WASHINGTON—The U.S. hasreached an agreement with Af-ghanistan to transfer theParwan Detention Facility toAfghan control, the Pentagonhas said. The agreementcomes two weeks after nego-tiations broke down overwhether the U.S. would havethe power to block the releaseof detainees considered dan-gerous.

According to Fox News, asenior U.S. official, on condi-tion of anonymity, said that a

key element to the agreement isthat the Afghans can invoke aprocedure that insures prisonersconsidered dangerous would notbe released.

The agreement also includesa provision that allowed the twosides to work together to resolveany differences. Transfer of theParwan detention center is criti-cal to the ongoing effort togradually shift control of thecountry’s security to the Af-ghans as the U.S. and alliesmove towards the full with-

drawal of combat troops by theend of 2014, the report said.

Afghans demanded controlof the center, but U.S. officialshad reservations that the mostthreatening detainees would befreed once the U.S. transferredcontrol. Defense SecretaryChuck Hagel spoke with Af-ghan President Hamid KarzaiSaturday as officials finalizedthe agreement after days of in-tense negotiations.

The senior official saidU.S. and Afghan officials who

are familiar with the detaineeswould meet to assess the po-tential danger of their releaseto coalition forces, the reportsaid.

Pentagon press secretaryGeorge Little said Hagel ‘wel-comed Karzai’s commitmentthat the transfer will be carriedout in a way that ensures thesafety of the Afghan peopleand coalition forces by keep-ing dangerous individuals de-tained in a secure and humane

US to transfer Parwan detentionfacility to Afghan control

Continued on Page 6

Fair elections priority: KhosoCaretaker PM from deprived province to take oath today Cabinet to have 10 to 12 members

LIAQAT TOOR

ISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission has finally comeup with the name of a PPP nomi-nee Justice (Retd) Mir HazarKhan Khoso to take oath today(Monday) as Caretaker PrimeMinister.

Hailing from the deprivedprovince, his selection has beenwelcomed by almost all the po-litical groups.

Khoso has expressed his re-solve to hold fair, free and trans-parent elections.

Speaking to the media hesaid “I will try my best to comeup to the expectations ofpeople.”

When asked about size ofhis Cabinet, he said it will bearound 12 members.

Referring to security situa-tion in the country, he said main-tenance of law and order is re-sponsibility of the provinces.

Khoso will have a round ofmeetings with political leaderssoon.Agencies add: Khoso said hewould try to conduct free elec-

tion as per schedule, if failed todo so, he would abandon thepremiership.

Newly selected interim PMsaid the period of interim gov-ernment would not be extendedat any cost.

He said his appointment wassignificant for Balochistan andadded that he would try to takeall nationalists Baloch parties onboard. To a query regarding ne-gotiation with Taliban, Khososaid it was too early to say any-thing on this critical issue.

He said his behaviour withopposition and all other politi-cal parties would be pleasant andfriendly. Khoso said he wouldintroduce good people in hiscabinet which would consist of10-12 members only.

Khoso further said onlyelections were the solution of allthe issues, adding he would holdmeetings with all the politicalleaders soon. Commenting onlaw and order situation, the pre-mier said it is the responsibilityof the provinces to maintain it.Provinces would be consultedon this issue, he added.

Caretaker Prime Minister,Mir Hazar Khan Khoso has ex-

pressed his strong resolve forfree, fair, transparent and timelyelections, “ hoping and prayingto come up to Nation’s expecta- Continued on Page 6

KARACHI: Former President Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharrafgestures on his arrival from Dubai at Jinnah InternationalAirport on Sunday. Continued on Page 6

PTI, Jamaat agree for seatadjustment in electionsSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-IslamiPakistan (JIP) have decided inprinciple for seat adjustment inthe upcoming general electionsand committees comprising rep-resentatives from both the par-ties will finalise modalities in

this regard.Makhdoom Javed Hashmi

will lead the PTI committeewhile Liaquat Balouch will headthe Jamaat body. Both the com-mittees will submit report withinthree days.

This understanding wasreached during a meeting be-tween the leadership of two par-

ties here Sunday. Imran Khanled the PTI while SyedMunawar Hassan headed theJamaat delegation. The leader-ship of two parties discussedcurrent political situation of thecountry besides installation ofnew caretaker sets up in the cen-tre and provinces.

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Continued on Page 6

Committee oncaretaker CMdiscusses rulesof procedureLAHORE—The meeting of thePunjab Assembly Committeeto decide the name ofCaretaker Chief Minister onSunday discussed the rules ofprocedure.

Rana Sanaullah Khan ofPML-N chaired the meeting.

Later‚ talking to newsmen‚Rana Sanaullah Khan said thatin Sunday’s meeting‚ the rulesof procedure were discussed.He said that Secretary LawPunjab and Advocate GeneralPunjab have been called to

Death toll fromMiramshahsuicide attackreaches 22MIRAMSHAH—The deathtoll from Saturday nightsuicide attack on a securitycheckpost in NorthWaziristan’s Miramshah areareached 22 whereas thenumber wounded wasreported as 35, militarysources said.

A suicide bomberdetonated an explosive-ladencar near a mosque inMiramshah close to the

Continued on Page 6

Continued on Page 6

tions”.Talking to media sources for

the first time after being ap-pointed as the caretaker PrimeMinister, he also expressed torender his zealous, impartial ser-

vices for federation’s democracyto best of his efforts, taking allaboard.

“I would be meeting every-one to ensure a consensus forfree, fair and transparent elec-tions, being my top priority, tobe held on their due date” he de-clared. Replying to a question,he agreed that law and ordersituation was quiet volatile, butimpressed the fact that it was theduty of Provinces to take appro-priate measures: while “ wewould be rectifying the crisiswith consensus of chief minis-ters”, he assured.

Replying to another ques-tion, he agreed that volatile lawand order situation was a bigchallenge for the government:while referring to Balochistan’sissue, he affirmed that “electionswould also be held there underany circumstances”.

“I have very good relation-ship, rapport with caretaker CMBalochistan, which should helpthings turn good”, he avowed;while “ I would also hold talkswith Sindh caretaker CM about

ISLAMABAD: Justice (Retd) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso talk-ing to media persons after he was selected as caretaker PrimeMinister by the ECP on Sunday.—Online photo

Filing of nominationpapers in personcompulsory: ECP

Pervez Musharraf back homeReady to face legal, political challenges

AMANULLAH KHAN,IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI —Former PresidentGeneral Pervez Musharraflanded at Karachi Airports Sun-day with a resolve that he wouldparticipate in the forthcoming

general elections to change thelot of the people in Pakistan.

Addressing a sizeable crowdof his supporters at the airporthe gave the single line agenda“Sub Say Pehlay Pakistan”

He plans to hold publicmeetings in all major cities of

the country to seek people’s sup-port with a slogan to rebuildeconomy and image of the coun-try, said his party circles.Musharraf has obtained bail be-fore arrest from courts.

Musharraf who derives hisstrength from outstanding eco-nomic performance during his 9year tenure when the interestrate was brought at 6-7 percent,foreign exchange reservesreached at $16 billion mark forthe first time in the history ofPakistan besides achievingunprecented export receipt, saidgood bye to IMF and the rupeedollar parity was not allowed toexceed from Rs59 to a dollar. Hefirmly believed that the nationwould easily discern the situa-tion of the day when target kill-ing, kidnappings for ransom,bomb blasts and a free for allcorruption have shattered theeconomic creditability of thecountry.

The APML Chief thankedthe people for arriving at the

ISLAMABAD—The ElectionCommission has clarified thatevery nomination paper shall bedelivered to the Returning Of-ficer by the candidate in personand the Returning Officer shallacknowledge receipt of thenomination paper specifying thedate and time.

The clarification of the com-mission came in response toqueries as to whether the Nomi-nation papers are to be deliveredto Returning Officers by the can-didates in person and whetherattachment of certificate withthe Nomination Form from thePolitical Party showing partyaffiliation of the candidate iscompulsory.

The Commission said thatthe candidate may attend theprocess of scrutiny of nomina-tion papers in his own interest,but in case he prefers to remainabsent, his nomination papercannot be rejected due to his fail-ure to appear before the Return-ing Officer concerned on thedate of scrutiny.

It was further stated that thecandidates may file the certifi-cate from their political partiesshowing their party affiliations

either at the time of filing nomi-nation papers or at the time ofscrutiny or at the time of alloca-tion of symbols on the date ofwithdrawal i.e. 18.4.2013.

The Commission furtherclarified that the candidates whoare filing nomination papers forthe seats reserved for womenand non-Muslims may attend thescrutiny of their nomination pa-pers. However, if they do notattend the scrutiny, their nomi-nation papers too cannot be re-jected on this very ground.

Meanwhile the ElectionCommission of Pakistan onSunday formally kicked off theprocess for the May 11 parlia-mentary polls with the issuanceof nomination papers across thecountry. Thousands of intend-ing candidates have started re-ceiving nomination papers fromthe offices of the commission,officials said.

The candidates will start tosubmit nomination papers fromSunday until March 29, accord-ing to the schedule. The scrutinyof the nomination papers will beheld on March 30-April 5. Ap-peals against the acceptance and

ANP announcesmanifestoPESHAWAR—Awami NationalParty (ANP) has announced itsmanifesto for the upcominggeneral elections.

Announcing the manifestoat a news conference inPeshawar on Sunday, ANPCentral Vice PresidentMuhammad Adeel said thatmaking Pakistan a peacefuland prosperous country is thetop priority of ANP.

He said that utilization ofresources of the province likehydel net profit, oil and gasand minerals for the socio-economic uplift of the people.He said that the party achievedgoals of its last manifesto

Continued on Page 6

HYDERABAD: Ladies weeping while leaving their house after fire erupted in dry grassnear residential area at Site area.

STAFF REPORTER

QUETTA—The UN declaredworld water day was cel-ebrated in the provincial capi-tal of Balochistan Quetta un-der the auspices of Food andAgriculture Organization(FAO) of UN with the pres-ence of participants from lo-cal, National and interna-tional organizations, civilsocieties and NGOs (farmerassociation & IUCN). Dr.Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman,PARC graced the occasionas chief guest of the celebra-tion. In his deliberations, hestarted with highlighting theimportance of the day, scope,objective, need and gravityof this year’s theme “Inter-national year of water coop-eration”. He gave a brief on

global water availability dis-closing the fact that only0.007% of the total water bodyis available to human for use.Further, he elaborated the dis-tribution of fresh water amongthe continents with the mini-mum figure (3400 m3) of percapita availability of water forAsia. Dr. Ahmad describedthe inter and intra sector com-petition and its trend for lowincome, medium income andhigher income countries. Viz-a-viz he also presented thewater consumption pattern forindustrially developed andagro-based economy depen-dent countries.

Describing the water situ-ation in Pakistan, the Chair-man, PARC stated that at thedawn of Pakistan the coun-try was a water-surplus

country with a per capitawater availability of morethan 5000 cubic meters andgradually with the popula-tion growth from 35 millionto 180 million the country hasreached to a status of waterstressed country with a percapita water availability ofless than 1000 cubic meters.Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad ChairmanPARC portrayed the majorstakeholder of water as agri-culture sector with 93% con-sumption. Therefore, strate-gies for policy, planning andimplementation of develop-mental activities for Agricul-tural use of water, need to beaccomplished in a much wiserway than ever before.

Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad con-cluded that all the stakehold-ers will have to join hands to

conserve water at every leveli.e. in-hose, local, regional, in-ternational and global resolv-ing all differences and con-flicts to save the humanityand ensure food securitythrough ensured water avail-ability. “International year ofWater Cooperation 2013” isjust a reminder to practice thetheme in true spirit throughthe generations. Dr. IftikharAhmed appreciated FAO,UNCG and Farmer communityto support for highlighting thewater issue. Dr. Iftikhar Chair-man PARC stressed the burn-ing need to invest knowledgeto address the issue of water,he said the fulfillment of ba-sic human needs of a day en-vironment, economics, pros-perity and poverty reduction,all depends upon water.

0.007 pc of total water available for human life

PML-N, JUI-F seatadjustment soonOUR CORRESPONDENT

TIMERGARA—Addressingthe ‘Shiekhul Hind’ confer-ence at Samar Bagh on Sun-day the JUI-F central vicechief and former senatorMaulana Gul Naseeb Khansaid that talks on seat to seatadjustment with the PML-Nhad entered in final stage andworkers would soon listen togood news in that regard.

The JUI-F leader came hardon the PTI chief Imran Khanand said that external powershad been active to make Paki-stan as a secular state. He saidthat open minded people likeImran Khan were being im-posed on Pakistanis so that thecountry could be made secular.

He said the JUI wanted toestablish Islamic rule in Paki-stan and make it an Islamicwelfare state. “The so-calledtsunami of Imran Khan is equalto drone strike on culture andIslamic civilization of Paki-stan,” Gul Naseeb said andadded that people of Pakistanwould reject him. He said thattalks with the PML-N had en-tered into final stage and soonit would be announced.

KPBCC reschedulesInter examination

P E S H A W A R — K h y b e rPakhtunkhwa Boards Com-mittee of Chairman (KPBCC)has announced reschedul-ing of the forthcoming Inter-mediate Examination due togeneral election on May 11,2013. Chairman Board of In-termediate and SecondaryEducation Peshawar Pro-fessor Dr. Shafi Afridi saidon Sunday.—APP

Balochis happy overKhoso selection

QUETTA—People ofBalochistan particularlyJaffarabad belt expressedtheir happiness as the Jus-tice (retd) Mir Hazar KhanKhoso was selected care-taker Prime Minister of Paki-stan by the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan on Sunday.The reports reaching heresuggested that soon afterannouncement of the ECPabout the selection of Justice(retd) Khoso for the top slotof the country, people inJaffarabad came out of theirhouses and expressed theirhappiness. They were shout-ing in happy mood and tookit a good omen for the hold-ing of free, fair and transpar-ent elections.

The caretaker Prime Min-ister Justice (retd) Mir HazarKhan Khoso, 84, belongs tovillage Goth Azam KhanKhoso in Jaffarabad districtwhere most of people ofKhoso Baloch tribe havebeen residing.—APP

KARAK—As many as six werekilled and five injured duringcurrent spell of rains that con-tinued for the second consecu-tive day here Sunday. Accord-ing to details, roof of a dilapi-dated house owned by GhulamMustafa collapsed at TabbiKhwa Shuhdan area trappingeight family members in therubble. Four persons includingowner of the house and his wifekilled in the incident while three

sustained injuries. In anotherincident occurred at BandaDagarnari roof of a house cavedin killing an eight-year old girl,Shabnum while wife of AkbarKhan killed and his two daugh-ters received critical injuries ina roof collapse incident atKhooni Khel Banda.

Khairpur: Unidentified per-sons resorted to firing at a meatshop in Sallar Mohallah, Pir-jo-Goth on Sunday, resulting in

on-the-spot death of UstadMuneer Ahmed Ansari and hisson Raja Ansari.

According to details, fiveassailants came to the meatshop of the deceased Muneerand started firing. After thedeath of Muneer and his sonRaja as a result of firing the ac-cused fled from there.

The cause of murder isstated to be an old enmity. Theincident caused closure of

shops in the area. Police wereyet to register a case. Quetta: Aman was killed when a speedytruck hit him on Double Roadarea of provincial capital hereon Sun-day. According to po-lice, the victim was crossingthe road as the speedy truckhit him which caused his death.The body of the deceased washanded over to the heirs afterlegal formalities. Police werelooking into the matter.

6 killed in roof collapse incidents

PESHAWAR—The Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Governor, Engi-neer Shaukatullah has said thatresult oriented steps are underway to ensure early rehabilita-

tion of internally dislocatedpersons of FATA. He said thathe is personally ensuring thatnot a single affected family isleft out from the financial assis-tance being offered by the gov-ernment.

Addressing delegations ofelders, Ulema and youth of vari-ous areas of Momand andBajaur agencies here Sundayat Governor’s House, hepointed out that special initia-tives are underway to expeditepace for disbursement of thecompensation amount in linewith the aspirations of the re-spective people. The Governorpointed out that indeed main-tenance of peace and normalcyare vital not only for making the

rehabilitation process resultoriented but necessary to en-sure well being on sustainedbasis. He also urged the tribalelders to continue their supportto further consolidate the on-going efforts for strengtheningpeace and normalcy. Aboutstreamlining the working ofanimal husbandry sector in cer-tain areas of Momand andBajaur agencies, the Governorasked the authorities con-cerned to brief him on the is-sue. Referring to various pointsraised by students, the Gover-nor said that the governmentwas making sincere efforts tofurther improve the quality ofeducational facilities inFATA.—APP

Steps underway for FATAIDPs rehabilitation: Governor

ISLAMABAD—Speakers at amedia workshop on Sundayurged the provinces to in-crease the budget for familyplanning up to 3 per cent tofullfil its objectives. Thespeakers pointed out that af-ter 18th Amendment, it is im-perative for provinces to givedue importance to populationwelfare programme and com-mit politically and financiallyto continue programmes.

The event was organizedby Rahnuma-Family PlanningAssociation of Pakistan(FPAP). A large number ofmedia persons, representa-tives of provincial govern-ments, ulemas, service pro-viders, partners and civil so-ciety representatives at-tended the moot. Workshopparticipants stressed that it ishard time for provinces tounderstand the circumstances

properly and identify threatsand opportunities whicharises after devolution of min-istry of Population Welfare.They pointed out that policymakers and implementersshould be wel aware aboutgaps and repercussions andunmet need of family plan-ning, adding that these issuesshould be addressed on pri-ority. Experts working onpopulation issues stated thatthe political parties shouldaddress small family norm astheir manifesto during elec-tion campaigns in coming gen-eral election.

They remarked that pro-vincial governments’ accept-ability of their added respon-sibilities with reference topopulation welfare programis a future challenge for theorganizations working in thissector.—APP

Provinces asked to increasefamily planning budget by 3pc

38 candidatesobtain nominationforms from DROs

THATTA—The schedule forthe general elections hasbeen announced by the Elec-tion Commission of Pakistan(ECP). District Thatta has twoNational Assembly (NA) andfive Provincial Assembly(PA) seats. They are NA-237(Thatta-1) and NA-238(Thatta-2) and PS-84 (ThattaTaluka), PS-85(MirpurSakro), PS-86(Sujawal andMirpurbathoro), PS-87 (Jatiand Shahbundar), PS-88(Gorabari and Keti Bundar).

Total number of votes is6,42,154. The male voters are3,52,519 while female votersare 2,89,635. The district elec-tion office has constituted642 polling stations with 1732polling booths both for maleand female voters.—APP

Kashmir issue needs to be solved amicablyISLAMABAD—Former minister for foreignaffairs Hina Rabbani Khar said that the PPP-led coalition government had formed in-novative policies to establish good rela-tions with its neighbours, including India,in its five-year term. Talking to a private TVchannel, Hina Khar said that territorial dis-putes needed to be resolved for peace andstability of the region. She said that all thedisputes, including the core issue of Kash-mir, needed to be solved amicably. Reply-

ing to a question, Khar said that work on trade cooperationwith India was in progress. The government had implementedthe Iran-Pakistan gas project to fulfill the energy demands ofcountry, she added. Khar said that the government had stronglycondemned drone attacks. Replying to another question, shesaid that the PPP’s founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had introducedan independent foreign policy in Pakistan. She said that theinternational community was acknowledging the responsiblerole of Pakistan due to its effective foreign policy. Khar saidthat for India, her country’s leadership decided to start invest-ing in friendship and trust building instead of traditional hostil-ity and animosity that the two countries witnessed in the past,Xinhua reported. Many steps including improvement of traderelations were taken to build trust, said Khar, the country’s firstwoman foreign minister. Replying to a question, she said Paki-stan wants a resolution of Kashmir dispute, but pointed outthat there was not required level of trust at the moment forresolution of the issue through dialogue. Highlighting hergovernment’s diplomatic success in five years, she said hercountry pursued a proactive foreign policy focusing on regionand taking decisions purely in national interests. She said thedemocratic government of Pakistan demonstrated its commit-ment to have relations with Afghanistan on the basis of sover-eign equality. “We aspire for no role in Afghanistan than tofacilitate Afghan people on the course chosen by them forpeace and reconciliation,” she said.—APP

Mashaikh urged to unite MuslimsBashir Ahmad Rahmani

HAFIZABAD—Ameer-e-Millat SajjadaNasheen Syed Munawar Hussain Jamaatihas said that Ulema and Mushaikh of Indo-Pakistan had played vital role in the Paki-stan movement on the call of founder ofthe nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad AliJinnah and rededicated that they wouldcontinue their efforts to saveguard the ideo-logical and geographical frontiers of Paki-stan. Addressing National Mushaikh Con-ference held here under the auspices of

Pakistan Milad Council, he said that Ameer-e-Millat Pir JamaatAli Shah had united all Mushaikh on one platform to achievethe independence of sacred homeland. He reminded his audi-ence that Pakistan had come into being after great struggle andsupreme sacrifices. Sajjada Nasheen of Pakpatan Sharif DiwanAhmad Maudood Masood, Pir Shameem Sabir Sabri Culs Sharif,Pir Bhar Chawindi Sharif, Pir Usman Noori, Pir Ather-ul-Qadri ofChoora Sharif, Pir Syed Wasim Abbas and others called uponthe Mashaikh to came out of their Darbars and strive to unitethe Muslims on one platform to achieve the cherished objec-tives for which Pakistan came into being. ***** Dacoits atfour different places deprived the villagers of cash, householdarticles, bikes and cell phones worth lakhs of rupees during thepast 12 hours. According to police sources, two armed banditsintercepted a bike rider Sajid Ali near Jurian village and snatchedaway his brand new bike, Rs. 2000 and a cell phone. Mean-while, five dacoits intruded into the house of Muhammad Akmalin Jalalana village and held up occupants of the house and aftersearching the almirahs made off with two tola gold ornaments,cell phones and other valuable articles. One Mushtaq ofQadirabad colony was standing on bypass Pindi Bhattian tofetch a bus when two armed bandits riding a car stopped nearhim and snatched away Rs. 5000 and cell phone at pistol point.Unidentified burglars intruded into the shop of Chadhar Gen-eral Store in Vanike Tarar last night and made off Rs. 12,000 andsome merchandised. The police are investigating.

Majeed for Kashmir liberationKARACHI—Prime Minister of Azad Jammuand Kashmir, Chaudhry Abdul Majeed onSunday said that all political parties of Pa-kistan should give importance to Kashmirand its people by incorporating liberationof occupied Kashmir and right of self-de-termination of the people of Kashmir in theirelection manifesto. He was talking to me-dia on his arrived at Jinnah InternationalAirport here. Former prime minister of theAzad Jammu and Kashmir, Raja Farooq

Haider Khan, former president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir,Sardar Muhammad Anwar Khan and other notables accompa-nied Chaudhry Abdul Majeed. He said the people of Pakistanhave always supported the people of Kashmir. Chaudhry AbdulMajeed also condemned the execution of a Kashmir liberationmovement activist, Afzal Guru in an Indian prison. He said allpolitical parties in Pakistan mark Kashmir Day on February 5 tosend a message to India, we appeal to them to jointly raisevoice for the liberation of Kashmir. Ameer Jamat-e-Islami AJKAbdul Rasheed Turabi and member of AJK Assembly TahirKhokhar were also present. AJK PM visits Idara Noor-e-Haq:Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Chaudhry AbdulMajeed along with leaders of different parties of AJK visitedIdara Noor-e-Haq here on Sunday. Chaudhry Abdul Majeedmet with the Amir Jamat-e-Islami (JI), Karachi MuhammadHussain Mehenti. Leader of the Opposition in AJK Assembly,Raja Farooq Haider Khan, Amir JI AJK, Abdul Rasheed Turabi,former president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, SardarMuhammad Anwar Khan and other notables also accompa-nied Chaudhry Abdul Majeed.—APP

PPP to win polls with majorityISLAMABAD—Former prime ministerSyed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Sunday saidthat the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)would win the forthcoming general elec-tions with a majority. The PPP during itsgovernment had provided basic needsof life to the people across the boardwithout any discrimination, he said whiletalking to APP. Replying to a question,Gilani said Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhuttowas sent to gallows just giving self-re-

spect, identity, right of vote and courage to the deprivedsegments of society. He said that the restoration of 1973Constitution, which was disfigured by the dictators, in itsoriginal form was the biggest ever achievement of the PPP.Replying to another question, he said the PPP consideredthe people as its main source of strength. Earlier, Presidentof Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Punjab, Mian ManzoorAhmad Wattoo on Saturday hoped that Election Commis-sion of Pakistan (ECP) would form an impartial caretakerset-up for up coming elections. Talking to a private televi-sion channel, he said that PPP would organize big politicalgatherings across the country in coming days, adding allparties have right for carrying political activities in thecountry. He said the Parliament had shifted powers to theprovinces. Replying to a question, he said that the Parlia-ment had introduced 18th, 19th and 20th amendment inconstitution, adding unfortunately political parties couldnot agree on a name for the office of the caretaker PrimeMinister. The caretaker set-up would not be authorized toformulate any policy, he said.—APP

RAHIM YAR KHAN: People participating in walk marking the World TB Day, organized by Association for SocialDevelopment at Sheikh Zayed Medical College.

