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KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari, Sindh Governor Ishratul Ebad and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah unveiling theplaque to inaugurate the residential plots of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Town at CM House. (Story on Back Page)

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LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—With loomingdangers, the Gabd Zero Pointin Iran is a site in the desertwhich has rekindled hopes ofthe region for greater coopera-tion as has been witnessing inother parts of the globe in theform of ASEAN, OAU, SouthAmerican Bloc and top of allEuropean Union (EU).

Unfortunately, in SouthAsia, SAARC could not takeoff due to deep rooted conflicts

between two major nations —Pakistan and India.

Amidst threats almost flow-ing daily from Washington ask-ing Pakistan to break off from theproject or face sanctions, the en-tire PPPP leadership under theleadership of President Asif AliZardari was watching thegroundbreaking ceremony atGabd on Monday afternoon af-ter travelling from Islamabad.

Critics of the Governmentmay say it an “election gim-mick,” but it is a fact the execu-

tive operation for construction ofpipeline is a leap forward whichis not easy to reverse by any com-ing government as it will changethe fundamentals of the regionand provide a strong base for en-ergy security of the country.

The atmosphere in the cer-emony was relaxed, particularlyPPP leadership was cheerful asthis achievement will be an im-portant tool for election cam-paign. The body language of boththe sides was positive. IranianPresident Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad, who is bravingimmense pressure from the USon his country’s nuclearprogramme, was determined topush the project to its logicalconclusion.

However, the increasingpressure from the US on anyweak government, as some dip-lomats put it, can change thesituation. The US is pushing onTAPI gas pipeline project andhinting to help Islamabad withsome “safe energy projects”.

Walking on a tightrope

IP gas pipeline to change fundamentals of region

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US threatens sanctionsagainst Pak over IP pipeline

Washington also stresses partnershipWASHINGTON—The UnitedStates threatened sanctionsagainst Pakistan as it pressedahead with a gas pipeline projectwith Iran.

“As I said, if this project ac-tually goes forward, we have se-rious concerns that sanctions willbe triggered,” State Departmentspokeswoman Victoria Nulandtold reporters at a regular newsbriefing.

“We’ve been straight up withthe Pakistanis about these con-cerns,” she said. DespiteWashington’s strong opposition,Iran’s President MahmoudAhmadinejad and his Pakistani

counterpart Asif Ali Zardaristarted on Monday the 7.5-bil-lion-U.S.-dollar project in Iran’s southeastern city of Chabahar,as Ahmadinejad said the West“has no right to obstruct” theproject which will link Iran’s gaspipeline to that of Pakistan.

Washington and its allies ex-panded their sanctions last yearto target Iran’s oil exports in theirefforts to force Tehran to stop itsuranium enrichment activities,which are suspected of beingused to make nuclear weapons.

“As we’ve talked about herebefore, what the legislation callsfor is for our partner countries

to be making a concerted effortto reduce their dependence onIranian oil over time so we areable to waive sanctions as wesee reductions being made,”Nuland said.

Victoria Nauland said“we’ve heard this pipeline an-nounced about 10 or 15 timesbefore in the past. So we have tosee what actually happens. TheUnited States had been seekingalternative plans, saying themove with Iran would take it inthe wrong direction right at a timethat we’re trying to work withPakistan on better, more reliable

India’scruise missile‘Nirbhay’ fiascoBALASORE—The maiden testflight of India’s indigenouslydeveloped medium range sub-sonic cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’was terminated midway after itdeviated from its flight pathand failed to hit the target.

Importantly, the DRDOhas claimed that the missionobjectives have been met,although complete rangecapability could not beachieved.

Nirbhay was launchedMonday at 11:50 am onTuesday from the IntegratedTest Range at Chandipur nearhere in Balasore.

After a successful lift-off,the mission was terminatedwhen it was observed that themissile had deviated from theflight path and won’t hit theintended target. The step wastaken to ensure coastal safety,reports said.

IHC contemptnotice to PMSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—IslamabadHigh Court (IHC) on Tuesdayissued a contempt notice toPrime Minister Raja PervaizAshraf over failure toimplement court’s order forimplementation on recommen-dations of the Public ServiceCommission.

The petition filed bySuperintendent Engineer ofPWD Zohair Khalid adoptedthe stance that on February 9,2011, the chairman of centralselection board RanaBghagwan Das had proposedto promote Zohair Khalid tograde 20 as Chief Engineer butthe Prime Minister did not signthe summary.

IHC’s then chief JusticeIqbal Hamid-ur-Rehman onJune 24, 2011 also issuedorder for implementation of

TARIQ SAEED

PESHAWAR—Parts of KhyberPakhtunkhwa were rocked bythree explosions leaving at leastfour people dead and more thantwo dozen others including Po-licemen seriously wounded onTuesday. A man in uniform isalso included among the dead.

One of the explosions oc-curred near the house of Provin-cial Information Minister MianIftikhar in Noshehra district leav-ing seven people woundedthough Mian Iftikhar and hisfamily members remained un-hurt.

In a major blast, unknownmiscreants targeted a Police vanin Bannu district that resulted inkilling as many as three peopleand seriously wounding 20 oth-

4 killed, 25 injuredin three blasts in KP

Mian Iftikhar unhurt in blast near his houseers. A number of cops, as the re-ports reaching here said, are in-cluded among the injured.

“The incident took placewhen a police van came undersuicide attack near Saddar PoliceStation in Bannu leaving at leastthree people dead and eighteenother people wounded. The po-lice van was completely damagedas a result of the explosion thatcreated panic and harassment inthe area”. Police officials said.Some reports said a couple ofpolice men were among the dead.

The injured were rushed tothe nearby hospital by the rescueworkers as the security forcescordoned off the area. The areawas also reportedly reverberatedwith heavy firing after the explo-

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Governor ruleextension likelyin Balochistan

QUETTA —The governor rule islikely to be extended inBlochistan as the Chief MinisterNawab Aslam Raisani has de-clined to step down.

According to media reports,the situation in the provincestands all the more complicatedas the chief minister is not will-ing to dissolve the assembly be-fore the stipulated time.

The parliamentarians hailingfrom the province sat withKhurshid Shah in the chair in thefederal capital but to no avail, asthe members demanded Raisanito resign from his office; but hebristled at their demand.

The sources said Raisani in-sisted Balochistan assembly to gocomplete length of its term, say-ing he will not move any adviceto the governor for the dissolu-tion of assembly prior to April 6.

Senators decryECP for electoral

reformsISLAMABAD—The membersof Senate on Tuesday criticisedthe observations of the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP)about the authority of the headof state regarding its proposedelectoral reforms for conduct offree, fair and transparent elec-tions.

Senator Saeed Ghani of thePPP moved an adjournmentmotion against the statement bythe ECP which said that the ECPhad sole authority for framinglaws for holding free, fair andtransparent elections and that theapproval by the president in thisregard was a formality.

Senator Ghani claimed thatthe ECP was violating its con-stitutional limits under pressurefrom a section of the media. Hesaid that the ECP was takingdecisions for which it had nopowers.

Referring to a press releaseissued by the ECP, SenatorGhani said that it had been statedthat the ECP had powers to takeall necessary steps under Article218/3 of the Constitution andthat there was no need to seekan approval from the president.

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New elections onMay 8: Wassan

KARACHI—Provincial Ministerfor Jails, Minerals and NaturalResources, Manzoor Wassan hasmaintained that assemblies willbe dissolved on March 16 and thenew elections would be held onMay 08.

He expressed these viewswhile addressing a public gath-ering in Khairpur district here onTuesday. He said that agreementsregarding Gwadar Port and Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline are of in-ternational importance in nature.

PM approves policy ofunhindered funds release

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf has grantedhis approval to a policy of get-ting funds released from thenational exchequer without anyhindrance on Tuesday.

It is interesting to note herethat the above policy has beenapproved at a time when the

incumbent government is onlyfour days away from its dissolu-tion. Under the policy, no onewill be able to raise any objec-tions to the funds’ withdrawal,not even the Auditor General.

Now no matter how big theamount of the funds, the FinanceMinistry can get them releasedwithout facing any hurdles. Itmay be mentioned here that the

Auditor General had objected tothe additional funds being madeavailable at the disposal of theParliamentarians and blockedrelease of funds amounting toRs5 billion to them.

According to the AuditorGeneral, no consultation wasmade on the proposed policybefore the prime minister’s ap-proval.

EU reaffirms commitment with PakBRUSSELS—The EuropeanUnion (EU) foreign leaders metin Brussels last night to adoptfirm commitments on a “deep-ening and widening relation withPakistan.”

The EU Foreign Affairscouncil chaired by High Repre-

sentative for Foreign Affairs andSecurity Policy, CatherineAshton, welcomed the forthcom-ing elections in Pakistan and of-fered to support the democraticprocess by deploying an electionobservation mission. CatherineAshton has been instrumental in

spearheading EU-Pakistan rela-tions and travelled to Pakistanlast year to launch the ‘EU-Paki-stan 5-Year Engagement Plan’.

The 5 year plan focuses onpromoting regular strategic dia-logue and sectoral cooperation in

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Sindh caretakersetup on FridaylikelySTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Sindh ChiefMinister Syed Qaim Ali Shahand opposition leader havestarted consultations for theformation of the caretakergovernment in the province,media reported Tuesday.

Media quoting sourcessaid that CM Shah andGovernor Sindh Dr Ishrat UlEbad Khan met thrice during12 hours, after which the chiefminister Shah sought theopposition leader in Sindhassembly Syed Sardar Ahmedto hand him names for thecaretaker chief minister.

There are reports that thenew dispensation is expectedto consist of ten ministers andtwo advisers, of which sixministries may go toMuttahida Quami Movement(MQM) and remaining four to

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SC asks ECP toexercise powersElections to be held as per new nomination form: ECISLAMABAD—Supreme Courthas maintained in its interim or-der that Election Commission(EC) wields powers to introduceamendment in nomination formson its own.

The SC has also sought de-tails about amendments made byEC in nomination forms within24 hours.

A 3-member bench of SC ledby Chief Justice of PakistanIftikhar Mohammad Chaudhrytook up electoral reforms case forhearing here Tuesday and issuedthe interim order. During thecourse of hearing of the case an

important note was presented bySC registrar. The note said thatdifferences prevailed betweengovernment and EC on newnomination forms and the situa-tion is worsening in this connec-tion. Law ministry is showingslackness deliberately in accord-ing approval to these amend-ments while EC is working inconsonance with its powers. ECis working in the light of apexcourt verdict and law ministry iscreating hurdles in its work.

The court took notice of itand inquired from Attorney Gen-eral “why is the federation not

cooperating with the EC?. “Su-preme Court has issued directivesin connection with upcomingpolls. This decision is publicproperty. We know how to safe-guard the constitution. Are themembers of provincial electioncommission so weak that theycannot get implement constitu-tion. Is any dispute going on withregard to implementation ofcourt’s orders. EC should exer-cise its powers to hold electionsin transparent manner”.

Munir Paracha said EC whileexercising its powers has sent the

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Dead body of5th class

student foundSHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Adead body of a twelve-yearold boy Nadeem was foundin premises of Health Centre,Dhoke Kasib, in the jurisdic-tion of Police Station Sadararea yesterday. Nadeem wasa student of fifth class. Ac-cording to details Nadeem atevening time went out of thehouse to play but did notcome back till late night. Hisparents and relatives startedsearch and found the deadbody of their son in the com-pound of local hospital. Oninformation, police reachedthe spot and moved the deadbody to DHQ Hospital, MandiBahauddin, for autopsy. Po-lice told cause of death asstrangulation after subjectingthe boy to sodomy.

****The District Bar Associa-

tion members observed acomplete strike on Tuesdayto express solidarity and sup-port with Christians of JosefColony, Lahore. They con-demned Punjab governmentremaining silent when thehouses of Christians weretorched and looted. The gov-ernment has failed to ensureprotection of rights of the citi-zens; they further added anddemanded of the governmentto make the loss good suf-fered by Christian brothers.

Electricitypilferers fined

MULTAN—Monitoring andSurveillance department ofMultan Electric Power Com-pany (Mepco) imposed fineof Rs 3.5 million on 132 powerpilferers in February last. Ac-cording to a press release, theteams raided at various Sub-Division of Multan, Sahiwaland Rahim Yar Khan Mepcocircles and detected 132 casesof power pilferage and Rs 3.5million on the pilferers.

Peshawar: KhyberPakhtunkhwa Minister forTechnical Education & Min-eral Development NawabzadaMahmood Zeb has said thatinstallation of high powertransformer at Chakdara GridStation and arrangement ofsubstitute feeder at Sadu GridStation in Dir Lower wouldresolve electricity problems.

Talking to various delega-tions of his native constituencyhere at his office Tuesday, Pro-vincial Minister said that powerprojects were results of the ef-forts of Senator Ahmed HassanKhan. He said that theseprojects would help resolve theproblems of low power voltagein Dir Lower and Talash area inChakdara.—APP

ISLAMABAD—Mainly dryweather with partly cloudyconditions is expected inmost parts of the countryduring next 24 hours. Metoffice expects a fresh west-ern disturbance may affectwestern parts of Balochistantonight and likely to grip up-per parts of the country onTuesday. In KhyberPakhtunkhwa, mainly dryweather with partly cloudyconditions is expected inmost parts of the province,however light rain is ex-pected at isolated places ofMalakand division duringnext 24 hours.

While in Sindh, mainly dryweather is expected in mostparts of the province duringnext 24 hours whereas inBalochistan mainly dryweather is expected in mostparts of the province. How-ever light rain-thunderstorm isexpected at isolated places ofQuetta division during thenext 24 hours. In Kashmir andin Gilgit-Baltistan partlycloudy weather condition isexpected during next 24hours. KP Provincial Met of-fice has forecast showers inmost parts of the province onWednesday that would bringdown the mercury and bringpleasant change in theweather.

The rising temperature inthe month of March hasstarted early summers in theprovince as people startedswitching on fans and wear-ing light outfits to cope withthe warm weather. Talking toAPP here on Tuesday, offi-cial of the Provincial Met Of-fice said that heavy showerswere expected in northern

parts of the province onWednesday while sporadicrain was also expected inplain areas.

Giving details of the tem-perature in different parts ofthe province, he said that themaximum temperature re-

corded in Peshawar was 29degree centigrade on Tues-day while the minimum tem-perature remained 13. Like-wise, 27 degree centigradewas recorded in Taimargara,10 in Parachinar, 29 in Bannu,27 in Risalpur, 25 in SaiduSharif, 26 in Balakot, 19 eachin Chirat and Chitral, 31 inD.I.Khan and 13 in MalamJabba. Partly cloudy weatherwith chances of light rain/drizzle has been forecast forWednesday in the metropo-lis, said a weather report onTuesday.

According to met officereport, the minimum tempera-ture is expected to remain inthe range of 15 to 17 degreecelsius. It said rain/ thunder-storm is likely to occur at iso-lated places in Makran, Zhob,Sibi, Nasirabad, Kalat, Quettadivision of Balochistan andSukkur, Larkana divisions ofSindh. Light rain/ drizzle mayalso occur in Karachi,Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas divi-sions of Sindh and dryweather expected elsewherein the region, said a weatherreport.—APP

IS L A M A B A D —Pakis tan’sAmbassador in JapanFarukh Amil on Tuesdaythanked Japan for helpingPakistan in its developmentwithout strings andTokyo’s assistance in its in-frastructure projects was ofimmense help. The envoystated this during a meetingwith Tadakazu Kimura,President and Chief Execu-tive Officer of leading Japa-nese newspaper Asahi

Shimbun, which has a dailycirculation of nearly 8 mil-lion.

Farukh Amil said that Ja-pan with its Asian valuestreated Pakistan with re-spect and dignity. Japaneseassistance during calamitieswas also greatly appreciatedby the people of Pakistan,said a news release of theembassy received here.They exchanged views onmatters of mutual interest.

The Ambassador briefedKimura on the democraticprocess in Pakistan notingthat for the first time in itshistory, a democraticallyelected government wouldbe completing its five-yeartenure and handing over tothe next democraticallyelected government.

He underlined the needfor Japanese industries tomaintain their brand recog-nition and consumer loyalty

and accordingly make in-vestments in Pakistan forthe new generation. Kimuraenquired about Ms. MalalaYousufzai highlighting thatshe was loved in Japan.The Ambassador said thatMs. Malala was a braveyoung girl, a symbol ofcourage and an articulatevoice for girls education.The children of Pakistan,like in all countries, were thenation’s future.—APP

Pak lauds Japan’s upliftassistance sans strings

Light rain likely in Karachi

Dry, cloudyweather elsewhere

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan has avariety of products to offer tovisitors from all over the worldand PTDC was offering tour-ism services for foreign andPakistani tourists through itsTourist Information Centres.An official of Tourism Devel-opment Corporation (PTDC)while talking to this agencysaid that, Pakistan traces itshistory back to 2,500 yearsBC, when a highly developedcivilization flourished in theIndus Valley.

Excavations at Harappa,Moenjodaro, Kot Diji andMehrgarh have brought tolight, the evidence of an ad-vanced civilization existingeven in more ancient times.Mountains, white water sports,hiking areas in Pakistan are idealfor adventure tourists, valleys,

deserts, beaches for nature lov-ers, Buddhist heritage sites ofGandhara, Sikh sacred shrines,Hindu holy temples, Indus Val-ley civilization sites are best-suited for pilgrims, scholars andstudents.

Cosmopolitan cities ofKarachi, Lahore andRawalpindi/ Islamabad offer anattractive culture, heritage,modernity and countlessshopping opportunities. Inter-national, regional and tradi-tional sporting and culturalevents are another attraction.Pakistan’s Himalayan hill sta-tions of Murree, Bhurban,Patriata, Ayubia andNathiagali are a delightful sum-mer retreats. He said Pakistanwas already providing visa onarrival facility to tourist groupsfrom 24 countries.—APP

Rs 180m for Totakan-Maikhband project approvedRattodero-Gwadar Motorway work in progress

US mission teamvisits GCUF

OUR CORRESPONDENT

FAISALABAD—A two-mem-ber team of US EmbassyIslamabad headed by Infor-mation Resource OfficerCaryn Anderson visited theGC University Faisalabadand called on GCUF ViceChancellor Prof Dr ZakirHussain on Tuesday. Theydiscussed in length aboutestablishment of LincolnCoroner Faisalabad at theUniversity’s newly-build Li-brary.

The corner will consistof books of arts and culture,agriculture, science andtechnology, literature, biog-raphies and other valuablereading material, electroniclibrary and video confer-ence.

Prof Dr Zakir Husain saidthat the university was com-mitted to promoting the cul-ture of book reading amongthe youngsters. Keeping inview, the university has setup Allama Iqbal, Faiz AhmadFaiz, Sultan Bahu andGhalib’s corners at its mainlibrary after renovation. Hesaid that university hasemerged sixth best universityof the country in the rankingof Higher Education Com-mission. He said that twoyear ago the university wasbearing the deficit of 150 mil-lion but now we are havingaround 500 million surplusbudget.

Caryn Anderson said thatthe establishment of LincolnCorner at GCUF would pavethe ways to enhance the tiesand information sharingabout modern knowledge.Prof Dr Tahir briefed CarynAnderson about the curricu-lum activities of the varsities.The delegation also visitedthe site of corner near Emerg-ing Science Block.

BANNU: Central Senior Vice President PML-N Amir Muqam, PLM-N KP President Pir Sabir Shah and others sit onstage during PML-N Workers Convention.

MULTAN: President of Nizam-e-Mustafa Party and former Minister Haji MuhammadHaneef Tayyab addressing Press conference.

ISLAMABAD—President AsifAli Zardari has repeated thehistory set by Zulfikar AliBhutto by inaugurating Pak-Iran gas pipeline project, saidAzad Jammu and Kashmir(AJK) Prime Minister Ch.Abdul Majeed on Tuesday.Addressing a press confer-ence here, he said the wayZulfikar Bhutto united thewhole Muslim Ummah andmade Pakistan a nuclearpower, President Asif AliZardari is in the same way andafter this decision he emergedas a great leader of not onlyPakistan but also of the en-tire Muslim Ummah.

He said the $ 1.5 billionproject would complete in 15months and also help to con-tribute 2000 Mega Watt energyin the national grid. Majeedsaid the government of Paki-stan Peoples Party (PPP), byadopting the reconciliationpolicy, had not only developcordial relations with neigh-bors but also with the west.

“The people of AzadJammu and Kashmir (AJK)pay rich tributes to PresidentZardari, Prime Minister RajaPervaiz Ashraf, BilawalBhutto Zardari, Faryal Talpurand Parliament on the deci-sion,” Majeed Added. He said

that the education and Healthsectors would be on priorityfor investment of grant of Rs.20 billion to AJK issued byPakistan government.

He appreciated thestance of Pakistani leader-ship on Kashmir issue anddemanded that the body ofAfzal Guru should be handedover to the state. The hand-ing over of Gawadar Port toChina and gas pipelineproject with Iran would ushera new era of development inthe country, the AJK premieradded. The masses of AJKwould fully support the Pa-kistan Peoples Party in future

as well, he concluded.Meanwhile advisor to the

Prime Minister Dr MirzaIkhtiar Baig has said that thePakistan-Iran gas pipeline willplay a pivotal role to revivethe country’s economy andindustrial activities. Talking toPakistan Television, Baig saidthat the gas pipeline agree-ment between Pakistan andIran was considered a mile-stone in the history of boththe nations, as it would be afirst step towards regionalcooperation and integration.

He said that the pipelineagreement between the twocountries would meet about

40% of energy need of thecountry. Replying to a ques-tion, he said that the Pak-Irangas pipeline would be com-pleted at a cost of $1.3 billionwithin 15 months, financedby Iran and from other re-sources. He said that afterthe gas supply from Iran, thecountry’s industrial sectorwould get boom and new in-vestment would also come in.It would also create job op-portunities and increase thecountry’s exports. Replyingto another question, Mirzasaid that President Asif AliZardari was interested intrade.—APP

Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline projectheightens Zardari image: PM AJK

ISLAMABAD—National High-way Authority (NHA) is build-ing Rattodero-GwadarMotorway (M-8) in six pack-ages. According to a NHA offi-cial, 60 per cent work on the 54km Gwadar-Dasht had beencompleted while 64 pc work onthe 63 km Dasht-Turbat sec-tion had also been completed.About 60 pc work on the 76 kmTurbat-Hosbab section hadbeen completed while on 50 kmKhori-Wangu Hills 65 work hadbeen completed, he added.

Talking to APP the offi-cial said that on 43 km WanguHills portion, about 80 pcwork had been completedwhereas on the 56 km WanguHills-Quba Saeed Khan por-tion nearly 80 pc work had

been completed. However,the official said that work onall the six packages had beendelayed because of variousreasons, including law andorder situation, major in-crease in scope of workbased on lessons learnt aftercyclones and flash floods of2005, 2007 and 2010.

He said that a separatePC-I of Rs 1 billion was pre-pared for provision of fool-proof security coverage onM-8 related projects throughcreation of a dedicated wingof FC. The prime minister hadalso approved mobilization ofFrontier Works Organizationon Gwadar-Dasht-Turbat-Hoshab (M-8) for completionof balance work with an ap-

propriate security package.Peshawar: Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Minister forFinance and Provincial Gen-eral Secretary of PPP EngrMuhammad Humayun Khanhas inaugurated expansionwork on eight kilometres longroad linking Totakan-Maikhband areas in PK 99Malakand that would cost180 million rupees. Totakan-Maikhband road was com-pleted in 2010 at a cost of 40million rupees and due torush of traffic on the roadProvincial Minister approvedadditional grants and initi-ated expansion work on it.

The development projectwas of immense significancefor the area and its expansion

has facilitated communicationin the area and provided easymarket access to the local farm-ers. Speaking on the occasion,Provincial Minister said thatdespite hostile security situa-tions and a number of internaland external challenges devel-opmental projects were nothalted in PK 99 Malakand.

He said that instead ofinitiating uplift projects in aspecific area, he preferreduniform development of thearea and therefore took carethat uplift projects werestarted in backward areas ofMalakand Division. Elders ofthe area appreciated effortsof the provincial minister foruniform development of thearea.—APP

Pak has variety of productsto offer to visitors

Govt resolve teachers issuesStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—Khyber PakhtunkhwaMinister for Education Sardar HussainBabak on Tuesday asserted that ANP-led provincial government has resolvedall the issues of teachers community onpriority basis. Addressing a farewellevent, organised by CT Teachers of dis-trict Swabi for the Minister, he askedteachers to honestly perform their du-ties and restore the trust of children ingovernment educational institutions.

Babak said that he had received his early education fromgovernment institution and very well knew their issues,adding the ANP took various measures for the uplift ofteachers. He said various educational institutions weredestroyed by terrorists but no religious political party con-demned these attacks. The Pakhtun nation and ANP work-ers and leaders demonstrated unity among their ranks andwipe out terrorism, he remarked. He said during the lastfive years, ANP government took unprecedented revolu-tionary measures for the welfare of teachers and redressalof their grievances. Speaking on the occasion, the provin-cial leaders of All CT Teachers’ Association lauded therole of provincial education minister for welfare of teach-ers and redressal of their issues on priority basis. Earlier,addressing a gathering of his constituency PK-12 here,Mian Iftikhar Information Minister said entire political lead-ership of the country agreed to initiating dialogues withthe militants in order to steer the country out of the presentmess. He said that the ANP had practically proved duringits five years in the government that it believed in doingpolitics with honor and dignity.

JI for district level seat adjustmentMULTAN—District Ameer Jamat-e-Islami Asif Mehmood Akhwani saidthat JI would not make alliance withany political party but make seat ad-justment at district level during upcom-ing elections. He was talking to formerminister and PTI leader SikandarBossan during his visit to JI officeKalma Chowk here. JI leader claimedthat JI would play important role in nextgovernment. Former minister Sikandar

Hayat Bossan appreciated the services of JI for promo-tion of Islamic values in the country and pro-countrypolitics. On this occasion former president DBA HafizAllah Dittah Kashif, Kanwar Mohammad Siddique andothers were also present. It is reported from Lahore thatJamaat Islami Punjab Ameer Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar vis-ited the Christian locality in Badami Bagh, torched by aviolent mob on Saturday last, and expressed solidaritywith the affected people. JI ex-MPA from the area ChShoukat, JI Punjab secretary general Nazeer Janjua andsecretary information Farooq Chouhan were also accom-panied him. They inpected the burnt houses and campsset up for the affected families. Talking to the media onthe occasion, Waseem Akhtar said that according to Is-lamic teachings, torching of a Church or any other placeof worship, or any revealed book including the Bible wasan unpardonable crime. He said, that the responsibilityof the incident goes to Punjab government that failed toprotect the residents of the Joseph colony. He said theChristian minority in Pakistan was as patriotic as the otherPakistanis and had been playing a major role in the na-tional development.—APP

KPOGCL landmark achievementStaff Reporter

PESHAWAR—Chief Minister KhyberPakhtunkhwa Amir Haider Khan Hotihas said that the establishment ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil & Gas Com-pany limited (KPOGCL) is a landmarkachievement of the present KP govern-ment, and it will pave the ways for theprogress and prosperity of the province.This he said while chairing the inaugu-ral meeting of the Boards of Directorsof KPOGCL in Peshawar. In his address

the Chief Minister who is the Chairman of the Board also,said that the establishment of KPOGCL was a mile stonereached by the incumbent provincial government addingthat it will help make the province self sufficient in theproduction of Oil and Gas and as such overcome the acuteshortage of energy not only in the province but in thecountry as well. Secretary Energy and Power gave a detailpresentation on the background, vision, objectives, orga-nization structure, business plane, accusation of humanresource for the company and other important matters.The meeting unanimously approved the constitution ofhuman resource committee, technical committee, audit com-mittee and finance committee for the company. It decidedthat member of these committees will be from among theboard of directors of the company. The meeting, besidesthe financial matter of the company, discussed in detailmatters related to the appointment of chief executive of-ficer, executive directors, secretary and other staff of thecompany, its registration with Pakistan Petroleum Explora-tion and Production Companies Association and other is-sues. The meeting unanimously decided to empower thetechnical committee of the company in the eternal man-agement to ensure the batter performance of the company.

Anti-graft action urgedSWAT—Central Chairman of QoumiWatan Party (QWP) and former InteriorMinister, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpaosaid that people should initiate account-ability of corrupt elements by using rightof vote and unite for the success of truerepresentatives of Pakhtun nation. Ad-dressing a public meeting here at resi-dence of former Senator, Kamran Khan,he said that if voted into power QWPwould make concerted efforts for estab-

lishment of peace in the area. He said that priority wouldbe given to the progress and development of Swat with afocus to address sense of deprivation of area people. Hesaid that conspiracies are being hatched to influence suc-cessful holding of electoral process adding a movementwould be launched if elections were delayed. He high-lighted the sacrifices of security forces and people in res-toration of peace in Swat valley and said role of ANP inthis regard is insignificant. The meeting was also addressedby Provincial General Secretary QWP, Bakht Baidar Khan,Deputy Provincial General Secretary, Fazal Rehman Nonoand local party leaders. Meanwhil, it is eported that repre-sentative of Christian community in Khyber PakhtunkhwaAssembly, Asif Bhati staged a walk out of assembly’s pro-ceeding over tragic Badami Bagh Lahore incident. Earlier,while going out of the hall, MPA Asif Bhatti also spoke ona point of order and strongly condemned the incident ofburning of houses of Christians in the incident. Asif Bhatisaid some unscrupulous elements are bent upon driving awedge between all the communities living peacefully inPakistan. He also criticized Punjab government in remain-ing unsuccessful to stop the rampage caused by a mob. InPunjab Christians are suffering at the hands of extremistelements and Punjab government is not taking proper mea-sures for giving protection to minorities, he alleged.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

RAWALPINDI—Equal accessto all means of education isthe fundamental right of ev-ery child which helps thepoor and ‘have-nots’ tobreak socio-economic barri-ers and reach-out to new op-portunities in life. Qualityeducation system is an im-portant precondition to theeradication of poverty as ittrains best managers to runthe economy and otherfields of life and this, in turn,generates socio-economicgrowth.

Chairman Punjab Educa-tion Foundation, Raja Anwarstated this while delivering

his key-note address at one-day roundtable conferenceon privatization of educationin Pakistan on Monday. Theconference, organized by theSociety for Access to Qual-ity Education, was largelyattended by academicians,civil society members andintellectuals. He said that PEFmodel of public private part-nership has helped promot-ing quality education inmany ways. For partnerschools, it’s economicallybeneficial as well as useful inteachers’ training; and it is agreat source of free educa-tion for the poor studentsespecially the girls who can-not go afar on public trans-

port and their families’ archaiccultural taboos also discour-age girls’ education.

The PEF has also givenvouchers to 1,40,000 deserv-ing students to study inschools of choice. It is impor-tant to note that 52 percentof the 13 lakh PEF beneficia-ries in Punjab are girls andthe most important thing tonote is that PEF programmeshave proved equally benefi-cent for the deserving non-Muslim students. In fact, it’sa proud symbol of soft im-age of Pakistan, he main-tained. Raja said: “We alsohave a well-designed teach-ers training programme forthe low-cost private schools

and subject specialists inScience and English subjectsare also provided tostrengthen and improve thequality of education of smallscale private schools.”

Raja Anwar further saidthat besides PEF, Punjab gov-ernment has taken manyother pro-poor steps toshoulder the education of theneedy students. It has estab-lished Punjab EducationalEndowment Fund andDaanish School System tobear the burden of educa-tional expenditures of the tal-ented students enrolled inthe institutions of highereducation as well as to givefree education to the poor and

deserving students in mostcongenial atmosphere.

The steps taken duringthe last five years in Punjabhave helped and strength-ened the private sector. Thereis no doubt that public andprivate sectors are two impor-tant wheels of progress andany development processcannot be completed withoutequal participation of the pri-vate sector, he concluded.

On the occasion, seniorcivil servant and memberBOR Punjab, Dr. AllahBakhsh Malik termed PEFmodel as unique in the wholeof south asia. He commendedthe PEF approach to solvethe educational imbalance at

the grassroots and givinggratis education to the impe-cunious strata and observedthat PEF is a ray of hope forthe poor. He said that educa-tion should be treated as anumber one priority by ev-eryone and the civil societyshould come forward to lenda helping hand to the gov-ernment.

The conference was alsoaddressed by Dr. Sajid Ali,Ms. Nargis Sultana, AzizKabani, Imtiaz Jilani, Ms.Zahira Arshad and ArshadNafees Khan who stressedthe need for enhancing edu-cational budget to accommo-date the rising number of stu-dents.

BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD—The provincialgovernment was giving pri-ority to provide emergencyhealth services in the remoteareas of the province byspending millions of rupees,MNA Saira Afzal Tarar saidhere. While inaugurating thebuilding of Trauma Centrecompleted about twomonths back at a cost of Rs.54 million, she assured thatstaff and necessary equip-ments would be provided inthe centre shortly. On thisoccasion EDO Health Dr.Farooq Azam Tarar said thataccording to plan a totalsome of Rs. 180 millionwould be spent on thisproject, building has beenconstruction while sanctionof 103 doctors and paramedi-cal staff as well as requisitelab have been approved by

the Punjab Government.Prominent among those

present on the occasion in-cluded Dr. Farah MasoodDCO, Malik Fayyaz AhmadAwan Ex-MPA, who recentlyjoin PML (N), AC HafizabadSa’adia Tehreem, DO (Cord.)Noman Hafeez and all doc-tors of DHQ Hospital.Local citizens have ex-pressed their surprise whythe MNA was making hasteto inaugurate such projectswithout having any facilities.They were of the view thatthe MNA only wanted to af-fix plaque of her name inau-guration before the dissolu-tion of Assemblies.

It is worth mentioningthat due to inaugural cer-emony of the Trauma Centre,hundreds of patients in emer-gency and other wards in theDHQ Hospital suffered agreat hardship.

GUL HAMAAD FAROOQI

CHITRAL—Chitral policeand district administration onthe direction of DeputyCommissioner, Chitral,Rahmatullah Wazir and Dis-trict police officer AbdulRashid launched a crackdown against transporterswho were over charging pas-sengers travelling betweenDir and Chitral. A police partyunder supervision of Assis-tant Sub-InspectorAamaluddin of police stationDrosh, and sub-inspectorAbdul Hafeez of Traffic po-lice blockade main road atDrosh, stopping all comingvehicles from Dir side askingfrom passengers about thefare charged by transporters.

On complaints of passen-gers Police took stern action

against those who had overcharged passengers from Dirto Chitral. The transporters re-turned the over chargedmoney to the passengerswhen asked to do so by thepolice. Officially fare from Dirto Chitral has been fixed as Rs500 rupees but transporterscharge Rs 600 to 1500 fromeach passenger. Police toldthat they returned 30,000 ru-pees to passengers which wereovercharged by transportersfrom these passengers.

