Federal Boardof Intermediate and SecondaryEducation (FBISE) in a cer-emony held here Tuesday, a to-tal of 50771 students appearedin the exams and 36705 studentscould pass the exams with thepass percentage of 72.30.

Girls bagged first three po-sitions in Humanities group in-cluding Sara Noor of FaujiFoundation College for Girlswith 914 marks stood first,Mamoona Aslam of IslamabadModel College for Girls with895 marks second andMubashirah Tariq Qasmi of Pa-kistan International School,Jeddah obtained third positionwith 894 marks.

In Science General group,again three girls bagged top po-

Girls outshine boys inHSSC annual exams

sitions including Faiza AhmedKhan of Army Public Schooland College, Jehlum with 1011marks stood first, Novera Tahirof Army Burn Hall College forGirls, Abbottabad with 1010marks second and SidrahKanwal of Islamabad ModelCollege for Girls, G-10/4bagged third position with 973marks. In Pre-Medical group,Naima Gul and Zainab Khalilof Hamza Army Public Schooland College, Rawalpindiclinched first and second posi-tion with 1036 and 1029 marksrespectively.

The third position wasshared by Naima Maqsood ofArmy Public School and Col-lege for Girls, Rawalpindi andMuhammad SheharyarWarraich of Army PublicSchool and college for Boys,Rawalpindi with 1023 marks.

In Pre-Engineering group,Irsa Rasheed of Hamza ArmyPublic School and College,Rawalpindi got first positionwith 1020 marks, Ayesha Zakaof Punjab College, Islamabadsecond with 1017 marks and

Syed Ammar Abbas of F.G SirSyed College obtained third po-sition with 1016 marks.

In Commerce group, BasitAli of Punjab College of Infor-mation Technology, Islamabadgot first position with 908marks, Arslan Augustie Josephof Punjab College got secondposition with 887 marks andAziz Fatima of Garrison PostGraduate College for Women,Lahore obtained third positionwith 884 marks.

A total of 7438 regular can-didates appeared in the Humani-ties group and 5064 passedagainst 1518 private candidatesout of 4429.

In Pre-Medical group, a to-tal of 7770 regular candidatesappeared in the exams and 6957passed against 1577 private can-didates out of 1903 appeared.

In Pre-Engineering, a totalof 10663 regular candidates ap-peared in the exams and 8978passed against 1422 private can-didates out of 2055 appeared.

A total of 6271 regular can-didates passed the exams in Sci-ence General group out of 8308

August 28

OFFICERS Welfare Asso-ciation (OWA), InternationalIslamic UniversityIslamabad will arrange EidMilan Party for its memberson Wednesday. It was de-cided here on Tuesday, in ameeting of Executive Body,chaired by the President ofthe association, RajaMuhammad Munir Ahmed.The meeting discussed over-all situation and the role oforganization in detail.

appeared while only 961 privatestudents passed the exams outof 1723 students.

In Commerce group, a to-tal of 3107 regular studentspassed the exams out of 4508while 690 ex-private studentsremained successful out of 1686appeared.

In Med Tech group, 243regular students appeared in theexams and 150 passed the ex-ams while only 10 private stu-dents could manage to pass theexam out of 45 appeared.

The result cards of regularcandidates are being dispatchedto the heads of their respectiveinstitutions and those of privatecandidates within the country onthe addresses provided by themin their admission forms.

The result cards of overseascandidates are being dispatchedto the heads of the institutionsfrom where they appeared in theexams. However, the resultcards of candidates both regularand private belonging to GilgitBaltistan are being sent to theFBISE’ sub-office Gilgit.

MORE than one in 10 children had astutter by age four in a new Australian study, but those kids scored just

as high or higher than their peers on assess-ments of language, thinking skills and tem-perament. “Stuttering onsetis relatively common butparents can be reassured thatdevelopmental stuttering isnot associated with pooreroutcome in the preschoolyears at least,” SheenaReilly, the study’s lead au-thor from the MurdochChildrens Research Institutein Parkville, said.

The researchers saidthe frequency of stutteringamong their preschoolers -about 11 percent - washigher than in previousstudies, perhaps becausethey started following thechildren very early in life.Commonly accepted esti-mates put the rate of stut-tering at about 5 percent of children and 1percent of adults, Reilly told Reuters Healthin an email.

