A big relief: Be more peoplefriendly................................................Foreign Jehadists becomeuncontrollable................................................Making privatisation morecontroversial

See Page 04

Pakistan take370-run leadABU DHABI—Pakistantightened their grip on thesecond Test and the seriesafter the third day’s play,

‘Merit-based’ federalrecruitment policy out

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The government on Saturday is-sued its first ever recruitment policy for federalservices, autonomous bodies and corporations,a little over a month after it lifted a ban on re-cruitment for federal jobs. The new policy claimsthat merit would be followed in the process offilling all vacancies at the federal level. The gov-ernment says it wanted to open employment op-portunities on the basis of merit irrespective ofpolitical affiliations. The ban was lifted throughan Establishment Division notification issued onSept 25.

Over a month after the government lifted a

Continued on Page 7

ban on recruitment for federal jobs, the Estab-lishment Division under the directives of PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif issued on Saturday itsfirst recruitment policy for federal services, au-tonomous bodies and corporations.

According to an official handout, “Admin-istrative ministries and divisions shall ensuremerit and transparency in the recruitment pro-cess at all levels.”

It also stated that the policy in pursuance ofthe Establishment Division’s order of Septem-ber 25, 2014 regarding lifting the ban on recruit-ment under the federal government, will be ap-plicable to ministries, divisions, attached depart-

Continued on Page 7

New world ordermeans endless

US wars: HagelBOLINOVA—US Defense Sec-retary Chuck Hagel has called

the neww o r l dorder anera withendlessw a r ssayingAmericashouldprepare

for this epoch. “We are seeinga new world order post-WorldWar II, post-Soviet Union im-plosion being built,” Hagel saidthis in Ekaterina, Blinova.

Continued on Page 7

ISLAMABAD—Information Minister PervaizRashid on Saturday said the government wasready to hold talks with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to end its dharna that denied the peoplefull relief in the prices of POL products. Speak-ing to media here, Pervaiz Rashid said the de-lay in talks was from the PTI’s side, not the gov-ernment.

“Imran Khan should remove ShahMehmood Qureshi’s handcuffs and allow himto hold talks,” he said. Pervaiz Rashid said theprime minister had announced the decrease inpetroleum prices, the results of which could beseen all over the country. He said the decisionof the prime minister to cut prices of petroleumproducts significantly would promote welfareof the people and mitigate their sufferings.

He pointed out that Karachi Goods Trans-port Association immediately announced to re-duce fares by five percent. As a consequence,transportation cost of goods from Karachi to

Islamabad would comedown by Rs5000, whichwould bring down theprices of other goods aswell. Pervaiz Rashidsaid the government re-duced the price of petrolby Rs9.43 a liter but thereduction could havebeen up to Rs14 if there

were no sit-ins.He pointed out that dollar rates went up due

to the politics of sit-ins. Pervaiz Rashid saidPunjab Government is contemplating steps to passon the relief to the masses but Imran Khan hasnot yet indicated as to what his government inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa would do to provide reliefto the masses on the basis of welfare measureannounced by the Federal Government. He re-gretted that Imran Khan is inflicting political and

Govt ready for talks with PTI: PR

Continued on Page 7

QUETTA: Jamhoori Watan Party Leader Talal Akbar Buti and Jamaat-e-Islami Leader Siraj-ul-Haq hold a jointpress briefing in Quetta.

ATTOCK—All necessary arrangementshave been made for the upcoming 546thBirth Anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak be-ing held on November, 7 to 11 at GurdwaraSiri Punja Sahib, Hasanabdal.

Almost 3,000 Indian Sikh yatrees areexpected to participate in the anniversary.DCO Attock Chaudhry Habibullah statedthis on Saturday in a meeting held here inthis connection.

On the occasion, DPO Attock, IsrarAhmad Abbasi was also present. The DCOsaid that all facilities to Sikh pilgrims wouldbe provided free of cost including accom-modation, health and messing.

He said, during the anniversary all themarkets surrounding the Gurdwara would

remain closed while police, elite force andsecurity personnel in plain clothes wouldbe deployed besides installing CCTV cam-eras. He said, Sikh yatrees coming fromIndia would be issued Special Identitycards at Wahga Border.

The DCO that no Yatree would be al-lowed to use cell phone adding that how-ever a telephone booth would be set upinside the gurdwara to facilitate them.

Bomb Disposal Squad would remainalert there to handle any emergency whileRescue 1122 ambulances would also re-main standby. The DCO said that no onewould be allowed to establish any stallinside the gurdwara to avoid any securitylapse.—APP

Baba Guru Nanak anniversary arrangements finalized

3,000 Indian Sikhs to participate

8 5

QUETTA: A large number of motorcyclists collecting petrol from a petrol pump afterdecrease in price.

JHANG—At least at persons were in-jured when a passenger bus hit a roadside tree after getting out of controlof the driver here on Saturday. Policesaid that accident took place nearAttari Hazari Chowk in Jhang wherean over speeding passenger bus skid-ded off road while trying to overtakeanother vehicle and hit a tree by road-side.

As a result of accident eight pas-sengers sustained wounds who wereshifted to District Headquarters

(DHQ) Hospital for treatment and ac-cording to hospital sources conditionof two among the injured was serious.The police took the bus into custodyand registering a case against thedriver started the investigation.Larkana: One person was killed andthree others injured in clash betweentwo rival groups here on Saturday. Po-lice said that armed men of two groupsof Jamali community belonging toSajawal Junejo locality of Qambar inLarkana who were in old enmity traded

fire. Cross firing which continued formore than half an hour claimed life ofone man while leaving three otherscritically injured.

The injured were shifted to hospi-tal for treatment. Tension gripped thearea due to heavy firing and murder ofone person and dwellers of the arearemained restricted to their homes forseveral hours due to fear. Police haveregistered a case against armed menof both groups and started the inves-tigation.—INP

8 injured as passenger bus hits roadside tree

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—KP Chief MinisterPervez Khattak while express satisfac-tion on successful launching of pub-lic company for sanitation and watersupply services in Peshawar as wellas encouraging feedback of citizens,has directed for expanding this pro-gram to other divisional headquartercities of the province in next phase.He however reiterated pledge of hisPTI-led coalition govt that uplift andbeautification of Peshawar will not becompromised at any cost. Its charm,he said, was plagued by the past rul-ers but we will revive its historicalglory.

He further directed for washing ofthe roads till Ring Road and all streetsand bazaars down town the citythrough latest technology aftercompletion of the repair and expan-sion of it so that the dwellers of thiscity could get rid of the dust and dirtand thus they could leave in healthyenvironment.

Similarly he after shifting the con-struction work of Mufti Mehmood

Flyover to the new contractor directedfor completing this important projecton emergency grounds by workingday and night under the direct super-vision of concern authority as well asstreamlining the engineering units andstock for traffic control in the city.

He further asked for converting allthe streets lights of GT Road, RingRoad and other highways to solar en-ergy and replacing the undergroundrusted water supply lines to the newon ground pipelines in order to pro-vide healthy portable water to thepeople.

He was chairing meeting to reviewthe Peshawar Uplift and BeautificationProgram at Chief Minister HousePeshawar. The meeting took stock ofthe pace and quality of work on theongoing projects under the programwherein a number of decisions weremade in this regard. Besides Provin-cial Senior Minister Inayatullah, Sec-retaries of Local Government, JamilAhmad, CEO of WSSP Engr.Mohammad Naeem and other authori-ties attended the meeting.

Pervez Khattak asked for making

the development plan more vigorous,comprehensive and ensuring qualitywork on it. He said all departmentshave to achieve targets well in time.He assured that funds for all megaschemes are available and hence scar-city of resources must not be hurdlein this regard.

He said Peshawar remained city offlowers and gardens in the past andwe had to revive its historical glory atall costs. On this occasion the ChiefMinister was briefed about theprogress on the programs being imple-mented for the beautification and de-velopment of the capital city of theprovince.

It was told that in connection withwidening the highways of the city, theJamrud Road was being widened tofour lanes with mixing the service roadson both sides as well right fromKarkhano to phase-III Hayatabad,Rehmanbaba squire G.T Road toNasirpur. He was told that the WSSPafter receiving the works of sanitationand water supply of the city hasstarted outsourcing various municipalservices to private sector.

Khattak for water supply, sanitationservices expansion to other divisions

KARACHI—PIA Post Hajj operation ofbringing back Hajj pilgrims from SaudiArabia to Pakistan is continuing with ontime arrivals in Pakistan.

PIA till 1st November, the 25th day ofits Post Hajj Operation has carried morethan 41,000 Hajj pilgrims to Pakistanthrough 94 Hajj flights and regular sched-uled flights, PIA spokesman said here onSaturday.

PIA carried 3,942 hajj pilgrims toKarachi through 12 Post Hajj flights, 6,114

to Lahore through 16 Hajj flights, 5200hajj pilgrims

Islamabad through 12 flights, 6,016through 19 flights to Peshawar, 7,174through 23 flights to Quetta, 2,937 hajjisthrough 09 flights to Multan and 1,498hajj pilgrims to Sialkot by 03 hajj flights.PIA is also carrying hajj pilgrims on itsregular scheduled flights to Pakistan.

The Post Hajj operation which com-menced on 8th October 2014 will concludeon 7th November 2014, he added.—APP

PIA brings back over41,000 Hajj pilgrims

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Federal governmenthad slashed petroleum, oil and lubri-cant (POL) prices with which themasses raised their expectations forreduction in prices of common man’sessential commodities especiallyflour.However, contrary to peoples’expectations, the flourmills ownershad hiked prices of 2.5 rate flour byRs 1 per kilogram and thus the newprice of 2.5 rate flour was now Rs 38per kg.

The 2.5 rate flour was that poorquality flour fropm which all neces-sary nutrients such as fibre, husk,Sooji, Maida, Dalya, etc; were re-moved and thus the 2.5 rate flour wasthe sole brand of flour of choice ofthe poor.

The owners of flour mills hadwhile defending the recent hike in2.5 rate flour claimed that since the

POL, gold prices slashed but flour rates climb!demand and supply of wheat hadincreased, hence wer the new pricefixed.

With the increase of Rs1 per kg,the ex-mill price of 50-kg bag of 2.5rate flour was now with increase ofRs 50 per bag and thus the new rateof 50-kg bag of 2.5 rate flour had in-creased from Rs1825 to Rs1875 whilethe price of fine flour was also in-creased from Rs2175 to Rs2225.

The recent increase in 2.5 rateflour price was a test for the federaland provincial governments.

Meanwhile, gold rates had alsobeen decreased and new prices wereRs46850 per tola. The overall reduc-tion in 10 gram gold prices was Rs950.Ten gram gold prices had also beenreduced by Rs814 and new price wasRs40157.Conversely, Sugar price had alsobeen slashed by Rs2.5 and thewholesale price of 100-kg bag of

sugar was decreased from Rs5400 toRs5150. New wholesale price of sugarper kg was now Rs51.5.

Meanwhile, the authorities con-cerned had on the directives of SindhMinister for Food and Health JamMehtab Hussain Dahar launched acrackdown against those owners offlour mills, who had hiked prices ofthe 2.5 rate flour.

Meanwhile, Crackdown hasbeen launched against those flourmills which have increased flourprices illegally and without any jus-tification and three flour mills havebeen issued show cause notices inthis regard. Provincial Minister forFood and Health, Jam MehtabHussain Dahar has issued directivesfor strict action against the flourmills which increased the flourprices at their own.

The district food controllersraided various flour mills in districts

center and west and found 39600wheat bags in A.R. Flour mills, 32500in Masoom Roller mills and 15000in Blessing Roller Flour Mills whichwere stocked there and were morethan prescribed law.

Over the charges of keepingmore wheat bags than required andincreasing flour prices, these flourmills have been issued showcasenotices.

In accordance with law aflour mill can retain/stock 5000wheat bags for ten days but certainflour mills purchased wheat at oldrates and increased flour priceswithout any valid reason.

Provincial Minister for food andhealth Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar,while terming increase in flour pricesas illegal and unjust, has ordered tolaunch crackdown against thosewho having increased prices, aretrying to mint money illegally.

HASSANABDAL: Sikh pilgrims performing their religious rituals at Gurdwara Panja Sahab.

SCO introducesnew bills

payment systemMIRPUR—The State-runSpecial Communication Orga-nization (SCO) has introducedthe new system of the pay-ment of telephone billsthrough the scratch cards inAzad Jammu Kashmir includ-ing all the three districts ofMirpur division.This was dis-closed by the CommandingOfficer SCO, Mirpur Division,Lt. Col.Kashif Jamal Sabzwariother day while talking toAPP.He said that the SpecialCommunication Organizationis bent upon to provide mostmodern telecom facilities to itscustomers harmonious to theneed of the modern age.

Kashif Jamal said that thenewly-introduced SCO tele-phone Utility bill paymentcards have been made avail-able to the customers from thenearest telephone exchangeof their respective area.

“It would, now, help thesubscribers of the land linephones to make the paymentof their monthly utility tele-phone bills through the newlyintroduced Utility PaymentCards by sitting in their homewithout facing the earlierhassle of visiting the post of-fice or the designatedbranches of the banks for thepayment of the utility bill ofSCO-run telephone network.

He underlined that thoseseeking new land line SCOtelephone connection inMirpur division, may ring on05827 - 921064 and 05826 -920007.—APP

LAHORE—Edhi Foundation Lahore has fi-nalized arrangements to meet any emer-gency during Ashura Muharram.

Edhi Foundation spokesman said thatdozens ambulances and volunteers will re-main alert near important majalis andalongwith processions. First aid and am-bulance will also be provided to any in-jured ‘azadars’, he added.

The volunteers and ambulances willalso remain alongwith central processionwhich will be taken from Nisar Haveli, in-side Mochi Gate and terminate at KarbalaGamay Shah.

The spokesman further said that leavesof all volunteers have also been cancelledin this regard.

Meanwhile, Provincial Minister for Co-operative Malik Iqbal Channar has saidthat the routes of Muharram processionsshould be kept free from all types of en-

EF finalises arrangements for Ashuracroachments. He said that repair of roadsthroughout the routes should immediatelybe completed.

He expressed these views while ad-dressing a meeting regarding Muharram-ul-Haram. The Minister said that police of-ficials in uniform and plain clothes shouldbe deputed for monitoring all routes of pro-cessions.

He directed the administration thatthere should no load-shedding on theroutes of the processions on 9th and 10thMuharram-ul-Haram. Malik Iqbal Channarasked the administration that no religiousscholar should be allowed to deliver a pro-vocative speech.

He said that the material printed by print-ing presses should regularly be monitored.He said that Members Peace Committeeshould not display any negligence in per-forming their active role in this regard.—APP

Rocket attack onconstruction

companyQUETTA—Unknown armedmen fired rockets at thecamp of a construction com-pany in Turbat, on Saturday.

Levies sources said thatthey received informationabout rocket attack at theoffice of a construction com-pany in an area of Turbat.

Unidentified assailantsfired rockets from mountain-ous area which fell on thecamp of a construction com-pany engaged in develop-ment projects in the area,Levies said, adding that theLevies teams were dis-patched to the site.

They, however, said thatthey could not tell the detailsof possible loss caused byrocket attack. Further probewas underway.—APP

Aga Khan’s birthanniversary

observedISLAMABAD—The birth an-niversary of Sir SultanMohammad Shah Aga KhanIII, an icon of Pakistan move-ment was observed on Sat-urday to highlight his pivotalrole in the creation of newhomeland for the Muslims ofthe Sub-continent. Sir AgaKhan III was the 48th heredi-tary Imam of the Shia Ismaili.

He was born in Karachiin 1877 and dedicated hisentire life to the cause of Is-lam. He will always be re-membered as one of the mostdistinguished and well- re-puted leaders and diplomatsduring Pakistan‘s freedommovement.

Sir Aga Khan, with hisvast experience and person-ality of an international stat-ure, proved to be a respon-sible and productive media-tor between the westernworld and the leaders of thesubcontinent, said a state-ment issued by the IsmailCouncil today. —APP

ISLAMABAD—Four new polio virus caseshave emerged in Pakistan, raising the num-ber of affectees to 235 this year. Accord-ing to National Health Institute, three po-lio cases were detected in Qila Abdullahof Balochistan and one in NorthWaziristan. P1 virus has been diagnosed

Four new polio cases surfacein the affected children.

With these four new cases, the num-ber of polio victims have reached to 235 inthe current year, out of these 151 weredetected in FATA, 48 in KhyberPakhtunkha, 23 in Sindh, 10 in Balochistanand 3 in Punjab.—INP

LAHORE—FIA Cyber Crime Lahore on Sat-urday with technical team unearthed 20gateway exchanges and arrested two ac-cused. According to a FIA spokesman, of-ficials of FIA Cyber Crime Lahore with rep-

FIA unearth 20 gateway exchangesresentative of the PTA raided in differentareas of Sialkot and unearthed exchangesbesides arresting Tariq Mahmood andWaqar Ashraf Three separate FIRshave been registered.—APP

HYDERABAD: People performing religious rituals during a procession at Kachi Para.

ABBOTABAD: PML-N Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra distributing laptops among the students of Hazara University under the PrimeMinister National laptop scheme.

LARKANA—Deputy CommissionerLarkana, Mirza Nasir Ali has urged the of-ficers of various government departments,elected representatives and others to playtheir role in getting anti-polio drops admin-istered to the children upto 5 years of age,during the November 10 to 13 anti-poliocampaign. The DC also pleaded PeshImams, NGOs, teachers, scouts, studentsand social workers to play their role in ad-ministering the anti-polio drops to childrenduring the campaign.

He was presiding over a meeting of Dis-trict EPI & Polio Eradication (DEPE) Com-mittee, here at his camp office on Saturday.He also urged the officers of the districthealth department to make all out effortsfor eradication of Polio from the district.

He urged the health department officialsto ensure visit of Mobile teams to remoteand katcha area and see that no child fromamong the targeted age group is left outand deprived of anti polio drops. The DCassured that all teams would be providedwith transport facility and the needed as-sistance to maintain the cold chain.

He said collective efforts were requiredfor success of the anti-polio campaign add-ing that all the line-departments must alsocooperate with the health department. Healso said this is a national cause. The AntiPolio teams should reach remote areas ofthe district, so that no child may be left fromreceiving Anti Polio Drops and cooperatewith the teams constituted by the HealthDepartment in this regard.

Khanpur: As many as 1602 teams willadminister polio vaccine to 875,000 childrenunder five years of age during the 3-dayanti-polio drive starting from November 10to 12, 2014 in Rahim Yar Khan district.

This was disclosed in a meeting to re-view anti-polio drive which was held in RYKhan with DCO Nabeel Javed in the chair.EDO Health Dr Fayyaz Hussain and DO(Health) DR Hassan Khan and other offic-ers of health department were also presenton the occasion.

Addressing on the occasion, DCONabeel Javed said that eradication of poliowas a challenge for all of us and negligencein this regard would not be tolerated.—APP

875,000 kids to get polio vaccine in RYK

Society role sought in polio eradication drive

Tribal elder,son shot dead

CHAMAN—A tribal elder andhis son was killed while an-other two sons sustaiend in-juries in firing in border townof Chaman, here on Saturday.

According to the Police,tribal elder, Malik BaraatKhan Adozai along with histhree sons was on way fromhis house in Killi Hassan toschool of his children whenunknown armed men openedindiscriminate fire at the ve-hicle, leaving the tribal elderand his sons seriously in-jured.

Malik Baraat and histhree sustained received mul-tiple bullet injureis as a resulthe and his son Asmatullahsuccumbed to their injuriesin hospital while his other twosons were being given medi-cal treatment, police added.

Zarak Khan Achakzai, anofficial of Levies Force saidthat they have cordoned offthe entire area and launchedefforts to trace out the sus-pects.

A case has also beenregistered against the un-known accused.Furhterprobe was underway.Jand: A young man on Satur-day was killed in anaccident.As per detailsAbdullah s/o Rasool Khan r/o village Dakhner was goingto his village on his motor-cycle. On the way his bikewas hit by a speedy HiaceNo LES 7243 coming fromKohat.—APP

SIALKOT—Speakers at a seminar stressedthe need for legislation on Home basedwomen workers to protect their rights.

The seminar was organized by BaidarieSialkot, a non-governmental organization incollaboration with UN WOMEN at SialkotChamber of Commerce and Industry on Fri-day night to mark the international homebased women workers day. The event waslargely attended by Home Based WomenWorkers, government officials, civil societyactivists, trade union functionaries, workers’rights groups and media persons.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. JawedIqbal Gill Director Integrated programme forelimination of Child labor and Bonded labourin Punjab, assured the participants the

Punjab government was actively working onevolving a comprehensive policy for Homebased Workers and after its approval by theprovincial cabinet, necessary legislationwould be made for its implementation.

In his address, Malik Naseer Ahmed VicePresident Sialkot Chamber of Commerce andIndustry (SCCI) said that employers andemployees were integral part of each otherwhich are contributing to a great extent inthe national economy. He also stressed theneed for making efforts to protect the rightsof the home based women workers.

Dr. David Sohail, Director MemorialChristian hospital Sialkot highlighted the im-portance of women’s role in the process ofnational development.xaa—APP

Legislation on home-basedwomen workers stressed

Wife’s killerconvicted

KHANPUR—Additional dis-trict and sessions judgeLiaqatpur, handed down 25-year rigorous imprisonmentto an accused of uxoricidecase.

According to the pros-ecution, convict KaramHussain had killed his wifeSaheba Mai over domesticdispute on June 4, 2011, inthe jurisdiction of TarandaMuhammad Pinah.

The court ordered theconvict to pay Rs 1.9 millionas blood-money to the heirsof his wife. Sargodha: TheSessions Judge Mehmoodul Hassan Saturdayawarded death sentence ontwo counts to an accusedMuhammad Farooq in-volved in double murdercase of Khushab canton-ment police.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The met officeSaturday forecast dryweather in most parts of thecountry including federalcapital during next 24 hours.

However, rain-thunder-storm is expected at isolatedplaces in Malakand divisionof Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Karachi, Hyderabad,Mirpurkhas divisions oflower Sindh, Kalat andMakran divisions ofBalochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Meanwhile, the depres-sion over northeastern partof Arabian Sea has weakenedinto a Low Pressure Area and

likely to move slightly north-westward before dissipationover the water during next 24

hours. And a fresh westerly

wave is expected to approachwestern and northern partsof the country from Sundaynight.

Meanwhile, the KarachiMeteorological Department

Saturday forecast partlycloudy/cloudy weather withchances of light rain/drizzlefor Karachi during the next24 hours.

According to the met of-fice the minimum and maxi-mum temperatures in the cityare likely to remain between20 - 22 and 32 - 34 dgrees cen-tigrade respectively.

While rain/thunderstormis likely to occur at isolatedplaces in Hyderabad andMirpurkhas divisions ofSindh, and Makran and Kalatdivisions of Balochistan. Dryweather is expected else-where in the region.—APP

Dry weather across country

HANGU—The district administration,Hangu has beefed up security duringMuharram-ul-Haram to avoid any untowardincident in the district.

To deal with any untoward incident,around 1160 officials of the Pakistan Armyand Frontier Corps have been deployed onkey points to keep up a vigilant eye on anti-peace elements.

The district administration also de-ployed 2265 policemen and officials of theFrontier Constabulary on different check-point, buildings, Imam Bargah and othersensitive points to ensure foolproof secu-rity during Muharram.

The district administration has also es-tablished check-post on the entry and exitpoint of the Hangu City while imposed com-plete ban on handcart inside the City as

well as on parking in the premises of inte-rior Hangu City.

An official of the district administrationsaid that strict implementation of theMuharram security plan was to be ensuredand the police department to remain on highalert throughout Muharram ul Haram.Sukkur:Pakistan Army troops have reachedsensitive areas in the northern Sindh in-cluding Sukkur and Khairpur to ensure se-curity during Muharram.

Troops from Pano Aqil Cantonmenthave been deployed in Sukkur, Khairpur,Shikarpur and other sensitive areas on8th, 9th and 10th of Muharram. Someplaces in Rohri and Khairpur have beendeclared as very sensi t ive for whicharmy jawans would take posit ions toensure security for processions.—APP

Security beefed up in Hangu

HYDERABAD—Teachers and stu-dents of Sindh University have saidthat Prime Minister’s schemes ofprovision of laptops and fee reim-bursement would promote researchand pursuit of higher education inthe country and lead to developing“digital students.”

They said this while talking toAPP on the occasion of 2nd day oflaptops distribution among talentedstudents under the Prime Minister’sLaptop Scheme held at Sindh Uni-versity Campus on Saturday.

Director IBA Sindh Universityand Focal Person of Laptop Distri-bution Scheme, Imam-uddin Khososaid that it was time of digital stu-

PM’s laptop provision, feereturn schemes eulogised

dent, who could have access toworld easily for research and study,which could not be possible with-out new technologies.

“Laptop scheme of PML-N ledgovernment would promote suchconcept and help the students ofSindh in accessing the world easilyfor research and study”, he said. Hesaid that it was a need of every stu-dent in Sindh University to havelaptop for research and study how-ever, majority of them could not af-ford it.

As many as 940 laptops weredistributed among scholars of M.Phil and Ph.D within two days infirst phase of total stock of 5630

laptops provided to the administra-tion of the University and the re-maining would be distributed inthree other phases, he said.

Professor Ghulam Ali Burirosaid that the launching schemes oflaptop and fee re-imbursement forstudents by federal governmentwould encourage the educationsector especially research in theprovince.

“Only scholars can producebetter things while doing researchfor developing the society in anycountry and encouraging themwould untimately develop the soci-ety in the country”, he added.

He urged the government that

laptop scheme should also belaunched for teachers of universityacross the country.

Student of M.Phil in Media andCommunication Studies, RameezMahesar said while appreciatingPML-N led government that he wasfacing difficulties in doing researchwork due to non-availability ofLaptop and Internet but the schemeof Prime Minister has helped himresolve his problem.

“Otherwise I could not afford topurchase a laptop and Evo becauseI am son of a farmer from remoteareas of interior Sindh”, he said add-ing “now I can do my research workwithout any hindrance.—APP

A big relief: Bemore people friendly

PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif, on Friday, announced a big cut in theprices of petroleum products by upto 11% in view of declining oilprices in international market. This is the single largest reduction in

prices of these products in about ten years.The prices of oil in the international market have plummeted and it is

satisfying that despite facing enormous financial and economic challenges,the Government opted to pass on the relief to the consumers and that too ina big way. In fact, the prices could have been slashed further if sit-ins poli-tics would not have negatively impacted the dollar-rupee parity. Anyhow,the relief provided by the Government is going to have positive impact onall sectors of the national economy and hopefully the decision would spurfurther growth. We have been pointing out in these columns that frequentincreases in prices of petroleum products and electricity tariff are not onlyaffecting the common man but also the industrial, commercial and agricul-tural sectors and in return to the overall national economy. It is in this back-drop that almost all segments of the society have welcomed the drastic cutin prices of petroleum products. However, we must point out that the deci-sion is unlikely to yield desired positive results for the common man untiland unless the Federal and Provincial Governments ensure its trickle downeffect. Fares of both passenger and goods transport went up repeatedly evenwhen there was a nominal increase in the price of petrol but transporters arenot ready to bring them down when the prices are considerably slashed.Last time as well, despite clear cut instructions of the Prime Minister, nei-ther Federal nor Provincial governments took any measure to ensure reduc-tion of fares. We would, therefore, urge the Prime Minister to see to it thatthis time round a substantial reduction in fares is also done. Similarly, in-dustrialists too are pocketing the profit and are not willing to bring downprices commensurate with reduction in prices of POL products as well as infuel adjustment portion of electricity tariff. We would also point out thatinstead of providing more relief for high octane and favouring the elite, theprice of petrol should have been slashed further. Anyhow, the reduction inprice would add to be popularity of the Government and we hope it wouldcontinue with people-friendly policies despite various odds.

Foreign Jehadistsbecome uncontrollable

ACCORDING to a UN report, foreign jihadists from more than 80 countries have flocked to fight in Iraq and Syria on an unprecedented scale.

It claims around 15,000 people have travelled to fight alongside IslamicState (IS) and other hardcore militants groups from countries that have notpreviously faced challenges relating to Al Qaeda. The rise of IS, its electrifying activities and the support it is allegedlygetting from different parts of the globe is a strange phenomenon. It is hardto believe that such a strong entity could emerge in the heart of civilizedworld, its members get right kind of training to fight regular forces effec-tively and receive both money and sophisticated weapons without any dif-ficulty. There are reasons to believe that like Taliban and Al Qaeda, themonster of IS is also being depicted disproportionately to serve as a jus-tification for a long term presence in an area that is crucial for the worldbecause of bulk of oil supplies. It is intriguing that in all instances whetherit is Taliban, al Qaeda, IS, Boko Haram or unrest in Muslim dominatedregions of China, Philippines and Chechnya, Islam is the target of propa-ganda campaign and Muslims are at the receiving end. One must realizethat the policies of the big powers to push the Muslims against the wall,are multiplying and compounding the problem of extremism and terror-ism. If unprecedented number of foreign jihadists from across the globehave really moved into Syria and Iraq, then it is time for those spearhead-ing campaign against terror for the last over one decade to pause andreview their strategies, as the use of barbaric force has not helped at all inmitigating the challenge, rather it is increasing day by day as terrorismand extremism becomes a state of mind and psyche.

Making privatisationmore controversial

DESPITE government’s assurance that no privatization of OGDCL wasbeing carried out, the opposition in the National Assembly on Friday

staged a walkout from the proceedings to record its protest over the policeviolence on protesting workers of the Oil and Gas Development CompanyLimited (OGDCL) and the privatisation policy of the government. Earlierthe combined opposition in the Upper House of Parliament on Thursdayalso continued its protest against the privatisation of OGDCL.

