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LIAQAT TOOR

GABD ZERO POINT—A his-

tory-making Iran-Pakistan gaspipeline project was launched onMonday afternoon here when

President Asif Ali Zardari andPresident MahmoudAhmadinejad, after shunning in-

ternational pressures, jointly per-formed the ground breaking cer-emony to commence the con-

struction of the pipeline.Iran has almost completed its

section of the pipeline while Pa-kistan will take now 15 monthsto complete its 785 kms pipelinefrom border to Nawabshah. Thelong-awaited project will re-kindle hopes of Governments andpeople of the both the countriesin future as President Zardaridescribed the project as life-lineof Pakistan while Ahmadinejadsaid it was a great act tostrengthen regional cooperation.

The ceremony was attendedby leadership of both the coun-tries, senior officials, representa-tives of some regional countriesincluding UAE, Oman, Kuwait,Qatar and Afghanistan, a largenumber of mediamen of both thecountries and technicians andworkers of the project.

Under the project, initially,21.5 million cubic metres of gaswill be supplied which will helpto produce 4,000 MW electric-ity, urgently needed to energisehomes and industries in the coun-try. The US watched the eventwith hawkish eyes as threats have

been emanating from Washing-ton for imposition of sanctions,if Pakistan continues with theproject. Iran is already facingsuch situation. The PPP has madethis achievement as a big show

as top party leaders were presentin the ceremony including AminFahim, Hina Rabbani Khar,Naveed Qamar, Dr AsimHussain, Sherry Rehman,

Epoch-making IP gas pipeline project set in motionIran-Pak Presidents perform ground breaking It is lifeline of Pakistan: Zardari Regional cooperation will

strengthen: Ahmadinejad PPP makes it a big show US watches the event with hawkish eyes

CHAHBAHAR: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raising hands with President Asif Ali Zardari during a cer-emony marking start of work on 780-km pipeline from Iran to Pakistan on Monday.

TEHRAN—Alluding to theUnited States, Iranian Presi-dent Mahmood Ahmadinejadaccused “foreign elements” ofseeking to undermine Iran’s re-lations with Pakistan and tothwart the Islamic Republic’sprogress by using its nuclearprogramme as a pretext.

“I want to tell those indi-viduals that the gas pipeline hasno connection whatsoever withthe nuclear case,”

Ahmadinejad said in a trans-lated address broadcast live onstate television that followedthe ground-breaking ceremony.

“With natural gas you can-not make atomic bombs. That’swhy they should have no ex-cuse to oppose this pipeline.”

He described it as peacepipeline project that wouldbring the 2 countries still closer.He said the project reflected de-

Foreign elementsundermining Iran’s ties

with Pakistan: Nejad

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Continued on Page 7

Captain, 2 soldiersmartyred inlandmine blastBARA—An Army Captain andtwo security forces personnelwere killed and two othersinjured in landmine blast inKurram Agency area onMonday.

According to securitysources, the incident occurredin Dogar area of KurramAgency when a militaryvehicle struck with alandmine, killing three soldierson the spot while two otherssustained injuries.

The deceased and injuredsoldiers were shifted to nearbyhospital.

Sources said that no onehas still claimed responsibilityof the incident.

The officials said that theforces had also conductedsearch operation in the areafollowing the blast.—INP

Only men ofcharacter will winin elections: ECPISLAMABAD—AdditionalSecretary Election CommissionAfzal Khan has said that onlythose people would win thenext elections, which are trulypopular among people and havecharacter.

Talking to media menoutside Election Commissionbuilding on Monday, theAdditional Secretary noted thatthe Election Commissionwould not accept any outsidepressure in any case.

The Election Commissionhas canceled more than 40million fake votes, theAdditional Secretary main-tained.

He further added that thedelay in approval of nominationdocuments is not a big issue,and would be finalised after thecomeback of President Zardarifrom Iran. —Online

AFZAL BAJWA

ISLAMABAD—Unlike US bully-ing Pakistan over the gas pipelinefrom Iran, UK has politelyalarmed that it would not supportany measure of energy pursuit inbreach of international sanctions.

Without naming thetransnational Iran-Pakistan (IP)Gas Pipeline Project that PresidentAsif Ali Zardari and his Iraniancounterpart MehmoodAhmedinejad together inaugu-rated at the Gabd Zero Point on

Monday, UK has “called on Pa-kistan to ensure that it meets itsinternational obligations in thisregard.”

Asked for the official stanceon 1931-kilometer gas pipelinefrom Iran to Pakistan, a relevantofficial in British High Commis-sion in Islamabad requesting notto be named said “the UK fullysupports Pakistan’s efforts to in-crease economic development,which is much needed, and rec-ognizes the need to have construc-tive relations with all its

neighbours.” “However,” herushed to add, “the UK could notsupport any measures which werein breach of international sanc-tions and we could call on Paki-stan to ensure that it meets its in-ternational obligations in this re-gard,” he concluded.

Meanwhile the independentmedia in UK has appeared to befocusing on the economic plausi-bility of the project and gravity ofPakistan’s urgent need for afford-able sources of energy for the

UK supports Pakistanenergy quest sans IP

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‘ECP decides printing of nominationforms sans President approval’

EC proposals need to be approved by President: NaekSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP) hasdecided to order printing of thenew nomination papers pro-posed by it, a member of thecommission Justice (retd)Kayani said on Monday.

According to the ECPmember, the proposed draft wassent to the president only to ful-fill the formality, however, he

added there is no need to wait forthe president’s approval.

Kayani said that only thosenomination forms would beprinted to which the ECP hadgranted approval.

Meanwhile, legal experts areof the view that the ECP has aright to order the president or anygovernment official to get anywork done and it also reserved aright to take action if the orderswere not implemented.

Justice (retd) WajihuddinAhmed said that the ECP coulddirect or order any official tohelp the commission in holdingfree and fair elections.

He further said that if the or-ders of the commission wererefused then it could also takeaction against the official.

Two members of the ECPare also of the view that free andfair elections are not possible

Continued on Page 7

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Supreme Courthas rejected Punjab governmentreport in Badami Baghi arsonincident and again sought reportfrom provincial government onMarch, 13.

A 3-member bench of SCpresided over by the Chief Jus-tice of Pakistan IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry issued aninterim order here Monday insuo moto notice case of BadamiBagh arson incident. The in-terim order said “prima facie IGPunjab police, CCPO and citypolice officer failed in provid-

ing protection to the people.Different stories are being toldto the court that election wasbeing held in Loha market anda Christian committed blas-phemy during the elections. It isbeyond comprehension of thecourt that how can the inmatesof Joseph colony be linked toLoha market.

Acting IG Punjab Police,advocate general Punjab andother senior officers appeared inthe court. The court was told thatelection was going on in Lohamarket when the incident tookplace and a member of Chris-tian community committed blas-

phemy. During the Jumma dis-course, people were incited andthey resorted to rioting.

Justice Azmat Saeed re-marked “ you had told pridefullythat people were pulled out andno loss to life had occurred.Where the people were kept af-ter they were evacuated from thearea. You have said in the reportthat some people had left thearea on their own and the re-maining were evacuated by po-lice.

CJP remarked “ nothing issaid about the reasons and pro-ceedings in your report. Court’s

SC spurns PunjabGovt report

Court decision to extent of Pervez Ashraf final: CJP

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IAF lost 29fighter planesin past 3 years:AntonyNEW DELHI—In the last threeyears, the Indian Air Force haslost 29 fighter planes including12 MiG-21s in crashes in whichsix pilots lost their lives, theLok Sabha was informed onMonday.

The aircraft lost in thecrashes were 12 MiG-21s, 8MiG-27s, 4 Su-30MKis, 2Jaguars, 2 Mirage-2000s and 1MiG-29, defence minister AKAntony said in reply to awritten question.

“In these accidents, a totalof six pilots and six civilianshave lost their lives.

Answering another query,the minister said the IAF wasshort of 515 pilots but theavailable strength wassufficient to meet its opera-tional requirements.

“The strength of pilots as

ISLAMABAD—Prime Minis-ter Raja Pervez Ashraf hassaid that Pakistan was com-mitted to the Bali Processand eliminating sufferingscaused due to human traf-ficking. The Prime Ministerwas talking to Air ChiefMarshal (R) Angus Hous-ton, Australian PrimeMinister’s Special Envoy atPrime Minister House onMonday and discussed is-sues relating to human traf-ficking. Australia is con-cerned about human traf-ficking including from Paki-stan and the visit of the en-voy is part of the effort tobring an end to this trend.

Welcoming Mr. Angus

End of human traffickingPakistan focus: Raja

Houston the Prime Minis-ter said that Australia andPakistan enjoy good rela-tions and have remarkablecooperation in various ar-eas. Appreciating the keeninterest and full support ofthe Austral ian govern-ment, the Prime Ministersaid that people of Paki-stan appreciate the assis-tance provided by the gov-ernment of Australia, espe-cially for establishing facili-tation centres.

Air Chief Marshal (R)Angus Houston thanked thePrime Minister for findingtime to meet him which re-flected the close relationshipand the importance attached

to relations with Australia. AirChief Marshal (R) AngusHouston briefed the PrimeMinister about the policiesand efforts being made bythe Australian governmentto check human traffickingand reiterated that Australiawill work closely with Paki-stan to reduce human traf-ficking.

The Envoy suggestedthat Pakistan raise its repre-sentation in the Bali Processto the Ministerial level, whichwas accepted by the PrimeMinister. The meeting wasalso attended by senior offi-cials of the Ministry of For-eign Affairs and Ministry ofInterior.—INP

ISLAMABAD: Akira Kono, Charge d’Affaires of Japan to Pakistan and Ms Karen Allen, UNICEF Deputy Represen-tative in Pakistan singing documents during ceremony at the Minister Inter Provincial Coordination.—PO Photo bySultan Bashir

ISLAMABAD—The Govern-ment of Japan decided to ex-tend a grant of 226 millionJapanese Yen (approximately$ 2.62 million) to Pakistanthrough UNICEF to supportthe polio eradication pro-gram in Pakistan. Roughly $2 million out of the total grantwill cover the procurement ofapproximately 13 milliondoses of oral polio vaccine(OPV), and the rest will meetthe cost of social mobiliza-tion activities.

The notes to this effectwere signed and exchangedbetween Mr. Akira Kono,Chargé d’Affaires of Japan to

Japan provides $2.62manti-polio aid to Pakistan

Pakistan and Ms. Karen Allen,UNICEF Deputy Representa-tive in Pakistan. Mr. FaridullahKhan, Secretary, Ministry ofInter Provincial Coordinationwas also present to witnessthe signing.

The Government of Japanhas focused on polio eradi-cation as a global challengeon public health of the hu-man race. Since 1996, Japanhas provided grant assis-tance for polio eradicationevery year through UNICEFand these efforts have accu-mulated to approximately US$91 million including today’ssigning. In addition to that,

in 2011, Japan renewed itscommitment to this endeavorby providing a soft loan ofapproximately US$ 65 millionin order to make Pakistan a“polio-fee” country.

In his remarks at the sign-ing ceremony, Mr. Kono said“Japan’s commitment andstrong partnership with po-lio infected countries as wellas development partners willcontinue until the day ofcomplete eradication of po-lio from the world.” Mr. Konotook the opportunity of thesigning to renew Japan’s sin-cere gratitude to the interna-tional community including

Pakistan for support to Japanafter the Great East JapanEarthquake and subsequenttsunami which took place onMarch 11, 2011, exactly twoyears ago.

Today’s signing, accord-ing to Mr. Kono, showedhow Japan has continued itscommitment to socio-eco-nomic well-being in theworld despite the challeng-ing situation in Japan. Fur-ther, he expressed his hopethat this grant assistance willcontribute to strengthen theexisting friendly relation be-tween the people of Japanand Pakistan.—NNI

M. HALEEM ASAD

TIMERGARA—Former chiefminister of KhyberPakhtunkhwa Akram KhanDurrani has said that electionboycott by the Jamaat-i-Islami in 2008 had beenproved wrong as it had badlyaffected Pukhtuns in the re-gion. Addressing an ‘IslamZindabad conference’ atKhaima Balambat he said thepolitical scenario would havedifferent if the JI had takenpart in previous election.

The JUI-F central vicechief and former senatorMaulana Gul Naseeb Khan,former senator RahatHussain, Dir Lower amir QaziFazlullah, provincial vice chief

Maulana Attaur Rahman, QaziAyazud Din and other lead-ers also addressed the con-ference. Akram Khan Durranisaid that lives, properties andhuman dignity in the regionhad not been secured duringthe last five years. “Lawless-ness has been destroyingstate integrity and no one isfeeling security in the coun-try,” he said, adding thatpresent rulers had failed tosatisfy people of the province.

He said the people ofBalochistan were fed up withthis government and wereplanning to get freedom. Hesaid the JUI-F leadershippaved the way of talks withTaliban but the central gov-ernment was still hesitating.

“The centre does not allowMaulana Fazlur Rahman to goahead,” he said. The JUI lead-ers said that the ruling PPPand ANP had failed to fulfilltheir slogans of ‘roti, kapraaur makan’ and ‘khapalakhawra khapal ikhtiar’. Hesaid both the parties had beenvoted by masses for solutionto their problems but the na-tion was pushed more to con-front new problems.

On the occasion dozensof party activists belongingto Talash, Lajbok, Maidanand Timergara announced tojoin the JUI-F. The new com-ers were greeted by the JUI-F leaders and said that theparty would be strengthenedwith their entries.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—The general bodyof PIA’s retired employeesdemanded immediate in-crease in the pension of re-tired employees of the airlineas only once in a decade theincrease was given to them.President Pakistan Interna-tional Airlines’ Retired Em-ployees Association (Piarea)Syed Tahir Hassan presidedover the general body meet-ing of the association whichwas well attended by hugenumber of retired employeesalong with foreign and out-station representatives.

The meeting welcomedthe suggestion of increas-ing the salaries of PIA em-

ployees recently by PIAmanagement, and de-manded that now increasepension of all retired em-ployees as promised by thechairman during a meetingrecently because retiredemployees are finding ithard to survive in thisrecessionary period withsuch meager amount ofpension.

PIAREA also demandedthat the payment of com-muted amount and MaturedGroup Insurance shouldalso be given to the retiredemployees. He said the pen-sion of the retired employ-ees of the national airline isvery low as compare to thepensions of the employees

of other government de-partments, therefore thisdiscrimination should beended and a due raise in thepensions be made.

‘This policy of denyingthe lawful rights of the re-tired employees of PIAshould be changed, andthey should be given theirlegal rights while makingtheir pensions respectablefrom current 32 percent to 50percent, as per governmentrules,’ the general bodymeeting demanded. Also, headds, the pension should beincreased every year in linewith the salary increase ofthe regular employees ac-cording to the Admin Order21/2003 of the airlines that

stated that the ex-staff pen-sion will be raised along withthe salaries of its in-servicestaff.

Currently, the nationalairline gives its employees 32percent of their total salaryas pension but the formula itapplies in the end makes thepension calculated on theirbasic pays. So the airlineshould either give them 50percent pension on the ba-sic pay or make the 32 per-cent pension to be given ontheir total salaries.

‘According to the rules,the PIA Pension Trust Fundshould have Rs 25 billion toRs 35 billion earmarked forthe retired employees of thenational airline. So any in-

crease in the pensions willnot affect the PIA’s budget,’he reasoned.

The president of the as-sociation said that in themidst of current inflationaryperiod the retired employ-ees of the airline are facinghardships, therefore, it is theneed of the time to givethem their due raise in theirpensions. In the end, presi-dent PIAREA said thatChairman PIA should alsoconsider the valuable ser-vices of the retired employ-ees and must give themtheir due right in terms ofpension. He also offered theservices of the retired em-ployees in the best interestof the national airline.

BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD—Ground-break-ing of historic Iran-PakistanGas Pipeline jointly under-taken on Monday by Presi-dent of Pakistan Asif AliZardari and President of IranAhmedinejad was widelyhailed by common peoplehere. They said that despitewarnings by US, the Presi-dent of Pakistan has taken abold and courageous deci-sion in the supreme interestof Pakistan.

They further said thatthough the decision of lay-ing the I-P gasline was be-lated and it should have beentaken four years back yet thishistoric decision would go along way in overcoming theenergy crises which wouldultimately pave the way forbettering socio-economicconditions in the country andalso further cementing age-old brotherly relations be-tween Pakistan and Iran.

****Pakistan People’s Party

alongwith its allies would give

tough time to their rivals ingeneral elections and pre-dicted that Sharif Brotherswould never come to powerin the country, declared RajaRiaz Ahmad, Oppositionleader in Punjab Assembly onMonday. He alongwith Dr.Hasnat Ahmad Shah, DeputyGeneral Secretary PPP, Punjab,and Rai Mehdi Khan Kharal,President All Pakistan KharalBiradari, visited Hafizabad onthe invitation of KharalBiradari. Rai Fayyaz AhmadKharal, nephew of late RaiMuhammad Shafi Kharal whoparticipated in the generalelections from 1962 to 1997announced his decision tojoin the PPP.

Raja Riaz Ahmad and Dr.Hasnat Ahmad Shah havewelcomed Fiaz Ahmad Kharalfor joining People’s Party andsaid that Malik FayyazAhmad Awan MPA and Presi-dent District PPP, who wasalways honoured by the PPPhas become ‘lota’ and joinedPML-N which was unbecom-ing for him because his fam-ily remained associated with

the People’s Party since 1997.He, however, congratulatedNawaz Sharif and ShahbazSharif for “making” lotas andadded that the PPP wouldbury lotacracy in the coun-try. They further said that therecent lota of Hafizabadwould be broken by RaiFayyaz Ahmad Kharal in theelections. On the demand ofKharal Biradari they said thatthey could not promise partyticket to Fayyaz Kharal fromPP-105 and said that it wouldbe decided by the party highcommand.

Replying to a question,he said that OppositionLeader in NA is “agent ofAgencies”. Replying to yetanother question, he said thatthe ruling party has not yetnominated the names forcaretaker PM. Raja RiazAhmad lauded the inaugura-tion of laying of IP gas pipe-line. Rai Mehdi HassanKharal, President of KharalBiradari, has declared thatKharal Biradari in the coun-try would support PPP Can-didates in the country.

Women’sparticipationfor country’sprogress must

GUJAR KHAN—BegumNusrat Pervez Ashraf, the wifeof the Prime Minister on Mon-day said active participationof women at national level wasmust for the country’s devel-opment and progress. Ad-dressing a gathering ofwomen in Gujar Khan’sBhadana town, Begum Ashrafsaid the government was fol-lowing Mohtarma BenazirBhutto’s vision of womenemancipation.

Begum Nusrat Ashrafurged the women to playtheir role in refining the soci-ety as they had greater re-sponsibility over their shoul-ders for upbringing the nextgenerations. She said thepresent parliament hadpassed unprecedented legis-lation relating to uplift ofwomen in the country.

Later, Begum Ashraf dis-tributed sewing machinesamong the deserving womento help them earn livelihoodwith honour. She also visitedthe shrine of Syed Agha PirZaman Shah Badshah and laida ‘chaadar’ over it. BegumAshraf visited another townof Jhanda and interacted withthe local women.—APP

AKF installs2000 hand pumps

in rural areasI S L A M A B A D — A l - K h a i rFoundation has installedover 2000 hand pumps in re-mote villages to provide cleandrinking water to masses.AKF has been working onMillennium DevelopmentGoals (MDGs) announced bythe United Nations in 2000,this was said by Tahir Beeg atrustee of UK based Al- KhairFoundation while talking toMedia here. He said toachieve these goals, AKF hasgiven particular importanceto the role of women.

This includes giving pri-ority to the widows and or-phans, in handing overnewly built houses after thedevastating floods of July2010 in Pakistan, so thatwomen and families can livein secure surroundings.AKF has also establishedpurpose built adult trainingcenters for women. Womenare being taught technicalskills such as sewing, em-broidery and dress makingwith aim to improve theirfamily economic condi-tions.—APP

Consumer RightsDay on March 15

ISLAMABAD—The WorldConsumers Rights Day is tobe commemorated acrossPakistan on March 15, likeother parts of the globe, tohighlight the importance ofthe day. The theme for WorldConsumer Rights Day(WCRD) 2013 is “Consumerjustice now”.In Pakistan,there is a sound regulatorymechanism of internationalstandards including TheCompetition Commission ofPakistan (CCP) which is ef-fectively working for the pro-tection of consumers right,and promoting fair businesspractices and healthy com-petition among the marketplayers.

Various civil societiesand consumers rights orga-nization will arrangeprogrammes, seminars, andtalk shows to highlight theimportance of the day. TheConsumer Rights Day wasfirst observed in 1983 whichaimed at creating awarenessabout the rights of the con-sumers amongst themasses.—APP

IP gas project to revolutionisePakistan economic scenerio

JI polls boycott in 2008ditched Pakhtuns: Durrani

Retired PIA employees demand pension raise

HYDERABAD: Relatives of late Ghulam Mohammad protesting against his killing atPathan Colony.

HARIPUR: KP Minister for Higher Education Qazi Muhammad Asad unveiling theplaque to inaugurate Government Girls Degree College at Sarai Saleh.

Pak Post holdingLetter WritingCompetition

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Postis holding 42nd Internationalletter writing competition forstudents under 15 years ofage to join move of the Uni-versal Postal Union (UPU).Last date for receipt of thecomposition is March 20. Thetheme for the competition is“Write a letter about whywater is precious”, said apress release issued here onMonday.

In addition to PakistanPostage Album and certifi-cate of merit; following threecash prizes will be awardedto those winning first threepositions in this competi-tion, first prize Rs. 20,000,second Rs. 10,000 and thirdRs. 5000. The best letter (En-glish Version only) will besent to the UPU, where a juryset up by United NationsEducational, Scientific andCultural Organization(UNESCO) will select win-ners to be awarded gold, sil-ver and bronze medals bear-ing relevant inscription andtheir names as well as al-bums of the UPU officialpostage stamps.

In addition, the next fouror five winners will beawarded certificates and con-solation prizes by the UPU.The envelopes must beclearly marked as “42nd In-ternational Letter WritingCompetition (2013). The par-ticipants must send his en-try either in English or Urduto the Assistant Director (In-ternational Post) PakistanPost Directorate General G-8/4, Islamabad-44080, by Ur-gent Mail Service (UMS) orthrough Registered Post.Sending of entries in bulk isnot allowed.—APP

ECP asks admin toremove oversize

billboardsSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Provincial Elec-tion Commissioner KhyberPakhtunkhwa has taken seri-ous notice of non implemen-tation of their directives re-garding removal of oversizebillboards and signboards.The ECP had given five daystime to the candidates to re-move their oversize adver-tisement tools which expiredon March 10. The ElectionCommission directed theconcerned authorities to takeaction against all such over-size banners and the sign-boards which were in viola-tion of the code of ethics ofthe election commission.

The Election Commissionhas also sought a report bythe administration in this re-gard. The Provincial ElectionCommission has also issueda letter few days back, to ChiefSecretary KP, Home Secre-tary, Additional Chief Secre-tary FATA, Inspector Generalof Police, Commissioners,Deputy Commissioners, Po-litical Agents, District PoliceOfficers, wherein the admin-istrative officials have beenasked to remove all such sign-boards and banners, whichwere more in size then the oneprescribed the code of ethics.It merits mentioned here thatElection Commission of Paki-stan in its code of conducts.

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Me-teorological Department onMonday forecasts mainly dryweather in most parts of thecountry during next 24 hours.According to Met Office,Synoptic, Situation/Outlook:A fresh western disturbanceis likely to affect western partsof Balochistan tonight andlikely to grip upper parts ofthe country on Tuesday.

Mainly dry weather withpartly cloudy conditions isexpected in most parts ofPunjab and Sindh duringnext 24 hours. In KhyberPakhtunkhwa, mainly dryweather with partly cloudyconditions is expected inmost parts of the province,however light rain-thunder-storm is expected at isolatedplaces of Malakand divisionduring next 24 hours.

Met Office anticipatesmainly dry weather in mostparts of the Balochistan,Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.However light rain-thunderstorm is expected atisolated places of Quetta di-vision during next 24 hours.A fair/ partly cloudy weatherhas forecast for Tuesday inthe metropolis, said weatherreport on Monday.

According to a weatherreport, the minimum tempera-ture is expected to remain inthe range of 16 to 18 degreecelsius. It said rain/ thunder-storm is likely to occur at iso-lated places in Quetta, Kalatand Zhob divisions of

Dry weather to continueBalochistan while theweather will be dry elsewherein the region. The local Metoffice has forecast partycloudy weather for Multanand its suburbs during thenext 24 hours.

On Sunday, the maximumand minimum temperature wasrecorded as 29.3 degreescelsius and 16.5 degrees cen-tigrade, respectively. Humiditywas recorded as 80 per cent at

8 am and 30 per cent at 5 pm.According to the Met of-

fice‚ temperature recordedearly morning in Islamabadwas 16 °C ‚ Lahore 14 °C ‚Karachi 20 °C ‚ Peshawar 17°C ‚ Quetta and Murree 10 °C‚ Gilgit 6 °C and Muzaffarabad15 °C. Weather in KhyberPakhtunkhwa twirled coldwhen sudden showers lashedPeshawar, Mardan, Kohat,Hazara Division, Ghazar,Malakand, Chitral and mostparts of the Khyber Agencyearly Saturday morning. Ac-cording to local Meteorologi-cal Office the late night rainhit almost the entire area ofKhyber Agency while in someparts hailstorm was also re-corded causing improvementin chilly condition—APP

PPP fulfilled all promisesSIALKOT—Federal Minister for Na-tional Regulation and Services DrFirdous Ashiq Awan has said the PPPgovernment has fulfilled all its promisesby providing all basic facilities to peopleat their door steps. Addressing a publicgathering after inaugurating a gas sup-ply project in Bajwat, she said the PPPhad promoted positive politics afterending politics of revenge in the area.She said: “The PPP government firmly

believes in fair politics and is serving people without anydiscrimination.” “The PPP government has completed arecord development projects in Bajwat villages due to whicha new vista of socio-economic and human developmenthas begun in this region,” she added. The minister saidthat political orphans are afraid of their expected defeat inthis area in general elections because of these develop-ment projects .” PPP to file candidate from South WaziristanAgency: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for the first time inhistory of the country will file its candidate from SouthWaziristan Agency after extension of Political Parties Act2002 to FATA areas. President Peoples Lawyer Forum FATAchapter, Shah Fahad Ansari while talking to APP on Mon-day said like all parts of the country, PPP is a popular partyin South Waziristan agency. He said that PPP has strongroots in FATA and will contest election from there. He saidPPP leadership always raised voice for the rights of FATA, adding all mega development projects including first ca-det college in Razmak was built in PPP government on thedirection of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He said PPP governmenthas fulfilled its commitment of bringing people of FATAinto mainstream politics by extending Political Parties Act2002 to the FATA areas.—APP

Elements trying to hinder polls to failTHATTA—Secretary General PML-QMushahid Hussain Sayed has called foridentifying elements trying to hindertthe general elections. He said it is nec-essary to strengthen the Election Com-mission and empower it to conduct free,fare and transparent general elections.Addressing a party gathering at Chilyatown on National Highway, some 12kilometres from Thatta city the PML (Q)leader contended that the people of Pa-

kistan have sustained enormous ups and downs in thepolitical history of the country and that the stability andvitality of the institutions was hidden in regular, fair andimpartial elections within the time schedule. He further saidit is vital to make the future of Pakistan prosperous keep-ing in view its potential and literate and politically con-scious masses. He said the country is bound to progressfurther if true representatives of masses are brought intothe assemblies from the middle class. He said that his partyhas encouraged the middle class cadre by bringing theminto the mainstream of the political arena in contrast to thepast when feudal class dominated the politics. He alsosaid that the country can prosper when the due rights andprivileges are accorded to the provinces. PML(Q) leadersaid that the conventional politics id nearing its end and infuture the people will use their right of franchise for a causeinstead of the chair. He said that Thatta is a historical cityits people have become politically conscious and mature.Mushahid said that his party cadre is vibrant with veryactive workers, specially women leaders and workers. Hesaid that former dictator Pervez Musharraf was no longeran Army General and can take part in politics.—APP

Alliances cannot harm PPPHYDERABAD—Federal Defence Minis-ter Syed Naveed Qamar has said thatthe opposition parties’ alliance inSindh will cause no electoral harm toPakistan Peoples Party (PPP) sincesimilar groups failed to do the same inthe past as well. “Their alliance is likezero plus zero,” he commented whiletalking to the media during the inau-guration of a bypass in Mula Katiararea in Tando Muhammad Khan. Qamar

said the PPP had fought such alliances in the past aswell, adding that while such groups faded away the PPPand its popularity sustained. While responding to a ques-tion, the Minister rejected the possibility of any delay inthe holding of elections. “In the past the elections wereheld in a similar law and order situation,” he said. TheDefence Minister announced that the PPP’s election cam-paign will start from March 17, a day after the electedassemblies complete their constitutional tenure. Later,while addressing the foundation- stone laying ceremonyof Citizen’s Foundation School, Naveed Qamar said pro-viding quality education in the rural areas was essentialto bring the quality of life there at par with the urbanareas. “The children of poor people, farmers and labourershave the right to get the same education which the chil-dren of rich people get,” he commented. Earlier FederalMinister Anwar Ali Cheema Monday said that no singleparty would be in a position to form government after thenext general elections. Addressing the oath-taking cer-emony of newly-elected members of Press ClubBaghtanwala Tehsil, Cheema said that the Pakistan Mus-lim League-Quaid, would play an important role in form-ing the coalition government by securing a large numberof seats. Clarifying the news of leaving the party, he saidhe would not quit the PML as it was the real MuslimLeague.—APP

SALU, UK Varsity sign education MoUKHAIRPUR—A Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) between University ofLancashire (UK) and Shah Abdul LatifUniversity (SALU), Khairpur was signedon Monday. The MoU is aimed at de-veloping and understanding educa-tional collaboration and professionalbuilding by promoting educational andprofessional activities. Besides, the staffdevelopment and teaching of the staffof both the parties will be carried out as

part of MoU. Staff/students from the SALU will apply andenroll for undergraduate or post-graduate programme atthe University of Lancashire for academic year 2013. Theywill be charged a discounted tuition fees of 8500 pounds,which will become payable at the time of enrolment. TheMoU was signed on behalf of University of Lancashire’sDeputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) Dr. Graham Baldwinand on behalf of Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur’sVice Chancellor Prof Dr. Parveen Shah. Four BZU stu-dents injured in clash: Four students of Bahauddin ZakariyaUniversity (BZU) were injured in a clash between twogroups on Monday. According to in charge of the univer-sity police picket, Sub-inspector Tahir Maqsood, a quarrelbetween two student groups after an exchange of harshwords. During the clash, firing also started from the roof ofUsman Hall (Boys Hostel) in which Javed was injured as abullet hit into his leg. Three other students of both groupswere also injured, he added. The injured Javed was shiftedto Nishtar Hospital. Later, police and BZU administrationreached the scene to control law and order. The universitywas sealed for investigation and arrest the accused. Thelaw and order situation was bad in the university over thelast few days.—APP

ISLAMABAD—The Merit andNeed-Based US ScholarshipProgramme awards scholar-ships for university study toacademically talented, finan-cially needy Pakistani stu-dents. The programme tar-gets students going to gov-ernment schools in rural orremote areas, especially innorthern Sindh, Balochistan,southern Punjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa, and the Fed-erally Administered TribalAreas.

Students can pursuestudy in agriculture(Master’s or Bachelor’s de-grees) or Management at apartner Pakistani university,

a press release issued by theUS Embassy here on Mon-day said. The 11 partner uni-versities are: Quaid-i-Azam,Islamabad, Lahore Univer-sity of Management Sci-ences, Lahore, Institute ofBusiness Administration,Karachi, Institute of Busi-ness Administration,Sukkur, Institute of Manage-ment Science, Peshawar,SZABIST, Karachi,BUITEMS, Quetta, KhyberPakhtunkhwa AgricultureUniversity, Peshawar, Uni-versity of Agriculture,Faisalabad, Sindh Agricul-ture University, Tandojam,and Pir Mehr Ali Shah Uni-

versity of Arid Agriculture,Rawalpindi.

The press release high-lighted the success-story ofa Pakistani student whobenefitted from the scholar-ship programme: It is a fa-miliar concern heard fromstudents all over the world:“I’m smart and I know I cando great things, but how willI ever pay for university?”Wali Sultan from Daska inPunjab asked himself thatquestion in 2010. Tragically,his father had passed away,and he worried he would notbe able to stay in school. “Ihad always dreamed ofstudying in a renowned uni-

versity, but I had no clueabout how I would be ableto complete a Master ’s de-gree and help support myfamily,” said Wali.

Then Wali heard aboutthe Merit and Need BasedScholarships offered by theUnited States through theU.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) andin cooperation with theHigher Education Commis-sion (HEC).

“I heard about USAID’sscholarship programme, so,keeping hope, I applied,” saidWali. Wali was accepted andreceived a full scholarship tostudy business administra-

tion at Quaid-e-Azam Univer-sity in Islamabad. He com-pleted his studies and nowworks at Mobilink, a leadingtelecommunications com-pany in Pakistan, as a Pro-curement Associate.

“USAID truly came asa blessing in disguise and- with the grace of belovedAllah, my determination,prayers of my kind motherand f inancial support ofUSAID - I am now a Man-agement graduate andlived and completed mydream,” said Wali . “Be-cause of this scholarship,I have security for myselfand for my family.” Accord-

ing to the press release,more than 1,800 smart buteconomically disadvan-taged Pakistani s tudentshave received Merit andNeeds Based Scholarshipsunder this program.

Scholarships fund notonly tuition, but also books,transportation, and other ex-penses associated with full-time study. More than 850scholarship recipients haveearned undergraduate andgraduate degrees thus far.Most USAID Merit andNeeds-Based Scholarshiprecipients have found a jobwithin six months of complet-ing their degrees.—APP

US scholarships to rural students fufil their academic dreams

FAISALABAD—A man shotdead his two uncles over aproperty dispute in the areaof police staton RodalaRoad. According to the po-lice, Abid Sharif resident ofChak No.282-GB had an oldproperty dispute with hisuncles Abdul Lateef andAbdul Haneef. Over this is-sue, Abid along with his ac-complices opened fire andkilled Abdul Lateef andAbdul Haneef on the spot.Police took the bodies intocustody and started inves-tigation after arresting theaccused along with weapon.

