Continued on Page 6

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The construc-tion of a border checkpost hassparked a new feud betweenPakistan and neighbouring Af-ghanistan, with the latter al-ready having accused the otherof cross-border shelling and try-ing to undermine prospects ofpeace with the Afghan Taliban.

In a meeting with PakistanAmbassador to AfghanistanMohammad Sadiq on Monday,Afghan Deputy Foreign Minis-ter Jawed Ludin expressed hisconcerns over what it called“Pakistani military’s unilateral

construction and physical rein-forcement activities along theDurand Line.”

According to the Afghandeputy foreign minister, the con-struction of the Pakistani militarycheckpost close to the Goshtadistrict of Nangarhar province is“against all accepted interna-tional norms, provocative andunacceptable to the Afghan gov-ernment.”

“According to Afghan bor-der police reports, these unilat-eral activities began a while agoalong the Durand Line near thevillages of Hatam Kalai andKodzarai in Goshta district,” said

a press release issued by the Af-ghan foreign ministry.

Pakistan, however, brushedaside Ludin’s concerns, callingthe construction work routinerenovation on an old post.

“Pakistan has an old postcalled Gursal well inside Paki-stani territory borderingNangarhar Province of Afghani-stan, which is under routine reno-vation,” said Foreign Officespokesman Aizaz AhmedChaudhry on Tuesday.

According to recently signedagreements, both countries arerequired to inform the other ofany new construction closer to

border areas. “Despite being arenovation work Pakistan as agesture of goodwill shared thisinformation with the Afghan side.The same was also shared withthe Afghan visiting delegation toMohmand Agency on 24 Janu-ary 2013,” said a Pakistani for-eign office press release.

“Afghan Deputy ForeignMinister Jawed Ludin’s recentconcerns about construction andphysical reinforcement along theAfghan border are therefore notin keeping with the spirit of theunderstanding on good bordermanagement and the recentlysigned Tripartite Border SOP,” it

New border checkpost sparks Pak-Afghan tensionadded. In his meeting with thePakistani ambassador, the Af-ghan deputy minister also raisedobjections against alleged rocketand artillery attacks into Af-ghanistan from the Pakistaniside of the border. “The con-tinuation of such attacks couldnegatively affect existing rela-tions between the two coun-tries,” said the Ludin.

The Pakistani Foreign Of-fice responded Tuesday by say-ing “no rocket or artillery shellshave been fired by PakistanArmy in the recent days.” Thisis not the first time that Afghani-Continued on Page 6

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

ISLAMABAD—A 14-memberCabinet took oath for 38-dayson Tuesday for running the dayto day affairs and conductingtransparent elections.

President Asif Ali Zardariadministered the oath at Aiwan-e-Sadr. Caretaker Prime Minis-ter Justice (Retd) Mir HazarKhan Khoso was present onthe occasion. Eminent person-alities including SpeakerFehmida Mirza ,some ex-min-isters, members of the Senateand civil servants were present.

The newly inducted min-isters include Malik Habib,Ahmer Bilal Soofi, Dr.Musaddaq Malik, Arif Nizami,Sohail Wajahat H. Siddique,Shahzada Ahsan Ashraf Sheikh,Maqbool H.H.Rahmatoola,Abdul Malik Kasi, Asad UllahMandokhel, Mir HassanDhomki, Dr.Sania Nishtar,Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhel,Dr. Younis Soomro, ShahzadaJamal. Among them, six were

14-member interim cabinet takes oathDr Mushtaq’s chair removed at last moment

from Punjab‚ three each fromSindh and Balochistan and tworepresent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Despite announcement

on Monday, Dr Mushtaq whois an advisor in the StateBank, was not administeredoath. His chair was removed

Tauqir Sadiq’sresidence raided

ISLAMABAD—The residence offormer Oil and Gas RegulatoryAuthority (OGRA) chief TauqirSadiq was raided and his prop-erty was sealed by governmentofficials on Tuesday.

Former Ogra chief TauqirSadiq is suspected of embez-zling a total of Rs83 billion. Theresidence is now in the custodyof the court along with threeother properties. Notices wereplaced on the properties thatwere sealed.

The Supreme Court of Pa-kistan failed in various attemptsto get Sadiq, the prime suspectin a corruption case back to Pa-kistan. Sadiq was provideddeadlines to appear in court anda team was also dispatched toDubai to bring him back to Pa-kistan, however nothing hasmaterialized.

NICL scam case:SHC grantsprotective bail toAmin FahimKARACHI—Sindh High Court(SHC) on Tuesday granted 10 -day protective bail to formerFederal Minister for CommerceAmin Fahim.

Amin Fahim, earlier filedpetition in seeking protectivebail in NICL scam case.

Granting bail, the courtordered Fahim to submit boundworth of Rs.500,000.

Ameen Fahim is now onforeign trip.

On Monday, a provincialanti-corruption court issuednon-bailable arrest warrantsagainst Fahim and seven othersin the case.

The anti-corruption courtalso ordered police to arrest

ECP orders to changefederal, provincialsecretariesISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP)has ordered the change of allfederal and provincialsecretaries. According to thedirectives issued by the ECP tothe caretaker government, withthe exception of those officerswho are essential at their posts,all secretaries should bechanged. The ECP has alsodirected that the heads of allgovernment autonomous andsemi-autonomous agenciesshould also be changed.

The ECP has also orderedthe change of IGs, DCOs,DPOs, CCPOs, EDOs, SHOsand commissioners. Politicalparties had expressed theirreservations to the commissionregarding favourable appoint-ments made by the pastgovernment.—INP

3 cops among 7 officialskilled in grid station attack

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Terrorist’s attackat a Grid Station in the out skirtsof provincial metropolis Tues-day wee hours resulted in kill-ing of at least seven officials in-cluding three policemen. Themajor grid station ensuring elec-tricity supply to large area inPeshawar was also damagedbadly. Four officials of thePeshawar Electricity SupplyCompany (PESCO) continuedto be missing.

The locals and the Policeofficials said a group of miscre-ants armed with sophisticatedweapons stormed the SheikhMohammadi Grid station onKohat road Tuesday wee hoursand blasted the main gate of the

grid with explosives makingway to the main control roomof the station where they gunneddown two PESCO officials be-sides blasting the grit stationcausing great damage to theElectricity installations.

The Fleeing miscreants, asthe Police and the PESCO au-thorities said also took awaynine officials including threepolice men and six employeesof the grid station. Later thedead bodies of five more offi-cials that include three Police-men and two PESCO officialswere discovered by the locals inthe nearby fields.

“At least seven people werekilled when unknown assailantsfired rocket at a grid station inSheikh Mohammadi area of pro-

vincial capital in the early hoursof Tuesday morning and thedead bodies of the missingpeople were found in nearbyfields”. The Police authoritiessaid adding they were shot deadafter kidnapping by the mili-tants.

The grid station was com-pletely destroyed in the incidentas soon after the attack, electric-ity went off and the area wasplunged into darkness. The in-cident spread fear among resi-dents of the area as the he secu-rity forces rushed to the site ofthe attack and cordoned off thearea. They are also said to havekicked off search operation inthe region. The DG PR PESCO

Continued on Page 6

Nominationpapers of BadamZareen accepted

KHAR—The returning officerafter scrutiny accepted the nomi-nation papers of Badam Zareen,the first tribal woman to contestgeneral elections.

It should be mentioned thatBadam Zareen is the firstwoman in the tribal history tocontest for a seat of NationalAssembly. She has submittednomination papers for NA-44Bajaur Agency and completedfirst phase successfully.

Badam Zareen told the me-dia persons her aim to take partin general election is to serve thetribal women who had remainedsuppressed throughout the his-tory.—INP

NAB completesscrutiny of 5,354nomination papersISLAMABAD—NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB)has completed the scrutiny of5354 nomination papers.Sources said several formerParliamentarians could bedisqualified from contestingelections under articles 62 and63 of the constitution.

The ECP had soughtclearance of 9493 candidatesfrom NAB after which theBureau started reviewing theirtrack record.

The sources said that NABhas sent its report about thecandidates who have been

Continued on Page 6

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—NADRA haswritten a letter to Election Com-mission on Tuesday to take deci-sion before April 5 to deploy soft-ware in fifteen countries devel-oped by it, enabling overseasPakistanis to cast their votes inthe forthcoming elections. Talk-ing to Pakistan Observer onTuesday, he said there are 4.5million

Pakistani voters, concen-trated basically in Gulf countriesand Middle East. National Data-base and Registration Authority

Overseas votersECP has to take decisionby April 5: Tariq Malik

(NADRA) has developed a user-friendly and safe software to fa-cilitate overseas Pakistanis to casttheir votes, he said. Approvalfrom ECP is necessary beforeApril 5 to make arrangements,otherwise the project will beshifted to the next elections.Time is very short and system canbe introduced as a pilot projectnow, he said.

Demonstrations have alreadybeen given to stakeholders, hesaid. The ECP has to make 70 percent advance payment from thetotal cost of US dollar 1.5 mil-

Continued on Page 6Continued on Page 6

at the last moment report-edly on the objection raised

Media will be taken along toensure fair polls: Arif Nizami

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—The newly in-ducted caretaker Minister ArifNizami said on Tuesday the in-terim Government will takealong media to conduct free-fairand transparent elections.

Talking to media soon aftertaking oath of his office atAiwan-e-Sadr, he said ElectionCommission is powerful and as-sertive and interim governmentwill provide it full support inconducting smooth elections.Arif Nizami, a seasoned jour-nalist, who is expected to be al-

lotted portfolio of Ministry of In-formation and Broadcasting said

Continued on Page 6

an example of good gover-nance will be set in the countrythat will be followed by othersin future.

Attempts were made to de-rail democracy, but democracyemerged victorious. There willbe smooth transition to the newelected government after trans-parent elections, Arif Nizamisaid.

To a question, he said therecould be law and order prob-lem, but the Government willhave to address it on prioritybasis. He said if he was given

Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari administering oath to ministers of the interimcabinet on Tuesday.

Courts spring into actionagainst deceiving ex-MPs

Three ex-MPs sentenced; warrants issuedagainst two others; one indicted

QUETTA/DI KHAN/SWABI—Tuesday was a very tough day forthe former lawmakers who wereholding fake degrees and haddual nationality, as on the ordersof the Supreme Court of Paki-stan, three of them were impris-oned, arrest warrants were issuedfor two and one was indicted inseparate cases.

According to details the firstdecision came against formerKhyber Pakhtunkhwa MPAKhalifa Abdul Qayyum in a fakedegree case in the court of addi-tional district and sessions judgeDera Ismail Khan.

Additional District and Ses-sions Judge DI Khan sentencedKhalifa Abdul Qayyum to threeyears in prison and imposed apenalty of Rs5,000 on him, afterhearing the fake degree caseagainst him on Tuesday. KhalifaAbdul Qayyum had turned outsuccessful in the election-2008 asan independent candidate.

Following announcement ofthe judgment, Khalifa AbdulQayyum was taken into custodyfrom the courtroom and sent tojail. Former Federal MinisterHumayun Aziz Kurd was sen-tenced to one year in prison and

fined Rs5,000 in a fake degreecase. Kurd who won the 2008elections from NA-267 was ar-rested following the sentence.

Meanwhile, the arrest war-rants of former parliamentariansNasir Shah and Maulvi Rozuddinhave been issued. Former MPAMir Badshah Qaisarani has alsobeen indicted.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Of-fice officials submitted their re-port relating to the dual national-ity of ex-PPP MNA Rai GhulamMujtaba Kharal in the SupremeCourt on Tuesday.

Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanPeople’s Party on Tuesday calledoff a major public rally designedto kickstart its re-election cam-paign in favour of smaller events,officials said.

The Pakistani Taliban havedirectly threatened the PPP andits secular coalition partners, anda string of recent attacks is rais-ing fears that violence could marthe run-up to May 11 elections.

The PPP said last week itwould start its campaign with apublic rally in Garhi KhudaBakhsh, the village housing theBhutto family mausoleum, on theanniversary of the hanging of itsfounder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto onApril 4, 1979.

The party holds public rallieson the anniversary every year.

PPP scraps campaignrally amid security fears

But on Tuesday, a partyspokesman in the nearby town ofNaudero said the gatheringwould take place in a hall andwould be closed to all but state

media. PPP politicians wouldalso hold separate events in otherdistricts, he said.

“We are not organising a bignational-level rally this time.Meetings are being held at dis-trict level separately,” GhulamMustafa Leghari told AFP.

Zulfiqar’s daughter andformer PPP prime minister,Benazir Bhutto, was killed in agun and suicide attack after anelection rally in Rawalpindi in2007. The PPP was elected in2008 on a wave of public sym-pathy. President Asif Ali Zardari,Bhutto’s widower, will addressThursday’s meeting in Naudero,Leghari said, but he did not con-firm whether Bilawal, chairman

Continued on Page 6

PPP fails to kick outworthwhile

campaign in PunjabMUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Despite vociferousclaims by Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) to recapture political fortof Lahore from its arch rival Pa-kistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) in upcoming general

Continued on Page 6

IMF mission to visitPakistan next week

Easing inflation brushes aside hike in policy rateAMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—IMF mission isscheduled to visit Pakistan some-times next week for the regularPost Program Monitoring whichincludes meetings with theprominent political leaders par-ticipating in the forthcoming gen-eral elections which might decideentry of Pakistan into IMF pro-gram for a fresh loan arrange-ment.

The caretaker Prime Minis-ter however has reportedly ruledout entry into an IMF program

during interim period that rollsthe ball into the court of thewould be elected governmentafter the general elections.

According to informedsources the IMF visit would be agood chance to meet with all po-litical parties, where an implicitunderstanding on pending re-forms will be the key points ofdiscussion especially furtherflexibility in exchange rate andincrease in power tariff to narrowdown the gap between cost ofgeneration and the subsidizedelectricity tariffs. However ac-

ceding to these two potential con-ditions from IMF would be likelyto add to price inflation manifold.

According to latest figuresreleased by bureau of statisticsthe Consumer Price Index (CPI)inflation remained at 6.57% inMarch 2013 which in a way hasalleviated the concerns of in-creasing the interest rate when theState Bank of Pakistan meets tolook afresh at the MonetaryPolicy for next two months. Itmay be noted that there were se-rious concerns of further tighten-

Continued on Page 6

ISLAMABAD—The Chief Sec-retary Balochistan on Tues-day apprised Prime MinisterJustice (R) Mir Hazar KhanKhoso that all the prominentpolitical parties showed en-thusiasm in the upcominggeneral election by fieldingtheir candidates. The PrimeMinister was chairing a highlevel meeting at the PM’sHouse to review theprogress made so far on theimplementation of Agahz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan pack-age.

Chief SecretaryBalochistan Babar FatehYaqoob apprised the meeting

about the salient features ofA g h a z - e - H a q o o q - e -Balochistan and the implemen-tation process. He apprised thePrime Minister about the pre-vailing law and order situationin the province and the chal-lenges faced by the provincialgovernment in maintaining thepublic order during the up-coming general elections.

While dilating upon theA g h a z - e - H a q o o q - e -Balochistan further Babarbriefed the Prime Minister onprogress made so far on vari-ous developmental projects inthe province. The PM was in-formed by the Secretary Estab-

lishment Division that out of7582 vacancies in the federal

government available to per-

sons holding Balochistan do-micile, a total of 4561 had beenfilled so far while the processfor filling the remaining 3021 va-cancies was being taken up bythe Establishment Division.

He also briefed the PrimeMinister on the policy of post-ing and transfer of officers ofPakistan Administrative Ser-vice (PAS) and Police Serviceof Pakistan (PSP) toBalochistan. The Premier alsogot a briefing on the Scholar-ship Programme. He was in-formed that currently, 150 chil-dren from various districts ofBalochistan were being edu-cated in leading academic in-

stitutions of the country underthe programme, fully funded bythe federal government. Eachstudent was also getting a sti-pend of Rs 1500 per month.

Raghib Abbas Shah,Chairman WAPDA, ap-prised the meeting on theprogress over the Kachi Ca-nal project. He also pro-vided details about the de-mand and supply position ofelectricity in the province aswell as the efforts beingmade by WAPDA to mini-mize the load-shedding. Af-ter a comprehensive discus-sion on various issues, itwas decided in the meeting

that a proposal would be ex-amined to increase the num-ber of students under thePrime Minister ’s Scholar-ship Programme from 150 to300.

Similarly, it was decided thatrecruitment to the vacant postsin Balochistan must be expe-dited. The Planning Commis-sion was also directed to ex-amine the possibility of arrang-ing funds for timely comple-tion of Kachi Canal project. Themeeting was attended by se-nior officials of the PrimeMinister’s secretariat, PlanningCommission, Ministry of Com-munications.—APP

4564 Balochistan youth given federal jobs

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—On the direc-tives of Deputy Commis-sioner (DC) district adminis-tration accelerated pre-elec-tion anti-encroachment drivein the city, said a press releaseissued here Tuesday. Accord-ing to details, DC Peshawar,Mohammad Javed Marwatwhile taking notice of the mas-sive encroachments onDalazak Road and parking ofthe vehicles of Rent-A Car di-rected Additional AssistantCommissioner (AAC)-I,Habibullah Arif and AAC-II,Hafiz Ahmad Kamal for tak-ing action.

AAC-I and II while tak-ing action along with demol-ishing staff of the MunicipalCorporation Peshawar

(MCP) demolished en-croachments and also ar-rested 25 persons includingfive owners of the Rent-A-Car services. During the ac-tion goods displayed outsideshops were confiscated whiledetailed report of the actionhas been presented to DCPeshawar. DC Peshawar hasdirected all additional assis-tant commissioners for initi-ating pre-election anti-en-croachments drive and pre-sentation of report in this re-gard on daily bases. On thedirectives of Deputy Com-missioner (D.C) Peshawar,district administration re-moved all oversized bill-boards, hoardings and post-ers from different parts of thecity, said a press release is-sued here Tuesday.

According to details, D.CMohammad Javed Marwathave directed Additional Assis-tant Commissioner (AAC)-III,Abdul Naseer Khan, TOR,Rehman Khattak and staff ofMunicipal CorporationPeshawar (MCP) for the re-moval of oversized billboards,hoardings and posters to imple-ment the code of conduct an-nounced by the Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP). Theadministration while taking ac-tion on Hospital Road, DhakiNalbandi, Khyber Bazaar,Qissa Khwani etc took intopossession the oversized bill-boards, hoardings and postersof different political partieswhile wall chalking on differentgovernment buildings includ-ing Lady Reading Hospital(LRH) was also washed.

Pre-polls anti-encroachmentdrive geared up in Peshawar

Four kids, 11women among

31 Afghans heldQUETTA—Levies Force ar-rested 31 illegal Afghan im-migrants including womenand children in the bordertown of Chaman here onTuesday. Levies officials toldthat about 31 Afghans 4 chil-dren and 11 women amongthem illegally crossed intoPakistan through theChaman border of QillaAbdullah district.

Levies Force duringsearch found them withoutlegal travelling documentand shifted to Levis Thana.Three Pakistani drivers whoaccompanied these illegalimmigrants were also de-tained. Further investigationwas underway.—APP

9th Comsatsanniversarycelebrated

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ATTOCK—9th anniversaryof Comsats Institute and In-formation Technology CIITwas celebrated here atAttock Campus on Tuesday.According to details,Comsats CIIT managementhave also arranged sportsgala and other festivals, alarge number of students par-ticipated in different gamesand other events that lastedfor a week. On the closingday Mehfil e Mushaira wasalso arranged that was at-tended by the famous poetslike Sarfraz Shahid, Dr.InamUl Haq Javaid, KhalidMasood, Jawad HassanJawad and Badar Muneer.

The poets presented po-etry that amused the partici-pants and the students. Inthe end, Rector of CIIT Dr.S.M. Junaid Zaidi appreciatedthe extra ordinary efforts ofthe CIIT institute Attock.

Water supply for3,200 individuals

restoredSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The politicaladministration of MohmandAgency has completed a safedrinking water scheme tobenefit thousands of localcommunities of the area toget access to water at theirdoorstep. FATA Secretariatsources stated that the in-habitants of the village hadbeen facing acute shortageof clean drinking water. At therequest of the local elders,political administration re-sponded by prioritizing theirurgent demands and initiatedrehabilitation work on watersupply scheme to facilitatethe people of the village.

MULTAN—Fake degree is-sue was a propaganda of thepolitical opponents as PML-N supporters will win suc-cess for him, claimed formerprovincial minister HajiEhsanuddin Qureshi hereTuesday. Addressing a pressconference at Multan PressClub, Ehsan uddin Qureshisaid that Higher EducationCommission (HEC) had veri-fied his BA degree vide letterno 5-3/HEC/A&A/2010dated Oct 21,2010.

He alleged that his oppo-nents were using third rate tac-tics just to stop him from tak-ing part in the upcoming gen-eral elections and warned themof legal action. He said theMuslim League-Nawaz (PLM-N) had awarded him ticket fromPP-197. Qureshi said that hehad served the people of

Degree propaganda is blackmailing

PML-N to sweep pollsMultan whole heatedly in asprovincial minister and wouldcontinue his service after win-ning the election. Former min-ister claimed that Multan wasstronghold of PML-N and itwould clean sweep from the cityin up coming general election.

Earlier, former provincialminister for Ushr & Zakat HajiEhsan-ud-din Qureshi onMonday said that the PML-Nwould leave no stoneunturned to make Seraiki prov-ince in real sense, after it cameto power. The new province isnot a rare phenomenon ratherit is a basic right of the peopleof South Punjab, which mustbe fulfilled, he added. Talkingto APP, Ehsan Qureshi saidthat the PPP-led governmenthad initiated pre-mature effortsto create the province and thusit befooled the people.—APP

NAZIR SIYAL

SUKKUR—As many as mil-lions of outstanding recov-eries of WAPDA, SUI Gas,PTCL and others were madeby potential candidatesamong former Chief Minis-ter Sindh, Federal and pro-vincial Ministers , MNAsand MPAs here in Sukkurand other parts on Tues-day.

According to the de-tails, as it was the first dayof scrutiny of candidates,they filed their nominationpapers for election 2013.

A hundreds of millionsoutstanding amount of

SEPCO WAPDA, Sui Gas,PTCL and others were wit-nessed due to scrutiny ofcandidates by the DROs.

Former Sindh ChiefMinister paid 4.71 millionoutstanding, Sardar AliGohar Khan Mahar 8.4 mil-lion outstanding bills, PirSaddardin Shah Rashdi Rs.2 million outstanding ofSEPCO, former home minis-ter Manzoor Wassan paidRs. 0.265 million outstand-ing of WAPDA SEPCO andRs.0.95 million against SuiGas outstanding.

While the family of PirSahab Pagaro paid Rs. Rs.2.3 mil l ion outstanding

amount and several othersalso witnessed to pay theiramounts and dues due toscrutiny by DROs in differ-ent areas of province onTuesday.

Hundreds of local lead-ers and former rulers afterthe filling of their nomina-tion papers as well theirfamilies and sons in election2013, they have started topay heavy outstandingbills of SEPCO WAPDA, SuiGas, PTCL and other duesfrom first day of scrutiny inSukkur, Larkana, Ghotki,Jacobabad, Shikarpur,Khairpur and other parts ofSindh province.

Politicians pay huge outstandingamounts on 1st day of scrutiny

Employeescondemn

colleagues’killing

RAHMATULLAH KHAN

PESHAWAR—Large number ofWADPA employees con-demned killing of their col-leagues and police men duringan attack on SheikhMuhammadi Grid Station bymiscreants at last night. TheWapda employees associatedwith Hydro Electric Unionstaged a protest demonstrationand a sit-in on Sher Shah SooriRoad opposite cantonmentRailway Station on Tuesday.

Hydro Electric Union,Central Chairman, Gohar Taj,provincial head Haji Iqbal andother leaders of the unionwas spearheading the pro-testing wapda emeployees,who were holding placardsand banners, condemningthe killings of their col-leagues in a miscreants at-tack, they were raising theirfull throat slogans against themiscreants. According tospokesman of the unionGohar Ali that 500 Kilo voltcontrol room was completelydestroyed of the SheikMuhammadi power grid sta-tion on wee hours.

While talking to reporters,Gohar Taj said that employ-ees had boycotted from du-ties and held protest ralliesand demonstrations at districtand divisional headquartersto condemn the attack and kill-ings. He informed that someunidentified miscreants hadattacked on 500 KV power sta-tion in village sheikhMuhamadi in late night, inwhich killing six persons in-cluding three security guards,one Sub Station Attendant(SSA).

Blackout inBalochistan continues

QU E T TA—The citizensacross 16 districts ofBalochistan province con-tinued to suffer Tuesdaydue to power outage for thethird consecutive day dueto blasting of power pylonsby unknown miscreants.Most parts of theBalochistan province re-mained in blackout asQuetta Electric SupplyCompany (QESCO) failed torepair the destroyed towersand restore the power sup-ply.

It should be mentionedthat electricity to several dis-tricts including Quetta citywas suspended on March 31when some unknown miscre-ants blew up four 220kv tow-ers in Bakhtiyarabad andChatar areas.—INP

HYDERABAD: Activists of Soomro Alliance hold a protest against non arrest of killers of Nisar Soomro outside HPC.

Khuhro nomination acceptedOur Correspondent

LARKANA—Returning Officer PS-36(Larkana-II) Simkhan Hussain Mughalwho is also the Third Additional Dis-trict and Sessions Judge Larkana, Tues-day accepted the nomination papers ofSpeaker Sindh Assembly and a candi-date of PPP for PS-36 (Larkana-II) NisarAhmed Khuhro. During the process ofscrutiny, his nomination papers werefound correct. The Returning Officer ofPS-36 (Larkana-II) accepted the nomi-

nation papers of Nazir Ahmed Shaikh of PML (F). Althoughthe last constituency- wise list of voters is still to befinalised, the National Assembly seat NA-220 and the SindhAssembly seats PS-46 and PS-47 are the biggest of the 3NA and 6-PS constituencies in the district. According tothe data obtained from the District Election Commissioner’soffice, the NA 220 in City taluka comprises 25 union coun-cils including 13 complete and 12 partial UCs. It contains418 census blocks while the number of registered voters inthe 2008 election was 364,798. This constituency encom-passes 2 Sindh Assembly constituencies, PS-45 and PS-46. According to details, PS-45 consists of 12 union coun-cils of the City Taluka including UCs 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 17 andparts of UCs 1, 4, 5, 13, 16 and 18. There are 209 blocks inPS-45 and the registered voters in 2008 elections were181,048. Likewise, PS-46 has 13 union councils includingCity Taluka’s UCs 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 20 and parts of UCs 4, 5,13, 18, 19 and also a part of Latifabad taluka’s 12 UCs.There are 209 blocks and the registered voters in 2008elections were 183,750 in PS-46. The NA 219 constituencyin Latifabad Taluka comprising PS-48 and PS-49 has a totalof 18 union councils including 4 partial, 272 blocks and346,959 voters registered in 2008 elections. The PS-48 con-sists of UCs 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10 and parts of 5 and 8 inLatifabad taluka and there are 121 block while 189,380 vot-ers were registered in 2008.