Social and political circlesof Chitral have highly hailedthis step by district adminis-tration and Chitral and Droshpolice against transporterswho are busy in looting poorpassengers. They demandedof the administration to forcethe transporters at Dir busstand to charge officially

fixed fare from Dir to Chitral.*****

Meanwhile, a number oftransporters have complainedof poor condition of road nearLawari tunnel. They said thatdue to dilapidated conditionof the road having big ditchesin its middle was causing greatproblems for vehicles as wellas for passengers. They can-not travel easily. A driver toldthis scribe that last year theaccess road to Lawari tunnelwas levelled and cleared by101 Engineering Battalion ofPakistan Army under super-vision of Lt Col Usman butthis year the road position isvery poor and passengershave to travel by feet becauseit is not possible for a loadedvehicle to move smoothly asthis road has been damagedby flood and rain water.

M ZAFAR ANSARI

TOBA TEK SINGH—MianKashif Ashfaq, a leader ofPakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, anda candidate for National As-sembly seat NA-93 in TobaTek Singh, has said that PTIintra-party elections will incul-cate a spirit of competitionand tolerance among thosewho had participated in theparty elections. He said thiswhile addressing a cornermeeting. He said that if thearea people gave him a chancehe would try his best to comeupto their expectation.

Mian Kashif said that think-ing of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf

leaders is totally different fromthe traditional politicians be-cause politics have becometheir family affair. He furthersaid that as PTI leaders belongto poor and middle class theyhad better knowledge of prob-lems facing the people. MianKashif said that leadership ofPTI comprises mostly ofyoung men and women andthey have great aptitude towork hard and has the passionto help resolve the problemsfaced by the common people.

He said that he wanted toserve the poor segment ofsociety. Mian Kashif said thatpeople in his constituencywere facing a lot of problems,

which were increasing day byday instead of their solution.The PTI leader said that morethan 95 percent people werefacing a lot of problems. Hesaid that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had revolutionaryagenda and would announcesteps for the solution of prob-lems of different segments ofsociety in comig days.

Talking about people, hepromised with the area peopleto open crafts schools in allunion council for women andtry to provide educational andrecreational facilities to chil-dren. Meanwhile, Ch SaeedAhmad Saeedi will contestfrom PP-90.

M HALEEM ASAD

TIMERGARA—A village de-velopment organization inDir Lower has demanded ofthe NADRA authorities toensure issuing computerizednational identity cards to resi-dents especially women ofKhazana union council. In awritten statement issued bypresident of the organizationNaushad Khan on Mondaysaid that NADRA mobile vanwith the assistance of anNGO, the Khewndo Kor (KK)worked in few villages of theKhazana Union Council inJanuary this year.

He said that during the 7-day campaign 474 formswere processed. After sometime when the people con-tacted the Nadra centre forcollection of cards they weretold that they had not re-

ceived the data, he said.After some time they got

information from the staff ofMobile Registration Van that180 forms were not scannedand the data had been lost,Naushad said. He said thecommunity ware pressingthem for resolving the issuebut the authorities con-cerned had not been heed-ing to it.

“It seems that none ofthe card is being processed,”he complained and addedthat elections were near andit is feared that those peoplemostly female would not beable to enroll themselves asvoter for the general elec-tions 2013. The organizationdemanded of the NADRAauthorities to resolve theproblem as soon as possiblein order to ensure womenright to vote.

STAFF REPORTER

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Governor En-gineer Shaukatullah Tues-day extended full assuranceto contractors engaged inimplementation on develop-ment schemes in FATA forresolving their genuinegrievances. “Indeed, diffi-culties exist but we all haveto work collectively to en-sure efficient, timely anduseful utilization of the re-sources and make rapidprogress possible,” he saidwhile speaking to a 50 mem-ber delegation of contrac-tors, representing TribalContractors Associationwho called on him here atGovernor House.

He particularly men-tioned the problem of lapseof funds because of delay inimplementation on develop-ment schemes and proce-dural deficiencies and fur-ther remarked that responsi-bility has to be fixed effec-tively to avoid such hap-pening. He said the percep-tion should be dispelled thatthe contractors are only fac-tor of delay in execution ofdevelopment projects, add-ing that transparent dis-posal of the procedural pro-cess could help to dispel thisperception.

Responding to severalpoints raised by the del-egates the governor also as-sured to take concrete stepsto help in simplifying the

procedural processes toavoid un-necessary hin-drances and eliminate thepossibility of vested inter-ests. Referring to a com-plaint regarding proceduralprocess for awarding con-tracts being followed byNOGs in certain areas ofFATA, the Governor also as-sured the organization thattheir point of view will belooked seriously and everypossible step will be takento materialize the justifiedproposals especially with re-gard to extend adequate ad-vantages to the local con-tractors to be benefited tothe maximums extent.

Meanwhile the Presi-dent of Tribal ContractorsAssociation and members of

the delegation thanked theGovernor for taking keen in-terest in the resolution oftheir grievances. Provisionof the cost escalated ratio ofzone to zone and area to areaoriented cost factors basedon benefits and enhance-ment in delegation powers ofthe sanctioning authority atvarious levels were the com-mon demands of the del-egates.

Earlier, Senior ProvincialMinister KhyberPakhtunkhwa RahimdadKhan on Tuesday said the10-year energy action planwould permanently addressthe issue of electricity. Hewas addressing a farewellparty which was given tohim by the officers of De-

Priority to emergencyhealth services

Action plan to overcome energy crisis: Minister

Governor encourages contractors working in FATA

NADRA urged to issue ID cards Crack down againstovercharging transporters

PTI intra-party polls nursespirit of tolerance: Kashif

Quality tech education panacea to end poverty

Farmers examineirrigation

rehab workHYDERABAD—A delegation ofthe representatives of farmers’community examined the ongo-ing irrigation- related rehabili-tation works at the Nara Canal,Makhi Complex and KhiproCanal during a visit toMirpurkhas and Sanghar dis-tricts. Media Officer of theSindh Irrigation and DrainageAuthority (SIDA), HizbullahMangrio, informed here onMonday that the authority hadorganised the visit to take thefarming community into confi-dence over the irrigation worksbeing currently undertaken.

The delegation of SindhChamber of Agriculture (SCA),which was led by SCA’s Presi-dent, was briefed by the offi-cials of SIDA.—APP

ABBOTTABAD: Leader of Sooba Hazara Movement Baba Haider Zaman leading a dem-onstration for provincial status of Hazara.

NOSHEHRA: Security personnel collecting evidence from the site after a Showel Cylinder blast near the house of KPInformation Minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

partment of Energy andPower and PakhtunkhwaHydel DevelopmentOrganisation. The Ministersaid that work on varioushydro power generationprojects was already under-way, adding that the KPprovince was now in a posi-tion to support various hy-dro power general projectsfrom its own resources.

He appreciated the per-formance of Department ofEnergy and Power andKhyber Pakhtunkhwa HydelDevelopment Organisationduring the last five years.Later, the high ups of the twodepartments jointly pre-sented a honorary shield andcertificate to RahimdadKhan.

Anti polio drivearrangements

finalisedSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—Chief SecretaryKhyber PakhtunkhwaGhulam Dastagir Akhtar fi-nalized the arrangements forthe anti polio drive, startingfrom April 15 to 17, asked theofficials concerned to strictlyimplement National Immuni-zation Dad (NID) program toensure polio eradication. Themeeting discussed in detailthe anti polio drive in vari-ous districts of the provinceand expressed resolve to takepragmatic measures for po-lio eradication. The meetingdeclared Peshawar city as toppriority area for polio eradi-cation and decided to ap-point doctors in 97 unioncouncils of the city to ensure.

ECP comes out withyet another assuranceDESPITE various odds, some of the latest decisions and moves of

the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) are reflective of itsdetermination to deliver as far as holding of free, fair and

transparent elections are concerned. These show that the Commissionhas now decided to discard its policy of inaction and wait and see andinstead assert its powers and authority to realize this cherished objective.

The issue of formulation of a new and comprehensive nominationform for candidates had become a bone of contention between theCommission and the vested interests as the proposed form intends toseek vital information that would enable the authorities concerned toscrutinize candidates as per requirements of Articles-62 and 63 of theConstitution. Strangely enough, it was the Government negotiating teamthat signed a formal agreement with TMQ Chief Dr Tahirul Qadri on theissue but now it is backtracking on flimsy grounds. It has tried its best toscuttle the move of the Commission aimed at preventing entry of dubiouscharacter into elected houses but the ECP deserves credit for exercisingits authority in this regard by deciding to go ahead with the printingof the new form without waiting for the approval of the President,which, according to legal and Constitutional experts, was not necessaryat all. Law Minister Farooq H Naek, who is wrongly counselling thePresident on the issue, is interpreting things to suit vested interestsbut the fact remains that where would be independence of theCommission if it has to seek approval of the executive authority forits routine work as well. The core objective is ensuring free and fairelections and the Commission is fully empowered to take all measuresthat it deems necessary for the purpose. Similarly, the pronouncementof an official of the Commission that only men of character will winthe elections also means that the ECP is resolved to carry out scrutinyof the nomination papers as per legal and Constitutional requirements,which augurs well for the system and the country. The most importantissue that would determine the fate of the scrutiny and other aspectsof electioneering and electoral stages is whether or not the Commissionwould ensure removal of not only the present façade of the Governmentat federal and provincial levels but also heads of different departmentsand organizations as pointed out by the Leader of the Opposition.

Air pollution inCapital and elsewhereENVIRONMENTAL issues are on top of the agenda of the

Governments elsewhere in the world but in Pakistan, so far, only lipservice has been paid to the problem and as a consequence environmentaldegradation is becoming one of the most alarming issues impacting uponhealth of the nation. Not to talk of other cities, towns and areas of thecountry, even in twin-cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi marble andsteel factories as well as brick-kilns and cement plants are playing havocwith the lives of the residents.

Dust and smoke particles in Pakistan are generally twice the worldaverage and five times higher than the developed world. Though somepollution comes from the natural sources, but most pollution is the resultof human activities. Haphazard development is one of the major causesof air pollution as trees are cut on large-scale, factories and industrialestablishments are set up in or around residential areas and that too withoutobserving environment standards, garbage and plastic is burnt in open,there is no check on smoke emitting vehicles, no precautions are takenduring construction of roads and buildings and civic bodies and serviceproviders dig streets and roads and leave them as such on completion oftheir work. Dust, pollen, smoke and stink caused by heaps of garbageand open nullahs and drains result into respiratory diseases besidesdamaging brain and causing depression. The issue needs to be addressedboth at citizens’ level through massive awareness and at governmentallevel through initiation of necessary measures to prevent pollution.

Peace pipeline to inspiremore investment

THE Mega Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project set in motion by thePresidents of the two countries could be a turning point for Pakistan

because as visualized and when implemented, it would have multidimensional impact on Pakistan’s economy. Though it would take almosttwo years to pump the direly needed gas, yet it would give hope to Pakistaniindustry and inspire the potential investors to plan and invest to reapbenefits from vast market of a country of more than 180 people andneighbouring markets in Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics.

President Asif Ali Zardari rightly described the event as a historicmoment not only for the two countries but also for the region. Thoughthe United States has been opposing it due to Iranian nuclear programme,but one may point out that during the cold war era, the erstwhile USSRsupplied gas to American allies in Europe and no body objected to it. ForIslamabad, the pipeline means energy security, which, in turn, meanspolitical stability. Pakistan also has had to address glaring economicdeficiencies, particularly with regard to the energy sector. Energyshortages, along with unemployment, remain the greatest economicissues facing the country. Public anger over the inability of thegovernment to meet the electricity demands has boiled over in the formof riots numerous times and if Pakistan had not gone for the IP project,the gas shortfall would have increased manifold in 2014 and beyond. Itwas only on Monday that US Real Estate tycoon Thomas Kramer signedan MoU with Bahria Town Chief Malik Riaz for building a fascinatingPakistan’s first ever Island city near Karachi. So when the investors areguaranteed of secure energy supplies and law and order situation isimproved, they would naturally come in a big way to Pakistan.

US in precarious situation

Jealousy is no morethan feeling aloneamong smilingenemies.

Unholyalliance

SOME horrific events over thepast few months, includingthe shooting of a Pakistani

schoolgirl and the rape and murderof a young Indian physiotherapystudent, should have been an alertfor the world to unite in preventingviolence against women. But if aconference now under way at theUnited Nations is any guide, thatmessage has not resounded with thenecessary urgency. Halfway intotheir two-week annual meeting,delegates to the Commission on theStatus of Women fear they will notbe able to agree on a finalcommuniqué, just like last year.

Who is to blame? Delegates andactivists are pointing fingers at theVatican, Iran and Russia for trying toeliminate language in a draftcommuniqué asserting that the famil-iar excuses — religion, custom, tra-dition — cannot be used by govern-ments to duck their obligation toeliminate violence. The United Na-tions Human Rights Council en-dorsed similar language just sixmonths ago. Conservative hard-lin-ers seem determined to fight it outagain. They have also objected toreferences to abortion rights, as wellas language suggesting that rape alsoincludes forcible behaviour by awoman’s husband or partner. Po-land, Egypt, other Muslim states andconservative American Christiangroups have criticized one or moreparts of the draft. The efforts by theVatican and Iran to control womenare well known. It is not clear whatmotivates Russia, although there isa strong antifeminist strain in Presi-dent Vladimir V Putin’s government.

In any case, the suggestion thattraditional values justify the viola-tion of basic human rights is spuri-ous. As Inga Marte Thorkildsen,Norway’s gender equality minister,has noted, “Violence againstwomen must be seen as a humanrights issue, and that has nothingto do with culture or religion.” Gen-der-based violence is an epidemic.A World Bank report estimated thatmore women between the ages of15 and 44 were at risk from rapeand domestic violence than fromcancer, car accidents, war and ma-laria combined. According to theUnited Nations and other sources,more than 600 million women livein countries where domestic vio-lence is not considered a crime andmore than 3 million girls are fac-ing female genital mutilation.Women in all social, economic, eth-nic and religious groups are af-fected. The conference will be afailure if it cannot produce ambi-tious global standards that will de-liver concrete results to protectwomen and girls.— The New York Times

*****

Propertyspeculators

SOME people never learn.Property speculation, combined with risky investments

and a lack of regulation, led to thesubprime mortgage crisis in the USin 2006. The fallout from that leddirectly to the global financial cri-sis, the effects of which are stillbeing felt around the world. Dubaitoo suffered through its own realestate bubble, with property prices— and by association, rents — faroutstripping their values.

Now, only seven years later,property speculators are at it againin Dubai. Off-plan properties an-nounced just six months ago areshowing up on the secondary mar-ket, causing concern among indus-try observers. So far, premiumshave only been in the range of 3 to5 per cent, but with more projectsbeing announced, there is concernthat speculation could cause pricesto rise artificially. The UAE Cen-tral Bank, in an effort to curb a sec-ond property bubble, is discussinga possible cap on mortgage, butsuch a strategy would only have alimited effect since many of thetransactions are done in cash. Prop-erty developers too are doing whatthey can by including clauses thatlimit the ability of buyers to ‘flip’a property. But more may need tobe done. The line between legiti-mately investing and speculativebuying can be difficult to detect,but it’s a line that needs to be en-forced where ever it can be. An-other property bubble is in noone’s interest, except maybe thespeculators. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

Elizabeth Bowen—Irish novelist

While George W Bush ledregime of neo-cons hadinitiated the insane war on

the pretext of 9/11 attacks, Obamaadministration took no steps to winddown the war after taking over inJanuary 2009 by which time the fu-tility of war and hidden motives hadbeen exposed. Rather, the Demo-crats accelerated the war and intro-duced drone war to further fuel ter-rorism. Under the cover of war onterror, the hidden motives of the USand its western allies were to under-mine Islam, kill as many extremistMuslims averse to American poli-cies and western way of life, stealthe resources of Muslim world, re-move radical Muslim governmentsand replace them with secular pro-America regimes and redraw theboundaries of Middle East.

Apart from physical wars to re-place the regimes of Afghanistan,Iraq and later of Libya and install-ing puppet regimes, the US gave afree hand to CIA, FBI and US-NATO forces to terrorize and elimi-nate the so-called irreconcilables.They were given license to kill with-out any fear of accountability. Blackwater, security contractors and killteams were part of the team. Scoresof secret torture cells were estab-lished all over the globe includingmost infamous Guantanamo Bay,Bagram and Abu Gharib Jails wheresuspects were locked up for yearswithout any recourse to legal coun-sel. Indefinite detention withoutcharge or trial, as well as the illegalmilitary commissions were justifiedand declared as legal.

CIA operated secret detentioncentres including Guantanamo Bay

HR violations in IHK

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Human rights’ violations byIndian security forces andIndia’s biased judicial system

have removed its mask of secularismand democracy. Recent hanging ofAfzal Guru is a judicial murder thatwould exacerbate sense of alienationand injustice among the people ofKashmir. On 9th February 2013, hewas hanged and buried in Tihar Jail,New Delhi for his alleged involve-ment in attack on Indian Parliamenton 10th December 2001. His execu-tion sparked mass protests and resent-ment amongst political circles in IOK.All legal procedures and judicialnorms were flouted by Indian au-thorities in case of Afzal Guru; hisfamily was not allowed to meet himbefore execution and dead body wasnot handed over to the family; in-stead buried inside the jail. Syed AliGeelani said: “Afzal Guru’s hang-ing once again proves that theKashmiris can never expect justicefrom India. By hanging Guru, Indiais, in fact, inflamed the very senti-ment it wished to suppress, for thetag ‘unjust and cruel’ is one it can ill-afford to wear in its aspirations tobecome a world leader”.

To make things worse, stategovernment’s proposed ‘Jammuand Kashmir Police Bill, 2013’ is alegislation, which is more draco-nian, retrogressive and repressivethan even the Armed Forces Spe-cial Powers Act, which provides thearmed forces with blanket powersand immunity for their action. Thisbill exposes India’s nefarious de-signs to make Jammu and Kashmir

as a police state. To expose India,All Parties Hurriyet Conferencepublishes fortnightly report givingdetails of human rights violations inIndian Held Kashmir. According toits latest report, 93860 people havebeen killed from 1989 to December2012. Since then, 120392Kashmiris were arrested and 10042women were gang-raped or mo-lested. On 23 February 1991, unitsof the Indian forces stationed inIHK raped 100 women in one nightin village Kunan Poshpora ofKashmir’s Kupwara District. Inter-national community is all praise for,what they say, the largest democ-racy in the world, and turns a blindeye to its repression on minorities.

In June 2012, British MP of La-bor Party Dr. Denis MacShane, dur-ing his speech in the House of Com-mons had said: “Pakistan is criti-cized, but the dreadful human rightsabuses in Kashmir by Indian secu-rity forces are downplayed, and nopressure is put on India by this gov-ernment to stop repression in Kash-mir.” India media also downplaysatrocities perpetrated by Indian se-curity forces in occupied Kashmir.In India, the entire media – analysts,panelists, commentariat and intellec-tuals support the Indiangovernment’s stance on Kashmir de-spite the fact that innocent Kashmirimasses, especially the youth are un-dergoing tremendous psychologicaltrauma due to continued repressiveand suppressive policies of regimein IHK. As recently as in June 2012,eleven youth committed suicide asthey could not further bear environ-mental distress prevailing in IHK.The events like unwarranted arrests,killings, arson, torture and molesta-tion by Indian security forces is a

matter of routine there. Last year, In-dian Supreme Court instead of con-victing the soldiers involved in kill-ing of a 12 year old boy asked theArmy to carry out appropriate ac-tion against the culprits.

In fact, there is a law of junglein IHK, as Indian troops and policepersonnel are free to arrest anyonethey want and commit the gross hu-man right violations. European Par-liament had once emphasized theneed for resolving the Kashmir dis-pute, and highlighted brutalities per-petrated by Indian military in IndianHeld Kashmir. On 10th July 2008,European Parliament had passed aresolution, calling upon the Govern-ment of India to hold an impartialinquiry into the unidentified massgraves discovered in the disputedstate of Jammu & Kashmir. To stophighhandedness of the Indian mili-tary and police once for all, there isneed to implement the resolutionspassed by the United Nations thatbestowed on the people of Kashmirthe right to join India or Pakistanthrough a plebiscite to be held un-der the UN aegis. However, it doesnot look like they will do it becauseonly when public protest fits into thegeopolitical designs of the US andthe West that they declare it a popu-lar movement and honour it with theaward of a colour label.

The orange revolution ofUkraine, the rose revolution of Geor-gia, the cidar revolution of Lebanonand earlier velvet revolution ofCzechoslovakia would pale beforethe Kashmiris’ movement for theirfreedom, yet they were given coloursby the colour-blind big powers. Ithas to be mentioned that in none ofthe above cases there was a UN man-date whereas Kashmiris have been

given their inalienable right of self-determination by the UN in 1948and 5th January 1949. Internationalcommunity should help resolve theKashmir issue because tension be-tween the two nuclear states wouldnot only make the environment ofthe region perilous but also of theworld at large. International com-munity should, therefore, urge In-dia to stop killings, fake encoun-ters, forced disappearances and ar-rests of innocent Kashmiris. Itshould also persuade India to re-solve all outstanding issues be-tween India and Pakistan, so thatboth countries start allocating morefunds for welfare of their massesinstead of spending on defence.

It is unfortunate that more than64 years have elapsed but interna-tional community continues toshow apathy and indifference to-wards sufferings of Kashmiris.Even those countries that had in thepast supported Pakistan’s genuinestance now suggest that India andPakistan should resolve the Kash-mir dispute through bilateral nego-tiations, knowing full well thatmany rounds of dialogue havetaken place including the stalledcomposite dialogue, but to no avail.India takes the plea that accordingto Tashkant Declaration and SimlaAccord both countries are obligedto resolve the issue through bilat-eral negotiations. India should bearin mind that the Kashmir dispute ispending in the UN, and if the dis-pute is not resolved within a ‘rea-sonable’ period of time, Pakistan hasthe right to approach the UN withthe demand to play its role and makearrangements to hold plebiscite inJammu and Kashmir as per UnitedNations Security resolutions.

are still in operation despiteObama’s election campaignpromises. Besides third de-gree torture, most horriblewater boarding method is alsoused to even make the inno-cent ones agree to the crime

they had not committed. While Bushregime had made use of drones pru-dently, Obama administration want-ing to win the war with drones wentberserk. Now even US citizens arenot safe from drones and secret dun-geons. They are subjected to warrant-less eavesdropping, the Patriot Act,and new restrictions have been im-posed on the release of indefinitelyheld detainees. In October 2012, ‘dis-position matrix’ was administered todetermine how terrorism suspectswould be disposed of. The US is kill-ing its own people and locking themup outside the traditional judicial sys-tem in an unforgivable manner. Suchoppressive policies are likely to per-sist for at least another decade.

Having backed Northern Alli-ance with massive airpower to oustTaliban regime in November 2001,the US then began to expand, trainand equip ANSF and invested billionsof dollars to enable them to conductcounterterrorism independently andalso take over security of Afghani-stan at an appropriate time. Karzairegime mostly comprising membersof non-Pashtun Northern AllianceTajik and Uzbek warlords was pa-tronized and rewarded while the ma-jority Pashtun community was side-lined and persecuted. This unfair andbiased policy was adopted muchagainst the advice rendered by Paki-stan. Resultantly the entire lot ofPashtun community developed acutedetestation against USA and startedjoining the Taliban. Support to Karzaicontinued despite his total failure tocontrol incompetence, mis-gover-nance and corruption and his writgetting shrunk to Kabul. Till recent,the ISAF commanders cribbed about

the lack of efficiency and indisciplineof ANSF, but now the US-NATO isfaced with another dilemma of insid-ers attacks and that too at a time whenhanding over of security duties toANSF is half-way through and oc-cupying forces have started thinningout. Taliban have managed to infil-trate rank and file of ANSF. Cases ofgreen-on-blue attacks are on the in-crease and so are cases of suicideswithin US Army (349 in 2012). Rea-sons behind inside attacks are culturaldifferences, haughty and cynical at-titude of foreign soldiers, civilian ca-sualties in air/drone attacks, and pos-sibly US secret parleys with Taliban.

The surge in inside attacks as wellas Taliban attacks in 2012 is a clearindication that Afghan bitterness offoreigners has greatly heightened. Itis becoming exceedingly difficult forthe US trainers to continue impart-ing training lessons to ANA and train-ing process has been disrupted. Butthe US is also mindful of the fact thatthe training mission is the central partof the American withdrawal plan for2014. Lots of senior coalition andAfghan officials are now opining thatafter nearly 12 years of war, majorityof Afghans irrespective of their sectand ethnicity view the foreigners asinfidels illegally occupying theircountry and abhor them. Irrespectiveof the sharpened divide between thePashtun and non-Pashtun Afghans, agreat percentage of Afghans want todrive out the occupiers.

It is an established fact that theUS and its western allies governedby mercantile and strategic motivesstarted the war on terror to eliminateterrorism but its unjust vendettawhich took lives of millions of Mus-lims fueled terrorism. Invasion ofAfghanistan and Iraq were not un-intended slip-ups but intentional.The war mongers didn’t expect intheir wildest imaginations thatequipped with best weaponry andtechnology, the war would become

the longest in modern history andthe poorly equipped opponentswould fight them so doggedly.Rather than the resistance forcesgetting pooped of resources andstamina, the resource-heavy invad-ers have become whacked and arefaced with financial crunch.Drenched in the pool of greed ofpower and wealth the US justifiedits unjust policies of aggression andmilitarism by creating the subter-fuge of terrorism, which it projectedas a threat to world peace. Drunkwith power, it didn’t realize that itwas not only digging its own gravebut also making the world moreunsafe because of its atrocious acts.

Today the back of mighty USAis against the wall and is left with nocards to bargain with Taliban. It isforced to seek the help of Pakistanwhich it has all along been mistrust-ing, humiliating and harassing. How-ever, despite its precarious situation,the US expressed its displeasure overPakistan’s decision to hand over op-eration of Gawadar seaport to Chinaand has also cautioned Pakistan notto go ahead with Iran-Pakistan gaspipeline project otherwise sanctionswill be imposed. It is unhappy overAll Parties Conference of Pakistan’sdecision to negotiate with TTP. Ithas not taken any steps to expediterepatriation of absconders Fazlullahand Faqir Muhammad residing inAfghanistan or to restrain India frommeddling in Balochistan and FATA.It ignores Hindu terrorism even af-ter Indian government making a con-fession. In an attempt to create badblood between the Army and peopleof FATA and to disrupt materializa-tion of peace deal, New York Timeshas come out with a bizarre story thatPakistan Army fired drones in NorthWaziristan in February 2013. Thisdisjointed approach speaks of awarped mind.—The writer is a retired Brig and adefence analyst.

Asif Haroon RajaEmail: asifharoon7751@yahoo.com

Nazia NazarEmail: nazianazar@hotmail.com

Voice of the People

The heartrending incident atBadami Bagh Lahore provedanother stamp of authenticity

at the international misconceptionthat Pakistan is a terrorist countryand as a nation we all Pakistanis areextremists. This looting and burn-ing episode very successfullyspilled water over all those claimsof the security forces and of thedemocratic government of Pakistanthat Pakistan is doing all its best tocurb the menace of terrorism withthe all possible sources.

The benefit of this shamefullyinhuman incident goes to whom; itis certainly a very important ques-tion. For the last many years, thewestern media has been harping onthe same string that Pakistan is thehub of global jihadi organizationsand particularly the tribal areas of

Extremism exploitedAvoid wastefulconsumptionEHSANUL HAQ QAZI

Every time I go out for some work,I notice that more and more vehiclesincluding all makes of cars, trucks,buses and wagons and motor cyclesare plying on the roads here andthere. Quite obviously, not all ofthem are moving around with someproductive purpose. But at the sametime, many would be there on theroads merely for joy rides and fun.

Then I also remember havingread somewhere that Pakistan ismeeting its POL products require-ments as high as up to 85 per centthrough oil imports and useful andwasteful consumption of POL prod-ucts, country’s oil import bill is in-creasing every month and yearwhich is not something to be appre-ciated in any manner. As a respon-sible citizens, in all fairness, weshould try our level best at least toavoid wasteful consumption ofpetrol, diesel, CNG to the maximumextent possible to ensure that thecountry’s oil import bill remainsunder control and quite appreciablyon the lower side.

I realize that the response to thisplea of mine to avoid wasteful con-sumption of POL products will notbe positive somehow as many wouldbe putting one or other argumentsin support of their being on the roadsin their vehicles most of the timeirrespective of this being day ornight. If we cannot change our hab-its of travelling around and avoid-ing wasteful consumption of POLproducts, then at least what we cando is to adopt some fuel saving mea-sures which must be there in this eraof innovative technological progressand advancement.

Most of us, particularly regularnewspapers readers, must have readin recent months about fuel savingmeasures such as an imported inno-vative technology based equipmentwhich gives saving in petrol, dieselor CNG consumption in a vehicleup to 25 per cent without any com-promise on mileage one has to dodaily for productive purposes or oth-erwise. And, this equipment is avail-able in the market also. If we adoptsuch fuel saving measures then wecan go on with joy rides as well asproductive uses of the vehicles andalso manage to keep the individualand collective POL products con-sumption expenses within reason-able check and control. I think thisis not much to ask from the peoplein the public and private sectors inthe larger interests of the nation andthe country as every single pennythus saved is like earning that muchmore for ourselves. I hope there willbe positive response for adoption ofsome fuel saving measures.—Lahore

OvercomingintoleranceSULEMAN MANSHA

Intolerance severely damages reli-gious and communal harmony. It hasmajor role in increasing terrorism,sectarianism and communalism inPakistan. Thousands of people havelost their lives and suffered heavyfinancial losses due to this menace.Recently the Punjab government hasto pay millions of rupees as com-pensation to the Christians ofBadami Bagh, Lahore. BadamiBagh arson attack must be con-demned. Since there was no fault ofthose people whose houses wereburnt. Similarly whole of Punjab isnot guilty, but now it has to pay com-pensation from the provincial exche-quer. This is because of theunislamic and inhuman act of thosewho lack tolerance and prudenceand because of the negligence of thegovernment.

It goes without saying that theperson who passes derogatory re-marks against the Holy Prophet(PBUH) deserves capital punish-ment. According to section 295-Cof Pakistan Penal Code the personwho commits blasphemy shall beawarded death sentence. Let thestate decide the fate of the accusedthrough due process of law as pro-vided by Article 10 of the Consti-tution of Pakistan 1973.The Mus-lim scholars, khateebs and Imamsshould educate and tell the follow-ers that how to lawfully react andcope with any unwanted act of blas-phemy according to the teachingsof Islam. In the same way the reli-gious leaders and the scholars of thenon-Muslim communities are dutybound to teach their followers an ac-ceptable way to communicate withthe Muslims, so that their any actnever ever be regarded as an act ofblasphemy. Every person mustknow that the Holy Prophet (PBUH)is a blessing not only for the Mus-lims but for whole of the World.

The person whose right isusurped has every right to go for apeaceful protest. But the act ofdamaging the public property is not

Not his cup of teaDR A P SANGDIL

Former strongman, Gen Musharraf (R), in an interview to a private TV channel has said that if he were made the caretaker

prime minister and allowed to select his team, he would solve allnational issues within a year. I cannot help but salute the generalfor his optimism. The courts have declared him an absconder forhis alleged involvement in a number of cases. He has blood of theinnocent on his hands though he wears gloves to hide it. Bugtis haveput blood money on his head. He dismissed judges of the apex court,violated the constitution not once but twice, and he wants to be-come prime minister? Is his incorrigibility an affliction of mind?Why doesn’t he understand that he was a usurper at the first place;all his good time friends have left him, including the roly-poly Bar-rister Saif, and there is no place for him in the national politics.What will the general do with only Rashid Qureshi to carry hisbriefcase? I suggest the general to play golf, socialise in Dubai andLondon, and forget about politics. It is not his cup of tea.—Oslo, Norway

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

praise worthy. After all the publicproperty belongs to us all and ulti-mately we the Pakistanis have to payfor the losses.

The government is responsiblefor the lives and property of the citi-zens. How is it possible that almosthundred houses are burnt in the capi-tal city of the most powerful anddensely populated province of Pa-kistan and the bloody incident re-mains unknown to the government.The government should have pro-vided proper security to the colonybefore the incident. The governmentshould utilize the services of theMuslim as well as non-Muslimscholars, media and influential po-litical leaders to guide the masses inthe right direction. It could save pub-lic money and its reputation by tak-ing action on time. Because a stitchin time saves nine.—Lahore

We arestupid nation

KHURRAM SHAHZAD AWAN

Pakistan was created in the name ofIslam and the main ideology of ourreligion is to earn through honestmeans, but what our people are do-ing?. A large number of Pakistanipeople have invested billions of ru-pees in National saving centre for thesake of very limited interest of only.9 %. Government gives only 900-950 rupees per month on the invest-ment of one lack rupees. It is veryrare amount but people of our coun-try have no idea that, they are not justwasting their time but also wastingthe huge chance of getting profit oninvesting this money in other suitableand honest business.

We as a nation are stupid, wewant to earn without any hard workthat’s why we are getting weaker andweaker with the passage of time.There is a very simple solution ofgetting more than 10 thousand rupeesper one lack of investment as if a per-son having only one lack rupee in-vestment can purchase a rickshawand earn easily more than ten thou-sand rupees per month which is 10times higher than the profit given bynational saving center. So it is a ques-tion of common to all the Pakistanipeople who have invested their bil-lion rupees in the national saving cen-tre that they should withdraw theirmoney from the National saving cen-tre and invest this money to the dif-ferent field of business and earn rea-sonable profit as compared to the in-terest given by the saving centre. Inthis way we would also develop ournations life style and increase the in-come of an individual very rapidlywith the passage of time—Islamabad

Replays ofviolence

MUKHTAR AHMED

Staging protests, condemning inci-dents, every one taking notices, suomottos and later on announcement ofcompensation after death and destruc-tion of innocent people has become aregular feature in our country. It isnot the first time that Christians havebeen targeted; there is large numberof such incidents where minoritieshave been attacked. The nation wasstill under shock on account of AbbasTown incident where Shia commu-nity was attacked when a bomb blastresulted in killing 46 people and in-juring over 100 and we had to wit-ness worst riots in Badami BaghLahore on alleged blasphemy case.

The law on the issue is very clear,the matter has to be reported to thepolice who register the case arrest theindividual and start their investiga-tions. Why this principle was violatedand who were behind such brutal in-cident where over 120 houses alongwith their property were looted or putto fire. The police only arrived oncethe damage was completed. It is notfailure of police but total incompe-tence and bad governance.

It has become an sop for thepeople to attack Christian commu-nity, burn their property on accountof blasphemy incident and get awaywith it. Unfortunately every timesuch incident occurs government

Threats to Iran harm chances for deal

Speaking at the American IsraelPublic Affairs Committee’s(AIPAC) annual conference,

Vice President Joe Biden insistedlast week that President Obama wasnot bluffing about using force tothwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Is-raeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu, too, called for a “clearand credible military threat” againstTehran, underscoring that sanctionsalone would not make Iran cave atthe negotiation table.