The OGDCL is making huge profit and sale of about ten percent sharesof the entity would generate required resources for the country for invest-ment in vital projects. The Supreme Court last month also allowed the Fed-eral government to start albeit partially, the privatization of OGDCL butbarred the Federation from transferring or selling its shares till the finalverdict on the matter. Responding to opposition’s protest in the NationalAssembly, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmedassured the House that no privatisation of the OGDCL was being carriedout. It is the right of the opposition to register its viewpoint on nationalissues but it should also recognize that running major entities is not the taskof the government and the private sector can better manage the commercialentities. The sale of ten percent shares and transfer of management to theprivate sector would not harm the interests of the workers and in fact fur-ther improve the profitability of the top oil and gas exploration company.The opposition should admit that except a few, most of the State OwnedEnterprises including Steel Mills, PIA and Railways are running in lossesand the government has to dole out hundreds of billions of rupees to keepthem afloat. For real economic growth and job creation to take place, moreentities need to enjoy autonomy to operate without government interfer-ence, which has clearly compromised the effective operation of our economy.We would, therefore, say that the opposition should not make privatizationof OGDCL more controversial as the country needs acceleration in explo-ration activities as it is facing acute shortage of gas and we are certain thatif the management of OGDCL is transferred to really professional people,it could speed up drilling activities and achieve still better results.

Resurging Russia

Of guns andchildren

UNFORTUNATely, manyAmericans, fiercely defensive about their right to

carry guns, are careless when itcomes to leaving their deadly weap-ons within easy reach of their kids.The consequences though can beterrible, especially for otherpeople’s children.Just a few daysago, Jaylen Fryberg, a 15-year-old,walked into his high school cafete-ria near Seattle and opened fire, kill-ing two teenaged girls. At least halfa dozen other teenagers were alsoinjured in the mindless attack. In-stances of American children,barely into their teens, picking upweapons at home and taking aim atothers is on the rise, but gun lob-bies are opposed to any restrictionson ownership of weapons.

In Fryberg’s case, the .40-cali-bre handgun was legally registeredin the name of the boy’s father andwas apparently easily accessible tothe kid. Combined with the fact thatgun violence is rampant on televi-sion screens and in numerous shows,the impact on young minds can bedeadly. According to the Brady Cam-paign to Prevent Gun Violence, aUS-based anti-gun lobby, in two-thirds of shootings in Americanschools, the kids got guns from theirhomes or those of their relatives.Many in the US are now demandingthat irresponsible parents should alsobe held accountable for the offencesof their kids. Sadly, in several recentcases, courts have let off parents andnot held them guilty for the crimescommitted by their children. Muchof it though is because of lack of fed-eral and state laws that could partlylay the blame on the parents.

Unfortunately, shooting — es-pecially by other kids and teens —is a leading cause of death amongAmerican children. The casual atti-tude towards gun violence in gen-eral results in a surprising lack ofseriousness about the consequencesof wielding weapons, whether inpublic or at home. Despite the grow-ing instances of children openingfire, just a couple of American stateshave laws governing guns and ac-cess to children. And with powerfullobbies opposing any restrictions onthe right to own weapons, it appearsunlikely that America will in the nearfuture adopt sensible laws restrain-ing the ownership and use of deadlyweapons. —Khaleej Times

*****

UAE playing akey role in anti-

piracy drive

IN the past week, Dubai hasplayed host to some 600 delegates from around the world,

gathering to debate and strategise onthe scourge of international piracyat sea. The history and geography ofthe UAE, at the focal point of trad-ing routes between North and South,East and West, has long been famil-iar to the maritime criminals whocommandeer ships and hold crewand cargo to ransom. It is, therefore,no surprise that the government ofthe UAE is taking a leading role incombating this scourge at sea.

The naval and logistical supportof the UAE is being harnessed to pro-vide a vanguard against the cut-throats and criminals who seize shipsand their crews on the high seas.Together with the international com-munity, the UAE is taking the fightto those who profiteer in their ille-gal and disdainful pursuit of piracy.The coastal territory and ports of partof the failed state of Somalia remainthe pirates’ lair from where shippingin the waters off the Horn of Africais terrorised.

Now, if Somali pirates are in-tent on taking a vessel, chances arethey will be intercepted by the ar-mada of international naval vesselspolicing these dangerous shippingroutes. But while European nationsmay offer a softer hand in interna-tional waters to pirates, there shouldbe no quarters given to these thugs— the strongest measures are nec-essary to send a strong messageback to the Somali pirate mastersthat their days — and those of theirunderlings — are indeed numbered.

Removing the root cause of pi-racy is a long and arduous process— one that requires building anewthe administrative and governmen-tal structures of Somalia. That isworthy in the long term. In the shortterm, sharp action against pirates atsea and against their wharves andjetties in lawless coastal communi-ties will deter and curtail piracy —and the sooner that happens the bet-ter. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

RUSSIA is well-harnessingthe international diversity.The charismatic and

shrewd leadership of the RussianPresident, Vladimir Putin has sub-dued Obama in the Middle Eastcrisis. It is very true that in spiteof hard struggles by the EU andUSA, both could not let down theBasher ul Assad led governmentin Syria mainly due to Russia andIran. America has to make a ma-jor policy shift in the region andbeyond. Europe is under pressuredue to Russian monopoly on gas,thus, is getting rid of Americancontrol as did President Charles deGaulle of France in 1966 by leav-ing NATO against American he-gemony on the organization.

In Ukraine the American andEuropean policies are on back foot.Iran’s nuclear issue is being ami-cably solved due to Russia. Russiais enjoying its biggest navel drillswith China in the South China Seaand also going to have Naval exer-cises first time in the Arabian Seawith Pakistan. Russia has almostdeveloped good and trusted tieswith the Muslim world because ofUS-West hypocrisy and doublestandards against the Muslims.

In the real politics, US-Westand Russia or the others all haveovert and covert, converged anddiverged interests in the world.Overall, the P5, the veto-hoodcountries seek actual power in theworld and intend to put it undertheir control. Divergence comeswhen each of these countries de-mands lion’s share in the globalgovernance. USA which became

Knowledge: A problem with regimes

MODERN forms of government are under stress because of the information

systems that are prevalent in thegovernance of a country. Rules andregulations that were operative inthe past decades, are no longer rel-evant. So how does a governmentdeal with obsolete rules and regu-lations? Should a government closeits eyes and bury its head in thesand? Or should it have some per-sons to deal with and reverse theprocess of ongoing stagnation. Thisused to be provided by the Plan-ning Commission and the umbrellaorganizations.

This has not been happeningfor sometime as these public ser-vice organizations are no longer inthat business. Why is that? The rea-son simply is that the persons head-ing these organizations are nolonger posted on merit. That is eas-ily said than done. How shouldmerit be determined in a posting? Iposed this question to Lew KwanYeo. The measure of output is justnot there. Hs thesis was different.He wanted the civil servant to beat par with the private sector; diffi-cult but doable. His selection pro-cess was detached and he had noth-ing to do with it. Unlike in Paki-stan where no one can be eligiblefor a job unless he has loyalty writ-ten on his face; merit had nothingto do with the appointment.

Over the years we have zom-bie like behaviour from our top bu-reaucracy. The political system is

Honesty is thebest policy.

different. It was never in therun for good governance. Itwas always in the run for im-proper selfishness translatedinto asset formation by hookor by crook. This cliché isnow outmoded. I happened to

go though the asset list submitted tothe ECP after the last election andthe sample study indicated howmuch assets were collected by eachindividual. There seemed to be noexception to the rule; the more pow-erful the political person the morethe assets. Quantified they would runinto billions of rupees. I then didanother check by adding partymember’s assets. The assets weremore than the budgets of the Prov-inces. Is this going to be a WelfareState as enjoined in the 1940 reso-lution? It certainly cannot be.

Come to the biggest issues? Willwe be able to handle the energy is-sues? When they announcedKhawaja Asif whom I know well asthe Minister for Water and Power, Ithought that the Nawaz Governmentis serious. Then I saw the same sortof policy options that had failed inthe past. In the early 21st Century, Iwent as a consultant on bio-fuels toUSA [Texas] and to Italy and Sicily.It was an opportunity provided bythe corporate sector based in Dubai.On reaching Rio Grande [on theMexico-USA border] I saw whatwas happening. Texas A&M Univer-sity professors were busy in the con-sulting business. I asked them howmuch they had spent on this projectso far and the answer came a stag-gering 22.5 million dollars. But Isaid that the decision could havebeen made by spending 2.5 dollars.The Professor took me aside and saidthat this is a brilliant opportunity tomake money. I stated that I was not

on this mission. The experience withscience led professor made me be-lieve that sharp practices are notdone away with unless there isstrong ethical education.

Back home it gave me the op-portunity to work on bio-fuels and aCanadian company Kijane compris-ing of expatriate Pakistanis living inCanada offered as a grant 140,000Canadian dollars as grant. Their onlyrequirement was that a mutation ofland for this project be sent to themto indicate the seriousness of thegovernment. The plant we had inmind and on which we had done alot of work in Umer Kot andBahawalpur, has a life of 150 yearsand a drought tolerance of five yearsbut it can survive on the most salinewater as well. Tailor made for Thar,Cholistan and Baluchistan. Wesigned an MOU with the company.They had also promised schools,hospitals in the areas, besides jobsfor about 10 to 15 thousand locals.Too good to be true!! I received atelephone call from a Delhi basedjournalist who asked me whether Iwould be able to do this.

My reply was that I saw no rea-son why I could not. I asked her tosend me an e-mail. She did so on29th July 2004. When we did thecosting diesel would have beenavailable at Rs.9 per litre. But therewas a mafia that was against this ledby a petrol company and backed bya foreign dignitary. The Ministerswere also against this. They firstwent to the Environment Minister ofSindh; he was former bureaucrat andhe knew me and he refused to ac-cept the massaged data. They thenturned to the foreign dignitary seek-ing an intervention at the highestlevel. The representative of that per-son was also known to me. At 11.30

sole superpower after the disinte-gration of USSR in 1990 is nowfacing many rivals in the contem-porary world. The Russian wolf hasslipped from the Arctic Ocean. Re-surgence of Russia can be analyzedon its gaining military might, revi-talizing economic strengths, en-hancing energy exports and diplo-matic sagacity. Russian inclinationto Ukraine and other Eastern Euro-pean countries like Poland, Geor-gia, Estonia is natural because thecountries are attached with deepsocial, cultural, and historical ties.Why has Britain recently made ahard struggle to not let Scotlandindependent? Kiev, the capital ofUkraine is said the mother of Rus-sian cities. NATO’s decision to cre-ate spearhead force to protectUkraine is of no avail.

Russia is the second largest drygas and third largest liquid fuelsproducer and nuclear power andfourth largest in installed capacityin the world. Along with weaponindustry, energy exports are themajor strengths of Russia. Russianweaponry exports are 27 percent ofthe world exports. Russian currencyrubble has witnessed twenty per-cent decline in its value this yearbut it is not of that when it was de-valued around thirty percent in2008 and seventy percent in Au-gust, 1998 during economic crunch.But the fact is that Russianeconomy has only depreciatedwhen the country has entered intoa war: during 1980’s it was en-tangled in Afghanistan, in 1998 itwas in wrangle with Chechnya, in2008 it was the fallout of GFC andnow it is bearing the costs onUkraine, Crimean integration, un-even budgetary spending and thesustainability of the rubble. TheEurasian Economic Union or the

Eurasian Union which came intobeing on May 29, 2014 and willcome into effect on January 1, 2015was signed by Russia, Belarus,Kazakhstan and Armenia both foreconomic and political ambitions.Along with SCO, the EU will defi-nitely counter the European Union.One EU is coming parallel to an-other EU. Eurasian DevelopmentBank which is started with $45 bil-lion will soon replace the influenceof World Bank in the region. TheNew Development Bank or theBRICS Development Bank is an-other alternative to US dominatedWB and IMF whereas in the recentsurvey conducted by EuropeanBanking Authority, twenty four keybanks among the 124 surveyedbanks have failed to meet their fi-nancial stability in the Europe. ThusBRICS is an additional Russian fi-nancial strength.

The budget deficit of Russiawas 1.3 percent of GDP previousyear; on the other hand it stood at3.3 percent for the European Union.In Russia, the government debt to-talled only 13 percent of the GDP,whereas during the preceding year,it was 87 percent in the EU. Thecountry has fifth largest economywith more than $6 trillion andaround $500 billion of foreign ex-change reserves with a labour forcearound 80 million. Since WW-II,US-West have imposed sanctionson Russia for six times but theyhave never worked. Such sanctionsmay probably cause some eco-nomic damages but they on theother hand are uniting Russiansagainst US-West as well.

The Collective Security TreatyOrganization which after Warsawpact was signed by six post sovietstates Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and

Uzbekistan, on May 15, 1992 andwas later on joined by Belarus,Georgia and Azerbaijan thoughUzbekistan has left it in 2012 but ithas now become an Intergovern-mental Military Organization safe-guarding Russia against US andNATO. Russia is making alliancesand is realigning the old ones. InEU, the key country, Germany isgoing to become the staunch allyof Russia. Russia has last weeksigned a landmark thirty years gastrade agreement with China whenon its eve Putin said that China andRussia are natural partners, alliesand neighbours. The both countriesare in a formidable alliance.

The world is witnessing newthreats, challenges and opportuni-ties every day. Successful are thecountries that avert the challengesinto opportunities. Otherwise, vul-tures are wandering all around tosuck the weak economies by ex-ploiting their challenges. Guaran-teed sovereignty based on eco-nomic self reliance with democrati-cally competent leadership can re-veal this dream. On Russian front,if it wants to get respectable statusin the world, it has to on one sidetruly lead the US-West stung coun-tries by overcoming their grievesand challenges, and on the otherhand has to maintain its domesticsocial cohesion, good institutionalgovernance and major share in theglobal energy landscape keeping inview the paradigm shifts, demandsand developments at internationalstratum as well spending on R&D.Above all, Russia should diversifyits economy and get out of the en-ergy exports dependency if it wantsto play more effective role in theglobal arena.—The writer is freelancecolumnist.

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pm, I received a call from the high-est office telling me to stop this in-tervention. Had the project gonethrough the present position in Tharwould not have taken place. Butsilly as we are, we made idiots ofourselves to please others. I canname some more of the same fromthe governments of different hueand colour. No single governmentis responsible. All of them are.

What would have happened toour electricity bills? Would theyhave not come down? Let them tellthe nation the price at which theyare importing the fossil fuel. I hada look at the same when workingin a different capacity. The way Pa-kistan is losing on this is unimag-inable. The cost will not decreaserather given this the need is tochange strides and seek a betterworld for the people. But the peopleof Pakistan are no one’s responsi-bility. Pretty soon you will be leftholding your own and no one willcome to your rescue. If you cannotdo this, use Arando Domax[sarkanda]. This can give you fur-nace oil. But then you do not haveany processing engineers; you haveelectrical, mechanical, and civilengineers and an occasional aero-nautical engineer. The energy cri-sis will not go away if you baseyour actions on electrical engineersor their cohorts. I will take any oneon a challenge in this from amongstthe engineers or the political sys-tem. Life is much more than mak-ing money. Try living in truth andthe life will be well worth it. Evennow the art of making electricitycheaply is not lost. It can be done.But why have an irresponsible andimpotent WAPDA.—The writer is a retired FederalSecretary.

Dr Zafar AltafEmail:dr_altaf@hotmail.com

Zulqarnain Sewag Email:dcjhang@yahoo.com

Voice of the People

Improve healthcover for people

GHLAM NABI

According to a news report, the In-ternational Crisis Group haswarned that it is a highly danger-ous situation for Pakistan that itsforeign and national security poli-cies are formulated by its militaryauthorities, because of the massivecorruption, mis-governance andinefficiency of the politicians andthe civilian governments. As a re-sult, Pakistan is surrounded allaround by a hostile environmentresulting in its continuing economicfailure. The military institutions arenot subject to taxpayers’ oversightand no one knows how much fi-nancial irregularity prevails withinthe military establishments.

Although the health departmentof a defence establishment would bea poor index of its general perfor-mance, yet a peak into one of itshospitals, such as the CMH Multan,may reveal the tip of an iceberg inthis regard. As the successive gov-ernments have paid little attentionto the social sector development -education and health being the worstaffectees – and there is a big short-age of hospitals in the civilian sec-tor to cater for the needs of the fastgrowing population, the people areforced to seek medical help at thiscolonial-days Combined MilitaryHospital established in 1879, des-ignated also to serve the civilianpopulation in those days, by the co-lonial authorities.

The honourable Parliament ofPakistan is requested to pass lawsto impel the government to estab-lish more hospitals and health cen-tres to match the growing popula-tion and also regulate the militaryhospitals on more humanitariangrounds. The Military institutionsshould also be made subject to ci-vilian audit to provide for checks andbalances in the military establish-ment to pull the country out of itseconomic morass.—Multan

Dharna show &simple audience

KHURRAM AWAN

Pakistan is the country where everyperson considers himself as a betterpolitician as compared to those inthe government. There is no restric-tion on any person to say anythingabout the government and criticizeopenly about the different issues.Political condition of the country isconsidered to be the backbone of theeconomy of the nation. If a countyhas a weak political system, it willobviously have less developmentprojects because the foreign inves-tors cannot afford to work and in-vest in a country they think to bepolitically unstable. As far as SouthAsia is concerned, Pakistan is fac-ing such type of problems consis-tently for the last six decades.

Every form of government sys-tem has been tried in this country,like Presidential form of govern-ment, Parliamentary form of gov-ernment and Military Martial Laws,but all failed to make the countrypowerful and developed. Now in thepresent scenario, the Dharna showshave affected the people for morethan two months under the so-calledInqalabi leader Tahir ul Qadri andcompany. They have destroyed thegovernment official buildings andpolluted the Red Zone area verybadly but no one has asked himabout this blunder. Followers ofAwami Tehreek should ask fromtheir leader that why he went toCanada after playing political stuntand fake political speeches.

Why has he not discarded hisdual nationality and double stan-dard. This is a huge drama playedfor the sake of some unknown ben-efits. People of Pakistan are verysimple to accept a foreigner as theirfreedom leader; now the reality ofdharna and its objectives is revealed.Now it’s the time that people shouldawake and understand the reality asto who is sincere with the country.This sort of so-called revolutionaryleaders should be treated medicallyand followers should avoid nexttime to get trapped in their nets.People of Pakistan should workdawn to dusk to make the countrystrong and economically strengthen,

Police torture on handicappedRAJA GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN

The other day, the most shocking news was telecast by a Cable network TV that one ASI police officerhas brutally beaten an innocent handicapped (invalid) person, thus fracturing one hand and one leg

of the unfortunate soul who is now lying in a hospital for medical treatment. It is not an incident whichis happened for the first time in Pakistan; if we study the newspapers of past many years, a number ofsuch cases of police brutality and high-handedness upon innocent citizens are found on the press record.Now question arises as to who has empowered police to beat faultless and innocent persons by misusingtheir authority. I think that such cruel and corrupt police officers do not fear from. I would request thePrime Minister to take a serious notice of the event and set right the working of Police Department ofthis Islamic country of Pakistan. Stringent and exemplary action should be taken against all those cruelinhuman, beast-like and heartless Police officials who have become habitual of abusing power.—Rawalpindi

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View From Abroad

Fighting tax evasion together

WE are witnessing profoundchanges in the way that theworld economy works. As

a result of the growing pace and in-tensity of globalization and digitiza-tion, more and more economic pro-cesses have an international dimen-sion. As a consequence, an increasingnumber of businesses are adaptingtheir structures to domestic and for-eign legal systems and taxation laws.

Thanks to technical advances inthe digital economy, companies canserve markets without having to bephysically present in them. At thesame time, sources of income havebecome more mobile: There is an in-creasing focus on intangible assetsand mobile investment income thatcan easily be “optimized” from a taxpoint of view and transferred abroad.

Tax legislation has not kept pacewith these developments. Most ofthe tax-allocation principles that ap-ply today date back to a time whendoing business internationally pri-marily meant transporting goodsacross a border to a neighboringcountry. But rules that were devisedfor this in the 1920s and 1930s areno longer suitable for today’s inter-national integration of economic pro-cesses and corporate structures. They

need to be adapted to the economicreality of digital services.

In the absence of workable rules,states are losing revenue that they ur-gently need in order to fulfill their re-sponsibilities. At the same time, theissue of fair taxation is becoming moreand more pressing, because the num-ber of taxpayers who make an ad-equate contribution to financing pub-lic goods and services is decreasing.

The resulting tensions between na-tional fiscal sovereignty and theborderless scope of today’s businessactivities can be resolved only throughinternational dialogue and uniformglobal standards. Within the EuropeanUnion, permitting groups of states toforge ahead with joint solutions to is-sues that can be addressed only multi-laterally has worked well in the past.If such measures prove successful,other states follow.

This approach can also serve asa global governance model for re-solving international problems. Intoday’s world, even large states can-not establish and enforce interna-tional frameworks on their own.Groups of countries still can. Thishas been demonstrated in the con-text of financial-market regulation;it is starting to become clear withregard to the regulatory frameworkfor the digital economy; and it is nowbeing confirmed in the area of taxa-tion. The 7th Meeting of the Global

Forum on Transparency and Ex-change of Information for Tax Pur-poses took place in Berlin this week,bringing together representativesfrom 122 countries and jurisdictions,as well as the EU. A joint agreementon the automatic exchange of infor-mation on financial accounts wassigned on Wednesday.

The joint agreement was origi-nally an initiative by Germany,France, Italy, the United Kingdom,and Spain. Roughly 50 early-adoptercountries and territories decided totake part, while other countries haveindicated their willingness to join.

The agreement is based on theCommon Reporting Standard, whichwas developed by the OECD. Underthe CRS, tax authorities receive infor-mation from banks and other finan-cial service providers and automati-cally share it with tax authorities inother countries. In the future, virtuallyall of the information connected to abank account will be reported to thetax authorities of the account holder’scountry. Various measures are in placeto ensure that banks can identify thebeneficial owner and notify the rel-evant tax authorities accordingly.

The CRS thus expands the scopeof global, cross-border cooperationamong national tax authorities. In thisway, we can establish a regulatoryframework for the age of globaliza-tion. The automatic exchange of in-

Wolfgang Schauble

G-B: Past, present & future

ONE of the main and often forgotten blunders of the PPPduring their different stints in

power is the sell-out of the hopes andaspirations of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. This is a historical factthough the PPP tries to hide it as theyare hiding other blunders as wellcounting on the short memory of thepublic. But not all is forgotten andespecially not forgiven; some of usdo remember what happened in past.

The people of Gilgit-Baltistanhad liberated themselves from theclutches of the Maharaja of Jammuand Kashmir in 1948 declared acces-sion to Pakistan at that time and inreturn Federal government sentSardar Alam Khan as the first Politi-cal agent to Gilgit with an APA forBaltistan. This decision to attachGilgit-Baltistan to the newly foundedstate of Pakistan was accepted andbecame part of the Karachi Agree-ment that was later signed in 1949between the then President of theAzad Kashmir Sardar MuhammadIbrahim and Ch. Ghulam Abbas andthe Government of Pakistan inKarachi under Liaquat Ali Khan. Butone wonders why Pakistan neverhonoured this commitment. GilgitBaltistan has strategic importance dueto adjoining borders with Pakistan’sAzad Kashmir in the southwest, thePakistani Province of KhyberPakhtunkhwa in the west, theWakhan Corridor of Afghanistan inthe northwest that has link withCARs, the Xinjiang Uyghur of Chinain the north and northeast and theIndian occupied territory of Jammuand Kashmir in the southeast.

It was in 1974 that Mr. Bhuttoduring first International Jurist con-ference asked me to meet the PPPSecretary General Dr. MubasharHasan and help to pave way for em-powerment of the people of GilgitBaltistan and particularly refugees ofKargil/Ladakh living in different cit-ies of Pakistan. All preparations weremade accordingly but when the newstatus for Gilgit-Baltistan was to beannounced Z. A. Bhutto’s Special As-sistant Mr. Yousaf Buch who alsohailed from Srinagar advised him notto empower people of Northern Ar-eas till the resolution of the Kashmir

issue through plebiscite andBhutto took the easy road andwent along with that. During his1975 visit to Gilgit Baltistan heconstituted a 23 member PPPcommittee on Gilgit-Baltistan inthe Prime Minister’s House at

Rawalpindi where Col Hassan Khanwho was designated as senior VPobjected to the composition of thecommittee saying that it is less rep-resenting the political people andmore the informers of the Gilgit ad-ministration. Col Hasan Khan thehero of the Gilgit freedom strugglewas arrested by Bhutto’s administra-tion and later released on impositionof martial law in 1977.

Then came blunder after blunder:During Ziaul Haq days, a committeeunder then Establishment SecretaryIjlal Hyder Zaidi was formed to sug-gest constitutional reforms in Gilgit-Baltistan; after many months-longdeliberation when efforts were beingmade by two powerful lobbies fromKPK & Punjab to get Gilgit-Baltistanterritory attached administrativelywith either of the two. Two local se-nior officers Wazir Farman Ali andAbdul Wahid serving in Federal gov-ernment, who got a chance to beheard resented the moves of ResidentCommissioner Mr. Inyatullah Khanand Mr. Iftikhar. Ijalal Hyder got con-vinced and refrained from doing thesame. Then as a result of non-partyelection when Mr. Junejo becamePrime Minister, observer status wasgranted to 2 gentlemen one each fromGilgit & Baltistan in Federal Parlia-ment, which continued till 1995-6.

Now again a new attempt is un-derway. A Sub-Committee of the Sen-ate Human Rights Committee hasbeen tasked to recommend amend-ments in the Gilgit-Baltistan (Em-powerment and Self-governance)Order 2009 to empower the peopleof the area under political expediency.Even after a lot of hue and cry in2009, the PPP government dealt withthe aspiration of wishes of people ofGilgit-Baltistan insufficiently. Theyagain stopped short of making Gilgit-Baltistan a full-fledged Province con-stitutionally and instead just gavethem a PPP Chief Minister whowould do nothing for the region andits people. Instead of a ProvincialAssembly and representation in sen-ate a powerless council was institutedthat operates from Islamabad and ismanned by the bureaucrats of theFederal Government instead of rep-resentatives of the local people. Un-

der the Rules of Business the powersof the Council are exercised in itsname by the Ministry of KashmirAffairs and Gilgit-Baltistan whichregulates and controls the adminis-tration of the area directly. The peopleof Gilgit-Baltistan have been protest-ing against this new cheating fromday one but under the PPP govern-ment, no redress of their plight waspossible. The earlier result of Em-powerment and Self governance 2009has been that once again ten to fif-teen thousand of the political croniesof PPP were given employment ingovernment departments without anyvacancies. The result is that the gov-ernment employees don’t get salaryfor 4 to 5 months. ADP funds are di-verted for payment of salary, moneyallocated for wheat subsidy is alsospent on salary payment, this salaryhead of account is creating extra li-ability of Rs. 750 million annually.Power development projects startedduring Musharraf regime are on holdand no new project is conceived and4 XENs of NAPWD are suspendedfor quite long as surplus, while jiyalasare being fed on this money. Is thisthe PPP empowerment vision?

Hence the need for a genuinelyrepresentative Provincial Assemblyand representation in Senate is re-quired to establish transparency inGilgit-Baltistan. The current Sub-Committee consisting of 3 Senators,Mian Raza Rabbani, MushahidHussain and Farhatullah Babar, isnow crying over spilt milk when theysay that ‘no share in the profits earnedfrom the hydro-electric power sta-tions located in Gilgit-Baltistan andon river Indus goes to the territory,that Gilgit Baltistan is neither in thenational grid, nor even part of a re-gional grid. It does not even have aBoard of Intermediate and Second-ary Education and examinations areconducted by the Islamabad Boardand the Committee concludes ‘ Nowonder that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan not only feel deprived butalso cheated’. Regardless of history,if the Senate Committee would fi-nally be able to provide Provincialstatus and local self-government toGilgit-Baltistan, this would be notonly a tremendous service to thesepeople who for many decades havebeen neglected but it would also fi-nally include Gilgit-Baltistan territoryinto Pakistan – not a small achieve-ment given the aggressive Kashmirpolicy of the Modi government ofIndia which in my opinion has re-

ceived tacit approval internationallyand is now aggressively trying tousurp Laddakh and Jammu as a bar-gaining chip to give semi-indepen-dent status to Valley and our AJKterritory. This means the territory ofGilgit-Baltistan has bleak future indays to come if rulers in Pakistancontinue to play for foreign galler-ies for selfish personal motives.

The Kashmir conflict thatstarted in 1947 is a territorial dis-pute between India and Pakistanover the Kashmir region, when Brit-ish India was separated into the twostates of Pakistan and India. As partof the partition process, both coun-tries had agreed that the rulers ofprincely states would be allowed toopt for membership of either Paki-stan or India, or in special cases toremain independent. India claimsKashmir on the basis of an Instru-ment of Accession obtained underpressure from Maharaja Hari Singh,then ruler of Kashmir. Pakistanclaims Kashmir on the basis of itbeing a Muslim majority area andof geography, the same principlesthat were applied for the creationof the two independent states ofIndia and Pakistan. India referredthe dispute to the United Nationson 1st January 1948. UN passed anumber of resolutions in 1948, theUN asked Pakistan and India towithdraw their troops. A plebiscitewould then be held, US navy admi-ral Chester Nimitz was appointedas plebiscite administrator by UN,but there was no progress.

Eversince, the Kashmir conflictcontinues to be the main bone ofcontention in the Indo-Pak relations.It has cost dearly to all of the sidesinvolved: India, Pakistan and last butnot least the Kashmiri people. Pres-sure should be mounted on UN toimplement its resolutions on Kash-mir to mitigate the suffering of in-nocent Kashmiris then consider tak-ing the case before InternationalGenocide commission. With the newaggressive Indian government inplace the hope for a plebiscite andan amicable resolution of the con-flict is even scanter than before. It isimportant that Pakistan secures theterritory under its care not only forstrategic or political reasons, but forthe reasons of the trust of the peopleof Gilgit-Baltistan which they hadput into Pakistan so many years ago.God Bless Humanity and Pakistan.—The writer is Karachi-basedsenior columnist.

formation is a pragmatic and effec-tive response to the perceived lackof global governance regarding in-ternational tax issues. By makingtaxation fairer, governments willhave a positive impact on people’sacceptance of their tax regimes.