PPP to form own governmentStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—Provincial President ofPPPP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa P, AnwarSaifullah Khan said that his party’sobjective is to form independent gov-ernments in center and all the federat-ing units for serving masses and de-veloping country. Addressing a pub-lic gathering here at the residence ofprovincial leader of PPPP, IftikharAhmad Khan Jhagra in connectionwith starting election campaign for

PK-9, Anwar Saifullah Khan said during the last fiveyears the PPPP leadership made coalition governmentswith the objective of continuation of democracy. ThePPPP leadership has decided to work hard in upcomingelections and form governments both in centre and prov-inces. Anwar Saifullah Khan also urged the PPP work-ers to shun petty disputes and get united for 2013 elec-tions. The party leadership, he continued, is fully awareabout the problems and disputes among party ranks,but all these issues would be resolved after completionof elections. PPPP KP president said his party has fieldedpotential candidates for elections and hopefully theparty would get maximum seats on the basis of meritand services rendered by its MNAs and MPAs formasses. Speaking on the occasion, Iftikhar Ahmad KhanJhagra, who is also candidate of PPPP for PK-9, saidpeople’s party government has worked for the develop-ment and prosperity of masses. The achievement madeby pioneer of PPP, late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, are match-less. Similarly, late Benazir Bhutto has always given pri-ority to projects which suits the poor strata. FormerMNA and candidate of NA-3, Noor Alam Khan alsospoke on the occasion and said that PPP governmenthas never compromised on national issues.

PPP’s NA-1 fortressLALAMUSA—Senior PPP leader QamarZaman Kaira said that the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) would soon final-ize candidates for the elections. “Thecandidates, who have cleared by theparty, have already been informed andthey will get the tickets soon, he said.Kaira, who is former information minis-ter, said that negotiations were under-way with the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid on seats adjustment. Talking to a

private news channel, he said that there was no delay inawarding party tickets to the candidates. There is still timeas some other parties like the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf have not yet issuetickets to their candidates, he added. Senior leader of thePakistan Muslim League Nawaz Mushahid ullah Khan saidthat those having fake degrees should avoid contestingthe elections. He said that the PML-N was trying to fieldhonest people to contest the elections. Earlier, addressinga gathering at Chak Sikandar on the occasion of inaugu-rating a gas supply project here, Kaira said, “We inheritedpeople’s love. Over 121 villages will be supplied with gas.The PM has given the approval of the project. The PPPnever made false promises with people and followed itscharter. Our forefathers were crystal clear and they had nocorruption allegations”. The minister said the PPP leaderswere the representatives of people and they carried outpeople’s welfare projects without any discrimination. Heurged people to vote candidates having good character topull the country out of the crisis. He said he would neverask people to vote candidates in the name of develop-ment. Punjab former finance minister and Punjab PPP sec-retary Ch Tanveer Ashraf Kaira said the Punjab govern-ment wasted millions of rupees on Sasti Roti Scheme and itfailed to change the province. APP adds: Kaira asked theopponents not to level blames without any proof. “I willquit the politics if a single penny corruption is provedagainst me and my family”, he said and added that hepresented himself to media and masses for accountabil-ity.—APP

QUETTA—The speakersurged all political parties toaward ticket to women ongeneral seats instead womenreserved seats in elections2013 if they are sincere intheir claim of equal rights ofmen and women and genderdevelopment. This was saidin a dialogue on gender de-velopment organized bynon-governmental organiza-tion Inter-Media here onTuesday. Expressing hisviews, Senior Journalist andanalyst, Saleem Shahid said:“It will be taken as discrimi-nation of the senior politicalleadership against women asthey have establishedwomen wings in their parties

instead bringing them inmainstream politics andawarding them party ticketson general seats to contestgeneral elections”.

He said that several po-litical parties claim in theirmanifestoes and mediastatements that they werein favor of equal rights ofmen and women addingthat but practically, there isno truth in their claims asthey avoid to award partyticket to women on generalseats to participate in gen-eral elections. “Our politi-cal leadership belonging toall provinces will have toend hypocrisy, insincerityand duality in their ranks if

they are sincere in resolv-ing years-long woes andproblems of women,” Mr.Shahid said.

He emphasized the needto educate girls as it wouldhelp in ending in negative tra-ditions and taboos of the so-ciety against women. “IfShaheed Benazir Bhutto hadproved at international levelthat women have God-giftedskills of working in every fieldof life then whey our politi-cians avoid to give centraloffices of their parties towomen and awarding themticket on general seats,” hesaid. Mr. Shahid also pointedout that most of NGOs raisevoice through media against

atrocities on women addingthat but after getting hugefunds from donors; they keptmum and did not do practicalwork to end violence onwomen.

He said that whenever hevisited University ofBalochistan and asked fe-male students of Mass Com-munication Departmentwhether they want to joinmedia organizations, they re-plied that their families donot allow them to do so. CivilSociety representative, Ms.Khan was of the opinionthat women were vulnerableto mentally and physicallytorture and violence. “Atone hand women are burnt

alive in Punjab and Karachifor not bringing adequateJahaiz (dowry) and on other,they are taken as propertyin tribal society ofBalochistan in the name ofmarriage,” she said.

She said that inBalochistan’s tribal society, ifhusband of a woman dies,then the widow is not allowedto live in her parent’s houseor marry for second time onher own will. “The widowwoman in Balochistan has tomarry with the brother or closerelative of his late husband orlive in the house of her in-lawsfor all life as it is tribal tradi-tion prevailing for centuries,”she said.—APP

Qamar Zamanquits PTI

joins PML-NSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Former WorldSquash champion, QamarZaman Tuesday announcedquitting Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and joined Paki-stan Muslim League Nawaz(PML) N, accusing the formerparty leadership of bringingold faces with blemishrecord. Addressing a pressconference here at PeshawarPress Club, Qamar Zamansaid he joined PTI with theobjective of serving the na-tion and country. However,he continued, after joiningPTI he felt that all politicians,having poor track record, arejoining the party.

The slogan of bringingchange by Imran Khan can-not be fulfilled by givingchance to opportunist politi-cians who are now turningtowards PTI after being re-jected by their old party lead-ership, Qamar claimed. Hesaid the policy of PTI has dis-appointed him and compelledhim to take this decision.Qamar Zaman said PML (N)leader Nawaz Sharif hasgood record with regard todevelopment of Pakistan.During the stint of PML (N),mega projects like Motorway,Coastal Highway andGawadar Port were launchedand completed. Similarly, theprojects launched by ShabazSharif government in Punjabhave no match in the coun-try. He expressed the hopethat his desire of serving thecountry would be fulfilled byjoining PML (N) as an ordi-nary workers.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—ANP stalwartSenator Ilyas Ahmad Bilourhas said that their party be-lieves in principles based poli-tics and will not make electoralalliance with PakistanPeoples’ Party (PPP) addingtheir all candidates will winthe general elections 2013 onthe basis of their perfor-mance. He expressed theseviews while addressing a pub-lic meeting in Afghan Colony.Those present on the occa-sion were included ANP can-didate from NA-1, Haji GhulamAhmad Bilour, PK-1,

Ghazanfar Bilour, president,Afghan Colony Ward, Haji AliQadir, general secretary, MianTariq Shah, president, PK-1,Wisal Khan, general secretarySabz Ali Khan and a largenumber of party workers.

Addressing the publicmeeting, Senator Ilyas AhmadBilour said that the people ofPeshawar will never forget thesacrifices of ANP, which hadrendered unprecedented sac-rifices for the salvation of de-mocracy in the country. Hesaid the history of ANP is fullof sacrifices due to which ahuge number of people are at-tracting to it.

SHIKARPUR—The first phaseof the election process, ofissuance of nominationforms by the Returning Of-ficers, and submission of thenomination papers by thecandidates from March 24 to31, 2013 was completed inDistrict Shikarpur. The can-didates belonging to variouspolitical parties and indepen-dent groups have after fillingthe nomination papersturned their efforts to utilisetheir sources for launchingthe election campaign in theirconstituencies.

According to detailes 184nomination forms were issuedto the candidates by the Re-turning Officers concerned forNational and Provincial As-sembly seats during the lasteight days. While 184 nomina-tion papers were filed by thecandidates to contest the gen-

eral election to be held on May11, 2013 for National Assem-bly seats NA-202 Shikarpur-Iand NA-203 Shikarpur-II andfour Provincial Assembly seatsPS-09 Garhiyasin, PS-10 Lakhi,PS-11 Shikarpur and PS-12Khanpur.

For NA-202 Shikarpur-I 30candidates including MaulanaAbdullah Pahore (JUI),Maulana Abdul Bari (JUI-F),Amanullah Pahore (MQM),Dr. Younis Hyder Soomro (In-dependent), Aftab ShahbanMirani (PPP-P), Iftkhar AhmedSoomro (PTI), Dr. MuhammadIbrahim Jatoi (NPP), AghaArsallan Khan (PPP), RasoolBux Shah (MWM) and others.

And on NA-203Shikarpur-II 14 candidatesincluding Ghous Bux KhanMahar (PML-F), MuhammadArif Mahar (PML-F),Muhammad Yaqoob Mahar

(JUI-F), Sardar Wahid BuxKhan Bhayo (PPP), AghaRafiuddin (Independent),Shaharyar Khan Mahar(PML-F), Imtiaz Ali KhanBabar (PML-N), AbdullahSattar Jatoi (MQM) and oth-ers submitted their nomina-tion papers during the datesfixed for issuing and submit-ting the nominations.

Similarly for ProvincialAssembly seats PS-09Garhiyasin 21 candidates in-cluding Muhammad Rahim(MQM) Zulfiqar Ali Kamariyo(PML-F), Lutufullah Dal (In-dependent), Imtiaz KhanPathan (PML-N), Ghous BuxKhan Mahar (PML-F), AghaSiraj Durani (PPP), AghaRafiuddin (Independent),Muhammad Azam Brohi(PTI), Ghulam Sarwar (MQM),Muhammad Aleem Buriro(ANP).—APP

Women should be given partytickets on general seats also: Speakers

ANP nixes electoralalliance with PPP

Heated campaigning continues

QUETTA—About 1500houses were electrified underthe provincial governmentsolar energy project BesidesAn MoU has been inked be-tween the Balochistan gov-ernment and Korea companyfor installing of 300 MW so-lar power plant near the pro-vincial capital. Talking to APPBalochistan Secretary En-ergy Fawad Hashim Rabbanisaid that provincial govern-ment in a bid to cope with theenergy crises initiated upliftalternate power schemesacross the province.

Some 411 houses inKalat, 595 houses in Suraband 343 houses in Khuzdar

Solar energy project electrifiesfor 1500 houses in Balochistan

lacking the conventional elec-tricity options have beenconnected with solar system,he added. He said solarproject would soon start pro-ducing approximately 300Mega Watt electricity.

The Korean companyhas agreed to invest $ 900million under the solar energyproject. He noted that for thesolar project which would becompleted till 2016 govern-ment has allocated 1,500 acresof land in Khuchlak, adjoin-ing area of Quetta.

Secretary energy said inorder to boost the agriculturesector in the province, fed-eral government has agreed

to release funds for putting800 tubewells out of totalover 1500 on solar energysystem. Besides, govern-ment is also mulling over toinstall 20 solar powered wa-ter pumps in 10 districts cur-rently being run under thePHE department.

Rabbani referring theother projects executed inthe power sector inBalochistan said that federalgovernment has been askedto speed up work on Loralai-DG Khan 220 KV and Dadu-Khuzdar 220 KV powerprojects so that energy cri-ses could be contained moreeffectively.—APP

SWAT: Provincial Ameer JUI Maulana Gul Naseeb Khan speaks during a press conference.

QUETTA: A woman candidate attending the scrutiny of nomination papers for GeneralElection-2013 at the office of Provincial Election Commissioner.

HYDERABAD: Workers of PPP from PS-50 hold a protest in favour of their demandoutside HPC.

PESHAWAR—PESCO authori-ties have restored the powerto various areas of provincialmetropolis that were affectedby interrupted electricity sup-ply due to attack of miscre-ants on Sheikh MuhmmadiGrid Station. According toPESCO spokesman hereTuesday, miscreants attacked500 KV Sheikh MuhammadiGrid Station, in environs ofthe city, last night.

The attackers destroyedthe control room completelyand later detonated powertransformer that resulted indisruption of power supplyto various areas of the city.However, after separatingSheikh Muhammadi Grid Sta-tion from the main distribu-tion system, PESCO authori-ties restored power supply tothe city. A total of seven per-sons including a securityguard and a policeman were

PESCO restores powersupply to affected areas

killed in the incident.Meanwhile it is reported

from Faisalabad taht ChairmanWAPDA Syed Raghib AbbasShah has said that bundledpower houses will be madefunctional to meet the ever in-creased demand of electricityduring upcoming summer sea-son. He was talking to a del-egation of CBA Pegham Unionon Sunday late night during hisvisit to Faisalabad. He said thatWAPDA has increased powergeneration from 7900 to 8300megawatt while during peakhours from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.,we are generating 9300 mega-watt of electricity. “We have totake different measures tobridge gap between demandand supply of electricity,” headded. He said that a high levelmeeting has already been con-vened on April 2, 2013 in Lahorein which important decision toarrange gas.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The Met Officerhere Tuesday forcast rain forUpper Khyber Pakthunkhwaincluding Malakand andHazara divisions due to atrough of shallow westerlywave, which is effecting upperand central parts of the coun-try and may persists for next24 hours. According to MetOffice Spokesman here, scat-tered rain-thunderstorm is ex-pected in Upper Punjab (R a w a l p i n d i / I s l a m a b a d ,Lahore, Gujranwala andSargodha divisions ), Hazara,Malakand divisions, Kashmirand Gilgit-Baltistan, while Iso-lated rain/thunderstorm inPeshawar, Kohat, Multan,Bahawalpur, Sahiwal divisionsand Upper/Central Sindh isexpected in next 24 hours.

Hailstorm is also expectedat few places of Lahore,Gujranawala, Malakand &

More rain likelyHazara division during thesaid period. The weather ofAbbottabad, Malakand andSwat will remain cloudy withchances of rain. In next 48

hours, mainly dry weather isexpected in most parts of thecountry. However, rain-thun-derstorm is expected at iso-lated places of Malakand,Hazara division, Kashmir andGilgit-Baltistan.

Rain-thunderstorm withgusty winds occurred at scat-tered places of Malakand,Hazara, Islamabad/Rawalpindi,Gujranwala division.—APP

Police challaned3360 traffic

violatorsMULTAN—Motorway policeMultan Sector challaned 3360motorcyclists for violation oftraffic rules during a campaignfrom March 14 to 28. An offi-cial of PRO office Motorwaypolice Multan told APP thatMotorway police Multan sec-tor had launched the cam-paign check traffic violationsby motorcyclists.

He said that during thecampaign 3360 motorcy-clists were challaned includ-ing 1990 for riding withouthelmet, 121 under-age riders,262 for reckless driving, 240for riding without back viewmirrors, 185 for taking U-turn carelessly, 177 for care-lessly joining highway fromlink road, 194 for tripleriding.—APP

All should comeon back of ECP

WHILE the Supreme Court is providing strong backing to theElection Commission of Pakistan in ensuring implementationof the relevant provisions of the Constitution for holding of free,

fair and transparent elections, the ECP itself is burning midnight oil tocome to discharge its duties as per Constitution and law and come up to theexpectations of the people, who eagerly want to bring about a change forthe better through electoral process. This has boosted people’s confidencein the ability of the Commission to fulfill its responsibilities in a neutraland impartial manner.

It is widely believed that Elections-2013 are mother of all electionsand these would decide in which direction the country is to proceed, get-ting rid of socio-economic ills and meeting security and strategic chal-lenges effectively. It is good that the apex court has taken a firm stand onverification of degrees, warning 189 ex-MPs to get their educational cer-tificates and degrees verified by April 5 or face disqualification. The MPswould not have faced this challenge had they complied with the require-ments of the law and paid heed to the letter written by the CEC to theseMPs, who instead of taking it in good spirit made it an issue of ego andesteem. The courts are also moving firmly to decide cases of those whocommitted contempt of court or were involved in many of the scandalsduring five years of PPP. The most important aspect of the electoral exer-cise is scrutiny, which the Election Commission is undertaking at the mo-ment but it is understood that it will have to depend on the feedback of thedepartments and agencies concerned. Therefore, we earnestly hope thateach and every entity would extend sincere and required support to theCommission. Watchful, energetic and competent officers of the Commis-sion like Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan and Additional SecretaryMuhammad Afzal Khan, are taking note of every election related develop-ment and activity and keeping people of Pakistan abreast of plans and ar-rangements made by the ECP to make elections fair. We also hope theCommission would keep a watch on those who want to interfere in theprocess by virtue of their official or political influence.

Resolve IPPs issue toattract investment

ISN’T it ironical that at a time when the Government claims to be taking steps to attract investment in the country’s energy sector to help over-

come the electricity shortage, several IPPs have either turned idle becauseof non-supply of fuel or are on the verge of collapse due to liquidity crunchcaused by non-payment of their dues by the purchaser. According to a re-port, some plants have stopped generation for months while others areoperating much below their capacity due to non-resolution of the paymentproblem.

The country is witnessing worst kind of load-shedding in this lean de-mand period and it is becoming obvious that it is mainly because of circulardebt that has forced many IPPs to close down their operations terminatingcontract with the Government of Pakistan or bringing down their generationsubstantially. The situation would complicate further when the mercury riseswhich means more problems for the common man and the national economy.The most detestable aspect of the issue is that it remains there, rather hasbecome more acute, despite claims by the PPP Government to have paid dueattention to power generation and resolution of the circular debt. One fails tounderstand what is justification for making more investment in power gen-eration when we are unable to pay for the electricity that we purchase fromthe existing IPPs. Apart from power, the country also has immense potentialto attract investment in other sectors of the economy because of its hugemarket, cheap labour, availability of raw material and strategic location. Theneconomic experts believe that some of the economic giants have reached thesaturation point of investment and therefore, investors are looking for newdestinations. We can certainly become the one if we resolve energy and otherissues that create roadblocks in the way of investment.

Lawyers shouldparticularly respect Judges

YET another unfortunate incident took place in Rawalpindi courtswhen a group of lawyers manhandled and locked up a judge in his

chamber. While the Judge may have cogent reasons for delay in taking upthe case, the lawyers in no way should have resorted to indecent and unbe-coming attitude.

The lawyers are taken as a model for the observance of rule of law andtheir unmatched movement for the restoration of independent judiciarywas rightly backed by the people of Pakistan. But after the success of thatmovement, some of the members of legal fraternity strayed from their pathand started behaving contrary to the demands of their profession. In factthis was not the first incident of its kind in which lawyers exhibited anuncivilised behaviour. In April, 2008 several lawyers thrashed former fed-eral minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi in Lahore as he tried to escape from aplaza in which lawyers had trapped him for more than five hours. Therehad been several other incidents of this nature including two in May, 2012,when judges of Aiwan-e-Adl District Courts Lahore and Faisalabad werecompelled to boycott the court work after some lawyers misbehaved withtheir colleagues in the two cities. In civilised societies this sort of attitudeby the lawyers is unimaginable because they are considered custodians oflaw and must behave as such. In the given scenario we would urge thesenior leadership of lawyers like Akram Sheikh, Asma Jehangir and othersto take notice of these developments and devise a code of ethics to stopyoung professionals from such acts. In our view the Judges in the subordi-nate judiciary are already under tremendous burden and they must be ex-tended all the respect and given support, particularly by the lawyers, todecide heavy backlog of cases instead of creating hurdles.

Loss of face for India

It is time for the greatsilent majority ofAmericans to standup and be counted.

Putin’spersonalvendetta

Always remember thatVladimir Putin could havereacted differently. He

could have acknowledged that, af-ter 13 years in power, his brand istarnished and Russia is changing.It now has a middle class that ridi-cules the division between a Krem-lin-licensed opposition and an un-licensed one that craves fair elec-tions, independent courts and pub-lic accountability – that craves, inshort, civil society. Instead, MrPutin’s reflex reaction to suchchange (with his uneasy confec-tion of Christian Orthodox andconservative, xenophobic nation-alism, Mr Putin is as much a pre-Soviet figure as a Soviet hang-over) is to go after the very peoplewho remind him how unpopularhe is. A notorious law passed lastyear required Russian NGOs thatreceive foreign funding and areengaged in “political activity” toregister as “foreign agents” – wordsin the Russian language that aretantamount to “spies”.

For eight months, little hap-pened. The levers of the securitystate are sometimes so rusty thatthey require several tugs to shift.The president had to go in per-son on Valentine’s Day to the fed-eral security service (FSB), toremind his former comrades thatthe “law had to be compliedwith”. For the past two weeks atleast 30 raids have been launchedon Russian and internationalNGOs alike in Moscow, andmany more in the provinces.

The raiding party typicallyconsists of three people from theprosecutor’s office, one from thetax office and, often, a camera crewfrom the pro-Kremlin NTV station.They demand to see registrationdocuments, tax submissions andcomputer hard drives. The wholetelevised charade seeks to portrayRussia’s political opposition as for-eign-sponsored. But, as the major-ity of Russian NGOs have refusedto register themselves as “foreignagents”, these raids may just be thestart of a campaign to put them outof business. Germany, whosemanufacturers have heavily in-vested in Russia, is greatly irked.It rightly interprets Mr Putin’s ac-tion as revenge for the embarrass-ment that the election-monitoringbody Golos caused him in theDuma elections in 2011. Russianhumiliations in Cyprus at Germanhands have not helped. Berlin hasformally expressed its “concern”.But it should do more. With theadvent of shale gas, and cheapernatural gas, Russian gas has lostits status as a monopoly supplier.Now, Gazprom needs the west forits profits. Mr Putin should betold that his vendettas will provecostly. — The Guardian

*****

Modifactor canmake or

break BJP

By naming Gujarat ChiefMinister Narendra Modi aspart of its parliamentary

board, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) has all but stopped short ofidentifying him as its prime minis-terial candidate ahead of the May2014 general elections. This author-ity lies with the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Thecomeback of politicians Amit Shah,Uma Bharti and Varun Gandhi, allhardliners, in senior positions, sug-gests that their rallying cry, againsta malfunctioning Congress, willonce again be based on religiouslines or Hindutva.

It is Modi, however, whostands to be the polarising figure.His promotion can be a politicalmasterstroke or a total fiasco. Hemay have orchestrated an eco-nomic turnaround in Gujarat, butIndia sees him as a divisive fig-ure. Modi’s political acumen can-not be questioned. He also doesnot like to be muzzled. His partymay be pursuing the wrong phi-losophy in propping him as itsmain hope. The true test will comeif he diminishes the authority ofthe RSS. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

Richard M Nixon—US president

THE US-sponsored resolution, adopted by the UN Human Rights Council last

week in Geneva, was watered downso that it should suit the tempera-ment of Colombo. The resolutionsimply calls upon the Sri Lankangovernment to conduct an “inde-pendent and credible” investigationinto allegations of violations of in-ternational human rights law andthe untold atrocities committed inthe last phase of the war.

In this whole matter, one mes-sage that comes loud and clear isthe loss of face for India. Despitesupporting the US-sponsored reso-lution, New Delhi has not been ableto see through certain amendmentsit has proposed. The 47-nationstrong body, led by the US, not onlybrushed aside the Indian sentimentsbut also refused to make modifica-tions, which India considered im-portant. The withdrawal of supportto the government by the DMKmakes the point untenable. If theLessons Learnt and ReconciliationCommission (LLRC) clause, assuggested by India, had been incor-porated in the resolution, it wouldhave allowed an impartial interna-tional probe which, in turn, would

Balochistan and elections

HURMAT GROUP OF PUBLICATIONSZahid Malik

President & Editor-in-ChiefPh: 051-2256006

Faisal Zahid MalikEditor

Ph: 021-32631102

Gauhar Zahid MalikExecutive Editor

Ph: 051-2853818

IslamabadPh Exchange: 051-2852027

Reporting Desk: 051-2852028, News Desk: 051-5879329Marketing: 051-2262254, 2852029 Fax: 051-2262258

Email: observer@pakobserver.net Website: www.pakobserver.net

KarachiFaisal Zahid Malik

EditorPh: 021-32211777, 32635403

Fax: 021-32626902Email: obskhi@pakobserver.net

LahoreKhalid ButtResident Editor

Ph: 042-37593341, 37566702Marketing Ph: 37597364

Fax: 042-36300043Email: obslhr@pakobserver.net

QuettaGhulam TahirResident Editor

Mobile: 0333-7944760E-mail:obsqta@pakobserver.net

PeshawarTariq SaeedResident Editor

Mobile: 0321-9001476E-mail:obspwr@pakobserver.net

MuzaffarabadAbdul Hameed Shaheen

Resident EditorPh: 051-2852028, Mobile: 0315-5010791

Email: obsmzd@pakobserver.net / abdulhameedshaheen@yahoo.com

Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

Commitment by all politicalparties of Balochistan abouttheir participation in the

forthcoming general elections israther refreshing. Chief ElectionCommission’s recent visit to Quettawas quite reassuring. He took vari-ous steps to address the difficultiesbeing faced by prospective candi-dates from Balochistan. CaretakerChief Minister of Balochistan hasalso resolved to make all efforts toensure peaceful environment for theelection. Pakistan currently facesextraordinary challenges of law andorder. The decision to go ahead forthe elections was indeed a bold oneand it certainly represents the na-tional aspirations.

Now the federal and provincialgovernments have to put in jointeffort to ensure that all politicalparties and their voters feel safeenough to participate in the elec-tions. With a caretaker Prime Min-ister from Balochistan overseeingthe political transition at nationallevel and most of the political ele-ments of Balochistan bracing-up forparticipation in national and provin-cial elections, on can safely pre-sume that the restive province is onits way to join the national mainstream. At the same time one mustnot underestimate that prevailinglaw and order situation presents anencouraging environment to theplayers who wish to disrupt theelectoral process in Balochistan;they would certainly put in theirutmost effort to create a pretext forachieving that end.

People of Balochistan, likeother provinces, aspire to vote onMay 11 to join the political pro-cess. In 2008, major political par-ties in Balochistan had boycottedthe general elections. Nationalistparties have realised that their de-cision of electoral boycott has doneno good to the people ofBalochistan. They have now madea prudent choice to do the politicsof inclusiveness. However, the

subversive effort by themarginalised separatist entities islikely to continue. On March 12,2013, armed activists of the BaluchLiberation Army (BLA) gunneddown Muhammad Ziaullah, Dis-trict Election Commissioner ofQuetta. The BLA was forthright inclaiming the responsibility: “Wewill not let Pakistan hold electionsin Balochistan,” warned the outfit’sspokesperson. Two more militantBaluch entities, the Baluch Libera-tion Front (BLF) and the BaluchRepublican Army (BRA) have alsothreatened to disrupt the elections.Political parties fear deadly attackson their election rallies, candidatesand voters. Balochistan certainlyremains an area of primary interestfor the observers of 2013 electoralprocesses.

Supreme Court as well as fed-eral and provincial governmentshave been taking serious notice ofthe aggravated law and order situa-tion of Balochistan, particularlywith reference to the disappearedpeople. Last week, the judicialcommission constituted for the re-covery of the missing persons hassubmitted its progress report in theSupreme Court of Pakistan. Com-mission claims that it has traced 378missing persons’ cases while 633are still pending. In Balochistan, 59cases were concluded while 48 arestill remaining. This commissionhas done a commendable job bydemystifying the missing persons’issue, especially in the context ofBalochistan. It will be in the fitnessof things if the commission handlesall Balochistan related cases on pri-ority and tries to finalize them wellbefore the election.

Sardar Akhtar Mengal, presidentof the Balochistan National Party(BNP), has recently opined that dis-content amongst the Baluch popu-lace was caused by unabated illegalarrest, torture and murder of the po-litical leaders for which Pakistan’ssecurity forces are blamed. If theseextra-judicial killings do not stop, hewarned, elections would be too dif-ficult to hold. Akhtar Mengal isrightly concerned that there has beenno improvement in the Balochistan

situation; bloodshed continues in theprovince and the situation is notimproving. Indeed Balochistan isstill passing through a serious cri-sis. Mengal has reaffirmed that hisparty believes in democracy. His re-turn from self exile and participa-tion in elections is of much signifi-cance with regard to jump-startingthe political process in Balochistan.