These threats were issued at atime when the latest round of nucleartalks between Iran and the P5+1 inKazakhstan were positively charac-terized, by many accounts, as a“turning point.” New rounds of ne-gotiations were set to take place inApril. If we set aside all the ethicaland political implications of threat-ening a negotiating party in thecourse of negotiations (especially ata time when talks seem finally to beheading in the right direction), thereare at least two major legal issues

with these threats that seem to havefallen into America’s blind spot.

First, the “threat of force”against a sovereign member of theUnited Nations is illegal under in-ternational law. It violates Article2(4) of the UN Charter, which un-equivocally requires all member-states to “refrain in their interna-tional relations from the threat or useof force.”

It should also be understood that“threat” within the meaning of Ar-ticle 2(4) must be understood in arestrictive sense. Hostile statementsthat are common between antagonis-tic countries, especially whenthey’re uttered by officials who donot have the constitutional author-ity to materialize them, do not carrythe same legal weight as potent mili-tary threats directly issued in a par-ticular context (for the purpose ofinfluencing negotiations) by top of-ficials who actually have the powerto order military operations.

Watching the highest politicalauthorities of Israel and the UnitedStates so impetuously violate a fun-damental rule of international lawis on its own very alarming. It sig-

nals to Iran and the internationalcommunity that the West is not will-ing to play by the rules. It alsogreatly undermines the credibilityand impartiality of all internationalorganizations involved in the nego-tiating process.

According to a well-knownprinciple of international law, anagreement that is obtained throughduress and coercion is consideredinvalid. The 1969 Vienna Conven-tion on the Law of Treaties – whichcodifies some of the most funda-mental norms in the field – is veryclear on the subject. Its Article 52specifically renders void any inter-national agreement “which hasbeen procured by the threat or useof force in violation of the prin-ciples of international law.” TheInternational Court of Justice con-firmed this position in a 1973 casebetween the United Kingdom andIceland, stating in very clear termsthat: “There can be no doubt, as isimplied in the Charter of the UnitedNations and recognized in Article52 of the Vienna Convention on theLaw of Treaties, that under custom-ary international law, an agreement

Reza Nasri

Pakistan are the safest haven forthe terrorists.

In the last few years someof the western media men haveadded the names of few areasfrom Punjab particularly fromthe southern-Punjab in the list

of the places where extremism isgrowing faster. These media menblame that these are the placeswhere thousands of foreign fight-ers are provided shelter, trainingand financial support. Pakistan hasalways been rejecting these allega-tions categorically on the groundsthat Pakistan itself has been theworst victim of terrorist activities;how it could be the caretaker of theterrorists. But the recent incident atthe Joseph Colony Badami Bagh,Lahore drew an altogether pictureof the scene.

The fact of the matter is that noone supports terrorism and extrem-ism; neither Pakistan nor the Paki-stani nation. It is simply a mindsetwhich has captured a very smallrather negligible portion of the so-ciety. Most of the people in Paki-

Views From Abroad

The other night I was at the airport with my wife to receiveher parents. With nothing bet-

ter to do, I looked up at the TVscreens displaying timings of vari-ous airlines; their arrivals and de-partures, and as I gazed at the moni-tor I frowned; most airlines had theiraircraft landing and taking off ontime, except our national carrier; itwas the same old story, a dismal oneof yesteryears, were you waited atthe airport for hours on end for thenational carrier to bring your rela-

tives and friends, late, exhausted andangry for innumerable delays: Enginefailure, air-conditioning not working,crew not arriving in time or strikes.With this unreliability came hugelosses. Which is how the situation isat present. And without trying to rec-tify the problems, they ask the gov-ernment to bail them out and the gov-ernment does, sinking in hundreds ofthousands of millions of rupees oftaxpayers money. I looked at thescreen and wondered, if they can’tbecome efficient, why were they ask-ing for money?

In a housing society which hadseven gates, the residents passed amotion at the AGM that for the safetyof the members, only two gatesshould be left open, and the othergates be closed. It was a logical move,

as strangers, salesmen and unwantedpeople made their way in withoutpermission.

The open gates were a disasterwaiting to happen. After passing themotion, the treasurer who lived in abuilding besides two gates, refusedto allow his gates to be closed. “Don’tclose the gates!” he shouted. “HaveTV cameras instead!”

The cameras would cost quite ahuge sum, he was told, but he wasrelentless. As I heard the tale I thoughtof the national carrier: Here also, in-stead of closing the gates of ineffi-ciency and tightening expenditure,they want to pump in money. Maybeit’s not just a coincidence that the trea-surer who shouts, “Don’t close thegates!” also works as an employee ofthe same loss-making airline.

Don’t close the gates..! “Don’t close the gates! Install

CCTVs!” And this foolishness isn’tlimited to the airline and its em-ployee, it happens quite often inother situations: When a businessfails, instead of plugging the faultsand loopholes, we go for an addi-tional bank loan!

When we find our marriagefailing, we should be rectifying theproblem but we start looking at thegreen grass on the other side. Whenwe have a leakage on the terracewe search quickly for anotherhome, spending time and effort re-locating, when all it takes is repair-ing the leak. Take a look at how youface problems everyday; are youfirst closing the gates, or rushing tobuy costly CCTVs?—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

Crusading wars on Muslims

The 21st century unilateral crusades are killing the humanityas if the 12th century Euro-

pean crusades against Islam wereunending. The hurriedly enforcedallied adventure in West Africa -Mali- tells clearly that the US ledbogus “War on Terror” is endless andunprovoked aggression is part of theplanned Western crusade against Is-lam and Muslims across the globe.The UN and its Security Council arejust spectators, debating clubs likethe failed League of Nations oper-ated by the most influential WesternStates and now China- Russia aremere entities for face saving.

Recall now more than year-oldoppressive odyssey of the Syrianpeople, diplomacy at its most cruelform and shape wanting consultationand agreement of Russia to stop theon-going daily bloodsheds - a grue-some shame for the oil-enriched andfinancially affluent Arab leaders. AllArab leaders are waiting and seeingto count the dead bodies. Truth dig-ging will spell out that in global af-fairs if thousands or million inno-cent lives are demised and slaugh-tered in search of diplomacy, pro-ponents of monstrous thinking willcontinue to insist that diplomacyshould be given a chance. The per-

petuated insanity is wide spread thatyou wonder how rationality has beensuppressed and the UN diplomacyand importance of its role and re-sponsibilities in international peaceand security have become meaning-less interpretations.

France needed no prior consentof the UN Council to send its armiesimmediately to West Africa for warengagements. British support isreadily available to be comple-mented by the US war machines tobe placed anywhere if it canstrengthen the crusade against Mus-lims. Leon Panetta in his last dayswas quick to point out that the USgovernment is ready to act againstAl-Qaeda anywhere any time andthe War on Terrorism will continue.It raised the eyebrows of many in-formed scholars and political ob-servers across the international arenaas it had nothing to do with War onTerrorism. From the beginning thepremise of the War on Terror was abogus one. These belligerent state-ments and actions surely fuel theWestern passion for continuous warsany time and anywhere as long as itcould be defined under aegis of Waron Terror. A week earlier GeneralMcRystal, the former ousted USCommander in Afghanistan made itknown in a CNN interview that thepresence of al-Qaeda in Afghanistanis less than 100 people and has lostits strength and relevance for theWar on Terror. If American politi-

cians are not irrational and war ad-dicted what else is the reasoning fortheir utter madness and animosityagainst Islam and Muslims?

The policies adopted by theObama administration just over thelast couple of years leave no doubtthat they are accelerating, not wind-ing down, the war apparatus that hasbeen relentlessly strengthened overthe last decade. In the name of theWar on Terror, the current presidenthas diluted decades-old Mirandawarnings; codified a new scheme ofindefinite detention on US soil; plot-ted to relocate Guantanamo to Illi-nois; increased secrecy, repressionand release-restrictions at the camp;minted a new theory of presidentialassassination powers even for UScitizens; renewed the Bush/Cheneywarrantless eavesdropping frame-work for another five years, as wellas the Patriot Act, without a singlereform; and just signed into law allnew restrictions on the release ofindefinitely held detainees.

Over the decades ofunchallenging aggressive adven-tures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan,Yemen, and now in Syria, West andNorth Africa and soon in SaudiArab according to Robert Fisk(“Could Saudi Arabia be Next? BadNews For Palestine in 2013. 1/2/2012, The Independent), Americahas earned the distinction of beinga leader in intrinsic and endlesscorrupted wars to dismantle, hu-

fails to punish the culprits as a re-sult we witness action replays. Thequestion is not making houses foraffectees, giving them money but toarrest this tendency.

In Aug 2011 there were famousriots in Tottenham London where pro-testers looted and burnt shops andmillions of ponds property was de-stroyed. The London police after hav-ing controlled the situation in twodays arrested over 2500 peoplethrough CCTV footage and put thembehind the bars. They were tried inthe court on the basis of the CCTVfootage and with in one week over1000 rioters were given four yearsimprisonment. That is what is neededhere. All those arrested should be putthrough special trials and punishedwith in a week. You don’t requirewitnesses in this case as everythingis crystal clear. Until and unless de-terrent punishment and quick dispen-sation of justice is given we shall con-tinue watching such replays in futurealso. Just imagine if Christians de-cide to go on strike Lahore will bestinking so badly making life diffi-cult as these people cannot be re-placed by any other community. Wemust ensure their freedom guaranteedunder the constitution that says thefirst and the foremost duty of the gov-ernment is to protect life freedom andproperty of every citizen irrespectiveof cast and creed. Have we done it amillion dollar question?—Karachi

Pledge withmangroves

SYED SADAQAT HUSSAIN

It would be good to hear nice newsthat private sectors are now comingforward to encourage environmentfriendly atmosphere by sincere ac-tions around their dirty, smoky, noisyindustrial projects. The example andaction is worth following and highlycommendable to others. In this con-text, Pakistan International Bulk Ter-minal Limited one of the most andkeen player in protecting of marinebiological life having excellentrecord in his previous projects nowwanted to play its pivotal role forthe betterment of Environment andto protect biodiversity facing con-stant threats by inhuman actions sur-rounding its new project.

The project is under construc-tion at Port Qasim vicinity. Even theproject is incomplete and will take1 or 2 more years for the comple-tion but the PIBT’s authority is keento create healthy atmosphere beforeand after operating their project.Today they understand that Sky isvery clear and blue, air is so freshand breeze, soil is fertile but as soonas industrial projects will run in fullswing all these will be vanished. Inthis context, they are taking precau-tionary measures to combat all en-vironmental threats in future.

Under this arrangement, Man-grove Nurseries would also be estab-lished in the project area to raise60,000 container plants to meet theplantation needs. The nurseries wouldbe staffed by the locals to providelivelihood opportunities for thecoastal communities. Mangrove is atree or shrub that grows in chieflytropical coastal swamps that areflooded at high tide. Mangroves typi-cally have numerous tangled rootsabove ground and form dense thick-ets and are known safeguard of thecoastal lines and the buffer zoneagainst any cyclone and Tsunami.Even PIBT’s project affected a verylowest area just 25 acres of Man-groves plants while planting 1200acres or 500 hectares. We know thatif we treat our waters, and naturalresources with care, respect, conser-vation and preservation they will en-dure for our future and the future ofour children.—Karachi

miliate, kill and destroy the Arabpeople and maintain the surge formore bloodsheds anytime - any-where - outlines Glen Greenwald:There’s a good reason US officialsare assuming the “War on Terror”will persist indefinitely. There iszero reason for US officials to wantan end to the war on terror, andnumerous and significant reasonswhy they would want it to continue.

The oil producing Arab rulersare mindless and delusional and havebuilt castles and false imagery ofeconomic prosperity and Americanfriendship on moving sand. Americadoes not care about Arabs or Mus-lims and is overwhelmed with itsmilitary might; not knowing thatGod is the most powerful and Hiscommands determine all affairs.Would the Muslims in general andthe oil-enriched Arab rulers in par-ticular, ever think intelligently tostop the American incursions intotheir hearts and minds and to chal-lenge the US continued unprovokedbelligerency against Islam and theunjustifiable bogus War on Terroragainst the Muslim people world-wide? To the larger mankind reject-ing cynicism but viewing rationally,it is TIME to THINK and BeHEARD - what we need most -Peace and more sadistic wars to de-stroy the living humanity.—The writer specializes in globalsecurity, peace and conflictresolution.

concluded under the threat offorce is void.”

In other words, even if Tehrandoes cave in to the “clear and cred-ible military threat” that Mr.Netanyahu expects world powersto put forth, and if it actually con-cedes to a nuclear agreement pro-cured under duress, Iran could verywell invoke Article 52 to nullify itat later date. In fact, the militarythreat that AIPAC, Netanyahu, andhis American backers seem to viewtoday as valuable “leverage” in theongoing negotiations with Irancould very well turn into the Achil-les’ heel of any future arrangement.Netanyahu and those Americanofficials who are poised to makemilitary threats in the course ofnegotiations should be careful notto end up procuring an “agreement”that contains the legal seeds of itsown dissolution. The writer is aninternational lawyer specializingin Iranian affairs and charter andforeign relations law at the Gradu-ate Institute of International andDevelopment Studies in Geneva. —Courtesy: The Christian ScienceMonitor

stan, whether they are the Muslimsor the Non-Muslims, are moderatein their religious approach, lovingand caring for their fellow people.They hate extremism and terrorismfrom the core of their heart. Paki-stan is a society with a very opti-mistic and positive bent of mind.People are very well aware of thebitter fact that their country is pass-ing through the worst phase of itshistory. They know that the mostimportant thing they must strive foris economic prosperity and stabil-ity and terrorism is the factor whichwould never let them get their de-sired destination.

Whenever there is an incidentof terrorism, whether the target isthe Shia community or the Sunnicommunity or even the minorities,the whole of the nation gets unitedin protest against that act of terror-ism. In the past few months therehad been recurring incidents of tar-geting the Shia community inQuetta and Karachi and the wholeof the nation raised its voice againstall these incidents. It is simply be-

cause no one in Pakistan supportsextremism. Whatever there hap-pened in Lahore does not repre-sent the culture of Pakistan; it wassimply an action of a small groupof people, which was emotionallyexploited by some unidentifiedculprits. The government is inves-tigating the case and soon the realfaces behind this cruelty would beexposed and certainly penalized.

Whether it is Pakistan, Indiaor USA, the extremist elementsare present in every society. Theproblem begins when a societystarts patronizing the extremistsbecause this patronization pavesway to terrorism. Pakistan’s is notthat type of society. It has alwaysbeen a trend and tradition of thewestern media to project Pakistanas an extremist society. The aimof this propaganda against Paki-stan is simply to distort the imageof Pakistan and defame it as a ter-rorist country. This propagandacould also be a part of US’ desireof extending its stay in Afghani-stan even after 2014.

Ali Sukhanver Email:alisukhanver@hotmail.com

Mahboob A Khwaja Email: kmaboob@yahoo.com

EMMA SKY

THE mistakes made in Iraq should informany future foreign intervention and teachus about the limitations of power Thereis a temptation to draw a line under the

Iraq war and to write it off as a regrettable occur-rence, best consigned to history. But there is muchwe can learn from the experience about the chal-lenges facing countries in transition, the limita-tions of our power and the unintended conse-quences of foreign intervention. Lesson one: in-terventions require legitimacy

While the rationale for intervening will alwaysbe based on an interpretation of national interests,the levels of local, regional and international sup-port will influence its chance of success. The le-gitimacy of the Iraq intervention was disputedfrom the outset and can only be understood againstthe backdrop of 9/11 and American fear of a fur-ther attack on the homeland. Lesson two: inter-ventions need to have limited, clear and realisticgoals – and be well resourced After the failure tofind weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the ra-tionale for the war shifted from regime change tothe grandiose scheme of implanting democracy.There was always a mismatch between goals,plans, organisation and resources. Lesson three:the collapse of the state leads to communal vio-lence

In any society, it is the state that provides theframework in which different communities co-exist and compete. The challenge is how to purgea regime of its worst elements while at the sametime maintaining the state. The decisions takenby the US-UK coalition to formally occupy thecountry (without enough forces), dismiss the Iraqisecurity forces (rather than recall them) and imple-ment deep de-Ba’athification (rather than only re-

Looking back

Iraq war: six lessons we still need to learnmove those who had committed crimes against theIraqi people) led to the collapse of the state andcommunal violence. Lesson four: an inclusive eliteagreement is critical to gain widespread support

for the new orderThe elite pact cobbled together in Iraq essen-

tially ensured Shia Islamist domination, supportedby Kurdish nationalists. It was heavily weightedtowards exiles who had opposed Saddam and whoused their relationship with the coalition to excludekey sections of society who had remained in Iraqall along. The road map for transition, therefore,

was rejected by those barred from the new order –it led not to stability but to greater violence. Les-son five: elections do not necessarily bestow le-gitimacy on the new order While the 2005 elec-

tions were heralded as an important marker on theroad to democracy, they actually served to exacer-bate inter-communal tensions in Iraq as politiciansincreasingly used sectarianism to mobilise support.The new elites were more focused on capturingpower than on delivering services to the people.Electoral systems are not neutral and the way inwhich they are designed can affect relations be-

tween and among communities.While the first election brings new elites to

power, it is the second election that determines howthese elites will yield power. It defines whetherthe new order will be one in which power will beshared or transferred peacefully and democraticbodies strengthened – or whether the state will be

captured and institutions subverted to the will ofthe new autocratic rulers. Lesson six: interventionsinevitably have unintended consequences

The intervention in Iraq led to civil war andthe deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis. It turned thecountry into a battlefield of regional powers, ratherthan a buffer. The weakness of the new Iraq hashelped enable the resurgence of Iran, setting off aregional power struggle between Saudi Arabia andTurkey on one side and Iran on the other – withtragic consequences in Syria.

There is a risk that we will take the wrong les-sons from Iraq. Billions of American and Britishtaxpayers’ money was spent on “nation building”in Iraq with unimpressive results as the “new or-der” remained highly contested. We put insuffi-cient effort into brokering national-level reconcili-ation between Iraq’s elites and into ensuring checksand balances on the power of the executive. Andwe wasted energies on initiatives that were nei-ther critical nor sustainable.

The Iraq we left behind is drifting towardsauthoritarianism and disintegration – rather thantowards democracy. Some officials continue toplace all the blame for Iraq’s woes on “ancienthatreds” between the different communities – orto blame al-Qaida and Iran. Saddam’s violent rulecertainly had created “modern” hatreds among

communities that had lived together, mostlypeacefully, for centuries – but inter-marriage be-tween Sunni and Shia people remained commonand so did a sense of Iraqi identity, at least amongthe Arab population. Al-Qaida and Iran definitelyexacerbated the violence in Iraq – but were notthe cause of the civil war. Likewise, there is littlereflection on the impact of past policies: our un-willingness to protect the Shia from Saddam’svengeful slaughter after their uprising in 1991;and a decade of sanctions which led to the deathsof tens of thousands of Iraqi children, destroyedthe middle class and yet strengthened the grip ofthe regime over society.

If we internalise the right lessons from Iraq,we will develop a better match between our na-tional interests and our capabilities. If we do notdo so, we may well be destined to make wrongassumptions when we consider how to respondto increasing instability in the Middle East.

—Courtesy: Guardian.

While the 2005 elections were heralded as an important marker on the road to democracy, theyactually served to exacerbate inter-communal tensions in Iraq as politicians increasingly used sec-tarianism to mobilise support.

Some officials continue to place all the blame for Iraq’swoes on “ancient hatreds” between the different communities –

or to blame al-Qaida and Iran. Saddam’s violent rule certainlyhad created “modern” hatreds among communities that had

lived together, mostly peacefully, for centuries – but inter-mar-riage between Sunni and Shia people remained common and sodid a sense of Iraqi identity, at least among the Arab population.

DAPHNE EVIATAR

ON Friday morning in downtownManhattan, Osama bin Laden’sson-in-law appeared in a federalcourtroom to be charged with

conspiring to kill Americans. In a sober,orderly proceeding that lasted a total of 17minutes, Judge Lewis Kaplan explained toSuleiman Abu Ghaith his rights, appointed

his defense lawyers, read the charges againsthim, recorded his plea of “not guilty,” or-dered the prisoner’s continued detention andannounced that he would set a trial date forthe case in 30 days. Prosecutors have al-ready turned over the bulk of their unclassi-fied evidence against the defendant. Abu

Ghaith, who was transferred to New Yorkfrom Jordan on March 3, is reportedly co-operating with federal authorities and pro-viding important information about alQaeda. It was, in others words, an ordinary,orderly federal court arraignment in an in-ternational terrorism case. Almost 500 suchdefendants have been convicted in U.S. fed-eral courts on U.S. soil since the terroristattacks of September 11, 2001.

Keep terrorism trials in US courtsBut if senators like John McCain (R-

Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and KellyAyotte (R-N.H.) had their way, it neverwould have happened. Instead, observerswould likely have been treated years henceto something like what we saw inGuantanamo Bay with the case of the fivealleged September 11 co-conspirators: a 13-hour fiasco at which the defendants alter-nately ignored and yelled at the judge,

prayed on the floor, refused to enter a pleaand threatened to commit suicide .On Fri-day, Graham, Ayotte and McCain issued apublic statement saying they were “dis-turbed” that the Obama administrationbrought “a foreign member of al Qaeda” to

court in New York rather than to a militarycommission in Guantanamo Bay, saying it“makes our nation less safe.”

No terrorism case brought in the UnitedStates since 9/11 has created security prob-lems. Sixty-seven were foreigners capturedabroad. At the hearing in New York on Fri-day, courthouse security operated smoothlyand efficiently. Those of us in the courtroomdidn’t see a single disruption in the proceed-

ings. The handcuffed defendant was broughtinto the room by security guards, was seatednext to his lawyers and addressed the courtrespectfully. Indeed, the stark contrast in thearraignment proceedings in these two com-plex international terrorism cases heard inNew York is typical of the differences inthe way cases proceed in civilian federalcourts in the United States and the way theyproceed in the makeshift military commis-sions plodding along on a remote U.S. mili-tary base in Cuba.

I’ve been attending the military com-mission proceedings at Guantanamo Bay forseveral years now, and they’re usually spec-tacles of the absurd, characterized by de-tainee outbursts and a bewildered militaryjudge, with no experience in trying terror-ism cases, struggling to apply confusinglaws and procedures to a brand-new courtsystem with no legal precedents. Since thearraignment of the 9/11 defendants, for ex-ample, the pre-trial hearings in that case havebeen dominated by unanswered questionsabout whether the government is eavesdrop-ping on defense lawyers and unlawfully con-fiscating privileged attorney-client commu-nications; problems created by an overlycomplicated audio security system that eventhe judge doesn’t understand; and defenselawyers’ complaints about the extraordinarychallenges of communicating with their cli-ents due to the prison’s remote location.

In federal court on Friday morning, itwas clear none of those would be prob-lems in this case. Kaplan – the judge whopresided over the trial of Ahmed Ghailani,whom he sentenced to life in prison for the1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies inKenya and Tanzania – was in completecontrol of his courtroom. Only the usualguards were in the courtroom, and secu-rity was never an issue. As for concernsabout protection of classified evidence,Kaplan acknowledged the Classified Infor-mation Procedures Act would govern thehandling of classified evidence. The gov-ernment prosecutor promised to report backwithin 30 days whether it intends to useany. Unfortunately, since President BarackObama’s election in 2008, his opponentshave claimed he is “soft on terror” be-cause of his faith in the federal courtsystem to do the job it’s been success-fully doing for more than two centuries.In the rush to score political points,Obama’s critics ignore that theGuantanamo military commissions, nowin their third iteration since the SupremeCourt ruled the first version unconstitu-tional, have been a colossal failure.

—Courtesy Reuters

An artist sketch shows Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a militant who appeared in videosas a spokesman for al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001 attacks, appearing atthe U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Conspiracy has never before been considered awar crime. So any conviction on that charge by thecommissions would likely face the same fate in aneventual appeal. McCain, Graham and Ayotte surelyknow this. The D.C. court opinion received a signifi-

cant amount of attention last fall.

ANUSHAY HOSSAIN

WHEN I first came toAmerica, the policemenand women in the country terrified me. They still

do. With their pressed blue uniforms, andshiny gold badges, steel black gun at-tached to the hook of their belt, alarm-ringing car flashing lights in blue and red,who would not be intimidated? In addi-tion to stereotypes derived from Holly-wood and TV series like “Cops,” the thingthat is truly terrifying about the police inAmerica is the power they wield: Any copcan arrest you, and throw you in jail. InAmerica, not listening to the police, notcooperating with them and assaultingthem are in itself crimes. It is a completelydifferent reality for the policemen inBangladesh. Impoverished, under-fed andunderpaid, they are perhaps some of theweakest forces in our country. When I wasgrowing up, all I knew about the policein my country was that if you paid them,you could get pretty much whatever youwanted out of them.

But the manner in which we treat ourlaw enforcement has reached record lowsin Bangladesh recently. Almost routinelysince last November, Jamaat-Shibir sup-porters are coordinating violent attacks onpolice stations, most recently from Bograto Khulna to Dhaka, using locally-made-bombs and smashing vehicles, even set-ting police stations on fire. Bangladeshhas been engulfed in nationwide protestssince Jamaat’s key leaders were tried andsentenced by the country’s controversialInternational War Crimes Tribunal. How-ever, things took an extreme turn recentlywith a huge spike in attacks on minorities,specifically Hindus, attacking their templesand families, across the country. Thoughthis is disturbing, it is the attack on theGovernment’s most tangible foot soldiersthat is especially shocking. The assault onthe everyday common underpaid, desper-ately lacking respect or authority, police-men who patrol our daily lives are perhapsthe most attacked, and sacrificed Govern-ment resource. In his Opinion piece, Pro-fessor Md Asisuzzzaman describes whatmakes these recent attacks especially ex-traordinary: The spate of attacks across thecountry left several hundred policemeninjured; many of them were hospitalizedwith serious injuries. In some cases weap-

Why aren’t we doing anything toprotect our police force?

ons were snatched from the law enforcerswhile in most occasions their vehicles werevandalized or torched. The governmentfound it an ominous sign of destabilizing

the country and subversive activities by thefundamentalist party, which are out to foilthe trial of the war criminals. The way po-lice came under attack was somewhat un-precedented and in most cases the policelost the battle to the attackers… Thoughtop police officials continued to say thatthey would not tolerate such violence, wedid not see any decisive action to containit.” In a few extreme cases, the eyes of lawenforcers have even been gauged out,found with weapons dug in their heads. At-tacking police officers is considered to be

a retaliatory offence. Legally in Bangladeshyou can be punished for assaulting an of-ficer by both jail time, three years to beexact, and a fine.

How come then as Jamaat-Shibirforces ransack the country, specifically at-tacking police, are they not being calledout for what they are doing: attacking the

State? There should be no question that anattack on Government forces, such as thepolice, is a direct assault on the Govern-ment itself. An English daily gives terrify-

ing detail of the extent of violence on thelaw enforcement: “Over 3,000 Jamaat-Shibir men came rushing to the police postfrom all direction, taking the law enforc-ers off guard. They hacked the policemen.Injured all over his body, Omar Faruquewas groaning with pain but the unruly mobcontinued hacking him. At one point oneof his eyes was gauged out. By the timethe Jamaat-Shibir men left the scene,Faruque was dead. Four of his colleagueswith severe injuries somehow managedtheir way into hospital…On Thursday,

Jamaat-Shibir men locked at least 19 po-licemen up in a community centre inLohagara, Chittagong and set the place onfire after the law enforcers had taken shel-ter there to escape attacks. Another groupof police then rushed there and rescuedthem.

—Courtesy BD News

...ways should be clear for police protection...

Why are we so willingly offering up our policeforces to Jamaat-Shibir forces? While the police arebeing regularly attacked, no one is coming to defendthe forces which are deployed to safeguard the aver-

age Bangladeshi citizens.

Power form renewable sources

Germany’s Energiewende What Has Been Learned So Far?JOHN MATHEWS

WITHIN the next decade, Germanywill have shifted from a coal- andnuclear-powered economy to a thriving, decentralized system with power

from renewable sources. This transformation, writesJohn Mathews, will not only make a real reductionin global carbon emissions. It is leading to a democ-ratization of economic power that is unprecedentedin the industrial world. Japan’s struck on March 11,2011. While Japan was still clearing away the rubble,Germany got busy reshaping its entire energy sys-tem. Germany’s energy transformation has led to ademocratization of economic power unprecedentedin the industrial world. Within a month, ChancellorAngela Merkel had reversed an earlier decision toslowly phase out nuclear power. And in June 2011,the German parliament voted to abolish nuclearpower altogether.

This marked the beginning of the most funda-mental transformation in energy infrastructure un-leashed by any advanced industrial economy — whatis called, in German, the Energiewende (“energy tran-sition”). Nuclear power is now a dead issue in Ger-many, as far as the country’s future is concerned.Even so, generation of nuclear power still accountedfor 16% of total German electricity in 2012. How-ever, the share is falling (down from 17.2% in 2011)

and will continue to fall. Seven reactors were shutdown immediately as a result of Chancellor Merkel’sannouncement. No new reactors are to be brought onstream, and all existing reactors will have been com-pletely phased out within ten years.

Following the U-turn on this issue by Merkeland her Christian Democratic party, there is no longer

any political support for reviving the nuclear indus-try in Germany. As nuclear’s share of power falls,new renewables are being ramped up at a tremen-dous pace. Generation of solar photovoltaic electric-ity increased by 48%, to 27.6 terawatt hours in 2012,while wind power held steady at 46 terawatt hours,accounting for 11.9% of all electricity.

Other renewables (biomass and hydro) also in-creased, meaning that total renewables rose to 21.9%of total electricity generated in 2012. The proportionof renewables in capacity additions for 2012 is muchhigher, indicating that renewables will be taking moreand more of the load. It is notable that Germany’spromotion of renewables has moved on from marketexpansion policies (like feed-in tariffs) to industry

promotion policies — taking a leaf out of China’sbook.

Elections in September 2013 will provide an in-terim scorecard as to how well Germany’s energytransition is faring politically. German pride in beingthe largest wind power and solar power market in theworld (until recently) moderated as it became clear

that China, with its promotion of the green indus-tries, was benefiting from Germany’s market expan-sion. Now Germany is focusing on building its re-newable industries for both domestic reasons and asa platform for exports. Nevertheless, such a radicalreshaping of the energy sector does not come with-out some hiccups. One of these is that the interim (or“bridging”) power arrangements have involved mar-ginally more coal being burned. Brown coal ligniteincreased a full percentage point to 25.6% of Ger-man electric power generation in 2012 and black coalrose 0.6 percentage points to 19.1%.

Coal thus now accounts for 44.7% of Germany’selectricity generation. But it is destined to fall quicklyas the renewables are ramped up, and fewer new coal-

fired power stations are envisaged. Meanwhile, natu-ral gas has been forced out of the German (and mostlyEuropean) electricity market because of high prices,and because there has been no “fracking” revolution(as yet) in Europe. To claim that the Energiewendemeans simply that more coal is being burned andhence more carbon emitted is to miss the point that

fossil fuels are marked for elimination. Germany’shas undertaken a dramatic upgrade of its nationalpower grid, which will enable it to accommodatehigher and higher levels of fluctuating (renewable)power sources. Official estimates are that •20 billionwill need to be invested in upgrading the grid overthe course of the next decade.The German plans are for three major north-southconnections to be built first, consisting of 380-kVhigh-voltage lines. Installing and equipping the smartgrid is the huge new growth opportunity in Germany.Market reforms: Perhaps the most significant aspectof the Energiewende (and of the years leading up toit) is the almost complete destruction of Germany’serstwhile power generation oligopoly. Over many

years, four large firms had dominated it E.ON, RWE,EnBW and Sweden’s Vattenfall.

Germany and China are the two nations that arefarthest along in building a new energy system basedlargely on renewables. y 2010, these four once-mighty firms accounted for only 6.5% of electricitygenerated in Germany with their role being sup-planted by hundreds of local co-op, municipal andsmall-scale producers that have sprung into exist-ence. This is a democratization of economic powerunprecedented in the industrial world.

So there is no doubting the scale of the changesunleashed by the Energiewende and their long-termimpact. Within the next decade, Germany will haveshifted from a coal- and nuclear-powered industrialeconomy with four large, centralized power produc-ers to a thriving, decentralized system generatingpower from renewable sources all over the country.All of this is managed through a modernized andIT-enhanced smart grid. No central energy “czar”required. Of course, there are critics and not justfrom interests aligned with the former oligopolisticpower producers and the coal/nuclear interests. Thereis fierce debate over whether the costs of the transi-tion can be justified, whether the feed-in tariff sys-tem has run its course, and whether a predominantlyrenewables-driven energy system will be up to pow-ering a modern industrial economy.

— Courtesy: Globalist

Germany and China have both made forceful and determined commitments to the new energysystems while maintaining and then phasing out their existing commitments to a “black” energyeconomy. Both see the upgrading of power grids as the key to accommodating higher and higher

levels of renewables in the electric power mix.

COURT NOTICE

In the Court of AzizullahKalu Additional Session

Judge Phalia

Mukhtar Ahmad VsMohammad Akram etc.Appeal Civil.Memo.

Riaz Ahmad S/oMohammad Ali Caste KumharR/o mohala Hussain Shah adaPahrianwali, MohammadKhan, Mohammad Abbas,Mohammad Ilyas, MohammadIjaz Sons of Fateh MohammadCaste Tarar R/o Thatha AliaTehsil Phalia Distt MandiBahauddin.

Whereas the services ofabove mentioned respon-dents is not possible throughordinary means, therefore,he is directed to attend thiscourt personally or throughhis council on 26-3-13. Oth-erwise the ex party proceed-ings shall be taken againsthim.

Given under my hand andseal of the Court.

Sd/- Additional Session Judge

Phalia

ways to meet its energy needs.”She said that the US was

“supporting large-scale energyprojects in Pakistan that will addsome 900 megawatts to thepower grid by the end of 2013.”Those projects included renovat-ing the power plants at Tarbela,the Mangla Dam, as well asmodernising other plants andbuilding new dams at Satpara andGomal Zam, she added.

Earlier on Monday, Iranianstate television showed footageof Ahmadinejad and Zardarishaking hands and offeringprayers after unveiling a plaqueto mark Pakistan’s involvement.

“The completion of the pipe-line is in the interests of peace,security and progress of the twocountries, it will also consolidatethe economic, political and secu-rity ties of the two nations,” thetwo presidents said in a jointstatement at the ground breakingof the project.

The Unites State’s NationalSecurity Adviser, Tom Donilonhas said that though in ongoingcircumstances ties with Pakistanhave become difficult but alsoessential as well.

While delivering a publicspeech on the US policy towardsAsia at the Asia Society, TomDonilon said that crisis no longerlooms over US relationship withPakistan as over the past year,both the countries have workedhard to overcome the period ofstrain in their ties.