I S L A M A B A D — P a k i s t a nMeteorological Depart-ment on Sunday forecastdry weather in most areasof the countries duringnext two days.

However, light rain withthunderstorm is expected inIslamabad, Rawalpindi ,Sargodha, Malakand,Hazara, Kohat , Bannu,Peshawar divisions, Kash-mir & Gilgit-Baltistan andHazara Divisions duringnext 24 hours.

According to the Metoffice‚ temperature re-corded on Wednesdaymorning in Islamabad was14 degree centigrade‚Lahore 17‚ Karachi 24‚Peshawar 19‚ Quetta 8‚Gilgit 12‚ Murree 11 andMuzaffarabad 13 degreecentigrade.

The Multan Met officehas forecast partly cloudyweather for the city and itssuburbs during the next 24hours. On Sunday, the

Dry weatherpersists, light rain

likely in some areasmaximum and minimumtemperatures were re-corded as 26.4 and 13.0 de-grees centigrade, respec-t ively. Humidity was re-corded as 89 percent at 8a.m. and 39 percent at 5 p.m.

Fair / part ly cloudyweather has been forecast

for Monday in the metropo-lis, said a weather report onSunday.

According to the report,the minimum and maximumtemperatures are expectedto remain between 20 to 22and 33 to 35 degree celsius,respectively. Mainly dryweather is likely to prevailelsewhere in the region, theweather report said.—APP

HYDERABAD: Former Chief Minister and President People’s Party Sindh Syed QaimAli Shah addressing PPP Sindh Council members meeting.

M HALEEM ASAD

TIMERGARA—The central

vice chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami and party nominatedcandidate for PK-95 SirajulHaq has said that establish-ment of ‘khilafat rule’ andbringing out Pakistan fromAmerican influence wasparty agenda for the upcom-ing general election. He wasaddressing a big gathering atthe end of a motor car andmotor cycle rally organizedby the JI, Dir Lower chapter,here on Sunday. More than3000 party workers took partin the event despite heavyrains in the area.

Earlier participants of therally carrying party flags and

riding motor cycles and carsmarched on different roads inJandol. Mr Sirajul Haq andformer MNA MaulanaAsadullah led the rallies. Therallies passed on Timergarabypass road at Balambat andTimergara.

Addressing party work-ers Siraj blamed the AwamiNational Party and PakistanPeople’s Party for plunderingbillion of rupees during thelast five years. He said allministers and lawmakers ofthe outgoing governmentwould be made accountableif the JI came in powers. “Weare committed to provide

health, education, cleandrinking water and job op-portunities to people oncewe got powers,” Haq saidand accused the ANP ledprovincial government forcurrent lawlessness, unem-ployment, corruption andpromotion vulgarity. He saidthe rulers had turned thecountry into a colony ofAmerica.

“We are aware of the factthat former ANP and PPP law-makers have dumped powergenerators, transformers,electricity poles, plastic pipesand cement bags in theirhouses and hujras which are

being distributed in voters,”he blamed and added thatviolators would have to faceactions in near future for that.The JI leader said the ANPhad destroyed houses anddeveloped graveyards inPukhtun belt by followingthe US policies during thelast five years. He said thatdespite tall claims the ANPand PPP failed to deliver.“The ANP left the ChakdaraTimergara road like ruins andChakdara Bridge incom-plete,” he said, adding the JIwould solve all problems ifelected to govern.

He demanded of the

caretaker chief minister ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa to se-lect a short and impartialcabinet. “There is no needof ministers’ platoon for justtwo months,” the JI leadersaid and announced thatthey would remove all bar-ricades on roads leading togovernor house and CMhouse at Peshawar. The JInominated candidate forNA 34 Sahibzada YaqubKhan, for PK 94 MuzafarSyed, for PK 96 Saeed Gul,district amir MaulanaAsadullah, Shabab e MilliNawab Bacha and otheralso spoke on the occasion.

JI election agenda: Khilafat, end to US influence

SHER GONDAL

MANDI BAHAUDDIN—Liti-gants of the district are fac-ing hardships while appear-ing in special courts estab-lished in Rawalpindi,Gujranwala and Lahore only.No special courts of bank-ing, labour, anti-corruption,special magistrate WAPDAand special judge centralhave been set up at the dis-trict level and the litigantshave to travel to the said cit-ies for their cases in thesecourts.

There is only one courtof special judge central at

Lahore for two divisionsnamely Lahore andGujranwala and people of 10districts have to go to Lahorefor their cases in special judgecentral court. Although thereis a simple solution of thisproblem available as the pun-ishment of offences that aretried by Special judge Centralis not capital (death), there-fore all the cases pending inthe said court can be tried inthe courts of Magistrate Sec-tion 30 in the district con-cerned. Similarly, all the casespending in the courts of Spe-cial Judge Banking can be triedin the courts of civil judges of

1st class in the concerneddistrict. Same is the story ofspecial courts of anti–corrup-tion, consumer court, Specialmagistrate WAPDA and thelabour court as their cases canalso be tried by the magistrateempowered under section 30in the concerned district. Ifthis procedure is followed,then all the cases pending inthose courts may be trans-ferred to district and sessionsjudges of concerned districts.

Otherwise, if the saidcases are to be heard only inspecial courts then a specialjudge can be appointed ineach district for the trial of all

the cases of the above men-tioned courts. If this consid-eration is given to these solu-tions, it would not only favourthe litigants by providingthem justice at their doorstepsbut will also help to acceler-ate the judicial process.

The social circles includ-ing lawyers, members of civilsociety and ex-servicemenhave demanded the govt earlyconsideration and solution ofthese problems for dispensa-tion of justice.*****Rangers Public Schooland College arranged a func-tion at its premises to cel-ebrate world Forest Day here

the other day. Addressing thefunction largely attended bystudents and teaching staff,Commandant Rangers Acad-emy Col Nadeem said the aimof the function was to createawareness among the stu-dents and public about thevalue and benefits of trees forthe human being.

He said it was importantto understand the value ofthe forests as a source of rawmaterial, as a provider of lo-cal employment and nationalincome. Forests are essentialfor life on Earth. They giveus shade and shelter, refugeand refreshment, clean air

and water. DCO TariqChaudhry and DPO AmeerTaimur also spoke on the oc-casion and highlighted im-portance of the forests andtrees with reference to life.Civil and military officersalso attended the event.Trees were planted by theparticipants to mark the day.The event was followed bya walk led by DCO ChaudhryTariq to create awarenessamong the public and moti-vate people to plant trees intheir areas. Principal CollegeCol (retd) Rana Maqsoodthanked the participants formaking the event a success.

Setting up of Special courts at district level demanded

ISLAMABAD—World TB Dayobserved globally includingPakistan on 24th March forthe second time with the slo-gan “Stop TB in my lifetime”by WHO.

According to a statmentissued here, overall stresswill be on increasing fundingfor TB prevention, care andcontrol efforts, while en-hancing awareness of keyprogress in TB interventionsand actions required to en-sure further progress.

It is against this backdropthat in Geneva the WorldHealth Organization and theGlobal Fund to Fight AIDS,TB and Malaria (GFATM)said that strains of tubercu-losis with resistance to mul-tiple drugs could spreadwidely and highlight an an-nual need of at least US$ 1.6billion in international fund-ing for treatment and preven-tion of the disease.

Pakistan which has the fifth

highest burden of Tuberculo-sis in the world and the fourthhighest in terms of multi-drugresistant (MDR) Tuberculosisis working on many fronts toaddress the problem with thetechnical support of WHO, andfinancial support of GFATM,USAID, KNCV, JICA, DFIDand a number of other devel-opment partners.

Director General of theWHO, Dr Margaret Chansaid that the only way tocarry out the urgent work ofidentifying all new cases oftuberculosis will be to mobi-lize significant funding frominternational donors. TheWHO and the GFATM haveidentified an anticipated gapof US$1.6 billion in annualinternational support for thefight against tuberculosis in118 low and middle incomecountries on top of an esti-mated US$3.2 billion thatcould be provided by thecountries themselves.—APP

World TB Day observedfor TB control efforts

STAFF REPORTER

TIMERGARA—Workers ofthe Pakistan People’s Party,Dir Lower, on Sunday de-manded of the party leader-ship to award party ticket toformer provincial ministerMahmood Zeb Khan for PK-94. They made the demandduring a workers’ conventionheld at the residence ofMahmood Zeb Khan whichwas attended by party work-ers from all union councils.

Those who spoke infavour of Mahmood Zeb in-cluded former district naibnazim Zahir Shah,Muhammad Nawaz, AzamKhan, APCA Dir presidentMuhammad Shaier Tajak,People Paramedical asso-ciation president KhurshidKhan, Ishaq Pacha, ZahidKhan, Muslim Khan,Muhammad Anwar and PSFleader Shahab Utmani, ThePPP Dir Lower presidentKhurshid Ali Khan, generalsecretary Khadim Jan andother party elders were alsopresent on the occasion.

The speakers expressedtheir satisfaction on perfor-mance of Mahmood ZebKhan and said that he de-served party ticket. They de-manded of the PPP provincialand central parliamentarycommittee to award partyticket to Mr Zeb for PK 94.Addressing the workers onthe occasion, former pro-vincial minister for techni-cal education MahmoodZeb Khan said that heserved people of his con-stituency during the lastfive years. He said he wouldabide by all decisions ofparty leadership regardingawarding tickets.

He said he was sure tobe awarded ticket as accord-ing to him the party had de-cided to award tickets to itsformer MPAs so that peopleof those areas could judgetheir performance. Accord-ing to organizers of the eventmore than 4000 workers at-tended the moot which wasclear evidence that theytrusted Mr Zeb. Howevercontrary to their claims, PPP

former councilors Ismail,Yaqub Khan, Muzafar Khan,Naushad Khan, UmarMuhammad and Sher Zadain a written statement issuedto media on Sunday de-manded of the party highcommand to award partyticket to former union nazimIbrahim Khan for PK-94.

The statement said thatformer minister MahmoodZeb Khan had done nothingfor genuine workers duringhis tenure as minister. Theysaid that a specific lobby hadbeen working for him. Justi-fying their demand they saidthat Ibrahim Khan was agross root level worker of thePPP for the last 20 years. “He(Ibrahim Khan) has servedthe party and workers in cru-cial periods,” the statementsaid. They warned to partways with the party if ticketfor PK 94 was not awardedto him. Mr Ibrahim Khan isthe brother of former regis-trar Peshawar High Court andretired judge Sher ShahKhan. He also led the PSF foryears in Malakand division.

PPP split on awardof ticket for KP-94

BASHIR AHMAD RAHMANI

HAFIZABAD—Hafizabad cityand most of the villages werelashed by torrentional rain andhailstorm followed by chillywinds during the past 12 hours,making the weather pleasantbut created multiple problemsfor the citizens due to mal-func-tioning of sewerage system andover-flowing of open drains.The rain water gushed into sev-eral localities particularly, GarhiAwan, Sharifpura and low-ly-ing localities around the city.

According to agricultur-ists, the rain and hailstorm dam-aged the standing wheat cropand fodders in vast tract in the

district.*****Seven persons includ-ing a woman were seriously in-jured when some citizens ofWali Town, Hafizabad, indulgedin firing following quarrel overa brawl over cock fighting.

The Rescue-1122 squadrushed the injured Zeb-un-Nisa,Majid Ali, Jamshed, Saqib,Ghulam Muhammad and AliAbass to the DHQ Hospitalwhere condition of two of themis serious. According tosource, cock fighting of Ahsanand Majid Ali group was con-tinuing in Wali Town whenAhsan and Majid Ali ex-changed harsh words. There-upon, Ahsan group allegedly

opened firing as a result ofwhich seven persons were in-jured. The police have regis-tered a case against Ahsan,Akmal and 17 others and areinvestigating.

***** The sixth death an-niversary of Sitara-i-Imtiaz,Pride of Performance Dr.A.R.Kemal, an Economist ofinternational repute, was ob-served here on Sunday at theresidence of his eldest brotherSenior Journalist Rana YousafWaheed.

A large number of his rela-tives and admirers attended theanniversary and prayed to Al-mighty Allah to rest his soul ineternal peace.

Rain, hailstorm lashHafizabad, adjacent areas

Migratory birdsleaving Pakistanfor Europe, AsiaI S L A M A B A D —Migra to rybirds, who arrived in Pakistanat the advent of winter, hasalmost left for Europe, Cen-tral Asian states and Indiathrough Indus Flyway, as700,000 - 1,200,000 birdscome to Pakistan in winterseason every year.

The famous route fromSiberia to various destina-tions in Pakistan overKarakorum, Hindu Kush, andSuleiman Ranges along theIndus River down to thedelta is known as Interna-tional Migratory Bird RouteNumber 4.

These periods may varydepending upon weather con-ditions in Siberia and Pakistan.Talking to APP, Director Zoo-logical Sciences Division, Pa-kistan Museum of Natural His-tory (PMNH), Dr MuhammadRafiq said there are a total of 7identified flyways in the world:from Northern Europe to Scan-dinavian countries, Central Eu-rope to Mediterranean Sea,Western Siberia to Red Sea,Green Route from Siberia to Pa-kistan.—APP

Electoral processbegins

The first phase of election process began Sunday with the filing ofnomination papers by contesting candidates and one thing is forcertain that there would be large number of aspirants entering the

fray. The political parties have however not yet finalized the lists of theircandidates despite the fact that they knew fully well that the Assemblieswould be dissolved by the middle of March and elections held in May.

There are just six days for the filing of nomination papers and theparties need to expedite their lists so that the candidates could start theirelectioneering in the right earnest. The ECP is all geared up to make thewhole process transparent so that there is no finger pointing at its neutralitybut there is very little time with it for the scrutiny of nomination papers asprovided in the constitution. There is national consensus that no defaulteror corrupt person is allowed to enter the electoral field and for this purposethe ECP would need all out cooperation from State institutions includingthe SBP, NAB and FBR. While it would be up to the people of Pakistan toelect the next leadership yet all steps be taken to ensure that none of theparties or candidates have any complaint of victimisation. A categoricalstatement in this connection has come from the caretaker Balochistan ChiefMinister Nawab Ghaus Bakhsh Barozai who vowed to bring peace in theprovince through merit and transparency in the elections. One is certainthat if all the parties in Balochistan enter the electoral race, it would have apositive impact on the law and order situation as genuine representativeswould be of great help to persuade the misguided people to join the na-tional mainstream. It is therefore necessary that every one, who is inter-ested, be facilitated to join the electoral process so that at the end of the dayPakistan emerges as a peaceful democratic country.

President’s rightemphasis on religious

harmonyPresident Asif Ali Zardari has rightly emphasised upon the need for greater

efforts to promote interfaith harmony at a time when inimical forces areall out to create sectarian tension. Talking to a delegation of Shia UlemaCouncil, the President expressed his dismay over lack of tolerance andrespect for each other’s belief.There is no denying the fact that people are being killed daily in differentparts of the country on sectarian lines. The situation is particularly disturb-ing in Balochistan and Karachi where extremist groups playing in the handsof the enemies of Pakistan are targeting innocent people. These elementshave destroyed the peace of the society in the name of religion and thistendency could be checked when religious leaders play their due role asthey enjoy great influence and can help in the protection of the vulnerablesegments of the society. The ulema and religious scholars need to make it apoint for teaching tolerance in schools and mosques and impress upon thepeople to identify those who are out to disturb peace and order. They needto spread the message of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) who showed compas-sion towards followers of other religions and took well care of hisneighbours. At the same time the government need to thoroughly investi-gate and expose the faces of those behind the gruesome incidents of reli-gious intolerance. The incidents of religious killings are bringing a badname to the country which came into being in the name of Islam and envi-sioned by Quaid-e-Azam as a nation where there would be no discrimina-tion based on religion and other variations.

Complexities of Post 2014 Afghanistan

Sticks and stonesmay break mybones, but wordswill never hurtme.

Apologyand

beyond…

Diplomacy in the MiddleEast finally got a shot inthe arm. The belated apol-

ogy that came from Israel for the2010 commando raid on an aid flo-tilla is a promising development.The trigger-happy adventure of TelAviv in the high seas had killednine Turkish activists on board aship that was trying to breach theIsrael-inflicted Gaza blockade.The fact that Israeli Prime Minis-ter Benjamin Netanyahu had ut-tered the much sought-after ‘sorry’word, and agreed to compensatethe victims’ families, is enough torestore bilateral relations betweenboth the countries.

Minutes after the apologystatement, Ankara, in a rejoinder,agreed to continue to work on im-proving the humanitarian situationin the Palestinian territories, andvalued its ties with the Jewish en-tity. Turkey and Israel enjoy manyof the firsts by virtue of being trad-ing partners, and the first Muslimcountry to have military relationswith the lone Jewish state. TheMavi Marmara incident had pro-voked an international outcry andled to a major deterioration in re-lations between Turkey and Israel.If reports are any criterion, itseems Tel Aviv wasn’t at all readyto extend the apology and it cameunder duress. This turnaround,however, brought to force theUnited States influence in the re-gion, as President Barack Obamaprevailed over his somewhat dif-ficult but closest ally — Israel.That is why a beaming Obamaannounced the reconciliation be-fore flying off to Jordan on thenext leg of his whirlpool tour tothe Middle Eastern countries.Though Turkish Prime MinisterRecep Tayyip Erdogan will seethis achievement as his personalpolitical victory over his adamantIsraeli counterpart. With Syria’scivil-strife taking its toll and thesecurity equation between Israeland its Arab-Muslim neighboursdeteriorating, it was amasterstroke of Obama to mendthe fences between Tel Aviv andAnkara. The point that this rap-prochement has come close on theheels of Obama’s epoch-makingstatement while visiting the Oc-cupied Palestinian territories, inwhich he called on Israel to undothe illegal settlements and workfor a two-state solution, is rejuve-nated diplomacy. The US presi-dent has to keep the pressure onand ensure that his Middle Eastyatra doesn’t end up in half-hearted achievements. As a leaderwho has made the world believein ‘yes, he can’ manifesto, Obamahas to sit for longer sessions withhis Israeli and Arab allies to bag acomprehensive breakthrough inone of the most volatile regions inthe world.— Khaleej Times

Pakistan’scaretaker

set-up

The Election Commission ofPakistan is now tasked withselecting a caretaker prime

minister after the parliamentarycommittee failed to reach a con-sensus. Only after the caretakerset-up is formed can the politiciansconcentrate efforts on the elec-tions, which are scheduled forMay 11.

While there is a lot of enthu-siasm for the coming elections,there is also concern about theirtransparency amid increased ten-sions over security. Former presi-dent Pervez Musharraf, has al-ready received death threats fromthe Pakistani Taliban. Musharraf’sforay into politics at this juncturewill put an additional strain on theauthorities. They face a nightmar-ish task of minding the volatilesecurity situation during the timeleading up to elections. The grimreality is that every electoral rallyand gathering could prove an idealtarget for terrorists. Moreover, thecaretaker administration’s para-mount task is to ensure that theelection is free and fair in all re-spects. It is therefore hoped thatthe interim period will not proveturbulent and will pave the way forfuture stability. — Gulf News

MEDIA WATCH

—Proverb

Rumpus created by the Afghan resistance groups during the US Secretary of De-

fence Hagel’s first trip to Kabul andthe remarks by President Karzai thatNATO forces were helping Talibanin sustaining their capacity to launchattacks with an objective of prolong-ing the stay of occupation forces inAfghanistan were quite interestingand intriguing.

Over the last four years or so,the international community and Af-ghan government have been goingoverboard to dispel fears that theplanned withdrawal of internationaltroops in 2014 will plunge the coun-try in to a new anarchic phase. Therehave been numerous pledges forcontinuing political, security and fi-nancial support beyond 2014. Forits part, Afghan government hasbeen boasting of putting in placerequisite reforms to guarantee sus-tainable stability all across Afghani-stan in the post withdrawal era.However, the reality on the ground,and the predominant perception ofwhat lays ahead, contradicts all theseclaims.

Afghan National SecurityForces (ANSF) have reached theirtarget number of nearly 352,000; andnow at least theoretically, they leadnearly 90% of operations across thecountry. However, practically,ANSF still faces Herculean chal-lenges, and is likely to continue fac-ing them well after 2014. Actually,it has a very limited independentoperational capacity. According tothe Pentagon assessment, as of De-cember 2012, only one of the Af-

S Asian instability: The Indian role

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Sunday Magazine

Sadia Zahid MalikEditor

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

In the postcolonial epoch, theSouth Asian politics has beenrevolving around the Indo-Pa-

kistan relationship. There has beenuneasy relationship between thesetwo major players of the regionthroughout the cold war, where In-dia despite having an apparent char-acter of non-alliance, remained partof Communist camp under formerSoviet Union. Pakistan however,became part of Capitalist block,under United States, for the obvi-ous reasons of its security concerns.Both countries went to war for fourtimes, and never enjoyed cordialrelationship throughout their inde-pendent history.

The dark part of the story isneither of them learnt a lesson that,bilateral tensions, conspiraciesagainst each other, accusations,wars, and attempts of over power-ing each other never bore the fruitsfor either party nor these couldbring stability in the region.Rather, the peer competitors whileoverlooking the economies andpoverty of their people opted to gonuclear, besides stockpiling hugeamount of conventional arms. Asa resultant, after sixty-five years ofindependence, the region is morefragile and unstable, than it was inearly years of independence.

Over the years, the level ofmistrust between India and Paki-stan can be imagined from the factthat, sporadic incidents of minornature, committed by none-stateactors, have been compelling thenuclear-armed neighbours to optfor extreme steps like war. This has

ghan National Army’s 23 brigadeswas able to operate independentlywithout air or other military supportfrom foreign partners. Moreover, at-trition levels remain far too high andthere is a severe lack of enablers andair support assets. The ANSF are un-likely to make a significant differencein the overall security of the country.Limited capacity of the ANSF tomaintain control over the areas thatit has taken over is strengthening thefear of protracted conflict and inse-curity.

This environment is promptingthe people to flee their country. Lackof confidence in the country’s futurestability radiates an aura of despon-dency that is pushing out the people.Exodus includes people of all classes,rural and urban, unskilled persons aswell as those from skilled white col-lar class. And security is unlikely toimprove substantially in the near fu-ture. Estimates by the ‘NorwegianRefugee Council’ indicate that dur-ing 2012, 166 000 Afghans left theirhome. Since 2001, there are 460,000internally displaced persons in Af-ghanistan. A number of Afghans arealso leaving the country for good.Statistics by ‘European Asylum Sup-port Office’ indicate that during 2011,28,000 Afghans applied for asylumin the EU, which is the highest num-ber in a single year since 2001. Databy the UNHCR also records an in-crease of 34% in the number of Af-ghans seeking asylum in 44industrialised countries. Alarmingly,there were four times more Afghansapplying for political asylum world-wide in 2011 than in 2007.

Alongside the Human Resourcesdrain, flight of capital has also pickedup pace. According to Central Bankof Afghanistan, the officially declaredout flow of capital during the firstquarter of 2012 was $4.6 billion,

which is twice as much as the previ-ous year. The real amount is hard toassess; Deputy Governor of CentralBank has recently guessed that itcould be close to $8 billion a year.This equals twice the total assets ofthe Central Bank or almost half thecountry’s GDP.

The announcement of militarywithdrawal has raised the fears thatforeign aid flow to Afghanistanwould also reduce, hence jeopardiz-ing the fragile gains in the areas ofsecurity, development and state-building. Data from the USAID in-dicates that despite international com-mitments and pledges, withdrawal offoreign troops invariably leads to aconsiderable decrease in aid, ex-amples are: 60% in Bosnia between1996 and 2001; 43% in Haiti between1998 and 2002; and 69% in Iraq be-tween 2003 and 2009.