However, reasons for the pre-vailing situation in Balochistan gofar beyond Akhtar Mengal’s per-spective. Balochistan has been thehub of multi-dimensional ethno-sectarian strife for the last one de-cade or so. Vacuum created by thegovernment’s lack of capacity tomanage the unrest has facilitatedthe entry of numerous entitieswhich have gained a reasonableregulatory control over the dynam-ics of ongoing socio-political diver-gence. Chilling waves of violenceunleashed by sectarian groups, eth-nic nationalists, armed wings ofpolitical parties and death squadsbelieved to be funded by the for-eign state and non-state actors arejust some of the string-pullerswhich have plunged Balochistan toits current sorry state of affairs.

Balochistan’s is a multiethnicprovince, with almost equal Baluchand Pashtun population alongsideother minority groups. Populationof Balochistan is 8 million out ofwhich the Baluch and Brahvis are4 million, the Pathans 3.5 millionand settlers 0.5 million. WithinBaluch dominated areas, Sindhi-Baluch community residing in Sibiand Jacobabad areas are peacefuland friendly. Likewise, Pushtunsdo not harbour separatist tenden-cies. Shia Hazaras are strong pro-ponents of Pakistan’s territorial in-tegrity. Majority of the people liv-ing along the Makran coast are alsopeace loving people. Separatist el-ements are weak divided andmarred by inter as well as intra-tribe rivalries. Personal rifts andjealousies have led to creation ofcracks and differences betweenBalochistan Liberation Army(BLA) and United BalochistanArmy (UBA). These fissures arelikely to grow in days to come.

have brought the skeletonsout of the Sri Lankan cup-board. But by allowing the SriLankan government to inves-tigate human rights violationson its own, the resolution hasnot helped anybody’s cause,

more so the Tamils, who have beensuffering at the hands of PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa’s government.

The U-turn by the US in using aweak language, instead of a morecondemnatory tone, with severalchanges of the final version of theresolution must have come as a re-lief to the Rajapaksa government.Though the previous draft had notedwith great concern the failure of thegovernment of Sri Lanka to fulfillits public commitments, the newresolution does away with it, givinga free hand to Colombo. The big-gest blow to the new resolution isthe request to Sri Lanka to present amere oral report instead of an “in-terim report” that was sought fromthe government earlier.

It was understandable that anymove which India undertook eitherat the behest of the US or on its ownto amend the resolution would havebeen suspect in the eyes of SriLanka. Even otherwise, there wouldhave been resistance from Colomboas it considers and views such reso-lutions against Sri Lanka are drivenby lobbies with clear-cut agendasagainst the country. Hence, it wasnot surprising when Sri Lanka op-posed yet again to the resolution

which has chosen to drop the con-troversial clause which mandatedColombo to allow an internationalprobe into the alleged war crimesduring the civil war with the Lib-eration Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) in 2009. The Sri Lankanrepresentative at the UNHRC, criti-cizing the resolution, has said: “Thegovernment of Sri Lanka totally re-jects the attempts by the Office ofthe Human Rights Commissionerand proponents of this resolution.”The Sri Lankan representative la-mented that “there are other ongo-ing conflicts and reported violationsof rights as we speak in several partsof the world. Our concern is why thispreoccupation with Sri Lanka? Whyis this inordinate and disproportionallevel of interest in a country that hassuccessfully ended 30 years of con-flict against terrorism?”

President Rajapaksa is knownfor his bold, autocratic ways forfunctioning. He is not the one to givein to such diktats, particularly whenhe has befriended countries likeChina in the region. Chinese Presi-dent Xi Jinping elevated the islandnation’s profile by including Presi-dent Mahinda Rajapaksa in the firstlist of five phone calls he made af-ter formally taking over from HuJintao last week. In other words,when China puts Sri Lanka on parwith Islamabad, Rajapaksa isemboldened. In fact, soon after the2012 resolution, which came as areal wake-up call for him, he had

remarked that it was an attempt todivide the country. In any case,when the 2012 version of the reso-lution did not bother him even onebit, how done one expect the latestresolution to worry him now? Nodoubt, the resolution has put Indiain a piquant situation, particularlythe ruling UPA government withgeneral elections just a year away.Against this backdrop, the anguishexpressed by UPA chairpersonSonia Gandhi at the Congress Par-liamentary Party meeting shouldcome as a relief and reassure theTamils in Sri Lanka. “We are mostpained at the manner in which their(Tamils) legitimate political rightscontinue to be denied to them. Weare anguished by reports of un-speakable atrocities on innocentcivilians and children, especiallyduring the last days of the conflictin 2009,” she said.

This may be the strongest pos-sible statement to come from anIndian leader, more so from theUPA government, since the humangenocide in Sri Lanka. But it camea little too late in the day as theDMK, UPA’s ally at the centre, af-ter handing out a threat to pulloutfrom the government, ultimatelysevered its ties. Perhaps the DMKwanted to make some politicalgains out of it before the parliamen-tary elections next year.—The writer is a veteran Indianjournalist, syndicated columnist,human rights activist and author.

Balochistan does not belong to theBaluch population alone. Baluchbeing more volatile and outspokenhave been able to project theirvictimhood and attract foreignsponsors. The runaway scions ofthree tribal chieftains are trying, invain, to stir up separatist tenden-cies. This misguided youth hardlyhas any standing amongst the greatmajority of Baluch who are loyalto the concept of Pakistan. Resi-dents of other ethnic origin areplaying important role towardsrestoration of stability in theprovince; however, they need toassert themselves politically sothat real demographic face of theprovince is duly represented andacknowledged.

After ending the military opera-tion in 2008, the provincial govern-ment and political leadership failedto fill the void; unfortunately theychose not to take decisive stanceagainst the trouble makers, ratherpreferred a strategy of appease-ment. Under these circumstancescredit goes to the national tier ofpolitical and military leadership foradopting a shrewd strategy for ar-resting the situation and indeed re-versing it, both at domestic and in-ternational levels.

Successful conduct of electionsin Balochistan shall indeed be a wa-tershed. However, the politicalgains emanating out of a credibleelectoral process will need carefulhandling. First priority should beto take visible steps, and indeedlaunch a protracted campaign todispel the widespread perception ofdeprivation and exploitation. TheBaluch people believe that they donot benefit from their own mineralwealth, such as gas, gold and cop-per, nor are they provided any rep-resentation in the country’s civil,armed and foreign services. A com-prehensive compensatory and reha-bilitation package should follow,focused at making the common citi-zen of Balochistan feel at home.This would need concerted plan ofaction to bridge the gap betweenperceptions and reality.—The writer is Consultant, Policy& Strategic Response, IPRI.

Kuldip NayarEmail:kuldipnayar09@gmail.com

Iqbal KhanEmail:tweets @wonderous101

Voice of the People

Corruption, poverty, hunger,and loss of lives is the pricewe always pay for democ-

racy. Rampant corruption in so-called civilian regimes has been amajor road block in the process ofnational development. Pakistanlacks the necessary democratic val-ues hence the rampant social unrestin the polity. Ethical crisis and fraudperpetrated mostly by the lawmak-ers in outgoing regime remained ap-proaching an alarming proportion.This included politics of greed andlust for power, financial scams, elec-toral frauds, political intolerance,thugs and political assassinationsstrewn all over the landscape.

Pakistan is a place where politi-cal leaders with access to nationaltreasury convert public funds to pri-vate use; it is a place where the Presi-dency works to undermine anti-cor-ruption campaign; and it is a societywith corrupt lower judiciary. Somemore than Rupees 18000 billionwere looted by the PPP leaders infive years but nobody / no institu-tion is there to take notice of it. Bu-reaucratic and electoral corruption,bribery and fraud, embezzlement

Say goodbye to corrupt leaders

What aboutdisplaced voters?

ALI ASHRAF KHAN

One is really astonished about thepriorities of our Election Commis-sion and even the Supreme Courtwhile the politicians are desperateto return to power again by hook orcrook. For days and weeks now wehear them worrying about votingdevises for overseas Pakistanis whohad left Pakistan after completingtheir education and training in Pa-kistan for greener pastures abroadcreating a brain drain at home.

Those Pakistanis, who left thecountry and are not experiencing theground realties any more, should notbe that important for having a sayin our domestic affairs. Since theworld scenario has changed now andthey are feeling insecure due to so-called Islamophobia, so they wantto be recognized in the motherlandfrom which they had turned theirbacks and many had even taken oathof allegiance on Bible to remainloyal to their new homeland. Who-soever, they might be voting for –the outcome of the elections has tobe borne by those living here andnot by them but their votes maybring wrong set of candidates on top.We hear that expensive electronicvoting devises are needed for thatwhen even not all countries allowvoting of foreign citizens in theirembassies. So what is the need forall this?

On the other hand, millions ofpeople living in the country are suf-fering from the outfall of the lastgovernment’s wrong-doings, itsbad governance, negligence andcorruption; but they will be de-prived of their voting rights asmuch as they are deprived of otherrights such as education, health careand so on because the are IDP’s andfor the last many months if notyears are living in make-shift refu-gee camps or as guests cramped inthe houses of relatives. Those arethe hundreds of thousands who fledtheir homes because of ongoingmilitary operations in their areas,because of missing security like inSwat and Quetta or in the aftermathof floods during which they losttheir houses and belongings andhave never been rehabilitated orregistered for voting in their newtemporary or new places of resi-dence. Nothing to talk about themillions of Gilgit-Baltistan prov-ince inhabitants who have neitherthe right of vote in coming generalelections nor have any constituen-cies or representation in NationalAssembly or Senate of Pakistan.Why a province is being discrimi-nated? Is the CEC not aware of thisfact and its constitutional respon-sibility?

ECP and Supreme Court nevereven mentioned them and instead ofdemanding voting facilities for out-siders they should have taken careof the rights of the Pakistanis livingin Pakistan, do they know how manypeople are deprived of fundamentalrights. There is only one conclusionthat can be drawn from this: the un-derstanding of equal rights for allcitizens is quite underdevelopedeven in the ‘highly educated’ rankand file of our judiciary and amongserving and retired judges in vari-ous capacities after retirement –among those who by professionshould be the ones to guard equalityand citizenship rights.—Karachi

End corruptionfor goodM BAQA QAZI

Corruption was sentient and vigor-ous when Pakistan was dreamed upin 1947 but it has been very muchin fashion for centuries. Further-more, it is a fact that all previousdemocratic governments also werecorrupt. Now a day, corruption be-came visible as the most significantissue in public life. In previousdemocratic governments, it is un-derstood to be running at a veryhigh level, involving billions of ru-pees, involving scores of bureau-crats and politicians from top to

A voice for land rightsKAMRAN AHMAD

Addressing Islam Zinda bad conference at Minar e Pakistan JUI’s chief Maulana Fazal Ur Rehmanpublicly for the first time spoke clearly on the issue of land reforms in Pakistan and said if his party

came to power, every peasant will be given right of share in his landlord’s land and will make Pakistan aIslamic welfare state to safeguard the rights of downtrodden class. These golden words by Maulana sahibare highly appreciable and a big shift in manifesto of his party and healthy sign in Pakistan’s politics.Basically Pakistan is an agricultural country and only agriculture produce contribute about 25 per cent ofGDP. Unfortunately the land ownership in Pakistan is highly unequal. More than 60 per cent of totalfarmland is in the possession of 5 per cent of big landholders while about 65 per cent of small farmers hold15 per cent of farmland. It is very much evident from many surveys and reports that in rural areas landlessand peasant’s class who are contributing to produce major share of our GDP are living just like slaves inrural areas commanded and posses by feudal lords. Land less and peasant even does not have the right tovote independently. Maulana Sahib we hope you are not so late in raising the real issue of Pakistan, youand your party will not award a single ticket to any feudal in Pakistan who are badly exploiting the poortenants. In coming govt JUI will take serious lead in making laws for land reforms in Pakistan to get rid ofpoor peasants form feudal system which deprives them from their basic needs.—Abbottabad

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

bottom as well as various sectors ofsocial life ranging from politics, ad-ministration, economy, health edu-cation etc. Corruption has becomerampant. It takes huge time to eradi-cate from root. In Pakistan the un-scrupulous politico and the corruptbureaucrat together have ruled formany years. They scratch eachother’s back, riding roughshod, withcomplete impunity, over anythingthat comes in their way (law, con-stitution, common human values,and basic social decency).

There is no rescue team whichmay handle the corruption from bot-tom to top. Everyone knows who iscorrupt and who is not. For the sakeof progress of Pakistan, politiciansshould bring their foreign money andcontrol themselves from that eviland sinful drastic action. It is fact ifbecome sincere with Pakistan theycan invest their money in Pakistan’sdevelopment.—Karachi

Thought-provokingspectacle

MUHAMMAD UMAR TAHIR

To see the Minar-e-Pakistan coveredup at a recent political gathering wasa thought provoking spectacle. Letus try to find out what message theorganizers of the rally wanted to con-vey to the viewers. Surely the con-sideration was not to let our es-teemed monument spend an eveningin peace with no politics around.They say that actions of an actorshould be interpreted with relationto his “frame of reference”. Since therally was simmering with politico-religious zeal. We can deduce thatthe purpose behind the “cover-up”of the Minar was to make, a not verysubtle, suggestion as to the value ofpardah for fellow Muslim brothersand sisters. However as one adoptsthis line of thought, some disturb-ing question present themselves andbeg to be answered. Since a mandoes not need such elaborate pardahand the Minar was totally coveredin veil, one feels an urge to ask theorganizers about the method whichwas adopted to determine the gen-der of the Minar.

The veil betokened anunmistaken able feminity. The otherquestion which comes to mind is thathow will a “mehram” be found forsuch a unique entity. Surely we donot want to condemn our belovedmonument to a life of loneliness andspinsterhood. Another thoughtwhich continues to trouble one’smind is that why did the Minar needto remain “ba-pardah”. After all, allof us deeply consider it or her ourvery own. These must have been theconsiderations which led to such atowering display of commitment toIslamic values. There is hardly anypossibility that the organizers of therally kept the Minar away from thesight of the participants because ofaesthetic consideration because thismuch must be admitted that theMinar-e-Pakistan most certainlydoes not suffer from obnoxious ar-chitecture. Even though when veiledit looked like a lady heavy aroundthe waist.—Okara

Gen Musharrafand elections

SULEMAN MANSHA GANDHI

According to Article 62(1)(f) of theConstitution of Pakistan 1973 a per-son shall not be qualified to beelected or chosen as a member ofMajlis-e-Shura(Parliament) unlesshe is sagacious, righteous, non-prof-ligate, honest and ameen, there be-ing no declaration to the contrary bythe court of law. Article 244 of theConstitution states that every mem-ber of the Armed Forces shall take-oath in the form set out in the thirdschedule. And the form is that “ Iwill bear true faith and allegiance toPakistan and uphold the constitutionof Islamic Republic of Pakistanwhich embodies the will of thepeople, that I will not engage my-self in any political activity whatso-ever and that I will honestly andfaithfully serve Pakistan in the Pa-kistan Army as required by and un-

British aid helping PPP poll campaign

In evidence to a parliamentary inquiry, a leading developmenteconomist said the Benazir In-

come Support Programme (BISP)was being used to buy support forMrs Bhutto’s widower, PresidentAsif Ali Zardari, and his party.Ehtisham Ahmad, a visiting fellowat the London School of Econom-ics, said Britain’s Department for In-ternational Development (DfID)was pouring money into a schemeriven by “clientelism”. “It is not sto-len to the extent to which previouscash transfers were stolen, but thisis the mechanism - which is fundedpartly by DFID - to make friends andinfluence people. This is the re-elec-tion campaign of Mr Zardari, whichis funded by DFID,” he said. “Welldone.” The Select Committee onInternational Development is due to

publish its report into aid to Paki-stan on Thursday.

Britain has rapidly expanded itsassistance in recent years. Pakistanis on course to become the biggestrecipient of UK aid, receiving£450m per year by 2015. Theprogramme has many critics. Paki-stan has one of the smallest tax basesin the world and two-thirds of itspoliticians pay no income tax at all,yet the country can still afford anexpanding nuclear arsenal. Cashhandouts are one of the key planksof British aid. Half the £300m willbe given to families to help lift themout of poverty, while the rest will beused to encourage parents to sendchildren to school. A checklist isused to identify those in need andthe government of Pakistan is spend-ing more than £2bn over the nextfive years.

The programme is despised byopposition parties who complain itsname means many people believe

the money comes from the Bhuttofamily rather than the government.It has been hit by repeated allega-tions of corruption and claims thatofficials from the Pakistan People’sParty – now led by Mrs Bhutto’s sonBilawal – have obtained lists of ben-eficiaries for follow-up visits inwhich families are told to remem-ber where the cash has come fromwhen they vote. “The fact that it iscalled Benazir Income SupportProgramme tends to suggest thatthere is what is called clientelism,”Dr Ahmad, who held several seniorpositions at the IMF, told The DailyTelegraph. “The more you give themore benefit there is to the party thatbears the Bhutto name.”

Critics such as Imran Khan, theformer cricketer who has made cor-ruption the centre of his push to be-come prime minister, also warn thatBritain’s surge in aid will not pro-duce sustainable results. The hun-dreds of millions of pounds remove

Rob Crilly

and extortion with favorit-ism and nepotism are wide-spread on the political scene.The politicians merely usethe word “democracy” isabout as powerful as anagent of confusion.

In fact our system is based onself interest as opposed to public in-terest. It is that system that says pri-vate enterprise should play the lead-ing role in the economy instead ofthe state playing leading role in theeconomy, merely because more than90 percent production business isowned and controlled by the rulingelite itself. This corruption, stealingand criminal waste of resources arepart and parcel of the same thing,result from this cruel system.

Illiteracy and ignorance is an ob-stacle to the nation’s quest for truedemocracy, as bigots and politicalopportunists pandering to ethnicityand sectarianism manipulate them tocause mischief in the society. It isappropriate to note that in fact morethan seventy percent of our popula-tion is illiterate. Thus, a certain levelof education is the only way to en-able the citizens to differentiate rightfrom wrong and evaluate the prin-ciples of political leaders and politi-cal office seekers so as to make aninformed political decision. Regret-tably, political parties and politiciansin Pakistan are not ideologically in-grained. Unfortunately for Pakistan,

Views From Abroad

Blame game or intellectual debate

The creation of Pakistan, whichwas meant to be followed bypeace and justice, was followed

by political turmoil, bloodshed, even-tual separation of Bangladesh, andpresently, internal chaos resultingfrom war in the North andBalochistan. The debates onPakistans’ instability often get lostin an endless debate ofmuddslinging, and leg-pulling. Withparties, individuals, and groups,acussing each other of failed poli-cies. However, only few take out timeto sincerely analyze what went wrongin our history.

Jinnah in one of historicallyspeeches said:“Hindus and the Mus-lims belong to two different religions,philosophies, social customs and lit-erature. They neither inter-marry norinter-dine and, indeed, they belong totwo different civilizations that arebased mainly on conflicting ideas andconceptions. Their concepts on lifeand of life are different. It is quiteclear that Hindus and Muslims de-rive their inspiration from differentsources of history. They have differ-ent epics, different heroes and differ-ent episodes. Very often the hero ofone is a foe of the other, and like-wise, their victories and defeats over-lap. To yoke together two such na-

tions under a single state, one as anumerical minority and the other asa majority, must lead to growing dis-content and final destruction of anyfabric that may be so built up for thegovernment of such a state”.

As Muslims, we believe that oursource of understanding comes fromIslam, and that we are bound by ourcreed to live by the dictates ofShariah. It seems that the talk-showson tv-channels, the discussions inuniversities, and parliament seem todiscuss everything, and anything ex-cept the lack of implemention ofShariah (Divine Justice).

Ibn Taymiyyah stated: “It shouldbe noted that to regulate the affairsof people is one of the most impor-tant requirements (wajibat) of the re-ligion (al-din). Really speaking, al-din cannot be established without it.The wellbeing of the sons of Adamcannot be accomplished exceptthrough a well- organized society(ijtima’) because they are in need ofone another; and for such a society aruler is indispensable.”

Hence, once we establish that ourprime focus as Muslims has to be theestablishment of Islam in totality, weneed to understand the level of con-tradictions that the current system haswith Islam. For example, the consti-tution of Pakistan, according to itsArticle 248, allows the rulers immu-nity so the president, governors andministers are free from presentation

before a court in matters related totheir responsibilities. Similarly Paki-stani citizens cannot go to courtagainst invalid government policiessuch as assisting foreign occupationof Afghanistan, Division ofBangladesh, shedding blood in LalMasjid, handing over more than 500Muslims in Guantanamo-Bay as pris-oners and providing support to Ameri-can military and intelligence. This wasall possible because through the demo-cratic process, the Pakistan parliamentratified the 17th ConstitutionalAmendment by two third majority ofparliament. So, activities taken by theMusharraf government in the firstthree years cannot be challenged in anycourt of law. This also occurs in otherdemocracies throughout the world,and hence shows the fallacy of theentire democratic system.

Another example can that be ofthe Ideological Council; With regardsto the much defended Islamic Ideo-logical Council in the constitution, weknow that such a council has only alimited and advisory role. Its recom-mendations and resolutions are notbinding on the parliamentary mem-bers, cabinet and government. There-fore this is no less a tool to deceivethe Pakistani people by saying thatto make the constitution more Is-lamic, we have made a council ofscholars and learned and at somepoint in the future Islam will beimplemented. That future has not

der the law.” General PervezMusharraf proclaimed emergency,on 14 October 1999, in our countryby holding the constitution in abey-ance. The then Supreme Court up-held the extra-constitutional step ontouchstone of the doctrine of statenecessity or salus populi est supremalex. The martial law was equippedwith the legal basis by the judgementin the cases, Zafar Ali Shah and oth-ers v/s General Pervez Musharraf(PLD 2000 S.C. 869), Wasim Sajjadv/s Federation of Pakistan ( PLD2001 S.C.233) etc.

On third day of November 2007Musharraf again proclaimed emer-gency in the country and brought theProvisional Constitutional Order(PCO) in force. In Tika IqbalMuhammad Khan v/s General PervezMusharraf and 2 others (PLD 2008S.C. 6) the vires of proclamation ofemergency dated 03-11-2007, PCO2007 and Oath of Office (judges)Order, 2007 were challenged beforeSupreme Court. A full bench, consist-ing of seven judges, headed by AbdulHameed Dogar C.J., disposed of thethe petition and upheld the emergencyand the said orders in the name ofwelfare of the people.

Since it is obvious that GeneralPervez Musharraf abrogated, sub-verted or suspended or held in abey-ance the constitution, now every onemust know that which charge isfixed by the constitution against theabove discussed acts. Article 6 (1)of the Constitution of Pakistan statesthat any person who abrogates, sub-verts or suspends or holds in abey-ance or attempts or conspires, theconstitution by use of force or by anyother unconstitutional means shallbe guilty of high treason.

General Pervez Musharraf hascome back to Pakistan, after self im-posed exile, to contest the cominggeneral election. If he is allowed tocontest election then every candidateshould be given the right to take partin the coming election, regardless ofhis fake degree, violation of any law,contempt of court, approved corrup-tion etc. Because nothing is supremethan the supreme law of the land.The rest I leave on the wisdom andfine sense of judgement of the Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan and thethat of the Apex Court.—Lahore

Buying international,paying local!MOHSIN TAHIR

The domain of technology contin-ues to expand into new areas witheach passing day, and the surge inaccess for mobile products such assmart phone and tablets has ensuredthat the dependence on technologyis ever increasing. Today, every pro-gressive user continues to enhancehis level of performance, productiv-ity and entertainment by using mo-bile applications. Large companiesin the cellular and mobile sector havenow created enormous Onlinestores, each offering millions ofApps for the subscribers. Duringsuch Online App purchases, the nor-mal practice is to make paymentsthrough credit cards, which is a rela-tively cumbersome and insecuremode of online transactions. Re-cently, I was delighted to note thatMobilink has pioneered direct pur-chasing from the international Nokiaapp store with the ability to pay us-ing the mobile phone bill or the pre-paid credit.

This seems to be a great new fa-cility which offers an easier, quickerand more reliable method that willenable local consumers to utilize thebest of what global platforms haveto offer, with the ease of paying inour own currency. I hope that otheroperators too can initiate such ser-vices to open up access for all users.—Via email

the beat goes on and none of the bigpoliticians is ready to make any sac-rifice for the nation.

I know that no country has everprospered without the love and pa-triotism of its leaders and citizens.The situation where political partiesand those elected to manage the af-fairs of the nation do not representnothing other than bribery and cor-ruption make the sustenance of truedemocracy impracticable. A goodSociety starts from good people. Thepeople we consider to be ‘leaders’are the real problem of Pakistan. Yesour politicians are major cause forour backwardness.

Most of them are not well edu-cated. It is astonishing that the con-stitution is interpreted and advocatedby the best of minds but those whoare legislating require no qualifica-tion. For the development of the na-tion we should need good politicalleaders they should be well educatedand young and also work for the de-velopment also against corruption.Political polarization, country wit-nessed in the recent past, is due tothe political leaders who pursuedpolitics of hatred and vengeancethroughout. The past so called demo-cratic governments emerged as a re-sult of sham democracy, which putthe country on path of disaster. Theaggrieved, deprived and victimizedmasses have now no option otherthan to say goodbye to old corrupt

Sometimes we don’t want toaccept our age, do we? I woremy red shirt today, oh yes and

the cream pants that didn’t havepleats but which by pulling tummyback managed to show a somewhatslim waistline. “Where are you go-ing?” asked the daughters.

“Why?” I asked trying to lookpuzzled. “Fancy outfit!” My wife

and I got into the car and I grinned tomyself. “Something funny?” “I wasjust thinking how other guys my agelook so old!” I said, “You know whatI mean?” “No!”

“They don’t look after them-selves! See Ashok, he’s got a stom-ach worse than a nine monthwoman!” “What’s a nine monthwoman!” “Let it be!” I said. “Youthink you look quite young huh?”“Yeah!” I said. “Let me drive!”

“Why?” “Read this,” she said, of-fering me a piece of the Sunday page.I exchanged places and started: “Haveyou ever been guilty of looking atothers your own age and thinking,

surely I can’t look that old?” said thearticle, “Well...you’ll love this one!

“I was sitting in the waiting roomfor my first appointment with a newdentist. I noticed his DDS diploma,which bore his full name. Suddenly,I remembered a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name hadbeen in my high school class some40-odd years ago. Could he be thesame guy that I had a secret crush on,way back then?? Upon seeing him,however, I quickly discarded anysuch thought.

This balding, gray-haired manwith the deeply lined face was waytoo old to have been my classmate.

Not as young as we think..!Hmmm ...or could he??? After heexamined my teeth, I asked himif he had attended Morgan Parkhigh school. “Yes. Yes, I did. Iwas a prefect!” he gleamed withpride. “When did you graduate?”I asked. He answered, “In 1969why do you ask?”

“You were in my class!” I ex-claimed. He looked at me closely.Then that ugly, old, wrinkled idiotasked, “What did you teach?” Ilaughed out loud and released mytummy as I got out of the car,“Okay,” I grinned to the wife, “Youwin..!”—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

leaders forever. I dream of a daywe can install our most vibrantpeople at the helm of affairs insteadof looking at personalities. Weshould ask what candidates willbring to the table, how they willuse the power, authority and im-mense resources within their influ-ence and control to improve, em-power and better the lives of mil-lions of impoverished masses.