Her group’s study included just over1,600 children from Melbourne, Australia.Mothers filled out regular questionnairesstarting when babies were eight months oldand kids were assessed on a range of lan-guage and behavior scales at age four. Reillyand her colleagues asked parents to call thestudy group if their child started showingsigns of stuttering. Diagnoses were con-firmed by a speech pathologist, who thenvisited the homes of children with a stutterevery month to check on their progress.

By age four, 181 of the study childrenhad been diagnosed with a stutter. Follow-up visits for the 142 who were consistentlyassessed after diagnosis showed just nine nolonger had their stutter one year later. Stut-

tering children scored 5.5points higher than their non-stuttering peers on languagetests and 2.6 points higher ona test of non-verbal intelli-gence, where 100 is an aver-age score.

Parents also rated four-year-olds with and without astutter similarly on behaviorand temperament scales, ac-cording to findings publishedMonday in Pediatrics. The re-searchers said it’s possiblestuttering could somehow im-prove language skills, or thatstuttering could result fromvery fast language develop-ment among some kids.

“This is a period inwhich a child’s motor speech

system is challenged to keep pace with thephenomenal rate of language acquisition,”they wrote. Corrin Richels, a speech-lan-guage pathologist who has studied stutter-ing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk,Virginia, said it wasn’t all that surprisingpreschoolers who stuttered didn’t tend to beworse off in other ways.

She said most of the anxiety and otherproblems that have been tied to stutteringare seen among teenagers and adults. “Theadverse outcomes come from being a per-son who stutters over a long period of time,”Richels, who wasn’t involved in the newstudy, told Reuters Health.

Early stuttering common, nottied to development issues

KARACHI: A delegation of district Nawabshah led by Ghulam Mustafa Shah called on President-elect Mamnoon Hussain at State Guest House.

KARACHI: Businessmen protesting against target killing of businessmen and ‘BhattaMafia’on Tuesday.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI: Models performing during Veet award ceremony at Expo Centre.—PO photo

DCs told to takemeasures to protectpeople from floods

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Kachcha ar-eas and the populous that livedbeside the Kachcha area couldface the worst calamity with thefloods that could break intoHyderabad. The civil adminis-trations especially the deputycommissioners should take im-mediate measures to shift thepeople to safer areas before theyget caught in the floods and suf-fer unwanted colossal loss.

In this regard, the Provin-cial Disaster Management Au-thority (PDMA) Sindh direc-tor general Commander SyedSuleman Shah said that theDCs of Dadu, Hyderabad,Matiari, Thatta, Badin andTando Muhammad Khan hadalready been informed.He said that although thefloods situation in the prov-ince was under control andthere was a medium scalefloods in Guddu and SukkurBarrages, the floods couldbreach the limits and affectthe population living besidethe Kachcha area.

He said that on the directivesof Sindh Chief Minister SyedQaim Ali Shah, the affectedpopulation was being providedwith all the required facilities,the provincial governmentwould not leave the affectedpopulation in despair as fullmeasures were being taken fortheir rehabilitation.

he said that the PDMA hadon the directives of Sindh Min-ister for rehabilitationMakhdoom Jamil Uz Zamanprovided tents, dry ration andmosquito nets to the DCs of theaffected areas.

KARACHI: Journalists protesting against attack on private TV channel.—PO photo

KARACHI—Sir Syed Univer-sity of Engineering and Technol-ogy (SSUET) held a highly in-formative workshop and semi-nar on the topic of “Biomechan-ics of Contractile Protiens”.

On the occasion Prof. Dr.Joachim W. Herzig, the visitingProfessor from Germany gavea detail presentation on the topicwhich continued fr about twoand a half hours.

Prof. Dr Joachim, who isalso a consultant of number ofpharmaceuticals companies onbiology and human science, isan international authority in hisfield and advisor to number ofUniversities and research insti-tutions.

His presentation was at-tended by the Faculty membersof Biomedical department of

SSUET’s workshop on BiomechanicsSSUET, experts and students.

Focusing on “Theories ofMotion among Humans and Ani-mals”, Prof Joachim analyzedbioinformatics predominantlyfocusing on three types of largedata sets available in molecularbiology, macro molecular struc-tures, genome sequence and re-sult of functional genomics ex-periments.