To alleviate these fears, Tokyoconference was convened in July2012 to reassure that the plannedmilitary withdrawal did not mean to-tal disengagement that could leaveAfghans out on the street to fend forthemselves. Package of $16 billionin aid through 2015 has only partlyreassured the Afghans. Severe globaleconomic crisis has led to cut-backsin the national budgets of the maindonor countries. Given the existingfeeling of fatigue amongst interna-tional donors, a substantial scalingback of aid flow beyond 2015 is areality. In fact, as of now, no clearand concrete plans have been formu-lated for the post-transition period.The World Bank warned last yearabout the risk of a rapid decline ofaid that ‘could lead to major macro-economic instability and serious so-cioeconomic consequences’. Thecountry is likely to remain highly aiddependent for at least a decade after2014, with a fiscal gap hovering

around $ 7 to 8 billion.The World Bank’s 2012 “Doing

Business Report” ranks Afghanistanat 160th out of 183 economies forthe ease of doing business, a declineof six positions from last year’sranking. This indicates deteriorationof the business environment duringthe previous year, which is attrib-uted to the factors like security, cor-ruption and poor enforcementmechanisms. National and interna-tional investors’ and entrepreneurs’trust is slowly fading away. It is clearthat many reforms need to be imple-mented before the Afghan govern-ment can tackle the challenges of theeconomy and security effectivelyand independently. Both the transi-tion and post transition periods posea series of great challenges.

While a hasty and insecure tran-sition is in progress in Afghanistan,neighbouring countries are wonder-ing as to the profile and trajectoryof post 2014 Afghanistan. Questionon every one’s mind is: as ISA/NATO troops move out, will inse-curity move in? The withdrawal ofinternational troops seems to haveset in motion a stampede whoseimpact can only be speculated, andthat too wildly. Speedy withdrawalis a welcome action provided nec-essary assets, funding and supportare in place to fill the vacuum leftby the international forces. The al-lies remain concerned that the USmay ignore its commitments in thecontext of Afghanistan. The ongo-ing process of withdrawal of inter-national troops and the transfer ofsecurity to the ANSF have resur-rected the ghosts of the 1989 Sovietpullout and is fuelling the fear ofgrowing instability or even a newcivil war after 2014.—Writer is a Consultant policy andStrategic Response, IPRI

happened thrice in the recent history.Firstly; after an attack on Indian Par-liament in December 2001, Indiafully mobilized its armed forces foran all out war against Pakistan. Sec-ondly; following the Mumbai attacksof November 2008, India took someprovocative actions leading to agrave strain, which could have ledto war, had Pakistan not being pa-tient. Thirdly; in January 2013, overthe LoC violation which resultedinto killings of four soldiers (twofrom each side), Indian civil andmilitary leadership issued provoca-tive statements, threatening Pakistanfor the severe consequences. Indianmedia, defense analysts and strate-gic community resorted to create warhysteria.

Whereas, none-state actors ini-tiated the initial two incidents, thelast one was an offensive act of In-dian regular army of attacking anisolated Pakistani post in Hajipirsector, along LoC. On the chargesof abetting the militants, who at-tacked Indian Parliament in 2001,where all assailants were killedwithout hurting anyone, IndianGovernment executed Mr AfzalGuru, a Kashmiri from Indian Oc-cupied Kashmir in February 2013.The execution was kept so secretthat neither his family was allowedto meet him nor were given priorintimation of execution. As this wasnot enough, the body of Afzal Guruwas also buried in the premises ofTihar Jail. These acts of IndianGovernment; the world’s biggestdemocracy and a so-called secularstate are a grave human rights vio-lation, condemned by internationalcommunity and even the acumen ofIndia. His execution is consideredas the political murder. After the po-litical execution of Guru, there re-mained curfew imposed by Indian

Government in the Occupied Stateof Kashmir for weeks. The Kash-mir people were seriously hurt andenraged over this inhuman act of In-dian Government. They stageddemonstrations in various parts ofthe state. In order to avenge thedeath of Guru, some freedom fight-ers resorted to attack a heavilyguarded camp of Central ReservePolice Force in Sri Nagar on 13March 2013. The attacked resultedinto killing of five Indian soldiersand two attackers. Following theattack, Indian Home Secretary RKSingh once again accused Pakistanas behind the incident. Mr Singhsaid that, “prime facie evidencesuggests that the militants who at-tacked the members of the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF) werefrom across the border, they wereprobably from Pakistan”.

Pakistani Foreign Office re-jected the allegation made in haste.Pakistan also rejected a statementmade by Defence Minister AKAntony in the Rajya Sabha accus-ing the Special Services Group ofPakistan Army of beheading twoIndian soldiers on the Line of Con-trol on January 08, 2013. As per thestatement of Foreign Office of Pa-kistan, “We feel that this trend ofmaking irresponsible statements andknee-jerk reactions by senior Indiangovernment functionaries have thepotential of undermining the effortsmade by both sides to normalise re-lations between the two countries.”How India could imagined that thepolitical murder of Afzal Guruwould go unnoticed in OccupiedKashmir.

This attack may be a beginning;there are all the chances of retalia-tory attacks against Indian officialand its occupation forces in occupiedKashmir. India knew this all and

sensing a backlash; it kept the de-cision of his execution in pendingfor years. The political reasons af-ter all compelled the ruling UPAGovernment to criminally executethe Guru, before it could be ditchedby its political rival BJP. After hav-ing known all these there is no funof accusing Pakistan for its own po-litical blunders and juvenile acts byIndia. After this act, through an-other impulsive decision, India hasstopped operationalizing the groupvisa facility, agreed between bothcountries after so many yearsthrough hectic negotiations. Ac-cording to Indian officials, “We arenot going to operationalise thegroup visa facility to be offered toPakistani nationals from Friday(March 15, 2013.” It appeared thatIndia was looking for an excuse todelay operationalizing the visaagreement.

While looking for a way for-ward and better future of SouthAsians, let us be realistic and prac-tical in our approaches to handleand resolve the cause of disagree-ment. Since neither side, gainedanything from a series of wars,clashes, accusations and unrelent-ing tense environment of the re-gion; therefore, India and Pakistanmust resolve the core issue (Kash-mir), to end the source of conflict.Sixty-five years of Indo-Pak historyis the testimony of the fact that, thisdisputed state is the real source ofall problems in the region, thusneed to be resolved amicably andimmediately. The key to end thetension and distrust in South Asialies with India. There may be wis-dom among the Indian leadershipto indentify the cause, but so far,there has been lacking of politicalwill and determination.—The writer is an IR analyst.

Dr RajaMuhammad Khan

Email: drmk_edu@yahoo.com

Iqbal Khan

Email:wonderous101@gmail.com

Khoso awelcome choice

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) finally took the decision and appointed Mir Hazar Khan Khoso as Caretaker Prime Minister after the failure of the politicians to agree on a name for the

Chief Executive after taking their full time as provided in the Constitution.The ECP decision would settle the political uncertainty, send a good mes-sage for people of Balochistan and help promote national harmony as thecaretaker Prime Minister belongs to Jaffarabad district of the neglectedProvince.

During one and a half days of deliberations, the Election Commissionthoroughly deliberated the qualifications of the four proposed names franklyand openly and came to the decision with four-one majority. People hadexpected from the Chief Election Commissioner that he would act in aneutral manner and the decision has been widely hailed by the politicalanalysts. Mr Khoso has a balanced personality with experience of judi-ciary and administration and his selection would also send a positive sig-nal to the nationalist parties in Balochistan who had reservations over thefair conduct of polls. In his first remarks, Mir Hazar Khan Khoso said histop most priorities would be facilitating free, fair and transparent electionsand to restore peace and order. He was confident that every party includingnationalist parties in Balochistan would get level playing field in the elec-tions. Now that a hurdle has been crossed through the constitutional path,all the political parties must accept him with open heart and without anyreservations. It would also be important that the Caretaker Prime Ministershould form a cabinet of honest, efficient and neutral people having nopolitical background or relationship with any political leaders. Mr Khosowould have challenging task ahead of him including holding of free andfair elections in a peaceful and orderly manner and pay special attention tothe economy which is on downslide. Though he would have a limited timeat his disposal but the Caretaker Prime Minister through his competentteam can lay the foundation to address the ills in the system and take stepsto address the problems of the people at large.

Voice of the People

Pakistan a country that has facedmuch turbulence at home andon the International level is at

handsful in every aspect. One suchstory was unveiled by a local news-paper on the 22nd March 2013 aboutthe ex-parliamentarian and twice cho-sen Minister Sheikh Waqas Akram.

The gentleman, who has twicewon elections from Jhang becamecontroversial when previously hisPunjab University degree was de-clared fake. The Cambridge Univer-sity (as reported by Daily News) toohas asserted that the A-levels degreein his name is not original. His deni-als that he had not taken any coursefrom the PU too left many confused.

There is no point in going incircles on how the degree was made,who helped him, how he used his po-litical pressure to gain it etc. It hasbeen repeatedly become quite evidentto the masses that he has been a topclass manipulator of this corruptedsystem, a system which has been de-vised by his kind of people who loveto do hanky panky within the systemand then never get caught, and if everthey are caught, no serious action istaken against them from the system.Unfortunately the law makers of thiscountry are the biggest law breakers!The nation is kept uneducated delib-

Innocent deception!

Educationalreforms

ASHQUE ALI JOYO

I do not believe that educational sys-tem could be reformed by introduc-ing the semester system in all edu-cational institutions of the country.This would not help research and de-velopment activities and we wouldface future challenges. The writerurged upon the ministry of educa-tion to take initiatives for the same.This logic is not comprehensible.After the 18th Amendment the min-istry of education was devolved andits functions transferred to the prov-inces. Education has now becomethe subject/part of the provinces.

The National EducationalPolicy (1998-2010) was announcedin March 1998. It was an epic effortby the then prime minister and thefederal education minister. It wasalso an honest effort by the educa-tion ministry. Before introducingthat policy, the ministry of educa-tion received 4,025 proposals fromall over the country for promotionof education. Some major propos-als had been incorporated in theabove-mentioned policy, coveringIslamic education, physical educa-tion and sports, elementary educa-tion, higher education, technical andvocational education and innovativeprogrammes, etc. Did we follow thatpolicy properly and timely?

The present government hasalso introduced various policies forsocioeconomic development of thecountry. Recently the Sindh Assem-bly passed the Sindh Higher Edu-cation Commission Bill 2013 butunfortunately some people of theSindh HEC are against it. If we donot adopt the given policies and pro-cedures, we cannot achieve sometargets. Higher education has para-mount importance for socioeco-nomic development of the countryand through quality higher educa-tion our country can prosper. I re-quest the authorities to pay properattention to the education system inthe provinces, including the capitalterritory and Gilgit Baltistan.—Nawabshah

Increasing ofpoverty

M BAQA QAZI

Pakistan is facing countless and end-less problems. All the characteristicof ordinary human nature says thatpoverty is the most unfortunate andit is one of the causes of all evils.Furthermore, inflation creates morepoverty. Poverty gives birth tocrimes. Crime creates corruptionand harassment in society.

Government should improvelaw and order situation and over-come the energy crisis. Mediashould play its role positively. If wecontrol these problems surely wecan easily return all money to theWorld Bank.—Shikarpur

Taxes on SMSFURQAN BELAL

Cellphone users are agitated becauseof unsolicited SMS by service pro-viders and others who want to pro-mote their product/services. On anaverage, six to seven unsolicitedSMS are sent daily. I have no ideawhy the authorities concerned arenot taking action to stop such viola-tion of consumer rights. To stop suchmessages, the government shouldimpose tax on every SMS at the rateof 50 paisa per SMS. This will notonly reduce unsolicited messagesbut also save our generation who isbeing ruined by cheap SMS pack-ages. Instead of studying, they spendmost of their time sending and re-ceiving messages.—Karachi.

Govt failures& WAPDADR YAQOOB BHATTI

Recently efforts are afoot at claim-ing more and more water in ourwestern rivers of Indus, Jhelum andChenab by India due to building ofscores of dams on the so-called runof the river basis. These power gen-eration projects would entail storage

Nominations for civil awardsRAJA GHAZANFAR ALI

I want to draw the kind attention of President o Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari that selection committeeof civil award is not nominating the names of most deserved persons honestly for awarding civil

awards. I am saying this because Prof Dr Raja Ghulam Asghar (late) was a great surgeon of Pakistanfrom 1952 to 2008. He was a great philanthropist, patriotic and honest doctor . His case for civilaward was under processed in the office of Chief Secretary Sind Karachi but this great surgeon is stilldeprived of civil award in recognition o his most excellent service. I will request the President ofPakistan that Civil awards should be awarded to most deserving persons on merit, for which thepresent selection committee of civil awards may kindly be dissolved and a new selection committeemay kindly be formed consisting of honest officers so that in future, the civil awards are given todeserving persons.—Rawalpindi

READERS

Email:editorial@pakobserver.net

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

—Editor

of water thus restricting water sup-ply to lower riparian i.e. Pakistan.Meanwhile, all the talk in Pakistan isfocused on energy generation fromrun-of-the-river projects and canalswithout any mega-storage dams tobolster our agriculture. It is forgottenthat a hydro-electric dam may storewater for irrigation while generatingpower as a by-product at dirt-cheapcost.

We have no concern for devel-oping water storages which is also ourproblem but WAPDA deals with wa-ter and power development in tan-dem. Unfortunately the governmentand WAPDA have failed to build asingle mega hydro electric dam in thepast four decades while India forgesahead with building a large numberof dams on our rivers with hundredsof dams in the pipeline. Lately, a reso-lution is being put up in the Indian“Lok Sabha” that India has a claimon the waters of Chenab as it origi-nates from Himachal Pradesh whichis preposterous and ought to be de-fied.—Lahore

Let’s makea model

AYAZ AHMED LAGHARI

A University is a place where studentslearn and get knowledge to make abetter society. After a cursory glanceon the canteens of the University ofSindh, one can easily witness casesof child labour. Minor boys, aged 12to 16, work on daily wagesthere.Many times debates are heldregarding child labour at the univer-sity or a topic is given for essay con-test. Sadly, at the same place childrenare working to earn money. Childlabour is a serious social problem andmeasures should be taken at least bythe university as we can make amodel of a better society at the uni-versity. I request the Vice-Chancel-lor of the University to take measuresagainst child labour as soon as pos-sible.—Jamshoro

Pak-Iran gaspipeline

FAHEEM BELHARVI

Despite bitter opposition from the USand warnings of economic sanctions,Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardariand Iranian President MahmoudAhmedinijad on 11 March 2013 offi-cially inaugurated construction workof a delayed $7.5 billion gas pipeline.The ceremony, which the President’soffice described as a ‘big event’, washeld in the Iranian border city ofChabahar. Both Presidents were ac-companied at the ground-breaking bydelegations comprising ministers, topofficials as well as representatives ofseveral Arab states. Pak Iran gas pipe-line is one of the important historicdeals of the world especially in Pakand Iran horizons. The project willbring economic prosperity and opensnew avenues of relationship betweenboth the countries. Basically, Pakistanis energy stricken country and itsgrowing economy failed to generaterevenue requirements.

Although the pipeline project’sformal completion date is December2014, a detailed feasibility plan is stillbeing worked out and the source offunding is yet unclear. In July 2011,President Ahmadinejad offered tofund construction of the 761 kilome-ters inside Pakistani territory. Irandeclared at the time that it had laidthe pipeline on its side to within 50kilometers of Pakistan’s border. Iran’seconomic difficulties are rapidlymounting. China’s largest bank, theIndustrial and Commercial Bank ofChina, has backed out from its ear-lier commitment.

In June of that year, members ofthe opposition benches in theBalochistan Assembly exhibited un-precedented unity and passed a reso-lution seeking royalty for the prov-ince in the proposed multi-billion dol-lar IP gas pipeline project. Further,the assembly also demandedBalochistan‘s representation in the IPtalks, free gas for adjacent popula-tions, a 100 per cent job share and amajor share in any royalty. It is addedthat, there is no constitutional or le-gal guarantee that royalty in any form,including security, jobs or gas, willbe supplied to the people ofBalochistan. Islamabad cannot denythe fact that Balochistan represents

Asia & post-US Mideast

Although many believe that theUS-Israel alliance is the foundation of America’s Middle

East policy, it was dependence on im-ported oil that motivated the US toestablish a dominant military pres-ence in the region after 1945.

Indeed, until the Six Day War ofJune 1967, the US was not a majorsupplier of military hardware to Is-rael. America’s military presence wasintended, above all, to preserve theArab status quo, and hence the flowof energy from the Persian Gulf, forthe benefit of the US, its allies andthe entire global economy.

Of course, no one should thinkthat America’s shale-gas revolution(which has brought it to the brink ofenergy self-sufficiency) means that itsBahrain-based Fifth Fleet will liftanchor any time soon. But the ratio-nale for America’s commitment ofmilitary force to the region is chang-ing fast; when that happens — as ithas in Europe, for example, since theCold War’s end — the distributionof military assets tends to change aswell.

That change is almost certain to

be reflected in America’s relation-ships with its Arab allies and partners.As the US statesman/academic Jo-seph Nye has argued: “For decadesthe United States and Saudi Arabiahave had a balance of asymmetriesin which we depended on them as theswing producer of oil and they de-pended on us for ultimate militarysecurity.” Given America’s burgeon-ing domestic energy supplies, Nyeargues, those “bargains will be struckon somewhat better terms,” at leastfrom the US perspective.

But, whatever new terms arestruck, the degree of US disengage-ment from the Middle East will de-pend on how two key questions areanswered. First, would even a partialwithdrawal of military force create asecurity vacuum that could be filledby a rival — say, China or Iran? And,second, would any diminution ofAmerica’s commitment to the regionincite the kind of instability thatbreeds failed states and terrorist ha-vens?

US President Barack Obama’scurrent security strategy in Afghani-stan, Yemen, and elsewhere suggeststhat the US will seek to mitigate thelatter risk by continuing its covert in-terventions — particularly its use ofunmanned aerial vehicles. Preventing

rivals from gaining overweening in-fluence in the region, however, willrequire a very different type of re-sponse — one that will require thebacking of old allies, such as Japan,and new friends, like India.

The reason for this is clear:China’s dependence on Middle Eastenergy imports means that it is almostcertain to seek to fill any regional se-curity vacuum. Indeed, China appearsto have long anticipated the comingchanges in the region’s security struc-ture, and already seems prepared totake advantage of them if permittedto do so. Its “string of pearls” acrossthe Indian Ocean — a series of po-tential naval stations connectingChina to the Middle East and Africa— would support a Chinese blue-water navy able to patrol the sea-lanesof the Persian Gulf.

But, in trying to strike new bar-gains with Middle East oil produc-ers, China has already been compro-mised by its strong backing of Iran,which is locked in a power strugglewith the region’s leading Sunni states,particularly Saudi Arabia. Absent acomplete shift in China’s relationswith Iran, a strategic partnership withthe monarchies of the Persian Gulfmay prove impossible to achieve.And, even then, China’s domestic

erately so that they remain unawareof such fallacies.

A country like Pakistan, whichhas gained massively in poverty, ac-cording to the UN Human Develop-ment Report estimated poverty in2011 at almost 50% of the popula-tion. Inflation has worsened the situ-ation, climbing from 7.7% in 2007to almost 12% for 2011, before de-clining to 10% in 2012. As a result ofpolitical and economic instability, thePakistani rupee has depreciated morethan 40% since 2007. Foreign invest-ments have not returned, due to in-vestor concerns related to poor gov-ernance, energy crisis, security con-cerns, and a slow-down in the globaleconomy.

The only bright spot is the remit-tances from overseas workers, aver-aging about $1 billion a month sinceMarch 2011. Pakistan’s current ac-count turned to deficit in fiscal year2012, spurred by higher prices for im-ported oil and lower prices for ex-ported cotton. Pakistan remains stuckin a low-income, low-growth trap,with growth averaging about 3% peryear from 2008 to 2012. The eco-nomic situation of the country is soscary that it would be difficult for theinterim set-up government to evenmuddle through now and as for thefuture politically elected Governmentthat too will face serious issues inrescuing. Now referring to the grossdomestic product (GDP) growth rate;it is the lowest in the country’s his-

Views From Abroad

Water scarcity

Pakistan is dangerously exposedto devastating floods becauseof no new dams have been

built for the last 47 years” stated bythe former chairman of the IndusRiver System Authority .Water scar-city is the real growing threat to Pa-kistan . Pakistan as an agriculturalcountry , having the lowest percapita supply of fresh water in theregion approximately lower than1000 cubic centimeters.

According to the UN , WorldEconomic Forum, Water manage-ment authorities and changing cur-rent political scenario all depicts thatthe present and upcoming years willwitness the war of water around theglobe .Beside other developing and

under developing countries whichare experiencing water scarcity , Pa-kistan is also experiencing suchgrowing threat of water wars withIndia .But instead of focusing on oneaspect of water shortage which is theIndian hegemony on Pakistani shareof water ,there is a need to focus onour own internal flawed policies inthis regard .Over 40 percent of thewater that flows through the Indusriver in Pakistan is lost each yeardue to seepage through the canalsand remaining flows out to the seabecause of no major dams .

Analyzing the strength of Indusriver almost 3000KM long hasplayed an important role in the livesof South Asians. Pakistan’s majorsupply line of water (Indus river)consists of 75 percent of water fromHimalayas. Due to lack of account-ability and parochial policies, an

over extraction of river water foragriculture purpose with self-ori-ented needs is a real threat leadingtowards water scarcity.ComparingIndus with Ganges river which isalmost 2500KM long also known as“Garland of river projects” runningthrough Nepal, India , China andBangladesh. Ganges river beside itsreligious connotation providing eco-nomic and power benefits to Indiaowing to the fact that the longtermvisionary planning and sharp politi-cal consensus playing its importantrole in overall developments and fasttrack progress of India resulting inmaking India world’s emergingeconomy.

Pakistan as compared to othercountries also have various depart-ments to tackle water issues such asIndus water authority and the waterand power development authority

44 per cent of the country‘s landmassand shares strategically significantcoasts and border areas with the en-ergy-rich Middle East, through Iran.

Another factor which need seri-ous attention. Fast friend of Pakistan“Saudi Arabia” is not very pleasedover the Pak-Iran project. The Saudiattempt to create divisions and dis-trust with a neighboring country isplainly insidious and deserved a re-sponse from Pakistan’s leaders — oneno less firm than the one delivered tothe Americans. The Saudi plan is justas unworkable as the TAPI pipeline,which the US is pushing as an alter-native to the IP pipeline. TAPI wouldrun through Turkmenistan, Afghani-stan, Pakistan and India. But with Af-ghanistan likely to be embroiled in-definitely in civil war after 2014, onlya wild idealist can believe that a pipe-line traversing its hostile and intrac-table terrain could provide secure oilsupplies. Let us hope the next electednational government would have tocomplete this Peace Pipeline Projectwith vision, will and capability tomake up for the last decades andmove fast to lift the society and thestate to higher levels and scrupulouslywork for the development of thecountry development and welfare ofthe people. Iran-Pakistan gas pipelinecan prove to be the starting point of anew era of peace and prosperity forthe entire region.—Via email

ShutdownholidaysAAMIR ABBASI

I have a simple query for the peopleof Pakistan, in general, and the peopleof Karachi, in particular.Does clos-ing the city or the country fetch anyresults?

I mean we have been doing it forquite a long time now and it seemsthat the government and the peopleonly celebrate a holiday wheneverthere is a shutdown. I think the peopleshould go to work with black bandsto express their anger and dismay. Weshould also fly black flags on ourvehicles. A city closure only means aholiday for the people while the dailywagers suffer greatly and that is it.The next day nobody remembers any-thing.—Karachi

No access toYouTubeFURQAN BELAL,

Lest we forget, we have not had ac-cess to YouTube for many, manymonths. The popular video sharingsite was made a scapegoat sometimeback and was shut down to the pub-lic, denying them access. We have noaccess to entertainment videos, edu-cational videos and informative docu-mentaries. I really hope the new gov-ernment does something about thisand reverses the decision as soon asit comes into power.—Karachi

Kohistan tragedyM NIBRAS ANCHAN

This is apropos of the tragic incidentin Kohistan in which more than twodozen Pakistan Army soldiers, in-cluding officers, were killed. Besidesexpressing sympathy with the be-reaved families.