Nankana Sahib: Two realbrothers were killed andseven other persons sus-tained injuries when dilapi-dated roof of a house col-lapsed in Nabipur Peera vil-

lage here on Monday. Ac-cording to details, ShoukatAli’s family were sleeping inthe house when all of a sud-den its dilapidated roofcaved-in in the wee hours ofMonday, killing his two chil-dren on the spot and injur-ing seven others. The de-ceased were identified asAmjad,12, and eight yearsold Usman. The rescue teamreached the scene andshifted the injured to a nearbyhospital.

Sargodha: A man waskilled in a road accident inBhalwal police limits on Mon-day. Police said thatMuhammad Suleman s/oMuhammad Khan, residentof village 18/NB was ridinghis motorcycle (MI/9345)when a speeding truck (3224/

C-Peshawar) coming fromthe opposite side hit him nearPurana Bhalwal. MuhammadSuleman, died on the spot.The body was shifted toTHQ Hospital Bhalwal forautopsy. Police investigat-ing the incident.

Quetta: A man was killedand two others sustained in-juries in an armed clash be-tween two groups over an oldenmity in Jaffarabad districton Monday. According to po-lice, the two sub-clans usedautomatic weapons near GothMuhammad Sharif Bugti area.As a result, Muhammad Sidiqdied on the spot whileMehboob and Sajo were in-jured. On information, the po-lice reached the site, shiftedthe dead and the injured to anearby hospital.—APP

ANP, PML-N, PTIactivists join PPP

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Prominent po-litical activists of ANP, PML-N and PTI of Union Council,Gulbahar, Peshawar cityMonday announced quittingtheir respective parties andjoining PPP here on Monday.

Those who joined PPPon the occasion includedMalik Arif-ur-Rehman (PML-N), Sajjad Haider, GulMohammad and Khan Haider(ANP) and Rasool Marwat,Habib, Fayyaz, Shehzad andHaji Allauddin of PTI.

Former provincial presi-dent, PPP and KhyberPakhtunkhwa Minister forHealth, Syed Zahir Ali Shah,who was present on the oc-casion congratulated andwelcomed them into the partyfold.

ASMA NOUREEN

FAISALABAD—Punjab Agri-cultural Minister Ahmad AliAulakh on Monday calledfor stepping up efforts topersuade farming communityabout adopting modern prac-tices to ensure food security.He chaired a session of Uni-versity of AgricultureFaisalabad 37th Senate Meet-ing. UAF Vice Chancellor ProfDr Iqrar Ahmad Khan alsospoke. Registrar MuhammadHussain presented theagenda before the House andTreasure Muhammad AshrafMumtaz tabled the budgetbefore the House.

The minister said thatthirty three million acre of

agricultural land in Punjabout of 50 million acre is beingcultivated. He said that a lackof communication betweenexperts and farmers was ham-pering the process of increas-ing per acre. He said that thePunjab government was tak-ing all-out efforts to increasethe per acre production thatwas the need of the hour.Talking about agricultural re-forms, he said that the gov-ernment had distributed30,000 tractors among thefarming community with thesubsidy of six billion rupees.He said that as a result ofPunjab Wheat Competition,per acre wheat productivityhas jacked up.

The contest was meant to

motivate the farming commu-nity to apply the latest prac-tices at their field in the com-petitive atmosphere. The win-ner of the contest has pro-duced 80 mounds of wheatfrom an acre that is a hallmark.He said that provincial gov-ernment has made heavy in-vestment to improve the Sup-ply Change management andstorage capacity to face upthe challenges of modernworld and reduce the postharvest losses. Talking abouteducational reforms, he saidthat the Punjab Governmenthas provided scholarshipworth 10 billion under thePunjab Educational Endow-ment Fund to support the tal-ented and needy students.

STAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—After disap-pointment from Speaker ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa As-sembly, Elders of KhidmatgarQaumi Jarga (KQJ) has de-cided to contest upcominggeneral elections on MNAand MPA seats in order toresolve issues being faced bypeople of PK-7 constituency.Speaking at a press confer-ence here at Press Club onMonday, Pattern in Chief ofKQJ Haji Arbad Shehr YarKhan alleged that the KP as-sembly Speaker KiramatullahKhan Chagharmatti was us-

ing royalty of the poor ofWarsak Dam effectees on de-velopment works of the saidconstituency while the peopleof the area could not pay elec-tricity bills for 12 years.

Accompanied by largenumber of white beardedmen of the area, he said thatthe concerned Speaker hadformed the KQJ when he hadlost the election by sayingthat masses of PK-7 had theright to use electricity free ofcost as they were all effecteesof Warsak dam. The Speaker,he alleged that when cameinto power forgot all hispledges made with the people

of his constituency and nowforced all of them to pay thebills to Wapda. None of themis in position to pay the billsfrom Rs1 to 1.5million eachfamily since 2001.

We have been demand-ing of the government par-ticularly the speaker to waiveoff all the bills of electricityor adjust it in lieu of royaltyof the people of PK-7, butunfortunately neither thegovernment nor the speakerconsidered their request. Hesaid now all royalty of thepoor was being spent on so-called developments aimed atattracting the people of the

area towards PakistanPeople’s Party in forthcom-ing general elections but onother hand they were to facestarvation and waiting for thesaid royalty.

The demands, he pre-sented including increaseroyalty from 10 to 30 percent,waiving off bills of electric-ity, provision of 10 megawattfree electricity, 10 percentquota to descendent of theeffectees in Warsak CadetCollege, developments as perconsultation of the elders ofthe area, provision of gas toevery house and end of cor-rupt people.

KP Speaker accused of misusingWarsak Dam affectees royalty

2 brothers killed in roof collapse,property dispute claims 2 lives

NAZIR SIYAL

LARKANA—All PakistanMuslim League (APML) willcontest elections throughoutcountry as well in Larkanaconstituencies against theMNA Faryal Talpur on NA-207, which will be announcedafter return of the formerPresident of Pakistan PervezMusharaf before May 2013.Speaking to newsmen ayoung and veteran politicianNawab Gaibi Sultan AhmedChandio’s son Gaibi WaheedKhan Chandio said this, whoalso announced to join withhundreds of Chandio com-munity people to APMLpublic meeting held Larkanacity a day before.

On the occasion, a largenumber of different communi-ties among Manzoor AhmedGorar, Divisional PresidentAPML Larkana, MuslimBhutto Vice President APMLalso announced to join pub-licly in the presence of centralleader Brig (R) Rashid Qureshiduring election campaignstarted in Larkana at JinnahBagh. Central leader RashidQureshi said that the era ofPervez Musharaf was a histori-cal in country, so that theprices were not high of all com-modities, as economy of coun-try was stable and dollar rateless than 60 rupees, which nowhas reached 100 and it is acomplete failure of PPP gov-ernment.

He said Pervez Musharrafwill start his political struggleto participate in general elec-tion before May, to prove hisparticipation and take out thecountry of the crises. He saidthe present rulers have in-creased poverty, unemploy-ment, energy crises and otherinnumerable problems and putthe sovereignty and securityof country in danger, poorpeople have been deprived oftwo square meal, but PPP andPML-N elected representa-tives are paying foreign trips,he criticized.

Local leaders also said thatslogans of ‘Go Musharraf Go’have now been turned into‘Come Musharaf Come’ andmasses are recalling the era ofMusharraf. There was rule oflaw and no violation of merittook place’ adding that now ajob of sanitary worker is beingsold for millions, they said.They criticized the Present PPPgovernment and its rulers forselling the jobs. They couldnot fulfill the promises, howcould they change the systemand bring the prosperity anddevelopment programmes andmasses should make account-ability of corrupt politiciansand not to elect them in up-coming general elections, theysaid. On the occasion NawabGaibi Waheed Khan Chandioand Manzoor Gorar told thatPervez Musharraf will an-nounce the candidates for gen-eral elections after his return.

Faryal Talpur versusAPML candidate to

contest Larkana polls

Punjab govt provides Rs10bscholarships under PEEF

QUETTA: People stand in long queue to get their passports as there is acute shortage of staff at Passport Office.

QUETTA: Acting President Balochistan National PartyDr Jahanzeb Jamaldini addressing a Press conference.

CHITRAL: A large number of vehicles stuck in front of Lawari Tunnel due to ditches inmiddle of road and land sliding.

Pakistan’s leapforward after decadesAT long last, Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline dream has become a reality

with leaders of the two countries performing ground breaking ofthe historic project. The two countries are reported to have com-

pleted the necessary formalities including financial and technical aspectsand it is expected that the pipeline would be there on ground even beforethe deadline of December, 2014 as the Iranian company assigned withthe task plans to accomplish it with the required speed.

The project would, no doubt, benefit the two countries immenselyand that is why they have decided to pursue it despite pressure from theUnited States. They have rightly brushed aside apprehensions and ob-jections of other countries by telling them that it is motivated by theirdesire to provide economic benefits to their people and is not directedagainst any other state. That Pakistan is an energy deficient country isno exaggeration as it has suffered hugely during the last six years dueto electricity and gas crises and the situation is unlikely to improve ifsteps like import of gas were not taken to ensure energy security. Inview of its economic benefits to the country, the project can legiti-mately be described as a major leap forward in decades. We believethat, in fact, this should have been finalized much earlier because of itseconomic and commercial benefits and the expected contribution tothe economic growth and development of the country. Any how, nowthat formal ground-breaking ceremony has been held, it is hoped thatthe two countries would, at any stage and at any cost, not succumb tothe outside pressure as did India, which left the project several yearsback. Apart from rapid implementation of the IP project, we would alsorecommend that talks should be held with all stakeholders to finalizeplans for import of gas from Turkmenistan as well. Pakistan’s energyrequirements are growing at a fast pace and even these two projectswould not fulfil the entire demand and that is why prudence demandswe should also expedite domestic exploration activities.

Malik Riaz’s offer torebuild Joseph ColonyTHE entire country has plunged into grief and shock over what hap

pened to the residents of Joseph Colony in Lahore at the hands ofsome lunatic elements. As members of the Christian community stagedprotest demonstrations in different parts of the country, different seg-ments of the society including the Government, the opposition, Ulema,media and members of the civil society expressed complete solidaritywith the victims, demanding justice for them and exemplary punishmentfor those who indulged in the extremist act.

In view of the fact that the entire nation has solidly stood behindthe victims, violence by some people especially in Lahore where large-scale damage was done to public property especially terminals ofMetro Bus was regrettable. It seems that some circles are giving po-litical twist to the tragedy to settle their own political scores and agendaand this is evident from the reaction of the PPP and the accusationshurled by Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The proper response isannouncement by both the provincial and federal governments to pro-vide substantial financial assistances to the affected families to en-sure their early rehabilitation. It is also encouraging that other seg-ments of the society are providing moral and other support to theaffected people at the hour of grief. The offer made by real estatetycoon Malik Riaz is all the more significant and appreciable as hevolunteered to rebuild the Joseph Colony free of cost. It is under-stood that Malik Riaz, who is known for his philanthropic pursuits,has the capability and expertise to fulfil this pledge and we hope thatthe Punjab Government would provide him necessary permission andapproval as requested by him. We believe that Malik has excelledonce again and showed the way to others to follow especially to thosewho do nothing but indulge in mere point scoring.

US weapons to fuelwar in Syria

AS the US is drawing down its troops from Afghanistan, it is sendingthe spared artilleries, armoured vehicles and different weapons sys-

tems to fighter groups in Syria. The large scale supply of weapons willcause further havoc in Syria and plunge it into more disaster and killings.

According to reports these weapons and arms systems includeanti armour and missile systems, rocket launchers and tens of armouredHumvees. These war machines were used first to destroy Afghani-stan and now the war threatre is being shifted to Syria. The civil warhas already resulted in the deaths of more than 90,000 people andforced an estimated three million to flee their homes. The entire coun-try is in chaos and dead bodies are being found all over. The other daySyrian opposition campaigners said at least 20 bodies of young menshot by security forces were found in a small waterway runningthrough the contested city of Aleppo. Sunday’s discovery was the larg-est in a single day of number of bodies lifted from what became knownas “the river of martyrs”. In fact the situation in Syria is a replay ofwhat happened in Libya and the victims are the common people whohave been made helpless with no jobs, no food and no shelter. Wewish a way out could have been found with sincerity of purposethrough the collective efforts of the United Nations and the ArabLeague instead of further fuelling the war with dumping of arms ofmass destruction. It is still time that the international community musttake notice of the destruction and sufferings of the people and themajor powers with political inputs from the neighbouring countriesreach a consensus to bring an end to bloodshed and devastation.

Distortion of Subcontinent history

The differencebetween genuinepoetry and the poetryof Dryden, Pope andall their school, isbriefly this: Theirpoetry is conceivedand composed in theirwits, genuine poetry isconceived andcomposed in the soul.

The dronefuture

They’re small, inexpensiveand capable of feats thatonce belonged to the realm

of science fiction — and they’rehere to stay. The advent of dronesis one of the most significant tech-nological advances of our time.These pilotless, remote-controlledaircraft have been a boon to the waragainst terrorist enemies in SouthAsia. They were a key to our suc-cessful intervention in Libya. Withgreat promise for law enforce-ment, they also have been de-ployed by the Department ofHomeland Security to detectpeople illegally crossing thisnation’s southern border.

But as last week’s filibuster byUS Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., dra-matized, these machines also evokeserious concerns. In the realm ofthe war on terrorism, the fear is that,having been used on foreigners andeven American citizens involvedwith al-Qaida, they may be used tokill Americans on US soil withouta hearing or trial. “The FifthAmendment protects you ... froma king placing you in the tower, butit should also protect you from apresident that might kill you with adrone,” Paul said. Most policeagencies in the US haven’t beenrushing to adopt drones.

The Chicago Police Depart-ment doesn’t plan to use them. Butdrones have been put to use by po-lice departments in Miami, Seattleand Little Rock, Ark. Civil liber-tarians fear surveillance droneswill become so common that evenlaw-abiding citizens will find itimpossible to escape the unblink-ing eye in the sky. The warningsare not baseless. The Obama ad-ministration has needlessly fuelledthe worst suspicions with its se-crecy about its policy in usingdrones against enemies. Only re-cently did it make public a JusticeDepartment white paper — andthen only after the documentleaked to the media. And the WhiteHouse has yet to fully disclose thelegal basis for its actions.

But the rules are not expansive— limiting targets to senior figuresin al-Qaida and affiliated groupswho are involved in planning at-tacks and cannot be captured. Thislast condition, Paul might havenoticed, would exclude almost any-one on US soil, citizen or not, sinceapprehending a suspect here is fareasier than in Yemen or Somalia.It was nonetheless reassuring tohear the admission that Paul finallycoaxed from Attorney General EricHolder, who said the president doesnot have the right to use a drone tokill an American “not engaged incombat” in this country. Only inextraordinary circumstances is itpossible to imagine such use — say,a citizen working for al-Qaida whohijacks a plane and steers it towarda skyscraper. As for police drones,it’s not too early to start talkingabout how they may be used toenhance public safety without vio-lating individual privacy.

Because of their low cost,quiet operation andmanoeuvrability, drones could bea great boon to crime fighting, let-ting cops monitor criminals farmore intensively than they can to-day. But for the same reason, theycould significantly impinge onprivacy. The American Civil Lib-erties Union of Illinois wants theGeneral Assembly to limit theiruse to a few purposes, such as pre-venting a suspect from escaping,locating missing people and avert-ing imminent harm to life or prop-erty. Aside from those circum-stances, police would need asearch warrant. A drone regulationbill sponsored by state SenatorDaniel Biss, D-Evanston, passedout of a Senate committee lastweek. It’s a good starting place fordebate. But before creating law,the Legislature should take its timeand get the full input of police andprosecutors.

Those voices may argue thatdrones are technologically differ-ent — but their deployment not ter-ribly different in principle — fromhelicopters, cruisers and fixed cam-eras that allow police officers tomonitor citizens. Drones are clearlya big part of the future. Now is agood time to address what that fu-ture will be.—Chicago Tribune

MEDIA WATCH

Matthew Arnold—British poet

In a recent story published in‘Christian Science Monitor’, itwas narrated: “In a suburban

high school of Islamabad, studentsof 9th class are taught Pakistan his-tory by giving an oblique angle vi-sion”. It meant that facts are twistedto brainwash people of Pakistan tospread hatred against India, whichis travesty of the truth. As regardskillings of Muslims by Hindus andSikhs at the time of partition, thereport quoted Pakistani historian DrMubarak Ali’s assertion that “it wasa one sided story and that actuallyit was an Indian reaction to Paki-stani attacks on Hindu/Sikh cara-vans”. The aim of such stories is tocreate doubts about our history andstimulate skepticism about ideol-ogy of Pakistan. Dr Mubarak Alihas called for the rewriting of thesubcontinent’s history and correc-tion of what he called “historicalaberrations”, so that the hatred andmisunderstanding prevailing be-tween the people of India and Pa-kistan could come to an end.

It is too well known that ma-jority of Muslims in the undividedIndia were backward, poverty-rid-den and did not have adequate rep-resentation in assemblies and ad-ministration. In schools, Muslimstudents were forced to join in cho-rus to sing Vanday Matram, andwere not provided opportunity toget education in their mothertongue. Quaid-i-Azam had beentrying to secure the rights of the

Governance by gut feelings

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

The only person that I haveknown that wrote letters tohimself was Thomas

Jefferson. He wrote letters from theheart to his head and from the headto his heart. These are unique let-ters in the sense that the heart let-ters were full of emotive contentand the head letters were full ofreason and logic. The heart mayhave its reasons but reason nevercould know what was in the mindof Thomas Jefferson. We normallyassociate intelligence as a normaldeliberate, conscious activityguided by laws of logic. Yet muchof our mental life is unconscious,based on programs and processesthat are in conflict with logic, gutfeelings or intuitions.

Pakistan is in one of thosetimes where the nature of work andeffort required is now beyond logicand considerations of the mind ofany kind. We are I a way in a kindof administration black hole-a holethat seems to be bottomless. Onehad thought that this hole had abottom after the East Pakistan de-bacle. But that was not to be. Thepower of reason, it seems, isroughed up by the emotive contentin our work. Since everything isamiss we have then to look t ourdecision makers to understandwhat is going on in the context ofour political; system. Will emo-tions hold sway or will reason andlogic come to the fore. The changein the finance minister at this stagemeans that the reasons given weredifferent from the ones that were

actually to the fore. So thenew FM will be under scru-tiny and each action of hiswill be subjected to cynicalappreciation. Logic will notplay a part. How does oneevaluate public reason and

personal gut feeling? Can the twoever coincide? Can emotive deci-sions be in the public realm? Willthey serve the purpose of the few?Can then Pakistan be governed bythe rule of illogic or has one goneto far in subjecting public benefitin this realm? Yet one has knownpeople that have taken decisionsthat would be better than that basedon logic. The state of society hasmuch to do with this. It is pluralis-tic and its cultural context changeswith areas and the kinds of socialorganizations that it has developed.

So decisions are and cannot bebased on rational thinking. That isfar cry and that is what one has beentelling the policy makers in overthree decades of public service.What moves a nation? What makesfor a better decision? Is logic andreason to be always at best? Howis meritorious decision making tobe furthered? How are motives tobe ascribed? Is the Psychologicalframework of the west the same asthat of this country? What does lookbefore you leap and analyze beforeyou take any action mean in thecontext of our country. Having beenprivy to cabinet meetings where allshades of decision makers werepresent one was pleasantly sur-prised at the decision makers gutfeelings. One had attributed this atthat time to abundant commonsense. Some of the best decisionsin economics came from those un-initiated in economics. It was sur-prising that such a thing did hap-pen. The outcome was always there

over a period of time. Where thisgut feeling was not properly [?]employed matters went from bad toworse. When we are subjected todecisions based on the logic of thewest matters do not seem to goright. The USA is helping usthrough interventions in the Kerry-Lugar [K-L] bill. The intentionsmust be right. Yet the interventionsleave much to be desired.

Take particular instances. Re-cently the policy makers decided toprovide the Livestock artificial in-seminators with Motor Cycles-120of them. Was the movement to theanimal at the right time the only as-pect that was required to be cor-rected? An analysis would showthat the artificial inseminations [AI]have a poor record as there were anumber of requirements that had tobe met. The AI intervention re-quires that the vial when openedshould be used immediately andshould be kept under Nitrogen in aflask where a temperature of -10de-grees is required for the semen tobe viable. The previous recordshows that the success rate hasnever gone into double figures. Wein Pakistan have been singularlyunsuccessful in deploying this tech-nology to handle pour non-descriptlivestock. There are other optionsbut no one chose to determine tillone day some people made a visitto my office to determine whatcould be done.

The experience that the coop-erative of which I was the chair wastotally different as in thirty yearsof successful interventions in thedairy sector the inseminators wereable to go to a success rate of nearly80%; yet when we shifted our ef-forts where the ambient tempera-tures were different with the sameinterventions we failed miserably.

This led to a change of interven-tions. The gut feeling that camethrough was based on exponentialexperience of a chartered accoun-tant!! The fact is that some per-sons have better cognitive ability[s] than others. The intuitive as-pect is covered by unintentionalobservations that go towards mak-ing up exponential experiencesthat keep on accumulating in thebrain. There are others that neverget out of single interventions.

The aid agencies can do toler-ably better interventions when thelocals are able to give their best inan interactive process. I have onlygiven one instance of failure thatwill occur. The other in the dairyindustry is the foot and mouth dis-ease. The K-L people will notknow till some one tells them thatthe virus of foot and mouth dis-ease has mutated and now thereare new strains in the system. Inany case Islamabad is the leastlikely place where this should betaken care off; interventions anddecision making have to be at parwith the knowledge of the partnersthat are trying to help us in thismatter of improving performanceof our dairy herds. It is seriousbusiness. I have seen the sectorsuffer and the consumers are atodds with what is happening.

So what will you have? Adegreed university person holdingout lollipops or a pragmatic deci-sion maker whose exponential ex-perience could make the differencefor the future. The choice is thepublic policy makers and not anyother persons. So decide how mat-ters stand. The decision makershave to work out the sums. Guts orreason based on half-baked knowl-edge. The administrative blackholes remember is with us.

Muslims since 1916, andsought guarantees fromthe Hindu leadership andBritish Raj that Muslimsshould be given their duerights. Anyhow, Pakistancame into being on 14thAugust 1947, and noquestions should beraised as to how and why

the subcontinent was partitioned.But Hindus are not willing to for-give Quaid-i-Azam for creating Pa-kistan, and continue with their she-nanigans and propaganda to malignPakistan in one way or another. Anyeffort to create doubts about thetwo-nation theory or ideology ofPakistan means striking at the rootsof Pakistan.

As a matter of fact, the founda-tion of two-nation theory was laiddown the day separate constituen-cies for the Muslims were acceptedin Lucknow Pact of 1916. Quaid-i-Azam was once named as an ambas-sador of Hindu-Muslim unity, andhad tried his best to have constitu-tional guarantees for the Muslims.But after Gandhi’s assertion that theCongress alone represented India,Quaid-i-Azam was convinced thatMuslims would not get a fair deal inthe united India. He, therefore, de-cided that at an opportune moment,he would accept nothing short of aseparate homeland for the Muslims.Since August 1947 to 1971, Indiaand Pakistan had two wars over theKashmir dispute, and despite so-called dialogue, both nations are ina way ‘warring nations’. Thelearned historian should understandthat in case of warring nations, he-roes of one nation are the villainsof the other nation. For the Muslimsof the undivided India and now ofPakistan, Quaid-i-Azam was and istheir hero, whereas Hindu leadersand the general public considered

him a person who divided their sa-cred homeland. In fact they are notwilling to reconcile with the realityof Pakistan.

There are many books written byneutral historians of the West whohave given true account of brutalattacks by Indian armed gangsagainst armless migrating Muslimcaravans trying to reach Pakistan. InPunjab, there were organized kill-ings, although migration had takenplace whereby Hindus and Sikhsmigrated from Pakistan to India, andMuslims migrated from India to Pa-kistan under the protection of mili-tary, but the force was not enough.Nowadays, there is much talk ofpeace between the two countries. Ofcourse, people of India and Pakistanwant peace, but India has to resolvethe disputes of Sir Creek, Siachen,and of course the core issue of Kash-mir to normalize the relations. ButIndian propaganda continues underthe garb of peace process, and thereare exchanges of cultural delegationsof artists and educationists. Whenacademics visit Pakistani educa-tional institutions, they criticize Pa-kistani schools’ curriculum for, whatthey say, containing hate-spreadingmaterial against India.

In fact, many facts were con-cealed by the Indian authors, whohighlighted just one side of the pic-ture, as many of them wronglyblamed Mohammad Ali Jinnah forthe partition, and they convenientlyglossed over the harsh realties thatforced Mohammad Ali Jinnah andmillions of Muslims all over Indiato take this path. First and foremost,Jinnah formally entered politics in1905 from the platform of the In-dian National Congress and not theMuslim League. A year later, heserved as secretary to DadabhaiNoaroji (1825-1917) the then presi-dent of the Congress. Gopal Krishna

Gokhale called Jinnah the “ambas-sador of Hindu-Muslim unity” be-cause of his untiring initiatives forthe unity of the two communities.A similar great effort of Jinnah hasbeen mentioned by Jaswant Singhin his recent book. surprisinglythough, the Nehru Report (1928)which represented the Congress-sponsored proposals for the futureconstitution of India negated theminimum Muslim demands embod-ied in the Delhi Muslim proposals.

In the Constituent Assemblyelections of 1946, the All IndiaMuslim League under the leader-ship of Jinnah won 425 out of 496seats reserved for Muslims all overIndia, with about 89.2 percent ofMuslim votes, on the issue of cre-ating an independent state of Paki-stan. So Pakistan emerged on theworld map after a democraticallyfought and massively won elec-tions. Many historians have nar-rated that the Sikhs, their leadingpolitical organization, the AkaliDal, and its leaders, particularlyMaster Tara Singh and Giani KartarSingh had a greater share of theblame for the mass migrations andviolence that occurred in the Punjab.The Sikh started systematic attackson Muslims in various parts ofPunjab. In Eastern Punjab and theadjoining Sikh princely states (par-ticularly Patiala) the violence wasmarked by the prominent role ofSikh jathas (bands of 20 to 600men); the police and the army re-mained rather passive. The rulers ofsome states of Punjab (Patiala,Kapurthala and others) not only al-lowed the marauding Sikh bands touse their territories as sanctuariesbut also beefed up their strength byencouraging their own state troopsto join in the killing sprees.—The writer is Lahore-basedsenior journalist.

Mohammad JamilEmail: mjamil1938@hotmail.com

News & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & ViewsNews & Views

Dr Zafar AltafEmail:dr_altaf@hotmail.com

Voice of the People

The case of Dr Aafia Siddiqi isa glaring example of thetroubled relationships between

the US and Pakistan and why Paki-stanis hate Americans. Aafia’s namecame up when Khalid SheikhMuhammad, one of the alleged plan-ners of the September 11 attacks, wasinterrogated by the CIA after his ar-rest on March 1, 2003. Mohammedwas tortured by water boarding 183times and the confessions which werepressed from him during this trig-gered a series of related arrests shortlythereafter.

Among those victims was the oneof Aafia Siddiqi who was also said tohave married Khalid’s nephewAmmar al-Baloch. Aafia sought sepa-ration from her husband and was liv-ing in her mothers house in Karachiwith her three minor children. Hav-ing lived in US from her early teenyears decided to leave Karachi think-ing about her children education andsocial security. So one morning sheleft her mothers home to catch flightfor Islamabad with children to com-plete her US travel requirements, hermother later in day was looking afterthe garden that she heard some bodyknocking the gate, when she openeda man ridding heavy motorcycle wasthere to inform her that her daughterhas been flown by them and don’t cre-ate any fuss about it. Perhaps she wasarrested by or with the help of Paki-stani agencies acting on the command

No end to Dr Aafia’s ordeal

New brand ofmilitary rule?

KAMAL HUSSAIN

When I was a boy, I used to browsemy father’s daily newspaper’sheadlines out of childish curiosity.I remember clearly that just beforethe 1958 Martial Law, the paperused to be full of stories of riots,pandemonium, lawlessness, and in-surgencies in the country, drivingthe general public mad. Then Mar-tial Law was declared and all dis-order disappeared. The same pat-tern was repeated afterwards overthe years again and again, everytime followed by a military take-over. Later it used to turn out thatthis gimmick was pulled off byPakistan being needed in some in-ternational strategic exigency.

Nowadays terrorism has ac-quired the form of a powerful insti-tution operated by the usual suspectsscaring our people into a kind ofhysteria. But today te possibility ofdirect military rule is out of ques-tion. This situation is only to ma-nipulate the coming general elec-tions in such a way as to bring inthe next civilian regime that wouldbe emasculated, incompetent, cor-rupt and entirely dependent upon thesecurity apparatus of the country notunlike the one we have today. Di-rect military rule is unlikely becausetheir sponsors are economically tooweak to afford their maintenance.The result of all such skulduggerylasting throughout our history hasbeen that the nation remains un-stable, illiterate, irrational and dis-united. Most importantly, it is oneof the poorest countries in the worldwith no economic feet to stand upon.Even the most basic staple of mod-ern economy, electricity, is out of thereach of most of our population andpower blackouts in cities likeMuzaffargarh are 18 hours a daywhile the rural population here iscompletely deprived of it.—Muzaffargarh

Media: Restraintneeded

HAFIZ MUHAMMAD NOMAN

A very amusing statement was madeby famous Pashto film actressMusarrat Shaheen against MaulanaFazlur Rehman two days ago. Shewas talking to a media person whenshe said she would, of course, standagainst Maulana Fazlur Rehman inthe upcoming elections and defeathim. She amazingly added that sheneeded the symbol of scissors to rep-resent her in the elections becauseshe wanted to cut a vital part of themaulana’s anatomy! MusarratShaheen used some very stingingwords for Maulana Fazlur Rehman,which were indeed shameful if oneunderstood exactly the lewd thingsshe wanted to say. It is unfathom-able why Musarrat Shaheen is theenemy of Maulana. I believe thereis no competition between the ac-tress and the maulana.

There is no doubt that MaulanaFazlur Rehman himself has been adramatic performer but he is a reli-gious scholar who has spent yearsin the political arena whereas MsShaheen is an actress with hardlyany political training. I do believethat the media should not havegiven encouragement to theactresse’s objectionable language,which really was not suitable foreveryone to hear.—Via email

Protecting non-Muslim citizens

SHARIQUE NAEEM

Dozens of angry protestors in a mobon Saturday set ablaze more than100 houses/shops belonging toChristians. This incident is yet an-other sad event in the long list ofsufferings of non-Muslims in thecountry. The failure of the presentsystem to provide security and pro-tection to it’s citizens in general, andnon-Muslims in particular is evidentwithout an iota of doubt. Non-Mus-lims have faced such incidents bothunder Dictatorship and Democracy.

Youth can do itSAHAR TAHER KHAN

While stuck in a 30-minute traffic jam near Baloch Colony and feeling sorry for my countrymenand myself, I spotted a sight that reminded me that this city has not yet been beaten. Amidst the

chaos, the lone traffic policeman managing the large intersection completely broke down. Defeated,he retired to the sidewalk, dodging honking cars on his way. A 20-something youth in a faded, MetallicaT-shirt on a bike next to me yelled out “Chalo” (let’s go), seemingly signalling an invisible army ofvagabonds. To my surprise, within a minute, in perfect Bollywood fashion, a bunch of children (that Iadmittedly had misjudged) got off their bikes and ran over to the policeman. The youngsters liftedhim up, dusted him off and began directing traffic alongside him. Before long, passage ways werebeing created for ambulances to pass through, motorbikes were picking up pedestrians (there were alot of people who had been standing on the sidewalk waiting for a bus but, unfortunately, the buseswere not stopping), cars were slowly moving and, best of all, drivers were rolling down their windowsto thank the brave young boys. Karachi, you are not lost — there is still much to cherish and much tosave. I just wish more civilians would volunteer their time towards making a positive change (nomatter how small) instead of just sitting back and cribbing about the situation. Here’s to those whocontinue to give us hope. The rest of you, please stay safe!—Karachi

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

Each time there is condemnation,compensation and words of consola-tion. However the repeat of these in-cidents show that the present rulersand the secular democratic systemlacks the capacity (and perhaps evenintention) to safeguard the rights ofnon-Muslims.

The Islamic Law, is crystal clearwith regard to protection of non-Mus-lims. In one Hadith, Prophet (SAW)said: “He who hurts a dhimmi (non-Muslims) hurts me, and he who hurtsme annoys Allah.” In a true IslamicState, it is the responsibility of thestate to implement Islamic law thatprovides justice and safeguards therights of its citizens. The importanceof regulation of affairs of societythrough an Islamic State, can be un-derstood from a saying of IbnTahmiyyah (ra)

“It should be noted that to regu-late the affairs of people is one of themost important requirements(wajibat) of the religion (al-din). Re-ally speaking, al-din cannot be estab-lished without it. The wellbeing ofthe sons of Adam cannot be accom-plished except through a well-orga-nized society (ijtima’) because theyare in need of one another; and forsuch a society a ruler is indispens-able.”—Via email

****ADEEL NAEEM NAQI

Thousands of angry protesters onSaturday had set ablaze more than160 houses & shops belonging toChristians over a blasphemy issue.This behaviou stands in stark contra-diction to the beliefs taught to us byour religion. Our Prophet SAWS said:“He who hurts a dhimmi (non-muslims) hurts me, and he who hurtsme annoys Allah.”

So, what has gone so wrong withus today, that the system (democracy)we are governed with have left themasses to resolve it’s issues on it’sown by taking law in to their ownhand - resulting in utterh malfuntionof basic security apparatus of the en-tire nation? The fact is an IslamicState, not governed by the whims ofthe majority or the ruling elite, butby the dictates of Shariah. It is theresponsibility of the state to enforcejustice in the society. The secular de-mocracies have failed world-wide toprovide sustainable systems of gov-ernance to citizens, be they in the eastor in the west, and have only resultedin shear mayhem and exploitation ofresources of both the natives, andthose outside.