In his presentation he com-pared genomics of Humans andAnimals. He gave an overview ofmuscular movement, muscularstructure and functions. In thisregard he cited examples to showhow mosquitoes fly using hiswings - which are functions of hisbody organs which expands andcontracts.

He showed that a normalmosquito wings stretches 200

times per second and that makesmosquitoes to fly.

In this regard he quoted anexample of human body thatneeds proteins and dissolve intoenergy for motion in the body. Hecited example of how a manstretches his arms and whatchemical reaction takes place in-side the body. He took names ofnumber of agents and re-agentsthat help in dissolving proteinsand calcium in human plasma thatenables a man to move.

Dr Joachim pointed out thatit is an extra-ordinary field of hu-man research and all major phar-maceutical companies are concen-trating on producing medicinesand chemicals that can help hu-man body to do work and move.

He quoted human heartswhich, he said, contracts and ex-

pands as an example ofmyosine and proteins. He saidon expansion, human heart re-ceives blood and on contrac-tion it circulates blood in hu-man body. The tissues of heartare made to function like thiswith the help of myosine, cal-cium and protein.

He invited researchers fromUniversities and institution tofocus in this area of human bod-ies functioning, its longevity andage and observed that perhapsquality of life is likely to improveto a great extent. He is currentlyon a visit to Karachi for about amonth and his lecture/talks inmany Universities are availableon web and anyone interestedcan download and start furtherresearch in this area that hasgreat potential.—APP

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Traffic gridlocksprevailed on various key arteriesin Karachi while the city’s trafficpolice, deputy commissioners andmunicipal commissioners failed toplay their constitutional role forkeeping roads clear for uninter-rupted and smooth traffic flow.

The traffic gridlocks wererampant in area where marriagehalls were located especially inNorth Nazimabad, Gulshan-eIqbal and Federal B Area. The at-tendants of marriages performedin marriage halls had caused com-plete closure of link (service) roadsand 50 percent closure of mainavenues by parking their cars andother big vehicles such as passen-ger coaches, mini-buses and buseson link and main roads.

The situation was worst seenin North Nazimabad fromNazimabad no.1 (Matric BoardOffice Roundabout) upto NaganChowrangi as the link roads re-mained fully closed while mainroads remained half closed from

Govt ignores marriage halls forcreating massive traffic gridlocks

6 PM to 1 AM.The same situa-tion was prevailing in Gulshan-eIqbal and Federal B Area wherevehicular movement was alreadymuch disturbed due to construc-tion of bridges at Ayesha Manzil,Liaquatabad and other venues.The district municipal corporation(DMC) Central, East and DeputyCommissioners Central and East,traffic police and police failed totake action against the marriagehalls owners and to prevent park-ing of cars and other vehicles off-the-streets.

The new M A Jinnah roadwithin the limits of JamshedTown DMC was a constant nui-sance as the car dealers had en-croached more than the half of theroad, where traffic flow was ham-pered from 9 AM till 7 PM.

The routine traffic gridlockwas from Rizvia Chowrangi toGuru Mandir due to off-the-streetcar parking by the owners of sani-tary shops and customers. Off-the-street parking of auto-rick-shaw from Patel Para to GuruMandir was also a major cause

of impeded traffic flow. However,no traffic police cops were de-ployed in areas identified above.

The multi-storeyed car Park-ing Plaza in Saddar, which wasconstructed several years agowith an aim to get rid of trafficgridlocks in Saddar due to whichtraffic gridlocks had prevailed onother adjoining key arteries wasstill lying vacant. The KarachiMetropolitan Corporation(KMC) had already announcedto lease out the car parking plazaas the provincial authorities andKarachi traffic police did notshow any seriousness to imple-ment decisions for parking carsin the car parking plaza. In fact,the traffic police had a big sourceof income for millions from im-posing penalty to the commutersthat wrongly parked their carsand motorcycles parked andimplementing decision for park-ing of cars and motorcycles inCar Parking Plaza would suredeprive traffic police of millionsof rupees they earn from the com-muters for parking their vehicles.

Rangers personnelin taxi driver’smurder indicted

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI–The Anti-terroristCourt (ATC) had formally in-dicted Rangers personnelShahzad for murdering a taxidriver. However, the accusedhad denied the charges.