Unless there is any operationalcompulsion, the number of soldiersmoving in a single vehicle should bereduced to a certain limit. While mov-ing troops on civilian transport, theremust be a strict scrutiny process tocheck the skill level of the drivers. Itmust be ensured that the drivers sohired for the purpose are fully trainedand completely familiar with theroute. It must be ensured that vehicleshired for the purpose are in full ser-vice condition, as most of the inci-dents occur due to mechanical fail-ure.—Skardu

with a share in all provinces but theperformance of these departments isstill inadequate.Unfortunately, in Pakistan todaypeople are experiencing many prob-lems due to corruption , feudalistichegemony , abuse of powers andlack of political will to solve majorissue of the country.In nutshell, in order to maintain andendure the financial instabilitiesthere is a need to form a planningcommission on water crisis whichshould work on war footing basisand eliminate such growing inten-tions regarding water scarcity . Thiscan only be happen both on indi-vidual and collective basis with thefull fledge support of mass media tocreate awareness among the masses.This can help the entire governmen-tal machinery to overcome the short-age of water audaciously …….

repression of Xinjiang’s Muslims,which provoked a fierce disputewith Turkish Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan just a few yearsago, may preclude the necessarytrust from ever taking root.

Still, China’s inevitable bid forgreater influence in the Middle Eastmeans that countries like India, In-donesia, Japan, South Korea, Tur-key and others will also need to be-come proactive in creating a re-gional security structure that pro-tects their national interests. Theywill need to be clear with them-selves about whether they have themeans to achieve their national se-curity ends. For example, could theyprovide some of the security thatAmerica has long provided to theregion’s Arab states?Such a projection of Asian power— and of Asia’s power struggles —into the Middle East may seem adistant prospect today. But 10 yearsago, so did the possibility of anAmerican disengagement from theregion. The writer is Japan’s former de-fence minister and national securityadviser, was chairwoman of the Lib-eral Democrat Party’s GeneralCounsel. — Courtesy: The JapanTimes

tory – and the soaring inflation rate,which is the highest in the past sixdecades of the country’s existence.Currently, when compared to the Sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of theleast developed parts of the world,that too grew 50% faster than Paki-stan in the last four years! These factsand figures are alarming, for thethinking minds in Pakistan.

We must understand, those whobreak even a tiny law have commit-ted a crime, every time a law is bro-ken the person becomes a biggercriminal. Our country needs top classbrains to bring it back on track, notfakes who are only good at deceiv-ing people around them in particularand the system in general. When suchpeople are put on ministries to takecare of public funds, given publictrust, they misuse those given privi-leges.

Out of the 19 cases pending withthe judiciary, seven cases are ofMNAs, nine cases are of MPAs fromthe Punjab Assembly, two cases ofMPAs from Sindh Assembly and onecase is of an MPA from KP. The sevenmembers of the National Assemblyinclude: Muhammad Jamil Malik(NA-107) BA degree from Univer-sity of Karachi (UoK), YaqoobBizenjo (NA-272) BA from (UoK),Rana Zahid Hussain Khan (NA-166)a degree from University ofBalochistan (UoB), Jawad Hussain(NA-39) BA from UoB, SheikhWaqas Akram (NA-89) a degree from

University of Punjab (UoP) and nowthe A-levels degree by the Cam-bridge University, Liaqat AbbasBhatti (NA-103) a degree from(UoP), Muhammad Akhtar Khadim(188) a degree from UoP.

The two MPAs from Sindh As-sembly include; Jam IkramullahKhan Dharejo (PS-6) BA degreefrom Shah Abdul Latif Universityand Jam Saifullah Khan Dharejo(PS-3) a degree from some foreignuniversity. The one MPA from KPAssembly; Raheem Dad Khan(PF27) BA degree from GomalUniversity. After the degree condi-tion was imposed, most of the poli-ticians from across the country rantowards famous Sindh University,Jamshoro, to “get” one degree.Some 108 degrees out of the totalmore than 1,150 degrees of MPswere obtained from the Universityof Sindh.

The Sindh University adminis-tration remained untouched becauseof powerful political backing. Manyhonest officers did their best duringthe last few years to stand by theprinciples to follow the SupremeCourt judgments in letter and spiritbut corrupt political elite made anexample of such officers and no oneever came to rescue or help suchofficers. The SC must take a seri-ous notice of this grave manipula-tion. An example should be set sothat in future no one dares to repeatsuch an action.

With the former IndianAirforce chief Tyagi under the scanner, for his

role in the choppergate deal, mostdefense procurements over the lastdecade or so, are being carefullyscrutinized by the civilian defenseoffice: “Soldier will you come overhere, we are from the defense of-fice, are you comfortable with yournew set of uniforms?”

“Not really sir, I feel a littlesweaty under the collar, and..”“Sweaty under the collar!” smiledthe civilian from the defense min-istry as he told his colleague to write

Dirty down below..!it down, “Anything else?”

“Sweaty all over sir, when weare carrying them heavy guns andrunning!” “Heavy guns!” said theofficial with even a bigger smile,“I guess we’ve paid for AK 47s,but the purchases must be someold Italian cannons! Anything elsesoldier about these uncomfortableuniforms you are forced to wear?How often do you change them?”

“Once a week sir!” “Once aweek, for crying out loud, imagineevery week you change out of theseuniforms, pathetic!” “Yes, sir, in myfather’s time it was once a lifetime!”

“And now these uniforms onlylast a week before going for wash-ing? Another scam in the making,looks like this will hit the headlinestomorrow!”

And in the Navy mess, another

civilian from the same ministrymoves round trying to listen topieces of conversation to reportback to his boss: “There’s no sodain the bar!” says a sailor. “Is therea shortage of soda sailor?” askedthe civilian official.

“Yes sir, the supplies haven’tcome, so we’ll have to have our poi-son with water!” “That’s terrible isn’tit sailor, I mean you chaps have yourfill of water twenty four seven whenyou sail and now you’re being forcedto drink the same stuff? You think theadmiral has soda at home?”

“I’m sure the admiral has his sodasupply sir!” “Soda scam!” smiled theofficial from the defense ministry, “All the soda in the admiral’s home,it’s getting worse and worse, lookslike army, navy and air-force are allinvolved in some scam or other!”

Just before the start of Parlia-

ment, the defense secretary lookedat his junior, “The opposition par-ties are in for a surprise,” he said,“The defense minister is going toshow them he’s a no scam mongerand he’s investigated and discoveredthe guilty! Have you typed the docu-ments?”

“Yes sir, this thousand page one,is about the Army Uniform Scam,and this thicker one is the SodaScam!” “Excellent,” said the civil-ian official from the defense minis-try, “There is a good chance he maybecome the future prime minister,with his unblemished, untainted,unspoilt profile, the new Mr Clean!”

In the PM’s office a tired manwith a blue turban looked at him-self in the mirror, and whispered, Weare all clean on top but dirty downbelow..!”—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com

Yuriko Koike

Malik Shahan Aslam

Ayesha Zee Khan Email: ayeshazeekhan@live.com

LAHORE: Flowers giving beautiful look near a mosque on Mall Road during pleasant weather after rain.

Airport for his reception andsaid that he was feelinghonoured there after arriving inthe city. He said that he had beena soldier and had taken oath todefend the country no matterwhat price would be paid tohonour that oath but he woulddo it at all cost.

He said that the country andthe people of the country hadsuffered a lot and the poverty,lawlessness and unrest hadgripped the people with severeanguish as compared to his pre-vious tenure when the peoplehad prospered and the povertywas controlled. The country hadtremendous potential and itwould prosper under his dedi-cated and patriotic leadership.

He said that he was caughtwith the acute pain to see themanslaughter in Karachi. Thelights of the city would bebrought back and the city be-longed to Baloch, Sindhi,Mohajir, Bengali, Bihari,Punjabi, Pushtoons, Seraiki and

Pervez Musharraf back homeFrom Page 1

After the meeting, Imransaid the PTI would not make anyalliance with such parties whichhad no principles. He criticisedthe PPP and PMl-N for what healleged having a deal during lastfive years.

Syed Munawar Hassan saidon the occasion that track recordof caretaker PM Mir Hazar KhanKhoso remained zig zag in thepast but expressed the hope thatelections would be held in atransparent way.

Imran also expressed reser-vations over caretaker PM MirHazar Khan Khoso and said wewould monitor his acts.

PTI, Jamaatagree for seatadjustment

From Page 1

LAHORE: Candidates for general elections getting forms from the Provincial Election Commission Office.

Kashmiris. Ion order to make thecity a home of peace and har-mony, people should stop fight-ing with each other.

He said that permission forholding the public gathering atthe Bagh-e Quaid was deliber-ately cancelled on the pretext ofsecurity, which disappointedhim. However, he would soonstart holding public gatheringsacross the city.

He said that in his tenurewhen he had visited the King-dom of Saudi Arabia, he had vis-ited the holy Ka’aba and theshrine of the holy prophetMuhammad (peace be uponhim) in Medina.

The doors of Ka’aba wereopened 6 times for him and thedoors of the shrine of the holyProphet Muhammad (peace beupon him) were also opened forhim. Therefore, those, whocriticised him should learn thathe was as perfect Muslim as anyother.

He said that the APMLwould do the politics for safe-guarding the interest of thecountry and would bring abouta soft revolution in the countryfor the deprived masses.

Pervez Musharraf had ar-rived at the Jinnah InternationalAirport, Karachi at about 1 PMSunday from a chartered flightof the Emirates Airlines.

It took several hours for himto come out of the VIP loungeof the airport due to delay in se-curity clearance. At about 4:30PM, the former President wastaken to a local hotel amid highsecurity of the Pakistan Rang-ers and Police.

The schedule of Musharrafwas not yet made public but theparty sources said that he wouldstay for two days at the hotel andthen would either shift to arelative’s in DHA or wouldleave for Islamabad.

Musharraf had stayedabroad under his self-exile sta-tus for four and a half year.

rejection of nomination paperswill be filed on April 9. Deci-sions on appeals will be an-nounced on April 16 by the tri-bunals.

The candidates can with-draw papers by April 17 anda final list of the candidateswill be issued on April 18.Polling for the 342- memberNational Assembly or LowerHouse of the parliament andfour provincial assemblieswill be held on the same dayon May 11.

The commission said thatthe program will also apply tothe seats reserved for womenand non-Muslims in the Na-tional Assembly and provincialassemblies.

The Election Commissionalso issued the total number ofregistered voters in the countryuntil March 20. All candidateswill have nearly 20 days forelection campaign.

Dozens of major politicaland religious parties are takingpart in the elections.—NNI

the same situation”, he said.Replying to a question

about the volume of his care-taker cabinet, he held the is-sue pre-mature; “however 11-12 ministers would a safe as-sumption”, he deliberated.Replying to another ques-tions, he said that, “we are agreat Nation, which came intobeing to exist, and shall ex-ist”.

He expressed his ignoranceover the issue of MQM’s reser-vations over delimitation pro-cess in Karachi.

Meanwhile official notifica-tion regarding the appointmentof Mir Hazar Khan Khoso as thecaretaker Prime minister hasbeen released by Election Com-mission of Pakistan (ECP).

The notification would beimplemented immediately, andKhoso would be administeredoath as Prime Minister today(Monday).

The notification purportsthat Mir Hazar Khan Khoso hadbeen appointed at his post withmajority approval.

successfully.Later, talking to our corre-

spondent Bacha Khan, Ex-In-formation Minister MianIftikhar Hussain said that ANPif came into power will imple-ment its manifesto in truespirit.—Online

residential quarters of FrontierWorks Organisation (FWO)officials.

The FWO is engaged in sev-eral development projects in thearea.

Most of the security person-nel killed belonged to the Tochiscouts who were deployed forthe security of FWO officials.

Earlier the Inter ServicesPublic Relations (ISPR) hadsaid in a statement that 17 secu-rity personnel had died in theattack.—Agencies

attend today’s (Monday)meeting to guide the Commit-tee whether any change can bebrought in the referred names.

PPP leader ShaukatMehmood Basra said that theCommittee has the full author-ity and some legal points arebeing discussed to finalize therules of procedure.—NNI

manner in accordance with Af-ghan law’.

The U.S. had been sched-uled to hold a ceremony mark-ing the transfer of control twoweeks ago, during Hagel’sfirst visit to Afghanistan asdefense secretary, the reportadded.—Online

Death tollFrom Page 1

Fair electionspriority:KhosoFrom Page 1

ANP announcesmanifesto

From Page 1

Filing ofnomination

papersFrom Page 1

Committee oncaretaker CM

From Page 1

US to transferParwan

detentionfacilityFrom Page 1

LAHORE—PML-Q President,Senator Ch Shujat Hussain andSenior Central leader Ch PervaizElahi have hailed the appointmentof Justice (retd) Mir Hazar KhanKhoso as caretaker prime minis-ter, saying that his appointment willaugur well for democracy in thecountry.

“The caretaker chief ministerin Punjab should also have samecredentials like the caretaker primeminister”,this was stated by thePML-Q leadership while address-ing the media and party ticket as-pirants at the Muslim LeagueHouse here Sunday.

Ch Pervaiz Elahi said thePML-N never respected demo-cratic mandate of other politicalparties, adding that Nawaz League

PML-Q hails Khoso’sappointment

did not believe in democracy.The PML-Q senior central

leader said the PML-Q would sur-prise its political adversaries in thegeneral elections 2013, adding thatthe PML-Q government deliveredmore than the three tenures of thePML-N in Punjab.

He said the PML-Q had al-ways pursued a path of truth andjustice in politics, adding that thePML-Q would fulfil all its prom-ises with the masses like its pasttenures in power.

Elahi said the masses wouldcast their vote keeping in view thepast performance of the govern-ments, urging the media to playits role in this regard.

Talking about achievements ofhis government, he said some 1.4

million lives were saved due to1122 Emergency Service inPunjab, adding that the public ser-vice project was one of the other14 mega projects launched by thePML-Q government in power.

Ch Shujat Hussain said thePML-Q had always stood for jus-tice, fairplay and peace and opposetyranny in all forms, adding thathe did not sign the file to deputePakistani troops in Iraq as primeminister.

PML-Q secretary generalMushahid Hussain Syed andKamil Ali Agha also spoke whichwas attended by other leaders anda large of workers, includingMoonis Elahi, Ch Zaheeruddin,Tariq Bashir Cheema, NasrullahDareshak and others.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Interfaith LeagueAgainst Poverty (I-LAP) PeaceYouth Club members distributedEaster Gifts among over 500Christian children of JosephColony here Sunday.

The children were given“Shoe Boxes” filled with EasterGifts, with a concept to utilisethese boxes as containers for car-rying the gifts includingcolouring books and pencils,other stationery items, candies,crisps, biscuits, Nimko and fruitjuices and hygiene items such asface towels, shampoo, soaps,combs and clips. The I-LAPPeace Youth Club’s membersaging between 14 and 25 hadraised funds at their own topresent the Easter gifts. Smallgames were also organised for thechildren and special prizes were

Nawaz greets Christian communityon ‘Palm Sunday’ festival

Easter gifts distributed amongJoseph Colony children

awarded to participants.On this occasion, the I-LAP

Chairman Sajid Ishaq said thatyouth should pay special attentionto their education so that theycould help in building Pakistan ac-cording to the vision of the QuaidMohammad Ali Jinnah. He urgedthe children to learn about civiceducation and be aware of theirrights and duties to become ex-emplary citizens of Pakistan.

The I-LAP Executive Direc-tor Nazia Ansari wished the par-ticipants a Happy Easter and saidthe motto of I-LAP Peace YouthClub was “Sharing is Caring”,and the gifts were being pre-sented to the children of JosephColony to share the spirit of Eas-ter to make their Christian breth-ren happy and smiling.

She asked the children to bekind to others and respect theirelders and not to be depressed by

the unfortunate incident but tomake it their strength to createeven better lifestyle than beforebecause God helps those whohelp themselves.

Meanwhile, President, Paki-stan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N), Nawaz Sharif Sundaygreeted the Christian communityon the eve of “Palm Sunday” aspart of Easter festival.

In a statement, the PML-NChief expressed that his party hasalways been prioritized the issuesof all minorities including Chris-tian community, as they playedpivotal role in the developmentand progress of the country.

Nawaz Sharif further saidthat if his party voted power,then the PML-N would workwholeheartedly for the better-ment of the minorities and theywould also be taken on boardin all affairs of the country.

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—A screeningprogramme is being started in 36districts of Punjab to detectchildhood tuberculosis. Earlierthis programme was beingimplemented only in 12 districts.Pakistan is on fifth in the worldaccording to ratio of TB diseaseand more than four lakh patientsare being included every year.

This was disclosed by Pro-vincial Coordinator of Provin-cial Tuberculoses Programme,Punjab Health Department Dr.Drakshan Badar while giving abriefing to media representa-tives on World TB Day, here to-day. This consultative meetingand press briefing was arrangedwith the collaboration of anNGO Mercy Corps and GlobalFund which are working for pre-venting tuberculoses disease.

Dr. Drakshan Badar toldthat now the TB patient has totake medicines only six monthswithout any break which is be-ing given to the patient directlyunder DOTS programme.

She said that the number ofsuch TB patients is increasingwho do not complete their treat-ment due to which this diseasebecomes more complicated andfatal. She stressed upon the me-dia to create awareness amongthe people that the TB patientsshould continue the medicinestill complete recovery.

Dr. Drakshan disclosed thatfree medicines are being pro-vided to the TB patients underPunjab TB Control Programmein hospitals and health centersthroughout the province includ-ing Ghulab Devi hospital withthe cooperation of Merci Corpsand Global Fund.

TB screeningprogramme being

started in 36 districts

6,000 measlescases in Punjab

in 4 monthsLAHORE—Over 6,000 cases ofmeasles were reported in fourmonths in different parts ofPunjab, mostly in Lahore, dur-ing the current surveillancedrive.

This was stated by DirectorHealth Services for EPI Punjab,Dr Tanveer Ahmed while talk-ing to APP here on Sunday.

Sixty to 70 patients ofmeasles are being reported ev-ery day in different parts of theprovince, he added.

He said that 19 deaths ofchildren had been reported sofar including in Gujranwala,Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan,Kasur and Lahore district. Oninvestigation, it was found thatin some cases babies were vac-cinated like a boy inGujranwala but due someother reasons, their immunitycould not develope, he said.—APP

CM takes noticeof deletionsin 10th class

syllabusSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhammad ShahbazSharif has taken strict notice ofthe deletions made in 10th classsyllabus and directed the SchoolDepartment and Punjab Text-book Board to immediately re-store the deleted items in thesyllabus.

A spokesman of the Punjabgovernment has said that theChief Minister has also consti-tuted a four-member commit-tee comprising of SeniorMember Board of Revenue,Chairman Chief Minister’s In-spection Team, ChairmanPunjab Education EndowmentFund Dr. Amjad Saqib andhead of Islamiat Department ofPunjab University to examinethe process that has led tochanges / deletions in the syl-labus.

Healthprofessionals urgedto keep themselves

hale and heartySTAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Former test crick-eter Imtiaz Ahmend has saidthat people working for healthcare of others also need to keepthemselves hale and hearty soas to fight forcefully againstdiseases.

For this purpose, doctors,medical students and paramed-ics should enthusiastically par-ticipate in sports and otherhealthy activities.

UN’s Myanmar envoy visitscity wracked by violence

MEIKHTILA—The top U.N.envoy to Myanmar on Sundaytoured a central city wracked bythe country’s worst Buddhist-Muslim violence this year, call-ing on the government to pun-ish those responsible for a trag-edy that left dozens of corpsespiled in the streets, some of themcharred beyond recognition.

Vijay Nambiar, the U.N.secretary-general’s special ad-viser on Myanmar, also visitedsome of the nearly 10,000people driven from their homesafter sectarian unrest shook thecity of Meikhtila for severaldays this week. Most of the dis-placed are minority Muslims,who appeared to have sufferedthe brunt of the violence asarmed Buddhist mobs roamedcity.

Nambiar said he was en-couraged to learn that some in-dividuals in both communitieshad bravely helped each otherand that religious leaders werenow advocating peace. He saidthe people he spoke to believethe violence “was the work ofoutsiders,” but he gave no de-tails.

“There is a certain degree offear and anxiety among thepeople, but there is no hatred,”Nambiar said after visiting bothgroups on Sunday and promis-ing the United Nations wouldprovide as much help as it canto get the city back on its feet.“They feel a sense of commu-nity and that it is a very goodthing because they have workedtogether and lived together.”

But he added: “It is impor-tant to catch the perpetrators. Itis important that they be caughtand punished.”

Nambiar’s visit came oneday after the army took controlof the city to enforce a tensecalm after President Thein Seinordered a state of emergencyhere.

The government has put theofficial death toll at 32, and lateSunday state television reportedthat authorities had detained 35people allegedly involved in ar-son and violence in Meikhtilaand the townships of Yamethinand Lewei, which are about 64kilometers (40 miles) and 130kilometers (80 miles) south ofMeikhtila, respectively.

The report said that a groupof people burned down amosque and several buildingsearly Saturday in Lewei, andthat a mosque and 50 homeswere also burned in Yamethinthe same day.

The bloodshed marked thefirst sectarian unrest to spreadinto Myanmar’s heartland sincetwo similar episodes rockedwestern Rakhine state last year.It is the latest challenge to effortsto reform the Southeast Asiancountry after the long-ruling mili-tary ceded power two years agoto a civilian government led byretired army officers.

There are concerns the vio-lence could spread, and thebloodshed has raised questionsabout the government’s failureto rein in anti-Muslim sentimentin a predominantly Buddhist

country where even monks havearmed themselves and taken ad-vantage of newfound freedomsto stage anti-Muslim rallies.

In Meikthila, at least fivemosques were set ablaze fromWednesday to Friday. The ma-jority of homes and shopsburned in the city also belongedto Muslims, and most of the dis-placed are Muslim.

During his trip, Nambiarvisited some of the thousands ofMuslim residents at a city sta-dium, where they have huddledsince fleeing their homes. Helater visited around 100 Bud-dhists at a local monastery whohave also been displaced.

No new violence was re-ported overnight in Meikhtila,but residents remained anxious.

“The city is calm and someshops have reopened, but manystill live in fear. Some still darenot return to their homes,” saidWin Htein, an opposition law-maker from the city.

Myanma Ahlin, a state-runnewspaper, carried a statementfrom Buddhist, Muslim, Chris-tian and Hindu leaders express-ing sorrow for the loss of lifeand property and calling onBuddhist monks to help easetensions.

“We would like to call uponthe government to provide suf-ficient security and to protect thedisplaced people and to investi-gate and take legal measures asurgently as possible,” the state-ment from the Interfaith Friend-ship Organization said.—Agen-cies

Palestinians cool to partialsettlement freeze

RAMALLAH—A senior Pales-tinian official on Sunday re-jected the idea of a partial Israelisettlement freeze as a way ofrestarting peace talks, a sign oftough times ahead for theObama administration’s new at-tempt to bring the sides together.

U.S. Secretary of State JohnKerry met separately late Satur-day with Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas and IsraeliPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu to talk about endinga deadlock of more than fouryears over settlements.

Abbas says he won’t returnto negotiations without an Israeliconstruction freeze, arguing thatIsrael’s building on war-wonland pre-empts the outcome oftalks on a border between Israeland a future state of Palestine.Abbas last held talks withNetanyahu’s predecessor in late2008.

Netanyahu has refused tohalt construction and insteadcalls for an immediate return tonegotiations. President BarackObama sided with Israel’s posi-tion during a visit to the regionlast week, saying the Palestin-ians should return to talks to sortout the settlement issue.

The U.S. has not spokenpublicly about possible compro-

mises in recent days, thoughthere has been some speculationit would propose a partial con-struction stop in the West Bankheartland, east of Israel’s sepa-ration barrier.

Palestinian negotiator SaebErekat said Sunday that the Pal-estinians do not seek a confron-tation with the Obama adminis-tration, but appeared to suggestthat nothing short of a full freezewill bring them back to nego-tiations.

The Palestinians want astate in the West Bank, Gaza andeast Jerusalem, areas Israel cap-tured in 1967. Since that war,Israel has built dozens of settle-ments — considered illegal bymuch of the world and nowhome to more than half a mil-lion Israelis — in the West Bankand east Jerusalem.

Much of the constructiontakes place in so-called “settle-ment blocs” close to Israel andin east Jerusalem. Israel’s sepa-ration barrier cuts off eastJerusalem and some of thesettlement blocs from the rest ofthe West Bank.

Asked if Abbas would ac-cept a partial freeze, east of thebarrier, Erekat told Voice of Pal-estine radio: “Absolutely not. Itis rejected.”