Imaam Ghazzali pinned it cor-rectly by saying that “Know ye thatthe shari’ah is the foundation, andthe government is the sentinel. If thegovernment has no foundation, it isbound to fall into ruins, and if theShari’ah has no sentinel, it will belost and destroyed.” We as Muslimsresiding in Pakistan need to decipherthat in order to regulate the affairsof our state with justice, we need toput aside our rage, turn away fromthe the time-failed systems of thewest, and look back to our past glory,where not only Muslims, Christians,and Jews lived peacefuly together,but even fought wars together tomaintain the justice of an IslamicState. Reference: Imaam Ghazzali,Banna 1961—Lahore

****MASOOD KHAN

A few kilometres from the place inLahore where, in 1940, the MuslimLeague demanded the partition ofBritish India to create a homeland forminority Muslims, a charged mob ofthousands chased out local Christiansfrom their homes. They later lootedand burned their homes to ashes. Ishistory repeating itself? Should theminorities of today’s Pakistan de-mand a separate homeland for them-selves? Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif took immediate no-tice of the incident and set up a five-member committee to look into thematter. He also announced that no onewould be permitted to destroy reli-gious harmony in Punjab. While ap-preciating the CM’s noble statement,may I ask Mr Sharif whether the mis-creants will require his permission toharm the minorities in his province?We understand that the CM wasforced to issue such a statement as

Coal plants kill 120,000 people a year: Greenpeace

India’s breakneck pace ofindustrialisation is causing apublic health crisis with 80-

120,000 premature deaths and 20million new asthma cases a year dueto air pollution from coal powerplants, a Greenpeace report warns.The first study of the health impactof India’s dash for coal, conductedby a former World Bank head of pol-lution, says the plants cost hospitals$3.3-$4.6bn (£2.2-£3.1bn) a year —a figure certain to rise as the coalindustry struggles to keep up withdemand for electricity.

The Delhi and Kolkata regionswere found to be the most pollutedbut Mumbai, western Maharashtra,

Eastern Andhra Pradesh and theChandrapur- Nagpur region inVidarbha were all affected. Thestudy, which took data from 111major power plants, says there isbarely any regulation or inspectionof pollution.

“Hundreds of thousands of livescould be saved, and millions ofasthma attacks, heart attacks,hospitalisations, lost workdays andassociated costs to society could beavoided, with the use of cleaner fu-els, [and] stricter emission standardsand the installation and use of thetechnologies required to achievesubstantial reductions in these pol-lutants,” said the report. “There is aconspicuous lack of regulations forpower plant stack emissions. En-forcement of what standards [which]do exist, is nearly non-existent,” it

says. India is the world’s secondlargest coal burner after China, gen-erating 210 GW of electricity ayear, mostly from coal. But it islikely to become the largest if plansto generate a further 160 GW an-nually are approved.

“Thousands of lives can besaved every year if India tightensits emissions standards, introduceslimits for pollutants such as sul-phur dioxide, nitrogen oxides andmercury and institutes mandatorymonitoring of emissions at plantstacks,” said the report’s author,Sarath Guttikunda, a former headof the World Bank’s pollution di-vision.

Nearly 400 million people inIndia have no electricity and poweroutages are common. The pressureto generate power has led to tens of

John Vidal

of the US or CIA. This hap-pened in spring 2003 after Gen-eral. Musharraf had two yearsearlier pledged unqualified al-legiance to the US and their so-called war on terror, a decisionwhich he took alone on receiv-

ing a single telephone call from thenUS Secretary of State General Powelwithout consultation of anybody andeven his army high command. As aresult this young woman, a hundredtimes more qualified than the general,was kidnapped in broad day lightwhile going to airport from home bythe Pakistani intelligence may be incollusion with the Americans, handedover to them and taken out of thecountry to later found in the infamousBagram airbase prison, another AbuGhraib. Officially this is denied bythe Pakistani army and state until to-day. It amounts to severe humanrights violation and human traffick-ing sanctioned by General Musharrafand his regime. This is not even say-ing anything about the crimes com-mitted against the three minor chil-dren of Aafia, the youngest a babyboy of about six months who has beenkilled in the process.

Officially Aafia was unaccountedfor from 2003 till 2008 when shemanaged to escape or was let believeto do so from Bagram prison. She wascaught during her flight in Ghazni inJuly 2008 and taken for interrogation.That was when she was shot and se-verely wounded at the police com-pound the following day. Her Ameri-can interrogators said she grabbed anunattended rifle from behind a cur-tain and began shooting at them. Thisversion of the US army would neverbe proven because no fingerprints or

other signs of her touching theweapon were ever found. In any casewhat is for sure that an American in-terrogator shot her from a close rangeand wounded her severely? She re-ceived medical attention for herwounds at Bagram Air Base and waslater flown to the US to be chargedin a New York City federal court withconcocted charges of attempted mur-der, and armed assault on U.S. offic-ers and employees. Despite her de-nying the charges and no prove foundshe was convicted to 86 years inprison by a kangaroo court trial withthe only purpose to create a fear inMuslim Ummah.

Amnesty International monitoredthe trial for fairness. Four BritishParliamentarians called the trial agrave miscarriage of justice that vio-lated the Sixth Amendment to theUnited States Constitution as well asthe United States’ obligations as amember of the United Nations, anddemanded Siddiqui’s release. In a let-ter to Barack Obama, they stated thatthere was a lack of scientific and fo-rensic evidence tying Siddiqui to theweapon she allegedly fired. Many ofSiddiqui’s supporters, including someinternational human rights organiza-tions, have claimed that Siddiqui wasnot an extremist and that she and heryoung children were illegally de-tained, interrogated and tortured byPakistani intelligence, U.S. authori-ties or both during her five-year so-called disappearance. The U.S. andPakistan governments have denied allsuch claims and especially the Paki-stani government is denying its in-volvement in the abduction and tor-ture of a Pakistani citizen and herchildren as they are denying the ab-

Views From Abroad

It went right over the bowler’shead, past outstretched hands offielders and hit the boundary

line. The crowd sitting to watch thecricket match, clapped gleefully. Isaw my wife giving me a thumbsup sign and the commentator tell-ing the bowler not to get fooled bythe white streaks on my beard, butI missed my two children.

It would have been nice ifthey’d seen their father hit that four,and later another boundary and an-other, and at each stroke that took

the ball to the boundary line, I missedthe two yells, “Come on daddy! Showthem daddy!”

They were always there, my twogirls, not that I’ve received manyawards, but when I did, they cameand stood and cheered, and for thosecheers I tried to win the next and thenext. And when they went awayacross the seas, it was like there wasno need to hit those boundaries any-more. But yesterday I hit a four. “WhyLord?” I asked. “Why are you renew-ing my strength, why are you rekin-dling my enthusiasm? Is there some-thing you’re telling me?”

And as the bowler came to bowl,and I with aged eyes could still seethe ball, connect with it, and slam itover the fielders I knew there was amessage for me. The fielders came

to me later. The bowlers too: “Uncle,”they said, “We didn’t know youplayed so well!” “Neither did I,” Iwhispered, “Neither did I!”

When my children left it was likea void. I’d lived my life, encourag-ing them on, lifting their spirits, egg-ing them to realize their goals. I hadalways thought they would achievemuch, and they have, but always as-sumed it would be around where Iwas. And when they went away, a partof me, a big part crumpled. But yes-terday I hit a four!

It went right over the bowler’shead, past the outstretched hands offielder behind and hit the boundaryline. The crowd sitting to watch thematch, clapped gleefully. I saw mywife giving me a thumbs up sign,the commentator telling the bowler

Yesterday I hit a four..!not to get fooled by the whitestreaks on my beard, but as Imissed my two children, I realizedthe Lord up there was sending mea strong message, hard and fastlike the bowler’s ball.

“Keep playing,” the treesaround the field seemed to say.“Win!” shouted my daughtersacross the seas. “I have renewedyour strength!” whispered a voiceabove, and with a mighty heave Ismashed the next ball to the bound-ary line and smiled at my wife asshe gave me a thumbs up sign.

It’s a message for all of us, whofeel life is over when our kids growup or go away: It’s just the end ofan over, so grip your bat and hit afour, and another and another..!—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

Conscientious nuclear Pakistan

The possibility of nuclear materials falling into the wronghands is a shared concern. Pa-

kistan is part of global efforts to makesure that terrorists do not lay theirhands on nuclear materials, knowl-edge and expertise. As far as thesafety & security of the nuclear as-sets is concerned, the Pakistan mili-tary controls the nuclear weapons,and has instituted a range of measuresto tighten controls over the nuclearweapons complex. Pakistan accordsthe highest priority to ensuring a fool-proof safety and security mechanismfor our nuclear programme. Pakistanhas been an active member of theNuclear Security Summit (NSS) andGlobal Initiative to Combat NuclearTerrorism (GICNT).

Ever since 1998, Pakistan has putin place an effective and efficientregulatory regime that encompassesphysical protection of materials andfacilities, material control and ac-counting, transport security, preven-tion of illicit trafficking and border

controls, as well as plans to deal withpossible radiological emergencies.Pakistan has also developed techni-cal solutions, Personnel ReliabilityProgrammes (PRP), and intelligencecapabilities to deal with WMD-re-lated terrorism.

According to Strategic PlanningDivision (SPD), over 8000 additionalprofessionals are being trained atPakistan’s specialized Nuclear Secu-rity Training Academy to assumetheir duties proficiently in a shortperiod of time. This brings the num-ber of specially trained personnel tothe figure of over 20,000 personnel.Besides, a Nuclear and RadiologicalEmergency Coordination Center(NRECC) with fully equipped mo-bile labs, is working on technical as-sistance with law enforcement agen-cies and the first responders.

The conscientious Pakistan con-tinue to refine and upgrade its tech-nical and human resources andmechanisms on safety and securityof nuclear weapons, materials, facili-ties, and assets. As Pakistan hasgained considerable experience in thefield of nuclear security, it has estab-lished a “Center of Excellence” readyto share nuclear experience and train-

ing facilities. Pakistan has subscribedto the IAEA Code of Conduct on theSafety and Security of RadioactiveSources, and the IAEA Illicit Traf-ficking Database (ITDB).

The escalation of the arms racein South Asia commenced whenObama administration signed US-India civil nuclear cooperationagreement. In order to put right thebalance of power, Pakistan de-manded for a similar civil-nucleardeal. But the administration de-flected on it. As Pakistan lives in atough neighbourhood, therefore, itwill never be oblivious to its secu-rity needs and should have deterrentcapabilities as a nuclear power. Pa-kistani leadership is suspicious ofUS aims of controlling or limitingits weapons programme while favor-ing India.

In the backdrop of Mumbai ter-ror attacks-2008, India’s threats ofcarrying out surgical operation insidePakistan if action is not taken againstthe perpetuators, clearly shows thatIndia wants to assert itself as a superpower capable of conducting an un-checked forays into foreign domain.According to nuclear analysts, forIndia to launch Cold Start, would be

we are now in an election year, oth-erwise what happened in Lahore onMarch 9, 2013 is in no way differentfrom the ugly events that took placein Gojra in 2009.

Dear CM, how many miscreants,as you like to call them, were chargedand put behind bars for looting andmurdering Christians in Gojra?Where was the CM when anothermob of fanatics, in November lastyear, attacked and burned down agirls’ school in Lahore? The school’s77-year-old principal was booked ina blasphemy row over a piece ofhomework issued by a teacher. Hasthe CM taken any action against themob who lynched and burnt alive aderanged person for alleged blas-phemy? What about action against thekillers of 80-year-old Iqbal Butt whowas acquitted by the courts after be-ing proved innocent in a blasphemycase? The killers of Shahbaz Bhattivanished without a trace.

The convicted murderer ofPunjab Governor Salmaan Taseercould not be punished, thanks to thesuperior courts while Aasia Bibi’sappeal against her conviction hasbeen pending for the last two years.Who will trust CM Sharif while hispeople are working overtime to pu-rify the country — to make it liter-ally a land of the pure? How comewe Pakistanis criticise Narinder Modiof Gujrat?—Jubail, Saudi Arabia

Manifesto-orientedelections

ABUBAKAR BHEEL

The manifesto oriented politics is theessential prerequisite of true democ-racy. It discourages the personalitybased elections and shows that theseare the plans the parties are about topursue in their next tenure if comeinto power. It denies the blind faithin personalities and parties and en-courages the electorates to cast theirvotes by keeping in view the mani-festo of the given Party.

But the problem regarding mani-festo is twofold. Firstly there is a co-lossal gap between theory and prac-tice. Parties put forth their plans be-fore elections but wining horses dono regard them bound even by theirown pledges. The Pakistan PeopleParty after presenting its originalmanifesto came into power for fivetimes , however short stint were , butthey did not care to follow it once inits real essence.

Secondly Pakistan has been sur-rounded by a number of crises and itis very troublesome but necessary tocover all the different problems.There are some impediments in thecourse of forming a comprehensivemanifesto. The parties not holdingthe treasury benches and a largenumber of regional parties have noaccess to correct governmentalrecord. Consequently in the absenceof concerned information and datait becomes difficult to present amanifesto capable to address thecomplicated problems with all tech-nical formalities. Also it needs pro-tracted and troublesome efforts. Ourpolitical parties lack time becausethey always present it on the eve ofelections as an election campaigntactic. As the recently issued mani-festo of PML (N) does not touch someaustere issues like Education, terror-ism, Energy and foreign relations.

For working of democracy inprogressive way, the political partiesare bound to render the due respectto the sanctity of manifesto and tocomprehend the fact that it is far moreimportant than an ordinary piece ofpaper and election slogans. And it isincumbent on the part of public, dur-ing the upcoming elections, to ask thecandidates as well as parties that towhat extent they had achieved theirpast manifestos.—Lahore

duction torture and killing of hun-dreds if not thousands of other politi-cally unwanted people like Balochinationalists, Journalists like SyedSaleem Shahzad and many others.

This PPP government as the pre-vious one both is posing as ‘demo-cratic’ and ‘elected’ but at a closer lookthey are cruel dictatorial regimes.Former Pakistani ambassador to theUS Hussain Haqqani, a PPP stalwartand a cozy friend of the US use tophone the family of Aafia and assuredthem that he would do this and thatfor her release and nothing was done.This information is coming directlyfrom the family. Election doesn’t helpdemocracy. Even Hitler came to powerby elections, but that doesn’t mean hewas a democrat and it doesn’t absolvehim from the policy he pursued. Thesame is true for Zardari and Obama intheir democratic dispensations they areworking for Zionist led Christianagenda for clash of civilization. Elec-tions do not absolve President Zardariand his party for the crimes against hisown people that were committed in-cluding the drone attacks, Abbottabad,Salalah, Balochistan.

The case of Dr Aafia Siddiqi inthe light of above facts is a glaringexample how the US is trampling hu-man rights with feet if it suit theirimperialist policy and how they bull-doze Pakistan’s Courts and Laws thatwere seen in the fleeing of RaymondDavis when his passport was in gov-ernment custody under court orders.And Pakistan is happily followingsuit in the hope of receiving glitter-ing dollar, which is soon going to beworth paper on which it is printed.Happy Birthday Sister Aafia. Godbless you and Pakistan.

to “roll the nuclear dice”. It could trig-ger the world’s first use of nuclearweapons. This alarming scenariopoint Pakistan in the direction of alarger nuclear force that requires agreater amount of fissile material.While analyzing the nuclear threat, itwas generally agreed in the Londonmeeting-2009, that India and Pakistanview each other as enemies. Nuclearweapons are crucial to Pakistan, be-cause Pakistani military is no matchfor the Indian army.

Therefore, Pakistan is justified towork on producing smaller tacticalnuclear weapons that can provide ‘de-terrence’ against Indian nuclearmight. However, Pakistan is deter-mined to continue to follow a respon-sible policy of maintaining credibleminimum deterrence in thenuclearized environment of SouthAsia. The spokesman of PakistanForeign Office said, “Pakistan ismindful of the need to avoid an armsrace with India but would never com-promise on its national security.”

All States need to shoulder theirshared responsibility to strengthenregulatory mechanisms and establisheffective barriers against the commonthreat of nuclear terrorism.

thousands of homes being movedto make way for mines or plants.There are complaints that thepower is mostly exported to largecities and heavy industry while lo-cal people are left with pollutionand toxic dumps.

Vinuta Gopal of Greenpeacesaid: “The ongoing coal expansionis irrational and dangerous. Coalmining is destroying India’s for-ests, tribal communities and endan-gered species, and now we knowthe pollution it emits when burnedis killing thousands.

Coal has failed to deliver en-ergy security. We need a morato-rium on new coal plants and ambi-tious policy incentives to unlockthe huge potential India has in ef-ficiency measures, wind and so-lar.”— Courtesy: The Guardian

Ali Ashraf KhanEmail:balti@super.net.pk

Urooj RazaEmail:uroojsayami@gmail.com

ERIC ROZENMAN

THERE he goes again. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon erroneously has asserted, for thefourth time in two years, that “all

[Israeli] settlement activity in the occupiedPalestinian territory, including east Jerusa-lem, is illegal under international law.” The

Washington Post headlined its Feb. 1 As-sociated Press dispatch “U.N. panel criti-cizes Israel on settlements; Report says‘creeping annexation’ violates rights of Pal-

estinians.” AP noted that Mr. Ban was “re-iterating his often-stated view.” He surewas. Visiting Lebanon last year, Mr. Banalleged that “settlements, new and old, are

Ban Ki-moon is wrong aboutIsraeli settlements

RAMESH THAKUR

A new report by my organization, “Nuclear Weapons: TheState of Play,” shows thatpockets of progress on nuclear

security, nonproliferation and disarmamentare overshadowed by the drag of historicalinertia on nuclear weapons programs, ar-senals, doctrines and deployments. In theirfifth joint article in the Wall Street Journal(March 6), Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn,William Perry and George Shultz focus onfour issues: nuclear security, followup ac-tions after the new Russia-U.S. START ac-cord, a new verification and transparencyinitiative, and taking nuclear warheads offhigh alert levels. The security environmentof the 21st century is starkly different, butU.S. and Russian nuclear force postures arestill trapped in the old Cold War paradigm.Immobilized by historical inertia, theymaintain nearly 2,000 nuclear warheadsready to launch within minutes.

A new study published by a U.N. in-stitute concludes that current nuclear alertlevels “are deeply rooted in Cold War think-ing, vastly exceed current and foreseeablesecurity needs, and undercut efforts to re-duce” the role of nuclear weapons. Amen.The haste in which the decision to usenuclear weapons on high alert must be madein response to a suspected incoming attackcarries enormous risks. Maintaining nucleararsenals on high alert undermines effortsto hold the line on proliferation, is hugelyexpensive and increases the risk of acci-dental, unauthorized, misinformed or pre-mature use of nuclear weapons.

In a March 29, 2012, conversation, thenational security adviser during the Carteradministration, Zbiegniew Brzezinski, re-called being woken up by a call at 3 a.m.from his military assistant. The generaltold him the United States was “undernuclear attack” and that 200 Soviet mis-siles fired “30 seconds ago” would hit in30 minutes. He had three minutes to no-

Thoughtful Gist

To cut nuclear attack risks, takewarheads off high alert

tify the president, who would have fourminutes to decide how to respond. Withtwo minutes left, the alarm was shown to

be false and Brzezinski did not have towake the president. What if the false alarm

confirmation had come after (a) the initialthree minutes, (b) seven minutes and thepresident had ordered the launch of U.S.missiles, or (c) 30 minutes as the U.S. mis-siles were about to hit Soviet targets? Inthe middle of a crisis, if decisions on usingnuclear weapons must be made veryquickly, the possibility grows of miscalcu-lation or a decision based on the wrong

information. Taking nuclear warheads andsystems off high alert can deepen the sta-bility of nuclear deterrence so that nuclear

armed rivals will not attack each other re-gardless of any rise in tension between

them. There is no plausible scenario un-der which either Russian or U.S. second-strike retaliatory capability could be decapi-tated even if they had all nuclear weaponsoff alert. Nuclear weapons not on alertwould remain survivable so that they don’tlose their deterrent function and there is noincentive to engage in a re-alerting race.

—Courtesy: Japan Times

illegal. They work against the emergenceof a viable Palestinian state.”

Speaking to a U.N. committee in 2011,the secretary-general charged that “settle-ments in the occupied Palestinian territo-ries are illegal under international law.” Ona trip to Israel and the West Bank in 2010,Mr. Ban asserted that “the world has con-demned Israel’s expansion plans in East

Jerusalem. Let us be clear: all settlementactivity is illegal anywhere in occupied ter-ritory and must stop.”

The BBC relayed this sweeping dec-

laration by the secretary-general in a dis-patch that, like most news media coverageof such claims, lacked context. Yet contextwould show that Mr. Ban ineffectual in

bigger Middle East problems including theSyrian civil war and Iran’s race to nuclearweapons is quite mistaken on the legalityof Jewish settlements. The San Remo Treatyof 1920, in which the victorious World WarI allies dealt with the remnants of the de-feated Ottoman Turkish Empire, created anentity called Palestine along both sides ofthe Jordan River. The powers intended it asthe land on which Great Britain would turnits 1917 Balfour Declaration from aspira-tion to reality, assisting the Zionist move-ment in re-establishing the Jewish nationalhome.

The Franco-British Boundary Conven-tion of 1920 demarcated the French man-date for what would become Syria andLebanon from that of the British in Pales-tine. This was in part to prepare for the Jew-ish state. Article 6 of the League of Na-tions’ 1922 Palestine Mandate encouraged“close Jewish settlement” on the land westof the Jordan River. The mandate encour-aged settlement only west of the river be-cause Great Britain in the same year uni-laterally severed Transjordan (today’s Jor-dan) from Palestine, creating a new Arabcountry. The Anglo-American Conventionof 1924 saw the United States endorse Brit-ish administration of the remaining Pales-tine Mandate lands, so long as Londonhelped bring a Jewish state into being.

The 1945 U.N. Charter, Chapter XII,Article 80, continues Jewish rights recog-nized under the Mandate. It protects “therights whatsoever of any states or anypeoples or the terms of existing internationalinstruments” and is sometimes known as“the Palestine article.” So regardless of Mr.Ban’s invocation of “world condemnation”or political debates about settlements andthe peace process, Jews building commu-nities west of the Jordan River do so in ac-cord with relevant international laws. Nordoes Mr. Ban apply a consistent legal yard-stick to Arab municipalities in the Jewishstate, which he does not denounce as ille-gal. By insisting on settlements’ illegality,Mr. Ban says in effect there is nothing forPalestinian Arabs and Israelis to negotiateon this score.

—Courtesy Washington Times

ROBERT FARLEY

ON the heels of Pearl Harbor, Alliedforces were handed a crushing defeatby the Japanese. The battle has lessonsfor today’s military planners. On Decem-

ber 8, 1941, an Allied naval officer might reason-ably have thought to himself “It’s not thatbad.Really, could be worse.” The United StatesNavy (USN) could still pack a punch, and it couldrely on assistance from the Royal Navy, the RoyalDutch Navy, and the Commonwealth navies. Overthe next three months the Japanese would take ad-vantage of Allied confusion at every level to win aseries of devastating victories over Allied navalforces. The Battle of Java Sea, fought on February27, 1942, marked the high tide of Japanese navalpower in the Pacific. Poor organization, strategicconfusion, inter-service competition, and nationalinfighting doomed an Allied task force to destruc-tion at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Navy,opening the door to the conquest of Java and therest of Southeast Asia. Indeed, the Battle of JavaSea is the nightmare that American naval plannershave when they hear terms like “offshore balanc-ing.”

The World of December 8, 1941: The UnitedStates Navy remained potent. At Oahu, five Ameri-can battleships lay sunk or aground, but the portfacilities at Pearl Harbor remained in good condi-tion, and the aircraft carriers of the Pacific Fleethad avoided damage. Three battleships escaped withonly light damage, with a fourth undergoing regu-lar maintenance in the Puget Sound. Three fast car-riers, twelve heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers, andfifty destroyers remained ready for action, a forcewhich could potentially cause huge problems forthe Japanese. Reinforcements were on the way; USSYorktown would join the Pacific Fleet in late De-cember, with USS Hornet arriving in March. Otherships were forward deployed; the Asiatic Fleet in-cluded one heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, andthirteen destroyers. From its bases in Singapore andColombo, the Royal Navy also remained in fight-ing shape. The most powerful surface unit in thePacific was HMS Prince of Wales, the fast battle-ship that six months earlier had inflicted the mis-sion-killing blow on the German Bismarck. Sup-port for Prince of Wales included the oldbattlecruiser Repulse, four light cruisers and fivedestroyers. Much more help was on the way. Two

fast and one slow carriers would arrive in Ceylonin the months after Pearl Harbor. Jutland veteranHMS Warspite was working up in the Puget Soundat the time of the Japanese strike. By March, the

Time waves overturn

History Lesson: The Battle of Java SeaEastern Fleet would include four Revenge classbattleships, seven cruisers, and sixteen destroyers.The loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse on an ill-

conceived mission to intercept Japanese forces in-vading Malaya severely dented, but did not destroy,British naval power in the Far East.

The local navies also contributed. The RoyalAustralian Navy possessed two heavy cruisers, three

light cruisers, and five old destroyers, and NewZealand could contribute another light cruiser. Fi-nally, the Dutch defended their vast possessions with

three light cruisers, seven destroyers, and a numberof smaller warships. Against this, the Imperial Japa-nese Navy (IJN) could marshal six fleet and fourlight carriers, ten battleships, eighteen heavy cruis-

ers, twenty light cruisers, and 126 destroyers. TheJapanese had certain advantages; while their shipsweren’t necessarily any newer, the IJN had a more

casual attitude towards treaty compliance than ei-ther the United States or the United Kingdom. TheJapanese also trained rigorously at night warfare,and displayed excellent gunnery skills at all times.Finally, the Japanese Type 93 (“Long Lance”) tor-

pedo could strike targets at longer range and withgreater punch than Allied torpedoes.

The biggest Japanese advantage, however, came

in Allied disorder. Despite the growing threat of warwith Japan, the Pacific Allies never engaged in muchmore than arms length interaction before Pearl Har-bor. Shortly after the scale of the Japanese offen-

sive into Southeast Asia became clear, the Alliesestablished an administrative unit to manage the col-lective war effort. ABDA, or American-British-

Dutch-Australian Command, consisted of the air andnaval assets available to the Allies in the SoutheastAsian region. Formally under the command of Gen-eral Archibald Wavell, the central task of ABDAwas to resist Japanese conquest of the Dutch EastIndies. Battle and Aftermath: The Japanese tookswift advantage of Allied disorder. After neutraliz-ing American forces in the Philippines, the IJNlaunched a series of high risk, high reward inva-sions of Dutch and British possessions, relying onair support and ship-to-ship superiority to defeatAllied forces. The Japanese began advancing intothe Dutch East Indies (DEI) in strength in earlyFebruary, driving disparate Allied naval forces backand harrying their bases with unceasing air attacks.

The Allies assembled a task force in mid-Feb-ruary in hopes of slowing or repelling the Japaneseadvance. Because the IJN concentrated its battle-ship, cruiser, and carrier strength on other tasks, thisforce could match many of the squadrons assignedto support the invasions. On February 27, 1942 acombined task force of Dutch, American, British,and Australian warships intercepted a Japanesetransport convoy poised to invade eastern Java.Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman commanded the taskforce from his flagship, the light cruiser De Ruyter.The Allied force also included the Dutch light cruiserJava, the British heavy cruiser Exeter, the Ameri-can heavy cruiser Houston, and the Australian lightcruiser Perth, in addition to two Dutch, two British,and four American destroyers.

Countering this force, the Imperial JapaneseNavy had two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers,

and fourteen destroyers. However, the Japaneseforces were fresh, while several Allied ships hadsuffered damage from air attacks, and all Alliedcrews were exhausted from air attacks and continu-

ous operations. The two task forces sighted eachother and began to exchange fire at around 4pm onFebruary 27th. The Allies had an initial advantagein long range gunnery, although neither side in-flicted significant damage until just after 5pm, whena shell hit HMS Exeter’s boiler room. This inci-dent, called decisive by Vincent O’Hara, knockedExeter out of line and threw the Allied force intoconfusion. Doorman and his flagship steamed aheadalone as the rest of the cruisers, out of communica-

tion, circled Exeter. Five minutes later the first Japa-nese Type 93 torpedoes approached the Allied line,sinking the Dutch destroyer Kortenaer in less thantwo minutes.

Doorman reasserted enough control to see thatExeter could withdraw safely (with two destroyersin escort), losing the British destroyer Electra togunfire in the process, then turned his remainingforce back toward the transports. The ABDA forcebrushed up against Japanese escorts again around7pm, without effect. Doorman persisted, even ashis force drifted apart; four American destroyerswere forced to depart because of lack of fuel andtorpedoes around 9pm, and the British Jupiter strucka Dutch mine around 10pm.

Nevertheless, the ABDA force made one lasttry at the transports shortly before midnight. Atthis point Japanese torpedoes and night-fightingexpertise made the difference; torpedoes struck andsank both Dutch cruisers before the force could ap-proach the transports. Doorman went down withDe Ruyter. The surviving two cruisers (the USSHouston and the HMAS Perth) retired to avoiddestruction. Altogether the Allies lost two cruisersand three destroyers, plus one cruiser badly dam-aged, while inflicting no meaningful Japaneselosses.

Aftermath: The destruction of the core of theABDA force at Java Sea opened the floodgates.Houston, Perth, and an accompanying destroyerwere sunk two days later as they tried to escapethrough Sunda Strait. Exeter and her escorts werecaught and sunk south of Borneo. Japanese battle-ships and cruisers hunted down other refugees.Organized resistance in the DEI ended in earlyMarch 1942. With Java secure, the IJN launched adevastating raid into the Indian Ocean in April 1942,sinking the carrier Hermes and a pair of heavy cruis-ers. The Allies were on the run. Java Sea was adisaster on every level we use to evaluate militaryoperations.

—Courtesy Diplomat

History Lesson: The Battle of Java Sea…….

Finally, at the tactical level the officers of the ABDA force had trouble communicating with one another during battle. The damageto Exeter threw the entire force into confusion, especially because Exeter was supposed to operate as the primary translator of Dutch

orders for the English-speaking ships. The American destroyers had a confused sense of the role they were supposed to play, andAllied air forces were not well integrated into the battle plan. The loss of Jupiter to a Dutch mine was one of the results of poor tactical

communication, but throughout the battle American sailors often had little sense of Doorman’s intentions or expectations.

The USN received some intelligence as to the existence of the Type 93 as early as 1940, but did not work out the full implica-tions of the weapon until 1943. America is in the throes of yet another debate about grand strategy, with terms like “deep engage-

ment” and “offshore balancing” coming to characterize complex sets of policies towards allies and antagonists alike.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the 67th session of theUnited Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters

The convention prohibits forced transfer of people outof or into occupied territory. It was adopted to prevent

crimes like the Nazi deportations of European Jews fromconquered countries to death camps. In the West Bank,

however, Israel is the legal military occupational authority,pending a negotiated settlement.

Economic aperture

China Opens Innumerable Doors

Ending the nuclear weapons age….

Indefinite reliance on nuclear weapons throughdoctrines and deployment postures of high opera-

tional readiness can legitimize the nuclear ambitionsof others who cannot otherwise be convinced that

nuclear weapons are playing a reduced role in post-Cold War national security strategies.

JOHN ROSS

ACCURATELY analyzing and predictingChina’s economic development hasearned me a living, and opened innumerable doors, for more than 20 years. It also

brought the satisfaction of seeing individual interestand skills linked to the world’s biggest story thegrowth of China’s economy and its “national revival.”My relationship with China started unusually as Ianalyzed its economy for more than 20 years beforeI could make a visit. The interest started in the 1980swhen, for theoretical economic reasons, I concludedits economic reforms, launched by Deng Xiaoping,should achieve great economic success. Neverthe-less, for a long time China remained unfashionablenot today’s front page news. Soon after I began fol-lowing the country, the most widely held internationaltheory was that it would be a relative economic fail-ure while real economic progress would be in East-ern Europe and Russia where Gorbachev introducedreforms and rapid privatization began.

As these economic analyses were inaccurate in1992, I wrote an article that changed my life. Its title,Why the Economic Reform Succeeded in China andWill Fail in Russia and Eastern Europe, explains it-self—it analyzed why China’s economic path would

produce great success, and Russia and Eastern Eu-rope would fail in comparison. Publication of this inRussia created a sensation. I predicted inflation inthousands of percent, accompanied by industrial col-lapse, but China’s economy growing rapidly. Thisled to public debates with Russia’s Vice President,the President’s Chief Economic Adviser, meetingswith Russia’s Foreign Minister, TV appearances,contracts with multinational companies, etc. At thebeginning of 1992 this analysis was received withwidespread skepticism, and by year-end its predic-tions were already confirmed for both China andRussia. Nevertheless, despite publishing analysisbased on China’s economy, I had no direct contactwith the country at all the work was written from thepoint of view of theoretical economics.

Nor was I able to visit China for a prolongedperiod. In 2000 a client, Ken Livingstone, was electedLondon’s mayor. He invited me to take charge ofLondon’s economic policy. Only in 2005 was I fi-

nally able to visit China—a country whose economyI had been analyzing for decades! When London’smayor changed in 2008 I knew China’s economicsuccess would continue, so I wanted to continue re-lations with it. I became a visiting professor at Shang-hai Jiao Tong University combining a minimum sixmonths a year living in China with continuing visitsto India and Russia and a London base.

Living in China naturally gave me far moreknowledge of the country, but as the analysis formedtwo decades earlier had stood the test of time thisdeepened, but did not fundamentally change myanalysis of the country’s economy. The most signifi-cant problem is that my wife has to remain in the UKmost of the time as one of my daughters is a worldranked dressage rider and my wife helps with thepractical side of this. So we compensate by takingincredible China holidays ranging from classic tour-ist sites (Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors) to a “swim-ming pool” rest holiday in the island resort of Hainan,

which was so comfortable that I am slightly embar-rassed to say we never left the hotel complex for 10days! As we adore good food China’s inexhaustiblecuisine is integrated in these plans my wife saying Iraved about fish I ate at Yichang on the Yangtze fortwo years before I could take her there (after sam-pling she deemed it worth waiting).

I love poetry and have long read in translationclassic Chinese poets my personal favorite being LiBai, perhaps because he was famous for his liking ofwine. My Chinese friends vastly improved my liter-ary knowledge. In another cultural direction I workedwith and came to like the Chinese pop star Li Yuchun/Chris Lee winner of a Chinese equivalent of Pop Idol.I teach about her in courses on branding and someChinese readers of Lee Weekly were doubtless be-mused to find a foreign economics professor rated asone of her top 10 fans in 2012! Last year’s great dis-covery was that computer translation technology hasimproved to a point that makes possible not only read-

ing Chinese media, but participating in Weibo theChinese microblogging parallel of Twitter. Via WeiboI can communicate not only with colleagues andfriends, but enormous numbers of Chinese netizensin 10 months I received 66,000 Weibo comments.Netizens turned from virtual into physical friends inseveral cities. Are there difficulties to being in Chinafrom a foreigner’s perspective? From a practical pointof view there are very few. Culturally the most diffi-cult thing to adjust to is the Chinese unwillingness tosay “no” in a direct fashion.