Rangers personnel Shahzadwas arrested in a case of murderhe had committed in Shah FaisalColony of which the Chief Jus-tice of Pakistan had taken the SuoMotto notice and a case was reg-istered against him. However, theChief Justice had expressed hisutter dissatisfaction on register-ing the FIR on behalf of thewidow of the slain taxi driver,saying that police had deliber-ately spoiled the case by insert-ing various legal flaws in the fir.

The ATC had after the Rang-ers personnel refused to acceptthe charges, decide not to dis-closes names of the eye witnessfor their security and would re-sume the haring today (Wednes-day). The ATC had also issuedorders for presenting all the 19eye witnesses before the court.

KUJ PresidentJamali’s mother

passes awaySTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Union ofjournalist (Berna) President G MJamail’s mother passed away Tues-day. The funeral prayers were per-formed at Jama Masjid Shah LateefBhitai Abad and was buried in thegraveyard of the same area.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat UlEbad Khan, Sindh Chief Minis-ter Syed Qaim Ali Shah, SindhLocal Government Minister SyedOwais Muzaffar, MuttahidaQaumi Movement oppositionleader in Sindh assembly SyedFaisal Sabzwari, Khawaja IzharUl Hassan, Pakistan People’sParty Parliamentarian Sindhchapter General secretary TajHaider, Awami national PartySindh President Shahi Sayed,PMLQ leader Haleem AdilShaikh, PMLN Sindh PresidentSyed Ghaus Ali Shah, PakistanSunni Tehreek leader engineerSarwat Ejaz Qadri, Jamaat-eIslami Pakistan General Secre-tary Liaquat Baloch, Dr MairajUl Huda Siddiqui, AsadullahBhutto, Muhammad HussainMahenti, Sarfaraz Ahmed, PFUJPresident Pervez Shaukat, AminYousuf, Karachi Press club Presi-dent Imtiaz Khan Faran, Secre-tary Amir Lateef and many othereminent.

KARACHI—Despite being anessential healthcare facility the 60bedded Burns Centre at CivilHospital Karachi is faced with fre-quent decline in the pressure ofgas supplied to it by Southern SuiGas Company.

The situation that otherwisemany sound benign is difficult forthe staff responsible for steriliza-tion of the facility that is mainlygas based. The Friends of BurnsCentre, running the facility undera private-public sector arrange-ment, is in process to acquire anelectricity powered sterilizationsystem as a backup support for theexistent gas run sterilizer. Dabirur Rehman, Executive Director,Burns Centre, CHK told APPTuesday that arrangements foruninterrupted electric supply isalready in place at the centre.

Frequent decline in gas pressurehits Civil Hospital’s Burns Centre

In reply to a question, he saidsterilization department at BurnsCentre also needed frequentupgradation and an EthyneoxideCirculation Plant is being installedto improve sterilization of venti-lators as well as other essentialgadgets in face of growing num-ber of the patients attended at thefacility. He said over 100,000 pa-tients have been treated at the fa-cility since its establishment in2005 while around 6,000 patientshave been admitted, and 95,000patients provided OPD service.

About 13,000 patients havebeen operated upon and providedwith intensive care facilities un-der extreme sterilized conditions.

“These are burn victims ofvaried types and categories whoneed extreme care to avoid infec-tions at every cost,” reiterated

Dabir ur Rehman.For the very purpose, he said

chiller installed at the facility alsoneeded to be upgraded and ex-panded as at times due to increasein the number of patients bedshave to be placed even in the cor-ridors of the centre. In reply to aquestion, he said the facility waspresently providing one nurse forevery two patients at its ICU.These nurses were said to be quali-fied and trained enough to offerexemplary post operative care. “Istrongly believe that quality anddedicated nursing care makes thedifference for any facility,” hesaid. The Executive Director,Burns Centre responding to an-other query said that posts of pro-fessor, associate professor andregistrar were lying vacant herefor quite long.—APP

Early stuttering common, nottied to development issues

MORE than one in 10 children had astutter by age four in a new Australian study, but those kids scored

just as high or higher than their peers onassessments of language, thinking skillsand temperament. “Stutter-ing onset is relatively com-mon but parents can be re-assured that developmen-tal stuttering is not associ-ated with poorer outcomein the preschool years atleast,” Sheena Reilly, thestudy’s lead author from theMurdoch Childrens Re-search Institute in Parkville,said.