“First of all, 90 percent ofthe building in settlements isgoing on in the blocs,” he said.“If we accepted that, we wouldbe committing two crimes. Thefirst is legalizing what is illegal,which is settlement construc-tion, and the second is accept-ing the Israeli policy (of) dicta-tion.”

Israel agreed to a 10-monthslowdown in settlement con-struction early in Obama’s firstterm, allowing talks to resumebriefly in 2010. The talks fizzledout after Netanyahu refused toextend the slowdown, whichhalted new housing starts butallowed previously started con-struction to continue.

Israeli Justice Minister TzipiLivni, who will oversee any nego-tiations with the Palestinians, said itremained to be seen what wouldbring about a new round of talks.“We are after four years of stale-mate, of distrust, and we need to seehow we restart, what we will dis-cuss,” she told Army Radio.

Erekat said the Palestinianswould wait for two to threemonths to see if the Obama ad-ministration can come up witha way out of the deadlock. “Wewant to cooperate with the U.S.administration, not clash withit,” he said.—AP

Pakistan lose ODI series2-3 to South Africa

BIPIN DANI

OBSERVER

CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI—The momentRavinder Jadeja startedbegging wickets inAustralia’s second inningson Sunday, the family wascertain about India victory.

“India’s victory againstAustralia and that too with4-0 lead is the most satisfy-ing day of my life”, Jadeja’ssister, Naina, a nurse byprofession, said over tele-phone from Jamnagar.

“I am happy for mybrother winning the Man ofthe match award”.

“This is the second

Second happiest day inRavinder Jadeja family

happiest day in my life. WhenIndia won the Under-19World Cup in Malaysia in2008, we were happy on theday. My brother was also amember of the squad then”.

“I am extremely excitedfor two Saurashtra players(Cheteshwar Pujara andRavinder Jadeja) who havemade proud of us”, sheadded.

“After winning the thirdTest in Mohali, the playerswere confident of 4-0 win.They were made to under-stand that this opporunity tobeat whitewash the Austra-lian team would not comeeasily”, she further added.

For the Jadeja family, this

was a dream they had beenliving with ever since“Bapu” (as affectionatelyRavindra is being called)started to take cricket seri-ously.

Sadly, his mother (Lataben) is not alive to see himwin for India. She passedaway in 2005. His fatherAnirudhsinh Jadeja used tobe the watchman at a ship-ping complex in his city.

His State and Indiateam mate, CheteshwarPujara got married recently,but the family has no suchimmediate plan for “Bapu”.Let him concentrate andplay more game for Indiafirst”, the sister signed off.

BENONI—After sufferingfrom a humiliating whitewashin the three-Test series, Paki-stan also lost the five-matchODI series 2-3 when SouthAfrica defeated them by sixwickets in the fifth and finalOne-day International here atthe Willowmoore Park onSunday.

Chasing an easy target of206, South Africa completedtheir victory with 36 balls tospare.

Captain AB de Villiers wasthe main architect of the suc-cessful chase with a brilliantunbeaten 95.

South Africa began ten-tatively against Pakistan’sopening bowlers, withJunaid Khan once again trou-bling Amla. He reviewed anlbw appeal against him in hisfirst over but it had pitchedoutside leg. The first run offthe bat only came in the thirdover when Amla steeredMohammed Irfan down tothird man.

Quinton de Kock, appear-ing for the first time in theseries, had to deal with a bar-rage of short-pitched deliv-eries from Irfan. His frustra-tion grew with the lack of run-

scoring opportunities andafter 25 minutes he tried toforce Junaid through the offside without moving his feet.The result was a splayedmiddle and off stump as hechopped on and failed tobring an improvement toSouth Africa’s openingstand.

Amla and Colin Ingramappeared more assured to-gether. Ingram seemed tohave shelved all memories ofhis first-baller in Durban anddrove with authority as soonas he arrived at the crease.Irfan was on the receivingend of two of his shots andhe took South Africa to theend of the Powerplay on 33for 1, almost level terms withPakistan who were 31 for 2 intheir first ten overs.

Misbah-ul-Haq intro-duced spin immediately afterthe fielding restrictionsended and was rewarded in-stantaneously. Ingram wastoo late in cuttingMohammad Hafeez away andending up steering the ballinto his stumps.

Pakistan could have dealtSouth Africa a treble-blowwhen Junaid drew a thick

outside edge from de Villierswhen he was on one, butYounis Khan at first slipspilled a regulation chance.That was a mistake that Paki-stan could not afford to make,especially while defending asmall total.

De Villiers and Amla areSouth Africa’s most danger-ous pair and they combinedagain. In the same over thathe was dropped, de Villierscracked Junaid through thecovers. He brought out thereverse-sweep against SaeedAjmal.

As he has done through-out this series, de Villiers ledfrom the front. Amla was athis side but had a toughertime. He could not pick Ajmalwell and even struggledagainst Shahid Afridi. Sucha struggle overwhelmed evenAmla. His scratchy 22 off 65balls ended when he skiedIrfan while going for the pull.Shoaib Malik took the catchcoming in from midwicket.

With de Villiers still at thecrease, Pakistan’s sighs ofrelief were not too big be-cause they know they willhave to remove him to takethe game down to the wire.

Pakistan can distil thereason for their below-parperformance with the bat toone over, the 35th. In thespace of four balls, theyhanded South Africa an ob-vious advantage whenShoaib Malik and ShahidAfridi succumbed softly.They abandoned the captainand lower-order to nothingmore than hope which sunklike a ship made of nothingbut lead.

In gifting fielders withcatches, Malik and Afridi alsoerased the work done byKamran Akmal, Younis Khan,and Misbah-ul-Haq in theonly two partnerships of sub-stance in the innings and leftthe lower order with toomuch to do. They pair ’sshortcoming had nothing todo with the quality of thebowling but the same cannot

be said for the rest of thewickets.

Dale Steyn and LonwaboTsotsobe opened the inningsthreateningly and returned tocomplete testing spells. RyanMcLaren’s variations wereon display again and despitea shaky start, Morne Morkelmade a decent comeback asAB de Villiers manned hisbowlers with more suretythan before on a pitch thatdisplayed inconsistentbounce.

Steyn delivered a classicdelivery to removeMohammad Hafeez for thesixth time on this tour andplant the seed that may makeMisbah question his deci-sion to bat first. Hafeez wassquared up by one thatangled in to him and thenstraightened. He had to playat it and got an edge that flewto second slip where ColinIngram reacted well to takethe catch that gave Steyn his100th ODI wicket.

Tsotsobe applied pres-sure from his end with lengthdeliveries on and around offstump. He kept at it whileMorkel extracted awkwardextra bounce to rattle ImranFarhat, who eventuallyedged a Tsotsobe deliverythrough to de Villiers.

An under-pressureYounis had Kamran to thankfor buying him some timeand the pair built the beststand of the innings.Kamran peppered the areathrough point frequentlyand Younis settled with astunning cover drive offMcLaren. He also broughtup his 7,000th ODI run in thisinnings and the two put Pa-kistan in a good position toup the ante.

Then, the dominoes be-gan to fall. Having slog-swept Robin Peterson for sixsuccessfully and with his hishalf-century looming,Kamran tried it again but top-edged the ball. McLarenbackpedalled well to take itover his head.—AFP

Pakistan innings:Imran Farhat c de Villiersb Tsotsobe ..................... 13Hafeez c Ingram b Steyn .. 5Kamran b Peterson ........ 48Younis b Behardien ...... 29Misbah b McLaren ....... 24Malik c Behardienb McLaren ...................... 28Afridi b McLaren ............ 0Wahab Riaz run out ...... 12Saeed Ajmal b Morkel .... 1Junaid Khan b Morkel .. 25Irfan not out ..................... 4Extras: (lb 4, w 11, nb 1) 16Total: (all out) .............. 205Fall of wickets 1-11, 2-31, 3-97, 4-104, 5-151, 6-151, 7-161,8-162, 9-189, 10-205Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WSteyn ................... 10-0-33-1Tsotsobe ............ 10-2-42-1

M Morkel .......... 9.1-0-33-2McLaren ............. 10-0-32-3RJ Peterson .......... 7-1-51-1F Behardien .......... 3-0-10-1South Africa innings:Amla c Malik b Irfan ..... 22Q de Kock b Junaid ........ 3Ingram b Hafeez ............ 15de Villiers not out .......... 95F Behardien b Irfan ....... 35DA Miller not out ......... 20Extras: (b 6, lb 5, w 7) .... 18Total: (4 wickets) ......... 208Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-34, 3-83, 4-170Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WIrfan ..................... 10-1-38-2Junaid Khan ......... 7-1-30-1Hafeez ................... 4-0-23-1Riaz ........................ 7-0-44-0Saeed Ajmal ....... 10-1-34-0Afridi ..................... 6-0-28-0

BENONI: Junaid Khan of Pakistan bowled Quinton de Kock early in South Africa’s chase in 5th ODI.

WAH CANTT: Lt Gen Muhammad Ahsan Mahmood, Chairman POF Board, giving awayvolleyball championship trophy to SAA and Brass Mills.

SAA & BrassMills win POF

Volleyball C’shipSPORTS REPORTER

WAH CANTT—SAA & BrassMills won the final match ofVolleyball in 45th POF InterFactories Sport Competi-tions by defeating AA Fac-tory by 3-0 which were heldat POF Sports Complex.

Liaqat Ali Khan of SAA& Brass Mills was declaredman of the tournament whileYasir Rahman was man of thematch. Lt Gen MuhammadAhsan Mahmood, ChairmanPOF Board gave away tro-phies and prizes to the win-ner players. Addressing onthis occasion Chairman POFBoard said that sports com-petition taught discipline andhelped in building the char-acter of youths and encour-age them to meet the chal-lenges of future. POF Admin-istration is providing exem-plary sports facilities to theresidents of Wah Cantt andyouth of the city should getbenefit from these facilities.

POF Chairman an-nounced a cash prize of ru-pees one lac for POF SportsControl Board on making ex-cellent arrangements for thissports competition. EarlierChairman POF Board inaugu-rated Fitness Centerequipped with latest facilitiesand Synthetic Court of vol-leyball.

In the concluding cer-emony, President POF SportsControl Board Mr.Muhammad Rizwan in hiswelcoming remarks thankedChairman POF Board for tak-ing keen interest in the sportsactivities and up-gradation ofsports facilities.

Vice President POFSports Control Board Col (R)Inam Ullah Khan presentedthe tournament report andtold that this Sports Galacontinued for the last twomonths in which more thanfifteen hundred players par-ticipated.

India makeclean sweep

against AustraliaDELHI—India defeatingAustralia by six wickets inthe fourth Test here at theFeroz Shah Kotla ground onSunday, made a clean sweep4-0.

This was for the first timein their Test history that In-dia recorded four wins in aseries.

Chasing 155 to win on thethird day, India completed thevictory for the loss of fourwickets.

Cheteshwar Pujara, open-ing the innings in the ab-sence of Shikhar Dhawanand fighting a finger injuryof his own, led the chase withhis second fifty - 82 off 92balls.—AFP

AUCKLAND—New Zealandimploded at the start of theirsecond innings as they setout to build on a daunting239-run first innings lead onthe third day of the final Testagainst England on Sunday.

At stumps at Eden Parkin the series-deciding finalTest, New Zealand were threefor 35, leading by 274 afterdismissing England for 204.

Opener Peter Fulton, whoscored his maiden Test cen-tury in the first innings, wasunbeaten on 14 which in-cluded three boundaries,with Dean Brownlie on 13.

In a chaotic final sessionof play, eight wickets fell for39 runs as the England tailcollapsed and the NewZealand top order followedsuit, increasing the chancesof a decision in the dead-locked series.

The rain-abbreviated firsttwo Tests were drawn butonly fine weather is forecastfor Auckland over the nexttwo days. New Zealand de-cided not to enforce the fol-low on after ripping out theEngland tail after tea as theygambled on bowling last ona deteriorating wicket.

But the strategy ap-peared to backfire as HamishRutherford fell on the thirdball he faced to start a col-lapse that reduced NewZealand to eight for three af-ter eight overs before Fultonand Brownlie steered themthrough to stumps.

The New Zealand batting

New Zealand implodeafter skittling England

failure came after their strikebowlers Tim Southee andTrent Boult had rippedthrough the England tail, tak-ing the last five wickets for31 runs.

The eight dismissals af-ter tea occurred in the spaceof 18 overs as the wicketwhich supported the NewZealand batsmen to a firstinnings 443 began to showassistance for the bowlers.

For New Zealand, left-armer Boult produced hisbest Test figures of six for 68while Southee finished withthree for 44.

Broad had the remarkablefigures of two for seven fromseven overs for England.

He removed Rutherfordfor a duck with a rising deliv-

ery that was flicked to IanBell in the gully and trappedRoss Taylor (three) leg beforewicket.

Kane Williamson hadscored one run from 11 ballswhen he chopped a waywarddelivery from James Ander-son on to the stumps

England, who started theday at 50 for two, staged twospectacular collapses in aninnings that was boosted bythe single partnership ofMatt Prior and Joe Root.

They lost three earlywickets for 22 runs as NickCompton (13), Bell (17) andJonny Bairstow (3) struggledto cope with the morningswing generated by Southeeand Boult and all fell leg be-fore wicket.—AFP

N Zealand 1st innings:443England 1st innings:Cook c Watling b Boult .. 4Compton lbw b Southee13Trott lbw b Boult ........... 27Bell lbw b Southee ........ 17Root b Southee ............. 45Bairstow lbw b Boult ...... 3Prior b Wagner .............. 73Broad b Boult ................ 16Finn c Taylor b Boult ...... 0Anderson b Boult ........... 4Panesar not out ............... 0Extras: (w 2) ...................... 2Total: (all out) .............. 204Fall of wickets 1-8, 2-44, 3-61, 4-65, 5-72, 6-173, 7-200,8-200, 9-204, 10-204Bowling: ........... O-M-R-W

Boult ................... 25-9-68-6Southee ........... 23.2-9-44-3Wagner ............... 15-3-36-1Martin ............... 26-10-56-0New Zealand 2nd innings:Fulton not out ............... 14Rutherford c Bell b Broad0Williamson b Anderson . 1Taylor lbw b Broad ......... 3Brownlie not out ........... 13Extras: (lb 4) ..................... 4Total: (3 wickets) ........... 35Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-5, 3-8Bowling: ........... O-M-R-WAnderson ............. 9-6-11-1Broad ...................... 7-4-7-2Finn ......................... 4-1-9-0Panesar ................... 2-2-0-0Trott ........................ 1-0-4-0

DELHI: MS Dhoni with theBorder-Gavaskar trophy.

PESHAWAR—The 15th editionof the Chief of Air Staff (CAS)Junior Squash Championship,pre-qualifying rounds, underway here at PAF Hashim KhanSquash Complex under theaegis of PAF Sports ControlBoard on Sunday.

Officer Commander (OC)PAF Sports Control BoardWing Commander Ijaz Khanalso paid a visit to the PAFHashim Khan Squash Complexand inspected the arrange-ments so far made for thesmooth sailing of the Champi-onship.

Former World ChampionQamar Zaman, Vice PresidentPakistan Squash Federation,former Jansher Khan coachMehboob Khan, officials, play-ers were also present on thisoccasion.

OC Wing Commander IjazKhan said that all arrange-ments have been made for hold-ing the event in befitting man-ners. He said a record 130 play-ers from across the country aretaking part in the Champion-

CAS Junior Squash C’shippre-qualifying round begins

ship in five different compris-ing Under-11, Under-13, Un-der-15, Under-17 and Under-19.

He said after the pre-quali-fying and qualifying rounds,the main round of the Champi-onship will start from March25 and will continue till March29. He said Officer Command-ing Air Headquarter PeshawarAir Commodore Ghulam QadirLodhi will grace the occasionas chief guest and will formallyinaugurate the Championship.

Qamar Zaman on this oc-casion, lauded the efforts ofthe Pakistan Squash Federa-tion (PSF) for taking promptaction in promotion of squashin the country.

He said PSF is providingall out facilities to the playersand hopefully better resultwould come up in future. Hesaid President PakistanSquash Federation is very keenpromoter of squash. He saidthe courts of the PAF HashimKhan Squash Complex havebeen upgraded according to

the international standard.Ali Bokhari of Punjab is

top seed of Under-19 cat-egory, followed by HammadHamid of Punjab, Ihsan Ayazand Ahmad Ali of Punjabhave seeded in U-17, AliKiramat of PAF and FaizanKhan of PAF seeded in U-15,Abbas Zeb of PAF and AonAbbas of Punjab have seededin U-13 while Haris of Punjaband Zeeshan Malik of KP havebeen seeded in U-11 category.In the pre-qualifying round U-19 category MehmoodMehboob beat Abbas Ahmadby 3-0, Adil Faqir beat M. Ayazby 3-0, Arif Gul beat Bilal Afzalby 3-0, Aqib Zeeb beat ShoaibAhmad by 3-1, Rizwan Gul KPbeat Mansoor Jan KP by 3-0,Farhan Ahmad KP beatNaveed Khan KP 3-0. In theU-17 Shehzad beat ZainRehman by 3-0, Arsalan beatAbdul Ihsan by 3-1, UsmanKhalid beat Taimur by 3-0,Sumaid Rashid beat Usman by3-0, Waqas Khan beat NasirKhan by 3-0.—APP National cricket

one-day cuptrophy shared

ISLAMABAD—The final of theFaysal Bank One Day Cupbetween Lahore Lions andKarachi Zebras was aban-doned due to rain with thewinner’s trophy being sharedby the two sides.

Only 53 deliveries werepossible with Lions making37 for one. Captain Azhar Aliwas 13 not out with RummanRaees claiming one for 15,re-ported PTV.

The prize money of Rs750,000 was shared betweenthe two teams. SohaibMaqsood of Multan Tigerswas awarded as best bats-man and took home Rs50,000,while Sialkot Stallions’Bilawal Bhatti was declaredthe best bowler.—APP

Election TribunalformedRAWALPINDI—An ElectionTribunal to hear the petitionsagainst the decisions of Return-ing Officers has been formed inRawalpindi division. The tribu-nal is comprised of Justice RaufAhmed Sheikh ad JusticeMamoon-ur-Rasheed of LahoreHigh Court (LHC) Rawalpindibench. It will hear cases fromRawalpindi, Jhelum, Chakwaland Attock districts ofRawalpindi division. The tribu-nal will be functional from to-day (Monday, March 25) toApril 16.—INP

Irfan Magsi, sisterjoin PML-NTANDO ALLAHYAR—FormerSindh Assembly member IrfanGul Magsi and her sisterformer district Nazim RahilaMagsi announced to join Pa-kistan Muslim League-Nawazon Sunday. Mugsi announcedto contest election from NA223 and PS 52.—NNI

Balloon vendershot deadFAISALABAD—A balloonvender was shot dead over de-manding price in CityTandlianwala police station lim-its. According to police, Owaisof Chak No 418-GB purchaseda balloon from Niaz of Chak No177-GB but did not pay him itsprice. To which, the vender de-manded money but the pur-chaser got infuriated and afterexchanging hot words openedfire on Niaz. As a result, he diedon the spot while the accusedfled. —APP

EC officeremains openMULTAN—An office of theElection Commission remainedopen on Sunday as the processof obtaining and filing nomina-tion papers for general election-2013 has been begun here. Dis-trict Election Officer ShiekhZahid Iqbal talking to APP in-formed that election commis-sion had completed all arrange-ments for holding free, fair andtransparent elections. He addedthat candidates had started ob-taining nomination papers fromthe office and they were alsoprovided guidance related tonomination papers. He said theEC had complete coordinationwith the district administrationfor security measures at pollingstations. —APP

PPP finalises 7candidatesLAHORE—The PPP hasfinalised names of candidatesfor seven constituencies of thecity for the upcoming elections.The name of Senior PPP leaderSyed Asif Hashmi has beenfinalised for NA- 118, PPPPunjab finance secretaryAurang Zeb Barki will contestelection form NA-121, PPPLahore president former federalminister Samina Khalid Ghurkihas been nominated candidatefor NA-130.—APP

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Muttahida QaumiMovement took to streets withthe people of the city against thedecision of the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan for re-defining theelectoral constituencies in the me-tropolis.

In this regard, the MQM lead-ers along with a large number ofpeople from different walks of lifestaged a protest at the historicalmonument of three swords inClifton.

The MQM spokespersonWasay Jalil while addressing theparticipants of the protest said thatthe MQM and the people of thecity had rejected the decision ofthe ECP for carrying out the pro-cess of delimitation of 3 national

assembly and 8 provincial assem-bly electoral constituencies.

He said that the MQM Sena-tor Barrister Farogh Naseemwould file a petition in the SindhHigh Court against the decisionof the ECP for the delimitationprocess on 11 electoral constitu-encies on behalf of the MQM Co-Ordination Committee DeputyConvener Dr Farooq Sattar.

He said that ECP’s decisionwas a conspiracy to divide the votebank of the MQM and was tanta-mount to insulting the public man-date. The participants of the pro-test had held placards in theirhands that carried slogans such as,“Delimitation in Karachi unac-ceptable”, “Stop conspiringagainst the public mandate”,“Give the Karachiites their due

rights”, Take back the decision ofthe delimitation in Karachi”.

Jalil said that only 47 dayswere remaining in holding of thegeneral elections in the countrybut the ECP was carrying out theprocess of delimitation in the me-tropolis, which was a conspiracyto divide the vote bank of theMQM.

He said that why the ECP wascarrying out the process of thedelimitation only in Karachi. If thedelimitation was unavoidable thenthe ECP should carry out the pro-cess across the country and be-fore carrying out the process ofthe delimitation, the ECP shouldconduct the census, which wasa constitutional requirement forthe delimitation of the electoralconstituencies.

MQM asks ECP to withdraw decisionof delimitation in 11 constituencies

Kerry warnsIraq on Iran

flights to SyriaBAGHDAD—The U.S. has madeclear that Iraq shouldn’t allowIran to use its airspace to shipweapons and fighters to Syria,U.S. Secretary of State JohnKerry told reporters Sundayduring an unannounced trip toBaghdad.

Following private discus-sions with Iraqi Prime Minis-ter Nouri al-Maliki, Kerry saidthe two had a “very spirited dis-cussion” on the subject of Ira-nian overflights. The U.S. be-lieves the Iranian shipments areaiding Syrian President BasharAssad and undermining West-ern-backed opposition groups.

“I made it very clear that forthose of us who are engaged inan effort to see President Assadstep down ... anything that sup-ports President Assad is prob-lematic,” Kerry said.

Kerry also said that U.S.lawmakers and the Americanpeople are “increasinglywatching what Iraq is doingand wondering how it is a part-ner.”

In the absence of a completeban on flights, the U.S. would atleast like the planes to land andbe inspected in Iraq to ensure thatthey are carrying humanitariansupplies.

Former Secretary of StateHillary Rodham Clinton secureda pledge from Iraq to inspect theflights last year, but since thenonly two aircraft have beenchecked by Iraqi authorities, ac-cording to U.S. officials.—AP

Landslidingdisconnects rural

areas fromMuzaffarabad

MUZAFFARABAD—Rainfallacross the country and AzadKashmir has given way tolandsliding as a result of whichroads have been blocked and therural areas have been discon-nected from the city.

According to details,Neelum Highway, and JhelumHighway have been blocked atcertain places due to landsliding.In addition, Muzaffarabad-Rawalpindi Road remainedclosed at Kohala for four days,and has not been reopened tillnow. The travelers and NHAare helpless with regard to thewhole scenario.—Online

BAGHDAD—Pakistan and Iraqhave agreed in principle to signsoon an agreement to enhancetheir defence cooperation, aswell as further consolidatingdiplomatic and trade ties in theareas of mutual interest.

Under the agreement, likelyto be signed with the installationof new government in Pakistan,Iraq’s armed forces personnelincluding those from Air Forceand Navy will be given trainingby the Pakistani side, said ShahM. Jamal, Pakistan ambassadorin Baghdad.

It will also include partici-pation in each other’s militaryexercises and exchange of vis-its by delegations and war-ships.The ambassador told the visit-ing Pakistani media delegationthat they have recently offeredto train 35 Iraqi pilots in the PAF

Academy Risalpur, in batches of12 officers per year.