They should be the people whohave established themselves beforecoming into government and notthose who would need governmentto transform their own lives. Theymust be great visionaries and notmen of tiny dreams. They shouldencourage transparency, account-ability, the rule of law, respect forhuman rights, civic participation,and civic inclusiveness — all ofwhich are necessary for securingeconomic productivity, equitabledistribution and state legitimacy.Another problem needs to be ad-dressed during coming electionsis not just throwing in goodpeople, change the system. Let thepeople elect their representativequite independently, and thengood people can show up. I prayfor the day when we will arrive atsuch culture of thinking and habit.I believe we will get there soon.The coming election would just bea beginning, if the nation electedits leaders wisely.

been seen in decades and will notbe seen in centuries, under thisdemocractic system.

Islam provides rulings for allpast incidences, all problems of thepresent times and issues that maybe faced in future. Hence no inci-dent from the past, not any singleissue from the present times, nor aissue will arise in future which hasnot been addressed by Islam throughits Shariah laws. Islam does not re-quire patches from other creeds, ide-ologies and other systems. Islam isbuilt on its foundation of its creedand from this comprehensive creedemenate complete systems of lifewhich command its adherents tofollow only its guidance and rejectall other creeds, systems and legis-lations. Allah SWT has com-manded: And whoever seeks a reli-gion other than Islam, it will neverbe accepted of him [Sura Aali Imran3: 85]. Therefore deriving law fromany other system or ideology andthen making them part of Islamicsystem is prohibited. Please noteas an aside, that this command ex-cludes those scientific inventionsand technology which are not as-sociated to any ideology, becausescience and technology are univer-sal and is a knowledge of attributesof different things. Therefore we asMuslims ought to realize that,“Legislation cannot be taken fromany source other than the Qur’anand Sunnah.”

any incentive for the Pakistani gov-ernment to introduce unpopular taxreforms, he says. He told The DailyTelegraph that BISP was nothingmore than a scam to “buy votes”.The issue has become particularlyheated as the country prepares forelections on May 11. The biggestopposition party, the PML-N, saidit would overhaul the scheme andrename it the National SupportProgramme to avoid the taint ofpoliticking. In a dossier of allega-tions, it concluded the programmewas riddled with “rampant corrup-tion, nepotism and embezzlement”.

A spokesman for DfID said theUK was politically impartial in Pa-kistan. “Our development assis-tance is based on need and effec-tiveness, not politics,” he said. “TheBenazir Income SupportProgramme Act was unanimouslypassed and supported by all politi-cal parties in Pakistan.”— Courtesy: The Telegraph

Adeel Naeem Naqi

Shaukat M ZafarEmail: smzafar101@gmail.com

AUCTION NOTICEIn the Court of Mr. Muhammad Tariq Wali Judge Bank-ing Court-I , 13-A Qafla Road Tehkal Payan Universitytown Peshawar Habib Bank Ltd Predy gate branch Bannu through managerVS Nazirullah Khan s/o Sher Bahadur Khan R/O SerobadaKhel Bannu.Recovery of Decretal amount Rs. 300000-Next Date of hearing 22-4-2013 Property under Auction—Agriculture land of Shehnaz Begumw/o Nazirullah measuring 14 kanal 16 marlas Khata no 517Khasra no 852-853 situated at Moauza Serobada Khel Bannu.Auction shall be held on 12-4-2013 at 8:00 a.m. till afternoon. The property shall be sold to highest bidder, providedthe auction is confirmed by the court. ¼ th of the highest bidshall be deposited on the spot with the auctioneer and theremaining ¾th shall be deposited within 15 days of the auc-tion with in the court. Anyone who has any claim, whatso-ever must inform the court 5efore the date of auction.

Seal of the court Judge Banking court 1Peshawar.

Fahim and present him beforethe court on April 12.

Fahim, who recently kickedoff his election campaign by ad-dressing a public meeting inBhanote, would face disqualifi-cation if convicted in the case.—Online

lion for operationalising the soft-ware. If, timely permission isgranted, NADRA will deploysoftware at 150 polling stationsin 15 countries, he said.

However, the experts areskeptical about smooth running ofthe system as most of the labourclass in Middle East and Gulfcountries are not much educatedto use the system. Moreover, itwill be discriminatory to ignoreother Pakistanis.Javed Nawaz,President of Pak-Oman Friend-ship Association said the softwarewill not work as Pakistani labourwill not be able to use it.

ECP has to takeFrom Page 1

scrutinized and informed thecommission about those whowere defaulters, entered intoplea bargain and underwent sen-tences.

In the second phase NABhas started collecting data of3397 candidates for Nationaland Provincial Assemblies seats.On the other hand NAB has givenApril 4, 2013 to clear their elec-tricity bills failing after whichthey would be arrested.—INP

Foreign Office officials’ re-port said that Mujtaba Kharal’sgiving up Canadian nationalitycould not be confirmed.

Later, the apex court ad-journed the hearing of dual na-tionality case until April 8.

On Monday, former parlia-mentarians Jamshed Dasti andAmir Yar Waran had beencharged in the fake degree casesagainst them.

During the hearing ofJamshed Dasti case Tuesday, hislawyer sought more time for pre-senting arguments. The hearingwas adjourned till today(Wednesday) and a decision isexpected on this hearing.—INP

NAB completesFrom Page 1

Shokat Afzal Khan told PakistanObserver that four PESCO offi-cials and three Police men areamong the dead and that fourofficials of the PESCO contin-ued to be missing with the po-lice sources apprehending thathostages may also fall prey tothe barbarism of the terrorists.

3 cops among 7From Page 1Karzai orders investigation

of jailed Mullahs casesKABUL—Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai has appointed acommission to investigate theimprisonment of about 1000mullahs in Afghanistan whowere jailed for preaching anti-government propaganda, theMinistry of Hajj and ReligiousAffairs said. The im-prisoned mullahs allegedly havelinks to insurgent groups such asTaliban or Al Qaeda, but Karzaiwants their cases investigatedand the innocent to be freed,Deputy Minister of Hajj andReligious Affairs Dai-ul-HaqAbid said.

“More than 1000 religious

clerics are imprisoned in the jailand at a meeting which theUlema had with PresidentKarzai, he [Karzai] promised theUlema that the innocent will bereleased,” Abid said. The UlemaCouncil confirmed the statementsaying that only those involvedin actual attacks are likely toremain in jail.

“According to the president,those scholars who are innocentand are imprisoned on the basisof various charges will be re-leased, and those scholars whodid lesser crimes or who werecharged for their insurgent linksmust be released too. But those

scholars who were involved inattacks and murders must bepunished,” Ulema Councildeputy and spokesmanEnayatullah Baligh told Afghanmedia.

Meanwhile, the Hajj Minis-try also said that there are morethan 100,000 mosques aroundthe country which are beyondthe reach or control of the gov-ernment and there is no super-vision of their mullahs.

Of Afghanistan’s 160,000mosques, about 4,000 are moni-tored by the Hajj Ministry and50,000 mosques are registeredwith the government.—INP

Britain demands reform inPakistan in return for aid moneyLONDON—Britain is calling onPakistani politicians to submit taxreturns and to push through tougheconomic reforms after The DailyTelegraph revealed £300m of UKaid is going towards controversialprogrammes in the country. Pa-kistan is on course to become thebiggest recipient of British aid,worth £1.4bn over five years, butonly if it meets a series of keydemands, according to officialsquoted by The Telegraph.

The donations include givinghundreds of millions of pounds oftaxpayers’ money to the BenazirIncome Support Programme,which has angered oppositionpoliticians who say it is being usedto bankroll the re-election cam-paign of Mrs Bhutto’s formerparty. Critics such as Imran Khansay British aid means Pakistan’spolitical leaders have no incentiveto reform a system where only

about 1 per cent of the populationpay income tax.

Defending the use of Britishcash, a spokesman for the De-partment for International Devel-opment initially defended theprogramme, saying it was impar-tial and had the support acrossPakistan’s political spectrum.The ministry later issued a stron-ger statement calling for reformonce elections have been held onMay 11.

“We keep our programme inPakistan under constant review,and will continue to do so afterthe elections,” it said. “Economicreform in Pakistan, including ontax, will be critical post-election,whoever wins.

“It will be important forelected politicians to show lead-ership to the Pakistan electorateand a commitment to reform bysubmitting tax returns and paying

tax due.” An aid review con-ducted by Andrew Mitchell de-cided to more than double aid toPakistan. Ministers have consis-tently said repeatedly said the cashwill not be delivered if Pakistanfails to make reforms.

Last year, an investigationrevealed that two-thirds ofPakistan’s MPs paid no incometax at all. President Asif AliZardari, Benazir Bhutto’s wid-ower, and Rehman Malik, the in-terior minister, were among thosewho did not file returns in 2011.

Pakistan is considering a taxamnesty, allowing evaders to wipethe slate clean with a one-off pay-ment of 40,000 rupees (about£270). At the same time Britain ishelping fund cash handouts whichmany development experts believeare one of the best ways of helpinglive millions of the poorest fami-lies out of poverty. —Online

WASHINGTON—World BankPresident Jim Yong Kim onTuesday called for a commit-ment by the international com-munity to end extreme povertyby 2030 and to improve the livesof the most vulnerable peopleliving in developing countries.To reach that goal, Kim said theworld would have to reduce thenumber of people living belowthe poverty line of $1.25 per dayto 3 percent globally by 2030,and raise the per capita incomesof the bottom 40 percent of ev-ery developing country.

The 3 percent target marks anew goal for the World Bank, whichdid not provide directly comparablenumbers for the current rate of ex-

World Bank chief calls forending extreme poverty by 2030

treme poverty. The goal would helpthe World Bank prioritize develop-ment projects that have the biggestimpact on the poorest and reduceinequality, Kim said.

“Now is the time to com-mit to ending extreme poverty,”he said in a speech before meet-ings of the World Bank and In-ternational Monetary Fund onApril 19 and 20 in Washington.“We are at an auspicious mo-ment in history, when the suc-cesses of past decades and anincreasingly favourable eco-nomic outlook combine to givedeveloping countries a chance- for the first time ever - to endextreme poverty within a gen-eration.”—Reuters

stan has accused Pakistan of suchincidents. Over the past month,the Karzai government has re-peatedly accused Pakistan of try-ing to hinder its progress of peacewith Afghan Taliban militants.

Last week, the Afghandeputy foreign minister said hewas shocked at “Pakistan’s com-placency, and accused the coun-try of “changing the goal postevery time we reach understand-ing.” The country also cancelleda scheduled military trip to Paki-stan due to what it called “unac-ceptable Pakistani shelling.”

Pakistan responded by say-ing Kabul “overreacted” to a“small incident.” The foreignministry said its “disciplined andresponsible” troops had re-sponded to “some intrusionsfrom the Afghan side”.

New borderFrom Page 1

NICL scam caseFrom Page 1

by Yaseen Anwar, Governor,State Bank of Pakistan. Khosohad decided to give him port-folio of Finance.

14-memberFrom Page 1

responsibility of Information slot,he will strive to take all stake-holders along to build consensuson code of conduct for media dur-ing elections.

He said portfolios for thenewly inducted Ministers will beannounced soon.

Media willFrom Page 1

Courts springFrom Page 1

Sadiq was accused of em-bezzling a total of Rs83 billionduring his tenure as Ogra chief.He had taken refuge in theUnited Arab Emirates after hissenior appointment at the regu-latory body was declared illegalby the apex court.—Online

Tauqir SadiqFrom Page 1

of the party and Bhutto’s son,would also attend.

“Only official media will beallowed to cover this meeting.Other media can stand outsideand take the feed from PakistanTelevision,” Leghari added.

Local party officials deniedthe rescheduling had anything todo with security concerns andsenior spokesmen were not im-mediate reachable.

“It (the change) is only atechnical reason. Our candidatesare busy with paperwork, scru-tiny and the election campaign,”said Lateef Mughal, PPP infor-mation secretary in Zardari’shome town Karachi.

Last week, main PPP spokes-man Qamar Zaman Kaira toldAFP that 24-year-old Bilawal,who is too young to contest a seat,would make few public appear-ances “due to security concerns”.

The revised arrangements forThursday stand in stark contrastto the major campaign rallies thatthe PPP’s main rivals have al-ready held.

On March 25 oppositionleader Nawaz Sharif, widelytipped to win the election, at-tracted tens of thousands in thenorthwestern town of Mansehra.

Cricket legend Imran Khan,contesting elections for the firsttime and considered a possiblekingmaker after the polls, hasalso pulled in crowds of tens ofthousands at major public eventsacross the country.—AFP

PPP scrapsFrom Page 1

elections, the PPP central andprovincial leadership has failedso far to kick out worthwhileelection campaign in addition toworking on confidence-buildingin a bid to create a sparkling spiritin PPP traditional voters inLahore metropolis.

Frivolity and indifferent at-titude, conflicts within the partyranks, absence of PPP chairper-son Bilawal Bhutto at this cru-cial time, poor performance ofthe PPP-led government in cen-tre and lack of confidence innominated candidates are themain reasons behind lacklusterelection campaign in Lahore.

PPP was forced to award sixNA and 12 PA tickets to the can-didates who are contesting for thefirst time at this level against theirstrong opponents while oldguards refused to contest elec-tions on one or other reason. Itis interesting to note that formerPrime Ministers Yousaf RazaGillani and Raja Pervaiz Ashrafwere given special assignmentsto lead the election campaign butboth are in hot waters these daysowing of their own corruptioncases in the apex court whilemost of the central and local in-fluential leaders have not beentaken into board on this issue. Itis just like a boat cruising on theocean without a pilot and it is firsttime in history of PPP politicsthat the party will launch elec-tion campaign without any lead-ership,” a senior PPP leader toldPakistan Observer adding he saidGillani in southern Punjab,Ashraf in upper Punjab whileManzoor Wattoo will lead thecampaign in central Punjab but

still no development is observedso far in this regard.

One can gauge the scatter-brained of the PPP provincialleadership in regard to electionpreparations by lack of directionthat PPP provincial leadership wasinformed at the eleventh hour thatMunawar Anjum, a nominatedcandidate for the constituency ofNA-126 did not submit his nomi-nation papers and later the ticketwas awarded to Dr Zahid BukhariAdvocate to fill the gap. MunawarAnjum’s name was short listed bythe committee for contesting elec-tions from NA-126 when AslamGill refused to combat electionsfrom the platform of PPP.Munawar served as an advisor toformer Governor Sardar LatifKhan Khosa. Aslam Gill, onceknown as PPP diehard activist, gotfirst emotional shock when lost asecure Senate seat from Punjabdue to the party’s inner conspiracyand later he was made advisor toPrime Minister.

Similarly, the party leadershipcame across after awarding ticketto Barrister Makhdoom TariqMehmood ul Hassan for NA-122that he has a dual nationality. In-terestingly, Barrister MakhdoomTariq Mehmood ul Hassan, a wellknown lawyer, deliberately con-cealed this fact from the leader-ship despite this he knew very wellthe consequences of dual nation-ality if he combated elections.

Another PPP nominatedcandidate for PP-158 GhulamHabib Awan returned the ticketwhen he joined PML-N at thelast possible time. Anotherstrong candidate HajiMuhammad Ejaz refused to con-

test elections from PP-146 aftera tiff with the central leadership.He wanted to get his son re-cruited in FIA but when FaryalTalpur turned down his requestto meet him in person, he with-drew his name from the list ofthe candidates. He was a strongcandidate of PPP in PP-146 ashe won the previous electionsfrom this constituency. After hisrefusal, Zahid Zulfiqar Khanwas given a party ticket.

From NA-127 KhurramLatif Khosa, son of former gov-ernor Latif Khosa was contest-ing elections and he is a newchip in the block and not beingconsidered as winning horse.Malik Imtiaz Awan was givenparty ticket from NA-120.

For other seven constituen-cies PPP old guards, SaminaGhurki (NA-130) NavidChaudhry (NA-125), AsifHashmi (NA-118), TariqShabbir Meo (NA-129), AzizurRehman Chan (NA-123),Auranzeb Burki (NA-121) andAmjad Jatt (128) will contest.On Punjab Assembly seats, ArifNasim Kashmiri, Mian MajidHusain, Afshan Amiruddin, Na-dir Khan, Iftikhar Shahid,Naeem Zafar, Zahid Ali, AshrafBhatti, Iftikhar Niazi, ZahidBokhari, Javed Akhtar andFaisal Mir will try their luck forthe first time.

Some of the PPP old guardswho refused to contest for onereason or another includeAslam Gill, Qasim Zia, PirNazim Shah, Syed Omar SharifBokhari, Zikriya Butt, DrHasnat, Haji Ijaz and UmerMisbaur Rehman.

PPP fails to kick out worthwhileFrom Page 1

ing of the monetary policy how-ever in the face of easing infla-tionary pressures the financialexperts have brushed aside thepossibility of increasing the in-terest rate in April 2013.

The trade and industry how-ever pinning hopes with the ap-pointment of Dr Mushtaq Khanas caretaker finance minister whohas been associated with finan-cial institutions both within andoutside Pakistan and has also

IMF mission to visitFrom Page 1

served as an Advisor to the StateBank of Pakistan.

It is said that the profile ofthe Finance Minister is likely togive some initial comfort how-ever his plan of action was ea-gerly awaited by the trade and in-dustry as it will shape near term

economic indicators.However taking lead from

care taker prime minister’s in-stance not to enter into any loanagreement with IMF during in-terim period the federal financeminister is also likely to followsuit, sources said.KABUL—Angeline Jolie has

opened an all-girls school in Af-ghanistan. The actress-turned-hu-manitarian funded the opening ofa primary school in a village justoutside of Kabul where refugeesare rebuilding after the collapseof the Taliban regime.

The region is known to placehigher importance on the educa-tion of young males over fe-males. The facility was com-pleted in 2012 and educates be-tween 200 and 300 girls, accord-ing to the report.

It is believed to be the firstin a series of educational institu-tions the actress plans on open-ing around the world as part of ahumanitarian initiative launched

Angelina Jolie opens girlsschool in Afghanistan

by the star in 2007. The Educa-tion Partnership for Children ofConflict aims to reach a total ofone million “children in conflict,post-conflict refugee and emer-gency situations,” Angelina saidat a press conference announc-ing its launch.

The programme’s goals in-clude placing 350,000 childrenin schools and improving thelearning environment for chil-dren and teachers from Iraq toDarfur and beyond. The actressplans to continue funding theproject with help from proceedsgarnered from her jewellerycollection, Style of Jolie, de-signed by Robert Procop.

“Beyond enjoying the artis-

tic satisfaction of designing thesejewels, we are inspired by know-ing our work is also serving themutual goal of providing for chil-dren in need,” she said. The col-lection will be available this weekat Kansas City jeweller Tivol.

Angelina was named Good-will Ambassador for The Officeof the United Nations High Com-missioner for Refugees in 2001.The organisation credits the ac-tress with carrying out more than40 field missions in remote re-gions around the world “to high-light the plight of millions of up-rooted people and to advocate fortheir protection”, according to astatement on the UNHCRwebsite.—INP

LAHORE—Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) unveiled its final listof candidates for NationalAssembly’s reserved seats forwomen from Punjab, as well asfor the Punjab Assembly.

A PTI spokesman said thatPTI’s Parliamentary Board hadcompleted the priority list forwomen reserved seats forPunjab and it had was submit-ted with the Provincial Election

Commissioner.The following 39 candidates

have been nominated for NAfrom Punjab: Dr ShireenMazari, Munaza Hassan, AylaMalik, Fauzia Kasuri, DrYasmin Rashid, Syeda SaloniBukhari, Shamsa Ali, AndaleebAbbas, Maimoona Hashmi,Sadiqa Sahibdad, HinaManzoor, Shahida Malka,Rukhsana Bhatti, Dr SeemiBukhari, Shaheena Asad, RifatKahloon, Neelam Shah, DrNausheen Meraj, Samina RazaMalaika, Onaza H Butt, AbidaRaja, Seemi Ezdi, NasreenTariq, Sobia Kamal Khan, MahaRaja Tarin, Nasim Majid, SyedaFarah Azmi, Ayesha Khanam,Dr Rubbina, Sadia Saif, RashidaZaheer, Kanwal Shahzeb,Humaira Khan, Dr Misbah,Neelum Ashraf, Ayesha Khalid,Dr Zarka Suherwardi, ZartagGul Akhwand and TashfeenSafdar.

Another 64 women candi-dates were nominated for PunjabAssembly: Saadia Sohail,Nausheen Hamid, RaheelaMehdi, Nabela Haqqani,

Naheed Naeem, Naseem Majid,Sabia Shaheen, Fareeha Aftab,Hina Kashif, Mahpara Ahsan,Ayesha Chaudry, Abida Raja,Shavana Bashir, Saadia Saif,Arsala Farukh, Hifza AkhterBajwa, Asma Khalid, LubnaEhtesham, Shehla Ahsan,Naseem Zehra, Neelum Ashraf,Talat Naqvi, Samina Khan,Ruksana Naveed, Aalya Hamza,Sehrish Fatima, Fakha Agha,Asma Islam, Fatima Usman,Shaheen Reza, Saria Kanwal,Makyam Ijaz, Sarwat Robina,Iram Kayani, Zehrish Fatima,Aneela Baig, Wajeeha Akram,Bushra Sikander Bhatti, UmmulBanin, Zartaj Akhwand Gul,Ayesha Khalid, Rizwana Iqtadar,Farha Azmi, Farzana Bhatti,Nighat Sultana, Sarwat Robina,Iffat Bokhari, Shaheen Reza,Zainab Lodhi, ShabnamJehangir, Labeeba Iffat Qazi,Asiya Kamil, Nadra Aamir, SaraNaseem, Farhat Farooq, AKZerqa, Nussarat Jabeen, WardaTalat, Maleeha Hussain, RabiaChaudry, Neelum Raheed,Taheera Jabeen, Sarwat Robinaand Shehla Ahsan.—APP

PTI issues candidates list forwomen reserved seats from Punjab LHC dismisses

pleas againstcaretaker PM,

CM PunjabLAHORE—Lahore High CourtChief Justice Umar Ata BandialTuesday dismissed a petitionchallenging appointments ofcaretaker Prime Minister MirHazar Khan Khoso and PunjabChief Minister Najam Sethi.

The chief justice dismissingthe petition observed that theappointments were made as perconstitution and law.—APP

Applicationssought for diploma

course in PGMISTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Applications havebeen invited from candidatesfor admission in diplomacourses and degree programs atPost Graduate Medical Institute(PGMI) for academic session2013-2014. The last date for theapplications for admissions hasbeen fixed as April, 20, 2013.

This was informed by Prof.Anjum Habib Vohra, the Princi-pal Post Graduate Medical Insti-tute, while presiding over a meet-ing, also participated by seniorfaculty members, held to reviewthe admission policy of the insti-tute here.

Principal said that the policyof merit will be observed strictlyduring the admission process. Hefurther said that applicants for M.Phil courses would have to submitthe copies of result cards of theGAT general test along with theapplication as per the requirementof the Higher Education Commis-sion for registration with Univer-sity of the Health Sciences Lahore.

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—This game ofcricket will possibly see thefirst pair of father and sonas a coach and the playerin the same internationalteam.

Zimbabwe’s 54-year-old former right handedbatsman Andrew Waller isreported to be their nextnational coach, replacingAlan Butcher followingteam’s poor performanceand losing all sevenmatches in West Indies.

Interestingly, AndrewWaller’s 29-year-old son,

Dad as coach will put pressureon me, says Malcolm Waller

Malcolm is a regular memberof the side.

Speaking exclusivelyover telephone from Harare,he said, “yes, ours will be thefirst and unique pair of fatherand son in the same side withdifferent roles”.

“My father is in SriLanka now with the UKschool boys team. He islikely to return to Londonbefore taking over the postfrom May 1”.

“Obviously I am happy tobe having my dad as coach,but it will certainly put pres-sure on me and tough to per-form”, the right-handed bats-man added.

“It will always be in my

mind to perform well, oth-erwise people will say I amin the team because of myfather”.

“However, I feel my fa-ther will not tolerate anybad patch and no excep-tion will be made in my casetoo. He is a strict discipli-narian will always expectgood score from me”.

Recalling his team’srecord 300 plus chaseagainst New Zealand in2011, he says, “it was a verygood game. I was unbeatenwith the score of 99 runs. Ideserved to be the centu-rion in that match”.

Zimbabwe team won thematch by one wicket.PESHAWAR: Female Judo players trying to get points during KP Inter-Region Women Athletic Championship at

Qayyum Sports Complex under the aegis of the Directorate of Sports KP.

FAISALABAD: A view of play during All Punjab M Ali Sindhu Memorial Kabaddi Tournament.

ISLAMABAD: A view of cricket match between Islamabad and Rawalpindi PhysicallyHandicapped teams during PCAPH T20 Tournament organized by PCA.

GENEVA—FIFA opted forGoalControl on Tuesday asits goal-line technology sys-tem for the ConfederationsCup and 2014 World Cup inBrazil.

The German camera-based, ball-tracking systemwas the last of four contend-ers to win a FIFA contract thatstarts with the Confedera-tions Cup in June.

FIFA chose GoalControl-4D over three rival projects:

GoalRef and Cairos, whichboth use magnetic fields; andHawk-Eye, another camerasystem. It’s already used intennis and cricket, and itsEnglish parent company wasbought by World Cup spon-sor Sony Corp. before it be-gan FIFA-endorsed testingin 2011.

GoalControl was licensedby FIFA only one month ago,and owner DirkBroichhausen told The As-

FIFA picks GoalControlgoal-line tech system

sociated Press then that itssimplicity was key.

‘’Our innovation, andalso a difference looking toother competitors, is that wecan use standard goals, ballsand nets. There is no modifi-cation necessary,’’Broichhausen said.

GoalControl uses 14high-speed cameras - seventrained on each goalmouth -and passed FIFA-approvedtests in February in German

stadiums in Duesseldorf andGelsenkirchen. All four sys-tems met FIFA’s demand thata signal is transmitted to thereferee’s watch within onesecond if a goal should beawarded.

‘’We want to offer tour-nament organizers andleagues and clubs not to haveto change anything on thepitch. The investment in thetechnology is enough,’’Broichhausen said

He estimated thatGoalControl will cost$260,000 per stadium to in-stall, and $3,900 per match tooperate.

FIFA said the cost of in-stallation - at six scheduledConfederations Cup stadi-ums and 12 for the World Cup- was considered.

‘’The respective bidswere also judged on cost andproject management factorssuch as staffing and timeschedules for installation,’’soccer’s governing bodysaid in a statement.

FIFA’s contract withGoalControl for the WorldCup can be reviewed if thereare problems at the 16-matchConfederations Cup - or be-fore.

‘’The use of GoalControl-4D in Brazil is subject to a fi-nal installation test at eachstadium where the system willbe installed,’’ FIFA said.

FIFA, through its rule-making panel known as IFAB,approved goal-line technol-ogy last July, when Hawk-Eyeand GoalRef passed the rig-orous testing process. Thosesystems were tested at theClub World Cup in Japan lastDecember, before Cairos andGoalControl had even beenlicensed.

FIFA President SeppBlatter wanted goal-line tech-nology in Brazil after En-gland midfielder FrankLampard had a goal disal-lowed against Germany at the2010 World Cup.—AP

KARACHI—Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) docu-ment was signed by SecretaryPakistan Hockey Federation(PHF), Asif Bajwa and SindhSecretary of Sports, SiddiqueMemon, Tuesday forupgradation and laying of anew blue turf at Hockey Clubof Pakistan (HCP) Stadiumhere.