The researchers said thefrequency of stutteringamong their preschoolers -about 11 percent - washigher than in previousstudies, perhaps becausethey started following thechildren very early in life.Commonly accepted esti-mates put the rate of stut-tering at about 5 percent of children and 1percent of adults, Reilly told Reuters Healthin an email.

Her group’s study included just over1,600 children from Melbourne, Australia.Mothers filled out regular questionnairesstarting when babies were eight months oldand kids were assessed on a range of lan-guage and behavior scales at age four. Reillyand her colleagues asked parents to call thestudy group if their child started showingsigns of stuttering. Diagnoses were con-firmed by a speech pathologist, who thenvisited the homes of children with a stutter

every month to check on their progress.By age four, 181 of the study children

had been diagnosed with a stutter. Fol-low-up visits for the 142 who were consis-tently assessed after diagnosis showed

just nine no longer had theirstutter one year later. Stut-tering children scored 5.5points higher than their non-stuttering peers on lan-guage tests and 2.6 pointshigher on a test of non-ver-bal intelligence, where 100 isan average score.

Parents also ratedfour-year-olds with andwithout a stutter similarlyon behavior and tempera-ment scales, according tofindings published Mon-day in Pediatrics. The re-searchers said it’s possiblestuttering could somehowimprove language skills, orthat stuttering could resultfrom very fast languagedevelopment among some

kids.“This is a period in which a child’s

motor speech system is challenged tokeep pace with the phenomenal rate oflanguage acquisition,” they wrote. CorrinRichels, a speech-language pathologistwho has studied stuttering at Old Do-minion University in Norfolk, Virginia,said it wasn’t all that surprisingpreschoolers who stuttered didn’t tendto be worse off in other ways.

She said most of the anxiety and otherproblems that have been tied to stutter-ing are seen among teenagers and adults.

100 pc literacy will be achievedwithin next few years: Shahbaz

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has said thateducation is essential forprogress and prosperity ofthe country. He said thatPunjab government hastaken revolutionary and un-precedented measures for thepromotion of education dur-ing the last five years. He saiddue to the steps taken by thegovernment, literacy rate hassubstantially improved whileenrolment ratio of children inschools has also increased.

He said that provision ofresources for talented chil-dren is not expenditure butuseful investment. He saidthat brilliant students are aprecious asset and guaran-tee to a glorious future of thecountry. He said that laptopsprogramme initiated byPunjab is being followed inIndian state of Uttar Pradeshwhich is the proof of the factthat revolutionary reformsintroduced in education sec-tor in Punjab are being ap-preciated not only in the

country but also abroad.He was talking to a repre-

sentative delegation of stu-dents which also includedposition-holder students ofdifferent Boards of Educa-tion.

Talking to the students’delegation, the Chief Minis-ter said that education is ofvital importance for the sta-bility and progress of a coun-try and the world history iswitness to the fact that onlythose nations have pro-gressed and prospered ashave given proper attentionto education. He said thatPunjab government tookrevolutionary measures forthe development of educa-tion sector during its last ten-ure.

He said that establish-ment of Daanish schools isproving a milestone in thepromotion of education. Hesaid that easy access is be-ing provided to children ofthe poor by setting upDaanish schools in far-flungand backward areas. He saidthat educational facilitieseven better than Aitchison

and Grammar schools arenow available to the childrenof the poorest families in re-mote areas of the provincedue to this project. He saidthat promotion of educationhas always been the priorityof the government and thatis why 14 Daanish schoolshave been established inseven different districts ofthe province for the benefitof less-privileged and re-source-less but brilliant stu-dents while six new Daanishschools will be set up at acost of three billion rupeesduring the current fiscal year.

The Chief Minister saidthat government distributedmore than two lakh laptopscosting billions of rupeesamong talented studentspurely on merit basis duringits last tenure. Similarly, hesaid, laptops will be given tointelligent students this yearas well.

Shahbaz Sharif said said100 percent enrolment of chil-dren is the target of the gov-ernment for which universalprimary education campaignhas been launched.

LAHORE: Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal speaking during jointbriefing session for the MPAs of the Provincial Assemblies of Punjab and Sindh.