Pakistan and Iraq will alsosign soon four other agreementswhich will give boost to theirtrade and economic ties, he saidadding a ministerial meeting isalso expected soon to reviewand strengthen our partnership.Ambassador Jamal expressedthe hope that relations between thetwo countries will be moving fastin all areas of mutual interest, withthe restoration of peace in Iraq.They will also sign an agreementfor establishment of Pakistan Con-sultation mechanism between theministries of foreign affairs, headded. He said he was putting allpossible efforts to strengthen bi-lateral ties, especially enhancingour economic and trade interac-tion both at private and publiclevel.—INP

Pak, Iraq to sign defencecooperation agreement

KABUL—Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai will fly to Qatarwithin days to discuss peace withthe Taliban and open the politi-cal office for the group, Karzai’soffice said Sunday.

Karzai will also use the visitto further Afghanistan-Qatar re-lations and meet the country’sofficials, Karzai’s spokesmanAimal Faizi said.

The Taliban office has beenplanned for some time and wasformally acknowledged as a stepforward for peace negotiationsduring the UK, Afghanistan andPakistan trilateral summit threemonths ago. “President Karzai’strip is the result of an invitationfrom the Qatari Emir and will in-volve discussions about mutualcooperation and the (Taliban)peace process”, Afghan ForeignMinistry spokesman JananMosazai said at a press confer-ence on Sunday. After the UKsummit, Karzai ordered Afghanofficials to talks to Qatar aboutopening the office and signing anagreement with the country.

Karzai’s trip comes after re-cent speeches where he accusedthe US of holding secret talkswith the Taliban without Afghaninvolvement. The new US De-fence Secretary Chuck Hagel,

who was in Kabul at the time,dismissed Karzai’s accusations.And the Taliban has denied anytalks with the US since last year.

Around 18 Taliban memberswho have shown a desire to ne-gotiate with the Afghan govern-ment or join the peace processhave recently been killed.

“Over the past month, a num-ber of Taliban who were wantingto join the peace process and hadmaintained relations with the Af-ghan government and High PeaceCouncil were recently caught andput in prison, and about 17 or 18of them were killed after being tor-tured,” said Aimal Faizi, blamingoutsiders.“The peace process isbeing sabotaged and it will con-tinue to be sabotaged. Some coun-tries do not want the process tobe carried out,” he added.

The High Peace Council saidthe deaths and arrests are a signof the disarray of the peace pro-cess both inside and outside Af-ghanistan, warning that the disor-der will end up harming thosecausing it.

“President Karzai’s trip is theresult of an invitation from theQatari Emir and will involvediscussions about mutual coop-eration and the Taliban peaceprocess.—INP

Karzai to discuss peacewith Taliban in Qatar

BEIJING—Glamorous newfirst lady Peng Liyuan hasemerged as Chinesediplomacy’s latest star, charm-ing audiences and cutting a verydifferent profile from her all-butinvisible predecessors on herdebut official visit abroad toRussia.

A celebrated performer onstate television, Peng featuredprominently in Sunday’s Chi-nese media coverage of husbandand President Xi Jinping’s ac-tivities in Moscow. The visit isXi’s first since he assumed thepresidency earlier this month.

Peng watched song anddance routines at a performingarts school on Saturday, but didnot join in as some media re-

ports had suggested she might.Xi’s trip continues this week withstops in Tanzania, South Africaand Congo, during which Pengis expected to hold other publicevents.

An internationally popularfirst lady could help softenChina’s sometimes abrasive in-ternational image and mark a vic-tory in its so-far unsuccessfulstruggle to win over global pub-lic opinion.

At the same time, she couldboost the popularity of thecountry’s new leadership at atime when citizens are feelingincreasingly alienated and are fedup with the ruling class’s corrup-tion and regal airs.In recent years, the wives of

China’s top officials have tradi-tionally gone almost unseen athome and attracted little attentionwhile accompanying their hus-bands on state visits abroad.

That was in part a negativereaction to Mao Zedong’s wife,Jiang Qing, who was widely de-spised and later imprisoned forher role as leader of the radicalGang of Four, which mercilesslypersecuted political opponentsduring the chaotic 1966-76 Cul-tural Revolution.

Recently retired PremierWen Jiabao’s wife, Zhang Peili,became known for her role in thecountry’s gem trade and wasnever seen in public with her hus-band. Meanwhile, Bo Xilai, oneof China’s most ambitious poli-

ticians, was brought down inspectacular style last year follow-ing his wife’s involvement in themurder of a British businessman,setting off the country’s nastiestpolitical scandal in years.

Women in general wieldrelatively little power at the topof the Chinese power structure,with just two sitting on the rul-ing Communist Party’s 25-mem-ber decision-making Politburo.Peng’s emerging high profile ap-pears to be an extension of Xi’sown confidence as he consoli-dates his control on power andpresses a more assertive role forChina in global affairs, said SteveTsang, director of the ChinaPolicy Institute at Britain’s Uni-versity of Nottingham. .—AP

A diplomatic star is born in Chinese first lady

Arab League givesSyrian seat to

oppositionDOHA—In a symbolic blow toembattled Syrian President BasharAssad, senior Arab diplomats saidSunday that they will transferSyria’s seat in their main regionalgroup to opposition forces.

The Arab League’s decisionis unlikely to mean much in prac-tical terms to Assad’s regime,which has already been aban-doned by many Arab states thatare siding with rebel forces in thetwo-year civil war.

But it reflects pressure beingexerted by key rebel backers —Qatar and Saudi Arabia — for ashow of Arab solidarity againstAssad at a two-day Arab Leaguesummit beginning Tuesday inDoha.

The gathering comes amid aserious shakeup within the oppo-sition force over complaints thatinternational support is insuffi-cient to bring down Assad and turnthe tide against his security forces.

The president of the Western-backed Syrian opposition coali-tion, Mouaz al-Khatib, resignedSunday from the Syrian NationalCouncil, blaming world powersfor not giving the anti-Assadforces the ability to “defend them-selves” against Assad’s superiormilitary power.

It was a clear snub of U.S. andWestern allies that have resistedcalls by regional countries, includ-ing Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to in-crease the flow of heavy weap-ons to rebel fighters.—AP

Morsi may moveto protect nation

CAIRO—Egypt’s presidentsaid on Sunday he may takeunspecified measures to “pro-tect this nation,” two days af-ter supporters of his MuslimBrotherhood and the opposi-tion clashed in Cairo.

At least 200 people wereinjured in the violence, someseriously, outside the head-quarters of the Brotherhood,Egypt’s most dominant politi-cal group.

“If I have to do what isnecessary to protect this nationI will, and I am afraid that Imay be close to doing so,”Morsi said on Twitter, addingthat “attempts to show the stateas weak are failing.” The Is-lamist took office in June asEgypt’s first freely electedpresident.

Morsi also warned that“appropriate measures” wouldbe taken against politiciansfound to be behind Friday’sviolence, regardless of theirseniority. Anyone found to beusing the media to “incite vio-lence” will also be held ac-countable, he added.

His tweets came hours af-ter Islamists staged a protestoutside studios belonging toindependent TV networks thatare critical of the Egyptianleader.—AP

KARACHI—After MQM’s oppo-sition to delimitation, the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) has also an-nounced to move court againstnew delimitation of Karachi con-stituencies. It should be men-tioned that Election Commissionof Pakistan (ECP) in accordancewith the Supreme Court (SC) di-rectives has approved delimita-tions in eight provincial and threeNational Assembly constituencies

PPP to move court againstdelimitation orders

in the metropolis. Talking to me-dia persons here on Sunday, PPPKarachi Division General Secre-tary Syed Najmi Alam said ordersby ECP regarding delimitations inthe financial hub are unacceptableand his party would move courtagainst it. Earlier MQM express-ing lack of trust in ECP had de-clared that it would challengeKarachi delimitation orders inSindh High Court (SHC).—INP

PML-N interviewscandidatesPESHAWAR—The PML-N KPParliamentary Board under chairof Pir Sabir Shah here conductedthe interviews of the candidates forthe award of party tickets for theelections 2013. Members of theBoard including Sardar MahtabAhmed Khan, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra,Amir Muqam, NawabzadaKhwaja Muhammad Khan Hoti,and Rehmat Salam Khattak at-tended the meeting.—APP

AMMAN: Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, being received by a delegation of high ranking Jordanianmilitary.

Shujaat accuses PML-N ofignoring democratic mandate

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Pakistan MuslimLeague-Q President Senator ChShujaat Hussain and party’sPunjab President Ch ParvezElahi have said that N-Leaguehas never respected democraticmandate. They said their party,will give surprise to the oppo-nents in the next general elec-tions.

“ On performance in everysector and field was better thanthat of PML-N, they claimed.They said that appointment ofJustice (R) Mir Hazar KhanKhoso as the caretaker PrimeMinister is very welcomedevelopment, we pray thatPunjab should also have such acaretaker Chief Minister.

The two PML-Q leaderswere addressing a gathering ofparty candidates who have ap-plied for party tickets.

Talking to the media at theMuslim League House partySecretary General MushahidHussain Sayed said that whatother parties are promising todo in their manifestoes wehave done all that earlier.

Basharat Raja said that he sa-luted those colleagues who re-mained steadfast for five yearsdespite threats, and vindictiveactivities of the Punjab Govt.Ch Parvez Elahi further saidthat 2008 elections sufferedfrom a peculiar sentimentalatmosphere but still our partyhad secured maximum votesin the Punjab as compared toothers. Our candidates will goto the voters with their headsup because of glorious servicesto the people. They shoulddraw the attention of thepeople in their respective con-stituencies towards recordworks done by our govt.

They should also tell thepeople that those who fol-lowed us had given our surplusprovince a deficit of Rs 500billion and dumped all thePunjab budget in flop projectsadding that “lota” manufactur-ing factory of Jaati Umra isenemy of democracy and thepeople. He said that peoplewould draw comparison be-tween our performance and thatof Sharif Brothers.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab Chief Min-ister Muhammad ShahbazSharif has said that Zardari ganghas shamelessly and ruthlesslyfilled its pockets with the moneylooted from the poor andbrought the country to the vergeof bankruptcy. He said that theworst policy of loot and plun-der of national resources hasdestroyed national institutions.He said that the former corruptgovernment of Peoples Partyand its cronies have given the‘gifts’ of poverty, unemploy-ment and loadshedding to themasses which they will never beable to forget.

He said that the day of ac-countability of CorruptionKings has approached and thepeople will give them such apunishment in forthcoming gen-eral elections that no one woulddare to loot national exchequerin future. He said that if masses,through their votes, gave oppor-tunity to Pakistan MuslimLeague-N, corruption will beeliminated and economic stabil-ity of the country will be en-sured.

He was addressing separatemeetings of leaders and office-bearers of Pakistan MuslimLeague-N belonging to Kasur,Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahiband Lahore districts at ModelTown on Sunday. Senior lead-ers of PML-N were also presenton the occasion. The Chief Min-ister said that if “Baray KhanSahib” who is raising the sloganof change sees the unprec-edented development in Punjabduring last five years, he willknow the true meaning of revo-

Shahbaz firm to bring outchange under Nawaz leadership

lution and change. He said thatten crore people of the Punjabare witness to the fact that PML-N government has brought abouta visible change in their life andtheir living standard has im-proved. He said that those rais-ing empty slogans of revolutionand change should know thatPunjab has changed due to rapidand quality completion of devel-opment projects on the basis ofmerit and transparency.

He said that if the peoplegave opportunity, a genuinechange will be brought aboutthroughout the country under theleadership of MuhammadNawaz Sharif and supremacy ofmerit, law and justice will beensured. He said that corruptionand poverty will be eradicatedand equal opportunities will beavailable to everyone forprogress.

He said that Punjab govern-ment presented its three mega

projects worth 36 billion rupeesincluding metro bus project toTransparency International Pa-kistan for judging their transpar-ency which when asked “KhanSahib” for proof of his allega-tions, made him speechless andhis propaganda about metro busproject also ended.

He said that a party whichhas among its office-bearerssuch elements as are membersof Qabza mafia and have mur-der cases registered against themhas no right to talk about changeor revolution. He said thatpeople want to know what kindof change can be introducedwith such elements. He said thatit is Punjab government ofPML-N which has brought a realchange in the province and thosewho are making false claimsshould know that the process ofchange which has been startedfrom Punjab will be extendedto the whole country.

Hold Musharrafaccountable forabuses: HRW

NEW YORK—The Pakistani gov-ernment should hold former mili-tary ruler Pervez Musharraf ac-countable for human rights abuseswhen he returns to Pakistan, Hu-man Rights Watch has said.Musharraf announced that he in-tends to return on March 24, 2013,after over four years in exile to bea candidate in parliamentary elec-tions scheduled for May. Legalproceedings are pending againstMusharraf in several human rightscases, Human Rights Watch said.In November 2011, Musharrafwas charged with involvement inthe killing of Akbar Bugti, aBaloch nationalist leader who diedunder unclear circumstanceswhile hiding in a cave in August2006, after a long standoff withthe Pakistani military.

In February 2011, Musharrafwas declared an absconder after acourt in Rawalpindi accepted theinterim charge-sheet fromPakistan’s Federal InvestigationAgency, which named the formerpresident as one of the accused inthe assassination of former primeminister Benazir Bhutto.—AP

ppage0

MEDICAL experts have said that alarge number of people living in hillyareas of the country are at high risk

of iodine deficiency disorder. They were addressing the concluding

session of two-day work-shop on iodized salt Friday,organized by Nutrition Sec-tion of Planning Commis-sion in collaboration withGlobal Alliance for Im-proved Nutrition (GAIN)and UNICEF.

They said iodine defi-ciency Disorder (IDD) is aneffectively preventablecause, however, silentlysteals mental potential ofmillions of children in thecountry and around theworld. They said it is a pub-lic health nutrition problemand almost half of the popu-lation is at risk of IDD, par-ticularly newborns are atrisk of irreversible mentalimpairment.

They said the problem also leads to causemental retardation, loss of cognitive abilities,still birth, miscarriage, abnormalities likedeaf, dump and stunting. They said malnutri-tion especially micronutrient malnutrition isprevalent in Pakistan. Maternal as well aschildhood malnutrition is a significant publichealth problem impacting economic growthof the country, they added.

Health experts said food fortification isthe recommended practice for increasing thecontent of essential micronutrients in a foodto improve the nutritional quality.

They said food fortification plays an im-

portant role in reducing malnutrition and itdelivers vitamins and minerals to large seg-ments of the population without any changesin eating practices.

Member Planning Commission, JavedAkhtar said that sincere effortsbeing made by the govern-ment will help salt producersand regulatory agencies toimprove their iodization andtesting practices.

Lorenzo LocatelliRossi from Global Alliancefor Improved Nutrition(GAIN) said that the Univer-sal Salt Iodization (USI) isrecognized as a simple, safeand cost-effective measure inaddressing iodine deficiency.

He said under GAIN-UNICEF Universal SaltIodization (USI) partnershipproject, efforts are being madeto create awareness regardingthe importance of iodized saltamong consumers and pro-

ducers. He said that the Global Alliance forImproved Nutrition (GAIN) was created in2002 at a Special Session of the UN Gen-eral Assembly on Children.

Justus De Jong from International Coun-cil for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Dis-orders (ICCIDD) urged for practical guide-lines on production and storage of iodized saltreceipt, storage and handling of KIO3fortificant to verify that KIO3 meets specifi-cation to maintain an adequate stock position.He said a Quality Management System(QMS) will always produce salt products, thatsatisfy the demand of customers, and complywith the regulatory standards.

Hilly areas’ people are athigh risk of iodine deficiency

ISLAMABAD: Cement blocks are being removed by workers in front of Parliament House after end of the government’s tenure and announcement ofnew Prime Minister’s name.

ISLAMABAD: Long queues of vehicles in front of a CNG station in Federal Capital.

CITY REPORTER

IS L A M A B A D—Bloomingflowers with pleasantly warm,sunny days add a real color tolife, especially after the chillywinter when severe cold andfrosty weather not only makeslife difficult for masses but alsodeprive the trees and plants oftheir beauty.

Colorful flowers, lushgreen grass and budding ofleaves on trees make sceneryan eye-catching view. More-over, Light, refreshing breezeblowing all the time, every-where, is an experience canonly be featured in thesedays.

Different festivals are alsoorganized, during the season,to provide entertainment topeople including family Galasand Basant festivals. Basant,which embellish the sky witha cluster of kites of differentcolors, was used to be a goodsource of amusement formasses in a country where ter-

With all the colours spring also serves as an irritant for manyrorism made the life colorlesswith the qualm of bomb blastspreventing many to gather at a

place. But the irresponsible atti-

tude of people towards Basant

forced government to put a banon it as innocent lives were lostdue to the use of wires instead

of chemical strings. In the capital, known for its

natural beauty, measures are

taken every now and then to addto its magnificence. Tree plan-tation campaigns and flower

exhibitions are among some ofthe common practices.

This year too, Capital De-

velopment Authority launcheda tree plantation campaign, in-augurated by its Chairman SyedTahir Shehbaz on March 12,during which, 500,000 saplingswould be planted.

But the spring season, onthe other hand, also marks thebeginning of months of sneez-ing, wheezing and sinus conges-tion for many individuals. Thewarm weather and burstingblooms mean the release ofcountless airborne pollen andmould. While these tiny “invad-ers” are necessary for the propa-gation of plant species and re-generation that occurs eachspring, they also cause troublefor huge number of people al-lergic to pollen.

Pollen allergy is a hugeproblem in the capital city.Islamabad is among the citieswith highest pollen counts in theworld. Skin prick tests con-firmed that Broussonetiapapyrifera and Cannabis sativaare main cause of pollen aller-gies in spring and fall.

RAWALPINDI—A peace rally,organized by Christian StudentFederation (CSF), Rawalpindichapter, was taken out here fromSaddar to Liaquat Bagh to markPakistan Day.

A large number of Christiansparticipated in the peace rallywhich was led by Babar ShehzadGoshi, Sajawal Rahi and ShakeelMushtaq. Addressing the partici-pants at Liaquat Bagh, BabarGoshi said that Christians arepeace-loving people and haverendered uncountable sacrificesfor Pakistan. He said Christiansare playing an important role forthe development of the country.

Babar said that Quaid-e-Azim Muhammad Ali Jinnah hada vision for Pakistan that the mi-norities would have equal rightsin the country. The enemies of thecountry are hatching conspiraciesand wanted to destabilize thecountry through bomb blasts buttheir nefarious designs can onlybe foiled with the force of unity,he added. Other speakers said

that the terrorists by creating un-certainty and chaos in the coun-try wanted to achieve their setgoals but they would never suc-ceed in their indiscriminate aims.

The speakers condemned thetragic incidents of Quetta, AbbasTown Karachi, Badmi Bagh andothers in which innocent citizenswere targeted and the miscreantsplayed with the lives and proper-ties of the people.

“We, Christians, Hindus,Muslims and others, all arePakistanis,”they said adding, thegovernment should take solidsteps to counter terrorism andextremism. They said that therally was taken out to protestagainst terrorism and violenceagainst the minorities.

“We all should promotepeace and goodwill in a world ofturbulence caused by terrorismand inhuman attacks on the citi-zens including the minoritiesmembers. The participants lateroffered prayers for peace andgoodwill in the country.—APP

CSF takes outpeace rally

ISLAMABAD—Heavy overnightrain in the Federal Capital waswelcomed by the allergy patientsas pollen count has decreasedand willremain low during nextcouple of days.

Meteorologists, talking toINP said that the pollen count isexpected to rise again during thenext week as the sky gets clearer,therefore pollen allergy patientsshould keep on taking preventivemeasures like covering theirfaces and avoiding going out inmornings and evenings.

Muhammad Hanif, a seniormeteorologist, said that pollenallergy patients will get relief fornext two to three days but they

Rain washes away pollengrains from Islamabad air

should remain cautious as thepollen count will increase dur-ing the next week again. He saidthat pollen count usually re-mains high during last week ofMarch and first week of Aprilbut it gets low from secondweek of April onward. This yearcase of pollen count is differentdue to the rains and it may re-main high till the second weekof April.

According to a Met Of-fice, pollen count in Sector E-8 was recorded 1788 pollensper cubic meter as comparedto 6934 two days ago, in Sec-tor F-8 1315 pollens per cu-bic meter as compared to

6785, Sector I-10 315 pollensper cubic meter as comparedto 2900, in Sector G-7 1566pollens per cubic meter ascompared to 7026, while high-est pollen count of 9499pollens per cubic meter ascompared to 23917 two daysago was recorded in Sector H-8 of the capital city on Sunday.

Pollen allergy symptoms in-clude sneezing, itching, wateryeyes, coughing, difficulty inbreathing, wheezing and even-tually attack of asthma. In addi-tion, there may be itching on theskin accompanied in some casesby gastro-intestinal symp-toms.—INP

Raja givendeparting guard

of honourISLAMABAD—Prime MinisterRaja Pervez Ashraf inspectedguard of honour which was pre-sented to him at the PrimeMinister’s House Sunday by asmartly turned out contingentrepresenting three armed forcesas he prepared to leave.

In his remarks on the occa-sion, the Prime Minister saidthat today marks the fulfillmentof vision of Mohtarma ShaheedBenazir Bhutto and her commit-ment to see Pakistan as a demo-cratic polity.

The Prime Minister addedthat this was only possible dueto the policy of reconciliationpursued by President Asif AliZardari to overcome the chal-lenges facing the country andlaying the foundation of a wel-fare and democratic state.—INP

Probe into outof way promotions

in PIMSISLAMABAD—Capital Admin-istration and Development Di-vision (CADD) have started in-vestigation against illegal andout of the way promotions in Pa-kistan Institute of Medical Sci-ences.

Sources said that actionwould be taken against 20PIMS’ employees who got pro-moted unlawfully. Such person-nel would be sacked from theiroffices, they added.

Two committees will also beconstituted to probe the matter.The committees will presenttheir report within one week,sources maintained.—Online

ISLAMABAD—The Capital De-velopment Authority joined handswith the international communityby observing the Earth Hour 2013to promote cause of sustainableenvironment, energy conservationand mitigate the efforts of climatechange.

The Earth Hour ceremonywas held at Faisal Masjid inwhich CDA officers and work-ers participated. Member Plan-ning and Design CDA, SyedMustafain Kazmi switched offthe lights of the building as asymbolic act of observing theEarth Hour.

CDA observes Earth HourAddressing the ceremony,

Kazmi said that CDA wasdedicatedly striving to create asafe living environment inIslamabad. The CDA was adopt-ing the sound principle of sus-tainable urban development,conservation natural resources,restoration of natural ecosystemand minimizing the use of non-renewable resources.

He said the effort was alsobeing made to adopt the bestpractices for reducing consump-tion of energy and carbon emis-sion. The unique green charac-ter of Islamabad - The Green

City speaks volume of the con-crete efforts of CDA for protec-tion of the Margallah Hills Na-tional Park Area and conserva-tion of the natural environment.The member planning and de-sign said in order to activelyparticipate in the Earth Hour,CDA also switched off the lightsof landmarks of the city includ-ing Faisal Mosque, 7th Avenue,D-Chowk, Constitution Avenue,Jinnah Avenue, ParliamentHouse, Cabinet Block andDaman-e-Koh and PakistanMonument view point between8:30 PM to 9:30 PM.—APP

Job fair fortrained youth

ISLAMABAD—The WomenEmpowerment Literacy andDevelopment Organization isorganizing a job fair for trainedindividuals in April with an aimto facilitate them in getting suit-able jobs.

WELDO cheif TubasamHayat said trained individualswill be able to meet the repre-sentatives of the biggest com-panies and hopefully will beemployed through this job fairto be held in Islamabad.

A statement issued here onSunday says the organizationhas been operating in Pakistansince 2003; their projectsmainly focus on the reintegra-tion of Pakistanis, deportedfrom European counties into thesociety.

This organization has anumber of highly qualified andskilled staff members who overthe years, have helped hundredsof people by providing themprofessional skills, technicaleducation and also helped themto start up businesses.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—Higher Educa-tion Commission (HEC) hasawarded SZABIST Universitythe highest rank under an assess-ment released by its Quality As-surance Agency (QAA), a bodyworking to monitor the standardof higher education in Pakistan.

Professors and educationalexperts believe that this mechanismof ranking introduced by HEC willtrigger a healthy competitionamong both the public and privatesector universities as they will striveto outclass each other and this willdrastically boost the quality ofhigher education in the country.

According to official sourcesin SZABIST, QAA has rankedSZABIST in category “W” asQuality Enhancement Cell of theuniversity met 90 percent of the

HEC awards highest rank to SZABISTquality benchmarks in terms ofresearch, faculty development,industry-academia linkages, aca-demic freedom, ensuring stan-dardized syllabi across all sec-tions of a course, streamliningprocesses across campuses ac-cording to International standardsand ensuring compliance of HECguidelines. HEC has developedQuality Enhancement Cells indifferent public and private sec-tor universities. These cells col-laborate with the commission interms of monitoring and evalua-tion of the broad range of param-eters set by HEC to gauge thedevelopment or decline of thestandard of higher education intheir respective institutions.