Director AdministrationHCP Iftikhar Syed also signedMoU on behalf of PHF whileChief Engineer Aslam Maharand Najamuddin Shaikh weresignatary on behalf of theSindh Government.

Siddique Memon said theoverall project will cost Rs. 57million for which tender will befloated shortly.He said projectwill be completed within 18-month time and cost will alsoinclude prepartions of baseand laying different thingsunder the turf. He expressedthe hope that laying of newblue turf will help in facilitat-ing players of the future to pre-pare on this new turf as perInternational Hockey Federa-tion (IHF) policy to hold Olym-pics and World Cup on newblue surface.

Asif Bajwa complimentedSindh Government for theircontribution in promotion anddevelopment of national gamehockey.

He praised the grand con-tribution of late Dr. MuhammadAli Shah for playing an impor-tant role in the approval of thisblue turf.

He said Sindh Governor Dr.Ishrat-ul-Ibad and ex-SindhChief Minister, Syed Qaim AliShah always extended theirsupport and assistance in pro-motion of hockey.

Asif Bajwa said there wasno ruling of IHF to stage inter-

MoU for laying Rs 57m blue turf at HCP signed

No plans to change presentselection system: Bajwa

national event on blue turf.“Both blue and green turf canbe used for staging interna-tional events,” he said.

However he said laying ofblue turf will greatly benefitPakistan players in preparingthem for Olympics, World Cupand other international eventsto be played on blue turf.

Asif Bajwa said HockeyClub of Pakistan attaches greatimportance to Pakistan hockeystadium being a historic venueand deserved to be brought atpar with best hockey stadiumin the world. President SindhHockey Association (SHA)Gulfraz Khan, SecretaryKarachi Hockey AssociationMuhammad Farooq Khan,

SHA and KHA officialsinternationals JanMuhammad, MubashirMukhtar were also present onthe occasion. He said he wasalso not happy with penaltycorner conversion rate whichwas hardly ten percent.

To a question about recall-ing world record holder SohailAbbas, he said it was up tothe chief coach Akhtar Rasoolbecause this is his domain.

PHF Secretary said Paki-stan was also facing problemin getting a good goal-keeperfor the national team.

However, he hit out at crit-ics that Pakistan team had notdone well at the internationallevel.— APP

Serena Williamsaims to win

Charleston OpenKEY BISCAYNE—SerenaWilliams, World No.1 Tennisplayer is in great form in 2013and winning the titles. Herrecent victory over MariaSharapova is incredible andshown her comfort style of

playing the game. The topseeded Serena is playing inthe Family Circle Cup whereher sister and former Tennischampion also playing thetournament.

Serena Williams, wonagainst Maria Sharapovawithout any difficulty. Sheplayed very normally andwon the match in SonyOpen. But Serena will faceproblem with clay surface,where she is not comfortableto play.

Sam Stosur and SloaneStephens are the players whocan give stun Serena in FamilyCircle Cup. Last year Serenawas shocked by VirginieRazzano last year.—AFP

Snooker: Majidhammers Indian

cueist 4-0K A R A C H I — T a l e n t e dMuhammad Majid Alichalked out his second winin the Asian Under21Snooker Championship inIndore (India) on Tuesdaywhen he routed NiteshMadan of India 4-0.

20-year-old fromFaisalabad, constructed thebreaks of 64 and 55 whilehammering Madan 54-03, 85-00, 80-41, 77-09.

Majid will now faceLeong Man Hhoi of HongKong on Thursday and vic-tory would assure him aplace in the pre quarter- fi-nal round.

After two day rest andpractice, newly crowned Na-tional Champion HamzaAkhar will play his openinggroup “C” match onWednesday.—APP

Junaid hopefulfor Champions

TrophyI S L A M A B A D — C r i c k e t e rJunaid Khan has said that heturned down the offers toplay in the county cricket toremain focussed on Champi-ons trophy to be played inEngland this summer.

Talking to a private newschannel,Pacer said that hehas no intention to playcounty cricket because hewanted to be in best form andfitness for the champions tro-phy.

He said in the past he hada stint with Lancashire, andrecently got good offers fromDurham and a few othercounty teams but he hasturned down the offers to re-main focussed in the line ofnational duty.—APP

PESHAWAR—Bannu Regionclinched the overall trophyafter securing 66 points in theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Inter-Region Women Judo Cham-pionship played under theaegis of KhyberPakhtunkhwa Sports Boardhere at Qayyum Sports Com-plex Gymnasium on Tuesday.

Bannu grabbed two goldmedals, three silver medalsand one bronze medal byshocking strong Peshawarteam remained at second with59 points while Mardan gotthird position with 35 points.

Peshawar took three goldmedals and one silver medalwhile Mardan claimed onegold medal, one silver medaland two bronze medals.

A total of seven regionalteams including Dera IsmailKhan, Bannu, Kohat,Mardan, Malakand, Hazaraand host Peshawar took partin the seven different weightcategories comprising -36kg,-40kg, -44kg, -48kg, -52kg, -57kg, and open weight.

The Championship wasorganized by three interna-

Bannu wins Inter-RegionalWomen Judo title

tional current judo playerscomprising Shumaila Gul(Wapda), Benish Khan(Wapda) and Fahima Razayaiwith Miss Gul Nar was theorganizing Secretary.

Speaking on this occa-sion, Rashida Ghaznavi, Di-rector Women Games, Direc-torate of Sports, KhyberPakhtunkhwa lauded the ef-forts of the organizing secre-tary for the smooth conductof the female judo event.

She like last year this yeara total of 14 different femalesgames would be organized onthe Inter-Regional level andout of that Championship ateam of the Under-16 playerswould be short-listed for theforthcoming Punjab YouthGames and PSB NationalYouth Under-16 Judo Cham-pionship to be scheduled onApril 15 at Islamabad.

She assured the playersthat all available facilitieswould be provided to themduring the games. She saidafter short-listing the players,camps would be setup for 10-day for each of the discipline

well before the national eventsso that the players could beprepared in befitting manners.

At the end, she gave awaywinner trophy to Bannu withRs. 7000/- cash prize, runners-up trophy to Peshawar withRs. 5000 cash prize and thirdposition trophy to Mardanwith Rs. 3000/- cash prize be-sides gold, silver and bronzemedals to all position holdersplayers of different weightcategories. Results: -36kgweight Asma Peshawar,Aneela Bannu and TanzeelaHazara, Javeria Dera IsmailKhan -40kg weight KausarBannu, Dera Ismail KhanMaryum and Iqra Kohat -44kgweight Aqsa Peshawar, FaryalMardan, Kiran Abbottabad,and Horia Kohat -48kg weightNadia Kohat, NloureenaPeshawar, Ronila Bannu -52kg weight Sumaira KhanBannu, Zain Dera IsmailKhan, Sidra Bannu, andAmara Kohat -57kg weightAysha Mardan, FaryalBannu, Toheeda Dera IsmailKhan and Sumaira PeshawarOpen weight category Adeela

‘PPPP set tosweep polls’KHANPUR—Pakistan Peop lesParty Parliamentarian PPPPwould win the forthcomingGeneral Elections 2013 withthumping majority due to thepast performance during thelast five years tenure. This wasstated by former MNA MianAbdul Sattar the nominatedcandidate of PPPP for NA 193here on Tuesday. Accordingto details, Mian Abdul Sattarwas addressing a corner meet-ing of PPP workers. He saidthat, PPPP is united under thesagacious leadership of Presi-dent Asif Ali Zardari andwould win from all over thecountry. —APP

Comsats celebrates9th anniversaryATTOCK—9th anniversary ofComsats Institute and Infor-mation Technology CIIT wascelebrated here at AttockCampus on Tuesday. Accord-ing to details, Comsats CIITmanagement have also ar-ranged sports gala and otherfestivals, a large number ofstudents participated in dif-ferent games and otherevents that lasted for a week.On the closing day Mehfil eMushaira was also arrangedthat was attended by the fa-mous poets like SarfrazShahid, Dr.Inam Ul HaqJavaid, Khalid Masood,Jawad Hassan Jawad andBadar Muneer.—APP

Most wantedterroristapprehendedPESHAWAR—The securityforces on early Tuesday morn-ing apprehended a mostwanted terrorist who is knownfor his expertise in making ofImprovised Explosives De-vices (IED). According to of-ficial sources here, he has beenapprehended along with hisfew other accomplices fromSamanth area located east ofMichni. Huge cache of armsand ammunition includingIEDs has been recovered fromtheir possession. The terroristwas shifted to undisclosed lo-cation for interrogation.—APP

Fake degree case:Dasti hopes justiceMUZAFFARGARH—FormerPPP MNA from MuzaffargarhJamshed Dasti appeared be-fore a local court on Tuesdayand recorded his statement infake degree trial. He hoped thathe would get justice from thecourt. Speaking to journalistsafter the hearing, he said thathe submitted evidence toverify the authenticity of hisdegree. He added that final ar-guments would be held onWednesday. The hearing wasadjourned till Wednesday.Dasti, who is apparently verypopular in Muzaffargarh, hasfiled nomination papers tocontest elections againstformer foreign minister HinaRabbani Khar.—Online

Official vehiclesnot returnedQUETTA—Former ministers ofBalochistan have not returnedthe official vehicles despite ofnotices issued by the Services& General Administration(S&GAD) Department. Ac-cording to sources, a largenumber of former Baloch min-isters, after the dissolution ofprovincial govt, did not giveup the use of facilities that wereenjoyed by them during min-isterial tenure.—Online

SEOUL—North Korea said onTuesday it would revive amothballed nuclear reactorable to produce bomb-gradeplutonium but stressed it wasseeking a deterrent capacityand did not repeat recentthreats to attack South Ko-rea and the United States.United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said thecrisis over North Korea hadgone too far and he appealedfor dialogue and negotiationto resolve the situation.

“Nuclear threats are nota game. Aggressive rhetoricand military posturing onlyresult in counter-actions, andfuel fear and instability,” Ban,a South Korean, told a newsconference during a visit toAndorra. The crisis flared af-ter Pyongyang was hit withU.S. sanctions for conduct-ing a third nuclear test in Feb-ruary and the United States

North Korea to restart nuke weapons grade reactorand South Korea staged mili-tary drills that North Koreaviewed as “hostile”.

Pyongyang then threat-ened a nuclear strike on theUnited States, missile strikeson its Pacific bases and warwith South Korea, promptingWashington to bolster forcesin the region. The state-ownedKCNA news agency an-nounced on Tuesday thatNorth Korea would relaunchall nuclear facilities for bothelectricity and military uses.

One of the most isolatedand unpredictable states in theworld, North Korea carried outits third nuclear test since 2006but is seen as some years awayfrom producing a deliverablenuclear weapon, although itclaims to have a deterrent. Aspeech by the North’s youngleader, Kim Jong-un, given onSunday but published in fullby KCNA on Tuesday, ap-

peared to dampen any pros-pect of a direct confrontationwith the United States by em-phasizing that nuclear weap-ons would ensure thecountry’s safety as a deter-rent.

“Our nuclear strength is areliable war deterrent and aguarantee to protect our sov-ereignty,” Kim said. “It is onthe basis of a strong nuclearstrength that peace and pros-perity can exist and so can thehappiness of people’s lives.”Kim’s speech, delivered to thecentral committee meeting ofthe ruling Workers Party ofKorea, hinted at a small shiftaway from threats againstSeoul and Washington, but itremained some distance fromcalling any kind of end to thecrisis.“The fact that this (speech)was made at the party centralcommittee meeting, which is

the highest policy-settingorgan, indicates an attemptto highlight economic prob-lems and shift the focus fromsecurity to the economy,”said Yang Moo-jin of theUniversity of North KoreanStudies in Seoul. But ifPyongyang indeed restartsthe nuclear facilities, it wouldhave longer-term implica-tions for the region’s secu-rity.

Reactivating the agedSoviet-era reactor at theYongbyon nuclear plantwould yield plutonium, atested path to stockpile morefissile material than a ura-nium enrichment program.

It was unclear howquickly Yongbyon, whosecooling tower was de-stroyed as part of an earlierde-nuclear ization deal withmajor powers, would take torestart.—Reuters

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani conferring militaryawards to the Army personnel in an investiture ceremony held at General Headquarters.

ISLAMABAD—The parlia-mentary board of PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) onTuesday finalized theparty’s tickets for the up-coming general electionsfrom Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

According to the notifi-cation issued by the PTIcentral secretariat, theparty’s chairman ImranKhan, who also chaired themeeting to announce theparty tickets for candidateshailing from KP would con-test the polls for NA-1,Peshawar-I.

According to the list ofcandidates for National As-sembly, Khalid Masoodwould contest from NA-2Peshawar, Sajid Nawaz fromNA-3 Peshawar, Asad GulzarKhan from NA-4 Peshawar,

PTI awards ticketsto KP candidates

Pervaiz Khan Khattak fromNA-5 Nowshehra-I,Azizullah Jan from NA-6Nowshehra-II, FazalMuhammad Khan from NA-7 Charsadda-1, Anwar Tajfrom NA-8 Charsadda-II,Nasir Khan from NA-9Mardan-1, Ali MuhammadKhan NA-10 Mardan-II,Mujahid Ali NA-11 Mardan-III, Anwar Haq Dad from NA-12 Swabi-I, Asad Qaisarfrom NA-13 Swabi-II,Shaheryar Afridi from NA-14 Kohat, Shamsur RehmanKhattak from NA-15 Karak,Khayal Zaman from NA-16Hangu, Muhammad AzharKhan Jadoon from NA-17Abbottabad-I, Raja AmirZaman from NA-19 Haripur,Muhammad Azam KhanSwati from NA-20

Mansehra-I, NawabzadaSallahuddin Saeed from NA-21 Mansehra-II, NiazMuhammad Khan from NA-22 Battagram, MustafaKundi from NA-24 DeraIsmail Khan, Dawar KhanKundi from NA-25 DeraIsmail Khan Tank, MutiullahKhan from NA-26 Bannu,Col. (retd) Amirullah Marwatfrom NA-27 Lakki Marwat,Mian Moinuddin from NA-28 Bunair, Sher Afgan Khanfrom NA-29 Swat-I, JamalNasir from NA-30 Swat-II,Abdul Latif from NA-32Chitral, Muhammad NawazKhan from NA-33 Upper Dir,Muhammad Bashir Khanfrom NA-34 Lower Dir, andJunaid Akbar Khan wouldcontest from NA-35Malakand. —Online

CAIRO—Hamas re-electedKhaled Meshaal on Tuesdayas the group’s leader, at amarathon overnight closed-door meeting held in Cairo,an official with theorganisation said.Meshaal,56, has headed the move-ment since 2004.Born nearRamallah in the occupiedWest Bank, Meshaal steeredHamas through the upheavalunleashed by the ArabSpring uprisings.

He spent decades in ex-ile and visited Gaza for thefirst time ever in December.

Meshaal left Syria abouta year ago after ties rupturedwith President Bashar al-Assad over the bloody civilwar there. Building on rela-tions with Egyptian Presi-dent Mohamed Mursi, saidto be an old friend, Meshaalmoved on to win a delicatetruce with arch-enemy Israelin November and has alsosought to heal a rift with ri-val Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas.

Palestinian officials andanalysts said Meshaal,dogged by Gaza critics of

Hamas re-elects Meshaal as its leaderhis ceasefire with Israel andefforts to reconcile withAbbas, had to be persuadedto continue as Hamas’sleader for another term.

“Meshaal was re-elected,” a Hamas officialsaid, reporting in a tersestatement on Tuesday onthe results of a meeting thatbegan in the Egyptian capi-tal on Monday. The officialgave no other details of thevote by which about 60 topofficials of the group had re-affirmed Meshaal anew asHamas’s politicalleader.Both Egypt and pow-erful Gulf emirate Qatar alsolobbied strongly onMeshaal’s behalf, a diplomatin the region told Reuters.

“They saw Meshaal as amoderate and an example ofa leader who saw the worldmore comprehensively thanother hardliners in thegroup,” said the diplomat,who spoke on condition ofanonymity. European na-tions that boycott Hamasand list it as a terrorist groupwere also seen as support-ive of Meshaal retaining in

his post.”I do not say Europe is

going to open to Hamas to-morrow,” said the diplomat,who saw an opening for a“real engagement with theWest” if Meshaal persuadedcolleagues to change theirpolicies.

Meshaal burnished hiscredentials as leader of thePalestinian group after sur-viving a 1997 Israeli assas-sination attempt. Hamas wasfounded in 1988 shortly af-ter the launch of an uprisingagainst Israel.In 2004,Meshaal succeededHamas’s founder, SheikhAhmed Yassin, after thecleric was assassinated byIsrael during a second Pal-estinian Intifada against theJewish state.

On his watch, Hamashas emerged as an ever moreimportant player in theMiddle East conflict, weak-ening the U.S.-backed Pal-estinian Authority by win-ning the election in coastalGaza in 2007, and challeng-ing Abbas’s peacemakingwith Israel.—WB

Pak for non-discriminatory nucleardisarmament, non-proliferation

UNITED NATIONS—Pakistanhas called for achieving thegoals of nuclear disarmamentand non-proliferation in a bal-anced and non-discriminatorymanner to promote peace andsecurity in the world.

“What we need is politicalwill, especially by the majorpowers,” to accomplish theobjectives, Pakistan U.N. Am-bassador Masood Khan toldthe U.N. Disarmament Com-mission, which opened its an-nual three-week session onMonday.

For years, he added, Paki-stan had called for evolving anew consensus on disarma-ment and non-proliferation,

starting from a basic premise:the recognition of the right toequal security for all States, inthe non-conventional andconventional fields, as well asat regional and global levels.

Ambassador MasoodKhan said that States’ motivesfor acquiring weapons mustalso be addressed, includingperceived threats from supe-rior conventional or non-con-ventional forces. Nuclear-weapon States must recommitto achieving disarmamentwithin a reasonable timeframe,while non-nuclear-armedStates should have assur-ances they would not bethreatened with the use of

nuclear or even conventionalweapons.

A universal and non-dis-criminatory agreement for ad-dressing the proliferation ofanti-ballistic missile systemsmust evolve, while an agreedapproach was also needed forpromoting the peaceful usesof nuclear energy under appro-priate international safe-guards, the Pakistani envoysaid. Any new inspection re-gime must be applied equita-bly.

Masood Khan underlinedthe need to address the “ex-cessive” production and salesof conventional weapons, aswell as their reduction.—INP

WASHINGTON—The UnitedStates says Pakistan may faceeconomic sanctions over agas pipeline project with Iran.The $7-billion project is meantto help reduce Pakistan’scrushing energy deficit.

“We have serious con-cerns if this project actuallygoes forward that the IranSanctions Act would be trig-gered. We’ve been straight-upwith the Pakistanis about theseconcerns,” said State Depart-ment spokeswoman VictoriaNuland, VOA reported

After nearly 20 years, thereis considerable progress on theIran-to-Pakistan “peace pipe-line,” with Iranian contractorsstarting work on Pakistani sec-tions of the project, having fin-ished nearly 810 kilometers ofpipeline in Iran. That is of con-cern to the United States,which is backing internationalsanctions against Iranian en-ergy exports because of itsnuclear program. Iranian Presi-

US considers sanctionsagainst Pak for Iran pipeline

dent Mahmoud Ahmadinejadsays the gas pipeline has noth-ing to do with the nuclear pro-gram. “Foreign elements whoare against the progress of Pa-kistan and Iran have found theexcuse of our nuclear program.The gas pipeline has no con-nection whatsoever with thenuclear case,” he said. “Withnatural gas you cannot makeatomic bombs.” PakistaniPresident Asif Ali Zardari saysthe pipeline is about economicsurvival.

“We’ve got to be economi-cally sound, and therefore thispipeline is a life pipeline as faras Pakistan is concerned,” headded.

American University pro-fessor Akbar Ahmed says Pa-kistani energy demands out-weigh U.S. opposition.

“It’s in the interests of thePakistani government to haveaccess to energy and Iran ispromising that through this gaspipeline,” Ahmed said. “—INP

Musharraf toraise 3rd politicalforce in country

ISLAMABAD—Former Presi-dent General (Retd) PervezMusharraf has said he wantsto raise a third political force inthe country by activating hisparty. Talking to newsmen inIslamabad‚ he said he will him-self supervise nomination pro-cess of party candidates.

He demanded to hold elec-tions under supervision of thearmy.

“I have always stated thatthe polls should be held underthe supervision of army. Oth-erwise there will be law and or-der problem. And then thepolls will not be fair and trans-parent,” Musharraf said.

The APML chief said hehad been facing seriousthreats, but at the same timeexpressed satisfaction overthe arrangements made by thecaretaker government for hissecurity.

Gen Musharraf, who hasalso submitted his nomina-tion papers for a National As-sembly seat from Karachi, ex-pressed the hope that hisparty would be able to makeseat-adjustment arrangementwith the Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM). —NNI

Afaq’s partyknocks SC’s door

for no-go areaseradication

KARACHI—Muhajir QaumiMovement has moved theSupreme Court for the elimi-nation of no-go areas inKarachi. Muhajir QaumiMovement filed an applicationin Karachi Registry of SupremeCourt on Tuesday in which itis told the court that the can-didates of Muhajir QaumiMovement are being pre-vented from going to no-goareas for the election cam-paign.

The application said thatthe government is conduct-ing just a useless and show-piece type of operation inKarachi to hoodwink thepeople only. “The administra-tion is presenting fake reportsto Chief Justice . Free and fairelections are not possible inpresence of sitting Governor”,the applicant added.—Online

ISLAMABAD—A five-memberbench of the Supreme Courtheaded by Justice AnwarZaheer Jamali resumed thehearing of -court appeal ofNAB chairman in contemptof court case.

NAB Chairman FasihBukhari’s counsel SardarLatif Khosa submitted detailsto the court. He maintainedthe stance before the benchthat Arsalan Iftikhar wouldalso have to appear as wit-ness if the NAB chairmanwould be trialed.

The petitioner’s lawyersaid that the court had di-rected the NAB to probe intothe Arsalan Iftikhar case butthe son of the Chief Justicehad expressed his lack ofconfidence on the NAB.

SC adjourns hearing of NABchief’s intra-court appeal

Latif Khosa alleged thatJustice Jawad S Khawaj haddirected NAB chairman tosuspend investigation intoArsalan case. The NABchief’s counsel said that thecontempt of court law did notexist in the country howevera court decision was present.

He argued that accordingto the law, the Chief Justiceshould have distanced him-self from the hearing of thecase against NAB chairman.He said that no court can in-terfere in the investigatorymatters of the NAB.

Khosa said that the Presi-dent had the authority to ap-point NAB chief and the cor-respondence between thePresident and NAB chief en-joyed legal protection.—NNI

15 ex-MPs submiteducational

documents forverification: HECISLAMABAD—Former parlia-mentarians, who were yet toget their degrees verified, havestarted approaching theHigher Education Commission(HEC) in line with SupremeCourt’s order. So far 15 formermembers of the parliamenthave reportedly submittedtheir education certificates forverification. The HEC,through a public notice, hadasked the former MPs to gettheir degrees verified by April5. According to the HEC, 15former parliamentarians Tues-day contacted the commissionand submitted educationaldocuments. —INP

QUETTA: Leader of PML-N Women Wing Sakina Mengalmakes victory sign sitting in police van after being ar-rested by police when she attempted self-immolation dur-ing a press conference in Press Club.

STAFF REPORTER

QUETTA—A frustrated fe-male political worker madea failed self-immolation at-tempt at the Quetta PressClub on Tuesday after herparty, the Pakistan MuslimLeague – Nawaz, disallowedher from contesting thecoming election on a PML-N ticket.

“I am poor therefore Iwas not given the partyticket,” said Sakina Mengal,who claims she has been anactive member of the PML-N for last fifteen years.

Mengal was deniedticket for a reserved seat forwomen by the party’s pro-vincial chapter.

The political worker wasaddressing a press confer-ence along with around twodozen other PML-N activ-ists, chanting slogansagainst PML-N Balochistanchief Sardar Sanaullah Zehriand others, when she at-tempted to set herself onfire.

“Committing suicide isthe result of violation ofmerit in terms of distributionof tickets,” Mengal said.

As the activist threwpetrol on her clothes, herhusband set them on fire.

However, journalists

Denied ticket, female politicalworker attempts suicide

present at the press confer-ence intervened andstopped herself from caus-

ing physical damage.Quetta police later took

Mengal into custody.

COAS confersmilitary awards

on officers,jawans

RAWALPINDI—Chief of ArmyStaff (COAS), General AshfaqParvez Kayani conferred mili-tary awards to the Army per-sonnel in an investiture cer-emony held at General Head-quarters on Tuesday.

A large number of militaryofficials and relatives ofawardees attended the cer-emony.

Twenty five officers wereawarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Mili-tary), 47 officers and soldierswere awarded Tamgha-e-Bisalat, 5 soldiers wereawarded United Nations(UN) Medal. Medals ofShuhada were received bytheir family members. —INP

Power tariffgoes up by 63paisas per unit

LAHORE—National ElectricPower Regulatory Authority(NEPRA) has approved raisein power tariff by 63 paisasper unit.

Central Power Purchas-ing Agency (CPPA) had filedapplication seeking increasein power tariff by 67 paisasper unit and its hearing tookplace under member tariffNaeem Khawaja here Tues-day.

CPPA took the plea dur-ing the hearing that powerwas generated costing Rs 5.4billion during March. Cost offuel incurred in this regardstood at 43.38 billion. HoweverNEPRA had fixed Fuel Adjust-ment Surcharge (FAS) at Rs7.64 per unit while a sum of Rs8.31 was actually incurred onaccount of FAS in the produc-tion of electricity.

NEPRA accorded ap-proval to increase power tariffby paisas 63 per unit after thehearing of the plea.—Online

ABOUT half of all elementary schoolstudents can buy potato chips, icecream or similar snacks in vending ma-

chines and at snack bars during school, sug-gests a new study.

Researchers said they’dhoped that with more en-couragement for districts toimprove nutrition in foodsoffered at school and an in-creasing focus on childhoodobesity, fewer kids wouldhave access to unhealthyoptions especially ones thatthey might substitute for amore balanced school lunch,Live Science Reported.

Elementary school “isreally a crucial period wherethe preferences and behav-ioral habits are being devel-oped,” said Lindsey Turner,one of the study’s authorsfrom the University of Illi-nois at Chicago.

“If kids are early on inthat environment where that junk food isaround, then it potentially becomes a habitthat’s harder to break,” she told, adding thatthe new finding was “disappointing.”

The study was based on a survey ofschool teachers and food service workersabout snack options, so the researcherscouldn’t tell how many children actuallybought the sugary and salty snacks, or whetherkids who went to schools with vending ma-chines and snack bars were more likely to beoverweight than those that didn’t.

The survey results, from close to 4,000schools queried between 2006 and 2010,showed that about half of all public and pri-

vate elementary schools had vending ma-chines, snack bars or similar options wherefood was sold during lunchtime. Almost allof them sold sweet or salty snacks, whileabout two-thirds also had healthier fruit and

vegetable options. Kids generally had

more access to junk food insuburban schools and schoolsin the southern United States,according to findings pub-lished in the Archives of Pe-diatrics & Adolescent Medi-cine.

Dr. Y. Claire Wang,who studies childhood nutri-tion and obesity at the Colum-bia University Mailman Schoolof Public Health in New York,said that some previous stud-ies have suggested that schoolsnacks have become more nu-tritious in recent years.

