F O U N D E D B Y Q U A I D - I - A Z A M M O H A M M A D A L I J I N N A H

Friday February 12 , 2016 Jumadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1437

KARACHI

Rs 19.0026 PagesVol. LXX No. 43

Regd. No. SS-022

ON OTHER

PAGESLoan recoveryThe government directs Ogra to allow recovery of Rs101bn commercial loans of gas utilities from consumers to build pipeline infrastructure. Page 3

$500m projectsAhsan Iqbal says Pakistan has launched projects of $500m in Afghanistan’s education, health and infrastructure sectors. Page 5

Gravitational wavesScientists say they have glimpsed the fi rst direct evidence of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, which Albert Einstein predicted a century ago. Page 15

www.dawn.com

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif endorsed on Thursday death penalty awarded to 12 terrorists belonging to the banned Al Qaeda, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Sipah-i-Sahaba by special military courts.

The convicts were involved in the Bannu jailbreak, sectarian killings and attacks on armed forces and security personnel and educational institutions.

“Today Chief of Army Staff confi rmed death sentences awarded to another 12 hardcore terrorists, who were involved in committing heinous offences relating to terrorism… These convicts were tried by military courts,” military’s public affairs wing ISPR said in a statement.

This is the second batch of terrorists,

whose sentences have been confi rmed by the army chief this year.

Previously, 36 terrorists were sentenced to death and four others to life terms by military courts set up in 2015 for two years through a special legislation enacted in the aftermath of Peshawar’s Army Public School carnage.

The government has so far referred some 150 terrorism cases to military courts for trial and 55 of them were decided last year.

Following are details about the 12 con-victs whose death sentences were endorsed on Thursday:

Mohammad Arbi, son of Hafi z Mohammad Sadiq, was an active member of the TTP. He was involved in abetting an attack on Bannu Jail, owing to which a large number of terrorists escaped from the jail. It also caused injuries to several police con-stables and soldiers. He was also involved in attacking a law-enforcement agency, caus-ing death and injuries to soldiers. He admit-ted his offences before a magistrate and the trial court. He was tried on three charges and awarded death sentence.

Rafi Ullah, son of Mohammad Miskeen,

Army chief approves death penalty for 12 terrorists

Continued on Page 5

By Baqir Sajjad Syed

ISLAMABAD: Despite intelligence warnings that the militant Islamic State (IS) group is an emerging threat, Foreign Offi ce insists that the Middle Eastern terrorist group has “no organ-ised presence” in the country.

“Let me reiterate that there is no organised presence of Daesh, the Arabic acronym for IS, in Pakistan,” FO spokes-

man Nafees Zakaria said on Thursday. The new spokesman, who was holding

his fi rst media briefi ng, was answering a question about the testimony by Aftab Sultan, the chief of the Intelligence Bureau, the lead civilian intelligence agency, before a Senate committee on Wednesday that IS was an emerging threat, particularly because of the sup-port of local terrorist and extremist organisations, including the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Sipah-i-Sahaba (now

operating under the name of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

IS has been discussed as an emerging

threat at different national forums in the past as well.

Speaking at a corps commanders’ con-ference on Wednesday, Army Chief

General Raheel Sharif cautioned about local abettors of terrorists. However, he did not directly link his observation to IS.

Foreign Offi ce has all along main-tained that IS is not a major security threat for the country, but such asser-tions have failed to quash fears about the group, which has found a foothold in neighbouring Afghanistan and reports about its activities inside Pakistan keep coming.

Several sleeper cells and recruiting

rings of IS are said to have been busted by security agencies.

PATHANKOT: The spokesman said that Pakistan and India were in touch with each other for convening a meeting of their foreign secretaries, which had been delayed because of the recent attack on an airbase in Pathankot.

“The two sides understand that dialogue is the only way to resolve the

No organised presence of IS in Pakistan, says FO

Continued on Page 5

By Iftikhar A Khan

ISLAMABAD: Secretary Climate Change Arif Ahmad Khan has been appointed federal secretary interior and Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui special secretary in view of the enormous workload being handled by the Ministry of Interior.