US threatens sanctionsFrom Page 1

“We have had, as you mightimagine, as has been clear, somedifficult issues, but I do think were at a point here where we don thave a crisis hanging over therelationship. We continue to workintensively with the Pakistanis onthe kinds of issues, and we’ll con-tinue to do so”, head added.

The US National SecurityAdviser said that they have hadwith Pakistan a very importantpartnership in the counter-terror-ism area.

And indeed the Pakistanishave suffered thousands of casu-alties in the battle against extrem-ism. He said Pakistan has beenan important partner of the USin its efforts against the most ex-treme elements.

“We have had difficult is-sues between the US and Paki-stan. And indeed we had a longperiod of time when it felt likeour relationship always had a cri-sis. We obviously had a difficulttime after we executed success-fully the Abbottabad raid againstOsama bin Laden in May 2011and there was a reaction.”

The US national security ad-visor also referred to Islamabadclosing the crucial ground linesof communications to Afghani-stan after the “terrible” cross bor-der incident in November 2011in which two dozen Pakistanisoldiers were killed.

“We have worked throughthese issues. I think, actually arenow at a point where we re hav-

ing broader conversations with-out the overlay of some crisis,and talking about kind of morefundamental strategic intereststhat we have in common,” hesaid.

The national security advisersaid the US and Pakistan have incommon a stable Afghanistan atthe end of this process, and thetwo countries are working to-gether on that.

“We both have in commonthe fight against extremist ele-ments, and we continue to workon that,” he said.

Referring to the upcominggeneral elections in Pakistan,Donilon termed it as a milestonetowards strengthening of the de-mocracy in the country, and saidthe US will be “watching that.

The US Ambassador, Rich-ard Olson, Tuesday also called onForeign Minister Hina RabbaniKhar here at the Foreign Officein Islamabad.

During the meeting, they dis-cussed the overall bilateral rela-tionship including progress madeunder the strategic dialogue pro-cess in various spheres of coop-eration.

The Foreign Minister ex-pressed satisfaction on the cur-rent trajectory of the relationsbetween Pakistan and the UnitedStates and hoped that these mul-tifaceted relations would be fur-ther strengthened and deepenedon the basis of mutual respect andcommon interest. —Agencies

He said that the sub-clause3 of the article 218 stated thatthe ECP would take all neces-sary steps in accordance with thelaw to hold elections. However,he added that all the proposalsframed by the ECP needed to beapproved by the president andthat the ECP’s powers were notlimitless.

He said that the parliamen-tary committee on electoral re-forms had worked hard to facili-tate the ECP and the electioncommission delegation in themeeting with the committee hadconceded that the proposal seek-ing thirty days’ period for scru-tiny of the candidates neededconstitutional amendment,which was impossible as theterm of the national assemblywas about to expire.

He said that some of the pro-posals forwarded by the ECPwere mere joke, while the news-papers were printing interviewsof the ECP members. SenatorGhani said that like judges, the

Senators decry ECPFrom Page 1

ECP members could not inter-act with the media directly andthey also could not meet withpoliticians.

He regretted that the parlia-ment was being maligned fortrying to protect criminals,dacoits and thieves but the par-liamentarians were silent.

Senator Jaffer Iqbal Gujjarof PML-N partially agreed to thenotion of Ghani, said that theevery institution should remainin constitutional ambit andshould not violate their powersgiven by the Constitution.

He expressed his apprehen-sion that the government in theguise of standoff with the ECPwanted to postpone the generalelections, adding that there wasnothing wrong if the ECPblocked the entrance of corruptsand looters into the augusthouse.

Jaffer went on saying thatthe ECP sent amended forms onFebruary 23 to the government,but the later has yet to respond,

adding the ECP should also notexceed its constitutional limits,however the government’s com-mittee should have to meet withCEC and asked him to simplifythe form so that the matter couldbe resolved amicably.

Senator Kazim Khan saidthat the role of media during theentire episode was quite strange,adding that Fakhruddin G.Ebrahim was an honest person,however, he could not have thepower to decide about someonewhether or not he or she was aburglar and crook. He said thatthe Pholin Devi was a dacoit, butshe became member of the par-liament.

Abdul Haseeb Khan saidthat it was mandatory for theECP to hold elections on timeso as the democratic processcould continue. He said therewas no need to discuss thesteps being taken by the ECPas casting doubts over theECP’s intentions may becounterproductive. —APP

Pakistan People’s Party.Advisers will be taken one eachfrom Q-League and PML-Func-tional. The sources said the pro-vincial caretaker government islikely to be announced on Fri-day. Meantime, the oppositionleader chaired the meeting of theopposition parties at his cham-ber attended by among othersFunctional League’s Jam MadadAli and NPP’s Abid Jatoi. Theparties reached consensus togive three names for the interimchief minister.—Online

Sindh caretakerFrom Page 1

sion, Emergency was declared inthe district hospital Bannu.

While some officials said theblast was caused by a remote-controlled device to target a po-lice party, the independentsources said two motorcyclisttargeted the Police mobile vanwith explosives.

Earlier at least Seven peopleincluding laborers were injuredin a blast near the residence ofKhyber Pukhtunkhwa Informa-tion Minister Mian Iftikhar whoremained unhurt as he was inPeshawar at the time of the blast.

Rescue teams were dis-patched to the site as while po-lice and law enforcing agenciescordoned off the area. The in-jured were rushed to the nearbyNoshehra hospital for treatmentwhere they were stated to be outof danger.

According to police, someunknown miscreants had plantedexplosives near a wall of a housethat exploded with a bang leav-ing at least seven peoplewounded adding the blast tookplace when the laborers startedwork at a site where constructionwas underway.

The house of Mian Iftikharwas near the site of blast. It maybe recalled that Mian Iftikhar hadlost his only son in a blast nearhis residence in Noshehra a fewyears back.

In the mean while a policepersonnel was killed while defus-ing a bomb in Matani area in theoutskirts of Peshawar on Tuesday.On a tip-off the Bomb DisposalSquad (BDS) rushed to Adeezaiarea in Matani to defuse the bomb.However, unfortunately the bombexploded leaving the personneldead on the spot.

4 killedFrom Page 1

a number of areas. A statementreleased from last night’s meet-ing of the 27-nation bloc showedthe EU’s keen desire to “re-ener-gizing the 5-Year EngagementPlan” and is in the process of pre-paring high level ministerialmeetings with the new Pakistanigovernment. It also highlightedpossibility of a third EU-Pakistansummit.

Sajjad Karim MEP, Chair-man of the European ParliamentFriends of Pakistan Group, wel-comed the outcome of the meet-ing. He said:

“This commitment from theUK foreign secretary, WilliamHague, and the EU foreign affairschief, Catherine Ashton, to Pa-kistan is real. There is a lot ofsupport for Pakistan and in theEU they have a powerful ally.”

“All eyes will focus on Pa-kistan for these crucial elections,as the stability of the country andthe region is of paramount im-portance.” The British MEP is setto co-host a dinner tonight withthe Ambassador of Pakistan tothe EU, Belgium and Luxem-bourg, Munawar Saeed Bhatti,and will feature an exclusivegroup of cross party MEPs in-cluding Syed Kamall, RichardHowitt and Michael Gahler. re-siding —Online

EU reaffirmsFrom Page 1

IP gas pipelineFrom Page 1

The pipeline on Iranian sideis almost complete and it will nottake much time to reach to thepoint on the border from wherePakistan will get the supply.However, Pakistani section of784 kms from border toNawabshah will be completed in15 months at a cost of 1.5 b.

On completion, officials saidPakistan will save $ 2.4 billionannually. According to officials,the imported gas will help to pro-duce 4000 MW electricity pro-viding energy security to thecountry. The nation can hope aneasy summer next year.

commission’s recommendationbut the premier soughtsuggestion from secretary hous-ing and the decision remainedpending. Petitioner’s counsel Col(retd.) Inam Rahim told court thatthe prime minister had only is-sued orders for the promotion ofhis son-in-law, adding the incum-bent government has completedhat-trick in contempt notices.

On this, Chief Justice ofIslamabad High Cout issuedcontempt notice to Prime Min-ister Raja Pervez Ashraf, hisPrincipal Secretary Ayub Qaziand Deputy Secretary Establish-ment.

IHC contemptFrom Page 1

Wassan reminded that justlike Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhuttowho rejected foreign pressure anddecided to go before atomicprogramme, Asif Ali Zardari alsostarted these projects to eliminatescarcity of energy and for theeconomic uplift of commonpeople, he added.—Online

New electionsFrom Page 1

nomination paper forms for print-ing. The CJP remarked “consti-tution of the country is voice of180 million people and the con-stitution talks of free and fairelections. We will withdraw ourdecision if some one says that fairelection is not wanted”.

He further remarked “ SChas made interpretation with ref-erence to the powers of EC. WillSC ask from law ministry for giv-ing its decision. The court has toprotect and defend the constitu-tion. EC will have to ensure elec-tion is held in transparent man-ner. Hearing of the case will beconducted on day to day basis toensure implementation of court’s

SC asks ECP to exercise powersFrom Page 1

‘Nirbhay’ (fearless) is be-ing seen as an important stepforward to India’ missile arse-nal more potent. An official con-firmation on the outcome of thetest fire is awaited.

The missile, under develop-ment since 2007, has a range of1,000 kms - similar to the USTomahawk, which flies like anaircraft. It has been designed tohave good loitering capability,control and guidance, a high de-gree of accuracy in terms of im-pact and very good stealth fea-tures. The missile has been de-veloped by the Aeronautical De-velopment Establishment, a De-fence Research and Develop-ment Organisation laboratorybased at Bangalore. —Agencies

India’s cruiseFrom Page 1

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—The MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM)Tuesday announced the releaseof the “Application Form” forthe general elections of 2013 andasked the aspiring candidatescould obtain the form from theCentral Election Cell of theMQM at Nine Zero or zone anddistrict level offices of the MQMfree of cost.

The MQM Co-OrdinationCommittee Deputy Convener DrFarooq Sattar said this while ad-dressing a press conference heldTuesday at the KhursheedBegum Secretariat in Azizabad,the headquarter of the MQM.

Dr Sattar said that theMuttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) was the only politicalparty in Pakistan that did not takerecourse to tall claims, mislead-ing slogans and fake promises for

the rights of the people belong-ing to poor and middle classes.The MQM believed in makingpractical efforts and it had beenmaking practical efforts for theirrights since the very beginning.It had been sending them in na-tional and provincial assemblies,Senate and local government in-stitutions purely on merit by set-ting aside the prejudices of na-tionality, ethnicity, community,sect and religion.

Common people could noteven think about reaching theseelected houses before the arrivalof the MQM.

He said that the obsolete po-litical system running in thecountry had given rise to a cul-ture of political dynasties. Thatdynastic system had permeatedin all political parties to the ex-tent that major political parties inthe country had become familyproperties. It was because of that

system that the family membersof a handful of families had al-ways been ruling the country. Incontrast to this culture, AltafHussain was the only politicalleader of the country who hadnever contested any election forthe national or provincial assem-bly or the Senate.

The MQM laid the founda-tion of a revolution, as far as theprovince of Sindh was con-cerned, many years ago by intro-ducing genuine public leadershipbelonging to the poor and middleclasses.

That revolution had not beenconfined to Sindh as the revolu-tionary message of the MQMunder the leadership of the MQMwas attracting people in otherparts of the country as well andMQM candidates had beenelected in the legislative assem-blies of Azad Jammu and Kash-mir and Gilgit-Baltistan as well.

MQM announces nominationforms release for elections-2013

decision. He further observed “court be told how much amend-ments have been proposed in thelight of decision.

The AG said “all want elec-tions are held in transparent man-ner in the country. Governmentis not creating any hurdle andextending cooperation at all levelon this count. The CJP remarked“EC can make amendments innomination paper form on itsown. As to why EC considers it-self weak despite court’s back-ing. SC verdict has come and itis responsibility of all the insti-tutions and the federation toimplement it”.

He further observed” SC hasinterpreted article 218 and nowEC should ensure holding ofelections. The court while ad-journing the hearing of the casetill Wednesday has sought detailsfrom EC with reference toamendments in the nominationpaper forms. Meanwhile, Elec-tion Commission has said it willstand by its decision on holdingelections as per new nominationforms even if the president AsifAli Zardari does not approvenomination paper draft.

“Whatever decision was tobe taken by EC has been taken.EC will not budge from it in anyway. —Online

The sources further said an-other effort will be made to bringhim round today, in case hebaulks, then the governor rulewill be extended in a joint ses-sion of the Parliament to be calledon March 14. —Online

Governor ruleFrom Page 1

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—First Muslim BritishParliamentarian and President ofSafe Communities Pakistan(SCP) Chaudhary MuhammadSarwar has asked the governmentof Pakistan to establish speedycourts and culprits involved inJoseph Colony incident should betaken to task, as the incident hasdamaged the image of Pakistan.

He expressed these viewswhile distributing cash Rs 25000for each home among membersof affected families of JosephColony of Badami Bagh duringa ceremony organized by SCP atAl-Hamra Arts Council on Tues-day. The ceremony was attendedby the Director General PunjabEmergency Service (Rescue1122) Dr. Rizwan Naseer, Bishopof Gulf and Iran Azad Marshal,Chairman Lahore Citizen Com-munity Forum Mian Tahir Javed,Secretary General Peace andHarmony Network of Pakistan

Javed William, Chairman Paki-stani Chamber of Commerce ofUK Razi Khan, Rotary ClubPresident Pervaiz Khalid andmembers of provincial assemblyincluding Khalil Tahir Sindhu,Mian Naseer Ahmed and others.

In his welcome address DGRescue Punjab Dr. Rizwan Naseerexpressed his deep grief and sor-row over this unfortunate incidentand said we have rescued 1.7 mil-lion victims without any discrimi-nation of cast, creed and religion.He said the main focus of Rescue1122 was to establish a Safer Pa-kistan where everyone couldsafely live and travel.

Besides condemning the in-cident, Chaudhary Sarwar saidthis incident was the challengefor Judiciary of Pakistan as theJudiciary of UK had taken speedyaction against those involved inLondon Riots and put them be-hind the bars within three weeksafter grabbing footages fromCCTV Cameras.

Call for speedy trial of culpritsinvolved in Joseph Colony tragedy

of the PMLF would file a petitionin the court of law to seek cancel-lation of the deal.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Gov-ernor Dr Ishrat Ul Ebad Khan saidthat the Safe City Project (SCP)would be largest one in the his-tory of Pakistan and would provea mile stone for the economicgrowth of the country. The projectwould pave ways for the countryto emerge as the developed coun-try and would incorporate the cul-tural heritage of the country. Anew face of the country would beestablished though the tallestbuildings under the project. Heexpressed these views in a meet-

PML-F to challenge saleof island to US Company

From Back Page

ing in Karachi on Tuesday.Former Federal Minister for Portsand Shipping Babar Khan Ghauriand US investor Thomas Cameroand Ronald were present. HamidIlyas and Ahmed Hayat repre-sented the Bahria Town.

The Bahria Town representa-tives briefed the Governor aboutthe project, which revealed thatthe SCP would be spread over16000-acre, which would be ex-panded upto 20000-acres.

The Governor on the occasionsaid, that beside the establishmentof the SCP, other islands in thevicinity of the SCP would also beupgraded with modern facilities.

Fed Govt metedout a step-motherlytreatment to Punjabover load-shedding

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Minis-ter Muhammad Shahbaz Sharifhas said that Punjab governmenthas served the people with anexemplary dedication during thelast five years and, despite worstopposition and difficulties cre-ated by federal government, pro-vincial government has com-pleted record projects aimed atprogress, prosperity and develop-ment of the people.

He said that federal govern-ment meted out a step-motherlytreatment to Punjab overloadshedding and failure to solveenergy crisis during last fiveyears speaks volumes about thecriminal negligence of federalgovernment.

He said the incompetent fed-eral rulers looted and plunderedthe hard-earned money of thepeople and Zardari gang has de-stroyed Pakistan. He said ZarBaba Forty Thieves are engagedin gimmickry but people areaware of political fraudulence ofZardari. He said, if Allah Al-mighty gave another opportu-nity to serve, darkness from thecountry would be removedwithin two years and decisionswould be taken in the best inter-est of Pakistan.

The Chief Minister wastalking to a representative del-egation of trading communityand industrialists at ModelTown, here today. Member Na-tional Assembly Pervaiz Malik,Member Provincial AssemblyHafiz Mian Nauman, SecretaryIndustries, Advisor MuhammadAli Mian, presidents of variousmarkets, office-bearers, mem-bers of industrial estates and alarge number of traders werepresent on the occasion.

Presidentpromises on

time electionsFrom Back Page

with allies parties and otherstakeholders was working forensuring peace and stability in thecity as he said safer Karachi wasvital for economic developmentof the whole country.

He said that the governmentwas taking all possible steps forlasting peace and stability inKarachi including strengtheningthe civilian components of thelaw enforcing agencies.

The President said that gov-ernment was close to completeits tenure and added that nextelections in the country will beheld on time.

He said that improvement ofthe health care facilities at dis-trict and grass root level is a pri-ority of the government and forthis purpose; the president statedthat Sindh government undertookto up-grade District Head Quar-ter and Taluka Head QuarterHospitals in 17 rural districts andexpressed pleasure that theproject was progressing well.

26 political partiesapply for symbolsISLAMABAD—Around 26 po-litical parties have filed appli-cations in the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan for allotment ofelectoral symbols to representthem in the forthcoming elec-tions. Chief of All PakistanMuslim League, PervezMusharraf applied for electoralsymbols of ‘cannon’, ‘horse’ and‘eagle’ to represent his politicalparty, while Dr A Q Khan hasapplied for the symbol of ‘mis-sile’. In addition, MQM hasopted for ‘kite’ and PakistanAwami Tehreek (Tahir-ul-QadriGroup) has already been allot-ted the electoral symbol of‘moon’.—Online

Musharraf toreturn on March 24DUBAI —Former presidentPervez Musharraf has decided toreturn home on March 24. Ac-cording to details, prominentleaders of All Pakistan MuslimLeague (APML), workers andworld media representatives willaccompany former presidentPervez Musharraf on his returnto Karachi from Dubai on March24. The APML leaders andworkers have been advised toreach Dubai on March 23. Thesources said that an advertis-ing campaign will also belaunched before Musharraf’sreturn.—Online

2 drown as boatcapsizesKANDHKOT—Two peopledrowned while 3 were rescuedwhen their boat capsized whilefishing behind Lake View Parkin the murky waters early Tues-day morning. Two As per de-tails, five people were fishingwhen their boat capsized. Res-cue workers managed to rescuethree people while 2 drownedwhich included 35 year old FazilSabzoi and 10 year old SalahMajid Sabzoi. The two are saidto be cousins. The dead body of10 year old Salah has not beenretrieved yet. It merits mention-ing that the incident occurred injurisdiction of Kandhkot Policestation B Section, however nopolicemen arrived to help thedrowning fishermen and neitherany case has been registered.The locals through self helpmanaged to rescue the 3people.—Online

Non-bailablewarrants forBalochistan MPQUETTA—While hearing par-liamentarians’ fake degreescase, district and sessions judgeHakeem Khan on Tuesday is-sued non-bailable arrest warrantagainst the PPP member of theprovincial assembly Haji AliMadad Jattak. The warrant wasissued after the MP did not ap-pear in the court despite sum-mon notices being issued to him.The court ordered MPA AliMadad Jattak to appear in thenext hearing. Later, the courtadjourned the hearing till March19. —INP

Five outlawsarrestedARIFWALA—Five outlawswere arrested by police Tuesdayfrom various areas of the city forpossessing drugs, liquor and il-legal arms. According to details,Zakir Hussain and BashirAhmed were arrested with li-quor and 120 gram Charas whileMuhammad Hanif, MuhammadYaseen and Mukhtar Ahmedwere nabbed for having threepistols. —APP

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —North Korea’s young leaderurged front-line troops to be on“maximum alert” for a potentialwar as a state-run newspapersaid Pyongyang had carried outa threat to cancel the 1953 armi-stice that ended the KoreanWar.Kim Jong Un told artillerytroops stationed near disputedwaters that have seen severalbloody clashes in past years that“war can break out right now,”according to a report by NorthKorean state media.

Kim’s visit and the armisticeclaim are part of a torrent of an-gry North Korean rhetoric thathas followed last week’s U.N.sanctions over Pyongyang’s Feb.12 nuclear test. Pyongyang hasalso vowed to strike the UnitedStates with nuclear weapons.t is unclear, however, what will

come next and whether NorthKorea will match its words withaction. South Korea’s DefenseMinistry said Tuesday there wereno signs that North Korea wouldattack or conduct more nuclear ormissile tests anytime soon and thatPyongyang was merely trying toapply “psychological pressure” onthe South. A U.N. spokesman saidthat Pyongyang cannot unilater-ally dissolve the armistice, whichis still valid. Pyongyang is alsoyears away from acquiring thesmaller, lighter nuclear warheadsneeded to pose a credible nuclearmissile threat to the UnitedStates.Indeed, several signspointed to business as usual be-tween the Koreas despite the blus-ter. North Korea apparently cutone telephone and fax hotline at avillage straddling the Demilita-rized Zone between the countries,

but otherwise there have been nosubstantial operational changes,Seoul’s Unification Ministry andJoint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday.There are at least two other work-ing communication channels be-tween the Koreas. As they didMonday, the two Koreas used aseparate military hotline Tuesdayto allow hundreds of South Kore-ans to cross the border to a jointlyrun factory park in the North Ko-rean border town of Kaesong, ac-cording to the South’s UnificationMinistry.

Much of the bellicosity is seenas an effort to shore up loyaltyamong citizens and the militaryfor Kim Jong Un.Still, NorthKorea’s anger, and Seoul’s sternrebuttals, is boosting animosityand causing worries on an alreadytense Korean Peninsula. The ri-vals this week are also holding

dueling military drills.U.S. Na-tional Security adviser TomDonilon told the Asia Society inNew York that Pyongyang’sclaims may be “hyperbolic,” butthe United States will protect itsallies.”There should be no doubt:We will draw upon the full rangeof our capabilities to protectagainst, and to respond to, thethreat posed to us and to our alliesby North Korea,” Donilon said.

Aside from the nuclearthreats, Pyongyang has so far onlymade a somewhat mysteriouspromise to strike its enemies at atime and place of its own choos-ing. This alarms many, however,as two sudden attacks blamed onNorth Korea killed 50 South Ko-reans in 2010.Seoul has respondedto North Korean threats withtough talk of its own and hasplaced its troops on high alert.The

North Korean governmentmade no formal announcementon its repeated threats to scrapthe 60-year-old armistice, butthe country’s main newspaper,Rodong Sinmun, reported thatthe armistice was nullifiedMonday as Pyongyang had saidit would.The North has threat-ened to nullify the armistice sev-eral times before, and in 1996,after one such vow, it sent hun-dreds of armed troops into aborder village. The troops laterwithdrew.

Despite the RodongSinmun report, U.N. spokes-man Martin Nesirky said thearmistice is still valid and stillin force because the armisticeagreement had been adoptedby the U.N. General Assemblyand can’t be dissolved unilat-erally. —Agencies

N Korea’s Kim warns at border war to erupt right now

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The NationalAssembly on Tuesday passeda private member bill to ex-empt electoral candidates frompersonal appearing before re-turning officers at the time offiling nomination papers forthe upcoming general election.

The hand-written billmoved by opposition memberZahid Hamid of the PakistanMuslim League-N wasadopted unanimously to re-scind the amendment in theRepresentation of People Act,1976, made by former Presi-dent Gen (Retd) PervezMusharraf.

The bill was unanimously

NA exempts electoral candidatesfrom appearing before ROs

Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill, 2013, passed

Gunmen killdistrict electioncommissioner

STAFF REPORTER

QUETTA—Armed gunmen onTuesday shot dead District Elec-tion Commissioner MuhammadZiaullah Qasmi in Quetta, policesaid.

Muhammad Tariq, the Super-intendent of Police in Quetta saidtwo armed gunmen riding a mo-torcycle opened fire at the vehicleof the Election Commission offi-cial in Munir Mengal road area ofthe city.

Muhammad Ziaullah Qasmiwas the District Election Commis-sioner for Quetta district.

Tariq said the Qasmi initiallysustained serious wounds. Tariqsaid Qasmi received eight bullets.However, “Qasmi succumbed toinjuries on his way to hospital,”he said. The driver of the Elec-tion Commission official was alsoinjured during the attack. The as-sailants managed to escape fromthe spot. “The incident seems tobe an act of target killing,” said apolice official who requested notto be named.

IHC restoressurcharge on CNG

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The IslamabadHigh Court restored on Tuesdayimposition of surcharge in theprice of Compressed NaturalGas (CNG). A two-member di-visional bench of the IHC com-prising of Justice Riaz AhmedKhan and Justice Anwarul HaqQadri resumed the hearing overa review petition submitted bythe Federal Ministry of Petro-leum against the court’s earlierorder which had declared the im-position of surcharge in the priceof CNG as unlawful.

The divisional bench over-ruled the earlier decision of itssingle member bench and al-lowed for the collection of sur-charge on CNG until a detailedverdict was issued on thematter.A price hike of at least Rs13.29 would come into affectafter the court’s decision.

A single member bench ofthe IHC comprising of JusticeShaukat A. Siddiqui had de-clared the imposition of sur-charge on the price of CNG asunlawful on Feb 1 this year.

LAHORE: Residents of Joseph Colony collecting their belongings

approved as Law MinisterFarooq H Naek said theamendment was made byMusharraf to block former Pa-kistan People’s Party chiefBenazir Bhutto and PML-Nchief Nawaz Sharif, who wereboth in self-imposed exile atthe time, from contesting elec-tions.

Meanwhile, the NationalAssembly Tuesday unanimouslypassed “The Prohibition of Cor-poral Punishment Bill, 2013”.The bill provides for makingprovisions for prohibition ofcorporal punishment againstchildren.

The bill was moved by Dr.Attiya Inayatullah.

Replying to a call attention

notice moved by Dr. Azra FazalPechuho and others regardinglack of maternal care and childheath care in government hos-pitals in Islamabad, Minister forCapital Administration and De-velopment Nazar MuhammadGondal informed the House thatthe capital has the best maternaland child care facilities.

He said 200 beds facility isavailable at PIMS for this pur-pose while 174 beds at the Poly-clinic Hospital are also meantfor maternal and child health. Hesaid latest facilities are also be-ing provided at 3 Rural HealthCentres, 14 Basic Health Unitsand National Institute of Health.

Four bills were introducedin the House on Tuesday.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—President Asif AliZardari had said that the electionswould be held in the country asper the schedule given by the Con-stitution and it would strengthenthe democracy in the country.“The country’s future is condi-tioned by the promotion of thedemocracy through strong demo-cratic institutions”, he said.

He said all conspiracies aimedat deferring the elections wouldbe foiled and the establishment ofthe interim government would bein strict accordance with the pro-visions of the Constitution of Pa-kistan. He was addressing inau-gural ceremony of various publicprojects including ShaheedBenazir Bhutto Health Scheme,Shaheed Benazir Bhutto HousingScheme, and Shaheed BenazirBhutto Expressway.

The developmental projectsinaugurated Tuesday includedfoundation stone laying ofShaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Ex-

President promiseson time elections

Roti, Kapra aur Makan was a commitmentpressway from Garho to ShahBundar, inauguration of newbuildings of District HeadquarterHospitals at Badin, foundationlaying of District HeadquarterHospitals Dadu, EmergencyTrauma Centers at Taluka levelBadin, Shikarpur, and the launchof Township Scheme in Karachiunder the Benazir Shaheed Hous-ing Project. Those present at theceremony included among othersGovernor Sindh, Dr Ishrat UlEbad Khan, Chief Minister Sindh,Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Lt. Gen(Retd) Syed Iftikhar HussainShah, and Managing DirectorZulfikarabad Development Au-thority, federal and provincialMinisters, parliamentarians,MPAs and other high officials.

The President said thatpresent government while pursu-ing its development agenda in thepast five years accorded top pri-ority to the infrastructure devel-opment and provision of basichealth and housing facilities to thepeople, adding that all the projects

inaugurated and many more to becompleted soon have been under-taken to fulfill the pledges ourgovernment made with the peopleof the country.

He while commenting on thefoundation stone of The Presidentsaid that Shaheed Zulfiqar AliBhutto Expressway from Gharoto Shah Bandur said that the 44Kilometer long road will contrib-ute to the economic developmentof the area and the well being ofthe people.

He expressed hope that theproject after completion will pro-vide easy access to fishermen onsides of River Indus and wouldhelp in alleviating poverty, devel-opment of seafood industry andminimizing losses due to lack ofstorage and transportation facili-ties. The President during hisspeech while referring to the Lawand order situation in Karachi,said that pursuing reconciliatoryapproach, the government to-gether

ISLAMABAD—The Supreme Courton Tuesday grilled a counsel witha number of inquisitive queriesregarding his stance over promul-gation of Action in Aid of CivilPower Regulation and the role ofsecurity forces in maintaining lawand order in the tribal areas. The three-member bench ofChief Justice Iftikhar MuhammadChaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmedand Justice Sh Azmat Saeed re-sumed hearing of pleas seekingrelease of Adiyala Jail missingprisoners, who were arrested andconfined in an interment center atParachinar, Kurram Agency.

The Chief Justice remindedGhulam Nabi, counsel for Sena-tor Prof Muhammad Ibrahim ofthe Jamaat-i-Islami, that his cli-ent was a legislator and he shouldrealize his capacity, which wasdifferent from that of ordinary citi-zens.

The counsel said that theregulation violated fundamental

rights of the tribesmen and wasinstrumental in giving a free handto security forces.

The Chief Justice told himthat if he had any grievanceagainst the misuse of these laws,he should better approach a highcourt. “Bring out any adjourn-ment motion your client had eversubmitted in the Upper House.Does not he know what is hap-pening in his province (KPK),” headded.

“Your client has taken oathfor the protection of Constitution.If you want then the bench willsend your case to th PeshawarHigh Court”, he told the counselafter Nabi referred to a news clip-ping regarding the PHC ChiefJustice’s remarks.

Rejecting his arguments, theCJ told him that his propositionswere not acceptable to anyone inthis country and advised him thathis approach and posture towardsthe issue should be different. Jus-

tice Sh Azmat Saeed questionedhim whether he wanted to bringin peace keeping forces instead ofsecurity forces. Upon bench’s in-structions, the counsel read out thepreamble of Regulation.

The CJ asked him to recordhis statement that there was nothreat to law and order situationand miscreants did not operateacross the country, which wouldbe the basis for challenging viresof the relevant law. Justice ShAzmat Saeed questioned whetherunder the said law it was wrongto warn the civilians to vacate anarea in the tribal belt for carryingout an operation against the mis-creants. “Do you want civiliancausalities?” he asked.

The CJ supplemented hisbrother judge’s remarks by ad-dressing the counsel: “You wantto say that along with miscreants,civilians should also be killed oraction against miscreants shouldnot be taken.” —APP

SC grills counsel over contentionsregarding FATA Regulation

ISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf expressinggrief over the unfortunate inci-dent in Joseph Colony, BadamiBagh Lahore, has assured theChristian community that thoseresponsible would be brought tobook.

The Prime Minister wastalking to a delegation of Chris-tians hailing from JosephColony, who met him along withSyed Asif Hashmi, ChairmanEvacuee Trust Property Board atPrime Minister’s House here onTuesday. Dr Paul Bhatti, Advi-sor/Minister In-Charge, Minis-try of National Harmony andAkram Masih Gill, Minister ofState for National Harmonywere also present.

The PM said the entire na-tion is shocked and saddened onthis incident in which our non-Muslim brothers where sub-jected to violence which is un-becoming of a civilized society.

He assured the delegationthat those found negligent inprotecting the life and propertyof the community will be sever-ally dealt with.

Pervez paid tribute to themembers of Christian commu-nity who had shown restraintand tolerance and played theirrole sensibly to the keep the situ-

Punjab govt asked to ensure non-Muslims protectionation under control.

The prime minister said thatwhile the federal governmentwill take every possible measureto mitigate the situation, it is theresponsibility of provincial gov-ernments to maintain law andorder and provide security to the

people.The Prime Minister saidthat he is directing the provin-cial governments to ensure allpossible security to Christians.The PM announced a grant ofRs1m for a woman who waskilled in riots after the inci-dent.—INP3 more die in

Karachi violenceKARACHI—At least three per-sons were gunned down in onehour in fresh spate of violenceat different places here on Tues-day.

In first incident, one manwas shot dead by some uniden-tified armed personals near Dara-ul - Uloom early in the morn-ing.Upon receiving informa-tion, Police reached the sceneand shifted him to Jinnah hos-pital for autopsy.

Later on, police claimed thatthe identity of the deceasedcould not be ascertained yet.

In another incident, someunknown armed personalsgunned down one man in NazimAbad and he was shifted toAbbasi shaheed hospital whileone more tortured dead bodywas recovered in the area ofLyari.

Police claimed that the de-ceased was kidnapped and laterwas gunned down.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Pakistan MuslimLeague Functional Sindh chap-ter General Secretary ImtiazAhmed Shaikh had said that thePMLF would move courtagainst government’s recent stepfor sale of the islands off the portcity. The PMLF would resistwith full force against all stepsthat would carry any negativeimpacts on the sovereignty ofthe country. He was talking tothe newsmen at the PMLF’sFunctional House Tuesday.

Shaikh said that the govern-ment had during five years ru-ined all national institutions andthe country was pushed on theverge of bank default. The cor-

PML-F to challenge saleof island to US Company

Ebad supports projectruption in the country had bro-ken all previous records.

He said that the people ofSindh had in past rejectedgovernment’s decision for saleof islands and would now reactagain with full force to compelthe government to withdraw itsdecision and cancel the deal withthe foreign companies.

The ruling of the apex courtwas valid for the land in theclose vicinity of the coastal belt.The PMLF would challenge thedecision in the court of law andwould take to street till the de-cision was withdrawn.

The allotment of land of theisland was an illegal act by thegovernment and in this regard.A panel of lawyers

Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

AN oral painkiller called Nucynta ER(tapentadol extended-release tablets),has been approved by the U.S. Food

and Drug Administration (FDA), JanssenPharmaceuticals, Inc. announced. The medi-cation is designed to be taken twice daily forthe control of moderate to severe chronic painin adults when a continuous,24-hour opioid analgesic isneeded for an extended pe-riod. The immediate-releaseversion of Nucynta wasFDA approved in 2008 forthe treatment of acute painin adults aged at least 18years.

Nucynta ER is availablein 50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg,200 mg and 250 mgstrengths.

Data from the Centers ofDisease Control and Preven-tion and the American PainFoundation indicate thatover 42 million Americansaged 20 and over suffer fromchronic pain, although no-body knows what the exactprevalence is. Chronic pain is the most com-mon cause of long-term disability, and ap-proximately one-third of all Americans willexperience severe chronic pain at some stagein their lives.