But the new findingssuggest that “there is a lot tobe done still,” Wang told

Reuters Health. Wang was not involved in thenew study, though both she and the researchare supported by the Robert Wood JohnsonFoundation. Turner said that there’s currentlya “huge window of opportunity,” as the UnitedStates Department of Agriculture is in theprocess of deciding on regulations for snacksavailable in schools, which could limit theamount of fat and sugar in those products.

She said that in the meantime, parentsshould know what’s being sold at their kids’schools, and when. Wang added that parentscan provide a good example of healthy eatingand exercise for their young kids, and can alsopetition schools to offer better snack options.

Snack bars and junk foodcommon in schools: study

ISLAMABAD: An array of colourful seasonal flowers blooming at Constitution Avenue adding to beauty of capital.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

RAWALPINDI: Parents buying text and notebooks from book shops as new educationyear has started.

AIOU, Commonwealth of Learningsign MoU to promote education

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Allama IqbalOpen University (AIOU) andCommonwealth of Learning(COL) here Tuesday signed aMemorandum of Understand-ing to promote technology-based quality education in thecountry, especially on higher-education level.

The MoU was signed bythe visiting President of COLProf. Asha Kanwar and ViceChancellor Prof. Dr. NazirAhmed Sangi on behalf of theAIOU. The signing ceremonywas attended by the Deans andHeads of various departmentsof AIOU.

The COL is Canada-basedan intergovernmental organiza-tion, founded at the 1987 Com-monwealth Heads of Govern-

ment Meeting. It was mandatedto promote and develop the useof open learning and distanceeducation knowledge, resourcesand technologies throughout theCommonwealth’s 54 memberstates.

Under the MoU, the twosides will establish a code ofpractice for implementation ofthe COL Review and Improve-ment Model (COLRIM) atAIOU. The COL will providenecessary guidance and aca-demic support to AIOU, whichhad declared 2013 as the year ofQuality assurance.

Addressing the signing cer-emony, the COL’s Presidentlauded the AIOU’s contributionin establishing quality assurancesystem, which also serves asmodel for otherCommonwealth’s States. She

noted that there had been phe-nomenal increase in AIOU’s stu-dents’ enrolment in the recentyears, while the Universitymaintained quality in its educa-tion system as well. She appre-ciated visionary’s approach ofDr. Sangi, bringing the qualityeducation in every nock and cor-ner of the country, focusing onneglected and deprived sectionof the society.

The culture of quality shouldcome within the institutions,with a team work, she asserted,adding that COL’s educationalsystem provides an improvedmodel of learning, focusing onself-assessment.

The Vice Chancellorthanked the COL’s President forher trust and confidence in AIOUfor joining hands with thecountry’s mega university to pro-

mote quality education in thecountry. While highlightingthe achievements of AIOU inthe recent years, he saidaround 2, 65,000 studentswere added in the university’snetwork in the last three years,and it was made possible onlydue to well-organized educa-tional strategy carried out atlevels, with hard work of theUniversity’s academic staff.He expressed his confidencethat students’ enrolment willreach to 3 million by the year2020.

Under the MoU, COLwill provide overall guidancein implementing theCOL.RIM. and will identifyand appoint an external veri-fier and assign a COL staffmember to coordinate imple-mentation.

Allergy patients numberdrops at hospitals

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Capital De-velopment Authority (CDA) hascompleted homework to providemetro bus facility to the residentsof the federal capital on fiveroutes.

According to CDA officials,Member Planning and DesignSyed Mustafeen Kazmi wrote aletter to the Asian DevelopmentBank (ADB) to prepare detailedengineering design of theproject.

Earlier, the ADB had pre-pared a pre-feasibility report thatwas approved by the CDABoard. Now the bank will pre-pare feasibility report that willinclude finalized and detailed

CDA completes homeworkto run metro bus in capital

engineering design and esti-mated cost of the project, theofficials said, adding the prepa-ration of the design may takefive to six months, while theproject will cost approximatelyRs6 billion.

Under the new public trans-port project, 48 air-conditionedbuses will be run on five routesof 26.6 km and 36 modern sta-tions will be constructed to pickand drop the passengers.

The CDA officials said thatthe civic authority has decidedto get capital grant for theproject. As homework on theproject was started on the direc-tives of former Prime MinisterSyed Yousuf Raza Gilani, there-fore the civic body has decided

to make it a part of Public Sec-tor Development Programme(PSDP). The civic authority isalso considering the options oftaking loan on mild conditions.Among the proposed five routes,first will commence at Sector I-11and culminate at Pak Secretariat viaIJP Road, Ninth Avenue and JinnahAvenue, second from Sector I-11to National University of Scienceand Technology (NUST) via IJPRoad, Ninth Avenue, KarachiCompany and Kashmir Highway,third from F-10 Markaz to JinnahAvenue via Secretariat, fourth fromSector F-10 to Sector I-11 via NinthAvenue and fifth route will startfrom Sector I-11 and end at F-10Markaz via IJP Road and Ninth Av-enue.—INP

ICT police arrestoutlaws

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad po-lice arrested five outlaws fromvarious areas of the capital andrecovered heroin and hashishform their possession.

According to sources, Golrapolice station arrested Sakeena bibiand Rabia bibi and recovered 1.20gram hashish from their posses-sion. While, Ramna police stationarrested accused Waheed Gul andrecovered 120-gram heroin fromthe culprit’s possession. However,Industrial area police station ar-rested criminal Hamza and recov-ered 130-gram hashish from theculprit.Police registered cases reg-istered against these nabbed per-sons and investigation.—Online

Delay in awardingparty tickets

RAWALPINDI—Chief of AwamiMuslim League (AML) SheikhRasheed Ahmed has claimedthat leaders of the main politi-cal parties have filed nominationpapers as independent candi-dates. He stated this while talk-ing to media persons after ap-pearing before a returning of-ficer as part of scrutiny of hisnomination papers.

Sheikh Rasheed said that allmajor parties are worried thattheir candidates may join otherparties. Due to this fear, they aredelaying the awarding of tickets,he opined. He further claimedthat some key political figureswould go into the elections inde-pendently without seeking ticketfrom any major party. The formerrailway minister said that mainleaders would not contest elec-tions against each other.

The AML leader said that hewas in contact with religiousparties to seek their support forhis candidates in Punjab.

Sheikh Rasheed said AMLand PTI have made seat adjust-ment on two Rawalpindi seats— NA 55 and 56.—INP

Rs105m forfacilities in 50

schoolsRAWALPINDI—The districtgovernment will spend Rs105million on the provision of fa-cilities in 50 schools of seventehsils of Rawalpindi district.

The funds will be spent onproviding furniture, rooms, roofs,water and toilets to the studentsof the schools. The facilities willbe provided in 10 schools ofTaxila, five of Kahuta, 12 ofKalar Syedan, four of GujjarKhan, three of Kotli Sattian, threeof Murree and 16 schools ofRawalpindi tehsil.

In this regard, a meeting,presided over by DCORawalpindi Saqib Zafar, washeld the other day. EDO (Edu-cation) Qazi Zahoorul Haq, Dis-trict Monitoring Officer SaimYounas, EDO (Finance andPlanning) Syed Waqarul Hassanand other concerned officers at-tended the meeting. The DCOdirected the district governmentofficials to prepare feasibilityreport of the project.—INP

ISLAMABAD—A five day Inter-national Scientific Spring-2013(ISS) concluded Tuesday with acommitment and vow that Pa-kistani young researchers andscientists will continue to playtheir positive role in best inter-est of the country.

The Fifth International Sci-entific Spring (ISS) was orga-nized by National Centre forPhysics (NCP) in collaborationwith Abdus Salam InternationalCentre for Theoretical Physics(ICTP), Trieste, Italy, here atNCP.

International ScientificSpring-2013 at NCP

Addressing the concludingceremony , Director GeneralNCP Dr. Hamid Saleemstrongly motivated the researchcommunity in Pakistan to at-tempt challenging problems thatare essential for the economicstability and development of thecountry.

“I am confident that NCP-ICTP collaboration willstrengthen in years to come andwill prove very fruitful for thedevelopment of science andtechnology in the region.

It is our sincere wish that

this development ultimately willlead to the well-being and pros-perity of humankind” he furtheradded. Dr. Joseph Niemela ofICTP was very much impressedwith the scientific and researchactivities of young Pakistani re-searchers.

He said that ICTP will al-ways support NCP in organiz-ing scientific activities with anaim to promote scientific cul-ture in Pakistan. He appreciatedthe efforts of NCP in organiz-ing such a huge scientific gath-ering.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The number ofincoming allergy patients withmultiple complications is de-creasing in the hospitals due tochanging weather conditions andlow pollen count being reportedin the Federal capital.

An official of Allergy Cen-ter, National Institute of Health(NIH) on Tuesday said that thecenter is still working to provideallergy vaccine immunotherapyto the patients suffering fromnasal, respiratory tract, skin, gas-trointestinal tract and food re-lated allergy problems.

He said that the patients vis-iting the center are mainly suf-fering from bronchial asthma,seasonal allergic rhinitis, peren-nial allergic rhinitis, allergic con-junctivitis, skin rashes, urticaria,

angioedema and other dermato-logical problems not related toallergies.

He said patients with se-vere complications are mainlyreferred to other governmenthospitals including Pakistan In-stitute of Medical Sciences(PIMS) for relevant medicalcare.

He said when any new pa-tient with allergy symptomscome to the center, doctors getblood samples for test to checkwhether the patient is sufferingfrom such disease or not.

The official said in case ofpositive blood report, the cen-ter starts vaccination of patientwhile if doctor finds any othermedical complications he referssuch patient to the concerned

doctor or hospital. He said in some cases, the

center’s doctors also advise pa-tients for other tests for completeinvestigation of the disease.

He said the total vaccina-tion period is three year, addingdoctors include some medicinesalso in case of no positive affecton patients and they stop themedication in severe condition.

He said when some allergyproducing particles enter thenose and come in contact withthe internal lining of the nosethan as a reaction their is swell-ing and inflammation in the noseand the patient suffers fromsymptoms like sneezing, nasalitching, watery nasal dripping,watering of eyes and mild sorethroat.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadHigh Court on Tuesday directedChairman Capital developmentAuthority (CDA) Syed TahirShahbaz to conduct a thoroughinquiry into the issue of landencroachment by Bahria DastarKhwan, and apprise it about thedelinquent officers in this re-gard.

He was ordered to depute aresponsible officer for holdingan inquiry against those officialswho have failed to perform theirduties and caused loss to thecivic body.

A single member bench ofIHC comprising Justice ShaukatAziz Siddiqui resumed hearingof plea filed by Jahangir KhanJadoon against CDA.

During the course of hear-ing, Naveed-ul-Haq Deputy Di-rector Enforcement of CDA ap-prised the bench that the author-

Bahria Dastar KhwanCDA admits encroachment

upon its landity has canceled the license ofthe land allocated for BahriaDaster Khwan on March 27.

He said the authority hasgiven seven days to the manage-ment of Bahria Daster Khwanfor removal of furniture andother equipment.

Naveed said licensee en-croached upon the land of CDAand constructed building with-out approval of CDA.

He said that CDA did notgrant permission to the Bahriagroup to construct such build-ing on the land.

The CDA officer furtherinformed the court that initiallylicense was given to KhusnudAli Khan but later it was trans-ferred to Begum AkhterRukhsana, however, the author-ity rules did not allow the trans-fer from one to another per-son.—APP

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Quaid-i-AzamUniversity in collaboration withthe Higher Education Commis-sion (HEC) and PEP FoundationU.S.A. has launched afundraising campaign with acore idea of highlighting theimportance of fundraising andphilanthropy for the promotionof higher education and finan-cial sustainability of HEIs inPakistan.

During the fundraisingweek, QAU will engagealumni network, philanthro-pists and major donors for do-nations and invite them for in-vesting in SAFE (Student Ad-vancement Fund Endowment)at QAU.

In his message QAU ViceChancellor Prof. Dr. MasoomYasinzai said, “the donor sup-port is crucial for public sector

QAU launchesfundraising drive

universities while explainingthat shrinking public exchequerand funds for Higher EducationInstitutions has made it difficultto achieve the set targets. Thisinitiative will be helpful in cre-ating awareness about fund rais-ing for Higher Education, andalso providing a new directionto the students, alumni, faculty,staff and community at large.QAU is participating in thisfundraising week for achievingthe goal of an educated Paki-stan.”

He further elaborated thatuntil now more than 40% of thestudents at QAU are availingdifferent scholarships partiallyor fully funded despite havingcountless financial constraints.During the financial year 2011-12, QAU has distributed 3936scholarships of worth Rs. 67.45million under 41 different schol-arship programs.

“I cannot give you theformula for success,but I can give you the

formula for failure,which is: Try to please

everybody.”

— Herbert B Swope S M Munir, Rajeev Dubey, Shaukat Tarin, Prof Dr Atta ur Rehman, Muhammed Azfar Ahsan; Syed Sarmad Ali and others at ‘South Asia StrategicLeadership Summit- Collaboration for Change’ organized by The Nutshell Forum and India-Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Competi-tion Commission of Pakistan(the “Commission has imposeda penalty in the sum of PKR 8.64Billion on part of Engro Fertil-izer Limited (EFL) and FaujiFertilizer Company Limited(FFC) for abuse of their domi-nant position through unreason-able price increase.

The Commission took noticeon its own of a price increasecarried out by all the Urea Manu-facturers (‘undertakings’) in Pa-kistan in December 2010 thatcontinued through 2011. TheCommission constituted an En-quiry Committee to identifywhether the subject price in-creases amounted to a contraven-tion of the provisions of the Com-petition Act, 2010 (the “Act”). Inthis regard the Enquiry Reportconcluded on 25-06-2012, car-ried out an analysis of factorssuch as (i) Gas curtailment (ii)Input Costs(iii) Profit margins(iv) Subsidies, government poli-cies etc to reach at the conclu-

CCP imposes Rs8.64b penaltyon fertilizer companies

sion that the undertakings foundto be individually as well as col-lectively dominant, abused thisposition in carrying out unrea-sonable increase in prices in vio-lation of Clause (a), Subsection(3) of Section 3 of the Act. Allurea manufacturers were issuedShow Cause Notices (SCN) forindividual and collective abuse ofdominant position.

The Bench comprising theChairperson Ms.Rahat KaunainHassan and senior MemberMr.Abdul Ghaffar, in its Order,observed that in determiningwhether the undertakings wereindividually dominant in theUrea Market (the “relevantmarket”) particularly with re-spect to the aspect of unreason-able price increase, It was nec-essary to go one step ahead ofestablishing that the market wascaptive and determine on a caseby case basis whether each un-dertaking had the market powerto effect, influence or initiate aprice change in the market. Inthis regard EFL had itself dem-onstrated by being the price ini-

tiator, that it was in fact domi-nant in the relevant market.With respect to FFC, It was thusfound by the bench that havinga much greater market share inthe relevant market in terms ofproduction and satisfying thetest for market power providedfor under Section 2(1)(e) of theAct, it was the only other un-dertaking in the relevant mar-ket with the ability to initiateprice changes in the relevantmarket other than EFL. All theother undertakings were foundby the bench to be lacking inthe ability of being the agentsof unreasonable price increasesin the relevant market and weretherefore not found to be indi-vidually dominant.

The bench took into consid-eration numerous factors includ-ing local concerns such as thenature of Urea as an essentialcommodity, its importance to thefarmer and agricultural growthand the Government Of Pakistanbased subsidy provided to theundertakings and then employednumerous comparators (involv-

ing a comparison of profitabil-ity with jurisdictions of similarnature) in the light of the test laidout in the other developed juris-dictions. FFC was found to havemore than doubled its profitsfrom around PKR 11 bn in 2010to PKR 22.5 bn in 2011. Its ROEafter tax of 97.5% was wayabove the ROE after tax enjoyedby undertakings in agro basedeconomies similar to Pakistan inall aspect of the Urea business(ROE after tax in India havingan upper ceiling of 12%). In re-spect of EFL the bench observedin the light of a case of exces-sive pricing in Turkey that plum-meting profits or even a loss reg-istered by an undertakingdoesn’t imply that it cannotabuse its dominant position. TheBench looked at the increase ingross profits as they neutralizedthe effect of its debt obligationthat was peculiar to it not just interms of the fact that it carriedout the investment but also interms of the arrangement itagreed upon with the lender/financers to pay it back.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Pakistan State Oiland Engro Corporation haveagreed to use Thar coal cost ef-fective fossil fuel as a remedyto the chronic energy crisis con-fronted to the country’seconomy.

With an eye towards diver-sification of its business line, thecountry’s leading public sectorcompany, Pakistan State Oil(PSO) has signed a Memoran-dum of Understanding (MoU)with Engro Powergen Limited(EPL) to review of the techni-cal and economic feasibility ofthe Thar coal project.

The MoU was signed be-tween Mr. Naeem Yahya Mir,CEO & MD – PSO and Mr.Muhammad Ali Ansari, Presi-dent and CEO, Engro Corpora-tion Limited.

Also present at the occasionwere Mr. Zubair Motiwalla-

PSO-Engro unite to makeuse of Thar coal

Chairman Sindh Board of In-vestment and Chairman SindhEngro Coal Mining Company(SECMC) and Mr. ShamsuddinAhmed Shaikh – CEO SECMCalong with Mr. Mohammad ArifKhan – Additional Chief Secre-tary (P&D) Government ofSindh, Mr. Ejaz Ahmed Khan –Secretary of Coal and EnergyDevelopment Department Gov-ernment of Sindh and other di-rectors of the company. Addi-tionally present on location wereMr. Sohail Butt - DMD (F&IT)and Mr. Naved Alam Zubairi -SGM (Projects) on behalf ofPSO.

MoU has been signed keep-ing in view the fact that as coalis comparatively cheaper andeasily available in comparisonto other fuel sources, it has be-come the fuel of choice for de-veloped nations across theworld. Therefore, with an aimof responsibly providing for the

rising energy needs of the coun-try, PSO is exploring multipleinvestment opportunities in theenergy sector with special em-phasis on Thar Coal and intendsto acquire 50% of EngroPowergen Limited’s shares inSECMC as part of this plan.

Both PSO and Engro are inagreement that coal is the bestpossible indigenous fossil fuelresource for Pakistan and has thepotential to address the country’ssevere power shortage and bringenergy security to the country.Through this project, not onlywill the energy chain bestrengthened it will also gener-ate extensive economic activitynationwide while developingPakistan’s human capitalthrough the execution and op-eration of state-of-the-art coalmining and coal-based powergeneration projects. Addition-ally by playing a lead role in

Continued on Page 11

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The leaders ofpolitical parties PPP, MQM,ANP, PTI and others at a con-sultative policy seminar onTuesday agreed to bring newland and agrarian reforms aftercoming to power in next generalelections.

The seminar on the theme of“Land and Agrarian Reforms onPolitical Agenda of Pakistan:Critical Review of ElectionManifesto” was organized bySociety for Conservation andProtection of Environment(SCOPE) in collaboration withNational Peasants Coalition ofPakistan, Oxfam Novi, LandWatch Asia, Drynet, Interna-tional Land Coalition andANGOC International inIslamabad. Heated speeches anddebates were held on land andagrarian reforms at the program.

CEO SCOP Tanvir Arif saidthat main reason of poverty inPakistan is terrorism whichneeds to be eradicated. He saidthat rise of Talibanisation is

Political parties agree tobring agrarian reforms

causing raise in crime rate in thecountry, particularly in Karachi.He said that the political partiesshould adopt positive attitudeand bring land and agrarian re-forms in the country so as toensure food security and signifi-cant development in Pakistan.

He said that one-thirdpeople in Pakistan live in ruralareas and out of them 50 percentare peasants. He said water-log-ging sailanity is like a cancerwhich is badly affecting agricul-ture in the country , therefore,the government should take ef-fective steps to bring an end toit. As we are proceeding to holdgeneral elections, we have in-vited political leaders to discussland reforms and find solutionto introduce them.

Tanvir said that some par-ties have incorporated land re-forms in their manifestos whileremaining ones are required toinclude the same before elec-tions.

Abid Hassan Minto, Chair-man of Workers Party of Paki-stan, said that economic insta-

bility in Pakistan is due to actsof richest class, particularly feu-dal lords. He said that his partywould continue its struggle tobring land reforms in Pakistan.The party is also determined tostrive for elimination of feudalsystem from the country. Wehave filed an appeal in the Su-preme Court of Pakistan, seek-ing review of Shariat Bench de-cision that declared land reformsagainst Shariat law. He said thatthe decision in this case is likelyin April.

He said that democracywould never flourish in Pakistantill feudal system exists. HajiAdeel of ANP said his party isdetermined to bring land andagriculture reforms in the coun-try, however, political will ismandatory in this regard. Hesaid that maximum land withone family should be 25 canaland 50 barani acres.

He said that KhyberPakhtoon Khwa Province havebeen deprived of industrialgrowth because it faces loadshedding up to 18 hours.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Jubilee Life, one ofthe fastest growing life insurancecompanies in Pakistan, has takenan initiative to launch a LoyaltyProgram for its customers in col-laboration with ORIX LeasingPakistan Limited as its partner inproviding POS Network to sup-port its Loyalty Card program.This arrangement was formalizedin a recently organized signingceremony where Mr. JavedAhmed, Managing Director &CEO Jubilee Life and Mr. TeizoonKisat, CEO ORIX Leasing Paki-stan, signed the agreement.

As per agreement, ORIXleasing Pakistan Ltd., one of thefirst and largest third party in-frastructure providers for cardbusiness in the country, will pro-vide Jubilee Life its Point-of-Sales Terminals and POS Net-work at selected merchant out-lets for carrying out LoyaltyCard transactions nationwide.

Jubilee Life, through thisinitiative, will be offering itspremium customers, exclusivelybranded Loyalty Cards whichwill enable them to enjoy exclu-sive discounts and benefits atbranded merchants, restaurants,airports, hospitals and custom-ized insurance related services.

“We at Jubilee Life always try

Jubilee Life, ORIX leasing join handsfor customer loyalty programme

to provide our customers with thebest financial solutions. This Loy-alty Program represents JubileeLife’s commitment to its custom-ers by offering an extensive pro-gram that goes far beyond provid-ing security and financial benefitsof the existing life insurance poli-cies,” said Mr. Javed Ahmed.“Iam positive that this program willensure Jubilee Life to continue tomove forward with the same am-bition and zest as the previousyears. Jubilee Life will becomethe first life insurance companyin Pakistan to offer its customerswith these unique and exclusiveoffers.” he added.

Commenting on the occasion,Mr. Teizoon Kisat said, “We areexcited to be joining hands withone of the leading life insurancecompanies in Pakistan. The part-nership with Jubilee Life will helpstrengthen our best practices toprovide convenience and easytechnological solutions to peoplenationwide.”

The ceremony was also at-tended by Faisal Shahzad Abbasi,Head of Retail Distribution andMarketing - Jubilee Life, MurtazaZafar, Marketing Manager - Jubi-lee Life, Giasuddin Khan, GM &Head of e-Business Division –ORIX Leasing Pakistan Limited,Imran Qureshi, President – AccessGroup Pvt Ltd.

Power industryoverhaulingTOKYO—Japan’s governmenton Tuesday approved a long-sought plan to open up itspower industry after the 2011Fukushima nuclear disasterrenewed calls for morecompetition in the sector. Thereforms, which still needapproval from parliament,would be the first majoroverhaul of Japan’s powerindustry since the early 1950swhen regional utilities wereestablished across the islandnation. Since then, the sectorhas been effectivelymonopolised by 10 regionalfirms which are engaged inpower generation, distributionand retail sales. The cabinetTuesday approved a schemepresented by an expert panelwhich called for the utilities tobe split among their variousbusiness lines, with allrestrictions on pricing to beeliminated by 2018 at theearliest. Opening up Japan’spower grid to new competitionwould ultimately benefitindustrial and individualconsumers, said economy andindustry minister ToshimitsuMotegi.—AFP

Call to ensuregas supply to

textile industrySTAFF REPORTER

FA I S A L A B A D —PresidentFaisalabad Chamber of Com-merce & Industry (FCCI) MianZahid Aslam demanded here onMonday that smooth gas supplyshould be ensured to textile in-dustry after the maintenance ofBhit Gas Field.

He said that after a curtail-ment of 68 days, the gas wasrestored three days a week toindustries in Faisalabad duringlast month.

Owing to long suspensionof gas, industrial production re-mained almost halted and nowwith the current shortage cre-ated due to suspension of gasfrom Bhit Gas Field, the pro-duction processes are affectedagain.

He said that natural gas isan inevitable input particularlyfor ‘wet process’ in textilemanufacturing. Being no othercompetitive alternative availableof natural gas, whole of the pro-cess chain is halted due to non-availability of gas to the textileindustries.

He said that already gas sup-ply to the industries inFaisalabad is available for threedays in a week and any suddensuspension of gas has made theindustrial production to stand-still.

Chamber President referredthat Faisalabad contributes to50% of the national textile ex-ports. With the rise in domesticdemand and to meet the exportorders, industries are fully busythese days to meet the demandand also to complete the pile uporders. Such a suspension of gaswill require full week gas sup-ply to the industries to meet thetime loss.

He urged the governmentand Sui Northern Gas PipelinesLimited (SNGPL) to restore thegas supply to the industries inFaisalabad immediately besidesensuring gas supply for sevendays a week to make up the pro-duction loss.

Dollar weakensTOKYO—The dollar fellagainst the yen and euro inAsian trade Tuesday afterweaker-than-expected USmanufacturing data sparkedrenewed fears about the stateof the world’s biggesteconomy. Worries overbailed-out Cyprus and apolitical stalemate in Italyalso pressured the euro ascurrency markets look to atrio of central bank meetingsthis week. In Tokyo afternoontrade the dollar bought 92.71yen, down from 93.27 yen inNew York on Monday. Theeuro also weakened to 119.21yen from 119.82 yen while itwas stronger at $1.2859 from$1.2847. On Monday theInstitute for Supply Manage-ment said its closely watchedUS manufacturing index fellto 51.3 in March from 54.2 inFebruary, reflecting growthfor the fourth straight monthbut at a slower pace, andstoking renewed fears aboutthe economy’s recovery.Investors are keeping a closeeye on policy meetings fromthe Bank of Japan (BoJ), theEuropean Central Bank(ECB) and Bank of Englandthis week. The BoJ’s two-daymeeting, which startsWednesday, comes after abank survey Monday showeda modest uptick in confidenceamong large Japanesemanufacturers, although itcame in below expecta-tions.—AFP

Sust borderreopens

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

GILGIT—Pakistan and Chinahave resumed trade and trafficon the Karakoram Highway,through the Khunjerab Pass. Thetwo countries had earlier thisyear agreed to open the borderon 1st April, instead of 1st May,as was the past practice.

A bus carrying passengersfrom China reached the PakistanCustoms House located in theborder town of Sust on Monday.The importance of the tradethrough the Karakoram High-way has increased significantlydue to the powerful presence ofChinese business companies inGwadar. It is pertinent to notethat the outgoing Pakistan gov-ernment had handed over themanagement of Gwadar Port toa Chinese company recently.

Continued on Page 11

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Palm oil importsinto the country witnessed nega-tive growth of 12.42 percent dur-ing the first eight months of thecurrent fiscal year as against thecorresponding period of last year.

The country imported palmoil worth $1.411 billion duringJuly-February (2012-13) againstthe imports of $1.611 billionduring July-February (2011-12),according to the data of PakistanBureau of Statistic (PBS).

In Pak rupees term, the palmoil imports decreased 4.42 percentby going down from the importsof Rs.141,677 million last year toRs.135,416 million in current year.On year-on-year basis, the importsof palm oil increased by 19.61 per-cent in February 2013 as comparedto the same month of last year.