Shahid Khan, the outgo-ing secretary interior who was relieved by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Tuesday, has been appointed secretary to the president. The position has been vacant since retire-ment of Ahmad Farooq on Nov 3 last year.

Shahid Khan was made secretary interior after Chaudhry Qamar Zaman was appointed chairman of the National Accountability Bureau in 2013.

Sources told Dawn that Shahid Khan had requested the interior minister to relieve him because his health was not allowing him to take so much work-load.

Arif Ahmad Khan has pre-viously served as additional secretary in the interior

Interior ministry gets new secretary

Continued on Page 5

MUZAFFARABAD: Schoolgirls playing on a road during snowfall in the city on Thursday.—AFP

IS threat: Editorial on Page 8

By Zulqernain Tahir

LAHORE: Some 165 employees of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) are facing the axe for their active role in the week-long fl ight suspension of the national fl ag carrier as the government appears to be in ‘no mood to pardon’ them.

The PIA management indi-cated the government’s mood on Thursday by sending home 11 contractual employ-ees for their alleged role in the strike that caused cancel-lation of over 800 interna-tional and domestic fl ights and about Rs4 billion loss to the national exchequer.

A source privy to the devel-opment told Dawn that the PIA management had begun fi ring ‘main characters’ of the strike on the ‘direction’ of the government.

“The PIA management issued show-cause notices to another 30 employees on Thursday increasing the total number to 165. Members of the Joint Action Committee of the PIA employees may also face the axe as they have been served with notices,” he said, adding that those served with notices were from all major stations, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta. They have been given a 72-hour deadline to explain their position.

Making a last-ditch effort to save their jobs, JAC chair-man Capt Sohail Baloch, deputy convener Safdar Anjum, president Nasrullah and secretary Obaidullah wrote a letter to the PIA management on Thursday requesting it to withdraw

the show-cause notices.“As notices have been

issued to hundreds of PIA employees, therefore, the issue has been taken up by JAC in the light of a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. He categori-cally stated after developing an understanding of the problems and grievances of the PIA employees that the matter will be put up before the prime minister as soon as he arrives from Qatar,” the letter says.

It said an announcement had been made on the media that all show-cause notices issued to employees were being withdrawn. But it did not mention who made the announcement.

“Without prejudice to the respective rights of the employees and without going into merits of their respec-tive case it is requested that as the matter is being han-dled at the highest level by the Punjab chief minister, therefore, it is requested that the show-cause notices may kindly be withdrawn and all/any actions already taken against the employees of PIA, including daily wages employees, may also be with-drawn.”

The JAC, however, has pin-pointed that there are “some offi cials within the aviation who are bent upon sabotag-ing the process of amicable resolution”.

“This request may be con-sidered on humanitarian grounds and in the interest of PIA. The same has been made only with bonafi de intentions to avoid further untoward situation and unrest, so that the interest of PIA and its employees is pro-tected,” the letter said.

PIA starts action against strikers

The convicts were involved in sectarian killings and attacks on security personnel and educational institutions

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Northern parts of the country experienced heavy precipitation over the last 24 hours, with Muzafarrabad and Islamabad’s Margalla Hills seeing their fi rst snow in a decade.

Thick snow also covered Murree, the Galiyat, Abbottabad, Swat, Chitral, parts of Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK, while heavy rains and snow claimed six lives in Peshawar and Lower Dir.

People in the Quetta valley and parts of north-ern and central Balochistan braved extremely cold weather on Thursday with temperature dropping to minus 10 degrees Celsius.

The chilly Siberian winds which started blow-ing on Tuesday night kept the city in its grip on Thursday, paralysing the normal life. Most peo-ple in Quetta preferred to stay indoors and the traffi c remained thin.

Shops and commercial centres were closed much before their schedule.

In many areas of Quetta there were reports of suspension of supply or very low pressure of gas which multiplied hardship of people.

In many areas, sewage water overfl owing from gutters froze on roads.

The situation was not much different in Ziarat, Kan Mehtarzai, Pishin, Yaro, Khanozai, Qila

Cold wave grips northern region

Continued on Page 5