However, a study published by the Ameri-can Pain Society suggests that despite treat-ments already available, patients are still inserious need of further therapies to help man-age their pain properly and appropriately.

Chronic pain means long-term pain, whileacute pain is short term.

Paul Chang, M.D., Vice President, Medi-cal Affairs, Internal Medicine, Janssen Phar-maceuticals, Inc. explained:

“In clinical trials, Nucynta ER demon-strated proven efficacy for treating moder-ate to severe chronic pain. We are pleasedwith the FDA’s decision to approve NucyntaER as it represents an important new optionto help people with chronic pain.”

Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Re-search & Development,L.L.C. and Grünenthal GmbHconducted a double-blind, ran-domized, active-and/or pla-cebo-controlled phase 3 inves-tigation. They also evaluatedthe safety profile of the drugwith over 1,100 participantswith moderate to severechronic (long-term) pain overa 12-month period. NucyntaER was found to be safe andeffective - the trial research-ers also reported a favorabletolerability profile as well asdiscontinuation rates.

Sunil J. Panchal, M.D.,President, National Institute ofPain, said:

“Chronic pain is difficultto manage, and even with the

treatments available today, it can be a chal-lenge to balance pain relief with a patient’sability to tolerate the medicine.

People with chronic pain will continueto need additional options, so an approvallike this is welcome news for this commu-nity and the people who suffer from this of-ten debilitating condition.”

To support the appropriate and effec-tive management of chronic pain, JanssenPharmaceuticals Inc. believes it is also es-sential to support educational programsabout the safe and responsible use of painmedicines and the prevention of inappro-priate use.

Nucynta ER approved for moderateto severe chronic pain control

ISLAMABAD: Students cleaning area before attending class in open air school run by volunteers at a park in sector F-6.

ISLAMABAD: Chairman CDA Syed Tahir Shahbaz offering dua after planting a sapling toformally inaugurate spring tree planting campaign.

ASHRAF ANSARI

IS L A M A B A D—The LibyanCharge’d Affairs’ Mr. Abas S.M. Mezwghi hosted receptionat a hotel to celebrate LibyanIndependence day and the sec-ond anniversary of the 17 Feb-ruary Libyan Revolution.

A large number of ambas-sadors, senior diplomats, civiland military officials as wellas prominent people belong-ing to various walks of life at-tended the glittering recep-tion. A number of politicalpersonalities was also there.The chief guest was State Min-ister for Communications MirDost Muhammad Mazari, whojoined the host and otherguests in cutting the ceremo-nial cake. National Anthemsof Libya and Pakistan wereplayed on the occasion.

The Libyans celebratetheir national days with muchmore enthusiasm since theyoverthrew dictatorship. This

was evident from the fervour that prevailed at the reception. Pakistan and Libya enjoy very cordial and friendly re-lations. Relations between thetwo countries are not new.They are very deep rooted go-ing back to early days of Pa-kistan. King Idris Al-Senussisent a delegation in 1948-1949 to theUnited Nationsto attain the in-dependence ofLibya and wasamong the del-egation Syed Abdul RazzaqShalgov and Syed Omar FaiqShinneb, all the expenses in-cluding (the expense of ) tick-ets and delegation were pro-vided by Pakistan andPakistan’s founder Mr.Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Paki-stan also stood by Libya at theUnited Nations till the UnitedNations adopted its on No-vember 21, 1949, which rec-ommended that Libya shouldbe granted independence bythe end of December 1951.The flag of Libya, symbol of

Libya celebrates independence day and the revolution

ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Communications Mir Dost Muhammad Mazari, Charged’ Affaires of Libya Embassy Abas M Mezwghi, Ambassador of Sudan Mohammed EldieAli, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia Abdul Aziz Ibrahim Al-Ghadeer, Ambassador of JordanNawaf Saraireh, Ambassador of Tunisia Mourad Bourehla and others cutting the cake onthe occasion of Independence Day of Libya.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

its independence was de-signed by a Pakistani .People of two brotherlycountries share the bonds ofbrotherhood and friendship.Bilateral cooperation in allfields is the priority of both

the countries.Libya won

its indepen-dence aftergreat sacrificesand a long

struggle marked by heroismand dedication of its leaders.King Idris established hisarmed cadres in 1940, Egyptand started armed struggleagainst the colonial power.He returned to his homelandand declared Libya’s inde-pendence on December 24,1951.

There was military coupin 1969 which lasted for 42years. Libya came out ofdictatorial rule after a spir-ited struggle and now is aproud democratic country.

ISLAMABAD—The CapitalDevelopment Authority(CDA) kicked off Spring TreePlantation Campaign–2013 onTuesday, during which500,000 saplings will beplanted across the federal capi-tal.

Chairman CDA, SyedTahir Shahbaz formally inau-gurated the Spring Tree Plan-tation Campaign–2013 byplanting a sapling at the green

CDA launches spring treeplanting campaign

belt between Sectors E-10 andE-11. Members of the CDABoard, officers and officials ofthe civic authority, childrenfrom different schools, envi-ronmentalists, special chil-dren, representatives of NGOs,government employees, offi-cials of Islamabad Police, andpeoples from all walks of lifewere the participants of thecolourful event charged withkeen interest and enthusiasm

of the school children.Speaking on the occasion

Syed Thair Shahbaz said thattree plantation is our nationalas well as religious responsi-bility as deforestation in thecountry has increased the de-mand of tree plantation onmammoth level to meet therequired green cover for bet-ter environment. Every citizenshould plant trees to over comethe shortage of forests.—INP

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The All PakistanCNG Association (APCNGA)on Tuesday started hunger striketo build pressure on the govern-ment to bring an end to unjustload shedding for CNG sector inthe country.

While speaking to the mediapersons at their hunger strikecamp Chairman CNG associa-tion Ghiyas Paracha said that weare protesting against anti-CNGpolicies of the government, po-litically motivated gas distribu-tion, 5-day gas load shedding inPunjab, continuous maltreat-ment, and abuse of power byauthorities.Office bearers ofAPCNGA from across countrywere also attending the hugerstrike camp. Ghiyas Paracha saidthat in a bid to introduce costly

APCNGA startshunger strike

imported LNG and LPG to ben-efit few influential, governmenthas been systematically de-stroying CNG sector which willbe strongly resisted.

He said that efforts to famil-iarize masses with costly liquidfuels met with failure despitethe fact that gas crisis were en-gineered to justify thewrongdoing.However, he said,in the process millions of jobswere lost, masses were pun-ished and deprived of economi-cal transportation and invest-ment of around Rs 400 billionwas put on stake, he said.

Paracha said that APCNGAhas been blowing whistles overmassive, continued and unprec-edented corruption in the petro-leum ministry while recent moveof the Supreme Court to take no-tice of corruption in the LPG im-

port scam proves that our stancewas just and based on irrefutablefacts.Some influential officialsand crooked businessmen haveshaped a gang to deprive massesof their rights, relieve them of theirhard earned money and lay wasteto our investments, he said, add-ing that plundering national re-sources will not be allowed comewhat may.

A mafia has been suing en-ergy crisis to increase personalfortunes and they come up withanother idea in case of failureof former move, Paracha in-formed.He said that many own-ers of CNG filling stations fromall across Pakistan are not be-ing provided gas since one anda half years despite directives ofthe Prime Minister and courtswhich is devastating their Rs 10billion investments.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Roots Pakistanteam from Roots DHA1 Flagshipcampus Islamabad won the FirstLego League National Champi-onship 2013 held at LUMSLahore says a press release. Theteam members of Roots Pakistanconsisted of Captain MohammadWaleed Bin Kashif, Abdullah

Roots students win Int’lLego League C’ship

Gulraiz, Haider Ali Tariq, OmerKhalique, Rafay Arshad, MalikSamiullah & Faique Shakeelwith Mr. Saeed Akhter as theircoach.

The First Lego League is arobotics program for 9 to 16 yearold in which they have to useLego Mind-storms robot sets toscore points on a thematic play-ing surface, creating an innova-

tive solution to a problem as partof a project. The participants haveto apply the three elements - theRobot Game, Project and FLLCore Values to complete the chal-lenge. Speaking on the occasion,Ms. Khadija Mushtaq ExecutiveDirector Roots DHA1 Flagshipcampus said, “At, Roots, we al-ways encourage students to takepart in such activities.

Compensation toBadami Bagh

victims‘insufficient’STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Hafiz TahirMehmood Ashrafi, prominentreligious scholar and ChairmanPakistan Ulema Council (PUC)and Sajid Ishaq, chief of Paki-stan Interfaith League (PIL)have termed the relief packageof Rs. 5 lacs, announced by thePunjab and Federal Govern-ments for the affected familiesof Badami Bagh incident, as in-sufficient.

Addressing a press confer-ence here on Tuesday, the re-ligious scholars also demandedthat report of judicial probe ofBadami Bagh incident shouldbe made public and cases beregistered under section 295-B of Pakistan Penal Code(PPC) against those found tobe allegedly involved in burn-ing two Churches and HolyBible in Joseph Colony Lahoreas that also comes under Blas-phemy.

Chairman PIL said that itis not sufficient to dismiss thepolice personnel who showedtraditional negligence andplayed a role of spectators dur-ing this incident but it is im-perative to take legal actionagainst them and punish themaccordingly. “Provincial Gov-ernment should also bear theexpenditures of all those un-married Christian girls whosedowry items and gold orna-ments were either stolen by themob or destroyed when theirhouses were set on fire” he de-manded.

Broken roadsin capital poseserious threatto motorists

ISLAMABAD—Several roads ofthe federal capital,which havebeen broken or are deterioratingowing to heavy traffic, are caus-ing serious troubles for motor-ists.

The roads in question aresaid to have developed pot-holes, which pose a seriousthreat to small vehicles andtheir drivers.

The main IJ Principal Roadfrom Pirwadhai Chowk toFaizabad is one of such roadswhere potholes have popped upowing to frequently plyingheavy traffic.

Likewise, the road fromSector I-11 to 7Up Chowk isalso in an ugly shape, and givesthe look of an under-construc-tion thoroughfare at variousplaces.—Online

RAWALPINDI: Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan giving away trophy to a position holderstudent during Annual Prize Distribution Ceremony at Government Waqar-un-Nisa College.

RAWALPINDI: Activists of Municipal Workers League chanting slogans during a demon-stration to condemn the torching houses of their community in Lahore.

ISLAMABAD: Major General Salahedin Abdel Khattik Saeed Ali, Vice Chief Military Industry Defence Center Sudancalled on Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt Chief of the Air Staff Pakistan Air Force at Air Headquarters.

ISLAMABAD: Non-teaching staff holds a sit-in demonstration in support of their demandsoutside National Press Club.

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A meeting ofexecutive committee of vicechancellors was held atIslamabad to discuss the currentfunding situation to the univer-sities and other related matters.

After detailed deliberations,the committee decided to formu-late unified policy guidelines forthe performance evaluation ofvice chancellors and heads ofhigher education institutions ofPakistan.

In this regard, draft of guide-lines would be sent to the vicechancellors for inviting theirsuggestions and feedback. Dur-ing the meeting, it was agreedto prepare policy guidelines tosupport higher education of stu-dents with disabilities.

The proposed guidelineswould be in conformity with thenational policy with specialemphasis over preservation of

Vice chancellorsdiscuss funding

separate quota/reserved seats,fee concessions andprovision ofsupportive materials/books. Af-ter the approval, the policywould be forwarded to all pub-lic and private sector higher edu-cation institutions for implemen-tation.

The preservation of federalquota policy 2012 for admissionat federal universities was alsodiscussed and it was recom-mended that federal universitiesshould implement it in letter andspirit as per policy.

The vice chancellors wereunanimous in their view thatadministrative and financial au-tonomy of HEC and universitiesshould be ensured.

They also demanded that thetimely release of funds as perbudget allocations and commit-ments and as recommended bythe senate standing committeeon education and training,mayalso beensured.

The meeting was attended byDr. Javaid Laghari ChairmanHEC, Engr. Syed ImtiazHussain GilaniVice ChancellorUniversity of Engineering &Technology Peshawar, Dr.Nasser Ali Khan Member HEC/Vice Chancellor Haripur Uni-versity, Dr. Nasir Jamal KhattakKohat University of Science &Technology (KUST) Kohat,Engr. Ahmed Farooq Bazai ViceChancellor Balochistan Univer-sity of Information TechnologyEngineering and ManagementSciences Quetta, Ms. SultanaBaloch Vice Chancellor SardarBahadur Khan Women’s Uni-versity (SBK) Quetta, Prof. Dr.Masoom Yasinzai Vice Chancel-lor Quaid-i-Azam UniversityIslamabad and Prof. Dr. NajmaNajam Vice ChancellorKarakoram International Uni-versity Gilgit and Mr. AwaisAhmad Director General HECIslamabad.

ISLAMABAD/JEDDAH—Tak-ing notice of the embezzlementof millions of riyals in funds ofPakistani overseas school, useof the funds for personal use bythe school board and termina-tion of teachers who object tothis practice, the Ministry ofForeign Affairs has sought re-port from Pakistani Ambassa-dor in Saudi Arabia,Muhammad Naeem.

According to sources, theadministration board of Paki-stani International School inJeddah has been using the schoolfunds for personal purposes andhas terminated many teachersfor resisting the misuse of funds.

Misuse of Pakistanischool funds in Jeddah

Embezzlement and misappro-priation of millions of riyals inthe school funds has furtherworsened the situation.

Meanwhile, the terminatedteachers moved a Saudi courtagainst the school board. Theschool board hired a lawyerwhose fee is also being paidfrom the school funds.

According to sources, theschool board terminated seniorteacher Raja Iqbal for being dis-liked by Consulate officials de-spite Saudi Labour Court’s or-ders to reinstate him that is asheer violation of Saudi laws.Pakistani AmbassadorMuhammad Naeem and Coun-

sel General Aftab Khokhar areplaying the role of silent specta-tors on the whole issue, thesources said.

More than 6,000 poor chil-dren are studying in the schoolwhose fees are paid by the well-off individuals in Pakistani com-munity.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that parents committeeshave been formed in otherschools in the city to regulate theschool affairs but Pakistani am-bassador did not form the par-ents committee to favour prin-cipal of English section of theschool, Senator SeharKamran.—INP

Inflated parkingfee perturbsmotorists inRawal Town

RAWALPINDI—Adding to themiseries of the citizens, officialsof car parking places of RawalTown Municipal Authority(RTMA) in Commercial Mar-ket, College Road and otherplaces of the city are chargingdouble parking fee.

The officials receive Rs20instead official fee of Rs10.

According to motorists, theofficials deployed on the park-ing places tear the part inscribedwith parking fee Rs10. They saidif someone objects, the officialssay that they have older receiptbooks, while new receipt bookswith Rs20 fee are in printingprocess.

When contacted, Town Of-ficer Finance (TOF) RawalTown Raja Iftikhar said thatoriginal parking fee throughoutthe town was Rs10. He saidmotorists should complain tohim if somebody was receivingextra parking fee.

The motorists demanded ofhigh-ups of Rawal Town tomake sure charging of normalfee and take strict action againstthe officials receiving extramoney.—INP

CDA to auction 3.5 acre plotISLAMABAD—The Capital De-velopment Authority (CDA) hasdecided to auction a plot mea-suring 3.5 acre located beside afive star hotel in the federal capi-tal reportedly to relieve its finan-cial crunch.

CDA Member Planning,Syed Mustafa Kazmi said a plotmeasuring 3.5 acre, specifiedfor a five star hotel would beauctioned after approval of

CDA Chairman Syed TahirShahbaz.

Directorate Municipal Ad-ministration (DMA) of the civicbody was directed to cancel li-cence of the site for being usedas open space.

DMA had rented out 3.5 acreland to the hotel management asopen space at Rs1 million annualcharges despite the fact it is acommercial plot.

In addition, enforcement di-rectorate was also asked to re-cover CDA land from hotel man-agement which fall in the list ofencroachment.

It may be noted that CDAhad auctioned commercial plotsto generate revenue but it hasfailed to come up withlongstanding strategy to over-come the financial crunch.—INP

CITY REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The districtgovernment has decided tokick off dengue preventioncampaign in rural areas of thefederal capital from Mondaynext week.

In the campaign, preven-tive measures will be taken andcertain places in the rural ar-eas will be fumigated.

Dengue prevention drivefrom Monday

According to officials ofdeputy commissioner office,the anti-dengue drive will con-tinue for one week, in whichcitizens will be educated aboutpreventive measures, besidesdoing fumigation in the sub-urbs. They said that there wasno danger of dengue in currentseason, although preventivemeasures will be taken anyway.

They informed that a meet-

ing was held in this connectionthe other day, which was pre-sided over by Deputy Commis-sioner Islamabad Amir AliAhmed. On the occasion, theDC directed the concerned of-ficers of health department tocarry our fumigation in their ar-eas. He also directed the localgovernment officials to ensuresanitation in their respective ar-eas to control mosquitoes.

Illegal cattlepens pose

health hazardsISLAMABAD—Mushroomingcattle pens in Gulzar Qaid havebecome a source of perpetualnuisance for the residents.

Every where illegal cattlepens are operating in the areaand urination by the buffaloesand cows and waste haveturned the area into breedingground of mosquitoes, saidAjmal Khan a retired govern-ment employee.

Every night of our life turnsinto sleepless night as mosqui-toes continue to zoom in all therooms and bite us, saidMuhammad Sharif a resident.We are facing the fear of spreadof dengue fever, he added.

The concerned authoritieshave also not taken any step forshifting these pens nor theyhave issued directives togawalas to move out of thissociety, said Noor Mohammada teacher.

The residents demandedimmediate shifting of cattlepens otherwise they will beforced to hold protest demon-strations.—Online

Closure ofKohati Bazaar

U-turnRAWALPINDI—Citizens haveexpressed concerns over unnec-essary U-turns on BenazirBhutto Road under politicalpressure and demanded closureof Kohati Bazaar U-turn whichcontributes to traffic jams on thebusiest road of the city.

Citizens said multi-millionrupees projects have been con-structed on BB Road but unnec-essary U-turns ruin the useful-ness of these projects.

They lamented thatRawalpindi Development Au-thority (RDA) has been practic-ing U-turn system to managesmooth flow of traffic on thebusiest road even after the con-struction of flyovers.

“If Rehmanabad U-turn canbe blocked then why not Kohatibazaar, which is major reason oftraffic jams on the road,” theyremarked.—INP

SC requested tohear RPPs caseon priority basis

ISLAMABAD—Khwaja Asif hasappeared before the SupremeCourt and requested it to hear hispetition for review of RentalPower Projects on priority ba-sis.

A three-member benchheaded by Chief Justice IftikharMuhammad Chaudhary heardthe case here on Tuesday.

The petitioner, Khwaja Asifappealed that he would not beable to appear before the courtin near future because generalelections are approaching.Therefore, the honourable courtmust facilitate him by hearingthe case on immediate basis.

At this, the Chief Justice re-marked that he has no need forelectoral campaign, as he ispopular in the public.

Afterwards, hearing of thecase was adjourned till March26.—Online

IslamabadPolice arrest20 suspects

ISLAMABAD—Aabpara andTarnol police stations arrested20 suspects during search opera-tion in their respective jurisdic-tion here on Tuesday.

On the directives of IGPIslamabad Bani Amin Khan,teams of Aabpara and Tarnolpolice stations conducted searchin their respective areas.

The police teams conductedsearch operation in various lo-calities including slum areas,under construction buildings,houses, hotels and a total of 20suspects were arrested whofailed to prove their identity.

The IGP said that the pur-pose of starting search operationin various areas was to ensurefoolproof security in the Capi-tal city.—INP

ISLAMABAD—Parking facilitiesin the commercial areas of thefederal capital have always beena matter of concern but the phe-nomena is heading for a point ofno return.

Lack of parking facilities inthe commercial areas of KarachiCompany, Peshawar Morr,Jinnah Super, Blue Area,Aabpara and Melody are becom-ing problematic for the commut-ers by the day. People who comefor shopping in these areas haveto wait for hours to park theirvehicles.

Non-availability ofparking facilities

The largest commercial mar-kets of Karachi Company,Peshawar Morr, Blue Area,Melody and Jinnah Super lackappropriate parking places for carsand other four-wheelers becausethe parking slots in these areas arealways packed with motorbikes.This also creates many troubles forthe pedestrians.

Shopkeepers, businessmen,stallholders and commuters of thefederal capital have appealed tothe authorities concerned to solvethe issue of vehicle parking onimmediate basis.—Online

RAWALPINDI—The City Dis-trict Government Rawalpindi(CDGR) has increased ‘roti’ and‘naan’ prices by at least Re1from Rs5 to Rs6 and from Rs6to Rs7 respectively.CDGR hasissued notification No. price file/DO(E&IP)224 in this regard.

According to revised rates,

CDGR increases‘roti’ & ‘naan’ prices

patiri roti price is fixed Rs6, naanat Rs7, tandori paratha at Rs10.

Rawalpindi Naanbais Asso-ciation (RNA) lauded increasein the prices of the roti and naanand demanded further increaseof Re1 as price of fine atta persack has increased from Rs400to Rs600.—INP

ISLAMABAD—The ongoingstrike of non-teaching staff for thesixth consecutive day createdproblems, for students as theirstudies are suffering badly due tothe strike ahead of their final ex-amination, putting their wholeyear hard work at stake.

The strike has badly affectedthe routine work of 500 schoolsand colleges working underCapital Administration and De-velopment Division (CADD) asschool buses remained off theroads and the teaching at the col-leges was disrupted partially.

The non-teaching staff isonly concerned with their promo-tions and other issues but they arenot ready to consider problemsof students who are in great psy-chological pressure due to distur-bance in their studies and not ableto give attention for preparationof exams, said Agha Ajmal a fa-ther of student studying inIslamabad Model School for

Strike of non-teaching staffcreates problems

Boys G-6/2. ‘Though, exams have been

going on as per schedule but theschedule of classrooms is badlyaffected due to the strike, said ajunior teacher of IslamabadModel College for Girls F-7/4,adding, even the classrooms werenot cleaned as the sanitation ser-vices at the schools and collegeswere hit as sweepers who havealso suspended their work andwent on strike demanding time-scale promotions andregularisation of their services.

Hundreds of non-teachingemployees of various schools andcolleges blocked Peshawar Morfor six hours, one of the majorroad connecting twin cities ofIslamabad and Rawalpindi, anddisrupted the traffic badly whichcaused hardship for people.

The protesters cleared thearea after getting informationfrom a Pakistan People’s Partyrepresentative and on confirma-

tion of concerned officials thattheir cases of regularisation andtime scale promotions have beensent to the Finance Division andPrime Minister Secretariat forapproval.

The CADD Secretary RiffatShaheen Qazi also held a specialmeeting with Secretary Financeto discuss the 20 percent allow-ance for education departmentemployees like Secretariat em-ployees. As soon as the summa-ries are approved, the ministrywill also notify its implementa-tion.

Spokesperson and JointEducation Advisor of Ministryof Capital Administration andDevelopment Rafique Tahirsaid the Prime Minister Secre-tariat had inquired about the fi-nancial impact of the time-scale promotions andregularisations of employeesthat amounts to nearly Rs. 20million.—APP

Ch Sarwar urgesUlema to promotereligious harmony

RAWALPINDI—First MuslimBritish parliamentarian andChairman Safe CommunititesPakistan (SCP) ChaudharyMuhammad Sarwar has urgedthe Ulema to help promote reli-gious harmony in the country.

Ch Sarwar, in a statementhere, asked the Punjab govern-ment to take strict action againstthe perpetrators of the incidentof Joseph Colony, Badami Bagh,Lahore.

He said that when riots wereerupted in London and shopswere vandalised and set on fire,the United Kingdom’s judiciaryhad taken strict action and afterobtaining video footage of theincidents, all the trouble creatorswere sent behind the bars withinthree weeks. He also appealed tothe Chief Justice of Pakistan thatthose involved in the BadamiBagh incident, should be takento the task within two or threeweeks. He, however, added thatinvestigations should be carriedout purely on merit and no inno-cent person should be implicatedin the case.—APP

ETOs directed toincrease tax

recoveryRAWALPINDI—Excise andTaxation Punjab Director Gen-eral has directed the concernedExcise and Taxation Officers(ETOs) in Rawalpindi divisionto further enhance recovery ofproperty and professional taxes.

The DG visited the ExciseDepartment Rawalpindi, whereETOs of Rawalpindi, Jhelum,Chakwal and Attock briefed himon the tax recoveries.

On the occasion, the DG di-rected the inspectors to remain infield from 8:00am to 5:00pm inuniform and meet the propertyowners one by one to increase thetax recoveries. He directed them todo office work after 5:00pm. Ex-pressing annoyance over recoveryof 49 percent of monthly target ofproperty tax and 40 percent pro-fessional tax, he urged the con-cerned ETOs to achieve at least 65percent of the monthly target of thecurrent month. He expressed sat-isfaction over recovery of motor taxand excise duty.—INP

March 14

THE Japanese Embassyand the Rawalpindi ArtsCouncil have arranged anexhibition of photo panelstitled “Contemporary Ja-pan 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 holidays.

Continues

NATIONAL Centr4e forPhysics in collaborationwith Abdus Salam Interna-tional Centre for Theoreti-cal Physics, Trieste, Italy isorganizing the Fifth Interna-tional Scientific Spring tillMarch 15 at NCP Campus.

05:50 01:3005:00

08:00

Troops use pepper gas despite SHRC directionsIts use in residential areas dangerous: Experts

SRINAGAR—Despite clear directions from theState Human Rights Commission (SHRC) againstthe use of pepper gas to disperse protestors, gov-ernment has failed to control police and para-military troops who are using the deadly peppergas against protestors in residential areas.

Despite SHRC banning use of pepper gas, atleast two old-aged women died while more than30 persons including minors were shifted to hos-pitals after police and CRPF personnel used pep-per gas in downtown areas of Srinagar city andin other districts of the Valley.

Taking cognizance of the complaint filed bya human rights activist Ahsan Untoo, SHRC hadimpressed upon the authorities to refrain fromuse of excessive pepper gas.

In the complaint it was urged that other op-tions be explored while maintaining law and or-der.

Director General of Police Ashok Prasadfurnished the report dated 18 January 2013wherein he has not denied the harmful effectof excessive use of pepper gas and has not dealtwith the allegations in respect of harmful ef-fect of pepper gas.

“After considering the fresh materialplaced on record, statutory duties is cast on theCommission to protect, safeguard life, libertyand dignity of the citizens of the State and can-not be mute spectator. State is duty-bound un-der constitution and law to protect the lives ofthe citizens and in no case is at liberty or havelicense to adopt such measures which wouldendanger the health of its subjects in the nameof maintaining law and order,” SHRC memberRafiq Fida observed in the order.

Sources in hospitals admitted that manypeople including minors were adversely af-

fected by pepper gas.More than a dozen children fell uncon-

scious during this week in Srinagar downtownarea. Aisha daughter of Muhammad Latief andAalia both from downtown fell unconsciousafter pepper gas was used in their localities todisperse the protestors.

“Old-aged people, women and children of-ten suffocate and have to remain outside in theair. Use of pepper gas has made our lives hell,”inhabitants of down town said.

People in Pulwama, Baramulla and someother places blamed that during protests, CRPFand police use pepper guns which adverselyaffects their health.

Auqaf Committee Pulwama spokesmanBashir Aazim said: “We have informed authori-ties to stop the use of pepper guns immediately.Otherwise we will launch district-wide agita-

tion.”Two civilians Abdur Rashid Sheikh of

Qutab-ud-Din Pora, Aali Kadal Srinagar dieddue to inhaling of pepper gas used by troopsand Police in the vicinity on February 17.

Another person Mohammad Yousuf Sofison of late Ali Muhammad of Batmaloo diedon February 20 due to use of pepper gas.

Use of pepper gas in the residential areasis dangerous and is responsible for the varioushealth risks.

Health experts do not even rule out the riskof death. “Closing of eyes, disconcerting sen-sation of the eyelids bubbling and boiling, aninstant sensation of the restriction of the air-ways and the general feeling of sudden andintense, searing pain in the face, nose and throatand coughing almost always follow the initialspray,” a senior medico said.

“The duration of its effects depends on thestrength of the spray but the average full ef-fects around 30 to 40 minutes, with diminishedeffects lasts for hours,” he said. Health expertssaid that pepper spray are far more severe, in-cluding temporary blindness which lasts from15-30 minutes, a burning sensation of the skinwhich lasts from 45 to 60 minutes, upper bodyspasms which force a person to bend forwardand uncontrollable coughing making it diffi-cult to breathe or speak between 3 to 15 min-utes.

They said it could cause life risk to theasthma patients and to children. “It could causeabortion to pregnant woman,” the health expertssaid. Deputy Commissioner Srinagar BaseerAhmad Khan refused to comment on the issue.“I’m in a meeting and cannot leave it midwayto comment on the issue,” he said.—NNI

KOTLI: Photo album being presented to AJK Prime Minister Ch Abdul Majeed. Former AJK PM Sardar Sikandar HayatKhan is also present.

MUZAFFARABAD: AJK Forest Minister Sardar Javed Ayyub addressing a public meet-ing at Patthka.

ISLAMABAD: AJK Revenue Minister Ch Ali Shan Soni meeting AJK President SardarM Yaqoob Khan.

Kashmiris facingworst ever

persecution: YasinSRINAGAR—Jammu andKashmir Liberation Front(JKLF) chairman MuhammadYasin Malik has warned thatdenial of political space topeople of Kashmir, especiallyyouth, can lead to eruption of“more ferocious armed rebel-lion” than the one witnessedearly during 90’s.

He said Kashmiri youth arebeing persecuted today moreatrociously that what was donein 90’s.

In a media interview at hisMaisuma residence, Maliksaid a simmering discontent isbrewing in Kashmir againstthe “worst ever atrocities” be-ing committed by the forces onthe youth. “People, especiallyyouth, are being subjected toworst ever torture than wefaced in 1987. The space forthe transition to peacefulstruggle 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 the treatment metedout to the youth continues, I amafraid, the generation nextwon’t listen to anybody and wemay witness a worst and moredangerous armed resistance.”

He said people of Kashmirshould follow the programsannounced by the MuttahidaM a j l i s - e - M u s h a w a r a t(MMM), a united front ofseparatists.—NNI

JAMMU—Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP) has said the con-tinued use of a law of emer-gency nature like the ArmedForces Special Powers Act(AFSPA) is against the letterand spirit of the Constitutionand amounts to denial of fun-damental rights to life and lib-erty enshrined in it.

PDP patron MuftiMuhammad Sayeed has said thevery claim of India to a demo-cratic system suffers a blowwhen the people of an entirestate are denied fundamentalrights on the pretext of security.

Mufti said continuing thelaw to operate in the changed

Repeal AFSPA as first step toresolve Kashmir: Mufti to Delhi

J&K cannot be eternally governed under black lawscircumstances when the mili-tancy is substantially reducedand people have overwhelm-ingly participated in democraticprocess is a hurdle in completenormalcy and a setback to peaceprocess. “J&K cannot be eter-nally governed through blacklaws if the region has to comeout of its painful history of dis-cord and destabilization.”

The PDP patron accused theNational Conference-Congresscoalition government of oppres-sion and misgovernance. “Thearrogant attitude of governmentadded fuel to the fires caused bya series of atrocities committedby its forces.”

Mufti said any civilian gov-ernment having to resort toArmy in controlling unrestamong people is not worth therepresentative character itclaims.

“Can there be a more pro-found evidence of agovernment’s failure. The claimof such a government of tryingto lift AFSPA is no more thananother hollow slogan of Na-tional Conference that has livedoff such gimmicks for most partof their history.” Mufti said thepresent government has lost itsway on all fronts including gov-ernance, development andpeople’s security.—NNI

Observe civilcurfew today:

MajlisMashawarat

S R I N A G A R — M a j l i sMashawarat, an amalgamationof several separatist groups, is-sued the weekly protest calen-dar in support of their demandfor handing over mortal remainsof Muhammad Afzal Guru andMuhammad Maqbool Bhat totheir families.

In a statement here, theMajlis (Consultative Commit-tee) called for a complete shut-down (civil curfew) on Wednes-day, while the Kashmiridiaspora across the world havebeen asked to protest outsideIndian missions on Thursdaywhen there will be no shutdownin the Valley.

There will be no strike onFriday, the statement said, ask-ing the Imams (priests) to leadprotests outside the respectivemosques. Majlis called for sit-ins by male students across allthe colleges and universities onSaturday and asked them to dis-play placards and banners de-manding return of the mortal re-mains of Bhat and Guru and insupport of freedom of Kash-mir.—NNI

NC continuingits tradition of

oppression:Hurriyat (G)

SRINAGAR—Hurriyat Confer-ence led by Syed Ali ShahGeelani reacted to the crack-down on separatist leadershipand said ruling National Con-ference (NC) had opened their‘traditional policy of oppres-sion’ in the run up to 2014 elec-tions.

In a statement issued here,Hurriyat (G) accused NC of us-ing police and CRPF against thepeople of the Valley.

“It has been a policy of NCthat they are using armed forceswho are destroying the propertyof the people. The authoritieshave given unbridled powers tothe police and CRPF who haveunleashed a reign of terror in thevalley. This is nothing morethan State terrorism,” Hurriyat(G) said. Hurriyat (G) accusedboth the ruling coalition part-ners and opposition of adoptinga deceptive role in the Valley.

“On the one hand they aretalking about the excesses of thearmed forces and on the otherhand they are bent upon givingthem more powers to persecutethe people of the Valley,”Hurriyat (G) statement said.

Hurriyat (G) said State po-lice was using oppressive forceagainst their own people. “Po-lice should bear in mind thatthey are the sons of the soil andhave to live and die in the Val-ley. They are using oppressivemeasures on their own people,”the statement said. Hurriyat (G)expressed concern over the useof ‘deadly weapons’ on thepeople by police forces. Thestatement said these arrests andharassments would not deterpeople of the Valley.—NNI

SRINAGAR—In a novel way tohighlight human rights viola-tions allegedly by forces inKashmir, two Sikh youth re-cently toured Kashmir toKanyakumari on motorcycle.

In their early‘20s, BupinderSingh of Central Kashmir’sBudgam district and HarminderSingh of north Kashmir’sBaramulla district recentlytoured across other states onmotorcycle.

“At that time protests,candle marches were organizedby people particularly youthagainst the gang rape of a girlin Delhi. But no one raisedvoice when two girls were rapedand murdered in Shopian. Wewanted to reach to people ofother states and tell them what

Kashmiri Sikh duohighlights HRs violations

is happening in Kashmir,” saidBupindar Singh.

During their 55-day journeyBupinder said that they tried toreach out to youth and apprisedthem about grievances ofKashmiri youth about educa-tion, unemployment, hostileconditions due to presence ofarmed forces

“We told them thatKashmiris are intelligent andtalented and can prove mettle inany filed. They should look atKashmiri youth beyond peltingstones,” they said.