The palm oil imports in Feb-ruary 2013 stood at $201.493million against the imports of$168.462 million during Febru-ary 2012.

Palm oil imports decrease,Soyabean trade increases

On month-on-month basis, theimports of palm oil increased by8.42 percent in February 2013when compared with the importsof $185.848 million recorded dur-ing January 2013, the data revealed.On the other hand, the imports ofsoyabean oil expanded 11.70 per-cent by going up from $41.825million last year to $46.718 mil-lion during the ongoing year, thedata revealed. Soyabean importsduring February 2013 witnessedsharp decline of 95.19 percent and98.73 percent when compared tothe imports of February 2012 andJanuary 2013 respectively.

The soyabean imports duringFebruary 2013 were recorded justat $31,000 against the imports of$0.644 million in February 2012and $2.442 million in January2013. Overall food imports duringthe first 8 months of the current fis-cal year witnessed decrease of11.68 percent by going down from$3.431 billion last year to $3.030billion during the year under re-view.

Land purchasefor Navy at

Gwadar PortSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The Senate’sStanding Committee on Portsand Shipping has recommendedthe government to release Rs474 million for purchase of landfor Pakistan Navy (PN), whichwill ensure security for GwadarPort.

Deputy Chief of Naval StaffAdmiral Zakaullah told the com-mittee that the government hasassigned security arrangementto PN of all ports in the countryduring war and peace time. Inthis regard the PN required1,000 acres of land to ensuresecurity of the Gwadar Port andin this regard arrangement withprovincial government ofBalochistan and other stake-holders have already been com-pleted. This land is required forstrategic and defence purposesonly and for long-term motives,

TARIQ KHATTAK

ISLAMABAD—Cement indus-try has been experiencingmixed fortunes and still facesdilemma how to utilize its idlecapacity as it grapples withhigh domestic costs and er-ratic domestic and export mar-kets.

“We are in a fix as thehealthy increase in exports inFebruary and March was ac-companied with only marginalgrowth in domestic cementdespatches,” said a spokesmanof All Pakistan Cement Manu-facturers Association. He saidthe month of March 2013 is re-markable as the industry des-patched ever highest quantumin its history. He said the in-dustry despatched 3.326 mil-lion tons of cement in March2013 out of which 2.558 mil-lion tons was consumed locallyand 0.768 million tons ex-

Cement industry still unableto utilize idle capacity

ported. He said exports regis-tered an increase of 22.90 per-cent when compared with ex-ports made in March 2012. Hesaid exports registered over 15percent increase in February2013 as well.

He expressed concern thatthe domestic market had re-mained stagnant during last twomonths. It registered a nominalgrowth of 1.58 percent in Feb-ruary 2013 and hardly moved upby 0.17 percent in March 2013.He said stagnant economy andincrease in input costs has dam-aged the potential market of ce-ment. The input cost of almostevery industry has increasedmanifold during the last fewyears, taking heavy toll on thebusinesses that are already hit byvolatile security situation in thecountry.

During the first nine monthsof this fiscal the total cementdespatches reached 24.542 mil-

lion tons. The domestic usestood at 18.373 million tonsand exported quantity was6.169 million tons. The over-all increase in domestic cementconsumption was 6.05 percentwhile the overall decline in ex-ports was 1.19 percent. The to-tal increase in the despatchesof cement stood at 4.13 percentafter adjusting for decline inexports.

He said incessant increasein the input cost is creating dif-ficulties for the industry. He re-gretted that no facilitations areforthcoming from the govern-ment to boost cement con-sumption. He said on the in-put side the price of furnaceoil, the main energy fuel of ce-ment has gone up from Rs.33,910 per ton in 2008-09 toRs. 66,065 per ton now. Hesaid natural gas is now virtu-ally unavailable for the cementindustry.

NBF pays offDh643m debt

from MoFDUBAI—National Bank ofFujairah, or NBF, announced thatit has repaid its Dh643 million sub-ordinated loan to the UAE Minis-try of Finance in full and ahead ofits original maturity date of 2016,having received all necessary ap-provals from the country’s CentralBank and Ministry of Finance.

Easa Saleh Al Gurg, deputychairman said: “The repayment ofNBF’s subordinated debt to theMinistry of Finance in full andwell in advance of its original ma-turity date underscores the bank’sstrong business”.—Agencies

Exhibitors todisplay variouskinds of yarn

in expoSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The 2013 editionof Yarn Expo Spring presenteda new record of nearly 200 ex-hibitors from seven countriesand regions, all looking to takeadvantage of strong Chineseyarn output figures from lastyear and a booming domesticeconomy.

Pakistan zone also in hall 3featured the latest high-qualityand competitively priced yarn,including many high-count,natural, synthetic and elasticvarieties to choose from.

Yarn Expo located for thefirst time at the National Ag-riculture Exhibition Centre inBeijing covered 6,500 squaremeters in halls one and three.Participating countries and re-gions include China, HongKong, India, Indonesia, Paki-stan, Singapore and Switzer-land. This year saw an in-crease in Indian suppliers at-tending the fair, with the In-dia pavilion organised byTexprocil, the Cotton TextilesExport Promotion Council ofIndia, doubling in size com-pared to last year.

Amnesty schemeStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—FederalGovernment’s AmnestyScheme for smuggled and nonduty paid vehicles hasreceived phenomenalresponse. Till March 31,2013, over 34,000 vehicleshave been assessed to importduty and taxes at variouscustom offices all over thecountry. The total revenuecollected on such vehicles isapproximately Rs. 10 billion.The success is unprecedentedcompared to the identicalfacilities allowed in the past.Customs offices have beenworking over the weekend,beyond the normal call ofduty for this to happen.Considering the wideresponse and the demand, theGovernment has extended thelast date for availing theAmnesty to 6th April, 2013.The persons in possession ofnon duty paid and smuggledvehicles can now surrendersuch vehicles to customs andget them legalized throughpayment of duty and taxes till6th April, 2013.

Gold Tezab 51385.00Silver Tezabi 874.28

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 50420.00Gold 22 Ct 46010.00SilverTezabi 895.00Silver Thobi 815.00

USA 98.30 98.10

UK 149.23 148.93

EURO 125.63 125.38

Canada 96.61 96.41

Switzerland 103.27 103.06

Australia 102.22 102.01

Sweden 15.02 14.99

Japan 1.0456 1.0435

Norway 16.77 16.73

Singapore 79.17 79.00

Denmark 16.85 16.82

Omani Riyal 255.00 250.35

Saudi Arabia 26.21 26.16

Hong Kong 12.66 12.64

Kuwait 344.55 343.85

Malaysia 31.74 31.67

Newzeland 82.12 81.95

Qatar 27.00 26.94

UAE 26.76 26.71

KR WON 0.0881 0.0879

Thailand 3.354 3.348

Dark outlookas Eurozone

unemploymenthits 12pc

WASHINGTON—“Unac-ceptably” high eurozone un-employment ran at a record12 percent in February, offi-cial data showed Tuesday,with more than 19 millionpeople on the dole a “trag-edy” for Europe.

The figures and a weakmanufacturing sector reportadded to the gloom after dataearlier this year had encour-aged some hope the Euro-pean economy might finallyhave touched bottom.

Analysts suggestedTuesday’s reports pointedinstead to worse to come,with the jobless queues likelyto grow as the debt crisis con-tinues to sap the economy.

This file photo shows agroup of Polish nurses pro-test against austerity cutsduring a demonstration out-side of an EU summit inBrussels on Thursday, March14, 2013. Thousands ofworkers are converging onEU headquarters to demandan end to austerity measuresin a demonstration coincid-ing with an EU summitaimed at boosting growthand reducing unemployment.- AP

“Such unacceptably highlevels of unemployment area tragedy for Europe,” said aspokeswoman for EU Em-ployment CommissionerLaszlo Andor.

“The EU has to mobiliseall available resources to cre-ate jobs ... young people inparticular need help,” shesaid.

The Eurostat data agencysaid unemployment in the 17-nation eurozone at 12 percentwas unchanged from Januarywhen the figure was initiallygiven as 11.9 percent. In thefull 27-member EU, unem-ployment in February rose to10.9 percent from 10.8 per-cent, with 26.34 million outof work, it said.

Some 33,000 joined thejobless queues in theeurozone and 76,000 in theEU over the month of Feb-ruary, Eurostat said.

Compared with a yearearlier, the increase in regis-tered unemployment was1.78 million in the eurozoneand 1.81 million in the EU.

The highest unemploy-ment rates in February werefound in Spain with 26.3 per-cent and neighbour Portugal,on 17.5 percent. Greece wasput at it 26.4 percent but thisfigure is for December, thelatest available.

The lowest rates were4.8 percent in Austria and 5.4percent in Germany,Europe’s biggest economy.With youth unemployment ahuge cause of concern,Eurostat said that the joblessrate for under-25s ran at 23.9percent in the eurozone and23.5 percent in the EU.

Among the countrieswith the highest youth job-less levels, Spain was on 55.7percent, followed by Portu-gal on 38.2 percent and Italywith 37.8 percent.—Agen-cies

KARACHI—Follow-ing were the bullionrates in major citiesyesterday.

KARACHI:

MULTAN:

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tele-communication Company Lim-ited (PTCL) has organized aseminar here at Karachi to in-troduce newly launched ‘Man-aged WAN Service’, which ca-ters to the growing ICT needsof its corporate customers.

Walid Irshaid, President &CEO PTCL; Hamid Farooq,PTCL Senior Executive VicePresident (SEVP) BusinessDevelopment; Zaman Gulzar,Executive Vice President

PTCL organizes seminarfor corporate customers

(EVP) Business Zone Southand Samer Ajjawi, AdvisoryTeam Member Etisalat alongwith other company officialsand a large number of corpo-rate customers were alsopresent at the occasion.

‘Managed WAN Service’helps companies outsource theirnetworks and personalize mod-ules for individual needs in a se-cure, dependable and cost effec-tive manner and provides onlineanalytics and reporting, proactivenetwork monitoring and elimina-tion of capital expenditure of de-

veloping a network.Hamid Farooq, PTCL SeniorExecutive Vice President(SEVP) Business Developmentwhile speaking at the seminarsaid, “PTCL provides corporatesolutions in a reliable, flexibleand affordable manner, based onour vision of ‘One CompanyOne Solution’. PTCL is strivingfor end-to-end data and solutionintegration for the corporate andSME sector in Pakistan and ourlatest offering is geared towardsfilling the void for this impor-tant segment.”

ISLAMABAD: Walid Irshaid, President and CEO PTCL addressing the participants of‘Managed WAN Service’ seminar in Karachi

Call forawareness on

software piracySTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The PakistanEconomy Watch (PEW) onTuesday called for enhancedawareness regarding softwarepiracy which has emerged as athreat to businesses worldwidedisrupting their operations andthreatening their reputation.

Governments, private sectorand NGOs should turn their at-tention to raising awarenessabout rampant piracy which hasbecome a national securitythreat for many countries, saidDr. Murtaza Mughal, PresidentPEW.

A recent global study com-missioned by Microsoft andconducted by International DataCorporation (IDC) has discov-ered that the chances of infec-tion by unexpected malware areone in three for consumers andthree in ten for businesses, hesaid.

The cost of dealing with theimpact for enterprises is pre-dicted to be $114 billion globallyin 2013; in Asia Pacific thespending will reach $39 billionwhile it increases to $129 bil-lion if the cost of data loss isadded.

The study shows that con-sumers worldwide will spend1.5 billion hours and 22 billiondollars identifying, repairing,and recovering from the impactof malware, Dr. MurtazaMughal informed.

Hundreds of websites wereexamined while 2,077 consum-ers and 258 IT managers or chiefinformation officers from Bra-zil, China, Germany, India,Mexico, Poland, Russia, Thai-land, UK, and USA were inter-viewed during the study titled,“The Dangerous World of Coun-terfeit and Pirated Software.”

6th POWERGENPAK 2013 expo

on April 9STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The 6th Interna-tional Power Generation confer-ence & exhibition(POWERGEN PAK 2013) willbe held on April 9, 2013 with atheme “Emerging Energy-Mixfor Sustainable Power Genera-tion” at a local hotel.

Naeem Qureshi, ChairmanOrganizing Committee of PowerGen Pak said that the conferencewill provide knowledge &awareness, networking and Re-search & Development opportu-nities exclusively designed forpower generation through coal,hydro, renewable, thermal, andfossil fuels etc and allied indus-tries.

Energy Update is organizingthe event which will offer aninteractive conference; enablinglocal and international energyexperts, regulators, power pro-ducers, academia to talk on lat-est advancements being adoptedand utilized worldwide espe-cially in Asia Pacific Region, headded.

POWERGEN PAK 2012is supported by Alternate En-ergy Development Board(AEDB), Ministry of Water &Power, Govt. of Pakistan,Renewable Energy Associa-tion of Pakistan (REAP), In-stitute of Research Promotion(IRP), and various academicinstitutes.

UBL’s ThathiBranch

inauguratedSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sir MohammadAnwar Pervez, OBE, HPk,Deputy Chairman of UBL inau-gurated UBL’s 1320th branch inthe village of Thathi in GujarKhan Tehsil, Punjab.

Pervez hails from the villageof Thathi and through the years,has worked towards improve-ments in its infrastructure bybringing many modern facilitiesand amenities.

The inauguration was alsoattended by Mr. ZameerChoudrey, Director UBL, Mr.Amin Uddin, Director UBL, Mr.Arshad Ahmad Mir, DirectorUBL, Mr. Atif R Bokhari, Presi-dent & CEO UBL along withother senior executives of thebank, customers of the bank andleading influential personalitiesfrom the area.

developing this national re-source, both companies will beable to strengthen their financialbottom line and expand furtherthrough downstream commer-cial projects based on Thar coal.Both companies are of the opin-ion that this MoU will serve asthe foundation for a mutuallybeneficial partnership whichwill result in extensive benefitsfor future progress and prosper-ity of Pakistan.

Speaking after the event,Mr. Naeem Y. Mir said,“Through this MoU, two com-panies have combined their syn-ergies to develop a self-reliantenergy supply chain for thecountry.

Indigenous fuel is our fu-ture and with the support andbacking of the Sindh Govern-ment we are taking steps tomeet Pakistan’s energy needs inthe years to come.” Echoing his

sentiments, Mr. Ali Ansari said“This is a momentous occasionas both companies have joinedhands for a project of nationalinterest and one which will pro-vide for the energy security ofthe next generation.” In hisspeech after the signing cer-emony, Mr. Zubair Motiwallastated, “The Government ofSindh has been working tire-lessly to meet the rising energyneeds of the population and thedecision to purchase 51%shareholding in SECMC is aclear indication of theGovernment’s commitment andsupport of the Thar Coalproject.

PSO in its role of being botha public sector as well as thelargest energy company in Pa-kistan today is committed tomeeting the fuel needs of thecountry in a timely and respon-sible manner.

PSO-EngroFrom Page 10

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Business commu-nity to hold all Pakistan Conven-tion prior to forthcoming gen-eral election to evolve a consen-sus on future leadership of thecountry.

Tariq Sayeed, leader of thebusiness community and formerPresident Federation of PakistanChambers of Commerce andIndustry (FPCCI), announcedthis while peaking as chief guestat the dinner hosted by PresidentIndia-Pakistan Chamber ofCommerce and Industry, S MMuneer and S M Naseer, inhonour of newly appointed cabi-net members of caretaker gov-ernment in Sindh includingKhalid Tawab, Iqbal Pakwala,Sardar Yasin Malik and MianZahid Hussain newly electedoffice bearers of FPCCI for theterm of 2103-2014, Tariq saidthat the venue of the Business-men Convention would be eitherLahore or Karachi.

It is high time for the busi-ness community to get unitedand decide the future leadershipof the country and bring in the

Business community tohold pre-polls convention

honest and competent leaders torun the country in future.

He said that his group has wonthe FPCCI election with absolutemajority and all the candidates havebeen elected. He said that it was agood omen that five representativesof the business community havebeen taken into caretaker govern-ment and hopefully they wouldstrive hard to bring reforms in thegovernment. S M Muneer whilespeaking on the occasion said thatit was first time ever that five busi-nessmen have been inducted in theSindh Cabinet.

Though caretaker govern-ment has very little time to per-form but it is expected that busi-ness representatives would setup some paradigms of reforms.He said that no one can ignoreimportance of the business com-munity as it generates revenuefor the government to run itsaffairs, provides employment tothe masses and earn forex pre-cious exchange. He called uponthe business community in par-ticular and the nation in generalto show ultimate unity and re-ject those the exploiters keepcoming in the name of democ-

racy.While congratulating the

newly elected President of FPCCIM Zuabair Malik and other officebearers he said that new teamwould strive hard for the cause oftrade and industry. He said thatlaw and order situation in Karachiwhich was in worst ever duringthe past tenure is getting little bet-ter though still very serious as tar-get killing is yet to be stopped. Hepointed out that last year wasworst for Karachi as many busi-nessmen were kidnapped andeven murdered during the tenureof coalition government. He saidthat the new team of FPCCI hasmany hard tasks ahead and it ishoped the elected office bearersunder the new president ZubairMalik and able guidance of TariqSayeed would perform at theirbest. The Advisor to the ChiefMinister on Information Technol-ogy, Mian Zahid Hussain said thatthough time for the caretakers’government in the province is veryshort yet the business representa-tives would try to bring some re-forms and set examples for thoseexpected to take the reigns afterthe general lections.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Research andDevelopment (R&D) sectormust approach the industry toknow their research needs forneed-based research to set cer-tain goals regarding science andtechnology (S&T) developmentin the country, said Federal Sec-retary for S&T Mr. AkhlaqAhmad Tarar on Tuesday.

He was addressing as ChiefGuest at the inaugural session ofthe 3-day Pakistan Congress ofZoology (International), atJinnah Convention Centre,Islamabad.

Pakistan Museum of Natu-ral History (PMNH), a subsid-iary of Pakistan Science Foun-dation (PSF) working underMinistry of Science and Tech-nology and Pir Mehar Ali Shah(PMAS) Arid Agriculture Uni-versity organized this event.

Tarar said the R&D organi-zations should take initiatives toestablish linkage with industry

Industrial need-based researchvital to get S&T development goals

to get their input for industry-based research. He said Koreais a success example of makingS&T projects.

PSF Chairman Prof. Dr.Manzoor H. Soomro addressingthe Congress said quality sci-ence education was key to solu-tion of all problems includingenergy crisis, economic and en-vironment problems as well asterrorism. He urged the forumto focus on improving primaryeducation standards to bring ascientific change in the societythrough inquiry-based scienceeducation. He called upon theresearchers to understand howthe world is changing. Makinga mention to European Union(EU) Program Horizon 2020, DrSoomro said EU’s 7th Frame-work Program is ending thisyear but Pakistani researcherswon only six projects while In-dians succeeded to get 160projects. He hoped that PakistanCongress of Zoology would dis-cuss various and diverse topics

of Zoology.PMAS Arid Agriculture Uni-

versity Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr.Rai Niaz Ahmad, President Zoo-logical Society of Pakistan Prof.Dr. M. Afzal Kazmi, Deputy Di-rector General PMNH Mr.Muhammad Akhter Javed andPMNH Zoological Sciences Di-rector also addressed the inaugu-ral ceremony.

At the inaugural session theChief Guest, Mr. Akhlaq AhmadTarar decorated highly talentedand acclaimed zoologists withMujib Memorial Gold Medal,Muzaffer Ahmad Gold Medal,Muhammad Afzal HussainQadri Memorial Gold Medal,Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad GoldMedal, Ahmad Mohiuddin Me-morial Gold Medal, Prof. Dr. S.N. H. Naqvi Gold Medal, AfsarMian Gold Medal, Prof. A. R.Shakoori Gold Medal, Prof. Dr.Mirza Azhar Beg Gold Medal,Prof. Dr. Nasima M. TirmizaGold Medal, and Zoologist ofthe Year Award.

PAS awards2013

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Pakistan Ad-vertisers Society Awards 2013has finalized the judging ses-sions. Based on an exclusivejudging panel chaired by Mr.Anwar Rammal, Chairman, Asi-atic Public Relations, a group ofselect 36 professionals frommedia, adverting, marketing,research and academia genreswent through a grueling 2rounds of session to pick up thefinalists in each category.

The first set of Jury con-vened on March 15 – 16, 2013for two days of live judging todetermine the best idea, conceptand result oriented advertisingcampaigns.

Following that an elitegroup of 12’s most respectedspecialists gathered on 29thMarch, 2013 to shortlist the topthree (3) nominees and pick thewinners in each category. Com-bined with their credible repu-tations, extensive range of cre-ative talent and backed by PASAwards unique matrix judgingsystem, the best of the advertis-ing work has been picked up.

For judging the entries inour special category BEST INDIGITAL, an expert panel ofboth international and local con-noisseurs is formed spanningUK, The Netherlands, Dubai,India and USA.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Zubair AhmadMalik Tuesday assumed theoffice of new President, Fed-eration of Pakistan Chamberof Commerce and Industry(FPCCI) along with eightVice Presidents for one yearterm.

Zubair AhmadMalik,former PresidentIslamabad Chamber of Com-merce and Industry along witheight Vice Presidents AzharSaeed Butt, Shaikh MuhammadAli, Khawaja Muhammad Iqbal,Zafar Khalil Khan, AbdulKhaliq, Gulzar Feroz, NaveedBaloch and Shaheen Ilyas rep-resenting all provinces assumedtheir offices.

The businessman panel,the largest alliance of cham-bers in the country, hadclinched the top slots of Presi-dent and all seats of vice presi-dents unopposed in the annualelection. The panel had been

New president FPCCIassumes charge

enjoying majority in theFPCCI for the last two decadesbecause panel always safe-guarded the interests of thebusiness community.

The Co-chairman, Busi-nessman Penal and VP SAARCCCI, Pak chapter Iftikhar AliMalik thanked the entire busi-nessmen throughout the coun-try for reposing full confidencein the panel leadership by sup-porting their candidates andassured that in the days tocome, panel will live upto theirexpectations.

He said, “The best of thebest businessmen enjoying ex-cellent repute and highest degreeof integrity coupled with soundknowledge of trade were se-lected finally on merit with con-sensus of senior panel leaderscomprising Chairman TariqSaeed, chairman Indo-Pakchamber, S.M Munir, formerFPCCI Chief, Senator, GhulamAli, Iftikhar Ali Malik and oth-ers.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—US-funded En-trepreneurs Project in Pakistanspurs entrepreneurial growthamong low-income communi-ties to address a growing needfor economic opportunity.

This project provides skillsand improves the businessknow-how of low-incomewomen with home businesses.Through this project, theUnited States Agency for Inter-national Development(USAID) provides female arti-sans with the skills to improvetheir products, access bettermarkets and increase their in-comes.

My income has grownmanifold as a result of the train-ing I received from USAID’sEntrepreneurs Project. I can

US promotes economicopportunities for Pak women

think about my children goingto school and learning things Idon’t know,” said Jamila, one of26,000 women who will benefitfrom this project by 2014.

I used to embroider fabricusing Sindhi and Balochi stitch-ing and I did beadwork, but I hadvery few orders and was onlyearning $7 a month.

Today I manage a team of65 women embellishers and alsohelp these women receive or-ders, collect and deliver finishedproducts to the buyers. Now Iearn more than $19 a month,Jamila explained.

The project also trained herto represent other business-women to the purchasers ofembellished fabric.

The USAID EntrepreneursProject will train 26,000 embel-lishers across Pakistan to im-

prove their skills to increasetheir incomes by 2014.

US sponsored coursesteach women embellishers toidentify products in high de-mand, to access better marketsand business service providersand to create new value-addedproducts to attract higher prof-its. The project links partici-pant entrepreneurs to local fi-nancial institutions to accessloans in order to grow theirbusinesses.

This initiative is just onepart of a comprehensive US eco-nomic assistance programme,which creates jobs and boostsincomes with projects that ex-pand Pakistan’s agricultural out-put, build roads to facilitate tradeand offer a private equity fundto help small and medium sizebusinesses grow.

he maintained.He also claimed that PN has

developed 584 acres land butnow the government asked forvacating that place, however, thePN agreed on it. However, 1,000acres of land may be providedimmediately to for developmen-tal works at Gwadar Port.

The committee was in-formed that the PN has agreedto vacate 584 acres of land,which is in its possession since1980s. Chairman of the commit-tee Sardar Fateh MuhammadHassani directed to resolve alloutstanding issues of PN, pro-vincial government and speed-up the work on Gwadar devel-opment.

He also claimed that pricesof land were too high at GwadarPort, which has bright futureonce it becomes fully opera-tional. The chairman directedthat local people should be givenpriority in appointment atGwadar Port otherwise depriva-tion will further increase amonglocal people.

Gwadar Port chairman in-formed the committee that 99.9percent local people were givenemployment and utmost effortswere made for the local people.Senator Rubina Irfan was of theview that local people should begiven proper training at PortQasim and Karachi Port Trust.Such training will ensure ap-pointment to local skilledpeople.

Land purchaseFrom Page 13

KARACHI: President FPCCI Zubair Malik addressing farewell party in honour of outgo-ing president of FPCCI at local hotel.—PO photo Sultan Chaki

DUBAI—Gulf Capital has re-ceived an anchor investment of$20 million into its pioneeringcredit and mezzanine fund fromthe International Finance Corpo-ration, or IFC, a member of theWorld Bank Group.

This brings the total invest-ments in the Gulf Capital CreditOpportunities Fund to $215 mil-lion, positioning it as the creditfund in Middle East.

Gulf Capital Credit Oppor-tunities Fund will contribute tosustainable economic growth bylending to companies in varioussectors including infrastructure,healthcare, education, andmanufacturing. Abu Dhabi-based private equity firm GulfCapital expects assets undermanagement to double by 2018as it launches new funds to in-vest across the Middle East, itschief executive said on Monday.

IFC invests $20m inGulf Capital’s fund

Gulf Capital manages closeto $2billion in assets currently,split between private equity, realestate and a credit fund.“We planto have more funds and in fiveyears we could double our as-sets under management,” KarimEl Solh told reporters on Mon-day, without elaborating. Theinvestment agreement with theIFC will help provide long-termfinancing to small and mediumenterprises in Turkey and theMiddle East and North Africa(Mena), expand access to fi-nance and create jobs.

“More than half of small andmedium businesses in the MiddleEast and North Africa don’t haveaccess to credit,” said K. AftabAhmed, IFC Director for Finan-cial Markets and Private EquityFunds, for Europe, Central Asia,the Middle East, and North Af-rica.—Agencies

RIYADH—Demand for Saudicrude is likely to rise over thenext few months, Saudi OilMinister Ali Al Naimi said onMonday, in a sign that theworld’s largest oil exporter seesa recovery in its biggest exportmarket, Asia.

State-run Saudi Aramco cutproduction sharply in the fourthquarter of last year because ofweak economic growth abroadand lower seasonal demand foroil for power generation athome.

It kept oil output steady ataround 9.05-9.15 million barrelsper day in January and Febru-

‘Demand for Saudioil to increase’

ary, but industry sources havesaid exports could rise in thesecond quarter, driven by Asiandemand.

Al Naimi confirmed on thesidelines of an industry event inDoha on Monday that he ex-pected external demand forSaudi crude to rise over comingmonths, but said it remained tobe seen by how much.

China’s factory activity re-bounded in March in a signthat its underlying economicrecovery is strong enough toweather any patchy export pe-riods, surveys showed onMonday.—Agencies

Kuwait crudeexports toJapan fall

DUBAI—Kuwait’s crude oil ex-ports to Japan fell 17.3 percentin February from a year earlierto 6.82 million barrels, or244,000 barrels per day (bpd),in the first decline in threemonths, government datashowed, according to Kuwait’sNews Agency (KUNA) today.