This great success in the fightagainst international tax evasionwould have been unthinkable onlya few years ago. Now it is impor-tant to continue the efforts of theOECD and the G20 in the area ofcorporate taxation. We need to makesure that creative tax planning in theform of profit-shifting and artificialprofit reduction is no longer a lu-crative business model.

A “beggar-thy-neighbor” taxa-tion policy, by which one countrypursues tax policies at the expenseof others, is just as dangerous as beg-gar-thy-neighbor monetary policiesbased on competitive currency de-valuation. It leads to misallocations— and will ultimately reduce pros-perity around the world. That is whywe need to agree on uniform inter-national standards in order toachieve fair international tax com-petition. The progress achieved inBerlin on the automatic exchangeof tax information shows that, byworking together, we can realizethis goal.— The writer is Germany’sFederal Minister of Finance.—Courtesy: Arab News

Wasted talents..!

SITTING behind a desk fordays, writing, has its drawbacks I discovered when I

took my shoes over to the shoeshop. “New shoes!” he said look-ing at the pair. “Quite old,” I said,“nearly three years!” “They’re stillas good as new!”

“But the soles have gone!” Icomplained, “they started fallingapart!” “That’s what happenswhen you don’t use them,” hesaid, “polyurethane soles are thebest but have to be used con-stantly! Otherwise they disinte-

grate!” “You mean,” I asked incredu-lously, “the soles got worn out be-cause they were not used?”

“Yep,” he said and made out a billfor new soles, “you can pick them upon Saturday but same thing will hap-pen if you don’t use them.” I wanderedout of the shop and looked around,there were hundreds of people walk-ing, running, rushing, all wearing dif-ferent kinds of foot wear. I looked care-fully at shoes and footwear that sud-denly seemed to catch my eye. Noneof them looked new. I’m sure theywere clean when they left their housesin the morning, but now looked used,dusty, unpolished and dirty.

I looked closely at their soles;some were worn out to the right, someto the left, some ragged in the front,

shabby and tattered at the back; therewas one pair with frayed shoe laces,another with a bit of toe showing, andstill another on its last legs with piecesof rubber hanging on for dear life!

But wonder of wonders, as Ilooked closer, I noticed that thoughmost of them looked careworn andknackered, bushed and run down, therewas not a pair that looked unhappy!Now I know you’re going to turn tome and say, “Come now man, there’sno thing like happy shoes!” But thereare. All those pairs looked pleased,mighty pleased with themselves asthey walked and ran and pushed andkicked and strutted around.

I looked back through the glasswindows into the shop. My shoeswere still on the counter. I guess the

salesman was still waiting for thechap from the repair department tocome and take them away. Theylooked fine to me, if you didn’tlook farther down at the non- ex-istent soles.

But there was no joy. Theylooked tired, unhappy and dejected.“We were meant to be used!” theyscreamed at me silently through theglass. I walked a little faster to mycar before they hurled themselvesat me, and as I sat inside, wonderedwhat else in my life were like mypair of shoes, disintegrating becauseI wasn’t using them. What talents,skills, abilities and gifts were lyingwrapped up, all nice and shiny inshowcases; waiting to fall apart..!—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com

Ali Ashraf KhanEmail:balti1551@gmail.com

get rid of the corrupt politicians andofficials, elect honest and uprightpeople for the Assemblies, be sincereto the country and the nation; if theydo so, then no one like Tahir ul Qadrior Imran Khan will think of Dharnas.—Via email

Dual jobholders of PCB

GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN

Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB)chairman Shaharyar Khan has de-cided that all those who are doingmultiple jobs will now have to de-cide on only one job. Currentlythere is a debate in the media thatMoin Khan is holding dual post ofChief Selector and Manager of thenational cricket team. I think thatPCB should remove all the employ-ees who have dual role - either theyshould work for PCB or work fortheir organizations.

Other PCB employees who areholding dual jobs are Selection Com-mittee members like Ijaz Ahmad(NCA official), Shoaib Mohammad(GM Sports, PIA), Saleem Yousuf(currently with Pakistan ‘A’ team inthe UAE as Manager and also anemployee of Customs), MohammadAkram (NCA head coach),Wajahatullah Wasti (ZTBL coach)are all holding dual jobs. The samesituation also prevails in the NationalJunior Selection Committee withBasit Ali being the head of the jun-ior selection committee in additionto working with his departmentalteam Sui Northern Gas Pipelines ascoach besides being PCB’s consult-ant for Zone-I.

Ali Zia is another case in hand,for he is also Senior General Man-ager NCA as well as member of theSelection Committee besides Man-ager of the National U-19 team.Also, junior selector Ali Naqvi isperforming his duties as coach of theKhan Research Laboratories whileShahid Aslam is currently serving asassistant coach of the nationalcricket team besides holding aManager’s job at the NCA.

Even members of the Board ofGovernors have dual jobs, such asNajam Sethi, who is also working forGeo TV channel and Shakeel Shaikhwho also works for The News news-paper. Now there is news that NajamSethi is the Pakistan nominee for thepost of ICC President. I think PCBshould nominate these people likeArif Ali Khan Abbasi, Majid Khanor Ehsan Mani who have excellentreputation and goodwill in interna-tional circles; as PCB is seeking im-provement in its relations with ICCmembers, along with the possibilityof inviting foreign teams for crickettours to Pakistan in the near future.Najam Sethi has no experience ofhandling the cricket issue.—Karachi

Pakistan’schallenges today

TANIYA SAIFUDDIN

Islamic Republic of Pakistan haspopulation of 186 million. A land fullof natural resources, after 67 yearsof independence is still a developing,rather an under-developed thirdworld, country. Majority of Pakistan’spopulation is living in rural areaswithout basic necessities and are liv-ing on IMF, World Bank and USAIDloans and fundings. In Pakistan thefinancial gap between rich and pooris widening day by day. Pakistan isrich in raw resources and continuesto be a third world country due to theproblems it is facing.

According to analysis conductedby HEC, shows that the poverty levelin Pakistan has increased roughlyfrom 40% to 50% during the pastdecade. The poor is going to bepoorer. Officially, Pakistan’s literacyrate is 50% which means that half ofthe population is illiterate and thosewho are termed as literate can onlyread and write, which is in today’sglobalized world considered as illit-erate. Due to all this, the country isadopting the technologies at snail’sspeed. The matter of balancing ofelectricity supply remains un-re-solved and the load shedding is in-creasing day by day.

Pakistan is facing fatal problemsdue to the excessive corruption. Weget foreign loans and aid on verytough terms to develop the countryand improve the living conditions of

the masses, but the nation sees nodevelopment. Terrorism is anothermajor problem in Pakistan. Thewhole world looks Pakistan as a landof Terrorists. According to the offi-cial sources, the growth rate of Paki-stan is 2% of the 160 million popula-tion which turns out to be roughlyabout 2.3 million every year. In 1990Pakistan’s share was 0.20% of theworld trade; but after 20 years it hasgone down to 0.12% in worldeconomy. According to WHO 4 mil-lion cases of pneumonia, malaria, di-arrhoea and skin diseases have beencaused by floods. From October 15to 22, WHO reported about 258,300cases of such diseases, which wereprovided consultations. Pakistan isday by day moving towards destruc-tion such challenges facing Pakistanare ruining the economic growth aswell as reputation in the world com-munity.—Karachi

Malala’sgenerosity

SYED SADAQAT HUSSAIN

It would be good to hear a nice newsthat Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani girl has been awardedthe Nobel Peace Prize this year. Af-ter receiving this worthy and promi-nent world award, Malala has gener-ously donated $50,000 from a sepa-rate prize to rebuild a United Nationsschool in the Gaza Strip damagedduring this summer’s war betweenIsrael and Hamas. This action fordonation money for a noble cause andfor eradication of illiteracy from theworld, would be considered a sign ofMalala’s love and passion for theimportance of education. WorldChildren’s Prize is another pride andhonour to Malala and her cause as shehas given many sacrifices at her na-tive place for spreading of education.She had been targeted by the Islamicfundamentalist militants and as a re-sult she was critically wounded.

According to the United Nationsagency which assists Palestinian refu-gees, Ms. Yousafzai was donating allproceeds of the $50,000 WorldChildren’s Prize, which she collectedin Stockholm in the recent days. Theagency quoted her as saying that Pal-estinian children deserve quality edu-cation and that “without education,there will never be peace.”

Dozens of the United Nations-run schools in Gaza were damagedor destroyed during the 50-day war.Israel says it fired near schools be-cause it was responding to attacks byHamas, the Islamic militant group,from those areas. Ms. Yousafzai wonthis year’s Nobel Peace Prize for pro-moting girls’ rights in Pakistan. Shewas shot in the head by a Talibangunman two years ago, and has sincelived in England, where she was takenfor treatment.

The dream of enlightenment ofMalala is a theme of progressive,prosperous and peaceful world. Nodoubt her native country is burningin the flames of sectarianism, racism,regionalism, radicals’ ideology of vio-lence, etc. This award is an encour-agement for her to go forward andbelieve in herself. Her pledge anddetermination is not to support theideology of a handful of culprits whoare threatening the world peace. Hercomposite and comprehensive strat-egy to establish peace through a lit-erate world would be an awesomeeffort, which is applauded by the civilsocieties.

Cold and isolating weather ofEngland does not make any hindrancein her education, thoughts and energy.She feels herself and her family safethere. She is focused on attendinguniversity. She would like to study atOxford, followed perhaps by gradu-ate school in the United States. Wepray for Malala’s dreams come truefor a beautiful living world.— Karachi

GHIA NODIA

THE Ukraine crisis has shattered keyWestern assumptions about Russia, andmany analysts and policymakers have

fallen back on the belief that Russian Presi-dent Vladimir Putin must be acting irratio-nally. But it is Western assumptions that needto be questioned. In particular, what has madeRussia so keen to undermine the current in-ternational order, first in Georgia in 2008 andnow in Ukraine?

On the surface, these campaigns seemlike post-imperial territorial conflicts. Rus-sia, according to this view, recognizes thatit cannot get its old empire back, so it ischipping away at neighboring territories in-stead, justifying its actions by a nebulousconcept of ethnic and historical justice.And, like Serbia’s former PresidentSlobodan Milosevic, Putin dresses up for-eign aggression as national salvation inorder to bolster his domestic popularity andmarginalize his opponents.

The spread of Western values and insti-tutions is precisely what Putin fears most.

Putin’s approach closely resembles thevision set out by Russian Nobel laureateAlexander Solzhenitsyn in his 1990 essay“Rebuilding Russia.” Referring to the formerSoviet satellite states, he suggested lettingthose “ungrateful peoples” go, but keepingRussia’s rightful territories, such as easternand southern Ukraine, northern Kazakhstan

The Cold War and the Cold Shoulder for Russiaand eastern Estonia, with their ethnic Russianpopulations, and Georgia’s Abkhazia and SouthOssetia, which are cultural extensions ofRussia’s North Caucasus.

But it would be misleading to portray Putinas merely another out-of-control national roman-tic. He singled out Georgia and Ukraine not toredeem Russians’ emotional commitment toSouth Ossetia or Crimea, but to punish thosecountries for their dangerous liaisons with theWest — in particular, Georgia’s ambition to joinNATO and Ukraine’s desire to sign an associa-tion agreement with the European Union. In-deed, Russia’s reaction is consistent with itsrecurrent discourse about being “squeezed out”of its own neighborhood and “encircled” byhostile Western powers.

Western politicians’ vain attempts to con-vince Putin that the eastward expansion ofNATO and the EU would benefit Russia by cre-ating a zone of peace and prosperity along itsborders were naive and insulting. It is not forAmericans or Europeans, however reasonablethey may sound, to tell Russia what is or is notin its interests.

From the current Russian regime’s perspec-tive, declarations that EU and NATO expansionis about spreading values, accountable institu-tions and good governance, not military or eco-nomic competition, is beyond hypocritical.

The spread of Western values and institu-tions is precisely what Putin fears most. Sup-porting democracy on Russia’s borders can havea dangerous “demonstration” effect, by encour-

aging ordinary Russians to demand the samefor themselves. Indeed, Putin believes that thepast decade’s democratic uprisings in Georgiaand Ukraine were Western conspiracies againstRussia. That may sound paranoid, but his anxi-ety is rational: European-style democracy onRussia’s borders would make it much harder tomaintain authoritarian rule at home.

But the insult represented by attempted EUand NATO expansion runs deeper. Russia’s ColdWar defeat and the loss of its empire transformedthe country from a global superpower into a sec-ond-rate regional actor within just a couple ofyears, with a decade of economic upheaval anddecline to follow. This geopolitical collapse oc-curred in part because Russians — not to men-tion their “captive nations” in Central and East-ern Europe — were seduced into believing thatWestern-style democracy and free marketsworked better. This implied that the West wasmorally superior, too — a difficult notion for thecountry of Pushkin and Dostoevsky to swallow.

Given this mindset, Putin and his support-ers at home and abroad view democracy andfree markets not as the path to peace and pros-perity, but as part of a wicked conspiracy todestroy Russia. It does not help that when manyRussians recall the country’s experiment withdemocracy in the 1990s, they remember noth-ing but misery and humiliation.

Western leaders are deceiving themselvesif they think that cajoling and reasoning withPutin, or offering token signs of respect, canbreak that mindset. But turning a blind eye to

Russian aggression, as the West did whenRussia attacked Georgia in 2008 portrayingthe conflict as a clash between two hotheadedleaders — is not an option, either.

In short, while it is perfectly rational forthe West to want Russia as a partner, Russiaconsiders the U.S. and the EU enemies. TheWest can offer no conceivable partnershipterms that Putin would accept. Either the Westjettisons its fundamental values, or Russiamust change.

History suggests that Russia changes onlywhen it experiences an unambiguous geopo-litical defeat. Its loss in the Crimean War of1853-1856 led to the abolition of serfdom andother liberal reforms. Its defeat by Japan in1905 brought about Russia’s first parliamentand the reforms of Pyotr Stolypin. The Af-ghanistan debacle of the 1980s created theenvironment that led to Mikhail Gorbachev’sperestroika.

Ultimately, the Russian people will de-cide for themselves what constitutes a de-feat. If Putin is able to portray his attack onUkraine as a success, Russia will continueto bully and posture on the internationalstage. But if Russians come to believe thatUkraine was a misadventure, a very differ-ent country could emerge.

—Courtesy: Moscow Times [Ghia Nodia is president of the Caucasus

Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Devel-opment in Tbilisi, Georgia. © Project Syndi-cate, 2014]

SIMRAN JEET SINGH

THIRTY years later, the government stubbornly refuses toadmit its fault in the religious massacre, despite enormousevidence to the contrary

1984 remains one of the darkest years in modern Indian his-tory. In June of that year, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordereda military assault on the most significant religious center for theSikhs, Darbar Sahib (i.e., the Golden Temple) in Amritsar, Punjab.The attack killed thousands of civilians. On October 31, 1984,Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards.

Her assassination triggered genocidal killings around thecountry, particularly in India’s capital city, New Delhi. TIMEreported on the massacres just days after the violence subsided:

Frenzied mobs of young Hindu thugs, thirsting for revenge,burned Sikh-owned stores to the ground, dragged Sikhs out oftheir homes, cars and trains, then clubbed them to death or setthem aflame before raging off in search of other victims.

Witnesses watched with horror as the mobs walked the streetsof New Delhi, gang-raping Sikh women, murdering Sikh menand burning down Sikh homes, businesses and Gurdwaras (Sikhhouses of worship). Eyewitness accounts describe how law en-forcement and government officials participated in the massa-cres by engaging in the violence, inciting civilians to seek ven-geance and providing the mobs with weapons.

The pogroms continued unabated, and according to officialreports, within three days nearly 3,000 Sikhs had been murdered,at a rate of one per minute at the peak of the violence. Unofficialdeath estimates are far higher, and human rights activists haveidentified specific individuals complicit in organizing and per-petrating the massacres.

“Almost as many Sikhs died in a few days in India in 1984than all the deaths and disappearances in Chile during the 17-year military rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and1990,” pointed out Barbara Crossette, a former New York Timesbureau chief in New Delhi, in a report for World Policy Journal.

Thirty years later, those who survived the violence have yetto receive any semblance of justice. Most perpetrators have yetto be yet to be charged and held accountable for their crimes,and many of the affected families continue to live in poverty anddisenfranchisement to this day. The Indian government’s formalposition for three decades has been that accountability comes inthe form of silence.

The Indian government is certainly not the first to massacreits own citizenry. Yet, as Crossette points out, so many of thenations complicit in ethnic cleansing – including Chile, Argen-tina, Rwanda and South Africa – have recognized the impor-tance of addressing past atrocities.

Yet the Indian state stubbornly refuses to admit its fault andtake ownership of its participation in mass violence, despite enor-mous evidence to the contrary. It would help if we started withlanguage. The term commonly used to describe the anti-Sikhpogroms of 1984 is “riot.” The word riot is problematic becauseit implies random acts of disorganized violence. It invokes im-ages of chaos that overwhelms law enforcement and the govern-ment that is there to protect its people.

The anti-Sikh violence of 1984 was not a riot. The massa-cres were not spontaneous, anomalous or disorganized. Accord-ing to a report belatedly commissioned by the Government ofIndia in 2000, “but for the backing and help of influential andresourceful persons, killing of Sikhs so swiftly and in large num-bers could not have happened.”

Our failure to properly define the problem has also meantthat it has not received the appropriate response; neither the In-dian government nor the international community has treatedthe violence for what it is – a crime against humanity. If we wereto accurately update the language we use to describe the anti-Sikh violence, maybe we could then finally begin a proper dis-cussion about accountability and reparations. Acknowledging themalicious intent underlying the massacres is the first step to-wards reconciliation.

—Courtesy: Time Magazine [Simran Jeet Singh is the Senior Religion Fellow for the

Sikh Coalition and a PhD candidate in the Department of Reli-gion at Columbia University. He currently serves as a TrumanNational Security Fellow and the Rachel F. and Scott McDermottFellow for the American Institute of Indian Studies. Simran hasearned degrees from Harvard, Columbia and Trinity Universi-ties, and writes and speaks frequently on issues related to reli-gion, human rights, civil liberties, hate violence, communityadvancement and social justice]

It’s Time India AcceptResponsibility for Its1984 Sikh Genocide

GEORGE S. HISHMEH

ONCE again the Israeli prime minister, BenjaminNetanyahu, punched the Obama administration in thestomach and seems to have got away with it, as always.

This time around, he announced this week that Israel wasplanning to build 1,060 apartments for Jewish settlers in occu-pied East Jerusalem.

“But as often is the case,” The New York Times reportedfrom Jerusalem, Netanyahu’s decision “prompted swift interna-tional condemnation at a time when Israel’s relations with Wash-ington are already strained and risked further igniting Palestin-ian anger and tensions in Jerusalem”.

Yehuda Ben Meir, an expert at the Institute for National Se-curity Studies at Tel Aviv University, told the NY Times that“Netanyahu apparently has coalition problems and thought let’sthrow them a bone in Jerusalem, which is easier to explain in theworld and to the United States”.

Ben Meir added: “But you have to see it in the context of thecrisis with the United States, the continuous erosion, which isvery serious and very dangerous for Israel.

“If Israel wants to live in a peaceful society, they need totake steps that will reduce tensions,” said Jen Psaki, thedepartment’s spokeswoman.

Psaki’s disapproval was easily dismissed. Israeli professorof political communications at the Interdisciplinary Centre inHerzliya Gadi Wolfsfeld, who hit the nail on the head when hetold the NY Times: “The truth is he [Netanyahu] is not reallynervous about America or the world anymore because until nownobody has done anything.”

But last July, the Times of Israel exposed Netanyahu’s shock-ing thinking when David Horovitz reported that “most Israeliswould acknowledge that they’ve never been entirely sure howNetanyahu sees a potential resolution of the Palestinian conflict,which concessions he’s truly ready to make, what his long-termvision looks like”.

This second-longest serving Israeli prime minister “explic-itly” made clear that he would “never, ever, countenance a fullsovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank”, reported Horovitz,adding that “he more than intimated that he considers the cur-rent American John Kerry-led diplomatic team to be, let’s bepolite, naïve”.

More bluntly, Netanyahu pointed out that “given the marchof Islamic extremism” across the Middle East, “Israel simplycannot afford to give up control over the territory immediately toits east, including the eastern border — that is the border be-tween Israel and Jordan, and the West Bank and Jordan”.

Even more appalling is Netanyahu’s failure to examine hisadministration that includes a party, the Likud, which refuses thetwo-state solution. Hamas, on the other hand, recently said itwas ready to accept this solution if the Palestinians endorse thisoutcome in a future election.

—Courtesy: Jordan Times [The writer is a Washington-based columnist]

Promised hope

SURUC (Turkey)—Fighting raged inthe Syrian border town of Kobane onSaturday after jihadists launched a newassault on Kurdish militia bolstered bythe arrival of heavily armed Iraqipeshmerga forces.

The roughly 150 Iraqi fighters,many of them chanting “Kobane”, re-ceived a hero’s welcome as they crossedthe border from Turkey late Friday tojoin fellow Kurds trying to repel theIslamic State (IS) group.

The town has become a key battle-ground whose capture would be a ma-

jor prize for the jihadists, giving themunbroken control of a long stretch ofSyria’s border with Turkey.

Fierce clashes in and aroundKobane have killed about 100 IS fight-ers in the past three days, the SyrianObservatory for Human Rights re-ported.

Fifteen Kurdish defenders also losttheir lives on Friday, according to the Brit-ain-based monitoring group, which relies

Kobane battle rages as Iraqifighters mount fresh assult

Afghan priority:security, ending graftKABUL—Afghan PresidentAshraf Ghani Ahmadzai vowedSaturday to crack down on cor-ruption and ensure security inhis nation, even as insurgentattacks in an eastern provincekilled at least 12 local troops.

Speaking after returningfrom a four-day visit to China,Ghani Ahmadzai said that thosewho embezzled almost $1 billionfrom the Kabul Bank in 2010would face justice in the courts.The incident decimated investorconfidence in the country’s al-ready anemic financial sector.

Ghani Ahmadzai has madethe battle against endemic grafta key policy initiative. One ofhis first actions after taking of-fice was to reopen the KabulBank case and begin proceed-ings against the high-profile fig-ures who have been accused ofusing the bank as personal slushfunds.

On security, the presidentsaid that Beijing was committedto helping bring peace to Af-ghanistan after more than 30years of war and that Afghan ter-ritory never again would be usedas a base for insurgents to launchattacks on other countries.

While in China, he invitedthe Taliban to join in a peaceprocess backed by the interna-tional community, his first di-rect reference to the insurgentswho have stepped up attacksaimed at bringing down his 1-month-old government.

“Peace is not easy, but itis compulsory,” he told anews conference broadcastlive Saturday on national tele-vision. “If bringing peace waseasy, we would have hadpeace earlier.”

Ghani Ahmadzai has madeno specific proposals for peacetalks with the Taliban. Mean-while, violence Saturday killedat least 12 members of thecountry’s security forces ineastern Logar province.

Din Mohammad Darwesh,a spokesman for the provincialgovernor, said a suicide carbomber killed six police offic-ers and three soldiers in Logar’sAzra district. He said the blastwounded some 20 civilians anddestroyed buildings. TheTaliban later claimed responsi-bility for the attack.

Insurgents have intensifiedattacks against both Afghan andNATO security forces across thecountry following a fierce sum-mer of fighting. Most interna-tional security forces are prepar-ing to withdraw by the end ofthe year.—AP

Kurdish people observe smoke rising from the Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, following an explosion as seen from the southeasternTurkish village of Mursitpinar in the Sanliurfa province.

on a wide network of sources inside Syria.It said in total 958 people had been

killed since IS launched an assault onKobane in mid-September — 576 ISjihadists, 361 Kurdish fighters and 21civilians.

IS has seized large parts of Syriaand neighbouring Iraq for a self-pro-claimed “caliphate”, imposing its harshinterpretation of Islamic sharia law. TheUnited States, along with European andArab allies, has conducted daily airraids against the group.

Kobane’s defenders have been

pleading for reinforcements and thepeshmerga armed with machineguns,heavy artillery and rocket launcherstravelled through Turkey to Syria fromIraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

They stood atop their pick-ups,waving to onlookers and brandishingtheir rifles in the air as they crossed thefrontier into Kobane. Turkish policelined the road holding anti-riot shields.

Ankara also allowed dozens of

lightly armed Free Syrian Army rebelsto cross into Kobane this week.

Intense fighting erupted late Fridayin the town and continued during thenight as Kurdish fighters fended off anew IS attack in the north of the city, theObservatory said.

Gunfire and explosions were heardon Saturday morning although thepeshmerga forces were not thought tohave yet joined the fighting, it said. Turk-ish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tookaim at Western leaders for focusing toomuch on the battle for Kobane.

“Why are coalition forces con-tinually bombing this town ofKobane?” “We talk about nothingother than Kobane which is on theTurkish border and where there is noone left any more except 2,000 peoplefighting,” he said.

Ankara’s decision to allow thepeshmerga and opposition rebels tocross its border into Syria has sparkedcondemnation from Damascus, which

denounced it as a “flagrant violation ofSyrian sovereignty”.

The multi-sided Syrian war haskilled more than 180,000 people andforced millions from their homes sinceit began three and a half years ago asan uprising against the regime of Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad.

US hopes of creating and traininga moderate rebel force as a counter-weight to jihadists and Assad’s forcessuffered a blow after Al-Qaeda affili-ated militants drove rebels of the West-ern-backed Syrian Revolutionary Front

from their bastion in the northwesternprovince of Idlib.

The Al-Nusra Front jihadist groupcaptured the village of Deir Sinbel andseized arms and tanks from the SRF,the Observatory said Saturday after 24hours of combat. The moderate rebelgroup, backed by the West and vari-ous Arab countries, favours the estab-lishment of a democratic state in apost-Assad Syria.—AFP

MAIDUGURI (Nigeria)—The leader ofNigeria’s Islamic extremist group Boko Haramhas denied agreeing to any cease-fire with thegovernment and said more than 200 kidnappedschoolgirls all have converted to Islam and beenmarried off.

In a new video released late Friday night,Abubakar Shekau dashed hopes for a prisonerexchange to get the girls released. “The issue ofthe girls is long forgotten because I have longago married them off,” he said, laughing.

“In this war, there is no going back,” he saidin the video received by The Associated Pressin the same way as previous messages.

Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, Air ChiefMarshal Alex Badeh, on Oct. 17 announced thatBoko Haram had agreed to an immediate cease-fire to end a 5-year-old insurgency that has killedthousands of people and driven hundreds of thou-sands from their homes in northeast Nigeria.

But attacks and abductions have continuedwith the extremists this week seizing Mubi, a

Boko Haram denies truce,kidnapee girls married

town of more than 200,000 people. Fighting alsocontinued Friday in Vimtin, the nearby villagewhere Badeh was born.

Shekau in August announced that BokoHaram wanted to establish an Islamic caliphate,along the lines of the IS group in Syria and Iraq.Fleeing residents have reported that hundreds ofpeople are being detained for infractions of theextremists’ version of strict Shariah law in sev-eral towns and villages under their control.

Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 276 school-girls taking exams at a boarding school in theremote northeastern town of Chibok in Aprilprompted an international campaign for theirrelease and criticism of Nigeria’s governmentfor not acting quickly to free them. Dozens ofthe girls escaped on their own in the first coupleof days, but 219 remain missing.

Unconfirmed reports have indicated that thegirls have been broken up into several groupsand that some may have been carried acrossborders into Cameroon and Chad..—AP

BEIJING—The US Air Force’s new commanderin the Pacific said Saturday she’s hoping to con-tinue talks with China on avoiding dangerousencounters in the air that have added to regionaltensions.

Gen. Lori Robinson said she anticipates aspeaking engagement at China’s biggest air showlater this month will allow her to renew dialogueon the issue.

“The dialogue is beginning. I think that’svery, very good for the region,” Robinson saidin a telephone interview from Hawaii.

Concerns over risky aerial engagementswere spotlighted after a Chinese fighter jet camewithin 9 meters (30 feet) of a US Navy P-8Poseidon plane over the South China Sea inAugust.

That revived memories of a 2001 collisionbetween aircraft from the two countries thatkilled a Chinese jet fighter pilot and forced aheavily damaged US surveillance plane to land

New US general seeksChina air safety dialogue

at a Chinese base.Tensions were also raised last year after China

declared an air-defense identification zone overdisputed islands in the East China Sea. The US,Japan and others have refused to recognize themove because the area encompassed by the zoneincludes territory controlled by Japan.

The ongoing feud over control of the islandshas sparked fears of a collision or shoot-down,with Japan saying it has boosted jet scramblingsby almost 30 percent in response to approachesby Chinese planes.

Robinson said the US wants all parties toadhere to internationally recognized norms forsafety in flight similar to rules followed bythe US and former Soviet Union during theCold War.

While not ruling out the possibility of fu-ture encounters like the one in August, she saidit was vital that Beijing and Washington worktoward an understanding.—AP

JUI presses PMfor resignationof Ch Nisar

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister(PM) Nawaz Sharif has assuredministers from JUI-F that thosebehind the attack on MaulanaFazal ur Rehman will be broughtto justice and if this attack is con-spiracy it will also be exposed.

He held out assurance to fed-eral minister for housing AkramKhan Durrani and state ministerMaulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidriwho called on him here Saturday.Finance minister Ishaq Dar wasalso present on the occasion.