It wastes a lot of time I prefer American direct-ness. But all this is secondary to the main facts. Chinahas the fastest growing major economy in world his-tory. By being in China today you are participatingin history in a way not possible in any other country.For an individual, what is important in that could bebusiness opportunities, to be at the cutting edge ofeconomic trends, to see hundreds of millions of peopleachieve a decent living standard, and to see the evo-lution of a country that is simultaneously the oldestand most modern in the world. But at this point inhistory China is where the world’s action is it is theplace to be. It is also “win-win.” Provided a foreignerremembers they are a guest in China’s house, theydo not own it, the hospitality of its people is tremen-dous. —Courtesy: Beijing Review

SC spurns Punjab Govt reporton Badami Bagh arson

From Page 1

time was wasted on your report.Police has not even conductedinvestigation to ascertain whatwas the real matter. Is there nohonest officer left in Punjab po-lice. Punjab government hasagain talked about formation ofcommission. If this has to meetthe same end what Gojra com-mission met then it be left.

In the mean time court sum-moned report on Gojra incidentand the court expressed regreton non availability of report.

CJP remarked “ nothing isabove the sanctity of last prophetMuhammad (PBUH). Blas-phemy law is in place. Actionbe taken as per law. Earlier theentire Ramsha case proved false.Whenever any minorities’ re-lated incident happens, Punjabgovernment stays unmoved.Such police officer is appointedabout whom the court restrainsgovernment to appoint andcourts orders are blown into theair”.

He further observed “ thecourt be told who staged riotsafter 36 hours. Under whose or-ders the area was got vacated.IG should inform to whom hewas affording benefit. Now thesmall things can not remain con-cealed and this is a major inci-dent. No one will be allowed toviolate law. When the culpritwas arrested then why the riotsoccurred”.

He remarked there is modefor voicing the protest. Effectivemode of protest was pursued inQuetta. Protest took place butnot a single glass was smashed.Report on Gojra incident has notbeen made public so far. JusticeSheikh Azmat Saeed remarked“it seems the land was commer-cial and the entire thing wasengineered to get evacuate theland. Value of respective land betold to the court.

Justice Gulzar Ahmad re-marked “rioting continued andpolice played the role of specta-tor. Police is equally responsiblefor this incident.

Advocate General told thecourt that the decision to evacu-ate the area was not taken by thesenior officers and it was deci-sion of an SHO. The court whileissuing interim order adjournedthe hearing of the case tillMarch, 13.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice ofPakistan (CJP) IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry has re-marked Supreme Court (SC) de-cision to the extent of RajaPervez Ashraf is final in rentalpower case. He gave these re-marks while presiding over a 3-member bench of SC during thecourse of hearing of Prime Min-ister Raja Pervez Ashraf letteraddressed to him seeking forma-tion of commission to investi-gate rental power case Monday.

The court issued notices to

Faisal Saleh Hayat, KhawajaAsif and chairman NAB andsought replies from them.

Waseem Sajjad advocate ap-peared in the court on behalf ofPrime Minister (PM) RajaPervez Ashraf. Waseem Sajjadtold the court “ PM wants thatinvestigation into rental powercase be assigned to the commis-sion.

CJP remarked “ court deci-sion to the extent of Raja PervezAshraf is final. You will raisequestions on NAB then whatwill happen about otherpeople”.

CJP inquired as to why “youhave addressed the letter to me.Constitution of commission af-ter court’s decision is tanta-mount to reviewing the deci-sion. Your review petition hasbeen rejected for withdrawal ofthe same by you”. WaseemSajjad said “law does not debargovernment from constitutingcommission. We want investiga-tion is made with reference toallegations.

CJP remarked “ you couldfile review petition too. Now theproblem is that federal ministerand member of assembly hasraised the matter and how canwe decide it without issuing no-tice to him.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeedobserved “ I have been disap-pointed personally after hearingthe decision in Arsalan Iftikharcase. Waseem Sajjad said “wehave not expressed mistrust onNAB, we want transparent in-vestigations.

CJP remarked “you alreadyknow it that former prime min-ister had to quit his office too.Now the matters have gone toextreme end and nothing can bedone without issuing notices tothe concerned parties.

The court while issuing no-tices to Faisal Saleh Hayat,Khawaja Asif and chairmanNAB adjourned hearing of thecase till March, 18.

Meanwhile, The SupremeCourt on Monday rejected thepetition praying for granting ex-emption to Husain Huqqani,former Pakistan ambassador toUS, from appearing in the court.However, the court allowed lastchance for his appearance withinthree weeks, otherwise, punitiveaction as cancellation of his Pa-kistani passport might be takenagainst him.

The apex court larger benchheaded by Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry washearing the controversialMemogate case. During thehearing, the chief justice re-marked that Husain Haqqanihad promised the court that hewould return within four weeks.“Husain Haqqani should respecthis testimony before the court,”the CJ said. The bench said there

was democracy in the countryand steps taken by the govern-ment to provide security to theformer ambassador were appre-ciable. The court said it had sev-eral options including the can-cellation of Haqqani’s passportif he did not return. Moreover,the bench also ordered to sendthe copy of the court’s order tothe country’s embassy in US.

Earlier, Husain Huqqani’slawyer Asma Jahangir had sub-mitted a petition praying for thegrant of exemption to her cli-ent due to security concerns,which the court rejected andordered him to make his pres-ence within three weeks in thecourt, otherwise his passportmight be cancelled. AsmaJahangir, informed the courtthat her client was unwilling toreturn to Pakistan and did nottrust the security assurancesgiven by the government.

On the court’s probing, At-torney General Irfan Qadir in-formed the bench on details ofthe safety measures to beadopted for Haqqani’s security.

The Attorney General in-formed the court that foolproofsecurity would be provided toHusain Haqqani during his stayin Pakistan.

On Feb 12 during the lasthearing, the SC had directedSecretary Khawaja SiddiqAkbar to provide fool-proof se-curity to Husain Haqqani. Thecase was brought to light byMansoor Ijaz, a US citizen ofPakistani origin, when he ac-cused Haqqani of writing amemo to Admiral Mike Mullenseeking the country’s helpagainst a possible military coupin Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Supreme Courthas called Director GeneralNAB in person and sought thereport regarding filing of refer-ence against the officials respon-sible for sending Tauqir Sadiq,former DG OGRA, abroad.

The court resumed the hear-ing of the case regarding imple-mentation of court decision inOGRA embezzlement case onMonday.

The DG Middle East, Min-istry of Foreign Affairs NasarUllah presented report of thecase in the court. He told thecourt that some developmentsregarding bringing back TauqeerSadiq to the country had beenmade on previous day. He saidthat the case should be taken upat Foreign Office level

On which Justice Jawad S.Khawaja asked him that FO hasnot mentioned this point in itsreport. The step should be takenon state level and report be sub-mitted in the court within 10days.

The investigation officerNAB Waqas told the court thatco accused and the front man ofTauqir Sadiq, Salim Shahzadwas acquitted in the case onsurety bond .

He said that out of 36 wit-nesses of the case , six gave ap-plications for providing themprotection. The case was re-ferred to DG NAB but so far hedid not take any action on it.

The court also demeaned thename of witnesses who re-quested for protection and di-rected DG NAB to appear be-fore the court personally on nextdate of proceedings.

Another witness of the caseSyed Amir Hussain told thecourt that at the time of arrest ofSalim Shahzad , there were evi-dence of the transaction of Rs20.27 million . He said that hehad been threatened for detach-ing himself from the case.

Justice Jawad S Khawajasaid that the report of the For-eign Ministry indicates that Pa-kistani Ambassador in UAE ishelping Tauqir Sadiq. The courtadjourned the hearing till 25March.

Meanwhile, Supreme Courthas asked prosecutor generalNAB to complete his argu-ments by today (Tuesday) inNRO case and tell court if thematter does not come under itsjurisdiction , then it shouldadopt what way.

On Monday three-memberbench of the SC resumed thehearing regarding the imple-mentation of the court decisionin the notorious National Rec-onciliation Ordinance (NRO)case. Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk pre-sided over the bench.

Prosecutor General of NABK.K. Agha said that NationalAccountability Bureau is an in-dependent investigation depart-ment and according to the lawcourt can not intervene in its af-fairs.

On which Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk asked him to present hisarguments on jurisdiction of thecourt today(Tuesday).

He said in his remarks thatthe court is not satisfied with theinvestigations made by NAB sofar in the case.

struggling economy more than itsconsequences.

The transnational gas pipelineproject from Iran through Pakistanto India was conceived in earlynineties. And India remained ac-tive partner of the then namedIran-Pakistan-India (IPI) GasPipeline Project until it had anuclear lollypop from Iran’sarchrival US. Energy experts be-lieve that Indians, in wake of everincreasing demand for natural gas,were still looking at the prospectsof IP gas pipeline’s extension upto India. They believe that thepipeline project has the potentialto become truly a peace pipelineas once termed by the Iranian lead-ership by tapping possibility of itsextension up to China onwardfrom India, though appears uto-pian as of now.

The Iran-Pakistan project tar-gets a flow of 750mmcf gas perday by December 31, 2014. Presi-dent Ahmedinejad had also re-newed this deadline while ad-dressing a press conference inIslamabad a few months back ir-respective of the American oppo-sition to it.

As per the chronology of theevents between Pakistan and Iranregarding this project Inter-Gov-ernmental Framework Declara-tion was singed by the two Presi-dents on May 24, 2009. On June5, the same year, the two coun-tries signed the Gas Sales andPurchase Agreement (GSPA) thatbecame effective on June 13,2010. On Monday March 11,2013, the two Presidents graced aceremony to mark thegroundbreaking of the IP gas pipe-line project.

According to a senior official,Pakistan has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to meet the chal-lenges of project financing thatincludes government to govern-ment (financial assistance) agree-ment, gas infrastructure develop-ment cess, and commitments frompublic sector entities.

The project that would sup-port around 4000MW power gen-eration capacity is anticipated tosubside if not end the deepeningenergy crisis in Pakistan. Theproject’s positive externalitieswould also benefit poverty-hit re-mote areas of Balochistan andSindh. In case of future exten-sion to India and China theproject has the potential to earnsubstantial transit fee for Paki-stan. The successful completionof IP and allied energy projectsalong an optimally operationalGwardar Port could change thedestiny of Pakistan, said an am-bitious bureaucrat in one of thetwo energy ministries.

under the existing laws and nomi-nation forms. The legal expertsfurther said the commissioncould move Supreme Court forholding independent and trans-parent elections.

Meanwhile, Federal LawMinister Farooq H. Naek hassaid that recommendations ofthe Election Commission aboutproposed nomination papers ofthe candidates have been for-

warded to the President and itis prerogative of the Presidentto approve or disapprove them.

Talking to newsmen outsideParliament House on Monday‚he said the Government respectsthe independent Election Com-mission.

He acknowledged that scru-tiny of nomination papers shouldbe held as per Articles-62 and 63

‘ECP decides printing of nominationforms sans President approval’

From Page 1

IAF lostFrom Page 1

on 1st March, 2013 is 3410against the sanctioned strength of3925. Based on the planned in-duction of new aircraft andweapon systems in the 12th Plan,about 440 pilots are required tobe inducted into the IAF per an-num,” Antony said. —INP

termination of the 2 countries formutual cooperation for the ben-efit of their people.

He said gas pipeline projectis beginning of the work and thepipeline can be extended to theNorth and East of Pakistan.

Earlier President Asif AliZardari and his Iranian counter-part Mahmoud Ahmadinejadjointly inaugurated the final con-struction phase at a ceremonyheld in the Iranian city of ChahBahar near Pak-Iran border.

The 2 presidents togetherunveiled the plaque of the megaproject. The ceremony was at-tended by a large number of for-eign dignitaries, ministers,members of parliament and po-litical leaders from both thecountries.

The 1600 kilometer long 42inch diameter pipeline will en-able the import of 21.5 millioncubic meters of Iranian naturalgas to Pakistan on a daily basis.Iran has already completed the900 kilometer pipeline in its ter-ritory.—Online

Foreign elementsFrom Page 1

Qamar Zaman Kaira, Dr. FirdousAshiq Awan, Farhatullah Baberand other PPP leaders.

The ceremony, which thepresident’s office described as a‘big event’, was held in the Ira-nian border city of Chabahar.Both presidents were accompa-nied at the ground-breaking bydelegations comprising minis-ters, top officials as well as rep-resentatives of several Arabstates.

Iranian state televisionshowed footage of Ahmadinejadand Zardari shaking hands andoffering prayers after unveilinga plaque to mark Pakistan’s in-volvement.

“The completion of the pipe-line is in the interests of peace,security and progress of the twocountries … it will also consoli-date the economic, political andsecurity ties of the two nations,”the two presidents said in a jointstatement.

President Zardari, in his ad-dress at the ceremony, regardedthe pipeline project as “very im-portant” for Pakistan.

He said world peace was cor-related with peace in Pakistan,which, he stressed, was not op-posed to or against any otherstate. He said the prosperity ofPakistan and Iran was inter-linked and that the former wasstriving to become self-reliant.He added that the internationalcommunity was unaware of the

UK supportsFrom Page 1

PAF committed tomaintain combat

readiness: Air ChiefISLAMABAD —PAF is commit-ted to maintain combat readinessin pursuit of the assigned mis-sion while maintaining focus onjudicious use of resources andpreservation of assets”, said theAir Chief, while addressing theaudience of Annual OperationalReview held at Air Headquar-ters, Islamabad on Monday.

PAF Annual OperationalReview for the year 2012 waspresided over by Air Chief Mar-shal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chiefof the Air Staff, Pakistan AirForce and was attended by Prin-cipal Staff Officers, RegionalCommanders and the supervi-sors from all PAF Bases.The Annual Operation Reviewis a routine activity during whichreview of operational activitiesis carried out. The forum is alsoused to carry out an in depthstudy of the standards of flightand ground safety in PAF.—INP

FATA, RYK, MiranShah hubs of Punjabi

Taliban: MalikISLAMABAD—Interior MinisterRehman Malik Monday said thatFATA, Rahim Yar Khan andMiran Shah are the bubs ofPunjabi Taliban.

Talking to newsmen inIslamabad on Monday after-noon, he said that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is spoiling law and or-der situation in Karachi.

The Minister said thatbanned militant outfits TTP, LeJand others do not want holdingof elections in the country.

He said Rangers and Policehave taken action in Karachi andhopefully the situation wouldimprove there.

The Minister, however, re-gretted that the Punjab Govern-ment was not taking any actionagainst Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Hesaid that if elections would de-lay or postponed in the countrythen Punjab government wouldbe responsible.

Rehman Malik addressed toCM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif bydemanding of him to take strin-gent action banned outfits in-cluding LeJ in Punjab.

He said Badami Bagh trag-edy is the worst example of badgovernance. —Online

problems of the regional coun-tries. Ahmadinejad hailed the factthat work on the new section ofthe pipeline was going ahead de-spite US sanctions against Iran’soil and gas sector imposed overits controversial nuclearprogramme.

“This gas pipeline is a signof show of resistance againstdomination,” Ahmadinejad said.

“This pipeline has nothing todo with the nuclear issue, youcannot build a nuclear bomb withnatural gas,” he said, speakingalongside President Zardari incomments broadcast live on Ira-nian state television.

Dubbed the “peace pipeline”,the project has faced repeateddelays since it was conceived inthe 1990s to connect Iran’s giantSouth Pars gas field to India viaPakistan. It has also promptedseveral warnings from the UnitedStates of the possible impositionof economic sanctions on Paki-stan. “The government is goingto initiate this important projectin view of the energy require-ments. The project will bring eco-nomic prosperity, provide betteropportunities to the people andhelp defeat militancy,” he said.

Fears of possible US sanc-tions over the deal took their tollon the Karachi Stock Exchange,Pakistan’s main stock market, asit plummeted almost 2.5 per cent,or 441 points, on Monday. Ana-lysts said a statement from the US

State Department was expectedlater Monday, which could deter-mine the future course of thestock market.

Iran has completed 900 kmof pipeline on its side of the bor-der and Iranian contractors willalso construct the pipeline in Pa-kistan, Iran’s national broadcast-ing network IRIB reported.Tehran-based Tadbir Energy De-velopment Group will undertakeall engineering procurement andconstruction work for the firstsegment of the project, whichstarts from the Iran-Pakistan bor-der.

The Iranian firm will alsocarry out the second segment ofthe project, while the remainingamount is expected to be gener-ated by Pakistan through Gas In-frastructure Development Cess(GIDC).

Tehran has agreed to lendIslamabad $500 million, or athird of the estimated $1.5 billioncost of the 750 km Pakistani sec-tion of the pipeline, Fars newsagency reported.

The two sides hope the pipe-line will be complete in time tostart delivery of 21.5 million cu-bic metres of gas per day to Pa-kistan by December 2014.

Monday’s ceremony camejust days before the five-yearterm of the ruling PakistanPeople’s party government is setto expire, with elections sched-uled to be held in mid-May.

Epoch-making IP gaspipeline project set in motion

From Page 1

of the Constitution.The Law Minister said the

Election Commission has shareda tentative election schedule butit is prerogative of the Presidentto announcedate of the polls.

Replying to a question‚ hesaid till appointment of the Care-taker Prime Minister‚ RajaPervez Ashraf would remain thechief executive of the country.

AKF providesemergency relief

to victimsSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—UK based charityorganization Al-Khair Founda-tion (AKF) having its head of-fice in Lahore, has started pro-viding emergency relief to theChristian Community of JosephTown, Badami Bagh area. Thiswas stated by Mr. Tahir Begg, atrustee of AKF in a statement is-sued from Lahore.

Mr. Begg said that AKFstands with the Christian’s broth-ers and sister in their sorrow andgrief. It has started providingcooked meals, shelter, beds andclean drinking water to the home-less people in the area. It is alsoproviding cordoned milk and bis-cuits to the children. AKF teamhas rushed to the area to take careof the immediate needs of the vic-tims and is ready and equippedto put the community in the areaback on its feet.He thanked the do-nors of AKF and reiterated that un-der the guidance of AKF’s founderand CEO Imam Qasim, it will keepworking for all the communitiesaround the world.

Power pylonblown upKOHLU—Unknown miscreantshave blow up an electricitytower in Rakhni area on Mon-day. According to reports, mis-creants blew up a power trans-mission tower which was sup-plying electricity to Kohlu andBarkhan Areas. Due to the de-struction electricity was sus-pended in Kohlu, Barkhan andRakhi areas. Local administra-tion has started repair work onthe tower.—Online

Anti-polio drive intribal beltPESHAWAR —Anti-polio drivewill be launched on March 23in tribal areas, media reportssaid. However, the children inSouth and North Waziristanagencies would be deprivedfrom the immunization againstthe crippling disease due to se-curity concerns. Political au-thorities said during the three-day campaign almost 700,000children would be administeredanti-polio vaccine. —Online

UVAS springfestival kicks offStaff ReporterLAHORE—University of Veteri-nary and Animal Sciences(UVAS) Vice-Chancellor Prof DrTalat Naseer Pasha inauguratedspring festival 2013 at the CityCampus on Monday. Thecolourful event started withQiraat and Naat Competitions inwhich students from various de-partments participated. Declama-tion and drama contests, a petshow and floral competitions.

ISLAMABAD: Students of Wafaq-ul- Madaris hold a sit-in demonstration at D Chowk.

ISLAMABAD: Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan AirForce, awarding Inter-Base Flight Safety Trophy to Air Commodore Asim Zaheer, Base Com-mander PAF Base Shahbaz, at the Annual Operation Review held at Air Headquarters.

NEW DELHI —The driver ofthe bus in which a young Indianwoman was gang-raped and fa-tally injured three months agohanged himself in New Delhi’sTihar jail on Monday, policesaid. Ram Singh was the mainaccused of five men and a juve-nile put on trial for the attack onthe 23-year-old trainee physio-therapist in the Indian capital.The assault triggered nationwideprotests and an intense debateabout rampant crime againstwomen in India.

A senior police official saidSingh had committed suicide inhis cell early on Monday. “It istrue, he’s dead,” said the offi-cial, who spoke on condition ofanonymity.

The CNN-IBN news chan-nel said Singh hanged himselfwith his own clothes.

Tihar jail is India’s highestsecurity prison and officialsthere are likely to face toughquestions about how such anincident could have occurred.

“He knew he was going to

die anyway because we had andstill have such a strong caseagainst him,” thephysiotherapist’s 20-year-oldbrother told Reuters.

“I’m not very thrilled withthe news that he killed himselfbecause I wanted him to behanged ... publicly. Him dyingon his own terms seems unfair.But, oh well, one is down. Hope-fully the rest will wait for theirdeath sentence.”

The trial of the five adultmen began in a special fast-trackcourt last month while thejuvenile’s trial began last week.Ram Singh’s brother MukeshSingh, gym assistant VinaySharma, bus cleaner AkshayKumar Singh and fruit vendorPawan Kumar are the other menon trial. The five men havepleaded not guilty to rape andmurder.

Police allege the six at-tacked the woman and her malecompanion on the bus as thecouple returned home afterwatching a movie on December

16. The woman was repeatedlyraped and tortured with a metalbar. The couple were also se-verely beaten before beingthrown onto a road.

The woman died of internalinjuries in a Singapore hospitaltwo weeks later.Singh was a busdriver, despite an accident in2009 that fractured his right armso badly that doctors had to in-sert a rod to support it. He ap-peared on a reality televisionshow in a compensation disputewith a bus owner, who in turnaccused Singh of “drunken, neg-ligent and rash driving”.

In the show, themoustachioed, slightly-builtman was seen walking stifflyand holding his right arm at anawkward angle.

Singh’s neighbours in thesouth Delhi slum where he liveddescribed him as a heavy drinkerwith a temper. One youngwoman said he used to get em-broiled in violent rows and a rela-tive recalled a physical alterca-tion with her husband.—Online

Delhi rape accused driverhangs himself

Badami Bagh:14 suspectssent to jail

LAHORE—Anti-Terrorist Courton Monday sent 14 of the riotssuspect to jail on Judicial re-mand. Police on Monday pre-sented 35 suspects in BadamiBagh incident before an Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) amid highsecurity.

According to media reports,the suspects were presented be-fore ATC No.3 as heavy contin-gents of police commandoeswere deployed outside the court.Officials said out of 35 accused,14 were nominated while 21were unknown.

A large number of relativesof the accused also gathered out-side the court, alleging that thesuspects were arrested by policeduring overnight raids.

Earlier, Supreme Court re-jected a report filed by thePunjab police in Badami Baghsuo motu case, and expresseddispleasure over authoritiesfor their failure to cope withthe violence. —Online

PM approvespromotions of 103officers of different

service groupsISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf, on the rec-ommendations of Central Selec-tion Board, has approved thepromotions of 103 officers be-longing to different services andgroups

According to state media,this include among others promo-tion of 6 officers of Foreign Ser-vice from BS-19 to 20; 4 offic-ers of Information Group fromBS-20 to BS-21; 4 from BS-20to 21 and another 5 from BS-19to 20 in Intelligence Bureau; 2officers from BS-20 to 21 and1 from BS-19 to 20 in MilitaryLand and Cantonment Group;21 officers of Pakistan Auditand Accounts Service from BS-19 to 20; 23 officers of InlandRevenue Service from BS-19 to20; 12 officers of Pakistan Au-dit and Accounts Service fromBS-20 to 21; and 5 officers ofForeign Service from BS-20to 21.—Online

NAB probesMetro Bus, Ring

Road projectsISLAMABAD—Taking cogni-zance of various reports relat-ing to major violations ofPunjab Government on themega projects of Metro BusLahore and Ring Roadcontract’s award to various par-ties including NLC, withoutprocessing the case as per rules,National Accountability Bu-reau has decided to investigatethese cases at NAB HQs.

In this context all docu-ments have been sought fromGovernment of Punjab along-with names of functionaries re-sponsible for the award of thesecontracts. Chairman NAB hasinstructed that these investiga-tions must be expeditiously for-malized and accountabilityacross the board in all provincesbe ensured without discrimina-tion.—Online

11 killed inIraq attacks

BAGHDAD—A suicide attackerdrove his explosives-laden caron Monday into a police sta-tion in northern Iraq, killingfive people, while attacks else-where in the country killed sixmore Iraqis, officials said.

The deputy police chief inthe northern city of Kirkuk,Maj. Gen. Torhan Abdul-Rahman Youssef, said the deadin the suicide attack in thetown of Dibis included two po-licemen and three civilians.

Thirty-six others, includ-ing some students from anearby school, were woundedin the blast, Youssef said.

The town is located nearKirkuk, which is 180 miles(290 kilometers) north ofBaghdad.—AP

HUMAIRA HUSSAIN

ISLAMABAD—Forensic agencyconducting DNA tests in theShahzadi Bibi case has requestedexcavation of her grave to collectevidences for further tests as po-lice failed to provide sufficientproofs.

The agency forwarded its re-quest to the ICT police in the bru-tal rape-cum-murder case whichin turn has sought opinion of itslegal branch on the matter.

Meanwhile, the heirs of thevictum, the poor helpless family,have pledged every support re-quired in the case. “I don’t knowanything and I can only say some-thing after consulting my familymember is better aware than meof these matters,” said bereavedfather of the innocent child whohad yet to enter her teenage.

The request was made afterthe evidences provided by thepolice proved insufficent for DNAtesting. According to sourcesprivy to the investigations, the

body of the ill-fated girl falling toinhuman seriel rapist as well killerwas burnt beyound recognitionwhich impeded detailed medicalexamination.

Investigation officer Sub-In-spector Mansoor Ahmed, whileadmitting police’s failure in col-lecting sufficient evidence in thefirst place, said that the agency’srequest has been received and hasbeen forwarded to legal branch.Onward procedure would be car-ried out with the consent ofdeceased’s parents. He added thata request has been made for a toothof the child for DNA testing as thebody was completely burnt.

In tone of despair Shehzadi’sfather said his brother-in-law isauthorised on his behalf to coop-erate with police and medicalteam.

Police has completed its in-vestigation in the case and will filethe case in sessions court for for-mal hearing after receiving de-tailed medical reports and opin-ion of Legal Branch.

Excavation of Shahzadi’sgrave sought for evidence

JI electioncampaign fromMarch 23PESHAWAR—Jamaat-e-Islamiwill launch election campaignfrom Peshawar and in this con-nection a big meeting will beheld on March 23 on MotorwayChowk of Ring Road. The pub-lic meeting will also be ad-dressed by central amir JIP, SyedManawar Hassan. This was an-nounced by general secretary,JIP, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Shabir Ahmad Khan while ad-dressing a press conference hereat Press Club on Monday. —APP

KABUL—A police officer openedfire on U.S. and Afghan forces ata police headquarters in easternAfghanistan on Monday, sparkinga firefight that killed two U.S.troops and two other Afghan po-licemen. The attacker was alsokilled in the shootout, officialssaid. In a second incident, outsideKabul, U.S. troops fired on a truckapproaching their military convoy,killing two Afghan men inside.

The shooting in the easternWardak province was the latest ina series of insider attacks againstcoalition and Afghan forces thathave threatened to underminetheir alliance at a time when co-operation would aid the plannedhandover of security responsibil-ity to local forces next year.

The attack also comes a dayafter the expiration of the Afghanpresident’s deadline for U.S. spe-cial forces to withdraw from theprovince.

U.S. officials have said thatthey are working with Afghancounterparts to answer PresidentHamid Karzai’s concerns andmaintain security in Wardak. Mostof the U.S. troops in Wardak arespecial operations forces.

In Monday’s attack, an Af-ghan police officer stood up in theback of a police pickup truck,grabbed a machine gun and startedfiring at the U.S. special opera-tions forces and Afghan police-men in the police compound inJalrez district, said the province’sDeputy Police Chief Abdul RazaqKoraishi.

The assailant killed two Af-ghan policemen and woundedfour, including the district policechief, before he was gunneddown, Koraishi said.

Insider attack kills 2US troops, 2 Afghans

The U.S. military said in astatement that two American ser-vice members were killed in theshooting. U.S. forces wereholding five Afghan police offic-ers for questioning, Koraishi said.

Karzai ordered U.S. specialoperations forces to leave Wardakprovince, just outside the Afghancapital, because of allegations thatAfghans working with the U.S.commandos were involved inabusive behavior. Karzai gavethem two weeks to leave, and thedeadline expired Sunday.

On Sunday, Karzai accusedU.S. forces of working with theTaliban to stage two suicidebombings over the weekendduring the visit of U.S. DefenseSecretary Chuck Hagel. In aspeech, Karzai said the Ameri-cans want to scare Afghans intoallowing them to stay.

That brought a sharp re-buke from the U.S. ambassadorTuesday, as news of the insider

attack in Wardak emerged.“The thought that we would

collude with the Taliban flies inthe face of everything we havedone here and is absolutelywithout foundation,” Ambassa-dor James Cunningham said ina statement. “It is inconceivable that wewould spend the lives ofAmerica’s sons, daughters, andour treasure, in helping Af-ghans to secure and rebuildtheir country, and at the sametime be engaged in endanger-ing Afghanistan or itscitizens.”The Wardak shootingis the third insider attack thisyear. Afghan soldiersopened fire on U.S. forces at ajoint base in eastern Afghani-stan last Friday, killing oneU.S. contractor and injuringfour U.S. troops. A U.S. mili-tary official confirmed Tues-day that the attackers were Af-ghan soldiers. —AP

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Chief Minis-ter Syed Qaim Ali Shah pre-sented 5-year progress report inthe Sindh Provincial Assemblyon Monday.

The CM criticised state-ments given by the ElectionCommission of Pakistan andSupreme Court of Pakistanwherein the two institutions hadimposed ban on the employ-ments and transfers and postingsin Police department.

The CM asked how the gov-ernment could run its businessesamid such bans and how itwould control the law and orderin the province.

The CM regretfully said thatall were silent over citizens’ kill-ings which were higher inPunjab, which totaled 19000 inPunjab in 2012 as compared to4000 killings in Sindh. The CMasked the illegal immigrants togo back to their countries be-

Qaim presents 5-yearprogress report in SA

cause they had created havoc inthe province of Sindh. Therewere 4 million illegal immi-grants in Sindh.

He said that the governmenthad provided jobs to165000youth and trained 200000 underskill development schemes. Es-tablished new hospitals and up-graded hospitals and spentRs4.79 billion on developmentprojects. They people wouldjudge the performance of thegovernment and decide aboutthe future of the elected repre-sentatives.

The CM refuted ideas aboutterrorism and lawlessness in theport city and said that it was apart of plans by the enemies todestabilize the country. The es-tablishment had also acceptedthat such plans had existed in thecountry.

The crime rate had declinedby 23 percent in Karachi whileit had declined by 30-40 percentall over the province.

‘Tolerance Day’ onFridayLAHORE—Ulema of varioussects have decided to observe aday of tolerance on Friday as toexpress solidarity with theChristian community. Religiousscholars have strongly con-demned the tragic incidenthappened with the Christiancommunity. According to me-dia reports, this was decidedduring a meeting between adelegation of Ulema belongingto different schools of thoughtand all the bishops in Lahoreon Monday. —INP

MQM seeks kiteelectoral symbolKARACHI—As expected,Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) on Monday submittedan application before the Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan(ECP), seeking allotment ofkite as its election symbol forthe upcoming general elec-tions. Sources privy to theECP say so far 35 political par-ties have applied for electionsymbols. It is mentioned herethat the ECP has sought ap-plications for the allotment ofelection signs till March 15.—NNI

POSSESSING one or another versionof a gene key to metabolizing the Bvitamin folate may make a big differ-

ence in who responds to vitamin supple-ments intended to treat negative symptomsof schizophrenia, accord-ing to a new study.

Researchers tracked140 people with schizo-phrenia for 16 weeks andfound that those with theso-called high-functioningFOLH1 gene variant had agreater response to folicacid and B12 supplements,compared to those with thelow-functioning FOLH1variant.

“That’s a gene that ac-tually controls the diges-tion of folate (or folic acid)into the bloodstream,” saidDr. Joshua Roffman, thestudy’s lead author fromMassachusetts GeneralHospital in Charlestown.

Folate, one of the B vitamins, is usedin the manufacturing of neurotransmitters,which send signals throughout the brainand body, and it’s found in leafy veg-etables, citrus fruits, beans and fortifiedgrain products.

Since the 1960s, Roffman told ReutersHealth, folate deficiencies have been tiedto the development of schizophrenia, andresearchers have observed spikes in casesof the mental disorder after famines inChina and the Netherlands, for example.

But this new study, he said, is the firstto look at the effects of folate supplementsin a large population of people with the

B vitamins might helpsome with schizophrenia

condition - at several medical centers inMassachusetts, New York and Michigan.

The researchers, who published theirfindings in JAMA Psychiatry, were tar-geting so-called negative symptoms in

schizophrenia patients,which include apathy, with-drawal and an inability todisplay emotion.

Those are less severethan the more well-knowsymptoms of schizophrenia- including hallucinations,delusions and paranoia - butstill lead to significant im-pairment, because they areunaffected by traditionalantipsychotic drugs, ex-perts said.

“There’s nothing that’swidely accepted that’s demon-strated to help. So there is abig need for this kind of work,”said Dr. Scott Stroup, a pro-fessor of psychiatry at NewYork’s Columbia University

who was not involved with the research.For the new study, the researchers

recruited 140 schizophrenia patients andrandomly assigned them into two groups.One group received 2 milligrams of folicacid and 400 micrograms of vitamin B12,which increases folic acid’s effect, perday for 16 weeks. The other group tookplacebo pills for comparison, but all pa-tients also continued their normal medi-cations. At the beginning, each groupscored in the mid-30s on a scale that mea-sures the severity of their negative symp-toms from 0 to 100 - with higher scoresbeing more severe.

ISLAMABAD: H.E. Mr. Volodymyr Lakomov, Ambassador of Ukraine, called on Mr.Zahid Malik, Editor-in-Chief, Pakistan Observer, on Monday. Mr. Oleh Shevchenko,Deputy Head of Mission of Ukraine Embassay was also present. They discussed mattersof mutual interest.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

ISLAMABAD: A beautiful view of the capital seen from the road leading to Pir Sohawa.