The duo undertook the jour-ney from Kashmir toKanyakumari via Gujrat,Mumbai, and Kerala and re-turned through West Bengal,Bihar, UP, Uttarakhand,

Himachal Pradesh and reachedKashmir on February 26.

The duo said they organizedseminars and interaction ses-sions with youth of dozens ofcolleges across the country andapprised them about the griev-ances of Kashmiri youth.

Bupinder is a teacher at aschool in Kralpora Budgam andis simultaneously pursuing hisMaster’s degree in English fromIGNOU while Harminder ispursuing B.Tech in a college inChandigarh.

Bupinder is all praise forstudents and college administra-tion of different states for allow-ing them to conduct interactivesessions, “They were very sup-portive and eager to hear ourstory,” they said.—NNI

AHPC (M)condemns arrest of

Mirwaiz, othersSRINAGAR—The APHC (M)has expressed serious concernover the continuous house ar-rest of party chairman MirwaizUmar Farooq, senior Hurriyatleaders and hundreds of youthby the state authorities.

“Senior Hurriyat leadersincluding Shabir Ahmad Shah,Nayeem Khan, Agha SyedHassan Al Moosvi, MukhtarAhmad Waza are still in the po-lice lockups whereas anotherleading Hurriyat leader GNZaki has been shifted to sub dis-trict jail Baramulla,” reads theparty statement.

“Such oppressive measurewould in no way deter peopleand Hurriyat leadership frompursuing the cause of freedomstruggle,” the statement furtherreads.

The party strongly con-demns the use of wanton forceon women and children by thepolice and CRPF.—NNI

SRINAGAR—MLA LangateEngineer Rasheed has reiteratedhis demand of plebiscite in theState assembly and said that ifdemanding plebiscite was acrime, he would commit it bil-lion times even if he is hangedevery time and disqualified fromthe membership oflegislature.Taking part in the dis-cussion on Governor’s addressin assembly, Rasheed said thatif he becomes a Pakistani agentfor demanding implementationof United Nation resolutions thenJawaharlal Nehru too was anagent of Pakistan who tookJammu Kashmir issue to theUnited Nations.

He asked the legislators thatthey should not become NewDelhi’s ‘yes men’ and not try tomisinterpret the historic factsregarding the ‘Kashmir dispute’.

Rasheed termed senior PDPleader Muzaffar Beigh’s com-ment that those who want plebi-scite should leave the assemblyas “unfortunate” and said that ithad exposed PDP’s stand on

I’ll demand plebiscite abillion times: Rasheed

Kashmir issue.He said Omar Abdullah and

Mufti Sayeed had come to knowabout their worth by writing twofutile letters to Prime Minister ofIndia to befool Kashmiris seek-ing return of Afzal Guru’s mor-tal remains.Rasheed said that bythrowing their letters into thedustbin, New Delhi had shownMufti Sayeed and OmarAbdullah their right place.

He asked them that theyshould feel sorry for the day andthe role which they played insabotaging his resolution twoyears back seeking clemency forAfzal Guru. Rasheed said he wasoptimistic that the way BritishPrime Minister David Cameronapologized for the JallianwalaBagh massacre, one day Indianstate would apologize for themurder of Maqbool Bhat, AfzalGuru, massacres of Bijbehara,Sopore, Gow Kadal and dozensof other such incidents. He saidNC and PDP had no right tomake hue and cry on Guru’s is-sue and their crying made no

sense and was just an attempt tobelittle his sacrifice.

Rasheed said Kashmiriswould not beg for mortal remainsof Afzal Guru and wait for theday when plebiscite would beheld in Kashmir and the mortalremains of those killed outsidethe State would be brought withdue respect and regard. He saidthough Kashmiris had no confu-sion about the rightwing partieslike Bharatiya Janta Party, AfzalGuru’s murder had exposed theso-called secular parties likeCongress. “Why didn’t OmarAbdullah resign when he washelpless to save the life of Guruand played a drama few yearsback by offering to resign whenMuzaffar Beigh accused him ofhis involvement in a scandal,”Rasheed said.

He said NC and PDP hadfailed to get the body of AfzalGuru and should not make a jokeof themselves by demandingself-rule or autonomy as NewDelhi throws all their ideas intothe dustbin..—NNI

JAMMU—Underscoring theneed for working out amicablesolution to political issues ofJammu and Kashmir in accor-dance with the aspirations ofpeople of Jammu, Kashmir, Lehand Kargil to the larger extent,Chief Minister, Omar Abdullahhas said that the task is toughbut not impossible.

“To move forward with thenotion of a solution having ap-proval of each and every citi-zen is just to live in a make be-lief world”, he said adding thata solution with maximum sup-port of people of all the regionsof the State has to be found. “We

Kashmir solution need of hour: Omarhave to strive for it”, he empha-sized and expressed the hopethat the Union Governmentwould address both domesticand international aspects of po-litical issues of Jammu andKashmir and move close tosome befitting solution.

“The Jammu and Kashmirhas been reflected in ShimlaAgreement and there is need toengage Pakistan in a dialogueprocess”, he said and reiteratedhis stand that political issues ofJammu and Kashmir are of po-litical nature and cannot be re-solved either by money poweror by the gun. “We have seen

neither gun nor money is answerto this issue”, he said and main-tained that his governmentwould help as catalyst and fa-cilitator in the process of find-ing out a workable solution inaccordance with the aspirationsof people of all the regions ofthe State.

Stating that peace is essen-tially important for resolving allissues and putting the State onroad to progress and prosperity,Omar Abdullah said that duringthe last two years peace hasgreatly rooted and the year 2012can be safely rated as the mostpeaceful year in last over 20

years. “Besides the visit of over

12 to 13 lakh visitors to the Val-ley, the development processreceived big fillip during 2012”,he said and reiterated that hisgovernment flags tourism as aneconomic activity and not aBarometer to gauge the normal-ity. He said the visit of hugenumber of tourists to the Val-ley, successful panchayat elec-tions and conduct of peacefulAmarnath yatra do not meanthat no political issue is left un-resolved now. “If we think oth-erwise, we are mistaken”, hesaid.—NNI

New Delhi’shighhandedness

against Kashmirisdenounced

SRINAGAR—Jammu & Kash-mir Liberation Front (JKLF)has condemned the continueddetention of its leaders includ-ing Showkat Ahmad Bakshi,Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, Siraj-ud-Din and Ashfaq Ahmad andother freedom leaders andyouth, terming it the frustrationof regime.

A JKLF spokesman in astatement termed intolerable thehumiliating treatment meted outto the sister of MuhammadMaqbool Bhat by the police.

Meanwhile, the liberationleader, Javid Ahmad Mir in astatement in Srinagar said thatNew Delhi had given a freehandto Shiv Saniks, RSS and otherHindu extremist groups to at-tack Kashmiris.—INP

LONDON—Kashmir CentreAdvisory Council staged a sit-in and a photo display showingday-to-day human rights viola-tions taking place in occupiedKashmir outside the Common-wealth Secretariat on Common-wealth Day.

Braving the cold the volun-teers of Kashmir Center distrib-uted the leaflets about the latestatrocities committed on thepeople of Kashmir after thehanging of Mohammed AfzalGuru.

It was explicitly explainedto all those who exhibited inter-est in the photo display that In-dia was committing brutalitiesbut this attitude “can not kill thesentiment for liberation andfreedom.”

Speaking on the occasion,Chairman of InternationalChamber for Peace and Con-

C’wealth forum urged toresolve Kashmir dispute

ciliation- Kashmir Concern,Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawlsaid that fifty-three Common-wealth countries should evinceinterest in resolving the Kash-mir dispute between the twoCommonwealth countries —Pakistan and India— and thepeople of Jammu and Kashmir.Commonwealth should help inunfreezing UN package and re-deeming the aspirations of theKashmiris.

The participants includedMohammed Ayub, PresidentAdvisory Council, RajaMohammed Ishaq, ShoaibNazish, Safian Ali Ilyas Khan,advocate Shakeel Ahmed,Amjad Abbasi, Lala Gullnawaz, Bashir Khan etc.

Photo display presented agraphic detail of atrocities commit-ted on women and children, eld-erly people and the youth.—INP

To think creatively, wemust be able to look

afresh at what wenormally take for

granted.

— George Kneller

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 13,2013. The rates are U.S.Dollar Rs 97.8978, JapaneseYen Rs 1.0200, Pound SterlingRs 145.3880 and Euro127.4825.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Federal Ministerfor Communications Dr. ArbabAlamgir Khan has said that thepolitical leaders who served thepublic in the real sense duringthe last 5-years will again re-main victorious in the cominggeneral elections. It is a pride forthe existing democratic govern-ment that despite grave chal-lenges, the developmental pro-cess continued without anybreak in the country.

He reiterated commitmentto continue the struggle for de-velopment and prosperity of thepeople. He was addressing apublic gathering on inaugurationof Ghazi & Karnal Sher Khaninterchanges near Swabi onIslamabad-Peshawar motorway(M-1) today. Usman KhanTarkai MNA, President ofIttehad-i-Kashtkar KhyberPakhtunkhawa Arif Khan, and

NHA committed to continuedevelopment struggle

father of Shaheed Capt KarnalSher Khan, Khurshid Khan alsoaddressed. Senior officers ofMinistry of Communicationsand National Highway Author-ity were also present.

Dr Arbab Alamgir Khansaid, balanced amount of Rs. 27crore will soon be paid to theland owners from whom theland was acquired for construc-tion of interchanges. In order tofinancially support the affectedfamilies of the martyrs who pre-sented supreme sacrifices in thewar against terrorism, hestressed upon the need of ear-lier established of a “Fund”, sothat they could meet their dayto day personal needs.

Speaking about the newlybuilt interchanges he said,Karnal Sher Khan interchangeis constructed at cost of Rs. 380million while cost of the GhaziInterchange is Rs. 212 million.Both the interchanges will con-

nect the areas of Swabi, ChhotaLahore, Mardan, Nowshera,Ghazi, Tarbela and Faqeerabad(Lawrencepur) with Motorwaynetwork thus opening new av-enues of socio-economic uplitalso in all the adjoining areas.

On this occasion, Dr.ArababAlamgir Khan also talked tomedia personnel wherein he re-called the achievements of thepresent government during thelast five years. He hoped thatkeeping in view our meritoriousservices, people will expresstheir confidence in us in the elec-tions to continue this success-story. He said, countrywidemega projects of NHA, particu-larly in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa,will be completed at the earli-est. He termed democracy realaccountability of the public rep-resentatives. We are going topeople, with trust and confi-dence in the general elections,he added.

Federal Minister for Communications Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan inaugurating Ghazi andKamal Sher Khan interchanges on Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway M-1.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The policy ofobtaining a prior security clear-ance for the companies seekingincorporation with foreign in-vestment in Pakistan or foreign-ers intending to invest in localcompanies has been relaxed bythe Interior Ministry.

The ministry has made therelaxations on the recommenda-tions of the Securities and Ex-change Commission of Pakistan(SECP). The security clearanceno longer remains a prerequisitefor the registration of companieshaving foreign investment anddirectors.

According to the new policy,the SECP will issue certificate ofregistration to the foreign inves-

Security clearance procedurerelaxed for foreign investors

tors that will be subject to theclearance from the ministry.

The SECP will also approvethe appointments of foreign di-rectors on the boards of compa-nies. The appointments will alsobe subject to provision of secu-rity clearance certificate fromthe ministry.

The SECP reserves the rightto cancel the registration of aforeign company or appoint-ment of a foreigner director incase the ministry of interior doesnot issue the security clearancefor the director or company con-cerned after its registration.

However, it would be man-datory for foreigners to file allrelevant documents necessaryfor security clearance along withthe undertaking that in case of

refusal of security clearance bythe ministry, the already re-corded returns shall be de-reg-istered forthwith and the direc-tors shall be replaced.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that foreign investors arerequired to obtain security clear-ance from the ministry beforestarting their businesses in Pa-kistan. The delay in securityclearance was considered a ma-jor discouraging factor for for-eign investment and also led tomany complaints. It has alsobeen decided that the SECP—in consultation with other stake-holders —shall finalize a list ofcountries whose nationalsshould be considered for exemp-tion from the requirement of se-curity clearance.

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—Inviting Paki-stani entrepreneurs to avail spe-cial incentives in Sudan, visit-ing Dr. Awad El Jaz, a powerfulsenior Sudanese Minister of Pe-troleum said it is a time to callPakistani brethren not to missthis opportunity.

Pakistan is a brotherly coun-try to whom Khartoum wants toestablish very close economicand trading relations, he saidwhile briefing newsmen on histwo-day visit to Pakistan here.

While dispelling a wrongimpression as created by somesections of world media, he said

Khartoum favours Iran-Pakmega gas pipeline project

his country is peaceful and keento establish cordial and brotherlyrelations with all countries.Sudan is receiving entrepreneursfrom all over the world includ-ing Australia, China, Korea andIndia. “I want Pakistani entre-preneurs and mediamen to visithis country to see themselveshow much his country is peace-ful, safe and stable withfavourable laws for investment.

The Minister, who is head-ing a 12- member officials andexperts, said he has met PrimeMinister Raja Parvez Ashraf, Dr.Asim Hussain, Advisor on Petro-leum and senior officials ofOGDCL and gave presentation

on the whole picture of incentiveshis country is offering in oil andgas sector. Besides this, he saidgreat opportunities are also avail-able in other fields including ag-riculture and minerals.

He has also brought a spe-cial message from his Presidentfor President Asif Ali Zardariinviting him to visit Sudan.

Sudan has very high qualityoil with infrastructure of refin-eries and pipelines. Oil explo-ration is vast sector which canbe exploited by Pakistan inves-tors, he said. Pakistan and Sudanare galvanized with great faithof Islam and other proximities,he said.

Banks toaccept smartidentity cards

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The State Bank ofPakistan (SBP) has advised allbanks/Development Finance In-stitutions (DFIs) that Smart Na-tional Identity Card (SNIC) is-sued by National Database &Registration Authority(NADRA) may also be acceptedin lieu of Computerized Na-tional Identity Card (CNIC) foropening of accounts/bankingtransactions and wherever re-quired in terms of Anti MoneyLaundering and Combating theFinancing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Regulations & BranchlessBanking Regulations.

Tanners wantexports incentives

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan TannersAssociation (PTA) has proposedto revise upward duty drawbackrates by 6.3 percent on exportof finished leather.

In its Budget 2013-14 pro-posals, the PTA has submitted aset of suggestions to the FBR forconsideration in the budget.

The FBR should notify up-ward revision of Duty Draw-back rates at least 6.3 percent onexport of Finished Leather forgoat/sheep skins, cow/buff hidesand Cow/Buff Leather for Up-holstery to make it realistic,presently DDB rates on theseitems are very low i.e. 0.80 per-cent, 1.17 percent and 2.12 per-cent respectively.

The PTA has further pro-posed the FBR to impose a com-plete ban on export of wet blueleather including wet blue splitleather of all kinds of raw hidesand skins and pickled leather toavert the scarcity of these essen-tial raw materials for domesticleather industry. It has proposedincentives equivalent to 3 per-cent of the total exports ofleather to enable PTA membersto import duty free essentialAccessories for value additionin leather shoes, leather prod-ucts, leather handbags andleather garments, etc.

It further proposed reduc-tion in duty on Chromium Sul-phate, Fat Liquors, Buffing Pa-per, Pigments, formic acid &Dyes from present duty (differ-ent slabs of 15%, 20 percent,25 percent) to 5 percent as themain raw materials of leatherindustry. It further proposed re-duction in duty to 5 percent onhot stamping foils falling underHS Code 3212.1000 which ispresently at 20 percent. Theduty will be reduced to 5 per-cent on polyester foils fallingunder HS Code 3920.6900which is presently at 20 per-cent.

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Companies op-erating in developing Asia lostout on nearly $425 billion intrade finance in 2011 alone, ac-cording to a new survey by theAsian Development Bank(ADB).

“Dramatic shortfalls inmeeting financing needs of im-porting and exporting compa-nies are exacting a huge toll onjob creation and economic

Yawning $425b gap in trade finance hits Asian growth, jobsgrowth in the region,” saidSteven Beck, Head of Trade Fi-nance at ADB.

“These trade finance gapsneed to be addressed to give de-veloping Asia a boost to createjobs and alleviate poverty, Becksaid adding trade finance is thelending and guaranteeing thatsupports import and exporttransactions and is critical to in-ternational trade.

In the survey, conductedin the fourth quarter of 2012,

138 companies said that a 5%increase in trade finance sup-port would result in an in-crease of production levels by2%, and staffing by another2%, underscoring the stronglinks between trade finance,economic growth, and jobcreation.

According to the 106 bankssurveyed, almost $2.1 trillionworth of trade finance propos-als were received in Asia, but$425 billion in trade finance re-

quests were not approved.Reasons cited by the sur-

veyed banks include the poorpayment records of their corre-spondent banks, low countryratings in developing countries,and weak banking systems.

At the global level, $1.6 tril-lion out of the $4.6 trillion pro-posed trade finance was notmet.ADB’s Trade Finance Program(TFP) fills market gaps for tradefinance by providing guarantees

and loans to banks to supporttrade.

In 2012 alone, the programsupported $4 billion in tradethrough 2,032 transactions in-volving 1,577 small and me-dium-sized enterprises.

Backed by its AAA creditrating, ADB’s TFP works withmore than 200 partner banks toprovide companies with the fi-nancial support they need toimport and export throughAsia’s most challenging mar-

kets.ADB’s program currently

operates in 18 countries, and isfocused on the poorest markets.

Its six most active coun-tries are Bangladesh,Mongolia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,Uzbekistan and Viet Nam. TFPis in the process of expandingto Myanmar.

The survey marks the firstattempt to quantify gaps fortrade finance and to link thosegaps to growth and jobs.

TEHRAN—Managing Directorof National Iranian Gas Com-pany (NIGC) Javad Oji said thatIran plans to export 21 millioncubic meters gas per day initiallyto Pakistan via the peace pipe-line.

Talking to IRNA on thesidelines of a ceremony mark-ing start of operation to pipeIranian gas to Pakistan, hesaid Pakistanis favor increas-ing the ceiling of mutual con-tract to 30 mil l ion cubicmeters per day.

He said necessary predic-tions have been made for exportof 60 million cubic meters Ira-

Iran plans to export 21m cubic metersgas per day to Pakistan: Iran MD

nian gas to Pakistan through the peace pipeline.

“So, their request to increasethe volume of the gas exports to30 million cubic meters from thecurrent 21 million cubic meterswill be studied.”

The official said Iran-Paki-stan gas line is continuation ofthe 7th pipeline originating fromAsaluyeh.

He said the first phase of the7th gas line, starting fromAsaluyeh to Iranshahr in Sistan-Balochistan Province in an areaof 900 kilometers, has beencompleted and people in theprovince are now benefitingfrom it.

Oji pointed out that 80 km out

of the 320 km pipeline, which liesin Iranian territory, has been com-pleted.

He noted that 780 km of thepipeline lies in Pakistani terri-tory, costing 2 billion dollars tobe implemented out of this $500million of the piping cost hasbeen financed by Iranian banksand companies, he added.

He said that the project iscommissioned fully by Iranianexperts. It is estimated to be fullycomplete in December 2014.

He noted that Iran can serveas sustainable supplier of energyto the neighbours as it has hugeenergy reserves.—Online

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—The FederalBoard of Revenue move to de-pute Inland Revenue officers inthe premises of all sugar millsfor 24 hours has improved salestax collection from sugar sector.

The supervised clearance atthe sugar mills has improvedcompliance by the units. Thesupervised clearance at the millswould continue till completionof crushing process at the units.

Inland Revenue officershave stayed at premises of allsugar mills for 24 hours to moni-tor inputs, production, sales andpayment of duties/taxes bymanufacturers.

Special vigilance teams of theFBR are checking performance ofthe Inland Revenue officers de-puted at sugar mills to make surethat the officers are working prop-erly to block tax evasion. Accord-ing to the FBR, the Board has di-rected that the officers of Inland

Sugar sector STcollection improves

Revenue would be posted, withimmediate effect, under Section40B of the Sales Tax Act, 1990,at the premises of the sugar manu-facturers/mills to monitor produc-tion, sale of taxable goods, stockposition and actual recovery per-centage of sugar.

The said permission has beengranted to combat alleged evasionof taxes/duty by the registeredpersons. The staff so postedshould be present at the premisesround the clock to monitor the in-puts, production, sales and dis-charge of duty/tax liabilities. Thespecial vigilance teams have beenconstituted to ensure that the of-ficers and staff posted under sec-tion 40B ibid is performing theirduties efficiently and effectively,FBR said.

The LTUs may seek helpfrom RTOs to overcome man-power shortage, if any, in con-stituting teams for posting at thepremises of their registered per-sons as aforementioned.

Asian markets upHONG KONG—Asianmarkets mostly rose and thedollar extended its run againstthe yen Tuesday after WallStreet started the week onanother high. Tokyo rose 0.64percent, Hong Kong was 0.36percent higher, Shanghai wasup 0.16 percent and Seoul andSydney were flat. Sentimentremains buoyed by improvingnumbers coming out of theUnited States, with Friday’supbeat jobs numbers fuellingoptimism over the health ofthe world’s biggest economy.“Expectations of a USeconomic recovery arestrong,” Daisaku Ueno, seniorforeign exchange strategist atMitsubishi UFJ MorganStanley told Dow JonesNewswires. The jobs data“changed the picture for thedollar/yen.” On Monday, WallStreet continued its recent runof form, with the Dow up 0.35percent, a seventh straightadvance and a fifth consecu-tive record close. The broaderS&P 500 gained 0.32 percentto sit just nine points below itsown all-time closing high seton October 9, 2007.—APP

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

MULTAN—We are against themost favourite nation status forIndia because India is interestedin purchasing only raw materialof Pakistan and balance of tradeis also in favour of India, whileIndia is reluctant to export rawmaterial and it was selling onlyfinished goods, said MuhammadKhan Saddozai President ofMultan Chamber of Commerce& Industry (MCCI) while ex-changing views with a group ofprobationary officers of CivilService Academy.

He said Multan was provid-ing more revenue than other cit-ies of Punjab except Lahore butit lagged behind in education and

MCCI againstMFN to India

medical facilities.Saddozai informed the of-

ficers that Multan was a hub ofbusiness for 4,000 years and itwas the most ancient city ofAsia. This zone produces morethan 70 percent cotton of thecountry, 40 percent of wheatand 50 percent sugarcane.While it is known for its sweetand fragrant mangoes, goodquality dates, Kinnow etc.South Punjab had a great po-tential for agro-based industry,he added.

Members of business com-munity said that concerned de-partments were equally respon-sible for tax-evasion and theyprovided shelter and conces-sions to tax evaders.

Reduce customsdutyStaff ReporterISLAMABAD—The FederalBoard of Revenue has receiveda recommendation of Engi-neering Development Board(EDB) to reduce the higherrate of customs duty, rangingbetween five-20 percent, oncopper tube in coils, alu-minium tube in coils andpainted/pre painted aluminiumsheet to zero-percent underSRO 565(I)/2006. The facilitywould be available to a privatecompany following amend-ment in the SRO 565(I)/2006.The FBR has asked thecustoms collectorates tosubmit comments on therecommendation of the EDBfor inclusion of raw material inthe concessionary purview ofSRO 565(I)/2006. Thecompany has informed FBRabout the amendment in theconcessionary purview of SRO565(I)/2006 through SRO 573(I)/2012 dated June 1, 2012.The import of Evaporators forrefrigerators Tube on PlateType is importable as sub-components and componentsagainst zero percent customsduty vide SRO 565(I)/2006dated 05.06.2006 as amendedvide SRO 573 (I)/2012 dated01.06.2012.

ST on tractorsObserver ReportLAHORE—Federal Ministry ofFinance has sought proposalsfrom the stakeholders to bringthe tractor industry out of crisisand accelerate the industrialproduction. A delegation led byPakistan Industrial and TradersAssociation Front (PIAF)Chairman Malik Tahir Javedheld a meeting with the FederalFinance Minister SaleemMandviwalla in the federalcapital and apprised him of theissues faced by the industries ingeneral and tractor industry inparticular. He urged theFinance Minister to immedi-ately withdraw increase in thesale tax on tractors.

ProvincialO&G Co initiate

operationsSTAFF REPORTER

PESHAWAR—The KhyberPakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Com-pany Limited formally went intooperation holding inauguralmeeting of the Board of Direc-tors with Chairman, Chief Min-ister Amir Haider Khan Hoti inthe chair.

Addressing the participants,the Chief Minister said the es-tablishment of KPOGCL was alandmark achievement of theprovincial government, whichwould pave ways for theprogress and prosperity of theprovince.

He said it would help makethe province self-sufficient inthe production of oil and gas;and as such overcome the acuteshortage of energy not only inthe province but in the countryas well.

The meeting unanimouslyapproved the constitution ofhuman resource committee,technical committee, auditcommittee and finance com-mittee for the company; anddecided that member of thatcommittee would be fromamong the board of directorsof the company.

The meeting, besides the fi-nancial matter of the company,discussed in detail matters re-lated to the appointment ofchief executive officer, execu-tive directors, secretary andother staff of the company, itsregistration with Pakistan Pe-troleum Exploration and Pro-duction Companies Associationand other issues; and importantdecisions were taken to theseeffects.

Visiting Sudanese Minister of Petroleum Dr Awad Ahmed El Jaz briefing newsmen inIslamabad. Sudanese Ambassador to Pakistan Al-Shafie Ahmed Muhammed is alsoseen.—PO photo by Sultan Bashir

pp a g e 1 3

Gold Tezab 51600.00Silver Tezabi 917.14

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

USA 98.00 97.80

UK 147.07 146.77

EURO 128.35 128.08

Canada 95.08 94.88

Switzerland 103.77 103.56

Australia 100.42 100.21

Sweden 15.46 15.43

Japan 1.0278 1.0257

Norway 17.76 17.23

Singapore 78.60 78.44

Denmark 17.22 17.18

Omani Riyal 250.00 245.00

Saudi Arabia 26.13 26.08

Hong Kong 12.63 12.61

Kuwait 345.18 344.48

Malaysia 31.55 31.48

Newzeland 80.92 80.75

Qatar 26.92 26.86

UAE 26.68 26.63

KR WON 0.0898 0.0897

Thailand 3.295 3.289

Intel tapswomen potential

in mediaSTAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Intel Paki-stan, in collaboration withKarachi Press Club cel-ebrated InternationalWomen’s Day with womenin media. The event titled‘Intel Celebrates Women’was held at Karachi PressClub and included a panel ofleading women achievers,Jehan Ara (PresidentP@SHA and Bolo Bhi),Nezihe Hussain (Owner,SWOT), Salma Jafri (Con-tent Marketer, Social MediaTrainer and Writer) and SanaSaleem (Director of BoloBhi, an NGO working forfreedom of expression, digi-tal rights and women em-powerment). The program isa stepping-stone for the Na-tional Digital Literacy Mis-sion, an initiative by IntelPakistan which aims to bringaffordable computing andconnectivity to the masses.

Widely attended by mediawomen in Karachi, the eventfocused on digital literacy,problem solving and collabo-ration skills for professionaland personal growth of womenin media. In celebration of theInternational Women’s Day,various programs were alsohighlighted which have beenimplemented in Pakistan toequip girls and women withdigital literacy skills in remoteareas of the country. Intel be-lieves that education is a fun-damental right for everyoneand has worked for decades toimprove education around theworld.

It also recognizes the ma-jor role technology plays asboth a bridge and an accelera-tor, in not only improving thequality of education, but alsoimproving access to education.Inspirational stories of womenwho have benefited fromprogrammes like Intel EasySteps , Intel Teach and the IntelInternational Science and En-gineering Fair which are mak-ing a difference in the commu-nity, were also shared with theaudience. The main aim ofthese programs is to empowergirls with the tools, resourcesand opportunities they need tosucceed. Every year, Intel in-vests more than $100 millionin corporate contributionsaround the world in areas suchas education.

KARACHI—Two ships C.VNedlloyd Hudson and M.TMaersk Mediteranean carryingcontainers and palm oil wereberthed at Qasim InternationalContainer Terminal and LiquidCargo Terminal respectively atPort Qasim during the last 24hours, port sources said hereTuesday.

Four more ships scheduledto load/ offload containers andcement also arrived at outeranchorage of Port Qasim dur-ing the same period. Berth oc-cupancy was managed at thePort at fifty percent on Mon-day where seven ships namelyC.V Nedlloyd Hudson, C.VMSC Brainna, C.V MaerskGeorgia, M.V Veruda, M.VAnthea, M.V Asian Expressand M.T Maersk Mediteraneanwere berthed at (PQA) berthsto load/ offload containers,cement and palm oil during the

PQ remains activelast 24 hours.

A cargo volume of 67,135tonnes, comprising 20,616tonnes imports and 46,519tonnes exports inclusive ofcontainerised cargo carried in2,184 containers (658 importsand 1,526 exports TEUs) werehandled at the Port during thelast 24 hours.

Container Vessel MSCBrainna, sailed out to Sea onTuesday morning while anotheredible oil carrier MaerskMediteranean is expected to sailon Tuesday afternoon.

Three ships C.V SealandWashington, C.V Asir and M.TBunga Aster carrying containersand palm oil are expected to takeberths at Container Terminal andLiquid Terminal respectively onTuesday, while another con-tainer vessel CMA CGMWagner is due to arrive at PortQasim on Wednesday.—APP

‘Risk free e-cigarettes only an eye-wash’

STAFF REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D —IslamabadChamber of Commerce & Indus-try (ICCI) welcomed inaugura-tion of Iran-Pakistan gas pipelineproject and termed it as a Peacepipeline which would marked anew chapter in the history of Pa-kistan-Iran bilateral relations.

Mr.Zafar Bakhtawari, Presi-dent ICCI said that the comple-tion of this project would greatlyhelp in overcoming country’senergy problems and improvingenergy supply, especially tomanufacturing and industrialsectors which would ultimatelymake our industrial units morecompetitive in the global world.

ICCI President said that thefunctioning of IP gas pipelinewould ensure supply of 750 mil-lion cubic feet of natural gas perday and help bridge the energygap of around 4000MV, requiredto keep industrial and commer-

Pak-Iran gas pipeline projectnew chapter in history: ICCI

cial wheels of the country intoperpetual motion.

Mr.Bakhtawari was of theview that early completion of thismega project of national impor-tance would be a great favour tothe business community and in-dustrialists as most of the indus-trial units depend on electricity.Thus, execution of this projectwould provide gas to power pro-ducing units which would defi-nitely improve the competitive-ness of export-oriented productsand enhance country’s exports,he maintained.

He further said that IP gaspipeline will remove the mis-trust between Pakistan and Iranwhich was prevailing since30years, adding that it wouldalso help eradicate terrorism andbring prosperity in Balochistan.

Mr.Bakhtawari also hailed therecent decision of the Federal Cabi-net regarding transfer of Gwadarport operations to a Chinese com-

pany and said that Pakistan and saidthat Pakistan really values its rela-tions with neighbouring countriesand always emphasized on regionalcooperation.

He said that Iran and Paki-stan are two Muslim countrieswhich have historic brotherlyand geographical relations withcommon faith, which would bestrengthened with the passage oftime. He said that both the coun-tries have huge trade and invest-ment potential as well as capac-ity to launch joint ventures in theareas of common interest.

ICCI President said thatIran-Pakistan gas pipeline is animportant step forward and itssuccessful operation would in-spire the leadership of SouthAsia to implement another pro-pose project Turkmenistan, Af-ghanistan, Pakistan and India(TAPI) gas pipeline, subse-quently, benefiting the entireregion of South Asia.

MUZAFFAR ALI

LAHORE—A new kind ofdrug addiction, known asElectronic Cigarettes (e-cigs),is being advertised by foreignorigin brands as ‘harmless’and many unsuspecting con-sumers, especially youth, arebeing lured into smokingthrough this advertisementtactic, Pakistan Observer haslearnt.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that contrary to how thesecigarettes are being advertised,they do not provide an alter-native to quit smoking and theWorld Health Organisation,

after declaring them to be as le-thal as normal cigarettes, hasbanned their advertisement.

WHO also said companiesshould stop marketing them thatway, especially since the prod-uct may undermine smokingprevention efforts because theylook like the real cigarettes andmay lure non-smokers, includ-ing children.

The network of e-cigs isexpanding rapidly in Pakistan asthe manufacturers have spreadtheir electronic devices of e-cigsin more than 200 big and smallcities, including many villages,across the country. Talking toPakistan Observer, an official of

the Health Department askingnot be named said the depart-ment has receiving reports aboutthe increase in ratio of e-cigsespecially in youngsters hailingfrom elite educational institutes.He said the issue was that sincethe e-cigs was stylish, slim andlooked like the real cigarette,youngsters across the countrywere getting attracted to it andthe worst part was that non-smokers too were getting ad-dicted to it, considering it to beharmless.

“These e-cigs can affect thegovernment’s anti-smokingcampaign since these cigarettescan be used in all areas where

smoking is prohibited such ashotel lounges, airports, railwaysstations and even in bed rooms,”he said, adding that since no re-search had been carried out onthe issue, the exact situation wasunknown.

Talking to Pakistan Ob-server, focal person of WHO inPakistan on tobacco, ShahzadAlam Khan said WHO did notdeclare e-cig free of health haz-ards and had issued a clearguideline against the public useof e-cigs. He said the biggestconcern for health experts wasthat the manufacturers of e-cigswere marketing their products toyoungsters who were getting

addicted to them, thinking thatthey were harmless.

He said the latest statisticsshowed adolescents were get-ting more addicted to smokingthan adults because productssuch as e-cigs were being mar-keted with false claims. He saidthe e-cigs contained nicotine thatwas highly addictive and it couldincrease heart and blood pres-sure and restrict blood to theheart muscles.

Talking to this scribe, e-cig importer Khalid Hayatclaimed that the e-cigs wereexact copy of original ciga-rettes and had no harmfulcomponents for human health,

adding that they were eco-nomical and were an effectivemedium for those addictedsmokers who wanted to quitsmoking. When he was askedwhy the distributors were con-cealing the ingredients in theiradvertisements, he said therewas no need to advertise theingredients because they wereharmless. He said e-cigs weresafer than conventional ciga-rettes and sheesha. He saidmost of his consumers weretrying to quit smoking and e-cigs were helping them.

Dr Rafique Anjum, talkingto Pakistan Observer, said e-cigswere not common but it could

be dangerous for health due toits inhalation of diethylene gly-col, nicotine and other toxiccomponents.

He said the refilling bottlescould contain about one gram ofnicotine and its use up to 30 to60mg could be fatal for adultsand 10mg for children. He saidaddiction becomes habit andwhen a non-smoker or once asmoker would see a personsmoking e-cig in public placethere would be chances that theywould also restart or indulge insmoking again.