JUI-F ministers exchangedviews with PM on current politi-cal situation, suicide attack onMaulana Fazl ur Rehman andother matters of mutual interest.Well placed sources said JUI-Fministers expressed their strongreservations over the attitude ofgovernment particularly interiorminister Chaudhry Nisar AliKhan following attack onMaulana Fazlur Rehman andthey conveyed to the PM theirparty demand for resignation ofinterior minister. Sources dis-closed that Maulana AbdulGhafoor Haidri said that neitherChaudhry Nisar has condemnedthe attack nor has he talked to Maulana Fazlur Rehman even bytelephone on this incident. —INP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan Army troops were de-ployed on the request of Sindh government insensitive areas of Karachi on Saturday. Ac-cording to the details, 146 areas have beendeclared as extremely sensitive by the police.

To maintain law and order situation in

the metropolis, Sindh Government had re-quested Defense Minister KhawajaMuhammad Asif for army’s assistance.

Army troops have begun to make theirway towards the sensitive areas of Karachiwhere they will be on standby. As per need,on a call of administration, army will im-mediately reach for help. Sindh police has

stressed upon army’s help in three zones.Deployment of 900 army officers has beendemanded in South Zone whereas fourcontingents in East Zone and three con-tingents in West Zone have been sent.

Karachi police have confirmed 98 ar-eas in South Zone, 61 in East Zone and 27in West Zone as sensitive.

Karachi: Army deployed at sensitive areas

BEIJING—China’s military must notlet down those who gave their lives forthe Communist Party in the revolution-ary struggle and must resolutely fightcorruption, state media on Saturdayquoted President Xi Jinping as sayingafter a high-level scandal. President Xihas made weeding out corruption in thearmed forces a top goal. This week thegovernment said one of China’s mostsenior former military officers, XuCaihou, had confessed to taking “mas-sive” bribes in exchange for help in pro-motions.

Xu retired as vice chairman of thepowerful Central Military Commission- which Xi heads and which controls

China’s 2.3 million strong armed forces- last year and from the party’s deci-sion-making Politburo in 2012.

During a top-level two-day militarymeeting at an old revolutionary base inthe southeastern province of Fujian thatstarted on Thursday, Xi said the armedforces needed to “deeply reflect on thelessons and thoroughly banish the in-fluence” of Xu’s case.

“We must face up to the outstand-ing issues which face us in building upthe military, especially on our politicalthinking,” the official Xinhua newsagency cited Xi as saying. The militaryhas problems with poor management ofits officers, especially with making sure

they behave properly, he added. Thearmed services must “return to andmake full use of their fine political tra-ditions”, Xi said.

Those traditions include the fair andhonest promotion of officers, rigorousdiscipline and “sacrifice to the revolu-tionary spirit”, he added.

“We must deeply recognize the im-portance of political work in the mili-tary and the important role it plays andpass on to the next generations the greattraditions that were forged in blood byour ancestors,” Xi said.

“Never slacken in the determinationto deepen the fight against corrup-tion.”—Reuters

China’s Xi calls on army to rememberpast in graft fight

BEIJING—The 4th Foreign Min-isterial Conference of the IstanbulProcess on Afghanistan has endedin Beijing. Co-chaired by Chinaand Afghanistan, delegates fromabout 30 nations and regional or-ganizations attended the confer-ence. The conference ended withthe Beijing Declaration.

It is China’s maiden show asa host of a major internationalmeeting on Afghanistan. The 4thForeign Ministerial Conference ofthe Istanbul Process on Afghani-stan opens Friday in the Chinesecapital city. Co-chaired by foreignministers of China and Afghani-stan, the meeting announcesBeijing declaration. China haspledged 1.5 billion yuan in aid toAfghanistan over the next threeyears, and will help train 3,000professionals in various fields inthe next five years.

Meanwhile, Li called on Af-ghans to put aside their differences

and work towards reconciliation.He said the international commu-nity should also provide assis-tance to Afghanistan on the basisof mutual respect. Meanwhile,President GHANI stressed thatfurther deepening Afghanistan-China strategic cooperative part-nership serves as the core prin-ciple of their diplomatic policy.Ghani said Peace is Kabul’s pri-ority, and the country invites thepolitical opposition, particularlythe Taliban, to join intra-Afghandialogue. Beside the multilateraltalks on the meeting, the bilateraltalk between China and Afghani-stan is where the political specta-tors are closely watching. And biztalk is where the conversationlands in Beijing.China is lookingto further tap into Afghan re-sources, while the southern Asiancountry is banking on Chinese in-vestment to revive its post-wareconomy.— Xinhuanet

Beijing Declaration onAfghanistan

reconstruction efforts

MechanismFrom Back Page

Reports of the over-billing inthe month of September had ledto a public outcry, forcing thefederal government to an-nounce an investigation into thematter. Addressing a press con-ference here on Saturday, Min-ister of State for Water andPower Abid Sher Ali said thata survey will be conducted atthe Union Council levels to re-solve the complaints of over-billing.

The minister said that elec-tricity consumers would also beupdated regarding their elec-tricity bills through SMS.

He vowed that a transpar-ent audit will be conducted,every bill will be checked thor-oughly, and that electricity con-nections of all institutions aswell as individual consumerswill be disconnected if foundthat they are not paying theirbills.

“It will not be fair to dis-connect individual consumers’electricity and spare depart-ments,” he said. He said that theelectricity of the Capital Devel-opment Authority had alreadybeen disconnected on accountof non-payment of bills.

The minister furtherclaimed that the governmentwas proactively executing di-verse programmes to resolvethe country’s energy crisis.

He said that work onNeelum-Jhelum Power projectwas underway and its firstphase would be completed by2015, adding that ongoingprojects would be completedon time.

He said that, on directivesof the prime minister, transmis-sion lines will be upgraded fur-ther to improve power supply.

ments, subordinate offices, autonomousand semi-autonomous bodies, corporations, companies and authorities. According tothe policy, the recruitment to posts in BPS-16 and above shall continue to be madethrough the Federal Public Service Com-mission as before.

“The initial appointment to postswhich are required to be made on an all-Pakistan basis shall be made under rule-14 of the Civil Servants (appointment,promotion and transfer) Rules, 1973,”the handout stated. It further added that,“The initial appointment to posts inBPS-3 to BPS-15 and equivalent in of-fices which are required to serve only ina particular Province/Region shall befilled by appointment of persons domi-ciled in the Province/Region concernedunder rule-15 of the Civil Servants (Ap-pointment, Promotion & Transfer)Rules, 1973.”

“Vacancies in posts in BPS-1 and BPS-2 and equivalent shall ordinarily be filledon local basis under rule-16 of the CivilServants (Appointment, Promotion &Transfer) Rules, 1973,” said the officialhandout. Initial appointments would bemade strictly in accordance with the pro-visions contained in the recruitment rulesof the post concerned.

However, in the absence of recruit-ment rules, ministries, divisions, at-tached departments, subordinate offices,autonomous bodies, semi-autonomousbodies, corporations, companies andauthorities are first required to frame therecruitment rules and lay down the eli-gibility conditions for such appoint-ments. “No recruitment shall be madein the absence of approved recruitmentrules,” it stated, adding that the no ob-jection certificate (NOC) from the sur-plus pool of the Establishment Divisionwill continue to be obtained for all re-cruitments.

Further, national, provincial and re-gional newspapers would be used to ad-vertise vacancies for each ministry, divi-sion, department, autonomous body andcorporation, “as per the provincial/regionalquota”. Additionally, the said departmentsare to finalise recruitments within 60 daysfrom the date of the advertisement. “Nodirect advertisements would be placed byany organization,” it said. “Draft adver-tisements to be published for recruitmentmay be submitted to the EstablishmentDivision for routing of the same to theMinistry of Information, Broadcasting andNational Heritage.”

Applicants will be required to apply

on a prescribed format without beingasked for copies of their educationalqualification – and will be given a “mini-mum of 15 days for the receipt of appli-cations”.

However, at the time of the writtentest and interview, candidates may beasked to bring original certificates anddocuments.

The official handout also stated that,“Candidates using or attempting to useany extraneous influence at any levelshall be liable to be disqualified.” “Theregional/provincial quota, women quota,minorities (non-Muslim) quota and dis-abled persons quota, or any other quotaprescribed should clearly be indicatedagainst the vacant post(s) advertised,”the handout stated.

The required qualification and agelimit as provided in the recruitment rules– including the general age — shouldalso be advertised clearly, and vacanciesin posts should only be filled against theapproved sanctioned strength of the saidcategory. According to the policy, anydeficiency in the existing provincial andregional representation – and if any inthe federal services including autono-mous and semi-autonomous bodies –may be adjusted.

‘Merit-based’ federal recruitmentFrom Page 1

economic losses but is not coming forwardwhen it comes to providing relief to thepeople. In response to a question about theresignation of PTI MNAs, Pervaiz Rashidsaid Imran Khan had held his party’s par-liamentarians hostage. He added that ImranKhan was imposing his decisions on PTIparliamentarians like a king.

The minister added that only peoplehad the right to remove their electedrepresentatives. He pointed out that hir-ing and firing authority rests with thepeople as far as elected representativesare concerned and questioned as to whohad given authority to Imran Khan toget resignations from members of hisparty. He rejected the allegations by PTI

of horse trading and said the PML-Nhas enough members in the house anddoes not need to buy any one. PervaizRashid said it does not make any dif-ference to Pakistan if the terrorists callthemselves as members of ISIS (IslamicState of Iraq and Syria) because thecountry is fighting against them for thelast 25 years and this war would con-tinue till their total elimination.

In reply to a question, the Informa-tion Minister clarified that the govern-ment was not privatising the OGDCLbut only selling 10 percent of its shares.He said the Interior Minister ChaudhryNisar Ali Khan has already taken no-tice of police torture of OGDCL em-

ployees and ordered an inquiry. To an-other question, Pervaiz Rashid said therole of JI Amir Sirajul Haq during sitins was positive and criticism on himby Imran Khan was regrettable.

He said Sirajul Haq is a highly re-spectable leader for them. He saidImran Khan has become harsh after thedeparture of Tahirul Qadri as his chairsare now empty at the sit in. He saidthere was no discussion on the joiningof MQM in the Federal governmentduring meeting of the delegation withthe PM and only issues of Karachi Wa-ter Board, Sewerage, circular railwaysand Lyari Express Way completioncame under discussion. —INP

Govt ready for talks with PTI: PRFrom Page 1

He said certain issues are currentlyposing serious threats to the UnitedStates and that the US would have tocontinue to deal with these issues in the“foreseeable future”.

“Tyranny, terrorism” and otherthreats are “going to be with us,” hesaid, adding, “I see these things con-tinuing to stay out of there.”

He described the US as the globalleader which will “continue to grapplewith overseas threat for the foreseeablefuture”.

Hagel also said US-led campaignagainst the ISIL terrorist group in theMiddle East is “a steady, long-term ef-fort. It’s going to require coalitions ofcommon interest.”

Since late September, the US andsome of its Arab allies have been car-rying out airstrikes against ISIL insideSyria without any authorization fromDamascus or a UN mandate.

The Syria air campaign is an exten-sion of airstrikes on ISIL positions inneighboring Iraq, launched by the US

and some of its NATO allies since earlyAugust. The ISIL terrorists, some ofwhom were initially trained by the CIAin Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syr-ian government, now control largeswaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.

US intelligence estimates that asmany as 300 Americans are fightingalongside the terrorists in Iraq andSyria, prompting widespreadconcern that they may threaten theirhomeland upon their return. PressTV. —Agencies

New world order means endless US warsFrom Page 1

stretching their overall lead to370 at stumps in Abu Dhabi onSaturday. Pakistan were 61-2 atthe close in their second inningswith Azhar Ali unbeaten on 21and Younis Khan on 16 afteranother batting collapse sawAustralia almost squander anychance of leveling the series.

Australia were dismissedfor 261 in their first innings, 309behind Pakistan’s first inningstotal of 570-6 declared, butMisbah-ul Haq did not enforcethe follow-on and chose to batagain s as to set a big target onthe fourth day.—Agencies

Pakistan takeFrom Page 1

AAMIR MAJEED

KARACHI—Karachi police on Sat-urday claimed a drastic decrease incrime after the launch of operationin the metropolis. The police re-vealed statistics of 421-day of op-eration which show a remarkabledecrease in crimes since its start. Thestatistics said 132 policemen em-braced martyrdom in this peace mis-sion till date.

As per details, the Karachi po-lice started operation in the city ondirectives of Prime Minister NawazSharif on Sept 5, 2013 to eliminatecriminals and to restore peace in thefinancial hub of the country.

Karachi police said 2206 per-sons were killed in the metropolis onvarious accounts during 421 days oftargeted operation in the city. As

compared to 2206 killing during 421days, 3345 persons were killed in thesame period before start of operationwhich shows a decrease of 1139 inkilling incidents.

According of police 1073 per-sons were targeted and killed duringthe operation as compared to 2526persons who were targeted and killedin the same period. The policeclaimed that 1453 persons weresaved from being subjected to tar-geted killing.

Karachi police maintained that1259 accused were arrested on ac-count of killing during operation,which include 856 fresh murderers,331 absconder and 72 police offend-ers. Police claimed that the averageof killing in one day was broughtnine persons per day to 4 persons perday after start of targeted operation.

The statistics show increase inincidents of kidnapping for ransom.A total 111 incidents of kidnappingfor ransom were reported during on-going year while 79 cases were re-ported during 2013. Police claimedthat 84 cases of kidnapping for ran-som were registered, eight kidnapeeswere killed and 97 were recovered,70 kidnappers were arrested and 14kidnappers were killed in encounterwith police.

The police received 1287 com-plaints regarding extortion collectionduring operation as compare to 1356complaints in the same period beforestart of operation. Police claimedthat 424 including 353 fresh and 64police offenders were arrested on ac-count of extortion collection whileseven others were killed in exchangeof fire with police.

A total of 1198 robberies tookplace in 421-day operation as com-pared to 1147 robberies which werereported in the same period beforeoperation. The police also claimed aremarkable decrease in mobilesnatching incidents. The policeclaimed that 11295 citizens weredeprived of their cell-phones during421 days before start of operation butthe incidents of mobile snatching re-duced and 18519 people were leftwithout their cell-phones during theoperation.

The police further claimed that132 policemen including one seniorsuperintendent of police, five inspec-tors, 18 sub-inspectors, 19 assistantsub inspectors, 22 head constablesand 67 constable embraced martyr-dom in first 10 months of the cur-rent month.

Crimes decline in Karachidue to operation

Govt to completeFrom Back Page

The Prime Minister waspleased to note that Naluchibridge in Muzzafarabad and M-4 (Faisalabad-Gojra) are al-most complete and would beready for inauguration in thesecond week of December.

He directed that work onKarachi-Hyderabad motorwayand Khanewal-Lahoremotorway should be completedas soon as possible without com-promising on the issues of trans-parency and international stan-dards. The Prime Minister saidthat Pindi Bhattian to Faisalabadmotorway is being planned to beconverted from existing fourlanes into a six-lane motorway.He also directed that a good roadmay be built to connect Okaraand Bahawalpur with Karachi-Lahore motorway.—INP

MQM sent poor,middle classes toassemblies: AltafLONDON,—Muttahida QuamiMovement Quaid, Altaf Hussainhas said his party had sent edu-cated youths from poor, lowermiddle and middle classes to theProvincial and National Assem-blies of the country long beforethe political parties engaged inprotests and sit-ins stepped-in, inactive politics. In a statement is-sued on Saturday, Altaf Hussainsaid it was unfortunate that a ma-jority of the analysts, journalists,and anchor persons find it diffi-cult to recognize that the MQMand Altaf Hussain were the firstto bring people from poor andmiddle classes in politics.

But they continue to singpraises of Imran Khan and DrTahirul Qadri that they wereworking to empower the poor andmiddle classes. “Although I hadstarted my struggle with theAPMSO yet I wanted to break thestatus quo by eliminating the feu-dal system in order to establishjustice and equality from the verybeginning.” Altaf said that hewanted to bring an end to the dualsystem of education, eradicationof corruption and sending peoplefrom middle and lower middleclasses to the corridors of powerin the country. “People found itout-of-the-ordinary and uniquewhen I started talking about send-ing qualified and able youths inthe elected houses. —INP

Continued on Page 7

BJPmembershipdriveNEW DELHI—The BharatiyaJanata Party kick-starteda nationwide membershipcampaign in the presenceof Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at itsheadquarters in Delhi onSaturday. The saffronparty aims at inducting 50lakh new members intothe party at a time when itis riding high on itssuccesses in the April-May Lok Sabha electionsand the recently heldassembly polls inMaharashtra andHaryana, reportsHindustan Times. “It’s animportant and fortunateday for us because ourmembership drive will belaunched by PM Modiji,”said BJP president AmitShah, delivering theintroductory speech.—AP

Cameronrisks UKexitLONDON—Prime MinisterDavid Cameronis increasingly hawkish onEurope ahead of a keyelection battle but hispolicies seem rudderlessand could make an EU exitmore likely, analysts said.As he tries to rallyeurosceptics from hisConservative party andfight the rise of the anti-EU UK IndependenceParty, Cameron is resort-ing to what many observ-ers describe as “knee-jerkreactions”. The focus fortensions on Europe is aNovember 20 by-electionwhere the UKIP’s leadover the Conservativeshas many in governmentworried about moresetbacks to come at thegeneral election nextyear.—AFP

Zambiapresident’sbody backhomeLUSAKA—Thebody of president MichaelSata arrived back onZambian soil on Saturday,ahead of a state funeral forthe 77-year-old leader. Satadied on Tuesday whileundergoing treatment inLondon’s private KingEdward VII hospital for anunspecified illness. Actingpresident Guy Scott whohas become, pendingelections Africa’s first whitehead of state since SouthAfrica’s apartheid era, led ahost of traditional, religiousand civic leaders, cabinetministers, former presidentsand diplomats in greetingthe remains. Sata died onTuesday while undergoingtreatment in London’s privateKing Edward VII hospital foran unspecified illness.—AFP

UNITED NATIONS—TheUnited Nations is set to voteon a new draft resolution urg-ing Myanmar’s government toabandon its plans to forceRohingya Muslims to identifyas “Bengali” - a term used tobrand the minority as illegalimmigrants from Bangladesh.

The resolution – obtainedby the Associated Press newsagency – also urges Myanmarto grant the largely statelessRohingya “access to full citi-zenship.”

But rights group BurmaCampaign UK told theAnadolu Agency on Saturday

UN opposes Myanmar’s move to re-identify Rohingyathat the resolution “will be ig-nored” by the government.

“Almost every General As-sembly resolution on Burma[Myanmar’s previous name] inthe past decade has called foraction on the Rohingya and theBurmese government has notonly ignored these calls, butstepped up repression,” MarkFarmer, director of the rightsgroup, told the AA.

“The Burmese governmentknow full well that the EU, whichdrafted this resolution, is justgoing through the motions, andthey can continue to defy theseresolutions without facing any

consequences.”The U.N. has previously de-

scribed the Rohingya as one ofthe world’s most persecuted mi-norities. They face severe re-strictions on freedom of move-ment and live in fear of arbitraryarrests and violence in the pre-dominantly Buddhist country.

Around 140,000 are confinedby armed guards and check-points to squalid camps on theoutskirts of the Sittwe, the capi-tal of northwestern Rakhinestate, after mob attacks on theirvillages in 2012 forced them toflee their homes. Since then morethan 100,000 have fled Myanmar

on overcrowded, rickety boats.The government wants to

register Myanmar’s roughly onemillion Rohingya as part of an“action plan,” and says thosewho register as Bengali willhave the chance of obtainingcitizenship. Those who refusewill face possible detainmentand deportation.

The U.N. resolution, draftedby the European Union, urgesthe government to “allow self-identification” for the Rohingyaand to allow them “freedom ofmovement and equal access tofull citizenship.”

After a visit to Rakhine, the

U.N.’s special rapporteur onhuman rights, Yanghee Lee,stated July 26 during a pressconference at Yangon Interna-tional Airport that she was “re-peatedly told not to use the term‘Rohingya’ as this was not rec-ognized by the government.”

But she countered that “therights of minorities to self-iden-tify… is related to the obliga-tions of States to ensure non-discrimination against indi-viduals and groups.”

The resolution is now be-fore the General Assembly.Even though it is non-bindingit is hoped it will add to pres-

sure on Myanmar’s governmentahead of a visit by United StatesPresident Barack Obama for aregional summit in less than twoweeks.

Myanmar began emergingfrom harsh military rule in 2011,when a nominally civilian gov-ernment made up of former gen-erals came to power and intro-duced a series of democratic re-forms.

But the Rohingya haveironically seen their lot worsenunder President Thein Sein’sgovernment, as new freedomshave emboldened Buddhist ex-tremists.—AP

THARPARKAR: Thari people drawing out water from a well in famine-hit Tharparkar. At least 464 children havedied in the drought-hit area over the last nine months and 39 in the month of October.

DHAKA—Bangladesh was hit by a na-tionwide blackout on Saturday after atransmission line bringing electricity fromIndia failed, an official from the statepower company said. The blackout wascaused by a “technical glitch” and sweptacross the impoverished and energy-starved South Asian nation at aroundnoon, Masum Beruni, managing directorof the Power Grid Company of BangladeshLtd., said without elaborating on thecause.

Officials were trying to restore elec-tricity with “powerful generators” whilethey worked to repair the grid link, saidMir Motahar Hossain, an aide to Beruni.

“Our work is progressing fast, we hopeto restore the system to a great extent, ifnot entirely for now,” he said.Bangladesh began importing electricityfrom India in October 2013 through a 400-kilovolt transmission line that runs fromBaharampur in the Indian state of WestBengal to the town of Bheramara in south-western Bangladesh.The country also has signed agreementswith energy companies in Japan, China,Malaysia and the United States to buildpower plants and boost energy infra-structure as it aims to increase its meager11,500-megawatt generating capacity.More than a third of Bangladesh’s 166million people have no access to electric-ity.

Saturday’s outage was Bangladesh’sworst power failure since 2007, when apowerful cyclone that killed about 2,500people knocked out the national grid forseveral hours. Power was restored in

Blackout hits Bangladeshas line from India fails

some parts of the capital several hoursafter the outage began and authoritiessaid they hoped to have electricity backon across the densely populated nationby Saturday evening.Engineers “are working to fix the outage”which hit all areas linked to the nationalelectricity grid, Masud Alberuni, a seniorpower ministry official, told. “The nationalgrid tripped” close to mid-day, Alberunisaid. “As a result, all the power generat-ing stations automatically shut down,”he said.

The outage marked “the first time thecountry has been without power since2007” when Bangladesh was hit by a dev-astating cyclone, Alberuni said. Saturdayis a weekend day in Bangladesh so theimpact on industry was not as severe asif the blackout had occurred on a week-day.Also the weather is getting cooler so thelack of air conditioning and fans was notsuch a problem.

But homes and shops were withoutelectricity to power appliances and eleva-tors were halted. Hospital intensive careunits were functioning on back-up gen-erators. Dhaka international airport wasalso running on generator fuel, the powerministry official said.

“We have already restored power tosome parts of the capital and we can hopewe can restore power to the whole coun-try by the evening,” power developmentboard spokesman Saiful Hasan told.Power ministry official Alberuni did notidentify the transmission line which hadsuffered the problem.—Agencies

OUAGADOUGOU—Burkina Faso’s militarybacked a presidential guard officer on Sat-urday to lead a transitional government af-ter the resignation of President BlaiseCompaore, resolving a power strugglewithin the armed forces by sidelining thechief of staff.

Senior military officials had held talkson Saturday aimed at averting bloodshedafter Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida declaredhimself head of state in an early morningradio address, overruling military chief Gen-eral Honore Traore’s claim to lead the tran-sitional government.

One of Africa’s long-serving rulers,Compaore stepped down on Friday aftertwo days of mass protests against his at-tempts to change the constitution to ex-tend his 27 years in power. At least threepeople were killed after protesters stormedthe parliament building and set it on fire.

The unfolding crisis in the poor, land-locked nation is being closely watched bythe United States and former colonial powerFrance, which were close military allies ofCompaore. Under his rule, Burkina Faso be-

Army backs Lt- Colonel to leadBurkina Faso transition govt

came a key ally in West-ern operations against alQaeda-linked groups inWest Africa, but a coupd’etat would freeze U.S.military cooperation.“Lieutenant ColonelYacouba Isaac Zida hasbeen elected unanimously

to lead the transition period opened afterthe departure of President BlaiseCompaore,” read a statement issued by themilitary hierarchy after the talks. The formand duration of the transition will be de-cided in talks with all sections of society,the statement said.

The Union for Progress and Change, themain opposition party, immediately called forthe army to open discussions with civil soci-ety and political groups on the roadmap toelections. Troops loyal to Zida patrolled thequiet streets of the capital Ouagadougou onSaturday following his radio announcementthat he was taking over as head of state toavoid a descent into anarchy and to ensurea swift democratic transition.—Reuters

India buildingairport near

disputedChina border

NEW DELHI—Indian min-ister of state for external af-fairs and ex-army chief V KSingh said India was hope-ful of building an airport inTawang while the work onanother airport at disputedPashighat in ArunachalPradesh was underway, In-dian media reported on Sat-urday. “But there is a prob-lem with land availabilitythere (in Tawang),” Singh,who is also in charge of thenortheast affairs, told In-dian journalists here.

“The land acquisitionproblem for the airport inItanagar, Arunachal’s capi-tal, has just been sortedout.” Singh added the gov-ernment is planning air-fields in Arunachal Pradeshfor smaller aircraft. Singhsaid the government plansto create a separate com-pany in collaboration withthe Indian Airlines to oper-ate small aircraft in thenortheast. He added newhighways are beingplanned as part of the ef-forts initiated for major in-frastructure development inthe region.

The railway budget forthe region has been in-creased by 58%. The visit-ing Indian minister’s state-ment in Beijing is significantas China claims ArunachalPradesh as its own. Singhdiscussed new measures toexamine risks Chinese damspose in the upper reachesof the Brahmaputra. Expertsclaim the dams have madeIndia vulnerable to flashfloods and reduced watersupply.

They say China wouldnow control water flow fromthe upper reaches. Singh saidthe government would com-mission a study to examine theimpact of the dams. —Online

WASHINGTON—The USState Department has ap-proved sale of eight globalresponse cutters to Paki-stan for coastal security.

According to the De-fense Security CooperationAgency, the deal includessale of naval gun systems,machineguns, rigid inflat-able boats, and other nec-essary equipment and train-

US okays global responsecutters’ sale to Pakistan

ing of Pakistan Navy per-sonnel. The total estimatedcost of the sale is 350 mil-lion dollars. This sale willenhance Pakistan’s abilityto enforce the rule of lawover its coastal areas tosafeguard seaborne energycorridors, deter the out-break of piracy and checktrafficking of narcotics andother illicit goods.—Online

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minister MuhammadNawaz Sharif has said that during the ten-ure of the present government major infra-structure projects would be completed in-cluding motorways which would improvecommunication across the country whilebringing economic prosperity to the people,especially those living in far flung areas andexpressed the confidence that in 2018people would see a better Pakistan.

He said this during a briefing given tohim by Chairman National Highway Author-ity, regarding new infrastructure projectsinitiated by this government, at the PM’sHouse here Saturday.

The Prime Minister said that large-scaleinfrastructure development projects play apivotal role in boosting the economy. Hesaid such projects act as guarantors of eco-nomic and social wellbeing while boostingemployment, reducing cost of accessingmarkets, providing means of improved op-

Govt to complete projects forprosperity of people: PM

portunities, and ensuring the provision ofbasic services at the grassroots level.

The transport infrastructure can con-tribute towards poverty reduction, eco-nomic growth and inclusive social devel-opment, he said. He was informed that NHAis following the vision of the Prime Minis-ter in developing infrastructure projectsthrough private sector on Build Own Oper-ate (BOO) and Build Operate Transfer(BOT) basis. Chairman NHA informed thePrime Minister that for the first time in thehistory of Pakistan, three BOT projects cost-ing Rs. 91 billion have been rewarded whichwill generate Rs. 366 billion over the con-cession period. He said the constructionof Karachi-Hyderabad motorway will startin the last week of December while groundbreaking of motorway E-35 (Burhan-Havelian) will be done in the last week ofNovember.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Interior Minister ChaudhryNisar on Saturday expressed his concernand reservation over Bangladesh award-ing death penalty to Jamaat-e-Islami chiefMotiur Rahman Nizami.

“Though what happens in Bangladeshis that country’s internal matter, yet Paki-stan cannot remain divorced from refer-ences to 1971 and its aftermath,” Nisar said.

“It is highly unfortunate that almost45 years after those tragic chain of events,the Bangladeshi government still seemsto be living in the past and totally ignor-ing the time tested virtue of forgive andforget,” the interior minister lamented.Nisar said he was perplexed over whyBangladesh remains hell bent upon dig-ging up the graves of the past and reopen-

Bangladesh govt hell bent onopening old wounds: Nisar

ing old wounds.The interior minister un-

derlined that the recentevents in Bangladesh area manifestation of seriouspolitical violations, whichare being inflicted on JIBangladesh for eventsbefore the independence

of Bangladesh. Nisar maintained that hewas deeply saddened to receive thisshocking news.“The government of Bangladesh has mis-used the process of law as a political toolagainst the JI leader,” he upheld.

On October 29, Bangladesh’s warcrimes tribunal sentenced the chief of JIBangladesh to death for crimes againsthumanity, including genocide, torture andrape, during the 1971 war.

Mechanism devisedto address poweroverbilling: Abid

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Ministry forWater and Power has said ithas devised a mechanism toaddress consumer com-plaints after power distribu-tion companies were foundto have charged excessiveelectricity costs from con-sumers.

Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 7

MORE than 5 million people in theUS have Alzheimer’s disease, andthis number is estimated to rise to

16 million by 2050. Such figures emphasizethe importance of finding new treatmentsfor the condition, and new research fromSaint Louis University in Missouri couldprovide just that. In amouse study, researcherswere able to reverse symp-toms of Alzheimer’s usinga newly created molecularcompound.