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—A grouppainting exhibition titled‘Psychedelic Spring’ byNabeela Rashid andMadiha Saeed opened atthe Art Gallery of theRawalpindi Art Council(RAC) on Monday. SenatorNajma Hameed and MNATahira Orangzeb flanked byNaheed Manzoor inaugu-rated the exhibition.

Feminine experienceand expression of thespring season is clearly vis-ible in every painting shownin the exhibition and thecolor scheme used in them.Soft images of nature andhuman figures, and brightcolors are distinctive fea-tures of paintings byNabeela Rashid andMadiha Saeed who haveused medium of watercolor,

Paintings exhibition by Nabeela, Madiha opens at RAC

RAWALPINDI: Ladies keenly viewing the paintings of Nabeela Rashid and MadihaSaeed during group paintings exhibition at RAC.

pencil work, charcoal and oil.The paintings exhibition

attracted a large gathering,besides art students of the

RAC. Speaking on the occa-sion, Senator Najma Hameed

said the RAC has becomethe hub of art and culturalactivities in the region andthat she always takes pridein arriving here to attend thefunctions. She said colorsin paintings displayed heredepict spring season thathas already set in andspread around. MNA TahiraOrangzeb said tolerancecan be promoted in the so-ciety by holding art activi-ties related functions.

Naheed Manzoor, ad-dressing the gathering, saidthe RAC equally encour-ages new talent and experi-enced artists, and the groupexhibition by NabeelaRashid and Madiha Saeed,both students of RAC artclasses, is an effort towardsthis effect. She said majorfocus of the paintings dis-played at the exhibition isbright colors of spring.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A large numberof marble and steel factories,set up in twin cities ofRawalpindi and Islamabad es-pecially in industrial sectors,I-9 and I-10 are one of the ma-jor contributors to air pollu-tion. The residents frequentlycomplain of diseases like chestcongestion and asthma, whichare directly linked to air pollu-tion according to doctors.

They said that the con-cerned departments havefailed to check increasing airpollution which is mainlycaused by the steel and marblefactories set up in the nearbyindustrial areas. The marblefactories are not only cause ofair pollution but they alsocause noise pollution. Thesefactories throw their waste intothe nearby natural streams.None of these factories follow

any environmental or labourlaws, says Salman Ahmad, aworker.

He said most of the work-ers developed chest diseasesdue to inhaling dust fre-quently and that the factoryowners adopted no safetyprecautions. According to en-vironmentalists at the Paki-stan Environment ProtectionAgency (PEPA), the steel in-dustry is a big source of pol-lution because it uses low-quality scrap as raw materialand releases a huge numberof harmful particulate in theair.

A medical physician saidthat smaller particles, when in-haled, can cause a lot oftrouble. “We are living inworst environmental condi-tions, but the CDA, despitegrowing concerns among in-habitants of this area over theair pollution, has remained in-

different”, Mr Akram said, resi-dent of I-9 sector while talkingto this agency. When con-tacted, an official of the con-cerned department of CDAsaid the authority was pursu-ing industrialists, with a spe-cial focus on steel and marblefactories, to use treatmentplants to filter hazardoussmoke emissions.

The official agreed that theresidents of the sectors closeto the industrial area were suf-fering from air pollution, and,as a result, were more prone torespiratory diseases. “If theindustrialists do not followCDA directives to control airpollution in near future, theauthority will file a complaintwith the Pakistan EnvironmentProtection Agency (PEPA),”he said. He said the authorityhad devised a plan to checkair pollution in the federal capi-tal territory.

Factories in twin citiescausing air pollution

Women commutersfacing problems dueto non-completion

of routesI S L A M A B A D — Wo r k i n gwomen travelling betweenthe twin cities of Islamabadand Rawalpindi have beenfacing problems due to non-completion of routes bytransporters or either due toless number of seats reservedfor female commuters.

A working woman,Kashaf Rehman said she hadto wait at bus stops for hoursto travel to Islamabad fromRawalpindi because twoseats reserved for women arealways occupied.

Another commuterBushra Irum while talking toAPP said the struggle to get aseat in public transport wasvery tiring. Several other fe-male commuters lamented thatthey faced hardships in reach-ing their offices due non-availability of seats. They de-manded an increase in thenumber of seat for women inpublic transports.—APP

CDA to plant5,00,000 trees

ISLAMABAD—Capital Devel-opment Authority is planingto plant around 5,00,000 treesduring current spring in ur-ban, regional areas andMargallah hills.

An official of CDA talk-ing to APP said that CDAChairman Syed TahirShahbaz would inauguratespring tree plantation cam-paign on Tuesday.

He said CDA has also or-ganized a walk from sector F-11/3 Margallah Road to E-11/4 tree plantation site to cre-ate awareness amongmasses regarding trees plan-tation.

General public, s tu-dents, traders and welfaresocieties will participatedin the walk.—APP

Habib Jalib20th death

anniversary todaySTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—RevolutionaryUrdu poet Habib Jalib’s 20thdeath anniversary is beingobserved today.

Habib Jalib was born onMarch 24, 1928 as HabibAhmad in a village nearHoshiarpur, India. He mi-grated to Pakistan after thepartition and worked as aproof reader for Daily ImrozeKarachi.

Habib Jalib was a pro-gressive writer and soonstarted to grab the audi-ence with his enthusiasticreci tat ion of poetry. Hewrote in plain language,adopted a simple style andaddressed common peopleand issues.

His famous collectionsinclude Sir-e-Maqtal, ZikrBehte Khoon Ka, Gumbad-e-Bedar and Kulyaat-e-HabibJalib.

On March 23, 2009, Presi-dent of Pakistan gave thehighest civil award (posthu-mously) to the legendarypoet, which was received byhis daughter. Habib Jalib diedon March 12, 1993.

ISLAMABAD—Judge SupremeCourt of Pakistan, Justice AmirHani Muslim has said that theInvestigation Officers (IO) arerequired to equip themselveswith Forensic Science, otherrelated skills and tools to fightterrorism in the country.

He expressed these viewsin the inaugural ceremony of aone -week colloquium on“Modern Investigation andEvidence Gathering Tech-niques in a Changing CriminalJustice and Counter TerrorismWorld” held in the Federal Ju-dicial Academy (FJA), here onMonday.

Enumerating the initiatives

taken so far in this regard, Judgeof the Apex Court said that theseparation of anti-terrorismcourts from the ordinary courts,amendments in the EvidenceAct, capacity building of theSpecial Judges for Anti-terror-ism courts, were a few promi-nent steps which had beentaken for speedy disposal ofterrorism -related cases in thecountry.

Judge also lamented aboutthe procedural andinfrastructural problems whichwere being faced by the Judgesof Anti-terrorism courts, pros-ecutors and mainly by the in-vestigating agencies such as

lack of proper infrastructure.“A witness Protection Pro-

gram may also be made a partof these techniques, amongothers, for an effective perfor-mance of the anti-terrorismcourts because when the wit-nesses are threatened or elimi-nated, then, the judges of theanti-terrorism courts will not bein a position to convict the cul-prits,” he maintained.

Hashim Abro, spokesmanof the Academy said that thir-teen Special Judges of Anti-ter-rorism courts, eight prosecu-tors and two Investigator of-ficers including AIG, Crimesand CPO, Quetta.—APP

Knowledge of Forensic Science essentialto fight terrorism: Justice Hani

RAWALPINDI: Motorists are stuck in a massive traffic jam at Fawwara Chowk nearParking Plaza.

RAWALPINDI: A view of damaged overhead bridge for pedestrians.

RAWALPINDI: Members of Employees Action Committee staged a protest demonstra-tion after an attendant of a patient tortured an employee of Holy Family Hospital.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Islamabad Po-lice have arrested 14 outlawsfrom various areas of the cityand recovered weapons,hashish, wine and lootedvaluables from their posses-sion, a police spokesman saidon Monday. According todetails, Assistant Sub-In-spector Sarfraz Ahmad fromAnti car lifting cell ofIslamabad police arrested anaccused Usman Khan andrecovered chassis plate andtempering tools from him.

ASIs Fayyaz Akbar,Muhammad Ashiq andMuhammad Saeed from Sabzimandi police arrested fiveaccused Sher Pawoo, Habib-ur-Rehman, Tayyab, Farooqand Yousaf besides recover-ing three three mobilephones, snatched cash andlooted valuables amountingto Rs. 1,50,000 and two 30

bore pistols from them.Sub Inspector

Muhammad Abbas fromSihala police station arrestedan accused wajid Hussainand recovered 250 gram hash-ish from him. ASI Amir Sajjidfrom Bhara Kau police ar-rested a bootlegger for hav-ing seven wine bottles.

Sub-Inspector Jehangirand ASI Tanver Ahmad fromKohsar police station arrestedthree accused Saqib, Zafranand Bilal and recovered pis-tols from them. ASI UmerHayyat from Nilore police sta-tion arrested two thievesWarasst,Shahzad Waheed andrecovered stolen propertyworth Rs. 1,50,000 from them.ASI Qasim Zia from Industrialarea police arrested SirTaj in-volved in selling of porn CDs.Cases have been registeredagainst these nabbed personsand further investigation isunderway from them.

14 outlaws arrested,narcotics recovered

RAWALPINDI—The residentsof College Road and sur-rounding areas have beenreceiving murky and sewagemixed water causing spreadof waterborne diseases. Theresidents talking to INP com-plained that they were forcedto consume contaminatedwater for last few weekswhich is not fit for consump-tion besides causing spreadof various diseases.

Dr Hamid Saleem andother residents said that wa-ter and sewerage lines gotmixed at some points whichpolluted water being pro-vided to them. They com-plained that Water and Sani-tation Agency (WASA) hasfailed to identify leakage and

ensure provision of cleandrinking water.

Ironic is the fact that theaffected localities are locatedat walking distance from cen-tral office of WASA and resi-dency of PML-N MNAShakeel Awan, they la-mented.

Yasir Ali, a resident ofCollege Road, taking to INPsaid, “WASA has failed toreplace the leaking waterpipelines passing throughnullahs which consequentlycontaminate the drinkingwater.”

Kamran Ahmed, aresident of Arjunpura said,“The water supply pipelinesshould be kept away fromdrains or nullahs.”—INP

Residents decry supply ofmuddy drinking water

Sale ofsubstandard foodgoes unchecked

RAWALPINDI—Due to theslackness of Pakistan Stan-dard and Quality ControlAuthority (PSQCA), the saleof substandard food itemsand beverages is on the rise,particularly in rural areas ofthe city, which poses serioushealth hazards.

According to a surveyconducted by INP, the sub-standard and adulteratedbeverages and other fooditems are being openly soldas most of the vendors haveput up their stalls nearcrowded areas especiallyparks, colleges and bus sta-tions in order to allure maxi-mum costumers while con-cerned authorities haveturned a blind eye towardsthe open sale of food itemsand beverages which maycause diseases like typhoid,hepatitis, diarrhoea, and dif-ferent kinds of infections.

Moreover, sale of unhy-gienic food and drinks athigher rates is also on the riseat Railway Station andPirwadhai and Faizabad BusStand, besides there is noquality control system fromPakistan Railways atRawalpindi Railway Station,leaving passengers at themercy of vendors. Citizensdemanded strict actionagainst those involved in thebusiness of substandard andadulterated food commodi-ties and beverages.—INP

AKF installs 2000hand pumps inremote villages

ISLAMABAD—Al-Khair Foun-dation has installed over 2000hand pumps in remote villagesto provide clean drinking waterto masses. AKF has been work-ing on Millennium Develop-ment Goals (MDGs) announcedby the United Nations in 2000,this was said by Tahir Beeg atrustee of UK based Al- KhairFoundation while talking toMedia here.

He said to achieve thesegoals, AKF has given par-ticular importance to the roleof women.

This includes giving prior-ity to the widows and orphans,in handing over newly builthouses after the devastatingfloods of July 2010 in Pakistan,so that women and families canlive in secure surroundings.AKF has also established pur-pose built adult training cen-ters for women. Women arebeing taught technical skillssuch as sewing, embroideryand dress making with aim toimprove their family economicconditions. The centers arealso used for basic educationon health, hygiene, cleanlinessand protection of the environ-ment.—APP

Teachers’ associationprotest school land

occupationRAWALPINDI—Teachers’ as-sociations would stage pro-test at Fowara Chowk onTuesday (today) against il-legal occupation of vast tractof land of Government Chris-tian Higher SecondarySchool (GCHSS) located inRaja Bazaar.

Muttahida MahazAsatiza (MMA) vice chair-man Imtiaz Abbasi presideda meeting held the other re-garding illegal occupation ofland of GCHSS and allegedthreats to principal of the in-stitution by land mafia. —INP

RAWALPINDI—After the in-cident of Badami Bagh inLahore, the security of thechurches and Christian com-munity has been increased toavoid any untoward incidentin Rawalpindi.

Punjab Home Departmenthas directed the district ad-ministration and police tobeef up security of the Chris-tian community and theirworship places.

A senior police officersaid additionqal police per-sonnel have been de-ployed at churches andChristian community areasto ensure foolproof secu-rity to minorities in the gar-rison city.

He said after the gory in-cident of Badami Bagh, po-

lice have learned a lesson asthe poor security arrange-ments could result in unto-ward incidents.

It may be noted that theChristian communitiesacross the country took outrallies against torching ofover 100 houses of the Chris-tians at Joseph Colony,Lahore after alleged blasphe-mous remarks.

On the other hand, Chris-tian community talking to INPsaid that the prevailing lawand order situation has madethe Christian community fur-ther vulnerable to terroristactivities and crowded locali-ties could be easily targetedby the miscreants if foolproofsecurity arrangements arenot made.—INP

Christian communitysecurity increased

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Citizens havedemanded introduction ofmetro bus system on routesbetween the twin cities ofIslamabad and Rawalpindi toovercome transport problem.

Underlining their trans-port related woes, the citi-zens said that acute shortageof public transport andhighhandedness of driversand owners of wagons havecompounded their miseries.The drivers allow those com-muters to sit in the wagons

who agree to travel to thewagon stops under thechoice of the drivers and nottheir real destinations andthey don’t complete theroutes.

The commuters have tosuffer in terms of time andmoney to reach their destina-tions, as they have to changethree wagons on the sameroute to reach their homes oroffices or working places.

Due to non completion ofroutes by the public trans-port drivers, the governmentand private sector employees

are unable to arrive in theiroffices in time.

The Capital DevelopmentAuthority (CDA) had an-nounced to run 100 CNGbuses besides providingquality transport to the citi-zens but all these announce-ments have proved emptyslogans and a lip service.

Bus service on the pat-tern of metro bus service in-troduced by the chief minis-ter Punjab in Lahore belaunched on the routes be-tween Islamabad andRawalpindi, citizens stressed.

Metro bus service fortwin cities demanded

Senate body directsmerit-basedpromotions

STAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — S e n a t e ’sStanding Committee for Wa-ter and Power has directedthe officials concerned toensure return of thoseNADRA employees who hadjoined WAPDA on deputa-tion.

The Committee has alsostressed upon realising allthe promotion in NTDC onmerit . At this , SecretaryWAPDA said that he wouldpresent details on promo-tions to the committee.

The Committee has is-sued directions for compen-sating the bereaved familymembers of those labourerswho got injured or were killedduring the Jene Power Plantaccident.

Meeting of the Senate’sStanding Committee for Wa-ter and Power was held Mon-day in the chairmanship ofSenator Zahid Khan in theParliament House. Besides,members of the Committee,WAPDA officials also at-tended the meeting. On theoccasion, Secretary WAPDA,Sikander Ahmed Roy briefedthe Committee that USAID is-sued $ 31 million for KurramTangi Dam such that work onthe dam will be completed byMarch 2014. —Online

Youth commitssuicide

ISLAMABAD—One NoorMuhammad, 36 has commit-ted suicide for unknown rea-sons in the areas of Ali Purhere. As per Koral Police,Mubarak Ali father of thedeceased while recording hisstatement had said that hisson Noor Muhammad whowas 36 years old had shothim dead and he did not wantto have any postmortem pro-ceedings in respect of deadbody of his son.

The police in the wake ofstatement of father of thedeceased have registered re-port declaring the death asuicide incident. —Online

SOCA conductsanti-kidnapping

seminarISLAMABAD—Members ofthe UK Serious OrganisedCrime Agency (SOCA) AntiKidnap and Extortion Unit(AKEU) visited Islamabadfrom March 04 to Mar 08 toconduct a seminar on thesubject of kidnapping withPakistani police officers andprosecutors.

The seminar was held atthe National Police Acad-emy in Islamabad and for-mally opened by Helena ISaeed (PSP), the Deputy In-spector General of NationalPolice Bureau, and Head ofthe SOCA AKEU, RobOrmsby.

Pakistani officers wereinvited from all provincesof the country to partici-pate in the seminar. AKEUexpressed their grat i tudethat 22 Pakistani officials,including one female ASPparticipated and that thesepolice officers were so will-ing to share their experi-ences with the UnitedKingdom.—NNI

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Addressingthe monthly meeting of ShuraHamdard, former Naval ChiefAdmiral Iftekhar AhmadSerohi and former I.S.I. ChiefGen. Hamid Gul said that op-eration against terrorist onequal basis is necessary forpeace in the country as USAand other anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan powers are involvedin it.

They said foreigners livingillegally should be sent backpromptly adding that govern-ment has failed to protect citi-zens. How can peace and pros-perity be brought to the coun-try if thieves become theguards, they questioned.

The topic of the meeting

Monthly Shura Hamdard meetingForeigners living illegallybe expelled immediately

was “Aman-o-amaan kisurat-e-hal, islah keliye ehal-e-fikar danish ki rahnmai kizrurat”. Others who address the meet-ing were Brig. Amir GulistanJanjua, Mian Siddique Akbar,Prof. Niaz Irfan, Zahid Abbasi,Prof. Riaz Ahmad, NaeemAkram Qureshi, G. H. AnjumQureshi, Aurangzaib Awan,Mansoor Aqil, Israr Ahmad,Prof. Iqbal Bakhat, Qazi ArifHussain Advocate and Dr.Maqsooda Hussain. SadiaRashid said that country’s situ-ation is very critical thereforeguidance of scholars is needed.Scholars at the meeting saidfederal government should runeducation system but it ishanded over to provinces,which is totally erroneous.

Adiala road litteredwith garbage

RAWALPINDI—The residentsof Adiala road and the nearbycolony’s have decried the apa-thy of the Potohar Town Ad-ministration and Chaklala Can-tonment Board (CCB) to everworsening sanitary situationalong the over loaded road.The area shopkeepers andthose who transit to the emerg-ing new colony’s said that noone is carrying out sweepingalong the road and heaps ofgarbage and dust adorn theroad, creating problems forthem.

Manzoor Ahmed a resi-dent Gulshan-e Abad said afifty feet portion of the roadalong Ali Town is covered bymud creating difficulty in thesmooth flow of traffic andcreating problems for thepedestrians who have towalk down the road. Anotherresident said the indifferentattitude of the Town admin-istration can be gauged fromthe fact.—APP

Rescue 1122 gets14 state of the art

ambulancesRAWALPINDI—The PunjabEmergency Service Rescue1122 Rawalpindi has beenprovided 14 state of the artnew ambulances which arefully equipped with life sav-ing equipments.

The new ambulancescontained ventillator, auto-mated external defibrillator(AED), cardiac monitor, oxy-gen delivery system, B.P ap-paratus, nebulizer, glucometer and suction unit andmedicines.

The District EmergencyOfficer Rawalpindi, Dr.Abdur Rehman thanked theDirector General, Dr. RizwanNaseer for his untiring effortsfor purchase of new ambu-lances. —APP

Power shut downI S L A M A B A D —IslamabadElectric Supply Company(IESCO), Monday issuedpower suspensionprogramme for various areasof its region due to necessarymaintenance and routine de-velopment work.

According to IESCOSpokesman, the power sup-ply of the following Feeders/ Grid Stations would remainsuspended as under:-

March 11 (Tuesday)From 09:00am to 12:00pm,Mankiala, Cap: AWSS feed-ers, W.No.19, Hayat Sir Road,W.No.11 G/Khan, Sohawa,Khali Parri etc, Industrial,Hamlet, Cap:Nisar, Hasnotefeeders, SIE Rathian Jhelum,Hamlet, Pindori, Hadala,Kota, Village Hasnote Padhrietc, Cantt, MachineMohallah, Bolani, S.A.Girfeeders, Cantt area, RohtasRoad, Machine Mohalla,Floor Mills.—APP

Traffic problemsresolution

priorityRAWALPINDI—Chief TrafficOfficer (CTO) Syed IshtiaqHussain Shah said here onSunday that traffic problemsbeing faced by the residentsof the city would be resolvedon priority.

He said that the peoplewere facing problems dueongoing work on MureerChowk tunnel on BenazirBhutto Road and ChurChowk flyover on PeshawarRoad, which would be easedout after completion of theprojects.

Talking to APP, the CTOurged the citizens to strictlyobserve traffic rules and co-operate with traffic wardens inperforming their duty.—APP

05:50 01:3005:00

08:00

SANA JAMAL

ISLAMABAD—As Pakistanprepares for momentous gen-eral elections, with extendedmedia hype, there are highhopes for the young voterturnout in upcoming electionsthat will witness country’sfirst transfer of power be-tween civilian governments.At this decisive time, a uniquelearning and advocacy cam-paign on democracy, consti-tution and general electionshas been launched by a localNGO here on Monday.

Citizens Wire is an onlineinformation portal for publicand media that offers ex-planatory information aboutthe constitution, electionlaws, party manifestos, andconstitutional reports.Launched by Centre for CivicEducation Pakistan, CitizensWire aims to create a body ofknowledge and informationon issues related to the Con-stitution, laws, elections, de-

mocracy and best practices ingovernance.

Zafarullah Khan, Editorof the Citizens Wire, vows tomake modest contribution tostrength the democracy. “Re-alizing that access to accu-rate and timely information isessential to the health of de-mocracy and to facilitate thecitizens to make informedelectoral choices besideskeeping a check on the func-tioning of their elected repre-sentatives and the govern-ment” he said, speaking atthe launching ceremony ofinformation portal.

Hafiz Tahir Khalil, a seniorjournalist, noted that in highlycharged political atmosphere,media was ignoring key is-sues. He suggested that pre-election reporting should fo-cus on issues of health, edu-cation and infrastructure indifferent constituencies ratherpolitical issues.

Adnan Rehmat ofInternews observed there was

a big gap to deal with consti-tutional issues in a manner tobe understood by the com-mon readers. “Article 19(a) ofthe Constitution guaranteesright of access to informationand the initiatives like CitizensWire can help realize that con-stitutional provision,’ he said.

Aga Nasir, veteran jour-nalist, shared his experienceof covering 1970 electionswhile appreciating the launchof an innovative web portalfor citizens. Azhar Malik of theUnited Nations recommendedthat social issues must alsobe discussed on Citizens Wirein the backdrop of promisesand pledges by different po-litical parties.

Citizens Wire that can beaccessed atwww.citizenswire.com isaimed at raising the aware-ness level of the electoratesso that they can exercise thepower of their vote in choos-ing the best available candi-dates.

Election information portalfor citizens launched

March 14

THE Japanese Embassyand the Rawalpindi ArtsCouncil have arranged anexhibition of photo pan-els titled “ContemporaryJapan caught by Lens” at3pm on Thursday atRawalpindi Arts Council,Stadium, Road,Rawalpindi. The exhibi-tion will remain open tillMarch 29 from 9am to4pm daily except holi-days.

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Press Council of Pakistan Shafqat Abbasi speaks during the launching ceremony ofCitizens’ “Wire Information for Democracy” organized by Centre for Civic Education Pakistan at a local hotel.—POphoto by Sultan Bashir

A month on, no word on Afzal’s body; Family awaits mortal remainsSeparatists angry; Tihar officials say ‘no decision’

SRINAGAR—A month after the secret executionand burial of Muhammad Afzal Guru in NewDelhi’s Tihar Jail, there is no official word on thedemand of return of his body for performance oflast rites back home.

This is notwithstanding the fact that the demandhas assumed center stage in the Valley withMutahida Majlis-e-Mushawarat, an amalgam ofseparatist organizations, spearheading an agitationto press for the return of Guru’s mortal remains.

While Afzal’s family maintains that their “re-solve for getting back his body has been strength-ened by the overwhelming support of Kashmiris,”political parties in the State, including the main-stream ones, have urged the Government of Indiato concede to the humanitarian demand “in the in-terest of peace in Kashmir.”

Guru’s family accused New Delhi and StateGovernment of buying time on their demand forbody. “A month has passed since we wrote to the

State Government on the issue. But so far thereis no official response to our communiqué,” saidMuhammad Yasin Guru, cousin of Afzal Guru.He said both Centre and State are silent on thematter.

“Where would my nephew (Ghalib) offerFateha of his father? They made him an orphan,ruined his childhood; they did not allow him tomeet Afzal for one last time before his hanging.And now they are even denying him the body ofhis father,” Yasin said, asserting that “there is noquestion of giving up the demand for body asAfzal loved his motherland and has the right tobe buried here.” He said: “We are not beggingfor something. It is our moral and religious rightto give him decent burial. We are not alone inthis struggle. The entire Kashmir is whole-heartedly supporting us.”

The Guru family, however, is unimpressedby the demand of mainstream parties seeking

Afzal’s body, arguing “they are playing vote- bankpolitics.”

“If Chief Ministers of Punjab and TamilNadu saved convicts whose mercy petitions wererejected by the President, why wasn’t the JK gov-ernment able to follow the suit?” Yasin asked.

Pertinently, Chief Minister Omar Abdullahand Peoples Democratic Party patron MuftiMuhammad Sayeed had written letters, sepa-rately, to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singhseeking return of Afzal’s body.

Meanwhile, political parties cutting across theparty lines slammed the Centre for “being arro-gant towards the humanitarian demand.”

Veteran separatist leader and Hurriyat Con-ference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani said the“obstinate approach of New Delhi over the hu-man issue clearly demonstrates its arrogance to-wards Kashmiris.” He sought intervention of in-ternational rights organizations in the matter.

Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M)Mirwaiz Umar Farooq echoed the same view.“This shows the non-seriousness and arroganceof New Delhi towards the legitimate demand ofKashmiris and it indicates that they are dealingwith overall problem of Kashmir militarily ratherthan politically,” he said.

Mirwaiz said the conglomerate fully supportsand endorses the program of MMM over the is-sue.

Senior National Conference leader and cabi-net minister Ali Muhammad Sagar said that NewDelhi should keep in view the sentiments andaspirations of Kashmiris and return the body ofGuru.

“If the Chief Minister is making the samedemand, I think New Delhi should have any ob-jection to it,” Sagar said, adding that acceptanceof the demand by New Delhi is in the interests ofpeace in the Valley which is threatened after

Guru’s hanging. Chief spokesman of oppositionPeoples Democratic Party Naeeem Akther saidreturn of the body would relieve the pain ofKashmiris to some extent.

“The return of Afzal’s body in present cir-cumstances looks bleak but as long as it is notreturned, it seems nothing else can be done torelieve the family and people at large of somepain and humiliation,” Akther told Greater Kash-mir.

Terming the demand as a serious issue, Akthersaid, “Expecting anything or any effective inter-vention by the state government is futile giventhat Omar Abdullah has thrown his hands up.”

Meanwhile, authorities at Tihar Jail thisevening said the government has not conveyedto them any decision with regard to return ofAfzal’s body. “It is for the Government to decideover the matter,” spokesman of Tihar Jail SunilGupta told Greater Kashmir over phone.—NNI

SRINAGAR—Continued protests in occupied Kashmir against the Indian state terrorism.

Kashmiri youthsubjected tobrutal torture

SRINAGAR—The Chairman ofJammu and Kashmir LiberationFront, Muhammad Yasin Malikhas warned of ‘more ferociousarmed’ struggle than the onewitnessed during early 90’s ifpeople of Kashmir, especiallyyouth, were continued denial ofpolitical space.

The JKLF Chairman, whowas put under house arrest at hisMaisuma residence in Srinagarsoon after he landed at theSrinagar Airport from NewDelhi in a media interview saidthat the Kashmiri youth werebeing subjected to the worstever persecution in the territory.

Malik said that a simmeringdiscontent was brewing inKashmir against the “worst everatrocities” being committed bythe forces on the youth. “People,especially youth, are being sub-jected to worst ever torture. Thespace for the transition to peace-ful struggle here seems to bechoking,” he said.

In 1987, New Delhi hadclaimed that they were unawareof Kashmir situation. But thistime around, Government ofIndia is fully aware of the hap-penings and the sentiment. If thetreatment meted out to the youthcontinues, I am afraid, the gen-eration next won’t listen to any-body and we may witness themost dangerous armedresistance.”He said that thepeople of Kashmir should fol-low the programmes announcedby the Muttahida Majlis-e-Mushawarat —Online

Women onforefront to get

dear ones releasedSRINAGAR—Groups ofwomen, mostly mothers and sis-ters of the arrested youth, canbe seen waiting outside policestations to get their sons andbrothers released from the lock-ups. With tears in her eyes, aKashmiri woman, AfrozaBanoo told local news agency,“My son has been lodged inpolice station Saddar and thepolicemen on the gate are notallowing me to meet my son.”Her daughter, Rumisa (namechanged) expressed the sameviews with tearful eyes. Shesaid that her brother who wasarrested by police during noc-turnal raid had been lodged inthe police station Saddar and thecops were not allowing them tosee him.

Station House Officer(SHO) police station Saddartold the news agency that hewas not authorized to divulgethe information about the ar-rested youth.Scores of womenwere seen, in similar circum-stances, outside Karan Nagar,Maharaj Gunj, Batamaloo,Parimpora, Nowhatta,Safakadal and Khanyar policestations. “We have arrested 22boys .. We are still in search ofothers who are a threat topeace,” a police officer said

In north Kashmir’sBaramulla, Bandipora andHandwara areas also womenwere seen waiting outside policestations. “Policemen on the gateare not allowing us to enter intothe police station and we arewaiting here like beggars for pastmany hours,” Sumira Akhtarsaid adding she wants to knowabout her brother who has beenarrested by police.—Online

BJP admitsJ&K is

disputed placeJ A M M U — S u p p o r t i n gBharatiya Janta Party (BJP), theIndependent MLA Langate En-gineer Rashid said the nationalparty has admitted that Jammuand Kashmir is a disputed place,when they demanded to fill upof the vacant seats of State As-sembly. Er Rashid said that theBJP had demanded that 11 va-cant seats of Azad Kashmirshould be filled up in State As-sembly. He said, in other wordsthe BJP has admitted that theKashmir has a dispute and Iwould support them becausethey have maintained that theother State is disputed land.

He further said that the Cen-tral government has investedhuge amount in Jammu andKashmir since last six decadesbut the National Conference andCongress party has failed togather support for India.—NNI

MMM calls forsocial media

campaignSRINAGAR—Mutahida Majlis-e-Mashawrat (MMM), a jointcouncil of various separatistbodies, reiterated its call forlaunching a campaign on socialmedia sites for demanding re-turn of mortal remains of AfzalGuru and Maqbool Bhat.

In a statement issued today,the Majlis asked all Kashmirisand other justice loving peopleto upload photographs of Bhatand Guru as their profile pagesof the social media sites.

According to theprogramme, people will usepro-resistance slogans as theirstatus on various social mediawebsites.

“By way of such a protest,it will convey that even afterbeing murdered, the bodies ofMaqbool Bhat and Guru havebeen kept under detention andthat their bodies were nothanded over to their kin”, thespokesman of MMM said in astatement issued here.—NNI

SRINAGAR—In spite of a Stan-dard Operating Procedure inplace for forces to deal with lawand order problems, police andparamilitary CRPF continue towork in absence of magistrateswhile dealing with protesters inKashmir.

The violation of SOP has of-ten resulted in excessive use offorce by the police and paramili-tary forces, triggering wide-spread resentment among thepeople. On February 10, when92-battalion of paramilitaryCRPF opened fire on a protestrally in Watrgam area of northKashmir’s Baramulla district,killing 15-year-old UbairMushtaq and injuring four oth-ers, no magistrate was present onthe scene. In a Unified Com-mand meeting in 2009, ChiefMinister Omar Abdullah hadasked the law enforcing agenciesto ensure presence of a magis-trate when dealing with law andorder situations. “No law and or-

Police, CRPF continue to ‘violate’ SOPCops deal with protesters in absence of magistrates

der situation or protest should bedealt without the presence of amagistrate,” he had said. Omarhad also called for formation ofcitizens’ advisory committees inevery district “to develop con-stant rapport between citizensand administration to avoid mis-understandings.”

However, nothing haschanged on ground with policeand paramilitary CRPF being ac-cused of using excessive forceduring the past few weeks. “If amagistrate is not present at thesituation, police and parliamen-tary CRPF have no right to openfire on protesters. Killing a boyat Watrgam is gross violation ofSOP by the forces,” senior HighCourt lawyer Syed RiyazKhawar said.

Khawar said under law po-lice and paramilitary CRPF haveno right to shoot at protesters.“Not even powers devised toforces under AFSPA empowerthem to shoot at innocent protest-

ors. The act of CRPF firing onunarmed civilians is tantamountto violation of Constitution anda case may be registered againstit,” he opined.

Talking to Greater Kashmir,former Secretary, Supreme CourtBar Association, Ashok Arorasaid the paramilitary CRPF can-not afford to take law into its ownhands. “There is a proper mecha-nism to deal with a situation. It isextremely unheard of that bulletsare showered on people who reg-ister protest,” he said. DivisionalCommissioner Kashmir, AsgarHassan Samoon, has alsoslammed CRPF for ‘excesses’,saying “how could the paramili-tary forces act independentlywithout consultation with civiladministration.” “Strict actionwill be taken against the erringCRPF personnel. I fail to under-stand how they act independentlywhen SOP has been set for them,”Samoon told a local news gather-ing agency recently.—NNI

SRINAGAR—Under the noseof state government’s tall clamsof improving the health sectora number of Govt.Hospitals inKashmir valley have becomehubs of illegal and inhuman ac-tivities. Doctors who have aplace only next to God are ex-ploiting this sacred professionfor their petty interests.

Reportedly the doctors inthese hospitals includingMertinity and child carehospital,Afzal Beigh MemorialHospital, Motton Hospital,kokernagh Hospital,DouruHouspital, QazigundH o s p i t a l , A c h a b a lHospital,Bijbehara Hospital ofDistrict Anantnag are prescrib-ing the medicine of substandardcompanies whose lone motiveis to amass the wealth from the

Hospitals become hub ofillegal, inhuman activities

poor and innocent patients.The Doctors in these hos-

pitals are said to have a manyyears tie up with these compa-nies in which they earn a com-mission in lacs. Sources alsorevealed that the spurious medi-cine of these companies havealready put life of many patientsin a number of dangerous dis-eases.