STAFF REPORTER

LA H O R E —EnvironmentProtection Agency (EPA)Punjab inspected as manyas 39,702 places in all the 36districts of the Punjab andissued 10,627 notices,sealed 259, and lodged 218FIRs against various tyres h o p s / w a r e h o u s e ,scrapyards’ and under-con-struction sites’ owners fornot adopting dengue epi-demic control measures dur-ing the last five months.

On the directions of Sec-retary Environment Protec-

tion Department (EPD)Anwar Rasheed, special anti-dengue squads of EPD in-spected 6,076 places inLahore while 33,626 places inother districts of the Punjabto eliminate Dengue larvaeand its breeding sites andsources.

Punjab government hasassigned the task to Environ-ment Protection DepartmentDengue Directorate to iden-tify and eliminate the denguebreeding sites in tyres shops,junkyards, nurseries and un-der construction sites ofPunjab districts during den-

gue season. In view ofthe Punjab government’s di-rections, Secretary EPDPunjab Anwar Rasheed hadconstituted nine special anti-dengue squads of EPD un-der the supervision DirectorEDH Tauqueer Qureshi inLahore while 42 squads inother districts of Punjab toinspect the tyre warehouses,scrap yards, nurseries andunder construction build-ings so that the denguebreeding sites could beeliminated on priority basis.

During the past fourmonths, the squads have in-

Dengue epidemic control urgency

218 FIRs registered, 259 buildings sealed, 10,627 notices issuedspected 6076 places in all thenine towns of the city andchecked 2990 tyre shops,1833 scrap yards, 671 nurs-eries, and 582 under con-struction sites.

532 notices have been is-sued while 95 FIRs have beenlodged against warehousesfor placing the pile tyres,plastic scrap, and plantpotsin open air without any cover.While 87 premises have beensealed during the dengueraids in the Lahore City.

The squads inspectedaround 18822 tyre shops/warehouses, 6059 junkyards,

LAHORE: Punjab Minister Rana Sanaullah talking to the media persons outside PunjabAssembly Building.

3737 nurseries, and 5008 un-der construction sites in allthe districts of Punjab dur-ing past four months. Total123 FIRs have been regis-tered besides 10095 noticeshave been issued while 171premises sealed in other dis-tricts of Punjab expectLahore. During the entire in-spection of dengue, the anti-dengue squads found 7556places satisfactory whereSOPs regarding dengue werefollowed while the squads re-moved 11557 breeding pointsin Punjab.

The process of tyres reg-

istration is gaining speed asthe EPD squads have beeninspecting the tyres shopsand warehouses on regularbasis. The new SoPs for tyreshops were also beingadopted as the squads havealso been holding awarenesssessions with the tyres,junkyards’ associations. Thedengue epidemics compli-ance rate at the tyre shopshave also been observedpositive as the majority oftyre shops were keepingtheir tyres inside the shopsand with proper cover underopen sky.

LAHORE: Employees of Physical Education Department hold a demonstration in support of their demands.

LAHORE—Public Health En-gineering Department Em-ployees Housing Society’smanagement is going to saleout illegally the society’s mort-gaged plots in Block-C onAugust 30, 2013, the residentsof the society disclosed thisto APP here Monday.

They said that housingsociety’s management hadsince its inception 25 yearsago been extorting million ofrupees from the residents un-der the heads of developmentcharges; plots transfer fees;electricity and other utilitiesinstallation charges. While,ground realities present agloomy picture, as there is novisible infrastructural develop-ment in the society against theestimated funds collected by

Journalistsboycott PA

proceedingsSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The media per-sons on Monday boycottedthe proceedings of thePunjab Assembly for injuringthe cameraman of of a privateTV channel Ejaz Jeorge dur-ing the PTI sit-in at FaisalChowk.

The PA Speaker set up afour-member committee tobring the journalists back tothe session but the commit-tee could not resolve the is-sue. Later, the journalists andphotographers gathered infront of the sit-in and raised slo-gans against the PTI.

Illegal sale of mortgaged plotsits management. A residentZaheeruddin observed that itwould be the last nail in thecoffin, when the Society’smanagement in connivancewith the officials concernedwould be selling out the mort-gaged plots without followingthe laid down procedures.