Kashif Aftab, a student ofa private college, said that heonce used sheesha and after

seeing e-cigs in fruit andchocolate f lavours, hestarted using it too. He saidit was economical and avail-able from Rs700 to Rs4500per box. He said e-cigs werenot available in markets eas-ily so he usually called thee-cig distributor on his mo-bile and had placed his or-der. He said he did not knowif e-cigs were dangerous ornot because their ingredientshad not been advertised. Headmitted that he felt a sameurge in his heart for smok-ing e-cig as he had for nor-mal cigarettes because hefelt good after puffing it.

STAFF REPORTER

KA R A C H I —A Dairy andLivestock Conference washeld with participants from allover Pakistan representing thedairy farmers, Small andLarge corporate farms, repre-sentatives from federal andprovincial governments, NGOsector, USAID, USDA,American Consulate Lahore,major dairy product manufac-turers, service providers,academia, developmentalagencies and agriculture con-sultants.

Dr. Japie Conraidie, Headof Nestle’ Pakistan gave abrief history of the importa-tion of the better producingcows to Pakistani market andexplained how the industryhas evolved since the time hewas on the first ship taking thecows off. He explained thatsince the white revolution slo-gan has shown many changesin the dairy sector of Pakistan,resulting in an increase inmilk production, better breed-ing, AI awareness and better

NGOs, USAID, USDA to undertakejoint dairy development

animal husbandry. During thisperiod, we also saw a wave ofmilk processing facilit iesopening up in Pakistan includ-ing UHT, fresh, powdered, or-ganic and value added prod-ucts.

All of these efforts in-creased the consumer aware-ness for better products andhelped in developing major co-operatives and value chains. Inthe mean time we also saw anincrease in the number of purebred and cross bred animals in

Pakistan. There are many com-panies operating in Pakistanwith tested semen of local andimported breeds and live ani-mal Imports. Dr. Conraidiealso added that now is the timeto bring even better producingcows to this market as farmersare more aware of the animalhusbandry. He said that if youhave cows of better genetics,feed them right and give themoptimal environment than youhave a profitable milk busi-ness.

KARACHI—Dr Japie Conraidie, Head of Nestle’ Pakistanand Chaudhary Usman Ali, Executive Director of StricklandGlobal explained about the import of US cows to Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman PARC addressing at an international semi-nar while DG (CIMMYT) and other dignitaries are sitting on the stage.

Arsalan Zia Qureshi, Head of Corporate Sales (South),Mobilink and Mr. Arif Shafique, Country General Manager,Nokia Pakistan & Afghanistan are exchanging the MoU atthe launch of Nokia Lumia WP8 smartphones along withother officials from Nokia. According to the MoU, Mobilinkis the exclusive partner of new Nokia Lumia range in Paki-stan

No likelihoodof promisedUS budget

savingsWASHINGTON—On paper,there’s one thing to like aboutthe ugly spending cuts due tokick in: $85 billion in budgetsavings at a time when Wash-ington continues to bleed redink.

In reality, the so-called “se-quester” is likely to yield lessthan half that much in the shortterm.

In part, that has to do withthe complex way the govern-ment handles its money. But italso reflects the probability thatthe spending cuts will hurt theeconomy, which in turn willlower tax revenue and drive upthe costs of social safety-net pro-grams like unemployment insur-ance.

On top of that, federal agen-cies - especially the Pentagon -will have to pay penalties to sup-pliers if the sequester forcedthem to cancel contracts.

Add it up, and the actualsavings could be a lot less thanbudget hawks envision.—Newswire

Nokia, Mobilinkcollaborate to promotethe new range of Lumia

WP8 in Pakistan

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Nokia Pakistan hasjoined hands with Mobilink, asa means of strengthening its lo-cal ecosystem partnerships aswell as extending the availabil-ity of the innovative NokiaLumia WP8 range in Pakistanto bring better value proposi-tions for consumers.

As a result of this partner-ship, Mobilink will sell theNokia Lumia Windows Phone 8range as a special bundle offerincluding exciting Nokia gear.The new Nokia Lumia 920 withfree Wireless Charger DT 900,Lumia 820 with free WirelessCover and Wireless Charger DT900 and Lumia 620 with USBPortable Nokia DC 16 charger.The first 1000 customers willget to avail the special bundleoffer available via MobilinkBusiness Centers. Additionally,Mobilink is offering 1GB datafor one month to all new andexisting Mobilink customerspurchasing Nokia Lumiathrough Mobilink Business Cen-ters or retail. This is a limitedtime offer.

Speaking on the occasion,Arif Shafique, country generalmanager, Nokia Pakistan said,“As we continue to invest to-wards delivering unique expe-riences to consumers, we havepartnered with Mobilink to takethe Lumia experience to moreand more consumers swiftly.”

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—The Lahore Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry(LCCI) urged the Federal Boardof Revenue to stop extra-ordi-nary taxation measures againstlaw abiding tax payers, who arealready burdened with high ratesof Sales Tax, Income Tax andCustom duties.

The LCCI President FarooqIftikhar, Senior Vice PresidentIrfan Iqbal Sheikh and VicePresident Mian Abuzar Shad saidthat the of SROs and amend-ments in various sections in re-cent days are creating multipleproblems for the business com-munity therefore the FBR shouldfocus on expansion of tax net in-stead ofcoming with new taxa-

FBR asked to relaxtaxation measures

tion measures against existing taxpayers. They said that the FBRshould ensure some relief to thebusinesses by taking remedialmeasures to avoid serious threatsto trade and industry.

The LCCI office-bearerswere of the view that the SRO98(I) 2013 and SRO 140(I) 2013would not only increase the fi-nancial cost of the businessesbut would also be hitting theircash flows hard. Specificallytalking about SRO 98(I) 2013,they said, it would come in theway of documentation of theeconomy because either themanufacturers or importerswould start making supplies tounregistered persons or to suchregistered persons who are notwithholding agents.

On the other hand, they said,the withholding agents wouldalso be facing great difficultiesin getting raw material from reg-istered persons. And theseswithholding agents would,therefore, change their statusfrom companies to AOPs or toSole Proprietorship.

We need business friendlypolicies to boost our businessesbut it is unfortunate the authori-ties on the helm of affairs arecreating more irritants to retardthe economy.

They further said that thesechanges would not add revenueto the government exchequerrather they would create hard-ship for smooth running of busi-nesses that are already sufferingfrom liquidity crunch.

Zardari to openTarbela power

expansion projectSTAFF REPORTER

TARBELA—President Asif AliZardari will inaugurate thefourth expansion project ofTarbela Dam on March 14.

The project on its comple-tion will add 1,410 megawattelectricity into the national grid.

The inauguration ceremonywill be held at Tarbela PowerHouse, for which all prepara-tions have been finalised. Fed-eral Minister for Water andPower Chaudhry AhmedMukhtar, Chairman WapdaSyed Raghib Shah, officials ofthe World Bank and other im-portant officials will attend theinauguration ceremony. The1,410-megawatt power projectwill consist of three units of 470megawatts each, which will cost480 million dollars. The WB isproviding funds for the comple-tion of the project.

The first instalment of 20million dollars has been paid toWapda. However, the tender ofthe project has not been con-ducted yet.

S Korean offershelp to southPunjab agri

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MULTAN—South Korea canextend cooperation to Pakistanto strengthen its agro-industrialbase in south Punjab by provid-ing modern plants to add valueto crop products.

This was stated by SouthKorean Ambassador in PakistanChoong Joo Choi, while ad-dressing a gathering of industri-alists and businessmen at theMultan Chamber of Commerceand Industry (MCCI) on Tues-day. The ambassador alsopraised on aromatic and tastyPakistani mangoes and addedthe exotic fruit was worth itsprice. The industrialists drew theSouth Korean ambassador’s at-tention to strict rules and regu-lations of his government for theimport of mangoes and termedit a hurdle to their export toSouth Korea.

The South Korean ambassa-dor asked the industrialists tosubmit their proposals in blackand white so that they could beconveyed to the South Koreangovernment for consideration.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Stock Ex-change (KSE), Lahore StockExchange (LSE), and IslamabadStock Exchange (ISE) on havesigned a Memorandum of Un-derstanding (MoU) for the jointtrading in Stock Index FuturesContract (SIFC).

The MoU signing ceremonywas held at Auditorium of KSEbuilding, attended by a largenumber of stock professionals,officials of KSE and businesscommunity.

Nadeem Naqvi, ManagingDirector KSE, Aftab AhmedChaudhry, Managing DirectorLSE and Mian Ayyaz Afzal,Managing Director ISE signedthe MoU.

On the occasion, Sani-e-Mehmood Khan, General Man-ager Marketing Developmentand New Production, gave pre-sentation about the SIFC to theparticipants.

According to him, the SIFCis simply buying or selling aspecified number of contractswhose market-to-market differ-ence is settled through NationalClearing Company’s standard

KSE, LSE, ISE to initiatejoint trading in SIFC

pay- in-collect system on dailybasis.

Stock Index Futures ben-efits: Provides Protection fromadverse market movements, en-visaged to be an important le-verage product, based on thefree-float of blue-chip stocksand KSE-30 is bound to haveminimal impact cost.

Stock Index Futures, a toolfor Mutual Funds: Mutualfunds based on an index dupli-cate the holdings of the under-lying index. As per SECP cir-cular Mutual Funds are allowedto use Derivatives for hedgingsince June 28 2011. If the un-derlying index rises by 5 per-cent, the SIFC on that Indexshall also rise by 5 percent forthat Mutual Fund. This has thetremendous advantage of lowercosts. Institutional investorscan use Stock Index Futures tohedge their positions in the un-derlying stocks in their portfo-lio.

Contract Duration would be90 days, contract would bestarted from first trading day ofthe next week following theclose of the contract and contractend date would be last Friday of

respective month.Volume would be

weighted average value of lasthalf hour of trading in the rel-evant Stock Index FuturesContract for cash settlement,multiplied by the contractmultiplier and expressed inPakistani Rupees.

Final settlement price of theStock/Sector Index FuturesContract shall be the price cal-culated based on a set of 121reading of 15 second intervals(price points) of the underlyingindex levels taken between thelast half an hour of trading. Thehighest and lowest 20 pricepoints will be ignored and theclosing price computed as anaverage of the remaining 81price point will be the FinalSettlement Price for the settle-ment of the contract.

SBP-Sindh govt incentivesfor rice husking mills

AMANULLAH KHAN

KARACHI—The Sindh Gov-ernment, in collaboration withthe State Bank of Pakistan, hasoffered interest subsidy of6.25% and credit risk sharingfacility of up-to 30% againstthe long term loans to be ex-tended to rice husking mills inSindh by banks under the ex-isting SBP RefinancingScheme.

These additional incentivesare being offered by Sindh En-terprise Development Fund(SEDF) will encourage RiceMills of Sindh to carry out BMRof their units so as to reduce theirlosses and improve the quality

of their products. The improvedprofitability projections with theavailability of additional incen-tives under the Scheme will alsoencourage potential Small &Medium Enterprises (SMEs) toestablish new rice husking unitsin Sindh.

Under the scheme, mark upsubsidy: Mark up rate for theFacility shall remain the sameviz. 9% for financing up-to 5years as applicable under SBP’sRefinance Facility; however, theend-user rate will be 2.75% p.aonly, i.e. the difference of 6.25%(SBP share) will be borne bySEDF.

Banks will be offered creditguarantee cover of 30% against

their outstanding loans under theFacility. As mentioned, thecover will be provided on thestrength of financial support ex-tended by SEDF.

Tenor of loans: Facilityshall be available againstloans granted up-to the periodof five years. Loan Limit:Maximum loan size for asingle borrower shall be Rs 10million (Rupees Ten milliononly).

The banks which have al-ready obtained refinance limitsunder SBP’s Refinance Facilityfor Modernization of SMEs maynow apply for the Guarantee andsubsidy limits under thisScheme.

LSE gainLAHORE—Lahore Stock Ex-change on Tuesday witnessedbullish trend by gaining 119.81points as the LSE-25 Indexopened with 4117.96 and closedat 4237.77 points.

The market’s overall situationalso corresponded to an upwardtrend as it remained at 3.981 mil-lion shares to close against previ-ous turnover of 3.688 millionshares, showing an upward moveof 292,700 shares. While, out ofthe total 103 active scrips, 40moved up, 60 remained equal withonly 3 down values. Engro Cor-poration Limited, Pakistan Petro-leum Limited and Dawood Her-cules Corporation were MajorGainers of the day.—APP

Bulgaria searching PMSOFIA—Bulgaria’s president was set toname diplomat Marin Raikov as interimprime minister on Tuesday, two sources withdirect knowledge of the process said, as heseeks to shore up confidence after protestsfelled the previous administration. Bulgar-ian President Rosen Plevneliev delivers hisspeech at the parliament in Sofia. RosenPlevneliev’s choice of an independent fig-ure as prime minister is designed to showprotesters a clean break with a political class

they view as corrupt and unable to improve living standards inthe European Union’s poorest member. The size of demonstra-tions has fallen sharply this week and protest leaders have failedto form a new single group that could stand in a May election,indicating the current main parties will also dominate the nextparliament. While that may make it easier to form a new coali-tion government, it will probably also mean the current politicalclass, the focal point of protesters’ rage, remains in power andfrustrations may yet bubble up again. “Marin Raikov is going tobe the new prime minister,” said one source, who declined to benamed as the information was not public yet. The interim gov-ernment will serve until an early election scheduled for May 12.Raikov, 52, is a career diplomat and well-known on the EU scene,having helped start Bulgaria’s process of joining the bloc whendeputy foreign minister in 1998. He has twice been ambassadorto France, including from 2009 until now. “Raikov matches theprofile,” said Daniel Smilov, a political analyst with Sofia-basedCentre For Liberal Studies. “He is more or less politically neu-tral and has no links to different business groupings - these arethe two most important conditions.” The presidency, which isdue to announce the interim administration at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT),declined to comment. Plevneliev had said the interim govern-ment would be a panel of experts.Bulgaria has sought to easepublic frustration by cutting electricity prices and revoking thelicence of Czech electricity distributor CEZ, measures that ana-lysts say go against EU norms of due process.—Reuters

Xi chooses reformist VPBEIJING—A reformist member of China’sdecision-making Politburo, Li Yuanchao, isset to become the country’s vice presidentthis week instead of a more senior and con-servative official best known for keeping themedia in check, sources said. Li’s appoint-ment would be a sign that new CommunistParty leader and incoming president XiJinping’s clout is growing, a source with tiesto the leadership said. Xi fended off a bid byinfluential former president Jiang Zemin to

install propaganda tsar Liu Yunshan in the job, the source said.Jiang was a major power behind the scenes in the administrationof outgoing President Hu Jintao. The post of vice president islargely symbolic. However the job would raise Li’s profile, givehim a role in foreign affairs and further bolster Xi, who took thetop jobs in the party and military at the Communist Party con-gress in November. The promotion of Li may also signal a will-ingness on the part of Xi to pursue limited reforms that Li isknown to have advocated in his previous posts, such as makingthe selection of Communist officials more inclusive. Leadershipchanges in China are thrashed out behind closed doors throughhorse-trading between new leaders and outgoing or retired lead-ers anxious to preserve their influence and protect family inter-ests, but reshuffles must go through a choreographed selectionprocess. Two other sources, who declined to be identified be-cause it is sensitive to discuss elite politics with foreign media,also confirmed that Xi had decided to make Li his vice presidentrather than Liu. The National People’s Congress, China’s rub-ber-stamp parliament, will vote in Xi and Li as president andvice president respectively on March 14. Li Keqiang, the party’snew No.2 official, will succeed Wen Jiabao to become premierand oversee the economy and day-to-day running of the cabi-net.—Reuters

‘Compensate for mine grabs’YANGON—People whose land was seizedto allow the expansion of a copper mine innorthwestern Myanmar, prompting proteststhat were crushed by police, should be com-pensated before the project goes ahead, ac-cording to an official report published onTuesday. Myanmar’s President Thein Seinreviews the honour guard in Vienna. Thereport, led by opposition leader Aung SanSuu Kyi, also found that inexperienced po-lice fired smoke bombs containing harmful

phosphorous into a protesters’ camp at the Monywa copper minelast November, causing serious injuries. The heavy-handed raidson protesters called into question the sincerity of Myanmar’s re-forms, kicked off in 2011 by a quasi-civilian government thatreplaced a military regime that had run the country for half acentury. Land grabs are increasingly contested by residents exer-cising new-found freedoms and no longer afraid to speak out.“The commission does not think the project should be allowed tocontinue as it is,” the report said regarding the $1 billion expan-sion of the mine. It said a “lack of transparency” was the mainreason for events leading up to the violence. Over 100 people,including 99 Buddhist monks, ended up in hospital after the sup-pression of the protests. The report recommended changes to theexpansion plans, which locals said involved the unlawful seizureof more than 7,800 acres (3,160 hectares) of land. It recommendedgreater compensation for residents, including the return of 1,900acres for farming as the original compensation was insufficient.President Thein Sein has set up a committee to implement therecommendations, including representatives of the governmentand of the joint owners, the military-owned Union of MyanmarEconomic Holdings Ltd and a unit of China North IndustriesCorp, a Chinese weapons manufacturer. Further recommenda-tions in the report included police reform and anti-riot trainingfor officers.—Reuters

Japan to mark sovereignty DayTOKYO—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’sgovernment decided on Tuesday to hold aceremony to mark the restoration of Japan’ssovereignty seven years after defeat inWorld War Two, a sign of his drive to repairwhat conservatives consider dentednational pride. The popular 58-year-oldAbe, who returned to office when his partyswept back to power in a December poll,wants to revise the post-war, U.S.-draftedpacifist constitution and rewrite Japan’s

wartime history with a less apologetic tone. Japan’s PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe speaks next to the national flag, which ishung with a black ribbon as a symbol of mourning for victimsof the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, during his newsconference at his official residence in Tokyo. His Liberal Demo-cratic Party (LDP) had pledged in the campaign to make April28 “Restoration of Sovereignty Day”, to mark the day in 1952when the San Francisco Peace Treaty took effect, formallyending World War Two and the Allied Occupation. “I think thatfor the right, the meaning of Sovereignty Day is to celebratethe end of a foreign occupation that imposed alien ideas andinstitutions on Japan,” said Columbia University politicalscience professor Gerry Curtis. “Abe wants ‘regime change’but most Japanese appear happy to have the regime theoccupation made possible - democracy, peace, freedom,prosperity - rather than what they had before.” The plan hasupset some residents of Japan’s southern island of Okinawa,which remained under U.S. control for another two decadesafter 1952. Okinawa is still reluctant host to the bulk of U.S.military forces in Japan. —Reuters

Record snowjam traffic flow

BRUSSELS—An overnightsnowstorm in Belgium andnorthern France caused recordBelgian traffic jams and delayedthe start of federal budget talksin Brussels, and left French driv-ers sleeping in their cars. TheBelgian breakdown assistanceassociation Touring said the to-tal length of tailbacks on high-ways and major roads at theirrush-hour peak hit 1,670 km(1,038 miles), beating by far theprevious record of 1,285 km seton February 3 last year.

“There was too much snowat the wrong moment. If it snowsa lot at night, the salt doesn’twork as there aren’t enough carsto spread it around,” said Tour-ing spokesman DannySmagghe. On a normal Tuesday,total morning rush-hourtailbacks average 250-270 km.

Brussels’ two main railwaystations were closed. The high-speed Eurostar service connect-ing London with the French andBelgian capitals and the Thalysconnecting Paris, Brussels,Amsterdam in the Netherlandsand Cologne in Germany wereboth suspended.—Reuters

Russian forces killseven caucasus

militantsMOSCOW —Russian securityforces killed seven suspectedIslamist militants in the restiveNorth Caucasus province ofKabardino-Balkaria on Tuesday,the Interfax news agency re-ported. Three suspected mili-tants were killed when securityforces fired on two cars whosedrivers did not respond to de-mands to show identificationdocuments, Interfax cited uni-dentified law enforcement offi-cials as saying.

Separately, the agency alsoquoted Russia’s federal anti-ter-rorist committee as saying fourmore alleged militants, sus-pected of illegal arms sales, werekilled in the same province onTuesday and another eightpeople were arrested The reportsmade no mention of any casual-ties among security forces. Po-lice could not immediately bereached for comment and theInterfax account of the violencecould not be independently con-firmed.

Deadly exchanges of gunfirebetween police and suspectedmilitants are common at roadcheckpoints and elsewhere inRussia’s North Caucasus, a stringof provinces hit by an Islamistinsurgency rooted in two separat-ist wars in Chechnya. Kabardino-Balkaria, west of Chechnya, ismostly Muslim but has a sizableChristian minority.—Reuters

MOSCOW—A Russian suspectin the death of Kremlin criticAlexander Litvinenko said onTuesday he would no longer co-operate with a British inquiry intothe former KGB agent’s radiationpoisoning in London. AndreiLugovoy, a former security agentwho is now a member of Russia’sparliament, told a news confer-ence in Moscow that Britain wastrying to hide the truth aboutLitvinenko’s death in November2006 by keeping evidence secret.

His announcement could in-crease tension between Britainand Russia, whose foreign anddefense chiefs are due to meet inLondon on Wednesday in the lat-est effort to improve relations thatfrayed over Litvinenko’s death.“I have come to the conclusionthat the British authorities willnot give me a chance to prove myinnocence. I will be unable to get

Ex-KGB agent dies ofradiation poisoning

justice in Britain,” said Lugovoy,who has denied any involvementin Litvinenko’s death.

Russia has denied involve-ment and refused to extraditeLugovoy to face accusations hekilled Litvinenko with a dose ofthe radioactive isotope polonium-210, but he had appointed law-yers to represent him in acoroner’s inquiry into the death.Lugovoy said a request by Brit-ish Foreign Secretary WilliamHague to keep some informationabout the death secret for nationalsecurity reasons was turning theinquest into a farce.

Hague and British DefenceSecretary Philip Hammond are todiscuss international and bilateralissues with Russian Foreign Min-ister Sergei Lavrov and DefenceMinister Sergei Shoigu at the firstsession of what Moscow calls a“strategic dialogue”. —Reuters

LONDON—More than twodozen of the world’s largestpharmaceutical companies haveagreed to provide funding andother support to Interpol’s battleagainst counterfeit prescriptiondrugs, the international policeagency said Tuesday. Interpol’snewly created PharmaceuticalCrime Program aims to helphealth agencies, police and cus-toms bureaus in countriesaround the globe stem the sup-ply of bogus brand-name andgeneric medicines, as well asidentify and dismantle the or-ganized crime rings distributingthem.

Those rings, which operateacross borders, are raking in bil-lions of dollars every year, cost-ing legitimate drugmakers asmall fortune in lost sales.Meanwhile patients who un-knowingly take counterfeit

Drugmakers, interpol launch action against fakesdrugs often are poisoned or getsicker because they’re not re-ceiving what the doctor pre-scribed. Experts estimate hun-dreds of thousands of peoplearound the world die because ofcounterfeit medicines each year.The pharmaceutical companieshave pledged a total of •4.5 mil-lion, or nearly $5.9 million, overthree years to help Interpol withefforts including training locallaw enforcement officials on in-vestigative procedures, evidencehandling and how to better workwith partners outside their coun-tries.

Interpol also will help thoseauthorities build up their infra-structure and target enforcementactions against crime rings thatmake and sell fake drugs, andalso divert medication illegallyto countries where it’s not ap-proved. “We will develop a pro-

gram according to what is bestfor the international communityand what will save lives,” AlinePlancon, head of Interpol’scounterfeiting and pharmaceuti-cal crime program, told The As-sociated Press in an exclusiveinterview.

“It’s been difficult for us asInterpol to sustain our activities”against counterfeiting over theyears, she said, because theagency’s limited resources alsoare needed for areas the interna-tional community sees as moreserious crimes. Those includehuman trafficking, narcoticsdealing, terrorism and moneylaundering. Besides the financialsupport, the pharmaceuticalcompanies, most of which spendmillions on their own investiga-tions to fight counterfeiting oftheir medicines, will step upsharing with Interpol the intelli-

gence they uncover.Plancon said her agency,

based in Lyon, France, plans tobetter coordinate its work andcollaborate with its membercountries. Interpol also will runpilot projects, experimentingwith new strategies to find waysto be more effective. The indus-try support “forms a bridge be-tween the public and private sec-tors and will assist Interpol andeach of its 190 member coun-tries to more effectively tacklethe problem of medical productcounterfeiting,” Interpol Secre-tary General Ronald K. Noblesaid in a statement.

The World Health Organiza-tion estimates sales of medicinesthat are counterfeit, contami-nated or otherwise illegal total$430 billion a year. In develop-ing countries, up to 50 percentof the drug supply may be fake.

That’s many times more than indeveloped countries, wheremost potentially dangerous fakedrugs are sold through rogueInternet pharmacies, but coun-terfeit drugs increasingly aregetting into the supply of phar-macies and hospitals.

In the U.S., for example,three times in the last year coun-terfeit versions of the RocheGroup cancer drug Avastin haveinfiltrated the wholesale supplyand been sold to cancer clinicsand hospitals. An unknownamount of those fakes was ad-ministered to patients. And inPakistan last year, 109 heart pa-tients died after taking counter-feit medicine. The 29 companiessupporting the effort includeAmgen Inc., AstraZeneca PLC,Eisai Co., GlaxoSmithKlinePLC, Johnson & Johnson, EliLilly and Co., Merck & Co.,

Novartis,AG, Pfizer Inc., RocheGroup and Sanofi SA.

John Lechleiter, chairman ofthe trade group PharmaceuticalResearch and Manufacturers ofAmerica and CEO of Lilly, saidMonday that the new programwill supplement Interpol’s exist-ing efforts. “Counterfeiting ac-tivity is evolving so rapidly” andbecoming more common, hesaid.

As a result, one thrust of theprogram will be to try to morequickly spot new trends in whichdrugs are being counterfeited,where the crime rings are basedand where they are distributingfake medicines, Lechleiter said.“This is really meant to cementsome of these efforts together,”he said. “After the initial (three-year) period, depending on theresults, we can certainly extendthat out.” —AP

China winding upre-education campsBEIJING—All it took was ahandwritten note from police tosend Zhao Meifu to a labor campfor a year in China’s arid north-west. The farmer had been seek-ing redress for decades over aland grab by village officials.Tired of her complaints, policesaw the labor camp as a quickway to get rid of her. “They didnot like my mother, so theylocked her up,” Zhao’s son, GuoDajun, said in a recent interview.

She was locked up in a longhated and often abused penalsystem known as labor re-edu-cation. Chinese police have usedit to lock up tens of thousandsof people for up to four yearswithout a trial or a judge’s re-view. Established to punish earlycritics of the Communist Party,it was retooled to focus on pettycriminals but now is used by lo-cal officials to deal with peoplechallenging their authority onissues including land rights andcorruption.

Cases like Zhao’s last yearhave galvanized critics, many ofthem within the government,and China’s newly installedleadership is seizing on expec-

tations for reform. “There’s littleleft to be debated. It should beabolished right away,” said HouXinyi, a law professor fromNankai University in the city ofTianjin. Hou serves on China’stop political advisory body,which is meeting in Beijing thisweek alongside the national leg-islature. Commentators in themedia and on the Internet arehoping that some deputies pro-pose that the system be over-hauled during the 13-day legis-lative session, which ends Sun-day.

“Only the law should decideon a citizen’s personal freedom,”Hou said. What to do with thesystem has become a test ofCommunist Party chief XiJinping’s commitment to advancethe rule of law and temper policeand other security officials whooften run roughshod over the le-gal system. Curbing or endinglabor re-education would be aboost for legal reformers. Thesystem is frequently used to si-lence minor government criticsand ordinary Chinese like Zhaowho are considered nuisances bylocal officials.—AP

ADDIS ABABA—Sudan andSouth Sudan agreed on Tuesdayto order a restart to southern oilexports through Sudan withintwo weeks, more than a year af-ter Juba shut down its entire pe-troleum industry. LandlockedSouth Sudan, which secededfrom Sudan in July 2011, closedoff its 350,000 barrel-per-dayoutput in January last year in adispute with Khartoum over howmuch it should pay to send theoil through Sudanese pipelines tothe Red Sea.

Both countries dependheavily on oil for the foreign cur-rency they need to import foodand fuel, but disputes over theborder and other issues left overfrom partition have preventedthem resuming exports. Sudan’schief negotiator, Idris

Two Sudans agree torelease oil in fortnight

Mohammed Abdel Gadir, signeda deal with his South Sudanesecounterpart Pagan Amum in theearly hours of Tuesday setting outa timeline for the resumption ofoil exports after four days of Af-rican Union-brokered talks inAddis Ababa.

South African former Presi-dent Thabo Mbeki, who has beenmediating between the two sides,told reporters they had agreed toorder oil companies to restart pro-duction within two weeks of “D-Day”, given as Sunday, March10. A copy of the implementationtimeline obtained by Reuters con-firmed the date. “Resumption ofproduction shall take place assoon as technically feasible,” itsaid.

The two former civil warenemies agreed at the talks in the

Ethiopian capital on Friday toorder the withdrawal of theirtroops from a demilitarized bor-der zone within a week to easetensions and open the way to re-suming oil exports. SouthSudan’s president has alreadygiven that order, an army spokes-man said on Monday.

The timetable said the rede-ployment of forces from the bor-der zone should be complete byApril 5, and that the two countriesshould set up a joint committeeby March 17 for demarcating theboundary. However, it did not seta date for determining the finalstatus of Abyei, a disputed terri-tory that has been a perennialsource of tension between the twosides. An administration and coun-cil for the area would be set up byMarch 17, it said.—Reuters

DUBAI—Kuwait has expresseddismay to the United Nationsover a protest by stone-throwingIraqis against the demarcation ofthe border, state media reported,underlining lingering tensionsbetween the Arab neighbors adecade after Saddam Husseinwas overthrown.

Iraq formally accepted aU.N.-demarcated border line in1994 after the first Gulf War -when Iraqi strongman Saddamsent his troops into Kuwait in1990 and was forced out by aU.S.-led coalition. But many Ira-qis in the area remain opposed toit, saying the line robbed them ofproperty and territory.

Iraqi police sources said theprotesting crowd hurled stones at

Kuwait annoyed overUN Iraq’s border mark

Iraqi security forces in the bordertown of Um Qasr on Monday,prompting the security forces tofire in the air to disperse them. Theunrest was triggered by bordersigns maintenance work nearby,they said. Kuwaiti border guards,hearing the gunshots and believ-ing they were being targeted,opened fire at Iraqi security forcesin response, Kuwaiti media re-ported. There were no reports ofcasualties on either side.

Kuwait’s Foreign Ministryundersecretary, Khalid al-Jarallah,said his country has submitted amemorandum to the United Na-tions and to Iraq over the incident,according to Kuwait’s state newsagency KUNA. “We have issueda statement expressing our dismay

over the irresponsible act,” hesaid. “It is an act that runs counterto the nature of brotherly relationsbetween Kuwait and Iraq.”

Kuwait pulled its borderguards out of the area after theincident “to calm the situation”,Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai re-ported on its website. KUNA saidsome of the protesting Iraqis hadobstructed U.N.-supervised bor-der signs maintenance and re-moved the border fence betweentwo signs.

An Iraqi police source toldReuters that one activist was in-jured in the border unrest. Lead-ers of both oil-producing countrieshave been working to improve tiesin the past year, despite publicwariness.—Reuters

TUNIS—A unemployed youngman set himself on fire in thecentre of Tunis on Tuesday in agesture recalling the self-immo-lation of Mohamed Bouazizi,whose death ignited a revolt inTunisia that echoed across theArab world. Security forces andbystanders tried to extinguishthe flames before the man wasrushed to hospital, witnessessaid.

“He is in very critical condi-tion,” a medical source inMourouj hospital said, but gaveno further details. The incidentoccurred hours before PrimeMinister-designate Ali Larayedhwas due to seek a confidence votefor his new Islamist-led govern-ment from the National Constitu-ent Assembly.

The man burned himself out-side the municipal theatre in thecapital’s main Habib BourguibaAvenue, the focus for proteststhat toppled President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two years ago.An Interior Ministry official didnot name the victim, but said hewas aged 27, hailed from thenorthwestern city of Jandoubaand had been looking for a jobfor a long time.

Tunisia’s unemploymentrate stands at about 17 percent,with graduates forming a largeproportion of the jobless total.Several Tunisians have set them-selves ablaze in the past twoyears in protests emulating that

Young jobless Tunisiansets himself on fire

of Bouazizi, a street vendor whotorched himself on December17, 2010 in the town of SidiBouzid after a policewomanconfiscated his fruit cart.

Bouazizi’s death sparkedprotests that ended with BenAli’s overthrow and inspired re-bellions elsewhere in the MiddleEast. The economic and socialproblems that fuelled Tunisia’suprising have yet to be solvedin a country now deeplypolarised between Islamists andtheir opponents and still await-ing a new constitution to ad-vance a transition from autoc-racy.

The last government, led byHamadi Jebali, collapsed afterthe premier’s own moderate Is-lamist Ennahda party rejectedhis plan for a technocrat cabinetto lead Tunisia to elections.Jebali had proposed this as a wayto calm unrest over the assassi-nation on February 6 of secularopposition leader Chokri Belaidby what the authorities say wasa group of Salafi Islamist mili-tants, four of whom have beenarrested.

Larayedh, who was InteriorMinister under Jebali, has namedindependents to take several keyportfolios, but failed to bring ad-ditional secular parties into theEnnahda-led coalition. The politi-cal crisis has delayed talks withthe International Monetary Fundon a $1.78 billion loan.—Reuters

North Korean soldiers with weapons attend military training in an undisclosed location in this picture released by theNorth’s official KCNA news agency in Pyongyang.

VATICAN CITY—Cardinalsheard a final appeal for unityTuesday before sequesteringthemselves in the Sistine Chapelfor the conclave to elect the nextpope, as they celebrated Massamid divisions and uncertaintyover who will lead the 1.2 bil-lion-strong Catholic Church andtend to its many problems. AGregorian chant wafting throughSt. Peter’s Basilica, the 115 car-dinal electors filed in wearingbright red vestments, many look-ing grim as if the burden of theimminent vote was weighing onthem.

Cardinals celebrate Massbefore entering conclave

A few hundred people bravedthunderstorms and pouring rainto watch the Mass on giant TVscreens in St. Peter’s Square. Ahandful knelt in prayer, eyesclenched and hands clasped. Inhis homily, Cardinal AngeloSodano, dean of the College ofCardinals, called for unity withinthe church, a not-so-veiled appealto the cardinal electors to put theirdifferences aside for the good ofthe church and the next pope.

“Each of us is thereforecalled to cooperate with the Suc-cessor of Peter, the visible foun-dation of such an ecclesial unity,”

Sodano said. He was interruptedby applause from the pews notso much from the cardinals whenhe referred to the “beloved andvenerated” Benedict XVI and his“brilliant” pontificate.