Even the transferring pro-cess has also proved to be a use-less activity as only on thepower of money they return tothe same hospitals to saccadetheir greed, official sources said.

Most of the Medical Shopsoutside these Hospitals alleg-edly sell the drugs of same com-panies. Sources believe a medi-cine called Green vela Powderwhich one of the accused Com-

pany produce just at RS 30 isbeing sold at 160 Rupees fromwhich a share of 60 Rs goes intothe pocket of involved doctors.

Wishing anonymity one ofthe senior doctor from SMHSHospital admitted that, “suchthings do prevail in a numberof places and we really want theauthorities to take stern actionagainst every erring person”.

The story does not end hereSources told KNS that they be-lieve a number of big fishes arealso involved.

When enquired, the Direc-tor health Kashmir Dr. saleem-ur-Rehman admitted, “ we havealso received a number of com-plaints particularly fromAnantnag District and soon err-ing Doctors will be delt se-verely”.—NNI

JAMMU—Ineffective powerreforms pushing the Transmis-sion and Distribution losses toa whopping 62 percent and hav-ing been able to tap just 760 .46MW hydel power potential(state owned projects) out of16480 MW identified capacity,the Jammu and Kashmir isheading to severe energy crisisin the coming years.

Dubbing it as perpetuallyenergy deficient state, the Eco-nomic Survey, 2012-13 pointsout that the base load require-ment of the state is about 716MW and peak demand is cur-rently pegged at about 2600MW, while the total generationcapacity of its own projects isjust 760 MW which goes fardown during the winter with fallin the water discharge in the riv-

J&K heading towardssevere energy crisis

ers. It also mentions that whilethe state is entitled to just 12percent out of 1680 MW gener-ated in the hydel projects con-structed in central sector, as perpre- conditions imposed by therendering institutions, the stateis bound to sell about fifty per-cent of the energy of its own 450MW Baglihar Power Project tothe outside buyers, leaving itsown customers striving for theenergy.

Quoting the sixteenth AllIndia Power Survey on the in-creasing demand of power in thestate, it says that Jammu andKashmir would require about4000MWs by 2020 -21, whileout of total the estimated 16480hydel power potential, the statehas been able to tap just fifteenpercent (2457.96 MW) with

major part of 1680 MW beinggenerated in the central sectorof which it gets only 12 percent.

The survey also puts thepower losses in the state (gapbetween receipts and expendi-ture) to Rs 1993 crore during theyear 2011-12, showing an in-crease of 33.94 percent againstthe previous year.

Calling for major structuralreforms and tightening of con-trols, the survey has noted hugeT&D loses as major area of con-cern and attributes the lapse totechnical reasons including out-dated system. It suggests estab-lishment of regulatory mecha-nism , metering of feeders andconsumers and time bound dis-tribution reforms , besides up-gradation of system to overcome this problem.—NNI

SRINAGAR—The Chairman ofAll Parties Hurriyet Confer-ence, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq hassaid that India cannot suppressthe Kashmiris’ movement forfreedom through arrests andharassment of Hurriyet leadersand activists in frequent raids ontheir houses by police.

The APHC Chairman, whois himself under house arrest athis residence in Srinagar, in amedia interview expressed con-cern over the use of brute forceby the Indian troops in Srinagar,Baramulla, Pulwama, Kulgamand other areas of the Valley.

Complete strike was ob-served at Beerwah in Badgam

India can’t suppress movementthrough arrests, atrocities

Youth being subjected to worst persecutionagainst the illegal arrest ofpeople by Indian police in thearea.

The Chairman of Jammuand Kashmir Liberation Front,Muhammad Yasin Malik, whois under house arrest inSrinagar, in a media interviewsaid that the Kashmiri youthwere being subjected to theworst persecution in the terri-tory. He warned of a renewedarmed struggle if political spacewas denied to the people, espe-cially the youth.

Senior APHC leader, AghaSyed Hassan Al-Moosvi Al-Safvi addressing party workersurged the international commu-

nity to play its role for securingthe Kashmiris’ right to self-de-termination. The forum led byveteran Kashmiri Hurriyetleader, Syed Ali Gilani said thatthe pro-India National Confer-ence had let loose its traditionalpolicy of oppression in occupiedKashmir. The Jamaat-e-Islamiof occupied Kashmir, PeoplesFreedom League, PeoplesMovement and Mahaz-e-Azadiin their statements condemnedthe use of pepper gas and otherlethal weapons by Indian forcesagainst the protesters. Jammuand Kashmir Muslim Leagueleader, Abdul Ahad Para ex-pressed serious concern over the

crackdown on his party activ-ists by Indian authorities.

An APHC delegation led byZafar Akbar Butt visitedBaramulla town and expressedcondolence over the killing of auniversity student by Indiantroops in unprovoked firing.

Indian paramilitary forcesbeat up a journalist, AnzarMehjoor at Cement Kadal inBaramulla town without any rea-son. A civil society group, Cen-tre for Social and DevelopmentStudies, in a statement demandedwithdrawal of Indian forces andrevocation of draconian ArmedForces Special Powers Act fromthe territory.—KMS

SRINAGAR—Accusing OmarAbdullah-led NC-Congresscoalition Government of againpushing Kashmir into ‘ruinouscircumstances’ that led to erup-tion of turmoil in early 1990’s,senior PDP leader and formerFinance Minister Tariq HameedKarra has said the State Gov-ernment must immediately putan end to the reign of repressionlet loose by the law enforcingagencies.

In a statement, Karra said

Don’t push Kashmir back into gorydays of 90s: Karra to Omar

Kashmir has already seen thou-sands of deaths and its haplesspopulace has undergone untoldmiseries. “We can’t afford tolose another generation to an-other vicious circle of violence,”he said and called for urgentmeasures to be taken to rein inthe government forces to restorepeople’s confidence.

“The irony is that the inhab-itants of Srinagar city, who wereinstrumental in installing thepresent regime with lot of fanfare,

have become the worst victims ofits atrocities and rampantmisgovernance,” Karra said andadded that he is pained to see thedespondency, helplessness anddespair among the people allaround. Karra said while publicoutrage is justified in present atro-cious and appalling scenario, “Iappeal people to maintain calmas it is we hapless inhabitants ofthis fateful place who are ulti-mately at the receiving end of theabominable situation.”—NNI

BERLIN—Kashmir tourismhas evoked little response at theITB-Berlin. Eight membersfrom travel trade of Kashmirand Ladakh are participating inthe ITB - Berlin presently.

Chairman JKTA, NasirShah, in an email to GreaterKashmir said that they were notsatisfied with the response fromthe European travel trade. Shahwho is heading the delegationattributed low response mainlyto the “present unfortunate in-cidents in the Valley.”

“The second reason forlittle response,” he said, “is thatJ&K Tourism has set up two

Tourism gets poorresponse at ITB-Berlin

separate stalls, one within theIndia pavilion and other outsidethe pavilion” which he allegedhad exclusively been handedover to some individual personswho have no affiliation with anyorganization.

He alleged that the stall out-side the pavilion had been pro-vided with all the promotionalfacilities by the Tourism Depart-ment, while “at the main stallof Jammu and Kashmir there isonly the material of privateplayers.”He alleged that no pro-motional material of Jammu andKashmir tourism had been puton display in the main pavilion.

“Absence of the tourism minis-ter and the officials of the de-partment have also adverselyaffected the profile of J&KTourism Stall,” he said.

Shah alleged that in theexhibiters’ directory of ITB, theaddress of the main stall was notmentioned while it reflected theaddress of other stall allotted tothe private persons.

“The members of JKTA,TASK, TAAI and ALTOALadakh have been put to incon-venience in terms of accommo-dation, etc. The members areaghast why there have been twoJ&K stalls,” he said.—NNI

SRINAGAR—The doctors inthe Valley have expressed seri-ous concern over the use of pep-per gas by police and paramili-tary personnel saying if compli-cations caused by the inhalationof pepper gas are not treated ontime, it may cause death in somecases.

“Pepper gas mainly con-tains capsaicin and other ingre-dients that have unhealthy prop-erties. Its most immediate effectis temporary blindness and irri-tation in eyes,” said Dr Nisar UlHassan, senior ConsultantMedicine at SMHS hospital andPresident Doctors AssociationKashmir (DAK).

Docs concerned over use of pepper gas by cops

It causes temporary blindness, irritation, breathlessness, leading to fatalitiesHe said if patient suffering

from severe asthma and respi-ratory problems inhales peppergas and is not given timely treat-ment, the patient can die.

“The pepper gas causesskin allergies and infections.Breathlessness is another sideeffect of the gas besides chock-ing and coughing,” added Nisar.

While cautioning against illeffects of the pepper gas, phy-sician Dr M A Kamili said,“Pepper gas causes severe res-piratory problems and irritation.Those suffering from respira-tory disease must be extra care-ful. The gas causes linings in-side the nose and throat to swell

immediately, making breathingdifficult as air flow is reduced.”

The police and paramilitarypersonnel have been using pep-per spray in different parts of thevalley to disperse the protestors.So far, two people have died al-legedly due to inhalation of thelethal gas. A 60 year old womanfrom Aali Kadal died yesterdayafter allegedly inhaling peppergas. In February, a 60 year oldman from old city died due toexcessive exposure to pepperspray. Pulmonologist Dr ParvaizKaul said vomiting, nausea,chest pain and headache can bethe immediate reactions to inha-lation of pepper gas.—NNI

“No matter how busyyou may think you are,you must find time forreading, or surrender

yourself to self-chosenignorance.”

— Atwood H Townsend

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan HighCommissioner to Singapore,Syed Hasan Javed invited theSingapore investors to investin Pakistan saying that Paki-stan needs an investment ofUS$ 150 billion until 2020 inreal estate and Constructionsector, Energy, Logistics andInfrastructure sector, as wellas Hotel and Tourism facili-ties.

Addressing a Conferenceon Financing and Securing ofOverseas Projects organizedby the Building Control Au-thority of Singapore here onMonday, he said that tremen-dous opportunities exist forforeign investors in upcom-

Pakistan needs $150b freshinvestment by 2020

ing high rise and skyscrapersprojects, Infrastructure, ITParks, Dazzle Jewellery Park,Mass-transit projects, Hotel in-dustry, tourism facilities, Hy-dropower projects, Solar &Wind Energy projects, ColdStorages, Clean Water reser-voirs, etc.

Javed stated that Pakistanwill be able to mobilize one-third of the needed investment,through its own resources.

An equal amount is beingoffered for investment by thecompanies from China, Tur-key, Gulf States, Korea andJapan while for the remaining3rd of requirements, Pakistanwill be seeking assistance fromthe World Bank, Asian Devel-opment Bank, Islamic Devel-

opment Bank, SovereignWealth Funds, Bilateral Do-nors and Commercial Institu-tions.

Singapore investors arewelcome to harness the po-tential projects, with the mostpromising rate of return. Mr.Javed said adding Pakistanhas been identified as amongthe Next-11 Rising EmergingEconomies.

It is however the mostpromising emerging marketwith the annual rate of returnof 40% in US dollar terms,the highest in the world.

Pakistan allows for 100%repatriation of equity, divi-dend and profit and foreigninvestment is fully protectedContinued on Page 14

Rates for conversionKARACHI—The followingrates will be applicable forconversion into rupees ofForeign Currency Deposits,Dollar Bearer Certificates,Foreign Currency BearerCertificates, Special U.S.Dollar Bonds and profitsthereon by all banks and forproviding Forward Cover onForeign Currency Deposits(excluding F.E. 25 deposits) bythe State Bank on March 12,2013. The rates are U.S.Dollar Rs 97.8801, JapaneseYen Rs 1.0183, Pound SterlingRs 146.0274 and Euro127.2735.—APP

LSE down by144.16 points

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Bearish trend pre-vailed in Lahore Stock Ex-change on Monday as it shed144.16 points, following theLSE-25 index opened with4263.99 and closed at 4119.83points.

The market’s overall situa-tion, however, corresponded toan upward trend as it remainedat 3.688 million shares to closeagainst previous turnover of2.036 million shares, showingan upward move of 1.652 mil-lion shares. While out of the to-tal 91 active scrips 7 moved up,36 shed values and 48 reminedequal. Akzo Nobel PakistanLimited, United Bank Limitedand Mian Textile Industrieswere major gainers of the dayby recording increase in their pershare value by Rs 3.06, Rs 1.00and Rs 1.00 respectively.

Engro Corporation Limited,Fauji Fertilizer Company andAdamjee Insurance Companylost their per share value by Rs6.20, Rs 3.70 and Rs 2.97 re-spectively. The Volume Leaderof the day included Fauji Ce-ment Company Limited with448,500 shares, Lafarge Paki-stan Cement with 431,000shares and Silk Bank Limited(Saudi) with 411,500 shares.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Pakistanis work-ing abroad proved more sup-portive than the donor agenciesincluding IMF, World Bank etcby up keeping the remittancesmore than $9 billion in last 8months and expected to takethe inflows beyond $15 billionat the end of the fiscal year inJune this year.

The unconditional finan-cial inflows certainly makesthem more eligible for incen-tives at home for their uncon-ditional commitment to thenational economy and the fi-nancial support to the coun-try.

According to detail, Paki-stani workers remitted anamount of $9,234.72 million inthe first eight months (July –February) of the current fiscalyear 2012-13 (Financial Year13), showing a growth of 7.47percent or $641.93 millionwhen compared with$8,592.79 million receivedduring the same period of last

Overseas Pakistanis remit$9.23b in eight months

fiscal year (July- February2012).

The inflow of remittancesin July- February, 2013 fromSaudi Arabia, UAE, USA, UK,GCC countries (includingBahrain, Kuwait, Qatar andOman), and EU countriesamounted to $2,627.78 mil-lion, $1,865.73 million,$1,461.13 million, $1,284.75million, $1,067.50 million and$242.61 million respectivelyas compared with the inflow of$2,325.98 million, $1,903.89million, $1,525.45 million,$991.20 million, $968.91 mil-lion and $244.91 million re-spectively in July- February2012.

Remittances received fromNorway, Switzerland, Austra-lia, Canada, Japan and othercountries during the first eightmonths of current fiscal year(July- February Financial Year13) amounted to $685.17 mil-lion as against $632.45 millionreceived in the first eightmonths of last fiscal year(July- February Financial Year

12).The monthly average re-

mittances for July-February2013 period comes out to$1,154.34 million as comparedto $1,074.10 million during thecorresponding period of thelast fiscal year.

An amount of $1,028.33million was remitted by over-seas Pakistanis in February2013 as against $ 1,156.81 mil-lion in the same month of thelast fiscal year (February2012).

In February 2013, the in-flow of remittances fromSaudi Arabia, UAE, USA,UK, GCC countries (includ-ing Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatarand Oman), and EU countriesamounted to $335.76 million,$196.37 million, $137.13 mil-l ion, $129.40 mill ion,$125.67 million and $24.72million respectively as com-pared with the inflow of$317.51 million, $259.55 mil-l ion, $197.14 mill ion,$137.73 million, $123.50 mil

Continued on Page 14

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Small and MediumEnterprises Development Au-thority (Smeda) held an Infor-mation Technology conferencetoday at Smeda head office toobtain proposals from the keystakeholders of the industry fordevelopment of the IT basedSMEs in the country. A largenumber of the CEOs and seniorprofessionals of the local ITcompanies attended the confer-ence held in chair with SardarAhmad Nawaz Sukhera, CEOSmeda.

Smeda Chief, welcomingthe participants, gave a pre-sentation on Smeda’s services

Smeda holds IT mootto be rendered for develop-ment of SME sector in thecountry. He informed thatSmeda was actively busy toformulate a five year businessplan to spur rapid growth ofnew SMEs aiming at creationof new jobs and investmentopportunities. In this regardabout 22 potential sectorshave been chosen across thecountry giving equal signifi-cance to each region includ-ing Gilgit Baltistan and AJK,he added.

The Public sector inter-ventions for support havebeen prioritized on the basesof SMEs existence, economicviability, employment poten-

tial and export possibilities,CEO Smeda said adding thatwith annual exports estimatedat a billion USD and a workforce of more than 110,000skilled resources, IT sector isemerging as one of the prom-ising sectors of Pakistanwhich merits enquiry into itspotential for development.

CEO Smeda told that theproposals and feed back of ITindustry will help evolve a pro-gressive strategy for develop-ment of IT based SMEs in thecountry. The strategy makingprocess will evaluate the valuechain as well as the markettrends both domestic and globallevel, he said.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Secretary Industries,Commerce and Investment PunjabDr. Shujaat Ali has said that theeconomy of the country can be fur-ther strengthened by creatingawareness among public and pri-vate sectors about intellectual prop-erty rights and institutional and le-gal arrangements for their enforce-ment for creating job opportunities,investment in the country and pro-motion of innovation in Pakistan.

Call for raising awareness aboutintellectual property rights

He expressed these views while ad-dressing a training workshop onTrade Related Aspects of Intellec-tual Property Rights, in Lahore to-day. The workshop was organizedin collaboration with Pakistan In-stitute of Trade and Development(PITAD), Industries, Commerceand Investment, Government of thePunjab and World Trade Institute.Dr. Shujaat Ali said that there is aneed of modern reforms related totrade and creating new opportuni-ties of investment for local and for-

eign investors for bringing Pakistanat par with the developed countries.He also threw light on the stepstaken in private sector for creatingawareness about intellectual prop-erty rights and GI registration.

Director General PITAD,Tahir Maqsood thanked Inter-national Trade Centre for itsservices particularly laws relat-ing to trade, intellectual prop-erty rights and cooperation intraining and research on otherissues.

Oil down in AsiaSINGAPORE—Oil prices weredown in Asia on Monday asChinese industrial productionshowed signs of a slowdown,with the strong US dollar alsoputting pressure on prices,analysts said. New York’smain contract, light sweetcrude for delivery in Aprileased 26 cents to $91.69 abarrel and Brent North Seacrude for April dipped 41 centsto $110.42 in late morningAsian trade. Official datareleased Saturday showedinflation in China hitting a 10-month high in February.Industrial output, whichreflects production at China’sfactories, workshops andmines, rose 9.9 percent year-on-year over the first twomonths of 2013, comparedwith 11.4 percent in the sameperiod of 2012. “Chinese datashowing industrial productionslowing has taken a toll on oilprices,” said Jason Hughes,head of premium clientmanagement at IG MarketsSingapore. Chinese energydemand has a major impact onoil futures prices.—APP

NHA super highwayStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—NationalHighway Authority willconvert four-lane SuperHighway into six-lanemotorway (M-9) as itpossesses extra-ordinarysignificance in relation toregional trade activity. The 136km project contract has beenawarded to the Frontier WorksOrganization (FWO) isexpected to be completed in 30months time frame and cost ofits PC-1 is Rs 13.1 billion.Since existing Karachi-Hyderabad Super Highway islinked up with Karachi Port &Port Qasim, therefore volumeof traffic on it has increasedmanifold and its up-gradationas motorway has become animperative. The federalcabinet gave approval forconversion of Super Highwayinto six-lane Motorway lastmonth. Seven interchangeswill also be built all along themotorway while the length ofservice road will be 142 km.The NESPAK (The NationalEngineering Services Pakistan)would be the consultant for theproject. The Super Highwaybegins north of Karachi at theend of Mohammad Ali JinnahRoad, near junction of KarachiNorthern Bypass.It isconnected with the KarachiNorthern Bypass with atrumpet interchange.

Asian markets mixedHONG KONG—Asianmarkets were mixed Mondayafter another record-breakingperformance on Wall Streetwhile Shanghai dipped asdisappointing economic datafuelled concerns about China’seconomy. The dollar got aboost from better-than-forecastUS jobs figures, hitting multi-year highs against the yen.Tokyo rose 0.53 percent, or65.43 points, to 12,349.05,while Sydney added 0.46percent, or 23.5 points, to5,146.9—its highest closesince September 2008.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—US Real Estatetycoon Thomas Kramer and CEOBahria Town Ahmed Ali RiazMalik signed a US$20 billionagreement for Pakistan’s first everIsland City, Bundal & Buddo Is-lands, Karachi. A joint consortiumof international investors will joinhands to develop this project andthe deal with Thomas Kramer isthe first level of this agreement.Announcement of other global in-vestors from Middle East andaround the globe will be madesoon.

Covering 12,000 acres ofland, this project will be devel-oped in a span of 5-10 years butthe residential communities willstart being handed over to thepeople in 2016. The global attrac-tions of the project comprise ofworld’s tallest building, world’slargest shopping mall, Sports city,Educational & Medical city, In-ternational city and a Media city,all having the most modern facili-ties & amenities and the most ad-vanced infrastructure.

Island City will be connectedto DHA Karachi via a six-lanemodern bridge. The entire city willbe a “high security zone”, havingits own drinking water (convert-

Bahria Town, US groupsign $20b MoU

ing sea-water into drinking water)and power generation plants to en-able it to be self sufficient forpower. Moreover the project willhave mosques, cinemas, spas, golfclubs, school, hospital and otherglobal standard amenities to fur-nish a modern lifestyle.

Thomas Kramer at the occa-sion said “I have full confidencein the people and economy of Pa-kistan. In 1970 when I started myproject in Germany it was a worstera of their history. Likewisewhen Miami Beach project wasstarted, the area was in full con-trol of Cuban criminals, differ-ent mafias and gangsters. Deadbodies used to be scattered on thebeaches. I completed my projectssuccessfully. Today they are theworld’s most secure and ad-vanced regions. Current situationin Pakistan is much better thanthose areas. Further I am confi-dent that this project along withboasting the economy will alsoeradicate terrorism from Paki-stan. This is a once in a lifetimechance to bring Pakistan back onthe map to the leading nations inthe world.”

Speaking at the occasion, cur-rent consultant & the former chair-man of Bahria Town; Mr. MalikRiaz Hussain said that our slogan

is “Bahria Town Commits –Bahria Town Delivers andAlhamdulillah we have fulfilledall our promises made with Paki-stan & Pakistanis. We know thatthe construction sector has playeda key role in transforming theUSA, Malaysia, Japan, Turkeyand Germany into developed na-tions. In the same manner, InshaAllah, Pakistan will also becomea developed nation, which is ourvision. This project will not onlyprovide 2.5 million jobs but willhelp revive 55 national industriesand provide housing to 1 millionPakistanis. It will also help elimi-nate terrorism and crimes.”

Thomas Kramer is a vision-ary businessman commonlyknown as TK. He surveyed an is-land hideout of Cuban pirates in1991-92 and later on developedit into the present day MiamiBeach, which is one of the big-gest international tourist destina-tions of today. He is specialist andwell known for building sky-scrapers in coastal areas. Hiscompany has successfully con-structed several projects aroundthe globe.

Bahria Town’s spokesmanexpressed that it’s an honor to joinhands with such a visionary de-veloper of Kramer’s caliber.

TARIQ KHATTAK

ISLAMABAD—According to astudy conducted by InternationalData Corporation (IDC) thechances of infection by unex-pected malware are one in threefor consumers and three in 10 forbusinesses. Because of these in-fections, the research shows thatconsumers will spend 1.5 billionhours and $22 billion identifying,repairing and recovering from theimpact of malware, while globalenterprises will spend $114 bil-lion to deal with the impact of a

Software piracy costs billions in time,money for consumers, businesses

malware-induced cyber-attack.The IDC study, titled “The Dan-gerous World of Counterfeit andPirated Software was releasedtoday as part of Microsoft’s “PlayIt Safe” campaign, a global ini-tiative to bring awareness to is-sues related to software piracy.

The global study analyzed 270websites and peer-to-peer (P2P)networks, 108 software down-loads, and 155 CDs or DVDs, andit interviewed 2,077 consumers and258 IT managers or chief informa-tion officers in Brazil, China, Ger-many, India, Mexico, Poland, Rus-

sia, Thailand, the United Kingdomand the United States. Research-ers found that of counterfeit soft-ware that does not come with thecomputer, 45 percent comes fromthe Internet, and 78 percent of thissoftware downloaded fromwebsites or P2P networks includedsome type of spyware, while 36percent contained Trojans andadware. “The cybercrime reality isthat counterfeiters are tamperingwith the software code and lacingit with malware, “said SalmanSiddiqui, country channel lead,Microsoft Pakistan.

Thomas Kramer and CEO Bahria Town Ahmed Ali Riaz Malik signed a US$20 billion agreement for Pakistan’s first everIsland City, Bundal & Buddo Islands, Karachi. Consultant of Bahria Town, Malik Riaz Hussain is also present.

Gold Tezab 51257.00Silver Tezabi 917.14

Gold Tezabi (24-Ct) 51000.00Gold 22 Ct 50000.00SilverTezabi 900.00Silver Thobi 910.00

USA 97.70 97.50

UK 145.78 145.48

EURO 127.05 126.79

Canada 95.09 94.89

Switzerland 102.70 102.49

Australia 99.90 99.70

Sweden 15.25 15.22

Japan 1.0161 1.0140

Norway 17.06 17.03

Singapore 78.23 78.07

Denmark 17.06 17.00

Omani Riyal 255.00 248.00

Saudi Arabia 26.05 26.00

Hong Kong 12.60 12.57

Kuwait 343.47 342.77

Malaysia 31.41 31.35

Newzeland 80.28 80.12

Qatar 26.84 26.79

UAE 26.60 26.55

KR WON 0.0889 0.0888

Thailand 3.283 3.276

New US-sponsoredproject to help

modernize Pakistan’sagriculture

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The U.S.Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID), theInternational Maize andWheat Improvement Center(CIMMYT), and the Paki-stan Agricultural ResearchCouncil (PARC) launched anew project to expand the useof modern technologies inPakistan’s agriculture sector.

“Boosting Pakistan’seconomy is one of our topassistance priorities. That’swhy this project will work tomodernize agricultural prac-tices to increase the produc-tion and quality of livestockand horticultural goods. Thisin turn will enhance eco-nomic development in thecountry,” said USAID Coun-try Director Jonathan M.Conly at the launch of theproject in Islamabad onMarch 8.

Innovative technologies,introduced in Pakistan withsupport from the U.S. Gov-ernment, spurred the GreenRevolution in the 1960s and1970s. The adoption of im-proved rice and wheat vari-eties, combined with strate-gic policies and investments,led to a doubling of yieldsand output in those two de-cades. With investment inresearch, Pakistan trans-formed its agricultural sectorinto a driver for economicgrowth.

Currently, Pakistan’s ag-ricultural sector is growing ata much slower pace thanother sectors. “Pakistan’sagricultural productivity hasfallen behind comparablecountries with similar agro-ecologies,” said ThomasLumpkin, Director Generalof CIMMYT. “There is a tre-mendous potential forgrowth, but we must actnow.”

Through its new four-year, $30 million project,USAID will sponsor re-search to encourage adoptionof new technologies in agri-culture, such as laser landleveling, zero tillage, residuemanagement, introducingshort duration legumes intorice-wheat cropping systems,and custom service systemsfor machinery.

The project will also of-fer short and long-term train-ing. The U.S.-funded projectwill be implemented byCIMMYT and PARC in co-operation with the Interna-tional Livestock ResearchInstitute, the World Veg-etable Center, the Interna-tional Rice Research Insti-tute, and the University ofCalifornia, Davis.

Promoting economicgrowth is one of the manyways that the United States ishelping to create a brighter fu-ture for the people of Pakistan.The United States funds large-scale energy projects that willprovide electricity to two mil-lion households by the end of2013. The U.S. has rebuilt andrenovated 800 schools and hasprovided scholarships to12,000 students to attend uni-versities in Pakistan.

under the Constitution.Pakistan’s advantages are

enormous in terms of Miner-als and Agriculture resourceendowments, demographicprofile, location advantages,Legal and civil structures, En-glish speaking youthful popu-lation, Energy rich neighbor-hood, Maritime wealth, Tour-istic landscape, Multiculturalheritage, Soft power and socialcapital, he added.

Pakistan has already at-tracted investment from 100new Multinational companiesover the past five years, whilethe number keeps growinggiven the potential of theeconomy.

The ambassador said theSingaporean investors wouldbe welcomed to invest in theareas of their choice either inSpecial Economic Zones(SEZs), Standalone projects,Joint ventures or Multilateralundertakings.

The success of Pakistan’seconomy in maintaining a sus-tained economic growthrate,despite challenges, speaksvolumes of Pakistan’s resil-ience and potential, he saidadding Pakistan has never hadrecession and is instead a ‘Safehaven’ for Investors seekinglong-term profit sustainability,Mr. Javed added.

The Conference was at-tended by Major MultinationalBuilding and Constructioncompanies’ representatives ofthe Asian region.

PakistanFrom Page 13

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadChamber of Commerce andIndustry (ICCI) said on Mon-day that the businessmenshould be given due represen-tation in government deci-sion-making bodies for for-mulating business friendlyeconomic policies.

A delegation of ICCI ledby i ts President , ZafarBakhtawari visited Federationof Pakistan Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (FPCCI)office Karachi and having ameeting with Haji Fazal KadirKhan Shirani , PresidentFPCCI.

Tariq Saeed, PresidentBusiness Panel Group orga-nized a dinner in honor ofICCI delegation.

Haji Fazal Kadir KhanShirani, President FPCCI alsoorganized a luncheon meetingin honor of Zafar Bakhtawari,President of ICCI.

The President of Federa-tion of Pakistan Chamber ofCommerce and Industrylauded the role of ICCI forsafeguarding and promotingthe rights, interests and privi-

Tycoons be taken intoconfidence in policy making

leges of the traders and indus-trialists in the IslamabadCapital Territory.

Bakhtawari informed themeeting that Zubair AhmedMalik, former president ofICCI is a strong candidate forpresidency of Federation ofPakistan Chamber of Com-merce and Industry.

He asked the businessleaders to support him asMr.Malik’s efforts and visionfor the welfare of businesscommunity and said that hehad already represented ICCIat Federation of PakistanChamber of Commerce andIndustry.

He urged the Governmentto build the confidence ofbusinessmen by ensuring sup-ply of basic ingredients thatare required to pull the wheelof economy and accelerationof trade and investment in thecountry.

Tariq Sadiq, Abdul Rauf,Munawar Mughal, ZubairAhmed Malik, Mian AkhramFarid, Khalid Javaid, KhalidMalik, former Presidents ofICCI and Ishtiaq Qureshi andMalik Sohail were alsopresent on the occasion.

KARACHI—Three ships carry-ing container and palm oil wereberthed at Qasim InternationalContainer Terminal and LiquidCargo Terminal respectively atPort Qasim on Sunday, portsources said here Monday.

Three more ships withcontainers and palm oil also ar-rived at the outer anchorage ofPort Qasim during the last 24hours.

Berth occupancy was ob-served at the Port at 64% onSunday where nine ships namelyC.V MSC Brainna, C.V MaerskGeorgia, M.V Veruda, M.VAnthea, M.V Asian Express,M.V Lancelot, M.T STX Frote,M.T Al-Salam II and M.T Lin-coln Park are currently occupy-ing PQA berths to load/ offloadcontainers, cement, bitumen,iron ore, palm oil, diesel oil andchemicals.

Cargo handing operations

Shipping activityat PQ

were carried out efficiently atthe Port where a cargo volumeof 120,458 tonnes, comprising87,521 tonnes import and32,9370 tonnes exports inclu-sive of containerised cargocarried in 3,035 containers(1,600 imports and 1,435 ex-ports TEUs) was handled atthe Port.

Three ships M.VLancelot, M.T Al Salam II,M.T Lincoln Park sailed outto sea on Monday morningwhile two more ships C.VMaersk Georgia and M.T STXFrote are expected to sailMonday afternoon.

M.T Maersk Mediteraneancarrying palm oil is expected totake berth at Liquid Terminal onMonday. Three more shipswith containers and palm oilalso arrived at the outer an-chorage of Port Qasim duringthe last 24 hours.—APP

Shafiq chairmanPak-Saudi

business councilSTAFF REPORTER

I S L A M A B A D — S h a i k hMohammad Shafiq, ZonalChairman PakistanReadymade Garments Manu-facturers & Exporters Asso-ciation has been appointed asthe Chairman Pak-Saudi Busi-ness Council for the year2013.

The President FPCCI, HajiFazal Kadir Khan Sherani con-gratulated Shaikh MohammadShafiq on his appointment andwished that the Council wouldactively try to resolve the prob-lems being faced by Pakistanibusiness community in SaudiArabia. He further said that theCouncil should promote tradeties between the two brotherlycountries by exchange of busi-ness delegations and joint ven-tures.

Shaikh MohammadShafiq in his acceptancespeech said that he will try hislevel best to shoulder this ad-ditional responsibility. In hisopinion, vast number of tradeopportunities are available forPakistani businessmen inSaudi Arabia as its economyis growing rapidly with in-creasing purchasing power.He urged the Pakistani busi-ness community to emphasizeon quality and to market theirproducts according to require-ments of Saudi Arabian cus-tomers.

MEGATECH toshowcase

innovative textiletechnology

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Textile Machinerygiants from all over the worldwould be showcasing the latestinnovation in textile industry atTextile Machinery expo 2013 atLahore

After the 10 years of con-tinuous success¸ PegasusConsultancy launches the 11thedition of the International Ma-chinery Exhibition of Garment& Textile Technology –MEGATECH Pakistan 2013.

The exhibition will takeplace from 28-30 March, 2013in Expo Centre, Lahore. Theexhibition will showcase the in-novative machinery and tech-nology related to Textile, Gar-ment, Embroidery and Leathersectors.

It will bring in investmentopportunities for local and in-ternational exhibitors, brandowners and manufacturers.Renown Companies are ex-pected to gather at the platformto display their products andmany international countrieswill be participating in theExhibition.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Tele-communication Company Lim-ited (PTCL) has organized aone-day HR Conference entitledHR Conclave 2013. The TalentManagement & Learning func-tion of HR at PTCL, in lieu ofthe strategic transformation ofHR, joined hands to “UnleashHR Potential”. The conferenceserved as a shared platform forrepresentatives of the HR Com-munity at PTCL to recap theachievements of the past yearwhile projecting towards thefuture of HR.