All these Quality Enhance-ment Cells are regulated and fa-cilitated by the Quality Assur-ance Agency established at

HEC according to provisionsunder the “Ordinance of HEC2002, Section 10 (e).

These cells also work to fos-ter Institutional Effectiveness(IE) to support research, plan-ning, policy formation, stream-lining processes, decision mak-ing and critical academic initia-tives of strategic importance inthe institutes. The QEC depart-ment has to provide an absolutelyunbiased judgment to HEC by-annually about their institution’sstudents, faculty, staff, curricu-lum, course offerings, and learn-ing outcomes. “SZABIST uni-versity is very delighted overbeing ranked highest by the QAAassessment and has attributed thisacademic success to the vigorousand persistent efforts of its man-agement and faculty members”,official said.—APP

Uncoveredmanholes, adeath trap

RAWALPINDI—The uncoveredmanholes in several parts of thecity not only posing seriousthreat to traffic but also becamea death trap for pedestrians.

The public and social circleswhile expressing their concernover the situation underlinedthat several manholes are eitherbroken or lying uncovered inseveral areas of the city.

They mentioned the areas ofMurree road, Khayaban-e-SirSyed, Pirwadhai, MareerHassan, Ganj Mandi, DhokeRatta and Satellite Town whereone can find uncovered man-holes easily.

They pointed out that sev-eral people have lost their livesafter falling into these manholesbut authorities concerned did nottake the issue seriously as nomeasures were taken to preventsuch horrific incidents in thefuture.—Online

It is not from thebenevolence of the

butcher, the brewer, orthe baker that we

expect our dinner, butfrom their regard totheir own interest.

— Adam Smith

BEIJING—Chinese vice pre-mier Zhang Gaoli said at a fo-rum here on Sunday that China’sdevelopment will provide moreopportunities and stronger im-petus for the world economy.

Zhang made the remarks atthe China Development Forum,which was initiated in 2000 bythe Development Research Cen-ter of the State Council, China’sCabinet. The forum serves as asignificant platform for businessand academic leaders to interactwith China’s top decision mak-ers and economic planners.

This year’s forum is sched-uled from Saturday to Monday

China’s growth drivingforce for world economy

with the theme of “deepeningChina’s reform and opening upfor building a better-off society.”

China aims to fulfill thebuilding of a moderately pros-perous society by 2020. Afterrealizing this target, China willwitness significant boost in itsoverall strength, a much largermarket scale and remarkableimprovement of people’s liveli-hood, Zhang said.

“China will then providemore opportunities, greater im-petus and make new contribu-tions to global economicgrowth,” Zhang said.

In 2012, China attracted a

total of 111.72 billion U.S. dol-lars in foreign direct investment.Total trade volume reached 3.87trillion U.S. dollars, up 6.2 per-cent from a year earlier.

Zhang said China will con-tinue its efforts to build a marketenvironment featuring equitablecompetition to enhance the vital-ity of growth. At the opening dayon Saturday on the sidelines ofthe Forum the former US Secre-tary of State Dr. Henry Kissingerand former Chinese ForeignMinister Li Zhaoxing took partin a hour-long talk on “China’sPeaceful Development and US-China Relations”.—APP

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—South KoreanAmbassador to Pakistan ChoiChoongju has said that the bi-lateral trade between Pakistanand his country, which is cur-rently of $ 1.6 billion, has agreat potential to increasemanifolds.

The ambassador was speak-ing at a reception hosted by Pak-Korean Friendship Society’sPresident Sajjad Afzal Cheemahere in connection with 30thanniversary of the establishmentof Pak-Korean diplomatic rela-tions.

The reception was attendedamong others by Admiral (Retd)Iftikhar Ahmed Sirohey, busi-nessmen and lawyers.

Pak, Korean trade has greatpotential to increase manifold

Both the countries have al-ready agreed to take their cur-rent level of trade to $2 billionper annum in next three years.They have inked six agreementslast year under which Korea willmodernize Pakistan Railwaysand construct an LNG (Lique-fied Natural Gas) terminal andthe two countries will promotecooperation in the banking sec-tor.

Choongju hoped the twocountries would make specialefforts to expand their trade re-lations for the mutual benefit ofthe two peoples.

He said that the Pak- KoreanFriendship Society had playeda key role in promoting multi-dimensional relations betweenthe two countries. This year has

a special significance as the twocountries are marking 30th an-niversary of their relationship,he added.

The envoy, on the occasion,praised services of late justiceCheema, saying his role in ce-menting Pak- Korean ties wouldlong be remembered.

President of Pak- KoreanFriendship Society SajjadCheema, in his remarks, saidthat the society had been striv-ing to strengthen multi-dimen-sional relations between thetwo countries for the last 30years. It has been the missionof the society to bring the twosides closer and identify differ-ent areas of cooperation par-ticularly in commercial, powerand communications sectors, he

added.The society has played an

important role in regular ex-change of delegations betweenSeoul and Islamabad for ensur-ing people-to-people contacts,he said.

Cheema eulogized the ser-vices of Honorary Consul toSouth Korea Irfan Aziz for hispivotal efforts in enhancing re-lations between the two coun-tries. He said that the Pak- Ko-rean Friendship Society hadbeen mounting efforts for exportof skilled and semi-skilledlabour form Pakistan to SouthKorea.

Later Admiral (retd) IftikharAhmed Sirohey, on behalf of thesociety, presented a bouquet tothe Korean ambassador.

People throng in large numberto Pak-China Business Forum

STAFF REPORTER

ISLAMABAD—A large numberof People from twin cities ofRawalpindi and Islamabad par-ticipated in the Pak-China Busi-ness Forum which is beingorganised at Pak-China Friend-ship center here on Sunday byCOMSATS Institute of Informa-tion Technology (CIIT) andIslamabad Chamber of Com-merce and Industries (ICCI).

Special Secretary Ministryof Foreign Affairs NoorMuhammad Jadmani inaugu-rated the event. ChairmanCongSong Zia Main, Pro- Rec-

tor Dr Harron Rasheed, Profes-sor Dr. Qaisar Abbas, Zia Main,ICCI President ZafarBakhtawri, faculty and studentsattended the event.

Li Zhou from China pro-posed many businessprogrammes of mutual interest.Promoting and supportinggreater efforts to develop renew-able sources of energy andimplement policies at the na-tional and international level isof vital importance, he added.

CIIT Rector, Dr. S. M.Junaid Zaidi proposed establish-ment of a Technology Park withthe mutual coordination of ICCI

and CIIT to provide a platformto Chinese and Pakistani busi-ness community for the promo-tion of mutual trade activates.

Imran Cheema, ExecutiveDirector General Board of In-vestment, shared BOI’s visionon Pak-China cooperation forbusiness and trade development.

Special Secretary Ministry ofForeign Affairs NoorMuhammad Jadmani said pro-moting and facilitating economicprogress of developing countriesthrough transfer of technologyand diffusion of knowledge isvery important especially for theSouth Asian region.

PQ remainsactive

KARACHI—Two ships arrivedat Port to load/ offload contain-ers at QICT, palm oil at LCT onSaturday, port sources said hereon Sunday.

Berth occupancy was main-tained at 50% at the Port on Sat-urday where a total of nine shipsnamely M.V KPS-I Alican Bey-Powership, M.V Cape Flores,M.V MSC Ayala, M.T MaritimeYanessa, M.T Argent Bloom,M.V Union Mariner, and M.VRecon Emere are currently oc-cupying berths to load/ offloadcontainers, palm oil, canola seedand wheat.

Cargo handling operationwere carried out smoothly at thePort where a cargo volume of30902 tonnes comprising 3419tonnes import, 34321 tonnesexports and (2057) Tues washandled at the Port during last24 hours.

M.V Cape Flores, M.V Re-con Emre sailed on Saturdayafternoon, M.T Argent Bloomsailed on Sunday morning. M.VSun Bright at FAP, M.V MaerskMissouri at QICT arrived onSunday as per schedule.—APP

DUBAI—German businessmorale fell in March, breakinga four-month run of gains andhighlighting concerns the reig-nited debt crisis in theeurozone will test the resil-ience of Europe’s largesteconomy.

The Munich-based Ifothink tank said on Friday itsbusiness climate index, basedon a monthly survey of some7,000 firms, fell to 106.7 inMarch, down from 107.4 inFebruary and below a forecastof 107.6.

Months of relative calm inthe eurozone came to an endwith an inconclusive election inthe bloc’s third-largest economyItaly, and a crisis over emer-gency funds for Cyprus thatcould culminate in the islandstate exiting the common cur-rency.

Ifo economist KlausWohlrabe said more than 85

German businesssentiment sours

per cent of survey responseshad come before the latest de-velopments in Cyprus, whoseleaders are scrambling tostrike a bailout deal with in-ternational lenders to avert abanking collapse and sover-eign default. David Brown ofNew View Economics said thesurvey suggested “the bellsare starting to toll in Germanythat the eurozone crisis isabout to hit recovery pros-pects again.

“The biggest risk right nowis that euro contagion is onceagain uncaged and ready to ripthrough the heart of economicconfidence,” he said.

The Ifo data, which fol-lowed on from a modest PMIsurvey on Thursday thatshowed Germany’s businessexpansion lost steam in March,sent the euro to a two-weeklow against the yen.—Agen-cies

Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI presenting bouquet to Ms Yoonyoung Cho, Economist,WB Washington DC on her visit to Chamber House.

NICOSIA—Negotiations for aCyprus bailout which went intothe small hours of Sundayfailed to reach agreement andhopes are now pinned on fur-ther talks in Brussels later in theday to stave off a financialmeltdown.

Cypriot President NicosAnastasiades flies to Brusselsin a bid to beat a Monday dead-line to close a deal before theEuropean Central Bank stopsemergency liquidity support tothe island s banks.

A government statementsaid after negotiations breakup with the troika - the Euro-pean Commission, the Euro-pean Central Bank and the In-ternational Monetary Fund(IMF), Anastasiades will ar-rive in Brussels at mid-morn-ing to continue talks with Eu-ropean Union officials and the

Cyprus bailout negotiationsfail to reach agreement

IMF chief Christine Lagardeahead of a Eurogroup meetingscheduled to start at 1700GMT.

Negotiations are at a verydelicate phase. The situation isvery difficult and the deadlinesare very tight, the governmentstatement said.

The official Cyprus NewsAgency had earlier blamed theIMF representative in the ne-gotiations, Delia Velculescu,for blocking agreement.

The Cypriot governmentmade a turn-around by accept-ing a 20 percent levy on depos-its above 100,000 euros(130,000 U.S. dollars) at theBank of Cyprus and 4 percentat other banks.

The IMF insists that theBank of Cyprus be split in linewith an arrangement at theCyprus Popular Bank into good

and bad sections, the good oneto take over deposits below the100,000 mark and good loanswhile the bad one to take lagerdeposits and bad loans.

The troika has agreed toprovide a 10 billion euros bail-out to Cyprus, which has toraise 5.8 billion euros on itsown.

Sources said hopes for fi-nalizing the bailout rest onthe IMF withdrawing its in-sistence on the Bank ofCyprus split-up as the Euro-pean Commission and theEuropean Central Bank donot consider it to be of criti-cal importance.

A deal has to be in placebefore banks reopen onTuesday and authorities willimpose capital controls toavert massive capital out-flow.—NNI

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The GlobalCompact Network Pakistan incollaboration with Employ-ers’ Federation of Pakistan or-ganized Private Sector/ Stake-holders Consultation confer-ence on Post -2015 Develop-ment Agenda recently in lo-cal hotel, Karachi, reviewedthe poor performance of thegovernment in achieving theMDG Goals and targets andobserved that much of the rea-sons for failure in achievingMDG Goals and Targets canbe attributed to lack of Politi-cal will, ignorance of socialsector development priorities,rising corruption and overall

Conference calls upon political parties to include MDGs, Post-2015 dev agenda in their manifestopoor governance in planning in-fra structural resources and man-aging Public Administration inthe last 5 to 7 years.

It was depressing to notethat out of the total 41 MDGstargets, Pakistan has been on tar-get only on 8, was off track on25 targets and no progress wasknown on the remaining 8 by thefederal and provincial govern-ment.

The conference observedthat with the devolution ofpower to the provinces as a re-sult of the 18th ConstitutionalAmendment and the likelihoodof emergence of new politicalwill as a result of the forthcom-ing general elections in thecountry May this year, there are

chances that if adequate mea-sures are taken for economic andindustrial revival along with amore programmatic approachtowards combating the chal-lenge of internal terrorismcoupled with balanced interna-tional diplomacy with a focus onexploiting the lost opportunitiesof revamping the social sectorunder a crash program, the miss-ing goals of MDGs may be ap-proached, if not fully met, by theyear 2015.

Ahsan Ullah Kahan, Presi-dent Global Compact NetworkPakistan, Pervaiz Ghias, CEOIndus Motor Company, Sohail P.Ahmad, Vice Chairman Houseof Habib, Khawaja MuhammadNauman, President Employers

Federation of Pakistan, andShouket Ali, President TradeUnion Congress in theirspeeches urged that the focus inremaining period from now and2015 and the post 2015 Devel-opment Agenda of Pakistanmust be on achieving socio-eco-nomic and political stability andsustainable development whichcould be achieved by pursuinga 5 E program in the areas ofEconomy, Employment, Energy,Environment and Empower-ment.

Ghazi Salauddin MediaIcon, advocated for identifyingthe knowledge deficit the free-dom deficit ingrained in basichuman rights and freedom fromwant and fear and the deficit in

the status of women to be at thefoundation of evolving the fu-ture development agenda forPakistan.

Majyd Aziz, Ex presidentKCCI and Dr. Shahida SaleemAdvisor FPCCI urged upon astrong private public partnershipfor taking the MDGs goals moreseriously and the national talentavailable in abundance must beused in strengthening the plan-ning commission to play its duerole in implementing the na-tional development agenda.

Dr. Mustaghees ur rehman ofSZABIST and Mirza Raza Ali,Council Chairman of Lions ClubInternational emphasized upon theneed for actively engaging thecommunity and the academia for

strengthening ownership of thedevelopment agenda by focusingon education and entrepreneurshipdevelopment at the centre stage ofsocio economic planning.

Fasihul Karim Siddiqui, Sec-retary Global Compact NetworkPakistan wrapping up the discus-sions termed it imperative that astrong public-private partnershipbe developed in Pakistan wrap-ping up the discussions termed itimperative that a strong public-private partnership be developedin Pakistan on a National Com-pact Agenda of economic, indus-trial and social growth with a 2030vision. Supported with a strongpolitical will, an Inter-MinisterialCoordination Committee led bybusiness should be made respon-

sible for implementing and moni-toring the agenda with account-ability to the national parliament.Siddiqui appealed to all stakehold-ers including Business bodies,Academia Workers NGOs andCivil Society to form a larger con-sortium to support the EmployersFederation of Pakistan and theGlobal Compact Network Paki-stan in launching a National De-velopment Agenda for parleyswith political parties in the nextfew weeks to prevail upon themto include MDGs and post-2015Development agenda in their elec-tion manifestos so that their po-litical will and commitment maybe invoked for achieving theabove objectives.

This alone will help us

achieve our goals of generationdecent employment industry andagriculture, reviving it economyindustry, generating decent em-ployment, improving the qualityof life of all citizens, uplifting thequalities of educated youth as themost important human asset, em-powering women as equal part-ner in growth and development,raising the bar of performancestandard of public and private ad-ministration, free of corruptionand led by good governance. Thisrequires a collaborative spirit ofengaging the business the work-ers, the youth, the women, thecivil society and the governmentin a fresh resolve to build a NEWand NEAT PAKISTAN.” Heconcluded.

NEW DELHI—India will easerestrictions for foreign institu-tional investors in central andcorporate bonds next month toattract inflows and help fund awidening current account defi-cit, Finance Minister PChidambaram said on Saturday.

Under the new rules, foreigninvestors can invest up to $25billion in long-term governmentbonds, up from $15 billion. Thecap on corporate bonds remainsat the current level of $51 bil-lion, but separate limits on dif-ferent types of corporate debthave been removed.

“Effect from April 1, therewill be two baskets - one of $25billion for government securitiesand one $51 billion for all cor-porate bonds,” Chidambaramtold a conference.

Currently, foreign institu-tional investors can invest up to$25 billion in corporate infra-structure bonds, $20 billion inother listed corporate bonds, and$5 billon could be invested byother foreign investors includ-ing sovereign wealth funds, pen-sion and insurance funds.

India restricts foreign accessto its debt markets because ofits reluctance to owe money tooverseas investors, and has acomplicated system of catego-ries for debt as well as restric-

India eases rulesfor FIIs in govt,corporate bonds

tions on which types of inves-tors can bid for the debt.

But a record high currentaccount deficit - which hit 5.4percent of the GDP in the quar-ter ending September - hasprompted the government totake steps to increase capital in-flows into country’s debt andstock markets.

New Delhi will review theforeign investor cap on corpo-rate bonds when 80 percent ofthe limit is reached,Chidambaram said, adding itwould help large investors plantheir investment. The govern-ment may further increase thecap on FIIs to invest in govern-ment bonds, depending on de-mand and macro-economic re-quirements, Chidambaram said.

“The annual enhancementof the government bond limitwill remain within 5 percent ofthe gross annual borrowing ofthe central government exclud-ing buy backs,” he said.

The government plans toborrow a gross 5.79 trillion ru-pees in 2013/14, excluding the500 billion rupees of bonds itwill sell to fund a buy back.

Chidambaram also said thecurrent corporate bond auctionmechanism will be replaced with“on-tap system” that is used forinfrastructure bonds.—Online

ICAP conductssecond series ofdirectors training

programmeSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—The Code of Corpo-rate Governance (Code) 2012 hasmade it a mandatory requirementfor all the listed companies to makearrangements to carry out directorstraining program for at least onedirector of the company per year.The Institute of Chartered Accoun-tants of Pakistan (ICAP) launchedthe Directors’ Training Program(DTP) in January 2013 to facili-tate the professionals in discharg-ing their duties well and to enablethem to effectively manage the af-fairs of the listed companies for andon behalf of shareholders.

The four day certificationcourse duly approved by the Secu-rities and Exchange Commissionof Pakistan (SECP) is conductedin two sessions of two days each.After the successful launch of theDTP, ICAP is conducting anothersession on March 25,26th 2013 inLahore as well as the concludingsession of the January session.

The faculty for the sessioncomprises of eminent profession-als like ex-chairman SECP Mr.Tariq Hassan, PACRA chairmanMr. Adnan Afaq, former MD PPLMr. Khalid Rehman past presidentICAP Mr. Mujahid Eshai, Mr.Abdul Rahim Suriya, Dr. RizwanAmin Sheikh, Dr. Zeeshan Ahmed,and Mr. Fahim ul Hassan, who willshare their experience.

StandardChartered seeks

Egypt acquisition,plans Iraq push

DUBAI—Standard Chartered islooking to acquire a bank inEgypt to ride an expected boomin one of the Middle East’s larg-est economies, the firm’s re-gional head said. The bank alsoplans to expand operations inIraq this year.

Many European banks areunder pressure to cut costs andbolster their capital in thewake of the global financialcrisis, but ChristosPapadopoulos said such pres-sures would not deter StandardChartered from growing in theMiddle East.

“The Middle East is not onlya regional hub for us but a glo-bal hub given its position as atrade corridor between Asia andAfrica,” Papadopoulos, chiefexecutive for the Middle East,North Africa and Pakistan, toldReuters in an interview lastweek.

He said of Egypt, “The for-eign reserves are at critical lev-els. Currency is depreciatingand I won’t be surprised if itdepreciates further.”—Agen-cies

China ConstructionBank profit up14pcHONG KONG—ChinaConstruction Bank(CCB), thecountry’s No.2 lender, said its2012 net profit rose 14percent, its slowest annualprofit growth as a publiclylisted company, hit by thecountry’s attempts to rein instate-owned lenders’ profit-ability. CCB made a net profitof 193.2 billion yuan ($31.1billion) in 2012, according to aChinese-language statementposted on the Shanghai StockExchange. For October-December, it made 34.97billion yuan, according toReuters calculations ofcompany figures.—Agencies

Workshop on KPCTABU DHABI—Abu DhabiTerminals recently held aworkshop in collaborationwith the Higher Corporation ofSpecialized Economic Zones(ZonesCorp) to inform itsinvestors of the benefits of theKhalifa Port ContainerTerminal (KPCT). Thisreflects ZonesCorp’s efforts toprovide its investors with thebest services and facilities andto further develop theirbusinesses locally andglobally. During the workshop,speakers introduced thefacilities offered by theTerminal and the benefits itprovides to the industrialsector. Commenting on theWorkshop, Mohamed HasanAl Qamzi, CEO of ZonesCorp,said: “We are very pleased tohave established this partner-ship with Abu Dhabi Termi-nals for what it brings ofbenefits to our investors in theUAE and Abu Dhabi specifi-cally. This partnership willhelp our investors reach outglobally to other investors andcustomers and to expand theirbusinesses successfully in anefficient.—Agencies

750 jobs cut in USNEW YORK—Coca-Colasays it’s cutting 750 jobs inthe US as it continues tostreamline its business. Theworld’s biggest beveragemaker says the jobs cuts willbe across the board and thataffected individuals will benotified in coming weeks. Thecuts represent roughly 1 percent of the company’sworkforce of 75,000 in NorthAmerica. A spokesman saysabout a quarter of the cutswill be in Atlanta, where thecompany is based. In a memoto employees last month, TheCoca-Cola Co noted that ithad identified “areas thatmust be improved” sincebuying the North Americanoperations of its largestbottler in 2010. The memoalso noted it was realigningits US business into threegeographies, down fromseven, to reflect the success-ful structure in its food-service business.—Agencies

IMF urges Iraqto bolster non-

oil sectorWASHINGTON—The Interna-tional Monetary Fund, or IMF,forecast that Iraq’s economywould grow around nine per centthis year helped by surging oilproduction, but said Baghdadneeds to do more to support pri-vate, non-oil business.

Ten years after the launch ofthe US war on Iraq, the IMF saidthe country had been successfulat maintaining macroeconomicstability despite a difficult po-litical and security environment.

The economy grew aroundeight per cent last year under-pinned by rising oil productionand “robust” non-oil activity.

Growth should pick upagain this year as oil output waspredicted to gain about 10 percent to 3.3 million barrels a day.

The IMF said Baghdad neededbetter controls of state spending,including ending off-budget dis-bursements.—Agencies

MEDICAL experts have said that alarge number of people living inhilly areas of the country are at high

risk of iodine deficiency disorder. They were addressing the concluding

session of two-day work-shop on iodized salt Friday,organized by Nutrition Sec-tion of Planning Commis-sion in collaboration withGlobal Alliance for ImprovedNutrition (GAIN) andUNICEF.

They said iodine defi-ciency Disorder (IDD) is aneffectively preventablecause, however, silentlysteals mental potential ofmillions of children in thecountry and around theworld. They said it is a pub-lic health nutrition problemand almost half of the popu-lation is at risk of IDD, par-ticularly newborns are at riskof irreversible mental impair-ment.

They said the problem also leads tocause mental retardation, loss of cognitiveabilities, still birth, miscarriage, abnormalitieslike deaf, dump and stunting. They said mal-nutrition especially micronutrient malnutri-tion is prevalent in Pakistan. Maternal as wellas childhood malnutrition is a significantpublic health problem impacting economicgrowth of the country, they added. Healthexperts said food fortification is the recom-mended practice for increasing the contentof essential micronutrients in a food to im-prove the nutritional quality. They said foodfortification plays an important role in reduc-

Hilly areas’ people are athigh risk of iodine deficiency

ing malnutrition and it delivers vitaminsand minerals to large segments of the popu-lation without any changes in eating prac-tices. Member Planning Commission,Javed Akhtar said that sincere efforts be-

ing made by the governmentwill help salt producers andregulatory agencies to im-prove their iodization andtesting practices.

Lorenzo Locatelli Rossifrom Global Alliance for Im-proved Nutrition (GAIN) saidthat the Universal SaltIodization (USI) is recognizedas a simple, safe and cost-ef-fective measure in addressingiodine deficiency.