Benedict’s surprise resigna-tion the first in 600 years by apope has thrown the church intoturmoil and exposed the deep di-visions among cardinals who aregrappling with whether they needa manager who can clean up theVatican’s dysfunctional bureau-cracy or a pastor who can inspireCatholics at a time of waningfaith.—Reuters

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

M U M B A I — A u s t r a l i a ’steam management mayhave been at loggerheadswith their all-rounder,Shane Watson, but the na-tional body (Cricket Aus-tralia) is looking forward tosome good news (about hisfatherhood) from the 31-year-all rounder.

“Shane (Watson)sought and was grantedleave to return to Australiabecause of his wife’s preg-nancy, which is at an ad-vanced stage. This is theirfirst child. We look forwardto good news from themsoon”, Peter Young, the CA

CA looking forward to some goodnews from Shane Watson family

official said from Melbourne.“The four players are

each suspended from consid-eration for selection for onematch only. While sus-pended, they will not be ableto receive match payments”,he further added.

Interestingly, CA has alsosent Ms. Marianne Roux, theExecutive General Manager,People & Culture, on theircurrent India tour.

“She has been workingwith all Australian cricketemployees across CA andthe state and territorycricket associations, includ-ing the players and teamsupport group, on a rangeof corporate values, andleadership development is-sues. It is purely a coinci-

dence she is there now”,Young said.

The South Africa-bornMarianne Roux has workedglobally on variety of sub-jects before being settledwith her husband and 6year old daughter in Aus-tralia 3 years ago.

She is anOrganisational Psycholo-gist and has a keen interestand deep experience in stra-tegic change, leadership,culture and people strate-gies that sustain high per-formance.

“Marianne Roux is inIndia by chance on sepa-rate issues and advises meshe has not been involvedin the team leadership is-sue”, Young added.ISLAMABAD: Students participating in Annual Sports Day held at Beaconhouse School System Kindergarten

Branch F-8/2.

IPOH—Pakistan were de-feated by their rivals India 1-3 in an important match of theAzlan Shah Hockey Cup tour-nament here on Tuesday.

Pakistan made the firstgoal of the match but Indiacame back to score threegoals to win the match 3-1.

All goals were netted inthe first half.

Tuesday’s win lifts Indiato the fourth position in thesix-nation tournament. Paki-stan also have a win fromthree matches but have aninferior goal-difference thanIndia’s. Australia and Malay-sia lead the table – with sixpoints from two games andwill face each other on Tues-day.

India led 2-1 at thebreather with goals fromRupinder Pal Singh andAkashdeep Singh. MandeepSingh scored a field goal inthe 56th minute to seal agame where both nationsdefended better than tooktheir scoring chances.

The match was off to an

India beat Pakistan in AzlanShah hockey tournament

explosive start. Three goalswere scored in the first 10minutes with Pakistan takingthe lead in the 5th. India lev-eled the very next minute andin the 9th, made it 2-1. Two ofthese three goals came frompenalty corners even as Pa-kistan enjoyed territorial su-premacy.

Pakistan shot into the

lead in the fourth minutewhen Mohammed Waqasdeflected in a smart penaltycorner. But India took advan-tage of their first short cor-ner when Rupinder’s power-ful dragflick beat the Paki-stani defence.

India made it 2-1 throughAkashdeep, who capped asizzling move down the rightsplit open the Pakistan de-fence. Top scorer of the jun-ior Asia Cup, Akashdeepshowed wonderful oppor-tunism striking home a feeblesave by the Pakistan goalie.India could have scored atleast two more goals butgoalmouth crosses wentabegging in what was an en-tertaining first half.

India made it 3-1 when anunmarked Mandeep Singhkept his cool inside the strik-ing circle, first deflecting ahit-in and then slamming inthe rebound.

Pakistan did everythingbut score a second goal.They had nine penalty cor-ners in the game, but poor fin-ish and some solidgoalkeeping by veterangoalie Sreejesh deniedIndia’s arch-rivals. Indiaplayed a good tactical game,defending well and keepingtheir lead intact with timelychallenges.—AFP

GALLE—The opening Testbetween Sri Lanka andBangladesh ended in a tamedraw on the fifth and final dayat the Galle International Sta-dium on Tuesday.

Bangladesh, chasing animprobable 268-run victory

target in the final session,finished at 70-1 in their sec-ond innings after Sri Lankahad declared at tea on 335-4.

Sri Lanka’s KumarSangakkara rattled up his

Bangladesh earn first drawagainst Sri Lanka

second century againstBangladesh in the drawnopening Test, which saw arecord-equalling eight hun-dreds.

Sangakkara cracked asolid 105 and openerTillakaratne Dilshan an im-

pressive 126 as Sri Lanka de-clared their second inningsat 335-4 at tea to setBangladesh an improbable268-run victory target in the

last session.The tourists finished at

70-1 in their second inningson the fifth and final day inGalle.The flat track at the Galle In-ternational Stadium pro-duced eight centuries, equal-

ling the record of most tonsin a Test, set during the WestIndies-South Africa match inAntigua in 2005.

The draw was alsoBangladesh’s first against SriLanka after 12 successive

Test defeats.“The draw is huge and it

was also the first time wetook the lead against SriLanka,” said Bangladeshcaptain Mushfiqur Rahim,who was named man of thematch.

“It is really enjoyable.The team is playing very welltogether. We didn’t reallybowl well first up, so we hada chat about how we need toshow character and then ourbatsmen did really well.

“It’s a huge achievement.They (Sri Lanka) are a prettystrong side and we have todo really well in the secondTest. It’s our main target.”

Sri Lanka added 219 totheir overnight total of 116-1for the loss of three wickets,with debutant KithuruwanVithanage (59) and skipperAngelo Mathews (38 notout) the other main scorers.

Sangakkara completedhis 32nd century — surpass-ing the record for a Sri Lankanin Tests that he had heldalong with MahelaJayawardene — with a singleoff off-spinner MohammadMahmudullah. He hit 10fours in his 172-ball knock.

The former captain, whoscored a brilliant 142 in thefirst innings, also became thefifth Sri Lankan to make acentury in each innings of aTest after Duleep Mendis,Asanka Gurusinha, Aravindade Silva and Dilshan.

“It was disappointing notto win the match. It was hardwork for the bowlers, but thebatsmen batted really well,”said Sri Lanka skipperMathews.

The batters would haveloved to bat for another twodays on this pitch. We havea couple of days to freshenup and I look forward to thenext game.

“Bangladesh are a verygood team and they havebeen doing quite well in therecent past. They know theirgame, so we are not amazedabout what they did. Weknew they can do that.”

Dilshan, 63 overnight,played some good shots inthe opening session andreached his 16th Test hun-dred when he turned left-armspinner Elias Sunny tosquare-leg for a single.—AFP

ISLAMABAD: Students of Government College for Elementary Teachers participating in different games duringAnnual Sports Day at Jinnah Sports Complex.

Sri Lanka 1st innings:570Bangladesh 1st innings: 638Sri Lanka 2nd innings:Karunaratne b ShahadatHossain ........................... 3Dilshan b Mahmudullah 126Sangakkara b Mahmud-ullah ............................... 105Vithanage b Mahmud-ullah ................................ 59Mathews not out .......... 38Thirimanne not out ......... 2Extras: (nb 2) .................... 2Total: (4 wickets) ......... 335Fall of wickets 1-17, 2-230,3-249, 4-320Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WShahadat Hossain9-1-33-1Abul Hasan ........ 10-0-45-0

Sohag Gazi ......... 15-1-58-0Elias Sunny ........ 20-0-76-0Mominul Haque .. 5-0-25-0Ashraful ............... 1-0-10-0Mahmudullah .... 20-1-70-3Nasir Hossain ...... 3-0-18-0Bangladesh 2nd innings:Jahurul Islam not out .... 41Anamul b Eranga ............ 1Ashraful not out ........... 22Extras: (b 4, lb 1, nb 1) .... 6Total: (1 wicket) ............. 70Fall of wickets: 1-2Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WKulasekara ............. 4-1-6-0Eranga ................... 3-1-10-1Herath ................... 4-0-15-0Mendis ................. 7-1-23-0TM Dilshan .......... 4-0-11-0

INDIAN WELLS (California)—Roger Federer’s 6-3, 6-1 third-

round victory over Ivan Dodigat Indian Wells on Monday

Federer tweaks back inIndian Wells win

was hardly back-breaking labor,but it did leave him seekingtreatment for a sore back.

The Swiss great, whose tri-umph here last year gave him afourth Indian Wells crown,needed just 61 minutes to getpast the 60th-ranked Croatian.

Dodig made the Swissgreat’s task a bit easier with abevy of untimely double-faults,the sixth on match point tobring proceedings to a close.

Despite spending so littletime on the court, 31-year-oldFederer admitted he was feel-ing some discomfort in his backat the end of the match.

“At the end I tweaked it alittle bit,” he said. “But it’s notthe first time it’s happened inmy career, so, I know how todeal with it.” He said he didn’t

expect it to hinder him in hisquest for a first trophy in 2013,after he was denied title repeatsin Rotterdam and Dubai.

“I’m walking fine,” saidFederer, seeded second in thefirst ATP Masters event of theyear behind world No. 1 NovakDjokovic. “I have a day off to-morrow. Everything is all right.”

Federer, owner of a record17 Grand Slam singles titles,said such minor physical prob-lems are nothing new.

“It’s happened duringGrand Slams, during tourna-ments, in practice. It’s just some-thing you learn to deal with,”said Federer, who next faceseither fellow Swiss StanislasWawrinka, the 18th seed, orAussie veteran LleytonHewitt.—AFP

Tenpin bowlingteam leave for

KuwaitISLAMABAD—Pakistan ten-pin bowling team on Tues-day flew to Kuwait fromQuaid-i-Azam InternationalAirport Karachi to featurein the 10th Kuwait Open In-ternational Tenpin BowlingChampionship 2013.

The five-day event rollsinto action from Wednes-day at Cozmo Bowling Cen-tre in Salmiya City in Ku-wait.

The Championship isthe sixth leg of the PBA-WTBA World Bowling Tour2013 and will also be thequalifying round for theABF Tour Kuwait 2013,which will be held at thesame bowling centre onMarch 18.

The Asian Bowling Fed-eration President SheikhTalal said that we were in-viting all Asian, Europeancountries to participate inthe 10th Kuwait Interna-tional Open 2013 with guar-anteed prize money exceed-ing with an attractive priceexceeding $130, 500.

Apart from PakistanChina Egypt, Hong Kong,Iran , Malaysia, Qatar,Singapore , Thailand , UAE,USA, France, Germany,Italy, Thailand, Korea,Egypt, Spain, Canada, En-gland, Philippines,Bahrain, Belgium, Finland,Hungry, Denmark, Austria,Russia, New Zealand, Swe-den, Norway, Saudi Arabia,Holland, India and Indone-sia will participate in theevent.

Pakistan outfit is com-prised of Shabeer Lashkar,Ijaz-ur- Rehman, ZafarIqbal, Naseem Quershi,Khawaja Ahmed. While of-ficial team manager will beIjazuddin Sheikh.—APP

Golfer Munirreturns fromIndia due to

illnessKARACHI—Pakistan’s acegolfer Muhammad Munirreturned home from Indiawithout taking part inAvantha Masters Golf dueto illness and food poison-ing suffered during the SailOpen held in New Delhi.

“Due to trouble I couldnot play in the secondround and decided to returnhome,” he said on Wednes-day.

Munir said he was stillunder going treatment inIslamabad.

Muhammad Munir, whogave creditable perfor-mances in the Mena Tour inUnited Arab Emirates andSaudi Arabia, said he waskeen to play in the lucrative$2.3 million Avantha Mas-ters starting in JaypeeGreens Golf Club in Noida,near New Delhi from Thurs-day, but was forced to pullout due to illness.

He said he will planthings for future Asian Tourevent after getting back inshape.—APP

GALLE: Kithuruwan Vithanage acknowledges the crowd after reaching his fifty duringSri Lanka vs Bangladesh, 1st Test, 5th day.

SPORTS REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—BeaconhouseSchool System KindergartenBranch F-8/2 held its secondAnnual Sports Day at theextension campus. MrsFariha Usman, the Headmis-tress welcomed the parentsand the guests.

Mr Nasrullah Rana, In-structor PSB, was the chiefguest for the occasion. Theschool playground was uti-lized for this purpose. Allchildren from all the levelsfrom Pre nursery to class 2

Annual Sports Dayheld at Beaconhouse

participated in differentevents and performances.

The programme startedwith the march past, followedby an umbrella dance by thegirls of class I and II and atae-kwondo performance bythe boys of the same classes.

Children participated en-thusiastically in all eventsespecially formula one,sprint, relay, zigzag, hurdles,hopping, bicycle and build-ing the tower race. The win-ners were awarded cups bythe parents of the best ath-letes from all levels.

AN oral painkiller called Nucynta ER(tapentadol extended-release tablets), has been approved by the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA),Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced.The medication is de-signed to be taken twicedaily for the control ofmoderate to severe chronicpain in adults when a con-tinuous, 24-hour opioidanalgesic is needed for anextended period. The im-mediate-release version ofNucynta was FDA ap-proved in 2008 for thetreatment of acute pain inadults aged at least 18years.

Nucynta ER is availablein 50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg,200 mg and 250 mgstrengths.Data from theCenters of Disease Controland Prevention and theAmerican Pain Foundationindicate that over 42 millionAmericans aged 20 and over suffer fromchronic pain, although nobody knowswhat the exact prevalence is. Chronic painis the most common cause of long-termdisability, and approximately one-third ofall Americans will experience severechronic pain at some stage in their lives.

However, a study published by theAmerican Pain Society suggests that de-spite treatments already available, patientsare still in serious need of further thera-pies to help manage their pain properly andappropriately. Chronic pain means long-term pain, while acute pain is short

Nucynta ER approved for moderateto severe chronic pain control

term.Paul Chang, M.D., Vice President,Medical Affairs, Internal Medicine,Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. explained:In clinical trials, Nucynta ER demon-strated proven efficacy for treating mod-

erate to severe chronic pain.We are pleased with theFDA’s decision to approveNucynta ER as it representsan important new option tohelp people with chronicpain.”

Johnson & Johnson Phar-maceutical Research & Devel-opment, L.L.C. andGrünenthal GmbH conducteda double-blind, randomized,active-and/or placebo-con-trolled phase 3 investigation.They also evaluated thesafety profile of the drug withover 1,100 participants withmoderate to severe chronic(long-term) pain over a 12-month period. Nucynta ERwas found to be safe and ef-fective - the trial researchers

also reported a favorable tolerability pro-file as well as discontinuation rates.

Sunil J. Panchal, M.D., President, Na-tional Institute of Pain, said:

Chronic pain is difficult to manage,and even with the treatments availabletoday, it can be a challenge to balancepain relief with a patient’s ability to toler-ate the medicine.

People with chronic pain will continueto need additional options, so an ap-proval like this is welcome news for thiscommunity and the people who sufferfrom this often debilitating condition.”

KARACHI: Poles supporting beams and pillars of a building of flats which has beendeclared dangerous for residing after it was damaged in deadly bomb blast at AbbasTown.

KARACHI: Rangers displaying weapons recovered from various areas of city.—PO photo by Sultan Chaki

KARACHI: IG Karachi Ghulam Shabbir Sheikh laying floral wreath on the coffin ofpolice martyr.—PO photo

KARACHI: Consulate General of Japan Akira Ouchi, Consulate General of AfghanistanShah Ahmed Saeed, C.E.O Saita Pakistan Pirzada Ajmal Farooqi and Talat Jabeen, Coun-try Manager Pak Kuwait Petroleum, on the occasion of dinner reception at local hotel.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Sindh Informa-tion Minister Sharjeel EnamMemon had said that SindhInformation Department hadbeen busy in revamping it tothe needs of the modern timeas the world had become aglobal village today.

The Minister said this onthe occasion of inaugurationof the Automation Section inthe Sindh Information De-partment on Tuesday.

He said that with the in-duction of the AutomationSections, the proficiency ofthe officers and staffers

Memon inaugurates automationsection at Information Department

would be improved while itwould also prove helpful instaying connected to the Pa-kistani media.

He said that the workingdimensions of the Informa-tion Department had alreadybeen enhanced with the pas-sage of time. The inductionof modern equipment wouldhelp the department to ex-ecute its duties and respon-sibilities more efficiently andaccurately.

Speaking on the occasion,Sindh Information SecretaryNoor Muhammad Leghari saidthat the provisioning of mod-ern equipment to the depart-

ment would bring improve-ments in the day-to-day per-formance of the officials andstaffers of the department andwould also facilitate the peopleand the government nearer toeach other.

Director General PublicRelations Dr Zulfiquar AliShelwani also addressed theinauguration ceremony. Helauded the Information De-partment officials and staff-ers for their services and saidthat without the use of com-puterized technology, ad-vancements would only re-main a dream that would notcome true.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Pakistan Rang-ers different Wings con-ducted targeted operationsin various areas of the city.During operation, 85 sus-pects were held and largecache of arms and ammuni-tion, walkie talkie sets andgrenades were recoveredfrom their possession.

The targeted operationswere conducted in Landhi,Garden East, Soldier Bazaar,North Karachi, Liyari, LinesArea and Gulshan-e Buner.Rangers had nabbed 31 sus-pects from Landhi and recov-ered 13 Kalashnikovs, 6 pis-tols of 9mm caliber and 703rounds from their posses-sion.

According to Rangersspokesperson, 4 suspectsheld from Landhi belongedto banned Tehreek-e TalibanPakistan. The daylong tar-geted operation in Landhihad also created problems

Rangers, CID arrest 85 suspectsduring targeted operations

for the locals as the paramili-tary forces had condoned offthe entire area. The Rangershad among 1000 also de-ployed lady personnel in thetargeted operations and achopper was also used forthe aerial surveillance.

In Lines Area, Rangerscommandos had actedagainst the outlaws in thewee hours on Tuesday andhad nabbed 6 wanted crimi-nals and recovered illegalweapons from their posses-sion. The targeted operationconducted in other city areasresulted in arrest of 14 sus-pects from old city areaswhile 26 political activists al-legedly involved in criminalactivities were also held fromEast and Central parts of thecity.

Rangers had during thetargeted operation in Liyarihad arrested 5 wanted crimi-nals and recovered illegalweapons from their posses-sion.

In Federal B Area, Policehad after a short encounterheld 2 dacoits in injured stateand recovered illegal weap-ons from their possession.

In Pehalwan Goth area,CID Police had conducted atargeted operation and hadarrested 2 target killers, whowere identified as Zakir Khanand Sameer Khan. The tar-geted operation was con-ducted under the supervi-sion of SSP CID FayyazKhan. The arrested target kill-ers had committed more than50 episodes of heinouscrimes including murderingpeople in target killing spree.

Rangers had held 20 sus-pects from Gulshan-e Bunerduring targeted operation.

On the other hand, theanti-terrorist court hadawarded physical remand ofthose 5 target killers that werearrested earlier. The remandwas extended till March 16.The arrested were involvedin sectarian killings.

Secretary Educationmust comply

with findings of SCKARACHI—Senior Ministerfor Education and Literacy PirMazhar-u-Haq has strictlydirected Secretary EducationSindh to submit report in themeeting on 13th March on thefindings of the judges as-signed by the Supreme Courtof Pakistan regarding poorcondition of the schools andalso to inform what actionshave been taken in this re-gard. This he said while talk-ing to the high officials ofSindh Education Departmentvisiting the offices of theEducation Department here.

While expressing hisangriness over non-compli-ance of his repeated instruc-tions, he said that it was amatter of concerns that de-spite his repeated orderswhy proper actions had notbeen taken to improve thepoor condition of theschools in Sindh and whybasic necessities had notbeen provided to theschools in the province.

Minister for Educationand Literacy added, ‘Su-preme Court of Pakistanhas taken very posit ivestep to improve the educa-t ional s tandard in Sindhand its timely action willnot only improve the edu-cation but it will also putthe department on the righttrack’.—NNI

KA R A C H I—One ofPakistan’s revolutionaryUrdu poets, Habib Jalibwas remembered Tuesdayon his 20th death anniver-sary.

Born on March 24th,1928, Jalib was a left wingactivist and politician, afaithful democrat who op-posed martial law, totali-tarianism and state op-pression. He was a Marx-ist-Leninist and cravedthe ideals of communism.

He spent most of hislife in jail and rest onstreets. He was a progres-sive thinker and politicianwho supported restora-

Revolutionary Urdu poetHabib Jalib remembered

t ion of democracy duringthe period of military rule inPakistan and had been con-

fined for his views.He was one of the most

popular Awami poet and

was very famous due to hisghazals and loud voice ofconflict against dictator-ship and established orderin Pakistan. He was alwaysat forefront of struggle fordemocracy.

The poetry of HabibJalib can be divided intotwo parts, first comprisesghazals composed duringthe period when jalib hadchosen to keep a somewhatlow profile. The intensity ofhis protest became gradu-ally louder in his ghazalsand nazams but melody re-mained indifferent. Hebravely confronted firstmartial law of Ayub Khan.

He wrote his famous poem“Dastoor” which is thelandmark in the history ofPakistan’s political struggleand became a glowing sym-bol of protest literature.

He didn’t affiliate toany party and preferred tobe freelance. He was a pro-gressive contributor oftrade union struggle andconvocations for democ-racy. He was also emanat-ing as a champion ofwomen rights and alsoleading protest marchesby women against dis-criminatory laws. He diedon 12th March 1993 at theage of 65 years.—INP

Arbab GhulamRahim to

return todayKARACHI, March 12 (INP):Pakistan Muslim League(Likeminded) leader Dr ArbabGhulam Rahim has an-nounced to return to thecountry today (Wednesday)after spending five years inself-exile in the United ArabEmirates (UAE).

His announcement cameafter the Pakistan AwamiTehrik (PAT) Leader DrTahirul Qadri returned Paki-stan after ending his self-im-posed exile from Canada andAll Pakistan Muslim League(APML) President PervezMusharraf has announcedto return Pakistan withinweeks after interim govern-ment in the country.

Talking to media from theUAE, the former Sindh chiefminister said he was return-ing to Pakistan and wouldparticipate in the upcominggeneral elections. He furthersaid that he would stay for afew days in Lahore beforeleaving for Sindh.

A big public gatheringhas also been scheduled af-ter the arrival of Dr ArbabGhulam Rahim in Lahorewhere party leaders andworkers from all over thecountry will participate.Hefurther said that he was nei-ther a criminal, nor had in-stigated anyone to commitany crime during his tenureas chief minister from June09, 2004 to November 19,2007.—INP

Terrorism‘legacy’ ofZia regime:

IG SindhKARACHI—Acting Inspec-tor General Ghulam Shabbirsharing his ideas with themedia Tuesday said thatformer president Ziaul Haqpromoted terrorism in thename of Jihad.

Rocket launcher and nar-cotics are also products of thedictatorial regime. He saidthat the political governmenthas received terrorism aslegacy.

Throwing light on perfor-mance of security forces, hesaid that police have not beentrained on latest and scientificprints and patterns.

“It is dire need of hour toequip the police with latestand sophisticated weapons inorder to cope with terrorismwhich has pushed the coun-try on the abyss of decay anddestruction” said acting IGafter offering funeral prayer ofassassinated policeman hitlast day in Baldia Town.

He said that religious andsectarian organizations areusing rocket launchers in or-der to hit their targets. Weap-ons are being imported fromother cities of the country asit is clear that no factory ismanufacturing rocketlaunchers and Kalashnikovin Karachi.—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, 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 researchersrecruited 140 schizophrenia patients andrandomly assigned them into two groups.One group received 2 milligrams of folic acidand 400 micrograms of vitamin B12, whichincreases folic acid’s effect, per day for 16weeks. The other group took placebo pillsfor comparison, but all patients also contin-ued 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.

LAHORE: Chairman Peace and Harmony Network Pakistan Allama Pir MuhammadZubair Abid addressing a press conference.

LAHORE: Folk artists from Jacobabad perform during Gypsy Mela at Children Complex.

LAHORE: Railways workers holding a demonstration in support of their demandsoutside DS Railways Office.

SALIM AHMED

LA H O R E—Punjab ChiefMinister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has saidthat provincial governmenthas materialized the dreamof the poor to have theirown house and proprietaryrights have been awardedto more than 1.7 milliondwellers of Katchi Abadis inthe province while 3460Katchi Abadis have beennotified. He said that only825 Katchi Abadis were no-tified in the last 27 yearswhile the present govern-ment has notified 3460Katchi Abadis in a shortperiod and awarded propri-etary rights to their dwell-ers.

He said it is first time inthe history of the provincethat proprietary rights havebeen awarded under jointpartnership to husband andwife in Katchi Abadis andthey have been made equal

Shahbaz awards 1.7m proprietaryrights to residents of Katchi abadis

partners in property.He was presiding over a

high-level review meetingregarding the pace ofawarding proprietary rightsto the residents of KatchiAbadis in the province atModel Town, here today.Provincial Law MinisterRana Sanaullah Khan,Auqaf Minister HajiEhsanuddin Qureshi,Deputy Speaker Punjab As-sembly Rana MashhoodAhmad Khan AssemblyMembers Hafiz MianMuhammad Nauman, HajiAllah Rakha, ChairmanPlanning & Development,Senior Member Board ofRevenue, Secretaries Fi-nance, Law, Local Govern-ment, Housing as well asother concerned officerswere present.

The Chief Minister saidthat Punjab government hastaken the historic and revo-lutionary step of awardingproprietary rights to the

dwellers of Katchi Abadis.He said that a total of onelakh eighty thousand and725 Kanal land has beengiven to residents of KatchiAbadis on ownership basis.

He said that Punjabgovernment has material-ized the dream of the resi-dents of Katchi Abadis tohave their own house. Hesaid that no fee has beencharged from widows andorphans in awarding themproprietary rights while afee of Rs.172 per marla hasbeen charged from others.

He said that it is for thefirst time that Punjab gov-ernment has awarded pro-prietary rights to the resi-dents of Katchi Abadis inurban as well as rural areas.He said that Punjab govern-ment of PML-N has alwaystaken solid measures for thebetterment of backward andlow-income segment of thesociety and awarding ofownership rights to the

residents of Katchi Abadisis a part of this policy. TheChief Minister also issuedinstructions for setting upa committee for the immedi-ate disposal of the pendingcases which will present itsreport within two days af-ter making a case to casereview.

The Chief Ministerwhile acknowledging theefficiency of the staff of Di-rectorate General KatchiAbadis announced twomonths’ basic pay for themas honorarium. The ChiefMinister also appreciatedthe performance of SeniorMember Board of Revenue,Sami Saeed, Member Colo-nies Khawaja Shamail, Di-rector General KatchiAbadis and staff of the de-partment and said that theofficers have set a nobleexample of dutifulness byworking round the clock forthis project of public wel-fare.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Secretary GeneralPPP and Leader of House inSenate Jehangir Badar hasurged the international commu-nity to favaorably understandthe economic difficulties of Pa-kistan and its people due to theenergy shortage, causing so-cial unrest right across the coun-try and also holding back theindustrial growth leading to un-employment and poverty.

Reacting to the groundbreaking ceremony of multi-bil-lions dollars Iran-Pakistan GasPipeline Project by the Presi-dents of Iran and Pakistan atGabd on the Pakistan-Iran bor-der, the PPP leader said that

Pakistan had been facing theworst energy crisis of its his-tory and the only viable projectto overcome the crisis soonerthan later was the Iran-PakistanGas Pipeline project whichwould start delivering gas tothe energy starved country bythe end of 2014.

He expressed the hope thatthe international communitywould appreciate the gravity ofthe situation the country wasfacing, and as such would sup-port the project as absolutelyimportant to get the countryout of the economic mayhemwhich was spiraling out of con-trol because time was runningagainst. He said that the projectwould help in a great way to

give impetus to the industrialsector of the country creatingtens of thousands jobs to theunemployed youth which atpresent was frustrated due tothe rising unemployment in thecountry. Without energy, thecreation of job opportunitieswill remain a pipedream be-cause energy is the lifeline ofthe economy.

He said that the impact ofthe Gas Pipeline Project wouldhelp in eradication of povertyin the terrorism plagued coun-try, an ideal anti-dote againstterrorism and extremism addingthat the international commu-nity should extend its full sup-port to the Project as ancounter-terrorism project.

Energy crisis creating socialunrest across country: Badar

Samina lashes outat Punjab over

PIC drugsLAHORE—PML-Q (WomenWing) Central Secretary In-formation, MPA SaminaKhawar Hayat has said thatPunjab Institute of Cardiol-ogy (PIC) has become a hubof corruption due to ineffi-ciency of the Punjab govern-ment under the Chief Minis-ter Shahbaz Sharif.

In a statement issued hereTuesday, she said anotherscam had surfaced after PIChad not recovered from theearlier corruption like thespurious drugs and misuseof funds cases.

The PML-Q MPA saidPIC was fast becoming adeath-hole due to the provi-sion of substandard medi-cines. She said patients andtheir families were worriedabout their safety but noclarification had been issuedby the Punjab government orthe hospital administrationon the issue of spurious in-jections at PIC.—APP

Four judgestransferred

LAHORE—The Lahore HighCourt Tuesday issued trans-fer and posting orders of fouradditional district and ses-sions judges (AD&SJs).

According to an LHCnotification, the AD&SJswho were transferred includeSyed Asghar Ali from Kasurto Tandianwala, MuhammadSaleem from Tandianwala toKasur, Aurangzeb fromAttock to Jand andMuhammad Shiraz Kiani fromJand to Attock.—APP

LAHORE—Director GeneralRescue 1122 Punjab Dr RizwanNaseer said on Tuesday theRescue 1122 would launch a‘media diary’ soon to providedaily reports to press.

Talking to APP here he saidthe service has rescued 1.7million people, adding that onaverage the response to SoScalls was just 7 minutes. Heexpressed with satisfactionthat national and internationalinstitutions have appreciatedthe performance of Rescue1122.

Dr Rizwan said a perfor-mance evaluation system hasbeen launched under whichcash and commendation cer-tificates are awarded for ser-vice excellence. He said thedemand of rescuers for salary

raise has been addressed bythe Punjab government andtheir salaries have beenbrought at par with the police-men.

To a question Dr NaseerRizwan said generally build-ings are overpopulated farmore than the actual capacitywhich in turn increases risk offire.In this context he urgedpeople to observe construc-tion by-laws which lay the pro-vision of proper arrangementsfor emergency such as exitgates, alarm system to controluntoward incidents.

He said media has beenplaying its due role to promoteawareness among peopleabout the precautionary mea-sures needed to avoid fire in-cidents. The DG said, “Our

first priority was to safe thelifes of people and we remainimpartial in providing servicesof same standards in all thedistricts.

“Rescue 1122 launchedrescue challenge in whichteams of various districts par-ticipated for learning pur-pose”, he said and added theyhad been working forincreasinge capacity of disas-ter management teams whichcould work efficiently in natu-ral disaster situations.

To another question, hesaid, “We are providing tech-nical assistance to other prov-inces and this service had beenstarted in Peshawar andMardan and we trying to con-vince other provinces about theimportance of rescue”.—APP

Media diary soon toinform press: Naseer

Wattoo visitsJoseph ColonyLAHORE—PPP Punjab Presi-dent Mian Manzoor AhmadWattoo Monday visited theJoseph Colony, Badami Baghand assured the affecteesthat the compensation Rs 0.5million by the Presidentwould be given very soon tothem.

Speaking on the occa-sion, he termed the occur-rence of the Badami Bagh in-cident failure of Punjab gov-ernment adding that localadministration played therole of spectator rather thancontrolling the situation.

Trust running by RubinaShaheen Wattoo would ar-range the marriage of 25christian girls, he added.

He said that PPP expressthe sympathies with the af-fected of the incident andshared their sorrow addingthat Islam preaches to safe-guard the life and propertyof the minorities.—APP

Interfaith harmonyconference

LAHORE—The Jamaat-e-Islami Lahore chapter will or-ganize an interfaith harmonyconference to discuss thereasons and effects of theBadami Bagh incident, hereon Wednesday.

Leaders from various re-ligious parties and Christiancommunity will participate inthe conference and formulatea common strategy to pro-mote interfaith harmonyamong various communitiesliving in the country.

JI Secretary General LiaqatBaloch will preside over theconference while JI DeputySecretary General Dr FaridPiracha, JI Lahore Ameer MianMaqsood Ahmad, Jamiat AhleHadith Chief Ibtisam ElahiZaheer, Moulana AbdulKhabir Azad, KhateebBadshahi Mosque, JUP leaderQari Zawar Bahadur, JUI-Fleader Moulana Amjad Khan,Christian leaders Fransis Jo-seph Nadeem, BishopSabasheen Sha, FransisInayat Bernard and others willaddress the gathering.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—DCO NoorulAmim Mangal administeredthe oath to the newly-electedoffice-bearers of AnarkaliBazaar. The ceremony wasalso addressed by Bilal Yasin,Hafiz Salman Butt, LiaqatBaloch, Abdul Alim Khan,Ajaasam Sharif, Sajida Mirand Samina Khalid Ghurki.

APAT central general sec-retary Naeem Mir, while ad-dressing the oath-taking cer-emony of Anjuman-e-TajiranAnarkali,Lahore, reactedstrongly over the BadamiBagh incident in which the

Badami Bagh blaze provesgovt failure: traders

houses of Christians were puton fire. He termed it a total fail-ure of local police and intelli-gence agencies, and misuseof the blasphemy law in thecountry.

APAT central generalsecretary said that accordingto Islamic teachings thetorching of a ChristianChurch or any other place ofworship, or any revealedbook was an unpardonablecrime.

It is to be noted thatAPAT leadership also visitedthe Christian locality inBadami Bagh to express soli-darity with the affected

people and assured themtheir support. APAT delega-tion in the lead of its generalsecretary Naeem Mir visitedthe burnt houses and campsset up for the affected fami-lies and also met the womenand the children.

Addressing the cer-emony, Naeem Mir observedthat it was the responsibilityof the Punjab government toprovide protection to the resi-dents of the Joseph colonybut it had failed because theintelligence agencies and lawenforcement institutionswere busy in the security ofthe rulers alone.

VC: Disabilityis no inability

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Disability is notinability and physically-chal-lenged should not be consid-ered less competent, ratherthey are more hard workingand dedicated than normalstudents, said GovernmentCollege University LahoreVice Chancellor Prof DrMuhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman while addressing alaptop distribution for thephysically-challenged stu-dents. Dean Faculty of Sci-ence and Technology Prof DrIslam Ullah Khan and Regis-trar Anjum Nisar were alsopresent.

Talking to the physically-challenged students, the ViceChancellor appreciated thePunjab Chief Minister’s ini-tiative of providing free-of-cost laptops to the universitystudents, especially thephysically-challenged.

Prof Rahman demandedthe Higher Education Com-mission to set up a specialfund for developing facilitiesin public-sector universitiesfor physically-challengedstudents, saying that GCUwas the only university inPakistan that had a state-of-the art Centre for Special Stu-dents (CSS).

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