As Japan’s fifth-biggest oilprovider, Kuwait supplied 6.8 per-cent of the Asian nation’s totalcrude imports last month, com-pared with 7.4 percent in the samemonth of 2012, the Natural Re-sources and Energy Agency saidin a preliminary report.

Japan’s overall imports ofcrude oil went down 10.8 percentyear-on-year to 3.56 million bpdfor the first drop in three months.Shipments from the Middle Eastaccounted for 81.7 percent of thetotal, down 1.5 percentage pointsfrom the year before.

Saudi Arabia seized the topspot, although imports from thekingdom plunged 17.3 percentfrom a year earlier to 972,000bpd, followed by the UnitedArab Emirates with 851,000bpd, up 14.3 percent. Qatarranked third, with shipmentsfalling 17.4 percent to 395,000bpd and Russia was fourth with297,000 bpd, up 68.5 percent.—Agencies

ABOUT half of all elementary schoolstudents can buy potato chips, icecream or similar snacks in vending ma-

chines and at snack bars during school, sug-gests a new study.

Researchers said they’d hoped that withmore encouragement for dis-tricts to improve nutrition infoods offered at school and anincreasing focus on childhoodobesity, fewer kids wouldhave access to unhealthy op-tions especially ones that theymight substitute for a morebalanced school lunch, LiveScience Reported.

Elementary school “isreally a crucial period wherethe preferences and behav-ioral habits are being devel-oped,” said Lindsey Turner,one of the study’s authorsfrom the University of Illinoisat Chicago.

“If kids are early on inthat environment where thatjunk food is around, then it po-tentially becomes a habit that’s harder to break,”she told, adding that the new finding was “dis-appointing.”

The study was based on a survey of schoolteachers and food service workers about snackoptions, so the researchers couldn’t tell howmany children actually bought the sugary andsalty snacks, or whether kids who went toschools with vending machines and snack barswere more likely to be overweight than thosethat didn’t.

The survey results, from close to 4,000schools queried between 2006 and 2010,showed that about half of all public and private

Snack bars and junk foodcommon in schools: study

elementary schools had vending machines,snack bars or similar options where food wassold during lunchtime. Almost all of them soldsweet or salty snacks, while about two-thirdsalso had healthier fruit and vegetable options.

Kids generally had more access to junkfood in suburban schools andschools in the southern UnitedStates, according to findingspublished in the Archives of Pe-diatrics & Adolescent Medi-cine.

Dr. Y. Claire Wang, whostudies childhood nutrition andobesity at the Columbia Univer-sity Mailman School of PublicHealth in New York, said thatsome previous studies have sug-gested that school snacks havebecome more nutritious in re-cent years.

But the new findingssuggest that “there is a lot tobe done still,” Wang toldReuters Health. Wang was notinvolved in the new study,though both she and the re-

search are supported by the Robert WoodJohnson Foundation. Turner said that there’scurrently a “huge window of opportunity,” asthe United States Department of Agricultureis in the process of deciding on regulationsfor snacks available in schools, which couldlimit the amount of fat and sugar in thoseproducts.

She said that in the meantime, parentsshould know what’s being sold at their kids’schools, and when. Wang added that parents canprovide a good example of healthy eating andexercise for their young kids, and can also peti-tion schools to offer better snack options.

KARACHI: Workers preparing fishing net for catching fish, at Ibrahim Haideri.

KARACHI: Workers of PPP Minority Wing Karachi protest against unfair distribution of election tickets at Clifton.—PO photo by Sultan Chak

KARACHI: Police personnel display ammunitions, ball bearings, explosives and suicidevests which were recovered from men arrested by police from the area of ManghopirSultanabad, during a press conference of Additional IG Karachi.

KARACHI: IG Sindh Police Shahid Nadeem, Senior Police officials, relatives and well wishersoffering funeral prayers of ASI Shakil and Afroze Khan who were killed in firing by un-known assailants on Lasbelahowk.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Metro-politan Corporation (KMC)would award a gold medal tostudent securing first positionin the Post Graduate Diplomain Local Government and Ad-ministration held in PoliticalScience Department ofKarachi University. Full sup-port and cooperation toKarachi University includingprovisioning of 2 buses wouldbe ensured.

District Central DeputyCommissioner (DC) and Dis-trict Municipal Corporation

KMC to award gold medal to positionholder in Post Graduate Diploma in LG

(DMC) Administrator Dr SyedSaif Ur Rehman said this whileaddressing the inaugural cer-emony of Post Graduate Di-ploma in Local Government andAdministration in the newlyopened conference hall of Po-litical Science Department.

Earlier, The Karachi Uni-versity Vice Chancellor (VC) DrMuhammad Qaisar formallyopened the conference hall,which was named after the re-nowned Political Scientist andformal VC of the Karachi Uni-versity Dr Manzoor Ud DinAhmed. Director Evening Pro-gram Dr Abuzar Wajidi, Dean

Faculty of Arts Prof. MalahatKarim, Chairman Political Sci-ence Prof. Muhammad AhmedQadri, Director Public HousingKMC Sabah Ul Islam, Syndi-cate and Faculty Members of theUniversity were present.

The DC said that the socialscientists were thoroughly coor-dinated in developed worldwhile formulating public poli-cies. Therefore, awareness aboutthe Local Government Systemand Administration would helpin running the state affairs at thegrass root level. He said that itwas a historical day for the Uni-versity as an important diploma

program was being com-menced after a gap of 12years.

He stressed upon the stu-dents to focus on their educa-tion. Speaking on this occa-sion the VC Dr MuhammadQaisar said that the PostGraduate Diploma in LocalGovernment and Administra-tion would provide skilled andqualified manpower to boththe provincial and local gov-ernment organizations.

He said that the inductionof young graduates in the gov-ernment organizations wouldbe necessary.

Altaf: MQMmanifesto isscientific,practicable

KARACHI—Chief of MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) AltafHussain has highly praised Elec-toral Manifesto of his party term-ing it ‘realistic’ and said that itcontains scientific and practi-cable solutions for progress andstability of democracy. He statedthis during his telephonic conver-sation with the members ofMQM Coordination Committeeand different departments at theparty’s central secretariat inAzizabad on Tuesday.

Altaf Hussain urged the in-tellectuals, columnists and jour-nalists to offer their commentsafter a thorough study of theMQM Manifesto so as to guideand point out the drawbacks.

He also appealed to thecountry’s youth, students andpeople to study and analyze theMQM manifesto and compareit with policies of other par-ties.—INP

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Former lawmak-ers of Jamaat-e Islami (JI) de-manded of Sindh caretakerChief Minister Justice (Retd)Zahid Kurban Alvi to lift banfrom pillion riding immediately.They termed the ban was an un-justified act with the people ofthe city.

In a joint statement, formerJI legislators including MuzaffarHashmi, Laeeq Khan, NasrullahShajih, Hameedullah Advocateand Younus Barai expresseddeep concern over the CNG clo-sure and said that the peoplewere facing immense hardshipin travelling by the suspensionof CNG gas. The crime rate wason the rise despite the ban on pil-lion riding, however; the inno-

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement (MQM) Coordina-tion Committee Deputy Con-vener Dr Farooq Sattar Tuesdayannounced to commence theelection campaign.

The Deputy Convener saidthis while addressing rally of theMQM activists in NorthNazimabad late Monday night.The rally was produced to cel-ebrate the commencement of theelection campaign by inaugurat-

MQM kicks off election campaigning the decoration of variousround-about in the area.

Dr Sattar on the occasionsaid that the MQM had com-menced the election campaignthat day (Monday) and the resi-dents of the area had alreadyendorsed the victory of theMQM nominees in the emerg-ing elections.

He said that the freedommovement that resulted in thecreation of Pakistan was also aterminating movement of thewhite-skinned Britishers and the

polling day of May 11 wouldthen be a day of end of rule ofthe black-skinned Britishersfrom the country.

He said that the MQMwould by coming in power en-sure peace, tranquility and har-mony across the countrythrough the implementation ofits manifesto. Under the gov-ernment of the MQM, thepeople would be facilitatedwith peace, better opportunitiesfor education and employmentand health.

Matanat assuresTEF of literacy

promotioncooperationSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Metropoli-tan Corporation (KMC) fully sup-ports and patronize the organiza-tions, which work for providingspecial children with educationand good status in society.

The Metropolitan Commis-sioner (MC) Matanat Ali Khansaid this while talking to a del-egation of ‘The Education Foun-dation’ headed by Rehana Iqbal.The MC said that the KMC pro-vides such organizations withspecial grant, which work foreducation, different trainings andsports activities for special chil-dren and these organizationswere in fact serving humanity.

He said the KMC also coop-erates for holding various sportsactivities for special children,which include cycle race, differ-ent walks, blind cricket tourna-ment, chess and different indoorgames. He assured the delegationof The Education Foundation forcooperation and in this regard let-ters would be sent to concerned de-partments for their recommenda-tions. On this occasion, Iqbal in-formed that The Education Foun-dation along with providing edu-cation to special children was per-forming such activities, which in-clude regular educational pro-gram, adult education, vocationaltraining and research works.

KARACHI—Sindh’s CaretakerGovernment has constituted fivecommittees for ensuring trans-parent and free general elec-tions.

The committees will includerepresentatives of Police, Paki-stan Rangers, intelligence agen-cies and armed forces.

According to notification,Provincial Election Coordina-tion Committee, Provincial Se-curity and Peace-keeping Com-mittee, Divisional Election Co-ordination Committee, DistrictElection Committee and District

Sindh govt forms 5 committeesto ensure impartial elections

Election Coordination Commit-tee have been established.

The Additional Chief Sec-retary Interior will be the Chair-man of Provincial Election Co-ordination Committee. TheCommittee on Security andPeacekeeping will comprise IGSindh, federal security and in-telligence agencies, representa-tives of the Election Commis-sion, and those of armed forcesand Rangers.

Divisional Election Coordi-nation Committee will compriseDivisional Commissioner as its

Chief, Regional Election Com-missioner, DIG Police, DeputyCommissioner, and representa-tives of Special Branch, in ad-dition to personnel of securityand intelligence agencies.

District Election Commit-tees have also been establishedin which Deputy Commissioner,respective SSP, and DistrictElection Commissioner will bethe members.

Deputy Commissioner willbe the head of the respectiveDistrict Election CoordinationCommittees.—Online

TTP terroristamong 26 held

in Karachi,arms recoveredKARACHI—Sindh Rangers andintelligence agencies have arrestedan alleged terrorist associated withTahrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)during raid in Karachi. Accordingto a private television channel re-port, the security agencies con-ducted raid in Super Highway areaof the city. “The arrested accusedhas also revealed the TTP’s planof targeting high profile figures in-cluding security officials during theelection.” “The terrorist was work-ing for the TTP’s armed wing,” thereport quoting sources said.

Rangers have also arrestedsome 25 suspected terrorists inthe Qasba and Noorani Colonyareas and claimed to have recov-ered different weapons fromtheir possession.—NNI

JI demands pillionriding ban removal

cent people were being badly af-fected by the said ban, they said.

They said that the past gov-ernment had a hallmark that itwas taken ridiculous steps in or-der to restore peace in the city,but the people had been badly af-fected by those steps taken. How-ever; the caretaker governmentwas also following the footstepsof the previous government.They pointed out that the stu-dents, labourers and other com-mon men would directly affectby the closure of CNG supply inthree days in a week due to therepairing and maintenance workof the Bhit Gas Field.

They urged the governmentto take cohesive action to re-solve the matter immediately, sothat the people can get relief intransportation.

No one can stopway of positive

revolution:Mahenti

KARACHI—Jamaat-e-Islami(JI) is an only party which canbring positive change in thecountry and no one can stop theway of revolution.

This was stated by JI KarachiChief Muhammad HussainMahenti in a meeting with thevarious delegations of JI officebearers here on Tuesday. Themeeting was held at Idara-e-NoorHaq. Speaking on the occasion,Mehanti said that the people haveexperienced corrupt politicianand now the time has come toelect the honest, loyal and sincereleadership of Jamaat-e-Islami.

“The JI workers will con-test elections with the true spiritof ‘Jihad’ and will get successwith the help of God”, he added.

Mehanti said that the inno-cent people have been de-prived of their basic rights in-cluding health, medical, edu-cation, safety of their live andproperty for last 65 years add-ing those who chanted sloganof ‘roti, Kapra and makaan’just made the people fool.“The time of real change is justaround the corner and the lead-ership of JI will pull the coun-try out from hot waters”,Mehanti added.

Highlighting the perfor-mance of former City MayorNaimatullah Khan, JI KarachiChief said that the former mayorhad set the records of develop-ments and evolution in the cityand ran the affairs in transpar-ent way. Mahenti urged the JIoffice bearers to play their duerole in order to bring positivechange in the country in upcom-ing general elections.

Secretary JI KarachiNaseem Siddiqui, Secretary In-formation Zahid Askari and oth-ers were also present on the oc-casion.—NNI

TURBO-charged parents still runningtheir university-aged children’sschedules, laundry and vacations

could be doing more harm than good witha study showing these students were morelikely to be depressed anddissatisfied with life. Re-searcher Holly Schiffrinfrom the University ofMary Washington in Vir-ginia found so-called heli-copter parenting nega-tively affected college stu-dents by undermining theirneed to feel autonomousand competent.

Her study found stu-dents with over-controllingparents were more likely tobe depressed and less sat-isfied with their lives whilethe number of hyper-par-ents was increasing witheconomic fears fuellingconcerns over youngsters’chances of success,HealthDay news reported. “You expect par-ents with younger kids to be very involvedbut the problem is that these children areold enough to look after themselves andtheir parents are not backing off,” Schiffrin,an associate professor of psychology, said.“To find parents so closely involved withtheir college lives, contacting their tutorsand running their schedules, is somethingnew and on the increase.

It does not allow independence and thechance to learn from mistakes.” Schiffrin’sstudy, published in Springer’s Journal of Childand Family Studies, was based on an onlinesurvey of 297 U.S. undergraduate students in

Hyper-parents can make collegeaged children depressed

which students described their mothers’parenting behavior and their own autonomyand researchers assessed their happinessand satisfaction levels. The study comes asdebate rises over how much parents should

run their children’s lives tomake them succeed.

Schiffrin said the in-crease in technology hadchanged the involvement ofparents in their children’scollege lives as the once-a-week phone call home wasreplaced with regular texting,emails and messaging. Thecompetitive marketplace andjostling for top college slotsand the best jobs has alsoboosted the involvement ofparents in college lives. Shesaid to counteract this, ris-ing numbers of universitieswere starting to run parentalorientation days parallel toevents for students to helpencourage parents to givetheir children more freedom.

Meanwhile signs and symptoms ofdepression in children include following. Irritability or anger, continuous feel-ings of sadness and hopelessness, So-cial withdrawal, Increased sensitivityto rejection, changes in appetite — ei-ther increased or decreased, changes insleep — sleeplessness or excessive sleep,vocal outbursts or crying, difficulty con-centrating, fatigue and low energy, physi-cal complaints (such as stomachaches,headaches) that don’t respond to treat-ment, reduced ability to function duringevents and activities at home.

LAHORE: Former chief minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif after meetingwith People’s Party ticket-holder from NA-92 Gujra, Khalid Bashir who joined PML-N.

LAHORE: Activists of Chowkidar Union holding a demonstration in support of their demands.

LAHORE: Girls taking interest in painting during exhibition at Qasr-e-Bahbood.

LHC dismissespleas againstcaretaker PM,

CM PunjabLAHORE—Lahore HighCourt Chief Justice Umar AtaBandial Tuesday dismisseda petition challenging ap-pointments of caretakerPrime Minister Mir HazarKhan Khoso and PunjabChief Minister Najam Sethi.

The chief justice dismiss-ing the petition observedthat the appointments weremade as per constitution andlaw.

The chief justice washearing the petition filed byAdvocate Muhammad Irfanthrough Muhammad AzharSiddique.

Earlier, the petitioner’scounsel submitted that thepresident was not consultedon the prime minister’s ap-pointment, while the Punjabgovernor was not consultedon the caretaker chiefminister’s appointment.

However, the court afterhearing arguments dismissedthe plea.—APP

L A H O R E — P a k i s t a nTahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) un-veiled its final list of candi-dates for NationalAssembly’s reserved seatsfor women from Punjab, aswell as for the Punjab Assem-bly. A PTI spokesman saidthat PTI’s ParliamentaryBoard had completed the pri-ority list for women reservedseats for Punjab and it hadwas submitted with the Pro-vincial Election Commis-sioner.

The following 39 candi-dates have been nominatedfor NA from Punjab: DrShireen Mazari, MunazaHassan, Ayla Malik, FauziaKasuri, Dr Yasmin Rashid,Syeda Saloni Bukhari,Shamsa Ali, AndaleebAbbas, Maimoona Hashmi,Sadiqa Sahibdad, HinaManzoor, Shahida Malka,Rukhsana Bhatti, Dr SeemiBukhari, Shaheena Asad,

Rifat Kahloon, Neelam Shah,Dr Nausheen Meraj, SaminaRaza Malaika, Onaza H Butt,Abida Raja, Seemi Ezdi,Nasreen Tariq, Sobia KamalKhan, Maha Raja Tarin,Nasim Majid, Syeda FarahAzmi, Ayesha Khanam, DrRubbina, Sadia Saif, RashidaZaheer, Kanwal Shahzeb,Humaira Khan, Dr Misbah,Neelum Ashraf, AyeshaKhalid, Dr Zarka Suherwardi,Zartag Gul Akhwand andTashfeen Safdar.

Another 64 women can-didates were nominated forPunjab Assembly: SaadiaSohail, Nausheen Hamid,Raheela Mehdi, NabelaHaqqani, Naheed Naeem,Naseem Majid, SabiaShaheen, Fareeha Aftab,Hina Kashif, MahparaAhsan, Ayesha Chaudry,Abida Raja, Shavana Bashir,Saadia Saif, Arsala Farukh,Hifza Akhter Bajwa, Asma

Khalid, Lubna Ehtesham,Shehla Ahsan, Naseem Zehra,Neelum Ashraf, Talat Naqvi,Samina Khan, RuksanaNaveed, Aalya Hamza,Sehrish Fatima, Fakha Agha,Asma Islam, Fatima Usman,Shaheen Reza, Saria Kanwal,Makyam Ijaz, Sarwat Robina,Iram Kayani, Zehrish Fatima,Aneela Baig, Wajeeha Akram,Bushra Sikander Bhatti,Ummul Banin, ZartajAkhwand Gul, AyeshaKhalid, Rizwana Iqtadar, FarhaAzmi, Farzana Bhatti, NighatSultana, Sarwat Robina, IffatBokhari, Shaheen Reza,Zainab Lodhi, ShabnamJehangir, Labeeba Iffat Qazi,Asiya Kamil, Nadra Aamir,Sara Naseem, Farhat Farooq,AK Zerqa, Nussarat Jabeen,Warda Talat, MaleehaHussain, Rabia Chaudry,Neelum Raheed, TaheeraJabeen, Sarwat Robina andShehla Ahsan.—APP

Cardiacailments can be

avoided withhealthy lifestyle

LAHORE—Sedentary lifestyle, smoking, diabetes,high blood pressure and un-balanced diet are some of theleading causes of cardiac ail-ments that are on the rise inthe country. This was statedby Chief Surgeon of PunjabInstitute of Cardiology (PIC)Prof. Abdul Waheed whiletalking to APP on Tuesday.

Speaking from his wideexperience and study he saidthat cardiac ailments,in adultsand children, constitute al-most 55 percent of all the dis-ease incidence.

“Healthy lifestyle, eatingplenty of vegetables, pulsesand walk are must to preventheart diseases”, he added.As many as 1600 patientsvisit the emergency depart-ment of PIC every day andaround 2000 patients aregiven medicines free of cost,it was learnt.—APP

LAHORE—Secretary Gen-eral, Jamaat e Islami, LiaqatBaloch, has said that rule oflaw in the country is pos-sible only with the estab-lishment of the supremacyof the Quran and theSunnah.

Addressing corner meet-ings in different areas of hisconstituency, NA 126, hereMonday, Liaqat Baloch saidthat with accepting the su-premacy of Allah Almighty,Holy Prophet HazratMuhammad (PBUH) and the

Practicing Quran ensures sanctityof law, end of slavery: Liaqat

Quran, the nationa could eas-ily came out of the slavery ofothers.

He said that voting forthose, who changed theirparties, could not help solvethe people’s problems. Thebiggest problem in thecountry’s politics is lack ofintegrity and competence ofrulers which leads to badgovernance, violation of lawsand rules, corruption, pricespiral and other such evils,he added.

Baloch said that only the

JI could steer the country outof crises as its manifesto hada message of hope andchange.

Meanwhile, the womenfolk of the Kachi abadi inMuslim Town area called onLiaqat Baloch at his resi-dence and protested over thedisconnection of their elec-tricity and ejectment fromtheir homes. He said thatsuch harsh steps could addto the problems of the care-taker regime and must beavoided.—APP

PTI issues candidates list for womenreserved seats from Punjab

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—Despite vocifer-ous claims by PakistanPeoples Party (PPP) to recap-ture political fort of Lahorefrom its arch rival PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) in upcoming gen-eral elections, the PPP cen-tral and provincial leadershiphas failed so far to kick outworthwhile election cam-paign in addition to workingon confidence-building in abid to create a sparkling spiritin PPP traditional voters inLahore metropolis.

Frivolity and indifferentattitude, conflicts within theparty ranks, absence of PPPchairperson Bilawal Bhuttoat this crucial time, poor per-formance of the PPP-led gov-ernment in centre and lack ofconfidence in nominatedcandidates are the main rea-sons behind lackluster elec-tion campaign in Lahore.

PPP was forced to awardsix NA and 12 PA tickets to

PPP fails to kick outworthwhile campaign

the candidates who are con-testing for the first time atthis level against their strongopponents while old guardsrefused to contest electionson one or other reason.

It is interesting to notethat former Prime MinistersYousaf Raza Gillani and RajaPervaiz Ashraf were givenspecial assignments to leadthe election campaign butboth are in hot waters thesedays owing of their own cor-ruption cases in the apexcourt while most of the cen-tral and local influential lead-ers have not been taken intoboard on this issue. It is justlike a boat cruising on theocean without a pilot and itis first time in history of PPPpolitics that the party willlaunch election campaignwithout any leadership,” asenior PPP leader told Paki-stan Observer adding he saidGillani in southern Punjab,Ashraf in upper Punjab whileManzoor Wattoo will lead thecampaign in central Punjab

but still no development isobserved so far in this re-gard.

One can gauge the scat-terbrained of the PPP pro-vincial leadership in regardto election preparations bylack of direction that PPPprovincial leadership wasinformed at the eleventhhour that Munawar Anjum,a nominated candidate forthe constituency of NA-126 did not submit his nomi-nation papers and later theticket was awarded to DrZahid Bukhari Advocate tofill the gap. MunawarAnjum’s name was shortlisted by the committee forcontesting elections fromNA-126 when Aslam Gill re-fused to combat electionsfrom the platform of PPP.Munawar served as an ad-visor to former GovernorSardar Latif Khan Khosa.Aslam Gill, once known asPPP diehard activist, gotfirst emotional shock whenlost a secure Senate seat

from Punjab due to theparty’s inner conspiracyand later he was made advi-sor to Prime Minister.

Similarly, the party lead-ership came across afterawarding ticket to BarristerMakhdoom Tariq Mehmoodul Hassan for NA-122 that hehas a dual nationality. Inter-estingly, BarristerMakhdoom Tariq Mehmoodul Hassan, a well known law-yer, deliberately concealedthis fact from the leadershipdespite this he knew verywell the consequences ofdual nationality if he com-bated elections.

Another PPP nominatedcandidate for PP-158 GhulamHabib Awan returned theticket when he joined PML-N at the last possible time.

LA H O R E—Dengue virussituation in Punjab is undercomplete control till nowand no confirmed patient ofdengue has been reportedfrom anywhere in the prov-ince, neither new denguehotspots have been discov-ered. However, activitiesand steps by various de-partments are continuingeffectively according to theDengue Action Plan 2013.

This was informed hereTuesday in a Provincial Re-sponse Committee meetingunder the chairmanship ofChief Secretary PunjabNasir Mehmood Khos. Be-sides Additional Chief Sec-retary Khizar Hayat Gondal,Secretary Health, SecretaryInformation, Secretary En-vironment, Secretary HigherEducation, Secretary

No confirmed denguepatient reported

School Education, Secre-tary Local Government, Sec-retary Agriculture, ViceChancellor King EdwardMedical University Profes-sor Faisal Masood, DirectorGeneral Public RelationsPunjab Amjad HussainBhatti, Additional DirectorGeneral Health Vector BornDiseases, Incharge of Den-gue Research Cell ProfessorWasim Akram, senior offic-ers of Punjab InformationTechnology Board, EDOHealth Lahore and officersof district government werealso attended the meeting.

The meeting was in-formed that inspection ofgraveyards, warehouses,tyre shops, constructionsites and basements arecontinuing with full vigor todetect dengue larvae. Fur-

thermore, zero period is be-ing conducted regularly inschools and colleges toprovide information andawareness to the studentson dengue menace. A com-pulsory question on den-gue information would alsobe included in examinationof students. Schools havebeen directed to ensure thatchildren wear full sleeveshirts.

Addressing the meetingChief Secretary directedthat a vigorous awarenesscampaign against denguedisease should be contin-ued so that the people areprovided complete informa-tion regarding steps takenby the government and toadopt preventive measuresagainst dengue disease.—INP

Free eye campSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Al Mustafa Wel-fare Trust (AMWT) UK hasorganized a six-day free eyecamp at Rural Health CenterChak 14 Sarwala of districtChiniot. During the campmore than 1100 eye patientshave been screened, out ofwhich 200 cataract patientswere operated, says a pressrelease.

Chairman AMWT AbdulRazzaq Sajid said that a teamof surgeons and eye techni-cians were moved from Lahorewith an operation theater forcamp arrangements. He saidmajority of patients have bilat-eral hyper mature cataract.

He said a 27 year old mo-torcycle mechanic, NasirAbbas who lost an eye at hisworkshop, was also operatedand after successful surgeryhis eyesight was restored.

Aurat Foundationlaunches GEM

CellSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Aurat Founda-tion Lahore has launchedProvincial General ElectionMonitoring (GEM) Cell tomonitor 2013 general electionin Pakistan from a genderperspective.

The aim of GEM Cell is toenhance women’s politicalparticipation during electionand in post-election period.Under this initiative a teamof GEM observers would setto monitor the electoral pro-cess from gender dimension.

The Cell envisages ob-serving and providing nec-essary assistance to womenvoters and women candi-dates.

Applicationssought for

diploma coursein PGMI

STAFF REPORTER

L A H O R E — A p p l i c a t i o n shave been invited from can-didates for admission in di-ploma courses and degreeprograms at Post GraduateMedical Institute (PGMI) foracademic session 2013-2014. The last date for theapplications for admissionshas been fixed as April, 20,2013.

This was informed byProf. Anjum Habib Vohra, thePrincipal Post GraduateMedical Institute, while pre-siding over a meeting, alsoparticipated by senior facultymembers, held to review theadmission policy of the insti-tute here.

Principal said that thepolicy of merit will be ob-served strictly during theadmission process. He fur-ther said that applicants forM. Phil courses would haveto submit the copies of resultcards of the GAT general testalong with the application asper the requirement of theHigher Education Commis-sion for registration withUniversity of the Health Sci-ences Lahore.