The Saint Louis team,led by Susan Farr, PhD, aprofessor of geriatrics atthe university, developeda compound calledantisense oligonucleotide(OL-1). When tested onmouse models withAlzheimer’s disease, theyfound the compound re-versed classic symptomsof the disease - brain in-flammation and learningand memory deficits. Theresearchers explain thatOL-1 works by blocking messenger RNA(mRNA) that stimulates the production ofexcess amyloid-beta protein, which can leadto the development of amyloid-betaplaques - a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

In detail, the compound was able to re-duce the overexpression of the amyloid-beta protein precursor gene, which regu-lates the amount of amyloid-beta proteinpresent in the body. To reach their find-ings, recently published in the Journal ofAlzheimer’s Disease, the team tested OL-1on genetically engineered mice that over-produced a “mutant” form of the humanamyloid-beta protein precursor gene.

They note that in a previous study,they had tested the compound on micethat naturally overproduced mouse amy-loid-beta. Although this study was suc-cessful, the team wanted to test the com-pound on a human form of the gene tosee if it was just as effective. Research-

ers found that the OL-1compound reversed symp-toms of Alzheimer’s - includ-ing learning and memory im-pairments - in mice.

The mice had high levelsof the amyloid-beta protein,which increased inflamma-tion in the brain and causeddamaged to the hippocam-pus, leading to learning andmemory impairments. Toserve as a comparison, theresearchers tested a randomantisense compound onhealthy wild mice. Approxi-mately half of the geneticallyengineered mice received thesame antisense compound,while the other half receivedOL-1.

All mice were then subject to a series ofexperiments that measured learning,memory and appropriate behaviour - suchas recognizing an object, exploring an un-familiar location and finding their waythrough a maze. The team found that thegenetically engineered mice who receivedOL-1 demonstrated improved learning andmemory, compared with the geneticallyengineered mice that received the randomantisense compound. On comparing theeffects of OL-1 in genetically engineeredmice and the random antisense compoundin wild mice, the researchers found no dif-ferences in learning and memory.

Researchers ‘reverse symptoms ofAlzheimer’s’ in mice with novel compound

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Interior Minister Chaudhry NisarAli Khan Saturday issued directions for main-taining high level of alertness during the nextfew days culminating in Ashura.

In a statement issued here, he said that theMinistry of Interior has deployed 32,695 armytroops and civil armed forces including Rang-ers, Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary

across 54 districts of the country to assist theprovincial governments in maintaining law andorder during the Moharram days.

In addition to that, 12 helicopters have alsobeen stationed at various areas to extend airsupport cover throughout the country, whereascellular services may also be jammed for limitedtimings only at selective sensitive locations for9th and 10th of Moharram.

He further stated that all Moharram related

activities are being monitored from the controlroom of ministry of interior round the clock andwe are in continuous contact with the provincesto ensure maximum protection for the securityof mourners and general public.

For this purpose, the ministry is also in coor-dination with the intelligence agencies and in-formation regarding threats to any specific areais being relayed forthwith for timely action toprevent any untoward activity, he maintained.

Nisar directs for high level ofalertness during Ashura

High Commissioner of Bangladesh Sohrab Hussain and Ambassador of Algeria Dr Ahmad Benflis looking at the paintings displayed during anexhibition by Abdus Shakoor at Nomad Art Gallery.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

Hanif Abbasi, Ex-MNA and Capt (Retd) Zhid Saeed, Commissioner Rawalpindi Divisionchairing a meeting to review the progress of Package-II Rawalpindi and Package-IIIslamabad Metro Bus Project.

RAZA UR REHMAN

RAWALPINDI—Rawalpindi DevelopmentAuthority (RDA) held a meeting here onSaturday to review the progress of Pack-age-II Rawalpindi and Package-II IslamabadMetro Bus Project.

The meeting was jointly chaired byformer MNA Muhammad Hanif Abbasi andCommissioner Rawalpindi Division/Direc-tor General (DG), RDA Capt. (R) ZahidSaeed. Chief Traffic Officer (CTO)Rawalpindi Shoaib Khurram, Chief EngineerRDA Muhammad Saeed Akhtar, ProjectManager NESPAK, Brig (R) Shahid fromNLC and other relevant officers and con-tractors of the project attended the meet-ing. During the meeting Package-II

Progress on Metro Bus Projectreviewed at RDA meeting

Rawalpindi and Package-II Islamabad werediscussed in detail. DG RDA Capt (R) ZahidSaeed stressed upon the importance ofspeedy work and urged the contractor towork day and night.

He said when there is no physical im-pediment in the way of work, it should notbe delayed. “We must increase work timesubstantially in order to reduce the difficul-ties of traders and general public”, he added.Ex-MNA Hanif Abbasi also insisted to ex-ecute ongoing work on fast track basis. Hesaid that contractor is very slow in girderlaunching. In consultation with Chief Traf-fic Office, it was decided that girder launch-ing will be done between 8:00 pm to 7:00 am.

In addition it will also be done partlyduring day time on Fridays and Sundays.

Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, Pervaiz Rasheed inaugurating a kitchengarden at National Press Club.

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Punjab Minister forLabour and Manpower Raja AshfaqSarwar has directed al l personsconcerned to reinforce their effortsfor dengue control in Rawalpindiand the performance of each de-partment engaged in this task willbe reviewed separately to fill thegaps besides carrying out exten-sive follow-ups to irradicate larvaest i l l found inside the buildin-g s .

He issued these directives in ameeting held in the office of Com-missioner Rawalpindi on Saturdayto review anti-dengue activities.

The Commissioner, Rawalpindi,Zahid Saeed, DCO, Sajad ZafarDaal, elected representatives andPML (N) party ticket holders MalikIbrar Ahmed, Asfanyar Bhandara,Dr Jamal Nasir, Raja MuhammadHanif, Raja Ateeq Sarwar, Malik

All indicators reflect downwardtrend of dengue

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Minister of State for Parlia-mentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed saidthat previous governments have not giftedany major projects to the nation whilePML-N has been working with completedevotion to bring relief in the people’s livesas soon as possible.

Speaking in Nuqta-e-Nazar programof NCAC, he said, “I assure the nationthat our economy would grow to a rea-sonable extent in the next three years andthat would bring betterment in the life ofthe common man.”

To a question, he said that decreasein petroleum prices would have direct im-pact on the prices of other commoditiesand the masses would be relieved.

Speaking in the program, economistDr. Saboor Ghayoor said that governmenthas reduced prices of petroleum productsin the wake of decline in their prices in the

international market.Lauding the government for cutting

prices of petroleum products, he said thatthe general public could reap the benefitsof lower costs.

He said that government should con-tinue efforts so that parity of rupee anddollar is not disturbed.

Talking in the program, renownedeconomist Dr. Shahid Hassan Siddiquisaid that when prices of oil come down, itis sure that prices of other commoditieswould also decrease.

He said the step of the government toslash oil prices would reduce cost of pro-duction which would ultimately increaseexports.

He added government, industrialistsand the nation should work collectivelyfor the growth of the country’s economy.

He added that the governmentshould continue efforts for the facilitationof the people.

Govt working with devotionto bring relief to people

Shakeel Awan, Mirza MansoorBaig, Haji Pervaiz Khan, Engineer,Qamar ul Islam, Shaukat Janjua,Rahat Qadosi , Mirza MansoorBaig, Zaib un Nisa, Lubna Rehan,Sobia Satti, officers of administra-tion and representatives of govern-ment departments and organiza-tions attended the meeting.

Raja Ashfaq Sarwar admiredthe efforts of all government de-partments and officers of adminis-trat ion for dengue control mea-sures and asked the elected repre-sentatives to actively participate inthe public awareness activities be-cause after the downward trend intemperature, most of the denguelarvae had been found in thehouses which needs to beirradicated by joint efforts of healthauthorities and inhabitants.

He also stressed for initiatingcommunity orientation activities toaware general public about dengue

control methods.The Commissioner Rawalpindi

on the occasion said that denguelarvae surveillance activities hadbeen enhanced with the close co-ordination of distr ict , town andcantonment administrations.

He also analyzes the figures ofdengue affected people with pre-vious year and said that in orderto combat dengue collect ive ef-forts had been made by mobilizingall available resources.

District Officer, Health Dr KhalidRandhawa presented a briefing aboutthe latest position of dengue preva-lence in Rawalpindi and said that allindicators reflected downward trendof dengue and we had foxed on highrisk union councils by conducing con-stant visits and undertaking all pos-sible measures to control dengue.

The part icipants of meetingalso gave their suggestions in thisregard.

CDA decides notto return

confiscatedgoods to citizens

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Capital De-velopment Authority (CDA)Enforcement Directoratehas decided not to returnthe goods to their ownerswhich will be confiscatedduring the campaign againstencroachments.

CDA has evolved a co-ordinated and cohesivepolicy under which confis-cated goods have been de-clared non returnable andthe policy will be applied toall indiscriminately withoutaccepting or showing anyfavour.

The cost of confiscatedgoods will be assessed andthese will be put to generalauction under IslamabadEnforcement Regulations2014. Notification in this re-gard has been issued. En-forcement department staffwill conduct anti encroach-ment campaign daily.

Those found involvedin setting up encroach-ments will neither be finednor will any legal notice beissued to them but thegoods confiscated fromthem will be deposited inthe store and later will beauctioned on quarterly ba-sis.

Women washing clothes at the bank of River Sawan because of scarcity of water at home.

Chief guest Maj General (Retd) Syed Guftar Shah, Director NORI Hospital Dr Javaid Irfan, former MD PakistanBait ul Mall Zammurd Khan and Chairman Green Task Force Dr Jamal Nasir leading a walk after the concludingceremony of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, organized by PSCO at NORI Hospital.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

05:40 01:3004:15

07:45

Zohr

Asr

Isha

Fajar

Meghrab at Sunset

Brothers in Islamestablish regularprayers & charity

November 6

ISSI in collaboration with theEmbassy of Republic of Ko-rea will hold a seminar on“The journey to peace andco-prosperity: The UnitedNations, Pakistan and Re-public of Korea” on Novem-ber 6, 2014 at 0830 hrs at TheInstitute of Strategic Stud-ies Islamabad (ISSI) SectorF-5/2, Islamabad.

November 13

NATIONAL Institute ofPsychology is holding a In-ternational conference onEducation Psychology on13th November, 2014. It willbe held at National Centreof Physics (NCP), Quaid-I-Azam University Campus,Islamabad time 9:00-18:00.

November 14

ALUMNI Association-Na-tional Institute of Psychol-ogy (AA-NIP) will hold an-nual Alumni Dinner, 2014 on14th November , 4:00 p.m. to8:00 p.m. at Geo Physics Au-ditorium, QAU.

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—In order to ensure securityof Muharram processions, City Traffic Po-lice (CTP) launched special grand opera-tion and arrested 253 beggars from the maincity roads while eight cases have been reg-istered against the beggars.

Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Rawalpindi,Shoaib Khurram Janbaz said that CTP is tak-ing strict action against suspected persons.

He informed that the beggar childrenarrested from city roads have been handedover to Child Protection Bureau.

He said that a special squad compris-ing an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), sixconstables and a lady constable, is work-ing to nab the beggars.

CTP arrest 253 beggarsfrom city roads

Directives have also been issued to thesquad to register cases against the beg-gars and the report in this regard should besent to CTO office on daily basis, he said.

The SSP said that the traffic officialshave been directed to ensure security ofthe mourning processions andImambargahs.

He said, Traffic Wardens have also beendirected to remove all kind of encroachmentsfrom the routes of processions besides keep-ing a vigil on suspected persons and things.

Strict disciplinary action will be takenagainst the delinquent officials, the CTOsaid adding the traffic load would be pro-vided alternative routes during mourningprocessions and diversion would be avail-able at various points for the motorists.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The commuters of twin cit-ies of Islamabad and Rawalpindi havecalled for bringing down fares of transport,following decrease in fuel prices.

The residents have compLehned thatwhenever there is rise in fuel prices, trans-porters increase fares on their own withoutissuance of formal notification.

Now, when the government has re-duced oil prices to mitigate problems of thecommon man, they are reluctant to cut trans-

Reduction in fuel prices

Commuters demand cutin transport fares

portation charges. This situation is caus-ing problems for commuters as transport-ers are not ready to accept any fare de-crease.

Shafiq Ahmed, a commuter at ZeroPoint stop said that it seems that transportauthority are not taking steps against thetransporters on overcharging.

The commuters urged the authoritiesconcerned to take appropriate steps to en-sure reduction in the fares as the transport-ers are still charging higher fares despitereduction in oil prices.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The low weight of rotiand naan goes unchecked in the twincities of Islamabad and Rawalpindidue to absence of a mechanism tocheck the weight and price of the com-modities on a daily basis.

The residents of various localitieshave expressed concerns over theweight and price of roti and naan, say-ing that it should be checked on a dailybasis to ensure availability of the itemsof prescribed weight at affordableprice.

Low weight of roti goes uncheckedin twin cities

The residents said that authoritiesconcerned should take notice of the re-cent increase in the prices of roti and naan.

They demanded that a propermechanism should be introduced forchecking the prices of bread on a dailybasis.

Ihsanullah, a senior citizen at theKarachi Company, said that somebread makers did not increase the pricebut decreased the weight of naan androti to 70 grams instead of the officialweight of 120 gr-ams.

A bread maker at sector a G-7 mar-ket said they had to purchase gas cyl-

inders and wood as an additional ex-penditure so they could not afford sell-ing bread at a low price.

He cLehmed that the weight ofnaan and roti had not been decreased,adding that it was not true, however,there were a large number of com-pLehnts that the weight of roti had al-ready been reduced in the twin cities.

The bread makers at different lo-calities of the capital are selling naanand roti at different rates - Rs 7, Rs 8,Rs 10 and Rs 12 - and fleecing the com-mon people, said the residents of vari-ous localities.

RAWALPINDI—Environment ProtectionAgency (EPA), under anti-dengue drive in-spected total 1814 sites, sealed 85 andlodges 85 FIRs against the rules violatorsduring the month of October.

District Officer EPA, Mian MohammadNawaz told APP that EPA teams also re-moved stagnant water from 433 vulnerablesites in the month.

Mian Mohammed Nawaz further saidthat EPA teams visited total 1814 points in-cluding 1234 tyre shops, 351 junkyards/godowns, 38 nurseries and 191 under con-struction sites.

EPA inspects 1814 sitesunder anti-dengue drive

He said vulnerable points are regularlybeing checked and special inspection isconducted to check dengue mosquito lar-vae.

As many as 1381 sites were declaredclear of dengue larva as Standared Operat-ing Procedures (SOPs) regarding denguewere being followed there.

The EPA teams found dengue larvae at41 places. Action in accordance with thelaw is being taken against the violators ofthe orders of the government to save thepublic from the spread of dengue mosqui-toes, he added.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Army has been called in aid to civiladministration to maintain law and order situationin Rawalpindi during Muharram ul Haram. Armywill stay in Rawalpindi from Muharram 8-10. Asmany as 4 companies of army have been called inand two points have been allocated for their de-ployment.

Army troops will remain deployed in CMA andits surrounding areas, Asghar Mall chowk, Mareerchowk, Kutchery chowk, Tehsil Gujjar Khan, TehsilKallar Syedan and Bahara Kahu. These militarycontingents will monitor the movement at entryand exit points of Rawalpindi city. These troopswill return to their respective formations following

the conclusion of Ashura Muharram procession.Meanwhile, in order to maintain law and order

and to secure mourning processions, strict secu-rity plans have been prepared while special centralcontrol rooms set up by the administration andpolice, under the special directives of Punjab Gov-ernment.

A Divisional Control Room having phone no051-9270681 was established at Commissioner Of-fice Rawalpindi.

Rawalpindi District Control Room with phoneno 051-9270611 Ext 211-212 has also been set up tomonitor the security arrangements of Muharram.

While District Control Room of RawalpindiPolice has been established in office of City PoliceOfficer (CPO) having phone no 051-9270014.

Separate Control Rooms at Tehsil level with re-spective Assistant Commissioners as their headshave also been established. Rawalpindi Tehsil Con-trol Room with 051- 9270815, Gujarkhan Tehsil Con-trol Room with 051-3510235, Kahota Tehsil ControlRoom with phone no 051-3311232, Tehsil KalarSeydian Control Room with phone no 051-3571793are functional.

Similarly Tehsil Kotli Satian Control Room isnow operational and can be contacted on phoneno 051-3356100, Tehsil Murree Control Room canbe contacted on phone no 051-9269017. Tehsil TexilaControl Room with phone no 051-9314300 has alsobeen set up to meet any situation and make coordi-nated efforts to maintain law and order and peaceduring Muharram.

District Jhelum Control Room with phone no0544-9270058-60 has been set up. Police ControlRoom, at DPO Office is working with 0544-9270057.

District Attock Control Room is functional andcan be contacted on 057-2603030.

District Chakwal Control Room having phoneno 0543-660104 has also been established.

Special Emergency Control Room/ProvincialCrisis Management Cell with 042-99210301-2and Fax no 042-99213672, 042-99213677 andCentral Police Office Control Room with 042-99211879-880 have also been set up. All theControl Rooms are monitoring the security situ-ation round-the-clock while the citizens havebeen urged that in case of any emergency 15can also be contacted.

Army called in to maintain law,order during Muharram ul Haram

Special control rooms set up for monitoring

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Justice Jawwad SKhawaja has taken oath as actingChief Justice of Pakistan. JusticeSaqib Nisar administered oath to himat a ceremony in Islamabad on Satur-day.

The oath was administered by Jus-

Jawwad S Khawaja takesoath as active CJ

tice Saqib Nisar in a simple but digni-fied ceremony in the Supreme Court,Islamabad. Justice Jawwad S. Khawajawill act as Chief Justice of Pakistanduring the period, Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Chief Justice of Pakistan remainsabroad.

The ceremony was attended byJudges ofthe Supreme Court of Pa-

kistan, Senior Lawyers and Officersof the Law &Justice Commission ofPakistan. Syed Tahir Shahbaz, Reg-istrar, SupremeCourt, conducted theproceedings of oath taking cer-emony.

Officers and staff of SupremeCourt of Pakistan were also presentat the occasion.

Mr. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja is taking oath as Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan at Supreme Court.

IESCO complaint cellsto remain open on 9th,

10th MuharramSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—IESCO Com-plaint and Monitoring Cell willremain open round the clockduring 9th and 10th Muharramul Haram. Under the direc-tives of Chief Executive Of-ficer (CEO) IESCOMuhammad Yusuf Awan,IESCO officers and staff mem-bers have been assigned spe-cial duties to ensure uninter-rupted supply of electricity toImambargahs, Majalis,Taazias and mourning proces-sions.

In this connection offic-ers and concerned staff willperform 24 hours duty inshifts in distribution controlcenter and chief executiveofficer complaint and moni-toring cell Islamabad. All thecomplaint cells operating inIslamabad, Rawalpindi,Attock, Jhelum and Chakwalcircles will remain open for 24hours and operation staff willremain alert to meet any emer-gency situation.

IESCO chief engineerwill monitor emergency cell.Focal person Bakht Zamanhaving mobile phone num-ber 0333-5123848 will su-pervise Islamabad circlemonitoring cell, RajaAsghar mobile phone num-ber 03328561066 Rawalpindicircle, Omar Gul Afridi withmobile phone number03335244 5244834 in Attockcircle, Siddique Khattakwith mobile phone number03335334513 in Chakwalcircle, Aslam Khan with mo-bile phone number03335334514 in Jhelumcircle.

ISLAMABAD—Three persons including apilot were injured when a small training air-craft Cessna crashed at Benazir Bhutto In-ternational Airport here on Saturday morn-ing.

According to Civil Aviation spokesman,a small training aircraft of the flying club

crashed while landing on the runway of theAirport leaving three persons including thepilot of the plane and two trainee pilots in-jured.

Rescue teams reached the spot immedi-ately and shifted the injured to a local medi-cal center for treatment.—INP

3 injured as training planecrashes at BB Airport

RAWALPINDI—Body of a 3 year oldmissing girl has been found fromNullah Leh. According to police, 3 yearold daughter of Nausherwan Khanwent missing from Zia ul Haq Colonynear Nullah Leh while she was play-

ing outside her home. Police had beensearching for the girl when her bodywas recovered from the Nullah Leh.Police has dubbed the death of girl asaccidental and said that she must havefell in Nullah Leh while playing as there

was no safety barrier between herhouse and Nullah Leh. Police ruled outany foul play as her parents had toldpolice that they have no enmity withanyone. The body of the girl has beenhanded over to the family.

Body of missing girl found from Nullah Leh

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK President Sardar Muhammad Yaqub Khan and education Min-ister colleges Muhammad Matloob Inquilabi coming to participate in a civic function hereon Saturday.

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, Indiantroops in their continued acts of state ter-rorism martyred nine Kashmiris includinga woman during the last month of Octo-ber. IMG_0524According to the data is-sued by the Research Section of KashmirMedia Service, today, these killings ren-dered two women widowed and six chil-dren orphaned. During the period, 61Kashmiris were critically injured whenIndian police and paramilitary personnelused brute force against peaceful demon-strators in the occupied territory. Thetroops and police personnel arrested 115people, mostly Hurriyet leaders and activ-ists. The troops also destroyed a residen-tial house during the month.

On the other hand, Indian police haveshifted the illegally detained Hurriyetleaders, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, ZafarAkbar Butt, Nayeem Ahmed Khan and

Indian troops martyred 9Kashmiris in October

Kashmir settlement possible thru talksMuhammad Yousuf Naqash fromSrinagar to district jail Kupwara. Thepolice had arrested them on Thursdaydetaining them in different police stationsin Srinagar. The veteran Hurriyet leader,Syed Ali Gilani, remained under housearrest while the Jammu and Kashmir Lib-eration Front Chairman, MuhammadYasin Malik, and many other Hurriyetleaders and activists arrested during thepast three days in various police stations.The actions have been taken to preventthe leaders from conducting the campaignfor the boycott of the so-called assemblyelections in the territory scheduled to beheld from the 25th of this month.Senior leader of All Parties Hurriyet Con-ference, Professor Abdul Ghani Butt, ad-dressing a public gathering in Batengoarea of Sopore said that the Kashmir dis-pute could not be resolved through hold-

ing of sham elections in the territory butcould be settled through meaningful dia-logue process.Hurriyet leaders, Muhammad AzamInqilabi, Mehmood Ahmed Saghar, AbdulHameed Lone and Shamim Shawl, as wellas the spokesmen of Hurriyet ConferenceJammu and Kashmir and Jamaat-e-Islamiof the occupied territory in their statementsstrongly denounced the crackdown onHurriyet leaders and activists. They saidthat such brutal tactics had exposed the realface of Indian democracy in the occupiedterritory.Senior APHC leader, Maulana AbbasAnsari, led a Muharram procession inNawa Kadal area of Srinagar. Peoplestaged a demonstration in Uri town againstthe disappearance of a local man in NewDelhi who is missing since October 22,this year.—KMS

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, the Kash-mir Freedom Front (KFF), a constituent ofAPHC, has denounced the continued raids onthe house of its Chairman and Senior HurriyetLeader, Syed Bashir Andrabi at RatniporaPulwama and described it frustration of the au-thorities. The KFF spokesman in a statementissued in Srinagar said that Indian police raidedthe Andrabi’s house and harassed his familymembers including his children and aged father.

He said that luckily Andrabi was not at homebut the Indian police took away his personal vehiclewith them. He said that Andrabi would not deterwith such cheap tactics like harassing his familymembers and arresting Hurriyat leadership but wouldcontinue his political activities till Kashmiri people

KFF denounces raids onBashir Andrabi’s house

ABDUL MAJID ZARGAR

THE admission by Chief Minster OmarAbdullah , in an interview published inKhaleej Times of 19th October 2014, about

the brazen role of MLA Chadoora, Javaid MustafaMir in obstructing the breach of Kandizal area asper the standard operating procedure, raises somepertinent questions. The failure at political & admin-istrative level to take necessary steps to save Srinagarcity from ravaging floods and putting the Stateeconomy to a loss of Rs. One Trillion plus a cascad-ing effect of nearly thrice as much is an unpardon-able crime for which heads should have rolled &guilty behind the bars by now. But the local leader-ship which acts as managers of colonial propertyhanded over to them by New-Delhi gets as muchpolitical immunity from New-Delhi as security forcesget under AFSPA. Here in this state, unaccountabil-ity is the rule rather than exception.

To guage the inertia at the politico-adminis-trative level preceding the floods, it is worthwhile

Kashmir floods intrigue

Kandizal breach—Victim of political compulsions

to have a look at CM’s answer to a question posedby the paper: “ KT: There is an apprehension thatthe government dithered on a key decision tobreach Kandizal, an important embankment inriver Jhelum. Is that true? CM: The Kandizalbreach took place itself. It is a fact that JavedMustafa Mir, the local MLA of Kandizal (of thePDP) positioned himself on the bund and didn’tallow us to breach it. However nature took its owncourse and Kandizal breached itself. When peopletalk of Kandizal as a flood basin, that’s a 25-yearold perspective. That was when there was no popu-lation in Kandizal. Today more than 200,000people reside in that area.”

CM’s above answer raises following vital is-sues of grave public importance. a) That PDPMLA Javaid Mustafa Mir did’nt allow the admin-istration to breach the Kandizal area; b) TheKandizal breach took place itself; c) That Kandizalarea is inhabited by two lac people today com-pared to 25 years ago.The chief Minster wants us to believe that mis-

chief was played only by Javeed Mustafa Mir whobelongs to PDP. He conveniently omits to men-tion the resistance offered by his own friend &MLA Anmira Kadal in respect of opening of floodgates at Padshai Bagh & Mohd. Akbar Lone, thehigher education Minster, in refusing to allow di-version of water to Wullar lake. The later infa-mous for using unparliamentary language eveninside the legislature, is reported to have usedchoicest abuses and invectives for officials plead-ing for prompt diversion as per the standard oper-ating procedure. Not left behind is one ImtiyazParray, the son of that infamous renegade, whoused unabated violence & muscle-power to fa-cilitate election 1996 to put Farooq Abdullah inchair. The whole administration buckled under thepressure of these so-called state & non-state ac-tors to prevent adherence to SOP.

The next point in CM’s answer is “ Mir did’ntallow us to breach it”. Mr. Chief Minster, shouldfeel shame in saying that an MLA did not allow thewhole administration to do a particular act and hav-

ing accepted that fact he is not worthy of occupy-ing a chair meant to safeguard the state & its people.

Another point in CM’s statement is that Kandizalbreach took place itself. By this statement he wantsus to believe that undue intervention of MLAs didnot make much a difference. Yes it is true thatKandizal breach took place itself but the crucial ques-tion is when. It was on 4th of September that Mr.Mustafa Mir along with his few goons brandished agun at Kandizal site & threatened to kill any body &everybody who dares to breach it. It was on 6th Sep-tember that water finally overflew Kandizal. Theexcess water in Jehlum, because of non-breaching,created undue pressure on bunds surrounding cityfor at-least 37 hours. Now anybody conversant withelementary engineering mathematics would tell CMthat had Kandizal been breached in time as per theSOP, excess water of around 50,000 cusecs flowingat an average speed would have crossed even ourborders in two days, providing much needed reliefto Srinagar City. Even if the left-over excess waterwould have inundated the city, the flood level would

not have exceeded 2 to 3ft which means a great re-lief as compared to average 15 ft level.

The final question arising from CM’s answeris that Kandizal was a flood basin 25 years ago &now around two lac people live in that basin. Hereagain the question is who allowed the people tosettle in the said flood basin? While there is no de-nying the fact that every Govt. facilitated illegaloccupation of Kashmir’s water bodies & basins,National Conference has to share a major part ofthe blame as it was in power for half of those twentyfive years, the remaining half being accounted forby other parties & governor’s rule. Kashmir is agraveyard of many reputations. It has demolishedmany a kings, rulers & dynasties. Those who havefiddled with its sanctity & identity have found them-selves razed to ground leaving no trace of even theirsmall particles. Mr. CM it is definitely going tocome true in your case also.

—Courtesy: Kashmir Watch[The author is a practicing Chartered Accoun-tant. E Mail: abdulmajidzargar@gmail.com]

would achieve their birthright to self-determination.He appealed to the people to safeguard the precioussacrifices they had rendered in their fight againstIndia’s forcible occupation of their homeland .Hesaid that on one hand, India claimed to be the largestdemocracy of the world while on other, it was ar-resting the Hurriyet leaders to prevent them fromcarrying out their peaceful political activities.He said that Kashmir was devastated by a severeflood recently and hundreds of people lost their livesand millions were made homeless and compelled tolive under the open sky. Hurriyat leadership was busywith relief distribution but the authorities frustratedwith efforts to reach out to flood victims and theyhad no option but to arrest the Hurriyet leaders totake them away from the people.—KMS

NOWGAM,IHK—Protests rocked at CentralUniversity of Kashmir after scores of uni-versity students refused to celebrate “Na-tional Unity Day” in Nowgam Campus of thevarsity.

According to GNS, students while car-rying placards in their hands chanted pro-freedom slogans like “Stop Indianisation ofEducational Institutions”, “Go India GoBack”, “Yeh Watan Hamara Hai, Is ki HifazatHum Karenge (This is our nation, we willsafeguard it)”.

“They can celebrate days like this any-where in India but not here in Kashmir,” saida protesting student. “When we are not al-lowed to celebrate days of our martyrs likeMohammad Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru

‘Go India go’ slogansrock Kashmir Varsity

how come we celebrate day of Sardar WallabBhai Patel?” said another student pursuingJournalism in the university.