It is to mention that LahoreDevelopment Authority(LDA) mortgages some plotsin accordance with the area ofthe housing society as a secu-rity/guarantee for the allottees,and allows the housingsociety’s management to salethese out, provided that verysociety fulfilled its develop-ment promises with theallottees/residents.

Otherwise, the LDA auc-tioned the mortgaged plots and

completed the incompleteworks in that specific housingsociety. One of the residents,Nadeem Babar, had alreadymoved an application to theCooperatives Department togive an end to this illegal acton the part of the PHED Em-ployees Housing Society’smanagement.

The residents said thatthey humbly appealed to thePunjab Chief MinisterMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif,Local Government and Com-munity Development Minis-ter Rana Sana Ullah Khan,Cooperatives Minister MalikMuhammad Iqbal Channerand the LDA Director Gen-eral to look into matter andtake stern actions against in-volved.—APP

PHC exoneratesdoctor from

negligence chargeLAHORE—Punjab Healthcare Commission has exon-erated doctor and hospitalstaff of Surgimed HospitalLahore from negligencecharges in the death of a pa-tient Anum (19).On the com-plaint of allegedly careless-ness of doctors in the deathof a patient Anum,the PHCteam investigated the matterand reached in the result thatthe death of the deceased pa-tient Anum was not due to thenegligence of the doctor orhospital staff. The PHCthrough a press release has in-formed that the negligence ofdoctor or other hospital staffcould not be proved.—APP

‘Govt givingpriority to resolve

energy crises’STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Ministerfor Environment Protection,Col. (R) Shuja Khanzada hassaid that solution of energycrisis was the first priority ofthe government.

Punjab governmenttaken various steps to re-solve energy issue includingincreasing of electricity pro-duction to 16000 mw duringthe last month of Ramazan,said the minister in a meet-ing with the members of Pa-kistan Tanners Associationhere Tuesday.

He said that variousagreements are going to besigned with different coun-tries especially with China.He said that credit for pro-duction of 16000MW elec-tricity during Ramazan goesto present government.

He added that govern-ment was further taking mea-sures to increase the pro-duction of electricity.

The Provincial Ministersaid that government wasfully aware of the problemsof industrialists and wouldsolve them.

He said that Tanners In-dustry of Pakistan is at num-ber three in the world for itsexport and is a big source ofrevenue generation.

Col. (R) Shuja Khanzadasaid that energy crisis andterrorism were two major is-sues of Pakistan.

He said that the solutionof these problems would notonly bring foreign investmentbut also increase the indig-enous investment.

Commutersconcerned over

low numberof buses

LAHORE—A lighly inad-equate number of buses onmost city routes has aggra-vated problems for commut-ers in the hot and humidconditions.

Passengers complainedthat transport companieswere not adding more busesto their fleets on importantroutes which had com-pounded miseries of citi-zens.

“To reach the railwaystation from Shadman forwork, I am forced to travel inovercrowded buses of route33-b after a long wait,” AbdulKarim lamented. Other pas-sengers including Naseer,Usman and Tahir also com-plained about a low numberof buses.

There is no bus of anycompany between some im-portant points and the LorryAdda due to which peoplehave to suffer, they added.

They said the transportsystem of route number 33was better when van pliedthe route and people did nothave to wait for hours.They appealed to the Punjabgovernment to improve theurban transport system andmore buses should be addedto the system.—APP

Partial strikein hospitalSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A partial strikewas observed in Lahore Gen-eral Hospital on Tuesday onthe call of the Young DoctorsAssociation (YDA) againstthe sacking of 199 house of-ficers in different hospitals ofPunjab.

YDA leader Dr Shehzadtold APP on Tuesday that ageneral council meeting ofthe YDA would be held onWednesday to decide thefuture line of action.

The health departmenthad terminated around 199house officers including 62from LGH.

Police directed tosubmit challan in

acid throwing caseLAHORE—Lahore HighCourt Chief Justice Umar AtaBandial has directed Districtand Sessions Judge, Lahoreto ask police for submissionof challan against the ac-cused involved in throwingacid on a woman, withinthree days.

The chief justice alsosought a report from theD&SJ regarding the case.According to a news pub-lished in a section of press,Naziran Bibi ofMangtanwala, NankanaSahib was passing throughMiani Sahib Graveyardwhen an accused threw acidon her.

The victim was shifted tohospital where she suc-cumbed to her burn injuries.—APP