PTCL holds HR Conclave 2013The conference was led by

Syed Mazhar Hussain, PTCLSenior Executive Vice President(SEVP) HR, accompanied byMuhammad Nehmatullah,PTCL Senior Executive VicePresident (SEVP) Finance;Jamal Hussain Al Suwaidi,PTCL Senior Executive VicePresident (SEVP) Procurement& Supply Chain Management;Mateen Malik, PTCL ExecutiveVice President (EVP) Opera-tions and Maintenance; AbdulSattar Naeem, PTCL ExecutiveVice President (EVP) HR Ser-vices; Shahzad Safdar KhanExecutive Vice President (EVP)

Talent Management & Learningand Naushad H Javaid, PTCLExecutive Vice President(EVP), Leadership and Organi-zational Development.

During the course of theconference, HR officials repre-senting the headquarter and re-gional offices of PTCL identi-fied areas of focus for the year2013 to strategically align thegoals and objectives of the HRDepartment with theorganization’s vision and mis-sion. Interactive team based ac-tivities were conducted to instillvalues of motivation and team-work.

ISLAMABAD: Syed Mazhar Hussain, SEVP, HR along with officials and participants ofthe HR Conclave 2013.

The staff at stall of Orient Energy Systems during Textile Asia International Exhibition heldat Karachi Expo Centre recently.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Wateen Telecomhas been awarded a PKR 449million project to develop anextensive optical fibre networkin Sindh. The USF Sindh projectentails the laying of over (1,037)km of an optical fibre networkin Southern Telecom Region. Anamount of PKR 449 Million willbe provided by USF in the formof a subsidy; the rest of the costwill be borne by Wateen.

The new optical fibre net-work will connect 17 unservedcities and towns.. Wateen hasjoined hands with the UniversalService Fund Company (USFCo.) to undertake this project ofnational importance, which willgo a long way in bridging thedigital divide in the country. The

Wateen Telecom deliversfibre optic network in Sindh

project, funded through a USFsubsidy, will provide state of theart digital infrastructure in re-mote areas of Sindh, and couldbe further exploited to build IT,telecom, education, health andbusiness services in these areas.

This protect has been inau-gurated by Prime Minister RajaPervaiz Ashraf on 23 February2013, in Sanghar – Chak # 11along with a number of telecom-munications and health and edu-cation projects.

This new project is in linewith Wateen Telecom’s commit-ment to lead the digital revolu-tion in Pakistan. Wateen is al-ready working with USF on fouroptical fibre projects inunderserved areas ofBalochistan and Sindh, withsubsidies worth a total of PKR

3.7 billion. These existingprojects entail optical fibre net-works spanning over 4,563 km(in Sindh and Balochistan)

Commenting on the project,Mr Zamindar said, “Wateen’s vi-sion is to take Pakistan into thedigital revolution of the 21st Cen-tury by offering complete commu-nications and media solutions, in-cluding telephony, internet, dataand TV/multimedia to the publicat large, and to make Pakistan aregional communications hub,inter-connecting the East with theWest and Central Asia with theMiddle East, participation in USFregions aligns with Wateen’s vi-sion of taking Pakistan into thedigital broadband revolution of the21st century while promoting edu-cation and literacy through thesemeans.”

ISLAMABAD: A group photo of Peter James Hoddinott, EVP of Energy and Strategic Sourc-ing at Lafarge with the Lafarge’s local team.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The All PakistanCNG Association (APCNGA)has said that it will start hungerstrike as per the schedule an-nounced earlier from today(Tuesday) to protest anti-CNGpolicies of the government.

The hunger strike would beestablished near Kulsoom Plaza,Blue Area at 12 pm while a pressconference will be held at 4 pm,said an announcement.

All the office bearers andmembers of the APCNGA willparticipate in the hunger strike,

APCNGA starts hunger strikeagainst govt policies

it added. We are protesting anti-CNG policies of the govern-ment, unjust gas distribution, 5-day gas load shedding for CNGsector in Punjab and continuousdiscrimination by authorities,said Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha,Chairman Supreme CouncilAPCNGA.

Government has endan-gered millions of jobs, deprivedmasses of facility of economi-cal transportation and destroy-ing investment of around Rs 400billion, he said.

He said that all the policiesare being framed to destroy

CNG sector since years, CNGoperators are being harassedwhile Punjab has been subjectedto five-day gas loadsheddingwhich amounts to punishing 80million masses. Paracha addedsaid that some important offi-cials, hand in glove with influ-ential energy mafia, have laidsiege to the CNG sector andmade life of masses miserablein a bid to plunder the country.

Energy crisis is being manyto multiply personal fortuneswhich is worst exploitationmasses have been made to face,he added.

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—Makhdoom AminFahim, Federation Minister forCommerce has said that Paki-stan signed SAFTA and FTAswith China, Srilanka and Malay-sia and also concluded manyregional tariff concessionaryagreements during its five yeartenure.

He was recounting the per-formance of the PPP govern-ment during its five year tenureat the foundation stone layingceremony of Dazzle ParkProject in Karachi.

Highlighting the economicmiles stones of the governmentthe federal Minister highlightedmajor thrust on trade and com-merce during 5 years tenure par-ticularly successful presentationof respective Trade policies of2009-12 and 2012-15.

The minister attributed thesustained development, realGDP growth, macroeconomic

Fahim recounts govt’s5-year trade gains

stability and significant im-provement in exports to the ef-fective economic policies. Healso mentioned other achieve-ments of meaningful conclu-sion of bilateral trade negotia-tions with trade blocks and po-tential trade partners with thevaluable initiatives of the TradeDevelopment Authority of Pa-kistan (TDAP).

It may be noted that theDazzle Park project was for-mally launched with foundationstone foundation laying cer-emony at the prime locationclose to Jinnah International Air-port.

Amin Fahim received thun-derous applause when an-nounced to regularize the ser-vices of contract employees inTDAP.

Abid Javed Akbar, ChiefExecutive of TDAP pointed outthat the Dazzle Park has itsstrength on four pillars of PrimeLocation, Prime Advantage,

Prime Facilites And ExcellentInfrastructure. Being located inKarachi, the biggest commercialand industrial center of Pakistan,its connectivity with the indus-trial and social infrastructurewould be a big plus. Its locationadjacent to Airport would ensurethat import & export logistics &transportation cost are at mini-mal. An integrated e SupplyChain would be establishedfrom warehousing of gems tilllogistics, Finance, Banking,Consultancy, Insurance andTrainings. Business prospectswould be open for upstream,midstream and downstream in-dustries.

Abdul Kabir Kazi , Secre-tary’ TDAP threw light on gems&jewelry potentials of the coun-try and told that the dazzle Parkis being set up to exploit thepotential & worth of Gems &Jewelry sector of Pakistan. ThePakistani precious/semi-pre-cious stones are known world-

wide due to unique quality /ex-otic colors. Abundant availabil-ity of fine gems and jewelryalong with the centuries old richheritage of cutting, engraving,and polishing of these stones,offers a unique comparative ad-vantage to the country for pro-cessing and finishing of thehighest value added hand craftedjewelry.

It was also mentioned thatUnited States, the largest con-sumer of gems and jewelry hasoffered tariff concessions togems and jewelry import underUS GSP plus program.

The targets of the Dazzlepark project include processingof precious and semi-preciousstones and to enable export tointernationally certified stan-dards in either cut or polishedform or studded in jewelry andgold jewelry making.

Provisioning of infrastructurefor gems cutting, polishing, jew-elry manufacturing and export.

million, $123.50 million and$29.27 million respectively inFebruary, 2012. Remittances re-ceived from Norway, Switzer-land, Australia, Canada, Japanand other countries during theeighth month of the current fis-cal year (February FY13)amounted to $79.28 million asagainst $92.11 million receivedin the eighth month of last fis-cal year (February 2012).

The continued growth inworkers’ remittances is the resultof the efforts made by PakistanRemittance Initiative (PRI) in col-laboration with other stakehold-ers to facilitate both Overseas Pa-kistanis and their families backhome. Since its inception, PRI hastaken a number of steps to enhancethe flow of remittances throughformal channels which include:(a) preparation of national strate-

gies on remittances (b) taking allnecessary steps to implement theoverall strategy (c) playing the ad-visory role for financial sector interms of preparing a business case,relationship building with over-seas correspondents, creatingseparate efficient remittance pay-ment highways and (d) becominga national focal point for overseasPakistanis through round the clockcall centre (021-111-222-774)

with toll free lines, separate website etc.

It may be recalled that in or-der to provide an ownership struc-ture in Pakistan for remittance fa-cilitation, the Government of Pa-kistan through State Bank of Pa-kistan, Ministry of Overseas Pa-kistanis and the Ministry of Fi-nance had launched a joint initia-tive called Pakistan RemittanceInitiative (PRI) in April 2009.

RemitFrom Page 13

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The new tradingsoftware of ISE calledIslamabad Electronic Exchangetrading system (IEES) has beenin operation since over a month.This new state of the art soft-ware provides multi-faceted fa-cilities to both investors tradingthrough the brokerage houses ofISE as well as to the brokers.

This advance version of thetrading software also providesonline, mobile and SMS tradingabilities to the investors and cli-ents of the ISE brokers. In addi-

ISE launches mobiletrading alerts

tion ISE will also provide port-folio management facilities, backoffice operations, risk manage-ment operations, orders routing,data services, direct market ac-cess and many other facilities atmultiple portals, which are readyand in testing phase and shall belaunched in a coming month, asMian Ayyaz Afzal MD ISE, told.

The launch of mobile confir-mation alerts facility on IEES isanother landmark achievement ofthe ISE’s IT team as it will fur-ther enhance the transparencyand the investors confidence onthe affairs of the Exchange and

the investors will get confirma-tions of their trade through mo-bile and e-mail alerts. ISE haddeveloped this module in earlyJanuary 2013 and after success-ful mock tests the system hasbeen formally launched today.

He said that ISE has workedday and night for the develop-ment of this software and themanagement is getting a goodresponse. The stake holders ofthe exchange have opt the sys-tem with the open heart andshowed a good gesture on theimplementation of Independenttrading engine for the exchange.

Lafarge officialvisits Pakistan to

review exportpotential

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Peter JamesHoddinott, the Executive VicePresident of Energy and Stra-tegic Sourcing at Lafarge, vis-ited Pakistan to review thecountry’s potential as a majorexporter for raw and finishedmaterials.

The Executive Vice Presi-dent of Energy commendedLafarge’s local team on uphold-ing the organization’s guidingprinciple of sustainable develop-ment and making industrial op-erations safer for both employ-ees and the environment the com-pany operates in.

This team has succeeded inachieving sustainability andcompetitiveness with an im-pressive alternate fuels strat-egy.

Cuba lost friend in Chavez deathHAVANA—Cuba’s Fidel Castro praised the lateVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Mon-day as a champion of the poor and said Cu-bans had lost their best friend ever, in his firstcomments on the death last week of his social-ist ally. Castro said the news, although notunexpected, had been a hard blow. “On the5th of March, in the afternoon hours, died thebest friend the Cuban people had in their his-tory,” Castro wrote in a column published inCommunist Party newspaper Granma. “We

have the honour of having shared with the Bolivarian leader thesame ideals of social justice and of support for the exploited,” saidthe 86-year-old Castro who led Cuba’s 1959 revolution, ruled thecountry for 49 years and still plays a behind-the-scenes role. “Thepoor are the poor in any part of the world,” he said. During Chavez’years in power, he and Castro forged a close personal and politicalrelationship that resulted in extensive Venezuelan aid to the commu-nist island and a shared strategy for promoting Latin American unityagainst U.S. influence in the region. Chavez helped rescue Cubafrom desperate economic times that followed the 1991 collapse ofthe Soviet Union, its former top ally, by providing two-thirds of itsoil in a barter deal for the services of Cuban professionals, most ofthem doctors and nurses. He also signed a number of joint venturesaimed at integrating the two countries’ economies. Chavez, 58, wasdiagnosed with cancer in the pelvic region in June 2011 by Cubandoctors and underwent four surgeries on the Caribbean island, whichhas an extensive medical system and provides free care to its people.Except for a set of photographs, Chavez was never seen in publicagain following his last operation in December and he died on Tues-day in Caracas. Castro said he had received a phone call via satellitenotifying him of what he called “the bitter news.” “The significanceof the phrase used was unmistakable. Although we knew the criticalstate of his health, the news hit us hard,” wrote Castro, who resignedas Cuba’s president five years ago because of his own health prob-lems.—Reuters

Hungary’s constitution to be changedBUDAPEST—Hungary’s ruling party is set topush through changes to the constitution onMonday that critics say will curb democraticrights, despite warnings from European lead-ers and a protest by thousands of people inBudapest at the weekend. Hungary’s PresidentJanos Ader waits to address the 67th sessionof the United Nations General Assembly at UNheadquarters in New York. The changes areseen by critics as the latest in a series of movesby centre-right Fidesz party to cement its posi-

tion in public institutions via its large parliamentary majority. Theyscrap all decisions by the country’s top Constitutional Court madebefore the new constitution entered into force in 2012, discarding abody of law often used as reference. They also create room for re-strictive new regulations in higher education, homelessness, elec-toral law and family law—the main focus of Saturday’s protest inthe capital. European leaders have warned they may run counter toEuropean Union rules and civil groups planned a further protest onMonday evening to urge President Janos Ader to veto them. Theforint fell more than one percent to the euro to new 9-month lows at303 on concerns about the vote and steps by the central bank’s newGovernor Gyorgy Matolcsy to curb the powers of two of his vicegovernors. Gergely Gulyas, deputy leader of the Fidesz parliamen-tary group, told the right-wing daily Magyar Nemzet Fidesz had noreason to put off the vote despite “domestic and internationalkerfuffle.” “It’s natural that the governing majority uses theauthorisation that it got in democratic elections,” he said. Last weekthe European institution responsible for defending human rights, theCouncil of Europe, urged Budapest to postpone the vote, fearing forHungary’s democratic checks and balances, and the U.S. State De-partment and human rights organisations have also expressed con-cerns. Hungary’s former conservative President Laszlo Solyom, whois also a former head of the country’s top Constitutional Court, saida presidential veto was the last resort to prevent the two-thirds gov-erning majority from overruling the Court at will.—Reuters

Hospitalised Berlusconi being guardedMILAN—Italian judges ordered checks to bemade on former prime minister SilvioBerlusconi on Monday to verify his claim thathealth problems meant he was unable to at-tend his trial on charges of paying for sex witha minor. The 76-year-old media billionaire,who faces a series of court hearings in sepa-rate trials this month, has been in hospital sinceFriday because of an eye problem that he sayshas forced him to cancel a number of publicappointments. Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio

Berlusconi looks on during a news conference at Chigi Palace inRome . However prosecutors believe that his stay in hospital, whichfalls in the middle of a political crisis caused by last month’s incon-clusive elections, may only be a delaying tactic. On Saturday judgesrejected his argument that he was unable to attend a trial for taxfraud. Berlusconi denies any wrongdoing in the case, in which he ischarged with paying for sex with former nightclub dancer Karima ElMahroug, better known under her stage name “Ruby the Heartstealer”,when she was under the legal minimum age of 18. He says he hasbeen subject to politically motivated “judicial persecution” by whathe says are left-wing judges who want to end his political career. Thehearing in the Ruby trial had been expected to be held on Mondaywith a final ruling in the case on March 18. Three doctors, includinga cardiologist and a senior eye specialist were charged with conduct-ing the inspection at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan. Results wereexpected on Monday. The checks adds to an increasingly bitter po-litical battle around Berlusconi as political parties struggle to dealwith the aftermath of February’s election which left none of themable to form a government. Berlusconi’s centre-right alliance holdsthe second-biggest bloc in parliament but appears to be shut out ofgovernment by the hostility of both the centre-left Democratic Partyand the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of former comic BeppeGrillo.—Reuters

Chief justice pledges fair polls hearingNAIROBI—Kenya’s Supreme Court willhandle any challenge to the result of lastweek’s presidential election in a fair andspeedy manner, the chief justice said on Mon-day, two days after defeated candidate RailaOdinga threatened legal action over the out-come. Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odingaaddresses a news conference after UhuruKenyatta was declared winner of Kenya’spresidential election in the capital Nairobi.Uhuru Kenyatta, indicted for crimes against

humanity, was declared the winner on Saturday. Odinga refused toconcede, although he urged his supporters to avoid any repeat ofthe violence that erupted after the last election in 2007. Chief jus-tice Willy Mutunga, appointed in 2011 to reform a legal systemaccused of serving the interests of the elite, said politicians andpolitical parties had confidence in the judiciary to handle all elec-toral disputes. A swift and transparent resolution of the dispute isseen as critical to restoring Kenya’s reputation as a stable democ-racy, something that was helped by last week’s largely peacefulvote. “We at the Supreme Court are prepared to hear any petitionthat may be filed impartially, fairly, justly and without fear, ill-will, favour, prejudice or bias and in accordance with our constitu-tion and our laws,” Mutunga said. The chief justice was speakingat a news conference held on the steps of the court after receivinga copy of the election results from electoral commission officials.Several peaceful demonstrators waving Odinga posters near thegates to the court hours after Mutunga spoke, shouted: “We wantAgwambo not the suspect”, referring to Odinga, who is known as“Agwambo” or the daring one, and Kenyatta. In rejecting the re-sult, Prime Minister Odinga said “democracy was on trial in Kenya”.His camp had raised complaints during tallying that the count wasdeeply flawed and called for it to be halted.—Reuters

TOKYO—Prime MinisterShinzo Abe vowed on Mondayto speed up rebuilding from thehuge earthquake, tsunami andnuclear crisis that struck Japan’snortheast two years ago, prom-ising that the nation wouldemerge stronger from its worstdisaster since World War Two.The 9.0 magnitude earthquakestruck at 2:46 p.m., triggeringtsunami waves as high as 30metres (100 feet) that sweptaway residents and their homes.Nearly 19,000 people died andsome 315,000 evacuees werestranded, including refugeesfrom radiation spewed from thedevastated Fukushima atomicplant.

Walls of water 13 metreshigh smashed into Tokyo Elec-tric Power Co’s FukushimaDaiichi nuclear plant north ofTokyo, knocking out its mainpower supply and backup gen-erators and crippling the coolingsystem. Three reactors melteddown in the world’s worstatomic accident since Chernobylin 1986. The triple calamitiesstunned a nation that had thoughtitself prepared for disasters andbeen taught to believe thatnuclear power, which suppliednearly 30 percent of electricityat the time, was clean, safe andcheap. A panel of experts com-missioned by parliament toprobe the nuclear crisis dubbedit a man-made disaster resultingfrom “collusion” among thegovernment, regulators and theplant operator.

“Our ancestors have over-come many difficulties and eachtime emerged stronger,” Abe, 58,

Nation to emerge stronger from 2011 triple disasters: Abewho took office in Decembervowing to revive a stagnanteconomy and restore nationalpride, told a memorial service inTokyo also attended by EmperorAkihito and Empress Michiko.“We pledge anew to learn fromthem and move forward, holdingeach other’s hands.”

Abe had earlier run an adver-

tisement in English-languagenewspapers on Monday extolling

the virtues of a resilient “NewJapan” two years after 3.11. Twoyears after the disasters, rebuild-ing the northeast - a region al-ready suffering from a fast-age-ing population and stagnant lo-cal industries, including farming- is patchy. Almost 300,000people still live in temporaryhousing.

“We are standing at the cross-roads of having to decide how we

will live and what actions weshould take,” said Sakari Minato,49, an auto dealer in the town ofYamada in Iwate prefecture, nowliving in a house damaged by thetsunami. “In Tokyo, the economymight be improving as stockprices rise, but it takes a long timefor that effect to permeate to theperiphery.”

He was referring to the shareprice boom since Abe’s Liberal

Democratic Party’s(LDP) land-slide election to oust the Demo-cratic Party, in charge when thedisasters struck. The FukushimaDaiichi plant has been broughtinto a stable state, but decom-missioning its damaged reactorswill take decades and cost bil-lions of dollars. Many of the160,000 who fled will never be

able to return.Clean-up of communities

further from the plant is haphaz-ard and slow and concerns re-main about the impact on healthfrom radiation. A study by theWorld Health Organisation saidlast month that people in theworst-affected area have ahigher risk of developing certaincancers, although for Japan’sgeneral population, the predictedhealth risks were low. Abe tolda news conference that he wouldspeed up the reconstruction ofdevastated areas.

“Reconstruction is a battleagainst time,” he said. “The Abecabinet will promote a recon-struction that people can trulyfeel by implementing (policies)one by by.” Abe has boosted thereconstruction budget to 25 tril-lion yen ($260 billion) from the19 trillion yen over five years al-located by the previous govern-ment. Abe plans to restart off-line nuclear reactors if they meetnew safety standards as hepushes policies to revive theeconomy, the latest sign thatJapan’s powerful nexus of poli-ticians, bureaucrats and utilitiesknown as the “nuclear village”is again dominating the corridorsof power.

“People and the media arestarting to forget Fukushima andwhat happened there,” said a 32-year-old mother of two march-ing with thousands of anti-nuclear protestors in Tokyo onthe eve of the anniversary. Allbut two of Japan’s 50 nuclear re-actors have been halted forsafety checks to see if they couldwithstand an earthquake and tsu-nami of similar magnitude to theMarch 2011 disaster.—Reuters

A boy and his mother take part in a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. during a rally in Tokyo March 11, 2013, to mark thesecond-year anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands and set off a nuclear crisis.

KANO—A video posted onlineappears to show the corpses ofsome of the seven foreign hos-tages abducted by Islamic extrem-ists from northern Nigeria andlater killed, a gruesome warningof the growing dangers in the re-gion. The video, viewed by TheAssociated Press on Monday,matched still images released ear-lier by the Islamic extremist groupAnsaru when it claimed the kill-ings. The face of one of thecorpses in the video also re-sembled that of one of the hos-tages already named by authori-ties.

European diplomats saidSunday that the hostages had beenkilled, though Nigeria’s govern-ment has yet to publicly say any-thing about the killings. In thevideo, a gunman stands in sand,holding a rifle near what appearsto be dead bodies. A later shot inthe video shows three malecorpses, one of whom appears tohave been killed by a gunshotwound to the head from a high-

Nigeria video showsforeign hostages bodies

powered weapon. The video hasno sound. An accompanying cap-tion for the video in Arabic callsit: “The killing of seven Christianhostages in Nigeria.” Another de-scription includes the statementAnsaru released Saturday claim-ing that it killed the hostages,signed by a man with the nom deguerre Abu Usamatal Ansary.

Ansaru fighters kidnappedthe foreigners Feb. 16 from acamp for the construction com-pany Setraco at Jama’are, a town200 kilometers (125 miles) northof Bauchi, the capital of Bauchistate. In the attack, gunmen firstassaulted a local prison and burnedpolice trucks, authorities said.Then the attackers blew up a backfence at the constructioncompany’s compound and tookover, killing a guard in the pro-cess, witnesses and police said.

Those kidnapped includedfour Lebanese and one citizeneach from the United Kingdom,Greece and Italy. Local officialsin Nigeria initially identified one

of the hostages as a Filipino,something the Philippines govern-ment later denied. The gunmenappeared to be organized andknew who they wanted to target,leaving the Nigerian householdstaff at the residence unharmed,while quickly abducting the for-eigners, a witness said.

In an online statement Satur-day in which it claimed the kill-ings, Ansaru said it killed the hos-tages in part because of reports inthe Nigerian press of the arrivalof British military aircraft toBauchi. However, the local newsarticles cited by Ansaru reportedthat the airplanes were spotted atthe international airport in Abuja,the nation’s central capital 180miles (290 kilometers) southwest.

The British Defense Ministrysaid Sunday the planes it flew toAbuja ferried Nigerian troops andequipment to Bamako, Mali. Ni-gerian soldiers have been sent toMali to help French forces andMalian troops battle Islamic ex-tremists there.—AP

LILONGWE—Malawian policearrested four former cabinetministers on Monday on suspi-cion of plotting to overthrow thegovernment after the death ofPresident Bingu wa Mutharikain April last year, police said.The four, who included the lateMutharika’s younger brother,Peter, were found by an officialinquiry to have tried to preventthen vice-president Joyce Bandafrom taking power, as stipulatedin the constitution.

“In total, four former min-isters have been arrested forquestioning in connection withthe investigations into the deathof the President as revealed inthe inquiry report,” policespokeswoman Rhoda Majolosaid. Banda took charge of theimpoverished southern Africannation after the unexpecteddeath of Mutharika, who spenthis last years in office crackingdown on opponents and battling

4 ex-ministers held forMalawi coup plot

with diplomats.The United States and other

key western donors suspendedaid in 2011 after police shot andkilled at least 20 protesters dem-onstrating against Mutharika’srule. Banda, who had also fallenout of favor with Mutharika bythe time of his death, set up aninquiry into the circumstancessurrounding the incident afterconflicting reports about whenhe died.

Its findings, revealed lastweek, showed Mutharika died ofa heart attack on his way to hos-pital in Lilongwe on April 5, andnot on April 7 in South Africa,as originally claimed by the gov-ernment and Mutharika’s fam-ily. The report also revealed thatPeter Mutharika, who was thenforeign minister, and former fi-nance minister Goodall Gondweattempted to convince the armyto take over and stop Banda fromascending to power. —Reuters

DUBAI—A leading Bahraini hu-man rights activist said on Mon-day a court had acquitted him ofcharges of spreading false newson Twitter after he had been ar-rested during a protest rally latelast year. Sayed Yousif al-Muhafda, from the Bahrain Cen-tre for Human Rights (BCHR),was released on bail in Januaryafter being detained at a demon-stration in Manama in December.

Unauthorized rallies andgatherings are banned in Bahrain,which has been in turmoil sincepro-democracy protests led by itsShi’ite Muslim majority eruptedin 2011. “The court acquitted metoday, but I had spent aonth in jail,” Muhafda toldReuters by telephone fromGeneva. “We call on the Bahraini

Court acquits leadingBahrain rights activist

YANGON—While there hasbeen much negative criticism ofbusiness’s role in the peace pro-cess, with government talks of-ten being attended and in somecases financed by businessmen,the need for development in eth-nic states should not be over-shadowed by political short-sightedness and worries over theinclusion of the private sector.

It is essential that ethnicarmed groups, in a time of peace,should move away from theircurrent main sources of income,which include taxing the localcommunities, logging and min-ing, to less socially and environ-mentally destructive forms ofsupporting themselves. And theprivate sector can facilitate this.While environmental activistswill argue that the inclusion ofbusiness is detrimental to thepeace process, it is essential inareas that have been underdevel-oped for decades. Businessescan create economic opportuni-

Business to have role inMyanmar peace promotion

ties and generate wealth, whichis essential for peace-buildingand post-conflict reconstruction.Also, as in this case, at the con-flict resolution stage, businessescan encourage parties to avoidconflict in exchange for the pur-suit of economic development.In addition, they can assist theMyanmar government in carry-ing out peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction work.

Nonetheless, it must also berecognized that the root causesof conflict can only be dealt withproperly if violations of eco-nomic, social and cultural rightsare effectively addressed.

As Chin leader Dr. LianSakhong notes in relation to theMyanmar government’s use ofbusinessmen as peace brokers:“The [Myanmar] government’sperception is that the reason whyethnic armed groups hold armsis the fact that they are poor, andthat development is the solu-tion.—Mizzima

government to stop targeting hu-man rights activists and releasethe head of the centre NabeelRajab.”

A prominent opposition andhuman rights activist, Rajab wassentenced to three years in prisonlast August for taking part in un-licensed anti-government pro-tests. Bahrain, where the U.S.Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based, hasstepped up efforts to stamp outthe unrest in recent months andseveral activists have been ar-rested or jailed for organizing ortaking part in unlicensed protests.

Earlier this month rights ac-tivist Zainab al-Khawaja wassentenced to three months in jailfor insulting a public employeeafter an appeal court overturnedher earlier acquittal.—Reuters

SEOUL—South Korean employ-ees working at the Kaesong In-dustrial Complex (KIC), arrive atthe South’s CIQ (Customs, Im-migration and Quarantine) office,just south of the demilitarisedzone separating …more By Ju-min Park: PAJU, South Korea(Reuters) - North Korea has tornup the armistice that ended its1950s conflict and shut down ahumanitarian hotline with theSouth, but one project keeps op-erating at full swing — an indus-trial park run with the South onits own side of the world’s mostheavily militarized border.

The Kaesong industrial zone,home to 123 South Korean com-panies making basic goods likeclothes, shoes and householditems and employing more than50,000 North Koreans generatedover $1 billion in exports to theSouth in 2012. And it appears itwill remain in place no matterwhat — untouchable regardlessof satellite launches and nuclear

N Korea biz park keepsrunning braving tensions

tests by the North or toughenedU.N. sanctions againstPyongyang.

It’s a vital lifeline for an im-poverished country that barely hasany economic linkages with therest of the world. North Korea’strade with China was $5.93 bil-lion in 2012, according to SouthKorean government figures.“North Korean workers were jok-ing that South Korea is not ourmatch and now we have to fightagainst the United States,” saidPark Heung-jin, 47, a South Ko-rean buyer of Kaesong-madeshoes on a visit to the zone.

Kaesong is the sole remnantof South Korea’s “SunshinePolicy” of engagement with NorthKorea that saw hundreds of bil-lions of dollars poured into thecountry in a failed bid to stop itproceeding with its nuclear weap-ons program. It is the one work-ing symbol of a potentially uni-fied Korea and one that neithergovernment in Seoul or

Pyongyang appears willing to pullthe plug on. United Nations sanc-tions against North Korea that tar-geted its missile and nuclear pro-grams and the bank accounts ofits top leadership in retaliation forPyongyang’s third nuclear test inFebruary left Kaesong untouched.“Kaesong is viewed as the lastresort. Shutting this down wouldbe cutting off everything betweenNorth and South Korea,” said ParkSoo-jin, a spokeswoman for theUnification Ministry in Seoul.

Only South Korean workersand buyers interested in the park’sgoods can secure a permit to crossthe border and 842 went across onMonday on a narrow road. Rareconvoys take permit holders inand ship goods back and forth,under the watchful eye of soldiersfrom North and South Korea.South Koreans who visited thezone on Monday said North Ko-rean troops were wearing camou-flage, but that consisted of hand-fuls of webbing and grass.—AP

BEIRUT—Syrian warplanesbombed the shattered Baba Amrdistrict in the central city ofHoms on Monday, a day afterrebels made a surprise push intotheir former bastion, which hadbeen in army hands for a year.The communally mixed city ofSunni Muslims and Alawites,the minority sect that has domi-nated Syria since the 1960s, hasbeen a major battleground in atwo-year-old revolt againstPresident Bashar al-Assad thathas claimed about 70,000 lives.

The Syrian Observatory for

Govt forces bombed BabaAmr to stop rebels advance

Human Rights, which monitorsthe conflict, quoted an opposi-tion activist in Baba Amr as say-ing the planes had attacked theoutskirts of the district, whichwas now partially controlled byrebel units. Homs, 140 km (88miles) north of Damascus, lieson a road juncture linking armybases on the Mediterraneancoast, home to many Alawites,and government forces in thecapital Damascus.

Sunni rebels punchedthrough army lines in the northand west of Homs on Sunday to

loosen a months-long militarysiege on their strongholds in thecentre of the Syria’s third big-gest city, opposition sourcessaid. Homs-based activists saidthere were “light clashes” inBaba Amr on Monday.

Assad, fighting to maintainhis family’s four-decade-oldgrip on Syria, appears to be fo-cusing his military campaign onholding the main cities, alonga highway axis running north ofHoms to Hama and Aleppo andsouth to Damascus andDeraa.—Reuters

Congo govt tosign peace deal

with rebelsKINSHASA—Democratic Re-public of Congo’s governmentis due to sign a peace deal onMarch 15 with the M23 rebelswho have been waging an insur-gency in the east for the pastyear, according to a draft agree-ment seen by Reuters on Mon-day.

The draft says rebel fighterswill hand in their weapons aheadof a deployment of United Na-tions peacekeepers in their ter-ritory, and those not facing pros-ecution will be integrated intothe army. Congo’s governmentwill, in turn, speed up the returnof ethnic Tutsi refugees fromRwanda, it added.

The deal seeks to end recur-rent conflicts in Congo’s min-eral-rich east, where local poli-tics, ethnic rivalries and tensionswith neighboring Rwanda havesimmered for nearly two de-cades.

Talks in Uganda to end theM23 rebellion, in which rebelsbriefly seized the town of Gomalast year in a major embarrass-ment to both the government andU.N. peacekeepers, had faltered.

But rebel infighting in re-cent weeks appears to have ledto a breakthrough, with fightersunder Sultani Makenga sidelin-ing those loyal to rival com-mander Bosco Ntaganda, who iswanted by the InternationalCriminal Court for war crimesand crimes against humanity.

Congolese governmentspokesman Lambert Mende saidthe document seen by Reuterswas a “working document” andconfirmed the March 15 dead-line for talks to end.—Reuters

Trial of deadRussian

whistleblowerdelayed

MOSCOW—Russia attemptedbut failed on Monday to start thetrial of dead lawyer SergeiMagnitsky - a case that critics saythe Kremlin is pursuing to dis-credit his allegations of em-bezzlement by government offi-cials. Magnitsky, who died incustody, is the first person to betried posthumously in Russia.While his attendance was neveron the cards, his defence teamalso failed to show up, leading toJudge Igor Alisov to postpone thetrial until March 22.

“The defence team...believesthat they have not yet fully ac-quainted themselves with withthe 60 volumes of case materi-als,” Alisov said, looking downon the barred cage usually re-served for the accused and theempty seats where Magnitsky’slawyers should have sat.Magnitsky is charged with taxevasion and fraud - similar toaccusations that he had levelledagainst police and tax officials.

The trial is being held undera change in the law last yearwhich critics say Putin has usedto take revenge against Washing-ton in a dispute over human rightsthat has been aggravated by theMagnitsky case.—Reuters

GALLE—Mushfiqur Rahimon Monday became the firstBangladeshi to crack adouble-century while NasirHossain hit a maiden ton asthe tourists gained a 68-runlead in the first Test againstSri Lanka.

Skipper Rahim hit a solid200 and Hossain an impres-sive 100 as Bangladesh werebowled out for 638, their high-est total in 76 Tests, in replyto Sri Lanka’s first-inningstotal of 570-4 declared.

The hosts reached 116-1in their second innings atstumps on the penultimateday of the Test heading for adraw in Galle. OpenerTillakaratne Dilshan was un-beaten on 63 and KumarSangakkara 49 not out.

Rahim’s memorable mo-ment came in the secondover after lunch when hepushed paceman NuwanKulasekara for a single to thecovers on a day when

Mohammad Ashraful (190)missed out on his own Testdouble-hundred.