Sources said that protest started in themorning and continued till noon. Several girlstudents of the university also joined the pro-test. University Grants Commission (UGC)had issued an order to the university to cel-ebrate birthday of Sardar Wallabh Bhai Patelas National Unity Day in Nowgam campus.Amid sloganeering in the campus, universityauthorities shifted to another room and con-ducted the programme where only universitystaff joined them and no student attended thefunction. Later, university authorities paci-fied the protesting students and they left thevenue peacefully.—KW

HAMEED SHAHEEN

MUZAFFARABAD—Jammu martyrs day will beobserved on Thursday, Nov 6, 2014, on both sidesof the ceasefire line in memory of 2,50, 000 mar-tyrs who were butchered by Dogra and Indianforces in the first week of November 1947. Thefigure of 2,50,000 deaths of Jammu people waspublished by the Time magazine in its November47 publication. The huge deaths had stunned theworld. Kashmiris are fighting for their rights since1931 down to this day. In fact the history of J&Kstate is written with warm blood of the people ofKashmir and Jammu, facing heavy odds.

Jammu martyrs day on Nov 6These sacrifices did not go waste. In the later

days when the Kashmir issue was taken to the UNSecurity Council by India, the Council respondedback that the dispute of Kashmir needs to be solvedon the basis of an international fair and free plebi-scite under UN monitoring. India signed the UNSC Kashmir resolutions. Thus far the dispute overKashmir could not be solved because of Indianintransigence. In the ongoing struggle since De-cember 1989 the Kashmiris have lost over 100,000lives. Kashmir is now in fact a burning hell in themidst of South Asia - nuclearised, a threat to peacecalling for international notice and urgent solutionto Kashmir dispute.

Kashmir solutionviable via

meaningful talks:Prof Butt

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, senior leader of the AllParties Hurriyet Conference(APHC), Professor AbdulGhani Butt has said that Kash-mir dispute cannot be resolvedthrough holding of sham elec-tions in the territory but can besettled through meaningful dia-logue process.Professor AbdulGhani Butt addressing a publicgathering in Batengo area ofSopore said that any further de-lay in resolution of the Kashmirdispute could disturb the re-gional peace. He said that talkswere inevitable for settling thedispute among the parties.

Describing political, diplo-matic and military tension be-tween Pakistan and India shock-ing, senior APHC leader said thatthe Kashmir conflict was the ba-sic reason of strained relationsbetween the two countries. Hesaid that settlement of the disputeaccording to the aspirations of theKashmiri people was imperativefor normalization of ties betweenthe two nuclear neighbours.

Professor Abdul GhaniButt said that India could notclaim itself the biggest democ-racy of the world without grant-ing birthright to self-determi-nation to the people of Jammuand Kashmir. Paying glowingtributes to the martyrs ofKarbala, the APHC leader saidthat Hazrat Imam Hussain(RA) and his companions didnot bow before falsehood andsacrificed their lives for up-holding the truth.—KMS

Crackdown onHurriyet leaders

denouncedSRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, the Chairman of AllParties Hurriyet Conference,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and theveteran Hurriyet leader, SyedAli Gilani, have strongly con-demned the crackdown onHurriyet leaders and activistsby the puppet authorities aheadof the so-called electionsscheduled to be held from the25th November in the territory.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq ad-dressing a gathering at JamiaMasjid in Srinagar, today, saidthat India was staging the elec-tion dramas in the territory forthe past over six decades butthe process could not changethe disputed status of Jammuand Kashmir. He said that theKashmiris would continue theirstruggle till they achieved theirinalienable right to self-deter-mination. He deplored that in-stead of rehabilitating the floodvictims of the territory Indiahad left them at the mercy ofcircumstances by announcingthe schedule of the sham polls.

Syed Ali Gilani in a mediainterview in Srinagar termedthe holding of the sham pollsas a military exercise. He saidthat farcical elections held inoccupied Kashmir at gunpointwere meaningless and a futileexercise. The authorities haveplaced under house arrest theHurriyet leaders includingSyed Ali Gilani, MuhammadAshraf Sehrai and MukhtarAhmed Waza. MuhammadYasin Malik, Shabbir AhmedShah, Nayeem Ahmed Khan,Zafar Akbar Butt, MuhammadYousuf Naqash, ShabbirAhmed Dar, Muhammad AyazAkbar and scores of Hurriyetleaders and activists have beenlodged in different police sta-tions. Indian police have alsoraided the houses of Hurriyetleaders including Javed AhmedMir, Syed Bashir Andrabi,Farooq Ahmed Dar, AbdulAhad Parra, Raja Meraj-ud-dinand Altaf Ahmed Shah. Theactions have been taken to pre-vent the leaders from conduct-ing election boycott campaignin the territory.

APHC leaders, Javed AhmedMir and Syed Bashir Andrabi,addressing public gatherings inKulgam and Pulwama areas saidthat the Kashmiris were render-ing sacrifices for resolution of theKashmir dispute and not for for-mation of puppet regimes. Heurged the people to beware of pro-India politicians who would ex-ploit their sentiments duringpolls.—KMS

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK Minister Ch. Latif Akbar, Opposition leader Raja Farooq Haider Khan and Kashmir Bank MDFazal ur Rehman mulling over the proposal to accord scheduled bank status to the bank in their meeting here.

SRINAGAR—In occupied Kashmir, APHCleader, Javaid Ahmad Mir has said that pro-India political parties are exploiting the sen-timents Kashmiri people and sacrifices ofmartyrs in the name of resolving the Kash-mir dispute for lust of power.

Javaid Ahmad addressing a gathering inKhori Battapora area of Kulgam district, to-day, said that the pro-India political partiesduring their campaign for the sham pollswere deceiving the innocent Kashmiris bycalming that they would resolve the Kash-mir dispute.

He said that pro-India political partieslike Peoples Democratic Party and NationalConference instead of demanding help for the

Pro-India parties exploitingIOK people: Javaid Mir

flood-affected Kashmiris from New Delhi,begged for elections and gifted elections tothe flood-affectees which was condemnable.Slamming the authorities for imposing con-tinued ban on Muharram procession, JavaidMir said that Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA) hadnot scarified his life for power but for pro-tecting Islam. He also condemned the deten-tion of pro-freedom leaders includingMuhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir AhmadShah, Zafar Akbar Butt, Nayeem AhmadKhan and house detention of Mukhtar AhmadWaza.Javaid Mir was accompanied by Hurriyetleaders, Ghulam Mustafa and AbdulMajeed.—KMS

BATAMALOO, IHK—With harsh Himalayanwinter approaching fast, twenty eight fami-lies of Batamaloo locality who lost theirhouses and household to floods are spend-ing nights under open sky and are equallyworried about their future.

Over two dozen aggrieved families arebeing provided food by a local committee.While some of the families are living in tents,others effort to survive in the Public HealthCentre (PHC) building which has no doorsand windowpanes.

The PHC’s under construction first andsecond floors where these aggrieved fami-lies stay is even without washroom. Talkingto Greater Kashmir from this “Self HelpRefugee Camp” the victims broke downwhile narrating their woeful tales.

“I didn’t receive any help from the authori-ties. My family is living in this tent, which wehired out of our resources. We feel cold, waterenterers into tents whenever it rains. In brief, Ican tell you we are struggling to survive,” saidManzoor Ahmad Wani.

Homeless victimscry official apathy

He informed that some utensils and fooditems were provided to them by the locals.“We are worried about our welfare. Localscollected food and other necessary items in-cluding warm clothes for us. They are do-ing their best to help us in every possibleway but then till how long,” he added.A young girl wishing not to be named said shemisses her home a lot. “We are thankful to peoplewho are helping us here but it is difficult to livesomewhere other than your own home. I missmy home and the privacies we enjoy there,” shesaid as tears rolled down her eyes.

Her family said no officials have visitedthem for consolation or to provide any re-lief. “We will re-build our residential houses.Our own people will not let us down. Someof youth have been approaching us and tell-ing that they would work as laborer withoutcharging anything for re-building our houses.However, the official apathy we face willalways remain in our hearts to retell that tothe coming generations,” said Fayaz Ahmad,another aggrieved.—GK

Syed Ali Gilanileaves for Delhi

for medicalcheck-up

SRINAGAR—In occupiedKashmir, the veteran Hurriyetleader, Syed Ali Gilani leftSrinagar for New Delhi, today,for medical check-up. SyedAli Gilani is being treated bya prominent heart specialist,Dr T.S Keller at Escorts Hos-pital in New Delhi. Beforeleaving for New Delhi, theveteran Hurriyet leader whiletalking to media men inSrinagar said that the authori-ties had failed to rehabilitatethe flood victims and theywere living under the open skyin the cold weather of win-ter.—KMS

Economic depres-sion cannot be

cured by legisla-tive action or

executive pro-nouncement.

Economic woundsmust be healed bythe action of thecells of the eco-nomic body - theproducers and

consumers them-selves.

—Herbert Hoover

FAISALABAD: Lady farmer picking cotton from a field.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Buksh Foundation has been awarded the11thAnnual Environment Excellence Award 2014, or-ganized by the National Forum for Environment &Health (NFEH). This prestigious award was presentedto Buksh Foundation by the Governor Punjab–Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, during a formal cer-emony. Buksh Foundation was nominated for promot-ing environment friendly activities and projects to makeoutstanding contributions towards sustainable devel-opment and economic growth of the country. Lightinga Million Lives- a renewable energy project makes useof solar energy to provide energy to off-grid villagesof Pakistan.

The project has impacted the lives of 33,750 ben-eficiaries directly and 67,500 indirectly. It is promot-ing and utilizing the immense solar energy potential,which Pakistan has. Buksh Foundation is an impact-led, not-for-profi t organization providing dist in-guished services in the development sector of Paki-stan. It is one of the leading organizations working inthe development sector to uplift the living standards

Buksh Foundation gets ‘Annual EnvironmentExcellence Award’

of the impoverished communities. Buksh Foundationhas been making use of technological innovativemodels and projects to create 360-degree impact onthe society, through the use of renewable energy.

Its various projects in the development sector havelead to large-scale enhancements affecting thousands of

people and the venture is on its way to impacts millionsof more people. Various other prominent organizationsincluding;Oil and Gas Development Company Limited,Pak Arab Refinery Company, Lucky Cement, Bestway Ce-ment, Clariant, DG Cement, Kansai Paint, Archroma andSui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited were also present atthe ceremony. Fiza Farhan-CEO Buksh Foundation stated,“It is an honor and a privilege for Buksh Foundation toreceive the 11th AEEA award, and I would like to thankNFEH, Governor of Punjab, jury and the review commit-tee for acknowledging the efforts of Buksh Foundationin the field of environment and health.

Our projects rely on alternate renewable energysources which protect the environment and preserve thehealth of the beneficiaries”. Hira Bokari-Business Devel-opment Executive, Buksh Foundation said “We are proudto be a part of the, 65 prominent organizations and indus-try leaders who have won this award. These enterprisesare consistently striving for the conservation of environ-ment, with their focus on public health issues. BukshFoundation’s projects are designed to cater to a numberof sectors and uplift the social & economic status ofdeprived communities”.

RCCI delegationreturns homeStaff ReporterRAWALPINDI—A 27-Member trade delegationof Rawalpindi Chamberof Commerce andIndustry (RCCI) led byPresident Asad Mashadireturned back fromKazakhstan after fourdays visit of CentralAsian States (CAS).President Asad Mashadion his return has saidthat during stay del-egates participated intrade forum and orga-nized an exhibition ofPakistani products andsigned enormousMemorandum of Under-standings (MoUs) withdifferent CAS companiesin fruits & vegetables,food items, pharmaceuti-cal, textile products,surgical equipments andconstruction material.Mashadi said thatdelegates organized anexhibition of Pakistanielectric products,cinstruction material,textile and surgicalequipments. He thankedPakistan ambassador inKazakhstan Shaukat AliMuqadam and commer-cial counselor Dr. AdilMian Khel and said thatPakistani embassy fullycooperated with thedelegation.

PIBC appoints standingcommittees chairmanLAHORE—Pak IndiaBusiness Council (PIBC)has appointed ShahbazMahmood Bhatti, aleading importer andexporter of vegetablesand fruits from India, aschairman standingcommittee of PIBC forvegetables and fruits.PIBC has also appointedCh Muhammad Yaqoobas chairman standingcommittee of PIBC onEnergy. Yaqoob isAmerican-Pakistani andpresently working asPresident RochesterEnergy IncorporationAmerica. Chairman PIBCNoor Muhammad Kasuritold APP here onSaturday that both theappointments would behelpful in boosting Indo-Pak trade and tostrengthen economicrelations between thetwo countries.—APP

KARACHI—The yellow metal price in inter-national and domestic markets remained ondownward trend on cautious trading by buy-ers, traders said. Gold closed at $1,164 anounce down by $39 an ounce comparing toprevious day price while domestic bullionprice also witnessed downward correction.Gold in tola term down by Rs 1608 and stayedat Rs 44,772 per tola while in grammage value,gold dipped by Rs 1380 to close at Rs 38,426

Gold price remains under depressionper ten grams respectively, dealers said.

The gold price remained under correc-tion phase as leading traders and gold hedg-ers remained busy in manipulating trade andbuyers with less liquidity remained cautiousfor making any sizeable deal in anticipationfurther downward adjustment in price. Thepotential buyers at home remained confidentdollar-rupee parity would keep gold priceswithin buyers’ reach.—Agencies

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The business community haswelcomed substantial fall in the prices ofpetroleum products and termed it a gift fromthe federal government to the public. Lead-ing businessmen are of the view that thiscommendable step by the governmentwould help cut household expenses of thecommon man to a great extent. However,they called upon the provincial govern-ments to take measures for a reduction intransport fares and the rates of daily-useitems.

Talking to media, Yahya Polani, thechairman of the Aviation Committee of theFederation of the Pakitan Chambers of Com-merce and Industry (FPCCI), said that theyare grateful to Prime Minister MianMuhammad Nawaz Sharif and his cabinetfor a substantial reduction in petroleumprices. He said that the Prime Minister surely

Business community hailspetroleum price reduction

understands the problems of the poor. Hecalled upon the authorities concerned totake measures so that common people couldbe benefited from this price reduction.

Renowned industrialist Zubair Motiwalawelcomed the fall in petroleum prices andsaid it is a good step and it will benefit thepoor. He urged the authorities concerned toforce the transporters to reduce fares as perthe cut in petroleum prices. All Karachi TajirItehad’s chairman Atiq Mir also lauded thedecline in petroleum prices, which he saidwould increase economic activities.

Joria Bazaar Traders Association’s Sec-retary General Abdul Qadir Noorani said thatslashing petroleum prices is a positive de-velopment which will facilitate the masses.While All Karachi Anjuman Tajraan’s Presi-dent Rafiq Jadoon said the business com-munity of the metropolis welcomes this de-velopment, which will reduce business costand improve the economy.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar meeting with delegation of Pakistansugar Mills Association.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Finance Minister, SenatorMohammad Ishaq Dar has assured a del-egation of Pakistan Sugar Mills Associa-tion (PSMA) that an appropriate decisionregarding permission to the sugar mills forexport of surplus sugar as well as other is-sues would be taken by the ECC but calledupon the association to ensure that all dueswere paid to the farmers and crushing pro-cess was initiated on time the Finance Min-ister was talking to a delegation of PakistanSugar Mills Association which called onhim here on Saturday and conveyed theirgrievances for their solution.

The delegation said that due to surplusstock of sugar to the tune of 1.2 million tons,they had no option but to export sugar toavoid incurring losses and ensure paymentsto the sugarcane growers. They further saidthat regulatory duty on import of sugarshould also be levied to help the domesticindustry. The delegation also drew FinanceMinister’s attention to the clearance ofTDAP related cases.

At this juncture, the Minister for FoodSecurity, Sikandar Hayat Bosan pointed out

Dar assures favourabledecision on surplus sugar

export to PMSAthat while the issues raised by the delega-tion deserved consideration, the sugar millsalso had some unfulfilled obligations. Someof them had not been making payments tosugarcane farmers for as long as four yearsand the farmers were now hard pressed. Healso pointed out that the sugar mills hadbeen extending the date for initiation of sug-arcane crushing process every year whichshould be avoided in future and that crush-ing must start maximum by 15th Novemberas it would help timely sowing of the wheat.

The Finance Minister said the issuesfacing the sugar industry would be givendue consideration but it should also keepin mind the welfare of the farmers and theconsumers. He entrusted the Ministry ofCommerce with the task to prepare and sub-mit a summary to the ECC encompassinggenuine demands of Pakistan Sugar MillsAssociation. He advised members of thedelegation to take due cognizance of thecomments made by the Minister for Na-tional Food Security & Research, SikandarHayat Bosan. Commerce Minister, KurramDastgir Khan, Minster for National FoodSecurity, Sikandar Hayat Bosan and othersenior officials attended the meeting.

ISLAMABAD—Senior analyst Nawaz Razahas said that 1100 megawatts electricity canbe generated through imported LNG andresultantly the problem of power outagecould be addressed to some extent.

Talking to media, he said there is ayawning gap between supply and demandof the petroleum products therefore pricesof oil are high; however, government iscommitted to addressing this issue and theenergy crisis too. He said that peopleshould pay electricity and gas bills andprovincial governments should also sup-port federal government in this regard.

LNG import can shrinkdemand, supply gap

Adding to discussion, analyst ZafarIqbal said that the people would be facili-tated when imported LNG would land in thecountry and it would also create an enablingatmosphere for the industries to increasetheir production in an environment of com-petition. He added there is need of changeof mindset and culture to stop theft of gasand electricity, adding that laws should bealso enforced strictly to discourage themenace. He said that provincial govern-ments should also support federal govern-ment in its crusade to stop theft of gas andelectricity.—APP

MIAN ARSHAD

ISLAMABAD—The Minister for Textile Indus-try (MoTI) instructed provincial governmentsto implement the cotton control Act in letterand spirit to ensure standardization and grad-ing of cotton according to international stan-dards adopted by the Pakistan Cotton Stan-dards Institute (PCST). MoTI Textile Minis-try has taken this step to meet the interna-tional standards for cotton as well as to higherPakistan textile exports to other countries.

A well-placed source privy to TextileMinister told this scribe here on Saturdaythat MoTI had taken numerous initiativesto ensure development, production and pres-ervation of finer quality cotton in the coun-try. “Pakistan Central Cotton Committee(PCCC) and other cotton research instituteshave developed some varieties with over 30mm staple length, like CIM-573, MNH 990,CEMB-33, Alsaleemi H-61” the source addedsaying that PCCC had also acquired over4000 germ plasm from the USA, and was uti-lizing these resources in developing long andextra long staple varieties through breedingfor quality traits. The source said that PCCCtested the long varieties, already developed,at coastal areas of Thatta (Sindh) and Winder

Textile Ministry directs provinces tostrictly implement Cotton Control Act

(Baluchistan), but unfortunately, these longvarieties were not getting popularize becausebuyer not ready to pay premium price.

“This Ministry has also instructed pro-vincial governments to implement the cottoncontrol Act in letter and spirit to ensure stan-dardization and grading of cotton accordingto international standards adopted by thePakistan Cotton Standards Institute (PCSI)”the source observed. The source further saidthat the Government approved Textiles Pack-age in Budget 2014-15,comprising of severalimportant initiatives like Drawback for localtaxes and levies would be given to exportersof textile products on values of their enhancedexports on an incremental basis if increasedbeyond 10% over previous year‘s exports.

“Easy Finance Mark up rate for ExportRefinance Scheme of State Bank of Pakistanhas been reduced from 9.4% to 7.5% from ofJuly 2014.Textile industry units in the valueadded sector would be provided Long TermFinancing facility (LTFF) for up gradation oftechnology from State Bank of Pakistan atthe rate of 9% for 3-10 years duration” thesource said while giving details of the pack-age for Textile Industry, adding that Tariffon Machinery Imports Duty free import oftextile machinery for the period of two years.

LAHORE—Due to government support andimproving rural economy, sales of locallyassembled tractors is expected to rebound,analysts said. According to Topline Secu-rities, after falling in last few years, tractorsales are expected to grow by 37 percent inFY15 and 10 percent in FY16. In FederalBudget FY15, the government had an-nounced reduction in General Sales Tax(GST) from 16 percent to 10 percent andincreased agri-credit loan target from Rs 380billion to Rs 500 billion. Both these mea-sures will provide the much-needed growthin tractors sales, the report said.

Agriculture makes up 20 percent ofPakistan’s GDP. Consistent increase in com-modity support prices (wheat support pricedoubled in last 5 years), rising farmers’ edu-cation on using modern techniques andbooming remittances (up 166 percent in last

5 years) have improved buying power offarmers in Pakistan. As rising population baseand inheritance have resulted in lesser avail-able crop area per person, farmers are moreconcerned on improving yields. In this at-tempt, farmers are relying more on fertilisers,pesticides and modern equipment. Higheragri-credit, mainly from Zarai Taraqqiati Bankand rising remittances would also help inrising tractors sales in addition to lower GSTand supportive govt policies.

According to Topline, dominated by twoplayers, Pakistan tractor sector is more like amonopoly providing opportunity to pass onincrease in cost. Millat Tractors (MTL) hasa market share of 64 percent, followed by Al-Ghazi (AGTL) 34 percent. The tractor indus-try has achieved 90-95 percent localisationlevels while cost pressures are driven by fluc-tuations in local input costs.—Agencies

Tractors sale likely to growby 37 pc in FY-15

PSM fails toresume

productionKARACHI- Pakistan SteelMills Corporation’s man-agement seems, has failedto resume production, sus-pended second week of thismonth after an accidentalfault in its single opera-tional blast furnace (BF).PSM’s iron productionwhich was nearly to com-plete just halted on Octo-ber 9, 2014 as Blast Furnace(BF-1) was shut down dueto leakage and same dayproduction at Steel MakingDepartment was also sus-pended due to fault in itsconverter. After both inci-dents the PSM manage-ment claimed to resume pro-duction of both plants infew days.

However, despite aspan of three weeks, twomajor production unitsSteel Making Department(SMD) and Iron MakingDepartment (IMD) are stillout of production, resultedin billions of rupee loss tothe country. Shazim Akhtarspokesman PSM claimedthat repairing work has al-ready been completed aweek earlier and BF-1 isnow in working position;however production islikely to resume in next fewdays. He said that an in-quiry has already been ini-tiated by the managementand a committee headed byAbsar Nabi is engaged toprobe the reason of inci-dent.

According to a busi-ness plan which was sub-mitted by Major GeneralZaheer Ahmed (retd), CEOPSM, and got financialpackage of Rs 18.1 billionwith the condition toachieve a 40 percent pro-duction in October 2014and then go ahead to getanother tranche of bailoutpackage. As the mill’s pro-duction is suspended fromthe last three weeks, it alsoseems difficult to achieveproduction target of thismonth. However the man-agement is making all ef-forts for release of bailouttranche to pay salaries andto procure more raw mate-rials.—Agencies

Olivia CMLlaunched in

martsKARACHI—After the suc-cess of Olivia PerfumedTalc in Pakistan, Whichwas introduced by“Nargis Fakhri” a topmodel and Bollywood ac-tress in April 2014. LikeOlivia Perfumed Talc, onemore time Olivia has en-dorsed and revamps itsCleansing & MoisturizingMilk with Nargis Fakhri.

Olivia CML is Avail-able in two sizes 110ml &220ml with added benefitsof Aloe Vera and MilkCream. As Nargis Fakhrithe new talented andshining star of BollywoodActress keep a huge fanfollowing and good willin West Asia so Olivia hasturned their Marketingstrategy to give anspillover effects to theirthe Brands throughNargis Fakhri “The NewFace of Olivia BeautyRange”.—PR

Chat naturallywith LG’s

Smart HomeOBSERVER REPORT

ISLAMABAD—LG Elec-tronics (LG) has unveiledLG Smart Home, thecompany’s vision for theconnected household.LG’s latest premium smartappliances and the revo-lutionary LG Home Chat™can provide users withunprecedented conve-nience, control, connec-tivity as well as offer rec-ommendations via asmartphone.

LG Smart Home isbuilt around the idea ofunifying multiple smartappliances into a single,cohesive system in orderto increase convenienceand simplicity. Via LGHome Chat™, users canenjoy integrated controlof their smart home eco-system, as well as intelli-gent time- and energy-saving modes such asLeaving Home, ComingHome or Vacation.

To illustrate, if the usertypes Leaving Home intotheir mobile messenger,their LG smart refrigeratorwill automatically turn toSmart Power Saving mode.Typing “leaving home”also activates the HOM-BOT robotic vacuumcleaner’s Home Guardmode, a useful feature thatenables the cleaner to de-tect if somebody entersthe house, capture imagesof its immediate surround-ings and send them di-rectly to the user’ssmartphone.

LG Smart Home iscompatible with existingopen platform smart homesystems, as well as appli-ances and devices fromdifferent manufacturersthrough open protocolssuch as AllJoyn, the opensource software spon-sored by All Seen Alliance.AllJoyn keeps users in-formed of their LG smartappliances’ operationalstatus so as soon as thewasher has completed aload, for example, the userwill automatically receivea notification on their LGSmart+ TV featuringwebOS. LG Smart Homewill also integrate withproducts from Nest, whichwill launch in NorthAmerica later this year.

Currency Selling Buying

USA 103.00 102.80

UK 164.74 164.42

Euro 129.80 129.55

Canada 92.05 91.87

Switzerland 107.65 107.44

Australia 90.91 90.74

Sweden 14.02 13.99

Japan 0.9419 0.9401

Norway 15.36 15.33

Singapore 80.62 80.46

Denmark 17.43 17.40

Saudi Arabia 27.45 27.40

Hong Kong 13.28 13.26

Kuwait 355.72 355.03

Malaysia 31.37 31.31

Newzealand 80.83 80.68

Qatar 28.29 28.23

UAE 28.04 27.99

Kr Won 0.0974 0.0972

Thailand 3.170 3.164

LAHORE: Chairperson TEVTA, Irfan Qaiser Sheikh and Provincial Director PunjabNational Rural Support Program, Iqbal Ahmad Raja signing MoU to train the ruralyouth of District Muzaffargarh, Layyah and Rajnpur in various trades. Chief Operat-ing Officer TEVTA, Jawad Ahmad Qureshi is also seen in picture.

KARACHI: President Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Iftikhar AhmedVohra, presenting chambers crest to Chairman, All Pakistan Motorcycle Spare PartsImporters & Dealers Association, Faisal Khalil, who led a delegation during their visitto Karachi Chamber.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The Lahore Chamber of Com-merce & Industry (LCCI) is playing role ofa bridge between the government and pri-vate sector and would leave no stoneunturned to get the issues of traders solvedon priority basis.

This was stated by the LCCI PresidentIjaz A. Mumtaz while talking to a delega-tion of All Pakistan Paper Merchants As-sociation (APPMA) here at the LahoreChamber of Commerce & Industry. LCCIVice President Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi,Chairman APPMA Muhammad Hanif, Presi-dent Zahid Maqsood Butt, Vice PresidentMalik Rafiq and Khamis Saeed Butt alsospoke on the occasion.

LCCI President said that Lahore Cham-ber of Commerce & Industry is highlight-ing the issues of traders at all possibleforums. He said that traders of marketspay a huge amount in shape of tax but inreply no facilities are being provided tothem. He said that the LCCI is represent-

FAISALABAD—Cooperation and supportof SMEDA and other international donoragencies for the capacity building ofchambers of commerce and industry isvery encouraging and will help to improvethe delivery of services to the membersof respective chambers, said EngineerRizwan Ashraf president FaisalabadChamber of Commerce and industry(FCCI). He was talking to a German Ex-pert Mr. Hans Joachim Hanusch who methim in his office along with some officialsof SMEDA here Saturday.

Rizwan Ashraf said that membershipgrowth is on top of his agenda as the ex-isting numbers of FCCI do not commen-surate with the actual presence of busi-ness houses in this city bursting with eco-nomic activities. He said that consciousefforts have already been started to in-crease its members and in this connec-tion, he had a meeting with women entre-preneurs. He said that 20 to 25 womendoing various businesses have giventheir consent to get the membership ofFCCI. Similarly a large number of busi-nessmen related with footwear industryare also ready to come within the folds ofFCCI while efforts are being expedited toconvince other sectors to avail the facili-ties offered by FCCI.

Regarding services and facilitiesdoled out to FCCI members, EngineerRizwan Ashraf said that business com-munity is fully satisfied with the perfor-

MIAN ARSHAD

ISLAMABAD—United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kingdom ofSaudi Arabia (KSA), Malaysia, Bahrain, Qatar and Omanremained the most preferred destinations of Pakistanis foremployment during last one year. 809247 Pakistanis out oftotal number of 824343 headed to these five countries insearch of better future whereas remaining selected othercountries as their favorite destination.

An official document available with Pakistan Ob-server revealed that a total number of 824343 Pakistanisproceeded abroad for employment from through Over-seas Employment Promoters (OEPs), Direct Employmentvisas and Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC)from June 2013 to August 2014. But very interestingly,not a single Pakistani dared to go to nine very impor-tant countries of the world including Gen-Island, Greece,

Middle-East, Malaysia preferreddestinations for Pakistani job seekers

Sierra Leone, Tunisia, West Africa, Croatia, Cameroon,Morocco, and Syria.

Document further disclosed that Ministry of OverseasPakistanis and Human Resources Development (MOP&HRD) had charged an amount of Rs. 6869.19 million fromthese people for sending them abroad for jobs. The docu-ment indicated the United Arab Emirates (UAE), SaudiArabia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman as top favor-ite destinations of Pakistanis for employment as 404683,316333, 15659, 10534, 10248 and 51970 Pakistanis went tothese countries respectively.

Despite civil war a significant number 4689 of Paki-stanis also went to Libya for employment. Similarly,some 1654 went to Iraq, 615 Pakistanis went to war tornand poverty hit Sudan, 25 to Algeria, 23 selected Soma-lia as their destination and even four Pakistanis went toKenya in search of better future.

LCCI playing bridge rolebetween govt, private sectors

ing the traders and business communityand would leave no stone unturned tosolve their problems. LCCI Vice PresidentSyed Mahmood Ghaznavi urged the con-cerned department to solve the issues oftraffic, poor sewerage system, non-avail-ability of parking and streetlights, inter-ference of tax officials and by day increas-ing crimes against traders in the papermarket.

Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi told thetraders that the LCCI is struggling hardfor strong economy of Pakistan. He saidthat Lahore Chamber of Commerce & In-dustry has established a Help Desk toaddress the complaints of traders regard-ing property tax. He also strongly con-demned incident of murder of a papertrader Hammad Raza and urged the gov-ernment to take immediate steps and ar-range proper security system in the mar-kets to secure the business communityotherwise bad law & order situation pre-vailing in the country would damage theeconomic activities.

FCCI seeks SMEDA, donor agenciessupport for capacity-building

mance of this chamber, however, hewould welcome cooperation of SMEDAand other donor agencies in bringingqualitative as well as quantitative im-provement in its services offered withinthe framework of its memorandum andArticles of Association. He also thankedSMEDA and Senior Experten Services forselecting FCCI for the capacity buildingproject of this premier trade body of thisregion. Continuing Rizwan Ashraf saidthat FCCI was the most trusted organiza-tion which has played its pivotal role inbridging gap between business commu-nity and various government depart-ments.

The FCCI also provides a platform tobusinessmen to directly interact and re-solve their collective as well as individualissues related to the concerned depart-ments. He asked from German Expert to ex-plain his modus operandi for the capacitybuilding of this chamber so that necessaryfacilities could be arranged for him. On therequest of Mr. Hans, president FCCI alsoformed a 2-member committee to help himin this endeavour. The committee consistsof Dr. Habib Aslam Gaba and Mr. ZeeshanNoorani. Raja Hasnain Javaid provincialchief SMEDA, Nadeem Allahwala seniorvice president, Inam Afzal Khan vice presi-dent, Mr. Abid Masood secretary GeneralFCCI and Mr. Ashfaq Ahmed Deputy Gen-eral Manager (B&SDS) were also presentduring this meeting.—INP

OBSERVER REPORT

DU B A I/IS L A M A B A D—Emirates celebrated anothermilestone with the delivery of the airline’s 100thBoeing 777-300ER, the world’s largest, long-rangetwin-engine commercial aircraft. The Boeing 777-300ER forms the backbone of the Emirates fleet withthe aircraft type currentlyoperat ing to 77 dest ina-tions on the airline’s globalnetwork. Delivery of Emir-ates’ f irst Boeing 777-300ER took place in March2005 and with a further 52aircraft on order, the airlineis the world’s largest opera-tor of this aircraft type - infact one in every five 777-300ERs flying today is inEmirates’ livery.

It takes 47 days to build a777-300ER and each aircraftis made of three million parts.If you took all of the wiringcontained within Emirates’100 777-300ERs and placed itend-to-end it would stretch from Dubai to New York andback again. Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airlinesaid, “The Boeing 777-300ER is one of the most remark-able aircraft ever built, and its combination of efficiency,range and payload is second to none. Our customers areequally excited by the aircraft and its on-board product,and to date over 108 million passengers have flown on anEmirates Boeing 777-300ER.

Emirates welcomes 100thBoeing 777-300ER

“We have 204 more Boeing 777s on order, which sup-ports over 400,000 jobs in the United States of America,including those from various suppliers such as GeneralElectric which provides the GE90 engines that power allof our 777-300ERs,” added Sir Tim. “We are proud of ourlong-term relationship with Emirates and for the confi-dence they have in Boeing’s products and services be-

ginning with the 777 andcontinuing with the 777X inthe years to come,” said RayConner, president and CEO,Boeing Commercial Air-planes.

“The operating econom-ics and long-range capabil-ity of the 777-300ER haveplayed a prominent role inthe success of Emirates’business strategy.” Therange of the Boeing 777-300ER is 14,490 kilometres,and Emirates’ longest flightwith this aircraft currentlyoperates between Dubaiand Houston which is a to-tal distance of 13,120

kilometres. The Boeing 777 is manufactured in Everett,Washington. The Everett plant is so large that it re-quires its own fire department, security force, fullyequipped medical clinic, electrical substations and wa-ter-treatment plant. The site’s main assembly building,which the Guinness Book of World Records acknowl-edges as the largest building in the world by volume, itsfootprint covers 98.3 acres (39.9 hectares).

F A I S A L A B A D — T h i r dphase of Australian-Paki-stan Agricultural SectorLinkages Programme(ASLP) will be kicked offsoon to strengthen agricul-tural and dairy sector andto ensure food security inthe county. This wasstated by ASLP delegationcomprising Dr SandraMustafa from Universityof Canberra, Australia andASLP Operation ManagerMunawar Kazmi while talk-ing to the Vice Chancellor(VC) University of Agricul-ture Faisalabad (UAF) Pro-fessor Dr Iqrar AhmadKhan. UAF Assistant Pro-fessor Dr Izhar AhmadKhan, Dr Babar Shahbaz,Office of Research Innova-tion and CommercializationDirector Prof Dr Asif Aliand others attended themeeting at VC Chamber.

Talking to the ViceChancellor, Dr Sandra saidthat under ASLP phase 2,work on different commodi-ties including mango, dairy,citrus and others were car-ried on the three compo-nents to strengthen valuechains, enabling policy andagricultural capability. Shesaid that farmers to farmersconduct, and Informationand Communication Tech-nology play a vital role inthe disseminating of latestagricultural practicesamong the farming commu-nity. She said that theywere holding youth camps

ASLP to strengthenagri, dairy sectors

in Islamabad in March inwhich the stalls of differentuniversities would be setup. Prof Dr Iqrar AhmadKhan said that the countycan earn heavy foreign ex-change by giving due at-tention to cheese produc-tion. He said that the

Dairy Technology Insti-tute was being establishedat the UAF for producingtrained manpower and toconduct valuable re-searches in the field. Hepraised the ASLP valuablework for the agricultural sec-tor in Pakistan. He said thatfarmers fail to sell 30 percentof citrus last year becauseof some infection caused bydiseases. Dr Munawar saidefforts are afoot to selectdifferent commodities andareas for the third phase ofASLP. He was of the viewthat they were committed toenhancing value chains thatbenefit the rural poorthrough improved produc-tivity market and to supportanalysis for improving eco-nomic management. He saidthat the objective of theASLP is to improve rural live-lihood and to enhance theproduction of the differentcommodities. Dr IzharAhmad Khan said that with-out keeping in the view so-cial aspect, no campaign canbear the fruits. He said thatit was need of the hour toeducate the farming commu-nity about latest agritrends.—INP

Gujranwala, SialkotEPZs issues to be

resolved soonSTAFF REPORTER

LA H O R E —Aftab AnwarBaloch, Chairman EPZA,held a meeting today withSecretary Industries De-partment Government ofPunjab in Lahore alongwith Director InvestmentPromotion EPZA, MDPSIC, Director Estate &Development PSIC tomake all-out efforts to re-vive Gujranwala andSialkot EPZs. During themeeting the Secretary In-dustries Department wasappraised on the issueshindering operat ions ofGujranwala and SialkotEPZs.

The Secretary Indus-tries was briefed by MDPSIC that most of the in-vestors of the zones arerefraing to invest and com-mence operations to avoidfalling into documentedeconomy. Secretary In-dustries Department di-rected MD PSIC to form acommittee comprising ofEPZA, PSIC officers andmembers of GujranawalaChamber of Commerce &Industry to reach at a con-sensus on the fate of theGujranwala zone. The com-mittee will formulate rec-ommendation / sugges-tions upon the needs andrequirements of the localbusinessmen community.Aftab Baloch emphasisedon the need for immediateuplift of the infrastructureof Sialkot EPZ.

Secretary IndustriesDepartment instructed themanagement of PSIC toconduct a joint visit alongwith EPZA officers ofSialkot EPZ to identify thedetoriating infrastructureand the works and suggestremedial measures. Chair-man EPZA was also briefedon the fact that EPZA haslost its competitive edgedue to withdrawal of itsvarious incentives. TheChairman EPZA informedthe participants that thematter of revising of incen-tive package to the inves-tors has already been takeup by him and new AreaSpecific Strategies wouldbe introduced to attract theinvestment in EPZs in or-der to boost exports of thecountry.

Commodities pricesslightly fall

ISLAMABAD—The prices ofthe essential commoditiesespecially vegetables andother perishable items haveregistered a slight decrease,a survey revealed. Traders atIslamabad fruit and vegetablemarket while talking to thiscorrespondent said the sup-ply of the vegetables fromPunjab and Sindh provincesas well as ending of politicalcrisis had resulted in the re-duction of the kitchen itemsprices especially vegetables.

They said prices of on-ions had been slashed by Rs10 per kg from Rs 60 per kg toRs 50 per kg, tomato from Rs60 per kg to Rs 50 per kg, okrafrom Rs 60 per kg to Rs 50 perkg, Shimla Mirch from Rs 80to Rs 50 per kg and potatofrom Rs 80 per kg to Rs 60 perkg. Good quality basmati riceis being sold at Rs 150 per kg,wheat flour at Rs 830 per 20kg bag, sugar at Rs 57 per kgand milk at Rs 80 per kg.

It was observed that theprice of egg witnessed an in-crease of Rs 10 per dozen fromRs 110 per dozen to Rs 120per dozen, live chicken pricehas witnessed an increase ofRs 20 per kg from Rs 120 perkg to Rs 140 per kg andchicken meat registered anincrease of Rs 30 per kg fromRs 220 per kg to Rs 250 perkg. However, prices of mostof the pulses remainedstable, while sugar price hassoared by Rs 3 per kg fromRs 60 per kg to Rs 63 per kg,20 kg bag of wheat flour isbeing sold at Rs 810 andgood quality rice is availableat Rs 150 per kg.—Agencies

LAHORE: President Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ejaz A. Mumtaz andVice President, Syed Mehmood Ghaznavi with APPMA officials on their visit to LCCI.

PESHAWAR—Peshawar and Tank Saturdayset up final showdown in the ongoing 10thInter-District Football Championship beingplayed here at Sumbal Khan Footballground of the Qayyum Sports Complex.

Former Secretary General of the KhyberPakhtunkhwa Football Association andveteran footballer, Haji Noor Ahmad Shahwas the chief guest on this occasion andbefore the start of the semi-final matchesthe players of Peshawar, Tank, Charsaddaand Dera Ismail Khan were introduced tohim. Organizing Secretary and former Paki-stan team skipper Basit Kamal, officials,players and spectators were also present.

In the first semi-final Peshawar stunnedCharsadda on penalty shoot-out before thetwo teams played a 1-1 draw.

Peshawar took the lead in the 11thminute when center striker Alamgir netteda beautiful goal on the field attempt.

Alamgir received a free ball from themid-fielder Abdul Shakoor and zoomedquickly toward the danger zone where heslammed in a superb goal to make the tally1-0.

Peshawar could not maintain their leadfor longer time and soon left winger Waqasfound the equalizer for District Charsadda.Waqas, a prominent striker, dodged three

Peshawar, Tank to clash in 10thNBP Inter-District Soccer final

defenders before dispatching the ball intothe net. It was forceful kick that did notgive much time to Peshawar goal-keeper tostop.

After 1-1, both Peshawar and Charsaddateams played attacking game but failed toscore any goal and thus the match endedin a 1-1 draw.

To get certain result of the match boththe teams were awarded five each penaltykicks on which Peshawar scored all five at-tempts while Charsadda scored on four oc-casions and thus Peshawar won the matchby 6-5. Muhammad Anwar supervised thematch.

In the second semi-final District Tankupset Dera Ismail Khan by a solitary goalscored by inner striker Rehmat Ullah on thefield attempt.

Tank took the lead in the 7th minute andsucceeded in maintaining their lead till theend of the match. Dera Ismail Khan afterconceding the goal tried their hard to levelthe tally and they have some good chancesto do so but they were failed and thus Tankwon the match by 1-0. Zahid Khan super-vised the match while Alliuddin and Dilawaracted as deputy referees. Qazi MuhammadAsif was the commissioner of thematches.—APP

Bahria Foundationorganizes

BadmintonTournament

RAWALPINDI—Students ofmore than 50 schools par-ticipated in the month-longInter Regional BadmintonTournament organized byBahria Foundation North.

The teams of BahriaFoundation North, Southand Centre participated inthe tournament organizedby Syed Arifa Mohsin, Prin-cipal and staff of BahriaFoundation Satellite Town.

Director General BahriaEducation and TrainingCommodore Syed ZafarIqbal attended the event asa chief guest.

Deputy Managing Di-rector CommodoreMuhammad Javed Ghani,Commander Azha Anees,Commander Shafqat, Com-mander Aitzaz and Principalsand students of various col-leges of Bahria Foundationwatched the matches.

In Girls Single eventMuneeba Siddiq and indoubles Muneeba Siddiqand Noor won the finalmatches. In Boys SingleShaheer Arshad and in BoysDouble Ali and Hussaintook the first positions.

At the end, the chiefguest DG Bahria Founda-tion distributed prizesamong the winners.

In his speech, the DGappreciated the enthusiasmof the students and saidsports help the students infostering their mental andphysical capabilities.—APP

PESHAWAR—Adviser to Chief Minister KhyberPakhtunkhwa on Sports Amjad Khan Afridi and formerSAF gold medalist athlete Bahre Karam have been electedunanimously President and Secretary General respectivelyfor the next four-year term here on Saturday.

The election meeting was also attended by office-bear-ers of the district associations and representatives fromvarious districts all across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa withFarooq Khan, President District Athletic AssociationNowshera proposed the penal in the house and the mem-bers raised their hands in its favour.

“I congratulate Amjad Khan Afridi and Bahre Karamand other office-bearers for their election,” former sportsminister Syed Aqil Shah while addressing the house.

“Athletics is considered as mother of all games andI’m sure the new office-bearers would do their best for thepromotion of athletics in the province in particular and inthe country in general,” Aqil Shah added.

He paid tribute to the outgoing President and formerFootball Minister Shujah Khan for his contribution to-wards promotion of the game.

Director Development Khyber Pakhtunkhwa SportsBoard Arshad Hussain, Wisal Muhammad Khan, Secre-tary Pakistan Archery Federation and Secretary GeneralPakistan Bodybuilding Federation Tariq Pervez, SecretaryKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Kabbaddi Association Arbab Naseer

Amjad Afridi elected presidentKP Athletics Association

attended the meeting as observers of the KP Sports Boardand Pakistan Olympic Association.

Noorzada of District Charsadda was elected ChairmanExecutive Committee with members comprising AnwarKhan (Buner), Javed Khan (Malakand), Muhammad Ali(Peshawar), Jamshed Baloch (Dera Ismail Khan), MudassirKhan (Dir Lower), Miss Raham Bibi (Swat), Miss ChamanGul (Peshawar) and Miss Salma Naz (Mardan).

Speaking on the occasion, Amjad Afridi thanked thehouse for reposing confidence in him. He also announcedRs 0.5 million from his own pocket for the association tohold a talent hunt scheme in which Under-16 kids wouldbe called for open trials before short-listing them for alonger duration of the camp.

He said the government is also very keen to have acad-emies at grassroots level in seven games in the first phasethat comprising athletics, hockey, football, volleyball,squash, badminton, table tennis, tennis.

In all these games, he said, open trials would be orga-nized wherein players from all districts would be invited toPeshawar before short-listing for each game and would bekept in the academies under qualified coaches.

He also announced holding of Inter-District AthleticBoys and Girls Athletic Champion will be organized in No-vember this year, followed National Men and Women Ath-letic Championship in December this year.—APP

KARACHI—Applauding Younis Khanfor his glorious batting in the ongo-ing Test series against Australia,former Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal onFriday said the coveted achievementsmade by the seasoned batsman shouldshut up his critics forever.

“Younis’ performance in the UAEshould forever silence all his critics.Not only has he equalled HerbertSutcliffe’s 89-year record of three hun-dreds against Australia in three con-secutive innings, but has done so at atime when his career and the image ofPakistan cricket were in serious needof rejuvenation,” Asif said while talk-ing to media persons.

“Remember, his great feat startedafter a disastrous series against SriLanka and an equally dismal thrash-ing at the hands of Australia in theT20 and ODI series [prior to the ongo-ing Test rubber]. Younis was excludedfrom the ODI squad as the nationalselectors had made it clear that as faras ODIs were concerned he was notin the frame.

“Then came the Test seriesagainst Australia in which a straightPakistan whitewash was expected andwhen Pakistan were reduced to 7 for 2in the first half an hour of the openingTest, everything appeared to be go-

Younis has silenced his critics forever: Asifing according to the prediction andpopular expectation — or would ap-prehension be a better word? Fewwould have expected Pakistan to getmore than 150.

“It was at this point that Youniswalked in. The determination withwhich he playedshowed that he hada point to prove andhe proved it in thebest possible way— with his bat,”Asif, who played58 Tests between1964 and 1980,added.

“Too manycricketers resort tomedia to reply to thecriticisms levelledagainst them but itnever really works.This is the way todo it. Younis’ runshave come at an ex-cellent rate too andanyone now trying to exclude him fromPakistan’s World Cup squad would beconsiderably less than intelligent,”reckoned Asif who led Pakistan in the1975 and 1979 World Cups.

Asif believed Younis’ Pakistan

record of Test centuries would remainintact for quite some time.

“His [Pakistan] record of 27 hun-dreds is destined to stand for a verylong time. More importantly he hasinfused confidence into a brittlemiddle order and given that the World

Cup is only a few monthsaway, his supreme effort couldnot have been better timed,”Asif emphasised.

“Perhaps it may even beargued that his feat is thatmuch more admirable giventhat he was batting in a line-up that has still to prove itselfat the international level,” theformer Pakistan skipper saidof Younis who on Friday inAbu Dhabi converted hiscentury into double hundred.

“Records are meant to bebroken and the longer Younisplays the more records he willsmash. And he will because heis playing better than thosewhose records he is breaking,”

Asif opined about the right-handed bat-ting maestro who on Friday also be-came the third Pakistan batsman — af-ter legends Javed Miandad andInzamam-ul-Haq — to cross 8,000-runmark in Test cricket.—APP

CHAMAN: Chief guest District Health Officer Dr Akhtar meeting with Afghan football team from Kandahar beforetheir match with Pakistan football team from Chaman. Pakistan team won by 1-0 goals.

PESHAWAR: The winner team of FCW pose for a group photo after winning the HED Inter-College Girls BadmintonChampionship.

LAHORE—Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) chairmanShaharyar Khan, while ad-dressing a news conference,said he was an electedchairman and took decisionsall consulting all stake-hold-ers.

He said he would soontake a decision against thoseholding more than one postsin the Board.

The Board of Governorshad already given the chair-man powers to take decisionin this regard.

To a question regarding NajamSethi’s nomination by Pakistan as

Sethi’s presence at ICC tobenefit Pakistan: Shaharyar

ICC’s next presi-dent, Shaharyarsaid the movewould help Pakistancricket’s cause asthey would havetwo representa-tives at the ICC (heand Sethi).

“Sethi’s diplo-matic skills andgood articulationshall definitely beour strength,” hemaintained.

To a question about YounisKhan’s performance in the Test se-ries against Australia and the way he

used to be treated by selectors,Shaharyar said like others he wasalso receiving public response on thematter.

“Though I can ask questions fromthe selection committee over inclu-sion or exclusion of any cricketer, thefinal decision is taken by them and Ido not like to interfere in their job,” hesaid.

“As I had promised after Younis’centuries in each innings, the PCB willdefinitely reward him.

“I have known Younis for a longtime. He is an honourable man and tohim team and country come first. Hedoes not play cricket for financial re-wards,” he said.—APP

NASIB SHAH SHINWARI

LANDIKOTAL—Khyber Sports clubLandikotal, organized all Khyber AgencyTable Tennis Tournament which con-cluded the other day at Government De-gree Collage Landikotal hall. The tourna-ment was held in two category competi-tions.

Dozens of table tennis players partici-pated and a large number of spectatorsseen during the single and double mancompetitions. Sajad Khan Shinwari, AhmadShah Shinwari and Hayat Nazir Shinwarireceived 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions respec-tively during the single man competitionswhile Asif and Sajad received 1st positionand Landikotal Press Club (LPC) doubleman competition Players Nasib ShahShinwari and Rohullah snatched runner upposition.

PPC gets runner up positionin table tennis tournament

Khyber Sports club President Mairaj udDin Shinwari, Chairman Wakeel Shinwariand General Secretary FATA Olympic As-sociation, Shahid Shinwari distributed prizesamong the best players and teams.

Talking on the occasion GS FATAOlympic Association, Shahid Shinwarisaid that many officials and authorizedpersons promised to construct a stadiumfor the sport lovers of Landikotal butthey disappeared after their promisesand did nothing for the sportsmen of thearea which is not only discouraging thesportsmen of the area but the sports ac-tivities have also been badly suffereddue to the non availability of basic fa-cilities to the sportsmen of the area.

Hayat Nazir Shinwari, President KhyberAgency Table Tennis Association also de-manded the authorities to provide facilitiesto table tennis players.

KARACHI—Saeed Anwar Jr led from thefront with 113 as Khan Research Labo-ratories (KRL) put themselves in thedriving seat against Hyderabad Hawksin the Silver League match of the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy National Cricket Cham-pionship in Hyderabad.

Resuming day two at 54-1 in reply tothe Hawks’ modest first-innings total of213, KRL progressed to 322-5 by theclose of play. Saeed struck 12 bound-aries and one six in his 177-ball innings.It was the 35-year-old left-hander’s 27thfirst-class century. U s m a nArshad also made an invaluable contri-bution of 65 as he and Saeed shared afourth-wicket partnership of 148. SeamerBabar Khan claimed three wickets for 93runs in 21 overs.

Quetta Bears obtained a slenderseven-run lead over PIA by totalling 186at the National Cricket Ground inIslamabad. Hazrat Shah captured fivewickets in an innings for the second timein only his third first-class appearanceas he took 5-61 in 19 overs.

By stumps, PIA were somewhat introuble at 160-6 with their top-order bat-ting already gone.

Much-travelled England-born bats-man Bilal Shafayat marked his 150thfirst-class game with 145 as Habib Bankmoved into a posi t ion of commandagainst Bahawalpur Stags at Dring Sta-dium in Bahawalpur.

After having resumed at 85-2 in re-sponse to the Stags’ 221, Habib Bankhad amassed 415-8 to hold a lead of 194.The 30-year-old Shafayat dominated theproceedings as the r ight-handerslammed 15 fours and two sixes in his179-ball effort in exactly four hours.

Aftab Khan (61) and former interna-

Saeed puts KRL in controlagainst Hawks

tional Kamran Hussain (53) put on 100for the third wicket before both fell topart- t ime bowler and Stags skipperFaisal Mubashir.

But Shafayat, who registered his 13thhundred on Friday, and discarded Paki-stan slow left-armer Abdur Rehman (57)consolidated their team’s dominance byputting 169 for the sixth wicket in 163minutes.

Paceman Mohammad Abbas grabbedfive wickets for 66 to help Pakistan Tele-vision (PTV) earn a first-innings lead of81 runs as Lahore Eagles were dismissedfor 213 at the LCCA Ground in Lahore.

Another paceman to make a tellingimpact on Friday was Hasan Ali whotook 5-50 to put State Bank in a state ofshock against Sialkot Stall ions at theJinnah Stadium in Sialkot.

After the Stallions had been bowledout for 342, State Bank suffered oneshock after another to be six wicketsdown for 97.

But Mohtashim Ali (41) and KashifBhatti (50) spared them further embar-rassment with an unfinished partnershipthat has yielded 72 thus far.

Former Pakistan U-19 wicket-keeper/batsman Saifullah Khan Bangash scoredhis maiden century in just his third first-class game as Sui Southern Gas Com-pany (SSGC) posted 297 in reply toAbbottabad Falcons’ 223.

Peppering al l corners of theAbbottabad Cricket Stadium with 23fours and two sixes, the 19-year-old fromKarachi plundered an unconquered 148from only 138 deliveries in 221 minutesafter coming to the crease at 48-4.

The Falcons had then reached 24-0in their second innings by stumps.—APP

Rizwan joinshockey camp as

trials rescheduledKARACHI—One moreplayer Rizwan Ali has joinedthe national hockey campwhich is in progress at theHockey Club of PakistanStadium in preparation forthe Champions Trophyslated in Bhubaneswar, In-dia, from Dec 6 to 14.

Following his joining, thestrength of the camp traineeshas raised to 29 out of 38probables invited by the Paki-stan Hockey Federation.

The remaining probablesare expected to report in thecamp by Nov 6 or 7 beforethe two-day trials whichhave been brought forwardto Nov 11 and 12 instead ofNov 14 and 15, chief coachShahnaz Shaikh told Dawnon Friday.—APP

Spinners dominatein HBL Inter-school

CricketKARACHI—The spinnersdominated the latest roundof league matches in the HBLInter-School Cricket Tourna-ment, being organised by thePakistan Veterans CricketAssociation.

The spin duo of FarmanSadiq and MohammadShahzad powered BehbudSecondary School to a crush-ing eight-wicket victory overLadybird Grammar School intheir Group ‘A’ encounter atthe TMC Ground while leg-spinner Umair Arshad’s six-wicket haul helped Habib Pub-lic School to edge out ArmyPublic School by three wick-ets in a low-scoring Group ‘B’fixture at the KCCA Stadium.

Ladybird GrammarSchool, who elected to bat af-ter winning the toss againstBehbud Secondary School,collapsed dramatically after asolid 42-run opening standprovided by MohammadKamal and WaleedFarooqui.—Agencies

Bipin DaniOBSERVER CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Naureen, the first wife of formerIndia captain Mohammad Azharuddin, wasoverjoyed when learnt about her son’s in-clusion in the Uttar Pradesh senior OneDay squad which took part in the VijayHazare Trophy on Friday.

“The good news was first conveyedto me by my son Abbas (Asaduddin) andI was overjoyed”, she said over telephonefrom Hyderabad.

“I am very happy that he got selectedbut why he choose UP team is best knownto his father”, she added.

“I understand that he scored heavily

Why should it matter where my son isplaying from, asks Azhar’s first wife

in the selection matches and helped histeam to win”, she added.

“God willing if he performs well he willplay for the country”, she hoped.

The mother expressed her concernwhen learnt that many eyebrows wereraised after finding Asaduddin’s name inthe squad led by India discard PiyushChawla.

“Why should it matter where he isplaying from? So many players transferto different State for all sorts of reasons.Ambati Raidu, (Mohammad) Kaif andmany other players have done so andtherefore I don’t see why this should bean issue with my son”, sheadded.(ANOTHER STORY FOLLOWS):

ABU DHABI: Brad Haddin looks back to see his middle stump uprooted during Pakistan vs Australia, 2nd Test’s 3rdday on Saturday.

ABU DHABI—Pakistan tightened theirgrip on the second Test and the seriesafter the third day’s play, stretchingtheir overall lead to 370 at stumps inAbu Dhabi on Saturday.

Pakistan were 61-2 at the close intheir second innings with Azhar Aliunbeaten on 21 and Younis Khan on16 after another batting collapse sawAustralia almost squander anychance of leveling the series.

Australia were dismissed for 261in their first innings, 309 behindPakistan’s first innings total of 570-6declared, but Misbah-ul Haq did notenforce the follow-on and chose to batagain s as to set a big target on thefourth day.

That put Pakistan in a strong po-sition to win their first series againstAustralia in 20 years.

Mitchell Marsh offered the onlyresistance in an innings that more orless sealed the series for Misbah-ul-

Pakistan 1st innings 570-6 decAustralia 1st innings(overnight 22-1)Warner c Shah b Rahat ........... 19Rogers c Ahmed b Khan ......... 5Lyon b Rahat .............. 15Maxwell b Babar ......... 37Clarke b Khan ............. 47Smith lbw b Babar ........ 0Marsh c Rahat b Khan .......... 87Haddin b Shah ............ 10Johnson c Hafeez b Shah ......... 0Siddle c Shah b Hafeez28Starc not out ................. 0Extras: (lb6, nb7) ....... 13Total: (all out; 67.2 overs) . 261Fall of wicket: 1-21, 2-34,3-75, 4-97, 5-100, 6-164, 7-193, 8-199, 9-261

Bowling: ....... O-M-R-WKhan ................ 14-1-60-3Hafeez ............. 5.2-0-13-1Babar ................ 25-5-94-2Rahat .................. 9-0-41-2Shah ................. 14-2-47-2PAKISTAN 2nd innings

Shehzad b Johnson ... 14Hafeez c Starc b Johnson ........ 3Azhar not out ............ 21Younis not out ............ 16Extras: (b 7) ................. 7Total: (2 wickets) ...... 61Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-21Bowling: ....... O-M-R-WJohnson ............. 3-0-29-2Lyon ................. 10-3-19-0Starc ..................... 5-2-6-0Siddle ................... 3-3-0-0

Pakistan pile on the misery forAustralia, take 370-run lead

Haq’s men, moreover the most con-vincing since a 3-0 hiding in 1982 - theselector on duty Rod Marsh will re-member it all too well.

Misbah chose not to enforce thefollow on despite a lead of 309, andtwo early wickets to Mitchell Johnsonwere too little, too late.

More pivotal was the fact thatRahat Ali, Imran Khan, Zulfiqar Babarand Yasir Shah all delivered vexingspells, on a surface that seemed farmore lively in Pakistani hands than itever did when Australia’s bowlers al-lowed their opponents to run up to570 for 6 declared.

The gambit of placing Glenn Max-well in the top order worked onlybriefly, his rapid 37 ended with an un-sightly ran down the wicket to Babar,who once again showed the wiles of ahigh class left-arm spinner by also de-feating Steven Smith.

David Warner began the day’swickets with aspendthrift swish atRahat, who placedA u s t r a l i a ’ spacemen in theshade by gainingmovement bothways. Imran fol-lowed suit afterlunch to swervethrough MichaelClarke, and YasirShah’s beguilementof Brad Haddin andMitchell Johnsonleft Marsh alonewith the tail.