He said under GAIN-UNICEF Universal SaltIodization (USI) partnershipproject, efforts are beingmade to create awareness re-garding the importance of io-dized salt among consumersand producers. He said thatthe Global Alliance for Im-

proved Nutrition (GAIN) was created in2002 at a Special Session of the UN GeneralAssembly on Children. Justus De Jong fromInternational Council for the Control of Io-dine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD) urgedfor practical guidelines on production andstorage of iodized salt receipt, storage andhandling of KIO3 fortificant to verify thatKIO3 meets specification to maintain an ad-equate stock position. He said a QualityManagement System (QMS) will alwaysproduce salt products, that satisfy the de-mand of customers, and comply with theregulatory standards.

KARACHI: Sindh Governor Dr. Ishratul Ebad Khan and Prime Minister of AJK Chaudhry Abdul Majeed talking to media persons after their meetingat Governor House.

KARACHI:People march in the area of Teen Talwar during protest rally against newconstituencies in Karachi.

KARACHI: A large number of security personnel were deployed at Jinnah Interna-tional Airport to provide security to former President Gen (Retd) Pervez Musharrafon his arrived from Dubai.

IRFAN ALIGI

KARACHI—Karachi was theeconomic jugular vein whileKashmir was the ideologicaljugular veing of the country.India had never been seriousto resolve the issue of Kash-mir but all the political partiesof the country had a consen-sus on the issue of Kashmirand had placed it on top of theirparty manifesto.

Sindh Governor Dr IshratUl Ebad Khan stated this whiletalking to a delegation of theParliamentary parties of theKashmir assembly. The delega-tion was led by the Prime Min-ister of Azad Jammu and Kash-mir (AJ&K) Chaudhry AbdulMajeed. The 15-member del-egation included PakistanMuslim League (N) oppositionleader Raja MuhammadFarooq Ahmed Khan, AJ&Kformer President SardarMuhammad Anwar Khan,Jamaat-e Islami AJ&K AmeerAbdul Rasheed Turabi, AJ&KMuttahida Qaumi MovementParliamentary leaderMuhammad Tahir Khokhar,

Ebad urges India to be serious forresolving Kashmir dispute

AJ&K Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (F)leader Maulana Saeed Yousuf,All Parties Hurriyat Confer-ence leader Mehmood AhmedSagar, Ghulam Mustafa Safi,Jammu and Kashmir liberationfront leader Rafiq Dar, Jammuand Kashmir Liberation Cellleader Dr Mehmood Ul HassanRaja and others.

The Governor told thedelegation that the Govern-ment of India had failed toestablish any charge on slainAfzal Guru, which the IndianSupreme Court had also ad-mitted. However, the Govern-ment of India had on the pre-text of assumptions had hungGuru, which was a judicialmurder. Earlier, the Govern-ment of India had hungMaqbool Butt and had bur-ied him in Tehar Jail as wasdone to Guru. Such acts of theGovernment of India werehighly condemnable.

The Governor said thatthe people of Kashmir hadsince 1947 till date proved withtheir unity and determinationthat the liberation movementof Kashmir could not be

crushed and the days werenot far when the occupiedvalley of Kashmir would befree from the tyranny of theIndian forces. Pakistani nationand the government werewith the people of Kashmirand would never leaveKashmiris alone in theirstruggle for freedom.The Governor demanded ofthe Government of India thatit should bring relaxation in itsstance over Kashmir andshould take steps for the im-mediate resolution of the is-sue of Kashmir. India shouldalso allow people of the oc-cupied valet to do free tradewith the Kashmiris that livedon the other side of the line ofcontrol.

The Governor advised theGovernment of India that itshould pay more attention onthe welfare of the peoplerather than spending billionson piling up the arsenal. Indiashould not forget that it hadmoved to the United Nationsseeking the UN’s support forthe resolution of the issue ofKashmir. Late Indian Premier

Jawaharlal Nehro had prom-ised to the people of the oc-cupied valley of Kashmir thatIndia would allow them to de-cide about their futurethrough plebiscite but suchpromises were not fulfilled.Therefore, the UN and the in-ternational right organisationshad the obligation to playtheir role for the resolution ofthe issue of Kashmir.

While speaking on the oc-casion, A&JK Prime MinisterChaudhry Abdul Majeed saidthat the purpose of arriving atthe city was to hold meetingswith the political leadershipsof all political parties and to askthem to add the issue of Kash-mir to their party manifesto.

He said that the Kashmirileadership of both the side wasunited on one point agenda ofresolution of the issue of Kash-mir and that the Pakistani na-tion was with them. RajaMuhammad Farooq Khan onthe occasion said that the is-sue of Kashmir was a manifestthat the division of the sub-continent was incomplete withthe freedom of Kashmir.

STAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—Karachi Metro-politan Corporation (KMC)Administrator Syed HashimRaza Zaidi has urged officialsconcerned of the KMC Lo-cal Tax Department that theyshould gear up efforts for re-covery of the outstandingamounts from the outdooradvertisers.

The defaulters thatwould fail to settle the out-standing amounts should becharged with stern actionand their licenses should becancelled.

He said this while direct-ing KMC Local Taxes De-partment Senior DirectorMasood Alam after a meet-ing held to review the recov-

KMC Administrator for fastrecovery of dues from advertisers

ery details.Zaidi said that the KMC’s

financial resources could beimproved by the recovery ofdifferent departments.

Citizen should pay dueson time for cleanliness of thecity, improvement of infra-structure, construction ofroads, renovation of parksand play grounds and devel-opment projects.

Organizations and peoplewho were related to businessshould immediately pay theirdues.

He said that all depart-ments had to improve theirperformance for recovery oftaxes so that along with thetimely payments of salariesof the employees, the devel-opment projects could be

completed and new projectscould start. While briefingthe KMC Administrator,Alam presented a detailedreport that pertained to col-lection of the taxes and ar-rears in three years.

He informed that recov-ery campaign was beingstarted immediately and dis-ciplinary actions against de-faulters would be taken. TheAdvertisers were directedthat in case of any difficultythey could directly contacthim to get the problems re-solved right away.

Different teams wereformed for improving recov-ery of local taxes, said Alamadding that the objectives ofLocal Taxes Departmentwould be achieved.

Altaf Hussaincongratulates

caretakerPM KhosoSTAFF REPORTER

K A R A C H I — M u t t a h i d aQuami Movement (MQM),leader, Altaf Hussain Sundaycongratulated Mir HazarKhan Khoso on becomingthe caretaker Prime Ministerof Pakistan, Geo News re-ported.

In a statement issuedhere, he hoped that Khosowould use his experience inholding free, fair, and impar-tial elections on time. Goingforward, he drew the interimPM Khoso’s attention to-wards the changing of elec-toral constituencies by theElection Commission.

“This move, which MQMdeems as not only illegal butalso unconstitutional, is mak-ing the voters nervous”, saidthe MQM leader. In the endHussain hoped that Khosowould take action againstwhat MQM believed was aninjustice to the residents ofKarachi.—APP

Symposiumon ‘Caringof Lupus’tomorrow

KARACHI—A mini-sympo-sium on “Caring of Lupus”will be organised by LiaquatNational Hospital and Medi-cal College on March 26.The event will be held in Au-ditorium of Liaquat NationalConvention Hall at LNH at1:30 pm, said a statement.

Prominent consultants-Lupus will deliver lectures atthe event. It may be notedhere that Lupus is an au-toimmune disease where thebody’s immune system be-comes hyperactive and at-tacks normal, healthy tis-sue.—APP

Flower showat KarachiUniversity

todayKARACHI—A flower showwould be organised at theUniversity of Karachi at itsBotanical Garden on March25. An official of the insti-tution said on Sunday thatthe event would be heldunder the auspices of theCentre for Plant Conserva-tion, University of Karachi.

Various species of rareflowers would be put ondisplay at the exhibition.Vice-Chancellor of KarachiUniversity, Prof. Dr.Muhammad Qaiser, andSardar Yasin Malik would bethe guests of honour on theoccasion, Karachi Univer-sity official added.—APP

KARACHI—The Higher Edu-cation Commission HEC haspaid special attention towardsincreasing access to highereducation in remote and farflung areas of the country.Within last few years, out oftotal 55 new university cam-puses: 31 have been estab-lished in rural areas through-out Pakistan.

In Sindh, 179 develop-ment projects amounting toRs. 27.142 billion have beenapproved so far. As peragreed share of Sindh in Na-tional Finance Commissionaward, 9.7 billion out of totalamount of Rs. 43.9 billion werereleased within last past 5years. On the request of HEC,federal quota policy has been

HEC paid special attention tohigher education in remote areas

applied over indigenous andforeign scholarship programswhich would enable and en-courage the youth from Sindhprovince to avail scholarshipopportunities exclusivelyavailable for them. Under fac-ulty development programs,868 PhD scholarships havebeen allocated for the facultymembers belonging to varioushigher education institutionsof the province.

This step would also en-able them to equip themselveswith latest knowledge and ex-pertise at leading universitiesof academically advancedcountries. A total of 571 stu-dents from Sindh have ben-efited from the HEC- USAIDMerit and Needs Based

Scholarship Program out of atotal of about 1800 scholar-ships awarded to date. About1447 scholars and facultymembers from Sindh pre-sented their research work inleading international confer-ences abroad. Rs. 164 millionhave been approved in thisregard so far. HEC has fundedtotal number of 183 confer-ences and seminars so far.

Commenting on HEC ini-tiatives for Sindh province, Dr.Javaid R. Laghari ChairpersonHEC said that all the federalunits have effective represen-tation in 17 members’ govern-ing board of HEC and Na-tional Scholarship Manage-ment Committee, the maindecision making body.—INP

6 suspectsarrested during

search operationin city

KARACHI—Police con-ducted a search operation inJinnah Colony and ShahRasool Colony and arrestedsix suspects.

According to details, po-lice on a tip-off launchedsearch operation in JinnahColony and Shah RasoolColony in Clifton area on Sat-urday night.

All the entry and exitpoints in the area were sealedbefore the launch of searchoperation. Police have ar-rested six suspects from thearea during house-to-housesearch.

Police have also seizedtwo motorcycles during theoperation.

Officials from differentpolice station of South Zoneparticipated in the opera-tion.—INP

Majeed meets JI Karachi chiefSTAFF REPORTER

KARACHI—A delegation ofthe political and religiousparties and Hurriyat Confer-ence leaders led by AzadJammu Kashmir Prime Min-ister Chaudhry AbdulMajeed called onJamaat-eIslami (JI) Karachi ChiefMuhammad HussainMahenti at Idara-e Noor-eHaq Sunday. A delega-tion comprising oppositionleader in Kashmir AssemblyFarooq Haider, Chief JI AzadJammu Kashmir AbdurRasheed Turrabi, Chief JUI-F Azad Jammu KashmirMaulana Saeed Yousuf, rep-resentative of All PakistanKashmir Muslim Conference

Sagheer Chugtai, GhulamMuhammad Safi of HurriyatConference, MehmoodAhmed Saghar of MirwaizGroup, Rafeeq Dar of Libera-tion Front and MQM Parlia-mentary leader in KashmirAssembly Tahir Khokhar.

On the occasion, the del-egation prayed for the de-parted souls of former JIChief Qazi Hussain Ahmedand Naib Ameer Prof GhafoorAhmed and lauded their ef-forts and struggle for Kash-mir cause.

Talking to the media,Prime Minister Azad JammuKashmir Chaudhary AbdulMajeed said that the atroci-ties of Indian Army onKashmiri people cannot

eliminate their emotions add-ing the struggle for the inde-pendence of Kashmir is be-ing continued for last 65years and will continue tillthe accomplishment.

Lauding the efforts of JIfor Kashmir cause, PM AzadJammu Kashmir said that theJI leadership always playsvital role in the freedommovement of Kashmiris.

“Entire Kashmiri leader-ship is untied among one-point agenda of freedomadding Kashmiris are alsofighting the war of Pakistanalso”, he added.

On the occasion, AbdulMajeed urged the media tohighlight the Kashmir issueat international level.

EXPERTS fear older women are ditchingcontraception in the mistaken belief that

they cannot get pregnant past a certain age.The Family Planning Association (FPA) be-lieves the message on infertility and agehas gone “too far”.

Although fertility doeswane, women can still fallpregnant well into their thir-ties, forties and even fifties.Abortion rates for womenaged 40 to 44 match thosefor the under 16s, figures forEngland and Wales show.In 2008, both of thesegroups had an abortion rateof four per 1,000 women.

There are many reasonswhy some women opt foran abortion - including birthabnormalities in the baby,which are more commonwhen the mothers are older.But FPA says its anecdotalevidence suggests some ofthe abortions are becausewomen wrongly assumedthey could not get pregnant because theywere too old. Aimed at women aged 35 andover, the FPA’s new campaign ‘Conceiv-able?’ reminds women to stay vigilant aboutunplanned pregnancy and to keep usingcontraception until after the menopause ifthey do not wish to become pregnant.

Chief executive of the FPA Julie Bentleysaid: “Whilst the message about fertility de-clining with age is an important one, it isoften overplayed, alongside disproportion-ate messaging about unplanned teenagepregnancies. “It sends an inaccurate mes-sage to women and society that only theyoung fall pregnant and is leading older

Unplanned pregnancy warningto older women over 35

women to believe their fertility has gonelong before it actually has.”

She said women should realise it isentirely conceivable that just one night ofunprotected sex in your late 30s, 40s andeven 50s can end in an unplanned preg-

nancy. “Our helpline re-ceives calls from suchwomen, shocked this hashappened to them.

“They thought theirage would protect them frombecoming pregnant.” Shesaid in general all methodsof contraception were suit-able for the over-35s.

Women aged 30 to 34continue to have the high-est fertility rate - 113.1 livebirths per 1,000 women. Butthe rate among women aged40 and over has more thandoubled since 1988, from 5.1to 12.6 per 1,000 women, andthere were more than 26,000live births to women in thisage group in 2008, figures

from the Office for National Statisticsshow.

Emily James of Marie Stopes Inter-national said: “Many older women fac-ing an unplanned pregnancy are com-pletely shocked to find themselves inthis position - many assume that theirirregular periods are due to meno-pause, and are surprised to learn thatthey are in fact pregnant. “It is vitalthat women of all ages are providedwith the information, support and ad-vice they need when deciding whetheror not to continue with an unplannedpregnancy.”

LAHORE: Candidates for general elections getting forms from the Provincial ElectionCommission Office.

LAHORE: Flowers giving beautiful look near a mosque on Mall Road during pleasant weather after rain.

LAHORE: Priest Shahid addressing Christians during religious rituals of Palm Sun-day at Cathedral Church.

LAHORE—PML-Q President,Senator Ch Shujat Hussain andSenior Central leader Ch PervaizElahi have hailed the appoint-ment of Justice (retd) Mir HazarKhan Khoso as caretaker primeminister, saying that his ap-pointment will augur well fordemocracy in the country.

“The caretaker chief minis-ter in Punjab should also havesame credentials like the care-taker prime minister”,this wasstated by the PML-Q leader-ship while addressing the me-dia and party ticket aspirantsat the Muslim League Househere Sunday.

Ch Pervaiz Elahi said thePML-N never respected demo-cratic mandate of other politi-cal parties, adding that NawazLeague did not believe in de-

PML-Q hails Khoso’s appointmentmocracy.

The PML-Q senior centralleader said the PML-Q wouldsurprise its political adversar-ies in the general elections 2013,adding that the PML-Q govern-ment delivered more than thethree tenures of the PML-N inPunjab.

He said the PML-Q had al-ways pursued a path of truthand justice in politics, addingthat the PML-Q would fulfil allits promises with the masseslike its past tenures in power.

Elahi said the masseswould cast their vote keepingin view the past performanceof the governments, urging themedia to play its role in thisregard.

Talking about achieve-ments of his government, he

said some 1.4 million lives weresaved due to 1122 EmergencyService in Punjab, adding thatthe public service project wasone of the other 14 megaprojects launched by the PML-Q government in power.

Ch Shujat Hussain said thePML-Q had always stood forjustice, fairplay and peace andoppose tyranny in all forms,adding that he did not sign thefile to depute Pakistani troopsin Iraq as prime minister.

PML-Q secretary generalMushahid Hussain Syed andKamil Ali Agha also spokewhich was attended by otherleaders and a large of workers,including Moonis Elahi, ChZaheeruddin, Tariq BashirCheema, Nasrullah Dareshakand others.—APP

LAHORE—Around 300,000patients need liver tranplantdue to which cadaver dona-tion has become necessary asone dead person can savelives of six persons by donat-ing organs including the heart,liver, kidneys and lungs.

These views were ex-pressed by Associate ProfDr Amir Latif of Liver Trans-plantation Unit of KidneyCenter of Shaikh Zaid Hos-pital while talking to APP inan exclusive talk on Sunday.

He said the kidney of adonor could be transplantedto two persons.

“Similarly, the liver canbe donated to two personsas its 30 per cent is quiteenough to perform in ahealth body. Even one aliveperson can donate his 50 per

cent of the liver,” he added.He said the lungs and

hearts could also be donatedto an ailing person.

“According to the Ca-daver Human Tissue Ordi-nance 2009 and its passagein the form of an act in the18th Amendment, now it is alegal practice to transplantdonated organs,” he said.

When asked about im-pediments to cadavertransplant, he said a lack ofpublic awareness and non-implementation of law weremain hurdles besides short-age of needed medical fa-cilities in the unit.

Prof Amir Latif was ofhis view that through ca-daver donation, around 150transplantations could beperformed every year.

“There is an urgentneed to motivate people todonate their organs in thelarger interest of ailing hu-manity,” he added. He saidthat cadaver donation hadbeen started in SaudiArabia, Turkey, Iran and inEurope like Germany and itwas mandatory to donateorgans after death.—APP

Around 300,000 need liver transplant

STAFF REPORTER

LAHORE—Interfaith LeagueAgainst Poverty (I-LAP)Peace Youth Club membersdistributed Easter Gifts amongover 500 Christian children ofJoseph Colony here Sunday.

The children were given“Shoe Boxes” filled with Eas-ter Gifts, with a concept toutilise these boxes as contain-ers for carrying the gifts in-cluding colouring books andpencils, other stationeryitems, candies, crisps, bis-cuits, Nimko and fruit juicesand hygiene items such asface towels, shampoo, soaps,combs and clips. The I-LAPPeace Youth Club’s membersaging between 14 and 25 had

6,000 measlescases in Punjab

in 4 monthsLAHORE—Over 6,000 casesof measles were reported infour months in different partsof Punjab, mostly in Lahore,during the current surveil-lance drive.

This was stated by Direc-tor Health Services for EPIPunjab, Dr Tanveer Ahmedwhile talking to APP here onSunday.

Sixty to 70 patients ofmeasles are being reportedevery day in different partsof the province, he added.

He said that 19 deaths ofchildren had been reportedso far including inGujranwala, Rajanpur, RahimYar Khan, Kasur and Lahoredistrict. On investigation, itwas found that in some casesbabies were vaccinated likea boy in Gujranwala but duesome other reasons, their im-munity could not develope,he said.

However, the vaccina-tion and surveillance drivehas been stepped up forcomplete control of thethreat. It is also part of thestrategy to mop up and vac-cinate areas with measlespatients, he added.

He said that intensivevaccination was alsolaunched in Rahim Yar Khanand adjoining tehsils near theborder of Sindh so that viruscould not be transmitted intoPunjab.

To a question, Dr Tanveersaid that in all hospitals ofLahore, measles vaccinationwas available in abundanceto treat patients.—APP

Health professionalsurged to keepthemselves

hale and heartySTAFF REPORTER

LA H O R E—Former testcricketer Imtiaz Ahmendhas said that people work-ing for health care of othersalso need to keep them-selves hale and hearty so asto fight forcefully againstdiseases. For this purpose,doctors, medical studentsand paramedics should en-thusiastically participate insports and other healthyactivities.

He expressed these viewsduring prize distributionfunction held at Punjab Sta-dium in connection with theannual sports day of Ameerud Din Medical College, hereSunday.

Principal PGMI &Ameer ud Din Medical Col-lege Prof. Anjum HabibVohra, Prof. Ghayas un NabiTayyab, Prof. KhalidMahmood, Prof. IrfanMahboob and other facultymembers along with a largenumber of students werepresent on the occasion.

Nawaz greets Christian community on ‘Palm Sunday’ festival

Easter gifts distributed amongJoseph Colony children

raised funds at their own topresent the Easter gifts. Smallgames were also organised forthe children and special prizeswere awarded to participants.

On this occasion, the I-LAP Chairman Sajid Ishaqsaid that youth should payspecial attention to their edu-cation so that they could helpin building Pakistan accord-ing to the vision of the QuaidMohammad Ali Jinnah. Heurged the children to learnabout civic education and beaware of their rights and du-ties to become exemplary citi-zens of Pakistan.

The I-LAP Executive Di-rector Nazia Ansari wished theparticipants a Happy Easterand said the motto of I-LAP

Peace Youth Club was “Shar-ing is Caring”, and the giftswere being presented to thechildren of Joseph Colony toshare the spirit of Easter tomake their Christian brethrenhappy and smiling.

She asked the children tobe kind to others and respecttheir elders and not to be de-pressed by the unfortunateincident but to make it theirstrength to create even betterlifestyle than before becauseGod helps those who helpthemselves.

Meanwhile, President,Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), NawazSharif Sunday greeted theChristian community on theeve of “Palm Sunday” as part

of Easter festival.In a statement, the PML-

N Chief expressed that hisparty has always been priori-tized the issues of all minori-ties including Christian com-munity, as they played pivotalrole in the development andprogress of the country.

Nawaz Sharif furthersaid that if his party votedpower, then the PML-Nwould work wholeheartedlyfor the betterment of theminorities and they wouldalso be taken on board inall affairs of the country.

CM takes noticeof deletionsin 10th class

syllabusSALIM AHMED

LAHORE—Punjab ChiefMinister MuhammadShahbaz Sharif has takenstrict notice of the deletionsmade in 10th class syllabusand directed the School De-partment and Punjab Text-book Board to immediatelyrestore the deleted items inthe syllabus.

A spokesman of thePunjab government hassaid that the Chief Ministerhas also constituted a four-member committee compris-ing of Senior MemberBoard of Revenue, Chair-man Chief Minister ’s In-spection Team, ChairmanPunjab Education Endow-ment Fund Dr. Amjad Saqiband head of Islamiat De-partment of Punjab Univer-sity to examine the processthat has led to changes /deletions in the syllabus.

The committee will alsodetermine the authorizationlevel in this regard and sub-mit its report to the ChiefMinister within two days.

SALIM AHMED

LAHORE—A screeningprogramme is being started in36 districts of Punjab to detectchildhood tuberculosis. Earlierthis programme was beingimplemented only in 12 dis-tricts. Pakistan is on fifth in theworld according to ratio of TBdisease and more than four lakhpatients are being included ev-ery year.

This was disclosed by Pro-vincial Coordinator of Provin-cial Tuberculoses Programme,Punjab Health Department Dr.Drakshan Badar while giving abriefing to media representa-tives on World TB Day, heretoday. This consultative meet-ing and press briefing was ar-ranged with the collaborationof an NGO Mercy Corps andGlobal Fund which are work-ing for preventing tuberculo-

ses disease.Dr. Drakshan Badar told

that now the TB patient has totake medicines only six monthswithout any break which is be-ing given to the patient directlyunder DOTS programme. Shesaid that the number of suchTB patients is increasing whodo not complete their treatmentdue to which this disease be-comes more complicated andfatal. She stressed upon themedia to create awarenessamong the people that the TBpatients should continue themedicines till complete recov-ery. Dr. Drakshan disclosed thatfree medicines are being pro-vided to the TB patients underPunjab TB Control Programmein hospitals and health centersthroughout the province in-cluding Ghulab Devi hospitalwith the cooperation of MerciCorps and Global Fund.

PPP finalisescandidates for seven

constituenciesLAHORE—The PakistanPeoples Party (PPP) hasfinalised names of candi-dates for seven constituen-cies of the city for the upcom-ing elections.

According to the PPPsources here on Sunday, thename of Senior PPP leaderSyed Asif Hashmi has beenfinalised for NA- 118, PPPPunjab finance secretaryAurang Zeb Barki will con-test election form NA-121,PPP Lahore president formerfederal minister SaminaKhalid Ghurki has beennominated candidate forNA-130.

The name of TariqShabbir Mayo has beenokayed for the constituencyNA-129 while PPP Punjabvice president Haji Aziz UrRehman Chan will contestelections in NA-123.—APP

TB screening programmebeing started in 36 districts