Wicketkeeper-batsmanRahim, 24, was trapped leg-before by Kulasekara in thesame over, but not beforehelping Bangladesh surpasstheir previous highest Testtotal of 556 against the WestIndies in Dhaka last year.

Bangladesh, who domi-nated the match for a secondsuccessive day with theirsolid batting, also becameonly the third team after In-dia and Pakistan to score 600or more in a Test innings inSri Lanka.

Rahim, 152 overnight, hitone six and 22 fours in hisbrilliant 321-ball knock. Heput on a record 267 for thefifth wicket with Ashraful and106 for the next with Hossain.

Bangladesh’s previoushighest stand for any wicketin Tests was 200 betweenTamim Iqbal and Junaid

Sri Lanka 1st innings:570Bangladesh 1st innings:Jahurul Islam c Chandimalb Eranga ......................... 20Anamul b Mendis ......... 13Ashraful b Herath ....... 190Mominul Haque c Mathewsb Kulasekara .................. 55Mahmudullah st Chandimalb Herath ............................ 0Mushfiqur lbwb Kulasekara ................ 200Nasir b Dilshan ............ 100Sohag Gazi b Mendis ... 21Abul Hasan not out ...... 16Elias Sunny b Dilshan .... 0Shahadat b Eranga ........ 13Extras: (b 2, lb 1, nb 7) .. 10Total: (all out) .............. 638Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-65,3-170, 4-177, 5-444, 6-550, 7-581, 8-618, 9-618, 10-638Bowling: ........... O-M-R-W

Kulasekara ......... 27-3-94-2Eranga ............... 34-4-122-2Herath ............. 62-11-161-2Mendis ............. 36-3-152-2AD Mathews ....... 9-2-18-0Dilshan ............... 26-5-75-2Thirimanne ........... 2-0-13-0Sri Lanka 2nd innings:Karunaratne c Abul Hasanb Shahadat Hossain ....... 3Dilshan not out ............. 63KC Sangakkara not out 49Extras: (nb 1) .................... 1Total: (1 wicket) ........... 116Fall of wickets: 1-17Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WShahadat .............. 5-1-18-1Abul Hasan .......... 5-0-15-0Sohag Gazi ........... 9-1-37-0Elias Sunny .......... 5-0-14-0Mominul Haque .. 3-0-13-0Ashraful ............... 1-0-10-0Mahmudullah ........ 2-0-9-0

History-making Rahim leadsBangladesh run-spree

Siddique against India inDhaka in 2010.

Hossain was caught atmid-wicket by Sangakkara offpart-time spinner Dilshan af-ter hitting nine fours.

Ashraful, playing his firstTest in more than a year,

GALLE: Mushfiqur Rahim is ecstatic after becoming Bangladesh’s first double centu-rion during Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh 1st Test.

added just one to his over-night score when he went fora rash drive off left-arm spin-ner Rangana Herath andedged a catch to captainAngelo Mathews at first slip.

He occupied the creasefor more than a day, hitting

one six and 20 fours in hismarathon 417-ball knock.

Ashraful earlier surviveda confident appeal for acatch at leg-slip off the firstball of the morning while at-tempting to reverse-sweepDilshan.—AFP

INDIAN WELLS (Califor-nia)—Novak Djokovicpassed a tough first test atIndian Wells to maintain hisperfect record for the seasonand reach the third round ofthe year’s first Masters tour-nament.

The world No. 1 defeatedFabio Fognini 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 onSunday, the struggles he en-countered against the 36th-ranked Italian echoing worldNo. 3 Andy Murray’s battleto a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 victory overunheralded Russian EvgenyDonskoy.

Djokovic improved to 14-0 in 2013, but he was kickinghimself for letting control ofthe match slip away in thesecond set, when he went upan early break only forFognini to get back on servewith a break of his own in theseventh game.

“It was definitely a diffi-cult challenge today,”Djokovic said. “Fabio playedwell towards the end of thesecond set, but it was all myfault. I had a break for 4-2 upand I played a terrible game.

“After that it was veryeven. It could have gone ei-ther way.”

Fognini saved a matchpoint with a service winnerin the the 10th game of thesecond set and brokeDjokovic in the 11th.

He duly served out theset, and had Djokovic underpressure in the openinggame of the third, when theSerbian fended off one breakpoint then battled throughfour game points and an irk-some time violation beforefinally holding serve.

From there Fognini beganto fade. Djokovic broke himto lead 3-1 and broke himagain to secure the win.

Djokovic said his difficul-ties hadn’t dented the confi-dence gained from capturinghis fourth Australian Opencrown in January, and afourth ATP Dubai title lastweek.

“I’m not concerned,”Djokovic said. “I know I havebeen in this situation beforewhere I had minor setbacksin a match, especially in theopening matches where I’mtrying to get used to thecourt, the conditions, soforth.

“In the end, I have donewhat I needed to do. The ‘W’is there, so I feel good aboutmyself.”

Murray, playing his firstmatch since falling toDjokovic in the AustralianOpen final, quickly found

Novak Djokovic scramblesinto third round

himself down 5-1 to Donskoy— ranked 83rd in the world.

Although the slow startraised unwelcome memoriesof his first-match exits herein each of the past two years,Murray won four straightgames to level the set.

However, he was unableto convert any of six breakchances in the 11th game andDonskoy broke him for athird time in the 12th game topocket the set.

Murray, however, hadfound his range and madeshort work of the second andthird sets.

Seventh-seeded Argen-tine Juan Martin del Potrohad little trouble in a 6-3, 6-4victory over Russian veteranNikolay Davydenko, buteighth-seeded Jo-WilfriedTsonga of France had tofight past determined US wildcard James Blake 7-6 (8/6), 6-4.

Tsonga squandered fourset points in the 12th gameof the opening set, then hadto fight off three set pointsfor Blake in the tiebreaker.

Blake saved two matchpoints against his serve in theninth game of the second setbefore Tsonga closed it outwith a love game.

It was a bit of a slog forthe top women as well.

Second-seeded RussianMaria Sharapova had tobattle back from an earlybreak in each set to earn a 7-5, 6-3 third-round victoryover Spain’s Carla SuarezNavarro.

“I thought it was a toughone,” Sharapova said. “She’sa quality player, capable ofplaying some really good ten-nis. She’s beaten top playersin Grand Slams before andhas a really solid game with alot of variety.

“There are a few things Iwant to improve on, but I washappy I got through on not agreat day,” she added.

Third-seeded AgnieszkaRadwanska of Polanddropped a first-set tiebreakerbut rallied for a 6-7 (3/7), 6-3,6-4 victory over RomanianSorana Cirstea.

Fifth-seeded Czech PetraKvitova, the 2011Wimbledon champion, hadslightly less trouble emerg-ing with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) vic-tory over Ukrainian qualifierLesia Tsurenko, while sixth-seeded Italian Sara Erranisailed through, defeatingSweden’s Johanna Larsson6-3, 6-1.—AFP

INDIAN WELLS: Novak Djokovic of Serbia hits a return toFabio Fognini during the BNP Paribas Open Championship.

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—Wow.. Won-derful... were the exclama-tory words instantly ex-pressed by Michael Clarkeduring his trip to Taj Mahalin Agra late last week. Thiswas revealed byMunnazzar Ali, the conser-vation assistant at theworld’s famous monument.

Speaking exclusivelyover his mobile from Agra,Ali says, “Clarke, whocame with his wife Kylyhere, was highly impressedwith the World’s Wonders!. The couple spent somegood time here”.

“No other members ofthe current Australian

Australian captain impressed withworld’s wonderful Taj Mahal

team has paid visit to Tajthis time”, he added.“Though the former Austra-lian fast bowler Brett Leecame the next day, his visitcoincided with the shoot-ing here”.

“It was Clarke’s personalvisit and therefore the visitfee of Rs. 1,500 per couplecould not be waived. Had hecome in some official capac-ity, the team would have gotthe free entry”, he added.

Australia’s chief coachMickey Arthur had allowedthe players a couple of daysoff to enable them them tonot only “reflect on theirgame” but also refresh themfor the upcoming challengesin the next two Test matchesin Mohali and Delhi.

“Clarke had not brought

any security official withhim but the ArchaeologicalSurvey of India (ASI) hadprovided “Quick ReliefTask” officials to the visit-ing captain. All foreign visi-tors are being well lookedafter by our own secirityofficials”, he further added.

“Clarke hired the ser-vices of a local guide(A.N.Sharma) to under-stand the history of thismonument”.

“Former Pakistan cap-tain Rameez Raza was thelast international cricketerto have paid visit to Taj be-fore Clarke and Lee”.

“It is because of TajMahal, I am able to servethe international cricketershere in this city”,Munnazzar Ali signed off.

IPOH—India will have to putbehind the disappointment oftheir back-to-back defeats andcome out all guns blazingagainst arch-rivals Pakistan intheir next round-robin matchon Tuesday, to keep theirchances alive in the SultanAzlan Shah Cup hockey tour-nament here.

India, however, could takeheart from the fact that boththeir previous ties were closeencounters.

A young Indian side hadput up a spirited fight beforegoing down 3-4 to six-timechampions Australia in theiropening encounter, while adefensive lapse towards theend in the second match costthem dear as they went down1-2 to South Korea.

Pakistan, on the otherhand, opened their campaignwith a 3-4 win against NewZealand before being crushed0-6 by Australia Sundaynight.

Sultan Azlan Shah Cup

Pakistan face arch-rivalsIndia in a must-win match

India, after their impres-sive show against theAussies, were expected to dowell but they were completelyoutplayed in the first halfSunday by the Koreans, who

took a 1-0 lead.The Indians, however re-

grouped themselves in thesecond session and found theequaliser from one of theirnumerous raids into the rivalcitadel.

But a lapse in concentra-tion in the dying minutes of

the game enabled Korea toscore the all-important win-ner. After suffering two con-secutive defeats, the onusnow would be on India toquickly fix their grey areasbefore Tuesday’s do-or-diebattle.

Even though India‘s chiefcoach Michael admitted thepressure would be immenseon his wards against Pakistantoday (Tuesday), he said theplayers have been advised totake the match “as just an-other one”.

“The players are awarethat they have to be consis-tent and the advice is to takethe match against Pakistan asjust another one. The team isyoung and a little raw and thenerve factor could possiblyseparate the winner,” saidNobbs. He said the perfor-mances of Mandeep Singhand the fast improving MalakSingh has lifted the team‘sspirits.—INP

FAISALABAD: A student presenting her Gymnastic skill on the occasion of Jashn-e-Baharan at GC University.

Watson, Pattinsonaxed for 3rd Testfor disciplinary

reasonsMOHALI—Australia are al-ready 2-0 down in the four-match Test series in India,playing some of the worstcricket they‘ve been seenplaying in the subcontinent,and just as they thoughtthings couldn‘t get anyworse, four of their playershave been axed from the third‘must-win‘ Test for disciplin-ary reasons.

The four players whohave been dropped are:Usman Khawaja, MitchellJohnson, Shane Watson andJames Pattinson.

Early reports suggest thefour were axed after failing tocomply with team orders. Theentire 16-man squad wassupposed to fill in a writtenpersonal review each aftertheir side’s massive loss inthe second Test atHyderabad and the axed fourhad failed to take part in that.The review asked players toreflect on the team’s cultureand expectations and sug-gest improvements that needto be made for the upcomingTest match. Failure to com-ply with those directivesmeant the team hierarchy hadto take firm steps against theoffenders.

While the first two maynot be regular first teamersin this tour, the other two -Shane Watson and JamesPattinson - will be a big blowfor the Aussies. With Wadealso injured and Haddin be-ing called upon, the teamseems in complete disarrayahead of the Mohali matchthat begins on March 14.

The four will be available,though, for the fourth Testin Delhi, revealed Australiancoach Micky Arthur to FoxSports, but the decision todrop them was a ‘line in thesand’ for Australian cricket.

He also admitted that itwas the toughest day of hiscoaching career, but deemedthe strong action necessaryin his aim to put Australiaback on the top of worldcricket.—INP

De Villiers upbeatafter ODI win

against PakistanSYDNEY—South Africa cap-tain A B De Villiers lauded hisyoung players after they con-vincingly thrashed Pakistan inthe first one-day at ChevroletPark, Bloemfontein by 125runs.

Colin Ingram smashed anunbeaten century. SeamerRory Kleinveldt bowled a ca-reer best 4-22 as South Africadefeated Pakistan by 125 runsin the first of five one-dayinternationals on Sunday.Pakistan‘s batting woes on thetour continued as Kleinveldtand Ryan McLaren (3-19)combined well to dismiss thevisitors for 190 in 36.2 overs.

Pakistan‘s top-order bats-men had a miserable run whenSouth Africa whitewashedthem in the Test series 3-0 lastmonth. Their poor form con-tinued as captain Misbah-ul-Haq notched 38 runs, highestfor Pakistan on the day. DeVilliers said, “It really excitesme to see the boys perform likethat,” also adding, “...theyhaven`t played great ODIcricket of late. It has been wor-rying and frustrating”.—INP

LAHORE—Four Matcheswere decided in District Foot-ball Championship here onMonday at Model TownFootball Academy Groundand Raiders Football ClubGrounds.

Young Union F.C, LahoreUnited F.C, MughalpuraFootball Club and SaleemKhan F.C earned victoriesagainst their respective ri-vals. Young Union F.C beat

Four matches decided in DistrictFootball Championship

Samanabad F.C 2-0 Shahbazand Anjum produced onegoal each in the 23rd and 60thminutes. Lahore United F.Cbeat Shaheen F.C (CMH) 3-0. Ahit, Muslim Butt andAbdul Rasheed shared onegoal apiece.

Mughalpura FootballClub scored a narrow 1-0 winover Model Town F.C. FarooqAziz scored the goal of thematch in the 40th minute.

Saleem Khan F.Coutplayed Afshan F.C 2-0 asNawaz and Nazeer scoredthe 27th and 67th minutesgoal.

Matches for tomorrow,Tuesday, PAF F.C Vs IdealF.C at Raiders ground,Publican F.C Vs Bata F.C atMFTA, Chief College F.C VsMujahid F.C at MFTA,PencyF.C Vs Universal Bab CargoF.C at MFTA.—APP

POSSESSING one or another versionof a gene key to metabolizing the Bvitamin folate may make a big differ-

ence in who responds to vitamin supple-ments intended to treat negative symptomsof schizophrenia, accord-ing to a new study.

Researchers tracked140 people with schizo-phrenia for 16 weeks andfound that those with theso-called high-functioningFOLH1 gene variant had agreater response to folicacid and B12 supplements,compared to those with thelow-functioning FOLH1variant.

“That’s a gene that ac-tually controls the diges-tion of folate (or folic acid)into the bloodstream,” saidDr. Joshua Roffman, thestudy’s lead author fromMassachusetts GeneralHospital in Charlestown.

Folate, one of the B vi-tamins, is used in the manufacturing ofneurotransmitters, which send signalsthroughout the brain and body, and it’sfound in leafy vegetables, citrus fruits,beans and fortified grain products.

Since the 1960s, Roffman told ReutersHealth, folate deficiencies have been tiedto the development of schizophrenia, andresearchers have observed spikes in casesof the mental disorder after famines inChina and the Netherlands, for example.

But this new study, he said, is the firstto look at the effects of folate supplementsin a large population of people with the

B vitamins might helpsome with schizophrenia

condition - at several medical centers inMassachusetts, New York and Michigan.

The researchers, who published theirfindings in JAMA Psychiatry, were tar-geting so-called negative symptoms in

schizophrenia patients,which include apathy, with-drawal and an inability todisplay emotion.

Those are less severethan the more well-knowsymptoms of schizophrenia -including hallucinations, delu-sions and paranoia - but stilllead to significant impairment,because they are unaffectedby traditional antipsychoticdrugs, experts said. “There’snothing that’s widely ac-cepted that’s demonstrated tohelp. So there is a big need forthis kind of work,” said Dr.Scott Stroup, a professor ofpsychiatry at New York’s Co-lumbia University who wasnot involved with the re-search. For the new study, the

researchers recruited 140 schizophrenia pa-tients and randomly assigned them into twogroups. One group received 2 milligrams offolic acid and 400 micrograms of vitamin B12,which increases folic acid’s effect, per dayfor 16 weeks. The other group took placebopills for comparison, but all patients alsocontinued their normal medications.

At the beginning, each group scoredin the mid-30s on a scale that measuresthe severity of their negative symptomsfrom 0 to 100 - with higher scores beingmore severe. Roffman said the participantsall had moderate to severe symptoms.

KARACHI: Jamat Ahl-e-Sunnah holds a rally against bhatta mafia in front of KPC.—PO photo

KARACHI: Rangers personnel seen at the site of bomb blast near a Paan shop in area of Khurramabad, Landhi No 2.

KARACHI: Ladies taking interest in flowers during an exhibition at Karachi Zoo.—PO Photo by Sultan Chaki

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Karachi wasonce again set to bleed as aplanted bomb explodedMonday in Khurramabad inLandhi. The bomb wasplanted somewhere aroundthe paan shop located indensely populated area withheavy public movement.Subsequent to the blast, threedied while 8 were injured.Bodies and injured were allshifted to Jinnah Postgradu-ate Medical Centre.

Those injured are Naveed27, Abdul Sattar 28, Jagdesh26, Zafar 30, Ali 30, Pervez 30,Jameel 30 and Hussain 27.

The Police and Rangerscondoned off the area afterthe explosion. However, itwas not yet clear whether thebomb was planted in anymotorcycle or was set to ex-plode from a remote controldevice.

In another incident of ter-rorism, unidentified armed

Blast in Landhi claims3 lives, 8 injured

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan Mus-lim League Functional(PMLF), Sindh chapter, Gen-eral Secretary Imtiaz AhmedShaikh had said that thePML-F and allied partieswere preparing for nominat-ing unanimous candidate onall seats so as to defeat thepretentious opposition inthe Sindh Assembly.

He was addressing apress conference after ameeting of religious and po-litical parties was held at theFunctional House Monday.The meeting and the pressconference was attended byJam Madad Ali Khan,

PML-F demands removal ofgovernors for fair elections

Shaheryar Maher, KamranTesori, Akbar Shah Rashidi,Zubair Memon, PMLNleader Salim Zia Awan, Na-tional People’s Party leaderMasroor Jatoi, Jamaat-eIslami leaders MaulanaAsadullah Bhutto andMuhammad HussainMahenti, Jamiat Ulema-e Is-lam-F leader MuhammadAslam Ghauri, Jamiat Ulema-e Pakistan leader MuhammadHaleem Khan Ghauri, Paki-stan Sunni Tehreek leaderShakeel Qadri and MatloobAwan, Sindh United Partyleader Syed Zain Shah andSyed Ghulam Shah, QaumiAawami Tehreek leaderMuhammad Alam Shah,

Sindh Tarraqi Pasand Partyleader Haider Shahani andDr Abdul Hameed Memon.

The meeting decided tohold the next meeting atJamaat-e Islamai’s Idara-eNoor-e Haq on March 20.

Shaikh alleged that thegovernment had alreadystarted to rig the comingelections, which had madethe claims of free and fairelections suspicious. Thegovernment was making fulluse of state resources toobtain the desired results incoming elections and in thisregard, key officials werebeing posted at the specificpositions wherefrom theycould affect the elections.

Caretaker setup:CM starts

consultationKARACHI—Sindh govern-ment has started consultationwith the opposition leader andother opposition parties in theprovincial assembly for forma-tion of caretaker governmentin the province. Chief Minis-ter Syed Qaim Ali Shah hascontacted opposition leaderSyed Sardar Ahmed and otherparliamentary leaders of oppo-sition parties in Sindh assem-bly . In this regard CM wouldwrite a letter to oppositionleader soon. The draft of theletter has been prepared inwhich two names for the slotof interim chief minister wouldbe sought from the opposition.

On the other hand opposi-tion leader Sardar Ahmed hasalso made contacts with parlia-mentary leader of PML(F) JamMadad Ali . There are severalname of retired judges , ex bu-reaucrats and former diplomatsare revolving in the politicalcircles for care taker CM includ-ing Justice (R) Syed DidarHussain Shah, Qazi Fazal Ullahand Hussain Haroon.—Online

KWSB seeks Finance,LG departs help to

recover duesSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Waterand Sewerage Board (KWSB)has sought help from Financeand Local Government De-partments to recover Rs.328million in dues outstanding onPublic Health Engineering De-partment due from February2012 onwards.

In a letter to Secretary Fi-nance and Secretary LocalGovernment KW&SB Manag-ing Director MisbahuddinFarid requested that KWSBwas going through financialcrises and in order to carry onday to day operations it wasvital that all Government, Semi-Government and Private Insti-tutions pay their outstandingdues.

Furthermore, beside themaintenance and day to dayexpenses required to ensureswift provision for water sup-ply and sewerage facilities tothe citizens of Karachi, salariesof employees.

men attacked a local petrolpump near Bacha KhanChowk. One was injured inthe grenade attack.

Armed men in AligarhColony in Orangi Town killedthree security guards duringan attempt of robbing Bankvan that was moving withheavy cash. The securityguards had shown resistancebut to no avail. The armedmen opened fire on the secu-rity guards due to which threeof them died on the spot andtwo passers-bye sustainedbullet injuries.

Mwanwhile, MuttahidaQaumi Movement Chief AltafHussain has expressed con-cern over the bomb blast inKhurramabad area of Landhi.He expressed his grief andsorrow on the deaths ofpeople and injuring of manyothers in the blast. He saidthat bomb blasts and inci-dents of terrorism one afteranother had given rise tomany tragedies in the past

few months.He said that the situation

in the country was grave af-ter the blasts on AlamdarRoad and Kirani road inQuetta and in Abbas Townin Karachi and the unfortu-nate tragedy in Badami Baghin Lahore. He said that theblast in Karachi in these cir-cumstances was highly con-demnable.

He said that the way theterrorists were targetingmosques, imam Bargahsand attacking the armedforces, security forces andgeneral public had made itclear that they were work-ing on an agenda to weakenthe country. He said itwas necessary to makecommittees at localneighbourhood levels in or-der to keep an eye on sus-picious elements. He sympa-thized with the families who losttheir loved-ones in the blastand prayed for the speedy re-covery of the injured.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Senior Ministerfor Education and LiteracySindh Pir Mazhar Ul Haqsaid that during hisMinistry’s period he tookevery possible step for thebetterment of Education ofSindh Province. SeveralEducation projects werecompleted and while manyeducational projects werenear to its completion. Timewould prove that how muchprogress we have made inthe field of education inSindh.

He expressed theseviews while talking with theofficers of Education De-partment over his surprisevisit to the offices of educa-tion Department it TughlaqHouse.

He said when he tookover the Ministry of Educa-tion, first of all he visited the

Measures taken forbetterment of

education: Pir Mazharoffices of Education depart-ment and he is here todayfor farewell meeting. Ourservices for the promotionand development of educa-tion were in front of publicand we served people with-out any discrimination.

He further added thatteachers had been inductedon the basis of merit; newcolleges had been estab-lished in remote areas ofSindh where students ofthose areas were providedthe educational opportuni-ties at their doorstep.

He added that he did ev-ery possible thing for better-ment of education, now it’sthe responsibility of upcom-ing elected Government tocontinue the educationalprojects in the interest ofSindh province.

Senior Officers of Edu-cation Department were alsopresent during meeting.

Swat-like operationdemanded

KARACHI—The Jafria Alli-ance Pakistan on Mondaycalled for the launch of aSwat-like offensive inKarachi to wipe out terrorists.

Addressing a press con-ference here, JAP PresidentAllama Abbas Kumaili saidthe recent acts of terrorismwere aimed at postponing thegeneral elections.

He was of the view thatAbbas Town bombings,Chishtia Masjid blast and Jo-seph Town violence are theresult of same mindset.—INP

WHILE daily dialysis can boost theoverall health of kidney diseasepa tients, it also can put them at

higher risk for certain complications, anew study finds. About 2 million peopleworldwide receive dialysis treatments. Indialysis, patients use amachine to artificially dowhat healthy kidneysshould: eliminate wasteand unwanted water fromthe blood. Standard dialy-sis involves three treat-ments a week, while fre-quent dialysis involvestreatment once each day,HealthDay News Re-ported.

Of course, frequentdialysis requires access-ing the blood more often,which typically is doneusing a long-lasting punc-ture site through whichblood can be removedand returned. Having theblood cleansed more fre-quently does typically improve patients’health and quality of life. It wasn’t known,however, whether these patients alsohad any higher risk for complications re-lated to repeated use of the blood-ac-cess site. In this study, researchers ledby Dr. Rita Suri, of Western Universityand Lawson Health Research Institutein London, Canada, conducted two 12-month clinical trials involving 245 pa-tients. The patients were randomly se-lected to receive either in-center daily di-alysis (six days a week) or standard di-alysis (three days per week). Another 87patients received either frequent home-

Dialysis has both risksand benefits

based dialysis or standard dialysis. Inthe first hospital-based trial, 31 percentof the 245 patients had to undergo re-pair of the blood-access site, lost useof the site or were hospitalized due toproblems with the site. Complication

rates were higher amongthe frequent-dialysisgroup: There were 33 re-pairs and 15 losses in thefrequent-dialysis groupcompared with 17 repairs,11 losses and one hospi-talization in the standard-dialysis group.

Overall, the risk for aproblem with the blood-access site was 76 percenthigher in the frequent-di-alysis group than in thestandard-dialysis group,the researchers reported.Similar trends were seen inthe home-based trial, butthe results were not statis-tically significant, accord-ing to the study results,

which were published online Feb. 7 inthe Journal of the American Society ofNephrology.

The findings are the first to showthat frequent dialysis may have poten-tially harmful effects on the blood-ac-cess site, and provide valuable infor-mation for dialysis patients and theirdoctors, Suri said in a journal news re-lease. “Frequent dialysis has been anarea of intense interest since the publi-cation in 2010 of a study from the Fre-quent Hemodialysis Network (FHN)that found a reduced rate of death andother events.

LAHORE: Activists of Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights holding a protestagainst Saturday ransacking of Joseph Colony at Faisal Chowk.

LAHORE: Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif presiding over last meeting of the tenure of Punjab Cabinet.

THE importance of education is obvious fromthe fact that no coun-

try can progress in any fieldwithout giving the develop-ment of knowledge its dueimportance. Owing to thefact, revolutionary changeshave been brought in thefield of education by themodern world over theyears. The positive effectsof some of these develop-ments have reached Paki-stan as well. On the road toprosperity and develop-ment, Pakistan has adaptedseveral of these new prac-tices for the wider spread ofliteracy. The foundation ofVirtual University is the re-sult of such new develop-ments.

Virtual University ischartered by the FederalGovernment of Pakistanwith its degrees which arerecognized within Pakistanas well as abroad. The Uni-

versity has given a completenew direction to the localeducation system by effec-tively using Information &Communication Technolo-gies (ICT). The main objectbehind its establishment wasto spread the same quality ofeducation across Pakistan.An interesting feature of theUniversity is that through theuse of modern ICT i.e. its ownsatellite television network,web portals and DVDs, stu-dents have access to worldclass educational materialround the clock despite theirgeographical locations. TheUniversity has about 200campuses with presence inover 110 cities of Pakistan,and establishing campusesin each district headquarteris part of the future expan-sion plan to increase its out-reach.

The faculty involved insupervising and mentoringthe students at Virtual Uni-

versity has been trained atthe best local and interna-tional universities. The Uni-versity has also signedMOUs with several foreignuniversities in order to fur-ther extend the students’ ac-cess to quality education atevery level.

The University has es-tablished a Quality En-hancement Cell (QEC) in or-der to ensure the quality andstandards of education de-livered to its students. It hasdeveloped its own webbased application; LearningManagement System (LMS)to provide seamless accessto course material, lecturesand discussions with fellowstudents and the teachers.

Virtual University hasbeen acknowledged as an iconof high quality education ataffordable cost with maximumconvenience amongst the stu-dents and their parents. As aresult, size of the student body

is continuously increasing. Atpresent over 100,000 studentsare registered for different aca-demic programs with the Uni-versity. They are makingprogress in their chosen disci-plines and putting their stampof approval on this form of edu-cation system.

The University aims totake the light of knowledgeto each and every householdin Pakistan.

Recognizing the tremen-dous efforts of Virtual Univer-sity in developing world classopen education resources,the “Open Course WareConsortium” has awarded its“2012 Outstanding New SiteAward” to the Open CourseWare (OCW) website. Bypublishing its courses free ofcharge, complete with videolectures, assignments andsolution on its OCW website,VU now stands amongst theselected group of premier uni-versities of the world.

Virtual University completely based on modern technology!The University encour-

ages the bright students bygranting Merit Scholarshipsand also addresses the fi-nancial hardship throughNeed Based Scholarships.

The practice of holdingconvocation for graduatingstudents of the Universityis also catching root. Re-cently the University heldits third convocation in fivedifferent ceremonies andfive different cities to facili-tate the graduates of theirrespective areas. The de-grees, medals and certifi-cates of merit were awardedto the successful candidatesat the convocation.

Virtual University reaf-firms its commitment tokeep introducing new tech-nology for the spread ofeducation in an attempt tospeed up the process of de-velopment and prosperity inPakistan.

—Anjum Iqbal

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—“Help the Help-less”, the annual fund-rais-ing and awareness campaign,Monday began at the Gov-ernment College UniversityLahore.

Vice Chancellor Prof DrMuhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman chaired grand open-ing of the fund-raising driveat the university’s BukhariAuditorium, while GCU En-dowment Fund Trust Secre-tary Dr Khalid Manzoor wasalso present.

The two-week cam-paign, initiated by the GCUWelfare Society in collabo-ration with the EndowmentFund Trust is aimed at rais-ing awareness among thewell-off old Ravians and stu-dents about the importanceof helping deserving stu-dents and collecting fundsfor them.

Addressing the stu-dents, Vice Chancellor ProfRahman said universitieswere not only meant for mak-ing students scholars, sci-entists and engineers, butalso for making them good

GCUs awareness drive takes offhumans who cared for oth-ers.

He appreciated the cam-paign, saying that the ‘haves’had a responsibility towards‘have-nots’ about whichthey at least be aware of.“People should realize thathelping a student meanschanging the life of a whole

family,” he added.The Vice Chancellor also

called on philanthropists, in-dustrialists, businessmenand old Ravians to come for-ward and help the universityin the noble cause, so thatthe bright students can con-tinue their studies withoutmental stress.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif on Mondaysaid the burning of housesof Christians was a worst ex-ample of barbarism and ele-ments involved in it would beawarded exemplary punish-ment.

Presiding over a meetingat the Chief Minister’s Houseto review the situation afterthe Badami Bagh tragedy, theCM said the torching ofChristian houses was, in noway, a service to Pakistan orIslam. He said Islam teachestolerance and respect toother religions.

He said maltreating the

Islam teaches tolerance, respectto other religions: Shahbaz

Christian families and theburning of their houses wereunjustified after the arrest ofthe blasphemy suspect.

The CM also reviewedrestoration work at JosephColony and said the affectedpeople would be compen-sated at all cost.

Meanwhile, Chief Minis-ter Shahbaz Sharif has saidthe PML-N would launchmore projects like the metrobus service if voted to powerafter general elections.

Talking to assembly mem-bers on Monday, he said themetro bus project was aunique gift to citizens ofLahore. “This modern meansof transport has entirely

changed decades-old cultureof public transport,” headded.

He said he had alreadydirected to import morebuses from Turkey in view ofgreat rush of travellers onmetro buses.

He said the PML-N wouldcontest upcoming electionson the basis of performanceas it had completed a recordnumber of developmentprojects during the last fiveyears. The chief minister advisedthe lawmakers to have closecontact with voters of theirrespective constituencies andtry to get their support forparty’s victory in elections.

UVAS springfestival kicks off

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—University of Vet-erinary and Animal Sciences(UVAS) Vice-Chancellor ProfDr Talat Naseer Pasha inau-gurated spring festival 2013 atthe City Campus on Monday.

The colourful eventstarted with Qiraat and NaatCompetitions in which stu-dents from various depart-ments participated. Decla-mation and drama contests,a pet show and floral com-petitions.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Leader of Paki-stan Muslim League-NHamza Shahbaz Sharif hassaid that all minorities livingin Pakistan are Pakistani andthey have equal rights overPakistan. He said that all Pa-kistanis are ashamed of suchincidents in the comity ofnations. He said that promo-tion of religious harmony andtolerance is need of the hourand it will only be possible

Hamza distributes chequesamong Badami Bagh affectees

through provision of justicewithout any discrimination.He said that our religiongives us lesson of toleranceand patience.

Hamza Shabaz said thatminorities have equal rightsto lead their life according totheir religions. He said thatPML-N does not believe inlip-service and distribution ofcheques of financial assis-tance among effectees ofBadami Bagh incident isproof of this fact that it

equally shares the grief of itsChristian brethren.

He expressed these viewswhile distributing chequesamong the effectees at TownHall. Senator, Pervaiz Rashid,MNA Pervez Malik, Provin-cial Minister Mujtaba Shujarur Rehman, MPA Malik Riaz,Senator Kamran Michael,President National Councilof Churches Pakistan, AzadMarshal and DCO LahoreNoorul Ameen Mengal werealso present on the occasion.

Dance festivalLAHORE—Rafi Peer TheatreWorkshop will arrange itssecond annual “NationalDance Festival” on Thurs-day at Rafi Peer Cultural Cen-tre.

A number of artistes willperform classic, modern, con-temporary and devotionaldance.

The festival aims to pro-vide a platform to dancers inthe country. —APP

AKF providesemergency relief

to victimsSTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—UK based charityorganization Al-Khair Foun-dation (AKF) having its headoffice in Lahore, has startedproviding emergency reliefto the Christian Communityof Joseph Town, BadamiBagh area. This was statedby Mr. Tahir Begg, a trusteeof AKF in a statement issuedfrom Lahore.

Mr. Begg said that AKFstands with the Christian’sbrothers and sister in theirsorrow and grief. It hasstarted providing cookedmeals, shelter, beds andclean drinking water to thehomeless people in the area.It is also providing cordonedmilk and biscuits to the chil-dren. AKF team has rushedto the area to take care of theimmediate needs of the vic-tims and is ready andequipped to put the commu-nity in the area back on itsfeet.

He added that, what hashappened in Joseph town istotally unacceptable and thatfrom number of commands ofour holy prophet it is evidentthat protecting ones neighboris a Muslim’s major responsi-bility. He thanked the donorsof AKF and reiterated that un-der the guidance of AKF’sfounder and CEO Imam Qasim,it will keep working for all thecommunities around the world.