Lyon andWarner began theday well and trulybehind in the matchbut with the hope ofestablishing a foot-hold on Australia’sfirst innings. Lyon

played commendably straight, thoughhe was fortunate to escape an lbw ap-peal from Babar.

Warner needed to reprise his Dubaihundred, but the subtle movementbeing gained by Rahat drew him intochasing a wide delivery that wascaught at backward point - Warnerhimself having missed a similar chancefrom the bat of Younis Khan the pre-vious morning.

Maxwell thus went out to bat tojoin a nightwatchman rather than abatsman, but quickly demonstratedthat his hurtling method would notchange in any circumstances. Brieflyit worked, as he advanced thescoreboard more rapidly than Austra-lia have managed at any time in theseries.

But Misbah and his bowlers re-mained patient, reasoning that thiscould not last. Logically and almostinevitably it did not, as Maxwelldanced down the wicket to Babar,lifted his head as he did so, and wasbeaten by a little turn that diverted theball to hit off stump. A tally of 37 from28 balls can win a Twenty20 match; ina Test it is barely a cameo.

Rahat was continuing to move theball both ways, and an inswinger burstthrough Lyon’s defences after 85 stub-born balls. Smith was the token bats-man dismissed before getting settledas can happen, beaten by anotherlovely delivery from Babar that struckthe top of his back pad and was, ac-cording to Hawkeye, going on to hitenough of the stumps.

Clarke played with energy and in-tent to the interval, but when play re-sumed he was bewitched and then dis-missed by Imran, who gained sharp re-verse swing that Clarke seemed unableto adjust to. After twice miscuing ballsthat bended in to him, he missed a thirdcompletely, and middle stump wasknocked flat on the ground. —AFP

SHARJAH—New Zealand’s bowlingcoach Shane Bond on Saturday saidthe team was looking forward to pit-

ting their wits against the in-form Paki-stani spin attack in the forthcomingthree match Test series.

Pakistan are currently in a strongposition to beat Australia 2-0 in theirongoing contest thanks largely to the

SHARJAH: New Zealand cricketer Kane Williamsontakes tips from bowling coach Shane Bond in the netsduring a training session.

New Zealand will take the attackto Pakistan, Bond warns

effectiveness of their spinners.Bond admitted Pakistan will be a

tough opponent on the dry pitches ofthe United ArabEmirates (UAE)which will help slowbowlers.“I think thisis a really good chal-lenge for us,” Bondtold reporters.

“It has been agood last year for usand Pakistan are alsoplaying well. This isgoing to be real goodmeasure of us as ateam and so we arelooking forward toit,” added the formerbowling ace.TheBlack Caps will startthe tour with athree-day warm-upgame against Paki-stan ‘A’ — a secondstring team — inSharjah on Monday.

The first Teststarts in Abu Dhabion November9.Bond, who played

18 Tests in which he took 87 wicketsand 82 one-day games, taking 147 wick-ets, for New Zealand, admitted Pakistanwere playing well.

“Pakistan as a team have been diffi-cult for a long time. They are in their

own conditions though they are not inPakistan,” said the 39-year-old.

“So Pakistan in these kind of condi-tions are very tough and there are extrayoung players coming through we haveseen.“We are coming in fresh and Paki-stan will have played two Test matchesand this will see them play five in a row.“

The second Test between Pakistanand New Zealand will be in Dubai fromNovember 17 followed by the third inSharjah from November 26.

Bond said Australia were a differ-ent team from the New Zealanders.

“They are a different team to us,”said Bond, who became only the sec-ond New Zealander to take a hat-trickagainst the Australians in a one daymatch in January 2007.“The good thingfor us is that we can learn a bit aboutthe way the Australians had goneabout their work in terms of bowling asto what has worked and what hasn’t.

“It’s a tough time for them and thatwill certainly reflect on whether to tryand attack Pakistan and do somethingdifferent from them to be successful.“

Bond, who lost two years of his in-ternational career firstly to a seriousback injury and then because he dis-obeyed orders and signed up to theIndian Cricket League in 2008, said hewas delighted to have returned to theUnited Arab Emirates where he was amember of the New Zealand team whichwon a three-match one-day series fiveyears ago.—AFP

KARACHI—Pakistan will be without lead-ing paceman, Junaid Khan for the seriesagainst New Zealand after he was advisedto undergo another six weeks of rehabilita-tion following his knee injury.

The 24-year-old left armer, who hasbeen Pakistan’s best fast bowler in recentmonths, had to return home from theUnited Arab Emirates earlier this month atthe start of the series against Australiaafter sustaining a knee injury during a prac-tice session.

“Junaid was examined by an orthope-dic surgeon, Dr Waqar Farooqi. He wasadvised to continue with the existing pro-tocol of rehabiliation with gradual incre-ments over the next three weeks,” the Pa-kistan Cricket Board said in a statementon Friday.

“His MRI will be repeated after anothersix weeks to measure improvement.”

Pakistan had also lost another left armpaceman, Wahab Riaz, with a knee injury dur-

Junaid ruled out of New Zealand seriesing the second one-day international againstAustralia lastmonth and healso had to returnhome for reha-bilitation at thenational cricketa c a d e m y. T h ePCB reportedthat Wahab hadshown “impres-sive” improve-ment.

“For the lasttwo days, hehas had pain-free bowlingand battingsessions andhis match fit-ness will be ascertained after he plays afirst-class match in first week of Novem-ber,” the statement said.—APP

ENGLAND: Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren heads his team’s second goal during their English League Cup soccer matchagainst Swansea City at Anfield in Liverpool.

Lazioup to third

after Veronadraw

MI L A N—Depleted Laziomoved up to third place inItaly’s Serie A to sit sixpoints off leadersJuventus after earning ashare of the spoils in a 1-1draw away to Verona.

Senad Lulic got thevisitors off the mark threeminutes before half-timebut Verona were handed al ifel ine when defenderLuis Cavanda saw red fora second bookable offenceafter fouling JuanitoGomez in the area.

Veteran Verona strikerLuca Toni stepped up tobeat Federico Marchett ifrom the penalty spot andlevel in the 69th minute butVerona failed to capitaliseon their man advantage.

I t was Lazio’s f irstdraw of the seasonbut, following a runof four consecutivewins for Stefano Pioli’smen, was enough to movethem up to third just aheadof Milan on goal differ-ence.

Lazio, Milan,Sampdoria and Udineseare all six points adrif t of Juventus, wholost their first game ofthe season away to Genoaon Wednesday (1-0) andare on equal points withsecond-placed Roma.—AFP

PARIS—Milos Raonic perfectly timedhis maiden win over Roger Federer.

The seventh-seeded Raonic, whohad never beaten the 17-Grand Slamchampion in six previous meetings, hit21 aces and lost only 15 points on hisserve to complete a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win toreach the semifinals of the Paris Mas-ters on Friday.

It was a must-win match for thebig-serving Canadian, who kept alivehis chances of qualifying for the ATPFinals after finding his best tennis atthe right time, before Kei Nishikorisent him to the year-end tournamentin London with a hard-fought winover David Ferrer in the finalquarterfinal.

Nishikori’s 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 victorysealed the field for the Nov. 9-16 tour-nament at the O2, where he and Raonicwill be playing for the first time.

‘’Considering all the circum-stances around it, I think this was thebiggest win for me,’’ said the 23-year-old Raonic.

The Wimbledon semifinalist bru-tally ended Federer’s 14-match win-ning streak as the Swiss took a hit inhis bid to overtake the top-rankedNovak Djokovic in the race for theyear-end No. 1 spot.

Djokovic, a two-time champion inParis, defeated eighth-seeded AndyMurray 7-5, 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals against Nishikori.

Murray, who booked his spot atthe finals in the previous round, played23 matches over the past six weeksand could not prevent the Serb from

Raonic downs Federer at Paris Masterswinning the final 5 games of the matchas fatigue took its toll.

‘’I started rushing points at theend, that’s for sure. I tried to finishpoints quitequickly,’’ saidMurray, whoclaimed his thirdtitle in five weekslast Sunday inVienna.

Federer, who ar-rived in Paris on theback of consecutivetitles in Shanghaiand Basel, only hada few openingsagainst Raonic. Hecreated his solebreak point in the10th game of thesecond set but theCanadian saved itwith an ace.

‘’It hurts to losethat way, but he de-serves credit forserving the way hedid and doingthose passingshots the way hehad to do it,’’ saidFederer.

Raonic man-aged to breakFederer in the 11thgame with two consecutive sumptu-ous shots. The Canadian first hit astunning forehand return to create abreak opportunity and converted it

with a crosscourt backhand pass.Federer, who is looking to clinch

the year-end top spot for a record-equaling sixth time, will now take some

time off before chasing more points atthe finals, then with Switzerland in theDavis Cup final against France nextmonth.’—AP

PARIS: Canada’s Milos Raonic celebrates his victoryagainst Switzerland’s Roger Federer during a quarter-final match at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 indoortennis tournament.

MORE than 5 million people in the UShave Alzheimer’s disease, and thisnumber is estimated to rise to 16 mil-

lion by 2050. Such figures emphasize the im-portance of finding new treatments for the con-dition, and new research fromSaint Louis University in Mis-souri could provide just that.In a mouse study, researcherswere able to reverse symptomsof Alzheimer’s using a newlycreated molecular compound.

The Saint Louis team, ledby Susan Farr, PhD, a profes-sor of geriatrics at the univer-sity, developed a compoundcalled antisense oligonucle-otide (OL-1). When tested onmouse models withAlzheimer’s disease, theyfound the compound reversedclassic symptoms of the dis-ease - brain inflammation andlearning and memory deficits.The researchers explain thatOL-1 works by blocking mes-senger RNA (mRNA) that stimulates the pro-duction of excess amyloid-beta protein, whichcan lead to the development of amyloid-betaplaques - a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

In detail, the compound was able to reducethe overexpression of the amyloid-beta pro-tein precursor gene, which regulates theamount of amyloid-beta protein present in thebody. To reach their findings, recently pub-lished in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease,the team tested OL-1 on genetically engineeredmice that overproduced a “mutant” form of thehuman amyloid-beta protein precursor gene.

They note that in a previous study, theyhad tested the compound on mice that natu-

Researchers ‘reverse symptoms ofAlzheimer’s’ in mice with novel compound

Pakistan Army soldiers riding APVs while moving toward sensitive areas to perform security duty.

rally overproduced mouse amyloid-beta. Al-though this study was successful, the teamwanted to test the compound on a human formof the gene to see if it was just as effective.Researchers found that the OL-1 compound

reversed symptoms ofAlzheimer’s - including learn-ing and memory impairments- in mice.

The mice had high levelsof the amyloid-beta protein,which increased inflammationin the brain and caused dam-aged to the hippocampus,leading to learning andmemory impairments. Toserve as a comparison, the re-searchers tested a randomantisense compound onhealthy wild mice. Approxi-mately half of the geneticallyengineered mice received thesame antisense compound,while the other half receivedOL-1.

All mice were then sub-ject to a series of experiments that measuredlearning, memory and appropriate behaviour- such as recognizing an object, exploring anunfamiliar location and finding their waythrough a maze. The team found that the ge-netically engineered mice who received OL-1 demonstrated improved learning andmemory, compared with the genetically en-gineered mice that received the randomantisense compound.

On comparing the effects of OL-1 in ge-netically engineered mice and the randomantisense compound in wild mice, the research-ers found no differences in learning andmemory.

Residents of North Nazimabad block the road during protest against water shortage andelectricity load-shedding.

Turkish CG Murat M Onart, Saleem Qasim Patel, Francois Dall’orso and others during the dinner reception hosted byTurkish consulate.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh Chief Minister(CM) Syed Qaim Ali Shah said thatdespite of gigantic efforts made toeliminate the menace of polio, asmany as 23 new polio cases emergedof which 21 were from Karachi andone each was from Dadu and Sanghar.

Out of those 23 polio cases, 21cases were from Pashtoon families.Actually, polio cases were being in-jected into Sindh province throughmigration of unvaccinated Pashtooninternally displaced persons (IDP)from federally administered tribalarea (FATA) and Sindh governmentwas getting bad name without its fail-

Pashtoon IDPs from FATAinjecting Polio virus in Sindh

ure.Experts and organizations work-

ing against the polio menace werealso of the view that FATA had be-come the home of polio virus, whichwas spreading it into the rest of thecountry and added that Sindh was themost affected in terms of polio virusand terrorism.

The CM while expressing his ap-prehension over increasing number ofpolio virus in Karachi had establisheda separate Police force to be headedby SPP rank officer with 700 Policepersonnel to ensure fool proof secu-rity to the polio team during the 4month of low transmission period ofpolio virus started from current

month.In this regard, the Inspector Gen-

eral of police, Sindh Ghulam HaiderJamali had also been directed to ar-range 50 percent of the personnel ofthe force each from Karachi and inte-rior Sindh with sophisticated weap-ons and vehicles.

Further, Sindh Secretary healthand Karachi Commissioner had alsobeen asked to launch crash programfor anti-polio campaign in 11 vulner-able union councils of the city afterAshoora and also to include Pashtoonfemales in the polio teams to make itmore successful.

The CM announced this in a meet-ing that reviewed the anti-polio cam-

paign in the province at CM HouseSaturday.

He directed the authorities con-cerned to cordon off those vulnerableareas with security and launch a crashprogram for administering polio dropsto more than 170000 reported childrenand this process be repeated again andagain.

The coordinator for polio drive,Shahnaz Wazir Ali told the meetingthat at present 235 polio cases hadbeen reported from all parts of thecountry of which 151 cases pertainedto FATA and 48 to KhyberPakhtoonkhawa. Similarly out of 23cases reported in Sindh of which 21pertained of Pashtoon families.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—K-Electric has installedemergency generators at 16 majorImambargahs. The decision is in the linewith the company’s policy to facilitateMoharram processions in case of any un-expected power breakdown. Accordingto KElectric from 1-10 Muharram, over250 power feeders located in areas wherereligious rallies are prevalent have beenexempted from load shedding from 6 pmto 7 am every day. Moreover, these ar-eas were identified with the assistanceof Ulemas and local administration.

Commenting over installation of gen-

K-electric installs emergency generatorsfor power supply to Imambargahs

erators at focal points, KE’s spokespersonsaid, “Despite exemption from load shed-ding, the initiative taken by the power utilityis to facilitate smooth flow of proceedings atsaid Imambarghs without any hindrance.” Inaddition to emergency generators, KE hasalso made other specials arrangements en-compassing four regional control rooms aswell as distribution and transmission teamsto address any technical faults resulting inpower outages. These teams would be in con-tinuous contact with the City Administrationand Law Enforcement Agencies to help themmaintain law and order.

KE also mentions those 16 Imambargahswhere generators are placed that includes Bara

Imam Bargah, Rampart Road; Aza Khana-e-Zehra, Soldier Bazar; Mehfil-e-ShahKhurasan, Sodier Bazar; Nishtar Park;Khaliqdina Hall, M. A. Jinnah Road;Mehfil-e-Murtaza, PECHS; Shah-e-Najaf,Martin Quarters; Markazi Imambargah,Jafar-e-Tayar Society, Malir; ImambargahMehdi Akhir Uz Zaman, Gulistan-e-JoharBlock 19; Imambargah Abbas Town,Scheme 33; Imambargah Shohada-e-Karbala, FBA Block 20; Imambargah Al-Mohsin, FB Area Block 16; ImambargahButurab, FB Area Block 8; ImambargahRizvia, Rizvia Society; Imam Bargah Aley-e-Muhammad, 5C-3, North Karachi &Imambargah Shohada-e-Karbala, Lyari.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Citizens Police Liaison Com-mittee (CPLC) and the Anti-Violent Crime Cell(AVCC) of Karachi Police had safely rescued ahostage from the captivity of kidnappers, whohad abducted him for ransom. According to de-tails, Muhammad Hammad 32, was kidnappedfrom Landhi Town on Oct 28, 2014 and imme-diately after his abduction, the kidnapers hadcalled his family demanding Rs5 million in ran-som for his release from their captivity.

The CPLC received a complaint on Oct 31, 2014and a joint CPLC-AVCC team started working on

CPLC rescues hostage from kidnappersthe case extensively. The team had through the fam-ily of the hostage invited the kidnappers to get themoney in ransom on a selective spot in Korangi.The joint team fully prepared for the action waspresent in close vicinity of the identified location.

However, the kidnappers after realizing theywere trapped, resorted to indiscriminate firing.However, the joint CPLC-AVCC team had eas-ily managed to control the situation and one ofthe kidnappers, M Rizwan was arrested and onhis pointation, the hostage Hammad was alsosafely rescued. Two more accused person in-cluding a lady were still absconding and raidswere being conducted for their arrest.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—DHA City Karachi’s (DCK) Steer-ing Committee Meeting chaired by DHA Ad-ministrator, Brig. Zubair Ahmed was held atDHA’s Main Office to review the progress ofthe ongoing development works at DCK onSuper Highway. Project Director DCK, Brig.(Retd) Muhammad Rafique apprised the Steer-

DHA steering Committee meetsing Committee about the progress of ongoingprojects, particularly the timely completion ofImmediate Action Plan projects.

DHA Administrator gave the approval ofvarious projects including schools, colleges,Masajid, recreation and healthcare institutes. Heshowed satisfaction that DCK is being devel-oped as a green, smart and sustainable city whichwill become liveable by 2016.

KARACHI—Fire which had erupted at securities departmentin State Bank building on I.I Chundrigar Road on Saturdaymorning was finally extinguished after hours of hectic effort;however, no major loss was reported in the incident.Firefighters doused the fire after struggle of more than threehours.

According to the State Bank authorities, no record wasdamaged by the blaze. Only keyboards of computer, fans

Fire in SBP buildingextinguished after hectic efforts

and cupboards have been damaged. Separately, fire brokeout on third floor of a garment’s dying and washing factory.Blaze intensified due to the wind and engulfed the wholefloor.

5 vans of fire brigade extinguished the fire after an effort.According to the initial investigation, short circuit has beenreported as the cause of blaze that damaged goods worth mil-lion of rupees whereas no loss of life has been reported.—INP

CITY REPORTER

KARACHI—On the directivesof Provincial Minister for Foodand Health, Jam MehtabHussain Dahar a crackdownhas been launched againstthose flour mills which haveincreased flour prices illegallyand without any justification.

Crackdown launchedagainst flour mills

Three flour mills have beenissued show cause notices inthis regard.

An official handout here onSaturday aid District FoodControllers raided various flourmills in the districts Central andWest to find 39600 wheat bags

in A.R. Flour mills, 32500 inMasoom Roller mills and15000 in Blessing Roller FlourMills stocked there above thequantity prescribed under thelaw.

These flour mills have beenserved show cause notices.

According to law, a flourmill can retain/stock 5000wheat bags for ten dayswhereas certain flour mills pur-chased wheat at old rates andincreased flour prices withoutany valid reason.

Provincial Minister, Jam

Mehtab Hussain Dahar,while terming increase inflour prices as illegal andunjust, ordered to launchcrackdown against those whohaving increased prices, aretrying to do so to mint moneyillegally.

MORE than 5 million people in the UShave Alzheimer’s disease, and thisnumber is estimated to rise to 16 mil-

lion by 2050. Such figures emphasize the im-portance of finding new treatments for the con-dition, and new research fromSaint Louis University in Mis-souri could provide just that.In a mouse study, researcherswere able to reverse symptomsof Alzheimer’s using a newlycreated molecular compound.

The Saint Louis team, ledby Susan Farr, PhD, a profes-sor of geriatrics at the univer-sity, developed a compoundcalled antisense oligonucle-otide (OL-1). When tested onmouse models withAlzheimer’s disease, theyfound the compound reversedclassic symptoms of the dis-ease - brain inflammation andlearning and memory deficits.The researchers explain thatOL-1 works by blocking mes-senger RNA (mRNA) that stimulates the pro-duction of excess amyloid-beta protein, whichcan lead to the development of amyloid-betaplaques - a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.

In detail, the compound was able to reducethe overexpression of the amyloid-beta pro-tein precursor gene, which regulates theamount of amyloid-beta protein present in thebody. To reach their findings, recently pub-lished in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease,the team tested OL-1 on genetically engineeredmice that overproduced a “mutant” form of thehuman amyloid-beta protein precursor gene.

They note that in a previous study, theyhad tested the compound on mice that natu-

Researchers ‘reverse symptoms ofAlzheimer’s’ in mice with novel compound

Bilal Yaseen Minister for Food and Chairman Cabinet Price Control Committee chairing the committee meeting to impalement the reduction in com-modities prices after big cut in prices petroleum products.

rally overproduced mouse amyloid-beta. Al-though this study was successful, the teamwanted to test the compound on a human formof the gene to see if it was just as effective.Researchers found that the OL-1 compound

reversed symptoms ofAlzheimer’s - including learn-ing and memory impairments- in mice.

The mice had high levelsof the amyloid-beta protein,which increased inflammationin the brain and caused dam-aged to the hippocampus,leading to learning andmemory impairments. Toserve as a comparison, the re-searchers tested a randomantisense compound onhealthy wild mice. Approxi-mately half of the geneticallyengineered mice received thesame antisense compound,while the other half receivedOL-1.

All mice were then sub-ject to a series of experiments that measuredlearning, memory and appropriate behaviour- such as recognizing an object, exploring anunfamiliar location and finding their waythrough a maze. The team found that the ge-netically engineered mice who received OL-1 demonstrated improved learning andmemory, compared with the genetically en-gineered mice that received the randomantisense compound.

On comparing the effects of OL-1 in ge-netically engineered mice and the randomantisense compound in wild mice, the research-ers found no differences in learning andmemory.

People gathered at a local hall to celebrate Halloween Day.

Police flag-march to develop the sense of protection among the people on occasion of Muharram.

LHC takes notice of abduction of two women

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Principal Post GraduateMedical Institute Prof. Anjum HabibVohra has said that two “Deep BrainStimulation” (DBS) operations, firsttime in Pakistan have been carried outsuccessfully at Lahore General Hospitalwhich has opened door for the patientsof Parkinson and muscular stress to ridthe disease.

A patient named Shakeel Ahmed, resi-dent of Sheikhupura, underwent DBS op-eration for which funds were provided bythe Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif.Young Professor of Surgery Dr. KhalidMahmood of LGH who has attained spe-cial training from USA and Britain for thiskind of surgery conducted these DBS op-erations. He said that Punjab Governmenthad provided a grand of Rs.50 million forthe purchase of equipment.

First DBS operation ofits kind conducted at LGH

Prof. Vohra revealed these detailswhile addressing a press conference alongwith Prof. Dr. Khalid Mahmood here to-day. He said that Dr. Khalid Mahmoodwould now be available to check such pa-tients at LGH and hence they would nothave to go abroad for treatment ofParkinson and muscular pain. He said thatalthough this treatment is very expensivein Pakistan as it costs Rs. 20 lac howeverthis cost is only 20 % of expenses at for-eign countries. He told that the operationtakes almost 6 to 9 hours. Stretch stress.Prof. Vohra and Prof. Khalid Mahmoodtold that symptoms of Parkinson are tre-bling of legs, arms and hands and patientsfeel stress in their legs also. If the diseaseis intensified, it becomes difficult for pa-tients to keep their head still. Hence suchpatients become dependent for the rest oftheir life. Prof. Khalid Mahmood whileexplaining details of process of DBS op-

eration said that very delicate electrodesconnected with a battery are installed insmall holes drilled in both sides of thehead of a patient. The battery is placedunder the skin at the chest of the patientwhich works like a pacemaker for theheart patients.

Principal PGMI said that havingmodern equipments and latest medicaland diagnostic facilities, LGH receivespatients for surgery from all over thecountry and about 5 thousands opera-tions of head injury and neurology areconducted here annually. He said thatLGH is going to become state of the arthospital of the region after completionof Institute of Neuro Sciences in nearfuture. The Institute would provide moreopportunities of research and training toyoung doctors and treatment facilitieswould be available under one roof at alarge scale for patients of all age groups.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Lahore Waste ManagementCompany (LWMC) has given a new andcleaner look to Aisa’s largest scrap marketat Misir Shah in the result of a grand andmonth long Cleanup Operation. More than2600 tons of waste was removed in thisoperation which was backed by some 100workers and heavy machinery includingdumpers and loaders.

Operations also included scraping of

LWMC gives cleaner look to Asia’slargest scrap market at Misri Shah

roads, sprinkling of water on pavements andliming of roads under the supervision of Se-nior Manager Operations Suhail AnwarMalik, Manager Operations Fahad AslamKhan and Assistant Manager Imran Azam.Moreover, an awareness campaign compris-ing of walk, installation of camps, door step-ping and public briefing was carried out atMisri Shah which was lead by ManagingDirector Khalid Majeed and President ScrapMarket Misri Shah Chaudhary AmirSidique.

Officials of LWMC, Albayrak, repre-sentatives of market administration, socialmobilization teams and a large number oflocals attended the campaign. Giving re-marks on the warmth reception and appre-ciation by market representatives to him,MD LWMC Khalid Majeed termed thesuccessful operation a result of public &private partnership. Mr. Majeed announcedto carry out such operation cleanup in themarket twice a month to help maintainclean environment in future.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Provincial Minister forFood Bilal Yasin and SpokesmanPunjab Government Syed ZaeemHussain Qadri have said that on the di-rection of Chief Minister PunjabMuhammad Shahbaz Sharif, emergentsteps have been taken for providing ben-efits of deduction in prices of petroleumproducts to common man and specialchecking squads headed by DCOs havebeen constituted throughout the prov-ince.

Eight to ten percent decrease hasbeen made in the transport fares due towhich the prices of essential items willalso reduce considerably. They said thatstrict action will be taken against thosenot selling petrol and diesel at newprices. Prices of daily use items includ-ing fruits, vegetables and pulses have

Benefits of reduction in fuel pricesto be provided to common man

reduced from Rs.10 to 20 during the lastthree months.

They expressed these views whileaddressing an emergent press confer-ence at 90-SQA, today. Secretaries ofIndustry, Transport, Labour and Infor-mation departments were present onthe occasion. Bilal Yasin said that af-ter the decrease in prices of petroleumproducts by Prime MinisterMuhammad Nawaz Sharif, Punjabgovernment took emergent steps forimmediate implementation. He toldthat sale of petrol and diesel at newprices has been ensured after last 12midnight.

He said that instructions have beenissued to all DCOs and special check-ing squads have been constituted undertheir leadership. He told that eight toten percent reduction have been madein transport fare with the cooperation

of transporters which will directly ben-efit the people. He said that Rs.50 hasbeen reduced in a fare of Rs.600. Simi-larly, Rs.75 has been reduced in the fareof Rs.1000 and Rs.150 in the fare ofabove Rs.1000.

Bilal Yasin told that fare of busesplying on metalled road has been re-duced from Rs.1.06 to 98 paisa perkilometre. Similarly, the fare of busesrunning on Katcha roads has been re-duced from Rs.1.11 to Rs.1.03 whereasthe fare on hilly road has been reducedfrom Rs.1.16 to Rs.1.08. He further toldthat Rs.3 has been reduced in the fareof buses plying on urban route.

Bilal Yasin told that eight percentreduction has also been made in thefares of goods transport. He told thatthe price of 20 kg atta bag is Rs.785 forthe last two years whereas the price ofsugar will be reduced to Rs.55 and no

one will be allowed to increase its price.Syed Zaeem Hussain Qadri told that

Punjab Chief Minister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif is in touch with the ad-ministration from London and person-ally supervising all matters. He told that2085 raids have been conducted atpetrol pumps throughout the provinceand action has been taken against 196petrol pumps.

He told that 30 petrol pumps weresealed and cases have been registeredagainst 54 and a fine of Rs.6.5 lakh hasbeen received. Zaeem Qadri said thatthe reduction in prices of petroleumproducts is the biggest decrease of thehistory. He said that this step of Paki-stan Muslim League-N government isa clear proof of its being people friendly.He said that benefits of reduction inprices of petroleum products will beprovided to common man.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—The Lahore High Court Complaint Cell onSaturday took notice on an application of a citizen onadministrative side that his young daughter along withher aunt had been kidnapped and have not been recov-ered so far. Complaint Cell Incharge/Member Inspec-

tion Team, Mr. Habib Ullah Amir has directed the Capi-tal City Police Officer (CCPO), Lahore to submit adetailed report of the matter within two weeks.

According to details, Muhammad Tariq Khan,resident of Sami Town, Muslim Abad, Lahore Cantt:submitted an application with the Cell stating thereinthat on September 11, 2014 his 21-year-old daughter

along with her aunt had gone to Mughalpura Bazarfor shopping but did not turn up. He said, family triedto contact them but their cell phones were switchedoff and even after hectic struggle no clue was found.The applicant has submitted that both the women hadbeen abducted by some unknown persons and couldnot been recovered so far.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Member Provincial Assembly LubnaFaisal has said that Punjab government is utilizingall available resources for eradiation of dengue.She said that every individual of the society willhave to play his role for controlling this virus. Shesaid that role of female students is of great impor-tance for creating awareness about elimination ofdengue from houses, schools and the society.

She said this while addressing the participantsof an awareness seminar regarding eradicationof dengue at Govt. Girls Degree College, Mozang,today. Principal Dr. Tahira Sikandar, senior lec-turer Fauzia Imran, teacheresses, female studentsand parents attended the seminar. Officers of Edu-

Dengue will be controlled bycoordinated efforts: Lubna Faisal

cation Department and entomologists also ad-dressed the seminar and informed the girl stu-dents about importance of cleanliness and pro-tective measures from dengue.

Lubna Faisal said that public representativesunder the leadership of Chief Minister ShahbazSharif, government machinery, teachers and stu-dents are rendering invaluable services for elimi-nation of dengue. She said that female studentscan protect their family members from dengueby creating awareness among them. She said thatdengue will be controlled by implementing pro-posed strategy and through coordinated efforts.She said that strict action is being taken againstgovernment and private educational institutionsfor not implementing anti-dengue regulations.